Boys -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Slums -- Fiction
Josh was jubilant, and forgot his sore ankle. He had never handled such
a sum as five pounds since his fight with Billy Leary, years ago; when,
indeed, he had stooped to folly in the shape of lavish treating, and so
had not enjoyed the handling of the full amount.
Mr Weech, also, was pleased. For it was a great stroke of business to
oblige so distinguished a person as the Mogul. There was no telling what
advantages it might not lead to in the way of trade.
That night the Perrotts had a hot supper, brought from Walker's
cook-shop in paper. And at eleven the next morning Josh, twenty yards
from Mr Weech's door, with the watch and chain in his pocket, was tapped
on the arm by a constable in plain clothes, while another came up on the
other side. 'Mornin', Perrott,' said the first constable, cheerily.
'We've got a little business with you at the station.'
'Me? Wot for?'
'Oh well, come along; p'raps it ain't anything--unless there's a gold
watch an' chain on you, from Highbury. It's just a turnin' over.'
'Awright,' replied Josh, resignedly. 'It's a fair cop. I'll go quiet.'
'That's right, Perrott; it ain't no good playin' the fool, you know.'
They were moving along; and as they came by Weech's shop, a whiskered
face, with a patch of shining scalp over it, peeped from behind a
curtain that hung at the rear of the bloaters and plumcake in the
window. As he saw it, Josh ducked suddenly, wrenching his arm free, and
dashed over the threshold. Mr Weech, whiskers and apron flying, galloped
through the door at the back, and the constables sprang upon Josh
instantly and dragged him into the street. 'Wotcher mean?' cried the one
who knew him, indignantly, and with a significant glance at the other.
'Call that goin' quiet?'
Josh's face was white and staring with rage. 'Awright,' he grunted
through his shut teeth, after a pause. 'I'll go quiet now. I ain't got
nothin' agin _you_.'
XXV
Dicky's morning theft that day had been but a small one--he had run off
with a new two-foot rule that a cabinet-maker had carelessly left on an
unfinished office table at his shop door in Curtain Road. It was not
much, but it might fetch some sort of a dinner at Weech's, which would
be better than going home, and, perhaps, finding nothing. So about noon,
all ignorant of his father's misfortune, he came by way of Holywell Lane
and Bethnal Green Road to Meakin Street.
Mr Weech looked at him rather oddly, Dicky fancied, when he came in, but
he took the two-foot rule with alacrity, and brought Dicky a rasher of
bacon, and a slice of cake afterward. This seemed very generous. More:
Mr Weech's manner was uncommonly amiable, and when the meal was over, of
his own motion, he handed over a supplementary penny. Dicky was
surprised; but he had no objection, and he thought little more about it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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