Adventure stories; Boys -- Fiction; East End (London, England) -- Fiction; Grandfathers -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
Captain Nat turned and took the knife from the shelf. "Now see," he went
on. "You've done justice on a murderer, little as you meant it; but
don't you come tryin' to take away the orphan's compensation--not as
much as a penny of it! Don't you touch the compensation, or I'll give
you up! I will that! Just you remember when you're safe. The man lied as
spoke to seein' you that night by the door; an' now he's gone back on
it, an' so you've nothing to fear from him, an' nothing to fear from the
police. Nothing to fear from anybody but me; so you take care, Dan
Ogle!... Come, enough said!"
Captain Nat flung wide the door and pitched the knife into the outer
darkness. "There's your knife; go after it!"
CHAPTER XXII
ON THE COP
When Viney followed the limy man from Musky Mag's door he kept him well
in view as far as the Hole in the Wall, and there waited. But when
Grimes emerged, and Viney took up the chase, he had scarce made
three-quarters of the way through the crooked lanes toward the
Commercial Road, when, in the confusion and the darkness of the
turnings, or in some stray rack of fog, the man of lime went wholly
amissing. Viney hurried forward, doubled, and scoured the turnings about
him. Drawing them blank, he hastened for the main road, and there
consumed well nigh an hour in profitless questing to and fro; and was
fain at last to seek out Blind George, and confess himself beaten.
But Blind George made a better guess. After Viney's departure in the
wake of Grimes, he had stood patiently on guard in the black archway,
and had got his reward. For he heard Musky Mag's feet descend her
stairs; noted her timid pause at the door; and ear-watched her progress
to the street corner. There she paused again, as he judged, to see that
nobody followed; and then hurried out of earshot. He was no such fool as
to attempt to dog a woman with eyes, but contented himself with the
plain inference that she was on her way to see Dan Ogle, and that the
man whom Viney was following had brought news of Dan's whereabouts; and
with that he turned to the Highway and his fiddling. So that when he
learned that the limy man had called at the Hole in the Wall, and had
gone out of Viney's sight on his way east, Blind George was quick to
think of Kemp's Wharf, and to resolve that his next walk abroad should
lead him to the Lea bank.
The upshot of this was that, after some trouble, Dan Ogle and Blind
George met on the Cop, and that Dan consented to a business interview
with Viney. He was confident enough in any dealings with either of them
so long as he cockered in them the belief that he still had the notes.
So he said very little, except that Viney might come and make any
proposal he pleased; hoping for some chance-come expedient whereby he
might screw out a little on account.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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