Jem complied with pretended alacrity, but real reluctance, casting suspicious glances at Luke as he withdrew the bolts. The door at length being opened, haggard, exhausted, and covered with dust, Dick Turpin staggered into the hut. "Well, I am here," said he, with a hollow laugh. "I've kept my word--ha, ha! I've been damnably put to it; but here I am, ha, ha!" And he sank upon one of the stools. "We heard you were apprehended," said Luke. "I am glad to find the information was false," added he, glancing angrily at the ferryman. "Whoever told you that, told you a lie, Sir Luke," replied Dick; "but what are you scowling at, old Charon?--and you, Sir Luke? Why do you glower at each other? Make fast the door--bolt it, Cerberus--right! Now give me a glass of brandy, and then I'll talk--a bumper--so--another. What's that I see--a dead man? Old Peter--Alan I mean--has anything happened to him, that he has taken his measure there so quietly?" "Nothing, I trust," said Luke, stooping to raise up his grandsire. "The blow has stunned him." "The blow?" repeated Turpin. "What! there _has_ been a quarrel then? I thought as much from your amiable looks at each other. Come, come, we must have no differences. Give the old earthworm a taste of this--I'll engage it will bring him to fast enough. Ay, rub his temples with it if you'd rather; but it's a better remedy down the gullet--the natural course; and hark ye, Jem, search your crib quickly, and see if you have any _grub_ within it, and any more _bub_ in the cellar: I'm as hungry as a hunter, and as thirsty as a camel." _CHAPTER II_ _MAJOR MOWBRAY_ _Mephistopheles._ Out with your toasting iron! Thrust away! HAYWARD'S _Translation of Faust_. Conkey Jem went in search of such provisions as his hovel afforded. Turpin, meantime, lent his assistance towards the revival of Alan Rookwood; and it was not long before his efforts, united with those of Luke, were successful, and Alan restored to consciousness. He was greatly surprised to find the highwayman had joined them, and expressed an earnest desire to quit the hut as speedily as possible. "That shall be done forthwith, my dear fellow," said Dick. "But if you had fasted as long as I have done, and gone through a few of my fatigues into the bargain, you would perceive, without difficulty, the propriety of supping before you started. Here comes Old Nosey, with a flitch of bacon and a loaf. Egad, I can scarce wait for the toasting. In my present mood, I could almost devour a grunter in the sty." Whereupon he applied himself to the loaf, and to a bottle of stout March ale, which Jem placed upon the table, quaffing copious draughts of the latter, while the ferryman employed himself in toasting certain rashers of the flitch upon the hissing embers.