t.

"You know," he said, "this is an education. In my innocence I thought
that a burglar shoved his swag in a sack and then pushed off, and did
the rest in the back parlour of a beer-house in Notting Dale. As it is,
my only wonder is that you didn't bring a brazier and a couple of
melting-pots."

"Not my job," was the reply. "I'm not a receiver. Besides, you don't
think that all this beautiful silver is to be broken up?" The horror of
his uplifted hands would have been more convincing if both of them had
been empty. "Why, in a very little while, particularly if you travel,
you will have every opportunity of buying It back again in open market."

"But how comic," said Berry. "I should think you're a favourite at
Lloyd's. D'you mind if I blow my nose? Or would that be a _casus
belli_?"

"Not at all"--urbanely. "Indeed, if you would care to give me your
word...."

Berry shook his head.

"Honour among thieves?" he said. "Unfortunately I'm honest, so you must
have no truck with me. Never mind. D'you touch cards at all? Or only at
Epsom?"

Beneath the green mask the mouth tightened, and I could see that the
taunt had gone home. No man likes to be whipped before his underlings.

Nobby profited by the master's silence, and had devoured two more
chocolates before Berry spoke again--this time to me.

"Gentleman seems annoyed," he remarked. "I do hope he hasn't
misconstrued anything I've said. D'you think we ought to offer him
breakfast? Of course, five is rather a lot, but I dare say one of them
is a vegetarian, and you can pretend you don't care for haddock. Or they
may have some tripe downstairs. You never know. And afterwards we could
run them back to Limehouse. By the way, I wonder if I ought to tell him
about the silver which-not. It's only nickel, but I don't want to keep
anything back. Oh, and what about the dividend warrant? Of course it
wants riveting and--er--forging, and I don't think they'd recognize it,
but he could try. If I die before he goes, ask him to leave his address;
then, if he leaves anything behind, the butler can send it on. I
remember I left a pair of bed-socks once at Chatsworth. The Duke never
sent them on, but then they were perishable. Besides, one of them
followed me as far as Leicester. Instinct, you know. I wrote to _The
Field_ about it." He paused to shift uneasily in his seat. "You know, if
I have to sustain this pose much longer, I shall get railway spine or a
hare lip or something.