'Oh, good evening, my friend,' he replied, very blandly. 'Charming evening this for a walk.'
'Yes,' I answered sharply; 'but rather late for respectable folks to be abroad!'
'Ah yes, just so,' was his response; 'but, you see, my doctor has advised me to take quiet rambles.'
'It was not Dr. Quack, was it?' I asked; 'because, poor fellow, he came to an untimely end the other night,—had his head bitten off, and his body was then dragged across the yard, as I suppose you already know?'
'Dear me!' he ejaculated, with affected pity, and glancing slyly up at me out of the corner of his red eyes; 'but how should I know, my friend?'
'Oh, because some of your family are strongly suspected,' was my reply; 'indeed, our Dash is on the watch, so I would advise you to'—
'Good-night, good-night,' he hurriedly exclaimed. 'I feel the winds are becoming very chilly.'
So saying, he shuffled off as fast as possible, more especially as at that moment Dash began barking furiously, as though he scented a foe. How we laughed to think we had frightened the artful fellow away, and some of us thought we should never see him again; but we were mistaken, for, a few nights after, there he was creeping along so stealthily outside the garden wall.
'What do you want?' I called out to him.
'Nothing, my friend, nothing,' was his answer.