'How should I know, brother?' answered Dennis. 'SHE never said; not
she.'
Hugh looked, for a moment, as though he would have made some further
inquiry into this incoherent recollection; but Simon Tappertit, who had
been meditating deeply, gave his thoughts a new direction.
'Hugh!' said Sim. 'You have done well to-day. You shall be rewarded.
So have you, Dennis.--There's no young woman YOU want to carry off, is
there?'
'N--no,' returned that gentleman, stroking his grizzly beard, which was
some two inches long. 'None in partickler, I think.'
'Very good,' said Sim; 'then we'll find some other way of making it up
to you. As to you, old boy'--he turned to Hugh--'you shall have Miggs
(her that I promised you, you know) within three days. Mind. I pass my
word for it.'
Hugh thanked him heartily; and as he did so, his laughing fit returned
with such violence that he was obliged to hold his side with one hand,
and to lean with the other on the shoulder of his small captain, without
whose support he would certainly have rolled upon the ground.
Chapter 60
The three worthies turned their faces towards The Boot, with the
intention of passing the night in that place of rendezvous, and of
seeking the repose they so much needed in the shelter of their old
den; for now that the mischief and destruction they had purposed were
achieved, and their prisoners were safely bestowed for the night, they
began to be conscious of exhaustion, and to feel the wasting effects of
the madness which had led to such deplorable results.
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