“I’m in no very good position myself, but whatever I can spare you are welcome to.”
“Blessed if I didn’t say so. I know’d it――vot yer can do you vill do.”
“Yes, here’s a quid for your immediate wants. It’s all I can spare now, for I must tell you I’ve cut the old game――don’t intend to have any more of it.”
“Oh, goin’ to do the respectable, eh?” said Cooney, with a very low whistle. “That’s yer game, is it?”
“Yes, I am at work now at my old business, and to that I intend to stick. No more night work for me――it’s a deal too risky.”
“Vell, perhaps you are right. But I say, old boy, can you spare another quid?”
“Yes, provided you leave the town and don’t bother me any more.”
“Oh, ye’ve no call to be afeard. I aint a-goin’ to stay in this here place――not if I know it.”
“Thanks――you’re a good fellow Charlie, arter all, but I ’spose yer’ll be glad to get shut o’ me――eh? Here the speaker winked his eye.
“Well, you see we are on a different lay now.”
“Right yer are, old man. Vell, there, I aint a-goin’ to bother yer; so make yer mind easy on that score, but the old un, Charlie, it’s duced hard lines wi’ him.”
“Ah, he’s charged with murder――is he not?”
“I’ll tell yer. Yer see, the Badger, some years ago, cracked a crib in the country, and, as ill luck would ha’ it, jest as he vos a-making off with the swag who should cross his path but the blessed old fool hisself. He’d up an’ give him one for hisself. A young man as vos a-keeping company vith the servant rushes forward and ketches ’old o’ Gregson. Vell, there the two vere struggling like anythink on the grass plat, and Gregson couldn’t get away not no how, although he tried his utmost.”
“No, I’m blessed if he could――leastways, that’s what I’ve heerd. Vell, vot does the Badger do but he whips out his knife, and stabs t’other chap to the heart? Then the gal comes at him, and clutches hold of his throat. He managed to shake her off, but you see he left a something behind――the handkercher he wore round his neck and the knife.”
“What has that to do with the affair at Oakfield House?”
“Ah! it’s a deal to do wi’ it――it has. You shall hear. The last part on it is like a play――better nor any play, that’s what it is. Yer see, as I said afore, the Badger gets clean away, a reward is offered by Guv’nment, likewise a reward by the old bloke――him as was robbed and knocked down in the passage. The bobbies set to work, the whole biling on ’em, but they never got the blind side of the old un. Vell, this is six year ago――aye, more than six year it is now, and a durin’ them six years the gal has had but one thought――this was to ketch the murderer of her love, and she’s a done it, Charlie――there aint no mistake about that ’ere――she done it. The Badger, like a fool, fired a pistol at random when he were in that bedroom. The gal sees his face by the pistol’s flash, and she shoots him down――that’s what she does.”