"Still got your commercial?"
"In a manner of speaking I suppose I have, but he's one of them as is here today and gone tomorrow, if you know what I mean. Well, it's the nature of his business, I daresay, but I'd rather have someone more regular, so to speak. That Mr. Fripp, well, you never know where you are with himm because some days he has to go off and spend the night away, and others he's back to supper when you wasn't expecting him. However, as my missus was saying only this morning, it's all in the way of business, and I'm sure times are that bad I'm glad to get anyone staying in the house."
Peter put down his tankard. "I say, Wilkes, what's the meaning of that monstrous electric plant you've got outside? You can't need a thing that size, surely?"
The landlord coughed, and looked rather sheepish. "I'm sorry you've seen that, Mr. Fortescue, sir."
"Yes, but why? Spindle pushed me out before I'd time to do more than glance at the thing. He seemed in a great way about it."
Spindle looked deprecatingly at the landlord, and withdrew to the other end of the bar.
"Spindle's a fool, sir," said Mr. Wilkes, not mincing matters. "Though mind you, you wouldn't hardly believe the number of people there are that ain't to be trusted anywhere near a delicate bit of machinery. I do have to be strict, and that's a fact. Of course, I know you're different, sir, and that's why I'm sorry you saw it." He went through the form of wiping down the bar, which seemed to be a habit with him. "You see, sir, in a manner of speaking I was a bit had over that plant."
"I should think you were," Peter said. "You could supply the whole village with it."
"Well, I don't know about that, sir," Mr. Wilkes said cautiously. "It ain't such a powerful machine as what it looks. Still, I don't deny it's bigger nor what I want. Not but what we use a lot of power here. Because, mind you, I had the whole place wired for heating as well, there not being any gas laid on, and then there's the refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners and what not."
"Rot!" Peter said, "you don't need a plant that size for the amount of electricity you use in heating."