I, ‘I think I’ll go out into the fresh air a bit, for I’m taken bad,’ says I, ‘someway; but don’t ye disturb yourselves, I’ll soon be back again.’ So Blacke he helped me out, and directly I got into the yard where the skittles was, I see the place all green-like, and after that I remember no more till I found myself on the landlord’s bed up-stairs; and by that time it was ten o’clock at night, so I up and asked what was become of my friend; and the landlord he told me both the gentlemen was gone, and that they had said I didn’t ought to be disturbed, and that I was _often so_; and they was goin’ away without payin’ the score, but the landlord was a deep cove, and he wouldn’t let them off without settling, so they paid it all, and so walked away. Well, I got my jacket and walked away too; and all in a moment I thought I’d _heard_ of such things, and I’d feel in my pocket to see if my purse was safe. There was _the purse_ sure enough, but the _money_ was gone, every groat of it--there wasn’t a rap left to jingle for luck, Mr. Hardingstone. Well, sir, it all came across me at once--I’d been hocussed, no doubt--they drugged my lush, the thieves, and then they robbed me--and my old friend Tom Blacke, as I’ve known from a boy, was at the bottom of it. The landlord, he thought so too; but he was in a terrible takin’ himself for the character of his house, and he gave me half-a-crown, and begged I’d say nothin’ about it; and that half-crown, all but sixpence I gave just now to a poor creatur’ that wanted it more nor me, is the whole of my fortun’, Mr. Hardingstone. But it’s not the money I care for--thank God, I can work and get more--it’s the meanness of a man I once thought well of. That’s where it is, sir, and I can’t bear it. Blacke by name, and black by natur’--he must be a rank bad ’un; and I’m ashamed of him, that I am!”