“That he shall do,” said Jack. “He behaved like a trump to me once when I was in trouble; and I don't forget it.” And so saying, he hastened on board the packet, and hurried below, to re-appear in a few minutes, holding Cutbill by the collar, as though he were his prisoner.
“Here's the culprit,” cried Jack; “and if he won't land his luggage, he must take to a Montenegro rig like mine; and he 'll become it well.”
“There, don't collar me that fashion. See how the fellows are all staring at us. Have you no decency?”
“Will you come quietly, then?”
“Yes; let them hand up my two trunks and my violin case. What a droll place this is.”
“There 's many a worse, I can tell you, than our villa yonder. If it were my own, I 'd never ask to leave it.”
“Nor need you, Jack,” whispered Augustus. “I've brought back money to buy it; and I hope it will be our home this many a day.”
“What's this scrape of yours, Cutty?” said Jack, as they made their way homewards. “Whom have you been robbing this time, or was it forgery?”
“Let him tell you,” said Cutbill, doggedly, as he motioned with his hand towards Gusty.
“It's a mixed case of robbery with housebreaking,” said Augustus. “Pracontal had taken it into his head that certain papers of great value to himself were concealed in some secret press in our house at Castello; and Cutbill was just as convinced that there were no papers and no press, and that the whole was a dream or a delusion. They argued the case so often that they got to quarrel about it.”