"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 highwayman; and
how great had been his relief and delight at finding that Ned returned to
the Mug no more. He next proceeded to inform his new confidant of his
meeting with the father (the sagacious reader knows where and when), and
of what took place at that event. He said how, in his first negotiation
with the father, prudently resolving to communicate drop by drop such
information as he possessed, he merely, besides confessing to a share in