“You may talk what you like, Mr. Ridden, about there not being a God, but there is a God. And how do I know that there is a God? Because, when I read that, there was a policeman there and I got my left thumb in my pocket at the moment, and, if I’d not had my left thumb in my pocket at that moment, why, he’d have seen it, wouldn’t he?
“There, that shows you whether there’s a God or not. So the other fellows that wanted me to take the bull, they didn’t want me to be reading there; they wanted me to come along. But it wouldn’t have done to come along, not with that policeman there. No, because he’d have thought at once, ‘There’s something funny,’ if I’d have gone along. There was fifty pounds reward, too, for me.
“And the policeman says to one of the chaps that was with me, ‘Seen anything of this chap?’ he says.
“ ‘No,’ they says, ‘worse luck, because we could do with fifty pounds.’
“ ‘Well,’ he says, ‘he’s pretty sure to be coming around here. Who’s this you’ve got?’
“ ‘Why,’ they says, ‘he’s a drover coming to look after the old Astounder, that big bull they’ve got on board.’
“ ‘Well, I wish him joy of his job, then,’ the policeman said, ‘for a bull is a fair coughdrop, when he’s seasick.’
“Well then, we got on board the ship. That’ll show you whether there’s a God or not.
“Well, I hope your troubles were at an end then,” said Hi.
“No, Mr. Highworth, they were not. And why were they not? Why, use is second nature, as we say. Soon as I got on board that old ship, they said the captain wanted to see me and so I thought, ‘Well, now they’ve caught me; now what am I to do?’ Then I thought I’d better go, I might brazen it out. And I went up to a place all shining, and there was all the chief detectives of London town come to look for me. And the captain, he says, ‘Now, my man, what’s your name?’ Now what would you have answered? Use is second nature, isn’t it? So I plumped out straightaway ‘Ezekiel Rust,’ I said. Then, directly I said that, I see what I done. And he said, ‘Well, you put your name on that paper there.’ And then I know what to do. I said, ‘Please, sir, I can’t write.’ And so he says, ‘Well, you must put your mark.’ And there was a man writing on a paper and he wrote my name, only he hadn’t wrote it right. He wrote it wrong, because he hadn’t followed what I said. He put ‘Jack Crust.’ And so I put my mark and the detectives they looked at me and they didn’t recognise me and I thought, ‘My boys, there’s the worth of fifty pounds in me and I never been worth more than eleven and a penny at one time before, and that they cheated me of, coming back from the races.’ And so he said, ‘Now, my man, go down to that bull and mind he don’t toss you. They call him the Wrekin’s Astounder,’ he said, ‘and he’ll astound you, if you don’t be careful.’