"Ay. I knowed as the highway business were a trick o' Rafe's, and I knowed as how Simmons would split on un. Fat'll be in fire then, thinks I. Rafe'll go to hangman, and poor old feyther o' mine'll die o' shame at such a kicken end for his own sister's child. I couldn't stand that, sir, so when Willum Nokes was a-snoren I took down keys from the nail and had Simmons out in a twink."
"But that doesn't explain why you fought the captain."
"Ay, but it do. Here was I, goen agen the law, diddlen Sir Godfrey and other high justices, cheaten hangman and all—and what for, I axe 'ee? 'Cos Minshull blood was cussed wi' mixen wi' Aglionby's. Aglionby blood had got to pay, someways, and so it did, to be sure, for I took a half-pint or so out of Rafe that mornen."
CHAPTER XVI
Knaves all Three
Labour Lost—Elegant Extracts—Hard Hit—A New Departure—Fishing—County Families—Sack
Captain Aglionby sanded the paper he had just written upon, and leant back in his chair with a sigh of satisfaction. He heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
"Here, Mynheer," said the voice of his landlord.
With an instinctive movement he covered the letter, and turned on his chair, in time to see the door open and a visitor enter. He stared for a moment in speechless amazement; then, attempting clumsily to shove the letter entirely out of sight beneath a plate containing the crumbs of a fish pâté, he got up and said:
"Why, Mr. Berkeley; adzooks! 'tis the last man I could have expected to see, the last man—though a pleasant surprise, an uncommonly pleasant surprise."