e running and
shouts of "Stop, thief!" A man came along round the corner full pelt,
and, just as I got up, dashed through the wicket and ran on to the wharf.
I was arter 'im like a shot and got up to 'im just in time to see him
throw something into the dock. And at the same moment I 'eard the other
people run past the gate.

"Wot's up?" I ses, collaring 'im.

"Nothing," he ses, breathing 'ard and struggling. "Let me go."

He was a little wisp of a man, and I shook 'im like a dog shakes a rat.
I remembered my own pocket being picked, and I nearly shook the breath
out of 'im.

"And now I'm going to give you in charge," I ses, pushing 'im along
towards the gate.

"Wot for?" he ses, purtending to be surprised.

"Stealing," I ses.

"You've made a mistake," he ses; "you can search me if you like."

"More use to search the dock," I ses. "I see you throw it in. Now you
keep quiet, else you'll get 'urt. If you get five years I shall be all
the more pleased."

I don't know 'ow he did it, but 'e did. He seemed to sink away between
my legs, and afore I knew wot was 'appening, I was standing upside down
with all the blood rushing to my 'ead. As I rolled over he bolted
through the wicket, and was off like a flash of lightning.

A couple o' minutes arterwards the people wot I 'ad 'eard run past came
back agin. There was a big fat policeman with 'em--a man I'd seen afore
on the beat--and, when they 'ad gorn on, he stopped to 'ave a word with
me.

"'Ot work," he ses, taking off his 'elmet and wiping his bald 'ead with a
large red handkerchief. "I've lost all my puff."

"Been running?" I ses, very perlite.

"Arter a pickpocket," he ses. "He snatched a lady's purse just as she
was stepping aboard the French boat with her 'usband. 'Twelve pounds in
it in gold, two peppermint lozenges, and a postage stamp.'"

He shook his 'ead, and put his 'elmet on agin.

"Holding it in her little 'and as usual," he ses. "Asking for trouble, I
call it. I believe if a woman 'ad one hand off and only a finger and
thumb left on the other, she'd carry 'er purse in it."

He knew a'most as much about wimmen as I do. When 'is fust wife died,
she said 'er only wish was that she could take 'im with her, and she made
'im promise her faithful that 'e'd never marry agin. His second wife,
arter a long illness, passed away while he was playing hymns on the
concertina to her, and 'er mother, arter looking at 'er very hard, went
to th