There were other groups, and other incidents that would have drawn laughter as well as tears from sympathetic hearts, but we must forbear. The play was long of being acted out—it was no common play; besides, it is time for our actors to come upon the stage themselves.
“I see old Hitchin,” exclaimed Oliver Trembath, starting suddenly out of a reverie, and pointing into the thickest of the crowd.
“How can you tell? you don’t know him,” said his companion.
“Know him! Of course I do; who could fail to know him after the graphic description the lawyer gave of him? See—look yonder, beside the cart with the big man in it arranging baskets. D’you see?”
“Which? the one painted green, and a scraggy horse with a bag hanging to its nose?”
“No, no; a little further to the left, man—the one with the broken rail and the high-spirited horse. There, there he is! a thin, dried-up, wrinkled, old shabby—”
“Ah! that’s the man,” exclaimed Tregarthen, laughing. “Come along, and let’s try to keep our eyes on him, for there is nothing so difficult as finding any one in a crowd.”
The difficulty referred to was speedily illustrated by the fact that the two friends threaded their way to the spot where the cart had stood, and found not only that it was gone, but that Hitchin had also moved away, and although they pushed through the crowd for more than a quarter of an hour they failed to find him.
As they were wandering about thus, they observed a very tall broad-shouldered man talking earnestly in undertones to a sailor-like fellow who was still broader across the shoulders, but not quite so tall. It is probable that Oliver would have paid no attention to them, had not the name of Hitchin struck his ear. Glancing round at the men he observed that the taller of the two was Joe Tonkin, and the other his friend of the Land’s End, the famous Jim Cuttance.
Oliver plucked his companion by the sleeve, and whispered him to stand still. Only a few words and phrases reached them, but these were sufficient to create surprise and arouse suspicion. Once, in particular, Tonkin, who appeared to be losing his temper, raised his voice a little, exclaiming,—“I tell ’ee what it is, Cuttance, I do knaw what you’re up to, an’ I’ll hinder ’ee ef I can.”