“‘Bon! You shall have Toko, and I will be liberal—I will throw Fon Beest into the bargain.’
“We shook hands in order to cement the bargain; and leaving the ‘Three Spies,’ we wended our way to the Seven Dials, and entered the ‘Crown.’ It was filled with thieves and loose women, their companions. Pegon perceived no trace of the trio we were in search of. Coming near, he said: ‘Attendez! they are en haut.’
“On ascending the stairs, we found ourselves in a spacious room, in which singing was going on. It was long and narrow, with a stage at one end, and a succession of tables on each side, with a passage up the middle for ingress and egress, very much after the manner of the cafes chantants in the Palais Royal. The room was tolerably well filled.
“A man who threw himself into the most awful contortions and impossible attitudes, attired in a suit of clothes of a check pattern—something like Mr. Leech’s caricature of Mr. Briggs when his mind is on hunting intent—was lilting a ditty respecting ‘Sairy’s young man,’ which seemed to take the audience by storm. The success of this song was only equalled by another, beginning—
A cove he would a macing go,
Whether the blueskins would or no.
An evident allusion to accomplished thieves and baffled policemen. We took up a position from which we commanded an excellent view of the room. I began to look about me, and perceived a couple of bottles of champagne standing on a particular table in one corner.
“At this table three men were seated. I started. Pegon asked me what was the matter. I smiled at my stupidity; I thought I saw Mr. Halliday. My explanation of the singular coincidence was, that the brother whom Mr. Halliday had thought dead had escaped the shipwreck which had induced the belief of his decease, and that on returning to England his innate vagabondism had broken out afresh and he had allied himself with Donnymore and Von Beest.
“‘Who is that?’ I asked Pegon, pointing out the man who bore such a marvellous resemblance to Mr. Halliday.
“‘That is Toko, and that is my dear friend Donnymore, while the other is that sacre German Fon Beest. Oh, I will make it hot for Toko and Fon Beest.’