“Why so?”

Nicky-Nan cast a glance over his shoulder.  “We’re neighbours here?”

“Certainly,” agreed Mr Latter, puzzled, and on his defence.

“Noticed anything strange about Rat-it-all, of late?”

“Rat-it-all?”

“You wish friendly to him, eh? . . .  I ask because, as between the police and licensed victuallers—­” Nicky-Nan hesitated.

“You may make your mind easy,” Mr Latter assured him.  “Rat-it-all wouldn’t look over a blind.  I’ve no complaint to make of Rat-it-all, and never had.  But what’s happened to him?”

“I wish I knew,” answered Nicky-Nan.  “I glimpsed him followin’ me, back along the path; an’ when I turned about for a chat, he dodged behind a furze-bush like as if he was pouncin’ on some valuable butterfly.  ‘That’s odd,’ I thought:  for I’d never heard of his collectin’ such things.  But he’s often told me how lonely a constable feels, an’ I thought he might have picked up wi’ the habit to amuse himself.  So on I walked, waitin’ for him to catch me up; an’ by-an’-by turned about to look for en.  There he was, on the path, an’ be damned if he didn’ dodge behind another bush!  I wonder if ’tis sunstroke?  It always seemed to me those helmets must be a tryin’ wear.”

“I dunno. . . .  But here he is!  Let’s ask him,” said Mr Latter as Policeman Rat-it-all appeared on the ridge with body bent and using the gait of a sleuth-hound Indian. [There is no such thing as a sleuth-hound Indian, but none the less Rat-it-all was copying him.]

“Hullo, Rat-it-all!”

The constable straightened himself up and approached with an affected air of jauntiness.

“Why, whoever would ha’ thought to happen on you two here?” he exclaimed, and laughed uneasily.

“Sure enough the man’s manner isn’t natural,” said Mr Latter to Nicky-Nan.  “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.”  He cast a glance back at the ridge as he seated himself on the turf.  “Either of you got a pinch o’ baccy?”

“Then you aren’t afflicted in any way?” exclaimed Nicky-Nan with relief.  “But what was the matter with ’ee, just now, that you kept behavin’ so comical?”

“Got such a thing as a match? . . .  Well, I didn’ believe it from the first.  You must make allowance,” said he as he puffed, “that a constable has communications in these times, of a certain nature, calculated to get on his Nerves.  For my part, I hate all this mistrustfulness that’s goin’.  ’Confidence’—­that’s my motto—­ ‘as betwix’ man an’ man.’”