“Him?” said Nicky-Nan bitterly. “Him? as I wouldn’ trust not ha’f so far as a man could fling him by his eyebrows!”

“Well, I’ve got your savin’s—­’Bert an’ me, every bit of it—­stowed an’ put away where they can’t find it, not if they hunted for weeks.  I came upstairs to tell about it, and where we’ve stowed it.  Now be you goin’ to put ’Bert and me to prison for that?”

“My dear”—­Nicky-Nan spread out his hands—­“not if you was a thief an’ had really stole it, I wouldn’.  But behavin’, as you have, like an angel slap out o’ Heaven—­” He staggered up and confronted Mr Pamphlett.  “Here, you clear out o’ this!” he threatened, pointing to the door.  “You’re done, my billies.  Tuck your tails atween your legs an’ march!”

“A moment, if you please,” put in Mr Pamphlett suavely.  “You will allow that, not being accustomed to little girls and not knowing therefore how a pert child should properly be chastised and brought to book, I have been uncommonly patient with this one.  But you are mistaken, the pair of you, in taking this line with me:  and your mistake, though it comes from ignorance of the law, may happen to cost you both pretty dearly.”  He paused, while Nicky-Nan and ’Beida exchanged glances.

“Don’t you heed him,” said ‘Beida encouragingly.  “He’s only gassin’ again.”  But she faced up for a new attack.

“I have reason to believe,” continued Mr Pamphlett, ignoring her and wagging his forefinger at Nicky; “I have evidence going far to convince me that this money of which we are talking is not yours at all:  that you never earned it by your own labour, nor inherited it, nor were left it in any legitimate way.  In other words, you were just lucky enough to find it.”

“What’s that to you?”

“It concerns me to this extent.  By the-common law of England all such money, so discovered, belongs to the Crown:  though I understand it is usually shared equally among the Crown, the finder, and the lord of the manor on which it was hidden.  Therefore by concealing your knowledge of this money you are illegally defrauding His Majesty, and in fact (if you found it anywhere in Polpier) swindling me, who own the manor rights of Trebursey and Trethake, which together cover every square inch of this town.  I bought them from Squire Tresawna these ten years since.  And”—­he turned upon ’Beida—­ “any one who hides, or helps to hide, such money is an accomplice, and may go to prison for it. Now what have you to say?”

But Mr Pamphlett had missed to calculate Nicky-Nan’s recklessness and the strength of old hatred.

“‘Say’?” Nicky shook with passion.  “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.