me! Can you see the man of your family who has more talent in his little finger than all the rest in their united brains, dressed as a police officer, without being ashamed? I took up with this trade on purpose to shame you. I didn't think I should have to make a capture in the family, though."
"If your debauchery, and that of your chosen friends, has really brought you to this level," returned the old man, "keep it. You are living honestly, I hope; and that's something."
"Don't be hard upon my chosen friends," returned Slyme, "for they were sometimes your chosen friends too. Don't say you never employed my friend Tigg, for I know better. We quarrelled upon it."
"I hired the fellow," retorted Mr. Chuzzlewit, "and I paid him."
"It's well you paid him," said his nephew, "for it would be too late to do so now. He has given his receipt in full; or had it forced from him rather."
The old man looked at him as if he were curious to know what he meant, but scorned to prolong their conversation.
"I have always expected that he and I would be brought together again in the course of business," said Slyme, taking a fresh handful of nuts from his pocket, "but I thought he would be wanted for some swindling job: it never entered my head that I should hold a warrant for the apprehension of his murderer."
"His murderer!" cried Mr. Chuzzlewit, looking from one to another.
"His or Mr. Montague's," said Nadgett. "They are the same, I am told. I accuse him yonder of the murder of Mr. Montague, who was found last night, killed, in a wood. You will ask me why I accuse him, as you have already asked me how I know so much. I 'll tell you. It can't remain a secret long."
The ruling passion of the man expressed itself even l;hen, in the tone of regret in which he deplored the approaching publicity of what he knew.
"I told you I had watched him," he proceeded. "I was instructed to do so by Mr. Montague, in whose employment I have been for some time. We had our suspicions of him; and you know what they pointed at, for you have been discussing it since we have been waiting here, outside the room. If you care to hear, now it's all over, in what our suspicions began, I 'll tell you plainly: in a quarrel (it first came to our ears through a hint of his own) between him and another office in which his father's life was insured, and which had so much doubt and distrust upon the subject, that he compounded with them, and took half the money; and was glad to do it. Bit by bit, I ferreted out more circumstances against him, and not a few. It required a little patience; but it's my calling. I found the nurse—here she is to confirm me; I found the doctor, I found the undertaker, I found the undertaker's man. I found out how the old gentleman there, Mr. Chuffey, had behaved at the funeral; and I found out what this man," touching Lewsome on the arm, "had talked about in his fever. I found out how he conducted himself before his father's death, and how since, and how at the time; and writing it all down, and putting it carefully together, made case enough, for Mr. Montague to tax him with the crime, which (as he
