Sharpe’s Prey. Bernard Cornwell

taking a single. ‘Four pounds,’ Hocking said.

      ‘Four!’

      ‘I don’t need you, Major,’ Hocking said. ‘I’ve got chimney sweeps who like my lads, and those that don’t sweep chimneys can shovel up the pure.’ He meant they could collect dog turds that they delivered to the city’s tanners who used the faeces to cure leather. ‘Some boys go to sea,’ Hocking said grandly, ‘some sweep chimneys, some scoop shit, some dies, and the rest go to the gallows. They’re all scum, Major, but they’re my scum, and if you wants them then you pays my price. And you will, you will.’

      ‘I will, why?’

      ‘Because, Major, you don’t need to come to Wapping to get boys. You can find lads anywhere, magistrates or no magistrates.’ Hocking turned his shrewd eyes on Sharpe. ‘No, Major, you came to me on purpose.’

      ‘I came to you for drummer boys,’ Sharpe said, ‘and no awkward magistrates and no one caring that so many die.’

      Hocking still stared at him. ‘Go on,’ he said.

      Sharpe hesitated, then seemed to make up his mind. ‘And girls,’ he said.

      ‘Ah.’ Hocking half smiled. He understood weakness and greed and Sharpe, at last, was making sense.

      ‘We hear –’ Sharpe began.

      ‘Who’s we?’

      ‘The Colonel and me.’

      ‘And who told you?’ Hocking asked fiercely.

      ‘No one told me,’ Sharpe said, ‘but someone told the Colonel. He sent me.’

      Hocking leaned back and pulled at his bushy side whiskers as he considered the answer. He found it plausible and nodded. ‘Your Colonel likes ’em young, eh?’

      ‘We both do,’ Sharpe said, ‘young and untouched.’

      Hocking nodded again. ‘The boys will be four pounds apiece and the girls ten a time.’

      Sharpe pretended to consider the price, then shrugged. ‘I want a taste tonight.’

      ‘Girl or boy?’ Hocking leered.

      ‘Girl,’ Sharpe said.

      ‘You’ve got the money?’

      Sharpe patted his pack which stood on the sawdust-strewn floor. ‘Guineas,’ he said.

      Another cheer sounded behind the back door and Hocking jerked his head in that direction. ‘I’ve got business in there, Major, and it’ll take me an hour or two to settle it. I’ll have the girl cleaned up while you wait. But I want five pounds now.’

      Sharpe shook his head. ‘You’ll see my money when I see the girl.’

      ‘Getting particular, are we?’ Hocking sneered, though he did not insist on receiving any deposit. ‘What do you want, Major? A redhead? A blackbird? Fat? Skinny?’

      ‘Just young,’ Sharpe said. He felt dirty even though he was merely pretending.

      ‘She’ll be young, Major,’ Hocking said and held out his hand to seal the bargain. Sharpe took the hand and suppressed a shudder when Hocking held on to it. Hocking gripped hard, frowning. ‘It’s strange,’ he said, ‘but you do look familiar.’

      ‘I was raised in Yorkshire,’ Sharpe lied. ‘Maybe you were up there once?’

      ‘I don’t travel to foreign places.’ Hocking let go of Sharpe’s hand and stood. ‘Joe here will show you where to wait, but if I was you, Major, I’d watch the dogs for a while.’

      Joe was one of the two young men and he jerked his head to show that Sharpe should follow him through the tavern’s back door. Sharpe knew what to expect there, for when Beaky Malone had been alive Sharpe had helped in that back room which was little more than a long and gloomy shed raised above the yards of three houses. It stank of animals. There were storerooms at either end of the shed, but most of the space had been converted into a makeshift arena of banked wooden benches that enclosed a pit twelve feet in diameter. The pit’s floor was sand and was surrounded by a barrier of planks.

      ‘It’s in there,’ Joe said, indicating one of the storerooms. ‘It ain’t luxury, but there’s a bed.’

      ‘I’ll wait out here,’ Sharpe said.

      ‘When the dogs are done,’ Joe explained, ‘wait in the room.’

      Sharpe climbed to the topmost bench where he sat close under the roof beams. Six oil lamps hung above the pit, which was spattered with blood. The shed stank of it, and of gin, tobacco and meat pies. There must have been a hundred men on the benches and a handful of women. Some of the spectators watched Sharpe as he climbed the steps. He did not fit in here and the silver buttons of his uniform coat made them nervous. All uniforms unsettled these folk, and spectators made room for him on the bench just as a tall man with a hooked nose climbed over the plank barrier. ‘The next bout, ladies and gentlemen,’ the man bellowed, ‘is between Priscilla, a two-year-old bitch, and Nobleman, a dog of three years. Priscilla is by way of being the property of Mister Philip Machin’ – the name provoked a huge cheer – ‘while Nobleman,’ the man went on when there was silence, ‘was bred by Mister Roger Collis. You may place your wagers, gentlemen and ladies, and I do bid you all good fortune.’

      A boy climbed to Sharpe’s bench, wanting to take his money, but Sharpe waved the lad away. Jem Hocking had appeared on a lower bench now and the wagers were being carried to his clerk. Another man, as thin as the ringmaster, threaded his way up the crowded benches to sit beside Sharpe. He looked about thirty, had hooded eyes, long hair and a flamboyant red handkerchief knotted about his skinny neck. He slid a knife from inside a boot and began cleaning his fingernails. ‘Lumpy wants to know who the hell you are, Colonel,’ he said.

      ‘Who’s Lumpy?’ Sharpe asked.

      ‘Him.’ The thin man nodded at the ringmaster.

      ‘Beaky’s son?’

      The man gave Sharpe a very suspicious look. ‘How would you know that, Colonel?’

      ‘Because he looks like Beaky,’ Sharpe said, ‘and you’re Dan Pierce. Your mother lived in Shadwell and she only had one leg, but that never stopped her whoring, did it?’ The knife was suddenly just beneath Sharpe’s ribs, its point pricking his skin. Sharpe turned and looked at Pierce. ‘You’d kill an old friend, Dan?’

      Pierce stared at Sharpe. ‘You’re not …’ he began, then checked. The knife was still in Sharpe’s side. ‘No,’ Pierce said, not trusting his suspicions.

      Sharpe grinned. ‘You and me, Dan? We used to run errands for Beaky.’ He turned and looked at the ring where the dog and the bitch were being paraded. The bitch was excited, straining at the leash as she was led about the ring. ‘She looks lively,’ Sharpe said.

      ‘A lovely little killer,’ Pierce declared, ‘quick as a fish, she is.’

      ‘But too lively,’ Sharpe said. ‘She’ll waste effort.’

      ‘You’re Dick Sharpe, aren’t you?’ The knife vanished.

      ‘Jem doesn’t know who I am,’ Sharpe said, ‘and I want it to stay that way.’

      ‘I’ll not tell the bastard. Is it really you?’

      Sharpe nodded.

      ‘An officer?’

      Sharpe nodded again.

      Pierce laughed. ‘Bloody hell. England’s run out of gentlemen?’

      Sharpe smiled. ‘That’s about it, Dan. Have you got money on the bitch?’

      ‘The dog,’ Pierce said. ‘He’s good and steady.’ He stared at Sharpe. ‘You really are Dick Sharpe.’

      ‘I really am,’ Sharpe said, though