Chapter VII: Part 7

Seth looked hard at his visitor, and thought of one whom his mother had often talked of; but did not like to put an abrupt question, though he imagined the stranger's features strongly resembled his parent's.

"Are working people in Leicestershire usually so uncomfortably situated as you appear to be?" asked the stranger, in a tone of deep commiseration which he appeared to be unable to control.

Seth Thompson and his wife looked uneasily at each other, and then fixed their gaze on the floor.

"Why, sir," replied Seth, blushing more deeply than before, "we married very betime, and our family, you see, has grown very fast; we hope things will mend a little with us when some o' the children are old enough to earn a little. We've only been badly off as yet, but you'd find a many not much better off, sir, I assure you, in Hinckley and elsewhere."

The stranger paused again, and the working of his features manifested strong inward feeling.

"I see nothing but potatoes," he resumed; "I hope your meal is unusually poor to-day, and that you and your family generally have a little meat at dinner."

"Meat, sir!" exclaimed Seth; "we have not known what it is to set a bit of meat before our children more than three times since the first was born; we usually had a little for our Sunday dinner when we were first married, but we can't afford it now!"

"Good God!" cried the stranger, with a look that demonstrated his agony of grief and indignation, "is this England,—the happy England, that I have heard the blacks in the West Indies talk of as a Paradise?"

"Are you my mother's brother? Is your name Elijah Greenwood?" asked Seth Thompson, unable longer to restrain the question.

"Yes," replied the visitor, and sat down upon Seth's rude seat, to recover his self-possession.—

That was a happy visit for poor Seth Thompson, and his wife and children. His mother had often talked of her only brother who went for a sailor when a boy, and was reported to be settled in some respectable situation in the West Indies, but concerning whom she never received any certain information. Elijah Greenwood had suddenly become rich, by the death of a childless old planter, whom he had faithfully served, and who had left him his entire estate. England was Elijah's first thought, when this circumstance took place; and, as soon as he could settle his new possession under some careful and trusty superintendence till his return, he had taken ship, and come to his native country and shire. By inquiry at the inn, he had learnt the afflictive fact of his sister's death, but had been guided to the poverty-stricken habitation of her son.

That was the last night that Seth Thompson and his children slept on their hard straw sacks on the floor,—the last day that they wore rags and tatters, and dined upon potatoes and salt. Seth's uncle placed him in a comfortable cottage, bought him suitable furniture, gave him a purse of 50_l._ for ready money, and promised him a half-yearly remittance from Jamaica, for the remainder of his, the uncle's, life, with a certainty of a considerable sum at his death.

Seth and his wife could not listen, for a moment, to a proposal for leaving England, although they had experienced little but misery in it, their whole lives. The uncle, however, obtained from them a promise that they would not restrain any of their children from going out to Jamaica; and did not leave them till he had seen them fairly and comfortably settled, and beheld what he thought a prospect of comfort for them, in the future. Indeed, on the very morning succeeding that in which Seth's new fortune became known, the hitherto despised stockinger was sent for by the principal manufacturer of hosen, in Hinckley, and offered "a shop of frames," in the language of the working men; that is, he was invited to become a "master," or one who receives the "stuff" from the capitalist or manufacturer, and holds of him, likewise, a given number of frames,—varying from half-a-dozen to a score or thirty, or even more; and thus becomes a profit-sharing middleman between the manufacturer and the labouring framework-knitters. Seth accepted the offer, for it seemed most natural to him to continue in the line of manufacture to which he had been brought up; and his uncle, with pleasurable hopes for his prosperity, bade him farewell!—

"Well, my dear," said Seth to his wife, as they sat down to a plentiful dinner, surrounded with their neatly-dressed and happy children, the day after the uncle's departure, "we used to say we should never prove the truth of the old proverb, but we have proved it at last: times came to the worst with us, and began to mend."

"Thank God! we have proved it, my love," replied the wife; "and I wish our poor neighbours could prove it as well."

Seth sighed,—and was silent.——

Some years rolled over, and Seth Thompson had become a well-informed, and deep-thinking man, but one in whom was no longer to be found that passionate attachment to his native country which he once felt. The manufacturer under whom he exercised the office of "master," had borrowed the greater part of Seth's uncle's remittances, as regularly as they arrived; and as Seth received due interest for these loans, and confided that the manufacturer's wealth was real, he believed he was taking a prudent way of laying up enough for the maintenance of his old age, or for meeting the misfortunes of sickness, should they come. But the manufacturer broke; and away went all that Seth had placed in his hands. Every week failures became more frequent,—employ grew scantier, for trade was said to decrease, though machinery increased,—discontent lowered on every brow,—and the following sketch of what was said at a meeting of starving framework-knitters held in Seth Thompson's shop but a month before he quitted England for ever, may serve to show what were his own reflections, and those of the suffering beings around him.

About twenty working men had assembled, and stood in three or four groups,—no "chairman" having been, as yet, chosen, since a greater number of attendants was expected.

"I wish thou would throw that ugly thing away, Timothy!" said a pale, intellectual looking workman, to one whose appearance was rendered filthy, in addition to his ragged destitution, by a dirty pipe stuck in his teeth, and so short that the head scarcely projected beyond his nose.

"I know it's ugly, Robert," replied the other, in a tone between self-accusation and despair,—"but it helps to pass away time. I've thrown it away twice,—but I couldn't help taking to it again last week, when I had nought to do. I think I should have hanged myself if I had not smoked a bit o' 'bacco."

"Well, I'm resolute that I'll neither smoke nor drink any more," said a third: "the tyrants can do what they like with us, as long as we feed their vices by paying taxes. If all men would be o' my mind there would soon be an end of their extravagance,—for they would have nothing to support it."

"Indeed, James," replied the smoker, "I don't feel so sure about your plan as you seem to be, yourself: you'll never persuade all working-men to give up a sup of ale or a pipe, if they can get hold of either; but, not to talk of that, what's to hinder the great rascals from inventing other taxes if these fail?"

"They couldn't easily be hindered, unless we had all votes," said the first speaker, "we're all well aware of that; but it would put 'em about, and render the party more unpopular that wanted to put on a new tax."

"I don't think that's so certain, either," replied the smoker; "depend on't, neither Whigs nor Tories will run back from the support of taxes. D'ye ever read of either party agreeing to 'stop the supplies,' as they call it, or join in any measure to prevent taxes from being collected till grievances are redressed?"

"No, indeed, not we," chimed another, lighting his short pipe by the help of his neighbour's, and folding his arms, with a look of something like mock bravery; "and, for my part, I don't think they ever will be redressed till we redress 'em ourselves!"

"Ah, Joseph!" said the pale-looking man, shaking his head, "depend upon it that's all a dream! How are poor starvelings like us, who have neither the means of buying a musket, nor strength to march and use it, if he had it,—how are we to overthrow thousands of disciplined troops with all their endless resources of ammunition?—It's all a dream, Joseph! depend on't."

"Then what are we to do,—lie down and die?" asked the other; but looked as if he were aware he had spoken foolishly, under the impulse of despair.

"I'm sure I often wish to die," said another, joining the conversation in a doleful tone; "I've buried my two youngest, and the oldest lad's going fast after his poor mother; one can't get bread enough to keep body and soul together!"

"Well, if it hadn't been for Seth Thompson's kindness," said another, "I believe I should have been dead by this time. I never felt so near putting an end to my life as I did last Sunday morning. I've been out o' work, now, nine weeks; and last Saturday I never put a crumb in my mouth, for I couldn't get it, and I caught up a raw potatoe in the street last Sunday morning, and ate it for sheer hunger. Seth Thompson saw me, and—God bless his heart!—he called me in and gave me a cup of warm coffee and some toast, and slipped a shilling into my hand." And the man turned aside to dash away his tears.

"Ay, depend upon it, we shall miss Seth, when he leaves us," said several voices together.

"It's many a year since there was a master in Hinckley like him," said the man with the short black pipe, "and, I fear, when he is gone, the whole grinding crew will be more barefaced than ever with their extortions and oppressions of poor men. Seth knew what it was to be nipped himself when he was younger; that's the reason that he can feel for others that suffer."

"It isn't always the case, though," said another; "look at skin-flint Jimps, the glove-master; I remember him when he was as ragged as an ass's colt: and where is there such another grinding villain as Jimps, now he is so well off?"

"The more's the shame for a man that preaches and professes to be religious," said the smoker.

"It was but last Saturday forenoon," resumed the man who had mentioned Jimps, the glove-master, "that he docked us two-pence a dozen, again: and when I asked him if his conscience wouldn't reproach him when he went to chapel, he looked like a fiend, and said, 'Bob! I knew what it was to be ground once; but it's my turn to grind now!'"

"And they call that religion, do they?" said the smoker, with an imprecation.

"It won't mend it to swear, my lad," said the intellectual-looking man; "we know one thing,—that whatever such a fellow as this may do that professes religion, he doesn't imitate the conduct of his Master."

"I believe religion's all a bag of moonshine," said the smoker, "or else they that profess it would not act as they do."

"Don't talk so rashly, Tim," rejoined the other; "we always repent when we speak in ill-temper. Religion can't cure hypocrites, man, though it can turn drunkards and thieves into sober and honest men: it does not prove that religion is all a bag of moonshine, because some scoundrels make a handle of it. Truth's truth, in spite of all the scandal that falsehood and deceit brings upon it."

"Isn't it time we got to business?" said one of the group.

"I don't think it will be of any use to wait longer," said another; "there will not be more with us, if we wait another hour; the truth is, that men dare not attend a meeting like this, for fear of being turned off, and so being starved outright;—there's scarcely any spirit left in Hinckley."

"I propose that Seth Thompson takes the chair," said another, taking off his ragged hat, and speaking aloud.

A faint clapping of hands followed, and Seth took a seat upon a raised part of one of the frames at the end of the shop, and opened the meeting according to the simple but business-like form, which working-men are wont to observe in similar meetings, in the manufacturing districts.

"I feel it would scarcely become me to say much, my friends," he said, "since I am about to leave you. I thought, at one time, that nothing could have ever inclined me to leave old England; but it seems like folly to me, now, to harbour an attachment to a country where one sees nothing but misery, nor any chance of improvement. I would not wish to damp your spirits; but if I were to tell you how much uneasiness I have endured for some years past, even while you have seen me apparently well off and comfortable, you would not wonder that I am resolved to quit this country, since I have the offer of ease and plenty, though in a foreign clime. I tell you, working men, that I had power over Mr.——, by the moneys I had lent him, or I should have been turned out of this shop years ago. Week by week have we quarrelled, because I would not practise the tyrannies and extortions upon working men that he recommended and urged. It is but a hateful employ to a man of any feeling,—is that of a master-stockinger under an avaricious and inhuman hosier. But, if the master's situation be so far from being a happy one, I need not tell you that I know well, by experience, how much more miserable is that of the starved and degraded working-man. Indeed, indeed,—I see no hope for you, my friends,—yet, I repeat, I would not wish to damp your spirits. Perhaps things may mend yet; but I confess I see no likelihood of it, till the poor are represented as well as the rich."

It might produce weariness to go through all the topics that were touched upon by Seth and others. They were such as are familiarly handled, daily, in the manufacturing districts; ay, and with a degree of mental force and sound reasoning,—if not with polish of words,—that would make some gentlefolk stare, if they were to hear the sounds proceeding from the haggard figures in rags who often utter them. The "deceit" of the Reform Bill, as it is usually termed by manufacturing "operatives;" the trickery of the Whigs; the corruption and tyranny of the Tories; the heartlessness of the manufacturers and "the League;" and the right of every sane Englishman of one and twenty years of age to a vote in the election of those who have to govern him, were each and all broadly, and unshrinkingly, and yet not intemperately, asserted.

One or two, in an under-tone, ventured to suggest that it might be advantageous to try, once more, to act with the Anti-Corn Law men, since many of the members of the League professed democracy; and, if that were done, working men would not fear to attend a meeting such as that they were then holding. But this was scouted by the majority; and a proposal was, at length, made, in a written form, and seconded,—"That a branch of an association of working men, similar to one that was stated to have been just established at Leicester, should be formed." The motion was put and carried,—a committee, and secretary, and treasurer, were chosen,—and the men seemed to put off their dejection, and grow energetic in their resolution to attempt their own deliverance from misery, in the only way that they conceived it could ever be substantially effected: but their purpose came to the ears of the manufacturers on the following day, threats of loss of work were issued, and no association was established!

Seth Thompson took his family to the West Indies, pursuant to the many and urgent requests contained in his uncle's letters, and soon entered upon the enjoyment of the plenty in store for him. Hinckley stockingers remain in their misery still; and, perhaps, there is scarcely a place in England where starving working men have so little hope,—although "things," they say, "have come to the worst,"—that "they" will ever "begin to mend."

SAM SIMKINS, THE RUN-AWAY; OR, VILLAINY AS A REFUGE FROM THE TORTURES OF SOUR-GODLINESS.

Sam Simkins was a wild lad,—but whose fault was it that he became so? That was the significant question which uniformly followed the commemoration of his history among the old women of the village where he was born, and where, after the early death of his father and mother, he was apprenticed, by the parish, to Mr. Jonas Straitlace, the saddler and collar-maker. The village was not more than half-a-dozen miles from Birmingham; and to that town Sam usually trudged once or twice in the working part of the week on his master's business errands, and, invariably, accompanied his master thither twice on the Sunday, to attend the ministry of a Calvinistic teacher.

With the exception of a very restricted number of hours for sleep, these were the only portions of Sam's existence that could come within the name of relaxation. Some people gave Sam's master the title of a "money-grub;" but Mr. Jonas Straitlace himself modestly laid claim to the character of one who was "diligent in business, fervent in spirit, and——" the reader knows the rest. In brief, he was one of the too numerous description of folk who cast their sour into the sweets of innocent enjoyment on every occasion within their compass, and strive to throw a universal pall over the world by keeping their fellow-creatures in mind that the next life alone is worth a moment's thought,—and yet, daily and hourly illustrate their own gloomy lesson by grasping at the dirt called money as eagerly as if they believed they could carry it with them over the ford of the grave, and that it would be still more current coin in the next life than in this. Strict rates of charge to his customers in an age of competition prevented Straitlace from extending his business; but the consequence was, that he grew more pinching towards himself, and still more towards his apprentice, in allowing the body its proper amount of sustenance, or the general constitution its necessary share of healthful unbending. Sam was pinched in his measure of food, and watched while he ate it, lest the spoon should travel so slowly to his mouth as to prevent his return to labour after the lapse of an appointed number of minutes; he was "alarumed" up at five in winter, and at four in summer, and kept at the bench till eight; and what went down more hardly with Sam than either scant food and sleep, or unceasingly painful toil, was the fact, that his master's vinegared piety overflowed with such zeal for Sam's spiritual welfare as to compel him to spend the remaining time till ten, every working-day evening, in reading one book. Nay, the lad, in spite of the remembrance that every other apprentice in the village was allowed, at least, an hour's holyday-time, each day, would have felt it to be some amelioration of his captive lot, had he been allowed to derive such amusement from the book as it might afford; but Straitlace's zeal for Sam's happiness in the next life, taught him that he must use even this extreme resort to mortify the lad in the present state of existence, and, therefore, Sam must read nothing but the Prophets, in one division of the book, and the Epistles, in the other!

Such was the discipline to which Mr. Jonas Straitlace subjected Sam Simkins from the age of nine, when the parish placed the lad under his care, to fifteen. Straitlace had one invariable answer to all who remonstrated with him on the undue severity, the imprisoning strictness, he exercised towards his apprentice:—"Train up a child in the way he should go," he would say, quoting the whole text, "that's a Bible reason for what I do: it doesn't allow me to parley with flesh and blood: I must obey it."

Mr. Jonas Straitlace had found that fine moral pearl in the great Oriental treasure-house of the wisdom-jewels of ages, and he was too sordidly ignorant to know that the originator of the maxim never intended the "should go" to be left to the judicature either of brain-sick zealots and morbid pietists, or of rash experimenters and fanciful speculatists. But what cared Straitlace about the legitimate and fair interpretation of the text? His ready quotation of it served his purpose: it kept "meddlers," as he called them, at arm's length, and secured the links of that grinding slavery which held Sam to his task, and brought money into the till.

It would be a heart-sickening detail, that of the incidental miseries Sam experienced in these six years: suffice it to say, his chain was tightened till it snapped. He contrived to form an acquaintance in Birmingham who advised him to "cut" his tyrant-master, and "cut" him he did. Yet, Mr. Jonas Straitlace knew the value of Sam's earnings too well to be inclined to give up his bird without trying to catch it again. He set out for Birmingham, made inquiry, and learned that Sam, in spite of being minuted by his master's watch, had contrived, almost uniformly, on his errands, to spend a quarter of an hour in a certain low public-house, and that he had done this, habitually, for more than a twelvemonth past. Straitlace bent his steps to this resort, and, by his crafty mode of questioning, ascertained from the landlord that Sam had that very morning been in his house with one "Jinks,"—yet that was not the man's right name, the landlord added, but only a name he went by.

"And pray who is this Jinks?" asked Straitlace.

"He was once a man in great trust, sir," answered the landlord, with some solemnity: "he was head clerk in a first-rate lawyers's office in this town. But it was found out at last, that Jinks had 'bezzled a good deal o' money belonging to the firm; and so he was sent to gaol for a couple o' year; nay, he was very near being hanged. And so when he came out o' limbo, you understand, why nobody would trust, or hardly look on him; and he's now got from bad to worse."

"What mean you by that?" asked Jonas.

"The least said is the soonest mended," replied the landlord.

"I wish you could tell me where I could see this man," said Straitlace: "the lad is my apprentice, and this man will do him no good: besides, I am losing money by his absence."

The landlord stared, bit his lip, with a look that told he wished he had not talked so fast, and then made answer that he was busy that morning, and, besides, it was ten thousand to one whether Jinks could be found in his hiding-hole, if they were to go to it:—"and, more than all," he added, "there is no believing him, he is such a fellow to thump: he tells so many lies, poking his eyes into every corner, and never looking in your face all the while, that I often think Jinks must find it hard to invent new ones."

Straitlace was versed sufficiently in human character to discern that the prattling landlord was made of squeezable materials, and so he urged his questions and entreaties until he had won his point, and the landlord undertook to conduct him to "Jinks's hiding hole."

Threading an alley in one of the dingiest streets in the town, they wound through several crooked passages, and arrived at a paltry-looking small square. From a corner of this dirty and half-ruined quadrangle, the landlord advanced along a path that could scarcely be supposed to lead to a human dwelling. It was what is designated a "twitchel" in the midland counties, being barely wide enough to admit one person at a time,—and was the boundary line of two rows of buildings, the eaves of which overhung it, and rendered the passage as gloomy as if it were scarcely yet twilight. Straitlace scrambled with difficulty after his conductor, and over the heaps of cinders, broken pots, and oyster and muscle shells which lay along this dark tract; and when they came to the end of it, and had descended half-a-dozen stone steps, they arrived at what looked like the door of a cellar. Here the landlord shook his fist at Straitlace, and compressed his features, as a signal for his companion to keep strict silence. He then tapped, very gently, at the door; but, though he repeated his timid knock, no one answered.

"Jinks! Jinks! I say," he whispered through the key-hole, after he had knocked the third time.

"Who's there?" said a sharp, angry voice.

"It's only me, Jinks:—I want to speak t' ye," answered the landlord.

"You lie, Jemmy Jolter:—there's more than you only," retorted Jinks, with a snarl so sudden and crabbed that it flung the other entirely off his guard.

"Well—but—but," Jemmy stammered; "this person wants to see you about that youth that was with you this morning, Jinks, and——"

"Whew! Jemmy Jolter, you've let it out again," replied the strange voice within: "get home, ye long-tongued fool, get home! what fool is that beside ye to employ such a sieve to carry water?"

"Oh, very well, Jinks," said the weak landlord, turning round in dudgeon: "a time may come when you may want a good turn doing, you know."

"I'll let you in, by yourself, Jemmy, if you like," said the keeper of this questionable garrison, fearful of losing the good offices of the landlord; "or I'll admit that verjuice-faced fellow who stands beside you, with the white apron round him."

The outer party here looked at each other with some alarm, on finding they were each seen so plainly by one who was to them invisible.

"You don't think I shall advise a respectable man and a stranger to come into such a den as yours, alone,—do ye, Jinks?" said the other, in a voice of displeasure.

"Then you may both keep out," retorted the concealed speaker; "at any rate, you'll both be safe there. Twist my withers, if ever I admit two clients into chambers at once! No, no! it wouldn't do, Jemmy! What I say here goes into only one pair of ears besides my own."

"I'll venture alone, if he'll only admit me," said Straitlace, his eagerness to learn something of Sam, and, if possible, to recover the possession of him, subduing the repugnance he felt against trusting himself alone in such suspicious company.

The door was slightly opened in a moment; and before the landlord could remonstrate, Straitlace was admitted, and the bolts were again closed within. Jinks seized his visitor by the hand, and rapidly pulled him up a dark stair. Straitlace's mind misgave him, as he reached the top of the ascent: it conducted to a narrow apartment in which there was no furniture but a broken chair, and a strong wooden bench; while a bottle, and an earthen pot, with some discoloured papers, covered the end of a barrel which appeared to serve the wretched habitant of the room for a table. There was no fire in the dirty grate, and viewed through the murky light admitted by the small window which was half-obscured with papers, patching the broken panes, the appearance of the squalid chamber sent a shuddering feeling over Straitlace's skin.

"Well, and so now you are admitted to my _sanctum sanctorum_,—what's your will?" asked Jinks, with a grin of derision, and seating himself on the broken chair.

Straitlace was not a timid man; but the dark skin, projecting teeth, and overhanging brows of the figure before him, and, more than all, the diabolical fire of his eyes, really affrighted him, and he remained speechless.

"Don't stare at me in that way, you fool," said the grim figure, savagely; "I'm not a wizard, though I do deal with the devil sometimes. What d'ye want to know about Sam Simkins?"

Straitlace was amazed at the effrontery of the fellow, in turn: "I insist upon it, that you tell me where he is, since you seem to know," he said, his displeasure giving him a little spirit.

"Whew!" was the only answer made by the grim figure, who turned the empty pot towards the light, and then looked into it, and then looked at Straitlace, who was 'born sooner than yesterday,' as they say in the midlands; but who was not disposed to show that he penetrated the meaning of the spunger's masonic sort of hint.

"I insist upon knowing where you have concealed my apprentice," said Straitlace, trying to put on a bold look.

"I've neither concealed him, nor shall I snitch, and tell you where he is, if you ape the bully," replied Jinks, with cold mockery.

"Then, as sure as you sit there, you villain," answered Straitlace, thinking he should lose the end of his errand entirely, if he did not keep up the appearance of determination, "I'll have you before a magistrate, and imprison you till the boy is produced."

"I advise you to be cool," answered Jinks, with a look of such peculiar devilry that it made Straitlace feel chill with fear: "you wouldn't get me before a magistrate if you were to try. And, besides, there's more than one can light a match; and your cottage will burn, you know,—ay, and your collars and old saddle traps too."

Straitlace dared not threaten now; he found that the fellow knew him; and he felt the peril of the ground he stood on. He sank on the bench, and gazed timidly and silently at the broken-down lawyer's clerk, who evidently enjoyed his triumph.

"You're cooler, I see," resumed Jinks, and then looked into the earthen pot again.

"I don't mind a trifle, by way of recompense," said Straitlace, torturing his tongue to frame the words, "if you'll only assist me in recovering my apprentice."

"Rayther sensible that," answered Jinks tauntingly; but still looked into the empty pot.

Straitlace overcame his own master-passion for the instant, and placed a half-crown beside the empty drinking cup; but Jinks instantly pushed it off the barrel, into the floor, in contempt. Straitlace felt the blood rush to his neck and face, but once more struggled with his own reluctance, took up the half-crown, and laid down a half-sovereign in its stead.

"Sensible,—very!" observed Jinks, slowly; and then suddenly starting up, said, "Now, _Mister_ Jonas Straitlace, what will you give to have this stray dog of yours put quietly into your hands, muzzled and collared, so that you may take him home safely?"

"Isn't that enough?" said the other leeringly.

"Two whole sovereigns into my hands to-morrow morning at seven,—here,—at the bottom of the steps,—and you have him. Otherwise, there's your road, Mister Jonas Straitlace," returned Jinks, and pointed to the stairs.

The saddler saw he was in a most disadvantageous position for making a choice, and hesitated.

"I've other clients, and have no time to fool away upon you," rejoined Jinks: "speak the word! yes or no," and moved towards the steps.

"Then I'll be here at that time," answered Straitlace, with a mental reservation; and he had scarcely uttered the words when three knocks were distinctly given under his feet; but Jinks seized his hand, hurried him down the steps, and thrust him out, and bolted the door behind him, with a strength and speed that caused him to turn round and stare at the closed door with wonder, when he stood once more in the twitchel.

The landlord seized his arm, and recalled him to the remembrance of where he was. Straitlace evaded the landlord's inquiries as to the result of his errand, persuaded that he could best carry into effect the scheme which had suggested itself to him, with other aid than that of a person who appeared to have some connection with Jinks. He marked the way to the door, and paid particular observance to the passages, and to the exact locality of the street, and thanking the landlord for his trouble, took his way home, somewhat to the surprise of the landlord himself, who had expected he would return to the public-house.

On the night succeeding the morning in which Straitlace had been admitted to that squalid chamber, the narrow space itself was changed into a hold of guilty riot and thievish conspiracy. The fumes of tobacco which filled the room would have rendered respiration impossible to any but the actual participators in that scene of infamy; the fog of smoke being so dense that the human beings there assembled seemed to be kneaded into the thick vapour rather than surrounded by it. The struggling flames of a fire which had just been kindled, and was covered by a huge iron vessel, nearly choked up the draught of the narrow chimney, and threw an uncertain light upon the figures which nearly filled the narrow room. The singular being who was the habitual tenant of the chamber sat in his broken chair close by the fire, augmenting the gross sociality of his associates by the vehemence with which he consumed tobacco in a wooden pipe; but adding not a word to their busy conversation. A strong coarse-looking woman, crouched immediately before the fire, was alternately attempting to clear a passage for its progress, and slicing onions from her apron to put into the caldron. Her short clay pipe, with the filthy black cup scarcely protruding beyond her nose, showed her attachment to the favourite excitement of her depraved companions. Behind her stood the barrel, before described as the only substitute for a table in Jinks's room, and upon the end of it was placed a large metal jug of spirits, which the various members of the group lifted to their lips, by turns, as inclination moved them.

The confused conversation was suspended in a moment by three distinct and measured raps being given at the door below; and Jinks jumped up, exclaiming, "That's the young'un I told you of: I'll let him in." And he darted down the steps, unbolted the door, pulled in Sam Simkins, and, in the lapse of scarcely three minutes, introduced him to the villainous company. The fellows gazed at Sam, and one swore that he only looked like a starved rat, and another said he was more like a stunted badger; but all agreed that he looked likely to be useful, for he had a hawk's eye in his head. Sam felt somewhat loutish at the unrestrained gaze of the thieves; but Jinks placed him upon the bench next his own chair, chucked him under the chin, and holding the metal jug to his mouth, told him to drink. Sam did drink a little, and thought the draught scorched his throat; yet in a few minutes he felt a flow of spirits that completely banished his bashfulness.

"And so you've cut the starve-gut rascal, eh, young'un?" said an impudent-looking fellow who sat on the farther end of the bench, and who was, at once, the most frequent visitor to the jug, and the most eager talker in the villainous conclave.

"What the devil was he to do else?" said Jinks, seeming to wish to keep off from the lad the assailment of questions by the gang: "was he to stay and be pined outright?—Bess," he continued, addressing the woman, "isn't the stuff ready?"

"The can's empty," said the fellow who had just spoken, interrupting Jinks: "we'll have it filled again."

"Not to-night," said Jinks, with an oath.

"Not to-night!—why not, old hang-dog, and be d—d to ye?" asked the other, dropping his pipe, and looking as if he would fell his opposer.

"Because there's a job on hand that requires cool brains, ye guzzling ape!" answered Jinks, in a tone which showed he was not to be frightened by the bully, his brother in roguery. "Wide-mouthed Bob will be here directly, and we must then prepare for business."

"What the devil can he be about to be so late?" cried the woman, who was still squatted before the fire: "the broth's ready, and I shall pour it out if he doesn't come in a crack. Hark!" she said,—and the quarrelsome crew were silent:—"there he is!"

Jinks started from his broken chair at the sound of a whistle, hurried down the steps, and was speedily in his old position again, while the new comer was welcomed with shouts of "Give us your hand, captain!—success to ye!"

"Silence, you fools!" said he who was thus saluted: "d'ye mean to bring the bull-dogs upon us?" And he took up the jug, but finding it empty, he looked discontented. Jinks, however, seized the jug, removed the barrel from the spot on which it stood, pulled up a trap-door, and descended, and then returned with the jug refilled, with the usual rapidity that characterised his movements.

"Ay, ay, you know who's come now, old juggler," said the bully, tauntingly, to Jinks as he again appeared from the subterraneous room, with the vessel full of brandy.

"Yes, and I know that they have a right to the sugar-candy that are the first to put their fingers into the fire to get it," said Jinks, showing his ugly teeth very forbiddingly; "and not every skinking coward that ties his neck to his heels to save it when there's work to be done."

The bully returned no answer, seeming conscious that his cowardice deserved the rebuke.

"Get the supper-tools out, Jinks," said the woman, and took the boiling caldron from the fire.

Jinks climbed upon his chair, and reaching down a large wooden bowl, from its concealment in the ceiling of the room, placed it upon the end of the barrel, and sat down again.

"Why, you old brute, do ye think we are going to pig it all out of one trough, on a night like this?" exclaimed the woman, pouring out the stew into the bowl:—"reach every man his pap-spoon and dish, or I'll spoil your grinding before you begin!" and she aimed a blow, with a brazen ladle, at Jinks's scalp, which he evaded, and reached forth a set of basins and spoons from the same strange repository.

The steamy flavour of Bess's cookery speedily attracted the appetites of her companions. Limbs of fowls and game, mingled with the soup, showed the illicit source from which such a company had obtained the raw provisions for the meal. Bess poured out half a basin of the stew first, for the individual who was called "captain," and filling up the vessel with brandy from the jug, handed it to the leader, with a coarse coaxing smile. She then served the rest, in the order they sat, beginning with Jinks, and not forgetting the lad. Sam smacked his lips at such a treat, and congratulated himself on having taken the advice of Jinks, and run away from his master. He soon disposed of the contents of his basin; and then felt strongly attracted to notice the appearance and behaviour of him whom the thieves acknowledged as their principal.

The personal appearance of Wide-mouthed Bob rendered the dependence of the crew upon his presence and enterprise, Sam thought, a matter of no wonder. His stature was full six feet, and the great breadth of his chest and shoulders, and extreme length of his arms, terminated by hands of monstrous size, gave demonstrations of unusual physical power. The width of his mouth was the most striking feature in his face, and had procured for him the common nickname by which Jinks had first mentioned him during the evening. The forbidding glance of his large eyes, from under a low forehead, and brows as shaggy as if they pertained to an ass's colt, with the bull-dog shape of his head, at the sides, causing his ears to stand forward after a form scarcely human, were also peculiarities in the features of the captain-burglar.

His third basin being despatched by this powerful animal, for such his peculiarity of frame seemed to warrant his being termed, the conversation took a turn for business. Robberies of a cheese warehouse, a flour shop, a liquor vault, and even of the subterranean workshop of a "smasher," or maker and vender of false coin, were planned. The only debate was, which was to be undertaken first; and as there was some difficulty in settling this point, the captain called for the jug to be replenished. Jinks descended once more, but returned with only half the vessel full, and, setting it down, declared the barrel below was empty.

"Then that determines the point," observed Wide-mouthed Bob: "we must make our way direct to the brandy cellar."

The gang immediately assented,—the liquor was shared; and in a few minutes, all, save Jinks, and the woman, and the lad, descended by the stairs, and departed on their lawless enterprise.

Sam Simkins had fallen asleep some time before the departure of the gang, but was awaked by Jinks, as soon as he had bolted the door and re-ascended the steps, to receive his first wholesale lesson in villainy. The lad felt the lesson very unwelcome to his nature, at the beginning; but the remembrance of the horrors from which he had escaped, and the promise and prospect of a wild freedom, and a continuance of the good fare he had met among the thieves, soon subdued the inward whisper that he was going wrong. Jinks and the woman were most successful in their schooling of Sam, while they dwelt upon his master's conduct towards him:—

"But did the nigger-driver never let you play a bit, Sam?" asked the woman: "you say you always dropped work at eight, and went to bed at ten:—what did ye in the two hours, my lad?"

"I used to read Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophet-books in the Bible, and Romans, and Corinthians, and them ere parts of the Testament," answered Sam: "mester would na let me read owt else, unless I managed to do it slily."

"And what did ye think to what you read, Sam?" asked Jinks, suddenly dropping his pipe, and looking at the lad with an air of new interest.

"He, he!" snivelled the lad, and twisted his thumbs with a loutish look,—"I could na make owt on 'em!"

"How the devil were ye likely?" said Jinks: "that Paul would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer, for he was a devilish long-headed fellow, and no mistake; as for Jeremiah, and the rest of 'em, I know little about 'em; but it was an ugly slavish way of using you, my lad,—you'll find the difference now. All that you have to do is to mind your P's and Q's, and I'll warrant ye, it'll be a merry life for ye."

The lad snivelled again, and felt wonderfully pleased.

"Now hark ye, Sam," continued Jinks, "who had your master in the house, besides himself and you?"

"The missus," answered Sam; "but hur never taks no notice o' nowt, hur's ower deeaf."

"Capital!" exclaimed Jinks, cracking his thumb and finger; and then the lad received instruction as to his first grand act of villainy, and while he was receiving it, Bess prepared the caldron, once more.

Three hours elapsed, and the whistle of Wide-mouthed Bob was heard again. Jinks performed his porter's office as before, and the captain and three others of the gang speedily tugged up the stairs a couple of kegs of liquor, which were as speedily concealed in the subterranean room.

"Where's the rest o' the birds?" asked the woman.

"Sent 'em home to roost," replied the captain; "and now you and all of us must cut, old girl, and leave Jinks to his cage."

"But not before we've tasted the new broach," said the woman.

"No more tasting of it, this morning," answered Bob; "we shall soon be blown, if we carry on that game: we'll have breakfast and go."

The word of the leader was law. The stew was again poured up; and when it was devoured, Sam having his share as before, the chief burglar, and the other three thieves, with the woman, departed; and Sam Simkins also set out on the errand for which Jinks had lately bestowed instruction upon him.

At eight the following morning, Mr. Jonas Straitlace appeared in the twitchel, as before, and summoned the attention of Jinks by a bold rap. Jinks was speedily at the door, and Straitlace was again admitted into the thievish head-quarters.

"Now for the chink!" said the broken-down lawyer.

"But where's the lad?" asked Straitlace.

"The moment you down with the dust, that moment I tell you where he is, safe and sound, and nearer home than you think of; so that you'll have very little trouble to seek him," answered Jinks.

"When I find the lad I'll pay you," said the saddler; "you may be deceiving me."

"Why, d—n it!" said Jinks, "what d'ye take me for?—let that sneaking fellow, who stands squeezed up in the corner there below, be witness between us."

Straitlace turned pale; but Jinks was at the bottom of the stair in a moment, and again ascended, bringing up a man dressed in a thick top coat that covered his under dress.

"Now, let this constable be witness between us," said Jinks: "he's a respectable man, and you could not have brought a better man with you."

Straitlace was amazed;—but he summoned resolution, and said, "Constable, I insist upon your taking this man into custody, for having either decoyed away from me, or concealed, or harboured, my runaway 'prentice."

The constable put on a very stupid look, and answered,—"Why, as to that, I've no proof of any part of it, you know, and I decline to interfere."

Straitlace felt confounded at the fact of his own man, as he had deemed the constable, deserting him, and stood staring in amazement.

"Now, Mister Jonas Straitlace," said Jinks, "I'd have you to remember that I don't give professional advice for nought, any more than other lawyers. You came here to ask my help and instruction, and I engaged to give it you for two sovereigns: pay me that down, and I undertake that you shall find your apprentice at home when you return."

The saddler felt enraged at the villain's impudence, but the constable was against him:—"If you made that bargain you had better keep it," said the functionary, "and if this man breaks it, then I shall be witness to it." And Straitlace felt he was so awkwardly fixed in that suspicious place, and between the two, that he gave Jinks the two sovereigns. Had he kept a strict watch upon the motions of the constable and Jinks he would have seen them share the booty, ere they hurried down the stair.

Straitlace reached home, and found that Sam had returned, but was again departed. His deaf wife could only tell that she had scolded him, and made him get to work in the shop without his breakfast; but she did not know when he went off again. The condition of the "till," in the shop, fully proclaimed the way in which Sam had employed himself during his brief stay. It had been forcibly wrested from its place, though strongly fixed, and robbed of its contents, which were not great, but were sufficient to destroy, by their loss, the peace of Mr. Straitlace's spiritual mind for many a day after.

Straitlace sat down to his work instead of going again in search of Sam Simkins. Of what value would a thief be to me? was one question he asked himself; and—shall I spend in law, to prosecute him, more money than I have thrown away already? was another. A few days after, he met the constable in Birmingham, and related his disaster. "You act wisest to keep quiet," said the constable: "it seems the man kept his word in sending the lad home,—so that I don't see how you could have the law of him, there; and as for the young scoundrel, he would do you no good:—good-day, sir."

Straitlace did not know whether there was any soundness in the man's observation about law; but he was loath to spend more money or lose his time,—so he gave Sam up.

The lad returned to Jinks's "hiding-hole," and received great commendations for the clever way in which he had used the "jemmy," or small steel crowbar, which Jinks had entrusted to him. The robbery of his master's till was his first performance with this crack tool that old gaol-birds chirp so much of; but it was not his last, by many a score. He progressed in skill till he became the favourite comrade of Wide-mouthed Bob, and the two were the terror of the neighbourhood for years.

It could serve no virtuous purpose to detail his thieveries; and as for the character of the company he kept, the sketch foregoing may suffice to show what it was. He was, at length, sent over-sea for life, in company with the leader and two others of the gang; while Jinks escaped, only to decoy more lads into vice, and train them for the hulks or the gallows; but Mr. Jonas Straitlace, through the grinding of his customers, lost them,—so that he took no more apprentices to train up, in his own peculiar way, for Jinks's second training and perfecting process.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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