"I don't see why you should be," I said. "The ungrateful young cad! If
it hadn't been for you he might have been killed."
Jack smiled. "He doesn't think so himself," he said. "He told me I'd
no business to interfere between him and his `gal,' as he politely
styles his mother. Poor little beggar! I dare say he'll catch it all
the worse now. Hullo! I say!" exclaimed Jack, feeling in his pockets.
"I'm positive I had a shilling and two pennies in my pocket yesterday
evening. I must have been robbed in that court!"
The money had evidently gone, and what was more, I made the pleasant
discovery that a sixpence which I had in my pocket, as well as my
penknife, were both missing!
Jack and I looked at one another.
"The young thief!" I exclaimed.
"Perhaps it was done in the court," said Jack. "There was an awful
crowd, you know."
"All very well," I replied; "but, as it happens, I had my knife out
before I went to bed, to cut one of my bootlaces, and when I put it back
in my pocket I distinctly remember feeling the sixpence there. No; our
young hopeful's done this bit of business."
"I'm awfully sorry, Fred," said Jack; "it was my fault bringing him
here."
We went down to breakfast in a somewhat perturbed state of mind. Here
we found the assembled company in a state of great excitement. Mr
Horncastle, who occupied a bed in the next dormitory to that where Jack
and I slept, had missed his collar-stud, which he described as "red
coral," and complaining thereof to Mrs Nash, had been told by that lady
that Smith and Batchelor had brought a young pickpocket into the house
with them last night, and that being so, she was only surprised Mr
Horncastle had not lost all the jewellery he possessed. Whereat, of
course, Mr Horncastle was in a mighty state of wrath, and quite ready
for poor Jack and me when we appeared.
"Oh, here you are. Perhaps you'll hand me out half a sov., you two."
"What for?" demanded I.
"Never you mind, but you'd better look sharp, or I'll give you in
charge!" said Horncastle, pompously.
"You're funny this morning," said I, utterly at a loss to guess what he
was driving at.
"So will you be funny when you get transported for stealing!"
"What do you mean?" asked Smith, solemnly.
"Mean; why, I mean my collar-stud."
A general laugh interrupted the speaker at this point, which did not
tend to improve his spirits.
"What's your collar-stud to do with me, or Batchelor?" demanded Smith,
who evidently saw nothing to laugh at.
"Why, you've stolen it!" shouted Horncastle.
Smith gazed solemnly at the speaker.
"You're a fool," he said, quietly.
This cool remark drove the irate Horncastle nearly frantic. He advanced
up to Smith with a face as red as the collar-stud he had lost, and
cried, "Say that again, and I'll knock you down."
"You're a fool," quietly repeated Jack.
Horncastle didn't knock him down, or attempt to do so. He turned on his
heel and said, "We'll see if we're to be robbed by shop-boy cads, or any
of your young thieving friends. I'll complain to the police, and let
them know you know all about it, you two."
"I don't know anything about it," said I, feeling it incumbent on me to
make a remark, "except that I don't think a red bone collar-stud costs
ten shillings." This occasioned another laugh at the expense of Mr
Horncastle, who retorted, "You're a companion of thieves and
blackguards, that's what you are. I'll have you kicked out of the
house."
And as if to suit the action to the word, he advanced towards me and
aimed a vehement kick at my person.
I had just time to dodge the blow, but as I did so something knocked
against my hand. Fancy my astonishment when, stooping to pick it up, I
found that it was the missing red bone collar-stud, which had dropped
into the leg of its stately owner's trousers, and which this kick had
unearthed from its hiding-place!
The laugh was now all against the discomfited Horncastle. Even those
who had at first been disposed to side with him against Jack and me
could not resist the merriment which this revelation occasioned,
particularly when the stud, which Horncastle at once identified, was
discovered to be an ordinary painted bone article, with a good deal of
the red worn off, of the kind usually sold in the streets for a penny.
Jack and I had at least the relief of feeling that so far we ourselves
were the only sufferers by our hospitality to our little ragamuffin
acquaintance.
But more was to come of this adventure, as the reader will see.