“She wishes you to help her discover the author of the crime.”
“Then she has sent to the wrong party. As pretty a job as ever I heard of! A real artist that man, whoever he was; and I’m not the one to give him away. Not me! Go to the detectives, the men who are paid for that kind of work.”
“I should have told you that with Mrs. Booth money is simply no object in this case. She would willingly give a thousand pounds to have the truth discovered. Why, she’s committed for trial for the crime herself!”
“I don’t want her money—a great deal of good may it do her, or any one else! If I help her it will be to get her out of a mess, not to get somebody else in.”
“Do as you will; only, if you can, come to the help of the poor girl. She says that her late husband always used to speak of your ability in the most enthusiastic way.”
“And it’s a pity for him he had not thought well enough of it to follow my advice, and he would be alive and well at this moment. I told him time after time that running after this woman would bring him no luck; but, like all the young ’uns, he would not listen—would have his own way, go his own road, and now all my trouble on him is thrown away. It’s enough to make a man disgusted with human nature. In a couple of years I would have made him king of the Australian turf.
“I made him what he was—out of mud, as you may say—but he must go like all the rest. Thought he was clever enough to hold his own bat. Now, as to this affair, tell me all you know about it first. But wait a minute, have you got sixpence on you?” said Soft Sam, after vainly searching all his pockets.
The Professor quickly produced a shilling, which Soft Sam, handing to one of the children who still hung about, said—
“Now, the first of you that gets to the gate is to spend it.”
With a shout and a scuffle the whole mob disappeared.