Sergeant Verity and the Blood Royal by Francis Selwyn Page B

County-Bottled Allsopp, like riflemen to be drilled. He handed Crowe a regulation-issue canteen and took a bottle in his pudgy fist. He tipped a generous pint into Crowe's canteen.

'You'll 'ave another sup, Mr Crowe,' he said encouragingly, 'consequential on the unfortunate affair this afternoon. Makes me feel better about it, being able to stand you chummage now.'
    The night seemed filled by the steady roar of the falls and the cataract. Crowe raised the corner of the metal canteen to his mouth.
'Mr Verity,' he said gently, 'it's forgot.'
    Verity's cheeks filled abruptly with wind as he put his own canteen down. He wiped his moustaches appreciatively on the back of his hand.
    'Now there, Mr Crowe, we 'ave to disagree. I can't forget what I don't understand.'
    Crowe spread out his hands, his high thin face a study in honest bewilderment.
    'Folks can't always be allowed to understand, Mr Verity. Not you, not me. I guess I can't tell you anything you don't know already.'
    'There too, Mr Crowe, we have to disagree. True, you wasn't trying to assassinate the young Prince, after all. I acted in 'aste there, Mr Crowe. But I never saw wrong in New York, did I ? And what I saw was you and that little bunter Jolly setting up the wax-under-the-counter dodge all the way along Broadway. That randy little piece never done the law a good turn, Mr Crowe, only once when a cracksman tanned Miss Jolly's bum for her and she peached on him out of spite.'
    'Did you hear that a jeweller was robbed?' asked Crowe mildly.
    'No, Mr Crowe, I never did. Not hear it for a fact, that is.' 'Then I guess you never saw robbery being put up, did you ?'
    Verity tilted his head back, his thick flushed throat pulsing rhythmically at the descent of half a pint of dark ale. He put down the canteen.
    'And that house you saw her to, Mr Crowe, that was a Magdalen Asylum, was it? You know it never was! Now, Mr Crowe, you and me is going to be working together. It's time I was told something of all this.'
Crowe's lean sun-browned face was a study in innocence.
    'A police refuge,' he said quietly, 'that's what it was. You sure did pick the worst house in the city to burgle, Mr Verity.'
    'But they was expecting someone, Mr Crowe. I was the wrong one. They said so. 'oo might they have been waiting for?'
Crowe shrugged.
'Sure don't know, Mr Verity.'
    'And why was Miss Jolly there, if she hadn't been arrested ?'
    'Safekeeping,' said Crowe equably. 'When a young woman volunteers her services, they like to keep her safe and decent.'
Verity's dark eyes bulged with indignation.
    ' 'er services! Mr Crowe, you got any idea, 'ave you, what her services been in the past ? There's men dead a-cos of her services. She's a right tight little villain, she is! You don't want to listen to 'er nor trust 'er!'
'You really don't take to her at all, do you, Mr Verity?'
    'Mr Crowe, I gotta know what all this is about. We shall have the devil to pay if that little bitch starts trouble here.'
    'What I know,' said Crowe firmly, 'is that I was to meet her from the boat, show her the town a bit, and then deliver her safe to the police house that evening. And I never asked why.'
'There's more to it, Mr Crowe. There got to be.'
    'Then you'd better ask your own people or ours,' said Crowe wearily. 'If I knew the whole story, which I don't, I sure as all hell wouldn't get my ass kicked from here to Washington and back by telling you!'
'Your what, Mr Crowe?'
'My ass,' said Crowe, suddenly becoming self-conscious.
    'Oh!' Comprehension began to dawn in Verity's eyes. 'Cor, 'ere, ain't you got a funny way of saying things in this part of the world? Don't think I shall ever understand the 'alf of it.' He beckoned Crowe's head forward across the table, as though to ensure that they would not be overheard. 'We say arse, Mr Crowe. Ass is a sort of donkey.' He sat back with a brief nod of intellectual authority.
    Crowe stretched out his long thin legs. Then he yawned and got to his feet.
    'An ass is what you