Christmas at the Workhouse and other places was over. At the hotel they were garrulously guzzling as they set about dragging the New Year in. The two young Policewomen were on patrol, purposely to do their share in suppressing any really over-tire fence activities, but they discreetly walked on the side of the street opposite to the hotel. It was then about a quarter to 1965, and all seemed well.
But a couple of merry customers tacked across the street front the bar and, on sighting the two apparently free and unescorted girls, they zoomed quickly in on the target. They must have been on an amorous brew, as their passes were made with more titan just seasonal warmth. The girls were in a quandary as to how to shrike them off without creating a lot of fuss. Sharp suggestions to get away were evidently mistaken for a special kind of New Year " come on ". The males were too big and cheeky to handle, and the females just couldn't see a friendly face anywhere. The situation had become somewhat deadlocked— and the girls, too! — when one youth suddenly pulled a bottle of whisky from his hip pocket.
" Look", lie coaxed, " if you come with us, we can knock
this off between — and it didn't cost me anything, either.
I knocked it off from the end of the bar as I was conning out".
That jogged the memory of his mate, who gave a wicked grin and said —" Yeah, but look what I got when the barmaid wasn't looking" —and pulled front inside his shirt one of those long towels used as sapper-uppers on bar counters.
The girls looked quickly at each other, then turned their best smiles loose On their beery admirers.
" Oh well ", said one, " it's not New Year's Eve every night — we'll go out with you for a while".
The thrilled Casanovas grabbed a female arm each and Treaded off down Smith Street.
" Olt, no — riot down there in the crowd", said the girls. " Let's go around this other way. It's nice and quiet down there". That was a brilliant suggestion, and the youths only too gladly changed course and headed around into Betmett Street. As they passed by tine side of the Bank a uniformed Constable, just commencing his beat, strode by. The youths cunningly backed into the shadows and kept their stolen good out of sight. The Constable nodded politely, but with a huge question mark in each eye, at the girls and their escorts. When the enety had gait?, the youths heaved giggling sighs of reliqf, and started bragging about their cleverness as they reclaimed the arms of their promising prospects.
Afew steps further on the party passed in front of a brightly-lit building with a wide open door and a bar stretching across just inside.