Limehouse (London, England) -- Fiction; Short stories, English
Bert sprang up frantically, but the constable put a spry grip on his arm.
He squirmed. “What.... No, but.... What yeh doing ... ’ere ... I....
Narkin’ on yer own brother! But yeh can’t! Yeh can’t _do_ it! Playin’ the
low-down nark on Bert. You.... I....”
It could be seen that this second shock was too terrible. The fight
and the calling of the cops was a mortal offence, but at least
understandable. But this....
“’Ere, but it’s Bert, ’Enery. Bert. You ain’t goin’ back on ol’ Bert.
Now! ’Enery, play up!” He implored with hands and face.
Henry slewed savagely round. In his eyes was the light that never was on
sea or land. “Oh, shut orf!”
For the lips of Henry Wiggin, copper’s nark, had kissed those of Lady
Dorothy Grandolin, all under the Poplar arches, and in the waistcoat
pocket of Henry Wiggin, the copper’s nark, were the watch and chain of
Lady Dorothy Grandolin.
_The Gorilla and the Girl_
In an underground chamber near the furtive Causeway, Saturnalia was being
celebrated. The room which lay below the sign of the Blue Lantern was
lit by shy gas-jets and furnished with wooden tables and chairs. Strange
scents held the air. Bottled beer and whisky crowded a small table at
the far end, and near this table stood the owner of the house, Mr Hunk
Bottles. At other small tables were cards and various devices for killing
time and money. All those who were well seen in Limehouse and Poplar were
here, and the informed observer could recognise many memorable faces.
Chuck Lightfoot and Battling Burrows were engaged in a comparatively
peaceable game of fan-tan with Sway Lim and Quong Tart; at any rate the
noise they were making could not have been heard beyond Custom House. Tai
Ling and his Marigold were there, very merry, and Pansy Greers, with an
escort from the Pool, attracted much attention in a dress which finished
where it ought to have begun. Ding-Dong was there: Perce Sleep; Paris
Pete; Polly the Pug; Jenny Jackson’s Provence Boys, so called because
they frequented that café; the Chatwood Kid, from whom no safe could
withhold its secrets; and, in fact, all the golden boys and naughty
girls of the district were snatching their moment of solace. Old Foo
Ah lolloped on a chair, slumbering in the heavy content of a kangaroo.
That masculine lady, Tidal Basin Sal, sprawled on a shabby private-bar
lounge with a little girl, whom she would alternately kiss and slap
proprietorially. A nigger from the Polynesians made himself a nuisance to
the air and the company; and on a table at the extreme end stood little
Gina of the Chinatown, slightly drunk, and with clothing disarranged,
singing that most thrilling and provocative of rag-times:
“You’re here and I’m here,
So what do we care?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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