"In here, master."
"This will do. Put them down."
The porters complied, and Todd set down upon one of the boxes, as he said—
"How much?"
"A shilling each of us, master."
"There's double the money, and now be off, both of you, about your business."
The porters were rather surprised, but as they considered themselves sufficiently paid, they made no objection, and walked off with considerable alacrity, leaving Todd, and his treasure in the street.
"Now for a coach," he muttered. "Now for a coach. Here boy"—to a ragged boy who was creeping on at some short distance. "Earn a penny by fetching me a coach directly."
The boy darted off, and in a very few minutes brought Todd a hackney coach. The boxes, too, were got upon it by the united efforts of Todd, the coachman, and the boy, and then, and not till then did Todd give the correct address of the wharf in Thames Street from which the Hamburg ship was going, and in which he fully intended to embark that night. The ship was advertised to sail at the turn of the tide, which would be about four o'clock in the morning. All this did not take long to do. The coach rumbled along Thames Street, but Todd was not aware that Mr. Crotchet had got up behind the vehicle, but such was the fact, and when the lumbering old machine stopped at the wharf, that gentleman got down, and felt quite satisfied with the discovery he had made. "He's a trying of it on," soliloquised Mr. Crotchet in the bolting line, "but it ain't no manner of a go. He'll swing, and he can't help it, if he were to book himself to the moon, and there was a coach or a ship as went all the way, and no stoppages."
"Mem," said Todd to himself. "To go to Colonel Jeffery's and murder Tobias—Ha!"