human
Hullo, you sir! What are you doing there?
gpt
Getting out my other suit, uncle,
human
What for? Don't do that! We are going over the moor again to-day.
gpt
But I must, uncle,
human
Mush!
gpt
Yes. Oh, I shall be obliged to tell you. It was all your fault, uncle; you didn't fasten the door as Mrs Champernowne told you, and there have been thieves in the night.
human
Been grandmothers in the night!
gpt
It's true, uncle, and they came up into my room while I was asleep and took away all my clothes--boots and all.
human
You don't mean that, Pickle! Here, I say, where are mine?
gpt
Every blessed thing gone, boy. Why, Rodney, my lad, we have fallen into a den of thieves--robbed, and we may thank our stars we haven't been murdered!
human
Why, it's horrid, uncle! Didn't you hear them, then?
gpt
Hear them, no! I heard nothing till you knocked something off on to the floor. Here, stop a moment, boy! My purse! It was in my trousers pocket.
human
Then it's gone, uncle,
gpt
Ah! Horror! My gold watch and seals!
human
Well, they weren't in your trousers, uncle.
gpt
No, boy; I remember winding it up and laying it on the chimney-piece.
human
It isn't there, uncle.
gpt
My gold presentation watch, that I wouldn't have lost for five hundred pounds! Call up that wretched woman.
human
Uncle, I can't!
gpt
Do as I tell you, sir! She's in league with the thieves.
human
But, uncle!
gpt
Oh yes, I forgot. There, don't stand staring there like a bull calf that has lost its mother. Turn that portmanteau upside down. Put on some things yourself, and throw me some more. You can dress quicker than I can, for you haven't got to shave. Look sharp, and then run for the village constable.
human
Why, there isn't one, uncle,
gpt
No, of course there isn't, sir. A miserable one-eyed place with only two cottages in it, and I dare say that old woman's in the other, sharing the plunder? What a fool I was to come!
human
No, you weren't, uncle, and Mrs Champernowne isn't sharing the plunder, for she came and woke me up to say that the thieves had been and carried off everything there was down-stairs. I say, uncle, it was all your fault.
gpt
Don't you dare to say that to me again, sir! roared Uncle Paul.
human
It is insolent and disrespectful. Oh, hang the woman's door! Why didn't she bolt it herself? Why, I'd got twenty guineas in that purse, besides a lot of silver. There, there's somebody knocking at the door! Who's there?
gpt
Please, sir, it's me. They've taken the bread and the butter, and a piece of freshly-boiled ham that I meant for you to have cold.
human
And pray who's _they_, madam?
gpt
Well, sir, I was thinking it must be the smugglers. They've been here several times before, when they have been crossing the moor with cargo; but it couldn't be them, for they always leave a little box of tea or a bit of silk, to pay for what they take. It must have been thieves, sir--thieves.
human
Yes, madam; and they have taken my purse and gold watch too, besides two suits of clothes. There, go on down. We'll join you soon. I want to think what's to be done.