“Some of them are,” said Barrington, “and some are manufactured into shoddy cloth and made into Sunday clothes for working men.”
“There’s all sorts of different ways of gettin’ a livin’,” remarked Sawkins, after a pause. “I read in a paper the other day about a bloke wot goes about lookin’ for open trap doors and cellar flaps in front of shops. As soon as he spotted one open, he used to go and fall down in it; and then he’d be took to the ’orspital, and when he got better he used to go and threaten to bring a action against the shop-keeper and get damages, and most of ’em used to part up without goin’ in front of the judge at all. But one day a slop was a watchin’ of ’im, and seen ’im chuck ’isself down one, and when they picked ’im up they found he’d broke his leg. So they took ’im to the ’orspital and when he came out and went round to the shop and started talkin’ about bringin’ a action for damages, the slop collared ’im and they give ’im six months.”
“Yes, I read about that,” said Harlow, “and there was another case of a chap who was run over by a motor, and they tried to make out as ’e put ’isself in the way on purpose; but ’e got some money out of the swell it belonged to; a ’undered pound I think it was.”
“I only wish as one of their motors would run inter me,” said Philpot, making a feeble attempt at a joke. “I lay I’d get some a’ me own back out of ’em.”
The others laughed, and Harlow was about to make some reply but at that moment a cyclist appeared coming down the hill from the direction of the job. It was Nimrod, so they resumed their journey once more and presently Hunter shot past on his machine without taking any notice of them...
When they arrived they found that Rushton had not been there at all, but Nimrod had. Crass said that he had kicked up no end of a row because they had not called at the yard at six o’clock that morning for the ladder, instead of going for it after breakfast—making two journeys instead of one, and he had also been ratty because the big gable had not been started the first thing that morning.
They carried the ladder into the garden and laid it on the ground along the side of the house where the gable was. A brick wall about eight feet high separated the grounds of “The Refuge” from those of the premises next door. Between this wall and the side wall of the house was a space about six feet wide and this space formed a kind of alley or lane or passage along the side of the house. They laid the ladder on the ground along this passage, the “foot” was placed about half-way through; just under the centre of the gable, and as it lay there, the other end of the ladder reached right out to the front railings.
Next, it was necessary that two men should go up into the attic—the window of which was just under the point of the gable—and drop the end of a long rope down to the others who would tie it to the top of the ladder. Then two men would stand on the bottom rung, so as to keep the “foot” down, and the three others would have to raise the ladder up, while the two men up in the attic hauled on the rope.
They called Bundy and his mate Ned Dawson to help, and it was arranged that Harlow and Crass should stand on the foot because they were the heaviest. Philpot, Bundy, and Barrington were to “raise”, and Dawson and Sawkins were to go up to the attic and haul on the rope.
“Where’s the rope?” asked Crass.