Mr. Riderhood, with his crooked eye upon his visitor, meditated for some moments, and then refilled his glass, and tipped the contents down his throat in three tips.

“Shut the shop-door!” he then said to his daughter, putting the glass suddenly down. “And turn the key and stand by it! If you know all this, you sir,” getting, as he spoke, between the visitor and the door, “why han’t you gone to Lawyer Lightwood?”

“That, also, is alone known to myself,” was the cool answer.

“Don’t you know that, if you didn’t do the deed, what you say you could tell is worth from five to ten thousand pound?” asked Riderhood.

“I know it very well, and when I claim the money you shall share it.”

The honest man paused, and drew a little nearer to the visitor, and a little further from the door.