But Fairford was unprepared for the expensive and regular establishments by which the illicit traffic was carried on, and could not have conceived that the capital employed in it should have been adequate to the erection of these extensive buildings, with all their contrivances for secrecy of communication.

He was musing on these circumstances, not without some anxiety for the progress of his own journey, when suddenly, as he lifted his eyes, he discovered old Mr.Trumbull at the upper end of the apartment, bearing in one hand a small bundle, in the other his dark lantern, the light of which, as he advanced, he directed full upon Fairford's countenance.
Though such an apparition was exactly what he expected, yet he did not see the grim, stern old man present himself thus suddenly without emotion; especially when he recollected, what to a youth of his pious education was peculiarly shocking, that the grizzled hypocrite was probably that instant arisen from his knees to Heaven, for the purpose of engaging in the mysterious transactions of a desperate and illegal trade.
The old man, accustomed to judge with ready sharpness of the physiognomy of those with whom he had business, did not fail to remark something like agitation in Fairford's demeanour.

'Have ye taken the rue ?' said he.

'Will ye take the sheaf from the mare, and give up the venture ?' 'Never!' said Fairford, firmly, stimulated at once by his natural spirit, and the recollection of his friend; 'never, while I have life and strength to follow it out!' 'I have brought you,' said Trumbull, 'a clean shirt, and some stockings, which is all the baggage you can conveniently carry, and I will cause one of the lads lend you a horseman's coat, for it is ill sailing or riding without one; and, touching your valise, it will be as safe in my poor house, were it full of the gold of Ophir, as if it were in the depth of the mine.' 'I have no doubt of it,' said Fairford.
'And now,' said Trumbull, again, 'I pray you to tell me by what name I am to name you to Nanty (which is Antony) Ewart ?' 'By the name of Alan Fairford,' answered the young lawyer.
'But that,' said Mr.Trumbull, in reply, 'is your own proper name and surname.' 'And what other should I give ?' said the young man; 'do you think I have any occasion for an alias?
And, besides, Mr.Trumbull,' added Alan, thinking a little raillery might intimate confidence of spirit, 'you blessed yourself, but a little while since, that you had no acquaintance with those who defiled their names so far as to be obliged to change them.' 'True, very true,' said Mr.Trumbull; 'nevertheless, young man, my grey hairs stand unreproved in this matter; for, in my line of business, when I sit under my vine and my fig-tree, exchanging the strong waters of the north for the gold which is the price thereof, I have, I thank Heaven, no disguises to keep with any man, and wear my own name of Thomas Trumbull, without any chance that the same may be polluted.

Whereas, thou, who art to journey in miry ways, and amongst a strange people, mayst do well to have two names, as thou hast two shirts, the one to keep the other clean.' Here he emitted a chuckling grunt, which lasted for two vibrations of the pendulum exactly, and was the only approach towards laughter in which old Turnpenny, as he was nicknamed, was ever known to indulge.
'You are witty, Mr.Trumbull,' said Fairford; 'but jests are no arguments--I shall keep my own name.' 'At your own pleasure,' said the merchant; 'there is but one name which,' &c.