“Do you think so?”
“I just do. I like you, young Antony, hang me if I don’t; and if you stick to me I’ll teach you all I know.”
“Will you?” I said eagerly.
“Well, all I can. Just hand me that paper o’ tobacco. Thankye. I’ll have just one more pipe, and then we’ll go to dinner.”
He filled and lit his pipe, and went on talking.
“First and foremost, don’t you get trying to smoke.”
“No, I will not,” I said.
“That’s right. It’s all very well for men, a little of it; but I don’t like to see boys at it, as too many tries just now. I often sees ’em on my beat, and I never feel so jolly happy as when I come across one looking white after it about the gills, and so sick he can’t hold his head straight up. But, as I was a-saying, you stick to me and I’ll teach you all I can, and I know two or three things,” he continued, closing one eye and opening it again.
“You must, sir.”
“Yes; there’s some clever chaps I have to deal with sometimes—roughs and thieves and the like; but they have to get up very early in the morning to take me in.”