He alluded to Chewkle. He fully expected to be told that he had called three or four times; he was, therefore, surprised to hear ‘Whelks answer him negatively.
“Are you sure?” he said, pointedly.
“I am sure no person ’ave been of that deskripshun, sir,” the man replied. “Oh! stay; there was one—yes, there was one, sir.”
“Who was that?” inquired Mr. Grahame, sharply.
“It was the small, little dwarf, who ’ave ’ad the janders offul, sir—Mr. Gummy, sir,” responded Whelks.
“Mr. Gomer,” corrected Mr. Grahame, thoughtfully. Presently he said—
“Did that individual—that person named Chewkle not call in my absence?”
“No, sir,” returned Whelks, who had traced, to the best of his belief, his missing sovring to him. “But Mr. Gummy asked me if he had called lately, which I told him no; and he asked me if I know where I could find him, which I tell him I ’ave not a idee.”
Mr. Whelks would have availed himself of it rather promptly if he had.
This absence of Chewkle in connection with the loss of the document with Wilton’s forged signature, was both mysterious and disturbingly perplexing. The painful doubts it gave birth to in his mind were not relieved by the information that Nathan Gomer had been making inquiries respecting him. He saw, however, that it would not do for him to appear to seek Chewkle; he was likely to prove sufficiently a locust without his taking such a step. He, therefore, determined to await his appearance. Seeming to dismiss the subject from his mind, he turned over a few letters which lay upon his table, and said in a deliberate, but apparently apathetic tone——