human
What have you got there, uncle?
gpt
Pickle, my boy, it's my twenty guineas that we thought they'd stolen. What in the name of forceps and lancets did they tie them up in this old silk rag for? It's a bit of a pocket-handkerchief.
human
Why, uncle, cried Rodd, laughing,
gpt
Game, eh? Queer sort of a game, Pickle, cried Uncle Paul; and with very little effort he tore open the silk envelope and poured out a little heap of bright gold coins upon the bed.
human
Napoleons, by all that's wonderful! he cried.
gpt
Exchange! I begin to see now, boy. He's taken my good gold money, whoever he is, and left this French trash. Here, give me that book. Mind--don't drop my watch.
human
I have got it safe, uncle,
gpt
Humph! grunted Uncle Paul.
human
Not quite such a scoundrel as he might have been, whoever it is that wrote it. Exchange, eh? But there's been no exchange about our clothes. Humph! All in French, of course. If he had been a gentleman, and he couldn't understand plain English, he would have written it in Latin. Bah! How I do hate that pernicketty French! Let's see--let's see. Oh yes, here it all is. Ask pardon for two poor prisoners trying to escape--um, um, um--years of misery. Generous Englishman--some day--_remerciments_. Ah, it's all scribbled horribly-- in the dark, I suppose. Oh, he's signed it, though, Pickle. `Des Saix, Comte.' Oh, there are two of them, then. The other's signed his name too--quite a different hand. `Morny des Saix, Vicomte.' H'm! Well, I suppose they are gentlemen.
gpt
Noblemen, uncle.
human
Bah! Noblemen wouldn't do a thing like that!
gpt
What are those other words, uncle, under the last name?
human
Um--um--um! `May God bless you for what you did to-day. Your friend till death.' Why, Pickle, you ought to have been able to read that yourself.
gpt
I did, uncle, but I wanted to be sure that I was right. Why, that must have been the boy I helped to escape.
human
Yes, and he dodged us home, and as good as robbed us.
gpt
Oh, uncle! Shame!
human
How dare you, sir! What do you mean by it, Rodney? Do you forget who I am, sir?
gpt
No.
human
And pray who am I then, sir?
gpt
Dear old Uncle Paul, who has got out of bed the wrong way this morning!
human
H'm--ha! Well, I suppose you are right, Pickle. I did feel in an awful temper; but I don't feel quite so bad now that I have found my watch.
gpt
And pencil-case, uncle.
human
Ah, yes, my boy. That was the gift of a very grateful old patient.
gpt
And then there are all those gold napoleons, uncle.
human
Bah! Trash! Base counters, good for nothing, like the ugly head that's upon them,
gpt
But I say, uncle; it might have been worse.
human
But the clothes, my boy! The scoundrels! They'll go masquerading about in our things, and escaping, I'll be bound. But stop a minute. What did he say about exchange?
gpt
Oh, that meant about the money.
human
Hullo! There's that wicked old woman again!--Well, Mrs Champernowne, what is it now?
gpt
The wood-shed, sir.
human
Well, I don't want the wood-shed. Light the fire yourself.
gpt
You don't understand me, sir. I went round there to get some kindling, and there's quite a heap of old clothes there that these wicked people have left behind.
human
I say, Pickle, that accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut. They must have taken our things down into the old lady's wood-shed, and turned it into a dressing-room.
gpt
Yes, cried Rodd;
human
Most generous, I am sure, sir, cried Uncle Paul sarcastically,
gpt
Why, you do, uncle, of course. But I say, uncle, I do hope they'll escape; don't you?
human
Wha-a-at!
gpt
You do, uncle, only you pretend that you don't.
human
Pretend!
gpt
Yes. Poor fellows! How horrible! To have to stoop to such a scheme as that to get away! But after all, uncle, it's glorious and brave. What an escape! Oh, how I should like to meet that poor fellow again!
human
What, to give him up to the soldiers?
gpt
Give him up to the soldiers! cried the boy indignantly.
human
Why, I'd sooner put on his old clothes, and tell them a lie!
gpt
What!
human
Well, I'd pretend to be him so as to cheat them, and make them take me instead.
gpt
Humph!