Bunfit, I'm not saying as I've got the truth beyond this, that
Benjamin and his two men were clean done at Carlisle, that Lord George and
his lady brought the jewels up to town between 'em, and that the party who
didn't get 'em at Carlisle tried their hand again, and did get 'em in
Hertford Street." In all of which the ingenious Gager would have been
right if he could have kept his mind clear from the alluring conviction
that a lord had been the chief of the thieves.
"We shall never make a case of it now," said Bunfit despondently.
"I mean to try it on all the same. There's Smiler about town as bold as
brass, and dressed to the nines. He had the cheek to tell me as he was
going down to the Newmarket Spring to look after a horse he's got a share
in."
"I was talking to Billy only yesterday," added Bunfit. "I've got it on my
mind that they didn't treat Billy quite on the square. He didn't let on
anything about Benjamin; but he told me out plain, as how he was very much
disgusted. 'Mr. Bunfit,' said he, 'there's that roguery about, that a
plain man like me can't touch it. There's them as'd pick my eyes out while
I was sleeping, and then swear it against my very self,' Them were his
words, and I knew as how Benjamin hadn't been on the square with him.
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