But Mr Pamphlett had missed to calculate Nicky-Nan"s recklessness and the strength of old hatred.
""Say"?" Nicky shook with pa.s.sion. "I say you"re tellin" up a parcel o" lies you can"t prove. Do _I_ step into _your_ dam Bank an"
ask where you picked up the coin?--No? Well then, get out o" this an" take your Policeman with "ee. Fend off, I say!" he snapped, as Rat-it-all touched him by the arm.
"No offence, Mr Nanjivell," said the Policeman coaxingly.
"But merely as between naybours, if I might advise. Mr Pamphlett is a very powerful gentleman: or, as I might put it better, he has influence, unknown to you or me, an" knowledge--"
"He"s a very powerful skunk."
""Beida! . . . "Beida!" called a voice from the foot of the stairs.
"Beida, after a start of joy, answered with the Penhaligon war-whoop, as her brother came charging up.
"Have you told him?" burst in young "Bert, and drew back at gaze, a foot within the threshold.
"Yes, I"ve told him," answered "Beida. "No, you needn" stare so,"
she went on hurriedly, catching him on the edge of confusion.
"It"ll be all right if you just answer up an" tell the truth. . . .
When we was movin" this afternoon, you an" me took Mr Nanjivell"s savin"s away, the last thing--didn" we?"
"Then what have you done with them?" thundered Mr Pamphlett.
"Don"t you answer him that," said "Beida sweetly. "But answer everything else. An" don"t you be afraid of him. _I_ ben"t."
"What d"ee want me to tell?" asked "Bert, a trifle uneasily.
"Everything: "cept you may leave out "Biades. He"s but a child o"
four, an" don"t count."
"Well," said "Bert, addressing Mr Pamphlett--and his face, though pale, was dogged--"if "Beida"s willin", I"d as lief get it off my mind. . . . The first thing, sir, was P"liceman Rat-it-all"s comin"
to me, Tuesday evenin": an" he said to me, "What be you doin" to occupy yourself as a Boy Scout, now that this here coast-watchin"s off?"--"
"I didn" say "off,"" interrupted Rat-it-all. "I didn" use no such low and incorrect expression. My words was "Now that this here coast-watchin" has come to a ontimely end.""
"I dessay that _was_ the way you put it," "Bert admitted. "When you starts talkin" Lun"on, all I can follow is the sense--an" lucky if that."
"Bodmin," corrected Rat-it-all modestly. "I don"t pretend to no more than the Provinces as yet: though Lord knows where I may end."
"Get on with the story, boy," Mr Pamphlett commanded.
"Well, sir, I owned to him that I was left pretty well at a loose end, with nothin" on hand but to think out how to do a Kind Action every day, as is laid down in the Scout Rules: and it may come easy enough to _you_, sir," added "Bert with unconscious irony, "but _I_ got no invention. An" his manner bein" so friendly, I told him as how I was breakin" my heart for a job. "Would "ee like to catch a Spy--a real German one?" says he. "Get along with "ee, pullin" my leg!" says I. "I ben"t pullin" your leg," says he. "I be offerin"
what may turn out to be the chance o" your life, if you"re a smart chap an" want promotion." "What is it?" said I. "Well, I mention no names," said he, "but you live in the same house with Nicholas Nanjivell." "We"re turnin" out this week," said I. "All the more reason why you should look slippy an" get to work at once," says he.
Then I told him, sir," went on "Bert, gathering confidence from the sound of his own voice, "that I was fair sick o" plannin" to do Kind Actions, which was no business of anybody"s in War time, and a bad let-down after coast-watchin". "But," said I,"--here he turned upon Nicky-Nan--""if "tis a Kind Action for Mr Nanjivell, I"d as lief do it upon him as upon anybody: for you might almost call him one o" the family," I said. "Kind Action?" says he. "I don"t want you to do him no kinder action than to catch him out for a German spy. I name no names," says he, "but from information received, he"s in the Germans" pay, an" Mrs Polsue is ready to swear to it.""
Nicky-Nan gripped his walking-staff and stood erect, as if to spring on Mr Pamphlett. But of a sudden the enormity of the charge seemed to overcome him, and he pa.s.sed a hand over his eyes.
"That"s the second time," he muttered. "An" me, that--G.o.d help me!-- scarce bothered myself about its bein" a War at all: bein" otherwise worried, as you"d know, sir." His straight appeal to his inveterate enemy had a dignity more convincing than any violent repudiation.
But Mr Pamphlett waved it aside.
"Let the boy tell his story. . . . Well, boy, and what was your answer to the constable?"
"I told him," said "Bert stolidly, "to get along for a silly fat-head. Didn"t I, now?" "Bert appealed to the recipient of that compliment to confirm its textual accuracy.
"He did so," corroborated Rat-it-all. "He is right to that extent.
Which it gave me such a poor opinion of the whole Boy Scout movement that I"ve treated it thenceforth as dirt beneath my feet. There was a time when I thought pretty tolerably of Baden-Powell. But when it comes to fat-heads--"
"But you see, sir," "Bert went on, "this put me in mind that I"d seen Rat-it-all for two days past behavin" very silly behind walls an"
fuzz-bushes, an" "most always in the wake o" Nicky-Nan--of Mr Nanjivell, I mean: which I"d set it down that it was a game between "em, an" Mr Nanjivell just lendin" himself for practice, havin" time on his hands. First along I"d a mind to join in an" read the man one or two Practical Hints out o" the sixpenny book; for worse shadowin"
you couldn" see. But when it turned out he was doin" it in earnest against Mr Nanjivell I allowed as I"d give him a taste o" the real article, which is what they call "Scoutin" for Scouts" in the Advanced Course; whereby he called on Mr Gilbert here, yesterday afternoon; an" Mr Gilbert"s back parlour window bein" open because o"
the hot weather, and me bein" behind the water-b.u.t.t at the corner--"
"You tarnation imp!" exclaimed the builder.
"Which," continued "Bert stolidly, "he was askin" if he reckoned by chance th" Old Doctor"s House had any secret hidin" places, an" would he oblige the landlord Mr Pamphlett by comin" along to-morrow an"
bringin" a hammer? Which I went straight home an" borryed mother"s, an"--an"--"
"An" you"ve told quite enough," put in "Beida. "By no means,"
objected Mr Pamphlett. "What have you children done with the money?"
"Oh," said "Beida wearily, "we"re back on the old question, are we?"
But here Nicky-Nan broke in. "Mr Pamphlett," he said, "you tell that, as landlord, you"ve a right to walk in an" see to the repairs.
Very well. I don"t know the law: but I doubt if the law, when I look it up, "ll say that the said landlord has power to bring along a Bobby and a Speckilative Builder. It _may_ be so, o" course.
Any way, you"ve taken it so, an" walked in; an" the next thing you"ll do is Walk Out." He pointed with his staff to the door. "_Me_--a German spy! Forth the three of "ee!"
Mr Pamphlett saw no way but to comply. "You will hear more of this, Nanjivell," he threatened, turning about in the doorway.
"Gas, again!" said "Beida. Nicky-Nan stood silent, pointing.
The retreat was not dignified.
"But, o" course," said "Beida, "the bottom of it all was "Biades."
""Biades?"
"He"d caught up with some chatter about your bein" a spy. Oh, bless your soul, _everybody"s_ talkin" about it!" she a.s.sured Nicky-Nan cheerfully. "But little pitchers have the longest ears; an" mother an" me bein" so busy with the packin", he got ahead of us. He"s a clivver child, too, but"--"Beida shook her head--"I"m harried in mind about "en. Quite in a tricksy way he wormed it out o" mother what a spy was, an" how the way to go to work was to s"arch his cupboards; an" then quick as snuff he started "pon yours, not sayin" a word to anybody. Pretty clivver for four years" old--an" what"s clivverer, he found the money too!"
"d.a.m.n the young viper! . . . No, I asks your pardon. Bless his tender heart, I s"pose I ought to say, seein" as how providential--"
"You can put it which way you like. I dessay G.o.d A"mighty has the right an" wrong of it clear; an" "Bert an" I allowed we"d leave "Biades to a Higher Power after we"d made him sensible, on the seat of his breeches, of the way his conduc" appealed to us. For I take shame to own it, Mr Nanjivell, but at sight o" that boundless gold Satan whispered in the poor mite"s ear, an" he started priggin".
. . . The way we found it out was, he came home from Mrs Pengelly"s stinkin" o" peppermints: an" when we nosed him an" asked how he came to be favoured so, all he could say on the ground hop was that he"d met a shinin" Angel unexpected in Cobb"s Ally: an" the Angel had stopped him and pulled out a purse an" said, "Alcibiades Penhaligon, the Lord has been much interested of late in your goin"s-out an" your comin"s-in, an" what a good boy you"ve a-been. Here is 2d. for you in gold o" the purest water. Go thou an" carry it to Our good friend Missis Pengelly, who will doubtless reckernise and exchange it in peppermint cushions." Which was too thin. So we were forced to beat him till the truth came out. An" then he brought us here, an" showed what he"d a-found: an" with the furnitcher movin" an" mother so busy, "Bert and I managed the rest. We weren"t goin" to let that Pamphlett s.n.a.t.c.h it. If you"ll come around by Aun" Bunney"s back-garden into Mother"s kitchen you shall count it out, every penny."
""Bert," said Nicky-Nan after a pause, "you"ve done a Kind Action this day, if you never do another."
"But the clivverness started with "Biades," insisted "Beida. "I hope you"ll bear that in mind, though I say nothing against the child"s sinfulness."
"You"re the best friends, all three, I ever met in this world," said Nicky-Nan gratefully.