“T’ first time he tracked him there, wor t’ night Maniwel’s roof-tree wor let down. Harker watched him do it, and then followed him across t’ moor to t’ Scar. But Inman wor ower quick for him, and Harker wor flayed o’ making a noise when he were climbing down t’ slippy rocks wi’ so much loose stone about, so all he knew wor ’at Inman wor groaning and pitying his-sen on t’ stones i’ t’ bottom. But by what he made out he’d slipped down t’ cliff-side and hurt his knee-cap, and a bonny job he had to trail his-sen home. It wor me ’at let day-light into Harker when he tell’d me; and it wor me ’at showed him where he could hide his-sen and spy on him. “He’d a bit to wait wol Inman’s knee mended, but there came a darkish night when Inman turned up again, and a woman close on his heels. He guessed it wor Nancy, but he didn’t follow ayther on ’em, flayed o’ one or t’other of ’em picking him out. He always had a car and a bike i’ our shed and kep’ t’ key in his pocket, so he could get off back before daylight. He knew Inman ’ud be sure to try agen t’ next night, and t’ rest you know as well as me.” “Well, this is a licker!” remarked Job; “but I’m one o’ them ’at’s heard nowt, Swithin, or next to nowt. They didn’t keep Jagger, then?” “Keep Jagger!” The contempt in the old man’s voice was the most emphatic of negatives. “Do you think, Job, wi’ a man like Mr. Harris i’ t’ chair they wor likely to keep Jagger? And ’at after what Harker had to tell ’em?’ ‘We’re very much obliged to you, Mr. Drake,’ he says, smiling, ‘and hope you haven’t been put to no inconvenience,’ he says. It wor different wi’ t’other, and there wor no smiles for him, I can tell you. He’s got to go to t’ ’Sizes.” “But they tell me Maniwel’s bailin’ him out,” said Job incredulously. “And it’s trewth they tell you,” returned Swithin, “‘the trewth, the ’ole trewth, and nothing but the trewth,’” he added with fond reminiscence of his police-court experiences. “And that’s where I part comp’ny wi’ Maniwel, being what t’ Scriptur’ calls casting your pearls before swine.” “Hearken tul him!” interjected Ambrus, in a thin but decidedly approving voice. “He’s in his gifted mood to-day, is Swith’n!” “Two hunderd pound he has to lay down alongside two hunderd more ’at some Airlee fella offered; to say nowt o’ t’ three hunderd Inman has to find his-sen. Mr. Harris tell’d him to take his time and think it ower, and Jagger’s face wor as black as a chimley; but there’s no moving Maniwel when he sets his-sen; and Jagger stuck up for his dad as we come home i’ t’ train. He’s a lad ’at’s going to tak’ a bit o’ sizing up, is Jagger.”