"Ecod!" quoth he. "I'm minded to try my boots on 'im myself."
"Not you, Mr. Vokes!" said the landlady. "No one ain't a-goin' t' kick
nobody in my kitchen, and no more I don't want no murderin' 'ighwaymen
neither--so out ye go."
"Not us, missus, not us! We be officers--Bow Street officers--wi' a
werry dangerous criminal took red 'anded an' a fifty-pound reward good
as in our pockets--so 'ere we be, an' 'ere we bide till mornin'. Lay
down, you!" Saying which he fetched the wretched captive a buffet that
tumbled him into a corner where he lay, his muddy back supported in
the angle. And lying thus, it chanced that his eye met mine, a bright
eye, very piercing and keen. Now beholding him thus in his
helplessness and misery, I will confess that my very natural and
proper repugnance for him and his past desperate crimes was greatly
modified by pity for his present deplorable situation, the which it
seemed he was quick to notice, for with his keen gaze yet holding
mine, he spoke, albeit mumbling and somewhat indistinct by reason of
his swollen lips:
"Oh, brother, I'm parched wi' thirst--a drink o' water--"
"Stow ye gab!" growled the man Tom. "Gi'e him one for 'is nob, Jimmy."
But as his nearer captor raised his cudgel, I sprang to my feet.
"That'll do!" I cried so imperatively that the fellow stayed his blow
and turned to stare, as did the others. "You've maltreated him
enough," said I, quite beside myself; "if he desires a little water
where's the harm; he will find few enough comforts where he is going?"
And taking up a jug of water that chanced to be near I approached the
poor wretch, but ere I could reach him, the man Tom interposed, yet as
he eyed me over, from rumpled cravat to dusty Hessians, his manner
underwent a subtle change.
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