The Flower of the Flock, Volume 2 (of 3)Egan, Pierce
General
The Flower of the Flock, Volume 2 (of 3)
Egan, Pierce
Fiction
“That’s here,” cried Chewkle, slapping his pocket, “and the money’s here
to bring fifty actions again’ them who has been calling me hard names
an’ slandering my character, Jukes. I’ll serve every man on ’em with a
writ, Jukes. And them as can pay, I’ll foller up; an’ them as is straw.
I’ll screw some costs out on--eh, Jukes. There, d’ye see that!”
As he concluded, he produced a fifty pound note, given to him by
Grahame.
“There’s lots more where that came from,” he cried, “and I’ll work up
that mine until I’ve got a pretty trifle out on it.”
Jukes looked at the note with the eyes of a vulture, and bent towards
Chewkle with the manner of a spaniel. He adored money, and reverenced
those who possessed it. Being himself a myrmidon of the law, one of its
harshest and most brutal, he feared its operation, because he only too
well knew its power. He had been suffering his tongue to wag very freely
in defamation of Chewkle, and the mention of an action made him sweat
with nervous apprehension. He wrung Chewkle’s hand, as though he would
twist it from the wrist.
“I am glad of this, old boy,” he said; “I’m precious glad o’ this, old
Chewk; I’ve had a precious fight for you, old boy; I said you’d come
back to shame ’em all.”
“And here I am,” said Chewkle, with the sternness of assumed innocence.
“I’ll serve ’em out, you’ll see. But come, Jukes, I want this flimsy
changed, and I want you to take it for me to the old gal in Threadneedle
Street.”
“Ha! ha!” laughed Jukes, looking blank, and by no means fascinated with
the proposition, “ha! ha! its all re’glar, I s’pose, ha! ha! I say its
all right and square, old Chewk, eh?”
“You ain’t one of ’em who ’s been speaking agin’ me behind my back, eh?”
asked Chewkle in a very significant tone. Mr. Jukes laughed vacantly,
and suggested that such a notion was utterly preposterous.
“Well,” said Chewkle, “then look there,” pointing as he spoke to a name
written on the back of the note; “you see that name, ‘Grahame Regent’s
Park,’ don’t you? now you can put the name and address of Chewkle on it,
that will do, won’t it?”
Mr. Jukes did not think, he said, that half of that was necessary; the
word of “old Chewk” was all he required; and he took the note, leaving
Chewkle to await his return.
He returned with the money, and Chewkle, in pursuance of a plan he had
formed, took some of his best clothes out of pledge, got shaved and
scoured, for it required that labour to get his flesh cleaned; had his
hair cut and brushed, his whiskers trimmed, and really came out quite
smart, and looking very much, as of old--like an individual engaged in
the recovery of small debts.
Making a variety of promises, largely interlarded with boasts to Juke,
not one of which he intended to redeem, he made his way to his friend
Scorper, a lawyer’s clerk, and, having secured his services, proceeded
to face his creditors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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