“Let’s have it,” cried one of the convicts. “The whole true and particular account.”
The young man began to read. As he repeated the name of Mr. Philip Jamblim Peace started.
“Do you know him?” inquired the “cracksman,” who sat next to him.
“Yes, very well.”
The reader continued. The murdered man, the detective engaged in the case, the several witnesses, together with the chairman of the bench of magistrates, were as familiar to him as household words.
He was in a feverish state of excitement and drank in every word with the greatest avidity.
Everybody in the carriage was interested, even to the unimpressionable warder, but not in an equal degree to Peace, who was absorbed as he listened to the thrilling narrative.
“Well, I’m blessed,” exclaimed a young pickpocket, “but it is a big case.”
“Hold your jaw, you young fool,” cried a prisoner; “let’s hear all about it.”
The evidence of Brickett and John Adolphus had been gone carefully through, then followed the examination of Ellen Fulford.