ning in it, for meaning it has none, but because of its being similar
to Roger.'

'Never mind that.'

''Scuse ME, Lawyer Lightwood, it's a part of the truth, and as such I
do mind it, and I must mind it and I will mind it. "Rogue Riderhood,"
he says, "words passed betwixt us on the river tonight." Which they had;
ask his daughter! "I threatened you," he says, "to chop you over the
fingers with my boat's stretcher, or take a aim at your brains with my
boathook. I did so on accounts of your looking too hard at what I had in
tow, as if you was suspicious, and on accounts of your holding on to the
gunwale of my boat." I says to him, "Gaffer, I know it." He says to me,
"Rogue Riderhood, you are a man in a dozen"--I think he said in a score,
but of that I am not positive, so take the lowest figure, for precious
be the obligations of a Alfred David. "And," he says, "when your
fellow-men is up, be it their lives or be it their watches, sharp is
ever the word with you. Had you suspicions?" I says, "Gaffer, I had;
and what's more, I have." He falls a shaking, and he says, "Of what?" I
says, "Of foul play." He falls a shaking worse, and he says, "There WAS
foul play then. I done it for his money. Don't betray me!" Those were
the words as ever he used.'

There was a silence, broken only by the fall of the ashes in the grate.
An opportunity which the informer improved by smearing himself all
over the head and neck and face with his drowned cap, and not at all
improving his own appearance.

'What more?' asked Lightwood.

'Of him, d'ye mean, Lawyer Lightwood?'

'Of anything to the purpose.'

'Now, I'm blest if I understand you, Governors Both,' said the informer,
in a creeping manner: propitiating both, though only one had spoken.
'What? Ain't THAT enough?'

'Did you ask him how he did it, where he did it, when he did it?'

'Far be it from me, Lawyer Lightwood! I was so troubled in my mind, that
I wouldn't have knowed more, no, not for the sum as I expect to earn
from you by the sweat of my brow, twice told! I had put an end to the
pardnership. I had cut the connexion. I couldn't undo what was done; and
when he begs and prays, "Old pardner, on my knees, don't split upon me!"
I only makes answer "Never speak another word to Roger Riderhood, nor
look him in the face!" and I shuns that man.'

Having given these words a swing to make them mount the higher and go
the further, Rogue Riderhood poured himself out another glass of