“Very well. Let the one who is to carry off the child take a bottle of chloroform, which I will provide; also a dark shawl. Then watch until you see the child and nurse standing in some crowd around a street show. Then, the abductor must keep very near the child, having the shawl and the chloroform at hand. The assistant may then go farther up or down the street and at the right moment raise the hue and cry of ‘Stop thief!’ and lead the chase up or down the street towards the crowd in which the child stands. Then let him who is to carry off the child uncork his chloroform and have it ready, snatch up the child, throw the shawl quickly over his head, and run with the rest, shouting ‘Stop thief!’ at the top of his voice; but all the time letting the fumes of the chloroform escape within the folds of the shawl, so as to overpower the child and render him incapable of struggling or calling out.” “But it might kill the baby, and that would be murder and we don’t want nothink to do with sich at no price,” objected the black scamp. “Do you think, Bill, as the gentleman would ax us to do murder? I don’t. True, there might be a accident from chloroform, as there often bees to the ’ospitals, but that wouldn’t be murder,” said Red Roger. “You’d find as the jury would bring it in murder,” answered Black Bill. “There is no sort of danger. I will only put enough of the stuff in the bottle to quiet the child, and not enough even to make him insensible. Besides am I not as responsible for the thing as you are?” “Well, your honor knows best!” said the black scamp. “And now let me go on. As soon as the child is quiet, leave the rushing crowd that your brother is still leading with his cry of ‘stop thief;’ leave it leisurely, and take the nearest cut for Blackfriars’ Road and your mother’s, no, sister’s room, here. Here you may conceal him until I can take him off your hands. Do you understand this?” “Yes, your honor. But now, how about the pay?” “You shall have five pounds each down, as soon as I see the child in your hands. You shall have all the jewelry that you find on his person, which, as I have seen pearls and turquoise among them, may amount to as much more, or twice as much more. And finally, when I shall reap the advantage that I expect from this child’s disappearance, you shall have a comfortable income from me for the rest of your lives.” The men wrangled and haggled with their employer for a higher price for their crime, and after much dispute obtained their own terms—ten pounds each down and a crown a week for keeping the child. After this, Everage left the house, promising to see Mother Rooter at her stall the next day and every day, until he should have a chance of pointing out the boy and nurse to her, that she might afterwards show them to her brothers.