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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Garret and the Garden, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Garret and the Garden
+
+Author: R.M. Ballantyne
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21737]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GARRET AND THE GARDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+THE GARRET AND THE GARDEN, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+THE GARRET AND THE GARDEN OR LOW LIFE HIGH UP.
+
+SUDDEN FRIENDSHIPS.
+
+In the midst of the great wilderness--we might almost say the wilds--of
+that comparatively unknown region which lies on the Surrey side of the
+Thames, just above London Bridge, there sauntered one fine day a big
+bronzed seaman of middle age.  He turned into an alley, down which,
+nautically speaking, he rolled into a shabby little court.  There he
+stood still for a few seconds and looked around him as if in quest of
+something.
+
+It was a miserable poverty-stricken court, with nothing to commend it to
+the visitor save a certain air of partial-cleanliness and
+semi-respectability, which did not form a feature of the courts in its
+neighbourhood.
+
+"I say, Capting," remarked a juvenile voice close at hand, "you've bin
+an sailed into the wrong port."
+
+The sailor glanced in all directions, but was unable to see the owner of
+the voice until a slight cough--if not a suppressed laugh--caused him to
+look up, when he perceived the sharp, knowing, and dirty face of a small
+boy, who calmly contemplated him from a window not more than a foot
+above his head.  Fun, mischief, intelligence, precocity sat enthroned on
+the countenance of that small boy, and suffering wrinkled his young
+brow.
+
+"How d'ee know I'm in the wrong port--monkey?" demanded the sailor.
+
+"'Cause there ain't no grog-shop in it--gorilla!" retorted the boy.
+
+There is a mysterious but well-known power of attraction between kindred
+spirits which induces them to unite, like globules of quicksilver, at
+the first moment of contact.  Brief as was this interchange of
+politenesses, it sufficed to knit together the souls of the seaman and
+the small boy.  A mutual smile, nod, and wink sealed, as it were, the
+sudden friendship.
+
+"Come now, younker," said the sailor, thrusting his hands into his
+coat-pockets, and leaning a little forward with legs well apart, as if
+in readiness to counteract the rolling of the court in a heavy sea,
+"there's no occasion for you an' me to go beatin' about--off an' on.
+Let's come to close quarters at once.  I haven't putt in here to look
+for no grog-shop--"
+
+"W'ich I didn't say you 'ad," interrupted the boy.
+
+"No more you did, youngster.  Well, what I dropped in here for was to
+look arter an old woman."
+
+"If you'd said a young 'un, now, I might 'ave b'lieved you," returned
+the pert urchin.
+
+"You _may_ believe me, then, for I wants a young 'un too."
+
+"Well, old salt," rejoined the boy, resting his ragged arms on the
+window-sill, and looking down on the weather-beaten man with an
+expression of patronising interest, "you've come to the right shop,
+anyhow, for that keemodity.  In Lun'on we've got old women by the
+thousand, an' young uns by the million, to say nuffin o' middle-aged uns
+an' chicks.  Have 'ee got a partikler pattern in yer eye, now, or d'ee
+on'y want samples?"
+
+"What's your name, lad?" asked the sailor.
+
+"That depends, old man.  If a beak axes me, I've got a wariety o' names,
+an' gives 'im the first as comes to 'and.  W'en a gen'leman axes me, I'm
+more partikler--I makes a s'lection."
+
+"Bein' neither a beak nor a gentleman, lad, what would you say your name
+was to _me_?"
+
+"Tommy Splint," replied the boy promptly.  "Splint, 'cause w'en I was
+picked up, a small babby, at the work'us door, my left leg was broke,
+an' they 'ad to putt it up in splints; Tommy, 'cause they said I was
+like a he-cat; w'ich was a lie!"
+
+"Is your father alive, Tommy?"
+
+"'Ow should _I_ know?  I've got no father nor mother--never had none as
+I knows on; an' what's more, I don't want any.  I'm a horphing, _I_ am,
+an' I prefers it.  Fathers an' mothers is often wery aggrawatin';
+they're uncommon hard to manage w'en they're bad, an' a cause o' much
+wexation an' worry to child'n w'en they're good; so, on the whole, I
+think we're better without 'em.  Chimleypot Liz is parent enough for
+me."
+
+"And who may chimney-pot Liz be?" asked the sailor with sudden interest.
+
+"H'm!" returned the boy with equally sudden caution and hesitancy.  "I
+didn't say _chimney-pot_ but _chimley-pot_ Liz.  W'at is she?  W'y,
+she's the ugliest old ooman in this great meetropilis, an' she's got the
+jolliest old 'art in Lun'on.  Her skin is wrinkled equal to the
+ry-nossris at the Zoo--I seed that beast once at a Sunday-school treat--
+an' her nose has been tryin' for some years past to kiss her chin, w'ich
+it would 'ave managed long ago, too, but for a tooth she's got in the
+upper jaw.  She's on'y got one; but, my, that _is_ a fang! so loose that
+you'd expect it to be blowed out every time she coughs.  It's a reg'lar
+grinder an' cutter an' stabber all in one; an' the way it works--
+sometimes in the mouth, sometimes outside the lip, now an' then straight
+out like a ship's bowsprit--is most amazin'; an' she drives it about
+like a nigger slave.  Gives it no rest.  I do declare I wouldn't be that
+there fang for ten thousand a year.  She's got two black eyes, too, has
+old Liz, clear an' bright as beads--fit to bore holes through you w'en
+she ain't pleased; and er nose is ooked--.  But, I say, before I tell
+you more about 'er, I wants to know wot you've got to do with 'er?  An'
+w'at's your name?  I've gave you mine.  Fair exchange, you know."
+
+"True, Tommy, that's only right an' fair.  But I ain't used to lookin'
+up when discoorsin'.  Couldn't you come down here an' lay alongside?"
+
+"No, old salt, I couldn't; but you may come up here if you like.  You'll
+be the better of a rise in the world, won't you?  The gangway lays just
+round the corner; but mind your sky-scraper for the port's low.  There's
+a seat in the winder here.  Go ahead; starboard your helm, straight up,
+then 'ard-a-port, steady, mind your jib-boom, splice the main-brace,
+heave the main-deck overboard, and cast anchor 'longside o' me!"
+
+Following these brief directions as far as was practicable, the sailor
+soon found himself on the landing of the stair, where Tommy was seated
+on a rickety packing-case awaiting him.
+
+"Now, lad," said the man, seating himself beside his new friend, "from
+what you tells me, I think that chimney-pot--"
+
+"Chimley," remarked the boy, correcting.
+
+"Well, then, chimley-pot Liz, from your account of her, must be the very
+woman I wants.  I've sought for her far an' wide, alow and aloft, an'
+bin directed here an' there an' everywhere, except the right where,
+'till now.  But I'll explain."  The man paused a moment as if to
+consider, and it became evident to the boy that his friend was labouring
+under some degree of excitement, which he erroneously put down to drink.
+
+"My name," continued the sailor, "is Sam Blake--second mate o' the
+_Seacow_, not long in from China.  I didn't ship as mate.  Bein' a
+shipwrecked seaman, you see--"
+
+"Shipwrecked!" exclaimed the boy, with much interest expressed in his
+sharp countenance.
+
+"Ay, lad, shipwrecked; an' not the first time neither, but I was keen to
+get home, havin' bin kep' a prisoner for an awful long spell by
+pirates--"
+
+"Pints!" interrupted the boy again, as he gazed in admiration at his
+stalwart friend; "but," he added, "I don't believe you.  It's all barn.
+There ain't no pints now; an' you think you've got hold of a green un."
+
+"Tommy!" said the sailor in a remonstrative tone, "did I ever deceive
+you?"
+
+"Never," replied the boy fervently; "leastwise not since we 'come
+acquaint 'arf an hour back."
+
+"Look here," said Sam Blake, baring his brawny left arm to the elbow and
+displaying sundry deep scars which once must have been painful wounds.
+"An' look at this," he added, opening his shirt-front and exposing a
+mighty chest that was seamed with similar scars in all directions.
+"That's what the pirates did to me an' my mates--torturin' of us afore
+killin' us."
+
+"Oh, I say!" exclaimed the urchin, in a tone in which sympathy was
+mingled with admiration; "tell us all about it, Sam."
+
+"Not now, my lad; business first--pleasure arterwards."
+
+"I prefers pleasure first an' business arter, Sam.  'Owever, 'ave it yer
+own way."
+
+"Well, you see," continued the sailor, turning down his, "w'en I went to
+sea _that_ time, I left a wife an' a babby behind me; but soon arter I
+got out to China I got a letter tellin' me that my Susan was dead, and
+that the babby had bin took charge of by a old nurse in the family where
+Susan had been a housemaid.  You may be sure my heart was well-nigh
+broke by the news, but I comforted myself wi' the thought o' gittin'
+home again an' takin' care o' the dear babby--a gal, it was, called
+Susan arter its mother.  It was at that time I was took by the pirates
+in the Malay Seas--now fifteen long years gone by."
+
+"W'at! an' you ain't bin 'ome or seed yer babby for fifteen years?"
+exclaimed Tommy Splint.
+
+"Not for fifteen long year," replied his friend.  "You see, Tommy, the
+pirates made a slave o' me, an' took me up country into the interior of
+one o' their biggest islands, where I hadn't a chance of escapin'.  But
+I did manage to escape at last, through God's blessin', an' got to
+Hong-Kong in a small coaster; found a ship--the _Seacow_-about startin'
+for England short-handed, an' got a berth on board of her.  On the
+voyage the second mate was washed overboard in a gale, so, as I was a
+handy chap, the cap'en he promoted me, an' now I'm huntin' about for my
+dear little one all over London.  But it's a big place is London."
+
+"Yes; an' I suspect that you'll find your little un raither a big un too
+by this time."
+
+"No doubt," returned the seaman with an absent air; then, looking with
+sudden earnestness into his little companion's face, he added, "Well,
+Tommy Splint, as I said just now, I've cruised about far an' near after
+this old woman as took charge o' my babby without overhaulin' of her,
+for she seems to have changed her quarters pretty often; but I keep up
+my hopes, for I do feel as if I'd run her down at last--her name was
+Lizbeth Morley--"
+
+"Oho!" exclaimed Tommy Splint with a look of sharp intelligence; "so you
+think that chimleypot Liz may be your Lizbeth and our Susy your babby!"
+
+"I'm more than half inclined to think that, my boy," returned the
+sailor, growing more excited.
+
+"_Is_ the old woman's name Morley?"
+
+"Dun know.  Never heard nobody call her nothin' but Liz."
+
+"And how about Susan?"
+
+"That's the babby?" said the boy with a grin.
+
+"Yes--yes," said Sam anxiously.
+
+"Well, that babby's about five fut four now, without 'er boots.  You see
+'uman creeturs are apt to grow considerable in fifteen years--ain't
+they?"
+
+"But is her name Blake?" demanded the seaman.  "Not as I knows of.
+Susy's wot we all calls 'er--so chimley-pot Liz calls 'er, an' so she
+calls 'erself, an' there ain't another Susy like her for five miles
+round.  But come up, Sam, an' I'll introduce ee--they're both over'ead."
+
+So saying the lively urchin grasped his new friend by the hand and led
+him by a rickety staircase to the "rookeries" above.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+FLOWERS IN THE DESERT.
+
+Beauty and ugliness form a contrast which is presented to us every day
+of our lives, though, perhaps, we may not be much impressed by the fact.
+And this contrast is presented in ever-varying aspects.
+
+We do not, however, draw the reader's attention to one of the striking
+aspects of the contrast--such as is presented by the hippopotamus and
+the gazelle, or the pug with the "bashed" nose and the Italian
+greyhound.  It is to one of the more delicate phases that we would
+point--to that phase of the contrast wherein the fight between the two
+qualities is seen progressing towards victory, and ugliness is not only
+overborne but overwhelmed by beauty.
+
+For this purpose we convey the reader to a scene of beauty that might
+compare favourably with any of the most romantic spots on this fair
+earth--on the Riviera, or among the Brazilian wilds, or, for that
+matter, in fairyland itself.
+
+It is a garden--a remarkably small garden to be sure, but one that is
+arranged with a degree of taste and a display of fancy that betokens the
+gardener a genius.  Among roses and mignonette, heliotrope, clematis and
+wallflower, chrysanthemums, verbenas and sweet-peas are intertwined, on
+rustic trellis-work, the rich green leaves of the ivy and the graceful
+Virginia creeper in such a manner that the surroundings of the miniature
+garden are completely hidden from view, and nothing but the bright blue
+sky is visible, save where one little opening in the foliage reveals the
+prospect of a grand glittering river, where leviathans of the deep and
+small fry of the shallows, of every shape and size, disport themselves
+in the blaze of a summer sun.
+
+Beauty meets the eye wherever turned, but, let the head of the observer
+be extended ever so little beyond the charmed circle of that garden, and
+nearly all around is ugliness supreme!  For this is a garden on the roof
+of an old house; the grand river is the Thames, alive with the shipping
+of its world-wide commerce, and all around lies that interminable forest
+of rookery chimneys, where wild ungainly forms tell of the insane and
+vain efforts of man to cope with smoke; where wild beasts--in the form
+of cats--hold their nightly revels, imitating the yells of agonised
+infants, filling the dreams of sleepers with ideas of internal thunder
+or combustion, and driving the sleepless mad!
+
+Susy--our Susy--is the cause of this miracle of beauty in the midst of
+misery; this glowing gem in a setting of ugliness.  It is her modest
+little head that has bent over the boxes of earth, which constitute her
+landed property; her pretty little fingers which have trained the stems
+and watered the roots and cherished the flowers until the barren
+house-top has been made to blossom like the rose.  And love, as usual,
+has done it all--love to that very ugly old woman, chimney-pot Liz, who
+sits on the rustic chair in the midst of the garden enjoying it all.
+
+For Liz has been a mother to that motherless bairn from her earliest
+years.  She has guarded, fed, and clothed her from infancy; taught her
+from God's Book the old, old story of redeeming love, and led her to the
+feet of Jesus.  It would be strange indeed if Susy did not love the ugly
+old woman, until at last she came to regard the wrinkles as veritable
+lines of beauty; the nut-cracker nose and chin as emblems of persistent
+goodness; the solitary wobbling tooth as a sign of unconquerable
+courage; and the dark eyes--well, it required no effort of imagination
+to change the character of the old woman's eyes, for they had always
+been good, kindly, expressive eyes, and were at that date as bright and
+lively as when she was sweet sixteen.
+
+But chimney-pot Liz was poor--desperately poor, else she had not been
+there, for if heaven was around and within her, assuredly something very
+like pandemonium was underneath her, and it not unfrequently appeared as
+if the evil spirits below were surging to and fro in a fierce endeavour
+to burst up the whole place, and hurl the old woman with her garden into
+the river.
+
+Evil spirits indeed formed the dread foundation of the old woman's
+abode; for, although her own court was to some extent free from the
+curse, this particular pile of building, of which the garden formed the
+apex, had a grog-shop, opening on another court, for its
+foundation-stone.  From that sink of iniquity, literal and unmitigated--
+though not unadulterated--spirits of evil rose like horrid fumes from
+the pit, and maddened the human spirits overhead.  These, descending to
+the foundation-den, soaked themselves in the material spirit and carried
+it up, until the whole tenement seemed to reek and reel under its malign
+influence.
+
+But, strange to say, the riot did not rise as high as the garden on the
+roof--only the echoes reached that little paradise.
+
+Now it is a curious almost unaccountable fact, which no one would ever
+guess, that a teapot was the cause of this--at least a secondary cause--
+for a teapot was the chief instrument in checking, if not turning, the
+tide of evil.  Yes, chimney-pot Liz held her castle in the very midst of
+the enemy, almost single-handed, with no visible weapon of offence or
+defence but a teapot!  We say visible, because Liz did indeed possess
+other and very powerful weapons which were not quite so obvious--such
+as, the Word of God in her memory, the love of God in her heart, and the
+Spirit of God in her soul.
+
+To the outside world, however, the teapot was her weapon and shield.
+
+We have read of such a weapon before, somewhere in the glorious annals
+of city missions, but just now we are concerned only with the teapot of
+our own Liz of chimney-pot notoriety.
+
+Seated, as we have said, in a rustic chair, gazing through the foliage
+at the busy Thames, and plying her knitting needles briskly, while the
+sun seemed to lick up and clear away the fogs and smoke of the great
+city, chimney-pot Liz enjoyed her thoughts until a loud clatter
+announced that Susy had knocked over the watering-pot.
+
+"Oh! granny" (thus she styled her), "I'm _so_ sorry!  So stupid of me!
+Luckily there's no water in it."
+
+"Never mind, dear," said the old woman in a soft voice, and with a smile
+which for a moment exposed the waste of gums in which the solitary fang
+stood, "I've got no nerves--never had any, and hope I never may have.
+By the way, that reminds me--Is the tea done, Susy?"
+
+"Yes, not a particle left," replied the girl, rising from her floral
+labours and thereby showing that her graceful figure matched well with
+her pretty young face.  It was a fair face, with golden hair divided in
+the middle and laid smooth over her white brow, not sticking confusedly
+out from it like the tangled scrub on a neglected common, or the frontal
+locks of a Highland bull.
+
+"That's bad, Susy," remarked old Liz, pushing the fang about with her
+tongue for a few seconds.  "You see, I had made up my mind to go down
+to-night and have a chat with Mrs Rampy, and I wouldn't like to visit
+her without my teapot.  The dear old woman is so fond of a cup of tea,
+and she don't often get it good, poor thing.  No, I shouldn't like to go
+without my teapot, it would disappoint her, you know--though I've no
+doubt she would be glad to see me even empty-handed."
+
+"I should just think she would!" said Susy with a laugh, as she stooped
+to arrange some of the fastenings of her garden, "I should just think
+she would.  Indeed, I doubt if that _dear_ old woman would be alive now
+but for you, granny."
+
+The girl emphasised the "dear" laughingly, for Mrs Rampy was one of
+those middle-aged females of the destitute class whose hearts have been
+so steeled against their kind by suffering and drink as to render them
+callous to most influences.  The proverbial "soft spot" in Mrs Rampy's
+heart was not reached until an assault had been made on it by
+chimney-pot Liz with her teapot.  Even then it seemed as if the softness
+of the spot were only of the gutta-percha type.
+
+"Perhaps not, perhaps not my dear," returned old Liz, with that pleased
+little smile with which she was wont to recognise a philanthropic
+success a smile which always had the effect of subduing the tooth, and
+rendering the plain face almost beautiful.
+
+Although bordering on the lowest state of destitution--and that is a
+remarkably low state in London!--old Liz had an air of refinement about
+her tones, words, and manner which was very different from that of the
+poor people around her.  This was not altogether, though partly, due to
+her Christianity.  The fact is, the old woman had "seen better days."
+For fifty years she had been nurse in an amiable and wealthy family, the
+numerous children of which seemed to have been born to bloom for a few
+years in the rugged garden of this world, and then be transplanted to
+the better land.  Only the youngest son survived.  He entered the army
+and went to India--that deadly maelstrom which has swallowed up so much
+of British youth and blood and beauty!  When the old couple became
+bankrupt and died, the old nurse found herself alone and almost
+destitute in the world.
+
+It is not our purpose to detail here the sad steps by which she
+descended to the very bottom of the social ladder, taking along with her
+Susan, her adopted daughter and the child of a deceased fellow-servant.
+We merely tell thus much to account for her position and her partial
+refinement--both of which conditions she shared with Susan.
+
+"Now then," said the latter, "I must go, granny.  Stickle and Screw are
+not the men to overlook faults.  If I'm a single minute late I shall
+have to pay for it."
+
+"And quite right, Susy, quite right.  Why should Stickle and Screw lose
+a minute of their people's work?  Their people would be angry enough if
+they were to be paid a penny short of their wages!  Besides, the firm
+employs over two hundred hands, and if every one of these was to be late
+a minute there would be two hundred minutes gone--nigh four hours, isn't
+it?  You should be able to count that right off, Susy, havin' been so
+long at the Board-school."
+
+"I don't dispute it, granny," said the girl with a light laugh, as she
+stood in front of a triangular bit of looking-glass tying on her poor
+but neatly made hat.  "And I am usually three or four minutes before my
+time, but Stickle and Screw are hard on us in other ways, so different
+from Samson and Son, where Lily Hewat goes.  Now, I'm off.  I'll be sure
+to be back by half-past nine or soon after."
+
+As the girl spoke, footsteps were heard ascending the creaky wooden
+stair.  Another moment and Tommy Splint entering with a theatrical air,
+announced--
+
+"A wisitor!"
+
+He was closely followed by Sam Blake, who no sooner beheld Susy than he
+seemed to become paralysed, for he stood gazing at her as if in eager
+but helpless amazement.
+
+Susy was a good deal surprised at this, but feeling that if she were to
+wait for the clearing up of the mystery she would infallibly be late in
+reaching the shop of the exacting Stickle and Screw, she swept lightly
+past the seaman with a short laugh, and ran down-stairs.
+
+Without a word of explanation Sam sprang after her, but, although smart
+enough on the shrouds and ladders of shipboard, he failed to accommodate
+himself to the stairs of rookeries, and went down, as he afterwards
+expressed it, "by the run," coming to an anchor at the bottom in a
+sitting posture.  Of course the lithe and active Susy escaped him, and
+also escaped being too late by only half a minute.
+
+"Never mind, she'll be back again between nine and ten o'clock, unless
+they keep her late," said old Liz, after Sam had explained who he was,
+and found that Susy was indeed his daughter, and chimney-pot Liz the
+nurse who had tended his wife to her dying day, and afterwards adopted
+his child.
+
+"I never was took aback so in all my life," said the seaman, sitting
+down beside the old woman, and drawing a sigh so long that it might have
+been likened to a moderate breeze.  "She's the born image o' what her
+dear mother was when I first met her.  _My_ Susy!  Well, it's not every
+poor seaman as comes off a long voyage an' finds that he's fallen heir
+to a property like _that_!"
+
+"You may well be proud of her," said old Liz, "and you'll be prouder yet
+when you come to know her."
+
+"I know it, and I'm proud to shake your hand, mother, an' thankee kindly
+for takin' such care o' my helpless lassie.  You say she'll be home
+about ten?"
+
+"Yes, if she's not kep' late.  She always comes home about that time.
+Meanwhile you'll have something to eat.  Tommy, boy, fetch out the loaf
+and the cheese and the teapot.  You know where to find 'em.  Tommy's an
+orphan, Cap'n Blake, that I've lately taken in hand.  He's a good boy is
+Tommy, but rather wild."
+
+"Wot can you expect of a horphing?" said the boy with a grin, for he had
+overheard the latter remark, though it was intended only for the
+visitor's ear.  "But I say, granny, there ain't no cheese here, 'cept a
+bit o' rind that even a mouse would scorn to look at."
+
+"Never mind, bring out the loaf, Tommy."
+
+"An' there ain't no use," continued the boy, "o' bringin' out the
+teapot, 'cause there ain't a grain o' tea nowheres."
+
+"Oh!  I forgot," returned old Liz, slightly confused; "I've just run out
+o' tea, Cap'n Blake, an' I haven't a copper at _present_ to buy any,
+but--"
+
+"Never mind that old girl; and I ain't quite captain yet, though
+trendin' in that direction.  You come out along wi' me, Tommy.  I'll
+soon putt these matters to rights."
+
+Old Liz could not have remonstrated even if she had wished to do so, for
+her impulsive visitor was gone in a moment followed by his extremely
+willing little friend.  They returned in quarter of an hour.
+
+"There you are," said the seaman, taking the articles one by one from a
+basket carried by Tommy; "a big loaf, pound o' butter, ditto tea, three
+pound o' sugar, six eggs, hunk o' cheese, paper o' salt--forgot the
+pepper; never mind."
+
+"You've bin an' forgot the sassengers too--but here they are," said
+Tommy, plucking the delectable viands from the bottom of the basket with
+a look of glee, and laying them on the table.
+
+Chimney-pot Liz did not look surprised; she only smiled and nodded her
+head approvingly, for she felt that Sam Blake understood the right thing
+to do and did it.
+
+Soon the celebrated teapot was going the round, full swing, while the
+air was redolent of fried sausage and cheese mingled with the perfume of
+roses and mignonette, for this meal, you must know, was eaten in the
+garden in the afternoon sunshine, while the cooking--done in the attic
+which opened on the garden--was accomplished by Sam assisted by Tommy.
+
+"Well, you _air_ a trump," said the latter to the former as he sat down,
+greasy and glowing, beside the seaman at the small table where old Liz
+presided like a humble duchess.
+
+We need hardly say that the conversation was animated, and that it bore
+largely on the life-history of the absent Susy.
+
+"You're quite sure that she'll be here by ten?" asked the excited father
+for the fiftieth time that afternoon.
+
+"Yes, I'm sure of it--unless she's kep' late," answered Liz.
+
+But Susy did _not_ return at the usual hour, so her impatient father was
+forced to conclude that she _had_ been "kep' late"--too late.  In his
+anxiety he resolved to sally forth under the guidance of Tommy Splint to
+inquire for the missing Susy at the well-known establishment of Stickle
+and Screw.
+
+Let us anticipate him in that quest.  At the usual hour that night the
+employes of Stickle and Screw left work and took their several ways home
+ward.  Susy had the company of her friend Lily Hewat as far as Chancery
+Lane.  Beyond that point she had to go alone.  Being summer-time, the
+days were long, and Susy was one of those strong-hearted and
+strong-nerved creatures who have a tendency to fear nothing.
+
+She had just passed over London Bridge and turned into a labyrinth of
+small streets on the Surrey side of the river, when a drunken man met
+her in a darkish and deserted alley through which she had to pass.  The
+man seized her by the arm.  Susy tried to free herself.  In the struggle
+that ensued she fell with a loud shriek, and struck her head on the
+kerb-stone so violently that she was rendered insensible.  Seeing this,
+the man proceeded to take from her the poor trinkets she had about her,
+and would have succeeded in robbing her but for the sudden appearance on
+the scene of a lowland Scot clad in a homespun suit of shepherd's
+plaid--a strapping ruddy youth of powerful frame, fresh from the braes
+of Yarrow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+A VISITOR FROM THE NORTH.
+
+How that Lowland Scot came to the rescue just in the nick of time is
+soon told.
+
+"Mither," said he one evening, striding into his father's dwelling--a
+simple cottage on a moor--and sitting down in front of a bright old
+woman in a black dress, whose head was adorned with that frilled and
+baggy affair which is called in Scotland a mutch, "I'm gawin' to
+Lun'on."
+
+"Hoots! havers, David."
+
+"It's no' havers, mither.  Times are guid.  We've saved a pickle siller.
+Faither can spare me for a wee while--sae I'm aff to Lun'on the morn's
+mornin'."
+
+"An' what for?" demanded Mrs Laidlaw, letting her hands and the sock on
+which they were engaged drop on her lap, as she looked inquiringly into
+the grave countenance of her handsome son.
+
+"To seek a wife, maybe," replied the youth, relaxing into that very
+slight smile with which grave and stern-featured men sometimes betray
+the presence of latent fun.
+
+Mrs Laidlaw resumed her sock and needle with no further remark than
+"Hoots! ye're haverin'," for she knew that her son was only jesting in
+regard to the wife.  Indeed nothing was further from that son's
+intention or thoughts at the time than marriage, so, allowing the ripple
+to pass from his naturally grave and earnest countenance, he continued--
+
+"Ye see, mither, I'm twunty-three noo, an' I _wad_ like to see something
+o' the warld afore I grow aulder an' settle doon to my wark.  As I said,
+faither can spare me a while, so I'll jist tak' my fit in my haund an'
+awa' to see the Great Bawbylon."
+
+"Ye speak o' gaun to see the warld, laddie, as if 'ee was a gentleman."
+
+"Div 'ee think, mother, that the warld was made only for _gentlemen_ to
+travel in?" demanded the youth, with the gentlest touch of scorn in his
+tone.
+
+To this question the good woman made no reply; indeed her stalwart son
+evidently expected none, for he rose a few minutes later and proceeded
+to pack up his slender wardrobe in a shoulder-bag of huge size, which,
+however, was well suited to his own proportions.
+
+Next day David Laidlaw took the road which so many men have taken before
+him--for good or ill.  But, unlike most of his predecessors, he was
+borne towards it on the wings of steam, and found himself in Great
+Babylon early the following morning, with his mother's last caution
+ringing strangely in his ears.
+
+"David," she had said, "I ken ye was only jokin', but dinna ye be ower
+sure o' yersel'.  Although thae English lassies are a kine o' waux
+dolls, they have a sort o' way wi' them that might be dangerous to lads
+like you."
+
+"H'm!"  David had replied, in that short tone of self-sufficiency which
+conveys so much more than the syllable would seem to warrant.
+
+The Scottish youth had neither kith nor kin in London, but he had one
+friend, an old school companion, who, several years before, had gone to
+seek his fortune in the great city, and whose address he knew.  To this
+address he betook himself on the morning of his arrival, but found that
+his friend had changed his abode.  The whole of that day did David spend
+in going about.  He was sent from one place to another, in quest of his
+friend, and made diligent use of his long legs, but without success.
+Towards evening he was directed to a street on the Surrey side of the
+Thames, and it was while on his way thither that he chanced to enter the
+alley where poor Susan was assaulted.
+
+Like most Scotsmen of his class and size David Laidlaw was somewhat
+leisurely and slow in his movements when not called to vigorous
+exertion, but when he heard the girl's shriek, and, a moment later, saw
+her fall, he sprang to her side with one lithe bound, like that of a
+Bengal tiger, and aimed a blow at her assailant, which, had it taken
+effect, would have interrupted for some time--if not terminated for
+ever--that rascal's career.  But the thief, though drunk, was young,
+strong, and active.  It is also probable that he was a professional
+pugilist for, instead of attempting to spring back from the blow--which
+he had not time to do--he merely put his head to one side and let it
+pass.  At the same instant David received a stinging whack on the right
+eye, which although it failed to arrest his rush, filled his vision with
+starry coruscations.
+
+The thief fell back and the Scot tripped over him.  Before he could
+recover himself the thief was up like an acrobat and gone.  At the same
+moment two policemen, rushing on the scene in answer to the girl's
+shriek, seized David by the collar and held him fast.
+
+There was Highland as well as Lowland blood in the veins of young
+Laidlaw.  This sanguinary mixture is generally believed to possess
+effervescing properties when stirred.  It probably does.  For one moment
+the strength of Goliath of Gath seemed to tingle in David's frame, and
+the vision of two policemen's heads battered together swam before his
+eyes--but he thought better of it and restrained himself!
+
+"Tak' yer hands aff me, freens," he said, suddenly unclosing his fists
+and relaxing his brows.  "Ye'd better see after the puir lassie.  An'
+dinna fear for me.  I'm no gawn to rin awa'!"
+
+Perceiving the evident truth of this latter remark, the constables
+turned their attention to the girl, who was by that time beginning to
+recover.
+
+"Where am I?" asked Susy, gazing into the face of her rescuer with a
+dazed look.
+
+"Yer a' right, puir bairn.  See, tak' ha'd o' my airm," said the Scot.
+
+"That's the way, now, take hold of mine," said one of the constables in
+a kindly tone; "come along--you'll be all right in a minute.  The
+station is close at hand."
+
+Thus supported the girl was led to the nearest police station, where
+David Laidlaw gave a minute account of what had occurred to the rather
+suspicious inspector on duty.  While he was talking, Susan, who had been
+provided with a seat and a glass of water, gazed at him with profound
+interest.  She had by that time recovered sufficiently to give her
+account of the affair, and, as there was no reason for further
+investigation of the matter, she was asked if her home was far off, and
+a constable was ordered to see her safely there.
+
+"Ye needna fash," said David carelessly, "I'm gawn that way mysel', an'
+if the puir lassie has nae objection I'll be glad to--"
+
+The abrupt stoppage in the youth's speech was caused by his turning to
+Susy and looking full and attentively in her face, which, now that the
+colour was restored and the dishevelled hair rearranged, had a very
+peculiar effect on him.  His mother's idea of a "waux doll" instantly
+recurred to his mind, but the interest and intelligence in Susy's pretty
+face was very far indeed removed from the vacant imbecility which
+usually characterises that fancy article of juvenile luxury.
+
+"Of course if the girl wishes you to see her home," said the inspector,
+"I have no objection, but I'll send a constable to help you to take care
+of her."
+
+"Help _me_ to tak' care o' her!" exclaimed David, whose pride was sorely
+hurt by the distrust implied in these words; "man, I could putt her in
+my pooch an' _you_ alang wi' her."
+
+Of this remark Mr Inspector, who had resumed his pen, took no notice
+whatever, but went on writing while one of the constables prepared to
+obey his superior's orders.  In his indignation the young Scot resolved
+to fling out of the office and leave the police to do as they pleased in
+the matter, but, glancing at Susy as he turned round, he again met the
+gaze of her soft blue eyes.
+
+"C'way, lassie, I _wull_ gang wi' ye," he said, advancing quickly and
+offering his arm.
+
+Being weak from the effects of her fall, Susy accepted the offer
+willingly, and was supported on the other side by a policeman.
+
+In a short time the trio ascended the rookery stair and presented
+themselves to the party in the garret-garden just as Sam Blake and Tommy
+Splint were about to leave it.
+
+It is impossible to describe adequately the scene that ensued--the
+anxiety of the poor seaman to be recognised by his long lost "babby,"
+the curious but not unnatural hesitancy of that "babby" to admit that he
+_was_ her father, though earnestly assured of the fact by chimney-pot
+Liz; the surprise of David Laidlaw, and even of the policeman, at being
+suddenly called to witness so interesting a domestic scene, and the
+gleeful ecstasy of Tommy Splint over the whole affair--flavoured as it
+was with the smell and memory of recent "sassengers."
+
+When the constable at last bid them good-night and descended the stair,
+the young Scot turned to go, feeling, with intuitive delicacy, that he
+was in the way, but once again he met the soft blue eyes of Susy, and
+hesitated.
+
+"Hallo, young man!" cried Sam Blake, on observing his intention, "you
+ain't agoin' to leave us--arter saving my gal's life, p'raps--anywise
+her property.  No, no; you'll stop here all night an'--"
+
+He paused: "Well, I do declare I forgot I wasn't aboard my own ship,
+but--" again he paused and looked at old Liz.
+
+"I've no room for any of you in the garret," said that uncompromising
+woman, "there ain't more than one compartment in it, and that's not too
+big for me an' Susy; but you're welcome, both of you, to sleep in the
+garden if you choose.  Tommy sleeps there, under a big box, and a clever
+sea-farin' man like you could--"
+
+"All right, old lady," cried the seaman heartily.  "I'll stop, an'
+thankee; we'll soon rig up a couple o' bunks.  So you will stop too,
+young man--by the way, you--you didn't give us your name yet."
+
+"My name is David Laidlaw; but I won't stop, thankee," replied the Scot
+with unexpected decision of manner.  "Ye see, I've been lookin' a' this
+day for an auld freen' an' I _must_ find him afore the morn's mornin',
+if I should seek him a' nicht.  But, but--maybe I'll come an' speer for
+'ee in a day or twa--if I may."
+
+"If you mean that you will come and call, Mr Laidlaw," said old Liz,
+"we will be delighted to see you at any time.  Don't forget the
+address."
+
+"Nae fear--I'll putt it i' my note-buik," said David, drawing a
+substantial volume from his breast pocket and entering the
+address--`Mrs Morley, Cherub Court'--therein.
+
+Having shaken hands all round he descended the stair with a firm tread
+and compressed lips until he came out on the main thoroughfare, when he
+muttered to himself sternly:
+
+"Waux dolls, indeed! there's nane o' thae dolls'll git the better o' me.
+H'm! a bonny wee face, nae doot but what div _I_ care for bonny faces
+if the hairt's no' richt?"
+
+"But suppose that the heart _is_ right?"
+
+Who could have whispered that question?  David Laidlaw could not stop to
+inquire, but began to hum--
+
+  "Oh, this is no my ain lassie,
+  Kind though the lassie be,--"
+
+In a subdued tone, as he sauntered along the crowded street, which by
+that time was blazing with gas-light in the shop-windows and oil-lamps
+on the hucksters' barrows.
+
+The song, however, died on his lips, and he moved slowly along, stopping
+now and then to observe the busy and to him novel scene, till he reached
+a comparatively quiet turning, which was dimly lighted by only one lamp.
+Here he felt a slight twitch at the bag which contained his little all.
+Like lightning he turned and seized by the wrist a man who had already
+opened the bag and laid hold of some of its contents.  Grasping the poor
+wretch by the neck with his other hand he held him in a grip of iron.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+DANGERS THREATEN.
+
+The man who had been thus captured by David was one of those wretched
+forlorn creatures who seem to reach a lower depth of wretchedness and
+degradation in London than in any other city in the world.  Although
+young and strongly made he was pale, gaunt and haggard, with a look
+about the eyes and mouth which denoted the habitual drunkard.  The
+meanness of his attire is indescribable.
+
+He trembled--whether from the effects of dissipation or fear we cannot
+say--as his captor led him under the lamp, with a grip on the collar
+that almost choked him, but when the light fell full on his haggard face
+a feeling of intense pity induced the Scot to relax his hold.
+
+"Oh, ye puir meeserable crater!" he said, but stopped abruptly, for the
+man made a sudden and desperate effort to escape.  He might as well have
+struggled in the grasp of a gorilla!
+
+"Na, na, my man, ye'll no twust yersel' oot o' my grup sae easy! keep
+quiet noo, an' I'll no hurt 'ee.  What gars ye gang aboot tryin' to
+steal like that?"
+
+"Steal!" explained the man fiercely, "what else can I do?  I _must_
+live!  I've just come out of prison, and am flung on the world to be
+kicked about like a dog and starve.  Let me go, or I'll kill you!"
+
+"Na, 'ee'll no kill me.  I'm no sae easy killed as 'ee think," returned
+David, again tightening the grasp of his right hand while he thrust his
+left into his trousers-pocket.
+
+At that moment the bull's-eye light of an advancing constable became
+visible, and the defiant air of the thief gave place to a look of
+anxious fear.  It was evident that the dread of another period of prison
+life was strong upon the trembling wretch.  Drawing out a handful of
+coppers, David thrust them quickly into the man's hand, and said--
+
+"Hae, tak' them, an' aff ye go! an' ask the Lord to help 'ee to dae
+better."
+
+The strong hand relaxed, another moment and the man, slipping round the
+corner like an unwholesome spirit, was gone.
+
+"Can ye direck me, polisman," said the Scot to the constable, as he was
+about to pass, "t' Toor Street?"
+
+"Never heard of it," said the constable brusquely, but civilly enough.
+
+"That's queer noo.  I was telt it was hereaboots--Toor Street."
+
+"Oh, perhaps you mean _Tower_ Street" said the constable, with a
+patronising smile.
+
+"Perhaps I div," returned the Scot, with that touch of cynicism which is
+occasionally seen in his race.  "Can 'ee direck me tilt?"
+
+"Yes, but it is on the other side of the river."
+
+"Na--it's on _this_ side o' the river," said David quietly yet
+confidently.
+
+The conversation was here cut short by the bursting on their ears of a
+sudden noise at some distance.  The policeman turned quickly away, and
+when David advanced into the main street he observed that there was some
+excitement among its numerous and riotous occupants.  The noise
+continued to increase, and it became evident that the cause of it was
+rapidly approaching, for the sound changed from a distant rumble into a
+steady roar, in the midst of which stentorian shouts were heard.
+Gradually the roar culminated, for in another moment there swept round
+the end of the street a pair of apparently runaway horses, with two
+powerful lamps gleaming, or rather glaring, above them.  On each side of
+the driver of the galloping steeds stood a man, shouting like a maniac
+of the boatswain type.  All three were brass-helmeted, like antique
+charioteers.  Other helmets gleamed behind them.  Little save the
+helmets and the glowing lamps could be seen through the dark and smoky
+atmosphere as the steam fire-engine went thundering by.
+
+Now, if there was one thing more than another that David Laidlaw desired
+to see, it was a London fire.  Often had he read about these fires, for
+he was a great reader of books, as well as newspapers, and deeply had
+his enthusiasm been stirred (though not expressed) by accounts of
+thrilling escapes and heroic deeds among the firemen.  His eyes
+therefore flashed back the flame of the lamps as the engine went past
+him like a red thunderbolt, and he started off in pursuit of it.
+
+But, as many people know, and all may believe, running in a crowded
+London street is difficult--even to an expert London thief.  Our Scot
+found that out after a sixty-yards' run; then he had the wisdom to stop,
+just as a little boy leaped out of his way exclaiming--
+
+"'Ullo, Goliah! mind w'ere you're a-goin' to.  I wonder yer mother let
+you hout all alone!"
+
+"Whar's the fire, laddie?" demanded David, with some impatience.
+
+"'Ow should _I_ know, Scotty!  I ain't a pleeceman, ham I? that I should
+be expected to know heverythink!"
+
+As the engine had by that time vanished, no one could tell where the
+fire was, and as the street had reverted to its normal condition of
+noise and bustle, David Laidlaw gave up the search for it.  He also gave
+up as hopeless further search for his friend that night, and resolved to
+avail himself of one of those numerous establishments in the windows of
+which it was announced that "good beds" were to be had within.
+
+Entering one, the landlord of which had a round jovial countenance, he
+ordered tea, toast, and sausages, with pen, ink, and paper.  Having
+heartily consumed the former, he devoted himself to the latter and
+proceeded to write a letter.  Here is the epistle:--
+
+"BAWBYLON, I dinna ken where.
+
+"_5th July_ 18--.
+
+"DEAR MITHER--Here I am, in Lun'on, an' wow! but it _is_ an awfu' place!
+'Ee'll no believe me, but I've been lost twa or three times a'ready,
+an' I've had a kine o' fecht an' a rescue, an' been taen to the polis
+office, an' made some freens, an' catched a thief (an' latten 'im aff
+wi' a caution an' a wheen bawbees), an' seen a fire-engine that lookit
+as if it was gawn full gallop to destruction.  Ay, wumin, an' I've fawn
+in a'ready wi' a waux doll!  But dinna ye fear, mither, I'm ower teugh
+to be gotten the better o' by the likes o' them.  An' noo I'm gawn to my
+bed, sae as to be ready for mair adventurs the mornin'.  Ye'll admit
+that I've done gey 'n' weel for the first day.  At this rate I'll be
+able to write a story-buik when I git hame.  Respecks to faither.  Yer
+affectionate son, DAVID.
+
+"_P.S._--The lan'lord's just been in, an' I've had a lang crack wi' him
+aboot the puir folk an' the thieves o' this Great Bawbylon.  Wow, but I
+_am_ wae for them.  Seems to me they have na got a chance i' the battle
+o' life.  He says he'll tak' me to see ane o' their low lodgin'-hooses
+the morn.  Guid-nicht."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+We turn now to a very different scene--to a West End drawing-room, in
+which is to be found every appliance, in the way of comfort and
+luxurious ease, that ingenuity can devise or labour produce.  An
+exceedingly dignified, large, self-possessed yet respectful footman,
+with magnificent calves in white stockings, has placed a silver tray,
+with three tiny cups and a tiny teapot thereon, near to the hand of a
+beautiful middle-aged lady--the mistress of the mansion.  She is reading
+a letter with evident interest.  A girl of seventeen, whose style of
+beauty tells of the closest relationship, sits beside her, eagerly
+awaiting the news which is evidently contained in the letter.
+
+"Oh, I am _so_ glad, Rosa! they have found traces of her at last."
+
+"Of who, mother--old nurse?" asked Rosa.
+
+"Yes, your father's old nurse; indeed I may say mine also, for when I
+was a little girl I used to pay long visits to your grandfather's house.
+And it seems that she is in great poverty--almost destitute.  Dear,
+_dear_ old nurse! you won't be long in poverty if I can help it!"
+
+As she spoke, a handsome man of middle age and erect carriage entered
+the room.  There was an expression of care and anxiety on his
+countenance, which, however, partly disappeared when the lady turned
+towards him with a triumphant look and held up the letter.
+
+"Didn't I tell you, Jack, that your lawyer would find our old nurse if
+any one could?  He writes me that she has been heard of, living in some
+very poor district on the south side of the Thames, and hopes to be able
+to send me her exact address very soon.  I felt quite sure that Mr
+Lockhart would find her, he is such an obliging and amiable man, as well
+as clever.  I declare that I can't bear to look at all the useless
+luxury in which we live when I think of the good and true creatures like
+old nurse who are perishing in absolute destitution."
+
+"But being disgusted with our luxury and giving it all up would not mend
+matters, little wife," returned Jack with a faint smile.  "Rich people
+are not called upon to give up their riches, but to _use_ them--to spend
+well within their means, so as to have plenty to spare in the way of
+helping those who are willing to help themselves, and sustaining those
+who cannot help themselves.  The law of supply and demand has many
+phases, and the profits resulting therefrom are overruled by a Higher
+Power than the laws of Political Economy.  There are righteous rich as
+well as poor; there are wicked poor as well as rich.  What you and I
+have got to do in this perplexing world is to cut our particular coat
+according to our cloth."
+
+"Just so," said the lady with energy.  "Your last remark is to the
+point, whatever may be the worth of your previous statements, and I
+intend to cut off the whole of my superfluous skirts in order to clothe
+old nurse and such as she with them."
+
+Rosa laughingly approved of this decision, for she was like-minded with
+her mother, but her father did not respond.  The look of care had
+returned to his brow, and there was cause for it for Colonel Brentwood
+had just learned from his solicitor that he was a ruined man.
+
+"It is hard to have to bring you such news, darling," he said, taking
+his wife's hand, "especially when you were so happily engaged in
+devising liberal things for the poor, but God knows what is best for us.
+He gave us this fortune, when He inclined uncle Richard to leave it to
+us, and now He has seen fit to take it away."
+
+"But how--what do you mean by taking it away?" asked poor Mrs
+Brentwood, perceiving that her husband really had some bad news to tell.
+
+"Listen; I will explain.  When uncle Richard Weston died, unexpectedly,
+leaving to us his estate, we regarded it you know, as a gift from God,
+and came to England resolving to spend our wealth in His service.  Well,
+yesterday Mr Lockhart informed me that another will has been found, of
+later date than that which made me uncle Richard's heir, in which the
+whole estate is left to a distant connection of whose very existence I
+had become oblivious."
+
+"Well, Jack," returned the lady, with a valiant effort to appear
+reconciled, "but that is not _ruin_, you know.  Your pay still remains
+to us."
+
+"I--I fear not.  That is to say, believing the estate to be mine, I have
+come under obligations which must be met and, besides, I have spent
+considerable sums which must be refunded--all of which, if I understand
+the law of the land rightly, means ruin."
+
+For some moments Mrs Brentwood sat in silent meditation.  "Well," she
+said at length, with the air of one who has made up her mind, "I don't
+understand much about the law of the land.  All I know is that my purse
+is full of gold just now, so I will snap my fingers at the law of the
+land and go right off to visit and succour our dear old Liz."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+A NIGHT OF ADVENTURES.
+
+According to arrangement, David Laidlaw was taken the following evening
+by his landlord, Mr Spivin, to see one of the low lodging-houses of
+London.
+
+Our adventurous Scot had often read and heard that some of the low
+quarters of London were dangerous for respectable men to enter without
+the escort of the police, but his natural courage and his thorough
+confidence in the strength of his bulky frame inclined him to smile at
+the idea of danger.  Nevertheless, by the advice of his new friend the
+landlord, he left his watch and money, with the exception of a few
+coppers, behind him--carefully stowed under the pillow of his bed in his
+shoulder-bag.  For further security the door of his room was locked and
+the key lung on a nail in an out-of-the-way corner, known only, as Mr
+Spivin pointed out, to "their two selves."
+
+"But hoo dis it happen, Mr Speevin," asked David, as they walked along
+the streets together, "that _ye_ can gang safely amang the thieves
+withoot a polisman t' proteck ye?"
+
+"Oh, as to that," replied the jolly landlord, "I'm connected with a
+religious society which sends agents down among them poor houtcasts to
+convert 'em.  They hall knows me, bless you.  But I ain't a-goin' with
+you myself.  You see, I'm a very busy man, and engagements which I 'ad
+forgotten prevents me, but I've made an arrangement with one o' the
+converted thieves to take you to a few of the worst places in London.
+Of course he can pass you hevery where as one of his friends."
+
+To this David made no reply, save with a slight "Humph!" as he looked
+earnestly at his companion.  But Mr Spivin wore an expression of
+seraphic candour.
+
+"Here he is," added the landlord, as they turned a corner and drew near
+to a man in mean attire, who seemed to be waiting for some one.  "He's
+rather disreputable to look at, only just been converted, an' not 'avin'
+'ad the chance yet to better himself.--But--hallo!--you seem to know
+him."
+
+The last exclamation and remark were called forth by the look of
+surprise on Laidlaw's face, and the air almost of alarm on that of the
+mean-looking man--alarm which was by no means unnatural, seeing that he
+was none other than the fellow who had attempted to rob our Scotsman the
+previous night.
+
+David, however, was quick to recover himself.  "Know him!" he cried,
+with a hearty laugh, "ay, I ken him weel.  I lent him a helpin' haund
+last nicht, no' far frae here."
+
+"Surely he was not beggin'?" exclaimed Mr Spivin in tones of virtuous
+reproof, "for a noo convert to go a-beggin', you know, would be
+houtrageous!"
+
+"Na, na," answered David, with a quiet and somewhat cynical smile, "he
+wasna beggin', puir lad, but I took peety on 'im, an' gee'd 'im some
+bawbees.  So this is yer new convert, is he? an' he's to be my guide?
+He'll do.  He'll do.  Sae I'll bid ye guid-nicht, Mr Speevin."
+
+As the Scot held out his hand in a very decided manner the landlord was
+obliged to depart without further enlightenment, after cautioning the
+"converted" thief to take good care of his friend.
+
+When he was gone the Scotsman and the ex-convict stood looking silently
+at each other, the first with an earnest yet half-sarcastic smile, the
+other with a mingled expression of reckless amusement, in which,
+however, there was a trace of anxiety.
+
+"Weel noo," said the former, "aren't ye an oot-an'-oot blagyird?"
+
+"If you mean by that an out-and-out blackguard," answered the thief,
+"you're not far wrong."
+
+"Ye're honest the noo, ony way," remarked the Scot, with a nod.  "Noo,
+my man, look ye here.  Ye are nae mair convertit than yer freen' Speevin
+is, though I took him for a rale honest man at first.  But bein' a
+blagyird, as ye admit, I'm wullin' t' hire ye in that capacity for the
+nicht.  Noo, what I want is t' see low life in Lun'on, an' if ye'll tak'
+me to what they may ca' the warst haunts o' vice, I'll mak' it worth yer
+while--an' I've got mair siller than ye think for, maybe."
+
+A stern frown settled on the thief's face as David spoke.
+
+"I suppose," he said, "that you want me to show you the misery and
+destitootion among the poor of London, that you may return to your 'ome
+in the North and boast that you 'ave `done the slums!'"
+
+"Na--na, ye're quite mista'en, man," returned David quickly; "but I want
+t' see for mysel' what I've heard sae muckle aboot--to see if it's a'
+true, for I'm wae--I'm" (correcting himself) "sorry--for the puir
+craturs, an' wud fain help some o' them if I could.  Noo, freen'," he
+continued, laying his huge hand gently on the man's shoulder, "if ye
+want to earn something, an'll tak' me t' where I want t' gang--guid.  If
+no'--I'll bid ye guid-nicht."
+
+"Do you know," said the man, with a furtive glance at David's kindly
+face, "the risk you run from the men who live in such places if you go
+alone and unprotected?"
+
+"I ken the risk _they_ run if they daur t' meddle wi' _me_!  Besides,
+I'll be naether alane nor unproteckit if I've _you_ wi' me, for I can
+trust ye!"
+
+A peculiar smile played for a moment on the haggard features of the
+thief.
+
+"Scotchman," he said, "whatever your name may be, I--"
+
+"My name is David Laidlaw, an' I've nae cause t' be ashamed o't."
+
+"Well, Mr Laidlaw," returned the thief, in vastly improved language and
+tone, "I'm indebted to you for a good supper and a warm bed last night.
+Besides, yours is the first friendly touch or kind voice that has
+greeted me since I was discharged, and you've said you can _trust_ me!
+So I'll do my best for you even though you should not give me a penny.
+But remember, you will go among a rough lot whom I have but little power
+to control."
+
+"Hoots! c'way, man, an' dinna waste time haverin'."
+
+Saying this, he grasped his guide by the arm in a friendly way and
+walked off, much to the surprise of a policeman with an aquiline nose,
+who turned his bull's-eye full on them as they passed, and then went on
+his way, shaking his head sagaciously.
+
+As the ill-assorted pair advanced, the streets they traversed seemed to
+grow narrower and dirtier.  The inhabitants partook of the character of
+their surroundings, and it struck our Scotsman that, as ordinary shops
+became fewer and meaner, grog-shops became more numerous and
+self-assertive.  From out of these dens of debauchery there issued loud
+cries and curses and ribald songs, and occasionally one or two of the
+wretched revellers, male or female, were thrust out, that they might
+finish off a quarrel with a fight in the street, or because they
+insisted on having more drink without having the means to pay for it.
+
+At one particular point a woman "in unwomanly rags" was seen leaning up
+against a lamp-post with an idiotical expression on her bloated face,
+making an impassioned speech to some imaginary person at her elbow.  The
+speech came to an abrupt end when, losing her balance, she fell to the
+ground, and lay there in drunken contentment.
+
+At the same moment the attention of our explorer was drawn to a riot
+close at hand, occasioned by two men engaged in a fierce encounter.
+They were loudly cheered and backed by their friends, until all were
+scattered by two powerful constables, who swooped suddenly on the scene
+and captured one of the combatants, while the other almost overturned
+David as he ran against him in passing, and escaped.
+
+"Come down here," said the thief, turning sharp to the left and passing
+under a low archway.
+
+It led to a narrow alley, which seemed to terminate in total darkness.
+Even Laidlaw's stout heart beat somewhat faster as he entered it, but he
+did not hesitate.
+
+At the end of the passage a dim light appeared.  It was thrown by a very
+dirty lamp, and disclosed a small court of unutterable meanness and
+inconceivable smells.  One or two men had brushed past them, and David
+observed that his guide accosted these in a language, or slang, which he
+did not understand.
+
+"I've got a friend in here," said his guide, opening a door and
+disclosing an extremely dirty room of about ten feet square.  A woman
+with her back towards the door was busy at a wash-tub.  Ragged clothes
+were drying on a clothes-line.  A shattered bed, on which lay a bundle
+of straw and a torn blanket, stood in one corner; a rickety table in
+another.  Water and soapsuds blotched the broken floor, amongst which
+played two little boys, absolutely naked.
+
+"That's a woman that tries to keep respectable," whispered the thief,
+with something like a bitter laugh.  "Hallo, Molly! here's a gen'lem'n
+as wants to bid 'ee good-night."
+
+Molly raised herself, cleared the soapsuds from her thin arms, and
+turned a haggard but not dissipated face towards her visitor, who was
+almost choked, not only by the smell of the place, but by an
+uncontrollable gush of pity.
+
+"My puir wumin!" he exclaimed, hastily thrusting his ever-ready hand
+into his pocket, "I didna mean t' come in on 'ee unawears.  Hae, ye'll
+no' objec' to a wheen bawbees?"
+
+He put all the coppers he possessed into the woman's hand and hurried
+out of the room.
+
+"Weel, weel," muttered David, as they continued their walk through the
+miserable region, "I've gane an' gie'd her a' the siller I had i' my
+pouch.  Pair thing!  She'll need it, but I've naething left for onybody
+else!"
+
+"It's just as well, for there's nothing left now for any one to steal,"
+said his companion.
+
+"Whar are 'ee gaun noo?" asked Laidlaw.
+
+The question put was not answered, for his guide, bidding him wait a
+minute, turned into a doorway and engaged in a low-toned conversation
+with a man.  Returning to his friend with an air of indecision about
+him, the thief was on the point of speaking when a small party of men
+and women--evidently of the better classes--came round the corner and
+approached.
+
+"Oho!" exclaimed the thief, drawing his companion into the shade of the
+opposite doorway, "we're in luck.  You see, this is what they call a low
+lodging-house, and the door-keeper thought that, respectable as you are
+in dress and looks, it might not be wise to take you in.  But we'll go
+in now at the tail o' this lot, and nobody will take notice of you.
+Only follow close to me."
+
+Two of the "lot" who approached appeared to be respectably-dressed young
+men, carrying something like a large box between them.  There were five
+altogether in the party, two of whom seemed to be plainly-dressed
+ladies.
+
+They entered the house at once with a quiet "good-night" to the
+door-keeper, and were followed by the thief and David.  Entering a very
+large irregularly-formed room, they proceeded to the upper end, where a
+huge coal fire blazed.  The room was crowded with men and boys of varied
+appearance and character.  From every rank in society they had
+gravitated--but all were stamped with the same brand--destitution!  They
+were not, however, destitute of lungs, as the babel of sounds proved--
+nor of tobacco, as the clouds of smoke demonstrated.
+
+Little notice was taken of the visitors.  They were well known in that
+haunt of crime and woe.  Angels of mercy they were, who, after the
+labours of each day, gave their spare time to the work of preaching
+salvation in Jesus to lost souls.  To the surprise of Laidlaw, the box
+before referred to became a harmonium when opened up, and soon the
+harmony of praise to God ascended from the reeking den.  Then followed
+prayer--brief and to the point--after which an earnest appeal was made
+to the sorrowing, the suffering, and the criminal to come and find
+deliverance and rest in the Saviour.
+
+We may not dwell on this.  Some listened carelessly, some earnestly,
+others not at all.
+
+"Come now," whispered the thief to his friend, towards the close,
+"they'll have spotted you, and will want to have a talk.  We've no time
+for that.  Follow me."
+
+David, who had been deeply interested, also wanted to have a talk with
+these servants of the King of kings, but his guide being already halfway
+down the room he was constrained to follow.  Another moment and they
+were in the street.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+ENEMIES TURNED TO FRIENDS.
+
+"You want to see as much as you can, I suppose?" remarked the thief as
+he hastened along.  "Come, I'll take you to our den."
+
+It seemed as if the man were leading his companion into deeper and
+deeper depths, for the dark passage into which they finally turned, and
+along which they groped their way, seemed to be the very vestibule of
+Pandemonium; cries as of fierce and evil spirits being heard at the
+farther end of it.
+
+"Now," said the thief, stopping, "whatever you do here, don't show
+fight.  This is a thieves' den."
+
+The passage at its farther end became absolutely dark, so that the thief
+had to lead our hero by the hand.  Turning abruptly to the right, they
+came upon a door through which there issued sounds of terrible revelry.
+A knock produced no effect.  A second and louder knock resulted in dead
+silence.  Then a female voice was heard inside.  To it our thief replied
+in the language of the slums.  Immediately the door was opened just
+enough to let the two men glide in; then it was shut with a bang and
+bolted.
+
+"Hallo, Trumps, who 'ave you got here?"  "W'ere did you pick 'im up?"
+"Is he a noo member?" shouted several voices, amid general laughter.
+
+The speakers were among a company of men and women whose general
+appearance and reckless expressions of countenance seemed to indicate
+that they were past redemption.  The den in which they sat drinking,
+smoking, and gambling consisted of a dirty room fitted with narrow
+tables, out of which opened an inner apartment.  The door of this had
+been removed--probably for firewood in a time of scarcity.  Both rooms
+were lighted with dim oil-lamps.  Some of the company were beggars and
+tramps of the lowest type, but most were evidently of the vicious and
+criminal order.  There was a tendency to unpleasant curiosity in regard
+to the stranger, but the thief, whom we may now call Trumps, put an end
+to this with a few slang words, and led his friend to a seat in the
+inner room, whence he could observe nearly the whole party and all that
+went on.
+
+Some of the more intoxicated among them objected to be snubbed by
+Trumps, and were beginning to scowl at the visitor, no doubt with
+sinister intentions, when the outer door was again opened, and a young
+thief, obviously familiar with the place, entered, closely followed by a
+respectable-looking man in a surtout and a light topcoat.  It required
+no second look to tell that the new-comer was a city missionary.  Like
+our Scot, he had gained admission to the place through the influence of
+a friendly thief.
+
+"Hullo, _more_ visitors!" growled a big savage-looking man with an
+apron, who proved to be the landlord of the den.
+
+Advancing quickly to this man, the missionary said, in a quiet gentle
+tone--
+
+"You supply coffee, I see.  May I have a cup?"
+
+"No you mayn't, you spy!  I know you, you canting wretch!"
+
+He locked the door as he spoke, and then, striding forward in a towering
+rage, threatened vengeance on the intruder.  The company, expecting a
+scene, rose _en masse_ to their feet, while those in the inner room
+crowded to the front.  Laidlaw, who was for the moment forgotten in this
+new excitement, followed them.  He was well enough informed in reference
+to the work of the London City Missionaries to understand at a glance
+that one of those fearless men had managed to worm his way into the
+thieves' den, and was perhaps in danger of his life.  That the man
+realised his danger was apparent from the fact that he stood erect and
+closed his eyes for a moment--evidently in silent prayer for help in the
+hour of need.  The act probably saved him, for the ferocious landlord,
+although ready enough to crush defiance with a savage blow, did not
+quite see his way to dash his great fist into a mild, manly face with
+shut eyes!  It was such an unusual way of receiving his onset that he
+hesitated and lowered his fist.  Suddenly the missionary drew out a
+pocket-Bible, and, pointing upwards with it, said, in loud solemn tones,
+"A great white throne will be set up among the stars above us.  The
+Saviour who died for sinners will sit upon it, and the dead that are in
+their graves shall hear His voice and live.  _We_ shall be there!"
+
+At this the people were silenced, apparently under a spell--some gazing
+upwards as if to see the throne; others staring into the missionary's
+face in wonder.
+
+"And I and you and you," he continued, pointing to one and another,
+"shall be there: `We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.'
+I am not an enemy, or a spy, but a servant of the Lord Jesus, who will
+be your judge at the last day.  He is now the Saviour of the ruined and
+lost, and in His name I offer you mercy through the blood He shed for
+you upon the Cross.  In His blessed Book it is written, `Whosoever
+believeth on Him shall be saved.'  I hope to come again before long to
+see you, friends.  Now, landlord, open that door and let me out."
+
+The landlord, who seemed to be thoroughly taken aback, unlocked the door
+with a trembling hand, and the missionary passed out.  But that was not
+the end of this remarkable visit.  It was only the beginning of a grand
+work for Christ which afterwards took place in and around that thieves'
+den.  On this, however, we may not do more than touch here.  Smitten in
+conscience, that landlord hurried out after the missionary and actually
+begged of him to repeat his visit.  Then he returned to the den and
+found his people recovering somewhat from their surprise.
+
+But, touched though the landlord was, he had by no means changed his
+character.
+
+"Now, then," he demanded, going up to David Laidlaw, "are _you_ a
+missionary too?"
+
+"Na, freen', I am not; but I 'maist wush that I was, for it's a graund
+wark t' carry help t' the destitute."
+
+"Well, guv'nor," cried one fellow with a crushed nose and a huge black
+eye, "if that's wot you're a-'ankerin' arter you can go a-'ead 'ere an'
+'elp us to yer 'eart's content, for we're all destitoot in this 'ere
+den.  So, come along, table down all the cash you've got about you."
+
+"I'll dae that wi' pleasure," said David, rising promptly, and turning
+all his pockets inside out.  "Ye shall hae every bodle I possess."
+
+A general laugh greeted this proceeding, and one young thief shouted,
+"Well done, checkers," (referring to his garments); "but 'ow comes it
+that you've bin cleaned out?"
+
+"Plain as pea-soup," cried another.  "Don't you see?  He's bin keepin'
+company with Trumps!"
+
+Here Trumps rose to explain.  "No, pals, that's not the reason; but just
+before comin' here he gave away every rap he had to poor widow Grain."
+
+"He's a brick!" cried one man, with a fierce oath.
+
+"He's a fool!" shouted another, with a fiercer oath.  Regardless of the
+interruption, Trumps went on to explain how he had attempted to rob our
+hero, and been caught by him, and let off with a mild reproof and a lot
+of coppers.  He also explained how that black-hearted villain Tandy
+Spivin (meaning David's landlord) had hired him--Trumps--to take this
+"gen'lem'n" (pointing to David) "down into the den _for a purpus_--ahem!
+Of course, on bein' introdooced to him," continued Trumps, "I at once
+recognised the Scotchman I had tried to rob, and expected he would
+refuse to go with me; but I soon found that Scotty was a deep as well as
+a plucky cove, and wasn't to be done out of his fun by trifles, for he
+said he would go to the slums with me because he could _trust me--trust
+me_, pals--note that!"
+
+A loud explosion of laughter interrupted the speaker at this point.
+
+"What!" exclaimed several voices, "said 'e could trust _you_, Trumps?"
+
+"Ay," cried the thief, looking suddenly fierce, "and why not?  Isn't it
+said, `There's honour among thieves?'"
+
+"Thrue for ye," cried a big burglarious-looking Irishman, "sure there's
+honour 'twixt the likes o' you an' me, Trumps, but that gen'lem'n an't a
+thief!"
+
+"That's so, Bill," exclaimed another man, with bloodshot eyes and
+beetling brows; "an' it's my opinion that as the cove hain't got no
+browns 'e ought to contribute 'is checker suit to the good o' the 'ouse.
+It would fetch summat."
+
+The interest in the missionary's words seemed to be passing away, for at
+this point the language and looks of some of the company made David
+Laidlaw feel that he was indeed in a ticklish position.  The threats and
+noise were becoming louder and more furious, and he was beginning to
+think of the hopeless resource of using his fists, when a loud
+exclamation, followed by a dead silence, drew every eye to the door.
+
+The girl to whom the keeping of it had been intrusted had neglected her
+duty for a moment.  In letting one of the company out she incautiously
+stood looking through the open chink into the dark passage.  That
+instant was seized by two tall and powerful limbs of the law, in cloth
+helmets and with bull's-eye lanterns, who pushed quietly but quickly
+into the room.  Shutting the door, one of the constables stood with his
+back against it, while the other advanced and examined the faces of the
+company one by one.
+
+There was dead silence, for the constables were men of business, not of
+words, while the criminals, some of whom became grave as well as silent,
+seemed very anxious not to attract undue attention.
+
+The particular person "wanted," however, was not there at that time.  On
+coming to David, who met the glare of the bull's-eye with his grave
+smile, the constable looked surprised.
+
+"I think, young man," he said in a low voice, "you've come to the wrong
+shop here."
+
+"That's _my_ business," replied David coolly.
+
+"Well, you know best of course, but if you'll take my advice you'll come
+out of this place along with us."
+
+"Na.  I'll bide where I am.  I'll _trust_ them."
+
+"Brayvo! well done, Scotty!" burst from the company, whose courage
+quickly revived when they found that no one there was "wanted."
+
+The policemen laughed and went out.
+
+"Noo, freen's, I want to say a word," said David, rising.  "I'm gaun
+awa', an' it's ower late t' mak' a speech the nicht, but I want t' ask
+leave t' come back here again an' hae a crack wi' ye.  I want t' ask 'ee
+some questions, an' gie ye some guid advice.  May I come?"
+
+"Of course you may, Scotty," said the landlord, grasping David's hand
+and receiving a good-humoured squeeze that made him wince.  "You're a
+trump, and we'll give you the freedom of the 'ouse.  Won't we, pals?"
+
+"Agreed, agreed," shouted the whole company; "and we've got two Trumps
+now!" added a wag, amid much laughter and staves of, "He's a jolly good
+fellow," during the singing of which Laidlaw and his friend took their
+departure.
+
+Having marked the position of the den well and taken its bearings they
+said good-night cordially and separated, the thief to his lair, and the
+Scotsman to his lodging, where he fully expected that the "villain"
+Tandy Spivin had availed himself of the opportunity to rob him.
+
+But he was wrong.  He found his bag, with his watch and money and his
+little all, intact as he had left it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+MISCHIEF BREWING.
+
+David Laidlaw was one of those comfortably constituted men who eat
+heartily, sleep profoundly, and lie thinking in bed in the mornings--
+when awake--with philosophic intensity.
+
+On the morning after his first day in London our hero's mind had to
+grapple with the perplexing question, whether it was possible that a man
+with a jovial face, a hearty manner, well-off to all appearance in a
+worldly point of view, and who chanced to have a man's money at his
+mercy yet did not take it, _could_ be a deceiver and in league with
+thieves.  Impossible!  Yet there were the damaging facts that Mr Spivin
+had introduced a thief to him as a true and converted man, and that this
+thief, besides denying his own conversion, had pronounced him--Spivin--a
+black-hearted villain!
+
+"It bothers me!" said David at length, getting over the side of the bed,
+and sitting there for some time abstractedly stroking his chin.
+
+Pondering the subject deeply, he dressed, called for breakfast, met
+Spivin with a quiet "guid-mornin', freen," said that he had had "a
+pleesant time o't i' the slums," and then went out to visit his friends
+in Cherub Court.  Before going, however, he removed his money from his
+bag, put it in an inner breast-pocket, and paid his bill.
+
+"You won't be back to dinner, I suppose," said the landlord in his
+genial manner.
+
+"Na.  I'm gaun to plowter aboot a' day an' see the toon.  I may be late
+o' comin' in, but ye'll keep my bed for me, an' tak' care o' my bag."
+
+Spivin said he would do so with such hearty goodwill that David said,
+mentally, "He's innocent."
+
+At the moment a tall dark man with a sharp intelligent expression
+entered the house and bade the landlord good-morning.  The latter
+started, laughed, winked, glanced expressively at the Scotsman, and
+returned the stranger's salute in a tone that induced David to say,
+mentally, "He's guilty."
+
+Gravely pondering these contradictory opinions, our hero walked along
+until he found himself close to the alley which led into Cherub Court.
+A female yell issued from the alley as he came up, and Mrs Rampy
+suddenly appeared in a state of violent self-assertion.  She was a
+strong, red-faced woman, who might have been born a man, perhaps, with
+advantage.  She carried a broken-lipped jug, and was on her way to the
+shop which was at least the second cause of all her woes.
+
+Standing aside to let the virago pass, Laidlaw proceeded to the court,
+where, to his great surprise, he found Tommy Splint sitting on a
+doorstep, not exactly in tears, but with disconsolation deeply impressed
+on his dirty young face.
+
+"Eh, laddie, what's wrang?" exclaimed the Scot, his mind reverting
+anxiously, and strangely enough, to the "waux doll."
+
+"O, Mr Laidlow" exclaimed the boy.
+
+"Na, na," interrupted David, "I'm no laid _low_ yet, though the Lun'on
+folk hae done their best to bring me t' that condeetion.  My name's
+Laid-law, laddie.  Freen's ca' me David, an' ye may do the same; but for
+ony sake dinna use that English D_ai_vid.  I canna thole that.  Use the
+lang, braid, Bible a.  But what's the maitter wi' ye?"
+
+"Well, Mr Da-a-a-vid," returned the boy, unable to resist a touch of
+fun even in his distress, "they've bin an' dismissed our Susy, wot's as
+good as gold; so she's hout o' work, and chimley-pot Liz she's fit to
+break 'er hold 'art, 'cause she ain't able to earn enough now to pay the
+rent of 'er room, an' the landlord, what's a lawyer, 'e is, says two
+weeks' rent is overdue, and 'e'll turn 'er hout into the street
+to-morrer if it's not paid."
+
+"That's bad news, Tammy," said Laidlaw, thrusting both hands into his
+pockets, and looking meditatively at the ground.  "But why doesna Sam
+Blake, the waux--, I mean Susy's faither, lend them the siller?"
+
+"'Cause he's gone to Liverpool for somethink or other about 'is wessel,
+an' left no address, an' won't be back for two or three days, an' the
+old ooman ain't got a friend on 'arth--leastwise not a rich 'un who can
+'elp 'er."
+
+"Hoots, laddie, ye're wrang!  _I_ can help her."
+
+"Ah, but," said the boy, still in tones of disconsolation, "you don't
+know chimley-pot Liz.  She's proud, she is, an' won't take nuffin from
+strangers."
+
+"Weel, weel, but I'm no'--a stranger, callant."
+
+"I rather think you are!" replied the boy, with a knowing look.
+
+"Ye may be richt.  Weel, I'll no' gi'e them the chance to refuse.
+What's the name of the lawyer-body that's their landlord?"
+
+"Lockhart.  John would be 'is Christian name if 'e _wos_ a Christian.
+But a cove with a Christian name as is _not_ a Christian do seem an
+absurdity--don't it?  They say 'e's about the greatest willian out o'
+Newgate.  An' 'is office is somewhere near Chancery Lane."
+
+"Weel, Christian or no Christian, I'll gi'e him a ca'," said David; "are
+they up there enow?" he added, with a significant motion of his head
+towards the garden on the roof.
+
+"Yes, both of 'em--'owling.  I couldn't stand it, so came down 'ere to
+veep alone."
+
+"Weel, ye better stop where ye are, an' veep--as ye say--a wee while
+langer.  I'll gang up to see them."
+
+A minute more and David, tapping at the garret door, was bidden to enter
+by a sweet voice which caused the slightest imaginable sensation in his
+heart!  Susan was there alone--not 'owling, as Tommy had expressed it,
+but with the traces of tears obviously about her eyes.  She blushed
+deeply and looked a little confused as David entered, probably because
+of being caught with the signs aforesaid on her cheeks.
+
+"Guid-mornin', Miss Blake," said David earnestly, giving the girl a warm
+shake of the hand.  "O lassie, but I am sorry to hear that ye're in
+trouble!  I do assure ye that if a pund or twa would help yer granny--"
+
+"'Sh, Mr Laidlaw!" said Susan, looking furtively round and speaking
+low.  "Granny will hear!  You must not offer her money.  From father,
+indeed, if he were here, she would accept it, but not from a--a
+stranger."
+
+"Am I, then, such a stranger?" asked David in a peculiar tone, for the
+word sounded cold and disagreeable.
+
+Again Susan blushed, yet felt a tendency to laugh, as she replied,
+"Well, you know, although you _have_ helped me in trouble, it is not
+_very_ long since we met.  But come and see granny; she's in the
+garden--and, please, don't speak of our troubles."
+
+"Weel, weel, please yersel', lassie," returned the Scot, almost sternly,
+as he followed Susan into the garden on the roof, where old Liz sat in
+her rustic chair resting her head on her hand, and looking sadly at the
+sunlight, which flickered through the foliage on to the zinc floor.
+Despite Susan's caution Laidlaw sat down beside the old woman and took
+her hand.
+
+"Noo, Mrs Morley," he said, "it's o' no use me tryin' to haud my tongue
+whan I want to speak.  I'm a plain north-country man, an' I canna thole
+to see a puir auld body in trouble withoot offerin' t' help her.  I've
+been telt o' Susy's misfortin' an' aboot the rent, and if ye'll
+accep'--"
+
+"No, sir, no," said old Liz firmly, but without any look of that pride
+with which she had been credited.  "I will not accept money from--"
+
+"But I'm no' askin' ye," interrupted David, "to accep' money as a
+_gift_--only as a loan, ye ken, withoot interest of course."
+
+"Not even as a loan," said the old woman.  "Besides, young man, you must
+not fancy that I am altogether penniless.  I 'appen to 'ave shares in an
+American Railway, which my landlord advised me to buy with my small
+savings.  No doubt, just at present the dividend on the shares of the
+Washab and Roria Railway have fallen off terribly, but--"
+
+"What railway?" asked Laidlaw quickly.
+
+"The Washab and Roria.  Somewhere in the United States," said Liz.
+
+"H'm!  I was readin' the papers yestreen," said David.  "Ye see, I'm
+fond o' fishin' aboot odd corners o' the papers--the money market, an'
+stocks, an' the like--an' I noticed that vera railway--owin' to its
+daft-like name, nae doot--an' its deevidends are first-rate.  Ye could
+sell oot enow at a high profit gin ye like."
+
+"Indeed?  You must be mistaken, I think," replied the old woman, "for I
+'ave 'ad almost nothink for a year or two.  You see, my landlord, who
+takes charge of these matters for me--"
+
+"That's Mr Lockhart the lawyer, ye mean?"
+
+"Yes.  He says they're losing money now, and there was no dividend at
+all last half-year."
+
+"H'm! that _is_ strange," said David, stroking his chin, "uncommon--
+strange!"
+
+"D'you think Mr Lockhart has made a mistake, Mr Laidlaw?" asked Susan
+hopefully.
+
+"Ay, I think he _hes_ made a mistake.  But 'oo'll see.  An' noo, to
+change the subjec', I'll tell 'ee aboot some o' the adventur's I had
+last nicht."
+
+From this point David Laidlaw entertained old Liz and Susy and Tommy
+Splint, who had by that time joined them, with a graphic account of his
+adventures in the slums, in the telling of which he kept his audience in
+fits of laughter, yet spoke at times with such pathos that Susan was
+almost moved to tears.
+
+"Noo, I must away," he said at length, rising.  "I've got partikler
+business in haund.  Come wi' me, Tammy.  I'll want 'ee, and I'll come
+back sune to see ye, auld Liz.  Dinna ye tak' on aboot losin' yer place,
+Su--, Miss Blake, lass.  Ye'll git a better place afore lang--tak' my
+word for 't."
+
+On the way down-stairs Laidlaw and his little companion passed a tall
+gentleman and two ladies who were ascending.  Ere the foot of the stair
+was reached, loud exclamations of recognition and joy were heard in the
+regions above.
+
+"I say!" exclaimed Tommy Splint, with wide-open eyes, "ain't they
+a-goin' of it up there?  Let's go back an' listen."
+
+"Na, ye wee rascal, we'll no' gang back.  If ye want to be freen's wi'
+me ye'll no daur to putt yer lug to keyholes.  Come awa'.  It's nae
+business o' yours or mine."
+
+They had not gone far in the direction of Chancery Lane when, to their
+surprise, they met Sam Blake, who had changed his mind about the visit
+to Liverpool.  David at once seized him by the arm, and made him walk
+with them, while he explained the circumstances in which his daughter
+and old Liz had been so suddenly placed.
+
+"Wouldn't it be better for me," said Sam, "to steer straight for the
+garden than to go along with you?"
+
+"Na--ye'll gang wi' me.  It's plain that they hae auld freen's veesitin'
+them at the gairden, sae we'd better lat them alane.  Besides, I want ye
+for a wutness; I'm no much o' a polis man, nevertheless I'm gaun to try
+my haund at a bit o' detective business.  Just you come wi' me, and
+niver say a word till ye're spoken to."
+
+"Heave ahead then, skipper; you're in command," returned the sailor with
+a quiet laugh.  It was echoed by little Tommy, who was hugely pleased
+with the semi-mysterious looks and nods of his Scottish friend, and
+regarded the turn affairs seemed to be taking as infinitely superior to
+mere ordinary mischief.
+
+Arrived at Chancery Lane, they soon discovered the office of John
+Lockhart, Esquire, Solicitor.  Entering, they found the principal seated
+at a table covered with papers and legal documents of all kinds.  Both
+the lawyer and the farmer felt, but did not show, some surprise on
+looking at each other.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+DARK DESIGNS.
+
+The lawyer was first to speak.  "It strikes me I have seen you before,"
+he said, looking at Laidlaw with a sharp steady gaze.
+
+"Ay, sir, an' I've seen _you_ before," returned the latter with an
+extremely simple look.  "I saw ye whan I was comin' oot o' the hoose o'
+Mr Speevin, whar I'm lodgin'."
+
+"Oh, exactly!" returned the lawyer with a bland smile; "pray be seated,
+gentlemen, and let me know your business."
+
+They obeyed,--Sam Blake with an expression of stolid stupidity on his
+countenance, which was powerfully suggestive of a ship's figurehead--
+Tommy with an air of meekness that was almost too perfect.
+
+It would be tedious to detail the conversation that ensued.  Suffice it
+to say that David said he was a Scotch farmer on a visit to London; that
+he possessed a good lot of spare cash, for which, at the time being, he
+got very small interest; that he did not understand business matters
+very well, but what he wanted to know was, how he should go about
+investing funds--in foreign railways, for instance, such as the Washab
+and Roria line.
+
+At this point he was interrupted by Mr Lockhart who asked what had put
+that particular railway into his head, and was informed that the
+newspapers had done so by showing it to be the line whose shares
+produced very high dividends at that time.
+
+"I'm richt I fancy?" said David.
+
+"Yes, you are right, and I could easily put you in the way of investing
+in that railway."
+
+"Have the shares been lang at this high figure?" asked Laidlaw.
+
+"Yes; they have improved steadily for several years back."
+
+"What say ye to that freend?" demanded David, turning to Sam with a
+triumphant look.
+
+Sam turned on his friend a look as expressionless as that of a Dutch
+clock, and said sententiously, "_I_ says, go in an' win."
+
+"_I_ says ditto!" thought Tommy Splint, but he meekly and wisely held
+his tongue.
+
+Meanwhile the lawyer went into another room, from which, returning after
+a short absence, he produced a bundle of Reports which fully bore out
+his statement as to the flourishing condition of the Washab and Roria
+Railway.
+
+"Weel, I'll see aboot it," said David, after a few moments'
+consideration, with knitted brows.  "In the meantime, sir, what have I
+to pay to you for yer information?"
+
+Mr Lockhart said he had nothing to pay, and hoped he would have the
+pleasure of seeing him soon again.
+
+"Noo, isn't _that_ a blagyird?" demanded Laidlaw, when they were again
+in the street.
+
+"No doubt he is," replied Sam; "but how will you manage to haul him up
+and prove that he has been swindling the old woman?"
+
+"Hoo can I tell?  Am I a lawyer?  But I'll fin' oot somehoo."
+
+"Well, mate, while you are finding out," returned the sailor, "I'll go
+to Cherub Court.  So, Tommy, will you go with Mr Laidlaw or with me?"
+
+The boy looked first at one and then at the other with a curious
+"how-happy-could-I-be-with-either" expression on his sharp countenance,
+and then elected to accompany the sailor.  On the way he told Sam of the
+"swell visitors" to the garret, whom Laidlaw had prevented him from
+going back to see.
+
+"Quite right he was, Tommy, my boy," said his friend.  "It is easy to
+see that you have not profited as much as you might from the example and
+teaching of my dear Susy an' chimney-pot Liz."
+
+"Chimley-pot," murmured the boy, correcting him in a low tone.  "Vell,
+you could 'ardly expect," he added, "that a child of my age should git
+the profit all at once.  I suppose it's like a bad ease o' waxination--
+it ha'n't took properly yet."
+
+"Then we must have you re-vaccinated, my boy.  But tell me, what were
+the swells like?"
+
+The description of the swells occupied Tommy all the rest of the walk to
+Cherub Court, where they found old Liz and Susan in a state of great
+excitement about the visitors who had just left.
+
+"Why, who d'ye think they was?" exclaimed the old woman, making the fang
+wobble with a degree of vigour that bid fair to unship it altogether,
+"it was my dear sweet little boy Jacky--"
+
+"Little boy!  Granny!" cried Susan, with a merry laugh.
+
+"Of course, child, I mean what he was and ever will be to me.  He's a
+tall middle-aged gentleman now, an' with that nice wife that used to
+visit us--an' their sweet daughter--just like what the mother was,
+exceptin' those hideous curls tumblin' about her pretty brow as I detest
+more than I can tell.  An' she's goin' to be married too, young as she
+is, to a clergyman down in Devonshire, where the family was used to go
+every summer (alongside o' their lawyer Mr Lockhart as they was so fond
+of, though the son as has the business now ain't like his father); the
+sweet child--dear, dear, how it do call up old times!"
+
+"And didn't they," broke in Tommy, "never say a word about 'elpin' you,
+granny, to git hout of your troubles?"
+
+"'Ow could they offer to 'elp me," returned old Liz sternly, "w'en they
+knew nothink about my troubles? an' I'm very glad they didn't, for it
+would have spoiled their visit altogether if they'd begun it by offerin'
+me assistance.  For shame, Tommy.  You're not yet cured o' greed, my
+dear."
+
+"Did I say I _was_?" replied the urchin, with a hurt look.
+
+Lest the reader should entertain Tommy's idea, we may here mention that
+Colonel Brentwood and his wife, knowing old Liz's character, had
+purposely refrained from spoiling their first visit by referring to
+money matters.
+
+After a full and free discussion of the state of affairs--in which,
+however, no reference was made to the recent visit to the lawyer, or to
+the suspected foul play of that gentleman--the sailor went off to
+overhaul Messrs. Stickle and Screw in the hope of inducing that firm to
+retain Susy on its staff.  Failing which, he resolved to pay a visit to
+Samson and Son.  As for Tommy, he went off in a free-and-easy sort of
+way, without any definite designs, in search of adventures.
+
+That evening old Liz filled her teapot, threw her apron over it, and
+descended to the court to visit Mrs Rampy.
+
+"Well, you _are_ a good creetur," said that masculine female, looking up
+as her friend entered.  "Come away; sit down; I was wantin' some one to
+cheer me up a bit, for I've just 'ad a scrimidge with Mrs Blathers, an'
+it's bin 'ard work.  But she 'ave comed off second best, _I_ knows."
+
+As a black eye, dishevelled hair, and a scratched nose constituted Mrs
+Rampy's share in the "scrimidge," Mrs Blathers's condition could not
+have been enviable.  But it was evident from Mrs Rampy's tone and
+manner that a more powerful foe than Mrs Blathers had assaulted her
+that afternoon.
+
+"Ah, Mrs Rampy," said her visitor, pouring out a cup of tea with a
+liberal allowance of sugar, "if you'd only give up that--"
+
+"Now, old Liz," interrupted her friend impressively, "don't you go for
+to preach me a sermon on drink.  It's all very well to preach religion.
+That's nat'ral like, an' don't much signify.  You're welcome.  But,
+wotiver you do, old Liz, keep off the drink."
+
+"Well, that's just what I do," replied Liz promptly, as she handed her
+friend a cup of hot tea, "and that's just what I was goin' to advise
+_you_ to do.  Keep off the drink."
+
+Feeling that she had slightly committed herself, Mrs Rampy gave a short
+laugh and proceeded to drink with much gusto, and with a preliminary
+"Here's luck!" from the force of habit.
+
+"But what's the matter with you to-day, Liz?" she asked, setting her cup
+down empty and looking, if not asking, for more; "you looks dull."
+
+"Do I?  I shouldn't ought to, I'm sure, for there's more blessin's than
+sorrows in _my_ cup," said Liz.
+
+"Just you put another lump o' sugar in _my_ cup, anyhow," returned her
+friend.  "I likes it sweet, Liz.  Thank 'ee.  But what 'as 'appened to
+you?"
+
+Old Liz explained her circumstances in a pitiful tone, yet without
+making very much phrase about it, though she could not refrain from
+expressing wonder that her railway dividends had dwindled down to
+nothing.
+
+"Now look 'ee here, chimley-pot Liz," cried Mrs Rampy in a fierce
+voice, and bringing her clenched fist down on the table with a crash
+that made the tea-cups dance.  "You ain't the only 'ooman as 'as got a
+tea-pot."
+
+She rose, took a masculine stride towards a cupboard, and returned with
+a tea-pot of her own, which, though of the same quality as that of her
+friend, and with a similarly broken spout, was much larger.  Taking off
+the lid she emptied its contents in a heap--silver and copper with one
+or two gold pieces intermixed--on the table.
+
+"There!  Them's my savin's, an' you're welcome to what you need, Liz.
+For as sure as you're alive and kickin', if you've got into the 'ands of
+Skinflint Lockhart, 'e'll sell you up, garding an' all!  _I_ know 'im!
+Ah--I know 'im.  So 'elp yourself, Liz."
+
+Tears rose to the eyes of old Liz, and her heart swelled with joy, for
+was there not given to her here unquestionable evidence of her success
+in the application of loving-kindness?  Assuredly it was no small
+triumph to have brought drunken, riotous, close-fisted, miserly, fierce
+Mrs Rampy to pour her hard-won savings at her feet, for which on her
+knees she thanked God that night fervently.  Meanwhile, however, she
+said, with a grave shake of her head--
+
+"Now, Mrs Rampy, that _is_ uncommon good of you, an' I would accept it
+at once, but I really won't require it, for now that Susy's father 'as
+returned, I can borrow it from him, an' sure he's better able to lend it
+than you are.  Now, don't be angry, Mrs Rampy, but--'ave some more
+tea?"
+
+While she was speaking her friend shovelled the money back into the
+teapot with violence, and replaced it in her cupboard with a bang.
+
+"You won't git the hoffer twice," she said, sitting down again.  "Now,
+Liz, let's 'ave another cup, an' don't spare the sugar."
+
+"That I won't" said Liz, with a laugh, as she poured out her cheering
+but not inebriating beverage.
+
+On the second day after the tea-party just described, John Lockhart,
+Esquire, and Mr Spivin met in a low public-house not far from Cherub
+Court.  They drank sparingly and spoke in whispers.  It may seem strange
+that two such men should choose a low tavern in such a neighbourhood for
+confidential intercourse, but when we explain that both were landlords
+of numerous half-decayed tenements there, the choice will not seem so
+peculiar.  Lockhart frowned darkly at his companion.
+
+"From what you have told me of his inquiries about me," he said, "this
+man's suspicions had certainly been roused, and he would not have rested
+until he had made undesirable discoveries.  It is lucky that you managed
+to get the job so well done."
+
+They put their heads together and whispered lower.  From time to time
+Lockhart gave vent to a grim laugh, and Spivin displayed his feelings in
+a too-amiable smile.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE PLOT THICKENS.
+
+In his remarkably eager and somewhat eccentric pursuit of pleasure--that
+pursuit which is so universal yet so diverse among men, to say nothing
+about boys--Tommy Splint used to go about town like a jovial lion-cub
+seeking whom he might terrify!
+
+To do him justice, Tommy never had any settled intention of being
+wicked.  His training at the hands of chimney-pot Liz and the gentle
+Susy had so far affected his arab spirit that he had learned, on the
+whole, to prefer what he styled upright to dishonourable mischief.  For
+instance, he would not steal, but he had no objection to screen a thief
+or laugh at his deeds.  His natural tenderness of heart prevented his
+being cruel to dogs or cats, but it did not prevent his ruffling some of
+the former into furious rage, and terrifying many of the latter into
+cataleptic fits.
+
+One afternoon, having roved about for some time without aim, sometimes
+howling in at open doors and bolting, frequently heaping banter upon
+good-natured policemen, occasionally asking of mild old ladies the way
+to places he had never heard of, or demanding what o'clock it was of
+people who did not possess watches, and whistling most of the time with
+irritating intensity--our little hero at last came to the conclusion
+that felicity was not to be obtained by such courses--not at least, at
+that time.  He was out of sorts, somehow, so he would return to the
+garden and comfort Susy and the old woman, i.e. find comfort to himself
+in their society.  He went whistling along, therefore, until his steps
+were suddenly and violently arrested.
+
+To account for this we must tell how, about this time, it chanced that a
+very drunk man of the very lowest London type, as far as appearance
+went, awoke from a heavy slumber which he had been enjoying under the
+seat of a compartment in a certain low gin-palace.  He was about to
+stretch himself and give vent to a noisy yawn when the word "Laidlaw"
+smote his ear.  Pale, worn-out, cadaverous, threadbare, inexpressibly
+mean, the man gently raised his dissolute form on one elbow and listened
+to two men in a box beside him.  Their heads met almost over the spot
+where his own head rested.  The men were Lockhart and Spivin, and the
+occasion was that on which we have already described them as engaged in
+plotting, or referring to, the downfall of the man from Scotland.
+
+Trumps (for he was the listener), though well practised in the art of
+eavesdropping, could not gather the gist of the plotters' discourse.
+Only this he made out, that, in some way or other, they meant to do, or
+had done, mischief to the man who had spared and helped, and, above all,
+had _trusted him_!  It was tantalising to hear so little, though so
+near, for, from his position under the seat, he could have grasped Mr
+Lockhart's ankles.  But the plotters were much too knowing to speak in
+tones that could be easily overheard.  Besides, other noisy people were
+arguing in the neighbouring and opposite compartments, so that the
+confusion of tongues rendered them, they thought, safe.  Even the man
+under the seat although so very near, would have failed to catch the
+drift of a single sentence had not the name of Laidlaw sharpened his
+ears and faculties.  One that he did catch, however, was suggestive,
+viz., "put the 50 pound note in his bag," or something to that effect.
+
+When the two friends rose to depart, Trumps sank noiselessly on the
+ground like a filthy shadow, but the quick eye of the lawyer caught
+sight of his leg.
+
+Lockhart started, turned aside, and gave Trumps a kick in the ribs.  It
+was a sharp painful kick, but drew from him only a heavy snore.  To make
+quite sure the man of law administered another kick.  This caused the
+recumbent man to growl forth a savage oath which terminated in a snore
+so very natural that the lawyer fell into the trap, and went off with
+the contemptuous remark--"Dead drunk!"
+
+Trumps, however, was very much the reverse.  He was indeed all alive and
+greatly sobered by his nap as well as by what he had heard.  He rose and
+followed the plotters, but missed them in the crowd outside.  In his
+anxiety to overtake them he ran somewhat violently against Tommy Splint,
+and thus arrested him, as we have said, in the pursuit of pleasure.
+
+"Hallo, Thunderbolt!" exclaimed the boy sternly, as he started back and
+doubled his fists, "who let _you_ out o' Noogate?"
+
+The thief was about to pass without deigning a reply, when, glancing at
+the small questioner, he suddenly stopped and held out his hand.
+
+"I say, Splint, is it _you_ I've run into?"
+
+"Well, it's uncommon like me.  Any'ow, not a twin brother, I s'pose it
+must be myself.  But I hain't got the pleasure o' _your_ acquaintance as
+I knows on."
+
+"What!  Don't you remember Trumps?"
+
+"No, I don't remember Trumps, an', wot's more, I don't b'lieve from the
+look of 'im that any of Trumps's family or friends wants to remember
+'im."
+
+The possibility that the boy might remember Trumps was not so unlikely
+after all, for, being of a highly social disposition, Tommy was pretty
+well acquainted with, and known to, nearly all the thieves and
+pickpockets of the locality.  Indeed he would certainly have been one of
+themselves but for garret-garden influences.
+
+"Well, Tommy," said the thief confidentially, "I remember _you_, an' I
+wants a little conversation with you."
+
+"No, you don't" returned the boy, retreating; "you wants my wipe, or
+puss, or ticker, you do--or suthin' o' that sort--but you've come to the
+wrong shop, you have."
+
+"But really, Tommy, I've got summat to say to 'ee about your noo friend
+from Scotland, David Laidlaw."
+
+"How d'ee know he's _my_ friend?" asked Tommy, becoming suddenly
+interested.
+
+"'Cause I've seen you jawin' with 'im; an' I've seen you go up together
+to visit chimney-pot Liz an' Susy; an'--"
+
+"Oh! you knows chimley-pot Liz an' Susy, do ye?  But of course you does.
+Everybody as knows anythink knows _them_."
+
+"Ay, lad, an' I knows lawyer Lockhart too," said Trumps, with a peculiar
+look; "him that owns the 'ouses 'ereabouts, an' draws the rents--"
+
+"_Draws_ the rents!" interrupted the boy, with a look of scorn;
+"_screws_ the rents, you mean."
+
+"Jus' so, boy--screws 'em.  Ah, 'e _is_ a thief, is lawyer Lockhart."
+
+"Come, if that's so, you've no occasion to be 'ard on 'im, Trumps, for
+you're in the same boat, you know."
+
+"No, I ain't," replied Trumps, with virtuous indignation, "for 'e's a
+_mean_ thief!"
+
+"Oh, an' you're a 'ighminded one, I s'pose," returned the boy, with a
+hearty chuckle; "but come along, young man.  If you've suthin' to tell
+me about Da-a-a-vid Laidlaw I'm your man.  This way."
+
+He led the man down the alley, across the court, round the corner, and
+up the stair to the landing.
+
+"There you are," he said, "this is my snuggery--my boodwar, so to speak.
+Sot down, an' out with it."
+
+Seated there, the thief, in low confidential and solemn tones, related
+what he had seen and heard in the public-house, and told of his own
+acquaintance with and interest in Laidlaw.
+
+"The willains!" exclaimed Tommy.  "An' wot d'ee think they're agoin' to
+do?"
+
+"Screw 'im some'ow, an' git 'im out o' the way."
+
+"But w'y?"
+
+"That's wot I wants to ask _you_, lad.  I knows nothing more than I've
+told 'ee."
+
+"We must save Da-a-a-vid!" exclaimed Tommy in a tragic manner, clutching
+his hair and glaring.
+
+Tommy's sense of the ludicrous was too strong for him, even in the most
+anxious times, and the notion of him and Trumps saving anybody
+overwhelmed him for a moment; nevertheless, he really was excited by
+what he had heard.
+
+"Come--come with me," he cried, suddenly seizing Trumps by the sleeve of
+his shabby coat and half dragging him up to the garret, where he found
+old Liz and Susy in the garden on the roof.
+
+"Allow me to introdooce a friend, granny.  'E ain't much to look at, but
+never mind, 'e's a good 'un to go."
+
+Old Liz and Susy had become too much accustomed to low life in its worst
+phases to be much troubled by the appearance of their visitor, and when
+he had explained the object of his visit they became deeply interested.
+
+"You think, then," said Liz, after listening to the whole story, "that
+lawyer Lockhart intends to hide a 50 pound note in Mr Laidlaw's
+travelling bag, and say he stole it?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am; that's what I think."
+
+"And for what purpose?" asked Susy with some anxiety.
+
+"To git him convicted an' sent to prison, miss," replied Trumps
+promptly.  "I know lawyer Lockhart--we call 'im liar Lockhart in the--
+well, ahem! an' as I was sayin', 'e's a villain as'll stick at nothing.
+If 'e sets 'is 'art on gittin' Mr Laidlaw into prison 'e'll git 'im in;
+for what purpus, of course, _I_ don't know."
+
+After further discussion of the subject it was finally arranged that
+Tommy Splint should go straight to the house of Mr Spivin, where the
+Scotsman lodged, and reconnoitre.
+
+"And be sure, Tommy," whispered Susan at the head of the stair when he
+was about to leave, "that you find out all about this horrid plot.  We
+_must_ save him.  He saved _me_, you know," she added, with a blush.
+
+"Yes, we _must_ save 'im," said the boy in a tone of determination that
+inspired confidence in the girl, even though it made her laugh.
+
+Trumps accompanied Tommy part of the way, and told him that he knew some
+ugly things about lawyer Lockhart that might get that gentleman into
+difficulties if he could only prove them, but he couldn't quite see his
+way to that, not being learned enough in the law.
+
+"You see, Tommy--"
+
+"Thomas, if you please," interrupted the urchin with dignity.  "My
+hintimates calls me Tommy, but you ain't one o' _them_ yet, Mr Trumps.
+You ain't even on my wisitin' list.  P'r'aps I may promote yer to that
+some day, but--it depends.  Now, look 'ere, slimey-coat--if any one
+larned in the law was inclined to pump you, could you be pumped?"
+
+With a remarkably sly look Trumps replied, "Yes--for a consideration!"
+
+"All right, young man.  Give me your card; or, if you hain't got one,
+let me know w'ere you 'ang hout."
+
+Having been satisfied on this point, Tommy told the thief that he had no
+further use for him, and as he wished to cross London Bridge alone, he
+(Trumps) was free to make himself scarce.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+DETECTIVE DOINGS.
+
+For a considerable time the boy prowled about the house of Mr Spivin in
+the hope of seeing David Laidlaw go out or in; but our Scot did not
+appear.  At last a servant-girl came to the open door with a broom in
+her hand to survey the aspect of things in general.  Tommy walked
+smartly up to her, despite the stern gaze of a suspicious policeman on
+the opposite side of the street.
+
+"My sweet gal," he said affably touching his cap, "is Capting Laidlaw
+within?"
+
+"There's no _Captain_ Laidlaw here," answered the girl sharply; "there
+_was_ a Daivid Laidlaw, but--"
+
+"Da-a-a-vid, my dear, not Daivid.  The gen'l'm'n hisself told me, and
+surely 'e knows 'ow to prenounce 'is own name best."
+
+"You've a deal of cheek, boy--anyway, Laidlaw 'as bin took up, an' 'e's
+now in prison."
+
+The sudden look of consternation on the boy's face caused the girl to
+laugh.
+
+"D'ee know w'ere they've took 'im to?"
+
+"No, I don't."
+
+"But surely you don't b'lieve 'e's guilty?" said the boy, forgetting
+even his humorous tendencies in his anxiety about his friend.
+
+"No, I don't" said the girl, becoming suddenly earnest, "for Mary an' me
+saw--"
+
+"Martha-a-a!" shouted a female voice from the interior of the house at
+that moment.
+
+The girl ran in.  At the same time the suspicious policeman came up
+with, "Now then, youngster, move on."
+
+"Move off you mean, bobby.  Hain't you been to school yet, stoopid?"
+cried the boy, applying his thumb to his nose and moving his fingers in
+what he styled a thumbetrical manner as he ran away.
+
+But poor Tommy Splint was in no jesting mood.  He had been impressed
+with the idea from infancy--rightly or wrongly--that once in the
+clutches of the law it was no easy matter to escape from them; and he
+was now utterly incapable of deciding what his next step should be.  In
+this difficulty he was about to return disconsolate to Cherub Court when
+it occurred to him that it might be worth while to pay a visit to the
+good ship _Seacow_, and obtain the opinion of Sam Blake.
+
+Although it was broad day and the sun was glowing gloriously in an
+unclouded sky, he found Sam down in a dark hole, which he styled his
+bunk, fast asleep.
+
+Sam did not move when Tommy shook and woke him.  He merely opened his
+eyes quietly and said, "All right, my lad; what's up?"  After hearing
+the boy's story to the end he merely said, "Mind your helm--clear out!"
+flung off his blankets, and bounded to the floor like an acrobat.
+
+Being already in his shirt, short drawers, and stockings, it did not
+take quite a minute to don trousers, vest and coat.  Another minute
+sufficed for the drawing on of boots, fastening a necktie, running a
+broken comb through his front locks, and throwing on a glazed hat.  Two
+minutes all told!  Men whose lives often depend on speed acquire a
+wonderful power of calmly-rapid action.
+
+"What d'ee say to it, Sam?" asked Tommy as they hurried along the
+streets.
+
+"Hold on! avast! belay!  I'm thinkin'!" said Sam.  The boy accordingly
+held on, avasted, and belayed until his companion had thought it out.
+
+"Yes, that's it," said the sailor at last.  "I'll go an' see Colonel--
+Colonel--what's 'is name? old Liz's friend--Burntwood, is it, or--"
+
+"Brentwood," said Tommy.
+
+"That's it--Brentwood.  You don't know his address, do you?  No?  Never
+mind; we'll go to Cherub Court an' get it, and then make sail for the
+Colonel's.  I've no more notion which way to steer, lad, than the man in
+the moon; but the Colonel will be sure to know how to lay our course,
+an' he'll be willin', I've no doubt first for his own sake, seein' that
+this Lockhart is his own lawyer; second, for old Liz's sake, seein' that
+her affairs are involved in it; and third, for the sake of his country,
+if he's a good and true man."
+
+The sailor was not disappointed.  Colonel Brentwood did not indeed
+himself know exactly how to act but he knew that the best thing to do in
+the circumstances was to seek aid from those who did know.  He therefore
+went straight to Scotland Yard--that celebrated centre of the London
+Police Force--and put the matter before the authorities there.  A
+detective, named Dean, was appointed to take the job in hand.
+
+"John," observed Mrs Brentwood to her husband, prophetically, after an
+interview with the detective at their own house, "you may depend upon it
+that Mr Dean will discover that more things are amiss than this affair
+of the Scotsman and dear old nurse."
+
+"Possibly--indeed probably," returned the Colonel; "but what makes you
+think so?"
+
+"The fact that no thorough scoundrel ever yet confined himself to one or
+two pieces of villainy."
+
+"But Lockhart is not yet proved to be a thorough scoundrel.  You have
+condemned the poor man, my dear, without trial, and on insufficient
+evidence."
+
+"Insufficient evidence!" echoed Dora indignantly.  "What more do you
+want?  Has he not systematically robbed dear old Liz?  Are not the
+Railway Share Lists and Reports open to inspection?"
+
+"True, Dora, true.  Be not indignant.  I have admitted that you may be
+right.  Our detective will soon find out.  He has the calm,
+self-confident, penetrating look of a man who could, if possible, screw
+something out of nothing."
+
+Whether or not Mr Dean possessed the power ascribed to him is yet to be
+seen.  We have not space to follow him through the whole of the
+serpentine sinuosities of his investigations, but we will watch him at
+one or two salient points of his course.
+
+First of all he visited Tommy Splint, who, in the privacy of his
+"boodwar" revealed to him, as he thought, every scrap of information
+about the affair that he possessed.  To all of this Mr Dean listened in
+perfect silence, patiently, and with a smile of universal benevolence.
+He not only appreciated all the boy's commentaries and jests and
+prophecies on the situation, but encouraged the full development of his
+communicative disposition.  Tommy was charmed.  Never before had he met
+with such an audience--except, perhaps, in Susy.
+
+When the boy had fairly run himself out Mr Dean proceeded to pump and
+squeeze, and the amount of relevant matter that he pumped and squeezed
+out of him, in cross-questioning, was so great, that Tommy was lost in a
+mixture of admiration and humility.  You see, up to that time he had
+thought himself rather a knowing fellow; but Mr Dean managed to remove
+the scales from his eyes.
+
+"Now, my boy," said the detective, after having squeezed him quite flat,
+and screwed the very last drop out of him, "you are quite sure, I
+suppose, as to Mr Trumps's words--namely, that he knew Mrs Morley--
+chimney-pot Liz, as you call her--"
+
+"Parding.  I never called her that--chimley-pot is her name."
+
+"Well, chimley-pot be it--and that he had formerly known Mr Lockhart
+but did not say when or where he had first become acquainted with
+either; yet Trumps's peculiar look and manner when speaking of the
+lawyer led you to think he knew more about him than he chose to tell?"
+
+"Right you air, sir.  That's 'ow it stands."
+
+"Good; and in reference to the servant-girl--you are sure that she
+became suddenly very earnest when she said she believed Laidlaw was not
+guilty, and that she and some one named Mary had `seen something,' but
+you don't know what, owing to a sudden interruption?"
+
+"Right again, sir."
+
+"Now, then," said Mr Dean, rising, "we will go up and see Mrs Morley."
+
+They found the old woman alone, knitting in her rustic chair in her
+floral bower on the roof.  Mr Dean sat down to have a chat and Tommy
+seated himself on a stool to gaze and listen, for he was fascinated,
+somehow, by the detective.
+
+It was really interesting to observe the tact with which the man
+approached his subject and the extreme patience with which he listened
+to the somewhat garrulous old woman.
+
+Being a Briton he began, of course, with the weather, but slid quickly
+and naturally from that prolific subject to the garden, in connection
+with which he displayed a considerable knowledge of horticulture--but
+this rather in the way of question than of comment.  To slide from the
+garden to the gardener was very easy as well as natural; and here Mr
+Dean quite won the old woman's heart by his indirect praise of Susy's
+manipulation of plants and soils.  To speak of Susy, without referring
+to Susy's early history, would have been to show want of interest in a
+very interesting subject.  Mr Dean did not err in this respect.  From
+Susy's mother he naturally referred to the family in which she and old
+Liz had been in service, and to the return of the only surviving member
+of it to England.
+
+All this was very interesting, no doubt, but it did not throw much light
+into the mind of Mr Dean, until old Liz mentioned the fact that Mr
+Lockhart, besides being solicitor to the Brentwoods, was also solicitor
+to old Mr Weston, who had left his property to Colonel Brentwood.  She
+also said that she feared, from what Mrs Brentwood had recently said to
+her, there was some difficulty about the will, which was a pity, as the
+only people she knew besides Mr Lockhart who knew anything about it
+were a footman named Rogers and a butler named Sutherland, both of whom
+had been witnesses to the will; but the footman had gone to the bad, and
+the butler had gone she knew not where.
+
+Then Mr Dean began to smell another rat, besides that which he was just
+then in pursuit of, for the Colonel had incidentally mentioned to him
+the circumstance of the estate passing away from him, owing to a new
+will having been recently discovered.  Although the matter was not the
+detective's present business, he made a mental note of it.
+
+After quitting the garden, and promising soon to return, the detective
+had an interview with Mr Trumps in the parlour of the thieves'
+missionary.  Many a fallen and apparently lost man and woman had been
+brought to the Saviour in that parlour by that missionary--the same whom
+we have introduced to the reader in the thieves' den.  Through the
+medium of Tommy Splint the interview was brought about, and no sooner
+did Trumps ascertain the object that Dean had in view than he became
+suddenly confidential.
+
+"Now, look here," he said, when he found himself alone with Mr Dean, "I
+knows more about them Brentwoods and Westons than you think for."
+
+"No doubt you do; and I suppose you wish to sell your knowledge at the
+highest possible figure," said Dean, with a very slight smile.
+
+"You're wrong for once," returned Trumps.  "If you'd said that to me two
+days ago, I'd 'ave said `yes;' but I've 'eard things in this blessed
+room w'ich 'as made me change my mind.  You're welcome to all I knows
+for nothing."
+
+Mr Dean did not believe in sudden conversion, nevertheless he expressed
+gratification.  Being what the Yankees call 'cute, he avoided anything
+like eagerness in gaining information.
+
+"My business here, however," he said, "is to get information about that
+Scotsman, you know, and the charge of theft by Mr Lockhart.  We believe
+Laidlaw to be innocent and, understanding that you think as we do, and
+that you know something about him, we hope you may be able to help us."
+
+From this point Mr Dean began to pump and squeeze, and Trumps proved
+worthy of his name in the way he submitted to both processes.  At last,
+when nothing more was to be got Mr Dean said, in a somewhat careless
+way, "You are acquainted, I believe, with old Mrs Morley--chimney-pot
+Liz, they call her--are you not?"
+
+"Yes, I am.  I've known her long.  Knew her when I was footman in a
+family connected with the Brentwoods."
+
+"Oho!" thought Mr Dean with sudden surprise, for he began to smell more
+of his second rat, but he looked stolid; said nothing; did not move a
+muscle; merely nodded his head gently as if to say, go on.
+
+"Now I know what you're driving at," continued Trumps, with a very
+knowing wink, "an' I'll help you.  First place, my name ain't Trumps."
+
+"I know that--it's Rodgers," said the detective.
+
+"Whew! how d'ee know _that_?" exclaimed the thief in extreme surprise.
+
+"We detectives know everything," said Dean.
+
+"Oh! then there's no need for me to tell you anything more," returned
+Trumps, _alias_ Rodgers, with a grin.
+
+"Well, I don't know exactly everything," returned Dean; "but I do know--
+at least I guess--that you were a footman in the service of Richard
+Weston, Esquire, of Weston Hall, in Kent; that the butler's name was
+Sutherland, and that you and he were witnesses to Mr Weston's will."
+
+"Just so.  You're right."
+
+"Now, are you aware," said Mr Dean, "that Colonel Brentwood has lost,
+or is going to lose, his estate because a new will by Richard Weston has
+been found, leaving it to another man?"
+
+"No, I did not know that, but that clears up to me the mystery of the
+will that I witnessed.  You must know that when we were witnessing the
+will, Sutherland and me both noticed that it was eight pages of big
+paper, and that it seemed to have two beginnings--one bein' in the
+middle.  Master couldn't see well, an' was very weak at the time--so
+weak that when he came to the last page the pen fell out of his hand and
+only half of the last name was signed.  Mr Lockhart said that would do,
+however, an' we witnessed it.  Master never completed the signature, for
+he took to his bed that very day, and no one ever saw him put pen to
+paper again.  Sutherland often spoke to me about that, and wondered if a
+will with an imperfect signature would pass.  Hows'ever, it was none of
+our business, so we forgot about it, and soon after Sutherland went to
+stay with a family in Pimlico as butler, where I think he is now.  As
+for me--"
+
+"Yes, I know," said Dean significantly; "you need not recall that just
+now.  Can you give me the name and address of the family in Pimlico?"
+
+"Good; now then," said Mr Dean after booking his information, "I'll
+want to see you again, so don't get yourself into scrapes, and keep your
+tongue quiet.  Your missionary will help you, I have no doubt.
+Meanwhile, I will go and pay a visit to a certain Martha who lives on
+the other side of the river."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+PUMPING AND SQUEEZING--THE GARRET CLASS, ETCETERA.
+
+When Mr Dean succeeded, with some difficulty, in obtaining a private
+interview with Mr Spivin's servant Martha, he proceeded with much
+politeness and subtlety to pump and squeeze her.
+
+And it may be remarked here that Mr Dean had what Martha afterwards
+styled "a way with him" that was quite irresistible, insomuch that she
+was led, somehow, to speak of things she never meant to mention, and to
+reveal things she never intended to confess.
+
+"You see, sir," she said, "it's the dooty of me an' Mary to do the
+bedrooms w'en the family's at breakfast.  Well, that morning we went as
+usual to Mr Laidlaw's room first, because 'e's quick with 'is meals an'
+wants 'is boots put in 'is room so as he may get out immediately.  Mr
+Laidlaw 'as no luggage, sir, only a shoulder-bag, an' it was lyin' open
+on the table, so me an' Mary looked into it just to--to--"
+
+"To see that nothing had tumbled out," suggested Mr Dean.  "I
+understand."
+
+"Just so, sir," assented Martha; "and there was nothink in it but a
+spare shirt rolled up, and a pair of socks, and a small Bible--no money
+or watch or anythink that would break even if it did tumble out,--'is
+shavin' things and all that being on the dressin'-table--so--"
+
+"So your mind was relieved, Martha--well, go on."
+
+"But as we was agoin' to close the bag," continued the girl, "we
+observed an inner pocket, an' Mary says, p'raps there was a love-letter
+in it!  I laughed an' said, `Let's look an' see.'  So we looked an' saw
+nothink."
+
+"You both looked and were quite sure of that?" asked Mr Dean.
+
+"Yes, quite sure, for we both felt the pocket all round as well as
+looked into it."
+
+"Well, go on."
+
+"Then we shut the bag, and after we had finished the room, we was just
+goin' out, when master he ran up-stairs as if he was in a hurry.  He
+came into the room with a bit of paper in 'is 'and, somethink like a
+bank note, but he started on seein' us, an' crumpled up the paper an'
+stuffed it in 'is pocket.  At the same time 'e got very angry, scolded
+us for being so slow, and ordered us off to the other rooms.  Not ten
+minutes after that in comes Mr Lockhart, the lawyer, with two
+policemen, an' seizes Mr Laidlaw, who was still at 'is breakfast.  At
+first he got very angry an' shoved one policemen over the sofa and the
+other into the coal-scuttle, at the same time sayin' in a growly voice,
+`I think--'ee've--aw--geen--mad--thee--gither'--oh, I can't speak
+Scotch!" exclaimed Martha, bursting into a laugh.
+
+"Better not try, my dear," said Dean, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"Well, then," continued Martha, on recovering herself, "when the
+policemen got up again Mr Laidlaw said he had no intention of running
+away (only 'e said rinnin' awa'), and that he would go with them quietly
+if they'd only be civil ('e called it seevil!), and assured them they
+had made a mistake.  They _was_ more civil after that, for Mr Laidlaw
+'ad doubled 'is fists an' looked, oh my! like a Bengal tiger robbed of
+its young ones.  So they all went straight to the bedroom, and me an'
+Mary followed with master and missis and the waiters, an' they searched
+all round the room, coming to the bag last though it was the only thing
+on the table, and right under their noses, an sure enough they found a
+50 pound note there in the little pocket!"
+
+"And what said the Scotsman to that?" asked Mr Dean, with a slight
+grin.
+
+"He said, turning to master, `It was you did that--'ee--blagyird!'"
+cried Martha, again bursting into laughter at her Scotch.  "And then,"
+continued Martha, "one of the policemen said 'e 'ad seen Mr Laidlaw not
+long ago in company with a well-known thief, and the other one swore 'e
+'ad seen 'im the same night in a thieves' den, and that 'e was
+hevidently on a friendly footin' wi' them for 'e 'ad refused to quit the
+place, and was hinsolent.  At this lawyer Lockhart shook 'is 'ead and
+said 'e thought it was a bad case, an' the poor Scotsman seemed so took
+aback that 'e said nothink--only stared from one to another, and went
+off quietly to prison."
+
+After investigating the matter a little further, and obtaining, through
+Martha, a private interview with Mary, who corroborated all that her
+fellow-servant had said, Mr Dean went straight to Pimlico, and
+interviewed the butler who had been in the service of the Weston family.
+Thereafter he visited Colonel Brentwood, and, in the presence of his
+wife and daughter discussed the whole affair from beginning to end.  We
+will spare the reader that discussion, and turn towards Newgate.
+
+On the evening of that day poor David Laidlaw found himself in durance
+vile, with massive masonry around him, and a very Vesuvius of
+indignation within him.  Fortunately, in the afternoon of the following
+day, which chanced to be Sunday, a safety valve--a sort of crater--was
+allowed to him in the shape of pen, ink, and paper.  Using these
+materials, he employed his enforced leisure in writing to that
+receptacle of his early and later joys and woes--his mother.
+
+"Whar d'ye think I've gotten t' noo, mither?" the letter began.  "I'm in
+Newgate!  It's an auld gate noo-a-days, an' a bad gate onyway, for it's
+a prison.  Think o' that!  If onybody had said I wad be in jail maist as
+soon as I got to Bawbylon I wad have said he was leein'!  But here I am,
+hard an' fast, high and dry--uncom'on dry!--wi' naething but stane
+aroond me--stane wa's, stane ceilin', stane floor; my very hairt seems
+turned to stane.  Losh, woman, it bates a'!
+
+"It's no maner o' use gaun into the hale story.  A buik wad scarce ha'd
+it a'.  The details'll keep till you an' I meet again on the braes o'
+Yarrow--if we iver meet there, which is by no means sure, for thae
+Englishers'll be the death o' me afore I git hame, if they gang on as
+they've begood.  Here's the ootline:--
+
+"I've been thick wi' thieves, burglars, pickpockets, an' the like.
+Veesitin' at their dens, an' gaun aboot the streets wi' them, an' I've
+stolen a fifty-pun' note, an' it's been fund i' the pouch inside my bag.
+That's the warst o't; but it seems that I've also resistet the poliss
+in the dischairge o' their duty, which means that I flang ane ower a
+sofa an' stappit anither into a coal-scuttle--though I didna mean it,
+puir falla, for his breeks suffered in the way that ye've aften seen
+mine whan I was a wee laddie.  But I was roused to that extent whan they
+first gruppit me that I couldna help it!
+
+"I wadna mind it muckle if it wasna that I've no a freend to help me--
+
+"I was interruptit to receive a veesiter--an' a rebuik at the same time,
+for he turned oot to be a freend, though a stranger, a Colonel Brentwud,
+wha's been cheetit by that blagyird lawyer that's tryin' to play the
+mischief wi' _me_.  But he'll fin' that I'm teuch!  The Colonel says
+they'll hae nae diffeeculty in clearin' me, so let that comfort ye,
+mither.--Yer ill-doin' son, DAVID.
+
+"P.S.--There's a wee laddie I've faw'n in wi' since I cam' to Bawbylon,
+they ca' him Tammy Splint.  O woman, but he _is_ a queer bairn.  He's
+jist been to see me i' my cell, an' the moment he cam' in, though he was
+half greetin', he lookit roond an' said, `_Isn't_ this a sell!'  Eh, but
+he _is_ auld-farrant! wi' mair gumption than mony full-grown men, to say
+naething o' women."
+
+But David Laidlaw had more friends in London than he was aware of.  At
+the very time that he was penning the foregoing epistle to his mother, a
+number of disreputable-looking men were bewailing his fate and
+discussing his affairs in the thieves' den, and two equally disreputable
+women were quarrelling over the same subject in a wretched dwelling in
+the presence of a third woman, who presided over a teapot.
+
+One of the women, whose visage exhibited marks of recent violence,
+struck her fist on the table and exclaimed, "No, Mrs Rampy, you are
+wrong, as usual.  The story I 'eard about 'im was quite different an' I
+believes it too, for them Scotsmen are a rough lot--no better than they
+_should_ be."
+
+"Mrs Blathers," remarked Mrs Rampy, in a soft sarcastic tone which she
+was wont to assume when stung to the quick, and which her friend knew
+from experience was the prelude to a burst of passion, "I may be wrong
+_as usual_, but as you have never seen or conwersed with this Scotsman,
+an' don't know nothink about 'im, _perhaps_ you will condescend to give
+me an' Liz the kreckt wershion."
+
+"Now, Mrs Rampy," interposed old Liz, grasping her teapot, "don't be
+angry, for Mrs Blathers _is_ right.  Scotsmen _are_ no better than they
+_should_ be.  Neither are English nor Irish nor Welshmen.  In fact,
+there's none of us--men or women--nearly as good as we should be.  Now,
+I am sure it won't be denied," continued Liz, in an argumentative tone,
+"that Mrs Blathers _might_ be better--"
+
+"Ha!  _I_ won't deny it," said Mrs Rampy, with emphasis.
+
+"Nor," continued Liz, hastening to equalise her illustration, "nor that
+Mrs Rampy might be better--"
+
+"Right you are," said Mrs Blathers, with sarcasm.  "And I'm still
+surer," said Liz hurriedly--a little put out at the ready reception of
+her propositions--"that _I_ might be better--"
+
+"Not at all," interrupted both ladies at once; "you're a trump, Liz,
+you're a dear creetur!"
+
+"Come, then," cried old Liz, with a laugh that set the fang wobbling,
+"you are at all events agreed upon _that_ point so--have another cup,
+Mrs Rampy."
+
+"Thankee, Liz, and _plenty_ of sugar."
+
+"H'm! you need it!" muttered Mrs Blathers; "no sugar at all for _me_,
+Liz."
+
+"Well, now," cried Liz, rendered bold by desperation, "I do wonder that
+two such strong, warm-hearted women as you should so often fall out.
+Each of you loves _some_ one--don't I know!--with powerful affection,
+so, why couldn't you love each other?"
+
+This tribute to their feelings so tickled the women that they set down
+their tea-cups and laughed prodigiously.
+
+"Now, do,--there's a couple of dears!--shake hands over your tea, an'
+let's have a pleasant talk," said old Liz, following up her advantage.
+
+The mollified women did not shake hands, but each raised her tea-cup to
+her lips and winked.
+
+"Your 'ealth, Blathers."
+
+"Same to you, Rampy."
+
+"And now, Liz," said the latter, as she pushed in her cup for more,
+"let's 'ear all about it."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Blathers also pushing in her cup, "let's 'ave _your_
+wersion, Liz."
+
+While Liz gives her version of Laidlaw's misfortunes we will return to
+the garden, where, being Sunday afternoon, Susy Blake was busy with a
+small class of the most disreputable little ragged boys that the
+neighbourhood produced.
+
+The boys were emphatically bad boys.  They feared neither God nor man.
+The property of other people was their chief source of livelihood, and
+the streets, or the jails, were their homes.  Nevertheless, when in the
+garden class, those boys were patterns of good behaviour, because each
+boy knew that if he did not behave and keep quiet he would infallibly be
+dismissed from the class, and this was a punishment which none of them
+could endure.  Unlike many other teachers, Susy had not to go about
+enticing boys to her Sabbath class.  Her chief difficulty was to prevent
+them coming in such numbers as would have overflowed the garden
+altogether.
+
+And the secret of this was that Susy Blake possessed much of an
+unconscious influence called loving-kindness.  No weapon of the
+spiritual armoury is equal to this.  In the hands of a man it is
+tremendous.  In those of a pretty girl it is irresistible.  By means of
+it she brought the fiercest little arabs of the slums to listen to the
+story of Jesus and His love.  She afterwards asked God, the Holy Spirit,
+to water the good seed sown, and the result was success.
+
+But loving-kindness was not her only weapon.  She had in addition quite
+a glittering little armoury in which were such weapons as play of fancy,
+lively imagination, fervent enthusiasm, resolute purpose, fund of
+anecdote, sparkling humour, intense earnestness, and the like, all of
+which she kept flashing around the heads of her devoted worshippers
+until they were almost beside themselves with astonishment, repentance,
+and good resolves.  Of course, when away from her influence the
+astonishment was apt to diminish, the repentance to cease, and the good
+resolves to vanish away; but resolute purpose had kept Susy at them
+until in the course of time there was a perceptible improvement in the
+environment of Cherub Court, and a percentage of souls rescued from the
+ranks of the ragamuffins.
+
+On this particular Sunday Tommy Splint, who was a regular attendant at
+the garden class, arrived late.
+
+"Why, Tommy," said the teacher, turning herself from a little boy on
+whom she had been trying specially to impress some grand eternal truth,
+"this is not like you.  Has anything happened to detain you?"
+
+"No, Susy," answered the boy, slipping into his place--with a compound
+expression in which the spirit of fun, whom no one doubted, gave the lie
+to the spirit of penitence, in whom no one believed--"but I've bin to a
+sort o' Sunday class a'ready."
+
+"Indeed, where have you been?"
+
+"At Mrs Rampy's, w'ere I see'd a most hedifyin' spectacle--granny
+tryin' to bring Mrs Rampy an' Mrs Blathers to a 'eavenly state of mind
+over a cup of tea, an' them both resistin' of 'er like one o'clock!"
+
+"Ah! my boy," said Susy, shaking her head and a finger at the urchin,
+"you've been eavesdropping again!"
+
+"No, indeed, Susy, I ha'n't," returned the boy quite earnestly, "not
+since the time you nabbed me with my ear to the key-'ole of quarrelsome
+Tim's door.  I was a-sittin' at Mrs Rampy's open door quite openly
+like--though not quite in sight, I dessay--an' they was pitchin' into
+each other quite openly too, an' granny a-tryin' to pour ile on the
+troubled waters!  It was as good as a play.  But w'en Mrs Rampy takes
+up her cup to drink the 'ealth of Mrs B an' says, with _sitch_ a look,
+`Your 'ealth, Blathers,' I could 'old on no longer.  I split and bolted!
+That's wot brought me 'ere a little sooner than I might 'ave bin."
+
+There was a tendency to laugh at this explanation, which Susy did not
+check, but after a few moments she held up a finger, which produced
+instant silence, while she drew a letter from her pocket.
+
+"I'm sorry to disappoint you to-day, Tommy," she said, handing him the
+letter, "but I must send you with this to my father.  Mr Brentwood
+called with it not half an hour since, saying it was of importance to
+have it delivered soon, as it was connected with the case of Mr
+Laidlaw.  So be off with it as fast as you can.  You know where to find
+father--on board the _Seacow_."
+
+Tommy Splint was indeed disappointed at having to leave the garden class
+thus abruptly.  He consoled himself, however, with the reflection that
+he was perhaps doing important service to his friend Da-a-a-vid Laidlaw.
+He further consoled himself, on reaching the court below, by uttering a
+shriek which sent a cat that chanced to be reposing there in rampant
+alarm into the depths of a convenient cellar.  Thereafter he went into a
+contemplative frame of mind to the docks, and found Sam Blake as usual
+in his bunk.
+
+"I say, Sam, d'ee spend all yer time--night and day--in yer bunk?"
+
+"Not exactly, lad," answered the seaman, with a smile, but without
+showing any intention to rise.  "You see we sea-dogs have a hard time of
+it.  What with bein' liable to be routed out at all hours, an' expected
+to work at any hour, we git into a way of making a grab at sleep when an
+where we gits the chance.  I'm makin' up lee-way just now.  Bin to
+church in the forenoon though.  I ain't a heathen, Tommy."
+
+"You looks uncommon like one, anyhow--with your 'air an' 'ead an' beard
+an' blankits mixed up together all of a mush.  There's a letter for 'ee,
+old man."
+
+Without a word the sailor took the epistle, read it slowly, while the
+boy watched him keenly, then thrust it under his pillow.
+
+"You ain't agoin' to clear for action at once, then?" said the boy.
+
+"No, not just yet."
+
+"Any message for me?" asked Tommy.
+
+"None wotsomedever."
+
+Seeing that his friend did not intend to be communicative the boy wisely
+changed the subject.
+
+"Now, Sam, about them pirits.  W'ere was it they fust got 'old of you?"
+
+"Down somewheres among the Philippine Islands," replied Sam, drawing the
+blankets more comfortably round him, "but to tell you the truth, lad,
+after they'd taken our ship an' made every man o' the crew walk the
+plank except me an' the skipper, they putt us in the hold, tied up hand
+an' futt so as we could scarce move.  Why they spared us was a puzzle to
+me at the time, but I afterwards found out it was because somehow they'd
+got it into their heads that the skipper an' mate of our ship knew
+somethin' about where some treasure that they were after had been
+buried.  Hand me that there pipe, Tommy--not the noo one; the short
+black fellow wi' the Turk's head on the bowl.  Thankee."
+
+"An' _did_ you know about the treasure?" asked Tommy, handing the pipe
+in question.
+
+"Bless you, no," returned the seaman, proceeding to render the confined
+air of the bunk still more unbearable; "we know'd of no treasure.  If we
+had we'd have bin arter it ourselves, double quick.  As it was, they
+burnt us wi' hot irons an' tortered us in various ways to make us
+confess, but we had nothin' to confess, so had to grin an' bear it--
+sometimes to yell an' bear it!  You see, lad, they mistook me for the
+mate, so that's how I came to escape.  He was a fine man was that mate,"
+continued the seaman in a lower tone, "a strong, handsome, kind young
+officer, an' a great favourite.  I've often wondered why he was taken
+an' me spared."
+
+"P'raps it was for Susy's sake!" suggested Tommy.
+
+Sam looked at the boy--a quick half-surprised glance.  "Not a bad notion
+that, my lad.  I shouldn't wonder if it _was_ for Susy's sake.  I never
+thought o' that before.  Anyhow I comfort myself sometimes when I think
+o' the poor mate that he was saved a deal o' torterin'; which, let me
+tell you, ain't easy to bear."
+
+"But go a'ead, Sam, with more about the pirits," said Tommy.
+
+"No, lad, no--not just now.  I wants to snooze.  So--you clap on all
+sail an' you'll be in time yet for the tail end o' Susy's lesson."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+THROUGH FIRE AND SMOKE TO FELICITY.
+
+Free once more, David Laidlaw naturally directed his steps towards
+Cherub Court.
+
+His freedom was the result of Mr Dean's labours, for with the
+information which he had ferreted out that sedate individual found no
+difficulty in proving the innocence of our Scotsman, and the guilt, in
+more matters than one, of Mr John Lockhart.  The latter was, however,
+too wide-awake for our detective, for when a warrant was obtained for
+his apprehension, and Mr Dean went to effect the capture, it was found
+that the bird had flown with a considerable amount of clients' property
+under his wing!
+
+Although Laidlaw's period of incarceration had been unusually brief, it
+had afforded ample time for meditation.  David's powers of meditation
+were strong--his powers of action even stronger.  While in his cell he
+had opened his little Bible--the only book allowed him--and turned to
+the passage which states that, "it is not good that man should be
+alone."  Then he turned to that which asserts that, "a good wife is from
+the Lord," after which he sat on his bench a long time with his eyes
+closed--it might be in meditation, perhaps in prayer.  The only words
+that escaped him, however, were in a murmur.
+
+"Ay, mither, ye're right.  Ye've been right iver since _I_ kent ye.  But
+ye'll be sair putt aboot, woman, whan ye hear that she's a waux doll!
+Doll, indeed! angel wad be mair like the truth.  But haud ye there,
+David, ye've no gotten her yet."
+
+With some such thoughts in his brain, and a fixed resolve in his heart,
+he presented himself in the garden on the roof, where he found old Liz,
+Susy, and Sam Blake assembled.  They all seemed as if oppressed by some
+disappointment, but their looks changed instantly on the entrance of the
+visitor.  Susy, especially, sprang up with a bright smile, but observing
+the readiness and the look with which Laidlaw advanced to meet her, she
+checked herself, blushed, and looked as well as felt confused.
+
+"My poor little girl is greatly put about" said Sam Blake in
+explanation, "because she's just heard from Samson and Son that they've
+too many hands already, an' don't want her."
+
+"Don't _want_ her?" exclaimed the Scot; "they're born eediots!"
+
+The emphasis with which this was said caused Susy to laugh, and to
+discover that her skirt had been caught by a nail in one of the
+flower-boxes.  At the same time a vague suspicion for the first time
+entered the head of old Liz, causing her to wobble the fang with vigour
+and look at Laidlaw with some anxiety.
+
+At this critical moment feet were heard clattering and stumbling up the
+stair as if in tremendous haste.  Next moment Tommy burst upon their
+vision in a full suit of superfine blue with brass buttons!
+
+"Tommy!" exclaimed Susy in amazement.
+
+"No, madam--no.  Tummas, if _you_ please," said the boy with dignity,
+though almost bursting with suppressed excitement.  "I'm man-servant to
+Colonel John Brentwood, Esquire, M.P., F.R.Z.Q.T., Feller of the Royal
+Society--an' good society, an' every other society.  Salary not yet
+fixed; lodgin', washin', an' wittles found.  Parkisites warious."
+
+"But why didn't you tell us of this before?" asked Liz, patting the
+urchin's head and smiling benignantly.
+
+"'Cause I wanted to screw you up vith surprise, an' I've done it too!
+But I've on'y jest entered on my dooties, and 'ave bin sent immedingtly
+with a message that you an Susy are expected to pay us a wisit, which is
+now doo, an' Mr Da-a-a-vid Laidlaw is to go there right away--vithout
+delay--as we say in the poetical vest end."
+
+"And when are Susy and I expected?" asked Liz.
+
+"To-morrer."
+
+"But what _are_ you, Tommy?  What are you engaged to do?" asked Susy.
+
+"Play wi' the knives, amoose myself wi' the boots and shoes of a
+mornin', entertain wisitors at the door with brief conversations, take
+occasional strolls with messages, be a sorter companion to Miss Rosa,
+wots to be married in a veek or two, and, ginerally, to enjoy myself.
+I'm a tiger, I is, but I don't growl--oh no!  I only purr.  My name is
+Tummas, an' my 'ome is marble 'alls!"
+
+Our Scotsman went off without delay in response to the message, and was
+thus prevented from carrying out his "fixed resolve" just then.
+However, he wouldn't give in, not he! he would soon find a more
+convenient opportunity.
+
+Meanwhile Tommy Splint having particularly requested and obtained leave
+to spend the night--his last night before going to service--with his
+"granny," he and Sam set to work in the garden to rig up temporary
+sleeping arrangements _a la_ Robinson Crusoe, for it was arranged that
+they should have a grand supper in the garret in honour of the rescue of
+Laidlaw--the returned convict, _alias_ ticket-of-leave man, as Tommy
+called him--and that the males of the party should thereafter sleep in
+the garden.
+
+Need we say that the supper-party was jovial?  We think not.  The
+"ticket-of-leave man" and the "tiger" were inimitable in their own
+lines, and Sam came out so strong on the "pirits" of the Philippine
+Islands that the tiger even declared himself to be satiated with blood!
+As for Susy--she would have been an amply sufficient audience for each
+of the party, had all the others been away, and the fang of old Liz
+became riotously demonstrative, though she herself remained silent
+gazing from one face to another with her glittering black eyes.
+
+Finally the ladies retired to rest in the garret, and the gentlemen went
+to sleep in the garden.
+
+Ah! how very old, yet ever new, is the word that man "knows not what an
+hour may bring forth!"  Forces unseen, unthought of, are ever at work
+around us, from the effects of which, it may be, human strength is
+powerless to deliver.
+
+That night, late--or rather, about the early hours of morning--a spark,
+which earlier in the night had fallen from the pipe of a drunkard in the
+public-house below, began to work its deadly way through the boarding of
+the floor.  For a long time there was little smoke and no flame.
+Gradually, however, the spark grew to a burning mass, which created the
+draught of air that fanned it.
+
+It chanced that night that, under the influence of some irresistible
+impulse or antagonistic affinity like a musical discord, Mrs Rampy and
+Mrs Blathers were discussing their friends and neighbours in the abode
+of the former, without the softening influence of the teapot and old
+Liz.
+
+"I smells a smell!" exclaimed Mrs Rampy, sniffing.
+
+"Wery likely," remarked Mrs Blathers; "your 'ouse ain't over-clean."
+
+But the insinuation was lost on Mrs Rampy, who was naturally keen of
+scent.  She rose, ran to the window, opened it, thrust out her
+dishevelled head, and exclaimed "_Fire_!"
+
+"No, it ain't," said her friend; "it's on'y smoke."
+
+Unfortunately the two women wondered for a few precious minutes and ran
+out to the court, into which, from a back window of the public-house,
+smoke was slowly streaming.  Just then a slight glimmer was seen in the
+same window.
+
+"Fire! fire!" yelled Mrs Rampy, now thoroughly alarmed.
+
+"Smoke! smo-o-o-oke!" shrieked Mrs Blathers.  The two women were gifted
+with eminently persuasive lungs.  All the surrounding courts and streets
+were roused in a few minutes, and poured into the lanes and alleys which
+led to Cherub Court.
+
+That extremely vigilant body, the London Fire Brigade, had their nearest
+engines out in two minutes.  Many of the more distant men were roused by
+telegraph.  Though in bed, partially clad and asleep, at one moment, the
+next moment they were leaping into boots and pantaloons which stood
+agape for them.  Brass-helmeted, and like comets with a stream of fire
+behind them, they were flying to the rescue five minutes after the yell
+and shriek of "Fi-i-ire!" and "Smo-o-o-oke!"
+
+Owing to the great elevation of the garden, and its being surrounded by
+stacks of chimneys, it was some minutes before the sleepers there were
+aroused.  Then, like giants refreshed, David and Sam leapt from their
+bunks, and, like Jack-in-the-box, Tommy Splint shot from his kennel.
+There was no occasion to dress.  In the circumstances the three had
+turned in, as Sam expressed it, "all standing."
+
+They rushed at the door of the garret, but it was bolted on the inside.
+Susy, who had been awake, had heard the alarm and drawn the bolt so as
+to give time for hastily throwing on a few garments.  The men thundered
+violently and tried to force the door, but the door was strong, and an
+instinctive feeling of delicacy restrained them for a few seconds from
+bursting it open.
+
+"Susy!  Susy!" roared the father; "open!  Quick!  Fire!"
+
+"One moment, father.  I'm dressing granny, and--"
+
+A loud shriek terminated the sentence, for the flames, gathering headway
+with wild rapidity, had burst-up some part of the liquor den at the
+basement and went roaring up the staircase, sending dense clouds of
+smoke in advance.
+
+This was enough.  Laidlaw threw his heavy bulk against the door, burst
+lock and hinge, and sent it flat on the garret floor.  Blinding smoke
+met and almost choked him as he fell, and Sam, tumbling over him, caught
+up the first person his hands touched and bore her out.  It was old
+Liz--half dressed, and wrapped in a blanket!  Susy, also half dressed,
+and with a shawl wrapped round her shoulders, was carried out by
+Laidlaw.  Both were unhurt, though half stifled by smoke, and greatly
+alarmed.
+
+"Ye ken the hoose, Tammy; hoo shall we gang?"
+
+"There's _no_ way to escape!" cried the poor boy, with a distracted
+look.
+
+One glance at the staircase convinced Laidlaw that escape in that
+direction was impossible.  Plunging into the garret again he seized the
+door and jammed it into its place, thus stopping the gush of black
+smoke, and giving them a few minutes breathing space.
+
+"Is there a rope in the garret?" asked Sam eagerly.
+
+"No--nothink o' the kind," gasped Tommy.
+
+"No sheets,--blankets?" asked the Scot.
+
+"Only two or three," replied Susan, who supported Liz in the rustic
+chair.  "They're much worn, and not enough to reach _near_ the ground."
+
+It was no time for useless talk.  The two men said no more, but sprang
+on the parapet outside the garden, to find, if possible, a way of escape
+by the roofs of the neighbouring houses.  The sight they beheld was
+sufficiently appalling.  The fire which raged below them cast a noonday
+glare over the wilderness of chimney-stacks around, revealing the awful
+nature of their position, and, in one direction, thousands of upturned
+faces.  The men were observed as they ran along the parapet, and a deep
+hoarse cry from the sympathetic multitude rose for a few moments above
+the roaring of the flames.
+
+On two sides the walls of the building went sheer down, sixty feet or
+more, without a break, into a yard which bristled with broken wood and
+old lumber.  Evidently death faced them in that direction.  The third
+side was the gable-end of the garret.  On the fourth side there was a
+descent of twelve feet or so on to the roof of the next block, which
+happened to be lower--but that block was already in flames.
+
+"There is our chief hope," said the sailor, pointing to it.
+
+"Nay," responded Laidlaw in a low voice, pointing upwards--"oor main
+hope is _there_!  I thocht they had fire-escapes here," he added,
+turning to Tommy, who had joined them.
+
+"So they 'ave, but no escape can be got down the yards 'ere.  The
+halleys is too narrer."
+
+"Come, I'll git a blankit to lower Susan and auld Liz," said Laidlaw,
+hastening back to the garden, where the trembling women awaited the
+result of their inspection.
+
+While the Scotsman removed the door and dashed once again into the
+smoke-filled garret, the sailor hurriedly explained to the women what
+they were going to attempt, and impressed upon them the necessity of
+submitting entirely to whatever was required of them, "which will be,"
+he said, "chiefly to shut your eyes an' keep quiet."
+
+Laidlaw quickly returned with a couple of sheets and a blanket.  Sam
+knotted the sheets together in sailor-like fashion, while his friend
+made a secure bundle of old Liz with the blanket.  Sam was lowered first
+to the roof of the tenement which we have said was already on fire, and
+stood ready to receive Liz.  She was safely let down and the sheet-rope
+was detached.
+
+"We'll no mak' a bundle o' _you_," said David, turning to Susy; "jist
+putt it roond yer waist."
+
+When she was safely lowered, Tommy was grasped by an arm and let down
+till his feet rested on Sam's head, whence he easily leaped to the roof,
+and then David let himself drop.  To reach a place of temporary safety
+they had now to walk on the top of a partition of old brick, about eight
+inches wide, a fall from which, on one side, meant death, on the other
+side, broken bones at the least.  They knew that a loose brick or a
+false step might be fatal, but there was no alternative.
+
+Sam turned to his daughter: "Ye could never cross that, Susy?" he said.
+
+Although no coward, the poor girl shrank from the giddy ledge, which was
+rendered more dangerous and terrible by being now surrounded by
+occasional puffs of smoke and clouds of steam from the water of a dozen
+hydrants which by that time were playing into the raging flames.  To add
+to the horrors of the situation, beams and masses of masonry were heard
+occasionally crashing in the interior of the building.
+
+Sam advanced to take Susy in his arms, but Laidlaw stepped between them.
+
+"Leave her t' me," he said; "the auld woman's lichter, an' ye're no sae
+strong as me."
+
+Saying which, he lifted the girl in his left arm as if she had been but
+a little child, and mounted the parapet keeping his right arm free to
+balance himself or cling to anything if need be.  Sam, who was quite
+equal to the emergency, took old Liz into his arms and followed, but
+cast one glance back at Tommy.
+
+"Never mind me, Sam," cried the boy, who, having got over his first
+panic, rose heroically to the occasion.
+
+The crowd below saw what they were attempting, and gave them a cheer of
+encouragement, yet with bated breath, as if they dreaded the issue.
+
+A few seconds and they were past that danger, but still stood on the
+burning house at another part of the roof.  Here, being suddenly
+drenched by spray from one of the engines, Sam and Tommy made for the
+shelter of a chimney-stack.  As there was not room behind it for more,
+Laidlaw carried his light burden to another stack, and looked hastily
+round to see what next could be done.  Just at that moment there was a
+wild cheer below, in the midst of which a stentorian voice came to them,
+as it were, on the wings of fire and smoke--"Stay where you are a
+minute--the escape is coming!"
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Laidlaw, looking down at the fair head which
+rested on his shoulder.  The cheeks were deadly white and the eyes
+closed, but the pressure of her arms showed that the girl clung to him
+for very life.  A bright shower of sparks at the moment flew around
+them.  "Heeven an' pandemonium brought thegither!" he thought as he bent
+over to protect her.  His face was very near to hers!
+
+"My puir wee doo!" he muttered, and placed a timid kiss upon the pale
+cheek, which instantly coloured as if the fires around had suddenly
+kindled them.
+
+"O lassie, forgi'e me!  I didna mean to do _tha_--I railly--did--not,--
+but I couldna help it!  I wad hae waited till ye gie'd me leave.  But
+after a'--what for no?  I thought t' ask ye t' gie me the right this
+very day.  And O lassie! if I might only hope that--"
+
+He stopped, and _something_ induced him to do _that_ again.  At the same
+moment another mighty roar ascended from the crowd, and the head of the
+great fire-escape rose like a solemn spectre through smoke, fire, and
+steam, not ten yards from where he stood.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Tommy, for he felt that they were saved.  Laidlaw said
+nothing, but sprang to the head of the ladder, got carefully upon it,
+and began steadily to descend with Susy.  Sam was about to follow with
+old Liz, but glanced at Tommy.
+
+"Go first, lad."
+
+"Arter you, mate," said the boy, stepping politely back; "you see,
+tigers, like captings, are always last to leave a sinkin' ship."
+
+It was neither the time nor place for ceremony.  With something
+approaching almost to a laugh, the seaman got on the ladder as smartly
+as he would have taken to the shrouds of a ship, and Tommy followed.
+
+Half-way down they met a swirl of smoke, with an occasional tongue of
+flame shooting through it from a shattered window.  At the same moment
+they encountered a brass-helmeted fellow springing boldly up through the
+same to the rescue.
+
+"Gang doon again, freen'," shouted Laidlaw, when his heel came in
+contact with the helmet.  "We're a' safe here."
+
+He paused just a moment to draw the shawl completely over Susy's head
+and arms, and to pull her dress well round her feet.  Then, burying his
+face in the same shawl and shutting his eyes, he descended steadily but
+swiftly.  For a moment or two the rounds of the ladder felt like heated
+iron bars, and there was a slight frizzling of his brown curly locks at
+the back.  Then a fresh draught of air and a tremendous stream of water
+that nigh washed him off the ladder.
+
+Next moment they were safe on the ground, in the midst of the
+wildly-cheering crowd, through which burst Mrs Rampy in a flood of
+joyful tears, and seized old Liz in her arms.  Mrs Blathers followed
+close at her heels.
+
+"My!" she exclaimed in sudden amazement, staring at old Liz's, "it's
+gone!"
+
+"So it is," cried Mrs Rampy, for once agreeing.
+
+And so it was!  The last fang belonging to chimney-pot Liz had perished
+in that great conflagration!
+
+Many were the offers that old Liz received of house accommodation that
+night, from the lowest of washerwomen to the highest of tradesmen, but
+Sam Blake, in her behalf, declined them all, and proceeded to the main
+street to hail a cab.
+
+"She ain't 'urt, is she?  You're not takin' 'er to a hospital?" cried
+one of the crowd.  "You'll come back agin to stay with us, Liz--won't
+you?"
+
+"No, we won't," cried a boy's voice.  "We've come into our fortins, an'
+are a-goin' to live in the vest end for ever an' ever."
+
+"Who's that blue spider?" asked a boy; "w'y--no--surely it ain't--yes--I
+do b'lieve it's Tommy Splint!"
+
+"Don't believe Tommy, friends," said old Liz, as she was about to get
+into the cab.  "I'll soon be back again to see you.  Trust me!"
+
+This was received with a tremendous cheer, as they all got inside except
+Laidlaw, who mounted the box.
+
+"Stop!" said the latter, as the coachman was about to drive off.  He
+pointed to the burning house, where the raging fire had reached the
+roof-tree.  The crowd seemed awed into silence as they gazed.
+
+One swirl more of the flaming tongues and the Garret was consumed--
+another swirl, and the Garden was licked from the scene as effectually
+as though it had never been.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+THE LAST.
+
+How that wonderful man Detective Dean managed it all is best known to
+himself and those myrmidons of the law who aided and abetted him in his
+investigations, but certain it is that he prepared as pretty a little
+thunderbolt for John Lockhart, Esquire, as any man could wish to see.
+
+He not only ferreted out all the details of the matter involving the
+Washab and Roria railway and chimney-pot Liz, but he obtained proof,
+through a clerk in the solicitor's office, and a stain in a sheet of
+paper, and a half-finished signature, that the will by which Mr
+Lockhart intended to despoil Colonel Brentwood was a curiously-contrived
+forgery.  As men in search of the true and beautiful frequently stumble
+by accident on truths for which they did not search, and beauties of
+which they had formed no conception, so our detective unearthed a
+considerable number of smaller crimes of which the lawyer had been
+guilty--to the satisfaction of all concerned and the establishment of
+Mrs Brentwood's character as a prophetess, so that "didn't I tell you
+so, Jack?" became a familiar arrangement of household words in the ears
+of the poor Colonel for some time afterwards.
+
+But the man of law did not await the discharge of the thunderbolt.  As
+Mr Dean expressed it, he was too 'cute for that.  By some occult means,
+known only to legal men, he discovered what was in the air, took time by
+the forelock, and retired into privacy--perhaps to the back settlements
+of Peru--with all the available cash that he could righteously, or
+otherwise, scrape together.  By so doing, however, he delivered Colonel
+Brentwood from all hindrance to the enjoyment of his rightful property,
+and opened the eyes of chimney-pot Liz to the true value of shares in
+the Washab and Roria railway.
+
+A few days after the culminating of these events--for things came
+rapidly to a head--Mrs Rampy of Cherub Court issued invitations for a
+small tea-party.  This was the more surprising that Mrs Rampy was
+extremely poor, and had hitherto been economical to an extent which
+deprived her of a sufficiency of food even for herself.  But the
+neighbours soon came to know that a line of telegraph had been recently
+set up between Cherub Court and the West End, through which flowed
+continuously a series of communications that were more or less
+astounding and agreeable to the inhabitants.  The posts of this
+telegraph were invisible, the wires passed high overhead, very high, and
+the particular kind of electricity used was--sympathy.
+
+It must be explained here that it was the northern side of the court
+which had been burned, so that Mrs Rampy, inhabiting the south side,
+still occupied her suite of apartments--a parlour and a coal-hole.  The
+parlour, having once been a ware-room, was unusually large and well
+adapted for a tea-party.  The coal-hole, having been a mere recess, was
+well adapted for puzzling the curious as to what had been the object of
+its architect in contriving it.
+
+The party was not large, but it was select.  It included a washerwoman
+with very red arms; a care-taker who had obviously failed to take care
+of herself; a couple of chimney-sweeps with partially washed faces; a
+charwoman with her friend the female greengrocer, who had been burned
+out of the opposite side of the court; two or three coster-mongers, a
+burglar, several thieves, a footman in resplendent livery, a few noted
+drunkards, and chimney-pot Liz with her teapot--not the original teapot
+of course--that had perished in the flames--but one indistinguishably
+like it, which had been presented to her by Colonel Brentwood.  She had
+insisted on carrying it with her to Cherub Court on that occasion, on
+the ground that they would hardly recognise her without it, especially
+now that the fang was gone.
+
+The resplendent footman had been the first guest to arrive, along with
+Liz, and was welcomed by the hostess and Mrs Blathers--who aided and
+abetted her friend on that occasion--with effusive demonstrations of
+goodwill and surprise.  Thereafter the footman, who seemed to be
+eccentric, sat in a corner with his face buried in his hands, and did
+not move while the other guests were assembling.  When the room was full
+and the tea poured out, Mrs Rampy looked at Liz with a sly awkward air
+which was quite foreign to her nature.
+
+"Ah, Mrs Rampy," said Liz, "don't be ashamed."
+
+"Lord, bless us--an' our wittles," said Mrs Rampy, suddenly shutting
+her eyes as she opened her mouth, to the intense surprise of her guests.
+"Now then," she added, in a tone of great relief, "go a-'ead w'en
+you've got the chance.  There's more w'ere that come from.  'And about
+the cake, Mrs Blathers, like a good creetur.  An' it ain't much o' this
+blow-hout you owes to me.  I on'y supplied the sugar, 'cause that was in
+the 'ouse anyways."
+
+"It is a good deed, Mrs Rampy," said old Liz, with a smile, "if you've
+supplied all the sweetness to the feast."
+
+"That's a lie!" cried the hostess sharply.  "It was _you_ that supplied
+it.  If it 'adn't bin for you, Liz, I'd never 'ave--"
+
+Mrs Rampy broke down at this point and threw her apron over her head to
+conceal her feelings.  At the same moment the eccentric footman raised
+his head, and something like a pistol-shot was heard as the burglar
+brought his palm down on his thigh, exclaiming--
+
+"I know'd it!  Trumps--or his ghost!"
+
+"'E's too fat for a ghost," remarked a humorous thief.
+
+"No, mate, I _ain't_ Trumps," said the resplendent man, rising before
+the admiring gaze of the party.  "My name is Rodgers, footman to Colonel
+Brentwood of Weston 'All.  I'm a noo man, houtside an' in; an' I've come
+ere a-purpuse to surprise you, not only wi' the change in my costoom,
+but wi' the noos that my master's comin' down 'ere to see arter you a
+bit, an' try if 'e can't 'elp us hout of our difficulties; an' e's
+agoin' to keep a missionary, hout of 'is own pocket, to wisit in this
+district an' they're both comin' 'ere this wery night to take tea with
+us.  An' 'e's bringin' a lord with 'im--a live lord--"
+
+"Wot better is a live lord than any other man?" growled a thief with
+radical proclivities.
+
+"Right you are, Jim Scroodger," said Trumps, turning sharply on the
+speaker; "a live lord is no better than any other man unless 'e _is_
+better!  Indeed, considerin' 'is circumstances, 'e's a good deal wuss if
+'e's no better; but a live lord is better than a dead thief, w'ich
+you'll be soon, Jim, if you don't mend yer ways."
+
+"Hear! hear!" and a laugh from the company.
+
+"Moreover," continued Trumps, "the lord that's a-comin' _is_ better than
+most other men.  He's a trump--"
+
+"Not a brother o' yourn--eh?" murmured the burglar.  "W'y, Trumps, I
+thought you was a detective!"
+
+"Not in _plain_ clo'es, surely," remarked the humorous thief.
+
+"'Ave another cup o' tea, man, and shut up," cried Mrs Blathers,
+growing restive.
+
+"Well, ladies and gen'lemen all," resumed Trumps, with a benignant
+smile, "_you_ know this lord that's a-comin'.  Some o' you made 'im a
+present of a barrow an' a hass once--"
+
+"_I_ know 'im!  Bless 'is 'eart," cried a coster-monger through a
+mouthful of cake.
+
+At that moment the expected guests arrived.
+
+But reader, we must not dwell upon what followed.  There is no need.  It
+is matter of history.
+
+While the inhabitants of the slums were thus enjoying a social evening
+together, David Laidlaw was busy with one of his numerous epistles to
+that repository of all confidences--his mother.
+
+"The deed is done, mither," he wrote, "an' the waux doll is mine, for
+better or waur, till death us do pairt.  Of course I dinna mean that
+we're mairried yet.  Na, na!  That event must be celebrated on the Braes
+o' Yarrow, wi' _your_ help an' blessin'.  But we're engaged, an' that's
+happiness enough the now.  If I was to describe my state o' mind in ae
+word, I wud say--thankfu'.  But losh, woman, that gies ye but a faint
+notion o' the whirligigs that hae been gaun on i' my heed an' hairt
+since I came to Bawbylon.  Truly, it's a wonderfu' place--wi' its
+palaces and dens; its rich an' its puir; its miles upon miles o' hooses
+an' shops; its thoosands on thoosands o' respectable folk, an' its
+hundred o' thoosands o' thieves an' pickpockets an' burglars--to say
+naething o' its prisons an' lawyers an' waux dolls!
+
+"But I'm haverin'.  Ye'll be gled t' hear that Colonel Brentwood--him
+that befreended me--is a' richt.  His lawyer turned oot to be a leear
+an' a swindler.  The will that was to turn the Colonel oot o' a' his
+possessions is a forgery.  His bonny bairn Rosa, is, like mysel', gaun'
+to be mairried; an' as the Colonel has nae mair bairns, he's gaun' to
+devote himsel'--so his wife says--to `considerin' the poor.'  Frae my
+personal observation o' Lunnon, he'll hae mair than enough to consider,
+honest man!
+
+"In my last letter I gied ye a full accoont o' the fire, but I didna
+tell 'e that it was amang the chimley-pots and bleezes that I was moved
+to what they ca' `pop the question' to my Susy.  It was a daft-like
+thing to do, I confess, especially for a sedate kin' o' man like me;
+but, woman, a man's no jist himsel' at sik a time!  After a', it was a
+graund climax to my somewhat queer sort o' coortin'.  The only thing I'm
+feart o' in Bawbylon is that the wee crater Tammy Splint should come to
+ken aboot it, for I wad niver hear the end o't if he did.  Ye see,
+though he was there a' the time, he didna ken what I was about.
+Speakin' o' that, the bairn has been made a flunkey by the Colonel--a
+teeger they ca' him.  What's mair surprisin' yet is, that he has ta'en
+the puir thief Trumps--alias Rodgers--into his hoosehold likewise, and
+made _him_ a flunkey.  Mrs Brentwood--Dory, as he ca's her--didna quite
+like the notion at first; but the Colonel's got a wonderfu' wheedlin'
+wey wi' him, an' whan he said, `If you an' I have been redeemed an'
+reinstated, why should not Rodgers?'  Dory, like a wise woman, gied in.
+The argement, ye ken, was unanswerable.  Onywie, he's in plush now, an
+white stockin's.
+
+"An' that minds me that they've putt the wee laddie Splint into blue
+tights wi' brass buttons.  He just looks like an uncanny sort o'
+speeder!  It's a daft-like dress for onything but a puggy, but the
+bairn's as prood o't as if it was quite reasonable.  It maitters little
+what he putts on, hooiver, for he wad joke an' cut capers, baith
+pheesical an' intellectual, I verily believe, if he was gaun to be
+hanged!
+
+"My faither-in-law to be, Sam Blake, says he'll come to Scotland for the
+wadd'n, but he'll no' stop.  He's that fond o' the sea that he canna
+leave 't.  It's my opeenion that he'll no' rest till he gits a pirit's
+knife in his breed-baskit.  Mair's the peety, for he's a fine man.  But
+the best news I've got to tell 'e, mither, is, that Colonel Brentwood
+an' his wife an' daughter an' her guidman--a sensible sort o' chiel,
+though he _is_ English--are a' comin' doon to spend the autumn on the
+Braes o' Yarrow.
+
+"Noo, I'll stop.  Susy's waitin' for me, an' sends her love.--Yer
+affectionate son, DAVID LAIDLAW."
+
+We must take the liberty now, good reader, of directing your attention
+to another time and place.
+
+And, first, as regards time.  One day, three weeks after the events
+which have just been narrated, Mrs Brentwood took Susan Blake through a
+stained glass door out upon a leaded roof and bade her look about her.
+The roof was not high up, however.  It only covered the kitchen, which
+was a projection at the back of the Colonel's mansion.
+
+Susan, somewhat surprised, looked inquiringly in the lady's face.
+
+"A fine view, is it not?" asked Mrs Brentwood.
+
+"Very fine indeed," said Susy, and she was strictly correct, for the
+back of the house commanded an extensive view of one of the most
+beautiful parts of Hampstead Heath.
+
+"Does it not remind you, Susan, a little, a very little, of the views
+from the garret-garden?" asked the lady, with a curious expression in
+her handsome eyes.
+
+"Well, hardly!" replied Susan, scarce able to repress a smile.  "You
+see, there is no river or shipping, and one misses the chimney-pots!"
+
+"Chimney-pots!" exclaimed Mrs Brentwood, "why, what do you call these?"
+pointing to a row of one-storey stables not far off, the roofs of which
+were variously ornamented with red pots and iron zigzag pipes.  "As to
+the river, don't you see the glimmer of that sheet of water through the
+trees in the distance, a pond or canal it is, I'm not sure which, but
+I'm quite sure that the flag-staff of our eccentric naval neighbour is
+sufficiently suggestive of shipping, is it not?"
+
+"Well, madam, if one tries to make believe _very_ much--"
+
+"Ah, Susan, I see you have not a powerful imagination!  Perhaps it is as
+well!  Now, I have brought you here to help me with a plot which is to
+be a great secret.  You know it is arranged that dear old nurse is to
+spend the summer on the Braes of Yarrow with the Laidlaws, and the
+winter in London with me.  So I want you to fit up this roof of the
+kitchen _exactly_ in the way you arranged the garden on the roof at
+Cherub Court.  I will send a carpenter to measure the place for
+flower-boxes, and our gardener will furnish you with whatever seeds you
+may require.  Now, remember, _exactly_ the same, even to the rustic
+chair if you can remember it."
+
+You may be very sure that Susy entered with right goodwill into this
+little plot.  She had been temporarily engaged by Mrs Brentwood as
+lady's-maid, so that she might have present employment and a home before
+her marriage, and then travel free of expense with the family to
+Scotland, where she should be handed over to her rightful owner.  The
+office of lady's-maid was, however, a mere sinecure, so the bride had
+plenty of time to devote to the garden.  Old Liz, meanwhile, was
+carefully confined to another part of the house so that she might not
+discover the plot, and the tiger, from whom no secrets could by any
+possibility be kept, was forbidden to "blab" on pain of instant death
+and dismissal.
+
+"Now, Da-a-a-vid," remarked that Blue Spider, when he communicated the
+secret to _him_, "mum's the word.  If you mentions it, the kernel's
+family will bu'st up.  I will return to the streets from vich I came.
+Trumps, _alias_ Rodgers, to the den hout of vich 'e was 'auled.  Susan
+will take the wail and retire to a loonatic asylum, an' Da-a-a-vid
+Laidlaw will be laid low for the rest of 'is mortial career."
+
+"Ne'er fash yer heed about me, Tammy, my man, I'm as close as an
+eyster."
+
+We pass now from the far south to the other side of the Borderland.
+
+Great Bawbylon is far behind us.  The breezy uplands around tell that we
+have reached the Braes of Yarrow.  A huge travelling carriage is slowly
+toiling up the side of a hill.  Inside are Colonel and Mrs Brentwood,
+Rosa and chimney-pot Liz.  Beside the driver sits Trumps in travelling
+costume.  In the rumble are Susan Blake and Tommy Splint.  Rosa's
+husband and Sam Blake are to follow in a few days.
+
+"Oh, what a lovely scene!" exclaimed Susy, as the carriage gained the
+summit of an eminence, and pulled up to breathe the horses.
+
+"Yaas.  Not so bad--for Scotland," said the tiger languidly.
+
+"And what a pretty cottage!" added Susan, pointing to an eminence just
+beyond that on which they had halted, where a long low whitewashed
+dwelling lay bathed in sunshine.
+
+"Yaas.  And, I say, Susy, yonder is a native," said Tommy, becoming
+suddenly animated, "and--well--I do believe, _without_ a kilt!  But he's
+got the reg'lar orthodox shepherd's--whew!"
+
+A prolonged whistle ended the boy's sentence, as he glanced quickly in
+Susan's face.  The flushed cheeks told eloquently that she also had made
+a discovery; and the rapid strides of the "native" showed that he was
+likewise affected in a similar way.
+
+The Colonel's head,--thrust out at the carriage window, and exclaiming,
+"Why, Dora, we've arrived!  Here is Mr Laidlaw himself!"--completed, as
+it were, the _tableau vivant_.
+
+Another moment and hands were being heartily shaken with the insides.
+But David did not linger.  Nodding pleasantly to the tiger, he held up
+both hands.  Being so tall, he just managed to reach those of Susan, as
+she stood up in the rumble.
+
+"Jump!" he said; "ye needna fear, my lassie."
+
+Susan jumped, and was made to alight on Scottish soil like a feather of
+eider-down.  Laidlaw stooped, apparently to whisper something in the
+girl's ear, but, to the unspeakable delight of the observant tiger, he
+failed to get past the mouth, and whispered it there!
+
+"Go it, Da-a-a-vid!" exclaimed the urchin, with a patronising wink and a
+broad smile.
+
+"Look there, Susy," said Laidlaw, pointing to the sun-bathed cottage.
+
+"Home?" asked the maiden, with an inquiring glance.
+
+"Hame!" responded David.  "Mither is waiting for 'e there.  Do ye see
+the track across the field where the burn rins?  It's a short cut.  The
+coach'll have to gang roond by the brig.  Rin, lassie!"
+
+He released Susy, who sprang down the bank, crossed the streamlet by a
+plank bridge, and ran into the cottage, where she found Mrs Laidlaw in
+the passage, with eager eyes, but labouring under powerful
+self-restraint.
+
+"Mother!" exclaimed Susy, flinging her arms round the stout old woman's
+neck.
+
+"Eh!--my bonnie wee doo!" said Mrs Laidlaw, as she looked kindly down
+on the little head and stroked the fair hair with her toil-worn hands,
+while a venerable old man stood beside her, looking somewhat imbecile,
+and blowing his nose.
+
+Just then the carriage rolled up to the door, and Mrs Laidlaw, leaving
+her "auld man" for a few minutes to do the honours of the house, retired
+to her chamber, and there on her knees confessed, thankfully, that she,
+like her son, had been effectually conquered by a "waux doll!"
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Reader, what more can we say?  Is it necessary to add that, the two
+principals in the business being well pleased, everybody else was
+satisfied?  We think not.  But it may not be uninteresting to state
+that, from that auspicious day, a regular system of annual visitation
+was established between Bawbylon and the Braes of Yarrow, which held
+good for many a year; one peculiarity of the visitation being that the
+Bawbylonians and their progeny revelled on the braes chiefly in summer,
+while the Yarrowites, with their bairns, always took their southern
+flight in winter.  Thus our two old women, Mrs Laidlaw and chimney-pot
+Liz--who fought rather shy of each other at first, but became mutual
+admirers at last--led, as it were, a triple life; now on the sunny
+slopes and amid the sweet influences of the braes, anon in the smoke and
+the unsavoury odours of the slums, and sometimes amid the refinements
+and luxury of the "West End," in all of which situations they were fain
+to confess that "the ways of God are wonderful and past finding out."
+
+Of course David Laidlaw did not fail to redeem his promise to revisit
+the thieves' den, and many a man and youth was he the means of plucking
+from the jaws of spiritual death during his occasional and frequent
+visits to London--in which work he was ably seconded by Tommy Splint,
+when that volatile spirit grew up to manhood.  And among their
+coadjutors none were more helpful in the work of bringing souls to
+Christ than Mrs Rampy and her bosom-friend Mrs Blathers.
+
+Strange to say, Liz came to her end in a garret after all.  On a raw
+November day she went, under the care of Susy, to visit an old friend
+near Cherub Court, in a garret not very unlike her old home.  While
+there she was struck down.  There was no pain--apparently no disease;
+simply a sudden sinking of the vital powers.  They laid the dear old
+woman on her friend's bed, and in half-an-hour she had passed away,
+while the faithful Susy held her hand and whispered words from the
+Master in her ear.  Thus old Liz, having finished her grand work on
+earth, was transplanted from the Garret in the slums to the Garden of
+the Lord.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Garret and the Garden, by R.M. Ballantyne
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