Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/365



Hannah Perrott did her best to keep Josh from going out that night. She did not explain her objections, because she did not know precisely what they were, though they were in some sort prompted by his manner; and it was solely because of her constitutional inability to urge them with any persistence that she escaped forcible retort. For Josh was in a savage and self-centred mood.

"W'y, wot's up?" asked Bill Rann, when they met, looking doubtfully in his pal's face. "You ain't bin boozin', 'ave ye?"

Josh repelled the question with a snarl. "No I ain't," he said. "Got the tools?" There was a thickness in his voice, with a