"Enough," said Tom. "I shall call at Tullock's to-morrow between two and three in the afternoon; and if you have any thing fresh to communicate, you can either leave a note or meet me there. If I neither see nor hear from you at that time and place, I shall consider that all remains as you have now represented. You have nothing more to say at present?"
"Nothing," returned Bones, after a moment's reflection.
"Won't you take a drop of brandy-and-water, Mr. Rainford—just a leetle drop?" inquired Toby Bunce, with a deferential glance towards his better half..
"A leetle drop, stupid!—a good big drop, you mean!" cried the shrew. "Isn't Mr. Rainford a friend of Mr. Bones?—and ain't all Mr. Bones's friends our friends? I'm sure if Mr. Rainford would drink a—a quar—a pint of brandy," she added, emphatically defining the quantity she felt disposed to place at the service of the new acquaintance, "he is quite welcome."
"No, thank'ee," said Rainford. "I must be off. The business of to-morrow night requires consideration; and——"
He was interrupted by a knock at the street-door; and Toby Bunce hastened to answer the summons.
CHAPTER IX.
A DEATH-SCENE.—LOCK'S FIELDS.
The room-door was left open; and the inmates could therefore hear every thing that took place in the passage.
Toby Bunce opened the street-door cautiously, and said, "Who's there?"
"In the name of heaven, grant me a night's lodging," exclaimed the appealing voice of a female: "if not for myself—at least for this poor dear child!"