The Great Train Robbery

Pierce goes to the stable of Jeremy Johnson & Son. He talks to Mr. Jeremy Johnson, Sr. about getting “a fully made dog” (47), or a dog prepared to fight. Johnson shows him several dogs, but Pierce is not satisfied with any of them. Finally, Johnson shows Pierce a large, fierce dog that Pierce agrees to buy for £40. Pierce puts £10 down for the dog and says he will be back to take the dog home.

On August 10, 1854, Captain Jimmy Shaw is running a canine rat-catching competition at the Queen’s Head public house. Mr. Trent wagers that his dog can kill 20 rats in four minutes. The dog only kills 17 rats, so Mr. Trent loses. Pierce approaches Mr. Trent and commiserates with his loss, then tells him that someone has offered him “a most excellently made dog” (59). Pierce claims that he cannot accept this offer himself because he travels so much for work. Mr. Trent says he would like to have another dog, so Pierce offers to inquire on Mr. Trent’s behalf and ask if the dog is still available. He also tells Mr. Trent that he is unmarried.

The narrative states that the number of well-off unmarried women in Victorian society is becoming a crisis. One such unmarried woman is Mr. Trent’s daughter, 29-year-old Miss Elizabeth Trent. Pierce goes to tea at the Trent residence and is introduced to Elizabeth. He appears fond of her. Pierce tells the family about his travels in the United States and describes how the buffalo hunters eat the buffalo’s small intestines raw. Mrs. Trent is taken aback by the story and excuses herself, and Mr. Trent follows, leaving Elizabeth and Pierce alone. The Trents hope that Elizabeth and Pierce will marry.

On August 28, 1854, the infamous axe murderess Emma Barnes is to be hanged in Newgate Square. Pierce rents a room in a rooming house that overlooks the square. The day before the hanging, Pierce and Agar meet Barlow, a “rampsman” (a mugger who works as Pierce’s getaway driver) and go to the room. Agar and Barlow’s lovers are also there with baskets containing first aid materials and a girl’s dress. The next morning, they all watch the hanging. At the exact moment of the hanging, when the guards and crowd are distracted, Clean Willy scales the spike-topped walls of the Newgate Prison, climbs over the roofs, and joins the crew at the rooming house. The women treat his wounds from the spikes and disguise him as a woman, and they all leave.

The escape of a convict from Newgate Prison goes relatively unremarked in the newspapers because there are more pressing issues, like the Crimean War and a cholera epidemic. A month later, the body of a man whom the police identify as the escaped convict is found in the Thames River in London.

Clean Willy spends time at Pierce’s house, recovering from his wounds. He is cared for by Pierce’s mysterious lover, Miss Miriam. After the fact, she is thought to have known all about Pierce’s plans for the heist, but now, she denies this to Clean Willy. Pierce is rarely home and often returns dressed in riding gear, even though he has told Willy that he does not like horses.

Later, Willy returns to Holy Land. His lover, Maggie, is with another man, and he ends up with a 12-year-old girl named Louise. She works as a laundry thief. They live off her earnings while staying in a crowded rooming house and waiting for Pierce’s instructions.

In Hyde Park, London, in an area called Ladies’ Mile or Rotten Row, wealthy men and women on horseback often spend time together. By late September 1854, Pierce and Elizabeth have begun to spend time together on Rotten Row. She is very smitten with him. One October afternoon, Pierce asks Elizabeth about her father. She tells him that before each gold shipment, Mr. Trent goes into the wine cellar, and this habit has led her mother to worry that the anxiety over the shipments is leading Mr. Trent to drink excessively. Pierce realizes that Mr. Trent keeps the fourth key in the wine cellar.