Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/194

 "'I'll have a try, oh, bereaved one,' answered sly dog, a-rubbin' his fat hands with invisible soap, a habit he was very fond of practisin' and a habit wot always sets my teeth on edge, soap bein' to my mind such an unnecessary sort o' institootion.

"So my old friend unlocks his treasure chest and forks out a regular king's ransom, which he gives to the sly priest to buy crackers with just to persuade the gods to change their minds. And I tells you that if old sly dog had really spent all that money in crackers, why, Gunpowder Plot wouldn't have been in it. Anyhow, the priest left us with the money, and we spent the next few days a-climbin' over that inconvenience whenever we ventured to go out or in doors. You must understand also that coffins out in China ain't the neat sort of contrivance like we've got here. Oh, Lord love you, no, for of all the great cumbersome family coaches I ever seed in the coffin line, them Chinese ones took the cake.

"Well, in a few days back comes the sly dog lookin' more prosperous than ever. It was very plain to me that he'd been havin' a good time with that money, and if he had spent five minutes in prayers to his gods I should be very much surprised. Well, he tells my old friend the merchant as how we had to turn out of the house for that night, because the gods had promised to visit him that night if he stayed all alone along of the coffin, and they would then say whether it was possible