“Me friends all like me well enough, but I’ll wager they’d give somethin’ big if I’d only move out o’ the county, yes, they would.” His chuckling laugh came again. “See the p’int?”
Tom nodded.
“I had to hev my little joke; an’ you look enough like my own son to be his brother.”
Tom turned his face away to hide a rather odd expression.
“Only he ain’t stretched out to ’most the breakin’ p’int, as you are,” added the official. “Anyway, it made me do you a good turn.”
“How?” asked Tom, interestedly.
“If Jack Piker had saw what I see’d it would hev been fifteen dollars’ worth o’ law busted, sure. Better take advice o’ one who introduces automobile fellers to the judge every week—be keerful; don’t do it ag’in. That’s what I was wantin’ ter impress on yer mind—understan’?” The little man clapped him on the shoulder. “I don’t know where ye come from, an’ I don’t know where ye’re goin’, but I like ye, ’cause you kin take a joke. See the p’int?”
Tom grinned.
“Sure! Some chaps are so thin-skinned they get mad at everything,” he said, loftily.
“That’s it. Good-bye, an’ much obleeged!” And, with these words, the little constable hopped nimbly to the ground, gave a parting wave of his hand and walked rapidly away.