The occasion in question was when he had believed himself to be securely hidden in a carriage which was discreetly stationed beside a certain public house called The Navigation. On that night he had with him a dubious and murderous villain who was on a particular errand for him: he was to commit one Gabe Drury to the murky depths of the canal, where his silence would be assured. Gabe had been unfortunate enough to see many years ago a particular ‘gentry’ leaving the site where heinous murders had been committed. Murders involving Mary Grady and her illicit lover, the bargee. Murders involving others, who as yet were undetected. It was Caleb Crowther’s intention that they would remain so.

It had been imperative to Caleb Crowther that he silence the old drunk, Gabe Drury, once and for all. The deed was suitably executed. But on the night of its doing, that same street urchin had peeped inside his carriage. From that day to this, Caleb Crowther could never be sure whether he had been recognized. To his thinking, the surest way of safeguarding himself would have been to eliminate the luckless urchin; to dispatch her to the deep along with the luckless Gabe. But up until now, he had never again set eyes on her whom he suspected was Emma Grady’s lost daughter. The irony of it all gave him a deal of satisfaction because he had been told by his own wife how desperate Emma had been to have another child. Now it was too late. For that very reason, he had not revealed his suspicions regarding the street urchin. The pleasure he got from thinking how a daughter of Emma Grady’s was sleeping rough and scraping a living alongside thieves and vagabonds was too enjoyable. Besides, if he had his way, that particular urchin would never live to be old bones!

‘Come on, sir… you’ll not find fresher blooms in the whole of Blackburn. A shilling… only a shilling!’ Molly took a breath as the carriage slowed to a creeping pace. The smile on her face was dazzling as she raised it to bestow on the gentry. A stab of astonishment made her gasp as she saw how intensely he was staring at her. For an awful second, their eyes met; his tiny eyes slitted to study her all the more closely, and her black eyes stretched wide with curiosity. The cry sprang to Molly’s lips almost without her realizing. ‘God Almighty…! It’s the Justice!’ For a second she was riveted with fear. Then all hell seemed let loose, as Caleb Crowther realized that here was the very urchin he had sought after all these years. ‘Stop, thief!’ he yelled, in an effort to recruit the help of passers-by. But Molly was never an easy quarry and there was no one willing to take up the hunt. Not on such a hot and sultry day, when they had better things to do than wear themselves out helping a fancy gent in a carriage.