nark

The searchlight from the Nark was playing full upon the scene.

A hail came from Jackson, second in command of the Nark, at once.

It was the sole commandment that ran there:—'Thou shalt not nark.'

"Nark (p. 091) the doin's, nark it," he cried and fired his rifle.

He resolved to depart from his evil ways and to become a nark—a copper's nark—which is a police spy, or informer.

NARK, a person in the pay of the police; a common informer; one who gets his living by laying traps for publicans, &c.

That the "nark," with his mean tricks, is a nuisance to wandering beggars is seen in a very short time.

All true wanderers hate him; even the drunken, domineering grinder is treated with civility in a house where beggars see a "nark."

Another "nark" was a drunken drover, who left a saucepan on the fire while he went out for a drink.

By the way, the sight of a pepper-box in a lodging-house kitchen is always a sure sign that the man behind it is a "nark."