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Show 59 look at his new press and you come along intimidating him with your credentials and your incessant questions. I have a good mind to take your names and issue a formal complaint to the King himself. Sending out scoundrels as formal representatives of the Stationers' Company. Why, I wonder if you have not forged these documents!" Lathrop was the one now accusing. He spoke with such authority that the men were not sure what to make of him. Tomlinson was the one who had sent them on this errand, to look over the shop and assess the situation. They had been told that the big fish was not the printer, but the Reverend John Lathrop. They didn't know much about Lathrop except that he was a Separatist minister that Bishop Laud was determined to get and that he spoke with a Yorkshire accent. There was no trace of Yorkshire in this stranger. The Stationers men were now on the defensive. "We are merely doing our job!" While one spoke the other nodded in affirmation. The smaller of the two men started to pull open the drawer, but. it was stuck. After pulling a couple of times and the drawer remaining, stuck fast, the pachyderm pushed the small man aside and gave a tug after which the drawer readily opened. |