“Where’s the use of oiling handcuffs?” said the sergeant.
“Shut up, sergeant,” said Mr. Goddard. “That’s part of the stratagem.”
“Constable Moriarty,” said Cole, “would be talking to her pleasant and agreeable the way he’d distract her mind and him mending the tyre. It’s himself knows how to talk to a young lady.”
“I do not,” said Moriarty. “She’d be laughing at me.”
“She’ll not laugh,” said Mr. Goddard. “That’s one thing you may feel quite sure about. Whatever else she does, she’ll not laugh.”
“I’m not fit to talk to her,” said Moriarty.
“You’re not fit to mend a tyre either,” said Cole; “mind that now. When you have the hole there is in it with a patch on it, and you’re putting back the cover on the wheel you’d nip the inner tube so as there be a bit took out of it.”
“Do you take me for a fool?” said Moriarty. “Haven’t I mended——”
“I’ll take you for a fool,” said Mr. Goddard, “if you don’t do exactly what you’re told.”