I confess it was a vulgar debut,--not worthy of you!" "No! Harry Cook seduced me; but the specimen I saw that night disgusted me of picking locks; it brings one in contact with such low companions.
Only think, there was a merchant, a rag-merchant, one of the party!" "Faugh!" said Tomlinson, in solemn disgust.
"Ay, you may well turn up your lip; I never broke into a house again." "Who were your other companions ?" asked Augustus.

"Only Harry Cook,--[A noted highwayman.]--and a very singular woman--" Here Ned's narrative was interrupted by a dark defile through a wood, allowing room for only one horseman at a time.

They continued this gloomy path for several minutes, until at length it brought them to the brink of a large dell, overgrown with bushes, and spreading around somewhat in the form of a rude semicircle.

Here the robbers dismounted, and led their reeking horses down the descent.

Long Ned, who went first, paused at a cluster of bushes, which seemed so thick as to defy intrusion, but which, yielding on either side to the experienced hand of the robber, presented what appeared the mouth of a cavern.