"A good 'un!" he cried delightedly, "Blow me tight if I didn't think it was a duffer for the minute! She's something like a fare, she is! A glass of the usual, Jim, with a little lemon and——"
"Where is your fare, cabby?" I demanded brusquely.
"What's that got to do with you, governor?" was the immediate retort.
"A good deal, as you'll see," I returned pulling out a notebook, and feigning to write therein. "Your number, I see, is 2071. I shall want you at Bow Street, to-morrow. Perhaps you are not aware that I am a detective, and that the lady you have aided to escape was to have been arrested this morning?"
The man assumed a more respectful demeanour.
"Axes your pardon, governor, but how was I to know that the lady was 'wanted,' and that a 'tec was arter her? The lady she says to me, she says——"
"What?" I interrupted. "She spoke to you, then? She wasn't dumb?"
"Dumb? No more than you are, governor. She says to me: 'Coachman, there's a gentleman a-follerin' o' me——'"
"That's not a verbatim report, I suppose?" I said with a smile.
"Wot's that?"