“’Tis terrible awkward eating bread an’ cheese wi’ handcuffs on. Will e’ take ’em off for a bit, please? I can’t get out of the winder, for ’tis too small; so if you stands afore the door, you needn’t fear I’ll give you the slip.”
Mr Corder perceived the truth of this and freed the prisoner’s hands.
“You’ve put a pretty problem afore us, young man,” he said; “an’ us must weigh it in all its parts. Can’t say as ever I had a similar case in my experience.”
“Nor me neither,” declared Inspector Gregory.
Bartley remained silent. He was asking himself what it would feel like to be the richer by hundreds of pounds.
Daniel ate his bread and cheese, drank a pint of beer, and held out his wrists for the handcuffs.
Then Mr Corder himself went to see to his horse, and while he was away Daniel spoke to the others.
“You chaps know how hard a thing it is to get the public ear. Surely—surely ’tis worth your while to find out this great burglary job an’ put money in your pockets? You’m fools to hesitate. But if you be such greedy souls that you won’t spare a crumb to my poor wife, then you sha’n’t have a penny, so help me.”
“’Tis throwing away money to refuse,” declared Bartley to Corder, who now returned. “You see, that money have got to be earned, an’ why for shouldn’t we earn it? There’s no under-handed dealings, or playing with the law.”
“The hoss is all right again, an’ the sooner we go the better,” answered Mr Corder.