But Mr. Dobb, already excitedly divesting himself of his coat and waistcoat was paying no heed. And Mr. Lock, delicately massaging the nape of his neck with a forefinger, was immersed in thought.
“Wait a bit!” he requested, coldly, at last. “Seems to me, if I don’t help you now, ’Orace, you’re in a tight corner?”
“Ah, I’m lucky to ’ave a true friend like you, Peter!” babbled Mr. Dobb. “Wonder if they’ve got a outhouse they can lend us for a few minutes?”
“And you’ve got a motto, too, ain’t you, ’Orace?” went on Mr. Lock, in steely accents. “‘Strictly business’—that’s what has been your motto ever since you went into your shop, ain’t it? Oh, you’ve drove it home to us often enough when it’s been convenient to you and ill-convenient to us. Well, my motto’s going to be ‘strictly business’ now!” he ended, firmly.
“Meaning?” invited Mr. Dobb, ceasing to struggle with a bootlace.
“Meaning I don’t borrer clothes from nobody to help ’em out of trouble. See? If you want me to help you, you’ve got to give me that rig-out. See? Otherwise I shouldn’t dream of putting it on for a single moment.”
Mr. Dobb agitatedly stigmatized this as blackmail and robbery, and Mr. Lock quite unemotionally agreed with him in this view, but declined to be affected by it. Mr. Tridge and Mr. Clark, with eyes that glistened admiringly on Mr. Lock, said that, to them, it seemed a very fair bargain.
Ten minutes later Mr. Dobb and Mr. Lock made an exchange of vesture in an outhouse. Mr. Dobb somewhat huffily declined to agree with Mr. Tridge and Mr. Clark in their openly expressed opinion that Mr. Lock looked a real toff in the hirsute garments.
“I’ll stroll along with Peter and ’ave a look for Miss Radling,” said Mr. Tridge, as the quartet took their places in the ferry-boat. “I’ll be able to back him up by saying you don’t live anywhere in these parts. As for you, you’d better stay at ’ome while she’s in the town, ’Orace.”
“Stay at ’ome? I’m going straight to bed,” declared Mr. Dobb, “and I ain’t coming down again till the coast is quite clear, neither!”