"Aye, that has! But take my word for it, friend, a man that comes ashore from Jackson's brig may as well go quietly along and say as little as possible about his conscience. In this country they don't mind much what a man says: many a gay fellow to my knowledge has continued to give the very best character of himself all the way up the ladder of the new drop, and yet after all has been nonsuited by Jack Ketch when he got to the top of it for wanting so little a matter as another witness or so to back his own evidence."
"Well, but, I suppose, something must be proved against a man,--some overt act against the laws, before he can be suspected in any country: till that is done, the presumption is that he is a respectable man: and every judge will act on that presumption."
"Yes, in books perhaps: but when a running-fire of cross-examinations opens from under some great wig, and one's blood gets up, and one doesn't well remember all that one has said before,--I know not how it is, but things are apt to take a different turn."
"Well, my rule is to steer wide of all temptation to do ill; and then a man will carry his ship through in any waters."
"Will he? Why, may be so; and may be not. There are such things as sunk rocks: and it's not so easy to steer wide of them: constables for instance, justices of peace, lawyers, juries."
"But how came you to know that I was put on shore from Jackson's brig?"
"Why, to tell you a secret, it was I that lay at the bottom of the boat, whilst your learned self were writing notes in a pocketbook.--But hush! what's that?"
He stopped suddenly; looked cautiously round; and then went on:
"It was nothing, I believe. We may go on; but we must talk lower: in these cursed times every stone has ears. Here we must cross the brook, and double the rock on the left."
Whilst Bertram went on, he loitered a few steps behind, and then cried out--"Do you see any body?" On receiving an answer in the negative, he advanced; turned the corner, and then began again: