“Oh, no, not him. She had a tall, handsome-looking chap with her, whom she called ‘Tom.’”
“Oh, I know, Tom Gatliffe. He has taken up with her. Well, go on—fire away.”
“I haven’t much more to tell. Lorrie agreed to take charge of the two hampers and so I left them with her.”
“You couldn’t have done better, so that’s all right. So far all is well. Come, let us return home, for, to say the truth, I only came out in the hope of meeting with you.”
The two friends returned to No. 4 in a much more happy frame of mind.
CHAPTER CXXXII.
PEACE HAS A FEW FRIENDS—A MUSICAL AND ANECDOTAL EVENING.
It was arranged between the two confederates, or companions, in crime, that Charles Peace was not to run any further risk by endeavouring to dispose of the property he had acquired by his various burglaries.
There was nothing he dreaded, at this time, so much as falling in with a Sheffield or Manchester policeman or detective.
To the members of the London constabulary force he was not known, and certainly not one of them had at this time the faintest notion that he was Peace. Had this not been the case he never could have escaped detection for so long a period.