Hereat Mr. Quirk opened both his eyes and his mouth to their very widest; got very red in the face; and stared at his placid partner with a mingled expression of fear and wonder. "Hang me, Gammon!" at length he exclaimed desperately, slapping his fist upon the table--"if I don't think you're the very devil himself!"--and he sank back in his chair, verily believing, in the momentary confusion of his thoughts, that what had been passing through his mind was known to Gammon; or that what had been passing through his (Quirk's) mind, had also been occurring to Gammon, who had resolved upon being beforehand in putting his purposes into execution. Gammon was at first completely confounded by Quirk's reception of him, and stood for a few moments, with his hands elevated, in silence. Then he approached the table, and his eye caught the well-thumbed volume of Burns' Justice, open at the head "FORGERY!" and the quicksighted Gammon saw how matters stood at a glance--the process by which the result he had just witnessed had been arrived at. "Well, Mr. Quirk, what new vagary now?" he inquired with an air of smiling curiosity. "Vagary be----!" growled old Quirk, sullenly, without moving in his chair. Gammon stood for a moment or two eying him with a keen scrutiny. "What!" at length he inquired good-humoredly, "do you then really grudge me any share in the little enterprise?" "Eh?" quickly interrupted Quirk, pricking up his ears. "Do you intend to play _Mackivel_! eh? What must you go down alone to Yatton for, Gammon?" continued Quirk, anxiously. "Why, simply as a sort of pioneer--to reconnoitre the churchyard--eh? I thought it might have been of service; but if"-- "Gammon, Gammon, your hand! I understand," replied Quirk, evidently vastly relieved--most cordially shaking the cold hand of Gammon. "But understand, Mr. Quirk," said he, in a very peremptory manner, "no one upon earth is to know of my visit to Yatton except yourself."