I always told him he would go to Blackheath once too often. I cannot say more than the persons to whom he disposed of the property were Jews.
Two I know of, certainly, and they will “Jew” me, I expect, if they get hold of me. One day I went with him while he disposed of some property.
He used to take the property wrapped up like drapers’ parcels—innocent and unsuspicious-looking enough. He used to treat me with great kindness when Mrs. Ward was nowhere about.
He seemed to be never so happy as when he could get me alone. We occupied the drawing-room floor, using the front room as a sitting-room and the back as a bedroom, the breakfast-room below being my private sitting-room or boudoir, and the rest of the house being devoted to our lodgers.
The care of Peace’s animals, of which, by the way, he was extremely fond, devolved upon myself.
It would be as well, I think, to say what they were, as the collection was heterogenous.
There were ten guinea pigs, every one of which I gave away when he was taken; a goat, two cats, two Maltese terriers, and a cockatoo; and in addition to these, Mrs. Ward kept a Maltese dog, a parrot, a dog, and four pigeons.
When Peace went out at night to work he always took with him a revolver, a “jemmy,” a sharp knife, and various-sized screws wherewith to fasten the doors of rooms in which he was “working,” so as to ensure his being able to thoroughly ransack them without being disturbed; but he never took skeleton keys, for he was so skilful that he would take out the panel of a door almost noiselessly and with great rapidity.
When the police caught him they caught the cleverest thief and the cleverest beast that I should think there ever was in human form.
Here, Mrs. Thompson, as I shall continue to call her (that being the name by which she is best known), produced to me an old pair of Peace’s trousers.