'Well?' I said.
He spluttered unintelligibly, shook his head, and looked very miserable.'I'm a strynger 'ere,' he managed to articulate.'An' if yer don't want Stepney Station, I'm blessed if I know wotcher do want.'
'I'll tell you what I want,' I said.'You drive along and keep your eye out for a shop where old clothes are sold.Now, when you see such a shop, drive right on till you turn the corner, then stop and let me out.'
I could see that he was growing dubious of his fare, but not long afterward he pulled up to the curb and informed me that an old clothes shop was to be found a bit of the way back.
'Won'tcher py me?' he pleaded.'There's seven an' six owin' me.'
'Yes,' I laughed, 'and it would be the last I'd see of you.'
'Lord lumme, but it'll be the last I see of you if yer don't py me,'
he retorted.
But a crowd of ragged onlookers had already gathered around the cab, and I laughed again and walked back to the old clothes shop.
Here the chief difficulty was in making the shopman understand that I really and truly wanted old clothes.But after fruitless attempts to press upon me new and impossible coats and trousers, he began to bring to light heaps of old ones, looking mysterious the while and hinting darkly.This he did with the palpable intention of letting me know that he had 'piped my lay,' in order to bulldoze me, through fear of exposure, into paying heavily for my purchases.Aman in trouble, or a high-class criminal from across the water, was what he took my measure for- in either case, a person anxious to avoid the police.