364 On the Pleasures of Bady- Snatching. [APRIL, 



the mean time, however, both she and his mother had moved from their 

 lodgings, and it was now too late to seek them ; he had, therefore, tum- 

 bled into the first open shop he had found, where he meant to anchor for 

 the night. There was not much encouragement for us, I thought, in this 

 story : but, as the stranger's orders were executed, and a measure of a 



colourless liquid set before him, I could see P 's eyes sparkle ; and 



he turned on me a glance, which, assisted by a certain motion of his cheek 

 and eyelid, said, as plainly as tongue could speak it, " Smoke the blue 

 ruin !" The sailor did not eem at once to like the turn we gave to the 

 conversation ; and he looked stedfastly, as if for the first time, at my 

 companion. I do not know how it is, but there is something peculiar 



about P 's eyes something that one looks at a second time, not 



because he wishes to do so, but because he cannot help it; it produces a 

 disagreeable feeling a kind of chill such as we do not experience when 

 looking at Mr. Irving's, for instance, or any ordinary squint. The stranger 

 drew his glass towards the upper end of the box, and, resting his back 

 against the wall, stretched his legs upon the seat but observing, at the 

 same time, as if not choosing to give offence, that his walk from the 

 Docks had fatigued him. By degrees, however, he seemed to get accus- 

 tomed to my companion's peculiarity, and relaxed from the defensive 

 position he had taken. When his measure was emptied, we insisted on 

 filling it again, and drinking together ; and then, after gradually feeling 

 our way, we opened the business. He winced, at first, like a patient 

 under an operation ; but the very novelty of the thing induced him at 



least to hear more of it. P told some of his best stories, with eyes, 



cheeks, lips, and tongue all at once; the gin mounted into the sailor's 

 main-top ; and, at length, he began to think it was not so very shocking 

 an affair. His pride was touched for he felt that his courage was ques- 

 tioned. It now assumed the appearance, under my friend's rnagic pencil, 

 of at worst a spree or frolic ; it would be something to talk of ever after 

 to make Susan draw closer to him at night, as she hid her face in the 

 bed-clothes and at sea, in a tropical calm, to set the whole forecastle 

 a-gaping. At length, he consented ; and we went out together to collect 

 our tools, and proceed to work. It was pitch-dark ; but the wind had 

 died away, and the rain fell in thick and heavy drops. As we walked 

 along, holding him fast by the arms on each side, the stranger seemed 

 rather our prisoner than our companion I could feel his heart beat hard 

 against my arm ; and at length, when we got over the wall, and were 

 among the tombs, I thought he would have fallen from our support. The 

 weakness, however, was only physical his moral courage was unsub- 

 dued ; and at length, when we reached the grave, as if resolving to con- 

 quer his feelings by main force, he applied himself with good- will to the 

 spade-work, that no sexton could have brought his buried treasure to light 

 in quicker time. By the time we had got the coffin open, however, and 

 its contents deposited in the sack, his spirit seemed to desert him alto- 

 gether; and while we were filling up the grave, and putting matters in 

 statu quo, he leant in silence against a tomb-stone. When we were pre- 

 paring to depart, I went up and shook him violently, to rouse him from the 

 trance into which he seemed to have fallen. St -It is a woman!'* said he, 

 at length, in a whisper, so deep and horror-struck, that I instinctively 



let him go. I could hear P chuckle at the idea. I endeavoured to 



explain to him that a dead body was of no sex ; but, notwithstanding, it 

 was as much by compulsion as any thing else, that we got him to assist in 

 removing the spoils. 



