e King hath a little
more business for you at last, in France; and you will wish perhaps to
go to Rome. So the best thing that you can do, when we have seen that
all is in order, is to wait no longer, but be off, and for a good while
too. Your life may be in some peril for the very particular part that
you played, for though we shall catch, I think, all the principal men
in the affair, we shall not catch all the underlings; and even a joiner
or a scavenger for that matter, if he be angry enough, is enough to let
the life out of a man. And we cannot spare you yet, Mr. Mallock."

This seemed to me both reasonable and thoughtful; and it was not
altogether a surprise to me. Indeed I had prepared Dolly for a long
absence, thinking that I might go to Rome again, as I had not been there
for a long while. Besides, waiting in England for the time laid down by
Tom and agreed to by both of us, would make that time come no swifter;
and, if there were work to be done, I had best do it, before I had a
wife to engage my attention.

But I sighed a little.

"Well," said I; "and where is Keeling?"

"I have been expecting him this last ten minutes," said he.

Even as he spoke, a knock came upon the door. The page cried to come in;
and there entered, first a servant holding the door, and then the little
joiner himself, flushed in his face, I supposed with the excitement. He
was dressed in his Sunday clothes, rather ill-fitting. He did not know
me, I think, for he made no movement of surprise. I caught Mr.
Chiffinch's look of inquiry, and nodded very slightly.

"Well, sir," began the page in a very severe tone, "so you have made up
your mind to evade the charge of misprision of treason--that, at the
least!"

"Yes, sir," said the man in a very timid way. (He must have heard that
phrase pretty often lately.)

"Well; and you have found your other witness?"

"Yes, sir; my own brother, sir."

"Ah! Was he too in this detestable affair?"

"No, sir."

"Well, then; how do you bring him in?"

"Sir," said the man, seeming to recover himself a little, "I put my
brother in a secret place; and then caused him to overhear a
conversation between myself and another."

"Very pretty! very pretty!" cried the page. "And who was this other?"

"Sir; it was a Mr. Goodenough--under-sheriff once of--"

I could not restrain a start; for I had not thought Mr. Goodenough, the
friend of my Lord Essex, to be so deep in the affair as this. Keeling
saw