I hope it isn't time that we was busy, Muster Gashford ?' 'Nay,' said the secretary, 'who should know that as well as you?
How can I tell you, Dennis?
You are perfect master of your own actions, you know, and accountable to nobody--except sometimes to the law, eh ?' Dennis, who was very much baffled by the cool matter-of-course manner of this reply, recovered his self-possession on his professional pursuits being referred to, and pointing towards Barnaby, shook his head and frowned.
'Hush!' cried Barnaby.
'Ah! Do hush about that, Muster Gashford,' said the hangman in a low voice, 'pop'lar prejudices--you always forget--well, Barnaby, my lad, what's the matter ?' 'I hear him coming,' he answered: 'Hark! Do you mark that?
That's his foot! Bless you, I know his step, and his dog's too.

Tramp, tramp, pit-pat, on they come together, and, ha ha ha!--and here they are!' he cried, joyfully welcoming Hugh with both hands, and then patting him fondly on the back, as if instead of being the rough companion he was, he had been one of the most prepossessing of men.

'Here he is, and safe too! I am glad to see him back again, old Hugh!' 'I'm a Turk if he don't give me a warmer welcome always than any man of sense,' said Hugh, shaking hands with him with a kind of ferocious friendship, strange enough to see.

'How are you, boy ?' 'Hearty!' cried Barnaby, waving his hat.

'Ha ha ha! And merry too, Hugh! And ready to do anything for the good cause, and the right, and to help the kind, mild, pale-faced gentleman--the lord they used so ill--eh, Hugh ?' 'Ay!' returned his friend, dropping his hand, and looking at Gashford for an instant with a changed expression before he spoke to him.