“It’s about that I’ve hurried down. I have good information, Belcher, that there has been a plot to cripple him, and that the rogues are so sure of success that they are prepared to lay anything against his appearance.”
Belcher whistled between his teeth.
“I’ve seen no sign of anything of the kind, sir. No one has been near him or had speech with him, except only your nephew there and myself.”
“Four villains, with Berks at their head, got the start of us by several hours. It was Warr who told me.”
“What Bill Warr says is straight, and what Joe Berks does is crooked. Who were the others, sir?”
“Red Ike, Fighting Yussef, and Chris McCarthy.”
“A pretty gang, too! Well, sir, the lad is safe, but it would be as well, perhaps, for one or other of us to stay in his room with him. For my own part, as long as he’s my charge I’m never very far away.”
“It is a pity to wake him.”
“He can hardly be asleep with all this racket in the house. This way, sir, and down the passage!”
We passed along the low-roofed, devious corridors of the old-fashioned inn to the back of the house.