"I's so glad to know that you is all right—that you is alive and kicking, that it almost takes my breath," the fellow said, sinking gracefully upon a vinegar barrel, and fanning his face with his hat.
"If we are alive, we have no thanks to offer you in return," Fred muttered, rather testily.
"Vell, if here ain't gratitude, and no mistake. After I does all that a cove can do to find the real assassin, and makes him tell his yarn right afore ye, I'm treated—no, I'm not treated, for I've bin here five minutes, and I'm not axed to drink."
We made no response to this gentle hint, but continued our occupation. The fellow watched us in silence, and then began again.
"I'd like to know vot more a cove could do than I've done? Haven't I hobeyed all horders that vas given? Have I spent much dust in my vast researches; and haven't I even had to get drunk to please ye? And now, ven the vork is completed, I is looked at coldly!"
The hypocrite dug his knuckles into his eyes, and attempted to force a tear, but the effort was a failure; he knew it, and attempted to cover his confusion by pretending to sob bitterly.
"Hark you, Mr. Steel Spring," Fred said, "if you can explain why you left us so suddenly, just as we wanted your services, we shall feel inclined to overlook your little faults, and reward you."
"Is that all that you've got agin me?" he asked, quite cheerfully. "Vy, I really began to think that it was something serious—something calculated to hinjure me in the estimation of good fellows."
"Perhaps leaving us to fight our way out of the room was not a serious matter in your estimation, but we think differently," I replied.