Just. Yes, child, by all means; and now I shall hear what possessed him to leave the box. I don’t understand—there’s something deep in all this; I don’t understand it. Now I do desire, Mrs. Landlady, nobody may speak a single word whilst I am cross-examining the thief.
(Landlady puts her finger upon her lips—Everybody looks eagerly towards the door.)
Re-enter Lucy, with a huge wicker cage in her hand, containing a magpie—The Justice drops the committal out of his hand.
Just. Hey!—what, Mrs. Landlady—the old magpie? hey?
Land. Ay, your worship, my old magpie. Who’d have thought it? Miss was very clever; it was she caught the thief. Miss was very clever.
Old M. Very good! very good!
Just. Ay, darling, her father’s own child! How was it, child? Caught the thief, with the mainour, hey? Tell us all; I will hear all—that’s poz!
Lucy. Oh! then first I must tell you how I came to suspect Mr. Magpie. Do you remember, papa, that day last summer, when I went with you to the bowling-green, at the “Saracen’s Head”?
Land. Oh, of all days in the year! but I ask pardon, miss.
Lucy. Well, that day I heard my uncle and another gentleman telling stories of magpies hiding money; and they laid a wager about this old magpie and they tried him—they put a shilling upon the table, and he ran away with it, and hid it; so I thought that he might do so again, you know, this time.