s, "all except the skipper and mate here.
They belong to a little wash-tub that's laying alongside, and they're
both as 'armless as they look."

It's wonderful wot a uniform will do. The policeman just jerked his 'ead
and said "out-side," and the men went out like a flock of sheep. The
on'y man that said a word was the carman, who was in such a hurry that 'e
knocked his bad shin against my foot as 'e went by. The thin little
woman was passed out by the policeman in the middle of a speech she was
making, and he was just going for the other, when the skipper stopped
'im.

"This lady is coming on my ship," he ses, puffing out 'is chest.

I looked at 'im, and then I turned to the policeman. "So long as she
goes off my wharf, I don't mind where she goes," I ses. "The skipper's
goings-on 'ave got nothing to do with me."

"Then she can foller him 'ome in the morning," ses the skipper. "Good
night, watch-man."

Him and the mate 'elped the silly old thing to the ship, and, arter I 'ad
been round to the Bear's Head and fetched a pint for the police-man, I
locked up and sat down to think things out; and the more I thought the
worse they seemed. I've 'eard people say that if you have a clear
conscience nothing can hurt you. They didn't know my missus.

I got up at last and walked on to the jetty, and the woman, wot was
sitting on the deck of the John Henry, kept calling out: "Bill!" like a
sick baa-lamb crying for its ma. I went back, and 'ad four pints at the
Bear's Head, but it didn't seem to do me any good, and at last I went and
sat down in the office to wait for morning.

It came at last, a lovely morning with a beautiful sunrise; and that
woman sitting up wide awake, waiting to foller me 'ome. When I opened
the gate at six o'clock she was there with the mate and the skipper,
waiting, and when I left at five minutes past she was trotting along
beside me.

Twice I stopped and spoke to 'er, but it was no good. Other people
stopped too, and I 'ad to move on agin; and every step was bringing me
nearer to my house and the missus.

I turned into our street, arter passing it three times, and the first
thing I saw was my missus standing on the doorstep 'aving a few words
with the lady next door. Then she 'appened to look up and see us, just
as that silly woman was trying to walk arm-in-arm.

Twice I knocked her 'and away, and then, right afore my wife and the
party next door, she put her arm round my waist. By