Chance led him to encounter a party of boon companions whose company he
had vowed to relinquish. One of these was in funds, having abandoned
political pamphleteering for the writing of biographies of notorious
personages, both men and women--the latter preferably--in which truth
and fiction were audaciously blended, and the whole dashed with
scandalous anecdotes which found for such stuff a ready sale.
Jarvis and his friends having had their fill of liquor at one tavern,
were proceeding to another when they met Lancelot Vane, and they bore
him away without much protest. It was by no means the first time that
Vane had drowned his sorrows in drink.
Meanwhile Rofflash was on the prowl. He was not unacquainted with some
of the Grub Street scribblers. One man he had employed three or four
years before, when Jacobitism was rampant, in running to earth the
writers of seditious pamphlets and broad sheets. The man was Tom Jarvis.
Rofflash knew Tom's favourite haunts, and after looking in at various
taverns, lighted upon him at the "Angel and Sun." He also lighted upon
Vane. Vane he could see was well on the way towards forgetfulness, but
Captain Jeremy wasn't one to run any risks, so he held aloof from the
party, and waited while the landlord went about his errand.
Presently Jarvis looked in the direction of the fireplace, and Rofflash
beckoned him and laid his fingers on his lip in token of silence.
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