“What, me? And him double my size? And a desperate villain? ’Deed, I’d to save my skin, mister, and only yon lad and a couple of childer in the yard when he come. I see him first, sneaking a look round this yere post, and thinks I, it’ll be a knife in the back or a punch in the face for me if he’s heard I’ve rapped. So, first’s better than last, thinks I, and seeing as he hung back I up to him bold as brass, but with one eye on the lad too, and sez I, ‘Can you read?’ sez I. He looked at me’s if he’d have my blood, but there was the lad and the childer a-staring, so ‘Ay, I can,’ says he, ‘and can read you, you thieving villain!’ ‘Well, if you can read, read that,’ sez I, and pointed to a bill as was posted on the gate. ‘I can’t,’ sez he, ‘and, happen you can tell me what ’tis all about.’ He looks, and he sees ’tis the bill about he, and painting him to the life. Anyways, he turns the color o’ whey and he gives me a look as if he’d cut out my inwards, but he sees it’s no good, for there was the lad and the childer, and he slinks off. Ay, I routed him, I did, little as I be, mister!” “Right!” said Nadin’s man. “And now do you show us the sack as you changed for his.” The man’s face fell amazingly, but Clement noted that he looked surprised rather than frightened. “Eh?” he exclaimed. “Lord, now, who told you, mister? He didn’t know.” “Never mind who told us. We know, and that’s enough. There was a twist o’ plait round the cord?” “There were.” “You said nothing about it before. But out with it now, and do you take care, my lad.” “Well, who axed me? Exchange is no robbery and I ain’t afeard. ’Twas just this way. He sold me three sacks, ’s I told you, squire, and I was hauling ’em off to stable when ‘Not that one!’ says he sharp. So then I look at t’ one he was so set on keeping, and when his back was turned I hefted it sly-like, and it seemed to me a good bit heavier than t’ others. Then I spied the bit o’ plait about the cord, and thinks I, being no fule, ’tis a mark. And when he went in for a squib o’ cordial wi’ Jerry Stott I shifted t’ mark to another sack and loaded up, and off he goes and he none the wiser, and no harm done. Exchange is no robbery and you can’t do nowt to me for that.” “I don’t know,” said the officer darkly. “Let us see the sack.” “You’re not agoing——” “Do you hear? Jump, unless you want to get into trouble. You show us that sack, and be quick about it, my lad.” Grumbling, but not daring to refuse, the old man led the way into the stables, and there in an empty stall the three sacks stood upright. “Which is the one you filched?” asked the man from Manchester. Reluctantly the ostler pointed it out. “Then you get me a horse-cloth.” “You’re not going—well, a wilful man must have his way. Will that serve you? But if my oats is spilled and spiled——”