BURGLARS
DICKIE fell asleep between clean, coarse sheets in a hard, narrow bed,
for which fourpence had been paid.
"Put yer clobber under yer bolster, likewise yer boots," was the last
instruction of his new friend and "father."
There had been a bath--or something equally cleansing--in a pail near a
fire where ragged but agreeable people were cooking herrings, sausages,
and other delicacies on little gridirons or pans that they unrolled from
the strange bundles that were their luggage. One man who had no gridiron
cooked a piece of steak on the kitchen tongs. Dickie thought him very
clever. A very fat woman asked Dickie to toast a herring for her on a
bit of wood; and when he had done it she gave him two green apples.
He laid in bed and heard jolly voices talking and singing in the kitchen
below. And he thought how pleasant it was to be a tramp, and what jolly
fellows the tramps were; for it seemed that all these nice people were
"on the road," and this place where the kitchen was, and the good
company and the clean bed for fourpence, was a Tramps' Hotel--one of
many that are scattered over the country and called "Common
Lodging-Houses."
The singing and laughing went on long after he had fallen asleep, and
if, later in the evening, there were loud-voiced arguments, or quarrels
even, Dickie did not hear them.
Next morning, quite early, they took the road. From some mysterious
source Mr. Beale had obtained an old double perambulator, which must
have been made, Dickie thought, for very fat twins, it was so broad and
roomy. Artfully piled on the front part was all the furniture needed by
travellers who mean to sleep every night at the Inn of the Silver Moon.
(That is the inn where they have the beds with the green curtains.)
"What's all that there?" Dickie asked, pointing to the odd knobbly
bundles of all sorts and shapes tied on to the perambulator's front.
"All our truck what we'll want on the road," said Beale.
"And that pillowy bundle on the seat."
"That's our clothes. I've bought you a little jacket to put on o' nights
if it's cold or wet. An' when you want a lift--why, here's your
carriage, and you can sit up 'ere and ride like the Lord Mayor, and I'll
be yer horse; the bundles'll set on yer knee like a fat babby. Tell yer
what, mate--looks to me as if I'd took a fancy to you."
"I 'ave to you, I know that," said Dickie, settling his crutch firmly
and putting his hand into Mr. Beale's. Mr. Beale looked down at the
touch.
"Swelp me!" he said helplessly. Then, "Does it hurt you--walking?"
"Not like it did 'fore I went to the orspittle. They said I'd be able to
walk to rights if I wore that there beastly boot. But that 'urts worsen
anythink."
"Well," said Mr. Beale, "you sing out when you get tired and I'll give
yer a ride."
"Oh, look," said Dickie--"the flowers!"
"They're only weeds," said Beale. They were, in fact, convolvuluses,
little pink ones with their tendrils and leaves laid flat to the dry
earth by the wayside, and in a water-meadow below the road level big
white ones twining among thick-growing osiers and willows.
Dickie filled his hands with the pink ones, and Mr. Beale let him.
"They'll die directly," he said.
"But I shall have them while they're alive," said Dickie, as he had said
to the pawnbroker about the moonflowers.
It was a wonderful day. All the country sights and sounds, that you
hardly notice because you have known them every year as long as you can
remember, were wonderful magic to the little boy from Deptford. The
green hedge, the cows looking over them; the tinkle of sheep-bells; the
"baa" of the sheep; the black pigs in a sty close to the road, their
breathless rooting and grunting and the shiny, blackleaded cylinders
that were their bodies; the stubbly fields where barley stood in
sheaves--real barley, like the people next door but three gave to their
hens; the woodland shadows and the lights of sudden water; shoulders of
brown upland pressed against the open sky; the shrill thrill of the
skylark's song, "like canary birds got loose"; the splendor of
distance--you never see distance in Deptford; the magpie that perched on
a stump and cocked a bright eye at the travellers; the thing that
rustled a long length through dead leaves in a beech coppice, and was,
it appeared, a real live snake--all these made the journey a royal
progress to Dickie of Deptford. He forgot that he was lame, forgot that
he had run away--a fact that had cost him a twinge or two of fear or
conscience earlier in the morning. He was happy as a prince is happy,
new-come to his inheritance, and it was Mr. Beale, after all, who was
the first to remember that there was a carriage in which a tired little
boy might ride.
"In you gets," he said suddenly; "you'll be fair knocked. You can look
about you just as well a-sittin' down," he added, laying the crutch
across the front of the perambulator. "Never see such a nipper for
noticing, neither. Hi! there goes a rabbit. See 'im? Crost the road
there? See him?"
Dickie saw, and the crown was set on his happiness. A rabbit. Like the
ones that his fancy had put in the mouldering hutch at home.
"It's got loose," said Dickie, trying to scramble out of the
perambulator; "let's catch 'im and take 'im along."
"'E ain't loose--'e's wild," Mr. Beale explained; "'e ain't never bin
caught. Lives out 'ere with 'is little friendses," he added after a
violent effort of imagination--"in 'oles in the ground. Gets 'is own
meals and larks about on 'is own."
"How beautiful!" said Dickie, wriggling with delight. This life of the
rabbit, as described by Mr. Beale, was the child's first glimpse of
freedom. "I'd like to be a rabbit."
"You much better be my little nipper," said Beale. "Steady on, mate.
'Ow'm I to wheel the bloomin' pram if you goes on like as if you was a
bag of eels?"
They camped by a copse for the midday meal, sat on the grass, made a
fire of sticks, and cooked herrings in a frying-pan, produced from one
of the knobbly bundles.
"It's better'n Fiff of November," said Dickie; "and I do like you. I
like you nexter my own daddy and Mr. Baxter next door."
"That's all right," said Mr. Beale awkwardly.
It was in the afternoon that, half-way up a hill, they saw coming over
the crest a lady and a little girl.
"Hout yer gets," said Mr. Beale quickly; "walk as 'oppy as you can, and
if they arsts you you say you ain't 'ad nothing to eat since las' night
and then it was a bit o' dry bread."
"Right you are," said Dickie, enjoying the game.
"An' mind you call me father."
"Yuss," said Dickie, exaggerating his lameness in the most spirited way.
It was acting, you see, and all children love acting.
Mr. Beale went more and more slowly, and as the lady and the little girl
drew near he stopped altogether and touched his cap. Dickie, quick to
imitate, touched his.
"Could you spare a trifle, mum," said Beale, very gently and humbly, "to
'elp us along the road? My little chap, 'e's lame like wot you see. It's
a 'ard life for the likes of 'im, mum."
"He ought to be at home with his mother," said the lady.
Beale drew his coat sleeve across his eyes.
"'E ain't got no mother," he said; "she was took bad sudden--a chill it
was, and struck to her innards. She died in the infirmary. Three months
ago it was, mum. And us not able even to get a bit of black for her."
Dickie sniffed.
"Poor little man!" said the lady; "you miss your mother, don't you?"
"Yuss," said Dickie sadly; "but farver, 'e's very good to me. I couldn't
get on if it wasn't for farver."
"Oh, well done, little 'un!" said Mr. Beale to himself.
"We lay under a 'aystack last night," he said aloud, "and where we'll
lie to-night gracious only knows, without some kind soul lends us a
'elping 'and."
The lady fumbled in her pocket, and the little girl said to Dickie--
"Where are all your toys?"
"I ain't got but two," said Dickie, "and they're at 'ome; one of them's
silver--real silver--my grandfarver 'ad it when 'e was a little boy."
"But if you've got silver you oughtn't to be begging," said the lady,
shutting up her purse. Beale frowned.
"It only pawns for a shilling," said Dickie, "and farver knows what
store I sets by it."
"A shillin's a lot, I grant you that," said Beale eagerly; "but I
wouldn't go to take away the nipper's little bit o' pleasure, not for
no shilling I wouldn't," he ended nobly, with a fond look at Dickie.
[Illustration: "'IT ONLY PAWNS FOR A SHILLIN',' SAID DICKIE"
[_Page 37_]
"You're a kind father," said the lady.
"Yes, isn't he, mother?" said the little girl. "May I give the little
boy my penny?"
The two travellers were left facing each other, the richer by a penny,
and oh--wonderful good fortune--a whole half-crown. They exchanged such
glances as might pass between two actors as the curtain goes down on a
successful dramatic performance.
"You did that bit fine," said Beale--"fine, you did. You been there
before, ain't ye?"
"No, I never," said Dickie; "'ere's the steever."
"You stick to that," said Beale, radiant with delight; "you're a fair
masterpiece, you are; you earned it honest if ever a kid done. Pats you
on the napper, she does, and out with 'arf a dollar! A bit of all right,
I call it!"
They went on up the hill as happy as any one need wish to be.
They had told lies, you observe, and had by these lies managed to get
half a crown and a penny out of the charitable; and far from being
ashamed of their acts, they were bubbling over with merriment and
delight at their own cleverness. Please do not be too shocked. Remember
that neither of them knew any better. To the elder tramp lies and
begging were natural means of livelihood. To the little tramp the
whole thing was a new and entrancing game of make-believe.
By evening they had seven-and-sixpence.
"Us'll 'ave a fourpenny doss outer this," said Beale. "Swelp me Bob,
we'll be ridin' in our own moty afore we know where we are at this
rate."
"But you said the bed with the green curtains," urged Dickie.
"Well, p'rhaps you're right. Lay up for a rainy day, eh? Which this
ain't, not by no means. There's a 'aystack a bit out of the town, if I
remember right. Come on, mate."
And Dickie for the first time slept out-of-doors. Have you ever slept
out-of-doors? The night is full of interesting little sounds that will
not, at first, let you sleep--the rustle of little wild things in the
hedges, the barking of dogs in distant farms, the chirp of crickets and
the croaking of frogs. And in the morning the birds wake you, and you
curl down warm among the hay and look up at the sky that is growing
lighter and lighter, and breathe the chill, sweet air, and go to sleep
again wondering how you have ever been able to lie of nights in one of
those shut-up boxes with holes in them which we call houses.
The new game of begging and inventing stories to interest the people
from whom it was worth while to beg went on gaily, day by day and week
by week; and Dickie, by constant practice, grew so clever at taking his
part in the acting that Mr. Beale was quite dazed with admiration.
"Blessed if I ever see such a nipper," he said, over and over again.
And when they got nearly to Hythe, and met with the red-whiskered man
who got up suddenly out of the hedge and said he'd been hanging off and
on expecting them for nigh on a week, Mr. Beale sent Dickie into a field
to look for mushrooms--which didn't grow there--expressly that he might
have a private conversation with the red-whiskered man--a conversation
which began thus--
"Couldn't get 'ere afore. Couldn't get a nipper."
"'E's 'oppy, 'e is; 'e ain't no good."
"No good?" said Beale. "That's all you know! 'E's a wunner, and no
bloomin' error. Turns the ladies round 'is finger as easy as kiss yer
'and. Clever as a traindawg 'e is--an' all outer 'is own 'ead. And to
'ear the way 'e does the patter to me on the road. It's as good as a
gaff any day to 'ear 'im. My word! I ain't sure as I 'adn't better stick
to the road, and keep away from old 'ands like you, Jim."
"Doin' well, eh?" said Jim.
"Not so dusty," said Mr. Beale cautiously; "we mugger along some'ow.
An' 'e's got so red in the face, and plumped out so, they'll soon say 'e
doesn't want their dibs."
"Starve 'im a bit," said the red-whiskered man cheerfully.
Mr. Beale laughed. Then he spat thoughtfully. Then he said--
"It's rum--I likes to see the little beggar stokin' up, for all it
spoils the market. If 'e gets a bit fat 'e makes it up in cleverness.
You should 'ear 'im!" and so forth and so on, till the red-whiskered man
said quite crossly--
"Seems to me you're a bit dotty about this 'ere extry double nipper. I
never knew you took like it afore."
"Fact is," said Beale, with an air of great candor, "it's 'is cleverness
does me. It ain't as I'm silly about 'im--but 'e's that clever."
"I 'ope 'e's clever enough to do wot 'e's told. Keep 'is mug
shut--that's all."
"He's clever enough for hanythink," said Beale, "and close as wax. 'E's
got a silver toy 'idden away somewhere--it only pops for a bob--and
d'you think 'e'll tell me where it's stowed? Not 'im, and us such pals
as never was, and 'is jaw wagging all day long. But 'e's never let it
out."
"Oh, stow it!" said the other impatiently; "I don't want to 'ear no more
about 'im. If 'e's straight 'e'll do for me, and if he ain't I'll do
for 'im. See? An' now you and me'll have a word or two particler, and
settle up about this 'ere job. I got the plan drawed out. It's a easy
job as ever I see. Seems to me Tuesday's as good a day as any.
Tip-topper--Sir Edward Talbot, that's 'im--'e's in furrin parts for 'is
'ealth, 'e is. Comes 'ome end o' next month. Little surprise for 'im,
eh? You'll 'ave to train it. Abrams 'e'll be there Monday. And see 'ere
. . ." He sank his voice to a whisper.
When Dickie came back, without mushrooms, the red-whiskered man was
gone.
"See that bloke just now?" said Mr. Beale.
"Yuss," said Dickie.
"Well, you never see 'im. If any one arsts you if you ever see 'im, you
never set eyes on 'im in all your born--not to remember 'im. Might a
passed 'im in a crowd--see?"
"Yuss," said Dickie again.
"'Tasn't been 'arf a panto neither! Us two on the road," Mr. Beale went
on.
"Not 'arf!"
"Well, now we're a-goin' in the train like dooks--an' after that we're
a-goin' to 'ave a rare old beano. I give you _my_ word!"
Dickie was full of questions, but Mr. Beale had no answers for them.
"You jes' wait;" "hold on a bit;" "them as lives longest sees
most"--these were the sort of remarks which were all that Dickie could
get out of him.
It was not the next day, which was a Saturday, that they took the train
like dukes. Nor was it Sunday, on which they took a rest and washed
their shirts, according to Mr. Beale's rule of life.
They took the train on Monday, and it landed them in a very bright town
by the sea. Its pavements were of red brick and its houses of white
stone, and its bow-windows and balconies were green, and Dickie thought
it was the prettiest town in the world. They did not stay there, but
walked out across the downs, where the skylarks were singing, and on a
dip of the downs came upon great stone walls and towers very strong and
gray.
"What's that there?" said Dickie.
"It's a carstle--like wot the King's got at Windsor."
"Is it a king as lives 'ere, then?" Dickie asked.
"No! Nobody don't live 'ere, mate," said Mr. Beale. "It's a ruin, this
is. Only howls and rats lives in ruins."
"Did any one ever live in it?"
"I shouldn't wonder," said Mr. Beale indifferently. "Yes, course they
must 'ave, come to think of it. But you learned all that at school. It's
what they call 'ist'ry."
Dickie, after some reflection, said, "D'jever 'ear of Here Ward?"
"I knowed a Jake Ward wunst."
"Here Ward the Wake. He ain't a bloke you'd know--_'e's_ in 'istry. Tell
you if you like."
The tale of Hereward the Wake lasted till the jolting perambulator came
to anchor in a hollow place among thick furze bushes. The bare, thick
stems of the furze held it up like a roof over their heads as they sat.
It was like a little furze house.
Next morning Mr. Beale shaved, a thing he had not done since they left
London. Dickie held the mug and the soap. It was great fun, and,
afterwards, Mr. Beale looked quite different. That was great fun too.
And he got quite a different set of clothes out of his bundles, and put
them on. And that was the greatest fun of all.
"Now, then," he said, "we're a-goin' to lay low 'ere all d'y, we are.
And then come evening we're a-goin' to 'ave our beano. That red'eaded
chap wot you never see 'e'll lift you up to a window what's got bars to
it, and you'll creep through, you being so little, and you'll go soft's
a mouse the way I'll show you, and undo the side-door. There's a key and
a chain and a bottom bolt. The top bolt's cut through, and all the
others is oiled. That won't frighten you, will it?"
"No," said Dickie. "What should it frighten me for?"
"Well, it's like this," said Mr. Beale a little embarrassed. "Suppose
you was to get pinched?"
"What 'ud pinch me? A dawg?"
"There won't be no dawg. A man, or a lady, or somebody in the 'ouse.
Supposen they was to nab you--what 'ud you say?"
Dickie was watching his face carefully.
"Whatever you tells me to say," he said.
The man slapped his leg gently.
"If that ain't the nipper all over! Well, if they was to nab you, you
just say what I tells you to. And then, first chance you get, you slip
away from 'em and go to the station. An' if they comes arter you, you
say you're a-goin' to your father at Dover. And first chance you get you
slip off, and you come to that 'ouse where you and me slep' at
Gravesend. I've got the dibs for yer ticket done up in this 'ere belt
I'm a-goin' to put on you. But don't you let on to any one it's
Gravesend you're a-coming to. See?"
"An' if I don't get pinched?"
"Then you just opens the door and me and that redheaded bloke we comes
in."
"What for?" asked Dickie.
"To look for some tools 'e mislaid there a year ago when 'e was on a
plumbing job--and they won't let 'im 'ave them back, not by fair means,
they won't. That's what for."
"Rats!" said Dickie briefly. "I ain't a baby. It's burgling, that's what
it is."
"You'll a jolly sight too fond of calling names," said Beale anxiously.
"Never mind what it is. You be a good boy, matey, and do what you're
told. That's what you do. You know 'ow to stick it on if you're pinched.
If you ain't you just lay low till we comes out with the ... the
plumber's tools. See?"
"And if I'm nabbed, what is it I am to say?"
"You must let on as a strange chap collared you on the road, a strange
chap with a black beard and a red 'ankercher, and give you a licking if
you didn't go and climb in at the window. Say you lost your father in
the town, and this chap said he knew where 'e was, and if you see me you
don't know me. Nor yet that redheaded chap wot you never see." He looked
down at the small, earnest face turned up to his own. "You _are_ a
little nipper," he said affectionately. "I don't know as I ever noticed
before quite wot a little 'un you was. Think you can stick it? You
shan't go without you wants to, matey. There!"
"It's splendid!" said Dickie; "it is an adventure for a bold knight. I
shall feel like Here Ward when he dressed in the potter's clothes and
went to see King William."
He spoke in the book voice.
"There you go," said Mr. Beale, "but don't you go and talk to 'em like
that if they pinches you; they'd never let you loose again. Think they'd
got a marquis in disguise, so they would."
Dickie thought all day about this great adventure. He did not tell Mr.
Beale so, but he was very proud of being so trusted. If you come to
think of it, burgling must be a very exciting profession. And Dickie had
no idea that it was wrong. It seemed to him a wholly delightful and
sporting amusement.
While he was exploring the fox-runs among the thick stems of the grass
Mr. Beale lay at full length and pondered.
"I don't more'n 'arf like it," he said to himself. "Ho yuss. I know
that's wot I got him for--all right. But 'e's such a jolly little
nipper. I wouldn't like anything to 'appen to 'im, so I wouldn't."
Dickie took his boots off and went to sleep as usual, and in the middle
of the night Mr. Beale woke him up and said, "It's time."
There was no moon that night, and it was very, very dark. Mr. Beale
carried Dickie on his back for what seemed a very long way along dark
roads, under dark trees, and over dark meadows. A dark bush divided
itself into two parts and one part came surprisingly towards them. It
turned out to be the red-whiskered man, and presently from a ditch
another man came. And they all climbed a chill, damp park-fence, and
crept along among trees and shrubs along the inside of a high park wall.
Dickie, still on Mr. Beale's shoulders, was astonished to find how
quietly this big, clumsy-looking man could move.
Through openings in the trees and bushes Dickie could see the wide park,
like a spread shadow, dotted with trees that were like shadows too. And
on the other side of it the white face of a great house showed only a
little paler than the trees about it. There were no lights in the house.
They got quite close to it before the shelter of the trees ended, for a
little wood lay between the wall and the house.
Dickie's heart was beating very fast. Quite soon, now, his part in the
adventure would begin.
"'Ere--catch 'old," Mr. Beale was saying, and the red-whiskered man took
Dickie in his arms, and went forward. The other two crouched in the
wood.
Dickie felt himself lifted, and caught at the window-sill with his
hands. It was a damp night and smelled of earth and dead leaves. The
window-sill was of stone, very cold. Dickie knew exactly what to do. Mr.
Beale had explained it over and over again all day. He settled himself
on the broad window-ledge and held on to the iron window-bars while the
red-whiskered man took out a pane of glass, with treacle and a
handkerchief, so that there should be no noise of breaking or falling
glass. Then Dickie put his hand through and unfastened the window, which
opened like a cupboard door. Then he put his feet through the narrow
space between two bars and slid through. He hung inside with his hands
holding the bars, till his foot found the table that he had been told to
expect just below, and he got from that to the floor.
"Now I must remember exactly which way to go," he told himself. But he
did not need to remember what he had been told. For quite certainly, and
most oddly, he _knew_ exactly where the door was, and when he had crept
to it and got it open he found that he now knew quite well which way to
turn and what passages to go along to get to that little side-door that
he was to open for the three men. It was exactly as though he had been
there before, in a dream. He went as quietly as a mouse, creeping on
hands and knee, the lame foot dragging quietly behind him.
I will not pretend that he was not frightened. He was, very. But he was
more brave than he was frightened, which is the essence of bravery,
after all. He found it difficult to breathe quietly, and his heart beat
so loudly that he felt almost sure that if any people were awake in the
house they would hear it, even up-stairs in their beds. But he got to
the little side-door, and feeling with sensitive, quick fingers found
the well-oiled bolt, and shot it back. Then the chain--holding the loose
loop of it in his hand so that it should not rattle, he slipped its ball
from the socket. Only the turning of the key remained, and Dickie
accomplished that with both hands, for it was a big key, kneeling on his
one sound knee. Then very gently he turned the handle, and pulled--and
the door opened, and he crept from behind it and felt the cool, sweet
air of the night on his face.
It seemed to him that he had never known what silence was before--or
darkness. For the door opened into a close box arbor, and no sky could
be seen, or any shapes of things. Dickie felt himself almost bursting
with pride. What an adventure! And he had carried out his part of it
perfectly. He had done exactly what he had been told to do, and he had
done it well. He stood there, on his one useful foot, clinging to the
edge of the door, and it was not until something touched him that he
knew that Mr. Beale and the other men were creeping through the door
that he had opened.
And at that touch a most odd feeling came to Dickie--the last feeling he
would have expected--a feeling of pride mixed with a feeling of shame.
Pride in his own cleverness, and another kind of pride that made that
cleverness seem shameful. He had a feeling, very queer and very strong,
that he, Dickie, was not the sort of person to open doors for the
letting in of burglars. He felt as you would feel if you suddenly found
your hands covered with filth, not good honest dirt, but slimy filth,
and would not understand how you could have let it get there.
He caught at the third shape that brushed by him.
"Father," he whispered, "don't do it. Go back, and I'll fasten it all up
again. Oh! don't, father."
"Shut your mug!" whispered the red-whiskered man. Dickie knew his voice
even in that velvet-black darkness. "Shut your mug, or I'll give you
what for!"
"Don't, father," said Dickie, and said it all the more for that threat.
"I can't go back on my pals, matey," said Mr. Beale; "you see that,
don't yer?"
Dickie did see. The adventure was begun: it was impossible to stop. It
was helped and had to be eaten, as they say in Norfolk. He crouched
behind the open door, and heard the soft pad-pad of the three men's feet
on the stones of the passage grow fainter and fainter. They had woolen
socks over their boots, which made their footsteps sound no louder than
those of padded pussy-feet. Then the soft rustle-pad died away, and it
was perfectly quiet, perfectly dark. Dickie was tired; it was long past
his proper bedtime, and the exertion of being so extra clever had been
very tiring. He was almost asleep when a crack like thunder brought him
stark, staring awake--there was a noise of feet on the stairs, boots, a
blundering, hurried rush. People came rushing past him. There was
another sharp thunder sound and a flash like lightning, only much
smaller. Some one tripped and fell; there was a clatter like pails, and
something hard and smooth hit him on the knee. Then another hurried
presence dashed past him into the quiet night. Another--No! there was a
woman's voice.
"Edward, you shan't! Let them go! You shan't--no!"
And suddenly there was a light that made one wink and blink. A tall lady
in white, carrying a lamp, swept down the stairs and caught at a man who
sprang into being out of the darkness into the lamplight.
"Take the lamp," she said, and thrust it on him. Then with unbelievable
quickness she bolted and chained the door, locked it, and, turning, saw
Dickie.
"What's this?" she said. "Oh, Edward, quick--here's one of them! . . .
Why--it's a child----"
Some more people were coming down the stairs, with candles and excited
voices. Their clothes were oddly bright. Dickie had never seen
dressing-gowns before. They moved in a very odd way, and then began to
go round and round like tops.
The next thing that Dickie remembers is being in a room that seemed full
of people and lights and wonderful furniture, with some one holding a
glass to his lips, a little glass, that smelled of public-houses, very
nasty.
"No!" said Dickie, turning away his head.
"Better?" asked a lady; and Dickie was astonished to find that he was on
her lap.
"Yes, thank you," he said, and tried to sit up, but lay back again
because that was so much more pleasant. He had had no idea that any
one's lap could be so comfortable.
"Now, young man," said a stern voice that was not a lady's, "just you
tell us how you came here, and who put you up to it."
"I got in," said Dickie feebly, "through the butler's pantry window,"
and as he said it he wondered how he had known that it was the butler's
pantry. It is certain that no one had told him.
"What for?" asked the voice, which Dickie now perceived came from a
gentleman in rumpled hair and a very loose pink flannel suit, with
cordy things on it such as soldiers have.
"To let----" Dickie stopped. This was the moment he had been so
carefully prepared for. He must think what he was saying.
"Yes," said the lady gently, "it's all right--poor little chap, don't be
frightened--nobody wants to hurt you!"
"I'm not frightened," said Dickie--"not now."
"To let----?" reminded the lady, persuasively.
"To let the man in."
"What man?"
"I dunno."
"There were three or four of them," said the gentleman in pink; "four or
five----"
"What man, dear?" the lady asked again.
"The man as said 'e knew w'ere my farver was," said Dickie, remembering
what he had been told to say; "so I went along of 'im, an' then in the
wood 'e said 'e'd give me a dressing down if I didn't get through the
winder and open the door; 'e said 'e'd left some tools 'ere and you
wouldn't let 'im 'ave them."
"You see," said the lady, "the child didn't know. He's perfectly
innocent." And she kissed Dickie's hair very softly and kindly.
Dickie did not understand then why he suddenly felt as though he were
going to choke. His head felt as though it were going to burst. His ears
grew very hot, and his hands and feet very cold.
"I know'd right enough," he said suddenly and hoarsely; "an' I needn't
a-gone if I 'adn't wanted to."
"He's feverish," said the lady, "he doesn't know what he's saying. Look
how flushed he is."
"I wanted to," said Dickie; "I thought it 'ud be a lark. And it was
too."
He expected to be shaken and put down. He wondered where his crutch was.
Mr. Beale had had it under his arm. How could he get to Gravesend
without a crutch? But he wasn't shaken or put down; instead, the lady
gathered him up in her arms and stood up, holding him.
"I shall put him to bed," she said; "you shan't ask him any more
questions to-night. There's time enough in the morning."
She carried Dickie out of the drawing-room and away from the other
people to a big room with blue walls and blue and gray curtains and
beautiful furniture. There was a high four-post bed with blue silk
curtains and more pillows than Dickie had ever seen before. The lady
washed him with sweet-smelling water in a big basin with blue and gold
flowers on it, dressed him in a lace-trimmed nightgown, which must have
been her own, for it was much too big for any little boy.
Then she put him into the soft, warm bed that was like a giant's pillow,
tucked him up and kissed him. Dickie put thin arms round her neck.
"I do like you," he said, "but I want farver."
"Where is he? No, you must tell me that in the morning. Drink up this
milk"--she had it ready in a glass that sparkled in a pattern--"and then
go sound asleep. Everything will be all right, dear."
"May Heavens," said Dickie, sleepily, "bless you, generous Bean
Factress!"
* * * * *
"A most extraordinary child," said the lady, returning to her husband.
"I can't think who it is that he reminds me of. Where are the others?"
"I packed them off to bed. There's nothing to be done," said her
husband. "We ought to have gone after those men."
"They didn't get anything," she said.
"No--dropped it all when I fired. Come on, let's turn in. Poor Eleanor,
you must be worn out."
"Edward," said the lady, "I wish we could adopt that little boy. I'm
sure he comes of good people--he's been kidnapped or something."
"Don't be a dear silly one!" said Sir Edward.
* * * * *
That night Dickie slept in sheets of the finest linen, scented with
lavender. He was sunk downily among pillows, and over him lay a down
quilt covered with blue-flowered satin. On the foot-board of the great
bed was carved a shield and a great dog on it.
Dickie's clothes lay, a dusty, forlorn little heap, in a stately
tapestry-covered chair. And he slept, and dreamed of Mr. Beale, and the
little house among the furze, and the bed with the green curtains.