“Ay, wheer are they?” said the constable. “Going about stealthily of a night, creeping behind hedges, and carrying messages one to the other. I know! They think no one suspects them, and that they’re going to be passed over, but I’m set here to find them out, and I’ve nearly got things ready.”
“Look here, my man,” said the engineer, stopping short; “can you say for certain who’s at the bottom of this mischief?”
“Mebbe I can, sir.”
“Then who was it?”
“Nay,” said the constable with a little laugh; “if theer’s going to be any credit for takkin of ’em, I mean to hev it, and not give it over to someone else.”
“Pish!” ejaculated the squire angrily; “come along! The man knows nothing.”
“Mebbe not,” said the constable with a sneer. “Mebbe if people treated people proper, and asked them to their house, and gave ’em a lodging and a bit of food, things might hev been found out sooner; but some people thinks they know best.”
The squire understood the hint, but he scorned to notice it, and went on talking sternly to the engineer; but Thorpeley was not to be put down like that, for he continued:
“Mebbe theer’s people in it—old people and young people—as wouldn’t like to be exposed, but who hev got to be exposed, and—”
“Look here,” said Dick boldly, “if my father won’t speak, I will. Do you mean to say you believe Tom Tallington and I know anything about these cowardly tricks?”