"THE TIRED-LOOKING GIRL SWAYED SLIGHTLY."
The explanation came to me in a flash. In so sudden a flash that I turned in the same instant to the conductor and found his sidelong glance meeting mine.
"See that?" he muttered, under the clatter of the bus.
"I should think I did," I said, "he's picked her pocket."
"I've 'ad a eye on the old josser for the last month," he said. "I'll make it a fair cop this time. You're my witness."
"Well," I said, "I'm not awfully keen on being mixed up——"
"Bit of high-spyin' now," he said. "What's the matter with a little bit o' high-spyin', eh?"
The conductor mounted the steps to the roof. The tired girl, awakened suddenly to her position, straightened herself and peered anxiously through the window of the bus as though to make certain that she had not been carried to Wormwood Scrubs in her sleep. Reassured, she gathered up her portfolio in a firmer grasp with one hand, and with the other searched the back of her head for errant pins.