to judge for ourselves, and ought to be above shrinking from a bugbear
of a proverb. Beside, this is a good deed, and I should think no more
harm of being the ruin of such a thief than of getting my dinner."

"A thief! You talk of thieves!"

"Not so fast, captain. God defend that I should say a word against
thieving as a general occupation! But one man steals in one way, and
another in another. For my part, I go upon the highway, and take from
any stranger I meet what, it is a hundred to one, he can very well
spare. I see nothing to be found fault with in that. But I have as much
conscience as another man. Because I laugh at assizes, and great wigs,
and the gallows, and because I will not be frightened from an innocent
action when the lawyers say me nay, does it follow that I am to have a
fellow-feeling for pilferers, and rascally servants, and people that
have neither justice nor principle? No; I have too much respect for the
trade not to be a foe to interlopers, and people that so much the more
deserve my hatred, because the world calls them by my name."

"You are wrong, Larkins! You certainly ought not to employ against
people that you hate, supposing your hatred to be reasonable, the
instrumentality of that law which in your practice you defy. Be
consistent. Either be the friend of the law, or its adversary, Depend
upon it that, wherever there are laws at all, there will be laws against
such people as you and me. Either therefore we all of us deserve the
vengeance of the law, or law is not the proper instrument for correcting
the misdeeds of mankind. I tell you this, because I would fain have you
aware, that an informer or a king's evidence, a man who takes advantage
of the confidence of another in order to betray him, who sells the life
of his neighbour for money, or, coward-like, upon any pretence calls in