The fat man laughed.
"So Monkey Brand's implicated, is he?" he said. "He took money from me to settle your horse, and leaked when he was in liquor. That's the story, is it?" He lifted his voice. "D'you hear that, Brand?"
"I hear," came the little sodden voice from the waiting-room. "And I says nothing. There's One Above'll see me right."
Joses shook his curls at Silver.
"Won't wash," he said. "Really it won't. What the lawyers call collusion. You didn't know I was trained for the Bar, did you? Another little surprise packet for you. Come, Mr. Silver, you must do a little better than that—an old hand like you."
The young man observed him with slow, admiring eyes.
"Joses," he said deliberately, "you're a clever rogue."
The fat man's eye became almost genial. He looked warily round, and then came a step closer.
"Ain't I?" he whispered.
Silver, laughing gently, handed him his cloak.