"Well, no sooner said than done, if you're a man of your word," said Huckaback, in a trice producing a bit of paper, and a pen and ink. "So, only just for the fun of it; but--Lord! what stuff!--I'm only bargaining for a hundred pounds of moonshine. Ha, ha! I shall never see the color of your money, not I; so I may as well say two hundred when I'm about it, as one hundred"---- "Why, hem! Two hundred, Huck, _is_ rather a large figure; one hundred's odds enough, I'm sure!" quoth Titmouse, meekly. "P'r'aps, Tit, you forget the _licking_ you gave me the other day," said Huckaback, with sudden sternness. "Suppose I was to go to an attorney, and get the law of you, what a sight of damages I should have--three hundred pounds at least!" Titmouse appeared even yet hesitating. "Well, then!" said Huckaback, flinging down his pen, "suppose I have them damages yet"---- "Come, come, Hucky, 't is all past and gone, all that"-- "Is it? Well, I never! I shall never be again the same man I was before that 'ere licking. I've a sort of a--a--of a--feeling inside, as if--my breast was--I shall carry it to my grave--curse me if I sha'n't!" [It never once occurred to Titmouse, not having his friend Mr. Gammon at his elbow, that the plaintiff in the action of _Huckaback v. Titmouse_ might have been slightly at a loss for a _witness_ of the assault; but something quite as good in its way--a heaven-sent suggestion--_did_ occur to him.] "Ah," said Titmouse, suddenly, "that's true; and uncommon sorry am I; but still, a hundred pounds is a hundred pounds, and a large sum for the use of ten shillings, and a licking; but never you think it's all moonshine about my business with Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap! I didn't intend to have said a word--but--you should only have heard what _I've_ heard to-day from those gents; hem! but I won't split _again_ either!" he added mysteriously. "Eh? What? Heard from those gents at Saffron Hill?" interrupted Huckaback, briskly; "come, Titty, out with it--out with it; no secrets between friends, Titty!" "No, I'll be hanged if I do--I won't spoil it all again; and now, since I've let out as much, which I didn't mean to do, I'll tell you something else--ten shillings is no use to me, I must have a pound." "Titty, Titty!" exclaimed Huckaback, with unaffected concern. "And I won't give more than fifty for it when I get my property either"---- [Huckaback whistled aloud, and with a significant air buttoned up the pocket which contained the money; intimating that now the negotiation was all at an end, for that Titmouse's new terms were quite out of the question;] "for I know where I can get twenty pounds easily, only I liked to come to a _friend_ first." "You aren't behaving much like a friend to one as has always been a fast friend of yours, Titty! _A pound!_--I haven't got it to part with, that's flat; so, if that's really your lowest figure, why, you must even go to your other friend, and leave poor Hucky!"