“Never mind that, search quick.”
“The Lord help me!” she exclaimed, as she fumbled in her empty pocket; “it’s gone, with the pawn-ticket. I’m ruined, sir; it’s all I have in the world, and how am I to meet the factor? I’m ruined, ruined!”
And she burst into tears, sobbing in the midst of the crowd.
“Get as fast as you can to the Police-Office,” said I, “and I’ll bring to you the pickpockets, and maybe your money. You know one of them.”
“Who could be so cruel?” she inquired.
“The young woman you blabbed to in the pawnbroker’s stair,” said I.
“Oh, the Lord forgive her,” said she, “for I told her the whole story of my grief.”
“Which you should have kept to yourself,” said I. “Away to the Office, and wait for me.”
And having seen her off I proceeded down the High Street, in the direction taken by the thieves. That confidence I have so often felt, and perhaps somewhat vaingloriously expressed, I can account for in no other way than viewing it as a result of my knowledge of thieves and their haunts, joined to the impression of so many successes. On this occasion I was so sure, that I believed I walked as if I had been going to dinner, without being quickened by a very sharp appetite; but I did not feel the less desire to get hold of those who had so unknowingly to themselves roused sympathies in my breast, made sluggish, no doubt, by the hardening influences of official routine. Mary Anne was so well known about the High Street, that she couldn’t pass without the observation of the loungers in that crowded resort of the poor. A few passing hints, like dots in a line, led me along till I came to Toddrick’s Wynd, at the head of which I paused, and casting a glance down with my advantage of a good eye for a long wynd, I saw one of those little clots of human beings, generally so interesting to me, in proportion as they shew an interest among themselves. I was quicker now, and rushing forward, I came upon the three I wanted, all busy in the glorious ceremony of division, that is, giving every one his own, with the exception of the proprietor. The very sums were in their hands, with the unction inseparable from the acquisition of money.
“Five shillings to Mary Anne, and half-a-crown to each of you,” said I, “is fair. I will settle it for you, since you seem to disagree. The pawn-ticket for the blankets is for my trouble.”