A Very Unusual Pursuit (28 page)

‘I’ll take you straight to him for twopence ha’penny,’ Jem offered. And as she rolled her eyes in disgust, he argued his case. ‘Mr Bunce don’t care to go bogling no more. He changed lodgings a while back, on account of it. Where he is now, there’s no one knows what he used to do, and no one to plague him as a consequence. But he’ll listen to you, I’ll be bound.’

‘Why?’ asked Mabel. ‘Why am I so different?’

‘You ain’t,’ said Jem. ‘You got a kid gone, same as all the others. That’s why he’ll listen.’ Seeing her confusion, he tried to explain. ‘Bogles eat children. Mr Bunce don’t like that. He don’t like using kids as bait, neither, which is why he stopped bogling. There’s a boy lodging with him now – a mudlark called Ned – who’d be a deal happier bogling than scavenging on the riverbank. Mr Bunce won’t oblige him, though. Thinks bogling’s too dangerous.’ Jem paused, then took a deep breath. ‘But what if someone should come along, a-weeping and a-wailing, asking for help?’ he concluded. ‘Mr Bunce ain’t got it in him to turn ’em down. That’s why he changed his lodgings.’

Mabel nodded slowly. She seemed to understand. ‘Where does he live now?’

‘Near enough,’ Jem replied, ‘if we take a ‘bus there.’

Mabel’s lip curled. She raised one finely plucked eyebrow. ‘Oh-ho!’ she exclaimed. ‘So it’s the omnibus fare you’re after now, is it?’

Again Jem shrugged. ‘Unless you want to walk to the Strand,’ he said.

‘Mr Bunce lives near the Strand?’

‘Off Drury Lane. But that’s all I’ll tell you.’ Gazing up at Mabel from beneath his cap, Jem held out one dirty palm. ‘Twopence ha’penny,’ he repeated. ‘You’ll be needing me there to soften him up, like.’

Mabel sniffed. Then she grunted. Then she glanced up at the sky, which was low and grey and as wet as a sponge.

‘We’ll take a ’bus,’ she remarked, before turning to Jem with a crooked smile. ‘By the by, how old are you?’

‘Eleven.’

‘And already you’re bargaining like a Billingsgate fishmonger!’ There was a touch of admiration in Mabel’s tone. ‘I’ll give you a ha’penny up front,’ she said. ‘The rest you’ll get when we reach his crib.’

‘Done.’

‘And if this here is a caper, my lad, I’ll give you such a hiding – never mind what I tell the police when I’m done!’

She scowled at Jem, who beamed back.

He felt that they understood each other.