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"But you see, sir," 'Bert went on, "this put me in mind that I'd seen Rat-it-all for two days past behavin' very silly behind walls an' fuzz-bushes, an' 'most always in the wake o' Nicky-Nan of Mr Nanjivell, I mean: which I'd set it down that it was a game between 'em, an' Mr Nanjivell just lendin' himself for practice, havin' time on his hands.
If you'll believe me, it turned out to be no person at all, but a way the gentry have of sayin' they're uncomfortable; same as, through some writin' chap or other, all the papers was talkin' of your belly as your Little Mary." "Mine?" "When I say 'yours, o' course I mean to say 'ours' that's to say, every one's." Rat-it-all made a semicircular sweep of the hand in front of his person.
He roamed the cliff-paths for an hour, pausing now and again to lean his back against an out-cropping mass of rock and pass the back of his hand across his eyes, that at first were bloodshot with fury. He had a great desire to kill Policeman Rat-it-all.
Do I step into your dam Bank an' ask where you picked up the coin? No? Well then, get out o' this an' take your Policeman with 'ee. Fend off, I say!" he snapped, as Rat-it-all touched him by the arm. "No offence, Mr Nanjivell," said the Policeman coaxingly. "But merely as between naybours, if I might advise.
"To a man in the Force," said Rat-it-all pensively, "an expression like that, mixed up with photographs in the 'Daily Mirror, strikes HOME. A man in the Force, as I'll put it, is in some ways unlike other men." He paused to let this sink in. "Take your time," said Nicky-Nan. "But I'm not contradictin' 'ee." "If they're a species, he's a specie a man set apart, like a parson.
"Fiddlestick!" said 'Beida with a sigh of relief. "Now I know you're gassin'. . . . Just now you frightened me with your talk of executions, which is what they do to a man when he's murdered some person: and o' course if Nicky if Mr Nanjivell had been doin' anything o' that sort which he hasn', o' course. . . . But when you go on pretendin' as Rat-it-all can lock me up, why then I see your game.
"Speakin' as a publican, too," he confided, "I'd be sorry if anything happened to the chap an' we got a stranger in his place." "What's the matter with 'ee, Rat-it-all?" asked Nicky-Nan sympathetically. "By the way you've been behavin' all up the hill " "You noticed it?" "Noticed it!" "Rat it all! I mean, I was hopin' you wouldn't. I begin to see as it will take more practice than I allowed."
"Well, I rather think I do know the creature, as you put it-though I am not going to tell you," she added almost archly. Then, of a sudden, "Has Constable Rat-it-all been paying you any attention lately?" "Well . . . I'll be danged!" Miss Oliver laughed pleasantly. "The fact is, Mr Nanjivell, you want a woman's wit to warn you, as every man does in your position.
The very poor live always on the edge of to-morrow; and for that reason the night's sleep, which parts them from it, seems a long time. After all, what could his enemies do to him? If he sat passive, the onus would rest on them. If Policeman Rat-it-all flung him into the street, why then in the street he would sit, to the scandal of Polpier.
Nicky-Nan advanced with a fine air of nonchalance. "Lookin' at the sky?" said he. "Wind's back in the nor'-west again. Which, for settled weather, I'd rather it took off-shore a bit later in the afternoon. It'll last though, for all that, I shoudn' wonder." Policeman Rat-it-all withdrew his gaze from the firmament. "I wasn' thinkin' of the wind," said he.
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