The Law of the Four Just Men · Chapter
The Man Who Hated Amelia Jones explained
Leon Gonsalez receives a letter from Poiccart, who is now growing onions in Spain.
What happens
Leon Gonsalez receives a letter from Poiccart, who is now growing onions in Spain. Gonsalez and Manfred discuss fingerprinting and the old days of the Four Just Men. Gonsalez meets Amelia Jones, a woman living in fear of her husband Bash Jones, who is about to be released from prison. She reveals she stole Bash's stolen money to secure a better life for her daughter, Grace, who believes Amelia is her nurse. Gonsalez agrees to help her and accompanies her to Swindon to see the girl.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Social Injustice
Amelia Jones's story reveals the struggles of a working-class woman trying to escape poverty and criminal surroundings to give her daughter a better life.
Blackmail and Exploitation
Amelia stole Bash's stolen money, living in fear of his violent retribution, highlighting exploitation within criminal circles.
Murder and Moral Ambiguity
Amelia's certainty that Bash will kill her, and her acceptance of this fate, underscores the moral ambiguity of her situation and the threat of murder.
Characters to notice
- Leon Gonsalez
Receives a letter from Poiccart, discusses fingerprinting with Manfred, and becomes involved with Amelia Jones's plight, agreeing to help her.
- George Manfred
Half asleep by the fire, discusses Poiccart's letter and fingerprinting with Gonsalez.
- Poiccart
Writes a letter from Cordova about his onions, roses, pigs, and scientific curiosities.
- Amelia Jones
A woman terrified of her husband Bash Jones, who is about to be released from prison. She reveals she stole his money to secure her daughter's future.
- Bash Jones
Amelia's husband, a violent criminal currently in Devizes Gaol, expected to kill her upon release.
- Grace
Amelia Jones's daughter, who believes Amelia is her nurse. She is a student at a West of England school.
Key passages
“There was a time when the name of these three, with one who now lay in the Bordeaux cemetery, had stricken terror to the hearts of evildoers.”
The Four Just Men once terrorized criminals who escaped the law.
Reflects on the group's past as vigilantes.
“I mean that until the whole of the country and every country in Europe adopts a system by which every citizen registers his fingerprints and until all the countries have an opportunity of exchanging those fingerprints and comparing them with their own, it is ridiculous to say that no two prints are alike.”
Gonsalez argues that fingerprinting is unreliable without universal registration and international exchange.
Critique of forensic methods.
“He'll just walk into the room and bash me without a word and that'll be the end of Amelia Jones.”
Amelia expects her husband to kill her without warning.
Foreshadows the threat of violence.