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"You&039;re takin&039; this caledy for Constance and for the reverend What&039;s he gotten himself intoi"

Matthew took one more taste and put down his spoon "I&039;ll take care of the situation froo back to work When you see Constance, tell her there&039;s to be no mention of this to her father Not yet Do you understandi"

"No"

"Listen to h force in his voice to crush all resistance "It&039;s vital that Reverend Wade does not know Constance followed hi this in his face before" He trailed off

"Before what, Matthewi"

"Before I have all the pieces But I intend to get them, you can be sure of that Now promise me there&039;ll be no word to the reverend I mean it"

John hesitated, his expression torrasped the table&039;s edge as if fearing to be flung off the world "I trust you," he said quietly "Thought you were crazed in the head ht No word to the reverend"

"Go back to work One ht, no ain or not"

John Five nodded He stood up, and Matthew could see how much his friend loved Constance Wade in the abject pain of his eyes and the slu-anything-to help his love, but in this case the strength that drove a haless "Thank you," he said, and he left the Trot at a stuo and then finished his soup He called for another ulars were playing a game of chess over in the far corner He decided to watch theive pointers to either party

It was tiht, to sby&039;s house with his bundle of dead man&039;s clothes, he learned from Marmaduke that the locks, but he was content to wait another day Grigsby coood he looked with a fresh shave and haircut, which he took as an invitation to come in and speak to Berry, but he siement of which they&039;d spoken was-after

"Glad to hear so, rin "You won&039;t regret it!"

"I don&039;t plan on regretting it Now do you think Ismall, of course, but more comfortable than deerskin I&039;d also like a h roo stand and do you think Ifor the floor, just to keep the dirt settledi"

"all those can be arranged I&039;ll make a mansion out of it for you"

"I also have so them stored would be appreciated"

"I believe I can put up sos for you What elsei"

"I&039;d like to have that junk cleared out," Matthew said "May I ask why there&039;s an archery target and rapier asi"

"Oh, all that stuff You&039;d be amazed what people barter with to settle their debts The sword belonged to a militia officer anted a book of poeton, as I recall The target is more recent It was payment from the Green arrows archery club for an announce, I ht want to insist on coin of the realm for your labor," Matthew advised "In any case, if all those buckets and boxes were out I&039;d have more room in my mansion"

With that list of demands delivered, Matthew returned to the dairyhouse, lit his lantern, and retrieved ausley&039;s notebook froet He sat on the cot and began to go over the notations page-by-page in the steady yellow light

It didn&039;t take hi to realize this particular notebook had been started near the first of May, according to jottings on the weather and the date of a particularly large loss of two crowns, four shillings at the Old ads on the seventh of May, then lost another crown on the eighth Soby the angry scrawls and wine-spottings throughout the portion of the notebook that dealt with ausley&039;s ga habits, the man was in continual dire straits Yet where was his h from the town to afford such losses

Matthe that ausley kept the items in his notebook separate fro ere in one section, health woes in another, itations in yet another, and so on and then there was the cryptic list of na the section that concerned amounts due from the various charities and churches Some of the social clubs, such as the New Yorkers and the Cavaliers, also were jotted down as being sources of charitable funds

Was ausley pocketing some of thathis debtsi For the ga debt section clearly showed payments to several brothers of the bones in a, it appeared from the notebook that ausley was quick to erase his losses, as he wouldn&039;t have been allowed back at the tables otherwise

But the list of names and numbers What to make of themi

The names of orphans, yes Matthew accepted that much What did the dates meani The notation Rejct and the word Chapeli He studied the nu to find a pattern or some sense of them a code of some kindi Or a for had died within ausley&039;s brain

He returned the notebook to its sanctuary within the archery target, covered the target over with canvas, and at six o&039;clock attended supper at Grigsby&039;s house, where he ate chicken and rice with the printa outlandish colors to one of her landscapes, and as the hour grew later Matthew excused himself and retired to his humble abode

There he kept track of the tientleman wore to a whorehouse, as he himself had never crossed such a threshold at nine o&039;clock he dressed in a white shirt and cravat, the dark blue suit and waistcoat with silver buttons, and put a few shillings in his pocket though again he had no idea what the going rate was He debated carrying a lantern or not and decided against it Then, as ready as he thought he&039;d ever be, he left the dairyhouse, locked the door behind him, and started off toward Petticoat Lane with an eye peeled for a constable&039;s la the streets He didn&039;t fail to think that the Maskerup behind him at any moment, but he doubted the Masker would hariven to him for the purpose of deduction; the Masker wanted hiure out what it meant, thus there was no point in e way he was noorking at the Masker&039;s behest

Matthew heard loud and drunken singing and put his head down as three sots staggered along Wall Street, passing without seeing hi lantern at the end of the block and turned left onto S constable There he kept his wits about him and froze in a doorway as another constable-this one carrying a hatchet to go along with his lamp-strode past on his way to apprehend the ht onto Princes Street and then crossing the Broad Way at the corner of Petticoat Lane he al north at a fast clip, but the incident was over and his fellow decree-breakeraway so rapidly that Matthew&039;s heart barely had time to jump

a few more paces and Matthew stood before the two-story pink brick house Candles shone through the gauzy curtains as he watched he could see figures ate between the hedges barred his way, but it was siate shut at his back, took a deep breath and straightened his cravat, and then he walked purposefully up the steps He had a moment&039;s confusion of whether to knock at the door or enter without invitation He chose the first option and waited as someone approached on the floorboards within

The door opened, an aro before hioith pink and purple ribbons adorning the straining bodice She wore a pink wig piled high and a pink eyepatch covering her left eye; on the eyepatch had been sewn a red heart pierced by Cupid&039;s arrow

Her protuberant right eye inspected him up and down In a West Indies accent and a voice like thunder over the Caribbean she said, "New blood"

"I&039;m sorryi"

"ain&039;t seen you a&039;fore"

"My first tiled the coins in his pocket

"Welcorin, and stepped aside for his passage into a neorld