escribe that I saw
one and then the other descend from the wall, while I heard the words,
"There's the second time above five hundred pounds has slipped from us.
D--n the fellow! but if I hang for him, I'll do it yet!"

"Well, you've spoiled his hand for hazard for a while, anyhow, Harry!"
said the other. "I think you must have taken his fingers clean off!"

"The knife was like a razor," replied the other, with a laugh; "but he
struck it out of my hand with a blow above the wrist; and, I can tell
you, I 'd as soon get the kick of a horse as a short stroke of the same
closed fist."

They continued to converse as they moved away, but their words only
reached me in broken, unconnected sentences. From all I could glean,
however, I was in company with one of enormous personal strength and
a most reckless intrepidity. At last, all was still; not a sound to be
heard on any side; and my companion, leaning forward, said, "Come, my
lad, pull me out a short distance into the offing; we shall soon see a
light to guide us!"

In calm, still water I could row well. I had been boat-boy to the priest
at all his autumn fishing excursions on the Westmeath lakes, so that I
acquitted myself creditably, urged on, I am free to confess, by a very
profound fear of the large figure who loomed so mysteriously in the
stern. For a time we proceeded in deep silence, when at last he said,
"What vessel do you belong to, boy?"

"I was never at sea, sir," replied I.

"Not a sailor! How comes it, then, you can row so well?"

"I learned to row in fresh water, sir."

"What are you? How came you to be here to-night?"

"By merest chance, sir. I had no money to pay for a bed. I have neither
home nor friends. I have lived, by holding horses, and running errands,
in the streets."

"Picking pockets occasionally, I suppose, too, when regular business was
dull!"

"Never!" said I, indignantly.

"Don't be shocked, my fine fellow," said he, jeeringly; "better men than
ever you 'll be have done a little that way. I have made some lighter
this evening myself, for the matter of that!"

This confession, if very frank, was not very reassuring; and so I made
no answer, but rowed away with all my might.

"Well!" said he, after a pause, "luck has befriended me twice to-night;
and sending you to sleep under that wall was not the worst turn of the
two. Ship your oars there, boy, and let us see if you are as handy a
surgeon as you are a sailor! Try and bind up