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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10564 ***
+
+SHIP'S COMPANY
+
+By W.W. Jacobs
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Chase, with his friend in his powerful grasp, was
+doing his best, as he expressed it, to shake the life out of him]
+
+
+
+FAIRY GOLD
+
+
+"Come and have a pint and talk it over," said Mr. Augustus Teak.  "I've
+got reasons in my 'ead that you don't dream of, Alf."
+
+Mr. Chase grunted and stole a side-glance at the small figure of his
+companion.  "All brains, you are, Gussie," he remarked.  "That's why it
+is you're so well off."
+
+"Come and have a pint," repeated the other, and with surprising ease
+pushed his bulky friend into the bar of the "Ship and Anchor."  Mr.
+Chase, mellowed by a long draught, placed his mug on the counter and
+eyeing him kindly, said--
+
+"I've been in my lodgings thirteen years."
+
+"I know," said Mr. Teak; "but I've got a partikler reason for wanting
+you.  Our lodger, Mr. Dunn, left last week, and I only thought of you
+yesterday.  I mentioned you to my missis, and she was quite pleased.  You
+see, she knows I've known you for over twenty years, and she wants to
+make sure of only 'aving honest people in the 'ouse.  She has got a
+reason for it."
+
+He closed one eye and nodded with great significance at his friend.
+
+"Oh!"  said Mr. Chase, waiting.
+
+"She's a rich woman," said Mr. Teak, pulling the other's ear down to his
+mouth.  "She--"
+
+"When you've done tickling me with your whiskers," said Mr. Chase,
+withdrawing his head and rubbing his ear vigorously, "I shall be glad."
+
+Mr. Teak apologized.  "A rich woman," he repeated.  "She's been stinting
+me for twenty-nine years and saving the money--my money!--money that I
+'ave earned with the sweat of my brow.  She 'as got over three 'undred
+pounds!"
+
+"'Ow much?"  demanded Mr. Chase.
+
+"Three 'undred pounds and more," repeated the other; "and if she had 'ad
+the sense to put it in a bank it would ha' been over four 'undred by this
+time.  Instead o' that she keeps it hid in the 'Ouse."
+
+"Where?"  inquired the greatly interested Mr. Chase.
+
+Mr. Teak shook his head.  "That's just what I want to find out," he
+answered.  "She don't know I know it; and she mustn't know, either.
+That's important."
+
+"How did you find out about it, then?"  inquired his friend.
+
+"My wife's sister's husband, Bert Adams, told me.  His wife told 'im in
+strict confidence; and I might 'ave gone to my grave without knowing
+about it, only she smacked his face for 'im the other night."
+
+"If it's in the house you ought to be able to find it easy enough," said
+Mr. Chase.
+
+"Yes, it's all very well to talk," retorted Mr. Teak.  "My missis never
+leaves the 'ouse unless I'm with her, except when I'm at work; and if she
+thought I knew of it she'd take and put it in some bank or somewhere
+unbeknown to me, and I should be farther off it than ever."
+
+"Haven't you got no idea?"  said Mr. Chase.
+
+"Not the leastest bit," said the other.  "I never thought for a moment
+she was saving money.  She's always asking me for more, for one thing;
+but, then women alway do.  And look 'ow bad it is for her--saving money
+like that on the sly.  She might grow into a miser, pore thing.  For 'er
+own sake I ought to get hold of it, if it's only to save her from
+'erself."
+
+Mr. Chase's face reflected the gravity of his own.
+
+"You're the only man I can trust," continued Mr. Teak, "and I thought if
+you came as lodger you might be able to find out where it is hid, and get
+hold of it for me."
+
+"Me steal it, d'ye mean?"  demanded the gaping Mr. Chase.  "And suppose
+she got me locked up for it?  I should look pretty, shouldn't I?"
+
+"No; you find out where it is hid," said the other; "that's all you need
+do.  I'll find someway of getting hold of it then."
+
+"But if you can't find it, how should I be able to?"  inquired Mr. Chase.
+
+"'Cos you'll 'ave opportunities," said the other.  "I take her out some
+time when you're supposed to be out late; you come 'ome, let yourself in
+with your key, and spot the hiding-place.  I get the cash, and give you
+ten-golden-sovereigns--all to your little self.  It only occurred to me
+after Bert told me about it, that I ain't been in the house alone for
+years."
+
+He ordered some more beer, and, drawing Mr. Chase to a bench, sat down to
+a long and steady argument.  It shook his faith in human nature to find
+that his friend estimated the affair as a twenty-pound job, but he was in
+no position to bargain.  They came out smoking twopenny cigars whose
+strength was remarkable for their age, and before they parted Mr. Chase
+was pledged to the hilt to do all that he could to save Mrs. Teak from
+the vice of avarice.
+
+It was a more difficult undertaking than he had supposed.  The house,
+small and compact, seemed to offer few opportunities for the concealment
+of large sums of money, and after a fortnight's residence he came to the
+conclusion that the treasure must have been hidden in the garden.  The
+unalloyed pleasure, however, with which Mrs. Teak regarded the efforts
+of her husband to put under cultivation land that had lain fallow for
+twenty years convinced both men that they were on a wrong scent.  Mr.
+Teak, who did the digging, was the first to realize it, but his friend,
+pointing out the suspicions that might be engendered by a sudden
+cessation of labour, induced him to persevere.
+
+"And try and look as if you liked it," he said, severely.  "Why, from the
+window even the back view of you looks disagreeable."
+
+"I'm fair sick of it," declared Mr. Teak.  "Anybody might ha' known she
+wouldn't have buried it in the garden.  She must 'ave been saving for
+pretty near thirty years, week by week, and she couldn't keep coming out
+here to hide it.  'Tain't likely."
+
+Mr. Chase pondered.  "Let her know, casual like, that I sha'n't be 'ome
+till late on Saturday," he said, slowly.  "Then you come 'ome in the
+afternoon and take her out.  As soon as you're gone I'll pop in and have
+a thorough good hunt round.  Is she fond of animals?"
+
+"I b'lieve so," said the other, staring.  "Why?"
+
+"Take 'er to the Zoo," said Mr. Chase, impressively.  "Take two-penn'orth
+o' nuts with you for the monkeys, and some stale buns for--for--for
+animals as likes 'em.  Give 'er a ride on the elephant and a ride on the
+camel."
+
+"Anything else?"  inquired Mr. Teak disagreeably.  "Any more ways you can
+think of for me to spend my money?"
+
+"You do as I tell you," said his friend.  "I've got an idea now where it
+is.  If I'm able to show you where to put your finger on three 'undred
+pounds when you come 'ome it'll be the cheapest outing you have ever 'ad.
+Won't it?"
+
+Mr. Teak made no reply, but, after spending the evening in deliberation,
+issued the invitation at the supper-table.  His wife's eyes sparkled at
+first; then the light slowly faded from them and her face fell.
+
+"I can't go," she said, at last.  "I've got nothing to go in."
+
+"Rubbish!"  said her husband, starting uneasily.
+
+"It's a fact," said Mrs. Teak.  "I should like to go, too--it's years
+since I was at the Zoo.  I might make my jacket do; it's my hat I'm
+thinking about."
+
+Mr. Chase, meeting Mr. Teak's eye, winked an obvious suggestion.
+
+"So, thanking you all the same," continued Mrs. Teak, with amiable
+cheerfulness, "I'll stay at 'ome."
+
+"'Ow-'ow much are they?"  growled her husband, scowling at Mr. Chase.
+
+"All prices," replied his wife.
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mr. Teak, in a grating voice.  "You go in to buy a
+hat at one and eleven-pence; you get talked over and flattered by a man
+like a barber's block, and you come out with a four-and-six penny one.
+The only real difference in hats is the price, but women can never see
+it."
+
+Mrs. Teak smiled faintly, and again expressed her willingness to stay at
+home.  They could spend the afternoon working in the garden, she said.
+Her husband, with another indignant glance at the right eye of Mr. Chase,
+which was still enacting the part of a camera-shutter, said that she
+could have a hat, but asked her to remember when buying it that nothing
+suited her so well as a plain one.
+
+The remainder of the week passed away slowly; and Mr. Teak, despite his
+utmost efforts, was unable to glean any information from Mr. Chase as to
+that gentleman's ideas concerning the hiding-place.  At every suggestion
+Mr. Chase's smile only got broader and more indulgent.
+
+"You leave it to me," he said.  "You leave it to me, and when you come
+home from a happy outing I 'ope to be able to cross your little hand with
+three 'undred golden quids."
+
+"But why not tell me?"  urged Mr. Teak.
+
+"'Cos I want to surprise you," was the reply.  "But mind, whatever you
+do, don't let your wife run away with the idea that I've been mixed up in
+it at all.  Now, if you worry me any more I shall ask you to make it
+thirty pounds for me instead of twenty."
+
+The two friends parted at the corner of the road on Saturday afternoon,
+and Mr. Teak, conscious of his friend's impatience, sought to hurry his
+wife by occasionally calling the wrong time up the stairs.  She came down
+at last, smiling, in a plain hat with three roses, two bows, and a
+feather.
+
+"I've had the feather for years," she remarked.  "This is the fourth hat
+it has been on--but, then, I've taken care of it."
+
+Mr. Teak grunted, and, opening the door, ushered her into the street.  A
+sense of adventure, and the hope of a profitable afternoon made his
+spirits rise.  He paid a compliment to the hat, and then, to the surprise
+of both, followed it up with another--a very little one--to his wife.
+
+They took a tram at the end of the street, and for the sake of the air
+mounted to the top.  Mrs. Teak leaned back in her seat with placid
+enjoyment, and for the first ten minutes amused herself with the life in
+the streets.  Then she turned suddenly to her husband and declared that
+she had felt a spot of rain.
+
+"'Magination," he said, shortly.
+
+Something cold touched him lightly on the eyelid, a tiny pattering
+sounded from the seats, and then swish, down came the rain.  With an
+angry exclamation he sprang up and followed his wife below.
+
+"Just our luck," she said, mournfully.  "Best thing we can do is to stay
+in the car and go back with it."
+
+"Nonsense!"  said her husband, in a startled' voice; "it'll be over in a
+minute."
+
+Events proved the contrary.  By the time the car reached the terminus it
+was coming down heavily.  Mrs. Teak settled herself squarely in her seat,
+and patches of blue sky, visible only to the eye of faith and her
+husband, failed to move her.  Even his reckless reference to a cab
+failed.
+
+"It's no good," she said, tartly.  "We can't go about the grounds in a
+cab, and I'm not going to slop about in the wet to please anybody.  We
+must go another time.  It's hard luck, but there's worse things in life."
+
+Mr. Teak, wondering as to the operations of Mr. Chase, agreed dumbly.  He
+stopped the car at the corner of their road, and, holding his head down
+against the rain, sprinted towards home.  Mrs. Teak, anxious for her hat,
+passed him.
+
+"What on earth's the matter?"  she inquired, fumbling in her pocket for
+the key as her husband executed a clumsy but noisy breakdown on the front
+step.
+
+"Chill," replied Mr. Teak.  "I've got wet."
+
+He resumed his lumberings and, the door being opened, gave vent to his
+relief at being home again in the dry, in a voice that made the windows
+rattle.  Then with anxious eyes he watched his wife pass upstairs.
+
+"Wonder what excuse old Alf'll make for being in?"  he thought.
+
+He stood with one foot on the bottom stair, listening acutely.  He heard
+a door open above, and then a wild, ear-splitting shriek rang through the
+house.  Instinctively he dashed upstairs and, following his wife into
+their bedroom, stood by her side gaping stupidly at a pair of legs
+standing on the hearthstone.  As he watched they came backwards into the
+room, the upper part of a body materialized from the chimney, and turning
+round revealed the soot-stained face of Mr. Alfred Chase.  Another wild
+shriek from Mrs. Teak greeted its appearance.
+
+"Hul-lo!"  exclaimed Mr. Teak, groping for the right thing to say.
+"Hul-lo!  What--what are you doing, Alf?"
+
+Mr. Chase blew the soot from his lips.  "I--I--I come 'ome unexpected,"
+he stammered.
+
+"But--what are--you doing?"  panted Mrs. Teak, in a rising voice.
+
+"I--I was passing your door," said Mr. Chase, "passing your door--to go
+to my room to--to 'ave a bit of a rinse, when--"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Teak.
+
+Mr. Chase gave Mr. Teak a glance the pathos of which even the soot could
+not conceal.  "When I--I heard a pore little bird struggling in your
+chimbley," he continued, with a sigh of relief.  "Being fond of animals,
+I took the liberty of comin' into your room and saving its life."
+
+Mr. Teak drew a breath, which he endeavoured in vain to render noiseless.
+
+"It got its pore little foot caught in the brickwork," continued the
+veracious Mr. Chase, tenderly.  "I released it, and it flowed--I mean
+flew--up the chimbley."
+
+With the shamefaced air of a man detected in the performance of a noble
+action, he passed out of the room.  Husband and wife eyed each other.
+
+"That's Alf--that's Alf all over," said Mr. Teak, with enthusiasm.  "He's
+been like it from a child.  He's the sort of man that 'ud dive off
+Waterloo Bridge to save the life of a drownding sparrow."
+
+"He's made an awful mess," said his wife, frowning; "it'll take me the
+rest of the day to clean up.  There's soot everywhere.  The rug is quite
+spoilt."
+
+She took off her hat and jacket and prepared for the fray.  Down below
+Messrs.  Teak and Chase, comparing notes, sought, with much warmth, to
+put the blame on the right shoulders.
+
+"Well, it ain't there," said Mr. Chase, finally.  "I've made sure of
+that.  That's something towards it.  I shan't 'ave to look there again,
+thank goodness."
+
+Mr. Teak sniffed.  "Got any more ideas?"  he queried.
+
+"I have," said the other sternly.  "There's plenty of places to search
+yet.  I've only just begun.  Get her out as much as you can and I'll 'ave
+my hands on it afore you can say--"
+
+"Soot?"  suggested Mr. Teak, sourly.
+
+"Any more of your nasty snacks and I chuck it up altogether," said Mr.
+Chase, heatedly.  "If I wasn't hard up I'd drop it now."
+
+He went up to his room in dudgeon, and for the next few days Mr. Teak saw
+but little of him.  To, lure Mrs. Teak out was almost as difficult as to
+persuade a snail to leave its shell, but he succeeded on two or three
+occasions, and each time she added something to her wardrobe.
+
+The assistant fortune-hunter had been in residence just a month when Mr.
+Teak, returning home one afternoon, stood in the small passage listening
+to a suppressed wailing noise proceeding from upstairs.  It was so creepy
+that half-way up he hesitated, and, in a stern but trembling voice,
+demanded to know what his wife meant by it.  A louder wail than before
+was the only reply, and, summoning up his courage, he pushed open the
+door of the bedroom and peeped in.  His gaze fell on Mrs. Teak, who was
+sitting on the hearth-rug, rocking to and fro in front of a dismantled
+fire-place.
+
+"What--what's the matter?"  he said, hastily.
+
+Mrs. Teak raised her voice to a pitch that set his teeth on edge.  "My
+money!" she wailed.  "It's all gone!  All gone!"
+
+"Money?"  repeated Mr. Teak, hardly able to contain himself.  "What
+money?"
+
+"All--all my savings!"  moaned his wife.  "Savings!"  said the delighted
+Mr. Teak.  "What savings?"
+
+"Money I have been putting by for our old age," said his wife.  "Three
+hundred and twenty-two pounds.  All gone!"
+
+In a fit of sudden generosity Mr. Teak decided then and there that Mr.
+Chase should have the odd twenty-two pounds.
+
+"You're dreaming!"  he said, sternly.
+
+"I wish I was," said his wife, wiping her eyes.  "Three hundred and
+twenty-two pounds in empty mustard-tins.  Every ha'penny's gone!"
+
+Mr. Teak's eye fell on the stove.  He stepped for ward and examined it.
+The back was out, and Mrs. Teak, calling his attention to a tunnel at the
+side, implored him to put his arm in and satisfy himself that it was
+empty.
+
+"But where could you get all that money from?"  he demanded, after a
+prolonged groping.
+
+"Sa--sa--saved it," sobbed his wife, "for our old age."
+
+"Our old age?"  repeated Mr. Teak, in lofty tones.  "And suppose I had
+died first?  Or suppose you had died sudden?  This is what comes of
+deceitfulness and keeping things from your husband.  Now somebody has
+stole it."
+
+Mrs. Teak bent her head and sobbed again.  "I--I had just been out for
+--for an hour," she gasped.  "When I came back I fou--fou--found the
+washhouse window smashed, and--"
+
+Sobs choked her utterance.  Mr. Teak, lost in admiration of Mr. Chase's
+cleverness, stood regarding her in silence.
+
+"What--what about the police?"  said his wife at last.
+
+"Police!"  repeated Mr. Teak, with extraordinary vehemence.  "Police!
+Certainly not.  D'ye think I'm going to let it be known all round that
+I'm the husband of a miser?  I'd sooner lose ten times the money."
+
+He stalked solemnly out of the room and downstairs, and, safe in the
+parlour, gave vent to his feelings in a wild but silent hornpipe.  He
+cannoned against the table at last, and, subsiding into an easy-chair,
+crammed his handkerchief to his mouth and gave way to suppressed mirth.
+
+In his excitement he forgot all about tea, and the bereaved Mrs. Teak
+made no attempt to come downstairs to prepare it.  With his eye on the
+clock he waited with what patience he might for the arrival of Mr. Chase.
+The usual hour for his return came and went.  Another hour passed; and
+another.  A horrible idea that Mr. Chase had been robbed gave way to one
+more horrible still.  He paced the room in dismay, until at nine o'clock
+his wife came down, and in a languid fashion began to set the
+supper-table.
+
+"Alf's very late," said Mr. Teak, thickly.
+
+"Is he?"  said his wife, dully.
+
+"Very late," said Mr. Teak.  "I can't think--Ah, there he is!"
+
+He took a deep breath and clenched 'his hands together.  By the time Mr.
+Chase came into the room he was able to greet him with a stealthy wink.
+Mr. Chase, with a humorous twist of his mouth, winked back.
+
+"We've 'ad a upset," said Mr. Teak, in warning tones.
+
+"Eh?" said the other, as Mrs. Teak threw her apron over her head and sank
+into a chair.  "What about?"
+
+In bated accents, interrupted at times by broken murmurs from his wife,
+Mr. Teak informed him of the robbery.  Mr. Chase, leaning against the
+doorpost, listened with open mouth and distended eyeballs.  Occasional
+interjections of pity and surprise attested his interest.  The tale
+finished, the gentlemen exchanged a significant wink and sighed in
+unison.
+
+"And now," said Mr. Teak an hour later, after his wife had retired,
+"where is it?"
+
+"Ah, that's the question," said Mr. Chase, roguishly.  "I wonder where it
+can be?"
+
+"I--I hope it's in a safe place," said Mr. Teak, anxiously.  "Where 'ave
+you put it?"
+
+"Me?"  said Mr. Chase.  "Who are you getting at?  I ain't put it
+anywhere.  You know that."
+
+"Don't play the giddy goat," said the other, testily.  "Where've you hid
+it?  Is it safe?"
+
+Mr. Chase leaned back in his chair and, shaking his head at him, smiled
+approvingly.  "You're a little wonder, that's what you are, Gussie," he
+remarked.  "No wonder your pore wife is took in so easy."
+
+Mr. Teak sprang up in a fury.  "Don't play the fool," he said hoarsely.
+"Where's the money?  I want it.  Now, where've you put it?"
+
+"Go on," said Mr. Chase, with a chuckle.  "Go on.  Don't mind me.  You
+ought to be on the stage, Gussie, that's where you ought to be."
+
+"I'm not joking," said Mr. Teak, in a trembling voice, "and I don't want
+you to joke with me.  If you think you are going off with my money,
+you're mistook.  If you don't tell me in two minutes where it is, I shall
+give you in charge for theft."
+
+"Oh" said Mr. Chase.  He took a deep breath.  "Oh, really!"  he said.  "I
+wouldn't 'ave thought it of you, Gussie.  I wouldn't 'ave thought you'd
+have played it so low down.  I'm surprised at you."
+
+"You thought wrong, then," said the other.
+
+"Trying to do me out o' my twenty pounds, that's what you are," said Mr.
+Chase, knitting his brows.  "But it won't do, my boy.  I wasn't born
+yesterday.  Hand it over, afore I lose my temper.  Twenty pounds I want
+of you, and I don't leave this room till I get it."
+
+Speechless with fury, Mr. Teak struck at him.  The next moment the
+supper-table was overturned with a crash, and Mr. Chase, with his friend
+in his powerful grasp, was doing his best, as he expressed it, to shake
+the life out of him.  A faint scream sounded from above, steps pattered
+on the stairs, and Mrs. Teak, with a red shawl round her shoulders, burst
+'hurriedly into the room.  Mr. Chase released Mr. Teak, opened his mouth
+to speak, and then, thinking better of it, dashed into the passage, took
+his hat from the peg, and, slamming the front door with extraordinary
+violence, departed.
+
+He sent round for his clothes next day, but he did not see Mr. Teak until
+a month afterwards.  His fists clenched and his mouth hardened, but Mr.
+Teak, with a pathetic smile, held out his hand, and Mr. Chase, after a
+moment's hesitation, took it.  Mr. Teak, still holding his friend's hand,
+piloted him to a neighbouring hostelry.
+
+"It was my mistake, Alf," he said, shaking his head, "but it wasn't my
+fault.  It's a mistake anybody might ha' made."
+
+"Have you found out who took it?"  inquired Mr. Chase, regarding him
+suspiciously.
+
+Mr. Teak gulped and nodded.  "I met Bert Adams yesterday," he said,
+slowly.  "It took three pints afore he told me, but I got it out of 'im
+at last.  My missis took it herself."
+
+Mr. Chase put his mug down with a bang.  "What?"  he gasped.
+
+"The day after she found you with your head up the chimbley," added Mr.
+Teak, mournfully.  "She's shoved it away in some bank now, and I shall
+never see a ha'penny of it.  If you was a married man, Alf, you'd
+understand it better.  You wouldn't be surprised at anything."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fairy Gold, by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10564 ***