my pockets for something worth taking. One of them with a sudden
thrust upon me snatched my handkerchief. He tossed it to a
friend. As he started to run from me, a young man with an evil,
weak face pushed me backwards with a violent shove. I staggered
back, from the push, to fall over a boy who had crouched behind
me there, ready to upset me. When I got up, rather shaken from my
fall, the dirty gang was scattering to its burrow; for they
lived, like beasts, in holes scratched in the ground, thatched
over with sacks or old clothes. I hurried back toward Wapping in
the hope of finding a constable to recover my handkerchief for
me. The constable (when I found him) refused to stir until I made
it worth his while. Sixpence was his fee, he said, but he was
sure that a handsome young gentleman like myself would not grudge
a sixpence to recover a handkerchief. On searching for my purse
(in which I had about two shillings) I found that that had gone,
too, "nicked" by these thieves. I told the Constable that my
purse had been stolen.

"Oh," he said. "How much was in it?" I told him.

"Could you describe the man who took it?"

"No." I said. "I did not see the man take it."

"Then how do you know that anybody took it?"

Of course I did not know that anybody had taken it but thought it
highly probable. "That won't do here," he said, settling down in
his chair to his tobacco. "I'll look into it. If I hear of it,
why, next time you come here, you shall have it."