"
"I will walk round presently," Cyril said, "and gather, as far as I
can, who they are that live there; but, as I have said, I fancy it is
over that wall and into the alley that your goods have departed. The
apprentices' room is this side of the house, is it not?"
"Yes; John Wilkes sleeps in the room next to yours, and the door
opposite to his is that of the lads' room."
"Do the windows of any of the rooms look into that lane?"
"No; it is a blank wall on that side."
"There is the clock striking nine," Cyril said, starting. "It is time
for me to be off. Then you will take the books to-day, Captain Dave?"
"I will carry them off at once, and when I return will look narrowly
into the fastenings of the two windows and door from the warehouse
into the yard; and will take care to do so when the boys are engaged
in the front shop."
When his work was done, Cyril went round to the houses behind the
yard, and he found that they stood in a small court, with three or
four trees growing in the centre, and were evidently inhabited by
respectable citizens. Over the door of one was painted, "Joshua
Heddings, Attorney"; next to him was Gilbert Gushing, who dealt in
jewels, silks, and other precious commodities from the East; next to
him was a doctor, and beyond a dealer in spices. This was enough to
assure him that it was not through such houses as these that the
goods had been carried.
Cyril had not been back at the mid-day meal, for his work that day
lay up by Holborn Bar, where he had two customers whom he attended
with but half an hour's interval between the visits, and on the days
on which he went there he was accustomed to get something to eat at a
tavern hard by.
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