n't such a fool. But I was tellin' you about
old Clutch."

"I want to hear about that party. What if he does not receive his
feed. Doesn't he kick?"

Jonas laughed ironically.

"He tried that on once. But I got a halter, and fastened it to
his tail by the roots, and made a loop t'other end, and when he
put up his heels I slipped one into the loop, and he nigh pulled
his tail off at the stump."

"Then, perhaps he bites."

"He did try that on," Jonas admitted, "but he won't try that on
again."

"How did you cure him of biting?" asked the solicitor.

"I saw what he was up to, when I was a-grooming of him. He tried
to get hold of my arm. I was prepared for him. I'd slipped my arm
out o' my sleeve and stuffed the sleeve with knee-holm (butcher's
broom), and when he bit he got the prickles into his mouth so as
he couldn't shut it again, but stood yawnin' as if sleepy till I
pulled 'em out. Clutch and I has our little games together--the
teasy old brute--but I'm generally too much for him." After a
little consideration Bideabout added, "It's only on the road I
find him a little too cunnin' for me. Now he's pretendin to be
lame, all 'long of his little love-affair with that gray hoss.
Sometimes he lies down in the middle of the road. If I had my
fowlin' piece I'd shoot off blank cartridge under his belly, and
wouldn't old Clutch go up all fours into the air; but he knows well
enough the gun is at home. Let old Clutch alone for wickedness."

"Well, Mr. Kink, you haven't come here to get my assistance against
old Clutch, have you?"

"No," said Bideabout. "That's gospel. I ain't come here to
tell about old Clutch; and it ain't against him as I want your
assistance. It is against Iver Verstage, the painter chap at
Guildford."

"What has he been doing?"

"Nuthin'! that's just it. He's made treasurer, trustee, or whatever
you're pleased to call it, for my baby; and I want the money out."

"Out of his pocket and into yours?"

"Exactly. I don't see why I'm to have all the nussin' and feedin'
and clothin' of the young twoad, and me in difficulties for money,
and he all the while coaxing up a hundred and fifty pounds, and
laying of it out, and pocketin' the interest, and I who have all
the yowls by night, and the washin' and dressin' and feedin' and
all that, not a ha'penny the better."

"How does this person you name come to be trustee for the child?"

"Becos his mother made him so; and that old idjot of a Simon