'Hush! It's the thief-taker: they are all afraid that their time has come. If he wants one of them he will have to get up and go.'
'Won't they fight, then? Do they sit still to be taken?'
'Fight Mr. Merridew? As well walk straight to Tyburn.'
The man was a large and heavy creature, having something of the look of a prosperous farmer. His face, however, was coarse and brutal. And he looked round the terrified room as if he was selecting a pig from a herd, with as much pity and no more! This was the man whose perjuries had added a new detainer to my imprisonment. I could have fallen upon him with the first weapon handy, but refrained.
He came into the room. 'Your place stinks, Mother,' he said, 'and it's so thick with tobacco and the steam of the punch that a body can't see across.'
'To be sure, Mr. Merridew,' the old woman apologised. 'If we'd known you were coming——'
'There would have been a large company, would there not?'
'Well, Sir, you see us here, as we are, as orderly and peaceful a house as your Worship would desire.'
The fellow grinned. 'Orderly, truly, mother. It is a quiet and a well-conducted company, isn't it? These are quiet and well-conducted girls are they not?' He chucked one of the girls under the chin.
'As much as you like—there,' said the girl, impudently, 'so long as you keep your fingers off my neck.'