“I mean as I’ll keep you company, wherever you go, when you go away from here. Let the lock take care of itself. I’ll take care of you, once I’ve got you.”

Bradley again looked at the fire. Eyeing him aside, Riderhood took up his pipe, refilled it, lighted it, and sat smoking. Bradley leaned his elbows on his knees, and his head upon his hands, and looked at the fire with a most intent abstraction.

“Riderhood,” he said, raising himself in his chair, after a long silence, and drawing out his purse and putting it on the table. “Say I part with this, which is all the money I have; say I let you have my watch; say that every quarter, when I draw my salary, I pay you a certain portion of it.”

“Say nothink of the sort,” retorted Riderhood, shaking his head as he smoked. “You’ve got away once, and I won’t run the chance agin. I’ve had trouble enough to find you, and shouldn’t have found you, if I hadn’t seen you slipping along the street overnight, and watched you till you was safe housed. I’ll have one settlement with you for good and all.”