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And if ever you want a man at your back I'm your man, and v'en not me there's my pal Dick, ain't there, Di " Mr. Shrig stopped suddenly and stood with his head to one side as one that listens. And thus, upon the stillness came the sound of one who strode along the narrow passage-way outside, whistling as he went. "'Sally in our Alley, I think?" said Mr. Shrig. "Yes," said Barnabas, wondering.
Here, pausing in a quiet corner of Fleet Market, Mr. Shrig dived into his breast and fetched up his little book. "Sir," said he, turning over its pages with a questing finger, "v'en I borreyed that theer letter out o' young B.'s pocket, I made so free as to take a copy of it into my little reader, 'ere it is, jest take a peep at it."
Almost t'ou has t'e scientific mind t'at reasons and remembers. I said, I am physiologist. I study v'at Nature is, v'at she means to do. V'en Nature Gott, if you vant a shorter name makes a mistake, Gott says: 'Poor material; spoiled in shaping, wrong in t'e vorks; all failures; t'row t'em avay. Ve haf plenty more to go on vit'. You know. You study Nature, also, a little.
So, v'en the Corp tipped me the vord, sir, I put my castor on my sconce, slipped a barker in my cly, took my stick in my fib or as you might say 'daddle, d' ye see, and toddled over to keep a ogle on you. And, sir, if it hadn't been for the young gent as shadowed ye all the way to Giles's Rents, it's my opinion as they'd ha' done you into a corp as you come along."
Conseqvently, p'r'aps you ain't forgot certain other coves as you and me had a bit of a turn-up vith v'en I sez to you 'Run, and you sez to me 'No, and got a lump on your sconce like an 'ard-biled egg according?" "Yes, I remember of course, but why " "Sir, they 're all on 'em out on the windictive lay again to-night, only, this time, it's you they 're arter." "Me are you sure?" "And sartin!
"First, sir, because they're a-vaiting for you at t'other end o' the alley, and second, because v'en they see us go this vay they'll think they've got us sure and sartin, and follow according, and third, because at a certain place along by the River I've left Corporal Dick and four o' my specials, d'ye see. S-sh! Qviet now! Oblige me with your castor your 'at, sir."
Lord, I'm a vatchin' over 'em like a feyther an' mother rolled into vun, an' v'en they do commit the deed, I shall appre'end 'em red-'anded an' up they'll go." "Your methods are highly original, Mr. Shrig," said I, "but do they always work correctly?" "Ever an' always, sir barrin' accidents.
"So you turned honest and married her?" said Barnabas, as Mr. Shrig paused. "No, sir, I turned honest and she married a coal-v'ipper, v'ich, though it did come a bit 'ard on me at first, vos all for the best in the end, for she deweloped a chaffer, as you might say, a tongue, d' ye see, sir, and I'm vun as is fond of a quiet life, v'en I can get it.
"Vell no, sir that's hardly to be expected, ye see, some on 'em wanishes away, an' some goes an' dies, but they mostly turns out true capitals if I only vaits for 'em long enough, and up they goes." "And are you always on the lookout for such faces?" "Yes, sir, v'en I ain't busy on some case. A man must 'ave some little relaxation, and that's mine.
So, ven they come running back, d' ye see, theer's you vith your stick, an' me vith my barker, an' so ve 'ave 'em front and rear." "But can we stop them all?" "Ah!" nodded Mr. Shrig, "all as the Corp 'as left of 'em. Ye see they know me, most on 'em, and likevise they knows as v'en I pull a barker from my cly that theer barker don't miss fire.
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