Page 81 - the-thirty-nine-steps

through, had seen a big motor-car lying in the burn. I had
poked about to see what had happened, and had found three
sovereigns lying on the seat and one on the floor. There was
nobody there or any sign of an owner, so I had pocketed the
cash. But somehow the law had got after me. When I had
tried to change a sovereign in a baker’s shop, the woman
had cried on the police, and a little later, when I was wash-
ing my face in a burn, I had been nearly gripped, and had
only got away by leaving my coat and waistcoat behind me.
‘They can have the money back,’ I cried, ‘for a fat lot of
good it’s done me. Those perishers are all down on a poor
man. Now, if it had been you, guv’nor, that had found the
quids, nobody would have troubled you.’
‘You’re a good liar, Hannay,’ he said.
I flew into a rage. ‘Stop fooling, damn you! I tell you my
name’s Ainslie, and I never heard of anyone called Hannay
in my born days. I’d sooner have the police than you with
your Hannays and your monkey-faced pistol tricks ... No,
guv’nor, I beg pardon, I don’t mean that. I’m much obliged
to you for the grub, and I’ll thank you to let me go now the
coast’s clear.’
It was obvious that he was badly puzzled. You see he had
never seen me, and my appearance must have altered con-
siderably from my photographs, if he had got one of them.
I was pretty smart and well dressed in London, and now I
was a regular tramp.
‘I do not propose to let you go. If you are what you say
you are, you will soon have a chance of clearing yourself. If
you are what I believe you are, I do not think you will see

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