Five minutes later he was in the presence of Mr. Horace Dobb. Permission to glance round the stock had been met with suave and smiling acquiescence, and almost immediately Mr. Sinnett, with false calm, was inquiring the price of a small idol.
“That?” said Mr. Dobb. “Oh, I’d let you have that for twenty pounds. Genuine curiosity, that is, sir. I dare say it’s worth a lot more, but I want to make you a customer. Ah, that won’t be on my shelves long, for all I only bought it last night. Always getting inquiries for genuine foreign idols, I am. That’s the only one I’ve got in my shop at present. There’s a lot of connoshers of them things about.”
“Twenty pounds?” said Mr. Sinnett. “Why, man, I happen to know you only gave twelve for it!”
“Ah, I’d ’ave given more if ’e’d pressed me, but ’e seemed anxious to get rid of it. And, anyway, sir, I’d ’ave got twenty pounds easy enough for it yesterday afternoon, if I’d ’ad it. There was a Indian gentleman in ’ere hinquiring if by any chance I ’ad any hidols. Particular keen ’e seemed to get one just like that. ’E might ’ave been—”
“Fifteen pounds,” offered Mr. Sinnett.
And so it was; but even then, Mr. Dobb only yielded with professed reluctance to losing the chance of Mr. Sinnett as a regular patron thenceforward.
That same evening Mr. Clark, Mr. Tridge, and Mr. Lock foregathered in Mr. Dobb’s parlour.
“Yes, I see ’im go,” said Mr. Tridge. “’E’d got it in a portmanteau. Caught the two-twenty-one, ’e did. ’E’ll be in London by now. Can’t you fancy ’im getting more and more hexcited at that ’ouse, trying to hexplain to ’em that ’e wants to see a nigger they don’t know nothing about? And ’e’ll think they’re trying to deceive ’im, and ’e’ll tell ’em all the ’ole story, just to show ’e’s telling the truth, and—”
“Oh, ’e’ll be very hagitated,” said Mr. Clark. “’E’s that sort, I bet, when things goes sideways. Serve ’im right! Anyway, thanks for my share, ’Orace. I shall be able to do a bit of slate-cleaning with it. By the way, what haddress did you send ’im looking for, Peter?”
“Seventeen, Somerset Terrace, Poplar. ’Orace told me to write down any old address I happened to think of, didn’t you, ’Orace? And Seventeen, Somerset Terrace, come easiest to my mind. I don’t know where I got it from.”