“Surely not; but you only offer to swear to your suspicion, and I tell you it is not enough to swear to your suspicion.”
“Not enough, ain’t it, Lawyer Lightwood?” he cautiously demanded.
“Positively not.”
“And did I say it was enough? Now, I appeal to the t’other Governor. Now, fair! Did I say so?”
“He certainly has not said that he had no more to tell,” Eugene observed in a low voice without looking at him, “whatever he seemed to imply.”
“Hah!” cried the informer, triumphantly perceiving that the remark was generally in his favour, though apparently not closely understanding it. “Fort’nate for me I had a witness!”
“Go on, then,” said Lightwood. “Say out what you have to say. No afterthought.”
“Let me be took down then!” cried the informer, eagerly and anxiously. “Let me be took down, for by George and the Draggin I’m a coming to it now! Don’t do nothing to keep back from a honest man the fruits of the sweat of his brow! I give information, then, that he told me that he done it. Is that enough?”
“Take care what you say, my friend,” returned Mortimer.
“Lawyer Lightwood, take care, you, what I say; for I judge you’ll be answerable for follering it up!” Then, slowly and emphatically beating it all out with his open right hand on the palm of his left; “I, Roger Riderhood, Lime’us Hole, Waterside character, tell you, Lawyer Lightwood, that the man Jesse Hexam, commonly called upon the river and along-shore Gaffer, told me that he done the deed. What’s more, he