Barry Pain

“ I saw his hand shoot up to the trap in the roof, and I knew that he would have his cab turned round and would follow me. My horse was not a very good one, and I knew the constable on the pavement a few yards ahead. I stopped my cab, got out as if to enter a shop, suddenly recognised the constable, and stopped for a moment's chat with him. Up drove Mr Orram, white and furious. He tumbled out of his cab, before it had stopped, and rushed up to me. ”

“ All the time I was thinking hard. I had got the numbers of the notes, and he had no other record of them. To get the notes themselves seemed likely to be a more difficult business. I rather like the use of drugs on these occasions, and I had what I wanted in my pocket. But to get it out, and to administer it without detection seemed to me pretty well impossible. If I had made a second bet with him which involved his leaving the room, it is quite possible that he would have become suspicious. ”

“ I shan't go back to work if the weather stops like this."
"Quiright," said Orram enthusiastically. "Who wants work? I don't want to work. Let's go to a music hall."
"Right you are!" I said. "And perhaps we'll have a bit of dinner together afterwards. I don't care if I do make a day of it, for once in a way. Come along. Waiter, call a four-wheeler."
"Make it a 'ansom," said Orram. "I like a 'ansom myself." ”

“ I wasn't taking anything with my lunch, because I meant to try a little port afterwards, and I'll ask you to join me."
"Now you're talking like a sensible man. I'll join you with pleasure. I'll do more for you than that. Do you know this house?" ”

“ We should want the glass down, and you can't smoke in a hansom with the glass down. I've got some cigars here that I'm not ashamed of."
Orram took one, lit it, and saw that it was good. "You're a goosort," he said appreciatively.
The waiter brought our bills, and told us that the four-wheeler was waiting at the door. Orram paid his bill and corrected a mistake of the waiter's in the change. He picked up his satchel, flung his overcoat over his arm, and walked out straight. ”