“But how will that benefit you?” I enquired, wondering why he was so eager.
“You can let me have your clothes, can’t you?” he explained; “you won’t want to take them with you into the next world. From what I hears about it, sperrits don’t need neither coats nor trousers, and the few shillings I shall get for them will do me a bit of good, and won’t hurt you.”
“But I wasn’t contemplating suicide,” I remarked. “I’m not tired of life yet.”
“Ain’t you,” he said, in extremely disappointed tones. “Then why are you out here at this time of night?”
“If it comes to that,” I observed, “why are you?”
“I ain’t got nowhere else to go,” he said; “and there are no police out here to disturb anyone.”
“Nor ghosts?” I remarked.
“Ghosts!” he chuckled. “I’m not afraid of ghosts. I shall soon be one myself, I expect; but there is one spot here I don’t go near after dark.”
“Why?”
“Why,” he said. “Come along with me, and maybe you’ll guess.”