Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/305

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A CHILD OF THE JAGO

women, and contrived to pass in unobserved among them. Several Jagos were in the court, interested not only in Josh's adventure, but in one of Cocko Hamwell's, who had indulged the night before in an animated little scramble with three policemen in Dalston; and they waited with sympathetic interest while the luck was settled of a long string of drunk-and-disorderlies.

At last Josh was brought in, and lurched composedly into the dock, in the manner of one who knew the routine. The police gave evidence of arrest, in consequence of information received, and of finding the watch and chain in Josh's trousers pocket. The prosecutor, with his head conspicuously bedight with sticking-plaster, puffed and grunted up into the witness box, kissed the book, and was a "retired commission agent." He positively identified the watch and chain, and he no less positively identified Josh

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