Mrs. Grimes stared now. "Why, yes," she said. "But—but 'ow do you come to know? Eh?... Dan!... Was you—was you——"
"Never mind whether I was nor where I was. If it 'adn't been for you I'd a had them notes now, safe an' snug, 'stead o' Cap'en Nat. You lost me them!"
"I did?"
"Yes, you. Wouldn't 'ave me come to the Hole in the Wall in case Cap'en Nat might guess I was yer brother—bein' so much like ye! Like you! G-r-r-r! 'Ope I ain't got a face like that!"
"Ho yes! You're a beauty, Dan Ogle, ain't ye? But what's all that to do with the notes?" Mrs. Grimes's face was blank with wonder and doubt, but in her eyes there was a growing and hardening suspicion. "What's all that to do with the notes?"
"It's all to do with 'em. 'Cos o' that I let another chap bring a watch to sell, 'stead o' takin' it myself. An' 'e come back with a fine tale about Cap'en Nat offerin' to pay 'igh for them notes; an' so I was fool enough to let 'im take them too, 'stead o' goin' myself. But I watched 'im, though—watched 'im close. 'E tried to make a bolt—an'—an' so Cap'en Nat got the notes after all, it seems, then?"
"Dan," said Mrs. Grimes retreating a step; "Dan, it was you! It was you, an' you're hiding for it!"
The man stood awkward and sulky, like a loutish schoolboy, detected and defiant.
"Well," he said at length, "s'pose it was? You ain't got no proof of it; an' if you 'ad——What 'a' ye come 'ere for, eh?"
She regarded him now with a gaze of odd curiosity, which lasted through the rest of their talk; much as though she were convinced of some extraordinary change in his appearance, which nevertheless eluded her observation.