“Six penn’orth of brandy—warm, if you please, my dear,” said the pseudo-Howard, as he strolled easily into an inner room, with which he seemed to be quite familiar. He seated himself in an old-fashioned wooden armchair, gazed up at the gas lamp, and stirred his liquor slowly. Occasionally he raised the glass to his lips, but he did not seem to be at all intent upon his drinking. When he entered the room, there had been a gentleman and a lady there, whose festive moments seemed to be disturbed by some slight disagreement; but Howard, as he gazed at the lamp, paid no attention to them whatever. They soon left the room, their quarrel and their drink finished together, and others dropped in and out. Mr. Howard’s “warm” must almost have become cold, so long did he sit there, gazing at the gas lamps rather than attending to his brandy and water. Not a word did he speak to anyone for more than an hour, and not a sign did he show of impatience. At last he was alone;—but had not been so for above a minute when in stepped a jaunty little man, certainly not more than five feet high, about three or four and twenty years of age, dressed with great care, with his trousers sticking to his legs, with a French chimney-pot hat on his head, very much peaked fore and aft and closely turned up at the sides. He had a bright-coloured silk handkerchief round his neck, and a white shirt, of which the collar and wristbands were rather larger and longer than suited the small dimensions of the man. He wore a white greatcoat tight buttoned round his waist, but so arranged as to show the glories of the coloured handkerchief; and in his hand he carried a diminutive cane with a little silver knob. He stepped airily into the room, and as he did so he addressed our friend the policeman with much cordiality. “My dear Mr. ’Oward,” he said, “this is a pleasure. This is a pleasure. This is a pleasure.”
“What is it to be?” asked Gager.
“Well;—ay, what? Shall I say a little port wine negus, with the nutmeg in it rayther strong?” This suggestion he made to a young lady from the bar, who had followed him into the room. The negus was brought and paid for by Gager, who then requested that they might be left there undisturbed for five minutes. The young lady promised to do her best, and then closed the door. “And now, Mr. ’Oward, what can I do for you?” said Mr. Cann, the burglar.
Gager, before he answered, took a pipe-case out of his pocket, and lit the pipe. “Will you smoke, Billy?” said he.
“Well;—no, I don’t know that I will smoke. A very little tobacco goes a long way with me, Mr. ’Oward. One cigar before I turn in;—that’s about the outside of it. You see, Mr. ’Oward, pleasures should never be made necessities, when the circumstances of a gentleman’s life may perhaps require that they shall be abandoned for prolonged periods. In your line of life, Mr. ’Oward—which has its objections—smoking may be pretty well a certainty.” Mr. Cann, as he made these remarks, skipped about the room, and gave point to his argument by touching Mr. Howard’s waistcoat with the end of his cane.
“And now, Billy, how about the young woman?”
“I haven’t set eyes on her these six weeks, Mr. ’Oward. I never see her but once in my life, Mr. ’Oward;—or, maybe, twice, for one’s memory is deceitful; and I don’t know that I ever wish to see her again. She ain’t one of my sort, Mr. ’Oward. I likes ’em soft, and sweet, and coming. This one—she has her good p’ints about her—as clean a foot and ankle as I’d wish to see;—but, laws, what a nose, Mr. ’Oward! And then for manner;—she’s no more manner than a stable dog.”
“She’s in London, Billy?”
“How am I to know, Mr. ’Oward?”
“What’s the good, then, of your coming here?” asked Gager, with no little severity in his voice.
“I don’t know as it is good. I ’aven’t said nothing about any good, Mr. ’Oward. What you wants to find is them diamonds?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well;—you won’t find ’em. I knows nothing about ’em, in course, except just what I’m told. You know my line of life, Mr. ’Oward?”
“Not a doubt about it.”
“And I know yours. I’m in the way of hearing about these things—and for the matter of that, so are you too. It may be, my ears are the longer. I ’ave ’eard. You don’t expect me to tell you more than just that. I ’ave ’eard. It was a pretty thing, wasn’t it? But I wasn’t in it myself, more’s the pity. You can’t expect fairer than that, Mr. ’Oward?”
“And what have you heard?”
“Them diamonds is gone where none of you can get at ’em. That five hundred pounds as the lawyers ’ave offered is
