He, however, exercised great discretion in the choice of his friends, and while he had his liberty he did not suffer anything at their hands.
He had not been back from Manchester among his friends long before he dropped hints that during his absence he had “done the biggest thing in his life.”
Months went on, and one day when in a more than usually confiding state of mind, he told a relative the whole story; and it differed in no particular from the story he told in the condemned cell.
He said then that when he heard that the Dysons had taken out a warrant against him he went to Manchester.
He had not been there many days when he put up the house of Mr. Gatrix, at Whalley Range, intending to work it at night.
He went there before twelve o’clock, and it was he whom Mr. Simpson saw cross the road. He did not think the police were watching him when he went in at the gate, but before he got up to the house of Mr. Gatrix, he heard Police-constable Beanland following him.
He turned back towards the road, and jumped over the wall close to where Police-constable Cock was standing.
That officer tried to capture him, and as he would not keep back with the first shot he fired again, and hit him in the chest.
Attracted by the reports of his revolver he heard people coming in both directions, and to escape he jumped over the wall again into the grounds of Mr. Gatrix, and went through them past the place where the Habrons lived, and escaped without anyone having seen him.
The next day he heard of the arrest of the three Habrons, and he followed the course of the proceedings taken against them with the deepest interest.