"I don't say he is, mind; I'm only telling you to look out."
"Thank you; I'm obliged by your doing so."
He slipped a coin into the other's long, thin, brown hand. The man looked at it.
"Here, what's this? It ain't this I'm after; I told you the cops was on the watch same as I'd tell anyone, no matter what they'd done. However, if you have got this half-sovereign to give away, I don't mind taking it; and I thank you. It may make all the difference to me. Sorry I can't stop to lend you a hand, in case one's wanted; but, the fact is, some of them wouldn't mind seeing me as well as you, and, as I'm not the only one that's in it, time's precious."
What might have been meant for a smile passed over the man's saturnine visage. Mr Frazer stood watching him, as he urged his bony steed along the road. It seemed as if Ben Hitchings, having come back to sense, had found a friend sooner than was quite desirable; or perhaps his wife had found him, and this was his revenge. He wondered how the lad had managed to set the machinery of the law in action so quickly. Moving towards the van he was met with the question he had expected.
"What did that man want?" asked Dorothy.
She had her head half out of the window. Stooping, he passed his hand up and down the mare's leg. Then, lifting her foot, he asked a question of his own:
"Would you mind getting out and walking a little?"
"Why don't you tell me what that man wanted?"
"What! that fellow who's gone down the road? He brought me a message."