The Great Train Robery by Crichton, Michael

Such a squalid, malodorous and dangerous tenement was no place for a gentleman, particularly after nightfall on a foggy summer evening. Yet in late July, 1854, a red-bearded man in fashionable attire walked fearlessly through the smoke-filled, cramped and narrow lanes. The loiterers and vagrants watching him no doubt observed that his silver-headed cane looked ominously heavy, and might conceal a blade. There was also a bulge about the trousers that implied a barker tucked in the waistband. And the very boldness of such a foolhardy incursion probably intimidated many of those who might be tempted to waylay him.

Pierce himself later said, “It is the demeanor which is respected among these people. They know the look of fear, and likewise its absence, and any man who is not afraid makes them afraid in turn.”

Pierce went from street to stinking street, inquiring after a certain woman. Finally he found a lounging soak who knew her.

“It’s Maggie you want? Little Maggie?” the man asked, leaning against a yellow gas lamppost, his face deep shadows in the fog.

“She’s a judy, Clean Willy’s doll.”

“I know of her. Pinches laundry, doesn’t she? Aye, she does a bit of snow, I’m sure of it.” Here the man paused significantly, squinting.

Pierce gave him a coin. “Where shall I find her?”

“First passing up, first door to yer right,” the man said.

Pierce continued on.

“But it’s no use your bothering,” the man called after him. “Willy’s in the stir now— in Newgate, no less— and he has only the cockchafer on his mind.”

Pierce did not look back. He walked down the street, passing vague shadows in the fog, and here and there a woman whose clothing glowed in the night— matchstick dippers with patches of phosphorous on their garments. Dogs barked; children cried; whispers and groans and laughter were conveyed to him through the fog. Finally he arrived at the nethersken, with its bright rectangle of yellow light at the entrance, shining on a crudely hand-painted sign which read:

LOGINS FOR

THRAVELERS

Pierce glanced at the sign, then entered the building, pushing his way past the throng of dirty, ragged children clustered about the stairs; he cuffed one briskly, to show them there was to be no plucking at his pockets. He climbed the creaking stairs to the second floor, and asked after the woman named Maggie. He was told she was in the kitchen, and so he descended again, to the basement.

The kitchen was the center of every lodging house, and at this hour it was a warm and friendly place, a focus of heat and rich smells, while the fog curled gray and cold outside the windows. A half-dozen men stood by the fire, talking and drinking; at a side table, several men and women played cards while others sipped bowls of steaming soup; tucked away in the corners were musical instruments, beggars’ crutches, hawkers’ baskets, and peddlers’ boxes. He found Maggie, a dirty child of twelve, and drew her to one side. He gave her a gold guinea, which she bit. She flashed a half-smile.

“What is it, then, guv?” She looked appraisingly at his fine clothes, a calculating glance far beyond her years. “A bit of a tickle for you?”

Pierce ignored the suggestion. “You dab it up with Clean Willy?”

She shrugged. “I did. Willy’s in.”

“Newgate?”

“Aye.”

“You see him?”

“I do, once and again. I goes as his sister, see.”

Pierce pointed to the coin she clutched in her hand. “There’s another one of those if you can downy him a message.”

For a moment, the girl’s eyes glowed with interest. Then they went blank again. “What’s the lay?”

“Tell Willy, he should break at the next topping. It’s to be Emma Barnes, the murderess. They’ll hang her in public for sure. Tell him: break at the topping.”

She laughed. It was an odd laugh, harsh and rough. ‘Willy’s in Newgate,” she said, “and there’s no breaks from Newgate— topping or no.”

“Tell him he can,” Pierce said. “Tell him to go to the house where he first met John Simms, and all will be well enough.”

“Are you John Simms?”

“I am a friend,” Pierce said. “Tell him the next topping and he’s over the side, or he’s not Clean Willy.”

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