“That's my secret,” he ses, arter the tec 'ad patted 'im on the back and brought 'im round.
“You're a marvel, that's wot you are,” ses the tec, shaking his 'ead. “Have one with me.”
Sam said he didn't mind if 'e did, and arter drinking each other's healths very perlite 'e ordered a couple o' twopenny smokes, and by way of showing off paid for 'em with 'arf a quid.
“That's right, ain't it?” ses the barmaid, as he stood staring very 'ard at the change. “I ain't sure about that 'arf-crown, now I come to look at it; but it's the one you gave me.”
Pore Sam, with a tec standing alongside of 'im, said it was quite right, and put it into 'is pocket in a hurry and began to talk to the tec as fast as he could about a murder he 'ad been reading about in the paper that morning. They went and sat down by a comfortable little fire that was burning in the bar, and the tec told 'im about a lot o' murder cases he 'ad been on himself.
“I'm down 'ere now on special work,” he ses, “looking arter sailormen.”
“Wot ha' they been doing?” ses Sam.
“When I say looking arter, I mean protecting 'em,” ses the tec. “Over and over agin some pore feller, arter working 'ard for months at sea, comes 'ome with a few pounds in 'is pocket and gets robbed of the lot. There's a couple o' chaps down 'ere I'm told off to look arter special, but it's no good unless I can catch 'em red-'anded.”
“Red-'anded?” ses Sam.
“With their hands in the chap's pockets, I mean,” ses the tec.