"Oh! I have known them make much more than that, but of course it varies, some days nothing may be done, but the great thing is to have something to start with." "Do you never think of trying to make money at work?" "Work! no, by jingo! I'll never work; that's all they can make one do in prison, and it will be time enough to work when we get there." "I have heard you speak of 'hoisting,' how do you go about that?" "Ah! that's a much better game, but it requires a fellow to be rigged out like a 'toff,'[10] and they generally have a 'flash moll,'[11] with them at that job. She can secrete articles about her dress when in a shop looking at things, and that's one way of 'hoisting.' Jewellers' shops are the best places for that game. I know a bloke who made several hundreds at it; he took fine lodgings, and his moll looked quite the lady, so he orders some jewellery to be sent on sight; he prigs the best of it and bolts. Then you can get snyde jewellery made to look the same as real stuff, and when you are in the shop with your moll, she is trying on a ring perhaps, when you put the snyde one in its place and she sticks to the right one." [10] Gentleman. [11] Prostitute of the gayest sort. "I am afraid that game would be above my abilities?" "Well, I'll tell you what I did once, and what you may do when you get out, when winter sets in; you can have some other game in summer, perhaps go hawking, and do a bit of thieving when you see the coast clear. My brother and I and another bloke went out 'chance screwing,' one winter, and we averaged three pounds a night each. My brother had a spring cart and a fast trotting horse, so when it began to grow dark, off we set to the outskirts of London. I did the screwing in this way. Wherever I saw a lobby lighted with gas, I looked in at the key-hole. If I saw anything worth lifting I 'screwed' the door--I'll teach you how to do it--seized the things, into the cart with them, and off to the next place. Now big Davey goes out about the same time as you, and he knows a bloke with a cart, and so you may do very well all winter at that game; but be sure to leave off by nine o'clock as you would get it very hot if caught after that time!" "Well! I shall see big Davey, perhaps, but don't you think 'highflying' would suit me better, although I know little about it?" "Oh! that's above your mark, a 'highflyer' is a bloke who dresses like a clergyman, or some gentleman. He must be educated, for his game is to know all the nobility and gentry, and visit them with got-up letters, and that kind of thing, for the purpose of getting subscriptions to some scheme. A church-building or missionary affair is the best game. There is only one good 'highflyer' in the prison. I knew him get 150_l._ from a gentleman in Devonshire once, and he thinks nothing of getting 30_l._ of a morning."