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When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun requests a habitual thief and ne'er-do-well transferred to Botany Bay, he doesn't realize a 14-year-old boy has been left out to follow in his father's footsteps - not until young John Pickett is hauled into Bow Street for stealing an apple from the produce market at Covent Garden. Feeling to some extent responsible for the boy, Mr. Colquhoun prevails after Elias Granger, a prosperous coal merchant, to have him on as an apprentice. For another five years, John Pickett hauls coal in exchange for room and mother board. The task is dusty and hard, but the drudgery is lightened by the occasional deliveries to Bow Street, where Mr. Colquhoun usually tosses Pickett a gold coin for his pains. A far more pleasant diversion is accessible by means of Mr. Granger's pert little girl Sophy, with whom Pickett tumbles headlong into love. And then 1 day 19-year-old John Pickett stumbles by accident into a unlawful investigation that provides him once again to the attention of Bow Street for an completely different reason, and can change the span of his life.
