was an avowed believer in both God and the devil. As he said,
however, that he feared neither, no great reliance could be
placed on the restraining force of such a belief to a man of
Peace's daring spirit. There was only too good reason to fear
that little John Charles' period of waiting would be a prolonged
one.

In 1875 Peace moved from Sheffield itself to the suburb of
Darnall. Here Peace made the acquaintance--a fatal acquaintance,
as it turned out--of a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson. Dyson was a civil
engineer. He had spent some years in America, where, in 1866, he
married.

Toward the end of 1873 or the beginning of 1874, he came to
England with his wife, and obtained a post on the North Eastern
Railway. He was a tall man, over six feet in height, extremely
thin, and gentlemanly in his bearing. His engagement with the
North Eastern Railway terminated abruptly owing to Dyson's
failing to appear at a station to which he had been sent on duty.

It was believed at the time by those associated with Dyson that
this unlooked-for dereliction of duty had its cause in domestic
trouble. Since the year 1875, the year in which Peace came to
Darnall, the domestic peace of Mr. Dyson had been rudely
disturbed by this same ugly little picture-framer who lived a few
doors away from the Dysons' house. Peace had got to know the
Dysons, first as a tradesman, then as a friend. To what degree
of intimacy he attained with Mrs. Dyson it is difficult to
determine. In that lies the mystery of the case Mrs. Dyson is
described as an attractive woman, "buxom and blooming"; she was