I was so engrossed with watching on that side and taking everyone who looked towards me for an informer, that it was with a kind of shock that I found my two friends had grown in the course of their conference to three; nor had I more than discovered this before the new comer left the other two and sauntered up to me. "Oh, ah," he said carelessly, "and who do you say that you----" and there he stopped, staring in my face. And then, "By heavens, it is!" he cried. By this time I was something astonished, and more amazed; and answered with spirit--though he was a hard-bitten man, with the look of a soldier or gamester, to whom ordinarily I should have given the wall--that I was merely a messenger, and knew nothing of the matter on which I was there, nor for whom they took me. His face, which for a second or more had blazed with excitement, fell suddenly; and when I had done speaking, he laughed. "Don't you?" he said. "No," said I. "Not a groat!" "So it seems," he said again, as if that settled the matter. "Well, then what is your name?" "Charles Taylor," I answered. "And you come from that old rogue Ferg--R. F., I mean?" "Yes." "Well then you can go back to him," he said, dismissing me with a nod. "Or wait. Did you know that gentleman, my friend?" "Which?" said I. "The tall one." "Not from Adam," I said. "Good! Then there is no need you should know him," he answered coolly. "So, go. And do you tell that old fox to lie close. He was never in anything yet but he spoiled it. Tell him to lie close, and keep his bragging tongue quiet if he can. And now be off. I will explain to the gentlemen." I needed no second bidding, but before the words were well out of his mouth, had crossed the square, to the market side, where there were no lights; thence skirting the garden of Bedford House, I made my way into the Strand, and home by a pretty direct route. The farther I left the men behind me, however, the higher rose my curiosity; so that by the time I reached Bride Lane, and had climbed the stairs to my garret, I was agape to know more, and for once in my life, was glad to find the old plotter in my room. Nor was it without satisfaction, that to his eager question, "You gave the note to the gentleman?" I answered shortly that I had given it to three. "To three?" he exclaimed, starting up in a sudden fury. "You d----d cur, if you have betrayed me! What do you mean?" "Only that I did what you told me," I answered sullenly; at which he sat down again. "I gave it to the gentleman; but he had two with him----" "The more to hang him," he sneered, quickly recovering himself. "And what did he say?" "Very little. Nothing that I remember. But the two with him----" "Ay?" "One of them said, 'Tell the old fox'--or the rogue, for he called you both--'to lie close!' And he added," I continued, spite giving me courage, "that you had hitherto spoiled everything you had been in, Mr. Ferguson."