Free Dodger of the Dials by James Benmore Page A

itself.’
    We bumped into another couple what had approached from the opposite direction to watch the well-worn clowns of the season and Lily broke off to make a big fuss about how much she admired the lady’s flowery dress. I meanwhile, explored the gentleman’s left-side coat pocket while his eyes was on my beautiful escort and, once I had executed the perfect dip, I signified to Lily that we needed to move on now. Once clear I inspected the find and discovered that the cove’s pocket contained just enough to buy us a pot of whelks each.
    ‘See what I mean,’ she tutted as we paused to eat them by a side attraction of distorted looking-glasses what made people seem either fatter, thinner or more frog-eyed than they really was. ‘You used to meet a more affluent set of people around here.’
    Lily and I was at last on speaking terms again following the furious row we had had when I had returned to our crib after the Turpin assault. I had been so shaken by the theft of the Lady ofStars and by what poison my gang had then poured into my ear about her that I was all lit up for a fight by the time I burst back into our apartment. She was sat at our little desk with a pen in her hand and writing a letter and – in my mistrustful frame of mind – I imagined that she must be communicating with her co-conspirators and I bounded straight over and snatched the letter away. It turned out she had been writing to her estranged sister up in the country and she took great offense at my oafish behaviour and some very cruel things was said on both sides. Lily became most enraged at the suggestion that she might have played some part in this plot against us and she pointed out that if she had told other thieves about where we was going and with what then she would hardly still be sitting about waiting for me to come home now, would she? Soon Mrs Grogan began knocking on our door to tell us both to keep the shouting down but even after that it was a few days before relations between us improved.
    But now, as the two of us worked the crowd of this once-popular annual event, it seemed as though romance had won through and I was again reassured that my darling girl would never betray me and she, on her part, had forgiven me for suggesting otherwise. But this did not alter the fact that my pecuniary situation was now somewhat straitened and so I too was disappointed by the lack of real money found in the young gent’s purse. I had managed to pay Mrs Grogan enough so that she and her sons did not make us homeless but it was a mean time what with all my other expenses. I had begun to resign myself to the unwelcome fact that the Lady of Stars was lost to us as, for all I knew, the Turpins could have returned to Ireland by now. And so, after much time and energy had been wasted upon the matter, I had begun to accept the truth that Percival’s generous reward was forever lost to me and that I was better off not dwelling on it further.
    ‘This sounds agreeable,’ I said to her once the whelks was finished and we headed towards where some fiddlers was playing. Three of them was sat upon the strongest branch of a tall tree and underneath a rope-dance was in progress. I knew that Lily could never resist such entertainments and I was keen for us to at least have a fun time while we was here. After I had flipped the last stolen shilling to the master-of-the-rope we was admitted into the ring where scores of other merry couples was already whirling about, bouncing, clapping and stamping within the great crush. We joined hands and she began to twirl and I soon noticed that every other male eye in the ring was on her as she danced and I was overcome with love for the girl. The little orchestra above soon reached the end of a lively jig and we all took the moment to catch our breaths before they struck up again. Lily was laughing with all the excitement and I took the opportunity to pull her towards me for a kiss. But, just as the strains of the