CHAOS IN THE CAPTAIN'S LODGINGS.
I leave you to guess what were my feelings as foot by foot the
packet's quarter fell away wider of the quay. If, as the skipper
thrust off, I had found presence of mind to jump for her, who knows
what mischief might have been prevented? I could at least--whatever
the consequences--have called a warning to Captain Coffin to give his
enemy a wide-berth. But I was unnerved; the impulse came too late;
and as the foresail filled and she picked up steerage way, I stood
helpless under the lamp at the quay-head--stood and stared after her,
alone with the sense of my incredible folly.
Somewhere out yonder Captain Coffin was waiting in his shore-boat.
I listened, minute after minute, on the chance of hearing his hail.
A heavy bank of cloud had overcast the moon, and the packet melted
from sight in a blur of darkness. Worst of all--worse even than the
sting of self-reproach--was the prospect of returning to Stimcoe's
and wearing through the night, while out there in the darkness the
two men would meet, and all that followed their meeting must happen
unseen by me.
This ordeal appeared so dreadful to me in prospect that I began to
cast about among all manner of impracticable plans for escaping it.
Of these the most promising--although I had no money--was to give the
Stimcoes leg-bail and run home; the most alluring, too, since it
offered to deaden the torment of uncertainty by keeping me employed,
mind and body. I must follow the coach-road. In imagination I
measured back the distance. If George Goodfellow walked to Plymouth
and back once a week, why might not I succeed in walking to Minden
Cottage? Home was home. I should get counsel and comfort there;
counsel from my father and comfort most assuredly from Plinny.
I needed both, and in Falmouth just now there was none of either.
Even Captain Branscome, who might have helped me--
At this point a sudden thought fetched me up with a jerk. The enemy,
by pursuing after Captain Danny, had at least left me a clear coast.
I was safe for a while against his spying, and consequently the
embargo was off. I had no need to wait for morning. I could go
myself to the old man's lodgings, unlock the corner cupboard, and
bring away the roll of papers.
I dived my hand into my breech-pocket for the forgotten key. It was
small, and of a curious, intricate pattern. Almost before my fingers
closed upon it my mind was made up. Stimcoe's--that is, if I decided
to return to Stimcoe's--might wait. I might yet decide to break
ship--as Captain Danny would have put it--and make a push for home;
but that decision, too, must wait. Meanwhile, here was an urgent
errand, and a clear coast for it; here was occupation and
inexpressible relief. It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good.
I set off at a run. On my way I met and passed half a dozen gangs of
hilarious ex-prisoners and equally hilarious townsmen escorting them
to the waterside, where the coxswains of the transport's boats were
by this time blowing impatient calls on their whistles. But the
upper end of the street was well-nigh deserted. A dingy oil lantern
overhung the pavement a few yards from the ope, and above the ope the
barber's parrot hung silent, with a shawl flung over its cage.
I dived into the dark passage, and, stumbling my way to Captain
Danny's door, found that it gave easily to my hand.
For a moment I paused on the threshold, striving to remember where he
kept his tinder-box and matches. But the room was small. I knew the
geography of it, and could easily--I told myself--grope my way to the
corner, find the cupboard, and, feeling for the keyhole, insert the
key. I was about to essay this when the thought occurred to me that,
as Captain Danny had left the door on the latch, so very likely with
equal foresight he had placed his tinder-box handy--on the table, it
might be. I put out my hand in the direction where, as I
recollected, the table stood. It reached into empty darkness. I
took another step and groped for the table with both hands.
Still darkness, nothing but darkness! I took yet another step and
struck my foot against a hard object on the floor; and, as I bent to
examine this, something sharp and exceeding painful thrust itself
into my groin--a table-leg, upturned.
Recovering myself, I passed a hand over it. Yes, undoubtedly it was
a table-leg and the table lay topsy-turvy. But how came it so?
Who had upset it, and why? I took another step, sideways, and my
boot struck against something light, and, by its sound, hollow and
metallic. Stooping very cautiously--for by this time I had taken
alarm and was holding my breath--I passed a hand lightly over the
floor. My fingers encountered the object I had kicked aside.
It was a tinder-box. I clutched it softly, and as softly drew myself
upright again. Could I dare to strike a light? The overturned
table: What could be the meaning of it? It could not have been
overturned by Captain Coffin? By whom then? Some one must have
visited the lodgings in his absence.
Some one, for aught I knew, was in the room at this moment!--
Some one, back there against the wall, waiting only for me to strike
a light! I declare that at the thought I came near to screaming
aloud, casting the tinder-box from me and rushing out blindly into
the court.
I dare say that I stood for a couple of minutes, motionless,
listening not with my ears only but with every hair of my head.
Nevertheless, my wits must have been working somehow; for my first
action, when I plucked up nerve enough for it, was an entirely
sensible one. I set the tinder-box on the floor between my heels,
felt for the table, and righted it; then, picking up the box again,
set it on the table and twisted off the lid. I found flint and steel
at once, dipped my fingers into the box to make sure of the tinder
and the brimstone matches, and so, after another pause to listen,
essayed to strike out the spark.
This, for a pair of trembling hands, proved no easy business, and at
first promised to be a hopeless one. But the worst moment arrived
when, the spark struck, I stooped to blow it upon the tinder, the
glow of which must light up my own face while it revealed to me
nothing of the surrounding darkness. Still, it had to be done; and,
keeping a tight hold on what little remained of my courage, I thrust
in the match and ignited it.
While the brimstone caught fire and bubbled I drew myself erect to
face the worst. But for what met my eyes as the flame caught hold of
the stick, even the overturned table had not prepared me.
The furniture of the room lay pell-mell, as though a cyclone had
swept through it. The very pictures hung askew. Of the drawers in
the dresser some had been pulled out bodily, others stood half open,
and all had been ransacked; while the fragments of china strewn along
the shelves or scattered across the floor could only be accounted for
by some blind ferocity of destruction--a madman, for instance, let
loose upon it, and striking at random with a stick. As the match
burned low in my fingers I looked around hastily for a candle,
scanning the dresser, the mantel-shelf, the hugger-mugger of linen,
crockery, wall-ornaments, lying in a trail along the floor. But no
candle could I discover; so I lit a second match from the first and
turned towards the sacred cupboard in the corner.
The cupboard was gone!
I held the match aloft, and stared at the angle of the wall; stared
stupidly, at first unable to believe. Yes, the cupboard was gone!
Nothing remained but the mahogany bracket which had supported it.
I gazed around, the match burning lower and lower in my hand till it
scorched my fingers. The pain of it awakened me, and, dropping the
charred end, I stumbled out into the passage, almost falling on the
way as my feet entangled themselves in Captain Coffin's best
table-cloth.
A moment later I was rapping at Mr. George Goodfellow's door.
I knew that he sometimes sat up late to practice his violin-playing;
and in my confusion of terror I heeded neither that the house was
silent nor that the window over his doorway showed a blank and unlit
face to the night. I knocked and knocked again, pausing to call his
name urgently, at first in hoarse whispers, by-and-by desperately,
lifting my voice as loudly as I dared.
At length a voice answered; but it came from the end of the passage
next, the street, and it was not Mr. Goodfellow's.
"D--n my giblets!" it said, in a kind of muffled scream.
"Drunk again! Oh, you nasty image!"
It was the barber's accursed parrot. I could hear it tearing with
its beak at the bars of its cage, as if struggling to pull off the
cloth which covered it.
A window creaked on its hinges, some way up the court.
"Hallo! Who's there?" demanded a gruff voice.
I took to my heels, and made a dash up the passage for the street.
The cage, as I passed under it, swayed violently with the parrot's
struggles for free speech.
"Drunk again!" it yelled. "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me--here's a
pretty time o' night to disturb a lady!"
No longer had I any thought of braving the night and the perils of
the road, but pressed my elbows tight against my ribs and raced
straight for Stimcoe's.