“Not unless he’s a bigger noddy than any I ever heard on,” said Mr. Shifnal. “No one wouldn’t thrust a wench like that away!”
“That,” said Mr. Liversedge, “I knew the moment I clapped eyes on her! Nat, it may well be that he tarries at the inn, dallying with Belinda! For he will not, I fancy, take her to London. He is hedged about by those who would wrest her from him. Who should know if I do not how close a guard they keep about that young man? There is no coming near him, never was! I must go to Baldock in the morning!”
Mr. Mimms stared at him. “It won’t fadge if you do,” he said. “I’ll allow I didn’t take much account of him, for a proper greenhorn he looked to me, but he couldn’t be such a goosecap as not to burn them letters he took off of you, Sam! You ain’t got nothing left to do but to bite on the bridle.”
Mr. Liversedge cast him a look of ineffable contempt. “If you, Joseph, had ever had one tenth of my vision you would not today be keeping a low thieves’ ken!” he declared.
“That’s the dandy!” retorted Mr. Mimms bitterly. “Go on! Insult poor Nat as never did you a mite of harm!”
Mr. Liversedge waved his hand. “I intend nothing personal,” he said. “But the fact remains that you are a hick, Joseph! Those letters no longer interest me. If all is as I think it may be, there is a fortune in it! Let me but once ascertain that that young man was indeed the Duke of Sale; let Providence ordain that he has not yet driven away to the Metropolis; let me but hit upon some stratagem to get him into my hands, and we shall not regard the five thousand pounds I was once hopeful of acquiring as more than a flea-bite!”
Mr. Mimms could only look at him with dropping jaw, but Mr. Shifnal’s sharp face grew sharper still. He watched Mr. Liversedge intently, and nodded, as though he understood. “Go on, Sam!” he encouraged him.
“I must have time to consider the matter,” said Mr. Liversedge largely. “Several schemes are revolving in my head, but I would do nothing without due consideration. The first step must be to ascertain whether the young man is still to be found in Baldock. Joseph, I shall be requiring the cart tomorrow!”
“Sam,” said Mr. Mimms, in a tone of great uneasiness, “if so be as he is a Dook, you don’t mean to go a-meddling with him?”
“Have no fear!” said Mr. Liversedge. “You, my dear brother, shall not be forgotten.”