Almost every case which has come into my hands, and in which there was difficulty in tracing, has had some thing to mark it as demanding a treatment suited to its peculiarity. In following that treatment, I have had occasion, in conformity to the latitude intrusted to me, to differ from my colleagues, but seldom with much cause to repent of my pertinacity. In the case I am now to narrate, this occurred to a greater extent than in some others; and, perhaps, it is on that account—for the trans- action itself is of frequent occurrence, the robbery of a tar—that I recur to it.
In 1845, we were called upon by a sailor of the name of Geddes, a Newhaven man. He was in that state in which these good-natured fellows often are, after having passed a night in some of the low houses, in the midst of half-a-dozen of depraved women, collected around him by the attraction of a bunch of notes. He came in very unsteady, and withal jolly, with the indispensable quid in his mouth, and the hitching up the breeches as usual.
I asked him his errand. “ Why, you see,” said he, “ I was boarded and robbed by a nest of pirates over in that creek there,” pointing towards the other side of the High Street. “ When ? ” said I. “ Last night, second watch.”
“ A very loose watch, I fear,” said I. “ Why didn’t *you keep a better look-out ? ”
“ Right, sir; but then you see we had too much grog, and got hazy about the eyes, so that we couldn’t see the enemy nohow, until fairly boarded, and now it’s all up with my cargo.” “ What had you on you ? Have you been at sea ?”
“ Why, yes, your honour, I had been cruising in the South Sea, and came to Leith yesterday, where I laid in a cargo of notes, twenty-eight of ’em, and wanted to have a scour among the fire-ships up in this dangerous sea, and so got robbed you see; everything gone, sir,—not a penny—^nothing left, but this piece of seal-skin, with an inch or two of pig-tail.” “ You have paid for your fun,” said I; “ but where did this happen ? ”
“ I think the name of the creek,” he went on, “ is Galloway’s Close. The captain in charge of the pirates, Hill, or something of that shape. Then there was Nell, Grace, Moll, and Agnes; but I couldn’t tell one from t’other now.” “ But why didn’t you take care of your hard-won money, man ? ”
“ And so I did,—lockers bolted and barred; but they silenced me with their charges of gin and whisky, and when I went to sleep, scrambled up the sides of my craft, and robbed me of every penny. So if you can’t make sail and catch ’em, I must off again to sea; but catch me next time,—I’ll give that creek a wide berth, or my name’s not Jack Geddes.” “ Can you tell me what like the women were ?”
“ All of a piece to my eyes—-just women, every one of them, that’s all; all the same you know when a man’s
groggy; but I wouldn’t mind it so much if they hadn’t
sheered off, and left me a disabled hulk, without a biscuit in the locker, and nothing to comfort me, but a sore head and two quids or so.” “You have mentioned four names; do you remember any more ? ” said I. “ No, can’t say,—half-a-dozen anyhow.” “ Why had you so many sweethearts i ”
“ Oh, we like a choice you know,” said he, laughing; “ at first there were only Nell and Molly, then one told t’other as how I had a rich cargo, and so the fleet collected.” “ Well, I’ll try what can be done for you,” said I. “ I hope you’ll give ’em a taste of the grating and cat anyhow.”
“ Wouldn’t it be of more importance if I could get the money? ”
“ Oh yes; wouldn’t require to go to sea again; and then mother would get something, you know, and old father.”
“ If you had given it to them to keep,” said I, “ you wouldn’t have been here to-day.” p
“ Yes/’ he replied, with a comic kind of seriousness stealing over his face, if there was not something like a
drop gathering in his eye, of which I was the more certain that he brought the sleeve of his jacket over his
forehead. “ Yes; the old ones will get nothing till next time, and I’d rather not see ’em till I’ve gone to sea again and come home and make ’em happy. I’ll keep out of Galloway’s Creek next bout, I warrant.” “ Would you know them if you saw them ?”
“ Wouldn’t I know the cut of the enemy ? ” said he, getting into his old humour. “ They came to too close
quarters for my not knowing ’em.”
“But you cannot tell which of them took the money ?”
“No; I just remember a low room, stoups and glasses, and a fleet of women. I was singing ‘Tom Bowling/ and Nell was helping me,—others singing some- thing else, and one or two dancing,—all merry and jolly, —when I must have fallen asleep, for the next thing I remember was that they were all off, the gas out, and nothing to be seen but darkness—and all my money
gone; nothing but the seal-skin pouch and the quid to
go to sea with again.”
“ It’s a hard case, my lad,” said I; “ but you have brought it upon yourself by your folly. I’m sure you all know well enough of these tricks, and yet they
are always coming fresh upon us. I will set about try- ing to get hold of the pirates, as well as your money. Call back in the afternoon, and in the meantime keep a look-out about the streets, and endeavour to lay hold of them.” So away he went, hitching in the old style. I had no great hopes of his case. The women he had men- tioned were known to me very well, as residing in, or frequenters of, a Mrs Hill’s establishment, in the close he had mentioned; butthey were experienced hands, and so well up to “ planking” such an easily disposed of article
as money in the shape of bank-notes, that to get hold o( the thieves was making scarcely any progress. But the difference I have alluded to was as regards the first step. Going direct to the den is often held to be the best method of getting hold of a beast who is glutted with prey; but women, even of their depraved kind, are not exactly beasts, though in many respects worse. They are not altogether deprived of the glimmer of reason sufficient to tell them that their lair will be first searched. To go there is simply to give them warning and put them on their guard. Yet this is the common way of many detectives; and I was only taking my old way when I insisted, against a contrary opinion, that we must in the first place avoid the house. But there is another consideration, derived from the inevitable nature of women. The moment they get hold of more money than will serve them for their always crying immediate wants, including the eternal whisky, their very first thought is dress. They will go a-shopping at all hazards. Their trade is to attract, and it often enough happens that the very shawl, or bonnet, or gown which helps to ensnare the victim, is the produce of a robbery similar to that they will practise upon him; so that, I believe, it has occurred that, as the money is distributed from one to another, a man has been caught and robbed by means of the cash he had in his pocket a
night or two before. There is a pretty bit of retribution here, very instructive; but I believe it’s all one whether understood and felt or not. If sin were to be cured by the scab of its own cautery, it would have been off the face of the earth some thousands of years ago, down to the pit, never to be allowed to come up again to taint this fair world. Proceeding upon my theory of avoiding the house, I, accompanied by one or two constables, betook myself to the Bridges, where are the shops most frequented by women of this stamp. I just wanted to know if the thieves were true to their old nature. They had had time enough to sleep off the effects of the whisky, and to awake to little else than the madness of their conviction that they had each a bundle of notes in their pockets, which it was necessary they should scatter, by purchasing new things, to enable them to get quit of the old rags. I accordingly kept pacing the Bridges, as if in no hurry consequent upon the sailor’s story; and I believe if they had seen me, they would have been satisfied either that Jack was still in Mrs Hill’s, or that he had never been to the office. On the other hand, if I had seen them, I could have read money in their eyes. Yes, as I have hinted before, if you know the general cast of the features of people who live from hand to mouth,—and a very artful hand sometimes, in the case of that class over whom I exercise a fatherly care,—you can almost with certainty tell whether any windfall has come in their way, for you may be assured that nothing but money can make them look happy; and then the happiness has a kind ofhysterical excitement about it that carries a mark to a good observer. Nay, when a good haul is got of £20 to £100, there is often observed a commotion in the whole sister- hood, even among those who don’t participate in the plunder, for doesn’t it shew that there are prizes in their lottery ?—their fortunate turn will come next; the vic- tims are getting rich and unwary;—and, above all, there is the inevitable envy of the lucky sister or sisters who have been so unspeakably fortunate, without taking into account that there will be drink going in the “ happy lands ” for a week to come, until the money is all spent and gone. After keeping up my watch for more than an hour, I observed Helen Mossman and Grace Edwards coming out of a respectable shop, each with a neatly tied up draper’s bundle. I kept my eye upon them. They had the happiness of shopping in their hearts, and were babbling, as money-holders do; nor did they seem to have any fear of being laid hold of, though, of course, they did not see me. In the midst of their talk, they met Agnes Pringle and Mary Cameron bouncing out of another shop, where they also had been getting their neat paper parcels, and then they commenced a quadruple conversation, apparently extremely interesting to them, for they laughed heartily, and even, you would have thought, turned their eyes contemptuously on the passengers on either side of them, as if they said to themselves,
“ We have been shopping as well as the best of you for to what woman is the pride, let alone the pleasure, of shopping not dear? But as I stood and watched them, another thought occurred to me. There stood four women, who had taken from a poor seaman the wages of a year’s voyage to the other side of the world, and left him not so much as would get him a day’s tobacco, while he had an old father and an old mother looking to him for help, and only to be met with the miserable intelligence that their hopes were blasted. What did this poor fellow do to them that they should render him penniless, even make Ms stout heart swell with pity for these parents, and bring the tear to Ms eye, to be brushed off in shame of what he thought Ms weakness ? No, they cared nothing for these things,—Jack was not even mentioned, only collars, and ribbons, and handkerchiefs, to deck them out for some other seduction.
I was in no hurry. Here I had Jack’s Nell, and Moll, and Grace, and Agnes, all in a neat clump, while, if I had taken the advice given to me, I might not have had one of them; for a visit to Galloway Creek would have sent Sarah Hill, the daughter of the keeper ofthe house, out upon a hunt after them, to tell them to keep out of the way; and this they might have done till every
penny of the £28 was gone. My men were now behind me, for they had also seen the birds getting into the net ; so, stepping up to them,— “ You are blocking up the way, my ladies ; walk on.” “ Walk to the devil! ” said Nell Mossman. “ The street is not yours.”
“ We will walk any way we please,” said another. “Which way do you want us to walk?” said a third. “ This way,” said I, pointing north; “ this way, come along.” And so they did; for in spite of their bravery they began to get alarmed.
I walked along with them to the Tron.
“ Oh, not that way,” stopping them as they moved for the Canongate; “ this way, past the Tron.” “ And why that way? ”
“ Never mind, come along, and here is a friend who will go with us and bear us company;” and who’s this but Jack, all sober and tidy, with a clear light at his poop and a fine breeze in his main-sheet ?
“ All right,” he cried, as he came up; “ direct for port, four passengers and a valuable cargo.” And Jack came to my side, as the cowed and heartless creatures still kept mechanically trudging by our side. “ Old mother and father have a chance yet,” said I, in a low tone to the tar.
“ Oh, God bless you, sir,” rejoined he; “ were it not for them I wouldn’t have cared a d—n, but since ever I saw you this morning my heart has been thumping against my ribs, like a moored lugger against the wooden fenders of a pier, all for the thought of the old ones.” And there the drop came again.
“ D ’ye know, sir,” he continued, “ I had made up my mind ”
“ For what ? ”
“ Not to see ’em after eighteen months’ absence, but just away to the West Indies again today.” “ This way, ladies,” said I, as we came to our haven. And as they turned and stood for a moment in hesitation, though they had seen plainly enough for several minutes whither they were bound, Jack stood and surveyed his jolly friends of the preceding night’s revelry and madness. There was a good-natured triumph in his clear eye. “Why,” cried he, with an oath, “this is so jolly good a thing, I’d have the same fight again to have these land-pirates at my stem.” “ Step in.” And thus I had the entire company within my harbour; and then we began to unload the outlaws, an officer being sent to the house to search it. A part was found there, and the rest had been pretty fairly distributed, so that, making allowance for the purchases and a few drams, we got, one way and another, almost the whole of Jack’s £28. Thus, old father and mother would have a chance, after all, of getting a few comforts through the mean of their good-hearted son. Yet, I believe the most curious and lamentable feature of this case is that to which I have partially alluded,—the utter want in these women of anything like a sense that they had done anything that was wrong in reducing a poor man to beggary. It is nothing to see them hardened in cases where the victims are rich,—the “ serve-’em-well ” doctrine applies there with perhaps a touch of retribution, for such women are in that predicament from the selfish licentiousness and hollow-hearted deceit of rich seducers. Nor, do I believe, did they feel more when, tried by the Sheriff and a jury, they got their rewards : Helen Mossman twelve months, Grace Edwards six, Agnes Pringle and Mary Cameron nine, and Sarah Hill, the bawd’s daughter, as resetter, seven. “The pirates doom”