CALLER
What"s _in_ the hat?
LABORER
Yes; that"s what I want to know.
CALLER
What"s _in_ the hat?
LABORER
Yes, you aren"t going to give me a sovereign--?
CALLER
I"ll give you two sovereigns.
LABORER
You aren"t going to give me a sovereign, and rise it to two sovereigns, for an _empty_ hat?
CALLER
But I must have my hat. I can"t be seen in the streets like this.
There"s nothing _in_ the hat. What do you think"s in the hat?
LABORER
Ah, I"m not clever enough to say that, but it looks as if the papers was in that hat.
CALLER
The papers?
LABORER
Yes, papers proving, if you can get them, that you"re the heir to that big house, and some poor innocent will be defrauded.
CALLER
Look here, the hat"s absolutely empty. I _must_ have my hat. If there"s anything in it you shall have it yourself as well as the two pounds, only get me my hat.
LABORER
Well, that seems all right.
CALLER
That"s right, then you"ll run up and get it?
LABORER
Seems all right to me and seems all right to you. But it"s the police what you and I have got to think of. Will it seem all right to them?
CALLER
Oh, for heaven"s sake--
LABORER
Ah!
CALLER
What a hopeless fool you are.
LABORER
Ah!
CALLER
Look here.
LABORER
Ah, I got you there, mister.
CALLER
Look here, for goodness sake don"t go.
LABORER
Ah! (_Exit_)
[_Enter the Clerk._
CALLER
Excuse me, sir. Excuse my asking you, but, as you see, I am without a hat. I shall be extraordinarily obliged to you if you would be so very good as to get it for me. Pretend you have come to wind the clocks, you know. I left it in the drawing-room of this house, half under the long sofa, the far end.
CLERK
Oh, er--all right, only--
CALLER