SV - 05 - Sergeant Verity and the Swell Mob. Read Free

swear I may be damned if I so much as saw it!'
    Bunker and the three constables looked pointedly away.
    ‘Don't
play me up, Joseph,' said Samson gently. The bunched knuckles came up, short
and fast, into the narrow stomach. There was a start and an abrupt retching
sound from the handcuffed prisoner.
    'Now then,'
said Samson pleasantly, ‘Where d'you say that jool was?'
    Stunning
Joe, his wrists locked behind him, was bowing over the table with perspiration
starting on his forehead. His words came breathlessly.
    If it ain't there now,' he
said miserably, 'it never was in the safe.'
    And
then, to the embarrassment of the others, he began to weep silently. Samson
laid a hand on his shoulder again.
    'You
mean, Mr Bunker ain't telling the truth? Or Baron Lansing's been having us all
on?'
    'I don't know, Mr Samson! I
don't know! ’ There was no mistaking the abject howl of despair.
    Samson sighed.
    'Well then, Stunning Joseph,
I’ll tell you how it looks to me. I been brought all the way from the
Private-Clothes Detail in Scotland Yard. And I ain't that partial to countryside,
meself. What I see is all the Lansing jools locked up snug in the safe. And
then, with me own eyes, I see you, going in through that window and coming out
with the spondoolicks. Course, you had a few minutes to make away with any
little trinket, before you and me struck up our acquaintance in the stable
yard. That emperor's clasp, what was sworn to as being in its box before your
game began, ain't anywhere to be seen. No one touched that box but you, my
son.'
    O’Meara made his last defiance. 'They must a-done!
They bloody must!' Samson ignored the outburst.
    'I
ain't got more time to waste, Joseph, seeing the grounds’ll have to be searched
presently. So I’ll put it to you like this. When the business comes to court,
who's going to be believed? Banker Lansing with more money in Pall Mall than
you ever dreamt of? Or a bleedin' little thief like you?'
     
     
     
     
    2
    Stunning
Joe gave his gaolers no trouble in the weeks before his trial at the Old Bailey
sessions. Once before he had been lodged briefly in the grim neo-classical
fortress of Newgate prison, next to the Central Criminal Court. They brought
him in apart from the other prisoners, through the lodge, with its iron-bolted
doors and window grilles. The way led along a narrow gas-lit passage, lined
with the plaster death-masks of the murderers who had been hanged on the public
platform outside the press yard. At the end of this was the great nave of the
prison under its glass roof, five floors of cells rising on either side with
their iron balustrades and spiral ladders.
    He was
locked into the last reception cell on ground level. Only the two condemned
cells lay beyond his. The iron door slammed and the lock turned. They left him
to himself in the high cramped space, the lower wall painted with green disinfectant
lime, the upper half whitewashed.
    From
time to time he heard the shuffle of feet in the yard outside, the rattle of
iron, and the warder's voice, 'Step out there! Will you step out!' Hoisting
himself to the bars, he saw the slow circling of figures. These were convicted criminals,
dressed in coarse brown uniform. The 'Scotch cap' covered their faces, as well
as heads, leaving only two circles for the eyes. Each man was identified solely
by the numbered disc sewn on the breast of the woollen tunic.
    Day by
day, O'Meara swore that he would not give way to despair. Old Mole and Mr Kite
might do something for him. At least they would find a lawyer to present his
case. There would be times when escape, or even rescue, was possible. A prison
van transferring men to the hulks at Woolwich or Portland might be
successfully attacked. But the memory of betrayal at Wannock Hundred and the
mystery of the Shah Jehan clasp began to sour his hope.
    One
morning, in the week before his trial, he heard the marching tread of several
warders and their rhythmic shout of 'Governor-r-r!' calling the