“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 told me with his own lips that he done the deed. What’s more, he said that he done the deed. And I’ll swear it!”

“Where did he tell you so?”