“I hawk spectacles.”
“Where is your licence?”
“I will show it to you when I come down.”
“Get up and dress,” said one of the officers.
“I shan’t before you,” was the reply, in the same sullen tone and manner, “but I will be down directly.” They went downstairs, leaving Ward in the room.
I said to Peace, “Let me go out,” whereupon he permitted me to leave the room, and went to my next-door neighbour’s, where I was very much hurt indeed at the thought of what had happened.
They asked me what was the matter, and I said, “I do not know.”
No sooner had I left the room, than Peace slipped on his clothes, and made his escape through the window, squeezing himself between two iron bars which I am sure were not more than six or eight inches apart.
He ran across the road into the house of a neighbour, whom he got to fetch his boots for him, the detectives being at the time in the house waiting for him to come downstairs.
At last one of them shouted out, “Come, young man, you are a long time coming.”