Hostile Witness.

“What’s it you?” I said. “You’d better find
a civil tongue, and keep in your head.”
he replied. “I know a lot about you and gentlemen,
enough to see you put away with hard labour.”
 
“You ain’t a copper! You look the part,
but I don’t reckon you’re real. You’d have carted
me off by now.”  He stared at me, I thought
maybe I’d pushed to hard. I thought he’d hit me.
 
 “Let’s just say this is your lucky day, shall we?
Remember, luck can change, and I still have old friends
on the force. I want to talk to you about a certain famous
gentleman and his young friend. Just the sort
of gentlemen you like to spend time with, the sort
that pays for the champagne and sends you home
in a Hansom cab. The man that’s paying me has
things he wants to know, and I promise you
you don’t want to disappoint him.”
 
“I don’t want to get nobody into trouble!”
 
“Too late for that. You’ll have to come with me.
I’ve got a clean, comfortable room waiting.
I’ll get you smartened up, so the judge will believe you.
That Mr Wilde will discover he’s not above the law.”
 
 But that was years ago. I think by now the poor fellow’s dead