Now, John Cole – who'd looked a bit of a wretch to begin with, and who'd not grown any snappier, in his appearance and toilette, during the months he'd languished in the Stone Hold of Newgate – was the shabbiest bloke on the cart, and obviously destined for the long slow kicking style of hanging. Which explained why he'd had the foresight to call in the Shaftoe boys. But it did not explain something else.