“’Xactly so, that’s my c’ndition to a tee.”
Ned smiled as he said this, as though it were the most satisfactory state of things possible, and lighted his pipe.
“Of course you’ve no objection to make a fifty pound note or so?” asked Gorman.
“None in sh’ wo’ld; always,” he became very earnest here, “always sh’posin’ that I make it honestly.”
“Of course, of course,” rejoined the other; “I would never propose anything that would lead you into a scrape. You don’t suppose I would do that, I hope?”
“Shertenly not,” replied Ned with a smile; “fire away.”
“Well, then, I’m anxious just now to procure a dead corpse.”
Ned Hooper, drunk as he was, felt somewhat startled by this, but, being a man of wandering and lively imagination, turned from the point in question to an idea suggested by it.
“I sh’pose a living corpse wouldn’t do, would it? It must be a dead one—eh?”
“Be serious if you can,” said Gorman angrily. “I want a corpse.”