"Now, sir, have you any more to say?"
A simple enough question, but when spoken to me sternly before those
present, in my uncle's fierce, military voice, and accompanied by looks
that seemed crushing in their contempt, they were very hard to bear in
that strange silence which followed.
There they all stood and sat about me, while I felt like a prisoner at
the bar before my judge. It was terrible, and I wavered.
Should I speak, and accuse poor, weak, amiable Tom Mercer, and send him
away in disgrace, or should I suffer now, and wait till the truth came
out by and by?
I was deciding on the latter, when I heard a sob which seemed to echo in
my throat, and I looked up quickly from where my eyes had rested on a
particular spot in the pattern of the library carpet, to see my mother's
convulsed face and yearning eyes fixed upon me, as Mrs Doctor stood by
her side, holding her hand quite affectionately.
That look decided me.
"Poor Tom," I said to myself, "I must throw you over for her sake;" and
my lips parted to speak, when my uncle checked me by his stern, harsh
voice.
"Silent! The silence of guilt!" he cried bitterly. "I have--"
"Stop a moment, Seaborough," cried the General. "Let me have a word,
for poor dead Burr's sake. Frank, boy, I've always liked you, and
believed in you, as the bright, manly son of a dear dead friend. Don't
let me go away feeling that I can never trust any one again. I won't
believe it--I can't believe it--that the blood and breed in your young
veins would let you stoop to be a miserable, contemptible thief, and for
the sake of a paltry silver watch. Why, my dear boy, you must have
known that, as soon as you were old enough to want a watch, you could
have had a gold one of the very best. Why, hang it all, sir, for your
father's and mother's sake, I'd have hung you all over watches. Come
now, speak out before us all like a man, and tell us what all this
mystery means. Tell us that you did not steal this watch."
"Why, of course he didn't!" cried a familiar voice, and as I started
round at these hopeful words, which seemed to give me life, I saw Cook
busily tying the strings of her best cap, the one my mother had sent
her, before untying and snatching off her apron, as if she had come to
the library in such a hurry that she had not had time to prepare.
"Cook!" exclaimed Mrs Doctor sternly.
"Oh, yes, ma'am, I know," cried Cook defiantly, as she reached back and
caught somebody's arm just outside the door. "Here, you come in, Polly
'Opley; there's nothing to be ashamed of, my dear. You come in."
Polly Hopley, dressed in her best, suffered herself to be dragged in,
and then, after whispering, "Do adone, do, Cook," began to make bobs and
courtesies to everybody in turn.
"Er--rum!" coughed the Doctor. "My good woman," he cried severely,
"what is the meaning of this intrusion?"
"You may call it what you like, sir," cried Cook sharply; "and you too,
mum," she continued, turning to Mrs Doctor, "and give me my month, or
distant ismissal if you like."
Cook meant to say, "instant dismissal," but she was excited, and, giving
a defiant look round, she went on,--
"I don't care, and I says it's a shame, not alone to keep the poor boy
locked up like a prisoner, and badly fed, as does a growing boy no end
of harm; and I will say it, mum," she continued, turning to my mother,
"as dear and good a boy as ever came into this school, but to go and say
he was a thief, as he couldn't be, sir. You look in his eyes and see."
This to the Doctor, who coughed again.
"My good woman, I must insist upon you leaving the room."
"A moment, Doctor," cried my uncle eagerly; "this person seems to know
something. Stop!"
"I wasn't a-going, sir," said Cook sharply, "not till I've spoke out
what I've come to say."
"Then, for goodness' sake, speak, woman, and go," cried the Doctor
angrily. "We are engaged."
"Which well I know it, sir, and I'm going to speak," said Cook, with
dignity; "and if I'd known before Polly 'Opley--your keeper's wife's
daughter, Sir Orkus," she continued, turning to the General.
"Oh yes, yes, yes, I knew Polly when she was a baby," said the old
gentleman, nodding at the girl, who courtesied to him; "but if you know
anything about this--this terrible affair, speak out."
"Which I will, sir, and if I lose my place, and you do happen to want a
good plain--"
"Cook, Cook, pray speak out," cried Mrs Doctor.
"Which I'm trying to, ma'am, only you all flurry me so. You see I
knowed as Master Burr was shut up, something about some trouble or
scrape--as boys will be boys, and always was, but being busy in my
kidgen, and plenty to do, and the young gentlemen all forbid to say what
it was about, so as I never knowed till this morning, when Polly 'Opley
comes and tells me all about it, as Mr Lomax goes and tells her
father--your keeper, sir--and Polly only this morning, and she never
knowed it before, and then came on and told me something as'll make you
all ashamed of treating a poor boy like that."
"Yes, yes, yes," said my uncle impatiently; "but do you know anything
about the watch?"
"Which I'm telling you, sir," cried Cook, "though not a word did I know
till Polly 'Opley comes just now, when I see it all as plain as
pie-crust, and I says to her, `Polly,' I says, `they're all in the
libery now, and you shall come and tell 'em the whole truth.'"
"Then you know, Polly, my child?" said the General eagerly.
"Yes, Sir Orkus, please, Sir Orkus," said Polly, blushing.
"Then, then, tell us all at once, there's a good girl."
"Yes, Sir Orkus. Not as I ever encouraged him a bit to come to our
cottage."
"Humph!" said the Doctor; "you always bait your trap with sweets to get
the boys to come, girl."
"Please, sir, I didn't mean the young gentlemen, I meant Dick Magglin."
"Eh, what?" cried the General.
"Please, Sir Orkus, if I've ordered him away once, I've done it fifty
times, and father's threatened him and beat him, but he would come."
"What! did he want to marry you?"
"Yes, Sir Orkus, but I wouldn't demean myself to listen to him."
"Of course not! a poaching vagabond. Go on, go on." Every eye was
fixed on Polly, whose cheeks were scarlet, as she gave me a sharp look,
full of encouragement.
"Yes, Sir Orkus, and he was always bringing me his rubbish, and wanting
me to have it, hankychies, and ribbings, and a gilt brooch, as you could
see wasn't gold."
"And you wouldn't take them?"
"No, Sir Orkus, never nothing, and then he said it was because I was too
proud, and thought they wasn't good enough for me, and then he didn't
come any more till one day when he brought me a silver watch."
A curious murmur ran through the room, and my mother ran to my side and
threw her arms about my neck.
"Yes, go on, Polly," said the General, rubbing his hands. "What sort of
a watch was it?"
"A little one, sir, with a fancy face and two letters cut in a round
spot on the back."
"What letters were they?" said the General.
"A Hee and a B, sir."
"Eliezer Burr," said the Doctor loudly. "Hah!" and he took off his
gold-rimmed spectacles, rubbed them, and began to beam.
"Should you--" began my uncle.
"No, no, no, Seaborough; allow me," said the General. "My turn. I was
coming to that. Now, Polly, be careful, and don't say anything rash,
because this is very serious."
"Oh yes, Sir Orkus."
"Dear me, Doctor," said the General apologetically, "I am sorry we have
no h's here."
"Pray go on, Sir Hawkhurst," said the Doctor, smiling, and aspirating
both in the name forcibly.
"Now, Polly, should you know that watch?"
"Oh yes, Sir Orkus; both the hands were together at twelve o'clock, and
the glass was a bit scratched, and I told him I didn't believe he came
by the watch honest, and that if ever he dared to come near the place
again to want me to accept his rubbish, I'd take father's gun down out
of the slings and give him a charge of shot in his legs."
"Then, Polly, you didn't take the watch?"
"Me, Sir Orkus!" cried Polly indignantly; "I should think not, indeed.
I told him to be off, and he went away in a huff."
"In a what?"
"A huff, Sir Orkus, a huff--a passion."
"Oh, I see. And now tell me--be careful. Give me the--the--thank you.
Now, Polly, is that anything like the watch?"
"Oh yes, Sir Orkus, that's the very one. If you open it, you'll hear it
shuts with a very loud snap."
"So it does," said the General, putting it to the test. "And now, tell
me, when was this? You don't recollect?"
"Oh yes, I do, Sir Orkus. It was nex' day after the cricket match,
because I was cleaning my best shoes, as I wore at the match, when he
come."
"Very good, Polly," said the General, rubbing his hands.
"Excellent!" said my uncle; "but that does not prove the man stole it."
"Why, he must have crept along the ditch behind the tent," I cried
involuntarily, "and pushed his arm through. Yes, I know," I said,
getting more excited, as my mother's arm tightened about me. "I saw him
that evening with his face all stung by nettles."
"That ditch is full of nettles," cried Mr Hasnip.
"Good! good!" cried the General.
"But how came the watch hidden in that bin?" cried my uncle sternly.
"I know," said Cook. "Why, of course, he was afraid to keep it; and
it's just like him."
"I do not follow you," said my uncle.
"Why, when he was at work in our garden, my smelling-bottle o' salts was
stolen, and when I made a fuss about it, some one found it hid away
behind the scullery door, where he put it."
"Then you think this man hid it there?" said my uncle.
"I'm sure of it, sir. Why, didn't I catch him one morning early coming
out of the stable, and, `What are you doing there?' I says. `Looking
for the top of my hoe,' he says, `as I left here when I was at work.
Ain't seen it, have you?' he says. `No,' I says, `but I see the
gardener just now coming to work, and I'll call him.' `Never mind,
mum,' he says, and he went off, and nobody's seen him about here since.
Oh, look there! Poor dear!"
I just saved my mother from falling, and she was helped into a chair,
clinging to my hand, though, all the time, as she burst into a
hysterical fit of sobbing. But she calmed down after a few minutes, and
the gentlemen, who had been talking in a low voice earnestly together,
now resumed their places, the Doctor clearing his voice loudly.
"Burr junior," he said in his most magisterial tones, and then he
stopped short, coughed again, blew his nose, and was silent.
"Forgive me, gentlemen," he said at last. "This has been a great
trouble to me--I feel moved--I have painfully hurt the feelings of a
dear, sweet lady, to whom I humbly apologise, and I--I make no
favourites here, but I have wrongfully suspected--but on very strong
evidence, gentlemen," he said, with an appealing look round; "and you
agreed with me, Mr Rebble--Mr Hasnip?"
"Yes, sir. Yes, sir," they murmured.
"Wrongfully suspected a boy to whom my wife and I were warmly attached.
Burr junior--I--er--Frank, my boy, come here!"