joined us, and you vere a funked then, and stayed vithout the crib; to keep vatch vhile ve vent in."
"Well, well," cried Ned, "what the devil has all this rigmarole got to do with Paul?"
"Now don't be glimflashey, but let me go on smack right about. Vel, ven ve came out, you minds as ow the voman had a bundle in her arms, and you spake to her; and she answered you roughly, and left us all, and vent straight home; and ve vent and fenced the swag[1] that wery night, and afterwards napped the regulars.[2] And sure you made us laugh artily, Meester Pepper, vhen you said, says you, 'That 'ere voman is a rum blowen!' So she vas, Meester Pepper!"
"Oh spare me," said Ned affectedly, "and make haste; you keep me all in the dark. By the way, I remember that you joked me about the bundle; and when I asked what the woman had wrapped in it, you swore it was a child. Rather more likely that the girl, whoever she was, would have left a child behind her, than carried one off!" The face of Dummie waxed big with conscious importance.
