went into Ireland for safety, where I
stayed two years,--and deuced good claret I got there!"

"So, vhiles you vas there," continued Dummie, "poor Judy, the voman,
died,--she died in this very 'ouse, and left the horphan to the
[af]fection of Piggy Lob, who was 'nation fond of it surely! Oh! but I
'members vot a night it vas ven poor Judy died; the vind vistled like
mad, and the rain tumbled about as if it had got a holiday; and there
the poor creature lay raving just over 'ed of this room we sits in!
Laus-a-me, vat a sight it vas!"

Here Dummie paused, and seemed to recall in imagination the scene he had
witnessed; but over the mind of Long Ned a ray of light broke slowly.

"Whew!" said he, lifting up his forefinger, "whew! I smell a rat; this
stolen child, then, was no other than Paul. But, pray, to whom did the
house belong? For that fact Harry never communicated to me. I only heard
the owner was a lawyer, or parson, or some such thing."

"Vy now, I'll tell you, but don't be glimflashy. So, you see, ven Judy
died, and Harry was scragged, I vas the only von living who vas up to
the secret; and vhen Mother Lob vas a taking a drop to comfort her vhen
Judy vent off, I hopens a great box in which poor Judy kept her duds and
rattletraps, and surely I finds at the bottom of the box hever so many
letters and sick like,--for I knew as 'ow they vas there; so I vhips
these off and carries 'em 'ome with me, and soon arter, Mother Lob sold
me the box o' duds for two quids--'cause vy? I vas a rag-merchant. So
now I 'solved, since the secret vas all in my hown keeping, to keep it
as tight as vinkey; for first, you sees as 'ow I vas afeard I should
be hanged if I vent for to tell,--'cause vy? I stole a vatch, and lots
more, as vell as the hurchin; and next I vas afeard as 'ow the mother
might come back and haunt me the same as Sall haunted Villy, for it vas
a 'orrid night ven her soul took ving. And hover and above this, Meester
Pepper, I thought summut might turn hup by and by, in vhich it vould be
best for I to keep my hown counsel and nab the revard, if I hever durst
make myself known."

Here Dummie proceeded to narrate how frightened he had been lest Ned
should discover all, when (as it may be remembered, Pepper informed Paul
at the beginning of this history) he encountered that worthy at Dame
Lobkins's house; how this fear had induced him to testify to Pepper that
coldness and rudeness which had so enraged the haughty highw