Stranica 231 [231]
173
the office, and accompanied it with copious
directions how he was to walk straight
up the passage, and when he got into the
yard take the door up the steps on the
right-hand side, and pull off his hat as he
went into the room, Charley Bates bade
him hurry on alone, and promised to bide
his return on the spot of their parting.
Noah Claypole, or Morris Bolter, as the
reader pleases, gametes ti followed the
directions he had received, which—Mas¬
ter Bates being pretty well acquainted
with the locality—were so exact that he
was enabled to gain the magisterial pre¬
sence without asking any question, or
meeting with any interruption by the
way. He found himself jostled among a
crowd of people, chiefly women, who
were huddled together in a dirty frowsy
room, at the upper end of which was a
raised platform railed off from the rest,
with a dock for the prisoners on the left
hand against the wall, a box for the wit¬
magistrates on the right; the awful lo¬
partition which concealed the bench from
the common gaze, and left the vul
imagine (if they could) the full majesty
of justice.
here were only a couple of women in
the dock, who were nodding to their ad¬
miring friends, while the clerk read some
depositions to a couple of policemen and
a man in plain clothes who leant over the
table. A jailer stood reclining against
the dock-rail, tapping his nose listlessl y
with a large key, except when he re¬
pressed an undue tendency to conversa¬
tion among the idlers, by proclaiming
silence, or looked sternly up to bid some
woman “take that baby out,” when the
cries, half-smothered in the mother’s
shawl, from some meagre infant. The
walls were dirt-discoloured, and the ceil¬
ing blackened. ‘There was an old smoky
bust over the mantel-shelf, and a dusty
clock above the dock—the only thing pre¬
sent that seemed to go on as it ought; for
depravity, or poverty, or an habitual ac¬
all the animate matter, hardly less un¬
pleasant than the thick greasy scum on
every inanimate object that frowned upon
it.
who might be supposed to bear a strong
resemblance to his father, nobody at al!
answering the description given him of
Mr. Dawkins was to be seen. He waited
in a state of much suspense and uncer¬
tainty until the women, being committed
for trial, went flaunting out, and then was
quickly relieved by the appearance of an¬
other prisoner, whom he felt at once could
be no other than the object of his visit.
{t was indeed Mr. Dawkins, who, shuf¬
fling into the office with the big coat
sleeves tucked up as usual, his left hand’
in his pocket, and his hat in his right,
preceded the jailer with a rolling gait
altogether indescribable, and, taking his
place in the dock, requested in an audible
voice to know what he was placed in that
"ere disgraceful sitivation for.
s Hold your tongue, will you?” said the
jailer.
e ["m an Englishman, ait I?" rejoined
the Dodger. “ Where are my privileges ?”
“You'll get your privileges soon
enough,” retorted the jailer, “ and pepper
with "em."
c We "11 see wot the Secretary of State
for the Home Affairs has got to say to the
beaks, if I don’t,” replied Mr. Dawkins.
c Now then, wot is this here business?
I shall thank the madg’strates to dispose
of this here little affair, and not to keep
me while they read the paper, for I’ve
got an appointment with a gentleman in
the city, and as I’m a man of my word
and wery punctual in business matters,
he "11 go away if I ain’t there to my time,
and then p’raps there won't be an action
for damage against those as kept me
away. Oh no, certainly not !”
At this point the Dodger, with a show
of being very particular with a view to
proceedings to be had thereafter, desired
the jailer to communicate “ the names of
them two old files as was on the bench,”
which so tickled the spectators that they
laughed almost as heartily as Master
Bates could have done if he had heard
“Silence there !” cried the jailer.
s What_is this?’ inquired one of the
magistrates.
“ A pick-pocketing case, your worship.”
“Has that boy ever been here be¬
fore!"
“ He ought to have been a many times,"
replied the jailer. " He has been pretty
well everywhere else. J know him well,
eral women who would have done very
15*
6 Oh! you know me, do you?" cried
making a note of the state¬