your face: but will you give me your hand, Sir?"

I did, and Jonson held it in his own for more than a minute.

"'Fore Heaven, Sir," said he, at last, "I would you were one of us. You
would live a brave man and die a game one. Your pulse is like iron; and
your hand does not sway--no--not so much as to wave a dove's feather; it
would be a burning shame if harm came to so stout a heart." Job moved on
a few steps. "Now, Sir," he whispered, "remember your flash; do exactly
as I may have occasion to tell you; and be sure to sit away from the
light, should we be in company."

With these words he stopped. I perceived by the touch, for it was too
dark to see, that he was leaning down, apparently in a listening
attitude; presently, he tapped five times at what I supposed was a door,
though I afterwards discovered it was the shutter to a window; upon this,
a faint light broke through the crevices of the boards, and a low voice
uttered some sound, which my ear did not catch. Job replied, in the same
key, and in words which were perfectly unintelligible to me; the light
disappeared; Job moved round, as if turning a corner. I heard the heavy
bolts and bars of a door slowly withdraw; and in a few moments, a harsh
voice said, in the thieves' dialect,

"Ruffling Job, my prince of prigs, is that you? are you come to the ken
alone, or do you carry double?"

"Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo
muns in spite of the darkmans. Egad, you carry a bane blink aloft. Come
to the ken alone--no! my blowen; did not I tell you I should bring a
pater cove, to chop up the whiners for Dawson?"