DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22217#0020
8
A PEDESTRIAN'S PLOT.
employed in the theatre was a clue of a kind, and with the
promise to give us every help in following it out, he took
leave.
Meantime, Yorky had gone with his plunder no farther than
a lighted stair at the foot of Broughton Street, which had stood
conveniently open when he dashed round the corner of Barony
Street. There he quickly wrenched off the lid, plunged his
hand into the box to empty big handfuls of silver and gold into
his pockets, and found instead only lead. The fact that he
was alone draws a veil over the scene which followed. I have
no doubt that his words flowed rapidly over his immediate dis-
appointment, and his disgust may be inferred from the fact
that he left the box and tokens entire in a corner of the stair.
But a deeper rage was to come. Yorky remembered that the
first information had come from The Gander, and the fact that
we had been in waiting for him, and dummies or tokens substi-
tuted for the money the treasurer had been said to carry, seemed
to the quick-witted Yorky to point to a plot to trap him. If he
could bring that plot home to The Gander he resolved to put
a knife in him. I have stated, however, that Nature had
favoured The Gander with a look of dense stupidity, and,
though Yorky took the first opportunity of seeking his society,
and suspiciously sounding him on the subject, he made nothing
of it. Bob Slogger he could not get at, for he was already in
our hands for a separate offence.
The suspicious manner and queer questions of Yorky
alarmed The Gander quite as much as the failure of his plot
disappointed him.
" If I don't have him laid by the heels soon he'll shove a
knife into me," was his acute thought, which shows how sharp-
witted folks can read each other through every fence of face
and words.
I took Yorky on the Monday, and we kept him for a day or
two on suspicion, but, as the street had been dark and we had
but a momentary glimpse of him, he had to be let off for want
of evidence. Meantime, The Gander's wits had been at work
on a plot which, I must confess, was quite worthy of the
object.
When Yorky was set at liberty he was greeted by The Gander,
who, with many demonstrations of satisfaction, and to celebrate
the occasion, proposed that they should adjourn to Yorky's
den in the Canongate and there consume a bottle of brandy at
The Gander's expense. No proposal could have been more
A PEDESTRIAN'S PLOT.
employed in the theatre was a clue of a kind, and with the
promise to give us every help in following it out, he took
leave.
Meantime, Yorky had gone with his plunder no farther than
a lighted stair at the foot of Broughton Street, which had stood
conveniently open when he dashed round the corner of Barony
Street. There he quickly wrenched off the lid, plunged his
hand into the box to empty big handfuls of silver and gold into
his pockets, and found instead only lead. The fact that he
was alone draws a veil over the scene which followed. I have
no doubt that his words flowed rapidly over his immediate dis-
appointment, and his disgust may be inferred from the fact
that he left the box and tokens entire in a corner of the stair.
But a deeper rage was to come. Yorky remembered that the
first information had come from The Gander, and the fact that
we had been in waiting for him, and dummies or tokens substi-
tuted for the money the treasurer had been said to carry, seemed
to the quick-witted Yorky to point to a plot to trap him. If he
could bring that plot home to The Gander he resolved to put
a knife in him. I have stated, however, that Nature had
favoured The Gander with a look of dense stupidity, and,
though Yorky took the first opportunity of seeking his society,
and suspiciously sounding him on the subject, he made nothing
of it. Bob Slogger he could not get at, for he was already in
our hands for a separate offence.
The suspicious manner and queer questions of Yorky
alarmed The Gander quite as much as the failure of his plot
disappointed him.
" If I don't have him laid by the heels soon he'll shove a
knife into me," was his acute thought, which shows how sharp-
witted folks can read each other through every fence of face
and words.
I took Yorky on the Monday, and we kept him for a day or
two on suspicion, but, as the street had been dark and we had
but a momentary glimpse of him, he had to be let off for want
of evidence. Meantime, The Gander's wits had been at work
on a plot which, I must confess, was quite worthy of the
object.
When Yorky was set at liberty he was greeted by The Gander,
who, with many demonstrations of satisfaction, and to celebrate
the occasion, proposed that they should adjourn to Yorky's
den in the Canongate and there consume a bottle of brandy at
The Gander's expense. No proposal could have been more