Читать книгу Charles Peace, or The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar онлайн

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“Well, then, you’re strong enough, and can keep ’em back if you like.”

“Don’t you be so cheeky, young fellow,” returned the other; “you aint everybody.”

“Give him a dab in the eye,” said a voice behind.

“I shan’t be at all particular about that if he gives me any more of his cheek.”

“Hush! Order!” ejaculated another of the crowd. “This aint a time to be a-quarrelin’.”

“Right you air, old man,” said another.

“Pies, all hot—​all hot,” shouted out an itinerant vendor of those delicacies. “Here’s some of the right sort, all hot.”

Several persons became purchasers. The morning air had given them an appetite, and they devoured the pies with evident relish.

A man in a black suit, with a white necktie and a low crowned hat, proceeded to distribute tracts to the gaping throng.

In a few moments he got unmercifully chaffed, but heedless of this he proceeded on his mission.

The hours passed on. It was nearly eight o’clock.

A man in a sable suit, bent form, and a feeble step, made for the door of one of the houses opposite to the gaol. He wore green spectacles, and to all appearance was a cripple, with a false arm. He passed through the doorway, and in a few moments after this had taken up his position at one of the front windows of the second floor of the house he had entered.