Smith

Set in the grimy streets of eighteenth-century London, the story follows a 12-year-old pickpocket known only as Smith. Quick, cunning, and illiterate, Smith survives by lifting wallets in the crowded lanes around St. Paul's Cathedral. One cold December morning, he follows an elderly country gentleman into Curtis Court, a secluded alley, and empties the man's pocket. Before Smith can flee, two men in brown emerge and stab the gentleman to death. Hidden in a doorway, Smith watches in horror. The killers search the body frantically, directed by an unseen third figure with a limp and a soft voice, but cannot find what they seek. Smith slips away and discovers that what he stole is a document he cannot read.

Smith lives in the cellar of the Red Lion Tavern with his two older sisters, Miss Bridget and Miss Fanny, who earn their living altering the clothing of hanged men. None can read, but both sisters sense the document's value. Determined to learn to read, Smith tries prisoners in Newgate Jail, a priest, and a bookseller, but all rebuff him. At the bookshop, a man from Godliman Street learns Smith's name and lodgings. Lord Tom, a flamboyant highwayman Smith idolizes, visits the cellar and asks to see the document; Smith lies about its whereabouts. The landlord then reports that two men in brown came asking for Smith. Recognizing them as the murderers, Smith flees into the night.

Smith outruns his pursuers through the labyrinthine streets and, half-mad from cold, collides with Mr. Mansfield, a blind magistrate who lost his sight and his wife in a house fire 12 years earlier. Smith escorts the blind man to his home on Vine Street, where he meets Miss Mansfield, the magistrate's daughter, who conceals her frustrations behind a mask of kindness. Over supper, Mr. Mansfield reveals the victim was a Mr. Field of Prickler's Hill in Hertfordshire. Miss Mansfield offers Smith work in the stables and promises to teach him to read.

Smith hides the document in his bed linen, but while the household subjects him to a grueling bath, the bedding is stripped and the document carried off. Smith collapses into despair until Meg, a warmhearted scullery maid, mentions she found a paper in the laundry. Assuming it belonged to Mr. Mansfield because it was marked for Billing and Lennard, the attorneys the household uses, she placed it among his legal papers. Smith revives but is caught sneaking into the study. Miss Mansfield believes he is robbing her blind father but gives him another chance.

Over several weeks, Smith masters reading. On the day Miss Mansfield declares he can read, Mr. Billing, a young attorney who courts her, arrives and turns white upon seeing Smith. He accuses Smith of murdering Mr. Field, revealing himself as the man from Godliman Street who claims to have witnessed the killing from a window overlooking Curtis Court. In defending himself, Smith accidentally admits he was present at the murder, contradicting his earlier denial. The blind magistrate commits Smith to Newgate.

In the coach, Mr. Billing drops his pretense and demands the document, promising freedom in exchange. Smith refuses. In the Stone Hall, an old man chained in the fireplace befriends him. Mr. Billing visits daily, revealing that the lame figure, whom he calls "Mr. Black," has a wooden leg and is dangerous. He admits a past alliance with the men in brown but claims to be on Smith's side now. Smith's trial coincides with the execution of Dick Mulrone, a notorious highwayman.

Meg agrees to retrieve the document but returns with devastating news: Two men in brown broke into the Mansfield house, and Mr. Mansfield locked all his papers away. Mr. Billing then proposes an escape through ventilation tunnels to Newgate's roof, set for the day of Mulrone's execution. On Monday evening, Mr. Mansfield appears, having learned everything from Meg. He produces the document and announces he will deliver it to Mr. Lennard, Mr. Field's attorney, at Prickler's Hill. Smith despairs, knowing Mr. Billing will have the blind man attacked on the road.

On Tuesday morning, Smith climbs into the tunnels but finds the two men in brown waiting at the top. He falls, slides into the prison chapel, and bolts into the crowd gathered for Mulrone's execution. His sisters and Lord Tom are waiting. Miss Bridget lifts her enormous hooped skirt, and Smith escapes concealed beneath her clothing.

Smith and Lord Tom ride to Finchley Common to intercept Mr. Mansfield's coach. At an inn on Highgate Hill, Smith spots Lord Tom through a spyglass, deep in conversation with the two men in brown: Lord Tom has betrayed Smith's whereabouts all along. Smith flees down the hillside, intercepts the coach, and drags Mr. Mansfield into the snowdrifts. Holding the blind man's hand, he sets off through the blizzard toward Prickler's Hill.

For hours Smith guides Mr. Mansfield in silence, fearing the magistrate will turn him in. His resolve falters and he nearly abandons the blind man, but when Mr. Mansfield cries out in anguish, Smith returns and reveals his identity. Mr. Mansfield admits he has known all along. They reconcile and reach a constable's cottage, where Mr. Mansfield gives Smith's name as "Jones" to protect him. By the fire that night, Mr. Mansfield hands Smith the document. It is a letter from Mr. Field to Mr. Lennard, written in agitation about a terrible discovery and mentioning a "trifle" buried where his son Jack used to play. Mr. Mansfield urges a disappointed Smith to uncover the mystery.

At Mr. Field's house, Andrews, the loyal elderly servant, identifies the place where Jack played: the churchyard, by a carved black angel. Smith races to the churchyard and freezes at the lych-gate, a covered gateway: Footprints reveal someone with a wooden leg has preceded him. By the angel sits Mr. Black, who is Jack Field, Mr. Field's supposedly dead son. This is the old man's terrible discovery: His son was alive and had become a murderer. Mr. Billing arrives, and their conversation reveals that Mr. Billing planned the murder while the guilt-tormented Jack carried it out. When Mr. Billing spots Smith and Mr. Mansfield hiding behind the church wall, he orders the men in brown to kill them.

Lord Tom rises from the snow and kills one of the men in brown, but Mr. Black shoots Lord Tom. Andrews pursues and kills Mr. Black. Lord Tom dies at the angel's steps, and Smith weeps for his friend. The sexton digs beside the angel and unearths a box of golden guineas. Smith receives one-tenth of the treasure, 10,000 guineas, and faints.

Smith returns to the Red Lion and announces his fortune to his stunned sisters. In the spring, Miss Bridget and Miss Fanny open a dressmaking shop in Golden Square. Smith stays on in Vine Street as Mr. Mansfield's companion, freeing Miss Mansfield to begin a new life. Mr. Billing turns King's Evidence, testifying against his accomplices as a Crown witness, and is sentenced to three years in Newgate, where the old man from the fireplace kills him. Lord Tom is buried on Highgate Hill overlooking Finchley Common, and Miss Fanny gazes northward from the shop window, imagining him riding the night wind with the legendary highwaymen of old.