"Or old shiny-togs?"

"Who?"

"Shiny-togs--you know--the bloke with the choker."

"I don't know who you mean."

"Go on!--you know 'im--'im as jaws in the church with 'is nightgown on."

"Oh, the clergyman," said Jack, hardly able to repress a smile. "No.

I'll take you back to your home."

"To my old gal?"

"Yes, to your mother."

"You ain't a 'avin' a lark with me, then?"

"No," said Jack, pitifully.

With this a.s.surance the small boy was apparently satisfied, for he pursued the conversation no longer, and shortly afterwards I fell off to sleep again.

When next I woke it was broad daylight, and Jack Smith was standing by my bed.

"Fred, I say, he's bolted!" he exclaimed, in an agitated voice, as I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"Who--the kid?" I asked.

"Yes."

"He's a nice amiable young specimen," replied I. "When did he go?"

"I don't know. When I woke up he was gone."

"Well, it's a good riddance," said I, who really did not see why Jack should be so afflicted about such a graceless young ragam.u.f.fin. "Do you know Mrs Nash has given us both warning over this business?"

"I don't care. But, I say, I wonder if he's hiding anywhere."

"Not he. He's safe away, depend upon it, and if Mrs Nash had had any silver spoons they'd be safe away too."

Jack began to dress thoughtfully, and then said, "I'm sorry he's gone."

"I don't see why you should be," I said. "The ungrateful young cad! If it hadn't been for you he might have been killed."

Jack smiled. "He doesn't think so himself," he said. "He told me I'd no business to interfere between him and his `gal,' as he politely styles his mother. Poor little beggar! I dare say he'll catch it all the worse now. Hullo! I say!" exclaimed Jack, feeling in his pockets.

"I'm positive I had a shilling and two pennies in my pocket yesterday evening. I must have been robbed in that court!"

The money had evidently gone, and what was more, I made the pleasant discovery that a sixpence which I had in my pocket, as well as my penknife, were both missing!

Jack and I looked at one another.

"The young thief!" I exclaimed.

"Perhaps it was done in the court," said Jack. "There was an awful crowd, you know."

"All very well," I replied; "but, as it happens, I had my knife out before I went to bed, to cut one of my bootlaces, and when I put it back in my pocket I distinctly remember feeling the sixpence there. No; our young hopeful's done this bit of business."

"I'm awfully sorry, Fred," said Jack; "it was my fault bringing him here."

We went down to breakfast in a somewhat perturbed state of mind. Here we found the a.s.sembled company in a state of great excitement. Mr Horncastle, who occupied a bed in the next dormitory to that where Jack and I slept, had missed his collar-stud, which he described as "red coral," and complaining thereof to Mrs Nash, had been told by that lady that Smith and Batchelor had brought a young pickpocket into the house with them last night, and that being so, she was only surprised Mr Horncastle had not lost all the jewellery he possessed. Whereat, of course, Mr Horncastle was in a mighty state of wrath, and quite ready for poor Jack and me when we appeared.

"Oh, here you are. Perhaps you'll hand me out half a sov., you two."

"What for?" demanded I.

"Never you mind, but you'd better look sharp, or I'll give you in charge!" said Horncastle, pompously.

"You're funny this morning," said I, utterly at a loss to guess what he was driving at.

"So will you be funny when you get transported for stealing!"

"What do you mean?" asked Smith, solemnly.

"Mean; why, I mean my collar-stud."

A general laugh interrupted the speaker at this point, which did not tend to improve his spirits.

"What's your collar-stud to do with me, or Batchelor?" demanded Smith, who evidently saw nothing to laugh at.

"Why, you've stolen it!" shouted Horncastle.

Smith gazed solemnly at the speaker.

"You're a fool," he said, quietly.

This cool remark drove the irate Horncastle nearly frantic. He advanced up to Smith with a face as red as the collar-stud he had lost, and cried, "Say that again, and I'll knock you down."

"You're a fool," quietly repeated Jack.

Horncastle didn't knock him down, or attempt to do so. He turned on his heel and said, "We'll see if we're to be robbed by shop-boy cads, or any of your young thieving friends. I'll complain to the police, and let them know you know all about it, you two."

"I don't know anything about it," said I, feeling it inc.u.mbent on me to make a remark, "except that I don't think a red bone collar-stud costs ten shillings." This occasioned another laugh at the expense of Mr Horncastle, who retorted, "You're a companion of thieves and blackguards, that's what you are. I'll have you kicked out of the house."

And as if to suit the action to the word, he advanced towards me and aimed a vehement kick at my person.

I had just time to dodge the blow, but as I did so something knocked against my hand. Fancy my astonishment when, stooping to pick it up, I found that it was the missing red bone collar-stud, which had dropped into the leg of its stately owner's trousers, and which this kick had unearthed from its hiding-place!

The laugh was now all against the discomfited Horncastle. Even those who had at first been disposed to side with him against Jack and me could not resist the merriment which this revelation occasioned, particularly when the stud, which Horncastle at once identified, was discovered to be an ordinary painted bone article, with a good deal of the red worn off, of the kind usually sold in the streets for a penny.