I went to my room;
but instead of washing my hands, I leaned out of the window to
watch a dancing bear which was sidling about in the lane, just
below, while his keeper made a noise on the panpipes. A little
crowd of idlers was gathered round the bear. Some of them were
laughing at the bear, some at his keeper. I saw two boys sneaking
about among the company; they were evil-looking little ruffians,
with that hard look in the eyes which always marks the thoroughly
wicked. As I watched, one of them slipped his hand into a man's
pocket, then withdrew it, passing something swiftly to his
companion, who walked unconcernedly away. I ran out of doors at
once, to the man who had been robbed.
"Sir," I said, when he had drawn away from the little crowd.
"Have you not been robbed of something?"
He turned to look down on me, searching his pockets with both
hands. It gave me a start to see him, for he was the bearded man
who had passed me in the boat that morning. You may be sure that
I took a good note of him. He was a handsome, melancholy-looking
man, with a beard designed to make him look fairer than he really
was.
"Robbed of something?" he repeated in a quiet voice. "Yes, I have
been robbed of something." It seemed to me that he turned pale,
when he found that he had been robbed. "Did you see it?" he
asked. "Don't point. Just describe him to me. No. Don't look
round, boy. Tell me without looking round."
"Sir," I said, "do you see two little boys moving about among the
people there?"
"Yes," he said.
Pages:
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27