A POCKETFUL OF MONEY.
“WE are on the straight road now,” said Tonks, as soon as he had heard
my story; “and jigger me if we don’t hunt her down. But luck can give
five stone to skill, whether the course be straight or round. I have
done all I know; but you beat me in a canter, just by getting the
inside turn. But unless I am out of it altogether, you may trust me to
fetch up by-and-by. I must find out who that old chap was. It could not
be Downy himself, you think. Not likely that she would have gone with
him. Well, now you want to hear what I have done; and I think it leads
to something.
“I am bound to be terrible leary, you see, for he is uncommon
wide-awake. If he had spent all his life in the sharpest stables, he
could hardly have been more up to snuff. He never believes a single
word a fellow says, until he has been round it to know the reason.
I can’t abide that sort of thing myself, for it gives such a lot of
trouble on both sides. If he asked you what o’clock it was, and you
looked at your watch and told him, he’d place no faith in it, unless he
saw the hands; and even then he would doubt whether you had not shifted
them, on purpose to mislead him.”
“Such a rogue should be knocked on the head,” said my uncle; “and I
wish I had the doing of it.”
“It makes everybody hate him, although his manner is not rough. He
never seems to think it worth his while to take offence at people. But
they would rather have that, than what he does. Old Pots is popular
compared to him; because Pots hates his enemies. But this man goes on
as if they were not worth hating. And that has made me doubt sometimes
why he has done this; and sometimes whether he has done it at all.”
“If he has not done it, it can only be the Devil,” my uncle broke in
with some anger; “I am not superstitious, but the Devil might be vexed
by Professor Fairthorn’s kick-me-jigs, and run off with his daughter,
just to dig him in the ribs. By George, I never thought of that before!”
“And I hope you won’t think of it again,” I said, in great haste that
the idea might not go into his mind, for it would be hard work to get
it out again; “I should hope you know better, Uncle Corny! Would the
Devil think of paying such a price as Phil Moggs gets, and hire a
four-wheeler to Woking Road Station?”
“You are right, Kit. He will have full value for his money; and he
never could have stood the smoke I made. He gets too much of that at
home. But Tonks says now that he doubts if Bulwrag did it. What are we
coming to? Are we all to start again, as if we had never spent twopence
over it? Tonks has been with him a deal too much. When two fellows get
together so, they can’t smell one another.”
“I judge just the same as if I never saw him. He isn’t one to get over
a fellow with his looks, nor his manner neither. Mr. Orchardson, you
are quite wrong there. I go by observation, and nothing else.”
“And what has come of your observations?” My uncle still despised Mr.
Tonks, and he hated to be told that he was wrong, especially when I
heard it.
“A good deal,” said Tonks, leaning back in his chair and collecting his
ideas; “a good deal, if you place confidence in me; without which I act
for nobody. I don’t pretend to be any wonder. But when I take a man’s
money, I am true to him. I have plenty of other jobs I can take to.
Throw me over, if you choose, and have done it.”
“No, Tony Tonks, we will not do that. I believe that you are doing all
you know; and I am a reasonable man. Now tell us all that you have to
tell.”
“Well, there isn’t very much, but it may come to something more,
especially with what you have just found out. The worst of it is that
he is getting shy of me, and I dare not say things as I did. I told
him that I wanted to run down, to take stock of Henderson’s place down
here, and I asked him if he knew the neighbourhood, and whether we
should take a trap and run down together. If I could get him to that, I
might pick up a lot of things, in a careless and casual way, you know.
But he was much too fly for any game of that sort; and it almost seemed
to me as if he smelled a rat. Then I got on to him about the scientific
codgers, thinking to lead up to the old Professor and the cruise he is
going on about the bottom of the sea, and the place for laying cables,
and a lot of things like that. But that wouldn’t serve; and so I tried
another lay. We were talking of old Pots, and I said, ‘Oh, by-the-bye,
was it true that the old fool was sweet upon some girl, some girl with
a lot of money, who pitched him over?’ And he said, ‘What a joke! I
should like to hear of that. Tell us the story, Bowles, if you know
it.’ Bowles is the name he knows me by, you see; for it would not do
for me to turn up as Tonks.
“In fact I got no hold upon him, as I thought I should have done; for
he knows how to make people useful and no more; and I saw that he
would drop me as soon as he had learned all the little useful things
I know at cards and pool. Of course I was not swell enough for him to
introduce me to his ‘family circle,’ as the ladies call it. And as for
getting him to take a drop too much, and then working him skilfully, as
can be done with most fellows,—well, I am pretty tough, but if I took
the water and he the brandy, I believe I should be drunk before he was.
His head is too big for any barrel to upset it.
“I was pretty near despairing, I can tell you, Mr. Orchardson, though I
never have been beaten yet, and don’t want to begin it; when a little
bit of accident, the merest casual accident, put me further forward
than a month of work might do. You may be pretty sure, without my
saying, that my appearance is not distinguished enough—although I have
gone arm in arm with bigger nobs than he is, and real gentlemen some
of them—but not swell enough to be seen in Downy Bulwrag’s company, in
Piccadilly, or the Park, or high and mighty places. No no, not for Joe,
as the poet quotes it.
“But he is not at all above allowing me the honour of his society, when
I can be of service to him, and no one is likely to say—‘Who’s that?’
And there is one particular house of his—never mind where, that has
nothing to do with it—at which he always likes to have me, and treats
me quite as his honoured friend. And there we were on Monday night,
tickling the pigeons, as you might say, which is only what they expect
of us. He can beat me now in my own inventions, not from any superior
skill, but because he is the coolest hand ever seen, and nothing puts
him out of tune.
“He had won all along the board that night, and his pockets were full
of money; but instead of being up, as a decent fellow would be, he took
all his luck in a cold-blooded way, just as if it were nothing to what
he deserved. That is never the right way to get any more. You must
never do that, Mr. Orchardson.”
“Sir, I never gamble; and I want no lesson.” My uncle spoke severely;
he thought it due to me to do so.
“It is too late in life for you to begin,” Tonks proceeded affably;
“and your hands are too hard, Mr. Orchardson. But as I was saying, we
came down the stairs, and slipped out very quietly. It was one of those
little streets off Soho, where a man who knows London like the lines of
his own hand may lose himself in half a minute, by one wrong turning.
The night was very dark, and all the publics shut up long ago, and not
a light was to be seen, except a dull lamp here and there. But we were
quite used to this sort of thing, and felt no sort of fear, though we
knew that we were passing through a den of robbers; and a man who has
a lot of money in his pockets is inclined to fancy somehow that every
stranger knows it.
“Suddenly, as we went by a narrow reeking archway, a fellow sprang out
of it immediately behind us. Before I could turn, I heard a crash, and
there he lay, sent backward by a heavy blow from Bulwrag’s fist. I
thought that he was killed, for the blow had been tremendous; such as I
have seen, when they meant business in the prize-ring. But luckily for
him, the fellow wore a hard-rimmed hat, which lay behind him doubled
up, while he rolled over, gasping.
“‘Not much got out of that,’ said Downy, looking at his knuckles; ‘the
sooner we slope the better, Bowles; or there will be a rumpus.’
“‘We can’t go, before we see whether you have killed him. You hit him
hard enough to kill an ox,’ I answered.
“‘Killed myself more likely. Just look at my hand. The fellow can’t be
hurt much. What had he on his hat-front? Don’t pick him up. He’ll be
better where he is.’
“But seeing no one up or down the street, I disobeyed him, and drew the
stunned man into the shadow of the archway, and set him with his head
against the bricks, while Bulwrag showed much more concern about his
hat.
“‘Here it is—a metal thing! I shall keep it. Put his hat on again,
Bowles; and let him meditate. We don’t want to cut a shine at Bow
Street. Let’s be off!’
“I was rising to go, for I hate the police-courts, and the man was
evidently coming round, and could do very well without us. But before
we could leave him, he stretched out his hand, and said, ‘Captain,
Captain, for God’s sake stop a minute. I have got something for you
most important. I didn’t go to rob you, but to tell you something.’
“You may be sure that I was pretty wide awake at this; but of course
I took care not to show it. And I saw by a shadow on the line of wall
that Bulwrag had raised one hand, probably to his lips.
“‘Right!’ said the man, who was on his legs now, but sidled away into a
darker place; ‘let the other gent go. I was to tell you by yourself. I
daren’t come to your place, but you must come to mine.’
“‘Out with it! I never keep any secrets,’ Bulwrag replied, just to
humbug me. ‘Unless it concerns other people, and then—Well perhaps,
Bowles, you wouldn’t mind going to your den. Stop, let me speak to you
a moment outside.’
“He took me away, while the man stopped there; and I saw that his
object was to prevent me from finding out any more about that fellow. I
was forced to let him have his way that far, and to play a waiting game
with him.
“‘Some bosh or other,’ he whispered roughly; ‘I think I know who
the fellow is, and all about it. A gamekeeper’s daughter down in
Hampshire—always wanting money. Stop, you may as well take most of
this, for fear of my being too soft-hearted. There, leave me five;
that’s as much as I can spare. Good-night! Very much obliged. See you
to-morrow.’
“‘You had better mind what you are about,’ I said; ‘he owes you a
grudge, and you are in a slummy part, you know. I’ll come with you, if
you like, and wait outside.’
“‘You had better not wait at all. I am apt to mistake people, as you
have seen already?’
“This was a threat; and as such I took it, walking off with a dignity
which must have vexed him. However, as soon as I was round the corner,
I slipped a pair of rubber socks, that I always carry with me, over my
boots, and put myself on duty in other ways; so that if he met me in
the shadow, or even ten yards from a lamp, he would have little chance
of knowing me. And in less than two minutes I was back again; not in
the archway, of course, but at a place from which I could make out
part of what was going on there. For I knew that there was something
up quite out of the common way with him. Now how did I know that? Can
either of you tell me?”
“Why, of course, by his knocking that fellow down,” my uncle replied
sagaciously; “that was a bit of by-play, I suppose.”
“Not it. That was all done, bone fiddles—as we say. I knew it by the
pile of cash he gave me to hold for him. Oh, he is a deep file, and all
there at any moment. He had clearly formed a low opinion of your humble
servant, and thought that I should bolt with all the rhino, and be seen
no more. And it could be no trifle that made him risk the sum of five
and forty pounds.”
“Forty-five pounds!” I exclaimed; “how strange! Why that was the very
sum”—But here I stopped, for I did not wish to go into that question
with him.
“Yes, forty-five pounds, when I came to count it. I could not tell
how much it was, at the moment; but I felt that it was a tidy lump of
cash, and I jumped at his motive in handing it to me. But he reckoned
altogether without his host there. Well, when I came back, there they
were, still at it. I could not hear a word of what they said, for I was
forced to keep my distance. But I guessed that the skunk would take him
somewhere, for what he had said beforehand, and then my wits would come
into play. And sure enough he did, for in about two minutes they both
came out, and looked up and down the street, to make sure that they
were not followed. Seeing no one, they set off, at a good quick step,
and I took the right style to be after them.
“They turned so many corners, and went through so many alleys, that no
other man in the world could have kept them in sight, as I did, without
blundering on them. We passed through many places I knew nothing of;
but at last I stowed them in a quiet little den, not very far from
Drury Lane. Here the fellow went down a steep narrow staircase, and
knocked at a door that was like a cellar-flap. Downy stopped outside;
which I thought was very wise of him, while the other went in, and for
some time disappeared. But Downy came back to the entrance for fresh
air, or perhaps to be certain that he was not watched. And I gave
myself up for lost; but most luckily an empty truck or barrow stood
against the wall, and I just slipped under it in time. I could have
touched him with my hand, but the place was very dark; and he went back
without twigging me.
“I have had many narrow shaves, but none to beat that. He would have
killed me with a blow, and in a hole like that, I should soon have been
under the flagstones. I had no time to be in a funk till it was over;
but then I began to shiver horribly, and my nerves were not fit to be
trusted any more.
“I knew this; and thinking of it made them worse, for I have a wife and
seven children to look after. All I cared for now was to get away, for
I had run the chap to earth, and could put my hand upon him.
“There was no chance of overhearing any of their talk, even if they had
any; and if they once discovered me, even though I might escape, there
would be no chance of learning more. I could find the hole again, for I
had seen ‘Coke Yard’ daubed with a tar-brush on a patch of whitewash,
and wherever I have once been I can always go again. So when Bulwrag
turned back towards the door, I made ready to slip round the corner.
“But before I could do so, I heard the door creak, and the fellow with
the broken hat came out again. I heard him say—‘Now, you’ll believe me,
Captain. I’d be glad of the price of a new hat, afore you go.’ What it
was he gave to Downy, I could hardly see, but it looked like a packet
of papers, or letters, or something done up in paper. Downy gave him
something, and he said—‘That all? Ain’t much for such news;’ and then
Downy gave him more. ‘Daren’t come to your place. You come here,’ he
says, ‘if you want any more—say next Saturday night; ask for Migwell
Bengoose, and say _Cluck_.’ That was the name so far as I could catch
it. But I was bound to be off, for Bulwrag was coming. And you may
depend upon it that I did not stop to chat with him.”