but that when I should return from this new search, I would
arrange for her going back to Exeter. I think she would be happier in
our own home, with her daily tasks to interest her, than in being here
amongst us and in ignorance. I only saw Dr. Seward for a moment, and
told him where I was off to, promising to come back and tell the rest
so soon as I should have found out anything. I drove to Walworth and
found, with some difficulty, Potter's Court. Mr. Smollet's spelling
misled me, as I asked for Poter's Court instead of Potter's Court.
However, when I had found the court, I had no difficulty in
discovering Corcoran's lodging house.
When I asked the man who came to the door for the "depite," he shook
his head, and said, "I dunno 'im. There ain't no such a person 'ere.
I never 'eard of 'im in all my bloomin' days. Don't believe there
ain't nobody of that kind livin' 'ere or anywheres."
I took out Smollet's letter, and as I read it it seemed to me that the
lesson of the spelling of the name of the court might guide me. "What
are you?" I asked.
"I'm the depity," he answered.
I saw at once that I was on the right track. Phonetic spelling had
again misled me. A half crown tip put the deputy's knowledge at my
disposal, and I learned that Mr. Bloxam, who had slept off the remains
of his beer on the previous night at Corcoran's, had left for his work
at Poplar at five o'clock that morning. He could not tell me where
the place of work was situated, but he had a vague idea that it was
some kind of a "new-fangled ware'us," and with this slender clue I had
to start for Poplar. It was twelve o'clock before I got any
satisfactory hint of such a building, and this I got at a coffee shop,
where some workmen were having their dinner. One of them suggested
that there was being erected at Cross Angel Street a new "cold
storage" building, and as this suited the condition of a "new-fangled
ware'us," I at once drove to it. An interview with a surly gatekeeper
and a surlier foreman, both of whom were appeased with the coin of the
realm, put me on the track of Bloxam. He was sent for on my
suggestion that I was willing to pay his days wages to his foreman for
the privilege of asking him a few questions on a private matter. He
was a smart enough fellow, though rough of speech and bearing. When I
had promised to pay for his information and given him an earnest, he
told me that he had made two journeys between Carfax and
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