"Humbug!" ejaculated the Resurrection Man, sulkily. "Let's have some egg-flip, and we'll wait for him. If he comes he shall give us all the information we want; and if he doesn't, we will lay wait for him, carry him off to the crib, and let the Mummy take care of him till he chooses to speak."
"Yes—that'll be the best plan," said the Cracksman. "But don't you think it's a wery likely thing he wants to have the whole business to himself?"
"That's just what I do think," answered the Resurrection Man, "he'll find himself mistaken, though—I rather fancy."
"So do I," echoed the Cracksman. "But let's have this egg-flip."
With these words he ordered the beverage; and, in due time a quart pot filled with the inviting compound, with a foaming head, and exhaling a strong odour of spices, was brought in by a paralytic waiter, who had succeeded the slip-shod girl mentioned on a former occasion.
"Good stuff this," said the Cracksman, smacking his lips. "I wonder whether poor Buffer has got anythink half so good this morning."
"What's to-day? Oh! Friday," mused the Resurrection Man, as he sipped his quantum of flip from a tumbler, with a relish equal to that evinced by his companion: "let's see—what's the fare to-day in Clerkenwell Prison?"
"Lord! don't you recollect all that?" cried the Cracksman; and taking a piece of chalk from his pocket, he wrote the Dietary Table of Clerkenwell New Prison upon the wall:—
| Soup. | Gruel. | Meat. | Bread. | |
| Pint. | Pint. | Ounces. | Ounces. | |
| Monday | .. | 2½ | .. | 20 |
| Tuesday | .. | 1½ | 6 | 20 |
| Wednesday | .. | 2½ | .. | 20 |
| Thursday | .. | 2½ | .. | 20 |
| Friday | 1 | 1½ | .. | 20 |
| Saturday | .. | 1½ | 6 | 20 |
| Sunday | 1 | 1½ | .. | 20 |
| Total Weekly Allowance | 2 | 13½ | 12 | 140 |
"That's a nice allowance for a strong healthy fellow!" exclaimed the Resurrection Man contemptuously. "One month upon that will make his flesh as soft and flabby as possible. It's a shame, by heavens! to kill human beings by inches in that way!"