“Right you are! And what’s more, he couldn’t have eaten them if he had, and he couldn’t have run away. There you are, I said this kid was at the bottom of it.”
“But who’d have collared the money in that case?” asked Ashby.
Percy reflected. This was a decided point.
“Well, you see,” said he, “it’s this way. If young Fisher minor hadn’t been born, he wouldn’t have had a governor and a mater, and if he hadn’t had a governor and a mater, no more would Fisher major. And if Fisher major hadn’t had a governor and a mater he’d never have been elected treasurer, and if he’d not been elected treasurer he wouldn’t have lost the money. So you see the young un’s at the bottom of it again.”
“I know a shorter way than that,” said D’Arcy. “If young Fisher minor hadn’t fetched Rollitt up to vote that day, Fisher major wouldn’t have been elected, and then he couldn’t have lost the money.”
“Isn’t that what I said?” said Percy, indignant to be thus summarily paraphrased.
“Are you going to lick me for being born?” inquired Fisher minor.
“Good mind to. It’s all your fault good old Rollitt’s gone.”
“Those six Abernethys won’t last him long,” suggested Cash.
“No. We must keep a stock of them now, and call them ‘Rollitt’s particular.’ I fancy they might fetch three-halfpence each.”