`We want to know something about that man - and about you. It is strange to know no more about either, and particularly you, than I was able to tell last night. Is not this as good a time as another for our knowing more?'

`Well!' he said, after consideration. `You're on your oath, you know, Pip's comrade?'

`Assuredly,' replied Herbert.

`As to anything I say, you know,' he insisted. `The oath applies to all.'

`I understand it to do so.'

`And look'ee here! Wotever I done, is worked out and paid for,' he insisted again.

`So be it.'

He took out his black pipe and was going to fill it with negrohead, when, looking at the tangle of tobacco in his hand, he seemed to think it might perplex the thread of his narrative. He put it back again, stuck his pipe in a button-hole of his coat, spread a hand on each knee, and, after turning an angry eye on the fire for a few silent moments, looked round at us and said what follows.