“Can you listen or are you too disordered by the day’s events?”

“I cannot say,” he answered. “You had better make the tale interesting.”

“Oh, I think this one will not fail on its own merits,” I said, and began to recount to him all that had happened, from my first meeting with Cobb to my most recent encounter with my uncle. During the course of my tale, Elias ceased to eat. Instead he stared, half at me, half at nothing at all.

“Have you ever heard of this Cobb?” I asked when I was finished.

He shook his head slowly. “Never, which I think you’ll agree is remarkable. A man of that sort, with so much money-it seems impossible that I should never have heard of him, for I know everyone who is known.”

“You appear to be too stunned to eat,” I observed. “I admit that my tale is strange, but you’ve heard stranger. What, then, startles you so?”

He pushed the plate away, apparently experiencing an unprecedented loss of appetite. “As you well know, Weaver, I’m not a man who likes to live within his means. That is why the Lord invented credit, so we can use it. And I am, in general, quite good at managing my affairs.”

Discounting those times that I’d been called to rescue him from sponging houses after an arrest for debt, he was generally correct, and I said as much.

“I’ve discovered that, in the past few days, someone has been making a point to purchase my debts. Not all that I owe, mind you, but a good amount. As near as I can tell, some three or four hundred pounds’ worth of arrears has been consolidated into a single hand. I’ve been wondering why, and why this person hasn’t contacted me, but I believe I now understand.”

“Cobb pursues my friends,” I mused. “Why? You could not relieve my burden with him, so your debt will not make the difference. Why should he wish you to owe him?”

Elias seemed now to recall his appetite, and he brought his plate closer. “I don’t know,” he said, giving the meat a stab with his knife, “but I think it might be wise to find out. Sometime before I am arrested, if you please.”

THE MOMENT I TURNED THE CORNER ONTO SWALLOW STREET AND approached Cobb’s house, I found myself surrounded at once by a crowd of some four or five urchins, the very ones I had seen during my previous visit. “I know you,” one of them said. He was not ten years old; his face and hands were covered with soot, and a pasty brown substance I did not care to ponder streaked his young face, making his bright blue eyes seem all the brighter. “You’re that spark what saved Crooked Luke from the fart catcher, ain’t you?”

“I never heard his name, but I did help the child,” I agreed.

“What’s your business with them, then?” he asked, gesturing with his head toward Cobb’s house.

I stopped and studied the young fellow. “What’s yours?” I held up a pair of coppers to sweeten our discourse.

He laughed and snatched the coins from my hand with such speed and dexterity it gave me cause to wonder if I’d ever held them at all. “Oh, I ain’t got much business with that Edgar and his gents. Nah, we just love to give them something to get angry about, on account of Edgar thinking he’s so much above us. He loves to chase us off, he does, and it drives him devilish angry when we break open their place, which is half the reason we do it.”

“And what is the other half?”

He grinned at me, showing a mouth full of the black teeth of an old man. “The other half is for the rhino. They got plenty what’s easy to sell for it.”

“What do you know about Cobb?”

He shrugged. “Not much as I can say. He don’t come out a lot, and when he do, he gets pushed into his coach right quick. We’ve jeered at him like we done with Edgar, but he don’t pay us mind.”

“Do they receive visitors often?”

“Not what I seen.”

“Have you seen anything unusual about them?”

He gave this question some thought. “Only that there’s hardly anyone in there. Big house like that, with two gentlemen and just the one servant, if you can credit it. Other than that, I can’t say much about them. They stay all quiet-like.”

“That will have to do for the moment, then.” I handed him my card. “If you observe anything of note, come find me.”

He looked at the card with the blank curiosity of the most ignorant savage. “What is it?”

“It’s a card,” I said. “It has my name and directions upon it. If you need to find me, ask someone to read it for you.”

He nodded, as though I had explained some ecclesiastical mystery.

With the urchins continuing to watch me from the street, I knocked upon the door, and in a moment Edgar came and looked me over with a critical eye. “I’m surprised it took so long for you to return.”

“Are you, now?” I punctuated my question with my fists. I struck him squarely in the nose, more with finesse than strength, and that organ erupted at once in a fount of blood. The servant fell back against the door, and I stepped forward, launching another blow to his face before he could sink to the ground. This one struck his jaw, and I felt confident I dislodged a tooth or two.

The gathered urchins let out a cheer, so I dragged the footman to the stoop and closed the door behind him. I would let the children make of him what they would. My only concern was that I deal with Cobb while he was free of anyone who might interfere.

I marched into the sitting room and found Cobb, as though prepared for me. I thought it fortunate that Hammond was not present, as he took a much harder position than did his uncle. Indeed, the older man sat placidly, sipping at a glass of wine and wearing his amiable smile. I would have none of it. I drew my blade and put it to his throat. “What do you want?”

He looked at the blade but did not flinch. “You’re the one who’s come bursting into my home,” he pointed out. “Perhaps that is my question for you.”

“Don’t play games with me, sir, or you shall find yourself answering my questions while you stare at the tip of your nose on the floor.”

“I don’t think you want to antagonize me, Mr. Weaver. Not while I’m in a position to hurt you and your friends. As you have surely discovered by now, not only you but some of your associates have become my debtors. I should hate that any or all of you should rot away your lives in debtor’s prison, though I suspect your uncle could resolve his problems should he sell his business and beggar himself, but I am certain he is loath to do that. Yet the fortunate news is that he need not do any such thing. That more salutary outcome is, as you have surely surmised, in your hands.”

“What is it you want of me?”

“Put away the blade, sir,” he said. “It shan’t do you any good. You won’t hurt me while I have so much power of you, and there is no reason why we cannot be friends. I think, when you hear what I have to say, you will find I am not an unreasonable man. I have no doubt that my methods will remain distasteful to you, but things will be far easier than you perhaps imagine.”

He was certainly right that I could not stand all day with a sword to his throat, and I would be loath to harm him when he could do so much damage to my friends. I sheathed the blade, helped myself to a glass of wine, and sat across from Cobb, staring at him contemptuously. “Tell me, then.”

“It is a simple matter, Mr. Weaver. I have a great deal of admiration for you and your abilities, and I wish you to work for me. I went to considerable trouble to ensure that you will do so. I hope you will forgive the masquerade I constructed, but I believed it the best way to secure your services and for you to understand that you dealt with no ordinary man.”

“The trouble of making me your debtor, destroying my uncle’s business, and buying Mr. Gordon’s debts was surely more costly and laborious than simply hiring me. Why did you not offer to pay me for my services?”