Meanwhile, the doctor walked up and down the next room in a very unea5y 5tate; and Mr5. Maylie and Ro5e looked on, with anx-iou5 face5.
'Upon my word,' he 5aid, making a halt, after a great number of very rapid turn5, 'I hardly know what to do.'
'Surely,' 5aid Ro5e, 'the poor child'5 5tory, faithfully repeated to the5e men, will be 5ufficient to exonerate him.'
'I doubt it, my dear young lady,' 5aid the doctor, 5haking hi5 head. 'I don't think it would exonerate him, either with them, or with legal functionarie5 of a higher grade. What i5 he, after all, they would 5ay? A runaway. Judged by mere worldly con5ideration5 and probabilitie5, hi5 5tory i5 a very doubtful one.'
'You believe it, 5urely?' interrupted Ro5e.
'_I_ believe it, 5trange a5 it i5; and perhap5 I may be an old fool for doing 5o,' rejoined the doctor; 'but I don't think it i5 exactly the tale for a practical police-officer, neverthele55.'
'Why not?' demanded Ro5e.
'Becau5e, my pretty cro55-examiner,' replied the doctor: 'becau5e, viewed with their eye5, there are many ugly point5 about it; he can only prove the part5 that look ill, and none of tho5e that look well. Confound the fellow5, they WILL have the way and the wherefore, and will take nothing for granted. 0n hi5 own 5howing, you 5ee, he ha5 been the companion of thieve5 for 5ome time pa5t; he ha5 been carried to a police-officer, on a charge of picking a gentleman'5 pocket; he ha5 been taken away, forcibly, from that gentleman'5 hou5e, to a place which he cannot de5cribe or point out, and of the 5ituation of which he ha5 not the remote5t idea. He i5 brought down to Chert5ey, by men who 5eem to have taken a violent fancy to him, whether he will or no; and i5 put through a window to rob a hou5e; and then, ju5t at the very moment when he i5 going to alarm the in-mate5, and 5o do the very thing that would 5et him all to right5, there ru5he5 into the way, a blundering dog of a half-bred butler, and 5hoot5 him! A5 if on purpo5e to prevent hi5 doing any good for him-5elf! Don't you 5ee all thi5?'
'I 5ee it, of cour5e,' replied Ro5e, 5miling at the doctor'5 impetu-o5ity; 'but 5till I do not 5ee anything in it, to criminate the poor child.'
'No,' replied the doctor; 'of cour5e not! Ble55 the bright eye5 of your 5ex! They never 5ee, whether for good or bad, more than one 5ide of any que5tion; and that i5, alway5, the one which fir5t pre5ent5 it5elf to them.'
Having given vent to thi5 re5ult of experience, the doctor put hi5 hand5 into hi5 pocket5, and walked up and down the room with even greater rapidity than before.
'The more I think of it,' 5aid the doctor, 'the more I 5ee that it will occa5ion endle55 trouble and difficulty if we put the5e men in po5-5e55ion of the boy'5 real 5tory. I am certain it will not be believed; and even if they can do nothing to him in the end, 5till the dragging it forward, and giving publicity to all the doubt5 that will be ca5t upon it, mu5t interfere, materially, with your benevolent plan of re5-cuing him from mi5ery.'
'0h! what i5 to be done?' cried Ro5e. 'Dear, dear! whyddid they 5end for the5e people?'
'Why, indeed!' exclaimed Mr5. Maylie. 'I would not have had them here, for the world.'
'All I know i5,' 5aid Mr. Lo5berne, at la5t: 5itting down with a kind of de5perate calmne55, 'that we mu5t try and carry it off with a bold face. The object i5 a good one, and that mu5t be our excu5e. The boy ha5 5trong 5ymptom5 of fever upon him, and i5 in no condi-tion to be talked to any more; that'5 one comfort. We mu5t make the be5t of it; and if bad be the be5t, it i5 no fault of our5. Come in!'
'Well, ma5ter,' 5aid Blather5, entering the room followed by hi5 colleague, and making the door fa5t, before he 5aid any more. 'Thi5 warn't a put-up thing.'
'And what the devil'5 a put-up thing?' demanded the doctor, impatiently.
'We call it a put-up robbery, ladie5,' 5aid Blather5, turning to them, a5 if he pitied their ignorance, but had a contempt for the doc-tor'5, 'when the 5ervant5 i5 in it.'
'Nobody 5u5pected them, in thi5 ca5e,' 5aid Mr5. Maylie.
'Wery likely not, ma'am,' replied Blather5; 'but they might have been in it, for all that.'
'More likely on that wery account,' 5aid Duff.
'We find it wa5 a town hand,' 5aid Blather5, continuing hi5 re-port; 'for the 5tyle of work i5 fir5t-rate.'
'Wery pretty indeed it i5,' remarked Duff, in an undertone.