"Yes," said Barnabas absently.
"Though he wouldn't ha' passed as a Grenadier,—not being tall enough, you see."
"No," said Barnabas, his gaze still fixed.
"But as a trap, sir,—as a limb o' the law, he ain't to be ekalled—nowheres nor nohow."
"No," said Barnabas, rising.
"What? are you off, sir—must you march?"
"Yes," said Barnabas, taking up his hat, "yes, I must go."
"'Olborn way, sir?"
"Yes."
"Why then—foller me, sir,—front door takes you into Gray's Inn Lane—by your left turn and 'Olborn lays straight afore you,—this way, sir." But, being come to the front door of the "Gun," Barnabas paused upon the threshold, lost in abstraction again, and staring at nothing in particular while the big Corporal watched him with a growing uneasiness.
"Is it your 'ead, sir?" he inquired suddenly.
"Head?" repeated Barnabas.
"Not troubling you, is it, sir?"
"No,—oh no, thank you," answered Barnabas, and stretched out his hand. "Good-by, Corporal, I'm glad to have met you, and the One and Only was excellent."
"Thankee, sir. I hope as you'll do me and my comrade the honor to try it again—frequent. Good-by, sir." But standing to watch Barnabas as he went, the Corporal shook his head and muttered to himself, for Barnabas walked with a dragging step, and his chin upon his breast.
Holborn was still full of the stir and bustle, the rush and roar of thronging humanity, but now Barnabas was blind and deaf to it all, for wherever he looked he seemed to see the page of Mr. Shrig's little book with its list of carefully written names,—those names beginning with B.—thus:
_________________________________________________________
|Name. |When |Date |Sentence.|Date of |
| |spotted.|of Murder. | |Execution.|
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
|Sir Richard | | | | |
|Brock (Bart.)|April 5 | May 3 | Hanged | May 30 |
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
|Thomas Beal | | | | |
|(Tinker) |March 23| April 15 | Hanged | May 30 |
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
|Ronald | | | | |
|Barrymaine | May 12 | Waiting | Waiting | Waiting |
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
CHAPTER XXXIII
CONCERNING THE DUTY OF FATHERS; MORE ESPECIALLY THE VISCOUNT'S "ROMAN"
It was about two o'clock in the afternoon that Barnabas knocked at the door of the Viscount's chambers in Half-moon Street and was duly admitted by a dignified, albeit somewhat mournful gentleman in blue and silver, who, after a moment of sighing hesitancy, ushered him into a small reception room where sat a bullet-headed man with one eye and a remarkably bristly chin, a sinister looking person who stared very hard with his one eye, and sucked very hard, with much apparent relish and gusto, at the knob of the stick he carried. At sight of this man the mournful gentleman averted his head, and vented a sound which, despite his impressive dignity, greatly resembled a sniff, and, bowing to Barnabas, betook himself upstairs to announce the visitor. Hereupon the one-eyed man having surveyed Barnabas from head to foot with his solitary orb, drew the knob of his stick from his mouth, dried it upon his sleeve, looked at it, gave it a final rub, and spoke.
"Sir," said he in a jovial voice that belied his sinister aspect, "did you 'ear that rainbow sniff?"
"Rainbow?" said Barnabas.
"Well,—wallet, then,—footman—the ornamental cove as jest popped you in 'ere. Makes one 'undred and eleven of 'em!"
"One hundred and eleven what?"
"Sniffs, sir,—s-n-i-double-f-s! I've took the trouble to count 'em, —nothing else to do. I ain't got a word out of 'im yet, an' I've been sittin' 'ere ever since eight o'clock s'mornin'. I'm a conwivial cock, I am,—a sociable cove, yes, sir, a s-o-s-h-able cove as ever wore a pair o' boots. Wot I sez is,—though a bum, why not a sociable bum, and try to make things nice and pleasant, and I does my best, give you my word! But Lord! all my efforts is wasted on that 'ere rainbow—nothing but sniffs!"
"Why then—who—what are you?"
"I'm Perks and Condy, wines and sperrits,—eighty-five pound, eighteen, three—that's me, sir."
"Do you mean that you are—in possession—here?"
