He rode the cab several blocks, then jumped out quickly at a busy part of Regent Street, crossed the thoroughfare, and took a hansom going in the opposite direction. To all appearances, he was operating with the utmost cunning. In fact, Pierce would never bother with the crossover fakement to dodge a tail; it was a glocky ploy that rarely worked, and when he glanced out of the small back window of the hansom cab, he saw that he had not thrown off his pursuers.
He rode to the Regency Arms pub house, a notorious place. He entered it, exited from a side door (which was in plain view of the street), and crossed over to New Oxford Street, where he caught another cab. In the process, he lost one of the crushers, but the other was still with him. Now he proceeded directly across the Thames, to Battersea, to see Chokee Bill.
__________
The image of Edward Pierce, a respectable and well-dressed gentleman, entering the dingy premises of a Battersea pawnbroker may seem incongruous from a modern perspective. At the time, it was not at all uncommon, for the pawnbroker served more than the lower classes, and whomever he served, his function was essentially the same: to act as a sort of impromptu bank, operating more cheaply than established banking concerns. A person could buy an expensive article, such as a coat, and hock it one week to pay the rent; reclaim it a few days later, for wearing on Sunday; hock it again on Monday, for a smaller loan; and so on until there was no further need for the broker’s services.
The pawnbroker thus filled an important niche in the the society, and the number of licensed pawnshops doubled during the mid-Victorian period. Middle-class people were drawn to the broker more for the anonymity of the loan than the cheapness of it; many a respectable household did not wish it known that some of their silver was uncled for cash. This was, after all, an era when many people equated economic prosperity and good fiscal management with moral behavior; and conversely, to be in need of a loan implied some kind of misdeed.
The pawnshops themselves were not really very shady, although they had that reputation. Criminals seeking fences usually turned to unlicensed, second-hand goods “translators,” who were not regulated by the police and were less likely to be under surveillance. Thus, Pierce entered the door beneath the three balls with impunity.
He found Chokee Bill, a red-faced Irishman whose complexion gave the appearance of perpetual near strangulation, sitting in a back corner. Chokee Bill jumped to his feet quickly, recognizing the dress and manner of a gentleman.
“Evening, sir,” Bill said.
“Good evening,” Pierce said.
“How may I be serving you, sir?”
Pierce looked around the shop. “Are we alone?”
“We are, sir, as my name is Bill, sir.” But Chokee Bill got a guarded look in his eyes.
“I am looking to make a certain purchase,” Pierce said. As he spoke, he adopted a broad Liverpool dockyard accent, though ordinarily he had no trace of it.
“A certain purchase …”
“Some items you may have at hand,” Pierce said.
“You see my shop; sir,” Chokee Bill said, with a wave of his arm. “All is before you.”
“This is all?”
“Aye, sir, whatever you may see.”
Pierce shrugged. “I must have been told wrongly. Good evening to you.” And he headed for the door.
He was almost there when Chokee Bill coughed. “What is it you were told, sir?”
Pierce looked back at him. “I need certain rare items.”
“Rare items,” Chokee Bill repeated. “What manner, of rare items, sir?”
“Objects of metal,” Pierce said, looking directly at the pawnbroker. He found all this circumspection tedious, but it was necessary to convincthe genuineness of his transaction.
“Metal, you say?”
Pierce made a deprecating gesture with his hands. “It is a question of defense, you see.
“Defense.”
“I have valuables, property, articles of worth… And therefore I need defense. Do you take my meaning?”
“I take your meaning,” Bill said. “And I may have v such a thing as you require.”
“Actually,” Pierce said, looking around the shop again, as if to reassure himself that he was truly alone with the proprietor, “actually, I need five.”