"It would be; and we won't do it. No; there's only one thing to be done--we must go the whole hog; we must have the bill."
"Ah! and we must have lamb and green peas in Febooary; and a patent shofle cab to ride in, so as not to tire ourselves; and pockets full of 'alf-bulls to toss with! We must; but you see we 'aven't, D'Ossay, my boy! And as for getting' that bill, we're done at the very first step: we don't know who's got it."
"You fool! if we did know who'd got it we'd have it, fast enough. There ain't many of 'em that could keep it away from me!"
"You are a plucked 'un!" said Griffiths, regarding him with admiration; "I can't help sayin' so, though you do lose your temper and call your friends ugly names. No; I don't think there is many as could keep you off it if you knew where it was. But how we're ever to find that I can't tell."
"Let's go over the business all again," said Effingham. "It was Tony that always had a fancy for that bit of stiff. He stuck to it when it wasn't worth more than the stamp and the paper it was wrote on; but he always thought something would come of this Mitford, and then it would be a first-class screw to put on him, and make him do as Tony liked. But you see he died before anything turned up; and though he told you about the stiff, he didn't say where it was."
"He wouldn't. I asked him scores of times; but he always said 'Time enough for that,' he says, or 'That'll keep;' he says. He was a mistrustful cove was Tony,--always suspecting people."
"Ah, he'd seen a good deal of the world, Griffiths. What an infernal nuisance I hadn't got back from Yankeeland before he popped off! I'd have had it out of him. Who took his traps after his death?"
"Well, old Lyons had 'em, I think. There wasn't much; two or three boxes and a little dressin'-case,--for Tony, though not such a swell as you, D'Ossay, was always natty and spruce,--and a walkin'-stick or two. Old Lyons had lent Tony money, and stood in with him generally; and after he stepped it, old Lyons cleared off the things."
"Do you know where to find old Lyons?"
"Reethur! Why?"