The former was a comfortless attic, with a blinded window, a truckle bed, and a few mean articles of furniture. In one corner, there were mattocks and shovels, with other implements of unusual formation, used by gentlemen in the resurrection line; while in another, there appeared a choice collection of jemmies, skeleton keys, and every tool employed in burglary; all bespeaking that the tenant of the room was a person of general acquirements, and equally an adept, whether taken as a cracksman or a body-snatcher. The appearance of the twain was most remarkable. The elder was, a stout, ill-visaged, swarthy Hebrew, with voluminous whiskers, and a most repulsive face; the other, that thing of legs and arms, whom we have already introduced as the confidant of Mr. Brown. “How devilish dark!” remarked the hunchback. “The better at times for business,” returned a second voice. “Stop--there’s a tinder-box on the table;” and the sparkle of flint on steel, was followed by the steadier glare proceeding from a lighted candle. It was quite apparent that the caution to remain silent from Mrs. Spicer was necessary; for through the chinks in the crazy wood-work of a door which divided the apartments, the slightest sound was heard distinctly. “We’re full late, and the sooner we are off the better,” returned the first speaker. “We’ll be time enough for some people, for all that. A man can’t go without his tools, Master Frank; and just keep yourself quiet, and I’ll be with you in a shake.” “Make haste, Josh. All’s ready; and fortune has done more for us than I could expect.” “Well,” said the Jew to the hunchback, “and how is the trick to be done?” “Safely,” replied the other. “Julia Travers has got him to meet her. Lord, what a girl it is!--There’s not a decoy in London to be compared to her. He believes her to be a soldier’s orphan--and she played her game so deep, and dressed so well too--I would have passed her myself in the street, and never suspected she was anything but a regular respectable. Well, Jim and the smasher are waiting at the dark turn of the alley--we follow--and while the chap’s attention is engaged in front, his back will be to you.” “I understand ye; and this shall settle matters.” The ruffian took from the implements of his villanous profession, a murderous weapon formed of whalebone and lead, and then producing a glass and bottle, the hunchback and he drank a glass to good-luck, extinguished the candle, and, locking the door of the apartment, descended the staircase, and closed the street door heavily. Before the fosterer and his friend could express their mutual astonishment, the key was turned in the door of the closet where they had lain _perdue_, and Mrs. Spicer presented herself. “Hush!” she said, “for the sake of Heaven!--My husband has gone for a minute to the Fox!--Hurry--or we’re ruined!”