n, with a sinister
smile.

"I cannot sign it," returned Trenchard.

"Damnation!" exclaimed Wild with a snarl, that displayed his glistening
fangs to the farthest extremity of his mouth, "I'm not to be trifled
with thus. That paper _must_ be signed, or I take my departure."

"Go, Sir," rejoined the knight, haughtily.

"Ay, ay, I'll go, fast enough!" returned Jonathan, putting his hands
into his pockets, "but not alone, Sir Rowland."

At this juncture, the door was flung open, and Charcam entered, dragging
in Thames, whom he held by the collar, and who struggled in vain to free
himself from the grasp imposed upon him.

"Here's one of the thieves, Sir Rowland!" cried the attendant. "I was
only just in time. The young rascal had learnt from some of the
women-servants that Lady Trafford was from home, and was in the very act
of making off when I got down stairs. Come along, my Newgate bird!" he
continued, shaking him with great violence.

Jonathan gave utterance to a low whistle.

"If things had gone smoothly," he thought, "I should have cursed the
fellow's stupidity. As it is, I'm not sorry for the blunder."

Trenchard, meanwhile, whose gaze was fixed upon the boy, became livid as
death, but he moved not a muscle.

"'T is he!" he mentally ejaculated.

"What do you think of your nephew, Sir Rowland?" whispered Jonathan, who
sat with his back towards Thames, so that his features were concealed
from the youth's view. "It would be a thousand pities, wouldn't it, to
put so promising a lad out of the way?"

"Devil!" exclaimed the knight fiercely, "Give me the paper."

Jonathan hastily picked up the pen, and presented it to Trenchard, who
attached his signature to the document.

"If I _am_ the devil," observed Wild, "as some folks assert, and I
myself am not unwilling to believe, you'll find that I differ from the
generally-received notions of the arch-fiend, and faithfully execute the
commands of those who confide their souls to my custody."

"Take hence this boy, then," rejoined Trenchard; "his looks unman me."

"Of what am I accused?" asked Thames, who though a good deal alarmed at
first, had now regained his courage.

"Of robbery!" replied Jonathan in a thundering voice, and suddenly
confronting him. "You've charged with assisting your comrade, Jack
Sheppard, to purloin certain articles of value from a jewel-case
belonging to Lady Trafford. Aha!" he continued, producing a short silver
staff, which he carri