We're friends o' yours.

You're right enough if you do what I tell you.

There's a peeler over there got his eye on you.
Follow me and I'll get you off.' I didn't much like the man's looks, but I had no choice, and anyhow he had given me back my watch.

He sidled into an alley between tall houses and I sidled after him.

Then he took to his heels, and led me a twisting course through smelly courts into a tanyard and then by a narrow lane to the back-quarters of a factory.