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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13152 ***
+
+                       THE FIRM OF GIRDLESTONE.
+
+                            A. CONAN DOYLE
+
+
+
+                           TO MY OLD FRIEND
+
+                     PROFESSOR WILLIAM K. BURTON,
+
+                  OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY, TOKYO,
+
+          WHO FIRST ENCOURAGED ME, YEARS AGO, TO PROCEED WITH
+
+                          THIS LITTLE STORY,
+
+                      I DESIRE AFFECTIONATELY TO
+
+                             DEDICATE IT.
+
+                                         THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+I cannot let this small romance go to press without prefacing it with a
+word of cordial thanks to Mr. P. G. Houlgrave, of 28, Millman Street,
+Bedford Row.  To this gentleman I owe the accuracy of my African
+chapters, and I am much indebted to him for the copious details with
+which he furnished me.
+
+A. CONAN DOYLE.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER.
+
+I.        MR. JOHN HARSTON KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT.
+
+II.       CHARITY A LA MODE.
+
+III.      THOMAS GILRAY MAKES AN INVESTMENT.
+
+IV.       CAPTAIN HAMILTON MIGGS OF THE "BLACK EAGLE".
+
+V.        MODERN ATHENIANS.
+
+VI.       A RECTORIAL ELECTION.
+
+VII.      ENGLAND VERSUS SCOTLAND.
+
+VIII.     A FIRST PROFESSIONAL.
+
+IX.       A NASTY CROPPER.
+
+X.        DWELLERS IN BOHEMIA.
+
+XI.       SENIOR AND JUNIOR.
+
+XII.      A CORNER IN DIAMONDS.
+
+XIII.     SHADOW AND LIGHT.
+
+XIV.      A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING
+
+XV.       AN ADDITION TO THE HOUSE.
+
+XVI.      THE FIRST STEP.
+
+XVII.     THE LAND OF DIAMONDS.
+
+XVIII.    MAJOR TOBIAS CLUTTERBUCK COMES IN FOR A THOUSAND POUNDS.
+
+XIX.      NEWS FROM THE URALS.
+
+XX.       MR. HECTOR O'FLAHERTY FINDS SOMETHING IN THE PAPER.
+
+XXI.      AN UNEXPECTED BLOW.
+
+XXII.     ROBBERS AND ROBBED.
+
+XXIII.    A MOMENTOUS RESOLUTION.
+
+XXIV.     A DANGEROUS PROMISE.
+
+XXV.      A CHANGE OF FRONT.
+
+XXVI.     BREAKING GROUND.
+
+XXVII.    MRS. SCULLY OF MORRISON'S.
+
+XXVIII.   BACK IN BOHEMIA.
+
+XXIX.     THE GREAT DANCE AT MORRISON'S.
+
+XXX.      AT THE "COCK AND COWSLIP".
+
+XXXI.     A CRISIS AT ECCLESTON SQUARE.
+
+XXXII.    A CONVERSATION IN THE ECCLESTON SQUARE LIBRARY.
+
+XXXIII.   THE JOURNEY TO THE PRIORY.
+
+XXXIV.    THE MAN WITH THE CAMP-STOOL.
+
+XXXV.     A TALK ON THE LAWN.
+
+XXXVI.    THE INCIDENT OF THE CORRIDOR.
+
+XXXVII.   A CHASE AND A BRAWL.
+
+XXXVIII.  GIRDLESTONE SENDS FOR THE DOCTOR.
+
+XXXIX.    A GLEAM OF LIGHT.
+
+XL.       THE MAJOR HAS A LETTER.
+
+XLI.      THE CLOUDS GROW DARKER.
+
+XLII.     THE THREE FACES AT THE WINDOW.
+
+XLIII.    THE BAIT ON THE HOOK.
+
+XLIV.     THE SHADOW OF DEATH.
+
+XLV       THE INVASION OF HAMPSHIRE.
+
+XLVI.     A MIDNIGHT CRUISE.
+
+XLVII     LAW AND ORDER.
+
+XLVIII.   CAPTAIN HAMILTON MIGGS SEES A VISION.
+
+XLIX.     A VOYAGE IN A COFFIN SHIP.
+
+L.        WINDS UP THE THREAD AND TIES TWO KNOTS AT THE END.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRM OF GIRDLESTONE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+MR. JOHN HARSTON KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT.
+
+The approach to the offices of Girdlestone and Co. was not a very
+dignified one, nor would the uninitiated who traversed it form any
+conception of the commercial prosperity of the firm in question.
+Close to the corner of a broad and busy street, within a couple of
+hundred yards of Fenchurch Street Station, a narrow doorway opens into a
+long whitewashed passage.  On one side of this is a brass plate with the
+inscription "Girdlestone and Co., African Merchants," and above it a
+curious hieroglyphic supposed to represent a human hand in the act of
+pointing.  Following the guidance of this somewhat ghostly emblem, the
+wayfarer finds himself in a small square yard surrounded by doors, upon
+one of which the name of the firm reappears in large white letters, with
+the word "Push" printed beneath it.  If he follows this laconic
+invitation he will make his way into a long, low apartment, which is the
+counting-house of the African traders.
+
+On the afternoon of which we speak things were quiet at the offices.
+The line of pigeon-holes in the wire curtain was deserted by the public,
+though the linoleum-covered floor bore abundant traces of a busy
+morning.  Misty London light shone hazily through the glazed windows and
+cast dark shadows in the corners.  On a high perch in the background a
+weary-faced, elderly man, with muttering lips and tapping fingers, cast
+up endless lines of figures.  Beneath him, in front of two long shining
+mahogany desks, half a score of young men, with bent heads and stooping
+shoulders, appeared to be riding furiously, neck and neck, in the race
+of life.  Any _habitue_ of a London office might have deduced from their
+relentless energy and incorruptible diligence that they were under the
+eyes of some member of the firm.
+
+The member in question was a broad-shouldered, bull-necked young man,
+who leaned against the marble mantel-piece, turning over the pages of an
+almanac, and taking from time to time a stealthy peep over the top of it
+at the toilers around him.  Command was imprinted in every line of his
+strong, square-set face and erect, powerful frame.  Above the medium
+size, with a vast spread of shoulder, a broad aggressive jaw, and bright
+bold glance, his whole pose and expression spoke of resolution pushed to
+the verge of obstinacy.  There was something classical in the regular
+olive-tinted features and black, crisp, curling hair fitting tightly to
+the well-rounded head.  Yet, though classical, there was an absence of
+spirituality.  It was rather the profile of one of those Roman emperors,
+splendid in its animal strength, but lacking those subtle softnesses of
+eye and mouth which speak of an inner life.  The heavy gold chain across
+the waistcoat and the bright stone which blazed upon the finger were the
+natural complement of the sensuous lip and curving chin.  Such was Ezra,
+only child of John Girdlestone, and heir to the whole of his vast
+business.  Little wonder that those who had an eye to the future bent
+over their ledgers and worked with a vigour calculated to attract the
+attention of the junior partner, and to impress him with a due sense of
+their enthusiastic regard for the interests of the  firm.
+
+It was speedily apparent, however, that the young  gentleman's estimate
+of their services was not entirely based upon their present performance.
+With his eyes still fixed upon the almanac and a sardonic smile upon his
+dark face, he uttered a single word--
+
+"Parker!"
+
+A flaxen-haired clerk, perched at the further end of the high glistening
+desk, gave a violent start, and looked up  with a scared face.
+
+"Well, Parker, who won?" asked the junior partner.
+
+"Won, sir!" the youth stammered.
+
+"Yes, who won?" repeated his employer.
+
+"I hardly understand you, sir," the clerk said, growing  very red and
+confused.
+
+"Oh yes, you do, Parker," young Girdlestone remarked, tapping his
+almanac sharply with the paper-knife.  "You were playing odd man out
+with Robson and Perkins when I came in from lunch.  As I presume you
+were at it all the time I was away, I have a natural curiosity to know
+who won."
+
+The three unhappy clerks fixed their eyes upon their ledgers to avoid
+the sarcastic gaze of their employer.  He went on in the same quiet
+tones--
+
+"You gentlemen draw about thirty shillings a week from the firm.
+I believe I am right in my figures, Mr. Gilray?" addressing the senior
+clerk seated at the high solitary desk apart from the others.  "Yes, I
+thought so.  Now, odd man out is, no doubt, a very harmless and
+fascinating game, but you can hardly expect us to encourage it so far as
+to pay so much an hour for the privilege of having it played in our
+counting-house.  I shall therefore recommend my father to deduct five
+shillings from the sum which each of you will receive upon Saturday.
+That will cover the time which you have devoted to your own amusements
+during the week."
+
+He paused, and the three culprits were beginning to cool down and
+congratulate themselves, when he began again.
+
+"You will see, Mr. Gilray, that this deduction is made," he said,
+"and at the same time I beg that you will deduct ten shillings from your
+own salary, since, as senior clerk, the responsibility of keeping order
+in this room in the absence of your employers rests with you, and you
+appear to have neglected it.  I trust you will look to this, Mr.
+Gilray."
+
+"Yes, sir," the senior clerk answered meekly.  He was an elderly man
+with a large family, and the lost ten shillings would make a difference
+to the Sunday dinner.  There was nothing for it but to bow to the
+inevitable, and his little pinched face assumed an expression of gentle
+resignation.  How to keep his ten young subordinates in order, however,
+was a problem which vexed him sorely.
+
+The junior partner was silent, and the remaining clerks  were working
+uneasily, not exactly knowing whether they might not presently be
+included in the indictment.  Their fears were terminated, however, by
+the sharp sound of a table-gong and the appearance of a boy with the
+announcement that Mr. Girdlestone would like a moment's conversation
+with Mr. Ezra.  The latter gave a keen glance at his subjects and
+withdrew into the back office, a disappearance which was hailed by ten
+pens being thrown into the air and deftly caught again, while as many
+derisive and triumphant young men mocked at the imploring efforts of old
+Gilray in the interests of law and order.
+
+The sanctum of Mr. John Girdlestone was approached by two doors, one of
+oak with ground-glass panels, and the other covered with green baize.
+The room itself was small, but lofty, and the walls were ornamented by
+numerous sections of ships stuck upon long flat boards, very much as the
+remains of fossil fish are exhibited in museums, together with maps,
+charts, photographs, and lists of sailings innumerable.  Above the
+fire-place was a large water-colour painting of the barque _Belinda_ as
+she appeared when on a reef to the north of Cape Palmas.  An inscription
+beneath this work of art announced that it had been painted by the
+second officer and presented by him to the head of the firm.  It was
+generally rumoured that the merchants had lost heavily over this
+disaster, and there were some who quoted it as an instance of
+Girdlestone's habitual strength of mind that he should decorate his wall
+with so melancholy a souvenir.  This view of the matter did not appear
+to commend itself to a flippant member of Lloyd's agency, who contrived
+to intimate, by a dexterous use of his left eyelid and right forefinger,
+that the vessel may not have been so much under-insured, nor the loss to
+the firm so enormous as was commonly reported.
+
+John Girdlestone, as he sat at his square office-table waiting for his
+son, was undeniably a remarkable-looking man.  For good or for evil no
+weak character lay beneath that hard angular face, with the strongly
+marked features and deep-set eyes.  He was clean shaven, save for an
+iron-grey fringe of ragged whisker under each ear, which blended with
+the grizzled hair above.  So self-contained, hard-set, and immutable was
+his expression that it was impossible to read anything from it except
+sternness and resolution, qualities which are as likely to be associated
+with the highest natures as with the most dangerous.  It may have been
+on account of this ambiguity of expression that the world's estimate of
+the old merchant was a very varying one.  He was known to be a fanatic
+in religion, a purist in morals, and a man of the strictest commercial
+integrity.  Yet there were some few who looked askance at him, and none,
+save one, who could apply the word "friend" to him.
+
+He rose and stood with his back to the fire-place as his son entered.
+He was so tall that he towered above the younger man, but the latter's
+square and compact frame made him, apart from the difference of age, the
+stronger man.
+
+The young man had dropped the air of sarcasm which he found was most
+effective with the clerks, and had resumed his natural manner, which was
+harsh and brusque.
+
+"What's up!" he asked, dropping back into a chair, and jingling the
+loose coins in his trouser pockets.
+
+"I have had news of the _Black Eagle_," his father answered.  "She is
+reported from Madeira."
+
+"Ah!" cried the junior partner eagerly.  "What luck?"
+
+"She is full, or nearly so, according to Captain Hamilton Miggs'
+report."
+
+"I wonder Miggs was able to send a report at all, and I wonder still
+more that you should put any faith in it," his son said impatiently.
+"The fellow is never sober."
+
+"Miggs is a good seaman, and popular on the coast.  He may indulge at
+times, but we all have our failings.  Here is the list as vouched for by
+our agent.  'Six hundred barrels of palm oil'--"
+
+"Oil is down to-day," the other interrupted.
+
+"It will rise before the _Black Eagle_ arrives," the merchant rejoined
+confidently.  "Then he has palm nuts in bulk, gum, ebony, skins,
+cochineal, and ivory."
+
+The young man gave a whistle of satisfaction.  "Not bad for old Miggs!"
+he said.  "Ivory is at a fancy figure."
+
+"We are sorely in need of a few good voyages," Girdlestone remarked,
+"for things have been very slack of late.  There is one very sad piece
+of intelligence here which takes away the satisfaction which we might
+otherwise feel.  Three of the crew have died of fever.  He does not
+mention the names."
+
+"The devil!" said Ezra.  "We know very well what that means.
+Three women, each with an armful of brats, besieging the office and
+clamouring for a pension.  Why are seamen such improvident dogs?"
+
+His father held up his white hand deprecatingly.  "I wish," he said,
+"that you would treat these subjects with more reverence.  What could be
+sadder than that the bread-winner of a family should be cut off?  It has
+grieved me more than I can tell."
+
+"Then you intend to pension the wives?" Ezra said, with a sly smile.
+
+"By no means," his father returned with decision.  "Girdlestone and Co.
+are not an insurance office.  The labourer is worthy of his hire, but
+when his work in this world is over, his family must fall back upon what
+has been saved by his industry and thrift.  It would be a dangerous
+precedent for us to allow pensions to the wives of these sailors, for it
+would deprive the others of all motive for laying their money by, and
+would indirectly encourage vice and dissipation."
+
+Ezra laughed, and continued to rattle his silver and keys.
+
+"It is not upon this matter that I desired to speak to you," Girdlestone
+continued.  "It has, however, always been my practice to prefer matters
+of business to private affairs, however pressing.  John Harston is said
+to be dying, and he has sent a message to me saying that he wishes to
+see me.  It is inconvenient for me to leave the office, but I feel that
+it is my Christian duty to obey such a summons.  I wish you, therefore,
+to look after things until I return."
+
+"I can hardly believe that the news is true," Ezra said, in
+astonishment.  "There must be some mistake.  Why, I spoke to him on
+'Change last Monday."
+
+"It is very sudden," his father answered, taking his broad-brimmed hat
+from a peg.  "There is no doubt about the fact, however.  The doctor
+says that there is very little hope that he will survive until evening.
+It is a case of malignant typhoid."
+
+"You are very old friends?" Ezra remarked, looking thoughtfully at his
+father.
+
+"I have known him since we were boys together," the other replied, with
+a slight dry cough, which was the highest note of his limited emotional
+gamut.  "Your mother, Ezra, died upon the very day that Harston's wife
+gave birth to this daughter of his, seventeen years ago.  Mrs. Harston
+only survived a few days.  I have heard him say that, perhaps, we should
+also go together.  We are in the hands of a higher Power, however, and
+it seems that one shall be taken and another left."
+
+"How will the money go if the doctors are right?" Ezra asked keenly.
+
+"Every penny to the girl.  She will be an heiress.  There are no other
+relations that I know of, except the Dimsdales, and they have a fair
+fortune of their own.  But I must go."
+
+"By the way, malignant typhoid is very catching, is it not?"
+
+"So they say," the merchant said quietly, and strode off through the
+counting-house.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone remained behind, stretching his legs In front of the
+empty grate.  "The governor is a hard nail," he soliloquized, as he
+stared down at the shining steel bars.  "Depend upon it, though, he
+feels this more than he shows.  Why, it's the only friend he ever had in
+the world--or ever will have, in all probability.  However, it's no
+business of mine," with which comforting reflection he began to whistle
+as he turned over the pages of the private day-book of the firm.
+
+It is possible that his son's surmise was right, and that the gaunt,
+unemotional African merchant felt an unwonted heartache as he hailed a
+hansom and drove out to his friend's house at Fulham.  He and Harston
+had been charity schoolboys together, had roughed it together, risen
+together, and prospered together.  When John Girdlestone was a raw-boned
+lad and Harston a chubby-faced urchin, the latter had come to look upon
+the other as his champion and guide.  There are some minds which are
+parasitic in their nature.  Alone they have little vitality, but they
+love to settle upon some stronger intellect, from which they may borrow
+their emotions and conclusions at second-hand.  A strong, vigorous brain
+collects around it in time many others, whose mental processes are a
+feeble imitation of its own.  Thus it came to pass that, as the years
+rolled on, Harston learned to lean more and more upon his old
+school-fellow, grafting many of his stern peculiarities upon his own
+simple vacuous nature, until he became a strange parody of the original.
+To him Girdlestone was the ideal man, Girdlestone's ways the correct
+ways, and Girdlestone's opinions the weightiest of all opinions.
+Forty years of this undeviating fidelity must, however he might conceal
+it, have made an impression upon the feelings of the elder man.
+
+Harston, by incessant attention to business and extreme parsimony, had
+succeeded in founding an export trading concern.  In this he had
+followed the example of his friend.  There was no fear of their
+interests ever coming into collision, as his operations were confined to
+the Mediterranean.  The firm grew and prospered, until Harston began to
+be looked upon as a warm man in the City circles.  His only child was
+Kate, a girl of seventeen.  There were no other near relatives, save Dr.
+Dimsdale, a prosperous West-end physician.  No wonder that Ezra
+Girdlestone's active business mind, and perhaps that of his father too,
+should speculate as to the disposal of the fortune of the dying man.
+
+Girdlestone pushed open the iron gate and strode down the gravel walk
+which led to his friend's house.  A bright autumn sun shining out of a
+cloudless heaven bathed the green lawn and the many-coloured flower-beds
+in its golden light.  The air, the leaves, the birds, all spoke of life.
+It was hard to think that death was closing its grip upon him who owned
+them all.  A plump little gentleman in black was just descending the
+steps.
+
+"Well, doctor," the merchant asked, "how is your patient?"
+
+"You've not come with the intention of seeing him, have you?" the doctor
+asked, glancing up with some curiosity at the grey face and overhanging
+eyebrows of the merchant.
+
+"Yes, I am going up to him now."
+
+"It is a most virulent case of typhoid.  He may die in an hour or he may
+live until nightfall, but nothing can save him.  He will hardly
+recognize you, I fear, and you can do him no good.  It is most
+infectious, and you are incurring a needless danger.  I should strongly
+recommend you not to go."
+
+"Why, you've only just come down from him yourself, doctor."
+
+"Ah, I'm there in the way of duty."
+
+"So am I," said the visitor decisively, and passing up the stone steps
+of the entrance strode into the hall.  There was a large sitting-room
+upon the ground floor, through the open door of which the visitor saw a
+sight which arrested him for a moment.  A young girl was sitting in a
+recess near the window, with her lithe, supple figure bent forward, and
+her hands clasped at the back of her head, while her elbows rested upon
+a small table in front of her.  Her superb brown hair fell in a thick
+wave on either side over her white round arms, and the graceful curve of
+her beautiful neck might have furnished a sculptor with a study for a
+mourning Madonna.  The doctor had just broken his sad tidings to her,
+and she was still in the first paroxysm of her grief--a grief too acute,
+as was evident even to the unsentimental mind of the merchant, to allow
+of any attempt at consolation.  A greyhound appeared to think
+differently, for he had placed his fore-paws upon his young mistress's
+lap, and was attempting to thrust his lean muzzle between her arms and
+to lick her face in token of canine sympathy.  The merchant paused
+irresolutely for a moment, and then ascending the broad staircase he
+pushed open the door of Harston's room and entered.
+
+The blinds were drawn down and the chamber was very dark.  A pungent
+whiff of disinfectants issued from it, mingled with the dank, heavy
+smell of disease.  The bed was in a far corner.  Without seeing him,
+Girdlestone could hear the fast laboured breathing of the invalid.
+A trimly dressed nurse who had been sitting by the bedside rose, and,
+recognizing the visitor, whispered a few words to him and left the room.
+He pulled the cord of the Venetian blind so as to admit a few rays of
+daylight.  The great chamber looked dreary and bare, as carpet and
+hangings had been removed to lessen the chance of future infection.
+John Girdlestone stepped softly across to the bedside and sat down by
+his dying friend.
+
+The sufferer was lying on his back, apparently unconscious of all around
+him.  His glazed eyes were turned upwards towards the ceiling, and his
+parched lips were parted, while the breath came in quick, spasmodic
+gasps.  Even the unskilled eye of the merchant could tell that the angel
+of death was hovering very near him.  With an ungainly attempt at
+tenderness, which had something pathetic in it, he moistened a sponge
+and passed it over the sick man's feverish brow.  The latter turned his
+restless head round, and a gleam of recognition and gratitude came into
+his eyes.
+
+"I knew that you would come," he said.
+
+"Yes.  I came the moment that I got your message."
+
+"I am glad that you are here," the sufferer continued with a sigh of
+relief.  From the brightened expression upon his pinched face, it seemed
+as if, even now in the jaws of death, he leaned upon his old
+schoolfellow and looked to him for assistance.  He put a wasted hand
+above the counterpane and laid it upon Girdlestone's.
+
+"I wish to speak to you, John," he said.  "I am very weak.  Can you hear
+what I say?"
+
+"Yes, I hear you."
+
+"Give me a spoonful from that bottle.  It clears my mind for a time.
+I have been making my will, John."
+
+"Yes," said the merchant, replacing the medicine bottle.
+
+"The lawyer made it this morning.  Stoop your head and you will hear me
+better.  I have less than fifty thousand.  I should have done better had
+I retired years ago."
+
+"I told you so," the other broke in gruffly.
+
+"You did--you did.  But I acted for the best.  Forty thousand I leave to
+my dear daughter Kate."
+
+A look of interest came over Girdlestone's face.  "And the balance?" he
+asked.
+
+"I leave that to be equally divided among the various London
+institutions for educating the poor.  We were both poor boys ourselves,
+John, and we know the value of such schools."
+
+Girdlestone looked perhaps a trifle disappointed.  The sick man went on
+very slowly and painfully--
+
+"My daughter will have forty thousand pounds.  But it is so tied up that
+she can neither touch it herself nor enable any one else to do so until
+she is of age.  She has no friends, John, and no relations, save only my
+cousin, Dr. George Dimsdale.  Never was a girl left more lonely and
+unprotected.  Take her, I beg of you, and bring her up under your own
+eye.  Treat her as though she were your child.  Guard her above all from
+those who would wreck her young life in order to share her fortune.
+Do this, old friend, and make me happy on my deathbed."
+
+The merchant made no answer.  His heavy eyebrows were drawn down, and
+his forehead all puckered with thought.
+
+"You are the one man," continued the sufferer, "whom I know to be just
+and upright.  Give me the water, for my mouth is dry.  Should, which God
+forbid, my dear girl perish before she marries, then--" His breath
+failed him for a moment, and he paused to recover it.
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"Then, old friend, her fortune reverts to you, for there is none who
+will use it so well.  Those are the terms of the will.  But you will
+guard her and care for her, as I would myself.  She is a tender plant,
+John, too weak to grow alone.  Promise me that you will do right by
+her--promise it?"
+
+"I do promise it," John Girdlestone answered in a deep voice.  He was
+standing up now, and leaning over to catch the words of the dying man.
+
+Harston was sinking rapidly.  With a feeble motion he pointed to a
+brown-backed volume upon the table.
+
+"Take up the book," he said.
+
+The merchant picked it up.
+
+"Now, repeat after me, I swear and solemnly pledge myself--"
+
+"I swear and solemnly pledge myself--
+
+"To treasure and guard as if she were my own--" came the tremulous voice
+from the bed.
+
+"To treasure and guard as if she were my own--" in the deep bass of the
+merchant.
+
+"Kate Harston, the daughter of my deceased friend--"
+
+"Kate Harston, the daughter of my deceased friend--"
+
+"And as I treat her, so may my own flesh and blood treat me!"
+
+"And as I treat her, so may my own flesh and blood treat me!"
+
+The sick man's head fell back exhausted upon his pillow.  "Thank God!"
+he muttered, "now I can die in peace."
+
+"Turn your mind away from the vanities and dross of this world," John
+Girdlestone said sternly, "and fix it upon that which is eternal, and
+can never die."
+
+"Are you going?" the invalid asked sadly, for he had taken up his hat
+and stick.
+
+"Yes, I must go; I have an appointment in the City at six, which I must
+not miss."
+
+"And I have an appointment which I must not miss," the dying man said
+with a feeble smile.
+
+"I shall send up the nurse as I go down,"  Girdlestone said.
+"Good-bye!"
+
+"Good-bye!  God bless you, John!"
+
+The firm, strong hand of the hale man enclosed for a moment the feeble,
+burning one of the sufferer.  Then John Girdlestone plodded heavily down
+the stair, and these friends of forty years' standing had said their
+last adieu.
+
+The African merchant kept his appointment in the  City, but long before
+he reached it John Harston had gone also to keep that last terrible
+appointment of which the messenger is death.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+CHARITY A LA MODE.
+
+It was a dull October morning in Fenchurch Street, some weeks after the
+events with which our story opened.  The murky City air looked murkier
+still through the glazed office windows.  Girdlestone, grim and grey, as
+though he were the very embodiment of the weather, stooped over his
+mahogany table.  He had a long list in front of him, on which he was
+checking off, as a prelude to the day's work, the position in the market
+of the various speculations in which the capital of the firm was
+embarked.  His son Ezra lounged in an easy chair opposite him, looking
+dishevelled and dark under the eyes, for he had been up half the night,
+and the Nemesis of reaction was  upon him.
+
+"Faugh!" his father ejaculated, glancing round at him with disgust.
+"You have been drinking already this morning."
+
+"I took a brandy and seltzer on the way to the office," he answered
+carelessly.  "I needed one to steady me."
+
+"A young fellow of your age should not want steadying.  You have a
+strong constitution, but you must not play tricks with it.  You must
+have been very late last night.  It was nearly one before I went to
+bed."
+
+"I was playing cards with Major Clutterbuck and one or two others.
+We kept it up rather late."
+
+"With Major Clutterbuck?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I don't care about your consorting so much with that man.  He drinks
+and gambles, and does you no good.  What good has he ever done himself?
+Take care that he does not fleece you."  The merchant felt
+instinctively, as he glanced at the shrewd, dark face of his son, that
+the warning was a superfluous one.
+
+"No fear, father," Ezra answered sulkily; "I am old enough to choose my
+own friends."
+
+"Why such a friend as that?"
+
+"I like to know men of that class.  You are a successful man, father,
+but you--well, you can't be much help to me socially.  You need some one
+to show you the ropes, and the major is my man.  When I can stand alone,
+I'll soon let him know it."
+
+"Well, go your own way," said Girdlestone shortly.  Hard to all the
+world, he was soft only in this one direction.  From childhood every
+discussion between father and son had ended with the same words.
+
+"It is business time," he resumed.  "Let us confine ourselves to
+business.  I see that Illinois were at 112 yesterday."
+
+"They are at 113 this morning."
+
+"What! have you been on 'Change already?"
+
+"Yes, I dropped in there on my way to the office.  I would hold on to
+those.  They will go up for some days yet."
+
+The senior partner made a pencil note on the margin of the list.
+
+"We'll hold on to the cotton we have," he said.
+
+"No, sell out at once," Ezra answered with decision, "I saw young
+Featherstone, of Liverpool, last night, or rather this morning.  It was
+hard to make head or tail of what the fool said, but he let fall enough
+to show that there was likely to be a drop."
+
+Girdlestone made another mark upon the paper.  He never questioned his
+son's decisions now, for long experience had shown him that they were
+never formed without solid grounds.  "Take this list, Ezra," he said,
+handing him the paper, "and run your eye over it.  If you see anything
+that wants changing, mark it."
+
+"I'll do it in the counting-house," his son answered.  "I can keep my
+eye on those lazy scamps of clerks.  Gilray has no idea of keeping them
+in order."
+
+As he went out he cannoned against an elderly gentleman in a white
+waistcoat, who was being shown in, and who ricochetted off him into the
+office, where he shook hands heartily with the elder Girdlestone.
+It was evident from the laboured cordiality of the latter's greeting
+that the new-comer was a man of some importance.  He was, indeed, none
+other than the well-known philanthropist, Mr. Jefferson Edwards, M.P.
+for Middlehurst, whose name upon a bill was hardly second to that of
+Rothschild.
+
+"How do, Girdlestone, how do?" he exclaimed, mopping his face with his
+handkerchief.  He was a fussy little man, with a brusque, nervous
+manner.  "Hard at it as usual, eh?  Always pegging away.  Wonderful man.
+Ha, ha!  Wonderful!"
+
+"You look warm," the merchant answered, rubbing his hands.  "Let me
+offer you some claret.  I have some in the cupboard."
+
+"No, thank you," the visitor answered, staring across at the head of the
+firm as though he were some botanical curiosity.  "Extraordinary fellow.
+'Iron' Girdlestone, they call you in the City.  A good name, too--
+ha! ha!--an excellent name.  Iron-grey, you know, and hard to look at,
+but soft here, my dear sir, soft here."  The little man tapped him with
+his walking-stick over the cardiac region and laughed boisterously,
+while his grim companion smiled slightly and bowed to the compliment.
+
+"I've come here begging," said Mr. Jefferson Edwards, producing a
+portentous-looking roll of paper from an inner pocket.  "Know I've come
+to the right place for charity.  The Aboriginal Evolution Society, my
+dear boy.  All it wants are a few hundreds to float it off.  Noble aim,
+Girdlestone--glorious object."
+
+"What _is_ the object?" the merchant asked.
+
+"Well, the evolution of the aborigines," Edwards answered in some
+confusion.  "Sort of practical Darwinism.  Evolve 'em into higher types,
+and turn 'em all white in time.  Professor Wilder gave us a lecture
+about it.  I'll send you round a _Times_ with the account.  Spoke about
+their thumbs.  They can't cross them over their palms, and they have
+rudimentary tails, or had until they were educated off them.  They wore
+all the hair off their backs by leaning against trees.  Marvellous
+things!  All they want is a little money."
+
+"It seems to be a praiseworthy object," the merchant said gravely.
+
+"I knew that you would think so!" cried the little philanthropist
+enthusiastically.  "Of course, bartering as you do with aboriginal
+races, their development and evolution is a matter of the deepest
+importance to you.  If a man came down to barter with you who had a
+rudimentary tail and couldn't bend his thumb--well, it wouldn't be
+pleasant, you know.  Our idea is to elevate them in the scale of
+humanity and to refine their tastes.  Hewett, of the Royal Society, went
+to report on the matter a year or so back, and some rather painful
+incident occurred.  I believe Hewett met with some mishap--in fact, they
+go the length of saying that he was eaten.  So you see we've had our
+martyrs, my dear friend, and the least that we can do who stay at home
+at ease is to support a good cause to the best of our ability."
+
+"Whose names have you got?" asked the merchant.
+
+"Let's see," Jefferson Edwards said, unfolding his list.  "Spriggs, ten;
+Morton, ten; Wigglesworth, five; Hawkins, ten; Indermann, fifteen;
+Jones, five; and a good many smaller amounts."
+
+"What is the highest as yet?"
+
+"Indermann, the tobacco importer, has given fifteen."
+
+"It is a good cause," Mr. Girdlestone said, dipping his pen into the
+ink-bottle.  "'He that giveth'--you know what the good old Book says.
+Of course a list of the donations will be printed and circulated?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"Here is my cheque for twenty-five pounds.  I am proud to have had this
+opportunity of contributing towards the regeneration of those poor souls
+whom Providence has placed in a lower sphere than myself."
+
+"Girdlestone," said the member of Parliament with emotion, as he
+pocketed the cheque, "you are a good man.  I shall not forget this, my
+friend; I shall never forget it."
+
+"Wealth has its duties, and charity is among them,"  Girdlestone
+answered with unction, shaking the philanthropist's extended hand.
+"Good-bye, my dear sir.  Pray let me know if our efforts are attended
+with any success.  Should more money be needed, you know one  who may be
+relied on."
+
+There was a sardonic smile upon the hard face of the senior partner as
+he closed the door behind his visitor.  "It's a legitimate investment,"
+he muttered to himself as he resumed his seat.  "What with his
+Parliamentary interest and his financial power, it's a very legitimate
+investment.  It looks well on the list, too, and inspires confidence.
+I think the money is well spent."
+
+Ezra had bowed politely as the great man passed through the office, and
+Gilray, the wizened senior clerk, opened the outer door.  Jefferson
+Edwards turned as he passed him and clapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"Lucky fellow," he said in his jerky way.  "Good employer--model to
+follow--great man.  Watch him, mark him, imitate him--that's the way to
+get on.  Can't go wrong," and he trotted down the street in search of
+fresh contributions towards his latest fad.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+THOMAS GILRAY MAKES AN INVESTMENT.
+
+The shambling little clerk was still standing at the door watching the
+retreating figure of the millionaire, and mentally splicing together his
+fragmentary remarks into a symmetrical piece of advice which might be
+carried home and digested at leisure, when his attention was attracted
+to a pale-faced woman, with a child in her arms, who was hanging about
+the entrance.  She looked up at the clerk in a wistful way, as if
+anxious to address him and yet afraid to do so.  Then noting, perhaps,
+some gleam of kindness in his yellow wrinkled face, she came across to
+him.
+
+"D'ye think I could see Muster Girdlestone, sir," she asked, with a
+curtsey; "or, maybe, you're Mr. Girdlestone yourself?"  The woman was
+wretchedly dressed, and her eyelids were swollen and red as from long
+crying.
+
+"Mr. Girdlestone is in his room," said the head clerk kindly.  "I have
+no doubt that he will see you if you will wait for a moment."  Had he
+been speaking to the grandest of the be-silked and be-feathered dames
+who occasionally frequented the office; he could not have spoken with
+greater courtesy.  Verily in these days the spirit of true chivalry has
+filtered down from the surface and has found a lodgment in strange
+places.
+
+The merchant looked with a surprised and suspicious eye at his visitor
+when she was ushered in.  "Take a seat, my good woman," he said.
+"What can I do for you?"
+
+"Please, Mr. Girdlestone, I'm Mrs. Hudson," she answered, seating
+herself in a timid way upon the extreme edge of a chair.  She was weary
+and footsore, for she had carried the baby up from Stepney that morning.
+
+"Hudson--Hudson--can't remember the name," said Girdlestone, shaking his
+head reflectively.
+
+"Jim Hudson as was, sir, he was my husband, the bo'sun for many a year
+o' your ship the _Black Eagle_.  He went out to try and earn a bit for
+me and the child, sir, but he's dead o' fever, poor dear, and lying in
+Bonny river, wi' a cannon ball at his feet, as the carpenter himself
+told me who sewed him up, and I wish I was dead and with him, so I do."
+She began sobbing in her shawl and moaning, while the child, suddenly
+awakened by the sound, rubbed its eyes with its wrinkled mottled hands,
+and then proceeded to take stock of Mr. Girdlestone and his office with
+the critical philosophy of infancy.
+
+"Calm yourself, my good woman, calm yourself," said the senior partner.
+He perceived that the evil prophesied by his son had come upon him, and
+he made a mental note of this fresh instance of Ezra's powers of
+foresight.
+
+"It was hard, so it was," said Mrs. Hudson, drying her eyes, but still
+giving vent to an occasional tempestuous sob.  "I heard as the _Black
+Eagle_ was comin' up the river, so I spent all I had in my pocket in
+makin' Jim a nice little supper--ham an' eggs, which was always his
+favourite, an' a pint o' bitter, an' a quartern o' whiskey that he could
+take hot after, bein' naturally o' a cold turn, and him comin' from a
+warm country, too.  Then out I goes, and down the river, until I sees
+the _Black Eagle_ a-comin' up wi' a tug in front of her.  Well I knowed
+the two streaks o' white paint, let alone the screechin' o' the parrots
+which I could hear from the bank.  I could see the heads o' some of the
+men peepin' over the side, so I waves my handkercher, and one o' them he
+waves back.  'Trust Jim for knowin' his little wife,' says I, proud like
+to myself, and I runs round to where I knew as they'd dock her.
+What with me being that excited that I couldn't rightly see where I was
+going, and what with the crowd, for the men was comin' from work, I
+didn't get there till the ship was alongside.  Then I jumps aboard, and
+the first man I seed was Sandy McPherson, who I knowed when we lived in
+Binnacle Lane.  'Where's Jim?' I cried, running forward, eager like, to
+the forecastle, but he caught me by the arm as I passed him.
+'Steady, lass, steady!'  Then I looked up at him, and his face was very
+grave, and my knees got kind o' weak.  'Where's Jim?' says I.
+'Don't ask,' says he.  'Where is he, Sandy?' I screeches; and then,
+'Don't say the word, Sandy, don't you say it.' But, Lor' bless ye, sir,
+it didn't much matter what he said nor what he didn't, for I knowed all,
+an' down I flops on the deck in a dead faint.  The mate, he took me home
+in a cab, and when I come to there was the supper lying, sir, and the
+beer, and the things a-shinin', and all so cosy, an' the child askin'
+where her father was, for I told her he'd bring her some things from
+Africa.  Then, to think of him a-lyin' dead in Bonny river, why, sir, it
+nigh broke my heart."
+
+"A sore affliction," the merchant said, shaking his grizzled head.
+"A sad visitation.  But these things are sent to try us, Mrs. Hudson.
+They are warnings to us not to fix our thoughts too much upon the dross
+of this world, but to have higher aims and more durable aspirations.
+We are poor short-sighted creatures, the best of us, and often mistake
+evil for good.  What seems so sad to-day may, if taken in a proper
+spirit, be looked back upon as a starting-point from which all the good
+of your life has come."
+
+"Bless you, sir!" said the widow, still furtively rubbing her eyes with
+the corner of her little shawl.  "You're a real kind gentleman.  It does
+me good to hear you talk."
+
+"We have all our burdens and misfortunes," continued the senior partner.
+"Some have more, some have less.  To-day is your turn, to-morrow it may
+be mine.  But let us struggle on to the great goal, and the weight of
+our burden need never cause us to sink by the wayside.  And now I must
+wish you a very good morning, Mrs. Hudson.  Believe me, you have my
+hearty sympathy."
+
+The woman rose and then stood irresolute for a moment, as though there
+was something which she still wished to mention.
+
+"When will I be able to draw Jim's back pay, sir?" she asked nervously.
+"I have pawned nigh everything in the house, and the child and me is
+weak from want of food."
+
+"Your husband's back pay," the merchant said, taking down a ledger from
+the shelf and turning rapidly over the leaves.  "I think that you are
+under a delusion, Mrs. Hudson.  Let me see--Dawson, Duffield, Everard,
+Francis, Gregory, Gunter, Hardy.  Ah, here it is--Hudson, boatswain of
+the _Black Eagle_.  The wages which he received amounted, I see, to five
+pounds a month.  The voyage lasted eight months, but the ship had only
+been out two months and a half when your husband died."
+
+"That's true, sir," the widow said, with an anxious look at the long
+line of figures in the ledger.
+
+"Of course, the contract ended at his death, so the firm owed him twelve
+pounds ten at that date.  But I perceive from my books that you have
+been drawing half-pay during the whole eight months.  You have
+accordingly had twenty pounds from the firm, and are therefore in its
+debt to the amount of seven pounds ten shillings.  We'll say nothing of
+that at present," the senior partner concluded with a magnificent air.
+"When you are a little better off you can make good the balance, but
+really you can hardly expect us to assist you any further at present."
+
+"But, sir, we have nothing," Mrs. Hudson sobbed.
+
+"It is deplorable, most deplorable.  But we are not the people to apply
+to.  Your own good sense will tell you that, now that I have explained
+it to you.  Good morning.  I wish you good fortune, and hope you will
+let us know from time to time how you go on.  We always take a keen
+interest in the families of those who serve us."  Mr. Girdlestone opened
+the door, and the heart-sick little woman staggered away across the
+office, still bearing her heavy child.
+
+When she got into the open air she stared around her like one dazed.
+The senior clerk looked anxiously at her as he stood at the open door.
+Then he glanced back into the office.  Ezra Girdlestone was deep in some
+accounts, and his brother clerks were all absorbed in their work.  He
+stole up to the woman, with an apologetic smile, slipped something into
+her hand, and then hurried back into the office with an austere look
+upon his face, as if his whole mind were absorbed in the affairs of the
+firm.  There are speculations above the ken of business men.  Perhaps,
+Thomas Gilray, that ill-spared half-crown of yours may bring in better
+interest than the five-and-twenty pounds of your employer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+CAPTAIN HAMILTON MIGGS OF THE "BLACK EAGLE."
+
+The head of the firm had hardly recovered his mental serenity after the
+painful duty of explaining her financial position to the Widow Hudson,
+when his quick ear caught the sound of a heavy footstep in the
+counting-house.  A gruff voice was audible at the same time, which
+demanded in rather more energetic language than was usually employed in
+that orderly establishment, whether the principal was to be seen or not.
+The answer was evidently in the affirmative, for the lumbering tread
+came rapidly nearer, and a powerful double knock announced that the
+visitor was at the other side of the door.
+
+"Come in," cried Mr. Girdlestone, laying down his pen.
+
+This invitation was so far complied with that the handle turned, and the
+door revolved slowly upon its hinges.  Nothing more substantial than a
+strong smell of spirituous liquors, however, entered the apartment.
+
+"Come in," the merchant repeated impatiently.
+
+At this second mandate a great tangled mass of black hair was slowly
+protruded round the angle of the door.  Then a copper-coloured forehead
+appeared, with a couple of very shaggy eyebrows and eventually a pair of
+eyes, which protruded from their sockets and looked yellow and
+unhealthy.  These took a long look, first at the senior partner and then
+at his surroundings, after which, as if reassured by the inspection, the
+remainder of the face appeared--a flat nose, a large mouth with a lower
+lip which hung down and exposed a line of tobacco-stained teeth, and
+finally a thick black beard which bristled straight out from the chin,
+and bore abundant traces of an egg having formed part of its owner's
+morning meal.  The head having appeared, the body soon followed it,
+though all in the same anaconda-like style of progression, until the
+individual stood revealed.  He was a stoutly-built sea-faring man,
+dressed in a pea jacket and blue trousers and holding his tarpaulin hat
+in his hand.  With a rough scrape and a most unpleasant leer he advanced
+towards the merchant, a tattoed and hairy hand outstretched in sign of
+greeting.
+
+"Why, captain," said the head of the firm, rising and grasping the
+other's hand with effusion, "I am glad to see you back safe and well."
+
+"Glad to see ye, sir--glad to see ye."
+
+His voice was thick and husky, and there was an indecision about his
+gait as though he had been drinking heavily.  "I came in sort o'
+cautious," he continued, "'cause I didn't know who might be about.
+When you and me speaks together we likes to speak alone, you bet."
+
+The merchant raised his bushy eyebrows a little, as though he did not
+relish the idea of mutual confidences suggested by his companion's
+remark.  "Hadn't you better take a seat?" he said.
+
+The other took a cane-bottomed chair and carried it into the extreme
+corner of the office.  Then having looked steadily at the wall behind
+him, and rapped it with his knuckles, he sat down, still throwing an
+occasional apprehensive glance over his shoulder.  "I've got a touch of
+the jumps," he remarked apologetically to his employer.  "I likes to
+_know_ as there ain't no one behind me."
+
+"You should give up this shocking habit of drinking," Mr. Girdlestone
+said seriously.  "It is a waste of the best gifts with which Providence
+has endowed us.  You are the worse for it both in this world and in the
+next."
+
+Captain Hamilton Miggs did not seem to be at all impressed by this very
+sensible piece of advice.  On the contrary, he chuckled boisterously to
+himself, and, slapping his thigh, expressed his opinion that his
+employer was a "rum 'un"--a conviction which he repeated to himself
+several times with various symptoms of admiration.
+
+"Well, well," Girdlestone said, after a short pause, "boys will be boys,
+and sailors, I suppose, will be sailors.  After eight months of anxiety
+and toil, ending in success, captain--I am proud to be able to say the
+words--some little licence must be allowed.  I do not judge others by
+the same hard and fast lines by which I regulate my own conduct."
+
+This admirable sentiment also failed to elicit any response from the
+obdurate Miggs, except the same manifestations of mirth and the same
+audible aside as to the peculiarities of his master's character.
+
+"I must congratulate you on your cargo, and wish you the same luck for
+your next voyage," the merchant continued.
+
+"Ivory, an' gold dust, an' skins, an' resin, an' cochineal, an' gums,
+an' ebony, an' rice, an' tobacco, an' fruits, an' nuts in bulk.
+If there's a better cargo about, I'd like to see it," the sailor said
+defiantly.
+
+"An excellent cargo, captain; very good indeed.  Three of your men died,
+I believe?"
+
+"Ay, three of the lubbers went under.  Two o' fever and one o'
+snake-bite.  It licks me what sailors are comin' to in these days.
+When I was afore the mast we'd ha' been ashamed to die o' a trifle like
+that.  Look at me.  I've been down wi' coast fever sixteen times, and
+I've had yellow jack an' dysentery, an' I've been bit by the black cobra
+in the Andamans.  I've had cholera, too.  It broke out in a brig when I
+was in the Sandwich Island trade, and I was shipmates wi' seven dead out
+o' a crew o' ten.  But I ain't none the worse for it--no, nor never will
+be.  But I say, gov'nor, hain't you got a drop of something about the
+office?"
+
+The senior partner rose, and taking a bottle from the cupboard filled
+out a stiff glass of rum.  The sailor drank it off eagerly, and laid
+down the empty tumbler with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"Say, now," he said, with an unpleasant confidential leer, "weren't you
+surprised to see us come back--eh?  Straight now, between man and man?"
+
+"The old ship hangs together well, and has lots of work in her yet," the
+merchant answered.
+
+"Lots of work!  God's truth, I thought she was gone in the bay!  We'd a
+dirty night with a gale from the west-sou'-west, an' had been goin' by
+dead reckonin' for three days, so we weren't over and above sure o'
+ourselves.  She wasn't much of a sea-going craft when we left England,
+but the sun had fried all the pitch out o' her seams, and you might ha'
+put your finger through some of them.  Two days an' a night we were at
+the pumps, for she leaked like a sieve.  We lost the fore topsail, blown
+clean out o' the ringbolts.  I never thought to see Lunnon again."
+
+"If she could weather a gale like that she could make another voyage."
+
+"She could start on another," the sailor said gloomily, "but as like as
+not she'd never see the end o't."
+
+"Come, come, you're not quite yourself this morning, Miggs.  We value
+you as a dashing, fearless fellow--let me fill your glass again--who
+doesn't fear a little risk where there's something to be gained.
+You'll lose your good name if you go on like that."
+
+"She's in a terrible bad way," the captain insisted.  "You'll have to do
+something before she can go."
+
+"What shall we have to do?"
+
+"Dry dock her and give her a thorough overhaul.  She might sink before
+she got out o' the Channel if she went as she is just now."
+
+"Very well," the merchant said coldly.  "If you insist on it, it must be
+done.  But, of course, it would make a great difference in your salary."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"You are at present getting fifteen pounds a month, and five per cent.
+commission.  These are exceptional terms in consideration of any risk
+that you may run.  We shall dry dock the _Black Eagle_, and your salary
+is now ten pounds a month and two and a half commission."
+
+"Belay, there, belay!" the sailor shouted.  His coppery face was a shade
+darker than usual, and his bilious eyes had a venomous gleam in them.
+"Don't you beat me down, curse you!" he hissed, advancing to the table
+and leaning his hands upon it while he pushed his angry face forward
+until it was within a foot of that of the merchant.  "Don't you try that
+game on, mate, for I am a free-born British seaman, and I am under the
+thumb of no man."
+
+"You're drunk," said the senior partner.  "Sit down!"
+
+"You'd reduce my screw, would ye?" roared Captain Hamilton Miggs,
+working himself into a fury.  "Me that has worked for ye, and slaved for
+ye, and risked my life for ye.  You try it on, guv'nor; just you try it
+on!  Suppose I let out that little story o' the painting out o' the
+marks--where would the firm of Girdlestone be then!  I guess you'd
+rather double my wage than have that yarn goin' about."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What do I mean?  You don't know what I mean, do you?  Of course not.
+It wasn't you as set us on to go at night and paint out the Government
+Plimsoll marks and then paint 'em in again higher up, so as to be able
+to overload.  That wasn't you, was it?"
+
+"Do you mean to assert that it was?"
+
+"In course I do," thundered the angry seaman.
+
+The senior partner struck the gong which stood upon the table.
+"Gilray," he said quietly, "go out and bring in a policeman."
+
+Captain Hamilton Miggs seemed to be somewhat startled by this sudden
+move of his antagonist.  "Steady your helm, governor," he said.
+"What are ye up to now?"
+
+"I'm going to give you in charge."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For intimidation and using threatening language, and endeavouring to
+extort money under false pretences."
+
+"There's no witnesses," the sailor said in a half-cringing, half-defiant
+manner.
+
+"Oh yes, there are," Ezra Girdlestone remarked, coming into the room.
+He had been standing between the two doors which led to the
+counting-house, and had overheard the latter portion of the
+conversation.  "Don't let me interrupt you.  You were saying that you
+would blacken my father's character unless he increased your salary."
+
+"I didn't mean no harm," said Captain Hamilton Miggs, glancing nervously
+from the one to the other.  He had been fairly well known to the law in
+his younger days, and had no desire to renew the acquaintance.
+
+"Who painted out those Plimsoll marks?" asked the merchant.
+
+"It was me."
+
+"Did any one suggest it to you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Shall I send in the policeman, sir?" asked Gilray, opening the door.
+
+"Ask him to wait for a moment," Girdlestone answered.
+
+"And now, captain, to return to the original point, shall we dry dock
+the _Black Eagle_ and reduce the salary, or do you see your way to going
+back in her on the same terms?"
+
+"I'll go back and be damned to it!" said the captain recklessly,
+plunging his hands into the pockets of his pea jacket and plumping back
+into his chair.
+
+"That's right," his grim employer remarked approvingly.
+
+"But swearing is a most sinful practice.  Send the policeman away,
+Ezra."
+
+The young man went out with an amused smile, and the two were left
+together again.
+
+"You'll not be able to pass the Government inspector unless you do
+something to her," the seaman said after a long pause, during which he
+brooded over his wrongs.
+
+"Of course we shall do something.  The firm is not mean, though it
+avoids unnecessary expense.  We'll put a coat of paint on her, and some
+pitch, and do up the rigging.  She's a stout old craft, and with one of
+the smartest sailors afloat in command of her--for we always give you
+credit for being that--she'll run many a voyage yet."
+
+"I'm paid for the risk, guv'nor, as you said just now," the sailor
+remarked.  "But don't it seem kind o' hard on them as isn't--on the
+mates an' the hands?"
+
+"There is always a risk, my dear captain.  There is nothing in the world
+without risk.  You remember what is said about those who go down to the
+sea in ships.  They see the wonders of the deep, and in return they
+incur some little danger.  My house in Eccleston Square might be shaken
+down by an earthquake, or a gale might blow in the walls, but I'm not
+always brooding over the chance of it.  There's no use your taking it
+for granted that some misfortune will happen to the _Black Eagle_."
+
+The sailor was silenced, but not convinced by his employer's logic.
+"Well, well," he said sulkily, "I am going, so there's an end of it, and
+there's no good in having any more palaver about it.  You have your
+object in running rotten ships, and you make it worth my while to take
+my chances in them.  I'm suited, and you're suited, so there's no more
+to be said."
+
+"That's right.  Have some more rum?"
+
+"No, not a spot."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I likes to keep my head pretty clear when I'm a-talkin' to you,
+Muster Girdlestone.  Out o' your office I'll drink to further orders,
+but I won't do business and muddle myself at the same time.  When d'ye
+want me to start?"
+
+"When she's unloaded and loaded up again.  Three weeks or a month yet.
+I expect that Spender will have come in with the _Maid of Athens_ by
+that time."
+
+"Unless some accident happens on the way," said Captain Hamilton Miggs,
+with his old leer.  "He was at Sierra Leone when we came up the coast.
+I couldn't put in there, for the swabs have got a warrant out ag'in me
+for putting a charge o' shot into a nigger."
+
+"That was a wicked action--very wrong, indeed," the merchant said
+gravely.  "You must consider the interests of the firm, Miggs.  We can't
+afford to have a good port blocked against our ships in this fashion.
+Did they serve this writ on you?"
+
+"Another nigger brought it aboard."
+
+"Did you read it?"
+
+"No; I threw it overboard."
+
+"And what became of the negro?"
+
+"Well," said Miggs with a grin, "when I threw the writ overboard he
+happened to be a-holdin' on to it.  So, ye see, he went over, too.
+Then I up anchor and scooted."
+
+"There are sharks about there?"
+
+"A few."
+
+"Really, Miggs," the merchant said, "you must restrain your sinful
+passions.  You have broken the fifth commandment, and closed the trade
+of Freetown to the _Black Eagle_."
+
+"It never was worth a rap," the sailor answered.  "I wouldn't give a
+cuss for any of the British settlements.  Give me real niggers, chaps as
+knows nothing of law or civilizing, or any rot of the sort.  I can pull
+along with them.
+
+"I have often wondered how you managed it," Girdlestone said curiously.
+"You succeed in picking up a cargo where the steadiest and best men
+can't get as much as a bag of nuts.  How do you work it?"
+
+"There's many would like to know that," Miggs answered, with an
+expressive wink.
+
+"It is a secret, then?"
+
+"Well, it ain't a secret to you, 'cause you ain't a skipper, and it
+don't matter if you knows it or not.  I don't want to have 'em all at
+the same game."
+
+"How is it, then?"
+
+"I'll tell ye," said Miggs.  He seemed to have recovered his serenity by
+this time, and his eyes twinkled as he spoke of his own exploits.
+"I gets drunk with them.  That's how I does it."
+
+"Oh, indeed."
+
+"Yes, that's how it's worked.  Lord love ye, when these fust-class
+certificated, second-cousin-to-an-earl merchant skippers comes out they
+move about among the chiefs and talks down to them as if they was tin
+Methuselahs on wheels.  The Almighty's great coat wouldn't make a
+waistcoat for some o' these blokes.  Now when I gets among 'em I has 'em
+all into the cabin, though they're black an' naked, an' the smell ain't
+over an' above pleasant.  Then I out with the rum and it's 'help
+yourself an' pass the bottle.'  Pretty soon, d'ye see, their tongues get
+loosened, and as I lie low an' keep dark I gets a pretty good idea o'
+what's in the market.  Then when I knows what's to be got, it's queer if
+I don't manage to get it.  Besides, they like a little notice, just as
+Christians does, and they remembers me because I treat them well."
+
+"An excellent plan, Miggs--a capital plan!" said the senior partner.
+"You are an invaluable servant."
+
+"Well," the captain said, rising from his chair, "I'm getting a great
+deal too dry with all this palaver.  I don't mind gettin' drunk with
+nigger chiefs, but I'm darned if I'll--" He paused, but the grim smile
+on his companion's face showed that he appreciated the compliment.
+
+"I say," he continued, giving his employer a confidential nudge with his
+elbow, "suppose we'd gone down in the bay this last time, you'd ha' been
+a bit out in your reckoning--eh, what?"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Well, we were over-insured on our outward passage.  An accident then
+might ha' put thousands in your pocket, I know.  Coming back, though,
+the cargo was worth more than the insurance, I reckon.  You'd ha' been
+out o' pocket if we'd foundered.  It would ha' been a case o' the
+engineer hoisted on his own Peter, as Shakspere says."
+
+"We take our chance of these things," the merchant said with dignity.
+
+"Well, good morning, guv'nor," Captain Hamilton Miggs said brusquely.
+"When you wants me you can lay your hands on me at the old crib, the
+_Cock and Cowslip_, Rotherhithe."
+
+As he passed out through the office, Ezra rejoined his father.
+
+"He's a curious chap," he remarked, jerking his head in the direction
+which Miggs had taken.  "I heard him bellowing like a bull, so I thought
+I had best listen to what he had to say.  He's a useful servant,
+though."
+
+"The fellow's half a savage himself," his father said.  "He's in his
+element among them.  That's why he gets on so well with them."
+
+"He doesn't seem much the worse for the climate, either."
+
+"His body does not, but his soul, Ezra, his soul?  However, to return to
+business.  I wish you to see the underwriters and pay the premium of the
+_Black Eagle_.  If you see your way to it, increase the policy; but do
+it carefully, Ezra, and with tact.  She will start about the time of the
+equinoctial gales.  If anything _should_ happen to her, it would be as
+well that the firm should have a margin on the right side."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+MODERN ATHENIANS.
+
+Edinburgh University may call herself with grim jocoseness the "alma
+mater" of her students, but if she be a mother at all she is one of a
+very heroic and Spartan cast, who conceals her maternal affection with
+remarkable success.  The only signs of interest which she ever designs
+to evince towards her alumni are upon those not infrequent occasions
+when guineas are to be demanded from them.  Then one is surprised to
+find how carefully the old hen has counted her chickens, and how
+promptly the demand is conveyed to each one of the thousands throughout
+the empire who, in spite of neglect, cherish a sneaking kindness for
+their old college.  There is symbolism in the very look of her, square
+and massive, grim and grey, with never a pillar or carving to break the
+dead monotony of the great stone walls.  She is learned, she is
+practical, and she is useful.  There is little sentiment or romance in
+her composition, however, and in this she does but conform to the
+instincts of the nation of which she is the youngest but the most
+flourishing teacher.
+
+A lad coming up to an English University finds himself in an enlarged
+and enlightened public school.  If he has passed through Harrow and Eton
+there is no very abrupt transition between the life which he has led in
+the sixth form and that which he finds awaiting him on the banks of the
+Cam and the Isis.  Certain rooms are found for him which have been
+inhabited by generations of students in the past, and will be by as many
+in the future.  His religion is cared for, and he is expected to put in
+an appearance at hall and at chapel.  He must be within bounds at a
+fixed time.  If he behave indecorously he is liable to be pounced upon
+and reported by special officials, and a code of punishments is hung
+perpetually over his head.  In return for all this his University takes
+a keen interest in him.  She pats him on the back if he succeeds.
+Prizes and scholarships, and fine fat fellowships are thrown plentifully
+in his way if he will gird up his loins and aspire to them.
+
+There is nothing of this in a Scotch University.  The young aspirant
+pays his pound, and finds himself a student.  After that he may do
+absolutely what he will.  There are certain classes going on at certain
+hours, which he may attend if he choose.  If not, he may stay away
+without the slightest remonstrance from the college.  As to religion, he
+may worship the sun, or have a private fetish of his own upon the
+mantelpiece of his lodgings for all that the University cares.  He may
+live where he likes, he may keep what hours he chooses, and he is at
+liberty to break every commandment in the decalogue as long as he
+behaves himself with some approach to decency within the academical
+precincts.  In every way he is absolutely his own master.  Examinations
+are periodically held, at which he may appear or not, as he chooses.
+The University is a great unsympathetic machine, taking in a stream of
+raw-boned cartilaginous youths at one end, and turning them out at the
+other as learned divines, astute lawyers, and skilful medical men.
+Of every thousand of the raw material about six hundred emerge at the
+other side.  The remainder are broken in the process.
+
+The merits and faults of this Scotch system are alike evident.
+Left entirely to his own devices in a far from moral city, many a lad
+falls at the very starting-point of his life's race, never to rise
+again.  Many become idlers or take to drink, while others, after wasting
+time and money which they could ill afford, leave the college with
+nothing learned save vice.  On the other hand, those whose manliness and
+good sense keep them straight have gone through a training which lasts
+them for life.  They have been tried, and have not been found wanting.
+They have learned self-reliance, confidence, and, in a word, have become
+men of the world while their _confreres_ in England are still magnified
+schoolboys.
+
+High up in a third flat in Howe Street one, Thomas Dimsdale, was going
+through his period of probation in a little bedroom and a large
+sitting-room, which latter, "more studentium," served the purpose of
+dining-room, parlour, and study.  A dingy sideboard, with four still
+more dingy chairs and an archaeological sofa, made up the whole of the
+furniture, with the exception of a circular mahogany centre-table,
+littered with note-books and papers.  Above the mantelpiece was a
+fly-blown mirror with innumerable cards and notices projecting in a
+fringe all around, and a pair of pipe racks flanking it on either side.
+Along the centre of the side-board, arranged with suspicious neatness,
+as though seldom disturbed, stood a line of solemn books, Holden's
+_Osteology_, Quain's _Anatomy_, Kirkes' _Physiology_, and Huxley's
+_Invertebrata_, together with a disarticulated human skull.  On one side
+of the fireplace two thigh bones were stacked; on the other a pair of
+foils, two basket-hilted single-sticks, and a set of boxing-gloves.
+On a shelf in a convenient niche was a small stock of general
+literature, which appeared to have been considerably more thumbed than
+the works upon medicine.  Thackeray's _Esmond_ and Meredith's _Richard
+Feveret_ rubbed covers with Irving's _Conquest of Granada_ and a
+tattered line of paper-covered novels.  Over the sideboard was a framed
+photograph of the Edinburgh University Football Fifteen, and opposite it
+a smaller one of Dimsdale himself, clad in the scantiest of garb, as he
+appeared after winning the half-mile at the Inter-University Handicap.
+A large silver goblet, the trophy of that occasion, stood underneath
+upon a bracket.  Such was the student's chamber upon the morning in
+question, save that in a roomy arm-chair in the corner the young
+gentleman himself was languidly reclining, with a short wooden pipe in
+his mouth, and his feet perched up upon the side of the table.
+
+Grey-eyed, yellow-haired, broad in the chest and narrow in the loins,
+with the strength of a bullock and the graceful activity of a stag, it
+would be hard to find a finer specimen of young British manhood.
+The long, fine curves of the limbs, and the easy pose of the round,
+strong head upon the thick, muscular neck, might have served as a model
+to an Athenian sculptor.  There was nothing in the face, however, to
+recall the regular beauty of the East.  It was Anglo-Saxon to the last
+feature, with its honest breadth between the eyes and its nascent
+moustache, a shade lighter in colour than the sun-burned skin.  Shy,
+and yet strong; plain, and yet pleasing; it was the face of a type of
+man who has little to say for himself in this world, and says that
+little badly, but who has done more than all the talkers and the writers
+to ring this planet round with a crimson girdle of British possessions.
+
+"Wonder whether Jack Garraway is ready!" he murmured, throwing down the
+_Scotsman_, and staring up at the roof.  "It's nearly eleven o'clock."
+
+He rose with a yawn, picked up the poker, stood upon the chair, and
+banged three times upon the ceiling.  Three muffled taps responded from
+the room above.  Dimsdale stepped down and began slowly to discard his
+coat and his waistcoat.  As he did so there was a quick, active step
+upon the stair, and a lean, wiry-looking, middle-sized young fellow
+stepped into the room.  With a nod of greeting he pushed the table over
+to one side, threw off his two upper garments, and pulled on a pair of
+the boxing-gloves from the corner.  Dimsdale had already done the same,
+and was standing, a model of manly grace and strength, in the centre of
+the room.
+
+"Practice your lead, Jack.  About here."  He tapped the centre of his
+forehead with his swollen gauntlet.
+
+His companion poised himself for a moment, and then, lashing out with
+his left hand, came home with a heavy thud on the place indicated.
+Dimsdale smiled gently and shook his head.
+
+"It won't do," he said.
+
+"I hit my hardest," the other answered apologetically.
+
+"It won't do.  Try again."
+
+The visitor repeated the blow with all the force that he could command.
+
+Dimsdale shook his head again despondently.  "You don't seem to catch
+it," he said.  "It's like this." He leaned forward, there was the sound
+of a sharp clip, and the novice shot across the room with a force that
+nearly sent his skull through the panel of the door.
+
+"That's it," said Dimsdale mildly.
+
+"Oh, it is, is it?" the other responded, rubbing his head.
+"It's deucedly interesting, but I think I would understand it better if
+I saw you do it to some one else.  It is something between the explosion
+of a powder magazine and a natural convulsion."
+
+His instructor smiled grimly.  "That's the only way to learn," he said.
+"Now we shall have three minutes of give-and-take, and so ends the
+morning lesson."
+
+While this little scene was being enacted in the lodgings of the
+student, a very stout little elderly man was walking slowly down Howe
+Street, glancing up at the numbers upon the doors.  He was square and
+deep and broad, like a bottle of Geneva, with a large ruddy face and a
+pair of bright black eyes, which were shrewd and critical, and yet had a
+merry twinkle of eternal boyishness in their depths.  Bushy side
+whiskers, shot with grey, flanked his rubicund visage, and he threw out
+his feet as he walked with the air of a man who is on good terms with
+himself and with every one around him.
+
+At No.13 he stopped and rapped loudly upon the door with the head of his
+metal-headed stick.  "Mrs. McTavish?" he asked, as a hard-lined, angular
+woman responded to his summons.
+
+"That's me, sir."
+
+"Mr. Dimsdale lives with you, I believe?"
+
+"Third floor front, sir."
+
+"Is he in?"
+
+Suspicion shone in the woman's eyes.  "Was it aboot a bill?" she asked.
+
+"A bill, my good woman!  No, no, nothing of the kind.  Dr. Dimsdale is
+my name.  I am the lad's father--just come up from London to see him.
+I hope he has not been overworking himself?"
+
+A ghost of a smile played about the woman's face.  "I think not, sir,"
+she answered.
+
+"I almost wish I had come round in the afternoon," said the visitor,
+standing with his thick legs astride upon the door-mat.  "It seems a
+pity to break his chain of thought.  The morning is his time for study."
+
+"Houts!  I wouldna' fash aboot that."
+
+"Well! well!  The third floor, you say.  He did not expect me so early,
+I shall surprise the dear boy at his work."
+
+The landlady stood listening expectantly in the passage.  The sturdy
+little man plodded heavily up the first flight of stairs.  He paused on
+the landing.
+
+"Dear me!" he murmured.  "Some one is beating carpets.  How can they
+expect poor Tom to read?"
+
+At the second landing the noise was much louder. "It must be a dancing
+school," conjectured the doctor.
+
+When he reached his son's door, however, there could no longer be any
+doubt as to whence the sounds proceeded.  There was the stamp and
+shuffle of feet, the hissing of in-drawn breath, and an occasional soft
+thud, as if some one were butting his head against a bale of wool.
+"It's epilepsy," gasped the doctor, and turning the handle he rushed
+into the room.
+
+One hurried glance showed him the struggle which was going on.
+There was no time to note details.  Some maniac was assaulting his Tom.
+He sprang at the man, seized him round the waist, dragged him to the
+ground, and seated himself upon him.  "Now tie his hands," he said
+complacently, as he balanced himself upon the writhing figure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+A RECTORIAL ELECTION.
+
+It took some little time before his son, who was half-choked with
+laughter, could explain to the energetic doctor that the gentleman upon
+whom he was perched was not a dangerous lunatic, but, on the contrary, a
+very harmless and innocent member of society.  When at last it was made
+clear to him, the doctor released his prisoner and was profuse in his
+apologies.
+
+"This is my father, Garraway," said Dimsdale.  "I hardly expected him so
+early."
+
+"I must offer you a thousand apologies, sir.  The fact is that I am
+rather short-sighted, and had no time to put my glasses on.  It seemed
+to me to be a most dangerous scuffle."
+
+"Don't mention it, sir," said Garraway, with great good humour.
+
+"And you, Tom, you rogue, is this the way you spend your mornings?
+I expected to find you deep in your books.  I told your landlady that I
+hardly liked to come up for fear of disturbing you at your work.  You go
+up for your first professional in a few weeks, I understand?"
+
+"That will be all right, dad," said his son demurely.  "Garraway and I
+usually take a little exercise of this sort as a preliminary to the
+labours of the day.  Try this armchair and have a cigarette."
+
+The doctor's eye fell upon the medical works and the disarticulated
+skull, and his ill-humour departed.
+
+"You have your tools close at hand, I see," he remarked.
+
+"Yes, dad, all ready."
+
+"Those bones bring back old memories to me.  I am rusty in my anatomy,
+but I dare say I could stump you yet.  Let me see now.  What are the
+different foramina of the sphenoid bone, and what structures pass
+through them?  Eh?"
+
+"Coming!" yelled his son.  "Coming!" and dashed out of the room.
+
+"I didn't hear any one call," observed the doctor.
+
+"Didn't you, sir?" said Garraway, pulling on his coat.  "I thought I
+heard a noise."
+
+"You read with my son, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then perhaps you can tell me what the structures are which pass through
+the foramina of the sphenoid?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir.  There is the--All right, Tom, all right!  Excuse me, sir!
+He is calling me;" and Garraway vanished as precipitately as his friend
+had done.  The doctor sat alone, puffing at his cigarette, and brooding
+over his own dullness of hearing.
+
+Presently the two students returned, looking just a little shame-faced,
+and plunged instantly into wild talk about the weather, the town, and
+the University--anything and everything except the sphenoid bone.
+
+"You have come in good time to see something of University life," said
+young Dimsdale.  "To-day we elect our new Lord Rector.  Garraway and I
+will take you down and show you the sights."
+
+"I have often wished to see something of it," his father answered.
+"I was apprenticed to my profession, Mr. Garraway, in the old-fashioned
+way, and had few opportunities of attending college."
+
+"Indeed, sir."
+
+"But I can imagine it all.  What can be more charming than the sight of
+a community of young men all striving after knowledge, and emulating
+each other in the ardour of their studies?  Not that I would grudge them
+recreation.  I can fancy them strolling in bands round the classic
+precincts of their venerable University, and amusing themselves by
+discussing the rival theories of physiologists or the latest additions
+to the pharmacopoeia."
+
+Garraway had listened with becoming gravity to the commencement of this
+speech, but at the last sentence he choked and vanished for the second
+time out of the room.
+
+"Your friend seems amused," remarked Dr. Dimsdale mildly.
+
+"Yes.  He gets taken like that sometimes," said his son.  "His brothers
+are just the same.  I have hardly had a chance yet to say how glad I am
+to see you, dad."
+
+"And I to see you, my dear boy.  Your mother and Kate come up by the
+night train.  I have private rooms at the hotel."
+
+"Kate Harston!  I can only remember her as a little quiet girl with long
+brown hair.  That was six years ago.  She promised to be pretty."
+
+"Then she has fulfilled her promise.  But you shall judge that for
+yourself.  She is the ward of John Girdlestone, the African merchant,
+but we are the only relations she has upon earth.  Her father was my
+second cousin.  She spends a good deal of her time now with us at
+Phillimore Gardens--as much as her guardian will allow.  He prefers to
+have her under his own roof, and I don't blame him, for she is like a
+ray of sunshine in the house.  It was like drawing his teeth to get him
+to consent to this little holiday, but I stuck at it until I wearied him
+out--fairly wearied him out."  The little doctor chuckled at the thought
+of his victory, and stretched out his thick legs towards the fire.
+
+"This examination will prevent me from being with you as much as I
+wish."
+
+"That's right, my boy; let nothing interfere with your work."
+
+"Still, I think I am pretty safe.  I am glad they have come now, for
+next Wednesday is the international football match.  Garraway and I are
+the two Scotch half-backs.  You must all come down and see it."
+
+"I'll tell you what, Dimsdale," said Garraway, reappearing in the
+doorway, "if we don't hurry up we shall see nothing of the election.
+It is close on twelve."
+
+"I am all ready," cried Dr. Dimsdale, jumping to his feet and buttoning
+his coat.
+
+"Let us be off, then," said his son; and picking up hats and sticks they
+clattered off down the lodging-house stairs.
+
+A rectorial election is a peculiarly Scotch institution, and, however it
+may strike the impartial observer, it is regarded by the students
+themselves as a rite of extreme solemnity and importance from which
+grave issues may depend.  To hear the speeches and addresses of rival
+orators one would suppose that the integrity of the constitution and the
+very existence of the empire hung upon the return of their special
+nominee.  Two candidates are chosen from the most eminent of either
+party and a day is fixed for the polling.  Every undergraduate has a
+vote, but the professors have no voice in the matter.  As the duties are
+nominal and the position honourable, there is never any lack of
+distinguished aspirants for a vacancy.  Occasionally some well-known
+literary or scientific man is invited to become a candidate, but as a
+rule the election is fought upon strictly political lines, with all the
+old-fashioned accompaniments of a Parliamentary contest.
+
+For months before the great day there is bustle and stir.  Secret
+committees meet, rules are formulated, and insidious agents prowl about
+with an eye to the political training of those who have not yet nailed
+their colours to any particular mast.  Then comes a grand meeting of the
+Liberal Students' Association, which is trumped by a dinner of the
+Undergraduates' Conservative Society.   The campaign is then in full
+swing.  Great boards appear at the University gates, on which pithy
+satires against one or other candidate, parodies on songs, quotations
+from their speeches, and gaudily painted cartoons are posted.  Those who
+are supposed to be able to feel the pulse of the University move about
+with the weight of much knowledge upon their brows, throwing out hints
+as to the probable majority one way or the other.  Some profess to know
+it to a nicety.  Others shake their heads and remark vaguely that there
+is not much to choose either way.  So week after week goes by, until the
+excitement reaches a climax when the date of the election comes round.
+
+There was no need upon that day for Dr. Dimsdale or any other stranger
+in the town to ask his way to the University, for the whooping and
+yelling which proceeded from that usually decorous building might have
+been heard from Prince's Street to Newington.  In front of the gates was
+a dense crowd of townspeople peering through into the quadrangle, and
+deriving much entertainment from the movements of the lively young
+gentlemen within.  Large numbers of the more peaceable undergraduates
+stood about under the arches, and these quickly made a way for the
+newcomers, for both Garraway and Dimsdale as noted athletes commanded a
+respect among their fellow-students which medallists and honours men
+might look for in vain.
+
+The broad open quadrangle, and all the numerous balconies and terraces
+which surround it, were crowded with an excited mob of students.  The
+whole three thousand odd electors who stand upon the college rolls
+appeared to be present, and the noise which they were making would have
+reflected credit on treble their number.  The dense crowd surged and
+seethed without pause or rest.  Now and again some orator would be
+hoisted up on the shoulders of his fellows, when an oscillation of the
+crowd would remove his supporters and down he would come, only to be
+succeeded by another at some other part of the assembly.  The name of
+either candidate would produce roars of applause and equally vigorous
+howls of execration.  Those who were lucky enough to be in the balconies
+above hurled down missiles on the crowd beneath--peas, eggs, potatoes,
+and bags of flour or of sulphur; while those below, wherever they found
+room to swing an arm, returned the fusillade with interest.
+The doctor's views of academical serenity and the high converse of
+pallid students vanished into thin air as he gazed upon the mad
+tumultuous scene.  Yet, in spite of his fifty years, he laughed as
+heartily as any boy at the wild pranks of the young politicians, and the
+ruin which was wrought upon broad-cloth coat and shooting jacket by the
+hail of unsavoury projectiles.
+
+The crowd was most dense and most noisy in front of the class-room in
+which the counting of the votes was going forward.  At one the result
+was to be announced, and as the long hand of the great clock crept
+towards the hour, a hush of expectation fell upon the assembly.
+The brazen clang broke harshly out, and at the same moment the folding
+doors were flung open, and a knot of men rushed out into the crowd, who
+swirled and eddied round them.  The centre of the throng was violently
+agitated, and the whole mass of people swayed outwards and inwards.
+For a minute or two the excited combatants seethed and struggled without
+a clue as to the cause of the commotion.  Then the corner of a large
+placard was elevated above the heads of the rioters, on which was
+visible the word "Liberal" in great letters, but before it could be
+raised further it was torn down, and the struggle became fiercer than
+ever.  Up came the placard again--the other corner this time--with the
+word "Majority" upon it, and then immediately vanished as before.
+Enough had been seen, however, to show which way the victory had gone,
+and shouts of triumph arose everywhere, with waving of hats and clatter
+of sticks.  Meanwhile, in the centre the two parties fought round the
+placard, and the commotion began to cover a wider area, as either side
+was reinforced by fresh supporters.  One gigantic Liberal seized the
+board, and held it aloft for a moment, so that it could be seen in its
+entirety by the whole multitude:
+
+                            LIBERAL MAJORITY,
+
+                                  241.
+
+But his triumph was short-lived.  A stick descended upon his head, his
+heels were tripped up, and he and his placard rolled upon the ground
+together.  The victors succeeded, however, in forcing their way to the
+extreme end of the quadrangle, where, as every Edinburgh man knows, the
+full-length statue of Sir David Brewster looks down upon the classic
+ground which he loved so well.  An audacious Radical swarmed up upon the
+pedestal and balanced the obnoxious notice on the marble arms of the
+professor.  Thus converted into a political partisan, the revered
+inventor of the kaleidoscope became the centre of a furious struggle,
+the vanquished politicians making the most desperate efforts to destroy
+the symbol of their opponents' victory, while the others offered an
+equally vigorous resistance to their attacks.  The struggle was still
+proceeding when Dimsdale removed his father, for it was impossible to
+say what form the riot might assume.
+
+"What Goths! what barbarians!" cried the little doctor, as they walked
+down the Bridges.  "And this is my dream of refined quiet and studious
+repose!"
+
+"They are not always like that, sir," said his son apologetically.
+"They were certainly a little jolly to-day."
+
+"A little jolly!" cried the doctor.  "You rogue, Tom.  I believe if I
+had not been there you would have been their ringleader."
+
+He glanced from one to the other, and it was so evident from the
+expression of their faces that he had just hit the mark, that he burst
+into a great guffaw of laughter, in which, after a moment's hesitation,
+his two young companions heartily joined.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+ENGLAND VERSUS SCOTLAND.
+
+The rectorial election had come and had gone, but another great event
+had taken its place.  It was the day of the England and Scotland Rugby
+match.
+
+Better weather could not have been desired.  The morning had been hazy,
+but as the sun shone out the fog had gradually risen, until now there
+remained but a suspicion of it, floating like a plume, above the
+frowning walls of Edinburgh Castle, and twining a fairy wreath round the
+unfinished columns of the national monument upon the Calton Hill.
+The broad stretch of the Prince's Street Gardens, which occupy the
+valley between the old town and the new, looked green and spring-like,
+and their fountains sparkled merrily in the sunshine.  Their wide
+expanse, well-trimmed and bepathed, formed a strange contrast to the
+rugged piles of grim old houses which bounded them upon the other side
+and the massive grandeur of the great hill beyond, which lies like a
+crouching lion keeping watch and ward, day and night, over the ancient
+capital of the Scottish kings.  Travellers who have searched the whole
+world round have found no fairer view.
+
+So thought three of the genus who were ensconced that forenoon in the
+bow windows of the _Royal Hotel_ and gazed across the bright green
+valley at the dull historical background beyond.  One we already know, a
+stoutish gentleman, ruddy-faced and black-eyed, with check trousers,
+light waistcoat and heavy chain, legs widely parted, his hands in his
+pockets, and on his face that expression of irreverent and critical
+approval with which the travelled Briton usually regards the works of
+nature.  By his side was a young lady in a tight-fitting travelling
+dress, with trim leather belt and snow-white collar and cuffs.
+There was no criticism in her sweet face, now flushed with excitement--
+nothing but unqualified wonder and admiration at the beautiful scene
+before her.  An elderly placid-faced woman sat in a basket chair in the
+recess, and looked up with quiet loving eyes at the swift play of
+emotions which swept over the girl's eager features.
+
+"Oh, Uncle George," she cried, "it is really too heavenly.  I cannot
+realize that we are free.  I can't help fearing that it is all a dream,
+and that I shall wake up to find myself pouring out Ezra Girdlestone's
+coffee, or listening to Mr. Girdlestone as he reads the morning
+quotations."
+
+The elder woman stroked the girl's hand caressingly with her soft,
+motherly palm.  "Don't think about it," she murmured.
+
+"No, don't think about it," echoed the doctor.  "My wife is quite right.
+Don't think about it.  But, dear me, what a job I had to persuade your
+guardian to let you go.  I should have given it up in despair--I really
+should--if I had not known that you had set your heart upon it."
+
+"Oh, how good you both are to me!" cried the girl, in a pretty little
+gush of gratitude.
+
+"Pooh, pooh, Kate!  But as to Girdlestone, he is perfectly right.  If I
+had you I should keep you fast to myself, I promise you.  Eh, Matilda?"
+
+"That we would, George."
+
+"Perfect tyrants, both of us.  Eh, Matilda?"
+
+"Yes, George."
+
+"I am afraid that I am not very useful in a household," said the girl.
+"I was too young to look after things for poor papa.  Mr. Girdlestone,
+of course, has a housekeeper of his own.  I read the _Financial News_ to
+him after dinner every day, and I know all about stock and Consols and
+those American railways which are perpetually rising and falling.  One
+of them went wrong last week, and Ezra swore, and Mr. Girdlestone said
+that the Lord chastens those whom He loves.  He did not seem to like
+being chastened a bit though.  But how delightful this is!  It is like
+living in another world."
+
+The girl was a pretty figure as she stood in the window, tall, lithe,
+and graceful, with the long soft curves of budding womanhood.  Her face
+was sweet rather than beautiful, but an artist would have revelled in
+the delicate strength of the softly rounded chin, and the quick bright
+play of her expression.  Her hair, of a deep rich brown, with a bronze
+shimmer where a sunbeam lay athwart it, swept back in those thick
+luxuriant coils which are the unfailing index of a strong womanly
+nature.  Her deep blue eyes danced with life and light, while her
+slightly _retrousse_ nose and her sensitive smiling mouth all spoke of
+gentle good humour.   From her sunny face to the dainty little shoe
+which peeped from under the trim black skirt, she was an eminently
+pleasant object to look upon.  So thought the passers-by as they glanced
+up at the great bow window, and so, too, thought a young gentleman who
+had driven up to the hotel door, and who now bounded up the steps and
+into the room.  He was enveloped in a long shaggy ulster, which
+stretched down to his ankles, and he wore a velvet cap trimmed with
+silver stuck carelessly on the back of his powerful yellow curled head.
+
+"Here is the boy!" cried his mother gaily.
+
+"How are you, mam dear?" he cried, stooping over her to kiss her.
+"How are you, dad?  Good morning, Cousin Kate.  You must come down and
+wish us luck.  What a blessing that it is pretty warm.  It is miserable
+for the spectators when there is an east wind.  What do you think of it,
+dad?"
+
+"I think you are an unnatural young renegade to play against your mother
+country," said the sturdy doctor.
+
+"Oh, come, dad!  I was born in Scotland, and I belong to a Scotch club.
+Surely that is good enough."
+
+"I hope you lose, then."
+
+"We are very likely to.  Atkinson, of the West of Scotland, has strained
+his leg, and we shall have to play Blair, of the Institution, at full
+back--not so good a man by a long way.  The odds are five to four on the
+English this morning.  They are said to be the very strongest lot that
+ever played in an International match.  I have brought a cab with me, so
+the moment you are ready we can start."
+
+There were others besides the students who were excited about the coming
+struggle.  All Edinburgh was in a ferment.  Football is, and always has
+been, the national game of Scotland among those who affect violent
+exercise, while golf takes its place with the more sedately inclined.
+There is no game so fitted to appeal to a hardy and active people as
+that composite exercise prescribed by the Rugby Union, in which fifteen
+men pit strength, speed, endurance, and every manly attribute they
+possess in a prolonged struggle against fifteen antagonists.  There is
+no room for mere knack or trickery.  It is a fierce personal contest in
+which the ball is the central rallying point.  That ball may be kicked,
+pushed, or carried; it may be forced onwards in any conceivable manner
+towards the enemy's goal.  The fleet of foot may seize it and by
+superior speed thread their way through the ranks of their opponents.
+The heavy of frame may crush down all opposition by dead weight.  The
+hardiest and most enduring must win.
+
+Even matches between prominent local clubs excite much interest in
+Edinburgh and attract crowds of spectators.  How much more then when the
+pick of the manhood of Scotland were to try their strength against the
+very cream of the players from the South of the Tweed.  The roads which
+converged on the Raeburn Place Grounds, on which the match was to be
+played, were dark with thousands all wending their way in one direction.
+So thick was the moving mass that the carriage of the Dimsdale party had
+to go at a walk for the latter half of the journey, In spite of the
+objurgations of the driver, who, as a patriot, felt the responsibility
+which rested upon him in having one of the team in his charge, and the
+necessity there was for delivering him up by the appointed time.
+Many in the crowd recognized the young fellow and waved their hands to
+him or called out a few words of encouragement.  Miss Kate Harston and
+even the doctor began to reflect some of the interest and excitement
+which showed itself on every face around them.  The youth alone seemed
+to be unaffected by the general enthusiasm, and spent the time in
+endeavouring to explain the principles of the game to his fair
+companion, whose ignorance of it was comprehensive and astounding.
+
+"You understand," he said, "that there are fifteen players on each side.
+But it would not do for the whole of these fifteen men to play in a
+crowd, for, in that case, if the other side forced the ball past them,
+they would have nothing to fall back upon--no reserves, as it were.
+Therefore, as we play the game in Scotland, ten men are told off to play
+in a knot.  They are picked for their weight, strength, and endurance.
+They are called the forwards, and are supposed to be always on the ball,
+following it everywhere, never stopping or tiring.  They are opposed, of
+course, by the forwards of the other side.  Now, immediately behind the
+forwards are the two quarter-backs.  They should be very active fellows,
+good dodgers and fast runners.  They never join in the very rough work,
+but they always follow on the outskirts of the forwards, and if the ball
+is forced past it is their duty to pick it up and make away with it like
+lightning.  If they are very fast they may succeed in carrying it a long
+way before they are caught--'tackled,' as we call it.  It is their duty
+also to keep their eye on the quarter-backs of the enemy, and to tackle
+them if they get away.  Behind them again are the two half-backs--or
+'three-quarters,' as they call them in England.  I am one of them.
+They are supposed to be fast runners too, and a good deal of the
+tackling comes to their lot, for a good runner of the other side can
+often get past the quarters, and then the halves have got to bring him
+down.  Behind the half-backs is a single man--the back.  He is the last
+resource when all others are past.  He should be a sure and long kicker,
+so as to get the ball away from the goal by that means--but you are not
+listening."
+
+"Oh yes, I am," said Kate.  As a matter of fact the great throng and the
+novel sights were distracting her so much that she found it hard to
+attend to her companion's disquisition.
+
+"You'll understand it quickly enough when you see it," the student
+remarked cheerily.  "Here we are at the grounds."
+
+As he spoke the carriage rattled through a broad gateway into a large
+open grassy space, with a great pavilion at one side of it and a staked
+enclosure about two hundred yards long and a hundred broad, with a
+goal-post at each end.  This space was marked out by gaily coloured
+flags, and on every side of it, pressing against the barrier the whole
+way round, was an enormous crowd, twenty and thirty deep, with others
+occupying every piece of rising ground or coign of vantage behind them.
+The most moderate computation would place the number of spectators at
+fifteen thousand.  At one side there was a line of cabs in the
+background, and thither the carriage of the Dimsdales drove, while Tom
+rushed off with his bag to the pavilion to change.
+
+It was high time to do so, for just as the carriage took up its position
+a hoarse roar burst from the great multitude, and was taken up again and
+again.  It was a welcome to the English team, which had just appeared
+upon the ground.  There they were, clad in white knickerbockers and
+jerseys, with a single red rose embroidered upon their breasts; as
+gallant-looking a set of young fellows as the whole world could produce.
+Tall, square-shouldered, straight-limbed, as active as kittens and as
+powerful as young bullocks, it was clear that they would take a lot of
+beating.  They were the pick of the University and London clubs, with a
+few players from the northern counties; not a man among them whose name
+was not known wherever football was played.  That tall, long-legged
+youth is Evans, the great half-back, who is said to be able to send a
+drop-kick further than any of his predecessors in the annals of the
+game.  There is Buller, the famous Cambridge quarter, only ten stone in
+weight, but as lithe and slippery as an eel; and Jackson, the other
+quarter, is just such another--hard to tackle himself, but as tenacious
+as a bulldog in holding an adversary.  That one with the straw-coloured
+hair is Coles, the great forward; and there are nine lads of metal who
+will stand by him to-day through thick and thin.  They were a
+formidable-looking lot, and betting, which had been five on four to them
+in the morning, showed symptoms of coming to five to three.  In the
+meantime, by no means abashed at finding themselves the cynosure of so
+many eyes, the Englishmen proceeded to keep up their circulation by
+leap-frog and horse-play, for their jerseys were thin and the wind
+bleak.
+
+But where were their adversaries?  A few impatient moments slowly
+passed, and then from one corner of the ground there rose a second
+cheer, which rippled down the long line of onlookers and swelled into a
+mighty shout as the Scotchmen vaulted over the barrier into the arena.
+It was a nice question for connoisseurs in physical beauty as to which
+team had the best of it in physique.  The Northerners in their blue
+jerseys, with a thistle upon their breasts, were a sturdy, hard-bitten
+lot, averaging a couple of pounds more in weight than their opponents.
+The latter were, perhaps, more regularly and symmetrically built, and
+were pronounced by experts to be the faster team, but there was a
+massive, gaunt look about the Scotch forwards which promised well for
+their endurance.  Indeed, it was on their forwards that they principally
+relied.  The presence of three such players as Buller, Evans, and
+Jackson made the English exceptionally strong behind, but they had no
+men in front who were individually so strong and fast as Miller, Watts,
+or Grey.  Dimsdale and Garraway, the Scotch half-backs, and Tookey, the
+quarter, whose blazing red head was a very oriflamme wherever the
+struggle waxed hottest, were the best men that the Northerners could
+boast of behind.
+
+The English had won the choice of goals, and elected to play with what
+slight wind there was at their backs.  A small thing may turn the scale
+between two evenly balanced teams.  Evans, the captain, placed the ball
+in front of him upon the ground, with his men lined all along on either
+side, as eager as hounds in leash.  Some fifty yards in front of him,
+about the place where the ball would drop, the blue-vested Scots
+gathered in a sullen crowd.  There was a sharp ring from a bell, a
+murmur of excitement from the crowd.  Evans took two quick steps
+forward, and the yellow ball flew swift and straight, as if it had been
+shot from a cannon, right into the expectant group in front of him.
+
+For a moment there was grasping and turmoil among the Scotchmen.
+Then from the crowd emerged Grey, the great Glasgow forward, the ball
+tucked well under his arm, his head down, running like the wind, with
+his nine forwards in a dense clump behind him, ready to bear down all
+opposition, while the other five followed more slowly, covering a wider
+stretch of ground.  He met the Englishmen who had started full cry after
+the ball the moment that their captain had kicked it.  The first hurled
+himself upon him.  Grey, without slackening his pace, swerved slightly,
+and he missed him.  The second he passed in the same way, but the third
+caught quickly at his legs, and the Scot flew head over heels and was
+promptly collared.  Not much use collaring him now!  In the very act of
+falling he had thrown the ball behind him.  Gordon, of Paisley, caught
+it and bore it on a dozen yards, when he was seized and knocked down,
+but not before he had bequeathed his trust to another, who struggled
+manfully for some paces before he too was brought to the ground.
+This pretty piece of "passing" had recovered for the Scotch all the
+advantage lost by the English kick-off, and was greeted by roars of
+applause from the crowd.
+
+And now there is a "maul" or "scrimmage." Was there ever another race
+which did such things and called it play!  Twenty young men, so blended
+and inextricably mixed that no one could assign the various arms and
+legs to their respective owners, are straining every muscle and fibre of
+their bodies against each other, and yet are so well balanced that the
+dense clump of humanity stands absolutely motionless.  In the centre is
+an inextricable chaos where shoulders heave and heads rise and fall.  At
+the edges are a fringe of legs--legs in an extreme state of tension--
+ever pawing for a firmer foothold, and apparently completely independent
+of the rest of their owners, whose heads and bodies have bored their way
+Into the _melee_.  The pressure in there is tremendous, yet neither side
+gives an inch.  Just on the skirts of the throng, with bent bodies and
+hands on knees, stand the cool little quarter-backs, watching the
+gasping giants, and also keeping a keen eye upon each other.  Let the
+ball emerge near one of these, and he will whip it up and be ten paces
+off before those in the "maul" even know that it is gone.  Behind them
+again are the halves, alert and watchful, while the back, with his hands
+in his pockets, has an easy consciousness that he will have plenty of
+warning before the ball can pass the four good men who stand between the
+"maul" and himself.
+
+Now the dense throng sways a little backwards and forwards.  An inch is
+lost and an inch is gained.  The crowd roar with delight.  "Mauled,
+Scotland!"  "Mauled England!"  "England!"  "Scotland!"  The shouting
+would stir the blood of the mildest mortal that ever breathed.
+Kate Harston stands in the carriage, rosy with excitement and enjoyment.
+Her heart is all with the wearers of the rose, in spite of the presence
+of her old play-mate in the opposite ranks.  The doctor is as much
+delighted as the youngest man on the ground, and the cabman waves his
+arms and shouts in a highly indecorous fashion.  The two pounds'
+difference in weight is beginning to tell.  The English sway back a yard
+or two.  A blue coat emerges among the white ones.  He has fought his
+way through, but has left the ball behind him, so he dashes round and
+puts his weight behind it once more.  There is a last upheaval, the maul
+is split in two, and through the rent come the redoubtable Scotch
+forwards with the ball amongst them.  Their solid phalanx has scattered
+the English like spray to right and left.  There is no one in front of
+them, no one but a single little man, almost a boy in size and weight.
+Surely he cannot hope to stop the tremendous rush.  The ball is a few
+yards in advance of the leading Scot when he springs forward at it.
+He seizes it an instant before his adversary, and with the same motion
+writhes himself free from the man's grasp.  Now is the time for the
+crack Cambridge quarter-back to show what he is made of.  The crowd yell
+with excitement.  To right and left run the great Scotch forwards,
+grasping, slipping, pursuing, and right in the midst of them, as quick
+and as erratic as a trout in a pool, runs the calm-faced little man,
+dodging one, avoiding another, slipping between the fingers of two
+others.  Surely he is caught now.  No, he has passed all the forwards
+and emerges from the ruck of men, pelting along at a tremendous pace.
+He has dodged one of the Scotch quarters, and outstripped the other.
+"Well played, England!" shout the crowd.  "Well run, Buller!"
+"Now, Tookey!"  "Now, Dimsdale!"  "Well collared, Dimsdale; well
+collared, indeed!"  The little quarter-back had come to an end of his
+career, for Tom had been as quick as he and had caught him round the
+waist as he attempted to pass, and brought him to the ground.
+The cheers were hearty, for the two half-backs were the only University
+men in the team, and there were hundreds of students among the
+spectators.  The good doctor coloured up with pleasure to hear his boy's
+name bellowed forth approvingly by a thousand excited lungs.
+
+The play is, as all good judges said it would be, very equal.  For the
+first forty minutes every advantage gained by either side had been
+promptly neutralized by a desperate effort on the part of the other.
+The mass of struggling players has swayed backwards and forwards, but
+never more than twenty or thirty yards from the centre of the ground.
+Neither goal had been seriously threatened as yet.  The spectators fail
+to see how the odds laid on England are justified, but the "fancy" abide
+by their choice.  In the second forty it is thought that the superior
+speed and staying power of the Southerners will tell over the heavier
+Scots.  There seems little the matter with the latter as yet, as they
+stand in a group, wiping their grimy faces and discussing the state of
+the game; for at the end of forty minutes the goals are changed and
+there is a slight interval.
+
+And now the last hour is to prove whether there are good men bred in the
+hungry North as any who live on more fruitful ground and beneath warmer
+skies.  If the play was desperate before, it became even more so now.
+Each member of either team played as if upon him alone depended the
+issue of the match.  Again and again Grey, Anderson, Gordon, and their
+redoubtable phalanx of dishevelled hard-breathing Scots broke away with
+the ball; but as often the English quarter and half-backs, by their
+superior speed, more than made up for the weakness of their forwards,
+and carried the struggle back into the enemy's ground.  Two or three
+time Evans, the long-kicker, who was credited with the power of reaching
+the goal from almost any part of the ground, got hold of the ball, but
+each time before he could kick he was charged by some one of his
+adversaries.  At last, however, his chance came.  The ball trickled out
+of a maul into the hands of Buller, who at once turned and threw it to
+the half-back behind him.  There was no time to reach him.  He took a
+quick glance at the distant goal, a short run forward, and his long limb
+swung through the air with tremendous force.  There was a dead silence
+of suspense among the crowd as the ball described a lofty parabola.
+Down it came, down, down, as straight and true as an arrow, just grazing
+the cross-bar and pitching on the grass beyond, and the groans of a few
+afflicted patriots were drowned in the hearty cheers which hailed the
+English goal.
+
+But the victory was not won yet.  There were ten minutes left for the
+Scotchmen to recover this blow or for the Englishmen to improve upon it.
+The Northerners played so furiously that the ball was kept down near the
+English goal, which was only saved by the splendid defensive play of
+their backs.  Five minutes passed, and the Scots in turn were being
+pressed back.  A series of brilliant runs by Buller, Jackson, and Evans
+took the fight into the enemy's country, and kept it there.  It seemed
+as if the visitors meant scoring again, when a sudden change occurred in
+the state of affairs.  It was but three minutes off the calling of time
+when Tookey, one of the Scotch quarter-backs, got hold of the ball, and
+made a magnificent run, passing right through the opposing forwards and
+quarters.  He was collared by Evans, but immediately threw the ball
+behind him.  Dimsdale had followed up the quarter-back and caught the
+ball when it was thrown backwards.  Now or never!  The lad felt that he
+would sacrifice anything to pass the three men who stood between him and
+the English goal.  He passed Evans like the wind before the half-back
+could disentangle himself from Tookey.  There were but two now to oppose
+him.  The first was the other English half-back, a broad-shouldered,
+powerful fellow, who rushed at him; but Tom, without attempting to avoid
+him, lowered his head and drove at him full tilt with such violence that
+both men reeled back from the collision.  Dimsdale recovered himself
+first, however, and got past before the other had time to seize him.
+The goal was now not more than twenty yards off, with only one between
+Tom and it, though half a dozen more were in close pursuit.  The English
+back caught him round the waist, while another from behind seized the
+collar of his jersey, and the three came heavily to the ground together.
+But the deed was done.  In the very act of falling he had managed to
+kick the ball, which flickered feebly up into the air and just cleared
+the English bar.  It had scarcely touched the ground upon the other side
+when the ringing of the great bell announced the termination of the
+match, though its sound was entirely drowned by the tumultuous shouting
+of the crowd.  A thousand hats were thrown into the air, ten thousand
+voices joined in the roar, and meanwhile the cause of all this outcry
+was still sitting on the ground, smiling, it is true, but very pale, and
+with one of his arms dangling uselessly from his shoulder.
+
+Well, the breaking of a collar-bone is a small price to pay for the
+saving of such a match as that.  So thought Tom Dimsdale as he made for
+the pavilion, with his father keeping off the exultant crowd upon one
+side and Jack Garraway upon the other.  The doctor butted a path through
+the dense half-crazy mob with a vigour which showed that his son's
+talents in that direction were hereditary.  Within half an hour Tom was
+safely ensconced in the corner of the carriage, with his shoulder braced
+back, _secundum artem_, and his arm supported by a sling.  How quietly
+and deftly the two women slipped a shawl here and a rug there to save
+him from the jarring of the carriage!  It is part of the angel nature of
+woman that when youth and strength are maimed and helpless they appeal
+to her more than they can ever do in the pride and flush of their power.
+Here lies the compensation of the unfortunate.  Kate's dark blue eyes
+filled with ineffable compassion as she bent over him; and he, catching
+sight of that expression, felt a sudden new unaccountable spring of joy
+bubble up in his heart, which made all previous hopes and pleasures seem
+vapid and meaningless.  The little god shoots hard and straight when his
+mark is still in the golden dawn of life.  All the way back he lay with
+his head among the cushions, dreaming of ministering angels, his whole
+soul steeped in quiet contentment as it dwelt upon the sweet earnest
+eyes which had looked so tenderly into his.  It had been an eventful day
+with the student.  He had saved his side, he had broken his collar-bone,
+and now, most serious of all, he had realized that he was hopelessly in
+love.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+A FIRST PROFESSIONAL.
+
+Within a few weeks of his recovery from his accident Tom Dimsdale was to
+go up for his first professional examination, and his father, who had
+now retired from practice with a fair fortune, remained in Edinburgh
+until that event should come off.  There had been some difficulty in
+persuading Girdlestone to give his consent to this prolongation of his
+ward's leave, but the old merchant was very much engrossed with his own
+affairs about that time, which made him more amenable than he might
+otherwise have been.  The two travellers continued, therefore, to reside
+in their Princes Street hotel, but the student held on to his lodgings
+in Howe Street, where he used to read during the morning and afternoon.
+Every evening, however, he managed to dine at the _Royal_, and would
+stay there until his father packed him off to his books once more.
+It was in vain for him to protest and to plead for another half-hour.
+The physician was inexorable.  When the fated hour came round the
+unhappy youth slowly gathered together his hat, his gloves, and his
+stick, spreading out that operation over the greatest possible extent of
+time which it could by any means be made to occupy.  He would then
+ruefully bid his kinsfolk adieu, and retire rebelliously to his books.
+
+Very soon, however, he made a discovery.  From a certain seat in the
+Princes Street Gardens it was possible to see the interior of the
+sitting-room in which the visitors remained after dinner.  From the time
+when this fact dawned upon him, his rooms in the evening knew him no
+more.  The gardens were locked at night, but that was a mere trifle.
+He used to scramble over the railings like a cat, and then, planting
+himself upon the particular seat, he would keep a watch upon the hotel
+window until the occupants of the room retired to rest.  It might happen
+that his cousin remained invisible.  Then he would return to his rooms
+in a highly dissatisfied state, and sit up half the night protesting
+against fate and smoking strong black tobacco.  On the other hand, if he
+had the good luck to see the graceful figure of his old playfellow, he
+felt that that was the next best thing to being actually in her company,
+and departed eventually in a more contented frame of mind.  Thus, when
+Dr. Dimsdale fondly imagined his son to be a mile away grappling with
+the mysteries of science, that undutiful lad was in reality perched
+within sixty yards of him, with his thoughts engrossed by very different
+matters.
+
+Kate could not fail to understand what was going on.  However young and
+innocent a girl may be, there is always some subtle feminine instinct
+which warns her that she is loved.  Then first she realizes that she has
+passed the shadowy frontier line which divides the child-life from that
+of the woman.  Kate felt uneasy and perplexed, and half involuntarily
+she changed her manner towards him.
+
+It had been frank and sisterly; now it became more distant and
+constrained.  He was quick to observe the change, and in private raved
+and raged at it.  He even made the mistake of showing his pique to her,
+upon which she became still more retiring and conventional.  Then he
+bemoaned himself in the sleepless watches of the night, and confided to
+his bed-post that in his belief such a case had never occurred before in
+the history of the world, and never by any chance could or would happen
+again.  He also broke out into an eruption of bad verses, which were
+found by his landlady during her daily examination of his private
+papers, and were read aloud to a select audience of neighbours, who were
+all much impressed, and cackled sympathetically among themselves.
+
+By degrees Tom developed other symptoms of the distemper which had come
+upon him so suddenly.  He had always been remarkable for a certain
+towsiness of appearance and carelessness of dress which harmonized with
+his Bohemian habits.  All this he suddenly abjured.  One fine morning he
+paid successive visits to his tailor, his boot-maker, his hatter, and
+his hosier, which left all those worthy tradesmen rubbing their hands
+with satisfaction.  About a week afterwards he emerged from his rooms in
+a state of gorgeousness which impressed his landlady and amazed his
+friends.  His old college companions hardly recognized Tom's honest phiz
+as it looked out above the most fashionable of coats and under the
+glossiest of hats.
+
+His father was anything but edified by the change.
+
+"I don't know what's coming over the lad, Kate," he remarked after one
+of his visits.  "If I thought he was going to turn to a fop, by the Lord
+Harry I'd disown him!  Don't you notice a change in him yourself?"
+
+Kate managed to evade the question, but her bright blush might have
+opened the old man's eyes had he observed it.  He hardly realized yet
+that his son really was a man, and still less did he think of John
+Harston's little girl as a woman.  It is generally some comparative
+stranger who first makes that discovery and brings it home to friends
+and relatives.
+
+Love has an awkward way of intruding itself at inconvenient times, but
+it never came more inopportunely than when it smote one who was reading
+for his first professional examination.  During these weeks, when Tom
+was stumping about in boots which were two sizes too small for him, in
+the hope of making his muscular, well-formed foot a trifle more elegant,
+and was splitting gloves in a way which surprised his glover, all his
+energies ought by rights to have been concentrated upon the mysteries of
+botany, chemistry, and zoology.  During the precious hours that should
+have been devoted to the mastering of the sub-divisions of the
+celenterata or the natural orders of endogenous plants, he was expending
+his energies in endeavouring to recall the words of the song which his
+cousin had sung the evening before, or to recollect the exact intonation
+with which she remarked to him that it had been a fine day, or some
+other equally momentous observation.  It follows that, as the day of the
+examination came round, the student, in his lucid intervals, began to
+feel anxious for the result.  He had known his work fairly well,
+however, at one time, and with luck he might pull through.  He made an
+energetic attempt to compress a month's reading into a week, and when
+the day for the written examination came round he had recovered some of
+his lost ground.  The papers suited him fairly well, and he felt as he
+left the hall that he had had better fortune than he deserved.  The
+_viva voce_ ordeal was the one, however, which he knew would be most
+dangerous to him, and he dreaded it accordingly.
+
+It was a raw spring morning when his turn came to go up.  His father and
+Kate drove round with him to the University gates.
+
+"Keep up your pluck, Tom," the old gentleman said.  "Be cool, and have
+all your wits about you.  Don't lose your head, whatever you do."
+
+"I seem to have forgotten the little I ever knew," Tom said dolefully,
+as he trudged up the steps.  As he looked back he saw Kate wave her hand
+to him cheerily, and it gave him fresh heart.
+
+"We shall hope to see you at lunch time," his father shouted after him.
+"Mind you bring us good news." As he spoke the carriage rattled away
+down the Bridges, and Tom joined the knot of expectant students who were
+waiting at the door of the great hall.
+
+A melancholy group they were, sallow-faced, long-visaged and dolorous,
+partly from the effects of a long course of study and partly from their
+present trepidation.  It was painful to observe their attempts to appear
+confident and unconcerned as they glanced round the heavens, as if to
+observe the state of the weather, or examined with well-feigned
+archaeological fervour the inscriptions upon the old University walls.
+Most painful of all was it, when some one, plucking up courage, would
+venture upon a tiny joke, at which the whole company would gibber in an
+ostentatious way, as though to show that even in this dire pass the
+appreciation of humour still remained with them.  At times, when any of
+their number alluded to the examination or detailed the questions which
+had been propounded to Brown or Baker the day before, the mask of
+unconcern would be dropped, and the whole assembly would glare eagerly
+and silently at the speaker.  Generally on such occasions matters are
+made infinitely worse by some Job's comforter, who creeps about
+suggesting abstruse questions, and hinting that they represent some
+examiner's particular hobby.  Such a one came to Dimsdale's elbow, and
+quenched the last ray of hope which lingered in the young man's bosom.
+
+"What do you know about cacodyl?" was his impressive question.
+
+"Cacodyl?" Tom cried aghast.  "It's some sort of antediluvian reptile,
+isn't it?"
+
+The questioner broke into a sickly smile.  "No," he said.  "It's an
+organic explosive chemical compound.  You're sure to be asked about
+cacodyl.  Tester's dead on it.  He asks every one how it is prepared."
+
+Tom, much perturbed at these tidings, was feverishly endeavouring to
+extract some little information from his companion concerning the
+compound, when a bell rang abruptly inside the room and a janitor with a
+red face and a blue slip of paper appeared at the door.
+
+"Dillon, Dimsdale, Douglas," this functionary shouted in a very pompous
+voice, and three unhappy young men filed through the half-opened door
+into the solemn hall beyond.
+
+The scene inside was not calculated to put them at their ease.  Three
+tables, half a dozen yards from each other, were littered with various
+specimens and scientific instruments, and behind each sat two elderly
+gentlemen, stern-faced and critical.  At one side were stuffed specimens
+of various small beasts, numerous skeletons and skulls, large jars
+containing fish and reptiles preserved in spirits of wine, jawbones with
+great teeth which grinned savagely at the unfortunate candidate, and
+numerous other zoological relics.  The second table was heaped over with
+a blaze of gorgeous orchids and tropical plants, which looked strangely
+out of place in the great bleak room.  A row of microscopes bristled
+along the edge.  The third was the most appalling of all, for it was
+bare with the exception of several sheets of paper and a pencil.
+Chemistry was the most dangerous of the many traps set to ensnare the
+unwary student.
+
+"Dillon--botany;  Dimsdale--zoology; Douglas--chemistry," the janitor
+shouted once more, and the candidates moved in front of the respective
+tables.  Tom found himself facing a great spider crab, which appeared to
+be regarding him with a most malignant expression upon its crustacean
+features.  Behind the crab sat a little professor, whose projecting eyes
+and crooked arms gave him such a resemblance to the creature in front
+that the student could not help smiling.
+
+"Sir," said a tall, clean-shaven man at the other end of the table, "be
+serious.  This is no time for levity."
+
+Tom's expression after that would have made the fortune of a mute.
+
+"What is this?" asked the little professor, handing a small round object
+to the candidate.
+
+"It is an echinus--a sea-urchin," Tom said triumphantly.
+
+"Have they any circulation?" asked the other examiner.
+
+"A water vascular system."
+
+"Describe it."
+
+Tom started off fluently, but it was no part of the policy of the
+examiners to allow him to waste the fifteen minutes allotted them in
+expatiating upon what he knew well.  They interrupted him after a few
+sentences.
+
+"How does this creature walk?" asked the crab-like one.
+
+"By means of long tubes which it projects at pleasure."
+
+"How do the tubes enable the creature to walk?"
+
+"They have suckers on them."
+
+"What are the suckers like?"
+
+"They are round hollow discs."
+
+"Are you sure they are round?" asked the other sharply.
+
+"Yes," said Tom stoutly, though his ideas on the subject were rather
+vague."
+
+"And how does this sucker act?" asked the taller examiner.
+
+Tom began to feel that these two men were exhibiting a very unseemly
+curiosity.  There seemed to be no satiating their desire for
+information.  "It creates a vacuum," he cried desperately.
+
+"How does it create a vacuum?"
+
+"By the contraction of a muscular pimple in the centre," said Tom, in a
+moment of inspiration.
+
+"And what makes this pimple contract?"
+
+Tom lost his head, and was about to say "electricity," when he happily
+checked himself and substituted "muscular action."
+
+"Very good," said the examiners, and the student breathed again.  The
+taller one returned to the charge, however, with, "And this muscle--is
+it composed of striped fibres or non-striped?"
+
+"Non-striped," shrieked Tom at a venture, and both examiners rubbed
+their hands and murmured, "Very good, indeed!" at which Tom's hair began
+to lie a little flatter, and he ceased to feel as if he were in a
+Turkish bath.
+
+"How many teeth has a rabbit?" the tall man asked suddenly.
+
+"I don't know," the student answered with candour.
+
+The two looked triumphantly at one another.
+
+"He doesn't know!" cried the goggle-eyed one decisively.
+
+"I should recommend you to count them the next time you have one for
+dinner," the other remarked.  As this was evidently meant for a joke,
+Tom had the tact to laugh, and a very gruesome and awe-inspiring laugh
+it was too.
+
+Then the candidate was badgered about the pterodactyl, and concerning
+the difference in anatomy between a bat and a bird, and about the
+lamprey, and the cartilaginous fishes, and the amphioxus.  All these
+questions he answered more or less to the satisfaction of the
+examiners--generally less.  When at last the little bell tinkled which
+was the sign for candidates to move on to other tables, the taller man
+leaned over a list in front of him and marked down upon it the following
+hieroglyphic:--
+
+                   "S. B.--."
+
+This Tom's sharp eye at once detected, and he departed well pleased, for
+he knew that the "S. B." meant _satis bene_, and as to the minus sign
+after it, it mattered little to him whether he had done rather more than
+well or rather less.  He had passed in zoology, and that was all which
+concerned him at present.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+A NASTY CROPPER.
+
+But there were pitfalls ahead.  As he moved to the botany table a
+grey-bearded examiner waved his hand in the direction of the row of
+microscopes as an intimation that the student was to look through them
+and pronounce upon what he saw.  Tom seemed to compress his whole soul
+into his one eye as he glared hopelessly through the tube at what
+appeared to him to resemble nothing so much as a sheet of ice with the
+marks of skates upon it.
+
+"Come along, come along!" the examiner growled impatiently.  Courtesy is
+conspicuous by its absence in most of the Edinburgh examinations.
+"You must pass on to the next one, unless you can offer an opinion."
+
+This venerable teacher of botany, though naturally a kind-hearted man,
+was well known as one of the most malignant species of examiners, one of
+the school which considers such an ordeal in the light of a trial of
+strength between their pupils and themselves.  In his eyes the candidate
+was endeavouring to pass, and his duty was to endeavour to prevent him,
+a result which, in a large proportion of cases, he successfully
+accomplished.
+
+"Hurry on, hurry on!" he reiterated fussily.
+
+"It's a section of a leaf," said the student.
+
+"It's nothing of the sort," the examiner shouted exultantly.
+"You've made a bad mistake, sir; a very bad one, indeed.  It's the
+spirilloe of a water plant.  Move on to the next."
+
+Tom, in much perturbation of mind, shuffled down the line and looked
+through the next brazen tube.  "This is a preparation of stomata," he
+said, recognizing it from a print in his book on botany.
+
+The professor shook his head despondingly.  "You are right," he said;
+"pass on to the next."
+
+The third preparation was as puzzling to the student as the first had
+been, and he was steeling himself to meet the inevitable when an
+unexpected circumstance turned the scale in his favour.  It chanced that
+the other examiner, being somewhat less of a fossil than his
+_confreres_, and having still vitality enough to take an interest in
+things which were foreign to his subject, had recognized the student as
+being the young hero who had damaged himself in upholding the honour of
+his country.  Being an ardent patriot himself his heart warmed towards
+Tom, and perceiving the imminent peril in which he stood he interfered
+in his behalf, and by a few leading questions got him on safer ground,
+and managed to keep him there until the little bell tinkled once more.
+The younger examiner showed remarkable tact in feeling his way, and
+keeping within the very limited area of the student's knowledge.  He
+succeeded so well, however, that although his colleague shook his hoary
+head and intimated in other ways his poor opinion of the candidate's
+acquirements, he was forced to put down another "S. B." upon the paper
+in front of him.  The student drew a long breath when he saw it, and
+marched across to the other table with a mixture of trepidation and
+confidence, like a jockey riding at the last and highest hurdle in a
+steeple-chase.
+
+Alas! it is the last hurdle which often floors the rider, and Thomas too
+was doomed to find the final ordeal an insurmountable one.  As he
+crossed the room some evil chance made him think of the gossip outside
+and of his allusion to the abstruse substance known as cacodyl.
+Once let a candidate's mind hit upon such an idea as this, and nothing
+will ever get it out of his thoughts.  Tom felt his head buzz round, and
+he passed his hand over his forehead and through his curly yellow hair
+to steady himself.  He felt a frenzied impulse as he sat down to
+inform the examiners that he knew very well what they were going to ask
+him, and that it was hopeless for him to attempt to answer it.
+
+The leading professor was a ruddy-faced, benevolent old gentleman, with
+spectacles and a kindly manner.  He made a few commonplace remarks to
+his colleagues with the good-natured intention of giving the
+confused-looking student before him time to compose himself.
+Then, turning blandly towards him, he said in the mildest of tones--
+
+"Have you ever rowed in a pond?"
+
+Tom acknowledged that he had.
+
+"Perhaps, on those occasions," the examiner continued, "you may have
+chanced to touch the mud at the bottom with your oar."
+
+Tom agreed that it was possible.
+
+"In that case you may have observed that a large bubble, or a succession
+of them has risen from the bottom to the surface.  Now, of what gas was
+that bubble composed?"
+
+The unhappy student, with the one idea always fermenting on his brain,
+felt that the worst had come upon him.  Without a moment's hesitation or
+thought he expressed his conviction that the compound was cacodyl.
+
+Never did two men look more surprised, and never did two generally grave
+_savants_ laugh more heartily than did the two examiners when they
+realized what the candidate had answered.  Their mirth speedily brought
+him back to his senses.  He saw with a feeling of despair that it was
+marsh gas which they had expected--one of the simplest and commonest of
+chemical combinations.  Alas! it was too late now.  He knew full well
+that nothing could save him.  With poor marks in botany and zoology,
+such an error in chemistry was irreparable.  He did what was perhaps the
+best thing under the circumstances.  Rising from his chair he made a
+respectful bow to the examiners, and walked straight out of the room--to
+the great astonishment of the janitor, who had never before witnessed
+such a breach of decorum.  As the student closed the door behind him he
+looked back and saw that the other professors had left their respective
+tables and were listening to an account of the incident from one of the
+chemists--and a roar of laughter the moment afterwards showed that they
+appreciated the humour of it.  His fellow-students gathered round Tom
+outside in the hope of sharing in the joke, but he pushed them angrily
+aside and strode through the midst of them and down the University
+steps.  He knew that the story would spread fast enough without his
+assistance.  His mind was busy too in shaping a certain resolution which
+he had often thought over during the last few months.
+
+The two old people and Miss Kate Harston waited long and anxiously in
+their sitting-room at the hotel for some news of the absentee.  The
+doctor had, at first, attempted a lofty cynicism and general assumption
+of indifference, which rapidly broke down as the time went by, until at
+last he was wandering round the room, drumming upon the furniture with
+his fingers and showing every other sign of acute impatience.
+The window was on the first floor, and Kate had been stationed there as
+a sentinel to watch the passing crowd and signal the first sign of
+tidings.
+
+"Can't you see him yet?" the doctor asked for the twentieth time.
+
+"No, dear, I don't," she answered, glancing up and down the street.
+
+"He must be out now.  He should have come straight to us.  Come away
+from the window, my dear.  We must not let the young monkey see how
+anxious we are about him."
+
+Kate sat down by the old man and stroked his broad brown hand with her
+tender white one.  "Don't be uneasy, dear," she said; "it's sure to be
+all right."
+
+"Yes, he is sure to pass," the doctor answered; "but--bless my soul,
+who's this?"
+
+The individual who caused this exclamation was a very broad-faced and
+rosy-cheeked little girl, coarsely clad, with a pile of books and a
+slate under her arm, who had suddenly entered the apartment.
+
+"Please sir," said this apparition, with a bob, "I'm Sarah Jane."
+
+"Are you, indeed?" said the doctor, with mild irony.  "And what d'ye
+want here, Sarah Jane?"
+
+"Please, sir, my mithar, Mrs. McTavish, asked me if I wudna' gie ye this
+letter frae the gentleman what's lodgin' wi' her."  With these words the
+little mite delivered her missive and, having given another bob,
+departed upon her ways.
+
+"Why," the doctor cried in astonishment, "it's directed to me and in
+Tom's writing.  What can be the meaning of this?"
+
+"Oh dear! oh dear!" Mrs. Dimsdale cried, with the quick perception of
+womanhood; "it means that he has failed."
+
+"Impossible!" said the doctor, fumbling with nervous fingers at the
+envelope.  "By Jove, though," he continued, as he glanced over the
+contents, "you're right.  He has.  Poor lad! he's more cut up about it
+than we can be, so we must not blame him."
+
+The good physician read the letter over several times before he finally
+put it away in his note-book, and he did so with a thoughtful face which
+showed that it was of importance.  As it has an influence upon the
+future course of our story we cannot end the chapter better than by
+exercising our literary privilege, and peeping over the doctor's
+shoulder before he has folded it up.  This is the epistle
+_in extenso_:--
+
+     "My Dear Father,
+
+     "You will be sorry to hear that I have failed in my exam.
+      I am very cut up about it, because I fear that it will
+      cause you grief and disappointment, and you deserve
+      neither the one nor the other at my hands."
+
+     "It is not an unmixed misfortune to me, because it helps
+      me to make a request which I have long had in my mind.
+      I wish you to allow me to give up the study of medicine
+      and to go in for commerce.  You have never made a secret
+      of our money affairs to me, and I know that if I took my
+      degree there would never be any necessity for me to practise.
+      I should therefore have spent five years of my life in
+      acquiring knowledge which would not be of any immediate
+      use to me.  I have no personal inclination towards medicine,
+      while I have a very strong objection to simply living in the
+      world upon money which other men have earned.  I must therefore
+      turn to some fresh pursuit for my future career, and surely it
+      would be best that I should do so at once.  What that fresh
+      pursuit is to be I leave to your judgment.  Personally, I think
+      that if I embarked my capital in some commercial undertaking
+      I might by sticking to my work do well.  I feel too much cast
+      down at my own failure to see you to-night, but to-morrow I hope
+      to hear what you think from your own lips."
+
+                                                 "TOM."
+
+"Perhaps this failure will do no harm after all," the doctor muttered
+thoughtfully, as he folded up the letter and gazed out at the cold glare
+of the northern sunset.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+DWELLERS IN BOHEMIA.
+
+The residence of Major Tobias Clutterbuck, late of the 119th Light
+Infantry, was not known to any of his friends.  It is true that at times
+he alluded in a modest way to his "little place," and even went to the
+length of remarking airily to new acquaintances that he hoped they would
+look him up any time they happened to be in his direction.  As he
+carefully refrained, however, from ever giving the slightest indication
+of which direction that might be, his invitations never led to any
+practical results.  Still they had the effect of filling the recipient
+with a vague sense of proffered hospitality, and occasionally led to
+more substantial kindness in return.
+
+The gallant major's figure was a familiar one in the card-room of the
+_Rag and Bobtail_, at the bow-window of the Jeunesse Doree.  Tall and
+pompous, with a portly frame and a puffy clean-shaven face which peered
+over an abnormally high collar and old-fashioned linen cravat, he stood
+as a very type and emblem of staid middle-aged respectability.
+The major's hat was always of the glossiest, the major's coat was
+without a wrinkle, and, in short, from the summit of the major's bald
+head to his bulbous finger-tips and his gouty toes, there was not a flaw
+which the most severe critic of deportment--even the illustrious
+Turveydrop himself--could have detected.  Let us add that the
+conversation of the major was as irreproachable as his person--that he
+was a distinguished soldier and an accomplished traveller, with a
+retentive memory and a mind stuffed with the good things of a
+lifetime.  Combine all these qualities, and one would naturally regard
+the major as a most desirable acquaintance.
+
+It is painful to have to remark, however, that, self-evident as this
+proposition might appear, it was vehemently contradicted by some of the
+initiated.  There were rumours concerning the major which seriously
+compromised his private character.  Indeed, such a pitch had they
+reached that when that gallant officer put himself forward as a
+candidate for a certain select club, he had, although proposed by a lord
+and seconded by a baronet, been most ignominiously pilled.  In public
+the major affected to laugh over this social failure, and to regard it
+as somewhat in the nature of a practical joke, but privately he was
+deeply incensed.  One day he momentarily dropped his veil of unconcern
+while playing billiards with the Honourable Fungus Brown, who was
+generally credited with having had some hand in the major's exclusion.
+"Be Ged! sir," the veteran suddenly exclaimed, inflating his chest and
+turning his apoplectic face upon his companion, "in the old days I would
+have called the lot of you out, sir, every demned one, beginning with
+the committee and working down; I would, be George!"  At which savage
+attack the Honourable Fungus's face grew as white as the major's was
+red, and he began to wish that he had been more reserved in his
+confidences to some of his acquaintances respecting the exclusiveness of
+the club in question, or at least refrained from holding up the major's
+pilling as a proof thereof.
+
+The cause of this vague feeling of distrust which had gone abroad
+concerning the old soldier was no very easy matter to define.  It is
+true that he was known to have a book on every race, and to have secret
+means of information from stud-grooms and jockeys which occasionally
+stood him in good stead; but this was no uncommon thing among the men
+with whom he consorted.  Again, it is true that Major Clutterbuck was
+much addicted to whist, with guinea points, and to billiard matches for
+substantial sums, but these stimulating recreations are also habitual to
+many men who have led eventful lives and require a strong seasoning to
+make ordinary existence endurable.  Perhaps one reason may have been
+that the major's billiard play in public varied to an extraordinary
+degree, so that on different occasions he had appeared to be aiming at
+the process termed by the initiated "getting on the money."  The warm
+friendships, too, which the old soldier had contracted with sundry
+vacuous and sappy youths, who were kindly piloted by him into
+quasi-fashionable life and shown how and when to spend their money, had
+been most uncharitably commented upon.  Perhaps the vagueness about the
+major's private residence and the mystery which hung over him outside
+his clubs may also have excited prejudice against him.  Still, however
+his detractors might malign him, they could not attempt to deny the fact
+that Tobias Clutterbuck was the third son of the Honourable Charles
+Clutterbuck, who again was the second son of the Earl of Dunross, one of
+the most ancient of Hibernian families.  This pedigree the old soldier
+took care to explain to every one about him, more particularly to the
+sappy youths aforementioned.
+
+It chanced that on the afternoon of which we speak the major was
+engrossed by this very subject.  Standing at the head of the broad stone
+steps which lead up to the palatial edifice which its occupiers
+irreverently term the _Rag and Bobtail_, he was explaining to a
+bull-necked, olive-complexioned young man the series of marriages and
+inter-marriages which had culminated in the production of his own
+portly, stiff-backed figure.  His companion, who was none other than
+Ezra Girdlestone, of the great African firm of that name, leaned against
+one of the pillars of the portico and listened gloomily to the major's
+family reminiscences, giving an occasional yawn which he made no attempt
+to conceal.
+
+"It's as plain as the fingers of me hand," the old soldier said in a
+wheezy muffled brogue, as if he were speaking from under a feather-bed.
+"See here now, Girdlestone--this is Miss Letitia Snackles of Snackleton,
+a cousin of old Sir Joseph."  The major tapped his thumb with the silver
+head of his walking-stick to represent the maiden Snackles.  "She
+marries Crawford, of the Blues--one o' the Warwickshire Crawfords;
+that's him"--here he elevated his stubby forefinger; "and here's their
+three children, Jemima, Harold, and John."  Up went three other fingers.
+"Jemima Crawford grows up, and then Charley Clutterbuck runs away with
+her.  This other thumb o' mine will stand for that young divil Charley,
+and then me fingers--"
+
+"Oh, hang your fingers," Girdlestone exclaimed with emphasis.
+"It's very interesting, major, but it would be more intelligible if you
+wrote it out."
+
+"And so I shall, me boy!" the major cried enthusiastically, by no means
+abashed at the sudden interruption.  "I'll draw it up on a bit o'
+foolscap paper.  Let's see; Fenchurch Street, eh?  Address to the
+offices, of course.  Though, for that matter, 'Girdlestone, London,'
+would foind you.  I was spakin' of ye to Sir Musgrave Moore, of the
+Rifles, the other day, and he knew you at once.  'Girdlestone?' says he.
+'The same,' says I.  'A merchant prince?' says he.  'The same,' says I.
+'I'd be proud to meet him,' says he.  'And you shall,' says I.  He's the
+best blood of county Waterford."
+
+"More blood than money, I suppose," the young man said, smoothing out
+his crisp black moustache.
+
+"Bedad, you've about hit it there.  He went to California, and came back
+with five and twinty thousand pounds.  I met him in Liverpool the day he
+arrived.  'This is no good to me, Toby,' says he.  'Why not?' I asks.
+'Not enough,' says he; 'just enough to unsettle me.'  'What then?' says
+I.  'Put it on the favourite for the St. Leger,' says he.  And he did
+too, every pinny of it, and the horse was beat on the post by a short
+head.  He dropped the lot in one day.  A fact, sir, 'pon me honour!
+Came to me next day.  'Nothing left!' says he.  'Nothing?' says I.
+'Only one thing,' says he.  'Suicide?' says I.  'Marriage,' says he.
+Within a month he was married to the second Miss Shuttleworth, who had
+five thou. in her own right, and five more when Lord Dungeness turns up
+his toes."
+
+"Indeed?" said his companion languidly.
+
+"Fact, 'pon me honour! By the way--ah, here comes Lord Henry Richardson.
+How d'ye do, Richardson, how d'ye do?  Ged, I remember Richardson when
+he was a tow-headed boy at Clongowes, and I used to lam him with a
+bootjack for his cheek.  Ah, yes; I was going to say--it seems a demned
+awkward incident--ha! ha!--ridiculous, but annoying, you know.  The fact
+is, me boy, coming away in a hurry from me little place, I left me purse
+on the drawers in the bedroom, and here's Jorrocks up in the
+billiard-room afther challenging me to play for a tenner--but I won't
+without having the money in me pocket.  Tobias Clutterbuck may be poor,
+me dear friend, but"--and here he puffed out his chest and tapped on it
+with his round, sponge-like fist--"he's honest, and pays debts of
+honour on the nail.  No, sir, there's no one can say a word against
+Tobias, except that he's a half-pay old fool with more heart than
+brains.  However," he added, suddenly dropping the sentimental and
+coming back to the practical, "if you, me dear boy, can obloige me with
+the money until to-morrow morning, I'll play Jorrocks with pleasure.
+There's not many men that I'd ask such a favour of, and even from you
+I'd never accept anything more than a mere timporary convanience."
+
+"You may stake your life on that," Ezra Girdlestone said with a sneer,
+looking sullenly down and tracing figures with the end of his stick on
+the stone steps.  "You'll never get the chance.  I make it a rule never
+to lend any one money, either for short or long periods."
+
+"And you won't let me have this throifling accommodation?"
+
+"No," the young man said decisively.
+
+For a moment the major's brick-coloured, weather-beaten face assumed an
+even darker tint, and his small dark eyes looked out angrily from under
+his shaggy brows at his youthful companion.  He managed to suppress the
+threatened explosion, however, and burst into a loud roar of laughter.
+
+"'Pon me sowl!" he wheezed, poking the young man in the ribs with his
+stick, an implement which he had grasped a moment before as though he
+meditated putting it to a less pacific use, "you young divils of
+business-men are too much for poor old Tobias.  Ged, sir, to think of
+being stuck in the mud for the want of a paltry tenner!  Tommy Heathcote
+will laugh when he hears of it.  You know Tommy of the 81st?  He gave me
+good advice: 'Always sew a fifty-pound note into the lining of each
+waistcoat you've got.  Then you can't go short.'  Tried it once, and, be
+George! if me demned man-servant didn't stale that very waistcoat and
+sell it for six and sixpence.  You're not going, are you?"
+
+"Yes; I'm due in the City.  The governor leaves at four.  Good-bye.
+Shall I see you to-night?"
+
+"Card-room, as per usual," quoth the clean-shaven warrior.  He looked
+after the retreating figure of his late companion with anything but a
+pleasant expression upon his face.  The young man happened to glance
+round as he was half-way down the street, on which the major smiled
+after him paternally, and gave a merry flourish with his stick.
+
+As the old soldier stood on the top of the club steps, pompous,
+pigeon-chested, and respectable, posing himself as though he had been
+placed there for the inspection of passers-by as a sample of the
+aristocracy within, he made several attempts to air his grievances to
+passing members touching the question of the expectant Jorrocks and the
+missing purse.  Beyond, however, eliciting many sallies of wit from the
+younger spirits, for it was part of the major's policy to lay himself
+open to be a butt, his laudable perseverance was entirely thrown away.
+At last he gave it up in disgust, and raising his stick hailed a passing
+'bus, into which he sprang, taking a searching glance round to see that
+no one was following him.  After a drive which brought him to the other
+side of the City, he got out in a broad, busy thoroughfare, lined with
+large shops.  A narrow turning from the main artery led into a long,
+dingy street, consisting of very high smoke-coloured houses, which ran
+parallel to the other, and presented as great a contrast to it as the
+back of a painting does to the front.
+
+Down this sombre avenue the major strutted with all his wonted
+pomposity, until about half-way down he reached a tall, grim-looking
+house, with many notices of "apartments" glaring from the windows.
+The line of railings which separated this house from the street was
+rusty, and broken and the whole place had a flavour of mildew.
+The major walked briskly up the stone steps, hollowed out by the feet of
+generations of lodgers, and pushing open the great splotchy door, which
+bore upon it a brass plate indicating that the establishment was kept by
+a Mrs. Robins, he walked into the hall with the air of one who treads
+familiar ground.  Up one flight of stairs, up two flights of stairs, and
+up three flights of stairs did he climb, until on the fourth landing he
+pushed open a door and found himself in a small room, which formed for
+the nonce the "little place" about which he was wont at the club to make
+depreciatory allusions, so skilfully introduced that the listener was
+left in doubt as to whether the major was the happy possessor of a
+country house and grounds, or whether he merely owned a large suburban
+villa.  Even this modest sanctum was not entirely the major's own, as
+was shown by the presence of a ruddy-faced man with a long, tawny beard,
+who sat on one side of the empty fire-place, puffing at a great
+china-bowled pipe, and comporting himself with an ease which showed
+that he was no casual visitor.
+
+As the other entered, the man in the chair gave vent to a guttural grunt
+without removing the mouthpiece of his pipe from between his lips; and
+Major Clutterbuck returned the greeting with an off-handed nod.
+His next proceeding was to take off his glossy hat and pack it away in a
+hat-box.  He then removed his coat, his collar, his tie, and his
+gaiters, with equal solicitude, and put them in a place of safety.
+After which he donned a long purple dressing-gown and a smoking-cap, in
+which garb he performed the first steps of a mazurka as a sign of the
+additional ease which he experienced.
+
+"Not much to dance about either, me boy," the old soldier said, seating
+himself in a camp-chair and putting his feet upon another one.
+"Bedad, we're all on the verge.  Unless luck takes a turn there's no
+saying what may become of us."
+
+"We have been badder than this before now many a time," said the
+yellow-bearded man, in an accent which proclaimed him to be a German.
+"My money vill come, or you vill vin, or something vill arrive to set
+all things right."
+
+"Let's hope so," the major said fervently.  "It's a mercy to get out of
+these stiff and starched clothes;  but I have to be careful of them, for
+me tailor--bad cess to him!--will give no credit, and there's little of
+the riddy knocking about.  Without good clothes on me back I'd be like a
+sweeper without a broom."
+
+The German nodded his intense appreciation of the fact, and puffed a
+great blue cloud to the ceiling.  Sigismond von Baumser was a political
+refugee from the fatherland, who had managed to become foreign clerk in
+a small London firm, an occupation which just enabled him to keep body
+and soul together.  He and the major had lodged in different rooms in
+another establishment until some common leaven of Bohemianism had
+brought them together.  When circumstances had driven them out of their
+former abode, it had occurred to the major that by sharing his rooms
+with Von Baumser he would diminish his own expenses, and at the same
+time secure an agreeable companion, for the veteran was a sociable soul
+in his unofficial hours and had all the Hibernian dislike to solitude.
+The arrangement commended itself to the German, for he had a profound
+admiration for the other's versatile talents and varied experiences; so
+he grunted an acquiescence and the thing was done.  When the major's
+luck was good there were brave times in the little fourth floor back.
+On the other hand, if any slice of good fortune came in the German's
+way, the major had a fair share of the prosperity.  During the hard
+times which intervened between these gleams of opulence, the pair
+roughed it uncomplainingly as best they might.  The major would
+sometimes create a fictitious splendour by dilating upon the beauties of
+Castle Dunross, in county Mayo, which is the headquarters of all the
+Clutterbucks.  "We'll go and live there some day, me boy," he would say,
+slapping his comrade on the back.  "It will be mine from the dungeons
+forty foot below the ground, right up, bedad, to the flagstaff from
+which the imblem of loyalty flaunts the breeze."  At these speeches the
+simple-minded German used to rub his great red hands together with
+satisfaction, and feel as pleased as though he had actually been
+presented with the fee simple of the castle in question.
+
+"Have you had your letter?" the major asked with  interest, rolling a
+cigarette between his fingers.  The German was expecting his quarterly
+remittance from his friends at home, and they were both anxiously
+awaiting it.
+
+Von Baumser shook his head.
+
+"Bad luck to them! they should have sent a wake ago.  You should do what
+Jimmy Towler did.  You didn't know Towler, of the Sappers?  When he and
+I were souldiering in Canada he was vexed at the allowance which he had
+from ould Sir Oliver, his uncle, not turning up at the right time.
+'Ged, Toby,' he says to me, 'I'll warm the old rascal up.'  So he sits
+down and writes a letter to his uncle, in which he told him his
+unbusiness-like ways would be the ruin of them, and more to the same
+effect.  When Sir Oliver got the letter he was in such a divil's own
+rage, that while he was dictating a codicil to his will he tumbled off
+the chair in a fit, and Jimmy came in for a clean siven thousand a
+year."
+
+"Dat was more dan he deserved," the German remarked.  "But you--how do
+you stand for money?"
+
+Major Clutterbuck took ten sovereigns out of his trouser pocket and
+placed them upon the table.  "You know me law," he said; "I never, on
+any consideration, break into these.  You can't sit down to play cards
+for high stakes with less in your purse, and if I was to change one, be
+George! they'd all go like a whiff o' smoke.  The Lord knows when I'd
+get a start again then.  Bar this money I've hardly a pinny."
+
+"Nor me," said Von Baumser despondently, slapping his pockets.
+
+"Niver mind, me boy!  What's in the common purse, I wonder?"
+
+He looked up at a little leather bag which hung from a brass nail on the
+wall.  In flush times they were wont to deposit small sums in this, on
+which they might fall back in their hours of need.
+
+"Not much, I fear," the other said, shaking his head.
+
+"Well, now, we want something to pull us together on a dull day like
+this.  Suppose we send out for a bottle of sparkling, eh?"
+
+"Not enough money," the other objected.
+
+"Well, well, let's have something cheaper.  Beaune, now; Beaune's a good
+comforting sort of drink.  What d'ye say to splitting a bottle of
+Beaune, and paying for it from the common purse?"
+
+"Not enough money," the other persisted doggedly.
+
+"Well, claret be it," sighed the major.  "Maybe it's better in this sort
+of weather.  Let us send Susan out for a bottle of claret?"
+
+The German took down the little leather bag and turned it upside down.
+A threepenny-piece and a penny rolled out.  "Dat's all," he said.
+"Not enough for claret."
+
+"But there is for beer," cried the major radiantly.  "Bedad, it's just
+the time for a quart of fourpinny.  I remimber ould Gilder, when he was
+our chief in India, used to say that a man who got beyond enjoying beer
+and a clay pipe at a pinch was either an ass or a coxcomb.  He smoked a
+clay at the mess table himself.  Draper, who commanded the division,
+told him it was unsoldier-like.  'Unsoldier-like be demned,' he said.
+Ged, they nearly court-martialled the ould man for it.  He got the V.C.
+at the Quarries, and was killed at the Redan."
+
+A slatternly, slipshod girl answered the bell, and having received her
+orders and the united available funds of the two comrades, speedily
+returned with a brace of frothing pint pots.  The major ruminated
+silently over his cigarette for some time, on some unpleasant subject,
+apparently, for his face was stem and his brows knitted.  At last he
+broke out with an oath.
+
+"Be George! Baumser, I can't stand that young fellow Girdlestone.
+I'll have to chuck him up.  He's such a cold-blooded, flinty-hearted,
+calculating sort of a chap, that--"  The remainder of the major's
+sentence was lost in the beer flagon.
+
+"What for did you make him your friend, then?"
+
+"Well," the old soldier confessed, "it seemed to me that if he wanted
+to fool his money away at cards or any other divilment, Tobias
+Clutterbuck might as well have the handling of it as any one else.
+Bedad, he's as cunning as a basketful of monkeys.  He plays a safe game
+for low stakes, and never throws away a chance.  Demned if I don't think
+I've been a loser in pocket by knowing him, while as to me character,
+I'm very sure I'm the worse there."
+
+"Vat's de matter mit him?"
+
+"What's not the matter with him.   If he's agrayable he's not natural,
+and if he's natural he's not agrayable.  I don't pretind to be a saint.
+I've seen some fun in me day, and hope to see some more before I die;
+but there are some things that I wouldn't do.  If I live be cards it's
+all fair and aboveboard.  I never play anything but games o' skill, and
+I reckon on me skill bringing me out on the right side, taking one night
+with another through the year.  Again, at billiards I may not always
+play me best, but that's gineralship.  You don't want a whole room to
+know to a point what your game is.  I'm the last man to preach, but,
+bedad, I don't like that chap, and I don't like that handsome, brazen
+face of his.  I've spint the greater part of my life reading folks'
+faces, and never very far out either."
+
+Von Baumser made no remark, and the two continued to smoke silently,
+with an occasional pull at their flagons.
+
+"Besides, it's no good to me socially," the major continued.
+"The fellow can't keep quiet, else he might pass in a crowd; but that
+demned commercial instinct will show itself.  If he went to heaven he'd
+start an agency for harps and crowns.  Did I tell you what the
+Honourable Jack Gibbs said to me at the club?  Ged, he let me have it
+straight!  'Buck,' he said, 'I don't mind you.  You're one o' the right
+sort when all's said and done, but if you ever inthroduce such a chap as
+that to me again, I'll cut you as well as him for the future.' I'd
+inthroduced them to put the young spalpeen in a good humour, for, being
+short, as ye know, I thought it might be necessary to negotiate a loan
+from him."
+
+"Vat did you say his name vas?" Von Baumser asked suddenly.
+
+"Girdlestone."
+
+"Is his father a Kauffmann?"
+
+"What the divil is a Kauffmann?" the major asked impatiently.  "Is it a
+merchant you mean?"
+
+"Ah, a merchant.  One who trades with the Afrikaner?"
+
+"The same."
+
+Von Baumser took a bulky pocket-book from his inside pocket, and scanned
+a long list of names therein.  "Ah, it is the same," he cried at last
+triumphantly, shutting up the book and replacing it.  "Girdlestone &
+Co., African kauf--dat is, merchants--Fenchurch Street, City."
+
+"Those are they."
+
+"And you say dey are rich?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very rich?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The major began to think that his companion had been imbibing in his
+absence, for there was an unfathomable smile upon his face, and his red
+beard and towsy hair seemed to bristle from some internal excitement.
+
+"Very rich! Ho, ho!  Very rich!" he laughed.  "I know dem; not as
+friends, Gott bewahre! but I know dem and their affairs."
+
+"What are you driving at?  Let's have it.  Out with it, man."
+
+"I tell you," said the German, suddenly becoming supernaturally solemn
+and sawing his hand up and down in the air to emphasize his remarks,
+"in tree or four months, or a year at the most, there vill be no firm of
+Girdlestone.  They are rotten, useless--whoo!  He blew an imaginary
+feather up into the air to demonstrate the extreme fragility of the
+house in question.
+
+"You're raving, Baumser," said Major Clutterbuck excitedly.  "Why, man,
+their names are above suspicion.  They are looked upon as the soundest
+concern in the City."
+
+"Dat may be; dat may be," the German answered stolidly.  "Vat I know, I
+know, and vat I say I say."
+
+"And how d'ye know it?  D'ye tell me that you know more about it than
+the men on 'Change and the firms that do business with them?"
+
+"I know vat I know, and I say vat I say," the other repeated.
+"Dat tobacco-man Burger is a rogue.  Dere is five-and-thirty in the
+hundred of water in this canaster tobacco, and one must be for ever
+relighting."
+
+"And you won't tell me where you heard this of the Girdlestones?"
+
+"It vould be no good to you.  It is enough dat vat I say is certain.
+Let it suffice that dere are people vat are bound to tell other people
+all dat dey know about anything whatever."
+
+"You don't make it over clear now," the old soldier grumbled.  "You mane
+that these secret societies and Socialists let each other know all that
+comes in their way and have their own means of getting information."
+
+"Dat may be, and dat may not be," the German answered, in the same
+oracular voice.  "I thought, in any case, my good friend Clutterbuck,
+dat I vould give you vat you call in English the straight tap.  It is
+always vell to have the straight tap."
+
+"Thank ye, me boy," the major said heartily.  "If the firm's in a bad
+way, either the youngster doesn't know of it, or else he's the most
+natural actor that ever lived.  Be George! there's the tay-bell; let's
+get down before the bread and butther is all finished."
+
+Mrs. Robbins was in the habit of furnishing her lodgers with an evening
+meal at a small sum per head.  There was only a certain amount of bread
+and butter supplied for this, however, and those who came late were
+likely to find an empty platter.  The two Bohemians felt that the
+subject was too grave a one to trifle with, so they suspended their
+judgment upon the Girdlestones while they clattered down to the
+dining-room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+SENIOR AND JUNIOR.
+
+Although not a whisper had been heard of it in ordinary commercial
+circles, there was some foundation for the forecast which Von Baumser
+had made as to the fate of the great house of Girdlestone.  For some
+time back matters had been going badly with the African traders.  If the
+shrewd eyes of Major Tobias Clutterbuck were unable to detect any
+indications of this state of affairs in the manner or conversation of
+the junior partner, the reason simply was that that gentleman was
+entirely ignorant of the imminent danger which hung over his head.  As
+far as he knew, the concern was as prosperous and as flourishing as it
+had been at the time of the death of John Harston.  The momentous secret
+was locked in the breast of his grim old father, who bore it about with
+him as the Spartan lad did the fox--without a quiver or groan to
+indicate the care which was gnawing at his heart.  Placed face to face
+with ruin, Girdlestone fought against it desperately, and, withal,
+coolly and warily, throwing away no chance and leaving no stone
+unturned.  Above all, he exerted himself--and exerted himself
+successfully--to prevent any rumour of the critical position of the firm
+from leaking out in the city.  He knew well that should that once occur
+nothing could save him.  As the wounded buffalo is gored to death by the
+herd, so the crippled man of business may give up all hope when once his
+position is known by his fellows.   At present, although Von Baumser and
+a few other such Ishmaelites might have an inkling from sources of their
+own as to how matters stood, the name of Girdlestone was still regarded
+by business men as the very synonym for commercial integrity and
+stability.  If anything, there seemed to be more business in Fenchurch
+Street and more luxury at the residence at Eccleston Square than in
+former days.  Only the stern-faced and silent senior partner knew how
+thin the veneer was which shone so deceptively upon the surface.
+
+Many things had contributed towards this state of affairs.  The firm had
+been involved in a succession of misfortunes, some known to the world,
+and others known to no one save the elder Girdlestone.  The former had
+been accepted with such perfect stoicism and cheerfulness that they
+rather increased than diminished the reputation of the concern; the
+latter were the more crushing, and also the more difficult to bear.
+
+Lines of fine vessels from Liverpool and from Hamburg were running to
+the West Coast of Africa, and competition had cut down freightage to the
+lowest possible point.  Where the Girdlestones had once held almost a
+monopoly there were now many in the field.  Again, the negroes of the
+coast were becoming educated and had a keen eye to business, so that the
+old profits were no longer obtainable.  The days had gone by when
+flint-lock guns and Manchester prints could be weighed in the balance
+against ivory and gold dust.
+
+While these general causes were at work a special misfortune had
+befallen the house of Girdlestone.  Finding that their fleet of old
+sailing vessels was too slow and clumsy to compete with more modern
+ships, they had bought in two first-rate steamers.  One was the
+_Providence_, a fine screw vessel of twelve hundred tons, and the other
+was the _Evening Star_, somewhat smaller in size, but both classed A1 at
+Lloyd's.  The former cost twenty-two thousand pounds, and the latter
+seventeen thousand.  Now, Mr. Girdlestone had always had a weakness for
+petty savings, and in this instance he determined not to insure his new
+vessels.  If the crazy old tubs, for which he had paid fancy premiums
+for so many years with an eye to an ultimate profit, met with no
+disaster, surely those new powerful clippers were safe.  With their
+tonnage and horse-power they appeared to him to be superior to all the
+dangers of the deep.  It chanced, however, by that strange luck which
+would almost make one believe that matters nautical were at the mercy of
+some particularly malignant demon, that as the _Evening Star_ was
+steaming up Channel in a dense fog on her return from her second voyage,
+she ran right into the _Providence_, which had started that very morning
+from Liverpool upon her third outward trip.  The _Providence_ was almost
+cut in two, and sank within five minutes, taking down the captain and
+six of the crew, while the _Evening Star_ was so much damaged about the
+bows that she put into Falmouth in a sinking condition.  That day's work
+cost the African firm more than five and thirty thousand pounds.
+
+Other mishaps had occurred to weaken the firm, apart from their trade
+with the coast.  The senior partner had engaged in speculation without
+the knowledge of his son, and the result had been disastrous.  One of
+the Cornish tin mines in which he had sunk a large amount of money, and
+which had hitherto yielded him a handsome return, became suddenly
+exhausted, and the shares went down to zero.  No firm could stand
+against such a run of bad luck, and the African trading company reeled
+before it.   John Girdlestone had not said a word yet of all this to his
+son. As claims arose he settled them in the best manner he could, and
+postponed the inevitable day when he should have to give a true account
+of their financial position.  He hoped against hope that the chapter of
+accidents or the arrival of some brilliant cargoes from the coast might
+set the concern on its legs again.
+
+From day to day he had been expecting news of one of his vessels.
+At last one morning he found a telegram awaiting him at the office.
+He tore it eagerly open, for it bore the Madeira mark.  It was from his
+agent, Jose Alveciras, and announced that the voyage from which he had
+hoped so much had been a total failure.  The cargo was hardly sufficient
+to defray the working expenses.  As the merchant read it, his head
+dropped over the table and he groaned aloud.  Another of the props which
+upheld him from ruin had snapped beneath him.
+
+There were three letters lying beside the telegram.  He glanced through
+them, but there was no consolation in any of them.  One was from a bank
+manager, informing him that his account was somewhat overdrawn.
+Another from Lloyd's Insurance Agency, pointing out that the policies on
+two of his vessels would lapse unless paid within a certain date.
+The clouds were gathering very darkly over the African firm, yet the old
+man bore up against misfortune with dauntless courage.  He sat alone in
+his little room, with his head sunk upon his breast, and his thatched
+eye-brows drawn down over his keen grey eyes.  It was clear to him that
+the time had come when he must enlighten his son as to the true state of
+their affairs.  With his co-operation he might carry out a plan which
+had been maturing some months in his brain.
+
+It was a hard task for the proud and austere merchant to be compelled to
+confess to his son that he had speculated without his knowledge in the
+capital of the company, and that a large part of that capital had
+disappeared.  These speculations in many instances had promised large
+returns, and John Girdlestone had withdrawn money from safer concerns,
+and reinvested it in the hope of getting a higher rate of interest.
+He had done this with his eyes open to the risk, and knowing that his
+son was of too practical and cautious a nature to embark in such
+commercial gambling, he had never consulted him upon the point, nor had
+he made any entry of the money so invested in the accounts of the firm.
+Hence Ezra was entirely ignorant of the danger which hung over them, and
+his father saw that, in order to secure his energetic assistance in the
+stroke which he was contemplating, it was absolutely necessary that he
+should know how critical their position was.
+
+The old man had hardly come to this conclusion when he heard the sharp
+footfall of his son in the outer office and the harsh tones of his voice
+as he addressed the clerks.  A moment or two later the green baize door
+flew open, and the young man came in, throwing his hat and coat down on
+one of the chairs.  It was evident that something had ruffled his
+temper.
+
+"Good-morning," he said brusquely, nodding his head to his father.
+
+"Good-morning, Ezra," the merchant answered meekly.
+
+"What's the matter with you, father?" his son asked, looking at him
+keenly.  "You don't look yourself, and haven't for some time back."
+
+"Business worries, my boy, business worries," John Girdlestone answered
+wearily.
+
+"It's the infernal atmosphere of this place," Ezra said impatiently.
+"I feel it myself sometimes.  I wonder you don't start a little country
+seat with some grounds.  Just enough to ask a fellow to shoot over, and
+with a good billiard board, and every convenience of that sort.
+It would do for us to spend the time from Saturday to Monday, and allow
+us to get some fresh air into our lungs.  There are plenty of men who
+can't afford it half as well, and yet have something of the sort.
+What's the use of having a good balance at your banker's, if you don't
+live better than your neighbours?"
+
+"There is only one objection to it," the merchant said huskily, and with
+a forced laugh; "I have not got a good balance at the banker's."
+
+"Pretty fair, pretty fair," his son said knowingly, picking up the long
+thin volume in which the finance of the firm was recorded and tapping it
+against the table.
+
+"But the figures there are not quite correct, Ezra," his father said,
+still more huskily.  "We have not got nearly so much as that."
+
+"What!" roared the junior partner.
+
+"Hush!  For God's sake don't let the clerks hear you.  We have not so
+much as that.  We have very little.  In fact, Ezra, we have next to
+nothing in the bank.  It is all gone."
+
+For a moment the young man stood motionless, glaring at his father.
+The expression of incredulity which had appeared on his features faded
+away before the earnestness of the other, and was replaced by a look of
+such malignant passion that it contorted his whole face.
+
+"You fool!" he shrieked, springing forward with the book upraised as
+though he would have struck the old merchant.  "I see it now.  You have
+been speculating on your own hook, you cursed ass!  What have you done
+with it?"  He seized his father by the collar and shook him furiously in
+his wrath.
+
+"Keep your hands off me!" the senior partner cried, wrenching himself
+free from his son's grasp.  "I did my best with the money.  How dare you
+address me so?"
+
+"Did your best!" hissed Ezra, hurling the ledger down on the table with
+a crash.  "What did you mean by speculating without my knowledge, and
+telling me at the same time that I knew all that was done?  Hadn't I
+warned you a thousand times of the danger of it?  You are not to be
+trusted with money."
+
+"Remember, Ezra," his father said with dignity, re-seating himself in
+the chair from which he had risen, in order to free himself from his
+son's clutches, "if I lost the money, I also made it.  This was a
+flourishing concern before you were born.  If the worst comes to the
+worst you are only where I started.  But we are far from being
+absolutely ruined as yet."
+
+"To think of it!" Ezra cried, flinging himself upon the office sofa, and
+burying his face in his hands.  "To think of all I have said of our
+money and our resources!  What will Clutterbuck and the fellows at the
+club say?  How can I alter the ways of life that I have learned?"
+Then, suddenly clenching his hands, and turning upon his father he broke
+out, "We must have it back, father; we _must_, by fair means or foul.
+You must do it, for it was you who lost it.  What can we do?  How long
+have we to do it in?  Is this known in the City?  Oh, I shall be ashamed
+to show my face on 'Change."  So he rambled on, half-maddened by the
+pictures of the future which rose up in his mind.
+
+"Be calm, Ezra, be calm!" his father said imploringly.  "We have many
+chances yet if we only make the best of them.  There is no use lamenting
+the past.  I freely confess that I was wrong in using this money without
+your knowledge, but I did it from the best of motives.  We must put our
+heads together now to retrieve our losses, and there are many ways in
+which that may be done.  I want your clear common sense to help me in
+the matter."
+
+"Pity you didn't apply to that before," Ezra said sulkily.
+
+"I have suffered for not doing so," the older man answered meekly.
+"In considering how to rally under this grievous affliction which has
+come upon us, we must remember that our credit is a great resource, and
+one upon which we have never drawn.  That gives us a broad margin to
+help us while we are carrying out our plans for the future."
+
+"What will our credit be worth when this matter leaks out?"
+
+"But it can't leak out.  No one suspects it for a moment.  They might
+imagine that we are suffering from some temporary depression of trade,
+but no one could possibly know the sad truth.  For Heaven's sake don't
+you let it out!"
+
+His son broke into an impatient oath.
+
+A flush came into Girdlestone's sallow cheeks, and his eyes sparkled
+angrily.
+
+"Be careful how you speak, Ezra.  There are limits to what I will endure
+from you, though I make every allowance for your feelings at this sudden
+catastrophe, for which I acknowledge myself responsible."
+
+The young man shrugged his shoulders, and drummed his heel against the
+ground impatiently.
+
+"I have more than one plan in my head," the merchant said, "by which our
+affairs may be re-established on their old footing.  If we can once get
+sufficient money to satisfy our present creditors, and so tide over this
+run of bad luck, the current will set in the other way, and all will go
+well.  And, first of all, there is one question, my boy, which I should
+like to ask you.  What do you think of John Harston's daughter?"
+
+"She's right enough," the young man answered brusquely.
+
+"She's a good girl, Ezra--a thoroughly good girl, and a rich girl too,
+though her money is a small thing in my eyes compared to her virtue."
+
+Young Girdlestone sneered.  "Of course," he said impatiently.  "Well, go
+on--what about her?"
+
+"Just this, Ezra, that there is no girl in the world whom I should like
+better to receive as my daughter-in-law.  Ah, you rogue! you could come
+round her; you know you could."  The old man poked his long bony finger
+In the direction of his son's ribs with grim playfulness.
+
+"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" remarked the junior partner, with a very
+unpleasant smile.
+
+"Yes, that is one way out of our difficulties.  She has forty thousand
+pounds, which would be more than enough to save the firm.  At the same
+time you would gain a charming wife."
+
+"Yes, there are a good many girls about who might make charming wives,"
+his son remarked dubiously.  "No matrimony for me yet awhile."
+
+"But it is absolutely necessary," his father urged.
+
+"A very fine necessity," Ezra broke in savagely.  "I am to tie myself up
+for life and you are to use all the money in rectifying your blunders.
+It's a very pretty division of labour, is that."
+
+"The business is yours as well as mine.  It is your interest to invest
+the money in it, for if it fails you are as completely ruined as I
+should be.  You think you could win her if you tried?"
+
+Ezra stroked his dark moustache complacently, and took a momentary
+glance at his own bold handsome features in the mirror above the
+fire-place.  "If we are reduced to such an expedient, I think I can
+answer for the result," he said.  "The girl's not a bad-looking one.
+But you said you had several plans.  Let us hear some of the other ones.
+If the worst comes to the worst I might consent to that--on condition,
+of course, that I should have the whole management of the money."
+
+"Quite so--quite so," his father said hurriedly.  "That's a dear, good
+lad.  As you say, when all other things fail we can always fall back
+upon that.  At present I intend to raise as much money as I can upon our
+credit, and invest it in such a manner as to bring in a large and
+immediate profit."
+
+"And how do you intend to do this?" his son asked doubtfully.
+
+"I intend," said John Girdlestone, solemnly rising up and leaning his
+elbow against the mantelpiece--"I intend to make a corner in diamonds."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+A CORNER IN DIAMONDS.
+
+John Girdlestone propounded his intention with such dignity and emphasis
+that he evidently expected the announcement to come as a surprise upon
+his son.  If so, he was not disappointed, for the young man stared
+open-eyed.
+
+"A corner in diamonds!" he repeated.  "How will you do that?"
+
+"You know what a corner is," his father explained.  "If you buy up all
+the cotton, say, or sugar in the market, so as to have the whole of it
+in your own hands, and to be able to put your own price on it in selling
+it again--that is called making a corner in sugar or cotton.  I intend
+to make a corner in diamonds."
+
+"Of course, I know what a corner is," Ezra said impatiently.  "But how
+on earth are you going to buy all the diamonds in?  You would want the
+capital of a Rothschild?"
+
+"Not so much as you think, my boy, for there are not any great amount of
+diamonds in the market at any one time.  The yield of the South African
+fields regulates the price.  I have had this idea in my head for some
+time, and have studied the details.  Of course, I should not attempt to
+buy in all the diamonds that are in the market.  A small portion of them
+would yield profit enough to float the firm off again."
+
+"But if you have only a part of the supply in your hands, how are you to
+regulate the market value?  You must come down to the prices at which
+other holders are selling."
+
+"Ha! Ha!  Very good! very good!" the old merchant said, shaking his head
+good-humouredly.  "But you don't quite see my plan yet.  You have not
+altogether grasped it.  Allow me to explain it to you."
+
+His son lay back upon the sofa with a look of resignation upon his face.
+Girdlestone continued to stand upon the hearth-rug and spoke very slowly
+and deliberately, as though giving vent to thoughts which had been long
+and carefully considered.
+
+"You see, Ezra," he said, "diamonds, being a commodity of great value,
+of which there is never very much in the market at one time, are
+extremely sensitive to all sorts of influences.  The value of them
+varies greatly from time to time.  A very little thing serves to
+depreciate their price, and an equally small thing will send it up
+again."
+
+Ezra Girdlestone grunted to show that he followed his father's remarks.
+
+"I did some business in diamonds myself when I was a younger man, and so
+I had an opportunity of observing their fluctuations in the market.
+Now, there is one thing which invariably depreciates the price of
+diamonds.  That is the rumour of fresh discoveries of mines in other
+parts of the world.  The instant such a thing gets wind the value of the
+stones goes down wonderfully.  The discovery of diamonds in Central
+India not long ago had that effect very markedly, and they have never
+recovered their value since.  Do you follow me?"
+
+An expression of interest had come over Ezra's face, and he nodded to
+show that he was listening.
+
+"Now, supposing," continued the senior partner, with a smile on his thin
+lips, "that such a report got about.  Suppose, too, that we were at this
+time, when the market was in a depressed condition, to invest a
+considerable capital in them.  If these rumours of an alleged discovery
+turned out to be entirely unfounded, of course the value of the stones
+which we held would go up once more, and we might very well sell out for
+double or treble the sum that we invested.  Don't you see the sequence
+of events?"
+
+"There seems to me to be rather too much of the 'suppose' in it,"
+remarked Ezra.  "How do we know that such rumours will get about; and if
+they do, how do we know that they will prove to be unfounded?"
+
+"How are we to know?" the merchant cried, wriggling his long lank body
+with amusement.  "Why, my lad, if we spread the rumours ourselves we
+shall have pretty good reason to believe that they are unfounded.
+Eh, Ezra?  Ha! ha!  You see there are some brains in the old man yet."
+
+Ezra looked at his father in considerable surprise and some admiration.
+"Why, damn it!" he exclaimed, "it's dishonest.  I'm not sure that it's
+not actionable."
+
+"Dishonest!  Pooh!" The merchant snapped his fingers.  "It's finesse, my
+boy, commercial finesse.  Who's to trace it, I should like to know.
+I haven't worked out all the details--I want your co-operation over
+that--but here's a rough sketch of my plan.  We send a man we can depend
+upon to some distant part of the world--Chimborazo, for example, or the
+Ural Mountains.  It doesn't matter where, as long as it is out of the
+way.  On arriving at this place our agent starts a report that he has
+discovered a diamond mine.  We should even go the length, if he
+considers it necessary, of hiding a few rough stones in the earth, which
+he can dig up to give colour to his story.  Of course the local press
+would be full of this.  He might present one of the diamonds to the
+editor of the nearest paper.  In course of time a pretty coloured
+description of the new diamond fields would find its way to London and
+thence to the Cape.  I'll answer for it that the immediate effect is a
+great drop in the price of stones.  We should have a second agent at the
+Cape diamond fields, and he would lay our money out by buying in all
+that he could while the panic lasted.  Then, the original scare having
+proved to be all a mistake, the prices naturally go up once more, and we
+get a long figure for all that we hold.  That's what I mean by making 'a
+corner in diamonds.'  There is no room in it for any miscalculation.  It
+is as certain as a proposition of Euclid, and as easily worked out."
+
+"It sounds very nice," his son remarked thoughtfully.  "I'm not so sure
+about its working, though."
+
+"It must work well.  As far as human calculation can go there is no
+possibility of failure.  Besides, my boy, never lose sight of the fact
+that we shall be speculating with other people's money.  We ourselves
+have nothing to lose, absolutely nothing."
+
+"I am not likely to lose sight of it," said Ezra angrily, his mind
+coming back to his grievance.
+
+"I reckon that we can raise from forty to fifty thousand pounds without
+much difficulty.  My name is, as you know, as good as that of any firm
+in the City.  For nearly forty years it has been above stain or
+suspicion.  If we carry on our plans at once, and lay this money out
+judiciously, all may come right."
+
+"It's Hobson's choice," the young man remarked.  "We must try some bold
+stroke of the sort.  Have you chosen the right sort of men for agents?
+You should have men of some standing to set such reports going.
+They would have more weight then."
+
+John Girdlestone shook his head despondingly.  "How am I to get a man of
+any standing to do such a piece of business?" he said.
+
+"Nothing easier," answered Ezra, with a cynical laugh.  "I could pick
+out a score of impecunious fellows from the clubs who would be only too
+glad to earn a hundred or two in any way you can mention.  All their
+talk about honour and so forth is very pretty and edifying, but it's not
+meant for every day use.  Of course we should have to pay him."
+
+"Them, you mean?"
+
+"No, we should only want one man."
+
+"How about our purchaser at the diamond fields?"
+
+"You don't mean to say," Ezra said roughly, "that you would be so absurd
+as to trust any man with our money.  Why, I wouldn't let the Archbishop
+of Canterbury out of my sight with forty thousand pounds of mine.  No, I
+shall go myself to the diamond fields--that is, if I can trust you here
+alone."
+
+"That is unkind, Ezra," said his father.  "Your idea is an excellent
+one.  I should have proposed it myself but for the discomforts and
+hardships of such a journey."
+
+"There's no use doing things by halves," the young man remarked.  "As to
+our other agent, I have the very man--Major Tobias Clutterbuck.  He is a
+shrewd, clever fellow, and he's always hard up.  Last week he wanted to
+borrow a tenner from me.  The job would be a godsend to him, and his
+social rank would be a great help to our plan.  I'll answer for his
+jumping at the idea."
+
+"Sound him on the subject, then."
+
+"I will."
+
+"I am glad," said the old merchant, "that you and I have had this
+conversation, Ezra.  The fact of my having speculated without your
+knowledge, and deceived you by a false ledger, has often weighed heavily
+upon my conscience, I assure you.  It is a relief to me to have told you
+all."
+
+"Drop the subject, then," Ezra said curtly.  "I must put up with it, for
+I have no redress.  The thing is done and nothing can undo it; but I
+consider that you have willfully wasted the money."
+
+"Believe me, I have tried to act for the best.  The good name of our
+firm is everything to me.  I have spent my whole life in building it up,
+and if the day should come when it must go, I trust that I may have gone
+myself.  There is nothing which I would not do to preserve it."
+
+"I see they want our premiums," Ezra said, glancing at the open letter
+upon the table.  "How is it that none of those ships go down?
+That would give us help."
+
+"Hush! hush!" John Girdlestone cried imploringly.  "Speak in a whisper
+when you talk of such things."
+
+"I can't understand you," said Ezra petulantly.  "You persistently
+over-insure your ships, year after year.  Look at the _Leopard_; it is
+put at more than twice what she was worth as new.  And the _Black
+Eagle_, I dare say, is about the same.  Yet you never have an accident
+with them, while your two new uninsured clippers run each other down."
+
+"Well, what more can I do?" replied the merchant "They are thoroughly
+rotten.  I have done nothing for them for years.  Sooner or later they
+must go.  I cannot do any more."
+
+"I'd make 'em go down quick enough," muttered Ezra, with an oath.
+"Why don't you make old Miggs bore a hole in them, or put a light to a
+barrel of paraffin?  Bless your soul! the thing's done every day.
+What's the use of being milk-and-watery about it?"
+
+"No, no, Ezra!" cried his father.  "Not that--not that.  It's one thing
+letting matters take their course, and it is another thing giving
+positive orders to scuttle a ship.  Besides, it would put us in Miggs'
+power.  It would be too dangerous."
+
+"Please yourself," said Ezra, with a sneer.  "You've got us into the
+mess and you must take us out again.  If the worst comes to the worst
+I'll tell you what I'll do.  I'll marry Kate Harston, wash my hands of
+the firm, leave you to settle matters with the creditors, and retire
+with the forty thousand pounds;" with which threat the junior partner
+took up his hat and swaggered out of the office.
+
+After his departure, John Girdlestone spent an hour in anxious thought,
+arranging the details of the scheme which he had just submitted to his
+son.  As he sat, his eye chanced to fall upon the two letters lying on
+his desk, and it struck him that they had better be attended to.  It did
+not suit his plans to fall back upon his credit just yet.  It has been
+already shown that he was a man of ready resource.  He rang the bell and
+summoned his senior clerk.
+
+"Good morning, John," he said affably.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Girdlestone, good morning, sir," said wizened little
+John Gilray, rubbing his thin yellow hands together, as a sign of his
+gratification.
+
+"I hear, John, that you have come into a legacy lately," Mr. Girdlestone
+said.
+
+"Yes, sir.  Fifteen hundred pounds, sir.  Less legacy duty and
+incidental expenses, fourteen hundred and twenty-eight six and
+fourpence.  My wife's brother Andrew left it, sir, and a very handsome
+legacy too."
+
+John Girdlestone smiled with the indulgent smile of one to whom such a
+sum was absolutely nothing.
+
+"What have you done with the money, then, John?" he asked carelessly.
+
+"Banked it, sir, in the United Metropolitan."
+
+"In the United Metropolitan, John?  Let me see.  Their present rate of
+interest is three and a half?"
+
+"Three, sir," said John.
+
+"Three!  Dear me, John, that is poor interest, very poor indeed.  It is
+most fortunate that I made these inquiries.  I was on the point of
+drawing fourteen hundred pounds from one of my correspondents as a
+temporary convenience.  For this I should pay him five per cent.  I have
+no objection, John, as you are an old servant of the firm, to giving you
+the preference in this matter.  I cannot take more than fourteen
+hundred--but I shall be happy to accommodate you up to that sum at the
+rate named."
+
+John Gilray was overwhelmed by this thoughtful and considerate act.  "It
+is really too generous and kind, sir," he said.  "I don't know how to
+thank you."
+
+"Don't mention it, John," the senior partner said grandly.  "The firm is
+always glad to advance the interests of its employees in any reasonable
+manner.  Have you your cheque-book with you?  Fill it up for fourteen
+hundred.  No more, John; I cannot oblige you by taking any more."
+
+The head clerk having made out his cheque for the amount, and having
+signed his name to it in a cramped little quaint handwriting, which
+reminded one of his person, was duly presented with a receipt and
+dismissed to his counting-house.  There he entertained the other clerks
+by a glowing description of the magnanimity of his employer.
+
+John Girdlestone took some sheets of blue official paper from a drawer,
+and his quill pen travelled furiously over them with many a screech and
+splutter.
+
+"Sir," he said to the bank manager, "I enclose fourteen hundred pounds,
+which represents the loose cash about the office.  I shall make a heavy
+deposit presently.  In the meantime, you will, of course, honour
+anything that may be presented.--Yours truly, JOHN GIRDLESTONE."
+
+To Lloyd's Insurance Agency he wrote:--"Sir,--Enclosed you will find
+cheque for 241 pounds seven shillings and sixpence, being amount due as
+premium on the _Leopard_, _Black Eagle_, and _Maid of Athens_.  Should
+have forwarded cheque before, but with so many things of importance to
+look after these trifles are liable to be overlooked."
+
+These two epistles having been sealed, addressed, and despatched, the
+elder Girdlestone began to feel somewhat more easy in his mind, and to
+devote himself once more to the innocent amusement of planning how a
+corner might best be created in diamonds.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+SHADOW AND LIGHT.
+
+John Girdlestone's private residence in Eccleston Square was a large and
+substantial house in a district which the wave of fashion had passed
+over in its westward course.  It might still, however, be said to be
+covered by a deposit of eminent respectability.  The building was stern
+and hard, and massive in its external appearance, but the interior was
+luxury itself, for the old merchant, in spite of his ascetic appearance,
+was inclined to be a sybarite at heart, and had a due appreciation of
+the good things of this world.  Indeed, there was an oriental and almost
+barbarous splendour about the great rooms, where the richest of
+furniture was interspersed with skins from the Gaboon, hand-worked ivory
+from Old Calabar, and the thousand other strange valuables which were
+presented by his agents to the African trader.
+
+After the death of his friend, Girdlestone had been as good as his word.
+He had taken Kate Harston away from the desolate house at Fulham and
+brought her to live with him.  From the garrets of that palatial edifice
+to the cellars she was at liberty to roam where she would, and do what
+she chose.  The square garden too, with its smoke-dried trees and faded
+lawn, was at her disposal, in which she might walk, or work, or read.
+No cares or responsibilities were imposed upon her.  The domestic
+affairs were superintended by a stern housekeeper, who bore a quaint
+resemblance to Girdlestone himself in petticoats, and who arranged every
+detail of housekeeping.  The young girl had apparently only to exist and
+to be happy.
+
+Yet the latter item was not so easy as it might seem.  It was not a
+congenial atmosphere.  Her whole society consisted of the stern,
+unemotional merchant and his vulgar, occasionally brutal, son.
+At first, while the memory of her father was still fresh, she felt her
+new surroundings acutely, contrasting, as they did, with her happy
+Fulham home.  Gradually, however, as time deadened the sting, she came
+to accommodate herself to circumstances.  The two men left her very much
+to her own devices.  Girdlestone was so engrossed in his business that
+he had little time to inquire into her pursuits, and Ezra, being
+addicted to late hours, was seldom seen except at breakfast-time, when
+she listened with awe to his sporting slang and cynical comments upon
+men and manners.
+
+John Girdlestone had been by no means overjoyed upon the return of the
+Dimsdales from Edinburgh to learn that his ward had been thrown into the
+company of her young cousin.  He received her coldly and forbade her to
+visit Phillimore Gardens for some time to come.  He took occasion also
+to speak of Tom, and to assure her that he had received very serious
+accounts as to his spiritual state.  "He is addicted to all manner of
+debasing pursuits," he remarked, "and it is my particular wish that you
+should avoid him."  Learning that young Dimsdale was in London, he even
+took the precaution of telling off a confidential footman to walk behind
+her on all occasions, and to act either as an escort or as a sentry.
+
+It chanced, however, that one day, a few weeks after her return, Kate
+found an opportunity of recovering her freedom.  The footman had been
+despatched upon some other duty, so she bethought herself that a book
+was to be bought and some lace to be matched, and several other
+important feminine duties to be fulfilled.  It happened, however, that
+as she walked sedately down Warwick Street, her eyes fell upon a very
+tall and square-shouldered young man, who was lounging in her direction,
+tapping his stick listlessly against the railings, as is the habit of
+idle men.  At this Kate forgot incontinently all about the book and the
+lace, while the tall youth ceased to tap the railings, and came striding
+towards her with long springy footsteps and a smiling face.
+
+"Why Cousin Tom, who would have thought of meeting you here?" she
+exclaimed, when the first greetings had been exchanged.  "It is a most
+surprising thing."
+
+It is possible that the incident would not have struck her as so very
+astonishing after all, had she known that Tom had spent six hours a day
+for the last fortnight in blockading the entrances to Eccleston Square.
+
+"Most remarkable!" said the young hypocrite.  "You see, I haven't
+anything to do yet, so I walk about London a good deal.  It was a lucky
+chance that sent me in this direction."
+
+"And how is the doctor?" Kate asked eagerly.  "And Mrs. Dimsdale, how is
+she?  You must give my love to them both."
+
+"How is it that you have never been to see us?" Tom asked reproachfully.
+
+"Mr. Girdlestone thinks that I have been too idle lately, and that I
+should stay at home.  I am afraid it will be some little time before I
+can steal away to Kensington."
+
+Tom consigned her guardian under his breath to a region warmer even than
+the scene of that gentleman's commercial speculations.
+
+"Which way are you going?" he asked.
+
+"I was going to Victoria Street to change my book, and then to Ford
+Street."
+
+"What a strange thing!" the young man exclaimed; "I was going in that
+direction too."  It seemed the more strange, as he was walking in the
+opposite direction when she met him.  Neither seemed inclined to make
+any comment upon the fact, so they walked on together.  "And you have
+not forgotten the days in Edinburgh yet?" Tom asked, after a long pause.
+
+"No, indeed," his companion answered with enthusiasm.  "I shall never
+forget them as long as I live."
+
+"Nor I," said Tom earnestly.  "You remember the day we had at the
+Pentlands?"
+
+"And the drive round Arthur's Seat."
+
+"And the time that we all went to Roslin and saw the chapel."
+
+"And the day at Edinburgh Castle when we saw the jewels and the armoury.
+But you must have seen all these things many times before?  You could
+not have enjoyed it as much as we did for the first time."
+
+"Oh yes, I did," Tom said stoutly, wondering to himself how it was that
+the easy grace with which he could turn compliments to maidens for whom
+he cared nothing had so entirely deserted him.  "You see, Kate--well--you
+were not there when I saw them before."
+
+"Ah," said Kate demurely, "what a beautiful day it is?  I fancied in the
+morning that it was going to rain."
+
+Tom was not to be diverted from his subject by any meteorological
+observations.  "Perhaps some time your guardian will allow the dad to
+take you on another little holiday," he said hopefully.
+
+"I'm afraid he won't," answered Kate.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because he seemed so cross when I came back this last time."
+
+"Why was he cross?" asked Tom.
+
+"Because--" She was about to say that it was because she had been
+brought in contact with him; but she recollected herself in time.
+
+"Because what?"
+
+"Because he happened to be in a bad temper," she answered.
+
+"It is too bad that you should have to submit to any one's whims and
+tempers," the young man said, switching his stick angrily backwards and
+forwards.
+
+"Why not?" she asked, laughing.  "Everybody has some one over them.
+If you hadn't, you would never know right from wrong."
+
+"But he is unkind to you."
+
+"No, indeed," said Kate, with decision.  "He is really very kind to me.
+He may appear a little stern at times, but I know that he means it for
+my own good, and I should be a very foolish girl if I resented it.
+Besides, he is so pious and good that what may seem a little fault to us
+would appear a great thing in his eyes."
+
+"Oh, he is very pious and good, then," Tom remarked, in a doubtful
+voice.  His shrewd old father had formed his own views as to John
+Girdlestone's character, and his son had in due course imbibed them from
+him.
+
+"Yes, of course he is," answered Kate, looking up with great wondering
+eyes.  "Don't you know that he is the chief supporter of the Purbrook
+Street Branch of the Primitive Trinitarians, and sits in the front pew
+three times every Sunday?"
+
+"Ah!" said Tom.
+
+"Yes, and subscribes to all the charitable funds, and is a friend of
+Mr. Jefferson Edwards, the great philanthropist.  Besides, look how good
+he has been to me.  He has taken the place of my father."
+
+"Hum!" Tom said dubiously; and then, with a little pang at his heart,
+"Do you like Ezra Girdlestone too?"
+
+"No, indeed," cried his companion with energy.  "I don't like him in the
+least.  He is a cruel, bad-hearted man."
+
+"Cruel! You don't mean cruel to you, of course."
+
+"No, not to me.  I avoid him as much as I can, and sometimes for weeks
+we hardly exchange a word.  Do you know what he did the other day?
+It makes me shudder even to think of it.  I heard a cat crying pitifully
+in the garden, so I went out to see what was the matter.  When I got
+outside I saw Ezra Girdlestone leaning out of a window with a gun in his
+hands--one of those air-guns which don't make any noise when they go
+off.  And there, in the middle of the garden, was a poor cat that he had
+tied to a bush, and he had been practising at it for ever so long.
+The poor creature was still alive, but oh! so dreadfully injured."
+
+"The brute! What did you do?"
+
+"I untied it and brought it inside, but it died during the night."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"He put up his gun while I was untying it, as if he had half a mind to
+take a shot at me.  When I met him afterwards he said that he would
+teach me to mind my own business.  I didn't mind what he said though, as
+long as I had the cat."
+
+"Spoke like that, did he?" said Tom savagely, flushing up to his eyes.
+"I wish I saw him now.  I'd teach him manners, or--"
+
+"You'll certainly get run over if you go on like that," interrupted
+Kate.
+
+Indeed, the young man in his indignation was striding over a crossing
+without the slightest heed of the imminent danger which he ran from the
+stream of traffic.
+
+"Don't be so excitable, Cousin Tom," she said, laying her gloved hand
+upon his arm; "there is nothing to be cross about."
+
+"Isn't there?" he answered furiously.  "It's a pretty state of things
+that you should have to submit to insults from a brutal puppy like that
+fellow Ezra Girdlestone."  The pair had managed by this time to get
+half-way across the broad road, and were halting upon the little island
+of safety formed by the great stone base of a lamp-post.  An
+interminable stream of 'buses--yellow, purple, and brown--with vans,
+hansoms, and growlers, blocked the way in front of them.  A single
+policeman, with his back turned to them, and his two arms going like an
+animated semaphore, was the only human being in their immediate
+vicinity.  Amid all the roar and rattle of the huge city they were as
+thoroughly left to themselves as though they were in the centre of
+Salisbury Plain.
+
+"You must have a protector," Tom said with decision.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Tom, don't be foolish; I can protect myself very well."
+
+"You must have some one who has a right to look after you." The young
+man's voice was husky, for the back part of his throat had become
+unaccountably dry of a sudden.
+
+"You can pass now, sir," roared the constable, for there was a momentary
+break in the traffic.
+
+"Don't go for a moment," Tom cried, desperately detaining his companion
+by the sleeve of her jacket.  "We are alone here and can talk.  Don't
+you think--don't you think you could like me a little bit if you were to
+try?  I love you so, Kate, that I cannot help hoping that my love is not
+all lost."
+
+"All clear now, sir," shouted the constable once more.
+
+"Don't mind him," said Tom, still detaining her on the little-island.
+"Since I met you in Edinburgh, Kate, I have seemed to be walking in a
+dream.  Do what I will, go where I will, I still have you before my eyes
+and hear your sweet voice in my ears.  I don't believe any girl was ever
+loved more dearly than I love you, but I find it so hard to put into
+words the thoughts that I have in my mind.  For Heaven's sake, give me
+some little gleam of hope to carry away with me.  You don't dislike me,
+Kate, do you?"
+
+"You know that I don't, Cousin Tom," said the young lady, with downcast
+eyes.  He had cornered her so skilfully against the great lamp that she
+could move neither to the right nor to the left.
+
+"Do you like me, then, Kate?" he asked eagerly, with a loving light in
+his earnest grey eyes.
+
+"Of course I do."
+
+"Do you think you could love me?" continued this persistent young man.
+"I don't mean all at once, and in a moment, because I know very well
+that I am not worthy of it.  But in time don't you think you could come
+to love me?"
+
+"Perhaps," murmured Kate, with averted face.  It was such a very little
+murmur that it was wonderful that it should be audible at all; yet it
+pealed in the young man's ears above the rattle and the clatter of the
+busy street.  His head was very near to hers at the time.
+
+"Now's your time, sir," roared the semaphoric policeman.
+
+Had Tom been in a less exposed position it is possible that he might
+have acted upon that well-timed remark from the cunning constable.
+The centre of a London crossing is not, however, a very advantageous
+spot for the performance of love passages.  As they walked on, threading
+their way among the vehicles, Tom took his companion's hand in his, and
+they exchanged one firm grip, which each felt to be of the nature of a
+pledge.  How sunny and bright the dull brick-lined streets appeared to
+those two young people that afternoon.  They were both looking into a
+future which seemed to be one long vista of happiness and love.  Of all
+the gifts of Providence, surely our want of knowledge of the things
+which are to come upon us is the most merciful, and the one we could
+least dispense with!
+
+So happy and so light-hearted were these two lovers that it was not
+until they found themselves in Warwick Street once more that they came
+down from the clouds, and realized that there were some commonplace
+details which must be dealt with in one way or another.
+
+"Of course, I may tell my own people, dearest, about our engagement?"
+Tom said.
+
+"I wonder what your mother will say?" answered Kate, laughing merrily.
+"She will be awfully astonished."
+
+"How about Girdlestone?" asked Tom.
+
+The thought of the guardian had never occurred to either of them before.
+They stared at each other, and Kate's face assumed such an expression of
+dismay that her companion burst out laughing.
+
+"Don't be frightened, darling," he said.  "If you like, I'll go in and
+'beard the lion in his den.'  There is no time like the present."
+
+"No, no, dear Tom," she cried eagerly.  "You must not do that." It was
+impossible for her to tell him how especially Girdlestone had cautioned
+her against him, but she felt that it would never do to allow the two to
+meet.  "We must conceal our engagement from Mr. Girdlestone."
+
+"Conceal our engagement!"
+
+"Yes, Tom.  He has warned me so often against anything of the sort, that
+really I don't know what he would do if he knew about it.  He would
+certainly make it very uncomfortable for me to live with him.  Remember
+I am nearly twenty now, so in a little more than a year I shall be
+entirely free.  That is not very long."
+
+"I don't know about that," Tom said doubtfully.  "However, if you will
+be more comfortable, of course that settles the question.  It seems
+rather hard, though, that we should have to conceal it, simply in order
+to pacify this old bear."
+
+"It's only for a time, Tom; and you may tell them at home by all means.
+Now, good-bye, dear; they will see you from the windows if you come
+nearer."
+
+"Good-bye, my darling."
+
+They shook hands and parted, he hurrying away with the glad tidings to
+Phillimore Gardens, she tripping back to her captivity with the lightest
+heart that she had felt for a weary time.  Passers-by glanced back at
+the bright little face under the bright little bonnet, and Ezra
+Girdlestone, looking down at her from the drawing-room window, bethought
+him that if the diamond speculation should fail it would be no hardship
+to turn to his father's word.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING.
+
+The revelation of the real state of the firm's finances was a terrible
+blow to Ezra Girdlestone.  To a man of his overbearing, tempestuous
+disposition failure and poverty were bitter things to face.  He had been
+wont to tread down before him all such little difficulties and obstacles
+as came across him in his former life.  Now he encountered a great
+barrier which could not be passed so easily, and he raged and chafed
+before it.  It made him still more wroth to think that the fault was
+none of his.  All his life he had reckoned, as a matter of course, that
+when his father passed away he would be left almost a millionaire.  A
+single half-hour's conversation had shattered this delusion and left him
+face to face with ruin.  He lost his sleep and became restless and
+hollow-eyed.  Once or twice he was seen the worse for drink in the
+daytime.
+
+He was a man of strong character, however, and though somewhat
+demoralized by the sudden shock, he threw away no point in the game
+which he and his father were playing.  He saw clearly that only a bold
+stroke could save them.  He therefore threw himself heart and soul into
+the diamond scheme, and worked out the details in a masterly manner.
+The more he looked into it the more convinced he became, not only of its
+feasibility, but of its absolute safety.  It seemed as though it were
+hardly possible that it should fail.
+
+Among other things he proceeded to qualify himself as a dealer in
+diamonds.  It happened that he was acquainted with one of the partners
+of the firm of Fugger & Stoltz, who did the largest import trade in
+precious stones.  Through his kindness he received practical
+instructions in the variety and value of diamonds, and learned to detect
+all those little flaws and peculiarities which are only visible to the
+eye of an expert, and yet are of the highest importance in determinating
+the price of a stone.  With such opportunities Ezra made rapid progress,
+and within a few weeks there were not many dealers in the trade who had
+a better grasp of the subject.
+
+Both the Girdlestones recognized that the success of their plan depended
+very largely upon their choice of an agent, and both were of the opinion
+that in Major Tobias Clutterbuck they had just the man that they were in
+want of.  The younger merchant had long felt vaguely that the major's
+social position, combined with his impecuniosity and the looseness of
+his morality, as inferred from his mode of life, might some day make him
+a valuable agent under delicate circumstances.  As to the old soldier's
+own inclinations, Ezra flattered himself that he knew the man's nature
+to a nicety.  It was simply a question of the price to be paid.  No
+doubt the figure would be substantial, but he recognized with a trader's
+instinct that the article was a superior one, and he was content to
+allow for the quality in estimating the value.
+
+Early one April afternoon the major was strutting down St. James's
+Street, frock-coated and kid-gloved, with protuberant chest and
+glittering shoes which peeped out from beneath the daintiest of gaiters.
+Young Girdlestone, who had been on the look-out from a club window, ran
+across and intercepted him.
+
+"How are you, my dear major?" he cried, advancing upon him with
+outstretched hand and as much show of geniality as his nature permitted.
+
+"How d'ye do?  How d'ye do?" said the other somewhat pompously.  He had
+made up his mind that nothing was to be done with the young man, and yet
+he was reluctant to break entirely with one whose purse was well lined
+and who had sporting proclivities.
+
+"I've been wishing to speak with you for some days, major," said Ezra.
+"When could I see you?"
+
+"You'll niver see me any plainer than you do at this very moment," the
+old soldier answered, taking a sidelong glance of suspicion at his
+companion.
+
+"Ah, but I wish to speak to you quietly on a matter of business," the
+young merchant persisted.  "It's a delicate matter which may need some
+talking over, and, above all, it is a private matter."
+
+"Ged!" said the major, with a wheezy laugh, "you'd have thought I
+wanted to borrow money if I had said as much.  Look here now, we'll go
+into White's private billiard-room, and I'll let you have two hunthred
+out of five for a tinner--though it's as good as handing you the money
+to offer you such odds.  You can talk this over while we play."
+
+"No, no, major," urged the junior partner.  "I tell you it is a matter
+of the greatest importance to both of us.  Can you meet me at Nelson's
+Cafe at four o'clock?  I know the manager, and he'll let us have a
+private room."
+
+"I'd ask you round to me own little place," the major said, "but it's
+rather too far.  Nelson's at four.  Right you are!  'Punctuality is next
+to godliness,' as ould Willoughby of the Buffs used to say.  You didn't
+know Willoughby, eh?  Gad, he was second to a man at Gib in '47.
+He brought his man on the ground, but the opponents didn't turn up.
+Two minutes after time Willoughby wanted his man to leave.  'Teach 'em
+punctuality,' he said.  'Can't be done,' said his man.  '_Must_ be
+done,' said Willoughby.  'Out of the question,' said the man, and
+wouldn't budge.  Willoughby persisted; there were high words and a
+quarrel.  The docther put 'em up at fifteen paces, and the man shot
+Willoughby through the calf of the leg.  He was a martyr to punctuality.
+Four o'clock-bye, bye!" The major nodded pleasantly and swaggered away,
+flourishing his little cane jauntily in the air.
+
+In spite of his admiration of punctuality, as exemplified in the person
+of Willoughby of the Buffs, the major took good care to arrive at the
+trysting-place somewhat behind the appointed time.  It was clear to him
+that some service or other was expected of him, and it was obviously his
+game therefore to hang back and not appear to be too eager to enter into
+young Girdlestone's views.  When he presented himself at the entrance of
+Nelson's Cafe the young merchant had been fuming and chafing in the
+sitting-room for five and twenty minutes.
+
+It was a dingy apartment, with a single large horse-hair chair and half
+a dozen small wooden dittoes, placed with mathematical precision along
+the walls.  A square table in the centre and a shabby mirror over the
+mantelpiece completed the furniture.  With the instinct of an old
+campaigner the major immediately dropped into the arm-chair, and,
+leaning luxuriously back, took a cigar from his case and proceeded to
+light it.  Ezra Girdlestone seated himself near the table and twisted
+his dark moustache, as was his habit when collecting himself.
+
+"What will you drink?" he asked,
+
+"Anything that's going."
+
+"Fetch in a decanter of brandy and some seltzer water," said Ezra to the
+waiter; "then shut the door and leave us entirely to ourselves."
+
+When the liquor was placed upon the table he drank off his first glass
+at a gulp, and then refilled it.  The major placed his upon the
+mantelpiece beside him without tasting it.  Both were endeavouring to be
+at their best and clearest in the coming interview, and each set about
+it in his own manner.
+
+"I'll tell you why I wanted to have a chat with you, major," Ezra said,
+having first opened the door suddenly and glanced out as a precaution
+against eavesdroppers.  "I have to be cautious, because what I have to
+say affects the interest of the firm.  I wouldn't for the world have any
+one know about it except yourself."
+
+"What is it, me boy?" the major asked, with languid curiosity, puffing
+at his weed and staring up at the smoke-blackened ceiling.
+
+"You understand that in commercial speculations the least breath of
+information beforehand may mean a loss of thousands on thousands."
+
+The major nodded his head as a sign that he appreciated this fact.
+
+"We have a difficult enterprise on which we are about to embark," Ezra
+said, leaning forward and sinking his voice almost to a whisper.
+"It is one which will need great skill and tact, though it may be made
+to pay well if properly managed.  You follow me?"
+
+His companion nodded once more.
+
+"For this enterprise we require an agent to perform one of the principal
+parts.  This agent must possess great ability, and, at the same time, be
+a man on whom we can thoroughly rely.  Of course we do not expect to
+find such qualities without paying for them."
+
+The major grunted a hearty acquiescence.
+
+"My father," continued Ezra, "wanted to employ one of our own men.
+We have numbers who are capable in every way of managing the business.
+I interfered, however.  I said that I had a good friend, named Major
+Tobias Clutterbuck, who was well qualified for the position.
+I mentioned that you were of the blood of the old Silesian kings.  Was I
+not right?"
+
+"Begad you were not.  Milesian, sir; Milesian!"
+
+"Ah, Milesian.  It's all the same."
+
+"It's nothing of the sort," said the major indignantly.
+
+"I mean it was all the same to my father.  He wouldn't know the
+difference.  Well, I told him of your high descent, and that you were a
+traveller, a soldier, and a man of steady and trustworthy habits."
+
+"Eh?" ejaculated the major involuntarily.  "Well, all right.  Go on!"
+
+"I told him all this," said Ezra slowly, "and I pointed out to him that
+the sum of money which he was prepared to lay out would be better
+expended on such a man than on one who had no virtues beyond those of
+business."
+
+"I didn't give you credit for so much sinse!" his companion exclaimed
+with enthusiasm.
+
+"I said to him that if the matter were left entirely in your hands we
+could rely upon its being done thoroughly.  At the same time, we should
+have the satisfaction of knowing that the substantial sum which we are
+prepared to pay our agent had come into worthy hands."
+
+"You hit it there again," murmured the veteran.
+
+"You are prepared, then," said Ezra, glancing keenly at him, "to put
+yourself at our orders on condition that you are well paid for it?"
+
+"Not so fast, me young friend, not so fast!" said the major, taking his
+cigar from between his lips and letting the blue smoke curl round his
+head.  "Let's hear what it is that you want me to do, and then I'm riddy
+to say what I'll agree to and what I won't.  I remimber Jimmy Baxter in
+Texas--"
+
+"Hang Jimmy Baxter!" Ezra cried impatiently.
+
+"That's been done already," observed the major calmly.  "Lynched for
+horse-stealing in '66.  However, go on, and I'll promise not to stop you
+until you have finished."
+
+Thus encouraged, Ezra proceeded to unfold the plan upon which the
+fortunes of the House of Girdlestone depended.  Not a word did he say of
+ruin or danger, or the reasons which had induced this speculation.
+On the contrary, he depicted the affairs of the firm as being in a most
+nourishing condition, and this venture as simply a small insignificant
+offshoot from their business, undertaken as much for amusement as for
+any serious purpose.  Still, he laid stress upon the fact that though
+the sum in question was a small one to the firm, yet it was a very large
+one in other men's eyes.  As to the morality of the scheme, that was a
+point which Ezra omitted entirely to touch upon.  Any comment upon that
+would, he felt, be superfluous when dealing with such a man as his
+companion.
+
+"And now, major," he concluded, "provided you lend us your name and your
+talents to help us in our speculation, the firm are prepared to meet you
+in a most liberal spirit in the matter of remuneration.  Of course your
+voyage and your expenses will be handsomely paid.  You will have to
+travel by steamer to St. Petersburg, provided that we choose the Ural
+Mountains as the scene of our imaginary find.  I hear that there is high
+play going on aboard these boats, and with your well-known skill you
+will no doubt be able to make the voyage a remunerative one.  We
+calculate that at the most you will be in Russia about three months.
+Now, the firm thought that it would be very fair if they were to
+guarantee you two hundred and fifty pounds, which they would increase to
+five hundred in case of success; of course by that we mean complete
+success, such as would be likely to attend your exertions."
+
+Now, had there been any third person in the room during this long
+statement of the young merchant's, and had that third person been a man
+of observation, he might have remarked several peculiarities in the
+major's demeanour.  At the commencement of the address he might have
+posed as the very model and type of respectable composure.  As the plan
+was gradually unfolded, however, the old soldier began to puff harder at
+his cigar until a continuous thick grey cloud rose up from him, through
+which the lurid tip of the havannah shone like a murky meteor.
+From time to time he passed his hand down his puffy cheeks, as was his
+custom when excited.  Then he moved uneasily in his chair, cleared his
+throat huskily, and showed other signs of restlessness, all of which
+were hailed by Ezra Girdlestone as unmistakable proofs of the
+correctness of his judgment and of the not unnatural eagerness of the
+veteran on hearing of the windfall which chance had placed in his way.
+
+When the young man had finished, the major stood up with his face to the
+empty fire-place, his legs apart, his chest inflated, and his body
+rocking ponderously backwards and forwards.
+
+"Let me be quite sure that I understand you," he said.  "You wish me to
+go to Russia?"
+
+"Quite so," Ezra remarked, rubbing his hands pleasantly.
+
+"You have the goodness to suggist that on me way I should rook me
+fellow-passengers in the boat?"
+
+"That is to say, if you think it worth your while."
+
+"Quite so, if I think it worth me while.  I am then to procade across
+the counthry to some mountains--"
+
+"The Urals."
+
+"And there I am to pretind to discover certain diamond mines, and am to
+give weight to me story by the fact that I am known to be a man of good
+birth, and also by exhibiting some rough stones which you wish me to
+take out with me from England?"
+
+"Quite right, major," Ezra said encouragingly.
+
+"I am then to tilegraph or write this lie to England and git it inserted
+in the papers?"
+
+"That's an ugly word," Ezra remonstrated.  "This 'report' we will say.
+A report may be either true or false, you know."
+
+"And by this report, thin," the major continued, "you reckon that the
+market will be so affected that your father and you will be able to buy
+and sell in a manner that will be profitable to you, but by which you
+will do other people out of their money?"
+
+"You have an unpleasant way of putting it," said Ezra, with a forced
+laugh; "but you have the idea right."
+
+"I have another idea as well," roared the old soldier, flushing purple
+with passion.  "I've an idea that if I was twinty years younger I'd see
+whether you'd fit through that window, Master Girdlestone.  Ged!  I'd
+have taught you to propose such a schame to a man with blue blood in his
+veins, you scounthrel!"
+
+Ezra fell back in his chair.  He was outwardly composed, but there was a
+dangerous glitter in his eye, and his face had turned from a healthy
+olive to a dull yellow tint.
+
+"You won't do it?" he gasped.
+
+"Do it!  D'ye think that a man who's worn Her Majesty's scarlet jacket
+for twinty years would dirty his hands with such a trick?  I tell ye, I
+wouldn't do it for all the money that iver was coined.  Look here,
+Girdlestone, I know you, but, by the Lord, you don't know me!"
+
+The young merchant sat silently in his chair, with the same livid colour
+upon his face and savage expression in his eyes.  Major Tobias
+Clutterbuck stood at the end of the table, stooping forward so as to
+lean his hands upon it, with his eyes protuberant and his scanty grey
+fringe in a bristle with indignation.
+
+"What right had you to come to me with such a proposal?  I don't set up
+for being a saint, Lord knows, but, be George! I've some morals, such as
+they are, and I mean to stick to them.  One of me rules of life has been
+niver to know a blackgaird, and so, me young friend, from this day forth
+you and I go on our own roads.  Ged!  I'm not particular, but 'you must
+draw the line somewhere,' as me frind, Charlie Monteith, of the Indian
+Horse, used to say when he cut his father-in-law.  I draw it at you."
+
+While the major was solemnly delivering himself of these sentiments,
+Ezra continued to sit watching him in a particularly venomous manner.
+His straight, cruel lips were blanched with passion, and the veins stood
+out upon his forehead.  The young man was a famous amateur bruiser, and
+could fight a round with any professional in London.  The old soldier
+would be a child in his hands.  As the latter picked up his hat
+preparatory to leaving the room, Ezra rose and bolted the door upon the
+inside.  "It's worth five pounds in a police court," he muttered to
+himself, and knotting up his great hands, which glittered with rings, he
+approached his companion with his head sunk upon his breast, his eyes
+flashing from under his dark brows, and the slow, stealthy step of a
+beast of prey.  There was a characteristic refinement of cruelty about
+his attack, as though he wished to gloat over the helplessness of his
+victim, and give him time to realize his position before he set upon
+him.
+
+If such were his intention he failed signally in producing the desired
+effect.  The instant the major perceived his manoeuvre he pulled himself
+up to his full height, as he might have done on parade, and slipping his
+hand beneath the tails of his frock-coat, produced a small glittering
+implement, which he levelled straight at the young merchant's head.
+
+"A revolver!" Ezra gasped, staggering back.
+
+"No, a derringer," said the veteran blandly.  "I got into the thrick of
+carrying one when I was in Colorado, and I have stuck to it ever since.
+You niver know when it may be useful."  As he spoke he continued to hold
+the black muzzle of his pistol in a dead line with the centre of the
+young man's forehead, and to follow the latter's movements with a hand
+which was as steady as a rock.  Ezra was no coward, but he ceased his
+advance and stood irresolute.
+
+"Now, thin," cried the major, in sharp military accents, "undo that
+door."
+
+The young merchant took one look at the threatening apoplectic face of
+his antagonist, and another at the ugly black spot which covered him.
+He stooped, and pushed back the bolt.
+
+"Now, open it!  Ged, if you don't look alive I'll have to blow a hole in
+you afther all.  You wouldn't be the first man I've killed, nor the last
+maybe."
+
+Ezra opened the door precipitately.
+
+"Now walk before me into the strate."
+
+It struck the waiters at Nelson's well-known restaurant as a somewhat
+curious thing that their two customers should walk out with such very
+grave faces and in so unsociable a manner.  "C'est la froideur
+Anglaise!" remarked little Alphonse Lefanue to a fellow exile as they
+paused in the laying of tables to observe the phenomenon.  Neither of
+them noticed that the stout gentleman behind with his hand placed
+jauntily in the breast of his coat, was still clutching the brown handle
+of a pistol.
+
+There was a hansom standing at the door and Major Clutterbuck stepped
+into it.
+
+"Look ye here, Girdlestone," he said, as the latter stood looking
+sulkily up and down the street.  "You should learn a lesson from this.
+Never attack a man unless you're sure that he's unarmed.  You may git
+shot, if you do."
+
+Ezra continued to stare gloomily into vacancy and took no notice of his
+late companion's remark.
+
+"Another thing," said the major.  "You must niver take it for granted
+that every man you mate is as great a blackgaird as yourself."
+
+The young merchant gave him a malignant glance from his dark eyes and
+was turning to go, but the gentleman in the cab stretched out his hand
+to detain him.
+
+"One more lesson," he said.  "Never funk a pistol unless you are sure
+there's a carthridge inside.  Mine hadn't.  Drive on, cabby!"
+With which parting shot the gallant major rattled away down Piccadilly
+with a fixed determination never again to leave his rooms without a few
+of Eley's No 4 central fires in his pocket.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+AN ADDITION TO THE HOUSE.
+
+There were rejoicings in Phillimore Gardens over Tom's engagement, for
+the two old people were both heartily fond of Kate--"our Kate," as they
+were wont proudly to call her.  The physician chafed at first over the
+idea of keeping the matter a secret from Girdlestone.  A little
+reflection served to show him, however, that there was nothing to be
+gained by informing him, while Kate's life, during the time that she was
+forced to remain under his roof, would be more tolerable as long as he
+was kept in ignorance of it.  In the meanwhile the lovers saw little of
+each other, and Tom was only consoled by the thought that every day
+which passed brought him nearer to the time when he could claim his
+prize without concealment or fear.  He went about as happy and as
+light-hearted a man as any in all London.  His mother was delighted at
+his high spirits, but his bluff old father was not so well satisfied.
+"Confound the lad!" he said to himself.  "He is settling down to a life
+of idleness.  It suits him too well.  We must get him to choose one way
+or the other."
+
+Accordingly, after breakfast one morning, the doctor asked his son to
+step with him into the library, where he lit his long cherry-wood pipe,
+as was his custom after every meal, and smoked for some time in silence.
+
+"You must do something to keep you from mischief, my boy," he said at
+last brusquely.
+
+"I'm ready for anything, dad," replied Tom, "but I don't quite see what
+I'm fitted for."
+
+"First of all, what do you think of this?" the doctor asked abruptly,
+handing a letter over to his son, who opened it and read as follows:--
+
+    "DEAR SIR,--
+
+    "It has come to my knowledge through my son that your boy has
+     abandoned the study of medicine, and that you are still
+     uncertain as to his future career. I have long had the
+     intention of seeking a young man who might join in our
+     business, and relieve my old shoulders of some of the
+     burden.  Ezra urges me to write and propose that your
+     son should become one of us. If he has any taste for
+     business we shall be happy to advance his interest in
+     every way.  He would, of course, have to purchase a share
+     in the concern, which would amount to seven thousand pounds,
+     on which he would be paid interest at the rate of five
+     per cent.  By allowing this interest to accumulate, and
+     investing also his share of the profits, he might in time
+     absorb a large portion of the business. In case he joined
+     us upon this footing we should have no objection to his
+     name appearing as one of the firm. Should the idea commend
+     itself to you, I should be most happy to talk over details,
+     and to explain to you the advantages which the firm can offer,
+     at my office in Fenchurch Street, any day between ten and four."
+
+    "With kind regards to your family, and hoping that they enjoy
+     the great blessing of health, I remain sincerely yours,"
+
+                                       "JOHN GIRDLESTONE."
+
+"What d'ye think of that?" the doctor asked, when his son had finished
+reading it.
+
+"I hardly know," said Tom; "I should like a little time to think it
+over."
+
+"Seven thousand pounds is a good round sum.  It is more than half the
+total capital which I have invested for you.  On the other hand, I have
+heard those who ought to know say there is not a sounder or better
+managed concern in London.  There's no time like the present, Tom.
+Get your hat, and we'll go down to Fenchurch Street together and look
+into it."
+
+While father and son were rattling along in a cab from Kensington to the
+City, the young man had time to turn the matter over in his mind.
+He wanted to be at work, and why not take this up as well as anything
+else.  It is true that he disliked what he had seen of both the
+Girdlestones, but, on the other hand, by becoming a member of the firm
+he would probably be thrown in the way of meeting the old merchant's
+ward.  This last consideration decided the matter, and long before the
+cab had pulled up at the long and dirty passage which led to the offices
+of the great African firm, the party principally interested had fully
+made up his mind as to the course he should adopt.
+
+They were duly ushered into the small sanctum adorned with the dissected
+ships, the maps, the charts, the lists of sailing, and the water-colour
+picture of the barque _Belinda_, where they were received by the head of
+the firm.  With a charming personal modesty, tempered by a becoming
+pride in the great business which he had himself created, he discoursed
+upon its transactions and its importance.  He took down ledgers and
+flashed great rows of figures before the eyes of the good doctor,
+explaining, at the same time, how month after month their receipts
+increased and their capital grew.  Then he spoke touchingly of his own
+ripe years, and of the quiet and seclusion which he looked forward to
+after his busy lifetime.
+
+"With my young friend here," he said, patting Tom affectionately on the
+shoulder, "and my own boy Ezra, both working together, there will be
+young blood and life in the concern.  They'll bring the energy, and when
+they want advice they can come to the old man for it.  I intend in a
+year or so, when the new arrangement works smoothly, to have a run over
+to Palestine.  It may seem a weakness to you, but all my life I have
+hoped some day to stand upon that holy ground, and to look down on those
+scenes which we have all imagined to ourselves.  Your son will start
+with a good position and a fair income, which he will probably double
+before he is five years older.  The money invested by him is simply to
+ensure that he shall have a substantial interest in promoting the
+affairs of the firm." Thus the old man ran on, and when Tom and his
+father left the office with the sound of great sums of money, and huge
+profits, and heavy balances, and safe investments, all jostling each
+other in their brains, they had both made up their minds as to the
+future.
+
+Hence in a couple of days there was a stir in the legal house of Jones,
+Morgan, & Co., with much rustling of parchment, and signing of names,
+and drinking of inferior sherry.  The result of all which was that the
+firm of Girdlestone & Co. were seven thousand pounds the richer, and
+Thomas Dimsdale found himself a recognized member of a great commercial
+house with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto.
+
+"A good day's work, Tom," said the old doctor, as they left the lawyer's
+office together.  "You have now taken an irrevocable step in life, my
+boy.  The world is before you.  You belong to a first-class firm and you
+have every chance.  May you thrive and prosper."
+
+"If I don't it won't be my fault," Tom answered with decision.  "I shall
+work with my whole heart and soul."
+
+"A good day's work, Ezra," the African merchant was remarking at that
+very moment in Fenchurch Street.  "The firm is pinched again for working
+expenses.  This will help;" and he threw a little slip of green paper
+across the table to his son.
+
+"It will help us for a time," Ezra said, gloomily, glancing at the
+figures.  "It was fortunate that I was able to put you on his track.
+It is only a drop in the ocean, however.  Unless this diamond spec.
+comes off, nothing can save us."
+
+"But it shall come off," his father answered resolutely.  He had
+succeeded in obtaining an agent who appeared to be almost as well fitted
+for the post as the recalcitrant major.  This worthy had started off
+already for Russia, where the scene of his operations was to lie.
+
+"I hope so," said Ezra.  "We have neglected no precaution.  Langworthy
+should be at Tobolsk by this time.  I saw that he had a bag of rough
+stones with him which would do well enough for his purpose."
+
+"We have your money ready, too.  I can rely upon rather over thirty
+thousand pounds.  Our credit was good for that, but I did not wish to
+push it too far for fear of setting tongues wagging."
+
+"I am thinking of starting shortly in the mail boat _Cyprian_," said
+Ezra.  "I should be at the diamond fields in little more than a month.
+I dare say Langworthy won't show any signs for some time yet, but I may
+as well be there as here.  It will give me a little while to find my
+way about.  You see, if the tidings and I were to come almost
+simultaneously, it might arouse suspicions.  In the meantime, no one
+knows our little game."
+
+"Except your friend Clutterbuck."
+
+A dark shadow passed over Ezra's handsome face, and his cruel lip
+tightened in a way which boded little good to the old soldier should he
+ever lie at his mercy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THE FIRST STEP.
+
+It was a proud day for the ex-medical student when he first entered the
+counting-house of the African firm and realized that he was one of the
+governing powers in that busy establishment.  Tom Dimsdale's mind was an
+intensely practical one, and although he had found the study of science
+an irksome matter, he was able to throw himself into business with
+uncommon energy and devotion.  The clerks soon found that the sunburnt,
+athletic-looking young man intended to be anything but a sleeping
+partner, and both they and old Gilray respected him accordingly.
+
+The latter had at first been inclined to resent the new arrangement as
+far as his gentle down-trodden nature could resent anything.  Hitherto
+he had been the monarch of the counting-house in the absence of the
+Girdlestones, but now a higher desk had been erected in a more central
+portion of the room, and this was for the accommodation of the new
+comer.  Gilray, after his thirty years of service, felt this usurpation
+of his rights very keenly; but there was such a simple kindness about
+the invader, and he was so grateful for any assistance in his new
+duties, that the old clerk's resentment soon melted away.
+
+A little incident occurred which strengthened this kindly feeling.
+It chanced that some few days after Tom's first appearance in the office
+several of the clerks, who had not yet quite gauged what manner of man
+this young gentleman might be, took advantage of the absence of the
+Girdlestones to take a rise out of the manager.  One of them, a great
+rawboned Scotchman, named McCalister, after one or two minor exhibitions
+of wit concluded by dropping a heavy ruler over the partition of the old
+man's desk in such a way that it crashed down upon his head as he sat
+stooping over his writing.  Tom, who had been watching the proceedings
+with a baleful eye, sprang off his stool and made across the office at
+the offender.  McCalister seemed inclined for a moment to brazen it out,
+but there was a dangerous sling about Tom's shoulders and a flush of
+honest indignation upon his face.  "I didn't mean to hurt him," said the
+Scotchman.  "Don't hit him, sir!" cried the little manager.  "Beg his
+pardon," said Tom between his teeth.  McCalister stammered out some lame
+apology, and the matter was ended.  It revealed the new partner,
+however, in an entirely novel light to the inmates of the
+counting-house.  That under such circumstances a complaint should be
+carried to the senior was only natural, but that the junior should
+actually take the matter into his own hands and execute lynch law then
+and there was altogether a new phenomenon.  From that day Tom acquired a
+great ascendancy in the office, and Gilray became his devoted slave.
+This friendship with the old clerk proved to be very useful, for by
+means of his shrewd hints and patient teaching the new comer gained a
+grasp of the business which he could not have attained by any other
+method.
+
+Girdlestone called him into the office one day and congratulated him
+upon the progress which he was making.  "My dear young man," he said to
+him in his patriarchal way, "I am delighted to hear of the way in which
+you identify yourself with the interests of the firm.  If at first you
+find work allotted to you which may appear to you to be rather menial,
+you must understand that that is simply due to our desire that you
+should master the whole business from its very foundations."
+
+"There is nothing I desire better," said Tom.
+
+"In addition to the routine of office work, and the superintendence of
+the clerks, I should wish you to have a thorough grasp of all the
+details of the shipping, and of the loading and unloading of our
+vessels, as well as of the storage of goods when landed.  When any of
+our ships are in, I should wish you to go down to the docks and to
+overlook everything which is done."
+
+Tom bowed and congratulated himself inwardly upon these new duties,
+which promised to be interesting.
+
+"As you grow older," said the senior partner, "you will find it of
+inestimable value that you have had practical experience of what your
+subordinates have to do.  My whole life has taught me that.  When you
+are in doubt upon any subject you can ask Ezra for assistance and
+advice.  He is a young man whom you might well take as an example, for
+he has great business capacity.  When he has gone to Africa you can come
+to me if there is anything which you do not understand."
+John Girdlestone appeared to be so kindly and benevolent during this and
+other interviews, that Tom's heart warmed towards him, and he came to
+the conclusion that his father had judged the old merchant harshly.
+More than once, so impressed was he by his kindness, that he was on the
+point of disclosing to him his engagement to his ward, but on each
+occasion there arose within him a lively recollection of Kate's
+frightened face when he had suggested such a course, and he felt that
+without her consent he had no right to divulge the secret.
+
+If the elder Girdlestone improved upon acquaintance it was exactly the
+reverse with his son Ezra.  The dislike with which Tom had originally
+regarded him deepened as he came in closer contact, and appeared to be
+reciprocated by the other, so that they held but little intercourse
+together.  Ezra had taken into his own charge all the financial part of
+the concern, and guarded it the more jealously when he realized that the
+new partner was so much less simple than he had expected.  Thus Tom had
+no opportunity of ascertaining for himself how the affairs of the firm
+stood, but believed implicitly, as did Gilray, that every outlay was
+bringing in a large and remunerative return.  Very much astonished would
+both of them have been had they realized that the working expenses were
+at present being paid entirely from their own capital until such time as
+the plot should ripen which was to restore the fortunes of the African
+company.
+
+In one respect Tom Dimsdale was immeasurably the gainer by his
+connection with the firm, for without that it is difficult to say how he
+could have found opportunities for breaking through the barrier which
+separated him from Kate.  The surveillance of the merchant had become
+stricter of late, and all invitations from Mrs. Dimsdale or other
+friends who pitied the loneliness of the girl were repulsed by
+Girdlestone with the curt intimation that his ward's health was not such
+as to justify him in allowing her to incur any risk of catching a chill.
+She was practically a prisoner in the great stone cage in Eccleston
+Square, and even on her walks a warder in the shape of a footman was, as
+we have seen, told off to guard her.  Whatever John Girdlestone's
+reasons may have been, he had evidently come to the conclusion that it
+was of the highest importance that she should be kept secluded.
+
+As it was, Tom, thanks to his position as one of the firm, was able
+occasionally, in spite of every precaution to penetrate through the old
+man's defensive works.  If a question of importance arose at Fenchurch
+Street during the absence of the senior partner, what more natural than
+that Mr. Dimsdale should volunteer to walk round to Eccleston Square in
+order to acquaint him with the fact.  And if it happened that the
+gentleman was not to be found there, how very natural that the young man
+should wait half an hour for him, and that Miss Harston should take the
+opportunity of a chat with an old friend?  Precious, precious interviews
+those, the more so for their rarity.  They brightened the dull routine
+of Kate's weary life and sent Tom back to the office full of spirit and
+hope.  The days were at hand when the memory of them was to shine out
+like little rifts of light in the dark cloud of existence.
+
+And now the time was coming when it was to be decided whether, by a last
+bold stroke, the credit of the House of Girdlestone was to be saved, or
+whether the attempt was to plunge them into deeper and more hopeless
+ruin.  An unscrupulous agent named Langworthy had, as already indicated,
+been despatched to Russia well primed with instructions as to what to do
+and how to do it.  He had been in the employ of an English corn merchant
+at Odessa, and had some knowledge of the Russian language which would be
+invaluable to him in his undertaking.  In the character of an English
+gentleman of scientific tastes he was to establish himself in some
+convenient village among the Ural Mountains.  There he was to remain
+some little time, so as to arouse confidence in the people before making
+his pretended discovery.  He was then to carry his rough diamonds to
+Tobolsk, as the nearest large town, and to exhibit them there, backing
+up his assertion by the evidence of villagers who had seen him dig them
+up.  The Girdlestones knew that that alone would be sufficient when
+telegraphed to England to produce a panic in the sensitive diamond
+market.  Before any systematic inquiry could be made, Langworthy would
+have disappeared, and their little speculation would have come off.
+After that the sooner the people realized that it was a hoax the better
+for the conspirators.  In any case, there seemed to be no possibility
+that the origin of the rumour could be traced.  Meanwhile, Ezra
+Girdlestone had secured his passage in the Cape mail steamer _Cyprian_.
+On the night that he left he sat up late in the library at Eccleston
+Square talking over the matter for the last time with his father.
+
+The old man was pale and nervous.  The one weak point in his character
+was his affection for his son, an affection which he strove to hide
+under an austere manner, but which was none the less genuine.  He had
+never before parted with him for any length of time, and he felt the
+wrench keenly.  As to Ezra, he was flushed and excited at the thought of
+the new scenes which lay before him and the daring speculation in which
+he was about to embark.  He flung himself into a chair and stretched his
+thick, muscular limbs out in front of him.
+
+"I know as much about stones," he said exultantly, "as any man in
+London.  I was pricing a bag of rough ones at Van Helmer's to-day, and
+he is reckoned a good judge.  He said that no expert could have done it
+better.  Lord bless you! pure or splints, or cracked, or off colour, or
+spotted, or twin stones, I'm up to them all.  I wasn't a pound out in
+the market value of any one of them."
+
+"You deserve great credit for your quickness and perseverance," replied
+his father.  "Your knowledge will be invaluable to you when you are at
+the fields.  Be careful of yourself when you are there, my son, if only
+for my sake.  There are rough fellows at such places, and you must give
+them soft words.  I know that your temper is quick, but remember those
+wise words, 'He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a
+city.'"
+
+"Never fear for me, dad," said Ezra, with a sinister smile, pointing to
+a small leather case which lay among his things.  "That's the best
+six-shooter I could get for money.  I've taken a tip, you see, from our
+good friend, the major, and have six answers for any one that wants to
+argue with me.  If I had had that the other day he wouldn't have bounced
+me so easily."
+
+"Nay, but Ezra, Ezra," his father said, in great agitation, "you will
+promise to be careful and to avoid quarrels and bloodshed.  It is
+against the great law, the new commandment."
+
+"I won't get into any rows if I can help it," his son answered.
+"That's not my game."
+
+"But if you think that there is no mistake, if your opponent is
+undoubtedly about to proceed to extremities, shoot him down at once, my
+dear lad, before he has time to draw.  I have heard those who have been
+out there say that in such cases everything depends upon getting the
+first shot.  I am anxious about you, and shall not be easy until I see
+you again."
+
+"Blessed if he hasn't tears in his eyes!" Ezra exclaimed to himself,
+much astonished at this unprecedented occurrence.
+
+"When do you go?" his father asked.
+
+"My train leaves in an hour or so.  I reach the steamer at Southampton
+about three in the morning, and she starts with the full tide at six."
+
+"Look after your health," the old man continued.  "Don't get your feet
+wet, and wear flannel next your skin.  Don't forget your religious
+duties either.  It has a good effect upon those among whom you do
+business."
+
+Ezra sprang from his chair with an exclamation of disgust and began to
+pace up and down.  "I wish to Heaven you would drop that sort of gammon
+when we are alone," he said irritably.
+
+"My dear boy," said the father, with a mild look of surprise upon his
+face, "you seem to be under a misapprehension in this matter.
+You appear to consider that we are embarking upon some unjustifiable
+undertaking.  This is not so.  What we are doing is simply a small
+commercial ruse--a finesse.  It is a recognized maxim of trade to
+endeavour to depreciate the price of whatever you want to buy, and to
+raise it again when the time comes for selling."
+
+"It's steering very close to the law," his son retorted.
+"No speculating, now, while I am away; whatever comes in must go towards
+getting us out of this scrape, not to plunging us deeper in the mire."
+
+"I shall not expend an unnecessary penny."
+
+"Well, then, good-bye." said the young man, rising up and holding out
+his hand.  "Keep your eye on Dimsdale and don't trust him."
+
+"Good-bye, my son, good-bye--God bless you!"
+
+The old merchant was honestly moved, and his voice quivered as he spoke.
+He stood motionless for a minute or so until the heavy door slammed, and
+then he threw open the window and gazed sorrowfully down the street at
+the disappearing cab.  His whole attitude expressed such dejection that
+his ward, who had just entered the room, felt more drawn towards him
+than she had ever done before.  Slipping up to him she placed her warm
+tender hand upon his sympathetically.
+
+"He will soon be back, dear Mr. Girdlestone," she said.  "You must not
+be uneasy about him."
+
+As she stood beside him in her white dress, with a single red ribbon
+round her neck and a band of the same colour round her waist, she was as
+fair a specimen of English girl-hood as could have been found in all
+London.  The merchant's features softened as he looked down at her fresh
+young face, and he put out his hand as though to caress her, but some
+unpleasant thought must have crossed his mind, for he assumed suddenly a
+darker look and turned away from her without a word.  More than once
+that night she recalled that strange spasmodic expression of something
+akin to horror which had passed over her guardian's features as he gazed
+at her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+THE LAND OF DIAMONDS.
+
+The anxious father had not very long to wait before he heard tidings of
+his son.  Upon the first of June the great vessel weighed her anchor in
+the Southampton Water, and steamed past the Needles into the Channel.
+On the 5th she was reported from Madeira, and the merchant received
+telegrams both from the agent of the firm and from his son.  Then there
+was a long interval of silence, for the telegraph did not extend to the
+Cape at that time, but, at last on the 8th of August, a letter announced
+Ezra's safe arrival.  He wrote again from Wellington, which was the
+railway terminus, and finally there came a long epistle from Kimberley,
+the capital of the mining district, in which the young man described his
+eight hundred miles drive up country and all the adventures which
+overtook him on the way.
+
+"This place, Kimberley," he said in his letter, "has grown into a
+fair-sized town, though a few years ago it was just a camp.  Now there
+are churches, banks, and a club in it.  There are a sprinkling of
+well-dressed people in the streets, but the majority are grimy-looking
+chaps from the diggings, with slouched hats and coloured shirts, rough
+fellows to look at, though quiet enough as a rule.  Of course, there are
+blacks everywhere, of all shades, from pure jet up to the lightest
+yellow.  Some of these niggers have money, and are quite independent.
+You would be surprised at their impertinence.  I kicked one of them in
+the hotel yesterday, and he asked me what the devil I was doing, so I
+knocked the insolent scoundrel down.  He says that he will sue me, but I
+cannot believe that the law is so servile as to bolster up a black man
+against a white one.
+
+"Though Kimberley is the capital of the dry diggings, it is not there
+that all the actual mining is done.  It goes on briskly in a lot of
+little camps, which are dotted along the Vaal River for fifty or sixty
+miles.  The stones are generally bought by licensed agents immediately
+after they have been found, and are paid for by cheques on banks in
+Kimberley.  I have, therefore, transferred our money to the Standard
+Bank here, and have taken my licence.  I start to-morrow for Hebron,
+Klipdrift, and other of the mining centres to see for myself how
+business is done and to make friends with the miners, so as to get
+myself known.  As soon as the news comes I shall buy in all that offers.
+Keep your eyes on that fellow Dimsdale, and let him know nothing of what
+is going on."
+
+He wrote again about a fortnight afterwards, and his letter, as it
+crossed the Atlantic, passed the outward mail, which bore the news of
+the wonderful diamond find made by an English geologist among the Ural
+Mountains.
+
+"I am now on a tour among the camps," he said.  "I have worked right
+through from Hebron to Klipdrift, Pniel, Cawood's Hope, Waldeck's Plant,
+Neukirk's Hope, Winterrush, and Bluejacket.  To-morrow I push on to
+Delparte's Hope and Larkin's Flat.  I am well received wherever I go,
+except by the dealers, who are mostly German Jews.  They hear that I am
+a London capitalist, and fear that I may send up the prices.
+They little know!  I bought stones all the way along, but not very
+valuable ones, for we must husband our resources.
+
+"The process of mining is very simple.  The men dig pits in loose gravel
+lying along the banks of the river, and it is in these pits that the
+diamonds are found.  The black men, or 'boys,' as they call them, do all
+the work, and the 'baas,' or master, superintends.  Everything that
+turns up belongs to the 'baas,' but the boys have a fixed rate of wages,
+which never varies, whether the work is paying or not.  I was standing
+at Hebron watching one of the gangs working when the white chap gave a
+shout, and dived his hand into a heap of stuff he had just turned over,
+pulling out a dirty looking little lump about the size of a marble.
+At his shout all the other fellows from every claim within hearing
+gathered round, until there was quite a crowd.
+
+"'It's a fine stone,' said the man that turned it up.
+
+"'Fifty carats if it's one,' cried another, weighing it in the palm of
+his hand.
+
+"I had my scales with me, so I offered to weigh it.  It was sixty-four
+and a half carats.  Then they washed it and examined it.  There was a
+lot of whispering among them and then the one who had found it came
+forward.
+
+"'You deal, don't you, Mr. Girdlestone?' he said.
+
+"'Now and then,' I answered, 'but I'm not very keen about it.  I came
+out here more for pleasure than business.
+
+"'Well,' he said, 'you may go far before you see a finer stone than
+this.  What will you bid for it?'
+
+"I looked at it.  'It's off-coloured,' I said.
+
+"'It's white,' said he and one or two of his chums.
+
+"'Gentlemen,' I said, 'it is not white.  There are two shades of yellow
+in it.  It is worth little or nothing.'
+
+"'Why, if it is yellow it makes it all the more valuable,' said a big
+fellow with a black beard and corduroy trousers.  'A yellow stone's as
+good as a white.'
+
+"'Yes,' I answered, 'a pure yellow stone is.  But this is neither one
+nor the other.  It's off-colour, and you know that as well as I.'
+
+"'Won't you bid for it, then?' said one of them.
+
+"'I'll bid seventy pounds,' I said, 'but not a penny more.'
+
+"You should have heard the howl they all set up.  'It's worth five
+hundred,' the fellow cried.
+
+"'All right,' I said, 'keep it and sell it for that; good day,' and I
+went off.  The stone was sent after me that evening with a request for
+my cheque, and I sold it for a hundred two days afterwards.[1]  You see
+old Van Harmer's training has come in very handy.  I just tell you this
+little anecdote to let you see that though I'm new in the work I'm not
+to be done.  Nothing in the papers here from Russia.  I am ready, come
+when it may.  What would you do if there should be any hitch and the
+affair did not come off?  Would you cut and run, or would you stand by
+your colours and pay a shilling or so in the pound?  The more I think of
+it the more I curse your insanity in getting us into such a mess.
+Good-bye."
+
+"He is right.  It was insanity," said the old merchant leaning his head
+upon his hands.  "It seems unkind of the lad to say so when he is so far
+away, but he was always plain and blunt.  'If the affair did not come
+off'--he must have some doubts about the matter, else he would not even
+suppose such a thing.  God knows what I should do then.  There are other
+ways--other ways." He passed his hand over his eyes as he spoke, as
+though to shut out some ugly vision.  Such a wan, strange expression
+played over his grim features that he was hardly to  be recognized as
+the revered elder of the Trinitarian Chapel or the esteemed man of
+business of Fenchurch Street.
+
+He was lost in thought for some little time, and then, rising, he
+touched the bell upon the table.  Gilray trotted in upon the signal so
+rapidly and noiselessly, that he might have been one of those convenient
+genii in the Eastern fables, only that the little clerk's appearance,
+from the tips of his ink-stained fingers to the toes of his seedy boots,
+was so hopelessly prosaic that it was impossible to picture him as
+anything but what he was.
+
+"Ah, Gilray!" the merchant began, "is Mr. Dimsdale in the office?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"That's all right.  He seems to be very regular in his attendance."
+
+"Very, sir."
+
+"And seems to take to the business very well."
+
+"Uncommonly quick, sir, to be sure," said the head clerk.  "What with
+work among the ships, and work in the office, he's at it late and
+early."
+
+"That is very right," said the old man, playing with the letter weights.
+"Application in youth, Gilray, leads to leisure in old age.  Is the
+_Maid of Athens_ unloading?"
+
+"Mr. Dimsdale has been down to her this morning, sir.  They're getting
+the things out fast.  He wants to call attention to the state of the
+vessel, Mr. Girdlestone.  He says that it's making water even in dock,
+and that some of the hands say that they won't go back in her."
+
+"Tut! tut!" John Girdlestone said peevishly.  "What are the Government
+inspectors for?  There is no use paying them if we are to inspect
+ourselves.  If they insist upon any alterations they shall be made."
+
+"They were there, sir, at the same time as Mr. Dimsdale," said Gilray,
+diffidently.
+
+"Well, what then?" asked his employer.
+
+"He says, sir, that the inspectors went down to the cabin and had some
+champagne with Captain Spender.  They then professed themselves to be
+very well satisfied with the state of the vessel and came away."
+
+"There you are!" the senior partner cried triumphantly.  "Of course
+these men can see at a glance how things stand, and if things had really
+been wrong they would have called attention to it.  Let us have no more
+of these false alarms.  You must say a few words on the point to Mr.
+Dimsdale, as coming from yourself, not from me.  Tell him to be more
+careful before he jumps to conclusions."
+
+"I will, sir."
+
+"And bring me ledger No. 33."
+
+Gilray stretched up his arm and took down a fat little ledger from a
+high shelf, which he laid respectfully before his employer.
+Then, seeing that he was no longer wanted, he withdrew.
+
+Ledger No. 33 was secured by a clasp and lock--the latter a patent one
+which defied all tamperers.  John Girdlestone took a small key from his
+pocket and opened it with a quick snap.  A precious volume this, for it
+was the merchant's private book, which alone contained a true record of
+the financial state of the firm, all others being made merely for show.
+Without it he would have been unable to keep his son in the dark for so
+many months until bitter necessity at last compelled him to show his
+hand.
+
+He turned the pages over slowly and sadly.  Here was a record of the
+sums sunk in the Lake Tanganyika Gold Company, which was to have paid 33
+per cent., and which fell to pieces in the second month of its
+existence.  Here was the money advanced to Durer, Hallett, & Co., on the
+strength of securities which proved to be the flimsiest of insecurities
+when tested.  Further on was the account of the dealings of the firm
+with the Levant Petroleum Company, the treasurer of which had levanted
+with the greater part of the capital.  Here, too, was a memorandum of
+the sums sunk upon the _Evening Star_ and the _Providence_, whose
+unfortunate collision had well-nigh proved the death blow of the firm.
+It was melancholy reading, and perhaps the last page was the most
+melancholy of all.  On it the old man had drawn up in a condensed form
+an exact account of the present condition of the firm's finances.
+Here it is exactly word for word as he had written it down himself.
+
+                          GIRDLESTONE & CO.
+                                                     October 1874
+              Debit.                          Credit.
+
+                        Pounds Sterling                  Pounds Sterling
+Debts incurred previous to             | Ezra, in Africa, holds
+disclosure to Ezra             34000   | this money with which
+15000 pounds raised at six             | to speculate.             35000
+months, and 20000 pounds               | Balance in bank,
+at nine months                 35000   | including what remains
+Interest on said money at              | of Dimsdale's premium.     8400
+5 per cent.                     1125   | Profit on the cargo of
+Working expenses of the                | _Maid of Athens_, now
+firm during the next six               | in port.                   2000
+months, including cost of              | Profit on the cargoes
+ships, at 150 pounds per               | of _Black Eagle_,_Swan_
+week                            3900   | and _Panther_, calculated
+Private expenses at                    | at the same rate.          6000
+Ecclestone Square, say          1000   | Deficit                   26425
+Expenses of Langworthy                 |
+in Russia, and of my dear              |
+son in Africa, say               600   |
+Insurances                      1200   |
+Total                          76825   | Total                     76825
+                                       |
+All this money must be found within    |The possibility of the sinking
+nine months at the outside.            |of a ship must not be
+                                       |overlooked--that would bring in
+                                       |from 12000 to 20000 pounds.
+
+
+"Come, it's not so very bad after all," the merchant muttered, after he
+had gone over these figures very slowly and carefully.  He leaned back
+in his chair and looked up at the ceiling with a much more cheerful
+expression upon his face.  "At the worst it is less than thirty
+thousand pounds.  Why, many firms would think little of it.  The fact
+is, that I have so long been accustomed to big balances on the right
+side that it seems to be a very dreadful thing now that it lies the
+other way.  A dozen things may happen to set all right.  I must not
+forget, however," he continued, with a darker look, "that I have dipped
+into my credit so freely that I could not borrow any more without
+exciting suspicion and having the whole swarm down on us.  After all,
+our hopes lie in the diamonds.  Ezra cannot fail.  He must succeed.
+Who can prevent him?"
+
+"Major Tobias Clutterbuck," cried the sharp, creaky voice of Gilray as
+if in answer to the question, and the little clerk, who had knocked once
+or twice unnoticed, opened the door and ushered in the old Campaigner.
+
+[1] It may be well to remark, that this and succeeding incidents
+occurred in the old Crown Colony days, before the diamond legislation
+was as strict as it has since become.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+MAJOR TOBIAS CLUTTERBUCK COMES IN FOR A THOUSAND POUNDS.
+
+John Girdlestone had frequently heard his son speak of the major in the
+days when they had been intimate, and had always attributed some of the
+young man's more obvious vices to the effects of this ungodly
+companionship.  He had also heard from Ezra a mangled version of the
+interview and quarrel in the private room of Nelson's Restaurant.
+Hence, as may be imagined, his feelings towards his visitor were far
+from friendly, and he greeted him as he entered with the coldest of
+possible bows.  The major, however, was by no means abashed by this
+chilling reception, but stumped forward with beaming face and his pudgy
+hand outstretched, so that the other had no alternative but to shake it,
+which he did very gingerly and reluctantly.
+
+"And how are ye?" said the major, stepping back a pace or two, and
+inspecting the merchant as though he were examining his points with the
+intention of purchasing him.  "Many's the time I've heard talk of ye.
+It's a real treat to see ye.  How are ye?"  Pouncing upon the other's
+unresponsive hand, he wrung it again with effusion.
+
+"I am indebted to Providence for fairly good health, sir," John
+Girdlestone answered coldly.  "May I request you to take a seat?"
+
+"That was what me friend Fagan was trying to do for twelve years, and
+ruined himself over it in the ind.  He put up at Murphytown in the
+Conservative interest, and the divil a vote did he get, except one, and
+that was a blind man who signed the wrong paper be mistake, Ha! ha!"
+The major laughed boisterously at his own anecdote, and mopped his
+forehead with his handkerchief.
+
+The two men, as they stood opposite each other, were a strange contrast,
+the one tall, grave, white, and emotionless, the other noisy and
+pompous, with protuberant military chest and rubicund features.
+They had one common characteristic, however.  From under the shaggy
+eyebrows of the merchant and the sparse light-coloured lashes of the
+major there came the same keen, restless, shifting glance.  Both were
+crafty, and each was keenly on his guard against the other.
+
+"I have heard of you from my son," the merchant said, motioning his
+visitor to a chair.  "You were, I believe, in the habit of meeting
+together for the purpose of playing cards, billiards, and other such
+games, which I by no means countenance myself, but to which my son is
+unhappily somewhat addicted."
+
+"You don't play yourself," said the major, in a sympathetic voice.
+"Ged, sir, it's never too late to begin, and many a man has put in a
+very comfortable old age on billiards and whist.  Now, if ye feel
+inclined to make a start, I'll give ye seventy-five points in a hundred
+for a commincement."
+
+"Thank you," said the merchant drily.  "It is not one of my ambitions.
+Was this challenge the business upon which you came?"
+
+The old soldier laughed until his merriment startled the clerks in the
+counting-house.  "Be jabers!" he said, In a wheezy voice, "d'ye think I
+came five miles to do that?  No, sir, I wanted to talk to you about your
+son."
+
+"My son!"
+
+"Yes, your son.  He's a smart lad--very smart indeed--about as quick as
+they make 'em.  He may be a trifle coarse at times, but that's the
+spirit of the age, me dear sir.  Me friend Tuffleton, of the Blues, says
+that delicacy went out of fashion with hair powder and beauty patches.
+He's a demned satirical fellow is Tuffleton.  Don't know him, eh?"
+
+"No, sir, I don't," Girdlestone said angrily; "nor have I any desire to
+make his acquaintance.  Let us proceed to business for my time is
+valuable."
+
+The major looked at him with an amiable smile.  "That quick temper runs
+in the family," he said.  "I've noticed it in your son Ezra.  As I said
+before, he's a smart lad; but me friend, he's shockingly rash and
+extremely indiscrate.  Ye musk speak to him about it."
+
+"What do you mean sir?" asked the merchant, white with anger.
+"Have you come to insult him in his absence?"
+
+"Absence?" said the soldier, still smiling blandly over his stock.
+"That's the very point I wanted to get at.  He is away in Africa--at the
+diamond fields.  A wonderful interprise, conducted with remarkable
+energy, but also with remarkable rashness, sir--yes, bedad, inexcusable
+rashness."
+
+Old Girdlestone took up his heavy ebony ruler and played with it
+nervously.  He had an overpowering desire to hurl it at the head of his
+companion.
+
+"What would ye say, now," the veteran continued, crossing one leg over
+the other and arguing the matter out in a confidential undertone--
+"what would you say if a young man came to you, and, on the assumption
+that you were a dishonest blackgaird, appealed to you to help him in a
+very shady sort of a scheme?  It would argue indiscretion on his part,
+would it not?"
+
+The merchant sat still, but grew whiter and whiter.
+
+"And if on the top of that he gave you all the details of his schame,
+without even waiting to see if you favoured it or not, he would be more
+than indiscrate, wouldn't he?  Your own good sinse, me dear sir, will
+tell you that he would be culpably foolish--culpably so, bedad!"
+
+"Well, sir?" said the old man, in a hoarse voice.
+
+"Well," continued the major, "I have no doubt that your son told you of
+the interesting little conversation that we had together.  He was good
+enough to promise that if I went to Russia and pretinded to discover a
+fictitious mine, I should be liberally rewarded by the firm.  I was
+under the necessity of pointing out to him that certain principles on
+which me family"--here the major inflated his chest--"on which me
+family are accustomed to act would prevint me from taking advantage of
+his offer.  He then, I am sorry to say, lost his temper, and some words
+passed between us, the result of which was that we parted so rapidly
+that, be jabers!  I had hardly time to make him realize how great an
+indiscretion he had committed."
+
+The merchant still sat perfectly still, tapping the table with his black
+ebony ruler.
+
+"Of course, afther hearing a skitch of the plan," continued the major,
+"me curiosity was so aroused that I could not help following the details
+with intherest.  I saw the gintleman who departed for Russia--
+Langworthy, I believe, was his name.  Ged!  I knew a chap of that name
+in the Marines who used to drink raw brandy and cayenne pepper before
+breakfast every morning.  Did  ye? Of course you couldn't.  What was I
+talking of at all at all?"
+
+Girdlestone stared gloomily at his visitor.  The latter took a pinch of
+snuff from a tortoise-shell box, and flicked away a few wandering grains
+which settled upon the front of his coat.
+
+"Yes," he went on, I saw Langworthy off to Russia.  Then I saw your son
+start for Africa.  He's an interprising lad, and sure to do well there.
+_Coelum non animam mutant_, as we used to say at Clongowes.
+He'll always come to the front, wherever he is, as long as he avoids
+little slips like this one we're spaking of.  About the same time I
+heard that Girdlestone & Co, had raised riddy money to the extint of
+five and thirty thousand pounds.  That's gone to Africa, too, I presume.
+It's a lot o' money to invist in such a game, and it might be safe if
+you were the only people that knew about it, but whin there are
+others--"
+
+"Others?"
+
+"Why, me, of course," said the major.  "I know about it, and more be
+token I am not in the swim with you.  Sure, I could go this very evening
+to the diamond merchants about town and give them a tip about the coming
+fall in prices that would rather astonish 'em."
+
+"Look here, Major Clutterbuck," cried the merchant, in a voice which
+quivered with suppressed passion, "you have come into possession of an
+important commercial secret.  Why beat about the bush any longer?
+What is the object of your visit to-day?  What is it that you want?"
+
+"There now!" the major said, addressing himself and smiling more
+amicably than ever.  "That's business.  Bedad, there's where you
+commercial men have the pull.  You go straight to the point and stick
+there.  Ah, when I look at ye, I can't help thinking of your son.
+The same intelligent eye, the same cheery expression, the same
+devil-may-care manner and dry humour--"
+
+"Answer my question, will you?" the merchant interrupted savagely.
+
+"And the same hasty timper," continued the major imperturbably.
+"I've forgotten, me dear sir, what it was you asked me."
+
+"What is it you want?"
+
+"Ah, yes, of course.  What is it I want?" the old soldier said
+meditatively.  "Some would say more, some less.  Some would want half,
+but that is overdoing it.  How does a thousand pound stroike you?
+Yes, I think we may put it at a thousand pounds."
+
+"You want a thousand pounds?"
+
+"Ged, I've been wanting it all me life.  The difference is that I'm
+going to git it now."
+
+"And for what?"
+
+"Sure, for silence--for neutrality.  We're all in it now, and there's a
+fair division of labour.  You plan, your son works, I hold me tongue.
+You make your tens of thousands, I make my modest little thousand.
+We all git paid for our throuble."
+
+"And suppose I refuse?"
+
+"Ah! but you wouldn't--you couldn't," the major said suavely.
+"Ged, sir, I haven't known ye long, but I have far too high an opinion
+of ye to suppose ye could do anything so foolish.  If you refuse, your
+speculation is thrown away.  There's no help for it.  Bedad, it would be
+painful for me to have to blow the gaff; but you know the old saying,
+that 'charity begins at home.'  You must sell your knowledge at the best
+market."
+
+Girdlestone thought intently for a minute or two, with his great
+eyebrows drawn down over his little restless eyes.
+
+"You said to my son," he remarked at last, "that you were too honourable
+to embark in our undertaking.  Do you consider it honourable to make use
+of knowledge gained in confidence for the purpose of extorting money?"
+
+"Me dear sir," answered the major, holding up his hand deprecatingly,
+"you put me in the painful position of having to explain meself in plain
+words.  If I saw a man about to do a murther, I should think nothing of
+murthering him.  If I saw a pickpocket at work, I'd pick his pocket, and
+think it good fun to do it.  Now, this little business of yours is--
+well, we'll say unusual, and if what I do seems a little unusual too,
+it's to be excused.  Ye can't throw stones at every one, me boy, and
+then be surprised when some one throws one at you.  You bite the diamond
+holders, d'ye see, and I take a little nibble at you.  It's all fair
+enough."
+
+The merchant reflected again for some moments.  "Suppose we agree to
+purchasing your silence at this price," he said, "what guarantee have we
+that you will not come and extort more money, or that you may not betray
+our secret after all?"
+
+"The honour of a soldier and a gintleman," answered the major, rising
+and tapping his chest with two fingers of his right hand.
+
+A slight sneer played over Girdlestone's pale face, but he made no
+remark.  "We are in your power," he said, "and have no resource but to
+submit to your terms.  You said five hundred pounds?"
+
+"A thousand," the major answered cheerfully.
+
+"It's a great sum of money."
+
+"Deuce of a lot!" said the veteran cordially.
+
+"Well, you shall have it.  I will communicate with you." Girdlestone
+rose as if to terminate the interview.
+
+The major made no remark, but he showed his white teeth again, and
+tapped Mr. Girdlestone's cheque-book with the silver head of his
+walking-stick.
+
+"What!  Now?"
+
+"Yes, now."
+
+The two looked at each other for a moment and the merchant sat down
+again and scribbled out a cheque, which he tossed to his companion.  The
+latter looked it over carefully, took a fat little pocket-book from the
+depths of his breast pocket, and having placed the precious slip of
+paper in it, laboriously pushed it back into its receptacle.  Then he
+very slowly and methodically picked up his jaunty curly-brimmed hat and
+shining kid gloves, and with a cheery nod to his companion, who answered
+it with a scowl, he swaggered off into the counting-house.  There he
+shook hands with Tom, whom he had known for some months, and having made
+three successive offers--one to stand immediately an unlimited quantity
+of champagne, a second to play him five hundred up for anything he would
+name, and a third to lay a tenner for him at 7 to 4 on Amelia for the
+Oaks--all of which offers were declined with thanks--he bowed himself
+out, leaving a vague memory of smiles, shirt collars, and gaiters in the
+minds of the awe-struck Clerks.
+
+Whatever an impartial judge might think of the means whereby Major
+Tobias Clutterbuck had successfully screwed a thousand pounds out of
+the firm of Girdlestone, it is quite certain that that gentleman's
+seasoned conscience did not reproach him in the least degree.  On the
+contrary, his whole being seemed saturated and impregnated with the
+wildest hilarity and delight.  Twice in less than a hundred yards, he
+was compelled to stop and lean upon his cane owing to the breathlessness
+which supervened upon his attempts to smother the delighted chuckles
+which came surging up from the inmost recesses of his capacious frame.
+At the second halt he wriggled his hand inside his tight-breasted coat,
+and after as many contortions as though he were about to shed that
+garment as a snake does its skin, he produced once more the little fat
+pocket-book.  From it he extracted the cheque and looked it over
+lovingly.  Then he hailed a passing hansom.  "Drive to the Capital and
+Counties Bank," he said.  It had struck him that since the firm was in a
+shaky state he had better draw the money as soon as possible.
+
+In the bank a gloomy-looking cashier took the cheque and stared at it
+somewhat longer than the occasion seemed to demand.  It was but a few
+minutes, yet it appeared a very long time to the major.
+
+"How will you have it?" he asked at last, in a mournful voice.  It tends
+to make a man cynical when he spends his days in handling untold riches
+while his wife and six children are struggling to make both ends meet at
+home.
+
+"A hunthred in gold and the rest in notes," said the major, with a sigh
+of relief.
+
+The cashier counted and handed over a thick packet of crisp rustling
+paper and a little pile of shining sovereigns.  The major stowed away
+the first in the pocket-book and the latter in his trouser pockets.
+Then he swaggered out with a great increase of pomposity and importance,
+and ordered his cabman to drive to Kennedy Place.
+
+Von Baumser was sitting in the major's campaigning chair, smoking his
+china-bowled pipe and gazing dreamily at the long blue wreaths.
+Times had been bad with the comrades of late, as the German's seedy
+appearance sufficiently testified.  His friends in Germany had ceased to
+forward his small remittance, and Endermann's office, in which he had
+been employed, had given him notice that for a time they could dispense
+with his services.  He had been spending the whole afternoon in perusing
+the long list of "wanteds" in the _Daily Telegraph_, and his ink-stained
+forefinger showed the perseverance with which he had been answering
+every advertisement that could possibly apply to him.  A pile of
+addressed envelopes lay upon the table, and it was only the uncertainty
+of his finances and the fact that the humble penny stamp mounts into
+shillings when frequently employed, that prevented him from increasing
+the number of his applications.  He looked up and uttered a word of
+guttural greeting as his companion came striding in.
+
+"Get out of this," the major said abruptly.  "Get away into the
+bedroom."
+
+"Potztausand!  Vot is it then?" cried the astonished Teuton.
+
+"Out with you!  I want this room to meself."
+
+Von Baumser shrugged his shoulders and lumbered off like a good-natured
+plantigrade, closing the door behind him.
+
+When his companion had disappeared the major proceeded to lay out all
+his notes upon the table, overlapping each other, but still so arranged
+that every separate one was visible.  He then built in the centre ten
+little golden columns in a circle, each consisting of ten sovereigns,
+until the whole presented the appearance of a metallic Stonehenge upon a
+plain of bank notes.  This done, he cocked his head on one side, like a
+fat and very ruddy turkey, and contemplated his little arrangement with
+much pride and satisfaction.
+
+Solitary delight soon becomes wearisome, however, so the veteran
+summoned his companion.  The Teuton was so dumbfounded by this display
+of wealth, that he was bereft for a time of all faculty of speech, and
+could only stare open-mouthed at the table.  At last he extended a
+fore-finger and thumb and rubbed a five pound note between them, as
+though to convince himself of its reality, after which he began to
+gyrate round the table in a sort of war dance, never taking his eyes
+from the heap of influence in front of him.  "Mein Gott!" he exclaimed,
+"Gnadiger Vater!  Ach Himmel!  Was fur eine Schatze!  Donnerwetter!" and
+a thousand other cacophonous expressions of satisfaction and amazement.
+
+When the old soldier had sufficiently enjoyed the lively emotion which
+showed itself on every feature of the German's countenance, he picked up
+the notes and locked them in his desk together with half the gold.  The
+other fifty pounds he returned into his pocket.
+
+"Come on!" he said to his companion abruptly.
+
+"Come vere?  Vat is it?"
+
+"Come on!" roared the major irascibly.  "What d'ye want to stand asking
+questions for?  Put on your hat and come."
+
+The major had retained the cab at the door, and the two jumped into it.
+"Drive to Verdi's Restaurant," he said to the driver.
+
+When they arrived at that aristocratic and expensive establishment, the
+soldier ordered the best dinner for two that money could procure.
+"Have it riddy in two hours sharp," he said to the manager.  "None of
+your half-and-half wines, mind!  We want the rale thing, and, be ged! we
+can tell the difference!"
+
+Having left the manager much impressed, the two friends set out for a
+ready-made clothing establishment.  "I won't come in," the major said,
+slipping ten sovereigns into Von Baumser's hand.  "Just you go in and
+till them ye want the best suit o' clothes they can give you.  They've a
+good seliction there, I know."
+
+"Gott in Himmel!" cried the amazed German.  "But, my dear vriend, you
+cannot vait in the street.  Come in mit me."
+
+"No, I'll wait," the old soldier answered.  "They might think I was
+paying for the clothes if I came in."
+
+"Well, but so you--"
+
+"Eh, would ye?" roared the major, raising his cane, and Von Baumser
+disappeared precipitately into the shop.
+
+When he emerged once more at the end of twenty minutes, he was attired
+in an elegant and close-fitting suit of heather tweed.  The pair then
+made successive visits to a shoe-maker, a hatter, and a draper, with the
+result that Von Baumser developed patent leather boots, a jaunty brown
+hat, and a pair of light yellow gloves.  By the end of their walk there
+seemed nothing left of the original Von Baumser except a tawny beard,
+and an expression of hopeless and overpowering astonishment.
+
+Having effected this transformation, the friends retraced their steps to
+Verdi's and did full justice to the spread awaiting them, after which
+the old soldier won the heart of the establishment by bestowing largess
+upon every one who came in his way.  As to the further adventures of
+these two Bohemians, it would be as well perhaps to draw a veil over
+them.  Suffice it that, about two in the morning, the worthy Mrs.
+Robins was awakened by a stentorian voice in the street below demanding
+to know "Was ist das Deutsche Vaterland?"--a somewhat vexed question
+which the owner of the said voice was propounding to the solitary
+lamp-post of Kennedy Place.  On descending the landlady discovered that
+the author of this disturbance was a fashionably dressed gentleman, who,
+upon closer inspection, proved to her great surprise to be none other
+than the usually demure part proprietor of her fourth floor.  As to the
+major, he walked in quietly the next day about twelve o'clock, looking
+as trim and neat as ever, but minus the balance of the fifty pounds, nor
+did he think fit ever to make any allusion to this some what heavy
+deficit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+NEWS FROM THE URALS.
+
+Major Tobias Clutterbuck had naturally reckoned that the longer he
+withheld this trump card of his the greater would be its effect when
+played.  An obstacle appearing at the last moment produces more
+consternation than when a scheme is still in its infancy.  It proved,
+however, that he had only just levied his blackmail in time, for within
+a couple of days of his interview with the head of the firm news arrived
+of the great discovery of diamonds among the Ural Mountains.  The first
+intimation was received through the Central News Agency in the form of
+the following telegram:--
+
+"Moscow, _August_ 22.--It is reported from Tobolsk that an important
+discovery of diamond fields has been made amongst the spurs of the Ural
+Mountains, at a point not very far from that city.  They are said to
+have been found by an English geologist, who has exhibited many
+magnificent gems in proof of his assertion.  These stones have been
+examined at Tobolsk, and are pronounced to be equal, if not superior, in
+quality to any found elsewhere.  A company has been already formed for
+the purpose of purchasing the land and working the mines."
+
+Some days afterwards there came a Reuter's telegram giving fuller
+details.  "With regard to the diamond fields near Tobolsk," it said,
+"there is every reason to believe that they are of great, and possibly
+unsurpassed, wealth.  There is no question now as to their authenticity,
+since their discoverer proves to be an English gentleman of high
+character, and his story is corroborated by villagers from this district
+who have dug up stones for themselves.  The Government contemplate
+buying out the company and taking over the mines, which might be
+profitably worked by the forced labour of political prisoners on a
+system similar to that adopted in the salt mines of Siberia.
+The discovery is universally regarded as one which has materially
+increased the internal resources of the country, and there is some talk
+of the presentation of a substantial testimonial to the energetic and
+scientific traveller to whom it is due."
+
+Within a week or ten days of the receipt of these telegrams in London
+there came letters from the Russian correspondents of the various
+journals giving fuller details upon a subject of so much general
+interest.  The _Times_ directed attention to the matter in a leader.
+
+"It appears," remarked the great paper, "that a most important addition
+has been made to the mineral wealth of the Russian Empire.  The silver
+mines of Siberia and the petroleum wells of the Caucasus are to be
+outrivalled by the new diamond fields of the Ural Mountains.  For untold
+thousands of years these precious fragments of crystallized carbon have
+been lying unheeded among the gloomy gorges waiting for the hand of man
+to pick them out.  It has fallen to the lot of one of our countrymen to
+point out to the Russian nation the great wealth which lay untouched and
+unsuspected in the heart of their realm.  The story is a romantic one.
+It appears that a Mr. Langworthy, a wealthy English gentleman of good
+extraction, had, in the course of his travels in Russia, continued his
+journey as far as the great mountain barrier which separates Europe from
+Asia.  Being fond of sport, he was wandering in search of game down one
+of the Ural valleys, when his attention was attracted by the thick
+gravel, which was piled up along the track of a dried-up water-course.
+The appearance and situation of this gravel reminded him forcibly of the
+South African diamond fields, and so strong was the impression that he
+at once laid down his gun and proceeded to rake the gravel over and to
+examine it.  His search was rewarded by the discovery of several stones,
+which he conveyed home with him, and which proved, after being cleaned,
+to be gems of the first water.  Elated at this success, he returned to
+the spot next day with a spade, and succeeded in obtaining many other
+specimens, and in convincing himself that the deposit stretched up and
+down for a long distance on both sides of the torrent.  Having satisfied
+himself upon this point, our compatriot made his way to Tobolsk, where
+he exhibited his prizes to several of the richest merchants, and
+proceeded to form a company for the working of the new fields.  He was
+so successful in this that the shares are already far above par, and our
+correspondent writes that there has been a rush of capitalists, all
+eager to invest their money in so promising a venture.  It is expected
+that within a few months the necessary plant will have been erected and
+the concern be in working order."
+
+The _Daily Telegraph_ treated the matter from a jocose and historical
+point of view.
+
+"It has long been a puzzle to antiquaries and geologists," it remarked,
+"as to where those jewels which Solomon brought from the East were
+originally obtained.  There has been much speculation, too, regarding
+the source of those less apocryphal gems which sparkled in the regalia
+of the Indian monarchs and adorned the palaces of Delhi and Benares.
+As a nation we have a personal interest in the question, since the
+largest and most magnificent of these stones is now in the possession of
+our most gracious Queen.  Mr. Langworthy has thrown a light upon this
+obscure subject.  According to this gentleman's researches these
+treasures were unearthed amidst that dark and gloomy range of mountains
+which Providence has interposed between a nascent civilization and a
+continent of barbarians.  Nor is Mr. Langworthy's opinion founded upon
+theory alone.  He lends point to his arguments by presenting to the
+greedy eyes of the merchants of Tobolsk a bag filled with valuable
+diamonds, each and every one of which he professes to have discovered in
+these barren inhospitable valleys.  This tweed-suited English tourist,
+descending like some good spirit among these dreamy Muscovites, points
+out to them the untold wealth which has lain for so many centuries at
+their feet, and with the characteristic energy of his race shows them at
+the same time how to turn the discovery to commercial advantage.  If the
+deposit prove to be as extensive as is supposed, it is possible that our
+descendants may wear cut diamonds in their eye-glasses, should such
+accessories be necessary, and marvel at the ignorance of those primitive
+days when a metamorphosed piece of coal was regarded as the most
+valuable product of nature."
+
+The ordinary British paterfamilias, glancing over his morning paper,
+bestowed probably but few passing thoughts on the incident, but among
+business men and in the City its significance was at once understood.
+Not only did it create the deepest consternation amongst all who were
+connected with the diamond industry, but it reacted upon every other
+branch of South African commerce.  It was the chief subject of
+conversation upon the Stock Exchange, and many were the surmises as to
+what the effect of the news would be at the fields.  Fugger, the father
+of the diamond industry, was standing discussing the question, when a
+little rosy-faced Jew, named Goldschmidt, came bustling up to him.
+He was much excited, for he speculated in stones, and had just been
+buying in for a rise.
+
+"Misther Fugger," he cried, "you're shust the man I want to see.
+My Gott, vot is to become of us all?  Vot is to become of de diamond
+trade ven one can pick them up like cockles on the sea shore?"
+
+"We must wait for details," the great financier said phlegmatically.
+His fortune was so enormous that it mattered little to him whether the
+report was true or false.
+
+"Details!  It is nothing but details," cried the little Jew.
+"The papers is full of them.  I vish to the Lord that that Langworthy
+had proke his neck in the Ural Mountains before he got up to any such
+games.  Vat business had he to go examining gravel and peeping about in
+such places as them.  Nobody that's any good would ever go to the Ural
+Mountains at all."
+
+"It won't hurt you," Fugger said; "you'll simply have to pay less for
+your stones and sell them cheaper after they are cut.  It won't make
+much difference in the long run."
+
+"Von't it, by Joves!  Why, man, I've got over a hundred shtones on my
+hands now.  Vat am I going to do vid 'em."
+
+"Ah, that's a bad job.  You must make up your mind to lose on them."
+
+"Von't you buy them yourself, Mr. Fugger?" asked the Hebrew, in an
+insinuating voice.  "Maybe this here story will all turn out wrong.
+S'elp me bob I gave three thousand for the lot, and you shall have them
+for two.  Let's have a deal, my tear Mr. Fugger, do?"
+
+"No more for me, thank you," Fugger said with decision.  "As to the
+story being wrong, I have telegraphed to Rotterdam, and they have sent
+on a trusty man.  He'll be weeks, however, before we hear from him."
+
+"Here's Mr. Girdlestone, the great Mr. Girdlestone," cried Goldschmidt,
+perceiving our worthy merchant of Fenchurch Street among the crowd.
+"Oh, Misther Girdlestone, I've got diamonds here what is worth three
+thousand pounds, and you shall have them for two--you shall, by chingo,
+and we'll go together now and get them?"
+
+"Don't pester me!" said Girdlestone, brushing the little Jew aside with
+his long, bony arm.  "Can I have a word with you, Fugger?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the diamond dealer.  Girdlestone was a very
+well-known man upon 'Change, and one who was universally respected and
+looked up to.
+
+"What do you think about this report?" he asked, in a confidential
+voice.  "Do you imagine that it will affect prices in Africa?"
+
+"Affect prices!  My dear sir, if it proves true it will ruin the African
+fields.  The mere report coming in a circumstantial fashion will send
+prices down fifty per cent."
+
+"As much as that!" said the merchant, with an excellent affectation of
+surprise.  "I am anxious about it, for my boy is out there.  It was a
+hobby of his, and I let him go.  I trust he will not be bitten."
+
+"He is much more likely to do the biting," remarked Fugger bluntly.
+He had met Ezra Girdlestone in business more than once, and had been
+disagreeably impressed by the young gentleman's sharpness.
+
+"Poor lad!" said his father.  "He is young, and has had little
+experience as yet.  I hope all is well with him!"  He shook his head
+despondently, and walked slowly homewards, but his heart beat
+triumphantly within him, for he was assured now that the report would
+influence prices as he had foreseen, and the African firm reap the
+benefit of their daring speculation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+MR. HECTOR O'FLAHERTY FINDS SOMETHING IN THE PAPER.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone had taken up his quarters in two private rooms at the
+_Central Hotel_, Kimberley, and had already gained a considerable
+reputation in the town by the engaging "abandon" of his manners, and by
+the munificent style in which he entertained the more prominent citizens
+of the little capital.  His personal qualities of strength and beauty
+had also won him the respect which physical gifts usually command in
+primitive communities, and the smart young Londoner attracted custom to
+himself among the diggers in a way which excited the jealousy of the
+whole tribe of elderly Hebrews who had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of
+the trade.  Thus, he had already gained his object in making himself
+known, and his name was a familiar one in every camp from Waldeck's
+Plant to Cawood's Hope.  Keeping his headquarters at Kimberley, he
+travelled perpetually along the line of the diggings.  All the time he
+was chafing secretly and marvelling within himself how it was that no
+whisper of the expected news had arrived yet from England.
+
+One sunny day he had returned from a long ride, and, having dined,
+strolled out into the streets, Panama hat upon head and cigar in mouth.
+It was the 23rd of October, and he had been nearly ten weeks in the
+colony.  Since his arrival he had taken to growing a beard.  Otherwise,
+he was much as we have seen him in London, save that a ruddier glow of
+health shone upon his sunburned face.  The life of the diggings appeared
+to agree with him.
+
+As he turned down Stockdale Street, a man passed him leading a pair of
+horses tired and dusty, with many a strap and buckle hanging down behind
+them.  After him came another leading a second pair, and after him
+another with a third.  They were taking them round to the stables.
+"Hullo!" cried Ezra, with sudden interest; "what's up?"
+
+"The mail's just in."
+
+"Mail from Capetown?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Ezra quickened his pace and strode down Stockdale Street into the Main
+Street, which, as the name implies, is the chief thoroughfare of
+Kimberley.  He came out close to the office of the _Vaal River
+Advertiser and Diamond Field Gazette_.  There was a crowd in front of
+the door.  This _Vaal River Advertiser_ was a badly conducted newspaper,
+badly printed upon bad paper, but selling at sixpence a copy, and
+charging from seven shillings and sixpence to a pound for the insertion
+of an advertisement.  It was edited at present by a certain P. Hector
+O'Flaherty, who having been successively a dentist, a clerk, a
+provision merchant, an engineer, and a sign painter, and having failed
+at each and every one of these employments, had taken to running a
+newspaper as an easy and profitable occupation.  Indeed, as managed by
+Mr. O'Flaherty, the process was simplicity itself.  Having secured by
+the Monday's mail copies of the London papers of two months before, he
+spent Tuesday in cutting extracts from them with the greatest
+impartiality, chopping away everything which might be of value to him.
+The Wednesday was occupied in cursing at three black boys who helped to
+put up the type, and on the Thursday a fresh number of the _Vaal River
+Advertiser and Diamond Field Gazette_ was given to the world.
+The remaining three days were devoted by Mr. O'Flaherty to intoxication,
+but the Monday brought him back once more to soda water and literature.
+
+It was seldom, indeed, that the _Advertiser_ aroused interest enough to
+cause any one to assemble round the Office.  Ezra's heart gave a quick
+flutter at the sight, and he gathered himself together like a runner who
+sees his goal in view.  Throwing away his cigar, he hurried on and joined
+the little crowd.
+
+"What's the row?" he asked.
+
+"There's news come by the mail," said one or two bystanders.
+"Big news."
+
+"What sort of news?"
+
+"Don't know yet."
+
+"Who said there was news?"
+
+"Driver."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Who will know about it?"
+
+"O'Flaherty."
+
+Here there was a general shout from the crowd for O'Flaherty, and an
+irascible-looking man, with a red bloated face and bristling hair came
+to the office door.
+
+"Now, what the divil d'ye want?" he roared, shaking a quill pen at the
+crowd.  "What are ye after at all? Have ye nothing betther to do than to
+block up the door of a decent office?"
+
+"What's the news?" cried a dozen voices.
+
+"The news, is it?" roared O'Flaherty, more angrily than ever; "and can't
+ye foind out that by paying your sixpences like men, and taking the
+_Advertoiser_? It's a paper, though Oi says it as shouldn't, that would
+cut out some o' these _Telegraphs_ and _Chronicles_ if it was only in
+London.  Begad, instead of encouraging local talent ye spind your toime
+standing around in the strate, and trying to suck a man's news out of
+him for nothing."
+
+"Look here, boss," said a rough-looking fellow in the front of the
+crowd, "you keep your hair on, and don't get slinging words about too
+freely, or it may be the worse for you and for your office too.
+We heard as there was big news, an' we come down to hear it, but as to
+gettin' it without paying, that ain't our sort.  I suppose we can call
+it square if we each hands in sixpence, which is the price o' your
+paper, and then you can tell us what's on."
+
+O'Flaherty considered for a moment.  "It's worth a shillin' each," he
+said, "for it plays the divil with the circulation of a paper whin its
+news gits out too soon."
+
+"Well, we won't stick at that," said the miner.  "What say you, boys?"
+
+There was a murmur of assent, and a broad-brimmed straw hat was passed
+rapidly from hand to hand.  It was half full of silver when it reached
+O'Flaherty.  The _Advertiser_ had never before had such a circulation,
+for the crowd had rapidly increased during the preceding dialogue, and
+now numbered some hundreds.
+
+"Thank ye, gintlemen," said the editor.
+
+"Well, what's the news?" cried the impatient crowd.
+
+"Sure I haven't opened the bag yet, but I soon will.  Whativer it is
+it's bound to be there.  Hey there, Billy, ye divil's brat, where's the
+mail bag?"
+
+Thus apostrophized, a sharp little Kaffir came running out with the
+brown bag, and Mr. O'Flaherty examined it in a leisurely manner, which
+elicited many an oath from the eager crowd.
+
+"Here's the _Standard_ and the _Times_," he said, handing the various
+papers out to his subordinate.  "Begad, there's not one of ye knows the
+expinse of k'aping a great paper loike this going, forebye the brains
+and no profit at the ind of it.  Here's the _Post_ and the _News_.  If
+you were men you'd put in an advertisement ivery wake, whether ye needed
+it or not, just to encourage literature.  Here's the _Cape Argus_--it'll
+be in here whativer it is."
+
+With great deliberation Mr. Hector O'Flaherty put on a pair of
+spectacles and folded the paper carefully round, so as to bring the
+principal page to the front.  Then he cleared his throat, with the
+pomposity which is inseparable with most men from the act of reading
+aloud.
+
+"Go it, boss!" cried his audience encouragingly.
+
+"'Small-pox at Wellington'--that's not it, is it?  'Germany and the
+Vatican'--'Custom House Duties at Port Elizabeth'--'Roosian Advances in
+Cintral Asia' eh?  Is that it--'Discovery of great Diamond Moines?'"
+
+"That's it," roared the crowd; "let's hear about that."  There was an
+anxious ring in their voices, and their faces were grave and serious as
+they looked up at the reader upon the steps of the office.
+
+"'Diamond moines have been discovered in Roosia,'" read O'Flaherty,
+"'which are confidently stated to exceed in riches anything which has
+existed before.  It is ginerally anticipated that this discovery, if
+confirmed, will have a most prejudicial effect upon the African trade.'
+That's an extract from the London news of the _Argus_."
+
+A buzz of ejaculations and comments arose from the crowd.  "Isn't there
+any more about it?" they cried.
+
+"Here's a later paper, boss," said the little Kaffir, who had been
+diligently looking over the dates.
+
+O'Flaherty opened it, and gave a whistle of astonishment.
+"Here's enough to satisfy you," he said.  "It's in big toipe and takes
+up noigh the whole of the first page.  I can only read ye the headings,
+for we must get to work and have out a special edition.  You'll git
+details there, an' it'll be out in a few hours.  Look here at the fuss
+they've made about it."  The editor turned the paper as he spoke, and
+exhibited a series of large black headings in this style:--
+
+                       RUSSIAN DIAMOND FIELDS.
+
+               EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY BY AN ENGLISHMAN.
+              THREATENED EXTINCTION OF THE CAPE INDUSTRY.
+                        GREAT FALL IN PRICES.
+                   OPINIONS OF THE LONDON PRESS.
+                            FULL DETAILS.
+
+"What d'ye think of that?" cried O'Flaherty, triumphantly, as if he had
+had some hand in the matter.  "Now I must git off to me work, and you'll
+have it all before long in your hands.  Ye should bliss your stars that
+ye have some one among ye to offer ye the convanience of the latest
+news.  Good noight to ye all," and he trotted back into his office with
+his hat and its silver contents in his hand.
+
+The crowd broke up into a score of gesticulating chattering groups, and
+wandered up or down the street.  Ezra Girdlestone waited until they had
+cleared away, and then stepped into the office of the _Advertiser_.
+
+"What's the matter now?" asked O'Flaherty, angrily.  He was a man who
+lived in a state of chronic irritation.
+
+"Have you a duplicate of that paper?"
+
+"Suppose I have?"
+
+"What will you sell it for?"
+
+"What will you give?"
+
+"Half a sovereign."
+
+"A sovereign."
+
+"Done!" and so Ezra Girdlestone walked out of the office with full
+details in his hand, and departed to his hotel, where he read the
+account through very slowly and deliberately.  It appeared to be
+satisfactory, for he chuckled to himself a good deal as he perused it.
+Having finished it, he folded the paper up, placed it in his breast
+pocket, and, having ordered his horse, set off to the neighbouring
+township of Dutoitspan with the intention of carrying the news with him.
+
+Ezra had two motives in galloping across the veldt that October night.
+One was to judge with his own ears and eyes what effect the news would
+have upon practical men.  The other was a desire to gratify that
+sinister pleasure which an ill-natured man has in being the bearer of
+evil tidings.  They had probably heard the report by this time, but it
+was unlikely that any details had reached them.  No one knew better than
+young Girdlestone that this message from Europe would bring utter ruin
+and extinction to many a small capitalist, that it would mean the
+shattering of a thousand hopes, and the advent of poverty and misery to
+the men with whom he had been associating.  In spite of this knowledge,
+his heart beat high, as his father's had done in London, and as he
+spurred his horse onwards through the darkness, he was hardly able to
+refrain from shouting and whooping in his exultation.
+
+The track from Kimberley to Dutoitspan was a rough one, but the moon was
+up, and the young merchant found no difficulty in following it.  When he
+reached the summit of the low hill over which the road ran, he saw the
+lights of the little town sparkling in the valley beneath him.  It was
+ten o'clock before he galloped into the main street, and he saw at a
+glance that the news had, as he expected, arrived before him.  In front
+of the Griqualand Saloon a great crowd of miners had assembled, who were
+talking excitedly among themselves.  The light of the torches shone down
+upon herculean figures, glaring shirts, and earnest bearded faces.
+The whole camp appeared to have assembled there to discuss the
+situation, and it was evident from their anxious countenances and
+subdued voices, that they took no light view of it.
+
+The instant the young man alighted from his horse he was surrounded by a
+knot of eager questioners.  "You've just come from Kimberley," they
+cried.  "What is the truth of it, Mr. Girdlestone?  Let us know the
+truth of it."
+
+"It's a bad business, my friends," he answered, looking around at the
+ring of inquiring faces.  "I have been reading a full account of it in
+the _Cape Argus_.  They have made a great find in Russia.  There seems
+to be no doubt at all about the matter."
+
+"D'ye think it will send prices down here as much as they say?"
+
+"I'm afraid it will send them very low.  I hold a lot of stones myself,
+and I should be very glad to get rid of them at any price.  I fear it
+will hardly pay you to work your claims now."
+
+"And the price of claims will go down?"
+
+"Of course it will."
+
+"Eh, mister, what's that?" cried a haggard, unkempt little man, pushing
+his way to the front and catching hold of Ezra's sleeve to ensure his
+attention.  "Did ye say it would send the price o' claims down?
+You didn't say that, did you?  Why, in course, it stands to reason that
+what happened in Roosia couldn't make no difference over here.
+That's sense, mates, ain't it?"  He looked round him appealingly, and
+laughed a little nervous laugh.
+
+"You try," said Ezra coldly.  "If you get one-third of what you gave for
+your claim you'll be lucky.  Why, man, you don't suppose we produce
+diamonds for local consumption.  They are for exporting to Europe, and
+if Europe is already supplied by Russia, where are you to get your
+market?"
+
+"That's it?" cried several voices.
+
+"If you take my advice," Ezra continued, "you'll get rid of what you
+have at any loss, for the time may be coming when you'll get nothing at
+all."
+
+"Now, look at that!" cried the little man, throwing out his hands.
+"They call me Unlucky Jim, and Unlucky Jim I'll be to the end of the
+chapter.  Why, boss, me and Sammy Walker has sunk every damned cent
+we've got in that claim, the fruit o' nine years' hard work, and here
+you comes ridin' up as cool as may be, and tells me that it's all gone
+for nothing."
+
+"Well, there are others who will suffer as well as you," said one of the
+crowd.
+
+"I reckon we're all hit pretty hard if this is true," remarked another.
+
+"I'm fair sick of it," said the little man, passing his grimy hand
+across his eyes and leaving a black smear as he did so.  "This ain't the
+first time--no, nor the second--that my luck has played me this trick.
+I've a mighty good mind to throw up my hand altogether."
+
+"Come in and have some whisky," said a rough sympathizer, and the
+unlucky one was hustled in through the rude door of the Griqualand
+Saloon, there to find such comfort as he might from the multitudinous
+bottles which adorned the interior of that building.  Liquor had lost
+its efficacy that evening, however, and a dead depression rested over
+the little town.  Nor was it confined to Dutoitspan.  All along the
+diggings the dismal tidings spread with a rapidity which was
+astonishing.  At eleven o'clock there was consternation at Klipdrift.
+At quarter-past one Hebron was up and aghast at the news.  At three in
+the morning a mounted messenger galloped into Bluejacket, and before
+daybreak a digger committee was sitting at Delporte's Hope discussing
+the situation.  So during that eventful night down the whole long line
+of the Vaal River there was ruin and heartburning and dismay, while five
+thousand miles away an old gentleman was sleeping calmly and dreamlessly
+in his comfortable bed, from whose busy brain had emanated all this
+misery and misfortune.
+
+Perhaps the said old gentleman might have slumbered a little less
+profoundly could he have seen the sight which met his son's eyes on the
+following morning.  Ezra had passed the night at Dutoitspan, in the hut
+of a hospitable miner.  Having risen in the morning, he was dressing
+himself in a leisurely, methodical fashion, when his host, who had been
+inhaling the morning breeze, thrust his head through the window.
+
+"Come out here, Mr. Girdlestone," he cried.  "There's some fun on.
+One of the boys is dead drunk, and they are carrying him in."
+
+Ezra pulled on his coat and ran out.  A little group of miners were
+walking slowly up the main street.  He and his host were waiting for the
+procession to pass them with several jocose remarks appropriate to the
+occasion ready upon their lips, when their eyes fell upon a horrible
+splotchy red track which marked the road the party had taken.  They both
+ran forward with exclamations and inquiries.
+
+"It's Jim Stewart," said one of the bearers.  "Him that they used to
+call Unlucky Jim."
+
+"What's up with him?"
+
+"He has shot himself through the head.  Where d'ye think we found him?
+Slap in the middle o' his own claim, with his fingers dug into the
+gravel, as dead as a herring."
+
+"He's a bad plucked 'un to knock under like that," Ezra's companion
+remarked.
+
+"Yes," said the croupier of the saloon gambling table.  "If he'd waited
+for another deal he might have held every trump.  He was always a soft
+chap, was Jim, and he was saying last night as how this spoiled the last
+chance he was ever like to have of seeing his wife and childer in
+England.  He's blowed a fine clean hole in himself.  Would you like to
+see it, Mr. Girdlestone?"  The fellow was about to remove the
+blood-stained handkerchief which covered the dead man's face, but Ezra
+recoiled in horror.
+
+"Mr. Girdlestone looks faint like," some one observed.
+
+"Yes," said Ezra, who was white to his very lips.  "This has upset me
+rather.  I'll have a drop of brandy."  As he walked back to the hut, he
+wondered inwardly whether the incident would have discomposed his
+father.
+
+"I suppose he would call it part of our commercial finesse," he said
+bitterly to himself.  "However, we have put our hands to the plough, and
+we must not let homicide stop us."  So saying, he steadied his nerves
+with a draught of brandy, and prepared for the labours of the day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+AN UNEXPECTED BLOW.
+
+The crisis at the African fields was even more acute than had been
+anticipated by the conspirators.  Nothing approaching to it had ever
+been known in South Africa before.  Diamonds went steadily down in value
+until they were selling at a price which no dealer would have believed
+possible, and the sale of claims reached such a climax that men were
+glad to get rid of them for the mere price of the plant and machinery
+erected at them.  The offices of the various dealers at Kimberley were
+besieged night and day by an importunate crowd of miners, who were
+willing to sell at any price in order to save something from the general
+ruin which they imagined was about to come upon the industry.  Some,
+more long-headed or more desperate than their neighbours, continued to
+work their claims and to keep the stones which they found until prices
+might be better.  As fresh mails came from the Cape, however, each
+confirming and amplifying the ominous news, these independent workers
+grew fewer and more faint-hearted, for their boys had to be paid each
+week, and where was the money to come from with which to pay them?
+The dealers, too, began to take the alarm, and the most tempting offers
+would hardly induce them to give hard cash in exchange for stones which
+might prove to be a drug in the market.  Everywhere there was misery and
+stagnation.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone was not slow to take advantage of this state of things,
+but he was too cunning to do so in a manner which might call attention
+to himself or his movements.  In his wanderings he had come across an
+outcast named Farintosh, a man who had once been a clergyman and a
+master of arts of Trinity College, Dublin, but who was now a broken-down
+gambler with a slender purse and a still more slender conscience.
+He still retained a plausible manner and an engaging address, and these
+qualities first recommended him to the notice of the young merchant.
+A couple of days after the receipt of the news from Europe, Ezra sent
+for this fellow and sat with him for some time on the verandah of the
+hotel, talking over the situation.
+
+"You see, Farintosh," he remarked, "it might be a false alarm, might it
+not?"
+
+The ex-clergyman nodded.  He was a man of few words.
+
+"If it should be, it would be an excellent thing for those who buy now."
+
+Farintosh nodded once again.
+
+"Of course," Ezra continued, "it looks as if the thing was beyond all
+doubt.  My experience has taught me, however, that there is nothing so
+uncertain as a certainty.  That's what makes me think of speculating
+over this.  If I lose it won't hurt me much, and I might win.  I came
+out here more for the sake of seeing a little of the world than anything
+else, but now that this has turned up I'll have a shy at it."
+
+"Quite so," said Farintosh, rubbing his hands.
+
+"You see," Ezra continued, lighting a cheroot, "I have the name here of
+having a long purse and of knowing which way the wind blows.  If I were
+to be seen buying others would follow my lead, and prices would soon be
+as high as ever.  Now, what I purpose is to work through you, d'ye see?
+You can take out a licence and buy in stones on the quiet without
+attracting much attention.  Beat them down as low as you can, and give
+this hotel as your address.  When they call here they shall be paid,
+which is better than having you carrying the money round with you."
+
+The clergyman scowled as though he thought it was anything but better.
+He did not make any remark, however.
+
+"You can get one or two fellows to help you," said Ezra.  "I'll pay for
+their licences.  I can't expect you to work all the camps yourself.
+Of course, if you offer more for a stone than I care to give, that's
+your look out, but if you do your work well you shall not be the loser.
+You shall have a percentage on business done and a weekly salary as
+well."
+
+"How much money do you care to invest?" asked Farintosh.
+
+"I'm not particular," Ezra answered.  "If I do a thing I like to do it
+well.  I'll go the length of thirty thousand pounds."
+
+Farintosh was so astonished at the magnitude of the sum that he sank
+back in his chair in bewilderment.  "Why, sir," he said, "I think just
+at present you could buy the country for that."
+
+Ezra laughed.  "We'll make it go as far as we can," he said.  "Of course
+you may buy claims as well as stones."
+
+"And I have carte blanche to that amount?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"All right, I'll begin this evening," said the ex-parson;  and picking
+up his slouched hat, which he still wore somewhat broader in the brim
+than his comrades, in deference to old associations, he departed upon
+his mission.
+
+Farintosh was a clever man and soon chose two active subordinates.
+These were a navvy, named Burt, and Williams, a young Welshman, who had
+disappeared from home behind a cloud of forged cheques, and having
+changed his name had made a fresh start in life to the south of the
+equator.  These three worked day and night buying in stones from the
+more needy and impecunious miners, to whom ready money was a matter of
+absolute necessity.  Farintosh bought in the stock, too, of several
+small dealers whose nerves had been shaken by the panic.  In this way
+bag after bag was filled with diamonds by Ezra, while he himself was to
+all appearances doing nothing but smoking cigars and sipping
+brandy-and-water in front of the _Central Hotel_.
+
+He was becoming somewhat uneasy in his mind as to how long the delusion
+would be kept up, or how soon news might come from the Cape that the
+Ural find had been examined into and had proved to be a myth.  In any
+case, he thought that he would be free from suspicion.  Still, it might
+be as well for him by that time to be upon his homeward journey, for he
+knew that if by any chance the true facts leaked out there would be no
+hope of mercy from the furious diggers.  Hence he incited Farintosh to
+greater speed, and that worthy divine with his two agents worked so
+energetically that in less than a week there was little left of five and
+thirty thousand pounds.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone had shown his power of reading character when he chose
+the ex-clergyman as his subordinate.  It is possible, however, that the
+young man's judgment had been inferior to his powers of observation.
+A clever man as a trusty ally is a valuable article, but when the said
+cleverness may be turned against his employer the advantage becomes a
+questionable one.
+
+It was perfectly evident to Farintosh that though a stray capitalist
+might risk a thousand pounds or so on a speculation of this sort,
+Rothschild himself would hardly care to invest such a sum as had passed
+through his hands without having some ground on which to go.  Having
+formed this conclusion, and having also turned over in his mind the
+remarkable coincidence that the news of this discovery in Russia should
+follow so very rapidly upon the visit of the junior partner of the House
+of Girdlestone, the astute clergyman began to have some dim perception
+of the truth.  Hence he brooded a good deal as he went about his work,
+and cogitated deeply in a manner which was once again distinctly
+undesirable in so very intelligent a subordinate.
+
+These broodings and cogitations culminated in a meeting, which was held
+by him with his two sub-agents in the private parlour of the Digger's
+Retreat.  It was a low-roofed, smoke-stained room, with a profusion of
+spittoons scattered over it, which, to judge by the condition of the
+floor, the patrons of the establishment had taken some pains to avoid.
+Round a solid, old-fashioned table in the centre of this apartment sat
+Ezra's staff of assistants, the parson thoughtful but self-satisfied,
+the others sullen and inquisitive.  Farintosh had convened the meeting,
+and his comrades had an idea that there was something in the wind.
+They applied themselves steadily, therefore, to the bottle of Hollands
+upon the table, and waited for him to speak.
+
+"Well," the ex-clergyman said at last, "the game is nearly over, and
+we'll not be wanted any more.  Girdlestone's off to England in a day or
+two."
+
+Burt and Williams groaned sympathetically.  Work was scarce in the
+diggings during the crisis, and their agencies had been paying them
+well.
+
+"Yes, he's off," Farintosh went on, glancing keenly at his companions,
+"and he takes with him five and thirty thousand pounds worth of diamonds
+that we bought for him.  Poor devils like us, Burt, have to do the work,
+and then are thrown aside as you would throw your pick aside when you
+are done with it.  When he sells out in London and makes his pile, it
+won't much matter to him  that the three men who helped him are starving
+in Griqualand."
+
+"Won't he give us somethin' at partin'?" asked Burt, the navvy.  He was
+a savage-looking, hairy man, with a brick-coloured face and over-hanging
+eyebrows.  "Won't he give us nothing to remembrance him by?"
+
+"Give you something!" Farintosh said with a sneer.  "Why, man, he says
+you are too well paid already."
+
+"Does he, though?" cried the navvy, flushing even redder than nature had
+made him.  "Is that the way he speaks after we makes him?  It ain't on
+the square.  I likes to see things honest an' above board betwixt man
+an' man, and this pitchin' of them as has helped ye over ain't that."
+
+Farintosh lowered his voice and bent further over the table.
+His companions involuntarily imitated his movement, until the three
+cunning, cruel faces were looking closely into one another's eyes.
+
+"Nobody knows that he holds those stones," said Farintosh.  "He's too
+smart to let it out to any one but ourselves."
+
+"Where does he keep 'em?" asked the Welshman.
+
+"In a safe in his room."
+
+"Where is the key?"
+
+"On his watch-chain."
+
+"Could we get an impression?"
+
+"I have one."
+
+"Then I can make one," cried Williams triumphantly.
+
+"It's done," said Farintosh, taking a small key from his pocket.
+"This is a duplicate, and will open the safe.  I took the moulding from
+his key while I was speaking to him."
+
+The navvy laughed hoarsely.  "If that don't lick creation for
+smartness!" he cried.  "And how are we to get to this safe?  It would
+serve him right if we collar the lot.  It'll teach him that if he ain't
+honest by nature he's got to be when he deals with the like of us.
+I like straightness, and by the Lord I'll have it!"  He brought his
+great fist down upon the table to emphasize this commendable sentiment.
+
+"It's not an easy matter," Farintosh said thoughtfully.  "When he goes
+out he locks his door, and there's no getting in at the window.  There's
+only one chance for us that I can see.  His room is a bit cut off from
+the rest of the hotel.  There's a gallery of twenty feet or more that
+leads to it.  Now, I was thinking that if the three of us were to visit
+him some evening, just to wish him luck on his journey, as it were, and
+if, while we were in the room something sudden was to happen which would
+knock him silly for a minute or two, we might walk off with the stones
+and be clean gone before he could raise an alarm."
+
+"And what would knock him silly?" asked Williams.  He was an unhealthy,
+scorbutic-looking youth, and his pallid complexion had assumed a
+greenish tinge of fear as he listened to the clergyman's words.
+He had the makings in him of a mean and dangerous criminal, but not of a
+violent one--belonging to the jackal tribe rather than to the tiger.
+
+"What would knock him senseless?" Farintosh asked Burt, with a knowing
+look.
+
+Burt laughed again in his bushy, red beard.  "You can leave that to me,
+mate," he said.
+
+Williams glanced from one to the other and he became even more
+cadaverous.  "I'm not in it," he stammered.  "It will be a hanging job.
+You will kill him as like as not."
+
+"Not in it, ain't ye?" growled the navvy.  "Why, you white-livered
+hound, you're too deep in it ever to get out again.  D'ye think we'll
+let you spoil a lay of this sort as we might never get a chance of
+again?"
+
+"You can do it without me," said the Welshman, trembling in every limb.
+
+"And have you turnin' on us the moment a reward was offered.  No, no,
+chummy, you don't get out of it that way.  If you won't stand by us,
+I'll take care you don't split."
+
+"Think of the diamonds," Farintosh put in.
+
+"Think of your own skin," said the navvy.
+
+"You could go back to England a rich man if you do it."
+
+"You'll never go back at all if you don't."  Thus worked upon
+alternately by his hopes and by his fears, Williams showed some signs of
+yielding.  He took a long draught from his glass and filled it up again.
+
+"I ain't afraid," he said.  "Don't imagine that I am afraid.  You won't
+hit him very hard, Mr. Burt?"
+
+"Just enough to curl him up," the navvy answered.  "Lord love ye, it
+ain't the first man by many a one that I've laid on his back, though I
+never had the chance before of fingering five and thirty thousand pounds
+worth of diamonds for my pains."
+
+"But the hotel-keeper and the servants?"
+
+"That's all right," said Farintosh.  "You leave it to me.  If we go up
+quietly and openly, and come down quietly and openly, who is to suspect
+anything?  Our horses will be outside, in Woodley Street, and we'll be
+out of their reach in no time.  Shall we say to-morrow evening for the
+job?"
+
+"That's very early," Williams cried tremulously.
+
+"The sooner the better," Burt said, with an oath.  "And look here, young
+man," fixing Williams with his bloodshot eyes, "one sign of drawing
+back, and by the living jingo I'll let you have more than I'm keeping
+for him.  You hear me, eh?"  He grasped the youth's white wrist and
+squeezed it in his iron grip until he writhed with the pain.
+
+"Oh, I'm with you, heart and soul," he cried.  "I'm sure what you and
+Mr. Farintosh advise must be for the best."
+
+"Meet here at eight o'clock to-morrow night then," said the leader.
+"We can get it over by nine, and we will have the night for our escape.
+I'll have the horses ready, and it will be strange if we don't get such
+a start as will puzzle them."
+
+So, having arranged all the details of their little plan, these three
+gentlemen departed in different directions--Farintosh to the _Central
+Hotel_, to give Ezra his evening report, and the others to the
+mining-camps, which were the scene of their labours.
+
+The meeting just described took place upon a Tuesday, early in November.
+On the Saturday Ezra Girdlestone had fully made up his mind to turn his
+back upon the diggings and begin his homeward journey.  He was pining
+for the pleasures of his old London life, and was weary of the
+monotonous expanse of the South African veldt.  His task was done, too,
+and it would be well for him to be at a distance before the diggers
+discovered the manner in which they had been hoaxed.  He began to pack
+his boxes, therefore, and to make every preparation for his departure.
+
+He was busily engaged in this employment upon the Wednesday evening when
+there was a tap at the door and Farintosh walked in, accompanied by Burt
+and Williams.  Girdlestone glanced up at them, and greeted them briefly.
+He was not surprised at their visit, for they had come together several
+times before to report progress or make arrangements.  Farintosh bowed
+as he entered the room, Burt nodded, and Williams rubbed his hands
+together and looked amiably bilious.
+
+"We looked in, Mr. Girdlestone," Farintosh began, "to learn if you had
+any commands for us."
+
+"I told you before that I had not," Ezra said curtly.  "I am going on
+Saturday.  I have made a mistake in speculating on those diamonds.
+Prices are sinking lower and lower."
+
+"I am sorry to hear that," said Farintosh sympathetically.  "Maybe the
+market will take a turn."
+
+"Let us hope so," the merchant answered.  "It doesn't look like it."
+
+"But you are satisfied with us, guv'nor," Burt struck in, pushing his
+bulky form in front of Farintosh.  "We have done our work all right,
+haven't we?"
+
+"I have nothing to complain of," Ezra said coldly.
+
+"Well then, guv'nor, you surely ain't going away without leaving us
+nothing to remembrance you with, seeing that we've stood by you and
+never gone back on you."
+
+"You have been paid every week for what you have done," the young man
+said.  "You won't get another penny out of me, so you set your mind at
+rest about that."
+
+"You won't give us nothing?" cried the navvy angrily.
+
+"No, I won't; and I'll tell you what it is, Burt, big as you are, if you
+dare to raise your voice in my presence I'll give you the soundest
+hiding that ever you had in your life."
+
+Ezra had stood up and showed every indication of being as good as his
+word.
+
+"Don't let us quarrel the last time we may meet," Farintosh cried,
+intervening between the two.  "It is not money we expect from you.
+All we want is a drain of rum to drink success to you with."
+
+"Oh, if that's all," said the young merchant--and turned round to pick
+up the bottle which stood on a table behind him.  Quick as a flash Burt
+sprang upon him and struck him down with a life-preserver.  With a
+gasping cry and a heavy thud Ezra fell face downwards upon the floor,
+the bottle still clutched in his senseless hand, and the escaping rum
+forming a horrible mixture with the blood which streamed from a great
+gash in his head.
+
+"Very neat--very pretty indeed!" cried the ex-parson, in a quiet tone of
+critical satisfaction, as a connoisseur might speak of a specimen which
+interested him.  He was already busy at the door of the safe.
+
+"Well done, Mr. Burt, well done!" cried Williams, in a quivering voice;
+and going up to the body he kicked it in the side.  "You see I am not
+afraid, Mr. Burt, am I?"
+
+"Stow your gab!" snarled the navvy.  "Here's the rum all gettin' loose."
+Picking up the bottle he took a pull of what was left in it.
+"Here's the bag, parson," he whispered, pulling a black linen bag from
+his pocket.  "We haven't made much noise over the job."
+
+"Here are the stones," said Farintosh, in the same quiet voice.
+"Hold the mouth open."  He emptied an avalanche of diamonds into the
+receptacle.  "Here are some notes and gold.  We may as well have them
+too.  Now, tie it up carefully.  That's the way!  If we meet any one on
+the stairs, take it coolly.  Turn that lamp out, Williams, so that if
+any one looks in he'll see nothing.  Come along!"
+
+The guilty trio stole out of the room, bearing their plunder with them,
+and walked down the passage of the hotel unmolested and unharmed.
+
+The moon, as it rose over the veldt that night, shone on three horsemen
+spurring it along the Capetown road as though their very lives depended
+upon their speed.  Its calm, clear rays streamed over the silent roofs
+of Kimberley and in through a particular window of the _Central Hotel_,
+throwing silvery patches upon the carpet, and casting strange shadows
+from the figure which lay as it had fallen, huddled in an ungainly heap
+upon the floor.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+ROBBERS AND ROBBED.
+
+It might perhaps have been as well for the curtailing of this narrative,
+and for the interests of the world at large if the blow dealt by the
+sturdy right arm of the navvy had cut short once for all the career of
+the junior African merchant.  Ezra, however, was endowed with a rare
+vitality, which enabled him not only to shake off the effects of his
+mishap, but to do so in an extraordinarily short space of time.
+There was a groan from the prostrate figure, then a feeble movement,
+then another and a louder groan, and then an oath.  Gradually raising
+himself upon his elbow, he looked around him in a bewildered way, with
+his other hand pressed to the wound at the back of his head, from which
+a few narrow little rivulets of blood were still meandering.  His glance
+wandered vaguely over the table and the chairs and the walls, until it
+rested upon the safe.  He could see in the moonlight that it was open,
+and empty.  In a moment the whole circumstances of the case came back to
+him, and he staggered to the door with a hoarse cry of rage and of
+despair.
+
+Whatever Ezra's faults may have been, irresolution or want of courage
+were not among them.  In a moment he grasped the situation, and realized
+that it was absolutely essential that he should act, and at once.
+The stones must be recovered, or utter and irretrievable ruin stared him
+in the face.  At his cries the landlord and several attendants, white
+and black, came rushing into the room.
+
+"I've been robbed and assaulted," Ezra said, steadying himself against
+the mantelpiece, for he was still weak and giddy.  "Don't all start
+cackling, but do what I ask you.  Light the lamp!"
+
+The lamp was lit, and there was a murmur from the little knot of
+employees, reinforced by some late loungers at the bar, as they saw the
+disordered room and the great crimson patch upon the carpet.
+
+"The thieves called at nine," said Ezra, talking rapidly, but
+collectedly.  "Their names were Farintosh, Burt, and Williams.
+We talked for, some little time, so they probably did not leave the
+house before a quarter past at the soonest.  It is now half-past ten, so
+they have no very great start.  You, Jamieson, and you, Van Muller, run
+out and find if three men have been seen getting away.  Perhaps they
+took a buggy.  Go up and down, and ask all you see.  You, Jones, go as
+hard as you can to Inspector Ainslie.  Tell him there has been robbery
+and attempted murder, and say that I want half a dozen of his best
+mounted men--not his best men, you understand, but his best horses.
+I shall see that he is no loser if he is smart.  Where's my servant
+Pete?  Pete, you dog, get my horse saddled and bring her round.
+She ought to be able to catch anything in Griqualand."
+
+As Ezra gave his orders the men hurried off in different directions to
+carry them out.  He himself commenced to arrange his dress, and tied a
+handkerchief tightly round his head.
+
+"Surely you are not going, sir?" the landlord said, "You are not fit."
+
+"Fit or not, I am going," Ezra said resolutely.  "If I have to be
+strapped to my horse I'll go.  Send me up some brandy.  Put some in a
+flask, too.  I may feel faint before I get back."
+
+A great concourse of people had assembled by this time, attracted by the
+report of the robbery.  The whole square in front of the hotel was
+crowded with diggers and store-keepers and innumerable Kaffirs, all
+pressing up to the portico in the hope of hearing some fresh details.
+Mr. Hector O'Flaherty, over the way, was already busy setting up his
+type in preparation for a special edition, in which the _Vaal River
+Advertiser_ should give its version of the affair.  In the office the
+great man himself, who was just convalescing from an attack of ardent
+spirits, was busily engaged, with a wet towel round his head, writing a
+leader upon the event.  This production, which was very sonorous and
+effective, was peppered all over with such phrases as "protection of
+property," "outraged majesty of the law," and "scum of civilization"--
+expressions which had been used so continuously by Mr. O'Flaherty, that
+he had come to think that he had a copyright in them, and loudly accused
+the London papers of plagiarism if he happened to see them in their
+columns.
+
+There was a buzz of excitement among the crowd when Ezra appeared on the
+steps of the hotel, looking as white as a sheet, with a handkerchief
+bound round his head and his collar all crusted with blood.  As he
+mounted his horse one of his emissaries rushed to him.
+
+"If you please, sir," he said, "they have taken the Capetown road.
+A dozen people saw them.  Their horses were not up to much, for I know
+the man they got them from.  You are sure to catch them."
+
+A smile played over Ezra's pale face, which boded little good for the
+fugitives.  "Curse those police!" he cried; "are they never going to
+come?"
+
+"Here they are!" said the landlord; and sure enough, with a jingling of
+arms and a clatter of hoofs, half a dozen of the Griqualand Mounted
+Constabulary trotted through the crowd and drew up in front of the
+steps.  They were smart, active young fellows, armed with revolver and
+sabre, and their horses were tough brutes, uncomely to look at, but with
+wonderful staying power.  Ezra noted the fact with satisfaction as he
+rode up to the grizzled sergeant in command.
+
+"There's not a moment to be lost, sergeant," he said.  "They have an
+hour and a half's start, but their cattle are not up to much.  Come on!
+It's the Capetown road.  A hundred pounds if we catch them!"
+
+"Threes!" roared the sergeant.  "Right half turn--trot!" The crowd split
+asunder, and the little troop, with Ezra at their head, clove a path
+through them.  "Gallop!" shouted the sergeant, and away they clattered
+down the High Street of Kimberley, striking fire out of the stone and
+splashing up the gravel, until the sound of their hoofs died away into a
+dull, subdued rattle, and finally faded altogether from the ears of the
+listening crowd.
+
+For the first few miles the party galloped in silence.  The moon was
+still shining brilliantly, and they could see the white line of the road
+stretching out in front of them and winding away over the undulating
+veldt.  To right and left spread a broad expanse of wiry grass
+stretching to the horizon, with low bushes and scrub scattered over it
+in patches.  Here and there were groups of long-legged,
+unhealthy-looking sheep, who crashed through the bushes in wild terror
+as the riders swept by them.  Their plaintive calls were the only sounds
+which broke the silence of the night, save the occasional dismal hooting
+of the veldt owl.
+
+Ezra, on his powerful grey, had been riding somewhat ahead of the
+troopers, but the sergeant managed to get abreast of him.  "Beg pardon,
+sir," he said, raising his hand to his kepi, "but don't you think this
+pace is too good to last? The horses will be blown."
+
+"As long as we catch them," Ezra answered, "I don't care what becomes of
+the horses.  I would sooner stand you a dozen horses apiece than let
+them get away."
+
+The young merchant's words were firm and his seat steady, in spite of
+the throbbing at his head.  The fury in his heart supplied him with
+strength, and he gnawed his moustache in his impatience and dug his
+spurs into his horse's flanks until the blood trickled down its glossy
+coat.  Fortune, reputation, above all, revenge, all depended upon the
+issue of this headlong chase through the darkness.
+
+The sergeant and Ezra galloped along, leather to leather, and rein to
+rein, while the troop clattered in their rear.  "There's Combrink about
+two miles further on," said the sergeant; "we will hear news of them
+there."
+
+"They can't get off the high road, can they?"
+
+"Not likely, sir.  They couldn't get along as fast anywhere else.
+Indeed, it's hardly safe riding across the veldt.  They might be down a
+pit before they knew of it."
+
+"As long as they are on the road, we must catch them," quoth Ezra;
+"for if it ran straight from here to hell I would follow them there."
+
+"And we'd stand by you, sir," said the sergeant, catching something of
+his companion's enthusiasm.  "At this pace, if the horses hold out, we
+might catch them before morning.  There are the lights of the shanty."
+
+As he spoke they were galloping round a long curve in the road, at the
+further end of which there was a feeble yellow glimmer.  As they came
+abreast of it they saw that the light came through an open door, in the
+centre of which a burly Afrikaner was standing with his hands in his
+breeches pockets and his pipe in his mouth.
+
+"Good evening," said the sergeant, as his men pulled up their reeking
+horses.  "Has any one passed this way before us?"
+
+"Many a tausand has passed this way before you," said the Dutchman,
+taking his pipe out of his mouth to laugh.
+
+"To-night, man, to-night!" the sergeant cried angrily.
+
+"Oh yes; down the Port Elizabeth Road there, not one hour ago.  Three
+men riding fit to kill their horses."
+
+"That'll do," Ezra shouted; and away they went once more down the broad
+white road.  They passed Bluewater's Drift at two in the morning, and
+were at Van Hayden's farm at half-past.  At three they left the Modder
+River far behind them, and at a quarter past four they swept down the
+main street of the little township of Jacobsdal, their horses weak and
+weary and all mottled with foam.  There was a police patrol in the
+street.
+
+"Has any one passed?" cried the sergeant.
+
+"Three men, a quarter of an hour ago."
+
+"Have they gone on?"
+
+"Straight on.  Their horses were nearly dead beat, though."
+
+"Come on!" cried Ezra eagerly.  "Come on!"
+
+"Four of the horses are exhausted, sir," said the sergeant.
+"They can't move another step."
+
+"Come on without them then."
+
+"The patrol could come," the sergeant suggested.
+
+"I should have to report myself at the office, sir," said the trooper.
+
+"Jump on to his horse, sergeant," cried Ezra.  "He can take yours to
+report himself on.  Now then you and I at least are bound to come up
+with them.  Forward! gallop!" And they started off once more on their
+wild career, rousing the quiet burghers of Jacobsdal by the wild turmoil
+of their hoofs.
+
+Out once more upon the Port Elizabeth Road it was a clear race between
+the pursuers and the pursued.  The former knew that the fugitives, were
+it daytime, would possibly be within sight of them, and the thought gave
+them additional ardour.  The sergeant having a fresh horse rode in
+front, his head down and his body forward, getting every possible inch
+of pace out of the animal.  At his heels came Ezra, on his gallant grey,
+the blood-stained handkerchief fluttering from his head.  He was sitting
+very straight in his saddle with a set stern smile upon his lips.
+In his right hand he held a cocked revolver.  A hundred yards or so
+behind them the two remaining troopers came toiling along upon their
+weary nags, working hard with whip and spur to stimulate them to further
+exertions.  Away in the east a long rosy streak lay low upon the
+horizon, which showed that dawn was approaching, and a grey light stole
+over the landscape.  Suddenly the sergeant pulled his horse up.
+
+"There's some one coming towards us," he cried.
+
+Ezra and the troopers halted their panting steeds.  Through the
+uncertain light they saw a solitary horseman riding down the road.
+At first they had thought that it might possibly be one of the fugitives
+who had turned, but as he came nearer they perceived that it was a
+stranger.  His clothes were so dusty and his horse so foam-flecked and
+weary that it was evident that he also had left many a long mile of road
+behind him.
+
+"Have you seen three men on horseback?" cried Ezra as he approached.
+
+"I spoke to them," the traveller answered.  "They are about half a mile
+ahead."
+
+"Come on! Come on!" Ezra shouted.
+
+"I am bringing news from Jagersfontein--" the man said.
+
+"Come on!" Ezra interrupted furiously; and the horses stretched their
+stiff limbs into a feeble lumbering gallop.  Ezra and the sergeant shot
+to the front, and the others followed as best they might.  Suddenly in
+the stillness they heard far away a dull rattling sound like the clatter
+of distant castanets.  "It's their horses' hoofs!" cried Ezra; and the
+troopers behind raised a cheer to show that they too understood the
+significance of the sound.
+
+It was a wild, lonely spot, where the plain was bare even of the scanty
+foliage which usually covered it.  Here and there great granite rocks
+protruded from the brown soil, as though Nature's covering had in bygone
+days been rent until her gaunt bones protruded through the wound.
+As Ezra and the sergeant swept round a sharp turn in the road they saw,
+some little way ahead of them, the three fugitives, enveloped in a cloud
+of dust.  Almost at the same moment they heard a shout and crash behind
+them, and, looking round, saw a confused heap upon the ground.
+The horse of the leading trooper had fallen from pure fatigue, and had
+rolled over upon its rider.  The other trooper had dismounted, and was
+endeavouring to extricate his companion.
+
+"Let us see if he is hurt," the sergeant cried.
+
+"On! on!" shouted Ezra, whose passion was increased by the sight of the
+thieves.  "Not a foot back."
+
+"He may have broken his neck," grumbled the sergeant, drawing his
+revolver.  "Have your pistol ready, sir.  We shall be up with them in a
+few minutes, and they may show fight."
+
+They were up with them rather sooner than the policeman expected.
+Farintosh, finding that speed was of no avail, and that the numbers of
+his pursuers was now reduced to two, had recourse to strategy.  There
+was a sharp turn in the road a hundred yards ahead, and on reaching it
+the three flung themselves off their horses and lay down behind cover.
+As Ezra and the sergeant, the grey horse and the bay, came thundering
+round the curve, there was a fierce splutter of pistol shots from
+amongst the bushes, and the grey sank down upon its knees with a sobbing
+moan, struck mortally in the head.  Ezra sprang to his feet and rushed
+at the ambuscade, while the sergeant, who had been grazed on the cheek
+by the first volley, jumped from his horse and followed him.  Burt and
+Farintosh met them foot to foot with all the Saxon gallantry which
+underlies the Saxon brutality.  Burt stabbed at the sergeant and struck
+him through the muscle of the neck.  Farintosh fired at the policeman,
+and was himself shot down by Ezra.  Burt, seeing his companion fall,
+sprang past his two assailants with a vicious side blow at the merchant,
+and throwing himself upon the sergeant's horse, regardless of a bullet
+from the latter's revolver, he galloped away, and was speedily out of
+range.  As to Williams, from the beginning of the skirmish he had lain
+face downwards upon the ground, twisting his thin limbs about in an
+agony of fear, and howling for mercy.
+
+"He's gone!" Ezra said ruefully, gazing after the fugitive.  "We have
+nothing to go after him with."
+
+"I'm well-nigh gone myself," said the policeman, mopping up the blood
+from his stab, which was more painful than dangerous.  "He has given me
+a nasty prod."
+
+"Never mind, my friend, you shall not be the loser.  Get up, you little
+viper!"--this to Williams, who was still writhing himself into the most
+extraordinary attitudes.
+
+"Oh, please, Mr. Girdlestone," he cried, clutching at Ezra's boots with
+his long thin fingers, "it wasn't me that hit you.  It was Mr. Burt.
+I had nothing to do with robbing you either.  That was Mr. Farintosh.
+I wouldn't have gone with him, only I knew that he was a clergyman, so I
+expected no harm.  I am surprised at you, Mr. Farintosh, I really am.
+I'm very glad that Mr. Girdlestone has shot you."
+
+The ex-parson was sitting with his back against a gnarled stump, which
+gave him some support.  He had his hand to his chest, and as he breathed
+a ghastly whistling sound came from the wound, and spirts of blood
+rushed from his mouth.  His glazed eyes were fixed upon the man who had
+shot him, and a curious smile played about his thin lips.
+
+"Come here, Mr. Girdlestone," he croaked; "come here."
+
+Ezra strode over to him with a face as inexorable as fate.
+
+"You've done for me," said Farintosh faintly.  "It's a queer end for the
+best man of his year at Trinity--master of arts, sir, and Jacksonian
+prizeman.  Not much worth now, is it?  Who'd have thought then that I
+should have died like a dog in this wilderness?  What's the odds how a
+man dies though.  If I'd kept myself straight I should have gone off a
+few years later in a feather bed as the Dean of St. Patrick's may be.
+What will that matter?  I've enjoyed myself"--the dying man's eyes
+glistened at the thought of past dissipations.  "If I had my time to do
+over again," he continued, "I'd enjoy myself the same way.  I'm not
+penitent, sir.  No death-bed snivelling about me, or short cuts into
+heaven.  That's not what I wanted to say though.  I have a choking in
+the throat, but I dare say you can hear what I am driving at.  You met a
+man riding towards Jacobsdal, did you not?"
+
+Ezra nodded sullenly.
+
+"You didn't speak to him?  Too busy trying to catch yours truly, eh?
+Will you have your stones back, for they are in the bag by my side, but
+they'll not be very much good to you.  The little spec won't come off
+this time.  You don't know what the news was that the man was bringing?"
+
+A vague feeling of impending misfortune stole over Ezra.  He shook his
+head.
+
+"His news was," said Farintosh, leaning up upon his hand, "that fresh
+diamond fields _have_ been discovered at Jagersfontein, in the Orange
+Free State.  So Russia, or no Russia, stones will not rise.  Ha! ha!
+will not rise.  Look at his face!  It's whiter than mine.  Ha! ha! ha!"
+With the laugh upon his lips, a great flow of blood stopped the
+clergyman's utterance, and he rolled slowly over upon his side, a dead
+man.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+A MOMENTOUS RESOLUTION.
+
+During the months which Ezra Girdlestone had spent in Africa the affairs
+of the firm in Fenchurch Street had been exceedingly prosperous.
+Trade upon the coast had been brisker than usual, and three of the
+company's ships had come in at short intervals with excellent cargoes.
+Among these was the _Black Eagle_ which, to the astonishment of Captain
+Hamilton Miggs and the disgust of his employer, had weathered a severe
+gale in the Channel, and had arrived safe and sound once more.  This run
+of luck, supplemented by the business capacity of the old merchant and
+the indomitable energy of young Dimsdale, made the concern look so
+flourishing that the former felt more than ever convinced that if he
+could but stave off the immediate danger things would soon right
+themselves.  Hence he read with delight the letters from Africa, in
+which his son narrated the success of the conspiracy and the manner in
+which the miners had been hoodwinked.  The old man's figure grew
+straighter and his step more firm as the conviction grew upon him that
+the company would soon return once again to its former condition of
+affluence.
+
+It may be imagined, therefore, that when the rumours of a bona fide
+diamond find in the Orange Free State came to his ears John Girdlestone
+was much agitated and distressed.  On the same day that he saw the
+announcement in the papers he received a letter from his son announcing
+the failure of their enterprise.  After narrating the robbery, the
+pursuit, the death of Farintosh, and the announcement of the new
+discovery, it gave an account of his subsequent movements.
+
+"There was no doubt about the truth of the scoundrel's words," he said,
+"for when we went to the nearest farm to get some food and have the
+sergeant's wound dressed we found that every one was talking about it.
+There was a chap there who had just come from the State and knew all
+about it.  After hearing the details from him I saw that there was no
+doubt of the genuineness of the thing.
+
+"The police rode back to Jacobsdal with Williams, and I promised to come
+after them; but when I came to think it over it didn't seem good enough.
+The fact of my having so many diamonds would set every tongue wagging,
+and, again, the sergeant had heard what Farintosh said to me, so it was
+very possible that I might have the whole district about my ears.  As it
+was, I had the stones and all my money in the bag.  I wrote back to the
+hotel, therefore, telling the landlord to send on my traps to Cape Town
+by mail, and promising to settle my bill with him when I received them.
+I then bought a horse and came straight south.  I shall take the first
+steamer and be with you within a few days of your receiving this.
+
+"As to our speculation, it is, of course, all up.  Even when the Russian
+business proves to be a hoax, the price of stones will remain very low
+on account of these new fields.  It is possible that we may sell our lot
+at some small profit but it won't be the royal road to a fortune that
+you prophesied, nor will it help the firm out of the rut into which you
+have shoved it.  My only regret in leaving Africa like this is that that
+vermin Williams will have no one to prosecute him.  My head is almost
+well now."
+
+This letter was a rude shock to the African merchant.  Within a week of
+the receipt of it his son Ezra, gloomy and travel-stained, walked into
+the sanctum at Fenchurch Street and confirmed all the evil tidings by
+word of mouth.  The old man was of too tough a fibre to break down
+completely, but his bony hands closed convulsively upon the arms of the
+chair, and a cold perspiration broke out upon his wrinkled forehead as
+he listened to such details as his son vouchsafed to afford him.
+
+"You have your stones all safe, though?" he stammered out at last.
+
+"They are in my box, at home," said Ezra, gloomy and morose, leaning
+against the white marble mantelpiece.  "The Lord knows what they are
+worth!  We'll be lucky if we clear as much as they cost and a margin for
+my expenses and Langworthy's.  A broken head is all that I have got from
+your fine scheme."
+
+"Who could foresee such a thing?" the old man said plaintively.
+He might have added Major Clutterbuck's thousand pounds as another item
+to be cleared, but he thought it as well to keep silent upon the point.
+
+"Any fool could foresee the possibility of it," quoth Ezra brusquely.
+
+"The fall in prices is sure to be permanent, then?" the old man asked.
+
+"It will last for some years, any way," Ezra answered.
+"The Jagersfontein gravel is very rich, and there seems to be plenty of
+it."
+
+"And within a few months we must repay both capital and interest.
+We are ruined!"  The old merchant spoke in a broken voice, and his head
+sank upon his breast.  "When that day comes," he continued, "the firm
+which has been for thirty years above reproach, and a model to the whole
+City, will be proclaimed as a bankrupt concern.  Worse still, it will be
+shown to have been kept afloat for years by means which will be deemed
+fraudulent.  I tell you, my dear son, that if any means could be devised
+which would avert this--_any_ means--I should not hesitate to adopt
+them.  I am a frail old man, and I feel that the short balance of my
+life would be a small thing for me to give in return for the assurance
+that the work which I have built up should not be altogether thrown
+away."
+
+"Your life cannot affect the matter one way or the other unless it were
+more heavily insured than it is," Ezra said callously, though somewhat
+moved by his father's intensity of manner.  "Perhaps there is some way
+out of the wood yet," he added, in a more cheerful tone.
+
+"It's so paying, so prosperous--that's what goes to my heart.  If it had
+ruined itself it would be easier to bear it, but it is sacrificed to
+outside speculations--my wretched, wretched speculations.  That is what
+makes it so hard." He touched the bell, and Gilray answered the summons.
+"Listen to this, Ezra.  What was our turn over last month, Gilray?"
+
+"Fifteen thousand pounds, sir," said the little clerk, bobbing up and
+down like a buoy in a gale in his delight at seeing the junior partner
+once again.
+
+"And the expenses?"
+
+"Nine thousand three hundred.  Uncommon brown you look, Mr. Ezra, to be
+sure, uncommon brown and well.  I hopes as you enjoyed yourself in
+Africa, sir, and was too much for them Hottenpots and Boars."  With this
+profound ethnological remark Mr. Gilray bobbed himself out of the room
+and went back radiantly to his ink-stained desk.
+
+"Look at that," the old man said, when the click of the outer door
+showed that the clerk was out of ear-shot.  "Over five thousand profit
+in a month.  Is it not terrible that such a business should go to ruin?
+What a fortune it would have been for you!"
+
+"By heavens, it must be saved!" cried Ezra, with meditative brows and
+hands plunged deep in his trouser pockets.  "There is that girl's money.
+Could we not get the temporary use of it."
+
+"Impossible!" his father answered with a sigh.  "It is so tied up in the
+will that she cannot sign it away herself until she comes of age.
+There is no way of touching it except by her marriage--or by her death."
+
+"Then we must have it by the only means open to us."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"I must marry her."
+
+"You will?"
+
+"I shall.  Here is my hand on it."
+
+"Then we are saved," cried the old man, throwing up his tremulous hands.
+"Girdlestone & Son will weather the storm yet."
+
+"But Girdlestone becomes a sleeping partner," said Ezra.  "It's for my
+own sake I do it and not for yours," with which frank remark he drew his
+hat down over his brows and set off for Eccleston Square.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+A DANGEROUS PROMISE.
+
+During Ezra Girdlestone's absence in Africa our heroine's life had been
+even less eventful than of old.  There was a consistency about the
+merchant's establishment which was characteristic of the man.  The house
+itself was austere and gloomy, and every separate room, in spite of
+profuse expenditure and gorgeous furniture, had the same air of
+discomfort.  The servants too, were, with one single exception, from the
+hard-visaged housekeeper to the Calvinistic footman, a depressing and
+melancholy race.  The only departure from this general rule was Kate's
+own maid, Rebecca Taylforth, a loudly-dressed, dark-eyed, coarse-voiced
+young woman, who raised up her voice and wept when Ezra departed for
+Africa.  This damsel's presence was most disagreeable to Kate, and,
+indeed, to John Girdlestone also, who only retained her on account of
+his son's strong views upon the subject, and out of fear of an explosion
+which might wreck all his plans.
+
+The old merchant was Kate's only companion during this period, and their
+conversation was usually limited to a conventional inquiry at breakfast
+time as to each other's health.  On his return from the City in the
+evening Girdlestone was always in a moody humour, and would eat his
+dinner hastily and in silence.  After dinner he was in the habit of
+reading methodically the various financial articles in the day's papers,
+which would occupy him until bedtime.  Occasionally his companion would
+read these aloud to him, and such was the monotony of her uneventful
+life that she found herself becoming insensibly interested in the
+fluctuations of Grand Trunk scrip or Ohio and Delaware shares.
+The papers once exhausted, a bell was rung to summon the domestics, and
+when all were assembled the merchant, in a hard metallic voice, read
+through the lesson for the day and the evening prayers.  On grand
+occasions he supplemented this by a short address, in the course of
+which he would pelt his frightened audience with hard jagged texts until
+he had reduced them to a fitting state of spiritual misery.  No wonder
+that, under the influence of such an existence, the roses began to fade
+from his ward's cheeks, and her youthful heart to grow sad and heavy.
+
+One daily tonic there was, however, which never deserted her.
+Strictly as Girdlestone guarded her, and jealously as he fenced her off
+from the outer world, he was unable to prevent this one little ray of
+light penetrating her prison.  With an eye to the future he had so
+placed her that it seemed to him to be impossible that any sympathy
+could reach her from the outside world.  Visits and visitors were alike
+forbidden to her.  On no consideration was she to venture out alone.
+In spite of all his precautions, however, love has many arts and wiles
+which defy all opposition, and which can outplot the deepest of
+plotters.
+
+Eccleston Square was by no means in a direct line between Kensington and
+the City, yet morning and evening, as sure as the clock pointed to
+half-past nine and to quarter to six, Tom would stride through the
+old-fashioned square and past the grim house, whose grimness was
+softened to his eyes through its association with the bright dream of
+his life.  It was but the momentary glance of a sweet face at the upper
+window and a single wave of a white hand, but it sent him on with a
+fresh heart and courage, and it broke the dull monotony of her dreary
+life.
+
+Occasionally, as we have seen, he even managed to find his way into the
+interior of this ogre's castle, in which his fair princess was immured.
+John Girdlestone put an end to this by ordering that business messages
+should never under any circumstances be conveyed to his private
+residence.  Nothing daunted, however, the lovers soon devised another
+means of surmounting the barrier which divided them.
+
+The centre of the square was taken up by a garden, rectangular and
+uninviting, fenced round with high forbidding walls which shut out all
+intruders and gave the place a resemblance to the exercise ground of a
+prison.  Within the rails were clumps of bushes, and here and there a
+few despondent trees drooped their heads as though mourning over the
+uncongenial site in which they had been planted.  Among these trees and
+bushes there were scattered seats, and the whole estate was at the
+disposal of the inhabitants of Eccleston Square, and was dignified by
+the name of the Eccleston Gardens.  This was the only spot in which Kate
+was trusted without the surveillance of a footman, and it was therefore
+a favourite haunt of hers, where she would read or work for hours under
+the shelter of the scanty foliage.
+
+Hence it came about that one day, as Thomas Dimsdale was making his way
+Cityward at a rather earlier hour than was customary with him, he missed
+the usual apparition at the window.  Looking round blankly in search of
+some explanation of this absence, he perceived in the garden a pretty
+white bonnet which glinted among the leaves, and on closer inspection a
+pair of bright eyes, which surveyed him merrily from underneath it.
+The gate was open, and in less time than it takes to tell it the
+sacrilegious feet of the young man had invaded the sacred domains
+devoted to the sole use and behoof of the Ecclestonians.  It may be
+imagined that he was somewhat late at the office that morning and on
+many subsequent mornings, until the clerks began to think that their new
+employer was losing the enthusiasm for business which had possessed him.
+
+Tom frequently begged permission to inform Mr. Girdlestone of his
+engagement, but Kate was inflexible upon that point.  The fact is, that
+she knew her guardian's character very much better than her lover did,
+and remembering his frequent exhortations upon the subject of the vanity
+and wickedness of such things, she feared the effects of his anger when
+he learned the truth.  In a year or so she would be of age and her own
+mistress, but at present she was entirely in his power.  Why should she
+subject herself to the certainty of constant harshness and unkindness
+which would await her?  Had her guardian really fulfilled the functions
+of a father towards her he would have a right to be informed, but as it
+was she felt that she owed him no such duty.  She therefore made up her
+mind that he should know nothing of the matter; but the fates
+unfortunately willed otherwise.
+
+It chanced that one morning the interview between the lovers had lasted
+rather longer than usual, and had been concluded by Kate's returning to
+the house, while Tom remained sitting upon the garden seat lost in such
+a reverie as affects men in his position.  While thus pleasantly
+employed, his thoughts were suddenly recalled to earth by the appearance
+of a dark shadow on the gravel in front of him, and looking up he saw
+the senior partner standing a short distance away and regarding him with
+anything but an amiable expression upon his face.  He had himself been
+having a morning stroll in the garden, and had overseen the whole of the
+recent interview without the preoccupied lovers being aware of his
+presence.
+
+"Are you coming to the office?" he asked sternly.  "If so, we can go
+together."
+
+Tom rose and followed him out of the gardens without a word.  He knew
+from the other's expression that all was known to him, and in his heart
+he was not sorry.  His only fear was that the old man's anger might fall
+upon his ward and this he determined to prevent.  They walked side by
+side as far as the station in complete silence, but on reaching
+Fenchurch Street Girdlestone asked his young partner to step into his
+private sanctum.
+
+"Now, sir," he said, as he closed the door behind him "I think that I
+have a right to inquire what the meaning may be of the scene of which I
+was an involuntary witness this morning?"
+
+"It means," Tom answered firmly but gently, "that I am engaged to Miss
+Harston, and have been for some time."
+
+"Oh, indeed," Girdlestone answered coldly, sitting down at his desk and
+turning over the pile of letters.
+
+"At my request," said Tom, "our engagement was kept from your knowledge.
+I had reason to believe that you objected to early engagements, and I
+feared that ours might be disagreeable to you."  I trust that the
+recording angel will not register a very black mark against our friend
+for this, the one and only falsehood that ever passed his lips.
+
+During the long silent walk the merchant had been revolving in his mind
+what course he should pursue, and he had come to the conclusion that it
+was more easy to guide this impetuous stream of youth than to attempt to
+stem it.  He did not realize the strength of the tie that bound these
+two young people together, and imagined that with judgment and patience
+it might yet be snapped.  It was, therefore, with as good an imitation
+of geniality as his angular visage would permit of that he answered his
+companion's confession.
+
+"You can hardly wonder at my being surprised," he said.  "Such a thing
+never entered my mind for a moment.  You would have done better to have
+confided in me before."
+
+"I must ask your pardon for not having done so."
+
+"As far as you are concerned," said John Girdlestone affably, "I
+believe you to be hard-working and right-principled.  Your conduct since
+you have joined the firm has been everything which I could desire."
+
+Tom bowed his acknowledgments, much pleased by this preamble.
+
+"With regard to my ward," continued the senior partner, speaking very
+slowly and evidently weighing his words, "I could not wish her to have a
+better husband.  In considering such a question I have, however, as you
+may imagine, to consult above everything else the wishes of my dead
+friend, Mr. John Harston, the father of the young lady to whom you say
+that you are engaged.  A trust has been reposed in me, and that trust
+must, of course, be fulfilled to the letter."
+
+"Certainly," said Tom, wondering in his own mind how he could ever have
+brought himself for one moment to think evil of this kindly and
+righteous old man.
+
+"It was one of Mr. Harston's most clearly expressed wishes that no words
+or even thoughts of such matters should be allowed to come in his
+daughter's way until she had attained maturity, by which he meant the
+age of one-and-twenty."
+
+"But he could not foresee the circumstances," Tom pleaded.  "I am sure
+that a year or so will make no difference in her sentiments in this
+matter."
+
+"My duty is to carry out his instructions to the letter.  I won't say,
+however," continued Mr. Girdlestone, "that circumstances might not arise
+which might induce me to shorten this probationary period.  If my
+further acquaintance with you confirms the high impression which I now
+have of your commercial ability, that, of course, would have weight with
+me; and, again, if I find Miss Harston's mind is made up upon the point,
+that also would influence my judgment."
+
+"And what are we to do in the mean time?" asked the junior partner
+anxiously.
+
+"In the mean time neither you nor your people must write to her, or
+speak to her, or hold any communication with her whatever.  If I find
+you or them doing so, I shall be compelled in justice to Mr. Harston's
+last request to send her to some establishment abroad where she shall be
+entirely out of your way.  My mind is irrevocably made up upon that
+point.  It is not a matter of personal inclination, but of conscience."
+
+"And how long is this to last?" cried Tom.
+
+"It will depend upon yourselves.  If you prove yourself to be a man of
+honour in this matter, I may be inclined to sanction your addresses.
+In the mean time you must give me your word to let it rest, and neither
+to attempt to speak to Miss Harston, nor to see her, nor to allow your
+parents to communicate with her.  The last condition may seem to you to
+be hard, but, in my eyes, it is a very important one.  Unless you can
+bring yourself to promise all this, my duty will compel me to remove my
+ward entirely out of your reach, a course which would be painful to her
+and inconvenient to myself."
+
+"But I must let her know of this arrangement.  I must tell her that you
+hold out hopes to us on condition that we keep apart for a time."
+
+"It would be cruel not to allow you to do that," Girdlestone answered.
+"You may send her _one_ letter, but remember there shall be no reply to
+it."
+
+"Thank you, sir; thank you!" Tom cried fervently.  "I have something to
+live for now.  This separation will but make our hearts grow fonder.
+What change can time make in either of us?"
+
+"Quite so," said John Girdlestone, with a smile.  "Remember there must
+be no more walking through the square.  You must remain absolutely apart
+if you wish to gain my consent."
+
+"It is hard, very, very hard.  But I will promise to do it.  What would
+I not promise which would lead to our earlier union?"
+
+"That is settled then.  In the mean time, I should be obliged if you
+would go down to the docks and look after the loading of the
+transferable corrugated iron houses  for New Calabar."
+
+"All right, sir, and thank you for your kindness," said Tom, bowing
+himself out.  He hardly knew whether to be pleased or grieved over the
+result of his interview; but, on the whole, satisfaction prevailed,
+since at the worst it was but to wait for a year or so, while there
+seemed to be some hopes of gaining the guardian's consent before that.
+On the other hand, he had pledged himself to separate from Kate; but
+that would, he reflected, only make their re-union the sweeter.
+
+All the morning he was engaged in superintending the stowing of great
+slabs of iron in the capacious hold of the _Maid of Athens_.  When the
+hour of luncheon arrived no thought of food was in the lad's head, but,
+burying himself in the back parlour of a little Blackwall public-house,
+he called for pen, ink, and paper, and proceeded to indite a letter to
+his sweetheart.  Never was so much love and comfort and advice and hope
+compressed into the limits of four sheets of paper or contained in the
+narrow boundary of a single envelope.  Tom read it over after he had
+finished, and felt that it feebly expressed his thoughts; but, then,
+what lover ever yet did succeed in getting his thoughts satisfactorily
+represented upon paper.  Having posted this effusion, in which he had
+carefully explained the conditions imposed upon him, Tom felt
+considerably more light-hearted, and returned with renewed vigour to the
+loading of the corrugated iron.  He would hardly have felt so satisfied
+had he seen John Girdlestone receiving that same letter from the hands
+of the footman, and reading it afterwards in the privacy of his bedroom
+with a sardonic smile upon his face.  Still less contented would he have
+been had he beheld the merchant tearing it into small fragments and
+making a bonfire of it in his capacious grate.  Next morning Kate looked
+in vain out of the accustomed window, and was sore at heart when no tall
+figure appeared in sight and no friendly hand waved a morning
+salutation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+A CHANGE OF FRONT.
+
+This episode had occurred about a fortnight before Ezra's return from
+Africa, and was duly retailed to him by his father.
+
+"You need not be discouraged by that," he said.  "I can always keep them
+apart, and if he is absent and you are present--especially as she has no
+idea of the cause of his absence--she will end by feeling slighted and
+preferring you."
+
+"I cannot understand how you ever came to let the matter go so far," his
+son answered sullenly.  "What does the young puppy want to come poaching
+upon our preserves for?  The girl belongs to us.  She was given to you
+to look after, and a nice job you seem to have made of it!"
+
+"Never mind, my boy," replied the merchant.  "I'll answer for keeping
+them apart if you will only push the matter on your own account."
+
+"I've said that I would do so, and I will," Ezra returned; and events
+soon showed that he was as good as his word.
+
+Before his African excursion the relations between young Girdlestone and
+his father's ward had never been cordial.  Kate's nature, however, was
+so sweet and forgiving, that it was impossible for her to harbour any
+animosity, and she greeted Ezra kindly on his return from his travels.
+Within a few days she became conscious that a remarkable change had come
+over him--a change, as it seemed to her, very much for the better.
+In the past, weeks had frequently elapsed without his addressing her,
+but now he went out of his way to make himself agreeable.  Sometimes he
+would sit for a whole evening describing to her all that he had seen in
+Africa, and really interesting her by his account of men and things.
+She, poor lass, hailed this new departure with delight, and did all in
+her power to encourage his better nature and to show that she
+appreciated the alteration in his bearing.  At the same time, she was
+rather puzzled in her mind, for an occasional flash of coarseness or
+ferocity showed her that the real nature of the man was unaltered, and
+that he was putting an unnatural restraint upon himself.
+
+As the days went on, and no word or sign came from Tom, a great fear and
+perplexity arose within the girl's mind.  She had heard nothing of the
+interview at Fenchurch Street, nor had she any clue at all which could
+explain the mystery.  Could it be that Tom had informed her guardian of
+their engagement, and had received such a rebuff that he had abandoned
+her in despair?  That was surely impossible; yet why was it that he had
+ceased to walk through the square?  She knew that he was not ill,
+because she heard her two companions talking of him in connection with
+business.  What could be the matter, then?  Her little heart was torn by
+a thousand conflicting doubts and fears.
+
+In the mean time Ezra gave fresh manifestations of the improvement which
+travel had wrought upon him.  She had remarked one day that she was fond
+of moss roses.  On coming down to breakfast next morning she found a
+beautiful moss rose upon her plate, and every morning afterwards a fresh
+flower appeared in the same place.  This pretty little piece of
+courtesy, which she knew could only come from Ezra, surprised and
+pleased her, for delicacy was the last quality for which she would have
+given him credit.
+
+On another occasion she had expressed a desire to read Thackeray's
+works, the books in the library being for the most part of last century.
+On entering her room that same evening she found, to her astonishment, a
+handsomely bound edition of the novels in question standing on the
+centre of her table.  For a moment a wild, unreasoning hope awoke in her
+that perhaps this was Tom's doing--that he had taken this means of
+showing that she was still dear to him.  She soon saw, however, that the
+books could only have come from the same source as the flowers, and she
+marvelled more than ever at this fresh proof of  the good will of her
+companion.
+
+One day her guardian took the girl aside.  "Your life must be rather
+dull," he said.  "I have taken a box for you to-night at the opera.
+I do not care about such spectacles myself, but I have made arrangements
+for your escort.  A change will do you good."
+
+Poor Kate was too sad at heart to be inclined for amusement.
+She endeavoured, however, to look pleased and grateful.
+
+"My good friend, Mrs. Wilkinson, is coming for you," the merchant said,
+"and Ezra is going too.  He has a  great liking for music."
+
+Kate could not help smiling at this last remark, as she  thought how
+very successfully the young man had concealed his taste during the years
+that she had known him.
+
+She was ready, however, at the appointed hour, and Mrs. Wilkinson, a
+prim old gentlewoman, who had chaperoned Kate on the rare occasions when
+she went out, having arrived, the three drove off together.
+
+The opera happened to be "Faust," and the magnificent scenery and
+dresses astonished Kate, who had hardly ever before been within the
+walls of a theatre.  She sat as if entranced, with a bright tinge of
+colour upon her cheeks, which, with her sparkling eyes, made her look
+surpassingly beautiful.  So thought Ezra Girdlestone as he sat in the
+recesses of the box and watched the varied expressions which flitted
+across her mobile features.  "She is well worth having, money or no," he
+muttered to himself, and redoubled his attentions to her during the
+evening.
+
+An incident occurred between the acts that night which would have
+pleased the old merchant had he witnessed it.  Kate had been looking
+down from the box, which was upon the third tier, at the sea of heads
+beneath them.  Suddenly she gave a start, and her face grew a trifle
+paler.
+
+"Isn't that Mr. Dimsdale down there?" she said to her companion.
+
+"Where?" asked Ezra, craning his neck.  "Oh yes, there he is, in the
+second row of the stalls."
+
+"Do you know who the young lady is that he is talking to?" Kate asked.
+
+"I don't know," said Ezra.  "I have seen him about with her a good deal
+lately." The latter was a deliberate falsehood, but Ezra saw his chance
+of prejudicing his rival, and took prompt advantage of it.  "She is very
+good-looking," he added presently, keeping his eyes upon his companion.
+
+"Oh, indeed," said Kate, and turned with some common-place remark to
+Mrs. Wilkinson.  Her heart was sore nevertheless, and she derived little
+pleasure from the remainder of the performance.  As to Ezra, in spite of
+his great love for music, he dozed peacefully in a corner of the box
+during the whole of the last act.  None of them were sorry when Faust
+was duly consigned to the nether regions and Marguerite was apotheosed
+upon a couple of wooden clouds.  Ezra narrated the incident of the
+recognition in the stalls to his father on his return, and the old
+gentleman rubbed his hands over it.
+
+"Most fortunate!" he exclaimed gleefully.  "By working on that idea we
+might produce great effects.  Who was the girl, do you know?"
+
+"Some poor relation, I believe, whom he trots out at times."
+
+"We will find out her name and all about her.  Capital, capital!" cried
+John Girdlestone; and the two worthies departed to their rooms much
+pleased at this new card which chance had put into their hands.
+
+During the weary weeks while Tom Dimsdale, in accordance with his
+promise, avoided Eccleston Square and everything which could remind Kate
+of his existence, Ezra continued to leave no stone unturned in his
+endeavours to steal his way into her affections.  Poor Tom's sole
+comfort was the recollection of that last passionate letter which he had
+written in the Blackwall public-house, and which had, as he imagined,
+enlightened her as to the reasons of his absence, and had prevented her
+from feeling any uneasiness or surprise.  Had he known the fate that had
+befallen that epistle, he would hardly have been able to continue his
+office duties so patiently or to wait with so much resignation for Mr.
+Girdlestone's sanction to his engagement.
+
+As the days passed and still brought no news, Kate's face grew paler and
+her heart more weary and desponding.  That the young man was well was
+beyond dispute, since she had seen him with her own eyes at the opera.
+What explanation could there be, then, for his conduct?  Was it possible
+that he had told Mr. Girdlestone of their engagement, and that her
+guardian had found some means of dissuading him from continuing his
+suit--found some appeal to his interest, perhaps, which was too strong
+for his love.  All that she knew of Tom's nature contradicted such a
+supposition.  Again, if Girdlestone had learned anything of their
+engagement, surely he would have reproached her with it.  His manner of
+late had been kinder rather than harsher.  On the other hand, could it
+have chanced that Tom had met this lady of the opera, and that her
+charms had proved too much for his constancy?  When she thought of the
+honest grey eyes which had looked down into hers at that last meeting in
+the garden, she found it hard to imagine the possibility of such things,
+and yet there was a fact which had to be explained.  The more she
+thought of it the more incomprehensible it grew, but still the pale face
+grew paler and the sad heart more heavy.
+
+Soon, however, her doubts and fears began to resolve themselves into
+something more substantial than vague conjecture.  The conversation of
+the Girdlestones used to turn upon their business colleague, and always
+in the same strain.  There were stray remarks about his doings; hints
+from the father and laughter from the son.  "Not much work to be got out
+of him now," the old man would say.  "When a man's in love he's not over
+fond of a ledger."
+
+"A nice-looking girl, too," said Ezra, in answer to some such remark.
+"I thought something would come of it.  We saw them together at the
+opera, didn't we, Kate?"
+
+So they would gossip together, and every word a stab to the poor girl.
+She strove to conceal her feelings, and, indeed, her anger and her pride
+were stronger even than her grief, for she felt that she had been
+cruelly used.  One day she found Girdlestone alone and unbosomed herself
+to him.
+
+"Is it really true," she asked, with a quick pant and a  catch of her
+breath, "that Mr. Dimsdale is engaged to be married?"
+
+"I believe so, my dear," her guardian answered.  "It is commonly
+reported so.  When a young lady and gentleman correspond it is usually a
+sign of something of the sort."
+
+"Oh, they correspond?"
+
+"Yes, they certainly correspond.  Her letters are sent to him at the
+office.  I don't know that I altogether like that arrangement.  It looks
+as if he were deceiving his parents."  All this was an unmitigated lie,
+but Girdlestone had gone too far now to stick at trifles.
+
+"Who is the lady?" asked Kate, with a calm set face but a quivering lip.
+
+"A cousin of his.  Miss Ossary is her name, I believe.  I am not sorry,
+for it may be a sign that he has sown all his wild oats.  Do you know at
+one time, Kate, I feared that he might take a fancy to you.  He has a
+specious way with him, and I felt my responsibility in the matter."
+
+"You need not be afraid on that score," Kate said bitterly.  "I think I
+can gauge Mr. Dimsdale's specious manner at its proper value."  With
+this valiant speech she marched off, head in air, to her room, and there
+wept as though her very heart would break.
+
+John Girdlestone told his son of this scene as they walked home from
+Fenchurch Street that same day.  "We must look sharp over it," he said,
+"or that young fool may get impatient and upset our plans."
+
+"It's not such an easy matter," said his son gloomily.  "I get along so
+far, but no further.  It's a more uphill job than I expected."
+
+"Why, you had a bad enough name among women," the merchant said, with
+something approaching to a sneer.  "I have been grieved times out of
+number by your looseness in that respect.  I should have thought that
+you might have made your experience of some use now."
+
+"There are women and women," his son remarked.  "A girl like this takes
+as much managing as a skittish horse."
+
+"Once get her into harness, and I warrant you'll keep her there quiet
+enough."
+
+"You bet," said Ezra, with a loud laugh.  "But at present she has the
+pull.  Her mind is still running on that fellow."
+
+"She spoke bitterly enough of him this morning."
+
+"So she might, but she thinks of him none the less.  If I could once
+make her thoroughly realize that he had thrown her over I might catch
+her on the hop.  She'd marry for spite if she wouldn't for love."
+
+"Just so; just so.  Wait a bit.  That can be managed, I think, if you
+will leave it to me."
+
+The old man brooded over the problem all day, for from week to week the
+necessity for the money was becoming more pressing, and that money could
+only be hoped for through the success of Ezra's wooing.  No wonder that
+every little detail which might sway the balance one way or the other
+was anxiously pondered over by the head of the firm, and that even the
+fluctuations in oil and ivory became secondary to this great object.
+
+Next day, immediately after they had sat down to dinner, some letters
+were handed in by the footman.  "Forwarded on from the office, sir,"
+said the flunkey.  "The clerk says that Mr. Gilray was away and that he
+did not like to open them."
+
+"Just like him!" said Girdlestone, peevishly pushing back his plate of
+soup.  "I hate doing business out of hours."  He tore the envelopes off
+the various letters as he spoke.  "What's this?  Casks returned as per
+invoice; that's all right.  Note from Rudder & Saxe--that can be
+answered to-morrow.  Memorandum on the Custom duties at Sierra Leone.
+Hallo! what have we here?  'My darling Tom'--who is this from--Yours
+ever, Mary Ossary.' Why, it's one of young Dimsdale's love-letters which
+has got mixed up with my business papers.  Ha! ha! I must really
+apologize to him for having opened it, but he must take his chance of
+that, if he has his correspondence sent to the office.  I take it for
+granted that everything there is a business communication."
+
+Kate's face grew very white as she listened.  She ate little dinner that
+day, poor child, and took the earliest opportunity of retiring to her
+room.
+
+"You did that uncommonly well, dad," said Ezra approvingly, after she
+was gone.  "It hit her hard, I could see that."
+
+"I think it touched her pride.  People should not have pride.  We are
+warned against it.  Now, that same pride of hers will forbid her ever
+thinking of that young man again."
+
+"And you had the letter written?"
+
+"I wrote it myself.  I think, in such a case, any stratagem is
+justifiable.  Such large interests are at stake that we must adopt
+strong measures.  I quite agree with the old Churchmen that the end
+occasionally justifies the means."
+
+"Capital, dad; very good!" cried Ezra, chewing his  toothpick.  "I like
+to hear you argue.  It's quite refreshing."
+
+"I act according to the lights which are vouchsafed me," said John
+Girdlestone gravely; on which Ezra leaned back in his chair and laughed
+heartily.
+
+The very next morning the merchant spoke to Dimsdale on the matter, for
+he had observed signs of impatience in the young man, and feared that
+some sudden impulse might lead him to break his promise and so upset
+everything.
+
+"Take a seat.  I should like to have a word with you," he said
+graciously, when his junior partner appeared before him to consult with
+him as to the duties of the day.  Tom sat down with hope in his heart.
+
+"It is only fair to you, Mr. Dimsdale," Girdlestone said, in a kindly
+voice, "that I should express to you my appreciation of your honourable
+conduct.  You have kept your promise in regard to Miss Harston in the
+fullest manner."
+
+"Of course I kept my promise," said Tom bluntly.  "I trust, however,
+that you will soon see your way to withdrawing your prohibition.  It has
+been a hard trial to me."
+
+"I have insisted upon it because it seemed to me to be my duty.
+Every one takes his own view upon such points, and it has always been my
+custom throughout life to take what some might think a stringent one.
+It appears to me that I owe it to my deceased friend to prevent his
+daughter, whom he has confided to me, from making any mistake.
+As I said before, if you continue to show that you are worthy of her, I
+may think more favourably of it.  Exemplary as your conduct has been
+since you joined us, I believe that I am not wrong in stating that you
+were a little wild when you were at Edinburgh."
+
+"I never did anything that I am ashamed of," said Tom.
+
+"Very likely not," Girdlestone answered, with an irrepressible sneer.
+"The question is, did you do anything that your father was ashamed of?"
+
+"Certainly not," cried Tom hotly.  "I was no milksop or psalm singer,
+but there is nothing that I ever did there of which I should be ashamed
+of my father knowing."
+
+"Don't speak lightly of psalm singing.  It is a good practice in its
+way, and you would have been none the worse had you indulged in it
+perhaps.  However, that is neither here nor there.  What I want you
+clearly to understand is that my ultimate consent to your union depends
+entirely upon your own conduct.  Above all, I insist that you refrain
+from unsettling the girl's mind at present."
+
+"I have already promised.  Hard as the struggle may be, I shall not
+break my word.  I have the consolation of knowing that if we were
+separated for twenty years we should still be true to one another."
+
+"That's very satisfactory," said the merchant grimly.
+
+"Nevertheless it is a weary, weary time.  If I could only write a
+line--"
+
+"Not a word," Girdlestone interrupted.  "It is only because I trust you
+that I keep her in London at all.  If I thought there was a possibility
+of your doing such a thing I should remove her at once."
+
+"I shall do nothing without your permission," Tom said, taking up his
+hat to go.  He paused with his hand upon the door.  "If ever it seems
+good to me," he said, "I consider that by giving you due notice I
+absolve myself from my promise."
+
+"You would not do anything so foolish."
+
+"Still I reserve myself the right of doing so," said Tom, and went off
+with a heavy heart to his day's work.
+
+"Everything is clear for you now," the old man said to his son
+triumphantly.  "There's no chance of interference, and the girl is in
+the very humour to be won.  I flatter myself that it has been managed
+with tact.  Remember that all is at stake, and go in and win."
+
+"I shall go in," said Ezra "and I think the chances are that I shall
+win too."
+
+At which reassuring speech the old man laughed, and slapped his son
+approvingly upon the shoulder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+BREAKING GROUND.
+
+In spite of John Girdlestone's temporary satisfaction and the stoical
+face which he presented to the world, it is probable that in the whole
+of London there was no more unhappy and heart-weary man.  The long fight
+against impending misfortune had shattered his iron constitution and
+weakened him both in body and in mind.  It was remarked upon 'Change how
+much he had aged of late, and moralists commented upon the vanity and
+inefficacy of the wealth which could not smooth the wrinkles from the
+great trader's haggard visage.  He was surprised himself when he looked
+in the glass at the change which had come over him.  "Never mind," he
+would say in his dogged heart a hundred times a day, "they can't beat
+me.  Do what they will, they can't beat me."  This was the one thought
+which sustained and consoled him.  The preservation of his commercial
+credit had become the aim and object of his life, to which there was
+nothing that he was not prepared to sacrifice.
+
+His cunningly devised speculation in diamonds had failed, but this
+failure had been due to an accident which could neither have been
+foreseen nor remedied.  To carry out this scheme he had, as we have
+seen, been obliged to borrow money, which had now to be repaid.  This he
+had managed to do, more or less completely, by the sale of the stones
+which Ezra had brought home, supplemented by the recent profits of the
+firm.  There was still the original deficit to be faced, and John
+Girdlestone knew that though a settlement might be postponed from month
+to month, still the day must come, and come soon, when his debts must be
+met, or his inability to meet them become apparent to the whole world.
+Should Ezra be successful in his wooing and his ward's forty thousand
+pounds be thrown into the scale, the firm would shake itself clear from
+the load which oppressed it.  Supposing, however, that Kate were to
+refuse his son.  What was to occur then?  The will was so worded that
+there appeared to be no other way of obtaining the money.  A very
+vulpine look would come over the old man's face as he brooded over that
+problem.
+
+The strangest of all the phenomena, however, presented by John
+Girdlestone at this period of his life was his own entire conviction of
+the righteousness of his actions.  When every night and morning he sank
+upon his knees with his household and prayed for the success of the
+firm's undertakings, no qualms of conscience ever troubled him as to
+their intrinsic morality.  On Sundays the grey head of the merchant in
+the first pew was as constant an object as was the pew itself, yet in
+that head no thought ever rose of the inconsistency of his religion and
+of his practice.  For fifty years he had been persuading himself that he
+was a righteous man, and the conviction was now so firmly impressed upon
+his very soul that nothing could ever shake it.  Ezra was wrong when he
+set this down as deliberate hypocrisy.  Blind strength of will and
+self-conceit were at the bottom of his actions, but he would have been
+astonished and indignant had he been accused of simulating piety or of
+using it as a tool.  To him the firm of Girdlestone was the very
+representation of religion in the commercial world, and as such must be
+upheld by every conceivable means.
+
+To his son this state of mind was unintelligible, and he simply gave his
+father credit for being a consummate and accomplished hypocrite, who
+found a mantle of piety a very convenient one under which to conceal his
+real character.  He had himself inherited the old man's dogged
+pertinacity and commercial instincts, and was by nature unscrupulous and
+impatient of any obstacle placed in his way.  He was now keenly alive to
+the fact that the existence of the firm depended upon the success of his
+suit, and he knew also how lucrative a concern the African business
+would prove were it set upon its legs again.  He had determined in case
+he succeeded to put his father aside as a sleeping partner and to take
+the reins of management entirely into his own hands.  His practical mind
+had already devised countless ways in which the profits might be
+increased.  The first step of all, then, was the gaining possession of
+the forty thousand pounds, and to that he devoted himself heart and
+soul.  When two such men work together for one end, it is seldom that
+they fail to achieve it.
+
+It would be a mistake to suppose that Ezra felt himself in any degree in
+love at this time.  He recognized his companion's sweetness and
+gentleness, but these were not qualities which appealed to his
+admiration.  Kate's amiable, quiet ways seemed insipid to a man who was
+used to female society of a very different order.
+
+"She has no go or snap about her," he would complain to his father.
+"She's not like Polly Lucas at the Pavilion, or Minnie Walker."
+
+"God forbid!" ejaculated the merchant.  "That sort of thing is bad
+enough out of doors, but worst of all in your own house."
+
+"It makes courting a good deal easier," Ezra answered. "If a girl will
+answer up and give you an opening now and then, it makes all the
+difference."
+
+"You can't write poetry, can you?"
+
+"Not much," Ezra said with a grin.
+
+"That's a pity.  I believe it goes a long way with women.  You might get
+some one to write some, and let her think it is yours.  Or you could
+learn a little off and repeat it."
+
+"Yes, I might do that.  I'm going to buy a collar for that beast of a
+dog of hers.  All the time that I was talking to her yesterday she was
+so taken up with it that I don't believe she heard half that I said.
+My fingers itched to catch it up and chuck it through the window."
+
+"Don't forget yourself, my boy, don't forget yourself!" cried the
+merchant.  "A single false step might ruin every thing."
+
+"Never fear," Ezra said confidently, and went off upon the dog-collar
+mission.  While he was in the shop he bought a dog-whip as well, which
+he locked up in his drawers to use as the occasion served.
+
+During all this time Kate had been entirely unconscious of her
+companion's intentions and designs.  She had been associated with Ezra
+for so many years, and had met such undeviated want of courtesy from
+him, that the idea of his presenting himself as a suitor never came into
+her head.  She hailed his charge of demeanour, therefore, as being the
+result of his larger experience of the world, and often wondered how it
+was that he had profited so much by his short stay at the Cape.  In the
+cheerless house it was pleasant to have at least one companion who
+seemed to have kindly feelings towards her.  She was only too glad,
+therefore, to encourage his advances, and to thank him with sweet smiles
+and eloquent eyes for what appeared to her to be his disinterested
+kindness.
+
+After a while, however, Ezra's attentions became so marked that it was
+impossible for her to misunderstand them any longer.  Not only did he
+neglect his usual work in order to hang round her from morning to night,
+but he paid her many clumsy compliments and gave other similar
+indications of the state of his affections.  As soon as this astounding
+fact had been fairly realized by the girl, she at once changed her
+manner and became formal and distant.  Ezra, nothing daunted, redoubled
+his tender words and glances, and once would have kissed her hand had
+she not rapidly withdrawn it.  On this Kate shut herself up in her room,
+and rarely came out save when the other was away in the City.  She was
+determined that there should be no possibility of any misunderstanding
+as to her feelings in the matter.
+
+John Girdlestone had been watching these little skirmishes closely and
+with keen interest.  When Kate took to immuring herself in her room he
+felt that it was time for him to interfere.
+
+"You must go about a little more, and have more fresh air," he said to
+her one day, when they were alone after breakfast.  "You will lose your
+roses if you don't."
+
+"I am sure I don't care whether I lose them or not," answered his ward
+listlessly.
+
+"You may not, but there are others who do," remarked the merchant.
+"I believe it would break Ezra's heart."
+
+Kate flushed up at this sudden turn of the conversation.  "I don't see
+what reason your son has to care about it," she said.
+
+"Care about it!  Are you so blind that you don't see that he loves the
+very ground you walk on.  He has grown quite pale and ill these last few
+days because he has not seen you, and he imagines that he may have
+offended you."
+
+"For goodness' sake!" cried Kate earnestly, "persuade him to think of
+some one else.  It will only be painful both to him and to me if he
+keeps on this way.  It cannot possibly lead to anything."
+
+"And why not?  Why should--"
+
+"Oh, don't let us argue about it," she cried passionately.  "The very
+idea is horrible.  It won't bear talking about."
+
+"But why, my dear, why?  You are really too impulsive.  Ezra has his
+faults, but what man has not?  He has been a little wild in his youth,
+but he is settling down now into an excellent man of business.  I assure
+you that, young as he is, there are few names more respected on
+'Change.  The way in which he managed the business of the firm in Africa
+was wonderful.  He is already a rich man, and will be richer before he
+dies.  I cannot see any cause for this deep-rooted objection of yours.
+As to looks he is, you must confess, as fine a young fellow as there is
+in London."
+
+"I wish you not to speak of it or think of it again," said Kate.
+"My mind is entirely made up when I say that I shall never marry any
+one--him least of all."
+
+"You will think better of it, I am sure," her guardian said, patting her
+chestnut hair kindly as he stood over her.  "Since your poor father
+handed you over to me I have guarded you and cared for you to the best
+of my ability.  Many a sleepless night I have spent thinking of your
+future and endeavouring to plan it out so as to secure your happiness.
+I should not be likely to give you bad advice now, or urge you to take a
+step which would make you unhappy.  Have you anything to complain of in
+my treatment of you?"
+
+"You have been always very just," Kate said with a sob.
+
+"And this is how you repay me!  You are going to break my son's heart,
+and through his mine.  He is my only boy, and if anything went wrong
+with him I tell you that it would bring my grey hairs in sorrow to the
+grave.  You have it in your power to do this, or, on the other hand, you
+may make my old age a happy one by the knowledge that the lad is mated
+with a good woman, and has attained the object on which his whole mind
+and heart are set."
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't.  Do let the matter drop."
+
+"Think it over," the old man said.  "Look at it from every point of
+view.  Remember that the love of an honest man is not to be lightly
+spurned.  I am naturally anxious about it, for my future happiness, as
+well as his, depends upon your decision."
+
+John Girdlestone was fairly satisfied with this interview.  It seemed to
+him that his ward was rather less decided in her refusal at the end of
+it, and that his words had had some effect upon her, which might
+possibly increase with reflection.
+
+"Give her a little time now," was his advice to his son.  "I think she
+will come round, but she needs managing."
+
+"If I could get the money without taking her it would be better for me,"
+Ezra said with an oath.
+
+"And better for her too," remarked John Girdlestone grimly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+MRS. SCULLY OF MORRISON'S.
+
+One day Major Tobias Clutterbuck was sitting at the window of his little
+room smoking his cigarette and sipping his glass of wine, as was his
+custom if times were reasonably good.  While thus agreeably employed he
+chanced to look across the road and perceived a little fringe of dark
+hair, and a still darker eye, which surveyed him round the border of one
+of the curtains which flanked a window opposite.  The gallant major was
+much interested in this apparition, and rose to make a closer inspection
+of it, but, alas! before he could focus it with his eye-glass it was
+gone!  He bent his gaze resolutely in that direction for a long time,
+and smoked at least half a dozen cigarettes, besides finishing the
+bottle of wine; but although he thought he saw certain flittings and
+whiskings of garments in the dark background of the opposite room, he
+could not make out anything more definite.
+
+Next day the soldier was on the look-out at the same hour, and was
+rewarded by the appearance of two eyes, very mischievous and dangerous
+ones too, which were set in a buxom and by no means unprepossessing
+face.  The lady who owned these charms looked very deliberately up the
+street, and very deliberately down the street, after which she bethought
+herself to look across the street, and started to perceive a stout,
+middle-aged gentleman, with a fiery face, who was looking at her with an
+expression of intense admiration.  So much alarmed was she that she
+vanished behind the curtains and the major feared that he would see her
+no more.  Fortunately, however, it became evident that the lady's alarm
+was not very overpowering, for within five minutes she was back at the
+window, where her eyes again fell upon the beaming face and jaunty
+figure of the major, who had posed himself in a striking attitude, which
+was somewhat marred by the fact that he was still enveloped in his
+purple dressing-gown.  This time her eyes lingered a little longer than
+before and the suspicion of a smile appeared upon her features.  On this
+the major smiled and bowed, and she smiled also, showing a pretty little
+line of white teeth as she did so.  What the veteran's next move might
+have been no one can tell, for the lady solved the problem by
+disappearing, and this time permanently.  He was very well satisfied,
+however, and chuckled much to himself while arraying himself in his long
+frock coat and immaculate collar before setting out for the club.
+He had been a sly old dog in his day, and had followed Venus almost as
+much as he had Mars during his chequered career.
+
+All day the recollection of this little episode haunted him.  So much
+pre-occupied was he at the club that he actually played out the
+thirteenth trump upon his partner's long suit and so sacrificed the
+game--being the first and only time that he was ever known to throw away
+a point.  He told Von Baumser all about it when he came back.
+
+"She's a demned foine-looking woman, whoever she may be," he remarked,
+at they sat together before turning in.  "Be George! she's the foinest
+woman I've seen for a long time."
+
+"She's a window," said the German.
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A window--the window of an engineer."
+
+"Is it a widow you mane?  What d'ye know about her?  What's her name,
+and where does she come from?"
+
+"I have heard from the slavey that a win--a widow lives over dere in
+those rooms.  She boards mit Madame Morrison, and that window belongs to
+her privacy zimmer--dat is, chamber.  As to her name, I have not heard
+it, or else I disremember it."
+
+"Ged!" said the major, "she'd eyes that looked right through ye, and a
+figure like Juno."
+
+"She's vierzig if she's a day--dat is, forty," Von Baumser remarked.
+
+"Well, if she is, me boy, a woman of forty is just in the proime o'
+loife.  If you'd seen her at the window, she would have taken ye by
+storm.  She stands like this, and she looks up like this, and then down
+in this way."  The major pursed up his warlike features into what he
+imagined to be an innocent and captivating expression.  "Then she looks
+across and sees me, and down go the lids of her eyes, like the shutting
+off of a bull's-eye lantern.  Then she blushed and stole just one more
+glance at me round the corner of the curtain.  She had two peeps, the
+divil a doubt of it."
+
+"Dat is very good," the German said encouragingly.
+
+"Ah, me boy, twinty years ago, when I was forty inches round the chest
+and thirty-three round the waist, I was worth looking at twice.
+Bedad, when a man gets ould and lonely he sees what a fool he was not to
+make better use of his time when he'd the chance."
+
+"Mein Gott!" cried Von Baumser.  "You don't mean to say that you would
+marry suppose you had the chance?"
+
+"I don't know," the major answered reflectively.
+
+"The vomens is not to be trusted," the German said sadly.  "I knew a
+voman in my own country which was the daughter of a man dat kept a
+hotel--and she and I was promised to be married to each others.
+Karl Hagelstein, he was to be vat you call my best man.  A very handsome
+man was Karl, and I sent him often mit little presents of one thing or
+another to my girl, for there were reasons why I could not go myself.
+He was nicer than me because my hair was red, and pretty soon she began
+to like him, and he liked her too.  So the day before the vedding she
+went down the Rhine to Frankfort by the boat, and he went down by train,
+and there they met and was married the one to the other."
+
+"And what did you do?" the major asked with interest.
+
+"Ah, dat was the most worst thing of all, for I followed them mit a
+friend of mine, and when we caught them I did not let her know, but I
+called him out of his hotel, and I told him that he must fight me.
+Dat vos a mistake.  I should have done him an insult, and then he vould
+have had to ask me to fight, and I could have chosen my own veapon.
+As it was he chose swords, for he knew veil that I knew nothing of them,
+and he had been the best fencer in the whole of his University.  Then we
+met in the morning, and before I had time to do anything he ran me
+through the left lung.  I have shown you the mark of it.  After dat I
+vas in bed for two month and more, and it still hurts me ven de veather
+is cold.  That is vat they call satisfaction," Baumser added, pulling
+his long red beard reflectively.  "To me it has ever seemed the most
+dissatisfactory thing that could be imagined."
+
+"I don't wonder you're afraid of the women after that," said the major,
+laughing.  "There are plenty of good women in the world, though, if you
+have the luck to come across them.  D'ye know a young fellow called
+Dimsdale--?  Ah, you wouldn't, but I've met him lately at the club.
+He's got a girl who's the adopted daughter of that same ould Girdlestone
+that we talk about.  I saw the two of them togither one day as happy as
+a pair of young love birds.  Sure, you've only got to look at her face
+to see that she's as good as gold.  I'll bet that that woman over the
+strate there is another of the right sort."
+
+"Dat voman is alvays in your head," the German said, with a smile.
+"You shall certainly dream about her to-night.  I remember a voman in
+Germany--"  And so these two Bohemians rambled on into the small hours,
+discoursing upon their past experiences and regaling each other with
+many reminiscences, some of which, perhaps, are just as well omitted and
+allowed to sink into oblivion.  When the major finally retired for the
+night, his last thought was of the lady at the window and of the means
+by which he might contrive to learn something of her.
+
+These proved to be more easy than he anticipated, for next morning, on
+cross-examining the little servant girl from whom Von Baumser had
+derived his information, the major found out all that he desired to
+know.  According to this authority, the lady was a widow of the name of
+Scully, the relict of a deceased engineer, and had been staying some
+little time at Morrison's, which was the rival establishment to that in
+which the major and Von Baumser resided.
+
+Armed with this information, the major pondered for some time before
+deciding upon his course of action.  He saw no possible means by which
+he could gain an introduction to his charming neighbour unless he had
+recourse to some daring strategem.  "Audace et toujours audace" had
+always been the soldier's motto.  He rose from his chair, discarded his
+purple gown, and arrayed himself in his best attire.  Never had he paid
+such attention to his toilet.  His face was clean shaven and shining,
+his sparse hairs were laid out to the best advantage, his collar
+spotless, his frock coat oppressively respectable, and his _tout
+ensemble_ irreproachable.  "Be George!" he said to himself, as he
+surveyed himself in the small lodging-house glass, "I'd look as young as
+Baumser if I had some more hair on me head.  Bad cess to the helmets and
+shakoes that wore it all off."
+
+When his toilet was fully completed and rounded off by the addition of a
+pair of light gloves and an ebony stick with a silver head, the veteran
+strode forth with a bold front, but with considerable trepidation at his
+heart; for when is a man so seasoned as to have no misgivings when he
+makes the first advances to a woman who really attracts him?  Whatever
+the major's inward feelings may have been, however, he successfully
+concealed them as he rang the bell of the rival lodging-house and
+inquired of the servant whether Mrs. Scully was at home.
+
+"Yes, sir, she is," said the slavey, with a frightened bob, which was a
+tribute to the major's martial mien and gorgeous attire.
+
+"Would you tell her that I should like to see her," said the major
+boldly.  "I shan't detain her a moment.  Here is my card--Major Tobias
+Clutterbuck, late of the 119th Light Infantry."
+
+The servant disappeared with the card, and presently returned with a
+request that he would step up.  The old soldier stumped his way upstairs
+with the firm footfall of one who has taken a thing in hand and means to
+carry it through at all hazard.  As he ascended, it seemed to him that
+he heard the sound of feminine laughter in the distance.  If so, it
+could hardly have come from the lady whom he was in quest of, for he was
+shown into a large and well-furnished room, where she sat looking demure
+and grave enough, as did another young lady who was crocheting on the
+ottoman beside her.
+
+The major made his most courtly bow, though he felt very much as the
+Spaniards may be supposed to have done when they saw their ships blazing
+behind them.  "I trust you will excuse this intrusion on my part," he
+began.  "I happened to hear that a lady of the name of Scully was
+stopping here."
+
+"My name is Scully, sir," said the lady, whose dark eyes had allured the
+major to this feat of daring.
+
+"Then perhaps, madam," the veteran said with another bow, "you will
+allow me to ask you whether you are any relation to Major-gineral
+Scully, of the Indian Sappers?"
+
+"Pray take a seat, Major--Major Clutterbuck," said Mrs. Scully,
+referring to his card, which she still held in her very well-formed
+little hand.  "Major-general Scully, did you say?  Dear me!  I know that
+one of my husband's relations went into the army, but we never heard
+what became of him.  A major-general, is he?  Whoever would have thought
+it!"
+
+"As dashing a souldier, madam," said the major, warming into eloquence,
+"as ever hewed a way through the ranks of the enemy, or stormed the
+snow-clad passes of the Himalayas."
+
+"Fancy!" ejaculated the young lady with the crochet needle.
+
+"Many a time," continued the soldier, "he and I after some hard-fought
+battle have slept togither upon the blood-stained ground wrapped in the
+same martial cloak."
+
+"Fancy!" cried both ladies in chorus; and they could not have selected a
+more appropriate interjection.
+
+"And when at last he died," the major went on with emotion, "cut in two
+with a tulwar in a skirmish with hill tribes, he turned to me--"
+
+"After being cut in two?" interrupted the younger lady.
+
+"He turned to me," said the major inflexibly, "and putting his hand in
+mine, he said, with his last breath, 'Toby'--that was what he always
+called me--'Toby,' he said, 'I have a--'  Your husband was his brother,
+I think you said, ma'am?"
+
+"No, it was Mr. Scully's uncle who went into the army."
+
+"Ah, quite so.  'I have a nephew in England,' he said, 'who is very dear
+to me.  He is married to a charming woman.  Search out the young couple,
+Toby.  Guard over them.  Protict them!'  Those were his last words,
+madam.  Next moment his sowl had fled.  When I heard your name casually
+mintioned I could not feel satisfied in me mind until I had come across
+and ascertained if you were the lady in question."
+
+Now, this narrative not only surprised the widow, which was not
+unnatural, seeing that it was entirely an invention of the old
+soldier's, but it appealed to her weakest point.  The father of the
+deceased Scully had been of plebeian origin, so that the discovery in
+the family of a real major-general--albeit he was dead--was a famous
+windfall, for the widow had social ambitions which hitherto she had
+never been able to gratify.  Hence she smiled sweetly at the veteran in
+a way which stimulated him to further flights of mendacity.
+
+"Sure he and I were like brothers," he said.  "He was a man that any one
+might well be proud to know.  Commander-in-chief said to me once,
+'Clutterbuck,' says he, 'I don't know what we'd do if we had a European
+war.  I've no one I can rely on,' says he.  'There's Scully,' says I.
+'Right,' says he, 'Scully would be our man.' He was terribly cut up when
+this occurred.  'Here's a blow to the British army!' he remarked, as he
+looked down at him where he lay with a bullet through his head--he did,
+madam, be Jove!"
+
+"But, major, I understood you to say that he was cut in two?"
+
+"So he was.  Cut in two, and shot and mortally wounded in a dozen places
+besides.  Ah, if he could have foreseen that I should have met you he
+would have died happy."
+
+"It's strange he never let us know of his existence when he was alive,"
+the widow remarked.
+
+"Pride, madam, pride! 'Until I reach the top of the tree, Toby,' he used
+to say, 'I shall niver reveal myself to me brother.'"
+
+"Nephew," interpolated the widow.
+
+"Quite so--' I shall niver reveal myself to me nephew.'  He said those
+very words to me only a few minutes before the fatal shell struck him."
+
+"A shell, major?  You mean a bullet."
+
+"A shell, madam, a shell," said the major with decision.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Scully, with a somewhat bewildered
+expression.  "How very sad it all is.  We must thank you very much,
+Major Bottletop--"
+
+"Clutterbuck," said the Major.
+
+"I beg pardon, Major Clutterbuck.  It was very kind of you to call upon
+us in this friendly way and to give us these details.  Of course, when a
+relative dies, even though you don't know much about him, still it is
+interesting to have a clear account of how it all happened.  Just fancy,
+Clara," continued the widow, drawing her handkerchief from her reticule
+and mopping one of her eyes with it.  "Just fancy the poor fellow being
+cut in two with a bullet far away in India and him just speaking about
+Jack and me a few minutes before.  I am sure we must thank Major
+Bottlenose--"
+
+"Clutterbuck, madam," cried the major with some indignation.
+
+"I really beg pardon.  We must thank him, Clara, for having told us
+about it and for having called."
+
+"Do not thank me, me dear Mrs. Scully," said the major, clearing his
+throat and waving his stubby hand deprecatingly.  "I have already had me
+reward in having the pleasure and honour of making your acquaintance and
+of coming nearer to those charums which I had alriddy admired from a
+distance."
+
+"Oh, auntie, listen to that!" cried Clara, and both ladies giggled.
+
+"Not forgetting yours, Miss-Miss--"
+
+"Miss Timms," said Mrs. Scully.  "My brother's daughter."
+
+"Not forgetting your charums, Miss Timms," continued the major, with a
+bow and a flourish.  "To a lonely man like meself, the very sight of a
+lady is like dew to a plant.  I feel stringthened, madam, vitalized,
+invigorated." The major puffed out his chest and looked apoplectically
+tender over his high white collar.
+
+"The chief object of me visit," the old soldier said after a pause,
+"was to learn whether I could be of any assistance to you in any way.
+Afther your sad bereavement, of which I have heard, it may be that even
+a comparative stranger may be of service in business matters."
+
+"I'm sure it's very kind of you, major," the widow answered.
+"Since poor Jack died everything has been in disorder.  If it wouldn't
+trouble you, I should very much like your advice on some future
+occasion.  I'll ask your opinion when I have cleared up things a little
+myself.  As to these lawyers, they think of their own interests, not of
+yours."
+
+"Quite so," said the major sympathetically.
+
+"There's the fifteen hundred of poor Jack's insurance.  That's not laid
+out yet."
+
+"Fifteen hundred!" said the major.  "That's seventy-five pounds a year
+at five per cint."
+
+"I can get better interest than that," said the widow gaily.  "I've got
+two thousand laid out at seven per cent.--haven't I, Clara?"
+
+"Safe, too," said the girl.
+
+"The deuce you have!" thought the major.
+
+"So, when we are making arrangements, I'll ask your assistance and
+advice, Major Tanglebobs.  I know that we poor women are very bad at
+business."
+
+"I shall look forward to the day," said the major gallantly, rising and
+taking up his hat.  He was very well satisfied with his little ruse and
+his success in breaking the ice.
+
+"Be George!" he remarked to Von Baumser that evening, "she's got money
+as well as her looks.  It's a lucky man that gits her."
+
+"I vill bet dat you ask her for to marry you," Von Baumser said with a
+smile.
+
+"I'll bet that she refuses me if I do," answered the major despondently,
+in spite of which he retired that night feeling considerably more elated
+than on the preceding evening.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+BACK IN BOHEMIA.
+
+Fortune had been smiling upon the Bohemians of late.  Ever since the
+major's successful visit to Fenchurch Street he had been able to live in
+a state of luxury to which he had long been unaccustomed.  His uncle,
+the earl, too, had condescended to think of his humble relative, and had
+made a small provision for him, which, with his other resources, removed
+all anxiety as to the future.  Von Baumser had his fair share in this
+sudden accession of prosperity.  The German had resumed his situation as
+commercial clerk and foreign correspondent to Eckermann & Co., so that
+his circumstances had also improved.  The pair had even had some
+conversation as to the expediency of migrating into larger and more
+expensive lodgings, but the major's increasing intimacy with his fair
+neighbour opposite stood in the way of a change.  In any case, they were
+loth to leave their fourth floor, and to have the trouble of moving
+their effects.
+
+These same effects were the pride of Major Clutterbuck's heart.
+Small as their sanctum was, it was a very museum of curious objects
+brought from every part of the world, most of them of little intrinsic
+value, but all possessing a charm of association to their owner.
+They were his trophies of travel, battle, and the chase.  From the bison
+rug and tiger skin upon the floor to the great Sumatran bat which hung
+head downwards, as in the days of its earthly existence, from the
+ceiling, there was not an object but had its own special history.
+In one corner was an Afghan matchlock, and a bundle of spears from the
+southern seas; in another a carved Indian paddle, a Kaffir assegai, and
+an American blowpipe, with its little sheaf of poisoned arrows.
+Here was a hookah, richly mounted, and with all due accessories, just as
+it was presented to the major twenty years before by a Mahommedan
+chieftain, and there was a high Mexican saddle on which he had ridden
+through the land of the Aztecs.  There was not a square foot of the
+walls which was not adorned by knives, javelins, Malay kreeses, Chinese
+opium pipes, and such other trifles as old travellers gather round them.
+By the side of the fire rested the campaigner's straight regulation
+sword in its dim sheath--all the dimmer because the companions
+occasionally used it as a poker when that instrument happened to be
+missing.
+
+"It's not the value of thim," the major remarked, glancing round the
+apartment, "but, bedad, there's not one of the lot that has not got a
+story tacked on to it.  Look at that bear's head now, that's grinning at
+ye from over the door.  That's a Thibet bear, not much bigger than a
+Newfoundland dog, but as fierce as a grizzly.  That's the very one that
+clawed Charley Travers, of the 49th.  Ged, he'd have been done for if I
+hadn't got me Westley Richards to bear on him.  'Duck man I duck!'
+I cried, for they were so mixed that I couldn't tell one from the other.
+He put his head down, and I caught the brute right between the eyes.  Ye
+can see the track of the bullet on the bone."
+
+The major paused, and the pair smoked meditatively, for Baumser had
+returned from the City, and the twilight was falling and everything
+conduced to tobacco and reverie.
+
+"See that necklace of cowrie shells hanging beside it," continued the
+veteran, waving his cigarette in that direction; "that came from the
+neck of a Hottentot woman--a black Vanus, be Jove!  We were trekking up
+country before the second Kaffir war.  Made an appintment--could not
+go--orderly duty--so sent a trusty man to tell her.  He was found next
+day with twenty assegais in his body.  She was a decoy duck, bedad, and
+the whole thing a plant."
+
+"Mein Gott!" Von Baumser ejaculated.  "What a life you have led! I have
+lived with you now many months and heard you tell many tales, but ever
+there are fresh ones."
+
+"Yes, a strange life," answered the major, stretching out his gaitered
+legs and gazing up at the ceiling.  I niver thought to be stranded in me
+ould age.  If I hadn't commuted I'd have had a fair pinsion, but I drew
+me money in a lump sum, and went to Monte Carlo to break the bank.
+Instead o' that the bank broke me, and yet I believe me system was
+correct enough, and I must have won if I had had more capital."
+
+"There is many says dat," grunted Von Baumser doubtfully.
+
+"I believe it for all that," the major continued.  "Why, man, I was
+always the luckiest chap at cards.  I depinded on me skill principally,
+but still I had luck as well.  I remimber once being becalmed for a
+fortnight in the Bay of Biscay in a small transport.  Skipper and I
+tried to kill time by playing nap, and we had the stakes low enough at
+first, but they soon grew higher, for he kept trying to cover his
+losses.  Before the ind of the two weeks I cleared out of him nearly all
+he had in the world.  'Look here, Clutterbuck,' he said at last, looking
+mighty white about the gills, 'this ship that we are in is more than
+half mine.  I am chief owner.  I'll stake me share of the ship on the
+next game against all that I have lost.'  'Done!' said I, and shuffled,
+cut, and dealt.  He went four on three highest trumps, and an ace, and I
+held four small trumps.  'It's a bad job for my creditors,' he said, as
+he threw his hand down.  Ged! I started on that vyage a poor captain,
+and I came into port very fairly well off, and sailing in me own ship,
+too!  What d'ye think of that?"
+
+"Wunderbar!" ejaculated the German.  "And the captain?"
+
+"Brandy, and delirium tremens," the major said, between the puffs of his
+cigarette.  "Jumped overboard off Finisterre, on the homeward vyage.
+Shocking thing, gamblin'--when you lose."
+
+"Ach Gott! And those two knives upon the wall, the straight one and the
+one with the crook; is there a history about them?"
+
+"An incident," the major answered languidly.  "Curious, but true.  Saw
+it meself.  In the Afghan war I was convoying supplies through the
+passes, when we were set upon by Afreedees, hillmen, and robbers.  I had
+fifty men of the 27th Native Infantry under me, with a sergeant.
+Among the Afreedees was a thumping big chief, who stood among the rocks
+with that very knife in his hand, the long one, shouting insults at our
+fellows.  Our sergeant was a smart little nigger, and this cheek set his
+blood up.  Be jabers! he chucked his gun down, pulled out that curved
+dagger--a Ghoorkha knife it is--and made for the big hillman.
+Both sides stopped firing to see the two chaps fight.  As our fellow
+came scrambling up over the rocks, the chief ran at him and thrust with
+all his stringth.  Be jabers!  I thought I saw the pint of the blade
+come out through the sergeant's back.  He managed to twist round though,
+so as to dodge it.  At the same time he hit up from below, and the
+hillman sprang into the air, looking for all the world like one o' those
+open sheep you see outside a butcher's shop.  He was  ripped up from
+stomach to throat.  The sight knocked all the fight out of the other
+spalpeens, and they took to their heels as hard as they could run.
+I took the dead man's knife away, and the sergeant sold me his for a few
+rupees, so there they are.  Not much to make a story of, but it was
+intheresting to see.  I'd have bet five to three on the chief."
+
+"Bad discipline, very bad," Baumser remarked.  "To break the ranks and
+run mit knives would make my old Unter-offizier Kritzer very mad
+indeed." The German had served his time in the Prussian Army, and was
+still mindful of his training.
+
+"Your stiff-backed Pickelhaubes would have had a poor chance in the
+passes," answered the major.  "It was ivery man for himself there.
+You might lie, or stand, or do what you liked as long as you didn't run.
+Discipline goes to pieces in a war of that sort."
+
+"Dat is what you call gorilla warfare," said Von Baumser, with a proud
+consciousness of having mastered an English idiom.  "For all dat,
+discipline is a very fine thing--very good indeed.  I vell remember in
+the great krieg--the war with Austria--we had made a mine and were about
+to fire it.  A sentry had been placed just over this, and after the
+match was lit it was forgotten to withdraw the man.  He knew well that
+the powder beneath him would presently him into the air lift, but since
+he had not been dismissed in right form he remained until the ausbruch
+had exploded.  He was never seen no more, and, indeed, dat he had ever
+been dere might well have been forgotten, had it not been dat his
+nadelgewehr was dere found.  Dat was a proper soldier, I think, to be
+placed in command had he lived."
+
+"To be placed in a lunatic asylum if he lived," said the Irishman
+testily.  "Hullo, what's this?"
+
+The "this" was the appearance of the boarding-house slavey with a very
+neat pink envelope upon a tray, addressed, in the most elegant of female
+hands, to "Major Tobias Clutterbuck, late of Her Majesty's Hundred and
+Nineteenth."
+
+"Ah!" cried Von Baumser, laughing in his red beard, "it is from a woman.
+You are what the English call a sly hog, a very sly hog--or, I should
+say, dog, though it is much the same."
+
+"It's for you as well as for me.  See here.  'Mrs. Lavinia Scully
+presints her compliments to Major Tobias Clutterbuck and to his friend,
+Mr. Sigismund von Baumser, and trusts that they may be able to favour
+her with their company on Tuesday evening at eight, to meet a few
+frinds.'  It's a dance," said the major.  "That accounts for the harp
+and the tables and binches and wine cases I saw going in this morning."
+
+"Will you go?"
+
+"Yes, of course I will, and so shall you.  We'd better answer it."
+
+So in due course an acceptance was sent across to Mrs. Scully's
+hospitable invitation.
+
+Never was there such a brushing and scrubbing in the bedroom of a couple
+of quiet bachelors as occurred some two evenings afterwards in the top
+story of Mrs. Robins' establishment.  The major's suit had been pursued
+unremittingly since his first daring advance upon the widow, but under
+many difficulties and discouragements.  In the occasional chance
+interviews which he had with his attractive neighbour he became more and
+more enamoured, but he had no opportunity of ascertaining whether the
+feeling was mutual.  This invitation appeared to promise him the very
+chance which he desired, and many were the stern resolutions which he
+formed as he stood in front of his toilet-table and arranged his tie and
+his shirt front to his satisfaction.  Von Baumser, who was arrayed in a
+dress coat of antiquated shape, and very shiny about the joints, sat on
+the side of the bed, eyeing his companion's irreproachable get-up with
+envy and admiration.
+
+"It fits you beautiful," he said, alluding to the coat.
+
+"It came from Poole's," answered the major carelessly.
+
+"As for me," said Von Baumser, "I have never used mine in England at
+all.  Truly, as you know, I hate all dances and dinners.  I come with
+you, however, very willingly, for I would not for nothing in the world
+give offence to the liebchen of my comrade.  Since I go, I shall go as a
+gentleman should."  He looked down as he spoke with much satisfaction at
+his withered suit of black.
+
+"But, me good fellow," cried the major, who had now completed his
+toilet, "you've got your tie under your lift ear.  It looks very quaint
+and ornamintal there, but still it's not quite the place for it.
+You look as if you were ticketed for sale."
+
+"They von't see it unless I puts it out sidevays from under my beard,"
+the German said apologetically.  "However, if you think it should be
+hidden, it shall be so.  How are my stud-buttons?  You have them of
+gold, I see, but mine are of mother-of-oysters."
+
+"Mother-of-pearl," said the major, laughing.  "They will do very well.
+There's the divil of a lot of cabs at their door," he continued, peering
+round the corner of the blind.  "The rooms are all lighted up, and I can
+hear them tuning the instruments.  Maybe we'd better go across."
+
+"Vorvarts, then!" said Von Baumser resolutely; and the two set off, the
+major with a fixed determination that he should know his fate before the
+evening was over.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+THE GREAT DANCE AT MORRISON'S.
+
+Never in the whole history of Morrison's boarding establishment had such
+festive preparations been known.  The landlady herself had entered heart
+and soul into the business, and as all the boarders had received
+invitations for themselves and their friends, they co-operated in every
+possible manner to make the evening a success.  The large drawing-room
+had been cleared and the floor waxed.  This process left it in a very
+glassy and orthodox condition, as the cook discovered when, on bustling
+in, the back of her cranium came in violent contact with the boards,
+while her body described a half-circle with a velocity which completely
+eclipsed any subsequent feats of agility shown by the dancers in the
+evening.  The saloon had been very tastefully laid out as a supper-room,
+and numerous other little chambers were thrown open and brightened up to
+serve as lounging places for those who were fatigued.  In the parlour
+there were two card-tables, and every other convenience for any who
+preferred sedentary amusements.  Altogether both Mrs. Morrison and the
+boarders, in solemn conclave assembled, agreed that the thing looked
+very promising, and that it would be a credit to the establishment.
+
+The guests were as varied as the wines, though hardly as select.
+Mrs. Scully's exuberant hospitality included, as already intimated, not
+only her own friends, but those of her fellow-boarders, so that from an
+early hour the rooms began to fill, and by nine o'clock there was hardly
+space for the dancers.  Hansoms and growlers rattled up in a continuous
+stream and discharged their burdens.  There was a carpet down from the
+kerb to the head of the lodging-house steps, "like r'yalty," as the cook
+expressed it, and the greengrocer's man in the hall looked so pompous
+and inflated in his gorgeous attire that his own cabbages would hardly
+have recognized him.  His main defect as a footman was that he was
+somewhat hard of hearing, and had a marvellous faculty of
+misinterpreting whatever was said to him, which occasionally led to
+remarkable results.  Thus, when he announced the sporting Captain
+Livingstone Tuck under the title of Captain Lives-on-his luck, it was
+felt that he was rather too near the truth to be pleasant.  Indeed, the
+company had hardly recovered from the confusion produced by this small
+incident when the two Bohemians made their appearance.
+
+Mrs. Scully, who was tastefully arrayed in black satin and lace, stood
+near the door of the drawing-room, and looked very charming and
+captivating as she fulfilled her duties as hostess.  So thought the
+major as he approached her and shook her hand, with some well turned
+compliment upon his lips.
+
+"Let me inthroduce me friend, Herr von Baumser," he added.
+
+Mrs. Scully smiled upon the German in a way that won his Teutonic heart.
+"You will find programmes over there," she explained.  "I think the
+first is a round dance.  No, thank you, major; I shall stand out, or
+there will be no one to receive the people."  She hurried away to greet
+a party of new arrivals, while the major and Baumser wandered off in
+search of partners.
+
+There was no want of spirit or of variety in the dancing at Morrison's.
+From Mr. Snodder, the exciseman, who danced the original old-fashioned
+trois-temps, to young Bucklebury, of the Bank, who stationed himself
+immediately underneath the central chandelier, and spun rapidly round
+with his partner upon his own axis, like a couple of beetles impaled
+upon a single pin, every possible variation of the art of waltzing was
+to be observed.  There was Mr. Smith, of the Medical College, rotating
+round with Miss Clara Timms, their faces wearing that pained and anxious
+expression which the British countenance naturally assumes when dancing,
+giving the impression that the legs have suddenly burst forth in a
+festive mood, and have dragged the rest of the body into it very much
+against its will.  There was the major too, who had succeeded in
+obtaining Mrs. Scully as a partner, and was dancing as old soldiers can
+dance, threading his way through the crowded room with the ease begotten
+by the experience of a lifetime.  Meanwhile Von Baumser, at the other
+end, was floundering about with a broad smile upon his face and an
+elderly lady tucked under his right arm, while he held her disengaged
+hand straight out at right angles, as if she had been a banjo.
+In short, the fun was fast and furious, and waltz followed polka and
+mazurka followed waltz with a rapidity which weeded out the weaker
+vessels among the dancers and tested the stamina of the musicians.
+
+Then there was the card-room, whither the Widow Scully and the major and
+many others of the elders repaired when they found the pace too fast for
+them.  Very snug and comfortable it was, with its square tables, each
+with a fringe of chairs, and the clean shining cards spread out over
+their green baize surfaces.  The major and his hostess played against
+Captain Livingstone Tuck and an old gentleman who came from Lambeth,
+with the result that the gallant captain and his partner rose up poorer
+and sadder men, which was rather a blow to the former, who reckoned upon
+clearing a little on such occasions, and had not expected to find
+himself opposed by such a past master of the art as the major.  Then the
+veteran and another played the hostess and another lady, and the cunning
+old dog managed to lose in such a natural manner, and to pay up with
+such a good grace, and with so many pretty speeches and compliments,
+that the widow's partner was visibly impressed, a fact which, curiously
+enough, seemed to be anything but agreeable to the widow.  After that
+they all filed off to supper, where they found the dancers already in
+possession, and there was much crushing and crowding, which tended to do
+away with ceremony and to promote the harmony of the evening.
+
+If the major had contrived to win favour from Mrs. Lavinia Scully in the
+early part of the evening, he managed now to increase any advantage he
+had gained.  In the first place he inquired in a very loud voice of
+Captain Tuck, at the other end of the table, whether that gentleman had
+ever met the deceased Major-General Scully, and being answered in the
+negative, he descanted fluently upon the merits of that imaginary
+warrior.  After this unscrupulous manoeuvre the major proceeded to do
+justice to the wine and to indulge in sporting reminiscences, and
+military reminiscences, and travelling reminiscences, and social
+reminiscences, all of which he treated in a manner which called forth
+the admiration of his audience.  Then, when supper had at last been
+finished, and the last cork drawn and the last glass filled, the dancers
+went back to their dance and the card-players to their cards, and the
+major addressed himself more assiduously than ever to the pursuit of the
+widow.
+
+"I am afraid that you find the rooms very hot, major," she remarked.
+
+"They are rather hot," he answered candidly.
+
+"There is a room here," she said, "where you might be cooler.  You might
+have a cigarette, too.  I meant these rooms as smoking-rooms."
+
+"Then you must come, too."
+
+"No, no, major.  You must remember that I am the hostess."
+
+"But there is no one to entertain.  They are all entertaining each
+other.  You are too unselfish."
+
+"But really, major--"
+
+"Sure you are tired out and need a little rest."
+
+He held the door open so persuasively that she yielded.  It was a snug
+little room, somewhat retired from the bustle, with two or three
+chintz-covered chairs scattered round it, and a sofa of the same
+material at one side.  The widow sat down at one end of this sofa, and
+the major perched himself at the other, looking even redder than usual,
+and puffing out his chest and frowning, as was his custom upon critical
+occasions.
+
+"Do light a cigarette?" said Mrs. Scully.
+
+"But the smell?"
+
+"I like it."
+
+The major extracted one from his flat silver case.  His companion rolled
+a spill and lit it at the gas.
+
+"To one who is as lonely as I am," she remarked, "it is a pleasure to
+feel that one has friends near one, and to serve them even in trifles."
+
+"Lonely!" said the major, shuffling along the sofa, "I might talk with
+authority on that point.  If I were to turn me toes up to-morrow there's
+not a human being would care a thraneen about the mather, unless it were
+old Von Baumser."
+
+"Oh, don't talk so," cried Mrs. Scully, with emotion.
+
+"It is a fact.  I've kicked against me fate at times, though.  I've had
+fancies of late of something happier and cheerier.  They have come on me
+as I sat over yonder at the window, and, do what I will, I have not been
+able to git them from me heart.  Yit I know how rash I have been to
+treasure them, for if they fail me I shall feel me loneliness as I niver
+did before."
+
+The major paused and cleared his throat huskily, while the widow
+remained silent, with her head bent and her eyes intent upon the pattern
+of the carpet.
+
+"These hopes are," said the major, in a low voice, leaning forward and
+taking his companion's little ring-covered hand in his thick, pudgy
+fingers, "that you will have pity upon me; that you will--"
+
+"Ach, my very goot vriend!" cried Von Baumser heartily, suddenly
+protruding his hairy head into the room and smiling benignantly.
+
+"Go to the divil!" roared the major, springing furiously to his feet,
+while the German's head disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box.
+"Forgive the warmth of me language," the veteran continued,
+apologetically, "but me feelings overcame me.  Will you be mine,
+Lavinia?  I am a plain ould soldier, and have little to offer you save a
+faithful heart, and that is yours, and always will be.  Will you make
+the remainder of me life happy by becoming me wife?"  He endeavoured to
+pass his arm round her waist, but she sprang up from the sofa and stood
+upon the rug, facing him with an amused and somewhat triumphant smile
+upon her buxom features.
+
+"Look here, major," she said, "I am a plain-spoken woman, as my poor Tom
+that's dead was a plain-spoken man.  Out with it straight, now--have you
+come after me, or have you come after my money?"
+
+The major was so astonished at this point-blank question, that for a
+moment he sat speechless upon the sofa.  Being a man of ready resource,
+however, and one who was accustomed to sudden emergencies, he soon
+recovered himself.
+
+"Yoursilf, of course" cried he.  "If you hadn't a stiver I would do the
+same."
+
+"Take care! take care!" said the lady, with a warning finger uplifted.
+"You heard of the breaking of the Agra Bank?"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"Every penny that I had in the world was in it."
+
+This was facer number two for the campaigner.  He recovered himself more
+quickly from this one, however, and inflated his chest with even more
+than his usual pomposity.
+
+"Lavinia," said he, "you have been straight with me, and, bedad, I'll be
+so with you!  When I first thought of you I was down in the world, and,
+much as I admired you, I own that your money was an inducement as well
+as yoursilf.  I was so placed that it was impossible for me to think of
+any woman who had not enough to keep up her own end of the game.
+Since that time I've done bether.  How I got it is neither here nor
+there, but I have a little nist-egg in the bank and see me way to
+increasing it.  You tell me your money's gone, and I tell you I've
+enough for two; so say the word, acushla, and it's done."
+
+"What! without the money?"
+
+"Damn the money!" exclaimed Major Tobias Clutterbuck, and put his arm
+for the second time around his companion.  This time it remained there.
+What happened after that is neither my business nor the reader's.
+Couples who have left their youth behind them have their own little
+romance quite as much as their juniors, and it is occasionally the more
+heartfelt of the two.
+
+"What a naughty boy to swear!" exclaimed the widow at last.  "Now I must
+give you a lecture since I have the chance."
+
+"Bless her mischievous eyes!" cried the major, with delight in every
+feature of his face.  "You shall give me as many lectures as you plase."
+
+"You must be good, then, Toby, if you are to be my husband.  You must
+not play billiards for money any more."
+
+"No billiards!  Why, pool is worth three or four pound a wake to me."
+
+"It doesn't matter.  No billiards and no cards, and no racing and no
+betting.  Toby must be very good and behave as a distinguished soldier
+should do."
+
+"What are you afther at all?" the major cried.  "Sure if I am to give up
+me pool and whist, how is a distinguished soldier, and, above all, a
+distinguished soldier's wife, going to live?"
+
+"We'll manage, dear," she said, looking roguishly up into his face.
+"I told you that my money was all in the Agra Bank that broke."
+
+"You did, worse luck!"
+
+"But I didn't tell you that I had drawn it all out before it broke, Toby
+dear.  It was too bad to put you to such a trial, wasn't it? but really
+I couldn't resist the temptation.  Toby shall have money enough without
+betting, and he shall settle down and tell his stories, and do what he
+likes without anything to bother him."
+
+"Bless her heart!" cried the major fervently; and the battered old
+Bohemian, as he stooped over and kissed her, felt a tear spring to his
+eyes as he knew that he had come into harbour after life's stormy
+tossings.
+
+"No billiards or cards for three months, then," said the little woman
+firmly, with her hands round his arm.  "None at all mind!  I am going
+into Hampshire on a visit to my cousins in the country, and you shall
+not see me for that time, though you may write.  If you can give me your
+word of honour when I come back that you've given up your naughty ways,
+why then--"
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Wait till then and you'll see," she said, with a merry laugh.
+"No, really, I won't stay another moment.  Whatever will the guests say?
+I must, Toby; I really must--"  Away she tripped, while the major
+remained standing where she had left him, feeling a better man than he
+had done since he was a young ensign and kissed his mother for the last
+time at the Portsmouth jetty before the great transport carried him off
+to India.
+
+Everything in the world must have an end, and Mrs. Scully's dance was no
+exception to the rule.  The day was breaking, however, before the last
+guests had muffled themselves up and the last hansom dashed away from
+the door.  The major lingered behind to bid farewell, and then
+rejoined his German friend, who had been compelled to wait at the door
+for the latchkey.
+
+"Look here, major," the latter said, when they came into their room,
+"is it well to tell a Brussian gentleman to go to the devil?  You have
+much offended me.  Truly I was surprised that you should have so
+spoken!"
+
+"Me dear friend," the old soldier answered, shaking his hand, "I would
+not hurt your feelings for the world.  Bedad, if I come into the room
+while you are proposing to a lady, you are welcome to use the strongest
+German verb to me that you can lay your tongue to."
+
+"You have probosed, then?" cried the good-natured German, forgetting all
+about his grievance in an instant.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And been took--received by her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Dat is gloriful!" Von Baumser cried, clapping his hands.  "Three hochs
+for Frau Scully, and another one for Frau Clutterbuck.  We must drink a
+drink on it; we truly must."
+
+"So we shall, me boy, but it's time we turned in now.  She's a good
+woman, and she plays a good hand at whist.  Ged! she cleared the trumps
+and made her long suit to-night as well as ever I saw it done in me
+life!"  With which characteristic piece of eulogy the major bade his
+comrade good night and retired to his room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+AT THE "COCK AND COWSLIP."
+
+Tom Dimsdale's duties were far from light.  Not only was he expected to
+supervise the clerks' accounts and to treat with the wholesale dealers,
+but he was also supposed to spend a great part of his time in the docks,
+overlooking the loading of the outgoing ships and checking the cargo of
+the incoming ones.  This latter portion of his work was welcome as
+taking him some hours a day from the close counting-house, and allowing
+him to get a sniff of the sea air--if, indeed, a sniff is to be had on
+the inland side of Woolwich.  There was a pleasing life and bustle, too,
+in the broad, brown river, with its never-ending panorama of vessels of
+every size and shape which ebb and flow in the great artery of national
+life.
+
+So interesting was this liquid highway to Tom's practical mind, that he
+would often stand at the head of the wharf when his work was done and
+smoke a meditative pipe.  It was a quiet spot, which had once been busy
+enough, but was now superseded by new quays and more convenient
+landing-places.  All over it were scattered great rusty anchors,
+colossal iron chains, deserted melancholy boilers, and other debris
+which are found in such places, and which might seem to the fanciful to
+be the shells and skeletons of strange monsters washed up there by the
+tide.  To whom do these things belong?  Who has an interest in them?
+Of what use are they?  It appeared to Tom sometimes as if the original
+owners and their heirs must have all died away, and left these grim
+relics behind them to any one who might have the charity to remove them.
+
+From this coign of vantage a long reach of the river was visible, and
+Tom sitting there would watch the fleets of passing vessels, and let his
+imagination wander away to the broad oceans which they had traversed,
+and the fair lands under bluer skies and warmer suns from which they had
+sailed.  Here is a tiny steam-tug panting and toiling in front of a
+majestic three-master with her great black hulk towering out of the
+water and her masts shooting up until the topmast rigging looks like the
+delicate web of some Titanic spider.  She is from Canton, with tea, and
+coffee, and spices, and all good things from the land of small feet and
+almond eyes.  Here, too, is a Messagerie boat, the French ensign
+drooping daintily over her stern, and her steam whistle screeching a
+warning to some obstinate lighters, crawling with their burden of coal
+to a grimy collier whose steam-winch is whizzing away like a corncrake
+of the deep.  That floating palace is an Orient boat from Australia.
+See how, as the darkness falls, a long row of yellow eyes glimmer out
+from her sides as the light streams through her countless portholes.
+And there is the Rotterdam packet-boat coming slowly up, very glad to
+get back into safe waters again, for she has had a wildish time in the
+North Sea.  A coasting brig has evidently had a wilder time still, for
+her main-topmast is cracked across, and her rigging is full of the
+little human mites who crawl about, and reef, and splice, and mend.
+
+An old acquaintance of ours was out in that same gale, and is even now
+making his way into the shelter of the Albert docks.  This was none
+other than the redoubtable Captain Hamilton Miggs, whose ship will
+persistently keep afloat, to the astonishment of the gallant captain
+himself, and of every one else who knows anything of her sea-going
+qualities.  Again and again she had been on the point of foundering; and
+again and again some change in the weather or the steady pumping of the
+crew had prevented her from fulfilling her destiny.  So surprised was
+the skipper at these repeated interpositions of Providence that he had
+quite made up his superstitious mind that the ship never would go down,
+and now devoted himself with a whole heart to his old occupation of
+drinking himself into delirium tremens and physicking himself out of it
+again.
+
+The _Black Eagle_ had a fair cargo aboard, and Miggs was proportionately
+jubilant.  The drunken old sea-dog had taken a fancy to Tom's frank face
+and honest eyes, and greeted him with effusion when he came aboard next
+morning.
+
+"Knock me asunder, but you look rosy, man!" he cried.  "It's easy to see
+that you have not been lying off Fernando Po, or getting the land mist
+into your lungs in the Gaboon."
+
+"You look well yourself, captain," said Tom.
+
+"Tolerable, tolerable.  Just a touch of the jumps at times."
+
+"We can begin getting our cargo out, I suppose?  I have a list here to
+check it.  Will you have the hatches off at once?"
+
+"No work for me," said Captain Hamilton Miggs with decision.
+"Here, Sandy--Sandy McPherson, start the cargo, will ye, and stir your
+great Scotch bones.  I've done enough in bringing this sieve of a ship
+all the way from Africa, without working when I am in dock."
+
+McPherson was the first mate, a tall, yellow-bearded Aberdonian.
+"I'll see t'it," he said shortly.  "You can gang ashore or where you
+wull."
+
+"The _Cock and Cowslip_," said the captain, "I say, you--Master
+Dimsdale--when you're done come up an' have a glass o' wine with me.
+I'm only a plain sailor man, but I'm damned if my heart ain't in the
+right place.  You too, McPherson--you'll come up and show Mr. Dimsdale
+the way.  _Cock and Cowslip_, corner o' Sextant Court."  The two having
+accepted his invitation, the captain shuffled off across the gangway and
+on to terra firma.
+
+All day Tom stood at the hatchway of the _Black Eagle_, checking the
+cargo as it was hoisted out of her, while McPherson and his motley
+assistants, dock labourers, seamen, and black Kroomen from the coast,
+worked and toiled in the depths below.  The engine rattled and snorted,
+and the great chain clanked as it was lowered into the hold.
+
+"Make fast there!" cries the mate.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+"All right?"
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"Hoist away!"
+
+And clank, clank went the chain again, and whir-r-r the engine, and up
+would come a pair of oil casks, as though the crane were some giant
+forceps which was plucking out the great wooden teeth of the vessel.
+It seemed to Tom, as he stood looking down, note-book in hand, that some
+of the actual malarious air of the coast had been carried home in the
+hold, so foul and close were the smells evolved from it.  Great
+cockchafers crawled about over the packages, and occasionally a rat
+would scamper over the barrels, such a rat as is only to be found in
+ships which hail from the tropics.  On one occasion too, as a tusk of
+ivory was being hoisted out, there was a sudden cry of alarm among the
+workers, and a long, yellow snake crawled out of the cavity of the trunk
+and writhed away into the darkness.  It is no uncommon thing to find the
+deadly creatures hibernating in the hollow of the tusks until the cold
+English air arouses them from their torpor, to the cost occasionally of
+some unhappy stevedore or labourer.
+
+All day Tom stood amid grease and steam, bustle and blasphemy, checking
+off the cargo, and looking to its conveyance to the warehouses.  At one
+o'clock there was a break of an hour for dinner, and then the work went
+on until six, when all hands struck and went off to their homes or to
+the public-house according to inclination.  Tom and the mate, both
+fairly tired by their day's work, prepared to accept the captain's
+invitation, and to meet him up in his quarters.  The mate dived down
+into his cabin, and soon reappeared with his face shining and his long
+hair combed into some sort of order.
+
+"I've been performing my ablutions," he said, rolling out the last word
+with great emphasis and pomposity, for, like many Scotchmen, he had the
+greatest possible reverence for a sonorous polysyllable.  Indeed, in
+McPherson, this national foible was pushed to excess, for, however
+inappropriate the word, he never hesitated to drag it into his
+conversation if he thought it would aid in the general effect.
+
+"The captain," he continued, "has been far from salubrious this voyage.
+He's aye complainin' o' his bodily infirmities."
+
+"Hypochondriacal, perhaps," Tom remarked.
+
+The Scotchman looked at his companion with a great accession of respect.
+"My certie!" he cried.  "That's the best I've heard since a word that
+Jimmy M'Gee, of the _Corisco_, said the voyage afore last.  Would you
+kindly arteeculate it again."
+
+"Hypochondriacal," said Tom laughing heartily.
+
+"Hypo-chon-driacal," the mate repeated slowly.  "I shouldn't think Jimmy
+M'Gee kens that, or he'd ha' communicated it to me.  I shall certainly
+utilize it, and am obleeged to you for namin' it."
+
+"Don't mention it," said Tom.  "I'll let you have as many long words as
+you like, if you are a collector of them.  But what is the matter with
+the captain?"
+
+"It's aye the drink," the mate said gravely.  "I can tak' my modicum
+mysel' and enjoy it, but that's no the same as for a man to lock himself
+up in his cabin, and drink rum steady on from four bells in the mornin'
+watch to eight bells in the evenin'.  And then the cussin', and prayin',
+and swearin' as he sets up is just awfu'.  It's what might weel be
+described as pandemoniacal."
+
+"Is he often like that, then?" Tom asked.
+
+"Often!  Why, he's never anything else, sir.  And yet he's a good seaman
+too, and however fu' he may be, he keeps some form o' reckoning, and
+never vera far oot either.  He's an ambeequosity to me, sir, for if I
+took a tithe o' the amount I'd be clean daft."
+
+"He must be dangerous when he is like that?" Tom remarked.
+
+"He is that.  He emptied a sax-shooter down the deck last bout he had,
+and nigh perforated the carpenter.  Another time he scoots after the
+cook--chased him with a handspike in his hand right up the rigging to
+the cross-trees.  If the cook hadn't slid down the backstay of the mast,
+he'd ha' been obeetuarised."
+
+Tom could not refrain from laughing at the last expression.  "That's a
+new word," he said.
+
+"Ha!" his companion cried with great satisfaction, "it is, is it?
+Then we are quits now on the hypochondriacal."  He was so pleased that
+he chuckled to himself for some minutes in the depths of his tawny
+beard.  "Yes," he continued at last, "he is dangerous to us at times,
+and he is dangerous to you.  This is atween oorsels, as man to man, and
+is said withoot prejudice, but he do go on when he is in they fits aboot
+the firm, and aboot insurances, and rotten ships, and ither such things,
+which is all vera well when sequestrated amang gentlemen like oorsels,
+but sounds awfu' bad when it fa's on the ignorant tympanums of common
+seamen."
+
+"It's scandalous," Tom said gravely, "that he should spread such reports
+about his employer.  Our ships are old, and some of them, in my opinion,
+hardly safe, but that's a very different thing from implying, as you
+hint, that Mr. Girdlestone wishes them to go down."
+
+"We'll no argue aboot that," said the canny Scot.  "Muster Girdlestone
+kens on which side his bread is buttered.  He may wish 'em to sink or he
+may wish 'em to swim.  That's no for us to judge.  You'll hear him speak
+o't to-night as like as not, for he's aye on it when he's half over.
+Here we are, sir.  The corner edifice wi' the red blinds in the window."
+
+During this conversation the two had been threading their way through
+the intricate and dirty lanes which lead up from the water side to the
+outskirts of Stepney.  It was quite dark by the time that they reached a
+long thoroughfare, lined by numerous shops, with great gas flares
+outside them.  Many of these belonged to dealers in marine stores, and
+the numerous suits of oil-skin, hung up for exhibition, swung to and fro
+in the uncertain light, like rows of attenuated pirates.  At every
+corner was a great public-house with glittering windows, and a crowd of
+slatternly women and jersey-clad men elbowing each other at the door.
+At the largest and most imposing of these gin-palaces the mate and
+Dimsdale now pulled up.
+
+"Come in this way," said McPherson, who had evidently paid many a visit
+there before.  Pushing open a swinging door, he made his way into the
+crowded bar, where the reek of bad spirits and the smell of squalid
+humanity seemed to Tom to be even more horrible than the effluvium of
+the grease-laden hold.
+
+"Captain Miggs in?" asked McPherson of a rubicund, white-aproned
+personage behind the bar.
+
+"Yes, sir.  He's in his room, sir, and expectin' you.  There's a gent
+with him, sir, but he told me to send you up.  This way, sir."
+
+They were pushing their way through the crowd to reach the door which
+led behind the bar, when Tom's attention was arrested by the
+conversation of a very seedy-looking individual who was leaning with his
+elbows upon the zinc-covered counter.
+
+"You take my tip," he said to an elderly man beside him.  "You stick to
+the beer.  The sperits in here is clean poison, and it's a sin and a
+shame as they should be let sell such stuff to Christian men.
+See here--see my sleeve!"  He showed the threadbare cuff of his coat,
+which was corroded away in one part, as by a powerful acid.  "I give ye
+my word I done that by wiping my lips wi' it two or three times after
+drinkin' at this bar.  That was afore I found out that the whisky was
+solid vitriol.  If thread and cotton can't stand it, how's the linin' of
+a poor cove's stomach, I'd like to know?"
+
+"I wonder," thought Tom to himself, "if one of these poor devils goes
+home and murders his wife, who ought to be hung for it?  Is it he, or
+that smug-faced villain behind the bar, who, for the sake of the gain of
+a few greasy coppers, gives him the poison that maddens him?"  He was
+still pondering over this knotty point when they were ushered into the
+captain's room.
+
+That worthy was leaning back in a rocking-chair with his feet perched
+upon the mantelpiece and a large glass of rum arid water within reach of
+his great leathery hand.  Opposite him, in a similar chair and with a
+similar glass, was no less an individual than our old acquaintance, Von
+Baumser.  As a mercantile clerk in the London office of a Hamburg firm
+the German was thrown into contact with the shippers of the African
+fleet, and had contracted a special alliance with the bibulous Miggs,
+who was a social soul in his hours of relaxation.
+
+"Come in, my hearties, come in!" he cried huskily.  "Take a seat, Mr.
+Dimsdale.  And you, Sandy, can't you bring yourself to your berth
+without being asked?  You should know your moorings by this time.
+This is my friend, Mr. Von Baumser from Eckermann's office."
+
+"And dis, I think, is Mr. Dimsdale," said the German, shaking hands with
+Tom.  "I have heard my very goot vriend, Major Clutterbuck, speak of
+your name, sir."
+
+"Ah, the old major," Tom answered.  "Of course, I remember him well."
+
+"He is not so very old either," said Von Baumser, in a somewhat surly
+voice.  "He has been took by a very charming and entirely pleasant
+woman, and they are about to be married before three months, the one to
+the other.  Let me tell you, sir, I, who have lived with him so long,
+dat I have met no man for whom I have greater respect than for the
+major, however much they give him pills at a club or other such
+snobberies."
+
+"Fill your glasses," Miggs broke in, pushing over the bottle of rum.
+"There are weeds in that box--never paid duty, either the one or the
+other.  By the Lord, Sandy, a couple of days ago we hardly hoped ever to
+be yarning here."
+
+"It was rather beyond our prognostication, sir," said the mate, taking a
+pull at his rum.
+
+"It was that!  A nasty sea on, Mr. Dimsdale, sir, and the old ship so
+full o' water that she could not rise to it.  They were making a clean
+breach over us, and we lost nigh everything we could lose."
+
+"I suppose you'll have her thoroughly repaired now?" Tom remarked.
+
+Both the skipper and the mate laughed heartily at the observation.
+"That wouldn't do, Sandy, would it?" said Miggs, shaking his head.
+"We couldn't afford to have our screw cut down like that."
+
+"Cut down!  You don't mean to say you are paid in proportion to the
+rottenness of the ships?"
+
+"There ain't no use makin' a secret of it among friends," said Miggs.
+"That's just how the land lies with us.  A voyage or two back I spoke to
+Mr. Girdlestone, and I says to him, says I, 'Give the ship an
+overhauling,' says I.  'Well and good,' says he, 'but it will mean so
+much off your wage,' says he, 'and the mate's wage as well.'  I put it
+to him straight and strong, but he stuck at that.  So Sandy and me, we
+put our heads together, and we 'greed it was better to take fifteen
+pound and the risk, than come down to twelve pound and safety."
+
+"It is scandalous!" cried Tom Dimsdale hotly.  "I could not have
+believed it."
+
+"God bless ye! it's done every day, and will be while there is insurance
+money to be gained," said Miggs, blowing a blue cloud up to the ceiling.
+"It's an easy thing to turn a few thousands a year while there are old
+ships to be bought, and offices which will insure them above their
+value.  There was D'Arcy Campbell, of the _Silvertown_--what a trade
+that man did!  He was smart--tarnation smart!  Collisions was his line,
+and he worked 'em well.  There warn't a skipper out of Liverpool as
+could get run down as nat'ral as he could."
+
+"Get run down?"
+
+"Aye.  He'd go lolloping about in the Channel if there was any fog on,
+steering for the lights o' any steamers or headin' round for all the fog
+whistles if it was too thick to see.  Sooner or later, as sure as fate,
+he'd get cut down to the water's edge.  Lor', it was a fine game!
+Half a 'yard o' print about his noble conduc' in the newspapers, and
+maybe a leader about the British tar and unexpected emergencies.
+It once went the length o' a subscription.  Ha! ha!" Miggs laughed until
+he choked.
+
+"And what became of this British star?" asked the German.
+
+"He's still about.  He's in the passenger trade now."
+
+"Potztausand!" Von Baumser ejaculated.  "I would not go as a passenger
+with him for something."
+
+"There's many a way that it's done, sir," the mate added, filling up his
+glass again, and passing the bottle to the captain.  "There's loadin' a
+cranky vessel wi' grain in bulk without usin' partition boards.  If you
+get a little water in, as you are bound to do with a ship o' that kind,
+the grain will swell and swell until it bursts the seams open, and down
+ye go.  Then there's ignition o' coal gas aboard o' steamers.  That's a
+safe game, for nobody can deny it.  And there are accidents to
+propellers.  If the shaft o' a propeller breaks in heavy weather it's a
+bad look-out.  I've known ships leave the docks with their propellers
+half sawn through all round.  Lor', there's no end o' the tricks o' the
+trade."
+
+"I cannot believe, however," said Tom stoutly, "that Mr. Girdlestone
+connives at such things."
+
+"He's on the waitin' lay," the seaman answered.  "He doesn't send 'em
+down, but he just hangs on, and keeps his insurances up, and trusts in
+Providence.  He's had some good hauls that way, though not o' late.
+There was the _Belinda_ at Cape Palmas.  That was five thousand, clear,
+if it was a penny.  And the _Sockatoo_--that was a bad business!
+She was never heard of, nor her crew.  Went down at sea, and left no
+trace."
+
+"The crew too!" Tom cried with horror.  "But how about yourselves, if
+what you say is true?"
+
+"We are paid for the risk," said both the seamen, shrugging their
+shoulders.
+
+"But there are Government inspectors?"
+
+"Ha! ha! I dare say you've seen the way some o' them do their work!"
+said Miggs.
+
+Tom's mind was filled with consternation at what he had heard.  If the
+African merchant were capable of this, what might he not be capable of?
+Was his word to be depended on under any circumstances?  And what sort
+of firm must this be, which turned so fair a side to the world and in
+which he had embarked his fortune?  All these thoughts flashed through
+his mind as he listened to the gossip of the garrulous old sea dogs.
+A greater shock still, however, was in store for him.
+
+Von Baumser had been listening to the conversation with an amused look
+upon his good-humoured face.  "Ah!" said he, suddenly striking in,
+"I vill tell you something of your own firm which perhaps you do not
+know.  Have you heard dat Mr. Ezra Girdlestone is about to be married?"
+
+"To be married!"
+
+"Oh yes; I have heard It dis morning at Eckermann's office.  I think it
+is the talk of the City."
+
+"Who's the gal?" Miggs asked, with languid interest.
+
+"I disremember her name," Von Baumser answered.  "It is a girl the major
+has met--the young lady who has lived in the same house, and is vat they
+call a warder."
+
+"Not--not his ward?" cried Tom, springing to his feet and turning as
+white as a sheet.  "Not Miss Harston?  You don't tell me that he is
+going to marry Miss Harston?"
+
+"Dat is the name.  Miss Harston it is, sure enough."
+
+"It is a lie--an infamous lie!" Tom cried hotly.
+
+"So it may be," Von Baumser answered serenely.  "I do but say vat I have
+heard, and heard more than once on good authority."
+
+"If it is true there is villainy in it," cried Tom, with wild eyes,
+"the blackest villainy that ever was done upon earth.  I'll go--I'll see
+him to-night.  By heavens, I shall know the truth!" He rushed furiously
+downstairs and through the bar.  There was a cab near the door.
+"Drive into London!" he cried; "69, Eccleston Square.  I am on fire to
+be there!"  The cabman sprang on the box, and they rattled away as fast
+as the horse would go.
+
+This sudden exit caused, as may be imagined, considerable surprise in
+the parlour of the _Cock and Cowslip_.
+
+"He's a vera tumultuous young man," the mate remarked.  "He was off like
+a clipper in a hurricane."
+
+"I perceive," said Von Baumser, "dat he has left his hat behind him.
+I do now remember dat I have heard his name spoken with dat of dis very
+young lady by my good vriend, the major."
+
+"Then he's jealous belike," said Hamilton Miggs, with a knowing shake of
+the head.  "I've felt that way myself before now.  I rounded on Billy
+Barlow, o' the _Flying Scud_, over that very thing, twelve months ago
+come Christmas.  But I don't think it was the thing for this young chap
+to cut away and never say 'With your leave,' or 'By your leave,' or as
+much as 'Good night, gentlemen all.'  It ain't what you call straight up
+an' down."
+
+"It's transcendental," said the mate severely; "that is what I call it."
+
+"Ah, my vriends," the German put in, "when a man is in love you must
+make excuses for him.  I am very sure dat he did mean no offence."
+
+In spite of this assurance Captain Hamilton Miggs continued to be very
+sore upon the point.  It was only by dint of many replenishings of his
+glass and many arguments that his companions could restore him to his
+pristine good humour.  Meanwhile, the truant was speeding through the
+night with a fixed determination in his heart that he should have before
+morning such an understanding, one way or the other, as would never
+again leave room for a doubt.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+A CRISIS AT ECCLESTON SQUARE.
+
+His father's encouraging words had given Ezra Girdlestone fresh heart,
+and he had renewed his importunities with greater energy than ever.
+Never surely did any man devote every moment of his time more completely
+to the winning of a woman's heart.  From morning until night the one
+idea was ever before his mind and every little want of Kate's was
+forestalled with a care and foresight which astonished her.  The richest
+fruit and flowers found their way unexpectedly into her room; her table
+was littered with the latest books from Mudie's, and the newest pieces
+lay upon her music-stand.  Nothing which attention and thoughtfulness
+could do was left undone either by the father or the son.
+
+In spite of these attentions, however, and the frequent solicitations of
+her guardian, Kate stood firmly to her colours.  If the Tom of the
+present were false, she at least would be true to the memory of the Tom
+of other days, the lad who had first whispered words of love into her
+ears.  Her ideal should remain with her whatever might befall.  No other
+man could ever take the place of that.
+
+That Tom was from some unexplained and unaccountable reason false to her
+appeared to be beyond all question.  Her trusting and innocent heart
+could not dream of the subtle network which was being wound round her.
+Her secluded life had left her very ignorant of the ways of the world,
+and the possibility of an elaborate deceit being practised upon her had
+never occurred to her.  From the day that she heard the extract of the
+letter read by her guardian she never doubted but that such letters were
+received at the office by the man who professed to love her.  How could
+she hesitate to believe it when it was confirmed by his avoidance of
+Eccleston Square and of herself?  The cause of it all was a mystery
+which no amount of speculation could clear up.  Sometimes the poor girl
+would blame herself, as is the way of women in such cases.  "I have not
+seen enough of the world," she would say to herself.  "I have none of
+the charms of these women whom I read of in the novels.  No doubt I
+seemed dull and insipid in his eyes.  And yet--and yet--"  There always
+remained at the end of her cogitations the same vague sense of
+bewilderment and mystery.
+
+She endeavoured as far as possible to avoid Ezra Girdlestone, and stay
+in her room for the most part on the days when he was at home.  He had,
+however, on the advice of his father, ceased pressing his suit except in
+the silent manner aforementioned, so that she gradually took courage,
+and ended by resuming her old habits.  In her heart she pitied the young
+merchant very sincerely, for he was looking haggard and pale.
+"Poor fellow," she thought as she watched him, "he certainly loves me.
+Ah, Tom, Tom! had you only been as constant, how happy we should be!"
+She was even prompted sometimes to cheer Ezra up by some kind word or
+look.  This he naturally took to be an encouragement to renew his
+advances.  Perhaps he was not far wrong, for if love be wanting pity is
+occasionally an excellent substitute.
+
+One morning after breakfast the elder Girdlestone called his son aside
+into the library.  "I've had a notice," he said, "as to paying up
+dividends.  Our time is short, Ezra.  You must bring matters to a head.
+If you don't it will be too late."
+
+"You mustn't pick fruit before it is ripe," the other answered moodily.
+
+"You can try if it is ripe, though.  If not, you can try again.  I think
+that your chance is a good one.  She is alone in the breakfast-room, and
+the table has been cleared.  You cannot have a better opening.  Go, my
+son, and may Heaven prosper you!"
+
+"Very well.  Do you wait in here, and I shall let you know how things
+go."
+
+The young man buttoned up his coat, pulled down his cuffs, and walked
+back into the breakfast-room with a sullen look of resolution upon his
+dark face.
+
+Kate was sitting in a wicker chair by the window, arranging flowers in a
+vase.  The morning sunlight streaming in upon her gave a colour to her
+pale face and glittered in her heavy coils of chestnut hair.  She wore a
+light pink morning dress which added to the ethereal effect of her lithe
+beautiful figure.  As Ezra entered she looked round and started at sight
+of his face.  Instinctively she knew on what errand he had come.
+
+"You will be late at Fenchurch Street," she said, with a constrained
+smile.  "It is nearly eleven now."
+
+"I am not going to the office to-day," he answered gravely.  "I am come
+in here, Kate, to know my fate.  You know very well, and must have known
+for some time back, that I love you.  If you'll marry me you'll make me
+a happy man, and I'll make you a happy woman.  I'm not very eloquent and
+that sort of thing, but what I say I mean.  What have you to say in
+answer?"  He leaned his broad hands on the back of a chair as he spoke,
+and drummed nervously with his fingers.
+
+Kate had drooped her head over the flowers, but she looked up at him now
+with frank, pitying eyes.
+
+"Put this idea out of your head, Ezra," she said, in a low but firm
+voice.  "Believe me, I shall always be grateful to you for the kindness
+which you have shown me of late.  I will be a sister to you, if you will
+let me, but I can never be more."
+
+"And why not?" asked Ezra, still leaning over the chair, with an angry
+light beginning to sparkle in his dark eyes.  "Why can you never be my
+wife?"
+
+"It is so, Ezra.  You must not think of it.  I am so sorry to grieve
+you."
+
+"You can't love me, then," cried the young merchant hoarsely.
+"Other women before now would have given their eyes to have had me.
+Do you know that?"
+
+"For goodness' sake, then go back to the others," said Kate, half amused
+and half angry.
+
+That suspicion of a smile upon her face was the one thing needed to set
+Ezra's temper in a blaze.  "You won't have me," he cried savagely.
+"I haven't got the airs and graces of that fellow, I suppose.
+You haven't got him out of your head, though he is off with another
+girl."
+
+"How dare you speak to me so?" Kate cried, springing to her feet in
+honest anger.
+
+"It's the truth, and you know it," returned Ezra, with a sneer.
+"Aren't you too proud to be hanging on to a man who doesn't want you--
+a man that is a smooth-tongued sneak, with the heart of a rabbit?"
+
+"If he were here you would not dare to say so!" Kate retorted hotly.
+
+"Wouldn't I?" he snarled fiercely.
+
+"No, you wouldn't.  I don't believe that he has ever been untrue to me.
+I believe that you and your father have planned to make me believe it
+and to keep us apart."
+
+Heaven knows what it was that suddenly brought this idea most clearly
+before Kate's mind.   Perhaps it was that Ezra's face, distorted with
+passion, gave her some dim perception of the wickedness of which such a
+nature might be capable.  The dark face turned so much darker at her
+words that she felt a great throb of joy at her heart, and knew that
+this strange new thought which had flashed upon her was the truth.
+
+"You can't deny it," she cried, with shining eyes and clenched hands.
+"You know that it is true.  I shall see him and hear from his own lips
+what he has to say.  He loves me still, and I love him, and have never
+ceased to love him."
+
+"Oh, you do, do you?" snarled Ezra, taking a step forward, with a
+devilish gleam in his eyes.  "Your love may do him very little good.
+We shall see which of us gets the best of it in the long run.  We'll--"
+His passion was so furious that he stopped, fairly unable to articulate
+another word.
+
+With a threatening motion of his hands he turned upon his heel and
+rushed from the room.  As he passed it chanced that Flo, Kate's little
+Skye terrier, ran across his path.  All the brutality of the man's soul
+rose up in the instant.  He raised his heavy boot, and sent the poor
+little creature howling and writhing under the sofa, whence it piteously
+emerged upon three legs, trailing the fourth one behind it.
+
+"The brute!" Kate cried, as she fondled the injured animal and poured
+indignant tears over it.  Her gentle soul was so stirred by the cowardly
+deed that she felt that she could have flown at her late suitor were he
+still in the room.  "Poor little Flo!  That kick was meant for me in
+reality, my little pet.  Never mind, dear, there are bright days coming,
+and he has not forgotten me, Flo.  I know it!  I know it!"  The little
+dog whined sympathetically, and licked its mistress's hand as though it
+were looking into its canine future, and could also discern better days
+ahead.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone, fierce and lowering, tramped into the library, and
+told his father brusquely of the result of his wooing.  What occurred in
+that interview was never known to any third person.  The servants, who
+had some idea that something was afoot, have recorded that at the
+beginning of the conversation the bass voice of the son and the high
+raucous tones of the father were heard in loud recrimination and
+reproach.  Then they suddenly sunk into tones so low that there might
+have been complete silence in the room for all that any one could tell
+from the passage outside.  This whispered conversation may have lasted
+the greater part of an hour.  At the end of it the young merchant
+departed for the City.  It has been remarked that from that time there
+came a change over both the father and the son--a change so subtle that
+It could hardly be described, though it left its mark upon them both.
+It was not that the grey, wolfish face of the old man looked even greyer
+and fiercer, or that the hard, arrogant expression of Ezra deepened into
+something even more sinister.  It was that a shadow hung over both their
+brows--a vague indefinable shadow--as of men who carry a thought in
+their minds on which it is not good to dwell.
+
+During that long hour Kate had remained in the breakfast-room, still
+nursing her injured companion, and very busy with her own thoughts.
+She was as convinced now that Tom had been true to her as if she had had
+the assurance from his own lips.  Still there was much that was
+unaccountable--much which she was unable to fathom.  A vague sense of
+the wickedness around her depressed and weighed her down.  What deep
+scheme could these men have invented to keep him away from her during
+these long weeks?  Was he, too, under some delusion, or the victim of
+some conspiracy?  Whatever had been done was certainly connived at by
+her guardian.  For the first time a true estimate of the character of
+the elder Girdlestone broke upon her, and she dimly realized that the
+pious, soft-spoken merchant was more to be dreaded than his brutal son.
+A shudder ran through her whole frame as, looking up, she saw him
+standing before her.
+
+His appearance was far from reassuring.  His hands were clasped behind
+his back, his head bent forward, and he surveyed her with a most
+malignant expression upon his face.
+
+"Well done!" he said, with a bitter smile.  "Well done!  This is a good
+morning's work, Miss Harston.  You have repaid your father's friend for
+the care he has bestowed upon you."
+
+"My only wish is to leave your house," cried Kate, with an angry flash
+in her deep blue eyes.  "You are a cruel, wicked, hypocritical old man.
+You have deceived me about Mr. Dimsdale.  I read it in your son's face,
+and now I read it in your own.  How could you do it--oh, how could you
+have the heart?"
+
+John Girdlestone was fairly staggered by this blaze of feminine anger in
+his demure and obedient ward.  "God knows," he said, "whatever my faults
+may have been, neglect of you has not been among them.  I am not
+immaculate.  Even the just man falleth.  If I have endeavoured to wean
+you from this foolish love affair of yours, it has been entirely because
+I saw that it was against your own interests."
+
+"You have told lies in order to turn me away from the only man who ever
+loved me.  You and your odious son have conspired to ruin my happiness
+and break my heart.  What have you told him that keeps him away?
+I shall see him and learn the truth."  Kate's face was unnaturally calm
+and rigid as she faced her guardian's angry gaze.
+
+"Silence!" the old man cried hoarsely.  "You forget your position in
+this house.  You are presuming too much upon my kindness.  As to this
+girl's fancy of yours, you may put all thought of it out of your head.
+I am still your guardian, and I should be culpably remiss if I ever
+allowed you to see this man again.  This afternoon you shall come with
+me to Hampshire."
+
+"To Hampshire?"
+
+"Yes.  I have taken a small country seat there, where we intend to spend
+some months of the winter.  You shall leave it when you have reconciled
+yourself to forget these romantic ideas of yours--but not till then."
+
+"Then I shall never leave it," said Kate, with a sigh.
+
+"That will depend upon yourself.  You shall at least be guarded there
+from the advances of designing persons.  When you come of age you may
+follow your own fancies.  Until then my conscience demands, and the law
+allows, that I should spare no pains to protect you from your own folly.
+We start from Waterloo at four."  Girdlestone turned for the door, but
+looked round as he was leaving the room.  "May God forgive you," he said
+solemnly, raising his lean hands towards the ceiling, "for what you have
+done this day!"
+
+Poor Kate, left to herself, was much concerned by this fresh misfortune.
+She knew that her guardian had power to carry out his plan, and that
+there was no appeal from his decision.  What could she do?  She had not
+a friend in the wide world to whom she could turn for advice or
+assistance.  It occurred to her to fly to the Dimsdales at Kensington,
+and throw herself upon their compassion.  It was only the thought of Tom
+which prevented her.  In her heart she had fully exonerated him, yet
+there was much to be explained before they could be to each other as of
+old.  She might write to Mrs. Dimsdale, but then her guardian had not
+told her what part of Hampshire they were going to.  She finally came to
+the conclusion that it would be better to wait, and to write when she
+had reached her destination.  In the meantime, she went drearily to her
+room and began packing, aided by the ruddy-cheeked maid, Rebecca.
+
+At half-past three a cab drove up to the door, and the old merchant
+stepped out of it.  The boxes were thrown upon the top, and the young
+lady curtly ordered to get in.  Girdlestone took his seat beside her,
+and gave a sign to the cabman to drive on.  As they rattled out of the
+square, Kate looked back at the great gloomy mansion in which she had
+spent the last three years of her life.  Had she known what the future
+was to bring, it is possible that she would have clung even to that
+sombre and melancholy old house as to an ark of safety.
+
+Another cab passed through Eccleston Square that evening--a cab which
+bore a pale-faced and wild-eyed young man, who looked ever and anon
+impatiently out of the window to see if he were nearing his destination.
+Long before reaching No. 69 he had opened the door, and was standing
+upon the step.  The instant that the cab pulled up he sprang off, and
+rang loudly at the great brass bell which flanked the heavy door.
+
+"Is Mr. Girdlestone in?" he asked, as Rebecca appeared at the door.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Miss Harston, is she at home?" he said excitedly.
+
+"No, sir.  They have both gone away."
+
+"Gone away!"
+
+"Yes.  Gone into the country, sir.  And Mr. Ezra, too, sir."
+
+"And when are they coming back?" he asked, in bewilderment.
+
+"They are not coming back."
+
+"Impossible!" Tom cried in despair.  "What is their address, then?"
+
+"They have left no address.  I am sorry I can't help you.  Good night,
+sir."  Rebecca closed the door, laughing maliciously at the visitor's
+bewildered looks.  She knew the facts of the case well, and having long
+been jealous of her young mistress, she was not sorry to find things
+going wrong with her.
+
+Tom Dimsdale stood upon the doorstep looking blankly into the night.
+He felt dazed and bewildered.  What fresh villainy was this?  Was it a
+confirmation of the German's report, or was it a contradiction of it?
+Cold beads stood upon his forehead as he thought of the possibility of
+such a thing.  "I must find her," he cried, with clenched hands, and
+turned away heartsick into the turmoil and bustle of the London streets.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+A CONVERSATION IN THE ECCLESTON SQUARE LIBRARY.
+
+Rebecca, the fresh-complexioned waiting-maid, was still standing behind
+the ponderous hall door, listening, with a smile upon her face, to young
+Dimsdale's retreating footsteps, when another and a brisker tread caught
+her ear coming from the opposite direction.  The smile died away as she
+heard it, and her features assumed a peculiar expression, in which it
+would be hard to say whether fear or pleasure predominated.  She passed
+her hands up over her face and smoothed her hair with a quick nervous
+gesture, glancing down at the same time at her snowy apron and the
+bright ribbons which set it off.  Whatever her intentions may have been,
+she had no time to improve upon her toilet before a key turned in the
+door and Ezra Girdlestone stepped into the hall.  As he saw her shadowy
+figure, for the gas was low, he uttered a hoarse cry of surprise and
+fear, and staggered backwards against the door-post.
+
+"Don't be afeared, Mister Ezra," she said in a whisper; "it's only me."
+
+"The devil take you!" cried Ezra furiously.  "What makes you stand about
+like that?  You gave me quite a turn."
+
+"I didn't mean for to do it.  I've only just been answering of the door.
+Why, surely you've come in before now and found me in the hall without
+making much account of it."
+
+"Ah, lass," answered Ezra, "my nerves have had a shake of late.
+I've felt queer all day.  Look how my hand shakes."
+
+"Well, I'm blessed!" said the girl, with a titter, turning up the gas.
+"I never thought to see you afeared of anything.  Why, you looks as
+white as a sheet!"
+
+"There, that's enough!" he answered roughly.  "Where are the others?"
+
+"Jane is out.  Cook and William and the boy are downstairs."
+
+"Come into the library here.  They will think that you are up in the
+bedrooms.  I want to have a quiet word or two with you.  Turn up that
+reading lamp.  Well, are they gone?"
+
+"Yes, they are gone," she answered, standing by the side of the couch on
+which he had thrown himself.  "Your father came about three with a cab,
+and took her away."
+
+"She didn't make a fuss?"
+
+"Make a fuss?  No; why should she?  There's fuss enough made about her,
+in all conscience.  Oh, Ezra, before she got between us you was kind to
+me at times.  I could stand harsh words from you six days a week, if
+there was a chance of a kind one on the seventh.  But now--now what
+notice do you take of me?"  She began to whimper and to wipe her eyes
+with a little discoloured pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Drop it, woman, drop it!" cried her companion testily.  "I want
+information, not snivelling.  She seemed reconciled to go?"
+
+"Yes, she went quiet enough," the girl said, with a furtive sob.
+
+"Just give me a drop of brandy out of that bottle over there--the one
+with the cork half out.  I've not got over my start yet.  Did you hear
+my father say anything as to where they were going?"
+
+"I heard him tell the cabman to drive to Waterloo Station."
+
+"Nothing more?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, if he won't tell you, I will.  They have gone down to Hampshire,
+my lass.  Bedsworth is the name of the place, and it is a pleasant
+little corner near the sea.  I want you to go down there as well
+to-morrow."
+
+"Want me to go?"
+
+"Yes; they need some one who is smart and handy to keep house for them.
+There is some old woman already, I believe, but she is old and useless.
+I'll warrant you wouldn't take long getting things shipshape.  My father
+intends to stay down there some little time with Miss Harston."
+
+"And how about you?" the girl asked, with a quick flash of suspicion in
+her dark eyes.
+
+"Don't trouble about me.  I shall stay behind and mind the business.
+Some one must be on the spot.  I think cook and Jane and William ought
+to be able to look after me among them."
+
+"And I won't see you at all?" the girl cried, with a quiver in her
+voice.
+
+"Oh yes, you shall.  I'll be down from Saturday to Monday every week,
+and perhaps oftener.  If business goes well I may come down and stay
+for some time.  Whether I do or not may depend upon you."
+
+Rebecca Taylforth started and uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+"How can it depend upon me?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Well," said Ezra, in a hesitating way, "it may depend upon whether you
+are a good girl, and do what you are told or not.  I am sure that you
+would do anything to serve me, would you not?"
+
+"You know very well that I would, Mister Ezra.  When you want anything
+done you remember it, but if you have no use for me, then there is never
+a kind look on your face or a kind word from your lips.  If I was a dog
+you could not use me worse.  I could stand your harshness.  I could
+stand the blow you gave me, and forgive you for it, from my heart; but,
+oh! it cut me to the very soul to be standing by and waiting while you
+were making up to another woman.  It was more than I can bear."
+
+"Never mind, my girl," said Ezra in a soothing voice;  "that's all over
+and done with.  See what I've brought you."  He rummaged in his pocket
+and produced a little parcel of tissue paper, which he handed to her.
+
+It was only a small silver anchor, with Scotch pebbles inlaid in it.
+The woman's eyes, however, flashed as she looked at it, and she raised
+it to her lips and kissed it passionately.
+
+"God bless it and you too!" she said.  "I've heard tell as the anchor's
+the emblem of hope, and so it shall be with me.  Oh, Ezra, you may
+travel far and meet them as can play and can sing and do many a thing as
+I can't do, but you'll never get one who will love you as dearly and
+well."
+
+"I know it, my lass, I know it," said Ezra, smoothing down her dark
+hair, for she had dropped upon her knees beside the couch.  "I've never
+met your equal yet.  That's why I want you down at Bedsworth.  I must
+have some one there that I can trust.
+
+"What am I to do down at Bedsworth?" she asked.
+
+"I want you to be Miss Harston's companion.  She'll be lonely, and will
+need some other woman in the house to look after her."
+
+"Curse her!" cried Rebecca, springing to her feet with flashing eyes.
+"You are still thinking of her, then!  She must have this; she must have
+that!  Everything else is as dirt before her.  I'll not serve her--so
+there!  You can knock me down if you like."
+
+"Rebecca," said Ezra slowly, "do you hate Kate Harston?"
+
+"From the bottom of my soul," she answered.
+
+"Well, if you hate her, I tell you that I hate her a thousand times
+more.  You thought that I was fond of her.  All that is over now, and
+you may set your mind at ease."
+
+"Why do you want her so well cared for, then?" asked the girl
+suspiciously.
+
+"I want some one who feels towards her as I do to be by her side.
+If she were never to come back from Bedsworth it would be nothing to
+me."
+
+"What makes you look at me so strangely?" she said, shrinking away from
+his intense gaze.
+
+"Never mind.  You go.  You will understand many things in time which
+seem strange to you now.  At present if you will do what I ask you will
+oblige me greatly.  Will you go?"
+
+"Yes, I will go."
+
+"There's a good lass.  Give us a kiss, my girl.  You have the right
+spirit in you.  I'll let you know when the train goes to-morrow, and I
+will write to my father to expect you.  Now, off with you, or you'll
+have them gossiping downstairs.  Good night."
+
+"Good night, Mister Ezra," said the girl, with her hand upon the handle
+of the library door.  "You've made my heart glad this night.  I live in
+hope--ever in hope."
+
+"I wonder what the deuce she hopes about," the young merchant said to
+himself as she closed the door behind her.  "Hopes I'll marry her, I
+suppose.  She must be of a very sanguine disposition.  A girl like that
+might be invaluable down at Bedsworth.  If we had no other need for her,
+she would be an excellent spy."  He lay  for some little time on the
+couch with bent brow and pursed lips, musing over the possibilities of
+the future.
+
+While this dialogue had been going on in the library of Eccleston
+Square, Tom Dimsdale was still wending his way homewards with a feeling
+of weight in his mind and a presentiment of misfortune which
+overshadowed his whole soul.  In vain he assured himself that this
+disappearance of Kate's was but temporary, and that the rumour of an
+engagement between her and Ezra was too ridiculous to be believed for a
+moment.  Argue it as he would, the same dread, horrible feeling of
+impending trouble weighed upon him.  Impossible as it was to imagine
+that Kate was false to him, it was strange that on the very day that
+this rumour reached his ears she should disappear from London.
+How bitterly he regretted now that he had allowed himself to be
+persuaded by John Girdlestone into ceasing to communicate with her.
+He began to realize that he had been duped, and that all these specious
+promises as to a future consent to their union had been so many baits to
+amuse him while the valuable present was slipping away.  What could he
+do now to repair the past?  His only course was to wait for the morrow
+and see whether the senior partner would appear at the offices.
+If he did so, the young man was determined that he should have an
+understanding with him.
+
+So downcast was Tom that, on arriving at Phillimore Gardens, he would
+have slipped off to his room at once had he not met his burly father
+upon the stairs.  "Bed!" roared the old man upon hearing his son's
+proposition.  "Nothing of the sort, sir.  Come down into the parlour and
+smoke a pipe with me.  Your mother has been waiting for you all the
+evening."
+
+"I am sorry to be late, mother," the lad said, kissing the old lady.
+"I have been down at the docks all day and have been busy and worried."
+
+Mrs. Dimsdale was sitting in her chair beside the fire, knitting, when
+her son came in.  At the sound of his voice she glanced anxiously up at
+his face, with all her motherly instincts on the alert.
+
+"What is it, my boy?" she said.  "You don't look yourself.
+Something has gone wrong with you.  Surely you're not keeping anything
+secret from your old mother?"
+
+"Don't be so foolish as that, my boy," said the doctor earnestly.
+"If you have anything on your mind, out with it.  There's nothing so far
+wrong but that it can't be set right, I'll be bound."
+
+Thus pressed, their son told them all that had happened, the rumour
+which he had heard from Von Baumser at the _Cock and Cowslip_, and the
+subsequent visit to Eccleston Square.  "I can hardly realize it all
+yet," he said in conclusion.  "My head seems to be in a whirl, and I
+can't reason about it."
+
+The old couple listened very attentively to his narrative, and were
+silent some little time after he had finished.  His mother first broke
+the silence.  "I was always sure," she said, "that we were wrong to stop
+our correspondence at the request of Mr. Girdlestone."
+
+"It's easy enough to say that now," said Tom ruefully.  "At the time it
+seemed as if we had no alternative."
+
+"There's no use crying over spilt milk," remarked the old physician, who
+had been very grave during his son's narrative.  "We must set to work
+and get things right again.  There is one thing very certain, Tom, and
+that is that Kate Harston is a girl who never did or could do a
+dishonourable thing.  If she said that she would wait for you, my boy,
+you may feel perfectly safe; and if you doubt her for one moment you
+ought to be deuced well ashamed of yourself."
+
+"Well said, governor!" cried Tom, with beaming face.  "Now, that is
+exactly my own feeling, but there is so much to be explained.  Why have
+they left London, and where have they gone to?"
+
+"No doubt that old scoundrel Girdlestone thought that your patience
+would soon come to an end, so he got the start of you by carrying the
+girl off into the country."
+
+"And if he has done this, what can I do?"
+
+"Nothing.  It is entirely within his right to do it."
+
+"And have her stowed away in some little cottage in the country, with
+that brute Ezra Girdlestone hanging round her all the time.  It is the
+thought of that that drives me wild."
+
+"You trust in her, my boy," said the old doctor.  "We'll try our best in
+the meantime to find out where she has gone to.  If she is unhappy or
+needs a friend you may be sure that she will write to your mother."
+
+"Yes, there is always that hope," exclaimed Tom, in a more cheerful
+voice.  "To-morrow I may learn something at the office."
+
+"Don't make the mistake of quarrelling with the Girdlestones.
+After all, they are within their rights in doing what they appear to
+have done."
+
+"They may be within their legal rights," Tom cried indignantly; "but the
+old man made a deliberate compact with me, which he has broken."
+
+"Never mind.  Don't give them an advantage by losing your temper." The
+doctor chatted away over the matter for some time, and his words,
+together with those of his mother, cheered the young fellow's heart.
+Nevertheless, after they had retired to their rooms, Dr. Dimsdale
+continued to be very thoughtful and very grave.  "I don't like it," he
+said, more than once.  "I don't like the idea of the poor girl being
+left entirely in the hands of that pair of beauties.  God grant that no
+harm come of it, Matilda!" a prayer which his good wife echoed with all
+the strength of her kindly nature.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+THE JOURNEY TO THE PRIORY.
+
+It was already dusk when John Girdlestone and his ward reached Waterloo
+Station.  He gave orders to the guard that the luggage should be
+stamped, but took care that she should not hear the name of their
+destination.  Hurrying her rapidly down the platform amid the confused
+heaps of luggage and currents of eager passengers, he pushed her into a
+first-class carriage, and sprang after her just as the bell rang and the
+wheels began to revolve.
+
+They were alone.  Kate crouched up into the corner among the cushions,
+and wrapped her rug round her, for it was bitterly cold.  The merchant
+pulled a note-book from his pocket and proceeded by the light of the
+lamp above him to add up columns of figures.  He sat very upright in his
+seat, and appeared to be as absorbed in his work as though he were among
+his papers in Fenchurch Street.  He neither glanced at his companion nor
+made any inquiry as to her comfort.
+
+As she sat opposite to him she could not keep her eyes from his hard
+angular face, every rugged feature of which was exaggerated by the
+flickering yellow light above him.  Those deep-set eyes and sunken
+cheeks had been familiar to her for years.  How was it that they now,
+for the first time, struck her as being terrible?  Was it that new
+expression which had appeared upon them, that hard inexorable set about
+the mouth, which gave a more sinister character to his whole face?
+As she gazed at him an ineffable loathing and dread rose in her soul,
+and she could have shrieked out of pure terror.  She put her hand up to
+her throat with a gasp to keep down the sudden inclination to cry out.
+As she did so her guardian glanced over the top of the note-book with
+his piercing light grey eyes.
+
+"Don't get hysterical!" he cried.  "You have given us trouble enough
+without that."
+
+"Oh, why are you so harsh?" she cried, throwing out her arms towards him
+in eloquent entreaty, while the tears coursed down her cheeks.
+"What have I done that is so dreadful?  I _could_ not love your son, and
+I do love another.  I am so grieved to have offended you.  You used to
+be kind and like a father to me."
+
+"And a nice return you have made me!  'Honour your father,' says the
+good old Book.  What honour did you give me save to disobey every
+command which I have ever given you.  I have to blame myself to some
+extent for having allowed you to go on that most pernicious trip to
+Scotland, where you were thrown into the company of this young
+adventurer by his scheming old fool of a father."
+
+It would have been a study for a Rembrandt to depict the craggy,
+strongly lined face of the old merchant, and the beautiful pleading one
+which looked across at him, with the light throwing strange shadows over
+both.  As he spoke she brushed the tears from her eyes and an angry
+flush sprang to her cheeks.
+
+"You may say what you like of me," she said bitterly.  "I suppose that
+is one of your privileges as my guardian.  You have no right, however,
+to speak evil of my friends.  'He who calleth his brother a fool,' I
+think the good old Book says something of that."
+
+Girdlestone was staggered for a moment by this unexpected counter.
+Then he took off his broad-brimmed hat and bowed his head with drooping
+lids.
+
+"Out of the mouths of babes and of sucklings!" he cried.  "You are
+right.  I spoke too warmly.  It is my zeal for you which betrays me."
+
+"The same zeal which made you tell me so many things which I now know to
+be untrue about Mr. Dimsdale," said  Kate, waxing more fearless as her
+mind turned to her wrongs.
+
+"You are becoming impertinent," he answered, and resumed his
+calculations in his note-book.
+
+Kate cowered back into her corner again, while the train thundered and
+screeched and rattled through the darkness.  Looking through the steamy
+window, nothing was to be seen save the twinkle here and there of the
+lights of the scattered country cottages.  Occasionally a red signal
+lamp would glare down upon her like the bloodshot eye of some demon who
+presided over this kingdom of iron and steam.  Far behind a lurid trail
+of smoke marked the way that they had come.  To Kate's mind it was all
+as weird and gloomy and cheerless even as the thoughts within her.
+
+And they were gloomy enough.  Where was she going?  How long was she
+going for?  What was she to do when there?  On all these points she was
+absolutely ignorant.  What was the object of this sudden flight from
+London?  Her guardian could have separated her from the Dimsdales in
+many less elaborate ways than this.  Could it be that he intended some
+system of pressure and terrorism by which she should be forced to accept
+Ezra as a suitor.  She clenched her little white teeth as she thought of
+it, and registered a vow that nothing in this world would ever bring her
+to give in upon that point.  There was only one bright spot in her
+outlook.  When she reached her destination she would at once write to
+Mrs. Dimsdale, tell her where she was, and ask her frankly for an
+explanation of their sudden silence.  How much wiser if she had done so
+before.  Only a foolish pride had withheld her from it.
+
+The train had already stopped at one large junction.  Looking out
+through the window she saw by the lamps that it was Guildford.
+After another interminable interval of clattering and tossing and
+plunging through the darkness, they came to a second station of
+importance, Petersfield.  "We are nearing our destination," Girdlestone
+remarked, shutting up his book.
+
+This proved to be a small wayside station, illuminated by a single lamp,
+which gave no information as to the name.  They were the only passengers
+who alighted, and the train rolled on for Portsmouth, leaving them with
+their trunks upon the dark and narrow platform.  It was a black night
+with a bitter wind which carried with it a suspicion of dampness, which
+might have been rain, or might have been the drift of the neighbouring
+ocean.  Kate was numb with the cold, and even her gaunt companion
+stamped his feet and shivered as he looked about him.
+
+"I telegraphed for a trap," said he to the guard.  "Is there not one
+waiting?"
+
+"Yes, sir; if you be Mister Girdlestone, there's a trap from the _Flyin'
+Bull_.  Here, Carker, here's your gentleman."
+
+At this summons a rough-looking ostler emerged into the circle of light
+thrown by the single lamp and, touching his hat, announced in a surly
+voice that he was the individual in question.  The guard and he then
+proceeded to drag the trunks to the vehicle.  It was a small wagonette,
+with a high seat for the driver in front.
+
+"Where to, sir?" asked the driver, when the travellers had taken their
+seats.
+
+"To Hampton Priory.  Do you know where that is?"
+
+"Better'n two mile from here, and close to the railway line," said the
+man.  "There hain't been no one livin' there for two year at the least."
+
+"We are expected and all will be ready for us," said Girdlestone.
+"Go as fast as you can, for we are cold."
+
+The driver cracked his whip, and the horse started at a brisk trot down
+the dark country road.
+
+Looking round her, Kate saw that they were passing through a large
+country village, consisting of a broad main street, with a few
+insignificant offshoots branching away on either side.  A church stood
+on one side, and on the other the village inn.  The door was open and
+the light shining through the red curtains of the bar parlour looked
+warm and cosy.  The clink of glasses and the murmur of cheerful voices
+sounded from within.  Kate, as she looked across, felt doubly cheerless
+and lonely by the contrast.  Girdlestone looked too, but with different
+emotions.
+
+"Another plague spot," he cried, jerking his head in that direction.
+"In town or country it is the same.  These poison-sellers are scattered
+over the whole face of  the land, and every one of them is a focus of
+disease and misery."
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir," the surly driver observed, screwing round in his
+seat.  "That 'ere's the _Flyin' Bull_, sir, where I be in sarvice, and
+it ain't no poison-seller, but a real right down good house."
+
+"All liquor is poison, and every house devoted to the sale of it is a
+sinful house," Girdlestone said curtly.
+
+"Don't you say that to my maister," remarked the driver.  "He be a big
+man wi' a ter'bly bad temper and a hand like a leg o' mutton.  Hold up,
+will ye!"
+
+The last remark was addressed to the horse, which had stumbled in going
+down a sharp incline.  They were out of the village by this time, and
+the road was lined on either side by high hedges, which threw a dense
+shadow over everything.  The feeble lamps of the wagonette bored two
+little yellow tunnels of light on either side.  The man let the reins
+lie loose upon the horse's back, and the animal picked out the roadway
+for itself.  As they swung round from the narrow lane on to a broader
+road Kate broke out into a little cry of pleasure.
+
+"There's the sea!" she exclaimed joyfully.  The moon had broken from
+behind the clouds and glittered on the vast silvery expanse.
+
+"Yes, that's the sea," the driver said, "and them lights down yonder is
+at Lea Claxton, where the fisher-folk live; and over there," pointing
+with his whip to a long dark shadow on the waters, "is the Oilywoite."
+
+"The what?"
+
+"The Isle of Wight, he means," said Girdlestone.  The driver looked at
+him reproachfully.  "Of course," said he, "if you Lunnon folks knows
+more about it than we who are born an' bred in the place, it's no manner
+o' use our tryin' to teach you."  With this sarcastic comment he withdrew
+into himself, and refused to utter another word until the end of their
+journey.
+
+It was not long before this was attained.  Passing down a deeply rutted
+lane, they came to a high stone wall which extended for a couple of
+hundred yards.  It had a crumbling, decaying appearance, as far as could
+be judged in the uncertain light.  This wall was broken by a single iron
+gate, flanked by two high pillars, each of which was surmounted by some
+weather-beaten heraldic device.  Passing through they turned up a
+winding avenue, with lines of trees on either side, which shot their
+branches so thickly above them that they might have been driving through
+some sombre tunnel.  This avenue terminated in an open space, in the
+midst of which towered a great irregular whitewashed building, which was
+the old Priory.  All below it was swathed in darkness, but the upper
+windows caught the glint of the moon and emitted a pallid and sickly
+glimmer.  The whole effect was so weird and gloomy that Kate felt her
+heart sink within her.  The wagonette pulled up in front of the door,
+and Girdlestone assisted her to alight.
+
+There had been no lights or any symptoms of welcome, but as they pulled
+down the trunks the door opened and a little old woman appeared with a
+candle in her hand, which she carefully shaded from the wind while she
+peered out into the darkness.
+
+"Is that Mr. Girdlestone?" she cried.
+
+"Of course it is," the merchant said impatiently.  "Did I not telegraph
+and tell you that I was coming?"
+
+"Yes, yes," she answered, hobbling forward with the light.  "And this is
+the young lady?  Come in, my dear, come in.  We have not got things very
+smart yet, but they will soon come right."
+
+She led the way through a lofty hall into a large sitting-room, which,
+no doubt, had been the monkish refectory in bygone days.  It looked very
+bleak and cold now, although a small fire sputtered and sparkled in the
+corner of the great iron grate.  There was a pan upon the fire, and the
+deal table in the centre of the room was laid out roughly as for a meal.
+The candle which the old woman had carried in was the only light, though
+the flickering fire cast strange fantastic shadows in the further
+corners and among the great oaken rafters which formed the ceiling.
+
+"Come up to the fire, my dear," said the old woman.  "Take off your
+cloak and warm yourself."  She held her own shrivelled arms towards the
+blaze, as though her short exposure to the night air had chilled her.
+Glancing at her, Kate saw that her face was sharp-featured and cunning,
+with a loose lower lip which exposed a line of yellow teeth, and a chin
+which bristled with a tuft of long grey hairs.
+
+From without there came the crunching of gravel as the wagonette turned
+and rattled down the avenue.  Kate listened to the sound of the wheels
+until they died away in the distance.  They seemed somehow to be the
+last link which bound her to the human race.  Her heart failed her
+completely, and she burst into tears.
+
+"What's the matter then?" the old woman asked, looking up at her.
+"What are ye crying about?"
+
+"Oh, I am so miserable and so lonely," she cried.  "What have I done
+that I should be so unhappy?  Why should I be taken to this horrible,
+horrible place?"
+
+"What's the matter with the place?" asked her withered companion.
+"I don't see nought amiss with it.  Here's Mr. Girdlestone a-comin'.
+He don't grumble at the place, I'll warr'nt."
+
+The merchant was not in the best of tempers, for he had had an
+altercation with the driver about the fare, and was cold into the
+bargain.  "At it again?" he said roughly, as he entered.  "It is I who
+ought to weep, I think, who have been put to all this trouble and
+inconvenience by your disobedience and weakness of mind."
+
+Kate did not answer, but sat upon a coarse deal chair beside the fire,
+and buried her face in her hands.  All manner of vague fears and fancies
+filled her mind.  What was Tom doing now?  How quickly he would fly to
+her rescue did he but know how strangely she was situated!
+She determined that her very first action next morning should be to
+write to Mrs. Dimsdale and to tell her, not only where she was, but all
+that had occurred.  The reflection that she could do this cheered her
+heart, and she managed to eat a little of the supper which the old woman
+had now placed upon the table.  It was a rough stew of some sort, but
+the long journey had given an edge to their appetites, and the merchant,
+though usually epicurean in his tastes, ate a hearty meal.
+
+When supper was over the crone, who was addressed by Girdlestone as
+Jorrocks, led the way upstairs and showed Kate to her room.  If the
+furniture of the dining-room had been Spartan in its simplicity, this
+was even more so, for there was nothing in it save a small iron
+bedstead, much rusted from want of use, and a high wooden box on which
+stood the simplest toilet requisites.  In spite of the poverty of the
+apartment Kate had never been more glad to enter her luxurious chamber
+at home.  The little carpetless room was a haven of rest where she would
+be left, for one night at least, to her own thoughts.  As she lay in
+bed, however, she could hear far away the subdued murmur of
+Girdlestone's voice and the shrill tones of the old woman.  They were in
+deep and animated converse.  Though they were too far distant for her to
+distinguish a word, something told her that their talk was about
+herself, and the same instinct assured her that it boded her little
+good.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+THE MAN WITH THE CAMP-STOOL.
+
+When she awoke in the morning it was some little time before she could
+realize where she was or recall the events which had made such a sudden
+change in her life.  The bare, cold room, with the whitewashed walls,
+and the narrow bed upon which she lay, brought back to her the
+recollection of a hospital ward which she had seen in Edinburgh, and her
+first thought was that she had had some accident and had been conveyed
+to some such establishment.  The delusion was only momentary, however,
+for her true situation came back to her at once with all its vague
+horror.  Of the two, she would have preferred that her first impression
+had been correct.
+
+The small window of her apartment was covered by a dirty muslin blind.
+She rose and, drawing it aside, looked eagerly out.  From what she had
+seen the night before she had hoped that this prison to which she had
+been conveyed might make amends for its loneliness by some degree of
+natural beauty.  The scene which now met her eyes soon dispelled any
+expectations of the sort.  The avenue with its trees lay on the other
+side of the house.  From her window nothing was visible but a dreary
+expanse of bog-land and mudbanks stretching down to the sea.  At high
+tide this enormous waste of dreariness and filth was covered by the
+water, but at present it lay before her in all its naked hideousness,
+the very type of dullness and desolation.  Here and there a few
+scattered reeds, or an unhealthy greenish scum upon the mud, gave a
+touch of colour to the scene; but for the most part the great plain was
+all of the same sombre mud tint, with its monotony broken only by the
+white flecks where the swarms of gulls and kittiwakes had settled in the
+hope of picking up whatever had been left by the receding tide.
+Away across the broad surface a line of sparkling foam marked the fringe
+of the ocean, which stretched away to the horizon.
+
+A mile or two to the eastward of her Kate saw some sign of houses, and a
+blue smoke which flickered up into the air.  This she guessed to be the
+fishing village of Lea Claxton, which the driver had mentioned the night
+before.  She felt, as she gazed at the little hamlet and the masts of
+the boats in front of it, that she was not alone in the world, and that
+even in this strange and desolate place there were honest hearts to whom
+as a last resource she could appeal.
+
+She was still standing at the window when there came a knocking at the
+door, and she heard the voice of the old woman asking if she were awake.
+"Breakfast is ready," she said, "and the master is a-wondering why you
+bean't down."
+
+On this summons Kate hastened her toilet and made her way down the old
+winding stair to the room in which they had supped the night before.
+Surely Girdlestone must have had a heart of flint not to be melted by
+the sight of that fair, fresh face.  His features set as hard as adamant
+as she entered the room, and he looked at her with eyes which were
+puckered and angry.
+
+"You are late," he said coldly.  "You must remember that you are not in
+Eccleston Square.  'An idle soul shall suffer hunger,' says the prophet.
+You are here to be disciplined, and disciplined you shall be."
+
+"I am sorry," she answered.  "I think that I must have been tired by our
+journey."
+
+The vast room looked even more comfortless and bleak than on the
+preceding evening.  On the table was a plate of ham and eggs.
+John Girdlestone served out a portion, and pushed it in her direction.
+She sat down on one of the rough wooden chairs and ate listlessly,
+wondering how all this was going to end.
+
+After breakfast Girdlestone ordered the old woman out of the room, and,
+standing in front of the fire with his long legs apart and his hands
+behind his back, he told her in harsh concise language what his
+intentions were.
+
+"I had long determined," he said, "that if you ran counter to my wishes,
+and persisted in your infatuated affection for that scapegrace, I should
+remove you to some secluded spot, where you might reconsider your
+conduct and form better resolutions for the future.  This country house
+answered the purpose admirably, and as an old servant of mine, Mrs.
+Jorrocks, chanced to reside in the neighbourhood, I have warned her that
+at any time I might come down and should expect to find things ready.
+Your rash and heartless conduct has, however, precipitated matters, and
+we have arrived before her preparations were complete.  Our future
+arrangements will therefore be less primitive than they are at present.
+Here you shall remain, young lady, until you show signs of repentance,
+and of a willingness to undo the harm which you have done."
+
+"If you mean until I consent to marry your son, then I shall live and
+die here," the girl said bravely.
+
+"That rests with yourself.  As I said before, you are under discipline
+here, and you may not find existence such a bed of roses as it was in
+Eccleston Square."
+
+"Can I have my maid?" Kate asked.  "I can hardly stay here with no one
+but the old woman in the house."
+
+"Rebecca is coming down.  I had a telegram from Ezra to that effect, and
+he will himself join us for a day or two in each week."
+
+"Ezra here!" Kate cried in horror.  Her chief consolation through all
+her troubles had been that there seemed to be some chance of getting rid
+of her terrible suitor.
+
+"And why not?" the old man asked angrily.  "Are you so bitter against
+the lad as to grudge him the society of his own father?"
+
+Kate was saved from further reproaches by the entrance of the old woman
+to clear the table.  The last item of intelligence, however, had given
+her a terrible shock, and at the same time had filled her with
+astonishment.  What could the fast-living, comfort-seeking man about
+town want in this dreary abode?  She knew Ezra well, and was sure that
+he was not a man to alter his ways of life or suffer discomfort of any
+kind without some very definite object.  It seemed to her that this was
+a new mesh in the net which was being drawn round her.
+
+When her guardian had left the room Kate asked Mrs. Jorrocks for a sheet
+of paper.  The crone shook her head and wagged her pendulous lip in
+derision.
+
+"Mister Girdlestone thought as you would be after that," she said.
+"There ain't no paper here, nor pens neither, nor ink neither."
+
+"What, none! Dear Mrs. Jorrocks, do have pity on me, and get me a sheet,
+however old and soiled.  See, here is some silver!  You are very welcome
+to it if you will give me the materials for writing one letter."
+
+Mrs. Jorrocks looked longingly with her bleared eyes at the few
+shillings which the girl held out to her, but she shook her head.
+"I dursn't do it," she said.  "It's as much as my place is worth."
+
+"Then I shall walk down to Bedsworth myself," said Kate angrily.
+"I have no doubt that the people in the post office will let me sit
+there and write it."
+
+The old hag laughed hoarsely to herself until the scraggy sinews of her
+withered neck stood out like whipcord.  She was still chuckling and
+coughing when the merchant came back into the room.
+
+"What then?" he asked sternly, looking from one to the other.  He was
+himself constitutionally averse to merriment, and he was irritated by it
+in others.  "Why are you laughing, Mrs. Jorrocks?"
+
+"I was a-laughing at her," the woman wheezed, pointing with tremulous
+fingers.  "She was askin' me for paper, and sayin' as she would go and
+write a letter at the Bedsworth Post Office."
+
+"You must understand once for all," Girdlestone roared, turning savagely
+upon the girl, "that you are cut off entirely from the outer world.
+I shall give you no loophole which you may utilize to continue your
+intimacy with undesirable people.  I have given orders that you should
+not be provided with either paper or ink."
+
+Poor Kate's last hope seemed to be fading away.  Her heart sank within
+her, but she kept a brave face, for she did not wish him to see how his
+words had stricken her.  She had a desperate plan in her head, which
+would be more likely to be successful could she but put him off his
+guard.
+
+She spent the morning in her own little room.  She had been provided
+with a ponderous brown Bible, out of which the fly leaves had been
+carefully cut, and this she read, though her thoughts often wandered
+away from the sacred pages.  About one o'clock she heard the clatter of
+hoofs and the sound of wheels on the drive.  Going down, she found that
+it was a cart which had come from Bedsworth with furniture.  There were
+carpets, a chest of drawers, tables, and several other articles, which
+the driver proceeded to carry upstairs, helped by John Girdlestone.  The
+old woman was in the upper room.  It seemed to Kate that she might never
+again have such an opportunity of carrying out the resolve which she had
+formed.  She put on her bonnet, and began to stroll listlessly about in
+front of the door, picking a few straggling leaves from the neglected
+lawn.  Gradually she sauntered away in this manner to the head of the
+avenue, and then, taking one swift timid glance around, she slipped in
+among the trees, and made the best of her way, half walking, half
+running, down the dark winding drive.
+
+Oh, the joy of the moment when the great white house which had already
+become so hateful to her was obscured among the trees behind her!
+She had some idea of the road which she had traversed the night before.
+Behind her were all her troubles.  In front the avenue gate, Bedsworth,
+and freedom.  She would send both a telegram and a letter to Dr.
+Dimsdale, and explain to him her exact situation.  If the kind-hearted
+and energetic physician once knew of it, he would take care that no harm
+befell her.  She could return then, and face with a light heart the
+worst which her guardian could do to her.  Here was the avenue entrance
+now, the high lichen-eaten stone pillars, with the battered device upon
+the top.  The iron gate between was open.  With a glad cry she quickened
+her pace, and in another moment would have been in the high-road, when--
+
+"Now then, where are you a-comin' to?" cried a gruff voice from among
+the bushes which flanked the gate.
+
+The girl stopped, all in a tremble.  In the shadow of the trees there
+was a camp-stool, and on the camp-stool sat a savage-looking man,
+dressed in a dark corduroy suit, with a blackened clay pipe stuck in the
+corner of his mouth.  His weather-beaten mahogany face was plentifully
+covered with small-pox marks, and one of his eyes was sightless and
+white from the effects of the same disease.  He rose now, and interposed
+himself between her and the gate.
+
+"Sink me, if it ain't her," he said slowly, surveying her from head to
+foot.  "I were given to understand that she was a spanker, an' a spanker
+she be."  With this oracular remark he took a step back and surveyed
+Kate again with his one eye.
+
+"My good man," she said, in a trembling voice, for his appearance was
+far from reassuring, "I wish to go past and to get to Bedsworth.
+Here is a shilling, and I beg that you will not detain me."
+
+Her companion stretched out a very dirty hand, took the coin, spun it up
+in the air, caught it, bit it, and finally plunged it into the depths of
+his trouser pockets.  "No road this way, missy," he said; "I've given
+my word to the guv'nor, and I can't go back from it."
+
+"You have no right to detain me," Kate cried angrily.  "I have good
+friends in London who will make you suffer for this."
+
+"She's a-goin' to flare up," said the one-eyed man;  "knock me helpless,
+if she ain't!"
+
+"I shall come through!" the girl cried in desperation.  She was only a
+dozen yards from the lane which led to freedom, so she made a quick
+little feminine rush in the hope of avoiding this dreadful sentinel who
+barred her passage.  He caught her round the waist, however, and hurled
+her back with such violence that she staggered across the path, and
+would have fallen had she not struck violently against a tree.  As it
+was, she was badly bruised and the breath shaken out of her body.
+
+"She _has_ flared up," said the one-eyed man, removing his pipe from his
+lips.  "Blow me asunder if she bean't a rustler!"  He brought his
+camp-stool from the side of the pillar and, planting it right in the
+centre of the gateway, sat down upon it again.  "You see, missy," he
+remarked, "it's no manner o' use.  If you did get out it would only be
+to be put in a reg'lar 'sylum."
+
+"An asylum!" gasped Kate, sobbing with pain and anger.  "Do you think I
+am mad, then?"
+
+"I don't think nowt about it," the man remarked calmly.  "I knows it."
+
+This was a new light to Kate.  She was so bewildered that she could
+hardly realize the significance of the remark.
+
+"Who are you?" she said.  "Why is it that you treat me in this cruel
+way?"
+
+"Ah, now we come to business," he said, in a satisfied way, crossing his
+legs, and blowing great wreaths from his pipe.  "This is more like
+reason.  Who am I? says you.  Well, my name's Stevens--Bill Stevens,
+hesquire, o' Claxton, in the county o' Hants.  I've been an A.B. in the
+navy, and I've got my pension to show it.  I've been in the loon'cy
+business, too--was second warder in the suicide ward at Portsmouth for
+more'n two year.  I've been out of a billet for some time, and Muster
+Girdlestone he came to me and he says, 'You're William Stevens,
+hesquire?' says he.  'I am,' says I.  'You've had experience o'
+loonies?' says he.  'I have,' says I.  'Then you're the man I want,'
+says he.  'You shall have a pound a week an' nothing to do.'  'The very
+crib for me,' says I.  'You've got to sit at the gate,' says he, 'and
+prevent a patient from gettin' out!'  That was all as he said.  Then you
+comes down from Lunnon, an' I comes up from Claxton, and here we be, all
+snug an' comfort'ble.  So, you see, missy, it ain't no use at all, and
+you'll never get out this way."
+
+"But if you let me past he will think that I ran by so quickly that you
+could not stop me.  He could not be very angry then, and I shall give
+you more money than you would lose."
+
+"No, no," said the man, shaking his head energetically, "I'm true to my
+colours, sink me, but I am!  I never was bribed yet, and never will be
+unless you can offer cash down instead o' promises.  You can't lay them
+by to live on in your old age."
+
+"Alas!" Kate cried, "I have no money except these few shillings."
+
+"Give them over here, then."  He put them in his trouser pocket beside
+the other one.  "That's all right, missy," he said, in a beery whisper.
+"I won't say anything now to Muster Girdlestone about this job.
+He'd be wild if he knew, but mum's the word with William Stevens,
+hesquire.  Lor', if this ain't my wife a-comin' out wi' my dinner!
+Away with ye, away!  If she seed me a-speakin' to you she'd tear your
+hair for you as like as not.  She's jealous, that's what's the matter
+wi' her.  If she sees a woman makin' much o' me, it's just pisen to her,
+and she goes for 'em straight.  She's the one to make the fur fly!
+Away with you, I say!"
+
+Poor Kate, appalled by the possibility of making a new enemy, turned and
+retraced her steps slowly and sadly up the avenue.  As she glanced back
+she saw a gaunt, hard-featured woman trudging up the lane with a tin can
+in her hand.  Lonely and forlorn, but not yet quite destitute of hope,
+she turned to the right among the trees, and pushed her way through
+bushes and brambles to the boundary of the Priory grounds.  It was a
+lofty wall, at least nine feet in height, with a coping which bristled
+with jagged pieces of glass.  Kate walked along the base of it, her fair
+skin all torn and bleeding with scratches from the briars, until she
+satisfied herself that there was no break in it.  There was one small
+wooden door on the side which was skirted by the railway line, but it
+was locked and impassable.  The only opening through which a human being
+could pass was that which was guarded in the manner she had seen.  The
+sickening conviction took possession of her mind that without wings it
+was an utter impossibility either to get away or to give the least
+information to any one in the world as to where she was or what might
+befall her.
+
+When she came back to the house, tired and dishevelled after her journey
+of exploration, Girdlestone was standing by the door to receive her with
+a sardonic smile upon his thin lips.  "How do you like the grounds,
+then?" he asked, with, the nearest approach to hilarity which she had
+ever heard from him.  "And the ornamental fencing? and the lodge-keeper?
+How did you like them all?"
+
+Kate tried for a moment to make some brave retort, but it was a useless
+attempt.  Her lips trembled, her eyes filled, and, with a cry of grief
+and despair which might have moved a wild beast, she fled to her room,
+and, throwing herself upon her bed, burst into such scalding bitter
+tears as few women are ever called upon to shed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+A TALK ON THE LAWN.
+
+That same evening Rebecca came down from London.  Her presence was a
+comfort to Kate, for though she had never liked or trusted the girl, yet
+the mere fact of having some one of her own age near her, gave her a
+sense of security and of companionship.  Her room, too, had been altered
+for the better, and the maid was given the one next door, so that by
+knocking on the wall she could always communicate with her.  This was an
+unspeakable consolation, for at night the old house was so full of the
+sudden crackings of warped timber and the scampering of rats that entire
+loneliness was unendurable.
+
+Apart from these uncanny sounds there were other circumstances which
+gave the Priory a sinister reputation.  The very aspect of the building
+was enough to suggest weird impressions.  Its high white walls were
+blotched with patches of mildew, and in some parts there were long
+greenish stains from roof to ground, like tear streaks on the crumbling
+plaster.  Indoors there was a dank graveyard smell in the low corridors
+and narrow stair-cases.  Floors and ceilings were equally worm-eaten and
+rotten.  Broad flakes of plaster from the walls lay littered about in
+the passages.  The wind, too, penetrated the building through many
+cracks and crannies, so that there was a constant sighing and soughing
+in the big dreary rooms, which had a most eerie and melancholy effect.
+
+Kate soon learned, however, that, besides these vague terrors, all
+predisposing the mind to alarm and exciting the imagination, there was a
+general belief that another more definite cause for fear existed in the
+old monastery.  With cruel minuteness of detail her guardian had told
+her the legend which haunted those gloomy corridors.
+
+It appears that in olden times the Priory had been inhabited by
+Dominicans, and that in the course of years these monks had fallen away
+from their original state of sanctity.  They preserved a name for piety
+among the country folk by their austere demeanour, but in secret, within
+the walls of their own monastery, they practised every sort of
+dissipation and crime.
+
+While the community was in this state of demoralization, each, from the
+abbot downwards, vying with the other in the number and enormity of
+their sins, there came a pious-minded youth from a neighbouring village,
+who begged that he might be permitted to join the order.  He had been
+attracted, he said, by the fame of their sanctity.  He was received
+amongst them, and at first was not admitted to their revels, but
+gradually, as his conscience was supposed to become more hardened, he
+was duly initiated into all their mysteries.  Horrified by what he saw,
+the good youth concealed his indignation until he had mastered all the
+abominations of the establishment, and then, rising up on the altar
+steps, he denounced them in fiery, scathing words.  He would leave them
+that night, he said, and he would tell his experiences through the
+length and breadth of the country.  Incensed and alarmed, the friars
+held a hasty meeting, and then, seizing the young novice, they dragged
+him down the cellar steps and locked him up there.  This same cellar had
+long been celebrated for the size and ferocity of the rats which
+inhabited it which were so fierce and strong that even during the day
+they had been known to attack those who entered.  It is said that long
+into the weary hours of the night, the fearful shrieks and terrible
+struggles of the captive, as he fought with his innumerable assailants,
+resounded through the long corridors.
+
+"They do say that he walks about the house at times," Girdlestone said,
+in conclusion.  "No one has ever been found who would live here very
+long since then.  But, of course, such a strong-minded young woman as
+you, who cannot even obey your own guardian, would never be frightened
+by such a childish idea as that."
+
+"I do not believe in ghosts, and I don't think I shall be frightened,"
+Kate answered; but, for all that, the horrible story stuck in her mind,
+and added another to the many terrors which surrounded her.
+
+Mr. Girdlestone's room was immediately above hers.  On the second day of
+her imprisonment she went up on to this landing, for, having nothing to
+read save the Bible, and no materials for writing, she had little to do
+but to wander over the old house, and through the grounds.  The door of
+Girdlestone's room was ajar, and she could not help observing as she
+passed that the apartment was most elegantly and comfortably furnished.
+So was the next room, the door of which was also open.  The solid
+furniture and rich carpet contrasted strangely with her own bare,
+whitewashed chamber.  All this pointed to the fact that her removal to
+the Priory had not been a sudden impulse on the part of the old
+merchant, but that he had planned and arranged every detail beforehand.
+Her refusal of Ezra was only the excuse for setting the machinery in
+motion.  What was the object, then, and what was to be the end of this
+subtle scheming?  That  was the question which occurred to her every
+hour of the day, and every hour the answer seemed more grim and
+menacing.
+
+There was one link in the chain which was ever hidden from her.  It had
+never occurred to the girl that her fortune could be of moment to the
+firm.  She had been so accustomed to hear Ezra and his father talk
+glibly of millions, that she depreciated her own little capital and
+failed to realize how important it might be in a commercial crisis.
+Indeed, the possibility of such a crisis never entered her head, for one
+of her earliest impressions was hearing her father talk of the great
+resources of the firm and of its stability.  That this firm was now in
+the direst straits, and that her money was absolutely essential to its
+existence, were things which never for one instant entered her thoughts.
+
+Yet that necessity was becoming more pressing every day.  Ezra, in
+London, was doing all that indomitable energy and extraordinary business
+capacity could do to prolong the struggle.  As debts became due, he
+would still stave off each creditor with such skill and plausibility as
+allayed every suspicion.  Day by day, however, the work became more
+severe, and he felt that he was propping up an edifice which was so
+rotten that it must, sooner or later, come crumbling about his ears.
+When he came down to the Priory upon the Saturday, the young man's
+haggard and anxious face showed the severe ordeal which he had
+undergone.
+
+Kate had already retired to her room when he arrived.  She heard the
+sound of the trap, however, and guessed who it was, even before his deep
+bass voice sounded in the room beneath.  Looking out of her window a
+little later she saw him walking to and fro in the moonlight, talking
+earnestly to his father.  It was a bitter night, and she wondered what
+they could have to talk about which might not be said beside the warm
+fire in the dining-room.  They flickered up and down among the shadows
+for more than an hour, and then the girl heard the door slam, and
+shortly afterwards the heavy tread of the two men passed her chamber,
+and ascended to the rooms above.
+
+It was a momentous conversation which she had witnessed.  In it Ezra had
+shown his father how impossible it was to keep up appearances, and how
+infallible was their ruin unless help came speedily.
+
+"I don't think any of them smell a rat," he said.  "Mortimer and Johnson
+pressed for their bill in rather an ugly manner, but I talked them over
+completely.  I took out my cheque-book.  'Look here, gentlemen,' said I,
+'if you wish I shall write a cheque for the amount.  If I do, it will be
+the last piece of business which we shall do together.  A great house
+like ours can't afford to be disturbed in the routine of their
+business.'  They curled up at once, and said no more about it.  It was
+an anxious moment though, for if they had taken my offer, the whole
+murder would have been out."
+
+The old man started at the word his son had used, and rubbed his hands
+together as though a sudden chill had struck through him.
+
+"Don't you think, Ezra," he said, clutching his son's arm, "that is a
+very foolish saying about 'murder will out'?  I remember Pilkington, the
+detective, who was a member of our church when I used to worship at
+Durham Street, speaking on this subject.  He said that it was his
+opinion that people are being continually made away with, and that not
+more than one in ten are ever accounted for.  Nine chances to one, Ezra,
+and then those which are found out are very vulgar affairs.  If a man of
+intellect gave his mind to it, there would be little chance of
+detection.  How very cold the night is!"
+
+"Yes," returned his son.  "It is best to talk of such things in the open
+air, though.  How has all gone since you have been down here?"
+
+"Very well.  She was restive the first day, and wanted to get to
+Bedsworth.  I think that she has given it up now as a bad job.
+Stevens, the gatekeeper, is a very worthy fellow."
+
+"What steps have you taken?" asked Ezra, striking a fusee and lighting a
+cigar.
+
+"I have taken care that they should know that she is an invalid, both at
+Bedsworth and at Claxton.  They have all heard of the poor sick young
+lady at the Priory.  I have let them know also that her mind is a little
+strange, which accounts, of course, for her being kept in solitude.
+When it happens--"
+
+"For God's sake, be quiet!" the young man cried, with a shudder.
+"It's an awful job; it won't bear thinking of."
+
+"Yes, it is a sad business; but what else is there?"
+
+"And how would you do it?" Ezra asked, in a hoarse whisper.
+"No violence, I hope."
+
+"It may come to that.  I have other plans in my head, however, which may
+be tried first.  I think that I see one way out of it which would
+simplify matters."
+
+"If there is no alternative I have a man who is ripe for any job of the
+sort."
+
+"Ah, who is that?"
+
+"A fellow who can hit a good downright blow, as I can testify to my
+cost.  His name is Burt.  He is the man who cut my head open in Africa.
+I met him in London the other day, and spotted him at once.  He is a
+half-starved, poor devil, and as desperate as a man could be.  He is
+just in the key for any business of the sort.  I've got the whip-hand of
+him now, and he knows it, so that I could put him up to anything.
+I believe that such a job would be a positive pleasure to him, for the
+fellow is more like a wild beast than a man."
+
+"Sad, sad!" Girdlestone exclaimed.  "If a man once falls away, what is
+there to separate him from the beasts?  How can I find this man?"
+
+"Wire to me.  Put 'Send a doctor;' that will do as well as anything
+else, and will sound well at the post-office.  I'll see that he comes
+down by the next train.  You'd best meet him at the station, for the
+chances are that he will be drunk."
+
+"Bring him down," said Girdlestone.  "You must be here yourself."
+
+"Surely you can do without me?"
+
+"No, no.  We must stand or fall together."
+
+"I've a good mind to throw the thing over," said Ezra, stopping in his
+walk.  "It sickens me."
+
+"What! Go back now!" the old man cried vehemently.  "No, no, that would
+be too craven.  We have everything in our favour, and all that we want
+is a stout heart.  Oh, my boy, my boy, on the one side of you are ruin,
+dishonour, a sordid existence, and the scorn of your old companions; on
+the other are success and riches and fame and all that can make life
+pleasant.  You know as well as I do that the girl's money would turn the
+scale, and that all would then be well.  Your whole future depends upon
+her death.  We have given her every chance.  She laughed at your love.
+It is time now to show her your hate."
+
+"That is true enough," Ezra said, walking on.  "There is no reason why I
+should pity her.  I've put my hand to the plough, and I shall go on.
+I seem to be getting into your infernal knack of scripture quoting."
+
+"There is a brave, good lad," cried his father.  "It would not do to
+draw back now."
+
+"You will find Rebecca useful," the young man said, "You may trust her
+entirely."
+
+"You did well to send her.  Have they asked for me much?"
+
+"Yes.  I have told them all the same story--nervous exhaustion, and
+doctor's orders that you were not to be disturbed by any business
+letters.  The only man who seemed to smell a rat was that young
+Dimsdale."
+
+"Ah!" cried the old man, with a chuckle; "of course he would be
+surprised at our disappearance."
+
+"He looks like a madman; asked me where you had gone, and when I
+answered him as I had the others, stormed out that he had a right to
+know, and that he would know.  His blood was up, and there was nearly
+being a pretty scene before the clerks.  He follows me home every
+evening to Eccleston Square, and waits outside half the night through to
+see that I do not leave the house."
+
+"Does he, though?"
+
+"Yes; he came after me to the station to-day.  He had a cravat round his
+mouth and an ulster, but I could see that it was he.  I took a ticket
+for Colchester.  He took one also, and made for the Colchester train.
+I gave him the slip, got the right ticket, and came on.  I've no doubt
+he is at Colchester at this moment."
+
+"Remember, my boy," the merchant said, as they turned from the door,
+"this is the last of our trials.  If we succeed in this, all is well for
+the future."
+
+"We have tried diamonds, and we have tried marriage.  The third time is
+the charm," said Ezra, as he threw away his cigar and followed his
+father.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+THE INCIDENT OF THE CORRIDOR.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone hardly went through the formality of greeting Kate next
+morning when she came down to breakfast.  He was evidently ill at ease,
+and turned away his eyes when she looked at him, though he glanced at
+her furtively from time to time.  His father chatted with him upon City
+matters, but the young man's answers were brusque and monosyllabic.
+His sleep had been troubled and broken, for the conversation of the
+night before had obtruded unpleasantly on his dreams.
+
+Kate slipped away from them as soon as she could and, putting on her
+bonnet, went for a long walk through the grounds, partly for the sake of
+exercise, and partly in the hope of finding some egress.  The one-eyed
+gate-keeper was at his post, and set up a hideous shout of laughter when
+he saw her; so she branched off among the trees to avoid him, and walked
+once more very carefully round the boundary wall.  It was no easy matter
+to follow it continuously, for the briars and brambles grew in a
+confused tangle up to its very base.  By perseverance, however, she
+succeeded in tracing every foot of it, and so satisfying herself finally
+that there was no diminution anywhere in its height, no break in its
+continuity, save the one small wooden door which was securely fastened.
+
+There was one spot, however, where a gleam of hope presented itself.
+At an angle of the wall there stood a deserted wooden shed, which had
+been used for the protection of gardeners' tools in the days when the
+grounds had been kept in better order.  It was not buttressed up against
+the wall, but stood some eight or ten feet from it.  Beside the shed was
+an empty barrel which had once been a water-butt.  The girl managed to
+climb to the top of the barrel, and from this she was easily able to
+gain the sloping roof of the shed.  Up this she clambered until she
+stood upon the summit, a considerable height above the ground.  From it
+she was able to look down over the wall on to the country-road and the
+railway line which lay on the other side of it.  True that an impassable
+chasm lay between her and the wall, but it would be surely possible for
+her to hail passers-by from here, and to persuade some of them to carry
+a letter to Bedsworth or to bring paper from there.  Fresh hope gushed
+into her heart at the thought.
+
+It was not a very secure footing, for the planks of which the shed was
+composed were worm-eaten and rotten.  They cracked and crumbled beneath
+her feet, but what would she not dare to see a friendly human face?
+As she stood there a couple of country louts, young lads about sixteen,
+came strolling down the road, the one whistling and the other munching
+at a raw turnip.  They lounged along until they came opposite to Kate's
+point of observation, when one of them looking up saw her pale face
+surmounting the wall.
+
+"Hey, Bill," he cried to his companion, "blowed if the mad wench bean't
+up on the shed over yander!"
+
+"So she be!" said the other eagerly.  "Give me your turnip.  Jimmy, an'
+I'll shy it at her."
+
+"Noa, I'll shy it mysel'," said the gallant Jimmy; and at the word whizz
+came the half of a turnip within an inch of Kate's ear.
+
+"You've missed her!" shrieked the other savage.  "'Ere, quick, where be
+a stone?"  But before he could find one the poor girl, sick at heart,
+clambered down from her exposed situation.
+
+"There is no hope for me anywhere," she sobbed to herself.  "Every man's
+hand is against me.  I have only one true friend, and he is far away."
+She went back to her room utterly disheartened and dispirited.
+
+Her guardian knocked at her door before dinner time.  "I trust," he
+said, "that you have read over the service.  It is as well to do so when
+you cannot go to church."
+
+"And why should you prevent me from going to church?" she asked.
+
+"Ah, my lady," he said with a sneer, "you are reaping what you have
+sown.  You are tasting now, the bitter fruits of your disobedience.
+Repent before it is too late!"
+
+"I have done no wrong," she said, turning on him with flashing eyes.
+"It is for _you_ to repent, you violent and hypocritical man.  It is for
+you to answer for your godly words and your ungodly and wicked actions.
+There is a power which will judge between us some day, and will exact
+atonement for your broken oath to your dead friend and for your cruel
+treatment of one who was left to your care."  She spoke with burning
+cheeks and with such fearless energy that the hard City man fairly
+cowered away from her.
+
+"We will leave that to the future," he said.  "I came up to do you a
+kindness, and you abuse me.  I hear that there are insects about the
+house, beetles and the like.  A few drops from this bottle scattered
+about the room would keep them away.  Take care, for it is a violent
+though painless poison if taken by a human being."  He handed her a
+phial, with a brownish turbid liquid in it, and a large red poison
+label, which she took without comment and placed upon the mantelpiece.
+Girdlestone gave a quick, keen glance at her as he retired.  In truth he
+was astonished at the alteration which the last few days had made in her
+appearance.  Her cheeks were colourless and sunken, save for the single
+hectic spot, which announced the fever within.  Her eyes were
+unnaturally bright.  A strange and new expression had settled upon her
+whole countenance.  It seemed to Girdlestone that there was every chance
+that his story might become a reality, and her reason be permanently
+deranged.  She had, however, more vitality than her guardian gave her
+credit for.  Indeed, at the very time when he set her down in his mind
+as a broken woman, she had formed a fresh plan for escape, which it
+would require both energy and determination to put into execution.
+
+During the last few days she had endeavoured to make friends with the
+maid Rebecca, but the invincible aversion which the latter had
+entertained for her, ever since Ezra had visited her with his unwelcome
+attentions, was not to be overcome by any advances which she could make.
+She performed her offices with a heart full of malice, and an eye which
+triumphed in her mistress's misfortunes.
+
+Kate had bethought herself that Stevens, the gatekeeper, only mounted
+guard during the day.  She had observed, too, at the time of her
+conversation with him, that the iron gate was in such a state of
+disrepair that, even if it were locked, it would not be a difficult
+matter to scramble through or over it.  If she could only gain the open
+air during the night there would be nothing to prevent her from making
+her way to Bedsworth, whence she could travel on to Portsmouth, which
+was only seven miles away.  Surely there she would find some charitable
+people who would communicate with her friends and give her a temporary
+shelter.
+
+The front door of the house was locked every night, but there was a nail
+behind it, on which she hoped to find the key.  There was another door
+at the back.  Then there were the windows of the ground-floor, which
+might be tried in case the doors were too securely fastened.  If only
+she could avoid waking any one there was no reason why she should not
+succeed.  If the worst came to the worst and she was detected, they
+could not treat her more cruelly than they had already done.
+
+Ezra had gone back to London, so that she had only three enemies to
+contend against, Girdlestone, Rebecca, and old Mrs. Jorrocks.  Of these,
+Girdlestone slept upon the floor above, and Mrs. Jorrocks, who might
+have been the most dangerous of all, as her room was on the
+ground-floor, was fortunately so deaf that there was little risk of
+disturbing her.  The problem resolved itself, therefore, into being able
+to pass Rebecca's room without arousing her, and, as she knew the maid
+to be a sound sleeper, there seemed to be every chance of success.
+
+She sat at her window all that afternoon steeling her mind to the ordeal
+before her.  She was weak, poor girl, and shaken, little fit for
+anything which required courage and resolution.  Her mind ran much upon
+her father, and upon the mother whom she had never known, but whose
+miniature was among her most precious treasures.  The thought of them
+helped to dispel the dreadful feeling of utter loneliness, which was the
+most unendurable of all her troubles.
+
+It was a cold, bright day, and the tide was in, covering the mudbanks
+and lapping up against the walls of the Priory grounds.  So clear was it
+that she could distinguish the houses at the east end of the Isle of
+Wight.  When she opened her window and looked out she could perceive
+that the sea upon her right formed a great inlet, dreary and dry at low
+tide, but looking now like a broad, reed-girt lake.  This was Langston
+Harbour, and far away at its mouth she could make out a clump of
+buildings which marked the watering-place of Hayling.
+
+There were other signs, however, of the presence of man.  From her
+window she could see the great men-of-war  steaming up the Channel, to
+and from the anchorage at Spithead.  Some were low in the water and
+venomous looking, with bulbous turrets and tiny masts.  Others were long
+and stately, with great lowering hulks and broad expanse of canvas.
+Occasionally a foreign service gunboat would pass, white and ghostly,
+like some tired seabird flapping its way home.  It was one of Kate's few
+amusements to watch the passing and repassing of the vessels, and to
+speculate upon whence they had come and whither they were bound.
+
+On that eventful evening Rebecca went to bed rather earlier than usual.
+Kate retired to her room, and having made her final preparations and
+stuffed her few articles of jewelry into her pockets, to serve in place
+of money, she lay down upon her bed, and trembled at the thought of what
+was in front of her.  Down below she could hear her guardian's shuffling
+step as he moved about the refectory.  Then came the creaking of the
+rusty lock as he secured the door, and shortly afterwards he passed
+upstairs to his room.  Mrs. Jorrocks had also gone to bed, and all was
+quiet in the house.
+
+Kate knew that some hours must elapse before she could venture to make
+the attempt.  She remembered to have read in some book that the sleep of
+a human being was usually deepest about two in the morning, so she had
+chosen that hour for her enterprise.  She had put on her strongest dress
+and her thickest shoes, but had muffled the latter in cloth, so that
+they should make no sound.  No precaution which she could think of had
+been neglected.  There was now nothing to be done but to spend the time
+as best she might until the hour of action should arrive.
+
+She rose and looked out of the window again.  The tide was out now, and
+the moon glittered upon the distant ocean.  A mist was creeping up,
+however, and even as she looked it drew its veil over the water.
+It was bitterly cold.  She shivered and her teeth began to chatter.
+Stretching herself upon the bed once more, she wrapped the blankets
+round her, and, worn out with anxiety and fatigue, dropped into a
+troubled sleep.
+
+She slumbered some hours before she awoke.
+
+Looking at her watch she found that it was after two.  She must not
+delay any longer.  With the little bundle of her more valuable
+possessions in her hand, she gave such a gasp as a diver gives before he
+makes his spring, and slipping past Rebecca's half-opened door she felt
+her way down the wooden stair, picking her steps very carefully.
+
+Even in the daytime she had often noticed how those old planks creaked
+and cracked beneath her weight.  Now, in the dead silence of the night,
+they emitted such sounds that her heart sank within her.  She stopped
+several times, convinced that she must be discovered, but all was hushed
+and still.  It was a relief when at last she reached the ground-floor,
+and was able to feel her way along the passage to the door.
+
+Shaking in every limb from cold and fear, she put her hand to the lock;
+the key was not there.  She tried the nail; there was nothing there.
+Her wary gaoler had evidently carried it away with him to his room.
+Would it occur to him to do the same in the case of the back door?
+It was very possible that he might have overlooked it.  She retraced her
+steps down the passage, passed Mrs. Jorrocks' room, where the old woman
+was snoring peacefully, and began to make her way as best she could
+through the great rambling building.
+
+Running along the basement floor from front to back there was a long
+corridor, one side of which was pierced for windows.  At the end of this
+corridor was the door which she wished to reach.  The moon had broken
+through the fog, and pouring its light through each opening cast a
+succession of silvery flickering spots upon the floor.  Between each of
+these bars of uncertain light was an interval of darkness.  Kate stood
+at the head of this corridor with her hand against the wall, awed by the
+sudden sight of the moonlight and by the weird effect which was produced
+by the alternate patches of shadow and brightness.  As she stood there,
+suddenly, with eyes distended with horror, she became aware that
+something was approaching her down the corridor.
+
+She saw it moving as a dark formless mass at the further end.  It passed
+through the bar of light, vanished, appeared once more, lost itself in
+the darkness, emerged again.  It was half-way down the passage and still
+coming on.  Petrified with terror, she could only wait and watch.
+Nearer it came and nearer.  It was gliding into the last bar of light
+Immediately in front of her!  It was on her!  God of mercy, it was a
+Dominican friar!  The moon shone clear and cold upon his gaunt figure
+and his sombre robes.  The poor girl threw up her hands, gave one
+terrible scream of horror, which rang through the old house, and sank
+senseless to the ground.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+A CHASE AND A BRAWL.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the suspense in which Tom Dimsdale
+lived during these weeks.  In vain he tried in every manner to find some
+way of tracing the fugitives.  He wandered aimlessly about London from
+one inquiry office to another, telling his story and appealing for
+assistance.  He advertised in papers and cross-questioned every one who
+might know anything of the matter.  There were none, however, who could
+help him or throw any light upon the mystery.
+
+No one at the office knew anything of the movements of the senior
+partner.  To all inquiries Ezra replied that he had been ordered by the
+doctors to seek complete repose in the country.  Dimsdale dogged Ezra's
+footsteps night after night in the hope of gaining some clue, but in
+vain.  On the Saturday he followed him to the railway station, but Ezra,
+as we have seen, succeeded in giving him the slip.
+
+His father became seriously anxious about the young fellow's health.
+He ate nothing and his sleep was much broken.  Both the old people tried
+to inculcate patience and moderation.
+
+"That fellow, Ezra Girdlestone, knows where they are," Tom would cry,
+striding wildly up and down the room with unkempt hair and clenched
+hands.  "I will have his secret, if I have to tear it out of him."
+
+"Steady, lad, steady!" the doctor replied to one of these outbursts.
+"There is nothing to be gained by violence.  They are on the right side
+of the law at present, and you will be on the wrong if you do anything
+rash.  The girl could have written if she were uncomfortable."
+
+"Ah, so she could.  She must have forgotten us.  How could she, after
+all that has passed!"
+
+"Let us hope for the best, let us hope for the best," the doctor would
+say soothingly.  Yet it must be confessed that he was considerably
+staggered by the turn which things had taken.  He had seen so much of
+the world in his professional capacity that he had become a very
+reliable judge of character.  All his instincts told him that Kate
+Harston was a true-hearted and well-principled girl.  It was not in her
+nature to leave London and never to send a single line to her friends to
+tell them where or why she had gone.  There must, he was sure, be some
+good reason for her silence, and this reason resolved itself into one or
+two things--either she was ill and unable to hold a pen, or she had lost
+her freedom and was restrained from writing to them.  The last
+supposition seemed to the doctor to be the more serious of the two.
+
+Had he known the instability of the Girdlestone firm, and the necessity
+they were under of getting ready money, he would at once have held the
+key to the enigma.  He had no idea of that, but in spite of his
+ignorance he was deeply distrustful of both father and son.  He knew and
+had often deplored the clause in John Harston's will by which the ward's
+money reverted to the guardian.  Forty thousand pounds were a bait which
+might tempt even a wealthy man into crooked paths.
+
+It was Saturday--the third Saturday since Girdlestone and his ward had
+disappeared.  Dimsdale had fully made up his mind that, go where he
+would, Ezra should not escape him this time.  On two consecutive
+Saturdays the young merchant had managed to get away from him, and had
+been absent each time until the Monday morning.  Tom knew, and the
+thought was a bitter one, that these days were spent in some unknown
+retreat in the company of Kate and of her guardian.  This time at least
+he should not get away without revealing his destination.
+
+The two young men remained in the office until two o'clock.  Then Ezra
+put on his hat and overcoat, buttoning it up close, for the weather was
+bitterly cold.  Tom at once picked up his wide-awake and followed him
+out into Fenchurch Street, so close to his heels that the swinging door
+had not shut on the one before the other passed through.  Ezra glanced
+round at him when he heard the footsteps, and gave a snarl like an angry
+dog.  There was no longer any pretence of civility between the two, and
+whenever their eyes met it was only to exchange glances of hatred and
+defiance.
+
+A hansom was passing down the street, and Ezra, with a few muttered
+words to the driver, sprang in.  Fortunately another had just discharged
+its fare, and was still waiting by the curb.  Tom ran up to it.
+"Keep that red cab in sight," he said.  "Whatever you do, don't let it
+get away from you."  The driver, who was a man of few words, nodded and
+whipped up his horse.
+
+It chanced that this same horse was either a faster or a fresher one
+than that which bore the young merchant.  The red cab rattled down Fleet
+Street, then doubled on its tracks, and coming back by St. Paul's
+plunged into a labyrinth of side streets, from which it eventually
+emerged upon the Thames Embankment.  In spite of all its efforts,
+however, it was unable to shake off its pursuer.  The red cab journeyed
+on down the Embankment and across one of the bridges, Tom's able
+charioteer still keeping only a few yards behind it.  Among the narrow
+streets on the Surrey side Ezra's vehicle pulled up at a low beer-shop.
+Tom's drove on a hundred yards or so, and then stopped where he could
+have a good view of whatever occurred.  Ezra had jumped out and entered
+the public-house.  Tom waited patiently outside until he should
+reappear.  His movements hitherto had puzzled him completely.  For a
+moment the wild hope came into his head that Kate might be concealed in
+this strange hiding-place, but a little reflection showed him the
+absurdity and impossibility of the idea.
+
+He had not long to wait.  In a very few minutes young Girdlestone came
+out again, accompanied by a tall, burly man, with a bushy red beard, who
+was miserably dressed, and appeared to be somewhat the worse for drink.
+He was helped into the cab by Ezra, and the pair drove off together.
+Tom was more bewildered than ever.  Who was this fellow, and what
+connexion had he with the matter on hand?  Like a sleuth-hound the
+pursuing hansom threaded its way through the torrent of vehicles which
+pour down the London streets, never for one moment losing sight of its
+quarry.  Presently they wheeled into the Waterloo Road, close to the
+Waterloo Station.  The red cab turned sharp round and rattled up the
+incline which leads to the main line.  Tom sprang out, tossed a
+sovereign to the driver, and followed on foot at the top of his speed.
+
+As he ran into the station Ezra Girdlestone and the red-bearded stranger
+were immediately in front of him.  There was a great swarm of people all
+around, for, as it was Saturday, there were special trains to the
+country.  Tom was afraid of losing sight of the two men in the crowd, so
+he elbowed his way through as quickly as he could, and got immediately
+behind them--so close that he could have touched them with his hand.
+They were approaching the booking-office, when Ezra glanced round and
+saw his rival standing behind him.  He gave a bitter curse, and
+whispered something to his half-drunken companion.  The latter turned,
+and with an inarticulate cry, like a wild beast, rushed at the young man
+and seized him by the throat with his brawny hands.
+
+It is one thing, however, to catch a man by the throat, and another to
+retain that grip, especially when your antagonist happens to be an
+International football player.  To Tom this red-bearded rough, who
+charged him so furiously, was nothing more than the thousands of
+bull-headed forwards who had come upon him like thunder-bolts in the
+days of old.  With the ease begotten by practice he circled his
+assailant with his long muscular arms, and gave a quick convulsive jerk
+in which every sinew of his body participated.  The red-bearded man's
+stumpy legs described a half-circle in the air, and he came down on the
+stone pavement with a sounding crash which shook every particle of
+breath from his enormous body.
+
+Tom's fighting blood was all aflame now, and his grey eyes glittered
+with a Berserk joy as he made at Ezra.  All the cautions of his father
+and the exhortations of his mother were cast to the winds as he saw his
+enemy standing before him.  To do him justice, Ezra was nothing loth,
+but sprang forward to meet him, hitting with both hands.  They were well
+matched, for both were trained boxers and exceptionally powerful men.
+Ezra was perhaps the stronger, but Tom was in better condition.
+There was a short eager rally--blow and guard and counter so quick and
+hard that the eye could hardly follow it.  Then a rush of railway
+servants and bystanders tore them asunder.  Tom had a red flush on his
+forehead where a blow had fallen, Ezra was spitting out the fragments of
+a broken tooth, and bleeding profusely.  Each struggled furiously to get
+at the other, with the result that they were dragged farther apart.
+Eventually a burly policeman seized Tom by the collar, and held him as
+in a vice.
+
+"Where is he?" Tom cried, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of his
+enemy.  "He'll get away after all."
+
+"Can't 'elp that," said the guardian of the peace phlegmatically.
+"A gen'elman like you ought to be ashamed.  Keep quiet now!  Would yer,
+then!"  This last at some specially energetic effort on the part of the
+prisoner to recover his freedom.
+
+"They'll get away!  I know they will!" Tom cried in despair, for both
+Ezra and his companion, who was none other than Burt, of African
+notoriety, had disappeared from his sight.  His fears proved to be only
+too well founded, for when at last he succeeded in wresting himself from
+the constable's clutches he could find no trace of his enemies.  A dozen
+bystanders gave a dozen different accounts of their movements.
+He rushed from one platform to another over all the great station.
+He could have torn his hair at the thought of the way in which he had
+allowed them to slip through his fingers.  It was fully an hour before
+he finally abandoned the search, and acknowledged to himself that he had
+been hoodwinked for the third time, and that a long week would elapse
+before he could have another chance of solving the mystery.
+
+He turned at last sadly and reluctantly away from the station, and
+walked across to Waterloo Bridge, brooding over all that had occurred,
+and cursing himself for his stupidity in allowing himself to be drawn
+into a vulgar brawl, when he might have attained his end so much better
+by quiet observation.  It was some consolation, however, that he had had
+one fair crack at Ezra Girdlestone.  He glanced down at his knuckles,
+which were raw and bleeding, with a mixture of satisfaction and disgust.
+With half a smile he put his injured hand in his pocket, and looking up
+once more became aware that a red-faced gentleman was approaching him in
+a highly excited manner.
+
+It could not be said that the red-faced gentleman walked, neither could
+it be said that the red-faced gentleman ran.  His mode of progression
+might best be described as a succession of short and unwieldy jumps,
+which, as he was a rather stout gentleman, appeared to indicate some
+very urgent and pressing need for hurry.  His face was bathed in
+perspiration, and his collar had become flaccid and shapeless from the
+same cause.  It appeared to Tom, as he gazed at those rubicund, though
+anxious, features, that they should be well known to him.  That glossy
+hat, those speckless gaiters, and the long frock-coat, surely they could
+belong to none other than the gallant Major Tobias Clutterbuck, late of
+her Majesty's 119th of the Line?
+
+As the old soldier approached Tom, he quickened his pace, so that when
+he eventually came up with him he could only puff and pant and hold out
+a soiled letter.
+
+"Read!" he managed to ejaculate.
+
+Tom opened the letter and glanced his eye over the contents, with a face
+which had turned as pale as the major's was red.  When he finished it he
+turned without a word, and began to run in the direction from which he
+had come, the major following as quickly as his breath would permit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+GIRDLESTONE SENDS FOR THE DOCTOR.
+
+When Kate came to herself after the terrible incident which frustrated
+her attempt at escape, she found herself in bed in her own little room.
+By the light which shone in through the window she knew that it must be
+well on in the day.  Her head was throbbing violently, and she was so
+weak that she could hardly raise herself in bed.  When she looked round
+she found that Rebecca had brought a chair in from her room and was
+sitting by the fire.  At the sound of her movement the maid glanced up
+and perceived that her mistress had recovered consciousness.
+
+"Lor' bless me!" she cried, "you've given us a pretty fright.
+We thought you wasn't coming back to your senses no more.  You've been
+a-lyin' there since the middle of the night, and now it's close on to
+twelve o'clock."
+
+Kate lay silent for some little time, putting together all that had
+occurred.  "Oh, Rebecca," she said at last, shivering at the
+recollection, "I have seen the most dreadful sight.  Either I am going
+mad, or I have seen a ghost."
+
+"We thought you were a ghost yourself," said the girl reproachfully.
+"What with the screechin' and you lying so white in the middle of the
+passage, it was enough to make any one's 'air turn grey.
+Mr. Girdlestone, he lifted you up, an' carried you back into your room.
+He was cut to the heart, the good gentleman, when he saw what you'd been
+after, a-tryin' to give him the slip."
+
+"Oh, this dreadful house will kill me--it will kill me!" Kate moaned.
+"I cannot stay in it any longer.  What shall I do?  Oh, Rebecca,
+Rebecca, what shall I do?"
+
+The fresh-coloured maid came across with a simper upon her pretty,
+vulgar face, and sat on the side of the bed.  "What's the matter, then?"
+she asked.  "What is it that you have seen?"
+
+"I have seen--oh, Rebecca, it is too dreadful to talk of.  I have seen
+that poor monk who was killed in the cellars.  It was not fancy.  I saw
+him as plainly as I see you now, with his tall thin figure, and long
+loose gown, and the brown cowl drawn over his face."
+
+"God preserve us!" cried Rebecca nervously, glancing over her shoulder.
+"It is enough to give one the creeps."
+
+"I pray that I may never see such a sight again.  Oh, Rebecca, if you
+have the heart of a woman, help me to get away from this place.
+They mean that I should never go from it alive.  I have read it in my
+guardian's eyes.  He longs for my death.  Do, do tell me what I should
+do for the best."
+
+"I'm surprised at you!" the maid said with dignity.  "When Mr.
+Girdlestone and Mr. Ezra is so good to you, and provides you with a
+country-house and every convenience as 'eart could wish, all you can
+find to do is to go screamin' about at night, and then talk as if you
+was a-goin' to be murdered in the day.  I really am surprised.
+There's Mr. Girdlestone a-callin.'  He'd be shocked, poor gentleman, if
+he knew how you was abusin' of him." Rebecca's face assumed an
+expression of virtuous indignation as she swept out of the room, but her
+black eyes shone with the unholy light of cruelty and revenge.
+
+Left to herself, Kate rose and dressed as well as her weakness would
+permit.  Her nerves were so shaken that she started at the least sound,
+and she could hardly recognize the poor pale face which she saw in the
+glass as her own.  She had scarcely finished her toilet before her
+guardian came up into her room.
+
+"You are better, then?" he said.
+
+"I am very ill," she answered gently.
+
+"No wonder, after rushing about the corridors in that absurd fashion in
+the dead of the night.  Rebecca tells me that you imagine you met with
+some apparition.  You are crying.  Are you so unhappy, then?"
+
+"Very, very miserable," Kate answered, sinking her face upon her hands.
+
+"Ah," said Girdlestone softly, "it is only in some higher life that we
+shall find entire peace and contentment."  His voice had altered, so
+that a little warm spring of hope began to rise in the girl's heart,
+that perhaps the sight of her many miseries was beginning to melt this
+iron man.
+
+"Beyond the grave is rest," he continued, in the same gentle tones.
+"It has seemed to me sometimes that if it were not for the duties which
+I have to perform in this world, and the many who are dependent upon me,
+I should be tempted to shorten my existence in order to attain the peace
+which is to come.  Some precisians have pronounced it to be sinful to
+cut the thread of life.  For my part I have never thought it so, and yet
+my view of morals has been a strict one.  I hold that of all things in
+this world one's life is the thing which belongs most entirely to one's
+self, and may therefore most freely be terminated when it seems good to
+us."  He picked up the phial from the mantelpiece and gazed thoughtfully
+at it.  "How strange," he said, "to think that within the compass of
+this tiny bottle lies a cure for every earthly evil!  One draught and
+the body slips off like a garment, while the soul walks forth in all its
+beauty and freedom.  Trouble is over.  One draught, and--Ah, let go, I
+say!  What have you done?"
+
+Kate had snatched the bottle from him, and with a quick feminine gesture
+had hurled it against the wall, where it splintered to pieces, sending a
+strong turpentiney odour through the apartment.  Her strength was so
+impaired that she staggered back after this feat, and sat down on the
+side of the bed, while her guardian, grim and threatening, stood over
+her with his long, bony fingers opening and shutting, as though he found
+it difficult to keep them from her throat.
+
+"I will not help you in it," she said, in a low but firm voice.
+"You would kill my soul as well."
+
+The mask had fairly dropped from Girdlestone.  No gaunt old wolf could
+have glared down with fiercer eyes or a more cruel mouth.  "You fool!"
+he hissed.
+
+"I am not afraid to die," she said, looking up at him with brave,
+steadfast eyes.
+
+Girdlestone recovered his self-possession by an effort.  "It is clear to
+me," he said calmly, "that your reason is unhinged.  What is all this
+nonsense about death?  There is nothing that will harm you except your
+own evil actions."  He turned abruptly and strode out of the room with
+the firm and decided step of a man who has taken an irrevocable
+resolution.
+
+With a set and rigid face he ascended the steps which led to his
+bedroom, and, rummaging in his desk, produced a telegram form.  This he
+filled up and took with him downstairs.  There he put on his hat and
+started off to the Bedsworth Post-office at full speed.
+
+At the avenue gate he met his sentinel, who was sitting on his camp
+stool as grim as ever.
+
+"She is very bad, Stevens," Girdlestone said, stopping and jerking his
+head in the direction of the house.  "She is going downhill.  I am
+afraid that she can't last long.  If any one asks you about her, you can
+say that she was despaired of.  I am just sending off a telegram to a
+doctor in London, so that she may have the best advice."
+
+Stevens touched his greasy-peaked cap as a token of respect.  "She was
+down here behavin' outrageous the other day," said he.  "'Let me pass,'
+says she, 'and you shall have ten golden guineas.'  Them's her very
+words.  'Not for ten hundred golden guineas,' I answers, 'would William
+Stevens, hesquire, do what he didn't ought to.'"
+
+"Very proper, very proper indeed," said Girdlestone approvingly.
+"Every man in his own station has his own duties to fulfil, and he will
+be judged as he has fulfilled them, well or ill.  I shall see that you
+are no loser by your staunchness."
+
+"Thank ye, guv'nor."
+
+"She is wild and delirious, and can get about in spite of her low state
+of health.  It is possible that she may make some effort to get away, so
+be vigilant.  Good day to you."
+
+"Good day, sir." William Stevens stood at the gate, looking pensively
+after his employer; then he reseated himself upon his camp-stool, and,
+lighting his pipe, resumed his meditations.  "I can't make nought of
+it," he muttered, scratching his head, "It do seem uncommon queer, to be
+sure.  The boss he says, 'She's very low,' says he, and then next minute
+he says, 'She may be comin' down and tryin' to escape.  'I've seen diers
+o' all shapes and sizes, but I've never seed one as went a galivantin'
+about like this--at least, not among them as died a nat'ral death.
+It do seem uncommon strange.  Then, again, he's off telegrayphin' for a
+doctor to Lunnon, when there's Doctor Corbett, o' Claxton, or Doctor
+Hutton, o' Bedsworth, would come quick enough if he wanted them.
+I can't make no sense of it.  Why, bust my buttons!" he continued,
+taking his pipe out of his mouth in a paroxysm of astonishment,
+"if here hain't the dier herself!"
+
+It was, indeed, Kate, who, learning that her guardian was gone, had come
+out with some vague idea of making a last struggle for her life and
+freedom.  With the courage of despair, she came straight down the avenue
+to the sole spot where escape seemed possible.
+
+"Good mornin', missy," cried Stevens, as she approached.  "You don't
+look extra bright this mornin', but you ain't as bad as your good
+guardian made me think.  You don't seem to feel no difficulty in gettin'
+about."
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me," the girl answered earnestly.
+"I assure you there is not.  My mind is as sound as yours."
+
+"That's what they all says," said the ex-warder with a chuckle.
+
+"But it is so.  I cannot stay in that house longer.  I cannot, Mr.
+Stevens, I cannot!  It is haunted, and my guardian will murder me.
+He means to.  I read it in his eyes.  He as good as tried this morning.
+To die without one word to those I love--without any explanation of what
+has passed--that would give a sting to death."
+
+"Well, if this ain't outragis!" cried the one-eyed man;  "perfectly
+outragis!  Going to murder you, says you!  What's he a-goin' to do that
+for?"
+
+"God knows!  He hates me for some reason.  I have never gone against his
+wishes, save in one respect, and in that I can never obey him, for it is
+a matter in which he has no right to command."
+
+"Quite so!" said Stevens, winking his one eye.  "I knows the feeling
+myself, cuss me, but I do!  'Thine for once and thine for never,' as the
+song says."
+
+"Why won't you let me pass?" pleaded Kate.  "You may have had daughters
+of your own.  What would you do if they were treated as I have been?
+If I had money you should have it, but I have none.  Do, do let me go!
+God will reward you for it.  Perhaps when you are on your last bed of
+sickness the memory of this one good deed may outweigh all the evil that
+you have done."
+
+"Lor', don't she speak!" said Stevens, appealing confidentially to the
+nearest tree.  "It's like a dictionary."
+
+"And you won't lose by it in this life," the girl added eagerly.
+"See, here is my watch and my chain.  You shall have that if you will
+let me through?"
+
+"Let's see it."  He opened it and examined it critically.
+"Eighteen carat--it's only a Geneva, though.  What can you expect for a
+Geneva?"
+
+"And you shall have fifty pounds when I get back to my friends.
+Do let me pass, good Mr. Stevens, for my guardian may return at any
+moment."
+
+"See here, miss," Stevens said solemnly; "dooty is dooty, and if every
+hair of your 'ead was tagged wi' a jewel, and you offered to make me
+your barber, I wouldn't let you through that gate.  As to this 'ere
+watch, if so be as you would like to write a line to your friends, I'll
+post it for you at Bedsworth in exchange for it, though it be only a
+Geneva."
+
+"You good, kind man!" cried Kate, all excitement and delight.  "I have a
+pencil in my pocket.  What shall I do for paper?"  She looked eagerly
+round and spied a small piece which lay among the brushwood.  With a cry
+of joy she picked it out.  It was very coarse and very dirty, but she
+managed to scrawl a few lines upon it, describing her situation and
+asking for aid.  "I will write the address upon the back," she said.
+"When you get to Bedsworth you must buy an envelope and ask the
+post-office people to copy the address on to it."
+
+"I bargained to post it for the Geneva," he said.  "I didn't bargain to
+buy envelopes and copy addresses.  That's a nice pencil-case of yourn.
+Now I'll make a clean job of it if you'll throw that in."
+
+Kate handed it over without a murmur.  At last a small ray of light
+seemed to be finding its way through the darkness which had so long
+surrounded her.  Stevens put the watch and pencil-case in his pocket,
+and took the little scrap of paper on which so much depended.  As Kate
+handed it to him she saw over his shoulder that coming up the lane was a
+small pony-carriage, in which sat a buxom lady and a very small page.
+The sleek little brown pony which drew it ambled along at a methodical
+pace which showed that it was entirely master of the situation, while
+the whole turnout had an indescribable air of comfort and good nature.
+Poor Kate had been so separated from her kind that the sight of people
+who, if not friendly, were at least not hostile to her, sent a thrill of
+pleasure into her heart.  There was something wholesome and prosaic too
+about this homely equipage, which was inexpressibly soothing to a mind
+so worn by successive terrors.
+
+"Here's some one a-comin'," cried Stevens.  "Clear out from here--it's
+the governor's orders."
+
+"Oh, do let me stay and say one word to the lady!"  Stevens seized his
+great stick savagely.  "Clear out!" he cried in a hoarse, angry voice,
+and made a step towards her as if he would strike her.  She shrank away
+from him, and then, a sudden thought seizing her, she turned and ran
+through the woods as fast as her feeble strength would allow.  The
+instant that she was out of sight, Stevens very deliberately and
+carefully tore up the little slip of paper with which she had entrusted
+him, and scattered the pieces to the wind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+A GLEAM OF LIGHT.
+
+Kate Harston fled as quickly as she could through the wood, stumbling
+over the brambles and crashing through the briars, regardless of pain or
+scratches or anything else which could stand between her and the
+possibility of safety.  She soon gained the shed and managed to mount on
+to the top of it by the aid of the barrel.  Craning her neck, she could
+see the long dusty lane, with the bare withered hedges upon either side,
+and the dreary line of the railway embankment beyond.  There was no
+pony-carriage in sight.
+
+She hardly expected that there would be, for she had taken a short cut,
+and the carriage would have to go some distance round.  The road along
+which it was travelling ran at right angles to the one which she was now
+overlooking, and the chances were equal as to whether the lady would
+turn round or go straight on.  In the latter case, it would not be
+possible for her to attract her attention.  Her heart seemed to stand
+still with anxiety as she peered over the high wall at the spot where
+the two roads crossed.
+
+Presently she heard the rattle of wheels, and the brown pony trotted
+round the corner.  The carriage drew up at the end of the lane, and the
+driver seemed to be uncertain how to proceed.  Then she shook the reins,
+and the pony lumbered on along the road.  Kate gave a cry of despair and
+the last ray of hope died away from her heart.
+
+It chanced, however, that the page in the carriage was just at that
+happy age when the senses are keen and on the alert.  He heard the cry,
+and glancing round he saw through a break in the hedge that a lady was
+looking over the wall which skirted the lane they had passed.
+He mentioned the fact to his mistress.
+
+"Maybe we'd better go back, ma'am," he said.
+
+"Maybe we'd better not, John," said the buxom lady.  "People can look
+over their garden walls without our interfering with them, can't they?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, but she was a-hollerin' at us."
+
+"No, John, was she though?  Maybe this is a private road and we have no
+right to be on it."
+
+"She gave a holler as if some one was a-hurtin' of her," said John with
+decision.
+
+"Then we'll go back," said the lady, and turned the pony round.
+
+Hence it came about that just as Kate was descending with a sad heart
+from her post of observation, she was electrified to see the brown pony
+reappear and come trotting round the curve of the lane, with a rapidity
+which was altogether foreign to that quadruped's usual habits.
+Indeed, the girl turned so very white at the sight, and her face assumed
+such an expression of relief and delight, that the lady who was
+approaching saw at once that it was no common matter which had caused
+her to summon them.
+
+"What is it, my dear?" she cried, pulling up when she came abreast of
+the place.  Her good, kind heart was touched already by the pleading
+expression upon the girl's sweet face.
+
+"Oh, madam, whoever you may be," said Kate, in a low, rapid voice,
+"I believe God has sent you here this day.  I am shut up in these
+grounds, and shall be murdered unless help comes."
+
+"Be murdered!" cried the lady in the pony-carriage, dropping back in her
+seat and raising her hands in astonishment.
+
+"It is only too true," Kate said, trying to speak concisely and clearly
+so as to enforce conviction, but feeling a choking sensation about her
+throat, as though an hysterical attack were impending.  "My guardian has
+shut me up here for some weeks, and I firmly believe that he will never
+let me out alive.  Oh, don't, pray don't think me mad!  I am as sane as
+you are, though, God knows, what I have gone through has been enough to
+shake my reason."
+
+This last appeal of Kate's was in answer to an expression of incredulity
+and doubt which had passed over the face of the lady below.  It was
+successful in its object, for the ring of truth with which she spoke and
+the look of anxiety and terror upon her face were too genuine to be
+mistaken.  The lady drew her rein so as to bring the carriage as near
+the wall as was possible without losing sight of Kate's face.
+
+"My dear," she said, "you may safely tell me everything.  Whatever I can
+do to help you shall be done, and where I am powerless there are others
+who are my friends and may be of assistance.  Scully is my name--
+Mrs. Lavinia Scully, of London.  Don't cry, my poor girl, but tell me
+all about it, and let us see how we can put matters right."
+
+Thus encouraged, Kate wiped away the tears which had been brought to her
+eyes by the unwonted sound of a friendly voice.  Leaning forward as far
+as she could, and preventing herself from falling by passing her arm
+round a great branch which shot across the top of the shed, she gave in
+as few words as she could a detailed account of all that had befallen
+her.  She described her guardian's anxiety that she should marry his
+son, her refusal, their sudden departure from London, their life at the
+Priory, the manner in which she was cut off from all human aid, and the
+reasons which made her believe that an attempt would be made upon her
+life.  In conclusion, she narrated the scene which had occurred that
+very morning, when her guardian had tempted her to commit suicide.  The
+only incident which she omitted from her story was that which had
+occurred the night before, for she felt that it might put too severe a
+tax upon Mrs. Scully's credulity.  Indeed, looking back at it, she
+almost persuaded herself that the sight which she had seen might be some
+phantom conjured up by her own imagination, weakened as she was in mind
+and in body.
+
+Having concluded her narrative, she wound up by imploring her new-found
+friend to assist her by letting her friends in London know what had
+become of her and where she was.  Mrs. Scully listened with a face which
+expressed alternately the most profound pity and the most burning
+indignation.  When Kate had finished, she sat silent for a minute or
+more entirely absorbed in her own thoughts.  She switched her whip up
+and down viciously, and her usually placid countenance assumed an
+expression so fierce that Kate, looking down at her, feared that she had
+given her offence.  When she looked up at last, however, she smiled so
+pleasantly that the poor girl was reassured, and felt instinctively that
+she had really found a true and effective friend at last.
+
+"We must act promptly," she said, "for we don't know what they may be
+about, or what their plans are for the future.  Who did you say your
+friends were?"
+
+"Dr. Dimsdale, of Phillimore Gardens, Kensington."
+
+"Hasn't he got a grown-up son?"
+
+"Yes," said Kate, with a slight flush on her pale cheeks.
+
+"Ah!" cried the good lady, with a very roguish smile.  "I see how the
+land lies.  Of course, of course, why shouldn't it?  I remember hearing
+about that young man.  I have heard about the Girdlestones also.
+African merchants they were in the City.  You see I know all about you."
+
+"You know Tom?" Kate cried in astonishment.
+
+"Oh, don't let us get talking of Tom," said Mrs. Scully
+good-humouredly.  "When girls get on a subject of that sort there's an
+end to everything.  What I want now is business.  In the first place I
+shall drive down to Bedsworth, and I shall send to London."
+
+"God bless you!" ejaculated Kate.
+
+"But not to Phillimore Gardens.  Hot-headed young men do foolish things
+under such circumstances as these.  This is a case that wants careful
+management.  I know a gentleman in London who is just the man, and who I
+know would be only too proud to help a lady in distress.  He is a
+retired officer, and his name is Major Clutterbuck--Major Tobias
+Clutterbuck."
+
+"Oh, I know him very well, and I have heard of you, too," said Kate,
+with a smile.  "I remember your name now in connection with his."
+
+It was Mrs. Scully's turn to blush now.  "Never mind that," she said.
+"I can trust the major, and I know he will be down here at a word from
+me.  I shall let him have the facts, and he can tell the Dimsdales if he
+thinks it best.  Good-bye, dear; don't be unhappy any more, but remember
+that you have friends outside who will very quickly set all right.
+Good-bye!" and waving her hand in encouragement, the good widow woke up
+the pony, which had fallen fast asleep, and rattled away down the lane
+in the direction from which she had come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+THE MAJOR HAS A LETTER.
+
+At four o'clock Mr. Girdlestone stepped into the Bedsworth telegraph
+office and wired his short message.  It ran thus: "Case hopeless.  Come
+on to-morrow with a doctor."  On receipt of this he knew by their
+agreement that his son would come down, bringing with him the man of
+violence whom he had spoken of at their last interview.  There was
+nothing for it now but that his ward should die.  If he delayed longer,
+the crash might come before her money was available, and then how vain
+all regrets would be.
+
+It seemed to him that there was very little risk in the matter.
+The girl had had no communication with any one.  Even of those around
+her, Mrs. Jorrocks was in her dotage, Rebecca Taylforth was staunch and
+true, and Stevens knew nothing.  Every one on the country side had heard
+of the invalid young lady at the Priory.  Who would be surprised to hear
+that she had passed away?  He dare not call in any local medical man,
+but his inventive brain had overcome the difficulty, and had hit upon a
+device by which he might defy both doctors and coroner.  If all went as
+he had planned it, it was difficult to see any chance of detection.
+In the case of a poorer man the fact that the girl's money reverted to
+him might arouse suspicion, but he rightly argued that with his great
+reputation no one would ever dream that such a consideration could have
+weight with him.
+
+Having sent the telegram off, and so taken a final step, John
+Girdlestone felt more at his ease.  He was proud of his own energy and
+decision.  As he walked very pompously and gravely down the village
+street, his heart glowed within him at the thought of the long struggle
+which he had maintained against misfortune.  He passed over in his mind
+all the successive borrowings and speculations and makeshifts and ruses
+which the firm had resorted to.  Yet, in spite of every danger and
+difficulty, it still held up its head with the best, and would weather
+the storm at last.  He reflected proudly that there was no other man in
+the City who would have had the dogged tenacity and the grim resolution
+which he had displayed during the last twelve months.  "If ever any one
+should put it all in a book," he said to himself, "there are few who
+would believe it possible.  It is not by my own strength that I have
+done it."
+
+The man had no consciousness of blasphemy in him as he revolved this
+thought in his mind.  He was as thoroughly in earnest as were any of
+those religious fanatics who, throughout history, have burned, sacked,
+and destroyed, committing every sin under heaven in the name of a God of
+peace and of mercy.
+
+When he was half-way to the Priory he met a small pony-carriage, which
+was rattling towards Bedsworth at a great pace, driven by a good-looking
+middle-aged lady with a small page by her side.  The merchant
+encountered this equipage in a narrow country lane without a footpath,
+and as it approached him he could not help observing that the lady wore
+an indignant and gloomy look upon her features which was out of keeping
+with their general contour.  Her forehead was contracted into a very
+decided frown, and her lips were gathered into what might be described
+as a negative smile.  Girdlestone stood aside to let her pass, but the
+lady, by a sudden twitch of her right-hand rein, brought the wheels
+across in so sudden a manner that they were within an ace of going over
+his toes.  He only saved himself by springing back into a gap of the
+hedge.  As it was, he found on looking down that his pearl grey trousers
+were covered with flakes of wet mud.  What made the incident more
+perplexing was that both the middle-aged lady and the page laughed very
+heartily as they rattled away to the village.  The merchant proceeded on
+his way marvelling in his heart at the uncharitableness and innate
+wickedness of unregenerated human nature.
+
+Good Mrs. Scully little dreamed of the urgency of the case.  Had she
+seen the telegram which John Girdlestone had just despatched, it is
+conceivable that she might have read between the words, and by acting
+more promptly have prevented a terrible crime.  As a matter of fact,
+with all her sympathy the worthy woman had taken a large part of Kate's
+story with the proverbial grain of salt.  It seemed to her to be
+incredible and impossible that in this nineteenth century such a thing
+as deliberate and carefully planned murder should occur in Christian
+England.  That these things occur in the abstract we are ready to admit,
+but we find it very difficult to realize that they may come within the
+horizon of our own experience.  Hence Mrs. Scully set no importance upon
+Kate's fears for her life, and put them down to the excited state of the
+girl's imagination.  She did consider it, however, to be a very
+iniquitous and unjustifiable thing that a young girl should be cooped up
+and separated from all the world in such a very dreary place of
+seclusion as the Priory.  This consideration and nothing more serious
+had set that look of wrath upon her pleasant face, and had stirred her
+up to frustrate Girdlestone and to communicate with Kate's friends.
+
+Her intention had been to telegraph to London, but as she drove to
+Bedsworth she bethought her how impossible it would be for her within
+the limits of a telegram to explain to her satisfaction all that she
+wanted to express.  A letter, she reflected, would, if posted now, reach
+the major by the first post on Saturday morning.  It would simply mean a
+few hours' delay in the taking of steps to relieve Kate, and what
+difference could a few hours more or less make to the girl.
+She determined, therefore, that she would write to the major, explaining
+all the circumstances, and leave it to him what course of action should
+be pursued.
+
+Mrs. Scully was well known at the post office, and they quickly
+accommodated her with the requisites for correspondence.  Within a
+quarter of an hour she had written, sealed, stamped, and posted the
+following epistle:--
+
+    "DEAREST TOBY,
+
+    "I am afraid you must find your period of probation very slow.
+     Poor boy! what does he do? No billiards, no cards, no betting--
+     how does he manage to get through the day at all?  Smokes, I
+     suppose, and looks out of the window, and tells all his grievances
+     to Mr. Von Baumser.  Aren't you sorry that ever you made the
+     acquaintance of Morrison's second floor front? Poor Toby!
+
+    "Who do you think I have come across down here?  No less a person
+     than that Miss Harston who was Girdlestone's ward.  You used to
+     talk about her, I remember, and indeed you were a great admirer of
+     hers.  You would be surprised if you saw her now, so thin and worn
+     and pale.  Still her face is very sweet and pretty, so I won't
+     deny your good taste--how could I after you have paid your
+     addresses to me?
+
+    "Her guardian has brought her down here and has locked her up in a
+     great bleak house called the Priory.  She has no one to speak to,
+     and is not allowed to write letters.  She seemed to be heart-broken
+     because none of her friends know where she is, and she fears that
+     they may imagine that she has willingly deserted them.  Of course,
+     by her friends she means that curly-headed Mr. Dimsdale that you
+     spoke of.  The poor girl is in a very low nervous state, and told
+     me over the wall of the park that she feared her guardian had
+     designs on her life.  I can hardly believe that, but I do think
+     that she is far from well, and that it is enough to drive her mad
+     to coop her up like that.  We must get her out somehow or another.
+     I suppose that her guardian is within his rights, and that it is
+     not a police matter.  You must consider what must be done, and let
+     young Dimsdale know if you think best.  He will want to come down
+     to see her, no doubt, and if Toby were to come too I should not be
+     sorry.
+
+    "I should have telegraphed about it, but I could not explain myself
+     sufficiently.  I assure you that the poor girl is in a very bad
+     way, and we can't be too energetic in what we do.  It was very sad
+     to hear the positive manner in which she declared that her guardian
+     would murder her, though she did not attempt to give any reason why
+     he should commit such a terrible crime.  We saw a horrid one-eyed
+     man at the gate, who appeared to be on guard to prevent any one
+     from coming out or in.  On our way to Bedsworth we met no less a
+     person than the great Mr. Girdlestone himself, and we actually
+     drove so clumsily that we splashed him all over with mud.
+     Wasn't that a very sad and unaccountable thing?  I fancy I see Toby
+     smiling over that.
+
+    "Good-bye, my dear lad.  Be as good as you can.  I know you've got
+     rather out of the way of it, but practice works wonders.
+
+    "Ever yours,
+
+    "LAVINIA SCULLY."
+
+It happened that on the morning on which this missive came to Kennedy
+Place, Von Baumser had not gone to the City.  The major had just
+performed his toilet and was marching up and down with a cigarette in
+his mouth and the _United Service Gazette_ in his hand, descanting
+fluently, as is the habit of old soldiers, on the favouritism of the
+Horse Guards and the deterioration of the service.
+
+"Look at this fellow Carmoichael!" he cried excitedly, slapping the
+paper with one, hand, while he crumpled it up with the other.  "They've
+made him lieutinant-gineral!  The demndest booby in the regiment, sir!
+A fellow who's seen no service and never heard a shot fired in anger.
+They promoted him on the stringth of a sham fight, bedad!  He commanded
+a definding force operating along the Thames and opposing an invading
+army that was advancing from Guildford.  Did iver ye hear such infernal
+nonsense in your life?  And there's Stares, and Knight, and Underwood,
+and a dozen more I could mintion, that have volunteered for everything
+since the Sikh war of '46, all neglicted, sir--neglicted!  The British
+Army is going straight to the divil."
+
+"Dat's a very bad look-out for the devil," said Von Baumser, filling up
+a cup of coffee.
+
+The major continued to stride angrily about the room.  "That's why we
+niver have a satisfactory campaign with a European foe," he broke out.
+"Our success is always half and half, and leads to nothing.  Yet we have
+the finest raw material and the greatest individual fighting power and
+divilment of any army in the world."
+
+"Always, of course, not counting de army of his most graceworthy majesty
+de Emperor William," said Von Baumser, with his mouth full of toast.
+"Here is de girl mit a letter.  Let us hope dat it is my Frankfort
+money."
+
+"Two to one it's for me."
+
+"Ah, he must not bet!" cried Von Baumser, with upraised finger.
+"You have right, though.  It is for you, and from de proper quarter too,
+I think."
+
+It was the letter which we have already quoted.  The major broke the
+seal and read it over very carefully, after which he read it again.
+Von Baumser, watching him across the table, saw a very anxious and
+troubled look upon his ruddy face.
+
+"I hope dere is nothing wrong mit my good vriend, Madame Scully?" he
+remarked at last.
+
+"No, nothing wrong with her.  There is with some one else, though;" and
+with that he read to his companion all that part of his letter which
+referred to Miss Harston.
+
+"Dat is no joke at all," the German remarked; and the two sat for some
+little time lost in thought, the major with the letter still lying open
+upon his knee.
+
+"What d'ye think of it?" he asked at last.
+
+"I think dat it is a more bad thing than the good madame seems to think.
+I think dat if Miss Harston says dat Herr Girdlestone intends to kill
+her, it is very likely dat he has dat intention"
+
+"Ged, he's not a man to stick at troifles," the major said, rubbing his
+chin reflectively.  "Here's a nice kettle of fish!  What the deuce could
+cause him to do such a thing?"
+
+"Money, of course.  I have told you, my good vriend, dat since a year de
+firm has been in a very bad way indeed.  It is not generally known, but
+I know it, and so do others.  Dis girl, I have heard, has money which
+would come to de old man in case of her death.  It is as plain as de
+vingers on my hand."
+
+"Be George, the thing looks very ugly!" said the major, pacing up and
+down the room.  "I believe that fellow and his beauty of a son are game
+for anything.  Lavinia takes the mather too lightly.  Fancy any one
+being such a scounthrel as to lay a hand on that dear girl, though.
+Ged, Baumser, it makes ivery drop of blood in me body tingle in me
+veins!"
+
+"My dear vriend," Von Baumser answered, "it is very good of your blood
+for to tingle, but I do not see how dat will help the mees.  Let us be
+practical, and make up our brains what we should do."
+
+"I must find young Dimsdale at once.  He has a right to know."
+
+"Yes, I should find him.  Dere is no doubt that you and he should at
+once start off for dis place.  I know dat young man.  Dere vill be no
+holding him at all when he has heard of it.  You must go too, to prevent
+him from doing dummheiten, and also because good Madame Scully has said
+so in her letter."
+
+"Certainly.  We shall go down togither.  One of us will manage to see
+the young lady and find out if she requoires assistance.  Bedad, if she
+does, she shall have it, guardian or no guardian.  If we don't whip her
+out in a brace of shakes me name's not Clutterbuck."
+
+"You must remember," remarked Baumser, "dat dese people are desperate.
+If dey intend to murder a voman dey vould certainly not stick at a man
+or two men.  You have no knowledge of how many dere may be.  Dere is
+certainly Herr Girdlestone and his son and de man mit de eye, but madame
+knows not how many may be at de house.  Remember also dat de police are
+not on your side, but rather against you, for as yet dere is no evidence
+dat any crime is intentioned.  Ven you think of all dis I am sure dat
+you vill agree with me dat it would be vell to take mit you two or tree
+men dat would stick by you through thin and broad."
+
+The major was so busy in making his preparations for departure that he
+could only signify by a nod that he agreed with his friend's remarks.
+"What men could I git?" he asked.
+
+"Dere is I myself," said the German, counting upon his big red fingers,
+"and dere are some of our society who would very gladly come on such an
+errand, and are men who are altogether to be relied upon.  Dere is
+little Fritz Bulow, of Kiel, and a Russian man whose name I disremember,
+but he is a good man.  He vas a Nihilist at Odessa, and is sentenced to
+death suppose they could him catch.  Dere are others as good, but it
+might take me time to find dem.  Dese two I can very easily get.
+Dey are living together, and have neither of dem nothing to do."
+
+"Bring them, then," said the major.  "Git a cab and run them down to
+Waterloo Station.  That's the one for Bedsworth.  I'll bring Dimsdale
+down with me and mate you there.  In me opinion there's no time to be
+lost."
+
+The major was ready to start, so Von Baumser threw on his coat and hat,
+and picked out a thick stick from a rack in the corner.  "We may need
+something of de sort," he said.
+
+"I have me derringer," the soldier answered.  They left the house
+together, and Von Baumser drove off to the East End, where his political
+friends resided.  The major called a cab and rattled away to Phillimore
+Gardens and thence to the office, without being able to find the man of
+whom he was in search.  He then rushed down the Strand as quickly as he
+could, intending to catch the next train and go alone, but on his way to
+Waterloo Station he fell in with Tom Dimsdale, as recorded in a
+preceding chapter.
+
+The letter was a thunderbolt to Tom, In his worst dreams he had never
+imagined anything so dark as this.  He hurried back to the station at
+such a pace that the poor major was reduced to a most asthmatical and
+wheezy condition.  He trotted along pluckily, however, and as he went
+heard the account of Tom's adventures in the morning and of the
+departure of Ezra Girdlestone and of his red-bearded companion.
+The major's face grew more anxious still when he heard of it.  "Pray God
+we may not be too late!" he panted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+THE CLOUDS GROW DARKER.
+
+When Kate had made a clean breast of all her troubles to the widow
+Scully, and had secured that good woman's co-operation, a great weight
+seemed to have been lifted from her heart, and she sprang from the shed
+a different woman.  It would soon be like a dream, all these dreary
+weeks in the grim old house.  Within a day she was sure that either Tom
+or the major would find means of communicating with her.  The thought
+made her so happy that the colour stole back into her cheeks, and she
+sang for very lightness of heart as she made her way back to the Priory.
+
+Mrs. Jorrocks and Rebecca observed the change which had come over her
+and marvelled at it.  Kate attempted to aid the former in her household
+work, but the old crone refused her assistance and repulsed her harshly.
+Her maid too answered her curtly when she addressed her, and eyed her in
+anything but a friendly manner.
+
+"You don't seem much the worse," she remarked, "for all the wonderful
+things you seed in the night."
+
+"Oh, don't speak of it," said Kate.  "I am afraid that I have given you
+a great fright.  I was feeling far from well, and I suppose that I must
+have imagined all about that dreadful monk.  Yet, at the time, I assure
+you that I saw it as plainly as I see you now."
+
+"What's that she says?" asked Mrs. Jorrocks, with her hand to her ear.
+
+"She says that she saw a ghost last night as plain as she sees you now."
+
+"Pack of nonsense!" cried the old woman, rattling the poker in the
+grate.  "I've been here afore she came--all alone in the house, too--and
+I hain't seen nothing of the sort.  When she's got nothing else to
+grumble about she pretends as she has seen a ghost."
+
+"No, no," the girl said cheerily.  "I am not grumbling--indeed I am
+not."
+
+"It's like her contrariness to say so," old Mrs. Jorrocks cried
+hoarsely.  "She's always a-contradictin'."
+
+"You're not in a good temper to-day," Kate remarked, and went off to her
+room, going up the steps two at a time with her old springy footstep.
+
+Rebecca followed her, and noticing the change, interpreted it in her own
+narrow fashion.
+
+"You seems cheerful enough now," she said, standing at Kate's door and
+looking into her room, with a bitter smile on her lips.  "To-morrow is
+Saturday.  That's what's the matter with you."
+
+"To-morrow Saturday!" Kate repeated in astonishment.
+
+"Yes; you know what I mean well enough.  It's no use pretending that you
+don't."
+
+The girl's manner was so aggressive that Kate was astonished.
+"I haven't the least idea of what you mean," she said.
+
+"Oh no," cried Rebecca, with her arms akimbo and a sneer on her face.
+"She doesn't know what I mean.  She doesn't know that her young man is
+coming down on the Saturday.  She does not know that Mr. Ezra comes all
+the way from London on that day just for to see her.  It isn't that that
+makes you cheerful, is it?  Oh, you double face!"  The girl's pretty
+features were all distorted with malice as she spoke, and her two hands
+were clenched passionately.
+
+"Rebecca!" cried Kate energetically, "I really think that you are the
+most complete fool that ever I met in my life.  I will trouble you to
+remember that I am your mistress and you are my servant.  How dare you
+speak to me in such a way?  Leave my room this instant!"
+
+The girl stood her ground as though she intended to brazen it out, but
+Kate swept towards her with so much honest anger in her voice, and such
+natural dignity in her bearing, that she sank her bold gaze, and with a
+few muttered words slunk away into her own room.  Kate closed the door
+behind her, and then, her sense of the ludicrous overpowering her anger,
+she laughed for the first time since she had been in the Priory.  It was
+so intensely ridiculous that even the most foolish of mortals should
+imagine that she could, under any circumstances, be desirous of seeing
+Ezra Girdlestone.  The very thought of him brought her amusement to an
+end, for the maid was right, and to-morrow would bring him down once
+more.  Perhaps her friends might arrive before he did.  God grant it!
+
+It was a cold but a bright day.  From her window she could see the
+snow-white sails of the Hampshire fishing-boats dipping and rising
+against the deep blue sea.  A single barque rode amongst them, like a
+swan among ducklings, beating up against the wind for Portsmouth or
+Southampton.  Away on the right was the long line of white foam which
+marked the Winner Sands.  The tide was in and the great mudbanks had
+disappeared, save that here and there their dun-coloured convexity rose
+above the surface like the back of a sleeping leviathan.  Overhead a
+great flock of wild geese were flapping their way southward, like a broad
+arrow against the sky.  It was an exhilarating, bracing scene, and
+accorded well with her own humour.  She felt so full of life and hope
+that she could hardly believe that she was the same girl who that very
+morning had hurled away the poison bottle, knowing in her heart that
+unless she destroyed it she might be tempted to follow her guardian's
+sinister suggestions.  Yet the incident was real enough, for there were
+the fragments of glass scattered over the bare planks of her floor, and
+the insidious odour of the drug was still so strong that she opened the
+window in order to dissipate it.  Looking back at it now, it all seemed
+like some hideous nightmare.
+
+She had no very clear idea as to what she expected her friends to do.
+That she would be saved, and that speedily, she never for one instant
+doubted.  She had only to wait patiently and all would be well.
+By to-morrow night, at the latest, her troubles would be over.
+
+So thought Girdlestone too, as he sat down below, with his head bent
+upon his breast and his eyes looking moodily from under his shaggy brows
+at the glowing coals.  To-morrow evening would settle the matter once
+and for ever.  Burt and Ezra would be down by five o'clock, and that
+would be the beginning of the end.  As to Burt's future there was no
+difficulty about that.  He was a broken man.  If well supplied with
+unlimited liquor he would not live long to trouble them.  He had nothing
+to gain, and everything to lose by denouncing them.  Should the worst
+come to the worst, the ravings of a dipsomaniac could do little harm to
+a man as respected as the African merchant.  Every event had been
+foreseen and provided for by the old schemer.  Above all, he had devised
+a method by which even a coroner's inquiry could be faced with impunity,
+and which would do away with all necessity for elaborate concealment.
+
+He beckoned Mrs. Jorrocks over to him, for he had been sitting in the
+large room, which was used both as a dining-room and as a kitchen.
+
+"What is the latest train to-morrow?" he asked.
+
+"There be one that reaches Bedsworth at a quarter to ten."
+
+"It passes the grounds at about twenty to ten, then?"
+
+"That reg'lar that I could set my clock by it."
+
+"That'll do.  Where is Miss Harston?"
+
+"Upstairs, sir.  She came back a-laughin' and a-jumpin' and as sassy as
+you please to them as was old before she was born."
+
+"Laughing!" said Girdlestone, raising his eyebrows.  "She did not seem
+in a laughing mood this morning.  You don't think she has gone out of
+her mind, do you?"
+
+"I don't know nought about that.  There was Rebecca came down here
+a-cryin' 'cause she'd ordered her out of her room.  Oh, she's mistress
+of the house--there's no  doubt about that.  She'll be a-givin' of us
+all the sack presently."
+
+Girdlestone relapsed into silence, but his face showed that he was
+puzzled by what he had heard.
+
+Kate slept a sound and dreamless sleep that night.  At her age trouble
+is shaken from the young mind like water from the feathers of a duck.
+It had been all very gloomy and terrible while it lasted, but now the
+dawn of better days had come.  She woke cheerful and light-hearted.
+She felt that when once she was free she could forgive her guardian and
+Rebecca and all of them--even Ezra.  She would bury the whole hideous
+incident, and never think of it or refer to it again.
+
+She amused herself that morning by reckoning up in her mind what the
+sequence of events would be in London, and how long it would be before
+she heard from her friends.  If Mrs. Scully had telegraphed, news would
+have reached them last night.  Probably she would write as well, giving
+all the particulars about her.  The post came in about nine o'clock, she
+thought.  Then some time would elapse before the major could find Tom.
+After that, no doubt they would have to consider what had best be done,
+and perhaps would go and consult with Dr. Dimsdale.  That would occupy
+the morning and part of the afternoon.  They could hardly reach the
+Priory before nightfall.
+
+Ezra would be down by that time.  On the Saturday before he had arrived
+between five and six.  A great dread filled her soul at the thought of
+meeting the young merchant again.  It was merely the natural instinct of
+a lady shrinking from whatever is rough and coarse and antagonistic.
+She had no conception of the impending danger, or of what his coming
+might mean to her.
+
+Mr. Girdlestone was more gracious to her than usual that morning at
+breakfast.  He seemed anxious to efface the remembrance of his fierce
+and threatening words the day before.  Rebecca, who waited upon them,
+was astonished to hear the way in which he spoke.  His whole manner was
+less heavy and ungainly than usual, for now that the time for action was
+at hand he felt braced and invigorated, as energetic men do.
+
+"You should study botany while you are down here," he said blandly.
+"Depend upon it, one cannot learn too many things in one's youth.
+Besides, a knowledge of natural science teaches us the marvellous
+harmony which prevails throughout the universe, and so enlarges our
+minds."
+
+"I should very much like to know something of it," answered Kate.
+"My only fear is that I should not be clever enough to learn it."
+
+"The wood here is full of wonders.  The tiniest mushroom is as
+extraordinary and as worthy of study as the largest oak.  Your father
+was fond of plants and animals."
+
+"Yes, I can remember that," said Kate, her face growing sad as her mind
+travelled back to years gone by.  What would that same father have
+thought, she wondered, had he known how this man opposite to her had
+treated her!  What did it matter now, though, when she would so soon be
+out of his power!
+
+"I remember," said Girdlestone, stirring his tea thoughtfully, "when we
+lived in the City as 'prentice lads together, we shared a room above the
+shop.  He used to have a dormouse that he was very fond of.  All his
+leisure time was spent in nursing the creature and cleaning its cage.
+It seemed to be his only pleasure in life.  One night it was running
+across the floor, and I put my foot upon it."
+
+"Oh, poor papa!" cried Kate.
+
+"I did it upon principle.  'You have devoted too much time to the
+creature,' I said.  'Raise up your thoughts higher!'  He was grieved and
+angry, but in time he came to thank me.  It was a useful lesson."
+
+Kate was so startled by this anecdote that she remained silent for some
+little time.  "How old were you then?" she asked at last.
+
+"I was about sixteen."
+
+"Then you were always--inclined that way?"  She found some difficulty in
+conveying her meaning in polite tones.
+
+"Yes; I received a call when I was very young.  I became one of the
+elect at an early age."
+
+"And which are the elect?" his ward asked demurely.
+
+"The members of the Community of the Primitive Trinitarians--or, at
+least those of them who frequent Purbrook Street Chapel.  I hold that
+the ministers in the other chapels that I have attended do not preach
+the unadulterated Word, and have therefore missed the narrow path."
+
+"Then," said Kate, "you think that no one will be saved except those who
+frequent the Purbrook Street Chapel?"
+
+"And not all of them--no, nor one in ten," the merchant said
+confidently, and with some approach to satisfaction.  "Heaven must be a
+very small place," Kate remarked, as she rose from the table.
+
+"Are you going out?"
+
+"I was thinking of having a stroll in the wood."
+
+"Think over a text as you walk.  It is an excellent commencement of the
+day."
+
+"What text should I think of?" she asked, standing smiling in the
+doorway, with the bright sunshine bursting in behind her.
+
+"'In the midst of life we are in death,'" he said solemnly.  His voice
+was so hollow and stern that it struck a chill into the girl's heart.
+The effect was only momentary, however.  The day was so fine, and the
+breeze so fresh, that sadness was out of the question.  Besides, was not
+her deliverance at hand! On this of all mornings she should be free from
+vague presentiments and dim forebodings.  The change in her guardian's
+manner was an additional cause for cheerfulness.  She almost persuaded
+herself that she had misconstrued his words and his intentions upon the
+preceding day.
+
+She went down the avenue and had a few words with the sentry there.
+She felt no bitterness against him now--on the contrary, she could
+afford to laugh at his peculiarities.  He was in a very bad humour on
+account of some domestic difficulties.  His wife had been abusing him,
+and had ended by assaulting him.  "She used to argey first, and then
+fetch the poker," he said ruefully; "but now it's the poker first, and
+there ain't no argeyment at all."
+
+Kate looked at his savage face and burly figure, and thought what a very
+courageous woman his wife must be.
+
+"It's all 'cause the fisher lasses won't lemme alone," he explained with
+a leer.  "She don't like it, knock me sideways if she do!  It ain't my
+fault, though.  I allers had a kind o' a fetchin' way wi' women."
+
+"Did you post my note?" asked Kate.
+
+"Yes, in course I did," he answered.  "It'll be in Lunnon now, most
+like."  His one eye moved about in such a very shifty way as he spoke
+that she was convinced that he was telling a lie.  She could not be
+sufficiently thankful that she had something else to rely upon besides
+the old scoundrel's assurances.
+
+There was nothing to be seen down the lane except a single cart with a
+loutish young man walking at the horse's head.  She had a horror of the
+country folk since her encounter with the two bumpkins upon the Sunday.
+She therefore slipped away from the gate, and went through the wood to
+the shed, which she mounted.  On the other side of the wall there was
+standing a little boy in buttons, so rigid and motionless that he might
+have been one of Madame Tussaud's figures, were it not for his eyes,
+which were rolling about in every direction, and which finally fixed
+themselves on Kate's face.
+
+"Good morning, miss," said this apparition.
+
+"Good morning," she answered.  "I think I saw you with Mrs. Scully
+yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, miss.  Missus, she told me to wait here and never to move until I
+seed you.  She said as you would be sure to come.  I've been waitin'
+here for nigh on an hour."
+
+"Your mistress is an angel," Kate said enthusiastically, "and you are a
+very good little boy."
+
+"Indeed, you've hit it about the missus," said the youth, in a hoarse
+whisper, nodding his head to emphasize his remarks.  "She's got a heart
+as is big enough for three."
+
+Kate could not help smiling at the enthusiasm with which the little
+fellow spoke.
+
+"You seem fond of her," she said.
+
+"I'd be a bad 'un if I wasn't.  She took me out of the work'us without
+character or nothing, and now she's a-educatin' of me.  She sent me 'ere
+with a message?"
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"She said as how she had written instead o' electro-telegraphing, 'cause
+she had so much to say she couldn't fit it all on a telegraph."
+
+"I thought that would be so," Kate said.
+
+"She wrote to Major--Major--him as is a-follerin' of her.  She said as
+she had no doubt as he'd be down to-day, and you was to keep up your
+sperrits and let her know by me if any one was a-wexin' you."
+
+"No, no.  Not at all," Kate answered, smiling again.  "You can tell her
+that my guardian has been much kinder to-day.  I am full of hope now.
+Give her my warmest thanks for her kindness."
+
+"All right, miss.  Say, that chap at the gate hasn't been giving you no
+cheek has he--him with the game eye?"
+
+"No, no, John."
+
+John looked at her suspiciously.  "If he hasn't, it's all right," he
+said; "but I think as you're one of them as don't complain if you can
+'elp it."  He opened his hand and showed a great jagged flint which he
+carried.  "I'd ha' knocked his other peeper out with this," he said,
+"blowed if I wouldn't!"
+
+"Don't do anything of the sort, John, but run home like a good little
+boy."
+
+"All right, miss.  Good-bye to ye!"
+
+Kate watched him stroll down the lane.  He paused at the bottom as if
+irresolute, and then she was relieved to see him throw the stone over
+into a turnip field, and walk rapidly off in the opposite direction to
+the Priory gates.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+THE THREE FACES AT THE WINDOW.
+
+Late in the afternoon Ezra arrived at the Priory.  From one of the
+passage windows Kate saw him driving up the avenue in a high dog-cart.
+There was a broad-shouldered, red-bearded man sitting beside him, and
+the ostler from the _Flying Bull_ was perched behind.  Kate had rushed
+to the window on hearing the sound of wheels, with some dim expectation
+that her friends had come sooner than she anticipated.  A glance,
+however, showed her that the hope was vain.  From behind a curtain she
+watched them alight and come into the house, while the trap wheeled
+round and rattled off for Bedsworth again.
+
+She went slowly back to her room, wondering what friend this could be
+whom Ezra had brought with him.  She had noticed that he was roughly
+clad, presenting a contrast to the young merchant, who was vulgarly
+spruce in his attire.  Evidently he intended to pass the night at the
+Priory, since they had let the trap go back to the village.  She was
+glad that he had come, for his presence would act as a restraint upon
+the Girdlestones.  In spite of her guardian's amiability at breakfast,
+she could not forget the words which he had used the morning before or
+the incident of the poison bottle.  She was as convinced as ever that he
+meant mischief to her, but she had ceased to fear him.  It never for one
+moment occurred to her that her guardian's machinations might come to a
+head before her rescuers could arrive.
+
+As the long afternoon stole away she became more and more impatient and
+expectant.  She had been sewing in her room, but she found that she
+could no longer keep her attention on the stitches.  She paced nervously
+up and down the little apartment.  In the room beneath she could hear
+the dull muffled sound of men's voices in a long continuous monotone,
+broken only by the interposition now and again of one voice which was so
+deep and loud that it reminded her of the growl of a beast of prey.
+This must belong to the red-bearded stranger.  Kate wondered what it
+could be that they were talking over so earnestly.  City affairs, no
+doubt, or other business matters of importance.  She remembered having
+once heard it remarked that many of the richest men on 'Change were
+eccentric and slovenly in their dress, so the new-comer might be a more
+important person than he seemed.
+
+She had determined to remain in her room all the afternoon to avoid
+Ezra, but her restlessness was so great that she felt feverish and hot.
+The fresh air, she thought, would have a reviving effect upon her.
+She slipped down the staircase, treading as lightly as possible not to
+disturb the gentlemen in the refectory.  They appeared to hear her
+however, for the hum of conversation died away, and there was a dead
+silence until after she had passed.
+
+She went out on to the little lawn which lay in front of the old house.
+There were some flower-beds scattered about on it, but they were
+overgrown with weeds and in the last stage of neglect.  She amused
+herself by attempting to improve the condition of one of them and
+kneeling down beside it she pulled up a number of the weeds which
+covered it.  There was a withered rose-bush in the centre, so she pulled
+up that also, and succeeded in imparting some degree of order among the
+few plants which remained.  She worked with unnatural energy, pausing
+every now and again to glance down the dark avenue, or to listen
+intently to any chance sound which might catch her ear.
+
+In the course of her work she chanced to look up at the Priory.
+The refectory faced the lawn, and at the window of it there stood the
+three men looking out at her.  The Girdlestones were nodding their
+heads, as though they were pointing her out to the third man, who stood
+between them.  He was looking at her with an expression of interest.
+Kate thought as she returned his gaze that she had never seen a more
+savage and brutal face.  He was flushed and laughing, while Ezra beside
+him appeared to be pale and anxious.  They all, when they saw that she
+noticed them, stepped precipitately back from the window.  She had only
+a momentary glance at them, and yet the three faces--the strange fierce
+red one, and the two hard familiar pale ones which flanked it--remained
+vividly impressed upon her memory.
+
+Girdlestone had been so pleased at the early appearance of his allies,
+and the prospect of settling the matter once for all, that he received
+them with a cordiality which was foreign to his nature.
+
+"Always punctual, my dear son, and always to be relied upon," he said.
+"You are a model to our young business men.  As to you, Mr. Burt," he
+continued, grasping the navvy's horny hand, "I am delighted to see you
+at the Priory, much as I regret the sad necessity which has brought you
+down."
+
+"Talk it over afterwards," said Ezra shortly.  "Burt and I have had no
+luncheon yet."
+
+"I am cursed near starved," the other growled, throwing himself into a
+chair.  Ezra had been careful to keep him from drink on the way down,
+and he was now sober, or as nearly sober as a brain saturated with
+liquor could ever be.
+
+Girdlestone called for Mrs. Jorrocks, who laid the cloth and put a piece
+of cold corned beef and a jug of beer upon the table.  Ezra appeared to
+have a poor appetite, but Burt ate voraciously, and filled his glass
+again and again from the jug.  When the meal was finished and the ale
+all consumed, he rose with a grunt of repletion, and, pulling a roll of
+black tobacco from his pocket, proceeded to cut it into slices, and to
+cram it into his pipe.  Ezra drew a chair up to the fire, and his father
+did the same, after ordering the old woman out of the room and carefully
+closing the door behind her.
+
+"You have spoken to our friend here about the business?" Girdlestone
+asked, nodding his head in the direction of Burt.
+
+"Yes.  I have made it all clear."
+
+"Five hundred pounds down, and a free passage to Africa," said Burt.
+
+"An energetic man like you can do a great deal in the colonies with five
+hundred pounds," Girdlestone remarked.
+
+"What I do with it is nothin' to you, guv'nor," Burt remarked surlily.
+"I does the job, you pays the money, and there's an end as far as you
+are concerned."
+
+"Quite so," the merchant said in a conciliatory voice.  "You are free to
+do what you like with the money."
+
+"Without axin' your leave," growled Burt.  He was a man of such a
+turbulent and quarrelsome disposition that he was always ready to go out
+of his way to make himself disagreeable.
+
+"The question is how it is to be done," interposed Ezra.  He was looking
+very nervous and uneasy.  Hard as he was, he had neither the
+pseudo-religious monomania of his father, nor the callous brutality of
+Burt, and he shuddered at the thought of what was to come.  His eyes
+were red and bleared, and he sat with one arm thrown over the back of
+his chair, while he drummed nervously with the fingers of his other hand
+upon his knee.  "You've got some plan in your head, I suppose," he said
+to his father.  "It's high time the thing was carried through, or we
+shall have to put up the shutters in Fenchurch Street."
+
+His father shivered at the very thought.  "Anything rather than that,"
+he said.
+
+"It will precious soon come to that.  It was the devil of a fight to
+keep things straight last week."
+
+"What's the matter with your lip?  It seems to be swollen."
+
+"I had a turn with that fellow Dimsdale," Ezra answered, putting his
+hand up to his mouth to hide the disfigurement.  "He followed us to the
+station, and we had to beat him off; but I think I left my marks upon
+him."
+
+"He played some damned hokey-pokey business on me," said Burt.
+"He tripped me in some new-fangled way, and nigh knocked the breath out
+of me.  I don't fall as light as I used."
+
+"He did not succeed in tracing you?" Girdlestone asked uneasily.
+"There is no chance of his turning up here and spoiling the whole
+business?"
+
+"Not the least," said Ezra confidently.  "He was in the hands of a
+policeman when I saw him last."
+
+"That is well.  Now I should like, before we go further, to say a few
+words to Mr. Burt as to what has led up to this."
+
+"You haven't got a drop to drink, boss?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course.  What is that in the bottle over there?
+Ginger wine.  How will that do?"
+
+"Here's something better," Ezra said, rummaging in the cupboard.
+"Here is a bottle of Hollands.  It is Mrs. Jorrocks' private store, I
+fancy."
+
+Burt poured himself out half a tumblerful, and filled it up with water.
+"Drive along," he said; "I am lisnin'."
+
+Girdlestone rose and stood with his back to the fire, and his hands
+under his coat-tails.  "I wish you to understand," he said, "that this
+is no sudden determination of ours, but that events have led up to it in
+such a way that it was impossible to avoid it.  Our commercial honour
+and integrity are more precious to us than anything else, and we have
+both agreed that we are ready to sacrifice anything rather than lose it.
+Unfortunately, our affairs have become somewhat involved, and it was
+absolutely necessary that the firm should have a sum of money promptly
+in order to extricate itself from its difficulties.  This sum we
+endeavoured to get through a daring speculation in diamonds, which was,
+though I say it, ingeniously planned and cleverly carried out, and which
+would have succeeded admirably had it not been for an unfortunate
+chance."
+
+"I remember," said Burt.
+
+"Of course.  You were there at the time.  We were able to struggle along
+for some time after this on money which we borrowed and on the profits
+of our African trade.  The time came, however, when the borrowed money
+was to be repaid, and once again the firm was in danger.  It was then
+that we first thought of the fortune of my ward.  It was enough to turn
+the scale in our favour, could we lay our hands upon it.  It was
+securely tied up, however, in such a way that there were only two means
+by which we could touch a penny of it.  One was by marrying her to my
+son; the other was by the young lady's death.  Do you follow me?"
+
+Burt nodded his shaggy head.
+
+"This being so, we did all that we could to arrange a marriage.
+Without flattery I may say that no girl was ever approached in a more
+delicate and honourable way than she was by my son Ezra.  I, for my
+part, brought all my influence to bear upon her in order to induce her
+to meet his advances in a proper spirit.  In spite of our efforts, she
+rejected him in the most decided way, and gave us to understand that it
+was hopeless to attempt to make her change her mind."
+
+"Some one else, maybe," suggested Burt.
+
+"The man who put you on your back at the station," said Ezra.
+
+"Ha!  I'll pay him for that," the navvy growled viciously.
+
+"A human life, Mr. Burt," continued Girdlestone, "is a sacred thing, but
+a human life, when weighed against the existence of a great firm from
+which hundreds derive their means of livelihood, is a small
+consideration indeed.  When the fate of Miss Harston is put against the
+fate of the great commercial house of Girdlestone, it is evident which
+must go to the wall."
+
+Burt nodded, and poured some more Hollands from the square bottle.
+
+"Having seen," Girdlestone continued, "that this sad necessity might
+arise, I had made every arrangement some time before.  This building is,
+as you may have observed in your drive, situated in a lonely and
+secluded part of the country.  It is walled round too in such a manner
+that any one residing here is practically a prisoner.  I removed the
+lady so suddenly that no one can possibly know where she has gone to,
+and I have spread such reports as to her condition that no one down here
+would be surprised to hear of her decease."
+
+"But there is bound to be an inquiry.  How about a medical certificate?"
+asked Ezra.
+
+"I shall insist upon a coroner's inquest," his father answered.
+
+"An inquest!  Are you mad?"
+
+"When you have heard me I think that you will come to just the opposite
+conclusion.  I think that I have hit upon a scheme which is really
+neat--neat in its simplicity."  He rubbed his hands together, and showed
+his long yellow fangs in his enjoyment of his own astuteness.
+
+Burt and Ezra leaned forward to listen, while the old man sank his voice
+to a whisper.
+
+"They think that she is insane," he said.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There's a small door in the boundary wall which leads out to the
+railway line."
+
+"Well, what of that?"
+
+"Suppose that door to be left open, would it be an impossible thing for
+a crazy woman to slip out through it, and to be run over by the ten
+o'clock express?"
+
+"If she would only get in the way of it."
+
+"You don't quite catch my idea yet.  Suppose that the express ran over
+the dead body of a woman, would there be anything to prove afterwards
+that she _was_ dead, and not alive at the time of the accident?  Do you
+think that it would ever occur to any one's mind that the express ran
+over a dead body?"
+
+"I see your meaning," said his son thoughtfully.  "You would settle her,
+and then put her there."
+
+"Of course.  What could be more delightfully simple.  Friend Burt here
+does his work; we carry her through the garden gate, and lay her on the
+darkest part of the rails.  Then we miss her at the house.  There is an
+alarm and a search.  The gate is found open.  We naturally go through
+with lanterns, and find her on the line.  I don't think we need fear the
+coroner, or any one else then?"
+
+"He's a sharp 'un, is the guv'nor," cried Burt, slapping his thigh
+enthusiastically.  "It's the downiest lay I have heard this many a day."
+
+"I believe you are the devil incarnate," said Ezra, looking at his
+father with a mixture of horror and of admiration.  "But how about
+Jorrocks and Stevens and Rebecca?  Would you trust them?"
+
+"Certainly not!" Girdlestone answered.  "It is not necessary.  Mr. Burt
+can do his part of the business out of doors.  We can entice her out
+upon some excuse.  There is no reason why any one should have a
+suspicion of the truth."
+
+"But they know that she is not mad."
+
+"They will think that she did it on purpose.  The secret will be locked
+up in our three breasts.  After one night's work our friend here goes to
+the colonies a prosperous man, and the firm of Girdlestone holds up its
+head once more, stainless and irreproachable."
+
+"Speak low!" said Ezra, in a whisper.  "I hear her coming downstairs."
+They listened to her light springy footstep as it passed the door.
+"Come here, Burt," he said, after a pause.  "She is at work on the lawn.
+Come and have a look at her."
+
+They all went over to the window, and looked out.  It was then that
+Kate, glancing up, saw the three cruel faces surveying her.
+
+"She's a rare well-built 'un," said Burt, as he stepped back from the
+window.  "It is the ugliest job as ever I was on."
+
+"But we can rely upon you?" Girdlestone asked, looking at him with
+puckered eyes.
+
+"You bet--as long as you pay me," the navvy answered phlegmatically, and
+went back to his pipe and to Mrs. Jorrocks' bottle of Hollands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+THE BAIT ON THE HOOK.
+
+The grey winter evening was beginning to steal in before the details had
+all been arranged by the conspirators.  It had grown so chill that Kate
+had abandoned her attempt at gardening, and had gone back to her room.
+Ezra left his father and Burt by the fire and came out to the open
+hall-door.  The grim old trees looked gaunt and eerie as they waved
+their naked arms about in the cutting wind.  A slight fog had come up
+from the sea and lay in light wreaths over the upper branches, like a
+thin veil of gauze.  Ezra was shivering as he surveyed the dreary scene,
+when he felt a hand on his arm, and looking round saw that the maid
+Rebecca was standing beside him.
+
+"Haven't you got one word for me?" she said sadly, looking up into his
+face.  "It's but once a week, and then never a word of greeting."
+
+"I didn't see you, my lass," Ezra answered.  "How does the Priory suit
+you?"
+
+"One place is the same as another to me," she said drearily.  "You asked
+me to come here, and I have come.  You said once that you would let me
+know how I could serve you down here.  When am I to know?"
+
+"Why, there's no secret about that.  You do serve me when you look after
+my father as you have done these weeks back.  That old woman isn't fit
+to manage the whole place by herself."
+
+"That wasn't what you meant, though," said the girl, looking at him with
+questioning eyes.  "I remember your face now as you spoke the words.
+You have something on your mind, and have now, only you keep it to
+yourself.  Why won't you trust me with it?"
+
+"Don't be a fool!" answered Ezra curtly.  "I have a great deal to worry
+me in business matters.  Much good it would do telling you about them!"
+
+"It's more than that," said Rebecca doggedly.  "Who is that man who has
+come down?"
+
+"A business man from London.  He has come to consult my father about
+money matters.  Any more questions you would like to ask?"
+
+"I should like to know how long we are to be kept down here, and what
+the meaning of it all may be."
+
+"We are going back before the end of the winter, and the meaning of it
+is that Miss Harston was not well and needed a change of air.  Now are
+you satisfied?"  He was determined to allay as far as possible any
+suspicions that the girl might have previously formed.
+
+"And what brings _you_ down here?" she asked, with the same searching
+look.  "You don't come down into this hole without some good reason.
+I did think at first that you might come down in order to see me, but
+you soon showed me that it wasn't that.  There was a time when you was
+fond of me."
+
+"So I am now, lass."
+
+"Ay, very fond!  Not a word nor a look from you last time you came.
+You must have some reason, though, that brings you here."
+
+"There's nothing wonderful in a man coming to see his own father."
+
+"Much you cared for him in London," she cried, with a shrill laugh.
+"If he was under the sod you would not be the sadder.  It's my belief as
+you come down after that doll-faced missy upstairs."
+
+"Dry up, now!" said Ezra roughly.  "I've had enough of your confounded
+nonsense."
+
+"You don't talk in that style to her," she said excitedly.  "You scorn
+me, but I know this, that if I can't have your love no one else shall.
+I've got a dash of the gipsy in me, as you know.  Rather than that girl
+should have you, I would knife her and you, too!"  She shook her
+clenched right hand as she spoke, and her face was so full of vindictive
+passion that Ezra was astonished.
+
+"I always knew that you were a spitfire," he said, "but you never came
+it quite so strong as this before."
+
+The reaction had already come upon her, however, and tears were running
+down her cheeks.  "You'll never leave me entirely?" she cried, clasping
+his arm.  "I could bear to share your love with another, but I wouldn't
+have you turn altogether against me."
+
+"You'll have my father out presently with your damned noise!" said Ezra.
+"Get away, and wash your face."
+
+His word was law to her, and she turned away, still weeping bitterly.
+In her poor, dim, eventless life the sole bright spot had been the
+attention which the young merchant had occasionally shown her.  To her
+distorted fancy he was a man among men, a hero, all that was admirable
+and magnificent.  What was there which she would not do for him?
+She had the faithfulness of a dog, but like a dog she would snarl
+fiercely at any one who came between her master's affection and herself.
+Deep down in her heart rankled the one suspicion which no assurances
+could remove, that an understanding existed between the man she loved
+and the woman she hated.  As she withdrew to her room she determined
+that during this visit of Ezra's she would manage in such a way that no
+communication could pass between them without her knowledge.  She knew
+that it was a dangerous thing to play the spy upon the young man, for he
+had shown her before now that her sex was no precaution against his
+brutality.  Nevertheless, she set herself to do it, with all the cunning
+and perseverance of a jealous woman.
+
+As the light faded and the greys of evening deepened into darkness, Kate
+sat patiently in her bare little room.  A coal fire sputtered and
+sparkled in the rusty grate, and there was a tin bucket full of coals
+beside the fender from which to replenish it.  She was very cold, so she
+drew her single chair up to the blaze and held her hands over it.
+It was a lonesome and melancholy vigil, while the wind whistled through
+the branches of the trees and moaned drearily in the cracks and crannies
+of the old house.  When were her friends coming?  Perhaps something had
+occurred to detain them to-day.  This morning such a thing would have
+appeared to her to be an impossibility, but now that the time had come
+when she had expected them, it appeared probable enough that something
+might have delayed them.  To-morrow at latest they could not fail to
+come.  She wondered what they would do if they did arrive.  Would they
+come boldly up the avenue and claim her from the Girdlestones, or would
+they endeavour to communicate with her first?  Whatever they decided
+upon would be sure to be for the best.
+
+She went to the window once and looked out.  It promised to be a wild
+night.  Far away in the south-west lay a great cumulus of rugged clouds
+from which dark streamers radiated over the sky, like the advance guard
+of an army.  Here and there a pale star twinkled dimly out through the
+rifts, but the greater part of the heavens was black and threatening.
+It was so dark that she could no longer see the sea, but the crashing,
+booming sound of the great waves filled the air and the salt spray came
+driving in through the open window.  She shut it and resumed her seat by
+the fire, shivering partly from cold and partly from some vague
+presentiment of evil.
+
+An hour or more had passed when she heard a step upon the stairs and a
+knock came to her door.  It was Rebecca, with a cup of tea upon a tray
+and some bread-and-butter.  Kate was grateful at this attention, for it
+saved her from having to go down to the dining-room and face Ezra and
+his unpleasant-looking companion.   Rebecca laid down the tray, and
+then, to her mistress's surprise, turned back and shut the door.
+The girl's face was very pale, and her manner was wild and excited.
+
+"Here's a note for you," she said.  "It was given Mrs. Jorrocks to give
+you, but I am better at climbing stairs than  she is, so I brought it
+up."  She handed Kate a little slip of paper as she spoke.
+
+A note for her!  Could it be that her friends had arrived and had
+managed to send a message to her?  It must be so.  She took it from the
+maid.  As she did so she noticed that the other's hands were shaking as
+though she had the ague.  "You are not well, Rebecca," said Kate kindly.
+"Oh yes, I am.  You read your note and don't mind me," the girl
+answered, in her usual surly fashion.  Instead of leaving the room, she
+was bustling about the bed as though putting things in order.
+
+Kate's impatience was too great to allow her to wait, so she untwisted
+the paper, which had no seal or fastening.  She had hoped in her heart
+to see the name of her lover at the end of it.  Instead of that, her eye
+fell upon the signature of Ezra Girdlestone.  What could he have to say
+to her?  She moved the solitary candle on to the mantelpiece, and read
+the following note, roughly scribbled upon a coarse piece of paper:--
+
+    "MY DEAR MISS HARSTON."
+
+    "I am afraid your confinement here has been very irksome to you.
+     I have repeatedly requested my father to alleviate or modify it,
+     but he has invariably refused.  As he still persists in his
+     refusal, I wish to offer you my aid, and, to show you that I am
+     your sincere friend in spite of all that has passed, it you could
+     slip out to-night at nine o'clock and meet me by the withered oak
+     at the head of the avenue, I shall see you safe to Bedsworth, and
+     you can, if you wish, go on to Portsmouth by the next train.
+     I shall manage so that you may find the door open by that time.
+     I shall not, of course, go to Portsmouth with you, but shall return
+     here after dropping you at the station.  I do this small thing to
+     show you that, hopeless as it may be, the affection which I bear
+     you is still as deep as ever."
+
+
+    "Yours,"
+
+    "E. GIRDLESTONE."
+
+Our heroine was so surprised at this epistle that she sat for some time
+dangling the slip of paper between her fingers and lost in thought.
+When she glanced round, Rebecca had left the room.  She rolled the paper
+up and threw it into the fire.  Ezra, then, was not so hard-hearted as
+she had thought him.  He had used his influence to soften his father.
+Should she accept this chance of escape, or should she wait some word
+from her friends?  Perhaps they were already in Bedsworth, but did not
+know how to communicate with her.  If so, this offer of Ezra's was just
+what was needed.  In any case, she could go on to Portsmouth and
+telegraph from there to the Dimsdales.  It was too good an offer to be
+refused.  She made up her mind that she would accept it.  It was past
+eight now, and nine was the hour.  She stood up with the intention of
+putting on her cloak and her bonnet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+THE SHADOW OF DEATH.
+
+This conversation with Rebecca had suggested to Ezra that he might still
+have influence enough with his father's ward to induce her to come out
+of doors, and so put herself within the reach of Burt.  He had proposed
+the plan to his father, who approved of it heartily.  The only weak
+point in his scheme had been the difficulty which might arise in
+inducing the girl to venture out of the Priory on that tempestuous
+winter's night.  There was evidently only one incentive strong enough to
+bring it about, and that was the hope of escape.  By harping skilfully
+upon this string they might lure her into the trap.  Ezra and his father
+composed the letter together, and the former handed it to Mrs. Jorrocks,
+with a request that she should deliver it.
+
+It chanced, however, that Rebecca, keenly alive to any attempt at
+communication between the young merchant and her mistress, saw the crone
+hobbling down the passage with the note in her hand.
+
+"What's that, mother?" she asked.
+
+"It's a letter for her," wheezed the old woman, nodding her tremulous
+head in the direction of Kate's room.
+
+"I'll take it up," said Rebecca eagerly.  "I am just going up there with
+her tea."
+
+"Thank ye.  Them stairs tries my rheumatiz something cruel."
+
+The maid took the note and carried it upstairs.  Instead of taking it
+straight to her mistress she slipped into her own room and read every
+word of it.  It appeared to confirm her worst suspicions.  Here was Ezra
+asking an interview with the woman whom he had assured her that he
+hated.  It was true that the request was made in measured words and on a
+plausible pretext.  No doubt that was merely to deceive any other eye
+which might rest upon it.  There was an understanding between them, and
+this was an assignation.  The girl walked swiftly up and down the room
+like a caged tigress, striking her head with her clenched hands in her
+anger and biting her lip until the blood came.  It was some time before
+she could overcome her agitation sufficiently to deliver the note, and
+when she did so her mistress, as we have seen, noticed that her manner
+was nervous and wild.  She little dreamed of the struggle which was
+going on in the dark-eyed girl's mind against the impulse which urged
+her to seize her imagined rival by the white throat and choke the life
+out of her.
+
+"It's eight o'clock now," Ezra was saying downstairs.  "I wonder whether
+she will come?"
+
+"She is sure to come," his father said briefly.
+
+"Suppose she didn't?"
+
+"In that case we should find other means to bring her out.  We have not
+gone so far, to break down over a trifle at the last moment."
+
+"I must have something to drink," Ezra said, after a pause, helping
+himself from the bottle.  "I feel as cold as ice and as nervous as a
+cat.  I can't understand how you look so unconcerned.  If you were going
+to sign an invoice or audit an account or anything else in the way of
+business you could not take it more calmly.  I wish the time would come.
+This waiting is terrible."
+
+"Let us pass the time to advantage," said John Girdlestone; and drawing
+a little fat Bible from his pocket he began to read it aloud in a solemn
+and sonorous voice.  The yellow light illuminated the old merchant's
+massive features as he stooped forwards towards the candle.
+His strongly marked nose and his hollow cheeks gave him a vulture-like
+aspect, which was increased by the effect of his deep-set glittering
+eyes.
+
+Ezra, leaning back in his chair with the firelight flickering over his
+haggard but still handsome face, looked across at his father with a
+puzzled expression.  He had never yet been able to determine whether the
+old man was a consummate hypocrite or a religious monomaniac.  Burt lay
+with his feet in the light of the fire and his head sunk back across the
+arm of the chair, fast asleep and snoring loudly.
+
+"Isn't it time to wake him up?" Ezra asked, interrupting the reading.
+
+"Yes, I think it is," his father answered, closing the sacred volume
+reverently and replacing it in his bosom.
+
+Ezra took up the candle and held it over the sleeping man.  "What a
+brute he looks!" he said.  "Did ever you see such an animal in your
+life?"
+
+The navvy was certainly not a pretty sight.  His muscular arms and legs
+were all a-sprawl and his head hung back at a strange angle to his body,
+so that his fiery red beard pointed upwards, exposing all the thick
+sinewy throat beneath it.  His eyes were half open and looked bleared
+and unhealthy, while his thick lips puffed out with a whistling sound at
+every expiration.  His dirty brown coat was thrown open, and out of one
+of the pockets protruded a short thick cudgel with a leaden head.
+
+John Girdlestone picked it out and tried it in the air.  "I think I
+could kill an ox with this," he said.
+
+"Don't wave it about _my_ head," cried Ezra.  "As you stand in the
+firelight brandishing that stick in your long arms you are less
+attractive than usual."
+
+John Girdlestone smiled and replaced the cudgel in the sleeper's pocket.
+"Wake up, Burt," he cried, shaking him by the arm.  "It's half-past
+eight."
+
+The navvy started to his feet with an oath and then fell back into his
+chair, staring round him vacantly, at a loss as to where he might be.
+His eye fell upon the bottle of Hollands, which was now nearly empty,
+and he held out his hand to it with an exclamation of recognition.
+
+"I've been asleep, guv'nor," he said hoarsely.  "Must have a dram to set
+me straight.  Did you say it was time for the job."
+
+"We have made arrangements by which she will be out by the withered oak
+at nine o'clock."
+
+"That's not for half an hour," cried Burt, in a surly voice.  "You need
+not have woke me yet."
+
+"We'd better go out there now.  She may come rather before the time"
+
+"Come on, then!" said the navvy, buttoning up his coat and rolling a
+ragged cravat round his throat.  "Who is a-comin' with me?"
+
+"We shall both come," answered John Girdlestone firmly.  "You will need
+help to carry her to the railway line."
+
+"Surely Burt can do that himself," Ezra remarked.  "She's not so very
+heavy."
+
+Girdlestone drew his son aside.  "Don't be so foolish, Ezra," he said.
+"We can't trust the half-drunken fellow.  It must be done with the
+greatest carefulness and precision, and no traces left.  Our old
+business watchword was to overlook everything ourselves, and we shall
+certainly do so now."
+
+"It's a horrible affair!" Ezra said, with a shudder.  "I wish I was out
+of it."
+
+"You won't think that to-morrow morning when you realize that the firm
+is saved and no one the wiser.  He has gone on.  Don't lose sight of
+him."
+
+They both hurried out, and found Burt standing in front of the door.
+It was blowing half a gale now, and the wind was bitterly cold.
+There came a melancholy rasping and rustling from the leafless wood, and
+every now and again a sharp crackling sound would announce that some
+rotten branch had come crashing down.  The clouds drove across the face
+of the moon, so that at times the cold, clear light silvered the dark
+wood and the old monastery, while at others all was plunged in darkness.
+From the open door a broad golden bar was shot across the lawn from the
+lamp in the hall.  The three dark figures with their long fantastic
+shadows looked eerie and unnatural in the yellow glare.
+
+"Are we to have a lantern?" asked Burt.
+
+"No, no," cried Ezra.  "We shall see quite enough as it is.  We don't
+want a light."
+
+"I have one," said the father.  "We can use it if it is necessary.
+I think we had better take our places now.  She may come sooner than we
+expect.  It will be well to leave the door as it is.  She will see that
+there is no obstacle in the way."
+
+"You're not half sharp enough," said Ezra.  "If the door was left like
+that it might suggest a trap to her.  Better close the dining-room door
+and then leave the hall door just a little ajar.  That would look more
+natural.  She would conclude that Burt and you were in there."
+
+"Where are Jorrocks and Rebecca?" Girdlestone asked, closing the door as
+suggested.
+
+"Jorrocks is in her room.  Rebecca, I have no doubt, is in hers also."
+
+"Things look safe enough.  Come along, Burt.  This way."
+
+The three tramped their way across the gravelled drive and over the
+slushy grass to the border of the wood.
+
+"This is the withered oak," said Girdlestone, as a dark mass loomed in
+front of them.  It stood somewhat apart from the other trees, and the
+base of it was free from the brambles which formed a thick undergrowth
+elsewhere.
+
+Burt walked round the great trunk and made as careful an examination of
+the ground as he could in the dark.
+
+"Would the lantern be of any use to you?" Girdlestone asked.
+
+"No, It's all serene.  I think I know how to fix it now.  You two can
+get behind those trees, or where you like, as long as you're not in the
+way.  I don't want no 'sistance.  When Jem Burt takes a job in hand he
+carries it through in a workmanlike manner.  I don't want nobody else
+foolin' around."
+
+"We would not dream of interfering with your arrangements," said
+Girdlestone.
+
+"You'd better not!" Burt growled.  "I'll lay down behind this oak, d'ye
+see.  When she comes, she'll think as he's not arrived yet, and she'll
+get standin' around and waitin'.  When I see my chance, I'll get behind
+her, and she'll never know that she has not been struck by lightnin'."
+
+"Excellent!" cried John Girdlestone; "excellent!  We had best get into
+our places."
+
+"Mind you do it all in one crack," Ezra said.  "Don't let us have any
+crying out afterwards.  I could stand a good deal, but not that."
+
+"You should know how I hits," Burt remarked with a malicious grin, which
+was hidden from his companion.  "If your head wasn't well nigh solid you
+wouldn't be here now."
+
+Ezra's hand involuntarily went up to the old scar.  "I think such a one
+as that would settle her!" he said, as he withdrew with his father.
+The two took up their position under the shadow of some trees fifty
+yards off or more.  Burt crouched down behind the withered oak with his
+weapon in his hand and waited for the coming of his victim.
+
+Ezra, though usually resolute and daring, had completely lost his nerve,
+and his teeth were chattering in his head.  His father, on the other
+hand, was emotionless and impassive as ever.
+
+"It's close upon nine o'clock," Ezra whispered.
+
+"Ten minutes to," said the other, peering at his great golden
+chronometer through the darkness.
+
+"What if she fails to come?"
+
+"We must devise other means of bringing her out."
+
+From the spot where they stood they had a view of the whole of the
+Priory.  She could not come out without being seen.  Above the door was
+a long narrow window which opened upon the staircase.  On this
+Girdlestone and his son fixed their eyes, for they knew that on her way
+down she would be visible at it.  As they looked, the dim light which
+shone through it was obscured and then reappeared.
+
+"She has passed!"
+
+"Hush!"
+
+Another moment and the door was stealthily opened.  Once again the broad
+golden bar shot out across the lawn almost to the spot where the
+confederates were crouching.  In the centre of the zone of light there
+stood a figure--the figure of the girl.  Even at that distance they
+could distinguish the pearl-grey mantle which she usually wore and the
+close-fitting bonnet.  She had wrapped a shawl round the lower part of
+her face to protect her from the boisterous wind.  For a minute or more
+she stood peering out into the darkness of the night, as though
+uncertain whether to proceed or to go back.  Then, with a quick, sudden
+gesture she closed the door behind her.  The light was no longer there,
+but they knew that she was outside the house, and that the appointment
+would be kept.
+
+What an age it seemed before they heard her footsteps.  She came very
+slowly, putting one foot gingerly before the other, as if afraid of
+falling over something in the darkness.  Once or twice she stopped
+altogether, looking round, no doubt, to make sure of her whereabouts.
+At that instant the moon shone out from behind a cloud, and they saw her
+dark figure a short distance on.  The light enabled her to see the
+withered oak, for she came rapidly towards it.  As she approached, she
+satisfied herself apparently that she was the first on the ground, for
+she slackened her pace once more and walked in the listless way that
+people assume when they are waiting.  The clouds were overtaking the
+moon again, and the light was getting dimmer.
+
+"I can see her still," said Ezra in a whisper, grasping his father's
+wrist in his excitement.
+
+The old man said nothing, but he peered through the darkness with eager,
+straining eyes.
+
+"There she is, standing out a little from the oak," the young merchant
+said, pointing with a quivering finger.  "She's not near enough for him
+to reach her."
+
+"He's coming out from the shadow now," the other said huskily.
+"Don't you see him crawling along the ground?"
+
+"I see him," returned the other in the same subdued, awestruck voice.
+"Now he has stopped; now he goes on again!  My God, he's close behind
+her!  She is looking the other way."
+
+A thin ray of light shot down between the clouds.  In its silvery
+radiance two figures stood out hard and black, that of the unconscious
+girl and of the man who crouched like a beast of prey behind her.
+He made a step forward, which brought him within a yard of her.  She may
+have heard the heavy footfall above the shriek of the storm, for she
+turned suddenly and faced him.  At the same instance she was struck down
+with a crashing blow.  There was no time for a prayer, no time for a
+scream.  One moment had seen her a magnificent woman in all the pride of
+her youthful beauty, the next left her a poor battered, senseless wreck.
+The navvy had earned his blood-money.
+
+At the sound of the blow and the sight of the fall both the old man and
+the young ran out from their place of concealment.  Burt was standing
+over the body, his bludgeon in his hand.
+
+"Not even a groan!" he said.  "What d'ye think of that?"
+
+Girdlestone wrung his hand and congratulated him warmly.  "Shall I light
+the lantern?" he asked.
+
+"For God's sake, don't!" Ezra said earnestly.
+
+"I had no idea that you were so faint-hearted, my son," the merchant
+remarked.  "However, I know the way to the gate well enough to go there
+blindfold.  What a comfort it is to know that there is no blood about!
+That's the advantage of a stick over a knife."
+
+"You're correct there, guv'nor," Burt said approvingly.
+
+"Will you kindly carry one end and I'll take the other.  I'll go first,
+if you don't mind, because I know the way best.  The train will pass in
+less than half an hour, so we have not long to wait.  Within that time
+every chance of detection will have gone."
+
+Girdlestone raised up the head of the murdered girl, and Burt took her
+feet.  Ezra walked behind as though he were in some dreadful dream.
+He had fully recognized the necessity for the murder, but he had never
+before realized how ghastly the details would be.  Already he had begun
+to repent that he had ever acquiesced in it.  Then came thoughts of the
+splendid possibilities of the African business, which could only be
+saved from destruction by this woman's death.  How could he, with his
+luxurious tastes, bear the squalor and poverty which would be his lot
+were the firm to fail?  Better a rope and a long drop than such a life
+as that!  All these considerations thronged into his mind as he plodded
+along the slippery footpath which led through the forest to the wooden
+gate.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+THE INVASION OF HAMPSHIRE.
+
+When Tom and the major arrived at Waterloo Station, the latter in the
+breathless condition described in a preceding chapter, they found the
+German waiting for them with his two fellow-exiles.  The gentleman of
+Nihilistic proclivities was somewhat tall and thin, with a long
+frock-coat buttoned almost up to his throat, which showed signs of
+giving at the seams every here and there.  His grizzly hair fell over
+his collar behind, and he had a short bristling beard.  He stood with
+one hand stuck into the front of his coat and the other upon his hip, as
+though rehearsing the position in which his statue might be some day
+erected in the streets of his native Russia, when the people had their
+own, and despotism was no more.  In spite of his worn attire there was
+something noble and striking about the man.  His bow, when Baumser
+introduced him to the major and Tom, would have graced any Court in
+Europe.  Round his neck he had a coarse string from which hung a pair of
+double eye-glasses.  These he fixed upon his aquiline nose, and took a
+good look at the gentlemen whom he had come to serve.
+
+Bulow, of Kiel, was a small, dark-eyed, clean-shaven fellow, quick and
+energetic in his movements, having more the appearance of a Celt than of
+a Teuton.  He seemed to be full of amiability, and assured the major in
+execrable English how very happy he was to be able to do a service to
+one who had shown kindness to their esteemed colleague and persecuted
+patriot, Von Baumser.  Indeed both of the men showed great deference to
+the German, and the major began to perceive that his friend was a very
+exalted individual in Socialistic circles.  He liked the look of the two
+foreigners, and congratulated himself upon having their co-operation in
+the matter on hand.
+
+Ill luck was in store for the expedition, however.  On inquiry at the
+ticket-office they found that there was no train for upwards of two
+hours, and then it was a slow one which would not land them until eight
+o'clock at Bedsworth.  At this piece of information Tom Dimsdale fairly
+broke down, and stamped about the station, raving and beseeching the
+officials to run a special, be the cost what it might.  This, however,
+could by no means be done, owing to the press of Saturday traffic.
+There was nothing for it but to wait.  The three foreigners went off in
+search of something to eat, and having found a convenient cookshop they
+disappeared therein and feasted royally at Von Baumser's expense.
+Major Tobias Clutterbuck remained with the young man, who resolutely
+refused to leave the platform.  The major knew of a snug little corner
+not far off where he could have put in the time very comfortably, but he
+could not bring himself to desert his companion even for a minute.
+I have no doubt that that wait of two hours in the draughty station is
+marked up somewhere to the old sinner's credit account.
+
+Indeed, it was well that day that young Dimsdale had good friends at his
+back.  His appearance was so strange and wild that the passers-by turned
+back to have another look at him, His eyes were open and staring, giving
+a fear-inspiring character to his expression.  He could not sit still
+for an instant, but paced up and down and backwards and forwards under
+the influence of the fierce energy which consumed him, while the major
+plodded along manfully at his side, suggesting every consideration which
+might cheer him up, and narrating many tales, true and apocryphal, most
+of which fell upon heedless ears.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone had four hours' start of them.  That was the thought
+which rankled in Tom's heart and outweighed every other consideration.
+He knew Kate's nature so well that he was convinced that she would never
+have expressed such fears to Mrs. Scully unless she had very assured
+reasons for them.  In fact, apart from her own words, what could this
+secrecy and seclusion mean except foul play.  After what he had learned
+about the insurance of the ships and the manner in which the elder
+Girdlestone had induced him to cease corresponding with Kate, he could
+believe anything of his partners.  He knew, also, that in case of Kate's
+death the money reverted to her guardian.  There was not a single link
+missing in the chain of evidence which showed that a crime was in
+contemplation.  Then, who was that butcher-like man whom Ezra was taking
+down with him?  Tom could have torn his hair as he thought of his
+present impotence and of his folly in losing sight of young Girdlestone.
+
+The major has put it on record that those two hours appeared to him the
+longest that ever he passed in his life, and Tom, no doubt, would
+endorse the sentiment.  Everything must have an end, however, and the
+station clock, the hands of which seemed several times to have stopped
+altogether, began at last to approach the hour at which the Portsmouth
+train was timed to depart.  Baumser and his two friends had come back,
+all three smoking cigarettes, and looking the better for their visit to
+the cookshop.  The five got into a first-class railway carriage and
+waited.  Would they never have done examining tickets and stamping
+luggage and going through all sorts of tedious formalities?  At last,
+thank God! comes the shrill whistle of the guard, the answering snort
+from the engine, and they are fairly started upon their mission of
+rescue.
+
+There was much to be arranged as to their plan of action.  Tom, Von
+Baumser, and the major talked it over in a low voice, while the two
+Socialists chatted together in German and consumed eternal cigarettes.
+Tom was for marching straight up to the Priory and demanding that
+Girdlestone should deliver his ward up to them.  To the major and the
+German this seemed an unwise proceeding.  It was to put themselves
+hopelessly wrong from a legal point of view.  Girdlestone had only to
+say, as he assuredly would, that the whole story was a ridiculous mare's
+nest, and then what proof could they adduce, or what excuse give for
+their interference.  However plausible their suspicions might be, they
+were, after all, only suspicions, which other people might not view in
+as grave a light.
+
+"What would you advise, then?"  Tom asked, passing his hand over his
+heated forehead.
+
+"Bedad! I'll tell you the plan," the old soldier answered, "and I think
+me friend Von Baumser will agray with me.  I understand that this place
+is surrounded by a wall to which there is only one gate.  Sure, we shall
+wait outside this wall, and one of us can go in as a skirmisher and find
+out how the land lies.  Let him ascertain from the young lady herself if
+she requires immadiate help, and what she would wish done.  If he can't
+make his way to her, let him hang about the house, and see and hear all
+that he can.  We shall then have something solid to work on.  I have a
+dog whistle here on me watch-chain, given me by Charley Gill, of the
+Inniskillens.  Our skirmisher could take that with him, and if he wants
+immadiate help one blow of it would be enough to bring the four of us
+over to him.  Though how the divil I am to git over a wall," concluded
+the major ruefully, looking down at his own proportions, "is more than I
+can tell."
+
+"I hope, my vriends," said Von Baumser, "dat you vill allow me the
+honour of going first, for ven I vas in the Swabian Jager I vas always
+counted a very good spion."
+
+"That is my place," said Tom with decision.
+
+"You have the best claim," the major answered.  "What a train this is!
+Ged, it's as slow as the one which Jimmy Travers, of the Commissariat,
+travelled in in America.  They were staming along, according to Jimmy,
+when they saw a cow walking along the loine in front of them.  They all
+thought that they were going to run into her, but it was all right, for
+they never overtook her, and she soon walked clane out of sight.  Here
+we are at a station!  How far to Bedsworth, guard?"
+
+"Next station, sir."
+
+"Thank the Lord!  It's twinty to eight.  We are rather behind our time.
+You always are if you are in a particular hurry."
+
+It was nearly eight o'clock by the time they reached their destination.
+The station-master directed them to the _Flying Bull_, where they
+secured the very vehicle in which Kate and her guardian had been
+originally driven up.  By the time that the horse was put in it was
+close upon the half-hour.
+
+"Drive as hard as you can go to the Proiory, me man," said the major.
+
+The sulky ostler made no remark, but a look of surprise passed over his
+phlegmatic countenance.  For years back so little had been heard of the
+old monastery that its very existence had been almost forgotten in
+Bedsworth.  Now whole troops of Londoners were coming down in
+succession, demanding to be driven there.  He pondered over the strange
+fact as he drove through the darkness, but the only conclusion to which
+his bucolic mind could come was that it was high time to raise the fare
+to that particular point.
+
+It was a miserable night, stormy and wet and bitterly cold.  None of the
+five men had a thought to spare for the weather, however.  The two
+foreigners had been so infected by the suppressed excitement of their
+companions, or had so identified themselves with their comrades' cause,
+that they were as eager as the others.
+
+"Are we near?" the major asked.
+
+"The gate is just at the end o' the lane, sir."
+
+"Don't pull up at the gate, but take us a little past it."
+
+"There ain't no way in except the gate," the driver remarked.
+
+"Do what you're ordered," said the major sternly.  Once again the
+ostler's face betrayed unbounded astonishment.  He slewed half-way round
+in his seat and took as good a look as was possible in the uncertain
+light at the faces of his passengers.  It had occurred to him that it
+was more than likely that he would have to swear to them at some future
+date in a police-court.  "I'd know that thick 'un wi' the red face," he
+muttered to himself, "and him wi' the yeller beard and the stick."
+
+They passed the stone pillars with the weather-beaten heraldic devices,
+and drove along by the high park wall.  When they had gone a hundred
+yards or so the major ordered the driver to pull up, and they all got
+down.  The increased fare was paid without remonstrance, and the ostler
+rattled away homewards, with the intention of pulling up at the county
+police-station and lodging information as to the suspicious visitors
+whom he had brought down.
+
+"It is loikely that they have a watch at the gate," said the major.
+"We must kape away from there.  This wall is a great hoight.  We'd best
+kape on until we find the aisiest place to scale it."
+
+"I could get over it here," Tom said eagerly.
+
+"Wait a bit.  A few minutes can make no difference one way or the other.
+Ould Sir Colin used to say that there were more battles lost by
+over-haste than by slowness.  What's the high bank running along on the
+right here?"
+
+"Dat's a railway bankment," said Von Baumser.  "See de posts and de
+little red lights over yonder."
+
+"So it is.  The wall seems to me to be lower here.  What's this dark
+thing?  Hullo, here's a door lading into the grounds."
+
+"It is locked though."
+
+"Give me a hoist here," Tom said imploringly.  "Don't throw a minute
+away.  You can't tell what may be going on inside.  At this very moment
+for all we know they may be plotting her murder."
+
+"He has right," said Von Baumser.  "We shall await here until we hear
+from you.  Help him, my vriends--shove him up!"
+
+Tom caught the coping of the wall, although the broken glass cut deeply
+into his hands.  With a great heave he swung himself up, and was soon
+astride upon the top.
+
+"Here's the whistle," said the major, standing on tiptoe to reach a
+downstretched hand.  "If you want us, give a good blow at it.  We'll be
+with you in a brace of shakes.  If we can't get over the wall we'll have
+the door down.  Divil a fear but we'll be there!"
+
+Tom was in the act of letting himself drop into the wood, when suddenly
+the watchers below saw him crouch down upon the wall, and lie
+motionless, as though listening intently.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered, leaning over.  "Some one is coming through the
+wood."
+
+The wind had died away and the storm subsided.  Even from the lane they
+could hear the sound of feet, and of muffled voices inside the grounds.
+They all crouched down in the shadow of the wall.  Tom lay flat upon the
+glass-studded coping, and no one looking from below could distinguish
+him from the wall itself.
+
+The voices and the footsteps sounded louder and louder, until they were
+just at the other side of the boundary.  They seemed to come from
+several people walking slowly and heavily.  There was the shrill rasping
+of a key, and the wooden door swung back on its rusty hinges, while
+three dark figures passed out who appeared to bear some burden between
+them.  The party in the shadow crouched closer still, and peered through
+the darkness with eager, anxious eyes.  They could discern little save
+the vague outlines of the moving men, and yet as they gazed at them an
+unaccountable and overpowering horror crept into the hearts of every one
+of them.  They breathed the atmosphere of death.
+
+The new-comers tramped across the road, and, pushing through the thin
+hedge, ascended the railway embankment upon the other side.  It was
+evident that their burden was a heavy one, for they stopped more than
+once while ascending the steep grassy slope, and once, when near the
+top, one of the party slipped, and there was a sound as though he had
+fallen upon his knees, together with a stifled oath.  They reached the
+top, however, and their figures, which had disappeared from view, came
+into sight again, standing out dimly against the murky sky.  They bent
+down over the railway line, and placed the indistinguishable mass which
+they bore carefully upon it.
+
+"We must have the light," said a voice.
+
+"No, no; there's no need," another expostulated.
+
+"We can't work in the dark," said a third, loudly and harshly.
+"Where's your lantern, guv'nor?  I've got a lucifer."
+
+"We must manage that the train passes over right," the first voice
+remarked.  "Here, Burt, you light it?"
+
+There was the sharp sound of the striking of a match, and a feeble
+glimmer appeared, in the darkness.  It flickered and waned, as though
+the wind would extinguish it, but next instant the wick of the lantern
+had caught, and threw a strong yellow glare upon the scene.  The light
+fell upon the major and his comrades, who had sprung into the road, and
+it lit up the group on the railway line.  Yet it was not upon the
+rescuing party that the murderers fixed their terror-stricken eyes, and
+the major and his friends had lost all thought of the miscreants above
+them--for there, standing in the centre of the roadway, there with the
+light flickering over her pale sweet face, like a spirit from the tomb,
+stood none other than the much-enduring, cruelly-treated girl for whom
+Burt's murderous blow had been intended.
+
+For a few moments she stood there without either party moving a foot or
+uttering a sound.  Then there came from the railway line a cry so wild
+that it will ring for ever in the ears of those who heard it.
+Burt dropped upon his knees and put his hand over his eyes to keep out
+the sight.  John Girdlestone caught his son by the wrist and dashed away
+into the darkness, flying wildly, madly, with white faces and staring
+eyes, as men who have looked upon that which is not of this world.
+In the meantime, Tom had sprung down from his perch, and had clasped
+Kate in his arms, and there she lay, sobbing and laughing, with many
+pretty feminine ejaculations and exclamations and questions, saved at
+last from the net of death which had been closing upon her so long.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+A MIDNIGHT CRUISE.
+
+If ever two men were completely cowed and broken down those two were the
+African merchant and his son.  Wet, torn, and soiled, they still
+struggled on in their aimless flight, crashing through hedges and
+clambering over obstacles, with the one idea in their frenzied minds of
+leaving miles between them and that fair accusing face.  Exhausted and
+panting they still battled through the darkness and the storm, until
+they saw the gleam of the surge and heard the crash of the great waves
+upon the beach.  Then they stopped amid the sand and the shingle.
+The moon was shining down now in all its calm splendour, illuminating
+the great tossing ocean and the long dark sweep of the Hampshire coast.
+By its light the two men looked at one another, such a look as two lost
+souls might have exchanged when they heard the gates of hell first clang
+behind them.
+
+Who could have recognized them now as the respected trader of Fenchurch
+Street and his fastidious son.  Their clothes were tattered, their faces
+splashed with mud and scarred by brambles and thorns, the elder man had
+lost his hat, and his silvery hair blew out in a confused tangle behind
+him.  Even more noticeable, however, than the change in their attire was
+the alteration in their expression.  Both had the same startled, furtive
+look of apprehension, like beasts of prey who hear the baying of the
+hounds in the distance.  Their quivering hands and gasping breath
+betrayed their exhaustion, yet they glanced around them nervously, as
+though the least sound would send them off once more upon their wild
+career.
+
+"You devil!" Ezra cried at last, in a harsh, choking voice, taking a
+step towards his father with a gesture as though he would have struck
+him.  "You have brought us to this with your canting and scheming and
+plotting.  What are we to do now--eh?  Answer me that!"  He caught the
+old man by the coat and shook him violently.
+
+Girdlestone's face was all drawn, as though he were threatened with a
+fit, and his eyes were glassy and vacant.  The moonlight glittered in
+them and played over his contorted features.  "Did you see her?" he
+whispered with trembling lips.  "Did you see her?"
+
+"Yes, I saw her," the other answered brusquely;  "and I saw that
+infernal fellow from London, and the major, and God knows how many more
+behind her.  A nice hornets' nest to bring about one's ears."
+
+"It was her spirit," said his father in the same awe-struck voice.
+"The spirit of John Harston's murdered daughter."
+
+"It was the girl herself," said Ezra.  He had been panic-stricken at the
+moment, but had had time during their flight to realize the situation.
+"We have made a pretty botch of the whole thing."
+
+"The girl herself!" cried Girdlestone in bewilderment.  "For Heaven's
+sake, don't mock me!  Who was it that we carried through the wood and
+laid upon the rails?"
+
+"Who was it?  Why that jealous jade, Rebecca Taylforth, of course, who
+must have read my note and come out in the other's cloak and hat to hear
+what I had to say to her.  The cursed fool!"
+
+"The wrong woman!" Girdlestone muttered with the same vacant look upon
+his face.  "All for nothing, then--for nothing!"
+
+"Don't stand mumbling to yourself there," cried Ezra, catching his
+father's arm and half dragging him along the beach.  "Don't you
+understand that there's a hue and cry out after you, and that we'll be
+hung if we are taken.  Wake up and exert yourself.  The gallows would be
+a nice end to all your preaching and praying, wouldn't it?"
+
+They hurried along together down the beach, ploughing their way through
+the loose shingle and tripping over the great mats of seaweed which had
+been cast up in the recent gale.  The wind was still so great that they
+had to lower their heads and to put their shoulders against it, while
+the salt spray caused their eyes to smart and tingled on their lips.
+
+"Where are you taking me, my son?" asked the old man once.
+
+"To the only chance we have of safety.  Come on, and ask no questions."
+
+Through the murkiness of the night they saw a single light flickering
+dimly ahead of them.  This was evidently the goal at which Ezra was
+aiming.  As they toiled on it grew larger and brighter, until it
+resolved itself into the glare of a lamp shining through a small
+diamond-paned window.  Girdlestone recognized the place now.  It was the
+hut of a fisherman named Sampson, who lived a mile or more from Claxton.
+He remembered having his attention attracted to the place by the curious
+nature of the building, which was constructed out of the remnants of a
+Norwegian barque stranded some years before.  The thatch which covered
+it and the windows and door cut in the sides gave it a curiously hybrid
+appearance, and made it an object of interest to sightseers in those
+parts.  Sampson was the owner of a fair-sized fishing-boat, which he
+worked with his eldest son, and which was said to yield him a decent
+livelihood.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Girdlestone, as his son made his way
+to the door.
+
+"Don't look like a ghost," Ezra answered in an angry whisper.
+"We're all safe, if we are only cool."
+
+"I am better now.  You can trust me."
+
+"Keep a smiling face, then," said Ezra, and knocked loudly at the door
+of the hut.  The occupants had not heard their approach owing to the
+storm, but the instant that the young merchant struck the door there was
+a buzz of conversation and the sharp barking of a dog.  Then came a dull
+thud and the barking ceased, from which Ezra concluded that some one had
+hurled a boot at the animal.
+
+"We hain't no bait," cried a gruff voice.
+
+"Can I see Mr. Sampson?" asked Ezra.
+
+"I tell 'ee we hain't no bait," roared the voice in a more irritable
+tone.
+
+"We don't want bait.  We want a word of talk," said Ezra.
+
+As he spoke, the door flew open, and a burly middle-aged man, in a red
+shirt, appeared, with a face which was almost the same colour as his
+garment.  "We hain't got no--" he was beginning, when he suddenly
+recognized his visitors and broke short off, staring at them with as
+much surprise as it is possible for human features to express.
+
+"Well, if it ain't the genelman from the Priory!" he exclaimed at last,
+with a whistle, which seemed to be his way of letting off the
+astonishment which would otherwise remain bottled up in his system.
+
+"We want a minute's talk with you, Mr. Sampson," said Ezra.
+
+"Surely, sir--sure-ly!" the fisherman cried, bustling indoors and
+rubbing the top of two stools with his sleeve.  "Coom in! 'Ere, Jarge,
+pull the seats up for the genelmen."
+
+At this summons, a lanky, big-boned hobbledehoy, in sea boots, pushed
+the stools up towards the fire, on which a log of wood was blazing
+cheerily.  The two Girdlestones sat warming themselves, while the
+fisherman and his son surveyed them silently with open eyes and mouth,
+as though they were a pair of strange zoological curiosities cast up by
+the gale.
+
+"Keep doon, Sammy!" the fisherman said hoarsely to a great collie dog
+who was licking at Girdlestone's hands.  "What be he a suckin' at?
+Why, sure, sir, there be blood on your hands."
+
+"My father scratched himself," said Ezra promptly.
+
+"His hat has blown away too, and we lost our way in the dark, so we're
+rather in a mess."
+
+"Why, so you be!" Sampson cried, eyeing them up and down.  "I thought,
+when I heard you, as it was they folk from Claxton as comes 'ere for
+bait whenever they be short.  That's nigh about the only visitors we
+ever gets here; bean't it, Jarge?"
+
+George, thus appealed to, made no articulate reply, but he opened his
+great mouth and laughed vociferously.
+
+"We've come for something which will pay you better than that," said
+Ezra.  "You remember my meeting you two or three Saturdays ago, and
+speaking to you about your house and your boat and one thing or
+another?"
+
+The fisherman nodded.
+
+"You said something then about your boat being a good sea-going craft,
+and that it was as roomy as many a yacht.  I think I told you that I
+might give it a try some day."
+
+The fisherman nodded again.  His wondering eyes were still surveying his
+visitors, dwelling on every rent in their clothes or stain on their
+persons.
+
+"My father and I want to get down the coast as far as the Downs.  Now we
+thought that we might just as well give your boat a turn and have your
+son and yourself to work it.  I suppose she is fit to go that distance?"
+
+"Fit! whoy she be fit to go to 'Meriky!  The Downs ain't more'n hunder
+and twenty mile.  With a good breeze she would do it in a day.
+By to-morrow afternoon we'd be ready to make a start if the wind
+slackens."
+
+"To-morrow afternoon!  We must be there by that time.  We want you to
+start to-night."
+
+The seaman looked round at his son, and the boy burst out laughing once
+again.
+
+"It 'ud be a rum start for a vyage at this time o' night, with half a
+gale from the sou'-west. I never heard tell o' sich a thing!"
+
+"Look here," said Ezra, bending forward and emphasizing his words with
+his uplifted hand, "we've set our minds on going, and we don't mind
+paying for the fancy.  The sooner we start the better pleased we shall
+be.  Name your price.  If you won't take us, there are many in Claxton
+that will."
+
+"Well, it be a cruel bad night to be sure," the fisherman answered.
+"Like as not we'd get the boat knocked about, an' maybe have her riggin'
+damaged.  We've been a-fresh paintin' of her too, and that would be
+spoiled.  It's a powerful long way, and then there's the gettin' back.
+It means the loss of two or three days' work, and there's plenty of fish
+on the coast now, and a good market for them."
+
+"Would thirty pounds pay you?" asked Ezra.
+
+The sum was considerably more than the fisherman would have ventured to
+ask.  The very magnificence of it, however, encouraged him to hope that
+more might be forthcoming.
+
+"Five-and-thirty wouldn't pay me for the loss and trouble," he said;
+"forbye the damage to the boat."
+
+"Say forty, then," said Ezra.  "It's rather much to pay for a freak of
+this sort, but we won't haggle over a pound or two."
+
+The old seaman scratched his head as though uncertain whether to take
+this blessing which the gods had sent or to hold out for more.
+
+Ezra solved the matter by springing to his feet.  "Come on to Claxton,
+father," he cried.  "We'll get what we want there."
+
+"Steady, sir, steady!" the fisherman said hastily.  "I didn't say as I
+wasn't good for the job.  I'm ready to start for the sum you names.
+Hurry up, Jarge, and get the tackle ready."
+
+The sea-booted youth began to bustle about at this summons, bearing
+things out into the darkness and running back for more with an alacrity
+which one would hardly have suspected from his uncouth appearance.
+
+"Can I wash my hands?" asked Girdlestone.  There were several crimson
+stains where he had held the body of the murdered girl.  It appeared
+that Burt's bludgeon was not such a bloodless weapon after all.
+
+"There's water, sir, in that bucket.  Maybe you would like a bit o'
+plaster to bind up the cut?"
+
+"It's not bad enough for that," said the merchant hastily.
+
+"I'll leave you here," the fisherman remarked.  "There's much to be done
+down theer.  You'll have poor feedin' I'm afraid; biscuits and water and
+bully beef."
+
+"Never mind that.  Hurry up all you can."  The man tramped away down to
+the beach, and Ezra remained with his father in the hut.  The old man
+washed his hands very carefully, and poured the stained water away
+outside the door.
+
+"How are you going to pay this man?" he asked.
+
+"I have some money sewed up in my waistcoat," Ezra answered.  "I wasn't
+such a fool as not to know that a crash might come at any moment.  I was
+determined that all should not go to the creditors."
+
+"How much have you?"
+
+"What's that to you?" Ezra asked angrily.  "You mind your own affairs.
+The money's mine, since I have saved it.  It's quite enough if I spend
+part of it in helping you away."
+
+"I don't dispute it, my boy," the old merchant said meekly.  "It's a
+blessing that you had the foresight to secure it.   Are you thinking of
+making for France now?"
+
+"France!  Pshaw, man, the telegraph would have set every gendarme on the
+coast on the look-out.  No, no, that would be a poor hope of safety!"
+
+"Where then?"
+
+"Where is the fisherman?" asked Ezra suspiciously, peering out from the
+door into the darkness.  "No one must know our destination.  We'll pick
+up Migg's ship, the _Black Eagle_, in the Downs.  She was to have gone
+down the Thames to-day, and to lie at Gravesend, and then to work round
+to the Downs, where she will be to-morrow.  It will be a Sunday, so no
+news can get about.  If we get away with him they will lose all trace of
+us.  We'll get him to land up upon the Spanish coast.  I think it will
+fairly puzzle the police.  No doubt they are watching every station on
+the line by this time.  I wonder what has become of Burt?"
+
+"I trust that they will hang him," John Girdlestone cried, with a gleam
+of his old energy.  "If he had taken the ordinary precaution of making
+sure who the girl was, this would never have occurred."
+
+"Don't throw the blame on him," said Ezra bitterly.  "Who was it who
+kept us all up to it whenever we wished to back out?  If it had not been
+for you, who would have thought of it?"
+
+"I acted for the best," cried the old man, throwing his hands up with a
+piteous gesture.  "You should be the last to upbraid me.  It was the
+dream of leaving you rich and honoured which drove me on.  I was
+prepared to do anything for that end."
+
+"You have always excellent intentions," his son said callously.
+"They have a queer way of showing themselves, however.  Look out, here's
+Sampson!"
+
+As he spoke they heard the crunching of the fisherman's heavy boots on
+the shingle, and he looked in, with his ruddy face all shining with the
+salt water.
+
+"We're all ready now, sirs," he said.  "Jarge and I will get into our
+oil duds, and then we can lock up the shop.  It'll have to take care of
+itself until we come back."
+
+The two gentlemen walked down to the edge of the sea.  There was a
+little dinghy there, and the boat was anchored a couple of hundred yards
+off.  They could just make out the loom of her through the darkness, and
+see her shadowy spars, dipping, rising, and falling with the wash of the
+waves.  To right and left spread the long white line of thundering foam,
+as though the ocean were some great beast of prey which was gnashing its
+glistening teeth at them.  The gale had partially died away, but there
+still came fitful gusts from the south-west, and the thick clouds
+overhead were sweeping in a majestic procession across the sky, and
+falling like a dark cataract over the horizon, showing that up there at
+least there was no lull in the tempest.  It was bitterly cold, and both
+men buttoned up their coats and slapped their hands against each other
+to preserve their warmth.
+
+After some little delay, Sampson and his son came down from the hut with
+a lantern in each of their hands.  They had locked the door behind them,
+which showed that they were ready for a final start.  By the lights
+which they carried it could be seen that they were dressed in yellow
+suits of oilskin and sou'wester hats, as if prepared for a wet night.
+
+"You ain't half dressed for a cruise of this kind," Sampson said.
+"You'll be nigh soaked through, I fear."
+
+"That's our look-out," answered Ezra.  "Let us get off."
+
+"Step in, sir, and we'll get in after."
+
+The dinghy was shoved off into the surf, and the two seamen clambered in
+after.  Ezra and his father sat in the sheets, while the others rowed.
+The sea was running very high--so high that when the dinghy lay in the
+trough of a wave they could see neither the boat for which they were
+steering nor the shore which they had left--nothing indeed but the black
+line of hissing water above their heads.  At times they would go up
+until they hung on the crest of a great roller and saw the dark valleys
+gaping beyond into which they were forthwith precipitated.  Sometimes,
+when they were high upon a wave, the fishing-boat would be between the
+seas, and then there would be nothing of her visible except the upper
+portion of her mast.  It was only a couple of hundred yards, but seemed
+a long journey to the shivering fugitives.
+
+"Stand by with the boat-hook!" Sampson cried at last.  The dark outline
+of the boat was looming immediately above them.
+
+"All right, father."
+
+The dinghy was held alongside, and the two gentlemen scrambled aboard as
+best they could, followed by their companions.
+
+"Have you the painter, Jarge?"
+
+"Ay, ay."
+
+"Make it fast aft then!"
+
+The lad fastened the rope which held the dinghy to a stanchion beside
+the tiller.  Then he and his father proceeded to hoist the foresail so
+as to get the boat's head round.
+
+"She'll do now," Sampson cried.  "Give us a hand here, sir, if you don't
+mind."
+
+Ezra caught hold of the rope which was handed him and pulled for some
+time.  It was a relief to him to have something, however small, which
+would distract his mind from the events of the night.
+
+"That will do, sir," the skipper cried, and, leaning over the bows, he
+seized the anchor which Ezra had hauled up, and tumbled it with a crash
+on the deck.
+
+"Now, Jarge, with three reefs in her we might give her the mains'le."
+
+With much pulling at ropes and with many strange nautical cries the
+father and the son, aided by their passengers, succeeded in raising the
+great brown sail.  The little vessel lay over under the pressure of the
+wind until her lee bulwark was flush with the water, and the deck lay at
+such an angle that it was only by holding on to the weather rigging
+that the two gentlemen could retain their footing.  The wild waves
+swirled and foamed round her bows, and beat at her quarter and beneath
+her counter, but the little boat rose gallantly to them, and shot away
+through the storm, running due eastward.
+
+"It ain't much of a cabin," Sampson said apologetically.  "Such as it
+is, you'll find it down there."
+
+"Thank you," answered Ezra; "we'll stay on deck at present.  When ought
+we to get to the Downs?"
+
+"At this rate we'll be there by to-morrow afternoon."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+The fisherman and his boy took turn and turn, one steering and the other
+keeping a look-out forward and trimming the sails.  The two passengers
+crouched huddled together against the weather rail.  They were each too
+occupied with thought to have time for speech.  Suddenly, after passing
+Claxton and rounding the point, they came in full sight of the Priory,
+every window of which was blazing with light.  They could see dark
+figures passing to and fro against the glare.
+
+"Look there," Girdlestone whispered.
+
+"Ay, the police have not taken long," his son answered.
+John Girdlestone was silent for some time.  Then he suddenly dropped his
+face upon his hands, and sobbed hoarsely for the first and last time in
+his career.
+
+"I am thinking of Monday in Fenchurch Street," he said.  "My God! is
+this the end of a life of hard work!  Oh, my business, my business, that
+I built up myself!  It will break my heart!"
+
+And so through the long cold winter's night they sat together while the
+boat ploughed its way down the English Channel.  Who shall say what
+their thoughts were as they stared with pale, rigid faces into the
+darkness, while their minds, perhaps, peered even more cheerlessly into
+the dismal obscurity which lay over their future.  Better be the
+lifeless wreck whom they have carried up to the Priory, than be torn as
+these men are torn, by the demons of fear and remorse and grief, and
+crushed down by the weight of a sin-stained and irrevocable past.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+LAW AND ORDER.
+
+The ruffian Burt was so horror-stricken at the sight of the girl whom he
+imagined that he had murdered, that he lay grovelling on the railway
+lines by the side of his victim, moaning with terror, and incapable of
+any resistance.  He was promptly seized by the major's party, and the
+Nihilist secured his hands with a handkerchief so quickly and
+effectively that it was clearly not the first time that he had performed
+the feat.  He then calmly drew a very long and bright knife from the
+recesses of his frock-coat, and having pressed it against Burt's nose to
+ensure his attention, he brandished it in front of him in a menacing
+way, as a hint that an attempt at escape might be dangerous.
+
+"And who is dis?" asked Baumser, lifting up the dead woman's head, and
+resting it upon his knee.
+
+"Poor girl!  She will niver spake again, whoever she may have been," the
+major said, holding the lantern to her cold pale face.  "Here's where
+the cowards struck her.  Death must have been instantaneous and
+painless.  I could have sworn it was the young lady we came afther, if
+it were not that we have her safe down there, thank the Lord!"
+
+"Vere are those oders?" asked Von Baumser, peering about through the
+darkness.  "If dere is justice in de country, dey vill hang for the work
+of dis night."
+
+"They are off," the major answered, laying the girl's head reverently
+down again.  "It's hopeless to follow them, as we know nothing of the
+counthry, nor which direction they took.  They ran like madmen.
+Hullo!  What the divil can this be?"
+
+The sight which had attracted the veteran's attention was nothing less
+than the appearance at the end of the lane of three brilliant luminous
+discs moving along abreast of one another.  They came rapidly nearer,
+increasing in brilliancy as they approached.  Then a voice rang out of
+the darkness, "There they are, officers!  Close with them!  Don't let
+'em get away!"  And before the major and his party could quite grasp the
+situation they were valiantly charged by three of those much-enduring,
+stout-hearted mortals known as the British police force.
+
+It takes courage to plunge into the boiling surf and to carry the rope
+to the breaking vessel.  It takes courage to spring from the ship's side
+and support the struggling swimmer, never knowing the moment at which a
+flickering shadow may appear in the deep green water, and the tiger of
+the deep turn its white belly upwards as it dashes on its prey.
+There is courage too in the infantryman who takes a sturdy grip of his
+rifle and plants his feet firmly as he sees the Lancers sweeping down on
+his comrades and himself.  But of all these types of bravery there is
+none that can compare with that of our homely constable when he finds on
+the dark November nights that a door on his beat is ajar, and, listening
+below, learns that the time has come to show the manhood that is in him.
+He must fight odds in the dark.  He must, single-handed, cage up
+desperate men like rats in a hole.  He must oppose his simple weapon to
+the six-shooter and the life-preserver.  All these thoughts, and the
+remembrance of his wife and children at home, and of how easy it would
+be not to observe the open door, come upon him, and then what does he
+do?  Why, with the thought of duty in his heart, and his little cudgel
+in his hand, he goes to what is too often his death, like a valiant
+high-minded Englishman, who fears the reproach of his own conscience
+more than pistol bullet, or bludgeon stroke.
+
+Which digression may serve to emphasize the fact that these three burly
+Hampshire policemen, having been placed upon our friends' track by the
+ostler of the _Flying Bull_, and having themselves observed manoeuvres
+which could only be characterized as suspicious, charged down with such
+vehemence, that in less time than it takes to tell it, both Tom and the
+major and Von Baumser were in safe custody.  The Nihilist, who had an
+unextinguishable hatred of the law, and who could never be brought to
+understand that it might under any circumstances be on his side, pulled
+himself very straight and held his knife down at his hip as though he
+meant to use it, while Bulow, of Kiel, likewise assumed an aggressive
+attitude.  Fortunately, however, the appearance of their prisoners and a
+few hurried words from the major made the inspector in charge understand
+how the land lay, and he transferred his attention to Burt, on whose
+wrists he placed the handcuffs.  He then listened to a more detailed
+account of the circumstances from the lips of the major.
+
+"Who is this young lady?" he asked, pointing to Kate.
+
+"This is the Miss Harston whom we came to rescue, and for whom no doubt
+the blow was intended which killed this unhappy girl."
+
+"Perhaps, sir," said the inspector to Tom, "you had better take her up
+to the house."
+
+"Thank you," said Tom, and went off through the wood with Kate upon his
+arm.  On their way, she told him how, being unable to find her bonnet
+and cloak, which Rebecca had abstracted, she had determined to keep her
+appointment without them.  Her delay rendered her a little late,
+however; but on reaching the withered oak she heard voices and steps in
+front of her, which she had followed.  These had led her to the open
+gate, and the lighting of the lantern had revealed her to friends and
+foes.  Ere she concluded her story Tom noticed that she leaned more and
+more heavily upon him, until by the time that they reached the Priory he
+was obliged to lift her up and carry her to prevent her from falling.
+The hardships of the last few weeks, and this final terrible and yet
+most joyful incident of all, had broken down her strength.  He bore her
+into the house, and laying her by the fire in the dining-room, watched
+tenderly over her, and exhausted his humble stock of medical knowledge
+in devising remedies for her condition.
+
+In the meantime the inspector, having thoroughly grasped the major's
+lucid narrative, was taking prompt and energetic measures.
+
+"You go down to the station, Constable Jones," he ordered.  "Wire to
+London, 'John Girdlestone, aged sixty-one, and his son, aged
+twenty-eight, wanted for murder.  Address, Eccleston Square and
+Fenchurch Street, City.'  Send a description of them.  'Father, six feet
+one inch in height, hatchet-faced, grey hair and whiskers, deep-set
+eyes, heavy brows, round shoulders.  Son, five feet ten, dark-faced,
+black eyes, black curly hair, strongly made, legs rather bandy, well
+dressed, usually wears a dog's head scarf-pin.' That ought to do!"
+
+"Yes, that's near enough," observed the major.
+
+"Wire to every station along the line to be on the look-out.  Send a
+description to the chief constable of Portsmouth, and have a watch kept
+on the shipping.  That should catch them!"
+
+"It vill," cried Von Baumser confidentially.  "I'll bet money dat it
+vill."  It was as well that the German's sporting offer found no takers,
+otherwise our good friend would have been a poorer man.
+
+"Let us carry the poor soul up to the house," the inspector continued,
+after making careful examination of the ground all round the body.
+
+The party assisted in raising the girl up, and in carrying her back
+along the path by which she had been brought.
+
+Burt tramped stolidly along behind with the remaining policeman beside
+him.  The Nihilist brought up the rear with his keen eye fixed upon the
+navvy, and his knife still ready for use.  When they reached the Priory
+the prisoner was safely locked away in one of the numerous empty rooms,
+while Rebecca was carried upstairs and laid upon the very bed which had
+been hers.
+
+"We must search the house," the inspector said; and Mrs. Jorrocks having
+been brought out of her room, and having forthwith fainted and been
+revived again, was ordered to accompany the police in their
+investigation, which she did in a very dazed and stupefied manner.
+Indeed, not a word could be got from her until, entering the
+dining-room, she perceived her bottle of Hollands upon the table, on
+which she raised up her voice and cursed the whole company, from the
+inspector downwards, with the shrillest volubility of invective.
+Having satisfied her soul in this manner, she wound up by a perfect
+shriek of profanity, and breaking away from her guardians, she regained
+the shelter of her room and locked herself up there, after which they
+could hear by the drumming of her heels that she went into a violent
+hysterical attack upon the floor.
+
+Kate had, however, recovered sufficiently to be able to show the police
+the different rooms, and to explain to them which was which.
+The inspector examined the scanty furniture of Kate's apartment with
+great interest.
+
+"You say you have been living here for three weeks?" he said.
+
+"Nearly a month," Kate answered.
+
+"God help you!  No wonder you look pale and ill.  You have a fine
+prospect from the window."  He drew the blind aside and looked out into
+the darkness.  A gleam of moonlight lay upon the heaving ocean, and in
+the centre of this silver streak was a single brown-sailed fishing-boat
+running to the eastward before the wind.  The inspector's keen eye
+rested upon it for an instant, and then he dropped the blind and turned
+away.  It never flashed across his mind that the men whom he was hunting
+down could have chosen that means of escape, and were already beyond his
+reach.
+
+He examined very carefully the rooms of Ezra and of his father.
+Both had been furnished comfortably, if not solidly, with spring
+mattresses to their beds and carpets upon the floor.  The young man's
+room had little in it beyond the mere furniture, which was natural, as
+his visits were so short.  In the merchant's chamber, however, were many
+books and papers.  On the little square table was a long slip of
+foolscap covered with complex figures.  It appeared to be a statement of
+his affairs, in which he had been computing the liabilities of the firm.
+By the side of it was a small calf-bound diary.  The inspector glanced
+over one of the pages and uttered an exclamation of disgust.  "Here are
+some pretty entries," he cried.  "'Feel the workings of grace within
+me!'  'Prayed that I might be given a livelier interest in the Holy
+Scriptures!'  The book's full of that sort of thing!" he added, turning
+over the leaves.  "The fellow seems to have played the hypocrite even
+with himself, for he could never have known that other eyes would rest
+upon this."
+
+"Dere'll be some queer company among de elect if he is dere!" Von
+Baumser remarked.
+
+"What's all this?" asked the inspector, tumbling a heap of clothes out
+of the corner with his foot.  "Why, here's a monk's dress!"
+
+Kate sprang forward at the words.  "Then I did see him!" she cried.
+"I had almost persuaded myself that it was a dream."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+Kate told her story as well as she could, and the inspector made notes
+of it.
+
+"The crafty old dog!" he cried.  "No doubt he could reconcile it with
+his conscience more easily to frighten you to death than to actually
+kill you.  He told you that cock-and-a-bull story to excite your
+imagination, and then, feeling sure that you would sooner or later try
+and escape by night, he kept guard in this rig.  The only wonder is that
+he didn't succeed in either killing you or driving you mad with fright."
+
+"Never mind now, dear," Tom whispered, as he saw the look of fear spring
+into her eyes at the recollection of what had passed.  "Don't think of
+these terrible things.  You will soon be safe in Phillimore Gardens in
+my mother's arms.  In the meanwhile, I think you would be the better for
+some sleep."
+
+"I think I should, Tom."
+
+"Are you afraid to sleep in your own room?"
+
+"No; I am afraid of nothing, now that I know you are near me.  I knew so
+well that you would come.  I have been expecting you all the evening."
+
+"I can never thank my good friends here enough for the help which they
+have given me!" Tom exclaimed, turning to his companions.
+
+"It is I who should thank them," said Kate earnestly, "I have found
+friends, indeed.  Who can say now that the days of chivalry are past?"
+
+"Me dear young lady," the major answered, bowing with all the innate
+grace of an Irish gentleman, "ye have warmed us by what ye say.
+I personally was, as ye know, under orders which left me no choice but
+to come.  I hope, however, that ye will believe that had Mrs. Scully not
+occupied the place in me affections which she does, I should still be as
+prompt as me friends here to hasten to the rescue of a lady.
+Tobias Clutterbuck may be ould, Miss Harston, but his heart will niver
+grow so hardened but that it will milt at the thought of beauty in
+distriss."  With this beautiful sentiment the major placed his fat hand
+over his heart, and bowed again, even more gracefully than before.
+The three foreigners behind made no remark, but they all stood in a line
+grinning in a most amicable fashion, and nodding their heads as if to
+intimate that the major was expressing their united sentiments to a
+nicety.  Kate's last recollection of that eventful evening was the
+smiling visages of Von Baumser, Bulow, and the nameless Russian as they
+beamed their good night at her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+
+CAPTAIN HAMILTON MIGGS SEES A VISION.
+
+Ezra Girdlestone had given many indications during his life, both in
+Africa and elsewhere, of being possessed of the power of grasping a
+situation and of acting for the best at the shortest notice.  He never
+showed this quality more conclusively than at that terrible moment, when
+he realized not only that the crime in which he had participated had
+failed, but that all was discovered, and that his father and he were
+hunted criminals.  With the same intuitive quickness which made him a
+brilliant man of business, he saw instantly what were the only available
+means of escape, and proceeded at once to adopt them.  If they could but
+reach the vessel of Captain Hamilton Miggs they might defy the pursuit
+of the law.
+
+The _Black Eagle_ had dropped down the Thames on the very Saturday which
+was so fruitful of eventful episodes.  Miggs would lie at Gravesend, and
+intended afterwards to beat round to the Downs, there to await the final
+instructions of the firm.  If they could catch him before he left, there
+was very little chance that he would know anything of what had occurred.
+It was a fortunate chance that the next day was Sunday, and there would
+be no morning paper to enlighten him as to the doings in Hampshire.
+They had only to invent some plausible excuse for their wish to
+accompany him, and get him to drop them upon the Spanish coast.  Once
+out of sight of England and on the broad ocean, what detective could
+follow their track?
+
+Of course upon Sampson's return all would come out.  Ezra reckoned,
+however, that it would be some time before the fisherman got back from
+his journey.  What was a favourable wind going would be dead in his
+teeth coming back.  It might take him a week's tacking and beating about
+before he got home.  By that time Ezra hoped to be beyond the reach of
+all danger.  He had a thousand five pound Bank of England notes sewn
+into the back of his waistcoat, for knowing that a crash might come at
+any moment, he had long made provision against it.  With this he felt
+that he could begin life again in the new world, and with his youth and
+energy he might hope to attain success.  As to his father, he was fully
+determined to abandon him completely at the first opportunity.
+
+Through the whole of that wintry night the fishing-boat scudded away to
+the eastward, and the two fugitives remained upon deck, drenched through
+with rain and with spray, but feeling that the wild turmoil around them
+was welcome as a relief to their own thoughts.  Better the cutting wind
+and the angry sea than the thought of the dead girl upon the rails and
+of the bloodhounds of the law.
+
+Ezra pointed up once at the moon, on whose face two storm wreaths had
+marked a rectangular device.
+
+"Look at that!" he cried.  "It looks like a gallows."
+
+"What is there to live for?" said his father, looking up with the cold
+light glittering on his deep-set eyes.
+
+"Not much for you, perhaps," his son retorted.  "You've had your fling,
+but I am young and have not yet had a fair show.  I have no fancy to be
+scragged yet."
+
+"Poor lad!" the father muttered; "poor lad!"
+
+"They haven't caught me yet," said Ezra.  "If they did I question
+whether they could do much.  They couldn't hang three for the death of
+one.  You would have to swing, and that's about all."
+
+About two in the morning they saw a line of lights, which the fisherman
+informed them was from the town of Worthing.  Again before daybreak they
+scudded past another and far brighter and larger area of twinkling
+points, which marked the position of Brighton.  They were nearly
+half-way upon their journey already.  As the dawn approached the dark
+storm-clouds gathered away to the northern horizon and lay in a great
+shadow over the coast.  On all other points the sky was clear, save that
+here and there a single puff of white vapour sailed along like the
+feather of some gigantic bird floating in the ocean of air.
+These isolated clouds, which had been pearly grey in the dim light of
+early day, gradually took a lilac tint, which deepened into pink, and
+then blushed suddenly to a fiery scarlet as the red rim of the sun rose
+majestically over the horizon.  All the heaven was filled with colour
+from the palest, lightest blue at the zenith to the most brilliant
+crimson in the east, as though it were nature's palette on which she had
+dashed every tint that she possessed.  The sea reflected the rich glow,
+and the tossing waves were gashed with scarlet streaks.  "It looks like
+a sea of blood," the merchant remarked with a shudder, as he gazed at
+the wonderful spectacle.
+
+By the returning light the two fugitives were able to notice each
+other's appearance.  Both were pale, haggard, dishevelled, with
+bloodshot, dark-rimmed eyes and anxious, weary faces.
+
+"This won't do!" remarked Ezra.  "If Miggs sees us like this he'll smell
+a rat."
+
+He dipped a bucket overboard, and after some search a small piece of
+soap and a broken comb were extracted from one of the lockers.
+With these materials they managed to perform their toilets.
+They re-arranged and cleaned each other's clothing too, and Ezra
+purchased a yachting-cap from Sampson for his father, the jaunty nature
+of which contrasted strangely with the old man's grim angular visage.
+
+"There's a fine view!" Sampson observed, pointing towards the land, just
+as his two passengers had finished their toilet.
+
+They were passing a high range of cliffs which ran along for a great
+distance.  Some were of chalk and others were brownish, as though
+consisting of some sort of earth.  There was one which terminated the
+line towering up above the rest, and as remarkable for the boldness of
+its outline as for its height.  A lighthouse stood upon the summit, and
+the whole showed up so clearly in the bright morning air that the
+fugitives could see the green grass round the house and the
+coastguardsman at the signal station, who was strolling leisurely about
+and looking down from his elevation at their little craft.  To the
+eastward of this chalk promontory was a large fine-looking town, which
+stretched in a wide semicircle round the shores of a curving bay.
+
+"That's Beachy Head," said Sampson, pointing at the cliff.  "It's the
+hoiest p'int down Channel, and they have a look-out place up there to
+report ships as pass.  It was a Muster Lloyd as put it up.  I doan't
+know who he be, that same Muster Lloyd, but he do seem to take a
+powerful deal of interest in everythink which has to do wi' shipping.
+He's an admiral belike, or something o' the sort."
+
+Neither of the Girdlestones appeared inclined to enlighten him upon the
+point.
+
+"What's the town?" asked Ezra.
+
+"Eastbourne," the fisherman answered shortly, and lounged away into the
+bows, while his son remained at the tiller.
+
+The two fugitives had their breakfast; but as it consisted of nothing
+more appetising than tinned corned-beef and ships' biscuits, and as
+neither of them had much inclination for food, it was not a very lengthy
+meal.  Then they sat in the sheets once more, watching the grand
+panorama of green woodland and swelling down and towering cliff, which
+passed before them on the one side while on the other the great ocean
+highway was dotted with every variety of vessel, from the Portland ketch
+or the Sunderland brig, with its cargo of coals, to the majestic
+four-masted liner which swept past, with the green waves swirling round
+her forefoot and breaking away into a fork of eddying waters in her
+wake.
+
+Ezra cautioned his father to sit down, for he observed a row of curious
+faces gazing at them over the quarter of one great vessel.
+
+"Our dress isn't quite what you would expect to see in a fishing-boat,"
+he said.  "There is no use setting tongues wagging."  There was still a
+fresh breeze, and the little boat continued to fly before it at the rate
+of six or eight knots.  "This wind is a lucky chance," Ezra remarked,
+rather to himself than to his companion.
+
+"It is the working of Providence," answered John Girdlestone, with an
+earnestness which showed that his mind still retained its habitual
+peculiarity.
+
+By ten o'clock they were abreast of the long stone terraces of Hastings;
+at half-past eleven they saw the masts of the fishing-smacks of
+Winchelsea.  By one they were rounding the sharp bold promontory of
+Dungeness.  They kept further to sea after that, so that the long white
+wall and the spires of Folkestone and of Dover lay far on the horizon.
+On the other side a dim haze upon the blue water marked the position of
+the French coast.  It was nearly five, and the sun was beginning to sink
+down again in the west, when the fisherman, after gazing steadily ahead
+for some time, with his horny hand shading his eyes, touched Ezra on the
+sleeve.
+
+"See them breakers over there," he said, pointing over the starboard
+bow.  Far away Ezra could see a long roll of foam breaking the monotony
+of the broad stretch of ocean.  "Them's the Goodwins," he went on; "and
+them craft ahead is at anchor in the Downs."
+
+The vessels in question were miles away, but Ezra brightened up at the
+sight of their destination, and he once again arranged his toilet and
+that of his father.
+
+"Thank goodness!" he muttered, with a long sigh of relief as he peered
+at the ships, which were growing clearer and larger every moment.
+"That outer one is the _Black Eagle_, or I am much mistaken.  He's not
+gone yet!"
+
+"That is the _Black Eagle_," his father said with confidence.  "I know
+her by the cut of her stern and the rake of her masts."
+
+As they came nearer still, any lingering doubt was finally dispelled.
+
+"There's the white paint line," said Ezra.  "It's certainly her.
+Take us alongside that ship which is lying to the outside there,
+Sampson."
+
+The fisherman looked ahead once more.  "To the barque which has just got
+her anchor up?" he said.  "Why, we won't be in time to catch her."
+
+"Her anchor up!" screamed Ezra.  "You don't mean to tell me she's
+off!"
+
+"Look at that!" the man answered.
+
+As he spoke they saw first one great square of canvas appear above the
+vessel, and then another, until she had spread her white wings to their
+fullest extent.
+
+"Don't say we can't catch her!" cried Ezra, with a furious oath.
+"I tell you, man, that we must catch her.  Everything depends on that."
+
+"She must take three short tacks before she's out from the Goodwins.
+If we run right on as we are going, we may get near her before she's
+free."
+
+"For God's sake! clap on all the sail you can!  Get these reefs out!"
+With trembling fingers Ezra let out the sail, and the boat lay over
+further under the increased pressure.  "Is there no other sail that we
+could put up?"
+
+"If we were running, we could rig up a spinnaker," the fisherman
+answered; "but the wind has come round three points.  We can do no
+more."
+
+"I think we are catching her," John Girdlestone cried, keeping his eyes
+fixed upon the barque, which was about a mile and a half ahead.
+
+"Yes, we are now, but she hain't got her way on yet.  She'll draw ahead
+presently; won't she, Jarge?"
+
+The fisherman's son nodded, and burst into hoarse merriment.
+"It's better'n a race," he cried.
+
+"With our necks for a prize," Ezra muttered to himself. "It's a little
+too exciting to be pleasant.  We are still gaining."
+
+They had a clear view of the dark hull and towering canvas of the barque
+as she swept along in front of them, intending evidently to take
+advantage of the wind in order to get outside the Goodwins before
+beating up Channel.
+
+"She's going about," Sampson remarked.  As he spoke the snow-white pile
+lay over in the opposite direction, and the whole broadside of the
+vessel became visible to them, every sail standing out as though carved
+from ivory against the cold blue sky.  "If we don't catch her on this
+tack we won't get her at all," the fisherman observed.  "When they put
+about next they'll reach right out into the Channel."
+
+"Where's something white?" said Ezra excitedly.  He dived into the cabin
+and reappeared with a dirty table-cloth.  "Stand up here, father!
+Now keep on waving it!  They may see you."
+
+"I think as we are overhaulin' of them," remarked the boy.
+
+"We're doing that," his father answered.  "The question is, will we get
+near enough to stop 'em afore they gets off on the next tack?"
+
+The old merchant was standing in the bows waving the signal in the air.
+His son sprang up beside him and flourished his handkerchief.
+"They don't look more than half a mile off.  Let us shout together."
+The two blended their voices in a hoarse roar, which was taken up by the
+boatman and his son.  "Once again!" cried Ezra; and again their shout
+resounded over the sea--a long-drawn cry it was, with a ring of despair
+and of sorrow.  Still the barque kept steadily on her way.
+
+"If they don't go about we shall catch them," the fisherman said.
+"If they keep on another five minutes we are right."
+
+"Do you hear that?" Ezra cried to his father; and they both shouted with
+new energy and waved their signals.
+
+"They're goin' about," George burst in.  "It's all up." Girdlestone
+groaned as he saw the mainyard swing back.  They all strained their
+eyes, waiting for the other to follow.  It remained stationary.
+
+"They have seen us!" cried the fisherman.  "They are waitin' to pick us
+up!"
+
+"Then we are saved!" said Ezra, stepping down and wiping the
+perspiration which poured from his forehead.  "Go down into the cabin,
+father, and put yourself straight.  You look like a ghost."
+
+Captain Hamilton Miggs had found the liquor of the _Cock and Cowslip_ so
+very much to his taste, in spite of its vitriolic peculiarities recorded
+in a preceding chapter, that he rejoined his ship in a very shaky and
+demoralized condition.  He was a devout believer in the homoeopathic
+revelation that like may be cured by like, so he forthwith proceeded to
+set himself straight by the consumption of an unlimited quantity of
+ship's rum.  "What's the good of having a pilot aboard if I am to keep
+sober?" he hiccoughed to his mate McPherson.  After which piece of logic
+he shut himself up in his cabin and roared comic songs all the way from
+London to Gravesend.  He was so exhausted by his performance that he
+fell fast asleep, and snored stertorously for fifteen hours, at the end
+of which time he came on deck and found that the _Black Eagle_ was lying
+off Deal, and that her anchor was just being hoisted for a start up
+Channel.
+
+Captain Hamilton Miggs watched the sail-setting with his hands in his
+pockets, and swore promiscuously at every one, from the mate downwards,
+in a hearty comprehensive way, which showed a mind that was superior to
+petty distinctions.  Having run over all the oaths that he could think
+of, he dived below and helped himself from the rum bottle, a process
+which appeared to aid his memory or his invention, for he reappeared
+upon deck and evolved a new many-jointed expletive at the man at the
+wheel.  He then strode in gloomy majesty up and down the quarter-deck,
+casting his eyes at the sails and at the clouds in a critical way
+calculated to impress the crew generally with a sense of their captain's
+extraordinary sagacity.
+
+The _Blank Eagle_ had gone about for the second time, and was just about
+to free herself from the Goodwins and reach out into the Channel, when
+Miggs' eye happened to fall upon the fishing boat in pursuit and the
+white flutter in her bows.  He examined her with his glass, steadying it
+as well as he could by leaning it across the rail, as his hand was very
+shaky.  After a short inspection, a look of astonishment, followed by
+one of resignation, stole over his features.
+
+"I've got them again, Mac," he remarked to the mate.
+
+"Got what, sir?"
+
+"The diddleums, the jumps, the visions.  It's the change of air as has
+done it."
+
+"You look all right," remarked the mate in a sympathetic voice.
+
+"So I may; but I've got 'em.  It's usually rats--rats, and sometimes
+cockroaches; but it's worse than that this time.  As I'm a livin' man, I
+looked through the glass at that fishing-boat astern of us, and I saw
+young Muster Ezra Girdlestone in it, and the old boss standin' up wi' a
+yachtin'-cap at the side of his head and waving a towel.  This is the
+smartest bout that ever I have had.  I'll take some of the medicine left
+from my last touch and I'll turn in."  He vanished down the companion,
+and having taken a strong dose of bromide of potassium, tumbled into his
+bunk, cursing loudly at his ill luck.
+
+The astonishment of McPherson upon deck was as great as that of Captain
+Miggs, when, on looking through the glass, he ascertained beyond all
+doubt that both of his employers were in the fishing-boat.  He at once
+ordered the mainyard to be hauled back and awaited their arrival.  In a
+few minutes the boat was alongside, a ladder thrown down, and the two
+Girdlestones were on the deck of their own ship.
+
+"Where's the captain?" asked the head of the firm.
+
+"He's below, sir.  He's no very salubrious." The mate's love of long
+words rose superior to any personal emotion.
+
+"You can square the yard," said Ezra.  "We are going with you."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir.  Square away that yard there!"  It swung round into
+position, and the _Black Eagle_ resumed her voyage.
+
+"There is some business to be looked after in Spain," Girdlestone
+remarked to McPherson.  "It came up suddenly or we should have given you
+notice.  It was absolutely necessary that we should be there personally.
+It was more convenient to go in our own vessel than to wait for a
+passenger ship."
+
+"Where will you sleep, sir?" asked the mate.  "I doubt the
+accommodation's no very munificent."
+
+"There are two settees in the cabin.  We can do on them very well.
+I think we can't do better than go down there at once, for we have had a
+long and tiring journey."
+
+After they had disappeared into the cabin, McPherson trod the deck for
+the remainder of his watch with a grave and a thoughtful face.  Like
+most of his countrymen he was shrewd and long-headed.  It struck him
+that it was a very strange thing for the two partners to be absent at
+the same time from their business.  Again, where was their luggage?
+Grave misgivings arose in his mind as to the reason of it all.  He kept
+them to himself, however, and contented himself with remarking to the
+carpenter that in all his experience he had never met with a more
+"monumentous episode."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+
+A VOYAGE IN A COFFIN SHIP.
+
+The early part of the voyage of the _Black Eagle_ was extremely
+fortunate.  The wind came round to the eastward, and wafted them
+steadily down Channel, until on the third day they saw the Isle of
+Ushant lying low upon the sky-line.  No inquisitive gunboat or lurking
+police launch came within sight of them, though whenever any vessel's
+course brought her in their direction the heart of Ezra Girdlestone sank
+within him.  On one occasion a small brig signalled to them, and the
+wretched fugitives, when they saw the flags run up, thought that all was
+lost.  It proved, however, to be merely some trivial message, and the
+two owners breathed again.
+
+The wind fell away on the day that they cleared the Channel, and the
+whole surface of the sea was like a great expanse of quicksilver, which
+shimmered in the rays of the wintry sun.  There was still a considerable
+swell after the recent gale, and the _Black Eagle_ lay rolling about as
+though she had learned habits of inebriation from her skipper.  The sky
+was very clear above, but all round the horizon a low haze lay upon the
+water.   So silent was it that the creaking of the boats as they swung
+at the davits, and the straining of the shrouds as the ship rolled,
+sounded loud and clear, as did the raucous cries of a couple of gulls
+which hovered round the poop.  Every now and then a rumbling noise
+ending in a thud down below showed that the swing of the ship had caused
+something to come down with a run.  Underlying all other sounds,
+however, was a muffled clank, clank, which might almost make one forget
+that this was a sailing ship, it sounded so like the chipping of a
+propeller.
+
+"What is that noise, Captain Miggs?" asked John Girdlestone as he stood
+leaning over the quarter rail, while the old sea-dog, sextant in hand,
+was taking his  midday observations.  The captain had been on his good
+behaviour since the unexpected advent of his employers, and he was now
+in a wonderful and unprecedented state of  sobriety.
+
+"Them's the pumps a-goin'," Miggs answered, packing his sextant away in
+its case.
+
+"The pumps!  I thought they were only used when a ship was in danger?"
+
+Ezra came along the deck at this moment, and listened with interest to
+the conversation.
+
+"This ship is in danger," Miggs remarked calmly.
+
+"In danger!" cried Ezra, looking round the clear sky and placid sea.
+"Where is the danger?  I did not think you were such an old woman,
+Miggs."
+
+"We will see about that," the seaman answered angrily.  "If a ship's got
+no bottom in her she's bound to be in danger, be the weather fair or
+foul."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me this ship has no bottom?"
+
+"I mean to tell you that there are places where you could put your
+fingers through her seams.  It's only the pumpin' that keeps her
+afloat."
+
+"This is a pretty state of things," said Girdlestone.  "How is it that I
+have not been informed of it before!  It is most dangerous."
+
+"Informed!" cried Miggs.  "Informed of it!  Has there been a v'yage yet
+that I haven't come to ye, Muster Girdlestone, and told ye I was
+surprised ever to find myself back in Lunnon?  A year agone I told ye
+how this ship was, and ye laughed at me, ye did.  It's only when ye find
+yourselves on her in the middle o' the broad sea that ye understan' what
+it is that sailor folk have to put up wi'."
+
+Girdlestone was about to make some angry reply to this address, but his
+son put his hand on his arm to restrain him.  It would never do to
+quarrel with Hamilton Miggs before they reached their port of refuge.
+They were too completely in his power.
+
+"What the captain says has a great deal of truth in it," he remarked,
+with a laugh.  "You don't realize a thing until you've had to experience
+it.  The _Black Eagle_ shall certainly have an overhauling next time,
+and we'll see if we can't give her captain an increase at the same
+time."
+
+Miggs gave a grunt which might be taken as expressing thanks or as
+signifying doubt.  Perhaps there was a mixture of both in his mind.
+
+"I presume," Girdlestone said, in a conciliatory voice, "that there
+would be no real danger as long as the weather was fine?"
+
+"It won't be fine long," the captain answered gruffly.  "The glass was
+well under thirty when I come up, and it is fallin' fast.  I've been
+about here before at this time o' year in a calm, with a ground swell
+and a sinkin' glass.  No good ever came of it.  Look there at the
+norrard.  What d'ye make o' that, Sandy?"
+
+"In conjunction wi' the descending glass, it has an ominous appairance,"
+the Scotchman answered, with much stress on the first syllable of the
+adjective.
+
+The phenomenon which had attracted their professional attention did not
+appear to either of the Girdlestones to be a very important one.
+The haze on the horizon to the north was rather thicker than elsewhere,
+and a few thin streaky clouds straggled upwards across the clear cold
+heaven, like the feelers of some giant octopus which lay behind the fog
+bank.  At the same time the sea changed in places from the appearance of
+quicksilver to that of grained glass.
+
+"There's the wind," Miggs said confidently.  "I'd furl the top-gallant
+sails and get her stay-sails down, Mr. McPherson."  Whenever he gave an
+order he was careful to give the mate his full title, though at other
+times he called him indiscriminately Sandy or Mac.
+
+The mate gave the necessary commands, while Miggs dived down into the
+cabin.  He came up again looking even graver than when he left the deck.
+
+"The glass is nearly down to twenty-eight," he said.  "I never seed it
+as low since I've been at sea.  Take in the mains'l, Mr. McPherson, and
+have the topsails reefed down!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+There was no lack of noise now as the men hauled at the halliards with
+their shrill strange cries, which sounded like the piping of innumerable
+sea-birds.  Half a dozen lay out on the yard above, tucking away the
+great sail and making all snug.
+
+"Take a reef in the fores'l!" the mate roared, "and look alive about
+it!"
+
+"Hurry up, ye swabs!" Miggs bellowed.  "You'll be blown away, every
+mother's son of ye, if you don't stir yourselves!"
+
+Even the two landsmen could see now that the danger was no imaginary
+one, and that a storm was about to burst over them.  The long black
+lines of vapour had lengthened and coalesced, until now the whole
+northern heaven was one great rolling black cloud, with an angry, ragged
+fringe which bespoke the violence of the wind that drove it.  Here and
+there against the deep black background a small whitish or
+sulphur-coloured wreath stood clearly out, looking livid and dangerous.
+The whole great mass was sweeping onwards with prodigious and majestic
+rapidity, darkening the ocean beneath it, and emitting a dull, moaning,
+muttering sound, which was indescribably menacing and mournful.
+
+"This may be the same gale as was on some days ago," Miggs remarked.
+"They travel in circles very often, and come back to where they start
+from."
+
+"We are all snug aloft, but this ship won't stand much knocking about,
+an' that's a fact," observed the mate gloomily.
+
+It was blowing now in short frequent puffs, which ruffled the surface of
+the water, and caused the _Black Eagle_ to surge slowly forward over the
+rollers.  A few drops of rain came pattering down upon the deck.
+The great bank of cloud was above the ship, still hurrying wildly across
+the heavens.
+
+"Look out!" cried an old quartermaster.  "Here she comes!"
+
+As he spoke the storm burst with a shriek, as though all the demons of
+the air had been suddenly unchained and were rejoicing in their freedom.
+The force of the blast was so great that Girdlestone could almost have
+believed that he had been struck by some solid object.  The barque
+heeled over until her lee rail touched the water, and lay so for a
+minute or more in a smother of foam.  Her deck was at such an angle that
+it seemed as though she never could right herself.  Gradually, however,
+she rose a little, staggered and trembled like a living thing, and then
+plunged away through the storm, as a piece of paper is whirled before
+the wind.
+
+By evening the gale was at its height.  The _Black Eagle_ was running
+under maintopsail and foretopmast staysail.  The sea had risen very
+quickly, as it will when wind comes upon a swell.  As far as the eye
+could see from the summit of a wave there was a vista of dark towering
+ridges with their threatening crests of foam.  When the barque sank in
+the hollow these gleaming summits rose as high as her mainyard, and the
+two fugitives, clinging to the weather-shrouds, looked up in terror and
+amazement at the masses of water which hung above them.  Once or twice
+waves actually broke over the vessel, crashing and roaring down the
+deck, and washing hither and thither until gradually absorbed between
+the planks or drained away through the scupper-holes.  On each of these
+occasions the poor rotten vessel would lurch and shiver in every plank,
+as if with a foreknowledge of her fate.
+
+It was a dreary night for all on board.  As long as there was light they
+could at least see what danger was to be faced, but now the barque was
+plunging and tossing through an inky obscurity.  With a wild scooping
+motion she was hurled up on the summit of a great wave, and thence she
+shot down into the black gulf beyond with such force that when checked
+by meeting the next billow her whole fabric jarred from truck to
+keelson.  There were two seamen at the wheel and two at the relieving
+tackles, yet it was all that they could do among the wild commotion to
+keep her steady.
+
+No one thought of going below.  It was better to see and know the worst
+than to be shut up in a coffin where one could not stretch out a hand to
+help one's self.  Once Captain Hamilton Miggs clawed his way along the
+rail to where the Girdlestones were standing.
+
+"Look there!" he roared, pointing to windward.
+
+It was difficult to turn one's face straight to the wild rush of wind
+and spray and hail.  Shading their eyes, they peered into the storm.
+Right in the heart of it, and apparently not more than a couple of
+hundred yards from the barque, was a lurid glare of ruddy light, rising
+and falling with the sea, but advancing rapidly through it.  There was a
+bright central glowing spot, with smaller lights glimmering above and
+beside it.  The effect of the single glare of light against the inky
+darkness of the sea and sky would have made a study for a Turner.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"It's a steamer," the captain shouted.  It was only by great exertions
+that he could make himself audible above the shrieking of the wind and
+the dash of the waves.
+
+"What do you think of it all?" Ezra asked.
+
+"Very bad," Miggs answered.  "Couldn't be worse;" and with that he
+clawed his way aft again, grasping every stanchion or shroud on his way,
+like a parroquet in a cage.
+
+The clouds above broke somewhat towards morning, but there was no sign
+of abatement in the tempest.  Here and there through the rifts the
+glimmer of the stars might be seen, and once the pale moon gleamed
+through the storm wreath.  The dawn broke cheerless and dreary,
+disclosing the great turmoil of endless slate-coloured waves and the
+solitary little barque, with her rag of canvas, like a broken-winged
+seabird, staggering to the south.
+
+Even the Girdlestones had noticed that, whereas towards the commencement
+of the storm it had been a rare occurrence for a wave to break over the
+ship, the decks were now continually knee-deep in water, and there was a
+constant splashing and crashing as the seas curled over the weather
+bulwark.  Miggs had already observed it, and conferred gravely with his
+mate on the point.
+
+"I don't like the looks of her, Mac," he shouted.  "She don't rise to
+them."
+
+"She's near water-logged, I'm thinkin'," the mate responded gravely.
+
+He knew the danger, and his thoughts were wandering away to a little
+slate-tiled cottage near Peterhead.  It is true that there was not much
+in it save a wife, who was said to give Sandy the rough side of her
+tongue, and occasionally something rougher still.  Affection is a
+capricious emotion, however, and will cling to the most unlikely
+objects; so the big Scotchman's eyes were damp with something else
+beside the sea spray as he realized that he might never look upon
+cottage or occupant again.
+
+"No wonder," said Miggs, "when she's takin' in water above and below
+too.  The men are weary wi' pumpin', and it still gains."
+
+"I doot it's our last v'yage thgither," the mate remarked, his Scottish
+accent waxing broader under the influence of emotion.
+
+"What d'ye say to heavin' her to?"
+
+"I'd let her run on.  She would na rise tae the waves, I'm fearin'.
+We canna be vera fa' frae the Spanish coast, accordin' to my
+surmisation.  That wud gie us a chance o' savin' oorsels, though I'm a
+feared na boat would live in siccan a sea."
+
+"You're right.  We have a better chance so than if we let her ride.
+She'd founder as sure as eggs are eggs.  Damn it, Mac, I could almost be
+glad this has happened now we've got them two aboard.  We'll teach 'em
+what coffin ships is like in a gale o' wind."  The rough seaman laughed
+hoarsely as he spoke.
+
+The carpenter came aft at this moment, balancing himself as best he
+could, for the deck was only a few degrees off the perpendicular.
+
+"The leak is gaining fast," he said.  "The hands are clean done up.
+There's land on the port bow."
+
+The mate and the captain peered out through the dense wrack and haze.
+A great dark cliff loomed out upon the left, jagged, inhospitable, and
+menacing.
+
+"We'd best run towards it," the mate said.  "We've na chance o' saving
+the ship, but we might run her ashore."
+
+"The ship will go down before you reach it," the carpenter remarked
+gloomily.
+
+"Keep your heart up!" Miggs shouted, and then crawled along to the
+Girdlestones.  "There is no hope for the ship but we may save
+ourselves," he said.  "You'll have to take your turn at the pumps."
+
+They followed him forward without a word.  The crew, listless and weary,
+were grouped about the pumps.  The feeble clanking sounded like the
+ticking of a watch amid the horrible uproar which filled the air.
+
+"Buckle to again, boys!" cried Miggs.  "These two will help you and the
+carpenter and mate."
+
+Ezra and his father, the old man's grizzled locks flying wildly from his
+head, seized the rope and worked with the crew, hardly able to retain
+their foothold upon the slippery sloping decks.  Miggs went down into
+the cabin.  His behaviour during the gale had been most exemplary, but
+he recognized now that there was nothing more to be done, and, having
+thrown off his public responsibilities, he renewed his private
+peculiarities.  He filled out nearly a tumblerful of raw rum and took it
+off at a gulp.  Then he began to sing and made his way on deck in a very
+hilarious and reckless mood.
+
+The vessel was still flying towards the rugged line of cliffs, which
+were now visible along the whole horizon, the great projection on the
+left being their culminating point.  She was obviously sinking lower in
+the water, and she plunged in a heavy, sulky manner through the waves,
+instead of rising to them as she did before.  The water was steadily
+gaining in her interior, and it was clear that she would not float long.
+The straining of the gale had increased the long-neglected rifts between
+her timbers, and no amount of pumping could save her.  On the other
+hand, the sky had broken above them, and the wind was by no means so
+violent as before.  The sun broke through between two great hurrying
+clouds, and turned all the waves to the brightest emerald green, with
+sparkling snow-white crests of foam.  This sudden change and the
+brightness of the scene made their fate seem all the harder to the
+seamen aboard the sinking vessel.
+
+"The gale is clearin'," remarked McPherson.  "If we'd had a ship that
+wasna rotten to the hairt, like her owners, we'd ha pu'ed through."
+
+"Right you are, old Sandy!  But we're all goin' together, captain and
+owners and the whole bilin'," yelled Miggs recklessly.
+
+The mate looked at him half in surprise and half in contempt.
+"You've been at the bottle," he said.  "Eh mun, mun, if we are a'
+drooned, as seems likely, it's an awfu' thing to appear before your
+Maker wi' your meeserable soul a' steeped in drink."
+
+"You go down and have a drink yourself," Miggs cried huskily.
+
+"Na, na.  If I am to dee, I'll dee sober."
+
+"You'll die a fool," the skipper shouted wrathfully.
+
+"Well, old preacher, you've brought us into a nice hole with your damned
+insurance cheating, cheese-paring business.  What d'ye think of it now,
+when the ship's settlin' down under our feet, eh?  Would you repair her
+if you had her back in the Albert Dock, eh?"
+
+This speech was addressed to the old merchant, who had ceased pumping,
+and was leaning against the cuddy and looking up hopelessly at the long
+line of brown cliffs which were now only half a mile away.  They could
+hear the roar of the surf, and saw the white breakers where the
+Atlantic stormed in all its fury against nature's break-water.
+
+"He's not fit to command," said Ezra to the mate.  "What would you
+advise?"
+
+"We'll bring her round and lower the boats on the lee side.  They may
+live or no, but it's the only chance for us.  Them twa boats will hold
+us a' easy."
+
+The ship was settling down in the water so fast that it was no difficult
+matter to let the boats down.  They only hung a few feet above the
+surface.  The majority of the crew got safely into the long boat, and
+the Girdlestones, with Miggs and four seamen, occupied the gig.  It was
+no easy thing to prevent the boats from being stove, as the waves
+alternately drove them from the ship's side or brought the two together
+with a force which seemed irresistible.  By skilful management, however,
+they both succeeded in casting off and getting clear without accident.
+
+It was only when they emerged from under the shelter of the vessel that
+they felt the full power of the sea.  If it had appeared stupendous when
+they trod the deck of the barque, how much more so now, when, by leaning
+the arm over the side, they could touch the surface.  The great glassy
+green billows hurled them up and down, and tossed them and buffeted them
+as though the two boats were their playthings, and they were trying what
+antics they could perform with them without destroying them.
+Girdlestone sat very grim and pale, with Ezra at his side.  The young
+fellow's expression was that of a daring man who realizes his danger,
+but is determined to throw no chance of safety away.  His mouth was set
+firm and hard, and his dark eyebrows were drawn down over his keen eyes,
+which glanced swiftly to right and left, like a rat in a trap.
+Miggs held the tiller, and laughed from time to time in a drunken
+fashion, while the four seamen, quiet and subdued, steadied the boat as
+long as they could with their oars, and looked occasionally over their
+shoulders at the breakers behind them.  The sun was shining on the
+rugged precipices, showing out the green turf upon their summit and a
+little dark group of peasants, who were watching the scene from above,
+but making no effort to assist the castaways.  There was no alternative
+but to row straight in for the nearest point of land, for the boats were
+filling, and might go down at any moment.
+
+"The ship's gone!" Ezra said, as they rose on the summit of a wave.
+When they came up again all looked round, but there was no sign of the
+ill-fated _Black Eagle_.
+
+"We'll all be gone when we get among the breakers," shouted Captain
+Hamilton Miggs.  "Pull, ye devils, pull!  Beat the mate's boat.  It's a
+race, my lads, and the winnin' post is hell."
+
+Ezra glanced at his father, and saw that his lips were moving
+tremulously as they pattered forth prayers.
+
+"Still at it!" he said, with a sneer.
+
+"Making my peace," the old man said solemnly.  "My faith is now indeed a
+staff and a comfort.  I look back at my long life, and though I humbly
+confess that I have erred, and erred grievously, still in the main I
+have walked straight.  From my youth I have been frugal and industrious.
+Oh, my boy, look with candid eyes into your own heart, and see if you
+are fit to be called away."
+
+"Look to your own beam," Ezra answered, keeping his eye upon the line of
+boiling surf, which came nearer and nearer every moment.  "How about
+John Harston's daughter, eh?"  Even at that awful hour Ezra felt a
+sinister pleasure at observing the spasm which shot across his father's
+face at the mention of his ward.
+
+"If I sinned I sinned for a worthy purpose," he answered.  "It was to
+preserve my business.  Its fall was a blow to righteousness and a
+triumph to evil.  Into Thy hands I commend my spirit!"
+
+As he spoke a great wave hurled the boat in upon its broad bosom, and
+flung it down upon the cruel jagged rocks, which bristled from the base
+of the cliff.  There was a horrible rending crash, and the stout keel
+snapped asunder, while a second wave swept over it, tearing out the
+struggling occupants and bearing them on, only to hurl them upon a
+second ridge beyond.  The peasants upon the cliff gave piteous cries of
+grief and pity, which blended with the agonized groans and screams of
+drowning men and the thunder of the pitiless surge.  Looking down they
+could see the black dots, which indicated the heads of the poor wretches
+below, diminishing one by one as they were hurled upon the rocks or
+dragged down by the under-current.
+
+Ezra was a strong swimmer, but when he had shaken himself free of the
+boat, and kicked away a seaman who clung to him, he made no attempt to
+strike out.  He knew that the waves would bear him quickly enough on to
+the rocks, and he reserved himself for the struggle with them.  A great
+roller came surging over the outlying reef.  It carried him in like a
+feather and hurled him up against the face of the cliff.  As he
+struggled upon its crest, he mechanically put out his hands and seized a
+projecting portion of the rock.  The shock of the contact was
+tremendous, but he retained his grasp and found himself, when the wave
+receded, standing battered and breathless upon a small niche in the
+front of the rock which just gave him foothold.  It was a marvellous
+escape, for looking on either side he could not see any break in the
+sheer declivity.
+
+He was by no means safe as yet.  If a wave had landed him there another
+might come as high and drag him away.  Looking down he saw one or two
+smaller ones break into spray far below him, and then a second great
+green billow came rolling majestically towards him.  He eyed it as it
+came foaming in, and calculated that it would come at least as high as
+his knees.  Would it drag him back with it, or could he hold his own?
+He braced himself as firmly as he could, placing his feet apart, and
+digging his nails into the inequalities of the rock until the blood
+gushed from them.  The water surged up upon him, and he felt it tugging
+like some murderous demon at his legs, but he held on bravely until the
+pressure decreased.  Looking below the saw the wave sinking down the
+face of the cliff.  Another wave overtook it and welled it up again, and
+then from the depths of the green waters Ezra saw a long white arm shoot
+up, and grasp the edge of the ledge upon which he stood.
+
+Even before the face appeared the young man knew that the hand was his
+father's.  A second followed the first, and then the old merchant's face
+was uplifted from the waves.  He was cruelly bruised and battered, and
+his clothes had been partly torn away.  He recognized his son, however,
+and looked up at him beseechingly, while he held on with all his
+strength to the ledge of rock.  So small was the space that his clinging
+fingers touched Ezra's toes.
+
+"There's no room here," the young man said brutally.
+
+"For God's sake!"
+
+"Hardly room for one."
+
+The merchant was hanging with the lower portion of his body in the
+water.  It was but a few instants, but the old man had time to think of
+many an incident in his past life.  Once more he saw the darkened
+sick-room, and his own form standing by the bed of the dying man.
+What are these words which ring in his ears above the crash of the surf?
+"May your flesh and blood treat you as you treat her."  He looked up
+appealing at his son.  Ezra saw that the next wave would lift him right
+up on to the ledge.  In that case he might be hustled off.
+
+"Leave go!" he cried.
+
+"Help me, Ezra."
+
+His son brought down his heavy heel upon the bloodless hands.  The old
+African trader gave a wild shriek and fell back into the sea.  Looking
+down, Ezra saw his despairing face gazing at him through the water.
+Slowly it sank until it was but a flickering white patch far down in the
+green depths.  At the same instant a thick rope came dangling down the
+face of the cliff, and the young man knew that he was saved.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+
+WINDS UP THE THREAD AND TIES TWO KNOTS AT THE END.
+
+Great was the excitement of the worthy couple at Phillimore Gardens when
+Kate Harston was brought back to them.  Good Mrs. Dimsdale pressed her
+to her ample bosom and kissed her, and scolded her, and wept over her,
+while the doctor was so moved that it was only by assuming an expression
+of portentous severity and by bellowing and stamping about that he was
+able to keep himself in decent control.
+
+"And you really thought we had forgotten you because we were insane
+enough to stop writing at that villain's request?" he said, patting
+Kate's pale cheeks tenderly and kissing her.
+
+"I was very foolish," she said, blushing prettily and rearranging her
+hair, which had been somewhat tumbled by her numerous caresses.
+
+"Oh, that scoundrel--that pair of scoundrels!" roared the doctor,
+shaking his fist and dancing about on the hearth-rug.  "Pray God they
+may catch 'em before the trial comes off!"
+
+The good physician's prayer was not answered in this case, for Burt was
+the only criminal who appeared in the dock.  Our friends all went down
+to the Winchester Assizes to give evidence, and the navvy was duly
+convicted of the death of Rebecca Taylforth and condemned to death.
+He was executed some three weeks afterwards, dying as he had lived,
+stolid and unrepenting.
+
+There is a little unpretending church not far from Phillimore Gardens,
+in which a little unpretending clergyman preaches every Sunday out of a
+very shabby pulpit.  It lies in Castle Lane, which is a narrow by-way,
+and the great crowd of church-goers ebbs and flows within a hundred
+yards of it, but none know of its existence, for it has never risen to
+the dignity of a spire, and the bell is so very diminutive that the
+average muffin man produces quite as much noise.  Hence, with the
+exception of some few families who have chanced to find their way there,
+and have been so pleased with their spiritual welcome that they have
+returned, there is a poor and fluctuating congregation.  So scanty is it
+that the struggling incumbent could very well weep when he has spent the
+week in polishing and strengthening his sermon, and then finds upon the
+Sunday how very scanty is the audience to whom it is to be addressed.
+
+Imagine, then, this good man's surprise when asked to publish the banns
+of marriage of two couples simultaneously, each of whom he knew to be in
+the upper circles of life, and when informed at the same time that the
+said marriages were actually to be celebrated under his own auspices and
+in his own church.  In the fullness of his heart he at once bought a
+most unwearable black bonnet with lilac flowers and red berries, which
+he brought in triumph to his wife, who, good woman, affected extreme
+delight, and afterwards cut away all the obnoxious finery and replaced
+it to her own taste.  The scanty congregation was no less surprised when
+they heard that Tobias Clutterbuck, bachlelor, was about to marry
+Lavinia Scully, widow, and that Thomas Dimsdale, bachelor, was to do as
+much to Catherine Harston, spinster.  They communicated the tidings to
+their friends, and the result was a great advertisement to the little
+church, so that the incumbent preached his favourite sermon upon barren
+fig trees to a crowded audience, and received such an offertory as had
+never entered into his wildest dreams.
+
+And if this was an advertisement to the Castle Lane church, how much
+more so was it when the very pompous carriages came rolling up with
+their very pompous drivers, all of whom, being married men, had a
+depreciatory and wearied expression upon their faces, to show that they
+had done it all before and that it was nothing new to them.  Out of the
+one carriage there jumped a very jaunty gentleman, somewhat past the
+middle age and a little inclined to stoutness, but looking very healthy
+and rosy nevertheless.  Besides him there walked a tall, tawny-bearded
+man, who glanced solicitously every now and again at his companion, as
+though he were the bottle-holder at a prize-fight and feared that his
+man might collapse at a moment's notice.  From a second carriage there
+emerged an athletic brown-faced young fellow accompanied by a small
+wizened gentleman in spotless attire, who was in such a state of
+nervousness that he dropped his lavender glove twice on his way up the
+aisle.  These gentlemen grouped themselves at the end of the church
+conversing in low whispers and looking exceedingly uncomfortable, as is
+the prerogative of the sterner sex under such circumstances.
+Mr. Gilray, who was Tom's best man, was introduced to Herr von Baumser,
+and every one was very affable and nervous.
+
+Now there comes a rustling of drapery, and every one turns their heads
+as the brides sweep up to the altar.  Here Is Mrs. Scully, looking quite
+as charming as she did fifteen years ago on the last occasion when she
+performed the ceremony.  She was dressed in a French grey gown with
+bonnet to match, and the neatest little bouquet in the world, for which
+the major had ransacked Covent Garden.  Behind her came bonny Kate, a
+very vision of loveliness in her fairy-like lace and beautiful ivory
+satin.  Her dark lashes drooped over her violet eyes and a slight flush
+tinged her cheeks, but she glided steadily into her place and did her
+share in the responses when the earnest little clergyman appeared upon
+the scene.  There was Dr. Dimsdale too, with the brightest of smiles and
+snowiest of waistcoats, giving away the brides in the most open-handed
+fashion.  His wife too was by his side in tears and purple velvet, and
+many other friends and relations, including the two Socialists, who came
+at the major's invitation, and beamed on every one out of a side pew.
+
+Then there was the signing of the registers, and such a kissing and a
+weeping and a distributing of fees as never was seen in Castle Lane
+church before.  And Mrs. Dimsdale, as one of the witnesses, would insist
+upon writing her name in the space reserved for the bride, on which
+there were many small jokes passed and much laughter.  Then the wheezy
+old organ struck up Mendelssohn's wedding march, and the major puffed
+out his chest and stumped down the aisle with his bride, while Tom
+followed with his, looking round with proud and happy eyes.
+The carriages rolled up, there was a slamming of doors and a cracking of
+whips, and two more couples had started hand in hand down the long road
+of life which leads--who shall say whither!
+
+The breakfast was at Phillimore Gardens, and a very glorious breakfast
+it was.  Those who were present still talk of the manner in which the
+health of the brides was proposed by Dr. Dimsdale and of the enthusiasm
+with which the toast was received by the company.  Also of the flowery
+address in which the major returned thanks for the said toast, and the
+manly demeanour of the younger man as he followed suit.  They speak too
+of many other pleasant things said and done upon that occasion.  How Von
+Baumser proposed the health of the little incumbent, and the little
+incumbent that of Dr. Dimsdale, and the doctor drank to the
+unpronounceable Russian, who, being unable to reply, sang a
+revolutionary song which no one could understand.  Very happy and very
+hearty was every one by the time that the hour came at which the
+carriages were ordered, when, amid a pattering of rice and a chorus of
+heartfelt good wishes, the happy couples drove off upon their travels.
+
+The liabilities of the firm of Girdlestone proved to be less serious
+than was at first imagined.  After the catastrophe which had befallen
+the founder of the business, there was almost a panic in Fenchurch
+Street, but on examination it proved that though the books had been
+deliberately falsified for some time, yet trade had been so brisk of
+late that, with a little help, the firm could continue to exist.
+Dimsdale threw all his money and his energy into the matter, and took
+Gilray into partnership, which proved to be an excellent thing for both
+of them.  The firm of Dimsdale and Gilray is now among the most
+successful and popular of all the English firms connected with the
+African trade.  Of their captains there is none upon whom they place
+greater reliance than upon McPherson, whose boat was providentially
+saved from the danger which destroyed his former captain and his
+employer.
+
+What became of Ezra Girdlestone was never known.  Some years after Tom
+heard from a commercial traveller of a melancholy, broken man who
+haunted the low betting-houses of San Francisco, and who met his death
+eventually in some drunken fracas.  There was much about this
+desperado which tallied with the description of young Girdlestone, but
+nothing certain was ever known about the matter.
+
+And now I must bid adieu to the shadowy company with whom I have walked
+so long.  I see them going on down the vista of the future, gathering
+wisdom and happiness as they go.  There is the major, as stubby-toed and
+pigeon-breasted as ever, broken from many of his Bohemian ways, but
+still full of anecdote and of kindliness.  There is his henchman, Von
+Baumser, too, who is a constant diner at his hospitable board, and who
+conveys so many sweets to a young Clutterbuck who has made his
+appearance, that one might suspect him of receiving a commission from
+the family doctor.  Mrs. Clutterbuck, as buxom and pleasant as ever,
+makes noble efforts at stopping these contraband supplies, but the wily
+Teuton still manages to smuggle them through in the face of every
+obstacle.  I see Kate and her husband, chastened by their many troubles,
+and making the road to the grave pleasant to the good old couple who are
+so proud of their son.  All these I watch as they pass away into the dim
+coming time, and I know as I shut the book that, whatever may be in
+store for us there, they, at least, can never in the eternal justice of
+things come to aught but good.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13152 ***