y not," replied Ned with a smile; "fire away."

"Well, then, I'm anxious just now to procure a dead corpse."

Ned Hooper, drunk as he was, felt somewhat startled by this, but, being
a man of wandering and lively imagination, turned from the point in
question to an idea suggested by it.

"I sh'pose a living corpse wouldn't do, would it? It must be a dead
one--eh?"

"Be serious if you can," said Gorman angrily. "I want a corpse."

Ned Hooper, who, like many good-humoured men, was easily roused when in
a state of intoxication, fired at the tone of Gorman's voice, and looked
at him as sternly as he could, while he replied:

"What have _I_ got to do with yer wants an' yer co'pses--eh? You don't
sh'pose I keep a stock of 'em on hand ready-made, do you--eh?" Then
relapsing into a placid frame, he smiled, and added, "But fire away, ol'
feller, I'm yer man for conv'sashin, specially w'en it's in the comic
line."

"That's right," said Gorman, clapping Ned on the shoulder and
endeavouring to conciliate him; "now, then, the question is, how am I to
get 'un?"

"Ah, thash the question, if Shakspr's to be b'lieved."

"Well, but couldn't you think?" said Gorman.

"Think!" exclaimed the other, "what am I paid a salary for? What are my
brains doin' night an day--eh? Of course I can think; thash's my
pr'feshion, is thinking."

Gorman cast a scornful look at his friend, but he deemed it prudent to
admit the truth of what he said, and suggested that he might perhaps
remember a certain medical student with whom he had once held pleasant
converse in his (Gorman's) house of entertainment.

"R'member him, of course," hiccuped Ned.

"Well, then, he could get us a corpse, you know--couldn't he?"

Ned looked uncommonly knowing at this point, and admitted that he rather
thought he could--a dozen of them, if necessary.

"Well, I want one, and I'll pay well for it if it's of the right sort.
It must be at least six-foot two, thin about the jaws, with lanky black
hair, and a yellow complexion."

Ned smiled facetiously, but at the same time shook his head.

"Six f't two," said he, "an't a common height; it won't be easy to get
'un so tall; but--but," he pondered here with a grave expression of
countenance, "but it might be stretched a bit, you know--eh? As to thin
jaws, most of 'em is thin about sh' jaws, an' black hair ain't un--
uncommon."

Ned yawned at this point, and looked very sleepy.

"Well, you'll speak to him, wo