Vell, she lost it; and, somehow
or other, I found it. She vos in great trouble, and a friend o' mine
calls to say she can have the dog agin, but she must pay eight pound for
it. She thinks this dear, and a friend o' her own adwises her to wait,
sayin' better terms will be offered; so I sends vord by my friend that
if she don't come down at once the poor animal's throat vill be cut that
werry night." "Ha!--ha!--ha!" laughed the others. "Vell, she sent four pound, and I put up with it," pursued Ginger; "but
about a month arterwards she loses her favourite agin, and, strange to
say, I finds it. The same game is played over agin, and she comes down
with another four pound. But she takes care this time that I shan't
repeat the trick; for no sooner does she obtain persession of her
favourite than she embarks in the steamer for France, in the hope of
keeping her dog safe there." "Oh! Miss Bailey, unfortinate Miss
Bailey!--Fol-de-riddle-tol-ol-lol--unfortinate Miss Bailey!" sang the
Tinker. "But there's dog-fanciers in France, ain't there?" asked the Sandman. "Lor' bless 'ee, yes," replied Ginger; "there's as many fanciers i'
France as here. Vy, ve drives a smartish trade wi' them through them
foreign steamers. There's scarcely a steamer as leaves the port o'
London but takes out a cargo o' dogs. Ve sells 'em to the stewards,
stokers, and sailors--cheap--and no questins asked. They goes to Ostend,
Antverp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and sometimes to Havre. There's a Mounseer
Coqquilu as comes over to buy dogs, and ve takes 'em to him at a house
near Billinsgit market." "Then you're alvays sure o' a ready market somehow," observed the
Sandman. "Sartin," replied Ginger, "cos the law's so kind to us. Vy, bless you, a
perliceman can't detain us, even if he knows ve've a stolen dog in our
persession, and ve svears it's our own; and yet he'd stop you in a
minnit if he seed you with a suspicious-lookin' bundle under your arm. Now, jist to show you the difference atwixt the two perfessions:--I
steals a dog--walue, maybe, fifty pound, or p'raps more. Even if I'm
catched i' the fact I may get fined twenty pound, or have six months'
imprisonment; vile, if you steals an old fogle, walue three fardens,
you'll get seven years abroad, to a dead certainty." "That seems hard on us," observed the Sandman reflectively. "It's the _law_!" exclaimed Ginger triumphantly. "Now, ve generally
escapes by payin' the fine, 'cos our pals goes and steals more dogs to
raise the money. Ve alvays stands by each other. There's a reg'lar
horganisation among us; so ve can alvays bring vitnesses to svear vot ve
likes, and ve so puzzles the beaks, that the case gets dismissed, and
the constable says, 'Vich party shall I give the dog to, your vorship?' Upon vich, the beak replies, a-shakin' of his vise noddle, 'Give it to
the person in whose persession it was found. I have nuffin' more to do
vith it.' In course the dog is delivered up to us." "The law seems made for dog-fanciers," remarked the Tinker. "Wot d'ye think o' this?" pursued Ginger. "I wos a-standin' at the
corner o' Gray's Inn Lane vith some o' my pals near a coach-stand, ven a
lady passes by vith this here dog--an' a beauty it is, a real long-eared
Charley--a follerin' of her. Vell, the moment I spies it, I unties my
apron, whips up the dog, and covers it up in a trice. Vell, the lady
sees me, an' gives me in charge to a perliceman. But that si'nifies
nuffin'. I brings six vitnesses to svear the dog vos mine, and I
actually had it since it vos a blind little puppy; and, wot's more, I
brings its _mother_, and that settles the pint. So in course I'm
discharged; the dog is given up to me; and the lady goes avay lamentin'. I then plays the amiable, an' offers to sell it her for twenty guineas,
seein' as how she had taken a fancy to it; but she von't bite. So if I
don't sell it next week, I shall send it to Mounseer Coqquilu. The only
vay you can go wrong is to steal a dog wi' a collar on, for if you do,
you may get seven years' transportation for a bit o' leather and a brass
plate vorth a shillin', vile the animal, though vorth a hundred pound,
can't hurt you. There's _law_ again--ha, ha!" "Dog-fancier's law!" laughed the Sandman. "Some of the Fancy is given to cruelty," pursued Ginger, "and crops a
dog's ears, or pulls out his teeth to disguise him; but I'm too fond o'
the animal for that. I may frighten old ladies sometimes, as I told you
afore, but I never seriously hurts their pets. Nor did I ever kill a dog
for his skin, as some on 'em does." "And you're always sure o' gettin' a dog, if you vants it, I s'pose?" inquired the Tinker. "Alvays," replied Ginger. "No man's dog is safe. I don't care how he's
kept, ve're sure to have him at last. Ve feels our vay with the
sarvents, and finds out from them the walley the master or missis sets
on the dog, and soon after that the animal's gone. Vith a bit o' liver,
prepared in my partic'lar vay, I can tame the fiercest dog as ever
barked, take him off his chain, an' bring him arter me at a gallop." "And do respectable parties ever buy dogs knowin' they're stolen?" inquired the Tinker. "Ay, to be sure," replied Ginger; "sometimes first-rate nobs. They put
us up to it themselves; they'll say, 'I've jist left my Lord
So-and-So's, and there I seed a couple o' the finest pointers I ever
clapped eyes on. I vant you to get me _jist sich another couple_.' Vell, ve understands in a minnit, an' in doo time the identicle dogs
finds their vay to our customer." "Oh! that's how it's done?" remarked the Sandman. "Yes, that's the vay," replied Ginger. "Sometimes a party'll vant a
couple o' dogs for the shootin' season; and then ve asks, 'Vich vay are
you a-goin'--into Surrey or Kent?' And accordin' as the answer is given
ve arranges our plans." "Vell, yourn appears a profitable and safe employment, I must say,"
remarked the Sandman. "Perfectly so," replied Ginger. "Nothin' can touch us till dogs is
declared by statute to be property, and stealin' 'em a misdemeanour. And
that won't occur in my time." "Let's hope not," rejoined the other two. "To come back to the pint from vich we started," said the Tinker; "our
gemman's case is not so surprisin' as it at first appears. There are
some persons as believe they never will die--and I myself am of the same
opinion. There's our old deputy here--him as ve calls Old Parr--vy, he
declares he lived in Queen Bess's time, recollects King Charles bein'
beheaded perfectly vell, and remembers the Great Fire o' London, as if
it only occurred yesterday." "Walker!" exclaimed Ginger, putting his finger to his nose. "You may larf, but it's true," replied the Tinker. "I recollect an old
man tellin' me that he knew the deputy sixty years ago, and he looked
jist the same then as now,--neither older nor younger." "Humph!" exclaimed Ginger. "He don't look so old now." "That's the cur'ousest part of it," said the Tinker.