“Pawn, of course. Where were you educated?”
“I never heard the word ‘hock’ before. I know the meaning of pawn.”
“There’s your watch, now. You might hock that.”
“I wouldn’t like to part with it. It was a present.”
“Bless your soul, nobody likes to pawn his valuables, but everybody has to do it some time. Did you ever notice that I don’t carry a watch?”
“You have a chain.”
“Yes, but that is all. Sometimes people ask me what time it is, and I answer that my watch isn’t going. So I keep up the illusion. The funniest thing is that a pickpocket tried one day to relieve me of my watch. When he pulled out the chain and found nothing attached to it he looked foolish, I tell you.”
“I should think he would,” said Ben, laughing. “But where is your watch?”
“It’s reposing in Simpson’s safe, my dear boy.”
“But who is Simpson?”