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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12127 ***
+
+THE LADY OF THE BARGE
+
+AND OTHER STORIES
+
+By W. W. Jacobs
+
+
+
+
+CAPTAIN ROGERS
+
+
+A man came slowly over the old stone bridge, and averting his gaze from
+the dark river with its silent craft, looked with some satisfaction
+toward the feeble lights of the small town on the other side.  He walked
+with the painful, forced step of one who has already trudged far.  His
+worsted hose, where they were not darned, were in holes, and his coat and
+knee-breeches were rusty with much wear, but he straightened himself as
+he reached the end of the bridge and stepped out bravely to the taverns
+which stood in a row facing the quay.
+
+He passed the "Queen Anne"--a mere beershop--without pausing, and after a
+glance apiece at the "Royal George" and the "Trusty Anchor," kept on his
+way to where the "Golden Key" hung out a gilded emblem.  It was the best
+house in Riverstone, and patronized by the gentry, but he adjusted his
+faded coat, and with a swaggering air entered and walked boldly into the
+coffee-room.
+
+The room was empty, but a bright fire afforded a pleasant change to the
+chill October air outside.  He drew up a chair, and placing his feet on
+the fender, exposed his tattered soles to the blaze, as a waiter who had
+just seen him enter the room came and stood aggressively inside the door.
+
+"Brandy and water," said the stranger; "hot."
+
+"The coffee-room is for gentlemen staying in the house," said the waiter.
+
+The stranger took his feet from the fender, and rising slowly, walked
+toward him.  He was a short man and thin, but there was something so
+menacing in his attitude, and something so fearsome in his stony brown
+eyes, that the other, despite his disgust for ill-dressed people, moved
+back uneasily.
+
+"Brandy and water, hot," repeated the stranger; "and plenty of it.  D'ye
+hear?"
+
+The man turned slowly to depart.
+
+"Stop!" said the other, imperiously.  "What's the name of the landlord
+here?"
+
+"Mullet," said the fellow, sulkily.
+
+"Send him to me," said the other, resuming his seat; "and hark you, my
+friend, more civility, or 'twill be the worse for you."
+
+He stirred the log on the fire with his foot until a shower of sparks
+whirled up the chimney.  The door opened, and the landlord, with the
+waiter behind him, entered the room, but he still gazed placidly at the
+glowing embers.
+
+"What do you want?"  demanded the landlord, in a deep voice.
+
+The stranger turned a little weazened yellow face and grinned at him
+familiarly.
+
+"Send that fat rascal of yours away," he said, slowly.
+
+The landlord started at his voice and eyed him closely; then he signed to
+the man to withdraw, and closing the door behind him, stood silently
+watching his visitor.
+
+"You didn't expect to see me, Rogers," said the latter.
+
+"My name's Mullet," said the other, sternly.  "What do you want?"
+
+"Oh, Mullet?" said the other, in surprise.  "I'm afraid I've made a
+mistake, then.  I thought you were my old shipmate, Captain Rogers.  It's
+a foolish mistake of mine, as I've no doubt Rogers was hanged years ago.
+You never had a brother named Rogers, did you?"
+
+"I say again, what do you want?"  demanded the other, advancing upon him.
+
+"Since you're so good," said the other.  "I want new clothes, food, and
+lodging of the best, and my pockets filled with money."
+
+"You had better go and look for all those things, then," said Mullet.
+"You won't find them here."
+
+"Ay!"  said the other, rising.  "Well, well--There was a hundred guineas
+on the head of my old shipmate Rogers some fifteen years ago.  I'll see
+whether it has been earned yet."
+
+"If I gave you a hundred guineas," said the innkeeper, repressing his
+passion by a mighty effort, "you would not be satisfied."
+
+"Reads like a book," said the stranger, in tones of pretended delight.
+"What a man it is!"
+
+He fell back as he spoke, and thrusting his hand into his pocket, drew
+forth a long pistol as the innkeeper, a man of huge frame, edged toward
+him.
+
+"Keep your distance," he said, in a sharp, quick voice.
+
+The innkeeper, in no wise disturbed at the pistol, turned away calmly,
+and ringing the bell, ordered some spirits.  Then taking a chair, he
+motioned to the other to do the same, and they sat in silence until the
+staring waiter had left the room again.  The stranger raised his glass.
+
+"My old friend Captain Rogers," he said, solemnly, "and may he never get
+his deserts!"
+
+"From what jail have you come?"  inquired Mullet, sternly.
+
+"'Pon my soul," said the other, "I have been in so many--looking for
+Captain Rogers--that I almost forget the last, but I have just tramped
+from London, two hundred and eighty odd miles, for the pleasure of seeing
+your damned ugly figure-head again; and now I've found it, I'm going to
+stay.  Give me some money."
+
+The innkeeper, without a word, drew a little gold and silver from his
+pocket, and placing it on the table, pushed it toward him.
+
+"Enough to go on with," said the other, pocketing it; "in future it is
+halves.  D'ye hear me?  Halves!  And I'll stay here and see I get it."
+
+He sat back in his chair, and meeting the other's hatred with a gaze as
+steady as his own, replaced his pistol.
+
+"A nice snug harbor after our many voyages," he continued.  "Shipmates we
+were, shipmates we'll be; while Nick Gunn is alive you shall never want
+for company.  Lord!  Do you remember the Dutch brig, and the fat
+frightened mate?"
+
+"I have forgotten it," said the other, still eyeing him steadfastly.
+"I have forgotten many things.  For fifteen years I have lived a decent,
+honest life.  Pray God for your own sinful soul, that the devil in me
+does not wake again."
+
+"Fifteen years is a long nap," said Gunn, carelessly; "what a godsend it
+'ll be for you to have me by you to remind you of old times!  Why, you're
+looking smug, man; the honest innkeeper to the life!  Gad! who's the
+girl?"
+
+[Illustration: GUNN PLACED A HAND, WHICH LACKED TWO FINGERS ON HIS BREAST
+AND BOWED AGAIN.]
+
+He rose and made a clumsy bow as a girl of eighteen, after a moment's
+hesitation at the door, crossed over to the innkeeper.
+
+"I'm busy, my dear," said the latter, somewhat sternly.
+
+"Our business," said Gunn, with another bow, "is finished.  Is this your
+daughter, Rog-- Mullet?"
+
+"My stepdaughter," was the reply.
+
+Gunn placed a hand, which lacked two fingers, on his breast, and bowed
+again.
+
+"One of your father's oldest friends," he said smoothly; "and fallen on
+evil days; I'm sure your gentle heart will be pleased to hear that your
+good father has requested me--for a time--to make his house my home."
+
+"Any friend of my father's is welcome to me, sir," said the girl, coldly.
+She looked from the innkeeper to his odd-looking guest, and conscious of
+something strained in the air, gave him a little bow and quitted the
+room.
+
+"You insist upon staying, then?"  said Mullet, after a pause.
+
+"More than ever," replied Gunn, with a leer toward the door.  "Why, you
+don't think I'm _afraid,_ Captain?  You should know me better than that."
+
+"Life is sweet," said the other.
+
+"Ay," assented Gunn, "so sweet that you will share things with me to keep
+it."
+
+"No," said the other, with great calm.  "I am man enough to have a better
+reason."
+
+"No psalm singing," said Gunn, coarsely.  "And look cheerful, you old
+buccaneer.  Look as a man should look who has just met an old friend
+never to lose him again."
+
+He eyed his man expectantly and put his hand to his pocket again, but the
+innkeeper's face was troubled, and he gazed stolidly at the fire.
+
+"See what fifteen years' honest, decent life does for us," grinned the
+intruder.
+
+The other made no reply, but rising slowly, walked to the door without a
+word.
+
+"Landlord," cried Gunn, bringing his maimed hand sharply down on the
+table.
+
+The innkeeper turned and regarded him.
+
+"Send me in some supper," said Gunn; "the best you have, and plenty of
+it, and have a room prepared.  The best."
+
+The door closed silently, and was opened a little later by the dubious
+George coming in to set a bountiful repast.  Gunn, after cursing him for
+his slowness and awkwardness, drew his chair to the table and made the
+meal of one seldom able to satisfy his hunger.  He finished at last, and
+after sitting for some time smoking, with his legs sprawled on the
+fender, rang for a candle and demanded to be shown to his room.
+
+His proceedings when he entered it were but a poor compliment to his
+host.  Not until he had poked and pried into every corner did he close
+the door.  Then, not content with locking it, he tilted a chair beneath
+the handle, and placing his pistol beneath his pillow, fell fast asleep.
+
+Despite his fatigue he was early astir next morning.  Breakfast was laid
+for him in the coffee-room, and his brow darkened.  He walked into the
+hall, and after trying various doors entered a small sitting-room, where
+his host and daughter sat at breakfast, and with an easy assurance drew a
+chair to the table.  The innkeeper helped him without a word, but the
+girl's hand shook under his gaze as she passed him some coffee.
+
+"As soft a bed as ever I slept in," he remarked.
+
+"I hope that you slept well," said the girl, civilly.
+
+"Like a child," said Gunn, gravely; "an easy conscience.  Eh, Mullet?"
+
+The innkeeper nodded and went on eating.  The other, after another remark
+or two, followed his example, glancing occasionally with warm approval at
+the beauty of the girl who sat at the head of the table.
+
+"A sweet girl," he remarked, as she withdrew at the end of the meal; "and
+no mother, I presume?"
+
+"No mother," repeated the other.
+
+Gunn sighed and shook his head.
+
+"A sad case, truly," he murmured.  "No mother and such a guardian.  Poor
+soul, if she but knew!  Well, we must find her a husband."
+
+He looked down as he spoke, and catching sight of his rusty clothes and
+broken shoes, clapped his hand to his pocket; and with a glance at his
+host, sallied out to renew his wardrobe.  The innkeeper, with an
+inscrutable face, watched him down the quay, then with bent head he
+returned to the house and fell to work on his accounts.
+
+In this work Gunn, returning an hour later, clad from head to foot in new
+apparel, offered to assist him.  Mullett hesitated, but made no demur;
+neither did he join in the ecstasies which his new partner displayed at
+the sight of the profits.  Gunn put some more gold into his new pockets,
+and throwing himself back in a chair, called loudly to George to bring
+him some drink.
+
+In less than a month the intruder was the virtual master of the "Golden
+Key."  Resistance on the part of the legitimate owner became more and
+more feeble, the slightest objection on his part drawing from the
+truculent Gunn dark allusions to his past and threats against his future,
+which for the sake of his daughter he could not ignore.  His health began
+to fail, and Joan watched with perplexed terror the growth of a situation
+which was in a fair way of becoming unbearable.
+
+The arrogance of Gunn knew no bounds.  The maids learned to tremble at
+his polite grin, or his worse freedom, and the men shrank appalled from
+his profane wrath.  George, after ten years' service, was brutally
+dismissed, and refusing to accept dismissal from his hands, appealed to
+his master.  The innkeeper confirmed it, and with lack-lustre eyes fenced
+feebly when his daughter, regardless of Gunn's presence, indignantly
+appealed to him.
+
+"The man was rude to my friend, my dear," he said dispiritedly
+
+"If he was rude, it was because Mr. Gunn deserved it," said Joan, hotly.
+
+Gunn laughed uproariously.
+
+"Gad, my dear, I like you!"  he cried, slapping his leg.  "You're a girl
+of spirit.  Now I will make you a fair offer.  If you ask for George to
+stay, stay he shall, as a favour to your sweet self."
+
+The girl trembled.
+
+"Who is master here?"  she demanded, turning a full eye on her father.
+
+Mullet laughed uneasily.
+
+"This is business," he said, trying to speak lightly, "and women can't
+understand it.  Gunn is--is valuable to me, and George must go."
+
+"Unless you plead for him, sweet one?"  said Gunn.
+
+The girl looked at her father again, but he turned his head away and
+tapped on the floor with his foot.  Then in perplexity, akin to tears,
+she walked from the room, carefully drawing her dress aside as Gunn held
+the door for her.
+
+"A fine girl," said Gunn, his thin lips working; "a fine spirit.  'Twill
+be pleasant to break it; but she does not know who is master here."
+
+"She is young yet," said the other, hurriedly.
+
+"I will soon age her if she looks like that at me again," said Gunn.  "By
+---, I'll turn out the whole crew into the street, and her with them, an'
+I wish it.  I'll lie in my bed warm o' nights and think of her huddled on
+a doorstep."
+
+His voice rose and his fists clenched, but he kept his distance and
+watched the other warily.  The innkeeper's face was contorted and his
+brow grew wet.  For one moment something peeped out of his eyes; the next
+he sat down in his chair again and nervously fingered his chin.
+
+"I have but to speak," said Gunn, regarding him with much satisfaction,
+"and you will hang, and your money go to the Crown.  What will become of
+her then, think you?"
+
+The other laughed nervously.
+
+"'Twould be stopping the golden eggs," he ventured.
+
+"Don't think too much of that," said Gunn, in a hard voice.  "I was never
+one to be baulked, as you know."
+
+"Come, come.  Let us be friends," said Mullet; "the girl is young, and
+has had her way."
+
+He looked almost pleadingly at the other, and his voice trembled.  Gunn
+drew himself up, and regarding him with a satisfied sneer, quitted the
+room without a word.
+
+Affairs at the "Golden Key" grew steadily worse and worse.  Gunn
+dominated the place, and his vile personality hung over it like a shadow.
+Appeals to the innkeeper were in vain; his health was breaking fast, and
+he moodily declined to interfere.  Gunn appointed servants of his own
+choosing-brazen maids and foul-mouthed men.  The old patrons ceased to
+frequent the "Golden Key," and its bedrooms stood empty.  The maids
+scarcely deigned to take an order from Joan, and the men spoke to her
+familiarly.  In the midst of all this the innkeeper, who had complained
+once or twice of vertigo, was seized with a fit.
+
+Joan, flying to him for protection against the brutal advances of Gunn,
+found him lying in a heap behind the door of his small office, and in her
+fear called loudly for assistance.  A little knot of servants collected,
+and stood regarding him stupidly.  One made a brutal jest.  Gunn,
+pressing through the throng, turned the senseless body over with his
+foot, and cursing vilely, ordered them to carry it upstairs.
+
+Until the surgeon came, Joan, kneeling by the bed, held on to the
+senseless hand as her only protection against the evil faces of Gunn and
+his proteges.  Gunn himself was taken aback, the innkeeper's death at
+that time by no means suiting his aims.
+
+The surgeon was a man of few words and fewer attainments, but under his
+ministrations the innkeeper, after a long interval, rallied.  The half-
+closed eyes opened, and he looked in a dazed fashion at his surroundings.
+Gunn drove the servants away and questioned the man of medicine.  The
+answers were vague and interspersed with Latin.  Freedom from noise and
+troubles of all kinds was insisted upon and Joan was installed as nurse,
+with a promise of speedy assistance.
+
+The assistance arrived late in the day in the shape of an elderly woman,
+whose Spartan treatment of her patients had helped many along the silent
+road.  She commenced her reign by punching the sick man's pillows, and
+having shaken him into consciousness by this means, gave him a dose of
+physic, after first tasting it herself from the bottle.
+
+After the first rally the innkeeper began to fail slowly.  It was seldom
+that he understood what was said to him, and pitiful to the beholder to
+see in his intervals of consciousness his timid anxiety to earn the good-
+will of the all-powerful Gunn.  His strength declined until assistance
+was needed to turn him in the bed, and his great sinewy hands were
+forever trembling and fidgeting on the coverlet.
+
+Joan, pale with grief and fear, tended him assiduously.  Her stepfather's
+strength had been a proverb in the town, and many a hasty citizen had
+felt the strength of his arm.  The increasing lawlessness of the house
+filled her with dismay, and the coarse attentions of Gunn became more
+persistent than ever.  She took her meals in the sick-room, and divided
+her time between that and her own.
+
+Gunn himself was in a dilemma.  With Mullet dead, his power was at an end
+and his visions of wealth dissipated.  He resolved to feather his nest
+immediately, and interviewed the surgeon.  The surgeon was ominously
+reticent, the nurse cheerfully ghoulish.
+
+"Four days I give him," she said, calmly; "four blessed days, not but
+what he might slip away at any moment."
+
+Gunn let one day of the four pass, and then, choosing a time when Joan
+was from the room, entered it for a little quiet conversation.  The
+innkeeper's eyes were open, and, what was more to the purpose,
+intelligent.
+
+"You're cheating the hangman, after all," snarled Gunn.  "I'm off to
+swear an information."
+
+The other, by a great effort, turned his heavy head and fixed his wistful
+eyes on him.
+
+"Mercy!"  he whispered.  "For her sake--give me--a little time!"
+
+"To slip your cable, I suppose," quoth Gunn.  "Where's your money?
+Where's your hoard, you miser?"
+
+Mullet closed his eyes.  He opened them again slowly and strove to think,
+while Gunn watched him narrowly.  When he spoke, his utterance was thick
+and labored.
+
+"Come to-night," he muttered, slowly.  "Give me--time--I will make your
+--your fortune.  But the nurse-watches."
+
+"I'll see to her," said Gunn, with a grin.  "But tell me now, lest you
+die first."
+
+"You will--let Joan--have a share?"  panted the innkeeper.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Gunn, hastily.
+
+The innkeeper strove to raise himself in the bed, and then fell back
+again exhausted as Joan's step was heard on the stairs.  Gunn gave
+a savage glance of warning at him, and barring the progress of the girl
+at the door, attempted to salute her.  Joan came in pale and trembling,
+and falling on her knees by the bedside, took her father's hand in hers
+and wept over it.  The innkeeper gave a faint groan and a shiver ran
+through his body.
+
+It was nearly an hour after midnight that Nick Gunn, kicking off his
+shoes, went stealthily out onto the landing.  A little light came from
+the partly open door of the sick-room, but all else was in blackness.  He
+moved along and peered in.
+
+The nurse was siting in a high-backed oak chair by the fire.  She had
+slipped down in the seat, and her untidy head hung on her bosom.  A glass
+stood on the small oak table by her side, and a solitary candle on the
+high mantel-piece diffused a sickly light.  Gunn entered the room, and
+finding that the sick man was dozing, shook him roughly.
+
+The innkeeper opened his eyes and gazed at him blankly.
+
+"Wake, you fool," said Gunn, shaking him again.
+
+The other roused and muttered something incoherently.  Then he stirred
+slightly.
+
+"The nurse," he whispered.
+
+"She's safe enow," said Gunn.  "I've seen to that."
+
+He crossed the room lightly, and standing before the unconscious woman,
+inspected her closely and raised her in the chair.  Her head fell limply
+over the arm.
+
+"Dead?" inquired Mullet, in a fearful whisper.
+
+"Drugged," said Gunn, shortly.  "Now speak up, and be lively."
+
+The innkeeper's eyes again travelled in the direction of the nurse.
+
+"The men," he whispered; "the servants."
+
+"Dead drunk and asleep," said Gunn, biting the words.  "The last day
+would hardly rouse them.  Now will you speak, damn you!"
+
+"I must--take care--of Joan," said the father.
+
+Gunn shook his clenched hand at him.
+
+"My money--is--is--" said the other.  "Promise me on--your oath--Joan."
+
+"Ay, ay," growled Gunn; "how many more times?  I'll marry her, and she
+shall have what I choose to give her.  Speak up, you fool!  It's not for
+you to make terms.  Where is it?"
+
+He bent over, but Mullet, exhausted with his efforts, had closed his eyes
+again, and half turned his head.
+
+"Where is it, damn you?"  said Gunn, from between his teeth.
+
+Mullet opened his eyes again, glanced fearfully round the room, and
+whispered.  Gunn, with a stifled oath, bent his ear almost to his mouth,
+and the next moment his neck was in the grip of the strongest man in
+Riverstone, and an arm like a bar of iron over his back pinned him down
+across the bed.
+
+"You dog!"  hissed a fierce voice in his ear.  "I've got you--Captain
+Rogers at your service, and now you may tell his name to all you can.
+Shout it, you spawn of hell.  Shout it!"
+
+He rose in bed, and with a sudden movement flung the other over on his
+back.  Gunn's eyes were starting from his head, and he writhed
+convulsively.
+
+"I thought you were a sharper man, Gunn," said Rogers, still in the same
+hot whisper, as he relaxed his grip a little; "you are too simple, you
+hound!  When you first threatened me I resolved to kill you.  Then you
+threatened my daughter.  I wish that you had nine lives, that I might
+take them all.  Keep still!"
+
+He gave a half-glance over his shoulder at the silent figure of the
+nurse, and put his weight on the twisting figure on the bed.
+
+"You drugged the hag, good Gunn," he continued.  "To-morrow morning,
+Gunn, they will find you in your room dead, and if one of the scum you
+brought into my house be charged with the murder, so much the better.
+When I am well they will go.  I am already feeling a little bit stronger,
+Gunn, as you see, and in a month I hope to be about again."
+
+He averted his face, and for a time gazed sternly and watchfully at the
+door.  Then he rose slowly to his feet, and taking the dead man in his
+arms, bore him slowly and carefully to his room, and laid him a huddled
+heap on the floor.  Swiftly and noiselessly he put the dead man's shoes
+on and turned his pockets inside out, kicked a rug out of place, and put
+a guinea on the floor.  Then he stole cautiously down stairs and set a
+small door at the back open.  A dog barked frantically, and he hurried
+back to his room.  The nurse still slumbered by the fire.
+
+She awoke in the morning shivering with the cold, and being jealous of
+her reputation, rekindled the fire, and measuring out the dose which the
+invalid should have taken, threw it away.  On these unconscious
+preparations for an alibi Captain Rogers gazed through half-closed lids,
+and then turning his grim face to the wall, waited for the inevitable
+alarm.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Rogers, by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12127 ***