in the glass above them.

An hour and a half limped heavily away in the thief-and-rascal

crowded passages below, even though assisted off with mutton

pies and ale. The hoarse messenger, uncomfortably seated on a

form after taking that refection, had dropped into a doze, when a

loud murmur and a rapid tide of people setting up the stairs that

led to the court, carried him along with them.

“Jerry! Jerry!” Mr. Lorry was already calling at the door when

he got there.

“Here, sir! It’s a fight to get back again. Here I am, sir!”

Mr. Lorry handed him a paper through the throng. “Quick!

Have you got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

Hastily written on the paper was the word “ACQUITTED.”

“If you had sent the message, ‘Recalled to Life,’ again,”

muttered Jerry, as he turned, “I should have known what you

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

meant, this time.”

He had no opportunity of saying, or so much as thinking,

anything else, until he was clear of the Old Bailey; for, the crowd

came pouring out with a vehemence that nearly took him off his

legs, and a loud buzz swept into the street as if the baffled blueflies

were dispersing in search of other carrion.

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

Chapter X

CONGRATULATORY

F

rom the dimly-lighted passages of the court, the last

sediment of the human stew that had been