“Then you heard it?” said Jerry.
“Can’t say but what I did,” answered the landlord.
“Then can you tell me what the gentleman did with her luggage?” he asked, looking the landlord full in the face. “Come, you know he bribed you to stow it away, and say nothing about it if questions were asked.”
I never saw anybody look so astonished as the landlord did when Jerry said this.
“How should you know anything about it?” he asked.
“I know a good many things,” answered Jerry, with a knowing look. “Come, mate, tell us what Mr Biddulph Stafford paid you for stowing the things away, and I will promise that it shall be doubled if you can find them.”
I did not know at the time that this was all a guess of Jerry’s, but he had hit the right nail on the head.
“Is it a bargain?” asked the landlord. “I suppose that Mr Biddulph can’t do me any harm?”
“It’s a bargain, and I will see that you are not the sufferer,” said Jerry. “Come, what did he give you?”
“Ten pounds,” answered the landlord.