He found himself in a narrow blind alley.
The Jew led him through a labyrinth of narrrow courts, and they then emerged into a wide street. Peace had not at this time the faintest notion of where he was, but Simmonds led him into a house. In one of the rooms on the basement a group of persons were assembled.
It was evidently the resort of thieves of every description, and was an establishment much after the fashion of the one to which Laura Stanbridge took Alf Purvis when he was a mere lad.
The Jew appeared to be pretty well known to most of the persons who frequented this establishment, for many present spoke to him in a familiar and jocular manner.
Simmonds sent a leary-looking man for a four-wheeled cab, and when the vehicle drove up to the door of the house he bade Peace jump in without further ado.
This our hero did without hesitation, and then the cab was driven rapidly over the stones.
CHAPTER CXXXI.
THIEVES AND RECEIVERS.
The receiver of stolen goods, from whose establishment Charles Peace had so cunningly contrived to make his escape, was an average sample of his class.
There are hundreds, and, indeed it may be said, thousands of persons of this description in the metropolis and the suburbs.