"Think?" said Bassett. "Why, he's as good as confessed to me already! But that doesn't matter; if you still wish it I'll do my best."
"I do wish it, sir," replied Daintree, sternly. "Either the best you ever did in your life, or nothing more. Which do you say, sir?"
"Oh, I'll do all I know; that I promise you," said the solicitor. "I was thinking of you entirely. Why, the case fits me like a coat of paint!"
CHAPTER XIV
OLD NEWGATE
Tom Erichsen was committed for trial about four in the afternoon, by which hour the High Street of Marylebone was thronged by would-be witnesses of his removal in the prison van. But a recent experience, when a posse of police had to accompany the van with drawn staves, had taught the officers a lesson; and their prisoner was spirited away by the side entrance and a hackney coach, while the crowd were watching the gateway for that live man's hearse. The coach started westward down Paddington Street, but was on its course in a couple of minutes, without a solitary follower.
The two police-officers congratulated themselves and each other, but never took an eye off Tom, though they had him handcuffed and held by one arm. Tom, however, paid no heed to them. It was the third of May. The sun was as high as at a winter’s noon; it blazed in the bright shop-windows; it rimmed the cobble-stones
