yself his transport had been at the highest, and
was, to any power he was able to exert, absolutely uncontrollable. But
tile unexpectedness of my address, and the tone in which I spoke,
electrified him.--"Is it possible," continued I, "that you should
have been the wretch to betray me? What have I done to deserve this
treatment? Is this the kindness you professed? the affection that was
perpetually in your mouth? to be the death of me!"

"My poor boy! my dear creature!" cried Spurrel, whimpering, and in a
tone of the humblest expostulation, "indeed I could not help it! I would
have helped it, if I could! I hope they will not hurt my darling! I am
sure I shall die if they do!"

"Miserable driveller!" interrupted I, with a stern voice, "do you betray
me into the remorseless fangs of the law, and then talk of my not being
hurt? I know my sentence, and am prepared to meet it! You have fixed the
halter upon my neck, and at the same price would have done so to your
only son! Go, count your accursed guineas I My life would have been
safer in the hands of one I had never seen than in yours, whose mouth
and whose eyes for ever ran over with crocodile affection!"

I have always believed that my sickness, and, as he apprehended,
approaching death, contributed its part to the treachery of Mr. Spurrel.
He predicted to his own mind the time when I should no longer be able to
work. He recollected with agony the expense that attended his son's
illness and death. He determined to afford me no assistance of a similar
kind. He feared however the reproach of deserting me. He feared the
tenderness of his nature. He felt, that I was growing upon his
affections, and that in a short time he could not have deserted me. He
was driven by a sort of implicit impulse, for the sake of avoiding one
ungenerous action, to take refuge in another, the basest and most
diabolical. This motive, conjoining with the prospect of the proffered
reward, was an incitement too powerful for him to resist.

CHAPTER XI.

Having given vent to my resentment, I left Mr. Spurrel motionless, and
unable to utter a word. Gines and his companion attended me. It is
unnecessary to repeat all the insolence of this man. He alternately
triumphed in the completion of his revenge, and regretted the loss of
the reward to the shrivelled old curmudgeon we had just quitted, whom
however he swore he would cheat of it by one means or another. He
claimed to himself the ingenuit