“Yep, dey come back all right, all right, but dey wouldn’t talk.”
“What did they go across the river for?”
“I’m blessed if I know.”
“Then I’ll tell you what for,” said Patsy. “They went across there to stow the sparklers and the tin. The fence, you know.”
Spike started up with great interest.
“Oh, come now,” said Patsy, “you don’t want me to t’ink, Spike, that you’re so far behind that you don’t know that the safest fence around here is across de river.”
“Oh, I heard so,” said Spike, humbly. “But, honest, Patsy, I ain’t never been dere, for there ain’t been nothin’ doin’ wid me so long dat I’m parched back to the roots of me tongue.”
“Well,” said Patsy, “that’s what they went across the river for. But I ain’t got nothin’ to do about that. My peepers are on that leather case.”
“Well, anyhow,” said Spike, “when dey come back dey wouldn’t talk any more than before dey went.”
“You mean,” said Patsy, “that they wouldn’t say whether they were in that job in Thirty-fifth Street or not.”