to
be a foe to interlopers and people that so much the more deserve my hatred
because the world calls them by my name.
    You are wrong, Larkins! You certainly ought not to employ against people
that you hate, supposing your hatred to be reasonable, the instrumentality of
that law which in your practice you defy. Be consistent. Either be the friend of
law, or its adversary. Depend upon it that, wherever there are laws at all,
there will be laws against such people as you and me. Either therefore we all of
us deserve the vengeance of the law, or law is not the proper instrument of
correcting the misdeeds of mankind. I tell you this, because I would fain have
you aware that an informer or a king's evidence, a man who takes advantage of
the confidence of another in order to betray him, who sells the life of his
neighbour for money, or, coward like, upon any pretence calls in the law to do
that for him which he cannot or dares not do for himself, is the vilest of
rascals. But in the present case, if your reasons were the best in the world,
they do not apply.
    While Mr. Raymond was speaking, the rest of the gang came into the room. He
immediately turned to them and said.
    My friends, here is a piece of intelligence that Larkins has just brought
in, which with his leave I will lay before you.
    Then unfolding the paper he had received, he continued: This is the
description of a felon with the offer of a hundred guineas for his apprehension.
Larkins picked it up at -. By the time and other circumstances, but particularly
by the minute description of his person, there can be no doubt but the object of
it is our young friend, whose life I was a while ago the instrument of saving.
He is charged here with having taken advantage of the confidence of his patron
and benefactor, to rob him of property to a large amount. Upon this charge he
was committed to the county jail, from whence he made his escape about a
fortnight ago without venturing to stand his trial, a circumstance which is
stated by the advertiser as tantamount to a confession of his guilt.
    My friends, I was acquainted with the particulars of this story some time
before. This lad let me into his history at a time that he could not possibly
foresee that he should stand in need of that precaution as an antidote against
danger. He is not guilty of what is laid to his charge. Which of you is so
ignorant as to suppose