Very irate was this witness, and very indignant the glances he gave over his spectacles at the prisoners.
Those were the boys of course!
Well, he had been befooled by the small chap’s funny nose and absurd antics—any one else would have been the same. Well, he had a personal interest in the great race, and had come out to meet some friends who were returning from Epsom, he had given the small boy only a passing thought. When violently knocked by him, he had believed it to be accidental, and caused by the eagerness and swaying of the crowd—his was not a suspicious nature. No, he had felt no hand in his pocket—and knew nothing of any robbery until the policeman showed him his own purse and watch in the elder prisoner’s hand. Though obliged to the constable for his zeal, he must add he thought it shameful that such a thing could happen in any well-governed land!
“Will you tell us precisely what your purse contained, and describe its appearance?” asked Mr Vernon.
“I can do that to the letter,” replied the angry man. “I am not likely to forget my own purse or my own money.”
“We must ask you to confine your remarks to answering the questions put to you,” interfered the magistrate. “How much did your purse contain, and what kind of purse was it?”
“The purse you wish me to describe, and which I repeat I can describe, was a green Russian leather one, with silver fastenings. It contained (I know to a farthing what it contained) five sovereigns in gold, a half-sovereign, two florins, and sixpence, besides in one pocket a cheque for twenty pounds on the City Bank. The cheque was not signed.”
The purse being opened, and its contents found to answer to this description, it was handed back to the old gentleman, who was then requested to describe his watch; and on his doing so, and also getting back this property, he became much more gracious, and retired, with his anger considerably cooled, to his former place beside the little woman in black.
“If you have a watch, ma’am, hold it safely,” he whispered to her. “Even here, and surrounded by the officers of the law, we are not safe from the light fingers of these young ruffians.”
