Dodger of the Dials (14 page)

This aroused more cheering among those what was susceptible to flattery but there was still much disquiet in the room. It appeared that Slade’s reputation as a violent criminal was even greater than I had realised. He had risen to prominence during the years when I had been away in Australia which explained why I had been less aware of his legend than these others was. But I could tell by the general reaction of these Diallers that I had been underestimating his influence and this strengthened my conviction that the decision to ally myself with him was a wise one.

‘No one here has any reason to fear Billy Slade,’ I continued. ‘In truth, it was he what returned the stolen necklace into the hands of her rightful owners.’ I hesitated and realised I needed to unpick that last statement. ‘Or rather returned it to me. This he did as a mark of respect to a crook about who he has heard impressive things. Someone whose reputation is as great as his own.’ There was a short pause as every face there stared back at me as if expecting this
announcement to be followed with their own name. ‘Again, that’s me.’

‘So that’s why the payment was light then?’ Georgie understood at last. ‘I’m surprised that Slade didn’t sell it on and keep the money for himself.’

‘You ain’t listening then, are you?’ I snapped. ‘He could have done that but instead chose to return it. Out of respect. Got it now? He’s frightened of me.’

‘Frightened?’ someone scoffed.

‘Of you?’ laughed another.

‘Do us another turn, Dodge.’

‘Why else?’ I asked, offended by their incredulity. ‘He’d much rather have me as a partner than as a rival and to that end he’s made a friendly gesture which I have accepted in good grace. Myself and Billy Slade are now in league together. Put that in your pipes.’

That shut them up. There was an impressed murmur throughout the whole taproom but the first person to question the claim was the last I would have expected. Still stood in front the door what led into the saloon bar, with the empty tray hanging down from his left hand, was the meek landlord of the Cripples and he seemed most unsettled by the news.

‘What d’you mean by
in league
, Dodger?’ asked Barney. ‘Meaning you’re equal partners?’

‘Of a sort, yeah,’ I answered although I knew that the exact nature of the arrangement was going to sound shakier than that. ‘We’ll be working together, hand in glove, as part of the same operation.’ This was when Tom uncrossed her arms and leaned forward, her manner all confrontation.

‘Working together?’ she spat out. ‘Does that mean that we carry on with our usual doings and he just takes half the earnings for nothing? Because that’s my understanding of this grand deal
you’ve done for us, Dodger. We’ll be stripping that warehouse in Hackney, as planned, but only now your new mate gets his share. And for what? Not because he’s scared of you but because it’s the other way around.’ This explosion of disgust was echoed around the room.

‘That true?’ cried Herbie, outraged by the idea. ‘Half of everything? Why would we agree to that?’

‘Oh, I get it,’ said the Chickenstalker with a sorry shake of his head. ‘We’re paying him protection. Jack here,’ he flicked his hand towards me, ‘is trying to dress it up as a good thing, but we’re under Slade’s thumb or else.’ More consternation broke out after this and I found myself despairing at how small-minded and afraid they was all being. I decided to persuade them by using the same language by which Slade had convinced me.

‘London has altered much within our own lifetime, boys,’ I began trying to recall his exact words as I spoke over the hubbub. ‘And there’s a real opportunity for the likes of us to advance ourselves if we care to. You know, like the peelers have done.’

‘The
peelers
?’ asked Harry Wick, as if he had misheard.

‘That’s right. I mean to say, if you think about it, they’ve been doing all right, haven’t they?’

‘Have you run soft?’

‘No. Listen. Some people hate the peelers. But not me. I respect them if anyth—’

‘Respect ’em?’ laughed Mick Skittles. ‘You hate the blue lobsters, Jack. You’re always running ’em down.’

‘True. I do hate them. But look at the way they’ve organis—’

‘The Artful’ll be in uniform in a minute,’ jeered the Chicken-stalker for the benefit of the rest. ‘You watch. Just like his brother.’ This was a reference to Horrie Belltower, my mother’s other son, what had been a disgrace to his people and joined the police force.
A roar of laughter went up around many of the boys and I burned at the injustice of the remark. But there was some gathered what did not find the notion of me praising the police to be at all droll and at the back of the room I saw Ned Nails and Joe McAllister heading for the door what the landlord was still blocking. Ned signalled for Barney to move aside but before they could depart I stopped everyone in the room dead with one very simple action. I picked up my own personal pewter pot, what I had rested on the table behind me, and then slung it with some force straight at the head of the Chickenstalker. It landed with a heavy crack and he jerked back in surprise and let loose an agonised cry. A sudden hush fell upon the room and they all stopped what they was doing and stared. Chickenstalker then leaned forward and blood began dripping out of his nose onto the unshaved wooden floor as he cursed my name.

‘Half-brother!’ I shouted at him in genuine rage. ‘And if you ever insinuate that I’m not safe again, I will end you, Stalker. Understand?’ I then turned to the rest and made things even more clear. ‘Or someone else will.’

The room was mine once more. The shock of the attack took grip and they all exchanged looks as if unsure what to do about it. They had never before seen me lash out at one of my own – I had a reputation for being very indulgent of my gang’s high spirits before this. But it seemed now as though everyone present was regarding me through new eyes and I felt a rush of raw pleasure at it. The only voice heard was that of Barney. ‘I think you boys had better sit down again, eh?’ he said to Ned and Joe, who was still standing by the door waiting to leave. So Slade had been right, I thought, as I watched these two brawny men take their seats once more and give me their utmost attention. Our people only ever really respect fear.

‘Wipe your nose,’ I said to the Chickenstalker, putting steel into my voice as I pulled out my own handkerchief and handed it to him. ‘You’re getting blood all over Barney’s floor, you maladroit individual.’ I then returned my attention to the rest of them, my blood still high from the thrill. ‘Now then,’ I said as I saw Mouse’s face looking at me as if he had never seen me before. ‘Where was I?’

The rest of the meeting was a much smoother affair and I found it a lot easier to achieve clarity of expression when the entire congregation was half-expecting me to throw something else at their heads at any given moment. I was able to explain to them in simple terms the benefits to us joining forces with Slade and before long they all started seeing things my way.

‘So it’ll work like this,’ I said after ordering another round of drinks from Barney which I declared would be on me. ‘You just carry on doing what you’re doing now. Pocket-picking, house-cracking, stealing horses, running women. However you want to make your living is still up to you. But things will be more efficient from here on. Billy has connections and influence what he’s happy to share with me and I’m going to pass these down to you. By way of for instance, if you’re a dipper and you want to work a particular patch then you don’t want lesser talents scaring off the big game. Billy will see to it that any inferior thieves are kept away from whatever railway station or other public place you go finding in. Either by command or by force and this’ll make the whole venture a lot more profitable for you. And for those of you what run bawdy houses –’ here I acknowledged Big Hubbard, the only brothel-keeper in the room and someone what I knew was having a hard time in recent months – ‘then Slade is happy to send some fresh girls over to yours. He has them shipped in from France, Belgium, Denmark – all over Europe. So
that should bring the custom back again.’ Big Hubbard seemed pleased by this news and there was many other nods of approval once they started realising how much they stood to earn now that I had been given Slade’s blessing. But the question of who was now top sawyer still bothered them.

‘So we’re paying up to Slade?’ asked Herbie. He was shuffling a deck of cards in his restless hands as he often did when troubled. ‘We don’t have to wear those bloody hats an’ all, do we?’

‘No,’ I replied. ‘Because you’re my men, not his. You’re paying up to me, I’m paying up to Slade. That’s the way things’ll go.’ Once this was good and clear I told them that business was concluded and we all headed out into the main bar. Nobody spoke to the Chickenstalker as they all shuffled out of the room, he was still in disgrace. But before I made it through the door myself I felt a hand reach out and touch my sleeve. It was Mouse, and he said he wanted a quiet word.

‘Thanks for the bustle, Jack,’ he said once we was out of earshot of the rest. ‘It’s come at the right time, I’ve been having it hard of late.’

‘I know that,’ I said recalling how much he worried about his poor motherless newborn. ‘I hope baby Robin is finding that midwife I got for him up to snuff. We’ll get him another if not. As I said, you’ll be earning more as a pickpocket than ever now. He won’t want for nothing.’

‘Well, that’s what I wanted to speak on,’ he said once we was alone in the taproom. ‘I want to get out of the dipping game. It don’t make me as much without Agnes to distract and I can’t see the use in these new advantages if I still have to pay half to someone else. No, don’t get me wrong …’ he continued before I had a chance to promise him that he’d be richer not poorer under the new arrangement, ‘I appreciate what you’re doing. But I saw
how much money Tom and Georgie got for the job out in Kent. And I was hoping you could get me into house-cracking too.’

‘You sure, Mouse? It’s a riskier art.’

‘Not if you’re only doing it once a fortnight, it’s not. I have to work the crowds every day of the week to earn what you boys do in one evening. All I’m saying is – if any more big cracks come up then you might think about involving me. I’d appreciate it. For baby Robin’s sake.’

I smiled and placed my arm around his shoulder before leading him out of the room and back to where the others was striking up a song.

‘I’ll bear it in mind,’ I said to him as we walked through the bar together. ‘Now that we’re a bigger gang your son’ll have the best of everything. It’ll be the genteel life for that lucky little bugger. Everything’s going to be just rosy.’

‘Thanks, Dodge,’ Mouse smiled as Georgie placed another pot of ale into his hands and the rest of the boys reached the first rousing chorus. ‘You’re a good man.’

*

A china plate missed the side of my head and shattered into the kitchen wall behind me. It was the third I had dodged since getting home and I had to keep moving if I was to avoid the next one.

‘You’re a rotten bastard, Jack Dawkins,’ Lily yelled, ignoring my pleas to just calm down a bit and think of the earthenware. ‘And a bloody fool. I told you to steer clear of him, didn’t I? I told you he was a wrong ’un.’

‘This is expensive crockery you’re throwing, Lil,’ I reasoned with her as I held out my hands in a gesture of peace. ‘And I found it in a lovely home. Show it some proper respect now, eh?’ The last plate in her hands span through the air and smashed into a picture-frame just to the left of me as I dashed into the next room.

‘I had a whore of a time trying to free myself from Slade,’ she raged as she pursued me into the bedroom. ‘Do you know how much it took to walk away from him? And now you’ve gone and put us straight back in his clutches!’

I had been darting all around our little dwelling and avoiding her missiles ever since she had got back from her trip away and I was starting to find it all most wearisome. I knew that she was displeased with me – I had expected that when I had returned in the early hours of the morning after striking the deal in Hammersmith and told her what I had done – but I was sorry to see that she was still being volatile about it days later. She had not had the chance to vent at me at the time as we had urgent matters to attend to first and I had hoped that the storm would have passed by the time she returned from her excursion. But it seemed that the tempest was still inside her and so I grabbed the blanket, pulled it up to my nose and used it as shield until she was done expressing herself through destruction.

‘Let’s just settle down so we can have a civilised conversation about this, eh, my light?’ I asked, as soon as I thought it was safe. ‘After all, you needn’t get involved at all. It’s my business this, not yours.’

‘Then how come I’ve just spent two days travelling to Rochester and back?’ she railed against me now that her hands was empty and her urge to throw things looked to be reaching its end. ‘To see my pinch-faced, uppity sister. I hate going to her for help, Jack. She’ll take any chance to look down on me, the snooty cow.’

Lily and her sister was not much alike. Lydia Wadey was the wife of a provincial schoolmaster and, although I was not likely to be formally introduced to either her or her impoverished husband any time soon, I knew that the relationship between the two sisters was not what you would call cordial. Lily was a fallen woman and
therefore a disgrace to her whole family, and this Lydia had said some very severe things to her upon that subject over the years. Lily had been trying to mend relations with Lydia for some time but I knew it would have been hard for her to go and seek out her disapproval once more and, in spite of the cost to the crockery, my gratitude to her for this was deep.

‘You did it though, Lily?’ I asked as I lowered the blanket down. ‘You got them to take in Scratcher? Because, if so, you’ve gone and saved his life.’

She breathed out hard and her whole self looked more at ease at the words. There was still a fierceness in her but when she next spoke it was with an air of pride at a job well done.

‘They took him in, yeah,’ Lily nodded. She then crossed over to the wooden rocking chair what was covered in clothes, pushed them onto the floor and then sat down with an exhausted bump. ‘Lydia might be all fire and brimstone when it comes to me but she’d not turn away a homeless wastrel when presented with one. I imagine she took a lot of satisfaction in showing me just what a good Christian she is for the hundredth time.’ Lily rolled her eyes and then her left hand went up to her brow like it was thumping at her from within. I moved around the bed and came over to where she sat, careful not to aggravate her again, and I knelt down in front of the rocking chair.