It had been arranged that the next day Pip and Bets and Fatty should stay in their garden, on the look out for the tramp. Pip should question him carefully. Larry had told him what to ask.
"Have the boots out so that he can see them and want them badly," said Larry. "But don't let him have them till he's answered your questions. No answers, no boots. See?"
So the next day Fatty and Buster joined Pip and Bets, and the four of them waited for the tramp to turn up.
The tramp did turn up. He slipped slyly in at the back gate, looking all round and about as if he thought some one was after him. He still had on the terrible old shoes, with toes sticking out of the upper parts. Pip saw him and gave a low call.
"Hallo! Come over here!"
The tramp looked over to where Pip was standing. "You're not setting that bobby after me? " he asked.
"Of course not," said Pip impatiently. "We don't like him any more than you do."
"Got the boots?" asked the tramp. Pip nodded. The old fellow shambled over to him and Pip took him to the summer-house. There was a small wooden table there, and
the boots were on it. The tramp's eyes gleamed when he saw them.
"Good boots," he said. "They'll fit me proper."