Page:Kangaroo, 1923.pdf/12

2 face, and pleasant eyes, and that the grin was hardly more than a city habit. The man in the blue overalls looked into the distance, recovering his dignity after the encounter.

So the pair of strangers passed on, across the wide asphalt road to one of the tall houses opposite. The workman looked at the house into which they had entered.

"What d'you make of them, Dug?" asked the one in the overalls.

"Dunnow! Fritzies, most likely."

"They were talking English."

"Would be, naturally—what yer expect?"

"I don't think they were German."

"Don't yer, Jack? Mebbe they weren't then."

Dug was absolutely unconcerned. But Jack was piqued by the funny little bloke.

Unconsciously he watched the house across the road. It was a more-or-less expensive boarding-house. There appeared the foreign little bloke dumping down a gladstone bag at the top of the steps that led from the porch to the street, and the woman, the wife apparently, was coming out and dumping down a black hat-box. Then the man made another excursion into the house, and came out with another bag, which he likewise dumped down at the top of the steps. Then he had a few words with the wife, and scanned the street.

"Wants a taxi," said Jack to himself.

There were two taxis standing by the kerb near the open grassy slope of the park, opposite the tall brown houses. The foreign-looking bloke came down the steps and across the wide asphalt road to them. He looked into one, and then into the other. Both were empty. The drivers were lying on the grass smoking an after-luncheon cigar.

"Bloke wants a taxi," said Jack.

"Could ha' told you that," said the nearest driver. But nobody moved.

The stranger stood on the pavement beside the big, cream-coloured taxi, and looked across at the group of men on the grass. He did not want to address them.

"Want a taxi?" called Jack.

"Yes. Where are the drivers?" replied the stranger, in unmistakable English: English of the old country.