Mr Headstone's surprise on being informed that a visitor awaited his attendance in the warden's office was compounded by the fact that, on entering this latter gentleman's billet, the pedagogue was ushered into the company of a very respectable-looking old personage. He was dressed in a bottle-green coat with a black velvet collar; wore white trousers; and carried a smart bamboo cane under his arm. As if these sartorial embellishments were not enough to distinguish him from his fellows, he also wore around his head a copious length of medical bandage. Seeing the expression of puzzlement that began to arrange itself around the features of Mr Headstone, this gentleman lost no time in introducing himself as Mr Brownlow and explaining that he was a resident of that same street in Pentonville where Mr Headstone had encountered the housebreaker Sikes.
Mr Brownlow had been returning to his own home on the evening in question when his meditations on the wondrous variety of creation - which had been occasioned by a contemplation of the constellations in the night sky - had been rudely interrupted by the no less wondrous spectacle of a human form interposing itself between his upturned gaze and the heavens, and travelling at a speed not incompatible with that attained by a projectile when discharged from a cannon. Mr Brownlow followed the trajectory of this object with an amateur astronomer's interest and noted where it fell; that place being the back of a a drayman's waggon, the benevolent gentleman ran forward in the desire to offer some assistance to the poor unfortunate. Catching up with the vehicle at the next crossing, this good Samaritan peered over the hind board to see the form of a roughly clothed bearded man lying on some empty hessian sacks in a state of semi-consciousness.
At that same instant Mr Brownlow became aware of a deep growling sound coming from behind him and he turned to see a red-eyed bull terrier standing in the road. With an athleticism quite unusual for such a short-legged stocky-framed creature, the dog leapt into the cart and succeeded in reviving the prostrate man by the liberal application of its thick coarse tongue to his face. For this service, the animal received no greater token of gratitude than a curse and a kick, and - when he attempted to intercede on the poor beast's behalf - Mr Brownlow received the same treatment at compound interest. The drayman, by now alerted to the fact that some form of altercation was taking place in the rear of his waggon, came round to see what the matter was. He quickly apprised himself of the situation and, seeing that the gentleman with the upper hand in the dispute was the owner of both a large cudgel and a vicious dog, wisely decided against any intervention and ran away. Sikes seized the opportunity and, relieving Mr Brownlow of his gold pocket watch and chain and other sundry items that he had about his person, tossed that unfortunate gentleman into the street, took up the reins of the cart and drove away in haste, the dog all the while standing with its forelegs on the hind board and barking hoarsely.
Any encounter that ends in a disagreement which can only be settled by recourse to physical means must always end to the disadvantage of one of the parties involved, and, in this instance, it was the good Samaritan who suffered the indignity and discomfort of a broken crown. Inspecting his injuries in the safety of his own home, Mr Brownlow found them to be less serious than the above description might have given cause to suggest, and, by the following morning, the gentleman was sufficiently recovered to go out after breakfast to report the incident at the nearest metropolitan police office, which was situated on Mutton Hill.
Here Mr Brownlow paused in the relation of his tale of misfortune to allow Mr Headstone an opportunity to anticipate the conclusion of the narrative, but, as the pedagogue gave no sign of doing so and simply stared him out of countenance with an expression of blank incredulity, the benevolent gentleman swiftly brought his story to its end: viz, that learning of Mr Headstone's circumstances from the arresting officer, Mr Brownlow became convinced that a great injustice had been done, and resolved there and then not to rest until the wrong had been righted; that in his pursuit of the truth, Mr Brownlow had enlisted the aid of his friend Mr Grimwig, who had sworn to eat his own head if the case was not overturned; that Mr Brownlow had also engaged two Bow Street officers to track down the nefarious Sikes; that these gentlemen had arrested several individuals answering to the wanted man's description, but, unfortunately, not answering to his name; that Mr Brownlow had offered from his own purse a reward of fifty pounds for any information leading to the apprehension of the villain; that the rogue had been spotted, pursued and cornered in a deserted house on Jacob's Island, and that in a desperate attempt to elude his pursuers across the rooftops he had lost his footing and fallen to his death, followed by his faithful dog. Sikes was no more and in his last desperate hour he had confessed his role in the attempted robbery in Pentonville. Mr Headstone's name was no longer sullied with suspicion, and the pedagogue was from that moment a free man.
Mr Charles Dickens
