"Well, I suppose it is connected with her," he answered. "I have followed up your idea of Lord Orford being at the bottom of this affair, and just now I met a creature I loathe sauntering down the Fleet."
"Who?" asked Ann.
"The Marquis of Orford's factotum," he answered, "a scurvy little rascal, with a mind as crooked as his body. He is not full-grown, a dwarf, or very nigh one, with a growing hump and an evil countenance. I accosted him and asked him where his master was.
"'Where should he be,' he answered, 'save in his master's company at Oxford?'
"'And why are you not with him?' I asked.
"'Since when, Mr. Delarry, are you my master's keeper?' he answered. 'I am Lord Orford's servant, not yours.'
"'I'll keep my eye upon you until I find you out in some dark deed,' I answered, 'and then I'll get you hanged.' The man turned white to his lips, and even as I spoke to him there came up another man from behind, a bargeman. I know him, because he happens to have taken me up to Gravesend more than once. When he saw me talking to that little imp, he turned suddenly and went back the way he had come.
"'I wish you good morning,' said the dwarf, 'there's Ben Davies waiting for me.'
"I fired a shot at random: 'Is he in the plot?' I asked.
"'What plot?' he shrieked.