Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/126

110 seller prevented any more from being disturbed, or I make no doubt, from the activity of the second man, more would have gone the same way. The long fan-tail great coat of the first man, concealed the second from the view of the sufferer.

Fellows who follow after town carts, waggons, stage carts, and such like, to pick up any portable package that may remain unprotected for a moment; they are a needy sort of thieves, and partake a good deal of the character of the last-mentioned, to whom they assimilate in many respects. In my preregrinations forward and backward, I have seen a couple of them dodge a waggon from Picadilly to the city, in order to dislodge a poorish-looking box from its tail. With a wisp of straw in his hand, to conceal a knife, one of them cut the cords that fastened the box to the tail (to the edge of which he shoved it); he unbuckled the leather which crosses that hind part of the tilting; and the motion which the faulty pavement now and then gave to the vehicle, soon shook about the straw and the box upon the ground. It would have been good prize, but for the interference of a civilian, who