Boys -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Slums -- Fiction
Thus the fight ended. For a faction fight in the Jago, with a few broken
heads and ribs and an odd knife wound here and there--even with a death
in the hospital from kicks or what not--was all very well; but when it
came to homicide in the open High Street, the police drew the line, and
entered the Jago in force. Ordinarily, a peep now and again from a
couple of policemen between the 'Posties' was all the supervision the
Jago had, although three policemen had been seen to walk the length of
Old Jago Street together, and there were raids in force for special
captures. There was a raid in force now, and the turmoil ceased. Nothing
would have pleased both Ranns and Learys better than to knock over two
or three policemen, for kicking-practice; but there were too many for
the sport, and for hours they patrolled the Jago's closest passages. Of
course nobody knew who chived Fag Dawson. No inquiring policeman ever
found anybody in the Old Jago who knew anything, even to the harm of
his bitterest foe. It was the sole commandment that ran there:--'Thou
shalt not nark.'
That night it was known that there would be a fight between Josh Perrott
and Billy Leary, once the latter grew well. For Josh Perrott came home,
saw his wife, and turned Rann on the spot. But for the police in the
Jago that night, there would have been many a sore head, if no worse,
among the Learys, by visitation of Josh Perrott. Sally Green's husband
had fled years ago, and Billy Leary, her brother, was the obvious mark
for Josh's vengeance. He was near as eminent a fighter among the men as
his sister among the women, and a charming scrap was anticipated. It
would come off, of course, in Jago Court one Sunday morning, as all
fights of distinction did; and perhaps somebody in the High Mob would
put up stakes.
VI
In the morning the police still held the Jago. Their presence
embarrassed many, but none more than Dicky Perrott, who would always
take a turning, or walk the other way, at sight of a policeman. Dicky
got out of Old Jago Street early, and betook him to Meakin Street, where
there were chandlers' shops with sugar in their windows, and cook-shops
with pudding. He designed working through by these to Shoreditch High
Street, there to crown his solace by contemplation of the cake-shop.
But, as he neared Weech's coffee-shop, scarce half through Meakin
Street, there stood Weech himself at the door, grinning and nodding
affably, and beckoning him. He was a pleasant man, this Mr Aaron Weech,
who sang hymns aloud in the back parlour, and hummed the tunes in the
shop: a prosperous, white-aproned, whiskered, half-bald, smirking
tradesman, who bent and spoke amiably to boys, looking sharply in their
eyes, but talked to a man mostly with his gaze on the man's waistcoat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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