t
in his waistcoat.

"Right, Sir," said he, slowly, "to business. Before I begin, you must,
however, promise me, upon your honour as a gentleman, the strictest
secrecy, as to my communications."

I readily agreed to this, so far as that secrecy did not impede my
present object; and Job being content with this condition, resumed.

"You must forgive me, if, in order to arrive at the point in question, I
set out from one which may seem to you a little distant."

I nodded my assent, and Job continued.

"I have known Dawson for some years; my acquaintance with him commenced
at Newmarket, for I have always had a slight tendency to the turf. He
was a wild, foolish fellow, easily led into any mischief, but ever the
first to sneak out of it; in short, when he became one of us, which
his extravagance soon compelled him to do, we considered him as a very
serviceable tool, but one, that while he was quite wicked enough to
begin a bad action, was much too weak to go through with it; accordingly
he was often employed, but never trusted. By the word us, which I see
has excited your curiosity, I merely mean a body corporate, established
furtively, and restricted solely to exploits on the turf. I think it
right to mention this, because I have the honour to belong to many other
societies to which Dawson could never have been admitted. Well, Sir, our
club was at last broken up, and Dawson was left to shift for himself.
His father was still alive, and the young hopeful having quarrelled with
him, was in the greatest distress. He came to me with a pitiful story,
and a more pitiful face; so I took compassion upon the poor devil, and
procured him, by dint of great interest, admission into a knot of good
fellows, whom I visited, by the way, last night. Here I took him
under my especial care; and as far as I could, with such a dull-headed
dromedary, taught him some of the most elegant arts of my profession.
However, the ungrateful dog soon stole back to his old courses, and
robbed me of half my share of a booty to which I had helped him myself.
I hate treachery and ingratitude, your honour; they are so terribly
ungentlemanlike.

"I then lost sight of him, till between two and three months ago, when
he returned to town, and attended our meetings with Tom Thornton, who
had been chosen a member of the club some months before. Since we had
met, Dawson's father had died, and I thought his flash appearance in
town arose from his new inheritanc