“ ‘ “Hullo, chummy!” said he, “what’s your name, and what are you here for?”

“ ‘I answered him, and asked in turn who I was talking with.

“ ‘ “I’m Jack Prendergast,” said he, “and by God! You’ll learn to bless my name before you’ve done with me.”

“ ‘I remembered hearing of his case, for it was one which had made an immense sensation throughout the country some time before my own arrest. He was a man of good family and of great ability, but of incurably vicious habits, who had by an ingenious system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants.