“Damn Shermany,” said P.-C. Hobbs to himself, as he promptly bowed himself out. “They are either a pair of fools or a pair of rogues, trying to bluff me with gammon.”
But he did not escape so quickly as he expected. After a hurried consultation together, one of the partners stepped forward.
“Do not go for a little minute. This, I tink, is the first time zat you see our store. We always like to make some little present to our new friends. Come zis vay. Come zis vay.” And the German led the way to the back premises, where on numerous shelves a host of packets and cardboard boxes were stored, having for the most part fastened on the outside a sample of the goods within. With much preliminary graciousness the merchant went to a small box and produced a common wooden pipe, worth, perhaps, twopence, and, presenting it to Mr. Hobbs, he said—
“You will keep that, my friend. It is vat you call ze keepsake. That is vone good pipe—vone very good pipe; same as they smoke in Shermany. If you will show zat pipe to your friends it shall do us some good in the pisiness!”
Pocketing the present, the constable made his way out.
“Now for the third man, the acknowledged friend of Mrs. Booth—Professor Norris, Park Street, is the address, I think. Yes, it is Park Street.”
The shop was easily found, a small narrow-windowed place with this sign written in large letters across the front—
PROFESSOR NORRIS, SCIENTIFIC
FOOTIST.
The Past, The Present, The Future.
Characters Delineated by the Marvellous Science—The
Discovery of Professor Norris—The Secret of Life Long
Hidden Under Foot Now First Revealed. Phrenology,
Physiognomy, and Palmistry Entirely Superseded by
the Up-to-date Science, Footology.