“Well, your honor knows best!” said the black scamp.
“And now let me go on. As soon as the child is quiet, leave the rushing crowd that your brother is still leading with his cry of ‘stop thief;’ leave it leisurely, and take the nearest cut for Blackfriars’ Road and your mother’s, no, sister’s room, here. Here you may conceal him until I can take him off your hands. Do you understand this?”
“Yes, your honor. But now, how about the pay?”
“You shall have five pounds each down, as soon as I see the child in your hands. You shall have all the jewelry that you find on his person, which, as I have seen pearls and turquoise among them, may amount to as much more, or twice as much more. And finally, when I shall reap the advantage that I expect from this child’s disappearance, you shall have a comfortable income from me for the rest of your lives.”
The men wrangled and haggled with their employer for a higher price for their crime, and after much dispute obtained their own terms—ten pounds each down and a crown a week for keeping the child.
After this, Everage left the house, promising to see Mother Rooter at her stall the next day and every day, until he should have a chance of pointing out the boy and nurse to her, that she might afterwards show them to her brothers.
Everage kept his word, and the next morning stopped on his way to his school, to leave a bottle of chloroform on Mother Rooter’s stand, and to watch for the possible appearance of little Lenny and his nurse, on their morning walk.
The demon helped Everage to wonderful luck, for presently came Pina leading little Lenny, by the hand.
They passed quite close to where the crone squatted and Everage stood. They seemed to be going up Fleet street, upon some little shopping errand.
Everage turned his back upon them until they had passed and had their backs to him. Then he touched the beldam and pointed them out to her.