None of these poncefied blokes, a real wide boy, wide as Regent Street



The West End was gay with its last flicker of life before the streets were given over to the night birds. Sky signs tumbled and danced their chromatic electric dances, commissionaires called cabs, people with voices unnaturally loud took emphatically affectionate farewells, bums walked around with despair in their hearts, wide boys looked out for a chance to nick a wallet or buzz a moll. Among the crowd, walking with bent, out-thrust head, was a man with his hands deep in his raincoat pockets. A magnet was luring him to Bond Street. After all, why not? The police were incompetent idiots. How could they be expected to catch a Master Mind like the Lone Wolf even if they dared lay their sacrilegious hands on him? So the police had arrested Big Harry, had they? Who was Big Harry? He must be that wretched creature's bully. Despicable, loathsome. To think that a woman should sell her favours, insult a man by asking him for money, and then hand the money over to some oily brute. Good God, it was disgraceful. A pang of joy ran through him at the thought of this Big Harry in the clutches of the police. Triumph. Revenge. So clever, but beaten at last. It would be funny if they hanged Big Harry. Very, very funny.

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