_ CHAPTER THIRTY. CHANGES THE SCENE SOMEWHAT VIOLENTLY, AND SHOWS OUR HERO IN A NEW LIGHT
The result of our hero's consultation with the scout was not quite as satisfactory as it might have been. Charlie had hoped that Hunky Ben would have been able to stay with Shank till he should return from the old country, but found, to his regret, that that worthy was engaged to conduct still further into the great western wilderness a party of emigrants who wished to escape the evils of civilisation, and to set up a community of their own which should be founded on righteousness, justice, and temperance.
"You see, sir," said the scout, "I've gi'n them my promise to guide them whenever they're ready to start, so, as they may git ready and call for my services at any moment, I must hold myself free o' other engagements. To say truth, even if they hadn't my promise I'd keep myself free to help 'em, for I've a likin' for the good man--half doctor, half parson as well as Jack-of-all-trades--as has set the thing agoin'--moreover, I've a strong belief that all this fightin', an' scalpin', an' flayin' alive, an roastin', an' revenge, ain't the way to bring about good ends either among Red men or white."
"I agree with you heartily, Ben, though I don't very well see how we are to alter it. However, we must leave the discussion of that difficulty to another time. The question at present is, what hope is there of your staying here even for a short time after I leave? for in Dick Darvall's present condition of mind he is not much to be depended on, and Jackson is too busy. You see, I want Shank to go out on horseback as much as possible, but in this unsettled region and time he would not be safe except in the care of some one who knew the country and its habits, and who had some sort of sympathy with a broken-down man."
"All I can say, Mr Brooke, is that I'll stay wi' your friend as long as I can," returned the scout, "an' when I'm obleeged to make tracks for the west, I'll try to git another man to take my place. Anyhow, I think that Mr Reeves--that's the name o' the good man as wants me an' is boss o' the emigrants--won't be able to git them all ready to start for some weeks yet."
Charlie was obliged to content himself with this arrangement. Next day he was galloping eastward--convoyed part of the way by the scout on Black Polly and Dick Darvall on Wheelbarrow. Soon he got into the region of railways and steam-boats, and, in a few weeks more was once again in Old England.
A post-card announced his arrival, for Charlie had learned wisdom from experience, and feared to take any one "by surprise"--especially his mother.
We need not describe this second meeting of our hero with his kindred and friends. In many respects it resembled the former, when the bad news about Shank came, and there was the same conclave in Mrs Leather's parlour, for old Jacob Crossley happened to be spending a holiday in Sealford at the time.
Indeed he had latterly taken to spending much of his leisure time at that celebrated watering-place, owing, it was supposed, to the beneficial effect which the sea-air had on his rheumatism.
But May Leather knew better. With that discriminating penetration which would seem to be the natural accompaniment of youth and beauty, she discerned that the old gentleman's motive for going so frequently to Sealford was a compound motive.
First, Mr Crossley was getting tired of old bachelorhood, and had at last begun to enjoy ladies' society, especially that of such ladies as Mrs Leather and Mrs Brooke, to say nothing of May herself and Miss Molloy--the worsted reservoir--who had come to reside permanently in the town and who had got the "Blackguard Boy" into blue tights and buttons, to the amazement and confusion of the little dog Scraggy, whose mind was weakened in consequence--so they said. Second, Mr Crossley was remarkably fond of Captain Stride, whom he abused like a pick-pocket and stuck to like a brother, besides playing backgammon with him nightly, to the great satisfaction of the Captain's "missus" and their "little Mag." Third, Mr Crossley had no occasion to attend to business, because business, somehow, attended to itself, and poured its profits perennially into the old gentleman's pocket--a pocket which was never full, because it had a charitable hole in it somewhere which let the cash run out as fast as it ran in. Fourth and last, but not least, Mr Crossley found considerable relief in getting away occasionally from his worthy housekeeper Mrs Bland. This relief, which he styled "letting off the steam" at one time, "brushing away the cobwebs" at another, was invariably followed by a fit of amiability, which resulted in a penitent spirit, and ultimately took him back to town where he remained till Mrs Bland had again piled enough of eccentricity on the safety valve to render another letting off of steam on the sea-shore imperative.
What Charlie learned at the meeting held in reference to the disappearance of old Mr Isaac Leather was not satisfactory. The wretched man had so muddled his brain by constant tippling that it had become a question at last whether he was quite responsible for his actions. In a fit of remorse, after an attack of delirium tremens, he had suddenly condemned himself as being a mean contemptible burden on his poor wife and daughter. Of course both wife and daughter asserted that his mere maintenance was no burden on them at all--as in truth it was not when compared with the intolerable weight of his intemperance-- and they did their best to soothe him. But the idea seemed to have taken firm hold of him, and preyed upon his mind, until at last he left home one morning in a fit of despair, and had not since been heard of.
"Have you no idea, then, where he has gone?" asked Charlie.
"No, none," said Mrs Leather, with a tear trembling in her eye.
"We know, mother," said May, "that he has gone to London. The booking clerk at the station, you know, told us that."
"Did the clerk say to what part of London he booked?"
"No, he could not remember."
"Besides, if he had remembered, that would be but a slight clue," said Mr Crossley. "As well look for a needle in a bundle of hay as for a man in London."
"As well go to sea without rudder or compass," observed Captain Stride.
"Nevertheless," said Charlie, rising, "I will make the attempt."
"Hopeless," said Crossley. "Sheer madness," added Stride. Mrs Leather shook her head and wept gently. Mrs Brooke sighed and cast down her eyes. Miss Molloy--who was of the council, being by that time cognisant of all the family secrets--clasped her hands and looked miserable. Of all that conclave the only one who did not throw cold water on our hero was pretty little brown-eyed May. She cast on him a look of trusting gratitude which blew a long smouldering spark into such a flame that the waters of Niagara in winter would have failed to quench it.
"I can't tell you yet, friends, what I intend to do," said Charlie. "All I can say is that I'm off to London. I shall probably be away some time, but will write to mother occasionally. So good-bye."
He said a good deal more, of course, but that was the gist of it.
May accompanied him to the door.
"Oh! thank you--_thank you_!" she said, with trembling lip and tearful eyes as she held out her hand, "I feel _sure_ that you will find father."
"I think I shall, May. Indeed I also feel sure that I shall--God helping me."
At the ticket office he found that the clerk remembered very little. He knew the old gentleman well by sight, indeed, but was in the habit of selling tickets to so many people that it was impossible for him to remember where they booked to. In fact the only thing that had fixed Mr Leather at all in his memory was the fact that the old man had dropped his ticket, had no money to take another, and had pleaded earnestly to let him have one on trust, a request with which he dared not comply--but fortunately, a porter found and restored the ticket.
"Is the porter you refer to still here?" asked Charlie.
Yes, he was there; and Charlie soon found him. The porter recollected the incident perfectly, for the old gentleman, he said, had made a considerable fuss about the lost ticket.
"And you can't remember the station he went to?"
"No, sir, but I do remember something about his saying he wanted to go to Whitechapel--I think it was--or Whitehall, I forget which, but I'm sure it was white something."
With this very slender clue Charlie Brooke presented himself in due time at Scotland Yard, at which fountain-head of London policedom he gave a graphic account of the missing man and the circumstances attending his disappearance. Thence he went to the headquarters of the London City Mission; introduced himself to a sympathetic secretary there, and was soon put in communication with one of the most intelligent of those valuable self-sacrificing and devoted men who may be styled the salt of the London slums. This good man's district embraced part of Whitechapel.
"I will help you to the extent of my power, Mr Brooke," he said, "but your quest will be a difficult one, perhaps dangerous. How do you propose to go about it?"
"By visiting all the low lodging-houses in Whitechapel first," said Charlie.
"That will take a long time," said the City Missionary, smiling. "Low lodging-houses are somewhat numerous in these parts."
"I am aware of that, Mr Stansfield, and mean to take time," returned our hero promptly. "And what I want of you is to take me into one or two of them, so that I may see something of them while under your guidance. After that I will get their streets and numbers from you, or through you, and will then visit them by myself."
"But, excuse me, my friend," returned the missionary, "your appearance in such places will attract more attention than you might wish, and would interfere with your investigations, besides exposing you to danger, for the very worst characters in London are sometimes to be found in such places. Only men of the police force and we city missionaries can go among them with impunity."
"I have counted the cost, Mr Stansfield, and intend to run the risk; but thank you, all the same, for your well-meant warning. Can you go round one or two this afternoon?"
"I can, with pleasure, and will provide you with as many lodging-house addresses as I can procure. Do you live far from this?"
"No, quite close. A gentleman, who was in your Secretary's office when I called, recommended a small lodging-house kept by a Mrs Butt in the neighbourhood of Flower and Dean Street. You know that region well, I suppose?"
"Ay--intimately; and I know Mrs Butt too--a very respectable woman. Come, then, let us start on our mission."
Accordingly Mr Stansfield introduced his inexperienced friend into two of the principal lodging-houses in that neighbourhood. They merely passed through them, and the missionary, besides commenting on all that they saw, told his new friend where and what to pay for a night's lodging. He also explained the few rules that were connected with those sinks into which the dregs of the metropolitan human family ultimately settle. Then he accompanied Charlie to the door of his new lodging and bade him good-night.
It was a dingy little room in which our hero found himself, having an empty and rusty fire-grate on one side and a window on the other, from which there was visible a landscape of paved court. The foreground of the landscape was a pump, the middle distance a wash-tub, and the background a brick wall, about ten feet distant and fifteen feet high. There was no sky to the landscape, by reason of the next house. The furniture was in keeping with the view.
Observing a small sofa of the last century on its last legs in a corner, Charlie sat down on it and rose again instantly, owing apparently to rheumatic complaints from its legs.
"La! sir," said the landlady, who had followed him into the room, "you don't need to fear anythink. That sofar, sir, 'as bin in my family for three generations. The frame was renoo'd before I was born, an' the legs I 'ad taken off an' noo ones putt on about fifteen year ago last Easter as ever was. My last lodger 'ee went through the bottom of it, w'ich obliged me to 'ave that renoo'd, so it's stronger than ever it were. If you only keep it well shoved up agin the wall, sir, it'll stand a'most any weight--only it won't stand jumpin' on. You mustn't jump on it, sir, with your feet!"
Charlie promised solemnly that he would not jump on it either with his feet or head, and then asked if he could have tea and a fire. On being informed that he could have both, he drew out his purse and said--
"Now, Mrs Butt, I expect to stay here for two or three weeks--perhaps longer. My name is Brooke. I was advised to come here by a gentleman in the offices of the City Mission. I shall have no visitors--being utterly unknown in this neighbourhood--except, perhaps, the missionary who parted from me at the door--"
"Mr Stansfield, sir?" said the landlady.
"Yes. You know him?"
"I've knowed 'im for years, sir. I shall only be too pleased to 'ave any friend of 'is in my 'ouse, I assure you."
"That's well. Now, Mrs Butt, my motive in coming here is to discover a runaway relation--"
"La! sir--a little boy?"
"No, Mrs Butt, a--"
"_Surely_ not a little _gurl_, sir," said the landlady, with a sympathetic expression.
"It is of no consequence what or who the runaway relation is, Mrs Butt; I merely mention the fact in order that you may understand the reason of any little eccentricity you may notice in my conduct, and not perplex your mind about it. For instance, I shall have no regular hours--may be out late or early--it may be even all night. You will give me a pass-key, and I will let myself in. The only thing I will probably ask for will be a cup of tea or coffee. Pray let me have one about an hour hence. I'm going out at present. Here is a week's rent in advance."
"Shall I put on a fire, sir?" asked Mrs Butt.
"Well, yes--you may."
"Toast, sir?"
"Yes, yes," said Charlie, opening the outer door.
"'Ot or cold, sir?"
"'Ot, and _buttered_," cried Charlie, with a laugh, as he shut the door after him and rendered further communication impossible.
Wending his way through the poor streets in the midst of which his lodging was situated, our hero at last found an old-clothes store, which he entered.
"I want a suit of old clothes," he said to the owner, a Jew, who came forward.
The Jew smiled, spread out his hands after the manner of a Frenchman, and said, "My shop, sir, is at your disposal."
After careful inspection Charlie selected a fustian coat of extremely ragged appearance, with trousers to match, also a sealskin vest of a mangy complexion, likewise a soiled and battered billycock hat so shockingly bad that it was difficult to imagine it to have ever had better days at all.
"Are they clean?" he asked.
"Bin baked and fumigated, sir," answered the Jew solemnly.
As the look and smell of the garments gave some countenance to the truth of this statement, Charlie paid the price demanded, had them wrapped up in a green cotton handkerchief, and carried them off.
Arrived at his lodging he let himself in, entered his room, and threw the bundle in a corner. Then he rang for tea.
It was growing dark by that time, but a yellow-cotton blind shut out the prospect, and a cheery fire in the grate lighted up the little room brightly, casting a rich glow on the yellow-white table-cloth, which had been already spread, and creating a feeling of coziness in powerful contrast to the sensation of dreariness which had assailed him on his first entrance. When Mrs Butt had placed a paraffin lamp on the table, with a dark-brown teapot, a thick glass sugar-bowl, a cream-jug to match, and a plate of thick-buttered toast that scented the atmosphere deliciously, our hero thought--not for the first time in his life--that wealth was a delusion, besides being a snare.
"'One wants but little here below,'" he mused, as he glanced round the apartment; "but he wants it longer than _that_," thought he, as his eyes wandered to the ancient sofa, which was obviously eighteen inches too short for him.
"I 'ope you've found 'im, sir," said Mrs Butt anxiously, as she was about to retire.
"Found who?"
"Your relation, sir; the little boy--I mean gurl."
"No, I have found neither the boy nor the girl," returned the lodger sharply. "Haven't even begun to look for them yet."
"Oh! beg parding, sir, I didn't know there was _two_ of 'em."
"Neither are there. There's only one. Fetch me some hot water, Mrs Butt, your tea is _too_ good. I never take it strong."
The landlady retired, and, on returning with the water, found her lodger so deep in a newspaper that she did not venture to interrupt him.
Tea over, Charlie locked his door and clothed himself in his late purchase, which fitted him fairly well, considering that he had measured it only by eye. Putting on the billycock, and tying the green cotton kerchief loosely round his neck to hide his shirt, he stepped in front of the looking-glass above the mantelpiece.
At sight of himself he was prepared to be amused, but he had not expected to be shocked! Yet shocked he certainly was, for the transformation was so complete that it suddenly revealed to him something of the depth of degradation to which he _might_ fall--to which many a man as good as himself, if not better, _had_ fallen. Then amusement rose within him, for he was the very beau-ideal of a typical burglar, or a prize-fighter: big, square-shouldered, deep-chested, large-chinned. The only parts that did not quite correspond to the type were his straight, well-formed nose and his clear blue eyes, but these defects were put right by slightly drooping his eyelids, pushing his billycock a little back on his head, and drawing a lock of hair in a drunken fashion over his forehead.
Suddenly an idea occurred to him. Slipping his latchkey into his pocket he went out of the house and closed the door softly. Then he rang the bell.
"Is the gen'leman at 'ome?" he asked of Mrs Butt, in a gruff, hoarse voice, as if still engaged in a struggle with a bad cold.
"What gentleman?" asked Mrs Butt eyeing him suspiciously.
"W'y, the gen'leman as sent for me to give 'im boxin' lessons--Buck or Book, or some sitch name."
"Brooke, you mean," said Mrs Butt still suspicious, and interposing her solid person in the doorway.
"Ay, that's the cove--the gen'leman I mean came here this arternoon to lodge wi' a Missis Butt or Brute, or suthin' o' that sort--air you Mrs Brute?"
"_Certainly_ not," answered the landlady, with indignation; "but I'm Mrs Butt."
"Well, it's all the same. I ax yer parding for the mistake, but there's sitch a mixin' up o' Brutes an' Brookes, an' Butts an' Bucks, that it comes hard o' a man o' no edication to speak of to take it all in. This gen'leman, Mr Brute, 'e said if 'e was hout w'en I called I was to wait, an' say you was to make tea for two, an' 'ave it laid in the bedroom as 'e'd require the parlour for the mill."
The man's evident knowledge of her lodger's affairs, and his gross stupidity, disarmed Mrs Butt. She would have laughed at his last speech if it had not been for the astounding conclusion. Tea in the bedroom and a mill in the parlour the first night was a degree of eccentricity she had not even conceived of.
"Come in, then, young man," she said, making way. "You'll find Mr Brooke in the parlour at his tea."
The prize-fighter stepped quickly along the dark passage into the parlour, and while the somewhat sluggish Mrs Butt was closing the door she overheard her lodger exclaim--
"Ha! Jem Mace, this is good of you--very good of you--to come so promptly. Mrs Butt," shouting at the parlour door, "another cup and plate for Mr Mace, and--and bring the _ham_!"
"The 'am!" repeated Mrs Butt softly to herself, as she gazed in perplexity round her little kitchen, "_did_ 'e order a 'am?"
Unable to solve the riddle she gave it up and carried in the cup and saucer and plate.
"I beg your parding, sir, you mentioned a 'am," she began, but stopped abruptly on seeing no one there but the prize-fighter standing before the fire in a free-and-easy manner with his hands in his breeches pockets.
The light of the street-lamps had very imperfectly revealed the person of Jem Mace. Now that Mrs Butt saw him slouching in all his native hideousness against her mantelpiece in the full blaze of a paraffin lamp, she inwardly congratulated herself that Mr Brooke was such a big strong man--almost a match, she thought, for Mace!
"I thought you said the gen'leman was in the parlour, Mrs Brute?" said Mace inquiringly.
"So 'e--_was_," answered the perplexed lady, looking round the room; "didn't I 'ear 'im a-shakin' 'ands wi' you, an' a-shoutin' for 'am?"
"Well, Mrs Brute, I dun know what you 'eard; all I know is that I've not seed 'im yet."
"'E must be in the bedroom," said Mrs Butt, with a dazed look.
"No 'e ain't there," returned the prize-fighter; "I've bin all over it-- looked under the bed, into the cupboard, through the key'ole;--p'r'aps," he added, turning quickly, "'e may be up the chimbly!"
The expression on poor Mrs Butt's face now alarmed Charlie, who instantly doffed his billycock and resumed his natural voice and manner.
"Forgive me, Mrs Butt, if I have been somewhat reckless," he said, "in testing my disguise on you. I really had no intention till a few minutes ago of playing such a practical--"
"Well, well, Mr Brooke," broke in the amazed yet amiable creature at this point, "I do assure you as I'd never 'ave know'd you from the worst character in W'itechapel. I wouldn't have trusted you--not with a sixpence. You was born to be a play-actor, sir! I declare that Jem Mace have given me a turn that--But why disguise yourself in this way, Mr Brooke?"
"Because I am going to haunt the low lodging-houses, Mrs Butt and I could not well do that, you know, in the character of a gentleman; and as you have taken it so amiably I'm glad I tried my hand here first, for it will make me feel much more at ease."
"And well it may, sir. I only 'ope it won't get you into trouble, for if the p'leece go lookin' for a burglar, or murderer, or desprit ruffian, where you 'appen to be, they're sure to run you in. The only think I would point out, sir, if I may be so free, is that your 'ands an' face is too clean."
"That is easily remedied," said Charlie, with a laugh, as he stooped and rubbed his hands among the ashes; then, taking a piece of cinder, he made sundry marks on his countenance therewith, which, when judiciously touched in with a little water and some ashes, converted our hero into as thorough a scoundrel as ever walked the streets of London at unseasonable hours of night. _