Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/143

 some of the load shifted, and the truck was stopped to set the matter right. The chest was pushed back and the bedding was lifted to put against it, and so the musical-box came to light. Roper picked it up and held it before the Vicar's eyes. "Look at that, sir," he said. "You'll witness I know nothing of it, won't you? It ain't mine an' I never saw it before. It's bin put in for spite, to put a theft on us. When they come for it you'll bear me out sir, won't you? That was the Perrott boy as was put up to do that, I'll be bound. When he was behind the truck."

But nobody came for Dicky's gift, and in the Jago twilight Dicky vainly struggled to whistle the half-remembered tune: and to persuade himself that he was not sorry that the box was gone.