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diff --git a/4606.txt b/4606.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7d565d --- /dev/null +++ b/4606.txt @@ -0,0 +1,31954 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of It Is Never Too Late to Mend, by Charles Reade + +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: It Is Never Too Late to Mend + +Author: Charles Reade + + +Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4606] +This file was first posted on February 18, 2002 +Last Updated: April 12, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND *** + + + + +Produced by James Rusk + + + + + + + + +IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND + +By Charles Reade + + +This attempt at a solid fiction is, with their permission, dedicated to +the President, Fellows, and demies of St. Mary Magdalen College. Oxford, +by a grateful son of that ancient, learned, and most charitable house. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +George Fielding cultivated a small farm in Berkshire. + +This position is not so enviable as it was. Years ago, the farmers +of England, had they been as intelligent as other traders, could have +purchased the English soil by means of the huge percentage it offered +them. + +But now, I grieve to say, a farmer must be as sharp as his neighbors, +or like his neighbors he will break. What do I say? There are soils and +situations where, in spite of intelligence and sobriety, he is almost +sure to break; just as there are shops where the lively, the severe, the +industrious, the lazy, are fractured alike. + +This last fact I make mine by perambulating a certain great street every +three months, and observing how name succeeds to name as wave to wave. + +Readers hardened by the _Times_ will not perhaps go so far as to weep +over a body of traders for being reduced to the average condition of +all other traders. But the individual trader, who fights for existence +against unfair odds, is to be pitied whether his shop has plate glass +or a barn door to it; and he is the more to be pitied when he is sober, +intelligent, proud, sensitive, and unlucky. + +George Fielding was all these, who, a few years ago, assisted by his +brother William, filled "The Grove"--as nasty a little farm as any in +Berkshire. + +Discontented as he was, the expression hereinbefore written would have +seemed profane to young Fielding, for a farmer's farm and a sailor's +ship have always something sacred in the sufferer's eyes, though one +sends one to jail, and the other the other to Jones. + +It was four hundred acres, all arable, and most of it poor sour land. +George's father had one hundred acres grass with it, but this had been +separated six years ago. + +There was not a tree, nor even an old stump to show for this word +"Grove." + +But in the country oral tradition still flourishes. + +There had been trees in "The Grove," only the title had outlived the +timber a few centuries. + +On the morning of our tale George Fielding might have been seen near his +own homestead, conversing with the Honorable Frank Winchester. + +This gentleman was a character that will be common some day, but was +nearly unique at the date of our story. + +He had not an extraordinary intellect, but he had great natural gayety, +and under that he had enormous good sense; his good sense was really +brilliant, he had a sort of universal healthy mind that I can't +understand how people get. + +He was deeply in love with a lady who returned his passion, but she +was hopelessly out of his reach, because he had not much money or +expectations; instead of sitting down railing, or sauntering about +whining, what did me the Honorable Frank Winchester? He looked over +England for the means of getting this money, and not finding it there, +he surveyed the globe and selected Australia, where, they told him, a +little money turns to a deal, instead of dissolving in the hand like a +lozenge in the mouth, as it does in London. + +So here was an earl's son (in this age of commonplace events) going +to Australia with five thousand pounds, as sheep farmer and general +speculator. + +He was trying hard to persuade George Fielding to accompany him as +bailiff or agricultural adviser and manager. + +He knew the young man's value, but to do him justice his aim was not +purely selfish; he was aware that Fielding had a bad bargain in "The +Grove," and the farmer had saved his life at great personal risk one +day that he was seized with cramp bathing in the turbid waters of Cleve +millpool, and he wanted to serve him in return. This was not his first +attempt of the kind, and but for one reason perhaps he might have +succeeded. + +"You know me and I know you," said Mr. Winchester to George Fielding; +"I must have somebody to put me in the way. Stay with me one year, +and after that I'll square accounts with you about that thundering +millpool." + +"Oh! Mr. Winchester," said George, hastily and blushing like fire, +"that's an old story, sir?" with a sweet little half-cunning smile that +showed he was glad it was not forgotten. + +"Not quite," replied the young gentleman dryly; "you shall have five +hundred sheep and a run for them, and we will both come home rich and +consequently respectable." + +"It is a handsome offer, sir, and a kind offer and like yourself, sir, +but transplanting one of us," continued George, "dear me, sir, it's like +taking up an oak tree thirty years in the ground--besides--besides--did +you ever notice my cousin, Susanna, sir?" + +"Notice her! why, do you think I am a heathen, and never go to the +parish church? Miss Merton is a lovely girl; she sits in the pew by the +pillar." + +"Isn't she, sir?" said George. + +Mr. Winchester endeavored to turn this adverse topic in his favor; he +made a remark that produced no effect at the time. He said, "People +don't go to Australia to die--they go to Australia to make money, and +come home and marry--and it is what you must do--this "Grove" is a +millstone round your neck. Will you have a cigar, farmer?" + +George consented, premising, however, that hitherto he had never got +beyond a yard of clay, and after drawing a puff or two he took the cigar +from his mouth, and looking at it said, "I say, sir! seems to me the +fire is uncommon near the chimbly." Mr. Winchester laughed; he then +asked George to show him the blacksmith shop. "I must learn how to shoe +a horse," said the honorable Frank. + +"Well, I never!" thought George. "The first nob in the country going to +shoe a horse," but with his rustic delicacy he said nothing, and led Mr. +Winchester to the blacksmith's shop. + +While this young gentleman is hammering nails into a horse's hoof, +and Australia into an English farmer's mind, we must introduce other +personages. + +Susanna Merton was beautiful and good. George Fielding and she were +acknowledged lovers, but marriage was not spoken of as a near event, and +latterly old Merton had seemed cool whenever his daughter mentioned the +young man's name. + +Susanna appeared to like George, though not so warmly as he loved her; +but at all events she accepted no other proffers of love. For all that +she had, besides a host of admirers, other lovers besides George; +and what is a great deal more singular (for a woman's eye is quick as +lightning in finding out who loves her), there was more than one of +whose passion she was not conscious. + +William Fielding, George's brother, was in love with his brother's +sweetheart, but though he trembled with pleasure when she was near him, +he never looked at her except by stealth; he knew he had no business to +love her. + +On the morning of our tale Susan's father, old Merton, had walked over +from his farm to "The Grove," and was inspecting a field behind George's +house, when he was accosted by his friend, Mr. Meadows, who had seen +him, and giving his horse to a boy to hold had crossed the stubbles to +speak to him. + +Mr. Meadows was not a common man, and merits some preliminary notice. + +He was what is called in the country "a lucky man"; everything he had +done in life had prospered. + +The neighbors admired, respected, and some of them even hated this +respectable man, who had been a carter in the midst of them, and now at +forty years of age was a rich corn-factor and land-surveyor. + +"All this money cannot have been honestly got," said the envious ones +among themselves; yet they could not put their finger on any dishonest +action he had done. To the more candid the known qualities of the man +accounted for his life of success. + +This John Meadows had a cool head, an iron will, a body and mind alike +indefatigable, and an eye never diverted from the great objects of sober +industrious men--wealth and respectability. He had also the soul of +business--method! + +At one hour he was sure to be at church; at another, at market; in his +office at a third, and at home when respectable men should be at home. + +By this means Mr. Meadows was always to be found by any man who +wanted to do business; and when you had found him, you found a man +superficially coy perhaps, but at bottom always ready to do business, +and equally sure to get the sunny side of it and give you the windy. + +Meadows was generally respected; by none more than by old Merton, and +during the last few months the intimacy of these two men had ripened +into friendship; the corn-factor often hooked his bridle to the old +farmer's gate, and took a particular interest in all his affairs. + +Such was John Meadows. + +In person he was a tall, stout man, with iron gray hair, a healthy, +weather-colored complexion, and a massive brow that spoke to the depth +and force of the man's character. + +"What, taking a look at the farm, Mr. Merton? It wants some of your +grass put to it, doesn't it?" + +"I never thought much of the farm," was the reply, "it lies cold; the +sixty-acre field is well enough, but the land on the hill is as poor as +death." + +Now this idea, which Merton gave out as his, had dropped into him from +Meadows three weeks before. + +"Farmer," said Meadows, in an undertone, "they are thrashing out new +wheat for the rent." + +"You don't say so? Why I didn't hear the flail going." + +"They have just knocked off for dinner--you need not say I told you, but +Will Fielding was at the bank this morning, trying to get money on their +bill, and the bank said No! They had my good word, _too_. The people of +the bank sent over to me." + +They had his good word! but not his good tone! he had said. "Well, +their father was a safe man;" but the accent with which he eulogized the +parent had somehow locked the bank cash-box to the children. + +"I never liked it, especially of late," mused Merton. "But you see the +young folk being cousins--" + +"That is it, cousins," put in Meadows; "it is not as if she loved him +with all her heart and soul; she is an obedient daughter, isn't she?" + +"Never gainsaid me in her life; she has a high spirit, but never with +me; my word is law. You see, she is a very religious girl, is Susan." + +"Well, then, a word from you would save her--but there--all that is your +affair, not mine," added he. + +"Of course it is," was the reply. "You are a true friend. I'll step +round to the barn and see what is doing." And away went Susan's father +uneasy in his mind. + +Meadows went to the "Black Horse," the village public house, to see what +farmers wanted to borrow a little money under the rose, and would +pawn their wheat ricks, and pay twenty per cent for that overrated +merchandise. + +At the door of the public-house he was met by the village constable, and +a stranger of gentlemanly address and clerical appearance. The constable +wore a mysterious look and invited Meadows into the parlor of the +public-house. + +"I have news for you, sir," said he, "leastways I think so; your pocket +was picked last Martinmas fair of three Farnborough bank-notes with your +name on the back." + +"It was!" + +"Is this one of them?" said the man, producing a note. + +Meadows examined it with interest, compared the number with a memorandum +in his pocketbook, and pronounced that it was. + +"Who passed it?" inquired he. + +"A chap that has got the rest--a stranger--Robinson--that lodges at "The +Grove" with George Fielding; that is, if his name is Robinson, but we +think he is a Londoner come down to take an airing. You understand, +Sir." + +Meadows' eyes flashed actual fire. For so rich a man, he seemed +wonderfully excited by this circumstance. + +To an inquiry who was his companion, the constable answered _sotto +voce_, "Gentleman from Bow Street, come to see if he knows him." The +constable went on to inform Meadows that Robinson was out fishing +somewhere, otherwise they would already have taken him; "but we will +hang about the farm, and take him when he comes home." + +"You had better be at hand, sir, to identify the notes," said the +gentleman from Bow Street, whose appearance was clerical. + +Meadows had important business five miles off; he postponed it. He wrote +a line in pencil, put a boy upon his black mare, and hurried him off to +the rendezvous, while he stayed and entered with strange alacrity into +this affair. "Stay," cried he, "if he is an old hand he will twig the +officer." + +"Oh, I'm dark, sir," was the answer; "he won't know me till I put the +darbies on him." + +The two men then strolled as far as the village stocks, keeping an eye +ever on the farm-house. + +Thus a network of adverse events was closing round George Fielding this +day. + +He was all unconscious of them; he was in good spirits. Robinson had +showed him how to relieve the temporary embarrassment that had lately +depressed him. + +"Draw a bill on your brother," said Robinson, "and let him accept it. +The Farnborough Bank will give you notes for it. These country banks +like any paper better than their own. I dare say they are right." + +George had done this, and expected William every minute with this and +other moneys. And then Susanna Merton was to dine at "The Grove" to-day, +and this, though not uncommon, was always a great event with poor +George. + +Dilly would not come to be killed just when he was wanted. In other +words, Robinson, who had no idea how he was keeping people waiting, +fished tranquilly till near dinner-time, neither taking nor being taken. + +This detained Meadows in the neighborhood of the farm, and was the cause +of his rencontre with a very singular personage, whose visit he knew at +sight must be to him. + +As he hovered about among George Fielding's ricks, the figure of an old +man slightly bowed but full of vigor stood before him. He had a long +gray beard with a slight division in the center, hair abundant but +almost white, and a dark, swarthy complexion that did not belong to +England; his thick eyebrows also were darker than his hair, and under +them was an eye like a royal jewel; his voice had the Oriental richness +and modulation--this old man was Isaac Levi; an Oriental Jew who had +passed half his life under the sun's eye, and now, though the town of +Farnborough had long been too accustomed to him to wonder at him, he +dazzled any thoughtful stranger; so exotic and apart was he--so romantic +a grain in a heap of vulgarity--he was as though a striped jasper had +crept in among the paving-stones of their marketplace, or a cactus +grandiflora shone among the nettles of a Berkshire meadow. + +Isaac Levi, unlike most Jews, was familiar with the Hebrew tongue, and +this and the Eastern habits of his youth colored his language and his +thoughts, especially in his moments of emotion, and above all, when he +forgot the money-lender for a moment, and felt and thought as one of a +great nation, depressed, but waiting for a great deliverance. He was a +man of authority and learning in his tribe. + +At sight of Isaac Levi Meadows' brow towered, and he called out rather +rudely without allowing the old gentleman to speak, "If you are come to +talk to me about that house you are in you may keep your breath to cool +your porridge." + +Meadows had bought the house Isaac rented, and had instantly given him +warning to leave. + +Isaac, who had become strangely attached to the only place in which he +had ever lived many years, had not doubted for a moment that Meadows +merely meant to raise the rent to its full value, so he had come to +treat with his new landlord. "Mr. Meadows," said he persuasively, "I +have lived there twenty years--I pay a fair rent--but, if you think +any one would give you more you shall lose nothing by me--I will pay a +little more; and you know your rent is secure?" + +"I do," was the answer. + +"Thank you, sir! well, then--" + +"Well, then, next Lady-day you turn out bag and baggage. + +"Nay, sir," said Isaac Levi, "hear me, for you are younger than I. Mr. +Meadows, when this hair was brown I traveled in the East; I sojourned in +Madras and Benares, in Bagdad, Ispahan, Mecca and Bassora, and found no +rest. When my hair began to turn gray, I traded in Petersburg and Rome +and Paris, Vienna and Lisbon and other western cities and found no rest. +I came to this little town, where, least of all, I thought to pitch my +tent for life, but here the God of my fathers gave me my wife, and here +He took her to Himself again--" + +"What the deuce is all this to me, man?" + +"Much, sir, if you are what men say; for men speak well of you; be +patient, and hear me. Two children were born to me and died from me in +the house you have bought; and there my Leah died also; and there at +times in the silent hours I seem to hear their voices and their feet. In +another house I shall never hear them--I shall be quite alone. Have pity +on me, sir, an aged and a lonely man; tear me not from the shadows of my +dead. Let me prevail with you?" + +"No!" was the stern answer. + +"No?" cried Levi, a sudden light darting into his eye; "then you must be +an enemy of Isaac Levi?" + +"Yes!" was the grim reply to this rapid inference. + +"Aha!" cried the old Jew, with a sudden defiance, which he instantly +suppressed. "And what have I done to gain your enmity, sir?" said he, in +a tone crushed by main force into mere regret. + +"You lend money." + +"A little, sir, now and then--a very little." + +"That is to say, when the security is bad, you have no money in hand; +but when the security is good, nobody has ever found the bottom of Isaac +Levi's purse." + +"Our people," said Isaac apologetically, "can trust one another--they +are not like yours. We are brothers, and that is why money is always +forthcoming when the deposit is sound." + +"Well," said Meadows, "what you are, I am; what I do on the sly you do +on the sly, old thirty per cent." + +"The world is wide enough for us both, good sir--" + +"It is!" was the prompt reply. "And it lies before you, Isaac. Go where +you like, for the little town of Farnborough is not wide enough for me +and any man that works my business for his own pocket--" + +"But this is not enmity, sir." + +Meadows gave a coarsish laugh. "You are hard to please," cried he. "I +think you will find it is enmity." + +"Nay! sir, this is but matter of profit and loss. Well, let me stay, and +I promise you shall gain and not lose. Our people are industrious and +skillful in all bargains, but we keep faith and covenant. So be it. Let +us be friends. I covenant with you, and I swear by the tables of the +law, you shall not lose one shilling per annum by me." + +"I'll trust you as far as I can fling a bull by the tail. You gave me +your history--take mine. I have always put my foot on whatever man +or thing has stood in my way. I was poor, I am rich, and that is my +policy." + +"It is frail policy," said Isaac, firmly. "Some man will be sure to put +his foot on you, soon or late." + +"What, do you threaten me?" roared Meadows. + +"No, sir," said Isaac, gently but steadily. "I but tell you what these +old eyes have seen in every nation, and read in books that never lie. +Goliath defied armies, yet he fell like a pigeon by a shepherd-boy's +sling. Samson tore a lion in pieces with his hands, but a woman laid him +low. No man can defy us all, sir! The strong man is sure to find one +as strong and more skillful; the cunning man one as adroit and stronger +than himself. Be advised, then, do not trample upon one of my people. +Nations and men that oppress us do not thrive. Let me have to bless you. +An old man's blessing is gold. See these gray hairs. My sorrows have +been as many as they. His share of the curse that is upon his tribe has +fallen upon Isaac Levi." Then, stretching out his hands with a slight +but touching gesture, he said, "I have been driven to and fro like a +leaf these many years, and now I long for rest. Let me rest in my little +tent, till I rest forever. Oh! let me die where those I loved have died, +and there let me be buried." + +Age, sorrow, and eloquence pleaded in vain, for they were wasted on the +rocks of rocks, a strong will and a vulgar soul. But indeed the whole +thing was like epic poetry wrestling with the _Limerick Chronicle_ or +_Tuam Gazette_. + +I am almost ashamed to give the respectable western brute's answer. + +"What! you quote Scripture, eh? I thought you did not believe in that. +Hear t'other side. Abraham and Lot couldn't live in the same place, +because they both kept sheep, and we can't, because we fleece 'em. +So Abraham gave Lot warning as I give it you. And as for dying on my +premises, if you like to hang yourself before next Lady-day, I give you +leave, but after Lady-day no more Jewish dogs shall die in my house nor +be buried for manure in my garden." + +Black lightning poured from the old Jew's eyes, and his pent-up wrath +burst out like lava from an angry mountain. + +"Irreverent cur! do you rail on the afflicted of Heaven? The Founder of +your creed would abhor you, for He, they say, was pitiful. I spit upon +ye, and I curse ye. Be accursed!" And flinging up his hands, like St. +Paul at Lystra, he rose to double his height and towered at his insulter +with a sudden Eastern fury that for a moment shook even the iron +Meadows. "Be accursed!" he yelled again. "Whatever is the secret wish +of your black heart Heaven look on my gray hairs that you have insulted, +and wither that wish. Ah, ah!" he screamed, "you wince. All men have +secret wishes--Heaven fight against yours. May all the good luck you +have be wormwood for want of that--that---that--that. May you be near +it, close to it, upon it, pant for it, and lose it; may it sport, and +smile, and laugh, and play with you till Gehenna burns your soul upon +earth!" + +The old man's fiery forked tongue darted so keen and true to some sore +in his adversary's heart that he in turn lost his habitual self-command. + +White and black with passion he wheeled round on Isaac with a fierce +snarl, and lifting his stick discharged a furious blow at his head. + +Fortunately for Isaac wood encountered leather instead of gray hairs. + +Attracted by the raised voices, and unseen in their frenzy by either of +these antagonists, young George Fielding had drawn near them. He had, +luckily, a stout pig-whip in his hand, and by an adroit turn of his +muscular wrist he parried a blow that would have stopped the old Jew's +eloquence perhaps forever. As it was, the corn-factor's stick cut like +a razor through the air, and made a most musical whirr within a foot +of the Jew's ear. The basilisk look of venom and vengeance he instantly +shot back amounted to a stab. + +"Not if I know it," said George. And he stood cool and erect with a calm +manly air of defiance between the two belligerents. While the stick and +the whip still remained in contact, Meadows glared at Isaac's champion +with surprise and wrath, and a sort of half fear half wonder that this +of all men in the world should be the one to cross weapons with and +thwart him. "You are joking, Master Meadows," said George coolly. "Why +the man is twice your age, and nothing in his hand but his fist. Who are +ye, old man, and what d'ye want? It's you for cursing, anyway." + +"He insults me," cried Meadows, "because I won't have him for a tenant +against my will. Who is he? A villainous old Jew." + +"Yes, young man," said the other, sadly, "I am Isaac Levi, a Jew. And +what is your religion" (he turned upon Meadows)? "It never came out of +Judea in any name or shape. D'ye call yourself a heathen? Ye lie, ye +cur; the heathen were not without starlight from heaven; they respected +sorrow and gray hairs." + +"You shall smart for this. I'll show you what my religion is," said +Meadows, inadvertent with passion, and the corn-factor's fingers grasped +his stick convulsively. + +"Don't you be so aggravating, old man," said the good-natured George, +"and you, Mr. Meadows, should know how to make light of an old man's +tongue; why it's like a woman's, it's all he has got to hit with; +leastways you mustn't lift hand to him on my premises, or you will have +to settle with me first; and I don't think that would suit your book or +any man's for a mile or two round about Farnborough," said George with +his little Berkshire drawl. + +"He!" shrieked Isaac, "he dare not! see! see!" and he pointed nearly +into the man's eye, "he doesn't look you in the face. Any soul that +has read men from east to west can see lion in your eye, young man, and +cowardly wolf in his." + +"Lady-day! Lady-day!" snorted Meadows, who was now shaking with +suppressed rage. + +"Ah!" cried Isaac, and he turned white and quivered in his turn. + +"Lady-day!" said George, uneasily, "Confound Lady-day, and every day of +the sort--there, don't you be so spiteful, old man--why if he isn't +all of a tremble. Poor old man." He went to his own door, and called +"Sarah!" + +A stout servant-girl answered the summons. + +"Take the old man in, and give him whatever is going, and his mug and +pipe," then he whispered her, "and don't go lumping the chine down under +his nose now." + +"I thank you, young man," faltered Isaac, "I must not eat with you, but +I will go in and rest my limbs which fail me, and compose myself; for +passion is unseemly at my years." + +Arrived at the door, he suddenly paused, and looking upward, said: + +"Peace be under this roof, and comfort and love follow me into this +dwelling." + +"Thank ye kindly," said young Fielding, a little surprised and touched +by this. "How old are you, daddy, if you please?" added he respectfully. + +"My son, I am threescore years and ten--a man of years and grief--grief +for myself, grief still more for my nation and city. Men that are men +pity us; men that are dogs have insulted us in all ages." + +"Well," said the good-natured young man soothingly--"don't you vex +yourself any more about it. Now you go in, and forget all your trouble +awhile, please God, by my fireside, my poor old man." + +Isaac turned, the water came to his eyes at this after being insulted +so; a little struggle took place in him, but nature conquered prejudice +and certain rubbish he called religion. He held out his hand like the +king of all Asia; George grasped it like an Englishman. + +"Isaac Levi is your friend," and the expression of the man's whole face +and body showed these words carried with them a meaning unknown in good +society. + +He entered the house, and young Fielding stood watching him with a +natural curiosity. + +Now Isaac Levi knew nothing about the corn-factor's plans. When at +one and the same moment he grasped George's hand, and darted a long, +lingering glance of demoniacal hatred on Meadows, he coupled two +sentiments by pure chance. And Meadows knew this; but still it struck +Meadows as singular and ominous. + +When, with the best of motives, one is on a wolf's errand, it is not +nice to hear a hyena say to the shepherd's dog, "I am your friend," and +see him contemptuously shoot the eye of a rattlesnake at one's self. + +The misgiving, however, was but momentary; Meadows respected his own +motives and felt his own power; an old Jew's wild fury could not shake +his confidence. + +He muttered, "One more down to your account, George Fielding," and left +the young man watching Isaac's retreating form. + +George, who didn't know he was gone, said: + +"Old man's words seem to knock against my bosom, Mr. Meadows--Gone, +eh?--that man," thought George Fielding, "has everybody's good word, +parson's and all--who'd think he'd lift his hand, leastways his stick +it was and that's worse, against a man of three score and upward--Ugh!" +thought George Fielding, yeoman of the midland counties--and unaffected +wonder mingled with his disgust. + +His reverie was broken by William Fielding just ridden in from +Farnborough. + +"Better late than never," said the elder brother, impatiently. + +"Couldn't get away sooner, George; here's the money for the sheep, 13 +pounds 10s.; no offer for the cow, Jem is driving her home." + +"Well, but the money--the 80 pounds, Will?" + +William looked sulkily down. + +"I haven't got it, George! There's your draft again, the bank wouldn't +take it." + +A keen pang shot across George's face, as much for the affront as the +disappointment. + +"They wouldn't take it?" gasped he. "Ay, Will, our credit is down, the +whole town knows our rent is overdue. I suppose you know money _must_ be +got some way." + +"Any way is better than threshing out new wheat at such a price," said +William sullenly. "Ask a loan of a neighbor." + +"Oh, Will," appealed George, "to ask a loan of a neighbor, and be +denied--it is bitterer than death. _You_ can do it." + +"I! Am I master here?" retorted the younger. "The farm is not farmed my +way, nor ever was. No! Give me the plow-handle and I'll cut the furrow, +George." + +"No doubt, no doubt!" said the other, very sharply, "you'd like to draw +the land dry with potato crops, and have fourscore hogs snoring in the +farmyard; that's your idea of a farm. Oh! I know you want to be elder +brother. Well, I tell'ee what do; you kill me first, Bill Fielding, and +then you will be elder brother, and not afore." + +Here was a pretty little burst of temper! We have all our sore part. + +"So be it, George!" replied William, "you got us into the mud, elder +brother, you get us out of the mire!" + +George subdued his tone directly. + +"Who shall I ask?" said he, as one addressing a bosom counselor. + +"Uncle Merton, or--or---Mr. Meadows the corn-factor; he lends money at +times to friends. It would not be much to either of them." + +"Show my empty pockets to Susanna's father! Oh, Will! how can you be so +cruel?" + +"Meadows, then." + +"No use for me, I've just offended him a hit; beside he's a man that +never knew trouble or ill luck in his life; they are like flints, all +that sort." + +"Well, look here, I'm pretty well with Meadows. I'll ask him if you will +try uncle; the first that meets his man to begin." + +"That sounds fair," said George, "but I can't--well--yes," said he, +suddenly changing his mind. "I agree," said he, with simple cunning, and +lowered his eyes; but suddenly raising them, he said cheerfully, "Why, +you're in luck, Bill; here's your man," and he shot like an arrow into +his own kitchen. + +"Confound it," said the other, fairly caught. + +Meadows, it is to be observed, was wandering about the premises until +such time as Robinson should return; and while the brothers were +arguing, he had been in the barn, and finding old Merton there had +worked still higher that prudent man's determination to break off +matters between his daughter and the farmer of "The Grove." + +After the usual salutations William Fielding, sore against the grain, +began: + +"I did not know you were here, sir! I want to speak to you." + +"I am at your service, Mr. Willum." + +"Well, sir. George and I are a little short just at present; it is only +for a time, and George says he should take it very kind if you would +lend us a hundred pound, just to help us over the stile." + +"Why, Mr. Willum," replied Meadows, "I should be delighted, and if you +had only asked me yesterday, I could have done it as easy as stand here; +but my business drinks a deal of money, Mr. Willum, and I laid out +all my loose cash yesterday; but, of course, it is of no +consequence--another time--good morning, Mr. Willum." + +Away sauntered Meadows, leaving William planted there, as the French +say. + +George ran out of the kitchen. + +"Well?" + +"He says he has got no money loose." + +"He is a liar! he paid 1,600 pounds into the bank yesterday, and you +knew it; didn't you tell him so?" + +"No; what use? A man that lies to avoid lending won't be driven to +lend." + +"You don't play fair," retorted George. "You could have got it from +Meadows, if you had a mind; but you want to drive your poor brother +against his sweetheart's father; you are false, my lad." + +"You are the only man that ever said so; and you durstn't say it if you +weren't my brother." + +"If it wasn't for that, I'd say a deal more." + +"Well, show your high stomach to Uncle Merton, for there he is. +Hy!--uncle!" cried William to Merton, who turned instantly and came +toward them. "George wants to speak to you," said William, and shot like +a cross-bow bolt behind the house. + +"That is lucky," said Merton, "for I want to speak to you." + +"Who would have thought of his being about?" muttered George. + +While George was calling up his courage and wits to open his subject, +Mr. Merton, who had no such difficulties, was beforehand with him. + +"You are threshing out new wheat?" said Merton, gravely. + +"Yes," answered George, looking down. + +"That is a bad lookout; a farmer has no business to go to his barn door +for his rent." + +"Where is he to go, then? to the church door, and ask for a miracle?" + +"No; to his ship-fold, to be sure." + +"Ay! you can; you have got grass and water and everything to hand." + +"And so must you, young man, or you'll never be a farmer. Now, George, I +must speak to you seriously" (George winced). + +"You are a fine lad, and I like you very well, but I love my own +daughter better." + +"So do I!" said George simply. + +"And I must look out for her," resumed Merton. "I have seen a pretty +while how things are going here, and if she marries you she will have to +keep you instead of you her." + +"Heaven forbid! Matters are not so bad as that, uncle." + +"You are too much of a man, I hope," continued Merton, "to eat a woman's +bread; and if you are not, I am man enough to keep the girl from it." + +"These are hard words to bear," gasped George. "So near my own house, +old man." + +"Well, plain speaking is best when the mind is made up," was the reply. + +"Is this from Susanna, as well as you?" said George, with a trembling +lip, and scarce able to utter the words. + +"Susan is an obedient daughter. What I say she'll stand to; and I hope +you know better than to tempt her to disobey me; you wouldn't succeed." + +"Enough said," answered George very sternly. "Enough said, old man; I've +no need to tempt any girl." + +"Good morning, George!" and away stumped Merton. + +"Good morning, uncle! (ungrateful old thief)." + +"William," cried he, to his brother, who came the next minute to hear +the news, "our mother took him out of the dirt.--I have heard her say +as much--or he'd not have a ship-fold to brag of. Oh! my heart--oh! +Will!--" + +"Well, will he lend the money?" + +"I never asked him." + +"You never asked him!" cried William. + +"Bill, he began upon me in a moment," said George, looking appealingly +into his brother's face; "he sees we are going down hill, and he as good +as bade me think no more of Susan." + +"Well," said the other, harshly, "it was your business to own the truth +and ask him help us over the stile--he's our own blood." + +"You want to let me down lower than I would let that Carlo dog of yours. +You're no brother of mine," retorted George fiercely and bitterly. + +"A bargain is a bargain," replied the other sullenly: "I asked Meadows, +and he said No. You fell talking with uncle about Susan, and never put +the question to him at all. Who is the false one, eh?" + +"If you call me false, I'll knock your ugly head off, sulky Bill." + +"You're false, and a fool into the bargain, bragging George!" + +"What, you will have it, then?" + +"If you can give it me." + +"Well, if it is to be," said George, "I'll give you something to put you +on your mettle. The best man shall farm 'The Grove,' and the other shall +be a servant on it, or go elsewhere, for I am sick of this." + +"And so am I!" cried William, hastily; "and have been any time this two +years." + +They tucked up their sleeves a little, shook hands, and then retired +each one step, and began to fight. + +And how came these two honest men to forget that the blood they proposed +to shed was thicker than water? Was it the farm, money, agricultural +dissension, temper? They would have told you it was, and perhaps thought +it was. It was Susanna Merton! + +The secret subtle influence of jealousy had long been fermenting, and +now it exploded in this way and under this disguise. + +Ah! William Fielding, and all of you, "Beware of jealousy"--cursed +jealousy! it is the sultan of all the passions, and the Tartar chief of +all the crimes. Other passions affect the character; this changes, and, +if good, always reverses it! Mind that, reverses it! turns honest men to +snakes, and doves to vultures. Horrible unnatural mixture of Love +with Hate--you poison the whole mental constitution--you bandage the +judgment--you crush the sense of right and wrong--you steel the bowels +of compassion--you madden the brain--you corrupt the heart--you damn the +soul. + +The Fieldings, then, shook hands mechanically, and receding each a step +began to spar. + +Each of these farmers fancied himself slightly the best man; but they +both knew they had an antagonist with whom it would not do to make the +least mistake. + +They therefore sparred and feinted with wary eye before they ventured +to close; George, however, the more impetuous, was preparing to come +to closer quarters when all of a sudden, to the other's surprise, he +dropped his hands by his sides, and turned the other way with a face +anything but warlike, fear being now the prominent expression. + +William followed the direction of his eye, and then William partook +his brother's uneasiness; however, he put his hands in his pockets, and +began to saunter about, in a circumference of three yards, and to get up +a would-be-careless whistle, while George's hands became dreadfully in +his way, so he washed them in the air. + +While they were employed in this peaceful pantomime a beautiful young +woman glided rapidly between the brothers. + +Her first words renewed their uneasiness. + +"What is this?" cried she, haughtily, and she looked from one to the +other like a queen rebuking her subjects. + +George looked at William--William had nothing ready. + +So George said, with some hesitation, but in a mellifluous voice, +"William was showing me--a trick--he learned at the fair--that is all, +Susan." + +"That is a falsehood, George," replied the lady, "the first you ever +told me"--(George colored)--"you were fighting, you two boys--I saw your +eyes flash!" + +The rueful wink exchanged by the combatants at this stroke of sagacity +was truly delicious. + +"Oh, fie! oh, fie! brothers by one mother fighting--in a Christian +land--within a stone's throw of a church, where brotherly love is +preached as a debt we owe to strangers, let alone our own blood." + +"Yes! it is a sin, Susan," said William, his conscience suddenly +illuminated. "So I ask _your_ pardon, Susanna." + +"Oh! it wasn't your fault, I'll be bound," was the gracious reply. "What +a ruffian you must be, George, to shed your brother's blood." + +"La! Susan," said George, with a doleful whine, "I wasn't going to +shed the beggar's blood. I was only going to give him a hiding for his +impudence." + +"Or take one for your own," replied William coolly. + +"That is more likely," said Susan. "George, take William's hand; take it +this instant, I say," cried she, with an air imperative and impatient. + +"Well, why not? don't you go in a passion, Susan, about nothing," said +George coaxingly. + +They took hands; she made them hold one another by the hand, which they +did with both their heads hanging down. "While I speak a word to you +two," said Susan Merton. + +"You ought both to go on your knees, and thank Providence that sent me +here to prevent so great a crime; and as for you, your character must +change greatly, George Fielding, before I trust myself to live in a +house of yours." + +"Is all the blame to fall on my head?" said George, letting go William's +hand with no great apparent reluctance. + +"Of course it is! William is a quiet lad that quarrels with nobody; you +are always quarreling; you thrashed our carter last Candlemas." + +"He spoke saucy words about you." + +Susan, smiling inwardly, made her face as repulsive outside as lay in +her power. + +"I don't believe it," said Susan; "your time was come round to fight and +be a ruffian, and so it was to-day, no doubt." + +"Ah!" said George, sorrowfully, "it is always poor George that does all +the wrong. + +"Oh!" replied the lady, an arch smile playing for a moment about her +lips, "I could scold William, too, if you think I am as much interested +in his conduct and behavior as in yours." + +"No, no!" cried George, brightening up, "don't think to scold anybody +but me, Susan; and William," said he, suddenly and frankly, "I ask your +pardon." + +"No more about it, George, if you please," answered William in his +dogged way. + +"Susan," said George, "you don't know all I have to bear. My heart is +sore, Susan, dear. Uncle twitted me not an hour ago with my ill luck, +and almost bade me to speak to you no more, leastways as my sweetheart; +and that was why, when William came at me on the top of such a blow, it +was more than I could bear; and Susan--Susan--uncle said you would stand +to whatever he said." + +"George," said Susan gently, "I am very sorry my father was so unkind." + +"Thank ye kindly, Susan; that is the first drop of dew that has fallen +on me to-day." + +"But obedience to parents," continued Susan, interrogating, as it were, +her conscience, "is a great duty. I _hope_ I shall never disobey my +father," faltered she. + +"Oh!" answered the goose George hastily, "I don't want any girl to be +kind to me that does not love me; I am so unlucky, it would not be worth +her while, you know." + +At this Susan answered still more sharply, "No, I don't think it would +be worth any woman's while, till your character and temper undergo a +change." + +George never answered a word, but went and leaned his head upon the side +of a cart that stood half in and half out of a shed close by. + +At this juncture a gay personage joined the party. He had a ball +waistcoat, as alarming tie, a shooting jacket, wet muddy trousers and +shoes, and an empty basket on his back. + +He joined our group, just as George was saying to himself very sadly, "I +am in everybody's way here"--and he attacked him directly. + +"Everybody is in this country." + +The reader is to understand that this Robinson was last from California; +and California had made such an impression upon him, that he turned the +conversation that way oftener than a well-regulated understanding recurs +to any one topic, except, perhaps, religion. + +He was always pestering George to go to California with him, and it must +be owned that on this one occasion George had given him a fair handle. + +"Come out of it," continued Robinson, "and make your fortune." + +"You did not make yours there," said Susan sharply. + +"I beg your pardon, miss. I made it, or how could I have spent it?" + +"No doubt," said William. "What comes by the wind goes by the water." + +"Alluding to the dust?" inquired the Cockney. + +"Gold dust especially," retorted Susan Merton. + +Robinson laughed. "The ladies are sharp, even in Berkshire," said he. + +Mr. Robinson then proceeded to disabuse their minds about the facility +of gold. + +"A crop of gold," said he, "does not come by the wind any more than a +crop of corn; it comes by harder digging than your potatoes ever saw, +and harder work than you ever did--oxen and horses perspire for you, +Fielding No. 2." + +"Did you ever see a horse or an ox mow an acre of grass or barley?" +retorted William dryly. + +"Don't brag," replied the other; "they'll eat all you can mow and never +say a word about it." + +This repartee was so suited to their rustic idea of wit, that Robinson's +antagonists laughed heartily, except George. + +"What is the matter with him?" said Robinson, sotto voce, indicating +George. + +"Oh! he is cross, never mind him," replied Susan ostentatiously loud. +George winced, but never spoke back to her. + +Robinson then proceeded to disabuse the rural mind of the notion that +gold is to be got without hard toil, even in California. He told them +how the miners' shirts were wet through and through in the struggle +for gold; he told them how the little boys demanded a dollar apiece for +washing these same garments; and how the miners to escape this extortion +sent their linen to China in ships on Monday morning, and China sent +them back on Saturday, only it was Saturday six weeks. + +Next Mr. Robinson proceeded to draw a parallel between England +and various nations on the other side of the Atlantic, not at all +complimentary to his island home; above all, he was eloquent on the +superior dignity of labor in new countries. + +"I heard one of your clodhoppers say the other day, 'The squire is a +good gentleman, he often _gives me a day's work_.' Now I should think it +was the clodhopper gave the gentleman the day's work, and the gentleman +gave him a shilling for it--and made five by it." + +William Fielding scratched his head. This was a new view of things to +him, but there seemed to be something in it. + +"Ay! rake that into your upper soil," cried our republican orator; then +collecting into one his scattered items of argument, he invited his +friend George to take his muscle, pluck, wind, backbone, and self, out +of this miserable country, and come where the best man has a chance to +win. + +"Come, George," he cried, "England is the spot if you happen to be +married to a duke's daughter, and got fifty thousand a year and three +houses. + +"_And_ a coach. + +"_And_ a brougham. + +"_And_ a curricle. + +"_And_ ten brace of pointers. + +"_And_ a telescope so big the stars must move to it, instead of it to +the stars. + +"_And_ no end of pretty housemaids. + +"_And_ a butler with a poultice round his neck and whiskers like a +mop-head. + +"_And_ a silver tub full of rose-water to sit in and read the _Morning +Post_. + +"_And_ a green-house full of peaches--and green peas all the year round. + +"_And_ a pew in the church warmed with biling eau de Cologne. + +"_And_ a carpet a foot thick. + +"_And_ a piano-forte in every blessed room in the house. But this island +is the Dead Sea to a poor man." + +He then, diverging from the rhetorical to the metropolitan style, +proposed to his friend "to open one eye. That will show you this hole +you are in is all poor hungry arable ground. You know you can't work it +to a profit." (George winced.) "No! steal, borrow, or beg 500 pounds. +Carry out a cargo of pea-jackets and fourpenny bits to swap for +gold-dust, a few tools, a stout heart, and a light pair of--'Oh, no; we +never mention them; their name is never heard'--and we'll soon fill both +pockets with the shiney in California." + +All this Mr. Robinson delivered with a volubility to which Berkshire had +hitherto been a stranger. + +"A crust of bread in England before buffalo beef in California," was +George's reply; but it was not given in that assured tone with which he +would have laughed at Robinson's eloquence a week ago. + +"I could not live with all those thieves and ruffians that are settled +down there like crows on a dead horse; but I thank you kindly, my lad, +all the same," said the tender-hearted young man. + +"Strange," thought he, "that so many should sing me the same tune," and +he fell back into his reverie. + +Here they were all summoned to dinner, with a dash of asperity, by Sarah +the stout farm servant. + +Susan lingered an instant to speak to George. She chose an unfortunate +topic. She warned him once more against Mr. Robinson. + +"My father says that he has no business nor trade, and he is not a +gentleman, in spite of his red and green cravat, so he must be a rogue +of some sort." + +"Shall I tell you his greatest fault?" was the bitter reply. "He is my +friend; he is the only creature that has spoken kind words to me to-day. +Oh! I saw how cross you looked at him." + +Susan's eyes flashed, and the color rose in her cheek, and the water in +her eyes. + +"You are a fool, George," said she; "you don't know how to read a woman, +nor her looks, nor her words either." + +And Susan was very angry and disdainful, and did not speak to George all +dinner-time. + +As for poor George, he followed her into the house with a heart both +sick and heavy. + +This Berkshire farmer had a proud and sensitive nature under a homely +crust. + +Old Merton's words had been iron passing through his soul, and besides +he felt as if everything was turning cold and slippery and gliding from +his hand. He shivered with vague fears, and wished the sun would set at +one o'clock and the sorrowful day come to an end. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE meal passed almost in silence; Robinson was too hungry to say a +word, and a weight hung upon George and Susan. + +As they were about to rise, William observed two men in the farmyard +who were strangers to him--the men seemed to be inspecting the hogs. It +struck him as rather cool; but apparently the pig is an animal which to +be prized needs but to be known, for all connoisseurs of him are also +enthusiastic amateurs. + +When I say the pig I mean the four-legged one. + +William Fielding, partly from curiosity to hear these strangers' +remarks, partly hoping to find customers in them, strolled into the +farmyard before his companions rose from the table. + +The others, looking carelessly out of the window, saw William join the +two men and enter into conversation with them; but their attention was +almost immediately diverted from that group by the entrance of Meadows. +He came in radiant; his face was a remarkable contrast to the rest of +the party. + +Susan could not help noticing it. + +"Why, Mr. Meadows," cried she, "you look as bright as a May morning; +it is quite refreshing to see you; we are all rather down here this +morning." + +Meadows said nothing, and did not seem at his ease under this remark. + +George rose from the table; so did Susan; Robinson merely pushed back +his chair and gave a comfortable little sigh, but the next moment he +cried "Hallo!" + +They looked up, and there was William's face close against the window. + +William's face was remarkably pale, and first he tried to attract +George's attention without speaking, but finding himself observed by the +whole party, he spoke out. + +"George, will you speak a word?" said he. + +George rose and went out; but Susan's curiosity was wakened, and she +followed him, accompanied by Meadows. + +"None but you, George," said William, with a voice half stern, half +quivering. + +George looked at his brother. + +"Out with it," cried he, "it is some deadly ill-luck; I have felt it +coming all day, but out with it; what can't I bear after the words I +have borne this morning?" + +William hung his head. + +"George, there is a distress upon the farm for the rent." + +George did not speak at first, he literally staggered under these words; +his proud spirit writhed in his countenance, and with a groan, he turned +his back abruptly upon them all and hid his face against the corner of +his own house, the cold hard bricks. + +Meadows, by strong self-command, contrived not to move a muscle of his +face. + +Up to this day and hour, Susan Merton had always seemed cool, compared +with her lover; she used to treat him a little _de haut en bas_. + +But when she saw his shame and despair, she was much distressed. + +"George, George!" she cried, "don't do so. Can nothing be done? Where +is my father?--they told me he was here. He is rich, he shall help you." +She darted from them in search of Merton; ere she could turn the angle +of the house he met her. + +"You had better go home, my girl," said he gravely. + +"Oh, no, no! I have been too unkind to George already," and she turned +toward him like a pitying angel with hands extended as if they would +bring balm to a hurt soul. + +Meadows left chuckling and was red and white by turns. + +Merton was one of those friends one may make sure of finding in +adversity. + +"There," cried he, "George, I told you how it would end." + +George wheeled round on him like lightning. + +"What, do you come here to insult over me? I must be a long way lower +than I am, before I shall be as low as you were when my mother took you +up and made a man of you." + +"George, George!" cried Susan in dismay; "stop, for pity's sake, +before you say words that will separate us forever. Father," cried the +peace-making angel, "how can you push poor George so hard and him in +trouble! and we have all been too unkind to him to-day." + +Ere either could answer, there was happily another interruption. A smart +servant in livery walked up to them with a letter. With the instinctive +feeling of class they all endeavored to conceal their agitation from the +gentleman's servant. He handed George the note, and saying, "I was to +wait for an answer, Farmer Fielding," sauntered toward the farm-stables. + +"From Mr. Winchester," said George, after a long and careful inspection +of the outside. + +In the country it is a point of honor to find out the writer of a letter +by the direction, not the signature. + +"The Honorable Francis Winchester! What does he write to you?" cried +Merton, in a tone of great surprise. This, too, was not lost on George. + +Human nature is human nature. He was not sorry to be able to read a +gentleman's letter in the face of one who had bitterly reproached him, +and of others who had seen him mortified and struck down. + +"Seems so," said George, dryly, and with a glance of defiance; and he +read out the letter. + +"George Fielding, my fine fellow, think of it again. I have two berths +in the ship that sails from Southampton to-morrow. You will have every +comfort on the voyage--a great point. I will do what I said for you" +("he promised me five hundred sheep and a run"). "I must have an honest +man, and where can I find as honest a man as George Fielding?" ("Thank +you, Mr. Winchester; George Fielding thanks you, sir.") And there was +something noble and simple in the way the young farmer drew himself up, +and looked fearlessly in all his companions' eyes. + +"You saved my life--I can do nothing for you here--and you are doing no +good at 'The Grove'--everybody says so ("everybody says so!"--and George +Fielding winced at the words). + +"And it really pains me, my brave fellow, to go without you where I know +I could put you on the way of fortune. My heart is pretty stout; but +home is home; and be assured that I wait with some anxiety to know +whether my eyes are to look on nothing but water for the next four +months, or are to be cheered by the sight of something from home, the +face of a thoroughbred English yeoman, and--a friend--and--and--" + +Poor George could read no more, the kind words, coming after his +affronts and troubles, brought his heart to his mouth. + +Susan took the letter from him, and read out-- + +"And an upright, downright honest man"--"AND SO YOU ARE, GEORGE!" cried +she, warmly, drawing to George's side, and darting glances of defiance +vaguely around. Then she continued to read-- + +"If the answer is favorable, a word is enough. Meet me at 'The Crown,' +in Newborough, to-night, and we will go up to Town by the mail train." + +"The answer is, Yes," said George to the servant, who was at some +distance. + +Susan, bending over the letter, heard, but could not realize the word, +but the servant now came nearer. George said to him, "Tell your master, +Yes." + +"Yes? George!" cried Susan, "what do you mean by yes? It is about going +to Australia." + +"The answer is yes," said George. + +The servant went away with the answer. + +The others remained motionless. + +"This nobleman's son respects me if worse folk don't. But it is not the +great bloodhounds and greyhounds that bark at misfortune's heels, it is +only the village curs, when all is done. This is my path. I'll pack up +my things and go." And he did not look at Susan or any of them, but went +into the house like a man walking in his sleep. + +There was a stupefied pause. + +Then Susan gave a cry like a wounded deer. + +"Father! what have you done?" + +Merton himself had been staggered, but he replied stoutly: + +"No more than my duty, girl, and I hope you will do no less than yours." + +At this moment Robinson threw up the window and jumped out into the +yard. + +Meadows, under stronger interests, had forgotten Robinson; but now at +sight of him he looked round, and catching the eye of a man who was +peering over the farmyard wall, made him a signal. + +"What is the matter?" cried Robinson. + +"George is going to Australia," replied Merton, coldly. + +"Australia!" roared Robinson--"Australia! He's mad. Who ever goes there +unless they are forced? He shan't go there! I wouldn't go there if my +passage was paid, and a new suit of clothes given me, and the governor's +gig to take me ashore to a mansion provided for my reception, fires +lighted, beds aired and pipes laid across upon the table." + +As Robinson concluded this tirade the policeman and constable, who had +crept round the angle of the farm-house, came one on each side, put each +a hand on one of his elbows and--took him! + +He looked first down at their hands in turn, then up at their faces in +turn, and when he saw the metropolitan's face a look of simple disgust +diffused itself over his whole countenance. + +"Ugh!!!" interjected Robinson. + +"Ay!" replied the policeman, while putting handcuffs on him. "To +Australia you'll go, for all that, Tom Lyon, alias Scott, alias +Robinson, and you'll have a new suit of clothes, mostly one color, +and voyage paid, and a large house ashore waiting for you; and the +governor's gig will come alongside for you, provided they can't find the +convicts' barge," and the official was pleased with himself and his wit +and allowed it to appear. + +But by this time Robinson was on his balance again. "Gentlemen," +answered he with cold dignity, "what am I to understand by this violence +from persons to whom I am an utter stranger?" and he might have set for +the picture of injured innocence. "I am not acquainted with you, sir," +added he; "and by the titles you give me it seems you are not acquainted +with me." + +The police laughed, and took out of this injured man's pocket the stolen +notes which Meadows instantly identified. + +Then Mr. Robinson started off into another key equally artistical in its +way. + +"Miss Merton," snuffled he, "appearances are against me, but mark my +words, my innocence will emerge all the brighter for this temporary +cloud." + +Susan Merton ran indoors, saying, "Oh! I must tell George." She was +not sorry of an excuse to be by George's side, and remind him by her +presence that if home had its thorns it had its rose tree, too. + +News soon spreads; rustic heads were seen peeping over the wall to see +the finale of the fine gentleman from "Lunnun." Meantime the constable +went to put his horse in a four-wheeled chaise destined to convey +Robinson to the county jail. + +If the rural population expected to see this worthy discomposed by so +sudden a change of fortune, they were soon undeceived. + +"Well, Jacobs," said he, with sudden familiarity, "you seem uncommon +pleased, and I am content. I would rather have gone to California; but +any place is better than England. Laugh those who win. I shall breathe a +delicious climate; you will make yourself as happy as a prince, that +is to say, miserable, upon fifteen shillings and two colds a week; my +sobriety and industry will realize a fortune under a smiling sun. Let +chaps that never saw the world, and the beautiful countries there are in +it, snivel at leaving this island of fogs and rocks and taxes and nobs, +the rich man's paradise, the poor man's--I never swear, it's vulgar." + +While he was crushing his captors with his eloquence, George and +Susan came together from the house; George's face betrayed wonder and +something akin to horror. + +"A thief!" cried he. "Have I taken the hand of a thief?" + +"It is a business like any other," said Robinson deprecatingly. + +"If you have no shame I have; I long to be gone now." + +"George!" whined the culprit, who, strange to say, had become attached +to the honest young farmer. "Did ever I take tithe of you? You have got +a silver candle cup, a heavenly old coffee-pot, no end of spoons double +the weight those rogues the silversmiths make them now; they are in a +box under your bed in your room," added he, looking down. "Count them, +they are all right; and Miss Merton, your bracelet, the gold one with +the cameo: I could have had it a hundred times. Miss Merton, ask him to +shake hands with me at parting. I am so fond of him, and perhaps I shall +never see him again. + +"Shake hands with you?" answered George sternly; "if your hands were +loose I doubt I should ram my fist down your throat; but there, you are +not worth a thought at such a time, and you are a man in trouble, and I +am another. I forgive you, and I pray Heaven I may never see your face +again." + +And Honesty turned his back in Theft's face. + +Robinson bit his lip and said nothing, but his eyes glistened; just then +a little boy and girl, who had been peering about mighty curious, took +courage and approached hand in hand. The girl was the speaker, as a +matter of course. + +"Farmer Fielding," said she curtsying, a mode of reverence which was +instantly copied by the boy, "we are come to see the thief; they say +you have caught one. Oh, dear!" (and her bright little countenance was +overcast), "I couldn't have told it from a man!" + +We don't know all that is in the hearts of the wicked. Robinson was +observed to change color at these silly words. + +"Mr. Jacobs," said he, addressing the policeman, "have you authority to +put me in the pillory before trial?" He said this coldly and sternly; +and then added, "Perhaps you are aware that I am a man, and I might +say a brother, for you were a thief, you know!" Then changing his tone +entirely, "I say, Jacobs," said he, with cheerful briskness, "do you +remember cracking the silversmith's shop in Lambeth along with Jem +Salisbury and Black George, and--" + +"There, the gig is ready," cried Mr. Jacobs; "you come along," and the +ex-thief pushed the thief hastily off the premises and drove him away +with speed. + +George Fielding gave a bitter sigh. This was a fresh mortification. He +had for the last two months been defending Robinson against the surmises +of the village. + +Villages are always concluding there is something wrong about people. + +"What does he do?" inquired our village. + +"Where does he get his blue coat with brass buttons, his tartan +waistcoat and green satin tie with red ends? We admit all this looks +like a gentleman. But yet, somehow, a gentleman is a horse of another +color than this Robinson." + +George had sometimes laughed at all this, sometimes been very angry, and +always stood up stoutly for his friend and lodger. + +And now the fools were right and he was wrong. His friend and protege +was handcuffed before his eyes and carried off to the county jail amid +the grins and stares of a score of gaping rustics, who would make a fine +story of it this evening in both public-houses; and a hundred voices +would echo some such conversational Tristich as this: + +1st Rustic. "I tawld un as much, dinn't I now, Jarge?" + +2d Rustic. "That ye did, Richard, for I heerd ee." + +1st Rustic. "But, la! bless ye, he don't vally advice, he don't." + +George Fielding groaned out, "I'm ready to go now--I'm quite ready to +go--I am leaving a nest of insults;" and he darted into the house, as +much to escape the people's eyes as to finish his slight preparations +for so great a journey. + +Two men were left alone; sulky William and respectable Meadows. Both +these men's eyes followed George into the house, and each had a strong +emotion they were bent on concealing, and did conceal from each other; +but was it concealed from all the world? + +The farm-house had two rooms looking upon the spot where most of our +tale has passed. + +The smaller one of these was a little state parlor, seldom used by the +family. Here on a table was a grand old folio Bible; the names, births, +and deaths of a century of Fieldings appeared in rusty ink and various +handwritings upon its fly-leaf. + +Framed on the walls were the first savage attempts of woman at +worsted-work in these islands. There were two moral commonplaces, and +there was the forbidden fruit-tree, whose branches diverged, at set +distances like the radii of a circle, from its stem, a perpendicular +line; exactly at the end of each branch hung one forbidden +fruit--pre-Raphaelite worsted-work. + +There were also two prints of more modern date, one agricultural, one +manufactural. + +No. 1 was a great show of farming implements at Doncaster. + +No. 2 showed how, one day in the history of man and of mutton, a sheep +was sheared, her wool washed, teased, carded, etc., and the cloth *'d +and *'d and *'d and *'d, and a coat shaped and sewed and buttoned upon a +goose, whose preparations for inebriating the performers and spectators +of his feat appeared in a prominent part of the picture. + +The window of this sunny little room was open and on the sill was a row +of flower-pots from which a sweet fresh smell crept with the passing air +into the chamber. + +Behind these flower-pots for two hours past had crouched--all eye and +ear and mind--a keen old man. + +To Isaac Levi age had brought vast experience, and had not yet dimmed +any one of his senses. More than forty-five years ago he had been +brought to see that men seldom act or speak so as to influence the +fortunes of others without some motive of their own; and that these +motives are seldom the motives they advance; and that their real motives +are not always known to themselves, and yet can nearly always be read +and weighed by an intelligent bystander. + +So for near half a century Isaac Levi had read that marvelous page of +nature written on black, white and red parchments, and called "Man." + +One result of his perusal was this, that the heads of human tribes +differ far more than their hearts. + +The passions and the heart he had found intelligible and much the same +from Indus to the Pole. + +The people of our tale were like men walking together in a coppice; +they had but glimpses of each others' minds. But to Isaac behind his +flower-pots they were a little human chart spread out flat before him, +and not a region in it he had not traveled and surveyed before to-day: +what to others passed for accident to him was design; he penetrated more +than one disguise of manner; and above all his intelligence bored like +a center-bit into the deep heart of his enemy, Meadows, and at each +turn of the center-bit his eye flashed, his ear lived, and he crouched +patient as a cat, keen as a lynx. + +He was forgotten, but not by all. + +Meadows, a cautious man, was the one to ask himself, "Where is that old +heathen, and what is he doing?" + +To satisfy himself, Meadows had come smoothly to the door of the little +apartment, and burst suddenly into it. + +There he found the reverend Israelite extended on a little couch, a +bandana handkerchief thrown over his face, calmly reposing. + +Meadows paused, eyed him keenly, listened to his gentle but audible, +equable breathing, relieved his mind by shaking his fist at him, and +went out. + +Thirty seconds later Isaac _awoke!_ spat in the direction of Meadows, +and crouched again behind the innocent flowers, patient as a cat, keen +as a lynx. + +So then; when George was gone in, William Fielding and Mr. Meadows both +felt a sudden need of being alone; each longed to indulge some feeling +he did not care the other should see; so they both turned their faces +away from each other and strolled apart. + +Isaac Levi caught both faces off their guard, and read the men as by a +lightning flash to the bottom line of their hearts. + +For two hours he had followed the text, word by word, deed by deed, +letter by letter, and now a comment on that text was written in these +faces. + +That comment said that William was rejoiced at George's departure and +ashamed of himself for the feeling. That Meadows rejoiced still more and +was ashamed anybody should know he had the feeling. + +Isaac withdrew from his lair; his task was done. + +"Those men both love that woman, and this Meadows loves her with all his +soul, and she-aha!" and triumph flashed from under his dark brows. +But at his age calm is the natural state of the mind and spirits; he +composed himself for the present, and awaited an opportunity to strike +his enemy with effect. + +The aged man had read Mr. Meadows aright; under that modulated exterior +raged as deep a passion as ever shook a strong nature. + +For some time he had fought against it. "She is another man's +sweetheart," he had said to himself; "no good will come of courting +her." But by degrees the flax bonds of prudence snapped one by one as +the flame every now and then darted at them. Meadows began to reason the +matter coolly. + +"They can never marry, those two. I wish they would marry or break off, +to put me out of this torture; but they can't marry, and my sweet Susan +is wasting her prime for nothing, for a dream. Besides, it is not as +if she loved him the way I love her. She is like many a young maid. +The first comer gets her promise before she knows her value. They walk +together, get spoken of; she settles down into a groove, and so goes on, +whether her heart is in it or not; it is habit more than anything." + +Then he watched the pair, and observed that Susan's manner to George was +cool and off-hand, and that she did not seem to seek opportunities of +being alone with him. + +Having got so far, he now felt it his duty to think of her interest. + +He could not but feel that he was a great match for any farmer's +daughter; whereas "poor young Fielding," said he compassionately, "is +more likely to break as a bachelor than to support a wife and children +upon 'The Grove.'" + +He next allowed his mind to dwell with some bitterness upon the poor +destiny that stood between him and the woman he loved. + +"George Fielding! a dull dog, that could be just as happy with any other +girl as with my angel. An oaf, so little alive to his prize that he +doesn't even see he has rivals; doesn't see that his brother loves her. +Ah! but I see that, though; lovers' eyes are sharp. Doesn't see me, who +mean to take her from both these Fieldings--and what harm? It isn't as +if their love was like mine. Heaven forbid I should meddle if it was. +A few weeks, and a few mugs of ale would wash her from what little mind +either of them have; but I never loved a woman before, and never could +look at another after her." + +And so by degrees Meadows saw that he was quite justified in his resolve +to win Susan Merton, PROVIDED IT WAS DONE FAIRLY. + +This resolve taken, all this man's words and actions began to be colored +more or less by his secret wishes; and it is not too much to say, that +this was the hand which was gently but adroitly, with a touch here and a +touch there, pushing George Fielding across the Ocean. + +You see, a respectable man can do a deal of mischief; more than a rogue +could. + +A shrug of the shoulders from Meadows had caused the landlord to +distrain. + +A hint from Meadows had caused Merton to affront George about Susan. + +A tone of Meadows had closed the bank cash-box to the Fieldings' bill +of exchange, and so on. And now, finding it almost impossible to contain +his exultation--for George once in Australia he felt he could soon +vanquish Susan's faint preference, the result of habit--he turned off, +and went to meet his mare at the gate; the boy had just returned with +her. + +He put his foot in the stirrup, but ere he mounted it occurred to him to +ask one of the farm servants whether the old Jew was gone. + +"I sin him in the barn just now," was the reply. + +Meadows took his foot out of the stirrup. Never leave an enemy behind +you, was one of his rules. "And why does the old heathen stay?" Meadows +asked himself; he clinched his teeth and vowed he would not leave the +village till George Fielding was on his way to Australia. + +He sent his mare to the "Black Horse," and strolled up the village; +then he showed the boy a shilling and said, "You be sure and run to the +public-house and let me know when George Fielding is going to start--I +should like to see the last of him." + +This was true! + + + +CHAPTER III. + +AND now passed over "The Grove" the heaviest hours it had ever known; +hours as weary as they were bitter to George Fielding. "The Grove" +was nothing to him now--in mind he was already separated from it; his +clothes were ready, he had nothing more to do, and he wished he could +fling himself this moment into the ship and hide his head, and sleep +and forget his grief, until he reached the land whose fat and endless +pastures were to make him rich and send him home a fitter match for +Susan. + +As the moment for parting drew nearer there came to him that tardy +consolation which often comes to the honest man then when it can but add +to his pangs of regret. + +Perhaps no man is good, manly, tender, generous, honest and unlucky +quite in vain; at last, when such a man is leaving all who have been +unjust or cold to him, scales fall from their eyes, a sense of his value +flashes like lightning across their half-empty skulls and tepid hearts, +they feel and express some respect and regret, and make him sadder to +leave them; so did the neighbors of "The Grove" to young Fielding. Some +hands gave him now their first warm pressure, and one or two voices even +faltered as they said "God bless thee, lad!" + +And now the carter's lad ran in with a message from a farmer at the top +of the hill. + +"Oh! Master George, Farmer Dodd says, if you please, he couldn't think +to let you walk. You are to go in his gig to Newbury, if you'll walk +up as fur as his farm; he's afeared to come down _our_ hill, a says, +because if _he_ did, _his_ mare 'ud kick _his_ gig into toothpicks, _he_ +says. Oh! Master George, _I_ be sorry _you_ be going," and the boy, who +had begun quite cheerfully, ended in a whimper. + +"I thank him! Take my bag, boy, and I'll follow in half an hour." + +Sarah brought out the bag and opened it, and, weeping bitterly, put +into it a bottle with her name on a bit of paper tied round the neck, +to remind poor George he was not forgotten at "The Grove," and then she +gave George the key and went sadly in, her apron to her eyes. + +And now George fixed his eye on his brother William, and said to him, +"Wilham, will you come with me, if _you_ please?" + +"Ay, George, sure." + +They went through the farmyard side by side; neither spoke, and George +took a last look at the ricks, and he paused, and seemed minded to +speak, but he did not, he only muttered "not here." Then George led the +way out into the paddock, and so into the lane, and very soon they saw +the village church. William wondered George did not speak. They passed +under the yewtree into the churchyard. William's heart fluttered. They +found the vicar's cow browsing on the graves. William took up a stone. +George put out his hand not to let him hurt her, and George turned +her gently into the lane; then he stepped carefully among the graves. +William followed him, his heart fluttering more and more with vague +fears. William knew now where they were going, but what was George going +to say to him there? his heart beat faint-like. By-and-by the brothers +came to this-- + +[Drawing of Grave] + +The grave was between the two men--and silence--both looked down. + +George whispered, "Good-by, mother! She never thought we should be +parted this way." Then he turned to William and opened his mouth to +say something more to him; doubtless that which he had come to say, +but apparently it was too much for him. I think he feared his own +resolution. He gasped and with a heavy sigh led the way home. William +walked with him, not knowing what to think or do or say; at last he +muttered, "I wouldn't go, if my heart was here!" + +"I shall go, Will," replied George, rather sternly as it seemed. + +When they came back to the house they found several persons collected. + +Old Fielding, the young men's grandfather, was there; he had made them +wheel him in his great chair out into the sun. + +Grandfather Fielding had reached the last stage of human existence. He +was ninety-two years of age. The lines in his face were cordage, his +aspect was stony and impassible, and he was all but impervious to +passing events; his thin blood had almost ceased to circulate in his +extremities; for every drop he had was needed to keep his old heart +a-beating at all, instead of stopping like a clock that has run down. + +Meadows had returned to see George off, and old Merton was also there, +and he was one of those whose hearts gave them a bit of a twinge. + +"George," said he, "I'm vexed for speaking unkind to you to-day of all +days in the year; I didn't think we were to part so soon, lad." + +"No more about it, uncle," faltered George; "what does it matter now?" + +Susan Merton came out of the house; she had caught her father's +conciliatory words; she seemed composed, but pale; she threw her arms +round her father's neck. + +"Oh! father," said she imploringly, "I thought it was a dream, but he is +going, he is really going. Oh! don't let him go from us; speak him fair, +father, his spirit is so high!" + +"Susan!" replied the old farmer, "mayhap the lad thinks me his enemy, +but I'm not. My daughter shall not marry a bankrupt farmer, but you +bring home a thousand pounds--just one thousand pounds--to show me you +are not a fool, and you shall have my daughter and she shall have my +blessing." + +Meadows exulted. + +"Your hand on that, uncle," cried George, with ardor; "your hand on that +before Heaven and all present." + +The old farmer gave George his hand upon it. + +"But, father," cried Susan, "your words are sending him away from me." + +"Susan!" said George sorrowfully but firmly, "I am to go, but don't +forget it is for your sake I leave you, my darling Susan--to be a better +man for your sake. Uncle, since your last words there is no ill-will; +but (bluntly) I can't speak my heart before you." + +"I'll go, George, I'll go; shan't be said my sister's son hadn't leave +to speak his mind to letbe who atool,* at such a time." + + *Let be who it will. Cui libet. + +Merton turned to leave them, but ere he had taken two steps a most +unlooked-for interruption chained him to the spot. An old man, with a +long beard and a glittering eye, was among them before they were aware +of him; he fixed his eye upon Meadows, and spoke a single word--but that +word fell like a sledge-hammer. + +"No!!" said Isaac Levi in the midst. "No!!" repeated he to John Meadows. + +Meadows understood perfectly what "No" meant; a veto upon all his plans, +hopes and wishes. + +"Young man," said Isaac to George, "you shall not wander forth from the +home of your fathers. These old eyes see deeper than yours (and he sent +an eye-stab at Meadows); you are honest--all men say so--I will lend +you the money for your rent, and one who loves you (and he gave another +eye-stab at Meadows) will bless me." + +"Oh! yes, I bless you," cried Susan innocently. + +The late exulting Meadows was benumbed at this. + +"Surely Heaven sends you to me," cried Susan. "It is Mr. Levi, of +Farnborough." + +Here was a diversion. Meadows cursed the intruder, and his own evil star +that had raised him up so malignant an enemy. + +"All my web undone in a moment," thought he, and despair began to take +possession of him. + +Susan, on the other hand, was all joy and hope; William more or less +despondent. + +The old Jew glanced from one to another, read them all, and enjoyed his +triumph. + +But when his eye returned to George Fielding he met with something he +had not reckoned upon. + +The young man showed no joy, no emotion. He stood immovable, like +a statue of a man, and when he opened his lips it was like a statue +speaking with its marble mouth. + +"No! Susan. No! old man. I am honest, though I'm poor--and proud, though +you have seen me put to shame near my own homestead more than once +to-day. To borrow without a chance of paying is next door to stealing; +and I should never pay you. My eyes are opened in spite of my heart. I +can't farm 'The Grove' with no grass, and wheat at forty shillings. I've +tried all I know, and I can't do it. Will there is dying to try, and +he shall try, and may Heaven speed his plow better than it has poor +George's." + +"I am not thinking of the farm now, George," said William. "I'm thinking +of when we were boys, and used to play marbles--together--upon the +tombstones." And he faltered a little. + +"Mr. Levi! seems you have a kindness for me. Show it to my brother when +I'm away, if you _will_ be so good." + +"Hum?" said Isaac doubtfully. "I care not to see your stout young heart +give way, as it will. Ah, me! I can pity the wanderer from home. I will +speak a word with you, and then I will go home." + +He drew George aside, and made him a secret communication. + +Merton called Susan to him, and made her promise to be prudent, then he +shook hands with George and went away. + +Now Meadows, from the direction of Isaac's glance, and a certain +half-surprised half-contemptuous look that stole over George's face, +suspected that his enemy, whose sagacity he could no longer doubt, was +warning George against him. + +This made him feel very uneasy where he was, and this respectable man +dreaded some exposure of his secret. So he said hastily, "I'll go along +with you, farmer," and in a moment was by Merton's side, as that worthy +stopped to open the gate that led out of George's premises. His feelings +were anything but pleasant when George called to him: + +"No, sir! stop. You are as good a witness as I could choose of what I +have to say. Step this way, if you please, sir." + +Meadows returned, clinched his teeth, and prepared for the worst, but +inwardly he cursed his uneasy folly in staying here, instead of riding +home the moment George had said "Yes!" to Australia. + +George now looked upon the ground a moment; and there was something in +his manner that arrested the attention of all. + +Meadows turned hot and cold. + +"I am going--to speak--to my brother, Mr. Meadows!" said he, syllable by +syllable to Meadows in a way brimful of meaning. + +"To me, George?" said William, a little uneasy. + +"To you!--Fall back a bit." (Some rustics were encroaching upon the +circle.) + +"Fall back, if you please; this is a family matter." + +Isaac Levi, instead of going quite away, seated himself on a bench +outside the palings. + +It was now William's turn to flutter; he said, however, to himself, "It +is about the farm; it must be about the farm." + +George resumed. "I've often had it on my mind to speak to you, but I was +ashamed, now that's the truth; but now I am going away from her I must +speak out, and I will--William!" + +"Yes, George?" + +"You've taken--a fancy--to my Susan, William!" + +At these words, which, though they had cost him so much to say, George +spoke gravely and calmly like common words, William gave one startled +look all round, then buried his face directly in his hands in a paroxysm +of shame. + +Susan, who was looking at George, remonstrated loudly, "How can you be +so silly, George! I am sure that is the last idea poor William--" + +George drew her attention to William by a wave of the hand. + +She held her tongue in a moment, and turned very red, and lowered her +eyes to the ground. It was a very painful situation--to none more than +to Meadows, who was waiting his turn. + +George continued: "Oh, it is not to reproach you, my poor lad. Who could +be near her, and not warm to her? But she is my lass, Will, and no other +man's. It is three years since she said the word. And though it was my +hard luck there should be some coolness between us this bitter day, +she will think of me when the ocean rolls between us if no villain +undermines me--" + +"Villain! George!" groaned William. "That is a word I never thought to +hear from you." + +"That's why I speak in time," said George. "I do suppose I am safe +against villainy here." And his eye swept lightly over both the men. +"Anyway, it shan't be a _mis_take or a _mis_understanding; it shall be +villainy if _'tis_ done. Speak, Susanna Merton, and speak your real mind +once for all." + +"Oh! George," cried Susan, fluttering with love; "you shall not go in +doubt of me. We are betrothed this three years, and I never regretted my +choice a single moment. I never saw, I never shall see, the man I could +bear to look on beside you, my beautiful George. Take my ring and my +promise, George." And she put her ring on his little finger and kissed +his hand. "While you are true to me, nothing but death shall part us +twain. There never was any coolness between us, dear; you only thought +so. You don't know what fools women are; how they delight to tease the +man they love, and so torment themselves ten times more. I always loved +you, but never as I do to-day; so honest, so proud, so unfortunate; I +love you, I honor you, I adore you, oh! my love!--my love!--my love!!" + +She saw but George--she thought but of George--and how to soften his +sorrow, and remove his doubts, if he had any. And she poured out these +words of love with her whole soul--with blushes and tears and all the +fire of a chaste and passionate woman's heart. And she clung to her +love; and her tender bosom heaved against his; and she strained him, +with tears and sighs, to her bosom; and he kissed her beautiful head; +and his suffering heart drew warmth from this heavenly contact. + +The late exulting Meadows turned as pale as ashes, and trembled from +head to foot. + +"Do you hear, William?" said George. + +"I hear, George," replied William in an iron whisper, with his sullen +head sunk upon his breast. + +George left Susan, and came between her and William. + +"Then, Susan," said he, rather loud, "here is your brother." + +William winced. + +"William! here is my life!" And he pointed to Susan. "Let no man rob me +of it if one mother really bore us." + +It went through William's heart like a burning arrow. And this was why +George had taken him to their mother's grave. That flashed across him, +too. + +The poor sulky fellow's head was seen to rise inch by inch till he held +it as erect as a king's. + +"Never!" he cried, half shouting, half weeping. "Never, s'help me God! +She's my sister from this hour--no more, no less. And may the red blight +fall on my arm and my heart, if I or any man takes her from you--any +man!" he cried, his temples flushing and his eye glittering; "sooner +than a hundred men should take her from you while I am here I'd die at +their feet a hundred times." + +Well done, sullen and rugged but honest man; the capital temptation of +your life is wrestled with and thrown. That is always to every man a +close, a deadly, a bitter struggle; and we must all wade through this +deep water at one hour or another of our lives. It is as surely our fate +as it is one day to die. + +It is a noble sight to see an honest man "cleave his own heart in twain, +and fling away the baser part of it." These words, that burst from +William's better heart, knocked at his brother's you may be sure. He +came to William, "I believe you," said he; "I trust you, I thank you." +Then he held out his hand; but nature would have more than that, in a +moment his arm was round his brother's neck, where it had not been, +this many a year. He withdrew it as quickly, half ashamed; and Anne +Fielding's two sons grasped one another's hands, and holding hands +turned away their heads and tried to hide their eyes. + +They are stronger than bond, deed or indenture, these fleshly compacts +written by moist eyes, stamped by the grip of eloquent hands, in those +moments full of soul when men's hearts beat from their bosoms to their +fingers' ends. + +Isaac Levi came to the brothers, and said to William, "Yes, I will now," +and then he went slowly and thoughtfully away to his own house. + +"And now," faltered George, "I feel strong enough to go, and I'll go." + +He looked round at all the familiar objects he was leaving, as if to +bid them farewell; and last, while every eye watched his movements, he +walked slowly up to his grandfather's chair. + +"Grandfather," said he, "I am going a long journey, and mayhap shall +never see you again; speak a word to me before I go." + +The impassive old man took no notice, so Susan came to him. +"Grandfather, speak to George; poor George is going into a far country." + +When she had repeated this in his ear their grandfather looked up for a +moment. "George, fetch me some snuff from where you're going." + +A spasm crossed George's face; he was not to have a word of good omen +from the aged man. + +"Friends," said he, looking appealingly to all the rest, Meadows +included, "I wanted him to say God bless you, but snuff is all his +thought now. Well, old man, George won't forget your last word, such as +'tis." + +In a hutch near a corner of the house was William's pointer, Carlo. +Carlo, observing by the general movement that there was something on +foot, had the curiosity to come out to the end of his chain, and as he +stood there, giving every now and then a little uncertain wag of his +tail, George took notice of him and came to him and patted his head. + +"Good-by, Carlo," faltered George, "poor Carlo--you and I shall never go +after the partridges again, Carlo. The dog shows more understanding than +the Christian. By, Carlo." Then he looked wistfully at William's dog, +but he said nothing more. + +William watched every look of George, but he said nothing at the time. + +"Good-by, little village church, where I went to church man and boy; +good-by, churchyard, where my mother lies; there will be no church +bells, Susan, where I am going; no Sunday bells to remind me of my soul +and home." + +These words, which he spoke with great difficulty, were hardly out of +young Fielding's mouth when a very painful circumstance occurred; one +of those things that seem the contrivance of some malignant spirit. The +church bells in a moment struck up their merriest peal! + +George Fielding started, he turned pale and his lips trembled. "Are they +mocking me?" he cried. "Do they take a thought what I am going through +this moment, the hard-hearted--" + +"No, no, no!" cried William; "don't think it, George; I know what +'tis--I'll tell ye." + +"What's it?" + +"Well, it is--well, George, it is Tom Clarke and Esther Borgherst +married to-day. Only they couldn't have the ringers till the afternoon." + +"Why, Will, they have only kept company a year, and Susan and I have +kept company three years; and Tom and Esther are married to-day; and +what are George and Susan doing to-day? God help me! Oh, God help me! +What _shall_ I do? what _shall_ I do?" And the stout heart gave way, and +George Fielding covered his face with his hands and burst out sobbing +and crying. + +Susan flung her arms round his neck. "Oh! George, my pride is all gone; +don't go, don't think to go; have pity on us both, and don't go." And +she clung to him--her bonnet fallen off, her hair disheveled--and they +sobbed and wept in one another's arms. + +Meadows writhed with the jealous anguish this sad sight gave him, and +at that moment he could have cursed the whole creation. He tried to +fly, but he was rooted to the spot. He leaned sick as death against the +palings. + +George and Susan cried together, and then they wiped one another's eyes +like simple country folk with one pocket-handkerchief; and then they +kissed one another in turn, and made each other's tears flow fast again; +and again wiped one another's eyes with one handkerchief. + +Meadows griped the palings convulsively--hell was in his heart. + +"Poor souls, God help them!" said William to himself in his purified +heart. + +The silence their sorrow caused all around was suddenly invaded by +a voice that seemed to come from another world--it was Grandfather +Fielding. "The autumn sun is not so warm as _she_ used to be!" + +Yes, there was the whole map of humanity on that little spot in the +county of Berks. The middle-aged man, a schemer, watching the success +of his able scheme, and stunned and wounded by its recoil. And old +age, callous to noble pain, all alive to discomfort, yet man to the +last--blaming any one but Number One, cackling against heavenly bodies, +accusing the sun and the kitchen fire of frigidity--not his own empty +veins! And the two poor young things sobbing as if their hearts would +break over their first great earthly sorrow. + +George was the first to recover himself. + +"Shame upon me!" he cried; he drew Susan to his bosom, and pressed a +long, burning kiss upon her brow. + +And now all felt the wrench was coming. George, with a wild, +half-terrified look, signaled William to come to him. + +"Help me, Will! you see I have no more manhood than a girl." + +Susan instinctively trembled. George once more pressed his lips to her, +as if they would grow there. William took her hand. She trembled more +and more. + +"Take my hand; take your brother's hand, my poor lass," said he. + +She trembled violently; and then George gave a cry that seemed to tear +his heart, and darted from them in a moment. + +Poor Susan uttered more than one despairing scream, and stretched out +both her hands for George. He did not see her, for he dared not look +back. + +"Bob, loose the dog," muttered William hastily, in a broken voice. + +The dog was loosed, and ran after George, who, he thought, was only +going for a walk. Susan was sinking pale and helpless upon her brother's +bosom. + +"Pray, sister," said gentle William; "pray, sister, as I must." + +A faint shiver was all the answer; her senses had almost left her. + +When George was a little way up the hill, something ran suddenly against +his legs----he started--it was Carlo. He turned and lifted up his hands +to Heaven; and William could see that George was blessing him for this. +Carlo was more than a dog to poor George at that cruel moment. Soon +after that, George and Carlo reached the crown of the hill. George's +figure stood alone a moment between them and the sky. He was seen to +take his hat off, and raise his hands once more to Heaven, while he +looked down upon all he loved and left; and then he turned his sorrowful +face again toward that distant land--and they saw him no more! + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE world is full of trouble. + +While we are young we do not see how true this ancient homely saying is. + +That wonderful dramatic prologue, the first chapter of Job, is but a +great condensation of the sorrows that fall like hail upon many a mortal +house. Job's black day, like the day of the poetic prophets--the true +_sacri vates_ of the ancient world--is a type of a year--a bitter human +year. It is terrible how quickly a human landscape all gilded meadow, +silver river and blue sky can cloud and darken. + +George Fielding had compared himself this very day to an oak tree, "Even +so am I rooted to my native soil." His fate accepted his simile. The oak +of centuries yields to an impalpable antagonist, whose very name stands +in proverbs for weakness and insignificance. This thin, light trifle, +rendered impetuous by motion, buffets the king of the forest, tears +his roots with fury out of the earth, and lays his towering head in +the dust; and even so circumstances, none of them singly irresistible, +converging to one point, buffeted sore another oak pride of our fields, +and, for aught I know, of our whole island--an honest English yeoman; +and tore him from his farm, from his house hard by his mother's grave, +from the joy of his heart, his Susan, and sent him who had never +traveled a hundred miles in his life across a world of waters to keep +sheep at the Antipodes. A bereaved and desolate heart went with Farmer +Dodd in the gig to Newborough; sad, desolate and stricken hearts +remained behind. When two loving hearts are torn bleeding asunder it is +a shade better to be the one that is driven away into action, than the +bereaved twin that petrifies at home. + +The bustle, the occupation, the active annoyances are some sort of +bitter distraction to the unfathomable grief--it is one little shade +worse to lie solitary and motionless in the old scenes from which the +sunlight is now fled. + +It needed but a look at Susan Merton, as she sat moaning and quivering +from head to foot in George's kitchen, to see that she was in no +condition to walk back to Grassmere Farm to-night. + +So as she refused--almost violently refused--to stay at "The Grove," +William harnessed one of the farm-horses to a cart and took her home +round by the road. + +"It is six miles that way 'stead of three, but then we shan't jolt her +going that way," thought William. + +He walked by the side of the cart in silence. + +She never spoke but once all the journey, and that was about half way, +to complain in a sort of hopeless, pitiful tone that she was cold. It +was a burning afternoon. + +William took off his coat, and began to tie it round her by means of +the sleeves; Susan made a little, silent, peevish and not very rational +resistance; William tied it round her by brotherly force. + +They reached her home; when she got out of the cart her eye was fixed, +her cheek white, she seemed like one in a dream. + +She went into the house without speaking or looking at William. William +was sorry she did not speak to him; however he stood disconsolately +by the cart, asking himself what he could do next for her and George. +Presently he heard a slight rustle, and it was Susan coming back along +the passage. "She has left something in the cart," thought he, and he +began to look in the straw. + +She came like one still in a dream, and put her hand out to William, and +it appeared that was what she had come back for. + +William took her hand and pressed it to his bosom a moment. At this +Susan gave a hysterical sob or two, and crept away again to her own +room. + +What she suffered in that room the first month after George's departure +I could detail perhaps as well as any man living; but I will not. There +is a degree of anguish one shrinks from intruding upon too familiarly +in person; and even on paper the microscope should spare sometimes these +beatings of the bared heart. It will be enough if I indicate by-and-by +her state, after time and religion and good habits had begun to +struggle, sometimes gaining, sometimes losing, against the tide of +sorrow. For the present let us draw gently back and leave her, for +she is bowed to the earth--fallen on her knees, her head buried in +the curtains of her bed; dark, faint and leaden, on the borders of +despair--a word often lightly used through ignorance. Heaven keep us all +from a single hour, here or hereafter, of the thing the Word stands for; +and Heaven comfort all true and loving hearts that read me, when their +turn shall come to drain the bitter cup like Susan Merton. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE moment George Fielding was out of sight, Mr. Meadows went to +the public-house, flung himself on his powerful black mare, and rode +homeward without a word. + +One strong passion after another swept across his troubled mind. He +burned with love, he was sick with jealousy, cold with despondency, and +for the first time smarted with remorse. George Fielding was gone, gone +of his own accord; but like the flying Parthian he had shot his keenest +arrow in the moment of defeat. + +"What the better am I?" thus ran this man's thoughts. "I have opened +my own eyes, and Susan seems farther from me than ever now--my heart +is like a lump of lead here--I wish I had never been born!--so much for +scheming--I would have given a thousand pounds for this, and now I'd +give double to be as I was before; I had honest hopes then; now where +are they? How lucky it seemed all to go, too. Ah! that is it--'May all +your good luck turn to wormwood!' that was his word--his very word--and +my good luck is wormwood; so much for lifting a hand against gray hairs, +Jew or Gentile. Why did the old heathen provoke me, then? I'd as soon +die as live this day. That's right, start at a handful of straw; lie +down in it one minute and tremble at the sight of it the next, ye idiot. +Oh, Susan! Susan! Why do I think of her? why do I think of her? She +loves that man with every fiber of her body. How she clung to him! how +she grew to him! And I stood there and looked on it, and did not kill +them both. Seen it! I see it now, it is burned into my eyes and my heart +forever; I am in hell!--I am in hell!--Hold up, you blundering fool; has +the devil got into you, too?--Perdition seize him! May he die and rot +before the year's out, ten thousand miles from home! may his ship sink +to the bottom of the ----. What right have I to curse the man, as well +as drive him across the sea? Curse yourself, John Meadows. They are +true lovers, and I have parted them, and looked on and seen their tears. +Heaven pity them and forgive me. So he knew of his brother's love for +her, after all. Why didn't he speak to me, I wonder, as well as to +Will Fielding? The old Jew warned him against me, I'll swear. Why? why +because you are a respectable man, John Meadows, and he thought a hint +was enough to a man of character. 'I do suppose I am safe from villainy +here,' says he. That lad spared me; he could have given me a red face +before them all. Now if there are angels that float in the air and see +what passes among us sinners, how must John Meadows have looked beside +George Fielding that moment? This love will sink my soul! I can't +breathe between these hedges; my temples are bursting!--Oh! you want +to gallop, do you? gallop, then, and faster than you ever did since you +were foaled--confound ye!" With this he spurred his mare furiously up +the bank, and went crushing through the dead hedge that surmounted it. +He struck his hat, at the same moment, fiercely from his head (it was +fast by a black ribbon to his button-hole), and as they lighted by a +descent of some two feet on the edge of a grass-field he again drove his +spurs into his great fiery mare, all vein and bone. Black Rachel snorted +with amazement at the spur, and with warlike delight at finding grass +beneath her feet and free air whistling round her ears, she gave one +gigantic bound like a buck with arching back and all four legs in the +air at once (it would have unseated many a rider but never moved the +iron Meadows), and with dilating nostril and ears laid back she hurled +herself across country like a stone from a sling. + +Meadows' house was about four miles and a half distant as the crow +flies, and he went home to-day as the crow flies, only faster. None +would have known the staid, respectable Meadows, in this figure that +came flying over hedge and ditch and brook, his hat dangling and leaping +like mad behind him, his hand now and then clutching his breast, his +heart tossed like a boat among the breakers, his lips white, his teeth +clinched and his eyes blazing! The mare took everything in her stride, +but at last they came somewhat suddenly on an enormous high, stiff +fence. To clear it was impossible. By this time man and beast were +equally reckless; they went straight into it and through it as a bullet +goes through a pane of glass; and on again over brook and fence, plowed +field and meadow, till Meadows found himself, he scarce knew how, at his +own door. His old deaf servant came out from the stable-yard and gazed +in astonishment at the mare, whose flank panted, whose tail quivered, +whose back looked as if she had been in the river, while her belly was +stained with half a dozen different kinds of soil, and her rider's face +streamed with blood from a dozen scratches he had never felt. + +Meadows flung himself from the saddle and ran up to his own room. He +dashed his face and his burning hands into water; this seemed to do +him a little good. He came downstairs; he lighted a pipe (we are the +children of habit); he sat with his eyebrows painfully bent. People +called on him; he fiercely refused to see them. + +For the first time in his life he turned his back on business. He sat +for hours by the fireplace. A fierce mental struggle wrenched him to and +fro. + +Evening came, still he sat collapsed by the fireplace. From his window, +among other objects, two dwellings were visible; one, distant four +miles, was a whitewashed cottage, tiled instead of thatched, adorned +with creepers and roses and very clean, but in other respects little +superior to laborers' cottages. + +The other, distant six long miles, was the Grassmere farmhouse, where +the Mertons lived; the windows seemed burnished gold this evening. + +In the small cottage lived a plain old woman--a Methodist. She was +Meadows' mother. + +She did not admire worldly people, still less envied them. + +He was too good a churchman and man of business to permit conventicles +or psalm-singing at odd hours in his house. So she preferred living in +her own, which moreover was her own--her very own. + +The old woman never spoke of her son, and checked all complaints of him, +and snubbed all experimental eulogies of him. + +Meadows never spoke of his mother, paid her a small allowance with the +regularity and affectionate grace of clock-work; never asked her if she +didn't want any more--would not have refused her if she had asked for +double. + +This evening, while the sun was shining with all his evening glory on +Susan Merton's house, Meadows went slowly to his window and pulled down +the blind, and drawing his breath hard shut the loved prospect out. + +He then laid his hand upon the table, and he said: "I swear by the holy +bread and wine I took last month that I will not put myself in the way +of this strong temptation. I swear I will go no more to Grassmere Farm, +never so long as I love Susan." He added faintly, "Unless they send for +me, and they won't do that, and I won't go of my own accord, I swear +it. I have sworn it, however, and I swear it again--unless they send for +me!" + +Then he sat by the fire with his head in his hands--a posture he never +was seen in before. Next he wrote a note and sent it hastily with a +horse and cart to that small whitewashed cottage. + +Old Mrs. Meadows sat in her doorway reading a theological work called +"Believers' Buttons." She took the note, looked at it. "Why, this is +from John, I think; what can he have to say to me?" She put on her +spectacles again, which she had taken off on the messenger first +accosting her, and deliberately opened, smoothed and read the note. It +ran thus: + + +"Mother, I am lonely. Come over and stay awhile with me, if you please. + +"Your dutiful son, JOHN MEADOWS" + + +"Here, Hannah," cried the old woman to a neighbor's daughter that was +nearly always with her. + +Hannah, a comely girl of fourteen, came running in. + +"Here's John wants me to go over to his house. Get me the pen and ink, +girl, out of the cupboard, and I'll write him a word or two any way.--Is +there anything amiss?" said she quickly to the man. + +"He came in with the black mare all in a lather, just after dinner, +and he hasn't spoke to a soul since. That's all I know, missus. I think +something has put him out, and he isn't soon put out, you know, he +isn't." + +Hannah left the room, after placing the paper as she was bid. + +"You will all be put out that trust to an arm of flesh, all of ye, +master or man, Dick Messenger," said the disciple of John Wesley +somewhat grimly. "Ay, and be put out of the kingdom of heaven, too, if +ye don't take heed." + +"Is that the news I'm to take back to Farnborough, missus?" said +Messenger with quiet, rustic irony. + +"No; I'll write to him." + +The old woman wrote a few lines reminding Meadows that the pursuit of +earthly objects could never bring any steady comfort, and telling him +that she should be lost in his great house--that it would seem quite +strange to her to go into the town after so many years' quiet--but that +if he was minded to come out and see her she would be glad to see him +and glad of the opportunity to give him her advice, if he was in a +better frame for listening to it than last time she offered it to him, +and that was two years come Martinmas. + +Then the old woman paused, next she reflected, and afterward dried her +unfinished letter. And as she began slowly to fold it up and put it in +her pocket--"Hannah," cried she thoughtfully. + +Hannah appeared in the doorway. + +"I dare say--you may fetch--my cloak and bonnet. Why, if the wench +hasn't got them on her arm. What, you made up your mind that I should +go, then?" + +"That I did," replied Hannah. "Your warm shawl is in the cart, Mrs. +Meadows." + +"Oh! you did, did you. Young folks are apt to be sure and certain. I was +in two minds about it, so I don't see how the child could be sure," said +she, dividing her remark between vacancy and the person addressed--a +grammatical privilege of old age. + +"Oh! but _I_ was sure, for that matter," replied Hannah firmly. + +"And what made the little wench so sure, I wonder?" said the old woman, +now in her black bonnet and scarlet cloak. + +"Why, la!" says Hannah, "because it's your son, ma'am--and you're his +mother, Dame Meadows!" + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JOHN MEADOWS had always been an active man, but now he was +indefatigable. He was up at five every morning, and seemed ubiquitous; +added a gray gelding to his black mare, and rode them both nearly off +their legs. He surveyed land in half a dozen counties--he speculated in +grain in half a dozen markets, and did business in shares. His plan +in dealing with this ticklish speculation was simple. He listened to +nothing anybody said, examined the venture himself, and, if it had a +sound basis, bought when the herd was selling, and sold wherever the +herd was buying. Hence, he bought cheap and sold dear. + +He also lent money, and contrived to solve the usurers' problem--perfect +security and huge interest. + +He arrived at this by his own sagacity and the stupidity of mankind. + +Mankind are not wanting in intelligence; but, as a body, they have one +intellectual defect--they are muddle-heads. + +Now these muddle-heads have agreed to say that land is in all cases five +times a surer security for money lent than movables are. Whereas the +fact is that sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Owing to the above +delusion the proprietor of land can always borrow money at four +per cent, and other proprietors are often driven to give +ten--twenty--thirty. + +So John Meadows lent mighty little upon land, but much upon oat-ricks, +wagons, advantageous leases and such things, solid as land and more +easily convertible into cash. + +Thus without risk he got his twenty per cent. Not that he appeared +in these transactions--he had too many good irons in the fire to let +himself be called a usurer. + +He worked this business as three thousand respectable men are working it +in this nation. He had a human money-bag, whose strings he went behind a +screen and pulled. + +The human money-bag of Meadows was Peter Crawley. + +This Peter Crawley, some years before our tale, lay crushed beneath +a barrowful of debts--many of them to publicans. In him others saw a +cunning fool and a sot--Meadows an unscrupulous tool. Meadows wanted a +tool, and knew the cheapest way to get the thing was to buy it, so he +bought up all Crawley's debts, sued him, got judgments out against him, +and raising the ax of the law over Peter's head with his right hand, +offered him the left hand of fellowship with his left. Down on his knees +went Crawley and resigned his existence to this great man. + +Human creatures, whose mission it is to do whatever a man secretly bids +them, are not entitled to long and interesting descriptions. + +Crawley was fifty, wore a brown wig, the only thing about him that did +not attempt disguise, and slouched in a brown coat and a shirt peppered +with snuff. + +In this life he was an infinitesimal attorney. Previously, unless +Pythagoras was a goose, he had been a pole-cat. + +Meadows was ambidexter. The two hands he gathered coin with were Meadows +and Crawley. The first his honest, hard-working hand; the second his +three-fingered Jack, his prestidigital hand; with both he now worked +harder than ever. He hurried from business to business--could not +wait to chat, or drink a glass of ale after it; it was all work! work! +work!--money! money! money! with John Meadows, and everything he touched +turned to gold in his hands; yet for all this burning activity the +man's heart had never been so little in business. His activity was the +struggle of a sensible, strong mind to fight against its one weakness. + +"Cedit amor rebus; res age tutus eris," is a very wise saying, and +Meadows, by his own observation and instinct, sought the best antidote +for love. + +But the Latins had another true saying, that "nobody is wise at all +hours." + +After his day of toil and success he used to be guilty of a sad +inconsistency. He shut himself up at home for two hours, and smoked +his pipe, and ran his eye over the newspaper, but his mind over Susan +Merton. + +Worse than this, in his frequent rides he used to go a mile or two out +of his way to pass Grassmere farmhouse; and however fast he rode the +rest of his journey he always let his nag walk by the farmhouse, and his +eye brightened with hope as he approached it, and his heart sank as he +passed it without seeing Susan. + +He now bitterly regretted the vow he had made, never to visit the +Mertons again unless they sent for him. + +"They have forgotten me altogether," said he bitterly. "Well, the best +thing I can do is to forget them." + +Now, Susan had forgotten him; she was absorbed in her own grief; but +Merton was laboring under a fit of rheumatism, and this was the reason +why Meadows and he did not meet. In fact, farmer Merton often said to +his daughter, "John Meadows has not been to see us a long while." + +"Hasn't he, father?" was Susan's languid and careless reply. + +One Sunday, Meadows, weakened by his inner struggle, could not help +going to Grassmere church. At least he would see her face. He had seated +himself where he could see her. She took her old place by the pillar; +nobody was near her. The light from a side window streamed full upon +her. She was pale, and the languor of sorrow was upon every part of her +face, but she was lovely as ever. + +Meadows watched her, and noticed that more than once without any visible +reason her eyes filled with tears, but she shed none. He saw how hard +she tried to give her whole soul to the services of the church and to +the word of the preacher; he saw her succeed for a few minutes at a +time, and then with a lover's keen eye he saw her heart fly away in a +moment from prayer and praise and consolation, and follow and overtake +the ship that was carrying her George farther and farther away from her +across the sea; and then her lips quivered with earthly sorrow even as +she repeated words that came from Heaven, and tried to bind to her heavy +heart the prayers for succor in every mortal ill, the promises of help +in every mortal woe, with which holy Church and holier Writ comfort her +and all the pure of heart in every age. + +Then Meadows, who up to this moment had been pitying himself, had a +better thought and pitied Susan. He even went so far as to feel that he +ought to pity George, but he did not do it; he could not, he envied him +too much; but he pitied Susan, and he longed to say something kind and +friendly to her, even though there should not be a word or a look of +love in it. + +Susan went out by one of the church doors, Meadows by another, intending +to meet her casually upon the road home. Susan saw his intention +and took another path, so that he could not come up with her without +following her. + +Meadows turned upon his heel and went home with his heart full of +bitterness. + +"She hates the sight of me," was his interpretation. + +Poor Susan, she hated nobody, she only hated to have to speak to a +stranger, and to listen to a stranger; and in her present grief all were +strangers to her except him she had lost and her father. She avoided +Meadows not because he was Meadows, but because she wanted to be alone. + +Meadows rode home despondently, then he fell to abusing his folly, and +vowed he would think of her no more. + +The next day, finding himself, at six o'clock in the evening, seated +by the fire in a reverie, he suddenly started fiercely up, saddled his +horse, and rode into Newborough, and, putting up his horse, strolled +about the streets and tried to amuse himself looking at the shops before +they closed. + +Now it so happened that, stopping before a bookseller's shop, he saw +advertised a work upon "The Australian Colonies." + +"Confound Australia!" said Meadows to himself, and turned on his heel, +but the next moment, with a sudden change of mind, he returned and +bought the book. He did more, he gave the tradesman an order for every +approved work on Australia that was to be had. + +The bookseller, as it happened, was going up to London next day, so +that in the evening Meadows had some dozen volumes in his house, and a +tolerably correct map of certain Australian districts. + +"Let me see," said Meadows, "what chance that chap has of making a +thousand pounds out there." This was no doubt the beginning of it, but +it did not end there. The intelligent Meadows had not read a hundred +pages before he found out what a wonderful country this Australia is, +how worthy a money-getter's attention or any thoughtful man's. + +It seemed as if his rival drew Meadows after him wherever he went, so +fascinated was he with this subject. And now all the evening he sucked +the books like a leech. + +Men observed, about this time, an irritable manner in Mr. Meadows which +he had never shown before, and an eternal restlessness; they little +divined the cause, or dreamed what a vow he had made, and what it cost +him every day to keep it. So strong was the struggle within him, that +there were moments when he feared he should go mad; and then it was that +he learned the value of his mother's presence in the house. + +There was no explanation between them, there could be no sympathy; had +he opened his heart to her he knew she would have denounced his love for +Susan Merton as a damnable crime. Once she invited his confidence. "What +ails you, John?" said the old woman. "You had better tell me; you would +feel easier, I'm thinking." + +But he turned it off a little fretfully, and she never returned to the +charge. But though there could be no direct sympathy, yet there was +a soothing influence in this quaint old woman's presence. She moved +quietly about, protecting his habits, not disturbing them; she seemed +very thoughtful, too, and cast many a secret glance of inquiry and +interest at him when he was not looking at her. + +This had gone on some weeks when, one afternoon, Meadows, who had been +silent as death for a full half hour, started from his chair and said +with sudden resolution: + +"Mother, I must leave this part of the country for a while." + +"That is news, John." + +"Yes. I shall go into the mining district for six months or a year, +perhaps." + +"Well! go, John! you want a change. I think you can't do better than +go." + +"I will, and no later than to-morrow." + +"That is sudden." + +"If I was to give myself time to think, I should never go at all." + +He went out briskly with the energy of this determination. + +The same evening, about seven o'clock, as he sat reading by the fire, an +unexpected visitor was announced--Mr. Merton. + +He came cordially in and scolded Meadows for never having been to see +him. + +"I know you are a busy man," said the old farmer, "but you might have +given us a look in coming home from market; it is only a mile out of the +way, and you are pretty well mounted in a general way." + +Then the old man, a gossip, took up one of Meadows' books. "Australia! +ah!" grunted Merton, and dropped it like a hot potato; he tried another, +"Why, this is Australia, too; why, they are all Australia, as I am a +living sinner." And he looked with a rueful curiosity into Meadows' +face. + +Meadows colored, but soon recovered his external composure. + +"I have friends there," said he hastily, "who tell me there are capital +investments in that country, and they say no more than the truth." + +"Do you think he will do any good out there?" asked the old man, +lowering his voice. + +"I can't say," answered Meadows dryly. + +"Tell us something about that country, John," said Merton; "and if you +was to ask me to take a glass of your home-brewed ale I don't think I +should gainsay you." + +The ale was sent for, and over it Meadows, whose powers of acquisition +extended to facts as well as money, and who was full of this new +subject, poured the agricultural contents of a dozen volumes into Mr. +Merton. + +The old farmer sat open-mouthed, transfixed with interest, listening +to his friend's clear, intelligent and masterly descriptions of +this wonderful land. At last the clock struck nine; he started up in +astonishment. + +"I shall get a scolding if I stay later," said he, and off he went to +Grassmere. + +"Have you nothing else to say to me?" asked Meadows, as the farmer put +his foot in the stirrup. + +"Not that I know of," replied the other, and cantered away. + +"Confound him!" muttered Meadows; "he comes and stops here three hours, +drinks my ale, gets my knowledge without the trouble of digging for't, +and goes away, and not a word from Susan, or even a word about her--one +word would have paid me for all this loss of time--but no, I was not to +have it. I will be in Devonshire this time to-morrow--no, to-morrow is +market day--but the day after I will go. I cannot live here and not see +her, nor speak to her--'twill drive me mad." + +The next morning, as Meadows mounted his horse to ride to market, a +carter's boy came up to him, and taking off his hat and pulling his +head down by the front lock by way of salute, put a note into his hand. +Meadows took it and opened it carelessly; it was a handwriting he did +not know. But his eye had no sooner glanced at the signature than his +eyes gleamed and his whole frame trembled with emotion he could hardly +hide. This was the letter: + + +"DEAR MR. MEADOWS--We have not seen you here a long time, and if you +could take a cup of tea with us on your way home from market, my father +would be glad to see you, if it is not troubling you too much. + +"I believe he has some calves he wishes to show you. + +"I am, yours respectfully, + + "SUSAN MERTON. + +"P. S.--Father has been confined by rheumatism, and I have not been well +this last month." + + +Meadows turned away from the messenger, and said quietly, "Tell Miss +Merton I will come, if possible." He then galloped off, and as soon as +there was no one in sight gave vent to his face and his exulting soul. + +Now he congratulated himself on his goodness in making a certain vow and +his firmness in keeping it. + +"I kept out of their way, and they have invited me; my conscience is +clear." + +He then asked himself why Susan had invited him; and he could not but +augur the most favorable results from this act on her part. True, his +manner to her had never gone beyond friendship, but women, he argued, +are quick to discern their admirers under every disguise. She was dull +and out of spirits, and wrote for him to come to her; this was a great +point, a good beginning. "The sea is between her and George, and I am +here, with time and opportunity on my side," said Meadows; and as +these thoughts coursed through his heart, his gray nag, spurred by an +unconscious heel, broke into a hand-gallop, and after an hour and a half +hard riding they clattered into the town of Newborough. + +The habit of driving hard bargains is a good thing for teaching a man to +suppress his feelings and feign indifference, yet the civil nonchalance +with which Meadows, on his return from Newborough, walked into the +Merton's parlor cost him no ordinary struggle. + +The farmer received him cordially--Susan civilly, and with a somewhat +feeble smile. The former soon engaged him in agricultural talk. Susan, +meanwhile, made the tea in silence, and Meadows began to think she was +capricious, and had no sooner got what she asked for than she did not +care for it. After a while, however, she put in a word here and there, +but with a discouraging languor. + +Presently Farmer Merton brought her his tea-cup to be replenished, and +upon this opportunity Susan said a word to her father in an undertone. + +"Oh, ay!" replied the farmer very loud indeed; and Susan colored. + +"What was you saying to me about that country--that Christmas-day is the +hottest day in the year?" began Mr. Merton. + +Meadows assented, and Merton proceeded to put other questions, in order, +it appeared, to draw once more from Meadows the interesting information +of last night. + +Meadows answered shortly and with repugnance. Then Susan put in: "And +is it true, sir, that the flowers are beautiful to the eye, but have +no smell, and that the birds have all gay feathers, but no song?" Then +Susan, scarcely giving him time to answer, proceeded to put several +questions, and her manner was no longer languid, but bright and +animated. She wound up her interrogatories with this climax: + +"And _do_ you think, sir, it is a country where George will be able to +do any good. And will he have his health in that land, so far from every +one to take care of him?" + +And this doubt raised, the bright eyes were dimmed with tears in a +moment. + +Meadows gasped out, "Why not? why not?" but soon after, muttering +some excuse about his horse, he went out with a promise to return +immediately. + +He was no sooner alone than he gave way to a burst of rage and +bitterness. + +"So, she only sent for me here to make me tell her about that infernal +country where her George is. I'll ride home this instant--this very +instant--without bidding them good-by." + +Cooler thoughts came. He mused deeply a few minutes, and then, clinching +his teeth, returned slowly to the little parlor: he sat down and took +his line with a brisk and cheerful air. + +"You were asking me some questions about Australia. I can tell you all +about that country, for I have a relation there who writes to me. And I +have read all the books about it, too, as it happens." + +Susan brightened up. + +Meadows, by a great histrionic effort, brightened up, too, and poured +out a flood of really interesting facts and anecdotes about this +marvelous land. + +Then, in the middle of a narrative, which enchained both his hearers, he +suddenly looked at his watch, and putting on a fictitious look of dismay +and annoyance, started up with many excuses and went home--not, however, +till Susan had made him promise to come again next market-day. + +As he rode home in the moonlight Susan's face seemed still before him. +The bright look of interest she had given him, the grateful smiles with +which she had thanked him for his narration--all this had been so sweet +at the moment, so bitter upon the least reflection. His mind was in a +whirl. At last he grasped at one idea, and held it as with a vise. + +"I shall be always welcome to her if I can bring myself to talk about +that detestable country. Well, I will grind my tongue down to it. She +shall not be able to do without my chat; that shall be the beginning; +the middle shall be different; the end shall be just the opposite. The +sea is between him and her. I am here with opportunity, resolution and +money. I _will_ have her!" + +The next morning his mother said to him: + +"John, do you think to go to-day?" + +"Where, mother?" + +"The journey you spoke of." + +"What journey?" + +"Among the mines." + +"Not I." + +"You have changed your mind, then?" + +"What, didn't you see I was joking?" + +"No!" (very dryly.) + +Soon after this little dialogue Dame Meadows proposed to end her visit +and return home. Her son yielded a cheerful assent. She went gravely and +quietly back to her little cottage. + +Meadows had determined to make himself necessary to Susan Merton. He +brought a woman's cunning to bear against a woman's; for the artifice to +which his strong will bent his supple talent is one that many women have +had the tact and temporary self-denial to carry out, but not one man in +a hundred. + +Men try to beat an absent rival by sneering at him, etc. By which means +the asses make their absent foe present to her mind and enlist the whole +woman in his defense. + +But Meadows was no ordinary man. Susan had given his quick intelligence +a glimpse of a way to please her. He looked at the end, and crushed his +will down to the thorny means. + +Twice a week he called on the Mertons, and much of his talk was +Australia. Susan was grateful. To hear of the place where George would +soon be was the nearest approach she could make to hearing of George. + +As for Meadows, he gained a great point, but he went through tortures on +the way. He could not hide from himself why he was so welcome; and many +a time as he rode home from the Mertons he resolved never to return +there, but he took no more oaths; it had cost him so much to keep the +last; and that befell which might have been expected, after a while, the +pleasure of being near the woman he loved, of being distinguished by her +and greeted with pleasure however slight, grew into a habit and a need. + +Achilles was a man of steel, but he had a vulnerable part; and iron +natures like John Meadows have often one spot in their souls where +they are far tenderer than the universal dove-eyed, and weaker than the +omnipotent. He never spoke a word of love to Susan, he knew it would +spoil all; and she, occupied with another's image, and looking upon +herself as confessedly belonging to another, never suspected the deep +passion that filled this man's heart. But if an observer of nature had +accompanied John Meadows on market-day he might have seen--diagnostics. + +All the morning his eye was cold and quick; his mouth, when silent, +close, firm, and unreadable; his voice clear, decided, and occasionally +loud. But when he got to old Merton's fireside he mellowed and softened +like the sun toward evening. There his forehead unknit itself; his +voice, pitched in quite a different key from his key of business, turned +also low and gentle, and soothed and secretly won the hearer by its +deep, rich and pleasant modulation and variety; and his eye turned +deeper in color, and, losing its keenness and restlessness, dwelt calmly +and pensively for minutes at a time upon some little household object +close to Susan; seldom, unless quite unobserved, upon Susan herself. + +But the surrounding rustics suspected nothing, so calm and deep ran +Meadows. + +"Dear heart," said Susan to her father, "who would have thought Mr. +Meadows would come a mile out of his way twice a week to talk to me +about Geo--about the country where my heart is--and the folk say he +thinks of nothing but money and won't move a step without making it." + +"The folk are envious of him, girl--that is all. John Meadows is too +clever for fools, and too industrious for the lazy ones; he is a good +friend of mine, Susan; if I wanted to borrow a thousand pounds I have +only to draw on Meadows; he has told me so half a dozen times." + +"We don't want his money, father," replied Susan, "nor anybody's; but I +think a great deal of his kindness, and George shall thank him when +he comes home--if ever he comes home to Susan again." These last words +brought many tears with them, which the old farmer pretended not to +notice, for he was getting tired of his daughter's tears. They +were always flowing now at the least word, "and she used to be so +good-humored and cheerful-like." + +Poor Susan! she was very unhappy. If any one had said to her, "to-morrow +you die," she would have smiled on her own account, and only sighed +at the pain the news would cause poor George. Her George was gone, her +mother had been dead this two years. Her life, which had been full of +innocent pleasures, was now utterly tasteless, except in its hours +of bitterness when sorrow overcame her like a flood. She had a pretty +flower-garden in which she used to work. When George was at home what +pleasure it had been to plant them with her lover's help, to watch them +expand, to water them in the summer evening, to smell their gratitude +for the artificial shower after a sultry day, and then to have George +in, and set him admiring them with such threadbare enthusiasm, simply +because they were hers, not in the least because they were Nature's. + +I will go back, like the epic writers, and sketch one of their little +garden scenes. + +One evening, after watering them all, she sat down on a seat at the +bottom of the garden, and casting her eyes over her whole domain, said, +"Well, now, I do admire flowers; don't you, George?" + +"That I do," replied George, taking another seat, and coolly turning his +back on the parterre, and gazing mildly into Susan's eyes. + +"Why, he is not even looking at them!" cried Susan, and she clapped her +hands and laughed gleefully. + +"Oh, yes, he is; leastways he is looking at one of them, and the +brightest of the lot to my fancy." + +Susan colored with pleasure. In the country compliments don't drip +constantly on beauty even from the lips of love. Then, suppressing her +satisfaction, she said, "You will look for a flower in return for that, +young man; come and let us see whether there is one good enough for +you." So then they took hands, and Susan drew him demurely about the +garden. Presently she stopped with a little start of hypocritical +admiration; at their feet shone a marigold. Susan culled the gaudy +flower and placed it affectionately in George's buttonhole. He received +it proudly, and shaking hands with her, for it was time to part, turned +away slowly. She let him take a step or two, then called him back. "He +was really going off with that nasty thing." She took it out of his +buttonhole, rubbed it against his nose with well-feigned anger and then +threw it away. + +"You are all behind in flowers, George," said Susan; "here, this is good +enough for you," and she brought out from under her apron, where she had +carried the furtively culled treasure, a lovely clove-pink. Pretty soul, +she had nursed and watered and cherished this choice flower this three +weeks past for George, and this was her way of giving it him at last; so +a true woman gives--(her life, if need be). George took it and smelled +it, and lingered a moment at the garden gate, and moralized on it. +"Well, Susan, dear, now I'm not so deep in flowers as you, but I like +this a deal better than the marigold, and I'll tell you for why; it is +more like you, Susan." + +"Ay! why?" + +"I see flowers that are pretty, but have no smell, and I see women that +have good looks, but no great wisdom nor goodness when you come nearer +to them. Now the marigold is like those lasses; but this pink is good as +well as pretty, so then it will stand for you, when we are apart, as we +mostly are--worse luck for me." + +"Oh, George," said Susan, dropping her quizzing manner, "I am a long way +behind the marigold or any flower in comeliness and innocence, but at +least I wish I was better." + +"I don't." + +"Ay, but I do, ten times better, for--for--" + +"For why, Susan?" + +Susan closed the garden gate and took a step toward the house. +Then, turning her head over her shoulder, with an ineffable look of +tenderness, tipped with one tint of lingering archness, she let fall, +"For your sake, George," in the direction of George's feet, and glided +across the garden into the house. + +George stood watching her. He did not at first take up all she had +bestowed on him, for her sex has peculiar mastery over language, being +diabolically angelically subtle in the art of saying something that +expresses 1 oz. and implies 1 cwt.; but when he did comprehend, his +heart exulted. He strode home as if he trod on air and often kissed the +little flower he had taken from the beloved hand, "and with it words +of so sweet breath composed, as made the thing more rich;" and as he +marched past the house kissing the flower, need I tell my reader that so +innocent a girl as Susan was too high-minded to watch the effect of her +proceedings from behind the curtains? I hope not, it would surely be +superfluous to relate what none would be green enough to believe. + +These were Susan's happy days. Now all was changed. She hated to water +her flowers now. She bade one of the farm-servants look to the garden. +He accepted the charge, and her flowers' drooping heads told how nobly +he had fulfilled it. Susan was charitable. Every day it had been her +custom to visit more than one poor person; she carried meal to one, +soup to another, linen to another, meat and bread to another, money to +another--to all words and looks of sympathy. This practice she did not +even now give up, for it came under the head of her religious duties; +but she relaxed it. She often sent to places where she used to go. Until +George went she had never thought of herself; and so the selfishness +of those she relieved had not struck her. Now it made her bitter to +see that none of those she pitied, pitied her. The moment she came into +their houses it was, "_My_ poor head, Miss Merton; _my_ old bones do +ache so." + +"I think a bit of your nice bacon would do ME good. I'M a poor sufferer, +Miss Merton. _My_ boy is 'listed. I thought as how you'd forgotten _me_ +altogether. But 'tis hard for poor folk to keep a friend." "You see, +miss, _my_ bedroom window is broken in one or two places. John, he +stopped it up with paper the best way he could, but la, bless you, paper +baint like glass. It is very dull for _me_. You see, miss, I can't get +about now as I used to could, and I never was no great reader. I often +wish as some one would step in and knock me on the head, for I be no +use, I baint, neer a mossel." No one of them looked up in her face +and said, "Lauks, how pale _you_ ha got to look, miss; I hopes as how +nothing amiss haven't happened to _you_, that have been so kind to us +this many a day." Yet suffering of some sort was plainly stamped on the +face and in the manner of this relieving angel. When they poured out +their vulgar woes, Susan made an effort to forget her own and to cheer +as well as relieve them. But she had to compress her own heart hard to +do it; and this suppression of feeling makes people more or less bitter. +She had better have out with it, and scolded them well for talking as if +they alone were unhappy; but her woman's nature would not let her. They +kept asking her for pity, and she still gulped down her own heart and +gave it them, till at last she began to take a spite against her pets; +so then she sent to most of them instead of going. She sent rather +larger slices of beef and bacon, and rather more yards of flannel than +when she used to carry the like to them herself. Susan had one or two +young friends, daughters of farmers in the neighborhood, with whom she +was a favorite, though the gayer ones sometimes quizzed her for her +religious tendencies, and her lamentable indifference to flirtation. +But then she was so good and so good-humored, and so tolerant of +other people's tastes. The prattle of these young ladies became now +intolerable to Susan, and when she saw them coming to call on her she +used to snatch up her bonnet and fly and lock herself up in a closet at +the top of the house, and read some good book as quiet as a mouse, till +the servants had hunted for her and told them she must be out. She was +not in a frame of mind to sustain tarlatans, barege, the history of the +last hop, and the prophecies of the next; the wounded deer shrunk from +its gamboling associates, and indeed from all strangers, except John +Meadows. "He talks to me about something worth talking about," said +Susan Merton. It happened one day, while Susan was in this sad and I may +say dangerous state of mind, that the servant came up to her, and told +her a gentleman was on his horse at the door, and wanted to see Mr. +Merton. + +"Father is at market, Jane." + +"Yes, miss, but I told the gentleman you were at home." + +"Me! what have I to do with father's visitors?" + +"Miss," replied Jane mysteriously, "it is a parson, and you are so fond +of them, I could not think to let him go away without getting a word +with anybody; and he has such a face. La, miss, you never saw such a +face." + +"Silly girl, what have I to do with handsome faces?" + +"But he is not handsome, miss, not in the least, only he is beautiful. +You go and see else." + +"I hate strangers' faces, but I will go to him, Jane; it is my duty, +since it is a clergyman. I will just go upstairs." + +"La, miss, what for? you are always neat, you are--nobody ever catches +you in your dishables like the rest of 'em." + +"I'll just smooth my hair." + +"La, miss, what for? it is smooth as marble--it always is." + +"Where is he, Jane?" + +"In the front parlor." + +"I won't be a moment." + +She went upstairs. There was no necessity; Jane was right there; but it +was a strict custom in the country, and is, for that matter, and will +be till time and vanity shall be no more. More majorum a girl must go up +and look at herself in the glass if she did nothing more, before coming +in to receive company. + +Susan entered the parlor; she came in so gently that she had a moment +to observe her visitor before he saw her. He had seated himself with +his back to the light, and was devouring a stupid book on husbandry that +belonged to her father. The moment she closed the door he saw her and +rose from his seat. + +"Miss Merton?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"The living of this place has been vacant more than a month." + +"Yes, sir." + +"It will not be filled up for three months, perhaps." + +"So we hear, sir." + +"Meantime you have no church to go to nearer than Barmstoke, which is a +chapel-of-ease to this place, but two miles distant." + +"Two miles and a half, sir." + +"So then the people here have no divine service on the Lord's day." + +"No, sir, not for the present," said Susan meekly, lowering her lashes, +as if the clergyman had said, "This is a parish of heathens, whereof you +are one." + +"Nor any servant of God to say a word of humility and charity to the +rich, of eternal hope to the poor, and" (here his voice sunk into sudden +tenderness) "of comfort to the sorrowful." + +Susan raised her eyes and looked him over with one dove-like glance, +then instantly lowered them. + +"No, sir, we are all under a cloud here," said Susan sadly. + +"Miss Merton, I have undertaken the duty here until the living shall be +filled up; but you shall understand that I live thirty miles off, and +have other duties, and I can only ride over here on Saturday afternoon +and back Monday at noon." + +"Oh, sir!" cried Susan, "half a loaf is better than no bread! The parish +will bless you, sir, and no doubt," added she timidly, "the Lord will +reward you for coming so far to us." + +"I am glad you think so," said the clergyman thoughtfully. "Well, let us +do the best we can. Tell me first, Miss Merton, do you think the absence +of a clergyman is regretted here?" + +"Regretted, sir! dear heart, what a question. You might as well ask me +do father's turnips long for rain after a month's drought;" and Susan +turned on her visitor a face into which the innocent venerating love her +sex have for an ecclesiastic flashed without disguise. + +Her companion smiled, but it was with benevolence, not with gratified +vanity. + +"Let me explain my visit. Your father is one of the principal people +in the village. He can assist me or thwart me in my work. I called to +invite his co-operation. Some clergymen are jealous of co-operation; I +am not. It is a good thing for all parties; best of all for those who +co-operate with us; for in giving alms wisely they receive grace, and +in teaching the ignorant they learn themselves. Am I right?" added he +rather sharply, turning suddenly upon Susan. + +"Oh, sir," said Susan, a little startled, "it is for me to receive your +words, not to judge them." + +"Humph!" said the reverend gentleman rather dryly; he hated intellectual +subserviency. He liked people to think for them-selves; and to end by +thinking with him. + +"Father will never thwart you, sir, and I--I will co-operate with you, +sir, if you will accept of me," said Susan innocently. + +"Thank you, then let us begin at once." He took out his watch. "I have +an hour and a half to spare, then I must gallop back to Oxford. Miss +Merton, I should like to make acquaintance with some of the people. +Suppose we go to the school, and see what the children are learning, +and then visit one or two families in the village, so I shall catch a +glimpse of the three generations I have to deal with. My name is Francis +Eden. You are going to get your bonnet?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Thank you." + +They passed out through the garden. Mr. Eden stopped to look at the +flowers. Susan colored. + +"It has been rather neglected of late," said she apologetically. + +"It must have been very well taken care of before, then," said he, "for +it looks charming now. Ah! I love flowers dearly!" and he gave a little +sigh. + +They reached the school, and Mr. Eden sat down and examined the little +boys and girls. When he sat down Susan winced. How angry he will be at +their ignorance! thought Susan. But Mr. Eden, instead of putting on +an awful look, and impressing on the children that a being of another +generation was about to attack them, made himself young to meet their +minds. A pleasant smile disarmed their fears. He spoke to them in very +simple words and childish idioms, and told them a pretty story, which +interested them mightily. Having set their minds really working, he put +questions arising fairly out of his story, and so fathomed the moral +sense and the intelligence of more than one. In short, he drew the brats +out instead of crushing them in. Susan stood by, at first startled at +the line he took, then observant, then approving. Presently he turned to +her. + +"And which is your class, Miss Merton?" + +Susan colored. + +"I take these little girls when I come, sir. + +"Miss Merton has not been here this fortnight," said a pert teacher. + +Susan could have beat her. What will this good man think of me now? +thought poor Susan. To her grateful relief, the good man took no notice +of the observation; he looked at his watch. + +"Now, Miss Merton, if I am not giving you too much trouble," and they +left the school. + +"You wish to see some of the folk in the village, sir?" + +"Yes." + +"Where shall I take you first, sir?" + +"Where I ought to go first." + +Susan looked puzzled. + +Mr. Eden stopped dead short. + +"Come, guess," said he, with a radiant smile, "and don't look so scared. +I'll forgive you if you guess wrong." + +Susan looked this way and that, encouraged by his merry smile. She let +out--scarce above a whisper, and in a tone of interrogation, as who +should say this is not to be my last chance since I have only asked a +question not risked an answer-- + +"To the poorest, Mr. Eden?" + +"Brava! she has guessed it," cried the Reverend Frank triumphantly; for +he had been more anxious she should answer right than she had herself. +"Young lady, I have friends with their heads full of Latin and Greek +who could not have answered that so quickly as you; one proof more +how goodness brightens intelligence," added he in soliloquy. "Here's a +cottage." + +"Yes, sir, I was going to take you into this one, if you please." + +They found in the cottage a rheumatic old man, one of those we alluded +to as full of his own complaints. Mr. Eden heard these with patience, +and then, after a few words of kind sympathy and acquiescence, for he +was none of those hard humbugs who tell a man that old age, rheumatism +and poverty are strokes with a feather, he said quietly: + +"And now for the other side; now tell me what you have to be grateful +for." + +The old man was taken aback and his fluency deserted him. On the +question being repeated, he began to say that he had many mercies to +be thankful for. Then he higgled and hammered and fumbled for the said +mercies, and tried to enumerate them, but in phrases conventional and +derived from tracts and sermons; whereas his statement of grievances had +been idiomatic. + +"There, that will do," said Mr. Eden smiling, "say nothing you don't +feel; what is the use? May I ask you a few questions," added he, +courteously; then, without waiting for permission, he dived skillfully +into this man's life, and fished up all the pearls--the more remarkable +passages. + +Many years ago this old man had been a soldier, had fought in more than +one great battle, had retreated with Sir John Moore upon Corunna, and +been one of the battered and weary but invincible band who wheeled round +and stunned the pursuers on 'that bloody and glorious day. Mr. Eden went +with the old man to Spain, discussed with great animation the retreat, +the battle, the position of the forces, and the old soldier's personal +prowess. Old Giles perked up, and dilated, and was another man; he +forgot his rheumatism, and even his old age. Twice he suddenly stood +upright as a dart on the floor, and gave the word of command like a +trumpet in some brave captain's name; and his cheek flushed, and his +eye glittered with the light of battle. Susan looked at him with +astonishment. Then when his heart was warm and his spirits attentive Mr. +Eden began to throw in a few words of exhortation. But even then he did +not bully the man into being a Christian; gently, firmly, and with a +winning modesty, he said: "I think you have much to be thankful for, +like all the rest of us. Is it not a mercy you were not cut off in your +wild and dissolute youth? you might have been slain in battle." + +"That I might, sir; three of us went from this parish and only one came +home again. + +"You might have lost a leg or an arm, as many a brave fellow did; you +might have been a cripple all your days." + +"That is true, sir." + +"You survive here in a Christian land, in possession of your faculties; +the world, it is true, has but few pleasures to offer you--all the +better for you. Oh, if I could but make that as plain to you as it is +to me. You have every encouragement to look for happiness there, where +alone it is to be found. Then courage, corporal; you stood firm at +Corunna--do not give way in this your last and most glorious battle. The +stake is greater than it was at Vittoria, or Salamanca, or Corunna, or +Waterloo. The eternal welfare of a single human soul weighs a thousand +times more than all the crowns and empires in the globe. You are in +danger, sir. Discontent is a great enemy of the soul. You must pray +against it--you must fight against it." + +"And so I will, sir; you see if I don't." + +"You read, Mr. Giles?" Susan had told Mr. Eden his name at the +threshold. + +"Yes, sir; but I can't abide them nasty little prints they bring me." + +"Of course you can't. Printed to sell, not to read, eh? Here is a book. +The type is large, clear and sharp. This is an order-book, corporal. It +comes from the great Captain of our salvation. Every sentence in it is +gold; yet I think I may safely pick out a few for your especial use at +present." And Mr. Eden sat down, and producing from his side pockets, +which were very profound, some long thin slips of paper, he rapidly +turned the leaves of the Testament and inserted his markers; but this +occupation did not for a moment interrupt his other proceedings. + +"There is a pipe--you don't smoke, I hope?" + +"No, sir; leastways not when I han't got any baccy, and I've been out of +that this three days--worse luck." + +"Give up smoking, corporal, it is a foul habit." + +"Ah, sir! you don't ever have a half-empty belly and a sorrowful heart, +or you wouldn't tell an old soldier to give up his pipe." + +"Take my advice. Give up all such false consolation, to oblige me, now." + +"Well, sir, to oblige you, I'll try; but you don't know what his pipe is +to a poor old man full of nothing but aches and pains, or you wouldn't +have asked me," and old Giles sighed. Susan sighed, too, for she thought +Mr. Eden cruel for once. + +"Miss Merton," said the latter sternly, his eye twinkling all the time, +"he is incorrigible; and I see you agree with me that it is idle to +torment the incurable. So" (diving into the capacious pocket) "here +is an ounce of his beloved poison," and out came a paper of tobacco. +Corporal's eyes brightened with surprise and satisfaction. "Poison him, +Miss Merton, poison him quick, don't keep him waiting." + +"Poison him, sir?" + +"Fill his pipe for him, if you please." + +"That I will, sir, with pleasure." A white hand with quick and supple +fingers filled the brown pipe. + +"That is as it should be. Let beauty pay honor to courage; above all to +courage in its decay." + +The old man grinned with gratified pride. The white hand lighted the +pipe, and gave it to the old soldier. He smiled gratefully all round and +sucked his homely consolation. + +"I compound with you, corporal. You must let me put you on the road +to heaven, and, in return, I must let you go there in a cloud of +tobacco--ugh!" + +"I'm agreeable, sir," said Giles dryly, withdrawing his pipe for a +moment. + +"There," said Mr. Eden, closing the marked Testament, "read often in +this book. Read first the verses I have marked, for these very verses +have dropped comfort on the poor, the aged and the distressed for more +than eighteen hundred years, and will till time shall be no more. And +now good-by, and God bless you." + +"God bless you, sir, wherever you go!" cried the old man with sudden +energy, "for you have comforted my poor old heart. I feel as I han't +felt this many a day. Your words are like the bugles sounding a charge +all down the line. You must go, I suppose; but do ye come again and see +me. And, Miss Merton, you never come to see me now, as you used." + +"Miss Merton has her occupations like the rest of us," said Mr. Eden +quickly; "but she will come to see you--won't she?" + +"Oh, yes, sir!" replied Susan, hastily. So then they returned to the +farm, for Mr. Eden's horse was in the stable. At the door they found Mr. +Merton. + +"This is father, sir. Father, this is Mr. Eden, that is coming to take +the duty here for a while." + +After the ordinary civilities Susan drew her father aside, and, +exchanging a few words with him, disappeared into the house. As Mr. Eden +was mounting his horse, Mr. Merton came forward and invited him to stay +at his house whenever he should come to the parish. Mr. Eden hesitated. + +"Sir," said the farmer, "you will find no lodgings comfortable within a +mile of the church, and we have a large house not half occupied. You can +make yourself quite at home." + +"I am much obliged to you, Mr. Merton, but must not trespass too far +upon your courtesy." + +"Well, sir," replied the farmer, "we shall feel proud if you can put up +with the like of us." + +"I will come. I am much obliged to you, sir, and to your daughter." + +He mounted his horse and bade the farmer good morning. Susan came out +and stood on the steps and curtsied low--rustic fashion--but with a +grace of her own. He took off his hat to her as he rode out of the gate, +gave her a sweet, bright smile of adieu, and went down the lane fourteen +miles an hour. Old Giles was seated outside his own door with a pipe +and a book. At the sound of horses' feet he looked up and recognized +his visitor, whom he had seen pass in the morning. He rose up erect and +saluted him, by bringing his thumb with a military wave to his forehead. +Mr. Eden saluted him in the same manner, but without stopping. The old +soldier sat down again and read and smoked. The pipe ended--that solace +was not of an immortal kind--but the book remained; he read it calmly +but earnestly in the warm air till day declined. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE next Saturday Susan was busy preparing two rooms for Mr. Eden--a +homely but bright bedroom looking eastward, and a snug room where he +could be quiet downstairs. Snowy sheets and curtains and toilet-cover +showed the good housewife. The windows were open, and a beautiful +nosegay of Susan's flowers on the table. Mr. Eden's eye brightened at +the comfort and neatness and freshness of the whole thing; and Susan, +who watched him furtively, felt pleased to see him pleased. + +On Sunday he preached in the parish church. The sermon was opposite to +what the good people here had been subject to; instead of the vague and +cold generalities of an English sermon, he drove home-truths home in +business-like English. He used a good many illustrations, and these +were drawn from matters with which this particular congregation were +conversant. He was as full of similes here as he was sparing of them +when he preached before the University of Oxford. Any one who had +read this sermon in a book of sermons would have divined what sort +of congregation it was preached to--a primrose of a sermon. Mr. Eden +preached from notes and to the people--not the air. Like every born +orator, he felt his way with his audience, whereas the preacher who is +not an orator throws out his fine things, hit or miss, and does not know +and feel and care whether he is hitting or missing. "Open your hand, +shut your eyes, and fling out the good seed so much per foot--that is +enough." No. This man preached to the faces and hearts that happened +to be round him. He established between himself and them a pulse, every +throb of which he felt and followed. If he could not get hold of them +one way, he tried another; he would have them--he was not there to fail. +His discourse was human; it was man speaking to man on the most vital +and interesting topic in the world or out of it; it was more, it was +brother speaking to brother. Hence some singular phenomena. First, +when he gave the blessing (which is a great piece of eloquence commonly +reduced to a very small one by monotonous or feeble delivery), and +uttered it, like his discourse, with solemnity, warmth, tenderness and +all his soul, the people lingered some moments in the church and seemed +unwilling to go at all. Second, nobody mistook their pew for their +four-poster during the sermon. This was the more remarkable as many of +the congregation had formed a steady habit of coming to this place once +a week with the single view of snatching an hour's repose from earthly +and heavenly cares. + +The next morning Mr. Eden visited some of the poorest people in the +parish. Susan accompanied him, all eyes and ears. She observed that his +line was not to begin by dictating his own topic, but lie in wait for +them; let them first choose their favorite theme, and so meet them on +this ground, and bring religion to bear on it. "Oh, how wise he is!" +thought Susan, "and how he knows the heart!" + +One Sunday evening three weeks after his first official visit he had +been by himself to see some of the poor people, and on his return found +Susan alone. He sat down and gave an account of his visits. + +"How many ounces of tea and tobacco did you give away, sir?" asked +Susan, with an arch smile. + +"Four tea, two tobacco," replied the reverend gentleman. + +"I do notice, sir, you never carry gingerbread or the like for the +children." + +"No; the young don't want lollypops, for they have youth. Old age wants +everything, so the old are my children, and I tea and tobacco them." + +After this there was a pause. + +"Miss Merton, you have shown me many persons who need consolation, but +there is one you say nothing about." + +"Have I, sir? Who? Oh, I think I know. Old Dame Clayton?" + +"No, it is a young demoiselle." + +"Then I don't know who it can be." + +"Guess." + +"No, sir," said Susan, looking down. + +"It is yourself, Miss Merton." + +"Me, sir! Why, what is the matter with me?" + +"That you shall tell me, if you think me worthy of your confidence." + +"Oh, thank you, sir. I have my little crosses, no doubt, like all the +world; but I have health and strength. I have my father." + +"My child, you are in trouble. You were crying when I came in. + +"Indeed I was not, sir!--how did you know I was crying?" + +"When I came in you turned your back to me, instead of facing me, which +is more natural when any one enters a room; and soon after you made an +excuse for leaving the room, and when you came back there was a drop of +water in your right eyelash." + +"It need not have been a tear, sir!" + +"It was not; it was water. You had been removing the traces of tears." + +"Girls are mostly always crying, sir; often they don't know for why, but +they don't care to have it noticed always." + +"Nor would it be polite or generous; but this of yours is a deep grief, +and alarms me for you. Shall I tell you how I know? You often yawn and +often sigh; when these two things come together at your age they are +signs of a heavy grief; then it comes out that you have lost your relish +for things that once pleased you. The first day I came here you told me +your garden had been neglected of late, and you blushed in saying so. +Old Giles and others asked you before me why you had given up visiting +them; you colored and looked down. I could almost have told them, but +that would have made you uncomfortable. You are in grief, and no common +grief." + +"Nothing worth speaking to you about, sir; nothing I will ever complain +of to any one." + +"There I think you are wrong; religion has consoled many griefs; great +griefs admit of no other consolation. The sweetest exercise of my office +is to comfort the heavy hearted. Your heart is heavy, my poor lamb--tell +me--what is it?" + +"It is nothing, sir, that you would understand; you are very skilled and +notice-taking, as well as good, but you are not a woman, and you must +excuse me, sir, if I beg you not to question me further on what would +not interest you." + +Mr. Eden looked at her compassionately, and merely said to her again, +"What is it?" in a low tone of ineffable tenderness. + +At this Susan looked in a scared manner this way and that. "Sir, do not +ask me, pray do not ask me so;" then she suddenly lifted her hands, "My +George is gone across the sea! What shall I do! what shall I do!!" and +she buried her face in her apron. + +This burst of pure Nature--this simple cry of a suffering heart--was +very touching, and Mr. Eden, spite of his many experiences, was not +a little moved. He sat silent, looking on her as an angel might be +supposed to look upon human griefs, and as he looked on her various +expressions chased one another across that eloquent face. Sweet and +tender memories and regrets were not wanting among them. After a long +pause he spoke in a tone soft and gentle as a woman's, and at first in +a voice so faltering that Susan, though her face was hidden, felt there +was no common sympathy there, and silently put out her hand toward it. + +He murmured consolation. He said many gentle, soothing things. He told +her that it was very sad the immense ocean should roll between two +loving hearts, "but," said he, "there are barriers more impassable than +the sea. Better so than that he should be here and jealousy, mistrust, +caprice, or even temper come between you. I hope he will come back; I +think he will come back." + +She blessed him for saying so. She was learning to believe everything +this man uttered. + +From consolation he passed to advice. + +"You must do the exact opposite of what you have been doing." + +"Must I?" + +"You must visit those poor people; ay, more than ever you did; hear +patiently their griefs; do not expect much in return, neither sympathy +nor a great deal of gratitude; vulgar sorrow is selfish. Do it for God's +sake and your own single-heartedly. Go to the school, return to your +flowers, and never shun innocent society, however dull. Milk and water +is a poor thing, but it is a diluent, and all we can do just now is to +dilute your grief." + +He made her promise: "Next time I come tell me all about you and +George. 'Give sorrow words, the grief that does not speak whispers the +o'erfraught heart and bids it break.'" + +"Oh! that is a true word," sobbed Susan, "that is very true. Why a +little of the lead seems to have dropped off my heart now I have spoken +to you, sir." + +All the next week Susan bore up as bravely as she could, and did what +Mr. Eden had bade her, and profited by his example. She learned to draw +from others the full history of their woes; and she found that many +a grief bitter as her own had passed over the dwellers in those small +cottages; it did her some little good to discover kindred woes, and much +good to go out of herself a while and pity them. + +This drooping flower recovered her head a little, but still the sweetest +hour in all the working days of the week was that which brought John +Meadows to talk to her of Australia. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SUSAN MERTON had two unfavored lovers; it is well to observe how +differently these two behaved. William Fielding stayed at home, threw +his whole soul into his farm, and seldom went near the woman he loved +but had no right to love. Meadows dangled about the flame; ashamed and +afraid to own his love, he fed it to a prodigious height by encouraging +it and not expressing it. William Fielding was moody and cross and sad +enough at times; but at others a little spark ignited inside his heart, +and a warm glow diffused itself from that small point over all +his being. I think this spark igniting was an approving conscience +commencing its uphill work of making a disappointed lover, but honest +man, content. + +Meadows, on his part, began to feel content and a certain complacency +take the place of his stormy feelings. Twice a week he passed two hours +with Susan. She always greeted him with a smile, and naturally showed an +innocent satisfaction in these visits, managed as they were with so much +art and self-restraint. On Sunday, too, he had always a word or two with +her. + +Meadows, though an observer of religious forms, had the character of a +very worldly man, and Susan thought it highly to his credit that he came +six miles to hear Mr. Eden. + +"But, Mr. Meadows, your poor horse," said she, one day. "I doubt it is +no Sabbath to him now." + +"No more it is," said Meadows, as if a new light came to him from Susan. +The next Sunday he appeared in dusty shoes, instead of top-boots. + +Susan looked down at them, and saw, and said nothing; but she smiled. +Her love of goodness and her vanity were both gratified a little. + +Meadows did not stop there; wherever Susan went he followed modestly in +her steps. Nor was this mere cunning. He loved her quite well enough to +imitate her, and try and feel with her; and he began to be kinder to the +poor, and to feel good all over, and comfortable. He felt as if he +had not an enemy in the world. One day in Farnborough he saw William +Fielding on the other side of the street. Susan Merton did not love +William, therefore Meadows had no cause to hate him. He remembered +William had asked a loan of him and he had declined. He crossed over to +him. + +"Good-day, Mr. William." + +"Good-day, Mr. Meadows." + +"You were speaking to me one day about a trifling loan. I could not +manage it just then, but now--" Here Meadows paused. He had been on the +point of offering the money, but suddenly, by one of those instincts of +foresight these able men have, he turned it off thus: "but I know who +will. You go to Lawyer Crawley; he lends money to people of credit." + +"I know he does; but he won't lend it me." + +"Why not?" + +"He does not like us. He is a poor sneaking creature, and my brother +George he caught Crawley selling up some poor fellow or other, and they +had words; leastways it went beyond words, I fancy. I don't know the +rights of it, but George was a little rough with him by all accounts." + +"And what has that to do with this?" said the man of business coolly. + +"Why, I am George's brother." + +"And if you were George himself and he saw his way to make a shilling +out of you he would do it, wouldn't he? There, you go to Crawley and +ask him to lend you one hundred pounds, and he will lend it you, only he +will make you pay heavy interest, heavier than I should, you know, if I +could manage it myself." + +"Oh, I don't care," said simple William; "thank you kindly, Mr. +Meadows," and off he went to Crawley. + +He found that worthy in his office. Crawley, who instantly guessed +his errand, and had no instructions from Meadows, promised himself the +satisfaction of refusing the young man. He asked, with a cringing manner +and a treacherous smile, "What security, sir?" + +Poor William higgled and hammered, and offered first one thing, which +was blandly declined for this reason; then another, which was blandly +declined for that, Crawley drinking deep draughts of mean vengeance all +the while from the young man's shame and mortification, when the door +opened, a man walked in, and gave Crawley a note and vanished. Crawley +opened the note; it contained a check drawn by Meadows, and these words: +"Lend W. F. the money at ten per cent on his acceptance of your draft at +two months." + +Crawley put the note and check in his pocket. + +"Well, sir," said he to William, "you stay here, and I will see if I +have got a loose hundred in the bank to spare." He went over to the +bank, cashed the check, drew a bill of exchange at two months' date, +deducted the interest and stamp, and William accepted it, and Crawley +bowed him out cringing, smiling, and secretly shooting poisoned arrows +out of his venomous eye in the direction of William's heels. + +William thanked him warmly. + +This loan made him feel happy. + +He had paid his brother's debt to the landlord by sacrificing a large +portion of his grain at a time the price was low; and now he was so +cramped he had much ado to pay his labor when this loan came. The very +next day he bought several hogs--hogs, as George had sarcastically +observed, were William Fielding's hobby; he had I confidence in that +animal. Potatoes and pigs versus sheep and turnips was the theory of +William Fielding. + +Now the good understanding between William and Meadows was not to last +long. William, though he was too wise to visit Grassmere Farm much, was +mindful of his promise to George, and used to make occasional inquiries +after Susan. He heard that Meadows called at the farm twice a week, and +he thought it a little odd. He pondered on it, but did not quite go the +length of suspecting anything, still less of suspecting Susan. Still, he +thought it odd; but he thought it odder, when, one market-day, old Isaac +Levi said to him: + +"Do you remember the promise you made to the lion-hearted young man, +your brother?" + +"Do you ask that to affront me?" + +"You never visit her; and others are not so neglectful." + +"Who?" + +"Go this evening and you will see." + +"Yes, I will go, and I will soon see if there is anything in it," said +William, not stopping even to inquire why the old Jew took all this +interest in the affair. + +That evening, as Meadows was in the middle of a description of the town +of Sydney, Susan started up. "Why, here is William Fielding!" and she +ran out and welcomed him in with much cordiality, perhaps with some +excess of cordiality. + +William came in and saluted the farmer and Meadows in his dogged way. +Meadows was not best pleased, but kept his temper admirably, and, +leaving Australia, engaged both the farmers in a conversation on home +topics. Susan looked disappointed. Meadows was content with that, and +the party separated half an hour sooner than usual. + +The next market evening in strolls William. Meadows again plays the same +game. This time Susan could hardly restrain her temper. She did not want +to hear about the Grassmere acres, and "The Grove," and oxen and hogs, +but about something that mattered to George. + +But when the next market evening William arrived before Mr. Meadows, +she was downright provoked and gave him short answers, which raised his +suspicions and made him think he had done wisely in coming. This evening +Susan excused herself and went to bed early. + +She was in Farnborough the next market-day, and William met her and +said: + +"I'll take a cup of tea with you to-night, Susan, if you are agreeable." + +"William," said Susan sharply, "what makes you always come to us on +market-day?" + +"I don't know. What makes Mr. Meadows come that day?" + +"Because he passes our house to go to his own, I suppose; but you live +but two miles off; you can come any day that you are minded." + +"Should I be welcome, Susan?" + +"What do you think, Will? Speak your mind; I don't understand you." + +"Seems to me I was not very welcome last time." + +"If I thought that I wouldn't come again," replied Susan, as sharp as +a needle. Then instantly repenting a little, she explained: "You are +welcome to me, Will, and you know that as well as I do, but I want you +to come some other evening, if it is all the same to you." + +"Why?" + +"Why? because I am dull other evenings, and it would be nice to have a +chat with you." + +"Would it, Susan?" + +"Of course it would; but that evening I have company--and he talks to me +of Australia." + +"Nothing else?" sneered the unlucky William. + +Susan gave him such a look. + +"And that interests me more than anything you can say to me--if you +won't be offended," snapped Susan. + +William bit his lip. + +"Well, then, I won't come this evening, eh! Susan?" + +"No, don't, that is a good soul." + +"Les femmes sont impitoyables pour ceux qu'elles n'aiment pas." This +is a harsh saying, and of course not pure truth; but there is a deal of +truth in it. + +William was proud, and the consciousness of his own love for her made +him less able to persist, for he knew she might be so ungenerous as to +retort if he angered her too far. So he altered the direction of his +battery. He planted himself at the gate of Grassmere Farm, and as +Meadows got off his horse requested a few words with him. Meadows ran +him over with one lightning glance, and then the whole man was on the +defensive. William bluntly opened the affair. + +"You heard me promise to look on Susan as my sister, and keep her as she +is for my brother that is far away." + +"I heard you, Mr. William," said Meadows with a smile that provoked +William as the artful one intended it should. + +"You come here too often, sir." + +"Too often for who?" + +"Too often for me, too often for George, too often for the girl herself. +I won't have George's sweetheart talked about." + +"You are the first to talk about her; if there's scandal it is of your +making." + +"I won't have it--at a word." + +Meadows called out, "Miss Merton, will you step here." + +William was astonished at his audacity; he did not know his man. + +Susan opened the parlor window. + +"What is it, Mr. Meadows?" + +"Will you step here, if you please?" Susan came. :Here is a young man +tells me I must not call on your father or you." + +"I say you must not do it often enough to make her talked of." + +"Who dares to talk of me?" cried Susan, scarlet. + +"Nobody, Miss Merton. Nobody but the young man himself; and so I +told him. Is your father within? Then I'll step in and speak with him +anyway." And the sly Meadows vanished to give Susan an opportunity of +quarreling with William while she was hot. + +"I don't know how you came to take such liberties with me," began Susan, +quite pale now with anger. + +"It is for George's sake," said William doggedly. + +"Did George bid you insult my friends and me? I would not put up with it +from George himself, much less from you. I shall write to George and ask +him whether he wishes me to be your slave." + +"Don't ye do so. Don't set my brother against me," remonstrated William +ruefully. + +"The best thing you can do is to go home and mind your farm, and get a +sweetheart for yourself, and then you won't trouble your head about me +more than you have any business to do." + +This last cut wounded William to the quick. + +"Good-evening, Susan." + +"Good-evening." + +"Won't you shake hands?" + +"It would serve you right if I said no! But I won't make you of so much +importance as you want to be. There! And come again as soon as ever you +can treat my friends with respect." + +"I shan't trouble you again for a while," said William sadly. "Good-by. +God bless you, Susan dear." + +When he was gone the tears came into Susan's eyes, but she was bitterly +indignant with him for making a scene about her, which a really modest +girl hates. On her reaching the parlor Mr. Meadows was gone, too, and +that incensed her still more against William. "Mr. Meadows is affronted, +no doubt," said she, "and of course he would not come here to be talked +of; he would not like that any more than I. A man that comes here to us +out of pure good nature and nothing else." + +The next market-day the deep Meadows did not come. Susan missed him and +his talk. She had few pleasures, and this was one of them. But the next +after he came as usual, and Susan did not conceal her satisfaction. She +was too shy and he too wise to allude to William's interference. They +both ignored the poor fellow and his honest, clumsy attempt. + +William, discomfited but not convinced, determined to keep his eye upon +them both. "I swore it and I'll do it," said this honest fellow. "But I +can't face her tongue; it goes through me like a pitchfork; but as for +him"--and he clinched his fist most significantly; then he revolved +one or two plans in his head, and rejected them each in turn. At last +a thought struck him. "Mr. Levi! he 'twas that put me on my guard. I'll +tell him." Accordingly he recounted the whole affair and his failure to +Mr. Levi. The old man smiled. "You are no match for either of these. You +have given the maiden offense, just offense." + +"Just offence! Mr. Levi. Now don't ye say so; why, how?" + +"By your unskillfulness, my son." + +"It is all very well for you to say that, sir, but I can tell you women +are kittle folk--manage them who can? I don't know what to do, I'm +sure." + +"Stay at home and till the land," replied Isaac, somewhat dryly. "I will +go to Grassmere Farm." + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"You going to leave us, Mr. Eden, and going to live in a jail? Oh! +Mr. Eden, I can't bear to think of it. You to be cooped up there among +thieves and rogues, and perhaps murderers?" + +"They have the more need of me." + +"And you, who love the air of heaven so; why, sir, I see you take off +your very hat at times to enjoy it as you are walking along; you would +be choked in a prison. Besides, sir, it is only little parsons that go +there." + +"What are little parsons?" + +"Those that are not clever enough or good enough to be bishops and +vicars, and so forth; not such ones as you." + +"How odd! This is exactly what the Devil whispered in my ear when the +question was first raised, but I did not expect to find you on his +side." + +"Didn't you, sir? Ah! well, if 'tis your duty I know I may as well hold +my tongue. And then, such as you are not like other folk; you come like +sunshine to some dark place, and when you have warmed it and lighted it +a bit, Heaven, that sent you, will have you go and shine elsewhere. You +came here, sir, you waked up the impenitent folk in this village and +comforted the distressed and relieved the poor, and you have saved one +poor broken-hearted girl from despair, from madness, belike; and now we +are not to be selfish, we must not hold you back, but let you run the +race that is set before you, and remember your words and your deeds, and +your dear face and voice to the last hour of our lives." + +"And give me the benefit of your prayers, little sister, do not deny me +them; your prayers, that I may persevere to the end. Ay! it is too true, +Susan; in this world there is nothing but meeting and parting; it is +sad. We have need to be stout-hearted--stouter-hearted than you are. But +it will not always be so. A few short years and we who have fought +the good fight shall meet to part no more--to part no more--to part no +more!" + +As he repeated these words, half mechanically, Susan could see that he +had suddenly become scarce conscious of her presence. The light of other +days was in his eye and his lips moved inarticulately. Delicate-minded +Susan left him, and with the aid of the servant brought out the +tea-things and set the little table on the grass square in her garden, +where you could see the western sun. And then she came for Mr. Eden. + +"Come, sir, there is not a breath of wind this evening, so the +tea-things are set in the air. I know you like that." + +The little party sat down in the open air. The butter, churned by Susan, +was solidified cream. The bread not very white, but home-made, juicy and +sweet as milk. The tea seemed to diffuse a more flowery fragrance out of +doors than it does in, and to mix fraternally with the hundred odors of +Susan's flowers that now perfumed the air, and the whole innocent meal, +unlike coarse dinner or supper, mingled harmoniously with the scene, +with the balmy air, the blue sky and the bright emerald grass sprinkled +with gold by the descending sun. Farmer Merton soon left them, and then +Susan went in and brought out pen and ink and a large sheet of paper. + +Susan sat apart working with her needle, Mr. Eden sketched a sermon and +sipped his tea, and now and then purred three words to Susan, who purred +as many in reply. And yet over this pleasant scene there hung a gentle +sadness, felt most by Susan, as with head bent down she plied her needle +in silence. "He will not sit in my garden many times more, nor write +many more notes of sermons under my eye, nor preach to us all many more +sermons; and then he is going to a nasty jail, where he won't have his +health, I'm doubtful. And then I'm fearful he won't be comfortable in +his house, with nobody to take care of him that really cares for him; +servants soon find out where there is no woman to scold them as should +be, and he is not the man to take his own part against them." And Susan +sighed at the domestic prospects of her friend, and her needle went +slower and slower. + +These reflections were interrupted by the servant, who announced a +visitor. Susan laid down her work and went into the parlor, and there +found Isaac Levi. She greeted him with open arms and heightened +color, and never for a moment suspected that he was come there full of +suspicions of her. + +After the first greeting a few things of little importance were said on +either side. Isaac watching to see whether Mr. Meadows had succeeded in +supplanting George, and too cunning to lead the conversation that way +himself, lay patiently in wait like a sly old fox. However, he soon +found he was playing the politician superfluously, for Susan laid bare +her whole heart to the simplest capacity. Instead of waiting for +the skillful, subtle, almost invisible cross-examination which the +descendant of Maimonides was preparing for her, she answered all his +questions before they were asked. It came out that her thought by day +and night was George, that she had been very dull, and very unhappy. +"But I am better now, Mr. Levi, thank God. He has been very good to me: +he has sent me a friend, a clergyman, or an angel in the dress of one, I +sometimes think. He knows all about me and George, sir; so that makes +me feel quite at home with him, and I can--and now Mr. Meadows stops +an hour on market-days, and he is so kind as to tell me all about +Australia, and you may guess I like to hear about--Mr. Levi, come and +see us some market evening. Mr. Meadows is capital company; to hear him +you would think he had passed half his life in Australia. Were you ever +in Australia, sir, if you please?" + +"Never, but I shall." + +"Shall you, sir?" + +"Yes; the old Jew is not to die till he has drifted to every part in +the globe. In my old days I shall go back toward the East, and there +methinks I shall lay these wandering bones." + +"Oh, sir, inquire after George and show him some kindness, and don't see +him wronged, he is very simple. No! no! no! you are too old; you must +not cross the seas at your age; don't think of it; stay quiet at home +till you leave us for a better world." + +"At home!" said the old man sorrowfully; "I have no home. I had a home, +but the man Meadows has driven me out of it." + +"Mr. Meadows! La, sir, as how?" + +"He bought the house I live in, and next Lady-day, as the +woman-worshiper calls it, he turns me to the door." + +"But he won't if you ask him. He is a very good-natured man. You go and +ask him to be so good as let you stay; he won't gainsay you, you take my +word." + +"Susannah!" replied Isaac, "you are good and innocent; you cannot fathom +the hearts of the wicked. This Meadows is a man of Belial. I did beseech +him; I bowed these gray hairs to him to let me stay in the house where I +lived so happily with my Leah twenty years, where my children were +born to me and died from me, where my Leah consoled me for their loss a +while, but took no comfort herself and left me, too." + +"Poor old man! and what did he say?" + +"He refused me with harsh words. To make the refusal more bitter +he insulted my religion and my much-enduring tribe, and at the day +appointed he turns me, at threescore years and ten, adrift upon the +earth." + +"Eh, dear! how hard the world is!" cried Susan; "I had a great respect +for Mr. Meadows, but now if he comes here I know I shall shut the door +in his face." + +Isaac reflected. This would not have suited a certain subtle Eastern +plan of vengeance he had formed. "No!" said he, "that is folly. Take +not another man's quarrel on your shoulders. A Jew knows how to revenge +himself without your aid." + +So then her inquisitor was satisfied; Australia really was the topic +that made Meadows welcome. He departed, revolving Oriental vengeance. + +Smooth Meadows, at his next visit, removed the impression excited +against him, and easily persuaded Susan that Levi was more in the wrong +than he, in which opinion she stood firm till Levi's next visit. + +At last she gave up all hope of dijudicating, and determined to end the +matter by bringing them together and making them friends. + +And now approached the day of Mr. Eden's departure. The last sermon--the +last quiet tea in the garden. On Monday afternoon he was to go to +Oxford, and the following week to his new sphere of duties, which he +had selected to the astonishment of some hundred persons who knew him +superficially--knew him by his face, by his pretensions as a scholar, +a divine and a gentleman of descent and independent means, but had not +sounded his depths. + +All Sunday Susan sought every opportunity of conversing with him even on +indifferent matters. She was garnering up his words, his very syllables, +and twenty times in the day he saw her eyes fill with tears apropos of +such observations as this: + +"We shall have a nice warm afternoon, Susan." + +"It is to be hoped so, sir; the blackbirds are giving a chirrup or two." + +All Monday forenoon Susan was very busy. There was bread to be baked and +butter to be made. Mr. Eden must take some of each to Oxford. They would +keep Grassmere in his mind a day or two longer; and besides they were +wholesome and he was fond of them. Then there was his linen to be looked +over, and buttons sewed on for the last time. Then he must eat a good +dinner before he went, so then he would want nothing but his tea when he +got to Oxford; and the bread would be fit to eat by tea-time, especially +a small crusty cake she had made for that purpose. So with all this +Susan was energetic, almost lively; and even when it was all done and +they were at dinner, her principal anxiety seemed to be that he should +eat more than usual because he was going a journey. But when all bustle +of every kind was over and the actual hour of parting came, she suddenly +burst out crying before her father and the servant, who bade her not +take on and instantly burst out crying too from vague sympathy. + +The old farmer ordered the girl out of the room directly, and without +the least emotion proceeded to make excuses to Mr. Eden for Susan. + +"A young maid's eyes soon flow over," etc. + +Mr. Eden interrupted him. + +"Such tears as these do not scald the heart. I feel this separation from +my dear kind friend as much as she feels it. But I am more than twice +her age and have passed through--I should feel it bitterly if I thought +our friendship and Christian love were to end because our path of duty +lies separate. But no, Susan, still look on me as your adviser, your +elder brother, and in some measure your pastor. I shall write to you and +watch over you, though it some distance--and not so great a distance. +I am always well horsed, and I know you will give me a bed at Grassmere +once a quarter." + +"That we will," cried the farmer, warmly, "and proud and happy to see +you cross the threshold, sir." + +"And, Mr. Merton, my new house is large. I shall be alone in it. +Whenever you and Miss Merton have nothing better to do, pray come +and visit me. I will make you as uncomfortable as you have made me +comfortable, but as welcome as you have made me welcome." + +"We will come, sir! we will come some one of these days, and thank you +for the honor." + +So Mr. Eden went from Grassmere village and Grassmere farmhouse--but he +left neither as he found them; fifty years hence an old man and woman or +two will speak to their grandchildren of the "Sower," and Susan Merton +(if she is on earth then) of "the good Physician." She may well do +so, for it was no vulgar service he rendered her, no vulgar malady he +checked. + +Not every good man could have penetrated so quickly a coy woman's grief, +nor, the wound found, have soothed her fever and deadened her smart with +a hand as firm as gentle, as gentle as firm. + +Such men are human suns! They brighten and warm wherever they pass. +Fools count them mad, till death wrenches open foolish eyes; they are +not often called "my Lord,"* nor sung by poets when they die; but the +hearts they heal, and their own are their rich reward on earth--and +their place is high in heaven. + + * Sometimes thought. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MR. MEADOWS lived in a house that he had conquered three years ago by +lending money on it at fair interest in his own name. Mr. David Hall, +the proprietor, paid neither principal nor interest. Mr. Meadows +expected this contingency, and therefore lent his money. He threatened +to foreclose and sell the house under the hammer; to avoid this Mr. Hall +said, "Pay yourself the interest by living rent free in the house till +such time as my old aunt dies, drat her, and then I'll pay your money. +I wish I had never borrowed it." Meadows acquiesced with feigned +reluctance. "Well, if I must, I must; but let me have my money as soon +as you can--" (aside) "I will end my days in this house." + +It had many conveniences; among the rest a very long though narrow +garden inclosed within high walls. At the end of the garden was a door +which anybody could open from the inside, but from the outside only by a +Bramah key. + +The access to this part of the premises was by a short, narrow lane, +very dirty and very little used, because, whatever might have been in +old times, it led now from nowhere to nowhere. Meadows received by +this entrance one or two persons whom he never allowed to desecrate +his knocker. At the head of these furtive visitors was Peter Crawley, +attorney-at-law, a gentleman who every New Year's Eve used to say to +himself with a look of gratified amazement--"Another year gone, and I +not struck off the Rolls!!!" + +Peter had a Bramah key intrusted to him. + +His visits to Mr. Meadows were conducted thus: he opened the garden-gate +and looked up at the window in a certain passage. This passage was +not accessible to the servants, and the window with its blinds was a +signal-book. + +Blinds up, Mr. Meadows out. + +White blind down, Mr. Meadows in. + +Blue blind down, Mr. Meadows in, but not alone. + +The same key that opened the garden-door opened a door at the back +of the house which led direct to the passage above-mentioned. On the +window-seat lay a peculiar whistle constructed to imitate the whining of +a dog. Then Meadows would go to his book-shelves, which lined one side +of the room, and pressing a hidden spring open a door that nobody +ever suspected, for the books came along with it. To provide for every +contingency, there was a small secret opening in another part of the +shelves by which Meadows could shoot unobserved a note or the like +into the passage, and so give Crawley instructions without dismissing a +visitor, if he had one. + +Meadows provided against surprise and discovery. His study had double +doors. Neither of them could be opened from the outside. His visitors or +servants must rap with an iron knocker; and while Meadows went to open, +the secret visitor stepped into the passage and shut the books behind +him. + +It was a room that looked business. One side was almost papered with +ordnance maps of this and an adjoining county. Pigeon-holes abounded, +too, and there was a desk six feet long, chock full of little +drawers--contents indicated outside in letters of which the proprietor +knew the meaning, not I. + +Between the door and the fireplace was a screen, on which, in place +of idle pictures, might be seen his plans and calculations as a land +surveyor, especially those that happened to be at present in operation +or under consideration. So he kept his business before his eye, on the +chance of a good idea striking him at a leisure moment. + +"Will Fielding's acceptance falls due to-morrow, Crawley." + +"Yes, sir, what shall I do?" + +"Present it; he is not ready for it, I know. + +"Well, sir; what next?" + +"Serve him with a writ." + +"He will be preciously put about." + +"He will. Seem sorry; say you are a little short, but won't trouble him +for a month, if it is inconvenient; but he must make you safe by signing +a judgment." + +"Ay! ay! Sir, may I make bold to ask what is the game with this young +Fielding?" + +"You ought to know the game--to get him in my power." + +"And a very good game it is, sir! Nobody plays it better than you. He +won't be the only one that is in your power in these parts--he! he!" And +Crawley chuckled without merriment. "Excuse my curiosity, sir, but when +about is the blow to fall?" + +"What is that to you?" + +"Nothing, sir, only the sooner the better. I have a grudge against the +family." + +"Have you? then don't act upon it. I don't employ you to do your +business, but mine. + +"Certainly, Mr. Meadows. You don't think I'd be so ungrateful as to +spoil your admirable plans by acting upon any little feeling of my own." + +"I don't think you would be so silly. For if you did, we should part." + +"Don't mention such an event, sir." + +"You have been drinking, Crawley!" + +"Not a drop, sir, this two days." + +"You are a liar! The smell of it comes through your skin. I won't have +it. Do you hear what I say? I won't have it. No man that drinks can do +business--especially mine." + +"I'll never touch a drop again. They called me into the +public-house--they wouldn't take a denial." + +"Hold your prate and listen to me. The next time you look at a +public-house say to yourself, Peter Crawley, that is not a public-house +to you--it is a hospital, a workhouse, for a dunghill--for if you go in +there John Meadows, that is your friend, will be your enemy." + +"Heaven forbid, Mr. Meadows." + +"Drink this basinful of coffee." + +"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. It is very bitter." + +"Is your head clear now?" + +"As a bell." + +"Then go and do my work, and don't do an atom more or an atom less than +your task." + +"No, sir. Oh, Mr. Meadows! it is a pleasure to serve you. You are as +deep as the sea, sir, and as firm as the rock. You never drink, nor +anything else, that I can find. A man out of a thousand! No little +weakness, like the rest of us, sir. You are a great man, sir. You are a +model of a man of bus--" + +"Good-morning," growled Meadows roughly, and turned his back. + +"Good-morning, sir," said Peter mellifluously. And opening the back door +about ten inches, he wriggled out like a weasel going through a chink in +a wall. + +William Fielding fell like a child into the trap. "Give me time, and it +will be all right," is the debtor's delusion. William thanked Crawley +for not pressing him, and so compelling him to force a sale of all his +hogs, fat or lean. Crawley received his thanks with a leer, returned +in four days, got the judgment signed, and wriggled away with it to +Meadows' back door. + +"You take out an arrest"--Meadows gave him a pocketbook--"put it in +this, and keep it ready in your pocket night and day." + +"I dare say it will come into use before the year is out, sir." + +"I hope not." + +George Fielding gone to Australia to make a thousand pounds by farming +and cattle-feeding, that so he may claim old Merton's promised +consent to marry Susan. Susan observing Mr. Eden's precepts even more +religiously than when he was with her; active, full of charitable deeds, +often pensive, always anxious, but not despondent now, thanks to the +good physician. Meadows falling deeper and deeper in love, but keeping +it more jealously secret than ever; on his guard against Isaac, on +his guard against William, on his guard against John Meadows; hoping +everything from time and accidents, from the distance between the +lovers, from George's incapacity, of which he had a great opinion--"He +will never make a thousand pence"--but not trusting to the things he +hoped. On the contrary, watching with keen eye, and working with subtle +threads to draw everybody into his power who could assist or thwart him +in the object his deep heart and iron will were set on. William Fielding +going down the hill Meadows was mounting; getting the better of his +passion, and substituting, by degrees, a brother-in-law's regard. + +Flowers and weeds have one thing in common--while they live they grow. +Natural growth is a slow process, to describe it day by day a slower. +For the next four months matters glided so quietly on the slopes I have +just indicated that an intelligent calculation by the reader may very +well take the place of a tedious chronicle by the writer. Moreover, the +same monotony did not hang over every part of our story. These very four +months were eventful enough to one of our characters; and through him, +by subtle and positive links, to every man and every woman who fills +any considerable position in this matter-of-fact romance. Therefore +our story drags us from the meadows round Grassmere to a massive, +castellated building, glaring red brick with white stone corners. These +colors and their contrast relieve the stately mass of some of that +grimness which characterizes the castles of antiquity; but enough +remains to strike some awe into the beholder. + +Two round towers flank the principal entrance. On one side of the +right-hand tower is a small house constructed in the same style as the +grand pile. The castle is massive and grand. This, its satellite, is +massive and tiny, like the frog doing his little bit of bull--like +Signor Hervio Nano, a tremendous thick dwarf now no more. There is one +dimple to all this gloomy grandeur--a rich little flower-garden, whose +frame of emerald turf goes smiling up to the very ankle of the frowning +fortress, as some few happy lakes in the world wash the very foot of the +mountains that hem them. From this green spot a few flowers look up with +bright and wondering wide-opened eyes at the great bullying masonry over +their heads; and to the spectator of both, these sparks of color at the +castle-foot are dazzling and charming; they are like rubies, sapphires +and pink topaz in some uncouth angular ancient setting. + +Between the central towers is a sharp arch, filled by a huge oak door +of the same shape and size, which, for further security or ornament, is +closely studded with large diamond-headed nails. A man with keys at +his girdle like the ancient housewives opens the huge door to you with +slight effort, so well oiled is it. You slip under a porch into an +inclosed yard, the great door shuts almost of itself, and now it +depends upon the housewifely man whether you ever see the vain, idle and +every-way objectionable world again. + +Passing into the interior of the vast building, you find yourself in +an extensive aisle traversed at right angles by another of similar +dimensions, the whole in form of a cross. In the center of each aisle is +an iron staircase, so narrow that two people cannot pass, and so light +and open that it merely ornaments, not obstructs, the view of the aisle. +These staircases make two springs; the first takes them to the level of +two corridors on the first floor. Here there is a horizontal space of +about a yard, whence the continuation staircase rises to the second +and highest floor. This gives three corridors, all studded with doors +opening on small separate apartments, whereof anon. + +Nearly all the inmates of this grim palace wear a peculiar costume and +disguise, one feature of which is a cap of coarse materials, with a +vizor to it, which conceals the features all but the chin and the eyes, +which last peep, in a very droll way, through two holes cut for that +purpose. + +They are distinguished by a courteous manner to strangers, whom they +never fail to salute in passing, with great apparent cordiality; indeed, +we fear we shall never meet in the busy world with such uniform urbanity +as in this and similar retreats. It arises from two causes. One is that +here strangers are welcome from their rarity; another, that politeness +is a part of the education of the place, which, besides its other uses, +is an adult school of manners, morals, religion, grammar, writing and +cobbling. + +With the exception of its halls and corridors, the building is almost +entirely divided into an immense number of the small apartments noticed +above. These are homely inside, but exquisitely clean. The furniture, +movable and fixed, none of which is superfluous, can be briefly +described. A bedstead, consisting of the side walls of the apartment; +polished steel staples are fixed in these walls, two on each side the +apartment at an elevation of about two feet and a half. The occupant's +mattress (made of cocoa bark) has two stout steel hooks at each end; +these are hooked into the staples, and so he lies across his abode. +A deal table the size of a pocket-handkerchief; also a deal tripod. A +waterspout so ingeniously contrived that, turned to the right it sends +a small stream into a copper basin, and to the left into a bottomless +close stool at some distance. A small gas-pipe tipped with polished +brass. In one angle of the wall a sort of commode, or open cupboard; +on whose shelves a bright pewter plate, a knife and fork and a wooden +spoon. In a drawer of this commode yellow soap and a comb and brush. +A grating down low for hot air to come in, if it likes, and another up +high for foul air to go out, if it chooses. On the wall a large placard +containing rules for the tenant's direction, and smaller placards +containing texts from Scripture, the propriety of returning thanks +after food, etc.; a slate and a couple of leathern kneeguards used in +polishing the room. And that is all. But the deal furniture is so clean +you might eat off it. The walls are snow, the copper basin and the brass +gaspipe glitter like red gold and pale gold, and the bed-hooks like +silver hot from the furnace. Altogether it is inviting at first sight. + +To one of these snowy snug retreats was now ushered an acquaintance of +ours, Tom Robinson. A brief retrospect must dispose of his intermediate +history. + +When he left us he went to the county bridewell, where he remained until +the assizes, an interval of about a month. He was tried; direct evidence +was strong against him, and he defended himself with so much ingenuity +and sleight of intellect that the jury could not doubt his sleight of +hand and morals, too. He was found guilty, identified as a notorious +thief, and condemned to twelve months' imprisonment and ten years' +transportation. He returned to the county bridewell for a few days, and +then was shifted to the castellated building. + +Tom Robinson had not been in jail this four years, and, since his last +visit great changes had begun to take place in the internal economy of +these skeleton palaces and in the treatment of their prisoners. + +Prisons might be said to be in a transition state. In some, as in the +county bridewell Robinson had just left, the old system prevailed in +full force. The two systems vary in their aims. Under the old, the jail +was a finishing school of felony and petty larceny. Under the new, it is +intended to be a penal hospital for diseased and contagious souls. + +The treatment of prisoners is not at present invariable. Within certain +limits the law unwisely allows a discretionary power to the magistrates +of the county where the jail is; and the jailer, or, as he is now +called, the governor, is their agent in these particulars. + +Hence, in some new jails you may now see the non-separate system; in +others, the separate system without silence; in others, the separate +and silent system; in others, a mixture of these, i. e., the hardened +offenders kept separate, the improving ones allowed to mix; and these +varieties are at the discretion of the magistrates, who settle within +the legal limits each jail's system. + +The magistrates, in this part of their business, are represented by +certain of their own body, who are called "the visiting justices;" and +these visiting justices can even order and authorize a jailer to flog a +prisoner for offenses committed in jail. + +Now, a year or two before our tale, one Captain O'Connor was governor of +this jail. Captain O'Connor was a man of great public merit. He had been +one of the first dissatisfied with the old system, and had written very +intelligent books on crime and punishment, which are supposed to have +done their share in opening the nation's eyes to the necessity of +regenerating its prisons. But after a while the visiting justices of +this particular county became dissatisfied with him; he did not go far +enough nor fast enough with the stone he had helped to roll. Books and +reports came out which convinced the magistrates that severe punishment +of mind and body was the essential object of a jail, and that it was +wrong and chimerical to attempt any cures by any other means. + +Captain O'Connor had been very successful by other means, and could +not quite come to this opinion; but he had a deputy governor who did. +System, when it takes a hold of the mind, takes a strong hold, and the +men of system became very impatient of opposition, and grateful for +thorough acquiescence. + +Hence it came to pass that in the course of a few months +Captain O'Connor found himself in an uncomfortable position. His +deputy-governor, Mr. Hawes, enjoyed the confidence of the visiting +justices; he did not. His suggestions were negatived; Hawes's +accepted. And, to tell the truth, he became at last useless as well as +uncomfortable; for these gentlemen were determined to carry out their +system, and had a willing agent in the prison. O'Connor was little more +than a drag on the wheel he could not hinder from gliding down the hill. +At last, it happened that he had overdrawn his account, without clearly +stating at the time that the sum, which amounted nearly to one hundred +pounds, was taken by him as an accommodation, or advance of salary. +This, which though by no means unprecedented, was an unbusiness-like +though innocent omission, justified censure. + +The magistrates went farther than censure; they had long been looking +for an excuse to get rid of him and avail themselves of the zeal and +energy of Hawes. They therefore removed O'Connor, stating publicly as +their reason that he was old; and their interest put Hawes into his +place. There was something melancholy in such a close to O'Connor's +public career. Fortune used him hardly. He had been one of the first +to improve prisons, yet he was dismissed on this or that pretense, but +really because he could not keep pace with the soi-disant improvements +of three inexperienced persons. Honorable mention of his name, his +doings and his words is scattered about various respectable works by +respectable men on this subject, yet he ended in something very like +discredit. + +However, the public gained this by the injustice done him--that an +important experiment was tried under an active and a willing agent. + +With Governor Hawes the separate and silent system flourished in ---- +Jail. + +The justices and the new governor were of one mind. They had been +working together about two years when Robinson came into the jail. + +During this period three justices had periodically visited the jail, +perused the reports, examined, as in duty bound, the surgeon, the +officers and prisoners, and were proud of the system and its practical +working here. + +With respect to Hawes the governor, their opinion of him was best shown +in the reports they had to make to the Home Office from time to time. In +these they invariably spoke of him as an active, zealous and deserving +officer. + +Robinson had heard much of the changes in jail treatment, but they +had not yet come home to him. When, therefore, instead of being turned +adrift among seventy other spirits as bad as himself, and greeted with +their boisterous acclamations and the friendly pressure of seven or +eight felonious hands, he was ushered into a cell white as driven snow, +and his housewifely duties explained to him, under a heavy penalty if a +speck of dirt should ever be discovered on his little wall, his little +floor, his little table, or if his cocoa-bark mattress should not be +neatly rolled up after use, and the strap tight, and the steel hook +polished like glass, and his little brass gas-pipe glittering like gold, +etc., Thomas looked blank and had a misgiving. + +"I say, guv'nor," said he to the under-turnkey, "how long am I to be +here before I go into the yard?" + +"Talking not allowed out of hours," was the only reply. + +Robinson whistled. The turnkey, whose name was Evans, looked at him with +a doubtful air, as much as to say, "Shall I let that pass unpunished or +not?" + +However, he went out without any further observation, leaving the door +open; but the next moment he returned and put his head in: "Prisoners +shut their own doors," said he. + +"Well!" drawled Robinson, looking coolly and insolently into the man's +face, "I don't see what I shall gain by that." And Mr. Robinson +seated himself, and turning his back a little rudely, immersed himself +ostentatiously in his own thoughts. + +"You will gain as you won't be put in the black hole for refractory +conduct, No. 19," replied Evans, quietly and sternly. + +Robinson made a wry face and pushed the door peevishly; it shut with +a spring, and no mortal power or ingenuity could now open it from the +inside. + +"Well I'm blest," said the self-immured, "every man his own turnkey now; +save the queen's pocket, whatever you do. Times are so hard. Box at the +opera costs no end. What have we got here? A Bible! my eye! invisible +print! Oh! I see; 'tisn't for us to read, 'tis for the visitors to +admire--like the new sheet over the dirty blankets! What's this hung up? + + "GRACE AFTER MEAT. + +"Oh! with all my heart, your reverence! Here, turnkey, fetch up the +venison and the sweet sauce--you may leave the water-gruel till I ring +for it. If I am to say grace let me feel it first; drat your eyes all +round, governor, turnkeys, chaplain and all the hypocritical crew!" + +The next morning, at half-past five, the prison bell rang for the +officers to rise, and at six a turnkey unlocked Robinson's door, and +delivered the following in an imperious key, all in one note and without +any rests: "Prisoner to open and shake bedding, wash face, hands and +neck on pain of punishment, and roll up hammocks and clean cells and +be ready to clean corridors if required." So chanting--slammed +door--vanished. + +Robinson set to work with alacrity upon the little arrangements; he soon +finished them, and then he would not have been sorry to turn out and +clean the corridor for a change, but it was not his turn. He sat, dull +and lonely, till eight o'clock, when suddenly a key was inserted into +a small lock in the center of his door, but outside; the effect of this +was to open a small trap in the door, through this aperture a turnkey +shoved in the man's breakfast without a word, "like one flinging guts to +a bear" (Scott); and on the sociable Tom attempting to say a civil word +to him, drew the trap sharply back, and hermetically sealed the aperture +with a snap. The breakfast was in a round tin, with two compartments; +one pint of gruel and six ounces of bread. These two phases of farina +were familiar to Mr. Robinson. He ate the bread and drank the gruel, +adding a good deal of salt. + +At nine the chapel bell rang. Robinson was glad. Not that he admired the +Liturgy, but he said to himself, "Now I shall see a face or two, perhaps +some old pals." + +To his dismay, the warder who opened his cell bade him at the same time +put on the prison cap, with the peak down; and when he and the other +male prisoners were mustered in the corridor, he found them all like +himself, vizor down, eyes glittering like basilisks' or cats' through +two holes, features undistinguishable. The word was given to march in +perfect silence, five paces apart, to the chapel. + +The sullen pageant started. + +"I've heard of this, but who'd have thought they carried the game so +far? Well, I must wait till we are in chapel and pick up a pal by the +voice, while the parson is doing his patter." + +On reaching the chapel he found, to his dismay, that the chapel was as +cellular as any other part of the prison; it was an agglomeration of one +hundred sentry-boxes, open only on the side facing the clergyman, and +even there only from the prisoner's third button upward. Warders stood +on raised platforms and pointed out his sentry-box to each prisoner with +very long slender wands; the prisoner went into it and pulled the door +(it shut with a spring), and next took his badge or number from his neck +and hung it up on a nail above his head in the sentry-box. Between the +reading-desk and the male prisoners was a small area where the debtors +sat together. + +The female prisoners were behind a thick veil of close lattice-work. + +Service concluded, the governor began to turn a wheel in his pew; this +wheel exhibited to the congregation a number, the convict whose number +corresponded instantly took down his badge (the sight and position of +which had determined the governor in working his wheel), drew the peak +of his cap over his face, and went out and waited in the lobby. When all +the sentry-boxes were thus emptied, dead march of the whole party back +to the main building; here the warders separated them, and sent them, +dead silent, vizors down, some to clean the prison, some to their cells, +some to hard labor, and some to an airing in the yard. + +Robinson was to be aired. "Hurrah!" thought sociable Tom. Alas! he found +the system in the yard as well as in the chapel. The promenade was a +number of passages radiating from a common center; the sides of passage +were thick walls; entrance to passage an iron gate locked behind the +promenader. An officer remained on the watch the whole time to see that +a word did not creep out or in through one of the gates. + +"And this they call out of doors," grunted Robinson. + +After an hour's promenade he was taken into his cell, where at twelve +the trap in his door was opened and his dinner shoved in and the trap +snapped to again, all in three seconds. A very good dinner, better +than paupers always get--three ounces of meat--no bone, eight ounces +of potatoes, and eight ounces of bread. After dinner three weary hours +without an incident. At about three o'clock one of the warders opened +his cell door and put his head in and swiftly withdrew it. Three more +monotonous hours, and then supper--one pint of gruel, and eight ounces +of bread. He ate it as slowly as he could to eke out a few minutes in +the heavy day. Quarter before eight a bell to go to bed. At eight the +warders came round and saw that all the prisoners were in bed. The next +day the same thing, and the next ditto, with this exception, that one of +the warders came into his cell and minutely examined it in dead silence. +The fourth day the chaplain visited him, asked him a few questions, +repeated a few sentences on the moral responsibility of every human +being, and set him some texts of Scripture to learn by heart. This +visit, though merely one of routine, broke the thief's dead silence and +solitude, and he would have been thankful to have a visit every day from +the chaplain, whose manner was formal, but not surly and forbidding like +the turnkeys or warders. + +Next day the governor of the jail came suddenly into the cell and put +to Robinson several questions, which he answered with great affability; +then, turning on his heel, said bruskly, "Have you anything to say to +me?" + +"Yes, sir, if you please." + +"Out with it then, my man," said the governor impatiently. + +"Sir, I was condemned to hard labor; now I wanted to ask you when my +hard labor is to begin, because I have not been put upon anything yet." + +"We are kinder to you than the judges then, it seems." + +"Yes, sir! but I am not naturally lazy, and--" + +"A little hard work would amuse you just now?" + +"Indeed, sir, I think it would; I am very much depressed in spirits." + +"You will be worse before you are better." + +"Heaven forbid! I think if you don't give me something to do I shall go +out of my mind soon, sir." + +"That is what they all say! You will be put on hard labor, I promise +you, but not when it suits you. We'll choose the time." And the governor +went out with a knowing smile upon his face. + +The thief sat himself down disconsolately, and the heavy hours, like +leaden waves, seemed to rise and rise, and roll over his head and +suffocate him, and weigh him down, down, down to bottomless despair. + +At length, about the tenth day, this human being's desire to exchange +a friendly word with some other human creature became so strong that in +the chapel during service he scratched the door of his sentry-box, and +whispered, "Mate, whisper me a word, for pity's sake." He received no +answer; but even to have spoken himself relieved his swelling soul for a +minute or two. Half an hour later four turnkeys came into his cell, and +took him down stairs and confined him in a pitch-dark dungeon. + +The prisoner whose attention he had tried to attract in chapel had told +to curry favor, and was reported favorably for the same. + +The darkness in which Robinson now lay was not like the darkness of our +bedrooms at night, in which the outlines of objects are more or less +visible; it was the frightful darkness that chilled and crushed the +Egyptians soul and body; it was a darkness that might be felt. + +This terrible and unnatural privation of all light is very trying to all +God's creatures, to none more so than to man, and among men it is +most dangerous and distressing to those who have imagination and +excitability. Now Robinson was a man of this class, a man of rare +capacity, full of talent and the courage and energy that vent themselves +in action, but not rich in the tough fortitude which does little, feels +little and bears much. + +When they took him out of the black hole after six hours' confinement he +was observed to be white as a sheet, and to tremble violently all over, +and in this state at the word of command he crept back all the way to +his cell, his hand to his eyes, that were dazzled by what seemed to +him bright daylight, his body shaking, while every now and then a loud, +convulsive sob burst from his bosom. + +The governor happened to be on the corridor, looking down over the rails +as Robinson passed him. He said to him, with a victorious sneer, "You +won't be refractory in chapel again in a hurry." + +"No," said the thief, in a low, gentle voice, despairingly. + +The day after Robinson was put in the black hole the surgeon came his +rounds. He found him in a corner of his cell with his eyes fixed on the +floor. + +The man took no notice of his entrance. The surgeon went up to him and +shook him rather roughly. Robinson raised his heavy eyes and looked +stupidly at him. + +The surgeon laid hold of him, and placing a thumb on each side of his +eye, inspected that organ fully. He then felt his pulse; this done, he +went out with the warder. Making his report to the governor, he came in +turn to Robinson. + +"No. 19 is sinking." + +"Oh! is he? Fry" (turning to a warder), "what has 19's treatment been?" + +"Been in his cell, sir, without labor since he came. Blackhole +yesterday, for communicating in chapel." + +"What is the matter with him?" + +"Doctor says he is sinking." + +"What the devil do you mean by his sinking?" + +"Well, sir," replied the surgeon, with a sort of dry deference, "he is +dying--that is what I mean." + +"Oh, he is dying, is he; d--n him, we'll stop that. Here, Fry, take +No. 19 out into the garden, and set him to work. And put him on the +corridors to-morrow." + +"Is he to be let talk to us, sir?" + +"Humph! yes!" + +Robinson was taken out into the garden; it was a small piece of ground +that had once been a yard; it was inclosed within walls of great height, +and to us would have seemed a cheerless place for horticulture, but to +Robinson it appeared the garden of Eden. He gave a sigh of relief and +pleasure, but the next moment his countenance fell. + +"They won't let me stay here!" + +Fry took him into the center of the garden, and put a spade into his +hand. "Now you dig this piece," said he in his dry, unfriendly tone, +"and if you have time cut the edges of this grass path square." The +words were scarcely out of his mouth before Robinson drove the spade +into the soil with all the energy of one of God's creatures escaping +from system back to nature. + +Fry left him in the garden after making him pull down his vizor, for +there was one more prisoner working at some distance. + +Robinson set to with energy, and dug for the bare life. It was a sort of +work he knew very little about, and a gardener would have been disgusted +at his ridges, but he threw his whole soul into it and very soon had +nearly completed his task. Having been confined so long without exercise +his breath was short, and he perspired profusely; but he did not care +for that. "Oh, how sweet this is after being buried alive," cried he, +and in went the spade again. Presently he was seized with a strong +desire to try the other part of his task, the more so as it required +more skill and presented a difficulty to overcome. A part of the path +had been shaved and the knippers lay where they had been last used. +Robinson inspected the recent work with an intelligent eye, and soon +discovered traces of a white line on one side of the path, that served +as a guide to the knippers. "Oh! I must draw a straight line," said +Robinson out loud, indulging himself with the sound of a human voice. +"But how? can you tell me that," he inquired of a gooseberry bush that +grew near. The words were hardly out of his mouth before, peering about +in every direction, he discovered an iron spike with some cord wrapped +round it and, not far off, a piece of chalk. He pounced on them, and +fastening the spike at the edge of the path attempted to draw a +line with the chalk, using the string as a ruler. Not succeeding, he +reflected a little, and the result was that he chalked several feet +of the line all round until it was all white; then with the help of a +stake, which he took for his other terminus, he got the chalked string +into a straight line just above the edge of the grass. Next pressing it +tightly down with his foot, he effected a white line on the grass. He +now removed the string, took the knippers, and following his white +line, trimmed the path secundum artem. "There," said Robinson, to the +gooseberry-bush, but not very loud for fear of being heard and punished, +"I wonder whether that is how the gardeners do it. I think it must be." +He viewed his work with satisfaction, then went back to his digging, and +as he put the finishing stroke Fry came to bring him back to his cell. +It was bedtime. + +"I never worked in a garden before," began Robinson, "so it is not so +well done as it might be, but if I was to come every day for a week, +I think I could master it. I did not know there was a garden in this +prison. If ever I build a prison there shall be a garden in it as big as +Belgrave Square." + +"You are precious fond of the sound of your own voice, No. 19," said Fry +dryly. + +"We are not forbidden to speak to the warders, are we?" + +"Not at proper times." + +He threw open cell-door 19, and Robinson entered. + +Before he could close the door Robinson said, "Good-night and thank +you." + +"G'night," snarled Fry sullenly, as one shamed against his will into a +civility. + +Robinson lay awake half the night, and awoke the next morning rather +feverish and stiff, but not the leaden thing he was the day before. + +A feather turns a balanced scale. This man's life and reason had been +engaged in a drawn battle with three mortal enemies--solitude, silence +and privation of all employment. That little bit of labor and wholesome +thought, whose paltry and childish details I half blush to have given +you, were yet due to my story, for they took a man out of himself, +checked the self-devouring process, and helped elastic nature to recover +herself this bout. + +The next day Robinson was employed washing the prison. The next he got +two hours in the garden again, and the next the trades'-master was sent +into his cell to teach him how to make scrubbing-brushes. The man +sat down and was commencing a discourse when Robinson interrupted him +politely: + +"Sir, let me see you work, and watch me try to do the same, and correct +me." + +"With all my heart," said the trades'-master. + +He remained about half an hour with his pupil, and when he went out he +said to one of the turnkeys, "There is a chap in there that can pick up +a handicraft as a pigeon picks up peas." + +The next day the surgeon happened to look in. He found Robinson as busy +as a bee making brushes, pulled his eye open again, felt his pulse, and +wrote something down in his memorandum-book. He left directions with +the turnkey that No. 19 should be kept employed, with the governor's +permission. + +Robinson's hands were now full; he made brushes, and every day put some +of them to the test upon the floor and walls of the building. + +It happened one day as he was doing housemaid in corridor B, that he +suddenly heard unwonted sounds issue from a part of the premises into +which he had not yet been introduced, the yard devoted to hard labor. +First he heard a single voice shouting: that did not last long; then a +dead silence; then several voices, among which his quick ear recognized +Fry's and the governor's. He could see nothing; the sounds came from one +of the hard-labor cells. Robinson was surprised and puzzled. What were +these sounds that broke the silence of the living tomb? An instinct told +him it was no use asking a turnkey, so he devoured his curiosity and +surprise as best he might. + +The very next day, about the same hour, both were again excited by +noises from the same quarter equally unintelligible. He heard a great +noise of water slashed in bucketsful against a wall, and this was +followed by a sort of gurgling that seemed to him to come from a human +throat; this latter, however, was almost drowned in an exulting chuckle +of several persons, among whom he caught the tones of a turnkey called +Hodges and of the governor himself. Robinson puzzled and puzzled +himself, but could not understand these curious sounds, and he could +see nothing except a quantity of water running out of one of the labor +cells, and coursing along till it escaped by one of the two gutters +that drained the yard. Often and often Robinson meditated on this, and +exerted all his ingenuity to conceive what it meant. His previous jail +experience afforded him no clew, and as he was one of those who hate to +be in the dark about anything this new riddle tortured him. + +However, the prison was generally so dead dumb and gloomy that upon two +such cheerful events as water splashing and creatures laughing he could +not help crowing a little out of sympathy without knowing why. + +The next day, as Robinson was working in the corridor, the governor came +in with a gentleman whom he treated with unusual and marked respect. +This gentleman was the chairman of the quarter-sessions, and one of +those magistrates who had favored the adoption of the present system. + +Mr. Williams inspected the prison; was justly pleased with its exquisite +cleanness; he questioned the governor as to the health of the prisoners, +and received for answer that most of them were well, but that there +were some exceptions; this appeared to satisfy him. He went into the +labor-yard, looked at the cranks, examined the numbers printed on each +in order to learn their respective weights, and see that the prisoners +were not overburdened. + +Went with the governor into three or four cells, and asked the prisoners +if they had any complaint to make. + +The unanimous answer was "No!" + +He then complimented the governor--and drove home to his own house, +Ashtown Park. + +There, after dinner, he said to a brother magistrate, "I inspected the +jail to-day; was all over it." + +The next morning Fry, the morose, came into Robinson's cell with a more +cheerful countenance than usual. Robinson noticed it. + +"You are put on the crank," said Fry. + +"Oh! am I?" + +"Of course you are. Your sentence was hard labor, wasn't it? I don't +know why you weren't sent on a fortnight ago." + +Fry then took him out into the labor-yard, which he found perforated +with cells about half the size of his hermitage in the corridor. In each +of these little quiet grottoes lurked a monster, called a crank. A crank +is a machine of this sort--there springs out of a vertical post an iron +handle, which the workman, taking it by both hands, works round and +round, as in some country places you may have seen the villagers draw a +bucket up from a well. The iron handle goes at the shoulder into a small +iron box at the top of the post; and inside that box the resistance to +the turner is regulated by the manufacturer, who states the value of the +resistance outside in cast-iron letters. Thus: + +5-lb. crank. 7-lb. crank. 10, 12, etc., etc. + +"Eighteen hundred revolutions per hour," said Mr. Fry, in his voice of +routine, and "you are to work two hours before dinner." + +So saying he left him, and Robinson, with the fear of punishment before +him, lost not a moment in getting to work. He found the crank go easy +enough at first, but the longer he was at it the stiffer it seemed to +turn. And after about four hundred turns he was fain to breathe and rest +himself. He took three minutes' rest, then at it again. All this time +there was no taskmaster, as in Egypt, nor whipper-up of declining sable +energy, as in Old Kentucky. So that if I am so fortunate as to have +a reader aged ten, he is wondering why the fool did not confine his +exertions to saying he had made the turns. My dear, it would not do. +Though no mortal oversaw the thief at his task, the eye of science was +in that cell and watched every stroke and her inexorable finger marked +it down. In plain English, on the face of the machine was a thing like +a chronometer with numbers set all round and a hand which, somehow or +other, always pointed to the exact number of turns the thief had made. +The crank was an autometer, or self-measurer, and in that respect your +superior and mine, my little drake. + +This was Robinson's first acquaintance with the crank. The tread-wheel +had been the mode in his time; so by the time he had made three thousand +turns he was rather exhausted. He leaned upon the iron handle and sadly +regretted his garden and his brushes; but fear and dire necessity were +upon him; he set to his task and to work again. "I won't look at the +meter again, for it always tells me less than I expect. I'll just plow +on till that beggar comes. I know he will come to the minute." + +Sadly and doggedly he turned the iron handle, and turned and turned +again; and then he panted and rested a minute, and then doggedly to his +idle toil again. He was now so fatigued that his head seemed to have +come loose, he could not hold it up, and it went round and round and +round with the crank-handle. Hence it was that Mr. Fry stood at the +mouth of the den without the other seeing him. + +"Halt," said Fry. Robinson looked up, and there was the turnkey +inspecting him with a discontented air. "I'm done," thought Robinson, +"here he is as black as thunder--the number not right, no doubt." + +"What are ye at," growled Fry. "You are forty over," and the said Fry +looked not only ill-used but a little unhappy. Robinson's good behavior +had disappointed the poor soul. + +This Fry was a grim oddity; he experienced a feeble complacency when +things went wrong--but never else. + +The thief exulted, and was taken back to his cell. Dinner came almost +immediately. Four ounces of meat instead of three; two ounces less +bread, but a large access of potatoes, which more than balanced the +account. + +The next day Robinson was put on the crank again, but not till the +afternoon. He had finished about half his task, when he heard at some +little distance from him a faint moaning. His first impulse was to run +out of his cell and see what was the matter, but Hodges and Fry were +both in the yard, and he knew that they would report him for punishment +upon the least breach of discipline. So he turned and turned the crank, +with these moans ringing in his ears and perplexing his soul. + +Finding they did not cease, he peeped cautiously into the yard, and +there he saw the governor himself as well as Hodges and Fry. All three +were standing close to the place whence these groans issued, and with an +air of complete unconcern. + +But presently the groans ceased, and then mysteriously enough the little +group of disciplinarians threw off their apathy. Hodges and Fry went +hastily to the pump with buckets, which they filled, and then came back +to the governor; the next minute Robinson heard water dashed repeatedly +against the walls of the cell, and then the governor laughed, and Hodges +laughed, and even the gloomy Fry vented a brief grim chuckle. + +And now Robinson quivered with curiosity as he turned his crank, but +there was no means of gratifying it. It so happened, however, that some +ten minutes later the governor sent Hodges and Fry to another part of +the prison, and they had not been gone long before a message came to +himself, on which he went hastily out, and the yard was left empty. +Robinson's curiosity had reached such a pitch that notwithstanding the +risk he ran--for he knew the governor would send back to the yard the +very first disengaged officer he met--he could not stay quiet. As the +governor closed the gate he ran with all speed to the cell, he darted +in, and then the thief saw what made the three honest men laugh so. He +saw it, and started back with a cry of dismay, for the sight chilled the +felon to the bone. + +A lad about fifteen years of age was pinned against the wall in agony by +a leathern belt passed round his shoulders and drawn violently round +two staples in the wall. His arms were jammed against his sides by a +straight waistcoat fastened with straps behind, and those straps drawn +with the utmost severity. But this was not all. A high leathern collar a +quarter of an inch thick squeezed his throat in its iron grasp. His +hair and his clothes were drenched with water which had been thrown in +bucketsful over him, and now dripped from him on the floor. His face +was white, his lips livid, his eyes were nearly glazed, and his teeth +chattered with cold and pain. + +A more unprincipled man than Robinson did not exist; but burglary and +larceny do not extinguish humanity in a thinking rascal as resigning the +soul to system can extinguish it in a dull dog. + +"Oh, what is this!" cried Robinson, "what are the villains doing to +you?" + +He received no answer; but the boy's eyes opened wide, and he turned +those glazing eyes, the only part of his body he could turn, toward the +speaker. Robinson ran up to him, and began to try and loosen him. + +At this the boy cried out, almost screaming with terror, "Let me alone! +let me alone! They'll give it me worse if you do, and they'll serve you +out, too!" + +"But you will die, boy. Look at his poor lips!" + +"No, no, no! I shan't die! No such luck!" cried the boy impatiently and +wildly. "Thank you for speaking kind to me. Who are you? tell me quick, +and go. I am ---- Josephs, No. 15, Corridor A." + +"I am Robinson, No. 19, Corridor B." + +"Good-bye, Robinson, I shan't forget you. Hark, the door! Go! go! go! +go! go!" + +Robinson was already gone. He had fled at the first click of a key in +the outward door, and darted into his cell at the moment Fry got into +the yard. An instinct of suspicion led this man straight to Robinson's +hermitage. He found him hard at work. Fry scrutinized his countenance, +but Robinson was too good an actor to betray himself; only when Fry +passed on he drew a long breath. What he had seen surprised as well +as alarmed him, for he had always been told the new system discouraged +personal violence of all sorts; and in all his experience of the old +jails he had never seen a prisoner abused so savagely as the young +martyr in the adjoining cell. His own work done, he left for his own +dormitory. He was uneasy, and his heart was heavy for poor Josephs; but +he dared not even cast a look toward his place of torture, for the other +executioners had returned, and Fry followed grim at his heels like a +mastiff dogging a stranger out of the premises. + +That evening Robinson spent in gloomy reflections and forebodings. "I +wish I was in the hulks or anywhere out of this place," said he. As for +Josephs, the governor, after inspecting his torture for a few minutes, +left the yard again with his subordinates, and Josephs was left alone +with his great torture for two hours more; then Hodges came in and +began to loose him, swearing at him all the time for a little rebellious +monkey that gave more trouble than enough. The rebellious monkey made +no answer, but crawled slowly away to his dungeon, shivering in his +drenched clothes, stiff and sore, his bones full of pain, his heart full +of despondency. + +Robinson had now eight thousand turns of the crank per day, and very +hard work he found it; but he preferred it to being buried alive all day +in his cell; and warned by Josephs' fate, he went at the crank with all +his soul, and never gave them an excuse for calling him "refractory." It +happened, however, one day, just after breakfast, that he was taken +with a headache and shivering; and not getting better after chapel, +but rather worse, he rang his bell and begged to see the surgeon. The +surgeon ought to have been in the jail at this hour. He was not, though, +and as he had been the day before, and was accustomed to neglect the +prisoners for any one who paid better, he was not expected this day. +Soon after Fry came to the cell and ordered Robinson out to the crank. +Robinson told him he was too ill to work. + +"I must have the surgeon's authority for that, before I listen to it," +replied Fry, amateur of routine. + +"But he is not in the jail, or you would have it." + +"Then he ought to be." + +"Well, is it my fault he's shirking his duty? Send for him, and you'll +see he will tell you I am not fit for the crank to-day; my head is +splitting." + +"Come, no gammon, No. 19; it is the crank or the jacket, or else the +black hole. So take which you like best." + +Robinson rose with a groan of pain and despondency. + +"It is only eight thousand words you have got to say to it, and they are +not many for such a tongue as yours." + +At the end of the time Fry came to the mouth of the labor-cell with a +grim chuckle. "He will never have done his number this time." He found +Robinson kneeling on the ground, almost insensible, the crank-handle +convulsively grasped in his hands. Fry's first glance was at this +figure, that a painter might have taken for a picture of labor +overtasked; but this was neither new nor interesting to Fry. He went +eagerly to examine the meter of the crank--there lay his heart, such as +it was--and to his sorrow he found that No. 19 had done his work before +he broke down. What it cost the poor fever-stricken wretch to do it can +easier be imagined than described. + +They assisted Robinson to his cell, and that night he was in a burning +fever. The next day the surgeon happened by some accident to be at his +post, and prescribed change of diet and medicines for him. "He would be +better in the infirmary." + +"Why?" said the governor. + +"More air." + +"Nonsense, there is plenty of air here. There is a constant stream of +air comes in through this," and he pointed to a revolving cylinder in +the window constructed for that purpose. "You give him the right stuff, +doctor," said Hawes jocosely, "and he won't slip his wind this time." + +The surgeon acquiesced according to custom. + +It was not for him to contradict Hawes, who allowed him to attend the +jail or neglect it, according to his convenience, i. e., to come three +or four times a week at different hours, instead of twice every day at +fixed hours. + +It was two days after this that the governor saw Hodges come out of a +cell laughing. + +"What are ye grinning at?" said he, in his amiable way. + +"No. 19 is light-headed, sir, and I have been listening to him. It would +make a cat laugh," said Hodges apologetically. He knew well enough the +governor did not approve of laughing in the jail. + +The governor said nothing, but made a motion with his hand, and Hodges +opened cell 19 and they both went in. + +No. 19 lay on his back flushed and restless with his eyes fixed on +vacancy. He was talking incessantly and without sequence. I should fail +signally were I to attempt to transfer his words to paper. I feel my +weakness and the strength of others who in my day have shown a singular +power of fixing on paper the volatile particles of frenzy; however, in +a word, the poor thief was talking as our poetasters write, and amid his +gunpowder, daffodils, bosh and other constellations there mingled gleams +of sense and feeling that would have made you and me very sad. + +He often recurred to a girl he called Mary, and said a few gentle words +to her; then off again into the wildest flights. While Mr. Hawes and +his myrmidons were laughing at him, he suddenly fixed his eyes on some +imaginary figure on the opposite wall and began to cry out loudly, "Take +him down. Don't you see you are killing him? The collar is choking him! +See how White he is! His eyes stare! The boy will die! Murder! murder! +murder! I can't bear to see him die." And with these words he buried his +head in the bedclothes. + +Mr. Hawes looked at Mr. Fry; Mr. Fry answered the look. "He must have +seen Josephs the other day." + +"Ay! he is mighty curious. Well, when he gets well!" and, shaking his +fist at the sufferer, Mr. Hawes went out of the cell soon after. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"WHAT is your report about No. 19, doctor?" + +"The fever is gone." + +"He is well, then?" + +"He is well of the fever, but a fever leaves the patient in a state of +debility for some days. I have ordered him meat twice a day--that is, +meat once and soup once." + +"Then you report him cured of his fever?" + +"Certainly." + +"Hodges, put No. 19 on the crank." + +"Yes, sir." + +Even the surgeon opened his eyes at this. "Why, he is as weak as a +child," said he. + +"Will it kill him?" + +"Certainly not; and for the best of all reasons. He can't possibly do +it." + +"You don't know what these fellows can do when they are forced." + +The surgeon shrugged his shoulders and passed on to his other patients. +Robinson was taken out into the yard. "What a blessing the fresh air +is!" said he, gulping in the atmosphere of the yard. "I should have got +well long ago if I had not been stifled in my cell for want of room and +air." + +Robinson went to the crank in good spirits; he did not know how weak +he was till he began to work; but he soon found out he could not do the +task in the time. He thought therefore the wisest plan would be not +to exhaust himself in vain efforts, and he sat quietly down and did +nothing. In this posture he was found by Hawes and his myrmidons. + +"What are you doing there not working?" + +"Sir, I am only just getting well of a fever, and I am as weak as +water." + +"And that is why you are not trying to do anything, eh?" + +"I have tried, sir, and it is impossible. I am not fit to turn this +heavy crank." + +"Well, then, I must try if I can't make you. Fetch the jacket." + +"Oh! for Heaven's sake don't torture me, sir. There is nobody more +willing to work than I am. And if you will but give me a day or two to +get my strength after the fever, you shall see how I will work." + +"There! there! ---- your palaver! Strap him up." + +He was in no condition to resist, and moreover knew resistance was +useless. They jammed him in the jacket, pinned him tight to the wall, +and throttled him in the collar. This collar, by a refinement of +cruelty, was made with unbound edges, so that when the victim, exhausted +with the cruel cramp that racked his aching bones in the fierce gripe of +Hawes's infernal machine, sunk his heavy head and drooped his chin, the +jagged collar sawed him directly and lacerating the flesh drove him away +from even this miserable approach to ease. Robinson had formed no idea +of the torture. The victims of the Inquisition would have gained but +little by becoming the victims of the separate and silent system in ---- +Jail. + +They left the poor fellow pinned to the wall, jammed in the strait +waistcoat, and throttled in the round saw. Weakened by fever and +unnatural exertion, he succumbed sooner than the inquisitors had +calculated upon. The next time they came into the yard they found him +black in the face, his lips livid, insensible, throttled, and dying. +Another half minute and there would have hung a corpse in the Hawes +pillory. + +When they saw how nearly he was gone they were all at him together. One +unclasped the saw collar, one unbraced the waistcoat, another sprinkled +water over him--not a bucketful this time, because they would have +wetted themselves. Released from the infernal machine, the body of No. +19 fell like a lump of clay upon the men who had reduced him to this +condition. Then these worthies were in some little trepidation; for +though they had caused the death of many men during the last two years, +they had not yet, as it happened, murdered a single one on the spot +openly and honestly like this; and they feared they might get into +trouble. Adjoining the yard was a bath-room; to this they carried No. +19. They stripped him, and let the water run upon him from the cock, but +he did not come to; then they scrubbed him just as they would a brick +floor with a hard brush upon the back till his flesh was as red as +blood; with this and the water together he began to gasp and sigh and +faintly come back from insensibility to a new set of tortures; but so +long was the struggle between life and death that these men of business, +detained thus unconscionably about a single thief, lost all patience +with him; one scrubbed him till the blood came under the bristles, +another seized him by the hair of his head and jerked his head violently +back several times, and this gave him such pain that he began to +struggle instinctively, and, the blood now fairly set in motion, he soon +moved. The last thing he remembered was a body full of aching bones; the +first he awoke to was the sensation of being flayed alive from the crown +of his head to the sole of his foot. + +The first word he heard was, "Put his clothes on his shamming carcass + +"Shall we dry him, sir?" + +"Dry him!" roared the governor, with an oath. "No! Hasn't he given us +trouble enough?" (Another oath.) + +They flung his clothes upon his red-hot dripping skin, and Hodges +gave him a brutal push. "Go to your cell." Robinson crawled off, often +wincing and trying in vain to keep his clothes from rubbing those parts +of his person where they had scrubbed the skin off him. + +Hawes eyed him with grim superiority. Suddenly he had an inspiration. +"Come back!" shouted he. "I never was beat by a prisoner yet, and I +never will. Strap him up." At this command even the turnkeys looked +amazed at one another and hesitated. Then the governor swore horribly at +them, and Hodges without another word went for the jacket. + +They took hold of him; he made no resistance; he never even looked at +them. He never took his eye off Hawes; on him his eye fastened like a +basilisk. They took him away, and pinioned, jammed and throttled him to +the wall again. Hodges was set to watch him, and a bucket of water near +to throw over him should he show the least sign of shamming again. In +an hour another turnkey came and relieved Hodges--in another hour Fry +relieved him, for this was tiresome work for a poor turnkey--in another +hour a new hand relieved Fry, but nobody relieved No. 19. + +Five mortal hours had he been in the vice without shamming. The pain his +skin suffered from the late remedies, and the deadly rage at his heart, +gave him unnatural powers of resistance; but at last the infernal +machine conquered, and he began to turn dead faint; then Hodges, his +sentinel at the time, caught up the bucket and dashed the whole contents +over him. The effect was magical; the shock took away his breath for a +moment, but the next the blood seemed to glow with fire in his veins and +he felt a general access of vigor to bear his torture. When this man had +been six hours in the vise the governor and his myrmidons came into the +yard and unstrapped him. + +"You did not beat me, you see, after all," said the governor to No. 19. +The turnkeys heard and revered their chief. No. 19 looked him full in +the face with an eye glittering like a saber, but said no word. + +"Sulky brute!" cried the governor, "lock him up" (oath). And that +evening, as a warder was rolling the prisoners' supper along the little +natural railway made by the two railings of Corridor B, the governor +stepped the carriage and asked for 19's tin. It was given him, and he +abstracted one half of the man's gruel. "Refractory in the yard to-day; +but I'll break him before I've done with him" (oath). + +The next day brushes were wanted for the jail. This saved Robinson for +that day. It was little Josephs' turn to suffer. The governor put him on +a favorite crank of his, and gave him eight thousand turns to do in four +hours and a half. He knew the boy could not do it, and this was only a +formula he went through previous to pillorying the lad. Josephs had been +in the Pillory about an hour when it so happened that the Reverend John +Jones, the chaplain of the jail, came into the yard. Seeing a group of +warders at the mouth of the labor-cell, he walked up to them, and there +was Josephs in peine forte et dure. + +"What is this lad's offense?" inquired Mr. Jones. + +"Refractory at the crank," was the reply. + +"Why, Josephs," said the reverend gentleman, "you told me you would +always do your best." + +"So I do, your reverence," gasped Josephs; "but this crank is too heavy +for a lad like me, and that is why I am put on it to get punished." + +"Hold your tongue," said Hodges roughly. + +"Why is he to hold his tongue, Mr. Hodges?" said the chaplain quietly; +"how is he to answer my question if he holds his tongue? You forget +yourself." + +"Ugh! beg your pardon, sir, but this one has always got some excuse or +other." + +"What is the matter?" roared a rough voice behind the speakers. This was +Hawes, who had approached them unobserved. + +"He is gammoning his reverence, sir--that is all." + +"What has he been saying?" + +"That the crank is too heavy for him, sir, and the waistcoat is strapped +too tight, it seems." + +"Who says so?" + +"I think so, Mr. Hawes." + +"Will you take a bit of advice, sir? If you wish a prisoner well don't +you come between him and me. It will always be the worse for him, for I +am master here and master I will be." + +"Mr. Hawes," replied the chaplain, "I have never done or said anything +in the prison to lessen your authority, but privately I must remonstrate +against the uncommon severities practiced upon prisoners in this jail. +If you will listen to me I shall be much obliged to you--if not, I am +afraid I must, as a matter of conscience, call the attention of the +visiting justices to the question." + +"Well, parson, the justices will be in the jail to-day--you tell them +your story and I will tell them mine," said Hawes, with a cool air of +defiance. + +Sure enough, at five o'clock in the afternoon two of the visiting +justices arrived, accompanied by Mr. Wright, a young magistrate. They +were met at the door by Hawes, who wore a look of delight at their +appearance. They went round the prison with him, while he detained them +in the center of the building till he had sent Hodges secretly to undo +Josephs and set him on the crank; and here the party found him at work. + +"You have been a long time on the crank, my lad," said Hawes, "you may +go to your cell." + +Josephs touched his cap to the governor and the gentlemen and went off. + +"That is a nice quiet-looking boy," said one of the justices; "what is +he in for?" + +"He is in this time for stealing a piece of beef out of a butcher's +shop." + +"This time! what! is he a hardened offender? he does not look it." + +"He has been three times in prison; once for throwing stones, once for +orchard-robbing, and this time for the beef." + +"What a young villain! at his age---" + +"Don't say that, Williams," said Mr. Wright dryly, "you and I were just +as great villains at his age. Didn't we throw stones? rather!" + +Hawes laughed in an adulatory manner, but observing that Mr. Williams, +who was a grave, pompous personage, did not smile at all, he added: + +"But not to do mischief like this one, I'll be bound." + +"No," said Mr. Williams, with an air of ruffled dignity. + +"No?" cried the other, "where is your memory? Why, we threw stones at +everything and everybody, and I suppose we did not always miss, eh? +I remember your throwing a stone through the window of a place of +worship--(this was a school-fellow of mine, and led me into all sorts of +wickedness). I say, was it a Wesleyan shop, Williams, or a Baptist? for +I forget. Never mind, you had a fit of orthodoxy. What was the young +villain's second offense?" + +"Robbing an orchard, sir." + +"The scoundrel! robbing an orchard? Oh, what sweet reminiscences those +words recall. I say, Williams, do you remember us two robbing Farmer +Harris's orchard?" + +"I remember your robbing it, and my character suffering for it." + +"I don't remember that; but I remember my climbing the pear-tree and +flinging the pears down, and finding them all grabbed on my descent. +What is the young villain's next--Oh! snapping a piece off a counter. +Ah! we never did that--because we could always get it without stealing +it." + +With this Mr. Wright strolled away from the others, having had what the +jocose wretch used to call "a slap at humbug." + +His absence was a relief to the others. These did not come there to +utter sense in fun but to jest in sober earnest. + +Mr. Williams hinted as much, and Hawes, whose cue it was to assent in +everything to the justices, brightened his face up at the remark. + +"Will you visit the cells, gentlemen," said he, with an accent of +cordial invitation, "or inspect the book first?" + +They gave precedence to the latter. + +By the book was meant the log-book of the jail. In it the governor was +required to report for the justices and the Home Office all jail events +a little out of the usual routine. For instance, all punishments of +prisoners, all considerable sicknesses, deaths and their supposed +causes, etc., etc. + +"This Josephs seems by the book to be an ill-conditioned fellow; he is +often down for punishment." + +"Yes! he hates work. About Gillies, sir--ringing his bell and pretending +it was an accident?" + +"Yes! how old is he?" + +"Thirteen." + +"Is this his first offense?" + +"Not by a good many. I think, gentlemen, if you were to order him a +flogging it would be better for him in the end." + +"Well, give him twenty lashes. Eh: Palmer?" + +Mr. Palmer assented by a nod. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said Hawes, "but will you allow me to make a +remark?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Hawes, certainly!" + +"I find twenty lashes all at once rather too much for a lad of that age. +Now, if you would allow me to divide the punishment into two so that his +health might not be endangered by it, then we could give him ten or even +twelve, and after a day or two as many more." + +"That speaks well for your humanity, Mr. Hawes; your zeal we have long +known." + +"Augh, sir! sir!" + +"I will sign the order, and we authorize you here to divide the +punishment according to your own suggestion." (Order signed.) + +The justices then went round the cells accompanied by Hawes. They +went into the cells with an expression of a little curiosity but more +repugnance on their faces, and asked several prisoners if they were well +and contented. The men looked with the shrewdness of their class into +their visitors' faces and measured them; saw there, first a feeble +understanding, secondly an adamantine prejudice; saw that in those eyes +they were wild beasts and Hawes an angel, and answered to please Hawes, +whose eye was fixed on them all this time and in whose power they felt +they were. + +All expressed their content. Some in tones so languid and empty of +heart that none but Justice Shallow could have helped seeing through the +humbug. Others did it better; and not a few overdid it, so that any but +Justice Shallow would have seen through them. These last told Messrs. +Shallow and Slender that the best thing that ever happened to them was +coming to ---- Jail. They thanked Heaven they had been pulled up short +in an evil career that must have ended in their ruin body and soul. As +for their present situation, they were never happier in their lives, +and some of them doubted much whether, when they should reach the penal +settlements, the access of liberty would repay them for the increased +temptations and the loss of quiet meditation and self-communion and the +good advice of Mr. Hawes and of his reverence, the chaplain. + +The jail-birds who piped this tune were without a single exception +the desperate cases of this moral hospital. They were old +offenders--hardened scoundrels who meant to rob and kill and deceive to +their dying day. While in prison their game was to be as comfortable as +they could. Hawes could make them uncomfortable; he was always there. +Under these circumstances to lie came on the instant as natural to them +as to rob would have come had some power transported them outside the +prison doors with these words of penitence on their lips. + +They asked where that Josephs' cell was. Hawes took them to him. They +inspected him with a profound zoological look, to see whether it was +more wolf or badger. Strange to say, it looked neither, but a simple +quiet youth of the human genus--species snob. + +"He is very small to be a ruffian," said Mr. Palmer. + +"I am sorry, Josephs," said Mr. Williams pompously, "to find your name +so often down for punishment." + +Josephs looked up, hoping to see the light of sympathy in this speaker's +eyes. He saw two owls' faces attempting eagle but not reaching up to +sparrow-hawk, and he was silent. He had no hope of being believed; +moreover, the grim eye of Hawes rested on him, and no feebleness in it. + +Messrs. Shallow and Slender, receiving no answer from Josephs, who was +afraid to tell the truth, were nettled, and left the cell shrugging +their shoulders. + +In the corridor they met the train just coming along the banisters with +supper. Pompous Mr. Williams tasted the prison diet on the spot. + +"It is excellent," cried he; "why the gruel is like glue." And he fell +into a meditation. + +"So far everything is as we could wish, Mr. Hawes, and it speaks well +for the discipline and for yourself." + +Hawes bowed with a gratified air. + +"I will complete the inspection to-morrow." + +Hawes accompanied the gentlemen to the outside gate. Here Mr. Williams +turned. For the last minute or two he had been in the throes of an idea, +and now he delivered himself of it. + +"It would be well if Josephs' gruel were not made so strong for him." + +Mr. Williams was not one of those who often say a great thing, but this +deserves immortality, and could I confer immortality this of Williams' +should never die! Unlike most of the things we say, it does not deserve +ever to die-- + +"IT WOULD BE WELL IF JOSEPHS' GRUEL WERE NOT MADE SO STRONG FOR HIM!!" + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"WILL you eat your mutton with me to-day, Palmer?" said Mr. Williams at +the gate of the jail. + +"I should be very happy, but I am engaged to dine with the +lord-lieutenant." + +So Mr. Williams drove home to Ashtown Park, and had to sit down to +dinner with his own small family party. + +Mr. Williams' mutton consisted of first a little strong gravy soup +lubricated and gelatinized with a little tapioca; vis-a-vis the soup a +little piece of salmon cut out of the fish's center; lobster patties, +rissoles, and two things with French names, stinking of garlic, on the +flank. + +Enter a boiled turkey poult with delicate white sauce; a nice tongue, +not too green nor too salt, and a small saddle of six-tooth mutton, +home-bred, home-fed; after this a stewed pigeon, faced by greengage +tart, and some yellow cream twenty-four hours old; item, an iced +pudding. A little Stilton cheese brought up the rear with a nice salad. +This made way for a foolish trifling dessert of muscatel grapes, guava +jelly and divers kickshaws diluted with agreeable wines varied by a +little glass of Marasquino & Co., at junctures. So far so nice! + +But alas! nothing is complete in this world, not even the dinner of a +fair round justice with fat capon lined. There is always some drawback +or deficiency here below--confound it! The wretch of a cook had +forgotten to send up the gruel a la Josephs. + +Next day, after Mr. Williams had visited the female prisoners and +complimented Hawes on having initiated them into the art of silence, he +asked where the chaplain was. Hawes instantly dispatched a messenger +to inquire, and remembering that gentleman's threatened remonstrance, +parried him by anticipation, thus: + +"By-the-by, sir, I have a little complaint to make of him." + +"Indeed!" said Mr. Williams, "what is that?" + +"He took a prisoner's part against the discipline; but he doesn't know +them, and they humbug him. But, sir, ought he to preach against me in +the chapel of the jail?" + +"Certainly not! Surely he has not been guilty of such a breach of +discipline and good taste." + +"Oh! but wait, sir," said Hawes, "hear the whole truth, and then perhaps +you will blame me. You must know, sir, that I sometimes let out an oath. +I was in the army, and we used all to swear there; and now a little of +it sticks to me in spite of my teeth, and if his reverence had done me +the honor to take me to task privately about it, I would have taken off +my hat to him; but it is another thing to go and preach at me for it +before all the jail." + +"Of course it is. Do you mean to say he did that?" + +"He did, sir. Of course, he did not mention my name, but he preached +five-and-thirty minutes all about swearing, and they all knew who he was +hitting. I could see the warders grinning from ear to ear, as much as to +say, 'There's another rap for you, governor!'" + +"I'll speak to him." + +"Thank you, sir; don't be hard on him, for he is a deserving officer; +but if you would give him a quiet hint not to interfere with me. We have +all of us plenty to do of our own in a jail, if he could but see it. Ah! +here comes the chaplain, sir. I will leave you together, if you please;" +and Mr. Hawes made off with a business air. + +The chaplain came up and bowed to Mr. Williams, who saluted him in turn +somewhat coldly. There was a short silence. Mr. Williams was concocting +a dignified rebuke. Before he could get it out the chaplain began: + +"I wished to speak with you yesterday, sir. + +"I am at your service, Mr. Jones. What is it?" + +"I want you to look into our punishments; they are far more numerous and +severe than they used to be." + +"On the contrary I find them less numerous." + +"Why, there is one punished every day." + +"I have been carefully over the books, and I assure you there is a +marked decrease in the number of punishments." + +"Then they cannot be all put down." + +"Nonsense, Mr. Jones, nonsense!" + +"And, then, the severity of these punishments, sir! Is it your wish that +a prisoner should be strapped in the jacket so tight that we cannot get +a finger between the leather and his flesh?" + +"Not unless he is refractory." + +"But prisoners are very seldom refractory." + +"Indeed! that is news to me." + +"I assure you, sir, there are no quieter set of men than prisoners +generally. They know there is nothing to be gained by resistance." + +"They are on their good behavior before you. You don't see through them, +my good sir. They are like madmen--you would take them for lambs till +they break out. Do you know a prisoner here called Josephs?" + +"Yes, sir, perfectly well." + +"Well, now, what is his character, may I ask?" + +"HE IS A MILD, QUIET, DOCILE LAD." + +"Ha! ha! ha! I thought so. Prisoners are the refuse of the earth. +The governor knows them, and how to manage them. A discretion must be +allowed him, and I see no reason to interfere between him and refractory +prisoners except when he invites us." + +"You are aware that several attempts at suicide have been made within +the last few months?" + +"Sham attempts, yes." + +"One was not sham, sir," said Mr. Jones, gravely + +"Oh, Jackson, you mean. No, but he was a lunatic, and would have made +away with himself anywhere--Hawes is convinced of that." + +"Well, sir, I have told you the fact; I have remonstrated against the +uncommon seventies practiced in this jail--seventies unknown in Captain +O'Connor's day." + +"And I have received and answered your remonstrance, sir, and there that +matter ought to end." + +This, and the haughty tone with which it was said, discouraged and +nettled the chaplain; he turned red and said: + +"In that case, sir, I have no more to say. I have discharged my +conscience." With these words he was about to withdraw, but Mr. Williams +stopped him. + +"Mr. Jones, do you consider a clergyman justified in preaching at +people?" + +"Certainly not." + +"The pulpit surely ought not to be made a handle for personality. It is +not the way to make the pulpit itself respected." + +"I don't understand you, sir." + +"Mr. Hawes is much hurt at a sermon you preached against him." + +"A sermon against him--never!" + +"I beg your pardon; you preached a whole sermon against swearing--and he +swears." + +"Oh--yes! I remember--the Sunday before last. I certainly did reprobate +in my discourse the habit of swearing, but no personality to Hawes was +intended." + +"No personality intended when you know he swears!" + +"Yes, but the warders swear, too. Why should Mr. Hawes take it all to +himself?" + +"Oh! if the turnkeys swear, then it was not so strictly personal." + +"To be sure," put in Mr. Jones inadvertently, "I believe they learned it +of the governor." + +"There you see! Well, and even if they did not, why preach against the +turnkeys? why preach at any individuals or upon passing events at all? I +can remember the time no clergyman throughout the length and breadth of +the land noticed passing events from the pulpit." + +"I am as far from approving the practice as you are, sir." + +"In those days the clergy and the laity respected one another, and there +was peace in the Church." + +"I can only repeat, sir, that I agree with you; the pulpit should be +consecrated to eternal truths, not passing events." + +"Good! very good! Well, then?" + +"What Mr. Hawes complains of was a mere accident." + +"An accident, Mr. Jones? Oh, Mr. Jones!" + +"An accident which I undertake to explain to Mr. Hawes himself." + +"By all means; that will be the best way of making friends again. I need +not tell you that a jail could not go on in which the governor and the +chaplain did not pull together. The fact is, Mr. Jones, the clergy, of +late, have been assuming a little too much, and that has made the +laity a little jealous. Now, although you are a clergyman, you are her +majesty's servant so long as you are here, and must co-operate with the +general system of the jail. Come, sir, you are younger than I am; let me +give you a piece of advice, 'DON'T OVERSTEP YOUR DUTY,' etc." + +In this strain Mr. Williams buz, buz, buzzed longer than I can afford +him paper, it is so dear. He pumped a stream of time-honored phrases +on his hearer, and dissolved away with him as the overflow of a pump +carries away a straw on its shallow stream down a stable-yard. + +When the pump was pumped dry he stopped. + +Then the chaplain, who had listened with singular politeness, got in a +word. "You forget, sir, I have resigned the chaplaincy of the jail?" + +"Oh! ah! yes! well, then, I need say no more; good-day, Mr. Jones." + +"Good-morning, sir." + +Soon after this up came Hawes with a cheerful countenance. + +"Well, parson, are you to manage the prisoners and I to preach to them, +or are we to go on as we are?" + +"Things are to go on as they are, Mr. Hawes; but that is nothing to +me, I have discharged my conscience. I have remonstrated against the +seventies practiced on our prisoners. COLD WATER HAS BEEN THROWN ON MY +REMONSTRANCES, and I shall therefore interfere no more." + +"That is the wise way to look at it, you may depend!" + +"We shall see which was in the right. I have discharged my conscience. +But, Mr. Hawes, I am hurt you should say I preached a sermon against +you." + +"I dare say you are, sir, but who began it; if you had not talked of +complaining to the justices of me, I should never have said a word +against you." + +"That is all settled; but it is due to my character to show you that +I had no intention of pointing at you or any living creature from the +pulpit." + +"Well, make me believe that." + +"If you will do me the favor to come to my room I can prove it to you." + +The chaplain took the governor to his room and opened two drawers in a +massive table. + +"Mr. Hawes," said he, "do you see this pile of sermons in this +right-hand drawer?" + +"I see them," said Hawes, with a doleful air, "and I suppose I shall +hear some of them before long." + +"These," said Mr. Jones, smiling with perfect good-humor at the +innocuous sneer, "are sermons I composed when I was curate of +Little-Stoke. Of late I have been going regularly through my +Little-Stoke discourses, as you may see. I take one from the pile in +this drawer, and after first preaching it in the jail I place it in the +left drawer on that smaller pile." + +"That you mayn't preach it again by accident; well, that is business." + +"If you look into the left pile near the top, you will find the one I +preached against profane discourse, with the date at which it was first +composed." + +"Here it is, sir--Little-Stoke, May 15, 1847." + +"Well, Mr. Hawes, now was that written against you?--come!" + +"No! I confess it could not; but look here, if a man sends a bullet into +me, it doesn't matter to me whether he made the gun on purpose or shot +me out of an old one that he had got by him." + +"But I tell you that I took the sermon out in its turn, and knew no more +what it was about until I opened it in the pulpit, than I knew what this +one is about which I am going to preach next Sunday morning--it was all +chance." + +"It was my bad luck, I suppose," said Hawes a little sulkily. + +"And mine, too. Could I anticipate that a discourse composed for and +preached to a rural congregation would be deemed to have a personal +application here?" + +"Well, no!" + +"I have now only to add that I extremely regret the circumstance." + +"Say no more, sir. When a gentleman expresses his regret to another +gentleman, there is an end of the grievance. + +"I will take care the sort of thing never happens again." + +"Enough said, sir." + +"It never can, however, for I shall preach but one more Sunday here." + +"And I'm very sorry for it, Mr. Jones." + +"And after this occurrence I am determined to write both sermons for the +occasion, so there is sure to be nothing personal in them." + +"Yes, that is the surest way. Well, sir, you and I never had but this +one little misunderstanding, and now that is explained, we shall part +friends." + +"A glass of ale, Mr. Hawes?" + +"I don't care if I do, sir." (The glasses were filled and emptied.) "I +must go and look after my chickens; the justices have ordered Gillies to +be flogged. You will be there, I suppose, in half an hour." + +"Well, if my attendance is not absolutely necessary--" + +"We will excuse you, sir, if not convenient." + +"Thank you--good-morning!" and the reconciled officials parted. + +Little Gillies was hoisted to receive twenty lashes; at the twelfth the +governor ordered him down. + +He broke off the tale as our magazines do, with a promise--"To be +continued." + +Little Gillies, like their readers, cried out, "No, sir. Oh, sir! please +flog me to an end, and ha' done with it. I don't feel the cuts near so +much now--my back seems dead like." + +Little Gillies was arguing against himself. Hawes had not divided his +punishment with the view of lessening his pain. It was droll, but more +sad than droll to hear the poor little fellow begging Hawes to flog him +to an end, to flog him out; with similar idioms. + +"Hold your [oath] noise!" Hawes shrunk with disgust from noise in his +prison, and could not comprehend why the prisoners could not take their +punishments without infringing upon the great and glorious silence of +which the jail was the temple and he the high priest. "The beggars get +no good by kicking up a row," argued he. + +"Hold your noise!--take him to his cell!" + +Whether it was because he had desecrated the temple with noise, or from +the accident of having attracted the governor's attention, the weight of +the system fell on this small object now. + +Gillies was ordered to make a fabulous number of crank +revolutions--fabulous, at least, in connection with his tender age; he +was put on the lightest crank, but the lightest was heavy to thirteen +years. Not being the infant Hercules, he could not perform this labor; +so Hawes put him in jacket and collar almost the whole day. His young +and supple frame was in his favor, but once or twice he could hardly +help shamming, and then they threw half a bucket over him. + +The next day he was put on the crank, and not being able to complete +the task that was set him before dinner, he was strapped up until the +evening. The next day the governor tried another tack. He took away his +meat soup and gruel, and gave him nothing but bread and water. Strange +to say, this change of diet did not supply the deficiency; he could +not do the infant Hercules his work even on bread and water. Then the +governor deprived the obstinate little dog of his chapel. "If you won't +work, I'm [participle] if you shall pray." The boy missed the recreation +of hearing Mr. Jones hum the Liturgy; missed it in a way you cannot +conceive. Your soporific was his excitement; think of that. + +Little Gillies became sadly dispirited, and weaker at the crank than +before; ergo, the governor sentenced him to be fourteen days without bed +or gas. + +But when they took away his bed and did not light his gas little Gillies +began to lose his temper; he made a great row about this last stroke of +discipline. "I won't live such a life as this," said little Gillies, in +a pet. "Why don't the governor hang me at once?" + +"What is that noise?" roared the governor, who was in the corridor and +had long ears. + +"It is No. 50 kicking up a row at having his bed and gas taken," replied +a turnkey, with a note of admiration in his voice. + +The governor bounced into the cell. "Are you grumbling at that, you +rebellious young rascal? you forget there are a dozen lashes owing you +yet." Now the boy had not forgotten, but he hoped the governor had. +"Well, you shall have the rest to-morrow." + +With these words ringing in his ears, little Gillies was locked up +for the night at six o'clock. His companions darkness and unrest-for a +prisoner's bed is the most comfortable thing he has, and the change from +it to a stone floor is as great to him as it would be to us--darkness +and unrest, and the cat waiting to spring on him at peep of day. Quae +cum ita erant, as the warder put the key into his cell the next morning +he heard a strange gurgling; he opened the door quickly, and there was +little Gillies hanging; a chair was near him on which he had got to +suspend himself by his handkerchief from the window; he was black in +the face, but struggling violently, and had one hand above his head +convulsively clutching the handkerchief. Fry lifted him up by the knees +and with some difficulty loosed the handkerchief. + +Little Gillies, as soon as his throat could vent a sound, roared with +fright at the recent peril, and then cried a bit, finally expressed +a hope his breakfast would not be taken from him for this act of +insubordination. + +This infraction of discipline was immediately reported to the governor. + +"Little brute," cried Hawes, viciously, "I'll work him!" + +"Oh! he knew I was at hand, sir," said Fry, "or he would not have tried +it." + +"Of course he would not; I remember last night he was grumbling at his +bed being taken away. I'll serve him out!" + +Soon after this the governor met the chaplain and told him the case. "He +shall make you an apology"--imperative mood him. + +"Me, an apology!" + +"Of course--you are the officer that has the care of his soul and he +shall apologize to you for making away with it or trying it on." + +This resolution was conveyed to Gillies with fearful threats, so when +the chaplain visited him he had got his lesson pat. + +"I beg your reverence's pardon for hanging myself," began he at sight, +rather loud and as bold as brass. + +"Beg the Almighty's pardon, not mine." + +"No! the governor said it was yours I was to beg," demurred Gillies. + +"Very well. But you should beg God's pardon more than mine." + +"For why, sir?" + +"For attempting your life, which was His gift." + +"Oh! I needn't beg His pardon; He doesn't care what becomes of me; if He +did He wouldn't let them bully me as they do day after day, drat 'em." + +"I am sorry to see one so young as you so hardened. I dare say the +discipline of the jail is bitter to you, it is to all idle boys; but you +might be in a much worse place--and will if you do not mend." + +"A worse place than this, your reverence! Oh, my eye!" + +"And you ought to be thankful to Heaven for sending the turnkey at that +moment (here I'm sorry to say little Gillies grinned satirically), or +you would be in a worse place. Would you rather be here or in hell?" +half asked, half explained the reverend gentleman in the superior tone +of one closing a discussion forever. + +"In hell!!!" replied Gillies, opening his eyes with astonishment at the +doubt. + +Mr. Jones was dumfounded; of all the mischances that befall us in +argument this coup perplexes us most. He looked down at the little +ignorant wretch, and decided it would be useless to waste theology +on him. He fell instead into familiar conversation with him, and then +Gillies, with the natural communicativeness of youth, confessed to him +"that he had heard the warder at the next cell before he ventured to +step off the chair and suspend himself." + +"Well! but you ran a great risk, too. Suppose he had not come into your +cell--suppose he had been called away for a minute." + +"I should have been scragged, and no mistake," said the boy, with a +shiver. Throttling had proved no joke. "But I took my chance of that," +added Gillies. "I was determined to give them a fright; besides, if he +hadn't come, it would all be over by now, sir, and all the better for +me, I know." + +Further communication was closed by the crank, which demanded young +Hopeful by its mouthpiece, Fry. After dinner, to his infinite disgust, +he received the other moiety of his flogging; but by a sort of sulky +compensation his bed was kicked into his cell again at night by Fry +acting under the governor's orders. + +"That was not a bad move, hanging myself a little--a very little," +said the young prig. He hooked up his recovered treasure; and, though +smarting all over, coiled himself up in it, and in three minutes forgot +present pain, past dangers and troubles to come. + +The plan pursued with Robinson was to keep him at low-water mark by +lowering his diet; without this, so great was his natural energy and +disposition to work, that no crank excuse could have been got for +punishing him, and at this period he was too wise and self-restrained to +give any other. But after a few days of unjust torture he began to lose +hope; and with hope patience oozed away too, and his enemy saw with grim +satisfaction wild flashes of mad rage come every now and then to his +eye, harder and harder to suppress. "He will break out before long," +said Hawes to himself, "and then--" + +Robinson saw the game, and a deep dark hatred of his enemy fought on the +side of his prudence. This bitter raging struggle of contending passions +in the thief's heart harmed his soul more than had years of burglary and +petty larceny. All the vices of the old jail system are nothing compared +with the diabolical effect of solitude on a heart smarting with daily +wrongs. + +Brooding on self is always corrupting; but to brood on self and wrongs +is to ripen for madness, murder and all crime. Between Robinson +and these there lay one little bit of hope--only one, but it was a +reasonable one. There was an official in the jail possessed of a large +independent authority; and paid (Robinson argued) to take the side of +humanity in the place. This man was the representative of the national +religion in the jail, as Hawes was of the law. Robinson was too sharp at +picking up everything in his way, and had been too often in prisons and +their chapels not to know that cruelty and injustice are contrary to +the Gospel, and to the national religion, which is in a great measure +founded thereon. He therefore hoped and believed the chaplain of the +jail would come between him and his persecutor if he could be made to +understand the case. Now it happened just after the justices had thrown +cold water on Mr. Jones's little expostulation that Robinson was pinned +to the wall, jammed in the waistcoat, and throttled in the collar. He +had been thus some time, when, casting his despairing eyes around they +alighted upon the comely, respectable face of Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones was +looking gravely at the victim. + +Robinson devoured him with his eyes and his ears. He heard him say in an +undertone: + +"What is this for?" + +"Hasn't done his work at the crank," was the answer. + +Then Mr. Jones, after taking another look at the sufferer, gave a sigh +and walked away. Robinson's hopes from this gentleman rose; moreover, +part of his sermon next Sunday inveighed against inhumanity; and +Robinson, who had no conception the sermon was several years old, looked +on it as aimed at Hawes and his myrmidons and as the precursor of other +and effective remonstrances. Not long after this, to his delight, the +chaplain visited him alone. He seized this opportunity of securing the +good man's interference in his favor. He told him in glowing words the +whole story of his sufferings; and with a plain and manly eloquence +appealed to him to make his chapel words good and come between the +bloodhounds and their prey. + +"Sir, there are twenty or thirty poor fellows besides me that will bless +your four bones night and day, if you will but put out your hand and +save us from being abused like dogs and nailed to the wall like kites +and weasels. We are not vermin, sir, we are men. Many a worse man is +abroad than we that are caged here like wild beasts. Our bodies are +men's bodies, sir, and our hearts are men's hearts. You can't soften +_their_ hearts, for they haven't such a thing about them; but only just +you open your mouth and speak your mind in right-down earnest, and you +will shame them into treating us openly like human beings, let them hate +us and scorn us at bottom as they will. We have no friend here, sir, but +you, not one; have pity on us! have pity on us!" + +And the thief stretched out his hands, and fixed his ardent, glistening +eyes upon the successor of the apostles. + +The successor of the apostles hung his head and showed plainly that he +was not unmoved. A moment of suspense followed--Robinson hung upon his +answer. At length Mr. Jones raised his head and said, with icy coldness: + +"Mr. Hawes is the governor of this jail. I have no power to interfere +with his acts, supported as they are by the visiting justices; and I +have but one advice to give you: Submit to the discipline and to Mr. +Hawes in everything; it will be the worse for you if you don't." + +So saying, he went out abruptly, leaving his petitioner with his eyes +fixed ruefully upon the door by which his last hope had left him. + +The moment the reverend official had got outside the door, his +countenance, which had fallen, took a complacent air. He prided himself +that he had conquered an impulse, an idle impulse. + +"The poor fellow is in the right," said he to himself as he left +the cell; "but if I had let him see I thought so, he might have been +encouraged to resist, and then he would have only suffered all the +more." + +And so, having done what he calculated was the expedient thing to do, he +went his way satisfied and at peace with Mr. Hawes and all mankind. + +When he glided away and took hope with him, disdain, despair and frenzy +gushed from the thief's boiling bosom in one wild moan; and with that +moan he dashed himself on his face on the floor, though it was as hard +as Hawes and cold as Jones. + +Thus he lay crushed in blank despair a moment, the next he rose fiercely +to his knees, he looked up through the hole they called his window, and +saw a little piece of blue sky no bigger than a Bible, he held his hand +up to that blue sky, he fixed his dilating eye on that blue sky, and +with one long raging yell of horrible words hurled from a heart set on +fire by wrongs and despair and tempting fiends, he cursed the successor +of the apostles before the Majesty of Heaven. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +SOLITUDE is no barrier whatever to sin. Such prayers as Robinson's are +a disgrace to those who provoke them, but a calamity to him who utters +them. Robinson was now a far worse man than ever he had been out of +prison. The fiend had fixed a claw in his heart, and we may be sure +he felt the recoil of his ill prayers. He hated the human race, which +produced such creatures as Hawes and nothing to keep them in check. + +"From this hour I speak no more to any of those beasts!" + +Such was his resolve, made with clinched teeth and nails. And he curled +himself up like a snake and turned his back upon mankind, and his face +to the wall. Robinson had begun his career in this place full of hopes. +He hoped by good conduct to alleviate his condition as he had done in +other jails; conscious of various talents, he hoped by skill as well as +by good conduct to better his condition even in a jail. Such hopes are +a part of our nature, and were not in his case unreasonable. These +hopes were soon extinguished. He came down to a confident hope that +by docility and good conduct he should escape all evils except those +inseparable from a prisoner's lot. + +When he discovered that Hawes loved to punish his prisoners, and indeed +could hardly get through the day without it, and that his crank was an +unavoidable trap to catch the prisoners and betray them to punishment, +he sunk lower and lower in despondency, till at last there was but one +bit of blue hope in all his horizon. He still hoped something against +tyranny and cruelty from the representative of the gospel of mercy in +the place. But when his reverence told him nothing was to be expected +from that quarter, his last hope went out and he was in utter darkness. + +Yet Mr. Jones was not a hypocrite nor a monster; he was only a +commonplace man--a thing molded by circumstances instead of molding +them. In him the official outweighed the apostle, for a very good +reason--he was commonplace. This was his defect. His crime was +misplacing his commonplace self. A man has a right to be commonplace +in the middle of the New Forest, or in the great desert, or at +Fudley-cum-Pipes in the fens of Lincolnshire. But at the helm of a +struggling nation, or in the command of an army in time of war, or at +the head of the religious department of a jail, fighting against human +wolves, tigers and foxes, to be commonplace is an iniquity and leads to +crime. + +The man was a humane man. It was not in his nature to be cruel to a +prisoner, and his humanity was, like himself, negative not positive, +passive not active--of course; it was commonplace humanity. + +After looking on in silence for a twelvemonth or two he remonstrated +against Hawes's barbarity. He would have done more; he would have +stopped it--if it could have been stopped without any trouble. Cold +water was thrown on his remonstrance; he cooled directly! + +Now cold water and hot fire have been thrown on men battling for causes +no higher nor holier than this, yet neither has fire been able to wither +nor water to quench their honest zeal. But this good soul on being +sprinkled laid down his arms; he was commonplace. Moreover, he was +guilty of something beside cowardice. He let a small egotistical pique +sully as well as betray a great cause. "The justices have thrown cold +water on my remonstrance--very well, gentlemen, torture your prisoners +ad libitum; I shall interfere no more; we shall see which was in the +right, you or I." + +This was a narrow little view of wide and terrible consequences; it was +infinitesimal egotism--the spirit and essence of commonplace. + +His inclinations were good, but feeble--he was commonplace. His heart +was good, but tepid--he was commonplace. Had he loved the New Testament +and the Saviour of mankind, he would have fought Hawes tooth and nail; +he could not have helped it. But he did not love either; he only liked +them--he was commonplace. When the thief cursed this man, he was guilty +of an extravagance as well as a crime; the man was not worth cursing--he +was commonplace. + +The new chaplain arrived soon after these events. The new chaplain was +accompanied by his friend, the Rev. James Lepel, chaplain of a jail +in the north of England. After five years' unremitting duty he was now +enjoying a week's leave of absence. + +The three clergymen visited the cells. Mr. Lepel cross-examined several +prisoners. The new chaplain spoke little, but seemed observant, and once +or twice made a note. Now it so happened that almost the last cell they +entered was Tom Robinson's. They found him sitting all of a heap in a +corner, moody and sullen. + +At sight of three black coats and white ties the thief opened his eyes, +and with a sort of repugnance turned his back on the intruders. + +"Come, my lad," said the turnkey sternly, "no tricks, if you please. +Turn round," cried he savagely, "and make your bow to the gentlemen." + +Robinson wheeled round with flashing eyes, and checking an evident +desire to dash at them, instantly made a bow so very low, so very +obsequious, and, by a furtive expression, so contemptuous, that Mr. +Lepel colored with indignation and moved toward the door in silence. + +The turnkey muttered, "He has been very strange this few days past. Mr. +Fry thinks he is hardly safe." Then, turning to the new chaplain, the +man, whose name was Evans, said, "Better not go into his cell, sir, +without one of us with you." + +"What is the matter with him?" inquired the reverend gentleman. + +"Oh, I don't know as there is anything the matter with him; only he has +been disciplined once or twice, and it goes down the wrong way with some +of them at first starting. Governor says he will have to be put in the +dark cell if he does not get better." + +"The dark cell? hum! Pray what is the effect of the dark cell on a +prisoner?" + +"Well, sir, it cows them more than anything." + +"Where are your dark cells?" + +"They are down below, sir. You can look at them after the kitchen." + +"I must go into the town," said Mr. Lepel, looking at his watch. "I +promised to dine with my relations at three o'clock." + +"Come and see the oubliettes first. We have seen everything else." + +"With all my heart!" + +They descended below the ground-floor, and then Evans unlocked a massive +tight-fitting door opening upon what appeared to be a black substance; +this was, however, no substance--but vacancy without any degree of +light. The light crossing the threshold from the open door seemed to cut +a slice out of it. + +The newcomers looked into it. Mr. Lepel with grim satisfaction, the +other with awe and curiosity. + +"When shall you be back, Lepel?" inquired he thoughtfully. + +"Oh, before nine o'clock." + +"Then perhaps you will both do me the honor to drink a cup of tea with +me," said Mr. Jones, courteously. + +"With pleasure." + +"Good-by, then, for the present," said the new chaplain. + +"Why, where are you going?" + +"In here." + +"What, into the dark cell?" + +"Yes!" + +"Well!" ejaculated Evans. + +"You won't stay there long." + +"Until you return, Lepel." + +"What a fancy!" + +Mr. Jones looked not a little surprised. The turnkey grinned. The +reverend gentleman stepped at once into the cell and was lost to sight. + +"Do not let me out before eight o'clock," said his voice, "and you, +Lepel, inquire for me as soon as you return, for I feel a little +nervous. Now shut the door." + +The door was closed on the reverend gentleman, and the little group +outside, after looking at one another with a humorous expression, +separated, and each went after his own affairs. + +Evans lingered behind, and took a look at the massy door, behind +which for the first time a man had gone voluntarily, and after grave +deliberation delivered himself at long intervals of the two following +profound reflections: + +"Well! I'm blest!!" + +"Well! I'm blowed!!" + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MR. LEPEL returned somewhat earlier than he had intended. On entering +the jail it so happened that he met the governor, and seized this +opportunity of conversing with him. + +He expressed at once so warm an admiration of the jail and the system +pursued in it, that Hawes began to take a fancy to him. + +They compared notes, and agreed that no system but the separate and +silent had a leg to stand on; and as they returned together from +visiting the ground-floor cells, Mr. Lepel had the honor of giving a new +light to Hawes himself. + +"If I could have my way the debtors should be in separate cells. I would +have but one system in a jail." + +Hawes laughed incredulously. "There would be a fine outcry if we treated +the debtors the same as we do the rogues." + +"Mr. Hawes," said the other firmly, "an honest man very seldom finds his +way into any part of a jail. Extravagant people and tradesmen who +have abused the principle of credit, deserve punishment, and above all +require discipline and compulsory self-communion to bring them to amend +their ways." + +"That is right, sir," cried Hawes, a sudden light breaking on him, "and +it certainly is a mistake letting them enjoy themselves." + +"And corrupt each other." + +Hawes. A prison should be confinement. + +Lepel. And seclusion from all but profitable company. + +Hawes. It is not a place of amusement. + +Lepel. There should be no idle conversation. + +"And no noise," put in Hawes hastily. + +"However, this prison is a model for all the prisons in the land, and I +shall feel quite sad when I go back to my duty in Cumberland." + +"Cumberland? Why, you are our new chaplain, aren't ye?" + +"No! I am not so fortunate, I am a friend of his; my name is Lepel." + +"Oh, you are Mr. Lepel, and where is our one? I heard he had been all +over the jail." + +"What, have you not seen him?" + +"No! he has never been near me. Not very polite, I think." + +"Oh! oh!" + +"Hallo! what is wrong!" + +"I think I know where he is; he is not far off. I will go and find him +if you will excuse me." + +"No! we won't trouble you. Here, Hodges, come here. Have you seen the +new chaplain--where is he?" + +"Well, sir, Evans tells me he is--" click! + +"Confound you, don't stand grinning. Where is he?" + +"In the black hole, sir!" + +"What d'ye mean by the black hole? The dust hole?" + +"No, sir, I mean the dark cells." + +"Then why don't you say the dark cells? Has he been there long?" + +Mr. Lepel answered the question. "Ever since three o'clock, and it is +nearly nine; and we are both of us to drink tea with Mr. Jones." + +Mr. Hawes showed no hurry. "What did he want to go in them for?" + +"I have no idea, unless it was to see what it is like." + +"Well, but I like that!" said Hawes. "That is entering into the system. +Let us see how he comes on." + +Mr. Hawes, Mr. Lepel and Hodges went to the dark cells; on their way +they were joined by Evans. + +The governor took out his own keys, and Evans having indicated the cell, +for there were three, he unlocked it and threw the door wide open. They +all looked in, but there was nothing to be seen. + +"I hope nothing is the matter," said Mr. Lepel, in considerable +agitation, and he groped his way into the cave. As he put out his hand +it was taken almost violently by the self-immured, who cried: + +"Oh, Lepel!" and held him in a strong but tremulous grasp. Then, after +a pause, he said more calmly: "The light dazzles me! the place seems on +fire now! Perhaps you will be kind enough to lend me your arm, Lepel." + +Mr. Lepel led him out; he had one hand before his eyes, which he +gradually withdrew while speaking. He found himself in the middle of a +group with a sly sneer on their faces mixed with some curiosity. + +"How long have I been there?" asked he quietly. + +"Six hours; it is nine o'clock." + +"Only six hours! incredible!" + +"Well, sir, I suppose you are not sorry to be out?" + +"This is Mr. Hawes, the governor," put in Mr. Lepel. + +Hawes continued jocosely, "What does it feel like, sir?" + +"I shall have the honor of telling you that in private, Mr. Hawes. I +think, Lepel, we have an engagement with Mr. Jones at nine o'clock." So +saying, the new chaplain, with a bow to the governor, took his friend's +arm and went to tea with Mr. Jones. + +"There, now," said Hawes to the turnkeys, "that is a gentleman. He +doesn't blurt everything out before you fellows; he reserves it for his +superior officer." + +Next morning the new chaplain requested Mr. Lepel to visit the +prisoner's cells in a certain order, and make notes of their characters +as far as he could guess them. He himself visited them in another order +and made his notes. In the evening they compared these. We must be +content with an extract or two. + + MR. LEPEL'S. THE NEW CHAPLAIN'S. + + Rock, No. 37.-- A very promising 37, Rock.-- Professes penitence. + subject, penitent and resigned. Asked him suddenly what sins + Says, "if the door of the prison weighed most on his conscience. + was left open he would not go No answer. Prepared with an + out." Has learned 250 texts, and abstract penitence, but no + is learning fifteen a day. particulars: reason obvious. + + Mem. With this man speak on any + topic rather than religion at + present. Pray for this + self-deceiver as I would for a + murderer. + + Josephs, No. -- An interesting Josephs.-- An amiable boy; seems + boy, ignorant, but apparently out of health and spirits. + well-disposed. In ill health. Says he has been overworked + The surgeon should be consulted and punished for inability. Shall + about him. intercede with the governor for + him. + + Mem. Pale and hollow-eyed; pulse + feeble. + + Strutt, No. -- Sullen, impenitent Strutt.-- This poor man is in + and brutal. Says it is no use his a state of deep depression. I + learning texts, they won't stay much fear the want of light + in his head. Discontented; wants and air and society is crushing + to go out in the yard. The best him. He is fifty years old. + one can hope for here is that the + punishment, which he finds so Mem. Inquire whether separate + severe, will deter him in future. confinement tries men harder + Says he will never come here after a certain age. Talked + again, but doubts whether he to him; told him stories with + shall get out alive. Gave him all the animation I could. + some tracts. Stayed half an hour with him. + He brightened up a little, and + asked me to come again. Nothing + to be done here at present but + amuse the poor soul. + + Mem. Watch him jealously. + + Jessup.-- The prisoner whose Jessup.-- Like Rock, professes + term, owing to his excellent extravagant penitence, indifference + conduct, is reduced from twelve to personal liberty, and love of + months to nine months, so that Scripture. He overdoes it greatly. + he goes out next week. Having However, it appears he has gained + discovered that the news had his point by it. He has induced + not been conveyed to him, I asked Mr. Jones to plead for him in + Mr. Hawes to let me be the bearer. mitigation of punishment, and + When I told him, his only remark next week he leaves prison for + was, with an air of regret: a little while. + "Then I shall not finish my + Gospels!" I begged for an He asked me to hear some texts. + explanation, when he told I said, "No, my poor fellow; they + me that for eight months he will do you as much good whether I + had been committing the Gospels hear you them or not." By a light + to heart, and that he was just that flashed into his eye I saw + beginning St. John, which now he he comprehended the equivoque; + should never finish. I said he but he suppressed his intelligence + must finish it at home in the and answered piously, + intervals of honest labor. His "That they will, your reverence." + countenance brightened, and he + said he would. + + + A most cheering case, and one of + the best proofs of the efficacy + of the separate and silent system + I have met with for some time. I + fear I almost grudge you the + possession of such an example. + + + Robinson-- A bad subject, Robinson.--This man wears a + rebellious and savage; refuses to singular look of scorn as well + speak. Time and the discipline as hatred, which, coupled with + will probably break him of this; his repeated refusals to speak + but I do not think he will ever to me, provoked me so that I + make a good prisoner! felt strongly tempted to knock + him down. How unworthy, to be + provoked at anything a great + sufferer can say or do; every + solitary prisoner must surely be + a great sufferer. + + My judgment is quite at fault + here. I know no more than a child + what is this man's character, and + the cause of his strange conduct. + + Mem. Inquire his antecedents of + the turnkeys. Oh, Lord, enlighten + me, and give me wisdom for the + great and deep and difficult task + I have so boldly undertaken! + + +The next day the new chaplain met the surgeon in the jail and took him +into Josephs' cell. + +"He only wants a little rest and nourishing food; he would be the better +for a little amusement, but--" and the man of science shrugged his +shoulders. + +"Can you read?" said Mr. Lepel. + +"Very little, sir." + +"Let the schoolmaster come to him every day," suggested that experienced +individual. He knew what separate confinement was. What bores a boy out +of prison amuses him in it. + +Hawes gave a cold consent. So poor little Josephs had a richer diet and +rest from crank and pillory, and the schoolmaster spent half an hour +every day teaching him; and above all, the new chaplain sat in his cell +and told him stories that interested him--told him how very wicked some +boys had been; what a many clever wicked things they had done and not +been happy, then how they had repented and learned to pray to be good, +and how by Divine help they had become good, and how some had gone to +heaven soon after, and were now happy and pure as the angels; and others +had stayed on earth and were good and honest and just men; not so happy +as those others who were dead, but content (and that the wicked never +are), and waiting God's pleasure to go away and be happy forever. + +Josephs listened to the good chaplain's tales and conversation with +wonderful interest, and his face always brightened when that gentleman +came into his cell. The schoolmaster reported him not quick, but docile. +These were his halcyon days. + +But Robinson remained a silent basilisk. The chaplain visited him every +day, said one or two kind words to him and retired without receiving a +word or a look of acknowledgment. One day, surprised and hurt by this +continued obduracy, the chaplain retired with an audible sigh. Robinson +heard it, and ground his teeth with satisfaction. Solitary, tortured and +degraded, he had still found one whom he could annoy a little bit. + +The governor and the new chaplain agreed charmingly; constant civilities +passed between them. The chaplain assisted Mr. Hawes to turn the phrases +of his yearly report; and Mr. Hawes more than repaid him by consenting +to his introducing various handicrafts into the prison--at his own +expense, not the county's. + +Parson must have got a longer purse than most of us, thought Hawes, and +it increased his respect. + +Hawes shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say, "You are just flinging +your money into the dirt;" but the other, interpreting his look, said: + +"I hope more good from this than from all the sermons I shall preach in +your chapel." + +Probably Mr. Hawes would not have been so indifferent had he known +that this introduction of rational labor was intended as the first step +toward undermining and expelling the sacred crank. + +This clergyman had a secret horror and hatred of the crank. He called +it a monster got by folly upon science to degrade labor below theft; for +theft is immoral, but crank labor is immoral and idiotic, too, said +he. The crank is a diabolical engine to keep thieves from ever being +anything but thieves. He arrived at this conclusion by a chain of +reasoning for which there is no room in a narrative already smothered in +words. + +This antipathy to the crank quite overpowered him. He had been now three +weeks in the jail, and all that time only thrice in the labor-yard. It +cut his understanding like a knife to see a man turn a handle for hours +and nothing come of it. + +However, one day, from a sense of duty, he forced himself into the +labor-yard and walked wincing down the row. + +"These are our schoolmen," said he. "As the schoolmen labored most +intellectually and scientifically--practical result, nil, so these labor +harder than other men--result, nil. This is literally 'beating the air.' +The ancients imagined tortures particularly trying to nature, that +of Sisyphus to wit; everlasting labor embittered by everlasting +nihilification. We have made Sisyphism vulgar. Here are fifteen Sisyphi. +Only the wise or ancients called this thing infernal torture; our old +women call it salutary discipline." + +He was running on in this style, heaping satire and sorrow upon the +crank, when suddenly, at the mouth of one of the farthest cells, he +stopped and threw up his hands with an ejaculation of astonishment and +dismay. There was a man jammed in a strait waistcoat, pinned against the +wall by a strap, and throttling in a huge collar; his face was white, +his lips livid, and his eyes rolling despairingly. It was Thomas +Robinson. This sight took away the chaplain's breath. When he recovered +himself, "What is this?" said he to the turnkeys, sternly. + +"Prisoner refractory at the crank," answered Hodges, doggedly. + +The clergyman walked up to Robinson and examined the collar, the +waistcoat and the strap. "Have you the governor's authority for this +act?" said he firmly. + +"Rule is if they won't do their work, the jacket." + +"Have you the governor's authority for this particular act?" + +"In a general way we have." + +"In a word, you are not acting under his authority, and you know it. +Take the man down this moment." + +The men hesitated. + +"If you don't I shall." + +The turnkeys, a little staggered by his firmness, began to confer in +whispers. The chaplain, who was one of your decided men, could not wait +the consultation. He sprang to Robinson's head and began to undo the +collar. The others, seeing this decided move, came and helped him. The +collar and the strap being loosed, the thief's body, ensacked as it was, +fell helplessly forward. He had fainted during the discussion; in fact, +his senses were shut when the chaplain first came to the cell. The +chaplain caught him, and being a very strong man, saved him from a +dangerous fall and seated him gently with his back to the wall. Water +was sprinkled in his face. The chaplain went hastily to find the +governor. He came to him pale and out of breath. + +"I found the turnkeys outraging a prisoner." + +"Indeed!" said the governor. It was a new idea to him that anything +could be an outrage on a prisoner. + +"They confessed they had not your authority, so I took upon me to undo +their act." + +"Humph!" + +"I now leave the matter in your hands, sir." + +"I will see into it, sir." + +The chaplain left Mr. Hawes abruptly, for he was seized with a sudden +languor and nausea; he went to his own house and there he was violently +sick. Shaking off as quickly as he could this weakness, he went at once +to Robinson's cell. He found him coiled up like a snake. He came hastily +into the cell with the natural effusion of a man who had taken another +man's part. + +"I want to ask you one question: What had you done that they should use +you like that?" + +No answer. + +"It is not from idle curiosity I ask you, but that I may be able to +advise you, or intercede for you if the punishment should appear too +severe for the offense." + +No answer. + +"Come, I would wait here ever so long upon the chance of your speaking +to me if you were the only prisoner, but there are others in their +solitude longing for me; time is precious; will you speak to one who +desires to be your friend?" + +No answer. + +A flush of impatience and anger crossed the chaplain's brow. In most men +it would have found vent in words. This man but turned away to hide it +from its object. He gulped his brief ire down and said only, "So then I +am never to be any use to you," and went sorrowfully away. + +Robinson coiled himself up a little tighter, and hugged his hatred of +all mankind closer, like a treasure that some one had just tried to do +him out of. + +As the chaplain came out of his cell he was met by Hawes, whose +countenance wore a gloomy expression that soon found its way into words. + +"The chaplain is not allowed to interfere between me and the prisoners +in this jail." + +"Explain, Mr. Hawes." + +"You have been and ordered my turnkeys to relax punishment." + +"You forget, Mr. Hawes, I explained to you that they were acting without +the requisite authority from you." + +"That is all right, and I have called them to account, but then you are +not to order them either; you should have applied to me." + +"I see, I see! Forgive me this little breach of routine where a human +being's sufferings would have been prolonged by etiquette." + +"Ugh! Well, it must not occur again." + +"I trust the occasion will not." + +"For that matter, you will often see refractory prisoners punished in +this jail. You had better mind your own business in the jail, it will +find you work enough." + +"I will, Mr. Hawes; to dissuade men from cruelty is a part of it." + +"If you come between me and the prisoners, sir, you won't be long here." + +The new chaplain smiled. + +"What does it matter whether I'm here or in Patagonia, so that I do +my duty wherever I am?" said he with a fine mixture of good-humor and +spirit. + +Hawes turned his back rudely and went and reduced Robinson's supper +fifty per cent. + +"Evans, is that sort of punishment often inflicted here?" + +"Well, sir, yes. It is a common punishment of this jail." + +"It must be very painful." + +"No, sir, it's a little _on_comfortable that is all; and then we've got +such a lot here we are obliged to be down on 'em like a sledge-hammer, +or they'd eat us up alive." + +"Have you got the things, the jacket, collar, etc.?" + +"I know where to find them," said Evans with a sly look. + +"Bring them to me directly to this empty cell." + +"Well, sir," higgled Evans, "in course I don't like to refuse your +reverence." + +"Then don't refuse me," retorted the other, sharp as a needle. + +Evans went off directly and soon returned with the materials. The +chaplain examined them a while; he then took off his coat. + +"Operate on me, Evans." + +"Operate on you, sir!" + +"Yes! There, don't stand staring, my good man; hold up the +waistcoat--now strap it tight--tighter--no nonsense--Robinson was +strapped tighter than that yesterday. I want to know what we are doing +to our fellow-creatures in this place. The collar now." + +"But, sir, the collar will nip you. I tell you that beforehand." + +"Not more than it nips my prisoners. Now strap me to the wall. Why do +you hesitate?" + +"I don't know whether I am doing right, sir, you being a parson. Perhaps +I shall have no luck after this." + +"Don't be silly, Evans. Volenti non fit injuria--that means, you may +torture a bishop if he bids you." + +"There you are, sir." + +"Yes! here I am. Now go away and come in half an hour." + +"I think I had better stay, sir. You will soon be sick of it." + +"Go, and come in half an hour," was the firm reply. + +Our chaplain felt that if the man did not go he should not be five +minutes before he asked to be released, and he was determined to know +"what we are doing." + +Evans had not been gone ten minutes before he bitterly repented letting +him go, and when that worthy returned he found him muttering faintly, +"It is in a good cause-it is in a good cause--" + +Evans wore a grin. + +"You shall pay for that grin," said the chaplain to himself. + +"Well, sir, have you had enough of it?" + +"Yes, Evans; you may loose me," said the other with affected +nonchalance. + +"What is it like, sir? haw! haw!" + +"It is as you described it, _on_comfortable; but the knowledge I have +gained in it is invaluable. You shall share it." + +"With all my heart, sir; you can tell me what it is like." + +"Oh, no! such knowledge can never be imparted by description; you shall +take your turn in the jacket." + +"Not if I know it." + +"What, not for the sake of knowledge?" + +"Oh! I can guess what it is like." + +"But you will oblige me?" + +"Some other way, sir, if you please." + +"Besides, I will give you a guinea." + +"Oh! that alters the case, sir. But only for half an hour." + +"Only for half an hour." + +Evans was triced up and pinned to the wall; the chaplain took out a +guinea and placed it in his sight, and walked out. + +In about ten minutes he returned, and there was Evans, his face drawn +down by pain. + +"Well, how do you like it?" + +"Oh! pretty well, sir; it isn't worth making an outcry about." + +"Only a little _on_comfortable." + +"That is all; if it wasn't for the confounded cramp." + +"Let us compare notes," said the chaplain, sitting down opposite. "I +found it worse than uncomfortable. First there was a terrible sense of +utter impotence, then came on racking cramps, for which there was no +relief because I could not move." + +"Oh!" + +"What?" + +"Nothing, sir! mum--mum--dear guinea!" + +"The jagged collar gave me much pain, too; it rasped my poor throat like +a file." + +"Why the dickens didn't you tell me all this before, sir," said Evans +ruefully; "it is no use now I've been and gone into the same oven like a +fool." + +"I had my reasons for not telling you before; good-by for the present." + +"Don't stay over the half hour, for goodness' sake, sir." + +"No! adieu for the present." + +He did not go far. He listened and heard the plucky Evans groan. He came +hastily in. + +"Courage, my fine fellow, only eight minutes more and the guinea is +yours. + +"How many more minutes, sir?" + +"Eight." + +"Then, oh! undo me, sir, if you please." + +"What! forfeit the guinea for eight minutes--seven, it is only seven +now." + +"Hang the guinea, let me down, sir, if there's pity in you." + +"With all my heart," said the reverend gentleman, pocketing the guinea, +and he loosed Evans with all speed. + +The man stretched his limbs with ejaculations of pain between every +stretch, and put his handkerchief on very gingerly. He looked sulky +and said nothing. The other watched him keenly, for there was something +about him that showed his mind was working. + +"There is your guinea." + +"Oh, no! I didn't earn it." + +"Oh, if you think that (putting it to the lips of his pocket), let me +make you a present of it" (handing it out again). Evans smiled. "It is a +good servant. That little coin has got me one friend more for these poor +prisoners. You don't understand me, Evans. Well, you will. Now, look at +me; from this moment, sir, you and I stand on a different footing from +others in this jail. We know what we are doing when we put a prisoner in +that thing; the others don't. The greater the knowledge, the greater the +guilt. May we both be kept from the crime of cruelty. Good-night!" + +"Good-night, your reverence!" said the man gently, awed by his sudden +solemnity. + +The chaplain retired. Evans looked after him, and then down into his own +hand. + +"Well, I'm blowed!--Well, I'm blest!--Got a guinea, though!!" + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +GOVERNOR HAWES had qualities good in themselves, but ill-directed, and +therefore not good in their results--determination for one. He was not a +man to yield a step to opposition. He was a much greater man than Jones. +He was like a torrent, to whose progress if you oppose a great stone it +brawls and struggles past it and round it and over it with more vigor +than before. + +"I will be master in this jail!" was the creed of Hawes. He docked +Robinson's supper one half, ditto his breakfast next day, and set him a +tremendous task of crank. Now in jail a day's food and a day's crank +are too nicely balanced to admit of the weights being tampered with. So +Robinson's demi-starvation paved the way for further punishment. At one +o'clock he was five hundred revolutions short, and instead of going to +his dinner he was tied up in the infernal machine. Now the new chaplain +came three times into the yard that day, and the third time, about four +o'clock, he found Robinson pinned to the wall, jammed in the waistcoat +and griped in the collar. His blood ran cold at sight of him, for the +man had been hours in the pillory and nature was giving way. + +"What has he done?" + +"Refractory at crank." + +"I saw him working at the crank when I came here last." + +"Hasn't made his number good, though." + +"Humph! You have the governor's own orders?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How long is he to be so?" + +"Till fresh orders." + +"I will see the effect of this punishment on the prisoner and note it +down for my report." And he took out his note-book and leaned his back +against the wall. + +The simple action of taking out a notebook gave the operators a certain +qualm of doubt. Fry whispered Hodges to go and tell the governor. On his +return Hodges found the parties as he had left them, except Robinson--he +was paler and his lips turning bluer. + +"Your victim is fainting," said the chaplain sternly. + +"Only shamming, sir," said Fry. "Bucket, Hodges." + +The bucket was brought and the contents were flung over Robinson. + +The chaplain gave a cry of dismay. The turnkeys both laughed at this. + +"You see he was only shamming, sir," said Hodges. "He is come to the +moment the water touched him." + +"A plain proof he was not shamming. A bucket of water thrown over any +one about to faint would always bring them to; but if a man had made up +his mind to sham, he could do it in spite of water. Of course you will +take him down now?" + +"Not till fresh orders." + +"On your peril be it if any harm befalls this prisoner--you are warned." + +At this juncture Hawes came into the yard. His cheek was flushed and +his eye glittered. He expected and rather hoped a collision with his +reverence. + +"Well, what is the matter?" + +"Nothing, sir; only his reverence is threatening us." + +"What is he threatening you for?" + +"Mr. Hawes, I told these men that I should hold them responsible if any +harm came to the prisoner for their cruelty. I now tell you that he has +just fainted from bodily distress caused by this infernal engine, and +I hold you, Mr. Hawes, responsible for this man's life and well-being, +which are here attacked contrary to the custom of all her majesty's +prisons, and contrary to the intention of all punishment, which is for +the culprit's good, not for his injury either in soul or body. + +"And what will you do?" said Hawes, glaring contemptuously at the +turnkeys, who wore rather a blank look. + +"Mr. Hawes," replied the other gravely, "I have spoken to warn you, not +to threaten you." + +"What I do is done with the consent of the visiting justices. They are +my masters, and no one else." + +"They have not seen a prisoner crucified." + +"Crucified! What d'ye mean by crucified?" + +"Don't you see that the torture before our eyes is crucifixion?" + +"No! I don't. No nails!" + +"Nails were not always used in crucifixion; sometimes cords. Don't +deceive yourself with a name; nothing misleads like a false name. This +punishment is falsely called the jacket--it is jacket, collar, straps, +applied with cruelty. It is crucifixion minus nails but plus a collar." + +"Whatever it is, the justices have seen and approved it. Haven't they, +Fry?" + +"That they have, sir; scores of times." + +"Then may Heaven forgive them and direct me." And the chaplain entered +the cell despondently, and bent his pitying eye steadily on the thief, +who seemed to him at the moment a better companion than the three honest +but cruel men. + +He waited there very, very sorrowful and thoughtful for more than half +an hour. Then Hawes, who left the yard as soon as he had conquered his +opponent, sent in Evans with an order to take Robinson to his dormitory. + +The chaplain saw the man taken down from the wall, and that done went +hastily to his own house; there, the contest being over, he was seized +with a violent sickness and trembling. To see a fellow-creature suffer +and not be able to relieve him was death to this man. He was game to +the last drop of his blood so long as there was any good to be done, but +action ended, a reaction came, in which he was all pity and sorrow and +distress because of a fellow-creature's distress. No one that saw his +firmness in the torture-cell would have guessed how weak he was within, +and how stoutly his great heart had to battle against a sensitive nature +and nerves tuned too high. + +He gave half an hour to the weakness of nature, and then he was all duty +once more. + +He went first into Robinson's cell. He found him worse than ever: +despair as well as hatred gleamed in his eye. + +"My poor fellow, is there no way for you to avoid these dreadful +punishments?" + +No answer. + +It is to be observed, though, that Robinson had no idea how far +the chaplain had carried his remonstrance against his torture; that +remonstrance had been uttered privately to the turnkeys and the +governor. Besides, the man was half stupefied when the chaplain first +came there. And now he was in such pain and despair. He was like the +genii confined in the chest and thrown into the water by Soliman. Had +this good friend come to him at first starting, he would have thrown +himself into his arms; but it came too late now. He hated all mankind. +He had lost all belief in genuine kindness. Like Orlando, + + He thought that all things had been savage here. + +The chaplain, on the other hand, began to think that Robinson was a +downright brute, and one on whom kindness was and would be wasted. +Still, true to his nature, he admitted no small pique. He reasoned +gently and kindly with him--very kindly. + +"My poor soul," said he, "have you so many friends in this hard place +that you can afford to repulse one who desires to be your friend and +to do you good?" No answer. "Well, then, if you will not let me comfort +you, at least you cannot prevent my praying for you, for you are on the +road to despair and will take no help." + +So, then, this good creature did actually kneel upon the hard stones of +the cell and offer a prayer--a very short but earnest one. + +"Oh God, to whom all hearts are open, enlighten me that I may understand +this my afflicted brother's heart, and learn how to do him good, and +comfort him out of Thy word--Thy grace assisting me." + +Robinson looked down at him with wild, staring but lack-luster eyes +and open mouth. He rose from the floor, and casting a look of great +benignity on the sullen brute, he was about to go, when he observed that +Robinson was trembling in a very peculiar way. + +"You are ill," said he hastily, and took a step toward him. + +At this Robinson, with a wild and furious gesture, waved him to the door +and turned his face to the wall; then this refined gentleman bowed +his head, as much as to say you shall be master of this apartment and +dismiss any one you do not like, and went gently away with a little +sigh. And the last that he saw was Robinson trembling with averted face +and eyes bent down. + +Outside he met Evans, who said to him half bluntly half respectfully, +"I don't like to see you going into that cell, sir; the man is not to be +trusted. He is very strange." + +"What do you mean? do you fear for his reason?" + +"Why not, sir? We have sent a pretty many to the lunatic asylum since I +was a warder here." + +"Ah!" + +"And some have broke prison a shorter way than that," said the man very +gloomily. + +The chaplain groaned--and looked at the speaker with an expression of +terror. Evans noticed it and said gravely: + +"You should not have come to such place as this, sir; you are not fit +for it." + +"Why am I not fit for it?" + +"Too good for it, sir." + +"You talk foolishly, Mr. Evans. In the first place, 'too good' is a +ludicrous combination of language, in the next the worse a place is the +more need of somebody being good in it to make it better. But I suppose +you are one of those who think that evil is naturally stronger than +good. Delusion springs from this, that the wicked are in earnest and the +good are lukewarm. Good is stronger than evil. A single really good +man in an ill place is like a little yeast in a gallon of dough; it can +leaven the mass. If St. Paul or even George Whitfield had been in Lot's +place all those years there would have been more than fifty good men in +Sodom; but this is out of place. I want you to give me the benefit of +your experience, Evans. When I went to Robinson and spoke kindly to him +he trembled all over. What on earth does that mean?" + +"Trembled, did he, and never spoke?" + +"Yes!--Well?" + +"I'm thinking, sir! I'm thinking. You didn't touch him?" + +"Touch him, no; what should I touch him for?" + +"Well, don't do it, sir. And don't go near him. You have had an escape, +you have. He was in two minds about pitching into you." + +"You think it was rage! Humph! it did not give me that impression." + +"Sir, did you ever go to pat a strange dog?" + +"I have done myself that honor." + +"Well, if he wags his tail you know it is all right; but say he puts his +tail between his legs, what will he do if you pat him?" + +"Bite me. Experto crede." + +"No! if you are ever so expert he will bite you or try. Now putting of +his tail between his legs, that passes for a sign of fear in a dog, all +one as trembling does in a man. Do you see what I am driving at?" + +"Yes." + +"Then you had better leave the spiteful brute to himself?" + +"No! that would be to condemn him to the worst companion he can have." + +"But if he should pitch into you, sir?" + +"Then he will pitch into a man twice as strong as himself, and a pupil +of Bendigo. Don't be silly, Evans." + + SUNDAY. + +Hodges. Pity you wasn't in chapel, Mr. Fry. + +Fry. Why? + +Hodges. The new chaplain! + +Fry. Well, what did he do? + +Hodges. He waked 'em all up, I can tell you. Governor couldn't get a +wink all the sermon. + +Fry. What did he tell you? + +Hodges. Told us he loved us. + +Fry. Loved who? + +Hodges. All of us. Governor, turnkeys, and especially the prisoners, +because they were in trouble. "My Master loves you, though He hates your +sins," says he; and "I love every mother's son of you." What d'ye think +of that? He loves the whole biling! Told 'em so, however. + +Fry. Loves 'em, does he? Well, that's a new lay! After all, there's no +accounting for tastes, you know. Haw! haw! + +Hodges. Haw! haw! ho! + +This same Sunday afternoon, soon after service, the chaplain came to +Robinson's cell. Evans unlocked it, looking rather uneasy, and would +have come in with the reverend gentleman; but he forbade him and walked +quickly into the cell, as Van Amburgh goes among his leopards and +panthers. He had in his hand a little box. + +"I have brought you some ointment--some nice cooling ointment," said he, +"to rub on your neck. I saw it was frayed by that collar." + +(Pause.) No answer. + +"Will you let me see you use it?" + +No answer. + +"Come!" + +No answer. + +The chaplain took the box off the table, opened it and went up to +Robinson and began quietly to apply some of the grateful soothing +ointment to his frayed throat. The man trembled all over. The chaplain +kept his eye calm but firm upon him, as on a dog of doubtful temper. +Robinson put up his hand in a feeble sort of way to prevent the other +from doing him good. His reverence took the said hand in a quiet but +powerful grasp, and applied the ointment all the same. Robinson said +nothing, but he was seized with this extraordinary trembling. + +"Good-by," said his reverence kindly. "I leave you the box; and see, +here are some tracts I have selected for you. They are not dull; there +are stories in them, and the dialogue is pretty good. It is nearer +nature than you will find it in works of greater pretension. Here a +carpenter talks something like a carpenter, and a footman something +like a footman, and a factory-girl something like a girl employed in a +factory. They don't all talk book--you will be able to read them. Begin +with this one, 'The Wages of Sin are Death.' Good-by!" And with these +words and a kind smile he left the cell. + +"From the chaplain, sir," said Evans to the governor, touching his hat. + + +"DEAR SIR--Will you be good enough to send me by the bearer a copy of +the prison rules, especially those that treat of the punishments to be +inflicted on prisoners? + +"I am, + +"Yours, etc." + + +Hawes had no sooner read this innocent-looking missive, than he burst +out into a tide of execrations; he concluded by saying, "Tell him I have +not got a spare copy; Mr. Jones will give him his." + +This answer disappointed the chaplain sadly; for Mr. Jones had left the +town, and was not expected to return for some days. The hostile spirit +of the governor was evident in this reply. The chaplain felt he was +at war, and his was an energetic but peace-loving nature. He paced the +corridor, looking both thoughtful and sad. The rough Evans eyed him +with interest, and he also fell into meditation and scratched his head, +invariable concomitant of thought with Evans. + +It was toward evening, and his reverence still paced the corridor, +downhearted at opposition and wickedness, but not without hope, and full +of lovely and charitable wishes for all his flock, when the melancholy +Fry suddenly came out of a prisoner's cell radiant with joy. + +"What is amiss?" asked the chaplain. + +"This is the matter," said Fry, and he showed him a deuce of clubs, a +five of hearts and an ace of diamonds, and so on; two or three cards of +each suit. "A prisoner has been making these out of his tracts!" + +"How could he do that?" + +"Look here, sir. He has kept a little of his gruel till it turned +to paste, and then he has pasted three or four leaves of the tracts +together and dried them, and then cut them into cards." + +"But the colors--how could he get them?" + +"That is what beats me altogether; but some of these prisoners know more +than the bench of bishops." + +"More evil, I conclude you mean?" + +"More of all sorts, sir. However, I am taking them to the governor, and +he will fathom it, if any one can." + +"Leave one red card and one black with me." + +While Fry was gong the chaplain examined the cards with curiosity and +that admiration of inventive resource which a superior mind cannot help +feeling. There they were, a fine red deuce of hearts and a fine black +four of spades--cards made without pasteboard and painted without paint. +But how? that was the question. The chaplain entered upon this question +with his usual zeal; but happening to reverse one of the cards, it was +his fate to see on the back of it: + + "THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH." + + A Tract. + +He reddened at the sight. Here was an affront! "The sulky brute could +amuse himself cutting up my tracts!" + +Presently the governor came up with his satellites. + +"Take No. 19 out of his cell for punishment." + +At this word the chaplain's short-lived anger began to cool. They +brought Robinson out. + +"So you have been at it again," cried the governor in threatening terms. +"Now you will tell me where you got the paint to make these beauties +with?" + +No answer. + +"Do you hear, ye sulky brute?" + +No answer, but a glittering eye bent on Hawes. + +"Put him in the jacket," cried Hawes with an oath. + +Hodges and Fry laid each a hand upon the man's shoulder and walked him +off. + +"Stop!" cried Hawes suddenly; "his reverence is here, and he is not +partial to the jacket." + +The chaplain was innocent enough to make a graceful grateful bow to +Hawes. + +"Give him the dark cell for twenty-four hours," continued Hawes with a +malicious grin. + +The thief gave a cry of dismay and shook himself clear of the turnkeys. + +"Anything but that," cried he with trembling voice. + +"Oh! you have found your tongue, have you?" + +"Any punishment but that," almost shrieked the despairing man. "Leave me +my reason. You have robbed me of everything else. For pity's sake leave +me my reason!" + +The governor made a signal to the turnkeys; they stepped toward the +thief. The thief sprung out of their way, his eye rolling wildly as if +in search of escape. Seeing this the two turnkeys darted at him like +bulldogs, one on each side. This time, instead of flying, the thief +was observed to move his body in a springy way to meet them; with two +motions rapid as light and almost contemporaneous, he caught Hodges +between the eyes with his fist and drove his head like a battering-ram +into Fry's belly. Smack! ooff! and the two powerful men went down like +ninepins. + +In a moment all the warders within sight or hearing came buzzing round, +and Hodges and Fry got up, the latter bleeding; both staring confusedly. +Seeing himself hemmed in, Robinson offered no further resistance. He +plumped himself down on the ground and there sat, and they had to take +him up and carry him to the dark cells. But as they were dragging him +along by the shoulders he caught sight of the governor and chaplain +looking down at him over the rails of Corridor B. At sight of the latter +the thief wrenched himself free from his attendants, and screamed to +him: + +"Do you see this, you in the black coat? You that told us the other day +you loved us, and now stand coolly there and see me taken to the black +hole to be got ready for the mad-house? D'ye hear?" + +"I hear you," replied the chaplain gravely and gently. + +"You called us your brothers, you." + +"I did, and do." + +"Well, then, here is one of your brothers being taken to hell before +your eyes. I go there a man, but I shall come out a beast, and that +cowardly murderer by your side knows it, and you have not a word to say. +That is all a poor fellow gets by being your brother. My curse on you +all! butchers and hypocrites!" + +"Give him twelve hours more for that," roared Hawes. "---- his eyes, +I'll break him, ---- him." + +"Ah," yelled the thief, "you curse me, do you? d'ye hear that? The son +of a ---- appeals to Heaven against me! What? does this lump of dirt +believe there is a God? Then there must be one." Then suddenly flinging +himself on his knees, he cried, "If there is a God who pities them that +suffer, I cry to Him on my knees to torture you as you torture us. May +your name be shame, may your life be pain, and your death loathsome! May +your skin rot from your flesh, your flesh from your bones, your bones +from your body, and your soul split forever on the rock of damnation!" + +"Take him away," yelled Hawes, white as a sheet. + +They tore him away by force, still threatening his persecutor with +outstretched hand and raging voice and blazing eyes, and flung him into +the dark dungeon. + +"Cool yourself there, ye varmint," said Fry spitefully. Even his flesh +crept at the man's blasphemies. + +Meantime, the chaplain had buried his face in his hands, and trembled +like a woman at the frightful blasphemies and passions of these two +sinners. + +"I'll make this place hell to him. He shan't need to go elsewhere," +muttered Hawes aloud between his clinched teeth. + +The chaplain groaned. + +The governor heard him and turned on him: "Well, parson, you see he +doesn't thank you for interfering between him and me. He would rather +have had an hour or two of the jacket and have done with it." + +The chaplain sighed. He felt weighed down in spirit by the wickedness +both of Hawes and of Robinson. He saw it was in vain at that moment to +try to soften the former in favor of the latter. He moved slowly away. +Hawes eyed him sneeringly. + +"He is down upon his luck," thought Hawes; "his own fault for +interfering with me. I liked the man well enough, and showed it, if he +hadn't been a fool and put his nose into my business." + +Half an hour had scarce elapsed when the chaplain came back. + +"Mr. Hawes, I come to you as a petitioner." + +"Indeed!" said Hawes, with a supercilious sneer very hard to bear. + +The other would not notice it. "Pray, do not think I side with a +refractory prisoner if I beg you, not to countermand, but to modify +Robinson's punishment." + +"What for?" + +"Because he cannot bear so many hours of the dark cell." + +"Nonsense, sir." + +"Is it too much to ask that you will give him six hours a day for four +days instead of twenty-four at a stretch?" + +"I don't know whether it is too much for you to ask. I should say by +what I see of you that nothing is; but it is too much for me to grant. +The man has earned punishment; he has got it, and you have nothing to do +with it at all." + +"Yes, I have the care of his soul, and how can I do his soul good if he +loses his reason?" + +"Stuff! his reason's safe enough, what little he has." + +"Do not say stuff! Do not be rash where the stake is so great, or +confident where you have no knowledge. You have never been in the dark +cell, Mr. Hawes; I have, and I assure you it tried my nerves to the +uttermost. I had many advantages over this poor man. I went in of my +own accord, animated by a desire of knowledge, supported by the +consciousness of right, my memory enriched by the reading of +five-and-twenty years, on which I could draw in the absence of external +objects; yet so dreadful was the place that, had I not been fortified +by communion with my omnipresent God, I do think my reason would have +suffered in that thick darkness and solitude. I repeated thousands +of lines of Homer, Virgil and the Greek dramatists; then I came to +Shakespeare, Corneille, Racine and Victor Hugo; then I tried to think of +a text and compose a sermon; but the minutes seemed hours, leaden hours, +and they weighed my head down and my heart down, and so did the Egyptian +darkness, till I sought refuge in prayer, and there I found it." + +"You pulled through it and so will he; and now I think of it, it is too +slight a punishment to give a refractory, blaspheming villain no worse +than a pious gentleman took on him for sport," sneered Hawes. "You heard +his language to me, the blaspheming dog?" + +"I did! I did! and therefore pray you to pity his sinful soul, +exasperated by the severities he has already undergone. Oh, sir! the +wicked are more to be pitied than the good; and the good can endure +trials that wreck the wicked. I would rather see a righteous man thrown +into that dismal dungeon than this poor blaspheming sinner." + +"The deuce you would!" + +"For the righteous man has a strong tower that the sinner lacks. He is +fit to battle with solitude and fearful darkness; an unseen light shines +upon his soul, an unseen hand sustains him. The darkness is no darkness +to him, for the Sun of righteousness is nigh. In the deep solitude he +is not alone, for good angels whisper by his side. 'Yea, though he walk +through the valley of the shadow of death, yet shall he fear no evil, +for God is with him; his rod and his staff they comfort him.' The +wicked have not this comfort. To them darkness and solitude must be too +horrible. Satan--not God--is their companion. The ghosts of their past +crimes rise and swell the present horror. Remorse and despair are added +to the double gloom of solitude and darkness. You don't know what you +are doing when you shut up a poor lost sinner of excitable temperament +in that dreadful hole. It is a wild experiment on a human frame. Pray be +advised, pray be warned, pray let your heart be softened and punish the +man as he deserves--but do not destroy him! oh, do not! do not destroy +him!" + +Up to this moment Hawes had worn a quiet, malicious grin. At last his +rage broke through this veil. He turned round black as night upon the +chaplain, who was bending toward him in earnest gasping yet sweet and +gentle supplication. + +"The vagabond insulted me before all my servants, and that is why you +take his part. He would send me to hell if he had the upper hand. I've +got the upper hand, and so he shall taste it instead of me, till he goes +down on his marrowbones to me with my foot on his viper's tongue. ---- +him!" + +"Oh! do not curse him, above all now that he is in trouble and +defenseless." + +"Let me alone, sir, and I'll let you," retorted Hawes savagely. "If I +curse him you can pray for him. I don't hinder you. Good-night;" and Mr. +Hawes turned his back very rudely. + +"I will pray for him--and for you!" + +"Ugh!" + +So then the chaplain retired sorrowfully to his private room, and here, +sustained no longer by action, his high-tuned nature gave way. A cold +languor came over him. He locked the door that no one might see his +weakness, and then, succumbing to nature, he fell first into a sickness +and then into a trembling, and more than once hysterical tears gushed +from his eyes in the temporary prostration of his spirit and his powers. + +Such are the great. Men know their feats but not their struggles! + +Meantime Robinson lay in the dark cell with a morsel of bread and +water, and no bed or chair, that hunger and unrest might co-operate with +darkness and solitude to his hurt. To this horrid abode it is now our +fate to follow a thief and a blasphemer. We must pass his gloomy portal, +over which might have been inscribed what Dante has written over the +gates of hell: + +"ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE--ABANDON HOPE!!" + +At six o'clock Robinson was thrust in, and his pittance of bread and +water with him; the door, which fitted like mosaic, was closed. The +steps retreated carrying away hope and human kind; there was silence, +and the man shivered in the thick black air that seemed a fluid, not an +atmosphere. + +When the door closed his heart was yet beating with rage and wild desire +of vengeance. He nursed this rage as long as he could, but the thick +darkness soon cooled him and cowed him. He sat down upon the floor, he +ate his pittance very slowly, two mouthfuls a minute. "I will be an hour +eating it," said he, "and then an hour will have passed." He thought he +was an hour eating it, but in reality he was scarce twenty minutes. The +blackness seemed to smother him. "I will shut it out," said he. He took +out his handkerchief and wrapped his head in it. "What a weak fool I +am," cried he, "when we are asleep it does not matter to us light or +dark; I will go to sleep." He lay down, his head still wrapped up, and +tried to sleep. So passed the first hour. + +Second hour. He rose from the stone floor after a vain attempt to sleep. +"Oh, no!" cried he, "sleep is for those who are well and happy, and who +could enjoy themselves as well awake; it won't come to me to save a poor +wretch from despair. I must tire myself, and I am too cold to sleep. +Here goes for a warm." He groped to the wall, and keeping his hand on +it went round and round like a caged tiger. "Hawes hopes to drive me to +Bedlam. I'll do the best I can for myself to spite him. May he lie in a +place narrower than this, and almost as dark, with his jaw down and his +toes up before the year is out, curse him!" But the poor wretch's curses +quavered away into sobs and tears. "Oh, what have I done to be used +so as I am here? They drive me to despair, then drive me to hell for +despairing. Patience, or I shall go mad. Patience! Patience!" This hour +was passed cursing and weeping and groping for warmth and fatigue--in +vain. + +Third hour. The man sat rocking himself to and fro, trying not to think +of anything. For now the past, too, was coming with all its weight upon +him; every minute he started up as if an adder had stung him; crawled +about his cell seeking refuge in motion and finding none; then he threw +himself on the floor and struggled for sleep. Sleep would not come so +sought; and now his spirits were quite cowed. He would cringe to Hawes; +he would lick the dust at his feet to get out of this horrible place; +who could he get to go and tell the governor he was _penitent_. He +listened at the door; he rapped; no one came. He put his ear to the +ground and listened; no sound--blackness, silence, solitude. "They have +left me here to die," shrieked the despairing man, and he flung himself +on the floor and writhed upon the hard stone. "It must be morning, +and no one comes near me; this is my tomb!" Fear came upon him, and +trembling and a cold sweat bedewed his limbs; and once more the past +rushed over him with tenfold force; days of happiness and comparative +innocence now forfeited forever. His whole life whirled round before +his eyes in a panorama, scene dissolving into scene with inconceivable +rapidity; thus passed more than two hours; and now remorse and memory +concentrated themselves on one dark spot in this man's history. "She is +in the tomb," cried he, "and all through me, and that is why I am here. +This is my grave. Do you see me, Mary?--she is here. The spirits of the +dead can go anywhere." Then he trembled and cried for help. Oh! for a +human voice or a human footstep!--none. His nerves and senses were now +shaken. He cried aloud most piteously for help. "Mr. Fry, Mr. Hodges, +help! help! help! The cell is full of the dead, and devils are buzzing +round me waiting to carry me away--they won't wait much longer." He +fancied something supernatural passed him like a wind. He struck wildly +at it. He flung himself madly against the door to escape it; he fell +back bruised and bleeding and lay a while in stupor. + +Sixth hour. Robinson was going mad. The blackness and solitude and +silence and remorse and despair were more than his excitable nature +could bear any longer. He prayed Hawes to come and abuse him. He prayed +Fry to bring the jacket to him. "Let me but see a man, or hear a man!" +He screamed, and cursed, and prayed, and dashed himself on the ground +and ran round the cell wounding his hands and his face. Suddenly he +turned deadly calm. He saw he was going mad--better die than so--"I +shall be a beast soon--I will die a man"--he tore down his collar--he +had on cotton stockings; he took one off--he tied it in a loose knot +round his naked throat--he took a firm hold with each hand. + +And now he was quiet and sorrowed calmly. A man to die in the prime of +life for want of a little light and a word from a human creature to keep +him from madness. + +Then as the thought returned, clinching his teeth, he gathered the ends +of the stocking and prepared with one fierce pull to save his shaken +reason and end his miserable days. Now at this awful moment, While his +hands griped convulsively the means of death, a quiet tap on the outside +of the cell door suddenly rang through the dead stillness, and a moment +after a human word forced its way into the cave of madness and death-- + +"BROTHER!" + +When this strange word pierced the thick door and came into the +hell-cave, feeble as though wafted over water from a distance, yet +distinct as a bell and bright as a sunbeam, Robinson started, and quaked +with fear and doubt. Did it come from the grave, that unearthly tone and +word? + +Still holding the ends of the stocking, he cried out wildly in a loud +but quavering voice: + +"Who--o--o calls Thomas Sinclair brother?" The distant voice rang back-- + +"Francis Eden!" + +"Ah!--where are you, Francis Eden?" + +"Here! within a hand's-breadth of you;" and Mr. Eden struck the door. +"Here!" + +"There! are you there?" and Robinson struck the door on his side. + +"Yes, here!" + +"Ha! don't go away, pray don't go away!" + +"I don't mean to. Take courage--calm your fears--a brother is close by +you!" + +"A brother!--again! now I know who it must be, but there is no telling +voices here." + +"What were you doing?" + +"What was I doing? Oh! don't ask me--I was going mad--where are you?" + +"Here!" (rap). + +"And I am here close opposite; you won't go away yet a while?" + +"Not till you bid me--compose yourself--do you hear me?--calm yourself, +compose yourself." + +"I will try, sir!--thank you, sir--I will try. What o'clock is it?" + +"Half-past twelve." + +"Night or day?" + +"Night." + +"Friday night, or Saturday?" + +"Thursday." + +"How came you to be in the prison at this hour?" + +"I was anxious about you." + +"You were what?" + +"Fearful about you." + +"What! did you give up your sleep only to see after me?" + +"Are you not glad I came?" + +"Is a shipwrecked sailor glad when a rope is flung him? I hold on to +life and reason by you!" + +"Is not this better than sleeping?--Did you speak?" + +"No! I am thinking! I am trying to make you out. Were you ever a +p----(hum)?" + +"Was I ever what? the door is so thick!" + +"Oh! nothing, sir; you seem to know what a poor fellow suffers in the +dark cell." + +"I have been in it!" + +"Whee-ugh-whee!--what a shame! what did they put you in for?" + +"They didn't put me in. I went in." + +"The devil you did!" muttered the immured. + +"What? Speak out." + +"Nothing, your reverence," bawled Robinson. "Why did you go into such a +cur--into such a hole?" + +"It was my duty to know what a fellow-creature suffers there, lest, +through inexperience, I might be cruel. Ignorance is the mother of +cruelty!" + +"I hear you, sir. + +"And cruelty is a fearful crime in His eyes, whose servant I am." + +"I am thinking, sir; I am putting two or three things together--I see--" + +"Speak more slowly and articulately." + +"I will; I see what you are now--you are a Christian." + +"I hope so!" + +"I might have guessed as much, and I did suspect it; but I couldn't +know, I had nothing to go by. I never fell in with a Christian before." + +"Where did you go to look for them?" asked Mr. Eden, his mouth +twitching. + +"I have been in many countries, and my eyes open; and I've heard and +read of Christians, and I've met hypocrites; but never met a living +Christian till to-night." Then, after a pause, "Sir, I want to apologize +to you!" + +"What for!" + +"For my ignorant and ungrateful conduct to you in my cell." + +"Let bygones be bygones!" + +"Could you forgive me, sir?" + +"You punished yourself, not me; I forgive you." + +"Thank you." + +Robinson was silent. + +After a pause Mr. Eden tapped. + +"What are you doing?" + +"I am thinking over your goodness to me." + +"Are you better now?" + +"That I am. The place was a tomb; since you came it is only a closet. I +can't see your face--I feel it, though; and your voice is music to me. +Have you nothing to say to me, sir?" + +"I have many things to say to you; but this is not the time. I want you +to sleep." + +"Why, sir?" + +"Sleep is the balm of mind and body--you need sleep." + +"And you, sir?" + +"I shall sit here." + +"You will take your death of cold." + +"No, I have my greatcoat." + +There was a long pause. + +Robinson tapped. "Sir, grant me a favor." + +"What is it?" + +"Go home to your bed." + +"What, leave you?" + +"Yes." + +"Shall you not miss me?" + +"Yes, sir, but you must go. The words you have spoken will stay with me +while you are gone." + +"I shall stay." + +"No, sir, no! I can't bear it--it isn't fair!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"It isn't fair that a gentleman like you should be kept shivering at an +unfortunate man's door like me. I am not quite good for nothing, sir, +and this will disgrace me in my own eyes." + +"I am on the best side of the door; don't trouble your head about me." + +"I shouldn't, sir, if you had not about me--but kindness begets +kindness. Go to your comfortable bed." + +Mr. Eden hesitated. + +"You will make me more unhappy than I am, if you stay here in the cold." + +Now, at the beginning of this argument Mr. Eden was determined not to +go; but on reflection he made up his mind to, for this reason: "This," +said he to himself, "is an act of uncommon virtue and self-denial in +this poor fellow. I must not balk it, for it will be good for his soul; +it is a step on the right road. This good and, I might say, noble act is +a foundation-stone on which I ought to try and build an honest man and a +Christian." + +"Well, then, as you are so considerate I will go." + +"Thank you." + +"Can I do nothing for you before I go?" + +"No, sir; you have done all a man can; yes, you can do something--you +spoke a word to me when you came; it is a word I am not worthy of, but +still if you could leave me that word it would be a companion for me." + +"Brother!" + +"Thank you." + +When he heard Mr. Eden's steps grow fainter and fainter, and at last +inaudible, Robinson groaned; the darkness turned blacker and the +solitude more desolate than ever. + +Mr. Eden paced the corridors in meditation. "It is never too late to +mend!" he said. "This man seemed an unredeemable brute, yet his heart +was to be touched by persevering kindness; and once touched, how much +of goodness left in his fallen nature--genuine gratitude, and even the +embers of self-respect. 'I hate myself for my conduct in the cell; it +would disgrace me in my own eyes if I let you shiver at my door.' Poor +fellow, my heart yearns toward him for that. 'Go, or you will make me +more unhappy.' Why, that was real delicacy. I must not let him suffer +for it. In an hour I will go back to him. If he is asleep, well and +good; if not, there I stay till morning." + +He went to his room and worked. The hour soon glided by to him; not so +to the poor prisoner. At two in the morning Mr. Eden came softly back to +the dark cell to see whether Robinson was asleep. He scratched the door +with a key. A loud, unsteady voice cried out, "What is that?" + +"It is I, brother." + +"Why are you not in your bed?" + +"I couldn't sleep for anxiety. Come, chat with me till you feel sleepy. +How did you color those cards?" + +"I found a coal and a bit of brick in the yard. I pounded them and mixed +them with water and laid them on with a brush I had made and hid." + +"Very ingenious! Are you cold?" + +"No." + +"Because your voice trembles." + +"Does it?" + +"What is the matter?" + +"Can't you guess?" + +"No! But I remember you used to tremble when I spoke to you in the +cell. Why was that? Have your nerves been shaken by ill-usage, my poor +fellow?" + +"Oh, no! it is not that." + +"Tell me, then!" + +"Oh, sir! you know all a poor fellow feels. You can guess what made me +tremble, and makes me tremble now, like an aspen I do." + +"No, indeed! pray tell me! Are we not friends?" + +"The best ever I had, or ever shall." + +"Then tell me." + +"I'll try; but it is a long story, and the door is so thick." + +"Ah! but I hear you better now. I have got used to your voice. + +"Well, sir; but I've no words to speak to you as I ought. Why did I use +to tremble when you used to speak kind to me? Sir, when I first came +here I hadn't a bad heart. I was a felon, but I was a man. They turned +me to a brute by cruelty and wrong. You came too late, sir. It wasn't +Tom Robinson you found in that cell. I had got to think all men were +devils They poisoned my soul! I hated God and man! + +"The very chaplain before you said good, kind words in church, but out +of it he was Hawes' tool! Then you came and spoke good, kind words. My +heart ran to meet them; then it drew back all shivering and said, +this is a hypocrite, too! I was a fool and a villain to think so for a +moment, and perhaps I didn't at bottom, but I was turned to gall. + +"Oh, sir! you don't know what it is to lose hope, to find out that do +what you will you can't be right, can't escape abuse and hatred and +torture. Treat a man like a dog and you make him one! + +"But you came. Your voice, your face, your eye were all pity and +kindness. I hoped, but I was afraid to hope! I had seen but two +things--butchers and hypocrites. Then I had sworn in my despair never to +speak again, and I wouldn't speak to you. Fool! How kind and patient you +were. Sir, once when you left me you sighed as you closed the cell door. +I came after you to beg your pardon, when it was too late; indeed I did, +upon my honor. And when you would rub the ointment on my throat in spite +of my ingratitude, I could have worshipped you; but my pride held me +back like an iron hand. Why did I tremble? that was the devil and my +better part fighting inside me for the upper hand. And another thing, +I did not dare speak to you. I felt that if I did I should give way +altogether, like a woman or a child. I feel so now. For, oh! can't you +guess what it must be to a poor fellow when all the rest are savage as +wolves and one is kind as a woman? Oh! you have been a friend to me. You +don't know all you have done. You have saved my life. When you came here +a stocking was knotted round my throat; a minute later the man you call +your brother--God bless you--would have been no more. There, I never +meant you should know that, and now it has slipped out. My benefactor! +my kind friend! my angel! for you are an angel and not a man. What can +I do to show you what I feel? What can I say? There, I tremble all over +now as I did then. I'm choking for words, and the cruel, thick door +keeps me from you. I want to put my neck under your foot, for I can't +speak. All I say isn't worth a button. Words! words! words! give me +words that mean something. They shan't keep me from you, they shan't! +they shan't! My stubborn heart was between us once, now there is only a +door. Give me your hand! give me your hand before my heart bursts." + +"There! there!" + +"Hold it there!" + +"Yes! yes!" + +"My lips are here close opposite it. I am kissing your dear hand. There! +there! there! I bless you! I love you! I adore you! I am kissing your +hand, and I am on my knees blessing you and kissing. Oh, my heart! my +heart! my heart!" + +There was a long silence, disturbed only by sobs that broke upon the +night from the black cell. Mr. Eden leaned against the door with his +hand in the same place; the prisoner kissed the spot from time to time. + +"Your reverence is crying, too!" was the first word spoken, very gently. + +"How do you know?" + +"You don't speak, and my heart tells me you are shedding a tear for me; +there was only that left to do for me." + +Then there was another silence, and true it was that the good man and +the bad man mingled some tears through the massy door. These two hearts +pierced it, and went to and fro through it, and melted in spite of it, +and defied and utterly defeated it. + +"Did you speak, dear sir?" + +"No! not for the world! Weep on, my poor sinning, suffering brother. +Heaven sends you this blessed rain; let it drop quietly on your parched +soul, refresh you, and shed peace on your troubled heart. Drop, gentle +dew from heaven, upon his spirit; prepare the dry soul for the good +seed!" + +And so the bad man wept abundantly; to him old long-dried sources of +tender feeling were now unlocked by Christian love and pity. + +The good man shed a gentle tear or two of sympathy--of sorrow, too, to +find so much goodness had been shut up, driven in and wellnigh quenched +forever in the poor thief. + +To both these holy drops were as the dew of Hermon on their souls. + + O lacryrnarum fons tenero sacros + Ducentium ortus ex animo; quater + Felix in imo qui scatentem + Pectore te pia Nynmpha sensit. + +Robinson was the first to break silence. + +"Go home, sir, now; you have done your work, you have saved me. I feel +at peace. I could sleep. You need not fear to leave me now." + +"I shall sit here until you are asleep, and then I will go. Do you hear +this?" and he scratched the door with his key. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, when I do so and you do not tap in reply I shall know you are +asleep." + +Robinson, whose heart was now so calmed, felt his eyes get heavier and +heavier. After a while he spoke to Mr. Eden but received no reply. + +"Perhaps he is dozing," thought Robinson. "I won't disturb him." + +Then he composed himself, lying close to the door to be near his friend. + +After a while Mr. Eden scratched the door with his key. There was no +answer; then he rose softly and went to his own room. + +Robinson slept--slept like an infant after this feverish day. His body +lay still in a hole dark and almost as narrow as the grave, but his +spirit had broken prison. Tired nature's sweet restorer descended like +a dove upon his wet eyelids, and fanned him with her downy wings, and +bedewed the hot heart and smarting limbs with her soothing, vivifying +balm. + +At six o'clock Evans went and opened Robinson's cell door. He was on the +ground sleeping, with a placid smile on his face. Evans looked down at +him with a puzzled air. While contemplating him he was joined by Fry. + +"Ugh!" grunted that worthy, "seems to agree with him." And he went off +and told Hawes. + +Directly after chapel, which he was not allowed to attend, came an order +to take Robinson out of the dark cell and put him on the crank. + +The disciplinarian, defeated in his attempt on Robinson, was compensated +by a rare stroke of good fortune--a case of real refractoriness even +this was not perfect, but it answered every purpose. + +In one of the labor cells they found a prisoner seated with the utmost +coolness across the handle of his crank. He welcomed his visitants with +a smile, and volunteered a piece of information--"It is all right." + +Now it couldn't be all right, for it was impossible he could have done +his work in the time. Hawes looked at the face of the crank to see +how much had been done, and lo! the face was broken and the index had +disappeared. As Mr. Hawes examined the face of the crank, the prisoner +leered at him with a mighty silly cunning. + +This personage's name was Carter; it may be as well to explain him. Go +into any large English jail on any day in any year you like, you shall +find there two or three prisoners who have no business to be in such a +place at all--half-witted, half-responsible creatures, missent to jail +by shallow judges contentedly executing those shallow laws they ought to +modify and stigmatize until civilization shall come and correct them. + +These imbeciles, if the nation itself was not both half-witted and a +thoughtless, ignorant dunce in all matters relating to such a trifle +(Heaven forgive us!) as its prisons, would be taken to the light not +plunged into darkness; would not be shut up alone with their no-minds to +accumulate the stupidity that has undone them, but forced into collision +with better understandings; would not be closeted in a jail, but in a +mild asylum with a school attached. + +The offenses of these creatures is seldom theft, hardly ever violence. +This idiot was sentenced to two years' separate confinement for being +the handle with which two knaves had passed base coin. The same day the +same tribunal sentenced a scoundrel who was not an idiot, and had +beaten and kicked his wife to the edge of the grave--to fourteen years' +imprisonment? no--to four months. + + +Mr. Carter had observed that Fry looked at a long iron needle on the +face of the crank and that when he had been lazy somehow this needle +pointed out the fact to Fry. He could not understand it, but then the +world was brimful of things he could not understand one bit. It was no +use standing idle till he could comprehend rerum naturam--bother it. +In short, Mr. Carter did what is a dangerous thing for people in his +condition to do, he cogitated, and the result of this unfamiliar process +was that he broke the glass of the crank face, took out the index, shied +the pieces of glass carefully over the wall, secreted the needle, took +about ten turns of the crank, and then left off and sat down, exulting +secretly. + +When they came, as usual, and went to consult the accusing needle, he +chuckled and leered with foolish cunning. But his chuckle died away +into a most doleful quaver when he found himself surrounded, jacketed, +strapped and collared. He struggled furiously at first, like some wild +animal in a net; and when resistance was hopeless the poor, half-witted +creature lifted up his voice and uttered loud, wild-beast cries of pain +and terror that rang through the vast prison. + +These horrible cries brought all the warders to the spot, and Mr. Eden. +There he found Carter howling, and Hawes in front of him, cursing and +threatening him with destruction if he did not hold his noise. + +He might as well have suspended a dog from a branch by the hind leg and +told him he mustn't howl. + +This sight drove a knife through Mr. Eden's heart. He stood among them +white as a sheet. He could not speak; but his pale face was a silent +protest against this enormity. His look of horror and righteous +indignation chilled and made uneasy the inquisitors, all but Hawes. + +"Hold your noise, ye howling brute, or I'll"--and he clapped his hand +before Carter's mouth. + +Carter seized his thumb with his teeth and bit it to the bone. Hawes +yelled with pain and strove furiously to get his hand away, but Carter +held it like a tiger. Hawes capered with agony and yelled again. The +first to come to his relief was Mr. Eden. He was at the biped's side in +a moment, and pinched his nose. Now, as his lungs were puffing like +a blacksmith's bellows, his mouth flew open the moment the other +breathing-hole was stopped, and Hawes got his bleeding hand away. + +He held it with the other and shook it, and moaned dismally, like a +great girl; but suddenly looking up he saw a half grin upon the faces of +his myrmidons. + +For the contrast of a man telling another who was in pain not to make a +row, and the next moment making an abominable row himself for no better +reason, was funny. + +For all this occurred ten times quicker in action than in relation. + +Mr. Hawes's conversion to noise came rapidly in a single sentence, after +this fashion: + +"---- you! hold your infernal noise. Oh! Augh! Ah! E E! E E! Aah! Oh! +Oh!; E E!E E! O O!O O! O O! O O! O O!O O!" + +So Fry and Hodges and Evans and Davis grinned. + +For all these men had learned from Hawes to laugh at pain--(another's). +One man alone did not even smile. He was an observer, and did not expect +any one to be great at bearing pain who was rash in inflicting it; +moreover, he suffered with all who suffer. He was sorry for the +pilloried biped, and sorry for the bitten brute. + +He then gave them another lesson. "All you want the poor thing to do +is to suffer in silence. Withdraw twenty yards from him." He set the +example by retreating; the others, Hawes included, being off their +guard, obeyed mechanically the superior spirit. + +Carter's cries died away into a whimpering moan. The turnkeys looked at +one another, and with a sort of commencement of respect at Mr. Eden. + +"Parson knows more than we do." + +Hawes interrupted this savagely. + +"Ye fools! couldn't you see it was the sight of your ugly faces made him +roar, not the jacket? Keep him there till further orders;" and he went +off to plaster his wounded hand. + +Mr. Eden sat down and covered his face. He was as miserable as this vile +world can make a man who lives for a better. The good work he was upon +was so difficult in itself, and those who ought to have helped fought +against him. + +When with intelligence, pain and labor he had built up a little good, +Hawes was sure to come and knock it down again; and this was the way to +break his heart. + +He had been taking such pains with this poor biped; he had played +round his feeble understanding to find by what door a little wisdom and +goodness could be made to enter him. At last he had found that pictures +pleased him and excited him, and awakened all the intelligence he had. + +Mr. Eden had a vast collection of engravings and photographs. His +plan with Carter was to show him some engraving presenting a fact or +anecdote. First he would put under his eyes a cruel or unjust action. +He would point out the signs of suffering in one of the figures. Carter +would understand this because he saw it. Then Mr. Eden would excite his +sympathy. "Poor so and so!" would Mr. Eden say in a pitying voice. "Poor +so and so!" would biped Carter echo. After several easy lessons he would +find him a picture of some more moderate injustice, and so raise the +shadow of a difficulty and draw a little upon Carter's understanding as +well as sympathy. Then would come pictures of charity, of benevolence +and other good actions. These and their effects upon the several figures +Carter was invited to admire, and so on to a score of topics. The +first thing was to make Carter think and talk, which he did in the +happy-go-lucky way of his class, uttering nine mighty simple remarks, +and then a bit of superlative wisdom, or something that sounded like it. +And when he had shot his random bolts, Mr. Eden would begin and treat +each picture as a text, and utter much wisdom on it in simple words. + +He found Carter's mind in a state of actual lethargy. He got it out of +that; he created an excitement and kept it up. He got at his little bit +of mind through his senses. Honor to all the great arts! The limit to +their beauty and their usefulness has never yet been found and never +will. Painting was the golden key this thinker held to the Bramah lock +of an imbecile's understanding the ponderous wards were beginning to +revolve--when a blockhead came and did his best to hamper the lock. + +In English, Eden was gradually making the biped a man: comes Hawes +and turns him a brute. The whimpering moans of Carter were thoroughly +animal, and the poor biped's degradation as well as his suffering made +Mr. Eden wretched. + +To-day for the first time the chaplain saw a prisoner crucified without +suffering that peculiar physical weakness which I have more than once +noticed. Poor soul, he was so pleased at this that he thanked Heaven for +curing him of that contemptible infirmity, so he called it. But he +had to pay for this victory. He never felt so sick at heart as now. He +turned for relief to the duties he had in his zeal added to a chaplain's +acknowledged routine. He visited his rooms and all his rational +work-people. + +The sight of all the good he was doing by teaching the sweets of +anti-theft was always a cordial to him. + +Almost the last cell he visited was Thomas Robinson's. The man had been +fretting and worrying himself to know why he did not come before. As +soon as the door was opened he took an eager step to meet him, then +stopped irresolutely, and blushed and beamed with pleasure mixed with a +certain confusion. He looked volumes but waited out of respect for his +reverence to address him. + +Mr. Eden held out his hand to him with a frank manner and kind smile. At +this Robinson tried to speak but could only stammer; something seemed to +rise in his throat and block up the exit of words. + +"Come," said Mr. Eden, "no more of that; be composed, and I will sit +down, for I am tired." + +Robinson brought him his stool, and Mr. Eden sat down. + +They conversed, and after some kind inquiries, Mr. Eden came to the +grand purport of this visit, which, to the surprise and annoyance of +Robinson, was to reprobate severely the curses and blasphemies he had +uttered as they were dragging him to the dark cell. And so threatening +and severe was Mr. Eden, that at last poor Robinson whined out: + +"Sir, you will make me wish I was in the dark cell again, for then you +took my part; now you are against me." + +"There is a time for everything under the sun. When you were in the dark +cell, consolation and indulgence were the best things for your soul, and +I gave them you as well as I could. You are not in the dark cell now, +and, out of the same love for you, I tell you that if God took you +this night the curses you uttered yesterday would destroy you to all +eternity." + +"I hope not, your reverence!" + +"Away with delusive hopes, they war against the soul. I tell you those +curses that came from a tongue set on fire of hell have placed you under +the ban of Heaven. Are you not this Hawes's brother, his brother every +way--two unforgiven sinners?" + +"Yes, sir," said Robinson, truckling, "of course I know I am a great +sinner, a desperate sinner, not worthy to be in your reverence's +company. But I hope," he added, with sudden sincerity and spirit, "you +don't think I am such an out-and-out scoundrel as that Hawes." + +"Mr. Hawes would tell me you are the scoundrel and he a zealous servant +of morality and order; but these comparisons are out of place. I am now +deferring not to the world's judgment but to a higher, in whose eye Mr. +Hawes and you stand on a level--two unforgiven sinners; if not forgiven +you will both perish everlastingly, and to be forgiven you must forgive. +God is very forgiving--He forgives the best of us a thousand vile +offenses. But He never forgives unconditionally. His terms are our +repentance and our forgiveness of those who offend us one-millionth part +as deeply as we offend Him. Therefore in praying against Hawes you +have prayed against yourself. Give me your slate. No; take it yourself. +Write--" + +Robinson took his pencil with alacrity. He wrote a beautiful hand, and +wanted to show off this accomplishment to his reverence. + +"Forgive us our sins as we forgive them that trespass against us.'" + +"It is down, sir." + +"Now particularize." + +"Particularize, your reverence?" + +"Write under 'us' 'our' and 'we,' 'me',' my' and 'I'; respectively." + +"All right, sir." + +"Now under 'them' write 'Mr. Hawes.'" + +"Ugh! Yes, your reverence, 'Mr. Hawes.'" + +"And under the last four words write, 'his cruelty to me.'" + +This was wormwood to Mr. Robinson. "'His cruelty to me!'" + +"Now read your work out." + +"'Forgive me my sins as I forgive Mr. Hawes his cruelty to me.'" + +"Now ponder over those words. Keep them before your eye here, and try at +least and bow your stubborn heart to them. Fall on them and be broken, +or they will fall on you and grind you to powder." He concluded in a +terrible tone; then, seeing Robinson abashed, more from a notion he was +in a rage with him than from any deeper sentiment, he bade him farewell +kindly as ever. + +"I know," said he, "I have given you a hard task. We can all gabble the +Lord's Prayer, but how few have ever prayed it! But at least try, my +poor soul, and I will set you an example. I will pray for my brother +Robinson and my brother Hawes, and I shall pray for them all the more +warmly that at present one is a blaspheming thief and the other a +pitiless blockhead." + +The next day being Sunday, Mr. Eden preached two sermons that many will +remember all their lives. The first was against theft and all the shades +of dishonesty. I give a few of his topics. The dry bones he covered with +flesh and blood and beauty. The tendency of theft was to destroy all +moral and social good. For were it once to prevail so far as to make +property insecure, industry would lose heart, enterprise and frugality +be crushed, and at last the honest turn thieves in self-defense. Nearly +every act of theft had a baneful influence on the person robbed. + +Here he quoted by name instances of industrious, frugal persons, whose +savings having been stolen, they had lost courage and good habits of +years' standing, and had ended ill. Then he gave them a simile. These +great crimes are like great trunk railways. They create many smaller +ones. Some flow into them, some out of them. Drunkenness generally +precedes an act of theft; drunkenness always follows it; lies flow from +it in streams, and perjury rushes to its defense. + +It breeds, too, other vices that punish it, but never cure +it--prodigality and general loose living. The thief is never the richer +by this vile act which impoverishes his victim; for the money obtained +by this crime is wasted in others. The folly of theft; its ill economy. +What high qualities are laid out to their greatest disadvantage by the +thief; acuteness, watchfulness, sagacity, determination, tact. These +virtues, coupled with integrity, enrich thousands every year. How many +thieves do they enrich? How many thieves are a shilling a year the +better for the hundreds of pounds that come dishonestly into their +hands. + +"In ---- Jail (Mr. Lepel's), there is now a family that have stolen, +first and last, property worth eighteen thousand pounds. The entire +possessions of this family are now two pair of shoes. The clothes they +stand in belong to Government; their own had to be burned, so foul were +they. Eighteen thousand pounds had they stolen--to be beggars; and this +is the rule, not the exception, as you all know. Why is this your fate +and your end? Because a mightier power than man's has determined that +thieving shall not thrive. The curse of God is upon theft!" + +Then came life-like pictures of the honest man and the thief. The +one with an eye that faced you, with a conscious dignity and often +a cheerful countenance; the other with a shrinking eye, a conscious +meanness, and never with a smile from the heart; sordid, sly and +unhappy--for theft is misery. No wonder this crime degrades a man when +it degrades the very animals; Look at a dog who has stolen. Before this, +when he met his master or any human friend he used to run up to greet +them with wagging tail and sparkling eye. Now see him. At sight of any +man he crawls meanly away, with cowering figure and eye askant, the +living image of the filthy sin he has committed. He feels he has no +longer a right to greet a man, for he is a thief. + +And here the preacher gathered images, facts and satire, and hurled a +crushing hailstorm of scorn upon the sordid sin. Then he attacked the +present situation (his invariable custom). + +"Not all the inmates of a jail were equally guilty on their arrival +there. A large proportion of felons were orphans or illegitimate +children; others, still more unfortunate, were the children of criminals +who had taught them crime from their cradles. Great excuses were to +be made for the general mass of criminals; excuses that the ignorant, +shallow world could not be expected to make; but the balance of the +Sanctuary is not like the world's clumsy balance; it weighs all men to +a hair. Excuses will be made for many of you in heaven up to a certain +point. And what is that point? The day of your entrance into prison. But +now plead no more the ill example of parents and friends, for here you +are cut off from it. + +"Plead no more that you cannot read, for here you have been taught to +read. + +"Plead no more the dreadful power of vicious habits that began when +you were unguarded, for those habits have now been cut away from you by +force and better habits substituted. + +"Plead no more ignorance of God's Word, for here day by day it is poured +into your ears. + +"Your situation has other less obvious advantages. Here you are little +exposed to the soul's most dangerous enemy--self-deception. The world +destroys thousands of sinners by flattery. Half the great sinners upon +earth are what is called respectable. The world tells them they are +good--they believe it, and so die as they have lived, and are lost +eternally. The world, intending to be more unkind to you, is far more +kind; it tells _you_ the truth--that you are desperate sinners. +Here, then, where everything opens your eyes, oh! fight not against +yourselves. Repent, or fearful will be the fresh guilt heaped upon +your heads! Even these words of mine must do you good or do you harm. I +tremble when I tell you so. It is an awful thing to think." The preacher +paused. "You know that I love you--that I would give my life to save +one soul of all those I see before me now! Have pity on me and on +yourselves! Let me not be so unfortunate as to add to your guilt--I, +whose heart yearns to do you good! Oh, my poor brothers and sisters, do +not pity yourselves so much less than I pity you--do not love yourselves +so much less than I love you! Why will ye die! Repent, and be forgiven! + +"Some of you profess attachment to me--some talk of gratitude. There are +some of my poor brothers and sisters in this jail that say to me, 'Oh, I +wish I could do something for you, sir!' Perhaps you have noticed that I +have never answered these professions. Well, I will answer them now once +for all." + +While the preacher paused there was a movement observed among the +prisoners. + +"Would you make me very--very sad? Remain impenitent! Would you make me +happy? Repent, and turn to God! Not to-morrow, or next day, but on your +knees in your own cells the moment you go hence. You don't know, you +can't dream what happiness you will confer on me if you do this!" + +Then, suddenly opening his arms with wonderful grace and warmth and +energy, he cried, "My poor wandering sheep, come--come to the heavenly +fold! Let me gather you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing. +You are my anxiety, my terror--be my joy, my consolation here, and +hereafter the brightest jewels in my heavenly crown." + +In this strain he soared higher than my poor earth-clogged wings can +follow him. He had lashed sin severely, so he had earned a right to show +his love for the sinner. Gracious words of entreaty and encouragement +gushed from him in a crystal stream with looks and tones of more +than mortal charity. Men might well doubt was this a man, or was it +Christianity speaking? Christianity, born in a stable, was she there, +illuminating a jail? For now for a moment or two the sacred orator +was more than mortal; so high above earth was his theme, so great his +swelling words. He rose, he dilated to heroic size, he flamed with +sacred fire. His face shone like an angel's, and no silver trumpet or +deep-toned organ could compare with his thundering, pealing, melting +voice, that poured the soul of love and charity and heaven upon friend +and foe. Then seemed it as though a sudden blaze of music and light +broke into that dark abode. Each sinful form stretched wildly forth to +meet them--each ear hung aching on them--each glistening eye lived on +them, and every heart panted and quivered as this great Christian swept +his immortal harp--among thieves and homicides and oppressors--in that +sad house of God. + + +"What did you think of the sermon, Fry?" + +Fry. Liked the first part, sir, where he walked into thieving. Don't +like his telling 'em he loves 'em. 'Tisn't to be supposed a gentleman +could really love such rubbish as that. Sounds like palaver. + +Hawes. Now I liked it all, though it spoiled my nap. + +Fry. Well, sir, it is very good of you to like it, for I don't think you +like the man. + +Hawes. The man is all very well in his place. He ought to be bottled up +in one of the dark cells all the week, and then brought up and uncorked +in chapel o' Sundays. It is as good as a romance is a sermon of his. + +Fry. That it is, sir. Comes next after the Newgate Calendar, don't it +now? But there's one thing about all his sermons I can't get over. + +Hawes. And what is that? + +Fry. Preaches at 'em so. + +Hawes. Why, ye fool, that is the beauty of him. How is he to hit 'em if +he doesn't hit at 'em? + +Fry. Mr. Jones usen't. + +Hawes. Oh, Jones! He shot his arrow up in the air and let it fall +wherever the wind chose to blow it, and then, if it came down on the +wrong man's head he'd say, never mind, my boy, accident!--pure accident! +No! give me a chap that hits out straight from the shoulder. Can't you +see this is worth a hundred Joneses beating about the bush and droning +us all asleep. + +Fry. So he is, sir. So he is. But then I think he didn't ought to be +quite so personal. Fancy his requesting such a lot as ours to repent +their sins and go to heaven just to oblige him. There's a inducement! I +call that himper dig from the pulpit. + +"What d'ye call it?" growled Hawes snappishly. + +"Himper dig!" replied Fry stoutly. + +In the afternoon Mr. Eden preached against cruelty. + +"No crime is so thoroughly without excuse as this. Other crimes have +sometimes an adequate temptation, this never. The path to other crimes +is down-hill; to cruelty is up-hill. In the very act, Nature, who is on +the side of some crimes, cries out within us against this monstrous sin. +The blood of our victim flowing from our blows, its groans and sighs and +pallor, stay the uplifted arm and appeal to the furious heart. Wonderful +they should ever appeal in vain. Cruelty is not one of our pleasant +vices, and the opposite virtues are a garden of delights: 'Mercy is +twice blessed, it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.' God has +written His abhorrence of this monstrous sin in letters of fire and +blood on every page of history." + +Here he ransacked history, and gave them some thirty remarkable +instances of human cruelty, and of its being punished in kind so +strangely, and with such an exactness of retribution, that the finger of +God seemed visible writing on the world--"God hates cruelty." + +At the end of his examples he instanced two that happened under his own +eye--a favorite custom of this preacher. + +"A man was tried in London for cruelty to animals; he was acquitted by a +legal flaw, though the evidence was clear against him. This man returned +homeward triumphant. The train in which he sat was drawn up by the side +of a station. An express-train passed on the up-line at full speed. +At the moment of passing the fly-wheel of the engine broke; a large +fragment was driven into the air and fell upon the stationary train. It +burst through one of the carriages and killed a man upon the spot. +That man was seated between two other men, neither of whom received +the slightest injury. The man so singled out was the cruel man who had +evaded man's justice, but could not escape His hand who created the +beasts as well as man, and who abhors all men who are cruel to any +creature He has formed. + +"A man and his wife conspired to rob and murder their friend and +constant guest. Determined to escape detection, they coldly prepared for +the deed of blood. Long before the murder they dug a hole in the passage +leading from their parlor to their dining-room, and this hole was +to receive the corpse of the man with whom meantime these heartless +wretches eat bread day after day and drank his health at their own +board. Several times the unfortunate man walked with his host and +hostess over this concealed hole, his destined tomb, before the time +came to sacrifice him. At last they murdered him and buried him in +the grave they had prepared for him. The deed done, spite of all their +precaution fear fell on them and hatred, and they fled from the house +where the corpse was and from each other, one to the north, one to the +south. Fled they ever so fast, or so far apart, justice followed to +the north, justice followed to the south, and dragged the miscreants +together again and flung them into one prison. They were convicted and +condemned to death. There came a fatal morning to this guilty pair, when +the sun rose upon them and found them full of health and strength, yet +in one short hour they must be dead. They were taken into the prison +chapel according to custom, and from the chapel they must pass at once +to the gallows. Now it so happened that the direct path from the chapel +to the gallows was blocked up by some repairs that were going on in the +prison, so the condemned were obliged to make a long circuit. It was +one of the largest of our old prisons, a huge, irregular building, +constructed with no simplicity of design, and one set of officers did +not always know at once what was going on in a distant department. Hence +it befell that in a certain passage of the jail the condemned and their +attendants came suddenly upon a new-made grave! Stones had been taken +up, and a grave dug in this passage. The workmen had but just completed +it. The grave filled up the passage, which was narrow and but little +used. The men who accompanied the murderers paused, abashed and chilled. +The murderers paused and looked at one another; no words can describe +that look! Planks were put down, and they walked over their own grave +to their death. Is there a skeptic who tells me this was chance? Then +I tell him he is a credulous fool to believe that chance can imitate +omniscience, omnipotence and holiness so inimitably. In this astounding +fact of exact retribution I see nothing that resembles chance. I see the +arm of God and the finger of God. His arm dragged the murderers to the +gallows, His finger thrust the heartless, cruel miscreants across the +grave that was yawning for their doomed bodies! Tremble, ye cruel, God +hates ye! Men speak of a murder--and sometimes, by way of distinction, +they say 'a cruel murder.' See, now, what a crime cruelty must be, since +it can aggravate murder, the crime before which all other sins dwindle +into nothing." + +Of minor cruelties that do not attack life itself the most horrible he +thought was cruelty to women. Here the man must trample on every manly +feeling, on the instinct and the traditions of sex, on the opinion of +mankind, on the generosity that goes with superior strength and courage. +A man who is cruel to a woman is called a brute, but if the brutes could +speak they would appeal against this phrase as unjust to them. What +animal but man did you ever see maltreat a female of his species? The +brutes are not such beasts as bad, cruel men are. Or if you ever saw +such a monstrosity the animal that did it was some notorious coward, +such as the deer, which I believe is now and then guilty in a trifling +degree of this dirty sin, being a rank coward. But who ever saw a lion +or a dog or any courageous animal let himself down to the level of a +cowardly man so far as this? + +Here sprang from his lips a true and tender picture of a wife. The +narrow and virtuous circle of her joys, her many sufferings, great and +little--no need of being cruel to her; she must suffer so much without +that. The claims to pity and uncommon consideration every woman builds +up during a few years of marriage! Her inestimable value in the house! +How true to the hearth she is unless her husband corrupts her or drives +her to despair! How often she is good in spite of his example! How +rarely she is evil but by his example! God made her weaker that man +might have the honest satisfaction and superior joy of protecting and +supporting her. To torture her with the strength so intrusted him for +her good is to rebel against heaven's design--it is to be a monster, a +coward, and a fool! + +"There was one more kind of cruelty it was his duty to touch upon--harsh +treatment of those unhappy persons to whom it has not pleased God to +give a full measure of reason. + +"This is a sacred calamity to which the intelligent and the good in all +ages and places have been tender and pitiful. In some countries these +unfortunates are venerated, and being little able to guard themselves +are held to be under Heaven's especial protection. This is a beautiful +belief and honors our fallen nature. Yet in Christian England, I grieve +and blush to say, cruelty often falls on their unprotected heads. Who +has not seen the village boys follow and mock these afflicted persons? +Youth is cruel because the great parent of cruelty is general ignorance +and inexperience of the class of suffering we inflict. Men who have come +to their full reason have not this excuse. What! persecute those whom +God hath smitten, but whom He still loves, and will take vengeance on +all who maltreat them. On such and on all of you who are cruel, shame +and contempt will fall sooner or later even in this world, and at that +solemn day when the cruel and their victims shall meet the Judge of the +quick and the dead, He on whose mercy hangs your eternal fate will say +to you, 'Have ye shown mercy?' Oh! these words will crush your souls. +Madmen! know ye not that the most righteous man on earth can only be +saved by God's mercy, not by His justice? Would you forfeit all hope, +all chance, all possibility of that mercy, by merciless cruelty to your +brothers and sisters of the race of Adam? Does the day of judgment seem +to you uncertain or so distant that you dare be cruel here during the +few brief days you have to prepare yourself for eternity? If you are +under this delusion here I tear it from your souls. That day is at hand, +at the door." + +Then, in a moment, by the magic of eloquence, the great day of +retribution was no longer faint and distant, but upon them in all its +terrors; and they who in the morning had leaned forward eagerly to catch +the message of mercy now shrank and cowered from the thunder that pealed +over their heads, and the lightning of awful words that showed them by +flashes the earth quaking and casting forth her dead--the sea trembling +and casting forth her dead--the terrible trumpet pealing from pole to +pole-the books opened--the dread Judge seated--and hell yawning for the +guilty. + + +"Well, sir, how did you like this sermon?" said Fry, respectfully. + +"He won't preach many more such, (imperative mood) him. I'll teach him +to preach at people from the pulpit." + +"Well, that is what I say, sir, but you said you liked to hear him +preach at folk." + +"So I do," replied Hawes angrily, "but not at me, ye fool!" + +This afternoon two of the prisoners rang their bells, and on the warder +coming to them begged in much agitation to see the chaplain. Mr. Eden +was always at the prisoners' orders and came to both of these; one was +a man about thirty, the other a mere boy. The same evening Mr. Hawes +sat down, his features working wrathfully, and dispatched a note to Mr. +Locock, one of the visiting justices and a particular admirer of his. + +Meeting Mr. Eden in the prison, he did not return that gentleman's +salute. This was his way of implying war; events were thickening, a +storm was brewing. This same evening there was a tap at Mr. Eden's +private door and Evans entered the room. The man's manner was peculiar. +He wore outside a dogged look, as if fighting against some inward +feeling; he entered looking down most perniciously at the floor. "Well, +Evans?" + +Evans approached, his eyes still glued upon the floor. He shoved a +printed paper roughly into Mr. Eden's hand, and said in a tone of sulky +reproach, "Saw ye fret because ye could not get it, and couldn't bear to +see ye fret." + +"Thank you, Evans, thank you!" + +"You are very welcome, sir," said Evans, with momentary deference and +kindness. Then turning suddenly at the door in great wrath, with a +tendency to whimper, he roared out, "Ye'll get me turned out of my +place, that's what ye'll do!" and went off apparently in tremendous +dudgeon. The printed paper contained "the rules of the prison," a copy +of which Mr. Eden had asked from Hawes and been refused. Evans had +watched his opportunity, got them from another warder in return for two +glasses of grog outside the jail. + +Mr. Eden fell to and studied the paper carefully till bed-time. As he +read it his eye more than once flashed with satisfaction in spite of a +great despondency that had now for a day or two been creeping upon him. + +This depression dated from biped Carter's crucifixion or soon after. He +struggled gallantly against it; it appeared in none of his public acts. +But when alone his heart seemed to have turned to lead. A cold, languid +hopelessness most foreign to his high, sanguine nature weighed him to +the earth, and the Dead Sea rolled over his spirit. + +Earnest Mr. Hawes hated good Mr. Eden; one comfort, by means of his +influence with the justices he could get him turned out of the +prison. Meantime what could he do to spite him? Begin by punishing +a prisoner--that is the only thing that stings him. With these good +intentions earnest Hawes turned out and looked about for a prisoner to +punish; unfortunately for poor Josephs the governor's eye fell upon +him as he came out of the chapel. The next minute he was put on a stiff +crank, which led in due course to the pillory. When he had been in +about an hour and a half, Hawes winked to Fry, and said to him under his +breath, "Let the parson know." + +Fry strolled into the prison. He met Mr. Eden at a cell door. "Josephs +refractory again, sir," said he, with mock civility. + +Mr. Eden looked him in the face, but said nothing. He went to his own +room, took a paper off the table, and came into the yard. Josephs was +beginning to sham and a bucket had just been thrown over him amid the +coarse laughter of Messrs. Fry, Hodges and Hawes. Evans, who happened to +be in attendance, stood aloof with his eyes fixed on the ground. + +As soon as he saw Mr. Eden coming Hawes gave a vindictive chuckle. + +"Another bucket," cried he, and taking it himself, he contrived to +sprinkle Mr. Eden as well as to sluice his immediate victim. + +Mr. Eden took no notice of this impertinence, but to the surprise of all +there he strode between the victim and his tormentors, and said sternly, +"Do you know that you are committing an illegal assault upon this +prisoner?' + +"No, I don't," said Hawes, with a cold sneer. + +"Then I shall show you. Here are the printed rules of the prison; you +have no authority over a prisoner but what these rules give you. Now +show me where they permit you to pillory a prisoner?" + +"They don't forbid it, that is enough." + +"No! it is not. They don't forbid you to hang him, or to sear him with +a hot iron, but they tell you in this paragraph what punishments you may +inflict, and that excludes all punishments of your own invention. You +may neither hang him nor burn him nor famish him nor crucify him, all +these acts are equally illegal. So take warning, all of you here--you +are all servants of the law--don't let me catch you assaulting a +prisoner contrary to the law, or you shall smart to the uttermost. +Evans, I command you, in the name of the law, release that prisoner." + +Evans, thus appealed to, fidgeted and turned color, and his hands worked +by his side. "Your reverence!" cried he, in an imploring tone, and +stayed where he was. On this Mr. Eden made no more ado, but darted to +Josephs' side and began to unfasten him with nimble fingers. + +Hawes stood dumfounded for a minute or two, then recovering himself he +roared out: + +"Officers, do your duty!" + +Fry and Hodges advanced upon Mr. Eden, but before they could get at him +the huge body of Evans interposed itself. The man was pale but doggedly +resolved. + +"Mustn't lay a finger on his reverence," said he, almost in a whisper, +but between his clinched teeth and with the look of a bulldog over a +bone. + +"What, do you rebel against me, Evans?" + +"No, sir," answered Evans softening his tone, "but nobody must affront +his reverence. Look here, sir, his reverence knows a great deal more +than I do, and he says this is against the law. He showed you the Act, +and you couldn't answer him except by violence, which ain't no answer at +all. Now I am the servant of the law, and I know better than go against +the law." + +"There, I want no more of your chat. Loose the prisoner." + +"Seems to me he is loosed," said Fry. + +"Go to the 5-lb. crank, Josephs, and let me see how much you can do in +half an hour." + +"That I will, your reverence," and off he ran. + +"Now, sir," said Hawes sternly, "I put up with this now because it must +end next week. I have written to the visiting justices, and they will +settle whether you are to be master in the jail or I." + +"Neither, Mr. Hawes. The law shall be your master and mine." + +"Very good! but there's a hole in your coat; for, as clever as you are, +every jail has its customs as well as its rules." + +"Which customs, if illegal, are abuses, and shall be swept out of it." + +"I'll promise you one thing--the justices shall sweep you out of the +jail." + +"How can you promise that?" + +"Because they only see with my eyes, and, hear with my ears; they would +do a great deal more for me than kick out a refractory chaplain." + +Mr. Eden's eye flashed, he took out his note-book. + +"Present Fry, Hodges, Evans. Mr. Hawes asserts that the visiting +justices see only with his eyes and hear with his ears." + +Hawes laughed insolently, but a little uneasily. + +"In spite of your statement that the magistrates are unworthy of their +office, I venture to hope, for the credit of the county, there will not +be found three magistrates to countenance your illegal cruelties. But +should there be--" + +"Ay; what then?" + +"I shall go higher and appeal to the Home Secretary." + +"Ha! ha! He won't take any notice of you." + +"Then I shall appeal to the sovereign." + +"And if she takes you for a madman?" + +"I shall appeal to the people. Oh! Mr. Hawes, I give you my honor this +great question whether or not the law can penetrate a prison shall +be sifted to the bottom. Pending my appeals to the Home Office, +the sovereign and the people, I have placed a thousand pounds in my +solicitor's hands--" + +"A thousand pounds! have you, sir? What for, if I am not too curious?" + +"For this, sir. Each prisoner whom you have pilloried and starved and +assaulted contrary to law shall bring an action of assault against you +the moment he leaves prison. He shall have counsel, and the turnkeys and +myself shall be subpoenaed as evidence. When once we get you into court +you will find that a prison is the stronghold of law, not a den of +lawlessness." + +He then turned sharp on the warders. + +"I warn you against all your illegal practices. Mr. Hawes's orders shall +neither excuse nor protect you. You owe your first obedience to the +crown and the law. Here are your powers and your duties; you can all +read. Here it is ruled that a prisoner shall receive four visits a day +from the governor, chaplain and two turnkeys; these four visits are to +keep the man from breaking down under the separate and silent system. +You have all been breaking this rule, but you shall not. I shall +report you Evans, you Fry, and you Hodges, and you Mr. Hawes, to the +authorities, if after this warning you leave a single prisoner unvisited +and unspoken with." + +"Have you done preaching, parson?" + +"Not quite, jailer." + +He tapped the printed paper. + +"Here is a distinct order that sick prisoners shall be taken out of +their cells into the infirmary, a vast room where they have a much +better chance of recovering than in those stinking cells ventilated +scientifically, i.e., not ventilated at all. Now there are seven +prisoners dangerously ill at this moment; yet you smother these +unfortunates in their solitary cells, instead of giving them the +infirmary and nurses according to the law. Let these seven persons be in +the infirmary before post-time this evening, or to-morrow I report you +to the Secretary of State." + +With these words he went off leaving them all looking at one another. +"He is coming back again," said Fry. + +He did come back again with heightened color and flashing eyes. + +"Here is the prisoners' diet," cried he, tapping the printed rules; +"it is settled to an ounce by law, and I see no authority given to +the jailer to tamper with it under any circumstances. Yet I find you +perpetually robbing prisoners of their food. Don't let me catch either +jailer or turnkeys at this again. Jailers and turnkeys have no more +right to steal a prisoner's food than to rob the till of the Bank of +England. He receives it defined in bulk and quality from the law's +own hand, and the wretch who will rob him of an ounce of it is a felon +without a felon's excuse; and as a felon I will proceed against him by +the dog-whip of the criminal law, by the gibbet of the public press, and +by every weapon that wit and honesty have ever found to scourge cruelty +and theft since civilization dawned upon the earth." + +He was gone and left them all turned to statues. A righteous man's wrath +is far more terrible than the short-lived passion of the unprincipled. +It is rarer, and springs from a deeper source than temper. Even Hawes +staggered under this mortal defiance so fierce and unexpected. For a +moment he regretted having pushed matters so far. + +This scene let daylight in upon shallow, earnest Hawes, and showed him +a certain shallow error he had fallen into. Because insolence had no +earthly effect on the great man's temper he had concluded that nothing +could make him boil over. A shade of fear was now added to rage, hatred +and a desire for vengeance. + +"Fry, come to my house." + +Evans had a wife and children, and these hostages to fortune weighed +down his manly spirit. He came to Hawes as he was going out and said +submissively, though not graciously: + +"Very sorry, sir, to think I should disobey you, but when his reverence +said it was against the law--" + +"That is enough, my man," replied Hawes quietly; "he has bewitched you, +it seems. When he is kicked out you will be my servant again, I dare +say." + +The words and the tone were not ill-humored. It was not Hawes's cue to +quarrel with a turnkey. + +Evans looked suddenly up, for his mind was relieved by Mr. Hawes's +moderation; he looked up and saw a cold, stern eye dwelling on him with +a meaning that had nothing to do with the words spoken. + +Small natures read one another. + +Evans saw his fate inscribed in Hawes's eye. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +HAWES and Fry sat in council. A copy of the prison rules was before +them, and the more they looked at them after Mr. Eden's interpretation, +the less they liked them: they were severe and simple; stringent against +the prisoners on certain points; stringent in their favor on others. + +"The sick-list must go to the infirmary, I believe," said Hawes, +thoughtfully. "He'd beat us there. The justices will support me on every +other point, because they must contradict themselves else. I'll have +that fellow out of the jail, Fry, before a month is out, and meantime +what can I do to be revenged on him?" + +"Punish 'em all the more," suggested the simple-minded Fry. + +"No, that won't do; better keep a little quiet now till he is out of the +jail. Fine it would look if he was really to bribe these vermin to bring +actions against me, and subpoena himself and that sneaking dog, Evans." + +"Well, sir, but if you turn him out he will do it all the more." + +"You fool, can't you see the difference? If he comes into court a +servant of the crown every lie he tells will go for gospel. But if he +comes a disgraced servant, cashiered for refractory conduct, why then we +could tell the jury it is all his spite at being turned off." + +"You know a thing or two, sir," whined the doleful Fry. + +Hawes passed him a fresh tumbler of grog, and pondered deeply and +anxiously. But suddenly an idea flashed on him that extinguished his +other meditations. "Give me the rules." He ran his eye rapidly over +them. "Why, no! of course not, what a fool I was not to see that half an +hour ago." + +"What is it, sir?" + +"Finish your grog first, and then I have a job for you." He sat down and +wrote two lines on a slip of paper. + +"Have you done?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then take this order." + +"Yes, sir." + +"And the printed rules in your hand--here, take 'em." + +"Yes, sir." + +"And take Hodges and Evans with you, and tell me every word that +sneaking dog, Evans, says and everything he does." + +"Yes, sir. But what are we all three to do?" + +"Execute this order!" + +An ebullition of wrath was as rare with Mr. Eden as an eruption of +Vesuvius. His deep-rooted indignation against cruelty remained; it was +a part of his nature. But his ruffled feathers smoothed themselves the +moment little Hawes & Co. were out of his eye. He even said to himself, +"What is the matter with me? one moment so despondent, the next +irascible. I hardly know myself. I must take a little of my antidote." +So saying he proceeded to visit some of those cells into which he had +introduced rational labor (anti-theft he called it). Here he found +cheerful looks as well as busy hands. Here industry was relished with a +gusto inconceivable to those who have never stagnated body and soul in +enforced solitude and silence. Here for the time at least were honest +converts to anti-theft. He had seen them dull and stupid, brutalized, +drifting like inanimate bodies on the heavy waters of the Dead Sea. He +had drawn them ashore and put life into them. He had taught their glazed +eyes to sparkle with the stimulus of rational and interesting work, +and those same eyes rewarded him by beaming on him with pleasure and +gratitude whenever he came. This soothed and cheered his weary spirit +vexed by the wickedness and stupidity that surrounded him and obstructed +the good work. + +His female artisans gave him a keen pleasure, for here he benefited a +sex as well as a prisoner. He had long been saying that women are +as capable as men of a multitude of handicrafts, from which they are +excluded by man's jealousy and grandmamma's imbecility. And this +wise man hoped to raise a few Englishwomen to the industrial level of +Frenchwomen and Englishmen; not by writing and prattling that the sex +are at present men's equals in intelligence and energy, which is a +stupid falsehood calculated to keep them forever our inferiors by +persuading them they need climb no higher than they have climbed. + +His line was very different. "At present you are infinitely man's +inferior in various energy," said he. "Dependents are inferiors +throughout the world." + +If they were not so at first starting such a relation would make them so +in two months. + +"Try and be more than mere dependents on men," was his axiom. "Don't +_talk_ that you are his equal, and then open that eloquent mouth to be +fed by his hand--do something! It is by doing fifty useful and therefore +lucrative things to your one that man becomes your creditor, and a +creditor will be a superior to the world's end. Out of these fifty +things you might have done twenty as well as he can do them, and ten +much better; and those thirty, added to the domestic duties in which you +do so much more than your share, would go far to balance the account and +equalize the sexes." + +Thus he would sometimes talk to the more intelligent of his hussies; +but he did a great deal more than talk. He supplied from himself that +deficiency of inventive power and enterprise which is woman's weak +point; and he tilled those wide powers of masterly execution which they +possess unknown to grandpapa Cant and grandmamma Precedent. As this +clear head had foreseen, his women came out artisans. The eye that could +thread a needle proved accurate enough for anything. Their supple, taper +fingers soon learned to pick up type and place it quite as quick as even +the stiff digits of the male, all one size from knuckle to nail. The +same with watch-making and other trades reputed masculine; they beat the +men's heads off at learning many kinds of fingerwork new to both; +their singular patience stood them in good stead here; they undermined +difficulties that the males tried to jump over and fell prostrate. + +A great treat was in store; one of the fruit-trees he had planted in the +huge fallow of ---- Jail was to be shaken this afternoon. Two or +three well-disposed prisoners had been set to review their past lives +candidly, and to relate them simply, with reflections. Of these Mr. Eden +cut out every one which had been put in to please him, retaining such as +were sober and seemed genuine to his lynx eye. + +Mr. Eden knew that some men and women listen more to their fellows than +their superiors--to the experiences and sentiments of those who are in +their own situation, than to those who stand higher but farther away. He +had found out that a bad man's life honestly told is a beacon. So he set +"roguery teaching by examples." + +There were three male narratives in the press and two female. For a day +or two past the printers (all women) had been setting up the type and +now the sheets were to be struck off. + +There was no little expectation among the prisoners. They were curious +to see their compeers in print, and to learn their stories, and see how +they would tell them; and as for the writers, their bodies were immured, +but their minds fluttered about on tip-toe round the great engine of +publicity, as the author of the "Novum Organon" fluttered when he first +went into print, and as the future authoress of "Lives and Careers of +Infants in Arms" will flutter. + +The press stood in the female-governor's room. One she-artisan, duly +taught before, inked the type and put in a blank sheet. + +No. 2 pulled the bar of the press toward her, and at the moment of +contact threw herself back with sudden vigor and gave the telling knip; +the types were again covered with ink, the sheet reversed, and No. 3 +(one of the writers) drew out a printed sheet--two copies of two stories +complete. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" cried No. 3, flushing with surprise and admiration, "how +beautiful! See, your reverence, here is mine--'Life of an Unfortunate +Girl.'" + +"Yes, I see it. And pray what do you mean by an unfortunate girl?" + +"Oh, sir! you know." + +"Unfortunate means one whom we are bound to respect as well as pity. Has +that been your character?" + +"No," was the mournful reply. + +"Then why print a falsehood? Falsehoods lurk in adjectives as well as +substantives. Misapplied terms are strongholds of self-deception. Nobody +says, 'I am unfortunate, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust +and ashes.' Such words are fortifications to keep self-knowledge and its +brother repentance from the soul." + +"Oh, sir! what am I to call myself?" She hid her face in her hands. + +"My dear, you told me a week ago you were--a penitent." + +"So I am, indeed I am. Sir, may I change it to 'a penitent girl?'" + +"You would make me very happy if you could do it with truth." + +"Then I can, indeed I can." And she took out "an unfortunate," and put +in "a penitent." + +"There," said she, glowing with exultation and satisfaction, "'Life of a +Penitent Girl.'" + +Oh; it was a pretty sight. Their little hearts were all in it. Their +little spirits rose visibly as the work went on--such beaming eyes--such +glowing cheeks and innocent looks of sparkling triumph to their friend +and father, who smiled back like Jupiter, and quizzings of each other to +stimulate to greater speed. + +In went the sheets, on went the press, out came the tales, up grew the +pile, amid quips and cranks and rays of silver-toned laughter, social +labor's natural music. They were all so innocent and so happy, when the +door was unceremoniously opened, and in burst Fry and Hodges, followed +by Evans crawling with his eyes on the ground. + +The work-women looked astonished, but did not interrupt their work. +Fry came up to Mr. Eden and gave him a slip of paper on which Hawes +had written an order that all work not expressly authorized by the law +should be expelled from the jail on the instant. + +Mr. Eden perused the order, and the color rose to the roots of his hair. +By way of comment Fry put the prison-rules under his eye. + +"Anything about printing, or weaving, or watchmaking in these rules, +sir?" + +Mr. Eden was silent. + +"Perhaps you will cast your eye over 'em and see, sir," continued Fry +slyly. "Shouldn't like to offend the law again." + +Mr. Eden took the paper, but not to read it--he knew it by heart. It was +to hide his anguish from the enemy. Hawes had felled him with his own +weapon. He put down the paper and showed his face, which was now stern +and composed. + +"What we are doing is against the letter of the law, as your pillory +and your starvation of prisoners are against both letter and spirit. +Mr. Hawes shall find no excuse for his illegal practices in any act of +mine." + +He then turned to the artisans. "Girls, you must leave off." + +"Leave off, sir?" cried No. 3 faintly. + +"Yes, no words; obey the prison-rules; they do not allow it." + +"Come, my birds," shouted Hodges roughly to the women. "Stand clear, we +want this gear." + +"What do you want of it, Mr. Hodges?" + +"Only to put it outside the prison-gate, sir. That is the order." + +The printing-press, representative of knowledge, enemy of darkness, +stupidity, cruelty; organ of civilization--was ignominiously thrust to +the door. + +This feat performed, they went to attack anti-theft. + +"Will you come along with us, sir, to see it is all legal?" sneered Fry. + +"I will come to see that insolence is not added to cruelty." + +At the door of Mary Baker's cell Mr. Eden hung back as Hodges and Fry +passed in. At last, after a struggle, he entered the cell. The turnkeys +had gathered up the girl's work and tools, and were coming out with +them, while the artisan stood desolate in the middle of the cell. + +"Oh, sir," cried she to Mr. Eden, "I am glad you are here. These +blackguards have broke into my cell, and they are robbing it." + +"Hush, Mary; what they are doing is the law, and we were acting against +the law." + +"Were we, sir?" + +"Yes. It is a bad law, and will be changed; but till it is changed we +must obey it. You are only one victim among many. Be patient, and pray +for help to bear it." + +"Yes, your reverence. Are they all to be robbed of their tools?" + +"All." + +"Poor things!" said Mary Baker. + +"Evans, it is beyond my strength--I am but a man; I can bear even this, +but I can't bear to see it done. I can't bear it! I can't bear it!" + +And his reverence turned his back on the moral butchers, and crept away +to his own room. There he sank into a chair and laid his brow upon +the table with his hands stretched out before him and his whole frame +trembling most piteously. + +Eden and Hawes are not level antagonists--one takes things to heart, the +other to temper. + +In this bitter hour it seemed to him impossible that he could ever +counteract the pernicious Hawes. + +"There is but one chance left for these poor souls. I shall try it, +and it will fail. Well! let it fail! Were there a thousand more chances +against me than there are I must battle to the last. Let me mature my +plan;" and he fell into a sad but stern reverie. + +He lay thus crushed, though not defeated, more than two hours in +silence. Had Hawes seen him he would have exulted at his appearance. + +"A man from the jail to speak to you, sir." + +A heavy rap at the parlor door, and Evans came in sheepishly smoothing +down his hair. Mr. Eden turned his head as he lay on the sofa and +motioned him to a seat. + +"I couldn't sleep till I had spoken to you. I obeyed your orders, sir. +We have undone your work." + +"How did the poor souls bear it?" + +"Some cried, some abused us, one or two showed they were better than we +are." + +"How?" + +"They prayed Heaven to forgive us and hoped we might never come to know +what they felt. I wish I'd never seen the inside of a jail. Fry got a +scratched face in one cell, sir." + +"I am sorry to hear that. I shall have to scold her; who was it?" + +"You won't scold her; you won't have the heart." + +"I will scold her whether I have the heart or not. Who was it?" + +"No. 57, a gal that had some caterpillars." + +"Silkworms!" + +"Yes, sir, silkworms, and it seems she has got to be uncommon fond of +them, calls 'em her children, poor soul. When we came in and went +to take them away she stood up for 'em and said we had no right--his +reverence gave them her." + +"Well?" + +"Well, sir, of course they made short work and took them away by force. +Then I saw the girl turn white and her eye getting wildish; however, I +don't know as it would have come to anything, but with them snatching +away the leaves and the grubs one of them fell on the ground. The poor +girl she goes to lift it up and Fry he sees her and put his foot on it +before she could get to it." + +"Ah!" + +"I dare say he didn't stop to think, you know; but I don't envy him +having done it. Well, sir, he paid for it. The girl just gave one sort +of a yell--you could not call it anything else--and she went right at +his head, both claws going and as quick one after another as a cat. The +blood squirted like a fountain--I never saw anything like it. She'd have +killed him if it hadn't been for Hodges and me." + +"Killed him? nonsense--a great strong fellow!" + +"No nonsense at all, sir. She was stronger than he was for a moment or +two and that moment would have done his business. She meant killing. +Sir," said Evans, lowering his voice, "her teeth were making for his +jugular when I wrenched her away, and it was like tearing soul from body +to get her off him, and she snarling and her teeth gnashing for him all +the time." + +Mr. Eden winced. + +"The wretched creature! I was putting her on the way to heaven, and in +one moment they made a fiend of her. Evans, you are not the same man you +were a month ago." + +"No, sir, that I am not. When I think of what a brute I used to be to +them poor creatures, I don't seem to know myself." + +"What has changed you?" + +"Oh, you know very well." + +"Do I? No; I have a guess; but--" + +"Why your sermons, to be sure." + +"My sermons?" + +"Yes, sir. Why, how could I hear them and my heart be as hard as it +used? They would soften a stone." + +A faint streak of surprise and simple satisfaction crossed Mr. Eden's +sallow face. + +"But it isn't your sermons only--it is your life, as the saying is. +I was no better than Hawes and Fry and the rest. I used to look on a +prisoner as so much dirt. But when I saw a gentleman like you respect +them, and say openly you loved them, I began to take a thought, and says +I, Hallo! if his reverence respects them so, an ignorant brute like Jack +Evans isn't to look down on them." + +"Ah! confess, too, that half hour in the jacket opened your eyes and so +your heart." + +"It did, sir; it did. I was like a good many more that misuse prisoners. +I didn't know how cruel I was." + +"You are on my side, then?" + +"Yes, I am on your side, and I am come here mainly to speak my mind to +you. Sir, it goes to my heart to see you lost and wasted in such a place +as this." + +"You think I do no good here?" + +"No! no! sir. Why I am a proof the other way. But you would do more good +anywhere else. Everybody says you are a bright and a shining light, +sir. Then why stay where there is dirty water thrown over you every day? +Besides, it is killing you! I don't want to frighten you, sir; but if +you could only see how you are changed since you came here--" + +"I do feel very ill." + +"Of course you do; you are ill, and you will be worse if you don't get +out of this dreadful place. If you are so fond of prisons, sir, you +can go from here to another prison. There is more than one easy-going +chaplain as would be glad to change with you. + +"Do you think so?" said Mr. Eden faintly, lying on his back on the sofa. + +"Not a doubt of it. If it warn't for Hawes you would convert half this +prison; but you see, the governor is against you, and he is stronger +than you. So it is no good to go wasting yourself. Now, what will be the +upshot? Why, you'll break your heart to begin, and lose your health; and +when all is done, at a word from Hawes the justices will turn you out of +the jail--and send me after you for taking your part." + +"What do you advise?" + +"Why, cut it." + +"Cut it?" + +"Turn your back on the whole ignorant lot, and save yourself for better +things. Why, you will win many a battle yet, your reverence, if you +don't fling yourself away this time," said Evans in tones of homely +cheerfulness and encouragement. + +There was a deal of good sense in the rough fellow's words and a homely +sympathy not intruded but rather, as it were, forcing its way against +the speaker's intention. All this co-operated powerfully with Mr. Eden's +present inclination and feeling as he lay sick and despondent upon the +couch. + +"So that is really your advice?" inquired Mr. Eden, feebly and +regretfully. + +"Yes, your reverence, that is my advice." + +Mr. Eden rose in a moment like an elastic spring, and whirled round in +front of Evans. "And this is my answer--RETRO SATANAS!" shouted he, with +two eyes flashing like a pair of sabers in the sun. + +"Mercy on us," roared Evans, recoiling so hastily that he rolled over +a chair, "what is that?" and he sat upon the floor a long way off, with +eyes like saucers, and repeated in a whisper, "what is that?" + +"A quotation," replied the other grimly. + +"A quotation! now only think of that" said Evans, much relieved. +"Sounded like cussing and swearing in Latin." + +"Come here, my good friend, and sit beside me." + +Evans came gingerly. + +"Well, but ye mustn't thunder at me in Latin any more." + +"Well, I won't." + +"It isn't fair; how can I stand up against Latin?" + +"Well, come here and I'll have at you in the vulgar tongue. Aha! So +you come in robust health and spirits and tempt a poor, broken, sick +creature to mount the white feather; to show his soldierly qualities by +running from the foe to some cool spot where there are no enemies, and +there fighting the good fight in peace. Evans, you are a good creature, +but you are a poor creature. Yes, Hawes is strong, yet I will resist +him. And I am weak--yet I will resist. He will get the justices on his +side--yet I will resist. I am sick and dispirited--yet I will resist. +The representative of humanity and Christianity in a stronghold of +darkness and cruelty and wrong must never sag with doubt nor shake with +fear. I will fight with pen and hand and tongue against these outlaws, +so long as there is a puff of wind in my body, and a drop of indomitable +blood in my veins." + +"No doubt you are game enough," mourned Evans; "I wish you wern't." + +"And as for you, you came here to seduce a sick, broken creature from +his Master's service; you shall remain to be enlisted in it yourself +instead." + +Evans shuffled uneasily on his chair at these words. "I think I am on +your side," said he. + +"Half! but it is no use being half anything; your hour is come to choose +between all right and all wrong." + +"I wouldn't be long choosing if it warn't for one thing." + +"And what is that one thing which can outweigh the one thing needful?" + +"My wife and my four children; if I get myself turned out of this jail +how am I to find bread for that small lot?" + +"And do you think shilly-shallying between two stools will secure your +seat? You have gone too far with me to retract; don't you see that the +jailer means to get you dismissed the next time the justices visit the +jail for business? Can't you read your fate in the man's eye?" + +Evans groaned. "I read it, I read it, but I didn't want to believe it." + +"He set a trap for you half an hour after you had defended me." + +"He did! I told my wife I was a gone coon, but she overpersuaded me; +'Keep quiet,' said she, 'and 'twill blow over.' But you see it in the +same light as I did, don't you, sir?" + +Mr. Eden smiled grimly in assent. + +"You are a doomed man," said he coolly; "half measures can't save you, +but whole measures may--perhaps." + +"What is to be done, sir?" asked Evans helplessly. + +"Your only chance is to go heart and hand with me in the project which +occupies me now." + +"I will, sir," cried Fluctuans, with a sudden burst of resolution, "for +I'm druv in a corner. So please tell me what is your project?" + +"To get Mr. Hawes dismissed from this jail." + +As he uttered these words the reverend gentleman had a severe spasm +which forced him to lie back and draw his breath hard. Evans uttered +something between a cry of dismay and a groan of despair, and stared +down upon this audacious invalid with wonder and ire at his supernatural +but absurd cool courage. + +"Turn our governor out of this jail? Now hark to that. You might as well +try to move a mountain; and look at you lying there scarce able to move +yourself, and talking like that." + +"Pour me out a cup of tea, Mr. Faintheart; I am in great pain--thank +you." + +He took the cup, and as he stirred it he said coolly, "Did you ever read +of Marshal Saxe, Mr. Faintheart? He fought the battle of Fontenoy as he +lay a dying. He had himself carried on his bed of death from one part +of the field to another; at first the fight went against him, but he +spurned craven counsels with his expiring heart; he saw the enemy's +blunder with his dying eye, and waved his troops on to victory with his +dying hand. This is one of the great feats of earth. But the soldiers +of Christ are as stout-hearted as any man that ever carried a marshal's +baton or a sergeant's pike. Yes! I am ill, and I feel as if I were +dying, Evans; but living or dying I am the Lord's. I will fight for Him +to the last gasp, and I will thrust this malefactor from his high office +with the last action of my hand--Will you help me, or will you not?" + +"I will, sir! I will! What on earth can I do?" + +"You can turn the balanced scale and win the day!" + +"Can I, sir?" cried Evans, greatly puzzled. + +"You will find some wine in that cupboard, my man; fill yourself a +tumbler. I will sip my tea, and explain myself. You think this Hawes is +a mountain;--no! he is a large pumpkin hollow at the core. You think him +strong;--no! he but seems so, because some of the many at whose mercy he +is are so weak. There is a flaw in Hawes, which must break him sooner or +later. He is a felon. The law hangs over his head by a single hair; he +has forfeited his office, and will be turned out of it the moment we can +find among his many superiors one man with one grain either of honesty +or intelligence." + +"But how shall we find that, sir?" + +"By looking for it everywhere, till we find it somewhere. Mr. Hawes +tells me, in other words, that the visiting justices do not possess the +one grain we require. I profit by the intelligence the enemy was weak +enough to give me, and I go--not to the visiting justices. To-morrow, if +my case is ready, I send a memorial to the Home-Office, accuse Hawes of +felonious practices, and demand an inquiry." + +Evans's eye sparkled; he began to gather strength from the broken man. + +"But now comes the difficulty. A man should never strike a feeble blow. +My appeal will be read by half-educated clerks. If I don't advance +something that the small official mind can take in, I shall never reach +the heads of the office. It would be madness to begin by attacking +national prejudices, by combating a notion so stupid, and therefore so +deep-rooted, as that prisoners have no legal rights. No! the pivot of my +assault must be something that a boy can afford to be able to comprehend +for eighty pounds a year and a clerk's desk in a Government office. +Now, Mr. Hawes has, for many months past, furnished false reports to the +justices and to the Home-Office. Here is the true stepping-stone to an +inquiry, here is the fact to tell on the official mind; for the man's +cruelty and felonious practices are only offenses against God and the +law; but a false report is an offense against the office. And here I +need your help." + +"You shall have it, sir." + +"I want to be able to prove this man's reports to be lies. I think such +a proof exists," said Mr. Eden, very thoughtfully. "Now, if it does, you +alone can get hold of it for me. One of the turnkeys notes down every +punishment of a prisoner in a small pocket-book, for I have seen him." + +"Yes, sir; Fry does--never misses!" + +"What becomes of those notes?" + +"I don't know." + +"What if he keeps a book and enters everything in it?" + +"But if he had, shouldn't we have caught a glimpse of it?" + +"Humph! A man does not take notes constantly and destroy them. Fry, too, +is an enthusiast in his way. I am sure he keeps a record, and if he does +it is a true one, for he has no object in tampering with his own facts. +Bring me such a book or any record kept by Fry; let me have it for +twelve hours and Hawes shall be turned out of the jail and you stay in +it." + +"Sir!" cried Evans, in great excitement, "if there is such a thing you +shall see it to-morrow morning." + +"No! to-night! come, you have an hour before you. Do you want the sinews +of war? here, take this five pounds with you; you may have to buy a +sight of it; but if you ask him whether I am right in telling you it +is not the custom of jails to crucify prisoners in the present century, +perhaps the barbarian will produce his record of abuses to prove to you +that it is. Work how you please; but be wary--be intelligent, and bring +me Fry's ledger--or never look me in the face again." + +He waved his hand, and Evans strode out of the room animated with +a spirit not his own. He who had animated him lay back on the sofa +prostrated. Half an hour elapsed, no Evans; a quarter of an hour more, +still no Evans; but just before the hour struck, in he burst out of +breath but red with triumph. + +"Your reverence is a witch--you can see in the dark--look here, sir!" +and he flung a dirty ledger on the table. "Here's all the money, sir. He +did not get a farthing of it. I flattered the creature's pride, and +he dropped the cheese into my hand like the old carrion crow when they +asked him for one of his charming songs. But he had no notion it was +going out of the jail; so you'll bring it in and give it me back the +first thing to-morrow, sir. I must run back, time's up!--Good-night, +your reverence. Am I on your side or whose?" + +"Good-night, my fine fellow; you shan't be turned out of the jail now. +Good-night." + +He wanted him gone. He went to a drawer and took out his own book, a +copy of Hawes's public log-book, which he had made as soon as he +came into the jail, with the simple view of guiding himself by the +respectable precedents he innocently expected to find there. He lighted +candles, placed his sheets by the side of Fry's well-thumbed ledger, and +plunged into a comparison. + +It was as he expected. On one side lay the bare, simple, brutal truth +in Fry's hand, on the other the same set of facts colored, molded and +cooked in every imaginable way to bear inspection, with occasional +suppressions where the deed and consequences were too frightful to bear +coloring, molding, extenuating or cooking. + +The book was a thick quarto, containing a strict record of the prison +for four years; two years of Captain O'Connor, and two of Hawes, the +worthy who had supplanted him. + +Mr. Eden was a rapid penman; he set to, and by half-past eleven +o'clock he had copied the first part; for under O'Connor there were +comparatively few punishments. Then he attacked Hawes's reign. Sheet +after sheet was filled and numbered. He threw them on another table as +each was filled. Three o'clock; still he wrote with all his might. Four +o'clock; black spots danced before his eyes, and his fingers ached, and +his brow burned, and his feet were ice. Still the light, indefatigable +pen galloped along the paper. Meantime the writer's feelings were of +the most mixed and extraordinary character. Often his eye flashed with +triumph, as Fry exposed the dishonesty and utter mendacity of Hawes. +Oftener still it dilated with horror at the frightful nature of the very +revelations. At six o'clock Fry's record was all copied out. + +Mr. Eden shaved and took his bath, and ran into the town. He knocked up +a solicitor, with whom he was acquainted. + +"I want you to make my will, while your son attests this copy of this +ledger." + +"But my son is in bed." + +"Well! he can read in bed. Which is his room?" + +"That one."--Rap! (Come in.) + +"Here, Mr. Edward, compare these two, and correct or attest this as +a true copy--Twenty minutes' work--Two guineas; here they are on your +drawers;" and he chucked the documents on the bed, opened the shutters, +and drew the bed-curtains; and passing his arm under the father's, he +drew him into his own office, opened the shutters, put paper before +him, and dictated a will. Three bequests (one to Evans), and his mother +residuary legatee. The will written, he ran upstairs, made father and +son execute it, and then darted out, caught a fly that was going to the +railway, engaged it; upstairs again. The work was done, copy attested. + +"Half a crown if you are at the jail in five minutes." + +Galloped off with his two documents-entered the jail--went to his own +room--sent for Evans--gave him Fry's book, and ordered himself the same +breakfast the prisoners had. + +"I am bilious, and no wonder. I have been living too luxuriously; if I +had been content with the diet my poor brothers live on, I should be in +better health. It serves me just right." + +Then he sat down and wrote a short memorial to the Secretary for the +Home Department, claiming an inquiry into the jailer's conduct. + +"I have evidence on the spot to show that for two years he has been +guilty of illegal practices. That he has introduced into the prison an +unlawful instrument of torture. That during his whole period of office +he has fabricated partial, colored and false reports of his actions in +the prison, and also of their consequences; that he has suppressed all +mention of no less than seven attempts at suicide, and has given a false +color, both with respect to the place of death, the manner of death and +the cause of death of some twenty prisoners besides. That his day-book, +kept in the prison for the inspection and guide of the magistrates, is +a tissue of frauds, equivocations, exaggerations, diminutions and direct +falsehoods; that his periodical reports to the Home Office are a tissue +of the same frauds, suppressions, inventions, and direct falsehoods. + +"The truth, therefore, is inaccessible to you, except by a severe +inquiry conducted on the spot. That inquiry I pray for on public +grounds, and if need be, demand in my own person, as her majesty's +servant driven to this strait. + +"I am responsible to her majesty for the lives and well-being of the +prisoners, and yet unable, without your intervention, to protect them +against illegal violence covered by organized fraud." + +Mr. Eden copied this, and sent the copy at once to Mr. Hawes with two +lines to this effect, that the duplicate should not leave the town till +seven in the evening, so Mr. Hawes had plenty of time to write to the +Home Secretary by same post, and parry or meet this blow if he thought +it worth his while. + +It now remained only to post the duplicate for the Home Office. Mr. Eden +directed it and waxed it, but even as he leaned over it sealing it the +room suddenly became dark to him, and his head seemed to weigh a ton. +With an instinct of self-preservation he made for the sofa, which was +close behind him, but before he could reach it his senses had left him, +and he fell with his head and shoulders upon the couch but his feet on +the floor, the memorial tight in his hand. He paid the penalty of being +a blood-horse--he ran till he dropped. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"Two ladies to see you," grunted the red-haired servant, throwing open +the door without ceremony; and she actually bounced out again without +seeing anything more than that her master was lying on the sofa. + +Susan Merton and her aunt came rapidly and cheerfully into the room. + +"Here we are, Mr. Eden, Aunt Davies and I--Oh!" The table being between +the sofa and the door the poor gentleman's actual condition was not +self-evident from the latter, but Susan was now in the middle of the +room and her gayety gave way in a moment to terror. + +"Why, the man has fainted!" cried Mrs. Davies hurriedly. Susan clasped +her hands together and turned very pale; but for all that she was the +first at Mr. Eden's head; "he is choking! he is choking! help me, aunt, +help me!" but even while crying for help her nimble fingers had untied +and flung away Mr. Eden's white neck-tie, which, being high and stiff, +was doing him a very ill turn, as the air forcing itself violently +through his nostrils plainly showed. + +"Take his legs, aunt; oh! oh! oh!" + +"Don't be a fool, girl, it is only a faint." Susan flew to the window +and threw it open, then flew back and seized one end of the couch. Her +aunt comprehended at a glance, and the two carried it with its burden to +the window. + +"Open the door, aunt," cried Susan, as she whipped out her scent-bottle +and with her finger wetted the inside of his nostrils with the spirit +as the patient lay in the thorough draught. Susan sobbed with sorrow and +fear, but her emotion was far from disabling her. + +She poured some of her scent into a water-glass and diluted it largely. +She made her aunt take a hand-screen from the mantel-piece. She plunged +her hand into the liquid and flung the drops sharply into Mr. Eden's +face; and Mrs. Davies fanned him rapidly at the same time. + +These remedies had a speedy effect. First the film cleared from the +patient's bright eye, then a little color diffused itself gradually over +his cheek, and last his lips lost their livid tint. As soon as she saw +him coming to, Susan composed herself; and Mr. Eden, on his return to +consciousness, looked up and saw a beautiful young woman looking down on +him with a cheerful, encouraging smile and wet cheeks. + +"Ah!" sighed he, and put out his hand faintly to welcome Susan; "but +what--how do I come here?" + +"You have been a little faint," said Susan smiling, "but you are better +now, you know!" + +"Yes, thank you! how good of you to come! Who is this lady?" + +"My aunt, sir--a very notable woman. See, she is setting your things to +rights already. Aunt, I wonder at you!" + +She then dipped the corner of her handkerchief in scent, and slightly +coloring now that her patient was conscious, she made the spirit enter +his nostrils. + +He gave a sigh of languid pleasure--"That is so invigorating." Then he +looked upward--"See how good God is to me! in my sore need He has sent +me help. Oh! how pleasant is the face of a friend. By-the-way, I took +you for an angel at first," added he naively. + +"But you have come to your senses now, sir! ha! ha! ha!" cried busy, +merry Mrs. Davies, hard at work. For as soon as the patient began +visibly to return to life, she had turned her back on him and fallen on +the furniture. + +"I hope you are come to stay with me." As Susan was about to answer in +the negative, Mrs. Davies made signals for a private conference; and +after some whispering, Susan replied, "that her aunt wanted to put the +house in apple-pie order, and that she, Susan, felt too anxious about +him to go until he should be quite recovered." + +"In that case, ladies," said he, "I consecrate to you my entire second +floor, three rooms," and he rang the bell and said to the servant, "Take +your orders from these ladies, and show them the second floor." + +While his visitors were examining their apartments, Mr. Eden sought a +little rest, and had no sooner dropped upon his bed than sleep came to +his relief. + +He slept for nearly four hours; at first soundly, then dozing and +dreaming. While he slept a prisoner sent for him, but Susan would not +have him awakened for that. + +By-and-by Susan went into the town, leaving her aunt sole guardian. + +"Now, aunt," said she, "don't let him be disturbed whoever comes for +him. It is as much as his life is worth!" + +"Well, then, I won't! there." + +Susan had not been long gone when a turnkey called, and was shown into +the parlor where Mrs. Davies was very busy. He looked about him and told +her he had called for a book Mr. Eden promised him. + +"Mr. Eden is asleep." + +"Asleep at this time of day?" said the man incredulously. + +"Yes, asleep," answered Mrs. Davies sharply; "is he never to have any +sleep?" + +"Well, perhaps you will tell him Mr. Fry has come for the book as +requested." + +"Couldn't think of disturbing him for that, Mr. Fry," replied Mrs. +Davies, not intermitting her work for a single moment. + +"Very well, ma'am!" said Mr. Fry, in dudgeon. "I never was here before, +and I shan't ever come again--that is all--" and off he went. Mrs. +Davies showed her dismay at this threat by dusting on without once +taking her eye or her mind off her job. + +It was eight o'clock. Mr. Eden woke and found it almost dark. + +He rose immediately. "Why, I have slept the day away," thought he in +dismay, "and my memorial to the Home Office; it is past post time, and I +have not sent it." He came hastily downstairs and entered the parlor; he +found it in a frightful state. All the chairs were in the middle of +the room, every part of which was choked up except a pathway three feet +broad that ran by the side of the wall all round it. From this path all +access into the interior was blocked by the furniture, which now stood +upon an area frightfully diminished by this loss of three feet taken +from each wall. Mrs. Davies was a character--a notable woman. Mr. Eden's +heart sank at the sight. + +To find himself put to rights gives a bachelor an innocent pleasure, +but the preliminary process of being put entirely to wrongs crushes his +soul. "Another fanatic let loose on me," thought he, "and my room is +like a road that is just mended, as they call it." He peered about here +and there through a grove of chairs whose legs were kicking in the air +as they sat bosom downward upon their brethren, but he could see no +memorial. He rang the bell and inquired of the servant whether she had +seen it. While he was describing it to her Mrs. Davies broke in: + +"I saw it--I picked it up off the floor--it was lying between the sofa +and the table." + +"And what did you do with it?" + +"Why, dusted it, to be sure." + +"But where did you put it?" + +"On the table, I suppose." + +Another search and no memorial. + +"Somebody has taken it." + +"But who? has anybody been in this room since?" + +"Plenty. You don't get much peace here, I should say; but Susan gave the +order you were not to be disturbed." + +"This won't do," thought Mr. Eden. + +"Who has been here?" said he to the servant. + +"Mr. Fry is the only one that came into this room." + +"Mr. Fry!" said Mr. Eden, with some surprise. + +"Ay! ay!" cried Mrs. Davies. "I remember now there was an ill-looking +fellow of that name here talking to me, pretending you had promised him +a book." + +"But I did promise him a book." + +"Oh, you did, did you! well he looked like a thief, perhaps he +has--goodness gracious me, I hope there was no money in it," and Mrs. +Davies lost her ruddy color in a moment. + +"No! no! it was only a letter, but of great importance." + +Another violent search at the risk of shins and hands. + +"That Fry has taken it. I never saw such a hang-dog looking fellow." + +Mr. Eden was much vexed; but he had a trick of blaming himself, Heaven +only knows where he caught it. "My own forgetfulness; even if the paper +had not been lost I had allowed post-time to go by--and Mr. Hawes will +anticipate me with the Home Secretary." He sighed. + +In so severe a struggle he was almost as reluctant to give an unfair +advantage as to take one. + +He ordered a fire in his little back parlor; and with a sigh sat down +to rewrite his memorial and to try and recover, if he could, the exact +words, and save the next post that left in the morning. + +As Mr. Eden sat trying to recover the words of his memorial, Hawes was +seated in Mr. Williams' study at Ashtown Park, concerting with that +worthy magistrate the best way of turning the new chaplain out of +---- Jail. He found no difficulty. Mr. Williams had two very strong +prejudices, one in favor of Hawes personally, the other in favor of the +system pursued this two years in that jail. Egotism was here, too, and +rendered these prejudices almost impregnable. Williams had turned out +O'Connor and his milder system, and put in Hawes and his more rigorous +one. Hawes was "my man--his system mine." + +He told his story, and Williams burned to avenge his injured friend, +whose patron and director he called himself, and whose tool he was. + +"Nothing can be done until the twenty-fifth, when Palmer returns. We +must be all there for an act of this importance. Do your duty as you +always have, carry out the discipline, and send for me if he gives you +any great annoyance in the meantime." + +That zealous servant of her majesty, earnest Mr. Hawes, had never +taken a day's holiday before. No man could accuse him of indolence, +carelessness, or faint discharge of the task he had appointed himself. +He perverted his duties too much to neglect them. He had been reluctant +to leave the prison on a personal affair. The drive, however, was +pleasant, and he returned freshened and animated by assurances of +support from the magistrate. + +As he strode across the prison yard to inspect everything before going +to his house, he felt invulnerable and sneered at himself for the +momentary uneasiness he had let a crack-brained parson give him. He went +home; there was a nice fire, a clean-swept hearth, a glittering brass +kettle on the hob for making toddy, and three different kinds of spirits +in huge cruets. For system reigned in the house as well as the jail, +with this difference, that the house system was devoted to making self +comfortable the jail system to making others wretched. + +He rang the bell. In came the servant with slippers and candles +unlighted, for he was wont to sip his grog by fire-light. He put on his +slippers. Then he mixed his grog. Then he noticed a paper on the table, +and putting it to the fire he found it was sealed. So he lighted the +candles and placed them a little behind him. Then he stirred his grog +and sipped it, and placing it close beside him, leaned back with a grunt +of satisfaction, opened the paper, read it first slowly, then all in a +flutter, started up as if he was going to act upon some impulse; but +the next moment sat down again and stared wildly a picture of stupid +consternation. + +Meantime, as Mr. Eden with a heavy heart was writing himself +out--nauseous task--Susan stood before him with a color like a rose. She +was in a brown cloak, from under which she took out a basket brimful of +little packages, some in blue, some in white paper. + +"These are grits," said she, "and these are arrowroot." + +"I know--one of the phases of the potato." + +"Oh! for shame, Mr. Eden. Well, I never! And I posted your letter, sir." + +"What letter? what letter?" + +"The long one. I found it on the table." + +"You don't mean you posted that letter?" + +"Why, it was to go, wasn't it?" + +"Yes, it was to go, but it was wonderfully intelligent of you." + +"La! Mr. Eden, don't talk so; you make me ashamed. Why, there was +'immediate' written on it in your own hand. Was I to wake you up to +ask whether that meant it was to stay here immediate, or go to London +immediate?" Then she pondered a moment. "He thinks I am a fool," said +she, in quiet explanation, without a shade of surprise or anger. + +"Well! Susan, my dear friend, you don't know what a service you have +done me!" + +Susan glittered with pleasure. + +"There!" cried he, "you have spared me this most unpleasant task," and +he flung his unfinished papers into a basket. Mr. Eden congratulated +himself in his way, i.e., thanked Heaven Susan had come there; the +next thing was, he had a twinge of conscience. "I half suspected Fry +of taking it in the interest of Hawes, his friend. Poor Fry, who is a +brute, but as honest a man as myself, every bit. He shall have his book, +at all events. I'll put his name on it that I mayn't forget it again." +Mr. Eden took the book from its shelf, wrapped it in paper, and wrote on +the cover, "For Mr. Fry from F. Eden." As the incidents of the day are +ended, I may as well relate what this book was and how Fry came to ask +for it. + +The book was "Uncle Tom," a story which discusses the largest human +topic that ever can arise; for the human race is bisected into black and +white. Nowadays a huge subject greatly treated receives justice from the +public, and "Uncle Tom" is written in many places with art, in all with +red ink and with the biceps muscle. + +Great by theme, and great by skill, and greater by a writer's soul +honestly flung into its pages, "Uncle Tom," to the surprise of many that +twaddle traditional phrases in reviews and magazines about the art of +fiction, and to the surprise of no man who knows anything about the art +of fiction, was all the rage. Not to have read it was like not to have +read the _Times_ for a week. + +Once or twice during the crucifixion of a prisoner Mr. Eden had said +bitterly to Fry, "Have you read 'Uncle Tom?'" + +"No!" would Fry grunt. + +But one day that the question was put to him he asked, with some +appearance of interest, "Who is Uncle Tom?" + +Then Mr. Eden began to reflect. "Who knows? The cases are in a great +measure parallel. Prisoners are a tabooed class in England, as are +blacks in some few of the United States. The lady writes better than I +can talk. If she once seizes his sympathies by the wonderful power of +fiction, she will touch his conscience through his heart. This disciple +of Legree is fortified against me; Mrs. Stowe may take him off his +guard. He said slyly to Fry, 'Not know Uncle Tom! Why it is a most +interesting story--a charming story. There are things in it, too, that +meet your case.'" + +"Indeed, sir." + +"It is a book you will like. Shall I lend it you?" + +"If you please, sir. Nights are drawing in now." + +"I will, then." + +And he would; but that frightful malady, jaundice, among its other +feats, impairs the patient's memory; and he forgot all about it. So +Fry, whose curiosity was at last excited, came for the book. The rest we +know. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +MR. HAWES went about the prison next day morose and melancholy. He spoke +to no one, and snapped those who spoke to him. He punished no prisoner +all day, but he looked at them as a wolf at fortified sheep. He did not +know what to do to avert the blow he had drawn so perseveringly on +his own head. At one time he thought of writing to the Home Office and +aspersing his accuser; then he regretted his visit to Ashtown Park. +"What an unlucky dog I am! I go to see a man that I was sure of before I +went, and while I am gone the ---- parson steals a march on me. He will +beat me! If I hadn't been a fool I should have seen what a dangerous +devil he is. No putting him out of temper and no putting him out of +heart! He will beat me! The zealous services of so many years won't save +me with an ungrateful Government. I shall lose my stipend!" + +For a while even stout-hearted, earnest Mr. Hawes was depressed with +gloom and bitter foreboding; but he had a resource in trouble good Mr. +Eden in similar case had not. + +In the despondency of his soul he turned--to GROG. + +Under the inspiration of that deity he prepared for a dogged defense. He +would punish no more prisoners, let them do what they might, and then +if an inquiry should take place he would be in case to show that by his +past severities he had at last brought his patients to such perfection +that weeks had elapsed without a single punishment. With this and the +justices' good word he would weather the storm yet. + +Thus passed three days without one of those assaults on prisoners he +called punishment; but this enforced forbearance made him hate his +victims. He swore at them, he threatened them all round, and with deep +malice he gave open orders to punish which he secretly countermanded, so +that in fact he did punish, for blows suspended over the head fall upon +the soul. Thus he made his prisoners share his gloom. He was unhappy; he +was dull; robbed of an excitement which had become butter to his daily +bread. + +All prison life is dull. Chaplain, turnkeys, jailers, all who live in +prisons are prisoners. Barren of mental resources, too stupid to see far +less read the vast romance that lay all round him, every cell a volume; +too mindless to comprehend his own grand situation on a salient of +the State and of human nature, and to discern the sacred and endless +pleasures to be gathered there, this unhappy dolt, flung into a lofty +situation by shallow blockheads, who like himself saw in a jail nothing +greater nor more than a "place of punishment," must still like his +prisoners and the rest of us have some excitement to keep him from +going dead. What more natural than that such a nature should find its +excitement in tormenting, and that by degrees this excitement should +become first a habit then a need? Growth is the nature of habit, not of +one sort or another but of all--even of an unnatural habit. Gin grows on +a man--charity grows on a man--tobacco grows on a man--blood grows on a +man. + +At a period of the Reign of Terror the Parisians got to find a day weary +without the guillotine. If by some immense fortuity there came a +day when they were not sprinkled with innocent blood the poor souls +s'ennuyaient. This was not so much thirst for any particular liquid +as the habit of excitement. Some months before, dancing, theaters, +boulevard, etc., would have made shift to amuse these same hearts, as +they did some months after when the red habit was worn out. Torture +had grown upon stupid, earnest Hawes; it seasoned that white of egg, a +mindless existence. + +Oh! how dull he felt these three deplorable days, barren of groans, and +white faces, and livid lips, and fellow-creatures shamming,* and the +bucket. + + * A generic term for swooning, or sickening, or going mad, + in a prison. + +Mr. Hawes had given a sulky order that the infirmary should be prepared +for the sick, and now on the afternoon of the third day the surgeon had +met him there by appointment. + +"Will they get well any quicker here?" asked Hawes ironically. + +"Why, certainly," replied the other. + +Hawes gave a dissatisfied grunt. + +"I hate moving prisoners out of the cells; but I suppose I shall get you +into trouble if I don't." + +"Indeed!" said the other, with an inquiring air; "how?" + +"Parson threatens you very hard for letting the sick ones lie in their +cells," said Hawes slyly. "But never mind, old boy--I shall stand +your friend and the justices mine. We shall beat him yet," said Hawes, +assuming a firmness he did not feel lest this man should fall away from +him and perhaps bear witness against him. + +"I think you have beat him already," replied the other calmly. + +"What do you mean?" + +"I have just come from Mr. Eden. He sent for me." + +"What, isn't he well?" + +"I wish he'd die! But there is no chance of that." + +"Well, there is always a chance of a man dying who has got a bilious +fever." + +"Why you don't mean he is seriously ill?" cried Hawes in excitement. + +"I don't say that, but he has got a sharp attack." + +Mr. Hawes examined the speaker's face. It was as legible as a book from +the outside. He went from the subject to one or two indifferent matters, +but he could not keep long from what was uppermost. + +"Sawyer," said he, "you and I have always been good friends." + +"Yes, Mr. Hawes." + +"I have never been hard upon you. You ought to be here every day, but +the pay is small and I have never insisted on it, because I said he +can't afford to leave patients that pay." + +"No, Mr. Hawes, and I am much obliged to you." + +"Are you? Then tell me--between ourselves now--how ill is he?" + +"He has got bilious fever consequent upon jaundice." + +Hawes lowered his voice. "Is he in danger?" + +"In danger? Why, no, not at present." + +"Oh! then it is only an indisposition after all." + +"It is a great deal more than that--it is fever and bile." + +"Can't you tell me in two words how ill he is?" + +"Not till I see how the case turns." + +"When will you be able to say then?" + +"When the disorder declares itself more fully." + +Hawes exploded in an oath. "You humbugs of doctors couldn't speak plain +to save yourselves from hanging." + +There was some truth in this ill-natured excuse. After fifteen years +given to the science of obscurity Mr. Sawyer literally could not speak +plain all in one moment. + +The next morning there was no service in the chapel, the chaplain was in +bed. This spoke for itself, and Hawes wore a look of grim satisfaction +at the announcement. + +But this was not all. In the afternoon came a letter from Mr. Williams +with a large inclosure signed by her majesty's secretary's secretary, +and written by her secretary's secretary's secretary. + +Its precise contents will be related elsewhere. Its tendency may be +gathered from this. + +Hawes had no sooner read it than exultation painted itself on his +countenance. + +"Close the infirmary and bring me the key. And you, Fry, put these +numbers on the cranks to-morrow." He scribbled with his pencil, and gave +him a long list of the proscribed. + +No Mr. Eden shone now upon Mr. Robinson's solitude. He waited, and +waited, and hoped till the day ended, but no! The next day the same +thing. He longed for Mr. Eden's hour to come; it came, but not with +it came his one bit of sunshine, his excitement, his amusement, his +consolation, his friend, his brother, his all. And so one heavy day +succeeded another, and Robinson became fretful, and very, very sad. +One day, as he sat disconsolate and foreboding in his cell, he heard a +stranger's voice talking to Fry outside. And what was more strange, +Fry appeared to be inviting this person to inspect the cells. The next +moment his door was opened, and a figure peeped timidly into the cell +from behind Fry, whose arm she clutched in some anxiety. Robinson looked +up--it was Susan Merton. She did not instantly know him in his prison +dress and his curly hair cut short; he hung his head, and this action +and the recognition it implied made her recognize him. "Oh!" cried she, +"it is Mr. Robinson!" + +The thief turned his face to the wall. Even he was ashamed before one +who had known him as Mr. Robinson; but the next moment he got up and +said earnestly, + +"Pray, Miss Merton, do me a favor--you had always a kind heart Ask that +man what has become of Mr. Eden--he will answer you." + +"Mr. Robinson," cried Susan, "I have no need to ask Mr. Fry. I am +staying at Mr. Eden's house. He is very ill, Mr. Robinson." + +"Ah! I feared as much! he never would have deserted me else. What is the +trouble?" + +"You may well say trouble! it is the prison that has fretted him to +death," cried Susan, half bitterly, half sorrowfully. + +"But he will get well! it is not serious?" inquired Robinson anxiously. + +Fry pricked his ears. + +"He is very ill, Mr. Robinson," and Susan sighed heavily. + +"I'll pray for him. He has taught me to pray--all the poor fellows will +pray for him that know how. Miss Merton, good for nothing as I am, I +would die for Mr. Eden this minute if I could save his life by it." + +Susan thought of this speech afterward. Now she but said, "I will tell +him what you say." + +"And won't you bring me one word back from his dear mouth?" + +"Yes! I will! good-by, Mr. Robinson." Robinson tried to say good-by, but +it stuck in his throat, Susan retired, and his cell seemed darker than +ever. + +Mr. Eden lay stricken with fever. He had been what most of us would have +called ill long before this. The day of Carter's crucifixion was a fatal +day to him. On that day for the first time he saw a crucifixion without +being sick after it. The poor soul congratulated himself so on this; but +there is reason to think that same sickness acted as a safety-valve to +his nature; when it ceased the bile overflowed and mixed with his blood, +producing that horrible complaint jaundice. Even then if the causes +of grief and wrong had ceased he might perhaps have had no dangerous +attack. But everything was against him; constant grief, constant worry +and constant preternatural exertions to sustain others while drooping +himself. Even those violent efforts of will by which he thrust back for +a time the approaches of his malady told heavily upon him at last. The +thorough-bred horse ran much longer than a cocktail would, but he could +not run forever. + +He lay unshaven, hollow-eyed and sallow. Mrs. Davies and Susan watched +him by turns, except when he compelled them to go and take a little rest +or amusement. The poor thing's thoughts were never on himself, even when +he was light-headed, and this was often, though not for long together. +It was generally his poor prisoners, and what he was going to do for +them. + +This is how Susan Merton came to visit Robinson. One day, seeing his +great interest in all that concerned the prison, and remembering there +was a book addressed to one of the officers, Susan, who longed to do +something, however small, to please him, determined to take this book +to its destination. Leaving Mrs. Davies with a strict injunction not to +stir from Mr. Eden's room till she came back, she went to the prison and +knocked timidly at the great door. It was opened instantly, and as Susan +fancied, fiercely, by a burly figure. Susan, suppressing an inclination +to run away, asked tremulously: + +"Does Mr. Fry live here?" + +"Yes." + +"Can I speak to him?" + +"Yes. Come in, miss." + +Susan stepped in. + +The man slammed the door. + +Susan wished herself on its other side. + +"My name is Fry. What is your pleasure with me?" + +"Mr. Fry, I am so glad I have found you. I am come here from a friend of +yours." + +"From a friend of mine??!!" said Fry, with a mystified air. + +"Yes; from Mr. Eden. Here is the book, Mr. Fry; poor Mr. Eden could not +bring it you himself, but you see he has written your name on the cover +with his own hand." + +Fry took the book from Susan's hand, and in so doing observed that she +was lovely; so to make her a return for bringing him "Uncle Tom," and +for being so pretty, Fry for once in his life felt generous, and repaid +her by volunteering to show her the prison--indulgent Fry! + +To his surprise Susan did not jump at this remuneration. On the +contrary, she said hastily: + +"Oh! no! no! no!" + +Then, seeing by his face that her new acquaintance thought her a +madwoman, she added: + +"That is, yes! I think I should like to see it a little--a very +little--but if I do you must keep close by me, Mr. Fry." + +"Why of course I shall keep with you," replied Fry somewhat +contemptuously. "No strangers admitted except in company of an officer." + +Susan still hung fire. + +"But you mustn't go to show me the very wicked ones." + +"Why they are all pretty much of a muchness for that." + +"I mean the murderers--I couldn't bear such a sight." + +"Got none," said Fry sorrowfully; "parted with the last of that sort +four months ago--up at eight down at nine you understand, miss." + +Happily Susan did not understand this brutal allusion; and, not to +show her ignorance, she said nothing, but passed to a second +stipulation--"And, Mr. Fry, I know the men that set fire to Farmer +Dean's ricks are in this jail; I won't see them; they would give me such +a turn, for that seems to me the next crime after murder to destroy the +crops after the very weather has spared them." + +Fry smiled superior; then he said sarcastically: + +"Don't you be frightened, some of our lot are beauties; your friend the +parson is as fond of some of 'em as a cow is of her calf." + +"Oh! then show me those ones." Fry took her to one or two cells. +Whenever he opened a cell door she always clutched him on both ribs, and +this tickled Fry, so did her simplicity. + +At last he came to Robinson's cell. + +"In here there is a sulky chap." + +"Oh! then let us go on to the next." + +"But this is one his reverence is uncommon fond of," said Fry, with a +sneer and a chuckle; so he flung open the door, and if the man had not +hung his head Susan would hardly have recognized in his uniform corduroy +and close-cropped hair the vulgar Adonis who had sat glittering opposite +her at table the last time they met. + +After the interview which I have described, Susan gratified Fry by +praising the beautiful cleanliness of the prison, and returned, leaving +a pleasant impression even on this rough hide and "Uncle Tom" behind +her. + +When she got home she found her patient calm but languid. + +While she was relating her encounter with Robinson, and her previous +acquaintance with him, the knock of a born fool at a sick man's door +made them all start. It was Rutila, with a long letter bearing an ample +seal. + +Mr. Eden took it with brightening eye, read it, and ground it almost +convulsively in his hand. "Asses!" cried he; but the next moment he +groaned and bowed his head. Her majesty's secretary's secretary's +secretary had written to tell him that his appeal for an inquiry had +traveled out of the regular course; it ought to have been made in +the first instance to the visiting justices, whose business it was to +conduct such inquiries, and that it lay with these visiting justices to +apply to the Home Office for an extraordinary inquiry if they found they +could not deal with the facts in the usual way. The office, therefore, +had sent copies of his memorial to each of the visiting justices, who at +their next inspection of the jail would examine into the alleged facts, +and had been requested to insert the results in their periodical report. + +Mr. Eden sat up in bed, his eye glittering. "Bring me my writing-desk." + +It was put on the bed before him, but with many kind injunctions not to +worry himself. He promised faithfully. He wrote to the Home Office in +this style: + +"A question of life and death cannot be played with as you have +inconsiderately proposed; nor can a higher jurisdiction transfer an +appeal to a lower one without the appellant's consent. Such a course is +still more out of order when the higher judge is a salaried servant of +the State and the lower ones are amateurs. This was so self-evident that +I did not step out of the direct line to cast reflections upon unpaid +servants. You have not seen what is self-evident--you drive me, +therefore, to explanations. + +"I offered you evidence that this jailer is a felon, who has hoodwinked +the visiting justices and has deceived you. But between you and the +justices is this essential difference: they have been hoodwinked in +spite of their own eyes, their own ears, and contact with that mass of +living and dying evidence, the prisoners. You have been deceived without +a single opportunity of learning the truth. + +"Therefore I appealed, and do appeal, not to convicted incompetency, +but to those whose incompetency remains to be proved. Perhaps you will +understand me better if I put it thus: I still accuse the jailer of more +than a hundred felonious assaults upon prisoners, of attacks upon their +lives by physical torture, by hunger, thirst, preposterous confinement +in dark dungeons, and other illegal practices; and I now advance another +step and accuse the visiting justices of gross dereliction of their +duty, of neglecting to ascertain the real practice of the jailer in some +points, and in others of encouraging, aiding and abetting him in open +violations of the prison rules printed and issued by Act of Parliament. +Of these rules, which are the jail code, I send you a copy. I note the +practices of the jail by the side of the rules of the jail. By comparing +the two you may calculate the amount of lawless cruelty perpetrated here +in each single day; then ask yourself whether an honest man who is on +the spot can wait four or five months till justice, crippled by routine, +comes hobbling instead of sweeping to their relief. + +"For Heaven's sake, bring to bear upon a matter vital to the State +one-half the intelligence, zeal and sense of responsibility you will +throw this evening into some ambiguous question of fleeting policy of +speculative finance. Here are one hundred and eighty souls to whose +correction, cure and protection the State is pledged. No one of all +these lives is safe a single day. In six weeks I have saved two lives +that were gone but for me. I am now sick and enfeebled by the exertions +I have had to make to save lives, and am in no condition to arrest the +progress of destruction. I tell you that more lives will fall if you do +not come to my aid at once! and for every head that falls from this hour +I hold you responsible to God and the State. + +"If I fail to prove my several accusations, as a matter of course I +shall be dismissed from my office deservedly; and this personal risk +entitles me not only to petition for, but to demand an inquiry into the +practice of ---- Jail. And in the queen's name, whose salaried servant I +am, I do demand it on the instant and on the spot." + +Thus did flesh and blood address gutta-percha. + +The excitement of writing this letter did the patient no good. A +reaction came, and that night his kind nurses were seriously alarmed +about him. They sent for the surgeon, who felt his pulse and his skin +and looked grave. However, he told them there was no immediate danger, +and wrote a fresh prescription. + +The patient would eat nothing but bread and water and gruel; but he took +all the doctor's medicines, which were raking ones; only at each visit +and prescription he cross-examined him as to what effect he hoped to +produce by his prescription, and compared the man's expectations with +the result. + +This process soon brought him to the suspicion that in his case +Aesculapius's science was guess-work. But we go on hoping and hoping +something from traditional remedies, even when they fail and fail and +fail before our eyes. + +He was often light-headed, and vented schemes of charity and benevolence +ludicrous by their unearthly grandeur. One day he was more than +light-headed--he was delirious, and frightened his kind nurses; and to +this delirium succeeded great feebleness, and this day for the first +time Susan made up her mind that it was Heaven's will earth should lose +this man, of whom, in truth, earth was scarce worthy. She came to his +side and said tenderly, + +"Let me do something for you. Shall I read to you, or sing you a hymn?" +Her voice had often soothed and done him good. "Tell me what I can do +for you!" + +The man smiled gratefully, then looked imploringly in her eyes, and +said, "Dear Susan, go for me into the prison and pay Strutt and Robinson +each a visit. Strutt the longest, he is the oldest. Poor things! they +miss me sadly." + +Susan made no foolish objection. She did what she was asked, and came +back and told him all they had said and all she had said; and how kind +everybody was to her in the prison; and how they had all asked how he +was to-day. + +"They are very good," said he feebly. + +Soon after he dosed; and Susan, who always wore a cheerful look to his +face, could now yield to her real feelings. + +She sat at some little distance from the bed and tried to work, and +every now and then looked up to watch him, and again and again her eyes +were blinded; and she laid down her work, for her heart said to her, "A +few short days and you will see him no more." + +Mrs. Davies, too, was grave and sad. She had made the house neat and +clean from cellar to garret, and now he who should have enjoyed it lay +there sick unto death. + +"Susan," said she, "I doubt I have been sent here to set his house in +order against his--" + +"Oh! don't tell me that," cried Susan, and she burst into a fit of +sobbing, for Mrs. Davies had harped her own fear. + +"Take care, he is waking, Susan. He must not see us." + +"Oh, no!" and the next moment she was by her patient's side with a +cheerful look and voice and manner well calculated to keep any male +heart from sinking, sick or well. + +Heavy heart and hopeful face! such a nurse was Susan Merton. This +kind deception became more difficult every day. Her patient wasted and +wasted; and the anxious look that is often seen on a death-stricken +man's face showed itself. Mrs. Davies saw it and Susan saw it; but the +sick man himself as yet had never spoken of his decease; and both Mrs. +Davies and Susan often wondered that he did not seem to see his real +state. + +But one day it so happened that he was light-headed and greatly excited, +holding a conversation. His eye was flashing, and he spoke in bursts, +and then stopped a while and seemed to be listening in irritation to +some arguments with which he did not agree. The enthusiast was building +a prison in the air. A prison with a farm, a school, and a manufactory +attached. Here were to be combined the good points of every system, and +others of his own. + +"Yes," said he, in answer to his imaginary companion, "there shall be +both separation and silence for those whose moral case it suits--for +all, perhaps, at first--but not for all always. Away with your +Morrison's pill-system; your childish monotony of moral treatment in +cases varying and sometimes opposed. + +"Yes, but I would. I would allow a degree of intercourse between such +as were disposed to confirm each other in good. Watch them? why, of +course--and closely, too. + +"Intelligent labor for every creature in the place. No tickets-of-leave +to let the hypocritical or self-deceiving ones loose upon the world. + +"No, I test their repentance first with a little liberty. + +"How? Why fly them with a string before I let them fly free! + +"Occupation provided outside the prison-gates; instead of +ticket-of-leave let the candidate work there on parole and come into the +prison at night. + +"Some will break parole and run away? All the better. Then you know +their real character. Telegraph them. You began by photographing +them--send their likenesses to every town--catch them--cell them. + +"Indeed! And pray what would these same men have done had you given them +the ticket-of-leave instead? + +"By the present plan your pseudo-convert commits a dozen crimes before +his hypocrisy is suspected; by ours a single offense warns you and arms +you against him. + +"Systems avail less than is supposed. For good or ill all depends on +your men--not your machinery. + +"We have got rid of the old patch that rotted our new garment. When I +first was chaplain of a jail--" + +His mind had gone forward some years. "Then we were mad--thought a +new system could be worked by men of the past, by jailers and turnkeys +belonging to the dark and brutal age that came before ours. + +"Those dark days are passed. Now we have really a governor and warders +instead of jailers and turnkeys. The nation has discovered these are +high offices, not mean ones. + +"Yes, Lepel, yes! Our officers are men picked out of all England for +intelligence and humanity. They co-operate with me. Our jail is one of +the nation's eyes--it is a school, thank Heaven, it is not a dungeon!--I +am in bed!" + +With these last words he had come to himself, and oh, the sad contrast! +Butcherly blockheads in these high places, and himself lying sick and +powerless, unable to lift a hand for the cause he loved. + +The sigh that burst from him seemed to tear his very heart; but the very +next moment he put his hands humbly together and said, "God's will +be done!" Yet one big tear gathered in his lion eye and spite of all +trickled down his cheek while he said, "God's will be done." + +Susan saw it, and turned quickly away and hid her face; but he called +her, and though his lip quivered his voice was pretty firm. + +"Dear friend, God can always find instruments. The good work will be +done, though not by me." + +So then Susan judged, by these few words, and the tear that trickled +from his closed eyes, that he saw what others saw and did not look to +live now. + +She left the room in haste not to agitate him by the sorrow she could no +longer restrain or conceal. The patient lay quiet, languidly dozing. + +Now about four o'clock in the afternoon the surgeon came to the door; +but what surprised Susan was that a man accompanied him whom she only +just knew by sight, and who had never been there before--the turnkey +Hodges. The pair spoke together in a low tone, and Susan, who was +looking down from an upper window, could not hear what they said; but +the discussion lasted a minute or two before they rang the bell. Susan +came down herself and admitted them: but as she was leading the +way upstairs her aunt suddenly bounced out of the parlor looking +unaccountably red, and said: + +"I will go up with them, Susan." + +Susan said, "If you like, aunt," but felt some little surprise at Mrs. +Davies's brisk manner. + +At the sick man's door Mrs. Davies paused, and said dryly, with a look +at Hodges, "Who shall I say is come with you?" + +"Mr. Hodges, one of the warders, is come to inquire after his +reverence's health," replied the surgeon smoothly. + +"I must ask him first whether he will receive a stranger." + +"Admit him," was Mr. Eden's answer. The men entered the room, and were +welcomed with a kind but feeble smile from the sick man. + +"Sit down, Hodges." + +The surgeon felt his pulse and wrote a prescription; for it is a +tradition of the elders that at each visit the doctor must do some overt +act of medicine. After this he asked the patient how he felt. + +Mr. Eden turned an eloquent look upon him in reply. + +"I must speak to Hodges," said he. "Come near me, Hodges," said he in a +kind voice, "perhaps I may not have any more opportunities of giving +you a word of friendly exhortation." Here a short, dissatisfied, +contemptuous grunt was heard at the window-seat. + +"Did you speak, Mrs. Davies?" + +"No, I didn't," was the somewhat sharp reply. + +"We should improve every occasion, Mrs. Davies, and I want this poor man +to know that a dying man may feel happy and hope everything from God's +love and mercy, if he has loved and pitied his brothers and sisters of +Adam's race." + +When he called himself a dying man, Hodges, who was looking +uncomfortable and at the floor, raised his head, and the surgeon and he +interchanged a rapid look; it was observed, though not by Mr. Eden. + +That gentleman, seeing Hodges wear an abashed look, which he +misunderstood, and aiming to improve him for the future, not punish him +for the past, said, "But first let me thank you for coming to see me," +and with these words he put his hand out of the bed with a kind smile to +Hodges. His gentle intention was roughly interrupted. Mrs. Davies flung +down her work and came like a flaming turkey-cock across the floor in a +moment, and seized his arm and flung it back into the bed. + +"No, ye don't! ye shan't give your hand to any such rubbish." + +"Mrs. Davies!" + +"Yes, Mrs. Davies; you don't know what they've come here for--I +overheard ye at the door! You have got an enemy in that filthy jail, +haven't you, sir? Well! this man comes from him to see how bad you +are--they were colloguing together backward and forward ever so long, +and I heard 'em--it is not out of any kindness or good will in the +world. Now suppose you march out the way you came in!" screamed Mrs. +Davies. + +"Mrs. Davies, be quiet and let me speak?" + +"Of course I will, sir," said the woman with a ludicrously sudden calm +and coaxing tone. + +There was a silence; Mr. Eden eyed the men. Small guilt peeped from them +by its usual little signs. + +Mr. Eden's lip curled magnificently. + +"So you did not come to see me--you were sent by that man. (Mrs. Davies, +be quiet; curiosity is not a crime, like torturing the defenseless.) Mr. +Hawes sent you that you might tell him how soon his victims are like to +lose their only earthly defender." + +The men colored and stammered; Mrs. Davies covered her face with her +apron and rocked herself on her chair. + +Mr. Eden flowed gently on. + +"Tell your master that I have settled all my worldly affairs, and caused +all my trifling debts to be paid. + +"Tell him that I have made my will! (I have provided in it for the +turnkey Evans--he will know why.) + +"Tell him you found my cheeks fallen away, my eye hollow, and my face +squalid. + +"Tell him my Bible was by my side, and even the prison was mingling with +other memories as I drifted from earth and all its thorns and tears. All +was blunted but the Christian's faith and trust in his Redeemer. + +"Tell him that there is a cold dew upon my forehead. + +"Tell him that you found me by the side of the river Jordan, looking +across the cold river to the heavenly land, where they who have been +washed in the blood of the Lamb walk in white garments, and seem, even +as I gaze, to welcome and beckon me to join them. + +"And then tell him," cried he, in a new voice like a flash of lightning, +"that he has brought me back to earth. You have come and reminded me +that if I die a wolf is waiting to tear my sheep. I thank you, and I +tell you," roared he, "as the Lord liveth and as my soul liveth, I will +not die but live--and do the Lord's work--and put my foot yet on that +caitiff's neck who sent you to inspect my decaying body, you poor +tools--THE DOOR!" + +He was up in the bed by magic, towering above them all, and he pointed +to the door with a tremendous gesture and an eye that flamed. Mrs. +Davies caught the electric spark, in a moment she tore the door open, +and the pair bundled down the stairs before that terrible eye and +finger. + +"Susan--Susan!" Susan heard his elevated voice, and came running in in +great anxiety. + +"They say there is no such thing as friendship between a man and a +woman. Prove to me this is a falsehood!" + +"It is, sir." + +"Do me a service." + +"Ah!--what is it?" + +"Go a journey for me." + +"I will go all round England for you, Mr. Eden," cried the girl, panting +and flushing. + +"My writing-desk!--it is to a village sixty miles from this, but you +will be there in four hours; in that village lives the man who can cure +me, if any one can." + +"What will you take with you?" asked Mrs. Davies, all in a bustle. + +"A comb and brush, and a chemise." + +"I'll have them down in a twinkling." + +The note was written. + +"Take this to his house, see him, tell him the truth, and bring him with +you to-morrow--it will be fifty pounds out of his pocket to leave his +patients--but I think he will come. Oh, yes! he will come--for auld lang +syne." + +"Good-by, Mr. Eden--God bless you, aunt. I want to be gone; I shall +bring him if I have to carry him in my arms." And with these words Susan +was gone. + +"Now, good Mrs. Davies, give me the Bible. Often has that book soothed +the torn nerves as well as the bleeding heart--and let no one come here +to grieve or vex me for twenty-four hours--and fling that man's draught +away, I want to live." + +Mrs. Davies had heard Hodges and Fry aright. Mr. Eden by her clew had +interpreted the visit aright, with this exception, that he overrated his +own importance in Mr. Hawes's eyes. For Hawes mocked at the chaplain's +appeal to the Home Office ever since the office had made his tools the +virtual referees. + +Still a shade of uneasiness remained. During the progress of this long +duel Eden had let fall two disagreeable hints. One was that he would +spend a thousand pounds in setting such prisoners as survived Hawes's +discipline to indict him, and the other that he would appeal to the +public press. + +This last threat had touched our man of brass; for if there is one thing +upon earth that another thing does not like, your moral malefactor, +who happens to be out of the law's reach, hates and shivers at the New +Bailey in Printing-house Yard. So, upon the whole, Mr. Hawes thought +that the best thing Mr. Eden could do would be to go to heaven without +any more fuss. + +"Yes, that will be the best for all parties." + +He often questioned the doctor in his blunt way how soon the desired +event might be expected to come off, if at all. The doctor still +answered per ambages, ut mos oraculis. + +"I see I must go myself--No, I won't, I'll send Fry. Ah, here is Hodges. +Go and see the parson, and come back and tell me whether he is like +to live or like to die. Mr. Sawyer here can't speak English about a +patient; he would do it to oblige me if he could, but--him, he can't." + +"Don't much like the job," demurred Hodges sulkily. + +"What matters what you like? You must all do things you don't like in a +prison, or get into trouble." + +More accustomed to obey than to reflect, Hodges yielded, but at Mr. +Eden's very door, his commander being now out of sight, his reluctance +revived; and this led to an amicable discussion in which the surgeon +made him observe how very ferocious and impatient of opposition the +governor had lately become. + +"He can get either of us dismissed if we offend him." + +So the pair of cowards did what they were bid--and got themselves +trod upon a bit. It only remains to be said that as they trudged back +together a little venom worked in their little hearts. They hated both +duelists--one for treating them like dogs, the other for sending them +where they had got treated like dogs; and they disliked each other for +seeing them treated like dogs. One bitterness they escaped, it did not +occur to them to hate themselves for being dogs. + +If you force a strong-willed stick out of its bent, with what fury +it flies back ad statum quo or a little farther when the coercion is +removed. So hard-grained Hawes, his fears of the higher powers removed, +returned with a spring to his intermitted habits. + +There was no incarnate obstacle now to "discipline." There was a +provisional chaplain, but that chaplain was worthy Mr. Jones, who having +visited the town for a month, had consented for a week or two to supply +the sick man's place, and did supply it so far as a good clock can +replace a man. Viewing himself now as something between an officer and a +guest he was less likely to show fight than ever. + +Earnest Hawes pilloried, flung into black dungeons, stole beds and +gas-light, crushed souls with mysterious threats, and bodies with a +horrible mixture of those tortures that madden and those other tortures +that exhaust. No Spanish Inquisitor was ever a greater adept at this +double move than earnest Hawes. The means by which he could make any +prisoner appear refractory have already been described, but in the case +of one stout fellow whom he wanted to discipline he now went a step +farther. He slipped into the yard and slyly clogged one of the cranks +with a weight which he inserted inside the box and attached to the +machinery. This contrivance would have beaten Hercules and made him seem +idle to any one not in the secret. In short this little blockhead bade +fair to become one of Mr. Carlyle's great men. He combined the earnest +sneak with the earnest butcher. + +Barbarous times are not wholly expunged as book-makers affect to fear. +Legislators, moralists and writers (I don't include book-makers under +that title) try to clap their extinguishers on them with God's help; +but they still contrive to shoot some lurid specimens of themselves +into civilized epochs. Such a black ray of the narrow, self-deceiving, +stupid, bloody past was earnest Hawes. + +Not a tithe of his exploits can be recorded here, for though he played +upon many souls and bodies, he repeated the same notes--hunger, thirst, +the blackness of darkness, crucifixion, solitude, loss of sleep--so that +a description of all his feats would be a catalogue of names subjected +to the above tortures, and be dry as well as revolting. + +I shall describe therefore only the grand result of all, and a case or +two that varied by a shade the monotony of discipline. He kept one poor +lad without any food at all from Saturday morning till Sunday at twelve +o'clock, and made him work; and for his Sunday dinner gave the famished +wretch six ounces of bread and a can of water. He strapped one prisoner +up in the pillory for twenty-four hours, and directed him to be fed in +it. This prisoner had a short neck, and the cruel collar would not let +him eat, so that the tortures of Tantalus were added to crucifixion. The +earnest beast put a child of eleven years old into a strait-waistcoat +for three days, then kept him three days on bread and water, and robbed +him of his bed and his gas for fourteen days. We none of us know the +meaning of these little punishments so vast beyond our experience; but +in order to catch a glimmer of the meaning of the last item, we must +remember first that the cells admit but little light, and that the gas +is the prisoner's sunlight for the hour or two of rest from hard toil +that he is allowed before he is ordered to bed, and next that a prisoner +has but two sets of clothes--those he stands upright in, and his +bed-clothes; these are rolled up inside the bed every morning. When +therefore a prisoner was robbed of his bed, he was robbed of the means +of keeping himself warm as well as of that rest without which life soon +comes to a full stop. + +Having victimized this child's tender body as aforesaid Mr. Hawes made a +cut at his soul. He stopped his chapel. + +One ought not to laugh at a worm coming between another worm and his God +and saying, "No! you shall not hear of God to-day--you have displeased +a functionary whose discipline takes precedence of His;" and it is to be +observed, that though this blockhead did not in one sense comprehend the +nature of his own impious act any more than a Hottentot would, yet as +broad as he saw he saw keenly. + +The one ideaed-man wanted to punish, and deprivation of chapel is a +bitter punishment to a prisoner under the separate and silent system. + +And lay this down as a rule, whenever in this tale a punishment is +recorded as having been inflicted by Hawes, however light it may appear +to you who never felt it, bring your intelligence to bear on it--weigh +the other conditions of a prisoner's miserable existence it was added +to, and in every case you will find it was a blow with a sledge-hammer; +in short, to comprehend Hawes and his fraternity it is necessary to make +a mental effort and comprehend the meaning of the word "accumulation." + +The first execution of biped Carter took place about a week after Mr. +Eden was laid prostrate. + +It is not generally very difficult to outwit an imbecile, and the +governor enmeshed Carter, made him out refractory and crucified him. The +poor soul did not hallo at first, for he remembered they had not cut his +throat the last time, as he thought they were going to do (he had seen a +pig first made fast--then stuck). But when the bitter cramps came on he +began to howl and cry most frightfully; so that Hawes, who was talking +to the surgeon in the center of the building, started and came at once +to the place. Mr. Sawyer came with him. They tried different ways +of quieting him, in vain. They went to a distance, as Mr. Eden had +suggested, but it was no use; he was howling now from pain, not fear. + +"Gag him!" roared Hawes, "it is scandalous; I hate a noise." + +"Better loose him," suggested the surgeon. + +Hawes blighted him with a look. "What; and let him beat me?" + +"There is no gag in the prison," said Fry. + +"A pretty prison without a gag in it!" said Hawes; the only reflection +he was ever heard to cast on his model jail; then, with sudden ferocity +he turned on Sawyer. "What is the use of you; don't you know anything +for your money? can't all your science stop this brute's windpipe, you!" + +Science thus blandly invoked came to the aid of inhumanity. + +"Humph! have you got any salt?" + +"Salt!" roared Hawes, "what is the use of salt? Oh! ay, I see! run and +get a pound, and look sharp with it." + +They brought the salt. + +"Now, will you hold your noise?--then, give it him." + +The scientific operator watched his opportunity, and when the poor +biped's mouth was open howling, crammed a handful of salt into it. He +spat it out as well as he could, but some of it dissolved by the saliva +found its way down his throat. The look of amazement and distress that +followed was most amusing to the operators. + +"That was, a good idea, doctor," cried Hawes. + +The triumph was premature. Carter's cries were choked for a moment by +his astonishment. But the next, finding a fresh torture added to the +first, he howled louder than ever. Then the governor seized the salt, +powdered a good handful, and avoiding his teeth crammed it suddenly into +the poor creature's mouth. He spat it furiously out, and the brine fell +like sea-spray upon all the operators, especially on Hawes, who swore at +the biped, and called him a beast, and promised him a long spell of the +cross for his nastiness. After Hawes, Fry must take his turn; and so now +these three creatures, to whom Heaven had given reason, combined their +strength and their sacred reason to torture and degrade one of +those whom the French call "betes du bon Dieu"--a +heaven-afflicted--heaven-pitied brother. + +They respected neither the hapless wight nor his owner. Whenever he +opened his mouth with the instinct that makes animals proclaim their +hurts and appeal for pity on the chance of a heart being within hearing, +then did these show their sense of his appeal thus: One of the party +crammed the stinging salt down his throat; the others watched him, and +kept clear of the brine that he spat vehemently out, and a loud report +of laughter followed instantly each wild grimace and convulsion of fear +and torture. Thus they employed their reason, and flouted as well as +tortured him who had less. + +"Haw! haw! haw! haw! haw!" + +No lightning came down from heaven upon these merry souls. The idiot's +spittle did not burn them when it fell on them. ALL THE WORSE FOR THEM! + +They left Carter for hours in the pillory, and soon a violent thirst was +added to his sufferings. Prolonged pain brings on cruel thirst, and many +a poor fellow suffered horribly from it during the last hours of +his pillory. But in this case the salt he had swallowed made it more +vehement. Most men go through life and never know thirst. It is a +frightful torture, as any novice would have learned who had seen Carter +at six in the evening of this cruel day. The poor wretch's throat was +so parched he could hardly breathe. His eyes were all bloodshot and his +livid tongue lolled stringless and powerless out of his gasping mouth. +He would have given diamonds for drops of water. + +The earnest man going his rounds of duty saw his pitiable state and +forbade relief till the number of hours he had appointed for his +punishment should be completed. Discipline before all! + +There was one man in the jail, just one, who could no longer view this +barbarity unmoved. His heart had been touched and his understanding +wakened, and he saw these prodigies of cruelty in their true light. But +he was afraid of Hawes, and unfortunately the others by an instinct felt +their comrade was no longer one of them and watched him closely. But his +intelligence was awakened with his humanity. After much thought he hit +upon this; he took the works out of his watch--an old hunting watch--and +stolling into the yard, dipped the case into the bucket, then closed +it; and soon after getting close to Carter, and between him and Fry, he +affected to examine the prisoner's collar, and then hastily gave him +a watchful of cold water. Carter sucked it with frightful avidity, +and small as the draught was no mortal can say what consequences were +averted by it. + +Evans was dreadfully out of spirits. His ally lay dying and his enemy +triumphed. He looked to be turned out of the jail at the next meeting of +magistrates. But when he had given the idiot his watch to drink out of +an unwonted warmth and courage seemed to come into his heart. + +This touch of humanity coming suddenly among the most hellish of all +fiends--men of system--was like the little candle in a window that +throws its beams so far when we are bewildered in a murky night. For the +place was now a moral coal-hole. The dungeons at Rome that lie under +the wing of Roderick Borgia's successors are not a more awful remnant of +antiquity or a fouler blot on the age, on the law, on the land, and on +human nature. + +A thick, dark pall of silence and woe hung over its huge walls. If +a voice was heard above a whisper it was sure to be either a cry of +anguish or a fierce command to inflict anguish. Two or three were +crucified every day; the rest expected crucifixion from morning till +night. No man felt safe an hour; no man had the means of averting +punishment; all were at the mercy of a tyrant. Threats frightful, fierce +and mysterious hung like weights over every soul and body. Whenever a +prisoner met an officer he cowered and hurried crouching by like a dog +passing a man with a whip in his hand; and as he passed he trembled at +the thunder of his own footsteps, and wished to Heaven they would not +draw so much attention to him by ringing so clear through that huge +silent tomb. When an officer met the governor he tried to slip by with a +hurried salute lest he should be stopped, abused and sworn at. + +The earnest man fell hardest upon the young; boys and children were +favorite victims; but his favorites of all were poor Robinson and +little Josephs. These were at the head of the long list he crucified, he +parched, he famished, he robbed of prayer, of light, of rest and hope. +He disciplined the sick; he closed the infirmary again. That large room, +furnished with comforts, nurses and air, was an inconsistency. + +"A new prison is a collection of cells," said Hawes. The infirmary was +a spot in the sun. The exercise yard in this prison was a twelve-box +stable for creatures concluded to be wild beasts. The labor-yard was +a fifteen-stall stable for ditto. The house of God an eighty-stalled +stable, into which the wild beasts were dispersed for public worship +made private. Here, in early days, before Hawes was ripe, they assembled +apart and repeated prayers, and sang hymns on Sunday. But Hawes found +out that though the men were stabled apart their voices were refractory +and mingled in the air, and with their voices their hearts might, who +knows? He pointed this out to the justices, who shook their skulls and +stopped the men's responses and hymns. These animals cut the choruses +out of the English liturgy with as little ceremony and as good effect +as they would have cut the choruses out of Handel's "Messiah," if the +theory they were working had been a musical instead of a moral one. + +So far so good; but the infirmary had escaped Justice Shallow and +Justice Woodcock. Hawes abolished that. + +Discipline before all. Not because a fellow is sick is he to break +discipline. + +So the sick lay in their narrow cells gasping in vain for fresh air, +gasping in vain for some cooling drink, or some little simple delicacy +to incite their enfeebled appetite. + +The dying were locked up at the fixed hour for locking up, and found +dead at the fixed hour for opening. How they had died--no one knew. At +what hour they had died--no one knew. Whether in some choking struggle +a human hand might have saved them by changing a suffocating position or +the like--no one knew. + +But this all knew--that these our sinful brethren had died, not like +men, but like vultures in the great desert. They were separated from +their kith and kin, who however brutal would have said a kind word and +done a tender thing or two for them at that awful hour; and nothing +allowed them in exchange, not even the routine attentions of a prison +nurse; they were in darkness and alone when the king of terrors came to +them and wrestled with them. All men had turned their backs on them, no +creature near to wipe the dews of death, to put a cool hand to the brow, +or soften the intensity of the last sad sigh that carried their souls +from earth. Thus they passed away, punished lawlessly by the law till +they succumbed, and then, since they were no longer food for torture, +ignored by the law and abandoned by the human race. + +They locked up one dying man at eight o'clock. At midnight the thirst of +death came on him. He prayed for a drop of water, but there was none +to hear him. Parched and gasping the miserable man got out of bed and +groped for his tin mug, but before he could drink the death agony seized +him. When they unlocked him in the morning they found him a corpse on +the floor with the mug in his hand and the water spilled on the floor. +They wrenched the prison property out of its dead hand, and flung the +carcass itself upon the bed as if it had been the clay cast of a dog, +not the remains of a man. + +All was of a piece. The living tortured; the dying abandoned; the +dead kicked out of the way. Of these three the living were the most +unfortunate, and among the living Robinson and Josephs. Never since the +days of Cain was existence made more bitter to two hapless creatures +than to these--above all to Josephs. + +His day began thus: Between breakfast and dinner he was set five +thousand revolutions of a heavy crank; when he could not do it his +dinner was taken away and a few crumbs of bread and a can of water given +him instead. Between his bread and water time and six o'clock if the +famished, worn-out lad could not do five thousand more revolutions and +make up the previous deficiency he was punished ad libitum. As the whole +thing from first to last was beyond his powers, he never succeeded in +performing these preposterous tasks. He was threatened, vilified and +tortured every day and every hour of it. + +Human beings can bear great sufferings if you give them periods of ease +between; and beneficent nature allows for this, and when she means us to +suffer short of death she lashes us at intervals; were it otherwise we +should succumb under a tithe of what we suffer intermittently. + +But Hawes, besides his cruelty, was a noodle. He belonged to a knot of +theorists into whose hands the English jails are fast falling; a set of +shallow dreamers, who being greater dunces and greater asses than four +men out of every six that pass you in Fleet Street or Broadway at +any hour, think themselves wiser than Nature and her Author. Josephs +suffered body and spirit without intermission. The result was that his +flesh withered on his bones; his eyes were dim and seemed to lie at the +bottom of two caverns; he crawled stiffly and slowly instead of walking. +He was not sixteen years of age, yet Hawes had extinguished his youth +and blotted out all its signs but one. Had you met this figure in the +street you would have said: + +"What, an old man and no beard?" + +One day as Robinson happened to be washing the corridor with his beaver +up, what he took for a small but aged man passed him, shambling stiffly, +with joints stiffened by perpetual crucifixion and rheumatism, that had +ensued from perpetually being wetted through. This figure had his beaver +down. At sight of Robinson he started and instantly went down on his +knee and untied both shoe strings; then while tying them again slowly he +whispered: + +"Robinson, I am Josephs; don't look toward me." + +Robinson, scrubbing the wall with more vigor than before, whispered, +"How are they using you now, boy?" + +"Hush! don't speak so loud. Robinson--they are killing me. + +"The ruffians! They are trying all they know to kill me, too." + +"Fry coming." + +"Hist!" said Robinson as Josephs crept away; and having scraped off +a grain of whitewash with his nail he made a little white mark on his +trouser just above his calf, for Josephs to know him by, should they +meet next time with visors both down. Josephs gave a slight and rapid +signal of intelligence as he disappeared. Two days after this they met +on the staircase. The boy, who now looked at every prisoner's trowsers +for the white mark, recognized Robinson at some distance and began to +speak before they met. + +"I can't go on much longer like this." + +"No more can I." + +"I shall go to father." + +"Why where is he?" + +"He is dead." + +"I don't care how soon I go there either, but not till I have sent Hawes +on before--not for all the world. Pass me, and then come back." + +They met again. + +"Keep up your heart, boy, till his reverence gets well, or goes to +heaven. If he lives he will save us somehow. If he dies--I'll tell you +a secret. I know where there is a brick I think I can loosen. I mean to +smash that beast's skull with it, and then you will be all right, and my +heart will feel like a prince." + +"Oh! don't do that," said Josephs piteously. "Better far us he should +murder us than we him." + +"Murder!" cried Robinson contemptuously. And there was no time to say +any more. + +After this many days passed before these two could get a syllable +together. But one day after chapel as the men were being told off to +their several tasks Robinson recognized the boy by his figure, and +jogging his elbow withdrew a little apart; Josephs followed him, and +this time Robinson was the first speaker. + +"We shall never see Mr. Eden alive again, boy," said he in a faltering +voice. Then in a low gloomy tone he muttered, "I have loosened the +brick. The day I lose all hope that day I send Hawes home." And the +thief pointed toward the cellar. + +"The day you have no more hope, Robinson; that day has come to me this +fortnight and more. He tells me every day he will make my life hell to +me, and I am sure it has been nothing else ever since I came here." + +"Keep up your heart, boy; he hasn't long to live." + +"He will live too long for me. I can't stay here any longer. You and I +shan't often chat together again; perhaps never." + +"Don't talk so, laddie. Keep up your heart--for my sake." + +One bitter tearing sob was all the reply. And so these two parted. + +This was just after breakfast. At dinner-time Josephs, not having +performed an impossible task, was robbed of his dinner. A little bread +and water was served out to him in the yard, and he was set on the +crank again with fearful menaces. In particular Mr. Hawes repeated his +favorite threat--"I'll make your life hell to you." Josephs groaned; but +what could a boy of fifteen do, overtasked and famished for a month past +and fitter now for a hospital than for hard labor of any sort? At three +o'clock his progress on the crank was so slow that Mr. Hawes ordered him +to be crucified on the spot. + +His obedient myrmidons for the fiftieth time seized the lad and crushed +him in the jacket, throttled him in the collar, and pinned him to the +wall, and this time, the first time for a long while, the prisoner +remonstrated loudly. + +"Why not kill me at once and put me out of my misery!" + +"Hold your tongue." + +"You know I can't do the task you set me. You know it as well as I do." + +"Hold your tongue, you insolent young villain. Strap him tighter, Fry." + +"Oh no! no! no! don't go to strap me tighter or you will cut me in +half--don't, Mr. Fry. I will hold my tongue, sir." Then he turned his +hollow, mournful eyes on Hawes and said gently, "It can't last much +longer, you know." + +"It shall last till I break you, you obstinate, whining dog. You are +hardly used, are you? Wait till to-morrow. I'll show you that I have +only been playing with you as yet. But I have got a punishment in store +for you that will make you wish you were in hell." + +Hawes stood over the martyr fiercely threatening him. The martyr shut +his eyes. It seemed as though the enraged Hawes would end by striking +him. He winced with his eyes. He could not wince with any other part of +his body, so tight was it jammed together and jammed against the wall. + +Hawes however did but repeat his threat of some new torture on the +morrow that should far eclipse all he had yet endured; and shaking his +fist at his helpless body left him with his torture. + +One hour of bitter, racking, unremitting anguish had hardly rolled +over this young head ere his frame, weakened by famine and perpetual +violence, began to give the usual signs that he would soon sham--swoon +we call it when it occurs to any but a prisoner. As my readers have +never been in Mr. Hawes's man-press, and as attempts have been made to +impose on the inexperience of the public and represent the man-press as +restriction not torture, I will shortly explain why sooner or later all +the men that were crucified in it ended by shamming. + +Were you ever seized at night with a violent cramp? Then you have +instantly with a sort of wild and alarmed rapidity changed the posture +which had cramped you; ay though the night was ever so cold you have +sprung out of bed sooner than lie cramped. If the cramp would not go +in less than half a minute that half-minute was long and bitter. As for +existing cramped half an hour, that you never thought possible. Imagine +now the severest cramp you ever felt artificially prolonged for hours +and hours. Imagine yourself cramped in a vise, no part of you movable +a hair's breadth, except your hair and your eyelids. Imagine the fierce +cramp growing and growing, and rising like a tide of agony higher and +higher above nature's endurance, and you will cease to wonder that a man +always sunk under Hawes's man-press. Now, then, add to the cramp a high +circular saw raking the throat, jacket straps cutting and burning the +flesh of the back--add to this the freezing of the blood in the body +deprived so long of all motion whatever (for motion of some sort or +degree is a condition of vitality), and a new and far more rational +wonder arises, that any man could be half an hour cut, sawed, crushed, +cramped, Mazeppa'd thus, without shamming--still less be four, six, +eight hours in it, and come out a living man. + +The young martyr's lips were turning blue, his face was twitching +convulsively, when a word was unexpectedly put in for him by a +bystander. + +The turnkey Evans had been half sullenly half sorrowfully watching him +for some minutes past. + +A month or two ago the lips of a prisoner turning blue and his skin +twitching told Evans nothing. He saw these things without seeing them. +He was cruel from stupidity--from blockhead to butcher there is but a +step. Like the English public he _realized_ nothing where prisoners were +concerned. But Mr. Eden had awakened his intelligence, and his heart +waked with it naturally. + +Now when he saw lips turning blue and eyes rolling in sad despair, and +skin twitching convulsively, it occurred to him--"this creature must be +suffering very badly," and the next step was "let me see what is hurting +him so." + +Evans now stood over Josephs and examined him. "Mr. Fry," said he +doggedly, "is not this overdoing it?" + +"What d'ye mean, we are to obey orders, I suppose?" + +"Of course, but there was no need to draw the jacket straps so tight as +all this. Boy's bellows can't hardly work for 'em." + +He now passed his hand round the hollow of the lad's back. + +"I thought so," cried he; "I can't get my finger between the straps and +the poor fellow's flesh, and, good heavens I can feel the skin rising +like a ridge on each side of the straps; it is a black, burning shame to +use any Christian like this." + +These words were hardly out of the turnkey's mouth when a startling +cry came suddenly from poor Josephs; a sudden, wild, piercing scream of +misery. In that bitter, despairing cry burst out the pent-up anguish of +weeks, and the sense of injustice and cruelty more than human. The poor +thing gave this one terrible cry. Heaven forbid that you should hear +such a one in life, as I hear his in my heart, and then he fell to +sobbing as if his whole frame would burst. + +They were not much, these rough words of sympathy, but they were the +first--the first words, too, of humanity and reason a turnkey had spoken +in his favor since he came into this hell. Above all, the first in which +it had ever been hinted or implied that his flesh was human flesh. The +next moment he began to cry, but that was not so easy. He soon lost his +breath and couldn't cry though his very life depended on it. Tears gave +relief. Dame Nature said, "Cry, my suffering son, cry now, and relieve +that heart swelling with cruelty and wrong." + +But Hawes's infernal machine said, "No, you shall not cry. I give you no +room to cry in." The cruel straps jammed him so close his swelling heart +could but half heave. The jagged collar bit his throat so hard he could +but give three or four sobs and then the next choked him. The struggle +between Nature panting and writhing for relief, and the infernal +man-press, was so bitter strong that the boy choked and blackened and +gasped as one in the last agony. + +"Undo him," cried Evans hastily, "or we shall kill him among us." + +"Bucket," said the experienced Fry quite coolly. + +The bucket was at hand--its contents were instantly discharged over +Josephs' head. + +A cry like a dying hare--two or three violent gasps--and he was quiet, +all but a strong shiver that passed from head to foot; only with the +water that now trickled from his hair down his face scalding tears from +his young eyes fell to the ground undistinguished from the water by any +eye but God's. + +At six o'clock Hawes came into the yard and ordered Fry to take him +down. Fry took this opportunity of informing against Evans for his mild +interference. + +"He will pay for that along with the rest," said Hawes with an oath. + +Then he turned on Josephs, who halted stiffly by him on his way to his +cell. + +"I'll make your life hell to you, you young vagabond--you are hardly +used, are you? all you have ever known isn't a stroke with a feather to +what I'll make you know by-and-by. Wait till to-morrow comes, you shall +see what I can do when I am put to it." + +Josephs sobbed, but answered nothing, and crawled sore, stiff, dripping, +shivering to his cell. In that miserable hole he would at least be at +peace. + +He found the gas lighted. He was glad, for he was drenched through and +bitterly cold. He crept up to the little gaslight and put his dead white +hands over it and got a little warmth into them; he blessed this spark +of light and warmth; he looked lovingly down on it, it was his only +friend in the jail, his companion in the desolate cell. He wished he +could gather it into his bosom; then it would warm his heart and his +blighted flesh and aching, shivering bones. + +While he hung shivering over his spark of light and warmth and comfort, +a key was put into his door. "Ah! here's supper," thought he, "and I +am so hungry." It was not supper, it was Fry who came in empty-handed, +leaving the door open. Fry went to his gaslight and put his finger and +thumb on the screw. + +"Oh! it burns all right, Mr. Fry," said Josephs, "it won't go any +higher, thank you." + +"No, it won't," said Fry dryly, and turned it out, leaving the cell in +utter darkness. + +"There, I told you so," said Josephs pettishly, "now you have been and +turned it out." + +"Yes, I have been and turned it out," replied Fry with a brutal laugh, +"and it won't be turned on again for fourteen days, so the governor +says, however, and I suppose he knows," and Fry went out chuckling. + +Josephs burst out sobbing and almost screaming at this last stroke; it +seemed to hurt him more than his fiercer tortures. He sobbed so wildly +and so loud that Mr. Jones, passing on the opposite corridor, heard him +and beckoned to Evans to open the cell. + +They found the boy standing in the middle of his dungeon shaking with +cold in his drenched clothes and sobbing with his whole body. It was +frightful to see and hear the agony and despair of one so young in +years, so old in misery. + +Mr. Jones gave him words of commonplace consolation. Mr. Jones tried to +persuade him that patience was the best cure. + +"Be patient, and do not irritate the governor any more--the storm will +pass." + +He seemed to Josephs as one that mocketh. Jones's were such little +words to fling in the face of a great despair; to chatter unreasonable +consolation was to mock his unutterable misery of soul and body. + +Mr. Jones was one of those who sprinkle a burning mountain with a +teaspoonful of milk and water, and then go away and make sure they have +put it out. When he was gone with this impression, Evans took down the +boy's bed and said: + +"Don't ye cry now like that; it makes me ill to hear any Christian cry +like that." + +"Oh, Mr. Evans! oh! oh! oh! oh! What have I done? Oh, my mother! my +mother! my mother!" + +Evans winced. What! had he a mother, too? If she could see him now! +and perhaps he was her darling though he was a prisoner. He shook the +bed-clothes out and took hold of the shivering boy and with kind force +made him lie down; then he twisted the clothes tight round him. + +"You will get warm, if you will but lie quiet and not think about it." + +Josephs did what he was bid. He could not still his sobs, but he +turned his mournful eyes on Evans with a look of wonder at meeting with +kindness from a human being, and half doubtingly put out his hand. So +then Evans, to comfort him, took his hand and shook it several times in +his hard palm, and said: + +"Good-night. You'll soon get warm, and don't think of it--that is the +best way;" and Evans ran away in the middle of a sentence, for the look +of astonishment the boy wore at his humanity went through the man's +penitent heart like an arrow. + +Josephs lay quiet and his sobs began gradually to go down, and, as Evans +had predicted, some little warmth began to steal over his frame; but +he could not comply with all Evans's instructions; he could not help +thinking of it. For all that, as soon as he got a little warm, Nature, +who knew how much her tortured son needed repose, began to weigh down +his eyelids, and he dozed. He often started, he often murmured a prayer +for pity as his mind acted over again the scenes of his miserable +existence; but still he dozed, and sleep was stealing over him. Sleep! +life's nurse sent from heaven to create us anew day by day!--sleep! that +has blunted and gradually cured a hundred thousand sorrows for one that +has yielded to any moral remedy--sleep! that has blunted and so cured by +degrees a million fleshly ills for one that drugs or draughts have ever +reached--sleep had her arm round this poor child and was drawing him +gently, gently, slowly, slowly to her bosom--when suddenly his cell +seemed to him to be all in a blaze, and a rough hand shook him, and a +harsh voice sounded in his ear. + +"Come, get up out of that, youngster," it said, and the hand almost +jerked him off the floor. + +"What is the matter?" inquired Josephs yawning. + +"Matter is, I want your bed." + +Josephs rose half stupid, and Hodges rolled up his bed and blanket. + +"Are you really going to rob me of my bed?" inquired Josephs slowly and +firmly. + +"Rob you, you young dog? Here is the governor's order. No bed and gas +for fourteen days." + +"No bed nor gas for fourteen days! Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!" + +"Oh, you laugh at that, do you?" + +"I laugh at Mr. Hawes thinking to keep me out of bed for fourteen days, +a poor wornout boy like me. You tell Hawes I'll find a bed in spite of +him long before fourteen days." + +Hodges looked about the cell for this other bed. "Come," said he, "you +must not chaff the officers. The governor will serve you out enough +without your giving us any of your sauce." + +Hodges was going with the bed. Josephs stopped him. The boy took this +last blow quite differently from the gas; no impatience or burst of +sorrow now. + +"Won't you bid me good-by, Mr. Hodges?" asked he. + +"Why not? Good-night." + +"That isn't what I mean. Mr. Evans gave me his hand." + +"Did he? what for?" + +"And so must you. Oh, you may as well, Mr. Hodges. I never came to you +and took away your little bit of light and your little bit of sleep. So +you can take my hand if I can give it you. You will be sorry afterward +if you say no." + +"There it is--what the better are you for that, you young fool? I'll +tell you what it is, you are turning soft. I don't know what to make of +you. I shall come to your cell the first thing in the morning." + +"Ay, do, Mr. Hodges," said Josephs, "and then you won't be sorry you +shook hands at night." + +At this moment the boy's supper was thrust through the trap-door; it was +not the supper by law appointed, but six ounces of bread and a can of +water. + +Hodges, now that he had touched the prisoner's hand, felt his first +spark of something bordering on sympathy. He looked at the grub half +ashamed and made a wry face. Josephs caught his look and answered it. + +"It is as much as I shall want," said he very calmly, and he smiled at +Hodges as he spoke, a sweet and tender but dogged smile; a smile to live +in a man's memory for years. + +The door was closed with a loud snap, and Josephs was left to face the +long night (it was now seven o'clock) in his wet clothes, which smoked +with the warmth his late bed had begun to cherish; but they soon ceased +to smoke as the boy froze. + +Night advanced. Josephs walked about his little cell, his teeth +chattering, then flung himself like a dead log on the floor, and finding +Hawes's spirit in the cold, hard stone, rose and crawled shivering to +and fro again. + +Meantime we were all in our nice soft beds; such as found three blankets +too little added a dressing-gown of flannel, or print lined with wadding +or fleecy hosiery, and so made shift. In particular all those who +had the care of Josephs took care to lie warm and soft. Hawes, Jones, +Hodges, Fry, Justices Shallow and Woodcock, all took the care of their +own carcasses they did not take of Josephs' youthful frame. + +"Be cold at night? Not if we know it; why you can't sleep if you are not +thoroughly warm!!" + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +MIDNIGHT! + +Josephs was crouched shivering under the door of his cell, listening. + +"All right now. I think they are all asleep; now is the time." + +Hawes, Hodges, Jones, Fry, were snoring without a thought of him they +had left to pass the live-long night, clothed in a sponge, cradled on a +stone. + +DORMEZ, MESSIEURS! TOUT EST TRANQUILLE; DORMEZ! + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +PAST one o'clock! + +The moon was up, but often obscured; clouds drifted swiftly across her +face; it was a cold morning--past one o'clock. Josephs was at his window +standing tiptoe on his stool. Thoughts coursed one another across +his broken heart as fast as the clouds flew past the moon's face. But +whatever their nature, the sting was now out of them. The bitter sense +of wrong and cruelty was there, but blunted. Fear was nearly extinct, +for hope was dead. + +There was no tumult in his mind now; he had gone through all that, and +had got a step beyond grief or pain. + +Thus ran his thoughts: "I wonder what Hawes was going to do with me +to-morrow. Something worse than all I have gone through, he said. That +seems hard to believe. But I don't know. Best not give him the chance. +He does know how to torture one. Well, he must keep it for some +other poor fellow. I hope it won't be Robinson. I'll have a look at +out-a-doors first. Ah! there is the moon. I wonder does she see what is +done here. And there is the sky; it is a beautiful place. Who would stay +here under Hawes if they could get up there? God lives up there! I am +almost afraid He won't let a poor wicked boy like me come where He +is. And they say this is a sin, too. He will be angry with me--but +I couldn't help it. I shall tell Him what I went through first, and +perhaps He will forgive me. His reverence told me He takes the part +of those that are ill-used. It will be a good job for me if 'tis so. +Perhaps He will serve Hawes out for this instead of me. I think I should +if I was Him. I know He can't be so cruel as Hawes; that is my only +chance, and I'm going to take it. + +"Some folk live to eighty; I am only fifteen; that is a long odds, I +dare say it is five times as long as fifteen. It is hard--but I can't +help it. Hawes wouldn't let me live to be a man; he is stronger than I +am. Will it be a long job, I wonder. Some say it hurts a good deal; +some think not. I shall soon know--but I shall never tell. That +doesn't trouble me, it is only throttling when all is done; and ain't I +throttled every day of my life. Shouldn't I be throttled to-morrow if I +was such a spoon as to see to-morrow. I mustn't waste much more time or +my hands will be crippled with cold and then I shan't be able to. + +"Mr. Evans will be sorry. I can't help it. Bless him for being so +good to me; and bless Mr. Eden. I hope he will get better, I do. My +handkerchief is old, I hope it won't break; oh, no! there is no fear of +that. I don't weigh half what I did when I came here. + +"My mother will fret--but I can't help it. Oh dear! oh dear! oh dear! I +hope some one will tell her what I went through first; and then she will +say, 'Better so than for my body to be abused worse than a dog every day +of my life.' I can't help it! and I should be dead any way before the +fourteen days were out. + +"Now is as good a time as any other; no one is stirring, no. Please +forgive me, mother. I couldn't help it. Please forgive me, God Almighty, +if you care what a poor boy like me does or is done to--I couldn't help +it." + + ....... + +IL EST DEUX HEURES; TOUT EST TRANQUILLE; DORMEZ, MAITRES, DORMEZ! + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +IT was a bright morning. The world awoke. The working Englishman, dead +drunk at the public-house overnight, had got rid of two-thirds of his +burning poison by the help of man's chief nurse, sleep; and now he must +work off the rest, grumbling at this the kind severity of his lot. +Warm men, respectable men, among whom justices of the peace and other +voluptuous disciplinarians, were tempted out of delicious beds by +the fragrant berry, the balmy leaf, snowy damask, fire glowing behind +polished bars--in short, by multifarious comfort set in a frame of gold. +They came down. + +"How did you sleep, dear sir?" + +"Pretty well," said one with a doubtful air. "Scarce closed my eyes all +night," snarled another. + +Another had been awakened by the barking of a dog, and it was full +half an hour before he could lose the sense of luxurious ease in +unconsciousness again. He made an incident of this, and looked round +the table for sympathy, and obtained it, especially from such as were +toadies. + +Now all these had slept as much as nature required. No. 1, ar hyd y +nos--like a top. No. 2, eight hours out of the nine. The ninth his +sufferings had been moderate; they had been confined to this--a bitter +sense of two things; first, that he was lying floating in a sea of +comforts; secondly, that the moment he should really need sleep, sleep +was at his service. + +In ---- Jail, governor, turnkeys, chaplain, having had something to do +the day before, slept among Class 1, and now turned out of their warm +beds as they had turned into them, without a shade of anxiety or even +recollection of him whom they had left last evening at eight to pass the +livelong night in a sponge--upon a stone. + +Up rose refreshed with sleep that zealous officer, Hawes. He was in the +prison at daybreak, and circulated with inspecting eye all through it. +Went into the kitchen--saw the gruel making--docked Josephs and three +more of half their allowance; then into the corridors, where on one +of the snowy walls he found a speck; swore; had it instantly removed. +Thence into the labor-yard, and prepared a crank for an athletic +prisoner by secretly introducing a weight, and so making the poor crank +a story-teller, and the prologue to punishment. Returning to the body of +the prison, he called out, "Prisoners on the list for hard labor to be +taken to the yard." + +He was not answered with the usual alacrity, and looked up to repeat +his summons, when he observed a cell open and two turnkeys standing in +earnest conversation at the door. He mounted the stairs in great heat. + +"What are you all humbugging there for, and why does not that young +rascal turn out to work? I'll physic him, ---- him!" + +The turnkeys looked in their chief's face with a strange expression of +stupid wonder. Hawes caught this--his wrath rose higher. + +"What d'ye stand staring at me like stuck pigs for? Come out, No. 15, +---- you all! why don't you bring him out to the crank?" + +Hodges answered gloomily from the cell, "Come and bring him yourself, if +you can." + +At such an address from a turnkey, Hawes, who had now mounted the last +stair, gave a snort of surprise and wrath--then darted into the cell, +threatening the most horrible vengeance on the bones and body of poor +Josephs, threats which he confirmed with a tremendous oath. But to +that oath succeeded a sudden dead stupid staring silence; for running +fiercely into the cell with rage in his face, threats and curses on his +tongue, he had almost stumbled over a corpse. + +It lay in the middle of the cell--stark and cold, but peaceful. Hawes +stood over it. If he had not stopped short his foot would have been upon +it. His mouth opened but no sound came. He stood paralyzed. A greater +than he was in that cell, and he was dumb. He looked up--Hodges and Fry +were standing silent, looking down on the body. Fry was grave; Hodges +trembled. Part of a handkerchief fluttered from the bar of the window. A +knife had severed it. The other fragment lay on the floor near the +body, where Hodges had dropped it. Hawes took this in at a glance and +comprehended it all. This was not the first or second prisoner that had +escaped him by a similar road. For a moment his blood froze in him. He +wished to Heaven he had not been so severe upon the poor boy. + +It was but for a moment. The next he steeled himself in the tremendous +egotism that belongs to and makes the deliberate manslayer. + +"The young viper has done this to spite me," said he. And he actually +cast a look of petulant anger down. + +At this precise point the minds that had borne his company so long began +to part from it. Fry looked in his face with an expression bordering on +open contempt, and Hodges shoved rudely by him and left the cell. + +Hodges leaned over the corridor in silence. One of the inferior turnkeys +asked him a question dictated by curiosity about the situation in which +he had found the body. "Don't speak to me!" was the fierce, wild answer. +And he looked with a stupid wild stare over the railings. + +So wild and white and stricken was this man's face that Evans, who was +exchanging some words with a gentleman on the basement floor, happening +to catch sight of it, interrupted himself and hallooed from below, +"What, is there anything the matter, Hodges?" Hodges made no reply. The +man seemed to have lost his speech for some time past. + +"Let us go and see," said the gentleman; and he ascended the steps +somewhat feebly, accompanied by Evans. + +"What is it, Hodges?" + +"What is it?" answered the man impatiently. "Go in there and you'll see +what it is!" + +"I don't like this, sir," said Evans. "Oh! I am fearful there is +something unfortunate has happened. You mustn't come in, sir. You stay +here, and I'll go in and see." He entered the cell. + +Meantime a short conference had passed between Hawes and Fry. + +"This is a bad business, Fry." + +"And no mistake." + +"Had you any idea of this?" + +"No! can't say I had." + +"If the parson ever gets well he will make this a handle to ruin you and +me." + +"Me, sir! I only obey orders." + +"That won't save you. If they get the better of me you will suffer along +with me." + +"I shouldn't wonder. I told you you were carrying it too far, but you +wouldn't listen to me." + +"I was wrong, Fry. I ought to have listened to you, for you are the only +one that is faithful to me in the jail." + +"I know my duty, sir, and I try to do it." + +"What are we to do with him, Fry?" + +"Well, I don't think he ought to lie on the floor. I'd let him have his +bed now, I think." + +"You are right. I'll send for it. Ah! here is Evans. Go for No. 15's +bed." + +Evans, standing at the door, had caught but a glimpse of the object that +lay on the floor, but that glimpse was enough. He went out and said to +Hodges, "Wasn't it you that took Josephs' bed away last night?" The man +cowered under the question. "Well, you are to go and fetch it back, the +governor says." Hodges went away for it without a word. Evans returned +to the cell. He came and kneeled down by Josephs and laid his hand upon +him. "I feared it! I feared it!" said he. "Why he has been dead a long +time. Ah! your reverence, why did you come in when I told you not? Poor +Josephs is no more, Sir." + +Mr. Eden, who had already saluted Mr. Hawes with grave politeness, +though without any affectation of good-will, came slowly up, and sinking +his voice to a whisper in presence of death said in pitiful accents, +"Poor child! he was always sickly. Six weeks ago I feared we should lose +him, but he seemed to get better." He was now kneeling beside him. "Was +he long ill, sir?" asked he of Hawes. "Probably he was, for he is much +wasted. I can feel all his bones." Hardened as they were, Hawes and +Fry looked at one another in some confusion. Presently Mr. Eden started +back. "Why, what is this? he is wet. He is wet from head to foot. What +is the cause of this? Can you tell me, Mr. Hawes?" + +Mr. Hawes did not answer, but Evans did. + +"I am afraid it is the bucket, your reverence. They soused him in the +yard late last night." + +"Did they?" said Mr. Eden, looking the men full in the face. "Then they +have the more to repent of this morning. But stay. Why then he was not +under the doctor's hands, Evans?" + +"La! bless you, no. He was harder worked and worse fed than any man in +the jail." + +"At work last night! Then at what hour did he die? He is stiff and cold. +This is a very sudden death. Did any one see this boy die?" + +The men gave no answer, but the last words--"Did any one see this boy +die?"--seemed to give Evans a new light. + +"No!" he cried. "No one saw him die. Look here, sir. See what is +dangling from the window--his handkerchief." + +"And this mark round his throat, Evans. He has destroyed himself." And +Mr. Eden recoiled from the corpse. + +"Oh! you may forgive him, sir," said Evans. "We should all have done the +same. No human creature could live the life they led him. Who could live +upon bread and water and punishment? It is a sorrowful sight, but it is +a happy release for him. Eh! poor lad," said Evans, laying his hand upon +the body; "I liked thee well, but I am glad thou art gone. Thou hast +escaped away from worse trouble." + +"Come, it is no use sniveling, Evans," put in Hawes. "I am as sorry for +this job as you are. But who would have thought he was so determined? He +gave us no warning." + +"Don't you believe that, sir," cried Evans to Mr. Eden. "He gave them +plenty of warning. I heard him with my own ears tell you you were +killing him; not a day for the last fortnight he did not tell you so, +Mr. Hawes." + +"Well, I didn't believe him, you see." + +"You mean you didn't care." + +"Hold your tongue, Evans! You are disrespectful. How dare you speak to +me, you insolent dog? Hold your tongue!" + +"No, sir, I won't hold my tongue over this dead body." + +"Be silent, Evans," said Mr. Eden. "This is no place for disputes. +Evans, my heart is broken. While there is life there is hope; but here, +what hope is there? Many in this place live in crime, but this one has +died in crime; he of whom I had such good hopes has died in crime--died +by his own hand; he has murdered his own soul; my heart is broken!--my +heart is broken!" The good man's anguish was terrible. + +Evans consoled him. "Don't go on so, sir! pray don't. Josephs is where +none of us but you shall ever get to; he is in heaven as sure as we are +upon earth. He was the best lad in the place; there wasn't a drop of +gall in him; who ever heard a bad word from him? and he did not kill +himself till he found he was to die whether or no; so then he shortened +his own death-struggle, and he was right." + +"I don't understand you." + +"I dare say not, sir; but those two understand me. Oh, it is no use to +look black at me now, Mr. Hawes; I shall speak my mind though my head +was to be cut off. I have been a coward; I thought too much of my wife +and children; but I am a man now. Eh! poor lad, thou shan't be maligned +now thou art dead, as well as tormented alive. Sir, he that lies here +so pale and calm was not guilty of self-destruction. He was driven to +death!--don't speak to me, sir, but look at me, and hear the truth, +as it will come out the day all of us in this cell are damned, except +you--and him!" + +The man fell suddenly on his knees, took the dead boy's hand in his left +hand and held his right up, and in this strange attitude, which held all +his hearers breathless, he poured out a terrible tale. + +His boiling heart and the touch of him, whom now too late he defended +like a man, gave him simple but real eloquence, and in few words, that +scalded as they fell, he told as powerfully as I have feebly by what +road Josephs had been goaded to death. + +He brought the dark tale down to where he left the sufferer rolled up +in the one comfort left him on earth, his bed; and then turning suddenly +and leaving Josephs he said sternly: + +"And now, sir, ask the governor where is the bed I wrapped the wet boy +up in, for it isn't here." + +"You know as much as I do!" was Hawes's sulky reply. + +But at this moment Hodges came into the cell with the bed in question in +his arms. + +"There is his bed," cried he, "and what is the use of it now? If you had +left it him last night it would be better for him and for me, too," and +he flung the bed on the floor. + +"Oh! it was you took it from him, was it?" said Evans. + +"Well, I am here to obey orders, Jack Evans; do you do nothing but what +you like in this place?" + +"Let there be no disputing in presence of death!" + +"No, sir." + +"One thing only is worth knowing or thinking of now; whether there +is hope for this our brother in that world to which he has passed all +unprepared. Hodges, you saw him last alive!" + +Hodges groaned. "I saw him last at night, and first in the morning." + +"I entreat you to remember all that passed at night between you!" + +"Then cover up his face--it draws my eyes to it." + +Mr. Eden covered the dead face gently with his handkerchief. + +"Mr. Hawes met me in the corridor and sent me to take away his bed. I +found him dozing, and I took--I did what I was ordered." + +Mr. Eden sighed. + +"Tell me what _he_ said and did." + +"Well, sir! when I showed him the order, 'fourteen days without bed and +gas,' he bursts out a laughing--" + +"Good heavens!" + +"And says he, 'I don't say for gas, but you tell Mr. Hawes I shan't be +without bed nothing nigh so long as that.'" + +Mr. Eden and Evans exchanged a meaning glance; so did Fry and Hawes. + +"Then I said, 'No! I shan't tell Mr. Hawes anything to make him punish +you any more, because you are punished too much as it is,' says I--" + +"I am glad you said that. But tell me what _he_ said. Did he complain? +did he use angry or bitter words?--you make me drag it out of you." + +"No! he didn't! He wasn't one of that sort! The next thing was, he asked +me to give him my hand. Well, I was surprised like at his asking for my +hand, and I doing him such an ill-turn. So then he said, 'Mr. Hodges,' +says he, 'why not? I never took away your bed from under you, so you can +give me your hand, if I can give you mine.'" + +"Oh! what a beautiful nature! Ah! these are golden words. I hope for the +credit of human nature you gave him your hand?" + +"Why, of course I did, sir. I had no malice; it was ignorance, and owing +to being so used to obey the governor." + +Here Mr. Hawes, who had remained quiet all this time, now absorbed in +his own reflections, now listening sullenly to these strange scenes in +which the dead boy seemed for a time to have eclipsed his importance, +burst angrily in. + +"I have listened patiently to you, Mr. Eden, to see how far you would +go; but I see if I wait till you leave off undermining me with my +servants, I may wait a long while." + +Mr. Eden turned round impatiently. + +"You! who thinks of you or such as you in presence of such a question +as lies here. I am trying to learn the fate of this immortal soul, and I +did not see you--or think of you--or notice you were here." + +"That is polite! Well, sir, the governor is somebody in most jails, +but it seems he is to be nobody here so long as you are in it, and that +won't be long. Come, Fry, we have other duties to attend to." So saying +he and his lieutenant went out of the cell. + +Hodges went, too, but not with them. + +The moment they were gone--"Well, sir," burst out Evans, "don't you see +that the real murderer is not that stupid, ignorant owl, Hodges?" + +"Hush! Evans! this is no time or place for unkindly thoughts; thank +Heaven that you are free from their guilt, and leave me alone with him." + +He was left alone with the dead. + +Evans looked through the peep-hole of the cell an hour later. He +was still on his knees fearing, hoping, vowing, and, above all, +praying--beside the dead. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +MR. EDEN, when he reappeared in the prison, was sallow and his limbs +feeble, but his fatal disease was baffled, and a few words are due +to explain how this happened. The Malvern doctor came back with Susan +within twenty hours of her departure. She ushered him into Mr. Eden's +room with blushing joy and pride. + +The friends shook hands. Mr. Eden thanked him for coming, and the doctor +cut him short by demanding an accurate history of his disorder, and the +remedies that had been applied. Mr. Eden related the rise and progress +of his complaint, and meantime the doctor solved the other query by +smelling a battalion of empty phials. + +"The old story," said he with a cheerful grin. "You were weak--therefore +they gave you things to weaken you. You could not put so much +nourishment as usual into your body--therefore they have been taking +strength out. Lastly, the coats of your stomach were irritated by your +disorder--so they have raked it like blazes. This is the mill-round of +the old medicine; from irritation to inflammation, from inflammation to +mortification, and decease of the patient. Now, instead of irritating +the irritated spot, suppose we try a little counter-irritation." + +"With all my heart." + +The doctor then wetted a towel with cold water, wrung it half dry, and +applied it to Mr. Eden's stomach. + +This experiment he repeated four times with a fresh towel at intervals +of twenty minutes. He had his bed made in Mr. Eden's room. "Tell me if +you feel feverish." + +Toward morning Mr. Eden tossed and turned, and the doctor rising found +him dry and hot and feverish. Then he wetted two towels, took the sheets +off his own bed, and placed one wet towel on a blanket; then he made his +patient strip naked, and lie down on this towel, which reached from the +nape of his neck to his loins. + +"Ah!" cried Mr. Eden, "horrible!" + +Then he put the other towel over him in front. + +"Ugh! That is worse; you are a bold man with your remedies. I shiver to +the bone." + +"You won't shiver long." + +He laid hold of one edge of the blanket and pulled it over him with a +strong, quick pull, and tucked it under him. The same with the +other side; and now Mr. Eden was in a blanket prison--a regular +strait-waistcoat--his arms pinned to his sides. Two more blankets were +placed loosely over him. + +"Mighty fine, doctor; but suppose a fly or a gnat should settle on my +face?" + +"Call me and I'll take him off." + +In about three quarters of an hour Dr. Gulson came to his bedside again. + +"How are you now?" + +"In Elysium." + +"Are you shivering?" + +"Nothing of the kind." + +"Are you hot?" + +"Nothing of the sort. I am Elysian. Please retreat. Let no mere mortals +approach. Come not near our fairy king," murmured the sick man. "I am +Oberon, slumbering on tepid roses in the garden whence I take my name," +purred our divine, mixing a creed or two. + +"Well, you must come out of this paradise for the present." + +"You wouldn't be such a monster as to propose it." + +Spite of his remonstances, he was unpacked, rubbed dry, and returned +to his own bed, where he slept placidly till nine o'clock. The next day +fresh applications of wet cloths to the stomach, and in the evening one +of the doctor's myrmidons arrived from Malvern. The doctor gave him full +and particular instructions. + +The next morning Mr. Eden was packed again. He delighted in the +operation, but remonstrated against the term. + +"Packed!" said he to them; "is that the way to speak of a Paradisiacal +process under which fever and sorrow fly and calm complacency steals +over mind and body?" + +A slight diminution of all the unfavorable symptoms, and a great +increase of appetite relieved the doctor's anxiety so far that he left +him under White's charge. So was the myrmidon called. + +"Do not alter your diet--it is simple and mucilaginous--but increase the +quantity by degrees." + +He postponed his departure till midnight. Up to the present time he had +made rather light of the case, and as for danger he had pooh-poohed it +with good-humored contempt. Just before he went he said: + +"Well, Frank, I don't mind telling you now that I am very glad you sent +for me, and I'll tell you why. Forty-eight hours more of irritating +medicines, and no human skill could have saved your life." + +"Ah! my dear friend, you are my good angel--you can have no conception +how valuable my life is." + +"Oh, yes, I can!" + +"And you have saved that life. Yes! I am weak still, but I feel I shall +live. You have cured me." + +"In popular language, I have. But between ourselves nobody ever cures +anybody. Nature cures all that are cured. But I patted Nature on the +back; the others hit her over the head with bludgeons and brick-bats." + +"And now you are going. I must not keep you or I shall compromise other +lives. Well, go and fulfill your mission. But first think--is there +anything I can do in part return for such a thing as this, old friend?" + +"Only one that I can think of. Outlive me, old friend." + +A warm and tender grasp of the hand on this, and the Malvern doctor +jumped into a fly, and the railway soon whirled him into Worcestershire. + +His myrmidon remained behind and carried out his chief's orders with +inflexible severity, unsoftened by blandishments, unshaken by threats. + +In concert with Susan he closed the door upon all harassing +communications. + +One day Evans came to tell the invalid how the prisoners were +maltreated. Susan received him, wormed from him his errand, and told him +Mr. Eden was too ill to see him, which was what my French brethren call +_une sainte mensonge_--I a fib. + +A slow but steady cure was effected by these means: applications of +water in various ways to the skin, simple diet, and quiet. A great +appetite soon came; he ate twice as much as he had before the new +treatment, and would have eaten twice as much as he did, but the +myrmidon would not let him. Whenever he was feverish the myrmidon packed +him, and in half an hour the fever was gone. His cheeks began to fill, +his eyes to clear and brighten, only his limbs could not immediately +recover their strength. + +As he recovered, his anxiety to be back among his prisoners increased +daily, but neither Susan nor the myrmidon would hear of it. They acted +in concert, and stuck at nothing to cure their patient. They assured him +all was going on well in the prison. They meant well; but for all that, +every lie, great or small, is the brink of a precipice the depth of +which nothing but Omniscience can fathom. + +He believed them, yet he was uneasy; and this uneasiness increased with +his returning strength. At last one morning, happening to awake earlier +than usual, he stole a march on his nurses, and taking his stick walked +out and tottered into the jail. + +He found Josephs dead under the fangs of Hawes, and the whole prison +groaning. + +Now the very day his symptoms became more favorable it so happened that +he had received a few lines from the Home Office that had perhaps aided +his recovery by the hopes they inspired. + + +"The matter of your last communication is forwarded to the 'Inspector of +Prisons.' He is instructed to inquire strictly into your statements and +report to this office." + + +The short note concluded with an intimation that the tone in which Mr. +Eden had conveyed his remonstrances was intemperate, out of place, and +WITHOUT PRECEDENT. + +Mr. Eden was rejoiced. + +The "Inspector of Prisons" was a salaried officer of the crown, +enlightened by a large comparison of many prisons, and, residing at a +distance, was not open to the corrupting influences of association and +personal sympathy with the governor, as were the county magistrates. + +Day after day Mr. Eden rose in hope that day would not pass without +the promised visit from the "Inspector of Prisons." Day after day no +inspector. At last Mr. Eden wrote to him to inquire when he was coming. + +The letter traveled about after him, and after a considerable delay came +his answer. It was to this effect. That he was instructed to examine +into charges made against the governor of ---- Jail; but that he had no +instructions to make an irregular visit for that purpose. His progress +would bring him this year to ---- Jail in six weeks' time, when he +should act on his instructions, but these did not justify him in varying +from the routine of his circuit. + +Six weeks is not long to wait for help in a matter of life and death, +thought the eighty pounders, the clerks who execute England. + +Three days of this six weeks had scarce elapsed when two prisoners were +driven a step each farther than their wretched fellow sufferers who were +to follow them in a week or two. Of these, one, "a mild, quiet, docile +boy," was driven to self-slaughter; and another, one of the best-natured +rogues in the place, was driven to manslaughter. + +This latter incident Mr. Eden prevented. I will presently relate how; it +was not by postponing his interference for six weeks. + +When Mr. Eden rose from his knees beside the slaughtered boy he went +home at once and wrote to the Home Secretary. On the envelope he wrote +"private," and inside to this effect: + + +"Two months ago I informed you officially that prisoners are daily +assaulted, starved, and maltreated to the danger of their lives by the +governor of ---- Jail. I demanded of you an inquiry on the spot. In +reply you evaded my demand, and proposed to refer me to the visiting +justices. + +"In answer I declined these men for referees on two grounds, viz., that +I had lodged an appeal with a higher jurisdiction than theirs, and +that they were confederates of the criminal; and to enforce the latter +objection I included your proposed referees in my charges, and once +more demanded of you in the queen's name an examination of her unworthy +servants on the instant and on the spot. + +"On this occasion I warned you in these words: + +"'Here are 180 souls, to whose correction, care and protection the State +is pledged. No one of these lives is safe a single day; and for every +head that falls from this hour I hold you responsible to God and the +State.' + +"Surely these were no light words, yet they fell light on you. + +"In answer you promised us the 'Inspector of Prisons,' but you gave him +no instructions to come to us. You fooled away time when time was human +life. Read once more my words of warning, and then read these: + +"This morning a boy of fifteen was done to death by Mr. Hawes. Of his +death you are not guiltless. You were implored to prevent it, you +could have prevented it, and you did not prevent it. The victim of jail +cruelty and of the maladministration in government offices lies dead in +his cell. + +"In three days I shall commit his body to the dust; but his memory +never--until he is avenged and those who are in process of being +murdered like him receive the protection of the State. + +"If in the three days between this boy's murder and his burial your +direct representative and agent does not come here and examine this jail +and sift the acts of those who govern it, on the fourth day I lay the +whole case before her majesty the queen and the British nation, by +publishing it in all the journals. Then I shall tell her majesty that, +having thrice appealed in vain to her representatives, I am driven to +appeal to herself; with this I shall print the evidence I have thrice +offered you of this jailer's felonies and their sanguinary results. +That lady has a character; one of its strong, unmistakable features is a +real, tender, active humanity. + +"I read characters; it is a part of my business; and, believe me, this +lady once informed of the crimes done in her name will repudiate and +abhor alike her hireling's cruelty and her clerks' and secretaries' +indifference to suffering and slaughter. Nor will the public hear +unmoved the awful tale. Shame will be showered on all connected with +these black deeds, even on those who can but be charged with conniving +at them. + +"To be exposed to national horror on the same column with the greatest +felon in England would be a cruel position, a severe punishment for a +man of honor, whose only fault perhaps is that he has mistaken an +itch for eminence for a capacity for business, and so serves the State +without comprehending it. But what else can I do? I, too, serve the +State, and I comprehend what I owe it, and the dignity with which it +intrusts me, and the deep responsibility it lays on me. I therefore +cannot assent to future felonies any more than I have to past and +present, but must stop them, and will stop them--how I can. + +"So, sir, I offer you the post of honor or a place of shame. Choose! for +three whole days you have the choice. Choose! and may God enlighten you +and forgive me for waiting these three days. + +"I have the honor to be, etc., etc." + + +To this letter, whose tone was more eccentric, more flesh and blood, +and WITHOUT PRECEDENT, than the last, came an answer in a different hand +from the others. + + +"--acknowledged receipt of the chaplain's letter. + +"Since a human life has succumbed under the discipline of ---- Jail, an +inquiry follows immediately as a matter of course. The other inducements +you have held out are comparatively weak and something more than +superfluous. How far they are in good taste will be left to your own +cooler consideration. A person connected with the Home Department will +visit your jail with large powers soon after you receive this. + +"He is instructed to avail himself of your zeal and knowledge. + +"Be pleased to follow this course. Select for him the plainer facts +of your case. If on the face of the business he sees ground for +deeper inquiry, a commission will sit upon the jail, and meanwhile all +suspected officers will be suspended. You will consider yourself still +in direct correspondence with this office, but it is requested, +on account of the mass of matter daily submitted to us, that your +communications may be confined to facts, and those stated as concisely +as possible." + + +On reading this Mr. Eden colored with shame as well as pleasure. "How +gentleman-like all this is!" thought he. "How calm and superior to me, +who, since I had the jaundice, am always lowering my office by getting +into a heat! And I to threaten this noble, dignified creature with the +_Times_. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself. Yet what could I do? I had +tried everything short of bullying and failed. But I now suspect ---- +never saw my two first letters. Doubtless the rotten system of our +public offices is more to blame than this noble fellow." + +Thus accusing himself Mr. Eden returned with somewhat feeble steps to +the jail. One of the first prisoners he visited was Thomas Robinson. +He found that prisoner in the attitude of which he thought he had cured +him, coiled up like a snake, moody and wretched. The man turned round +with a very bad expression on his face, which soon gave way to a look +of joy. He uttered a loud exclamation, and springing unguardedly up, +dropped a brickbat which rolled toward Mr. Eden and nearly hit him. + +Robinson looked confused, and his eyes rose and fell from Mr. Eden's +face to the brickbat. + +"How do you do?" + +"Not so well as before you fell ill, sir. It has been hard times with us +poor fellows since we lost you." + +"I fear it has." + +"You have just come back in time to save a life or two. There is a boy +called Josephs. I hope the day won't go over without your visiting him, +for they are killing him by inches." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I heard him say so." + +Mr. Eden groaned. + +"You look pale, my poor fellow." + +"I shall be better now," replied the thief, looking at him +affectionately. + +"What is this?" + +"This, sir--what, sir?" + +"This brick?" + +"Well! why--it is a brick, sir! + +"Where did you get it?" + +"I found it in the yard." + +"What were you going to do with it?" + +"Oh! I wasn't going to do any ill with it." + +"Then why that guilty look when you dropped it. Come, now--I am in no +humor to be hard upon you. Were you going to make some more cards?" + +"Now, sir, didn't I promise you I never would do that again;" and +Robinson wore an aggrieved look. "Would I break a promise I made to +you?" + +"What was it for then?" + +"Am I bound to criminate myself, your reverence?" + +"Certainly not to your enemy! but to your friend, and to him who has the +care of your soul--yes!" + +"Let me ask you a question first, sir. Which is worth most, one life or +twenty?" + +"Twenty." + +"Then if by taking one life you can save twenty, it is a good action to +put that one out of the way?" + +"That does not follow." + +"Oh! doesn't it? I thought it did. There's a man in this prison that +murders men wholesale. I thought if I could any way put it out of his +power to kill any more what a good action it would be!" + +"A good action! so then this brick--" + +"Was for Hawes's skull, your reverence." + +"This, then, is the fruit of all my teaching. You will break my heart +among you. + +"Don't say so, sir! pray don't say so! I won't touch a hair of his head +now you are alive; but I thought you were dead or dying, so what did +it matter then what I did? Besides, I was driven into a corner; I could +only kill that scoundrel or let him kill me. But you are alive, and you +will find some way of saving my life as well as his." + +"I will try. But first abandon all thoughts of lawless revenge. +'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' Come, promise me." + +"Now, sir, is it likely I would offend you for the pleasure of dirtying +my fingers with that rascal's blood? Don't let such a lump of dirt as +him make mischief between you and me, sir." + +"I understand! with you any unchristian sentiment is easily driven +out--by another. Hatred is to give way to contempt." + +"No, sir, but you are alive, and I don't think of Hawes now one way or +other--with such scum as that out of sight is out of mind. When did +you begin to get better, sir? and are you better? and shall I see your +blessed face in my cell every day as I used?" And the water stood in the +thief's eyes. + +Mr. Eden smiled and sighed. "Your mind is like an eel--Heaven help the +man that tries to get hold of it to do it any lasting good. You and I +must have a good pray together some day." + +"Ah! your reverence, that would do me good soul and body," said Mr. +Supple. + +"Let me now feel your pulse; it is very low. What is the matter?" + +"Starvation, overwork, and solitude. I feel myself sinking." + +"If I could amuse your mind." + +"Even you could hardly do that, sir." + +"Hum! I have brought you a quire of paper and one of Mr. Gillott's +swan-quill pens and a penny ink-bottle." + +"What for?" + +"You are to write a story." + +"But I never wrote one in my life." + +"Then this will be the first." + +"Oh, I'll try, sir. I've tried a hundred things in my life and they none +of them proved so hard as they looked. What kind of story?" + +"The only kind of story that is worth a button--a true story--the story +of Thomas Robinson, alias Scott, alias Lyon, alias etc." + +"Then you should have brought a ream instead of a quire." + +"No! I want to read it when it is written. Now write the truth--do not +dress or cook your facts. I shall devour them raw with twice the relish, +and they will do you ten times the good. And intersperse no humbug, no +sham penitence. When your own life lies thus spread out before you like +a map, you will find you regret many things you have done, and view +others with calmer and wiser eyes; for self-review is a healthy process. +Write down these honest reflections, but don't overdo it--don't write a +word you don't feel. It will amuse you while you are at it." + +"That it will." + +"It will interest me more than the romance of a carpet writer who never +saw life, and it may do good to other prisoners." + +"I want to begin." + +"I know you do, creature of impulse! Let me feel your pulse again. Ah! +it has gained about ten." + +"Ten, your reverence? Fifty, you mean. It is you for putting life into +a poor fellow and keeping him from despair. It is not the first time you +have saved me. The devil hates you more than all the other parsons, for +you are as ingenious in good as he is in mischief." + +In the midst of this original eulogy Mr. Eden left the cell suddenly +with an aching heart, for the man's words reminded him that for all his +skill and zeal a boy of fifteen years lay dead of despair hard by. He +went, but he left two good things behind him--occupation and hope. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE inexperienced in jails would take for granted that the death of +Josephs gave Mr. Hawes's system a fatal check. No such thing. He +was staggered. So was Pharaoh staggered several times, yet he always +recovered himself in twenty-four hours. Hawes did not take so long as +that. A suicide was no novelty under his system. Six hours after he +found his victim dead he had a man and a boy crucified in the yard, +swore horribly at Fry, who, for the first time in his life, was behind +time, and tore out of his hands "Uncle Tom," which was the topic that +had absorbed Fry and made him two minutes behind him; went home and +wrote a note to his friend Williams informing him of the suicide that +had taken place, and reflecting severely upon Josephs for his whole +conduct, with which this last offense against discipline was in strict +accordance. Then he had his grog, and having nothing to do he thought he +would see what was that story which had prevailed so far over the stern +realities of system as to derange that piece of clock work that went by +the name of Fry. He yawned over the first pages, but as the master hand +unrolled the great chromatic theory, he became absorbed, and devoured +this great human story till his candles burned down in their sockets and +sent him to bed four hours later than usual. + +The next morning soon after chapel a gentleman's servant rode up to the +jail and delivered a letter for Mr. Hawes. It was from Justice Williams. +That worthy expressed in polysyllables his sorrow at the death of +Josephs after this fashion: + +"A circumstance of this kind is always to be deplored, since it gives +occasion to the enemies of the system to cast reflections, which, +however unphilosophical and malignant, prejudice superficial judgments +against our salutary discipline." + +He then went on to say that the visiting justices would be at the jail +the next day at one o'clock to make their usual report, in which Mr. +Hawes might be sure his zeal and fidelity would not pass unnoticed. He +concluded by saying that Mr. Hawes must on that occasion present his +charges against the chaplain in a definite form, and proceedings would +be taken on the spot. + +"Aha! aha! So I shall get rid of him. Confound him! he makes me harder +upon the beggars than I should be. Fry, put these numbers on the cranks +and bring me your report after dinner." + +With these words Mr. Hawes vanished, and to the infinite surprise of the +turnkeys was not seen in the jail for many hours. At two o'clock, as he +was still not in the prison, Fry went to his house. He found Mr. Hawes +deep in a book. + +"Brought the report, sir." + +"Give it to me. Humph! No. 40 and 45 refractory at the crank. No. 65 +caught getting up to his window; says he wanted to feel the light. +65--that is one of the boys, isn't it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How old is the young varmint?" + +"Eleven, sir." + +"No. 14 heard to speak to a prisoner that was leaving the jail, his term +being out. What did he say to him?" + +"Said 'Good-by! God bless you!'" + +"I'll shut his mouth. Confound the beggars! how fond they are of +talking. I think they would rather go without their food than without +their jaw. + +"No. 19 caught writing a story. It is that fellow Robinson, one of +the parson's men. I'll write something on his skin. How did he get the +things to write with?" + +"Chaplain gave them him." + +"Ah! I am glad of that. You brought them away, of course?" + +"Yes, sir; here they are. He made a terrible fuss about parting with +them." + +"What did he say?" + +"He said Heaven was to judge between me and him." + +"Blaspheming dog! ---- him! I'll break him. What else?" + +"'Get out of my sight,' said he, 'for fear I do you a mischief.' So then +down he pops on his knees in a corner and turns his back on me, like an +ignorant brute that he is." + +"Never mind, Fry, I'll break him." + +"I suppose we shall see you in the prison soon, shan't we, sir? The +place looks strange to me without you." + +"By-and-by--by-and-by. This confounded book sticks to me like a leech. +How far had you got when you lent it me?" + +"Got just to the most interesting part," said Fry dolefully, "where he +comes under a chap called Legree; and then you took it away." + +"Well, you'll have it again as soon as I have done with it. I say, what +do you think of this book? is it true do you think?" + +"Oh! it is true--I'd take my oath of that." + +"Why how do you know?" + +"Because it reads like true." + +"That is no rule, ye fool." + +"Well, sir, what do you think?" + +This question staggered Hawes for a moment. However he assumed an +oracular look, and replied, "I think some of it is true and some isn't." + +"Do you think it is true about their knocking down blackee in one lot, +and his wife in another, and sending 'em a thousand miles apart?" + +"Oh, that is true enough! I daresay." + +"And running them down with bloodhounds?" + +"Why not; they look upon the poor devils as beasts. If you tell a Yankee +a nigger is a man he thinks you are poking fun at him." + +"It is a cursed shame!" + +"Of course it is! but I'll tell you what I can't swallow in this book. +Hem! did you ever fall in with any Yankees?" + +"One or two, sir." + +"Were they green at all?" + +"That they weren't. They were rather foxy, I should say." + +"Rather. Why one of them would weather upon any three Englishmen that +ever were born. Now here is a book that as good as tells me it is a +Yankee custom to disable their beasts of burden. Gammon! they can't +afford to do it. I believe," continued this candid personage (who had +never been in any of the States), "they are the cruelest set on the face +of the earth, but then they are the 'cutest (that is their own word), +and they are a precious sight too 'cute to disable the beast that +carries the grist to the mill." + +"Doesn't seem likely--now you put it to me." + +"Have a glass of grog, Fry." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"And there is the paper. Run your eye over it and don't speak to me for +ten minutes, for I must see how Tom gets on under this bloody-minded +heathen." + +Fry read the paper; but although he moistened it with a glass of grog, +he could not help casting envious glances from his folio at Mr. Hawes's +duodecimo. + +Fibs mixed with truth charm us more than truth mixed with fibs. + +Presently an oath escaped from Mr. Hawes. + +"Sir!" + +"Nothing, it is only this infernal--humph!" + +Presently another expletive. "I'll tell you what it is, Fry, if somebody +doesn't knock this thundering Legree on the head, I'll put the book on +the fire." + +"Well, but if it isn't true, sir?" + +"But it is true, every word of it, while you are reading it, ye fool. +What heathens there are in the world! First they sell a child out of his +mother's arms. She cuts sooner than be parted. They hunt her and come up +with her; but she knows what they are, and trusts her life and the child +to one of their great thundering frozen rivers as broad as the British +Channel sooner than fall into their hands. That is like a woman, Fry. A +fig for me being drowned if the kid is drowned with me; and I don't even +care so much for the kid being drowned if I go down with him--and the +cowardly vermin dogs and men stood barking on the bank and dursn't +follow a woman; but your cruel ones are always cowards. And now the rips +have got hold of this Tom. A chap with no great harm in him that I see, +except that he is a ---- sniveler and psalm-singer, and makes you sick +at times, but he isn't lazy; and now they are mauling him because he +couldn't do the work of two. A man can but do his best, black or white, +and it is infernal stupidity as well as cruelty to torment a fellow +because he can't do more than he can do. And all this because over +the same flesh and blood there is the sixteenth of an inch of skin a +different color. Wonder whether a white bear takes a black one for a +hog, or a red fox takes a blue one for a badger. Well, Fry, thank your +stars that you were born in Britain. There are no slaves here, and no +buying and selling of human flesh; and one law for high and low, rich +and poor, and justice for the weak as well as the strong." + +"Yes, sir," said Fry deferentially--"are you coming into the jail, sir?" + +"No," replied Hawes sturdily, "I won't move till I see what becomes of +the negro, and what is done to this eternal ruffian." + +"But about the prisoners in my report, sir," remonstrated Fry. + +"Oh, you can see to that without my coming," replied Hawes with +nonchalance. "Put 40 and 45 in the jacket four hours apiece. Mind +there's somebody by with the bucket against they sham." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Put the boy on bread and water--and to-morrow I'll ask the justices to +let me flog him. No. 14--humph! stop his supper--and his bed--and gas." + +"And Robinson?" + +"Oh, give him no supper at all--and no breakfast--not even bread and +water, d'ye hear. And at noon I'll put him with his empty belly in the +black-hole--that will cow him down to the ground--there, be off!" + +Next morning Mr. Hawes sat down to breakfast in high spirits. This very +day he was sure to humiliate his adversary, most likely get rid of him +altogether. + +Mr. Eden, on the contrary, wore a somber air. Hawes noticed it, mistook +it, and pointed it out to Fry. "He is down upon his luck; he knows he is +coming to an end." + +After breakfast Mr. Eden went into Robinson's cell. He found him +haggard. "Oh, I am glad you are come, sir; they are starving me! No +supper last night, no breakfast this morning, and all for--hum." + +"For what?" + +"Well, sir, then--having paper in my cell, and for writing--doing what +you bade me--writing my life." + +Mr. Eden colored and winced. The cruelty and the personal insult +combined almost took away his breath for a moment. "Heaven grant me +patience a little longer," said he aloud. Then he ran out of the cell, +and returned in less than a minute with a great hunch of bread and a +slice of ham. "Eat this," said he, all fluttering with pity. + +The famished man ate like a wolf; but in the middle he did stop to say, +"Did one man ever save another so often as you have me! Now my belly is +full I shall have strength to stand the jacket, or whatever is to come +next." + +"But you are not to be tormented further than this, I hope?" + +"Ah, sir!" replied Robinson, "you don't know the scoundrel yet. He +is not starving me for nothing. This is to weaken me till he puts the +weight on that is to crush me." + +"I hope you exaggerate his personal dislike to you and your own +importance--we all do that." + +"Well," sighed Robinson, "I hope I do. Any way now my belly is full I +have got a chance with him." + +The visiting justices met in the jail. The first to arrive was Mr. +Woodcock. In fact he came at eleven o'clock, an hour before the others. +Had Mr. Hawes expected him so soon, he would have taken Carter down, who +was the pilloried one this morning; but he was equal to the emergency. +He met Mr. Woodcock with a depressed manner, as of a tender but wise +father, who in punishing his offspring had punished himself, and said +in a low, regretful voice, "I am sorry to say I have been compelled to +punish a prisoner very severely." + +"What is his offense?" + +"Being refractory and breaking his crank. You will find him in the +labor-yard. He was so violent we were obliged to put him in the jacket." + +"I shall see him. The labor-yard is the first place I go to." + +Mr. Hawes knew that, Mr. Woodcock. + +The justice found Carter in that state of pitiable torture, the sight +of which made Mr. Eden very ill. He went up to him and said, "My poor +fellow, I am very sorry for you; but discipline must be maintained, and +you are now suffering for fighting against it. Make your submission to +the governor, and then I dare say he will shorten your punishment as far +as he thinks consistent with his duty." + +Carter, it may well be imagined, made no answer. It is doubtful +whether the worthy magistrate expected or required one. An occasion +for misjudging a self-evident case of cruelty had arrived. This worthy +seized the opportunity, received an ex-parte statement for Gospel, and +misjudged, spite of his senses. + +Item. An occasion for twaddling had come, and this good soul seized it +and twaddled into a man's ear who was fainting on the rack. + +At this moment the more observant Hawes saw the signs of shamming coming +on. So he said hastily, "Oh, he will come to soon, and then he will be +taken down;" and moved away. Mr. Woodcock followed him without one grain +of suspicion or misgiving. + +The English State has had many opportunities of gauging the average +intellects of its unpaid jurists. By these it has profited so well that +it intrusts blindly to this gentleman and his brethren the following +commission:-- + +They are to come into a place of darkness and mystery, a place locked +up; a place which, by the folly of the nation and the shallow egotists +who are its placemen and are called its statesmen, is not subject to +the only safeguard of law and morals--daily inspection by the great +unprejudiced public. They are to come into this, the one pitch-dark hole +that is now left in the land. They are to come here once in two months, +and at this visit to see all that has been done there in the dark since +their last visit. Their eagle eye is not to be hoodwinked by appearances +got up to meet their visit. They are to come and comprehend with one +piercing glance the past months as well as the present hour. Good. Only +for this task is required, not the gullibility that characterizes the +many, but the sagacity that distinguishes the few. + +Mr. Woodcock undertook not to be deceived as to what had been done in +the jail while he was forty miles distant--and Hawes gulled him under +his own eyes. + +What different men there are in the world, and how differently are the +same things seen by them! The first crucifixion Eden saw he turned as +sick as a dog--the first crucifixion Woodcock saw he twaddled in +the crucified's ear, left him on the cross, and went on his way well +pleased. + +Hawes, finding what sort of a man he had to deal with, thought within +himself, "Why should I compromise discipline in any point?" He said to +Mr. Woodcock, "There is another prisoner whom I am afraid I must give an +hour in the dark cell." + +"What has he been doing?" + +"Scribbling a lot of lies upon some paper he got from the chaplain." + +Mr. Hawes's brief and unkind definition of autobiography did Robinson's +business. Mr. Woodcock simply observed that the proposed punishment was +by no means a severe one for the offense. + +They visited several cells. Woodcock addressed the prisoners in certain +words, accompanied with certain tones and looks, that were at least as +significant as his words, and struck the prisoners as more sincere. + +The words. + +"If you have anything to complain of here, now is the time to say so, +and your complaint shall be sifted." + +The tones and looks. + +"I know you are better off here than such scum as you deserve, but you +have a right to contradict me if you like; only mind, if you don't prove +it to my satisfaction, who am not the man to believe anything you say, +you had better have held your tongue." + +Meantime Mr. Hawes said nothing, but fixed his eye on the rogue, and +that eye said, "One word of discontent and the moment he is gone I +massacre you." Then followed in every case the old theatrical business +according to each rogue's measure of ability. They were in the Elysian +fields; one thing alone saddened them; some day or other they must +return to the world. + +Fathers, sent by your apprehensive wives to see whether Dicky is well +used at that school or not, don't draw Dicky into a corner of the +playground, and with tender kisses and promises of inviolable secrecy +coax him to open his little heart to you, and tell you whether he is +really happy; leave such folly to women--it is a weakness to wriggle +into the truth as they do. + +No! you go like a man into the parlor with the schoolmaster--then have +Dicky in--let him see the two authorities together on good terms--then +ask him whether he is happy and comfortable and well used. He will tell +you he is. Go home rejoicing--but before you go into the drawing-room do +pray spend twenty minutes by the kitchen fire, and then go upstairs to +the boy's mother--and let her eat you, for you belong to the family of +the Woodcocks. + +"We are passing one cell." + +"Oh! that one is empty," replied Hawes. + +Not quite empty; there was a beech coffin standing in that cell, and the +corpse of a murdered thief lay waiting for it. + +At twelve o'clock the justices were all assembled in their room. "We +will send you a message in half an hour, Mr. Hawes." + +Mr. Hawes bowed and retired, and bade Fry to take Robinson to the dark +cell. The poor fellow knew resistance was useless. He came out at the +word of command, despair written on his face. Of all the horrors of this +hell the dark cell was the one he most dreaded. He looked up to Hawes +to see if anything he could say would soften him. No! that hardened face +showed neither pity nor intelligence; as well appeal to a stone statue +of a mule. + +At this moment Mr. Eden came into the jail. Robinson met him on the +ground-floor, and cried out to him, "Sir, they are sending me to the +black hole for it. I am a doomed man; the black hole for six hours." + +"No!" roared Hawes from above, "for twelve hours; the odd six is for +speaking in prison." Robinson groaned. + +"I will take you out in three," said Mr. Eden calmly. Hawes heard and +laughed aloud. + +"Give me your hand on that, sir, for pity's sake," cried Robinson. Mr. +Eden gave him his hand and said, firmly, "I will take you out in two +hours, please God." + +Hawes chuckled. "Parson is putting his foot in it more and more. The +justices shall know this." + +This momentary contact with his good angel gave Robinson one little ray +of hope for a companion in the cave of darkness, madness, and death. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE justices went through their business in the usual routine. They had +Mr. Hawes's book up--examined the entries--received them with implicit +confidence looked for no other source of information to compare them +with. Examined one witness and did not cross-examine him. + +This done, one of them proposed to concoct their report at once. Another +suggested that the materials were not complete; that there was a charge +against the chaplain. This should be looked into, and should it prove +grave, embodied in their report. + +Mr. Williams overruled this. "We can reprimand, or if need be the bench +can dismiss a chaplain without troubling the Secretaries of State. Let +us make our report and then look into the chaplain's conduct, who is, +after all, a newcomer, and they say a little cracked; he is a man of +learning." + +So they wrote their report, and in it expressed their conviction that +the system on the whole worked admirably. They noticed the incident of +Josephs' suicide, but attached no significance and little importance to +it. Out of a hundred and eighty prisoners there would be a few succumb +in one way or another under the system, but on the whole the system +worked well. + +Jugger system's wheels were well greased, and so long as they were well +greased it did not matter their crushing one or two. Besides the crushed +were only prisoners--the refuse of society. They reported the governor, +Mr. Hawes, as a painstaking, active, zealous officer; and now Mr. Hawes +was called in--the report was read to him--and he bowed, laid his hand +upon his aorta, and presented a histrionic picture of modest merit +surprised by unexpected praise from a high quarter. + +Next, Mr. Hawes was requested to see the report sent off to the post. + +"I will, gentlemen;" and in five minutes he was at the post-office +in person, and his praises on the way to his sovereign or her +representative. + +"How long will the parson take us?" + +"Oh! not ten minutes." + +"I hope not, for I want to look at a horse." + +"We had better send for him at once, then." + +The bell was rung and the chaplain sent for. The chaplain was praying +the prayers for the sick by the side of a dying prisoner. He sent back +word how he was employed, and that he would come as soon as he had done. + +This message was not well received. Keep a living justice waiting for a +dying dog! + +"These puppies want taking down," said Mr. Woodcock. + +"Oh, leave him to me," replied Mr. Williams. + +Soon after this the following puppy came into the room. A gentleman of +commanding figure, erect but easy, with a head of remarkable symmetry +and an eye like a stag's. He entered the room quietly but rather +quickly, and with an air of business; bowed rapidly to the three +gentlemen in turn, and waited in silence their commands. + +Then Mr. Williams drew himself up in his chair, and wore the solemn and +dignified appearance that becomes a judge trying a prisoner, with this +difference, that his manner was not harsh or intentionally offensive, +but just such as to reveal his vast superiority and irresistible weight. + +In a solemn tone, with a touch of pity, he began thus: + +"I am sorry to say, Mr. Eden, that grave charges are laid against you in +the prison." + +"Give yourself no uneasiness on my account, sir," replied Mr. Eden +politely, "they are perhaps false." + +"Yet they come from one who has means of knowing--from the governor, Mr. +Hawes." + +"Ah! then they are sure to be false." + +"We shall see. Four Sundays ago you preached a sermon." + +"Two." + +"Ay, but one was against cruelty." + +"It was; the other handled theft." + +"Mr. Hawes conceives himself to have been singled out and exposed by +that sermon." + +"Why so? there are more than thirty cruel men in this jail besides him." + +"Then this sermon was not aimed at him?" put Mr. Williams with a pinning +air. + +"It was and it was not. It was aimed at that class of my parishioners +to which he belongs; a large class, including all the turnkeys but +one, between twenty and thirty of the greater criminals among the +prisoners--and Mr. Hawes." + +Mr. Williams bit his lip. "Gentlemen, this classification shows the +animus;" then turning to Mr. Eden he said, with a half-incredulous +sneer, "How comes it that Mr. Hawes took this sermon all to himself?" + +Mr. Eden smiled. "How does it happen that two prisoners, 82 and 87, took +it all to themselves? These two men sent for me after the sermon; they +were wife-beaters. I found them both in great agitation. One terrified, +the other softened to tears of penitence. These did not apply my words +to Mr. Hawes. The truth is when a searching sermon is preached each +sinner takes it to himself. I am glad Mr. Hawes fitted the cap on. I am +glad the prisoners fitted the cap on. I am sorry Mr. Hawes was irritated +instead of reformed. I am glad those two less hardened sinners were +reformed instead of irritated." + +"And I must tell you, sir, that we disapprove of your style of preaching +altogether, and we shall do more, we shall make a change in this respect +the condition of your remaining in office." + +"And the bishop of the diocese?" asked Mr. Eden. + +"What about him?" + +"Do you think he will allow you, an ignorant, inexperienced layman, to +usurp the episcopal function in his diocese." + +"The episcopal function? Mr. Eden." + +Mr. Eden smiled. "He does not even see that he has been trying to usurp +sacred functions and of the highest order. But it is all of a piece--a +profound ignorance of all law, civil or ecclesiastical, characterizes +all your acts in this jail. My good soul, just ask yourself for what +purpose does a bishop exist? Why is one priest raised above other +priests, and consecrated bishop, but to enable the Church to govern +its servants. I laugh--but I ought rather to rebuke you. What you have +attempted is something worse than childish arrogance. Be warned! and +touch not the sacred vessels so rashly--it is profanation." + +The flashing eye and the deepening voice, and the old awful +ecclesiastical superiority suddenly thundering upon them quite cowed +the two smaller magistrates. Williams, whose pomposity the priest had +so rudely shaken, gasped for breath with rage. Magisterial arrogance was +not prepared for ecclesiastical arrogance, and the blow was stunning. + +"Gentlemen, I wish to consult you. Be pleased to retire for a minute, +sir." + +A discussion took place in the chaplain's absence. Williams was for +dismissing him on the spot, but the others who were cooler would not +hear of it. "We have made a false move," said they, "and he saw our +mistake and made the most of it. Never mind! we shall catch him on other +ground." + +During this discussion Mr. Eden had not been idle; he went into +Robinson's empty cell and coolly placed there another inkstand, pen +and quire in the place of those Hawes had removed. Then glancing at his +watch he ran hastily out of the jail. Opposite the gate he found four +men waiting; they were there by appointment. + +"Giles," said he to one, "I think a gentleman will come down by the next +train. Go to the station and hire Jenkyns's fly with the gray horse. +Let no one have it who is not coming on to the jail. You two stay by the +printing-press and loom till further orders. Jackson, you keep in the +way, too. My servant will bring you your dinner at two o'clock." He then +ran back to the justices. They were waiting for him. + +Mr. Williams began with a cutting coldness. "We did not wish to go to +the length of laying a complaint against you before the bishop, but if +you really prefer this to a friendly remonstrance--" + +"I prefer the right thing to the wrong thing," was the prompt and calm +rejoinder. + +"The complaint shall be made." + +Mr. Eden bowed and his eyes twinkled. He pictured to himself this +pompous personage writing to the Bishop of ---- to tell him that he +objected to Mr. Eden's preaching; not that he had ever heard it; but +that in attacking a great human vice it had hit a jailer. + +"The next I think we can deal with. Mr. Hawes complains that you +constantly interfere between him and the prisoners, and undermine his +authority." + +"I support him in all his legal acts, but I do oppose his illegal ones." + +"Your whole aim is to subvert the discipline of the jail." + +"On the contrary, I assure you I am the only officer of the jail who +maintains the discipline as by law established." + +"Am I to understand that you give Mr. Hawes the lie?" + +"You shall phrase my contradiction according to your own taste, sir." + +"And which do you think is likeliest to be believed?" + +"Mr. Hawes by you gentlemen; Mr. Eden by the rest of the nation." + +Here Mr. Palmer put in his word. "I don't think we ought to pay less +respect to one man's bare assertion than to another's. It is a case for +proof." + +"Well, but, Palmer," replied Woodcock, "how can the jail go on with +these two at daggers drawn?" + +"It cannot," said Mr. Eden. + +"Ah, you can see that." + +"A house divided against itself!" suggested Mr. Eden. + +"Well, then," said Mr. Woodcock, "let us try and give a more friendly +tone to this discussion." + +"Why not?--our weapons would bear polishing." + +"Yes; you have a high reputation, Mr. Eden, both for learning and +Christian feeling; in fact, the general consideration in which you are +held has made us more lenient in this case than we should have been with +another man in your office." + +"There you are all wrong." + +"You can't mean that; make us some return for this feeling. You know and +feel the value of peace and unity?" + +"I do." + +"Then be the man to restore them to this place." + +"I will try." + +"The governor and you cannot pull together--one must go." + +"Clearly." + +"Well, then, no stigma shall rest on you--you will be allowed to offer +us your voluntary resignation." + +"Excuse me, I propose to arrive at peace and unity by another route." + +"But I see no other." + +"If I turn Mr. Hawes out it will come to the same thing, will it not?" + +"Mr. Hawes?" + +"Mr. Hawes." + +"But you can't turn him out, sir," sneered Williams. + +"I think I can." + +"He has our confidence and our respect, and shall have our protection." + +"Still I will turn him out with God's help." + +"This is a defiance, Mr. Eden." + +"You cannot really think me capable of defying three justices of the +peace!" said Mr. Eden in a solemn tone, his eyes twinkling. + +"Defiance! no," said Mr. Palmer innocently. + +"Well, but, Palmer, his opposition to Mr. Hawes is opposition to us, and +is so bitter that it leaves us no alternative. We must propose to the +bench to remove you from your office." + +Mr. Eden bowed. + +"And meantime," put in Mr. Williams, "we shall probably suspend you this +very day by our authority." Mr. Eden bowed. + +"We will not detain you any longer, sir," said Williams, rather +insolently. + +"I will but stay to say one word to this gentleman, who has conducted +himself with courtesy toward me. Sir, for your own sake do not enter on +this contest with me; it is an unequal one. A boy has just been murdered +in this prison. I am about to drag his murderer into the light; why +hang upon his skirts and compel me to expose you to public horror as his +abettor? There is yet time to disown the fell practices of--hell!" He +looked at his watch. "There is half an hour. Do not waste it in acts +which our superiors will undo. See here are the prison rules; a child +could understand them. A child could see that what you call 'the +discipline' is a pure invention of the present jailer, and contradicts +the discipline as by law established, and consequently that Josephs +and others have been murdered by this lawless man. These are the prison +rules, are they not? and here are the jailer's proceedings in the month +of January--compare the two, and separate your honorable name from the +contact of this caitiff, whose crimes will gibbet him in the nation's +eyes, and you with him, unless you seize this chance and withdraw your +countenance from him." + +The three injustices rose by one impulse. "Make your preparations to +leave the jail," said Mr. Woodcock. + +"Half an hour is quite enough under the circumstances," said Williams. + +Palmer stood aghast--his mind was not fast enough to keep up. + +Mr. Eden bowed and retired. He was scarcely out of the room when the +justices drew up an order for his suspension from his office. + +Mr. Hawes was next sent for. + +"We have found the chaplain all you described him. Discipline is +impossible with such a man; here is an order for his suspension." +Hawes's eyes sparkled. "We will enter it into the book, meantime you are +to see it executed." Hawes went out, but presently returned. + +"He won't go, gentlemen." + +"What do you mean by he won't go?" said Williams. + +"I told him your orders; and he said, 'Tell their worships they are +exceeding their authority, and I won't go.' Then I said, 'They give you +half an hour to pack up and then you must pack off.'" + +"He! he! he! and what did he say?" + +"'Oh, they give me half an hour, do they?' says he--'you take them +this'--and he wrote this on a slip of paper--here it is." + +The slip contained these words-- + +[Greek letters] + +While the justices were puzzling over this, Hawes added, "Gentlemen, he +said in his polite way, 'If it is like the prison rules and beats their +comprehension, you may tell them it means-- + + "'There is many a slip + 'Twixt the cup and the lip.'" + +"Well, Mr. Hawes--what next?" + +"'I am victualed for a siege,' says he, and he goes into his own room, +and I heard him shoot the bolt." + +"What does that mean?" inquired Mr. Palmer. + +"It means, sir, that you won't get him out except by kicking him out." +Hawes had been irritating their wounded vanity in order to get them up +to this mark. + +"Then turn him out by force," said Williams. But the other two were +wiser. "No, we must not do that--we can keep him out if once he crosses +the door." + +"I will manage it for you, gentlemen," said Mr. Hawes. + +"Do." + +Mr. Hawes went out and primed Fry with a message to Mr. Eden that a +gentleman had ridden over from Oxford to see him, and was at his house. + +Mr. Eden was in his room busy collecting and arranging several papers. +He had just tied them up in a little portfolio when he heard Fry's voice +at the door. When that worthy delivered his message his lip curled with +scorn. But he said, "Very well." I will disappoint the sly boobies, +thought he. But the next moment, looking out of his window, he saw a +fly with a gray horse coming along the road. "At last," he cried, and +instantly unbolted his door, and issued forth with his little portfolio +under his arm. He had scarce taken ten steps when a turnkey popped out +from a corner and stood sentinel over his room-door, barring all return. + +Mr. Eden smiled and passed on along the corridor. He descended from the +first floor to the basement. Here he found Hawes affecting business, but +not skillfully enough to hide that he was watching Mr. Eden out. + +In the yard leading to the great door he found the injustices. Aha! +thought he--waiting to see me out. He raised his hat politely. Williams +took no notice. The others slight. + + "There is many a slip + 'Twixt the cup and the lip," + +said he to them, looking them calmly over, then sauntered toward the +gate. + +Mr. Hawes came creeping after and joined the injustices; every eye +furtively watched the parson whom they had outwitted. Fry himself had +gone to the lodge to let him out and keep him out. He was but a few +steps from the door. Hawes chuckled; his heart beat with exultation. A +nether moment and that huge barrier would be interposed forever between +him and his enemy, the prisoners' friend. + +"Open the door, Mr. Fry," said the chaplain. Fry pulled it quickly open. +"And let that gentleman in!" + +A middle-aged gentleman was paying off his fly. The door being thus +thrown open he walked quickly into the jail as if it belonged to him. + +"Who is this?" inquired Mr. Williams sharply. The newcomer inquired as +sharply, "The governor of this jail?" + +Mr. Hawes stepped forward: "I am the governor." The newcomer handed him +his card and a note. + +"Mr. Lacy from the Home Office," said Mr. Hawes to the injustices. +"These, sir, are the visiting justices." + +Mr. Lacy bowed, but addressed himself to Mr. Hawes only. "Grave charges +have been made against you, sir. I am here to see whether matters are +such as to call for a closer investigation." + +"May I ask, sir, who makes the charges against me?" + +"The chaplain of your own jail." + +"But he is my enemy, sir, my personal enemy." + +"Don't distress yourself. No public man is safe from detraction. We hear +an excellent account of you from every quarter but this one. My visit +will probably turn to your advantage." + +Hawes brightened. + +"Is there any room in which I could conduct this inquiry?" + +"Will you be pleased to come to the justices' room?" + +"Yes. Let us go there at once. Gentlemen, you shall be present if you +choose." + +"It is right you should know the chaplain is cracked," said Mr. +Williams. + +"I should not wonder. Pray," inquired Mr. Lacy, "who was that +bilious-looking character near the gate when I came in?" + +"Why, that was the chaplain." + +"I thought so! I dare say we shall find he has taken a jaundiced view of +things. Send for him, if you please, and let us get through the business +as quickly as we can." + +When Mr. Eden came he found Mr. Lacy chatting pleasantly with his four +adversaries. On his entrance the gentleman's countenance fell a +little, and Mr. Eden had the pleasure of seeing that this man, too, was +prejudiced against him. + +"Mr.--Mr.--?" + +"Eden." + +"Mr. Eden, be seated, if you please. You appear to be ill, sir?" + +"I am recovering from a mortal sickness." + +"The jaundice, eh?" + +"Something of that nature." + +"A horrible complaint." + +Mr. Eden bowed. + +"I have had some experience of it. Are you aware of its effect on the +mind?" + +"I feel its effect on the temper and the nerves." + +"Deeper than that, sir--it colors the judgment. Makes us look at +everything on the dark side." + +Mr. Eden sighed: "I see what you are driving at; but you confound effect +with cause." + +Mr. Lacy shrugged his shoulders, opened his portfolio, and examined a +paper or two. + +"Mr. Hawes, you served her majesty in another way before you came here?" + +"Five and twenty years, sir, man and boy." + +"And I think with credit?" + +"My will has been good to do my duty, whatever my abilities may be." + +"I believe you distinguished yourself at sea in a storm in the West +Indies?" + +Mr. Williams put in warmly, "He went out to a vessel in distress in a +hurricane at Jamaica." + +"It was off the Mauritius," observed Mr. Eden with a gleam of +satisfaction. + +"Well," said Mr. Lacy, "he saved other lives at the risk of his own, no +matter where. Pray, Mr. Eden, does your reading and experience lead you +to believe that a brave man is ever a cruel one?" + +"Yes." + +"There is a proverb that the cruel are always cowards." + +"Cant! seven out of twelve are cowards and five brave." + +"I don't agree with you. The presumption is all on Mr. Hawes's side." + +"And only the facts on mine." + +Mr. Lacy smiled superciliously. "To the facts let us go, then. You +received a note from the Home Office this morning. In compliance with +that note have you prepared your case?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you begin by giving me an idea what the nature of your evidence +will be?" + +"A page or two of print--twenty of manuscript--three or four living +witnesses, and--one dead body." + +"Hum! he seems in earnest, gentlemen. How long do you require to state +your case? Can it be done to-day?" Mr. Lacy looked at his watch half +peevishly. + +"Half an hour," was the reply. + +"Only half an hour?" + +"Ay, but half an hour neat." + +"What do you mean by neat?" + +"The minutes not to be counted that are wasted in idle interruptions or +in arguments drawn from vague probabilities where direct evidence lies +under our senses. For instance, that because I have been twenty-five +years a servant of Christ with good repute, therefore it is not to be +credited I could bring a false accusation; or that because Mr. Hawes was +brave twenty years ago in one set of circumstances, therefore he cannot +be cruel now in another set of circumstances." + +Mr. Lacy colored a little, but he took a pinch of snuff, and then coolly +drew out of his pocket a long paper sealed. + +"Have you any idea what this is?" + +Mr. Eden caught sight of the direction; it was to himself. + +"Probably my dismissal from my post?" + +"It is." + +Hawes quivered with exultation. + +"And I have authority to present you with it if you do not justify the +charges you have made against a brother officer." + +"Good!" said Mr. Eden. "This is intelligent and it is just. The first +gleam of either that has come into this dark hole since I have known it. +I augur well from this." + +"This is a character, gentlemen." + +"To business, sir?" inquired Mr. Eden, undoing his portfolio. + +"Sir," put in Mr. Hawes, "I object to an ex-parte statement from a +personal enemy. You are here to conduct a candid inquiry, not to see +the chaplain conduct a hostile one. I feel that justice is safe in your +hands but not in his." + +"Stop a bit," said Mr. Eden; "I am to be dismissed unless I prove +certain facts. See! the Secretary of State has put me on my defense. I +will intrust that defense to no man but myself." + +"You are keen, sir, but--you are in the right; and you, Mr. Hawes, will +be here to correct his errors and to make your own statement after he +has done in half an hour." + +"Ah! well," thought Hawes, "he can't do me much harm in half an hour." + +"Begin, sir!" and he looked at his watch. + +"Mr. Hawes, I want your book; the log-book of the prison." + +"Get it, Mr. Hawes, if you please." + +Mr. Hawes went out. + +"Mr. Williams, are these the Prison Rules by Act of Parliament?" and he +showed him the paper. + +"They are, sir." + +"Examine them closely, Mr. Lacy; they contain the whole discipline of +this prison as by law established. Keep them before you. It is with +these you will have to compare the jailer's acts. And now, how many +times is the jailer empowered to punish any given prisoner?" + +"Once--on a second offense the prisoner, I see, is referred for +punishment to the visiting justices." + +"If, therefore, this jailer has taken upon himself to punish the same +prisoner twice he has broken the law." + +"At all events he has gone beyond the letter of this particular set of +rules." + +"But these rules were drawn up by lawyers, and are based on the law of +the land. A jailer, in the eye of the law, is merely a head turnkey set +to guard the prisoners. For hundreds of years he had no lawful right +to punish a prisoner at all; that right was first bestowed on him with +clear limitations by an act passed in George the Fourth's reign, which +I must show you, because that act is a jailer's sole authority for +punishing a prisoner at all. Here is the passage, sir; will you be kind +enough to read it out?" + +"Hum! 'The keeper of every prison shall have power to hear all +complaints touching any of the following offenses: Disobedience of the +prison rules, assaults by one prisoner on another where no dangerous +wound is given, profane cursing or swearing, any indecent behavior at +chapel, idleness or negligence in work. The said keeper may punish +all such offenses by ordering any offender to close confinement in the +refractory or solitary cells, and by keeping such offenders upon bread +and water only for any term not exceeding three days.'" + +"Observe," put in Mr. Eden, "he can only punish once, and then not +select the punishment according to his own fancy; he is restricted to +separate confinement, and bread and water, and three days." + +Mr. Lacy continued: "'In case any criminal prisoner shall be guilty of +any repeated offense against the rules of the prison, or of any greater +offense than the jailer is by this act empowered to punish, the said +jailer shall forthwith report the same to the visiting justices, who +can punish for one month, or felons or those sentenced to hard labor by +personal correction.'" + +"Such, sir," said Mr. Eden, "is the law of England, and the men who laid +down our prison rules were not so ignorant or unscrupulous as to run +their head against the statute law of the land. Nowhere in our prison +rules will you find any power given to our jailer to punish any but +minor offenses, or to punish any prisoner more than once, or to inflict +any variety of punishments. Such are this jailer's powers--now for his +acts and their consequences--follow me." + +"Evans, open this cell. Jenkyns, what are you in prison for?" + +"For running away from sarvice, your reverence." + +"How often have you been punished since you came?" + +"A good many times, your reverence." + +"By the visiting justices?" + +"No, sir! I was never punished by them, only by the governor." + +"What have been your offenses?" + +"I don't know, sir. I never meant to offend at all, but I am not very +strong, and the governor he puts me on a heavy crank and then I can't +always do the work, and I suppose he thinks it is for want of the will, +and so he gives it me." + +"How has he punished you?" + +"Oh! sometimes it is clamming; nothing but a twopenny roll all day, and +kept to hard work all the same; sometimes my bed taken away, you know, +sir, but mostly the punishment jacket." + +Mr. Lacy. "The punishment jacket; what is that?" + +Mr. Eden. "Look in the prison rules and see if you can find a +punishment jacket; meantime come with me. Two gross violations of the +law--repetition of punishment and variety of punishments. Evans, open +this cell. What are you in for?" + +Prisoner (taking off his cap politely). "Burglary, gentlemen." + +"Have you been often refractory since you came here?" + +"Once or twice, sir. But--" + +"But what?" + +"These gentlemen are the visiting justices?" + +"Yes!" + +"They would be offended if I told the truth." + +Mr. Lacy. "I am here from the Secretary of State, and I bid you tell the +truth." + +Prisoner. "Oh! are you, sir; well, then, the truth is, I never was +refractory but once." + +Mr. Lacy. "Oh! you were refractory once?" + +Prisoner. "Yes, sir!" + +Mr. Lacy. "How came that?" + +Prisoner. "Well, sir! it was the first week. I had never been in a +separate cell before, and it drove me mad; no one came near me or spoke +a word to me, and I turned savage; I didn't know myself, and I broke +everything in the cell." + +Mr. Eden. "And the other times?" + +Prisoner. "The other times, sir, I was called refractory but I was not." + +Mr. Eden. "What punishments have been inflicted on you by the governor?" + +Prisoner. "Well, sir! the black-cell, bread and water, and none of that; +took away my gas once or twice, but generally it was the punishment +jacket." + +Mr. Lacy. "Hum! the punishment jacket." + +Mr. Eden. "How long since you had the punishment jacket?" + +Prisoner. "No longer than yesterday." + +Mr. Eden. "Strip, my man, and let us look at your back." + +The prisoner stripped and showed his back, striped livid and red by the +cutting straps. + +Mr. Lacy gave a start, but the next moment he resumed his official +composure, and at this juncture Mr. Hawes bustled into the cell and +fixed his eye on the prisoner. + +"What are you doing?" said he, eying the man. + +"The gentleman made me strip, sir," said the prisoner with an ill-used +air. + +"Have you any complaint to make against me?" + +"No, sir!" + +"Then what have you been humbugging us for all this time," cried Mr. +Williams contemptuously. + +"For instance," cried Mr. Eden in the same tone, glancing slyly at Mr. +Lacy, "how dare you show us frightful wales upon your back when you know +they only exist in your imagination--and mine." + +Mr. Lacy laughed. "That is true, he can't retract his wales, and I shall +be glad to know how they came there." Here he made a note. + +"I will show you by and by," said Mr. Eden. + +The next two cells they went to, the prisoners assured Mr. Lacy that +they were treated like Mr. Hawes's children. + +"Well, sir!" said Lacy, with evident satisfaction, "what do you say to +that?" + +"I say--use your eyes." And he wheeled the last prisoner to the light. +"Look at this hollow eye and faded cheek; look at this trembling frame +and feel this halting pulse. Here is a poor wretch crushed and quelled +by cruelty till scarce a vestige of man is left. Look at him! here is an +object to pretend to you that he has been kindly used. Poor wretch, his +face gives the lie to his tongue, and my life on it his body confirms +his face. Strip, my lad." + +Mr. Hawes interposed, and said it was cruel to make a prisoner strip +to gratify curiosity. Mr. Eden laughed. "Come, strip," said he; "the +gentleman is waiting." The prisoner reluctantly took off his coat, +waistcoat and shirt, and displayed an emaciated person and several large +livid stripes on his back. Mr. Lacy looked grave. + +"Now, Mr. Lacy, you see the real reason why this humane gentleman did +not like the prisoner to strip. Come to another. Before we go in to this +one let me ask you one question: Do you think they will ever tell you +the truth while Mr. Hawes's eye is on them?" + +"Hum! they certainly seem to stand in awe of Mr. Hawes." + +Hawes. "But, sir! you see how bitter the chaplain is against me. Where +he is I ought to be if I am to have fair play." + +"Certainly, Mr. Hawes, certainly! that is but fair." + +Mr. Eden. "What are you in for?" + +Prisoner. "Taking a gentleman's wipe, gentlemen." + +Mr. Eden. "Have you been often punished?" + +Prisoner. "Yes, your reverence! Why you know I have; now didn't you save +my life when they were starving me to death two months ago?" + +Mr. Lacy. "How did he save your life?" + +Prisoner. "Made 'em put me on the sick list, and put something into my +poor belly." + +Mr. Lacy. "What state was the man in, Mr. Eden?" + +Mr. Eden. "He was like a skeleton, and so weak that he could only speak +two or three words at a time, and then had to stop a long while and +recover strength to say two or three more. I did not think a human +creature could be so near death and not die." + +Mr. Lacy. "And did you know the cause?" + +Mr. Eden. "Frankly, I did not. I had not at that time fathomed all the +horrors of this place." + +Mr. Lacy. "Did you tell the chaplain at the time you were starving?" + +Prisoner. "No!" + +Mr. Eden. "And why not?" + +Mr. Hawes. "Simply because he never was starving." + +Prisoner. "Well! I'll tell you, gentlemen. His reverence said to me, +'My poor fellow, you are very ill--I must have you on the sick list +directly,' and then he went for the doctor. Now I knew if I got on the +sick list they would fill my belly; so I said to myself, best let well +alone. If I had told him it was only starvation he would not interfere, +I thought." + +Mr. Lacy opened his eyes. Mr. Eden sighed. + +Mr. Lacy. "You seem to have a poor opinion of her majesty's officers." + +Prisoner. "Didn't know him, you see--didn't know his character; the +humbug that was here before him would have let a poor fellow be kicked +into his grave before his eyes, and not hold out a hand to save him." + +Mr. Lacy. "Let me understand you--were you kept without food?" + +Prisoner. "I was a day and a half without any food at all." + +Mr. Lacy. "By whose orders?" + +Prisoner. "By the governor's there, and I was a week on a twopenny +loaf once a day, and kept at hard work on that till I dropped. Ah, your +reverence, I shall never forget your face. I should be under the sod now +if it was not for you!" + +Williams. "You rascal, the last time I was here you told me you never +were so happy and comfortable." + +Prisoner. "Ha! ha! ha! ha! he! he! haw! haw! ho! I ask your pardon for +laughing, sir; but you are so precious green. Why, if I had told you the +truth then I shouldn't be alive to talk to you now." + +"What, I should have murdered you, should I!" said Mr. Hawes, with a +lofty sneer. + +"Why you know you would, sir," replied the prisoner firmly and +respectfully, looking him full in the face before them all. + +Mr. Lacy. "You don't think so, or you would not take these liberties +with him now." + +The prisoner cast a look of pity on Mr. Lacy. + +"Well, you _are_ green--what, can't you see that I am going out to-day? +Do you think I'd be such a cully as to tell a pack of greenhorns like +you the truth before a sharp hand like our governor, if I was in his +power; no, my term of imprisonment expired at twelve o'clock to-day." + +"Then why are you here?" + +"I'll tell you, sir. Our governor always detains a prisoner for hours +after the law sets him free. So then the poor fellow has not time to +get back to his friends, so then he sleeps in the town, ten to one at a +public-house; gets a glass, gets into bad company, and in a month or two +comes back here. That is the move, sir. Bless you, they are so fond of +us they don't like to part with us for good and all." + +Mr. Lacy. "I do not for a moment believe, Mr. Hawes, that you have +foreseen these consequences, but the detention of this man after twelve +o'clock is clearly illegal, and you must liberate him on the instant." + +Mr. Hawes. "That I will, and I wish this had been pointed out to me +before, but it was a custom of the prison before my time." + +Mr. Eden. "Evans, come this way, come in. How long have you been a +turnkey here?" + +Evans. "Four years, sir." + +Mr. Eden. "Do you happen to remember the practice of the late governor +with respect to prisoners whose sentence had expired?" + +Evans. "Yes, sir! They were kept in their cells all the morning; then +at eleven their own clothes were brought in clean and dry, and they had +half an hour given them to take off the prison dress and put on their +own. Then a little before twelve they were taken into the governor's +own room for a word of friendly advice on leaving, or a good book, or a +tract, or what not. Then at sharp twelve the gate was opened for them, +and--" + +Prisoner. "Good-by!--till we see you again." + +Evans (sternly). "Come, my man, it is not for you to speak till you are +spoken to." + +Mr. Eden. "You must not take that tone with the gentleman, Evans--this +is not a queen's prisoner, it is a private guest of Mr. Hawes. But time +flies. If after what we have heard and seen, you still doubt whether +this jailer has broken the law by punishing the same prisoner more than +once and in more ways than one, fresh evidence will meet you at every +step; but I would now direct your principal attention to other points. +Look at Rule 37. By this rule each prisoner must be visited and +conversed with by four officers every day, and they are to stay with him +upon the aggregate half an hour in the day. Now the object of this rule +is to save the prisoners from dying under the natural and inevitable +operation of solitude and enforced silence, two things that are fatal to +life and reason." + +"But solitary confinement is legal." + +Mr. Eden sighed heavily. "No it is not. Separate confinement, i.e., +separation of prisoner from prisoner, is legal, but separation of +a prisoner from the human race is as illegal as any other mode of +homicide. It never was legal in England; it was legal for a short time +in the United States, and do you know why it has been made illegal +there?" + +"No, I do not." + +"Because they found that life and reason went out under it like the +snuff of a candle. Men went mad and died, as men have gone mad and died +here through the habitual breach of Rule 37, a rule the aim of which +is to guard separate confinement from being shuffled into solitary +confinement or homicide. Take twenty cells at random, and ask the +prisoners how many officers come and say good words to them as bound +by law; ask them whether they get their half hour per diem of improving +conversation. There is a row of shambles, go into them by yourself, take +neither the head butcher nor me." + +Mr. Lacy bit his lip, bowed stiffly, and beckoned Evans to accompany +him into the cells. Mr. Hawes went in search of Fry, to concert what was +best to be done. Mr. Eden paced the corridor. As for Mr. Lacy, he took +the cells at random, skipping here and there. At last he returned and +sent for Mr. Hawes. + +"I am sorry to say that the 37th Rule has been habitually violated; the +prisoners are unanimous; they tell me that so far from half an hour's +conversation, they never have three minutes, except with the chaplain. +And during his late illness they were often in perfect solitude. They +tell me, too, that when you do look in it is only to terrify them with +angry words and threats. Solitude broken only by harsh language is a +very sad condition for a human creature to lie in--the law, it seems, +does not sanction it--and our own imperfections should plead against +such terrible severity applied indiscriminately to great and small +offenders." + +"Oh, that is well said, that is nobly said," cried Mr. Eden with +enthusiasm. + +"Sir! I was put in here to carry out the discipline which had been +relaxed by the late governor, and I have but obeyed orders as it was my +duty." + +"Nonsense," retorted Mr. Eden. "The discipline of this jail is comprised +in these rules, of which eight out of ten are habitually broken by you." + +"He is right there so far, Mr. Hawes. You are here to maintain, not an +imaginary discipline, but an existing discipline strictly defined by +printed rules, and it seems clear you have committed (through ignorance) +serious breaches of these rules. But let us hope, Mr. Eden, that no +irreparable consequences have followed this unlucky breach of Rule 37." + +"Irreparable? No!" replied Mr. Eden bitterly. "The Home Office can +call men back from the grave, can't it? Here is a list of five men all +extinguished in this prison by breach of Rule 37. You start. Understand +me, this is but a small portion of those who have been done to death +here in various ways; but these five dropped silently like autumn leaves +by breach of Rule 37. Rule 37 is one of the safety valves which the law, +more humane than the blockheads who execute it, has attached to that +terrible engine separate confinement." + +"I cannot accept this without evidence." + +"I have a book here that contains ample evidence; you shall see it. +Meantime I will just ask that turnkey about Hatchett, the first name on +your list of victims. Evans, what did you find in Hatchett's cell when +he was first discovered to be dying?" + +"Eighteen loaves of bread, sir, on the floor in one corner." + +"Eighteen loaves; I really don't understand." + +"Don't you?--how could eighteen loaves have accumulated but by the man +rejecting his food for several days? How could they have accumulated +unobserved if Rule 37 had not been habitually broken? Alas! sir, +Hatchett's story, which I see is still dark to you, is as plain as my +hand to all of us who know the fatal effects of solitary or homicidal +confinement. Thus, sir, it was: Unsustained by rational employment, +uncheered by the sound of a human voice, torn out by the roots from all +healthy contact with the human race, the prisoner Hatchett's heart and +brain gave way together; being now melancholy mad he shunned the food +that was jerked blindly into his cell, like a bone to a wolf, by this +scientific contrivance to make brute fling food to brute, instead of +man handing it with a smile to grateful man; and so his body sunk (his +spirits and reason had succumbed before) and he died. His offense was +refusing to share his wages with a woman from whom he would have been +divorced, but that he was too poor to buy justice at so dear a shop as +the House of Lords. The law condemned him to a short imprisonment. The +jailer, on his own authority, substituted capital punishment." + +"Is it your pleasure, sir, that I should be vilified and insulted thus +to my very face, and by my inferior officer?" asked Hawes, changing +color. + +"You have nothing to apprehend except from facts," was the somewhat cold +reply. "You are aware I do not share this gentleman's prejudices." + +"Would you like to see a man in the act of perishing through the +habitual breach of Rule 37 in ---- Jail?" + +"Can you show me such a case?" + +"Come with me." + +They entered Strutt's cell. They found the old man in a state bordering +on stupor. When the door was opened he gave a start, but speedily +relapsed into stupor. + +"Now, Mr. Lacy, here is a lesson for you. Would to God I could show this +sight to all the pedants of science who spend their useless lives in +studying the limbs of the crustaceonidunculae, and are content to know +so little about man's glorious body; and to all the State dunces who +give sordid blockheads the power to wreck the brains and bodies of +wicked men in these the clandestine shambles of the nation. Would I +could show these and all other numskulls in the land this dying man, +that they might write this one great truth in blood on their cold hearts +and muddy understandings. Alas! all great truths have to be written in +blood ere man will receive them." + +"But what is your great truth?" asked Mr. Lacy impatiently. + +"This, sir," replied Mr. Eden, putting his finger on the stupefied +prisoner's shoulder and keeping it there; "that the human body, besides +its grosser wants of food and covering, has its more delicate needs, +robbed of which it perishes more slowly and subtly but as surely as when +frozen or starved. One of these subtle but absolute conditions of health +is light. Without light the body of a blind man pines as pines a tree +without light. Tell that to the impostor physical science deep in the +crustaceonidunculae and ignorant of the A B C of man. Without light +man's body perishes, with insufficient light it droops; and here in all +these separate shambles is insufficient light, a defect in our system +which co-operates with this individual jailer's abuse of it. Another of +the body's absolute needs is work. Another is conversation with human +beings. If by isolating a vulgar mind that has collected no healthy food +to feed on in time of dearth you starve it to a stand-still, the body +runs down like a watch that has not been wound up. Against this law of +Nature it is not only impious but idiotic to struggle. Almighty God +has made man so, and so he will remain while the world lasts. A little +destructive blockhead like this can knock God's work to pieces--ecce +signum--but he can no more alter it while it stands than he can mend it +when he has let it down and smashed it. Feel this man's pulse and look +at his eye. Life is ebbing from him by a law of Nature as uniform as +that which governs the tides." + +"His pulse is certainly very low, and when I first felt it he was +trembling all over." + +"Oh, that was the agitation of his nerves--we opened the door suddenly." + +"And did that make a man tremble?" + +"Certainly; that is a well-known symptom of solitary confinement; it is +by shattering a man's nerves all to pieces that it prepares the way for +his death, which death comes sometimes in raging lunacy, of which eight +men have died under Mr. Hawes's reign. Here is the list of deaths by +lunacy from breach of Rule 37, eight. You will have the particulars by +and by." + +"I really don't see my way through this," said Mr. Lacy. "Let us come to +something tangible. What is this punishment jacket that leaves marks of +personal violence on so many prisoners?" + +Now Hawes had been looking for this machine to hide it, but to his +surprise neither he nor Fry could find it. + +"Evans, fetch the infernal machine." + +"Yes, your reverence." Evans brought the jacket, straps and collar from +a cell where he had hidden them by Mr. Eden's orders. "You play the game +pretty close, parson," said Mr. Hawes, with an attempt at a sneer. + +"I play to win. I am playing for human lives. This, sir, is the torture, +marks of which you have seen on the prisoners; but your inexperience +will not detect at a glance all the diabolical ingenuity and cruelty +that lurks in this piece of linen and these straps of leather. However, +it works thus: The man being in the jacket its back straps are drawn so +tight that the sufferer's breath is impeded, and his heart, lungs and +liver are forced into unnatural contact. You stare. I must inform you +that Nature is a wonderfully close packer. Did you ever unpack a human +trunk of its stomach, liver, lungs and heart, and then try to replace +them? I have; and, believe me, as no gentleman can pack like a shopman, +so no shopman can pack like Nature. The victim's body and organs being +crushed these two long straps fasten him so tight to the wall that he +cannot move to ease the frightful cramps that soon attack him. Then +steps in by way of climax this collar, three inches and a half high. +See, it is as stiff as iron, and the miscreants have left the edges +unbound that it may do the work of a man-saw as well as a garotte. In +this iron three-handed gripe the victim writhes and sobs and moans with +anguish, and, worse than all, loses his belief in God." + +"This is a stern picture," said Mr. Lacy, hanging his head. + +"Until what with the freezing of the blood in a body jammed together +and flattened against a wall--what with the crushed respiration and +the cowed heart a deadly faintness creeps over the victim and he swoons +away!" + +"Oh!" + +"It is a lie--a base, malignant lie!" shouted Hawes. + +"I am glad to hear it, Mr. Hawes." + +Here the justices with great beat joined in and told Mr. Lacy he +would be much to blame if he accepted any statement made against so +respectable a man as Mr. Hawes. Then they all turned indignantly on Mr. +Eden. That gentleman's eyes sparkled with triumph. + +"I have been trying a long time to make him speak, but he was too +cunning. It is a lie, is it?" + +"Yes, it is a lie." + +"What is a lie?" + +"The whole thing." + +"Give me your book, Mr. Hawes. What do you mean by 'the +punishment-jacket,' an entry that appears so constantly here in your +handwriting?" + +"I never denied the jacket." + +"Then what is the lie of which you have accused me? Show me--that I may +ask your pardon and His I serve for so great a sin as a lie." + +"It is a lie to say that the jacket tortures the prisoners and makes +them faint away; it only confines them. You want to make me out a +villain, but it is your own bad heart that makes you think so or say so +without thinking it." + +"Now, Mr. Lacy, I think we have caught our eel. This, then, is the +ground you take; if it were true that this engine, instead of merely +confining men, tortured them to fainting, then you say you would be a +villain. You hesitate, sir; can't you afford to admit that, after all?" + +"Yes, I can." + +"But on the other hand you say it is untrue that this engine tortures?" + +"I do." + +"Prove that by going into it for one hour. I have seen you put a man in +it for six." + +"Now, do you really think I am going to make myself a laughing-stock to +the whole prison?" + +"Well, but consider what a triumph you are denying yourself to prove +me a liar and yourself a true man. It would be the greatest feat +of dialects the world ever saw; and you need not stand on your +dignity--better men than you have been in it, and there goes one +of them. Here, Evans, come this way. We want you to go into the +punishment-jacket." The man recoiled with a ludicrous face of disgust +and dismay. Mr. Lacy smiled. + +"Now, your reverence, don't think of it. I don't want to earn no more +guineas that way." + +"What does he mean?" asked Mr. Lacy. + +"I gave him a guinea to go into it for half an hour, and he calls it a +hard bargain." + +"Oh, you have been in it, then? Tell me, is it torture or is it only +confinement?" + +"Con-finement! con-found such confinement, I say. Yes, it is torture and +the worst of torture. Ask his reverence, he has been in the oven as well +as me." + +Mr. Lacy opened his eyes wide. + +"What!" said he, with a half grin, "have you been in it?" + +"That he has, sir," said Evans, grinning out in return. "Bless you, his +reverence is not the one to ask a poor man to stand any pain he daren't +face himself." + +"There, there, we don't want to hear about his reverence," said his +reverence very sharply. "Mr. Hawes says it is not torture, and therefore +he won't face it. 'It is too laughable and painless for me,' says +slippery Mr. Hawes. 'It _is_ torture, and therefore I won't face it,' +says the more logical Mr. Evans. But we can cut this knot for you, +Mr. Lacy. There are in this dungeon a large body of men so steeped in +misery, so used to torture for their daily food, that they will not be +so nice as Messrs. Hawes and Evans. 'Fiat experimentum in corpore vili.' +Follow me, sir; and as we go pray cast your eyes over the prison rules, +and see whether you can find 'a punishment-jacket.' No, sir, you will +not find even a Spanish collar, or a pillory, or a cross, far less a +punishment-jacket which combines those several horrors." + +Mr. Hawes hung back and begged a word with the justices. "Gentlemen, +you have always been good friends to me--give me a word of advice, or +at least let me know your pleasure. Shall I resign--shall I fling my +commission in this man's face who comes here to usurp your office and +authority?" + +"Resign! Nonsense!" said Mr. Williams. "Stand firm. We will stand by +you, and who can hurt you then?" + +"You are very good, sirs. Without you I couldn't put up with any more of +this--to be baited and badgered in my own prison, after serving my queen +so many years by sea and land." + +"Poor fellow!" said Mr. Woodcock. + +"And how can I make head against such a man as Eden--a lawyer in a +parson's skin, an orator too that has a hundred words to say to my one?" + +"Let him talk till he is hoarse, we will not let him hurt you." + +"Thank you, gentlemen, thank you. Your wishes have always been my law. +You bid me endure all this insolence; honored by your good opinion, and +supported by your promise to stand by me, I will endure it." And Mr. +Hawes was seen to throw off the uneasiness he had put on to bind the +magistrates to his defense. + +"They are coming back again." + +"Who is this with them?" + +Mr. Hawes muttered an oath. "It is a refractory prisoner I had sent to +the dark cell. I suppose they will examine him next, and take his word +against mine." + +(Chorus of Visiting Justices.) "Shame!" + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +MR. EDEN had taken Mr. Lacy to the dark cells. Evans, who had no key of +them, was sent to fetch Fry to open them. "We will kill two birds with +one stone--disinter a patient for our leathern gallows, and a fresh +incident of the ---- Inquisition. Open this door, Mr. Fry." + +The door was opened. A feeble voice uttered a quavering cry of joy that +sounded like wailing, and a figure emerged so suddenly and distinctly +from the blackness that Mr. Lacy started. It was Thomas Robinson, who +crept out white and shaking, with a wild, haggard look. He ran to Mr. +Eden like a great girl. "Don't let me go back--don't let me go back, +sir!" And the cowed one could hardly help whimpering. + +"Come, courage, my lad," rang out Mr. Eden, "your troubles are nearly +over. Feel this man's hand, sir." + +"How he trembles! Why, he must be chicken-hearted." + +"No! only he is one of your men of action, not of passive fortitude. +He is imaginative, too, and suffers remorse for his crimes without the +soothing comfort of penitence. Twenty-four hours of that black hole +would deprive him or any such nature of the light of reason." + +"Is this a mere opinion or do you propose to offer me proof?" + +"Six men driven by this means alone to the lunatic asylum, of whom two +died there soon after." + +"Hum! of what nature is your proof? I cannot receive assertion." + +"Entries made at the time by a man of unimpeachable honesty." + +"Indeed!" + +"Who hates me and adores Mr. Hawes." + +"Very well, Mr. Eden," replied the other keenly, "whatever you support +by such evidence as that I will accept as fact and act upon it." + +"Done!" + +"Done!" and Mr. Lacy smiled good-humoredly, but, it must be owned, +incredulously. "Is that proof at hand?" he added. + +"It is. But one thing at a time--the leathern gallows is the iniquity we +are unearthing at present. Ah! here are Mr. Hawes and his subordinates." + +"Subordinates?" + +"You will see why I call them so." + +Mr. Williams. "I trust you will not accept the evidence of a refractory +prisoner against an honest, well-tried officer, whose conduct for two +years past we have watched and approved." + +Mr. Lacy replied with dignity: "Your good opinion of Mr. Hawes shall +weigh in his favor at every part of the evidence, but you must not +dictate to me the means by which I am to arrive at the truth." + +Mr. Williams bit his lip and was red and silent. + +"But, your reverence," cried Robinson, "don't let me be called a +refractory prisoner when you know I am not." + +"Then what were you in the black-hole for?" + +"For obeying orders." + +"Nonsense! hum! Explain." + +"His reverence said to me, 'You are a good writer; write your own life +down. See how you like it when you look at it with reason's eye instead +of passion's, all spread out before you in its true colors. Tell the +real facts--no false coin, nor don't put any sentiments down you don't +feel to please me--I shall only despise you,' said his reverence. +Well, sir, I am not a fool, and so of course I could see how wise his +reverence was, and how much good might come to my poor sinful soul by +doing his bidding; and I said a little prayer he had taught me against +a self-deceiving heart--his reverence is always letting fly at +self-deception--and then I sat down and I said, 'Now I won't tell a +single lie or make myself a pin better or worse than I really am. Well, +gentlemen, I hadn't written two pages when Mr. Fry found me out and told +the governor, and the governor had me shoved into the black-hole where +you found me." + +"This is Mr. Fry, I think?" + +"My name is Fry" + +"Was this prisoner sent to the black-hole merely for writing his life by +the chaplain's orders?" + +"You must ask the governor, sir. My business is to report offenses and +to execute orders; I don't give 'em." + +"Mr. Hawes, was he sent to the black-hole for doing what the chaplain +had set him to do by way of a moral lesson?" + +"He was sent for scribbling a pack of lies without my leave." + +"What! when he had the permission of your superior officer." + +"Of my superior officer?" + +"Your superior in the department of instruction, I mean. Can you doubt +that he is so with these rules before you? Let me read you one of them: +'Rule 18. All prisoners, including those sentenced to hard labor, are +to have such time allowed them for instruction as the chaplain may think +proper, whether such instruction withdraw them from their labor for a +time or not.' And again, by 'Rule 80. Each prisoner is to have every +means of moral and religious instruction the chaplain shall select for +each as suitable.' So that you have passed out of your own department +into a higher department, which was a breach of discipline, and you have +affronted the head of that department and strained your authority to +undermine his, and this in the face of Rule 18, which establishes this +principle: that should the severities of the prison claim a prisoner +by your mouth, and religious or moral instruction claim him by the +chaplain's, your department must give way to the higher department." + +"This is very new to me, sir; but if it is the law--" + +"Why, you see it is the law, printed for your guidance. I undo your act, +Mr. Hawes; the prisoner Robinson will obey the chaplain in all things +that relate to religious or moral instruction, and he will write his +life as ordered, and he is not to be put to hard labor for twenty-four +hours. By this means he will recover his spirits and the time and +moral improvement you have made him lose. You hear, sir?" added he very +sharply. + +"I hear," said Hawes sulkily. + +"Go on with your evidence, Mr. Eden." + +"Robinson, my man, you see that machine?" + +"Ugh! yes, I see it." + +"For two months I have been trying to convince Mr. Hawes that engine is +illegal. I failed; but I have been more fortunate with this gentleman +who comes from the Home Office. He has not taken as many minutes to see +it is unlawful." + +"Stop a bit, Mr. Eden. It is clearly illegal, but the torture is not +proved." + +"Nor ever will be," put in Mr. Hawes. + +"So then, Robinson, no man on earth has the right to put you into that +machine." + +"Hurrah!" + +"It is therefore as a favor that I ask you to go into it to show its +operation." + +"A favor, your reverence, to you? I am ready in a minute." Robinson was +jammed, throttled, and nailed in the man-press. Mr. Lacy stood in front +of him and eyed him keenly and gravely. "They seem very fond of you, +these fellows." + +"Can you give your eyes to that sight and your ears to me?" asked Mr. +Eden. + +"I can." + +"Then I introduce to you a new character--Mr. Fry. Mr. Fry is a real +character, unlike those of romance and melodrama, which are apt to be +either a streak of black paint or else a streak of white paint. Mr. Fry +is variegated. He is a moral magpie; he is, if possible, as devoid of +humanity as his chief; but to balance this defect, he possesses, all to +himself, a quality, a very high quality, called Honesty." + +"Well, that is a high quality and none too common." + +"He is one of those men to whom veracity is natural. He would hardly +know how to tell a falsehood. They fly about him in this place like +hailstones, but I never saw one come from him." + +"Stay! does he side with you or with Mr. Hawes in this unfortunate +difference?" + +"With me!" cried Mr. Hawes eagerly. Mr. Eden bowed assent. "Hum!" + +"This honest Nero is zealous according to his light; he has kept a +strict record of the acts and events of the jail for four years past; +i.e., rather more than two years of Captain O'Connor's jailership, and +somewhat less than two years of the present jailer. Such a journal, +rigorously kept out of pure love of truth by such a man is invaluable. +There no facts are likely to be suppressed or colored, since the record +was never intended for any eye but his own. I am sure Mr. Fry will +gratify you with a sight of this journal. Oblige me, Mr. Fry!" + +"Certainly, sir! certainly!" replied Fry, swelling with importance and +gratified surprise. + +"Bring it me at once, if you please." Fry went with alacrity for his +journal. + +"Mr. Lacy," said Mr. Eden, with a slight touch of reproach, "you can +read not faces only but complexions. You read in my yellow face and +sunken eye--prejudice; what do you read here?" and he wheeled like +lightning and pointed to Mr. Hawes, whose face and very lips were +then seen to be the color of ashes. The poor wretch tried to recover +composure, and retort defiance; but the effort came too late. His face +had been seen, and once seen that look of terror, anguish and hatred was +never to be forgotten. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Hawes?" + +"W--W--When I think of my long services, and the satisfaction I have +given to my superiors--and now my turnkey's journal to be taken and +believed against mine." + +(Chorus of Justices.) "It is a shame!" + +Mr. Eden (very sharply). "Against yours? what makes him think it will be +against his? The man is his admirer, and an honest man. What injustice +has he to dread from such a source?" + +Mr. Lacy. "I really cannot understand your objection to a man's evidence +whose bias lies your way; and I must say, it speaks well for Mr. Eden +that he has proposed this man in evidence." + +At this juncture the magistrates, after a short consultation, informed +Mr. Lacy that they had business of more importance to transact, and +could give no more time to what appeared to them an idle and useless +inquiry. + +"At all events, gentlemen," replied Mr. Lacy, "I trust you will not +leave the jail. I am not here to judge Mr. Hawes, but to see whether Mr. +Eden's demand for a formal inquiry into his acts ought to be granted or +refused. Now unless the evidence takes some new turn I incline to think +I must favor the inquiry; that is to say, should the chaplain persist in +demanding it." + +"Which I shall." + +"Should a royal commission be appointed to sit here, I should naturally +wish to consult you as to the component members of the commission; and +it is my wish to pay you the compliment usual in such cases of selecting +one of the three commissioners from your body. But one question, +gentlemen, before you go. Have you complied with No. 1 of these your +rules? Have you visited every prisoner in his or her cell once a month?" + +"Certainly not!" + +"I am sorry to hear it. Of course, at each visit, you have closely +examined this the jailer's book, a record of his acts and the events of +the jail?" + +"Portions of it are read to us; this is a form which I believe is never +omitted--is it, Mr. Hawes?" + +"Never, gentlemen!" + +"'Portions!' and 'a form!' what, then, are your acts of supervision? Do +you examine the turnkeys, and compare their opinions with the jailer's?" + +"We would not be guilty of such ungentlemanly behavior!" replied Mr. +Williams, who had been longing for some time to give Mr. Lacy a slap. + +"Do you examine the prisoners apart, so that there can be no +intimidation of them?" + +"We always take Mr. Hawes into the cells with us." + +"Why do you do that, pray?" + +"We conceive that nothing would be gained by encouraging the refuse of +mankind to make frivolous complaints against their best friend." Here +the speaker and his mates wore a marked air of self-satisfaction. + +"Well, sir! has the present examination in no degree shaken your +confidence in Mr. Hawes's discretion?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Nor in your own mode of scrutinizing his acts?" + +"Not in the least." + +"That is enough! Gentlemen, I need detain you no longer from the +business you have described as more important than this!" + +Mr. Lacy shrugged his shoulders. Mr. Eden smiled to him, and said +quietly: + +"As they were in the days of Shakespeare so they were in the days of +Fielding; as they were in the days of Fielding so they are in the days +of light; and as they are now so will they remain until they are swept +away from the face of the soil. (Keep your eye on Mr. Hawes, edging away +there so adroitly.) It is not their fault, it is their nature; their +constitution is rotten; in building them the State ignored Nature, as +Hawes ignores her in his self-invented discipline." + +"What do you mean, sir?" + +"That no _body_ of men ever gave for nothing anything worth anything, +nor ever will. Now knowledge of law is worth something; zeal, +independent judgment, honesty, humanity, diligence are worth something +(are you watching Mr. Hawes, sir?); yet the State, greedy goose, hopes +to get them out of a body of men for nothing!" + +"Hum! Why has Mr. Hawes retired?" + +"You know as well as I do." + +"Oh! do I?" + +"Yes, sir! the man's terror when Fry's journal was proposed in evidence, +and his manner of edging away obliquely to the direction Fry took, were +not lost on a man of your intelligence." + +"If you think that, why did you not stop him till Fry came back with the +book?" + +"I had my reasons; meantime we are not at a stand-still. Here is an +attested copy of the journal in question; and here is Mr. Hawes's +log-book. Fry's book intended for no mortal eye but his own; Hawes's +concocted for inspection." + +"I see a number of projecting marks pasted into Fry's journal!" + +"Yes, sir; on some of these marks are written the names of remarkable +victims, recurring at intervals; on others are inscribed the heads +of villainy--'the black-hole,' 'starvation,' 'thirst,' 'privation +of exercise,' 'of bed,' 'of gas,' 'of chapel,' 'of human +converse,' 'inhuman threats,' and the infernal torture called the +'punishment-jacket.' Somewhat on the plan of 'Watt's Bibliotheca +Britannica.' So that you can at will trace any one of Mr. Hawes's +illegal punishments, and see it running like a river of blood through +many hapless names; or you can, if you like it better, track a +fellow-creature dripping blood from punishment to punishment, from one +dark page to another, till release, lunacy, or death closes the list of +his recorded sufferings." + +Aided by Mr. Eden, who whirled over the leaves of Mr. Hawes's log-book +for him, Mr. Lacy compared several pages of the two books. The following +is merely a selected specimen of the entries that met his eye: + + MR. FRY. MR. HAWES. + + Joram.Writing on his can--bread and Joram.Refractory--bread and + water. water. + + Joram.Bread and water. + + Joram.Bread and water. Joram.Refractory--crank; bread + and water. + + Joram.Crank not performed--bread + and water. + + Joram.Punishment-jacket. + + Joram.Refractory--crank--bread and Joram. Refractory--bread and + water. water. + + Joram.Attempted suicide; Joram. Feigned suicide; cause + insensible when found. Had religious despondency--put on + cut off pieces of his hair to sick-list. + send to his friends--sick-list. + + Josephs. Crank not performed; says Josephs. Refractory; said + he could not turn the crank No. 9; he would not work on crank 9; + punishment-jacket. punishment-jacket. + + Tomson. Communicating in chapel-- Tomson.Communicating--dark cells. + dark cell 12 hours. + + Tomson. Bread and water. + + Tomson. Crank not performed; Tomson. Refractory--jacket. + punishment-jacket. + + + Tomson. Dark cells. + + Tomson. No chapel. + + Tomson. Dark cells. + + Tomson. Melancholy. Tomson. Afflicted with remorse + for past crimes--surgeon. + + Tomson. Very strange. + + Tomson. Removed to lunatic asylum. Tomson. Removed to asylum. + + Tanner (nine years old). Caught Tanner. Caught up at window; + up at window; asked what he did answered insolently--jacket. + there; said he wanted to feel the + light--jacket, and bread and water + three days. + + Tanner. For repining--chapel Tanner. Refractory language-- + and gas stopped until content. forbidden chapel until + reformation. + + +"Can I see such a thing as a prisoner who has attempted suicide?" +inquired he, with lingering incredulity. + +"Yes! there are three on this landing. Come first to Joram, of whom +Mr. Hawes writes that he made a sham attempt on his life in a fit of +religious despondency--Mr. Fry, that having been jacketed and put on +bread and water for several days, he became depressed in spirits and +made a real attempt on his life. Ah! here is Mr. Fry, he is coming +this way to tell you his first falsehood. Hawes has been all this while +persuading him to it." + +"Where is your journal, Mr. Fry?" + +"Well, sir," replied Fry, hanging his head, "I can't show it you. I lent +it to a friend, now I remember, and he has taken it out of the jail; +but," added he with a sense of relief, "you can ask me any questions you +like and I'll answer them all one as my book." + +"Well, then, was Joram's attempt at suicide a real or a feigned one?" + +"Well, I should say it was a real one. I found him insensible and he did +not come to for best part of a quarter of an hour." + +"Open his cell." + +"Joram, I am here from the Secretary of State to ask you some questions. +Answer them truly and without fear. Some months ago you made an attempt +on your life." + +The prisoner shuddered and hung his head. + +"Don't be discouraged, Joram," put in Mr. Eden kindly, "this gentleman +is not a harsh judge, he will make allowances." + +"Thank you, gentlemen." + +"What made you attempt your life?" persisted Mr. Lacy. "Was it from +religious despondency?" + +"That it was not. What did I know about religion before his reverence +here came to the jail? No, sir, I was clammed to death." + +"Clammed?" + +"Yes, sir, clammed and no mistake." + +"North-country word for starved," explained Mr. Eden. + +"No, sir, I was starved as well. It was very cold weather, and they gave +me nothing but a roll of bread no bigger than my fist once a day for the +best part of a week. So being starved with cold and clammed with hunger +I knew I couldn't live many hours more, and then the pain in my vitals +was so dreadful, sir, I was obliged to cut it short. Ay! ay! your +reverence, I know it was very wicked--but what was I to do? If I hadn't +attempted my life I shouldn't be alive now. A poor fellow doesn't know +what to do in such a place as this." + +"Well," said Mr. Lacy, "I promise you your food shall never be tampered +with again." + +"Thank you, sir. Oh! I have nothing to complain of now, sir; they have +never clammed me since I attempted my life." + +Mr. Eden. "Suicide is at a premium here." + +"What was your first offense?" asked Mr. Lacy. + +"Writing on my can." + +"What did you write on the can?" + +"I wrote, 'I want to speak to the governor.'" + +"Couldn't you ring and ask to see him?" + +"Ring and ask? I had rung half a dozen times and asked to see him and +could not get to see him. My hand was blistered, and I wanted to ask +him to put me on a different sort of work till such time as it could get +leave to heal." + +"Now, sir," said Mr. Eden, "observe the sequence of iniquity. A +refractory jailer defies the discipline of the prison. He breaks Rule +37 and other rules by which he is ordered to be always accessible to a +prisoner. The prisoner being in a strait, through which the jailer +alone can guide him, begs for an interview; unable to obtain this in his +despair he writes one innocent line on his can imploring the jailer to +see him. None of the beasts say, 'What has he written?' they say only, +'Here be scratches,' and they put him on bread and water for an illegal +period; and Mr. Hawes's new and illegal interpretation of 'bread and +water' is aimed at his life. I mean that instead of receiving three +times per diem a weight of bread equal to the weight of his ordinary +diets (which is clearly the intention of the bread and water statute), +he has once a day four ounces of bread. So because a refractory jailer +breaks the discipline, a prisoner with whom no breach of the discipline +_originated_ is feloniously put to death unless he cuts it short by +that which in every spot of the earth but ---- Jail is a deadly crime in +Heaven's eyes--self-murder." + +"What an eye your reverence ha' got for things! Well now it doesn't +sound quite fair, does it? but stealing is a dog's trick, and if a man +behaves like a dog he must look to be treated like one; and he will be, +too." + +"That is right, Joram; you look at it from that point of view, and we +will look at it from another." + +"Open Naylor's cell. Naylor, what drove you to attempt suicide?" + +"Oh! you know, sir." + +"But this gentleman does not." + +"Well, gents, they had been at me a pretty while one way and another; +they put me in the jacket till I fainted away." + +"Stop a minute; is the jacket very painful?" + +"There is nothing in the world like it, sir." + +"What is its effect? What sort of pain?" + +"Why, all sorts! it crushes your very heart. Then it makes you ache from +your hair to your heel, till you would thank and bless any man to knock +you on the head. Then it takes you by the throat and pinches you and +rasps you all at one time. However, I don't think but what I could have +stood up against that, if I had had food enough; but how can a chap face +trouble and pain and hard labor on a crumb a day? However, what finally +screwed up my stocking altogether, gents, was their taking away my gas. +It was the dark winter nights, and there was me set with an empty belly +and the cell like a grave. So then I turned a little queer in the head +by all accounts, and I saw things that--hem!--didn't suit my complaint +at all, you know." + +"What things?" + +"Well, gents, it is all over now, but it makes me shiver still, so I +don't care to be reminded; let us drop it if it is all the same to you." + +"But, Naylor, for the sake of other poor fellows and to oblige me." + +"Oh! your reverence, if I can oblige you that alters the case entirely. +Well, then, sir, if you must know, I saw 'Child of Hell' wrote in great +letters of fire all over that side of the cell. Always every evening +this was all my society, as the saying is; 'Child of Hell' wrote ten +times brighter than gas. + +"Couldn't you shut your eyes and go to sleep?" said Mr. Lacy. + +"How could I sleep? and I did shut my eyes, and then the letters +they came through my eyelids. So when this fell on the head of all my +troubles I turned wild, and I said to myself one afternoon, 'Now here is +my belly empty and nothing coming to it, and there is the sun a-setting, +and by-and-by my cell will be brimful of hell-fire--let me end my +troubles and get one night's rest if I never see another.' So I hung +myself up to the bar by my hammock-strap, and that is all I remember +except finding myself on my back, with Mr. Fry and a lot round me, some +coaxing and some cursing; and when I saw where I was I fell a-crying and +blubbering, to think that I had so nearly broke prison and there they +had got me still. I dare say Mr. Fry remembers how I took on." + +"Ay, my man, I remember we got no thanks for bringing you to." + +"I was a poor unconverted sinner then," replied Mr. Naylor demurely, +"and didn't know my fault and the consequences; but I thank you now with +all my heart, Mr. Fry, sir." + +"I am to understand then that you accuse the jailer of driving you to +suicide by unlawful severities?" + +"No, sir, I don't. I only tell you how it happened, and you should not +have asked me if you didn't care to know; and as for blaming folk, the +man I blame the most is John Naylor. His reverence there has taught me +to look at home. If I hadn't robbed honest folk I shouldn't have robbed +myself of character and liberty and health, and Mr. Hawes wouldn't have +robbed me of food and light and life wellnigh. Certainly there _is_ a +deal of ignorance and stupidity in this here jail. The governor has no +head-piece; can't understand that a prisoner is made out of the same +stuff as he is--skin and belly, heart, soul, bones an' all. I should +say he wasn't fit to be trusted with the lives of a litter of pigs, let +alone a couple of hundred men and women. But all is one for that; if he +was born without any gumption, as the saying is, I wasn't, and I didn't +ought to be in a fool's power; that is my fault entirely, not the +fool's; ain't it now? If I hadn't come to the mill the miller would +never have grinded me! I sticks to that!" + +"Well said, Naylor. Come, sir, One higher than the State takes +precedence here. We must on no account shake a Christian frame of mind +or rekindle a sufferer's wrongs. Yes, Naylor, forgive and you shall +be forgiven. I am pleased with you, greatly pleased with you, my poor +fellow. There is my hand!" Naylor took his reverence's hand and his very +forehead reddened with pride and pleasure at so warm a word of praise +from the revered mouth. They went out of the cell. Being now in the +corridor, Mr. Eden addressed the Government official thus: + +"My proofs draw to a close. I could multiply instances ad infinitum--but +what is the use? If these do not convince you you would not believe +though one rose from the dead. What do I say? Have not Naylor and Joram +and many others come back from the dead to tell you by what roads they +were driven there? One example remains to be shown. To a philosophical +mind it is no stronger than the rest; but there are many men who can +receive no very strong impression except through their senses. You may +be one of these; and it is my duty to give your judgment every aid. +Where is Mr. Fry? He has left us." + +"I am coming to attend you, sir," cried Evans from above. "Mr. Fry is +gone to the governor." + +"Where are we going?" asked Mr. Lacy. + +"To examine a prisoner whom the jailer tortured with the jacket, and +starved, and ended by robbing him of his gas and his bed contrary to +law. Evans, since you are here, relate all that happened to Edward +Josephs on the fourth of this month--and mind you don't exaggerate." + +"Well, sir, they had been at him for near a month, overtasking him and +then giving him the jacket, and starving him and overtasking him again +on his empty stomach till the poor lad was a living skeleton. On the +fourth the governor put him in the jacket, and there he was kept till he +swooned." + +"Ah!" + +"Then they flung two buckets of water over him and that brought him to. +Then they sent him to his cell and there he was in his wet clothes. Then +him being there shaking with cold, the governor ordered his gas to be +taken away--his hands were shaking over it for a little warmth when they +robbed him of that bit o' comfort." + +"Hum!" + +"Contrary to law!" put in Mr. Eden. + +"Well, sir, he was a quiet lad not given to murmur, but at losing his +gas he began to cry out so loud you might hear him all over the prison." + +"What did he cry?" + +"Sir, he cried MURDER!" + +"Go on." + +"Then I came to him and found him shivering and dripping, and crying fit +to break his poor heart." + +"And did you do nothing for him?" + +"I did what I could, sir. I took him and twisted his bedclothes so tight +round him the air could not get in, and before I left him his sobs went +down and he looked like warm and sleeping after all his troubles. +Well, sir, they can tell you better that did the job, but it seems the +governor sent another turnkey called Hodges to take away his bed from +under him." + +"Oh!" + +"Well, sir! oh dear me! I hope, your reverence, I shall never have to +tell this story again, for it chokes me every time." And the man was +unable to go on for a while. "Well, sir, the poor thing it seems didn't +cry out as he had about the gas, he took it quite quiet--that might have +let them know, but some folk can see nothing till it is too late--and +he gave Hodges his hand to show he bore him no malice. Eh dear! eh dear! +Would to Heaven I had never seen this wicked place!" + +"Wicked place, indeed!" said Mr. Lacy solemnly. "You make me almost +dread to ask the result." + +"You shall see the result. Evans!" + +Evans opened cell 15, and he and Mr. Eden stood sorrowful aside while +Mr. Lacy entered the cell. The first thing he saw was a rude coffin +standing upright by the window, the next a dead body lying stark upon a +mattress on the floor. The official uttered a cry like the scream of a +woman! "What is this? How dare you bring me to such a place as this?" + +"This is that Edward Josephs whose sufferings you have heard and +pitied." + +"Poor wretch! Heaven forgive us! What, did he--did he--?" + +"He took one step to meet inevitable death--he hanged himself that same +night by his handkerchief to this bar. Turn his poor body, Evans. See, +sir, here is Mr. Hawes's mark upon his back. These livid stripes are +from the infernal jacket and helped to lash him into his grave. You are +ill. Here! some wine from my flask! You will faint else!" + +"Thank you! Yes, I was rather faint. It is passed. Mr. Eden, I find my +life has been spent among words--things of such terrible significance +are new to me. God forgive us! how came this to pass in England in the +nineteenth century? The ---- scoundrel!" + +"Kick him out of the jail, but do not swear; it is a sin. By removing +him from this his great temptation we may save even his blood-stained +soul. But the souls of his victims? Oh, sir, when a good man is hurried +to his grave our lamentations are natural but unwise; but think what he +commits who hurries thieves and burglars and homicides unprepared +before their eternal Judge. In this poor boy lay the materials of a +saint--mild, docile, grateful, believing. I was winning him to all that +is good when I fell sick. The sufferings I saw and could not stop--they +made me sick. You did not know that when you let my discolored cheeks +prejudice you against my truth. Oh! I forgive you, dear sir! Yes, Heaven +is inscrutable; for had I not fallen ill--yes, I was leading you up +to Heaven, was I not? Oh, my lost sheep! my poor lost sheep!" And the +faithful shepherd, at the bottom of whose wit and learning lay a heart +simpler than beats in any dunce, forgot Hawes and everything else and +began to mourn by the dead body of his wandering sheep. + +Then in that gloomy abode of blood and tears Heaven wrought a miracle. +One who for twenty years past had been an official became a man for full +five minutes. Light burst on him--Nature rushed back upon her truant son +and seized her long-forgotten empire. The frost and reserve of office +melted like snow in summer before the sun of religion and humanity. +How unreal and idle appeared now the twenty years gone in tape and +circumlocution! Away went his life of shadows--his career of watery +polysyllables meandering through the great desert into the Dead Sea. +He awoke from his desk and saw the corpse of an Englishman murdered by +routine, and the tears of a man of God dripping upon it. + +Then his soul burst its desk and his heart broke its polysyllables and +its tapen bonds, and the man of office came quickly to the man of God +and seized his hand with both his which shook very much, and pressed it +again and again, and his eyes glistened and his voice faltered. "This +shall never be again. How these tears honor you! but they cut me to +the heart. There! there! I believe every word you have told me now. Be +comforted! you are not to blame! there were always villains in the world +and fools like us that could not understand or believe in an apostle +like you. We are all in fault, but not you! Be comforted! Law and order +shall be restored this very day and none of these poor creatures shall +suffer violence again or wrong of any sort--by God!" + +So these two grasped hands and pledged faith and for a while at least +joined hearts. Mr. Eden thanked him with a grace and dignity all his +own. Then he said with a winning sweetness, "Go now, my dear sir, and do +your duty. Act for once upon an impulse. At this moment you see things +as you will see them when you come to die. A light from Heaven shines on +your path at this moment. Walk by it ere the world dims it. Go and leave +me to repent the many unchristian tempers I have shown you in one short +hour--my heat and bitterness and arrogance--in this solemn place." + +"His unchristian temper! poor soul! There, take me to the justices, Mr. +Evans, and you follow me as soon as you like. Yes, my worthy friend, I +will act upon an impulse for once--Ugh!" + +Wheeling rapidly out of the cell, as unlike his past self as a pin-wheel +in a shop-drawer and ditto ignited, he met at the very door Mr. Hawes! + +"You have been witnessing a sad sight, sir, and one that nobody, I +assure you, deplores more than I do," said Mr. Hawes, in a gentle and +feeling tone. + +Mr. Lacy answered Mr. Hawes by looking him all over from head to foot +and back, then looking sternly into his eyes he turned his back on him +sharp and left him standing there without a word. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE jailer had been outwitted by the priest. Hawes had sneaked after +Fry to beg him for Heaven's sake--that was the phrase he used--not to +produce his journal. Fry thought this very hard, and it took Hawes ten +minutes to coax him over. Mr. Eden had calculated on this, and worked +with the attested copy, while Hawes was wasting his time suppressing the +original. Hawes was too cunning to accompany Fry back to Mr. Lacy. He +allowed five minutes more to elapse--all which time his antagonist was +pumping truth into the judge a gallon a stroke. At last up came Mr. +Hawes to protect himself and baffle the parson. He came, he met Mr. Lacy +at the dead prisoner's door, and read his defeat. + +Mr. Lacy joined the justices in their room. "I have one question to ask +you, gentlemen, before I go: How many attempts at suicide were made in +this jail under Captain O'Connor while sole jailer?" + +"I don't remember," replied Mr. Williams. + +"It would be odd if you did, for no one such attempt took place under +him. Are you aware how many attempts at suicide took place during the +two years that this Hawes governed a part of the jail, being kept +in some little check by O'Connor, but not much, as unfortunately you +encouraged the inferior officer to defy his superior? Five attempts at +suicide during this period, gentlemen. And now do you know how many such +attempts have occurred since Mr. Hawes has been sole jailer?" + +"I really don't know. Prisoners are always shamming," replied Mr. +Woodcock. + +"I do not allude to feigned attempts, of which there have been several, +but to desperate attempts; some of which have left the prisoner +insensible, some have resulted in his death--how many of these?" + +"Four or five, I believe." + +"Ah, you have not thought it worth while to inquire!! Hum!--well, +fourteen, at least. Come in, Mr. Eden. Gentlemen, you have neglected +your duty. Making every allowance for your inexperience, it still is +clear that you have undertaken the supervision of a jail and yet have +exercised no actual supervision; even now the life or death of the +prisoners seems to you a matter of indifference. If you are reckless on +such a point as this, what chance have the minor circumstances of their +welfare of being watched by you? and frankly I am puzzled to conceive +what you proposed to yourselves when you undertook an office so +important and requiring so great vigilance. I say this, gentlemen, +merely to explain why I cannot have the pleasure I did promise myself of +putting one of your names into the royal commission which will sit upon +this prison in compliance with the chaplain's petition." + +Mr. Eden bowed gratefully, and his point being formally gained, he +hurried away to make up for lost time and visit his longing prisoners. +While he passed like sunshine from cell to cell, Mr. Lacy took a note +or two in solemn silence, and the injustices conferred. Mr. Palmer +whispered, "We had better have taken Mr. Eden's advice." The other +two snorted ill-assured defiance. Mr. Lacy looked up. "You will hold +yourselves in readiness to be examined before the commission." At this +moment Mr. Hawes walked into the room without his mask, and in his own +brutal voice--the voice he spoke to prisoners with--addressed himself, +with great insolence of manner, to Mr. Lacy. "Don't trouble yourself to +hold commissions over me. I think myself worth a great deal more to the +government than they have ever been to me. What they give me is little +enough for what I have given them, and when insults are added to a man +of honor and an old servant of the queen, he flings his commission in +your face;" and the unveiled ruffian raised his voice, to a roar, and +with his hand flung an imaginary commission into Mr. Lacy's face, who +drew back astounded; then resuming his honeyed manner Hawes turned +to the justices. "I return into your hands, gentlemen, the office I +received from you. I thank you for the support you have afforded me +in my endeavors to substitute discipline for the miserable laxity and +slovenliness and dirt we found here; and your good opinion will always +console me for the insults I have received from a crack-brained parson +and his tools in the jail and out of it." + +"Your resignation is accepted," said Mr. Lacy coldly, "and as your +connection with ---- Jail is now ended, in virtue of my powers from +the Secretary of State, which I here produce, I give you the use of the +jailer's house for a week, that you may have time to move your effects; +but for many reasons it is advisable that you should not remain in the +_jail_ a single hour. Be so good, therefore, as to quit the jail as soon +as you conveniently can. One of the turnkeys shall assist you to convey +to your house whatever you have in this building." + +"I have nothing to take out of the jail, man," replied Hawes rudely, +"except"--and here he did a bit of pathos and dignity--"my zeal for her +majesty's service and my integrity." + +"Ah," replied Mr. Lacy quietly, "you won't want any help to carry them." + +Mr. Hawes left the room, bowing to the justices and ostentatiously +ignoring the government official. Mr. Williams shouted after him. "He +carries our respect wherever he goes," said this magistrate with a +fidelity worthy a better cause. The other two hung their heads and did +not echo their chief. The tide was turned against Jailer Hawes, and +these two were not the articles to swim against a stream even though +that stream was truth. + +Mr. Hawes took his time. He shook hands with Fry, who bade him farewell +with regret. Who is there that somebody does not contrive to like? +And rejecting even this mastiff's company he made a gloomy, solitary +progress through the prison for the last time. "How clean and beautiful +it all is; it wasn't like that when I came to it, and it never will +again." Some gleams of remorse began to flit about that thick skull and +self-deceiving heart, for punishment suggests remorse to sordid natures. +But his strong and abiding feeling was a sincere and profound sense of +ill usage--long service--couldn't overlook a single error--ungrateful +government, etc. "Prison go to the devil now--and serve them right." At +last he drew near the outer court, and there he met a sight that raised +all the fiend within him. There was Mr. Eden ushering Strutt into the +garden, and telling Evans the old man was to pass his whole days there +till he was better. "So that is the way you keep the rules now you have +undermined me! No cell at all. I thought what you would come to. You +haven't been long getting there." + +"Mr. Hawes," replied the other with perfect good temper, "Rule 34 +of this prison enjoins that every prisoner shall take daily as much +exercise in the open air as is necessary for his health. You have +violated this rule so long that now Strutt's health requires him to pass +many more hours in the air than he otherwise would; he is dying for air +and amusement, and he shall have both sooner than die for the want of +them, or of anything I can give him." + +"And what is it to _him?"_ retorted Evans with rude triumph; "he is no +longer an officer of this jail; he has got the sack and orders to quit +into the bargain." + +Fear is entertained that Mr. Evans had listened more or less at the door +of the justices' room. + +"Is this so, sir?" asked Mr. Eden gravely, politely, and without a +shadow of visible exultation. + +"You know it is, you sneaking, undermining villain; you have weathered +on me, you have out-maneuvered me. When was an honest soldier a match +for a parson?" + +"Ah!" cried Mr. Eden. "Then run to the gate, Evans, and let the men into +the jail with the printing-press and the looms. They have been waiting +four hours for this." + +Hawes turned black with rage. "Oh, I know you made sure of winning; a +blackguard that loads the dice can always do that. Your triumph won't be +long. I was in this jail honored and respected for four years till you +came. You won't be four months before you are kicked out, and no one to +say a good word for you. A pretty Christian! to suborn my own servants +and rob me of my place and make me a beggar in my old age, a man you are +not worthy to serve under, a man that served his country by sea and land +before you were whelped, ye black hypocrite. You a Christian! you? If +I thought that I'd turn Atheist or anything, you poor, backbiting, +tale-telling, sneaking, undermining, false witness bearing--" + +"Unhappy man," cried Mr. Eden; "turn those perverse eyes from the faults +of others to your own danger. The temptations under which you fell end +here; then let their veil fall from your eyes, and you may yet bless +those who came between your soul and its everlasting ruin. Your +victims are dead; their eternal fate is fixed by you. Heaven is more +merciful--it has not struck you dead by your victim's side; it gives +you, the greatest sinner of all, a chance to escape. Seize that chance. +Waste no time in passion and petulance--think only of your forfeited +soul. Madman, to your knees! What! dare you die as you have lived these +three years past? dare you die abhorred of Heaven? Fool! see yourself as +every eye on earth and in heaven sees you. The land contains no criminal +so black as you. Other homicides have struck hastily on provocation or +stung by injury, or thrust or drawn by some great passion--but you have +deliberately gnawed away men's lives. Others have seen their one victim +die, but you have looked on your many victims dying yet not spared them. +Other homicides' hands are stained, but yours are steeped in blood. +To your knees, MAN-slayer! I dare not promise you that a life given to +penitence and charity will save so foul a soul, but it may, for Heaven's +mercy is infinite. Seize on that small chance. Seize it like one who +feels Satan clutching him and dragging him down to eternal flames. Life +is short, eternity is close, judgment is sure. A few short years and you +must meet Edward Josephs again before the eternal Judge. What a tribunal +to face, your victims opposite you! There the long-standing prejudices +that save you from a felon's death here will avail you nothing. There +the quibbles that pass current on earth will be blasted with the lips +that dare to utter and the hearts that coin them. Before Him, who has +neither body nor parts, yet created all the forms of matter, vainly will +you pretend that you did not slay, because forsooth the weapons with +which you struck at life were invisible and not to be comprehended by a +vulgar, shallow, sensual, earthly judge. There, too, the imperfection of +human language will yield no leaf of shelter. + +"Hope not to shift the weight of guilt upon poor Josephs there. On earth +muddle-heads will call his death and the self-murderer's by one name +of 'suicide,' and so dream the two acts were one; but you cannot gull +Omniscience with a word--the wise man's counter and the money of a fool. +Be not deceived! As Rosamond took poison in her hand, and drank it with +her own lips, and died by her own act, yet died assassinated by her +rival--so died Josephs. As men taken by pirates at sea, and pricked +with cold steel till in despair and pain they fling themselves into the +sea--so died Josephs and his fellows murdered by you. Be not deceived! +I, a minister of the gospel of mercy--I, whose character leans toward +charity, tell you that if you die impenitent, so surely as the sun +shines and the Bible is true, the murder of Edward Josephs and his +brothers will damn your soul to the flames of hell forever--and +forever--and forever! + +"Begone, then, poor miserable creature! Do not look behind you. Fly from +this scene where crime and its delusions still cling round your brain +and your self-deceiving heart. Waste no more time with me. A minute lost +may be a soul lost. The avenger of blood is behind you. Run quickly to +your own home--go up to your secret chamber--and there fall down upon +your knees before your God and cry loud and long to him for pardon. +Cry mightily for help--cry humbly and groaning for the power to repent. +Away! away! Wash those red hands and that black soul in years and years +of charity, in tears and tears of penitence, and in our Redeemer's +blood. Begone, and darken and trouble us here no more." + +The cowed jailer shrank and cowered before the thunder and lightning of +the priest, who, mild by nature, was awful when he rebuked an impenitent +sinner out of holy writ. He slunk away, his knees trembling under him, +and the first fiery seeds of remorse sown in his dry heart. He met the +printing-press coming in, and the loom following it (naturally); he +scowled at them and groaned. Evans held the door open for him with +a look of joy that stirred all his bile again. He turned on the very +threshold and spat a volley of oaths upon Evans. Evans at this put down +his head like a bull, and running fiercely with the huge door, slammed +it close on his heel with such ferocity that the report rang like a +thunder-clap through the entire building, and the ex-jailer was in the +street. + +Five minutes more, the printing-press and loom were reinstalled, and the +punishment-jacket packed up and sent to London to the Home Office. Ten +minutes more, the cranks were examined by the artists in iron Mr. Eden +had sent for, and all condemned, it being proved that the value of their +resistance stated on their lying faces was scarce one-third of their +actual resistance. So much for unerring* science! + + * The effect of this little bit of science may be thus + stated--Men for two years had been punished as refractory + for not making all day two thousand revolutions per hour of + a 15 lb. crank, when all the while it was a _45 lb. crank_ + they had been vainly struggling against all day. The + proportions of this gory lie never varied. Each crank tasked + the Sisyphus three times what it professed to do. It was + calculated that four prisoners, on an average crank marked + 10 lb., had to exert an aggregate of force equal to one + horse; and this exertion was prolonged, day after day, far + beyond a horse's power of endurance, and in many cases on a + modicum of food so scanty that no horse ever foaled, so fed, + could have drawn an armchair a mile. + +Five minutes more Mr. Eden had placed in Mr. Lacy's hands a list of +prisoners to whom a free pardon ought now to be extended, some having +suffered a somewhat shorter period but a greater weight of misery than +the judges had contemplated in their several sentences; and others being +so shaken and depressed by separate confinement pushed to excess that +their life and reason now stood in peril for want of open air, abundant +light, and free intercourse with their species. At the head of these +was poor Strutt, an old man crushed to clay by separate confinement +recklessly applied. So alarming was this man's torpor to Mr. Eden +that after trying in vain to interest him in the garden, that observer +ventured on a very strong measure. He had learned from Strutt that he +could play the fiddle; what does he do but runs and fetches his own +violin into the garden, tunes it, and plays some most inspiriting, +rollicking old English tunes to him! A spark came into the fishy eye +of Strutt. At the third tune the old fellow's fingers began to work +impatiently. Mr. Eden broke off directly, put fiddle and bow into +Strutt's hand, and ran off to the prison again to arrest melancholy, +despair, lunacy, stagnation, mortification, putrefaction, by every art +that philosophy and mother-wit could suggest to Christianity. + +This determined man had collected his teaching mechanics again, and he +had them all into the prison the moment Hawes was out. He could not get +the cranks condemned as monsters--the day was not yet come for that; so +he got them condemned as liars, and in their place tasks of rational and +productive labor were set to most of the prisoners, and London written +to for six more trades and arts. + +A copy of the prison-rules was cut into eight portions and eight female +prisoners set to compose each her portion. Copies to be printed on the +morrow and put up in every cell, according to the wise provision of Rule +10, defied by the late jailer for an obvious reason. Thus in an hour +after the body of Hawes had passed through that gate a firm and adroit +hand was wiping his gloomy soul out of the cells as we wipe a blotch of +ink off a written page. + +Care, too, was taken every prisoner should know the late jailer was gone +forever. This was done to give the wretches a happy night. Ejaculations +of thanksgiving burst from the cells every now and then; by some +mysterious means the immured seemed to share the joyful tidings with +their fellows, and one pulse of hope and triumph to beat and thrill +through all the life that wasted and withered there encased in stone; +and until sunset the faint notes of a fiddle struggled from the garden +into the temple of silence and gloom, and astounded every ear. + +The merry tunes as Strutt played them sounded like dirges, but they +enlivened him as they sighed forth. They stirred his senses, and +through his senses his mind, and through his mind his body, and so the +anthropologist made a fiddle help save a life, which fact no mortal +man will believe whose habit it is to chatter blindfold about man and +investigate the "crustaceonidunculae." + +The cranks being condemned, rational industry restored, and the law +reseated on the throne a manslaughtering dunce had usurped, the champion +of human nature went home to drink his tea and write the plot of his +sermon. + +He had won a great battle and felt his victory. He showed it, too, in +his own way. On the evening of this great day his voice was remarkably +gentle and winning, and a celestial light seemed to dwell in his eyes; +no word of exultation, nor even of self-congratulation; and he made no +direct mention of the prison all the evening. His talk was about Susan's +affairs, and he paid his warm thanks to her and her aunt for all they +had done for him. "You have been true friends, true allies," said he; +"what do I not owe you! you have supported me in a bitter struggle, and +now that the day is won I can find no words to thank you as I ought." + +Both these honest women colored and glistened with pleasure, but they +were too modest to be ready with praise or to bandy compliments. + +"As for you, Susan, it was a masterstroke your venturing into my den." + +"Oh! we turn bold when a body is ill, don't we, aunt?" + +"I am not shy for one at the best of times," remarked the latter. + +"Under Heaven you saved my life, at least I think so, Susan, for the +medicinal power of soothing influences is immense, I am sure it is apt +to be underrated; and then it was you who flew to Malvern and dragged +Gulson to me at the crisis of my fate; dear little true-hearted friend, +I am sorry to think I can never repay you." + +"You forget, Mr. Eden," said Susan, almost in a whisper, "I was paid +beforehand." + +I wish I could convey the native grace and gentle dignity of gratitude +with which the farmer's daughter murmured these four words, like a +duchess acknowledging a kindness. + +"Eh?" inquired Mr. Eden, "oh! ah! I forgot," said he naively. "No! that +is nonsense, Susan. You have still an immense Cr. against my name; but +I know a way--Mrs. Davies, for as simple as I sit here you see in me +the ecclesiastic that shall unite this young lady to an honest man, +who, report says, loves her very dearly; so I mean to square our little +account." + +"That is fair, Susan; what do you say?" + +"La, aunt! why I shouldn't look upon it as a marriage at all if any +clergyman but Mr. Eden said the words." + +"That is right," laughed Mr. Eden, "always set some little man above +some great thing, and then you will always be--a woman. I must write the +plot of my sermon, ladies, but you can talk to me all the same." + +He wrote and purred every now and then to the women, who purred to each +other and now and then to him. Neither Hawes nor any other irritation +rankled in his heart, or even stuck fast in his memory. He had two +sermons to prepare for Sunday next, and he threw his mind into them as +he had into the battle he had just won. "Hoc agebat." + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +His reverence in the late battle showed himself a strategist, and won +without bringing up his reserves; if he had failed with Mr. Lacy he had +another arrow behind in his quiver. He had been twice to the mayor and +claimed a coroner's jury to sit on a suicide. The mayor had consented +and the preliminary steps had been taken. + +The morning after the jailer's dismissal the inquest was held. Mr. Eden, +Evans, Fry and others were examined, and the case came out as clear as +the day and black as the night. + +When twelve honest Englishmen, men of plain sense, not men of system, +men taken from the public not from public offices, sat in a circle with +the corpse of a countryman at their knees, fiebat lux; 'twas as though +twelve suns had burst into a dust-hole. + +"Manslaughter!" cried they, and they sent their spokesman to the mayor +and said yet more light must be let into this dusthole, and the mayor +said, "Ay and it shall, too. I will write to London and demand more +light." And the men of the public went to their own homes and told their +wives and children and neighbors what cruelties and villainies they had +unearthed, and their hearers, being men and women of that people, which +is a god in intellect and in heart compared with the criticasters that +try to misguide it with their shallow guesses and cant and with the +clerks that execute it in other men's names, cried out, "See now! What +is the use our building courts of law or prisons unless they are to be +open unto us. Shut us out--keep walls and closed gate between us and our +servants--and what comes of our courts of law and our prisons? Why they +turn nests of villainy in less than no time." + +The twelve honest Englishmen had hardly left the jail an hour, crying +"manslaughter!" and crying "shame!" when all in a moment "TOMB!" fell +a single heavy stroke of the great prison bell. The heart of the prison +leaped, and then grew cold--a long chill pause, then "TOMB!" again. The +jurymen had told most of his fellow-sufferers how Josephs was driven +into his grave--and now-- + +"TOMB!" the remorseless iron tongue crashed out one by one the last sad, +stern monosyllables of this sorrowfulest of human tales. + +They put him in his coffin ("TOMB!") a boy of sixteen, who would be +alive now but that caitiffs, whom God confound on earth, made life an +_impossibility_ to him ("TOMB!"), and that Shallows and Woodcocks, whom +God confound on earth, and unconscientious non-inspecting inspectors, +flunkeys, humbugs, hirelings, whom God confound on earth ("TOMB!"), left +these scoundrels month after month and year after year unwatched, though +largely paid by the queen and the people to watch them ("TOMB!"). Look +on your work, hirelings, and listen to that bell, which would not be +tolling now if you had been men of brains and scruples instead of sordid +hirelings. The priest was on his knees, praying for help from heaven +to go through the last sad office with composure, for he feared his own +heart when he should come to say "ashes to ashes" and "dust to dust" +over this hapless boy, that ought to be in life still. And still the +great bell tolled, and many of the prisoners were invited kindly in a +whisper to come into the chapel; but Fry could not be spared and Hodges +fiercely refused. And now the bell stopped, and as it stopped, the voice +of the priest arose, "I am the resurrection and the life." + +A deep and sad gloom was upon all as the last sad offices were done for +this poor young creature cut short by foul play in the midst of them. +And for all he could do the priest's voice trembled often, and a heavy +sigh mingled more than once with the holy words. + +What is that? "THIS OUR BROTHER!"--a thief our brother?--ay! the +priest made no mistake, those were the words; pause on them. Two great +characters contradicted each other to the face over dead Josephs. Unholy +State said, "Here is the carcass of a thief whom I and society honestly +believe to be of no more importance than a dog--so it has unfortunately +got killed between us, no matter how; take this carcass and bury +it," said unholy State. Holy Church took the poor abused remains with +reverence, prayed over them as she prays over the just, and laid them +in the earth, calling them "this our brother." Judge now which is all in +the wrong, unholy State or holy Church--for both cannot be right. + +Now while the grave is being filled in, judge, women of England and +America, between these two--unholy State and holy Church. The earth +contains no better judges of this doubt than you. Judge and I will bow +to your verdict with a reverence I know male cliques too well to feel +for them in a case where the great capacious heart alone can enlighten +the clever, little, narrow, shallow brain. + +Thus in the nineteenth century--in a kind-hearted nation--under the most +humane sovereign the world has ever witnessed on an earthly throne--holy +Church in vain denouncing the miserable sinners that slay the thief +their brother--Edward Josephs has been done to death in the queen's +name--in the name of England--and in the name of the law. + +But each of these great insulted names has its sworn defenders, its +honored and paid defenders. It is not for us to suppose that men so high +in honor will lay aside themselves and turn curs. + +Ere I close this long story, let us hope I shall be able to relate +with what zeal and honor statesmen disowned and punished wholesale +manslaughter done in the name of the State; and with what zeal and +horror judges disowned and punished wholesale manslaughter done in their +name; and so, in all good men's eyes, washed off the blood with which +a hireling had bespattered the state ermine and the snow-white robe of +law. + +For the present, the account between Josephs and the law stands +thus:--Josephs has committed the smallest theft imaginable. He has +stolen food. For this the law, professing to punish him with certain +months' imprisonment, has inflicted capital punishment; has overtasked, +crucified, starved--overtasked, starved, crucified--robbed him of light, +of sleep, of hope, of life; has destroyed his body, and perhaps his +soul. Sum total--1st page of account-- + +Josephs a larcenist and a corpse. The law a liar and a felon. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +JOSEPHS has dropped out of our story. Mr. Hawes has got himself kicked +out of our story. The other prisoners, of whom casual mention has been +made, were never in our story, any more than the boy Xury in "Robinson +Crusoe." There remains to us in the prison Mr. Eden and Robinson, a +saint and a thief. + +My readers have seen how the saint has saved the thief's life. They +shall guess awhile how on earth Susan Merton can be affected by that +circumstance. They have seen a set of bipeds acting on the notion that +all prisoners are incurable: they have seen a thief, thus despaired of, +driven toward despair, and almost made incurable through being thought +so. Then they have seen this supposed incurable fall into the hands of +a Christian that held "it is never too late to mend;" and generally I +think that, feebly as my pen has drawn so great a character, they can +calculate, by what Mr. Eden has already done, what he will do while I am +with Susan and George; what love, what eloquence, what ingenuity he will +move to save this wandering sheep, to turn this thief honest and teach +him how to be honest yet not starve. + +I will ask my reader to bear in mind, that the good and wise priest has +no longer his hands tied by a jailer in the interest of the foul fiend. +But then, against all this, is to be set the slippery heart of a thief, +a thief almost from his cradle. Here are great antagonist forces and +they will be in daily almost hourly collision for months to come. In +life nothing stands still; all this will work goodward or badward. I +must leave it to work. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +MR. EDEN'S health improved so visibly that Susan Merton announced her +immediate return to her father. It was a fixed idea in this young lady's +mind that she and Mrs. Davies had no business in the house of a saint +upon earth, as she called Mr. Eden, except as nurses. + +The parting of attached friends has always a touch of sadness needless +to dwell on at this time. Enough that these two parted as brother and +young sister, and a spiritual adviser and advised, with warm expressions +of Christian amity, and an agreement on Susan's part to write for advice +and sympathy whenever needed. + +On her arrival at Grassmere Farm there was Mr. Meadows to greet her. +"Well, that is attentive!" cried Susan. There was also a stranger to +her, a Mr. Clinton. + +As nothing remarkable occurred this evening, we may as well explain +this Mr. Clinton. He was a speculator, and above all a setter on foot of +rotten speculations, and a keeper on foot a little while of lame ones. +No man exceeded him in the art of rose-tinting bad paper or parchment. +He was sanguine and fluent. His mind had two eyes, an eagle's and a +bat's; with the first he looked at the "pros," and with the second at +the "cons" of a spec. + +He was an old acquaintance of Meadows, and had come thirty miles out +of the way to show him how to make 100 per cent without the shadow of a +risk. Meadows declined to violate the laws of Nature, but, said he, "If +you like to stay a day or two I will introduce you to one or two who +have money to fling away." And he introduced him to Mr. Merton. Now that +worthy had a fair stock of latent cupidity, and Mr. Clinton was the man +to tempt it. + +In a very few conversations he convinced the farmer that there were a +hundred ways of making money, all of them quicker than the slow +process of farming and the unpleasant process of denying one's self +superfluities and growing saved pennies into pounds. + +"What do you think, John," said Merton one day to Meadows, "I have got a +few hundreds loose. I'm half minded to try and turn them into thousands +for my girl's sake. Mr. Clinton makes it clear, don't you think?" + +"Well, I don't know," was the reply. "I have no experience in that sort +of thing, but it certainly looks well the way he puts it." + +In short, Meadows did not discourage his friend from co-operating with +Mr. Clinton; for his own part he spoke him fair, and expressed openly +a favorable opinion of his talent and his various projects, and always +found some excuse or other for not risking a halfpenny with him. + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +ONE day Mr. Meadows walked into the post-office of Farnborough and +said to Jefferies, the postmaster, "A word with you in private, Mr. +Jefferies." + +"Certainly, Mr. Meadows--come to my back parlor, sir; a fine day, Mr. +Meadows, but I think we shall have a shower or two." + +"Shouldn't wonder. Do you know this five-pound note?" + +"Can't say I do." + +"Why it has passed through your hands?" + +"Has it? well a good many of them pass through my hands in the course of +the year. I wish a few of 'em would stop on the road." + +"This one did. It stuck to your fingers, as the phrase goes." + +"I don't know what you mean, sir," said Jefferies haughtily. + +"You stole it," explained Meadows quietly. + +"Take care," cried Jefferies in a loud quaver--"Take care what you say! +I'll have my action of defamation against you double quick if you dare +to say such a thing of me." + +"So be it. You will want witnesses. Defamation is no defamation you know +till the scandal is published. Call in your lodger." + +"Ugh!" + +"And call your wife!" cried Meadows, raising his voice in turn. + +"Heaven forbid! Don't speak so loud, for goodness' sake!" + +"Hold your tongue then and don't waste my time with your gammon," said +Meadows sternly. Then resuming his former manner he went on in the tone +of calm explanation. "One or two in this neighborhood lost money coming +through the post. I said to myself, 'Jefferies is a man that often talks +of his conscience--he will be the thief'--so I baited six traps for you, +and you took five. This note came over from Ireland; you remember it +now?" + +"I am ruined! I am ruined!" + +"You changed it at Evans' the grocer's; you had four sovereigns and +silver for it. The other baits were a note and two sovereigns and two +half sovereigns. You spared one sovereign, the rest you nailed. They +were all marked by Lawyer Crawley. They have been traced from your hand, +and lie locked up ready for next assizes. Good-morning, Mr. Jefferies." + +Jefferies turned a cold jelly where he sat--and Meadows walked out, +primed Crawley, and sent him to stroll in sight of the post-office. + +Soon a quavering voice called Crawley into the post-office. "Come into +my back parlor, sir. Oh! Mr. Crawley, can nothing be done? No one knows +my misfortune but you and Mr. Meadows. It is not for my own sake, sir, +but my wife's. If she knew I had been tempted so far astray, she would +never hold up her head again. Sir, if you and Mr. Meadows will let me +off this once, I will take an oath on my bended knees never to offend +again." + +"What good will that do me?" asked Crawley contemptuously. + +"Ah!" cried Jefferies, a light breaking in, "will money make it right? +I'll sell the coat off my back." + +"Humph! If it was only me--but Mr. Meadows has such a sense of public +duty, and yet--hum!--I know a way to influence him just now." + +"Oh, sir! do pray use your influence with him." + +"What will you do for me if I succeed?" + +"Do for you?--cut myself in pieces to serve you." + +"Well, Jefferies, I'm undertaking a difficult task--to turn such a man +as Meadows, but I will try it and I think I shall succeed; but I must +have terms. Every letter that comes here from Australia you must bring +to me with your own hands directly." + +"I will, sir, I will." + +"I shall keep it an hour or two perhaps, not more; and I shall take no +money out of it." + +"I will do it, sir, and with pleasure. It is the least I can do for +you." + +"And you must find me 10 pounds." The little rogue must do a bit on his +own account. + +"I must pinch to get it," said Jefferies ruefully. + +"Pinch then," replied Crawley coolly; "and let me have it directly." + +"You shall--you shall--before the day is out." + +"And you must never let Meadows know I took this money of you." + +"No, sir, I won't! is that all?" + +"That is all." + +"Then I am very grateful, sir, and I won't fail, you may depend." + +Thus the two battledores played with this poor little undetected one, +whom his respectability no less than his roguery placed at their mercy. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +WHENEVER Mr. Meadows could do Mr. Levi an ill turn he did; and vice +versa. They hated one another like men who differ about baptism. Susan +sprinkled dewdrops of charity on each in turn. + +Levi listened to her with infinite pleasure. "Your voice," said he, "is +low and melodious like the voice of my own people in the East." And then +she secretly quoted the New Testament to him, having first ascertained +that he had never read it; and he wondered where on earth this simple +girl had picked up so deep a wisdom and so lofty and self-denying a +morality. + +Meadows listened to her with respect from another cause; but the +ill offices that kept passing between the two men counteracted her +transitory influence and fed fat the ancient grudge. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +"WILL FIELDING is in the town; I'm to arrest him as agreed last night?" + +"Hum! no!" + +"Why I have got the judgment in my pocket and the constable at the +public hard by." + +"Never mind! he was saucy to me in the market yesterday--I was angry +and--but anger is a snare. What shall I gain by locking him up just now? +let him go." + +"Well, sir, your will is law," said Crawley obsequiously but sadly. + +"Now to business of more importance." + +"At your service, sir." + +But the business of more importance was interrupted by a sudden knock at +the outside door of Mr. Meadows' study. + +"Well!" + +A young lady to see you. + +"A young lady?" inquired Meadows with no very amiable air, "I am +engaged--do you know who it is?" + +"It is Farmer Merton's daughter, David says." + +"Miss Merton!" cried Meadows, with a marvelous change of manner. "Show +her up directly. Crawley, run into the passage, quick, man--and wait for +signals." He bundled Crawley out, shut the secret door, threw open both +the others, and welcomed Susan warmly at the threshold. "Well, this is +good of you, Miss Merton, to come and shine in upon me in my own house." + +"I have brought your book back!" replied Susan, coloring a little; "that +was my errand, that is," said she, "that was partly my errand." She +hesitated a moment--"I am going to Mr. Levi." Meadows' countenance fell. +"And I wouldn't go to him without coming to you; because what I have to +say to him I must say to you as well. Mr. Meadows, do let me persuade +you out of this bitter feeling against the poor old man. Oh! I know you +will say he is worse than you are; so he is, a little; but then consider +he has more excuse than you; he has never been taught how wicked it is +not to forgive. You know it--but don't practice it." + +Meadows looked at the simple-minded enthusiast, and his cold eye +deepened in color as it dwelt on her, and his voice dropped into the +low and modulated tone which no other human creature but this ever heard +from him. "Human nature is very revengeful. Few of us are like you. It +is my misfortune that I have not oftener a lesson from you; perhaps you +might charm away this unchristian spirit that makes me unworthy to be +your--your friend." + +"Oh no! no!" cried Susan, "if I thought so should I be here?" + +"Your voice and your face do make me at peace with all the world, +Susan--I beg your pardon--Miss Merton." + +"And why not Susan?" said the young lady kindly. + +"Well! Susan is a very inviting name." + +"La! Mr. Meadows," cried Susan, arching her brows, "why, it is a +frightful name--it is so old-fashioned; nobody is christened Susan +nowadays." + +"It is a name for everything that is good and gentle and lovely--" A +moment more and passion would have melted all the icy barriers prudence +and craft had reared round this deep heart. His voice was trembling, +his cheek flushing; but he was saved by--an enemy. "Susan!" cried a +threatening voice at the door, and there stood William Fielding with a +look to match. + +Rage burned in Meadows' heart. He said bruskly, "Come in," and seizing a +slip of paper he wrote five words on it, and taking out a book flung it +into the passage to Crawley. He then turned toward W. Fielding, who by +this time had walked up to Susan. Was on the other side of the screen. + +"Was told you had gone in here," said William quietly, "so I came after +you." + +"Now that was very attentive of you," replied Susan ironically. "It is +so nice to have a sensible young man like you following forever at one's +heels--like a dog." + +A world of quiet scorn embellished this little remark. + +William's reply was happier than usual. "The sheep find the dog often in +their way, but they are all the safer for him." + +"Well, I'm sure," cried Susan, her scorn giving way to anger. + +Mr. Meadows put in: "I must trouble you to treat Miss Merton with proper +respect when you speak to her in my house." + +"Who respects her more than I?" retorted William; "but you see, Mr. +Meadows, sheep are no match for wolves when the dog is away--so the dog +is here." + +"I see the dog is here and by his own invitation; all I say is that if +the dog is to stay here he must behave like a man." + +William gasped at this hit; he didn't trust himself to answer Meadows; +in fact, a blow of his fist seemed to him the only sufficient answer--he +turned to Susan. "Susan, do you remember poor George's last words to me? +with a tear in his eye and his hand in mine. Well, I keep my promise +to him--I keep my eye upon such as I think capable of undermining my +brother. This man is a schemer, Susan, and you are too simple to fathom +him." + +The look of surprise crafty Meadows put on here, and William Fielding's +implied compliment to his own superior sagacity struck Susan as +infinitely ludicrous, and she looked at Meadows and laughed like a peal +of bells. Of course he looked at her and laughed with her. At this all +young Fielding's self-restraint went to the winds, and he went on--"But +sooner than that, I'll twist as good a man's neck as ever schemed in +Jack Meadows' shoes!" + +At this defiance Meadows wheeled round on William Fielding and +confronted him with his stalwart person and eyes glowing with gloomy +wrath. Susan screamed with terror at William's insulting words and +at the attitude of the two men, and she made a step to throw herself +between them if necessary; but before words could end in blows a tap +at the study door caused a diversion, and a cringing sort of voice said +"May I come in?" + +"Of course you may," shouted Meadows; "the place is public. Anybody +walks into my room to-day, friend or foe. Don't ask my leave--come in, +man, whoever you are--Mr. Crawley; well, I didn't expect a call from you +any more than from this one." + +"Now don't you be angry, sir. I had a good reason for intruding on +you this once. Jackson!" Jackson stepped forward and touched William +Fielding on the shoulder. + +"You must come along with me," said he. + +"What for?" inquired Fielding. + +"You are arrested on this judgment," explained Crawley, letting the +document peep a moment from his waistcoat pocket. William threw himself +into an attitude of defense. His first impulse was to knock the officer +down and run into another county, but the next moment he saw the folly +and injustice of this and another sentiment overpowered the honest +simple fellow--shame. He covered his face with both his hands and +groaned aloud with the sense of humiliation. + +"Oh! my poor William!" cried Susan. "Oh! Mr. Meadows, can nothing be +done?" + +"Why, Miss Merton," said Meadows, looking down, "you can't expect me to +do anything for him. If it was his brother now, Lawyer Crawley shouldn't +ever take him out of my house." + +Susan flushed all over. "That I am sure you would, Mr. Meadows," cried +she (for feeling obscured grammar). "Now see, dear William, how your +temper and unworthy suspicions alienate our friends; but father shan't +let you lie in prison. Mr. Meadows, will you lend me a sheet of paper?" + +She sat down, pen in hand, in generous excitement. While she wrote Mr. +Meadows addressed Crawley. "And now a word with you, Mr. Crawley. You +and I meet on business now and then, but we are not on visiting terms +that I know of. How come you to walk into my house with a constable at +your back?" + +"Well, sir, I did it for the best," said Crawley apologetically. "Our +man came in here, and the street door was open, and I said, 'He is a +friend of Mr. Meadows, perhaps it would be more delicate to all parties +to take him indoors than in the open street.'" + +"Oh, yes!" cried William, "it is bitter enough as it is, but that would +have been worse--thank you for arresting me here--and now take me away +and let me hide from all the world." + +"Fools!" said a firm voice behind the screen. + +"Fools!" At this word and a new voice Susan started up from the table +and William turned his face from the wall. Meadows did more. "Another!" +cried he in utter amazement; "why my house is an inn. Ah!" + +While speaking he had run round the screen and come plump upon Isaac +Levi seated in a chair and looking up in his face with stern composure. +His exclamation brought the others round after him and a group of +excited faces encircled this old man seated sternly composed. + +"Fools!" repeated he, "these tricks were stale before England was a +nation. Which of you two has the judgment?" + +"I, sir," said Crawley, at a look from Meadows. + +"The amount?" + +"A hundred and six thirteen four." + +"Here is the money. Give me the document." + +"Here, sir." Levi read it. "This action was taken on a bill of exchange. +I must have that too." + +"Here it is, sir. Would you like an acknowledgment, Mr. Levi," said +Crawley obsequiously. + +"No! foolish man. Are not these sufficient vouchers? You are free, sir," +said Crawley to William with an air of cheerful congratulation. + +"Am I? Then I advise you to get out of my way, for my fingers do itch to +fling you headforemost down the stairs." + +On this hint out wriggled Mr. Crawley with a semicircle of bows to the +company. Constable touched his frontlock and went straight away as if he +was going through the opposite wall of the house. Meadows pointed after +him with his finger and said to Levi, "You see the road--get out of my +house." + +The old man never moved from his chair, to which he had returned after +paying William's debts. "It is not your house," said he coolly. + +The other stared. "No matter," replied Meadows sharply, "it is mine till +my mortgage is paid off." + +"I am here to pay it." + +"Ah!" + +"Principal and interest calculated up to twelve o'clock this eleventh +day of March. It wants five minutes to twelve. I offer you principal +and interest--eight hundred and twenty-two pounds fourteen shillings and +fivepence three farthings before these witnesses--and demand the title +deeds." + +Meadows hung his head, but he was not a man to waste words in mere +scolding. He took the blow with forced calmness as who should say, "This +is your turn--the next is mine." + +"Miss Merton," said he, almost in a whisper, "I never had the honor to +receive you here before and I never shall again. How long do you give me +to move my things?" + +"Can you not guess?" inquired the other with a shade of curiosity. + +"Why, of course you will put me to all the inconvenience you can. Come, +now, am I to move all my furniture and effects out of this great house +in twenty-four hours?" + +"I give you more than that." + +"How kind! What, you give me a week perhaps?" asked Meadows +incredulously. + +"More than that, you fool! Don't you see that it is on next Lady-day +you will be turned into the street. Aha! woman-worshiper, on Lady-day! +A tooth for a tooth!" And the old man ground his teeth, which were white +as ivory, and his fist clinched itself, while his eye glittered, and he +swelled out from the chair, and literally bristled with hate--"A tooth +for a tooth!" + +"Oh, Mr. Levi," said Susan sorrowfully, "how soon you have forgotten my +last lesson!" + +Meadows for a moment felt a chill of fear at the punctiliousness of +revenge in this Oriental whom he had made his enemy. To this succeeded +the old hate multiplied by ten; but he made a monstrous effort and drove +it from his face down into the recesses of his heart. "Well," said he, +"may you enjoy this house as I have done this last twelvemonth!" + +"That does you credit, good Mr. Meadows," cried simple Susan, missing +his meaning. Meadows continued in the same tone, "And I must make shift +with the one you vacate on Lady-day." + +"Solomon teach me to outwit this dog." + +"Come, Mr. Levi, I have visited Mr. Meadows and now I am going to your +house." + +"You shall be welcome, kindly welcome," said the old man with large and +flowing courtesy. + +"And will you show me," said Susan very tenderly, "where Leah used to +sit?" + +"Ah!" + +"And where Rachel and Sarah loved to play?" + +"Ah me! Ah me! Ah me! Yes! I could not show another these holy places, +but I will show you." + +"And will you forget awhile this unhappy quarrel and listen to my +words?" + +"Surely I shall listen to you; for even now your voice is to my ear like +the wind sighing among the cedars of Lebanon, and the wave that plays at +night upon the sands of Galilee." + +"'Tis but the frail voice of a foolish woman, who loves and respects +you, and yet," said Susan, her color mantling with enthusiasm, "with it +I can speak you words more beautiful than Lebanon's cedars or Galilee's +shore. Ay, old man, words that make the stars brighter and the sons +of the morning rejoice. I will not tell you whence I had them, but you +shall say surely they never came from earth, selfish, cruel, revengeful +earth, these words that drop on our hot passions like the dew, and speak +of trespasses forgiven, and peace and goodwill among men." + +Oh! magic of a lovely voice speaking the truths of Heaven! How still the +room was as these goodly words rang in it from a pure heart. Three men +there had all been raging with anger and hate; now a calming music fell +like oil upon these human waves, and stilled them. + +The men drooped their heads, and held their breath to make sure the +balmy sounds had ceased. Then Levi answered in a tone gentle, firm, and +low (very different from his last), "Susanna, bitterness fades from my +heart as you speak; but experience remains." He turned to Meadows, "When +I wander forth at Lady-day she shall still be watched over though I be +far away. My eye shall be here, and my hand shall still be so over you +all," and raising his thin hand, he held it high up, the nails pointing +downward. It looked just like a hawk hovering over its prey. "I will +say no bitterer word than that to-day;" and in fact he delivered this +without apparent heat or malice. + +"Come, then, with me, Susanna--a goodly name, it comes to you from the +despised people. Come like peace to my dwelling, Susanna--you know not +this world's wiles as I do, but you can teach me the higher wisdom that +controls the folly of passion and purifies the soul." + +The pair were gone, and William and Meadows were left alone. The latter +looked sadly and gloomily at the door by which Susan had gone out. He +was in a sort of torpor. He was not conscious of William's presence. + +Now the said William had a misgiving; in the country a man's roof is +sacred; he had affronted Meadows under his own roof, and then Mr. Levi +had come and affronted him there, too. William began to doubt whether +this was not a little hard, moreover he thought he had seen Meadows +brush his eye hastily with the back of his hand as Susan retired. He +came toward Meadows with his old sulky, honest, hang-the-head manner, +and said, "Mr. Meadows, seems to me we have been a little hard upon you +in your own house, and I am not quite easy about my share on't." Meadows +shrugged his shoulders imperceptibly. + +"Well, sir--I am not the Almighty to read folk's hearts--least of all +such a one as yours--but if I have done you wrong I ask your pardon. +Come, sir, if you don't mean to undermine my brother with the girl you +can give me your hand, and I can give you mine--and there 'tis." + +Meadows wished this young man away, and seeing that the best way to +get rid of him was to give him his hand, he turned round, and, scarcely +looking toward him, gave him his hand. William shook it and went away +with something that sounded like a sigh. Meadows saw him out, and locked +the door impatiently; then he flung himself into a chair and laid his +beating temples on the cold table; then he started up and walked wildly +to and fro the room. The man was torn this way and that with rage, love +and remorse. + +"What shall I do?" thus ran his thoughts. "That angel is my only refuge, +and yet to win her I shall have to walk through dirt and shame and every +sin that is. I see crimes ahead; such a heap of crimes, my flesh creeps +at the number of them. Why not be like her, why not be the greatest +saint that ever lived, instead of one more villain added to so many? +Let me tear this terrible love out of my heart and die. Oh! if some one +would but take me by the scurf of the neck and drag me to some other +country a million miles away, where I might never see my tempter again +till this madness is out of me. Susan, you are an angel, but you will +plunge me to hell." + +Now it happened while he was thus raving and suffering the preliminary +pangs of wrong-doing that his old servant knocked at the outside of the +door and thrust a letter through the trap; the letter was from a country +gentleman, one Mr. Chester, for whom he had done business. Mr. Chester +wrote from Lancashire. He informed Meadows he had succeeded to a very +large property in that county--it had been shockingly mismanaged by +his predecessor; he wanted a capable man's advice, and moreover all the +estates thereabouts were compelled to be surveyed and valued this year, +which he deplored, but since so it was he would be surveyed and valued +by none but John Meadows. + +"Come by return of post," added this hasty squire, "and I'll introduce +you to half the landed proprietors in this county." + +Meadows read this and seizing a pen wrote thus: + + +"DEAR SIR--Yours received this day at 1 p.m., and will start for your +house at 6 P.M." + + +He threw himself on his horse and rode to his mother's house. "Mother, I +am turned out of my house." + +"Why, John, you don't say so?" + +"I must go into the new house I have built outside the town." + +"What, the one you thought to let to Mr. James?" + +"The same. I have got only a fortnight to move all my things. Will you +do me a kindness now, will you see them put into the new house?" + +"Me, John! why I should be afraid something would go wrong." + +"Well, it isn't fair of me to put this trouble on you at your age; but +read this letter--there is fifteen hundred pounds waiting for me in the +North." + +The old woman put on her spectacles and read the letter slowly. "Go, +John! go by all means! I will see all your things moved into the new +house--don't let them be a hindrance; you go. Your old mother will take +care your things are not hurt moving, nor you wronged in the way of +expense." + +"Thank you, mother! thank you! they say there is no friend like a +mother, and I dare say they are not far wrong." + +"No such friend but God--none such but God!" said the old woman with +great emphasis and looking Meadows in the face with a searching eye. + +"Well, then, here are the keys of the new house, and here are my keys. I +am off tonight, so good-by, mother. God bless you!" + +He had just turned to go, when by an unusual impulse he turned, took +the old woman in his hands, almost lifted her off the ground, for she +weighed light, and gave her a hasty kiss on the cheek; then he set her +down and strode out of the house about his business. + +When curious Hannah ran in the next moment she found the old lady in +silent agitation. "Oh, dear! What is the matter, Dame Meadows?" + +"Nothing at all, silly girl." + +"Nothing! And look at you all of a tremble." + +"He took me up all in a moment and kissed me. I dare say it is +five-and-twenty years since he kissed me last. He was a curly-headed lad +then." + +So this had set the poor old thing trembling. She soon recovered her +firmness and that very evening Hannah and she slept in John's house, and +the next day set to and began to move his furniture and prepare his new +house for him. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +PETER CRAWLEY received a regular allowance during his chief's absence +and remained in constant communication with him, and was as heretofore +his money-bag, his tool, his invisible hand. But if anybody had had +a microscope and lots of time they might have discovered a gloomy hue +spreading itself over Crawley's soul. A pleasant illusion had been +rudely shaken. + +All men have something they admire. + +Crawley admired cunning. It is not a sublime quality, but Crawley +thought it was, and revered it with pious, affectionate awe. He had +always thought Mr. Meadows No. 1 in cunning, but now came a doleful +suspicion that he was No. 2. + +Losing a portion of his veneration for the chief he had seen +outmaneuvered, he took the liberty of getting drunk contrary to his +severe command, and being drunk and maudlin he unbosomed himself on this +head to a low woman who was his confidante whenever drink loosened his +tongue. + +"I'm out spirits, Sal. I'm tebbly out spirits. Where shall we all go to? +I dinn't think there was great a man on earth z Mizza Meadows. But the +worlz wide. Mizza Levi z greada man--a mudge greada man (hic). He was +down upon us like a amma (hic). His Jew's eye went through our lill +sgeme like a gimlet. 'Fools!' says he--that's me and Meadows, 'these +dodges were used up in our family before Lunnun was built. Fools!' Mizza +Levi despises me and Meadows; and I respect him accordingly. I'm tebbly +out spirits (hic)." + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +FARMER MERTON received a line from Meadows telling him he had gone into +Lancashire on important business, and did not expect to be back for +three months, except perhaps for a day at a time. Merton handed the +letter to Susan. + +"We shall miss him," was her remark. + +"That we shall. He is capital company." + +"And a worthy man into the bargain," said Susan warmly, "spite of what +little-minded folk say and think. What do you think that Will Fielding +did only yesterday?" + +"I don't know." + +"Well, he followed me into--there, it is not worth while having an open +quarrel, but I shall hate the sight of his very face. I can't think how +such a fool can be George's brother. No wonder George and he could not +agree. Poor Mr. Meadows--to be affronted in his own house, just for +treating me with respect and civility. So that is a crime now." + +"What are you saying, girl? That young pauper affront my friend Meadows, +the warmest man for fifty miles round. If he has, he shall never come on +my premises again. You may take your oath of that." + +Susan looked aghast. This was more than she had bargained for. She was +the last in the world to set two people by the ears. + +"Now don't you be so peppery, father," said she. "There is nothing to +make a quarrel about." + +"Yes there is, though, if that ignorant beggar insulted my friend." + +"No! no! no!" + +"Why, what did you say?" + +"I say--that here is Mr. Clinton coming to the door." + +"Let him in, girl, let him in. And you needn't stay. We are going to +talk business." + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +MRS. MEADOWS, preparing her son's new home and defeating the little +cheating tradesmen and workmen that fasten like leeches on such as carry +their furniture to a new house; Hannah, working round and round her in +a state of glorious excitement; Crawley, smelling of Betts' British +brandy, and slightly regretting he was not No. 1's tool (Levi's) instead +of No. 2's, as he now bitterly called him, and writing obsequious +letters to, and doing the dirty work of, the said No. 2; old Merton +speculating, sometimes losing, sometimes winning; Meadows gone to +Lancashire with a fixed idea that Susan would be his ruin if he could +not cure himself of his love for her; Susan rather regretting his +absence, and wishing for his return, that she might show him how +little she sympathized with Will Fielding's suspicions, injustice and +brutality. + +Leaving all this to work, our story follows an honest fellow to the +other side of the globe. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +GEORGE FIELDING found Farmer Dodd waiting to drive him to the town where +he was to meet Mr. Winchester. The farmer's wife would press a glass of +wine upon George. She was an old playmate of his, and the tear was in +her eye as she shook his hand and bade Heaven bless him, and send him +safe back to "The Grove." + +"A taking of his hand and him going across sea!! Can't ye do no better +nor that?" cried the stout farmer; "I'm not a-looking, dame." + +So then Mrs. Dodd put her hands on George's shoulders and kissed +him rustic-wise on both cheeks--and he felt a tear on his cheek, and +stammered "Good-by, Jane--you and I were always good neighbors, but now +we shan't be neighbors for a while. Ned, drive me away, please, and let +me shut my eyes and forget that ever I was born." + +The farmer made a signal of intelligence to his wife and drove him +hastily away. + +They went along in silence for about two miles. Then the farmer suddenly +stopped. George looked up, the other looked down. + +"Allen's Corner, George. You know 'The Grove' is in sight from here, +and after this we shan't see it again on account of this here wood, you +know." + +"Thank ye, Ned! Yes--one more look--the afternoon sun lies upon it. Oh, +how different it do seem to my eyes now, by what it used when I rode +by from market; but then I was going to it, now I'm going far, far from +it--never heed me, Ned--I shall be better in a moment. Heaven forgive +me for thinking so little of the village folk as I have done." Then he +suddenly threw up his hands. "God bless the place and bless the folk," +he cried very loud; "God bless them all, from the oldest man in it, +and that is grandfather, down to Isaac King's little girl that was born +yester-night! and may none of them ever come to this corner, and their +faces turned toward the sea." + +"Doant ye, George! doant ye! doant ye! doant ye!" cried Edward Dodd in +great agitation. + +"Let the mare go on, Ned; she is fretting through her skin." + +"I'll fret her," roared the farmer, lifting his whip exactly as if it +was a sword, and a cut to be made at a dragoon's helmet. "I'll cut her +liver out." + +"No, ye shan't," said George. "Poor thing, she is thinking of her corn +at the Queen's Head in Newborough. She isn't going across the sea--let +her go, I've taken my last look and said my last word;" and he covered +up his face. + +Farmer Dodd drove on in silence, except that every now and then he gave +an audible snivel, and whenever this occurred he always accommodated the +mare with a smart cut--reasonable! + +At Newborough they found Mr. Winchester. He drove George to the rail, +and that night they slept on board the _Phoenix_ emigrant ship. Here +they found three hundred men and women in a ship where there was room +for two hundred and fifty, accommodation for eighty. + +Next morning, "Farmer," said Mr. Winchester gayly, "we have four hours +before we sail--some of these poor people will suffer great hardships +between this and Sydney; suppose you and I go and buy a lot of blankets, +brawn, needles, canvas, greatcoats, felt, American beef, solidified +milk, Macintoshes, high-lows and thimbles. That will rouse us up a +little." + +"Thank you, sir, kindly." + +Out they went into the Ratcliffe Highway, and chaffered with some of the +greatest rascals in trade. The difference between what they asked and +what they took made George stare. Their little cabin was crowded with +goods, only just room left for the aristocrat, the farmer and Carlo. And +now the hour came. Poor George was roused from his lethargy by the noise +and bustle; and oh, the creaking of cables sickened his heart. Then the +steamer came up and took them in tow, and these our countrymen and women +were pulled away from their native land too little and too full to hold +us all. It was a sad sight, saddest to those whose own flesh and blood +was on the shore and saw the steamer pull them away; bitterest to those +who had no friend to watch them go. + +How they clung to England! they stretched out their hands to her, and +when they could hold to her no other way they waved their hats and their +handkerchiefs to their countrymen, who waved to them from shore--and so +they spun out a little longer the slender chain that visibly bound them +to her. And at this moment even the iron-hearted and the reckless were +soft and sad. Our hearts' roots lie in the soil we have grown on. + +No wonder then George Fielding leaned over the ship-side benumbed with +sorrow, and counted each foot of water as it glided by, and thought "Now +I am so much farther from Susan." + +For a wonder he was not sea-sick, but his appetite was gone from a +nobler cause; he could hardly be persuaded to eat at all for many days. + +The steamer cast off at Gravesend, and the captain made sail and beat +down the Channel. Off the Scilly Isles a northeasterly breeze, and the +_Phoenix_ crowded all her canvas; when topsails, royals, skyscrapers and +all were drawing the men rigged out booms alow and aloft, and by means +of them set studding sails out several yards clear of the hull on either +side; so on she plowed, her canvas spread out like an enormous fan or +a huge albatross all wings. A goodly, gallant show; but under all this +vast and swelling plumage an exile's heart. + +Of all that smarted, ached and throbbed beneath that swelling plumage +few suffered more than poor George. It was his first great sorrow; and +all so new and strange. + +The ship touched at Madeira, and then flew southward with the favoring +gale. Many leagues she sailed, and still George hung over the bulwarks +and sadly watched the waves. This simple-minded, honest fellow was not +a girl. If they had offered to put the ship about and take him back he +would not have consented, but yet to go on almost broke his heart. He +was steel and butter. His friend, the honorable Frank Winchester, was or +seemed all steel. He was one of those sanguine spirits that don't admit +into their minds the notion of ultimate failure. He was supported, too, +by a natural and indomitable gayety. Whatever most men grumble or whine +at he took as practical jokes played by Fortune partly to try his good +humor, but more to amuse him. + +The poorer passengers suffered much discomfort, and the blankets, etc., +stored in Winchester's cabin often warmed these two honest hearts, +as with pitying hands they wrapped them round some shivering +fellow-creature. + +Off Cape Verd a heavy gale came on. It lasted thirty-six hours, and the +distress and sufferings of the over-crowded passengers were terrible. An +unpaternal government had allowed a ship to undertake a voyage of twelve +thousand miles, with a short crew, short provisions, and just twice as +many passengers as could be protected from the weather. + +Driven from the deck by the piercing wind and the deluges of water that +came on board, and crowded into the narrowest compass, many of these +unfortunates almost died of sickness and polluted air; and when in +despair they rushed back upon deck, horrors and suffering met them in +another shape; in vain they huddled together for a little warmth and +tried to shield themselves with blankets stretched to windward. The +bitter blast cut like a razor through their threadbare defenses, and the +water rushed in torrents along the deck and crept cold as ice up their +bodies as they sat huddled, or lay sick and despairing on the hard and +tossing wood; and whenever a heavier sea than usual struck the ship a +despairing scream burst from the women, and the good ship groaned and +shivered and seemed to share their fears, and the blast yelled into +their souls, "I am mighty as fate--as fate. And pitiless! pitiless! +pitiless! pitiless! pitiless!" + +Oh! then, how they longed for a mud cabin, or a hole picked with a +pickax in some ancient city wall, or a cow-house, or a cart-shed in +their native land. + +But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good. This storm raised George +Fielding's better part of man. Integer vitae scelerisque purus was not +very much afraid to die. Once when the _Phoenix_ gave a weather roll +that wetted the foresail to the yard-arm, he said, "My poor Susan!" with +a pitying accent, not a quavering one. But most of the time he was busy +crawling on all-fours from one sufferer to another with a drop of brandy +in a phial. The wind emptied a glass of the very moisture let alone +the liquid in a moment. So George would put his bottle to some poor +creature's lips, and if it was a man he would tell him in his simple way +Who was stronger than the wind or the sea, and that the ship could not +go down without His will. To the women he whispered that he had just had +a word with the captain, and he said it was only a gale not a tempest, +as the passengers fancied, and there was no danger, none whatever. + +The gale blew itself out, and then for an hour or two the ship rolled +frightfully; but at last the angry sea went down, the decks were mopped, +the _Phoenix_ shook her wet feathers and spread her wings again and +glided on her way. + +George felt a little better; the storm shook him and roused him and did +him good. And it was a coincidence in the history of these two lovers +that just as Susan under Mr. Eden's advice was applying the healing +ointment of charitable employment to her wound, George, too, was finding +a little comfort and life from the little bit of good he and his friend +did to the poor population in his wooden hamlet. + +After a voyage of four months one evening the captain shortened sail, +though the breeze was fair and the night clear. Upon being asked the +reason of this strange order he said knowingly, "If you get up with the +sun perhaps you will see the reason." + +Curiosity being excited, one or two did rise before the sun. Just as +he emerged from the sea a young seaman called Patterson, who was in the +foretop, hailed the deck. + +"What is it?" roared the mate. + +"Land on the weather bow," sung out the seaman in reply. + +Land! In one moment the word ran like electric fire through all the +veins of the _Phoenix_; the upper deck was crowded in a minute, but all +were disappointed. No one saw land but Mr. Patterson, whose elevation +and keen sight gave him an advantage. But a heavenly smell as of a +region of cowslips came and perfumed the air and rejoiced all the +hearts; at six o'clock a something like a narrow cloud broke the watery +horizon on the weather bow. All sail was made and at noon the coast +of Australia glittered like a diamond under their lee. Then the three +hundred prisoners fell into a wild excitement--some became irritable, +others absurdly affectionate to people they did not care a button for. +The captain himself was not free from the intoxication; he walked the +deck in jerks instead of his usual roll, and clapped on sail as if he +would fly on shore. + +At half-past one they glided out of the open sea into the Port Jackson +River. They were now in a harbor fifteen miles long, land-locked on both +sides, and not a shoal or a rock in it. This wonderful haven, in which +all the navies that float or ever will float might maneuver all day and +ride at anchor all night without jostling, was the sea avenue by which +they approached a land of wonders. + +It was the second of December. The sky was purple and the sun blazed +in its center. The land glittered like a thousand emeralds beneath his +glowing smile, and the waves seemed to drink his glory and melt it into +their tints, so rich were the flakes of burning gold that shone in the +heart of their transparent, lovely blue. + +"Oh! what a heavenly land! and after four months' prison at sea." + +Our humble hero's heart beat high with hope. Surely in so glorious a +place as this he could make a thousand pounds, and then dart back with +it to Susan. Long before the ship came to an anchor George got a sheet +of paper and by a natural impulse wrote to Susan a letter, telling her +all the misery the _Phoenix_ and her passengers had come through between +London Bridge and Sydney Cove, and as soon as he had written it he tore +it up and threw it into the water. "It would have vexed her to hear what +I have gone through. Time enough to tell her that when I am home again +sitting by the fire with her hand in mine." + +So then he tried again and wrote a cheerful letter, and concealed all +his troubles except his sorrow at being obliged to go so far from her +even for a time. "But it is only for a time, Susan dear. And, Susan +dear, I've got a good friend here, and one that can feel for us; for he +is here on the same errand as I am. I am to bide with him six months and +help him the best I can, and so I shall learn how matters are managed +here; and after that I am to set up on my own account; and, Susan dear, +I do think by all I can see there is money to be made here. Heaven knows +my heart was never much set on gain, but it is now because it is the +road to you. Please tell Will Carlo has been a great comfort to me +and is a general favorite. He pointed a rat on board ship--but it was +excusable, and him cooped up so long and had almost forgotten the smell +of a bird, I daresay; and if anybody comes to make believe to threaten +me he is ready to pull them down in a minute. So tell Will this, and +that I do think his master is as much my friend at home as the dog is +out here. + +"Susan dear, I do beg of you as a great favor to keep up your heart, +and not give way to grief or desponding feelings. I don't; leastways +I won't. Poor Mr. Winchester is here on the same errand as I am. But I +often think his heart is stouter than mine, which is much to his credit +and little to mine. Susan dear, I have come to the country that is +farther from Grassmere than any other in the globe--that seems hard; and +my very face is turned the opposite way to yours as I walk, but nothing +can ever turn my heart away from my Susan. I desire my respects to Mr. +Merton and that you would tell him I will make the one thousand pounds, +please God. But I hope you will pray for me, Susan, that I may have +that success; you are so good that I do think the Almighty will hear +you sooner than me or any one. So no more at present, dear Susan, but +remain, with sincere respect, your loving servant and faithful lover +till death, GEORGE FIELDING." + +They landed. Mr. Winchester purchased the right of feeding cattle over +a large tract a hundred miles distant from Sydney, and after a few days +spent in that capital started with their wagons into the interior. There +for about five months George was Mr. Winchester's factotum, and though +he had himself much to learn, the country and its habits being new to +him, still he saved his friend from fundamental errors, and, from five +in the morning till eight at night, put zeal, honesty and the muscular +strength of two ordinary men at his friend's service. + +At the expiration of this period Mr. Winchester said to him one evening, +"George, I can do my work alone now, and the time is come to show my +sense of your services and friendship. I have bought a run for you about +eight miles from here, and now you are to choose five hundred sheep and +thirty beasts; the black pony you ride goes with them." + +"Oh no, sir! it is enough to rob you of them at all without me going and +taking the pick of them." + +"Well! will you consent to pen the flocks and then lift one hurdle and +take them as they come out, so many from each lot?" + +"That I consent to, sir, and remain your debtor for life." + +"I can't see it; I set _my life_ a great deal higher than sheepskin." + +Mr. Winchester did not stop there, he forced a hundred pounds upon +George. "If you start in any business with an empty pocket you are a +gone coon." + +So these two friends parted with mutual esteem, and George set to work +by prudence and vigor to make the thousand pounds. + +One thousand pounds! This one is to have the woman he loves for a +thousand pounds. That sounds cheap. Heaven upon earth for a thousand +pounds. What is a thousand pounds? Nothing. There are slippery men that +gain this in a week by time bargains, trading on capital of round 0's; +others who net as much in an evening, and as honorably, by cards. There +are merchants who net twenty times this sum by a single operation. + +"An operation?" inquires Belgravia. + +This is an operation: You send forth a man not given to drink and +consequently chatter to Amsterdam, another not given to drink and +chatter to New Orleans, another n. g. t. d. and c. to Bordeaux, Cadiz, +Canton, Liverpool, Japan, and where not, all with secret instructions. +Then at an appointed day all the men n. g. t. d. and c. begin gradually, +secretly, cannily, to buy up in all those places all the lac-dye or +something of the kind that you and I thought there was about thirty +pounds of in creation. This done mercator raises the price of lac-dye or +what not throughout Europe. If he is greedy and raises it a halfpenny +a pound, perhaps commerce revolts and invokes nature against so vast an +oppression, and nature comes and crushes our speculator. But if he be +wise and puts on what mankind can bear, say three mites per pound, then +he sells tons and tons at this fractional profit on each pound, and +makes fourteen thousand pounds by lac-dye or the like of which you and I +thought creation held thirty or at most thirty-two pounds. + +These men are the warriors of commerce; but its smaller captains, +watching the fluctuations of this or that market, can often turn a +thousand pounds ere we could say J. R. Far more than a thousand pounds +have been made in a year by selling pastry off a table in the Boulevards +of Paris. + +In matters practical a single idea is worth thousands. + +This nation being always in a hurry paid four thousand pounds to a +man to show them how to separate letter-stamps in a hurry. "Punch the +divisions full of little holes," said he, and he held out his hand for +the four thousand pounds; and now test his invention, tear one head from +another in a hurry, and you will see that money sometimes goes cheaper +than invention. + +A single idea is sometimes worth a thousand pounds in a book, though +books are by far the least lucrative channels ideas run in; Mr. +Bradshaw's duodecimo, to wit--profit seven thousand pounds per annum. +A thousand pounds! How many men have toiled for money all their lives, +have met with success, yet never reached a thousand pounds. + +Eight thousand servants, fed and half clothed at their master's expense, +have put by for forty years, and yet not even by aid of interest and +compound interest and perquisites and commissions squeezed out of little +tradesmen and other time-honored embezzlements, have reached the rubicon +of four figures. Five thousand little shopkeepers, active, intelligent +and greedy, have bought wholesale and sold retail, yet never mounted so +high as this above rent, housekeeping, bad debts and casualties. Many +a writer of genius has charmed his nation and adorned her language, yet +never held a thousand pounds in his hand even for a day. Many a great +painter has written the world-wide language of form and color, and +attained to European fame, but not to a thousand pounds sterling +English. + +Among all these aspirants and a million more George Fielding now made +one, urged and possessed by as keen an incentive as ever spurred a man. + +George's materials were five hundred sheep, twenty cows, ten bullocks, +two large sheep-dogs and Carlo. It was a keen clear, frosty day in July +when he drove his herd to his own pasture. His heart beat high that +morning. He left Abner, his shepherd, a white native of the colony, to +drive the slow cattle. He strode out in advance, and scarce felt the +ground beneath his feet. The thermometer was at 28 degrees, yet his +coat was only tied round his neck by the sleeves as he swept along all +health, fire, manhood, love and hope. He marched this day like dear +Smollett's lines, whose thoughts, though he had never heard them, fired +his heart. + + "Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, + Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye; + Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, + Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky." + +He was on the ground long before Abner, and set to work building a +roofless hut on the west side of some thick bushes, and hard by the +only water near at hand. And here he fixed his headquarters, stretched a +blanket across the hut for a roof, and slept his own master. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +AT the end of six months George Fielding's stock had varied thus. Four +hundred lambs, ten calves, fifteen cows, four hundred sheep. He had +lost some sheep in lambing, and one cow in calving, but these casualties +every feeder counts on; he had been lucky on the whole. He had sold +about eighty sheep, and eaten a few but not many, and of his hundred +pounds only five pounds were gone; against which and the decline in cows +were to be placed the calves and lambs. + +George considered himself eighty pounds richer in substance than six +months ago. It so happened that on every side of George but one were +nomads, shepherd-kings--fellows with a thousand head of horned cattle, +and sheep like white pebbles by the sea; but on his right hand was +another small bucolical, a Scotchman, who had started with less means +than himself, and was slowly working his way, making a halfpenny and +saving a penny after the manner of his nation. These two were mighty +dissimilar, but they were on a level as to means and near neighbors, +and that drew them together. In particular, they used to pay each other +friendly visits on Sunday evenings, and McLaughlan would read a good +book to George, for he was strict in his observances; but after that the +pair would argue points of husbandry. + +But one Sunday that George, admiring his stock, inadvertently proposed +to him an exchange of certain animals, he rebuked the young man with +awful gravity. + +"Is this a day for warldly dealings?" said he. "Hoo div ye think to +thrive gien y'offer your mairchandeeze o' the Sabba day!" George colored +up to the eyes. "Ye'll may be no hae read the paurable o' the money +changers i' the temple, no forgettin' a wheen warldly-minded chields +that sell't doos, when they had mair need to be on their knees--or +hearkening a religious discourse---or a bit psaum--or the like. Aweel, +ye need na hong your heed yon gate neether. Ye had na the privileege of +being born in Scoetland, ye ken--or nae doot ye'd hae kenned better, for +ye are a decent lad--deed are ye. Aweel, stap ben led, and I'se let +ye see a drap whisky. The like does na aften gang doon an Englishman's +thrapple." + +"Whisky? Well, but it seems to me if we didn't ought to deal we didn't +ought to drink." + +"Hout! tout! it is no forbedden to taste--thaat's nae sen that ever I +heerd't--C-way." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +GEORGE heard of a farmer who was selling off his sheep about fifty miles +off near the coast. George put money in his purse, rose at three, and +walked the fifty miles with Carlo that day. The next he chaffered with +the farmer, but they did not quite agree. George was vexed, but he knew +it would not do to show it, so he strolled away carelessly toward the +water. In this place the sea comes several miles inland, not in one +sheet, but in a series of salt-water lakes very pretty. + +George stood and admired the water and the native blacks paddling along +in boats of bark no bigger than a cocked hat. These strips of bark are +good for carriage and bad for carriage; I mean they are very easily +carried on a man's back ashore, but they won't carry a man on the water +so well, and sitting in them is like balancing on a straw. These absurd +vehicles have come down to these blockheads from their fathers, so they +won't burn them and build according to reason. They commonly paddle in +companies of three; so then whenever one is purled the other two come on +each side of him, each takes a hand and with amazing skill and delicacy +they reseat him in his cocked hat, which never sinks--only purls. +Several of these triads passed in the middle of the lake, looking to +George like inverted capital "T's." They went a tremendous pace--with +occasional stoppages when a purl occurred. + +Presently a single savage appeared nearer the land and George could see +his lithe, sinewy form and the grace and rapidity with which he urged +his gossamer bark along. It was like a hawk--half a dozen rapid strokes +of his wings and then a smooth glide for ever so far. + +"Our savages would sit on the blade of a knife, I do think," was +George's observation. + +Now as George looked and admired blackee, it unfortunately happened that +a mosquito flew into blackee's nostrils, which were much larger and more +inviting--to a gnat--than ours. The aboriginal sneezed, and over went +the ancestral boat. + +The next moment he was seen swimming and pushing his boat before him. He +was scarce a hundred yards from the shore when all of a sudden down he +went. George was frightened and took off his coat, and was unlacing his +boots--when the black came up again. "Oh, he was only larking," thought +George. "But he has left his boat--and why, there he goes down again!" +The savage made a dive and came up ten yards nearer the shore, but he +kept his face parallel to it, and he was scarce a moment in sight before +he dived again. Then a horrible suspicion flashed across George--"There +is something after him!" + +This soon became a fearful certainty. Just before he dived next time, +a dark object was plainly visible on the water close behind him. George +was wild with fear for poor blackee. He shouted at the monster, he +shouted and beckoned to the swimmer; and last, snatching up a stone, he +darted up a little bed of rock elevated about a yard above the shore. +The next dive the black came up within thirty yards of this very place, +but the shark came at him the next moment. He dived again, but before +the fish followed him George threw a stone with great precision and +force at him. It struck the water close by him as he turned to follow +his prey; George jumped down and got several more stones, and held one +foot advanced and his arm high in air. Up came the savage panting for +breath. The fish made a dart, George threw a stone; it struck him with +such fury on the shoulders that it span off into the air and fell into +the sea forty yards off. Down went the man, and the fish after him. +The next time they came up, to George's dismay, the sea-tiger showed no +signs of being hurt and the man was greatly distressed. The moment he +was above water George heard him sob, and saw the whites of his eyes, +as he rolled them despairingly; and he could not dive again for want of +breath. Seeing this, the shark turned on his back, and came at him with +his white belly visible and his treble row of teeth glistening in a +mouth like a red grave. + +Rage as well as fear seized George Fielding, the muscles started on his +brawny arm as he held it aloft with a heavy stone in it. The black was +so hard pressed the last time, and so dead beat, that he could make but +a short duck under the fish's back and come out at his tail. The shark +did not follow him this time, but cunning as well as ferocious slipped +a yard or two inshore, and waited to grab him; not seeing him, he gave +a slap with his tail-fin, and reared his huge head out of water a moment +to look forth. Then George Fielding, grinding his teeth with fury, flung +his heavy stone with tremendous force at the creature's cruel eye. The +heavy stone missed the eye by an inch or two, but it struck the fish on +the nose and teeth with a force that would have felled a bullock. + +"Creesh!" went the sea-tiger's flesh and teeth, and the blood squirted +in a circle. Down went the shark like a lump of lead, literally felled +by the crashing stroke. + +"I've hit him! I've hit him!" roared George, seizing another stone. +"Come here, quick! quick! before he gets the better of it." + +The black swam like a mad thing to George. George splashed into the +water up to his knee, and taking blackee under the arm-pits, tore him +out of the water and set him down high and dry. + +"Give us your hand over it, old fellow," cried George, panting and +trembling. "Oh dear, my heart is in my mouth, it is!" + +The black's eye seemed to kindle a little at George's fire, but all the +rest of him was as cool as a cucumber. He let George shake his hand and +said quietly, "Thank you, sar! Jacky thank you a good deal!" he added in +the same breath; "suppose you lend me a knife, then we eat a good deal." + +George lent him his knife, and to his surprise the savage slipped into +the water again. His object was soon revealed; the shark had come up +to the surface and was floating motionless. It was with no small +trepidation George saw this cool hand swim gently behind him and +suddenly disappear; in a moment, however, the water was red all round, +and the shark turned round on his belly. Jacky swam behind, and pushed +him ashore. It proved to be a young fish about six feet long; but it +was as much as the men could do to lift it. The creature's nose was +battered, and Jacky showed this to George, and let him know that a blow +on that part was deadly to them. "You make him dead for a little while," +said he, "so then I make him dead enough to eat;" and he showed where he +had driven the knife into him in three places. + +Jacky's next proceeding was to get some dry sticks and wood, and prepare +a fire, which to George's astonishment he lighted thus. He got a block +of wood, in the middle of which he made a little hole; then he cut and +pointed a long stick, and inserting the point into the block, worked +it round between his palms for some time and with increasing rapidity. +Presently there came a smell of burning wood, and soon after it burst +into a flame at the point of contact. Jacky cut slices of shark and +toasted them. "Black fellow stupid fellow--eat 'em raw; but I eat 'em +burn't, like white man." + +He then told George he had often been at Sydney, and could "speak the +white man's language a good deal," and must on no account be confounded +with common black fellows. He illustrated his civilization by eating the +shark as it cooked; that is to say, as soon as the surface was brown he +gnawed it off, and put the rest down to brown again, and so ate a series +of laminae instead of a steak; that it would be cooked to the center if +he let it alone was a fact this gentleman had never discovered; probably +had never had the patience to discover. + +George, finding the shark's flesh detestable, declined it, and watched +the other. Presently he vented his reflections. "Well you are a cool +one! half an hour ago I didn't expect to see you eating him--quite the +contrary." Jacky grinned good-humoredly in reply. + +When George returned to the farmer, the latter, who had begun to fear +the loss of a customer, came at once to terms with him. The next day +he started for home with three hundred sheep. Jacky announced that he +should accompany him, and help him a good deal. George's consent was not +given, simply because it was not asked. However, having saved the man's +life, he was not sorry to see a little more of him. + +It is usual in works of this kind to give minute descriptions of +people's dress. I fear I have often violated this rule. However I will +not in this case. + +Jacky's dress consisted of, in front, a sort of purse made of rat-skin; +behind, a bran new tomahawk and two spears. + +George fancied this costume might be improved upon; he therefore bought +from the farmer a second-hand coat and trousers and his new friend +donned them with grinning satisfaction. The farmer's wife pitied George +living by himself out there, and she gave him several little luxuries; a +bacon-ham, some tea, and some orange-marmalade, and a little lump-sugar +and some potatoes. + +He gave the potatoes to Jacky to carry. They weighed but a few pounds. +George himself carried about a quarter of a hundredweight. For all that +the potatoes worried Jacky more than George's burden him. At last he +loitered behind so long that George sat down and lighted his pipe. +Presently up comes Niger with the sleeves of his coat hanging on +each side of his neck and the potatoes in them. My lord had taken his +tomahawk and chopped off the sleeves at the arm-pit; then he had sewed +up their bottoms and made bags of them, uniting them at the other end by +a string which rested on the back of his neck like a milkmaid's balance. +Being asked what he had done with the rest of the coat, he told George +he had thrown it away because it was a good deal hot. + +"But it won't be hot at night, and then you will wish you hadn't been +such a fool," said George, irate. + +No, he couldn't make Jacky see this; being hot at the time Jacky could +not feel the cold to come. Jacky became a hanger-on of George, and if he +did little he cost little; and if a beast strayed he was invaluable, he +could follow the creature for miles by a chain of physical evidence no +single link of which a civilized man would have seen. + +A quantity of rain having fallen and filled all the pools, George +thought he would close with an offer that had been made him and swap +one hundred and fifty sheep for cows and bullocks. He mentioned this +intention to McLaughlan one Sunday evening. McLaughlan warmly approved +his intention. George then went on to name the customer who was disposed +to make the exchange in question. At this the worthy McLaughlan showed +some little uneasiness and told George he might do better than deal with +that person. + +George said he should be glad to do better, but did not see how. + +"Humph!" said McLaughlan, and fidgeted. + +McLaughlan then invited George to a glass of grog, and while they were +sipping he gave an order to his man. + +McLaughlan inquired when the proposed negotiation was likely to take +place. "To-morrow morning," said George. "He asked me to go over about +it this afternoon, but I remembered the lesson you gave me about making +bargains on this day, and I said 'To-morrow, farmer.'" + +"Y're a guid lad," said the Scot demurely; "y're just as decent a body +as ever I forgathered wi'--and I'm thinking it's a sin to let ye gang +twa miles for mairchandeeze whan ye can hae it a hantle cheaper at your +ain door." + +"Can I? I don't know what you mean." + +"Ye dinna ken what I mean? Maybe no." + +Mr. McLaughlan fell into thought a while, and the grog being finished he +proposed a stroll. He took George out into the yard, and there the first +thing they saw was a score and a half of bullocks that had just been +driven into a circle and were maintained there by two men and two dogs. + +George's eye brightened at the sight and his host watched it. "Aweel," +said he, "has Tamson a bonnier lot than yon to gie ye?" + +"I don't know," said George dryly. "I have not seen his." + +"But I hae--and he hasna a lot to even wi' them." + +"I shall know to-morrow," said George. But he eyed McLaughlan's cattle +with an expression there was no mistaking. + +"Aweel," said the worthy Scot, "ye're a neebor and a decent lad ye are, +sae I'll just speer ye ane question. Noo, mon," continued he in a most +mellifluous tone and pausing at every word, "gien it were Monday--as it +is the Sabba day--hoo mony sheep wud ye gie for yon bonnie beasties?" + +George, finding his friend in this mind, pretended to hang back and to +consider himself bound to treat with Thomson first. The result of all +which was that McLaughlan came over to him at daybreak and George made a +very profitable exchange with him. + +At the end of six months more George found himself twice as rich in +substance as at first starting; but instead of one hundred pounds cash +he had but eighty. Still if sold up he would have fetched five hundred +pounds. But more than a year was gone since he began on his own account. +"Well," said George, "I must be patient and still keep doubling on, +and if I do as well next year as last I shall be worth eight hundred +pounds." + +A month's dry hot weather came and George had arduous work to take +water to his bullocks and to drive them in from long distances to his +homestead, where, by digging enormous tanks, he had secured a constant +supply. No man ever worked for a master as this rustic Hercules worked +for Susan Merton. Prudent George sold twenty bullocks and cows to the +first bidder. "I can buy again at a better time," argued he. + +He had now one hundred and twenty-five pounds in hand. The drought +continued and he wished he had sold more. + +One morning Abner came hastily in and told him that nearly all the +beasts and cows were missing. George flung himself on his horse and +galloped to the end of his run. No signs of them--returning disconsolate +he took Jacky on his crupper and went over the ground with him. Jacky's +eyes were playing and sparkling all the time in search of signs. Nothing +clear was discovered. Then at Jacky's request they rode off George's +feeding-ground altogether and made for a little wood about two miles +distant. "Suppose you stop here, I go in the bush," said Jacky. + +George sat down and waited. In about two hours Jacky came back. "I've +found 'em," said Jacky coolly. + +George rose in great excitement and followed Jacky through the stiff +bush, often scratching his hands and face. At last Jacky stopped and +pointed to the ground, "There!" + +"There? ye foolish creature," cried George; "that's ashes where somebody +has lighted a fire; that and a bone or two is all I see." + +"Beef bone," replied Jacky coolly. George started with horror. "Black +fellow burn beef here and eat him. Black fellow a great thief. Black +fellow take all your beef. Now we catch black fellow and shoot him +suppose he not tell us where the other beef gone." + +"But how am I to catch him? How am I even to find him?" + +"You wait till the sun so; then black fellow burn more beef. Then I +see the smoke; then I catch him. You go fetch the make-thunder with two +mouths. When he see him that make him honest a good deal." + +Off galloped George and returned with his double-barreled gun in about +an hour and a half. He found Jacky where he had left him at the foot of +a gumtree tall and smooth as an admiral's main-mast. + +Jacky, who was coiled up in happy repose like a dog in warm weather, +rose and with a slight yawn said, "Now I go up and look." + +He made two sharp cuts on the tree with his tomahawk, and putting his +great toe in the nick, rose on it, made another nick higher up, and +holding the smooth stem put his other great toe in it, and so on till in +an incredibly short time he had reached the top and left a staircase of +his own making behind him. He had hardly reached the top when he slid +down to the bottom again and announced that he had discovered what they +were in search of. + +George haltered the pony to the tree and followed Jacky, who struck +farther into the wood. After a most disagreeable scramble at the other +side of the wood Jacky stopped and put his finger to his lips. They both +went cautiously out of the wood, and mounting a bank that lay under its +shelter they came plump upon a little party of blacks, four male and +three female. The women were seated round a fire burning beef and +gnawing the outside laminae, then putting it down to the fire again. The +men, who always serve themselves first, were lying gorged--but at sight +of George and Jacky they were on their feet in a moment and their spears +poised in their hands. + +Jacky walked down the bank and poured a volley of abuse into them. +Between two of his native sentences he uttered a quiet aside to George, +"Suppose black fellow lift spear you shoot him dead," and then abused +them like pickpockets again and pointed to the make-thunder with two +mouths in George's hand. + +After a severe cackle on both sides the voices began to calm down like +water going off the boil, and presently soft low gutturals passed in +pleasant modulation. Then the eldest male savage made a courteous signal +to Jacky that he should sit down and gnaw. Jacky on this administered +three kicks among the gins and sent them flying, then down he sat and +had a gnaw at their beef--George's beef, I mean. The rage of hunger +appeased, he rose, and with the male savages took the open country. On +the way he let George know that these black fellows were of his +tribe, that they had driven off the cattle and that he had insisted on +restitution--which was about to be made; and sure enough, before they +had gone a mile they saw some beasts grazing in a narrow valley. George +gave a shout of joy, but counting them he found fifteen short. When +Jacky inquired after the others the blacks shrugged their shoulders. +They knew nothing more than this, that wanting a dinner they had driven +off forty bullocks; but finding they could only eat one that day they +had killed one and left the others, of whom some were in the place they +had left them; the rest were somewhere, they didn't know where--far less +care. They had dined, that was enough for them. + +When this characteristic answer reached George he clinched his teeth and +for a moment felt an impulse to make a little thunder on their slippery +black carcasses, but he groaned instead and said, "They were never +taught any better." + +Then Jacky and he set to work to drive the cattle together. With +infinite difficulty they got them all home by about eleven o'clock at +night. The next day up with the sun to find the rest. Two o'clock--and +only one had they fallen in with, and the sun broiled so that lazy Jacky +gave in and crept in under the beast for shade, and George was fain to +sit on his shady side with moody brow and sorrowful heart. + +Presently Jacky got up. "I find one," said he. + +"Where? where?" cried George, looking all round. Jacky pointed to a +rising ground at least six miles off. + +George groaned, "Are you making a fool of me? I can see nothing but a +barren hill with a few great bushes here and there. You are never taking +those bushes for beasts?" + +Jacky smiled with utter scorn. "White fellow stupid fellow; he see +nothing." + +"Well and what does black fellow see?" snapped George. + +"Black fellow see a crow coming from the sun, and when he came over +there he turned and went down and not get up again a good while. Then +black fellow say, 'I tink.' Presently come flying one more crow from +that other side where the sun is not. Black fellow watch him, and when +he come over there he turn round and go down, too, and not get up a good +while. Then black fellow say, 'I know.'" + +"Oh, come along!" cried George. + +They hurried on; but when they came to the rising ground and bushes +Jacky put his finger to his lips. "Suppose we catch the black fellows +that have got wings; you make thunder for them?" + +He read the answer in George's eye. Then he took George round the back +of the hill and they mounted the crest from the reverse side. They came +over it and there at their very feet lay one of George's best bullocks, +with tongue protruded, breathing his last gasp. A crow of the country +was perched on his ribs, digging his thick beak into a hole he had made +in his ribs, and another was picking out one of his eyes. The birds rose +heavily, clogged and swelling with gore. George's eyes flashed, his gun +went up to his shoulder, and Jacky saw the brown barrel rise slowly for +a moment as it followed the nearest bird wobbling off with broad back +invitingly displayed to the marksman. Bang! the whole charge shivered +the ill-omened glutton, who instantly dropped riddled with shot like a +sieve, while a cloud of dusky feathers rose from him into the air. The +other, hearing the earthly thunder and Jacky's exulting whoop, gave a +sudden whirl with his long wing and shot up into the air at an angle and +made off with great velocity; but the second barrel followed him as he +turned and followed him as he flew down the wind. Bang! out flew two +handfuls of dusky feathers, and glutton No. 2 died in the air, and its +carcass and expanded wings went whirling like a sheet of paper and fell +on the top of a bush at the foot of the hill. + +All this delighted the devil-may-care Jacky, but it may be supposed it +was small consolation to George. He went up to the poor beast, who died +even as he looked down on him. + +"Drought, Jacky! drought!" said he--"it is Moses, the best of the herd. +Oh, Moses, why couldn't you stay beside me? I'm sure I never let you +want for water, and never would--you left me to find worse friends!" +and so the poor simple fellow moaned over the unfortunate creature, +and gently reproached him for his want of confidence in him that it was +pitiful. Then suddenly turning on Jacky he said gravely, "Moses won't be +the only one, I doubt." + +The words were hardly out of his mouth before a loud moo proclaimed the +vicinity of cattle. They ran toward the sound, and in a rocky hollow +they found nine bullocks; and alas! at some little distance another lay +dead. Those that were alive were panting with lolling tongues in the +broiling sun. How to save them; how to get them home a distance of eight +miles. "Oh! for a drop of water." The poor fools had strayed into the +most arid region for miles round. + +Instinct makes blunders as well as reason.--Bestiale est errare. + +"We must drive them from this, Jacky, though half of them die by the +way." + +The languid brutes made no active resistance. Being goaded and beaten +they got on their legs and moved feebly away. + +Three miles the men drove them, and then one who had been already +staggering more than the rest gave in and lay down, and no power could +get him up again. Jacky advised to leave him. George made a few steps +onward with the other cattle, but then he stopped and came back to the +sufferer and sat down beside him disconsolate. + +"I can't bear to desert a poor dumb creature. He can't speak, Jacky, but +look at his poor frightened eye; it seems to say have you got the heart +to go on and leave me to die for the want of a drop of water. Oh! Jacky, +you that is so clever in reading the signs of Nature, have pity on the +poor thing and do pray try and find us a drop of water. I'd run five +miles and fetch it in my hat if you would but find it. Do help us, +Jacky." And the white man looked helplessly up to the black savage, who +had learned to read the small type of Nature's book and he had not. + +Jacky hung his head. "White fellow's eyes always shut; black fellow's +always open. We pass here before and Jacky look for water--look for +everything. No water here. But," said he languidly, "Jacky will go up +high tree and look a good deal." Selecting the highest tree near he +chopped a staircase and went up it almost as quickly as a bricklayer +mounts a ladder with a hod. At the top he crossed his thighs over the +stem, and there he sat full half an hour; his glittering eye reading the +confused page, and his subtle mind picking out the minutest syllables +of meaning. Several times he shook his head. At last all of a sudden he +gave a little start, and then a chuckle, and the next moment he was on +the ground. + +"What is it?" + +"Black fellow stupid fellow--look too far off," and he laughed again for +all the world like a jackdaw. + +"What is it?" + +"A little water; not much." + +"Where is it? Where is it? Why don't you tell me where it is?" + +"Come," was the answer. + +Not forty yards from where they stood Jacky stopped and thrusting his +hand into a tuft of long grass pulled out a short blue flower with a +very thick stem. "Saw him spark from the top of the tree," said Jacky +with a grin. "This fellow stand with him head in the air but him foot +in the water. Suppose no water he die a good deal quick." Then taking +George's hand he made him press the grass hard, and George felt moisture +ooze through the herb. + +"Yes, my hand is wet, but, Jacky, this drop won't save a beast's life +without it is a frog's." + +Jacky smiled and rose. "Where that wet came from more stay behind." + +He pointed to other patches of grass close by, and following them showed +George that they got larger and larger in a certain direction. At last +he came to a hidden nook, where was a great patch of grass quite a +different color, green as an emerald. "Water," cried Jacky, "a good deal +of water." He took a jump and came down flat on his back on the grass, +and sure enough, though not a drop of surface water was visible, the +cool liquid squirted up in a shower round Jacky. + +Nature is extremely fond of producing the same things in very different +sizes. Here was a miniature copy of those large Australian lakes which +show nothing to the eye but rank grass. You ride upon them a little +way, merely wetting your horse's feet, but after a while the sponge +gets fuller and fuller, and the grass shows symptoms of giving way, and +letting you down to "bottomless perdition." + +They squeezed out of this grass sponge a calabash full of water, and +George ran with it to the panting beast. Oh! how he sucked it up, and +his wild eye calmed, and the liquid life ran through all his frame! + +It was hardly in his stomach before he got up of his own accord, and +gave a most sonorous moo, intended no doubt to express the sentiment of +"never say die." + +George drove them all to the grassy sponge, and kept them there till +sunset. He was three hours squeezing out water and giving it them before +they were satisfied. Then in the cool of the evening he drove them safe +home. + +The next day one more of his strayed cattle found his way home. The +rest he never saw again. This was his first dead loss of any importance; +unfortunately, it was not the last. + +The brutes were demoralized by their excursion, and being active as deer +they would jump over anything and stray. + +Sometimes the vagrant was recovered--often he was found dead; and +sometimes he went twenty miles and mingled with the huge herds of +some Croesus, and was absorbed like a drop of water and lost to George +Fielding. This was a bitter blow. This was not the way to make the +thousand pounds. + +"Better sell them all to the first comer, and then I shall see the end +of my loss. I am not one of your lucky ones. I must not venture." + +A settler passed George's way driving a large herd of sheep and ten +cows. George gave him a dinner and looked over his stock. "You have but +few beasts for so many sheep," said he. + +The other assented. + +"I could part with a few of mine to you if you were so minded." + +The other said he should be very glad, but he had no money to spare. +Would George take sheep in exchange? + +"Well," drawled George, "I would rather it had been cash, but such as +you and I must not make the road hard to one another. Sheep I'll take, +but full value." + +The other was delighted, and nearly all George's bullocks became his for +one hundred and fifty sheep. + +George was proud of his bargain, and said, "That is a good thing for you +and me, Susan, please God." + +Now the next morning Abner came in and said to George, "I don't like +some of your new lot--the last that are marked with a red V." + +"Why, what is wrong about them?" + +"Come and see." + +He found more than one of the new sheep rubbing themselves angrily +against the pen, and sometimes among one another. + +"Oh dear!" said George, "I have prayed against this on my knees every +night of my life, and it is come upon me at last. Sharpen your knife, +Abner." + +"What! must they all--" + +"All the new lot. Call Jacky, he will help you; he likes to see blood. I +can't abide it. One hundred and fifty sheep; eighteen-pennorth of wool, +and eighteen-pennorth of fat when we fling 'em into the pot--that is all +that is left to me of yesterday's deal." + +Jacky was called. + +"Now, Jacky," said George, "these sheep have got the scab of the +country; if they get to my flock and taint it I am a beggar from that +moment. These sheep are sure to die, so Abner and you are to kill them. +He will show you how. I can't look on and see their blood and my means +spilled like water. Susan, this is a black day for us!" + +He went away and sat down upon a stone a good way off, and turned his +back upon his house and his little homestead. This was not the way to +make the thousand pounds. + +The next day the dead sheep were skinned and their bodies chopped up and +flung into the copper. The grease was skimmed as it rose, and set aside, +and when cool was put into rough barrels with some salt and kept up +until such time as a merchant should pass that way and buy it. + +"Well!" said George, with a sigh, "I know my loss. But if the red +scab had got into the large herd, there would have been no end to the +mischief." + +Soon after this a small feeder at some distance offered to change with +McLaughlan. That worthy liked his own ground best, but willing to do his +friend George a good turn he turned the man over to him. George examined +the new place, found that it was smaller but richer and better watered, +and very wisely closed with the proposal. + +When he told Jacky that worthy's eyes sparkled. + +"Black fellow likes another place. Not every day the same." + +And in fact he let out that if this change had not occurred his +intention had been to go a-hunting for a month or two, so weary had he +become of always the same place. + +The new ground was excellent, and George's hopes, lately clouded, +brightened again. He set to work and made huge tanks to catch the next +rain, and as heretofore did the work of two. + +It was a sad thing to have to write to Susan and tell her that after +twenty months' hard work he was just where he had been at first +starting. One day, as George was eating his homely dinner on his knee +by the side of his principal flock, he suddenly heard a tremendous +scrimmage mixed with loud, abusive epithets from Abner. He started up, +and there was Carlo pitching into a sheep who was trying to jam herself +into the crowd to escape him. Up runs one of the sheep-dogs growling, +but instead of seizing Carlo, as George thought he would, what does he +do but fall upon another sheep, and spite of all their evasions the two +dogs drove the two sheep out of the flock and sent them pelting down the +hill. In one moment George was alongside Abner. + +"Abner," said he, "how came you to let strange sheep in among mine?" + +"Never saw them till the dog pinned them." + +"You never saw them," said George reproachfully. "No, nor your dog +either till my Carlo opened your eyes. A pretty thing for a shepherd +and his dog to be taught by a pointer. Well," said George, "you had eyes +enough to see whose sheep they were. Tell me that, if you please?" + +Abner looked down. + +"Why, Abner?" + +"I'd as lieve bite off my tongue as tell you." + +George looked uneasy and his face fell. + +"A 'V.' Don't ye take on," said Abner. "They couldn't have been ten +minutes among ours, and there were but two. And don't you blow me up, +for such a thing might happen to the carefulest shepherd that ever was." + +"I won't blow ye up, Will Abner," said George. "It is my luck not yours +that has done this. It was always so. From a game of cricket upward I +never had my neighbor's luck. If the flock are not tainted I'll give you +five pounds, and my purse is not so deep as some. If they are, take your +knife and drive it into my heart. I'll forgive you that as I do this. +Carlo! let me look at you. See here, he is all over some stinking +ointment. It is off those sheep. I knew it. 'Twasn't likely a pointer +dog would be down on strange sheep like a shepherd's dog by the sight. +'Twas this stuff offended him. Heaven's will be done." + +"Let us hope the best, and not meet trouble half way." + +"Yes" said George feebly. "Let us hope the best." + +"Don't I hear that Thompson has an ointment that cures the red scab?" + +"So they say." + +George whistled to his pony. The pony came to him. George did not treat +him as we are apt to treat a horse--like a riding machine. He used to +speak to him and caress him when he fed him and when he made his bed, +and the horse followed him about like a dog. + +In half an hour's sharp riding they were at Thompson's, an invaluable +man that sold and bought animals, doctored animals, and kept a huge +boiler in which bullocks were reduced to a few pounds of grease in a +very few hours. + +"You have an ointment that is good for the scab, sir?" + +"That I have, farmer. Sold some to a neighbor of yours day before +yesterday." + +"Who was that?" + +"A newcomer. Vesey is his name." + +George groaned. "How do you use it, if you please?" + +"Shear 'em close, rub the ointment well in, wash 'em every two days, and +rub in again." + +"Give me a stone of it." + +"A stone of my ointment! Well! you are the wisest man I have come across +this year or two. You shall have it, sir." + +George rode home with his purchase. + +Abner turned up his nose at it, and was inclined to laugh at George's +fears. But George said to himself, "I have Susan to think of as well as +myself. Besides," said he a little bitterly, "I haven't a grain of +luck. If I am to do any good I must be twice as prudent and thrice as +industrious as my neighbors or I shall fall behind them. Now, Abner, +we'll shear them close." + +"Shear them! Why it is not two months since they were all sheared." + +"And then we will rub a little of this ointment into them." + +"What! before we see any sign of the scab among them? I wouldn't do that +if they were mine." + +"No more would I if they were yours," replied George almost fiercely. +"But they are not yours, Will Abner. They are unlucky George's." + +During the next three days four hundred sheep were clipped and anointed. +Jacky helped clip, but he would not wear gloves, and George would not +let him handle the ointment without them, suspecting mercury. + +At last George yielded to Abner's remonstrances, and left off shearing +and anointing. + +Abner altered his opinion when one day he found a sheep rubbing like mad +against a tree, and before noon half a dozen at the same game. Those two +wretched sheep had tainted the flock. + +Abner hung his head when he came to George with this ill-omened news. He +expected a storm of reproaches. But George was too deeply distressed for +any petulances of anger. "It is my fault," said he, "I was the master, +and I let my servant direct me. My own heart told me what to do, yet I +must listen to a fool and a hireling that cared not for the sheep. How +should he? they weren't his, they were mine to lose and mine to save. I +had my choice, I took it, I lost them. Call Jacky and let's to work and +save here and there one, if so be God shall be kinder to them than I +have been." + +From that hour there was but little rest morning, noon or night. It was +nothing but an endless routine of anointing and washing, washing and +anointing sheep. To the credit of Mr. Thompson it must be told that of +the four hundred who had been taken in time no single sheep died; but +of the others a good many. There are incompetent shepherds as well as +incompetent statesmen and doctors, though not so many. Abner was one +of these. An acute Australian shepherd would have seen the more subtle +signs of this terrible disease a day or two before the patient sheep +began to rub themselves with fury against the trees and against each +other; but Abner did not; and George did not profess to have a minute +knowledge of the animal, or why pay a shepherd? When this Herculean +labor and battle had gone on for about a week, Abner came to George, and +with a hang-dog look begged him to look out for another shepherd. + +"Why, Will! surely you won't think to leave me in this strait? Why three +of us are hardly able for the work, and how can I make head against this +plague with only the poor sav--with only Jacky, that is first-rate at +light work till he gets to find it dull--but can't lift a sheep and +fling her into the water, as the like of us can?" + +"Well, ye see," said Abner, doggedly, "I have got the offer of a place +with Mr. Meredith, and he won't wait for me more than a week." + +"He is a rich man, Will, and I am a poor one," said George in a faint, +expostulating tone. Abner said nothing, but his face showed he had +already considered this fact from his own point of view. + +"He could spare you better than I can; but you are right to leave a +falling house that you have helped to pull down." + +"I don't want to go all in a moment. I can stay a week till you get +another." + +"A week! how can I get a shepherd in this wilderness at a week's notice? +You talk like a fool." + +"Well, I can't stay any longer. You know there is no agreement at all +between us, but I'll stay a week to oblige you." + +"You'll oblige me, will you?" said George, with a burst of indignation; +"then oblige me by packing up your traps and taking your ugly face out +of my sight before dinner-time this day. Stay, my man, here are your +wages up to twelve o'clock to-day, take 'em and out of my sight, you +dirty rascal. Let me meet misfortune with none but friends by my side. +Away with you, or I shall forget myself and dirty my hands with your +mean carcass." + +The hireling slunk off, and as he slunk George stormed and thundered +after him, "And wherever you may go, may sorrow and sickness--no!" + +George turned to Jacky, who sat coolly by, his eyes sparkling at the +prospect of a row. "Jacky!" said he, and then he seemed to choke, and +could not say another word. + +"Suppose I get the make-thunder, then you shoot him." + +"Shoot him! what for?" + +"Too much bungality,* shoot him dead. He let the sheep come that have my +two fingers so on their backs;" here Jacky made a V with his middle +and forefinger, "so he kill the other sheep--yet still you not shoot +him--that so stupid I call." + + * Stupidity. + +"Oh Jacky, hush! don't you know me better than to think I would kill +a man for killing my sheep. Oh fie! oh fie! No, Jacky, Heaven forbid I +should do the man any harm; but when I think of what he has brought on +my head, and then to skulk and leave me in my sore strait and trouble, +me that never gave him ill language as most masters would; and then, +Jacky, do you remember when he was sick how kind you and I were to +him--and now to leave us. There, I must go into the house, and you come +and call me out when that man is off the premises--not before." + +At twelve o'clock selfish Abner started to walk thirty miles to Mr. +Meredith's. Smarting under the sense of his contemptibleness and of +the injury he was doing his kind, poor master, he shook his fist at the +house and told Jacky he hoped the scab would rot the flock, and that +done fall upon the bipeds, on his own black hide in particular. Jacky +only answered with his eye. When the man was gone he called George. + +George's anger had soon died. Jacky found him reading a little book in +search of comfort, and when they were out in the air Jacky saw that his +eyes were rather red. + +"Why you cry?" said Jacky. "I very angry because you cry." + +"It is very foolish of me," said George, apologetically, "but three is a +small company, and we in such trouble; I thought I had made a friend of +him. Often I saw he was not worth his wages, but out of pity I wouldn't +part with him when I could better have spared him than he me, and +now--there--no more about it. Work is best for a sore heart, and mine is +sore and heavy, too, this day." + +Jacky put his finger to his head, and looked wise. "First you listen +me--this one time I speak a good many words. Dat stupid fellow know +nothing, and so because you not shoot him a good way* behind--you very +stupid. One," counted Jacky, touching his thumb, "he know nothing with +these (pointing to his eyes). Jacky know possum,** Jacky know kangaroo, +know turkey, know snake, know a good many, some with legs like dis (four +fingers), some with legs like dis (two flngers)--dat stupid fellow +know nothing but sheep, and not know sheep, let him die too much. Know +nothing with 'um eyes. One more (touching his forefinger). Know nothing +with dis (touching his tongue). Jacky speak him good words, he speak +Jacky bad words. Dat so stupid--he know nothing with dis. + + * Long ago. + + ** Opossum. + +"One more. You do him good things--he do you bad things; he know nothing +with these (indicating his arms and legs as the seat of moral action), +so den because you not shoot him long ago now you cry; den because you +cry Jacky angry. Yes, Jacky very good. Jacky a little good before he +live with you. Since den very good--but when dat fellow know nothing, +and now you cry at the bottom* part Jacky a little angry, and Jacky go +hunting a little not much direckly." + + * At last. + +With these words the savage caught up his tomahawk and two spears, and +was going across country without another word, but George cried out in +dismay, "Oh, stop a moment! What! to-day, Jacky? Jacky, Jacky, now don't +ye go to-day. I know it is very dull for the likes of you, and you will +soon leave me, but don't ye go to-day; don't set me against flesh and +blood altogether." + +"I come back when the sun there," pointing to the east, "but must hunt a +little, not much. Jacky uncomfortable," continued he, jumping at a word +which from its size he thought must be of weight in any argument, "a +good deal uncomfortable suppose I not hunt a little dis day." + +"I say no more, I have no right--goodby, take my hand, I shall never see +you any more. + +"I shall come back when the sun there." + +"Ah! well I daresay you think you will. Good-by, Jacky; don't you stay +to please me." + +Jacky glided away across country. He looked back once and saw George +watching him. George was sitting sorrowful upon a stone, and as this +last bit of humanity fell away from him and melted away in the distance +his heart died within him. "He thinks he will come back to me, but +when he gets in the open and finds the track of animals to hunt he will +follow them wherever they go, and his poor shallow head won't remember +this place nor me; I shall never see poor Jacky any more!" + +The black continued his course for about four miles until a deep hollow +hid him from George. Arrived here he instantly took a line nearly +opposite to his first, and when he had gone about three miles on this +tack he began to examine the ground attentively and to run about like +a hound. After near half an hour of this he fell upon some tracks and +followed them at an easy trot across the country for miles and miles, +his eye keenly bent upon the ground. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +OUR story has to follow a little way an infinitesimal personage. + +Abner, the ungratefulish one, with a bundle tied up in a handkerchief, +strode stoutly away toward Mr. Meredith's grazing ground. "I am well out +of that place," was his reflection. As he had been only once over the +ground before, he did not venture to relax his pace lest night should +overtake him in a strange part. He stepped out so well that just +before the sun set he reached the head of a broad valley that was all +Meredith's. About three miles off glittered a white mansion set in a sea +of pasture, studded with cattle instead of sails. "Ay! ay!" thought the +ungratefulish one, no fear of the scab breaking up this master--"I'm +all right now." As he chuckled over his prospects a dusky figure +stole noiselessly from a little thicket--an arm was raised behind +him--crosssh! a hard weapon came down on his skull, and he lay on his +face with the blood trickling from his mouth and ears. + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +HE who a few months ago was so lighthearted and bright with hope now +rose at daybreak for a work of Herculean toil as usual, but no longer +with the spirit that makes labor light. The same strength, the same +dogged perseverance were there, but the sense of lost money, lost +time, and invincible ill-luck oppressed him; then, too, he was +alone--everything had deserted him but misfortune. + +"I have left my Susan and I have lost her--left the only friend I had or +ever shall have in this hard world." This was his constant thought, +as doggedly but hopelessly he struggled against the pestilence. +Single-handed and leaden-hearted he had to catch a sheep, to fling +her down, to hold her down, to rub the ointment into her, and to catch +another that had been rubbed yesterday and take her to the pool and +fling her in and keep her in till every part of her skin was soaked. + +Four hours of this drudgery had George gone through single-handed and +leaden-hearted, when as he knelt over a kicking, struggling sheep, he +became conscious of something gliding between him and the sun; he looked +up and there was Jacky grinning. + +George uttered an exclamation: "What, come back! Well, now that is very +good of you I call. How do you do?" and he gave him a great shake of the +hand. + +"Jacky very well, Jacky not at all uncomfortable after him hunt a +little." + +"Then I am very glad you have had a day's sport, leastways a night's, I +call it, since it has made you comfortable, Jacky." + +"Oh! yes, very comfortable now," and his white teeth and bright eye +proclaimed the relief and satisfaction his little trip had afforded his +nature. + +"There, Jacky, if the ointment is worth the trouble it gives me rubbing +of it in, that sheep won't ever catch the scab, I do think. Well, +Jacky, seems to me I ought to ask your pardon--I did you wrong. I never +expected you would leave the kangaroos and opossums for me once you were +off. But I suppose fact is you haven't quite forgotten Twofold Bay." + +"Two fool bay!" inquired Jacky, puzzled. + +"Where I first fell in with you. You made one in a hunt that day, only +instead of hunting you was hunted and pretty close, too, and if I hadn't +been a good cricketer and learned to fling true--Why, I do declare I +think he has forgotten the whole thing, shark and all!" + +At the word shark a gleam of intelligence came to the black's eye; it +was succeeded by a look of wonder. "Shark come to eat me--you throw +stone--so we eat him. I see him now a little--a very little--dat a long +way off--a very long way off. Jacky can hardly see him when he try a +good deal. White fellow see a long way off behind him back--dat is very +curious." + +George colored. "You are right, lad--it was a long while ago, and I am +vexed for mentioning it. Well, any way you are come back and you are +welcome. Now you shall do a little of the light work, but I'll do all +the heavy work because I'm used to it;" and indeed poor George did work +and slave like Hercules; forty times that day he carried a full-sized +sheep in his hands a distance of twenty yards and flung her into the +water and splashed in and rubbed her back in the water. + +The fourth day after Jacky's return George asked him to go all over +the ground and tell him how many sheep he saw give signs of the fatal +disorder. + +About four o'clock in the afternoon Jacky returned driving before +him with his spear a single sheep. The agility of both the biped and +quadruped were droll; the latter every now and then making a rapid bolt +to get back to the pasture and Jacky bounding like a buck and pricking +her with a spear. + +For the first time he found George doing nothing. "Dis one scratch um +back--only dis one." + +"Then we have driven out the murrain and the rest will live. A hard +fight! Jacky, a hard fight! but we have won it at last. We will rub this +one well; help me put her down, for my head aches." + +After rubbing her a little George said, "Jacky, I wish you would do it +for me, for my head do ache so I can't abide to hold it down and work, +too." + +After dinner they sat and looked at the sheep feeding. "No more dis," +said Jacky gayly, imitating a sheep rubbing against a tree. + +"No! I have won the day; but I haven't won it cheap. Jacky, that fellow, +Abner, was a bad man--an ungrateful man." + +These words George spoke with a very singular tone of gravity. + +"Never you mind you about him." + +"No! I must try to forgive him; we are all great sinners; is it cold +to-day?" + +"No! it is a good deal hot + +"I thought it must, for the wind is in a kindly quarter. Well, Jacky, I +am as cool as ice." + +"Dat very curious." + +"And my head do ache so I can hardly bear myself." + +"You ill a little--soon be well." + +"I doubt I shall be worse before I am better." + +"Never you mind you. I go and bring something I know. We make it hot +with water, den you drink it; and after dat you a good deal better." + +"Do, Jacky. I won't take doctor's stuff; it is dug out of the ground and +never was intended for man's inside. But you get me something that grows +in sight and I'll take that; and don't be long, Jacky--for I am not +well." + +Jacky returned toward evening with a bundle of simples. He found George +shivering over a fire. He got the pot and began to prepare an infusion. +"Now you soon better," said he. + +"I hope so, Jacky," said George very gravely, "thank you, all the same. +Jacky, I haven't been not to say dry for the last ten days with me +washing the sheep, and I have caught a terrible chill--a chill like +death; and, Jacky, I have tried too much--I have abused my strength. I +am a very strong man as men go, and so was my father; but he abused his +strength--and he was took just as I am took now, and in a week he was +dead. I have worked hard ever since I came here, but since Abner left +me at the pinch it hasn't been man's work, Jacky; it has been a +wrestling-match from dawn to dark. No man could go on so and not break +down; but I wanted so to save the poor sheep. Well, the sheep are saved; +but--" + +When Jacky's infusion was ready he made George take it and then lie +down. Unfortunately the attack was too violent to yield to this simple +remedy. Fever was upon George Fielding--fever in his giant shape; not +as he creeps over the weak, but as he rushes on the strong. George had +never a headache in his life before. Fever found him full of blood and +turned it all to fire. He tossed--he raged--and forty-eight hours after +his first seizure the strong man lay weak as a child, except during +those paroxysms of delirium which robbed him of his reason while they +lasted, and of his strength when they retired. + +On the fourth day---after a raging paroxysm--he became suddenly calm, +and looking up saw Jacky seated at some little distance, his bright eye +fixed upon him. + +"You better now?" inquired he, with even more than his usual gentleness +of tone. "You not talk stupid things any more?" + +"What, Jacky, are you watching me?" said the sick man. "Now I call that +very kind of you. Jacky, I am not the man I was--we are cut down in a +day like the ripe grass. How long is it since I was took ill?" + +"One, one, one, and one more day." + +"Ay! Ay! My father lasted till the fifth day, and then--Jacky!" + +"Here Jacky! what you want?" + +"Go out on the hill and see whether any of the sheep are rubbing +themselves." + +Jacky went out and soon returned. + +"Not see one rub himself." + +A faint gleam lighted George's sunken eye. "That is a comfort. I hope I +shall be accepted not to have been a bad shepherd, for I may say 'I have +given my life for my sheep.' Poor things." + +George dozed. Toward evening he awoke, and there was Jacky just where he +had seen him last. "I didn't think you had cared so much for me, Jacky, +my boy." + +"Yes, care very much for you. See, um make beef-water for you a good +deal." + +And sure enough he had boiled down about forty pounds of beef and filled +a huge calabash with the extract, which he set by George's side. + +"And why are you so fond of me, Jacky? It isn't on account of my saving +your life, for you had forgotten that. What makes you such a friend to +me?" + +"I tell you. Often I go to tell you before, but many words dat a good +deal trouble. One--when you make thunder the bird always die. One--you +take a sheep so and hold him up high. Um never see one more white fellow +able do dat. One--you make a stone go and hit thing; other white fellow +never hit. One--little horse come to you; other white fellow go to +horse--horse run away. Little horse run to you, dat because you so good. +One--Carlo fond of you. All day now he come in and go out, and say so +(imitating a dog's whimper). He so uncomfortable because you lie down +so. One--when you speak to Jacky you not speak big like white fellow, +you speak small and like a fiddle--dat please Jacky's ear. + +"One--when you look at Jacky always your face make like a hot day when +dere no rain--dat please Jacky's eye; and so when Jacky see you stand up +one day a good deal high and now lie down--dat makes him uncomfortable; +and when he see you red one day and white dis day--dat make him +uncomfortable a good deal; and when he see you so beautiful one day and +dis day so ugly--dat make him so uncomfortable, he afraid you go away +and speak no more good words to Jacky--and dat make Jacky feel a thing +inside here (touching his breast), no more can breathe--and want to do +like the gin, but don't know how. Oh, dear! don't know how!" + +"Poor Jacky! I do wish I had been kinder to you than I have. Oh, I am +very short of wind, and my back is very bad!" + +"When black fellow bad in um back he always die," said Jacky very +gravely. + +"Ay," said George quietly. "Jacky, will you do one or two little things +for me now?" + +"Yes, do um all." + +"Give me that little book that I may read it. Thank you. Jacky, this +is the book of my religion; and it was given to me by one I love better +than all the world. I have disobeyed her--I have thought too little of +what is in this book and too much of this world's gain. God forgive me! +and I think He will, because it was for Susan's sake I was so greedy of +gain." + +Jacky looked on awestruck as George read the book of his religion. "Open +the door, Jacky." + +Jacky opened the door; then coming to George's side, he said with an +anxious, inquiring look and trembling voice, "Are you going to leave me, +George?" + +"Yes, Jacky, my boy," said George, "I doubt I am going to leave you. So +now thank you and bless you for all kindness. Put your face close down +to mine-there--I don't care for your black skin--He who made mine made +yours; and I feel we are brothers, and you have been one to me. Good-by, +dear, and don't stay here. You can do nothing more for your poor friend +George." + +Jacky gave a little moan. "Yes, um can do a little more before he go and +hide him face where there are a good deal of trees." + +Then Jacky went almost on tiptoe, and fetched another calabash full +of water and placed it by George's head. Then he went very softly and +fetched the heavy iron which he had seen George use in penning sheep, +and laid it by George's side; next he went softly and brought George's +gun, and laid it gently by George's side down on the ground. + +This done he turned to take his last look of the sick man now feebly +dozing, the little book in his drooping hand. But as he gazed nature +rushed over the poor savage's heart and took it quite by surprise. Even +while bending over his white brother to look his last farewell, with a +sudden start he turned his back on him, and sinking on his hams he burst +out crying and sobbing with a wild and terrible violence. + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +FOR near an hour Jacky sat upon the ground, his face averted from his +sick friend, and cried; then suddenly he rose, and without looking at +him went out at the door, and turning his face toward the great forests +that lay forty miles distant eastward, he ran all the night, and long +before dawn was hid in the pathless woods. + +A white man feels that grief, when not selfish, is honorable, and +unconsciously he nurses such grief more or less; but to simple-minded +Jacky grief was merely a subtle pain, and to be got rid of as quickly as +possible, like any other pain. + +He ran to the vast and distant woods, hoping to leave George's death a +long way behind him, and so not see what caused his pain so plain as +he saw it just now. It is to be observed that he looked upon George as +dead. The taking into his hand of the book of his religion, the kind +embrace, the request that the door might be opened, doubtless for the +disembodied spirit to pass out, all these rites were understood by Jacky +to imply that the last scene was at hand. Why witness it? it would make +him still more uncomfortable. Therefore he ran, and never once looked +back, and plunged into the impenetrable gloom of the eastern forests. + +The white man had left Fielding to get a richer master. The +half-reasoning savage left him to cure his own grief at losing him. +There he lay abandoned in trouble and sickness by all his kind. But one +friend never stirred; a single-hearted, single-minded, non-reasoning +friend. + +Who was this pure-minded friend? A dog. + +Carlo loved George. They had lived together, they had sported together, +they had slept together side by side on the cold, hard deck of the +_Phoenix_, and often they had kept each other warm, sitting crouched +together behind a little bank or a fallen tree, with the wind whistling +and the rain shooting by their ears. + +When day after day George came not out of the house, Carlo was very +uneasy. He used to patter in and out all day, and whimper pitifully, +and often he sat in the room where George lay and looked toward him and +whined. But now when his master was left quite alone his distress and +anxiety redoubled; he never went ten yards away from George. He ran in +and out moaning and whining, and at last he sat outside the door and +lifted up his voice and howled day and night continually. His meaner +instincts lay neglected; he ate nothing; his heart was bigger than his +belly; he would not leave his friend even to feed himself. And still day +and night without cease his passionate cry went up to heaven. + +What passed in that single heart none can tell for certain but his +Creator; nor what was uttered in that deplorable cry; love, sorrow, +perplexity, dismay--all these perhaps, and something of prayer--for +still he lifted his sorrowful face toward heaven as he cried out in +sore perplexity, distress, and fear for his poor master--oh! o-o-o-h! +o-o-o-o-h! o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-h! + +So we must leave awhile poor, honest, unlucky George, sick of a fever, +ten miles from the nearest hut. + +Leather-heart has gone from him to be a rich man's hireling. + +Shallow-heart has fled to the forest, and is hunting kangaroos with all +the inches of his soul. + +Single-heart sits fasting from all but grief before the door, and utters +heartrending, lamentable cries to earth and heaven. + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +---- JAIL is still a grim and castellated mountain of masonry, but a +human heart beats and a human brain throbs inside it now. + +Enter without fear of seeing children kill themselves, and bearded men +faint like women, or weep like children--horrible sights. + +The prisoners no longer crouch and cower past the officers, nor the +officers look at them and speak to them as if they were dogs, as they do +in most of these places, and used to here. + +Open this cell. A woman rises with a smile! why a smile? Because for +months an open door has generally let in what is always a great boon +to a separate prisoner--a human creature with a civil word. We remember +when an open door meant "way for a ruffian and a fool to trample upon +the solitary and sorrowful!" + +What is this smiling personage doing? as I live she is watchmaking! A +woman watchmaking, with neat and taper fingers, and a glass at her eye +sometimes, but not always, for in vision as well as in sense of touch +and patience nature has been bounteous to her. She is one of four. +Eight, besides these four, were tried and found incapable of excellence +in this difficult craft. They were put to other things; for permanent +failures are not permitted in ---- Jail. The theory is that every home +can turn some sort of labor to profit. + +Difficulties occur often. Impossibilities will bar the way now and then; +but there are so few real impossibilities. When a difficulty arises, +the three hundred industrious arts and crafts are freely ransacked for +a prisoner; ay!--ransacked as few rich men would be bothered to sift the +seven or eight liberal professions in order to fit a beloved son. + +Here, as in the world, the average of talent is low. The majority can +only learn easy things, and vulgar things, and some can do higher +things and a few can do beautiful things, and one or two have developed +first-rate gifts and powers. + +There are 25 shoemakers (male); 12 tailors, of whom 6 female; 24 +weavers, of whom 10 female; 4 watchmakers, all female; 6 printers and +composers, 5 female; 4 engrainers of wood, 2 female. (In this art we +have the first artist in Britain, our old acquaintance, Thomas Robinson. +He has passed all his competitors by a simple process. Beautiful +specimens of all the woods have been placed and kept before him, and for +a month he has been forced to imitate nature with his eye never off +her. His competitors in the world imitate nature from memory, from +convention, or from tradition. By such processes truth and beauty are +lost at each step down the ladder of routine. Mr. Eden gave clever Tom +at first starting the right end of the stick, instead of letting him +take the wrong.) Nine joiners and carpenters, 3 female; 3 who color +prints downright well, 1 female; 2 painters, 1 female; 3 pupils +shorthand writing, 1 female. + +[Fancy these attending the Old Bailey and taking it all down solemn as +judges.] + +Workers in gutta-percha, modelers in clay, washers and getters-up of +linen, hoe-makers, spade-makers, rake-makers, woodcarvers, stonecutters, +bakers, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. Come to the hard-labor yard. +Do you see those fifteen stables? there lurk in vain the rusty cranks; +condemned first as liars they fell soon after into disrepute as weapons +of half-science to degrade minds and bodies. They lurk there grim as +the used-up giants in "Pilgrim's Progress," and like them can't catch a +soul. + +Hark to the music of the shuttle and the useful loom. We weave linen, +cotton, woolen, linsey-woolsey, and, not to be behind the rogues +outside, cottonsey-woolsey and cottonsey-silksey; damask we weave, and a +little silk and poplin, and Mary Baker velvet itself for a treat now and +then. We of the loom relieve the county of all expense in keeping us, +and enrich a fund for taking care of discharged industrious prisoners +until such time as they can soften prejudices and obtain lucrative +employment. The old plan was to kick a prisoner out and say: + +"There, dog! go without a rap among those who will look on you as a dog +and make you starve or steal. We have taught you no labor but crank, and +as there are no cranks in the outside world, the world not being such +an idiot as we are, you must fill your belly by means of the only other +thing you have ever been taught--theft." + +Now the officers take leave of a discharged prisoner in English. +Farewell; good-by!--a contraction for God be wi' ye--etc. It used to be +in French, Sans adieu! au revoir! and the like. + +Having passed the merry, useful looms open this cell. A she-thief looks +up with an eye six times as mellow as when we were here last. She is +busy gilding. See with what an adroit and delicate touch the jade slips +the long square knife under the gossamer gold-leaf which she has blown +gently out of the book--and turns it over; and now she breathes gently +and vertically on the exact center of it, and the fragile yet rebellious +leaf that has rolled itself up like a hedgehog is flattened by that +human zephyr on the little leathern easel. Now she cuts it in three with +vertical blade; now she takes her long flat brush and applies it to her +own hair once or twice; strange to say the camel-hair takes from this +contact a soupcon of some very slight and delicate animal oil, which +enables the brush to take up the gold-leaf, and the artist lays a square +of gold in its place on the plaster bull she is gilding. Said bull was +cast in the prison by another female prisoner who at this moment is +preparing a green artificial meadow for the animal to stand in. These +two girls had failed at the watchmaking. They had sight and the fine +sensation of touch required, but they lacked the caution, patience +and judgment so severe an art demanded; so their talents were directed +elsewhere. This one is a first-rate gilder, she mistressed it entirely +in three days. + +The last thing they did in this way was an elephant. Cost of casting +him, reckoning labor and the percentage he ought to pay to the mold, was +1s. 4d. Plaster, chrome, water-size and oil-size, 3d.; goldleaf, 3s.; +1 foot of German velvet, 4d.; thread, needles and wear of tools, 1d.; +total, 5s. + +Said gold elephant standing on a purple cushion was subjected to a +severe test of his value. He was sent to a low auction room in London. +There he fell to the trade at 18s. This was a "knock-out" transaction; +twelve buyers had agreed not to bid against one another in the auction +room, a conspiracy illegal but customary. The same afternoon these +twelve held one of their little private unlawful auctions over him; here +the bidding was like drops of blood oozing from flints, but at least +it was bona-fide, and he rose to 25s. The seven shillings premium was +divided among the eleven sharpers. Sharper No. 12 carried him home and +sold him the very next day for 37s. to a lady who lived in Belgravia, +but shopped in filthy alleys, misled perhaps by the phrase "dirt cheap." + +Mr. Eden conceived him, two detected ones made him at a cost of 5s., +twelve undetected ones caught him first for 18s., and now he stands in +Belgravia, and the fair ejaculate over him, "What a duck!" + +The aggregate of labor to make and gild this elephant was not quite one +woman's work (12 hours). Taking 18s. as the true value of the work, for +in this world the workman has commonly to sell his production under +the above disadvantages, forced sale and the conspiracies of the +unimprisoned--we have still 13s. for a day's work by a woman. + +From the bull greater things are expected. The cast is from the bull of +the Vatican, a bull true to Nature, and Nature adorned the very meadows +when she produced the bull. What a magnificent animal is a bull! what +a dewlap! what a front! what clean pasterns! what fearless eyes! what a +deep diapason is his voice! of which beholding this his true and massive +effigy in ---- Jail we are reminded. When he stands muscular, majestic, +sonorous, gold, in his meadow pied with daisies, it shall not be "sweet" +and "love" and "duck"--words of beauty but no earthly signification; it +shall be, "There, I forgive Europa." + +And need I say there were more aimed at in all this than pecuniary +profit. Mr. Eden held that the love of production is the natural +specific antidote to the love of stealing. He kindled in his prisoners +the love of producing, of what some by an abuse of language call +"creating." And the producers rose in the scale of human beings. Their +faces showed it--the untamed look melted away--the white of the eye +showed less, and the pupil and iris more, and better quality. + +Gold-leaf when first laid on adheres in visible squares with uncouth +edges, a ragged affair; then the gilder takes a camelhair brush and +under its light and rapid touch the work changes as under a diviner's +rod, so rapidly and majestically come beauty and finish over it. Perhaps +no other art has so delicious a one minute as this is to the gilder. The +first work our prisoner gilded she screamed with delight several times +at this crisis. She begged to have the work left in her cell one day at +least. "It lights up the cell and lights up my heart." + +"Of course it does," said Mr. Eden. "Aha! what, there are greater +pleasures in the world than sinning, are there?" + +"That there are. I never was so pleased in my life. May I have it a few +minutes?" + +"My child, you shall have it till its place is taken by others like +it. Keep it before your eyes, feed on it, and ask yourself which is +the best, to work and add something useful or beautiful to the world's +material wealth, or to steal; to be a little benefactor to your kind and +yourself, or a little vermin preying on the industrious. Which is best?" + +"I'll never take while I can make." + +This is, of course, but a single specimen out of scores. To follow Mr. +Eden from cell to cell, from mind to mind, from sex to sex, would take +volumes and volumes. I only profess to reveal fragments of such a man. +He never hoped from the mere separate cell the wonders that dreamers +hope. It was essential to the reform of prisoners that moral contagion +should be checkmated, and the cell was the mode adopted, because it is +the laziest, cheapest, selfishest and cruelest way of doing this. That +no discretion was allowed him to let the converted or the well-disposed +mix and sympathize, and compare notes, and confirm each other in good +under a watchful officer's eye; this he thought a frightful blunder of +the system. + +Generally he held the good effect of separate confinement to be merely +negative; he laughed to scorn the chimera that solitude is an active +agent, capable of converting a rogue. Shut a rogue from rogues and let +honest men in upon him--the honest men get a good chance to convert +him, but if they do succeed it was not solitude that converted him but +healing contact. The moments that most good comes to him are the moments +his solitude is broken. + +He used to say solitude will cow a rogue and suspend his overt acts +of theft by force, and so make him to a non-reflector seem no longer +a thief; but the notion of the cell effecting permanent cures might +honestly be worded thus: "I am a lazy self-deceiver, and want to do by +machinery and without personal fatigue what St. Paul could only do by +working with all his heart, with all his time, with all his wit, with +all his soul, with all his strength and with all himself." Or thus: +"Confine the leopards in separate cages, Jock; _the cages_ will take +their spots out while ye're sleeping." + +Generally this was Mr. Eden's theory of the cell--a check to further +contamination, but no more. He even saw in the cell much positive ill +which he set himself to qualify. + +"Separate confinement breeds monstrous egotism," said he, "and egotism +hardens the heart. You can't make any man good if you never let him say +a kind word or do an unselfish action to a fellow-creature. Man is an +acting animal. His real moral character all lies in his actions, and +none of it in his dreams or cogitations. Moral stagnation or cessation +of all bad acts and of all good acts is a state on the borders of every +vice and a million miles from virtue." + +His reverence attacked the petrifaction and egotism of the separate +cell as far as the shallow system of this prison let him. First, he +encouraged prisoners to write their lives for the use of the prison; +these were weeded, if necessary (the editor was strong-minded and did +not weed out the re-poppies); printed and circulated in the jail. The +writer's number was printed at the foot if he pleased, but never his +name. Biography begot a world of sympathy in the prison. Second, he +talked to one prisoner acquainted with another prisoner's character, +talked about No. 80 to No. 60, and would sometimes say: "Now could you +give No. 60 any good advice on this point?" + +Then if 80's advice was good he would carry it to 60, and 60 would think +all the more of it that it came from one of his fellows. + +Then in matters of art he would carry the difficulties of a beginner +or a bungler to a proficient, and the latter would help the former. The +pleasure of being kind on one side, a touch of gratitude on the other, +seeds of interest and sympathy in both. Then such as had produced pretty +things were encouraged to lend them to other cells to adorn them and +stimulate the occupants. + +For instance, No. 140, who gilded the bull, was reminded that No. 120, +who had cast him, had never had the pleasure of setting him on her table +in her gloomy cell and so raising its look from dungeon to workshop. +Then No. 140 said, "Poor No. 120! that is not fair; she shall have him +half the day or more if you like, sir." + +Thus a grain of self-denial, justice and charity was often drawn into +the heart of a cell through the very keyhole. + +No. 19, Robinson, did many a little friendly office for other figures, +received their thanks, and, above all, obliging these figures warmed and +softened his own heart. + +You might hear such dialogues as this: + +No. 24. "And how is poor old No. 50 to-day (Strutt)?" + +Mr. Eden. "Much the same." + +No. 24. "Do you think you will bring him round, sir?" + +Mr. Eden. "I have great hopes; he is much improved since he had the +garden and the violin." + +No. 24. "Will you give him my compliments, sir? No. 24's compliments and +tell him I bid him 'never say die'?" + +Mr. Eden. "Well, ----, how are you this morning?" + +"I am a little better, sir. This room (the infirmary) is so sweet and +airy, and they give me precious nice things to eat and drink." + +"Are the nurses kind to you?" + +"That, they are, sir, kinder than I deserve." + +"I have a message for you from No. -- on your corridor." + +"No! have you, sir?" + +"He sends his best wishes for your recovery." + +"Now that is very good of him." + +"And he would be very glad to hear from yourself how you feel." + +"Well, sir, you tell him I am a trifle better, and God bless him for +troubling his head about me." + +In short, his reverence reversed the Hawes system. Under that a prisoner +was divested of humanity and became a number and when he fell sick the +sentiment created was, "The figure written on the floor of that cell +looks faint." When he died or was murdered, "There is such and such a +figure rubbed off our slate." + +Mr. Eden made these figures signify flesh and blood, even to those who +never saw their human faces. When he had softened a prisoner's heart +then he laid the deeper truths of Christianity to that heart. They would +not adhere to ice or stone or brass. He knew that till he had taught a +man to love his brother whom he had seen he could never make him love +God whom he has not seen. To vary the metaphor, his plan was, first warm +and soften your wax then begin to shape it after Heaven's pattern. +The old-fashioned way is freeze, petrify and mold your wax by a single +process. Not that he was mawkish. No man rebuked sin more terribly than +he often rebuked it in many of these cells; and when he did so see what +he gained by the personal kindness that preceded these terrible rebukes! +The rogue said: "What! is it so bad that his reverence, who I know has +a regard for me, rebukes me for it like this?--why, it must be bad +indeed!" + +A loving friend's rebuke is a rebuke--sinks into the heart and +convinces the judgment; an enemy's or stranger's rebuke is invective and +irritates--not converts. The great vice of the new prisons is general +self-deception varied by downright calculating hypocrisy. A shallow +zealot like Mr. Lepel is sure to drive the prisoners into one or other +of these. It was Mr. Eden's struggle to keep them out of it. He froze +cant in the bud. Puritanical burglars tried Scriptural phrases on him as +a matter of course, but they soon found it was the very worse lay they +could get upon in ---- Jail. The notion that a man can jump from +the depths of vice up to the climax of righteous habits, +spiritual-mindedness, at one leap, shocked his sense and terrified him +for the daring dogs that profess these saltatory powers and the geese +that believe it. He said to such: "Let me see you crawl heavenward +first, then walk heavenward; it will be time enough to soar when you +have lived soberly, honestly, piously a year or two--not here, where +you are tied hands, feet and tongue, but free among the world's +temptations." He had no blind confidence in learned-by-heart texts. +"Many a scoundrel has a good memory," said he. + +Here he was quite opposed to his friend Lepel. This gentleman attributed +a sort of physical virtue to Holy Writ poured anyhow into a human +vessel. His plan of making a thief honest will appear incredible to a +more enlightened age; yet it is widely accepted now and its advocates +call Mr. Eden a dreamer. It was this: He came into a cell cold and stern +and set the rogues a lot of texts. Those that learned a great many he +called good prisoners, and those that learned few--black sheep; and the +prisoners soon found out that their life, bitter as it was, would be +bitterer if they did not look sharp and learn a good many texts. So they +learned lots--and the slyest scoundrels learned the most. "Why not?" +said they, "in these cursed holes we have nothing better to do; and it +is the only way to get the parson's good word, and that is always worth +having in jail." + +One rogue on getting out explained his knowledge of five hundred texts +thus: "What did it hurt me learning texts? I'd just as lieve be learning +texts as turning a crank, and as soon be d--d as either." + +This fellow had been one of Mr. Lepel's sucking saints--a show prisoner. +The Bible and brute force--how odd they sound together! Yet such was +the Lepel system, humbug apart. Put a thief in a press between an Old +Testament and a New Testament. Turn the screw, crush the texts in, and +the rogue's vices out! Conversion made easy! What a wonder he opposes +cunning cloaked with religion to brutality cloaked under religion. +Ay, brutality, and laziness, and selfishness, all these are the true +foundation of that system. Selfishness--for such a man won't do anything +he does not like. No! "Why should I make myself 'all things to all men' +to save a soul? I will save them this one way or none--this is my way +and they shall all come to it," says the reverend Procrustes, forgetting +that if the heart is not won in vain is the will crushed; or perhaps not +caring so that he gets his own way. + +To work on Mr. Eden's plan is a herculean effort day by day repeated; +but to set texts is easy, easier even than to learn them--and how easy +that is appears from the multitude of incurable felons who have +swapped texts for tickets-of-leave. Messieurs Lepel, who teach solitary +depressed sinners the Bible with screw and lifted lash and no love +nor pity, a word in your ear. Begin a step higher. Go first to some +charitable priest and at his feet learn that Bible yourselves! + +Forgive my heat, dear reader. I am not an Eden, and these fellows rile +me when I think of the good they might do, and they do nothing but force +hypocrisy upon men who were bad enough without that. I allow a certain +latitude; don't want to swim in hot water by quarreling with every +madman or every dunce, but I do doubt any man's right to combine +contradictory vices. Now these worthies are stupid yet wild, +thick-headed yet delirious--tortoises and March hares. + +My sketch of Mr. Eden and his ways is feeble and unworthy. But I +conclude it with one master-stroke of eulogy--He was the opposite of +these men. + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +WE left Thomas Robinson writing his life. He has written it. It has been +printed by prisoners and circulated among prisoners. One copy lay in +Robinson's cell till he left the prison, and to this copy were appended +Mr. Eden's remarks in MS. + +This autobiography is a self-drawn portrait of a true Bohemian and his +mind from boyhood up to the date when he fell into my hands. + +Unfortunately we cannot afford so late in our story to make any +retrograde step. The "Autobiography of a Thief" must therefore be thrust +into my Appendix or printed elsewhere. + +The reader has seen Robinson turned into a fiend by cruelty and turned +back to a man by humanity. + +On this followed many sacred, softening, improving lessons, and as he +loved Mr. Eden his heart was open to them. + +Most prisoners are very sensible of genuine kindness, and docile as wax +in the hands of those who show it. They are the easiest class in the +world to impress. The difficulty is to make the impression permanent. +But the people who pretend to you that kindness does not greatly affect, +persuade and help convince them HAVE NEVER TRIED ANYTHING BUT BRUTALITY, +and never will; for nothing greater, wiser or better is in them. + +I will now indicate the other phases through which his mind passed in +---- Jail. + +Being shown that his crimes were virtually the cause of Mary's hapless +life and untimely death, and hard pressed by his father confessor, he +fell into religious despondency; believed his case desperate, and his +sins too many for Heaven's mercy. + +Of all states of mind this was the one Mr. Eden most dreaded. He had +observed that the notion that they cannot be reconciled to God and man +is the cause of prisoners' recklessness, and one great means by which +jail officers and society, England A.D. 185--, confirm them in ill. + +He soothed and cheered the poor fellow with many a hopeful message from +the gospel of mercy and soon drew him out of the Slough of Despond; but +he drew him out with so eager an arm that up went this impressionable +personage from despond to the fifth heaven. He was penitent, forgiven, +justified, sanctified, all in three weeks. Moreover, he now fell into +a certain foul habit. Of course Scripture formed a portion of his daily +reading and discourse with the chaplain. Robinson had a memory that +seized and kept everything like a vise, so now a text occurred to +him for every occasion, and he interwove them with all his talk. Your +shallow observers would have said, "What a hypocrite!" + +Not a hypocrite, oh Criticaster, but a chameleon! who had been months +out of the atmosphere of vice and in an atmosphere of religion. + +His reverence broke him of this nasty habit of chattering Bible, and +generally cooled him down. Finally he became sober, penitent for his +past life, and firmly resolved to lead a better. With this began to +mingle ambition to rise very high in the world, and a violent impatience +to begin. + +Through all these phases ran one excellent and saving thing, a +genuine attachment to his good friend the chaplain. The attachment was +reciprocal, and there was something touching in the friendship of two +men so different in mind and worldly station. But they had suffered +together. And indeed a much more depraved prisoner than Robinson would +have loved such a benefactor and brother as Eden; and many a scoundrel +in this place did love him as well as he could love anything; and as to +the other, the clew to him is simple. While the vulgar self-deceiving +moralist loathes the detected criminal, and never (whatever he may +think) really rises to abhorrence of crime, the saint makes two steps +upward toward the mind of Heaven itself, abhors crime, and loves, +pities, and will not despair of the criminal. + +But besides this Robinson was an engaging fellow, full of thought and +full of facts, and the Rev. Francis Tender-Conscience often spent an +extra five minutes in his cell and then reproached himself for letting +the more interesting personage rob other depressed and thirsty souls of +those drops of dew. + +One day Mr. Eden, who had just entered the cell, said to Robinson, "Give +me your hand. It is as I feared, your nerves are going." + +"Are they?" said Robinson ruefully. + +"Do you not observe that you are becoming tremulous?" + +"I notice that when my door is opened suddenly it makes me shake a +little and twitches come in my thigh." + +"I feared as much. It is not every man that can bear separate +confinement for twelve months. You cannot." + +"I shall have to, whether I can or not." + +"Will you?" + +Three days after this Mr. Eden came into his cell and said with a sad +smile, "I have good news for you; you are going to leave me. + +"Oh, your reverence! is that good news?" + +"Those who have the disposal of you are beginning to see that all +punishment (except hanging) is for the welfare of the culprit, and must +never be allowed to injure him. Strutt left the prison for my house a +fortnight ago, and you are to cross the water next week." + +"Oh, your reverence! Heaven forgive me for feeling glad." + +"For being human, eh, my poor fellow?" + +In the course of this conversation Mr. Eden frankly regretted that +Robinson was going so soon. "Four months more prison would have made +you safer, and I would have kept you here till the last minute of your +sentence for the good of your soul," said he grimly; "but your body and +nerves might have suffered," added he tenderly; "we must do all for the +best." + +A light burst on Robinson. "Why, your reverence," cried he, "is it for +fear? Why you don't ever think that I shall turn rogue again after I get +out of prison?" + +"You are going among a thousand temptations." + +"What! do you really think all your kindness has been wasted on me? Why, +sir, if a thousand pounds lay there I would not stretch out my hand to +take one that did not belong to me. How ungrateful you must think me, +and what a fool into the bargain after all my experience!" + +"Ungrateful you are not, but you are naturally a fool--a weak, flexible +fool. A man with a tenth of your gifts would lead you by the nose into +temptation. But I warn you if you fall now conscience will prick you +as it never yet has; you will be miserable, and yet though miserable +perhaps will never rise again, for remorse is not penitence." + +Robinson was so hurt at this want of confidence that he said nothing +in reply, and then Mr. Eden felt sorry he had said so much, "for, after +all," thought he, "these are mere misgivings; by uttering them I only +pain him. I can't make him share them. Let me think what I can do." + +That very day he wrote to Susan Merton. The letter contained the +following: "Thomas Robinson goes to Australia next week. He will get a +ticket-of-leave almost immediately on landing. I am in great anxiety; he +is full of good resolves, but his nature is unstable, yet I should not +fear to trust him anywhere if I could but choose his associates. In +this difficulty I have thought of George Fielding. You know I can read +characters, and though you never summed George up to me, his sayings and +doings reveal him to me. He is a man in whom honesty is engrained. Poor +Robinson with such a companion would be as honest as the day, and a +useful friend, for he is full of resources. Then, dear friend, will you +do a Christian act and come to our aid. I want you to write a note to +Mr. Fielding and let this poor fellow take it to him. Armed with this +my convert will not be shy of approaching the honest man, and the exile +will not hate me for this trick--will he? I send you inclosed the poor +clever fool's life written by himself and printed by my girls. Read it +and tell me are we wrong in making every effort to save such a man?" +etc. + +By return of post came a reply from Susan Merton, full of pity for +Robinson and affectionate zeal to co-operate in any way with her friend. +Inclosed was a letter addressed to George Fielding, the envelope not +closed. Mr. Eden slipped in a banknote and a very small envelope and +closed it, placed it in a larger envelope, sealed that and copied the +first address on its cover. + +He now gave Robinson more of his time than ever and seemed to cling to +him with almost a motherly apprehension. Robinson noticed it and felt +it very, very much, and his joy at getting out of prison oozed away more +and more as the day drew near. + +That day came at last. Robinson was taken by Evans to the chaplain's +room to bid him farewell. He found him walking about the room in deep +thought. "Robinson, when you are thousands of miles from me bear this in +mind, that if you fall again you will break my heart." + +"I know it, sir; I know it; for you would say, 'If I could not save him +who can I hope to?'" + +"You would not like to break my heart--to discourage your friend and +brother in the good work, the difficult work?" + +"I would rather die; if it is to be so I pray Heaven to strike me dead +in this room while I am fit to die!" + +"Don't say that; live to repair your crimes and to make me prouder of +you than a mother of her first-born." He paused and walked the room in +silence. Presently he stopped in front of Robinson. "You have often said +you owed me something." + +"My life and my soul's salvation," was the instant reply. + +"I ask a return; square the account with me." + +"That I can never do." + +"You can! I will take two favors in return for all you say I have done +for you. No idle words--but yes or no upon your honor. Will you grant +them or won't you?" + +"I will, upon my honor." + +"One is that you will pray very often, not only morning and evening, but +at sunset, at that dangerous hour to you when evil association begins; +at that hour honest men retire out of sight and rogues come abroad like +vermin and wild beasts; but most of all at any hour of the day or night +a temptation comes near you, at that moment pray! Don't wait to see how +strong the temptation is, and whether you can't conquer it without help +from above. At the sight of an enemy put on heavenly armor--pray! No +need to kneel or to go apart. Two words secretly cast heavenward, 'Lord, +help me,' are prayer. Will you so pray?" + +"Yes!" + +"Then give me your hand; here is a plain gold ring to recall this sacred +promise; put it on, wear it, and look at it, and never lose it or forget +your promise." + +"Them that take it must cut my hand off with it." + +"Enough, it is a promise. My second request is that the moment you are +free you will go and stay with an honest man." + +"I ask no better, sir, if he will have me." + +"George Fielding; he has a farm near Bathurst." + +"George Fielding, sir? He affronted me when I was in trouble. It was no +more than I deserved. I forgive him; but you don't know the lad, sir. He +would not speak to me; he would not look at me. He would turn his back +on me if we ran against one another in a wilderness." + +"Here is a talisman that will insure you a welcome from him--a letter +from the woman he loves. Come, yes or no?" + +"I will, sir, for your sake, not for theirs. Sir, do pray give me +something harder to do for you than these two things!" + +"No, I won't overweight you--nor encumber your memory with +pledges--these two and no more. And here we part. See what it is to sin +against society. I, whom your conversation has so interested, to whom +your company is so agreeable--in one word, I, who love you, can find no +kinder word to say to you to-day than this--let me never see your face +again--let me never hear your name in this world!" + +His voice trembled as he said these words--and he wrung Robinson's hand, +and Robinson groaned and turned away. + +"So now I can do no more for you--I must leave the rest to God." And +with these words, for the second time in their acquaintance, the good +soul kneeled down and prayed aloud for this man. And this time he prayed +at length with ardor and tenderness unspeakable. He prayed as for a +brother on the brink of a precipice. He wrestled with Heaven; and ere he +concluded he heard a subdued sound near him, and it was poor Robinson, +who, touched and penetrated by such angelic love, and awestruck to hear +a good man pour out his very soul at the mercy-seat of Heaven, had +crept timidly to his side and knelt there, bearing his mute part in this +fervent supplication. + +As Mr. Eden rose from his knees Evans knocked gently at the door. He +had been waiting some minutes, but had heard the voice of prayer and +reverently forbore to interrupt it. At his knock the priest and the +thief started. The priest suddenly held out both his hands; the thief +bowed his head and kissed them many times, and on this they parted +hastily with swelling hearts and not another word--except the thousands +that their moist eyes exchanged in one single look--the last. + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE ship was to sail in a week, and meantime Robinson was in the hulks +at Portsmouth. Now the hulks are a disgrace to Europe, and a most +incongruous appendage to a system that professes to cure by separate +confinement. One or two of the worst convicts made the usual overtures +of evil companionship to Robinson. These were coldly declined; and it +was a good sign that Robinson, being permitted by the regulations to +write one letter, did not write to any of his old pals in London or +elsewhere, but to Mr. Eden. He told him that he regretted his quiet cell +where his ears were never invaded with blasphemy and indecency, things +he never took pleasure in even at his worst--and missed his reverence's +talk sadly. He concluded by asking for some good books by way of +antidote. + +He received no answer while at Portsmouth, but the vessel having sailed +and lying two days off Plymouth, his name was called just before she +weighed again and a thick letter handed to him. He opened it eagerly and +two things fell on deck--a sovereign and a tract. The sovereign rolled +off and made for the sea. Robinson darted after it and saved it from the +deep and the surrounding rogues. Then he read a letter which was also in +the inclosure. It was short. In it Mr. Eden told him he had sent him the +last tract printed in the prison. "It is called 'The Wages of Sin are +Death.' It is not the same one you made into cards; that being out of +print and the author dead I have been tempted by that good, true title +to write another. I think you will value it none the less for being +written by me and printed by our brothers and sisters in this place. I +inclose one pound that you may not be tempted for want of a shilling." + +Robinson looked round for the tract; it was not to be seen; nobody had +seen it. N. B. It had been through a dozen light-fingered hands already +and was now being laughed at and blasphemed over by two filthy ruffians +behind a barrel on the lower deck. Robinson was first in a fury and +then, when he found it was really stolen from him, he was very much cut +up. "I wish I had lifted it and let the money roll." However, thought +he, "if I keep quiet I shall hear of it." + +He did hear of it, but he never saw it; for one of these hardened +creatures that had got hold of it had a spite against Robinson for +refusing his proffered amity, and the malicious dog, after keeping it +several hours, hearing Robinson threaten to inform against whoever had +taken it, made himself safe and gratified his spite by flinging it into +the Channel. + +This, too, came in due course to Robinson's ears. He moralized on it. "I +made the first into the devil's books," said he, "and now a child of the +devil has robbed me of the second. I shan't get a third chance. I would +give my sovereign and more to see what his reverence says about 'The +wages of sin are death.' The very title is a sermon. I pray Heaven the +dirty hand that robbed me of it may rot off at the--no! I forgot. Bless +and curse not!" + +And now Robinson was confined for five months in a wooden prison with +the scum of our jails. No cell to take refuge in from evil society. And +in that wretched five months this perpetual contact with criminals, many +of them all but incurable, took the gloss off him. His good resolutions +were unshaken, but his repugnance to evil associates became gradually +worn away. + +At last they landed at Sydney. They were employed for about a fortnight +in some government works, a mile from the town; and at the end of that +time he was picked out by a gentleman who wanted a servant. + +Robinson's work was to call him not too early, to clean his boots, go on +errands into the town, and be always in the way till five o'clock. From +that hour until about two in the morning Mr. Miles devoted to amusement, +returning with his latch key, and often rousing the night owl and his +servant with a bacchanalian or Anacreontic melody. In short, Mr. Miles +was a loose fish; a bachelor who had recently inherited the fortune of +an old screw his uncle, and was spending thrift in all the traditional +modes. Horses, dogs, women, cards, etc. + +He was a good-natured creature, and one morning as he brought him up +his hot water and his soda-water Robinson ventured on a friendly +remonstrance. + +Mr. Miles flung canting rogue and half a dozen oaths and one boot at his +head, and was preparing to add a tumbler, when his mentor whipped into +the lobby. Robinson could not have fallen to a worse master than this, +whose irregularities were so regular that his servant had always seven +hours to spend in the town as he pleased. There he was often solicited +to join in depredations on property. For he found half his old +acquaintances were collected by the magic of the law on this spot of +earth. + +Robinson took a particular pride in telling these gentlemen that he had +no objection to taking a friendly glass with them and talking over old +times, but that as for taking what did not belong to him all that was +over forever. In short, he improved on Mr. Eden's instructions. Instead +of flying from temptation, like a coward conscious of weakness, he nobly +faced it and walked cool, collected and safe on the edge of danger. + +One good result of this was that he spent his wages every month faster +than he got them, and spent the clothes his master gave him, and these +were worth more than his wages, for Mr. Miles was going the pace--wore +nothing after the gloss was off it. But Robinson had never lived out of +prison at less than five hundred per annum, and the evening is a good +time in the day for spending money in a town, and his evenings were all +his own. + +One evening a young tradeswoman with whom he was flirting in the +character of a merchant's clerk, tremendously busy, who could only get +out in the evening; this young woman, whom he had often solicited to go +to the theater, consented. + +"I could go with you to-morrow, my sister and I," said she. + +Robinson expressed his delight, but consulting his pockets found he +had not the means of paying for their seats, and he could not pawn +any clothes, for he had but two sets. One (yellowish) that government +compelled him to wear by daylight, and one a present from his master +(black). That, together with a mustache, admitted him into the bosom +of society at night. What was to be done? Propose to the ladies to +pay, that was quite without precedent. Ask his master for an advance, +impossible. His master was gone kangaroo hunting for three days. Borrow +some of his master's clothes and pawn them, that was too like theft. He +would pawn his ring, it would only be for a day or two, and he would not +spend a farthing more till he had got it back. + +He pawned Mr. Eden's ring; it just paid for their places at the theater, +where they saw the living puppets of the colony mop and mow and rant +under the title of acting. This was so interesting that Robinson was +thinking of his ring the whole time, and how to get it back. The girls +agreed between themselves they had never enjoyed so dull a cavalier. + +The next day a line from Mr. Miles to say that he should not be back for +a week. No hope of funds from him. So Robinson pawned his black coat and +got back his ring; and as the trousers and waistcoat were no use now, he +pawned them for pocket-money, which soon dissolved. + +Mr. Robinson now was out of spirits. + +"Service is not the thing for me. I am of an active turn--I want to go +into business that will occupy me all day long--business that +requires some head. Even his reverence, the first man in the country, +acknowledged my talents--and what is the vent for them here? The +blacking-bottle." + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +IN a low public outside the town--in a back room--with their arms on +the table and their low foreheads nearly touching, sat whispering +two men--types. One had the deep-sunk, colorless eyes, the protruding +cheek-bones, the shapeless mouth, and the broad chin good in itself but +bad in the above connection; the other had the vulpine chin, and the +fiendish eyebrows descending on the very nose in two sharp arches. Both +had the restless eye, both the short-cropped hair, society's comment, +congruous and auxiliary, though in itself faint by the side of habit's +seal and Nature's. + +A small north window dimly lighted the gloomy, uncouth cabin, and +revealed the sole furniture--four chairs, too heavy to lift, too thick +to break, and a table discolored with the stains of a thousand filthy +debauches and dotted here and there with the fresh ashes of pipes and +cigars. + +In this appropriate frame behold two felons putting their heads +together. By each felon's side smoked in a glass hot with heat and +hotter with alcohol, the enemy of man. It would be difficult to give +their dialogue, for they spoke in thieves' Latin. The substance was +this: They had scent of a booty in a house that stood by itself three +miles out of the town. But the servants were incorruptible, and they +could not get access to inspect the premises, which were intricate. Now +your professional burglar will no more venture upon unexplored premises +than a good seaman will run into an unknown channel without pilot, +soundings or chart. It appeared from the dialogue that the two men were +acquainted with a party who knew these premises, having been more than +once inside them with his master. + +The more rugged one objected to this party. "He is no use, he has +turned soft. I have heard him refuse a dozen good plants the last month. +Besides, I don't want a canting son of a gun for my pal--ten to one if +he don't turn tail and perhaps split." + +N. B.--All this not in English, but in thieve's cant, with an oath or a +nasty expression at every third word. The sentences measled with them. + +"You don't know how to take him," replied he of the Mephistopheles +eye-brow. "He won't refuse me." + +"Why not?" + +"He is an old pal of mine, and I never found the thing I could not +persuade him to. He does not know how to say me nay--you may bully him +and queer him till all is blue, and he won't budge, and that is the lay +you have been upon with him. Now I shall pull a long face--make up a +story--take him by his soft bit--tell him I can't get on without him, +and patter old lang syne to him. Then we'll get a fiddle and lots of +whisky; and when we have had a reel and he has shaken his foot on the +floor and drank a gill or two, you will see him thaw, and then you leave +him to me and don't put in your jaw to spoil it. If we get him it will +be all right--he is No. 1; his little finger has seen more than both our +carcasses put together." + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +FOUR days after this, mephistopheles with a small m and brutus with +a little b sat again in the filthy little cabin where men hatch +burglaries--but this time the conference wore an air of expectant +triumph. + +"Didn't I tell you?" + +"You didn't do it easy." + +"No, I had almost to go on my knees to him." + +"He isn't worth so much trouble." + +"He is worth it ten times over. Look at this," and the speaker produced +a plan of the premises they were plotting against. "Could you have done +this?" + +"I don't say I could." + +"Could any man you know have done it? See here is every room and every +door and window and passage put down, and what sort of keys and bolts +and fastenings to each." + +"How came he to know so much; he never was in the house but twice." + +"A top-sawyer like him looks at everything with an eye to business. If +he was in a church he'd twig the candlesticks and the fastenings, while +the rest were mooning into the parson's face--he can't help it." + +"Well, he may be a top-sawyer, but I don't like him. See how loth he +was, and, when he did agree, how he turned to and drank as if he would +drown his pluck before it could come to anything." + +"Wait till you see him work. He will shake all that nonsense to blazes +when he finds himself out under the moon with the swag on one side and +the gallows on the other." + +To go back a little. Mr. Miles did not return at the appointed day; and +Robinson, who had no work to do, and could not amuse himself without +money, pawned Mr. Eden's ring. He felt ashamed and sorrowful, but not so +much so as the first time. + +This evening, as he was strolling moodily through the suburbs, a voice +hailed him in tones of the utmost cordiality. He looked up and there was +an old pal, with whom he had been associated in many a merry bout and +pleasant felony; he had not seen the man for two years; a friendly glass +was offered and accepted. Two girls were of the party, to oblige whom +Robinson's old acquaintance sent for Blind Bill, the fiddler, and soon +Robinson was dancing and shouting with the girls like mad--"High cut," +"side cut," "heel and toe," "sailor's fling," and the double shuffle. + +He did not leave till three in the morning, and after a promise to meet +the same little party again next evening--to dance and drink and drive +away dull care. + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +ON a certain evening some days later, the two men whose faces +were definitions sat on a bench outside that little public in the +suburbs--one at the end of a clay-pipe, the other behind a pewter mug. +It was dusk. + +"He ought to be here soon," said the one into whose forehead holes +seemed dug and little bits of some vitreous substance left at the +bottom. "Well, mate," cried he harshly, "what do you want that you stick +to us so tight?" This was addressed to a peddler who had been standing +opposite showing the contents of his box with a silent eloquence. Now +this very asperity made the portable shopman say to himself, "wants +me out of the way--perhaps buy me out." So he stuck where he was, and +exhibited his wares. + +"We don't want your gim-cracks," said mephistopheles quietly. + +The man eyed his customers and did not despair. "But, gents," said he, +"I have got other things besides gim-cracks; something that will suit +you if you can read." + +"Of course we can read," replied sunken-eyes haughtily; and in fact they +had been too often in jail to escape this accomplishment. + +The peddler looked furtively in every direction; and after this +precaution pressed a spring and brought a small drawer out from the +bottom of his pack. The two rogues winked at one another. Out of the +drawer the peddler whipped a sealed packet. + +"What is it?" asked mephistopheles, beginning to take an interest. + +"Just imported from England," said the peddler, a certain pomp mingling +with his furtive and mysterious manner. + +"---- England," was the other's patriotic reply. + +"And translated from the French." + +"That is better! but what is it?" + +"Them that buy it--they will see!" + +"Something flash?" + +"Rather, I should say." + +"Is there plenty about the women in it?" + +The trader answered obliquely. + +"What are we obliged to keep it dark for?"--the other put in, "Why of +course there is." + +"Well!" said sunken-eyes affecting carelessness. "What do you want for +it? Got sixpence, Bill?" + +"I sold the last to a gentleman for three-and-sixpence. But as this is +the last I've got--say half a crown." + +Sunken-eyes swore at the peddler. + +"What! half a crown for a book no thicker than a quire of paper?" + +"Only half a crown for a thing I could be put in prison for selling. Is +not my risk to be paid as well as my leaves?" + +This logic went home, and after a little higgling two shillings was +offered and accepted, but in the very act of commerce the trader seemed +to have a misgiving. + +"I daren't do it unless you promise faithfully never to tell you had +it of me. I have got a character to lose, and I would not have +it known--not for the world, that James Walker had sold such +loose--licentious--" + +"Oh! what it is very spicy, is it? Come, hand it over. There's the two +bob." + +"My poverty and not my will consents," sighed the trader. + +"There, you be off, or we shall have all the brats coming round us." + +The peddler complied and moved off, and so willing was he to oblige his +customers that on turning the corner he shouldered his pack and ran with +great agility down the street, till he gained a network of small alleys +in which he wriggled and left no trace. + +Meantime sunken-eyes had put his tongue to the envelope and drawn out +the contents. "I'll go into the light and see what it is all about." + +mephistopheles left alone had hardly given his pipe two sucks ere brutus +returned black with rage and spouting oaths like a whale. + +"Why, what is the matter?" + +"Matter! Didn't he sell this to me for a flash story?" + +"Why he didn't say so. But certainly he dropped a word about loose +books." + +"Of course he did." + +"Well! and ain't they?" + +"Ain't they!" cried the other with fury. "Here, you young shaver, bring +the candle out here. Ain't they? No they ain't----and----and----the ---- +----. Look here!" + +mephisto. "'Mend your Ways,' a tract." + +brutus. "I'll break his head instead." + +mephisto. "'Narrative of Mr. James the Missionary.'" + +brutus. "The cheating, undermining rip." + +mephisto. "And here is another to the same tune." + +brutus. "Didn't I tell you so. The hypocritical, humbugging rascal--" + +mephisto. "Stop a bit. Here is a little one: 'Memoirs of a Gentleman's +Housekeeper.'" + +brutus. "Oh! is there? I did not see that." + +mephisto. "You are so hasty. The case mayn't be so black as it looks. +The others might be thrown in to make up the parcel. Hold the candle +nearer. + +brutus. "Ay! let us see about the housekeeper." + +The two men read "The Housekeeper" eagerly, but as they read the +momentary excitement of hope died out of their faces. Not a sparkle of +the ore they sought; all was dross. "The Housekeeper" was one of those +who make pickles, not eat them--and in a linen apron a yard wide save +their master's money from the fangs of cook and footman, not help him +scatter it in a satin gown. + +There was not even a stray hint or an indelicate expression for the poor +fellow's two shillings. The fraud, was complete. It was not like the +ground coffee, pepper and mustard in a London shop--in which there is +as often as not a pinch of real coffee, mustard and pepper to a pound of +chicory and bullock's blood, of red lead, dirt, flour and turmeric. Here +the do was pure. + +Then brutus relieved his swelling heart by a string of observations +partly rhetorical, partly zoological. He devoted to horrible plagues +every square inch of the peddler, enumerating more particularly those +interior organs that subserve vitality, and concluded by vowing solemnly +to put a knife into him the first fair opportunity. "I'll teach the +rogue to--" Sell you medicine for poison, eh? + +mephistopheles, either because he was a more philosophic spirit or was +not the one out of pocket, took the blow more coolly. "It is a bite +and no mistake. But what of it? Our money," said he, with a touch of +sadness, "goes as it comes. This is only two bob flung in the dirt. We +should not have invested them in the Three per Cents; and to-night's +swag will make it up." + +He then got a fresh wafer and sealed the pamphlets up again. "There," +said he, you keep dark and sell the first flat you come across the same +way the varmint sold you. + +brutus, sickened at heart by the peddler's iniquity, revived at the +prospect of selling some fellow-creature as he had been sold. He put the +paper-trap in his pocket; and, cheated of obscenity, consoled himself +with brandy such as Bacchus would not own, but Beelzebub would brew for +man if permitted to keep an earthly distillery. + +Presently they were joined by the third man, and for two hours the three +heads might all have been covered by one bushel-basket, and peddler +Walker's heartless fraud was forgotten in business of a higher order. + +At last mephistopheles gave brutus a signal, and they rose to interrupt +the potations of the newcomer, who was pouring down fire and hot water +in rather a reckless way. + +"We won't all go together," said mephistopheles. "You two meet me at +Jonathan's ken in an hour." + +As brutus and the newcomer walked along an idea came to brutus. "Here +is a fellow that passes for a sharp. What if I sell him my pamphlets and +get a laugh at his expense. Mate," said he, "here is a flash book all +sealed up. What will you give me for it?" + +"Well! I don't much care for that sort of reading, old fellow." + +"But this is cheap. I got it a bargain. Come--a shilling won't hurt you +for it. See there is more than one under the cover." + +Now the other had been drinking till he was in that state in which a +good-natured fellow's mind if decomposed would be found to be all "Yes," +and "Dine with me to-morrow," so he fell into the trap. + +"I'll give it you, my boy," said he. "Let us see it? There are more than +one inside it. You're an honest fellow. Owe you a shilling." And the +sealed parcel went into his pocket. Then, seeing brutus look rather +rueful at this way of doing business, he hiccoughed out, "Stop your bob +out of the swag"--and chuckled. + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +A SNOW-WHITE suburban villa standing alone with its satellites that +occupied five times as much space as itself; coach-house, stable, +offices, greenhouse clinging to it like dew to a lily, and hot-house +farther in the rear. A wall of considerable height inclosed the whole. +It booked as secure and peaceful as innocent in the fleeting light the +young moon cast on it every time the passing clouds left her clear a +moment. Yet at this calm thoughtful hour crime was waiting to invade +this pretty little place. + +Under the scullery-window lurked brutus and mephistopheles--faces +blackened, tools in hand--ready to whip out a pane of said window and so +penetrate the kitchen, and from the kitchen the pantry, where they made +sure of a few spoons, and up the back stairs to the plate-chest. They +would be in the house even now but a circumstance delayed them--a light +was burning on the second floor. Now it was contrary to their creed to +enter a house where a light was burning, above all, if there was the +least chance of that light being in a sitting-room. Now they had been +some hours watching the house and that light had been there all the +time, therefore, argued mephistopheles, "It is not a farthing glim in +a bedroom or we should have seen it lighted. It is some one up. We must +wait till they roost." + +They waited and waited and waited. Still the light burned. They cursed +the light. No wonder. Light seems the natural enemy of evil deeds. + +They began to get bitter, and their bodies cold. Even burglary becomes a +bore when you have to wait too long idle out in the cold. + +At last, at about half past two, the light went out. Then, keenly +listening, the two sons of darkness heard a movement in the house, +and more than one door open and shut, and then the sound of feet going +rapidly down the road toward Sydney. + +"Why! it is a party only just broke up. Lucky I would not work till the +glim was out." + +"But I say, Bill--he is at that corner--the nobs must have passed close +to him--suppose they saw him." + +"He is not so green as let them see him." + +The next question was how long they should wait to let the inmates close +their peepers. All had been still and dark more than half an hour when +the pair began to work, mephisto took out a large piece of putty and +dabbed it on the middle of the pane; this putty he worked in the center +up to a pyramid; this he held with his left hand, while with his right +be took out his glazier's diamond and cut the pane all round the edges. +By the hold the putty gave him, he prevented the pane from falling +inside the house and making a noise, and finally whipped it out clean +and handed it to brutus. A moment more the two men were in the scullery, +thence into the kitchen through a door which they found open; in the +kitchen were two doors--trying one they found it open into a larder. +Here casting the light of his dark lantern round, brutus discovered +some cold fowl and a ham; they took these into the kitchen, and somewhat +coolly took out their knives and ate a hasty but hearty supper. Their +way of hacking the ham was as lawless as all the rest. They then took +off their shoes and dropped them outside the scullery window, and now +the serious part of the game began. Creeping like cats, they reached the +pantry, and sure enough found more than a dozen silver spoons and forks +of different sizes that had been recently used. These they put into a +small bag, and mephisto went back through the scullery into the +back garden and hid these spoons in a bush. "Then, if we should be +interrupted, we can come back for them." + +And now the game became more serious and more nervous--the pair drew +their clasp knives and placed them in their bosoms ready in case of +extremity; then creeping like cats, one foot at a time and then a pause, +ascended the back stairs, at the top of which was a door. But this door +was not fastened, and in another moment they passed through it and were +on the first landing. The plan, correct in every particular, indicated +the plate closet to their right. A gleam from the lantern showed it; the +key-hole was old-fashioned as also described, and in a moment brutus had +it open. Then mephisto whipped out a green baize bag with compartments, +and in a minute these adroit hands had stowed away cups, tureens, +baskets, soup-spoons, etc., to the value of three hundred pounds, and +scarce a chink heard during the whole operation. It was done; a look +passed as much as to say this is enough, and they crept back silent and +cat-like as they had come, brutus leading with the bag. Now just as +he had his hand on the door through which they had come up--snick! +click!--a door was locked somewhere down below. + +brutus looked round and put the bag gently down. "Where?" he whispered. + +"Near the kitchen," was the reply scarce audible. "Sounded to me to come +from the hall," whispered the other. + +Both men changed color, but retained their presence of mind and their +cunning. brutus stepped back to the plate-closet, put the bag in it, and +closed it, but without locking it. "Stay there," whispered he, "and if +I whistle--run out the back way empty-handed. If I mew--out with the +bag and come out by the front door; nothing but inside bolts to it, plan +says." + +They listened a moment, there was no fresh sound. Then brutus slipped +down the front stairs in no time; he found the front door not bolted; he +did not quite understand that, and drawing a short bludgeon, he opened +it very cautiously; the caution was not superfluous. Two gentlemen made +a dash at him from the outside the moment the door was open; one of +their heads cracked like a broken bottle under the blow the ready +ruffian struck him with his bludgeon, and he dropped like a shot; but +another was coming flying across the lawn with a drawn cutlass, and +brutus, finding himself overmatched, gave one loud whistle and flew +across the hall, making for the kitchen. Flew he never so fast mephisto +was there an instant before him. As for the gentleman at the door he +was encumbered with his hurt companion, who fell across his knees as +he rushed at the burglar. brutus got a start of some seconds and dashed +furiously into the kitchen and flew to the only door between them and +the scullery-window. + +THE DOOR WAS LOCKED. + +The burglar's eyes gleamed in their deep caverns, "Back, Will--and cut +through them," he cried--and out flashed his long bright knife. + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +WHILE the two burglars were near the scullery-window watching the light +in the upper story a third man stood sentinel on the opposite side of +the house; he was but a few yards from the public road, yet hundreds +would have passed and no man seen him; for he had placed himself in +a thick shadow flat against the garden-wall. His office was to signal +danger from his side should any come. Now the light that kept his +comrades inactive was not on his side of the house; he waited therefore +expecting every moment their signal that the job was done. On this the +cue was to slip quietly off and all make by different paths for the low +public-house described above and there divide the swag. + +The man waited and waited and waited for this signal; it never came; +we know why. Then he became impatient--miserable; he was out of +his element--wanted to be doing something. At last all this was an +intolerable bore. Not feeling warm toward the job, he had given the +active business to his comrades, which he now regretted for two reasons. +First, he was kept here stagnant and bored; and second, they must be a +pair of bunglers; he'd have robbed a parish in less time. He would light +a cigar. Tobacco blunts all ills, even ennui. Putting his hand in his +pocket for a cigar, it ran against a hard, square substance. What is +this?--oh! the book mephisto had sold him. No, he would not smoke, he +would see what the book was all about; he knelt down and took off his +hat, and put his dark-lantern inside it before he ventured to move the +slide; then undid the paper, and putting it into the hat, threw the +concentrated rays on the contents and peered in to examine them. Now the +various little pamphlets had been displaced by mephisto, and the first +words that met the thief's eye in large letters on the back of a tract +were these, "THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH." + +Thomas Robinson looked at these words with a stupid gaze. At first he +did not realize all that lay in them. He did not open the tract; he +gazed benumbed at the words, and they glared at him like the eyes of +green fire when we come in the dark on some tiger-cat crouching in his +lair. + +Oh that I were a painter and could make you see what cannot be +described--the features of this strange incident that sounds so small +and was so great! The black night, the hat, the renegade peering +under it in the wall's deep shadows to read something trashy, and the +half-open lantern shooting its little strip of intense fire, and the +grim words springing out in a moment from the dark face of night and +dazzling the renegade's eyes and chilling his heart: + + "THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH." + +To his stupor now succeeded surprise and awe. "How comes this?" he +whispered aloud, "was this a trick of ----'s? No! he doesn't know--This +is the devil's own doing--no! it is not--more likely it is--The third +time!--I'll read it. My hands shake so I can hardly hold it. It is by +him--yes--signed F. E. Heaven, have mercy on me!--This is more than +natural." + +He read it, shaking all over as he read. + +The tract was simply written. It began with a story of instances, some +of them drawn from the histories of prisoners, and it ended with an +earnest exhortation and a terrible warning. When the renegade came +to this part, his heart beat violently; for along with the earnest, +straightforward, unmincing words of sacred fire there seemed to rise +from the paper the eloquent voice, the eye rich with love, the face +of inexhaustible intelligence and sympathy that had so often shone on +Robinson, while just words such as these issued from those golden lips. + +He read on, but not to the end; for as he read he came to one paragraph +that made him fancy that Mr. Eden was by his very side. "You, into whose +hands these words of truth shall fall, and find you intending to do some +foolish or wicked thing to-morrow, or the next day, or to-day, or this +very hour--stop!--do not that sin! on your soul do it not!--fall on +your knees and repent the sin you have meditated; better repent the base +design than suffer for the sin, as suffer you shall so surely as the sky +is pure, so surely as God is holy and sin's wages are death." + +At these words, as if the priest's hand had been stretched across the +earth and sea and laid on the thief's head, he fell down upon his knees +with his back toward the scene of burglary and his face toward England, +crying out, "I will, your reverence. I am!--Lord, help me!" cried he, +then first remembering how he had been told to pray in temptation's +hour. The next moment he started to his feet, he dashed his lantern to +the ground, and leaped over a gate that stood in his way, and fled down +the road to Sydney. + +He ran full half a mile before he stopped; his mind was in a whirl. +Another reflection stopped him. He was a sentinel, and had betrayed his +post; suppose his pals were to get into trouble through reckoning on +him; was it fair to desert them without warning? What if he were to +go back and give the whistle of alarm, pretend he had seen some one +watching, and so prevent the meditated crime, as well as be guiltless +of it himself; but then, thought he, "and suppose I do go back what will +become of me?" + +While he hesitated, the question was decided for him. As he looked back +irresolute, his keen eye noticed a shadow moving along the hedge-side to +his left. + +"Why, they are coming away," was his first thought. But looking keenly +down the other edge which was darker still he saw another noiseless +moving shadow. "Why are they on different sides of the road and both +keeping in the shadow?" thought this shrewd spirit, and he liked it so +ill that he turned at once and ran off toward Sydney. + +At this out came the two figures with a bound into the middle of the +road, and, with a loud view-halloo, raced after him like the wind. + +Robinson, as he started and before he knew the speed of his pursuers, +ventured to run sidewise a moment to see who or what they were. He +caught a glimpse of white waistcoats and glittering studs, and guessed +the rest. + +He had a start of not more than twenty yards, but he was a good runner, +and it was in his favor that his pursuers had come up at a certain +speed, while he started fresh after a rest. He squared his shoulders, +opened his mouth wide for a long race, and ran as men run for their +lives. + +In the silent night Robinson's highlows might have been heard half a +mile off clattering along the hard road. Pit pit pit pat! came two pair +of dress-boots after him. Robinson heard the sound with a thrill of +fear: "They in their pumps and I in boots," thought he, and his pursuers +heard the hunted one groan, and redoubled their efforts as dogs when the +stag begins to sob. + +He had scarce run a hundred yards with his ears laid back like a hare's, +when he could not help thinking the horrible pit pit pit got nearer; he +listened with agonized keenness as he ran, and so fine did his danger +make his ear that he could tell the exact position of his pursuers. A +cold sweat crept over him as he felt they had both gained ten yards out +of the twenty on him; then he distinctly felt one pursuer gain upon the +other, and this one's pit pit pit crept nearer and nearer, an inch every +three or four yards; the other held his own--no more--no less. + +At last so near crept No. 1 that Robinson felt his hot breath at his +ear. He clinched his teeth and gave a desperate spurt, and put four or +five yards between them; he could have measured the ground gained by the +pit pit pat. But the pursuer put on a spurt, and reduced the distance by +half. + +"I may as well give in," thought the hunted one--but at that moment came +a gleam of hope; this pursuer began suddenly to pant very loud. He had +clinched his teeth to gain the twenty yards; he had gained them but had +lost his wind. Robinson heard this, and feared him no longer, and in +fact after one or two more puffs came one despairing snort, and No. 1 +pulled up dead short, thoroughly blown. + +As No. 2 passed him, he just panted out + +"Won't catch him." + +"Won't I!" ejaculated No 2, expelling the words rather than uttering +them. + +Klopetee klop, klopetee klop, klopetee, klopetee, klopetee klop. + +Pit pat, pit pat, pit pat pat, pit pit pat. Ten yards apart, no more no +less. + + Nor nearer might the dog attain, + Nor farther might the quarry strain. + +"They have done me between them," thought poor Robinson. "I could have +run from either singly, but one blows me, and then the other runs me +down. I can get out of it by fighting perhaps, but then there will be +another crime." + +Robinson now began to pant audibly, and finding he could not shake the +hunter off, he with some reluctance prepared another game. + +He began to exaggerate his symptoms of distress, and imperceptibly +to relax his pace. On this the pursuer came up hand over head. He was +scarce four yards behind when Robinson suddenly turned and threw himself +on one knee, with both hands out like a cat's claws. The man ran on full +tilt; in fact, he could not have stopped. Robinson caught his nearest +ankle with both hands and rose with him and lifted him, aided by his own +impulse, high into the air and sent his heels up perpendicular. The man +described a parabola in the air, and came down on the very top of his +head with frightful force; and as he lay, his head buried in his hat and +his heels kicking, Robinson without a moment lost jumped over his body, +and klopetee klop rang fainter and fainter down the road alone. + +The plucky pursuer wrenched his head with infinite difficulty out of his +hat, which sat on his shoulders with his nose pointing through a +chasm from crown to brim, shook himself, and ran wildly a few yards in +pursuit--but finding he had in his confusion run away from Robinson as +well as Robinson from him, and hopeless of recovering the ground now +lost, he gave a rueful sort of laugh, made the best of it, put his hands +in his pockets and strolled back to meet No. 1. + +Meantime, Robinson, fearful of being pursued on horseback, relaxed his +speed but little and ran the three miles out into Sydney. He came home +with his flank heating and a glutinous moisture on his lip, and a hunted +look in his eye. He crept into bed, but spent the night thinking, ay, +and praying, too, not sleeping. + + + +CHAPTER L. + +THOMAS ROBINSON rose from his sleepless bed an altered man; altered +above all in this that his self-confidence was clean gone. "How little +I knew myself," said he, "and how well his reverence knew me! I am the +weakest fool on earth--he saw that and told me what to do. He provided +help for me--and I, like an ungrateful idiot, never once thought of +obeying him; but from this hour I see myself as I am and as he used to +call me--a clever fool. I can't walk straight without some honest man +to hold by. Well, I'll have one, though I give up everything else in the +world for it." + +Then he went to his little box and took out the letter to George +Fielding. He looked at it and reproached himself for forgetting it so +long. "A letter from the poor fellow's sweetheart, too. I ought to have +sent it by the post if I did not take it. But I will take it. I'll ask +Mr. Miles's leave the moment he comes home, and start that very day." +Then he sat down and read the tract again, and as he read it was filled +with shame and contrition. + +By one of those freaks of mind which it is so hard to account for, every +good feeling rushed upon him with far greater power than when he was in +---- Prison, and, strange to say, he now loved his reverence more and +took his words deeper to heart than he had done when they were together. +His flesh crept with horror at the thought that he had been a criminal +again, at least in intention, and that but for Heaven's mercy he would +have been taken and punished with frightful severity, and above all +would have wounded his reverence to the heart in return for more than +mortal kindness, goodness and love. And, to do Robinson justice, this +last thought made his heart sicken and his flesh creep more than all the +rest. He was like a man who had fallen asleep on the brink of an unseen +precipice--awoke--and looked down. + +The penitent man said his prayers this morning and vowed on his knees +humility and a new life. Henceforth he would know himself; he would +not attempt to guide himself; he would just obey his reverence. And to +begin, whenever a temptation came in sight he would pray against it then +and there and fly from it, and the moment his master returned he +would leave the town and get away to honest George Fielding with his +passport--Susan's letter. + +With these prayers and these resolutions a calm complacency stole over +him; he put his reverence's tract and George's letter in his bosom and +came down into the kitchen. + +The first person he met was the housemaid, Jenny. + +"Oh, here is my lord!" cried she. "Where were you last night?" + +Robinson stammered out, "Nowhere in particular. Why?" + +"Oh, because the master was asking for you, and you weren't to be found +high or low." + +"What, is he come home?" + +"Came home last night." + +"I'll go and take him his hot water." + +"Why, he is not in the house, stupid. He dressed the moment he came home +and went out to a party. He swore properly at your not being in the way +to help him dress." + +"What did he say?" asked Robinson, a little uneasy. + +The girl's eyes twinkled. "He said, 'How ever am I to lace myself now +that scamp is not in the way?'" + +"Come, none of your chaff, Jenny." + +"Why you know you do lace him, and pretty tight, too." + +"I do nothing of the kind." + +"Oh, of course you won't tell on one another. Tell me our head scamp +does not wear stays! A man would not be as broadshouldered as that and +have a waist like a wasp and his back like a board without a little +lacing, and a good deal, too." + +"Well, have it your own way, Jenny. Won't you give me a morsel of +breakfast?" + +"Well, Tom, I can give you some just for form's sake; but bless you, you +won't able to eat it." + +"Why not?" + +"Gents that are out all night bring a headache home in the morning in +place of an appetite." + +"But I was not out all night. I was at home soon after twelve." + +"Really?" + +"Really!" + +"Tom?" + +"Well, Jane!" + +"Those that ain't clever enough to hide secrets should trust them to +those that are." + +"I don't know what you mean, my lass." + +"Oh, nothing; only I sat up till halfpast one in the kitchen, and I +listened till three in my room. + +"You took a deal of trouble on my account." + +"Oh, it was more curiosity than regard," was the keen reply. + +"So I should say." + +The girl colored and seemed nettled by this answer. She set demurely +about the work of small vengeance. "Now," said she with great +cordiality, "you tell me what you were doing all night and why you broke +into the house like a--a--hem! instead of coming into it like a man, and +then you'll save me the trouble of finding it out whether you like or +not." + +These words chilled Robinson. What! had a spy been watching him--perhaps +for days--and above all a female spy--a thing with a velvet paw, a +noiseless step, an inscrutable countenance, and a microscopic eye. + +He hung his head over his cup in silence. Jenny's eye was scanning +him. He felt that without seeing it. He was uneasy under it, but his +self-reproach was greater than his uneasiness. + +At this juncture the street door was opened with a latch-key. "Here +comes the head scamp,' said Jenny, with her eye on Robinson. The next +moment a bell was rung sharply. Robinson rose. + +"Finish your breakfast," said Jenny, "I'll answer the bell," and out she +went. She returned in about ten minutes with a dressing-gown over her +arm and a pair of curling-irons in her hand. "There," said she, "you +are to go in the parlor, and get up the young buck; curl his nob and +whiskers. I wish it was me, I'd curl his ear the first thing I'd curl." + +"What, Jane, did you take the trouble to bring them down for me?" + +"They look like it," replied the other tartly, as if she repented the +good office. + +Robinson went in to his master. He expected a rebuke for being out of +the way; but no! he found the young gentleman in excellent humor and +high spirits. "Help me off with this coat, Tom." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Oh! not so rough, confound you. Ah! Ugh!" + +"Coat's a little too tight, sir." + +"No it isn't--it fits me like a glove but I am stiff and sore. There, +now, get me a shirt." + +Robinson came back with the shirt, and aired it close to the fire; and +this being a favorable position for saying what he felt awkward about, +he began: + +"Mr. Miles, sir." + +"Hallo!" + +"I am going to ask you a favor." + +"Out with it!" + +"You have been a kind master to me." + +"I should think I have, too. By Jove, you won't find such another in a +hurry." + +"No, sir, I am sure I should not, but there is an opening for me of a +different sort altogether. I have a friend, a squatter, near Bathurst, +and I am to join him if you will be so kind as to let me go." + +"What an infernal nuisance!" cried the young gentleman, who was like +most boys, good-natured and selfish. "The moment I get a servant I like +he wants to go to the devil." + +"Only to Bathurst, sir," said Robinson deprecatingly, to put him in a +good humor. + +"And what am I to do for another?" + +At this moment in came Jenny with all the paraphernalia of breakfast. +"Here, Jenny," cried he, "here's Robinson wants to leave us. Stupid +ass!" + +Jenny stood transfixed with the tray in her hand. "Since when?" asked +she of her master, but looking at Robinson. + +"This moment. The faithful creature greeted my return with that +proposal." + +"Well, sir, a servant isn't a slave and suppose he has a reason?" + +"Oh! they have always got a reason, such as it is. Wants to go and squat +at Bathurst. Well, Tom, you are a fool for leaving us, but of course we +shan't pay you the compliment of keeping you against your will, shall +we?" looking at Jane. + +"What have I to do with it?" replied she, opening her gray eyes. "What +is it to me whether he goes or stays?" + +"Come, I like that. Why you are the housemaid and he is the footman, +and those two we know are always"--and the young gentleman eked out his +meaning by whistling a tune. + +"Mr. Miles," said Jenny, very gravely, like an elder rebuking a younger, +"you must excuse me, sir, but I advise you not to make so free with +your servants. Servants are encroaching, and they will be sure to take +liberties with you in turn; and," turning suddenly red and angry, "if +you talk like that to me I shall leave the room." + +"Well, if you must! you must! but bring the tea-kettle back with you. +That is a duck!" + +Jenny could not help laughing, and went for the tea-kettle. On her +return Robinson made signals to her over the master's head, which he had +begun to frizz. At first she looked puzzled, but following the direction +of his eye she saw that her master's right hand was terribly cut and +swollen. "Oh!" cried the girl. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" + +"Eh?" cried Mr. Miles, "what is the row?" + +"Look at your poor hand, sir!" + +"Oh, ay! isn't it hideous. Met with an accident. Soon get well." + +"No, it won't, not of itself; but I have got a capital lotion for +bruises, and I shall bathe it for you." + +Jenny brought in a large basin of warm water and began to foment it +first, touching it so tenderly. "And his hand that was as white as a +lady's," said Jenny pitifully, "po-o-r bo-y!" This kind expression had +no sooner escaped her than she colored and bent her head down over her +work, hoping it might escape notice. + +"Young woman," said Mr. Miles with paternal gravity, "servants are +advised not to make too free with their masters; or the beggars will +forget their place and take liberties with you. He! He! He!" + +Jenny put his hand quietly down into the water and got up and ran across +the room for the door. Her course was arrested by a howl from the jocose +youth. + +"Murder! Take him off, Jenny; kick him; the beggar is curling and +laughing at the same time. Confound you, can't you lay the irons down +when I say a good thing. Ha! Ha! Ha!" + +This strange trio chuckled a space. Miles the loudest. "Tom, pour out +my tea; and you, Jenny, if you will come to the scratch again, ha! +ha!--I'll tell you how I came by this." + +This promise brought the inquisitive Jenny to the basin directly. + +"You know Hazeltine?" + +"Yes, sir, a tall gentleman that comes here now and then. That is the +one you are to run a race with on the public course," put in Jenny, +looking up with a scandalized air. + +"That is the boy; but how the deuce did you know?" + +"Gentlemen to run with all the dirty boys looking on like horses," +remonstrated the grammatical one, "it is a disgrace." + +"So it is--for the one that is beat. Well, I was to meet Hazeltine to +supper out of town. By-the-by, you don't know Tom Yates?" + +"Oh," said Jenny, "I have heard of him, too." + +"I doubt that; there are a good many of his name." + +"The rake, I mean; lives a mile or two out of Sydney. + +"So do half a dozen more of them." + +"This one is about the biggest gambler and sharper unhung." + +"All right! that is my friend! Well, he gave us a thundering +supper--lots of lush." + +"What is lush?" + +"Tea and coffee and barley-water, my dear. Oh! can't you put the +thundering irons down when I say a good thing? Well, I mustn't be witty +any more, the penalty is too severe." + +I need hardly say it was not Mr. Miles's jokes that agitated Robinson +now; on the contrary, in the midst of his curiosity and rising agitation +these jokes seemed ghastly impossibilities. + +"Well, at ten o'clock we went upstairs to a snug little room, and all +four sat down to a nice little green table." + +"To gamble?" + +"No! to whist; but now comes the fun. We had been playing about four +hours, and the room was hot, and Yates was gone for a fresh pack, and +old Hazeltine was gone into the drawing-room to cool himself. Presently +he comes back and he says in a whisper, "Come here, old fellows." We +went with him to the drawing-room, and at first sight we saw nothing, +but presently flash came a light right in our eyes; it seemed to come +from something glittering in the field. And these flashes kept coming +and going. At last we got the governor, and he puzzled over it a little +while. 'I know what it is,' cried he, 'it is my cucumber glass.'" + +Jenny looked up. "Glass might glitter," said she, "but I don't see how +it could flash." + +"No more did we, and we laughed in the governor's face; for all that +we were wrong. 'There is somebody under that wall with a dark lantern,' +said Tom Yates, 'and every now and then the glass catches the glare and +reflects it this way.' 'Solomon!' cried the rest of us. The fact is, +Jenny, when Tom Yates gets half drunk he develops sagacity more than +human. (Robinson gave a little groan.) Aha," cried Miles, "the beggar +has burned his finger. I'm glad of it. Why should I be the only sufferer +by his thundering irons? 'Here is a lark,' said I, 'we'll nab this +dark lantern--won't we, Hazy?' 'Rather,' said Hazy. 'Wait till I get my +pistols, and I'll give you a cutlass, George,' says Tom Yates. I forget +who George was; but he said he was of noble blood, and I think myself he +was some relation to the King-of-trumps, the whole family came about him +so--mind my hair now. 'Oh, bother your artillery,' said I. 'Thrice is he +armed that hath his quarrel just.' When I'm a little cut you may know +it by my quoting Shakespeare. When I'm sober I don't remember a word of +him--and don't want to." + +"No, the _Sporting Magazine_, that is your Bible, sir," suggested Jenny. + +"Yes, and let me read it without your commentary--mind my hair now. +Where was I? Oh. Hazeltine and I opened the door softly and whipped out, +but the beggar was too sharp for us. No doubt he heard the door. Anyway, +before we could get through the shrubbery he was off, and we heard him +clattering down the road ever so far off. However we followed quietly on +the grass by the road-side at a fair traveling pace, and by and by what +do you think? Our man had pulled up in the middle of the road and stood +stock still. 'That is a green trick,' thought I. However, before we +could get up to him he saw us or heard us, and off down the road no end +of a pace. 'Tally ho!' cried I. Out came Hazy from the other hedge, and +away we went--'Pug' ahead, 'Growler' and 'Gay-lad' scarce twenty yards +from his brush, and the devil take the hindmost. Well, of course, we +made sure of catching him in about a hundred yards--two such runners as +Hazy and me--" + +"And did not you?" + +"I'll tell you. At first we certainly gained on him a few yards, but +after that I could not near him. But Hazy put on a tremendous spurt, +and left me behind for all I could do. 'Here is a go,' thought I, 'and I +have backed myself for a hundred pounds in a half-mile race against this +beggar.' Well, I was behind, but Hazy and the fox seemed to me to be +joined together running, when all of a sudden--pouff! Hazy's wind and +his pluck blew out together. He tailed off. Wasn't I pleased! 'Good-by, +Hazy,' says I, as I shot by him and took up the running. Well, I tried +all I knew; but this confounded fellow ran me within half a mile of +Sydney (N. B., within two miles of it). My throat and all my inside was +like an oven, and I was thinking of tailing off, too, when I heard the +beggar puff and blow, so then I knew I must come up with him before +long." + +"And did you, sir?" asked Jenny in great excitement. + +"Yes," said the other, "I passed him even." + +"But did you catch him?" + +"Well! why--yes--I caught him--as the Chinese caught the Tartar. This +was one of your downy coves that are up to every move. When he found he +hadn't legs to run from me he slips back to meet me. Down he goes under +my leg--I go blundering over him twenty miles an hour. He lifts me clear +over his head and I come flying down from the clouds heel over tip. I'd +give twenty pounds to know how it was done, and fifty to see it done--to +a friend, All I know is that I should have knocked my own brains out +if it had not been for my hat and my hand--they bore the brunt between +them, as you see." + +"And what became of the poor man?" asked Jane. + +"Well, when the poor man had flung me over his head he ran on faster +than ever, and by the time I had shaken my knowledge-box and found out +north from south, I heard the poor man's nailed shoes clattering down +the road. To start again a hundred yards behind a poor man who could run +like that would have been making a toil of a trouble, so I trotted back +to meet Hazy. + +"Well, I am glad he got off clear--ain't you, Tom?" + +"Yes--no. A scoundrel that hashed the master like this--why, Jane, you +must be mad!" + +"Spare your virtuous indignation," said the other coolly. "Remember I +had been hunting him like a wild beast till his heart was nearly broke, +and, when I was down, he could easily have revenged himself by giving +me a kick with his heavy shoes on the head or the loins that would have +spoiled my running for a month of Sundays. What do you say to that?" + +Robinson colored. "I say you are very good to make excuses for an +unfortunate man--for a rascal--that is to say, a burglar; a--" + +"And how do you know he was all that?" asked Jenny very sharply. + +"Why did he run if he was not guilty?" inquired Robinson cunningly. + +"Guilty--what of?" asked Jenny. + +"That is more than I can tell you," replied Robinson. + +"I dare say," said Jenny, "it was some peaceable man that took fright at +seeing two wild young gentlemen come out like mad bulls after him." + +"When I have told you my story you will be better able to judge." + +"What, isn't the story ended?" + +"Ended? The cream of it is coming." + +"Oh, sir," cried Jenny, "please don't go on till I come back. I am going +for the cold lotion now; I have fomented it enough." + +"Well, look sharp, then--here is the other all in a twitter with +excitement." + +"Me, sir? No--yes. I am naturally interested." + +"Well, you haven't been long. I don't think I want any lotion, the hot +water has done it a good deal of good." + +"This will do it more." + +"But do you know it is rather a bore to have only one hand to cut bread +and butter with?" + +"I'll cut it, sir," said Robinson, laying down his irons for a moment. + +"How long shall you be, Jenny?" asked Mr. Miles. + +"I shall have done by when your story is done," replied she coolly. + +Mr. Miles laughed. "Well, Jenny," said he, "I hadn't walked far before I +met Hazeltine. 'Have you got him?' says he. 'Do I look like it?' said I +rather crustily. Fancy a fool asking me whether I had got him! So I +told him all about it, and we walked back together. By-and-by we met +the other two just outside the gate. Well, just as we were going in Tom +Yates said, 'I say, suppose we look round the premises before we go to +bed.' We went softly round the house and what did we find but a window +with the glass taken out; we poked about and we found a pair of shoes. +'Why, there's some one in the house,' says Tom Yates, 'as I'm a sinner.' +So we held a council of war. Tom was to go into the kitchen, lock the +door leading out, and ambush in the larder with his pistols; and we +three were to go in by the front door and search the house. Well, +Hazeltine and I had got within a yard or two of it and the knave of +trumps in the rear with a sword or something, when, by George! sir, the +door began to open, and out slips a fellow quietly. Long Hazy and I went +at him, Hazy first. Crack he caught Hazy on the head with a bludgeon, +down went daddy-long-legs, and I got entangled in him, and the robber +cut like the wind for the kitchen. 'Come on,' shouted I to the honorable +thingunibob, bother his name--there--the knave of trumps, and I pulled +up Hazy but couldn't wait for him, and after the beggar like mad. Well, +as I came near the kitchen-door I heard a small scrimmage, and back +comes my man flying bludgeon in one hand and knife in the other, both +whirling over his head like a windmill. I kept cool, doubled my right, +and put in a heavy one from the armpit; you know, Tom; caught him just +under the chin, you might have heard his jaw crack a mile off; down goes +my man on his back flat on the bricks, and his bludgeon rattled one way +and his knife the other--such a lark. Oh! oh! oh! what are you doing, +Robinson, you hurt me most confoundedly--I won't tell you any more. So +now he was down, in popped the knave of swords and fell on him, and Hazy +came staggering in after and insulted him a bit and we bagged him." + +"And the other, sir," asked Tom, affecting an indifferent tone, "he +didn't get off, I hope?" + +"What other?" inquired Jenny. + +"The other unfor--the other rascal--the burglar." + +"Why he never said there were two." + +"Y--yes!--he said they found their shoes." + +"No, he said he found a pair of shoes." + +"For all that you are wrong, Jenny, and he is right--there were two; +and, what is more, Tom Yates had got the other, threatening to blow out +his brains if he moved, so down he sat on the dresser and took it quite +easy and whistled a tune while we trussed the other beggar with his own +bludgeon and our chokers. Tom Yates says the cool one tumbled down from +upstairs just as we drove our one in. Tom let them try the door before +he bounced out; then my one flung a chair at Tom's head and cut back, +Tom nailed the other and I floored mine. Hurrah!" + +Through this whole narrative Robinson had coolly and delicately to +curl live hair with a beating heart, and to curl the very man who was +relating all the time how he had hunted him and caught his comrades. +Meantime a shrewd woman there listening with all her ears, a woman, too, +who had certain vague suspicions about him, and had taken him up rather +sharper than natural, he thought, when, being off his guard for a moment +he anticipated the narrator, and assumed there were two burglars in the +house. + +Tom, therefore, though curious and anxious, shut his face and got on his +guard, and it was with an admirable imitation of mere sociable curiosity +that he inquired, "And what did the rascals say for themselves?" + +"What could they say?" said Jenny, "they were caught in the fact." + +"To do them justice they did not speak of themselves, but they said +three or four words too--very much to the point." + +"How interesting it is!" cried Jenny--"what about?" + +"Well! it was about your friend." + +"My friend?" + +"The peaceable gentleman the two young ruffians had chased down the +road." + +"Oh! he was one of them," said Jane, "that is plain enough now in +course. What did they say about him?" + +"'Sold!' says my one to Tom's. 'And no mistake,' says Tom's. Oh! they +spoke out, took no more notice of us four than if we had no ears. Then +says mine: 'What do you think of _your_ pal now?' and what do you think +Tom's answered, Jenny?--it was rather a curious answer--multum in parvo +as we say at school, and one that makes me fear there is a storm brewing +for our mutual friend, the peaceable gentleman, Jenny--alias the downy +runner." + +"Why, what did he say?" + +"He said, 'I think--he won't be alive this day week! '" + +"The wretches!" + +"No! you don't see--they thought he had betrayed them." + +"But, of course, you undeceived them," said Robinson. + +"No! I didn't. Why, you precious greenhorn, was that our game?" + +"Well, sir," cried Robinson cheerfully, "any way it was a good night's +work. The only thing vexes me," added he, with an intense air of +mortification, "is that the worst scoundrel of the lot got clear off; +that is a pity--a downright pity." + +"Make your mind easy," replied Mr. Miles calmly, "he won't escape; we +shall have him before the day is out." + +"Will you, sir? that is right--but how?" + +"The honorable thingumbob, Tom Yates's friend, put us up to it. We sent +the pair down to Sydney in the break and we put Yates's groom (he is +a ticket-of-leave) in with them, and a bottle of brandy, and he is to +condole with them and have a guinea if they let out the third man's +name, and they will--for they are bitter against him." + +Robinson sighed. "What is the matter?" said his master, trying to twist +his head round. + +"Nothing! only I am afraid they--they won't split; fellows of that sort +don't split on a comrade where they can get no good by it." + +"Well, if they don't, still we shall have him. One of us saw his face." + +"Ah!" + +"It was the honorable--the knave of trumps. While Yates was getting the +arms, Trumps slipped out by the garden gate and caught a glimpse of our +friend; he saw him take the lantern up and fling it down and run. The +light fell full on his face and he could swear to it out of a thousand. +So the net is round our friend and we shall have him before the day is +out." + +"Dring-a-dong-dring" (a ring at the bell). + +"Have you done, Tom?" + +"Just one more turn, sir." + +"Then, Jenny, you see who that is?" + +Jenny went and returned with an embossed card, "It is a young +gentleman--mustache and lavender gloves; oh, such a buck!" + +"Who can it be? the 'Honorable George Lascelles?' why that is the very +man. I remember he said he would do himself the honor to call on me. +That is the knave of trumps; go down directly, Robinson, and tell him +I'm at home and bring him up." + +"Yes, sir!" + +"Yes, sir! Well, then, why don't you go!" + +"Um! perhaps Jenny will go while I clear these things away;" and without +waiting for an answer Robinson hastened to encumber himself with the +tea-tray, and flung the loaf and curling-irons into it, and bustled +about and showed a sudden zeal lest this bachelor's room should appear +in disorder; and as Jenny mounted the front stairs followed by the sprig +of nobility, he plunged heavily laden down the back stairs into the +kitchen and off with his coat and cleaned knives like a mad thing. + +"Oh! if I had but a pound in my pocket," thought he, "I would not stay +another hour in Sydney. I'd get my ring and run for Bathurst and never +look behind me. How comfortable and happy I was until I fell back into +the old courses, and now see what a life mine has been ever since! What +a twelve hours! hunted like a wild beast, suspected and watched by my +fellow-servant and forced to hide my thoughts from this one and my face +from that one; but I deserve it and I wish it was ten times as bad. Oh! +you fool--you idiot--you brute--it is not the half of what you deserve. +I ask but one thing of Heaven--that his reverence may never know; don't +let me break that good man's heart; I'd much rather die before the day +is out!" + +At this moment Jenny came in. Robinson cleaned the poor knives harder +still and did not speak; his cue was to find out what was passing in the +girl's mind. But she washed her cup and saucer and plates in silence. +Presently the bell rang. + +"Tom!" said Jenny quietly. + +"Would you mind going, Jenny?" + +"Me! it is not my business." + +"No, Jenny! but once in a way if you will be so kind." + +"Once! why I have been twice to the door for you to-day. You to your +place and I to mine. Shan't go!" + +"Look at me with my coat off and covered with brickdust." + +"Put your coat on and shake the dust off." + +"Oh, Jenny! that is not like you to refuse me such a trifle. I would not +disoblige you so." + +"I didn't refuse," said Jenny, making for the door; "I only said 'no' +once or twice--_we_ don't call that refusing;" but as she went out of +the door she turned sharp as if to catch Robinson's face off its guard; +and her gray eye dwelt on him with one of those demure, inexplicable +looks her sex can give all _ab extra_--seeing all, revealing nothing. + +She returned with her face on fire. "That is what I get for taking your +place!" + +"What is the matter?" + +"That impudent young villain wanted to kiss me." + +"Oh! is that all?" + +"No! it is not all; he said I was the prettiest girl in Sydney" (with an +appearance of rising indignation). + +"Well! but, Jenny, that is no news, I could have told him that." + +"Then why did you never tell me?" + +"I thought by your manner--you knew it." + +Having tried to propitiate the foe thus, Robinson lost no more time, but +went upstairs and asked Mr. Miles for the trifle due to him as wages. +Mr. Miles was very sorry, but he had been cleaned out at his friend +Yates's--had not a shilling left and no hopes of any for a fortnight to +come. + +"Then, sir," said Robinson doggedly, "I hope you will allow me to go +into the town and try and make a little for myself, just enough to pay +my traveling expenses. + +"By all means," was the reply; "tell me if you succeed--and I'll borrow +a sovereign of you." + +Out went Robinson into the town of Sydney. He got into a respectable +street, and knocked at a good house with a green door. He introduced +himself to the owner as a first-rate painter and engrainer, and offered +to turn this door into a mahogany, walnut, oak or what-not door. "The +house is beautiful, all but the door," said sly Tom; "it is blistered." + +"I am quite content with it as it is," was the reply in a rude, +supercilious tone. + +Robinson went away discomfited; he went doggedly down the street begging +them all to have their doors beautified, and wincing at every refusal. +At last he found a shopkeeper who had no objection, but doubted +Robinson's capacity. "Show me what you can do," said he slyly, "and then +I'll talk to you." + +"Send for the materials," replied the artist, "and give me a board and +I'll put half a dozen woods on the face of it." + +"And pray," said the man, "why should I lay out my money in advertising +you? No! you bring me a specimen, and if it is all right I'll give you +the job." + +"That is a bargain," replied Robinson, and went off. "How hard they make +honesty to a poor fellow," muttered he bitterly, "but I'll beat them," +and he clinched his teeth. + +He went to a pawnbroker and pawned the hat off his head--it was a new +one; then for a halfpenny he bought a sheet of brown paper and twisted +it into a workman's cap; he bought the brushes and a little paint and +a little varnish, and then he was without a penny again. He went to a +wheelwright's and begged the loan of a small valueless worm-eaten +board he saw kicking about, telling him what it was for. The wealthy +wheelwright eyed him with scorn. "Should I ever see it again?" asked he +ironically. + +"Keep it for your coffin," said Robinson fiercely, and passed on. "How +hard they make honesty to a poor fellow! I was a fool for asking for +it when I might have taken it. What was there to hinder me? Honesty, my +lass, you are bitter." + +Presently he came to the suburbs and there was a small wooden cottage. +The owner, a common laborer, was repairing it as well as he could. +Robinson asked him very timidly if he could spare a couple of square +feet off a board he was sawing. "What for?" Robinson showed his paintpot +and brushes, and told him how he was at a stand-still for want of a +board. "It is only a loan of it I ask," said he. + +The man measured the plank carefully, and after some hesitation cut off +a good piece. "I can spare that much," said he; "poor folk should feel +for one another." + +"I'll bring it back, you may depend," said Robinson. + +"You needn't trouble," replied the laboring man with a droll wink, as +much as to say, "Gammon!" + +When Robinson returned to the skeptical shopkeeper with a board on which +oak, satin-wood, walnut, etc., were imitated to the life in squares, +that worthy gave a start and betrayed his admiration, and Robinson +asked him five shillings more than he would if the other had been more +considerate. In short, before evening the door was painted a splendid +imitation of walnut-wood, the shopkeeper was enchanted, and Robinson had +fifteen shillings handed over to him. He ran and got Mr. Eden's ring +out of pawn, and kissed it and put it on; next he liberated his hat. He +slept better this night than the last. "One more such day and I shall +have enough to pay my expenses to Bathurst." + +He turned, out early and went into the town. He went into the street +where he had worked last evening, and when he came near this door there +was a knot of persons round it. Robinson joined them. Presently one of +the shop-boys cried out, "Why, here he is; this is the painter!" + +Instantly three or four hands were laid on Robinson. "Come and paint my +door." + +"No, come and paint mine!" + +"No, mine!" + +Tom had never been in such request since he was an itinerant quack. His +sly eye twinkled, and this artist put himself up to auction then and +there. He was knocked down to a tradesman in the same street--twenty-one +shillings the price of this door (mock mahogany). While he was working +commissions poured in and Robinson's price rose, the demand for +him being greater than the supply. The mahogany door was really a +chef-d'oeuvre. He came home triumphant with thirty shillings in his +pocket, he spread them out on the kitchen table and looked at them with +a pride and a thrill of joy money never gave him before. He had often +closed the shutters and furtively spread out twice as many sovereigns, +but they were only his, these shillings were his own. And they were not +only his own but his own by labor. Each sacred shilling represented so +much virtue; for industry is a virtue. He looked at them with a father's +pride. + + How sweet the butter our own hands have churned!--T. T. + +He blessed his reverend friend for having taught him an art in +a dunghole where idiots and savages teach crank. He blessed his +reverence's four bones, his favorite imprecation of the benevolent kind. +I conclude the four bones meant the arms and legs. If so it would have +been more to the point had he blessed the fifth--the skull. + +Jenny came in and found him gloating over his virtuous shillings. She +stared. He told her what he had been about these two days past, his +difficulties, his success, the admiration his work excited throughout +the capital (he must exaggerate a little or it would not be Tom +Robinson), and the wealth he was amassing. + +Jenny was glad to hear this, very glad, but she scolded him well for +pawning his hat. "Why didn't you ask me?" said she; "I would have lent +you a pound or even two, or given them you for any _honest purpose_." +And Jenny pouted and got up a little quarrel. + +The next day a gentleman caught Robinson and made him paint two doors +in his fancy villa. Satin-wood this time; and he received three pounds +three shillings, a good dinner, and what Bohemians all adore--Praise. +Now as he returned in the evening a sudden misgiving came to him. "I +have not thought once of Bathurst to-day. I see--all this money-making +is a contrivance to keep me in Sydney. It is absurd my coining paint at +this rate. I see your game, my lad; either I am to fall into bad company +again, or to be split upon and nabbed for that last job. To-morrow I +will be on the road to Bathurst. I can paint there just as well as here; +besides I have got my orders from his reverence to go, and I'll go." + +He told Jane his resolution. She made no answer. While these two were +sitting cozily by the fireside--for since Robinson took to working +hard all day he began to relish the hearth at night--suddenly cheerful, +boisterous voices, and Mr. Miles and two friends burst in and would have +an extempore supper, and nothing else would serve these libertines but +mutton-chops off the gridiron. So they invaded the kitchen. Out ran +Jenny to avoid them--or put on a smarter cap; and Robinson was to cut +the chops and lay a cloth on the dresser and help cook. While his master +went off to the cellar the two rakes who remained chattered and laughed +both pretty loud. They had dined together and the bottle had not stood +still. + +"I have heard that voice before," thought Robinson. "It is a very +peculiar voice. Whose voice is that?" + +He looked the gentleman full in the face and could hardly suppress a +movement of surprise. + +The gentleman by the instinct of the eye caught his, and his attention +was suddenly attracted to Robinson, and from that moment his eye was +never off Robinson, following him everywhere. Robinson affected not to +notice this; the chops were grilling, Jenny came in and bustled about +and pretended not to hear the side-compliments of the libertines. +Presently the young gentleman with the peculiar voice took out his +pocketbook and said, "I have a bet to propose. I'll bet you fifty pounds +I find the man you two hunted down the road on Monday night." + +"No takers," replied Mr. Hazeltine with his mouth full. + +"Stop a bit. I don't care if I make a time bet," said Miles. "How soon +will you bet you catch him?" + +"In half an hour," was the cool reply. And the Honorable George while +making it managed at the same time in a sauntering sort of way to put +himself between Robinson and the door that led out into the garden. +Robinson eyed him in silence and never moved. + +"In half a hour. That is a fair bet," said Mr. Miles. "Shall I take +him?" + +"Better not; he is a knowing one. He has seen him to earth somewhere or +he would not offer you such a bet." + +"Well, I'll bet you five to three," proposed the Honorable George. + +"Done!" + +"Done!" + +Robinson put in a hasty word: "And what is to become of Thimble-rig +Jem, sir?" These words, addressed to Mr. Lascelles, produced a singular +effect. That gentleman gave an immediate shiver, as if a bullet had +passed clean through him and out again, then opened his eyes and looked +first at one door then at the other as if hesitating which he should +go by. Robinson continued, addressing him with marked respect, "What I +mean, sir, is that there is a government reward of two hundred pounds +for Thimble-rig Jem, and the police wouldn't like to be drawn away from +two hundred pounds after a poor fellow like him you saw on Monday night, +one that is only suspected and no reward offered. Now Jem is a notorious +culprit." + +"Who is this Jem, my man? What is he?" asked Mr. Lascelles with a +composure that contrasted remarkably with his late emotion. + +"A convict escaped from Norfolk Island, sir; an old offender. I fell in +with him once. He has forgotten me I dare say, but I never forget a man. +They say he has grown a mustache and whiskers and passes himself off for +a nob; but I could swear to him." + +"How? By what?" cried Mr. Miles. + +"If he should ever be fool enough to get in my way--" + +"Hang Thimble-rig Jem," cried Hazeltine. "Is it a bet, Lascelles?" + +"What?" + +"That you nab our one in half an hour?" Mr. Lascelles affected an +aristocratic drawl. "No, I was joking. I couldn't afford to leave the +fire for thirty pounds. Why should I run after the poor dayvil? Find him +yourselves. He never annoyed me. Got a cigar, Miles?" + +After their chops, etc., the rakes went off to finish the night +elsewhere. + +"There, they are gone at last! Why, Jenny, how pale you look!" said +Robinson, not seeing the color of his own cheek. "What is wrong?" Jenny +answered by sitting down and bursting out crying. Tom sat opposite her +with his eyes on the ground. + +"Oh, what I have gone through this day!" cried Jenny. "Oh! oh! oh! oh!" +sobbing convulsively. + +What could Tom do but console her? And she found it so agreeable to be +consoled that she prolonged her distress. An impressionable Bohemian on +one side a fireplace, and a sweet, pretty girl crying on the other, what +wonder that two o'clock in the morning found this pair sitting on the +same side of the fire aforesaid--her hand in his? + +The next morning at six o'clock Jenny was down to make his breakfast for +him before starting. If she had said, "Don't go," it is to be feared +the temptation would have been too strong, but she did not; she said +sorrowfully, "You are right to leave this town." She never explained. +Tom never heard from her own lips how far her suspicions went. He was +a coward, and seeing how shrewd she was, was afraid to ask her; and +she was one of your natural ladies who can leave a thing unsaid out of +delicacy. + +Tom Robinson was what Jenny called "capital company." He had won her +admiration by his conversation, his stories of life, and now and then a +song, and by his good looks and good nature. She disguised her affection +admirably until he was in danger and about to leave her--and then she +betrayed herself. If she was fire he was tow. At last it came to this: +"Don't you cry so, dear girl. I have got a question to put to you--IF I +COME BACK A BETTER MAN THAN I GO, WILL YOU BE MRS. ROBINSON?" + +"Yes." + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +ROBINSON started for Bathurst. Just before he got clear of the town he +passed the poor man's cottage who had lent him the board. "Bless me, how +came I to forget him?" said he. At that moment the man came out to go +to work. "Here I am," said Robinson, meeting him full, "and here is your +board;" showing it to him painted in squares. "Can't afford to give it +you back--it is my advertisement. But here is half-a-crown for it and +for your trusting me." + +"Well, to be sure," cried the man. "Now who'd have thought this? Why, if +the world is not turning honest. But half-a-crown is too much; 'tain't +worth the half of it." + +"It was worth five pounds to me. I got employment through it. Look +here," and he showed him several pounds in silver; "all this came from +your board; so take your half-crown and my thanks on the head of it." + +The half-crown lay in the man's palm; he looked in Robinson's face. +"Well," cried he with astonishment, "you are the honestest man ever I +fell in with." + +"I am the honestest man! You will go to heaven for saying those words +to me," cried Robinson warmly and with agitation. "Good-by, my good, +charitable soul; you deserve ten times what you have got," and Robinson +made off. + +The other, as soon as he recovered the shock, shouted after him, +"Good-by, honest man, and good luck wherever you go." + +And Robinson heard him scuttle about and hastily convene small boys and +dispatch them down the road to look at an honest man. But the young +wood did not kindle at his enthusiasm. Had the rarity been a bear with a +monkey on him, well and good. + +"I'm pretty well paid for a little honesty," thought Robinson. He +stepped gallantly out in high spirits, and thought of Jenny, and fell +in love with her, and saw in her affection yet another inducement to be +honest and industrious. Nothing of note happened on his way to Bathurst, +except that one day as he was tramping along very hot and thirsty a +luscious prickly pear hung over a wall, and many a respectable man would +have taken it without scruple; but Tom was so afraid of beginning again +he turned his back on it and ran on instead of walking to make sure. + +When he reached Bathurst his purse was very low, and he had a good many +more miles to go, and not feeling quite sure of his welcome he did +not care to be penniless, so he went round the town with his +advertising-board and very soon was painting doors in Bathurst. He +found the natives stingier here than in Sydney, and they had a notion +a traveler like him ought to work much cheaper than an established man; +but still he put by something every day. + +He had been three days in the town when a man stepped up to him as he +finished a job and asked him to go home with him. The man took him to a +small but rather neat shop, plumber's, glazier's and painter's. + +"Why, you don't want me," said Robinson; "we are in the same line of +business." + +"Step in," said the man. In a few words he let Robinson know that he had +a great bargain to offer him. "I am going to sell the shop," said he. +"It is a business I never much fancied, and I had rather sell it to a +stranger than to a Bathurst man, for the trade have offended me. There +is not a man in the colony can work like you, and you may make a little +fortune here." + +Robinson's eyes sparkled a moment, then he replied, "I am too poor to +buy a business. What do you want for it?" + +"Only sixty pounds for the articles in the shop and the good will and +all." + +"Well, I dare say it is moderate, but how am I to find sixty pounds?" + +"I'll make it as light as a feather. Five pounds down. Five pounds in a +month; after that--ten pounds a month till we are clear. Take possession +and sell the goods and work the good-will on payment of the first five." + +"That is very liberal," said Robinson. "Well, give me till next Thursday +and I'll bring you the first five." + +"Oh, I can't do that; I give you the first offer, but into the market it +goes this evening, and no later." + +"I'll call this evening and see if I can do it." Robinson tried to make +up the money, but it was not to be done. Then fell a terrible temptation +upon him. Handling George Fielding's letter with his delicate fingers, +he had satisfied himself there was a bank-note in it. Why not borrow +this bank-note? The shop would soon repay it. The idea rushed over him +like a flood. At the same moment he took fright at it. "Lord, help me!" +he ejaculated. + +He rushed to a shop, bought two or three sheets of brown paper and a +lot of wafers. With nimble fingers he put the letter in one parcel, that +parcel in another, that in another, and so on till there were a dozen +envelopes between him and the irregular loan. This done he confided the +grand parcel to his landlord. + +"Give it me when I start." + +He went no more near the little shop till he had made seven pounds; then +he went. The shop and business had been sold just twenty-four hours. +Robinson groaned. "If I had not been so very honest! Never mind. I must +take the bitter with the sweet." + +For all that the town became distasteful to him. He bought a cheap +revolver--for there was a talk of bushrangers in the neighborhood--and +started to walk to George Fielding's farm. He reached it in the evening. + +"There is no George Fielding here," was the news. "He left this more +than six months ago." + +"Do you know where he is?" + +"Not I." + +Robinson had to ask everybody he met where George Fielding was gone to. +At last, by good luck, he fell in with George's friend, McLaughlan, who +told him it was twenty-five miles off. + +"Twenty-five miles? that must be for to-morrow, then." + +McLaughlan told him he knew George Fielding very well. "He is a fine +lad." Then he asked Robinson what was his business. Robinson took down a +very thin light board with ornamented words painted on it. + +"That is my business," said he. + +At the sight of a real business the worthy Scot offered to take care of +him for the night, and put him on the road to Fielding's next morning. +Next morning Robinson painted his front door as a return for bed and +breakfast. McLaughlan gave him somewhat intricate instructions for +to-morrow's route. Robinson followed them and soon lost his way. He was +set right again, but lost it again; and after a tremendous day's walk +made up his mind he should have to camp in the open air and without his +supper--when he heard a dog baying in the distance. "There is a house +of some kind anyway," thought Robinson, "but where?--I see none--better +make for the dog." + +He made straight for the sound, but still he could not see any house. At +last, however, coming over a hill he found a house beneath him, and on +the other side of this house the dog was howling incessantly. Robinson +came down the hill, walked round the house, and there sat the dog on the +steps. + +"Well, it is you for howling anyway," said Robinson. + +"Anybody at home?" he shouted. No one answered, and the dog howled on. + +"Why, the place is deserted, I think. Haven't I seen that dog before? +Why, it is Carlo! Here, Carlo, poor fellow, Carlo, what is the matter?" + +The dog gave a little whimper as Robinson stooped and patted him, but no +sign of positive recognition, but he pattered into the house. Robinson +followed him, and there he found the man he had come to see--stretched +on his bed--pale and hollow-eyed and grisly--and looking like a corpse +in the fading light. + +Robinson was awestruck. "Oh! what is this?" said he. "Have I come all +this way to bury him?" + +He leaned over and felt his heart; it beat feebly but equably, and +he muttered something unintelligible when Robinson touched him. Then +Robinson struck a light, and right glad he was to find a cauldron full +of gelatinized beef soup. He warmed some and ate a great supper, and +Carlo sat and whimpered, and then wagged his tail and plucked up more +and more spirit, and finally recognized Tom all in a moment somehow +and announced the fact by one great disconnected bark and a saltatory +motion. This done he turned to and also ate a voracious supper. Robinson +rolled himself up in George's great-coat and slept like a top on the +floor. Next morning he was waked by a tapping, and there was Carlo +seated bolt upright with his tail beating the floor because George was +sitting up in the bed looking about him in a puzzled way. + +"Jacky," said he, "is that you?" + +Robinson got up, rubbed his eyes, and came toward the bed. George stared +in his face and rubbed his eyes, too, for he thought he must be under an +ocular delusion. "Who are you?" + +"A friend." + +"Well! I didn't think to see you under a roof of mine again." + +"Just the welcome I expected," thought Robinson bitterly. He answered +coldly: "Well, as soon as you are well you can turn me out of your +house, but I should say you are not strong enough to do it just now." + +"No, I am weak enough, but I am better--I could eat something." + +"Oh, you could do that! what! even if I cooked it? Here goes, then." + +Tom lit the fire and warmed some beef soup. George ate some, but very +little; however he drank a great jugful of water--then dozed and fell +into a fine perspiration. It was a favorable crisis, and from that +moment youth and a sound constitution began to pull him through; +moreover no assassin had been there with his lancet. + +Behold the thief turned nurse! The next day as he pottered about +clearing the room, opening or shutting the windows, cooking and serving, +he noticed George's eye following him everywhere with a placid wonder +which at last broke into words: + +"You take a deal of trouble about me." + +"I do," was the dry answer. + +"It is very good of you, but--" + +"You would as lieve it was anybody else; but your other friends have +left you to die like a dog," said Robinson sarcastically. "Well, they +left you when you were sick--I'll leave you when you are well." + +"What for? Seems to me that you have earned a right to stay as long as +you are minded. The man that stands by me in trouble I won't bid him go +when the sun shines again." + +And at this precise point in his sentence, without the least warning, +Mr. Fielding ignited himself--and inquired with fury whether it came +within Robinson's individual experience that George Fielding was of an +ungrateful turn, or whether such was the general voice of fame. "Now, +don't you get in a rage and burst your boiler," said Robinson. "Well, +George--without joking, though--I have been kind to you. Not for nursing +you--what Christian would not do that for his countryman and his old +landlord sick in a desert?--but what would you think of me if I told you +I had come a hundred and sixty miles to bring you a letter? I wouldn't +show it you before, for they say exciting them is bad for fever, but I +think I may venture now; here it is." And Robinson tore off one by one +the twelve envelopes, to George's astonishment and curiosity. "There." + +"I don't know the hand," said George. But opening the inclosure he +caught a glance of a hand he did know, and let everything else drop on +the bed, while he held this and gazed at it, and the color flushed into +his white cheek. "Oh!" cried he, and worshipped it in silence again; +then opened it and devoured it. First came some precious words of +affection and encouragement. He kissed the letter. "You are a good +fellow to bring me such a treasure; and I'll never forget it as long as +I live!" + +Then he went back to the letter. "There is something about you, Tom!" + +"About me?" + +"She tells me you never had a father, not to say a father--" + +"She says true." + +"Susan says that is a great disadvantage to any man, and so it +is--and--poor fellow--" + +"What?" + +"She says they came between your sweetheart and you--Oh! poor Tom!" + +"What?" + +"You lost your sweetheart; no wonder you went astray after that. What +would become of me if I lost my Susan? And--ay, you were always better +than me, Susan. She says she and I have never been sore tempted like +you." + +"Bless her little heart for making excuses for a poor fellow; but she +was always a charitable, kind-hearted young lady." + +"Wasn't she, Tom?" + +"And what sweet eyes!" + +"Ain't they, Tom? brimful of heaven I call them." + +"And when she used to smile on you, Master George, oh! the ivories." + +"Now you take my hand this minute. How foolish I am. I can't see--now +you shall read it on to me because you brought it." + +"'And you, George, that are as honest a man as ever lived, do keep him +by you a while, and keep him in the right way. He is well-disposed but +weak--do it to oblige me.'" + +"Will you stay with me, Tom?" inquired George, cheerful and +business-like. "I am not a lucky man, but while I have a shilling +there's sixpence for the man that brought me this--dew in the desert +I call it. And to think you have seen her since I have; how was she +looking; had she her beautiful color; what did she say to you with her +own mouth?" + +Then Robinson had to recall every word Susan had said to him; this done, +George took the inclosure. "Stop, here is something for you: 'George +Fielding is requested to give this to Robinson for the use of Thomas +Sinclair.' There you are, Tom--well!--what is the matter?" + +"Nothing. It is a name I have not heard a while. I did not know any +creature but me knew it; is it glamour, or what?" + +"Why, Tom! what is the matter? don't look like that. Open it, and let us +see what there is inside." + +Robinson opened it, and there was the five-pound note for him, with this +line: "If you have regained the name of Sinclair, keep it." + +Robinson ran out of the house, and walked to and fro in a state of +exaltation. "I'm well paid for my journey; I'm well paid for not +fingering that note! Who would not be honest if they knew the sweets? +How could he know my name? is he really more than man? Keep it? Will I +not!" + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +THE old attachment was revived. Robinson had always a great regard for +George, and after nursing and bringing him through a dangerous illness +this feeling doubled. And as for George, the man who had brought him a +letter from Susan one hundred and sixty miles became such a benefactor +in his eyes that he thought nothing good enough for him. + +In a very few days George was about again and on his pony, and he and +Robinson and Carlo went a shepherding. One or two bullocks had gone to +Jericho while George lay ill, and the poor fellow's heart was sore when +he looked at his diminished substance and lost time. Robinson threw +himself heart and soul into the business, and was of great service to +George; but after a bit he found it a dull life. + +George saw this, and said to him: "You would do better in a town. I +should be sorry to lose you, but if you take my advice you will turn +your back on unlucky George, and try the paint-brush in Bathurst." + +For Robinson had told him all about it--and painted his front door. +"Can't afford to part from Honesty," was the firm reply. + +George breathed again. Robinson was a great comfort to the weak, +solitary, and now desponding man. One day for a change they had a +thirty-mile walk, to see a farmer that had some beasts to sell a great +bargain; he was going to boil them down if he could not find a customer. +They found them all just sold. "Just my luck," said George. + +They came home another way. Returning home, George was silent and +depressed. + +Robinson was silent, but appeared to be swelling with some grand idea. +Every now and then he shot ahead under its influence. When they got home +and were seated at supper, he suddenly put this question to George, "Did +you ever hear of any gold being found in these parts?" + +"No! never!" + +"What, not in any part of the country?" + +"No! never!" + +"Well, that is odd!" + +"I am afraid it is a very bad country for that." + +"Ay to make it in, but not to find it in." + +"What do you mean?" + +"George," said the other, lowering his voice mysteriously, "in our walk +to-day we passed places that brought my heart into my mouth; for if this +was only California those places would be pockets of gold." + +"But you see it is not California, but Australia, where all the world +knows there is nothing of what your mind is running on." + +"Don't say 'knows,' say 'thinks.' Has it ever been searched for gold?" + +"I'll be bound it has; or, if not, with so many eyes constantly looking +on every foot of soil a speck or two would have come to light." + +"One would think so; but it is astonishing how blind folks are, till +they are taught how to look, and where to look. 'Tis the mind that sees +things, George, not the eye." + +"Ah!" said George with a sigh, "this chat puts me in mind of 'The +Grove.' Do you mind how you used to pester everybody to go out to +California?" + +"Yes! and I wish we were there now." + +"And all your talk used to be gold--gold--gold." + +"As well say it as think it." + +"That is true. Well, we shall be very busy all day to-morrow, but in the +afternoon dig for gold an hour or two--then you will be satisfied." + +"But it is no use digging here; it was full five-and-twenty miles from +here the likely-looking place." + +"Then why didn't you stop me at the place?" + +"Why?" replied Robinson, sourly, "because his reverence did so snub me +whenever I got upon that favorite topic, that I really had got out of +the habit. I was ashamed to say, 'George, let us stop on the road and +try for gold with our finger-nails.' I knew I should only get laughed +at." + +"Well," said George sarcastically, "since the gold mine is twenty-five +miles off, and our work is round about the door, suppose we pen sheep +to-morrow--and dig for gold when there is nothing better to be done." + +Robinson sighed. Unbucolical to the last degree was the spirit in which +our Bohemian tended the flocks next morning. + +His thoughts were deeper than the soil. And every evening up came the +old topic. Oh! how sick George got of it. At last one night he said: +"My lad, I should like to tell you a story--but I suppose I shall make a +bungle of it; shan't cut the furrow clean I am doubtful." + +"Never mind; try!" + +"Well, then. Once upon a time there was an old chap that had heard or +read about treasures being found in odd places, a pot full of guineas +or something; and it took root in his heart till nothing would serve him +but he must find a pot of guineas, too; he used to poke about all the +old ruins, grubbing away, and would have taken up the floor of the +church, but the churchwardens would not have it. One morning he comes +down and says to his wife, 'It is all right, old woman, I've found the +treasure.' + +"'No! have you, though?' says she. + +"'Yes!' says he; 'leastways, it is as good as found; it is only waiting +till I've had my breakfast, and then I'll go out and fetch it in.' + +"'La, John, but how did you find it?' + +"'It was revealed to me in a dream,' says he, as grave as a judge. + +"'And where is it?' asks the old woman. + +"'Under a tree in our own orchard--no farther,' says he. + +"'Oh, John! how long you are at breakfast to-day!' Up they both got and +into the orchard. 'Now, which tree is it under?' + +"John, he scratches his head, 'Blest if I know.' + +"'Why, you old ninny,' says the mistress, 'didn't you take the trouble +to notice?' + +"'That I did,' said he; 'I saw plain enough which tree it was in my +dream, but now they muddle it all, there are so many of 'em.' + +"'Drat your stupid old head,' says she, 'why didn't you put a nick on +the right one at the time?'" + +Robinson burst out laughing. George chuckled. "Oh!" said he, "there were +a pair of them for wisdom, you may take your oath of that. 'Well,' says +he, 'I must dig till I find the right one.' The wife she loses heart +at this; for there was eighty apple-trees, and a score of cherry-trees. +'Mind you don't cut the roots,' says she, and she heaves a sigh. John he +gives them bad language, root and branch. 'What signifies cut or no cut; +the old faggots--they don't bear me a bushel of fruit the whole lot. +They used to bear two sacks apiece in father's time. Drat 'em.' + +"'Well, John,' says the old woman, smoothing him down; 'father used to +give them a deal of attention.'--' 'Tain't that! 'tain't that!' says he +quick and spiteful-like; 'they have got old like ourselves, and good for +fire-wood.' Out pickax and spade and digs three foot deep round one, +and finding nothing but mould goes at another, makes a little mound all +round him, too--no guinea-pot. Well, the village let him dig three or +four quiet enough; but after that curiosity was awakened, and while +John was digging, and that was all day, there was mostly seven or eight +watching through the fence and passing jests. After a bit a fashion came +up of flinging a stone or two at John; then John he brought out his gun +loaded with dust-shot along with his pick and spade, and the first stone +came he fired sharp in that direction and then loaded again. So +they took that hint, and John dug on in peace--till about the fourth +Sunday--and then the parson had a slap at him in church. 'Folks were not +to heap up to themselves treasures on earth,' was all his discourse." + +"Well, but," said Robinson, "this one was only heaping up mould." + +"So it seemed when he had dug the five-score holes, for no pot of gold +didn't come to light. Then the neighbors called the orchard 'Jacobs' +Folly;' his name was Jacobs--John Jacobs. 'Now then, wife,' says he, +'suppose you and I look out for another village to live in, for their +gibes are more than I can bear.' Old woman begins to cry. 'Been here so +long--brought me home here, John--when we were first married, John--and +I was a comely lass, and you the smartest young man I ever saw, to my +fancy any way; couldn't sleep or eat my victuals in any house but this.' + +"'Oh! couldn't ye? Well, then, we must stay; perhaps it will blow +over.'--'Like everything else, John; but, dear John, do ye fill in those +holes; the young folk come far and wide on Sundays to see them.' + +"'Wife, I haven't the heart,' says he. 'You see, when I was digging for +the treasure I was always a-going to find, it kept my heart up; but take +out shovel and fill them in--I'd as lieve dine off white of egg on a +Sunday.' So for six blessed months the heaps were out in the heat and +frost till the end of February, and then when the weather broke the old +man takes heart and fills them in, and the village soon forgot 'Jacobs' +Folly' because it was out of sight. Comes April, and out burst the +trees. 'Wife,' says he, 'our bloom is richer than I have known it this +many a year, it is richer than our neighbors'.' Bloom dies, and then out +come about a million little green things quite hard." + +"Ay! ay!" said Robinson; "I see." + +"Michaelmas-day the old trees were staggering and the branches down +to the ground with the crop; thirty shillings on every tree one with +another; and so on for the next year, and the next; sometimes more, +sometimes less, according to the year. Trees were old and wanted a +change. His letting in the air to them, and turning the subsoil up to +the frost and sun, had renewed their youth. So by that he learned that +tillage is the way to get treasure from the earth. Men are ungrateful +at times, but the soil is never ungrateful, it always makes a return for +the pains we give it." + +"Well, George," said Robinson, "thank you for your story; it is a very +good one, and after it I'll never dig for gold in a garden. But now +suppose a bare rock or an old river's bed, or a mass of shingles or +pipe-clay, would you dig or manure them for crops?" + +"Why, of course not." + +"Well, those are the sort of places in which nature has planted a +yellower crop and a richer crop than tillage ever produced. And I +believe there are plums of gold not thirty miles from here in such spots +waiting only to be dug out." + +"Well, Tom, I have wasted a parable, that is all. Good-night; I hope to +sleep and be ready for a good day's work to-morrow. You shall dream of +digging up gold here--if you like." + +"I'll never speak of it again," said Robinson doggedly. + +If you want to make a man a bad companion, interdict altogether the +topic that happens to interest him. Robinson ceased to vent his chimera. +So it swelled and swelled in his heart, and he became silent, absorbed, +absent and out of spirits. "Ah!" thought George, "poor fellow, he is +very dull. He won't stay beside me much longer." + +This conviction was so strong that he hesitated to close with an +advantageous offer that came to him from his friend, Mr. Winchester. +That gentleman had taken a lease of a fine run some thirty miles from +George. He had written George that he was to go and look at it, and if +he liked it better than his own he was to take it. Mr. Winchester could +make no considerable use of either for some time to come. + +George hesitated. He felt himself so weak-handed with only Robinson, who +might leave him, and a shepherd lad he had just hired. However his hands +were unexpectedly strengthened. + +One day as the two friends were washing a sheep an armed savage suddenly +stood before them. Robinson dropped the sheep and stood on his defense, +but George cried out, "No! no! it is Jacky! Why, Jacky, where on earth +have you been?" And he came warmly toward him. Jacky fled to a small +eminence and made warlike preparations. "You stop you a good while and I +speak. Who you?" + +"Who am I? stupid. Why, who should I be but George Fielding?" + +"I see you one George Fielding, but I not know you dis George Fielding. +George die. I see him die. You alive. You please you call dog Carlo! +Carlo wise dog." + +"Well, I never! Hie, Carlo! Carlo!" + +Up came Carlo full pelt. George patted him, and Carlo wagged his tail +and pranced about in the shape of a reaping-hook. Jacky came instantly +down, showed his ivories, and admitted his friend's existence on the +word of the dog. "Jacky a good deal glad because you not dead now. When +black fellow die he never live any more. Black fellow stupid fellow. +I tink I like white fellow a good deal bigger than black fellow. Now I +stay with you a good while." + +George's hands thus strengthened he wrote and told Mr. Winchester he +would go to the new ground, which, as far as he could remember, was very +good, and would inspect it, and probably make the exchange with thanks. +It was arranged that in two days' time the three friends should go +together, inspect the new ground and build a temporary hut there. + +Meantime Robinson and Jacky make great friends. Robinson showed him one +or two sleight-of-hand tricks that stamped him at once a superior being +in Jacky's eyes, and Jacky showed Robinson a thing or two He threw his +boomerang and made it travel a couple of hundred yards, and return and +hover over his head like a bird and settle at his feet; but he was shy +of throwing his spear. "Keep spear for when um angry, not throw him +straight now. + +"Don't you believe that, Tom," said George. "Fact is the little varmint +can't hit anything with 'em. Now look at that piece of bark leaning +against that tree. You don't hit it. Come, try, Jacky." Jacky yawned and +threw a spear carelessly. It went close by but did not hit it. + +"Didn't I tell you so?" said George. "I'd stand before him and his +spears all day with nothing but a cricket-stump in my hand, and never be +hit, and never brag, neither." Jacky showed his ivories. "When I down +at Sydney white man put up a little wood and a bit of white money for +Jacky. Then Jacky throw straight a good deal." + +"Now hark to that! black skin or white skin 'tis all the same; we can't +do our best till we are paid for it. Don't you encourage him, Tom, I +won't have it." + +The two started early one fine morning for the new ground, distant full +thirty miles. At first starting Robinson was in high glee; his nature +delighted in change; but George was sad and silent. Three times he had +changed his ground and always for the better. But to what end. These +starts in early morning for fresh places used once to make him buoyant, +but not now. All that was over. He persisted doggedly, and did his best +like a man, but in his secret heart not one grain of hope was left. +Indeed it was but the other day he had written to Susan and told her it +was not possible he could make a thousand pounds. The difficulties were +too many, and then his losses had been too great. And he told her he +felt it was scarcely fair to keep her to her promise. "You would waste +all your youth, Susan, dear, waiting for me." And he told her how he +loved her and never should love another; but left her free. + +To add to his troubles he was scarcely well of the fever when he caught +a touch of rheumatism; and the stalwart young fellow limped along by +Robinson's side, and instead of his distancing Jacky as he used in +better days, Jacky rattled on ahead and having got on the trail of an +opossum announced his intention of hunting it down and then +following the human trail. "Me catch you before the sun go, and bring +opossum--then we eat a good deal." And off glided Jacky after his +opossum. + +The pair plodded and limped on in gloomy silence, for at a part of the +road where they emerged from green meadows on rocks and broken ground +Robinson's tongue had suddenly ceased. + +They plodded on, one sad and stiff, the other thoughtful. Any one +meeting the pair would have pitied them. Ill-success was stamped on +them. Their features were so good, their fortunes so unkind. Their +clothes were sadly worn, their beards neglected, their looks thoughtful +and sad. The convert to honesty stole more than one look at the noble +figure that limped beside him and the handsome face in which gentle, +uncomplaining sorrow seemed to be a tenant for life; and to the credit +of our nature be it said that his eyes filled and his heart yearned. +"Oh, Honesty!" said he, "you are ill-paid here. I have been well paid +for my little bit of you, but here is a life of honesty and a life of +ill-luck and bitter disappointment. Poor George! poor, dear George! +Leave you? never while I have hands to work and a brain to devise!" + +They now began slowly to mount a gentle slope that ended in a long black +snakelike hill. "When we get to that hill we shall see my new pasture," +said George. "New or old, I doubt 'twill be all the same." + +And he sighed and relapsed into silence. Meantime Jacky had killed his +opossum and was now following their trail at an easy trot. + +Leaving the two sad ones with worn clothes and heavy hearts plodding +slowly and stiffly up the long rough slope, our story runs on before and +gains the rocky platform they are making for and looks both ways--back +toward the sad ones and forward over a grand, long, sweeping valley. +This pasture is rich in proportion as it recedes from this huge backbone +of rock that comes from the stony mountains and pierces and divides the +meadows as a cape the sea. In the foreground the grass suffers from +its stern neighbor, is cut up here and there by the channels of defunct +torrents, and dotted with fragments of rock, some of which seem to have +pierced the bosom of the soil from below, others have been detached at +different epochs from the parent rock and rolled into the valley. But +these wounds are only discovered on inspection; at a general glance from +the rocky road into the dale the prospect is large, rich and laughing; +fairer pastures are to be found in that favored land, but this sparkles +at you like an emerald roughly set, and where the backbone of rock gives +a sudden twist bursts out all at once broad smiling in your face--a +land flowing with milk and every bush a thousand nosegays. At the angle +above-mentioned, which commanded a double view, a man was standing +watching some object or objects not visible to his three companions; +they were working some yards lower down by the side of a rivulet that +brawled and bounded down the hill. Every now and then an inquiry was +shouted up to that individual, who was evidently a sort of scout or +sentinel. At last one of the men in the ravine came up and bade the +scout go down. + +"I'll soon tell you whether we shall have to knock off work." And he +turned the corner and disappeared. + +He shaded both his eyes with his hands, for the sun was glaring. About +a mile off he saw two men coming slowly up by a zig-zag path toward the +very point where he stood. Presently the men stopped and examined the +prospect, each in his own way. The taller one took a wide survey of the +low ground, and calling his companion to him appeared to point out to +him some beauty or peculiarity of the region. Our scout stepped back and +called down to his companions, "Shepherds!" + +He then strolled back to his post with no particular anxiety. Arrived +there his uneasiness seemed to revive. The shorter of the two strangers +had lagged behind his comrade, and the watcher observed, that he was +carrying on a close and earnest inspection of the ground in detail. + +He peered into the hollows and loitered in every ravine. This gave +singular offense to the keen eye that was now upon him. Presently he was +seen to stop and call his taller companion to him, and point with great +earnestness first to something at their feet, then to the backbone of +rocks; and it so happened by mere accident that his finger took nearly +the direction of the very spot where the observer of all his movements +stood. The man started back out of sight and called in a low voice to +his comrades, + +"Come here." + +They came straggling up with troubled and lowering faces. "Lie down and +watch them," said the leader. The men stooped and crawled forward to +some stunted bushes, behind which they lay down and watched in silence +the unconscious pair who were now about two furlongs distant. The +shorter of the two still loitered behind his companion, and inspected +the ground with particular interest. The leader of the band, who went by +the name of Black Will, muttered a curse upon his inquisitiveness. The +others assented all but one, a huge fellow whom the others addressed +as Jem. "Nonsense," said Jem, "dozens pass this way and are none the +wiser." + +"Ay," replied Black Will, "with their noses in the air. But that is a +notice-taking fellow. Look at him with his eyes forever on the rocks, or +in the gullies, or--there if he is not picking up a stone and breaking +it!" + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Jem incredulously, "how many thousand have picked up +stones and broke them and all, and never known what we know." + +"He has been in the same oven as we," retorted the other. + +Here one of the others put in his word. "That is not likely, captain; +but if it is so there are no two ways. A secret is no secret if all the +world is to know it." + +"You remember our oath, Jem," said the leader sternly. + +"Why should I forget it more than another?" replied the other angrily. + +"Have you all your knives?" asked the captain gloomily. The men nodded +assent. + +"Cross them with me as we did when we took our oath first." + +The men stretched out each a brawny arm, and a long sharp knife, so that +all the points came together in a focus; and this action suited well +with their fierce and animal features, their long neglected beards, +their matted hair and their gleaming eyes. It looked the prologue to +some deed of blood. This done, at another word from their ruffianly +leader they turned away from the angle in the rock and plunged hastily +down the ravine; but they had scarcely taken thirty steps when they +suddenly disappeared. + +In the neighborhood of the small stream I have mentioned was a cavern +of irregular shape that served these men for a habitation and place +of concealment. Nature had not done all. The stone was soft, and the +natural cavity had been enlarged and made a comfortable retreat enough +for the hardy men whose home it was. A few feet from the mouth of the +cave on one side grew a stout bush that added to the shelter and the +concealment, and on the other the men themselves had placed two or +three huge stones, which, from the attitude the rogues had given them, +appeared, like many others, to have rolled thither years ago from the +rock above. + +In this retreat the whole band were now silently couched, two of them +in the mouth of the cave, Black Will and another lying flat on their +stomachs watching the angle of the road for the two men who must pass +that way, and listening for every sound. Black Will was carefully and +quietly sharpening his knife on one of the stones and casting back every +now and then a meaning glance to his companions. The pertinacity with +which he held to his idea began to tell on them, and they sat in an +attitude of sullen and terrible suspicion. But Jem wore a look of +contemptuous incredulity. However small a society may be, if it is a +human one jealousy shall creep in. Jem grudged Black Will his captaincy. +Jem was intellectually a bit of a brute. He was a stronger man than +Will, and therefore thought it hard that merely because Will was a +keener spirit, Will should be over him. Half an hour passed thus, and +the two travelers did not make their appearance. + +"Not even coming this way at all," said Jem. + +"Hush!" replied Will sternly, "hold your tongue. They must come this +way, and they can't be far off. Jem, you can crawl out and see where +they are, if you are clever enough to keep that great body out of +sight." + +Jem resented this doubt cast upon his adroitness, and crawled out among +the bushes. He had scarcely got twenty yards when he halted and made a +signal that the men were in sight. Soon afterward he came back with less +precaution. "They are sitting eating their dinner close by, just on the +sunny side of the rock--shepherds, as I told you--got a dog. Go yourself +if you don't believe me." + +The leader went to the spot, and soon after returned and said quietly, +"Pals, I dare say he is right. Lie still till they have had their +dinner; they are going farther, no doubt." + +Soon after this he gave a hasty signal of silence, for George and +Robinson at that moment came round the corner of the rock and stood +on the road not fifty yards above them. Here they paused as the valley +burst on their view, and George pointed out its qualities to his +comrade. "It is not first-rate, Tom, but there is good grass in patches, +and plenty of water." + +Robinson, instead of replying or giving his mind to the prospect said to +George, "Why, where is he?" + +"Who?" + +"The man that I saw standing at this corner a while ago. He came round +this way I'll be sworn." + +"He is gone away, I suppose. I never saw any one, for my part." + +"I did, though. Gone away? How could he go away? The road is in sight +for miles, and not a creature on it. He is vanished." + +"I don't see him anyway, Tom." + +"Of course you don't, he is vanished into the bowels of the earth. I +don't like gentlemen that vanish into the bowels of the earth." + +"How suspicious you are! Bushrangers again, I suppose. They are always +running in your mind--them and gold." + +"You know the country, George. Here, take my stick." And he handed +George a long stick with a heavy iron ferule. "If a man is safe here he +owes it to himself, not to his neighbor." + +"Then why do you give me your weapon?" said George with a smile. + +"I haven't," was the reply. "I carry my sting out of sight, like a +humble bee." And Mr. Robinson winked mysteriously, and the process +seemed to relieve his mind and soothe his suspicions. He then fell to +inspecting the rocks; and when George pointed out to him the broad and +distant pasture he said, in an absent way, "Yes;" and turning round +George found him with his eyes glued to the ground at his feet, and +his mind in a deep reverie. George was vexed, and said somewhat warmly, +"Why, Tom, the place is worth looking at now we are come to it, surely." + +Robinson made no direct reply. "George," said he thoughtfully, "how far +have you got toward your thousand pounds?" + +"Oh, Tom! don't ask me, don't remind me! How can I ever make it? No +market within a thousand miles of any place in this confounded country! +Forced to boil down sheep into tallow and sell them for the price of a +wild duck! I have left my Susan, and I have lost her. Oh, why did you +remind me?" + +"So much for the farming lay. Don't you be down-hearted, there's better +cards in the pack than the five of spades; and the farther I go and the +more I see of this country the surer I am. There is a good day coming +for you and me. Listen, George. When I shut my eyes for a moment now +where I stand, and then open them--I'm in California." + +"Dreaming?" + +"No, wide awake--wider than you are now. George, look at these hills; +you could not tell them from the golden range of California.. But that +is not all; when you look into them you find they are made of the same +stuff, too--granite, mica and quartz. Now don't you be cross." + +"No! no! why should I? Show me," said George, trying out of +kindheartedness to take an interest in this subject, which had so often +wearied him. + +"Well, here are two of them. That great dark bit out there is mica, and +all this that runs in a vein like is quartz. Quartz and mica are the +natural home of gold; and some gold is to be found at home still, but +the main of it has been washed out and scattered like seed all over the +neighboring clays. You see, George, the world is a thousand times older +than most folks think, and water has been working upon gold thousands +and thousands of years before ever a man stood upon the earth, ay or a +dog either, Carlo, for as wise as you look squatting out there thinking +of nothing and pretending to be thinking of everything." + +"Well, drop gold," said George, "and tell me what this is," and he +handed Robinson a small fossil. + +Robinson eyed it with wonder and interest. "Where on earth did you find +this?" + +"Hard by; what is it?" + +"Plenty of these in California. What is it? Why, I'll tell you; it is a +pale old Joey." + +"You don't say so; looks like a shell." + +"Sit down a moment, George, and let us look at it. He bids me drop +gold--and then goes and shows me a proof of gold that never deceived us +out there." + +"You are mad. How can this be a sign of gold? I tell you it is a shell." + +"And I tell you that where these things are found among mica, quartz and +granite, there gold is to be found if men have the wit, the patience and +the skill to look for it. I can't tell you why; the laws of gold puzzle +deeper heads than mine, but so it is. I seem to smell gold all round me +here." And Robinson flushed all over, so powerfully did the great idea +of gold seated here on his native throne grapple and agitate his mind. + +"Tom," said the other doggedly, "if there is as much gold on the ground +of New South Wales as will make me a wedding-ring--I am a Dutchman;" and +he got up calmly and jerked the pale old Joey a tremendous way into the +valley. + +This action put Robinson's blood up. "George," cried he, springing up +like fire and bringing his foot down sharp upon the rocky floor, "IF I +DON'T STAND UPON GOLD--I'M D----D!" + +And a wild but true inspiration seemed to be upon the man; a stranger +could hardly have helped believing him, but George had heard a good deal +of this, though the mania had never gone quite so far. He said quickly, +"Come, let us go down into the pasture." + +"Not I," replied Robinson. "Come, George, prejudice is for babies, +experience for men. Here is an unknown country with all the signs of +gold thicker than ever. I have got a calabash--stay and try for gold in +this gully; it looks to me just like the mouth of a purse." + +"Not I." + +"I will, then." + +"Why not? I don't think you will find anything in it, but anyway you +will have a better chance when I am not by to spoil you. Luck is all +against me. If I want rain, comes drought; if I want sun, look for a +deluge, if there is money to be made by a thing I'm out of it; to be +lost, I'm in it; if I loved a vixen she'd drop into my arms like a +medlar; I love an angel and that is why I shall never have her, never. +From a game of marbles to the game of life I never had a grain of luck +like other people. Leave me, Tom, and try if you can find gold; you will +have a chance, my poor fellow, if unlucky George is not aside you." + +"Leave you, George! not if I know it." + +"You are to blame if you don't. Turn your back on me as I did on you in +England." + +"Never! I'd rather not find gold than part with honesty. There, I'm +coming--let us go--quick--come, let us leave here." And the two men left +the road and turned their faces and their steps across the ravine. + +During all this dialogue the men in the cave had strained both eyes and +ears to comprehend the speakers. The distance was too great for them to +catch all the words, but this much was clear from the first, that one of +the men wished to stay on the spot for some purpose, and the other to +go on; but presently, as the speakers warmed, a word traveled down the +breeze that made the four ruffians start and turn red with surprise, and +the next moment darken with anger and apprehension. The word came again +and again; they all heard it--its open vowel gave it a sonorous ring; +it seemed to fly farther than any other word the speaker uttered, or +perhaps when he came to it he spoke it louder than smaller words, or the +hearers' ears were watching for it. + +The men interchanged terrible looks, and then they grasped their knives +and watched their leader's eye for some deadly signal. Again and again +the word "g-o-l-d" came like an Aeolian note into the secret cave, and +each time eye sought eye and read the unlucky speaker's death-warrant +there. But when George prevailed and the two men started for the valley, +the men in the cave cast uncertain looks on one another, and he we have +called Jem drew a long breath and said brutally, yet with something of +satisfaction, "You have saved your bacon this time." The voices now drew +near and the men crouched close, for George and Robinson passed within +fifteen yards of them. They were talking now about matters connected +with George's business, for Robinson made a violent effort and dropped +his favorite theme to oblige his comrade. They passed near the cave, and +presently their backs were turned to it. + +"Good-by, my lads," whispered Jem. "And curse you for making us lose a +good half hour," muttered another of the gang. The words were scarce out +of his mouth before a sudden rustle was heard and there was Carlo. He +had pulled up in mid career and stood transfixed with astonishment, +literally pointing the gang; it was but for a moment--he did not like +the looks of the men at all; he gave a sharp bark that made George and +Robinson turn quickly round, and then he went on hunting. + +"A kangaroo!" shouted Robinson, "it must have got up near that bush; +come and look--if it is we will hunt it down." + +George turned back with him, but on reflection he said, "No! Tom, we +have a long road to go, let us keep on, if you please;" and they once +more turned their backs to the cave, whistled Carlo, and stepped briskly +out toward the valley. A few yards before them was the brook I have +already noticed--it was about three yards broad at this spot. However, +Robinson, who was determined not to make George lose any more time, +took the lead and giving himself the benefit of a run, cleared it like +a buck. But as he was in the air his eye caught some object on this side +the brook, and making a little circle on the other side, he came back +with ludicrous precipitancy, and jumping short, landed with one foot on +shore and one in the stream. George burst out laughing. + +"Do you see this?" cried Robinson. + +"Yes; somebody has been digging a hole here," said George very coolly. + +"Come higher up," cried Robinson, all in a flutter--"do you see this?" + +"Yes; it is another hole." + +"'It is. Do you see this wet, too?" + +"I see there has been some water spilled by the brook side." + +"What kind of work has been done here? have they been digging potatoes, +farmer?" + +"Don't be foolish, Tom." + +"Is it any kind of work you know? Here is another trench dug." + +"No! it is nothing in my way, that is the truth." + +"But it is work the signs of which I know as well as you know a plowed +field from a turnpike-road." + +"Why, what is it then?" + +"It is gold washing." + +"You don't say so, Tom." + +"This is gold washing as beginners practice it in California and Mexico +and Peru, and wherever gold-dust is found. They have been working with +a pan, they haven't got such a thing as a cradle in this country. Come +lower down; this was yesterday's work, let us find to-day's." + +The two men now ran down the stream busy as dogs hunting an otter. A +little lower down they found both banks of the stream pitted with holes +about two feet deep and the sides drenched with water from it. + +"Well, if it is so, you need not look so pale; why, dear me, how pale +you are, Tom!" + +"You would be pale," gasped Tom, "if you could see what a day this +is for you and me, ay! and for all the world, old England especially. +George, in a month there will be five thousand men working round this +little spot. Ay! come," cried he, shouting wildly at the top of his +voice, "there is plenty for all. GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! I have found it. I, +Tom Robinson, I've found it, and I grudge it to no man. I, a thief that +was, make a present of it to its rightful owner, and that is all the +world. Here GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!" + +Though George hardly understood his companion's words, he was carried +away by the torrent of his enthusiasm, and even as Robinson spoke his +cheeks in turn flushed and his eyes flashed, and he grasped his friend's +hands warmly, and cried, "GOLD! GOLD! blessings on it if it takes me to +Susan; GOLD! GOLD!" + +The poor fellows' triumph and friendly exultation lasted but a moment; +the words were scarce out of Robinson's mouth when to his surprise +George started from him, turned very pale, but at the same time +lifted his iron-shod stick high in the air and clinched his teeth with +desperate resolution. Four men with shaggy beards and wild faces and +murderous eyes were literally upon them, each with a long glittering +knife raised in the air. + +At that fearful moment George learned the value of a friend that had +seen adventure and crime; rapid and fierce and unexpected as the attack +was, Robinson was not caught off his guard. His hand went like lightning +into his bosom, and the assailants, in the very act of striking, were +met in the face by the long glistening barrels of a rifle revolver, +while the cool, wicked eye behind it showed them nothing was to be hoped +in that quarter from flurry, or haste, or indecision. + +The two men nearest the revolver started back, the other two neither +recoiled nor advanced, but merely hung fire. George made a movement to +throw himself upon them; but Robinson seized him fiercely by the arm--he +said steadily but sternly, "Keep cool, young man--no running among their +knives while they are four. Strike across me and I shall guard you till +we have thinned." + +"Will you?" said Black Will, "here, pals!" The four assailants came +together like a fan for a moment and took a whisper from their leader. +They then spread out like a fan and began to encircle their antagonists, +so as to attack on both sides at once. + +"Back to the water, George," cried Robinson quickly, "to the broad part +here." Robinson calculated that the stream would protect his rear, and +that safe he was content to wait and profit by the slightest error +of his numerous assailants; this, however, was to a certain degree a +miscalculation, for the huge ruffian we have called Jem sprang boldly +across the stream higher up and prepared to attack the men behind, the +moment they should be engaged with his comrades. The others no sooner +saw him in position than they rushed desperately upon George and +Robinson in the form of a crescent, and as they came on Jem came flying +knife in hand to plunge it into Robinson's back. As the front assailants +neared them, true to his promise, Robinson fired across George, and the +outside man received a bullet in his shoulder-blade, and turning round +like a top fell upon his knees. Unluckily George wasted a blow at this +man which sung idly over him, he dropping his head and losing his knife +and his powers at the very moment. By this means Robinson, the moment +he had fired his pistol, had no less than three assailants; one of these +George struck behind the neck so furiously with a back-handed stroke +of his iron-shod stick that he fell senseless at Robinson's feet. The +other, met in front by the revolver, recoiled, but kept Robinson at +bay while Jem sprang on him from the rear. This attack was the most +dangerous of all; in fact, neither Robinson nor George had time to +defend themselves against him even if they had seen him, which they did +not. Now as Jem was in the very act of making his spring from the other +side of the brook, a spear glanced like a streak of light past the +principal combatants and pierced Jem through and through the fleshy part +of the thigh, and there stood Jacky at forty yards' distance, with the +hand still raised from which the spear had flown, and his emu-like eye +glittering with the light of battle. + +Jem, instead of bounding clear over the stream, fell heavily into the +middle of it and lay writhing and floundering at George's mercy, who +turning in alarm at the sound stood over him with his long deadly staff +whirling and swinging round his head in the air, while Robinson placed +one foot firmly on the stunned man's right arm and threatened the leader +Black Will with his pistol, and at the same moment with a wild and +piercing yell Jacky came down in leaps like a kangaroo, his tomahawk +flourished over his head, his features entirely changed, and the thirst +of blood written upon every inch of him. Black Will was preparing to run +away and leave his wounded companions, but at sight of the fleet savage +he stood still and roared out for mercy. "Quarter! quarter!" cried Black +Will. + +"Down on your knees!" cried Robinson in a terrible voice. + +The man fell on his knees, and in that posture Jacky would certainly +have knocked out his brains but that Robinson pointed the pistol at his +head and forbade him; and Carlo, who had arrived hastily at the sound of +battle, in great excitement but not with clear ideas, seeing Jacky, whom +he always looked on as a wild animal, opposed in some way to Robinson, +seized him directly by the leg from behind and held him howling in a +vise. "Hold your cursed noise, all of you," roared Robinson. "D'ye ask +quarter?" + +"Quarter!" cried Black Will. + +"Quarter!" gurgled Jem. + +"Quarter!" echoed more faintly the wounded man. The other was +insensible. + +"Then throw me your knives." + +The men hesitated. + +"Throw me them this instant, or--" + +They threw down their knives. + +"George, take them and tie them up in your wipe." George took the knives +and tied them up. + +"Now pull that big brute out of the water or he'll drown himself." +George and Jacky pulled Jem out of the water with the spear sticking in +him; the water was discolored with his blood. + +"Pull the spear out of him!" George pulled and Jem roared with pain, but +the spear-head would not come back through the wound; then Jacky came up +and broke the light shaft off close to the skin, and grasping the head +drew the remainder through the wound forward, and grinned with a sense +of superior wisdom. + +By this time the man whom George had felled sat up on his beam ends +winking and blinking and confused, like a great owl at sunrise. + +Then Robinson, who had never lost his presence of mind, and had now +recovered his sang-froid, made all four captives sit around together on +the ground in one little lot, "While I show you the error of your ways," +said he. "I could forgive a rascal but I hate a fool. You thought to +keep such a secret as this all to yourselves--you dunces--the very birds +in the air would carry it; it never was kept secret in any land and +never will. And you would spill blood sooner than your betters should +know it--ye ninny-cumpoops! What the worse are you for our knowing it? +If a thousand knew it to-day would that lower the price of gold a penny +an ounce? No! All the harm they could do you would be this, that some of +them would show you where it lies thickest, and then you'd profit by it. +You had better tie that leg of yours up; you have lost blood enough +I should say by the look of you; haven't you got a wipe? here, take +mine--you deserve it, don't you? No man's luck hurts his neighbor at +this work; how clever you were, you have just pitched on the unlikeliest +place in the whole gulley, and you wanted to kill the man that would +have taught you which are the likelier ones. I shall find ten times as +much gold before the sun sets as you will find in a week by the side of +that stream; why, it hasn't been running above a thousand years or +two, I should say, by the look of it; you have got plenty to learn, +you bloody-minded greenhorns! Now I'll tell you what it is," continued +Robinson, getting angry about it, "since you are for keeping dark what +little you know, I'll keep you dark; and in ten minutes my pal here and +the very nigger shall know more about gold-finding than you know, so be +off, for I'm going to work. Come, march!" + +"Where are we to go, mate?" said the leader sullenly. + +"Do you see that ridge about three miles west? well, if we catch you on +this side of it we will hang you like wild cats. On the other side of +it do what you like, and try all you know; but this gully belongs to +us now; you wanted to take something from us that did not belong to +you--our blood--so now we take something from you that didn't belong to +us a minute or two ago. Come, mizzle, and no more words, or--" and he +pointed the tail of his discourse with his revolver. + +The men rose, and with sullen, rueful, downcast looks moved off in the +direction of the boundary; but one remained behind, the man was Jem. + +"Well!" + +"Captain, I wish you would let me join in with you!" + +"What for?" + +"Well, captain, you've lent me your wipe, and I think a deal of it, for +it's what I did not deserve; but that is not all. You are the best man, +and I like to be under the best man if I must be under anybody." + +Robinson hesitated a moment. "Come here," said he. The man came and +fronted him. "Look me in the face! now give me your hand--quick, no +thinking about how." The man gave him his hand readily. Robinson looked +into his eyes. "What is your name?" + +"Jem." + +"Jem, we take you on trial." + +Jem's late companions, who perfectly comprehended what was passing, +turned and hooted the deserter; Jem, whose ideas of repartee were +primitive, turned and hooted them in reply. + +While the men were retreating Robinson walked thoughtfully with his +hands behind him, backward and forward, like a great admiral on his +quarter deck--enemy to leeward. Every eye was upon him and watched him +in respectful, inquiring silence. "Knowledge is power;" this was the man +now, the rest children. + +"What tools have you?" + +"There is a spade and trowel in that bush, captain." + +"Fetch them, George. Hadn't you a pan?" + +"No, captain; we used a calabash. He will find it lower down." + +George, after a little search, found all these objects, and brought them +back. "Now," cried Robinson, "these greenhorns have been washing in a +stream that runs now, but perhaps in the days of Noah was not a river at +all; but you look at the old bed of a stream down out there. That was +a much stronger stream than this in its day, and it ran for more than a +hundred thousand years before it dried up." + +"How can you tell that?" said George, resuming some of his incredulity. + +"Look at those monstrous stones in it here, there and everywhere. It has +been a powerful stream to carry such masses with it as that, and it has +been running many thousand years, for see how deep it has eaten into its +rocky sides here and there. That was a river, my lads, and washed gold +down for hundreds of thousands of years before ever Adam stood on the +earth." + +The men gave a hurrah, and George and Jacky prepared to run and find the +treasure. "Stop," cried Robinson, "you are not at the gold yet. Can you +tell in what parts of the channel it lies thick and where there isn't +enough to pay the labor of washing it? Well, I can--look at that bend +where the round pebbles are collected so; there was a strong eddy there. +Well, under the ridge of that eddy is ten times as much gold lying as in +the level parts. Stop a bit again. Do you know how deep or how shallow +it lies--do you think you can find it by the eye? Do you know what clays +it sinks through, as if they were a sieve, and what stops it like an +iron door? Your quickest way is to take Captain Robinson's time--and +that is now." + +He snatched the spade, and giving full vent to the ardor he had so long +suppressed with difficulty, plunged down a little declivity that led to +the ancient stream, and drove his spade into its shingle, the debris of +centuries of centuries. George sprang after him, his eyes gleaming with +hope and agitation; the black followed in wonder and excitement, and the +wounded Jem limped last, and, unable through weakness to work, seated +himself with glowing eyes upon that ancient river's bank. + +"Away with all this gravel and shingle--these are all newcomers--the +real bed of the stream is below all this, and we must go down to that." + +Trowel and spade and tomahawk went furiously to work, and soon cleared +away the gravel from a surface of three or four feet. + +Beneath this they found a bed of gray clay. + +"Let us wash that, captain," said Jem eagerly. + +"No! Jem," was the reply; "that is the way novices waste their time. +This gray clay is porous, too porous to hold gold--we must go deeper." + +Tomahawk, spade and trowel went furiously to work again. + +"Give me the spade," said George, and he dug and shoveled out with +herculean strength and amazing ardor; his rheumatism was gone and nerves +came back from that very hour. "Here is a white clay." + +"Let me see it. Pipe-clay! go no deeper, George; if you were to dig a +hundred feet you would not find an ounce of gold below that." + +George rested on his spade. "What are we to do, then? try somewhere +else?" + +"Not till we have tried here first." + +"But you say there is nothing below this pipe-clay." + +"No more there is." + +"Well, then." + +"But I don't say there is nothing above it!!!" + +"Well, but there is nothing much above it except the gray, without 'tis +this small streak of brownish clay; but that is not an inch thick." + +"George! in that inch lies all the gold we are likely to find; if it is +not there we have only to go elsewhere. Now while I get water you stick +your spade in and cut the brown clay away from the white it lies on. +Don't leave a spot of the brown sticking to the white--the lower part of +the brown clay is the likeliest." + +A shower having fallen the day before, Robinson found water in a hole +not far distant. He filled his calabash and returned; meantime George +and Jacky had got together nearly a barrowful of the brown or rather +chocolate-colored clay, mixed slightly with the upper and lower strata, +the gray and white. + +"I want yon calabash and George's as well." Robinson filled George's +calabash two-thirds full of the stuff, and pouring some water upon it, +said good-naturedly to Jem, "There--you may do the first washing, if you +like." + +"Thank you, captain," said Jem, who proceeded instantly to stir and +dissolve the clay and pour it carefully away as it dissolved. Jacky was +sent for more water, and this, when used as described, had left the clay +reduced to about one-sixth of its original bulk. + +"Now, captain," cried Jem in great excitement. + +"No, it's not now, captain, yet," said Robinson; "is that the way you do +pan-washing?" + +He then took the calabash from Jem, and gave him Jacky's calabash +two-thirds full of clay to treat like the other, and this being done he +emptied the dry remains of one calabash into the other, and gave Jem a +third lot to treat likewise. This done, you will observe he had in one +calabash the results of three first washings. But now he trusted Jem no +longer. He took the calabash and said, "You look faint, you are not fit +to work; besides you have not got the right twist of the hand yet, my +lad. Pour for me, George." Robinson stirred and began to dissolve the +three remainders, and every now and then with an artful turn of the hand +he sent a portion of the muddy liquid out of the vessel. At the end of +this washing there remained scarce more than a good handful of clay at +the bottom. More water was poured on this. "Now," said Robinson, "we +shall know this time, and if you see but one spot of yellow among it, we +are all gentlemen and men of fortune." + +He dissolved the clay, and twisted and turned the vessel with great +dexterity, and presently the whole of the clay was liquefied. + +"Now," said Robinson, "all your eyes upon it, and if I spill anything I +ought to keep--you tell me." He said this conceitedly but with evident +agitation. He was now pouring away the dirty water with the utmost care, +so that anything, however small, that might be heavier than clay should +remain behind. Presently he paused and drew a long breath. He feared to +decide so great a question. It was but for a moment; he began again +to pour the dirty water away very slowly and carefully. Every eye was +diving into the vessel. There was a dead silence! + +Robinson poured with great care. There was now little more than a +wine-glassful left. + +DEAD SILENCE! + +Suddenly a tremendous cry broke from all these silent figures at the +same instant. A cry! it was a yell. I don't know what to compare it to. +But imagine that a score of wolves had hunted a horse for two centuries +up and down, round and round, sometimes losing a yard, sometimes gaining +one on him, and at last, after a thousand disappointments and fierce +alternations of hope and despair, the horse had suddenly stumbled and +the wild gluttons had pounced on him at last. Such a fierce yell of +triumph burst from four human bosoms now. + +"Hurrah! we are the greatest men above ground. If a hundred emperors and +kings died to-day, their places could be filled to-morrow; but the +world could not do without us and our find. We are gentlemen--we are +noblemen--we are whatever we like to be. Hurrah!" cried Robinson. + +"Hurrah!" cried George, "I see my Susan's eyes in you, you beauty." + +"Hurrah!" whined Jem feebly, "let me see how much there is," and +clutching the calabash he fainted at that moment from loss of blood and +fell forward insensible, his face in the vessel that held the gold, +and his hands grasping it so tight that great force had to be used to +separate them. + +They lifted Jem and set him up again, and sprinkled water in his face. +The man's thick lip was cut by the side of the vessel, and more than +one drop of blood had trickled down its sides and mingled with the +gold-dust. + +No comment was made on this at the time. They were so busy. + +"There, he's coming to, and we've no time to waste in nursing the sick. +Work!" and they sprang up on to the work again. + +It was not what you have seen pass for work in Europe, it was men +working themselves for once as they make horses work forever. Work? It +was battle; it was humanity fighting and struggling with Nature for +her prime treasure--(so esteemed). How they dug and scraped, and fought +tooth, and spade, and nail, and trowel, and tomahawk for gold! Their +shirts were wet through with sweat, yet they felt no fatigue. Their +trousers were sheets of clay, yet they suffered no sense of dirt. The +wounded man recovered a portion of his strength, and, thirsting for +gold, brought feeble hands but indomitable ardor to the great cause. +They dug, they scraped, they bowed their backs, and wrought with fury +and inspiration unparalleled; and when the sun began to decline behind +the hills these four human mutes felt injured. They lifted their eyes a +moment from the ground, and cast a fretful look at the great, tranquil +luminary. + +"Are you really going to set this afternoon the same as usual, when we +need your services so?" + +Would you know why that wolfish yell of triumph? Would you see what +sight so electrified those gloating eyes and panting bosoms? Would you +realize that discovery, which in six months peopled that barren spot +with thousands of men from all the civilized tribes upon earth, and in +a few years must and will make despised Australia a queen among the +nations--nations who must and will come with the best thing they have, +wealth, talent, cunning, song, pencil, pen, tongue, arm, and lay them +all at her feet for this one thing? + +Would you behold this great discovery the same in appearance and +magnitude as it met the eyes of the first discoverers, picked with a +knife from the bottom of a calabash, separated at last by human art and +gravity's great law from the meaner dust it had lurked in for a million +years--Then turn your eyes hither, for here it is: + +[Knife handle drawing] + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +MR. MEADOWS dispatched his work in Shropshire twice as fast as he had +calculated, and returned home with two forces battling inside him--love +and prudence. The battle was decided for him. + +William Fielding's honest but awkward interference had raised in Susan +Merton a desire to separate her sentiments from his by showing Mr. +Meadows a marked respect. She heard of his arrival and instantly sent +her father to welcome him home. Old Merton embraced the commission, for +he happened to need Meadows's advice and assistance. The speculations +into which he had been led by Mr. Clinton, after some fluctuations, wore +a gloomy look, "which could only be temporary," said that gentleman. +Still a great loss would be incurred by selling out of them at a period +of depression, and Mr. Clinton advised him to borrow a thousand pounds +and hold on till things brightened. + +Mr. Meadows smiled grimly as the fly came and buzzed all this in his +web: "Dear! dear! what a pity my money is locked up! Go to Lawyer +Crawley. Use my name. He won't refuse my friend, for I could do him an +ill turn if I chose." + +"I will. You are a true friend. You will look in and see us, of course, +market-day?" + +"Why not?" + +Meadows did not resume his visits at Grassmere without some twinges of +conscience and a prudent resolve not to anchor his happiness upon Susan +Merton. "That man might come here any day with his thousand pounds and +take her from me," said he. "He seems by his letters to be doing well, +and they say any fool can make money in the colonies. Well, if he comes +home respectable and well to do--I'll go out. If I am not to have the +only woman I ever loved or cared for, let thousands and thousands of +miles of sea lie between me and that pair." But still he wheeled about +the flame. + +Ere long matters took a very different turn. The tone of George's +letters began to change. His repeated losses of bullocks and sheep were +all recorded in his letters to Susan, and these letters were all read +with eager anxiety by Meadows a day before they reached Grassmere. + +The respectable man did not commit this action without some iron passing +through his own soul--_Nemo repente turpissimus._ The first letter +he opened it was like picking a lock. He writhed and blushed, and his +uncertain fingers fumbled with another's property as if it had been +red-hot. The next cost him some shame, too, but the next less, and soon +these little spasms of conscience began to be lost in the pleasure the +letters gave him. "It is clear he will never make a thousand pounds out +there, and if he doesn't the old farmer won't give him Susan. Won't? He +shan't! He shall be too deep in my debt to venture on it even if he +was minded." Meadows exulted over the letters; and as he exulted they +stabbed him, for by the side of the records of his ill fortune the exile +never failed to pour out his love and confidence in his Susan and to +acknowledge the receipt of some dear letter from her, which Meadows +could see by George's must have assured him of undiminished or even +increased affection. + +Thus did sin lead to sin. By breaking a seal which was not his and +reading letters which were not his, Meadows filled himself with the +warmest hopes of possessing Susan one day, and got to hate George for +the stabs the young man innocently gave him. At last he actually looked +on George as a sort of dog in the manger, who could not make Susan +happy, yet would come between her heart and one who could. All weapons +seemed lawful against such a mere pest as this--a dog in the manger. + +Meadows started with nothing better nor worse than a commonplace +conscience. A vicious habit is an iron that soon sears that sort of +article. When he had opened and read about four letters, his moral +nature turned stone-blind of one eye. And now he was happier (on the +surface) than he had been ever since he fell in love with Susan. + +Sure now that one day or another she must be his, he waited patiently, +enjoyed her society twice a week, got everybody into his power, and +bided his time. And one frightful thing in all this was that his love +for Susan was not only a strong but in itself a good love. I mean it was +a love founded on esteem; it was a passionate love, and yet a +profound and tender affection. It was the love which, under different +circumstances, has often weaned men, ay, and women, too, from a +frivolous, selfish, and sometimes from a vicious life. This love Meadows +thought and hoped would hallow the unlawful means by which he must crown +it. In fact, he was mixing vice and virtue. The snow was to whiten the +pitch, not the pitch blacken the snow. Thousands had tried this before +him and will try it after him. Oh, that I could persuade them to mix +fire and gunpowder instead! Men would bless me for this when all else I +have written has been long, long forgotten. + +He felt good all over when he sat with Susan and thought how his means +would enable that angel to satisfy her charitable nature, and win the +prayers of the poor as well as the admiration of the wealthy. "If ever +a woman was cherished she shall be! If ever a woman was happy she shall +be!" And as for him, if he had done wrong to win her, he would more +than compensate it afterward. In short, he had been for more than twenty +years selling, buying, swapping, driving every conceivable earthly +bargain--so now he was proposing one to Heaven. + +At last came a letter in which George told Susan of the fatal murrain +among his sheep, of his fever that had followed immediately, of the +further losses while he lay ill, and concluded by saying that he had no +right to tie her to his misfortunes, and that he felt it would be more +manly to set her free. + +When he read this, Meadows' exultation broke all bounds. "Ah ha!" cried +he, "is it come to that at last? Well, he is a fine fellow after all, +and looks at it the sensible way, and if I can do him a good turn in +business I always will." + +The next day he called at Grassmere. Susan met him all smiles and was +more cheerful than usual. The watchful man was delighted. "Come, she +does not take it to heart." He did not guess that Susan had cried for +hours and hours over the letter, and then had sat quietly down and +written a letter and begged George to come home and not add separation +to their other misfortunes; and that it was this decision, and having +acted upon it, that had made her cheerful. Meadows argued in his own +favor, and now made sure to win. The next week he called three times at +Grassmere instead of twice, and asked himself how much longer he +must wait before he should speak out. Prudence said, "A little more +patience;" and so he still hid in his bosom the flame that burned him +the deeper for this unnatural smothering. But he drank deep, silent +draughts of love, and reveled in the bright future of his passion. +It was no longer hope, it was certainty. Susan liked him; her eye +brightened at his coming; her father was in his power. There was nothing +between them but the distant shadow of a rival; sooner or later she must +be his. So passed three calm, delicious weeks away. + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +MEADOWS sat one day in his study receiving Crawley's report. + +"Old Mr. Merton came yesterday. I made difficulties as instructed. Is to +come to-morrow." + +"He shall have the eight hundred." + +"That makes two thousand four hundred; why, his whole stock won't cover +it." + +"No!" + +"Don't understand it, it is too deep for me. What is the old gentleman +doing?" + +"Hunting Will-o'-the-wisp. Throwing it away in speculations that are +colored bright for him by a man that wants to ruin him." + +"Aha!" cackled Crawley. + +"And do him no harm." + +"Augh! How far is it to the bottom of the sea, sir, if you please? I'm +sure you know? Mr. Levi and you." + +"Crawley," said Meadows, suddenly turning the conversation, "the world +calls me close-fisted, have you found me so?" + +"Liberal as running water, sir. I sometimes say how long will this last +before such a great man breaks Peter Crawley and flings him away and +takes another?" and Crawley sighed. + +"Then your game is to make yourself necessary to me." + +"I wish I could," said Peter, with mock candor. "Sir," he crept on, +"if the most ardent zeal, if punctuality, secrecy, and unscrupulous +fidelity--" + +"Hold your gammon! Are we writing a book together! Answer me this in +English. How far dare you go along with me?" + +"As far as your purse extends: only--" + +"Only what? Only your thermometer is going down already, I suppose." + +"No, sir; but what I mean is, I shouldn't like to do anything too bad." + +"What d'ye mean by too bad?" + +"Punishable by law." + +"It is not your conscience you fear, then?" asked the other gloomily. + +"Oh, dear, no, sir, only the law." + +"I envy you. There is but one crime punishable by law, and that I shall +never counsel you to." + +"Only one--too deep, sir, too deep. Which is that?" + +"The crime of getting found out." + +"What a great man! how far would I go with you? To the end of the earth. +I have but one regret, sir." + +"And what is that?" + +"That I am not thought worthy of your confidence. That after so many +years I am still only a too--I mean an honored instrument, and not a +humble friend." + +"Crawley," said Meadows, solemnly, "let well alone. Don't ask my +confidence, for I am often tempted to give it you, and that would be all +one as if I put the blade of a razor in your naked hand." + +"I don't care, sir! You are up to some game as deep as a coal-pit; and +I go on working and working all in the dark. I'd give anything to be in +your confidence." + +"Anything is nothing; put it in figures," sneered Meadows, +incredulously. + +"I'll give twenty per cent off all you give me if you will let me see +the bottom." + +"The bottom?" + +"The reason, sir--the motive!--the why!--the wherefore--the what it is +all to end in. The bottom!" + +"Why not say you would like to read John Meadows' heart?" + +"Don't be angry, sir; it is presumption, but I can't help it. Deduct +twenty per cent for so great a honor." + +"Why, the fool is in earnest." + +"He is; we have all got our little vanity, and like to be thought worthy +of confidence." + +"Humph!" + +"And then I can't sleep for puzzling. Why should you stop every letter +that comes here from Australia. Oh, bless me, how neglectful I am; here +is a letter from there, just come. To think of me bringing it, and then +forgetting." + +"Give it me, directly." + +"There it is. And then, why on earth are we ruining old Mr. Merton +without benefiting you? and you seem so friendly with him; and indeed, +you say he is not to be harmed--only ruined; it makes my head ache. +Why, what is the matter, Mr. Meadows, sir? What is wrong? No ill news, I +hope. I wish I'd never brought the letter." + +"That will do, Crawley," said Meadows, faintly, "you may go." + +Crawley rose with a puzzled air. + +"Come here to-morrow evening at nine o'clock, and you shall have your +wish. All the worse for you," added he, moodily. "All the worse for me. +Now go, without one word." + +Crawley retired dumfounded. He saw the iron man had received some +strange, unexpected and terrible blow; but for a moment awe suppressed +curiosity, and he went off on tiptoe, saying almost in a whisper, +"To-morrow night at nine, sir." + +Meadows spread George's letter on the table and leaned on his two hands +over it. + +The letter was written some weeks after the last desponding one. It was +full of modest, but warm and buoyant exultation. Heaven had been very +good to Susan and him. Robinson had discovered gold; gold in such +abundance and quality as beat even California. The thousand pounds, so +late despaired of, was now a certainty. Six months' work, with average +good fortune, would do it. Robinson said five thousand apiece was the +least they ought to bring home; but how could he (George) wait so long +as that would take! "And, Susan, dear, if anything could make this +wonderful luck sweeter, it is to think that I owe it to you and to your +goodness. It was you that gave Tom the letter, and bade me be kind to +him, and keep him by me for his good; he has repaid me by making us two +man and wife, please God. See what a web life is! Tom and I often talk +of this. But Tom says it is Parson Eden I have to thank for it, and the +lessons he learned in the prison; but I tell him if he goes so far back +as that, he should go farther, and thank Farmer Meadows, for he it +was that sent Tom to the prison, where he was converted, and became as +honest a fellow as any in the world, and a friend to your George as true +as steel." + +The letter concluded as it began, with thanks to Heaven, and bidding +Susan expect his happy return in six months after this letter. In short, +the letter was one "Hurrah!" tempered with simple piety and love. + +Meadows turned cold as death in reading it. At the part where Farmer +Meadows was referred to as the first link in the golden chain, he dashed +it to the ground and raised his foot to trample on it, but forbore lest +he should dirty a thing that must go to Susan. + +Then he walked the room in great agitation. + +"Too late, George Fielding," he cried aloud--"too late; I can't shift my +heart like a weathercock to suit the changes in your luck. You have been +feeding me with hopes till I can't live without them. I never longed +for a thing yet but what I got it, and I'll have this though I trample a +hundred George Fieldings dead on my way to it. Now let me think." + +He pondered deeply, his great brows knitted and lowered. For full half +an hour invention and resource poured scheme after scheme through that +teeming brain, and prudence and knowledge of the world sat in severe and +cool judgment on each in turn, and dismissed the visionary ones. At last +the deep brow began to relax, and the eye to kindle; and when he rose +to ring the bell his face was a sign-post with Eureka written on it in +Nature's vivid handwriting. In that hour he had hatched a plot worthy of +Machiavel---a plot complex yet clear. A servant-girl answered the bell. + +"Tell David to saddle Rachel directly." + +And in five minutes Mr. Meadows, with a shirt, a razor, a comb, and a +map of Australia, was galloping by cross lanes to the nearest railway +station. There he telegraphed Mr. Clinton to meet him at Peel's +Coffee-House at two o'clock. The message flashed up to town like +lightning. The man followed it slowly like the wind. + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +MEADOWS found Mr. Clinton at Peel's. "Mr. Clinton, I want a man of +intelligence to be at my service for twenty-four hours. I give you the +first offer." + +Mr. Clinton replied that really he had so many irons in the fire that +twenty-four hours-- + +Meadows put a fifty-pound note on the table. + +"Will all your irons iron you out fifty pounds as flat as that?" + +"Why, hem?" + +"No, nor five. Come, sir, sharp is the word. Can you be my servant for +twenty-four hours for fifty pounds? yes or no!" + +"Why, this is dramatic--yes!" + +"It is half-past two. Between this and four o'clock I must buy a few +hundred acres in Australia, a fair bargain." + +"Humph! Well, that can be done. I know an old fellow that has land in +every part of the globe." + +"Take me to him." + +In ten minutes they were in one of those dingy, narrow alleys in the +city of London, that look the abode of decent poverty, and they could +afford to buy Grosvenor Square for their stables; and Mr. Clinton +introduced his friend to a blear-eyed merchant in a large room papered +with maps; the windows were incrusted; mustard and cress might have been +grown from them. Beauty in clean linen collar and wristbands would have +shown here with intolerable luster; but the blear-eyed merchant did not +come out bright by contrast; he had taken the local color. You could +see him and that was all. He was like a partridge in a furrow. A +snuff-colored man; coat rusty all but the collar, and that greasy; poor +as its color was, his linen had thought it worth emulating; blackish +nails, cotton wipe, little bald place on head, but didn't shine for the +same reason the windows didn't. Mr. Clinton approached this "dhirrrty +money," this rusty coin, in the spirit of flunkyish. + +"Sir," said he, in a low reverential tone, "this party is disposed to +purchase a few hundred acres in the colonies." + +Mr. Rich looked up from his desk and pointed with a sweep of his pen to +the walls. + +"There are the maps; the red crosses are my land. They are numbered. +Refer to the margin of map, and you will find the acres and the latitude +and longitude calculated to a fraction. When you have settled in what +part of the world you buy, come to me again; time is gold." + +And the blear-eyed merchant wrote and sealed and filed and took no +notice of his customers. They found red crosses in several of the United +States, in Canada, in Borneo, in nearly all the colonies, and as +luck would have it they found one small cross within thirty miles of +Bathurst, and the margin described it as five hundred acres. Mr. Meadows +stepped toward the desk. + +"I have found a small property near Bathurst." + +"Bathurst? where is that?" + +"In Australia." + +"Suit?" + +"If the price suits. What is the price, sir?" + +"The books must tell us that." + +Mr. Rich stretched out his arm and seized a ledger, and gave it Meadows. + +"I have but one price for land, and that is five per cent profit on my +outlay. Book will tell you what it stands me in, you can add five per +cent to that, and take the land away or leave it." + +With this curt explanation, Mr. Rich resumed his work. + +"It seems you gave five shillings an acre, sir," said Mr. Clinton. +"Five times five hundred shillings, one hundred and twenty-five pounds. +Interest at five per cent, six pounds five." + +"When did I buy it?" asked Mr. Rich. + +"Oh, when did you buy it, sir?" + +Mr. Rich snatched the book a little pettishly, and gave it to Meadows. + +"You make the calculation," said he; "the figures are all there. Come to +me when you have made it." + +The land had been bought twenty-seven years and some months ago. Mr. +Meadows made the calculation in a turn of the hand and announced it. +Rich rang a hand bell. Another snuffy figure with a stoop and a bald +head and a pen came through a curtain. + +"Jones, verify that calculation." + +"Penny, halfpenny, twopence, penny, halfpenny, twopence. Mum, mum! +Halfpenny wrong, sir." + +"There is a halfpenny wrong!" cried Mr. Rich to Meadows, with a most +injured air. + +"There is, sir," said Meadows, "but it is on the right side for you. I +thought I would make it even money against myself." + +"There are only two ways, wrong and right," was the reply. "Jones, +make it right. There, that is the price for the next half hour; after +business hours to-day add a day's interest; and, Jones--if he does not +buy, write your calculation into the book with date--save time, next +customer comes for it." + +"You need not trouble, Mr. Jones," said Meadows. "I take the land. +Here is two hundred and fifty pounds--that is rather more than half the +purchase-money. + +"Jones--count." + +"When can I have the deeds?" + +"Ten, to-morrow." + +"Receipt for two hundred and fifty pounds," said Meadows, falling into +the other's key. + +"Jones, write receipt--two five naught." + +"Write me an agreement to sell," proposed Meadows. + +"No, you write it; I'll sign it. Jones, enter transaction in the books. +Have you anything to do, young gentleman?" addressing Clinton. + +"No, sir." + +"Then draw this pen through the two crosses on the map and margin. Good +morning, gentlemen." + +And the money-making machine rose and dismissed them, as he had received +them, with a short, sharp business _conge'._ + +Ye fair, who turn a shop head over heels, maul sixty yards of ribbon and +buy six, which being sent home insatiable becomes your desire to change +it for other six which you had fairly, closely, and with all the powers +of your mind compared with it during the seventy minutes the purchase +occupied, let me respectfully inform you that the above business +took just eight minutes, and that "when it was done, 'twas done." +(Shakespeare.) + +"You have given too much, my friend," said Mr. Clinton. + +"Come to my inn," was all the reply. "This is the easy part, the game is +behind." + +After dinner. "Now," said Meadows, "business. Do you know any +respectable firm disposed toward speculation in mines?" + +"Plenty." + +"Any that are looking toward gold?" + +"Why, no. Gold is a metal that ranks very low in speculation. Stop! yes, +I know one tip-top house that has gone a little way in it, but they have +burned their fingers, so they will go no farther." + +"You are wrong; they will be eager to go on--first to recover the loss +on that article of account, and next to show their enemies, and in +particular such of them as are their friends, that they didn't blunder. +You will go to them to-morrow and ask if they can allow you a commission +for bringing them an Australian settler on whose land gold has been +found." + +"Now, my good sir," began Mr. Clinton, a little superciliously, "that is +not the way to gain the ear of such a firm as that. The better way will +be for you to show me your whole design and leave me to devise the best +means for carrying it into effect." + +Up to this moment Meadows had treated Mr. Clinton with a marked +deference, as from yeoman to gentleman. The latter, therefore, was not a +little surprised when the other turned sharp on him thus: + +"This won't do; we must understand one another. You think you are the +man of talent and I am the clodhopper. Think so to-morrow night; but for +the next twenty-four hours you must keep that notion out of your head +or you will bitch my schemes and lose your fifty pounds. Look here, sir. +You began life with ten thousand pounds; you have been all your life +trying all you know to double it--and where is it? The pounds are pence +and the pence on the road to farthings. I started with a whip and a +smock-frock, and this," touching his head, "and I have fifty thousand +pounds in government securities. Which is the able man of these two--the +bankrupt that talks like an angel and loses the game, or the wise man +that quietly wins it and pockets what all the earth are grappling with +him for? So much for that. And now which is master, the one who pays or +the one who is paid? I am not a liberal man, sir; I am a man that looks +at every penny. I don't give fifty pounds. I sell it. That fifty pounds +is the price of your vanity for twenty-four hours. I take a day's loan +of it. You are paid fifty pounds per diem to see that there is more +brains in my little finger than in all your carcass. See it for +twenty-four hours or I won't fork out, or don't see it but obey me as if +you did see it. You shan't utter a syllable or move an inch that I +have not set down for you. Is this too hard? then accept ten pounds for +to-day's work, and let us part before you bungle your master's game as +you have done your own." + +Mr. Clinton was red with mortified vanity, but forty pounds! He threw +himself back in his chair. + +"This is amusing," said he. "Well, sir, I will act as if you +were Solomon and I nobody. Of course under these circumstances no +responsibility rests with me." + +"You are wasting my time with your silly prattle," said Meadows, very +sternly. "Man alive! you never made fifty pounds cash since you were +calved. It comes to your hand to-day, and even then you must chatter and +jaw instead of saying yes and closing your fingers on it like a vise." + +"Yes!" shouted Clinton; "there." + +"Take that quire," said Meadows, sharply. "Now I'll dictate the very +words you are to say; learn them off by heart and don't add a syllable +or subtract one or--no fifty pounds." + +Meadows being a general by nature (not Horse-Guards) gave Clinton +instructions down to the minutest matters of detail, and he whose +life had been spent in proving he would succeed--and failing--began +to suspect the man who had always succeeded might perhaps have had +something to do with his success. + +Next morning, well primed by Meadows, Mr. Clinton presented himself +to Messrs. Brathwaite & Stevens and requested a private audience. He +inquired whether they were disposed to allow him a commission if he +would introduce them to an Australian settler on whose land gold had +been discovered. + +The two members of the firm looked at one another. After a pause one of +them said: + +"Commission really must depend on how such a thing turned out. They had +little confidence in such statements, but would see the settler and put +some questions to him." + +Clinton went out and introduced Meadows. This happened just as Meadows +had told him it would. Outside the door Mr. Meadows suddenly put on a +rustic carriage and so came in and imitated natural shyness with great +skill; he had to be twice asked to sit down. + +The firm cross-examined him. He told them gold had been discovered +within a stone's throw of his land, thirty miles from Bathurst; that his +friends out there had said go home to England and they will give you a +heavy price for your land now; that he did hope to get a heavy price, +and so be able to live at home--didn't want to go out there again; that +the land was worth money--for there was no more to be sold in that part; +government land all round and they wouldn't sell, for he had tried them +(his sharp eye had seen this fact marked on Mr. Rich's map). + +"Well," said the senior partner, "we have information that gold has been +discovered in that district; the report came here two days ago by the +_Anne Amelia._ But the account is not distinct as yet. We do not hear +on whose land it is found if at all. I presume you have not seen gold +found." + +"Could I afford to leave my business out there and come home--on a +speculation?" + +The eyes of the firm began to glitter. + +"Have you got any gold to show us?" + +"Nothing to speak of, sir; only what they chucked me for giving them +a good dinner. But they are shoveling it about like grains of wheat, I +assure you." + +The firm became impatient. + +"Show us what they gave you as the price of a dinner?" + +Meadows dug into a deep pocket, and chased into a corner, and caught, +and produced a little nugget of quartz and gold worth about four pounds, +also another of somewhat less value. + +"They don't look handsome, gents," said he, "but you may see the stuff +glitter here and there; and here is some of the dust. I had to buy +this; gave them fifty shillings an ounce for it. I wish I had bought a +hundred-weight, for they tell me it is worth three pound ten here." + +"May we inspect these specimens?" + +"Why not, sir? I'll trust it with you. I wouldn't with everybody, +though." + +The partners retired with the gold, tested it with muriatic acid, +weighed it, and after a short, excited interview one of them brought it +back and asked with great nonchalance the price of the land. + +Meadows hung his head. + +"Twenty thousand pounds." + +"Twenty thousand pounds!" and the partner laughed in his face. + +"I don't wonder you are surprised, sir. I wonder at myself asking so +much. Why, before this, if you had offered me five thousand, I would +have jumped into your arms, as the saying is; but they all say I ought +to have twenty thousand, and they have talked to me till they make me +greedy." + +The partner retired and consulted, and the firm ended by offering ten +thousand. + +"I am right down ashamed to say no," was the answer, "but I suppose I +must not take it." + +The firm undertook to prove it was a magnificent offer. Meadows offered +no resistance, he thought so too; but he must not take it, everybody +told him it was worth more. At last, when his hand was on the door, they +offered him twelve thousand five hundred. + +He begged to consider it. + +No! they were peremptory. If he was off, they were off. + +He looked this way and that way with a frightened air. + +"What shall I do, sir?" said he, helplessly, to Clinton, and nudged him +secretly. + +"Take it, and think yourself very lucky," said that gentleman, +exchanging a glance with the firm. + +"Well, then, if you say so, I will. You shall have it, gentlemen, five +hundred acres in two lots--400 and 100." + +Clinton, acting on his secret instructions, now sought a private +interview with the firm. + +"I am to have a commission, gentlemen?" + +"Yes! fifty pounds; but, really, we can hardly afford it." + +"Well, then, as you give me an interest in it, I say--pin him." + +"Why?" + +"Don't you see he is one of those soft fellows who listen to everybody. +If he goes away, and they laugh at him for not getting more for it, I +really could hardly answer for his ever coming back here." + +The firm came in cheerfully. + +"Well, Mr. ---- Mr." + +"Not Mr., sir. Crawley--plain John Crawley." + +"We will terminate this affair with you. We will have a contract of sale +drawn up and make you an advance. When can you give us the title deeds?" + +"In a couple of hours, if the lawyer is at home." + +"By the by, you will not object to draw upon us at three months for one +half of the money?" + +"No, sir. I should say by the look of you you were as good as the bank." + +"The other half by check in two hours." The parties signed the contract +respectively. + +Then Meadows and Clinton went off to the Five-per-Center, completed +with him, got the title deeds, brought them, received check and +accepted draft. Clinton, by Meadows' advice, went in and dunned for his +commission then and there, and got it, and the confederates went off and +took a hasty dinner together. After dinner they settled. + +"As you showed me how to get this commission out of them, it belongs to +you," said Clinton, sorrowfully. + +"It does, sir. Give it to me. I return it to you, sir; do me the favor +to accept it." + +"You are very generous, Mr. Meadows." + +"And here is the other fifty you have earned." + +"Thank you, my good sir. Are you satisfied with the day's work?" + +"Amply, sir. Your skill and ingenuity brought us through triumphant," +said Meadows, resuming the deferential, since he risked nothing by it +now. + +"Well, I think I managed it pretty well. By the by, that gold you showed +them, was it really gold?" + +"Certainly." + +"Oh! because I thought--" + +"No, sir, you did not. A man of your ability knows I would not risk ten +thousand pounds for want of a purchase I could not lose ten shillings +by ----. Ore is not a fancy article." + +"Oh! ah! yes, very true; no, of course not. One question more. Where did +the gold come from?" + +"California." + +"But, I mean, how did you get it?" + +"I bought it out of a shop window those two knowing ones pass twice +every day of their lives." + +"Ha! ha! ha!" + +"You pass it oftener than that, sir. Excuse me, sir; I must catch the +train. But one word before I go. My name must never be mentioned in this +business." + +"Very well; it never shall transpire, upon my honor." + +Meadows felt pretty safe. As he put on his greatcoat he thought to +himself: "When the story is blown and laughed over, this man's vanity +will keep my name out of it. He won't miss a chance of telling the world +how clever he is. My game is to pass for honest, not for clever, no, +thank you." + +"Good-by, sir," was his last word. "It is you for hoodwinking them." + +"Ha! ha! ha! Good-by, farmer." (In a patronizing tone.) + +Soon after this, Meadows was in a corner of a railway-carriage, twelve +thousand four hundred and fifty pounds in his pocket, and the second +part of his great complex scheme boiling and bubbling in his massive +head. There he sat silent as the grave, his hat drawn over his powerful +brows that were knitted all the journey by one who never knitted them in +vain. + +He reached home at eight and sat down to his desk and wrote for more +than half an hour. Then he sealed up the paper, and when Crawley came he +found him walking up and down the room. At a silent gesture Crawley +took a chair and sat quivering with curiosity. Meadows walked in deep +thought. + +"You demanded my confidence. It is a dangerous secret, for once you know +it you must serve me with red-hot zeal, or be my enemy and be crushed +out of life like a blind-worm, or an adder, Peter Crawley." + +"I know that, dear sir," assented Peter, ruefully. + +"First, how far have you guessed?" + +"I guess Mr. Levi is somehow against us." + +"He is," replied Meadows, carelessly. + +"Then that is a bad job. He will beat us. He is as cunning as a fox." + +Meadows looked up contemptuously; but as he could not afford to let +such a sneak as Crawley think him anything short of invincible, he said +coolly, "He is, and I have measured cunning with a fox." + +"You have? That must have been a tight match." + +"A fox used to take my chickens one hard winter; an old fox cautious and +sly as the Jew you rate so high. The men sat up with guns for him--no; +a keeper set traps in a triangle for him--no. He had the eye of a hawk, +the ear of a hare, and his own nose. He would have the chickens, and he +would not get himself into trouble. The women complained to me of the +fox. I turned a ferret loose into the rabbit-hutch, and in half a minute +there was as nice a young rabbit dead as ever you saw." + +"Lookee there now," cried Crawley. + +"I choked the ferret off, but never touched the rabbit. I took the +rabbit with a pair of tongs; the others had handled their baits and pug +crept round 'em and nosed the trick. I poured twenty drops of croton oil +into the little hole ferret had made in bunny's head, and I dropped him +in the grass near pug's track. Next morning rabbit had been drawn about +twenty yards and the hole in his head was three times as big. Pug went +the nearest way to blood; went in at ferret's hole. I knew he would." + +"Yes, sir! yes! yes! yes! and there lay the fox." + +"No signs of him. Then I said: 'Go to the nearest water. Croton oil +makes 'em dry.' They went along the brook--and on the very bank there +lay an old dog-fox blown up like bladder, as big as a wolf and as dead +as a herring. Now for the Jew. Look at that;" and he threw him a paper. + +"Why, this is the judgment on which I arrested Will Fielding, and here +is the acceptance." + +"Levi bought them to take the man out of my power. He left them with +old Cohen. I have got them again, you see, and got young Fielding in my +power spite of his foxy friend." + +"Capital, sir, capital!" cried the admiring Crawley. He then looked +at the reconquered documents. "Ah!" said he, spitefully, "how I wish I +could alter one of these names, only one!" + +"What d'ye mean?" + +"I mean that I'd give fifty pound (if I had it) if it was but that brute +George Fielding that was in our power instead of this fool William." + +Meadows opened his eyes: "Why?" + +"Because he put an affront upon me," was the somewhat sulky reply. + +"What was that?" + +"Oh, no matter, sir!" + +"But it is matter. Tell me. I am that man's enemy." + +"Then I am in luck. You are just the enemy I wish him." + +"What was the affront?" + +"He called me a pettifogger." + +"Oh, is that all?" + +"No. He discharged me from visiting his premises." + +"That was not very polite." + +"And threatened to horsewhip me next time I came there." + +"Oh, is that where the shoe pinches?" + +"No, it is not!" cried Crawley, almost in a shriek; "but he altered his +mind, and did horsewhip me then and there. Curse him!" + +Meadows smiled grimly. He saw his advantage. "Crawley," said he, +quickly, "he shall rue the day he lifted his hand over you. You want to +see to the bottom of me." + +"Oh, Mr. Meadows, that is too far for the naked eye to see," was the +despondent reply. + +"Not when it suits my book. I am going to keep my promise and show you +my heart." + +"Ah!" + +"Listen and hear the secret of my life. Are you listening?" + +"What do you think, sir?" was the tremulous answer. + +"I--love--Miss--Merton;" and for once his eyes sank before Crawley's. + +"Sir! you--love--a--woman?" + +"Not as libertines love, nor as boys flirt and pass on. Heaven have +mercy on me, I love her with all my heart and soul and brain! I love her +with more force than such as you can hate!" + +"The deuce you do!" + +"I love the sweetheart--of the man--who lashed you--like a dog." + +Crawley winced and rubbed his hands. + +"And your fortune is made if you help me to win her." + +Crawley rubbed his hands. + +"Old Merton has promised the woman I love to this George Fielding if he +comes back with a thousand pounds." + +"Don't you be frightened, sir; that he will never do." + +"Will he not? Read this letter." + +"Ah! the letter that put you out so. Let me see--Mum! mum! Found gold. +Pheugh! Pheugh! Pheeeugh!!" + +"Crawley, most men reading that letter would have given in then and +there, and not fought against such luck as this. I only said to myself, +'Then it will cost me ten thousand pounds to win the day.' Well, between +yesterday eleven forenoon and this hour I made the ten thousand pounds." + +He told him briefly how. + +"Beautiful, sir! What, did you make the ten thousand out of your own +rival's letter?" + +"Yes, I taxed the enemy for the expenses of the war." + +"Oh, Mr. Meadows, what a fool, what a villain I was to think Mr. Levi +was as great a man as you! I must have been under a hallucination." + +"Crawley, the day that John and Susan Meadows walk out of church man +and wife I put a thousand pounds into your hand and set you up in +any business you like; in any honest business, for from that day our +underhand dealings must end. The husband of that angel must never grind +the poor or wrong a living creature. If Heaven consents to my +being happy in this way, the least I can do is to walk straight and +straightforward the rest of my days, and I will, s'help me God." + +"That is fair. I knew you were a great man, but I had no idea you were +such a good one." + +"Crawley," said the other, with a sudden gloomy misgiving, "I am trying +to cheat the devil. I fear no man can do that;" and he hung his head. + +"No ordinary man, sir," replied the parasite, "but your skill has no +bounds. Your plan, sir, at once, that I may co-operate and not thwart +your great skill through ignorance." + +"My plan has two hands; one must work here, the other a great many miles +from here. If I could but cut myself in two, all would be well; but I +can't; I must be one hand, you the other. _I_ work thus: Post-office +here is under my thumb. I stop all letters from him to her. Presently +comes a letter from Australia telling among pork, grains, etc., how +George Fielding has made his fortune and married a girl out there." + +"But who is to write the letter?" + +"Can't you guess?" + +"Haven't an idea. She won't believe it." + +"Not at first, perhaps, but when she gets no more letters from him she +will." + +"So she will. So then you will run him down to her." + +"Not such a fool, she would hate me. I shall never mention his name. +I make one of my tools hang jail over old Merton. Susan thinks George +married. I strike upon her pique and her father's distress. I ask him +for his daughter. Offer to pay my father-in-law's debts and start him +afresh." + +"Beautiful! Beautiful!" + +"Susan likes me already. I tell her all I suffered silent while she was +on with George. I press her to be mine. She will say no perhaps three or +four times, but the fifth she will say yes!" + +"She will; you are a great man." + +"And she will be happy." + +"Can't see it." + +"A man that marries a virtuous woman and loves her is no man at all if +he can't make her love him; they can't resist our stronger wills except +by flight or by leaning upon another man. I'll be back directly." + +Mr. Meadows returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Crawley was +surprised. This was a beverage he had never seen his friend drink or +offer him. Another thing puzzled him. When Mr. Meadows came back with +the wine he had not so much color as usual in his face--not near so +much. + +"Crawley," said Meadows, in a low voice, "suppose, while I am working, +this George Fielding were to come home with money in both pockets?" + +"He would kick it all down in a moment." + +"I am glad you see that. Then you see one hand is not enough; another +must be working far away." + +"Yes, but I don't see--" + +"You will see. Drink a glass of wine with me, my good friend; your +health." + +"Same to you, sir." + +"Is it to your mind?" + +"Elixir! This is the stuff that sharpens a chap's wit and puts courage +in his heart." + +"I brought it for that. You and I have no chicken's play on hand. +Another glass." + +"Success to your scheme, sir." + +"Crawley, George Fielding must not come back this year with one thousand +pounds." + +"No, he must not--thank you, sir, your health. Mustn't, he shan't; but +how on earth can you prevent him?" + +"That paper will prevent him; it is a paper of instructions. My very +brains lie in that paper--put it in your pocket." + +"In my pocket, sir? Highly honored--shall be executed to the letter. +What, wine!" + +"And this is a check-book." + +"No! is it though?" + +"You will draw on me for one hundred pounds per month." + +"No! shall I, though? Sir, you are a king!" + +"Of which you will account for fifty pounds only." + +"Liberal, sir; as I said before, liberal as running water." + +"You are going a journey." + +"Am I? well! Don't you turn pale for that--I'll come back to +you--nothing but death shall part us. Have a drop of this, sir; it will +put blood into your cheek, and fire into your heart. That is right. +Where am I going, sir?" + +"What, don't you know?" + +"No! nor I don't care, so long as it is in your service I go." + +"Still it is a long journey." + +"Oh, is it? Your health then, and my happy return." + +"You are not afraid of the sea or the wind?" + +"I am afraid of nothing but your wrath, and--and--the law. The sea be +hanged, and the wind be blowed! When I see your talent and energy, and +hold your checkbook in my hand and your instructions in my pocket, I +feel to play at football with the world. When shall I start?" + +"To-morrow morning." + +"To-night, if you like. Where am I to go to?" + +"To AUSTRALIA!" + +That single word suspended the glass going to Crawley's lips, and the +chuckle coming from them. A dead silence on both sides followed it. And +now two colorless faces looked into one another's eyes across the table. + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +THREE days the gold-finders worked alone upon the pre-Adamite river's +bed. At evening on the third day they looked up and saw a figure perched +watching them with a pipe in its mouth. It disappeared in silence. +Next day there were men on their knees beside them, digging, scraping, +washing and worshipping gold. Soon they were the center of a group--soon +after of a humming mob. As if the birds had really carried the secret +north, south, east and west, men swarmed and buzzed and settled like +locusts on the gold-bearing tract. They came in panting, gleaming, dusty +and travel-stained and flung off their fatigue at sight, and, running +up, dived into the gullies and plied spade and pickax with clinched +teeth and throbbing hearts. They seamed the face of Nature for miles; +turned the streams to get at their beds; pounded and crushed the solid +rock to squeeze out the subtle stain of gold it held in its veins; +hacked through the crops as through any other idle impediment; pecked +and hewed and fought and wrestled with Nature for the treasure that lay +so near yet in so tight a grip. + +We take off our clothes to sleep and put them on to play at work, but +these put on their clothes to sleep in, and tore them off at peep of +day, and labor was red-hot till night came and cooled it; and in +this fight lives fell as quickly as in actual war, and by the same +enemy--Disease. Small wonder, when hundreds and hundreds wrought the +livelong day one half in icy water, the other half dripping with sweat. + +Men rotted like sheep, and died at the feet of that Gold whom they +stormed here in his fortress; and some alas met a worse fate. For that +befell which the world has seen in every age and land where gold has +come to light upon a soil; men wrestling fiercely with Nature jostled +each other; cupidity inflamed hate to madness, and human blood flowed +like water over that yellow dirt. And now from this one burning spot +gold fever struck inward to the heart of the land; burned its veins and +maddened its brain. The workman sold his tools, bought a spade and a +pickax, and fled to the gold; the lawyer flung down his parchment and +off to the gold; the penny-a-liner his brass pen and off to a greater +wonder than he had ever fabricated; the schoolmaster to whom little boys +were puzzling out + + Quid non mortalia pectora cogis + Auri sacra fames-- + +made the meaning perfectly clear; he dropped ferrule and book and ran +with the national hunt for gold. Shops were closed for want of buyers +and sellers; the grass crept up between the paving-stones in great +thoroughfares; outward-bound ships lay deserted and helpless in the +roads; the wilderness was peopled and the cities desolate; commerce +was paralyzed, industry contracted. The wise and good trembled for the +destiny of the people, the government trembled for itself--idle fear. +That which shook this colony for a moment settled it as firm as a +granite mountain and made it great with a rapidity that would have +astounded the puny ages cant appeals to as the days of wonders. + +The _sacra fames_ was not Australian, but human; and so at the first +whisper of gold the old nations poured the wealth they valued--their +food and clothes and silk and coin--and the prime treasure they valued +not, their men--into that favored land. + +Then did great Labor, insulted and cheated so many years in narrow, +overcrowded corners of the huge unpeopled globe, lift his bare arm and +cry, "Who bids for this?" and a dozen gloved hands jumped and clutched +at the prize. And in bargains where a man went on one side and money +on the other, the money had to say, "Thank you," over it instead of the +man. + +But still, though the average value of labor was now full as high in the +cities as in the mine, men flowed to the desert and the gold, tempted by +the enormous prizes there, that lay close to all and came to fortune's +favorites. + +Hence a new wonder, a great moral phenomenon the world had never seen +before on such a wide scale. At a period of unparalleled civilization +and refinement, society, with its artificial habits and its jealous +class distinctions on its back, took a sudden unprepared leap from +the heights it had been centuries constructing--into a gold mine; it +emerged, its delicate fabric crushed out of all recognizable shape, +its petty prides annihilated, and even its just distinctions turned +topsy-turvey. For mind is really more honorable than muscle, yet when +these two met in a gold mine it fared ill with mind. Classical and +mathematical scholars joined their forces with navvies to dig gold; +and nearly always the scholars were found after a while cooking, shoe +cleaning, and doing generally menial offices for the navvies. + +Those who had no learning, but had good birth, genteel manners and kid +gloves and feeble loins, sunk lower and became the dregs of gold-digging +society ere a week's digging had passed over their backs. Not that all +wit yielded to muscle. Low cunning often held its own; hundreds of lazy +leeches settled on labor's bare arm and bled it. Such as could minister +to the diggers' physical needs, appetites, vices, had no need to dig; +they made the diggers work for them, and took toll of the precious dust +as it fell into their hands. + +One brute that could not spell chicory to save himself from the gallows +cleared two thousand pounds a month by selling it and hot water at a +pinch a cup. Thus ran his announcement, "Cofy allus rady." + +Meantime Trigonometry was frying steaks and on Sunday blacking boots. + +After a while lucky diggers returned to the towns clogged with gold, and +lusting and panting for pleasure. + +They hired carriages and sweethearts, and paraded the streets all day, +crying, "We be the hairy-stocracy, now!!" + +The shopkeepers bowed down and did them homage. + +Even here Nature had her say. The sexes came out--the men sat in the +carriages in their dirty fustian and their checkered shirts and no +jacket; their inamoritas beside them glittered in silk and satin. And +some fiend told these poor women it was genteel to be short-sighted; so +they all bought gold spy-glasses, and spied without intermission. + +Then the old colonial aristocracy, who had been born in broadcloth and +silk, and unlike the new had not been transported, but only their papas +and mammas, were driven to despair; but at last they hit upon a remedy. +They would be distinguished by hook or by crook, and the only way left +now was always to go on foot. So they walked the pavement--wet or dry, +nothing could induce them to enter the door of a carriage. Item: they +gave up being shortsighted; the few who for reasons distinct from +fashion could not resign the habit concealed it, as if it was a defect +instead of a beauty. + +This struggle of classes in the towns, with its hundred and one +incidents, was an excellent theme for satire of the highest class. How +has it escaped? is it that even Satire, low and easy art, is not so low +and easy as Detraction? But these are the outskirts of a great theme. +The theme itself belonged, not to little satire, but to great epic. + + +In the sudden return of a society far more complex, artificial and +conventional than Pericles ever dreamed of, to elements more primitive +than Homer had to deal with; in this, with its novelty, and nature, and +strange contrasts, + +In the old barbaric force and native color of the passions, as they +burst out undisguised around the gold, + +In the hundred and one personal combats and trials of cunning, + +In a desert peopled, and cities thinned by the magic of cupidity, + +In a huge army collected in ten thousand tents, not as heretofore by one +man's constraining will, but each human unit spurred into the crowd by +his own heart, + +In "the siege of Gold," defended stoutly by Rock and Disease, + +In the world-wide effect of the discovery, the peopling of the earth at +last according to Heaven's long-published and resisted design, + +Fate offered poetry a theme broad and high, yet piquant, and various as +the dolphin and the rainbow. + + +I cannot sing this song, because I am neither Lamartine, nor Hugo, nor +Walter Scott. I cannot hum this song, because the severe conditions of +my story forbid me even to make the adventurous attempt. I am here to +tell, not the great tale of gold, but the little story of how Susan +Merton was affected thereby. Yet it shall never be said that my pen +passed close to a great man or a great thing without a word of homage +and sympathy to set against the sneers of groveling criticasters, +the blindness of self-singing poetasters, and the national itch for +detraction of all great things and men that live, and deification of +dead dwarfs. + +God has been bountiful to the human race in this age. Most bountiful +to Poets; most bountiful to all of us who have a spark of nobleness in +ourselves, and so can see and revere at sight the truly grand and noble +(any snob can do this after it has been settled two hundred years by +other minds that he is to do it). He has given us warlike heroes more +than we can count--far less honor as they deserve; and valor as full of +variety as courage in the Iliad is monotonous--except when it takes to +its heels. + +He has given us one hero, a better man than Hector or Achilles. For +Hector ran away from a single man; this hero was never known to run +away at all. Achilles was a better egotist than soldier; wounded in his +personal vanity, he revenged himself, not on the man who had wronged +him--Prudence forbade--but on the army, and on his country. This antique +hero sulked; my hero, deprived of the highest command, retained a +higher still--the command that places the great of heart above all petty +personal feeling. He was a soldier, and could not look from his tent on +battle and not plunge into it. What true soldier ever could? He was +not a Greek but a Frenchman--and could not love himself better than his +country. Above all, he was not Achilles, but Canrobert. + +He has given us to see Nineveh disinterred by an English hero. + +He has given us to see the northwest passage forced, and winter bearded +on his everlasting throne, by another. (Is it the hero's fault if self +and snowdrop-singing poetasters cannot see this feat with the eyes of +Camoens?) + +He has given us to see Titans enslaved by man; Steam harnessed to our +carriages and ships; Galvanism tamed into an alphabet--a Gamut, and its +metal harp-strings stretched across the earth _malgre'_ mountains and +the sea, and so men's minds defying the twin monsters Time and Space; +and now, gold revealed in the East and West at once, and so mankind now +first in earnest peopling the enormous globe. Yet old women and children +of the pen say, this is a bad, a small, a lifeless, an unpoetic age--and +they are not mistaken. For they lie. + +As only tooth-stoppers, retailers of conventional phrases, links in +the great cuckoo-chain, universal pill-venders, Satan, and ancient +booksellers' ancient nameless hacks can lie, they lie. + +It is they who are _small-eyed._ Now, as heretofore, weaklings cannot +rise high enough to take a bird's-eye view of their own age, and +calculate its dimensions. + +The age, smaller than epochs to come, is a giant compared with the past, +and full of mighty materials for any great pen in prose or verse. + +My little friends aged nineteen and downward--fourscore and upward--who +have been lending your ears to the stale little cant of every age, as +chanted in this one by Buffo-Bombastes and other foaming-at-the-pen +old women of both sexes--take by way of antidote to all that poisonous, +soul-withering drivel, ten honest words. + +I say before heaven and earth that the man who could grasp the facts of +this day and do an immortal writer's duty by them, i.e., so paint them +as a later age will be content to engrave them, would be the greatest +writer ever lived. Such is the force, weight and number of the grand +topics that lie this day on the world's face. I say that he who has eyes +to see may now see greater and far more poetic things than human eyes +have seen since our Lord and his Apostles and his miracles left the +earth. + +It is very hard to write a good book or a good play, or to invent a good +picture, and having invented paint it. But it always was hard, except +to those--to whom it was impossible. Bunglers will not mend matters +by blackening the great canvases they can't paint on, nor the impotent +become males by detraction. + +"Justice!" + +When we write a story or sing a poem of the great nineteenth century, +there is but one fear--not that our theme will be beneath us, but we +miles below it; that we shall lack the comprehensive vision a man +must have from heaven to catch the historical, the poetic, the lasting +features of the Titan events that stride so swiftly past IN THIS +GIGANTIC AGE. + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + +THE life of George Fielding and Thomas Robinson for months could be +composed in a few words: tremendous work from sunrise to sundown, and on +Sunday welcome rest, a quiet pipe, and a book. + +At night they slept in a good tent, with Carlo at their feet and a +little bag between them; this bag never left their sight; it went out to +their work and in to sleep. + +It is dinner-time; George and Tom are snatching a mouthful, and a few +words over it. + +"How much do you think we are, Tom?" + +"Hush! don't speak so loud, for Heaven's sake;" he added in a whisper, +"not a penny under seven hundred pounds' worth." + +George sighed. + +"It is slower work than I thought; but it is my fault, I am so unlucky." + +"Unlucky! and we have not been eight months at it." + +"But one party near us cleared four thousand pounds at a haul; one +thousand pounds apiece--ah!" + +"And hundreds have only just been able to keep themselves. Come, you +must not grumble, we are high above the average." + +George persisted. + +"The reason we don't get on is we try for nothing better than dust. You +know what you told me, that the gold was never created in dust, but in +masses, like all metals; the dust is only a trifle that has been washed +off the bulk. Then you said we ought to track the gold-dust coarser and +coarser till we traced the metal to its home in the great rocks." + +"Ay! ay! I believe I used to talk so; but I am wiser now. Look here, +George, no doubt the gold was all in block when the world started, but +how many million years ago was that? This is my notion, George; at the +beginning of the world the gold was all solid, at the end it is all to +be dust; now which are we nearer, the end or the beginning?" + +"Not knowing, can't say, Tom." + +"Then I can, for his reverence told me. We are fifty times nearer the +end than the beginning, follows there is fifty times as much gold-dust +in nature as solid gold." + +"What a head you ha' got, Tom! but I can't take it up so. Seems to me +this dust is like the grain that is shed from a ripe crop before it +comes to the sickle. Now if we could trace--" + +"How can you trace syrup to the lump when the lump is all turned to +syrup?" + +George held his peace--shut up, but not convinced. + +"Hallo! you two lucky ones," cried a voice distant about thirty yards. +"Will you buy our hole, it is breaking our heart here." + +Robinson went up and found a large hole excavated to a great depth; it +was yielding literally nothing, and this determined that paradoxical +personage to buy it if it was cheap. "What there is must be somewhere +all in a lump." + +He offered ten pounds for it, which was eagerly snapped at. + +"Well done, Gardiner," said one of the band. "We would have taken ten +shillings for it," explained he to Robinson. + +Robinson paid the money, and let himself down into the hole with his +spade. He drove his spade into the clay, and the bottom of it just +reached the rock; he looked up. "I would have gone just one foot deeper +before I gave in," said he; he called George. "Come, George, we can know +our fate in ten minutes." + +They shoveled the clay away down to about one inch above the rock, and +there in the white clay they found a little bit of gold as big as a +pin's head. + +"We have done it this time," cried Robinson, "shave a little more off, +not too deep, and save the clay." This time a score of little nuggets +came to view sticking in the clay; no need for washing, they picked them +out with their knives. + +The news soon spread, and a multitude buzzed round the hole and looked +down on the men picking out peas and beans of pure gold with their +knives. + +Presently a voice cried, "Shame, give the men back their hole!" + +"Gammon," cried others, "they paid for a chance, and it turned out well; +a bargain is a bargain." Gardiner and his mates looked sorrowfully down. +Robinson saw their faces and came out of the hole a moment. He took +Gardiner aside and whispered, "Jump into our hole like lightning, it is +worth four pound a day." + +"God bless you!" said Gardiner. He ran and jumped into the hole just as +another man was going to take possession. By digger's law no party is +allowed to occupy two holes. + +All that afternoon there was a mob looking down at George and Robinson +picking out peas and beans of gold, and envy's satanic fire burned many +a heart. These two were picking up at least a hundred pounds an hour. + +Now it happened late in the afternoon that a man of shabby figure, +evidently not a digger, observing that there was always more or less +crowd in one place, shambled up and looked down with the rest; as he +looked down, George happened to look up; the newcomer drew back hastily. +After that his proceedings were singular; he remained in the crowd more +than two hours, not stationary, but winding in and out. He listened to +everything that was said, especially if it was muttered and not spoken +out; and he peered into every face, and peering into every face it +befell that at last his eye lighted on one that seemed to fascinate +him; it belonged to a fellow with a great bull neck, and hair and beard +flowing all into one--a man more like the black-maned lion of North +Africa than anything else. But it was not his appearance that fascinated +the serpentine one, it was the look he cast down upon those two lucky +diggers; a scowl of tremendous hatred--hatred unto death. Instinct told +the serpent there must be more in this than extempore envy. He waited +and watched, and, when the black-maned one moved away, he followed him +about everywhere till at last he got him alone. + +Then he sidled up, and in a cringing way said: + +"What luck some men have, don't they?" + +The man answered by a fierce grunt. + +The serpent was half afraid of him, but he went on. + +"There will be a good lump of gold in their tent to-night." + +The other seemed struck with these words. + +"They have been lucky a long time," explained the other, "and now this +added--" + +"Well, what about it?" + +"Nothing! only I wish somebody else had it instead." + +"Why?" + +"That is a secret for the present. I only tell you because I think +somehow they are no friends of yours either." + +"Perhaps not! what then." + +"Then we might perhaps do business together; it will strike you +singular, but I have a friend who would give money to any one that would +take a little from those two." + +"Say that again." + +"Would give money to any one that would take it from those two." + +"And you won't ask for any share of the swag?" + +"Me? I have nothing to do with it." + +"Gammon! well, your friend! will he?" + +"Not a farthing!" + +"And what will he give, suppose I have a friend that will do the trick?" + +"According to the risk!" + +The man gave a whistle. A fellow with forehead villainously low came +from behind some tents. + +"What is it, Will?" asked the newcomer. + +"A plant." + +"This one in it?" + +"Yes! This is too public, come to Bevan's store." + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. + +"GEORGE, I want you to go to Bathurst." + +"What for?" + +"To buy some things." + +"What things?" + +"First of all, a revolver; there were fellows about our tent last night, +creeping and prowling." + +"I never heard them." + +"No more you would an earthquake--but I heard them, and got up and +pointed my revolver at them; so then they cut--all the better for them. +We must mind our eye, George; a good many tents are robbed every week, +and we are known to have a good swag." + +"Well, I must start this moment if I am to be back." + +"And take a pound of dust and buy things that we can sell here to a +profit." + +George came back at night looking rather sheep-faced. + +"Tom," said he, "I am afraid I have done wrong. You see there was a +confounded auction, and what with the hammer, and the folk bidding, and +his palaver, I could not help it." + +"But what is it you have bought?" + +"A bit o' land, Tom." + +Robinson groaned; but, recovering himself, he said gayly: + +"Well, have you brought it with you?" + +"No, it is not so small as all that; as nice a bit of grass as ever you +saw, Tom, and just outside the town of Bathurat; only I didn't ought to +have spent your money as well as my own." + +"Stuff and nonsense--I accept the investment. Let me load your new +revolver. Now look at my day's work. I wouldn't take a hundred pound for +these little fellows." + +George gloated over the little nuggets, for he saw Susan's eyes in them. +To-night she seemed so near. The little bag was placed between them, the +day's spoils added to it, and the tired friends were soon asleep. + + + +CHAPTER LIX. + +"HELP! help! murder! help! murder!" Such were the cries that invaded the +sleepers' ears in the middle of the night, to which horrible sounds was +added the furious barking of Carlo. + +The men seized their revolvers and rushed out of the tent. At about +sixty yards distant they saw a man on the ground struggling under two +fellows, and still crying, though more faintly, "murder" and "help." + +"They are killing him!" cried George; and Robinson and he cocked their +revolvers and ran furiously toward the men. But these did not wait the +attack. They started up and off like the wind, followed by two shots +from Robinson that whistled unpleasantly near them. + +"Have they hurt you, my poor fellow?" said Robinson. + +The man only groaned for answer. + +Robinson turned his face up in the moonlight, and recognized a man to +whom he had never spoken, but whom his watchful eye had noticed more +than once in the mine--it was, in fact, the peddler Walker. + +"Stop, George, I have seen this face in bad company. Oh! back to our +tent for your life, and kill any man you see near it!" + +They ran back. They saw two dark figures melting into the night on the +other side the tent. They darted in--they felt for the bag. Gone! +They felt convulsively all round the tent. Gone! With trembling hands +Robinson struck a light. Gone--the work of months in a moment---the hope +of a life snatched out of a lover's very hand, and held out a mile off +again! + +The poor fellows rushed wildly out into the night. They saw nothing but +the wretched decoy vanishing behind the nearest tents. They came into +the tent again. They sat down and bowed to the blow in silence, and +looked at one another, and their lips quivered, and they feared to speak +lest they should break into unmanly rage or sorrow. So they sat like +stone till daybreak. + +And when the first streak of twilight came in, George said in a firm +whisper: + +"Take my hand, Tom, before we go to work." + +So the two friends sat hand in hand a minute or two; and that hard +grip of two workingmen's hands, though it was not gently eloquent like +beauty's soft, expressive palm, did yet say many things good for the +heart in this bitter hour. + +It said: "A great calamity has fallen; but we do not blame each other, +as some turn to directly and do. It is not your fault, George. It is not +your fault, Tom." + +It said: "We were lucky together; now we are unlucky together--all +the more friends. We wrought together; now we have been wronged +together--all the more friends." With this the sun rose, and for the +first time they crept to their work instead of springing to it. + +They still found gold in it, but not quite so abundant or so large. They +had raised the cream of it for the thieves. Moreover, a rush had been +made to the hole, claims measured off actually touching them; so they +could not follow the gold-bearing strata horizontally--it belonged to +their neighbors. They worked in silence, they ate their meal in silence. +But as they rose to work again, Robinson said, very gravely, even +solemnly: + +"George, now I know what an honest man feels when he is robbed of the +fruits of his work and his self-denial and his sobriety. If I had known +it fifteen years ago, I should never have been a--what I have been." + +For two months the friends worked stoutly with leaden hearts, but did +little more than pay their expenses. The bag lay between them light as a +feather. One morning Tom said to George: + +"George, this won't do. I am going prospecting. Moore will lend me his +horse for a day." + +That day George worked alone. Robinson rode all over the country with a +tin pan at his back, and tested all the places that seemed likely to +his experienced eye. At night he returned to their tent. George was just +lying down. + +"No sleep to-night, George," said he, instinctively lowering his voice +to a whisper; "I have found surface gold ten miles to the southward." + +"Well, we will go to it to-morrow." + +"What, by daylight, watched as we are? We, the two lucky ones," said +Robinson bitterly. "No. Wait till the coast is clear--then strike tent +and away." + +At midnight they stole out of the camp. By peep of day they were in a +little dell with a brook running at the bottom of it. + +"Now, George, listen to me. Here is ten thousand pounds if we could keep +this gully and the creek a fortnight to ourselves." + +"Oh, Tom! and we will. Nobody will find us here, it is like a box." + +Robinson smiled sadly. The men drove their spades in close to the little +hole which Robinson had made prospecting yesterday, and the very first +cradleful yielded an ounce of gold-dust extremely small and pure. They +found it diffused with wonderful regularity within a few inches of the +surface. Here for the first time George saw gold-dust so plentiful as to +be visible. When a spadeful of the clay was turned up it glittered all +over. When they tore up the grass, which was green as an emerald, specks +of bright gold came up clinging to the roots. They fell like spaded +tigers on the prey. + +"What are you doing, George?" + +"Going to light a fire for dinner. We must eat, I suppose, though I do +grudge the time." + +"We must eat, but not hot." + +"Why not?" + +"Because, if you light a fire, the smoke will be seen miles off, and +half the diggings will be down upon us. I have brought three days' cold +meat---here it is." + +"Will this be enough?" asked George, simply, his mouth full. + +"Yes, it will be enough," replied the other, bitterly. "Do you hear that +bird, George? They call him a leather-head. What is he singing?" + +George laughed. "Seems to me he is saying, 'Off we go!' 'Off we go!' +'Off we go!'" + +"That is it. And look now, off he is gone; and, what is more, he has +gone to tell all the world he saw two men pick up gold like beans." + +"Work!" cried George. + +That night the little bag felt twice as heavy as last night, and Susan +seemed nearer than for many a day. These two worked for their lives. +They counted each minute, and George was a Goliath; the soil flew round +him like the dust about a wmnnowing-machine. He was working for Susan. +Robinson wasted two seconds admiring him. + +"Well," said he, "gold puts us all on our mettle, but you beat all I +ever saw. You are a man." + +It was the morning of the third day, and the friends were filling the +little bag fast; and at breakfast George quizzed Robinson's late fears. + +"The leather-head didn't tell anybody, for here we are all alone." + +Robinson laughed. + +"But we should not have been, if I had let you light a fire. However, I +really begin to hope now they will let us alone till we have cleared out +the gully. Hallo!" + +"What is the matter?" + +"Look there, George." + +"What is it? Smoke rising--down the valley?" + +"We are done! Didn't I tell you?" + +"Don't say so, Tom. Why, it is only smoke, and five miles off." + +"What signifies what it is or where it is? It is on the road to us." + +"I hope better." + +"What is the use of hoping nonsense? Was it there yesterday? Well, +then." + +"Don't you be faint-hearted," said George. "We are not caught yet. I +wonder whether Susan would say it was a sin to try and mislead them?" + +"A sin! I wish I knew how, I'd soon see. That was a good notion. This +place is five hundred pound a day to us. We must keep it to-day by hook +or by crook. Come with me, quick. Bring your tools and the bag." + +George followed Robinson in utter ignorance of his design; that worthy +made his way as fast as he could toward the smoke. When they got within +a mile of it the valley widened and the smoke was seen rising from the +side of the stream. Concealing themselves, they saw two men beating the +ground on each side like pointers. Robinson drew back. "They are hunting +up the stream," said he, "it is there we must put the stopper on them." + +They made eastward for the stream which they had left. + +"Come," said Robinson, "here is a spot that looks likely to a novice; +dig and cut it up all you can." + +George was mystified but obeyed, and soon the place looked as if men +had been at work on it some time. Then Robinson took out a handful of +gold-dust and coolly scattered it over a large heap of mould. + +"What are you at? Are you mad, Tom? Why, there goes five pounds. What a +sin!" + +"Did you never hear of the man that flung away a sprat to catch a whale? +Now turn back to our hole. Stop, leave your pickax, then they will think +we are coming back to work." + +In little more than half an hour they were in their little gully working +like mad. They ate their dinner working. At five o'clock George pointed +out to Robinson no less than seven distinct columns of smoke rising +about a mile apart all down the valley. + +"Ay!" said Robinson, "those six smokes are hunting the smoke that is +hunting us! but we have screwed another day out." + +Just as the sun was setting, a man came into the gully with a pickax on +his shoulder. + +"Ah! how d'ye do?" said Robinson, in a mock friendly accent. "We have +been expecting you. Thank you for bringing us our pickax." + +The man gave a sort of rueful laugh and came and delivered the pick and +coolly watched the cradle. + +"Why don't you ask what you want to know?" said Robinson. + +The man sneered. "Is that the way to get the truth from a digger?" said +he. + +"It is from me, and the only one." + +"Oh! then what are you doing, mate?" + +"About ten ounces of gold per hour." + +The man's mouth and eyes both opened. "Come, my lad," said Robinson, +good-naturedly, "of course I am not glad you have found us, but since +you are come, call your pals, light fires, and work all night. To-morrow +it will be too late." + +The man whistled. He was soon joined by two more and afterward by +others. The whole party was eight. A hurried conference took place, and +presently the captain, whose name was Ede, came up to Robinson with a +small barrel of beer and begged him and his pal to drink as much as they +liked. They were very glad of the draught and thanked the men warmly. + +The newcomers took Robinson's advice, lighted large fires, divided their +company, and groped for gold. Every now and then came a shout of joy, +and, in the light of the fires, the wild figures showed red as blood +against the black wall of night, and their excited eyes glowed like +carbuncles as they clawed the sparkling dust. George and Robinson, +fatigued already by a long day, broke down about three in the morning. +They reeled into their tent, dug a hole, put in their gold bag, stamped +it down, tumbled dead asleep down over it, and never woke till morn. + +Gn l r-r-r! gn l r-r-r! + +"What is the matter, Carlo?" + +Gn l r-r-r. + +Hum! hum! hum! Crash! crash! + +At these sounds Robinson lifted up the corner of his tent. The gully was +a digging. He ran out to see where he was to work, and found the whole +soil one enormous tan-yard, the pits ten feet square, and so close +there was hardly room to walk to your hole without tumbling into your +neighbor's. You had to balance yourself like boys going along a beam in +a timber-yard. In one of these he found Ede and his gang working. Mr. +Ede had acquired a black eye, ditto one of his mates. + +"Good-morning, Captain Robinson," said this personage, with a general +gayety of countenance that contrasted most drolly with the mourning an +expressive organ had gone into. + +"Well, was I right?" asked Robinson, looking ruefully round the crowded +digging. + +"You were, Captain Robinson, and thank you for last night." + +"Well, you have picked up my name somehow. Now just tell me how you +picked up something else. How did you suspect us in this retired spot?" + +"We were working just clear of the great digging by the side of the +creek, and doing no good, when your cork came down." + +"My cork?" + +"Cork out of your bottle." + +"I had no bottle. Oh, yes! my pal had a bottle of small beer." + +"Ay, he must have thrown it into the creek, for a cork came down to us. +Then I looked at it, and I said, 'Here is a cork from Moore's store; +there is a party working up stream by this cork.'" + +Robinson gave a little groan. "We are never to be at the bottom of gold +digging," said he. + +"So we came up the stream and tried several places as we came, but found +nothing; at last we came to your pickax and signs of work, so my lads +would stay and work there, and I let them an hour or two, and then I +said, 'Come now, lads, the party we are after is higher up.'" + +"Now how could you pretend to know that?" inquired Robinson, with +curiosity. + +"Easy enough. The water came down to us thick and muddyish, so I knew +you were washing up stream." + +"Confound my stupid head," cried Robinson, "I deserve to have it cut off +after all my experience." + +And he actually capered with vexation. + +"The best may make a mistake," said the other soothingly. "Well, +captain, you did us a good turn last night, so here is your claim. We +put your pal's pick in it--here close to us. Oh! there was a lot that +made difficulties, but we over-persuaded them." + +"Indeed! How?" + +"Gave them a hiding, and promised to knock out any one's brains that +went into it. Oh! kindness begets kindness, even in a gold mine." + +"It does," cried Robinson, "and the proof is--that I give you the claim. +Here come this way and seem to buy it of me. All their eyes are upon us. +Now split your gang, and four take my claim." + +"Well, that is good of you. But what will you do, captain? Where shall +you go?" And his eyes betrayed his curiosity. + +"Humph! Well, I will tell you on condition that you don't bring two +thousand after me again. You should look behind you as well as before, +stupid." + +These terms agreed to, Robinson let Ede know that he was going this +moment back to the old digging. The other was greatly surprised. +Robinson then explained that in the old digging gold lay at various +depths and was inexhaustible; that this afternoon there would be a +rush made from it to Robinson's Gully (so the spot where they stood was +already called); that thousands of good claims would thus by diggers' +law be vacated; and that he should take the best before the rush came +back, which would be immediately, since Robinson's Gully would be +emptied of its gold in four hours. + +"So clear out your two claims," said he. "It won't take you two hours. +All the gold lies in one streak four inches deep. Then back after me; +I'll give you the office. I'll mark you down a good claim." + +Mr. Ede, who was not used to this sort of thing since he fought for +gold, wore a ludicrous expression of surprise and gratitude. Robinson +read it and grinned superior, but the look rendered words needless, so +he turned the conversation. + +"How did you get your black eye?" + +"Oh! didn't I tell you? Fighting with the blackguards for your claim." + +It was now Robinson's turn to be touched. + +"You are a good fellow. You and I must be friends. Ah! if I could but +get together about forty decent men like you, and that had got gold to +lose." + +"Well," said Ede, "why not? Here are eight that have got gold to lose, +thanks to you, and your own lot--that makes ten. We could easy make up +forty for any good lay; there is my hand for one. What is it?" + +Robinson took Ede's hand with a haste and an energy that almost startled +him, and his features darkened with an expression unusual now to his +good-natured face. "To put down thieving in the camp," said he, sternly. + +"Ah!" said the other, half sadly (the desirableness of this had +occurred to him before now); "but how are we to do that?" asked he, +incredulously. "The camp is choke-full of them." + +Robinson looked blacker, uglier and more in earnest. So was his answer +when it came. + +"Make stealing death by the law." + +"The law! What law?" + +"Lynch!" + + + +CHAPTER LX. + +ABOUT a fortnight after Robinson's return to the diggings two men were +seated in a small room at Bevan's store. There was little risk of their +being interrupted by any honest digger, for it was the middle of the +day. + +"I know that well enough," growled the black-maned one, "everybody knows +the lucky rip has got a heavier swag than ever, but we shan't get it so +cheap, if we do at all." + +"Why not?" + +"He is on his guard now, night and day, and what is more he has got +friends in the mine that would hang me or you either up to dry, if they +but caught us looking too near his tent." + +"The ruffians. Well, but if he has friends he has enemies." + +"Not so many; none that I know of but you and me. I wonder what he has +done to you?" + +The other waived this question and replied: "I have found two parties +that hate him; two that came in last week." + +"Have you? then, if you are in earnest, make me acquainted with them, +for I am weak-handed; I lost one of my pals yesterday." + +"Indeed! how?" + +"They caught him at work and gave him a rap over the head with a spade. +The more ---- fool he for being caught. Here is to his memory." + +"Ugh! what, is he, is he--" + +"Dead as a herring." + +"Where shall we all go to? What lawless fellows these diggers are. I +will bring you the men." + +For the last two months the serpentine man had wound in and out the +camp, poking about for a villain of the darker sort as minutely as +Diogenes did for an honest man, and dispensing liquor and watching looks +and words. He found rogues galore, and envious spirits that wished the +friends ill, but none of them seemed game to risk their lives against +two men, one of whom said openly he would kill any stranger he caught in +his tent, and whom some fifty stout fellows called Captain Robinson, and +were ready to take up his quarrel like fire. But at last he fell in +with two old lags, who had a deadly grudge against the captain, and a +sovereign contempt for him into the bargain. By the aid of liquor he +wormed out their story. This was the marrow of it: The captain had been +their pal, and, while they were all three cracking a crib, had with +unexampled treachery betrayed them, and got them laid by the heels for +nearly a year; in fact, if they had not broken prison they would not +have been here now. In short, in less than half an hour he returned with +our old acquaintances, brutus and mephistopheles. + +These two came half reluctant, suspicious and reserved. But at sight +of Black Will they were reassured, villain was so stamped on him. With +instantaneous sympathy and an instinct of confidence the three compared +notes, and showed how each had been aggrieved by the common enemy. Next +they held a council of war, the grand object of which was to hit upon +some plan of robbing the friends of their new swag. + +It was a difficult and very dangerous job. Plans were proposed and +rejected, and nothing agreed upon but this, that the men should be +carefully watched for days to find out where they kept their gold at +night and where by day, and an attempt timed and regulated accordingly. +Moreover, the same afternoon a special gang of six was formed, including +Walker, which pitiful fox was greatly patronized by the black-maned +lion. At sight of him, brutus, who knew him not indeed by name but by +a literary transaction, was "for laying on," but his patron interposed, +and, having inquired and heard the offense, bellowed with laughter, +and condemned the ex-peddler to a fine of half a crown in grog. This +softened brutus, and a harmonious debauch succeeded. Like the old +Egyptians they debated first sober and then drunk, and to stagger my +general notion that the ancients were unwise, candor compels me to own, +it was while stammering, maudling, stinking and in every sense drunk +that mephistopheles driveled out a scheme so cunning and so new as +threw everybody and everything into the shade. It was carried by +hiccoughation. + +To work this scheme mephistopheles required a beautiful large new tent; +the serpentine man bought it. Money to feed the gang; serpent advanced +it. + +Robinson's tent was about thirty yards from his claim, which its one +opening faced. So he and George worked with an eye ever upon their tent. +At night two men of Robinson's party patrolled armed to the teeth; they +relieved guard every two hours. Captain Robinson's orders to these men, +if they saw anybody doing anything suspicious after dark, were these: + + First fire, + Then inquire. + +This general order was matter of publicity for a quarter of a mile +round Robinson's tent, and added to his popularity and our rascals' +perplexities. + +These orders had surely the double merit of conciseness and melody; +well, for all that, they were disgustingly offensive to one true friend +of the captain, viz., to George Fielding. + +"What is all the gold in the world compared with a man's life?" said he, +indignantly. + +"An ounce of it is worth half a dozen such lives as some here," was the +cool reply. + +"I have heard you talk very different. I mind when you could make +excuses even for thieves that were never taught any better, poor +unfortunate souls." + +"Did I?" said the captain, a little taken aback. "Well, perhaps I did; +it was natural, hem, under the circumstances. No! not for such thieves +as these, that haven't got any honor at all." + +"Honor, eh?" + +"Yes! honor. Look here, suppose in my unconverted days I had broke into +a jeweler's shop (that comes nearest to a mine) with four or five pals, +do you think I should have held it lawful to rob my pals of any part of +the swag just because we happened to be robbing a silversmith? Certainly +not; I assure you, George, the punishment of such a nasty, sneaking, +dishonorable act would be death in every gang, and cheap, too. Well, we +have broken into Nature's shop here, and we are to rifle her, and not +turn to like unnatural monsters, and rob our ten thousand pals." + +"Thieving is thieving, in my view," was the prejudiced reply. + +"And hanging is hanging--as all thieves shall find if caught +convenient." + +"You make my flesh creep, Tom. I liked you better when you were not so +great a man, more humble like; have you forgotten when you had to make +excuses for yourself; then you had Susan on your side and brought me +round, for I was bitter against theft; but never so bad as you are now." + +"Oh, never mind what I said in those days; why, you must be well aware +I did not know what I was talking about. I had been a rogue and a fool, +and I talked like both. But now I am a man of property, and my eyes are +open and my conscience revolts against theft, and the gallows is the +finest institution going, and next to that comes a jolly good prison. I +wish there was one in this mine as big as Pentonville, then property--" + +Here the dialogue was closed by the demand the pick made upon the man of +property's breath. But it rankled, and on laying down the pick he burst +out: "Well, to think of an honest man like you having a word to say for +thieving. Why, it is a despicable trait in a gold mine. I'll go farther, +I'll prove it is the sin of sins all round the world. Stolen money never +thrives--goes for drink and nonsense. Now you pick and I'll wash. Theft +corrupts the man that is robbed as well as the thief; drives him to +despair and drink and ruin temporal and eternal. No country could stand +half an hour without law!! The very honest would turn thieves if not +protected, and there would be a go. Besides, this great crime is like a +trunk railway, other little crimes run into it and out of it; lies buzz +about it like these Australian flies--drat you! Drunkenness precedes and +follows it, and perjury rushes to its defense." + +"Well, Tom, you are a beautiful speaker." + +"I haven't done yet. What wonder it degrades a man when a dog loses his +dignity under it. Behold the dog who has stolen; look at Carlo yesterday +when he demeaned himself to prig Jem's dinner (the sly brute won't look +at ours). How mean he cut with his tail under his belly, instead of +turning out to meet folk all jolly and waggle-um-tail-um as on other +occasions--Hallo, you, sir! what are you doing so near our tent?" and up +jumped the man of property and ran cocking a revolver to a party who was +kneeling close to the friends' tent. + +The man looked up coolly; he was on his knees. + +"We are newly arrived and just going to pitch, and a digger told us +we must not come within thirty yards of the captain's tent, so we are +measuring the distance." + +"Well, measure it--and keep it." + +Robinson stayed by his tent till the man, whose face was strange to him, +had measured and marked the ground. Soon after the tent in question +was pitched, and it looked so large and new that the man of property's +suspicions were lulled. + +"It is all right," said he, "tent is worth twenty pounds at the lowest +farthing." + +While Black Will and his gang were scheming to get the friends' gold, +Robinson, though conscious only of his general danger, grew more and +more nervous as the bag grew heavier, and strengthened his defenses +every day. + +This very day one was added to the cause of order in a very +characteristic way. I must first observe that Mr. McLaughlan had become +George's bailiff, that is, on discovery of the gold he had agreed to +incorporate George's flocks, to use his ground and to account to him, +sharing the profits, and George running the risks. George had, however, +encumbered the property with Abner as herdsman. That worthy had come +whining to him lame of one leg from a blow on the head, which he +convinced George Jacky had given him with his battle-ax. + +"I'm spoiled for life and by your savage. I have lost my place; do +something for me." + +Good-hearted George did as related, and moreover promised to give Jacky +a hiding if ever he caught him again. George's aversion to bloodshed is +matter of history; it was also his creed that a good hiding did nobody +any harm. + +Now it was sheep-shearing time and McLaughlan was short of hands; he +came into the mine to see whether out of so many thousands he could not +find four or five who would shear instead of digging. + +When he put the question to George, George shook his head doubtfully. +"However," said he, "look out for some unlucky ones, that is your best +chance, leastways your only one." + +So McLaughlan went cannily about listening here and there to the men +who were now at their dinners, and he found Ede's gang grumbling and +growling with their mouths full; in short, enjoying at the same time a +good dinner and an Englishman's grace. + +"This will do," thought the Scot, misled like continental nations by +that little trait of ours; he opened the ball. + +"I'm saying--my lads--will ye gie ower this _weary warrk a wee whilee_ +and sheer a wheen sheep to me?" + +The men looked in his face, then at one another, and the proposal struck +them as singularly droll. They burst out laughing in his face. + +McLaughlan (keeping his temper thoroughly, but not without a severe +struggle). "Oh, fine I ken I'll ha'e to pay a maist deevelich price for +your highnesses--aweel, I'se pay--aw thing has its price; jaast name +your wage for shearing five hunder sheep." + +The men whispered together. The Scot congratulated himself on his +success; it would be a question of price, after all. + +"We will do it for--the wool." + +"Th' 'oo?--oo ay! but hoo muckle o' th' 'oo? for ye ken--" + +"How muckle? why, all." + +"A' the 'oo! ye blackguard, ye're no blate." + +"Keep your temper, farmer, it is not worth our while to shear sheep for +less than that." + +"De'il go wi' ye then!" and he moved off in great dudgeon. + +"Stop," cried the captain, "you and I are acquainted--you lived out +Wellington way--me and another wandered to your hut one day and you gave +us our supper." + +"Ay, lad, I mind o' ye the noo!" + +"The jolliest supper ever I had--a haggis you called it." + +"Ay, did I, my fine lad. I cookit it till ye myssel. Ye meicht help me +for ane." + +"I will," said Captain Ede; and a conference took place in a whisper +between him and his men. + +"It is a' reicht the noo!" thought McLaughlan. + +"We have an offer to make you," said Ede, respectfully. + +"Let us hear't." + +"Our party is large; we want a cook for it, and we offer you the place +in return for past kindness." + +"Me a cuik, y' impudent vagabond!" cried the Caledonian, red as a +turkey-cock; and, if a look could have crushed a party of eight, their +hole had been their grave. + +McLaughlan took seven ireful steps--wide ones--then his hot anger +assumed a cold, sardonic form, he returned, and with blighting satire +speered this question by way of gratifying an ironical curiosity. + +"An' whaat would ye ha'e the cheek t'offer a McLanghlan to cuik till ye, +you that kens sae fine the price o' wark?" + +"Thirty shillings." + +"Thretty shilling the week for a McLaughlan!" + +"The week," cried Ede, "nonsense--thirty shillings a day of course. We +sell work for gold, sir, and we give gold for it; look here!" and he +suddenly bared a sturdy brown arm, and, smacking it, cried, "That is +dirt where you come from, but it is gold here." + +"Ye're a fine lad," said the Scot, smoothly, "and ye've a boeny aerm," +added he, looking down at it. "I'se no deny that. I'm thinking--I'll +just come--and cuik till ye a wee--for auld lang syne--thretty schelln +the day--an' ye'll buy the flesh o' me. I'll sell it a hantle cheaper +than thir warldly-minded fleshers." + +Bref, he came to be shorn, and remained to fleece. + +He went and told George what he had done. + +"Hech! hech!" whined he, "thir's a maist awfu' come doon for the +McLaughlans---but wha wadna' stuip to lift gowd?" + +He left his head man, a countryman of his own, in charge of the flocks, +and tarried in the mine. He gave great satisfaction, except that he used +to make his masters wait for dinner while he pronounced a thundering +long benediction; but his cookery compensated the delay. + +Robinson enrolled him in his police and it was the fashion openly to +quiz, and secretly respect him. + +Robinson also made friends with the women, in particular with one Mary +McDogherty, wife of a very unsuccessful digger. Many a pound of potatoes +Pat and she had from the captain, and this getting wind secured the good +will of the Irish boys. + + + +CHAPTER LXI. + +GEORGE was very homesick. + +"Haven't we got a thousand pounds apiece yet?" + +"Hush! no! not quite; but too much to bawl about." + +"And we never shall till you take my advice, and trace the gold to its +home in the high rocks. Here we are plodding for dust, and one good +nugget would make us." + +"Well! well!" said Robinson, "the moment the dry weather goes you shall +show me the home of the gold." Poor George and his nuggets! + +"That is a bargain," said George, "and now I have something more to say. +Why keep so much gold in our tent? It makes me fret. I am for selling +some of it to Mr. Levi. + +"What, at three pounds the ounce? not if I know it." + +"Then why not leave it with him to keep?" + +"Because it is safer in its little hole in our tent. What do the diggers +care for Mr. Levi? You and I respect him, but I am the man they swear +by. No, George, Tom Weasel isn't caught napping twice in the same year. +Don't you see I've been working this four months past to make my tent +safe? and I've done it. It is watched for me night and day, and if our +swag was in the Bank of England it wouldn't be safer than it is. Put +that in your pipe. Well, Carlo, what is the news in your part?" + +Carlo came running up to George, and licked his face, which just rose +above the hole. + +"What is it, Carlo?" asked George, in some astonishment. + +"Ha! ha!" laughed the other. "Here is the very dog come out to encourage +his faint-hearted master." + +"No!" said George, "it can't be that--he means something--be quiet, +Carlo, licking me to pieces--but what it is Heaven only knows; don't you +encourage him; he has no business out of the tent--go back, Carlo--go +into kennel, sir;" and off slunk Carlo back into the tent, of which he +was the day sentinel. + +"Tom," remarked George, thoughtfully, "I believe Carlo wanted to show me +something; he is a wonderful wise dog." + +"Nonsense," cried Robinson, sharply, "he heard you at the old lay, +grumbling, and came to say cheer up, old fellow." + +While Robinson was thus quizzing George, a tremendous noise was suddenly +heard in their tent. A scuffle--a fierce, muffled snarl--and a human +yell; with a cry, almost as loud, the men bounded out of their +hole, and, the blood running like melting ice down their backs with +apprehension, burst into the tent; then they came upon a sight that +almost drew the eyes out of their heads. + +In the center of the tent, not six inches from their buried treasure, +was the head of a man emerging from the bowels of the earth, and cursing +and yelling, for Carlo had seized his head by the nape of the neck, and +bitten it so deep that the blood literally squirted, and was stamping +and going back snarling and pulling and hauling in fierce jerks to +extract it from the earth, while the burly-headed ruffian it belonged +to, cramped by his situation, and pounced on unawares by the fiery +teeth, was striving and battling to get down into the earth again. Spite +of his disadvantage, such were his strength and despair that he now +swung the dog backward and forward. But the men burst in. George seized +him by the hair of his head, Tom by the shoulder, and with Carlo's help, +wrenched him on to the floor of the tent, where he was flung on his +back with Tom's revolver at his temple, and Carlo flew round and round +barking furiously, and now and then coming flying at him; on which +occasions he was always warded off by George's strong arm, and passed +devious, his teeth clicking together like machinery, the snap and the +rush being all one design that must succeed or fail together. Captain +Robinson put his lips to his whistle, and the tent was full of his +friends in a moment. + +"Get me a bullock rope." + +"Ay!" + +"And drive a stout pole into the ground." + +"Ay!" + +In less than five minutes brutus was tied up to a post in the sun, with +a placard on his breast on which was written in enormous letters-- + + THIEF + +(and underneath in smaller letters--) + + Caught trying to shake Captain Robinson's tent. + First offense. + N B--To be hanged next time. + +Then a crier was sent through the mine to invite inspection of brutus's +features, and ere sunset thousands looked into his face, and when he +tried to lower it pulled it savagely up. + +"I shall know you again, my lad," was the common remark, "and, if I +catch you too near my tent, rope or revolver, one of the two." + +Captain Robinson's men did not waste five minutes with brutus. They tied +him to the stake, and dashed into their holes to make up lost time, but +Robinson and George remained quiet in their tent. + +"George," said Tom, in a low, contrite, humble voice, "let us return +thanks to Heaven, for vain is man's skill." + +And they did. + +"George," said Tom, rising from his knees, "the conceit is taken out of +me for about the twentieth time; I felt so strong and I was nobody. The +danger came in a way I never dreamed, and when it had come we were saved +by a friend I never valued. Give a paw, Carlo." + +Carlo gave a paw. + +"He has been a good friend to us this day," said George. "I see it all +now; he must have heard the earth move and did not understand it so he +came for me, and, when you would not let me go, he went back, and says +he, 'I dare to say it is a rabbit burrowing up.' So he waited still as +death, watching, and nailed six feet of vermin instead of bunny." + +Here they both fell to caressing Carlo, who jumped and barked and +finished with a pretended onslaught on the captain as he was kneeling, +looking at their so late imperiled gold, and knocked him over and +slobbered his face when he was down. Opinions varied, but the impression +was he knew he had been a clever dog. This same evening, Jem made a +collar for him on which was written "Policeman C." + +The fine new tent was entered and found deserted, nothing there but +an enormous mound of earth that came out of the subterranean, which +Robinson got a light and inspected all the way to its _debouchure_ in +his own tent. As he returned, holding up his light and peering about, +he noticed something glitter at the top of the arch; he held the light +close to it and saw a speck or two of gold sparkling here and there. He +took out his knife and scraped the roof in places, and brought to light +in detached pieces a layer of gold-dust about the substance of a sheet +of blotting-paper and full three yards wide; it crossed the subterranean +at right angles, dipping apparently about an inch in two yards. The +conduct of brutus and co. had been typical. They had been so bent on +theft, that they were blind to the pocketfuls of honest, safe, easy +gold they rubbed their very eyes and their thick skulls against on their +subterraneous path to danger and crime. + +Two courses occurred to Robinson; one was to try and monopolize this +vein of gold, the other to take his share of it and make the rest add to +his popularity and influence in the mine. He chose the latter, for the +bumptiousness was chilled in him. This second attack on his tent made +him tremble. + +"I am a marked man," said he. "Well, if I have enemies, the more need to +get friends all round me." + +I must here observe that many men failed altogether at the gold diggings +and returned in rags and tatters to the towns; many others found a +little, enough to live like a gentleman anywhere else, but too little +for bare existence in a place where an egg cost a shilling, a cabbage a +shilling, and baking two pounds of beef one shilling and sixpence, and +a pair of mining boots eight pounds, and a frying-pan thirty shillings, +and so on. + +Besides, the hundreds that fell by diarrhea, their hands clutching in +vain the gold that could not follow them, many a poor fellow died of a +broken heart and hardships suffered in vain, and some, long unlucky +but persevering, suddenly surprised by a rich find of gold, fell by +the shock of good fortune, went raving mad, dazzled by the gold, +and perished miserably. For here all was on a great heroic scale, +starvation, wealth, industry, crime, retribution, madness and disease. + +Now the good-natured captain had his eye upon four unlucky men at this +identical moment. + +No. 1, Mr. Miles, his old master, who, having run through his means, had +come to the diggings. He had joined a gang of five; they made only about +three pounds a week each, and had expelled him, alleging that his work +was not quite up to their mark. He was left without a mate and earned +a precarious livelihood without complaining, for he was game; but +Robinson's quick eye and ear saw his clothes were shabby and that he had +given up his ha! ha! ha! + +No. 2, Jem, whose mate had run away and robbed him, and he was left +solus with his tools. + +No. 3, Mr. Stevens, an accomplished scholar, and, above all, linguist, +broad in the forehead but narrow in the chest, who had been successively +rejected by five gangs and was now at a discount. He picked up a few +shillings by interpreting, but it was a suspicious circumstance that he +often came two miles from his end of the camp to see Robinson just at +dinner-time. Then a look used to pass between those two good-hearted +creatures, and Mr. Stevens was served first and Carlo docked till +evening. Titles prevailed but little in the mine. They generally +addressed the males of our species thus: + +"Hi! man!" + +The females thus: + +"Hi! woman!" + +The Spartans! but these two made an exception in favor of this reduced +scholar. They called him "Sir," and felt abashed his black coat should +be so rusty; and they gave him the gristly bits, for he was not working, +but always served him first. + +No. 4, Unlucky Jack, a digger. This man really seemed to be unlucky. +Gangs would find the stuff on four sides of him, and he none; his +last party had dissolved, owing they said to his ill-luck, and he was +forlorn. These four Robinson convened, with the help of Mary McDogherty, +who went for Stevens; and made them a little speech, telling them he had +seen all their four ill-lucks, and was going to end that with one blow. +He then, taking the direction of brutus's gold-vein, marked them out +a claim full forty yards off, and himself one close to them; organized +them, and set them working in high spirits, tremulous expectation, and +a fervor of gratitude to him, and kindly feeling toward their unlucky +comrades. + +"You won't find anything for six feet," said the captain. "Meantime, all +of you turn to and tell the rest how you were the unluckiest man in the +whole mine--till you fell in with me--he! he!" + +And the captain chuckled. His elastic vanity was fast recovering from +brutus, and his spirits rising. + +Toward evening he collected his whole faction, got on the top of two +cradles, made a speech, thanked them for their good-will, and told them +he had now an opportunity of making them a return. He had discovered a +vein of gold which he could have kept all to himself, but it was more +just and more generous to share it with his partisans. + +"Now, pass through this little mine one at a time," said he, "and look +at the roof, where I have stuck the two lighted candles, and then pass +on quick to make room for others." + +The men dived one after another, examined the roof, and, rushing wildly +out at the other end in great excitement, ran and marked out claims on +both sides of the subterranean. + +But, with all their greediness and eagerness, they left ten feet square +untouched on each side the subterranean. + +"What is this left for?" + +"That is left for the clever fellow that found the gold after a thief +had missed it," cried one. + +"And for the generous fellow that parted his find," roared another, from +a distance. + +Robinson seemed to reflect. + +"No! I won't spoil the meat by cutting myself the fat--no! I am a +digger, but not only a digger, I aspire to the honor of being a captain +of diggers; my claim lies out there." + +"Hurrah; three cheers for Captain Robinson!" + +"Will you do me a favor in return?" + +"Hurrah! won't we?" + +"I am going to petition the governor to send us out police to guard our +tents." + +"Hurrah!" + +"And even beaks, if necessary" (doubtful murmurs). "And, above all, +soldiers to take our gold safe down to Sydney." + +"Hurrah!" + +"Where we can sell it at three fifteen the ounce." + +"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +"Instead of giving it away here for three pounds, and then being robbed. +If you will all sign, Mr. Stevens and I will draw up the petition; no +country can stand without law!" + +"Hurrah for Captain Robinson, the diggers' friend." + +And the wild fellows jumped out of the holes, and four seized the +diggers' friend, and they chaired him in their rough way, and they put +Carlo into a cradle, and raised him high, and chaired him; and both man +and dog were right glad to get safe out of the precarious honor. + +The proceedings ended by brutus being loosed and set between two long +lines of men with lumps of clay, and pelted and knocked down, and +knocked up again, and driven, bruised, battered and bleeding, out of +that part of the camp. He found his way to a little dirty tent not much +bigger than a badger's hole, crawled in, and sank down in a fainting +state, and lay on his back stiff and fevered, and smarting soul and body +many days. + +And while Robinson was exulting in his skill, his good fortune, +his popularity, his swelling bag, and the constabulary force he +was collecting and heading, this tortured ruffian, driven to utter +desperation by the exposure of his features to all the camp with "Thief" +blazing on him, lay groaning stiff and sore--but lived for revenge. + +"Let him keep his gold--I don't care for his gold now. I'll have his +blood!" + + + +CHAPTER LXII. + +"I WONDER at you giving away the claim that lay close to the gold; it is +all very well to be generous, but you forget--Susan." + +"Don't you be silly, George. The vein dips, and those that cut down on +it where it is horizontalish will get a little; we, that nick it nearly +verticalish, will get three times as much out of a ten-foot square +claim." + +"Well! you are a sharp fellow, to be sure; but, if it is so, why on +earth did you make a favor to them of giving them the milk and taking +the cream?" + +"Policy, George! policy!" + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. + +SUNDAY. + +"TOM, I invite you to a walk." + +"Ay! ay! I'd give twenty pounds for one; but the swag?" + +"Leave it this one day with Mr. Levi; he has got two young men always +armed in his tent, and a little peevish dog, and gutta-percha pipes +running into all the Jews' tents that are at his back like chicks after +the old hen." + +"Oh, he is a deep one." + +"And he has got mouth-pieces to them, and so he could bring thirty men +upon a thief in less than half a minute." + +"Well, then, George! a walk is a great temptation, this beautiful day." + +In short, by eight o'clock the gold was deposited, and the three +friends, for Policeman C must count for one, stepped lustily out in the +morning air. + +It was the month of January; a blazing hot day was beginning to glow +through the freshness of morning; the sky was one cope of pure blue, and +the southern air crept slowly up, its wings clogged with fragrance, and +just tuned the trembling leaves--no more. + +"Is not this pleasant, Tom--isn't it sweet?" + +"I believe you, George! and what a shame to run down such a country as +this. There they come home, and tell you the flowers have no smell, but +they keep dark about the trees and bushes being haystacks of flowers. +Snuff the air as we go, it is a thousand English gardens in one. Look +at all those tea-scrubs each with a thousand blossoms on it as sweet as +honey, and the golden wattles on the other side, and all smelling like +seven o'clock; after which flowers be hanged!" + +"Ay, lad! it is very refreshing; and it is Sunday, and we have got away +from the wicked for an hour or two; but in England there would be a +little white church out yonder, and a spire like an angel's forefinger +pointing from the grass to heaven, and the lads in their clean +smock-frocks like snow, and the wenches in their white stockings and new +shawls, and the old women in their scarlet cloaks and black bonnets, all +going one road, and a tinkle-tinkle from the belfry, that would turn all +these other sounds and colors and sweet smells holy, as well as fair, on +the Sabbath morn. Ah! England. Ah!" + +"You will see her again--no need to sigh." + +"Oh, I was not thinking of her in particular just then." + +"Of who?" + +"Of Susan!" + +"Prejudice be hanged, this is a lovely land." + +"So 'tis, Tom, so 'tis. But I'll tell you what puts me out a little bit; +nothing is what it sets up for here. If you see a ripe pear and go to +eat it,--it is a lump of hard wood. Next comes a thing the very sight of +which turns your stomach--and that is delicious, a loquot, for instance. +There now, look at that magpie! well, it is Australia--so that magpie +is a crow and not a magpie at all. Everything pretends to be some old +friend or other of mine, and turns out a stranger. Here is nothing but +surprises and deceptions. The flowers make a point of not smelling, and +the bushes that nobody expects to smell, or wants to smell, they smell +lovely. + +"What does it matter where the smell comes from, so that you get it?" + +"Why, Tom," replied George, opening his eyes, "it makes all the +difference. I like to smell a flower--flower is not complete without +smell--but I don't care if I never smell a bush till I die. Then the +birds they laugh and talk like Christians; they make me split my sides, +God bless their little hearts; but they won't chirrup. Oh, dear, no, +bless you, they leave the Christians to chirrup--they hold conversations +and giggle and laugh and play a thing like a fiddle--it is Australia! +where everything is inside-out and topsy-turvy. The animals have four +legs, so they jump on two. Ten-foot square of rock lets for a pound a +month; ten acres of grass for a shilling a year. Roasted at Christmas, +shiver o' cold on midsummer-day. The lakes are grass, and the rivers +turn their backs on the sea and run into the heart of the land; and the +men would stand on their heads, but I have taken a thought, and I've +found out why they don't." + +"Why?" + +"Because if they did their heads would point the same way a man's head +points in England." + +Robinson laughed, and told George he admired the country for these very +traits. "Novelty for me against the world. Who'd come twelve thousand +miles to see nothing we couldn't see at home? Hang the same old story +always; where are we going, George?" + +"Oh, not much farther, only about twelve miles from the camp?" + +"Where to?" + +"To a farmer I know. I am going to show you a lark, Tom," said George. +His eyes beamed benevolence on his comrade. + +Robinson stopped dead short. "George," said he, "no! don't let us. I +would rather stay at home and read my book. You can go into temptation +and come out pure; I can't. I am one of those that, if I go into a +puddle up to my shoe, I must splash up to my middle." + +"What has that to do with it?" + +"Your proposing to me to go in for a lark on the Sabbath day. + +"Why, Tom, am I the man to tempt you to do evil?" asked George, hurt. + +"Why, no! but, for all that, you proposed a lark." + +"Ay, but an innocent one, one more likely to lift your heart on high +than to give you ill thoughts." + +"Well, this is a riddle;" and Robinson was intensely puzzled. + +"Carlo," cried George, suddenly, "come here. I will not have you hunting +and tormenting those kangaroo rats to-day. Let us all be at peace, if +you please. Come to heel." + +The friends strode briskly on, and a little after eleven o'clock they +came upon a small squatter's house and premises. "Here we are," cried +George, and his eyes glittered with innocent delight. + +The house was thatched and whitewashed, and English was written on it +and on every foot of ground round it. A furzebush had been planted by +the door. Vertical oak palings were the fence, with a five-barred gate +in the middle of them. From the little plantation all the magnificent +trees and shrubs of Australia had been excluded with amazing resolution +and consistency, and oak and ash reigned safe from overtowering rivals. +They passed to the back of the house, and there George's countenance +fell a little, for on the oval grass-plot and gravel walk he found from +thirty to forty rough fellows, most of them diggers. + +"Ah, well," said he, on reflection, "we could not expect to have it all +to ourselves, and indeed it would be a sin to wish it, you know. Now, +Tom, come this way; here it is, here it is--there." Tom looked up, and +in a gigantic cage was a light brown bird. + +He was utterly confounded. "What, is it this we came twelve miles to +see?" + +"Ay! and twice twelve wouldn't have been much to me." + +"Well, but what is the lark you talked of?" + +"This is it." + +"This? This is a bird." + +"Well, and isn't a lark a bird?" + +"Oh, ay! I see! ha! ha! ha! ha!" + +Robinson's merriment was interrupted by a harsh remonstrance from +several of the diggers, who were all from the other end of the camp. + +"Hold your ---- cackle," cried one, "he is going to sing;" and the whole +party had their eyes turned with expectation toward the bird. + +Like most singers, he kept them waiting a bit. But at last, just at +noon, when the mistress of the house had warranted him to sing, the +little feathered exile began as it were to tune his pipes. The savage +men gathered round the cage that moment, and amid a dead stillness the +bird uttered some very uncertain chirps, but after a while he seemed to +revive his memories, and call his ancient cadences back him to one by +one, and string them sotto voce. + +And then the same sun that had warmed his little heart at home came +glowing down on him here, and he gave music back for it more and more, +till at last--amid breathless silence and glistening eyes of the rough +diggers hanging on his voice--out burst in that distant land his English +song. + +It swelled his little throat and gushed from him with thrilling force +and plenty, and every time he checked his song to think of its theme, +the green meadows, the quiet stealing streams, the clover he first +soared from, and the spring he sang so well, a loud sigh from many a +rough bosom, many a wild and wicked heart, told how tight the listeners +had held their breath to hear him; and when he swelled with song again, +and poured with all his soul the green meadows, the quiet brooks, the +honey clover and the English spring, the rugged mouths opened and so +stayed, and the shaggy lips trembled, and more than one drop trickled +from fierce unbridled hearts down bronzed and rugged cheeks. + +_Dulce dornurn!_ + +And these shaggy men, full of oaths and strife and cupidity, had once +been white-headed boys, and had strolled about the English fields with +little sisters and little brothers, and seen the lark rise, and heard +him sing this very song. The little playmates lay in the churchyard, and +they were full of oaths and drink and lusts and remorses--but no note +was changed in this immortal song. And so for a moment or two years of +vice rolled away like a dark cloud from the memory, and the past shone +out in the song-shine. They came back, bright as the immortal notes that +lighted them, those faded pictures and those fleeted days; the cottage, +the old mother's tears when he left her without one grain of sorrow; the +village-church and its simple chimes; the clover-field hard by in which +he lay and gamboled, while the lark praised God overhead; the chubby +playmates that never grew to be wicked, the sweet hours of youth--and +innocence--and home. + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. + +"WHAT will you take for him, mistress? I will give you five pounds for +him." + +"No! no! I won't take five pounds for my bird!" + +"Of course she won't," cried another, "she wouldn't be such a flat. +Here, missus," cried he, "I'll give you that for him;" and he extended a +brown hand with at least thirty new sovereigns glittering in it. + +The woman trembled; she and her husband were just emerging from poverty +after a hard fight. "Oh!" she cried, "it is a shame to tempt a poor +woman with so much gold. We had six brought over, and all died on the +way but this one!" and she threw her white apron over her head, not to +see the glittering bribe. + +"---- you, put the blunt up and don't tempt the woman," was the cry. +Another added: "Why, you fool, it wouldn't live a week if you had it," +and they all abused the merchant. But the woman turned to him kindly and +said: + +"You come to me every Sunday, and he shall sing to you. You will get +more pleasure from him so," said she, sweetly, "than if he was always by +you." + +"So I will, old girl," replied the rough, in a friendly tone. + +George stayed till the lark gave up singing altogether, and then he +said: "Now I am off. I don't want to hear bad language after that; let +us take the lark's chirp home to bed with us;" and they made off; and +true it was the pure strains dwelt upon their spirits, and refreshed and +purified these sojourners in a godless place. Meeting these two figures +on Sunday afternoon, armed each with a double-barreled gun and a +revolver, you would never have guessed what gentle thoughts possessed +them wholly. They talked less than they did coming, but they felt so +quiet and happy. + +"The pretty bird," purred George (seeing him by the ear), "I feel after +him--there--as if I had just come out o' church." + +"So do I, George, and I think his song must be a psalm, if we knew all." + +"That it is, for Heaven taught it him. We must try and keep all this in +our hearts when we get among the broken bottles, and foul language, and +gold," says George. "How sweet it all smells, sweeter than before." + +"That is because it is afternoon." + +"Yes! or along of the music; that tune was a breath from home that makes +everything please me. Now this is the first Sunday that has looked, and +smelled, and sounded Sunday." + +"George, it is hard to believe the world is wicked. Everything seems +good, and gentle, and at peace with heaven and earth." + +A jet of smoke issued from the bush, followed by the report of a gun, +and Carlo, who had taken advantage of George's revery to slip on ahead, +gave a sharp howl, and spun round upon all fours. + +"The scoundrels!" shrieked Robinson. And in a moment his gun was at his +shoulder, and he fired both barrels slap into the spot whence the smoke +had issued. + +Both the men dashed up and sprang into the bush revolver in hand, but +ere they could reach it the dastard had run for it; and the scrub was so +thick pursuit was hopeless. The men returned full of anxiety for Carlo. + +The dog met them, his tail between his legs, but at sight of George he +wagged his tail, and came to him and licked George's hand, and walked on +with them, licking George's hand every now and then. + +"Look, Tom, he is as sensible as a Christian. He knows the shot was +meant for him, though they didn't hit him." + +By this time the men had got out of the wood, and pursued their road, +but not with tranquil hearts. Sunday ended with the noise of that +coward's gun. They walked on hastily, guns ready, fingers on trigger--at +war. Suddenly Robinson looked back, and stopped and drew George's +attention to Carlo. He was standing with all his four legs wide apart, +like a statue. + +George called him; he came directly, and was for licking George's hand, +but George pulled him about and examined him all over. + +"I wish they may not have hurt him after all, the butchers; they have, +too. See here, Tom, here is one streak of blood on his belly, nothing to +hurt, though, I do hope. Never mind, Carlo," cried George, "it is only +a single shot by what I can see, 'tisn't like when Will put the whole +charge into you, rabbit-shooting, is it, Carlo? No, says he; we don't +care for this, do we, Carlo?" cried George, rather boisterously. + +"Make him go into that pool, there," said Robinson; "then he won't have +fever." + +"I will; here--cess! cess!" He threw a stone into the pool of water +that lay a little off the road, and Carlo went in after it without +hesitation, though not with his usual alacrity. After an unsuccessful +attempt to recover the stone he swam out lower down, and came back to +the men and wagged his tail slowly, and walked behind George. + +They went on. + +"Tom," said George, after a pause, "I don't like it." + +"Don't like what?" + +"He never so much as shook himself." + +"What of that? He did shake himself, I should say." + +"Not as should be. Who ever saw a dog come out of the water and not +shake himself? Carlo, hie, Carlo!" and George threw a stone along the +ground, after which Carlo trotted; but his limbs seemed to work stiffly; +the stone spun round a sharp corner in the road, the dog followed it. + +"He will do now," said Robinson. + +They walked briskly on. On turning the corner they found Carlo sitting +up and shivering, with the stone between his paws. + +"We must not let him sit," said Tom; "keep his blood warm. I don't think +we ought to have sent him into the water." + +"I don't know," muttered George, gloomily. "Carlo," cried he, +cheerfully, "don't you be down-hearted; there is nothing so bad as +faint-heartedness for man or beast. Come, up and away ye go, and shake +it off like a man." + +Carlo got up and wagged his tail in answer, but he evidently was in no +mood for running; he followed languidly behind. + +"Let us get home," said Robinson; "there is an old pal of mine that is +clever about dogs, he will cut the shot out if there is one in him, and +give him some physic." + +The men strode on, and each, to hide his own uneasiness, chatted about +other matters; but all of a sudden Robinson cried out, "Why, where _is_ +the dog?" They looked back, and there was Carlo some sixty yards in the +rear, but he was not sitting this time, he was lying on his belly. + +"Oh! this is a bad job," cried George. The men ran up in real alarm; +Carlo wagged his tail as soon as they came near him, but he did not get +up. + +"Carlo," cried George, despairingly, "you wouldn't do it, you couldn't +think to do it. Oh, my dear Carlo, it is only making up your mind to +live; keep up your heart, old fellow; don't go to leave us alone among +these villains. My poor, dear, darling dog! Oh, no! he won't live, +he can't live; see how dull his poor, dear eye is getting. Oh, Carlo! +Carlo!" + +At the sound of his master's voice in such distress, Carlo whimpered, +and then he began to stretch his limbs out. At the sight of this +Robinson cried hastily: + +"Rub him, George; we did wrong to send him into the water." + +George rubbed him all over. After rubbing him a while, he said: + +"Tom, I seem to feel him turning to dead under my hand." + +George's hand in rubbing Carlo came round to the dog's shoulder, then +Carlo turned his head and for the third time began to lick George's +hand. George let him lick his hand and gave up rubbing him, for where +was the use? Carlo never left off licking his hand, but feebly, very +feebly, more and more feebly. + +Presently, even while he was licking his hand, the poor thing's teeth +closed slowly on his loving tongue, and then he could lick the beloved +hand no more. Breath fluttered about his body a little while longer; but +in truth he had ceased to live when he could no longer kiss his master's +hand. + +And so the poor single-hearted soul was gone. + +George took it up tenderly in his arms. Robinson made an effort to +console him. "Don't speak to me, if you please," said George, gently +but quickly. He carried it home silently, and laid it silently down in a +corner of the tent. + +Robinson made a fire and put some steaks on, and made George slice some +potatoes to keep him from looking always at what so little while since +was Carlo. Then they sat down silently and gloomily to dinner, it was +long past their usual hour and they were workingmen. Until we die we +dine, come what may. The first part of the meal passed in deep silence. +Then Robinson said sadly: + +"We will go home, George. I fall into your wishes now. Gold can't pay +for what we go through in this hellish place." + +"Not it," replied George, quietly. + +"We are surrounded by enemies." + +"Seems so," was the reply, in a very languid tone. + +"Labor by day and danger by night." + +"Ay," but in a most indifferent tone. + +"And no Sabbath for us two." + +"No!" + +"I'll do my best for you, and when we have five hundred pounds more you +shall go home to Susan." + +"Thank you. He was a good friend to us that lies there under my coat; he +used to lie over it, and then who dare touch it?" + +"No! but don't give way to that, George--do eat a bit, it will do you +good." + +"I will, Tom, I will. Thank you kindly. Ah! now I see why he came to +me and kept licking my hand so the moment he got the hurt. He had +more sense than we had; he knew he and I were to part that hour. And I +tormented his last minutes sending him into the water and after stones, +when the poor thing wanted to be bidding me good-by all the while. Oh, +dear! oh, dear!" and George pushed his scarce-tasted dinner from him, +and left the tent hurriedly, his eyes thick with tears. + +Thus ended this human day so happily begun; and thus the poor dog paid +the price of fidelity this Sunday afternoon. + +_Siste viator iter_--and part with poor Carlo--for whom there are now +no more little passing troubles--no more little simple joys. His duty +is performed, his race is run. Peace be to him, and to all simple and +devoted hearts. Ah me! how rare they are among men! + + +"What are you doing, Tom, if you please?" + +"Laying down a gut line to trip them up when they get into our tent." + +"When--who?" + +"Those that shot Carlo." + +"They won't venture near me. + +"Won't they? What was the dog shot for? They will come--and come to +their death; to-night, I hope. Let them come! you will hear me cry +'Carlo' in their ears as I put my revolver to their skulls and pull the +trigger." + +George said nothing, but he clinched his teeth. After a pause he +muttered, "We should pray against such thoughts." + +Robinson was disappointed, no attack was made; in fact, even if such a +thing was meditated, the captain's friends watched his tent night and +day, and made such a feat a foolhardy enterprise, full of danger from +without and within. + +In the course of the next week a good deal of rain fell and filled many +of the claims, and caused much inaction and distress among the diggers, +and Robinson guarded the tent, and wrote letters and studied Australian +politics, with a view to being shortly a member of Congress in these +parts. George had his wish at last and cruised about looking for the +home of the gold. George recollected to have seen what he described as +a river of quartz sixty feet broad, and running between two black rocks. +It ran in his head that gold in masses was there locked up, for, argued +he, all the nuggets of any size I have seen were more than half quartz. +Robinson had given up debating the point. + +George was uneasy and out of spirits at not hearing from Susan for +several months, and Robinson was for indulging him in everything. + +Poor George! he could not even find his river of quartz. And when he +used to come home day after day empty-handed and with this confession, +the other's lips used to twitch with the hard struggle not to laugh at +him; and he used to see the struggle and be secretly more annoyed than +if he had been laughed out at. + +One afternoon Tom Robinson, internally despising the whole thing, and +perfectly sure in his own mind that there was no river of quartz, but +paternal and indulgent to his friend's one weakness, said to him: + +"I'll tell you how to find this river of quartz, if it is anywhere +except in your own head." + +"I shall be much obliged to you. How?" + +"Jem has come back to camp and he tells me that Jacky is encamped with a +lot more close to the gully he is working--it was on the other side the +bush there-and Jacky inquired very kind after you." + +"The little viper." + +"He grinned from ear to ear, Jem tells me; and says he, 'Me come and see +George a good deal soon,' says he." + +"If he does, George will tan his black hide for him." + +"What makes you hold spite so long against poor Jacky?" + +"He is a little sneaking varmint." + +"He knows every part of this country, and he would show you 'the home +of the gold,'" observed Robinson, restraining his merriment with great +difficulty. + +This cock would not fight, as vulgar wretches say. Jacky had rather +mortified George by deserting him upon the first discovery of gold. "Dis +a good deal stupid," was that worthy's remark on the second day. "When +I hunt tings run, and I run behind and catch dem. You hunt--it not +run--yet you not catch it always. Dat a good deal stupid. Before we hunt +gold you do many tings, now do one; dat a good deal stupid. Before, you +go so (erecting a forefinger); now you always so (crooking it). Dat too +stupid." And with this--whir! my lord was off to the woods. + +On the head of this came Abner limping in, and told how a savage had +been seen creeping after him with a battle-ax, and how he had lain +insensible for days, and now was lame for life. George managed to +forgive Jacky's unkind desertion, but for creeping after Abner and +"spoiling him for life," to use Abner's phrase, he vowed vengeance on +that black hide and heart. + +Now if the truth must be told, Jacky had come back to the camp with Jem, +and would have marched before this into George's tent. But Robinson, +knowing how angry George was with him, and not wishing either Jacky to +be licked or George to be tomahawked, insisted on his staying with Jem +till he had smoothed down his friend's indignation. Soon after this +dialogue Robinson slipped out, and told Jacky to stay with Jem and keep +out of George's way for a day or two. + +And now the sun began to set red as blood, and the place to sparkle far +and wide with the fiery rays emitted from a hundred thousand bottles +that lay sown broadcast over the land; and the thunder of the cradles +ceased, and the accordions came out all over five miles of gold mine. +Their gentler strains lasted till the sun left the sky; then, just at +dusk, came a tremendous discharge of musketry roaring, rattling, and +re-echoing among the rocks. This was tens of thousands of diggers +discharging their muskets and revolvers previous to reloading them for +the night; for, calm as the sun had set to the music of accordions, many +a deadly weapon they knew would be wanted to defend life and gold ere +that same tranquil sun should rise again. + +Thus the tired army slept not at their ease, like other armies, guarded +by sentinels and pickets, but every man in danger every night and every +hour of it. Each man lay in his clothes with a weapon of death in his +hand; Robinson with two, a revolver and a cutlass ground like a razor. +Outside it was all calm and peaceful. No boisterous revelry--all seemed +to sleep innocent and calm in the moonlight after the day of herculean +toil. + +Perhaps if any one eye could have visited the whole enormous camp, the +children of theft and of the night might have been seen prowling and +crawling from one bit of shade to another. But in the part where our +friends lay the moon revealed no human figures but Robinson's patrol, +three men, who, with a dark-lantern and armed to the teeth, went their +rounds and guarded forty tents, above all the captain's. It was at his +tent that guard was relieved every two hours. So all was watched the +livelong night. + +Two pointed rocks connected at the base faced the captain's tent. The +silver rays struck upon their foreheads wet with the vapors of night, +and made them like frost seen through phosphorus. It was startling. The +soul of silver seemed to be sentinel and eye the secret gold below. + +And now a sad, a miserable sound grated on the ear of night. A +lugubrious quail doled forth a grating, dismal note at long but measured +intervals, offending the ear and depressing the heart. This was the only +sound Nature afforded for hours. The neighboring bush, though crammed +with the merriest souls that ever made feathers vibrate and dance with +song, was like a tomb of black marble; not a sound--only this little +raven of a quail tolled her harsh, lugubrious crake. + +Those whose musical creed is Time before Sentiment might have put +up with this night-bird; for to do her justice she was a perfect +timist--one crake in a bar the livelong night; but her tune--ugh! She +was the mother of all files that play on iron throughout the globe. +Crake!--crake!--crake! untuning the night. + +An eye of red light suddenly opened in the silver stream shows three men +standing by a snowy tent. It is the patrol waiting to be relieved. Three +more figures emerge from the distant shade and join them. The first +three melt into the shade. + +Crake! + +The other three remain and mutter. Now they start on their rounds. "What +is that?" mutters one. + +"I'll go and see." Click. + +"Well!" + +"Oh, it is only that brown donkey that cruises about here. She will +break her neck in one of the pits some day." + +"Not she. She is not such an ass." + +These three melted into the night, going their rounds; and now nothing +is left in sight but a thousand cones of snow, and the donkey paddling +carefully among the pits. + +Craake! + +Now the donkey stands a moment still in the moonlight--now he paddles +slowly away and disappears on the dark side the captain's tent. What is +he doing? He stoops--he lies down--he takes off his head and skin and +lays them down. + +It is a man! He draws his knife and puts it between his teeth. A pistol +is in his hand--he crawls on his stomach--the tent is between him and +the patrol. His hand is inside the tent--he finds the opening and winds +like a serpent into the tent. + +Craake! + + + +CHAPTER LXV. + +BLACK WILL no sooner found himself inside the tent than he took out a +dark lantern and opened the slide cautiously. There lay in one corner +the two men fast asleep side by side. Casting the glare around he saw at +his feet a dog with a chain round him. It startled him for a moment--but +only for a moment. He knew that dog was dead. mephistopheles had told +him within an hour after the feat was performed. Close to his very hand +was a pair of miner's boots. He detached them from the canvas and passed +them out of the tent; and now looking closely at the ground he observed +a place where the soil seemed loose. His eye flashed with triumph at +this. He turned up the openings of the tent behind him to make his +retreat clear if necessary. He made at once for the loose soil, and the +moment he moved forward Robinson's gut-lines twisted his feet from under +him. He fell headlong in the middle, and half a dozen little bells rang +furiously at the sleepers' heads. + +Up jumped Tom and George, weapons in hand, but not before Black Will had +wrenched himself clear and bounded back to the door. At the door, in his +rage at being balked, he turned like lightning and leveled his pistol at +Robinson, who was coming at him cutlass in hand. The ex-thief dropped on +his knees and made a furious upward cut at his arm. At one and the same +moment the pistol exploded and the cutlass struck it and knocked it +against the other side of the tent. The bullet passed over Robinson's +head. Black Will gave a yell so frightful that for a moment it paralyzed +the men, and even with this yell he burst backward through the opening, +and with a violent wrench of his left hand brought the whole tent down +and fled, leaving George and Robinson struggling in the canvas like cats +in an empty flour-sack. + +The baffled burglar had fled but a few yards, when, casting his eye +back, he saw their helplessness. Losing danger in hatred he came back, +not now to rob, but murder, his left hand lifted high and gleaming like +his cruel eye. As he prepared to plunge his knife through the canvas, +flash bang! flash bang! bang! came three pistol-shots in his face from +the patrol, who were running right slap at him not thirty yards off, +and now it was life or death. He turned and ran for his life, the patrol +blazing and banging at him. Eighteen shots they fired at him, one after +another; more than one cut his clothes, and one went clean through his +hat, but he was too fleet, he distanced them; but at the reports diggers +peeped out of distant tents, and at sight of him running, flash bang +went a pistol at him from every tent he passed, and George and Robinson, +who had struggled out into the night, saw the red flashes issue, and +then heard the loud reports bellow and re-echo as he dodged about down +the line, and then all was still and calm as death under the cold, pure +stars. + +Craake! + +They put up their tent again. The patrol came panting back. "He has +got off--but he carried some of our lead in him. Go to bed, captain, we +won't leave your tent all night." + +Robinson and George lay down again thus guarded. The patrol sat by the +tent. Two slept, one loaded the arms again and watched. In a few minutes +the friends were actually fast asleep again, lying silent as the vast +camp lay beneath the silver stars. + +Craake! + +And now it was cold, much colder than before, darker, too, no moon now, +only the silver stars; it makes one shiver. Nature seemed to lie stark +and stiff and dead, and that accursed craake her dirge. All tended to +shivering and gloom. Yet a great event approached. + +Craake! + +A single event, a thousand times weightier to the world, each time it +comes, than if with one fell stroke all the kingdoms of the globe became +republics and all the republics empires, so to remain a thousand years. +An event a hundred times more beautiful than any other thing the eye can +hope to see while in the flesh, yet it regaled the other senses, too, +and blessed the universal heart. + +Before this prodigious event came its little heralds sweeping across the +face of night. First came a little motion of cold air--it was dead-still +before; then an undefinable freshness; then a very slight but rather +grateful smell from the soil of the conscious earth. Next twittered from +the bush one little hesitating chirp. + +Craake! went the lugubrious quail, pooh-poohing the suggestion. Then +somehow rocks and forest and tents seemed less indistinct in shape; +outlines peeped where masses had been. + +Jug! jug! went a bird with a sweet jurgle in his deep throat. Craake! +went the ill-omened one directly, disputing the last inch of nature. But +a gray thrush took up the brighter view; otock otock tock! o tuee o o! +o tuee oo! o chio chee! o chio chee! sang the thrush, with a decision +as well as a melody that seemed to say: "Ah! but I am sure of it; I am +sure, I am sure, wake up, joy! joy!" + +From that moment there was no more craake. The lugubrious quail shut up +in despair, perhaps in disdain,* and out gurgled another jug! jug! jug! +as sweet a chuckle as Nature's sweet voice ever uttered in any land; +and with that a mist like a white sheet came to light, but only for a +moment, for it dared not stay to be inspected, "I know who is coming, +I'm off," and away it crept off close to the ground--and little drops of +dew peeped sparkling in the frost-powdered grass. + + * Like anonymous detraction before _vox populi._ + +Yock! yock! O chio faliera po! Otock otock tock! o chio chee! o chio +chee! + +Jug! jug! jug! jug! + +Off we go! off we go! + +And now a thin red streak came into the sky, and perfume burst from the +bushes, and the woods rang, not only with songs some shrill, some as +sweet as honey, but with a grotesque yet beautiful electric merriment of +birds that can only be heard in this land of wonders. The pen can give +but a shadow of the drollery and devilry of the sweet, merry rogues that +hailed the smiling morn. Ten thousand of them, each with half a dozen +songs, besides chattering and talking and imitating the fiddle, the fife +and the trombone. Niel gow! niel gow! niel gow! whined a leather-head. +Take care o' my hat! cries a thrush, in a soft, melancholy voice; then +with frightful harshness and severity, where is your bacca-box! your +box! your box! then before any one could answer, in a tone that said +devil may care where the box is or anything else, gyroc de doc! gyroc +de doc! roc de doc! cheboc cheboc! Then came a tremendous cackle ending +with an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! from the laughing jackass, who had +caught sight of the red streak in the sky--harbinger, like himself, of +morn; and the piping crows or whistling magpies modulating and humming +and chanting, not like birds, but like practiced musicians with rich +baritone voices, and the next moment creaking just for all the world +like Punch, or barking like a pug dog. And the delicious thrush with its +sweet and mellow tune. Nothing in an English wood so honey-sweet as his +otock otock tock! o tuee o o! o tuee o o! o chio chee! o chio chee! + +But the leather-heads beat all. Niel gow! niel gow! niel gow! off we +go! off we go! off we go! followed by rapid conversations, the words +unintelligible but perfectly articulate, and interspersed with the +oddest chuckles, plans of pleasure for the day, no doubt. Then ri tiddle +tiddle tiddle tiddle tiddle tiddle! playing a thing like a fiddle with +wires; then "off we go" again, and bow! wow! wow! jug! jug! jug! jug! +jug! and the whole lot in exuberant spirits, such extravagance of +drollery, such rollicking jollity, evidently splitting their sides with +fun, and not able to contain themselves for it. + +Oh! it was twelve thousand miles above the monotonous and scanty strains +of a European wood; and when the roving and laughing, and harshly +demanding bacca-boxes and then as good as telling you they didn't care +a feather for bacca-boxes or anything else, gyroc de doc! cheboc cheboc +cheboc! and loudly announcing their immediate departure, and perching in +the same place all the more and sweet, low modulations ending in putting +on the steam and creaking like Punch, and then almost tumbling off the +branches with laughing at the general accumulation of nonsense--when all +this drollery and devilry and joy and absurdity were at their maddest, +and a thousand feathered fountains bubbling song were at their highest, +then came the cause of all the merry hubbub--the pinnacles of rock +glowed burnished gold, Nature, that had crept from gloom to pallor, +burst from pallor to light and life and burning color--the great sun's +forehead came with one gallant stride into the sky--and it was day! + +Out shone ten thousand tents of every size and hue and shape, from Isaac +Levi's rood of white canvas down to sugar-loaves, and even to miserable +roofs built on the bare ground with slips of bark, under which unlucky +diggers crept at night like badgers--roofed beds--no more--the stars +twinkling through chinks in the tester. The myriad tents were clustered +for full five miles on each side of the river, and it wound and sparkled +in and out at various distances, and shone like a mirror in the distant +background. + +At the first ray the tents disgorged their inmates, and the human +hive began to hum; then came the fight, the maneuvering, the desperate +wrestle with Nature, and the keen fencing with their fellows--in short, +the battle--to which, that nothing might be wanting, out burst the +tremendous artillery of ten thousand cradles louder than thunder, and +roaring and crashing without a pause. + +The base of the two-peaked rock that looked so silvery in the moon is +now seen to be covered with manuscript advertisements posted on it; we +can only read two or three as we run to our work: + + +"_Immense_ reduction in eggs only one shilling each!!! Bevan's store." + +"Go-ahead library and registration office for new chums. Tom Long in the +dead-horse gully." + +"If this meets the i of Tom Bowles he will ear of is pal in the +iron-bark gully." + +"This is to give notice that whereas my wife Elizabeth Sutton has taken +to drink and gone off with my mate Bob, I will not be answerable for +your debts nor hold any communication with you in future. + + "JAMES SUTTON." + + +A young Jew, Nathan, issued from Levi's tent with a rough table and two +or three pair of scales and other paraphernalia of a gold assayer and +merchant. This was not the first mine by many the old Jew had traded in. + +His first customers this morning were George and Robinson. + +"Our tent was attacked last night, Mr. Levi." + +"Again? humph!" + +"Tom thinks he has got enemies in the camp." + +"Humph! the young man puts himself too forward not to have enemies." + +"Well," said George, quickly, "if he makes bitter enemies he makes warm +friends." + +George then explained that his nerve and Robinson's were giving way +under the repeated attacks. + +"We have had a talk and we will sell the best part of our dust to you, +sir. Give him the best price you can afford for Susan's sake." + +And away went George to look for his quartz river, leaving the ex-thief +to make the bargain and receive the money. + +In the transaction that followed Mr. Levi did not appear to great +advantage. He made a little advance on the three pounds per ounce on +account of the quantity, but he would not give a penny above three +guineas. No! business was business; he could and would have _given_ +George a couple of hundred pounds in day of need, but in buying and +selling the habits of a life could not be shaken off. Wherefore Robinson +kept back eight pounds of gold-dust and sold him the rest for notes of +the Sydney Bank. + +"Well, sir," said Tom, cheerfully, "now my heart is light; what we have +got we can carry round our waists now by night or day. Well, friend, +what do you want, poking your nose into the tent?" + +Coming out suddenly he had run against a man who was in a suspicious +attitude at the entrance. + +"No offense," muttered the man, "I wanted to sell a little gold-dust." + +Levi heard what Robinson said, and came quickly out. + +He seated himself behind the scales. + +"Where is your gold?" + +The man fumbled and brought out about an ounce. All the time he weighed +it, the Jew's keen eye kept glancing into his face he lowered his eyes +and could not conceal a certain uneasiness. When he was gone, Levi asked +Robinson whether he knew that face. + +"No," said Robinson, "I don't." + +Levi called Nathan out. + +"Nathan, look at that man, follow him cautiously, and tell me where we +have seen him; above all, know him again. Surely that is the face of an +enemy." + +Then the old man asked himself where he had seen such an eye and brow +and shambling walk as that; and he fell into a brown study and groped +among many years for the clew. + +"What! is Erin-go-bragh up with the sun for once?" cried Robinson to +Mary McDogherty, who passed him spade on shoulder. + +"Sure if she warn't she'd never keep up with Newgut," was the instant +rejoinder. + +"Hem! how is your husband, Mary?" + +"Och, captain, it is a true friend ye are for inquiring. Then it's tied +in a knot he is. + +"Mercy on us, tied in a knot?" + +"Tied in a knot intirely--wid the rheumatism--and it's tin days I'm +working for him and the childhre, and my heart's broke against gravel +and stone intirely. I wish it was pratees we are digging, I'd maybe dig +up a dinner any way." + +"There is no difficulty, the secret is to look in the right place." + +"Ay! ay! take your divairsion, ye sly rogue!--I wish ye had my five +childhre." + +"Oh! you spiteful cat!" + +"Well, Ede, come to sell?" + +"A little." + +"What is to do out there? seems a bit of a crowd." + +"What, haven't you heard? it is your friend Jem! he has got a slice of +luck, bought a hole of a stranger, saw the stuff glitter, so offered him +thirty pounds; he was green and snapped at it; and if Jem didn't wash +four ounces out the first cradleful I'm a Dutchman." + +"Well, I am right glad of that." + +A young digger now approached respectfully. "Police report, captain." + +"Hand it here. May I sit at your table a minute, Mr. Levi?" Mr. Levi +bowed assent. + +"No clew to the parties that attacked our tent last night?" + +"None at present, captain, but we are all on the lookout. Some of us +will be sure to hear of something, course of the day, and then I'll come +and tell you. Will you read the report? There is the week's summary as +well." + +"Of course I will. Mum! mum! 'Less violence on the whole this week; more +petty larceny.' That is bad. I'll put it down, Mr. Levi. I am determined +to put it down. What an infernal row the cradles make. What is this? 'A +great flow of strangers into the camp, most thought to be honest, but +some great roughs; also a good many Yankees and Germans come in at +the south side.' What is this? 'A thief lynched yesterday. Flung +headforemost into a hole and stuck in the clay. Not expected to live +after it.' Go it, my boys! Didn't I say law is the best for all parties, +thieves included? Leave it, Andrew, I will examine it with the utmost +minuteness." + +The dog used fine words on these occasions, that he might pass for +a pundit with his clique, and being now alone he pored over his +police-sheet as solemn and stern as if the nation depended on his +investigations. + +A short explosion of laughter from Andrew interrupted this grave +occupation. The beak looked up with offended dignity, and, in spite of a +mighty effort, fell a sniggering. For following Andrew's eyes he saw two +gig umbrellas gliding erect and peaceful side by side among the pits. + +"What on earth are they?" + +"Chinamen, captain. They are too lazy to dig. They go about all day +looking at the heaps and poking all over the camp. They have got eyes +like hawks. It is wonderful, I am told, what they contrive to pick up +first and last. What hats! Why, one of 'm would roof a tent." + +"Hurroo!" + +"What is up now?" + +"Hurroo!" And up came Mary McDogherty dancing and jumping as only Irish +ever jumped. She had a lump of dim metal in one hand and a glittering +mass in the other. She came up to the table with a fantastic spring +and spanked down the sparkling mass on it, bounding back one step like +india-rubber even as she struck the table. + +"There, ould gintleman, what will ye be after giving me for that? Sure +the luck is come to the right colleen at last." + +"I deal but in the precious metals and stones," replied Isaac, quietly. + +"Sure, and isn't gould a precious metal?" + +"Do you offer me this for gold? This is not even a metal. It is +mica--yellow mica. + +"Mikee?" cried Mary, ruefully, with an inquiring look. + +At this juncture in ran George, hot as fire. "There!" cried he, +triumphantly to Robinson, "was I right or wrong? What becomes of your +gold-dust?" And he laid a nugget as big as his fist on the table. + +"Ochone!" cried the Irishwoman, "they all have the luck barrin' poor +Molly McDogherty." + +The mica was handled, and George said to her compassionately, "You see, +my poor girl, the first thing you should do is to heft it in your hand. +Now see, your lump is not heavy like--" + +"Pyrites!" said Isaac, dryly, handing George back his lump. "No! pyrites +is heavier than mica--and gold than pyrites." + +"Mr. Levi, don't go to tell me this is not a metal," remonstrated +George, rather sulkily, "for I won't have it." + +"Nay, it is a metal," replied Levi, calmly, "and a very useful metal, +but not of the precious metals. It is iron." + +"How can it be iron when it is yellow? And how is one to know iron from +gold, at any rate?" + +"Be patient, my son." said the old Jew calmly, "and learn. Take this +needle. Here is a scale of gold; take it up on the needle-point. You +have done it. Why? Because gold is a soft metal. Now take up this scale +from your pyrites?" + +"I can't." + +"No, because iron is a hard metal. Here is another childish test--a +bloodstone, called by some the touchstone. Rub the pyrites on it. It +colors it not--a hard metal. Now rub this little nugget of pure gold I +have just bought." + +"Ay! this stains the stone yellow." + +"A soft metal. Here in this little phial is muriatic acid. Pour a drop +on my nugget. The metal defies it. Now pour on your pyrites. See how +it smokes and perishes. It cannot resist the acid. There are many other +tests, but little needed. No metal, no earthly substance, resembles gold +in the least." + +"Not to a Jew's eye," whispered Robinson. + +"And much I marvel that any man or even any woman who has been in a gold +mine and seen and handled virgin gold should take mica" (here he knocked +the mica clean off the table) "or pyrites" (here he spanged that in +another direction) "for the royal metal." + +"I'll tell you what to do, Mary," began Robinson, cheerfully. "Hallo! +she is crying. Here is a faint heart." + +"Och! captain dear, Pat an' me we are kilt right out for want of luck. +Oh! oh! We niver found but one gould--and that was mikee. We can't fall +upon luck of any sort--good, bad or indifferent--that is where I'm broke +and spiled and kilt hintirely. Oh! oh! oh!" + +"Don't cry. You have chosen a bad spot." + +"Captain, avick, they do be turning it up like carrots on both sides of +huz. And I dig right down as if I'd go through the 'orld back to dear +old Ireland again. He! he! he! oh! oh! An' I do be praying to the Virgin +at every stroke of the spade, I do, and she sends us no gould at all at +all, barrin' mikee, bad cess to 't. Oh!" + +"That is it. You are on two wrong tacks. You dig perpendicular and pray +horizontal. Now you should dig horizontal and pray perpendicular." + +"Och! captain, thim's hard words for poor Molly McDogherty to quarry +through." + +"What is that in your hand?" + +"Sure it is an illigant lump of lead I found," replied poor Mary; the +base metal rising in estimation since her gold turned out dross. "Ye are +great with the revolver, captain," said she, coaxingly, "ye'll be afther +giving me the laste pinch of the rale stuff for it?" + +Robinson took the lump. "Good heavens! what a weight!" cried he. He eyed +it keenly. "Come, Mr. Levi," cried he, "here is a find; be generous. She +is unlucky." + +"I shall be just," said the old man gravely. He weighed the lump and +made a calculation on paper, then handed her forty sovereigns. + +She looked at them. "Oh, now, it is mocking me ye are, old man;" and she +would not take the money. On this he put it coolly down on the table. + +"What is it at all?" asked she, faintly. + +"Platinum," replied Isaac, coldly. + +"And a magnificent lump of it!" cried Robinson, warmly. + +"Och, captain! och, captain, dear! and what is plateenum at all--if ye +plaze?" + +"It is not like your mica," said Isaac. "See, it is heavier than gold, +and far more precious than silver. It has noble qualities. It resists +even the simple acid that dissolves gold. Fear not to take the money. +I give you but your metal's value, minus the merchant's just profit. +Platinum is the queen of the metals." + +"Och, captain, avick! och! och! come here till I eat you!" And she flung +her arm round Robinson's neck, and bestowed a little furious kiss on +him. Then she pranced away; then she pranced back. "Platinum, you are +the boy; y'are the queen of the mitals. May the Lord bless you, ould +gentleman, and the SAINTS BLESS YOU! and the VIRGIN MARY BLESS YOU!"* +And she made at Isaac with the tears in her eyes, to kiss him; but he +waved her off with calm, repulsive dignity. "Hurroo!" And the child of +Nature bounded into the air like an antelope, and frisked three times; +then she made another set at them. "May you live till the skirts of your +coat knock your brains out, the pair of ye! hurroo!" Then with sudden +demureness, "An' here's wishing you all sorts of luck, good, bad an' +indifferent, my darlin's. Plateenum foriver, and gould to the Divil," +cried she, suddenly, with a sort of musical war-shout, the last words +being uttered three feet high in air, and accompanied with a vague kick, +utterly impossible in that position except to Irish, and intended, it +is supposed, to send the obnoxious metal off the surface of the globe +forever. And away she danced. + + * These imprecations are printed on the ascending scale by + way of endeavor to show how the speaker delivered them. + +Breakfast now! and all the cradles stopped at once. + +"What a delightful calm," said Robinson, "now I can study my +police-sheet at my ease." + +This morning, as he happened to be making no noise, the noise of others +worried him. + +"Mr. Levi, how still and peaceful they are when their time comes to +grub. 'The still sow sups the kail,' as we used to say in the north; the +English turn the proverb differently, they say 'The silent hog--'" + +"Jabber! jabber! jabber!--aie! aie!" + +"Hallo! there's a scrimmage! and there go all the fools rushing to see +it. I'll go, too!" + +Alas! poor human nature; the row was this. The peaceful children of +the moon, whom last we saw gliding side by side, vertical and seemingly +imperturbable, had yielded to the _genius loci,_ and were engaged in +bitter combat, after the manner of their nation. The gig umbrellas were +resolved into their constituent parts; the umbrellas proper, or hats, +lay on the ground--the sticks or men rolled over one another scratching +and biting. Europe wrenched them asunder with much pain, and held them +back by their tails, grinning horribly at each other, and their long +claws working unamiably. + +The diggers were remonstrating; their morality was shocked. + +"Is that the way to fight? What are fists given us for, ye varmint?" + +Robinson put himself at the head of the general sentiment. "I must do a +bit of beak here!!!" cried he; "bring those two tom-cats up before me!!" + +The proposal was received with acclamation. A high seat was made for +the self-constituted beak, and Mr. Stevens was directed to make the +Orientals think that he was the lawful magistrate of the mine. Mr. +Stevens, entering into the fun, persuaded the Orientals, who were +now gig umbrellas again, that Robinson was the mandarin who settled +property, and possessed, among other trifles, the power of life and +death. On this they took off their slippers before him, and were +awestruck, and secretly wished they had not kicked up a row, still more +that they had stayed quiet by the banks of the Hoang-ho. + +Robinson settled himself, demanded a pipe, and smoked calm and terrible, +while his myrmidons kept their countenances as well as they could. After +smoking in silence a while, he demanded of the Chinese, "What was the +row?" + +1st Chinaman. "Jabber! jabber! jabber!" + +2d Chinaman. "Jabber! jabber! jabber!" + +Both. "Jabber! jabber! jabber!" + +"What is that? Can't they speak any English at all?" + +"No!" + +"No wonder they can't conduct themselves, then," remarked a digger. + +The judge looked him into the earth for the interruption. + +"You get the story from them, and tell it." + +After a conference, Mr. Stevens came forward. + +"It is about a nugget of gold, which is claimed by both parties." + +Robinson. "Stop! bring that nugget into court; that is the regular +course." + +Great interest began to be excited, and all their necks craned +forward--when Mr. Stevens took from one of the Chinese the cause of so +sanguinary a disturbance, and placed it on the judge's table. A roar of +laughter followed--it was between a pea and a pin's head in magnitude. + +Robinson. "You know this is shocking. Asia, I am ashamed of you. Silence +in the court! Proceed with the evidence." + +Mr. Stevens. "This one saw the gold shining, and he said to the other, +'Ah!'" + +Robinson (writing his notes). "Said--to--the-other--'Ah!'--Stop! what +was the Chinese for 'ah'?" + +Stevens. "'Ah!" + +Robinson. "Oh!" + +Andrew. "Come! the beggars have got hold of some of our words!" + +Robinson. "Silence in the court!" + +Andrew. "I ask pardon, captain." + +Stevens. "But the other pounced on it first, so they both claim it." + +Robinson. "Well! I call it a plain case." + +Stevens. "So I told them." + +Robinson. "Exactly! Which do you think ought to have it?" + +Stevens. "Why, I told them we have a proverb--'Losers, seekers--finders, +keepers.'" + +Robinson. "Of course; and which was the finder?" + +Stevens. "Oh! of course this one that--hum! Well, to be sure he only +said 'ah!' he did not point. Then perhaps--but on the other hand--hum!" + +Robinson. "Why, don't you see? but no!--yes! why it must be the one +that--ugh! Drat you both! why couldn't one of you find it, and the other +another?" + +Robinson was puzzled. At last he determined that this his first judgment +should satisfy both parties. + +"Remove the prisoners," said he; "are they the prisoners or the +witnesses? remove them anyway, and keep them apart." + +Robinson then searched his pockets, and produced a little gold swan-shot +scarce distinguishable from the Chinese. He put this on the table, and +took up the other. + +"Fetch in number one!" + +The Chinaman came in with obeisances and misgivings; but when the judge +signed to him to take up the gold, which he mistook for the cause of +quarrel, his face lightened with a sacred joy--he receded, and with a +polite gesture cleared a space; then, advancing one foot with large +and lofty grace, he addressed the judge, whose mouth began to open with +astonishment, in slow, balanced and musical sentences. This done, he +retired with three flowing salaams, to which the judge replied with +three little nods. + +"What on earth did the beggar say? What makes you grin, Mr. Stevens?" + +Stevens. "He said--click!" + +Robinson. "Come! tell me first, laugh after." + +Stevens. "He said, 'May your highness flourish like a tree by the +side of a stream that never overflows, yet is never dry, but +glides--(click!)--even and tranquil as the tide of your prosperity--'" + +Robinson. "Well, I consent!" + +Stevens. "'May dogs defile the graves of your enemies! '" + +Robinson. "With all my heart! provided I am not dancing over them at the +time." + +Stevens. "When satiated with earthly felicity, may you be received in +paradise by seventy dark-eyed houris--'" + +Robinson. "Oh! my eye!" + +Stevens. "Click! 'Each bearing in her hand the wine of the faithful; and +may the applause of the good at your departure resemble the waves of the +ocean beating musically upon rocky caverns. Thy servant, inexperienced +in oratory, retires abashed at the greatness of his subject, and the +insignificance of his expressions.' So then he cut his stick!" + +Robinson. "A very sensible speech! Well, boys, I'm not greedy; I take +the half of that offer, and give you the rest--bring in the other +gentleman!" + +No. 2 advanced with reverences and misgivings. Robinson placed the gold +on the table and assigned it to him. A sacred joy illumined him, and he +was about to retire with deep obeisances. + +"Where is his speech?" cried the judge ruefuly. + +Stevens explained to him that the other had returned thanks. On this No. +2 smiled assentingly, and advancing delivered the following sentences: + +"Your slave lay writhing in adversity, despoiled by the unprincipled. +He was a gourd withered by the noonday sun, until your virtues descended +like the dew, and refreshed him with your justice and benignity. + +"Wherefore hear now the benediction of him whom your clemency has raised +from despair. + +"May your shadow increase and cover many lands. May your offspring be a +nation dwelling in palaces with golden roofs and walls of ivory, and +on the terraces may peacocks be as plentiful as sparrows are to the +undeserving. May you live many centuries shining as you now shine; +and at your setting may rivulets of ink dug by the pens of poets flow +through meadows of paper in praise of the virtues that embellish you +here on earth. Sing-tu-Che, a person of small note but devoted to your +service, wishes these frivolous advantages to the Pearl of the West, on +whom be honor." + +Chorus of diggers. "My eye!" + +Robinson rose with much gravity and delivered himself thus: + +"Sing-tu-Che, you are a trump, an orator, and a humbug. All the better +for you. May felicity attend you. Heichster guchster--honi soit qui +mal y pense--donner und blitzen--tempora mutantur--O mia cara and pax +vobiscum. The court is dissolved." + +It was, and I regret to add that Judge Robinson's concluding sentences +raised him greatly in the opinion of the miners. + +"Captain knows a thing or two." + +"If ever we send one to parliament that is the man." + +"Halo! you fellows, come here! come here!" + +A rush was made toward Jem, who was roaring and gesticulating at Mr. +Levi's table. When they came up they found Jem black and white with +rage, and Mr. Levi seated in calm indifference. + +"What is it?" asked Robinson. + +"The merchant refuses my gold." + +"I refuse no man's gold," objected Levi coolly, "but this stuff is not +gold." + +"Not gold-dust," cried a miner; and they all looked with wonder at the +rejected merchandise. + +Mr. Levi took the dust and poured it out from one hand to the other; he +separated the particles and named them by some mighty instinct. + +"Brass--or-molu--gilt platinum to give it weight; this is from +Birmingham, not from Australia, nor nature." + +"Such as it is it cost me thirty pounds," cried Jem. "Keep it. I shall +find him. My spade shall never go into the earth again till I'm quits +with this one." + +"That is right," roared the men, "bring him to us, and the captain shall +sit in judgment again;" and the men's countenances were gloomy, for this +was a new roguery and struck at the very root of gold digging. + +"I'll put it down, Mr. Levi," said Robinson, after the others had gone +to their work; "here is a new dodge, Brummagem planted on us so far from +home. I will pull it down with a tenpenny cord but I'll end it." + +Crash! went ten thousand cradles; the mine had breakfasted. I wish I +could give the European reader an idea of the magnitude of this sound +whose cause was so humble. I must draw on nature for a comparison. + +Did you ever stand upon a rocky shore at evening when a great storm has +suddenly gone down, leaving the waves about as high as they were while +it raged? Then there is no roaring wind to dull the clamor of the +tremendous sea as it lashes the long re-bellowing shore. Such was +the sound of ten thousand cradles; yet the sound of each one was +insignificant. Hence an observation and a reflection--the latter I +dedicate to the lovers of antiquity--that multiplying sound, magnifies +it in a way science has not yet accounted for; and that, though men are +all dwarfs, Napoleon included, man is a giant. + +The works of man are so prodigious they contradict all we see of any +individual's powers; and even so when you had seen and heard one man +rock one cradle, it was all the harder to believe that a few thousand of +them could rival thunder, avalanches, and the angry sea lashing the long +reechoing shore at night. These miserable wooden cradles lost their +real character when combined in one mighty human effort; it seemed as +if giant labor had stretched forth an arm huge as an arm of the sea +and rocked one enormous engine, whose sides where these great primeval +rocks, and its mouth a thundering sea. + +Crash! from meal to meal! + +The more was Robinson surprised when, full an hour before dinner-time, +this mighty noise all of a sudden became feebler and feebler, and +presently human cries of a strange character made their way to his ear +through the wooden thunder. + +"What on earth is up now?" thought he--"an earthquake?" + +Presently he saw at about half a mile off a vast crowd of miners making +toward him in tremendous excitement. They came on, swelled every moment +by fresh faces, and cries of vengeance and excitement were now heard, +which the wild and savage aspect of the men rendered truly terrible. At +last he saw and comprehended all at a glance. + +There were Jem and two others dragging a man along whose white face +and knocking knees betrayed his guilt and his terror. Robinson knew him +directly; it was Walker, who had been the decoy-duck the night his tent +was robbed. + +"Here is the captain! Hurrah! I've got him, captain. This is the beggar +that peppered the hole for me, and now we will pepper him!" + +A fierce burst of exultation from the crowd. They thirsted for revenge. +Jem had caught the man at the other end of the camp, and his offense was +known by this time to half the mine. + +"Proceed regularly, Jem," said Robinson. "Don't condemn the man +unheard." + +"Oh, no! He shall be tried, and you shall be the judge." + +"I consent," said Robinson, somewhat pompously. + +Then arose a cry that made him reflect. + +"Lynch! Lynch! a seat for Judge Lynch!" and in a moment a judgment-seat +was built with cradles, and he was set on high, with six strange faces +scowling round him for one of his own clique. He determined to back out +of the whole thing. + +"No, no!" cried he; "that is impossible. I cannot be a judge in such a +serious matter." + +"Why not?" roared several voices. + +"Why not? Because I am not a regular beak; because I have not got +authority from the Crown." + +There was a howl of derision. + +"We give you authority!" + +"We order you to be judge!" + +"We are King, Lords, and Commons!" + +"Do what we bid you, or," added a stranger, "we will hang you and the +prisoner with one rope!" + +Grim assent of the surrounding faces; Robinson sat down on the +judgment-seat not a little discomposed. + +"Now then," remonstrated one; "what are you waiting for? Name the jury." + +"Me!" "Me!" "Me!" "I!" "I!" "I!" and there was a rush for the office. + +"Keep cool," replied another. "Lynch law goes quick, but it goes by +rule. Judge, name the jury." + +Robinson, a man whose wits seldom deserted him, at once determined to +lead, since he could not resist. He said with dignity: "I shall choose +one juryman from each of the different countries that are working in +this mine, that no nation may seem to be slighted, for this gold belongs +to all the world." + +"Hurrah! Well done, judge. Three cheers for Judge Lynch!" + +"When I call a country, give me a name, which I will inscribe on my +report of the proceedings. I want a currency lad first." + +"Here is one. William Parker." + +"Pass over. France." + +"Present. Pierre Chanot." + +"Germany." + +"Here. Hans Muller." + +"Holland." + +"Here. Jan Van der Stegen." + +Spain and Italy were called, but no reply. Asleep, I take it. + +"United States." + +"Here. Nathan Tucker." + +Here Robinson, casting his eyes round, spied McLaughlan, and, being +minded to dilute the severity of his jury, he cried out, "Scotland. +McLaughlan, you shall represent her." + +No answer. + +"McLaughlan," cried several voices, "where are ye? Don't you hear Judge +Lynch speak to you?" + +"Come, McLaughlan, come over; you are a respectable man." + +Mr. McLaughlan intimated briefly in his native dialect that he was, and +intended to remain so; by way of comment on which he made a bolt from +the judgment-hall, but was rudely seized and dragged before the judge. + +"For Heaven's sake, don't be a fool, McLaughlan. No man must refuse to +be a juryman in a trial by lynch. I saw a Quaker stoned to death for it +in California." + +"I guess I was thyar," said a voice behind the judge, who shifted +uneasily. + +McLaughlan went into the jury-box with a meaning look at Robinson, but +without another audible word. + +"Mercy! mercy!" cried Walker. + +"You must not interrupt the proceedings," said Judge Lynch. + +"Haud your whist, ye gowk. Ye are no fand guilty yet," remonstrated a +juror. + +The jury being formed, the judge called the plaintiff. + +"The man sold me a claim for thirty pound. I gave him the blunt because +I saw the stuff was glittery. Well, I worked it, and I found it work +rather easy, that is a fact." + +"Haw! haw! haw!" roared the crowd, but with a horrible laughter, no +placability in it. + +"Well, I found lots of dust, and I took it to the merchant, and he says +it is none of it gold. That is my tale." + +"Have you any witnesses?" + +"I don't know. Yes, the nigger; he saw it. Here, Jacky, come and tell +them." + +Jacky was thrust forward, but was interrupted by McLaughlan as soon as +he opened his mouth. The Scottish juror declined to receive evidence but +upon oath. The judge allowed the objection. + +"Swear him in, then," cried a hundred voices. + +"Swear?" inquired Jacky, innocently. + +Another brutal roar of laughter followed. + +Jacky was offended. + +"What for you laugh, you stupid fellows? I not a common black fellow. +I been to Sydney and learn all the white man knows. Jacky will swear," +added he. + +"Left your hond," cried McLaughlan. "It is no swearing if you dinna left +your hond." + +"Dat so stupid," said Jacky, lifting his hand peevishly. This done, he +delivered his evidence thus: "Damme I saw dis fellow sell dirt to dis +fellow, and damme I saw dis fellow find a good deal gold, and damme I +heard him say dis is a dam good job, and den damme he put down his spade +and go to sell, and directly he come back and say damme I am done!" + +"Aweel," said McLaughlan; "we jaast refuse yon lad's evidence, the +deevelich heathen." + +A threatening murmur. + +"Silence! Hear the defendant." + +Walker, trembling like an aspen, owned to having sold the claim, but +denied that the dust was false. "This is what I dug out of it," said he; +and he produced a small pinch of dust. + +"Hand it to me," said the judge. "It seems genuine." + +"Put it to the test. Call the merchant for a witness," cried another. + +A party ran instantly for Levi. He refused to come. They dragged him +with fearful menaces. + +"A test, old man; a test of gold!" + +The old Jew cast his eyes around, took in the whole scene, and with a +courage few of the younger ones would have shown, defied that wild mob. + +"I will give you no test. I wash my hands of your mad passions, and your +mockeries of justice, men of Belial!" + +A moment's silence and wonder, a yell of rage, and a dozen knives in the +air. + +The judge rose hastily, and in a terrible voice that governed the tumult +for an instant said: "Down knives! I hang the first man that uses one +in my court." And during the momentary pause that followed this he cried +out: "He has given me a test. Run and fetch me the bottle of acid on his +table." + +"Hurrah! Judge Lynch forever!" was now the cry, and in a minute the +bottle was thrust into the judge's hand. + +"Young man," said Isaac solemnly, "do not pour, lest Heaven bring your +soul to as keen a test one day. Who are you that judge your brother?" + +Judge Lynch trembled visibly as the reverend man rebuked him thus, but, +fearing Isaac would go farther and pay the forfeit of his boldness, +he said calmly: "Friends, remove the old man from the court, but use +respect. He is an aged man." + +Isaac was removed. The judge took the bottle and poured a drop on that +small pinch of dust the man had last given him. + +No effect followed. + +"I pronounce this to be gold." + +"There," put in McLaughlan, "ye see the lad was no deceiving ye; is it +his fault if a' the gowd is no the same?" + +"No!" whimpered Walker, eagerly, and the crowd began to whisper and +allow he might be innocent. + +The man standing behind the judge said, with a cold sneer: "That is the +stuff he did not sell--now pour on the stuff he sold." + +These words brought back the prejudice against the prisoner, and a +hundred voices shouted, "Pour!" while their eyes gleamed with a terrible +curiosity. + +Judge Lynch, awestruck by this terrible roar, now felt what it is to be +a judge; he trembled and hesitated. + +"Pour!" roared the crowd, still louder and more fiercely. + +McLaughlan read the judge's feeling, and whimpered out, "Let it fa', +lad--let it fa'!" + +"If he does our knives fall on him and you. Pour!" + +Robinson poured. All their fierce eyes were fixed on the experiment. He +meant to pour a drop or two, but the man behind him jogged his arm, and +half the acid in the bottle fell upon Walker's dust. + +A quantity of smoke rose from it, and the particles fizzed and bubbled +under the terrible test. + +"Trash! a rope--no! dig a hole and bury him--no! fling him off the rock +into the water." + +"Silence!" roared Robinson, "I am the judge, and it is for me to +pronounce the verdict." + +"Silence! hear Judge Lynch!" Silence was not obtained for five minutes, +during which the court was like a forest of wild beasts howling. + +"I condemn him to be exposed all day, with his dust tied round his neck, +and then drummed out of the camp." + +This verdict was received first with a yell of derisive laughter, then +with a roar of rage. + +"Down with the judge!" + +"We are the judges!" + +"To the rock with him!" + +"Ay, to the rock with him." + +With this, an all-overpowering rush was made, and Walker was carried off +up the rock in the middle of five hundred infuriated men. + +The poor wretch cried, "Mercy! mercy!" + +"Justice! dog," was the roar in reply. The raging crowd went bellowing +up the rock like a wave, and gained a natural platform forty feet above +the great deep pool that lay dark and calm below. At the sight of it, +the poor wretch screamed to wake the dead, but the roars and yells of +vengeance drowned his voice. + +"Put his dust in his pocket," cried one, crueler than the rest. + +Their thirst of vengeance was too hot to wait for this diabolical +proposal; in a moment four of them had him by the shoulders and heels; +another moment and the man was flung from the rock, uttering a terrible +death-cry in the very air; then down his body fell like lead, and struck +with a tremendous plunge the deep water that splashed up a moment, then +closed and bubbled over it. + +From that moment the crowd roared no longer, but buzzed and murmured, +and looked down upon their work half stupidly. + +"Hush!" + +"What is that?" + +"It is his head!" + +"He is up again!" + +"Can he swim?" + +"Fling stones on him." + +"No! Let him alone, or we'll fling you atop of him." + +"He is up, but he can't swim. He is only struggling! he is down again!" + +He was down, but only for a moment; then he appeared again choking and +gurgling. + +"Mercy! mercy!" + +"Justice, thieving dog!" was the appalling answer. + +"Save me! save me! Oh, save me! save me!" + +"Save yourself! if you are worth it!" was the savage reply. + +The drowning, despairing man's head was sinking again, his strength +exhausted by his idle struggles, when suddenly on his left hand he saw +a round piece of rock scarce a yard from him. He made a desperate effort +and got his hand on it. Alas! it was so slimy he could not hold by it; +he fell off it into the water; he struggled up again, tried to dig his +feet into the rock, but, after a convulsive fling of a few seconds, fell +back--the slimy rock mocked his grasp. He came up again and clung, and +cried piteously for help and mercy. There was none!--but a grim silence +and looks of horrible curiosity at his idle struggles. His crime had +struck at the very root of their hearts and lives. Then this poor, +cowardly wretch made up his mind that he must die. He gave up praying to +the pitiless, who could look down and laugh at his death-agony, and he +cried upon the absent only. "My children! my wife! my poor Jenny!" and +with this he shut his eyes, and, struggling no more, sank quietly down! +down! down. First his shoulders disappeared, then his chin, then +his eyes, and then his hair. Who can fathom human nature? that sad, +despairing cry, which was not addressed to them, knocked at the bosoms +that all his prayers to them for pity had never touched. A hasty, low +and uneasy murmur followed it almost as a report follows a flash. + +"His wife and children!" cried several voices with surprise; but there +were two men this cry not only touched, but pierced--the plaintiff and +the judge. + +"The man has got a wife and children," cried Jem in dismay, as he tried +to descend the rock by means of some diminutive steps. "They never +offended me--he is gone down, ---- me if I see the man drowned like a +rat--Hallo!--Splash!" + +Jem's foot had slipped, and, as he felt he must go, he jumped right out, +and fell twenty feet into the water. + +At this the crowd roared with laughter, and now was the first shade +of good-nature mixed with the guffaw. Jem fell so near Walker that on +coming up he clutched the drowning man's head and dragged him up once +more from death. At the sight of Walker's face above water again, what +did the crowd, think you? + +They burst into a loud hurrah! and cheered Jem till the echoes rang +again. + +"Hurrah! Bravo! Hurrah!" pealed the fickle crowd. + +Now Walker no sooner felt himself clutched than he clutched in return +with the deadly grasp of a drowning man. Jem struggled to get free in +vain. Walker could not hear or see, he was past all that; but he could +cling, and he got Jem round the arms and pinned them. After a few +convulsive efforts Jem gave a loud groan. He then said quietly to the +spectators, "He will drown me in another half minute." But at this +critical moment out came from the other extremity of the pool Judge +Lynch, swimming with a long rope in his hand; one end of this rope he +had made into a bight ere he took the water. He swam behind Walker and +Jem, whipped the noose over their heads and tightened it under their +shoulders. "Haul!" cried he to Ede, who held the other end of the rope. +Ede hauled, and down went the two heads. + +A groan of terror and pity from the mob--their feelings were reversed. + +"Haul quick, Ede," shouted Robinson, "or you will drown them, man +alive." + +Ede hauled hand over hand, and a train of bubbles was seen making all +across the pool toward him. And the next moment two dripping heads came +up to hand close together, like cherries on a stalk; and now a dozen +hands were at the rope, and the plaintiff and defendant were lifted +bodily up on to the flat rock, which came nearly to the water's edge on +this side the pool. + +"Augh! augh! augh! augh!" gasped Jem. + +Walker said nothing. He lay white and motionless, water trickling from +his mouth, nose and ears. + +Robinson swam quietly ashore. The rocks thundered with cheers over his +head. + +The next moment, "the many-headed beast" remembered that all this was a +waste of time, and bolted underground like a rabbit, and dug and pecked +for the bare life with but one thought left, and that was GOLD. + +"How are you, Jem?" + +"Oh, captain, oh!" gasped poor Jem, "I am choked--I am dead--I am +poisoned--why, I'm full of water; bring this other beggar to my tent, +and we will take a nanny-goat together." + +So Jem was taken off hanging his head, and deadly sick, supported by +two friends, and Walker was carried to the same tent, and stripped and +rubbed and rolled up in a blanket; and lots of brandy poured down him +and Jem, to counteract the poison they had swallowed. + +Robinson went to Mr. Levi, to see if he would lend him a suit, while +he got his own dried. The old Jew received my lord judge with a low, +ironical bow, and sent Nathan to borrow the suit from another Israelite. +He then lectured my lord Lynch. + +"Learn from this, young man, how easy it is to set a stone rolling down +hill, how hard to stop it half-way down. Law must always be above the +mob, or it cannot be law. If it fall into their hands it goes down +to their own level and becomes revenge, passion, cruelty, anything +but--law. The madmen! they have lost two thousand ounces of gold--to +themselves and to the world, while they have been wasting their time +and risking their souls over a pound of brass, and aspiring to play the +judge and the executioner, and playing nothing but the brute and the +fool--as in the days of old." + +Mr. Levi concluded by intimating that there was very little common sense +left upon earth, and that little it would be lost time to search for +among the Gentiles. Finally his discourse galled Judge Lynch, who +thereupon resolved to turn the laugh against him. + +"Mr. Levi," said he, "I see you know a thing or two. Will you be so good +as to answer me a question?" + +"If it come within my knowledge," replied the senior, with grave +politeness. + +"Which weighs the heaviest, sir, a pound of gold or a pound of +feathers?" and he winked at Nathan, but looked in Isaac's face as demure +as a Quakeress. + +"A pound of feathers," replied Isaac. + +Robinson looked half puzzled, half satirical. + +"A childish question," said Isaac sternly. "What boy knows not that +feathers are weighed by Avoirdupois, and gold by Troy weight, and +consequently that a pound of feathers weighs sixteen ounces, and a pound +of gold but twelve?" + +"Well, that is a new answer," cried Robinson. "Good-by, sir, you are too +hard for me;" and he made off to his own tent. It was a day of defeats. + +The moment he was out of hearing, Isaac laughed. The only time he had +done it during six years. And what a laugh! How, sublimely devoid of +merriment! a sudden loud cackle of three distinct cachinni not declining +into a chuckle, as we do, but ending sharp in abrupt and severe gravity. + +"I discomfited the young man, Nathan--I mightily discomfited him. Ha! +ha! ho! Nathan, did you as I bade you?" + +"Yes, master, I found the man, and I sent Samuel, who went hastily to +him and cried out, 'Mr. Meadows is in the camp and wishes to speak +to you.' Master, he started up in wonder, and his whole face changed; +without doubt he is the man you suspected." + +"Yes," said Isaac, reflecting deeply. "The man is Peter Crawley; and +what does he here? Some deep villainy lies at the bottom of this; but I +will fathom it, ay, and thwart it, I swear by the God of Abraham. Let me +think awhile in my tent. Sit you at the receipt of gold." + +The old man sat upon a divan in his tent, and pondered on all that had +happened in the mine; above all, on the repeated attacks that had been +made on that one tent. + +He remembered, too, that George had said sorrowfully to him more than +once: "No letters for me, Mr. Levi, no letter again this month!" The +shrewd old man tied these two threads together directly. + +"All these things are one," said Isaac Levi. + +Thus pondering, and patiently following out his threads, the old man +paced a mile down the camp to the post-office, for he had heard the +postman's horn, and he expected important letters from England, from his +friend and agent at Farnborough, Old Cohen. + +There were letters from England, but none in old Cohen's hand. He put +them in his bosom with a disappointed look, and paced slowly, and deeply +pondering, back toward his tent. He was about half way, when, much to +his surprise, a stone fell close to him. He took, however, no notice, +did not even accelerate his pace or look round; but the next moment a +lump of clay struck him on the arm. He turned round, quivering with rage +at the insult, and then he saw a whole band of diggers behind him, who +the moment he turned his face began to hoot and pelt him. + +"Who got poor Walker drowned? Ah! ah! ah!" + +"Who refused to give evidence before Judge Lynch?" cried another, "Ah! +ah! ah!" + +There were clearly two parties in the mob. + +"Down with the Jew--the blood-sucker. We do all the work, and he gets +all the profit. Ah! ah! ah!" + +And a lump of clay struck that reverend head and almost stunned the poor +old man. He sunk upon his knees, and in a moment his coat was torn to +shreds, but with unexpected activity he wriggled himself free and drew +a dagger long, bright, and sharp as a needle. His assailants recoiled +a moment. The next a voice was heard from behind, "Get on both sides of +him at once!" + +Isaac looked and saw Peter Crawley. Then the old man trembled for his +life, and cried, "Help! help!" and they hemmed him in and knocked his +dagger out of his hand, and hustled and pommeled him, and would have +torn him in pieces, but he slipped down, and two of them got in front +and dragged him along the ground. + +"To Walker's pool," cried brutus, putting himself at the head of those +who followed. + +All of a sudden Isaac, though half insensible, heard a roar of rage that +seemed to come from a lion--a whiz, a blow like a thunder-clap--saw one +of his assassins driven into the air and falling like a dead clod three +yards off, found himself dropped and a man striding over him. It was +George Fielding, who stood a single moment snorting and blowing out his +cheeks with rage, then went slap at the mob as a lion goes at sheep; +seized one of the small ruffians by the knees, and, by a tremendous +effect of strength and rage, actually used him as a flail, and struck +brutus with the man's head, and knocked that ruffian down stunned, and +his nose leveled with his cheeks. The mob recoiled a moment from this +one hero. George knew it could be but for a moment, so he had no sooner +felled brutus, and hurled the other's carcass in their faces, than he +pounced on Isaac, whipped him on his back and ran off with him. + +He had got thirty yards with him ere the staggered mob could realize it +all. + +The mob recovered their surprise, and with a yell like a pack of +hounds bursting covert dashed after the pair. The young Hercules made a +wonderful effort, but no mortal man could run very fast so weighted. In +spite of his start they caught him in about a hundred yards. He heard +them close upon him--put the Jew down--and whispered hastily, "Run to +your tent," and instantly wheeled round and flung himself at thirty men. +He struck two blows and disabled a couple; the rest came upon him like +one battering-ram and bore him to the ground; but even as he went down +he caught the nearest assailant by the throat and they rolled over one +another, the rest kicking savagely at George's head and loins. The poor +fellow defended his head with one arm and his assailant's body for a +little while, but he received some terrible kicks on the back and legs. + +"Give it him on the head!" + +"Kick his life out!" + +"Settle his hash!" + +They were so fiercely intent on finishing George that they did not +observe a danger that menaced themselves. + +As a round shot cuts a lane through a column of infantry, so clean came +two files of special constables with their short staves severing the mob +in two--crick, crack, crick, crick, crick, crick, crack, crack. In three +seconds ten heads were broken, with a sound just like glass bottles, +under the short, deadly truncheon, and there lay half a dozen ruffians +writhing on the ground and beating the Devil's tattoo with their heels. + +"Charge back!" cried the head-policeman as soon as he had cut clean +through. + +But at the very word the cowardly crew fled on all sides yelling. The +police followed in different directions a little way, and through +this error three of the felled got up and ran staggering off. When the +head-policeman saw that he cried out: + +"Back, and secure prisoners." + +They caught three who were too stupefied to run, and rescued brutus from +George, who had got him by the throat and was hammering the ground with +his head. + +"Let go, George," cried Policeman Robinson, in some anxiety, "you are +killing the man." + +"Oh, I don't want to kill him neither," said George. + +And he slowly withdrew his grasp, and left off hammering with the +rascal's head, but looked at him as if he would have preferred to have +gone on a little longer. They captured the three others. + +"Now secure them," cried Ede. "Out with your wipes." + +"There is no need of wipes," said Robinson. + +He then, with a slight blush, and rather avoiding George's eye, put his +hand in his pockets and produced four beautiful sets of handcuffs, bran +new, polished to the fine. With a magical turn of the hand he handcuffed +the three men, still avoiding George's eye. Unnecessary. George's sense +of humor was very faint, and so was his sweetheart's--a sad defect. + +Perhaps I may as well explain here how Robinson came so opportunely +to the rescue. The fact is, that a week ago he had ordered a lot of +constables' staves and four sets of handcuffs. The staves were nicely +painted, lettered "Captain Robinson's Police, A, B, C," etc. They had +just come home, and Robinson was showing them to Ede and his gang, when +a hullabaloo was heard, and Levi was seen full half a mile off being +hunted. Such an opportunity of trying the new staves was not to be +neglected. Ede and his men jumped out of their claim and ran with +Robinson to the rescue. But they would have been too late if George, who +had just come into the camp at that very part, had not made his noble +and desperate assault and retreat, which baffled the assailants for two +precious minutes. + +Robinson. "What shall we do with them now we have got them?" + +George. "Give them a kick apiece on their behinds, and let them go--the +rubbish." + +Robinson. "Not if I know it." + +Ede. "I say blackguard 'em." + +Robinson. "No, that would be letting ourselves down to their level. No, +we will expose them as we did my old pal here before." + +Ede. "Why that is what I mean. Ticket them--put a black card on them +with their offense wrote out large." + +No sooner said than done. All four were tied to posts in the sun, and +black-carded, or, as some spell it, placarded, thus: + + + COWARD. + Attacked and abused an old man. + >N. B.--Not hanged this time because they + got a licking then and there. + + +"Let us go and see after Mr. Levi, George." + +"Well, Tom, I had rather not." + +"Why not? he ought to be very much obliged to you." + +"That is it, Tom. The old man is of rather a grateful turn of mind--and +it is ten to one if he doesn't go and begin praising me to my face--and +then that makes me--I don't know which way to look. Wait till he has +cooled upon it a bit." + +"You are a rum one. Well, George, I have got one proposal you won't say +no to. First, I must tell you there is really a river of quartz in the +country." + +"Didn't I tell you?" + +"Yes, and I didn't believe it. But I have spoken to Jacky about it, and +he has seen it; it is on the other side of the bush. I am ready to +start for it to-morrow, for there is little good to be done here now the +weather has broken." + +George assented with joy; but, when Robinson suggested that Jacky would +be very useful to pilot them through the bush, his countenance fell. + +"Don't think of it," said he. "I know he is here, Tom, and I shan't go +after him. But don't let him come near me, the nasty little, creeping, +murdering varmint. Poor Abner will never get over his tomahawk--not if +he lives fifty years." + +In short, it was agreed they should go alone at peep of day. + +"I have talked it over with Jem already, and he will take charge of our +tent till we come back." + +"So be it." + +"We must take some provisions with us, George." + +"I'll go and get some cold meat and bread, Tom." + +"Do. I'm going to the tent." + +Robinson, it is to be observed, had not been in his tent since George +and he left it and took their gold out of it just before sunrise. As +he now carried their joint wealth about his person, his anxiety was +transferred. + +Now at the door of the tent he was intercepted by Jem, very red in the +face, partly with brandy, partly with rage. Walker, whose life he had +saved, whom he had taken to his own tent, and whom Robinson had seen +lying asleep in the best blanket, this Walker had absconded with his +boots and half a pound of tobacco. + +"Well, but you knew he was a rogue. Why did you leave him alone in your +tent?" + +"I only left him for a minute to go a few steps with you if you +remember, and you said yourself he was asleep. Well, the moment our +backs were turned he must have got up and done the trick." + +"I don't, like it," said Robinson. + +"No more don't I," said Jem. + +"If he was not asleep, he must have heard me say I was going to cross +the bush with my mate to-morrow at daybreak." + +"Well! and what if he did?" + +"He is like enough to have gone and told the whole gang." + +"And what if he has?" + +Robinson was about to explain to Jem. that he now carried all the joint +gold in his pocket, but he forbore. "It is too great a stake for me to +trust anybody unless I am forced," thought he. So he only said: "Well, +it is best to be prudent. I shall change the hour for starting." + +"You are a cunning one, captain, but I really think you are overcareful +sometimes." + +"Jem," said the other gravely, "there is a mystery in this mine. There +is a black gang in it, and that Walker is one of them. I think they have +sworn to have my gold or my life, and they shan't have either if I can +help it. I shall start two hours before the sun." + +He was quite right; Walker had been shamming sleep, and full four hours +ago he had told his confederates as a matter of course all that he had +heard in the enemy's camp. + +Walker, a timid villain, was unprepared for the burst of savage +exultation from brutus and Black Will that followed this intelligence. +These two, by an instinct quick as lightning, saw the means of +gratifying at one blow their cupidity and hate. Crawley had already told +them he had seen Robinson come out of Levi's tent after a long stay, and +their other spies had told them his own tent had been left unguarded for +hours. They put these things together and conjectured at once that the +men had now their swag about them in one form or other. + +"When do they go?" + +"To-morrow at break of day," he said. + +"The bush is very thick!" + +"And dark, too!" + +"It is just the place for a job." + +"Will two of you be enough?" + +"Plenty, the way we shall work." + +"The men are strong and armed." + +"Their strength will be no use to them, and they shan't get time to use +their arms." + +"For Heaven's sake, shed no blood unnecessarily," said Crawley, +beginning to tremble at the pool of crime to whose brink he had led +these men. + +"Do you think they will give up their swag while they are alive?" asked +brutus, scornfully. + +"Then I wash my hands of it all," cried the little self-deceiving +caitiff; and he affected to have nothing to do with it. + +Walker was then thanked for his information, and he thought this was a +good opportunity for complaining of his wrongs and demanding redress. +This fellow was a thorough egotist, saw everything from his own point of +view only. + +Jem had dragged him before Judge Robinson; Robinson had played the beak +and found him guilty; Levi had furnished the test on which he had been +convicted. All these had therefore cruelly injured and nearly killed +him. + +Himself was not the cause. He had not set all these stones rolling by +forging upon nature and robbing Jem of thirty pounds. No! he could not +see that, nor did he thank Jem one bit for jumping in and saving his +life at risk of his own. "Why did he ever get him thrown in, the brute? +If he was not quite drowned he was nearly, and Jem the cause." + +His confederates soothed him with promises of vengeance on all their +three his enemies, and soon after catching sight of one of them, Levi, +they kept their word; they roused up some of the other diggers against +Isaac on the plea that he had refused to give evidence against Walker, +and so they launched a mob and trusted to mob nature for the rest. The +recoil of this superfluous villainy was, as often happens, a blow to the +head scheme. + +brutus, who was wanted at peep of day for the dark scheme already hinted +at, got terribly battered by George Fielding, and placarded, and, what +was worse, chained to a post, by Robinson and Ede. It became necessary +to sound his body and spirit. + +One of the gang was sent by Crawley to inquire whether he felt strong +enough to go with Black Will on that difficult and dangerous work +to-morrow. The question put in a passing whisper was answered in a +whisper. + +"I am as strong as a lion for revenge. Tell them I would not miss +to-morrow's work for all the gold in Australia." + +The lowering face spoke loud enough if the mouth whispered. + +The message was brought back to Black Will and Crawley. + +"What energy!" said Crawley, admiringly. + +"Ay!" said Black Will, "that is your sort; give me a pal with his skin +smarting and his bones aching for the sort of job that wood shall see +to-morrow. Have they marked him?" he inquired, with a strange curiosity. + +"I am afraid they have; his nose is smashed frightful." + +"I am glad of it; now we are brothers and will have blood for blood." + +"Your expressions are dreadfully terse," said Crawley, trying to smile, +but looking scared instead; "but I don't understand your remark; you +were not in the late unsuccessful attack on Mr. Levi, and you escaped +most providentially in the night business--the men have not marked you, +my good friend." + +"Haven't they?" yelled the man, with a tremendous oath--"haven't they? +LOOK HERE!" A glance was enough. Crawley turned wan and shuddered from +head to foot. + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. + +WE left Robinson and Jem talking at the entrance to the tent. + +"Come in," said Robinson. "You will take care of this tent while we are +gone." + +Jem promised faithfully. + +He then asked Robinson to explain to him the dodge of the gut-lines. +Robinson showed him, and how the bells were rung at his head by the +thief's foot. + +Jem complimented him highly. + +Robinson smiled, but the next moment sighed. "They will be too clever +for us some of these dark nights--see how nearly they have nicked us +again and again!" + +"Don't be down on your luck, captain!" + +"Jem, what frightens me is the villains getting off so; there they are +to try again, and next time the luck will be theirs--it can't be always +ours--why should it? Jem, there was a man in my tent last night." + +"There is no denying that, captain." + +"Well, Jem, I can't get it off my heart that I was to kill that man, +or he me. Everything was on my side. I had my gut-lines, and I had a +revolver and a cutlass--and I took up the cutlass like a fool; if I had +taken up the revolver the man would be dead. I took up the wrong, and +that man will be my death. The cards never forgive! I had the odd trick, +and didn't take it--I shall lose the game." + +"No, ye shan't," cried Jem, hastily. "What if the man got clear for the +moment, we will hunt him out for you. You give me his description." + +"I couldn't," said Robinson, despondingly. "It was so dark! Here is his +pistol, but that is no use. If I had but a clew, ay, ever so slight, I'd +follow it up; but no, there is none. Hallo, what is the matter! What is +it? what on earth is the man looking at like that?" + +"What was you asking for?" stammered Jem. "Wasn't it a clew?" + +"Yes." + +Robinson got up and came to Jem, who was standing with dilated eyes +looking at the ground in the very corner of the tent. He followed the +direction of Jem's eyes, and was instantly transfixed with curiosity and +rising horror. + +"Take it up, Jem," he gasped. + +"No, you take it up! it was you who--" + +"No--yes! there is George's voice. I wouldn't let him see such a thing +for the world. Oh, God! here is another." + +"Another?" + +"Yes, in the long grass! and there is George's voice." + +"Come out, Jem. Not a word to George for the world. I want to talk to +you. If it hasn't turned me sick! I should make a poor hangman. But it +was in self-defense, thank Heaven for that!" + +"Where are you going in such a hurry, Tom?" said George. + +"Oh, only a little way with Jem." + +"Don't be long, it is getting late." + +"No, George!" + +"Jem, this is an ugly job!" + +"An ugly job, no! ---- him, I wish it was his head. Give them me, +captain." + +"What, will you take charge of them?" + +"That I will, captain, and what is more I'll find your enemy out by +them, and--when you come back he shall be in custody--waiting your +orders. Give them me." + +"Yes, take them. Oh, but I am glad to be rid of them. What a ghastly +look they have." + +"I don't care for their looks. I am right glad to see them--they are a +clew and no mistake. Keep dark to-night. Don't tell this to Ede--he is +a good fellow but chatters too much--let me work it out. I'll find the +late owner double quick," said Jem, with a somewhat brutal laugh. + +"Your orders about the prisoners, captain?" cried Ede, coming up. + +Robinson reflected. + +"Turn them all loose--but one." + +"And what shall I do with him?" + +"Hum! Put a post up in your own tent." + +"Yes." + +"Tie him to it in his handcuffs. Give him food enough." + +"And when shall we loose him?" + +"At noon, to-morrow." + +"It shall be done! but you must come and show me which of the four it +is." + +Robinson went with Ede and his men. + +"Turn this one loose," said he; it was done on the instant. + +"And this." + +"And this." + +"And" (laying his finger on brutus) "keep this one prisoner in your +tent, handcuffed and chained, till noon to-morrow." + +At the touch, brutus trembled with hate; at the order, his countenance +fell like Cain's. + +Full two hours before sunrise the patrol called Robinson by his own +order, and the friends made for the bush, with a day's provision and +their blankets, their picks, and their revolvers. When they arrived at +the edge of the bush, Robinson halted and looked round to see if they +were followed. The night was pretty clear; no one was in sight. The +men struck rapidly into the bush, which at this part had been cut and +cleared in places, lying as it did so near a mine. + +"What, are we to run, Tom?" + +"Yes! I want to get to the river of quartz as soon as possible," was the +dry answer. + +"With all my heart." + +After running about half a mile, George pulled up, and they walked. + +"What do you keep looking behind for, Tom?" + +"Oh, nothing." + +"You fidget me, Tom!" + +"Can't help it. I shall be like that till daylight. They have shaken my +nerves among them." + +"Don't give way to such nonsense. What are you afraid of?" + +"I am not afraid of anything. Come, George, another run." + +"Oh, as you like. This beats all." + +This run brought them to the end of the broad road, and they found two +smaller paths; after some hesitation, Robinson took the left-hand one, +and it landed them in such a terribly thick scrub they could hardly +move. They forced their way through it, getting some frightful +scratches, but after struggling with it for a good half hour, began to +fear it was impenetrable and interminable, when the sun rising showed +them a clear space some yards ahead. They burst through the remainder +of the scrub, and came out upon an old clearing full a mile long and a +quarter of a mile broad. They gave a hurrah at the sight of it, but when +they came to walk on it the ground was clay and so sticky with a late +shower that they were like flies moving upon varnish, and at last were +fain to take off their shoes and stockings and run over it on the tips +of their toes. At the end of this opening they came to a place like +the "Seven Dials"--no end of little paths into the wood, and none very +promising. After a natural hesitation, they took the one that seemed to +be most on their line of march, and followed it briskly till it brought +them plump upon a brook, and there it ended. Robinson groaned. + +"Confound the bush," cried he. "You were wrong not to let me bring +Jacky. What is to be done?" + +"Go back." + +"I hate going back. I would rather go thirty miles ahead than one back. +I've got an idea; off shoes and paddle up the stream; perhaps we shall +find a path that comes to it from the other side." + +They paddled up the stream a long way, and at last, sure enough, they +found a path that came down to the stream from the opposite side. They +now took a hasty breakfast, washing it down with water from the brook, +then dived into the wood. + +The sun, was high in heaven, yet still they had not got out of the bush. + +"I can't make it out, George; there is nothing to steer by, and these +paths twist and turn so. I don't think we shall do any good till night. +When I see the Southern Cross in the sky I shall be able to steer +northeast. That is our line." + +"Don't give in," said George; "I think it looks clearer ahead. I believe +we are at the end of it." + +"No such luck, I am afraid," was the despondent reply. + +For all that, in a few yards more they came upon an open place. + +They could not help cheering. "At last!" cried they. But this triumph +gave way to doubts. + +"I am afraid we are not clear yet," said Robinson. "See, there is wood +again on the other side. Why, it is that sticky clay again. Why, George, +it is the clearing we crossed before breakfast." + +"You are talking nonsense, Tom," cried George, angrily. + +"No, I am not," said the other, sadly. "Come across. We shall soon know +by our footsteps in the clay." + +Sure enough, half way across they found a track of footsteps. George was +staggered. "It is the place, I really think," said he. "But, Tom, when +you talk of the footsteps, look here? You and I never made all these +tracks. This is the track of a party." + +Robinson examined the ground. + +"Tracks of three men; two barefoot, one in nailed boots." + +"Well, is that us?" + +"Look at the clearing, George, you have got eyes. It is the same." + +"So 'tis, but I can't make out the three tracks." + +Robinson groaned. "I can. This third track has come since we went by." + +"No doubt of that, Tom. Well?" + +"Well, don't you see?" + +"No. What?" + +"You and I are being hunted." + +George looked blank a moment. "Can't we be followed without being +hunted?" + +"No; others might, but not me. We are being hunted," said Robinson, +sternly. "George, I am sick of this, let us end it. Let us show these +fellows they are hunting lions and not sheep. Is your revolver loaded?" + +"Yes." + +"Then come on!" And he set off to run, following the old tracks. George +ran by his side, his eyes flashing with excitement. They came to the +brook. Robinson showed. George that their pursuer had taken some steps +down the stream. "No matter," said he, "don't lose time, George, go +right up the bank to our path. He will have puzzled it out, you may take +your oath." + +Sure enough they found another set of footsteps added to their own. +Robinson paused before entering the wood. He put fresh caps on his +revolver. "Now, George," said he, in a low voice, "we couldn't sleep in +this wood without having our throats cut, but before night I'll be out +of danger or in my grave, for life is not worth having in the midst of +enemies. Hush! hus-s-sh! You must not speak to me but in a whisper." + +"No!" whispered George. + +"Nor rustle against the boughs." + +"No, I won't," whispered George. "But make me sensible, Tom. Tell me +what all this caution is to lead to. What are you doing?" + +"I AM HUNTING THE HUNTER!" hissed. Robinson, with concentrated fury. And +he glided rapidly down the trodden path, his revolver cocked, his ears +pricked, his eye on fire, and his teeth clinched. + +George followed, silent and cautious, his revolver ready cocked in his +hand. As they glided thus, following their own footsteps, and hunting +their hunter with gloomy brows, and nerves quivering, and hearts +darkening with anger and bitterness, sudden a gloom fell upon the +wood--it darkened and darkened. Meantime a breeze chill as ice disturbed +its tepid and close air, forerunner of a great wind which was soon +heard, first moaning in the distance, then howling and rushing up, and +sweeping over the tall trees and rocking them like so many bulrushes. A +great storm was coming. + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. + +THIS very afternoon Mr. Levi came to inquire for George Fielding. Unable +to find him, he asked of several diggers where the young man was; he +could get no information till Jem saw him, and came and told him. + +Now when he heard they were gone, and not expected back for some days, +Isaac gave quite a start, and showed a degree of regret and vexation +that Jem was puzzled to account for. + +On reflection he begged Jem to come to his tent; there he sat down and +wrote a letter. + +"Young man," said he, "I do entreat you to give this to George Fielding +the moment he returns to the camp. Why did he go without coming to see +me? my old heart is full of misgivings." + +"You needn't have any, sir," said Jem, surprised at the depth of feeling +in the old Jew's face and voice. "He shall have the letter, you may +depend." + +Levi thanked him. + +He then said to Nathan: "Strike the tents, collect our party, and let us +be gone." + +"What! going to leave us, sir?" + +"Yes! young man, this very hour." + +"Well now, I am sorry for that, and so will the captain be, and his pal +that you think so much of." + +"We shall not be long parted," said the old man, in his sweet musical +Eastern accent, "not very long, if you are faithful to your trust and +give the good young man my letter. May good angels hover round him, may +the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob guard him!" + +"Amen!" said rough Jem; for the reverend face glowed with piety, and the +voice was the voice of prayer. + +Suddenly an unpleasant reflection occurred to Jem. + +"Well, but if you go, who is to buy our gold-dust?" + +"The Christian merchants," said Isaac, with an indifferent air. + +"But they are such Jews," cried Jem, inadvertently. "I mean--I mean----" +And rough as he was, he looked as if he could have bitten his tongue +off. + +"I know what you mean," said Isaac, sadly. He added: "Such as they +are, they are all you have now. The old Jew was hunted and hooted and +insulted in this place yesterday; here then he trades no more; those who +set no value on him can of course supply his place." + +"The blackguards," cried Jem, "the ruffians, I wish I had seen them. +Come, Mr. Levi, that was not the mine; that was only the riffraff; you +might forgive us that." + +"I never forgive," was the calm reply. + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. + +A TREMENDOUS snow-storm fell upon the mine and drove Jem into his +tent, where he was soon after joined by Jacky, a circumstance in +itself sufficient to prove the violence of the storm, for Jacky loathed +indoors, it choked him a good deal. + +The more was Jem surprised when he heard a lamentable howl coming nearer +and nearer, and a woman burst into his tent, a mere pillar of snow, for +she was covered with a thousand flakes each as big as a lady's hand. + +"Ochone! ochone! ochone!" cried Mary McDogherty, and, on being asked +what was the matter, she sat down and rocked herself and moaned and +cried, "Ochone--och, captain, avick, what will I do for you? an' who +will I find to save you? an' oh, it is the warm heart and the kind heart +ye had to poor Molly McDogherty that ud give her life to save yours this +day." + +"The captain," cried Jem, in great alarm. "What is wrong with the +captain?" + +"He is lying could and stiff in the dark, bloody wood. Och, the +murthering villains! och, what will I do at all! och, captain, avick, +warm was your heart to the poor Irish boys, but it is could now. Ochone! +ochone!" + +"Woman," cried Jem, in great agitation, "leave off blubbering and tell +me what is the matter." + +Thus blandly interrogated, Mary told him a story (often interrupted with +tears and sighs) of what had been heard and seen yester eve by one of +the Irish boys--a story that turned him cold, for it left on him the +same impression it had left on the warmhearted Irishwoman, that at this +moment his good friend was lying dead in the bush hard by. + +He rose and loaded Robinson's double-barreled gun; he loaded it with +bullets, and, as he rammed them fiercely down, he said angrily: "Leave +off crying and wringing your hands; what on earth is the use of that? +here goes to save him or to revenge him." + +"An' och, James, take the wild Ingine wid ye; they know them bloody, +murthering woods better than our boys, glory be to God for taching them +that same." + +"Of course I shall take him. You hear, Jacky, will you show me how to +find the poor dear captain and his mate if they are in life?" + +"If they are alive, Jacky will find them a good deal soon--if they are +dead, still Jacky will find them." + +The Irishwoman's sorrow burst out afresh at these words. The savage then +admitted the probability of that she dreaded. + +"And their enemies--the cowardly villains--what will you do to them?" +asked Jem, black with rage. + +Jacky's answer made Mary scream with affright, and startled even Jem's +iron nerves for a moment. At the very first word of the Irishwoman's +story, the savage had seated himself on the ground with his back turned +to the others, and, unnoticed by them, had rapidly painted his face with +the war-paint of his tribe. Words cannot describe the ghastly terrors, +the fiendish ferocity these traditional lines and colors gave his +countenance. This creature, that looked so like a fiend, came erect into +the middle of the tent with a single bound, as if that moment vomited +forth by hell, and yet with a grander carriage and princelier presence +than he had worn in time of peace; and even as he bounded he crossed +his tomahawk and narrow wooden shield, to signify that his answer was no +vulgar asseveration, but a vow of sacred war. + +"KALINGALUNGA WILL KILL THEM, AND DRINK THEIR BLOOD." + +Kalingalunga glided from the tent. Jem followed him. The snow fell in +flakes as large as a lady's hand, and the air was dark; Jem could not +see where the hunter was taking him, but he strode after him and trusted +to his sagacity. + +Five hours' hard walking, and then the snow left off. The air became +clear, and to Jem's surprise the bush, instead of being on his right +hand, was now on his left; and there on its skirts, about a mile off, +was the native camp. They had hardly come in sight of it when it was +seen to break from quietude into extraordinary bustle. + +"What is up?" asked Jem. + +The hunter smiled, and pointed to his own face: + +"Kalingalunga painted war." + +"What eyes the beggars must have," said Jem. + +The next minute a score of black figures came tearing up in such +excitement that their long rows of white teeth and the whites of their +eyes flashed like Budelights in their black heads. + +Kalingalunga soon calmed them down by letting them know that he was +painted for a private, not a national feud. He gave them no further +information. I suspect he was too keen a sportsman to put others on the +scent of his game. He went all through the camp, and ascertained from +the stragglers that no men answering the description of George and +Robinson had passed out of the wood. + +"They are in the wood," said he + +He then ordered a great fire--bade Jem dry his clothes and eat; he +collected two of his wives and committed Jem to their care, and glided +like a panther into the wood. + +What with the great heat succeeding to the great cold, and the great +supper the gins gave him, Jem fell fast asleep. It was near daylight +when a hand was laid on his shoulder, and there was Kalingalunga. + +"Not a track on the snow." + +"No? then let us hope they are not in the wood." + +The hunter hung his head. + +"Me tink they are in the wood," said he, gravely. + +Jem groaned, "Then they are lying under the soil of it or in some dark +pit." + +Kalingalunga reflected. He replied to this effect: + +"That there were no more traces of an assassin than of victims, +consequently that it was impossible to know anything, and that it was a +good deal too stupid to speak a good deal knowing nothing." + +All this time Jem's fear and rage and impatience contrasted greatly with +the philosophic phlegm of the Pict, who looked so fierce and took it all +so cool, ending with an announcement that now Kalingalunga would sleep a +good deal. + +The chief was soon asleep, but not till he had ordered his gins to wake +him the moment the snow should be melted. This occurred at noon, and, +after snatching a hasty meal, he put a tomahawk into Jem's hands and +darted into the bush. + +All the savage's coldness disappeared now he was at work. He took Jem +right across the wood from southeast to northwest. Nothing stopped him. +When the scrub was thick above but hollow below he threw himself on his +belly and wriggled along like a snake. When it was all thick, he hacked +into it with fury and forced a path. When it was impenetrable he went +round it, and by some wonderful instinct got into the same line again. +Thus they cut clean across the wood but found no tracks. + +Then the savage, being out in the open, trotted easily down the woodside +to the southwest point; here he entered and took a line straight as an +arrow to the northeast. + +It was about five in the afternoon. Kalingalunga was bleeding all over +with scratches, and Jem was torn to pieces and done up. He was just +about to tell the other that he must give in, when Kalingalunga suddenly +stopped, and pointed to the ground: + +"Track!" + +"What of?" + +"A white man's shoe." + +"How many are there?" + +"One." + +Jem sighed. + +"I doubt it is a bad job, Jacky," said he. + +"Follow--not too close," was the low reply. + +And the panther became a serpent, so smooth and undulating were the +motions with which he glided upon the track he had now discovered. + +Jem, well aware that he could not move noiselessly like the savage, +obeyed him and crept after at some distance. + +The savage had followed the man's footsteps about half a mile, and +the white man the savage, when suddenly both were diverted from their +purpose. Kalingalunga stood still and beckoned Jem. Jem ran to him, and +found him standing snuffing the air with his great broad nostrils, like +a stag. + +"What is it?" + +"White fellow burn wambiloa wood." + +"How d'ye know? how d'ye know?" + +"Wambiloa wood smell a good way off when him burn." + +"And how do you know it is a white man?" + +"Black fellow never burn wambiloa wood; not good to burn that. Keep it +for milmeridien." + +The chief now cut off a few of his long hairs and held them up to +ascertain the exact direction of the wind. This done, he barked a tree +to mark the spot to which he had followed the trail, and striking out +into quite a different direction he hunted by scent. + +Jem expected to come on the burning wambiloa very soon, but he +underrated either the savage's keen scent or the acrid odor of the +sacred wood--perhaps both. They had gone half a mile at least before his +companion thought it necessary to show any caution. At last he stopped +short, and then Jem smelled a smell as if "cinnamon and ginger, nutmegs +and cloves," were all blazing in one bonfire. With some difficulty he +was prevailed on to stand still and let the subtle native creep on, nor +would he consent to be inactive until the other solemnly vowed to +come back for him and give him his full share of the fighting. Then +Kalingalunga went gliding like a shadow and flitted from tree to tree. + +Woe be to the enemy the subtle, noiseless, pitiless, remorseless savage +surprises; he has not put on his war-paint in sport or for barren show. + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. + +A MAN was hunting Robinson and George Fielding, and they were hunting +him. Both parties inflamed with rage and bitterness; both master of the +other's fate, they thought. + +A change of wind brought a fall of snow, and the fall of snow baffled +both parties in five minutes. Down came the Australian flakes large as +a woman's hand (I am not romancing), and effaced the tracks of the +pursuing and pursued and pursuers. So tremendous was the fall that the +two friends thought of nothing but shelter. They drew their blankets +over their heads and ran hither and thither looking for a friendly tree. +At last they found an old tree with a prodigious stem that parted about +ten feet up into two forks. With some effort they got up into this +cleft, and then they were on a natural platform. Robinson always carried +nails in his pocket, and he contrived to nail the two blankets to the +forks so as to make a screen. Then they took out their provisions and +fortified themselves with a hearty supper. + +As they were eating it they were suddenly startled by an explosion so +tremendous that their tree seemed to have been struck by lightning. Out +went Robinson, with his mouth full, on to a snowdrift four feet high. +He looked up and saw the cause of the fracas. A large bough of a +neighboring tree had parted from the trunk with the enormous weight +of the snow. Robinson climbed back to George and told him. Supper +recommenced, but all over the wood at intervals they now heard huge +forks and boughs parting from their parent stems with a report like +a thirty-two-pounder ringing and echoing through the wood. Others so +distant that they were like crackers. + +These sounds were very appalling in the ghostly wood. The men +instinctively drew closer to each other; but they were no chickens; use +soon hardened them even to this. They settled it that the forks they +were sitting on would not give way, because there were no leaves on them +to hold a great burden of snow; and soon they yielded to nature and fell +fast asleep in spite of all the dangers that hemmed them. + +At his regular hour, just before sunrise, Robinson awoke and peeped from +below the blanket. He shook George. + +"Getup directly, George. We are wasting time when time is gold." + +"What is it?" + +"'What is it?' There is a pilot in the sky that will take us out of this +cursed trap, if the day does not come and spoil all." + +George's eye followed Robinson's finger, and in the center of the dark +vault of heaven this glittered. + +[Southern Cross constellation] + + + +CHAPTER LXX. + +"I KNOW it, Tom. When I was sailing to this country we came to a part +where the north star went down and down to the water's edge, and this +was all we got in exchange for it." + +"George," said Tom, rather sternly, "how do you know they don't hear us, +and here we are surrounded by enemies, and would you run down our only +friend? That silver star will save our lives if they are to be saved at +all. Come on; and, George, if you were to take your revolver and blow +out my brains, it is no more than I deserve for sleeping away the +precious hours of night, when I ought to have been steering out of this +cursed timber-net by that blessed star." + +With these words Robinson dived into the wood, steering due east by the +Southern Cross. It was like going through a frozen river. The scrub +was loaded with snow, which it discharged in masses on the travelers at +every step. + +"Keep your revolver dry in your hat and your lucifers, too," cried +Robinson. "We shall have to use them both, ten to one. As to our skins, +that is hopeless." + +Then the men found how hard it is to take a line and keep it in the +Australian bush. When the Southern Cross was lost in a cloud, though +but for a minute, they were sure to go all wrong, as they found upon +its reappearance; and sometimes the scrub was impenetrable and they were +forced to go round it and walk four hundred yards, advancing eastward +but twenty or thirty. + +Thus they battled on till the sun rose. + +"Now we shall be all in the dark again," said poor Robinson, "here comes +a fog." + +"Stop, Tom," said George; "oughtn't we to make this good before we go +on?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"We have come right by the star so far, have we not?" + +"Yes." + +"Then let us bark fifty of these trees for a mark. I have seen that +varmint Jacky do that." + +"A capital idea, George; out with our knives--here goes." + +"No breakfast to-day, Tom." + +"No, George, nor dinner, either, till we are out of the wood." + +These two poor fellows walked and ran and crept and struggled all day, +sometimes hoping, sometimes desponding. At last, at five o'clock in the +afternoon, their bellies gnawed with hunger, their clothes torn to +rags, their skin bleeding, they came out upon some trees with the bark +stripped. They gave one another a look that words can hardly paint. They +were the trees they had barked twelve hours ago! + +The men stood silent--neither cared to tell the other all he felt--for +now there crept over these two stout bosoms a terrible chill, the sense +of a danger new to them in experience, but not new in report. They had +heard of settlers and others who had been lost in the fatal labyrinth of +the Australian bush, and now they saw how easily it might be true. + +"We may as well sit down here and rest; we shall do no good till night. +What, are you in pain, George?" + +"Yes, Tom, a little." + +"Where?" + +"Something gnaws my stomach like an adder." + +"Oh, that is the soldier's gripes," said Tom, with a ghastly attempt at +a jest. "Poor George!" said he, kindly, "I dare say you never knew what +it was to go twenty-four hours without food before." + +"Never in my life, Tom." + +"Well, I have, and I'll tell you the only thing to do--when you can't +fill the breadbasket, shut it. Go to sleep till the Southern Cross comes +out again." + +"What, sleep in our dripping clothes?" + +"No, we will make a roaring fire with these strips of bark; they are dry +as tinder by now." + +A pyre four feet high was raised, the strips being laid from north to +south and east to west alternately, and they dried their blankets and +warmed their smoking bodies. + +"George, I have got two cigars; they must last us two days." + +"Oh, I'm no great smoker--keep them for your own comfort." + +Robinson wore a sad smile. + +"We can't afford to smoke them; this is to chew; it is not food, George, +but it keeps the stomach from eating itself. We must do the best for our +lives we can for Susan's sake." + +"Give it me, Tom; I'll chew it, and thank you kindly. You are a wise +companion in adversity, Tom; it is a great grief to me that I have +brought you into this trouble, looking for what I know you think is a +mare's nest, as the saying is." + +"Don't talk so, George. True pals like you and me never reproach one +another. They stand and fall together like men. The fire is warm, +George--that is one comfort." + +"The fire is well enough, but there's nothing down at it. I'd give a +hundred pounds for a mutton chop." + +The friends sat like sacrifices by the fire, and chewed their cigars in +silence, with foreboding hearts. After a while, as the heat laid hold +of him, George began to dose. Robinson felt inclined to do the same, but +the sense that perhaps a human enemy might be near caused him to fight +against sleep in this exposed locality; so, whenever his head bobbed +down, he lifted it sharply and forced his eyes open. It was on one of +these occasions that, looking up, he saw, set as it were in a frame of +leaves, a hideous countenance glaring at him; it was painted in circular +lines, red, blue and white. + +"Get up, George," roared Robinson; "they are upon us!" + +And both men were on their feet, revolvers pointed. The leaves parted, +and out came this diabolical face which they had never seen before, but +with it a figure they seemed to know, and a harsh cackle they instantly +recognized, and it sounded like music to them. + +"Oh, my dear Jacky," cried George, "who'd have thought it was you! Well, +you are a godsend! Good afternoon. Oh, Jacky!--how d'ye do?" + +"Jacky not Jacky now, cos um a good deal angry, and paint war. +Kalingalunga berywelltanku" (he always took these four words for one). +"Now I go fetch white fellow;" and he disappeared. + +"Who is he going to fetch? is it the one that was following us?" + +"No doubt. Then, Tom, it was not an enemy, after all!" + +Jacky came back with Jem, who, at sight of them alive and well, burst +into extravagances. He waved his hat round his head several times and +then flung it into a tree; then danced a _pas seul_ consisting of steps +not one of them known at the opera house, and chanted a song of triumph +the words of which were, Ri tol de riddy iddydol, and the ditty naught; +finally he shook hands with both. + +"Never say die!" + +"Well, that is hearty! and how thoughtful of him to come after us, and +above all to bring Jacky!" + +"That it was," replied George. "Jem," said he, with feeling, "I don't +know but what you have saved two men's lives." + +"If I don't it shan't be my fault, farmer." + +George. "Oh, Jacky, I am so hungry! I have been twenty-four hours +without food." + +Kalingalunga. "You stupid fellow to go widout food, always a good deal +food in bush." + +George. "Is there? then for Heaven's sake go and get us some of it." + +Kalingalunga. "No need go, food here." He stepped up to the very tree +against which George was standing, showed him an excrescence on the +bark, made two clean cuts with his tomahawk, pulled out a huge white +worm and offered it George. George turned from it in disgust; the wild +chief grinned superior and ate it himself, and smacked his lips with +infinite gusto. + +Meantime his quick eye had caught sight of something else. "A good deal +dinner in dis tree," said he, and he made the white men observe some +slight scratches on the bark. "Possum claws go up tree." Then he showed +them that there were no marks with the claw reversed, a clear proof the +animal had not come down. "Possum in tree." + +The white men looked up into the bare tree with a mixture of wonder +and incredulity. Jacky cut steps with his tomahawk and went up the main +stem, which was short, and then up a fork, one out of about twelve; +among all these he jumped about like a monkey till he found one that was +hollow at the top. + +"Throw Kalingalunga a stone, den he find possum a good deal quick." + +They could not find a stone for their lives, so, being hungry, Robinson +threw a small nugget of gold he had in his pocket. Jacky caught it, +placed it at the top of the hollow fork and let it drop. Listening +keenly, his fine ear heard the nugget go down the fork, striking the +wood first one side then another, and then at a certain part sound +no more. Down he slips to that silent part, makes a deep cut with his +tomahawk just above the spot, thrusts in his hand and pulls out a large +opossum, yelling and scratching and emitting a delicious scent in an +agony of fear. The tomahawk soon silenced him, and the carcass fell +among the applauding whites. Now it was Robinson's turn. He carved the +raw animal for greater expedition, and George helped him to wrap each +limb and carcass in a thin covering of clay. Thus prepared, it was +thrust into the great pile of burning ashes. + +"Look yonder, do! look at that Jem! Why, Jem, what are you up to, +patroling like a sentinel out there?" + +"Never you heed Jem," was the dry reply; "you mind the roast, captain, +and I'll mind--my business;" and Jem continued to parade up and down +with his gun cocked and his eye piercing the wood. + +To Robinson's repeated and uneasy inquiries what meant this pantomime, +Jem persisted in returning no answer but this: "You want your dinner, +captain; eat your dinner, and then I'll hoffer a hobservation; meantime, +as these woods are queer places, a little hextra caution is no sin." + +The pie dishes were now drawn out of the ashes and broken, and the +meat baked with all its juices was greedily devoured. "It tastes like a +rabbit stuffed with peppermint," said George, "and uncommon nice it is. +Now I am another man." + +"So am I; Jacky forever!" + +"Now, Jem, I have dined. Your story, if you please. Why are you here? +for you are a good fellow, but you haven't got gumption enough to say to +yourself, 'These two will get lost in the bush, I'll take Jacky and pull +them out.'" + +"You are right, captain, that wasn't the way at all; and, since your +belly is full and your courage up, you will be able to enjoy my story +better than you could afore." + +"Yes, so let us have it;" and Robinson leaned back luxuriously, being +filled and warmed. + +"First and foremost," commenced this artful narrator, "there is a chap +prowling in this wood at the present time with a double-barreled gun to +blow out your brains, captain." + +"The devil," cried Robinson, starting to his feet. + +"And yours, farmer." + +"How do you know?" asked George, without moving. + +"That is what I am going to tell you. That Mary McDogherty came crying +to my tent all through the snow. 'What is up?' says I; says she, 'Murder +is up.' Then she told me her cousin, an Irish boy, was at Bevan's store +and he heard some queer talk, and he looked through a chink in the wall +and saw two rascals putting their heads together, and he soon made out +they were driving a bargain to rob you two. One was to do it, the other +was a-egging him on. 'I must have fifty pounds first,' says this one. +'Why?' says the other. 'Because he has been and locked my pal up that +was to be in it with me.'" + +"Ah!" cried Robinson. "Go on, Jem--there is a clew anyway." + +"I have got a thicker one behind. Says the other, 'Agreed! when will you +have it?' 'Why, now,' says t'other. Then this one gave him a note. Pat +couldn't see that it was a fifty, but no doubt it was, but he saw the +man take it and put it in a little tin box and shove it in his bosom." + +"That note was the price of blood," said Robinson. "Oh, the +black-hearted villains. Tell me who they were, that is all; tell me but +who they were!" + +"The boy didn't know." + +"There! it is always so. The fools! they never know." + +"Stop a bit, captain, there is a clew (your own word)." + +"Ay, and what is the clew?" + +"As soon as ever the note was safe in his bosom he says: 'I sold you, +blind mate; I'd have given fifty sooner than not done this job. Look +here!' says he, 'I have sworn to have a life for each of these;' and, +captain," said Jem, suddenly lowering his voice, "with that it seems he +held up his right hand." + +"Well, yes! yes! eh!" + +"And there were two fingers a-missing on it!" + +"Ah!" + +"Now those two fingers are the ones you chopped off with your cutlass +the night when the tent was attacked." + +"Why, Tom, what is this? you never told me of this," cried George. + +"And which are in my pocket." + +"In your pocket?" said George, drawing away from him. + +"Ay, farmer! wrapped up in silver paper, and they shall never leave my +pocket till I have fitted them on the man, and seen him hung or +shot with them two pickers and stealers tied round his bloodthirsty, +mercenairy, aass-aassinating neck, say that I said it." + +George. "Jacky, show us the way out of this wood." + +Kalingalunga bowed assent, but he expressed a wish to take with him some +of the ashes of the wambiloa. George helped him. + +Robinson drew Jem aside. "You shouldn't have mentioned that before +George; you have disgusted him properly." + +"Oh, hang him! he needn't be so squeamish; why, I've had 'em salt--" + +"There, there! drop it, Jem, do!" + +"Captain! are you going to let them take us out of the wood before we +have hunted it for that scoundrel?" + +"Yes, I am. Look here, Jem, we are four, and he is one, but a +double-barreled gun is an awkward enemy in a dark wood. No, Jem, we will +outwit him to the last. We will clear the wood and get back to the camp. +He doesn't know we have got a clew to him. He will come back without +fear, and we will nail him with the fifty-pound note upon him. And +then--Jack Ketch." + +The whole party was now on the move, led by Kalingalunga, bearing the +sacred ashes. + +"What on earth is he going to do with them?" + +The chief heard this query, and looking back said gravely, "He take +them to 'Milmeridien';" and the party followed Jacky, who twisted and +zigzagged about the bush till, at last, he brought them to a fairy spot, +whose existence in that rugged wood none of them had dreamed possible. +It was a long, open glade, meandering like a river between two deep, +irregular fringes of the drooping acacia, and another lovely tree +which I only know by its uncouth, unmelodious, scientiuncular name--the +eucalyptus. This tree, as well as the drooping acacia, leaned over the +ground with long leaves like disheveled hair. + +Kalingalunga paused at the brink and said to his companions in a low, +awestruck voice, "Milmeridien." + +The glade was full of graves, some of them fresh, glittering with bright +red earth under the cool, green acacias, others richly veiled with +golden moss more or less according to their age; and in the recesses of +the grove peeped smoother traces of mortality, mossy mounds a thousand +years old, and others far more ancient still, now mere excrescences of +green, known to be graves only by the light of that immense gradation of +times and dates and epochs. + +The floor of the open glade was laid out as a vast parterre--each grave +a little flower-bed, round, square, oval, or rhomboid; and all round +each bed flowed in fine and graceful curves little paths too narrow +for a human foot. Primeval tradition had placed them there that spirits +might have free passage to visit all the mighty dead. For here reposed +no vulgar corpses. Here, their heads near the surface, but their feet +deep in earth, sat the great hunters and warriors of every age of the +race of Kalingalunga, once a great nation, though now a failing tribe. +They sat there this many a day, their weapons in their hands, ready to +start up whenever the great signal should come, and hunt once more, but +without fatigue, in woods boundless as the sea, and with bodily frames +no longer mortal, to knock and be knocked on the head, _ad infinitum._ + +Simple and benign creed! + +A cry of delight burst from the white men, and they were going to spread +themselves over the garden of the dead. + +The savage checked them with horror. + +"Nobody walk there while him alive," said he. "Now you follow me and +not speak any words at all, or Kalingalunga will leave you in the +bush.--Hush!" + +The savage paused, that even the echo of his remonstrance might die well +away before he traversed the garden. He then bowed his head down upon +his breast in a set manner, and so remained quiet a few seconds. In that +same attitude he started and walked slowly by the verge of the glade, +keeping carefully clear of the graves, and never raising his head. About +half way he stopped and reverently scattered the ashes of the wambiloa +upon three graves that lay near the edge, then forward--silent, +downcast, reverential. + +"Mors omnibus est communis!" The white men, even down to Jem, understood +and sympathized with Kalingalunga. In this garden of the dead of all +ages they felt their common humanity, and followed their black brother +silent and awestruck. Melted, too, by the sweet and sacred sorrow of +this calm scene; for here Death seemed to relax his frown, and the dead +but to rest from trouble and toil, mourned by gentle, tender trees; and +in truth it was a beautiful thought of these savage men to have given +their dead for companions those rare and drooping acacias, that bowed +themselves and loosed their hair so like fair women abandoned to sorrow +over the beloved and dead, and night and morning swept with their dewy +eyelashes the pillows of the brave. _Requiescant in pace!--resurgant in +pacem!_ For I wish them better than they wished themselves. + +After Milmeridien came a thick scrub, through which Kalingalunga tracked +his way; and then a loud hurrah burst from all, for they were free--the +net was broken. There were the mountains before them and the gaunt wood +behind them at last. The native camp was visible two miles distant, +and thither the party ran and found food and fires in abundance. Black +sentinels were set at such distances as to render a surprise impossible, +and the travelers were invited to sleep and forget all their troubles. +Robinson and Jem did sleep, and George would have been glad to, and +tried, but was prevented by an unfortunate incident--_les enfans +terribles_ found out his infirmity, viz., that nothing they could do +would make him hit them. So half a dozen little rascals, potter bellied +than you can conceive, climbed up and down George, sticking in their +twenty claws like squirrels, and feeling like cold, slippery slugs. Thus +was sleep averted, until a merciful gin, hearing the man's groans, came +and cracked two or three of these little black pots with a waddie or +club, so then George got leave to sleep, and just as he was dozing off, +ting, tong, ti tong, tong, tong, came a fearful drumming of parchment. +A corroboree or native dance was beginning. No more sleep till that was +over--so all hands turned out. A space was cleared in the wood, women +stood on both sides with flaming boughs and threw a bright red light +upon a particular portion of that space; the rest was dark as pitch. +Time, midnight. When the white men came up the dancing had not begun. +Kalingalunga was singing a preliminary war song. + +George had picked up some of the native language, and he explained +to the other that Jacky was singing about some great battle, near the +Wurra-Gurra River. + +"The Wurra-Gurra! why, that is where we first found gold." + +"Why of course it is! and--yes! I thought so." + +"Thought what?" + +"It is our battle he is describing." + +"Which of 'em?--we live in hot water." + +"The one before Jem was our friend. What is he singing? Oh, come! that +is overdoing it, Jacky! Why, Jem! he is telling them he killed you on +the spot." + +"I'll punch his head!" + +"No! take it easy," said Robinson; "he is a poet; this is what they call +poetical license." + +"Lie without sense, I call it--when here is the man." + + "Ting tong! ting tong tong!-- + I slew him--he fell--by the Wurra-Gurra River. + I slew him!--ting tong! he fell--ting tong! + By the Wurra-Gurra River--ting ting tong!" + +This line Jacky repeated at least forty times; but he evaded monotony by +the following simple contrivance: + + "I _slew_ him; he _fell_ by the Wurra-Gurra River--ting tong! + _I_ slew him; _he_ fell, by the Wurra-Gurra River, + I slew him; he fell, by the _Wurra-Gurra River,"_ + +with similar changes, and then back again. + +One of our own savages saved a great poet from monotony by similar +means;* very good of him. + + * The elder Sheridan, who used to teach his pupils to tresh + dead Dryden out thus: _None_ but the brave,/None but the + _brave,_/None _but_ the brave, deserve the fair. + +And now the gins took up the tune without the words and the dance began +to it. First, two figures ghastly with white paint came bounding +like Jacks-in-the-box out of the gloom into the red light, and danced +gracefully--then one more popped out--then another, at set intervals of +time--then another, all painted differently--and swelled the dance by +degrees; and still, as the dance grew in numbers, the musicians sang +and drummed louder and faster by well-planned gradations, and the +motion rose in intensity, till they all warmed into the terrible savage +corroboree jump, legs striding wide, head turned over one shoulder, the +eyes glaring with fiendish intensity in one direction, the arms both +raised and grasping waddies and boomerangs--till at last they worked up +to such a gallop of fierce, buck-like leaps that there was a jump for +each beat of the music. Now they were in four lines, and as the figures +in the front line jumped to the right, each keeping his distance to a +hair, the second line jumped to the left, the third to the right, and +the fourth to the left. + +The twinkle and beauty and symmetry of this was admirable, and, strange +as it may appear, not only were the savages now wrought up to frenzy +at this climax of the dance, but the wonderful magnetic influence these +children of Nature have learned to create and launch in the corroboree +so stirred the white men's blood, that they went half mad too, +and laughed and shouted and danced, and could hardly help flinging +themselves among the mad fiends and jumping and yelling with them; and +when the jump was at its fiercest and quickest, and the great frenzy +boiling over, these cunning artists brought it to a dead stop sharp upon +the climax--and all was still. + +In another minute they were all snoring; but George and Robinson often +started in their slumbers, dreaming they saw the horrid figures--the +skeletons, lizards, snakes, tartan shawls, and whitened fiends, the +whole lot blazing at the eyes and mouth like white budelights, +come bounding one after another out of the black night into the red +torchlight, and then go striding and jumping and glaring and raging and +bucking and prancing, and scattering battle and song and joy and rage +and inspiration and stark-staring frenzy all around. + +They awoke at daylight rather cold, and found piles of snow upon their +blankets, and the lizards and skeletons and imps and tartan shawls +deteriorated. The snow had melted on their bodies, and the colors had +all run--some of them away. _Quid multa?_ we all know how beauties look +when the sun breaks on them after a ball. + +They asked for Jacky. To their great chagrin he was not to be found. +They waited, getting crosser and crosser, till nine o'clock, and then +out comes my lord from the wood, walking toward them with his head down +on his bosom, the picture of woe--the milmeridien movement over again. + +"There! don't let us scold him," said George, "I am sure he has lost +a relation, or maybe a dear friend; anyway I hope it is not his +sweetheart--poor Jacky. Well, Jacky! I am glad you have washed your +face, now I know you again. You can't think how much better you look in +your own face than painted up in that unreasonable way, like-like-like-I +dono-what-all." + +"Like something between a devil and a rainbow," suggested Robinson. + +"But what is wrong?" asked George, kindly. "I am almost afraid to ask, +though!" + +Encouraged by the tone of sympathy, the afflicted chief pointed to his +face, sighed, and said: + +"Kalingalunga paint war, and now Kalingalunga wash um face and not kill +anybody first. Kalingalunga Jacky again, and show your white place in um +hill a good deal soon." + +And the amiable heathen cleared up a little at the prospect of serving +George, whom he loved--aboriginally. + +Jem remained with the natives upon some frivolous pretense. His real +hope was to catch the ruffian whom he secretly believed to be still in +the wood. "He is like enough to creep out this way," thought Jem, "and +then--won't I nail him!" + +In half an hour they were standing under the spot whose existence +Robinson had so often doubted. + +"Well, George, you painted it true. It really is a river of quartz +running between those two black rocks. And that you think is the home of +the gold, eh?" + +"Well, I do. Look here, Tom! look at this great large heap of quartz +bowlders, all of different sizes; they have all rolled down here out of +that river of quartz." + +"Why, of course they have! who doubts that?" + +"Many is the time I have sat on that green mound where Jacky is sitting +now, and eaten my bread and cheese." + +"I dare say! but what has that to do with it? what are we to do? Are we +to go up the rock and peck into that mass of quartz?" + +"Well, I think it is worth while." + +"Why, it would be like biting a piece out of the world! Look here, +Master George, we can put your notion about the home of the gold to the +test without all that trouble." + +"As how?" + +"You own all these quartz stones rolled out of yon river; if so, they +are samples of it. Ten thousand quartz stones is quite sample enough, so +begin and turn them all over, examine them--break them if you like. +If we find but a speck of gold in one of them I'll believe that quartz +river is gold's home--if not, it is all humbug!" + +George pulled a wry face; he found himself pinned to his own theory. + +"Well," said he, "I own the sample tells us what is in the barn; so now +I am vexed for bringing you here." + +"Now we _are_ here, give it a fair trial; let us set to and break every +bowlder in the thundering heap." + +They went to work and picked the quartz bowlders; full two hours they +worked, and by this time they had made a considerable heap of broken +quartz; it glittered in the sun, but it glittered white, not a speck of +yellow came to light. + +George was vexed. Robinson grinned; expecting nothing, he was not +disappointed. Besides, he was winning an argument, and we all like to +turn out prophets. Presently a little cackle from Jacky. + +"I find um!" + +"Find what?" asked Robinson, without looking up. + +"A good deal yellow stone," replied Jacky, with at least equal +composure. + +"Let me see that," said George, with considerable curiosity; and they +both went to Jacky. + +Now the fact is that this heap of quartz stones was in reality much +larger than they thought, only the greater part of it had been overgrown +with moss and patches of grass a few centuries of centuries ago. + +Jacky, seated on what seemed a grassy mound, was in reality perched +upon a part of the antique heap; his keen eye saw a little bit of yellow +protruding through the moss, and he was amusing himself clipping it with +his tomahawk, cutting away the moss and chipping the stone, which made +the latter glitter more and yellower. + +"Hallo!" cried George, "this looks better." + +Robinson went on his knees without a word. + +"It is all right," said he, in a great flutter, "it is a nugget--and +a good-sized one--a pound weight, I think. Now then, my lad, out you +come;" and he dug his fingers under it to jerk it out. + +But the next moment he gave a screech and looked up amazed. + +"Why, this is the point of the nugget; it lies the other way, not flat. +George! I can't move it! The pick! Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! The pick! the +pick!" + +"Stand clear," shouted George, and he drove the point of the pick down +close by the prize, then he pressed on the handle. "Why, Tom, it is +jammed somehow." + +"No, it is not jammed--it is its own weight. Why, George!" + +"Then, Tom! it is a hundred-weight if it is an ounce!" + +"Don't be a fool," cried the other, trembling all over; "there is no +such thing in nature." + +The nugget now yielded slowly to the pressure and began to come up into +the world again inch by inch after so many thousand years. Of course, +before it could come all out, the soil must open first, and when +Robinson, glaring down, saw a square foot of earth part and gape as the +nugget came majestically up, he gave another cry, and with trembling +hands laid hold of the prize, and pulled and tugged and rolled it on the +clean moss--to lift it was not so easy. They fell down on their knees by +the side of it like men in a dream. Such a thing had never been seen or +heard of--a hundred-weight of quartz and gold, and beautiful as it was +great. It was like honeycomb, the cells of which had been sliced by a +knife; the shining metal brimmed over in the delicate quartz cells. + +They lifted it. Yes, full a hundredweight; half the mass was quartz, but +four-fifths of the weight they knew must be gold. Then they jumped up +and each put a foot on it, and shook hands over it. + +"Oh, you beauty!" cried George, and he went on his knees and kissed it; +"that is not because you are gold, but because you take me to Susan. +Now, Tom, let us thank Heaven for its goodness to us, and back to camp +this very day." + +"Ay! but stop, we must wrap it in our wipes or we shall never get back +alive. The very honest ones would turn villains at sight of it. It is +the wonder of the world." + +"I see my Susan's eyes in it," cried George, in rapture. "Oh, Tom, good, +kind, honest Tom, shake hands over it once more!" + +In the midst of all this rapture a horrible thought occurred. + +"Why, it's Jacky's," said George, faintly, "he found it." + +"Nonsense! nonsense!" cried Tom, uneasily; he added, however, "but I am +afraid one third of it is--pals share, white or black." + +All their eyes now turned uneasily to the Aboriginal, who lay yawning on +the grass. + +"Jacky give him you, George," said this worthy savage, with superb +indifference. He added with a yawn: "What for you dance corroboree when +um not dark?--den you bite yellow stone," continued this original, "den +you red, den you white, den you red again, all because we pull up yellow +stone-all dis a good deal dam ridiculous." + +"So 'tis, Jacky," replied Robinson, hastily; "don't you have anything to +do with yellow stone, it would make you as great a fool as we are. Now +show us the shortest cut back home through the bush." + +At the native camp they fell in with Jem. The monstrous nugget was too +heavy to conceal from his shrewd eye, so they showed it him. The sight +of it almost knocked him down. Robinson told him where they found it, +and advised Jem to go and look for another. Alas! the great nugget +already made him wish one friend away. But Jem said: + +"No, I will see you safe through the bush first." + + + +CHAPTER LXXI. + +ALL this time two persons in the gold mine were upon thorns of +expectation and doubt--brutus and Peter Crawley. George and Robinson +did not return, but no more did Black Will. What had happened? Had +the parties come into collision? and, if so, with what result? If the +friends had escaped, why had they never been heard of since? If, on the +other hand, Will had come off conqueror, why had he never reappeared? At +last brutus arrived at a positive conviction that Black Will had robbed +and probably murdered the men, and was skulking somewhere with their +gold, thereby defrauding him, his pal; however, he kept this to himself, +and told Crawley that he feared Will had come to grief, so he would go +well armed, and see what was the matter, and whether he could help him. +So he started for the bush, well armed. Now his real object, I blush to +say, was to murder Black Will, and rob him of the spoils of George and +Robinson. + +Wicked as these men of violence had been six months ago, gold and +Crawley had made them worse, ay, much worse. Crawley, indeed, had never +openly urged any of them to so deep a crime as murder, and it is worthy +of note, as a psychological fact, that this reptile contrived to deceive +itself into thinking that it had stopped short of crime's utmost limits; +to be sure it had tempted and bribed and urged men to robbery under +circumstances that were almost sure to lead to murder, but still murder +might not occur; meantime it had openly discountenanced that crime, and +checked the natural proclivity of brutus and Black Will toward deeds of +blood. + +Self-deception will probably cease at the first blast of the archangel's +trumpet. But what human heart will part with it till then? The +circumstances under which a human being could not excuse or delude or +justify himself have never yet occurred in the huge annals of crime. +Prejudice apart, Crawley's moral position behind brutus and Black Will +seems to bear a strong family likeness to that which Holy Writ assigns +to the great enemy of man. That personage knocks out nobody's brains, +cuts nobody's throat, never was guilty of such brutality since the world +was, but he finds some thorough egotist, and whispers how the egotism +of his passions or his interest may be gratified by the death of a +fellow-creature. The egotist listens, and blood flows. + +brutus and Black Will had both suffered for their crimes. brutus had +been nailed by Carlo, twice gibbeted, and the bridge of his nose broken +once. Black Will had been mutilated, and Walker nearly drowned, but "the +close contriver of all harms" had kept out of harm's way. Violence had +never recoiled on him who set it moving. For all that, Crawley, I +must inform the reader, was not entirely prosperous. He had his little +troubles, too, whether warnings that he was on the wrong path, or +punishments of his vices, or both, I can't say. + +Thus it was. Mr. Crawley had a natural love of spirits, without a +stomach strong enough to deal with them. When he got away from Mr. +Meadows he indulged more and more, and for some months past he had been +subject to an unpleasant phenomenon that arises now and then out of the +fumes of liquor. At the festive board, even as he raised the glass to +his lips, the face of Crawley would often be seen to writhe with a +sort of horror, and his eyes to become fixed on unseen objects, and +perspiration to gather on his brow. Then such as were not in the secret +would jump up and say, "What on earth is the matter?" and look fearfully +round, expecting to see some horrid sight to justify that look of horror +and anguish; but Crawley, his glassy eyes still fixed, would whimper +out, his teeth chattering, and clipping the words: "Oh, ne-ne-never +mind, it's o-o-only a trifling ap-parition!" He had got to try and make +light of it, because at first he used to cry out and point, and then +the miners ran out and left him alone with his phantoms, and this was +terrible. He dreaded solitude; he schemed against it, and provided +against it, and paid fellows to bear him company night and day, and +at the festive board it was one thing to drink his phantoms neat +and another to dilute them with figures of flesh and blood. He much +preferred the latter. + +At first, his supernatural visitors were of a unfavorable but not a +ghastly character. + +No. 1 was a judge who used to rise through the floor, and sit half +in and half out of the wall, with a tremendous flow of horse-hair, +a furrowed face, a vertical chasm between the temples, and a +strike-me-off-the-rolls eye gleaming with diabolical fire from under a +gray, shaggy eyebrow. + +No. 2 was a policeman, who came in through the window, and stood +imperturbable, all in blue, with a pair of handcuffs, and a calm eye, +and a disagreeable absence of effort or emotion--an inevitable-looking +policeman. + +But as Crawley went deeper in crime and brandy, blood-boltered figures, +erect corpses, with the sickening signs of violence in every conceivable +form, used to come and blast his sight and arrest the glass on its way +to his lips, and make his songs and the boisterous attempts at mirth of +his withered heart die in a quaver and a shiver of fear and despair. +And at this period of our tale these horrors had made room for a phantom +more horrible still to such a creature as Crawley. The air would seem to +thicken into sulfurous smoke, and then to clear, and then would come out +clearer and clearer, more and more awful, a black figure with hoof and +horns and tail, eyes like red-hot carbuncles, teeth a _chevaux-de-frise_ +of white-hot iron, and an appalling grin.* + + * The god Pan colored black by the early Christians. + + + +CHAPTER LXXII. + +THE party, consisting of Jacky, Jem, Robinson and George, had traversed +about one half the bush, when a great heavy crow came wheeling and +cackling over their heads, and then joined a number more who were now +seen circling over a gum-tree some hundred yards distant. + +"Let us go and see what that is," said Jem. + +Jacky grinned, and led the way. They had not gone very far when another +great black bird rose so near their feet as to make them jump, and +peering through the bushes they saw a man lying on his back. His arm was +thrown in an easy, natural way round his gun, but at a second glance it +was plain the man was dead. The crows had ripped his clothes to ribbons +with their tremendous beaks, and lacerated the flesh and picked out the +eyes. + +They stepped a few paces from this sight. There was no sign of violence +on the body. + +"Poor fellow!" said Jem. "How did he come by his end, I wonder?" And he +stretched forward and peered with pity and curiosity mingled. + +"Lost in the bush!" said Robinson, very solemnly. And he and George +exchanged a meaning look. + +"What is that for?" said George, angrily, to Jacky--"grinning in sight +of a dead body?" + +"White fellow stupid fellow," was all Jacky's reply. + +The men now stepped up to the body to examine it; not that they had much +hope of discovering who it was, but still they knew it was their duty +for the sake of his kindred to try and find out. + +George, overcoming a natural repugnance, examined the pockets. He found +no papers. He found a knife, but no name was cut in the handle. In the +man's bosom he found a small metal box, but just as he was taking it out +Jem gave a halo! + +"I think I know him," cried Jem. "There is no mistaking that crop of +black hair; it is my old captain, Black Will." + +"You don't say so! What could he be doing here without his party?" + +"Anything in the box, George?" asked Robinson. + +"Nothing but a little money. Here is a sovereign--look. And here is a +bank-note." + +"A five-pound note?" + +"Yes--no; it is more than that a good deal. It is for fifty pounds, +Tom." + +"What?" + +"A fifty-pound note, I tell you." + +"Jem!" + +"Captain!" + +A most expressive look was exchanged between these two, and by one +impulse they both seized the stock of the gun that was in the dead man's +hand. They lifted it, and yes--two fingers were wanting on the right +hand. + +"Come away from that fellow," cried Robinson to George. "Let him lie." + +George looked up in some wonder. Robinson pointed sternly to the dead +hand in silence. George, by the light of the other men's faces, saw it +all, and recoiled with a natural movement of repugnance as from a dead +snake. There was a breathless silence--and every eye bent upon this +terrible enemy lying terrible no longer at their feet. + +"How did he die?" asked Robinson, in a whisper. + +"In the great snow-storm," replied George, in a whisper. + +"No," said Jem, in the same tone, "he was alive yesterday. I saw his +footprint after the snow was melted." + +"There was snow again last night, Tom. Perhaps he went to sleep in that +with his belly empty." + +"Starvation and fatigue would do it without the snow, George. We brought +a day's provisions out with us, George. He never thought of that, I will +be bound." + +"Not he," said Jem. "I'll answer for him he only thought of robbing and +killing--never thought about dying himself." + +"I can't believe he is dead so easy as this," said Robinson. + +The feeling was natural. This man had come into the wood and had +followed them burning to work them ill, and they to work him ill. Both +were utterly baffled. He had never prevailed to hurt them, nor they him. +He was dead, but by no mortal hand. The immediate cause of his death was +unknown, and will never be known for certain while the world lasts. + +_L'homme propose, mais Dieu dispose!_ + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII. + +"DON'T keep staring at it so, farmer, it is an ugly sight. You will see +him in your sleep if you do that. Here is something better to look at--a +letter. And there I carried it and never once thought of it till the +sight of his hand made me feel in my pocket, and then my hand ran +against it. 'Tis from Mr. Levi." + +"Thank you, Jem. Tom, will you be so kind as read it me while I work?" + +"Yes, give it me. Work? Why, what are we going to work at in the bush?" + +"I should think you might guess," replied George quietly, while putting +down his pickax and taking off his coat. "Well, I am astonished at both +of you. You ought to know what I am going to do. Humph! Under this tree +will be as good a place as any." + +"Jem, as I am a sinner, he is going to bury him." + +"Bury what? The nugget?" + +"No, Jem, the Christian."* + + * In Berkshire, among a certain class, this word means "a + human being." + +"A pretty Christian," sneered Robinson. + +"You know what I mean, Tom?" + +"I know it is very kind of you to take all this trouble to bury my +enemy," said Robinson, hurt. + +"Don't ye say that," replied George, hurt in his turn. "He was as much +my enemy as yours." + +"No such thing. He was here after me, and has been tormenting me this +twelve months. You have no enemy, a great soft spoon like you." + +"Keep your temper, Tom," answered George, in a mollifying tone. "Let +each man act according to his lights. I _couldn't_ leave a corpse to the +fowls of the air. + +"Gibbet a murderer, I say--don't bury him; especially when he has just +been hunting our very lives." + +"Tom," replied George doggedly, "death settles all accounts. I liked the +man as little as you could; and it is not to say I am in love with a man +because I sprinkle a little earth over his dead bones. Ugh! This is the +unkindest soil to work. It is full of roots, enough to break a fellow's +heart." + +While George was picking and grubbing out roots, and fighting with the +difficult soil, Robinson opened Levi's letter viciously and read out: + +"George Fielding, you have an enemy in the mine--a secret, cowardly, +unscrupulous enemy, who lies in wait for your return. I have seen his +face, and tremble for you. Therefore listen to my words. The old Jew, +whom twice you have saved from harm and insult, is rich, his children +are dead, the wife of his bosom is dead. He loves no creature now but +you and Susannah; therefore run no more risks for gold, since much +gold awaits you without risk. Come home. Respect the words of age and +experience--come home. Delay not an hour. Oh, say not, 'I will sleep yet +one more night in my tent, and then I will depart,' but ride speedily +after me on the very instant. Two horses have I purchased for you and +the young man your friend--two swift horses with their saddles. The +voucher is inclosed. Ride speedily after me this very hour, lest evil +befall you and yet more sorrow fall upon Susannah and upon--Isaac Levi." + +The reading of this letter was followed by a thoughtful silence broken +only by the sound of George's pickax and the bursting roots. + +"This is a very extraordinary letter. Mr. Levi knows more than he tells +you, George." + +"I am of your opinion." + +"Why, captain," said Jem, "to go by that letter, Fielding is the marked +man, and not you after all. So it is his own enemy he is digging that +grave for." + +"Do you think you will stop him by saying that?" asked Robinson, with a +shrug. + +"He was my enemy, Tom, and yours too; but now he is nobody's enemy; +he is dead. Will you help me lay him in the earth, or shall I do it by +myself?" + +"We will help," said the others, a little sullenly. + +They brought the body to its grave under the tall gum-tree. + +"Not quite so rough, Tom, if _you_ please." + +"I didn't mean to be rough that I know of--there." + +They laid the dead villain gently and reverently in his grave. George +took a handful of soil and scattered it over him. + +"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," said he, solemnly. + +The other two looked down and sprinkled soil, too, and their anger and +bitterness began to soften by the side of George and over the grave. + +Then Jem felt in his pocket and produced something wrapped in silver +paper. + +"This belongs!" said he, with a horrible simplicity. "The farmer is too +good for this world, but it is a good fault. There, farmer," said he, +looking to George for approbation as he dropped the little parcel into +the grave. "After all," continued Jem, good-naturedly, "it would have +been very hard upon a poor fellow to wake up in the next world and not +have what does belong to him to make an honest living with." + +The grave was filled in, and a little mound made at the foot of the +tree. Then George took out his knife and began to cut the smooth bark. + +"What now? Oh, I see. That is a good idea, George. Read them a lesson. +Say in a few words how he came here to do a deed of violence and died +himself--by the hand of Heaven." + +"Tom," replied George, cutting away at the bark, "he is gone where he is +sure to be judged; so we have no call to judge him. God Almighty can do +that, I do suppose, without us putting in our word." + +"Well, have it your own way. I never saw the toad so obstinate before, +Jem. What is he cutting, I wonder?" + +The inscription, when finished, ran thus: + + "PLEASE DON'T CUT DOWN THIS TREE. + + "IT IS A TOMBSTONE. + + "A WHITE MAN LIES BELOW." + +"Now, Tom, for England!" + +They set out again with alacrity, and battled with the bush about +two hours more. George and Robinson carried the great nugget on a +handkerchief stretched double across two sticks, Jem carried the +picks. They were all in high spirits, and made light of scratches and +difficulties. At last, somewhat suddenly, they burst out of the thick +part into the mere outskirts frequented by the miners, and there they +came plump upon brutus, with a gun in his hand and pistols peeping out +of his pockets, come to murder Black Will and rob him of his spoils. + +They were startled, and brutus astounded, for he was fully persuaded +George and Robinson had ceased to exist. He was so dumfounded that +Robinson walked up to him and took the gun out of his hands without any +resistance on his part. The others came round him, and Robinson demanded +his pistols. + +"What for?" said he. + +Now at this very moment his eye fell upon that fabulous mass of gold +they carried, and both his eyes opened, and a sort of shiver passed +over him. With ready cunning he looked another way, but it was too late. +Robinson had caught that furtive glance, and a chill came over him that +this villain should have seen the prize, a thing to excite cupidity to +frenzy. Nothing now would have induced Robinson to leave him armed. + +He replied, sternly: "Because we are four to one, and we will hang you +on the nearest tree if you don't give them up. And, now, what are you +doing here?" + +"I was only looking for my pal," said brutus. + +"Well, you won't want a gun and pistols to look for your pal. Which way +are you going?" + +"Into the bush." + +"Then mizzle! That is the road." + +brutus moved gloomily away into the bush. + +"There," said Robinson, "he has turned bushranger. I've disarmed him, +and saved some poor fellow's life and property. Cover up the nugget, +George." + +They went on, but presently Robinson had a thought. + +"Jacky," said he, "you saw that man; should you know him again?" + +"Yes." + +"Jacky, that man is our enemy. Could you track him by his footsteps +without ever letting him see you?" + +Jacky smiled superior. + +"Then follow him and see where he goes, and whom he joins--and come to +the mine directly and tell me." + +Jacky's eyes gleamed at this intelligence. He sat down, and in a few +turns of the hand painted his face war, and glided like a serpent on +brutus's trail. + +The rest cleared the wood, and brought the nugget, safe hidden in +their pocket-handkerchief, to camp. They begged Jem to accept the fifty +pounds, if he did not mind handling the price of blood. + +Jem assured them he had no such scruples, and took it with a burst of +thanks. + +Then they made him promise faithfully not to mention to a soul about the +monster nugget. No more he did while he was sober, but, alas! some +hours later, having a drop in his head, he betrayed the secret to one or +two--say forty. + +Robinson pitched their tent and mounted guard over the nugget. George +was observed to be in a strange flutter. He ran hither and thither. +Ran to the post-office--ran to the stationer--got paper--drew up a +paper--found McLaughlan--made him sign it--went to Mr. Moore--showed him +Isaac's voucher; on which Moore produced the horses, a large black horse +with both bone and blood, and a good cob. + +George was very much pleased with them, and asked what Levi had given +for them. + +"Two hundred and fifty pounds for the pair." + +"Good Heavens," cried George, "what a price! Mr. Levi was in earnest." +Then he ran out and went to the tent and gave Robinson his letters. +"But there were none for me, Tom," sighed George. "Never mind, I shall +soon--" + +Now these letters brought joy and triumph to Robinson; one contained +a free pardon, the other was a polite missive from the Colonial +Government, in answer to the miners' petition he had sent up. + +"Secretary had the honor to inform Mr. Robinson that police were on the +road to the mine, and that soldiers would arrive by to-morrow to form an +escort, so that the miners' gold might travel in safety down to Sydney." + +"Hurrah! this is good news," cried Robinson, "and what a compliment +to me. Do you hear, George? an escort of soldiers coming to the camp +to-morrow; they will take the nugget safe to Sydney." + +"Not if we are robbed of it to-night," replied George. + +At this moment in came Jacky with news of brutus. That wily man had gone +but a little way in the bush when he had made a circuit, and had slipped +back into another part of the mine, and Jacky had followed him first by +trail, afterward by sight, and had marked him down into a certain tent, +on which he had straightway put a little red mark. + +"Come back after our nugget, George. Fools we were to carry it blazing +in folks' eyes." + +"I dare say we can beat him." + +"I am game to try. Jacky, I want to put a question to you." + +While Jacky and Tom were conferring in animated whispers, George was +fixing an old spur he had picked up into the heel of his boot. + +"That is capital, Jacky. Well, George, we have hit upon a plan." + +"And so have I." + +"You?" + +"Yes! me! but tell me yours first, Tom." + +Robinson detailed him his scheme with all its ramifications, and a very +ingenious stratagem it was. + +For all that, when George propounded his plan in less than six words, +Robinson stared with surprise and then gave way to ludicrous admiration. + +"Well," cried he, "simplicity before cunning; look at that now. Where +was my head?--George, this is your day--carried _nem. con."_ + +"And, Tom, you can do yours all the same." + +"Can I? Why, yes, to be sure I can. There, he saw that, too, before. +Why, George, if you don't mind, you will be No. 1 and I No. 2. What +makes you so sharp all of a sudden?" + +"I have to think for Susan as well as us," said the poor fellow, +tenderly, "that is why I am sharp--for once in a way. And now, +Jacky--you are a great anxiety to me, and the time is so short--come sit +by me, dear Jacky, and let me try and make you understand what I have +been doing for you, that you may be good and happy, and comfortable in +your old age, when your poor old limbs turn stiff, and you can hunt no +longer. In grateful return for the nugget, and more than that for all +your goodness and kindness to me in times of bitter trouble." + +Then George showed Jacky how he had given Abner one-third of all his +sheep and cattle, and Jacky two-thirds, and how McLaughlan, a just man, +would see the division made. "And do leave the woods, except for a hunt +now and then, Jacky; you are too good for them." + +Above all, George explained with homely earnestness the nature of the +sheep, her time of lambing, etc., and showed Jacky how the sheep and +cattle would always keep him fed and clothed, if he would but use them +reasonably, and not kill the breeders for dinner. + +And Jacky listened with glistening eyes, for George's glistened, and the +sweet tones of affection and gratitude pierced through this family talk, +and it is sad that we must drop the curtain on this green spot in the +great camp and go among our villains. + + + +CHAPTER LXXIV. + +ROBINSON did not overrate the fatal power of the fabulous mass of gold, +a glimpse of which he had incautiously given to greedy eyes. It +drew brutus like a magnet after it. He came all in a flutter to +mephistopheles, and told him he had met the two men carrying a lump of +solid gold between them so heavy that the sticks bent under it. "The +sweat ran down me at the sight of it, but I managed to look another way +directly." + +What with the blows and kicks and bruises and defeats he had received, +and with the gold mass his lawless eye had rested on, brutus was now in +a state of mind terrible to think of. + +Lust and hate, terrible twins, stung that dark heart to frenzy. Could he +have had his will he would have dispensed with cunning, would have gone +out and fired bullets from his gun into the tent, and, if his enemies +came out alive, have met them hand to hand to slay or be slain. But the +watchful foe had disarmed him, and he was compelled to listen to the +more reynard-like ferocity of his accomplice. + +"Bill," said the assassin of Carlo, "keep cool, and you shall have the +swag; and yet not lose your revenge neither." + +"---- you, tell me how." + +"Let the bottle alone, then; you are hot enough without that. Come +nearer me. What I have got to say is not the sort of thing for me to +bawl about. We should not be alive half an hour if it was heard to come +from our lips." + +The two heads came close together, and Crawley leaned over the other +side of the table and listened with senses keen as a razor. + +"Suppose I show you how to make those two run out of their tent like two +frightened women, and never once think about their swag?" + +"Ah!" + +"And fall blinded for life or dead or dying while we walk off with the +swag." + +"Blind, dead, dying! give me your hand. How? how? how?" + +"Hush! don't shout like that; come closer, and you, Smith." + +Then a diabolical scheme hissed into the listeners' ears--a scheme +at once cowardly and savage--a scheme of that terrible kind that robs +courage, strength and even skill of their natural advantages, and +reduces their owners to the level of the weak and the timid--a scheme +worthy of the assassin of Carlo, and the name I have given this wretch, +whose brain was so fertile and his heart so fiendish. Its effect on the +hearers was great, but very different. Crawley recoiled, not violently, +but like a serpent on which water had been poured; but brutus broke into +a rapture of admiration, exultation, gratified hate. + +"Bless you, bless you!" cried he, with a violence more horrible than his +curses, "you warm my heart, you _are_ a pal. What a head-piece you have +got! ---- you, Smith, have you nothing to say? Isn't this a dodge out of +the common?" + +Now for the last minute or two Crawley's eyes had been fixed with a +haggard expression on a distant corner of the room. He did not move +them; he appeared hardly to have the power, but he answered, dropping +the words down on the table anywhere. + +"Ye-yes! it is very inge-nious, ah!" + +mephisto. "We must buy the turpentine directly; there is only one store +sells it, and that shuts at nine." + +brutus. "Do you hear, Smith? hand us out the blunt." + +Crawley. "Oh, ugh!" and his eyes seemed fascinated to that spot. + +brutus (following Crawley's eye uneasily). "What is the matter?" + +Crawley. "Lo-o-o-k th-e-r-e! No! on your right. Oh, his tail is in the +fire!" + +brutus. "Whose tail? don't be a fool!" + +Crawley. "And it doesn't burn!! Oh, it burns blacker in the fire!--Ah, +ah! now the eyes have caught fire--diamonds full of hell. They blast! +Ah, now the teeth have caught light--red-hot nails. The mouth is as big +as the table, gaping wider, wider, wider. Ah! ah! ah!" + +brutus. "---- him; I won't stay in the room with such a fellow, he makes +my blood run cold. Has he cut his father's throat in a church, or what?" + +Crawley (shrieking). "Oh, don't go; oh, my dear friends, don't leave me +alone with IT. My dear friends, you sit down right upon it--that sends +it away." And Crawley hid his face, and pointed wildly to whereabouts +they were to sit upon the phantom. + +brutus. "Come, it is gone now; was forced nearly to squash it first, +though, haw! haw! haw!" + +Crawley. "Yes, it is gone. Thank Heaven--I'll give up drinking." + +brutus. "So now fork out the blunt for the turps." + +Crawley. "No! I will give no money toward murder--robbery is bad enough. +Where shall we go to?" And he rose and went out, muttering something +about "a little brandy." + +brutus. "The sneak--to fail us at the pinch. I'll wring his neck round. +What is this? five pounds." + +mephisto. "Don't you see the move? he won't give it us, conscience +forbids; but, if we are such rogues as take it, no questions asked." + +"The tarnation hypocrite," roared brutus, with disgust--hypocrisy was +the one vice he was innocent of--out of jail, mephistopheles stole +Crawley's money, left for that purpose, and went and bought a +four-gallon cask of turpentine. + +brutus remained and sharpened an old cutlass, the only weapon he had +got left. Crawley and mephistopheles returned almost together. Crawley +produced a bottle of brandy. + +"Now," said he to mephistopheles, "I don't dispute your ingenuity, my +friend, but suppose while we have been talking the men have struck their +tent and gone away, nugget and all?" + +The pair looked terribly blank--what fools we were not to think of that. + +Crawley kept them in pain a moment or two. + +"Well, they have not," said he, "I have been to look." + +"Well done," cried mephistopheles. + +"Well done," cried brutus, gasping for breath. + +"There is their tent all right." + +"How near did you go to it?" + +"Near enough to hear their voices muttering." + +"When does the moon rise, to-night?" + +"She is rising now." + +"When does she go down?" + +"Soon after two o'clock." + +"Will you take a share of the work, Smith?" + +"Heaven forbid!" + + + +CHAPTER LXXV. + +IT was a gusty night. The moon had gone down. The tents gleamed +indistinct in form, but white as snow. Robinson's tent stood a little +apart, among a number of deserted claims, some of them dry, but most of +them with three or four feet of water in them. + +There was, however, one large tent about twenty yards from Robinson's. + +A man crept on his stomach up to this tent and listened. He then joined +another man who stood at some distance, and whose form seemed gigantic +in the dim starlight. "All right," said the spy, "they are all fast as +dormice, snoring like hogs; no fear from them." + +"Go to work, then," whispered brutus. "Do your part." + +mephistopheles laid a deep iron dish upon the ground, and removed the +bung from the turpentine cask, and poured. "Confound the wind, how it +wastes the stuff," cried he. + +He now walked on tiptoe past Robinson's tent and scattered the +turpentine with a bold sweep, so that it fell light as rain over a +considerable surface. A moment of anxiety succeeded; would their keen +antagonists hear even that slight noise? No! no one stirred in the tent. + +mephistopheles returned to the cask, and, emboldened by success, brought +it nearer the doomed tent. Six times he walked past the windward side of +the tent, and scattered the turpentine over it. It was at the other side +his difficulties began. + +The first time he launched the liquid, the wind took it and returned it +nearly all in his face, and over his clothes. Scarce a drop reached the +tent. + +The next time he went up closer with a beating heart, and flung it +sharper. This time full two-thirds went upon the tent, and only a small +quantity came back like spray. + +By the time the cask was emptied, the tent was saturated. Then this +wretch passed the tent yet once more, and scattered a small quantity of +oil to make the flame more durable and deadly. + +"Now it is my turn," whispered brutus. "I thought it would never come." + +What is that figure crouching and crawling about a hundred yards to +windward? It is the caitiff, Crawley, who, after peremptorily declining +to have anything to do with this hellish act, has crept furtively after +them, partly to play the spy on them, for he suspects they will lie to +him about the gold, partly urged by curiosity. He could see nothing at +that distance but the dark body of mephistopheles passing at intervals +between him and the white tent. + +He shivered with cold and terror at the crime about to be done, and +quivered with impatience that it was so long a-doing. + +The assassins now divided their force. mephistopheles took his station +to leeward of the tent; brutus to windward. + +Crawley saw a sudden spark upon the ground; it was brutus striking a +lucifer match against his heel. With this he lighted a piece of tow, and +running along the tent he left a line of fire behind him, and awaited +the result, his cutlass griped in his hand and his teeth clinched. + +Crawley saw that line of fire come and then creep and then rise and then +roar, and shoot up into a great column of fire thirty feet high, roaring +and blazing, and turning night into day all round. Simultaneously with +this tremendous burst of fire and light, which startled Crawley by +bringing him in a moment into broad daylight, he saw rise from the earth +a black figure with a fiendish face. + +At this awful sight the conscience-stricken wretch fell flat and tried +to work into the soil like a worm. Nor did he recover any portion of his +presence of mind till he heard a shrill whoop, savage and soul-chilling, +but mortal, and, looking up, saw Kalingalunga go bounding down upon +brutus with gigantic leaps, his tomahawk whirling. + +Crawley cowered like a hare and watched. brutus, surprised but not +dismayed, wheeled round and faced the savage, cutlass in hand. He +parried a fierce blow of the tomahawk, and with his left fist struck +Kalingalunga on the temple, and knocked him backward half a dozen yards. +The elastic savage recovered himself and danced like a fiend round +brutus in the red light of the blazing tent. + +Warned by that strange blow, straight from the armpit, a blow entirely +new to him, he came on with more deadly caution, eyes and teeth +budelights, and brutus felt a chill for a moment, but it speedily turned +to rage. Now as the combatants each prepared to strike again, screams +suddenly issued from the other side the tent, so wild, despairing, and +unnatural as to suspend their arms for a moment. They heard but saw +nothing, only the savage heart of brutus found time to exult--his +enemies were perishing. But Crawley saw as well as heard. A pillar of +flame eight feet high burst out from behind the tent and ran along the +ground. From that conical flame issued those appalling shrieks--it was a +man on fire. The living flame ran but a few steps, then disappeared +from the earth, and the screams ceased. Apparently the fire had not only +killed, but annihilated its prey and so itself. Crawley sickened with +horror, and for a moment with remorse. + +But already brutus and Kalingalunga were fighting again by the light of +the burning tent. They closed, and this time blood flowed on both sides. +The savage, by a skillful feint, cut brutus on the flesh of the left +shoulder, but not deep, and brutus once more surprised the savage by +delivering point with his cutlass, and inflicted a severe graze on the +ribs. + +At the sight of his enemy's blood, brutus followed up and aimed a fierce +blow at Kalingalunga's head; he could not have made a more useless +attack. The savage bore on his left arm a shield, so called; it was but +three inches broad and two feet long, but skill and practice had made +it an impenetrable defense. He received the cutlass on this shield as a +matter of course, and simultaneously delivered his tomahawk on brutus's +unguarded head. brutus went down under the blow and rolled over on his +face. + +The crouching spectator of this terrible combat by the decaying light of +the tent heard the hard blow and saw the white man roll upon the ground. +Then he saw the tomahawk twice lifted and twice descend upon the man's +back as he lay. The next moment the savage came running from the tent at +his utmost speed. + +Crawley's first thought was that assistance had come to brutus; his next +was a terrible one. The savage had first risen from the earth at a spot +between the tent and him. Perhaps he had been watching both him and the +tent. A moment of horrible uncertainty, and then Crawley yielded to his +instinct and ran. A terrible whoop behind told him he was indeed to be +the next victim. He ran for the dear life; no one would have believed he +could shamble along at the rate he did. His tent was half a mile off; +he would be a dead man long ere he could reach it. He turned his yelling +head as he ran, to see. The fleet savage had already diminished +the distance between them by half. Crawley now filled the air with +despairing cries for help. A large tent was before him; he knew not +whose, but certain death was behind him. He made for the tent. If he +could but reach it before the death-stroke was given him! Yes, it is +near! No, it is white and looks closer than it is. A whoop sounded in +his ears; it seemed to ring inside his head it was so near. He flung +himself yelling with terror at the wall of the tent. An aperture gave +way. A sharp cut as with a whip seemed to sting him, and he was on his +knees in the middle of the tent howling for mercy, first to the savage, +who he made sure was standing over him with his tomahawk; then to a man +who got him by the throat and pressed a pistol barrel cold as an icicle +to his cheek. + +"Mercy! mercy! the savage! he is killing me! murder! murder! help!" + +"Who are you?" roared the man, shaking him. + +"Oh, stop him! he will kill me! Shoot him! Don't shoot me! I am a +respectable man. It is the savage! kill him! He is at the door--please +kill him! I'll give you a hundred pounds!" + +"What is to do? The critter is mad!" + +"There! there! you will see a savage! Shoot him! kill him! For pity's +sake kill him, and I'll tell you all! I am respectable. I'll give you a +hundred pounds to kill him!" + +"Why, it is Smith, that gives us all a treat at times." + +"Don't I! Oh, my dear, good friend, he has killed me! He came after me +with his tomahawk. Have pity on a respectable man--and kill him!" + +The man went to the door of the tent and sure enough there was Jacky, +who had retired to some distance. The man fired at him with as little +ceremony as he would at a glass bottle, and, as was to be expected, +missed him; but Jacky, who had a wholesome horror of the make-thunders, +ran off directly, and went to hack the last vestiges of life out of +brutus. + +Crawley remained on his knees, howling and whimpering so piteously that +the man took pity on this abject personage. + +"Have a drop, Mr. Smith; you have often given me one--there. I'll strike +a light." + +The man struck a light and fixed a candle in a socket. He fumbled in a +corner for the bottle, and was about to offer it to Crawley, when he was +arrested by a look of silent horror on his visitor's face. + +"Why, what is wrong now?" + +"Look! look! look!" cried Crawley, trembling from head to foot. "Here it +comes! there is its tail! Soon its eyes and teeth will catch light! It +knows the work we have been at. Ah! ah! ah!" + +The man looked round very uneasily. Crawley's way of pointing and +glaring over one's head at some object behind one was anything but +encouraging. + +"What? where?" + +"There! there! coming through the side of the tent. It can come through +a wall!" and Crawley shook from head to foot. + +"Why, that is your own shadow," said the man. "Why, what a faint-hearted +one to shake at your own shadow." + +"My shadow!" cried Crawley; "Heaven forbid! Have I got a tail?" +screeched Crawley, reproachfully. + +"That you have," said the man, "now I look at you full." + +Crawley clapped his hand behind him, and to his horror he had a tail + + + +CHAPTER LXXVI. + +CRAWLEY, who, what with the habit of cerebral hallucination due to +brandy and the present flutter of his spirits and his conscience, had +for a moment or two lost all the landmarks of probability, no sooner +felt his hand encounter a tail--slight in size, but stiff as a pug's, +and straight as a pointer's--than he uttered a dismal howl, and it is +said that for a single moment he really suspected premature caudation +had been inflicted on him for his crimes. But such delusions are +short-lived. He slewed himself round after this tail in his efforts to +see it, and squinting over his shoulder he did see it; and a warm liquid +which he now felt stealing down his legs and turning cold as it went, +opened his eyes still farther. It was a red spear sticking in his +person--sticking tight. Jacky, who had never got so near him as he +fancied, saw him about to get into a tent, and, unable to tomahawk him, +did the best he could--flung a light javelin with such force and address +that it pierced his coat and trousers and buried half its head in his +flesh. + +This spear-head, made of jagged fishbones, had to be cut out by the +simple and agreeable process of making all round it a hole larger than +itself. The operation served to occupy Crawley for the remaining part +of the night, and exercised his vocal powers. This was the first time +he had smarted in his penetrable part--the skin--and it made him very +spiteful. Away went his compunction, and at peep of day he shambled out +very stiff, no longer dreading, but longing to hear which of his enemies +it was he had seen wrapped in flame, shrieking, and annihilated like the +snuff of a candle. He came to the scene of action just as the sun rose. + +But others were there before him. A knot of men stood round a black +patch of scorched soil, round which were scattered little fragments of +canvas burned to tinder, talking over a most mysterious affair of the +night past. + +It came out that the patrol, some of whom were present, had been ordered +by Captain Robinson not to go their rounds as usual, but to watch in a +tent near his own, since he expected an attack. Accustomed to keep awake +on the move, but not in a recumbent posture, they had slept the sleep of +infancy, till suddenly awakened by the sound of a pistol. Then they had +run out, and had found the captain's tent in ashes, and a man lying near +it sore hacked and insensible, but still breathing. They had taken +him to their tent, but he had never spoken, and the affair was +incomprehensible. While each was giving some wild opinion or another, a +faint voice issued from the bowels of the earth, invoking aid. + +Several ran to the spot, and at the bottom of an old claim full thirty +feet deep they discovered on looking intently down the face of a man +rising out of the clayey water. They lowered ropes and hauled him up. + +"How did you come there, mate?" + +"He had come into the camp in the dark, and, not knowing the ground, and +having (to tell the truth) had a drop, he had fallen into the claim." + +He was asked with an air of suspicion how long ago this had happened. + +"More than an hour," replied the wily one. + +Crawley looked at him, and being, unlike the others, acquainted with the +man's features, saw, spite of the clay-cake he was enveloped in, that +his whiskers were frizzled to nothing and his fiendish eyebrows gone. +Then a sickening suspicion crept over him; he communicated it by a look +to mephistopheles. + +Acting on it he asked, with an artful appearance of friendly interest: + +"But the men? the poor men that were in the tent?" + +"What! the captain and his mate?" + +"Yes!" + +"Why, ye fool! they are half way to Sydney by now." + +"Half way to Sydney?" and a ghastly look passed between the speaker and +mephistopheles. + +"Ay, lad! they rode off on Moore's two best nags at midnight." + +"The captain had a belt round his waist crammed with dust and +bank-notes," cried another, "and the farmer a nugget as big as a pumpkin +on the pommel of his saddle." + +Four hours had not elapsed ere Crawley and mephistopheles were on the +road to Sydney, but not on horseback. Crawley had no longer funds to +buy two horses, and, even if he had, he could not have borne the saddle +after the barbarous surgery of last night---the lance-head was cut +out with a cheese-knife. But he and mephistopheles joined a company +of successful diggers going down with their swag. On the road they +constantly passed smaller parties of unfortunate diggers, who had left +the mine in despair when the weather broke and the claims filled with +water; and the farther they went the more wretched was the condition of +those they overtook. Ragged, shoeless, hungry, foot-sore, heart-sore, +poor, broken pilgrims from the shrine of Mammon. + +Now it befell that, forty miles on this side Sydney, they fell in with +seven such ragged specters; and, while they were giving these a little +food, up came from the city a large, joyful party--the eagerness of hope +and cupidity on their faces. + +"Hallo! are they mad, going up to the diggings in the wet weather!" + +They were questioned. + +A hundred-weight of gold had been found at the diggings, and all the +town was turning out to find some more such prizes; and, in fact, every +mile after this they met a party, great or small, ardent, sanguine, on +an almost hopeless errand. + +Such is the strange and fatal no-logic of speculation. For us the rare +is to turn common, and, when we have got it, be rare as ever. + +mephistopheles and Crawley parted at the suburb; the former was to go to +certain haunts and form a gang to seize the rich prize. Meantime Crawley +would enter the town and discover where the men were lodging. If in an +inn, one of the gang must go there as a well-dressed traveler, and watch +his opportunity. If in a lodging, other means. + +Crawley found the whole city ringing with the great nugget. Crawley put +eager questions, and received ready answers. He was shown the bank up to +which the men had ridden in broad daylight; the one on the big horse had +the nugget on his saddle; they had taken it, and broken it, and weighed +it, and sold it in the bank parlor for three thousand eight hundred +pounds. Crawley did not like this, he had rather they had not converted +it into paper. His next question was, whether it was known where the men +lodged. + +"Known! I believe you; why, they are more thought of than the governor. +Everybody runs to get a word with them, gentle or simple. You will find +them at the 'Ship' inn." + +To the "Ship" went Crawley. He dared not be too direct in his queries, +so he put them in form of a statement. + +"You have got some lucky ones here, that found the great nugget?" + +"Well, we had! But they are gone--been gone this two hours. Do you know +them?" + +"Yes," said Crawley, without fear, as they were gone. "Where are they +gone, do you know?" + +"Why, home, I suppose; you chaps make your money out of us, but you all +run home to spend it." + +"What, gone to England!" gasped Crawley. + +"Ay, look! there is the ship just being towed out of the harbor." + +Crawley shambled, and tore, and ran, and was just in time to see the two +friends standing with beaming faces on the vessel's deck as she glided +out on her voyage home. + +He sat down half stupid; mephistopheles went on collecting his gang in +the suburbs. + +The steamer cast off and came wheeling back; the ship spread her huge +white plumage, and went proudly off to sea, the blue waves breaking +white under her bows. + +Crawley sat glaring at all this in a state of mental collapse. + + + +CHAPTER LXXVII. + +THUS have I told in long and tedious strains how George Fielding went to +Australia to make a thousand pounds, and how by industry, sobriety, and +cattle, he did not make a thousand pounds, and how, aided with the help +of a converted thief, this honest fellow did by gold digging, industry +and sobriety, make several thousand pounds, and take them safe away +home, spite of many wicked devices and wicked men. + +Thus have I told how Mr. Meadows flung out his left hand into Australia +to keep George from coming back to Susan with a thousand pounds, and +how, spite of one stroke of success, his left hand eventually failed, +and failed completely. + +But his right? + + + +CHAPTER LXXVIII. + +Joyous as the first burst of summer were the months Susan passed after +the receipt of George's happy letter. Many warm feelings combined in +one stream of happiness in Susan's heart. Perhaps the keenest of all was +pride at George's success. Nobody could laugh at George now, and insult +her again there where she was most sensitive, by telling her that George +was not good enough for her or any woman; and even those who set such +store upon money-making would have to confess that George could do +even that for love of her, as well as they could do it for love of +themselves. Next to this her joy was greatest at the prospect of his +speedy return. + +And now she became joyfully impatient for further news, but not +disappointed at his silence till two months had passed without another +letter. Then, indeed, anxiety mingled now and then with her happiness. +Then it was that Meadows, slowly and hesitatingly to the last, raised +his hand and struck the first direct blow at her heart. He struck in the +dark. He winced for her both before and after. Yet he struck. + +One market-day a whisper passed through Farnborough that George Fielding +had met with wonderful luck. That he had made his fortune by gold, and +was going to marry a young lady out in Australia. Farmer Merton brought +the whisper home. Meadows was sure he would. + +Meadows did not come to the house for some days. He half feared to look +upon his work; to see Susan's face agonized under his blow. At last +he came. He watched her by stealth. He found he might have spared his +qualms. She chatted as usual in very good spirits, and just before he +went she told him the report with a smile of ineffable scorn. + +She was simple, unsuspicious, and every way without a shield against a +Meadows, but the loyal heart by its own virtue had turned the dagger's +edge. + +A week after this Jefferies brought Meadows a letter; it was from Susan +to George. Meadows read it writhing. It breathed kind affection, with +one or two demi-maternal cautions about his health, and to be very +prudent for her sake. Not a word of doubt; there was, however, a +postscript of which the following is the exact wording: + +"P. S. It is all over Farnborough that you are going to be married to +some one in Australia." + +Two months more passed, and no letter from George. These two months +told upon Susan; she fretted and became restless and irritable, and cold +misgivings crept over her, and the anguish of suspense! + +At last one day she unbosomed herself, though with hesitation, to a +warm and disinterested friend; blushing all over with tearful eyes she +confessed her grief to Mr. Meadows. "Don't tell father, sir; I hide +my trouble from him as well as I can, but what does it mean George not +writing to me these four months and three days? Do pray tell me what +does it mean!" and Susan cried so piteously that Meadows winced at his +success. + +"Oh, Mr. Meadows! don't flatter me; tell me the truth." While he was +exulting in her firmness, who demanded the truth, bitter or not, she +continued: "Only don't tell me that I am forgotten!" And she looked so +piteously in the oracle's face that he forgot everything in the desire +to say something she would like him the better for saying; he muttered, +"Perhaps he has sailed for home." He expected her to say, "And if he has +he would have written to me before sailing." But instead of this Susan +gave a little cry of joy. + +"Ah! how foolish I have been. Mr. Meadows, you are a friend out of a +thousand; you are as wise as I am foolish. Poor George! you will never +let him know I was so wicked as to doubt him." And Susan brightened with +joy and hope. The heart believes so readily the thing it longs should be +true. She was happy all the rest of the evening. + +Meadows went away mad with her for her folly, and with himself for his +feebleness of purpose, and next market-day again the whisper went round +the market that George Fielding was going to marry out there. This time +a detail was sketched in: "It was a lady in the town of Bathurst." +Old Merton brought this home and twitted his daughter. She answered +haughtily that it was a falsehood. She would stake her life on George's +fidelity. + +"See, Mr. Meadows, they are all against poor George, all except you. But +what does it mean? if he does not write or come soon I think I shall go +mad." + +"Report is a common liar; I would not believe anything till I saw it in +black and white," said Meadows, doggedly. + +"No more I will." + +Soon after this William Fielding had a talk with Susan. + +"Have you heard a report about George?" + +"Yes! I have heard a rumor." + +"You don't believe it, I hope." + +"Why should I believe it?" + +"I'm going to trace it up to the liar that forged it, if I can." + +Susan suppressed her satisfaction at this resolution of Will Fielding's. + +"Is it worth while?" asked she coldly. + +"If I didn't think so, I shouldn't take that much trouble, not expecting +any thanks." + +"Have I said anything to offend you?" asked Susan, with a still more +frigid tone. + +The other did not trust himself to answer. But two days after he came +again, and told her he had written a letter to George, telling him what +reports were about, and begging for an answer whether or not there was +any truth in them. + +A gleam of satisfaction from Susan's eyes, but not a word. This man, who +had once been George's rival at heart, was the last to whom she would +openly acknowledge her doubts. Then Will went on to tell her that he had +traced the rumor from one to another up to a stranger whose name nobody +knew; "but I dare say Mr. Meadows has a notion." + +"No!" + +"Are you sure?" + +"Yes! he would have told me if he had." + +William gave a snort of incredulity, and hinted that probably Mr. +Meadows himself was at the bottom of the scandal. + +Now Meadows' artful conduct had fortified Susan against such a +suspicion, and, being by nature a warm-hearted friend, she fired up +for him, as she would have for Mr. Eden, or even for poor Will in his +absence. She did it, too, in the most womanish way. She did not tell the +young man that she had consulted Mr. Meadows, and that he had constantly +discredited the report, and set her against believing it. Had she done +this, she would have staggered the simple-minded Will; but no; she said +to herself, "He has attacked a good friend of mine, I won't satisfy him +so far as to give him reasons;" so she merely snubbed him. + +"Oh, I know you are set against poor Mr. Meadows; he is a good friend of +ours, of my father, and me, and of George, too." + +"I wish you may not have to alter your mind," sneered Will. + +"I will not without a reason." + +"I will give you a reason; do you remember that day--" + +"When you insulted him in his own house, and me into the bargain, Will?" + +"Not you, Susan, leastways I hope not, but him I did, and am just as +like to do it again; well, when you were gone, I took a thought, and I +said, appearances deceive the wisest; I may be mistaken--" + +"He! he!" + +"I don't know what you are laughing at; and then, says I, it is his +own house, after all, so I said, 'If I am wrong, and you don't mean to +undermine my brother, take my hand;' and I gave it him." + +"And he refused it?" + +"No, Susan!" + +"Well, then--" + +"But, Susan," said William, solemnly, "his hand lay in mine like a +stone." + +"Really, now!" + +"A lump of ice would be as near the mark." + +"Well! is that the reason you promised me?" William nodded. + +"William, you are a fool." + +"Oh I am a fool now?" + +"You go and insult a man, your superior in every respect, and the very +next moment he is to give you his hand as warmly as to a friend, and an +equal; you really are too foolish to go without a keeper, and if it was +in any man's power to set me against poor George altogether you have +gone the way to do it this twelve months past;" and Susan closed the +conference abruptly. + +It was William's fate to rivet Meadows' influence by every blow he aimed +at it. For all that the prudent Meadows thought it worth his while to +rid himself of this honest and determined foe, and he had already +taken steps. He had discovered that this last month William Fielding, +returning from market, had been seen more than once to stop and chat at +one Mrs. Holiday's, a retired small tradeswoman in Farnborough. Now +Mrs. Holiday was an old acquaintance of Meadows' and had given him +sugar-plums thirty years ago. It suited his purpose to remember all of a +sudden these old sugar-plums, and that Mrs. Holiday had lately told him +she wanted to get out of the town and end her days upon turf. + +There was a cottage, paddock and garden for sale within a hundred yards +of "The Grove." Meadows bought them a good bargain, and offered them to +the widow at a very moderate rent. + +The widow was charmed. "Why, we can keep a cow, Mr. Meadows." + +"Well, there is grass enough." + +The widow took the cottage with enthusiasm. + +Mrs. Holiday had a daughter, a handsome--a downright handsome girl, and +a good girl into the bargain. + +Meadows had said to himself: "It is not the old woman Will Fielding goes +there for. Well, she will want some one to teach her how to farm that +half acre of grass, and buy the cow and milk her. Friendly offices--chat +coming and going--come in, Mr. Fielding, and taste your cow's +cream!--and, when he has got a lass of his own, his eye won't be forever +on mine." + +William's letter to George went to the post-office, and from the +post-office to a little pile of intercepted letters in Meadows' desk. + + + +CHAPTER LXXIX. + +NEARLY eight months had now elapsed without a letter from George. Susan +could no longer deceive herself with hopes. George was either false to +her or dead. She said as much to her false friend. This inspired him +with an artifice as subtle as unscrupulous. A letter had been brought to +him by Jefferies, which he at once recognized as the planned letter +from Crawley to another tool of his in Farnborough. This very day he set +about a report that George was dead. It did not reach Susan so soon as +he thought it would, for old Merton hesitated to tell her; but on the +Sunday evening, with considerable reluctance and misgivings, he tried in +a very clumsy way to prepare her for sad news. + +But her mind had long been prepared for bitter tidings. Fancy eight +weary months spent in passing every possible calamity before her +imagination, death as often as any. + +She fixed her eyes on the old man. "Father, George is dead!" + +Old Merton hung his head, and made no reply. + +That was enough. Susan crept from the room pale as ashes. She tottered, +but she did not fall. She reached her room and locked herself in. + + + +CHAPTER LXXX. + +MR. MEADOWS did not visit Grassmere for some days; the cruel one +distrusted his own firmness. When he did come he came with a distinct +purpose. He found Merton alone. + +"Susan sees no one. You have heard?" + +"What?" + +"Her sweetheart. He is dead." + +"Why, how can that be? And who says so?" + +"That is the news." + +"Well, it is a falsehood!" said Mr. Meadows, coolly. + +"I wish to Heaven it might," whispered old Merton, "for she won't live +long after him." + +Mr. Meadows then told Merton that he had spoken with a man who had got +news of George Fielding not four months old, and he was in very good +health. + +"Will you tell Susan this?" + +"Certainly." + +Susan was called down. Meadows started at the sight of her. She was pale +and hollow-eyed, and in these few days seemed ten years older. She was +dressed all in black. "I am a murderer!" thought he. And remorse without +one grain of honest repentance pierced his heart. + +"Speak out, John," said the father, "the girl is not a fool. She has +borne ill news, she can bear good. Can't you, Susan?" + +"Yes, dear father, if it is God's will any good news should come to +me." And she never took her eyes off Mr. Meadows, but belied her assumed +firmness by quivering like an aspen leaf. + +"Do you know Mr. Griffin?" asked Meadows. + +"Yes!" replied Susan, still trembling gently, but all over. + +"He has got a letter from Sydney from a little roguish attorney called +Crawley. I heard him say with my own ears that Crawley tells him he had +just seen George Fielding in the streets of Sydney, well and hearty." + +"You are deceiving me out of kindness." (Her eyes fixed on his.) + +"I am not. I wish I may die if the man is not as well as I am!" + +Her eyes were never off his face, and at this moment she read for +certain that it was true. + +She uttered a cry of joy so keen it was painful to hear, and then she +laughed and cried and sank into a chair laughing and crying in +strong hysterics, that lasted till the poor girl almost fainted from +exhaustion. Her joy was more violent and even terrible than her grief +had been. + +The female servants were called to assist her, and old Merton and +Meadows left her in their hands, feeble, but calm and thankful. She even +smiled her adieu to Meadows. + +The next day Meadows called upon Griffin. "Let me look at that letter?" +said he. "I want to copy a part of it." + +"There has been one here before you," said Griffin. + +"Who?" + +"She did not give her name, but I think it must have been Miss Merton. +She begged me hard to let her see the letter. I told her she might take +it home with her. Poor thing! she gave me a look as if she could have +eaten me." + +"What else?" asked Meadows anxiously--his success had run ahead of his +plot. + +"She put it in her bosom." + +"In her bosom?" + +"Ay! and pressed her little white hands upon it as if she had got a +treasure. I doubt it will be more like the asp in the Bible story, eh! +sir?" + +"There! I don't want your reflections," said Meadows, fiercely, but his +voice quavered. The myrmidon was silenced. + +Susan made her escape into a field called the Kynecroft, belonging to +the citizens, and there she read the letter. It was a long, tiresome +one, all about matters of business which she did not understand; it was +only at the last page that she caught sight of the name she longed to +see. She hurried down to it, and when she got to it with beating heart +it was the fate of this innocent, loving woman to read these words: + +"What luck some have. There is George Fielding, of the 'Grove Farm,' +has made his fortune at the gold, and married yesterday to one of the +prettiest girls in Sydney. I met them walking in the street to-day. She +would not have looked at him but for the gold." + +Susan uttered a faint moan, and sank down slowly on her knees, like some +tender tree felled by a rude stroke; her eyes seemed to swim in a mist, +she tried to read the cruel words again but could not; she put her hands +before her eyes. + +"He is alive," she said, "thank God, he is alive." And at last tears +forced their way through her fingers. She took her handkerchief and +dried her eyes. "Why do I cry for another woman's husband?" and the hot +color of shame and of wounded pride burst even through her tears. + +"I will not cry," said she, proudly, "he is alive--I will not cry--he +has forgotten me; from this moment I will never shed another tear for +one that is alive and unworthy of a tear. I will go home." + +She went home, crying all the way. And now a partial success attended +the deep Meadows' policy. It was no common stroke of unscrupulous +cunning to plunge her into the very depths of woe in order to take her +out of them. The effects were manifold, and all tended his way. + +First she was less sorrowful than she had been before that deadly blow, +for now the heart had realized a greater woe, and had the miserable +comfort of the comparison; but, above all, new and strong passions had +risen and battled fiercely with grief--anger and wounded pride. + +Susan had self-respect and pride, too, perhaps a shade too much though +less small vanity than have most persons of her moderate caliber. + +What! had she wept and sighed all these months for a man who did not +care for her? + +What! had she defied sneers, and despised affectionate hints, and +gloried openly in her love, to be openly insulted and betrayed! + +What! had she shut herself from the world, and put on mourning and +been seen in mourning for one who was not dead, but well and happy and +married to another! + +An agony of shame rushed over the wronged, insulted, humiliated +beauty. She longed to fly from the world. She asked her father to leave +Grassmere and go to some other farm a hundred miles away. She asked him +suddenly, nervously, and so impetuously that the old man looked up in +dismay. + +"What! leave the farm where your mother lived with me, and where you +were born. I should feel strange, girl; but"--and he gave a strange +sigh--"mayhap I shall have to leave it whether I will or no." + +Susan misunderstood him and colored with self-reproach. She said +hastily: "No! no! Father, you shan't leave it for me. Forgive me, I am a +wayward girl!" + +And the strung nerves gave way, and tears gushed over the hot cheeks, as +she clung to her father, and tried to turn the current of her despised +love and bestow it all on that selfish old noodle. A great treasure went +a-begging in Grassmere farmhouse. + +Mr. Meadows called, but much to his chagrin Susan was never visible. +"Would he excuse her? she was indisposed." + +The next evening he came he found her entertaining four or five other +farmers' daughters and a couple of young men. She was playing the piano +to them and talking and laughing louder and faster than ever he had +heard her in his life. He sat moody a little while and watched her +uneasily, but soon took his line, and exerting his excellent social +powers became the life of the party. But as he warmed Susan froze, as +much as to say, "Somebody must play the fool to amuse these triflers--if +you undertake it I need not." For all that the very attempt at society +indicated what was passing in Susan's mind, and the deep Meadows invited +all present to meet at his house in two days' time. + +Meadows was now living in Isaac Levi's old house. He had examined +it, found it a much nicer house for him than his new one--it was like +himself, full of ins and outs, and it was more in the heart of business +and yet quiet; for, though it stood in a row, yet it was as good as +detached, because the houses on each side were unoccupied. They belonged +to Jews, probably dependents on Isaac, for they had left the town about +a twelvemonth after his departure and had never returned, though a large +quantity of goods had been deposited in one of the houses. + +Meadows contrived that this little party should lead to another. His +game was to draw Susan into the world, and moreover have her seen in his +company. She made no resistance, for her wounded pride said, "Don't let +people know you are breaking your heart for one who does not care for +you." She used to come to these parties radiant and playing her part +with consummate resolution and success, and go home and spend the night +in tears. + +Meadows did not see the tears that followed these unusual +efforts--perhaps he suspected them. Enough for him that Susan's pride +and shame and indignation were set against her love, and, above all, +against her grief, and that she was forming habits whose tendency at +least was favorable to his views. + +Another four months, and Susan, exhausted by conflicting passions, had +settled down into a pensive languor, broken by gusts of bitter grief, +which became rarer and rarer. Her health recovered itself, all but +its elasticity. Her pride would not let her pine away. But her heart +scarcely beat at all, and perhaps it was a good thing for her that a +trouble of another kind came to gently stir it. Her father, who had for +some months been moody and depressed, confessed to her that he had been +speculating and was on the verge of ruin. This dreadful disclosure gave +little more pain to Susan than if he had told her his head ached; but +she put down her work and came and kissed him, and tried to console him. + +"I must work harder, that is all, father. I am often asked to give a +lesson on the piano-forte; I will do that for your sake, and don't +you fret for me. What with the trifle my mother settled on me and my +industry, I am above poverty, and you shall never see me repine." + +In short, poor Susan took her father for a woman--adopted a line of +consolation addressed to his affection, instead of his selfishness. It +was not for her he was afflicted, it was for himself. + +It was at this conjuncture that Meadows spoke out. There was no longer +anything to be gained by delay. In fact, he could not but observe that +since the fatal letter he appeared to be rather losing ground in his old +character. There was nothing left him but to attack her in a new one. He +removed the barrier from his patient impatience. + +He found her alone one evening. He begged her to walk in the garden. +She complied with an unsuspecting smile. Then he told her all he had +suffered for her sake; how he had loved her this three years with +all his soul--how he never thought to tell her this--how hard he had +struggled against it--how he had run away from it, and after that how he +had subdued it, or thought he had subdued it, to esteem--and how he had +been rewarded by seeing that his visits and his talk had done her some +good. "But now," said he, "that you are free, I have no longer the force +to hide my love; now that the man I dared not interfere with has thrown +away the jewel, it is not in nature that I should not beg to be allowed +to take it up and wear it in my heart." + +Susan listened; first with surprise, then with confusion and pain, +then with terror at the violence of the man's passion; for, the long +restraint removed, it overwhelmed him like a flood. Her bosom heaved +with modest agitation, and soon the tears streamed down her cheeks at +his picture of what he had gone through for her sake. She made shift to +gasp out, "My poor friend!" But she ended almost fiercely: "Let no man +ever hope for affection from me, for my heart is in the grave. Oh, that +I was there, too!" And she ran sobbing away from him in spite of his +entreaties. + +Another man and not George had made a confession of love to her. His +voice had trembled, his heart quivered, with love for her, and it was +not George. So then another link was snapped. Others saw they had a +right to love her now, and acted on it. + +Meadows was at a loss, but he stayed away a week in silence, and thought +and thought, and then he wrote a line begging permission to visit her as +usual. "I have been so long used to hide my feelings, because they +were unlawful, that I can surely hide them if I see they make you more +unhappy than you would be without." + +Susan replied that her advice to him was to avoid her as he would a +pestilence. He came as usual, and told her he would take her commands, +but could not take her advice. He would run all risks to his own heart. +He was cheerful, chatty and never said a word of love; and this relieved +Susan, so that the evening passed pleasantly. Susan, listless and +indifferent to present events, and never accustomed, like Meadows, to +act upon a preconceived plan, did not even observe what Meadows had +gained by this sacrifice of his topic for a single night, viz., that +after declaring himself her lover he was still admitted to the house. +The next visit he was not quite so forbearing, yet still forbearing; and +so on by sly gradations. It was every way an unequal contest. A +great man against an average woman--a man of forty against a woman of +twenty-two--a man all love and selfishness against a woman all affection +and unselfishness. But I think his chief ally was a firm belief on +Susan's part that he was the best of men; that from first to last of +this affair his conduct had been perfection; that while George was true +all his thought had been to console her grief at his absence; that he +never would have spoken but for the unexpected treason of George, and +then seeing her insulted and despised he had taken that moment to show +her she was loved and honored. Oh, what an ungrateful girl she was that +she could not love such a man! + +Then her father was on the same side. "John Meadows seems down like, +Susan. Do try and cheer him up a bit, I am sure he has often cheered +thee." + +"That he has, father." + +Susan pitied Meadows. Pitying him, she forced herself at times to be +gracious, and when she did he was so happy that she was alarmed at her +power and drew in. + +Old Merton saw now how the land lay, and he clung to a marriage between +these two as his only hope. "John Meadows will pull me through, if he +marries my Susan." + +And so the two selfish ones had got the unselfish one between them, +one pulling gently, the other pushing quietly, but both without +intermission. Thus days and days rolled on. + +Meadows now came four times a week instead of two, and courted her +openly, and beamed so with happiness that she had not always the heart +to rob him of this satisfaction, and he overwhelmed her with kindness +and attention of every sort, and, if any one else was present, she was +sure to see how much he was respected; and this man whom others courted +was her slave. This soothed the pride another had wounded. + +One day he poured out his love to her with such passion that he +terrified her, and the next time he came she avoided him. + +Her father remonstrated. "Girl, you will break that man's heart if you +are so unkind to him; he could not say a word because you shunned him +like. Why, your heart must be made of stone." A burst of tears was all +the reply. + +At last two things presented themselves to this poor girl's +understanding; that for her there was no chance of earthly happiness, do +what she would, and that, strangely enough, she the wretched one had +it in her power to make two other beings happy, her father and good Mr. +Meadows. + +Now, a true woman lives to make others happy. She rarely takes the +self-contained views of life men are apt to do. + +It passed through Susan's mind: "If I refuse to make these happy, why do +I live, what am I on the earth for at all?" + +It seemed cruel to her to refuse happiness when she could bestow it +without making herself two shades more miserable than she was. + +Despair and unselfishness are evil counselors in a scheming, selfish +world. The life-blood had been drained out of her heart by so many +cruel blows, by the long waiting, the misgivings, the deep woe when she +believed George dead, the bitter grief and mortification and sense of +wrong when she found he was married to another. + +Many of us, male and female, treated as Susan imagined herself treated, +have taken another lover out of pique. Susan did not so. She was +bitterly piqued, but she did not make that use of her pique. + +Despair of happiness, pity, and pure unselfishness, these stood John +Meadows' friends with this unhappy dupe, and perhaps my male readers +will be incredulous as well as shocked when I relate the manner in which +at last this young creature, lovely as an angel, in the spring of +life, loving another still, and deluding herself to think she hated and +despised him, was one afternoon surprised into giving her hand to a man +for whom she did not really care a button. + +It was as if she had said: "Is it really true your happiness depends on +me? then take me--quick--before my courage fails--are you happy now, my +poor soul?" On the other side there were the passionate pleadings of +a lover; the deep, manly voice broken with supplication, the male eyes +glistening, the diabolical mixture of fraud and cunning with sincerity. + +At the first symptom of yielding the man seized her as the hawk the +dove. He did not wait for a second hint. He poured out gratitude and +protestations. He thanked her, and blessed her, and in his manly ardor +caught her to his bosom. + +She shut her eyes, and submitted to the caress as to an executioner. + +"Pray let me go to my father," she whispered. + +She came to her father and told him what she had done, and kissed him, +and when he kissed her in return, that rare embrace seemed to her her +reward. + +Meadows went home on wings--he was in a whirlwind of joy and triumph. + +"Aha! what will not a strong will do?" He had no fears, no misgivings. +He saw she did not really like him even, but he would make her love him! +Let him once get her into his house and into his arms, by degrees she +should love him; ay, she should adore him! He held that a young and +virtuous woman cannot resist the husband who remains a lover, unless +he is a fool as well as a lover. She could resist a man, but hardly the +hearth, the marriage-bed, the sacred domestic ties, and a man whose love +should be always present, always ardent, yet his temper always cool, and +his determination to be loved unflinching. + +With this conviction, Meadows had committed crimes of the deepest dye +to possess Susan. Villain as he was, it may be doubted whether he would +have committed these felonies had he doubted for an instant her ultimate +happiness. The unconquerable dog said to himself: "The day will come +that I will tell her how I have risked my soul for her; how I have +played the villain for her; and she shall throw her arms round my +neck, and bless me for committing all those crimes to make her so happy +against her will." + +It remained to clinch the nail. + +He came to Grassmere every day; and one night that the old man was +telling Susan and him how badly things were going with him, he said, +with a cheerful laugh: "I wonder at you, father-in-law, taking on that +way. Do you think Susan will let you be uncomfortable for want of a +thousand pounds or two?" + +Now this remark was slyly made while Susan was at the other end of the +room, so that she could hear it, but was not supposed to. He did not +look at her for some time, and then her face was scarlet. + +The next day he said privately to old Merton: "The day Susan and I go to +church together, you must let me take your engagements and do the best I +can with them." + +"Ah, John, you are a friend! but it will take a pretty deal to set me +straight again." + +"How much? Two thousand?" + +"More, I am afraid, and too much--" + +"Too much for me to take out of my pocket for a stranger; but not for my +wife's father--not if it was ten times that." + +From that hour Meadows had an ally at Grassmere, working heart and soul +to hasten the wedding-day. + +Meadows longed for this day; for he could not hide from himself that as +a lover he made no advances. Susan's heart was like a globe of ice; he +could get no hold of it anywhere. He burned with rage when the bitter +truth was forced on him, that, with the topic of George Fielding, he +had lost those bright, animated looks of affection she used to bestow on +him, and now could only command her polite attention, not always that. +Once he ventured on a remonstrance--only once. + +She answered coldly that she could not feign; indifferent she was to +everything on earth, indifferent she always should be. But for that +indifference she should never have consented to marry him. Let him pause +then, and think what he was doing, or, better still, give up this folly, +and not tie an icicle like her to an honest and warm heart like his. + +The deep Meadows never ventured on that ground again. He feared she +wanted to be off the marriage, and he determined to hurry it on. He +pressed her to name the day. She would not. + +"Would she let him name it?" + +"No." + +Her father came to Meadows' assistance. "I'll name it," said he. + +"Father! no! no!" + +Old Merton then made a pretense of selecting a day. Rejected one day +for one reason, another for another, and pitched on a day only six weeks +distant. + +The next day Meadows bought the license. "I thought you would like that +better than being cried in church, Susan." Susan thanked him and said, +"Oh, yes." + +That evening he had a note from her in which "she humbly asked his +pardon, but she could not marry him; he must excuse her. She trusted to +his generosity to let the matter drop, and forgive a poor brokenhearted +girl who had behaved ill from weakness of judgment, not lightness of +heart." + +Two days after this, which remained unanswered, her father came to her +in great agitation and said to her: "Have you a mind to have a man's +death upon your conscience?" + +"Father!" + +"I have seen John Meadows, and he is going to kill himself. What sort of +a letter was that to write to the poor man? Says he, 'It has come on +me like a thunder-clap.' I saw a pistol on his table, and he told me +he wouldn't give a button to live. You ought to be ashamed of yourself +trifling with folks' hearts so." + +"I trifle with folks' hearts! Oh! what shall I do!" cried Susan. + +"Think of others as well as yourself," replied the old man in a rage. +"Think of me." + +"Of you, dear father? Does not your Susan think of you?" + +"No! what will become of me if the man kills himself? He is all I have +to look to, to save me from ruin." + +"What, then?" cried Susan, coloring scarlet, "it is not his life you +care for, it is his means of being useful to us! Poor Mr. Meadows! He +has no friend but me. I will give you a line to him." The line contained +these words: "Forgive me." + +Half an hour after receipt of it Meadows was at the farm. Susan was +going to make some faint apology. He stopped her and said: "I know you +like to make folk happy. I have got a job for you. A gentleman, a friend +of mine in Cheshire, wants a bailiff. He has written to me. A word from +me will do the business. Now is there any one you would like to oblige? +The place is worth five hundred a year." Susan was grateful to him for +waiving disagreeable topics. She reflected and said: "Ah! but he is no +friend of yours." + +"What does that matter if he is yours?" + +"Will Fielding." + +"With all my heart. Only my name must not be mentioned. You are right. +He can marry on this. They would both have starved in 'The Grove.'" + +Thus he made the benevolent girl taste the sweets of power. "You will be +asked to do many a kind action like this when you are Mrs. Meadows." So +he bribed father and daughter each after their kind. + +The offer came in form from the gentleman to Will Fielding. He and Miss +Holiday had already been cried in church. They were married, and went +off to Cheshire. + +So Meadows got rid of Will Fielding at a crisis. When it suited his +strategy he made his enemy's fortune with as little compunction as he +would have ruined him. A man of iron! Cold iron, hot iron, whatever iron +was wanted. + +Mr. and Mrs. Fielding gone off to Cheshire, and Mrs. Holiday after +them on a visit of domestic instruction, Meadows publicly announced +his approaching marriage with Miss Merton. The coast being clear, he +clinched the last nail. From this day there were gusts of repugnance, +but not a shadow of resistance on Susan's side. It was to be. + +The weather was fine, and every evening this man and woman walked +together. The woman envied by all the women; the man by all the men. Yet +they walked side by side like the ghosts of lovers. And, since he was +her betrothed, one or two iron-gray hairs in the man's head had turned +white, and lines deepened in his face. The victim had unwittingly +revenged herself. + +He had stabbed her heart again and again, and drained it. He had +battered this poor heart till it had become more like leather than flesh +and blood, and now he wanted to nestle in it and be warmed by it. To +kill the affections and revive them at will. No!!!! + +She tried to give happiness and to avoid giving pain, but her heart of +hearts was inaccessible. The town had capitulated, but the citadel +was empty yet impregnable. And there were moments when flashes of hate +mingled with the steady flame of this unhappy man's love, and he was +tempted to kill her and himself. + +But these weaknesses passed like air, the iron purpose stood firm. This +day week they were to be married. Meadows counted the days and exulted; +he had faith in the magic ring. It was on this Monday evening then they +walked arm in arm in the field, and it so happened that Meadows was +not speaking of love, but of a scheme for making all the poor people in +Grassmere comfortable, especially of keeping the rain out of their roofs +and the wind out of what they vulgarly, but not unreasonably, called +their windys, and Susan's color was rising and her eyes brightening at +this the one interesting side marriage offered--to make people happy +near her and round about her, and she cast a look of gratitude upon her +companion--a look that, coming from so lovely a face, might very +well pass for love. While thus pleasantly employed the pair suddenly +encountered a form in a long bristling beard, who peered into their +faces with a singular expression of strange and wild curiosity and +anxiety, but did not stop; he was making toward Farnborough. + +Susan was a little startled. "Who is that?" + +"I don't know." + +"He looked as if he knew us." + +"A traveler, I think, dearest. The folk hereabouts have not got to wear +those long beards yet." + +"Why did you start when he passed us?" + +"Did I start, Susan?" + +"Your arm twitched me." + +"You must have fancied it," replied Meadows, with a sickly smile; "but, +come, Susan, the dew is falling, you had better make toward home." + +He saw her safe home, then, instead of waiting to supper as usual, got +his horse out and rode to the town full gallop. + +"Any one been here for me?" + +"Yes! a stranger." + +"With a long beard?" + +"Why, yes, he had." + +"He will come again?" + +"In half an hour." + +"Show him into my room when he comes, and admit no one else." + +Meadows was hardly seated in his study and his candles lighted when the +servant ushered in his visitor. + +"Shut both the doors, and you can go to bed. I will let Mr. Richards +out." + +"Well?" + +"Well, we have done the trick between us, eh?" + +"What made you come home without orders?" asked Meadows, somewhat +sternly. + +"Why, you know as well as me, sir; you have seen them?" + +"Who?" + +"George Fielding and his mate." + +Meadows started. "How should I see them?" + +"Sir! Why, they are come home. They gave me the slip, and got away +before me. I followed them. They are here. They must be here." Crawley, +not noticing Meadows' face, went on. "Sir, when I found they had slipped +out of the camp on horseback, and down to Sydney, and saw them with my +own eyes go out of the harbor for England, I thought I should have died +on the spot. I thought I should never have the courage to face you, but +when I met you arm in arm, her eye smiling on you, I knew it was all +right then. When did the event come off?" + +"What event?" + +"The marriage, sir--you and the lady. She is worth all the trouble she +has given us." + +"You fool," roared Meadows, "we are not married. The wedding is to +be this day week!" Crawley started and gasped, "We are ruined, we are +undone!" + +"Hold your bawling," cried Meadows, fiercely, "and let me think." He +buried his face in his hands; when he removed them, he was gloomy but +self-possessed. "They are not in England, Crawley, or we should have +seen them. They are on the road. You sailed faster than they; passed +them at night, perhaps. They will soon be here. My own heart tells me +they will be here before Monday. Well, I will beat them still. I will be +married Thursday next." The iron man then turned to Crawley, and sternly +demanded how he had let the man slip. + +Crawley related all, and as he told his tale the tone of Meadows +altered. He no longer doubted the zeal of his hireling. He laid his hand +on his brow and more than once he groaned and muttered half-articulate +expressions of repugnance. At the conclusion he said moodily: "Crawley, +you have served me well--too well! All the women upon earth were not +worth a murder, and we have been on the brink of several. You went +beyond your instructions." + +"No, I did not," replied Crawley; "I have got them in my pocket. I will +read them to you. See! there is no discretion allowed me. I was to bribe +them to rob." + +"Where do I countenance the use of deadly weapons?" + +"Where is there a word against deadly weapons?" asked Crawley, sharply. +"Be just to me, sir," he added in a more whining tone. "You know you +are a man that must and will be obeyed. You sent me to Australia to do +a certain thing, and you would have flung me to perdition if I had +stuck at anything to do it. Well, sir, I tried skill without force--look +here," and he placed a small substance like white sugar on the table. + +"What is that?" + +"Put that in a man's glass he will never taste it, and in half an hour +he will sleep you might take the clothes off his back. Three of us +watched months and months for a chance, but it was no go; those two were +teetotal or next door it." + +"I wish I had never sent you out." + +"Why," replied Crawley, "there is no harm done, no blood has been +spilled except on our own side. George Fielding is coming home all +right. Give him up the lady, and he will never know you were his enemy." + +"What!" cried Meadows, "wade through all these crimes for nothing? Lie +and feign, and intercept letters, and rob and all but assassinate---and +fail? Wade in crime up to my middle, and then wade back again without +the prize! Do you see this pistol? it has two barrels; if she and I +are ever parted it shall be this way--I'll send her to heaven with one +barrel, and myself to hell with the other." + +There was a dead silence! Crawley returned to their old relation, and +was cowed by the natural ascendency of the greater spirit. + +"You need not look like a girl at me," said Meadows, "most likely it +won't come to that. It is not easy to beat me, and I shall try every +move man's wit can devise--this last," said he, in a voice of iron, +touching the pistol as it lay on the table. + +There was another pause. Then Meadows rose and said calmly: "You look +tired, you shall have a bottle of my old port; and my own heart is +staggered, but it is only for a moment." He struck his hand upon his +breast, and walked slowly from the room. And Crawley heard his step +descend to the hall, and then to the cellar; and the indomitable +character of the man rang in his solid tread. + +Crawley was uneasy. "Mr. Meadows is getting wildish; it frightens me to +see such a man as him burst out like that. He is not to be trusted with +a loaded pistol. Ah! and I am in his secrets, deep in his secrets; great +men sweep away little folk that know too much. I never saw him with +a pistol before." All this passing rapidly through his head, Crawley +pounced on the pistol, took off the caps, whipped out a little bottle, +and poured some strong stuff into the caps that loosened the detonating +powder directly; then with a steel pen he picked it all out and replaced +the caps, their virtue gone, before Mr. Meadows returned with two +bottles; and the confederates sat in close conclave till the gray of +morning broke into the room. + +The great man gave but few orders to his subordinate, for this simple +reason, that the game had fallen into his own hands. + +Still there was something for Crawley to do. He was to have an officer +watching to arrest Will Fielding on the old judgment should he, which +was hardly to be expected, come to kick up a row and interrupt +the wedding. And to-morrow he was to take out a writ against his +"father-in-law." Mr. Meadows played a close game. He knew that things +are not to be got when they are wanted. His plan was to have everything +ready that might be wanted long before it was wanted. + +But most of the night passed in relation of what had already taken +place, and Crawley was the chief speaker, and magnified his services. +He related from his own point of view all that I have told, and Meadows +listened with all his soul and intelligence. + +At the attack on Mr. Levi, Meadows chuckled. "The old heathen," said he, +contemptuously, "I have beat him anyway." + +"By the way, sir, have you seen anything of him?" asked Crawley. + +"No." + +"He is not come home, then." + +"Not that I know of; have you any reason to think he has?" + +"No, only he left the mine directly after they pelted him; but he would +not leave the country any the more for that, and money to be made in it +by handfuls." + +"Now, Crawley, go and get some sleep. A cold bath for me and then on +horseback. I must breakfast at Grassmere." + +"Great man, sir! great man! You will beat them yet, sir. You have beat +Mr. Levi. Here we are in his house; and he driven away to lay his sly +old bones at the Antipodes. Ha! ha! ha!" + +The sun came in at the window, and the long conference broke up, and, +strange to say, it broke into three. Crawley home to sleep. Meadows to +Grassmere. Isaac Levi to smoke an Eastern pipe, and so meditate with +more tranquil pulse how to strike with deadliest effect these two, his +insolent enemies. + +_Siste viator_--and guess that riddle. + + + +CHAPTER LXXXI. + +ISAAC LEVI, rescued by George Fielding, reached his tent smarting +with pain and bitter insult; he sat on the floor pale and dusty, and +anathematized his adversaries in the Hebrew tongue. Wrath still boiling +in his heart, he drew out his letters and read them. Then grief mingled +with his anger. Old Cohen, his friend and agent and coeval, was dead. +Another self dead. + +Besides the hint that this gave him to set his house in order, a +distinct consideration drew Isaac now to England. He had trusted much +larger interests to old Cohen than he was at all disposed to leave in +the hands of Cohen's successors, men of another generation, "progeniem +vitiosiorem," he sincerely believed. + +Another letter gave him some information about Meadows that added +another uneasiness to those he already felt on George's account. Hence +his bitter disappointment when he found George gone from the mine, +the date of his return uncertain. Hence, too, the purchase of Moore's +horses, and the imploring letter to George--measures that proved +invaluable to that young man, whose primitive simplicity and wise +humility led him not to question the advice of his elder, but obey it. + +And so it was that, although the old Jew sailed home upon his own +interests, yet during the voyage George Fielding's assumed a great +importance, direct and incidental. Direct, because the old man was warm +with gratitude to him; indirect, because he boiled over with hate of +George's most dangerous enemy. And, as he neared the English coast, the +thought that though he was coming to Farnborough he could not come home, +grew bitterer and bitterer, and then that he should find his enemy and +his insulter in the very house sacred by the shadows of the beloved and +dead!! + +Finding in Nathan a youth of no common fidelity and shrewdness, Isaac +confided in him; and Nathan, proud beyond description of the confidence +bestowed on him by one so honored in his tribe, enlisted in his cause +with all the ardor of youth tempered by Jewish address. + +Often they sat together on the deck, and the young Jewish brain and the +old Jewish brain mingled and digested a course of conduct to meet every +imaginable contingency; for the facts they at present possessed were +only general and vague. + +The first result of all this was that these two crept into the town of +Farnborough at three o'clock one morning; that Isaac took out a key and +unlocked the house that stood next to Meadows' on the left hand; that +Isaac took secret possession of the first floor, and Nathan open but +not ostentatious possession of the ground-floor, with a tale skillfully +concocted to excite no suspicion whatever that Isaac was in any way +connected with his presence in the town. Nathan, it is to be observed, +had never been in Farnborough before. + +The next morning they worked. Nathan went out, locking the door after +him, to execute two commissions. He was to find out what the young +Cohens were doing, and how far they were likely to prove worthy of the +trust reposed in their father; and what Susan Merton was doing, and +whether Meadows was courting her or not. The latter part of Nathan's +task was terribly easy. + +The young man came home late at night, locked the door, made a concerted +signal, and was admitted to the senior presence. He found him smoking +his Eastern pipe. Nathan with dejected air told him that he had good +news; that the Cohens not only thought themselves wiser than their +father, which was permissible, but openly declared it, which he, though +young, had observed to be a trait confined to very great fools. + +"It is well said, my son," quoth Isaac, smoking calmly, "and the other +business?" + +"Oh, master!" said Nathan, "I bring still worse tidings of her. She is a +true Nazarite, a creature without faith. She is betrothed to the man you +hate, and whom I, for your sake, hate even to death." + +They spoke in an Eastern dialect, which I am paraphrasing here and +translating there, according to the measure of my humble abilities. +Isaac sucked his pipe very fast; this news was a double blow to his +feelings. "If she be indeed a Nazarite without faith, let her go; but +judge not the simple hastily. First, let me know how far woman's frailty +is to blame; how far man's guile--for not for nothing was Crawley sent +out to the mine by Meadows. Let me consider;" and he smoked calmly +again. + +After a long silence, which Nathan was too respectful to break, the old +man gave him his commission for to-morrow. He was to try and discover +why Susan Merton had written no letters for many months to George; +and why she had betrothed herself to the foe. "But reveal nothing in +return," said Isaac, "neither ask more than three questions of any one +person, lest they say, 'Who is this that being a Jew asks many questions +about a Nazarite maiden, and why asks he them?'" + +At night Nathan returned full of intelligence. She loved the young man +Fielding. She wrote letters to him and received letters from him, until +gold was found in Australia. But after this he wrote to her no more +letters, wherefore her heart was troubled. + +"Ah! and did she write to him?" + +"Yes! but received no answer, nor any letter for many months." + +"Ah!" (puff!) (puff!) + +"Then came a rumor that he was dead, and she mourned for him after +the manner of her people many days. Verily, master, I am vexed for the +Nazarite maiden, for her tale is sad. Then came a letter from Australia, +that said he is not dead, but married to a stranger. Then the maiden +said: 'Behold now this twelve months he writes not to me, this then is +true'; and she bowed her head, and the color left her cheek. Then this +Meadows visited her, and consoled her day by day. And there are those +who confidently affirm that her father said often to her, 'Behold now I +am a man stricken in years, and the man Meadows is rich'; so the maiden +gave her hand to the man, but whether to please the old man her father, +or out of the folly and weakness of females, thou, O Isaac, son of +Shadrach, shalt determine; seeing that I am young, and little versed in +the ways of women, knowing this only by universal report, that they are +fair to the eye but often bitter to the taste." + +"Aha!" cried Isaac, "but I am old, O Nathan, son of Eli, and with the +thorns of old age comes one good fruit, 'experience.' No letters came to +him, yet she wrote many. None came to her, yet he wrote many. All this +is transparent as glass--here has been fraud as well as guile." + +Nathan's eye sparkled. "What is the fraud, master?" + +"Nay, that I know not, but I will know!" + +"But how, master?" + +"By help of thine ears, or my own!" + +Nathan looked puzzled. So long as Mr. Levi shut himself up a close +prisoner on the first floor what could he hear for himself? + +Isaac read the look and smiled. He then rose, and, putting his finger +to his lips, led the way to his own apartments. At the staircase-door, +which even Nathan had not yet passed, he bade the young man take off his +shoes; he himself was in slippers. He took Nathan into a room, the floor +of which was entirely covered with mattresses. A staircase, the steps +of which were covered with horsehair, went by a tolerably easy slope +and spiral movement nearly up to the cornice. Of this cornice a portion +about a foot square swung back on a well-oiled hinge, and Isaac drew out +from the wall with the utmost caution a piece of gutta-percha piping, to +this he screwed on another piece open at the end, and applied it to his +ear. + +Nathan comprehended it all in a moment. His master could overhear every +word uttered in Meadows' study. Levi explained to him that ere he left +his old house he had put a new cornice in the room he thought Meadows +would sit in, a cornice so deeply ornamented that no one could see the +ear he left in it, and had taken out bricks in the wall of the adjoining +house and made the other arrangements they were inspecting together. +Mr. Levi further explained that his object was simply to overhear and +counteract every scheme Meadows should form. He added that he never +intended to leave Farnborough for long. His intention had been to +establish certain relations in that country, buy some land, and return +immediately; but the gold discovery had detained him. + +"But, master," said Nathan, "suppose the man had taken his business to +the other side of his house?" + +"Foolish youth," replied Isaac, "am I not on both sides of him!!" + +"Ah! What, is there another on the other?" Isaac nodded. + +Thus, while Nathan was collecting facts, Isaac had been watching, +"patient as a cat, keen as a lynx," at his ear-hole, and heard--nothing. + +Now the next day Nathan came in hastily long before the usual hour. +"Master, another enemy is come--the man Crawley! I saw him from the +window; he saw not me. What shall I do?" + +"Keep the house all day. I would not have him see you. He would say, +'Aha! the old Jew is here, too.'" Nathan's countenance fell. He was a +prisoner now as well as his master. + +The next morning, rising early to prepare their food, he was surprised +to find the old man smoking his pipe down below. + +"All is well, my son. My turn has come. I have had great patience, and +great is the reward." He then told him with natural exultation the +long conference he had been secretly present at between Crawley and +Meadows--a conference in which the enemy had laid bare, not his guilt +only, but the secret crevice in his coat of mail. "She loves him +not!" cried Levi, with exultation. "She is his dupe! With a word I can +separate them and confound him utterly." + +"Oh, master!" cried the youth eagerly, "speak that word to-day, and let +me be there and hear it spoken if I have favor in your eyes." + +"Speak it to-day!" cried Levi, with a look of intense surprise at +Nathan's simplicity. "Go to, foolish youth!" said he; "what, after I +have waited months and months for vengeance, would you have me fritter +it away for want of waiting a day or two longer? No, I will strike, not +the empty cup from his hand, but the full cup from his lips. Aha! you +have seen the Jew insulted and despised in many lands; have patience now +and you shall see how he can give blow for blow; ay! old, and feeble, +and without a weapon, can strike his adversary to the heart." + +Nathan's black eye flashed. "You are the master, I the scholar," said +he. "All I ask is to be permitted to share the watching for your enemy's +words, since I may not go abroad while it is day." + +Thus the old and young lynx lay in ambush all day. And at night the +young lynx prowled, but warily, lest Crawley should see him; and every +night brought home some scrap of intelligence. + +To change the metaphor, it was as though while the Western spider wove +his artful web round the innocent fly, the Oriental spider wove another +web round him, the threads of which were so subtle as to be altogether +invisible. Both East and West leaned with sublime faith on their +respective gossamers, nor remembered that "Dieu dispose." + + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + +MEADOWS rode to Grassmere, to try and prevail with Susan to be married +on Thursday next, instead of Monday. As he rode he revolved every +argument he could think of to gain her compliance. He felt sure she was +more inclined to postpone the day than to advance it, but something told +him his fate hung on this: "These two men will come home on Monday. I +am sure of it. Ay, Monday morning, before we can wed. I will not throw a +chance away; the game is too close." Then he remembered with dismay that +Susan had been irritable and snappish just before parting yester eve--a +trait she had never exhibited to him before. When he arrived, his heart +almost failed him, but after some little circumlocution and excuse he +revealed the favor, the great favor, he was come to ask. He asked it. +She granted it without the shade of a demur. He was no less surprised +than delighted, but the truth is that very irritation and snappishness +of yesterday was the cause of her consenting; her conscience told her +she had been unkind, and he had been too wise to snap in return. So now +he benefited by the reaction and little bit of self-reproach. For do but +abstain from reproaching a good girl who has been unjust or unkind to +you, and ten to one if she does not make you the _amemde_ by word +or deed--most likely the latter, for so she can soothe her tender +conscience without grazing her equally sensitive pride. Poor Susan +little knew the importance of the concession she made so easily. + +Meadows galloped home triumphant. But two whole days now between him and +his bliss! And that day passed and Tuesday passed. The man lived three +days and nights in a state of tension that would have killed some of us +or driven us mad; but his intrepid spirit rode the billows of hope and +fear like a petrel. And the day before the wedding it did seem as if his +adverse fate got suddenly alarmed and made a desperate effort and hurled +against him every assailant that could be found. In the morning came his +mother, and implored him ere it was too late to give up this marriage. +"I have kept silence, yea even from good words," said the aged woman; +"but at last I must speak. John, she does not love you. I am a woman +and can read a woman's heart; and you fancied her long before George +Fielding was false to her, if false he ever was, John." + +The old woman said the whole of this last sentence with so much meaning +that her son was stung to rage, and interrupted her fiercely: "I looked +to find all the world against me, but not my own mother. No matter, so +be it; the whole world shan't turn me, and those I don't care to fight +I'll fly." + +And he turned savagely on his heel and left the old woman there shocked +and terrified by his vehemence. She did not stay there long. Soon the +scarlet cloak and black bonnet might have been seen wending their way +slowly back to the little cottage, the poor old tidy bonnet drooping +lower than it was wont. Meadows came back to dinner; he had a +mutton-chop in his study, for it was a busy day. While thus +employed there came almost bursting into the room a man struck with +remorse--Jefferies, the recreant postmaster. + +"Mr. Meadows, I can carry on this game no longer, and I won't for any +man living!" He then in a wild, loud, and excited way went on to say how +the poor girl had come a hundred times for a letter, and looked in his +face so wistfully, and once she had said: "Oh, Mr. Jefferies, do have a +letter for me!" and how he saw her pale face in his dreams, and little +he thought when he became Meadows' tool the length the game was to be +carried. + +Meadows heard him out; then simply reminded him of his theft, and +assured him with an oath that if he dared to confess his villainy-- + +"My villainy?" shrieked the astonished postmaster. + +"Whose else? You have intercepted letters--not I. You have abused the +public confidence--not I. So if you are such a fool and sneak as to cut +your throat by peaching on yourself, I'll cry louder than you, and I'll +show you have emptied letters as well as stopped them. Go home to your +wife, and keep quiet, or I'll smash both you and her." + +"Oh, I know you are without mercy, and I dare not open my heart while +I live; but I will beat you yet, you cruel monster. I will leave a note +for Miss Merton, confessing all, and blow out my brains to-night in the +office." + +The man's manner was wild and despairing. Meadows eyed him sternly. He +said with affected coolness: "Jefferies, you are not game to take your +own life." + +"Ain't I?" was the reply. + +"At least I think not." + +"To-night will show." + +"I must know that before night," cried Meadows, and with the word he +sprang on Jefferies and seized him in a grasp of iron, and put a pistol +to his head. + +"Ah! no! Mr. Meadows. Mercy! mercy!" shrieked the man, in an agony of +fear. + +"All right," said Meadows, coolly putting up the pistol. "You half +imposed on me, and that is something for you to brag of. You won't kill +yourself, Jefferies; you are not the stuff. Give over shaking like an +aspen, and look and listen. You are in debt. I've bought up two drafts +of yours--here they are. Come to me to-morrow, after the wedding, and I +will give you them to light your pipe with." + +"Oh, Mr. Meadows, that would be one load off my mind." + +"You are short of cash, too; come to me--after the wedding, and I'll +give you fifty pounds cash." + +"You are very liberal, sir. I wish it was in a better cause." + +"Now go home, and don't be a sneak and a fool--till after the wedding, +or I will sell the bed from under your wife's back, and send you to the +stone-jug. Be off." + +Jefferies crept away, paralyzed in heart, and Meadows, standing up, +called out in a rage: "Are there any more of you that hope to turn John +Meadows? then come on, come a thousand strong, with the devil at your +back--and then I'll beat you!" And for a moment the respectable man was +almost grand; a man-rock standing braving earth and heaven. + +"Hist! Mr. Meadows." He turned, and there was Crawley. "A word, sir. +Will Fielding is in the town, in such a passion." + +"Come to stop the wedding?" + +"He was taking a glass of ale at the 'Toad and Pickax,' and you might +hear him all over the yard." + +"What is he going to do?" + +"Sir, he has bought an uncommon heavy whip; he was showing it in the +yard. 'This is for John Meadows' back,' said he, 'and I will give it +him before the girl he has stolen from my brother. If she takes a dog +instead of a man, it shall be a beaten dog,' says he." + +Meadows rang the bell. "Harness the mare to the four-wheeled chaise. You +know what to do, Crawley." + +"Well, I can guess." + +"But first get him told that I am always at Grassmere at six o'clock." + +"But you won't go there this evening, of course." + +"Why not?" + +"Aren't you afraid he--" + +"Afraid of Will Fielding? Why, you have never looked at me. I do notice +your eyes are always on the ground. Crawley, when I was eighteen, one +evening (it was harvest home, and all the folk had drunk their wit and +manners out) I found a farmer's wife in a lane, hemmed in by three great +ignorant brutes that were for kissing her, or some nonsense, and she +crying help and murder and ready to faint with fright. It was a decent +woman, and a neighbor, so I interfered as thus: I knocked the first +fellow senseless on his back with a blow before they knew of me, and +then the three were two. I fought the two, giving and taking for full +ten minutes, and then I got a chance and one went down. I put my foot +on his neck and kept him down for all he could do, and over his body I +fought the best man of the lot, and thrashed him so that his whole mug +was like a ball of beetroot. When he was quite sick he ran one way, and +t'other got up roaring and ran another, and they had to send a hurdle +for No. 1. Dame Fielding gave me of her own accord what all the row was +about, and more than one, and hearty ones, too, I assure you, and had me +in to supper, and told her man, and he shook my hand a good one." + +"Why, sir, you don't mean to say the woman you fought for was Mrs. +Fielding." + +"But I tell you it was, and I had those two boys on my knee, two chubby +toads, pulling at my curly hair--! why do I talk of these things? Oh, I +remember, it was to show you I am not a man that can be bullied. I am +a much better man than I was at eighteen. I won't be married in a black +eye if I can help it. But, when I am once married, here I stand against +all comers, and if you hear them grumble or threaten you, tell them +that any Sunday afternoon, when there is nothing better to be done, I'll +throw my cap into the ring and fight all the Fieldings that ever +were pupped, one down another come on." Then turning quite cool and +contemptuous all in a moment, he said, "These are words, and we have +work on hand;" and, even as he spoke, he strode from the room pattered +after by Crawley. + +At six o'clock Meadows and Susan were walking arm in arm in the garden. +Presently they saw a man advancing toward them, with his right hand +behind him. "Why, it is Will Fielding," cried Susan, "come to thank +you." + +"I think not, by the look of him," replied Meadows, coolly. + +"Susan, will you be so good as to take your hand from that man's arm. I +have got a word to say to him." + +Susan did more than requested, seeing at once that mischief was coming. +She clung to William's right arm, and while he ground his teeth with +ineffectual rage, for she was strong, as her sex are strong, for half +a minute, and to throw her off he must have been much rougher with +her than he chose to be, three men came behind unobserved by all but +Meadows, and captured him on the old judgment. And, Crawley having +represented him as a violent man, they literally laid the grasp of the +law on him. + +"But I have got the money to pay it," remonstrated William. + +"Pay it, then." + +"But my money is at home, give me two days. I'll write to my wife and +she will send it me." The officers, with a coarse laugh, told him he +must come with them meantime. + +Meadows whispered Susan: "I'll pay it for him to-morrow." + +They took off William Fielding in Meadows' four-wheeled chaise. + +"Where are they taking him, John?" + +"To the county jail." + +"Oh, don't let them take him there. Can you not trust him?" + +"Yes." + +"Then why not pay for him?" + +"But I don't carry money in my pocket, and the bank is closed." + +"How unfortunate!" + +"Very! but I'll send it over to-morrow early, and we will have him out." + +"Oh, yes, poor fellow! the very first thing in the morning." + +"Yes! the first thing--after we are married." + +Soon after this Meadows bade Susan affectionately farewell, and rode off +to Newborough to buy his gloves and some presents for his bride. On the +road he overtook William Fielding going to jail, leaned over his saddle +as he cantered by, and said, "Mrs. Meadows will send the money in +to free you in the morning," then on again as cool as a cucumber and +cantered into the town before sunset, put up black Rachel at the +King's Head, made his purchases, and back to the inn. As he sat in the +bar-parlor drinking a glass of ale and chatting with the landlady, two +travelers came into the passage. They did not stop in it long, for one +of them knew the house and led his companion into the coffee-room. But +in that moment, by a flash of recognition, spite of their bronzed color +and long beards, Meadows had seen who they were--George Fielding and +Thomas Robinson. + +Words could not paint in many pages what Meadows passed through in a few +seconds. His very body was one moment cold as ice, the next burning. + +The coffee-room door was open--he dragged himself into the passage, +though each foot in turn seemed glued to the ground, and listened. He +came back and sat down in the bar. + +"Are they going to stay?" said the mistress to the waiter. + +"Yes, to be called at five o'clock." + +The bell rang. The waiter went and immediately returned. "Hot with," +demanded the waiter, in a sharp, mechanical tone. + +"Here, take my keys for the lump sugar," said the landlady, and she +poured first the brandy and then the hot water into a tumbler, then went +upstairs to see about the travelers' beds. + +Meadows was left alone a few moments with the liquor. A sudden flash +came to Meadows' eye, he put his hand hastily to his waistcoat-pocket, +and then his eye brightened still more. Yes, it was there, he thought +he had had the curiosity to keep it by him. He drew out the white lump +Crawley had left on his table that night, and flung it into the glass +just as the waiter returned with the sugar. + +The waiter took the brandy and water into the coffee-room. Meadows sat +still as a mouse, his brain boiling and bubbling--awestruck at what he +had done, yet meditating worse. + +The next time the waiter came in, "Waiter," said he, "one glass among +two, that is short allowance." + +"Oh! the big one is teetotal," replied the waiter. + +"Mrs. White," said Meadows, "if you have got a bed for me I'll sleep +here, for my nag is tired and the night is darkish." + +"Always a bed for you, Mr. Meadows," was the gracious reply. + +Soon the two friends rang for bed-candles. Robinson staggered with +drowsiness. Meadows eyed them from behind a newspaper. + +Half an hour later Mr. Meadows went to bed, too--but not to sleep. + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIII. + +AT seven o'clock in the morning Crawley was at Meadows' house by +appointment. To his great surprise the servant told him master had not +slept at home. While he was talking to her Meadows galloped up to the +door, jumped off, and almost pulled Crawley upstairs with him. "Lock the +door, Crawley." Crawley obeyed, but with some reluctance, for Meadows, +the iron Meadows, was ghastly and shaken as he had never been shaken +before. He sank into a chair. "Perdition seize the hour I first saw +her!" As for Crawley, he was paralyzed by the terrible agitation of a +spirit so much greater than his own. + +"Crawley," said Meadows, with a sudden unnatural calm, "when the devil +buys a soul for money how much does he give? a good lump, I hear. He +values our souls high--we don't, some of us." + +"Mr. Meadows, sir!" + +"Now count those," yelled Meadows, bursting out again, and he flung a +roll of notes furiously on the ground at Crawley's feet, "count and tell +me what my soul has gone for. Oh! oh!" + +Crawley seized them and counted them as fast as his trembling fingers +would let him. So now an eye all remorse, and another eye all greed, +were bent upon the same thing. + +"Why, they are all hundred-pound notes, bright as silver from the Bank +of England. Oh, dear! how new and crimp they are--where do they come +from, sir?" + +"From Australia." + +"Ah! Oh, impossible! No! nothing is impossible to such a man as you. +Twenty." + +"They are at Newborough--slept at 'King's Head,'" whispered Meadows. + +"Good Heavens! think of that. Thirty--" + +"So did I." + +"Ah! forty--four thousand pounds." + +"The lump of stuff you left here hocussed one--it was a toss-up--luck +was on my side--that one carried them--slept like death--long while +hunting--found them under his pillow at last." + +"Well done! and we fools were always beat at it. +Sixty--one--two--five--seven. Seven thousand pounds." + +"Seven thousand pounds! Who would have thought it? This is a dear job to +me." + +"Say a dear job to them and a glorious haul to you; but you deserve it +all, ah!" + +"Why, you fool," cried Meadows, "do you think I am going to keep the +men's money?" + +"Keep it? why, of course!" + +"What! am I a thief? I, John Meadows, that never wronged a man of a +penny? I take his sweetheart, I can't live without her; but I can live +without his money. I have crimes enough on my head, but not theft, there +I say halt." + +"Then why in the name of Heaven did you take them at such a risk?" +Crawley put this question roughly, for he was losing his respect for his +idol. + +"You are as blind as a mole, Crawley," was the disdainful answer. "Don't +you see that I have made George Fielding penniless, and that now old +Merton won't let him have his daughter? Why should he? He said, 'If you +come back with one thousand pounds.' And don't you see that, when the +writ is served on old Merton, he will be as strong as fire for me and +against him. He can't marry her at all now. I shall soon or late, and +the day I marry Susan that same afternoon seven thousand pounds will +be put in George Fielding's hand, he won't know by whom, but you and I +shall know. I am a sinner, but not a villain." + +Crawley gave a dissatisfied grunt. Meadows struck a lucifer match +and lighted a candle. He placed the candle in the grate--it was warm +weather. "Come, now," said he coolly, "burn them; then they will tell no +tales." + +Crawley gave a shriek like a mother whose child is falling out of +window, and threw himself on his knees, with the notes in his hand +behind his back. "No! no! sir! Oh, don't think of it. Talk of crime, +what are all the sins we have done together compared with this? You +would not burn a wheat-rick, no, not your greatest enemy's; I know you +would not, you, are too good a man. This is as bad; the good money that +the bountiful Heaven has given us for--for the good of man." + +"Come," said Meadows sternly, "no more of this folly," and he laid his +iron grasp on Crawley. + +"Mercy! mercy! think of me--of your faithful servant, who has risked his +life and stuck at nothing for you. How ungrateful great men are!" + +"Ungrateful! Crawley! Can you look me in the face and say that?" + +"Never till now, but now I can;" and Crawley rose to his feet and faced +the great man. The prize he was fighting for gave him supernatural +courage. "To whom do you owe them? To me. You could never have had them +but for my drug. And yet you would burn them before my eyes. A fortune +to poor me." + +"To you?" + +"Yes! What does it matter to you what becomes of them so that _he_ never +sees them again? but it matters all to me. Give them to me and in twelve +hours I will be in France with them. You won't miss me, sir. I have done +my work. And it will be more prudent, for since I have left you I can't +help drinking, and I might talk, you know, sir, I might, and let out +what we should both be sorry for. Send me away to foreign countries +where I can keep traveling, and make it always summer. I hate the long +nights when it is dark. I see such cu-u-rious things. Pray! pray let me +go and take these with me, and never trouble you again." + +The words, though half nonsense, were the other half cunning, and the +tones and looks were piteous. Meadows hesitated. Crawley knew too much; +to get rid of him was a bait; and after all to annihilate the thing he +had been all his life accumulating went against his heart. He rang the +bell. "Hide the notes, Crawley. Bring me two shirts, a razor, and a +comb. Crawley, these are the terms. That you don't go near that woman--" +Crawley, with a brutal phrase, expressed his delight at the idea of +getting rid of her forever. "That you go at once to the railway. Station +opens to-day. First train starts in an hour. Up to London, over to +France this evening." + +"I will, sir. Hurrah! hurrah!" Then Crawley burst into protestations +of gratitude which Meadows cut short. He rang for breakfast, fed +his accomplice, gave him a great-coat for his journey, and took the +precaution of going with him to the station. There he shook hands with +him and returned to the principal street and entered the bank. + +Crawley kept faith, he hugged his treasure to his bosom and sat down +waiting for the train. "Luck is on our side," thought he; "if this had +been open yesterday those two would have come on from Newborough." + +He watched the preparations, they were decorating the locomotive with +bouquets and branches. They did not start punctually, some _soi-disant_ +great people had not arrived. "I will have a dram," thought Crawley; he +went and had three. Then he came back and as he was standing inspecting +the carriages a hand was laid on his shoulder. He looked round, it was +Mr. Wood, a functionary with whom he had often done business. + +"Ah, Wood! how d'ye do? Going to make the first trip?" + +"No, sir! I have business detains me in town." + +"What! a capias, eh?" chuckled Crawley. + +"Something of the sort. There is a friend of yours hard by wants to +speak a word to you." + +"Come along, then. Where is he?" + +"This way, sir." + +Crawley followed Wood to the waiting-room, and there on a bench sat +Isaac Levi. Crawley stopped dead short and would have drawn back, but +Levi beckoned to a seat near him. Crawley came walking like an automaton +from whose joints the oil had suddenly dried. With infinite repugnance +he took the seat, not liking to refuse before several persons who saw +the invitation. Mr. Wood sat on the other side of him. "What does it +all mean?" thought Crawley, but his cue was to seem indifferent or +flattered. + +"You have shaved your beard, Mr. Crawley," said Isaac, in a low tone. + +"My beard! I never had one," replied Crawley, in the same key. + +"Yes, you had when last I saw you--in the gold mine; you set ruffians to +abuse me, sir." + +"Don't you believe that, Mr. Levi." + +"I saw it and felt it." + +The peculiarity of this situation was, that, the room being full of +people, both parties wished, each for his own reason, not to excite +general attention, and therefore delivered scarce above a whisper the +sort of matter that is generally uttered very loud and excitedly. + +"It is my turn now," whispered Levi; "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a +tooth." + +"You must look sharp then," whispered Crawley; "to-morrow perhaps you +may not have the chance." + +"I never postpone vengeance--when it is ripe." + +"Don't you, sir? dear me." + +"You have seven thousand pounds about you, Mr. Crawley." + +Crawley started and trembled. "Stolen!" whispered Isaac in his very ear. +"Give it up to the officer." + +Crawley rose instinctively. A firm hand was laid on each of his arms; he +sat down again. "What--what---ever money I have is trusted to me by the +wealthiest and most respectable man in the cou--nty, and--" + +"Stolen by him, received by you! Give it to Wood, unless you prefer a +public search." + +"You can't search me without a warrant." + +"Here is a warrant from the mayor. Take the notes out of your left +breast and give them to the officer, or we must do it by force and +publicity." + +"I won't without Mr. Meadows' authority. Send for Mr. Meadows if you +dare." Isaac reflected. "Well! we will take you to Mr. Meadows. Keep the +money till you see him, but we must secure you. Put his coat over his +hands first." The great-coat was put over his hands, and the next moment +under the coat was heard a little sharp click. + +"Let us go to the carriage," said Levi, in a brisk, cheerful tone. + +Those present heard the friendly invitation and saw a little string of +acquaintances, three in number, break up a conversation and go and get +into a fly; one carried a great-coat and bundle before him with both +hands. + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIV. + +MR. MEADOWS went to the bank--into the parlor--and said he must draw +seven thousand pounds of cash and securities. The partners look blank. + +"I know," said Meadows, "I should cripple you. Well, I am not going +to, nor let any one else--it would not suit my book. Just hand me the +securities and let me make over that sum to George Fielding and Thomas +Robinson. There! now for some months to come those two men are not to +know how rich they are, in fact not till I tell them." A very ready +consent to this was given by both partners; I am afraid I might say an +eager consent. + +"There! now I feel another man, that is off me anyway," and Meadows +strode home double the man. Soon his new top-boots were on, and his new +dark blue coat with flat double-gilt buttons, and his hat broadish +in the brim, and he looked the model of a British yeoman; he reached +Grassmere before eleven o'clock. It was to be a very quiet wedding, but +the bridesmaids, etc., were there, and Susan all in white, pale but very +lovely. Father-in-law cracking jokes, Susan writhing under them. + +"Now, then, is it to be a wedding without bells, for I hear none?" + +"That it shall not," cried one of the young men; and off they ran to the +church. + +Meantime Meadows was the life and soul of the mirthful scene. He was in +a violent excitement that passed with the rustics for gayety natural to +the occasion. They did not notice his anxious glances up the hill that +led to Newborough; his eager and repeated looks at his watch, the sigh +of relief when the church-bells pealed out, the tremors of impatience, +the struggle to appear cool as he sent one to hurry the clerk, another +to tell the clergyman the bride was ready; the stamp of the foot when +one of the bridesmaids took ten minutes to tie on a bonnet. He walked +arm in arm, with Susan waiting for this girl; at last she was ready. +Then came one running to say that the parson was not come home yet. What +it cost him not to swear at the parson with Susan on his arm and the +church in sight! + +While he was thus fuming inwardly, a handsome, dark-eyed youth came up +and inquired which was the bride. She was pointed out to him. "A letter +for you, Miss Merton." + +"For me? Who from?" + +She glanced at the handwriting, and Meadows looked keenly in the boy's +face. "A Jew," said he to himself. "Susan, you have got your gloves on." +And in a moment he took the letter from her, but quietly, and opened it +as if to return it to her to read. He glanced down it, saw "Jefferies, +postmaster," and at the bottom "Isaac Levi." With wonderful presence +of mind he tore it in pieces. "An insult, Susan," he cried. "A mean, +malignant insult to set you against me--a wife against her husband." + +Ere the words were out of his mouth he seized the young Jew and whirled +him like a feather into the hands of his friends. "Duck him!" cried he. +And in a moment, spite of his remonstrances and attempts at explanation, +Nathan was flung into the horse-pond. He struggled out on the other +side, and stood on the bank in a stupor of rage and terror, while the +bridegroom menaced him with another dose, should he venture to return. +"I will tell you all about it to-morrow, Susan." + +"Calm yourself," replied Susan. "I know you have enemies, but why punish +a messenger for the letter he only carries?" + +"You are an angel, Susan. Boys, let him alone, do you hear?" N. B. He +had been ducked. + +And now a loud hurrah was heard from behind the church. "The parson, +at last," cried Meadows, exultingly. Susan lowered her eyes, and hated +herself for the shiver that passed through her. To her the parson was +the executioner. + +It was not the parson. The next moment two figures came round in sight. +Meadows turned away with a groan. "George Fielding!" said he. The words +dropped, as it were, out of his mouth. + +Susan misunderstood this. She thought he read her heart, and ascribed +her repugnance to her lingering attachment to George. She was angry with +herself for letting this worthy man see her want of pride. "Why do you +mention that name to me? What do I care for him who has deceived me? I +wish he stood at the church door, that he might see how I would look at +him and pass him leaning on your faithful arm." + +"Susan!" cried a well-known voice behind her. She trembled and almost +crouched ere she turned; but the moment she turned round she gave +a scream that brought all the company running, and the bride forgot +everything at the sight of George's handsome, honest face beaming truth +and love, and threw herself into his arms. George kissed the bride. + +"Oh!" cried the bridesmaids, awaking from their stupor, and remembering +this was her old lover. "Oh!" "Oh!!" "Oh!!!" on an ascending scale. + +These exclamations brought Susan to her senses. She sprang from George +as though an adder had stung her; and, red as fire, her eyes like +basilisks', she turned on him at a safe distance. "How dare you embrace +me? How dare you come where I am? Father, ask this man why he comes here +now to make me expose myself, and insult the honest man who honors me +with his respect. Oh, father, come to me, and take me away from here." + +"Susan, what on earth is this? what have I done?" + +"What have you done? You are false to me! you never wrote me a letter +for twelve months, and you are married to a lady in Bathurst! Oh, +George!" + +"If he is," cried Robinson, "he must be slyer than I give him credit +for, for I have never left his side night nor day, and I never saw him +say three civil words to a woman." + +"Mr. Robinson!" + +"Yes, Mr. Robinson. Somebody has been making a fool of you, Miss Merton. +Why, all his cry night and day has been, 'Susan! Susan!' When we found +the great nugget he kisses it, and says he, 'There, that is not because +you are gold, but because you take me to Susan.'" + +"Hold your tongue, Tom," said George, sternly. "Who puts me on my +defense? Is there any man here who has been telling her I have ever had +a thought of any girl but her? If there is, let him stand out now and +say it to my face if he dares." There was a dead silence. "There is a +lie without a backer, it seems;" and he looked round on all the company +with his calm superior eye. "And now, Susan, what were you doing on that +man's arm?" + +"Oh!" + +"Miss Merton and I are to be married to-day," said Meadows, "that is why +I gave her my arm." + +George gasped for breath, but he controlled himself by a mighty effort. +"She thought me false, and now she knows I am true. Susan," faltered he, +"I say nothing about the promises that have passed between us two, and +the ring you gave. Here it is." + +"He has kept my ring!" + +"I was there before you, Mr. Meadows--but I won't stand upon that; I +don't believe there is a man in the world loves a woman in the world +better than I love Susan; but still I would not give a snap of the +finger to have her if her will was toward another. So please yourself, +my lass, and don't cry like that; only this must end. I won't live in +doubt a moment, no, nor half a moment. Speak your pleasure and nothing +else; choose between John Meadows and George Fielding." + +"That is fair," cried one of the bridegrooms. The women secretly admired +George. This is a man, thought they--won't stand our nonsense. + +Susan looked up in mute astonishment. "What choice can there be? The +moment I saw your face, and truth still shining in it, I forgot there +was a John Meadows in the world!" + +With these words Susan cast a terrified look all round, and, losing +every other feeling in a paroxysm of shame, hid her burning face in her +hands, and made a sudden bolt into the house and upstairs to her room, +where she was followed and discovered by one of her bridesmaids tearing +off her wedding-clothes, and laughing and crying all in a breath. + +1st Bridegroom. "Well, Josh, what d'ye think?" + +2d Bridegroom. "Why, I think there won't be a wedding to-day." + +1st Bridegroom. "No, nor to-morrow neither. Sal, put on your bonnet and +let's you and I go home. I came to Meadows' wedding; mustn't stay to +anybody's else's." + +These remarks were delivered openly, _pro bono,_ and dissolved the +wedding party. Four principal parties remained--Meadows, old Merton, and +the two friends. + +"Well, uncle, Susan has spoken her mind, now you speak yours." + +"George, I have been an imprudent fool, I am on the brink of ruin. I owe +more than two thousand pounds. We heard you had changed your mind, and +Meadows came forward like a man, and said he would--" + +"Your word, uncle, your promise. I crossed the seas on the faith of it." +An upper window was gently opened, and a blushing face listened, and the +hand that they were all discussing and disposing of drew back a little +curtain, and clutched it convulsively. + +"You did, George," said the old farmer. + +"Says you, 'Bring back a thousand pounds to show me you are not a fool, +and you shall have my daughter,' and she was to have your blessing. Am I +right, Mr. Meadows? you were present." + +"Those were the words," replied Meadows. + +"Well! and have you brought back the thousand pounds?" + +"I have." + +"John, I must stand to my word; and I will--it is justice. Take the +girl, and be as happy as you can with her, and her father in the +work-house." + +"I take her, and that is as much as to say that neither her father nor +any one she respects shall go to the workhouse. How much is my share, +Tom?" + +"Four thousand pounds." + +"No, not so much." + +"Yes, it is. Jacky gave you his share of the great nugget, and you gave +him sheep in return. Here they are, lads and lasses, seventy of them +varying from one five six naught to one six two nine, and all as crimp +as a muslin gown new starched. Why? I never put this," and he took +pieces of newspaper out of his pocketbook, and looked stupidly at each +as it came out. + +"Why, Tom?" + +"Robbed!" + +"Robbed, Tom?" + +"Robbed! oh! I put the book under my pillow, and there I found it this +morning. Robbed! robbed! Kill me, George, I have ruined you." + +"I can't speak," gasped George. "Oh, what is the meaning of this?" + +"But I can speak! Don't tell me of a London thief being robbed!!! George +Fielding, if you are a man at all, go and leave me and my daughter in +peace. If you had come home with money to keep her, I was ready to give +you Susan to my own ruin. Now it is your turn to show yourself the right +stuff. My daughter has given her hand to a man who can make a lady of +her, and set me on my legs again. You can only beggar us. Don't stand in +the poor girl's light; for pity's sake, George, leave us in peace." + +"You are right, old man; my head is confused;" and George put his hand +feebly to his brow. "But I seem to see it is my duty to go, and I'll +go." George staggered. Robinson made toward him to support him. "There, +don't make a fuss with me. There is nothing the matter with me--only my +heart is dead. Let me sit on this bench and draw my breath a minute--and +then--I'll go. Give me your hand, Tom. Never heed their jibes. I'd trust +you with more gold than the best of them was ever worth." + +Robinson began to blubber the moment George took his hand, spite of +the money lost. "We worked hard for it, too, good folks, and risked our +lives as well as our toil;" and George and Robinson sat hand in hand +upon the bench, and turned their heads away--that it was pitiful to see. + +But still the pair held one another by the hand, and George said, +faltering: "I have got this left me still. Ay, I have heard say that +friendship was better than love, and I dare say so it is." + +As if to plead against this verdict, Susan came timidly to her lover in +his sorrow, and sat on his other side, and laid her head gently on his +shoulder. "What signifies money to us two?" she murmured. "Oh, I have +been robbed of what was dearer than life this bitter year, and now +you are down-hearted at loss of money. How foolish to grieve for such +nonsense when I am so hap--hap--happy!" and again the lovely face rested +light as down on George's shoulder, weeping deliciously. + +"It is hard, Tom," gasped George; "it is bitter hard; but I shall find a +little bit of manhood by and by to do my duty. Give me breath! only give +me breath! We will go back again where we came from, Tom; only I shall +have nothing to work for now. Where is William, if you please? Has he +forgotten me, too?" + +"William is in prison for debt," said old Merton, gravely. + +"No, he is not," put in Meadows, "for I sent the money to let him out an +hour ago." + +"You sent the money to let my brother out of jail? That sounds queer to +me. I suppose I ought to thank you, but I can't." + +"I don't ask your thanks, young man." + +"You see, George," said old Merton, "ours is a poor family, and it will +be a great thing for us all to have such a man as Mr. Meadows in it, if +you will only let us." + +"Oh, father, you make me blush," cried Susan, beginning to get her first +glimpse of his character. + +"He doesn't make me blush," cried George; "but he makes me sick. This +old man would make me walk out of heaven if he was in it. Come, let us +go back to Australia." + +"Ay, that is the best thing you can do," cried old Merton. + +"If he does, I shall go with him," said Susan, with sudden calmness. She +added, dropping her voice, "If he thinks me worthy to go anywhere with +him." + +"You are worthy of better than that, and better shall be your luck;" and +George sat down on the bench with one bitter sob that seemed to tear his +manly heart in two. + +There was a time Meadows would have melted at this sad sight, but now +it enraged him. He whispered fiercely to old Merton: "Touch him on his +pride; get rid of him, and your debts shall be all paid that hour; if +not--" He then turned to that heart-stricken trio, touched his hat, +"Good-day, all the company," said he, and strode away with rage in his +heart to set the law in motion against old Merton, and so drive matters +to a point. + +But before he had taken a dozen steps he was met by two men who planted +themselves right before him. "You can't pass, sir." + +Meadows looked at them with humorous surprise. They had hooked noses. He +did not like that so well. + +"Why not?" said he, quietly, but with a wicked look. + +One of the men whistled, a man popped out of the churchyard and joined +the two; he had a hooked nose. Another came through the gate from the +lane; another from behind the house. The scene kept quietly filling with +hooked noses till it seemed as if the ten tribes were reassembling from +the four winds. + +"Are they going to pitch into me?" thought Meadows; and he felt in his +pocket to see if his pistol was there. + +Meantime, George and Susan and Tom rose to their feet in some +astonishment. + +"There is a chentleman coming to put a question or two," said the first +speaker. And, in fact, an old acquaintance of ours, Mr. Williams, came +riding up, and, hooking his horse to the gate, came in, saying, "Oh, +here you are, Mr. Meadows. There is a ridiculous charge brought against +you, but I am obliged to hear it before dismissing it. Give me a +seat. Oh, here is a bench. It is very hot. I am informed that two men +belonging to this place have been robbed of seven thousand pounds at the +'King's Head'--the 'King's Heads in Newborough." + +"It is true, sir," cried Robinson, "but how did you know?" + +"I am here to _ask_ questions," was the sharp answer. "Who are you?" + +"Thomas Robinson." + +"Which is George Fielding?" + +"I am George Fielding, sir. + +"Have you been robbed?" + +"We have, sir." + +"Of how much?" + +"Seven thousand pounds." + +"Come, that tallies with the old gentleman's account. Hum! where did you +sleep last night, Mr. Meadows?" + +"At the 'King's Head' in Newborough, sir," replied Meadows, without any +visible hesitation. + +"Well, that is curious, but I need not say I don't believe it is more +than coincidence. Where is the old gentleman? Oh! give way there, and +let him come here." + +Now all this was inexplicable to Meadows, but still it brought a deadly +chill of vague apprehension over him. He felt as if a huge gossamer +net was closing round him. Another moment the only spider capable of +spinning it stood in front of him. "I thought so," dropped from his lips +as Isaac Levi and he stood once more face to face. + +"I accuse that man of the theft. Nathan and I heard him tell Crawley +that he had drugged the young man's liquor and stolen the notes. Then +we heard Crawley beg for the notes, and after much entreaty he gave them +him." + +"It is true!" cried Robinson, in violent agitation; "it must be true. +You know what a light sleeper I am, and how often you had to shake me +this morning. I was hocussed and no mistake!" + +"Silence!" + +"Yes, your worship." + +"Where were you, Mr. Levi, to hear all this?" + +"In the east room of my house." + +"And where was he?" + +"In the west room of his house." + +"It is impossible." + +"Say not so, sir. I will show you it is true. Meantime I will explain +it." + +He explained his contrivance at full. Meadows hung his head; he saw how +terribly the subtle Oriental had outwitted him; yet his presence of mind +never for a moment deserted him. + +"Sir," said he, "I have had the misfortune to offend Mr. Levi, and he +is my sworn enemy. If you really mean to go into this ridiculous +affair, allow me to bring witnesses, and I will prove to you he has been +threatening vengeance against me these two years--and you know a lie is +not much to a Jew. Does this appear likely? I am worth sixty thousand +pounds--why should I steal?" + +"Why, indeed?" said Mr. Williams. "I stole these notes to give them +away--that is your story, is it?" + +"Nay, you stole them to beggar your rival, whose letters to the +maiden he loved you had intercepted by fraud at the post-office in +Farnborough." Susan and George uttered an exclamation at the same +moment. "But, having stole them, you gave them to Crawley." + +"How generous!" sneered Meadows. "Well, when you find Crawley with seven +thousand pounds, and he says I gave them him, Mr. Williams will take +your word against mine, and not till then, I think." + +"Certainly not--the most respectable man for miles round!" + +"So be it," retorted Isaac, coolly; "Nathan, bring Crawley." At +that unexpected word, Meadows looked round for a way to escape. The +hooked-nosed ones hemmed him in. Crawley was brought out of the fly, +quaking with fear. + +"Sir," said Levi, "if in that man's bosom, on the left-hand side, the +missing notes are not found, let me suffer scorn; but, if they be found, +give us justice on the evil-doer." + +The constable searched Crawley amid the intense anxiety of all present. +He found a bundle of notes. There was a universal cry. + +"Stop, sir!" said Robinson, "to make sure I will describe our +property--seventy notes of one hundred pounds each. Numbers one five six +naught to one six two nine." + +Mr. Williams examined the bundle, and at once handed them over to +Robinson, who shoved them hastily into George's hands and danced for +joy. + +Mr. Williams looked ruefully at Meadows, then he hesitated; then, +turning sharply to Crawley, he said, "Where did you get these?" + +Meadows tried to catch his eye and prevail on him to say nothing; but +Crawley, who had not heard Levi's evidence, made sure of saving himself +by means of Meadows' reputation. + +"I had them from Mr. Meadows," he cried; "and what about it? it is not +the first time he has trusted me with much larger sums than that." + +"Oh! you had them from Mr. Meadows?" + +"Yes, I had!" + +"Mr. Meadows, I am sorry to say I must commit you; but I still hope you +will clear yourself elsewhere." + +"I have not the least uneasiness about that, sir, thank you. You will +admit me to bail, of course?" + +"Impossible! Wood, here is a warrant, I will sign it." + +While the magistrate was signing the warrant, Meadows' head fell upon +his breast; he seemed to collapse standing. + +Isaac Levi eyed him scornfully. "You had no mercy on the old Jew. You +took his house from him, not for your need but for hate. So he made that +house a trap and caught you in your villainy." + +"Yes! you have caught me," cried Meadows, "but you will never cage +me!" and in a moment his pistol was at his own temple and he pulled +the trigger--the cap failed; he pulled the other trigger, the other cap +failed. He gave a yell like a wounded tiger, and stood at bay gnashing +his teeth with rage and despair. Half a dozen men threw themselves upon +him, and a struggle ensued that almost baffles description. He dragged +those six men about up and down, some clinging to his legs, some to his +body. He whirled nearly every one of them to the ground in turn; and, +when by pulling at his legs they got him down, he fought like a badger +on his back, seized two by the throat, and putting his feet under +another drove him into the air doubled up like a ball, and he fell on +Levi and sent the old man into Mr. Williams' arms, who sat down with a +Jew in his lap, to the derangement of his magisterial dignity. + +At last he was mastered, and his hands tied behind him with two +handkerchiefs. + +"Take the rascal to jail!" cried Williams, in a passion. Meadows +groaned. "Ay! take me," said he, "you can't make me live there. I've +lived respected all these years, and now I shall be called a felon. Take +me where I may hide my head and die!" and the wretched man moved away +with feeble steps, his strength and spirit crushed now his hands were +tied. + +Then Crawley followed him, abusing and reviling him. "So this is the +end of all your maneuvering! Oh, what a fool I was to side with such +a bungler as you against Mr. Levi. Here am I, an innocent man, ruined +through knowing a thief--ah! you don't like that word, but what else are +you but a thief?" and so he followed his late idol and heaped reproaches +and insults on him, till at last Meadows turned round and cast a vague +look of mute despair, as much as to say, "How am I fallen, when this can +trample me!" + +One of the company saw this look and understood it. Yielding to an +impulse he took three steps, and laid his hand on Crawley. "Ye little +snake," said he, "let the man alone!" and he sent Crawley spinning like +a teetotum; then turned on his own heel and came away, looking a little +red and ashamed of what he had done. My reader shall guess which of the +company this was. + +Half way to the county jail Meadows and Crawley met William Fielding +coming back. + +It took hours and hours to realize all the happiness that had fallen on +two loving hearts. First had to pass away many a spasm of terror at the +wrongs they had suffered, the danger they had escaped, the long misery +they had grazed. They remained rooted to the narrow spot of ground where +such great and strange events had passed in a few minutes, and their +destinies had fluctuated so violently, and all ended in joy unspeakable. +And everybody put questions to everybody, and all compared notes, and +the hours fled while they unraveled their own strange story. And Susan +and George almost worshipped Isaac Levi; and Susan kissed him and called +him her father, and hung upon his neck all gratitude. And he passed his +hand over her chestnut hair, and said, "Go to, foolish child," but +his deep rich voice trembled a little, and wonderful tenderness and +benevolence glistened in that fiery eye. + +He would now have left them, but nobody there would part with him; +behooved him to stay and eat fish and pudding with them--the meat they +would excuse him if he would be good and not talk about going again. And +after dinner George and Tom must tell their whole story; and, as they +told their eventful lives, it was observed that the hearers were far +more agitated than the narrators. The latter had been in a gold mine; +had supped so full of adventures and crimes and horrors that nothing +astonished them, and they were made sensible of the tremendous scenes +they had been through by the loud ejaculations, the pallor, the +excitement of their hearers. As for Susan, again and again during the +men's narratives the tears streamed down her face, and once she was +taken faint at George's peril, and the story had to be interrupted and +water sprinkled on her, and the men in their innocence were for not +going on with their part, but she peremptorily insisted, and sneered at +them for being so foolish as to take any notice of her foolishness--she +would have every word. After all was he not there alive and well, sent +back to her safe after so many perils, never, never to leave England +again! + +"Oh, giorno felice!" A day to be imagined; or described by a pen a +thousand times greater and subtler than mine, but of this be sure--it +was a day such as, neither to Susan nor George, nor to you nor me, nor +to any man or woman upon earth, has ever come twice between the cradle +and the grave. + + + +CHAPTER LXXXV. + +A MONTH of Elysium. And then one day George asked Susan, plump, when it +would be agreeable to her to marry him. + +"Marry you, George?" replied Susan, opening her eyes; "why, never! I +shall never marry any one after--you must be well aware of that." Susan +proceeded to inform George, that, though foolishness was a part of her +character, selfishness was not; recent events had destroyed an agreeable +delusion under which she had imagined herself worthy to be Mrs. George +Fielding; she therefore, though with some reluctance, intended to resign +that situation to some wiser and better woman than she had turned out. +In this agreeable resolution she persisted, varying it occasionally with +little showers of tears unaccompanied by the slightest convulsion of +the muscles of the face. But, as I am not, like George Fielding, in +love with Susan Merton, or with self-deception (another's), I spare the +reader all the pretty things this young lady said and believed and did, +to postpone her inevitable happiness. Yes, inevitable, for this sort of +thing never yet kept lovers long apart since the world was, except in a +novel worse than common. I will but relate how that fine fellow, George, +dried "these foolish drops" on one occasion. + +"Susan," said he, "if I had found you going to be married to another man +with the roses on your cheek, I should have turned on my heel and back +to Australia. But a look in your face was enough; you were miserable, +and any old fool could see your heart was dead against it; look at you +now blooming like a rose, so what is the use of us two fighting against +human nature? we can't be happy apart--let us come together." + +"Ah! George, if I thought your happiness depended on having--a foolish +wife--" + +"Why, you know it does," replied the inadvertent Agricola. + +"That alters the case; sooner than _you_ should be unhappy--I +think--I--" + +"Name the day, then." + +In short the bells rang a merry peal, and to reconcile Susan to her +unavoidable happiness, Mr. Eden came down and gave an additional weight +(in her way of viewing things) to the marriage ceremony by officiating. +It must be owned that this favorable circumstance cost her a few tears, +too. + +How so, Mr. Reade? + +Marry, sir, thus: Mr. Eden was what they call eccentric; among his other +deviations from usage he delivered the meaning of sentences in church +along with the words. + +This was a thunder-clap to poor Susan. She had often heard a chanting +machine utter the marriage service all on one note, and heard it with +a certain smile of unintelligent complacency her sex wear out of +politeness; but when the man Eden told her at the altar with simple +earnestness what a high and deep and solemn contract she was making +then and there with God and man, she began to cry, and wept like April +through the ceremony. + +I have not quite done with this pair, but leave them a few minutes, for +some words are due to other characters, and to none, I think, more +than to this very Mr. Eden, whose zeal and wisdom brought our hero and +unheroine happily together through the subtle sequence of causes I have +related, the prime thread a converted thief. + +Mr. Eden's strength broke down under the prodigious effort to defeat the +effect of separate confinement on the bodies and souls of his prisoners. +Dr. Gulson ordered him abroad. Having now since the removal of Hawes +given the separate and silent system a long and impartial trial, his +last public act was to write at the foot of his report a solemn protest +against it, as an impious and mad attempt to defy God's will as written +on the face of man's nature--to crush too those very instincts +from which rise communities, cities, laws, prisons, churches, +civilization--and to wreck souls and bodies under pretense of curing +souls, not by knowledge, wisdom, patience, Christian love, or any great +moral effort, but by the easy and physical expedient of turning one key +on each prisoner instead of on a score. + +"These," said Mr. Eden, "are the dreams of selfish, lazy, heartless +dunces and reckless bigots, dwarf Robespierres, with self-deceiving +hearts that dream philanthropy, fluent lips that cant philanthropy and +hands swift to shed blood--which is not blood to them--because they +are mere sensual brutes, so low in intelligence that, although men +are murdered and die before their eyes, they cannot see it was murder, +because there was no knocking on the head or cutting of throats." + +The reverend gentleman then formally washed his hands of the bloodshed +and reason-shed of the separate system, and resigned his office, +earnestly requesting at the same time that, as soon as the government +should come round to his opinion, they would permit him to co-operate +in any enlightened experiment where God should no longer be defied by a +knot of worms as in ---- Jail. + +Then he went abroad, but though professedly hunting health he visited +and inspected half the principal prisons in Europe. After many months +events justified his prediction. The government started a large prison +on common sense and humanity, and Mr. Lacy's interest procured Mr. Eden +the place of its chaplain. + +This prison was what every prison in the English provinces will be in +five years' time--a well-ordered community, an epitome of the world at +large, for which a prison is to prepare men, not unfit them as frenzied +dunces would do; it was also a self-sustaining community, like +the world. The prisoners ate prisoner-grown corn and meat, wore +prisoner-made clothes and bedding, wire lighted by gas made in the +prison, etc., etc., etc., etc. The agricultural laborers had out-door +work suited to their future destiny, and mechanical trades were +zealously ransacked for the city rogues. Anti-theft reigned triumphant. +No idleness, no wicked waste of sweat. + +The members of this community sleep in separate cells, as men do in +other well-ordered communities, but they do not pine and wither and die +in cells for offenses committee outside the prison walls. Here, if you +see a man caged like a wild beast all day, you may be sure he is there, +not so much for his own good as for that of the little community in +which he has proved himself unworthy to mix _pro tem._ Foul language +and contamination are checkmated here, not by the lazy, selfish, +cruel expedient of universal solitude, but by Argus-like surveillance. +Officers, sufficient in number, listen with sharp ears, and look with +keen eyes. The contaminator is sure to be seized and confined till +prudence, if not virtue, ties his tongue. Thus he is disarmed, and +the better-disposed encourage one another. Compare this legitimate and +necessary use of that most terrible of tortures, the cell, with the +tigro-asinine use of it in seven English prisons out of nine at the +present date. It is just the difference between arsenic as used by +a good physician and by a poisoner. It is the difference between a +razor-bladed, needle-pointed knife in the hands of a Christian, a +philosopher, a skilled surgeon, and the same knife in the hands of a +savage, a brute, a scoundrel, or a fanatical idiot. + +Mr. Eden had returned from abroad but a fortnight when he was called on +to unite George and Susan. + +I have little more to add than that he was very hard worked and +supremely happy in his new situation, and that I have failed to do him +justice in these pages. But he shall have justice one day, when pitiless +asses will find themselves more foul in the eyes of the All-pure than +the thieves they crushed under four walls, and "The just shall shine +forth as the sun, and they that turn* many to righteousness as the stars +forever and ever." + + * Not crush. + +Thomas Robinson did not stay long at Grassmere. Things were said in the +village that wounded him. Ill-repute will not stop directly ill-conduct +does. He went to see Mr. Eden, sent his name in as Mr. Sinclair, was +received with open arms, and gave the good man a glow of happiness such +as most of us, I fear, go to the grave without feeling--or earning. He +presented him a massive gold ring he had hammered out of a nugget. +Mr. Eden had never worn a ring in his life, but he wore this with an +innocent pride, and showed it people, and valued it more than he would +the Pitt diamond, which a French king bought of an English subject, and +the price was so heavy he paid for it by installments spread over many +years. + +Robinson very wisely went back to Australia, and, more wisely still, +married Jenny, with whom he had corresponded ever since he left her. + +I have no fear he will ever break the Eighth Commandment again. His +heart was touched long ago, and ever since then his understanding had +received conviction upon conviction; for, oh, the blaze of light that +enters our souls when our fate puts us in his place--in her place--in +their place--whom we used to strike, never realizing how it hurt them! +He is respected for his intelligence and good-nature; he is sober, +industrious, pushing and punctilious in business. One trait of the +Bohemian remains. About every four months a restlessness comes over him; +then the wise Jenny of her own accord proposes a trip. Poor Tom's eyes +sparkle directly; off they go together. A foolish wife would have made +him go alone. They come back, and my lord goes to his duties with fresh +zest till the periodical fit comes again. No harm ever comes of it. + +Servants are at a great premium, masters at a discount, in the colony; +hence a domestic phenomenon, which my English readers can hardly +conceive, but I am told my American friends have a faint glimpse of it +in the occasional deportment of their "helps" in out-of-the-way places. + +Now Tom, and especially Jenny, had looked forward to reigning in +their own house, and it was therefore a disappointment when they found +themselves snubbed and treated with hauteur, and Jenny revolted against +servant after servant, who straightway abdicated and left her forlorn. +At last their advertisement was answered by a male candidate for menial +authority, who proved to be Mr. Miles, their late master. Tom and Jenny +colored up, and both agreed it was out of the question--they should feel +too ashamed. Mr. Miles answered by offering to bet a crown he should +make them the best servant in the street; and, strange to say, the +bargain was struck and he did turn out a model servant. He was civil +and respectful, especially in public, and never abused his situation. +Comparing his conduct with his predecessors', it really appeared that a +gentleman can beat snobs in various relations of life. As Tom's master +and Jenny's, he had never descended to servility, nor was he betrayed +into arrogance now that he had risen to be their servant. + +A word about Jacky. After the meal off the scented rabbit in the +bush, Robinson said slyly to George: "I thought you promised Jacky a +hiding--well, here he is." + +"Now, Tom," replied the other, coloring up, "is it reasonable, and he +has just saved our two lives? but if you think that I won't take him to +task, you are much mistaken." + +George then remonstrated with the chief for spoiling Abner with his +tomahawk. Jacky opened his eyes with astonishment and admiration. Here +was another instance of the white fellow's wonderful power of seeing +things a good way behind him. He half closed his eyes, and tried in +humble imitation to peer back into the past. Yes! he could just manage +to see himself very indistinctly giving Abner a crack; but stop! let him +see, it was impossible to be positive, but was not there also some small +trifle of insolence, ingratitude, and above all bungality, on the part +of this Abner? When the distance had become too great to see the whole +of a transaction, why strain the eyes looking at a part? Finally Jacky +submitted that these microscopic researches cost a good deal of trouble, +and on the whole his tribe were wiser than the white fellows in this, +that they reveled in the present, and looked on the past as a period +that never had been, and the future as one that never would be. On this +George resigned the moral culture of his friend. "Soil is not altogether +bad," said Agricola, "but, bless your heart, it isn't a quarter of an +inch deep." + +On George's departure, Jacky, being under the temporary impression of +his words, collected together a mixed company of blacks, and marched +them to his possessions. Arrived, he harangued them on the cleverness of +the white fellows, and invited them to play at Europeans. + +"Behold this ingenious structure," said he, in Australian; "this is +called a house; its use is to protect us from the weather at night; all +you have to do is to notice which way the wind blows, and go and lie +down on the opposite side of the house and there you are. Then again, +when you are cold, you will find a number of wooden articles in the +house. You go in, you bring them out and burn them and are warm." He +then produced what he had always considered the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the +white races, a box of lucifer matches; this, too, was a present from +George. "See what clever fellows they are," said he, "they carry about +fire, which is fire or not fire at the fortunate possessor's will;" and +he let off a lucifer. These the tribe admired, but doubted whether all +those little sticks had the same marvelous property and would become +fire in the hour of need; Jacky sneered at their incredulity, and let +them all off one by one in a series of preliminary experiments; this +impaired their future usefulness. In short, they settled there; one or +two's heads had to be broken for killing the breeders for dinner, +and that practice stopped; but the pot-bellied youngsters generally +celebrated the birth of a lamb by spearing it. They slept on the lee +side of the house, warmed at night by the chairs and tables, etc., which +they lighted. They got on very nicely, only one fine morning, without +the slightest warning, whir-r-r-r they all went off to the woods, Jacky +and all, and never returned. The remaining bullocks strayed devious, and +the douce McLaughlan blandly absorbed the sheep. + +Hasty and imperfect as my sketch of this Jacky is, give it a place in +your notebook of sketches, for in a few years the Australian savage +will breathe only in these pages, and the Saxon plow will erase his very +grave, his milmeridien. + +brutus lived; but the form and strength he had abused were gone--he is +the shape of a note of interrogation, and by a coincidence is now an +"asker," i.e., he begs, receives alms, and sets on a gang of burglars, +with whom he is in league, to rob the good Christians that show him +pity. + +mephistopheles came suddenly to grief; when gold was found in Victoria +he crossed over to that port and robbed. One day he robbed the tent of +an old man, a native of the colony, who was digging there with his son, +a lad of fifteen. Now these currency lads are very sharp and determined. +The youngster caught a glimpse of the retiring thief and followed +him and saw him enter a tent. He watched at the entrance, and when +mephistopheles came out again, he put a pistol to the man's breast and +shot him dead without a word of remonstrance, accusation or explanation. + +A few diggers ran out of their claims. "If our gold is not on him," says +the youngster, "I have made a mistake." + +The gold was found on the carcass, and the diggers went coolly back to +their work. + +The youngster went directly to the commissioner and told him what he +had done. "I don't see that I am called on to interfere," replied that +functionary; "he was taken in the act; you have buried him, of course." + +"Not I. I let him lie for whoever chose to own him." + +"You let him lie? What, when there is a printed order from the +government stuck over the whole mine that nobody is to leave carrion +about! You go off directly and bury your carrion or you will get +into trouble, young man." And the official's manner became harsh and +threatening. + +If ever a man was "shot like a dog," surely the assassin of Carlo was. + +Mr. Meadows in the prison refused his food, and fell into a deep +depression; but the third day he revived, and fell to scheming again. He +sent to Mr. Levi and offered to give him a long lease of his old house +if he would but be absent from the trial. This was a sore temptation to +the old man. But meantime stronger measures were taken in his defense +and without consulting him. + +One evening that Susan and George were in the garden at Grassmere, +suddenly an old woman came toward them with slow and hesitating steps. +Susan fled at the sight of her--she hated the very name this old woman +bore. George stood his ground, looking sheepish; the old woman stood +before him trembling violently and fighting against her tears. She could +not speak, but held out a letter to him. He took it, the ink was rusty, +it was written twenty years ago; it was from his mother to her neighbor, +Mrs. Meadows, then on a visit at Newborough, telling her how young John +had fought for and protected her against a band of drunken ruffians, and +how grateful she was. + +"And I do hope, dame, he will be as good friends with my lads when they +are men as you and I have been this many a day." + +George did not speak for a long time. He held the letter, and it +trembled a little in his hand. He looked at the old woman, standing +a piteous, silent supplicant. "Mrs. Meadows," said he, scarce above a +whisper, "give me this letter, if you will be so good. I have not got +her handwriting, except our names in the Bible." + +She gave him the letter half reluctantly, and looked fearfully and +inquiringly in his face. He smiled kindly, and a sort of proud curl came +for a moment to his lip, and the woman read the man. This royal rustic +would not have taken the letter if he had not granted the mother's +unspoken prayer. + +"God bless you both!" said she, and went on her way. + +The assizes came, and Meadows' two plaintiffs both were absent: Robinson +gone to Australia, and George forfeited his recognizances and had, to +pay a hundred pound for it. The defendants were freed. Then Isaac Levi +said to himself, "He will not keep faith with me." But he did not know +his man. Meadows had a conscience, though an oblique one. A promise +from him was sacred in his own eyes. A man came to Grassmere and left a +hundred pound in a letter for George Fielding. Then he went on to Levi, +and gave him a parcel and a note. The parcel contained the title-deeds +of the house; and the note said: "Take the house and the furniture and +pay me what you consider they are worth. And, old man, I think you might +take your curse off me, for I have never known a heart at rest since you +laid it on me, and you see now our case is altered--you have a home now +and John Meadows has none." + +Then the old man was softened, and he wrote a line in reply, and said: +"Three just men shall value the house and furniture, and I will pay, +etc., etc. Put now adversity to profit--repent and prosper. Isaac Levi +wishes you no ill from this day, but rather good." Thus died, as mortal +feelings are apt to die, an enmity its owners thought immortal. + +A steam-vessel glided down the Thames bound for Port Phillip. On the +deck were to be seen a little girl crying bitterly--this was Hannah--a +stalwart, yeoman-like figure, who stood unmoved as the shores glided by, + + Omne solum forti patria, + +and an old woman who held his arm as if she needed to feel him at +the moment of leaving her native land. This old woman had hated and +denounced his sins, and there was scarce a point of morality on which +she thoroughly agreed with him. Yet at threescore years and ten she left +her native land with two sole objects--to comfort this stout man, and +win him to repentance. + +"He shall repent," said she to herself. "Even now his eyes are opening, +his heart is softening. Three times he has said to me, 'That George +Fielding is a better man than I am.' He will repent. Again he said to +me, I have thought too little of you, and too much where it was a sin +for me even to look.' He will repent--his voice is softer--he bears no +malice--he blames none but himself. It is never too late to mend. He +will repent, and I shall see him happy and lay my old bones to rest +contented, though not where I thought to lay them, in Grassmere +churchyard." + +Ah, you do well to hold that quaint little old figure with that strong +arm closer to you than you have done this many years, ay, since you +were a curly-headed boy. It is a good sign, John; on neither side of the +equator shall you ever find a friend like her. + + "All other love is mockery and deceit. + 'Tis like the mirage of the desert that appears + A cool refreshing water, and allures + The thirsty traveler, but flies anon + And leaves him disappointed, wondering + So fair a vision should so futile prove. + A mother's love is like unto a well + Sealed and kept secret, a deep-hidden fount + That flows when every other spring is dry."* + + * Sophia Woodrooffe. + +Peter Crawley, left to his own resources, practices at the County Courts +in his old neighborhood, and drinks with all his clients, who are of +the lowest imaginable order. He complains that "he can't peck," yet +continues the cause of his infirmity, living almost entirely upon +cock-a-doodle broth--eggs beat up in brandy and a little water. Like +Scipio, he is never less alone than when alone; with this difference, +that the companions of P. C.'s solitude do not add to the pleasure of +his existence. Unless somebody can make him see that it is never too +late to mend, this little rogue, fool and sot will "shut up like a knife +some day" (so says a medical friend), and then it will be too late. + + +It is nine in the evening. A little party is collected of farmers and +their wives and daughters. Mrs. George Fielding rises and says, "Now I +must go home." Remonstrance of hostess. "George will be at home by now." + +"Well, wait till he comes for you." + +"Oh, he won't come, for fear of shortening my pleasure." + +Susan then explains that George is so foolish that he never will go into +the house when she is not in it. "And here is a drizzle come on, and +there he will be sitting out in it, I know, if I don't go and drive him +in." + +Events justify the prediction. The good wife finds her husband sitting +on the gate kicking his heels quite contented and peaceable, only he +would not pay the house the compliment of going into it when she was not +there. He told her once he looked on it as no better than a coal-hole +when she was not shining up and down it. + +N. B.--They have been some years married. A calm but very tender +conjugal love sits at this innocent hearth. + +George has made a great concession for an Englishman. He has solemnly +deposited before witnesses his sobriquet of "Unlucky George," not (he +was careful to explain) because he found the great nugget, nor because +the meadow he bought in Bathurst for two hundred pounds has just been +sold by Robinson for twelve thousand pounds, but on account of his being +Susan's husband. + +And Susan is very happy. Besides the pleasure of loving and being loved, +she is in her place in creation. The class of women (a very large one) +to which she belongs comes into the world to make others happy. Susan +is skillful at this and very successful. She makes everybody happy round +her, "and that is _so_ pleasant." She makes the man she loves happy, and +that is delightful. + +My reader shall laugh at her; my unfriendly critic shall sneer at her. +As a heroine of a novel she deserves it; but I hope for their own sakes +neither will undervalue the original in their passage through life. +These average women are not the spice of fiction, but they are the salt +of real life. + +William Fielding is godfather to Susan's little boy. + +He can stand by his brother's side and look without compunction on Anne +Fielding's grave, and think without an unmanly shudder of his own. + + +END OF "IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND." + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's It Is Never Too Late to Mend, by Charles Reade + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND *** + +***** This file should be named 4606.txt or 4606.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/0/4606/ + +Produced by James Rusk + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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