JOINTS E LAW a-WIlFRlD SCARBOROUGH JACKSON 3 (SorupU ICaui ^rlynnl ICibtaty Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024875712 Cornell University Library PZ 3.J14 Nine points of the law / 3 1924 024 875 712 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW NINE POINTS OF THE LAW BY WILFRID SOACKSON JOHN-LANE : PUBLISHER LONDON & NEWYORKI903 Copyright, 190S By John Lank FIRST EDITION, APRIL, 1903 PRINTED BY THK FUBLISHEKS' PRINTING CO. NEW YORK V, »■ A. TO MY WIFE CONTENTS I. A Budding Morrow 9 II. Coin of Fancy 23 III. Tangible Fortune 4; IV. Fox AND Goose . 74 V. Not Negotiable . "3 VI. Conscience Money 152 VII. The Assay by Fire 177 VIII. Hue and Cry 209 IX. Sanctuary 2S5 X. Refined Gold 295 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW CHAPTER I A BUDDING MORROW THERE are times when Nature, lying The cloak silent under the cloak of night, "/"'Sftt seems not to sleep, but to listen — to listen, expect, and await, holding her breath, and studying the wakeful stars that wink and signal all through the quiet hours. And so it seemed this stifling August night on the skirts of Windsor Forest. A breathless moonless night, mirk-dark but for the stars, and they, though they showed a pale length of road running by, could not see into the woods which lay, im- penetrably black, on either hand, but con- tented themselves with silvering faintly the topmost leaves of some occasional wood- land giant who had taken his stand centu- ries since by the high-road in the manner 9 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Expec- of the waylaying ogres of old. In this tamy corner of her domain Nature was lying quiet, but not asleep. The young oaks stood stiffly at attention, and moved not a leaf; the great beeches spread their giant arms as if imposing silence, while the undergrowth huddled round their feet and passed the word among its varied life. The deer moved uneasily in their bracken beds, their twitching ears sensitive to the fall of a leaf, their antlers clicking as they pressed together, conscious of the general unrest; while feathered life "stirred in the branches, and furred life trembled in the burrows, watchful against the ever-present danger that threatens the wilding in in- numerable shapes. Nature's respiration filled the dark with perfume. The bracken woo'd to rest the trees whose feet it smothered in green folds; the branches hushed their winged lodgers and rocked them ever so gently in the gloom; the moss, beyond and below the furthest faint gleam of starlight, lined the forest chambers with black velvet, dead- A BUDDING MORROW ened each passing foot and dropping stick ; 1'he but Nature would not sleep, but lay wide- -^^"^"^ eyed and listening. And she had excuse for her nervous insomnia on the present occasion, for a call had been made on her two-o'clock-in- the-morning courage only a quarter of an hour before, when an impressionable cock pheasant, sleeping on the edge of the Winkfield Road, had sprung from his slumbers as if condemned with the infa- mous Jackdaw to dream of the devil and wake in a fright, and had gone through the stilled woods like a rocket, making night hideous. Wood denizens have much to suffer from, and on account of, the pheasant fam- ily, whose sensitive nerves and subjection to nightmare— springing from who knows what foreknowledge of the fate to which they are born, that doom assigned which yet provides for their birth— cause annoy- ance to the genuine children of the wilds, who take their scares more quietly, and seldom make an exhibition of themselves for nothing. But this particular young NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A herald pheasant was so very cocksure that he had of dawn ijggj^ nearly robbed, murdered and utterly undone ; and he said it so loud, and said it so long, and kept on saying it in such par- oxysms of alarm when he was safely half a mile away, that the wood had taken fright ; and the burden of his complaint had been that his enemy was that worst of enemies — man. For once in his short life the pheasant was right. Man it was, but not aggres- sively inclined, for Mr. Chaffers, cautiously stepping down the grass drive in the dark- ness, had been by far the most terrified of any living thing out in the open that night, when the great silly fowl had risen from under his feet and rent the air and shaken his very soul with its appalling clamour. Mr. Chaffers, too, crouched and listened, and sweated as he crouched, for the night was warm, and, moreover, his emotion worked upon his pores. He was more accustomed to the haunts of men, haunts busy with hidden industries, and though no stranger to the small hours, he was an in- dustrious workman in his own line and A BUDDING MORROW black and silver had small proclivities for a gipsy life; it ^""c- was no love of fresh air or romantic wish '*''''* for Nature's secret communing that had lured him to midnight woods. His alarm past, he dropped among the fern, breathing heavily, and swearing under his breath, and fumbling awhile in his many pockets, found a match, struck it, and consulted a worn silver watch. The little flame burned steadily, and the watch- face reflected for a few moments an unpre- possessing countenance, with stubbly beard and hunted eyes, rising from a red belcher neckcloth and crowned with a peaked cap of greasy easiness of fit. " Past two o'clock," reflected Mr. Chaf- fers, dropping the match underfoot ; " 'igh time they wos 'ere." He fumbled again in his pocket for his pipe, and filled it, the familiar process pre- senting no difficulty; but he paused before striking another light, and apparently touched with caution, transferred the plug from the pipe to his mouth, and dropping the former back into its recess, lay down among the bracken and chewed his tobacco 13 domestic architec- ture NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The re- and the cud of thought in silence for a vwal of while, till, weary of the stillness and anx- ious at the lapse of time, he scrambled to his feet, and made his way with caution back to the road side. On the Winkfield road stand several of those red-brick residences which the enter- prising builder spawns so readily over the land, wherein and about he expends such surprising ingenuity in finding accommo- dation for stabling, a carriage-drive, a ten- nis-lawn, and even an entrance lodge, on the narrow strips of ground left as a mar- gin for the bricklayers to puddle their mortar, that the house-agent's description of "remarkably complete properties" rises unbidden in the mind on viewing them from the road, and must be allowed to fit them like a glove. White-painted wooden balconies are glued under the windows for the encouragement of the coy nasturtium and lurking earwig, and a three-foot paling sharply defining the limits of the pegged- out building plots on either hand, his castle is ready for the Englishman, and ripe for labelling "The Manor House" or "The 14 A BUDDING MORROW Hut," as a just pride or sweet humility Awheel may suggest. of chance These pleasant habitations, though at present invisible to Mr. Chaffers, were, perhaps, not altogether unknown to him ; his modest attire and shrinking demeanour precluded the belief that he was in any way intimate with their proprietors, but perhaps some of the newer residents, whose less assured footing in the county drove them to eke out a precarious social existence by taking in each other's cards, had on their visiting-list a mutual friend who was now keeping Mr. Chaffers cool- ing his heels, while he took part in a moon- light picnic or American surprise-party in the vicinity. However this may be, Mr. Chaffers cer- tainly expected somebody, and peered into the darkness, and bent his ear to the silence, with every sign of impatience. Once a twinkling light appeared from the opposite direction to which his atten- tion was given, and when he finally turned his head it was to see a bull's-eye of light rapidly bearing down upon him from no IS NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Miehing great distance, causing him to drop hastily Malhcho into the ditch and shrink into the smallest space his shyness could prompt or his bulk afford ; and the belated cyclist having van- ished into the night, and his tiny search- light having glimmered away into nothing- ness, our friend uttered a heartfelt oath of relief— expressions of thanksgiving gener- ally taking that form among men of his class, partly, we may suppose, from a poor- ness of vocabulary, but partly from an artistic consciousness that words of praise are inadequate in strength and do not express the occasion. Another period of quiet supervened, and the watch was being once more called into council, when some one sprang over the low hedge on the opposite side of the road, and came down heavily on the edge of the ditch, with a sound of dragging briars and. crumbling earth ; and mingled with the fall of the heavier body came an unmistakably metallic chink. Chaffers sprang across the way at a stride, calling low and eagerly. " All right," said a quiet voice. " I saw i6 A BUDDING MORROW you when you struck the light. Couldn't A sum- spot the place before. Here, catch hold ^""^ of the stuff. Got it? And now let's get among the trees quick, and strike no more matches, /tell you." "But I've got the barrer, Alf; and it's getting daylight." " You shut your mouth, and listen to me. We got the stuff all right ; but we bungled the thing, and they're up and after us. Fell against a flower-pot as big as a barrel, and over it went. Coming away that was, and a good job too. Up went the lights right and left. Smithers ran down the lane behind the house, clumping with his boots to fool them, and I came on here. Gawd ! It's sweating hot, what with the sack and running. And my shin's broken over that cursed hedge. Look here, we've got to put it away in the ground and come for it one day later on when things are quiet again. They have a private wire— you remember I reckoned for that — and by now they will have rung up the slops all round the country. We'd be safe to have the barrow searched before we got a 17 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Th« cache far. I half ] thought of this when I told you to bring a spade along. Cut away and get it, and we'll start in at once." They were in the woods again now, and while Chaffers in meek recognition of au- thority and superior talent disappeared in search of the spade, his companion kicked through the bracken towards an immense beech, whose bulk the first suggestions of daylight now outlined from its surround- ings. Using his hands more than his sight he approved the great roots and sandy soil, and recognized with satisfaction that the rabbits had already made his work easy. Chaffers returned and set to work in the half light, lifting the dry soil round one of the larger openings with cautious strokes, while his chief took careful note of his sur- roundings. The morning mist hid things almost as effectually as the night had done, and the patter of falling acorns sounded ghostly enough in the damp obscurity beyond as he adventured a few paces here and there over the turf to get a better perspective of the hiding-place he had chosen. Chaffers, i8 A BUDDING MORROW straightening himself from his labour, took Sartorial up the mysterious bag, and seemed in- clined to have a look at the contents ; but the commander of the expedition was of another mind, and roughly telling him not to fool away the time, lowered the sack into the hole, rammed it well down, and threw back the soil, not forgetting to re- place the disturbed moss and cover it with leaves. By this time it was getting light enough to see things, and Mr. Bateman — whom his subordinate addressed as "Alf," not in familiarity, but in deference to a prejudice on that gentleman's part against his sur- name being bandied about — discovered, on rising from his knees, and from the scru- tiny of his operations, that his tweed trou- sers were woefully torn. Mr. Bateman was disgusted, for he prided himself on the neatness of his get-up ; but the thing was past praying for, and it reminded him, moreover, of other troubles, and worse ones, that might befall him. Putting his hand in his coat pocket, he pulled out a small dark lantern, a little steel crowbar, 19 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW An inno- about a foot long, a lump of putty, and two "compUce °*' three odd-looking tools, scarcely to be found in an ironmonger's shop. Then, on second thoughts, returning all these whence they came, he slipped off his coat, and, turning it lining outwards, rolled it up gingerly, and, walking round the tree, thrust it down a second rabbit-hole, and kicked in the overlying earth. " They might have twigged my clothes," he reflected. "I'll have Chaffers 's coat and put a sack over my bags." Returning to the roadside, the briars and nut-trees yielded up from their shade a capacious barrow, of the costermonger variety, and a very small donkey, who had been standing for long enough with his feet in a cutting and his head in a black- berry bush, quite content to be still — one of those rough, tough little fellows who work hard all the week and twice as hard on Sundays, when Mrs. Henry Hawkins and the nippers take the place of the work- aday greenstuff, and help in administering the rain of blows on the quarters which is the chief of his incitement and reward. A BUDDING MORROW This little accomplice being led out to Rest fir the roadside, 'not without careful recon- the wuked noitring on the part of Mr. Bateman, that gentleman took his seat among the artless greens and honest potatoes with which the barrow was dressed, and, covering his legs with a piece of sacking, addressed himself to well-earned repose. Mr. Chaffers, on whom the duties of whip devolved, unable to do the same, lit his long-deferred pipe and, with various objurgatory remarks to the donkey, took his seat by the shaft, his boots dangling within an inch of the road, and taking a glance round to see that all was fast, these birds of night disappeared into the morning. Some hours later an aggrieved coster, making an early breakfast of bread and beer at the Catherine Wheel, on the out- skirts of Staines, was relating to a sympa- thetic audience of road-menders how the police had stopped him and searched his carriage. " A pore man can't 'ave a basket of pota- toes nowadays but they must have their fingers in it," he was saying. The navvies NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The end concurred heartily, and black looks were prelude ^^^* ^* *^^ policeman across the street, who stood conversing with the man who was putting out the gas lamps, though certainly his fingers were as innocent of garden pro- duce as Mr. Chaffers's own. And that is saying a good deal. aa CHAPTER II COIN OF FANCY AMONG the innumerable camps Under which sit divided over the endless ^^'"f^ questions our too complicated ex- ^*"^ ^ istence suggests, are the camps of content and discontent. Be content, and you will not want more than you have. Be discontent, and you shall eventually have what you want. Discontent is the mother of invention, of energy, of progress. Content is synony- mous with happiness and peace. A hair may, at times, divide the false and true; but a fusion of the opposing opinions is more usually productive of verities which, if not eternal, are at any rate wearisomely long-lived; and the rights of this particular quarrel appear to be that if discontent had what it asks it would be content, and if content were deprived of what it has, it would be 23 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A peri- converted without loss of time; and the patetic parties having changed camps there philosopher jg ^^ reason to suppose that the world would be deprived of one of its favourite disputes. Anyhow, such was the decidedly trite conclusion of Mr, Wayzgoose ; who had no time to seek his opinions from the philoso- phers, but had to make them for himself in his spare moments at the luncheon-bar in Cheapside, or on the top of the Walham Green omnibus, or in the spare moments of the firm who purchased eight hours of his daily life. When body and soul can only be kept together by hiring them out during the daylight hours, the shrinkage of the remainder is not a little astonish- ing. Eight from twenty-four leaves sixteen. Mr. Wayzgoose had done the sum time and again, and his summing was unim- peachable, as Messrs. Wayland and Mavors had long since satisfied themselves; and yet, despite that remainder of two-thirds, the day afforded but little time for him- self. 24 COIN OF FANCY Eight hours' work — they were un- Golden doubted. """'' Eight hours' sleep — well, his conscience was good. Eight hours' play — what became of them ? Mr. Wayzgoose could never make it out. He had a suspicion that the omnibuses robbed him of his play-hours, and he tried to get even with them by seeing life from their roofs in fine weather, when he could smoke Virginia cigarettes and perhaps be addressed by the driver. And in bad weather he had sometimes tried to read a novel inside, but had been helpless against the portentous female in mildewed black who lives in Walham Green omnibuses; who would drag her fish-basket across his open page or knock his hat off under the feet of the passengers. On the under- ground railway even these pretences must be abandoned. The struggle for life was too naked, and every mouthful of air must be fought for or reclaimed from a neigh- bour, and Mr. Wayzgoose was too good a socialist to care to take the breath out of another man's mouth. as NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "What- On winter evenings, when the dusk ever tts arrived early and the street lamps strug- T° p.' gled with the fog which had defied the Ji/h" P^^^ ^"" ^^^ '^^y' ^^ ^^^^"^ *-° ^^^^ slowly homewards, leaving behind him the heavy traffic that stamped and slithered in the roaring thoroughfares of the City ; to gain the open of the squares and climb the Haymarket, and, walking always west- wards to the wildernesses where he dwelt, to greet an occasional face on the club pavements, where he was too shy to show himself in the season. Sent to a public school as a boy, a change in his father's fortunes had snatched him away just when the beatitudes and immu- nities of life in the fifth form had begun to reconcile him to surroundings uncongenial to his cast of character. The next years were spent in his father's office, where there was much for him to learn and un- learn ; and when the crash came which left him to fend for himself, he had, along with painful shortcomings in the matter of com- mercial education, not a few regrets for the associations he had been forced to abandon. 26 COIN OF FANCY Mr. Wayzgoose, senior, after a stormy The road and adventurous career in the City, had '"'''"» finally suffered shipwreck there ; and such odds and ends of his fortune as he had been enabled to retain he had taken on to the turf, under the unhappy delusion that money was to be made there with- out strict attention to business principles. This, his second, venture was brief and even unerratic, for it was untempered by any gleam of success, and the unfortunate gentleman did what was, perhaps, the best thing to do under the circumstances, for he took a chill at an autumn race- meeting, and died. His wife had pre- deceased him by some years, so he had nothing to leave his son save his blessing and the reversion of a doubtful specula- tion on a double event in the following month. Mr. Wayzgoose, senior, dead. Fortune relaxed her severity, and brought off the double event, which paid for young Wayz- goose's black suit, and gave him fifty pounds to build his fortunes on. An old friend of his father's found him a berth 27 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Any port where the black suit could be worn in a m a storm penniless gentility, and, the waves closing over the heads of the past generation of the Wayzgoose family, its new representa- tive presently found himself tossing about on their surface, resolute to keep his eyes from the blankness of the horizon and to cling tightly to his plank. His plank was a wooden stool in the banking-house of Messrs. Wayland and Mavors, of Poultry, and his outlook was easily defined. Ten paces from him was the glass-en- closed sanctuary of Mr. Bigland, the chief cashier, grey, spectacled, and bent, who, by dint of sticking to it, as he told young Wayzgoose, with kind enough intention when he joined, had travelled thither in the course of thirty-five years from the stool now occupied by him. Thirty-five years to get across the floor of a counting-house !— there is weight enough in the thought to bow the young- est shoulders; but such a term has little meaning, happily, until lived through. Five years' servitude in promise appals the 28 COIN OF FANCY youngest of us, but thirty-five years is a Pour par- geological period and beyond the scope of ^""*'' ' mortal suffering. Lean years may befall us, but shall we not one day thereafter win that stake, marry that heiress, strike that great blow in the world which is to heave its masses back from our claim on fame and fortune, and make space for the erection of our monument to pos- terity ? Surely. And even if Mr. Wayzgoose had not had the golden vague of such dreams as a set-off to the crude realism of office rou- tine, at any rate, when he should put on his hat this Saturday afternoon and sally out into Cheapside a free man ; that rou- tine would fall from him like a garment and leave his limbs as unfettered as his fancies for three glorious weeks. So he banished vain speculation from his mind, and applied the full strength of that power- ful engine to the furtherment of the firm's interests, until the clock striking five should announce the beginning of his holi- days. 29 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The un- He was taking his turn of freedom as kindest j^^g jj^ ^j^g summer as he could contrive to cut of all ^^^ £^j. ^]^g^ hoHdays come but once a year, and last but twenty-one days, one likes the added zest of seeing others return to their chains at the moment when one's own are struck off; for when all is over, and the sun goes in, and prison receives the hapless wretch once more, the re-rivet- ing of the irons is bad enough without the undisguised and selfish joy of the galley slave whom he relieves. Last year he had spent three dripping weeks at a lodging-house window in Folk- stone whither he had gone in the hope of seeing something of the Continent, as he put it to himself; but the opposite coast- line, if that was what Mr. Wayzgoose had had in his mind, remained unkindly hidden to the last; and as for reaching Boulogne, he had wanted courage and a waterproof, and had had neither. But this summer the skies promised well, and when he issued upon the street in the first moment of his vacation, a golden August sun was still brooding warmly over the town, invit- 30 COIN OF FANCY ing the city dwellers to leave their warrens 'J^he larger and seek the countryside or surf ere the ""■ season should pass its prime, nor, fallen into a wintry decline, snub and buffet its too tardy admirers. Mr. Wayzgoose saw with gratitude that he was yet in time, and passing down the bank-steps, and prodding the consolidated traffic with his umbrella until he found a crevice, he crossed Cheapside, and, con- scious of his sudden wealth of leisure, strolled westward at a slow pace, deter- mined to enjoy himself from the very initial moment. There is a form of shopping much prac- tised by the impecunious, and one which may be recommended to the moneyed. It is carried on in front of the windows of the most gorgeously-stocked and high- priced shops in the metropolis, so that there is no fear of being crushed at the Stores, or of being recognized in Bays- water: the goods chosen are not brought away, so they always retain their pristine glamour, nor cause useless regret or disap- pointment; and the coin of fancy which 31 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "And pays for the desire of the eye leaves the siller hae puj-gg no lighter than it was. to spare. y^^^ Wayzgoose did much of his shop- ping in this wise. His first stop was at a hatter's where his still respectable hat was exchanged for one whose black gloss would have fitted a Nubian king; a gold-headed malacca made his palm itch, and was transferred to his grasp on the same easy terms. Cheapside afforded no clothing worthy of his boundless choice, so he fitted the pockets of a doubly imaginary suit, which even the king in the fairy tale might have felt thin, with some trifles in the way of gold cigarette cases, amber and diamond tubes, and a watch from Sir John Ben- nett's, warranted to tell the weeks, years, seasons, stars, and bank-holidays, and even the time of day. It was while choosing the watch that he came upon the rings. Massive signets engraved with blood-red coats of arms — most efficient knuckle-dusters; single-stone rings for city magnates, each diamond fit to record a turn of the market; little gems in clusters on slender bands ; large gems in 32 COIN OF FANCY splendid isolation; graceful half-hoop and "tf^ith elegant marquise — in pure white light or "^^^" ">"*' in rainbow coruscation— lay tier above tier, ""^ '"f^' tempting man to engagement, while a bank ""f^'Jf'" of solid gold bands beneath pointed the moral of matrimony. Mr, Wayzgoose lingered long. The gold rings made him wince and sigh, but the half-hoops were within the play of his fancies, and he eagerly searched their rows for the costliest and prettiest, and fitted it, in imagination, on a little hand he had but once — twice — held in his own. But the best was not good enough. He felt im- pelled to hurry on to Bond Street and make extravagant outlay, through the sav- ing plate-glass, before the shutters should hide the lustres within. Would he not hang with pearls that round white neck — deck the dear dark head with stars only less bright than her eyes. The old simile took another turn, and he reflected woe- fully enough, as he resumed his walk, that a star, even a star in the firmament, was scarcely more out of reach than the divin- ity he adored from afar. 3 33 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Vt Stella Perhaps his aspirations gave his gaze an in tenebris, upward tendency, for he here tried to walk sic Amor ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ gentleman in a white waist- coat, who first snorted, and then chuckled, as he exclaimed — " Star-gazing again, as I'm a sinner! " The hazard touched Mr. Wayzgoose so nearly that he grew hot about the ears as he apologized. "I didn't see you, Uncle Bompas," he began. " I trust " "Of course, you didn't see me — most people can, though ; there's plenty of me. But then j'ou are always in the moon." His chaff ran on. It was doubly annoy- ing. Mr. Bompas, an uncle by marriage, was scarcely known to him until recent years. On the first occasion when our hero, then an unengaging child of nine, had drifted across his path, it had been with a toy telescope, the gift of some fond person, glued to his eye. Mr. Bompas had set him down as a star-gazer, and whenever ill-chance threw them together in after years, it was all Mr. Bompas had to re- member him by. 34 COIN OF FANCY Children are familiar with such enemies, ^ local who, taking them at some such disadvan- f>''l>'f'"">" tage, thenceforth and for years connect them with the sorry incident long after the home circle has laid it to rest. Mr. Wayzgoose waited patiently until he was permitted to return to earth, and his further movements being inquired into owned that he had thought of going down to Windsor for his holidays, to get some boating. "Windsor," reflected Mr. Bompas. "Does not your chief, old Mavors, live somewhere thereabouts? Yes, I remem- ber now. He moved into a new house on the Ascot side three or four years ago. I drove past there last Easter. Nice-looking little place, too— called the Hutch or the Thatch, or some nonsense." Mr. Wayzgoose's ears positively stood out of his head with attention now, and when Mr. Bompas asked if he did not know his chief slightly, he answered with an alacrity that made his speech stumble— " Yes — no — that is, yes," Mr. Mavors had once asked him to dine 35 Wiseman speaks NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ^^- at Richmond, and had taken him to a ^J'J'^'^^y dance at the Star and Garter. Should he ever forget that dance — those two dances — ^for the entertainment itself went for nothing, except to prove that the part can be immensely greater than the whole. " Well, you should go and call," said Mr. Bompas, taking his cigar from his mouth, and blowing the ash over a passer-by. " Al- ways cultivate openings, y' know. Might help you at the shop. He has a pretty daughter, Mavors"— (Ye gods! Did not Mr. Wayzgoose know it?)—" I expect he'll want a lot of asking for her. They said last year that young Drybank, Lord Stony- crop's son, was after her, but she ought to do better than that. Those fellows are no good on boards now, or won't be for a time. Well, so long, my boy— and try and gather something better than wool." Mr. Bompas passed on still chuckling, and Mr. Wayzgoose, despite the brutal bludgeoning of his airy structures by his uncle's gossip, to say nothing of his advice, hugged certain information to his heart, 36 COIN OF FANCY and the Windsor trip growing from doubt ^i^^' the to certainty in his mind, his thoughts did 'P'"'* "f take a more practical turn as he cUmbed ^'^""' on to a rolling 'bus bent parkwards from the City. Take a young man of average character, or lack of it, of decent appearance, good parts and imagination, set him down to live alone in lodgings, handicap him by the want of pence, and dower him with the capacity for daydreams, and you have a likely victim for love, the sport of queens. And the measure of his flame will be the hopelessness of his position : and domestic- ity meaning what it does to him, his flights will be wild beyond belief. And to Mr. Wayzgoose, walking down from the Mar- ble Arch, love presented itself in no do- mestic guise. The slenderness of his sal- ary entirely precluded any practical aspect of the matter. His prospects, and any tangible notion of "marriage warm and kind," simply could not come into the same plane of thought, so that his visions, holding nothing solider than such stuff as 37 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "Ever let dreams are made of, floated to most unsub- the fancy stantial heights. The slightest element of ''p'"' possibility had set him worrying on ways . , and means which would have reacted on never ts at home" ^^is dreams like a cold douche on the dreamer, but realization being entirely be- side the question, his infatuation gave him a livelier emotion and sense of upliftedness than he could have known had he wor- shipped at a humbler shrine where his prayers might ultimately have been heard ; and now that the day's chance had put him on the path walked by the unapproachable being of his visions, he trod on air, and Hyde Park held no happier simpleton that summer evening than Mr. Richard Wayz- goose. Hyde Park suffers from the artificial so- ciety in which it lives. When it sees the first flowering of the spring fashions full blown in its walks it takes alarm at its backwardness and, heed- less of the severity of the season, which, it surely might know by now, is the true English winter, it hurries to put on its finery before its parent country is well out 38 COIN OF FANCY of bed, and like other young debutantes " '^^ou pays the penalty in an early decline of its ""''^ *h beauty. When the mellowing influence of an English September ripens the country- ... ,, side to a last and best perfection, the touch of autumn is on the jaded Park, and the prescience of decay already marks its prime as past ; forsaken by its votaries, it sinks to the companionship of the stump orator and his holiday audiences, while the broken bottle and paper bag mix with the early- dropping leaves of its regret. Mr. Wayzgoose marked not its melan- choly as he passed. The young are selfish, and who shall blame them ? The troubles of the old are for the old. Their joys have been, and now they must live on their memories, nor hinder those whose lives are yet to make, and who would enjoy them while there is yet time. It might not strike every one as enjoy- ment to wander in the neighbourhood of a young lady's home for three weeks on the chance of an occasional glimpse of a straw hat or a splash from a carriage wheel. 39 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A blade Young Hooper, for instance, who sat by him in office hours and copied his figures, was of a different mind, and would recount in undertones, of a morning, his exhilarat- ing adventures overnight in pursuit of pleasure as he pictured it. But every man to his liking, and if young Hooper called his neighbour a " stick," the achievements of that sportsman in getting ejected from music halls as undesirable to the company assembled, or in securing early morning entrance into dancing saloons on the strength of an acquaintance with the door- keepers, seemed to Mr. Wayzgoose more than deplorably inane. He was not over-rejoiced, then, as he neared the Achilles Statue, to see Mr. Hooper, who had been absent on his holi- days for some weeks, sitting on a chair at the side of the walk, his attitude showing considerable dejection. A blue suit and straw hat showed that he was still emanci- pated from the trammels of business, and sufficiently in touch with the West End to know that the tall hat was deposed for the season. 40 COIN OF FANCY But he greeted Mr. Wayzgoose with 'J^he en- an enthusiasm which quickly thawed that "'^"*''' kind-hearted person, and explained that he was due at the office on Monday. His holiday had been too long for his purse — he had had a desperately dull day and was set upon having a lively evening as a set-off to it. He must come along for once — he must not say no — it was the wretched Hooper's last evening of liberty and every- one was out of town, and finally he, Hooper, had been given a box for that evening at the Empire. He would not hear of a refusal, and it was arranged that they should dine together and not go home till morning. Thus Mr. Wayzgoose yielded to the tempter, and in a frame of mind only too amiable towards the world at large, when evening came on he strolled with the seducer along Piccadilly towards the restaurant indicated by him as dam good and dirt cheap. Mr. Hooper rattled away during dinner recounting his doings during the past three weeks— his successes at Windsor races (I must certainly go to Windsor, thought Mr. 41 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ^f- Wayzgoose), and the rabbits he had killed Wayzgoose ^^ j^is uncle's place in Buckinghamshire, sees life ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ amusing young ruffian enough, he chaffed the Italian waiters, and conversed with the strange-looking patrons of the establishment, who were, perhaps, not so strange to him, and Mr. Wayzgoose, with several glasses of Chianti inside his astonished body, thought he had never been more entertained. " I must do this sort of thing oftener," he thought. " Hang it all ! A fellow must have some fun sometimes 1 " And when he found that he was expected to pay for the dinner as his companion was providing the amusement, he put down his money without a pang, and armed with a big cigar, walked down the street as if it belonged to him. The lamps flared jovially before the thea- tre entrance, and a stirring strain of music slipped, in sharply cut sections, through the slamming glass doors which opened perpetually to receive the independent- looking ladies who yet seemed so depend- ent on their cavaliers, and shut to exclude 43 COIN OF FANCY the noise of the street. Mr. Wayzgoose Its glitter stood on the thick carpet and seeing re- ''"^~ fleeted in a gilt mirror a young gentleman whose hat was rakishly cocked and whose teeth firmly clenched a big cigar, felt that he was " going it, " and horrible to say, felt elation at the thought. But an altercation had arisen. Mr. Hooper's pass was politely refused. Mr. Hooper was loud and loquacious, but the immense and many buttoned offi- cials were as adamant. Mr. Hooper was soft voiced and whee- dling, but the officials turned away un- moved. Mr. Hooper recognized the folly of dis- puting with such imbeciles, and turning to his fellow roisterer apologized for the momentary difficulty; he. Hooper, would make it right with the box-office people next day; he had foolishly come out with very little money, but it was a pity to go back now, so if Wayzgoose would just take two stalls "Oh— er— yes, certainly," said Mr. Wayzgoose, dropping his cigar and feeling 43 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW /// hoi- in his pockets, vaguely aware that he was lowness getting the worst of the entertainment, but not seeing how to meet the case. Two stalls were taken, and they passed in. Once inside, Mr. Hooper nobly stood drinks, which neither of them were in want of, and then Mr. Wayzgoose stood drinks in return to Mr.- Hooper and two thirsty friends of his whom they joined at the bar, and with whom Mr. Hooper presently moved round the house, with the pleasant consciousness that they both owed him re- freshment. Mr. Wayzgoose left to himself wandered into a seat, got rid of his cigar, and enjoyed the performance very much, though as the evening advanced and his artificial spirits subsided, he felt that, for his money, it might have afforded more return. It was past midnight when he crossed Piccadilly Circus. The sober-dressed mul- titude of workers had thinned down to a few hurrying individuals on the south pavement of Piccadilly, whence the last 'bus-loads rolled off west, yielding their room to the scampering flock of hansoms 44 COIN OF FANCY which picked up and carried away right ^iie on and left the disgorged contents of the '^^ ^^^ supper-houses. The moment's glare and movement arrested the advance of night, but the flicker soon died down ; quiet suc- ceeded, and the comparative darkness and silence gave the town such rest as it knows. The stream of hansoms pattered past him, nose to tail, the jaded horses brisked to the journey by the confidence that it was their last for the night, and requiring little guid- ance in the straight run of a mile or so that lay immediately before them. Mr. Wayzgoose walked soberly on and on until the shades of Walham Green re- ceived him once more. As for Mr. Hooper, what time he reached the parental mansion the servants were already afoot, and the morning sun shone healthfully on the breakfast-table spread for his solitary meal in the August absence of his family; and the cook who opened the door loudly and emphatically declared that never had she seen a young gentleman in such a state. "You should see me sometimes," said 4S NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A question Mr. Hooper, wagging his experienced head ofexpe- ^^ ^jjg scandalized cook, and vanished up- stairs, cannoning from wall to banister in his ascent. 46 CHAPTER III TANGIBLE FORTUNE IT was a young man with a headache A day of who set out for Windsor next morn- grace ing. He would have lingered in bed willingly enough, but trains are few of a Sunday ; and moreover, conscience began a curtain- lecture as soon as he opened his eyes, and sooner; so Mr. Wayzgoose tumbled him- self on to the floor at his usual hour, and presently found it pleasant enough to be driving in the unaccustomed hansom through the cool morning air; his port- manteau thrust thriftily across the open doors gave the delightful independence which comes of having one's all under the immediate guardianship of the eye, while his new brown boots positively invited to green fields and liberty. The empty Ful- ham Road resounded to the clack of his horse's feet as the cab jingled bravely 47 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The through the Sabbath-stricken thorough- resonant fg^j.^. ^^^ milkmen hanging cans on area '*""" railings and small tobacconists putting out '"^ " the contents bills of Sunday papers almost paused in their work to admire his prog- ress. Waterloo was reached all too soon. Mr. Wayzgoose had just time to wonder, as they drove through the tunnel, if sta- tions were made so hideous to induce people to take train away from them, when they halted at the feet of the ex- pectant porters, to find that there was half an hour to wait; and, the cab being paid off, that the loop-line should have received him. Mr. Wayzgoose and his portmanteau crossed the line leisurely to the other sta- tion to find that the cataclysmal venetian- blind, which is the starting-machine for all the races for the trains, held a different opinion; it allowed him one minute. The race had started without him in fact, and he was doubly handicapped — ^by time and weight. But the tail-end of his train, already slipping gladly out of Waterloo, TANGIBLE FORTUNE received him breathless and with no loss of ^ Sab- impedimenta — the porter dexterously shoot- ^"'^ ^"y'' ing his box into the flying van — and halting J""''"y in black darkness a few moments later, gave him time and occasion to reconsider himself. They moved on slowly again, and pres- ently, getting through the entanglements that web the approaches of London, pushed forward more steadily. The exhilaration of the morning's start was cooling down in the slow progress of a Sabbath day's jour- ney — di phrase that has a new meaning for us moderns, but not a better one; and Mr. Wayzgoose, watching the terminating brick and mortar drag itself out in scat- tered lines over the increasing green, felt some analogy to the reverse process in his breast as despondency crept over him, and ugly accumulations of hard fact marred his prospects. The sore necessity of money-getting, which irks the great majority of us, and lies with an especial heaviness on the shoulders of the poor gentleman who must do his money-making in a gentlemanly manner, 4 49 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW " I only ask that Fortune send A little more than I shall spend" was chafing him even now; and, indeed, pressed on him more in his hours of rest than in his hours of work, for after every pause in his labour of Sisyphus the stone of his fortunes seemed heavier to up- heave. The artificial wants that society creates for us were few in his case ; but he often wished ardently that he could carry further the simplification of his life, and for once that he envied Mr. Mavors departing from the Bank in his brougham, he thrice envied the office boy who could afford to wear a collar for a week, and take a lift when tired on the back of a railway van, or the outside porter who could save his coat by working in his shirt sleeves. Why, he could not even afford to smoke the porter's honest shag tobacco — not that he wanted to; but if the desire for tobacco was on him it must be quenched in doctored Egyptian stuff or the still worse British cigar. The office- boy had glorious two-pen'orths of sausages and mashed potato, and ate his stolen des- sert of apples in full street. Mr. Wayz- goose got a pallid bun and glass of pallider so TANGIBLE FORTUNE milk in the savourless decency of an ABC Another shop, and as for the apple, it would be hard '^'""''^"' to say which would be the more unforgiv- ^ *' able enormity — to lift it from a barrow or to eat it in Cheapside. In his bitterness of heart Mr. Wayz- goose sometimes wished himself an anar- chist, that he might dispense with linen, wear a soft hat and no gloves, and speak his mind freely to the authorities. Anarchists had funds, too — he had often seen that predicated of them. He had no funds. Why not be an anarchist ? But Alice At the magic of the name Mr, Wayzgoose blushed, straightened himself from his humped despondency, shot his cuffs a little, and flicked some smuts off his beautiful yellow boots. They were nearing Wind- sor, and what more likely (to a lover) than that Miss Mavors should have walked into Windsor at that early hour of the morning, unattended, to buy a Sunday paper? Twickenha m— Feltham— Ashford— Staines Money continued to be offered him, or SI NINE POINTS OF THE LAW •'How asked for on every hoarding. Asked for pleasant it ^jj.j^ g^^^ insistency of three-foot lettering // to have ^^^ shouting colours that only lacked the h i h'-h I" highwayman's pistol. The posters, like a horde of Jews at a fair, crowded upon the way thrusting their wares upon him. Estates were offered, houses in hun- dreds, yachting trips, glorious far-sea voy- ages, villas on the Riviera — snow-white in emerald green, — horses and carriages, ser- vants and liveries, palaces and furnishing — even money itself, crying to be picked up, was not lacking. "Have you got that ^fioo.?" asked the bills on the bookstalls. ";^iooo for a penny," was the offer of another paper bursting with benevolence ; while ;^5oo a year for life, or a house and grounds, was freely offered by the philan- thropic prints, which shower bicycles and typewriters and standard literature in gor- geous bindings among their dazzled readers. Time was when Mr. Wayzgoose had ap- plied for their magnificent gifts, and had even nursed a hope of receiving them ; but 52 TANGIBLE FORTUNE that was in his salad days as he said to "Sweet himself. He did not part with his pennies '^^<^'"'""' on such terms now. And then he thought "", 01 his evenmg with the unprincipled Hooper, and for the hundredth time he vowed to himself that Hooper should "pay up;" though a suspicion lurked that money was no more to be had out of that youth than sympathy out of the monument. The train rumbling over the bridge aroused him, and he quickly lost the de- pressing remains of London atmosphere in the pleasant vision of old Thames winding slowly by his accustomed willows, making dreamy pictures of the Castle in golden grey, and curving lovingly by the old play- ing fields, as if he would show that the vivid modernity of Sunday boatloads could not wholly claim him for its own. The Castle's interminable flanks showed yellow in the sun, and the great standard waved gently in proclamation of Her Maj- esty's presence; the church bells were ringing, the band of Her Majesty's Guards was thump-thumping somewhere in the S3 loitering NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Alone and distance, and Windsor wore its bravest !!■.!£■_ aspect to welcome Mr. Wayzgoose. But the station showed no Miss Mavors ; and, indeed, when we consider that she, in common with many young ladies, took but little interest in papers, excepting in those encyclopaedic accumulations of feminine matters devoted to the sex, it was scarcely to be expected by anybody but Mr. Wayz- goose that she should convey her precious self all the way to the South- Western sta- tion to buy a paper she was not interested in from a bookstall where, it being Sunday, it could not be obtained. And if you add to these adverse chances the unhappy fact, unknown to her admirer, that she was on this eventful day several hundred miles away from home, you will guess how futile were Mr. Wayzgoose's anxious glances up and down the platform. Undoubtedly he would have resented the suggestion that he was more relieved than disappointed, and yet when a momentary likeness appeared in the back of a distant white dress (it was well for him that Miss Mavors could not know of the fancied re- 54 TANGIBLE FORTUNE semblance), he plunged out of the station His wel- in an agony of shyness, and his desire only """_ "' returned when the white dress confronted him in another doorway surmounted by a face of unimagined plainness and ripe age, as he and his portmanteau passed in quest of a lodging. He repaired to the Columbus Arms in Eton, whither he had been recommended, and negotiations being satisfactory, left his portmanteau in the room in token of occu- pation and strolled down to Folly Bridge, where he leant on the parapet and watched party after party putting off from the boat- house rafts beneath. Many offers were made him by urgent watermen, but he stood irresolute, wanting courage to try his 'prentice hand on the crowded stream. At length, moved partly by diffidence, partly by a notion that had been running in his head since his arrival, he turned back to his inn, and, asking for a directory, set himself to find out the where- abouts of his beloved. "Mavors, W. H., Esq., the Thatched House, Winkfield," was soon found. 55 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A merry Winkfield was next referred to, and a heart goes scrutiny of the map decided him to walk all the way ^^^^ ^^^^ very afternoon and pay the call advised by his uncle, and looked forward to ever since with mingled trepidation and desire. After an early lunch, then, Mr. Wayz- goose, carefully dressed, and not quite so happy in his new boots as he had been when driving, set out through Windsor on his walk. As he climbed the ascent under the shadow of the Curfew Tower and turned down the unsavoury dip of Peascod Street, he promised himself many a pleas- ant hour under shady willows up and down the river, and many a happy do-nothing morning on the terraces of the castle, where Heme the dreadful stood so black in the well-remembered pictures and shot lightnings from his eyes on stout old Harry, Sentinels marched stiffly across the gateways, and bearskins showed above the unscarred battlements crowning the fleckless walls, whose spick and span repair recalled some newly bought cardboard toy ; there must be a handle somewhere, he 56 TANGIBLE FORTUNE thought, that, turning, moved those rows Thepil- of stiff-backed shining soldiery across the ^''"^ '■f , • Love narrow entries. He could look for it to-morrow. To-day he was on a different quest, and had no time for playthings. He plunged down through the town, and set out boldly on his undertaking, still dis- tant enough for his courage to bear him company. Whether it would take him all the way remained to be seen. He thought it would ; and set forward complacently. When Fortune prepares a pitfall for us she lures us to its edge with her brightest smile, and dulling the careful daily anx- ieties by smoothing the immediate ap- proach to disaster, and playing a gleam of sunshine on us that our gaze may be lifted from earth, she tumbles us in with a sud- denness that is half the game to her. In we flounder, and curse Fortune, and only get out to fall into her next ambush with a like readiness. The unsuspicious Mr. Wayzgoose, at peace with all the world, and just forgetful enough of his year-round perplexities to 57 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The- wheel enjoy the oblivion they had slid into, of Fortune talked towards his fall in a fatuous beati- tude, Fortune waiting with her hand on the wheel to reverse him from his pleasant ele- vation into the slough beneath. Little knowing that the serenity of the present hour was the last he should enjoy, or that every step he took was heavy with fate, he advanced steadily along the dusty road, rejoicing in the open fields and the approaching woods. The year was at the dead level of greenness which succeeds the varied freshness of the opening months of summer, but the heavy leafage of the trees and the low-lying grass land had not yet yielded to the sun, and were inexpressibly delightful to his cockney vision. He took great breaths of the large air, and snuffed up the odours of earth and woodland as he took the gradual ascent to the higher lands of gravel and fir; and the little fleecy clouds which sailed immeasurably high over him were not lighter than his spirits, relieved and released from thraldom. He thought of Miss Mavors as he had seen her last, sitting outside the bank in 58 TANGIBLE FORTUNE the carriage, waiting for her father, who " Pleasant hacj been detained that day by some *^^ f^""'^ heaven-sent visitor, and Mr. Wayzgoose f ' '" 111 1 1 the gusty and no other, had gone down the steps to ^^^^^^^^ speak words of pacification from his chief, ngjit as a He had feared she would not remember snawflake, him — that evening at Richmond was long settles on past — and the fear had made him gulp y^'"' "'''" " down his impulse towards a joyful recogni- tion of his chance. She had not forgotten, but had leant forward and smiled, and spoken his name ; and, standing at the car- riage window talking sub-conscious triviali- ties, he had devoured her with his eyes, in- toxicating his enfeebled mind with the gloss and wave of her dark hair, with the little, little hand on the carriage door that sacri- legious convention had entrusted to his own not a minute since ; with the devastat- ing eyes, and the wonderful smile and voice that sent wave after wave through the shattered defences of his heart. ' And then Mr. Mavors's material form had obtruded itself upon them, and crushed the maze of dainty flounces, which, drawn aside, revealed a foot and ankle that had 59 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW An angel's completed his downfall. A voice — her *""" voice — said something about hoping to meet again. He had clutched absurdly at the inevitable expression, and the inexor- able coachman had urged his steeds away, ere Mr. Wayzgoose could fling himself un- der the chariot-wheels. But it was not often that she was in London. He had never seen her in the Park, though he had tramped the gravel evening after evening in the season, and hung over the railings, clutching spasmodically at his hat when varicoloured visions appeared in distant carriages only to be resolved, on approach, into ordinary flesh and blood. Would she receive him with that same smile } Or would she — unpictured horror ! — frown upon his uninvited presence? Would she be alone.? He had counted on it all the way; but it is the unexpected that occurs, and he thought for the first time of young Drybank, his exhausted means, and the dishonourable advantage of an honour- able prefix. Could she barter herself for that.? Herself for the reversion of a name, 60 TANGIBLE FORTUNE when he would give the proud world for ^ tenth her glove. "■'"'^- Would give! yes. He stamped on the "^**[^/ " road at his folly. Would give; but what ^^^^ could he give ? Oh, he was a fool — a fool ! He cried to himself to turn back ; to shake himself free from this hopeless business. He — who had nothing to offer her; not even bread and butter. But love is stronger than despair, and certainly it would be a poor lookout for romance if it were not stronger than com- mon sense. Mr. Wayzgoose, having sufficiently lec- tured and abused himself for his so asinine- ly insurgent longings, felt that he was strong enough to go through with the visit, which, he pointed out to himself, was de- manded by ordinary politeness, and must be faced. He persuaded himself that it was merely self-interest that prompted a call on old Mavors, and was in the midst of an imaginary introduction to the Hon. Mr. Drybank, who shrank abashed from his steely glance, while unavailing tears stole down the guiltily wan cheeks of hisbought- 6i House ' NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "^^^ and-sold fiancee, when, printed in gold on Thatched a wooden gate, the legend "Thatched House," brought him to with a round turn, and scattered his imaginations like chaff. He had been pursuing the Winkfield Road for the last half mile without any exact notion of his position, and his first instinct on discovery of the same was to retreat. The house, however, was scarcely visible from the road, and, once assured that no window overlooked his position, he stood his ground, but found no courage to ad- vance. The gate stood open, but the curly car- riage-drive curved so sharply in its re- stricted limits that the young trees and evergreens quickly hid it from view and stood between its destination and the in- truder. He stood hesitating, one foot on the yellow gravel, one on the road ; then, with a last reassuring glance at his trou- sers, he took three bold strides in the right path, when a sudden sound of wheels im- mediately in front of him induced a rapid change of front, and Mr, Wayzgoose, his 62 TANGIBLE FORTUNE heart in his boots, was fleeing up the road, The praying with a great singleness of intention ^"^"O' that the carriage might take the opposite direction on its exit. Swiftly came the wheels, crunching the gravel — a half-pause at the gate, and the vehicle swung round — in full pursuit. A hundred yards ahead the forest touched the road again, and a crazy gate hung across the entrance to a grass-grown cart-track, which appeared to wind into the woods. Could he reach it before he was overtaken? Mr. Wayzgoose walked furi- ously, but the case was hopeless. He had not covered two-thirds of the distance be- fore the horse's head was at his shoulder, and collecting all the dignity he could mus- ter and lessening his pace, he raised his hat and turned his glowing countenance to be- hold a stolid-faced boy munching an apple and swinging his legs at the back of a laun- dry-cart. There was no question of returning. He felt hot and cross, and dived into the woods with a sense of relief. He would sit there a bit and smoke a cigarette, and 63 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW to the woods Mr. consider the advisability of calling another ^"y^"- day. goose takes ^j^^ ^^^ ^^ grateful to his feet, the sun showed but in golden specks on the moss ever cold and green, or lit up here and there a patch of clearing. The deep voice of a red deer called in the far forest, and Mr. Wayzgoose wondered what it was as he sat himself down on the fat root of an immense beech, whose foundations had plainly been undermined by many genera- tions of rabbits, and their latter-day de- scendants now stamped with impatience at being kept indoors on such a fine afternoon by a man sitting on the doorstep. Mr. Wayzgoose sat and smoked, and lis- tened to the strange voices round him, and enjoyed to the full the luxury of solitude in a beautiful place ; his irritation passed, and a gentle melancholy, not inconsistent with a bodily beatitude, pervaded his mind. The associations of the forest and the very age of the timber seemed to be- little the frets of his ephemeral career, and to smooth the vexations of a summer day. 64 TANGIBLE FORTUNE The great beech above him, still erect, Back to smooth - skinned and well-preserved, a ""*"''' grande dame of the forest, carrying her years with ease and dignity, of what de- generation she could tell ! When she was yet a slim and graceful slip the love-sick squire who passed her way was of a differ- ent pattern from the sad-hued money-grub- ber of to-day, who had no time nor gift to inscribe verses to his mistress in beechen letters, nor heart nor hardihood to sing them even in the greenwood. Lord ! the jolly cavalcades she must have seen ride by ! What lovers spurring to a mistress! what soldiers to the wars! A royal chase from Windsor and a winded hart; footpads from the town; and some unhappy monk, spoiled of monastic dues, sent packing down a glade. Treasure might well be hidden here. Ac- cumulations of some rich priory, maybe, or over-prosperous merchant of mediaeval day, on which the Crown had cast a lust- ful eye. The woods would hide them well. Stretched on the turf, his smoke curled S 65 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The pipe jdly^ framing his idle ruminations, and the of peace g^-ju g^jj. brought no sound to break his peace. His cigarette finished, he sat up, and his thoughts fell on love, and on ways and means thereto. And, presently, ways and means pointing obstinately in the opposite direction, his walking-stick must needs de- liver vicious prods at the soft earth as the obstacles to his happiness rose in his mind. After some prodding a material obstacle opposed itself to his stick, and, as he pur- sued his train of thought, his stick pursued its subterraneous course, and endeavoured to hook what barred its progress to the sur- face. " If one could coin money Hke old Ma- vors," he thought, " or borrow it the way young Hooper does"— and he rooted viciously in the earth—" or steal it, like a confounded company promoter — come up, you— or find it as those fellows did in Treasure Island " His stick came away suddenly through the sandy soil, dragging that to light which gave a breath-snatching check to 66 TANGIBLE FORTUNE his words and fixed him motionless and the turn staring. "ftht A gold beaker as big as a pint-pot lay ^^^^^ in front of him. His stick was still thrust through one of the handles, which were fashioned like slender, full-breasted Caryatids; a rich design ran in bosses and chasing over its generous proportions, and showed through the encrusted soil and dirt; and its clang sounded musical and true in his ears as he jumped to his feet and grabbed it with nervous fingers. He rubbed it with his handkerchief, and turned It about to catch the sun. Though ancient in pattern and workmanship it was bright and clean when once he had cleared away the soil which clung to its indents, and the weight of the thing gave him a respectful thrill as he poised it and turned it in his hands. Then, in a wave of excitement, he dropped it by his seat, and throwing himself down on the ground, thrust his arm up to the shoulder into the hole he had made in dragging the cup to the 67' NINE POINTS OF THE LAW •^"ri surface. Deep down he could feel with sacra jjjg finger-tips something hard and knobby, ^""'^ which shifted slightly un^er his touch, but some cloth-like substance intervened, and prevented him from getting a grasp. He groped vigorously, unmindful of his clothes, digging like a terrier after a rabbit, and presently felt an opening, and brought up a plate or salver of similar kind with the beaker, and also in gold; or gilt, he re- flected, and plumed himself on his cool- headedness. He found it necessary to enlarge the hole. The covering, whatever it was that wrapped the treasure, he could not shift. He took off his coat, and rolled up his shirt-sleeves, and using the crook of his stick, raked up the soil, and loosened it on every side, and, putting his arm down, tried again. He now felt what was, seemingly, the mouth of a sack, and, tugging steadily, it came gradually to him until he was able to get both hands on it, when it soon came to light. A rent in the side he widened by tearing it down with his stick-handle, and through it took 68 TANGIBLE FORTUNE dishonour made" out piece after piece of gold plate, caudle " For cups, and handled porringers, tankards, ^***«'' ""^ beakers, and punch-bowls — cynic pagans crying their nunc est bibendum to succes- sive generations. Some of them rang cracked and thin, like " laughter heard far down in hell;" they could hold the old familiar juice no more. The little plat- form of moss at the base of the great beech was littered with shining metal — a picnic-service fit for the Field of Cloth of Gold. He stopped to wipe his hot face and to listen for the sound of wheels on the road. The woods were sunk in afternoon repose, and the Pax Sabbatica brooded over the land. But Sunday means the release of thousands of citizens from brick and mortar, and at any moment he might be interrupted by the couples who walk out together on the day that comes betwixt a Saturday and Monday, or by the trios of youths in pot-hats and penny canes who dog their footsteps. He bent to his task again. 69 new and the old!" NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Gold! The sack contained another wrapping gold! the ijj j^g lower half, and he had some difficulty in extricating it. From the first touch there was no possible doubt of its con- tents, and, shaking with eagerness, he tore it open, disclosing a mass of gold coin mixed with small objects of value, snuff- boxes, pomanders, and apostles on worn spoons, small bulliony stylites for ever separated by the length of their columns from any taste of the fleshpots. There were gold nobles and crowns of Henry the Eighth— what stamp and effigy should seem more natural in Windsor Forest?— Base coin of his innocent Httle son, more precious now than in his day- gold rials, double rials, half and quarter angels, gold crowns and double crowns, double angels and laurels— " gold, gold, nothing but gold," of every reign and in all varieties and all glittering with a brilliance of surface not a little aston- ishing to see in treasure buried, pre- sumably centuries since. He handled the coin with ignorant fingers, wondering what was its value, and tried to decipher 70 TANGIBLE FORTUNE the inscriptions and read the rudely marked The coU dates and titles. -^^ He had a vague memory of the pre- servative properties of some soils: of bodies lying uncorrupted in sand for ages, and besides, treasure when discovered, always glittered, blinding the eyes of the finder. In most instances in fact, its gleam led to its discovery. He remembered that plainly, now he came to think of it. But he must not let the glitter catch another's eye. He started from his contemplation and listened attentively to the woods, and looked keenly on all sides for the black coat of the wandering cit. The field was clear and he unhesitatingly began to restore the treasure to its wrappings; for though entirely without plan of action for the immediate future, it was obviously impos- sible to take away his trove in his pockets or leave it where it was, in sight. Con- tenting himself with a few gold coins slipped into his waistcoat pocket, he pushed the bundle underground once more, though 71 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Earnest of its knobs and angles were not without Fortune difficulty accommodated to the narrow opening, and it was long before he could fill in the mouth of the burrow to his satisfaction and make all look innocent to his own over-fearful inspection. All this time he had scarcely made a reflection. The stupefying find, the feverish uprooting, and the cold fit of caution which had prompted the quick reburial of the entrancing gold, had been so many involuntary spasms: and now, as he stood on the very spot where he had hidden his so shortly exposed secret- stood, making all smooth and leaf-strewn once more— he might well have been excused had he taken all for an afternoon dream. But the pieces in his pocket were real— no goblin gold. Pieces of eight, were they.? Moidores rather, or perhaps doubloons. He sat again among the great roots, winded with his exertions, and streaked with soil, and gazed, fascinated, on the old yellow coins in the palm of his shaking hand. His secret safe under- 72 TANGIBLE FORTUNE ground again, under his very feet, and He laughs these solid proofs of his fortune between ^"* ^^'' his fingers, his heart expanded and exulted ; ""^ ' "'* and Mr. Wayzgoose laughed aloud. 7S CHAPTER IV FOX AND GOOSE The morn- TV /TR. WAYZGOOSE sat up in bed ing after |yj^ ^^^ ^^^^^ Stupidly at a large hamper, corded and muddy, stand- ing by his bedside. The sun was high and poured across the room, showing his still unopened port- manteau bolstering the locked door, and his clay -bedaubed clothes strewing the floor and chairs. The day's work was in full swing in the street below, and the noise and the sunlight presently had their effect on him, and his memory awoke and spread itself over the previous evening. He recalled his hasty plan of action — put through ere the pale cast of thought could intervene. He re- called a horse and trap hired at Winkfield, and a hamper — that hamper. He recalled an untasted dinner struggled with at the inn while awaiting the sheltering night. 74 FOX AND GOOSE He had memories of rain, and slippery The roads, and darkness ; of an unmanageable ^''^'^'^^ 'f beast between the shafts, and an infernal "^""^ complication of harness and reins in his un- accustomed hands. Nightmare memories of a crazy hamper bulging with shining treasure — of gold plate dropping in the gloom, and scattered coins that must be groped for, sprawling, by the fitful flash of wooden matches, themselves scattered like leaves in Vallombrosa. The getting home ! He cowered in his bed as it came back to him. The stumbling feet of the accursed steed, the increasing rain, the gathering dark, and, to crown all, the policeman who had seized the animal's head as he negotiated the steep descent of the Castle Hill at midnight. Well had it been that his elevated perch had pre- vented him from casting himself on the neck of that policeman and confessing all, for the policeman had proved an angel in a waterproof— had led the bewildered horse down the glassy cobbles, saving trap and all from wreck, and had dismissed 7S NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The them with contemptuous words at the waking to point known to Etonians as Damnation ^°^ Corner. The midnight boots, who thought he had been picnicking, and could not see the force of taking a heavy hamper up- stairs at such an hour; his own thank- fulness for the handy fiction; and his relief and triumph when he had shut the door on his adventure and sat down on his hamper to wipe his steaming brow, were still instant in his mind. He tumbled himself out of bed, and patted the substantial crate with both hands to assure himself of its reality. The contagion affected him, and he then and there hauled it to the middle of the room and sat down, with an outspread leg each side of its rotundity, and set to to open it. This effected, he turned to the portmanteau, and, making sure that the door was fastened, drew it alongside of the hamper, opened and emptied it. It was a stout piece of goods of the kind known as a bullock-trunk, and far too large for his occasion, being indeed 76 FOX AND GOOSE capable of all his worldly possessions ; but ■^» M he had no suitcase, kit-bag, or other useful /"^'^ and fashionable companion, so his trunk, ''^*'"""' an old family retainer, followed him on his short flights, ^his slender kit threshing round inside its walls. But now he wished it bigger, for the hamper bulged under the outward pressure of his great acquisi- tion, and the box must find room for kit and all. It answered the call stoutly; and when each shining trophy and pile of coin, lack- ing velvet-lined case or cabinet, was wrapped in many wrappings of newspaper and stowed firmly in its hold, Mr. Wayz- goose's Sunday clothes, cleansed of their material connection with the disinterment, neatly padded any possible chink, and turned a sober face to the lifted lid. This seen to, Mr. Wayzgoose turned his atten- tion to his toilet with bursts of wild song in undertones and light-hearted skippings on the drugget. The key in one trouser pocket and the reserved gold pieces in the other, he de- scended to the inn-yard about lunch-time, 77 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A balance and, having arranged for the return of the at the ^j-g^p J.Q Winkfield, and stayed his body's wants with gross meat and beer, eating as a man may eat who has had no breakfast to follow a very sketchy supper, he took himself and his gold down the street. First he would dispose of a few coins for familiar unfamiliar sovereigns, and this proving feasible and profitable he would return to London and dispose of the whole. What would it fetch? Hundreds cer- tainly — thousands maybe. He totted up his rough estimates for the twentieth time, and saw himself enter- ing the bank in a new character. Saw old Bigland's face of surprise and respect; heard his, "How will you take it, Mr. Wayzgoose .? " Recognized young Hooper's effusive advances and noble invitations, and steeled his heart in advance. Saw himself finally in the bank parlour with Mr. Mavors; shaken by the hand, and— but there is no need to follow his visions further. Their tendency is plain. Tread- ing on air, he entered a large silversmith's 78 FOX AND GOOSE and jeweller's shop, and made the first Aques- step towards tangible fortune. tknabk He had put down a couple of coins on ' "^^ the glass-topped counter, and had begun his inquiries, when he was interrupted by the entrance of a roughish-looking cus- tomer, whose lack of linen did not recom- mend him to his surroundings. A bull in a china-shop is no more out of place than a belcher neckcloth in a jeweller's, and the shopman lost no time in discouraging his advance. The man, however, asked meekly enough for a favourable opinion on a half- crown he held in his hand. It had been refused at the public next door, he said ; and he thought it very hard, for he could see nothing wrong with it. No more could the shopman, who rung it, and looked at it, and handed it back. The man took it, apparently much comforted, and bowed and scraped his acknowledgments, back- ing into Wayzgoose, who was still standing by his coins, thereby causing him to draw away from the counter, and enabling the apologetic owner of the big feet to gaze in admiration on the precious metal and 79 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW And now strange superscriptions. The assistant to business hustled him out, and he retired, no doubt to continue his altercation with the over- suspicious publican, and Mr. Wayzgoose unfolded his business. Could he be informed whether these coins were of value — if so, could he sell them there, and at what figure? He had come to the right place. The jeweller was also a numismatist. He could show Mr. Wayzgoose some nice pieces, if he was a collector. He had often sold coins to Mr. Mavors of Wink- field, whose collection was quite cele- brated. The sympathetic blood rose in Mr. Wayzgoose's face at the name, and his hand shook as he fingered his pieces. Mr. Mavors a collector! Here, then, was a dii'ect way to his heart. Was he actually handling the very price which should buy himself what he had set his heart on? The shopman noticed his emotion with a momentary surprise which gave way to the keenest suspicion. He had in his 80 FOX AND GOOSE head palm a coin on which he had been dilating Suspicion —a £z gold piece of Charles I. ''""-' *" "I sold a similar one to Mr. Mavors last year — to Mr. Mavors last year," he repeated slowly, gazing hard at Mr. Wayz- goose's changing countenance. " If you like to leave it in my hands I will show it him on his return to Winkfield — he is now abroad. I should have thought the coin could hardly have been duplicated," he went on meaningly, but the shaft did not reach. Mr. Wayzgoose recovered himself and pocketed his coins, saying he had changed his mind and should not sell at present. "At least leave me your address, sir," said the jeweller, edging round the counter. " You are staying here ? " "At the Columbus Arms," said Wayz- goose, and sought the riverside with his discovery. Mr. Straight, jeweller and numismatist, found that these were names of superficial things, and that at bottom he was, like other men, an amateur detective. He threw the cares of the shop on his as- 6 8i NINE POINTS OF THE LAW What will sistant, and rushed into his back-room, ^\ ^'' seeking the local paper. wtt tt? jyjj.^ Wayzgoose sought the riverside below the lock, and seating himself under the willows considered this new turn in his affairs. The more he looked at it the less he found in it. He could not commit the absurdity of offering his find en bloc to her father, and Mr. Mavors, in his turn, could never accept it. If he sold it him he was not sure but what the obligation would be on the wrong side, after all. And besides, Mr. Mavors would never mix himself up in such a matter. Concealment of treasure trove — it had weighed on him throughout — was a breach of the law ; there was no blinking the fact. He had found it on Crown-land. Let the matter get wind, and the Crown —he stared resentfully at the long front- age of the Castle sweeping away north- wards from the squalid little town at its skirts— would stretch an overbearing hand and relieve him of his dear anxieties. It is not given to all of us to love virtue 82 FOX AND GOOSE for virtue's sake; and to give up to Dives, Morality, who has not lost it and can never miss ^^'^^^^h it, what would buy Lazarus his heart's desire is hard on the poor man. He who advises the forgetful tax-collector of his remissness, and points out to the Customs' officer that overlooked bundle of cigars, has our admiration. Such Catos of the Republic raise the average of public virtue. But our sympathies are with the weaker vessels who keep the balance level by a corresponding declension, for thus the path of conduct is kept from ascending to altitudes of too rarefied an atmosphere — most uncomfortable to breathe we have heard. Passing from self-pity to sophistry, as those stern moralists might point out, Mr. Wayzgoose argued that his false step gave rise to virtues hitherto unknown to his breast. Courage and determination to brave the Crown, the Law, and its appan- ages; ambition; and devotion; for was it not for her sake he was a changed man ? No longer a broken-spirited clerk on a holiday, but something much more like 83 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW " J^ho a pirate on a buccaneering expedition. fears to Qj^g ^p ^j^jg treasure tamely to a nominal pat it to ^^ o^ner, take the nearest policeman into confidence, and he was once more that tame-spirited clerk of yesterday, saddled with an everlasting regret, and a mere tale of goblin wealth that had passed through his fingers and left him poorer than he had ever known himself. Stick to it and see the thing through, and he was a bold bad man, with a fortune to be had and a bride to be won. Such chances come not twice into the lives of city clerks; and he who, sitting at his desk in Poultry, had echoed the sentiment, if not the question, " Shall we never shed blood.? This prospect is too grey," — should he shrink from this adven- ture that held out its impulsive hand to him and cried to him, in the Hooperian phraseology, to be a sportsman.? "I will be a sportsman," cried Mr. Wayzgoose, rising to his legs and calling the willows to witness. A heavy hand on his arm pressed him to the grass again, and a thick voice, 84 FOX AND GOOSE issuing from the swathes of a spotted -Daww neckcloth, said in his ear — ""'^ " "Be a sportsman, gov'nor, and call it ^"'' halves." It was the owner of the slandered half- crown. He leant heavily on the arm he had seized, and repeated — " Call it halves." "It's no use trying to bluff, gov'nor," he pursued in a whisper, as his victim made efforts to rise. "We've watched the place all the time. I saw you home last night; I saw you in the pop-shop just now. Sit 'ere, and talk quiet-like — it'll do you no harm. You can't work the job by yourself; you must know that." To say that the compromising hand and voice fell on Mr. Wayzgoose's con- sciousness like a stone on a quiet pool would not express its effect. The rude interruption fell like a stone upon a puddle — we use the word in no derog- atory sense — dashing his small store of desperately collected device and counsel to the winds, and leaving mere gaping 8S NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ^he Index emptiness. His tongue worked in his jaws, of the mind conscious somehow of instant occasion, but his thoughts were scattered, and he gazed, paralyzed, at this unshaven mischance which had dropped from the skies to blight his summer day. " I am not a-goin' to be hard on you," pursued the man, the more confidently as he saw no sign of resistance. " I ain't had no orders to " ("He's not the robber-chief, then, but he's one of the forty," speculated the for- gotten child in him, wandering out of the caves of memory into reason's deserted realm.) "I'm not a-goin' to be hard on you — you did it well. I like your blessed cheek ! Why, the place was crawling with slops. But it was your chivvy, and no wonder. Why, gov'nor, your face must be a fortune to you at the game." He paused, genial. " When that copper on the hill tackled you and the trap, I thought it was all up a tree, I did ; but, well— no, I never see a spoofer to touch you, not in the same 86 FOX AND GOOSE half-mile. I wouldn't ha' thought it of -^n honest you, I wouldn't indeed." '"'''^"' Holding his victim down, he gazed admiringly at him, but quickly returned to business. " Now, what's it goin' to be? " (Mr. Wayzgoose frowned — that was what was puzzling him. Did he get cut into four pieces, or did he get away with the donkey-load of gold? He couldn't re- member.) " My mate's waiting for me " — he nodded towards the town. " He'd have spoke to you, but it's harder for him to move about than what it is for me. Of course, he's better known-like, on these jobs ; and after he's made his shot, hit or miss, he must lie low. That's the way with us, ain't it ? But he says, ' You take the boodle to the address I give you,' he says, ' and he'll dispose of it, and you shall have y'r share, fair and square.' That's what he says, ' fair and square.' And, if you don't " — with a burst of violence and a vulgar expletive — " we'll blow on you. You hear that;" and he pushed Wayzgoose roughly 87 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW '^h' from him, only to lay his hand on him standard ^gg^jj^^ ^^^ ^^^ i„ j^jg former tone, " But °J *'^^° what am I giving you? It's on, isn't it, gov'nor?" But Mr. Wayzgoose's senses were com- ing back to him. To yield half his find to these ruffians who, apparently, had been witnesses of it, and had let him cart it home in bodily anguish and sweat, only to way- lay him when the deed was done — his whole soul revolted at the injustice. To make an accomplice — ugly word — of this unwashed blackguard at his side, whose presence and contact made him shrink— a fellow offensive in every sense, and doubly hateful in that he shed a turpi- tude, and a vulgar turpitude, over this promising emprise. "Never! I'm d d if I do," quoth Mr. Wayzgoose, in admirable spirit. Taking courage from the sound of the word, he went on — " What right have you to interfere, you— you ruffian.? Do you think I am going to pull chestnuts out of the fire for you and 88 FOX AND GOOSE your — your beastly pals? You left it to me Remune- to get away from the wood " — oddly enough '■""*" ~ that injury rankled as strongly as another, such nights were not in his line — "and now you come along and think you only have to ask and I am to give you half. What's the good of your ' blowing ' ? You'll get nothing by it. I'll give you " He paused, not from financial prudence, but at the thought that he was committing himself to bribery, to that entanglement he dreaded and disliked; but seeing no help for it, he continued — " I will give you five pounds, and your friend the same; not now," he pursued, hurriedly, thinking of his hotel-bill and immediate requirements, " but when I — in a few days. I found this stuff, and I mean to keep it." The man's oaths were checked in mid- fall. The gentle euphemism, for so it seemed to him, tickled his thick hide; such ver- bal glosses played no small part in the humorous converse of his society, and 89 or sell out of this word" NINE POINTS OF THE DAW "I will this one he accepted with a joy that did never buy honour to Mr. Wayzgoose's artistic " spoof- ing." "You found it, did yer.? Oh yes, you did find it. You're a good ' and at finding things, you are. I've found some things in my time, I 'ave, too — things that 'adn't never been lost; but I never 'ad such a find as that. You can afford to be generous, you can," he went on, laughing huskily. " Five quid a-piece ! that's a bit too thick. Why, I'd smash your 'ead in for the money." He drew his fist threateningly back to his shoulder, and looked ugly again. "What do you take me for, you .? I know you're a clever one, as clever as Alf, pretty nigh, I should say; but do you think I'm goin' to do that work for five- quid? Let alone Alf. I tell you, I'll smash you!" Again he returned to his wheedling tone. "Ain't I offered you half, gov'nor.? What more can I do? I know you got the stuff, and that we can't show up at present; but, hang it all! we must have our half 1" 90 FOX AND GOOSE bozo ! ' Mr. Wayzgoose liked neither the sub- " 0/or a stance nor the manner of these pleadings '*'"'^ — neither the whining notes nor the men- acing. It is questionable how much further the man might have gone with his blustering hints without letting in sufficient daylight to illumine Mr. Wayzgoose's mind. Certain it is that a preconceived idea will make an astonishing defence against the plainest hostile testimony ; but for the time Mr. Wayzgoose cut short all attempts to undermine his innocent theory. " Temporize," said a voice, rising from some forgotten ' Boy's Annual,' " Fool the villain when he has you at a disadvantage." " I must have time to think," said the ruse'Mr. Wayzgoose. " Let me alone and don't follow me. I — I don't want to be seen with you. I mean it would arouse suspicion," catching at the phrase, for he would not hurt the feelings even of such a foe; his reluctance to his company being based on his outer man as much as on his inward depravity. " And remember," he said, with a very fair assumption of courage, pointing his 91 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Into the stick at the lowering Chaffers, " that if I enemy's gj^g information, you will be in a much country ^grse position than you could put me into," — he could not have said why, but the man accepted the statement — "and you have attempted blackmail — do you know that?" His vague remembrance of legalities swelled to importance before Chaffers's unlettered ignorance, and his loftiness of purpose grew into virtue before the other's self-conscious villainy. " Upon my word," outraged, " I have half a mind " " For Gawd's sake, no, gov'nor," ex- claimed the man, in a fright, stretching out his hand. "I'll leave you straight. You think it over— I shall be at hand when you want me. I've never been a hundred yards from the Columbus since yesterday till now. You 'ang your shirt out of the winder, and I'll be at the foot of the garden in a instant." So he was watched! Wayzgoose felt that the plot was thickening. "Where did you sleep last night?" he asked, half-wonderingly. " Railw'yarch," said Mr. Chaffers briefly, 98 FOX AND GOOSE not admiring the appearance of a police- Akngth- man and a lock-keeper who had come into ^"*"& ''*'"* sight a little higher up the bank, and mov- ing off with some suddenness. His bulky figure passed behind the willows, uttering valedictory promises to be "round there in no time," and cautions to "hang out your shirt"; but as his steps departed Mr. Wayzgoose felt at each remove the lengthening chain that bound him to so deplorable a person. He stood his ground, but so contagious is a bad conscience that his relief was undeniable, when the policeman and the keeper drew near, to find them discussing smaller fish than he or Chaffers ; but still fish of a size, to judge from the lock- keeper's words — " Ten pounds he must have been if an ounce, and I had him in my hands a'most when the gut snapped, and I never set eyes on him no more." " Ah ! I seen a bigger one than that," said the policeman, "last Friday it was " They passed out of earshot. Is there no honesty in the world? asked 91 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Some Wayzgoose bitterly of his soul, and his gloomy re- guilty soul found no answer. pctions Q^jj^ jg unlike other forms of trouble, for its weight is doubled when it is shared. We can most of us support our own characters — and Heaven knows that is no light load for the majority of us — when our characters are our own secret, but we all know what happens when men seek or blunder upon the contents of another's burden, or let slip the secret of their own. These are they who are dredged up from river-beds, swept up mangled on railway crossings, or lifted defaced and horrible out of cabs and coffee-houses by white-faced bystanders ; they illustrate the hard maxim: Mind your own business. And when they fail by incapacity they have a newspaper paragraph for epitaph, where- in that business that they could not mind, —that sorry business of their own it was their interest to keep dark— is set forth for all to know and take warning by. And some read the warning: Do no wrong; and some read it: Do not be found out. And of those who fail to follow the maxim, 94 FOX AND GOOSE not by incapacity for their own business, Slack but by over interest in that of others, the '^"''^ "" tale is different, but has the same result; , . crupper but the epitaph is frequently lacking. Mr. Wayzgoose, darkly revolving in his mind the fate of Cassim, and weighing his pains against the alternative of a conscience like Eugene Aram's, walked slowly from the scene of his interview, all too certain that Chaffers would return to the charge at the earliest possible moment to feel much relief at his disappearance. How had these fellows spotted him, he wondered; but the wonder would have been if they hadn't— and he thought again of the openness of his proceedings and of the assurance which had carried him through the obvious risks of the under- taking. The wonder had been reflected in Chaffers's remarks on his countenance. "Puer ingenui vultus," he remembered his tutor calling him when a boy at St. Paul's; and he was vaguely annoyed. To get out of a tight place on such terms was not soothing to his vanity, though, to do him justice, his vanity was 95 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "I can't not great. But now his wits, and to do get out'' ^jjgj^ justice they were not great either, must help him, and that quickly. He had wandered back to the bridge and now leaning over the parapet he thought hard of ways to escape from the guard which was evidently put upon him. If Chaffers was never a hundred yards from the inn, and another bird of the same feather — described moreover as a "clever 'un " — " Come, now," reflected Wayzgoose, " he is only as clever as I am, pretty nigh " — were keeping watch and ward over his lodging, how was he to get away with his box? The water-way beneath him took his fancy. He might drop down the reaches of the Thames with his booty, avoiding every kind of buttoned official until he felt salt water under his keel — there was enchantment in the word — and slipping ever seaward hail some Indiaman who should take him^ up and carry him to for- eign parts. They'd want more than five pounds, he thought; but then, so did ChafEers. 96 FOX AND GOOSE Or he might sink it in some backwater -^ diver- and return for it when his foes were tired """ of their surveillance. He little thought how recently that plan had been acted on. This seemed good for a minute, then with a gesture of anger he remembered that the trouble was to get his box from the hotel ; to get it out of Windsor he could use the train or the Queen's highway; he saw no difficulty there. Well then, should he leave it with the hotel people, with the same object of tiring out his opponents' guard, and making a bolt for it at some future date? What was the notice about innkeepers' liability.'' He could not declare the contents, that was quite certain. And if he did — but the thought was absurd. He kicked the parapet in his vexation. "Like a boat, sir.? Very nice on the water this evening." Wayzgoose stared vacantly at the in- sinuating waterman, and too dispirited to resist, followed his captor down the stone steps to the rafts beneath. 7 97 a tub NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Thephilo- "Single skiff, sir? Hand out that mat, opher in gjn^ ^ind your scull, sir." And he found himself pushed out in the stream before he had made up his mind whether he wanted to go or no, and pulling perforce, to save himself from collision with other craft. It was a perfect evening, bathed in sunlight, with no breath of uglifying wind to spoil the deep clean-cut reflections of green leaf or red tile. Not stimulating to desperate expedient certainly, but breath- ing the philosophy that shelves to-morrow's cares for to-morrow and lets the stream run by. Then comes to-morrow with certain step, and the pleasant hour, like any other fair-weather friend and false comforter, is gone and its very memory embitters. And yet if we can live laborious days in the uncertain hope of future happiness, may not we support evil times on a memory of good days certainly passed.? It requires even more philosophy than the reverse process we fear. No man feels so bitterly the touch of ill-health or poverty as he who has known neither for half his 98 FOX AND GOOSE life, and when you can sit down under -Against irreparable misfortune and say " I have '^^ i"'eam had my day. Fate cannot touch me," you may count yourself among the sages. The very type of an aggrieved and ill-used mortal would be the man who had enjoyed an estate for all the best years of his ex- istence and got turned out in his old age by the appearance on the stage of the rightful heir. That man would have en- joyed such a slice of the world's cake as falls to the lot of perhaps one in a million, but his outcry would be louder than the lifelong complaints of the great remainder who had tasted but the crumbs. Such considerations distracted his mind as he pulled laboriously up-stream. The river was not crowded, so no great call was made upon his skill as, his neck twisted painfully over his shoulder and his knuckles grazing each other as they crossed at each stroke, he saw the bridge gradually recede. Once he met a punt-load of grey-shirted guardsmen and managed to bump them, the two craft seeking each other and 99 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW " Kerchief sticking together like two chips in a basin, in hand, I ^-^ ewQn more familiar illustration of a well- saw them t^-^q^^ principle which may be witnessed any day on any waters where unskilled laymen set themselves adrift. They got rid of one another, finally, and he avoided the next danger, a launch, heard afar off, by seeking the bank. The launch passed, full of excursionists, packed like pilchards in a barrel. A settled melancholy was on the bunched faces, surmounted by crushed hats and sweat-bedewed handkerchiefs; and they passed on as if to their doom, heralded by a concertina and one strange voice of Cockaigne singing the sad delights of his country. Mr. Wayzgoose rocked on their ripples, and wished them a speedy release from their pleasure. Quiet returned, and with it the vexed question, how should he remove his box from the Columbus Arms ? Frowningly, he framed speeches and devices to lure the clever Alf from his post; to hold him in talk while a friend took the fateful thing to the station; but he had no friend, whereas Alf had. How 100 FOX AND GOOSE long would they keep it up ? If he bided Doggett this time, he could surely get a chance. '^'^^ " How long would they be content to wait his decision ? Why, great Heavens ! and he nearly fell into the river;, perhaps they were tired already ! Here he was sitting calmly in a boat, a mile away, when those two had their whole attention fixed on his room at the inn. Ass that he was ! . Would Chaffers have left him so easily, if he had had nothing at the back of his head? Why, by now his box might be gone. Fury and desolation ! What had he been thinking of to leave it unguarded so long? He flung himself upon his sculls, and pulled as hard as he could back towards the bridge. He caught crabs; he kicked his stretcher in the air; he hit himself under the chin ; he covered his discarded coat and waistcoat with the water he threw up, while small boys bathing congratulated him on his exertions, and offered to push behind for twopence. Mr. Wayzgoose saw void NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The ab- but One sight, a room at the Columbus horrent Arms with no bullock-trunk therein, and splashed his hardest. He reached the rafts at last, and, pulling on his garments, hurried up the High Street to his diggings. A 'bus piled with luggage rumbled out of the yard into the street as he entered, squeezing him against the wall. He ran upstairs two steps at a time, impatient at the moment's delay, though now on the spot his anxiety dimin- ished, and he had not much doubt that where his heart was there was his treasure also. He opened the door — the bullock- trunk was gone ! " It was here," he said stupidly to him- self, standing on the spot where he had left it. He looked all round; he looked under the bed. He then remembered that in his care to hide the chief deposit, and with almost instant flight in his mind, he had repacked on the top all his own things, leaving the room as if vacant. Perhaps the boots had taken it downstairs by mistake. He dashed into the bar and asked 102 FOX AND GOOSE breathlessly. The boots was called and "Depart interviewed. Did he know anything ~^^ about the gentleman's luggage in No. i8? °-^~ "' No. i8.? Yes. No. i8 had just gone ^y^de— in the 'bus. Erump!" " That was No. 8," cried the landlady. "And i8, I was told," said the boots, firmly. "Why, i8 hadn't paid his bill," cried the landlady scandalized. He was paying it now, though. The boots' face was as inexpressive as the wall. " i8, /was told," he said. The landlady scolded; but the unim- pressionable Boots fingered a couple of sovereigns in his waistcoat pocket and offered no further defence, while Wayz- goose, gathering up his change, fled like the wind. He saw no sign of his trackers, though doubtless they marked his flight. The question was, would they pay atten- tion to it, seeing that he was unaccompanied by box or bundle. If not, why, this was a Heaven-sent business ; the kindly finger of Providence! Could he but reach the station in time to claim his own. 103 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "Ah! He ran over the bridge and leapt down croyez- ^^ steps leading to the South Western '""' Railway and doubled into the station just I erreur i i i i • ^^^^ as a respectable-looking stranger was merite" instructing a porter to label a bullock- trunk. "That box is mine," cried Wayzgoose, rushing forward. " It was taken from the Columbus Arms by mistake ! " The stranger, doubtless No. 8, whose generous supply of luggage had so easily absorbed his own, did not hesitate an instant; he raised his hat and apologized with great suavity. He had just recognized his mistake as Mr. Wayzgoose entered and was about to disclaim the box. Could he send it back to the hotel for him .? He was most sorry for his error. But Wayzgoose had seen his opportunity ere this, and transferring the porter's allegiance from the apologetic stranger to himself with the least possible delay — for the guard was already fingering his whistle and making the customary attempts to shut out intending passengers and to shut in their friends who were there to see them 104 FOX AND GOOSE off, who were each and all engaged in the A hoik! usual frantic struggle to exchange the *"'~ fates thrust upon them — he ran for a carriage while the porter ran for the van : the guard whistled, the engine replied, and Mr. Wayzgoose and his fortunes slipped rapidly out of Windsor, the porter shouting something about Clapham as he ran along- side the train, his hand outstretched for the coppers Mr. Wayzgoose was extending towards him. Wayzgoose sat back and wiped his brow and heaved huge sighs of relief. Things had gone with such rapidity since his fright in the boat, that all had seemed like one continuous act, one strain at high pressure to avert great evil. The evil was averted and was changed into good ; and now that he could think again, he congratulated himself fervently on the favourable turn events had taken, and blessed No. 8 and the culpable boots from the bottom of his heart. He was still nervous, needless to say, and hung out at every station lest his box should again go astray and enrich some unsuspecting NINE POINTS OF THE LAW not out of traveller. He could imagine No. 8 open- the wood ing the bullock-trunk in the bosom of his family, and the delight and wonder of Mrs. Eight and all the little Eights. Poor No. 8! How little he thought what had been snatched from under his nose ! At Clapham, when he put his head out of the window according to custom, he was met by a demand for his ticket, and remembered for the first time that he hadn't one. It is not well to be found ticketless in a third-class carriage at the height of the August traffic. Ticket-collectors are hot, and cross, and over-worked; and the modicum of forbearance which might be extended to the plutocratic first-class traveller, is not accorded to your third- class. Mr. Wayzgoose found himself out on the platform in less time than it takes to relate, awaiting the pleasure of the station-master, his protests and offers to pay being met by the curtest and most sarcastic response. Standing helpless under the eye of the superintendent, he had the agony to see 1 06 FOX AND GOOSE his train move on, and, gathering head, Clapham disappear in the direction of Waterloo, """^ " while he stood in the whirling dust-wreaths, J"""""' an object of scorn to the station and of pity to men and angels. The train gone, his explanation was listened to, and finally he was allowed to pay the price and warned not to do it again; and he could wander out among the milk-cans which form so striking a feature in the scenery of Clapham Junc- tion, and wait for the next up train. Suffering ijot a little from anxiety and from the shock of his urbanity, he walked down the platform trying to dismiss his fears as to the safety of the box, and to forget the treatment he had received. At the far end was a man bending over a trunk which he appeared to be inspecting closely. As Wayzgoose approached he saw that he was deciphering a half-effaced label on the lid, and with a shock of in- credulous delight recognized at the same moment his own luggage ! The man straightened himself, and, without looking at Wayzgoose, walked 107 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW " Curiou- ser and curiott- quickly up the platform and entered the telegraph-office. It was the respectable stranger again. He remembered the porter's warning now, and, looking at the box, saw it was labelled Clapham, presumably by order of the whilom No. 8. The mystery was no mystery; but what was the man examining his box for now? And, be- sides, how had he come to label it ? Ac- cording to his own account, he had seen the mistake at once. Wayzgoose looked at the label on the lid — half rubbed off — which the stranger had been studying. It bore his own address at Walham Green; the memento of some homeward journey at a former time. What was he telegraphing about? Perhaps he had lost his own luggage; and Wayzgoose, in the joy of his dis- covery, thought he would follow and sympathize. He followed the stranger into the telegraph-box, and, as he entered, the clerk, his face close to the little win- dow, was reading over the message, the 1 08 FOX AND GOOSE stranger, his head at the same opening, Trapped waiting, money in hand. "From Alf?" asked the clerk, boggling at the writing. " Alf," confirmed the stranger. "No address.?" " No address." A flood of light broke upon Wayz- goose, a timely light, but the illumination took a lurid cast. He saw in its true colour the sudden unhelpfulness of the Boots, and remembered the odd circum- stance that the stranger, deprived of the bullock-trunk, had appeared without other luggage. Happy accident, indeed ! Inter- vention of Providence! Why, this was not No. 8 — this was the wily Alf ! He was in the clutch of his enemies and being borne along on the wings of their design. And now they had his address: a thing he had always feared beyond everything. He had left the frying-pan for the fire, for he would be besieged in his own home; fairly tree'd; he could nfever slip them now ! 109 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A despe- Between prayer and tears, with the re- rate double doubtable Alf behind him and the rail- way lines in front, stood Mr. Wayzgoose on the platform of Clapham Junction. Alf was sending another wire apparent- ly, and was in the throes of composition; he had not seen Wayzgoose and plainly thought that he had gone on to Waterloo, and that the game was won. He would have cast himself upon the box and the box upon a cab ; but where should he go ? But there was no choice and very little time, so he grabbed the nearest porter by the arm and was on the point of saying, " Put this on a cab," when a train roared into the station on the down platform behind the ticket and telegraph offices, and the porter broke away to attend it as it came to a standstill. The long corridor carriages were filled with people whose wraps and head-gear slightly differentiated them from the ordinary traveller, and on more than one car was the legend : " New- haven." The guard stepped out of his van just opposite to where Wayzgoose was stand- FOX AND GOOSE ing, for he had followed the recalcitrant Deus ex porter across the platform. machina We have seen that Mr. Wayzgoose could act in an emergency. Regardless of his experience of five minutes since, regardless of his summery attire and the lightness of his accompany- ing kit, regardless even of the truth, so quick is the descent to Avernus, Mr. Wayzgoose declared with a glibness that shocked himself that he was bound for Paris and could not get a porter to label his luggage. "We don't take up passengers here," said the guard ; " you should have gone to Victoria." Mr. Wayzgoose produced half a crown. "Where is your luggage?" said the guard. It was at hand, and easily handled. Mr. Wayzgoose assisted the guard in shoving it into the van, and the guard assisted him by shoving him into a Pullman — more trouble, he thought — and the train resumed its way, to stop no more until the all embracing sea spread across its path. NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Thepuffied Mr. Wayzgoose sitting on a softly pursuer padded divan saw, as the train glided swiftly and more swiftly down the platform, the respectable stranger moving uneasily among the scattered porters. Alf , looking for the portmanteau I 113 CHAPTER V NOT NEGOTIABLE MR. WAYZGOOSE felt satisfied Once more with his strategy, and, like the "board the pirate of old romance, that once "^^"^ aboard the lugger he was free. He spread himself over the cushions and laughed. Two days ago and the fare would have been more in his mind than the comfort ; but now — Mr. Waygzoose put his feet up. Though the train was running him south at fifty miles an hour he had no defined idea of whither he was bound, but his time was his own and he had, he would not say wealth, but money at his back : he had always had a desire to see the world, and France should be the first step. His unacquaintance with the language would not make it easier to sell his treasure ; but 8 113 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Trading the low Standard of morality prevalent schemes among foreigners would probably counter- balance that by increasing his chance of running up against a receiv — a dealer, he meant to say — he corrected himself firmly ; and he could always pay his way, if a little time elapsed before he could bring it off, by selling an occasional coin or so. A panama straw and some fancy waistcoats flitted before his mind, but his capital must not be touched for such follies. He had just had to meet the demand for his passage money, and the amount had somewhat staggered him, though his escape was cheap at the price. Newhaven was reached and the panting boat lying ready to take him the longest sea voyage he had known. Stick in hand, his only personal effect, he walked superior to the little ills that beset the burdened traveller who requires a third hand to present the ticket always demanded of him in mid-gangway, and has no remedy against the strong and sudden gusts that play about landing stages and steamers' decks, even on halcyon 114 NOT NEGOTIABLE days. Perhaps in such weather they derive '^'^e their strength from the bracing essence of J'^^^ seaweed, bloaters and tar, which they pick "^"'^ up and impregnate themselves with in the seaport; that racy mixture of the sea's breath and the town's which the seaside breathes to most of us. While others disposed of bag and rug or struggled up and down companion ways, he watched his box spinning in the crane's grip, herded with vulgar baggage but safe on board; and he admonished the vessel as he trod its decks, " Thou bearest Wayz- goose and his fortune ! " Once cast off they were past the piers at a bound, and, feeling deep water under her, the boat was off like a racehorse, opening the white cliffs towards Beachy Head, and dropping the little harbour like a parvenue ashamed of her origin. The intoxicating air tore over the decks, and the bediamonded glitter of the twinkling ocean under the rising moon spread itself in growing delight at every revolution of the screw. Mr. Wayzgoose watched the decline of "5 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Charmant pays de France. . . te quitter c'est day and the advance of night until the sentiment inspired by the moonlight gave way to other emotions and he went below in search of food. On his return a change had come over the scene. As Albion faded in the growing dark- ness the homeward travelling Frenchman, so admirably unconspicuous in our streets, beginning to draw his breath more freely swelled to his natural proportions, and appeared on deck in the weird garments of his native heath, talking his native tongue in no uncertain voice; while the Britisher faded and paled, adopted con- ciliatory airs, and astonished himself by feeling doubts hitherto unknown to him as to the perfect propriety of his tweeds and the intelligibility of his spoken French ; felt drawn, too, towards his compatriots, and impelled to conversation with travelling- companions whom he would have slain with a glance on his country's shores. So it was that Wayzgoose, as they entered the narrow mouth of little Dieppe, the twinkling lights of the Casino winking ii6 NOT NEGOTIABLE a greeting, found himself standing apart -^ facer from the confident group of French- men, no longer foreigners, who were already hailing their friends demonstra- tively, and in talk with a fellow-country- man whose general lack of flannel, brown- boots, or yachting-cap showed that a journey was no novelty to him. " Pretty place," said Wayzgoose. "Ah," said the commercial gentleman. He had no use for scenery. "Do we wait long here?" cried Wayz- goose. " Till every one is clear of the Customs," said the traveller, wearily; but seeing further question in his face explained in pity, "All luggage examined at the Custom House, you know. They don't bother you much," he said, with awaken- ing charity, touched by the horror on his face. " Tell 'em you've nothing to declare, and you'll be all right." "Tell them I've nothing to declare!" groaned Wayzgoose to himself, "in the face of all that stuff. Great heavens, why did I not think of this? " 117 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Old His legs trembling under him, he ap- Father proached one of the sailors. Antic "When does this boat return to New- haven ? " "To-morrow or day after," answered the sailor. "That's to-night's boat," and he pointed to a sister-ship lying across the harbour. " Carry your luggage, sir? " " I have none, thank you," said Wayz- goose miserably, wishing it were true. The law of one's own country is a parlous thing, but to fall across the justice of a foreign land appals the boldest, and he looked with a sickening apprehension at the ferocious gendarmes sworded and bearded, who appeared at every turn. He was soon in the Custom House, the Chambre Ardente, carried thither by the press of passengers; and a stream of porters deposited luggage at every instant on the grooved counters, where the owners, swarming and wrangling over it and carrying it off piecemeal, made a vivid presentment of a disturbed ant- heap. His turn came. ii8 NOT NEGOTIABLE executton The bullock-trunk, solid and stolid, 'The was dumped down near him. moment of " Ouf" said the blue-bloused porter. " Cest a vous, Monsieur?" and mentally resolved on a franc as the least he would take. Meanwhile he took the owner under his care, as well as the baggage, and made him produce his keys. The box was unstrapped, unlocked, opened. His Sunday-suit lay placid on the sur- face, concealing — what depths of trouble, ignominy and Devil's Island ! An ancient dame in a white cap, her face hardened by dealing with generations of untruthful travellers, came along, chalk in hand; but her attention was on the next group, where a lively row was in prog- ress. And was it a woman's hand, then, that should give him bound to the torturers ? His heart stood still as she took hold of the collar of his Sunday-coat, her head still over her shoulder. His fate hung oscillating in the scales, down and up as the old woman's hand fingered the 119 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The re- clothes, his whole soul swinging sickeningly prieve f,.Qj^ pQjg to pole at each twitch of her digits. The quarrel next door heightened; torrents of angry argument poured from the officials to be dashed to spray on the bluff front of the Briton who does not know when he is beaten. The old lady could stand it no longer. She fell in on the flank with astonishing vigour and acrimony at a hundred and fifty words to the minute. The porter touched her sleeve, and without looking back she slammed down the lid of the bullock-trunk, made a wild cross upon it with the chalk, and continued her onset. He was saved, and, giddy with relief, followed his porter through the glass- doors on to the platform, leaving his erring countryman to be offered up a sacrifice and a scape-goat. He would go no further, would risk no complications in the interior. Here, in Dieppe, he would sit until he knew more of the ways and customs of the country. So the patient porter. NOT NEGOTIABLE accustomed to vagaries and callous to the '^^^ '•'"■ English accent, took him where hotel ^''^"^^''S. porters stood by their omnibuses, a cloud , . , , , stony street of cormorants with empty pouches; and he was snapped up as a minnow is snapped up when it is feeding-time at the Zoo. The omnibus whose maw had received him rattled and bounded through the tortuous, cobble-stoned streets, which it seemed to fit like a piston, so that at each debouchement on cross-ways or market- place he looked to see the floating popu- lation heaped in a terminal moraine. But the sustained E-e-e's of the driver, the detonations of the whip and the jin- gling of the horse-bells must have given ample warning, for the wheels of the car were bloodless when it at length stopped at an hotel entrance in a narrow street which it seemed completely to fill, but where it yet performed miracles of backing and turning, and left space over for the uninterrupted pursuit, by stout Frenchmen at small tables, of dominoes and aperitif consumption in front of the cafe windows, NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The sleep and within an inch of the deadly looking of the mancEuvres. Still open-mouthed, Mr. unjust Wayzgoose was shown to a room with an outrageous bed— a Brobdingnagian thing, out of all proportion big — and with a washstand arrangement out of all propor- tion small; a room to accommodate the Seven Sleepers or Dirty Dick. However, the sea was handy, and Mr. Wayzgoose was tired, and felt that he could do justice to the bed and treat the basin with the scorn it deserved. The town lights were going out one by one; the frequenters of the cafi down- stairs, the event of the evening over, were leaving their dominoes and draining their glasses ; the Paris train had fled, shrieking, and the boats, tooting hoarsely to one another, laid themselves to rest against the quays. The illumination offered by the bedroom candle was in keeping with the basin rather than with the bed, the recesses of which, in fact, it absolutely failed to reach, so Wayzgoose, taking out his night-gear, and carefully re-locking the box, retired to NOT NEGOTIABLE rest with the key, and as soon as he had '^he found a soft corner in the wilderness of Conttnong sheets and pillows, blew out the ineffect- ual taper, and slept like a dead man until the entrance of Xht femme-de-chambre, nine hours after, roused him to coffee and rolls. Mr. Wayzgoose's French was difficult to imagine and impossible to describe. His embarrassment, moreover, at the in- vasion of his privacy tied his tongue into knots, so that his inquiries for a " bang," and the chamber-maid's inquiries as to how he had slept, brought them to a dead- lock. The chamber-maid retired, and Wayz- goose sought the sea. The various shocks to Mr. Wayz- goose's Britannic modesty, and his naive surprise at all that the day continued to unfold, we will not impose upon the sophisticated reader. Suffice it to say that by approach of evening he had made two rather unpleasant discoveries, of which the first was XhaXpetits chevaux was not so profitable as it might appear; and, secondly, that his coins, on which 123 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Chez, ma he had relied to tide him over hard Tante times, were not acceptable to the one or two second-hand dealers to whom he offered them. The burden of their songs was the same. No doubt they were curious, perhaps they were valuable, but why should he want to sell them in Dieppe.? They evidently thought it fishy, and offered so little that, even expressed in francs, it did not tempt. He was not in need of cash for the moment, but it was the season in the place, and prices ruled high, and he must either raise the wind or go elsewhere ; and he studied the map of the Departements in the hall of the hotel, wondering vainly how he was to find a purchaser for this bullion, which seemed to weigh heavier every hour, and to drag like the weight on a convict's leg-chain, or like the limb itself— the golden limb— of Miss Kilman- segg. He made up his mind to go to Arqueville, where pension seemed ridiculously cheap and where he would still be within striking- distance of rail and boat should anything "4 NOT NEGOTIABLE turn up. He had not the eternal optimism No peace of the great Micawber, however, and now f"'' '^^ that he had escaped Alf and his friend, ^^' ' was not inclined to hope much more from his crossing of the Channel, and it was only his fright in the Custom House, and gloomy anticipations of a similar but worse institu- tion on the other side, that induced him to linger on alien shores where no man understood his speech. To Arqueville, accordingly, he made his way that evening after dinner, the dashing 'bus shooting him and his box at the station with accuracy and despatch, the 8.10 train catching them on the rebound, and walking off with them at eight miles an hour. In the fading light he sat and watched the soaring telegraph-wires snatched down by every post, and beyond them the long furrows of the late brown corn standing as the plough had made its bed, or lying in endless rows of shocks on shaven fields that turned from him in succession as on a pivot. Partridges, red-legged French- men, disturbed from supper or first sleep, I2S NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Chex. whirred away from the intruder. Staring Marianne jj^-^ig chateaux came by, very straight up- and-down, blue-roofed and belvidered, and democratically unfenced even by garden or wood. Dusty roads crossed the line, wide, bare tracks between the large fields, unmarked by hedges, and unshaded save by poplars whose shadows had outgrown their strength ; marked with an occasional blue blouse, or, oftener, by the white bonnet of the wonderful Frenchwoman — she who works in the fields and carries home the produce, who raises the stock and takes it to market, who rises with the sun, and goes to bed with the moon, manages the business, the home, her chil- dren, and her husband, and, were she but allowed, would manage the country, and take it further than ever Napoleon did. However, politics being reserved for her husband's energies, which, in turn, are saved for them, France is not notably furthered. Therefore it behoves every good Briton travelling at large, to doff his deer-stalker cap, and, smiling until his domino teeth show back to his red Dun- 126 NOT NEGOTIABLE dreary whiskers, to drink a "bock" to, The per- Madame Bonhomme, and wish her long ^Z^''''*'^ severance from woman's suffrage. T i Mr. Wayzgoose's thoughts, which were generally a stage or two in advance of his earthly pilgrimage at any given moment, soon outstripped the leisurely train. Since distance lends enchantment, a wise man will keep his eye on the horizon or thereabouts, land as his progress brings fresh circles into view his gaze will not drop upon the grey middle-distance to be converted speedily into the immediate fore- ground, black and bituminous, but rest steadily on the golden prospect far ahead. His sun may be rising or setting, but he sees only its hues ; nightfall will find him unaware at times, and he may trip up and break his nose not infrequently. What matter? He is a philosopher, and can await the morning, and vinegar and brown paper cannot teach him a wisdom he scouts and will not learn. Now, a "train d'omnibus" is not a fixed body; its progress may be imper- ceptible but it exists, and Mr. Wayzgoose 127 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A wild approached, though never so gradually his ass of the latggt hiding-place. Was he cognizant of ^""'^ the fact? Not at all. He was far ahead. His bullock-trunk was a silver-mounted dressing-case, its contents expressed in an indeterminate but imposing row of figures on the credit side of one of Messrs. Way- land and Mavors's pass-books, and he himself was wandering in distant lands, perhaps in Italy or Japan, but certainly in Arcady, and not alone. Alone, he had seen himself with a judiciously invested capital, a small in- dependency in half-yearly payments afford- ing him, by an economy he understood, a jealous freedom. But the devil of it was, be it understood we speak from the spectator's point of view, that his visions never showed him alone. He was no longer one but two ; and that freedom for which he sighed turned to bondage again. And yet that bondage, sweet as he might reckon it, by the mortal limitations even of a fat balance at the bank could not be lasting, and consequently cannot be entered on ; and the paradoxical 128 NOT NEGOTIABLE freedom now appeared worse than the tents Shank's of Shem, and arid and long as the forty '""''' years' desert. But, as we have said, his visions never showed him soHtary, and had he taken notice of the Hmits of his unconverted capital, why, he would not have been the wise man we speak of, nor enjoying in the twilight an unwarrantably roseate outlook: an outlook which faded only when the tooting of a horn and a nasal cry of " Arqueville ! " brought the clanking train to the absolute standstill it had hitherto avoided. Mr. Wayzgoose sighed as he brought his vision to bear on his immediate neigh- bourhood ; and was not long in discovering one of those hampering annoyances which clog the feet of the wayfarer on the less beaten tracks. It was now grown dark, and the long day's experiences, pleasant and unpleasant, at Dieppe, inclined him to rest, but unless his fatigue could induce sleep on the waiting-room bench, his trunk under his head to supply an unnecessary nightmare, 9 "9 walk mile NINE POINTS OF THE LAW After prospect of repose there was none, for supper jjQ omnibus, cab, or wheeled thing of any description, not even a barrow, was to be had. As well as he could understand the station people, the 'bus from the little town of Arqueville which embodied the wheeled traffic between it and the station, only came down twice a day and would come no more until the morrow. He could leave his trunk overnight and walk out, a matter of four miles — he could not miss the way, it ran quite straight. It ran straight, certainly. In the dim summer night he could see the long white dusty track stretching into obscurity between the interminable poplars, whose tops ran almost equally beyond sight. Their arcade looked too long to be inviting; he did not relish the notion of telling off the innumerable trees mile after mile, nor that of leaving the box behind him. He could scarcely have been more nervous about it had it contained a corpse of his making. Had it been some such gruesome secret, what opportunities he 130 NOT NEGOTIABLE had had to be rid of it, he thought, and ^ lodging marvelled at the change that had come ■^'"" '*' over his feelings as the result of a couple "'^ ' of days' guilty manoeuvring. He had to recall the picture of the banking-account and its possibilities, to overcome a tempta- tion to take his pyjamas out of the detest- able box, and bestow the rest of its contents on the station-master in exchange for a bed and an unburdened mind. He stirred the thick white dust with his foot ; a cloud of gnats whirled dizzily round the station lamps, and sought to sting him into action as he stood irresolute at the entrance. In a brasserie hard by a high-pitched monotonous voice sang of the Patrie in maudlin accents — perhaps he could put up there, he thought, and walked slowly across to its one lighted window. Even as he crossed iht place he caught a distant sound of wheels on the road, and stopped with a faint hope that the station-master, who had by now despatched the train on its way and was retiring for supper, might have been wrong in his information. 131 eoincidence NINE POINTS OF THE LAW 7he long The station-master stood with his hand "rm of Qj^ jjjg door. Should he lock up the box? He pointed from the box to the door as he spoke, justly doubtful of being understood. Wayzgoose begged him to " attenday." They listened, and the station-master hazarded unintelligible guesses, hoping for some belated chance of getting shut of his Englishman, who seemed unable to make up his mind, or unable to say so. Wazygoose hoped too. Lights became visible, the steady clack of a horse's hoofs drawing them nearer and nearer, and at length a wild-looking shandrydan emerged from the avenue, drawn by a bony piebald in outlandish harnessings ; and making a wide and care- ful turn in front of the station, drew up into the light of the gas-lamps. The driver lifted his panama, preserv- ing a stiff back, and, as he greeted the station-master in home-made French, in- quiring as to the possibility of telegraphing at such an hour, Mr. Wayzgoose gazed in stupefaction on the features of his chief! Here, in such a spot, and at su'ch an 132 NOT NEGOTIABLE hour, and, most unimaginable of all, in a ^ea ex straw hat! machina But even the sight of his redoubtable chief without his hat of ofifice was passed over for the glimpse of a white dress beyond; a shade-giving brim could not hide the face from him, and, his senses ravished, Wayzgoose stood staring, man- nerless and speechless, at Miss Mavors. "Mr. Wayzgoose!" cried the young lady, not so stricken with the circum- stance perhaps, and, like any other young woman, more self-possessed than her ad- mirer. " Oh, how odd that you should be here ! Father dear, here is Mr. Wayz- goose. You had much better let him speak for you. They call a telegram a depeche, father. You will never make yourself understood." Mr. Mavors ignored these adjurations, fortunately for Wayzgoose's reputation, and, giving him a handshake from his perch, continued the unequal struggle. "And are you here for your holiday; and are you having a good time .-' " "Not until now," thought Wayzgoose; 133 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Premoni- but before he could bring it out, she was ^'n saying — "We are having an awful time. My hair is positively grey, and poor father Father dear, that horse is trying to eat the reins. Do pick them up. It is dread- ful, the way they starve their horses — isn't it, Mr. Wayzgoose .? " Wayzgoose glared at the station-master, as the only Frenchman present, and at the horse with infinite sympathy. "Oh, Mr. Wayzgoose, what do you think has happened to us? Father, tell Mr. Wayzgoose," she began, as Mr. Mavors, his telegraphic puzzles being translated and solved, turned his atten- tion again to his conveyance. " Tell Mr. Wayzgoose " But her father, less impulsively communicative, began to ques- tion Wayzgoose as to himself. What was he doing here; how long had he been in France 1 Mr. Wayzgoose explained his unhappy position, and solved his diflficulties in the process; for Mavors immediately offered him a lift into Arqueville, whence he 134 NOT NEGOTIABLE had just driven over to send an important -^ »**- telegram. ^'"-'^"3 " Better come with us, you can't stay here all night, and there's room for your box too. Room for twenty boxes — this is French for a pony-trap," he said wither- ingly, waving his hand over the body of the waggonette in which Miss Mavors sat in a great isolation. " They tell me that I had a great chance in securing it ; if this is the sort of chance that falls in a French- man's way, it helps to explain France." "Well, it's better than the omnibus, and much better than walking,'' cried Miss Mavors; "and considering that I persuaded that horrid old woman at the inn to lend it you, I don't think you ought to be so nasty about it. Put your box in here, Mr. Wayzgoose; no, it won't be a bit in my way, really. Will you come and keep me company in here, or will you get up in front and help father to drive.?" Mr. Wayzgoose saw himself "helping father to drive," and well imagined also the gleam in his chief's eye were any such attempt made by mortal man. But he 135 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "Smack needed no deterrent therefrom to urge went the jjjj^ Jj^^q ^p^g waggonette. With the help ^ *^', of the station-master his trunk was hoisted round 1 /I 1 • • ■ 1 went the °" *° ^^ fioor, his Sensitive nerves de- wheels" tecting the chink inaudible toothers, and he scrambled in after it, and sat down opposite Miss Mavors and behind the broad back of her father. The banker turned the horse's head, while Miss Mavors bade good night to .the bowing official, a gleam of light gave Wayzgoose a moment's picture of her face to treasure before they entered the dark avenue in front of them, and the next they were bowling along in the dark— the noise of the wheels interfering no whit with the silvery tones of the young lady opposite him. ^ Her father sat complacently enough be- hind the piebald, perhaps not sorry that some one else should benefit by her con- versation—such ruffians do exist in the parental world— and content that it should be no one more likely to interfere with his convenience than Wayzgoose. He knew the boy's history, had been acquainted 136 NOT NEGOTIABLE with his father — a man with many friends "To ride — and had always kept a tolerant eye on "g"!*"'' the son since he had found him a place in •' *"" "^^'^ his countmg-house. Wayzgoose, his cup of happiness filled to the brim, sat almost silent on the cushions, breathing the subtle perfumes distilled for lovers by a summer night, every rustle of the white dress, every intonation of the voice, as eloquent to him in that enchanted medium as the eye itself in the colder day. He could scarcely believe in his good fortune, and, had it not been for the hard corners of the bul- lock-trunk, which he was only over-anxious to fend off from the dainty feet and frock opposite, he might have thought it all a dream. They recommended him the little hotel they had themselves chosen ; it was not the house he was bound for, but it immediately became so; and when the voice said that they were going on to Paris in a day or two, the perjured Wayz- goose threw his plans and his veracity overboard, and replied that he was doing the same himself. After all, a man in 137 wheel NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A spoke love is not a free agent; and had the tn the^ voice in the darkness named America instead of Paris, it would have been all one to the infatuated Wayzgoose, who would have gravely considered the advisa- bility of shipping as a stowaway, a steward, a deck-sweep, or even as a stoker. Swiftly fled the golden moments, the tall dark trees slipped past, the steady hammer, hammer of the old piebald eating up the distance he had once thought all too long. Fortune's wheel, moving fast these lat- ter days under the violent and wayward struggles of Mr. Wayzgoose, had again come full circle, and having raised him to the altitude he now enjoyed, turned to plunge him into depths of unimagined woe. Miss Mavors was suddenly reminded of her troubles of which she had spoken so feelingly at the station. "Oh!" she cried, "I have never told you of our misfortunes. Oh, Mr. Wayz- goose, what do you think has happened? I have cried buckets full, and father has been so dreadfully angry and put out, and 138 NOT NEGOTIABLE I am so sorry for him, aren't you? But I -^terrible must tell you." *''^' Mr. Mavors grunted and flicked the pie- bald. " Plenty to be angry about," he said. Wayzgoose lent a sympathetic ear. " Perhaps you don't know," she went on, " that father is a great collector — of coins and old plate and things." Wayzgoose, glad of the darkness, said that he had— er — heard so, and wondered what was coming. He had expected a tale of gout, or perhaps of lost luggage, the worst calamity that had occurred to his mind. "Well," said Miss Mavors, "just think! Some wretches have broken into our house since we have been away, and taken every- thing—everything. We were telegraphed to on Saturday morning. I wanted father to go home at once, but he said that things were bad enough as they were without losing him his holiday, and that he couldn't do more than the police could." "Or less," added Mr. Mavors, phleg- matically. 139 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The coup "Is it not dreadful, Mr. Wayzgoose? de grace Such lovely things too, some of them. A dessert service in silver gilt of — of — whose was it, father.? William the Conqueror, wasn't it?" "William of Orange," said Mavors, unmoved. " Oh yes ! William of Orange, of course, because, as I said, it was a dessert service, and some of the coins were quite unique, were they not, father dear.? I always wanted father to let me have some on a bangle, and now they are gone — and there was a Queen Anne farthing— isn't it funny that a farthing should be so valuable because it belonged to Queen Anne.? And rose-nobles there were, and spade-guineas, and— and — lots of coins. What were you going to say, Mr. Wayzgoose .? " Wayzgoose's dry lips tried to form a question, but couldn't. But the coup de grace came. Mr. Mavors cleared his throat and took up the tale. " They tell me that the property has not left the neighbourhood," he said. " I have telephonic communication with the police 140 NOT NEGOTIABLE at Ascot, and my butler, it seems, rang Mr. them up as soon as the scoundrels had made M'^^'" off — of course the cowardly fool took good """ " care not to wake up before — and they tell me that they feel certain that my things are hidden somewhere near by, probably in the forest. At least, so they said at first. Now they telegraph to me that they have traced certain articles to Windsor, and have a clue to one of the gang, which they are following up. I have just been tele- graphing my address here in case they may have anything more to say. But I shall never see it again. I may get some of it in course of time, but my collection is a thing of the past. My father began it. It was a small thing when it came to me, and I had made it one of the best. Still quite a small one, comparatively speaking, but nothing doubtful, and nothing that wasn't rare. My twelfth century coins were not to be matched in England." He spoke with some emotion working through his phlegm. His daughter patted him on the arm. "Cheer up, father dear," she said 141 goose NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "^f" encouragingly, " I am sure you will get it whelming back. I never thought I should see my "/^"y^- brooch again— the one you brought me from Paris — when I lost it out bicycling last year; but I told the police about it, and I got it back the same week. At least, I found it sticking in my bicycling skirt, which comes to the same thing. It's true the police didn't find it; but, then, how could they, when I hadn't really lost it.'' But they were so civil, and printed a notice about it ; and the inspector was such a nice-looking man. Don't you think, Mr. Wayzgoose," she said, won- dering somewhat at his silence— " don't you think that the police will catch the burglars?" Like the first glistening trickle of water through the opening fissure in a yielding dam had come the light into his mind at the opening words ; then after that in- stant's hesitation, that seems an eternity — that tightening string the hero of the Finest Story in the World saw stretched above his head ere his Norse Avatar was whelmed in Scandinavian seas— the blind 14a NOT NEGOTIABLE wall which he had built against common The whips sense, and cold water of fact, gave way — and scorns "all at once and nothing first"— and '/"'»'" the flood burst over him in a wrecking and devastating spout. Like a cork in a millstream, his senses spun round and round, fighting, half- submerged, against the flood. " The pro- perty has not left the neighbourhood." Alice's little foot was tapping against it now. " They have traced certain articles to Windsor." What if they traced the bulk of them to Arqueville? The horse's feet clacked along the high road, the darkness hummed with midges, and breathed its suinmer scent, and Alice's clear voice ran on with the pitiless tale. The trunk's guilty contents found a hun- dred voices all crying on him in the dark, hailing their lawful owners, threatening him with the terrors of the law, threatening him with the disbelief and anger of her father, threatening him with the loss of his prospects, with return, at best, to oblivion and commonplace; threatening him with worse things, public ignominy, 143 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Never! the treadmill, the inevitable consequences of mixing himself up with the real cul- prits; threatening him in chorus loudly and insistently, with the suspicion and contempt of Alice. "They have a clue to one of the gang." He half rose from his seat in his agony. Should he leap from the waggonette and make for the woods, and turn his back for ever on his love and his native land, ere the one should reclaim him and the other renounce him ? Her voice arrested him, addressing him directly. " Please say that the police will get it back for us, Mr. Wayzgoose." " Never with life," groaned Wayzgoose. " Never." He had made a hideous, an unforgiv- able, perhaps an irremediable, mistake, but as far as in him lay he would correct it. He would not let the police retrieve it. She was pressing him again for comfort. "You shall have it back," he almost shrieked. " You shall have it back. But don't set the police to work " 144 NOT NEGOTIABLE He paused, confused, and again had Set a thief occasion to bless the night ; they must '" "**'^ be open-mouthed at his vehemence. " * "^ " I mean," he said hurriedly, still scarcely knowing what he said, " the police are of so little use. Leave it all to me. Let me follow up this clue " " But, Mr. Wayzgoose, do you think you could catch them ? " said Alice, doubt- fully. " Besides, they might hurt you. It would be exciting," she allowed; "quite like a story. But, you see, the police have the clue, not you — clue means spots of blood doesn't it.? And perhaps " Mr. Mavors laughed. " I didn't know you were a Sherlock in disguise, Wayzgoose," said he. " But I believe they are sending a man over here to me, and we must talk to him. We'll offer him Wayzgoose to take back to Scotland Yard. You're dreaming, Wayz- goose, my man! What do you know about the matter.? You wouldn't know any of my poor lost curios if you saw them?" " That's all you know about it," thought lo 145 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The dreadful hollow behind the little taood the wretched youth, quite crushed with his knowledge, feeling the stamp and brand of every piece and coin burnt into his soul forever; but he could not resist the argu- ment openly. On the contrary, he toned down his fiery protestations, and though still strongly opposed to the interference of detectives — a race whom he had hitherto secretly admired, but now strongly decried — contented himself with expressions of fer- vent sympathy, and of genuine confidence in the ultimate recovery of the valuables. " It seems absurd to say that the thieves had not taken father's things away from the spot," said Alice. " Where could they have put them.? In the wood, do you think, in a hollow tree.? " " Perhaps," said Wayzgoose, in a voice as hollow. "Or down a rabbit-hole," suggested Mavors, contemptuously, making Wayz- goose start as if he had been stung. "Stuff! They have accomplices, these fellows, who stand by to take what the others steal. It's a very old story. One scoundrel says, 'I haven't got it, sir,' and 146 NOT NEGOTIABLE the other, looking as if butter wouldn't All round melt in his mouth, says, ' I didn't take it, ''"'''""'y sir.' But, as yEsop says, there's a thief and a rogue between them." Wayzgoose, his withers cruelly wrung, writhed on his seat. He thought of Chaffers 's jeering remark, "Your face must be a fortune to you." Would the Judge — and the sweat broke out afresh — would the Judge think him a rogue.? As the accomplice of these men, he might have passed for a dupe, but freed from their hateful alliance he was sucked from Scylla into Charybdis, for he was plainly a thief. He had stolen Crown property, as he thought — Mr. Mavors's, as he had discovered — incidentally, one might say Alf's and Chaffers's. The Crown might never have known. Alf and his pal he had boldly fought for it and won. But now that the barque of his fortunes had split on this uncharted rock, the dangers he had thought past surged up again, and seemed to cut off all escape. There was no longer question of saving his treasure, but of saving his skin. 147 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Honest men may come by their own "I must offer a reward, I suppose," Mavors was saying. "It may lead to some one of them splitting. We will see what our travelling detective says. I don't mean you, Wayzgoose. If he has the information in his pocket, he will want us to offer a reward." And Chaffers would claim it. As certainly as there was a sun in the heavens ; the angry Chaffers, defrauded even of his fiver ; and Alf who was out of pocket over the affair in the matter of railway tickets and tips. He saw his own personal description on the hoardings. Height five foot nine. Hair light. Complexion ruddy. Countenance open. When last seen was wearing a dark striped flannel suit and new brown boots. True, there was nothing very conspic- uous in all that. His self-denial in the di- rection of fancy waistcoats and a Panama was perhaps not so wise after all. They would have helped to change his appear- ance. Perhaps when he saw himself in the light again he should find his hair grey and his face pallid. He should not be 148 NOT NEGOTIABLE surprised, and it would have its advan- "A skill tages. Better change his complexion than P''^'"*!^' the stripes on his clothes for broad arrows " "",[ in the worst taste. He might claim the reward himself, and enlist the sympathies of Sir George Lewis therewith against the trial ; or use it to soften the heart of the no less inevitable gaoler. To be detec- tive, thief, and informer, "three single gentlemen rolled into one," would tax the powers of most, but there was yet another part to play, and he only wished that he could let go the other three, and do himself justice in the one. As it was Miss Mavors appeared to think that he was neglecting it, and the suspicion of a frown made the darkness darker to her distracted, far too distracted, admirer. He pulled himself together strongly, and tried to devote himself to consoling her and diverting her mind from the bangle that was not to be. They were nearing the village now, Mr. Mavors conducting them over a small stone bridge with solid parapets of reassuring height. The stream beneath caught a 149 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Nation- twinkle or two of yellow light from some "%'■« windows overlooking it, and the lights ''""^^ increased in number as they turned into the little street, still awake and affably disposed. The inn reached, Mr. Mavors, freed from the reins of office, ordered such substitute for whisky and soda as the place could rise to, and grew more cheerful. In France, where a man sits down to his liquor, and will sit an hour over one glass, his choice is incredibly limited. Does he sit down before his dinner he takes absinthe. Does he sit down after his meal, coffee and cognac is brought without order or question. At other times he has but beer. It would not be known for beer over the frontier or across the Channel, but it is all he has. In Anglo-Saxondom where there are more drinks than religions, in spite of the scoffer, man stands churlishly at a counter, buys what he needs or what he doesn't need, and goes his way; to the next counter. Mr. Mavors advanced a theory that the Frenchman sat long over his glass because he could not bring himself to swallow ISO NOT NEGOTIABLE what was in it. However, as he struggled "^he end with his own, he took a brighter view '/"^"S of Hfe, and Alice, never long depressed, ^'"^ talked gaily enough, and gave Wayzgoose, the skeleton at the feast, accounts of their travels and doings, and promised to show him the beauties of little Arqueville. But not Alice's smiles, nor her father's complacent mood, nor the vermouth, nor the overpowering civilities of the patron to a guest arriving under such auspices, and with heavy luggage, could raise his drooping spirits. As soon as Miss Mavors had wished them good night, and left the little inn-yard void of all enchantment, his uneasiness became too great to bear, sitting cheek by jowl with his defrauded and unconscious chief. He pleaded fatigue, and, absurdly, the necessity of "unpack- ing," and crept dejectedly to bed. iSi CHAPTER VI CONSCIENCE MONEY The sleep T~^READFUL dreams haunted the of the I J couch of Mr. Wayzgoose all that condemned night. Time after time he was penned in a dock which bore a dreadful resemblance to his own bullock-trunk, and it was all he could do in his dementia to keep the lid up. Mr. Mavors in wig and gown thundered from the counsel's bench, waving in his hand the descriptive placard headed, " Fifty Pounds Reward ! " and in- geminating "Thief! Thief!" The gilt dessert-service gave evidence against him, piece after piece; while Alice's musical laugh was ever ringing in his ears. " Treasure-trove ! " she cried, and laughed again and again. Hagged and unrefreshed he got out of bed in the early daylight, and stepping across the red-tiled floor, put his head out of the window to catch the cool air blow- 's* CONSCIENCE MONEY ing through the hills from the distant ' Tk"*^ '^if sea. Blankly he gazed upon the "un- '^«^— suggestive scene. What was to be done? He struck his hand on his forehead, and exhausted on himself every term of abuse. Idiot! childish idiot that he had been ! " If I had known nothing else," he cried to himself, "if I had even thought that gold pieces grew on bushes like so many blackberries, I might have known my luck better than- to suppose that I should ever get a chance of picking them. The mere fact that it was I who found the blessed stuff should have been sufficient to tell me that it was some one else's; another man might pick up a sovereign on the road, but I should know before I stooped that it was a wrong 'un. Why, if a man asks me out to dinner I have to pay for it. If I get a pass for a theatre it turns out a stumer. I wish Hooper had charge of this business, he might make something of it: and, if he didn't, it might land him in gaol, which would be something to be thankful for!" 153 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Peine forte When he had found himself alone the et dure night before, his first impulse had been to seek Mavors in his room and make a clean breast of it. The thing was too monstrous to go on. He had started across the land- ing, trembling at its shadows and creak- ing boards, and with lifted hand had paused at the very door, while his Adam's apple leapt in his throat; but a timely reminder of the coming detective had stopped him. Had he been guilty that impending shadow might have driven him to enter and confess; but he was not guilty — not against Mavors, anyway. And he had indignantly refused to be brow-beaten by a threat. He would take his chance, and if confession must come in the face of detection, it must come. And if the danger passed him, it could still be made. But it would come with a bad grace now, when a policeman was expected in the morning. So he had gone back to his room to the company of his secret. And now the day was here and the man of fate approaching. The question was, whether he was following to Arqueville 154 CONSCIENCE MONEY the clue the police were possessed of, or ^hat whether Mavors alone was the object of '"^^y ^"^ his journey. He fell to wondering what the clue was, and how far it would take them. Chaffers had seen the whole busi- ness, but would say nothing until the re- ward appeared. Had some one else seen it — the policeman whom he had fallen in with on Castle Hill? Surely the police would have snatched him before now had it been one of that body who had spotted his nefarious proceedings? Per- haps they had had their suspicions at the Columbus Arms ; he had never liked that ostler. The jeweller to whom He rose to his feet excitedly— -the jeweller, of course ! The jeweller who had told him of Mavors's collection, and had asked him his address. Thank Heaven, he had not left his name as well ! And at the inn he had only been No. i8; but it looked serious. The jeweller knew Mavors personally. No doubt he was rolling in money. From that it was but a step to a villa at Dieppe ; and a nice little family party they would make — the done this thing ? NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "Her sa- detective intervening in a bathing-suit, and ponaceous ^ p^jj. ^f handcuffs conccaled under his lavement, pg{gj^giy^ He paced up and down his nized the *"°0"^ O" ^^^ ^^""^ ^^^*' ^^''^'^ °^ *^^ night, pavement" but dreading the day. Under the window the women of the establishment were scrubbing floors, wash- ing Hnen, feeding poultry, grinding coffee, and doing the thousand endless tasks a Frenchwoman knows. A Frenchwoman's value in the slave-market increases with her age. At seventy she is well past the age of sickness, apparently, and has left behind her the temptations and distractions of youth. At ninety she is hardened into a frame-work of leather and wood, requires little food and less sleep, can perform her work like a machine, and is invaluable to her owner. Wayzgoose leant on the sill, and watched her at her labours. Watched, too, the changing and lightening of the sky, and caught the morning breeze as it stirred the green groves that marked road or river- side. The church, whose blue spire was beginning to catch the rising sun, was 156 CONSCIENCE MONEY already calling to mass. The chorus of A pleasant the birds had died down, as they dispersed '^*^^''"<"' to gather breakfast. The day, however, had not yet begun, save for the workers ; for pleasure-seekers such as himself, he reflected sarcastically, it would begin some hours hence, and he turned in again, and the particular Marie who looked after the guests at the Bon Pfecheur had some difficulty in calling him to his troubles at breakfast-time. Remembering that he was no longer by the sea, he once again hazarded for a " bang." Marie recognized the word, but could not produce the article. " Bong," said Mr. Wayzgoose, and went to sleep again. He descended towards ten o'clock, after clearing for action, as was now his invariable custom, by packing and locking his box, and found Miss Mavors in the outer doorway — a charming little new- century fashion-plate, toilette de campagne framed in old oak. "Good morning, Mr. Wayzgoose," she cried. " Do you know I was looking for you? Would you like to take me for a 157 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "And walk before dejeuner? Father won't come nothmg Qy|. . j^g g^yg j^g jg {jusy, faut I tHinlc he is e e sato a ^^^y cross. But perhaps you are busy day long „ toor There was no call upon him to combat the innuendo. The accompanying smile held a triumphant belief in its powers to disperse the clouds on any countenance but a parent's, and she led her captive through the low entrance into the narrow street; and Wayzgoose found himself walking, as he had so often walked in dreams, listening to the gay voice, watch- ing sidelong the well-groomed figure, the neat head, the quick expressive hands that caught the skirts from her steps, or touched his arm as she pointed out with gravity the mildly interesting features of the little town. The glamour of her presence kept him dumb for a time. He wished for Hooper's loquacity, and the nervous fear of appearing stupid or gauche did not improve matters; but they had not walked far before his natural manner returned to him, and they were soon on the best of terms. '58 CONSCIENCE MONEY Engel She sympathized with him on the short- Strau^- ness of his holidays. Three weeks — she '^^"f'^t had never heard of such meanness. She „"*''" should speak to her father about it. " Father will do anything for me," she said, with queenly assurance. " He barks dreadfully at some people, but he never barks at me. Girls I know tell me that they are bullied at home, but I am afraid I bully father. I tell him he can do what he likes at the bank, but when he is at home he must do what I like. That's only fair, isn't it.? But it is dull some- times. He is away all day, and, though I like ' bossing ' things, as my cousins say, I wish sometimes that we were a larger family." They were on common ground now, and she drew from him something of his own history and unenlivening surround- ings and prospects. " But of course it is different for me," he said stoutly. " I can go about and amuse myself, and do a hun- dred things'' — rather wondering that he had never done them. But she was not deceived. 159 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW On the " It must be dreadful to be shut up in hiihide that old bank all day," she said. " I have always wanted to have a dance there. There is a lovely floor, and supper could be laid in father's room; and those little pigeon-hole places, where people wait for fa- ther, would be the sitting-out rooms. Don't you think my ball would be a success? " Mr, Wayzgoose thought it a splendid idea, and they suggested further improve- ments in the business of banking as they climbed the side of the small hill which they had made their objective. The short yellow grass was as slippery as any ball- room floor, and Miss Mavors did not dis- dain a helping hand. Her small fingers in his thrilling palm, they slowly gained the top, where he found her a place out of the sun at the corner of a belt of nut trees, and sat down beside her and helped her to admire her prowess. " We are higher than the church-spire," she declared joyfully. " That must be the roof of the Bon Pecheur down there; and what a pretty view ! I do love France— don't you, Mr. Wayzgoose?" 1 60 CONSCIENCE MONEY Wayzgoose was sitting on the hub of the Feeling universe, the garden of Eden spread around ^''^'^■^ '^""' him, and the sun shining for him alone. " ' " Yes, he loved France too. " I think," he said reflectively, " they get more change out of their lives over here, and a Frenchman is a man — of sorts ; not a mere suit of clothes. I mean, you can learn something of him by looking at him; and his dinner is a dinner, not a mere tableful of dishes. I can't under- stand what they say, but they seem quite pleased to be together. The more the merrier, they evidently think. With us, it's the more the duller. I suppose that's why we say, 'Two's company, three's none.' " " Then I may suppose that you find it as little dull as maybe, at present," said Miss Mavors, settling herself in the shade. " But oh ! I do agree with you. Think what it is for poor me, when we have a garden party, for instance. I have no one to back me up; and the more people there are, the more miserable they look. When they play games they quarrel ; if you give II i6r NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Ludomania them music they won't listen — if there's no music they won't talk — and yet, if they are not invited they are offended. Do you like games? " she asked suddenly, with almost vicious earnestness, sitting up straight, and looking at her companion in a way that implied that he had better be careful what he answered. Mr. Wayzgoose read her eyes gravely, and shook his head. "I hate them," said Miss Mavors, throwing her parasol from her; "it is worse than lessons! I would rather be doing parsing in the schoolroom again, than play croquet. My governess— and I am sure I hated her, poor old dear- was never so cross and odious to me as these dreadful girls who play croquet and tennis so appallingly well. Have you ever seen a photograph of a ladies' hockey team?" Mr. Wayzgoose did not think he had. " Pray that you never may ! I can see no amusement in these things," she said piteously. "Surely games are meant to amuse one? People simply won't play, or 163 CONSCIENCE MONEY allow one to play, unless one takes as Adhomi- much pains over it as one would about — ""'" well, about " " About choosing a hat," suggested Mr. Wayzgoose, "You are laughing at me; but surely that is more important than a silly game ? Tell me," she said, turning the tables on him, " would you rather that I looked nice — no, not me, but any girl ; some one you like — would you rather that she looked nice or played games well? " Mr. Wayzgoose, thinking about a girl he liked, did not weigh the question long. " I would rather she looked nice," he said steadfastly, his eyes full of the vision. " I should hope so," said Miss Mavors, triumphantly, slightly pink from conquest. " But men are just as silly and ugly," she cried pugnaciously, turning upon him again, the remark about the hat rankling. "Mr. Drybank, who goes racing a good deal, told me not long ago at a dinner-party that a man wasn't a man who didn't know anything about horses. I said, that if I thought that, I should associate with my 163 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW he style, stable-boys. Yes. He talked to his other fW homme neighbour for the rest of dinner ; and she "*^'^' was hideous. You will think me dreadfully ill-tempered and spiteful, but I can't help it. I hope you are not horsey, Mr. Wayz- goose ? " Mr. Wayzgoose's worst enemies had never applied the word to him ; and Miss Mavors's approbation, and his delight at the discomfiture of Mr. Drybank, thawed the last barriers, and he opened his heart on many subjects, different and indifferent. They compared favourite authors, and there is no more tell-tale confidence. A man is known by his friends and his tastes, and his affinities in literature are not the least traitorous of these. Personal ambi- tions soon came up. Wayzgoose's views of the life adventurous were sober, but then he was undergoing a sobering experience. No wild career for him. Alice, however, had florider tastes, in keeping with a preference for Mr. Anthony Hope; and the extreme solidity of Mr. Mavors's business afforded her a safe basis for her speculations. The thrilling rbks 164 CONSCIENCE MONEY she assigned herself did not suit Mr. Wayz- ^««»» ■'«»<' goose, who was likely to remain a prodigal if once he became so. Before you risk the husks, make sure that there is a fatted calf in the stall. Such was the gist of Mr. Wayzgoose's advice. " But I should like to be a heroine my- self," confessed Alice, embracing her knees, and smiling at her own imaginings. " I should like a romance to centre in me." "Do you not find it so?" hazarded Mr. Wayzgoose, for whom romance literature held one heroine under a hundred names. " Oh ! while I read, of course. But that is making a story for one's self, after all, isn't it? I mean some one else's heroine, to be the motive of some one else's story." Charmingly, she laughed, and looked at Wayzgoose with dancing eyes. " I am no romance maker," he said slowly; "but I have my story, I suppose, and— it has a motive — and a " " Oh ! I declare I can see father's pana- ma," cried Alice, loudly. "Look! right down there in the street. I am sure he is getting hungry. He always walks up and 165 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Back to down before meals like the creatures at earth ^^ 2oo. It must be lunch-time ; let us go down." She rose to her feet, and he unwillingly followed her. Down below them, in the street, moved a mushroom-like object, in front of the well-weathered tiles of the Bon Pecheur. It moved agitatedly for a moment or two, and a hand shot out in a vigorous gesticu- lation. " I think he is speaking his mind to some one," said Alice, anxiously. " Poor some one ! " They descended the grassy slope to- gether, and the commonplace levels so hard to leave seemed to rise and meet them halfway on their downward road, and the roofs of the village street, which had lain like ill-set paving-stones under their feet, soon rose again above their heads and shadowed their return. At the portals of the inn stood Mr. Mavors, all frowns, a new-comer, an Englishman, standing behind him, whose countenance and whole body seemed to be apologizing for his presence in Arqueville, and whose i66 CONSCIENCE MONEY shuffling feet seemed to seek a chink of A/r- escape from the spot past the square J"*Pf frame of the irate banker which blocked yard the issue. "Goodness! what's the matter?" in- quired AHce. "Are we so late as all that?" Mr. Mavors indicated the new arrival with a backward jerk of his head. " Mr. Bentley," he said, with an in- sistence on the initial letter which must have been hard to bear — " Mr. Bentley, from Scotland Yard." The unfortunately circumstanced Mr. Bentley smiled feebly and uningratiating- ly over the cold shoulder turned to him. But Alice and Mr. Wayzgoose saluted him with an inculcated reverence that shed a little balm, Mr. Wayzgoose, in fact, holding his hat before his face for some moments, as if unable to bear the light of the great man's countenance. " Mr. Bentley," announced Mr. Mavors, turning and leaning against the side of the gateway as if wearied, " is following a clue— has followed it, I should say— and 167 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The end of it has led him to Arqueville. And who do the tether ^^^ think," he asked, quoting from force of circumstance, "is the thief who has done this most scoundrelly thing? Why, Wayzgoose ! " Alice gave a little shriek of laughter. "Oh, Mr. Wayzgoose!" she cried, "is that your story.? What does Mr. Bentley mean?" " Yes," resumed the banker, " what does Mr. Bentley mean? I fear, Mr. Bentley, that however strong the scent was when you left home, it has been crossed since you arrived in France. As I told you just now, there is no Englishman in this neighbourhood, not within miles, save ourselves." "And," said the detective, whose last glimmering of self-esteem died out of him as he gazed on the almost cherubic appear- ance of his burglar—" and Mr.— ah— Wild- goose— is, I understand, more than an hotel acquaintance ? " Mr. Mavors chuckled at the happy emen- dation. " Mr. Wayzgoose is more than an hotel 168 CONSCIENCE MONEY acquaintance, and the chase is hopeless, I'fi' fiappy proverbially hopeless." He added more ^^^P"*'^ stiffly, " Mr. Wayzgoose is a personal friend of mine. I may say that I commit my personal interests to his hands." This was handsome, if magniloquent; and Wayzgoose felt himself the bond- slave and debtor of the house of Wayland and Mavors as he never felt it before. The bitterness of death was past, and he could put on some semblance of impassive ness, even of virtuous indignation. "Come, let's have some food," said Mr. Mavors, moving towards the open glass doors where, beyond, the yard-long rolls and big, soft napkins showed their yellow and white. Scotland Yard, with a lack of savoir-faire lamentable in such an institution, had approached him when hungry. " I think there is nothing more to be said, so I will wish you good morning, Mr. Bentley." The three entered the dining-room, and Mr. Bentley, with small appetite for lun- cheon, faded from the scene. They waxed merry at lunch over the 169 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Hardened incident, and Wayzgoose had to bear in sin rm.c\\. chaff and rallying. But the hotel 'bus had rolled out station-wards, and Mr. Bentley's boots dangling from the roof depressedly had shown for an instant against the upper panes as the danger passed away, and Wayzgoose's spirits were for once equal to the situation. He took home-thrusts with a cheerful exterior, his legs, wrapped round the table-leg, alone yielding convulsively to an occa- sional vital touch, anJ when it was ex- travagantly suggested that his portmanteau held the stolen valuables, the crude truth scarcely made him wince, and the record- ing angel, with incredulous ears, heard Mr. Wayzgoose boldly and brazenly joking at the inconvenient barriers of the Custom House. " We have no trouble at the Customs," said Alice, "at least, not going home. Father is a director, and they are ever so nice to us at Newhaven. You are useful sometimes, father dear. Mr. Wayzgoose, if you go back with us, you can take as much brandy and cigars as you like " 170 CONSCIENCE MONEY " Wayzgoose will do nothing of the sort," Fkurish- grunted her father, his rectitude to the *"S l>^^ fore, and taking his cigar and his brandy ^ ^ ^'''''' while it was lawful. " If you do happen to go back with us I can save you some trouble ; but if either of you smuggle any- thing I'll inform against you myself." Alice pouted, but Wayzgoose laughed. Here was news. It should certainly happen that he re- turned with his employer, and he could not but hug himself on the strange chance that made Mavors of all people in the world his shield against detection. Here was he with a trunk-load of misgotten gold wandering haphazard and at large over two countries, a hue and cry after him, and he all unversed in the arts of concealment or escape ; and the one man who intervened to screen him from the police and conduct him over frontiers lined with inquisitors, was the owner, the wronged and robbed owner, of the treasure. It seemed almost a pity that he was honestly inclined. Such misguided intervention on the part of Providence put a premium on crime. He 171 passed NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The reviewed his situation over one of Mr. Mavors's cigars, with more coolness than he had known since the outset of the ad- venture. The banker was somnolent, and Alice had retired to her room, and he sat under the trellis green in the shady yard and thought. He had meant to make his con- fession, when, and if, the danger passed. It had mercifully passed, but he was not inclined to give himself away as yet. There was a very strong motive at work, namely, fear of ridicule ; meaning, we need hardly say, the ridicule of Alice. Again, he had thought himself prac- tically an exile so long as he kept his secret, but this chance of getting home under the segis of old Mavors put a different complexion on the matter, and revived his first idea after the discovery in the wagonette, of taking his stolen pro- perty back to England, and finding means of restoring it so that no man should be the wiser. The fear of the home Customs had disposed of this plan, but now it grew again. Why say anything.? He might yet 172 CONSCIENCE MONEY save his face and bring the sorry and -Adverse abortive enterprise to a conclusion without i^^""'" injury to his moral or mental reputation. One thought turned him cold and sick; supposing Mavors failed him at New- haven, and the box was laid open? They are more unkind to the traveller on the north side of the Channel than on the south. Supposing that the exposure which had threatened him at Dieppe, and added a year to his life in the course of five minutes' danger, should overtake him on the other side, and Alice looking on? It would be hard to find explanations then. But he would put his trust in his lucky star — it had not failed him so far. Stick to your chief and he will pull you through — that seemed to be the refrain to his exist- ence. He must take that final risk, and it did not seem great, for Mavors was a man of his word. To get his load back to England, that was everything. For his imaginative mind, deprived of the fortune it had built so readily, had now taken up a scheme for replacing and re-finding the treasure — or 173 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A falling the property, as he should now say — in "ff such a manner as to work upon old Mavors's feelings to the very greatest possible ad- vantage to his own future, and so as to shed a brilliant light on those talents for investi- gation which Mavors had so rudely refused him. He would replace the entire collec- tion in its original wrappings — he had them still at the bottom of his box — under the beech tree in the forest, and then — find it again ! An inglorious ending, perhaps, to all his dreams and toils, but one which would make the best of a bad job, and win him some kudos, though at the cost of further deception. The "tangled web" was of his own weaving, but he alone had been caught in it, and if only he could break loose without any tell-tale threads hanging to him, he would never depart from the path of honesty again! Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt — that. Mavors had shown an inclination at lunch to leave for home, and that shortly, in spite of his former refusal to let the affair interfere with his holiday. He was plainly disgusted with the in- 174 CONSCIENCE MONEY competence of a police force which took A reward trips to France at his expense in order to "" unfold such cock-and-bull stories as he had heard that morning, and though, as he had told them subsequently, he had arranged with Bentley, in the course of his inter- view, to offer a reward for the recovery of the goods, he was minded to take up the matter himself, and the first essential seemed to be to visit the spot, and remain handy in case anything turned up. Alice, though disappointed of a visit to Paris, was plainly of the same mind, and Wayz- goose was determined to throw what small influence he possessed into the same scale. Once that reward was out he felt in- stinctively that the game was up. He gazed remorsefully at the sleeping banker, whose cups and coins he had — he was keeping from him; whose tobacco he was at that very moment consuming, and against whom he had designs of robbery far exceeding any one night's burglary. And he had trusted Wayz- goose so absolutely. Wayzgoose felt the blackness of his guilt weigh on him like 175 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW No looking the cloak of lead that shrouded the souls ^"'^ in fhe Inferno. But, unquestionably, the tables might yet be turned on him, and the innocently slumbering gentle- man at his side pay him back a hundred- fold. There is no place for remorse or regret in the criminal's scheme of things while as yet that scheme is in performance. Once out of the wood, yes — but until then he must stiffen his neck and put the matter through. Even in that distant time— it seemed years ago — when he had thought himself possessed of wealth, it had only been as a means to an end that he had looked upon it, and now that it had turned into dust and ashes in his hands, the true stake of the game appeared saddeningly far out of reach, and he had scarcely a counter to put on the board. Would Alice ever be won.? Mr. Wayz- goose sighed and buried the burnt-down cigar-stub deep in a crevice in the flags under his boot-heel. 176 CHAPTER VII THE ASSAr Br FIRE RETURN home was decided on. A Back on couple of days were to be spent at f^e traces Dieppe before they took boat, as a sop to Alice who had been deprived of her promised visit to Paris, and then Mr. Mavors would put himself upon the trail of the vanished collection. Wayzgoose, who could scarcely have left for England with them on the instant, felt that he might do so in two or three days' time without exciting surprise. He would then have had the inside of a week in France, and though he had certainly said that he was going on to Paris, he could easily, and with refreshing truthfulness, plead expense as an excuse to old Mavors for his change of mind, while to Alice he might hint, if courage came to him, other reasons which should plead with positive eloquence. Mavors should thus be given indirect proof 12 177 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Growth of of his thrift and sobriety, and Alice a proof status of Yiis, devotion. So Dieppe was revisited. Once more the treasure lay dumbly by the feet of its sorrowing proprietor or whirled behind him in the very train which carried him in pursuit, while he lent further countenance and protection to the ill-doer. For, as in the pictured advertisements, the gentleman who uses Pears 's toothpaste or wears Brooks's boots has an overwhelm- ing advantage in the cut of his clothes, and the curl of his moustache, and concomitant details, over the shoddy individual along- side who uses no paste or buys his boots at the Stores ; so Mr. Wayzgoose as a friend of the opulent-looking Mr. Mavors, and as 3. persona grata at least with his charming daughter, gained in more than mere credit. Not only was his landlord, formerly per- fectly civil, now effusive, but his own frigid fellow-country women who had before sprinkled him with the cold suspicion and chilly half-words they shed on foreign shores, now that there was a rival in the arena, became markedly friendlier; and in 178 THE ASSAY BY FIRE the smoking-room he found his footing still -^t home more assured. From callow youth to el- ""'^ "^"'""^ derly buck all had a word for Wayzgoose, and took occasion to throw it in what time Miss Mavors held him company. He came out wonderfully under the sun of popularity, and his fellow-clerks, whose existence he did little to enliven at home, would hardly have recognized him abroad : so different was the Wayzgoose of Poultry and Cheapside from Wayzgoose disporting himself on a foreign strand. It was now his turn to play the guide, and, while Mr. Mavors digested his meals, he escorted Alice to market or harbour, hilltop or ruined castle, and was never at a loss for the small change of conversation. That currency was no longer debased or wasted —every word had its value nowadays. Her father accompanied them to the Casino, but not to the tables where the little horses ran giddily round; raking in a steadier income than was ever gained by any racing-stable at home or abroad. Mr. Mavors brought his master-mind to bear on the form and the pdds, and then took 179 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "J tender up a position on the sea-front under the timid maid awning, and the season-long race-meeting rilTr interested him no more, y-^ But Alice speculated with the courage pig-stye or ^^^ devotion of her sex — what would the to face a company promoter do without the maid- cote" en lady? — and was rewarded by several handfuls of francs to shake in her father's face. Then, pitying him, she bought him a large soft parti-coloured straw hat with an abominable bright ribbon, which served a double end : it extinguished Mr. Mavors and lent a French tone to the party. "After all," she said, "perhaps he can't help his fears: I am afraid of cows, and he is afraid of horses : one must make allow- ances for people." The hours passed pleasantly. Mr. Bentley did not appear to shadow them as Wayzgoose had half feared he would. He did not slip out of neighbouring bathing- tents, or cast a baleful eye across the gaming-tables, as might have been ex- pected; and if the inquisitorial jeweller had his villa at Dieppe, he kept within its walls. i8o THE ASSAY BY FIRE One thing irked our friend — an annoy- How to ance that grew from the somewhat novel ^^"^ '^'' part he was playing. ^'"^* Mr. Wayzgoose had expanded, as we have said, under the light of a beneficent day, but his wardrobe had not grown with him. Designed for a "super," if we may continue the simile, it fell short of the requirements of a jeune premier. And the worst of it was that, in view of the capacious bullock-trunk which, a world too wide for his shrunk fortunes, had filled no inconspicuous place in the cabs and omnibuses they had jointly occupied, he could hardly say to his friends that he was flying light in the matter of baggage. He had even given them to understand, on the contrary, that it was his custom to carry plenty of clothes with him. How could he else have met their jocular al- lusions to its size and weight? It was best to be prepared for everything, he had said — changes of weather, changes of ground. And in the face of this definite state- ment of his resources, he had to ring the i8i NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A dilemma changes on some flannels, and a suit of dittoes — to say nothing of cleaning his shirt-cuffs with bread, and wearing wild- looking continental collars, with blue spots all over them. It had been that or pink stripes. For his perpetual moves had cut him off from the washerwoman. And they were to dine that night at the new hotel. Mr. Mavors would try the cooking, and Alice was " dying" to see the new Duchess of Debtford, who had worn that pearl collar in the Summer Girl at the Gaiety, just be- fore she left the stage for the peerage. It was where the English mostly con- gregated, and Mr. Wayzgoose had no dress-clothes. No doubt he could have declined; but then, he wanted to go— badly. A whole evening lost out of two days was not to be thought of. He could— he must— pur- chase a shirt, but an evening-suit was clearly beyond his purse, even had he not shrunk from presenting himself before Alice in garments made, and ready-made, in Dieppe. 182 THE ASSAY BY FIRE He might hire — an odious expedient — On the but even then the second objection stood. ^"^"^ His everyday clothes were dark, but they were showing signs of wear, and his much too sensitive soul had felt the tailor-made superiority of divers young men who had made their bow to his divinity. That or a hired suit — which would he look worse in.? He confessed to himself that it wouldn't make much difference. Confessions of a second-rate sensitive mind. He might quote from them, he thought; but he had forgotten what they were about. Probably not about clothes. A poet dressed himself anyhow, and was at ease. He wished himself a poet. Being as bare of a wishing-cap as of the other garments he required, he addressed himself to his own particular waiter, whose cheerfulness and versatility and curious ranges and restrictions in the English tongue had excited his admiration on his former visit. The waiter took the words out of his stammering mouth, and was only prevented by motives of decency from investing him 183 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "A parti- coloured dress of patched and pie- bald lan- guages" in the required garments on the spot. For he proffered his own black suit, and no other. It would go monsieur admirably. But it was a nothing. English gentlemen attending dances in Dieppe frequently used that suit. It was a beautiful suit. It was made by an English tailor. It had cost Enough. Monsieur would en- gage it for the evening. Perfectly. It should be in his room by six o'clock. Wayzgoose slunk out of the empty dining-room, and set off in quest of a shirt. With some difficulty he conveyed to the mind of the alien shopman the abstract ideas of whiteness and stiffness, and was promptly faced with what looked like the abstract of a shirt. The front, stiff and snowy, curved, cuirass-like, over the man's chest as he held it up for inspection, three little red coral studs dotting its slope; but the shirt— there was none. Fluttering strings marked the void, and the whited sepulchre was surmounted by a collar and tie, one and inseparable. " Trois francs cinquante," said the shop- 184 THE ASSAY BY FIRE man. "C'est bon marche" — with a shrug, "Begotten mais- h lean de- Wayzgoose took the shameful thing in his hands. He was sunk very low. But, „ ^^^, ■' an efttpty then, so was his purse. purse" " Biang," he said, with a hang-dog determination, and put down the money. Six o'clock came, and Wayzgoose mounted to his chamber to don his suit of woe. He thought of the decayed gentleman in the story-books, whose linen, though frayed, was spotlessly white, and whose threadbare coat was brushed with a scrupulous care. His own linen was not frayed; it had an unctuous rectitude of surface. Collar, tie, and front, had all an atrocious appearance of having been varnished subsequent to their putting to- gether; and he reflected moodily that had he looked a little more decayed, he might have looked more like a gentleman. The suit was threadbare; but that, un- happily, was not in keeping with the linen. They did not agree. They cast ridicule on one another. The shirt or plaster — he did not know what to call it — would i8s NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A thing of not lie down, and the waistcoat would not shreds and sit up, but fell away on either side when patches j^g leaned forward, making indecent and altogether disastrous revelations. The coat was sweepingly long in the tails, and ruinously short in the arms, so that his cuffs — and you can hardly avoid shooting a cuff that is an unattached entity wander- ing freely on the wrist — fell within a hair's-breadth of their upper margin. He gazed upon the reflection of his botched and patched get-up with dislike and distrust; but he had done his best, and now it must stand the ordeal. And he prayed, as he lingered upstairs, for the early close of day and the coming of the charitable lamplight. Happily he had a covert-coat, and he put it on though the evening was stifling, and it passed him through the hall, and into the cab which was a tribute to Alice's little shoes. But no sooner had he put himself gingerly down on the back seat, than Alice, turning up her pretty nose, exclaimed — " Oh ! What a smell of old cigars." 1 86 THE ASSAY BY FIRE " Phew ! " said Mavors, letting down !» " dose the window. " Garlic, by " The t^''" word was lost on the rumbling stones. Wayzgoose turned pale. He must put them off the scent, in all literalness, some- how. " These cabmen sit inside their cabs these wet days," he began. " Wet days ! " said Alice, amazed. " I mean these fine days ! " cried Wayz- goose. " The sun is so hot, you know, and they shut the windows to — to keep the flies out." "My dress will smell dreadfully," com- plained Alice, pulling it round her. He caught at the idea. " Yes ! " he said eagerly. " It clings to one's clothes like any anything. When one gets out of one of these cabs one smells like the — like mischief." " You are very consoling, I must say, Mr. Wayzgoose," said Alice, with some asperity. " I mean, of course, my clothes ! " cried the delinquent. "That is, of course, I don't mean my clothes, you know ; I mean the— the — the cabman's." 187 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Breath "Well, I mean mine," said the young again YaAy, severely; and she said no more, leaving Wayzgoose to grind his teeth and mentally murder the waiter in lingering detail, while the cab rolled through the resounding streets and his companions drew saving breath through its open windows. The hotel dining-room was lighted up with softly shaded candles, and, cigar- smoke and garlic both forming constituent parts of the atmosphere in continental dining-rooms, he was considerably com- forted, and sat down in a happier frame of mind, careful however to sit bolt upright, and to support his sliding cuffs against his bread and his wineglass. The super- fluity of coat-tail and the bell-mouthed trouser-legs were tucked into obscurity, and the soft candlelight did not call into activity the powerful reflector on his bosom. He exerted himself to share Alice's in- terest in the duchess who was dining not far from them, but rejoiced that his back was turned to that young woman and his face to Alice; for while her gaze was 1 88 THE ASSAY BY FIRE directed to the famous pearls, he could fix ^ disser- his eyes on hers and look his fill without '"**'" much jealousy of her distraction. Mr. Mavors discussed his soup and the aristocracy without heed from the young people. What is society.-* asked Mr. Mavors and waited not for answer. The leaders of society, he pronounced, were the wives, the sisters, the daughters, the uncles, the cousins and the aunts of the leaders of society at large. " Look at a man like Headley," said he, " whom they have just made Under-Secre- tary. You remember him lunching with us last — when was it.? A year ago." " Oh yes, I remember him," said Alice. " He was rather a dear. I liked Mr. Headley. But she was a horror — you said so yourself, father." "Exactly so. Headley is a man any one would respect. He has made his way and his fortune by natural strength of character and intellect. Do you think his family respect him on that account? Devil a bit ! He is only old Headley to 189 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW •Mr- them — the mild paterfamilias, the useful Mavors: drudge." ts t eory « Yqu need not be so sarcastic, father," put in Alice, " no one looks upon you as a mild paterfamilias." Mr. Mavors proceeded with a wave of the hand. " He is only old Headley to them. But the public admires him, so it follows that Headley's family must look down on the public. Mrs. Headley looks down on me. A man of that calibre sucks all the brains out of his family, probably for generations, but he gives them money and leisure and position in return. Mrs. Headley, as you observe forcibly, is a horror. But she is the wife of my excellent friend Headley, and cannot be dissociated from him ; and she is a leader of society." "Well, I don't care," said Alice. "I should like to be a leader of society all the same; I wish you would get made an under-secretary, father. It doesn't sound anything very grand, but I suppose it is!" Mr. Mavors absorbed his wine. "I 190 THE ASSAY BY FIRE have certainly a monopoly of brains in Mr. my family," he said, "if that is the initial Maz><"-s: step." ^" ""'" This was too much. A demand of the banker's meeting with a polite non-pos- sumus, he was launched on another fa- vourite grievance, and they ignored him. " Only one sauce," exclaimed Mr. Mavors, recalling with rage the time- honoured and unworthy sneer at his native land. " Why, here they have no sauce ! I ask for Harvey's — iln^y en a pas, M'sieu. Well, Worcester or Yorkshire relish — il n'y en a pas, M'sieu. They bring you chicken, where 's the bread sauce.? Same reply. Lamb — and there's no mint sauce. Cutlets — and no tomato sauce. Beef — and no horse-radish. Duck — and no apple sauce. Mutton — and no onion sauce. Boiled mutton — and no caper sauce. Why, they have no sauces! And no religion." The young people talked to each other across the little table, Wayzgoose turning a cautious neck inside his casing when Alice implored his notice of some celebrity 191 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW / and not I or oddity ; at all other times keeping a faithful and devoted eye on the bright face and its unresting eyes and lips. The anxiety to look his best in those eyes had now wholly absorbed him. His nightmare secret of a week had been laid to sleep these twenty-four hours, so potent is the immediate influence of the pleasures and anxieties that touch us with the fin- ger of the moment. Divide the field of consciousness among the activities and interests of life, and see how much space can be claimed by the intangible. He is a sage and a recluse who can give a quarter of the field to the universal in- terests of his kind. His native land bulks larger than the globe it is well-nigh lost in ; his family and his work will never fit into the fourth part thus assigned them; while his relation to himself, as a dinner- eating and digesting animal, will infallibly poach on the other preserves. No. The precedence and apportionment is other- wise. And the case of Mr. Wayzgoose illustrates the way in which an ill con- science, a pretty face, or a toothache, can 192 THE ASSAY BY FIRE fill the whole field to the exclusion of all '"They order this matter better in else. And a pretty face, certainly a very pretty one, now held his faculties in 'p^'^„Jg thrall, so that even the pressing discomfort of his costume was forgotten and nothing mattered but Alice. Every moment he held her dearer, every moment he was with her increased his trouble, and carried him faster and faster to his inevitable un- doing. To-morrow they left for England — cold land of convention which knows no con- vivial cafe or cheerful casino, no demo- cratic plage or cosmopolitan table d'hote: where money is the passport, and good manners and cheerfulness are not accepted on their merits. He would be a bank- clerk again, and Alice remote, afar; in that society which Mavors, yet in France, had spoken of despitefuUy. But there was yet a card to play, and a strong one : and the evening was with them still, though the advent of coffee marked the close of dinner. Alice's little hands were on the table 13 193 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Alarums and excur- playing with her gloves, some soft diapha- nous wrap that she had pulled across her shoulders throwing up the colour in her cheek and the gloss of her dark hair. Its silken strings brushed her plate as she restored the happy gloves to their office, and its gossamer folds touched and rested on the table. The waiter was removing the dessert with swift movements and circlings, his hands full of flying plates and knives, when, hurried out of his usual deftness by some urgent call on his services, he struck the unstable little branched candlestick that lighted their table, and overturned it towards Alice's seat. One small paper shade sprang into flame, as it toppled over, and shot, like a toy rocket, on to the delicate tissue hanging from her neck, and in an instant a wisp of fire ran up her dress, the flimsy material sending up quick thin flames and shrivelling as they passed. There was a ciy from a neighbouring table, a sudden movement of feet and chairs, and all three were on their feet in a second. Then Wayzgoose had torn off 194 THE ASSAY BY FIRE his coat and flung it over her, and had her -^ solution in his arms, before the majority knew what "f""- had happened. Quickly ignited, the fire """"■'' was easily put out, and the crowd of diners standing up from their seats and looking eagerly for the cause of the disturbance, saw but a half-fainting girl being released from the seeming embrace of a young man whose appearance was enough in itself to cause surprise in such a company. Coatless, yet not in his shirt-sleeves, he stood holding his discarded garment in his hands, his whole mind occupied with Alice's white face as it lay on her father's shoulder. One dangling cuff marked the naked unseemliness of his arms, and a white shirt-front, witb a broken string, stood out in front, fanning the air. Mavors supported his daughter out of the room, and Wayzgoose, sick with appre- hension, gathered up her fan and hand- kerchief and one poor little glove and followed after. As he passed towards. the door a snigger and a whispered word re- called him to a sense of his condition. The blood surged to his ears, and he 195 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The pulled on his singed coat in the rush of an moment unpleasant sensation of anger and wounded "^^^'^ pride. But his anxiety and wretchedness about Alice left him no thought for himself, and it was not until he had ascertained, with huge relief, that there was little the matter beyond the shock, and he had seen them off in a cab — Alice calling up a smile for his reassurance, and leaving him a grateful word — that he dwelt on his own contretemps. He wrapped himself in his long covert-coat and, answering the sym- pathetic inquiries and profuse apologies of the management in such words as he could muster, stepped out into the cool air and darkness of the plage. His hands hurt him more than a little, and the empty word of English slang which had caught his ears as he left the room still made them burn. It was a small matter and, diners and dining-room, they would see him no more; but what they had seen Alice had seen, and her father, and had Wayzgoose, at twenty-two and in love, been insensitive on such a point, he would have been an inhuman sort of 196 THE ASSAY BY FIRE self animal as new and as rare as the Okapi Afr. itself. Wa:)xgoo!e But under the ruined coat and flapping -^^f ^*'^' shirt-front down to the tips of his tingling and smarting fingers, he could still feel the contact of that so literally fiery embrace. Short and strenuous it had been, of neces- sity, but even while the dry flame scorched his face the quick exultant thought had found entrance — that she did not shrink — that she trusted to him — that she yielded to him as to a natural strength and pro- tection exerted over her. It had all passed in a moment, but Heaven knew how reluc- tantly he had released her, and with what agony of abnegation he had given her to her father to restore and comfort. But it was he who had saved her — he and none other — he, Wayzgoose the unready — the dreamer of dreams. For once he had acted — the happy chance had come and he had been able to take it. He had made an inglorious figure may- be, but the elegance of an accomplished feat may often lie in apt omission or addition of detail in its recital or in its 197 not war NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Magnifi- picturing. Had the gallant fellow, whose cent but j-,j^^ £qj. ^j^g V.C. is shown us across two pages of the weekly illustrated, that high polish on his boots at the time? that full-dress tunic on his back? That effec- tive straddle across the wounded com- rade—that high light on blade and revolver barrel — were these the real accompani- ments ? Was it as brave a show as it was an act? We doubt it. We know that flashing sword — that well-groomed war-horse. They come from Islington. But the man who is brought up on the brink of a plunge by the thought of his appearance when he emerges, is likely to remain in the crowd— and of the crowd. No. It was not worth a second thought. It was galling certainly, but one day he would explain. Ah ! One day ! To-night had decided him, had finished him, though little more had been needed. It was Alice or nothing. Desperate as his case was, he would try for her, plead, promise, wait, accept the smallest opening for hope— he would stir himself, work, 198 THE ASSAY BY FIRE it shall he given struggle, leave nothing untried. He cast "^o ^^'»» about in his mind for the necessary fulcrum '^"'^ ^^^' for his lever, if he would move the world. Perhaps old Bompas would prove a rock of strength — he had never helped him yet, but that might be twisted to a favourable aspect — surely there was the more reason to expect help in the future? He had, though, a sad suspicion that his Uncle Bompas was one of those not ill- meaning but wholly unlovable people who will not help you on your way, but are quite ready to congratulate you on your arrival. An institution that flourishes will draw their subscriptions — and good round subscriptions too — but the institution that struggles — must struggle. They give heavy "dots" to nieces who make rich marriages, and cut off with a shilling such as marry on the "mutual assurance" system; they die, and leave their money to their richer relations. They call all this encouraging merit — and very encour- aging it appears, no doubt, to the meritori- ous individuals whose "merits" are thus noticed. If advancement or fortune came 199 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Beg or his way he felt assured that Mr. Bompas steal? would put his name in his will, but his prospects were as unhealthy as Mr. Bompas himself was healthy. Now, Hooper — he supposed it was the natural corruption of human nature that made him think of Hooper when in difficulties — Hooper would have asked for a settlement on the strength of his marriage with an heiress, and for the heiress on the strength of the settlement; but then Hooper — Hooper would ask for his cab-fare if his mission failed — or for moral damages if he were helped over the doorstep. But he, Wayzgoose, did not know how to ask for anything. And if you can neither beg nor steal, there is nothing for it but to dig — be your patch ever so small. Neither beg nor steal ! He remembered with something like terror creeping over his exalted mood that he was contemplat- ing begging from Mavors— an outrageous, a lunatic request — his chiefest treasure; having already robbed him of his collection — ^that other apple of his sight. On the other hand he was to restore THE ASSAY BY FIRE the collection, and a recovered treasure is M"" ?«'/ more than one that has never been lost; S"'^' and a certain gratitude must accrue to the author of its recovery, even when he has been an agent in its loss ; and as for that chiefest treasure of them both, his hand had saved Alice from disfigurement, injury, perhaps worse ; and unnatural and intoler- able as he would have felt the set off of a reward to an action which he could not have undertaken with such joy and spon- taneity except on his own behalf, he was bound to recognize the prior right of a pa- rent, the store he set upon his only child, and the likely influence of such a service as his had been. Altogether he felt that he was nobly committed by that evening's work, and that his prospects of success had not receded when he stepped across the line. His per- formance had been the very reverse of the empty deed a Frenchman can equalize by the reflection " mats quel geste ! " The " geste" had not been fine, but the deed had not been empty. He had the waiter to face whose valued garment he had so 20I NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ji super- ruthlessly put to strange uses ; his hands Jluous were a constant pain, and to-morrow would gratitu e j^j-jj^g England and grey weather; but to- night he had held Alice in his arms — he had caught her look of gratitude and rec- ognition; he felt ground under his feet, and saw clear sky above his head. He entered their hotel with an assured step and found Mavors waiting for him. They went into the smoking-room, which was empty, it being but the middle of the evening, and sat down together for a few moments and spoke of the accident. Mavors was evidently shaken and affected. "But for you, my boy," he said, "it might have been a bad business. As it has turned out there is little the matter. She is not much hurt, though the shock from a fright of the kind is rather severe. But it is entirely owing to your quickness and nerve that she has got off so cheaply. She owes you — we both owe you — great gratitude, and"— he hesitated— " and I shall not forget it." He shook him by the hand. " My little girl is everything to me," he said. 202 THE ASSAY BY FIRE Wayzgoose would have given worlds to -^ mean have been able to say what she was to '"^^""t^i* him, but he felt that, even could he have found voice, the moment was inopportune ; his chief was at a disadvantage, and he could only sympathize with him on his own ground. He expressed his genuine delight in his chance, and his happiness to know that Alice had suffered so little, and hoped — yes, he would press that mean but small advantage on Mavors's softened mood — hoped that he might call one day at Winkfield and see her — ask after her health. Poor Mr. Mavors trusted that he would — hoped that they would see more of him — and if ever he saw his way to giving him a helping hand Wayzgoose 's conscience would bear no more when it came to the point. He rose hurriedly from his seat, protesting that he was keeping his chief from the sufferer up- stairs. Mavors rose too, and after a few more words, left him with another grip of the hand which Wayzgoose sought in vain to avoid. 203 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Perspua- Mr. Mavors ascended to his daughter's "'J' room. She was sitting up in bed, looking rather white, but distractingly interesting and ravishingly pretty. The doctor, who was on hand to prescribe some soothing words, was chatting to her under the chaperonage of the manager's shapeless and excellent wife, and Alice seemed to find her little levee quite comforting. Her father creaked up and down the boarded floor for a minute or two revolv- ing the events of the evening. Suddenly he halted, and said to his daughter in English — "Alice, I am afraid that that boy is rather badly off. I don't suppose you noticed; but when " Alice's face flushed against her white wrappers. "Why don't you pay him better.?" she inquired, with spirit and pertinence. The banker put this notion aside — per- haps for future rumination. " He is a good lad," he pursued medita- tively. "When I shook hands with him he seemed quite pained, and " 204 THE ASSAY BY FIRE " I should think he was pained," cried The end Alice. "Couldn't you see that his hands "f the visit were burnt? Hasn't he had them dressed ? " This put an end to the reception. Mavors and the doctor went down in search of Wayzgoose, and madame the manageress, pronouncing Alice to be ex- cited, tucked her up, and forbade further conversation. But her patient tossed wakefuUy on her pillows in the gleam of the nightlight, long after the departure of the good lady had extruded the polite reader from the room. The next day saw their leave-takings and departure, Alice proving sufficiently recovered, or being, perhaps, anxious to get home. Wayzgoose had a bad five minutes with the waiter over the damaged coat; and that and the subsequent settlement of his bill about emptied the exchequer, and he found himself reckoning the very small change left him with the most anxious exactness. As they drove together for the last 205 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A retro- time On their way to the boat, he watched specttve Alice, who sat opposite him, pale and review pretty, with her eyes closed; and the desire to take her in his arms, protect, and comfort her, surged up in his heart. Mr. Mavors, his head full of plans, and his hands full of tickets, sat frowning at the driver, whose methods and route filled him with apparent distrust. On board, he saw Alice no more, and, once clear of the harbour, he stretched himself on a canvas chair, his eyes on the receding coast, and revolved in his memory and reacted the eventful week — scarcely a week — that had passed since he had fled from Clapham Junction to meet a changed and larger fate across the water. He felt altered, older, but in the better sense, and could smile now at his illusions of a week back. Fortune must be con- quered in fair fight, or wooed to the top of her bent. She was not to be snatched by violence or chance. The day was past for chests of gold to appear at the psycho- logical moment and smooth the path to 206 THE ASSAY BY FIRE a fortunate union ; but it was better so, The re- as it was better to deserve and win an ^S'^* 'f Alice than to carry off some complai- "'"'"'y sant princess of faery-royal blood on the strength of a dissolved enchantment, a tournament, or some such old-time lottery. He even felt a growing disinclination to use the converted treasure, the goblin gold now withered into a mere "valuable col- lection," to serve his ends in any way. It was an unworthy paltering with the truth, and he was ashamed to use a sub- terfuge of any kind on such a quest. The whole truth was hard to tell, and, perhaps, uncalled-for, at present. He would try to smuggle it back, or otherwise replace it in such a manner that they would not connect it with him at all. He could see a corner of the secretive old bullock-trunk peeping from under the tarpaulin on the well-deck from where he sat, and he smiled to himself at the romance he had built round its battered sides. He watched Mr. Mavors pacing the deck, in a black coat that was a concession to his home-going, and a 207 a bullock- trunk NINE POINTS OF THE LAW '^he deerstalker that was a concession to the "'Vf^n f middle passage; and, had he known, the current of that gentleman's thoughts ran in much the same direction as his own, for the banker's eye sought the bullock- trunk each time he turned on his heel. " What in the world had he in that big box?" he asked himself, and his pacings brought him no nearer to the answer. 208 CHAPTER VIII HUE AND CRt AT Newhaven Mr. Mavors proved "From as good as his word. It sufficed «"""''"*'S to point out their luggage to a '"" J'^^'^^^ courteous superintendent, and they were able to take their seats in the waiting train while the less happy majority fought for their rightful property, or trembled for their unlawful possessions. For the first time in his life Wayzgoose found himself interested in and kindly disposed towards compatriot porters and newsboys, and listening to his native tongue for the sound's sake. Even the refreshment-room had a charm of novelty, and its wares a flavour. The evening paper held news for him, and its facetiae provoked a smile. The fields and gardens, as the train ran Londonwards, seemed greener than "the orchards green and sunny vines of the pleasant land of 14 209 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Precious France." In a word, Mr. Wayzgoose moments fgj^ the first awakenings of patriotism in his cockney breast, and recognized the vivifying influence of foreign travel. Alice had been cosily disposed in a cor- ner seat, her back to the engine, her feet propped on her dressing-bag, and all the wraps of the party disposed over, under, and about her with a solicitude rather trying on an August afternoon, as she laughingly protested; her father, reading up arrears of city notes, was partly visible from behind his papers at the other end of the carriage, and Wayzgoose sat by Alice, ostensibly looking across her at the flying scenery. They did not talk much ; conversation seemed harder, some- how, than twenty-four hours ago, and of the two, Alice was the more silent, a phe- nomenon that caused in him a strange exultation. Some current of sympathy was set up between them, which did not call for visible or audible transmission. Wireless telegraphy! What thousands of young operators receiving and trans- mitting undeviating streams of influence HUE AND CRY across and across a thousand barriers and Wireless hostile forces must have smiled at Mr. t'l'graphy Marconi and his absurdly belated claim to the invention! And once that affair of love gets off the wires of open con- versation, it is enormously accelerated, and the man's side of the bargain im- mensely advanced. Words are a woman's weapons, and once she drops them victory sets against her. Wayzgoose was content with the silence — well content — and it was only when the thickening posters and the unbroken return of the train's rattle from roaring walls of brick warned them of their journey's end, that he returned to con- ventional speech. When should he see her again? At ordinary times he could have asked Mr. Mavors how she was, but his holidays were still in progress. He should not be in the city for another fort- night, and — his emboldened emotions took a step forward — he could not wait so long for news of her. She looked up shyly at him, and con- scious of the pleasure she was about to 211 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW An iuvita- give, and conscious, too, of her own, she Hon smiles blushed as she said, in a guarded voice, and with a smile in the direction of the expanded Times — "Father told me that he should ask you down for a day or two before the end of your holiday. Do you think you could come, Mr. Wayzgoose.? If you have nothing better to do.? " What he might have done or said at this moment will never be known. A line of porters appeared outside the window as the train ran alongside the platform, and next rninute the rapt and incoherent Wayz- goose was struggling with bags and rugs as he helped her out of the train and into her cab, in spite of her anxious entreaties that he should take care of his injured hand. She mitigated her father's hearty grasp, however, on the unshrinking recip- ient, and left him with a sweet au revoir, his full comprehension of the phrase again reminding him of the advantages of the continental tour. The bullock-trunk was quietly awaiting him at the end of the platform, keeping HUE AND CRY its secret well after its ordeal, but always -^ London seeming to remind him that there must f^^rmitage be an end to its hypocrisy one day. He must shake off that dead weight before he went a-wooing, and as he saw to its hoist- ing on to the roof of his four-wheeler, he vowed that it should make but one more journey with him, and that before long. And now for his humble, home, and a little cold meditation. Accordingly, that night cold supper and chilly reflection was his portion, scarcely warmed by a not very familiar pipe which he kept in his rooms as fitting bachelor furniture, calculated to lend a recognizable atmosphere to his burrow, and a cynical flavour to a solitary evening. His land- lady, an excellent soul, had followed upstairs on his arrival to tell him that there had been more than one visitor for him while he was away, and to defend her character as a housekeeper. Had she known he was coming back so soon, things should have been made more com- fortable; but young gentlemen never thought of writing word, and was so 213 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Ways and sudden in their ways. Should George means bring his box upstairs ? Wayzgoose reflected, and on a sudden resolution said No. He was going away again the next day, and George might leave it in the hall. He would do what packing he wanted to do down there. It had struck him that the thing had better be done at once, and it only re- mained to hit upon the method. He did not half like the inquiries that had been made for him, for one thing, and then, if he was to visit Mavors at Wink- field, it was clear that there was no time to be lost in restoring the property. The invitation might come any day now, and it was plainly his opportunity for doing the best for himself when Mavors had been made happy by the recovery of his treasures. Now as to ways and means. Time he fortunately had. A fortnight of his holiday had yet to run, and Mavors would hardly ask him at once ; they would wait some days or more to shake down, and to inquire, he reflected uneasily, into 214 HUE AND CRY the details of the robbery. His money A basis of was most of it spent, but he thought he op'^'^**"'' would re-visit Windsor — no, not Windsor, that would never do. He cast about in his mind for an alternative spot for the headquarters of his operations. Virginia Water? Perhaps. There was an inn somewhere in that part of the world where one of the fellows at the bank had been last year — young Stevens. He remembered Stevens recommending it. The Good Fortune — the omen was pro- pitious ; The Good Fortune it should be. To-morrow was Sunday again, exactly a week since he had set out from home on the first day of his freedom, and to- morrow he would return to the scene of his adventure, and dump down this old man of the sea who threatened to strangle him at every step. He saw nothing for it but to go in person — he could trust no one; the ordinary means of parcel con- veyance was closed to him, were it only by his nervousness, for the despatch of a box by any method of carriage would infallibly leave a trail, it seemed to him, 215 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW If you which would be followed back to the want a sender. An anonymous letter was not tngwe anonymous to the expert in handwriting; ' ' ' or Mavors might have received a mys- terious missive telling him to repair to such and such a spot, and he would meet with something to his advantage. And, even so, the bundle must travel to such spot. And how.? He remembered the comparative ease and security with which he had gone off with it from the wood, and left no clue, and it seemed best to take it back himself in much the same way— without any accom- plice, innocent carrier, or parcel-postman, to provide links in the chain of witness— and he would be free of the whole con- founded business, without blame, confusion, or worse, and be able to look the Bentleys of this world in the eye, and to enter the sacred precincts of the Thatched House without fear or favour, and to a mollified and smiling host. His resolution come to, he went downstairs, candle in hand, and made his dispositions while the house was quiet, repacking the top of his box for a 216 HUE AND CRY night's absence, and locking and strapping The last it again with care. '*'^^' The neighbourhood of Virginia Water has, among other beauties, two features which presented themselves to Wayzgoose with peculiar gratefulness, as, next morn- ing, in charge of the fly-driver, who had undertaken to find The Good Fortune inn, and there deposit him, he and his box crawled along the dusty road leading from the station. These features are the thick- ness of its woods and the thinness of its population, and he felt that he was in the right neighbourhood for deeds of darkness. A boisterous wind had got up in the night, and was driving great flocks of cloud across the sky from the south-west, dividing them and herding them again with sound and fury like any shepherd dog; huddled groups or straying members, they were whirled before that tremendous and bullying surveillance which filled the void with scurrying troops pouring on and on, out of sight, over the far margin of the eastern woods. The miles of trees hummed and rocked under the passing 217 Fortune ' NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ^-4^ of the herds, and pillars of dust rose and 'Good fgii along the roadways. Mr. Wayzgoose, with an unpoetical egoism, congratulated himself that his Channel crossing had been made at the right moment, and though safe on the wholesome, stable earth, was not sorry to reach the shelter of his hotel and wash the grit out of his eyes. The inn was pleasantly enough placed, backing on to the forest — of an ancient appearance calculated to catch the travel- ler, and of a modernity within sufficient to retain him. The comparative shelter of its position and a well-watered road tempted him to sally forth again before lunch. He had the day on his hands, so when he had reviewed the early Victorian prints on the passage-walls, and the news- papers of a slightly later date in the smoking-room, he turned out of the low- porched doorway and strolled down the village. Almost the first building he came to was a little spick-and-span red-brick house, with a brave show of window-boxes, and a great deal of yellow gravel surrounding 218 HUE AND CRY a very small area of grass-plot. On the The snare white palings in front were boards dis- 'f*^' playing various announcements in print or •'""' "' manuscript, and a recruiting-bill, with a highly-coloured illustration. A policeman, his tunic unbuttoned, and looking strangely indecent without a helmet, was seated by the gate reading a paper. As the bird is drawn by the serpent, so was Wayzgoose by the pasted placards. There was one, obviously new, that seemed positively to order him across the road. Possibly it was only its rather conspicuous whiteness, but it seemed the very beckoning finger of fate, when he read, as his fasci- nated steps drew near: " £20 Reward. Burglary!" The policeman looked up with a friendly interest, and Wayzgoose, moistening his tongue for fear he should be addressed, leaned a little on the paling, and took his breath over some warning regulation about swine-fever, until he had recovered countenance. Then he turned to the more prominent placard and read — " £.20 Reward. Burglary at Winkfield. Whereas the house known as ' The 219 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Face to Thatched House,' Winkfield, was broken f"" into on the night of August 19th last, and property taken away to the value of several hundred pounds, this is to notify that the above reward will be paid to any one who may give such information as may lead to its recovery." A schedule was added detailing the principal articles stolen, and the notice was signed "W. H. Mavors, The Thatched House, Winkfield." There was no personal description of himself then. In fact the placard could hardly be said to affect him directly; but he had indubitably left a clue in Windsor in the hands of that jeweller. He could only suppose that that line had been given up after Mr. Bentley's discomfiture at Arqueville. But the jeweller must have talked, and now that there was a reward out, the neighbourhood was plainly dan- gerous to him. He must waste no time, but get rid of his secret. The policeman had risen and was stand- ing by him, and they looked at the notice together. 320 HUE AND CRY " I see here," said the policeman, folding What the his paper outwards and rubbing one para- f^'" graph with his thumb, " that they have ^"^"^ found traces of that business — found some of the property quite close to the house. I am afraid you nor me won't get that twenty pounds. It says: 'The Winkfield robbery,' it says : ' The Windsor police have found ' — but you can read it for your- self." Wayzgoose bent him over the police- man's thumb and read as follows : — " The Windsor police have found some of the missing property stolen from Mr. Mavors's residence on the night of August 19th, in a sandy bank in the Forest not far from the scene of the burglary. The articles found, an ancient spoon and a coin or two, were apparently dropped by the thieves on the occasion of a second visit to remove the stolen goods from a temporary hiding place. This has now been discovered, and is being closely watched by the authorities." " That's what we calls a clue," said the policeman, "and a very important one, /should say." 321 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW I'he Wayzgoose offered no comment, and 'topped yf]\\}a, a word of thanks turned on his heel with a well assumed indifference, leaving the policeman to wag his unhelmeted head over the important discovery of the empty hole. The paragraph was a much wors(^blow than the placard. His idea, indeed, had been to take the property back to that selfsame hole and then, though he had thought this out but vaguely, to put some member of the household upon the track, which he could probably have done with- out noticeable manoeuvring when staying in the house. There were other rabbit- holes, no doubt— no lack of them— but if the place was closely watched .? What should he do now? It looked as if his trip had been made for nothing, and for the moment he saw no course open to him. He walked slowly back along the road- side, prodding the dusty edging of grass with his stick as his mind explored each blind alley in search of an issue. He turned into the forest and made his way to the lake side. HUE AND CRY Its surface was grey and disturbed August! under the ruffling influence of the wind -'«.?«■''■' which was spoiHng Nature's beauty for """"^ " , the day; for as no landscape is beautiful that lacks water, so no water is beautiful that lacks reflections, and Nature was in an ugly mood and she looked it. He sat and frowned at the quick little colourless waves on the water, and the white wind- streaks on the grass, and saw with dis- approbation the untidy litter of driven leaves and broken twigs marring the artificial charm of the long water-side — a storm in a china saucer. He passed from his own annoyances to pity the annoyances of others — a misbegotten pic- nic-party trying to make head in an un- propitious world attracting his attention and his whole-hearted pity. The unselfish thought had its instant reward, for the word "picnic" gave him the key to his situation, as he remembered the natural conclusion of the stablemen when he went on his last expedition. A picnic — the very thing. He would go for a picnic all by himself that afternoon; and as for 223 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "Dashed the police, the police should have the the bold empty hamper, since such things gave ^"^^' them pleasure. * ""^r. The picnickers were unwrapping the pork ..." oblong packets of foodstuff designed to correct the over-eager appetite on such occasions, and buttery papers radiated from them nimbly over the slippery grass, while notes of acerbity began to mingle with the merrymaking; ginger-beer bottles opening all too quickly wasted their con- tents upon trouser-legs, and obstinate flasks of strong waters, refusing to take part in the proceedings, held on to their stoppers with the strength of obstinate genii, anxious to stay in their prison instead of to get out. Shrill complaint and sulky defence were borne on the wind, and Wayzgoose, his own picnic be- ginning to engage all his attention, left the unquiet woods and made his way to the stabling adjoining his inn, his last campaign taking shape as he went. A conveyance he must have, of some sort, and, for his ruse to have a chance of success, he must depart in good time, for 224 HUE AND CRY however favourable the darkness towards J^n^e de robbery or restitution, the midnight picnic, S'^'^^''' though a popular institution in the Antip- odes of a fine season, is not yet accli- matized at home, and a single gentleman supping in calm solitude on a stormy night in the wilds of Windsor Forest would probably excite remark. The said wilds being under observation. It should be a tea picnic — that would throw it as late as might be, and after tea he would hide the remains of his feast in the kindly earth. His orderly mind re- volted from the widespread traces of a party such as he had just left, and the sentinel minions of Scotland Yard should yet in the evening air unsteel their bosoms to Nature's charms, nor have their budding aspirations towards poetry and beauty checked by any trace of his wrong- doing, what time their regulation boots trod the woodland mosses. He began to see the end of his troubles and set about the ordering of a pony chaise with a comparatively light heart, the more so as the chaise was a low four-wheeled IS 225 mtssartat NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Transport affair, easy to load and unload, and less and com- trying to the nerves as having three wheels to fall back on, or rather to stand upon, in the event of the fourth remaining attached to a gatepost or other obstacle ; and there was no visible fire in the pony's eye when, ushered by the stableman, Wayzgoose in- troduced a cautious head into the animal's dark abode. The same stableman, a shilling having been put in the slot, was worked upon to produce a stoutish hamper from a loft hard-by, and with this, and some parting instructions as to time and place, the in- genious Wayzgoose vanished by a back entry and sought his room. Our thread of life works its way, in general, between the shuttle and the shears without much heed of the thousand lines that cross and recross its path, making the warp and woof of the many coloured struc- ture of our histories; but an erratic line getting out of its proper and decent order may land itself in a dreadful tangle— a tangle that may even require a premature snipping of the thread. And though we 226 HUE AND CRY may hope to avert such a dire cutting of I'he the knot in the case of the erring Wayz- t^'frument goose, he was even now threatened by '* "*' Fate, who thinks of the pattern and not of the threads, and was directing the courses of two of her instruments across his crooked path; and Mr. Wayzgoose enter- ing the luncheon room to fortify himself against the Barmecide feast to follow later, straightway encountered instrument num- ber one, in the shape of Mr. Hooper. A large tankard stood at his elbow, and, at the moment of Mr. Wayzgoose's entry, he was cutting a section of some sixty degrees from a large pigeon-pie in front of him. Annoyance chased surprise from Mr. Wayzgoose's countenance. Here was a coil. Who could have expected to run against an acquaintance in a place like this.? And Hooper of all people, who always stuck to one like a leech. It was on his lips to say, " How about that half-sovereign?" but he saw the futility as soon as he felt the harshness 227 well met ! NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ^'"'^ of such a greeting. For Hooper, his face fellow. > expressive of nothing but innocent sur- prise and pleasure, haled him to a seat by him, and pressed the pigeon-pie and the rest of the carte du jour upon him with all the hospitality in the world. It was not Hooper's pigeon-pie. Besides, Mr. Hooper was nearly always pleased to meet an acquaintance. He was of a social disposition, and he looked upon any fellow well met as a possible silver mine. Gold mines were few in this hard world, and he had exhausted such as he had struck, but silver might yet be had in small quantities. And though Wayz- goose did not present virgin soil, he was soft to work on, and might yield the price of a lunch yet. Cold reserve, or coarser hint, melted or died down before his ready tongue and fund of good spirits; and his thoroughly boyish though unprincipled enjoyment of good times, however obtained, had often softened an irate creditor or outraged moralist who had come to chide but re- mained to laugh. Many a man who has 228 HUE AND CRY but little power of enjoyment will part The gift of with the means readily enough to one who '^^ ^"^ can use them, and a scapegrace with a fund of humour and high spirits will find plenty of men to help him to disaster. The majority takes its pleasures sadly, not from choice but from incapacity, and rallies round a merry andrew and throws its money into the ring. Waygzoose allowed himself to be dragged to the table, and tried to preserve an air of severity and the consciousness of that default of la^t week, but Hooper did not shirk the topic for a moment. " I am glad I have met you, old chap," he said heartily; "what luck your coming down here. What became of you last Saturday.? — you went away early didn't you.? I couldn't find you anywhere. I found my purse directly you had dis- appeared, and I wanted to pay you for those tickets, and take you to have some supper, and now I am stony again ; but it is entirely your fault that you weren't paid, going off at the beginning of the evening like that. You weren't humpy, were you ? " 229 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The soft This with affectionate solicitude. iide Wayzgoose repudiated the notion, and, of course, lost ground. " That's all right. You gave me an A i dinner, and I was no end sorry that I lost you. The fact is, you know," he said confidentially, " I am afraid I couldn't see very straight after it. Of course you have a strong head, Wayzgoose, and you're a sensible chap and know when to pull up. I'm a fool, and I go on. You ought to have looked after me better." Wayzgoose, first mollified, then flattered, quite gave way before this frank confession, and the shandy-gaff beginning to get in its bit of play, he waved aside all promises of repayment, and bestowed a few words of advice from the superior altitude of a man who was not to be taken in by the false and glittering appearances of pleasure. Hooper listened with a cheerful humility, but when Wayzgoose went on to extol the simplicity and liveliness of the French holiday and its absolute lack of whisky, he promptly countered. " That's where you've been, is it? " cried 230 HUE AND CRY the astute youth. " You are a deep chap, '^^ ^"^ Wayzgoose. So when you go on the burst you do it in Paris, eh ? You pious- looking beggars are always the worst. Don't deny it, my boy ! Simple and lively — tommy rot ! A bit of skirt — that's what you've been after! Do you think you can kid me with your cheerful Sundays? Who was the lady.? O Wayzgoose, Wayz- goose! what will they say at the bank? If you don't tell me all about it, you hum- bugging ruffian, I won't leave you enough character to hide your head in." " I don't know what you mean," cried Wayzgoose, in confusion and indignation. " I certainly met — er — some friends over there, English people " "English was she," said the grinning reprobate ; " well, perhaps you were right. I can't talk the language myself, but I thought perhaps you could. And her simplicity and liveliness '" " I must ask you to mind your own business," retorted Wayzgoose thoroughly out of temper, and revolted by these dese- crating footsteps within the limits of his 231 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Patient Eden, " I did not ask for your company, mertt and ^^^ j£ y^y ^lust needs make a — a nuisance ^ "f' of yourself " he half rose, but the un- worths provoked but provoking Hooper held on to him, apologizing. " It's all right if you like the girl," he sang, "and never mind what I said. I was only rotting you. Sit down and have some more shandy-gaff with me," he said, handsomely, "and then we'll go and sit in the garden and have a smoke. I swear I won't make a beast of myself again." Wayzgoose refused further refreshment, but followed his tormentor into the garden though put out and annoyed with him and with himself. As they passed into the hall. Hooper holding him by the arm and endeavouring to restore his placidity, they came upon a little man in a tall hat who, with a stout little wife, had just alighted from a trap standing at the door, and now in charge of the all-obliging stableman, to whom the couple seemed to be well known. The young lady in the bar put her head 232 HUE AND CRY out of one of the various sliding traps A shadow surrounding her stronghold, and smiling '" ^^^ P"'^ also upon the new arrivals, called to the waiter to show Mr. Straight to his table. The name seemed familiar somehow, and Wayzgoose looked again at the little man who had now taken off his hat and was flapping the dust from his pepper and salt trouser legs with his pocket-handkerchief. Thef Windsor jeweller — he had just time to take it in, and Hooper dragged him round the corner into the open air. He sat down heavily on the shaded bench, and Hooper's light and frivolous discourse passed as unheeded as the shouting of the blown rooks overhead, while he turned the ugly incident in his mind. He must be off at once. He did not think that the man had known him, but at any minute he might reappear, and there was no Mavors here to cast the aegis of his respectability over him, and save him from that burly policeman down the road thirsting for reward and distinction; who, standing moreover on his native heath, would feel none of the weakness of position which 233 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW A credit had kept Mr. Bentley's hands from investi- to the forte gating the accused luggage. Now Mr. Straight, jeweller and numis- matist, as we have before indicated, was at heart a detective, and never had any of his heroes, not Mr. Hewitt, nor the great Sher- lock himself before (or after) his decease, shown such self command and such con- summate deception — he hugged himself on the knowledge, while his stout little wife on the other side of the table regarded his visible ecstasies with astonishment and fear — as he, William Straight, when he had seen and instantly recognized the purloiner from the Mavors collection, on meeting him two minutes before in the dark entry. "Let us do nothing in a hurry," said Mr. Straight to himself, and aloud, " what is the matter with me, my dear? Nothing, nothing ! I am always pleased to get out here of a Sunday, and I think those chops will taste good when they come. In the meantime I am just going to speak to Miss Griffin. I shan't be a moment." Mrs. Straight was not of an over jealous 234 HUE AND CRY character, and waited contentedly enough On the while the waiter told her such news as "■"'' the goings and comings of hotel life had enabled him to pick up for his customers in the course of the week. Mr. Straight was at the private bar and Miss Griffin was producing the visitors' book. No — the gentleman had not entered his name, but his number was 'forty-nine. He was a friend of Mr. Straight's likely? No, no. Not a friend. He thought he had known his face. Perhaps he had been mis- taken. " Two Scotch and a soda divided, please. Miss." Miss Griffin carried her smiles to the front bar, shutting down the trap behind her, and Mr. Straight, like the sleuth-hound that he was, made up the staircase on the trail. Nineteen, twenty-one — next landing evidently. Up again, with the swift and silent tread of the Indian tracker, albeit the mount made him pant more than a little. Forty-five — forty-seven— forty-nine. The passage was silent, the servants 23s NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Marked at dinner. The criminal was in the garden, doubtless counting out his money, and the emissary of fate turned the door handle and entered number forty-nine with a set face of dreadful resolution. In spite of his precautionary scouting and steadfast soul, little Mr. Straight was highly relieved to find no inmate. He had, of course, been prepared to apologize and withdraw murmuring, " My mistake, my mistake," in case inmate there had been, and that before, long before, the possible sixshooter might urge his retirement ; but as it was, all went well, and the detective entered, and half closed the door that his presence might be hidden, but that his ears might warn him of any approach. His lusting eye fell at once upon the bullock-trunk, and read upon the lid " John Wayzgoose," in rubbed white lettering. John Wayzgoose had been laid in his grave full many a long journey ago of the old trunk, but Mr. Straight was in- terested in his family name and not in the family history, and muttered it to himself as he bent down and examined 236 HUE AND CRY were done quickly ' ' the fastenings, the feverish exhilaration "'Twere of your detective on a hot scent taking k'^^'^'^ possession of him. For one moment he turned aside to lift the lid of a big hamper, standing near the washstand; but the hamper was empty, though full of meaning for Mr. Straight. It wasn't big enough, however, to hold his theories, and he returned to the box. It was unstrapped, and had been opened lately, for Mr. Wayzgoose's washing-tackle was on view, and his sober-hued pyjamas were laid out on the bed, but the hasp of the lock was down, and its bolt shot. Mr. Straight went out into the passage and listened. He tiptoed to the window at the end and craned out. He could see Wayzgoose as he sat below, and pulled in his head again quickly, and as quickly made his way back, fumbling in his waistcoat pocket. Locks were not directly in his line, but a simple hinge and its unhinging came within his powers. A sharp pressure with the handle end of a pair of nippers, and a steady pull with their business end, and the guardian hasp, «37 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Enough! clinging faithfully to the lock, had its base turned, and the position was carried. William Straight, investigator, lost no time. He lifted the lid, and plunged his hand down — here, there — and brought up sufficient evidence to convict the Forty Thieves — let alone one. Half terrified and wholly delighted, the little jeweller tarried no longer. He dropped the lid, replaced the hinge-pin with trembling fingers, and ran downstairs, nearly can- noning against his quarry, who was escaping from Hooper into the house. Wayzgoose shrank back, and Mr. Straight ran on, full of his secret, and took his place at table with a flushed countenance and agitated limbs, but with triumph in his eye, and so swollen with importance and mystery that his partner could hardly eat her chop for looking at him, and plied him with questions in a voice that became gradually sterner, and, indeed, threatened to become shrill, so that Mr. Straight had to give her a hint, much against his will, of what was forward. " But not a word, not a look, to betray 238 HUE AND CRY us," he said, in a shaking whisper. " There ■?''»»» ^"^o is time enough. We must not frighten him. We will finish our dinner quite calmly — quite calmly," he said, knocking over his glass as he spoke, and two more in a nervous attempt to save it. "Take it quietly, my dear, I implore you. He is quite unsuspecting, and " He shut his mouth on the approach of .the waiter, and as the man lingered, brush- ing away flies and rearranging napkins on the next table, he contented himself with the spoken reflection, as he hastily shovelled some potatoes on to his plate. " We shall hear from them again shortly, my dear. They will sing a very different tune at — you know where. If they cannot act on information given them, I must act myself. I must act myself." And Mr. Straight, between his import- ance and the potatoes, puffed so extensively that his still mystified wife grew appre- hensive on his account, and advised him with some sharpness not to take so much upon himself. "You have had one snub from them 239 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Pride already," she urged. "You'll only be set precedent Jown again. Why can't you leave it to them as understand the business.? " But Mr. Straight had something to go upon this time, and, seeing fame within his reach, thought it safe to override for once the cautions of his wife. The little jeweller, as he sat choking and swelling between his dinner and his secret, ex- hibited that pride which goes before a fall. His fond endeavours to imitate the sangfroid of his models merely landed him with an indigestion and the time he gave to his dinner, while all too short for its proper discussion, enabled the chase, whose wariness he had perhaps under-estimated, to draw the bait from the trap before it was sprung. Wayzgoose, eluding Hooper's pressing companionship, hurried upstairs, and with a celerity born of practice, emptied the trunk and filled the hamper. Bearing it down with difficulty, he sought the stables by the back entrance, and had out the pony-chaise on the spot. He put the hamper inside, agreeing with the stableman 240 HUE AND CRY that it was cheerless weather for such Securing jaunts, but saying that he could not dis- '^^ commu- appoint the picnic-party he was to join, """ '"" so he must make the best of it. He then returned, packed his box, and, seeking the amiable Miss Griffin, paid for his lunch and for his room in advance, for he fore- saw possible trouble. " If by any chance," he said airily, " I don't come back this evening, you can send my box when I write for it." Having made all secure behind him, Mr. Wayzgoose mounted into the chaise, his hamper between his knees, and taking the reins from the ostler made out of the stable-yard with a brave show of con- fidence, and the Good Fortune inn knew him no more. Mr. Hooper, a man with many friends, was not long in the bar before he found an old one and made some new ones. Wayzgoose was forgot- ten in the rising exhilaration produced by convivial company, and his afternoon proceeded with increasing satisfaction to himself. Little Mr. Straight finished his dinner, i6 241 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "With honest zeal, to rouse the watchman of the tublic wear' and, then, unable to restrain himself any longer, ran as fast as his legs could take him to the police-station we have visited in company with Mr. Wayzgoose. He was known in the village, and the police- man did not hesitate when he heard the story, but put on his helmet with business- like promptitude, and accompanied his breathless informant back to the Good Fortune, buttoning his tunic as he went. "You leave it all to me," gasped Mr. Straight, as he trotted to the policeman's stride. "I will " "No, no; you leave it all to me," said the policeman, firmly. " I'll settle him." But the jeweller protested, argued, and cajoled. He wanted to see the thing done neatly, and in style. "I will hold him in conversation," he said, revelling in the details, " while you fetch a fly. Then I will say to him, ' The game is up. Come quietly with us.' We shall avoid a scene, which is always unpleasant. I am known at the Good Fortune, and don't wish to be the cause of a disturbance there. We can put the 242 HUE AND CRY name box on to the fly, and take him straight I" the over to Windsor." ■^«"^^»'^ The policeman, recognizing the supe- riority of style, at length consented, and took his stand at the inn door. Mr. Straight chartered an unwilling flyman, who had just arrived from a distance. " In the Queen's name," said Mr. Straight, sternly, and entered the hotel. The cabman gazed open-mouthed at his vanishing back, and then at the policeman, and then got down and gazed at his horse. He then regarded the policeman again, and remarked — "What ho!" " Yes, it is what ho ! " said the policeman. " You just wait a bit ; " and he gazed up the passage and nervously fingered his truncheon. A minute passed, two min- utes, three minutes, and then Mr. Straight reappeared. Miss Griffin close behind him, and Mrs. Straight close behind her. The jeweller looked crest-fallen to a degree. "He's gone," he said, in a subdued voice. 243 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Enmity The policeman whistled ; but the cabman laughed vulgarly. " Chase me, girls," said he, and climbed on to his perch again. "Girls indeed," said Miss Griffin, with a thin smile, glancing at Mrs. Straight. " He can't mean us, I'm sure," said Mrs. Straight, laughing good-humouredly. Miss Griffin's smile was attenuated to the point of grimace. "Well.''" said the policeman. " His box is here, mind you," said the jeweller, brisking up again. " He's bound to come back for it." "Where is it?" asked the policeman. The whole party retreated into the hall. At the foot of the stairs lay the imperturb- able bullock-trunk, locked and strapped, black and impenetrable, John Wayzgoose announcing his ownership by mortmain in skeleton white letters. " He said he thought he should be back this evening," said Miss Griffin. " What's the matter with him, anyhow? He looked right enough — quite a gentleman, I'm sure." 844 HUE AND CRY Mr. Straight and the poHceman shook Division their heads in concert. " They're the worst," said the poUceman, with an air of one who knows. Miss Griffin had no notion of being a secondary figure in any group and left them, remarking that she had no time to waste on other people's affairs. The box had been left with her, and there it should remain. The policeman detected a warn- ing note in this last remark, and anxious to stand well with the house, positively refused to meddle with the trunk ; and the jeweller's courage failed him with the failure of the policeman's support. "I tell you, the stolen property is in that box," he urged desperately, tapping the lid with his hand. The policeman raised one end of it. "It's very light," he said. "You feel." The jeweller took the handle and his heart sank, but outwardly he appeared unmoved. The policeman evidently doubted the whole story by now, and wandered towards the door. Mrs. Straight sat down upon the box. 245 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ■^"d " It's as cheap sitting as standing," she tontentton remarked ; " and if we are to stay here all the afternoon " Mr. Straight was roused. " You can go home if you like, Elizabeth," he said ; " but I shall stay. The property is in that box, and I shall not leave it until I see the thief arrested. He is bound to come back for it, and if you refuse to support me," he turned to the policeman, "you will be guilty of a very serious neglect of duty. I know what I am about and I shall certainly report you." " Well, I am willing, ain't I ? " said the policeman, sulkily. "I'll arrest him hard enough ; but show me 'im. That's what I says. Show me 'im." " He'll never come back as long as you stand in the doorway, that's quite certain," cried Mr. Straight. The policeman ac- knowledged the force of this taunt, the more easily as it fell in with his own incli- nation, which was to return to his house, and entering the side room together it was agreed that the policeman should remain in readiness and retain the services 246 HUE AND CRY of the fly, paid for provisionally by Mr. Aprovi- Straight, and be on the spot again at dusk "'"''^ "''' in any case, if the return of Wayzgoose had ''""S""^"^ not been signalled him before then. The policeman went his way, and Mrs. Straight finding Miss Griffin difficult and her husband impossible, went hers, in the pony trap, not long afterwards, leaving the jeweller's seeming infatuation to work its course or be worked off in the course of his enforced walk home. The cabman and the constable wet their retaining fees at the opposition establish- ment of the Green Swan, and agreed that a shilling in the hand was worth a reward in the bush. Mr. Hooper and his friends waxed from uproarious to quarrelsome, from quarrelsome to friendly, from friendly to maudlin. Mrs. Straight reached her home and brewed her solitary tea. The sun declined below the thick woods, and the wind gathering new force from approaching dusk harried its flocks to tears, great drops driving from time to 247 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW T^he time against the window of the front penalties sitting-room at the Good Fortune be- of office j^jj^^ ^j^j^j^ ^j._ Straight's flattened face never ceased to watch the approaches to the inn. The dusk increased until Mr. Straight could no longer see the time by the clock on the mantelpiece without leaving his post. Stiff and chilly, and bored to extinction, he heard not with- out envy the distant sounds of cheerfulness from the bar parlour. He walked up and down, up and down, unwilling to ask for a light, for by that he could be seen from the road; teatime was past, and supper time grew near, and Mr. Straight began to taste the hardships of his adopted profes- sion. To pass hour after hour in a solitary room watching for the advent of a probably desperate felon is a trial to the nerves as well as a weariness of the flesh, and the jeweller was without the power of calcu- lating cubes that has solaced the dark hours of some great exponents of the art of detection and without the hypodermic syringe with which another great man stimulated or soothed his penetrative pow- 248 HUE AND CRY ers: he could but think of his sins and A woman regret his share of the muffin which was *^^P*'^ faUing to Mrs. Straight. *"' To the gloom-enshrouded detective, en- tered at this juncture, in a bright gleam of lamp-light, the form of Miss Griffin, as in a halo, and smiling graciously again as erstwhile; and the voice of temptation fell on his ear. "Still here, Mr. Straight! Why, I am just going to have my supper! Won't you come across to my room and have something?" Mr, Straight struggled, hesitated, and was lost. " If you are anxious to see that gentle- man when he comes back, I will tell them to bring word to me when he arrives." It sounded quite safe. And his wife was home long ago. It did not often fall to his lot to be entertained en petit comite by a young lady of such blouse and fringe as did execution upon Miss Griffin's admirers, and he followed her into her cheerful snuggery behind the glass and bottle laden partition that shut it off from 249 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW . . . omit- her more advanced entrenchments, where ttng sttll gjjg ^g^g ^Qnt to engage, and worst, the m oppor- pushing young blades who came to the tumtyfor ^ j ^ ^^ encounter. Now, no sooner had Mr. Straight, Hstening to the voice of the charmer, been lulled into a false security and beguiled from his post, than Mr. Hooper, some sub-conscious caution working in him, and dimly aware in his cups that he had a train to catch, appeared in the passage from the bar parlour, and straightways tumbled over the bullock-trunk. Steady- ing himself by the banisters with both hands, he looked into the cause of the obstruction, and read the name of Wayz- goose on the box against his knees. "Wayzgoose," muttered Mr. Hooper. "Know some one called Wayshgoose.? Course I know old Wayshgoose. Wayz- goose, old cock!" he shouted, straighten- ing himself, but came down heavily on the trunk again. He got up gallantly, but taking the wrong turning, presently found himself at the exit used by that gentleman when he 250 HUE AND CRY had made his fortunate departure early in -Mir- the afternoon. Here some one, with a ^'op''' strong pervading odour of stables about "\ ' ' ' him, came in his path, and was clutched ^^^ ^^^^ in Mr. Hooper's outspread hands. "Wheresh my friend Wayshgoose?" demanded Mr. Hooper. " Don't know him, sir," said the man of horses, seeking to disengage himself ; but Hooper held on, knowing he must stand or fall by his present security. " Not know Wayshgoose ? " he said re- gretfully. "Must introduce you. Must know Wayshgoose. Deep dog, very — wearsh red tie, and full of money." The unfailing ostler, always expected to know everything, came nobly to the scratch. " Fairish gent? " he asked — " dark suit — straw 'at ? " " Of course," cried Mr. Hooper. "You know old Wayshgoose. Told you you must know old Wayshgoose " " Gone on a picnic, sir," said the ostler. "Went off alone three o'clock. Pony- chaise. Not come back yet." 251 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "'Tisbut Mr. Hooper stared resentfully at the " '">' of ostler. modest "Picnic," he said— "picnic— what pic- deal. . ." . met " Dunno, sir. Large hamper. Went off alone from 'ere." The ostler broke away dexterously, transferring Hooper to the doorpost, and vanished into darkness. Mr. Hooper made his way back to the front hall, and sat down on the bottom step of the staircase near the abandoned portmanteau. The pathos of its situation appealed to his maudlin mood, and more in sorrow than in anger he bewailed the lost friend of his youth, untimely snatched to unseasonable convivialities. " Always leaves me in lurch," he thought with tears. "But I'll take care of port- manteau. I'll show him," he cried, strug- gling gamely to his feet, " that I have some sense. Take his box home for him. Take it to bank. Safe place, bank," he reflected; and he made for the front door. He found a fly with trimmed lamps 252 HUE AND CRY cabman waiting outside, the driver sitting yawning I'he on the floor within tfie open door. faithless " I'm engaged, sir," said the cabman. "What's her name?" asked Hooper, with overflowing interest. " None of your funniness," growled the cabman. "Look here, cabby," said Mr. Hooper, advancing, "must go station. Can't walk. Very difficult to see stand this dark evening. And must take my friend old Wayshboxsh's goose " "What station — Virginia Water?" in- quired the cabman. "Should like to go Victoria," said Hooper, wavering; but seeing the cab- man's face darken again, he accepted his suggestion. "Where you like, old boy," he said, with a beaming compliance. " Any station 'cep p'lice-station." "Ah, you'll get there right enough without me a-taking yer," said the cabman, optimistically. But thinking that he could well put in an extra fare while waiting, and reckoning without his host, he followed 2S3 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW 7he trunk Hooper's uncertain footsteps, found the is left trunk, shouldered it, and carried it out, travelling j^^jp^^ ^j^^ grateful Hooper inside the vehicle, put the trunk by him on the box, and rattled away down the road; 254 CHAPTER IX SANCTUART ONCE clear of the dangerous purlieus Gone of the Good Fortune inn, Mr. -»»«> Wayzgoose drew rein, and allowed the pony to take its own pace. Truth to tell, it had taken its own pace from the beginning, but now he ceased from troubling, and acquiesced in the hurried walk, broken by an occasional stumble, that the animal had evolved from the varying requirements of a generation of Sunday outers. At favourite points on the route it stopped dead, and then Mr. Wayzgoose made examination of its feet. At times it took such an interest in the road under its nose that the demand on the reins pulled the driver to his legs, and when an appetite for wayside grasses displayed itself, and Wayzgoose, his patience overborne, made play with the whip, the lash caught in the harness, and 255 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW On the the expedition was delayed while a pony Winkpid ^jgjjt ea,t half a load of greenstuff. road again ^ wrong turning did not help them on their way, already sufficiently long, and it was late in the afternoon when the gap in the roadside came in sight. He had remembered well enough how the land lay to make his approach from the further end of the road, so that he might not have to pass the gates of the Thatched House, but its proximity made him tremble, and he was thankful when the mossy track swallowed the noise of his wheels, and the gloom of the woods hid him from sight ; thankful, too, for the inclement weather, for there was the less danger of meeting Alice. The depths of the forest felt the over- head gale much as the sea-deeps feel the surface storms, stirring and swaying under the commotion, the wreckage of leaf and branch dropping and settling on the green- grown undulations of the under-world, or lifting again and drifting to the next sheltered hollow or half-filled depression in the forest-bed. The huge masses of 256 SANCTUARY leafage up above swayed and tossed with Slim continuous complaint, and from time to '"''"" time great drops of rain found their way through the intermittent fissures in the heavy canopies. Of the police who, according to the local paper, should have been heavily dotted about the " locality," he saw nothing ; but this, of course, might be only their artfulness, and Mr, Wayzgoose, at this stage of his adventures, was not the man to be had by any such transparent device. He bore to his right as he urged the pony over the sward, for by this he not only took the mild precaution of avoiding the actual scene of his discovery, where the brick-traps and fly-papers of the police were to be feared, but also drew near the con- fines of the Mavors' grounds, and this, if he could see his way ultimately to carry- ing out his plan, would be an advantage to him. The grass drive he was following, bend- ing, before long, away from the boundary, he halted the pony, made fast, and taking the hamper in his arms, staggered on 17 257 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "Some through the bracken, falling into hidden ^afer holes, and tripping over hillocks, until he world tn QQyj\^^ gee in front of him the paling that , was the line of demarcation between her woods em- iraced" Majesty's property and that of Mr. Mavors. The ground was not favourable to a picnic party, presenting no even surfaces of turf, or, indeed, clear ground of any kind; but the peculiarity of Mr. Wayz- goose's taste led him to select the thickest clump of fern he could find for his halting- place, and' he put down his burden, where the three-foot bracken hid both hamper and himself from view as he sat down by it, and began to undo the fastenings of the lid. Caution was useless for the moment until he had ascertained whether his en- trance with the pony-trap had been un- marked, but if no inquisitive detective or overbearing gamekeeper interfered, the spot he had come to would do very well, he thought, and he noticed with approval that the ground between the paling and his position was opener than that he had traversed, so that while he could not see 258 SANCTUARY the chaise from where he sat, the way to Alfresco the paUngs threatened few obstacles for the darkness. He ostentatiously took out of the opened hamper the sandwiches and ginger-beer he had disposed on the top of the news- paper wrappings, and opened the bottle with a satisfaction not entirely make- believe, for his exertions had made him thirsty; but while he held it to his lips in approved style, his gaze wandered over the shady recesses round him in search of an eye fixed on his proceedings. But nothing threatened, and the sandwiches followed the ginger-beer without inhibi- tion of the law. He prolonged his indigestible meal until the chill of the evening interfered with his comfort, and his sedentary posi- tion became untenable, when he got up from the bracken and wandered to and fro to draw the enemy's fire ; but no enemy discovered himself, and Mr. Wayzgoose gradually gaining confidence, extended his reconnaissance to the distant fencing, and, not daring to show his head in that direc- 259 where art thou?'' NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "ButO! tion, peeped through a gaping plank into Jhce, ^Q enclosure. If he had hoped to see the presiding genius of the enchanted garden moving among her flowers, and fairer than them all, he was disappointed, for a gardener tying up some weakly raspberry-canes against the assaults of the wind showed solitarily on the near side of the house, the space between that and the paling where he stood concealed being occupied by the kitchen garden, a long rectangle orderly set out with rows of currant and gooseberry bushes, and beds of feathery carrot-tops or asparagus ; its too gross pro- duction varied and made gay by giant sun- flowers and tall tangled sweetpeas that seemed to tell of Alice. An asphalte path ran down the middle, crossed by latticed arches overgrown by yellow roses, and he easily framed the portrait he always carried with him in each yellow-blossomed opening. But only the gardener's retiring form bulked in them now as he left with slow strides, his coat on his arm, and straighten- ing the hinge of his back with his hand. 260 SANCTUARY Mr. Wayzgoose jumped across the little The ditch that lay behind him, and made his "■^''■«"''' " way back to the hamper, and 'thence to the ' ^" , . , 1 - , . , . , once more pony, which he found quietly nosing the brambles in undisturbed solitude. There seemed no cause for alarm or ground of suspicion, and returning to the hamper he drew it into the thickest of the fern, hid its corners, and overlaid its top with the biggest fronds he could pull, and carefully crumpled up and put in his pocket the white papers which he had dropped. He then drew back, made sure that there was nothing to be seen, carefully noted the position of his cache, and went back to the complaisant pony, untied him, and led him into the high road, not without many a glance behind him, and then mount- ing again inside the chaise drove to a small inn at the cross roads half a mile away. He had noticed the house as he came along, and had resolved to put up there and wait through the evening until it was late enough for him to put the finishing touch to his atonement and free himself 261 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW An even- fully from the burden his own foolishness ing in the j^^^j placed on his back. country ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^j q^^^^ ^j^^^^ y^^^ Waygzoose repaired, and there he passed a penitential evening of memorable and monumental dullness, unrelieved by an undesired supper ordered for the good of the house, which did not agyee with his anxieties, but only added to the load on his chest, and only mitigated by the hope that its dragging hours were the last of his connection with the affair. Ten o'clock struck, and unable to bear his anxiety and the tedium of waiting any longer, he wrapped himself in his coat and turned out into the wet and windy night. He trudged down the road in the dark- ness, the lights of the inn behind him touching the puddles on his path; but his shadow was soon absorbed into the gathering blackness that lay ahead, and he had almost passed the gap in the hedge before he could recognize it; and once in the wood, the difficulty of knowing his way was greatly increased. Twice he 262 SANCTUARY returned to his starting-point before he '^he re- could make sure of his path, and he had ^""^^n begun to feel grave doubts of his strik- ing the hamper, that night, when he struck against it in the most Hteral sense, and sprawled over it on his hands and feet. So far so good, and now for the fence. The clearing he had noted in the after- noon was, supposing he was facing in the right direction, as black as any bush, and his sense of touch was all he had to go by. He dared not leave the hamper again, once found ; and there was nothing for it but to continue this blindfold exploration with the thing in his arms. So for the next quarter of an hour Mr. Wayzgoose, more and more exasperated, butted the hamper into tree-trunks, crashed it into holly bushes, dragged it through invisible but highly tangible brambles, until he was fairly exhausted and ready to drop the ac- cursed crate and cut his connection with the whole concern, when he fell into a ditch of a sudden, and his burden, shooting forward, met a sounding timber obstacle, 263 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Lights out which he recognized the next minute as the paling he was seeking. He had apparently rounded the corner of the kitchen-garden in his search, for now, when he raised his head above the fence, he could see the lower windows of the house in full illumination, and knew that, in spite of his delays, he had come too early on the scene. But even as he leaned, panting, on the fence, standing on the hamper, which had rolled back into the ditch, the sitting-room lights went out, and the upper rooms sprang into sight, marked by a softened glow through blind and curtain; and once a shadow crossed one of the squares of light, and to Wayz- goose it took the shape of Alice. But the shadow appeared no more. After a long interval one window vanished into the surrounding gloom, and then another. He was climbing down to ease his stiffening legs when an unshaded gleam of light came from the ground level, and it showed him Mr. Mavors, obviously supervising the locking up of the establishment. The 264 SANCTUARY door was shut again, and fastened to The vigil the satisfaction of the banker. The lamp passed a passage-window, ascended, the staircase presumably, and reappeared in a double-windowed room at the corner of the building. Here it remained for a time, the only light visible, and, finally extinguished, all trace of the house was lost in the enveloping night. Wayzgoose let himself down and stretched his limbs and stamped his wet feet on the soft earth. He must give them a little law before he attempted his innocent burglary, and he sat down on the hamper and leaned his back against the paling, taking his exposure with a dour resignation to circumstances, and com- forted his drooping spirits by reflecting that in a few days more he would be on the right side of the fence, figuratively and in reality. The wind was falling and the rain was beginning to come down pretty straight, and the discomfort of his situation perhaps exaggerated the flight of time to him. He had come away without any matches, 265 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ■^ «"?' a cardinal error he had already had cause jacket ^Q regret, so he could not time his waiting by his watch, and, sitting on the damp hamper in the pouring rain, it presently appeared to him that the Mavors family had had an unconscionably long period allowed them to settle to sleep. He looked over the fence again, and peered earnestly into the obscurity. Now that the lights were out, he could distinguish the form of the house against the sky-line, the wet roof showing a faint glimmer reflected, perhaps, from some per- sistent star, and a path leading in his direction marked with faint white the immediate foreground. The steady down- pour of the rain made the only sound from all sides. It pattered loudly on the leaves and splashed into the pools forming on the gravel-walk beyond. It whispered steadily over the lawn, and its close and searching lines found the brim of his hat, the inside edge of his coat collar, and, it was to be feared, the interstices of the hamper, and ran in trickling streams at his every movement into the ditch beneath 266 SANCTUARY him, which was in a fair way to become a I'he wrong miniature moat. "^^ 'f*^' The wet banks squelched under his ^'"" sodden boots as he bestrode the dyke and grappled the hamper, and his feet slithered under him as he heaved it up and balanced it on the top of the fence, holding it steady with one hand while he shook the water from his hat with the other, and wiped his face with his coat sleeve. But it proved impossible to hold the hamper on the narrow fence while he got astride of it himself; both hands were needed for that, so, grasping it firmly by the wicker handles he lowered it over the far side, and then, his feet losing their hold on the slippery slope, they went from under him, and he found himself pain- fully suspended by the armpits, the dead weight in his hands dragging irresistibly in front and his clawing legs finding no support for the weight of his body be- hind, The struggle was short, and the issue what might be expected. Mr. Wayzgoose dropped his load and clutched the top of 267 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW . . . Pour the paling, and the hamper fell with a mteux crash into the garden. ""'*"' Within the hour which had elapsed since his arrival at his post, the quiet had notably grown through the dying down of the gale, and, now that the house was at rest, a wakeful ear within it might well have heard the noise, and Mr. Wayzgoose gnashed his teeth and shrank behind the fence, leaving the hamper to its fate for the moment while he listened and watched for any sign of life. The minutes passed, the ceaseless flood dropped straight upon the face of night, no bird or beast stirred in the woods, and no awakened light showed a watchful eye through the dark- ness. He recovered courage and presently put a leg over the barrier, and, carrying himself gingerly, dropped with infinite caution on the further side and felt for his burden. It had not burst open as he had feared it might, so losing no more time he gathered it in his aching arms and stepped over the sopping grass, making the customary and absurd attempt at tip- 268 SANCTUARY toe progression, which only calls into play Within the creaking of the sole leathers. Stepping ''""S' then with elaborate precaution and hold- ing his load with vice-like grip, he drew near the garden door, where his accus- tomed eyes could now distinguish the faint light of the glass panels. There was gravel to cross though, so he put the hamper down on the limit of the lawn while he crept over the walk to make observation of the porch, if such there was. As we have pointed out before, in moralizing strain. Fate (or Fortune, if you will) does not often suffer the in- dividual thread to run riot through the pattern of her performance, and the thread of Mr. Wayzgoose's life was now in no small danger of being snapped once and for all: for another was to have his chance of making his mark in the web, and at the expense of the tangle now so nearly unravelled. Mr. William Jordan, better known as William at the Thatched House, had retired to bed in no amiable frame of 269 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW '^^^ mind. For twenty-four hours he had scapegoat borne with the sarcasms of his employer and the reproaches of his young mistress. He had been examined, re-examined, cross-examined, hectored and bullied, put through the details of the burglary, and personally conducted over the scene of action, until, as he said in the kitchen, he could have done it blindfold, backwards, and on his head. Every hour of the last fortnight had been inquired into, his every action abused, his every subsequent caution derided, his every opinion greeted with contumely ; and when at last, after setting every bolt and bar under the immediate eye of his master, he had been permitted to seek his couch, his crushed spirit only found refreshment when he handled the revolver he had bought a day after the fair, and pointed it, scowling, to various corners of the back premises. "Ha! the cowards! They wouldn't come now," he said darkly; and his self- confidence, rudely shocked, returned to him, diffused slowly upwards through his frame from the trigger under his forefinger. 370 SANCTUARY He put aside the lethal weapon at last How and got to bed, but the unwonted activity ^"""'y " of mind he had been forced to display all "'" " day when on his defence, would not at once be laid to rest, and he was still broad awake when the noise of the hamper falling over the fence reached his ears. Recounting the tale in after days, Mr. Jordan would tell his audience, "At one bound I was out of bed and had seized my revolver." But this truthful recital compels us to assert that William's first bound was under the bedclothes, and it was not until after a longish interval of quiet had reassured his shaken mind, that he ventured out of bed. That he then seized his revolver is unfortunately true. Revolver in hand then, his knees shaking in his hastily pulled on trousers, he stole through the swing-door into the hall and stood listening. Listen attentively enough, alone, and in the dark, and you will always hear something, burglars or no burglars; and William had not listened for more than thirty seconds before he heard — something. 271 and sudden death ! NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Battle, Outside the garden door. murder, ^ On bare feet he advanced, shivering, praying almost audibly, until he could see the pale oblong of the glass lights in the door down the short passage. Then, as he stood with protruded eyes and gallop- ing heart, his feet fixed as in a nightmare, one pane was obscured, and at the same instant a faint bump came against the lower half of the framework. Good Lord ! They were within a yard of him. Up went the pistol, and a deafening report woke the house from sleep to the gallant William's frantic cries for help. Cheering electric light leapt up from a dozen switches, doors opened, chairs were overturned. William's outcry was re- echoed and redoubled from the maids' bedrooms on the upper storey, while Mr. Mavors came tumbling down poker in hand, and Alice on the landing above screamed as loud as any, and implored all and sundry to "give them everything and let them go." William, the revolver once discharged, 272 SANCTUARY had dropped it in the same act, and To know slipped back through the swing-door, and '^^ ^""^ now showed a ghastly countenance against the red baize as he stood with his head thrust, bloodless and guillotined, through the nearly closed crack. Mr. Mavors picked up the revolver from where it lay pointing down the passage, and noticing at once the dark jagged opening in the glass where the bullet had passed, walked straight to the garden door, unlocked and unbolted it, and threw it open. The outcry on the stairs jumped up an octave, and the thin shrill shriek of the retreating cook answered the despairing ejaculations of William, deprived of his weapon and seeking for the bread-knife in the pantry, as the garden door opened with a jarring sound and Mr. Mavors, in dressing gown and slippers, let in the night, and with it untold possibilities of murder and rapine. But the master of the house stood in silent surprise in the dark doorway, the wet splashing in on his bare ankles as his gaze met a large round hamper standing i8 273 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Aruna- on the iron scraper outside the entry. wayi/iock jj^g ligi^^. striking outwards showed the moisture glistening on its sides, and the fresh mud with which it was plentifully coated was streaking down its wicker work under the steady rain as it stood, unexplained, on the step. He had been prepared for a false alarm — for nothing — but not for this. What did it mean? A practical joke? He called angrily for the butler, whose head reappeared" through the swing-door, but Alice, reassured by his tones, was at his elbow first, and peering with great eyes into the outer world of burglars and bogies. "This is some confounded foolery," shouted the irritated banker. "Where's that infernal idiot, William ? " " Here, sir," said the devoted William, in a small voice, the bread-knife behind his back. Mr. Mavors had just uncorked the vials of his wrath, and was gathering breath to extrude it, when the loudest scream yet, and from Alice, ravaged their hearing, and 274 SANCTUARY all three gave back up the passage as, A vision following her pointed hand, they saw in *". '^^ the darkness, suspended as it were over and beyond the mysterious hamper, a white face set with glazed eyes and half- shut mouth, run over with wet and crowned with dank hair. It faced them from the black background, tilted slightly upwards, and working as if in pain, and held them frozen for two crawling seconds. They recovered themselves almost simul- taneously. Mavors took a step forward, William flourished his blade, but Alice, crying out again with a different and strange intonation, was first in the door- way, and as the face swayed and fell forward she caught it on her shoulder, and the men with inexpressible amaze- ment, found her crying and exclaiming hysterically over the prostrate body on the doorstep. "You have killed him!" she cried. " You have killed him." Mavors bent down, "Wayzgoose! By God!" he exclaimed. "What in the Here, take his legs, you. Go in, my girl, 275 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "ji demd and let us lift him up and get him inside. damp moist Gently, William— look at that knife, the unpleasant £^^j , — ^^^^ ^^^^ j^^ Handle him gently; you don't know where you may have hit him. Alice, fetch some cushions from the drawing-room, and then get that yelling cook downstairs. William will have to go for a doctor." The obedient household ran right and left, and the ill-starred Wayzgoose pres- ently lay a "damp, moist, unpleasant body," on the hall rugs, his head cushioned, and supported by Alice's arm, his liver- wing bleeding profusely over the tiled floor. Mavors bound up the injured limb as well as he could, relieved that matters were no worse, and administered the best brandy, and presently the victim essayed a half-hearted smile, and said something about the hamper. "We'll hear about all that to-morrow," said his host. "You'd better keep quiet now." "But open it," whispered Wayzgoose, and looking at the other face, near his own, he repeated tremulously, " open it I " 276 SANCTUARY Alice nodded, her lips compressed, and Mean- Mavors having sent William the unwilling, «'^''''- deprived once and, as he was told, for all, of his revolver, out in quest of the doctor, lifted the cause of all the trouble into the house. About the time that Mr. Wayzgoose began his vigil at the Dog and Duck, at the corner of the Winkfield road, Mr. Straight ended his at the Good Fortune inn, and followed the fascinating Miss Griffin into her sanctum behind the bar. A small fire looked cheerful enough, though Mr. Straight pretended to pooh-pooh it, and the hot buttered-toast and poached eggs made a strong appeal to his inner man. " We don't see much of you these days, Mr. Straight," said Miss Griffin, pouring out his tea. "You married men are too well looked after, I suppose, to care to go away from home." " Much too well looked after," said the jeweller, significantly. " Why, if my Betsy was to know what I was up to " "What are you up to, Mr. Straight?" 277 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The inquired Miss Griffin, with seeming inno- fassingof cence. "I suppose you think a woman ""^"^ can't keep a secret." "I didn't mean that," said the little jeweller, his mouth full of toast, but trying to look gallant. "I didn't mean about the portmanteau." "But I did," interposed the charmer, who was inwardly consumed with curiosity. " But I suppose I must ask Mrs. Straight when I see her again." The veiled threat of communication alarmed Mr. Straight, and under Miss Griffin's encouraging smile he had just begun to say in confidential tones, " Of course, my dear, I don't mind telling you " when a sound of wheels outside the front entrance drew the lady to her curtained outlook upon that side. She stood a minute peering into the dusk, then, throwing open the passage door she called sharply to the head waiter. " How is it that box has gone ? " she asked. "The gent had paid his bill, Miss," replied the waiter, reassuringly. 378 SANCTUARY "I thought I told you"— said Miss Pede Griffin in rising accents — "to let this t'^^" gentleman know " '^'""^'' She turned to indicate Mr. Straight, but this gentleman had gone. His toast lay butter side downwards on the carpet, his hat was by his chair; but Mr. Straight, for the second time that day, was tearing down the road to the police-station, cursing his gods and his folly and Miss Griffin and the portmanteau and all concerned, but, most of all, the cabman; for he guessed as he ran that he had been hoist with his own petard, and that the fly he had so carefully reserved was even now conveying the scoundrel Wayzgoose be- yond his grasp. He pattered down the road, breathing distressfully, and fuming against Fate, who had played him such a trick. He burst through the wicket-gate, and panted up the gravel path to the portals of the Law, and there he hammered without intermis- sion until its embodiment appeared and listened to his tale. The cab was gone, but the policeman had a bicycle, and poor 279 time NINE POINTS OF THE LAW In the Mr. Straight recognized with anguish that nici of j^g would not be in at the death after all. But there was no help for that, and it was something to see the policeman swing himself on to his machine and start off in pursuit; and the little man, winded and perspiring with his emotions and efforts, tried to comfort himself by think- ing that he would yet be the means, if not the instrument, of the malefactor's arrest. The policeman made short work of the distance before him, and arrived at the station to find Mr. Hooper still in the cab in spite of the efforts and arguments of the driver, the station-master, the porter, and the telegraph clerk to induce him to take train. " Through ticket ! " shouted Mr. Hooper. "You must shunt me. None of y' larks with me." And shunted Mr. Hooper would have been, in all probability, but for the arrival of the policeman, who got off his bicycle and made his way majestically to the cab window. 280 SANCTUARY "You are Mr. Wayzgoose?" he said 'The suggestively, taking in the condition of P^"^'^**'" his man at a glance. ^ "You're a liar," responded the recal- citrant one from his entrenched position. " Then what are you doing with this portmanteau?" asked the policeman, for the name was plain for all men to see. Mr. Hooper struggled with the problem for a moment, but his recent altercation had wiped the past from his mind. "Give it up," he said, and beginning to feel an inclination to repose, declined further discussion. " You must come along with me," said the policeman, pulling off his gloves and feeling for his notebook. " It is my duty to arrest you in connection with the Wink- field burglary." The awe-stricken spectators closed round the cab at this startling turn of affairs, and gazed upon Mr. Hooper's peaceful countenance with an unwhole- some interest while the cabman was being pressed into the service of the Law, and instructed to drive the policeman, the 281 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW The wicked cease from troubling box, and the slumbering burglar over to Windsor without delay. Mr. Hooper, finding that he was not to be ejected from the comfortable cab, hailed the policeman as an ally and a desire to stand him refreshment fought with his inclination to sleep. But the opposition ofEered to his proposal to adjourn the meeting to the refreshment- bar being too strong, he fell back on the alternative seduction, and, with his head on the policeman's breast, and his boots out of the window, he was blissfully asleep almost before the cab had turned round. Half a mile further on they were stopped by Mr. Straight, who had called for his hat in the interim, made his apologies to the ofifended Miss Griffin, and now mounted the box to accompany his prisoner to Windsor. It was too dark to see into the cab, but the waving boots had made him fear violence within, so he left its shelter to their owner and his guard, and sat out- side in the rain with pride in his port, and lectured the cabman on his betrayal of the trust which had been imposed on him. 282 SANCTUARY The queerly assorted quartette reached Division Windsor an hour later, the inside passen- *" *^ gers still on the best of terms, Mr. Straight '"""^'^ and the driver on the worst, for the latter had so resented the reflections upon his trustworthiness that at one point, and an exceedingly inconvenient point — miles from anywhere — he had threatened to deposit the whole party by the wayside. He didn't drive no Black Maria — not much, and his opinion was that Mr. Straight was as drunk as his accomplice inside. "You're all in it together, it's my opinion," had said the cabman, decisively. The jeweller, silent, but in a white heat, now climbed off the box and opened the door, and another policeman appearing, Mr. Hooper was induced to leave the cab and enter the police-station. " Anything to oblige a friend," he said cheerily, and clinging to his travelling companion, guided his willing but uncer- tain legs towards the glow within, where the inspector sat, charge-sheet in front of him. No sooner had the naked gas-jet irra- 283 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ^f- diated Mr. Hooper's countenance, where Hooper sleep Still fought against a desire to please oes ts ^^ company, than Mr. Straight, running please round to face his man, cried out in surprise and disgust. "Why, that's not the man!" he pro- tested. "You've taken the wrong one, you fool ! " " Don't you call names," said the police- man, gruffly. " I've had about enough of you. This is the man you sent me after, and that is the box you showed me at the inn." The cabman had followed them into the room, and was putting down the bullock- trunk from his shoulder. The wet ran off its shining black sides on to the boarded floor as it stood up on end before them, mutely appealing to John Wayzgoose to arise and answer for its respectability. "Is that your box, sir?" inquired the inspector, as soon as he could gather the drift of the charge. "Wouldn't be seen dead with it," said Hooper, scandalized at the suggestion. He carried his gaze from the damaged 284 SANCTUARY but still reputable trunk to the jeweller's His draggled frock-coat and streaming silk hat. """"^"^ " It belongs to him ! " he cried, with a sudden conviction. "Wouldn't touch it with my umbrella. Where is m'umbrella ? " he asked, a dawning anxiety on his brow. "You got my umbrella, ol' pal?" he in- quired of his friend the policeman, whose arm he had never relinquished. " Never mind about yer rumbrella," said his guardian. "You say this box isn't yours.?" "Never saw it before, dear old boy," said Mr. Hooper, still affable, but getting bored. " He is a treat," said the grinning cab- man, standing by the box. "Why, he gave it me himself, at The Good Fortune, this very evening." " And you had no business to take it ! " cried the little jeweller, hotly. " You were in my employment at the time. It's all owing to you that this confusion has arisen." The cabman defended himself, but, becoming combative, he was shown out, 285 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Hii and the bounds of the dispute being further further narrowed by the eHmination of annoyances ^^.^ hooper's theory, the inspector heard all the story by degrees, and unable to make anything out of the materials before him, but hoping something from the jeweller's positive statements, he sugges- ted visiting Mr. Mavors without delay. "He is a magistrate for these parts; he won't be in bed yet, and we'll see what he has to say. It may save this young gentleman from being locked up for the night." When Mr. Hooper found that he was to go forth again into the inclement night, he was disposed to resist, but being sol- emnly assured by his trusted supporter that he would otherwise get a great num- ber of years penal servitude, involving a total abstention from drinks, beginning then and there, he assented, mystified and sorrowful, only conditioning that they should not be separated. A fresh cab was procured, and the inspector wrapping himself in his weighty cloak, all four took their seats inside, Mr. Straight drenched 286 SANCTUARY but determined, and doggedly minded to Hu cheer- justify his case. /«^ '""''*''& Mr. Hooper entertained his hosts with '" " ^"''' , , sity song, and, as far as the limits of the cab permitted, with dance, and his waving feet put the finishing touches to the Sunday clothes of the enemy on the opposite seat, to whom, indeed, the journey seemed inter- minable. He blamed the inspector in his mind, for not locking up Hooper without more ado, and thought with terror of bed- time and of Betsy. It was bedtime now, and past, and it was not without surprise that he saw Mr. Mavors's house brightly lit up when they arrived. The lamps of another carriage showed in the drive, and the jeweller recognized the doctor's man throwing a rug over the horse's back. It was a greater surprise, though, when the magistrate himself opened the door in dressing-gown and slippers, but the greatest astonishment of all was depicted on his face when he saw them. Their arrival seemed to come upon him, never- theless, as a culminating shock on a man 287 of Law" NINE POINTS OF THE LAW "When who thinks he has already known the truth worst, and he ushered the deputation into stands ^\^q morning-room and switched on the trembling jj^j^^ ^-^^ ^ u come one come all " expres- ""fj'JJ" sion that boded no good. He followed them into the room, shut down the lid of a large hamper which he apparently had been engaged in unpacking, and asked, addressing himself to the inspector, " What's the matter now ? " while the little jeweller opened and shut his agitated mouth, and the other two supported the wall in the background. The inspector made the matter known as far as his knowledge carried him, and then Mr. Straight was permitted to tell his story. Sure of his audience, for Mr. Mavors had always dealt amiably with him, he told his tale from the beginning, and recounted for the first time, and not with- out some qualms, how he had forced the lock of the portmanteau. Mr. Mavors standing with his back to the mantel-piece, his hands thrust in his dressing-gown pockets, looked as magis- terial as he could manage, but he was lost 288 SANCTUARY in wonderment. He did not doubt the When the jeweller's story for a moment. He could «''»'' *' "** trust the man, and it jumped with the events of the evening; but what had Wayzgoose been playing at? He looked at the fourth party to the deputation, and was slightly astonished to see but the back of his head. To look at pictures on the wall was surely an odd way to behave, and the others were even then bringing a serious accusation against him. The policeman also seemed sur- prised at this awakening intelligence in his charge, and endeavoured to make him face round as the magistrate spoke to him, "Come, sir," said Mr. Mavors, sternly, "this is no time to study art. What's your name, and what have you to say for yourself?" Now, Mr. Hooper had just begun to think that it was a long time between drinks when he had been taken into the banker's morning-room, and the sight of his employer's face had had a most sober- ing effect upon him. He turned a sheepish 19 289 wall NINE POINTS OF THE LAW ■Mr- face to the light, and Mavors, after an Straight instant's angry pause, recognized him. goes JO the » Another of my clerks," he said to him- self, and his face grew dark. Could it possibly be that ? He could not believe it. It was some scapegrace trick. He would get to the bottom of it without making a fuss or letting any foolish suspicions leak out. He thought he saw his way to disposing of the jeweller at any rate. The inspector had tightened his lips when he heard of the forcing of the trunk. He would take his cue from tha;t, and feeling his hands immensely strengthened by what he had had time to see in the hamper before he had been interrupted, he went about at once to crush the officiousness of the unfortunate Mr. Straight. He took his gaze off Hooper to the great relief of the perspiring culprit and raising his hand to check the policeman's attempt to shake some evidence out of his strangely abashed prisoner, he turned upon the jeweller with lowering brows. " Do I understand you to say, Mr. 290 SANCTUARY Straight," he began awfully, "that you Cruel took it upon yourself to force open a locked portmanteau in the private room of an hotel?" Mr. Straight quaked and sought coun- tenance from the inspector, but there was no hope for him in that direction. What indeed was the office of an inspector of police if it was to be usurped by any casual citizen.? The inspector's short trim beard bristled under the outrage. " But, Mr. Mavors, sir, there was no room for doubt. I knew the man as soon as I clapped eyes on him." " Upon my word, Mr. Straight, I wonder that you didn't take it on yourself to arrest and handcuff him." The inspector snorted approval. "You have been guilty of a grave offence, and I fear that you will find your- self in an exceedingly awkward position when this Mr. Wayzgoose comes to claim his property." " But it was your property, sir," ex- claimed Mr. Straight, stretching piteous hands. 291 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW In a " Pooh, sir ! How could you tell on word— g^,]^ ^ short glimpse? The man may have been a traveller in Brummagem ware. I am personally obliged to you for your kind intentions, and I have no doubt you meant no harm; but I fear I shall be unable to protect you from the conse- quences of your act. From what I gather from you both, the portmanteau no longer holds anything. Besides But I may as well cut this matter short. In a word, gentlemen, I have recovered my stolen collection. It is here. In that hamper. You are pursuing a will-o'-the-wisp." He addressed himself to the inspector. " I recovered it this evening under rather peculiar sircumstances. I feel that I owe the police some details, and I will see you to-morrow about it. You can withdraw the reward, and let this young gentleman go free, though I will speak a word to him, alone, if you will permit me. I think he needs a lecture. You -acted very wisely in coming to me in this prompt manner, and we are all, I think, indebted to you for your common sense. 292 SANCTUARY The portmanteau you may leave here. I'he depa- I have a notion that I know the owner, *"*"'" " this Wayzgoose, and I will see to its """^ "" return, and try to mollify him. As for you, Mr. Straight" — he turned to the crestfallen little man, a sadly shrunken and bedraggled detective — "the less you say about this matter the better. Keep your own counsel, and we will do what we can for you. But take my advice: Never meddle in a matter of this sort again on your own responsibility. And now I will ask you and Mr. Shackleton to leave me with this young man for a few moments." The inspector said good night, and led the way to the cab ; Mr. Straight followed in bitterness of spirit, wondering what he was to say when he got home; and the policeman brought up the rear. The door closed, the magistrate became the banker, and Hooper was called upon to explain his position and defend his condition. Being unable to do the one or the other, and no enlightenment coming from him — any allusion to the wandering 293 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Second treasure plainly bewildering him, and his sleep knowledge of Wayzgoose's movements being confined to his having lunched with him, and then lost sight of him, earlier in the day — he was dismissed with a caution ; a belated attempt to assume an outraged innocence not carrying entire conviction owing to his legs foolishly g^iving way just as his head was at the highest. The crestfallen expedition melted away into the wet night, and Mr. Mavors, look- ing sharply to the window fastenings of his study, left the room, locked the door, and pocketed the key. The doctor was leaving with a reassuring report, and, having seen him off the premises, and the fluttered servants to their rooms, he returned to Wayzgoose's made-up couch to find out exactly what had fallen to William's pistol. 294 CHAPTER X REFINED GOLD ALICE was in a wicker armchair, La sewing, her feet on the rungs of Princesse a small garden table in front of ^«»^'"'»' her, her eyes bent upon her handiwork. Wayzgoose, in virtue of his convales- cence, occupied the hammock. His right arm nursed its opportune wound in a sling, his left hung down over the stretched edge of the netting, balanc- ing on the grass a book he was supposed to be reading. But at the end of every line his gaze had been drawn aside to the profile beyond, and though the text treated of love he preferred the illustration. So La Princesse Lointaine wasted her sweet- ness on the short prim alien grasses, and Wayzgoose in his turn gave his worship to another — who bore the rapt devotion of his eyes with a fine unconsciousness. Sighing, he picked up his book and sat 295 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Black himself on the side of the hammock and Monday looked round the smiling oasis which he was soon to leave again for the desert. Perhaps she, too, was thinking of Monday, that blackest day in a life of labour and the blankest in a life of leisure, for she asked, after a minute — "You will like your new work, won't you, Mr. Wayzgoose ? " "Of course I shall," said Wayzgoose, pulling himself together. " It is a splendid opening, and I cannot say how grateful I am to your father " "Oh! But father says he owes it you, and you mustn't forget your uncle's part in it. You can't think what it was to father when his beloved possession was restored to him uninjured." "Yes, I can," said Wayzgoose, looking at her and remembering that last dinner in Dieppe. " That night ! " cried Alice, pursuing her thought and putting down her work and looking up with half-mirthful recollection. " How wet you were too I What you must have gone through from first to last ! " 296 REFINED GOLD " Through fire and water," said the dam- Fire and aged hero, smiUng on her ; " the water was ^'""' much the worse though." She looked graver again. " I was not thinking of that," she said in a lower voice, "but I had not forgotten it, though I have never said anything — never thanked you- " " But, don't," he implored. " You must surely know I did it for my own sake. My — my What / valued was in danger. I couldn't help resenting your father's thanks at the time, though I suppose they were natural. Don't you know — can't you understand," he said huskily, the sun catching his face rather markedly as he hung out of the hammock, "that I had hopes — that — that, in fact, there was always a motive at work. I should never have fallen into the mistake of making treasure trove out of your collection if it had not helped towards a further possibility — a delusion too, may- be," he added, digging his heel into the ground. He did not catch the glance, half 297 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW " With mischievous, half-melting, that appraised weeping j^jg mood, but was inclined to be sulky and wtth^^ under the lighter tone in which she steered the conversation off the rocks. " I shall never forgive you for not con- fiding in me," she declared. "To have kept me out of the secret all those days ! And I should have enjoyed Mr. Bentley so much," she said, with a reproachful sigh. He resigned himself to her drift, and they laughed together over his adventures and misadventures, and again at the pic- ture they must have presented on the night of the discovery, when Wayzgoose, pallid and eloquent in borrowed flannel, rewarded their enforced hospitality with the moving tale of his misdoings; and Mr. Mavors, dignified and equable in Turkish embroidery, and Alice, conscious and big-eyed in flowing hair and wrappers, had given ear to his recital. The thin September air took the after- noon sun with its especial gratefulness; the month, so often propitious, affording earth a last chance to warm itself before its winter journey. The clear golden 298 REFINED GOLD flood, without compromise of distant- haze " Here be or partiality of cloud, searched every '^"^"^^ wrinkle of its face, that no corner should "J"^' "" be left unsolaced, and the sheltered lawn ^^^^ ^^ between the forest paling and the warm spaces meet red walls of the house received and appre- for song" ciated its full meed of the comfortable glory. The all-pervasive sunlight found with an approving ray the face under the flowery hat, and touched the tip of a perfect nose and the point of a rounded chin; and at length, going a little too far, raised a pucker on the serene brow bent over the growing embroidery. Alice pushed back her chair; but the crazy little table could not support even the small thrust of those feet, but went over weakly, scattering broadcast the se- crets of her workbox. Wayzgoose sprang to the rescue, and, with the one hand at his service, pounced almost at once on an object he had seen before. Alice snatched for it at the same moment, and they faced one another, kneeling on the grass, Wayzgoose holding the fingers 299 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW " 7'A«' and Alice the wrist of a long soft glove these gloves gtained beyond usage. e to 1 e « That's mine ! " said Wayzgoose, ret thy Pi-omptly. hands more " Mr. Wayzgoose ! " cried the young whiter lady, shocked beyond measure at such ore" untruthfulness. "How long have you worn sixes.''" The claimant reflected a moment. " I wore this one for two days and two nights, but I lost it the night I came here." She rose from the ground. " Be thank- ful that you did not lose your life," she • said tenderly. "Supposing William had shot you in the heart; but perhaps that was in your mouth," she added, with more judicious flippancy, timing and cut- ting off the danger of retort. " You don't seem to get on with your book. I thought you were anxious to improve your French." Wayzgoose rose also, smoothing the re- covered glove against his injured arm. " A distant princess is no new thing to me," he said, with a sigh ; and lower, " I have followed one for many a day." 300 REFINED GOLD He fingered the pages of the romance. " When " And I feel rather sorry for Joffroy." >"' """3 "And how about the poor princess?" *f^'^'^^J cried the young lady, up in arms for her ^^^^ kind. "Was she to wait for ever.? He And he might have known that the ripe fruit falls may keep to the first hand. What happened to who can'' Arthur?" Mr. Wayzgoose projected his mind backwards over the centuries, and won- dered whether he would have done better in the day of the sword. The retainers of Baron Mavors would probably have made short work of him, he concluded, on looking into the matter, and he returned to the present year of grace. After all, his position was very different to-day from the hand-to-mouth business he had knocked off from three weeks since, when he had started on his surpriseful holiday; thanks to good luck, favour, and that push to the moving cart he had reckoned on, not with- out justice, from Mr. Bompas. His uncle, worked on by Mavors, who was himself anxious to do something for the injured instrument of Providence, who had so 301 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW '•'Tisnot tortuously worked out its ends, had con- so much sented to put down half the needed / e ga ant gua,rantee for establishing his nephew on who woos . , , . f _, , j^ ^^^ an independent path to fortune. To adopt gallant's ^ beautiful flight of metaphor proceeding way of from Alice, he had spared him a crumb wooing" from his brimming cup, and the unencour- aging bank was to know him no longer. He turned in his mind the eloquent simile that had fallen from her but now, and applying it to his own use found a veiled threat, or at least a hint of dire possibility. " Don't you think she might wait — might have waited a little for him and not taken the first comer.?" he hazarded, feeUng for a foothold. "But what if she loved him? First comer is a hard word, but the first in the field has the advantage," said Alice for the defence, sewing with a steady hand, piti- lessly serene. " But has he the right ? " Mr. Drybank's honourable phantom haunted him still, and the troubadour prince was lost sight of. 30a REFINED GOLD " I think you had little doubt of it when I" the you lit upon your treasure," said she, '"'■' 'f making a diversion towards the enemy's "*" camp. " I was not the first in that field." Then with a great gulp, and holding fast to the netting: " But I have found another." She looked up in mock surprise to find him in deadly earnest. She grasped her weapons, but he had carried the outer entrenchment. "Another fortune? More valuable than the last, Mr. Wayzgoose?" He took the thrust and pressed in upon her. " Beyond compare," he said. " I am only wondering if there is another claim- ant." That " if " presented a tremendous gap, and he trembled on the edge of it. "Your last treasure was no treasure, you see," said the voice calmly, across the work, not helping him to a bridge. "On the contrary. But it belonged to some one else." "But supposing that this is some one else's?" 303 NINE POINTS OF THE LAW Treasure " That is just what I want to find out. trove Whether I am the first." He waited, bent forward, almost on his knees, taking his breath hard, and holding down his leaping pulses. " Is it mine — I wonder? " He was at the heart of the stronghold now — at the door of the treasure house. The needle was tremulously plucking the innocent silk in the shadow of the drooping hat. Then the wide brim came up and up, and the laughing eyes played on him in a softened mischief. They went down again in confusion under the question still asking in his face, and a small demure voice inquired, " What if your new fortune prove as great a trouble to you as the old?" His heart leapt again beyond restraint, and he dropped on both knees beside his prize. "It is mine!" cried Mr. Wayzgoose, " and I will never give it up ! " 304