“You see, I knowed they were for robbing you, young sir, at the Derby. It were your scarfpin they were after, and that were why they took to shovin’ you so. Says I to myself, says I, ‘Now there’s a fine young gent from hover the pond, and he does not know the way of the rascals, and he will lose heverythink.’ So I rushed into them, sir, and I took hout your scarfpin quick, so nobody helse would get it, and I pulled you haway, so it were possible you could get hout with your purse, which you had said you never carried.”
Having made this remarkable statement, Mr. ’Awkins displayed the scarfpin, which Frank had missed when he undressed the night before.
“Hallow me to return this here beautiful and waluable little pin to you, sir,” said the man from Deptford; “and hallow me to hexpress the ’ope that you did not lose hanything helse.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE EXPLOSION.
Frank fancied he saw through the rascal’s guile, and yet he could not repress a smile, for surely Mr. ’Awkins was very slick about it. The boy believed he now understood why the fellow had appeared so extremely solicitous for his safety when he saw him hustled by the mob. ’Awkins had spotted the pin in conversation with Frank, and he had improved an excellent opportunity to obtain possession of it.
It was quite likely that ’Awkins had overestimated the value of the pin, which was not worth more than four or five dollars, and had been quite disappointed when he tried to dispose of it. He had not parted with it for the price offered by the “fence” to whom he had taken it, and, seeing Frank in the window, he had suddenly conceived the scheme of returning it, as if that had been his intention all along.
“You are extremely clever,” said the boy, as he quickly took the pin from the man’s hand, observing with surprise that Mr. ’Awkins gave it up readily without demanding a reward before parting with it; “but I think you overstepped yourself this time.”
“’Ow is that, young sir?”
“I am not going to pay you for snatching my scarfpin, now that I have it in my possession.”