“That I didn’t, Master Waller. I want for you and me to go and give him up fair and square, and take the money, before someone else does.”
“What!” cried Waller, catching him by the arm. “Somebody else? Does anyone but you know he’s there?”
“Like enough, lad,” said the man, with a grin.
“But you haven’t betrayed him?”
“Not likely, lad. I say to myself, I says, ‘If anybody is going to get that money it’s Master Waller and me, not old Fatty Gusset, who brought the soldiers up t’other day.’”
“But he doesn’t believe he’s here now, does he, Bunny?”
“Shouldn’t wonder if he does, Master Waller. He ar’n’t so stupid as he looks. He’s as cunning as he is fat. A lot of the fox in him. It’s you as ought to have the money, seeing that it was only right when you found him, and have fed the Frenchy beggar ever since.”
“But who else is likely to know?”
“Haw! Haw!” laughed the man, shaking with pure enjoyment at what seemed to him one of the greatest jokes in the world. “You have never seen him. You ar’n’t got him chained up to your work-bench up in your room! Oh, no! But I say, Master Waller, you can fib when you like!”
“How dare you!” cried Waller angrily. “How have I fibbed or lied to you? Didn’t I own it to you directly, sir, as soon as I was sure you knew?”