"Lord lumme, but it ll be the last I see of you
if yer don t py me," he retorted.

But a crowd of ragged onlookers had already
gathered around the cab, and I laughed again and
walked back to the old clothes shop.

Here the chief difficulty was in making the shop
man understand that I really and truly wanted old
clothes. But after fruitless attempts to press upon
me new and impossible coats and trousers, he
began to bring to light heaps of old ones, looking
mysterious the while and hinting darkly. This he
did with the palpable intention of letting me know
that he had piped my lay, in order to bulldose
me, through fear of exposure, into paying heavily
for my purchases. A man in trouble, or a high-
class criminal from across the water, was what
he took my measure for in either case, a person
anxious to avoid the police.

But I disputed with him over the outrageous
difference between prices and values, till I quite
disabused him of the notion, and he settled down to
drive a hard bargain with a hard customer. In the
end I selected a pair of stout though well-worn
trousers, a frayed jacket with one remaining button,
a pair of brogans which had plainly seen service
where coal was shovelled, a thin leather belt, and a
very dirty cloth cap. My underclothing and socks,
however, were new and warm, but of the sort that

[[10]]

p009 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p010w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p011

v?