chunk: The novel begins with Jack as an abandoned illegitimate child, whose attending nurse is instructed by his father to inform Jack when he grows up that he is a "Gentleman". The nurse dubs her own son "Captain Jack" to differentiate him from the two other Jacks under her care, and provides the protagonist with the name "Colonel Jack"; the other she calls "Major Jack". The nurse dies when Colonel Jack is ten, and the three young boys, thrown into the outside world, turn to crime; Colonel Jack becomes the assistant to a pick-pocket, Will, and is inducted into the skills of the trade. As the scale and nature of the crimes becomes more severe, Jack begins to understand the harm he is doing.