and walked up and down the wharf thinking. On'y a month afore I 'ad lent
Sam fifteen shillings on a gold watch and chain wot he said an uncle 'ad
left 'im. I wasn't wearing it because 'e said 'is uncle wouldn't like
it, but I 'ad it in my pocket, and I took it out under one of the lamps
and wondered wot I ought to do.

My fust idea was to take it to Mrs. Bullet, and then, all of a sudden,
the thought struck me: "Suppose he 'adn't come by it honest?"

I walked up and down agin, thinking. If he 'adn't, and it was found out,
it would blacken his good name and break 'is pore wife's 'art. That's
the way I looked at it, and for his sake and 'er sake I determined to
stick to it.

I felt 'appier in my mind when I 'ad decided on that, and I went round to
the Bear's Head and 'ad a pint. Arter that I 'ad another, and then I
come back to the wharf and put the watch and chain on and went on with my
work.

Every time I looked down at the chain on my waistcoat it reminded me of
Sam. I looked on to the river and thought of 'im going down on the ebb.
Then I got a sort o' lonesome feeling standing on the end of the jetty
all alone, and I went back to the Bear's Head and 'ad another pint.

They didn't find the body, and I was a'most forgetting about Sam when one
evening, as I was sitting on a box waiting to get my breath back to 'ave
another go at sweeping, Joe Peel, Sam's mate, came on to the wharf to see
me.

He came in a mysterious sort o' way that I didn't like: looking be'ind