JASPER LOSELY IN HIS ELEMENT. O YOUNG READER, WHOMSOEVER THOU ART,
ON WHOM NATURE HAS BESTOWED HER MAGNIFICENT GIFT OF PHYSICAL POWER
WITH THE JOYS IT COMMANDS, WITH THE DARING THAT SPRINGS FROM IT--ON
CLOSING THIS CHAPTER, PAUSE A MOMENT, AND THINK "WHAT WILT THOU DO
WITH IT?" SHALL IT BE BRUTE-LIKE OR GOD-LIKE? WITH WHAT ADVANTAGE
FOR LIFE--ITS DELIGHTS OR ITS PERILS-TOILS BORNE WITH EASE, AND
GLORIES CHEAP-BOUGHT--DOST THOU START AT LIFE'S ONSET? GIVE THY
SINEWS A MIND THAT CONCEIVES THE HEROIC, AND WHAT NOBLE THINGS THOU
MAYST DO, BUT VALUE THY SINEWS FOR RUDE STRENGTH ALONE, AND THAT
STRENGTH MAY BE TURNED TO THY SHAME AND THY TORTURE. THE WEALTH OF
THY LIFE WILL BUT TEMPT TO ITS WASTE. ABUSE, AT FIRST FELT NOT,
WILL POISON THE USES OF SENSE. WILD BULLS GORE AND TRAMPLE THEIR
FOES. THOU HAST SOUL! WILT THOU TRAMPLE AND GORE IT?
Jasper Losely, on quitting his father, spent his last coins in payment
for his horse's food, and in fiery drink for himself. In haste he
mounted--in haste he spurred on to London; not even pence for the toll-
bars. Where he found the gates open, he dashed through them headlong;
where closed, as the night advanced, he forced his horse across the
fields over hedge and ditch--more than once the animal falling with him
--more than once thrown from the saddle; for, while a most daring, he was
not a very practised rider; but it was not easy to break bones so strong,
and though bruised and dizzy, he continued his fierce way. At morning
his horse was thoroughly exhausted, and at the first village he reached
after sunrise he left the poor beast at an inn, and succeeded in
borrowing of the landlord L1 on the pawn of the horse thus left as
hostage. Resolved to husband this sum, he performed the rest of his
journey on foot. He reached London at night, and went straight to Cutts'
lodgings. Cutts was, however, in the club-room of those dark associates
against whom Losely had been warned. Oblivious of his solemn promise to
Arabella, Jasper startled the revellers as he stalked into the room, and
towards the chair of honour at the far end of it, on which he had been
accustomed to lord it over the fell groups he had treated out of Poole's
purse. One of the biggest and most redoubted of the Black Family was now
in that seat of dignity, and refusing surlily to yield it at Jasper's
rude summons, was seized by the scruff of the neck, and literally hurled
on the table in front, coming down with clatter and clash amongst mugs
and glasses. Jasper seated himself coolly, while the hubbub began to
swell--and roared for drink. An old man, who served as drawer to these
cavaliers, went out to obey the order; and when he was gone, those near
the door swung across it a heavy bar. Wrath against the domineering
intruder was gathering, and waited but the moment to explode. Jasper,
turning round his bloodshot eyes; saw Cutts within a few chairs of him,
seeking to shrink out of sight.
"Cutts, come hither," cried he, imperiously. Cutts did not stir.
"Throw me that cur this way--you, who sit next him."
"Don't, don't; his mad fit is on him; he will murder me--murder me, who
have helped and saved you all so often. Stand by me."
"We will," said both his neighbours, the one groping for his case-knife,
the other for his revolver.
"Do you fear I should lop your ears, dog," cried Jasper, for shrinking
from my side with your tail between your legs! Pooh! I scorn to waste
force on a thing so small. After all, I am glad you left me; I did not
want you. You will find your horse at an inn in the village of ------.
I will pay for its hire whenever we meet again. Meanwhile, find another
master--I discharge you. /Mille tonnerres!/ why does that weasel-faced
snail not bring me the brandy! By your leave,"--and he appropriated to
himself the brimming glass of his next neighbour. Thus refreshed, he
glanced round through the reek of tobacco smoke; saw the man he had
dislodged, and who, rather amazed than stunned by his fall, had kept
silence on rising, and was now ominously interchanging muttered words
with two of his comrades, who were also on their legs. Jasper turned
from him contemptuously;--with increasing contempt in his hard fierce
sneer, noted the lowering frowns on either side the Pandemonium; and it
was only with an angry flash from his eyes that he marked, on closing his
survey, the bar dropped across the door, and two forms, knife in hand,
stationed at the threshold.
"Aha! my jolly companions," said he then, "you do right to bar the door.
Prudent families can't settle their quarrels too snugly amongst
themselves. I am come here on purpose to give you all a proper scolding,
and if some of you don't hang your heads for shame before I have done,
you'll die more game than I think for, whenever you come to the last
Drop."
He rose as he thus spoke, folding his sinewy arms across his wide chest.
Most of the men had risen too--some, however, remained seated; there
might be eighteen or twenty in all. Every eye was fixed on him, and many
a hand was on a deadly weapon.
"Scum of the earth!" burst forth Jasper, with voice like a roll of
thunder, "I stooped to come amongst you--I shared amongst you my money.
Was any one of you too poor to pay up his club fee--to buy a draught of
Forgetfulness--I said, 'Brother, take!' Did brawl break out in your
jollities--were knives drawn--a throat in danger--this right band struck
down the uproar, crushed back the coward murder. If I did not join in
your rogueries, it was because they were sneaking and pitiful. I came as
your Patron, not as your Pal; I did not meddle with your secrets--did not
touch your plunder. I owed you nothing. Offal that you are! to me you
owed drink, and meat, and good fellowship. I gave you mirth, and I gave
you Law; and in return ye laid a plot amongst you to get rid of me;--how,
ye white-livered scoundrels? Oho! not by those fists, and knives, and
bludgeons. All your pigeon breasts clubbed together had not manhood for
that. But to palm off upon me some dastardly deed of your own; by snares
and scraps of false evidence--false oaths, too, no doubt--to smuggle me
off to the hangman. That was your precious contrivance. Once again I am
here; but this once only. What for?--why, to laugh at, and spit at, and
spurn you. And if one man amongst you has in him an ounce of man's
blood, let him show me the traitors who planned that pitiful project, and
be they a dozen, they shall carry the mark of this hand till their
carcasses go to the surgeon's scalpel."
He ceased. Though each was now hustling the other towards him, and the
whole pack of miscreants was closing up, like hounds round a wild boar at
bay, the only one who gave audible tongue was that thin splinter of life
called Cutts!
"Look you, General Jas., it was all a mistake your ever coining here.
You were a fine fellow once, particularly in the French way of doing
business--large prizes and lots of row. That don't suit us; we are quiet
Englishmen. You brag of beating and bullying the gentlemen who admit you
amongst them, and of not sharing their plans or risks; but that sort of
thing is quite out of order--no precedent for it. How do we know that
you are not a spy, or could not be made one, since you say you owe us
nothing, and hold us in such scorn? Truth is, we are all sick of you.
You say you only come this once: very well, you have spun your yarn--now
go. That's all we want; go in peace, and never trouble us again.
Gentlemen, I move that General Jas. be expelled this club, and requested
to withdraw."
"I second it," said the man whom Jasper had flung on the table.
"Those who are in favour of the resolution, hold up their hands;--all--
carried unanimously. General Jas. is expelled."
"Expel me!" said Jasper, who in the mean while, swaying to and fro his
brawny bulk, had cleared the space round him, and stood resting his hands
on the heavy armchair from which he had risen.
A hostile and simultaneous movement of the group brought four or five of
the foremost on him. Up rose the chair on which Jasper had leaued--up it
rose in his right hand, and two of the assailants fell as falls an ox to
the butcher's blow. With his left hand he wrenched a knife from a third
of the foes, and thus armed with blade and buckler, he sprang on the
table, towering over all. Before him was the man with the revolver, a
genteeler outlaw than the restticket-of-leave man, who had been
transported for forgery. "Shall I shoot him?" whispered this knave to
Cutts. Cutts drew back the hesitating arm. "No; the noise! bludgeons
safer." Pounce, as Cutts whispered--pounce as a hawk on its quarry,
darted Jasper's swoop on the Forger, and the next moment, flinging the
chair in the faces of those who were now swarming up the table, Jasper
was armed with the revolver, which he had clutched from its startled
owner, and its six barrels threatened death, right and left, beside and
before and around him, as he turned from face to face. Instantly there
fell a hush--instantly the assault paused. Every one felt that there no
faltering would make the hand tremble or the ball swerve. Whereever
Jasper turned the foes recoiled. He laughed with audacious mockery as he
surveyed the recreants.
"Down with your arms, each of you--down that knife, down that bludgeon.
That's well. Down yours--there; yours--yours. What, all down! Pile
them here on the table at my feet. Dogs, what do you fear?-death. The
first who refuses dies."
Mute and servile as a repentant Legion to a Caesar's order, the knaves
piled their weapons.
"Unbar the door, you two. You, orator Cutts, go in front; light a
candle--open the street-door. So-so-so. Who will treat me with a
parting cup--to your healths? Thank you, sir. Fall back there; stand
back--along the wall--each of you. Line my way. Ho, ho!--you harm
me--you daunt me--you--you! Stop--I have a resolution to propose. Hear
it, and cheer. 'That this meeting rescinds the resolution for the
expulsion of General Jasper, and entreats him humbly to remain, the pride
and ornament of the club!' Those who are for that resolution, hold up
their hands--as many as are against it, theirs. Carried unanimously.
Gentlemen, I thank you--proudest day of my life--but I'll see you hanged
first; and till that sight diverts me,--gentlemen, your health."
Descending from his eminence, he passed slowly down the room unscathed,
unmenaced, and, with a low mocking bow at the threshold, strode along the
passage to the streetdoor. There, seeing Cutts with the light in his
hand, he uncocked the pistol, striking off the caps, and giving it to his
quondam associate, said: "Return that to its owner, with my compliments.
One word-speak truth, and fear nothing. Did you send help to Darrell?"
"No; I swear it."
"I am sorry for it. I should like to have owed so trusty a friend that
one favour. Go back to your pals. Understand now why I scorned to work
with such rotten tools."
"A wonderful fellow, indeed!" muttered Cutts, as his eye followed the
receding form of the triumphant bravo. "All London might look to itself,
if he had more solid brains, and less liquid fire in them."