"Me come down?" answered his former subaltern with an air. "Why, what can you be thinking of? It's only just over church time yet. You can hear the sweet bells ringing—'ark!" and he lifted an ecstatic forefinger with heavenward-lifted eyes.
The butler put his hand upon the old red brick wall. His adventures were beginning to tell upon him. He felt sick.
"It's all along o' you!" he said thickly, spat, to see whether his lungs were injured, was pleased to find they were not; then, still suffering, repeated, "It's all along o' you! What," he added in a higher key of tragic indignation, "what the burning hell did yer mean by telling me the boss had pinched the emerald?"
"I tell you the boss had pinched the emerald?" sneered Ethelbert from his high place. "Oh, chase me, Ananias!"
"Yes, yer did!" came again from the uplifted purple face. "Yer told me with yer own lips that you knew yerself it was in the 'ands of the 'ighest."
"I never! You dare say I did!" cried the indignant whelp. "Liar! What I may have thought was that his lordship ..."
"His lordship?" groaned the suffering man, a light breaking in upon him.
"Yes, mubbe! Don't you dare go to say as I said so. Otherwise I'll have the lor on yer! So mind your fat feet! I'll be treading on 'em. I never said nuffing. I didn't. 'Sides which, it's all one now. The emerald's been found."
"Found?" gasped Whaley with a stare.
"Yes, found," nodded Ethelbert, from his dominion of vantage loftily.