Billy arrived punctually as we were dressing next morning in great good-
humour.
"What cheer, covies?" cried he before he was well in the room. "She's
come back!"
"Who--your mother?" said Jack.
"Yaas," said Billy; "worn't she jolly neither? She give me a wipin'
last night same as I never got."
And when we came to look at our queer visitor he bore about his face and
person undoubted marks of the truth of this story.
"What a shame it is!" I said to Jack. "Can't anything be done to stop
it? He'll be murdered right out one day."
"'Taint no concern of yourn!" said Billy. "But I say, governor," added
he, turning to Jack, "she are a rum 'un, she are! She was a-sayin' you
was makin' a idle young dorg of me, she says, and she'll wait upon you,
she says, and know the reason why, she says. And she says ef she
ketches me messin' about any more with my ABC, she says she'll knock the
'ed off me. But don't you mind 'er, she's on'y a-jawing!"
Jack looked a good deal troubled. He had taken upon himself the welfare
of this happy family in the court, and it seemed likely to cost him many
an uneasy moment. Only a short time before, he had told me, he had
called with Mr Hawkesbury and seen Billy's mother, just after her
release from prison, and tried to plead with her on Billy's behalf, but,
he said, you might as well talk to a griffin.
Billy appeared to be oppressed with no cares on the subject. "It's that
there penny bang," said he, "as she's got her back up agin. I told her
as I was a shovin' my coppers in there, and she says she'll shove you
in, governor, she says. She did swear at you, governor! It's a game to
hear her."
"When you learn better, Billy," said Jack, quite sternly, "you won't
talk like that of your mother."
Billy's face overclouded suddenly. He looked first at me, then at Jack,
and finally at the boot in his hand, which he fell-to polishing till it
dazzled. But Jack's tone and look had effectually damped his spirits,
and when he spoke again it was with a half whine.
"I _are_ a larning better, governor, do you hear? I knows my letters.
You ask this 'ere bloke," pointing to me with his brush. "And them
Aggers, too. I writ 'em all up on my slate, didn't I? You tell the
governor if I didn't!"
"Yes," I said; "you did."
"There you are! Do you hear, governor? I'm larnin' better. I writ all
them there Aggers, I did; and I can say my d-o-g, dorg, proper, can't I,
pal? And I've shove my coppers in the bang, and I am larnin'."
"I know you are," said Jack, kindly. "Come, it's time I got on my
boots. Are they done?"
Billy in the delight of his heart took one more furious turn at the
boots. He breathed hard upon them till he was nearly black in the face,
and polished them till it was a wonder any leather at all was left.
And, to complete all, he polished up the tags of the laces with the
sleeve of his own coat, and then deposited the boots with an air of
utmost pride and jubilation.
"I shall be done the examination to-day," said Jack, as the boy started
to go; "I'll come down and see you in the evening."
Billy's face was nearly as bright as the boots he had polished as he
grinned his acknowledgments and went on his way rejoicing.
Mr Smith did not put in an appearance before it was time for Jack to
start. He had told me he would not. He was afraid of betraying his
secret prematurely, and deemed it wisest to stay away. And I was just
as glad he did so, for it was all I could do not to show by my manner
that something of serious moment was in the wind.
However, by an effort, I tried to appear as if nothing unusual had
occurred.
"By the way, Jack," said I, as we walked down to the examination hall,
"you're a nice fellow to take care of a photograph! Do you know you
left this at my mercy all night?"
"What!" he exclaimed, "I thought I put it back in my pocket with the
other papers. What a go if I'd lost it!"
"What a go if I'd kept it!" said I. "The next time I will."
"To prevent which," said Jack, "take your last look, for you shall never
see it again! Good-bye, old man. It will be all over when I see you
next."
"All over!" mused I, as I walked back to the office. "It will be only
beginning."
I never made a more rash promise in all my life than when I under took
to Mr Smith to break the news of his discovery to Jack.
It had appeared so simple at the time, but when the moment came the task
seemed to be one bristling with difficulties on every hand. All that
day the sense of the coming ordeal haunted me, and even the custody of
the petty-cash could not wholly divert my mind.
I was therefore quite relieved that evening, on returning to the
lodgings, to hear as I ascended the stairs voices speaking in our room,
and to find that Jack had a visitor. I should, at least, get some time
to recover the wits which the near approach of my ordeal had scattered.
For a moment I wondered whether Jack's visitor could be Mr Smith
himself. It was a man's voice, and unless it were Mr Smith or Mr
Hawkesbury, I was at a loss to guess who it could be.
To my astonishment I found, on entering the room, that the visitor was
no other than my uncle!
Whatever had brought him here?
Jack looked as if his _tete-a-tete_ had not been a very cheerful one,
for he jumped up at my arrival with evident joy, and cried, "Oh, here
you are at last! Here's your uncle, Fred, come to see you. He was
afraid he would have to go before you got back."
This, at least, was a comfort. My uncle was not going to stay all
night.
I went up in a most dutiful manner to my relative, and hoped he was
well.
"Yes," he replied, in his usual frigid way. "You seem surprised to see
me. But as I had business in town I found out this place, and came to
look you up."
"It was very kind of you," said I.
"You shouldn't say that when you don't mean it," said my uncle. "And as
I am going in a few minutes you need not look so alarmed."
"I hope you will have a cup of tea before you go," said I, hoping to
change the subject.
"No, thank you. Your friend here asked me that already. Now, what
about your debts, Fred?"
"Oh," said I, "they are all paid by this time. An old schoolfellow
advanced me the money, kindly, and I have all but repaid him out of my
weekly allowance."
"Humph!" said my uncle. "That scrape will be a lesson to you, I hope.
Boys who make fools of themselves like that must suffer the
consequences."
"I had been very foolish I know," I replied, humbly.
"But Fred's as steady as a judge now," said Jack, interposing for my
relief.
"It's nearly time he was," replied my uncle, "unless he has made up his
mind to ruin himself. He's given up all his wild friends, I hope?"
"Oh yes, every one," said I; "haven't I, Jack?"
"Yes, he's nothing to do with them now," said Jack.
"And he spends his evenings in something better than drinking and
gambling and that sort of thing?"
This was pleasant for me. As the question appeared to be addressed to
Jack, I allowed him to answer it for me.
"Well," said my uncle, after a few more similar inquiries had been
satisfactorily answered, "I hope what you tell me is true. It may seem
as if I did not care much what became of you, Fred. And as long as you
went on in the way you did, no more I did. You had chosen your friends,
and you might get on the best you could with them. But now, if you have
done what you say you have and given them up--"
At that moment there was a sudden tumult on the stairs outside, which
made us all start. It was a sound of scuffling and laughter and
shouting, in the midst of which my uncle's voice was drowned. Whoever
the visitors were, they appeared not to be quite sure of their quarters,
for they were trying every door they came to on their way up. At length
they came nearer, and a voice, the tones of which were only too
familiar, shouted, "Come on, you fellows. We'll smoke him out.
Batchelor ahoy there! Wonder if he lives on the roof."
It was Whipcord's voice, whom I had not seen since my accident, and who
now had fixed on this evening of all others to come with his friends and
pay me a visit!
"It's Whipcord," I said to Jack; "he mustn't come in! Let's barricade
the door, anything to keep them out."
Jack, who looked fully as alarmed as I did, was quite ready to agree,
but my uncle, who had hitherto been an astounded witness of the
interruption, interfered, and said, "No--they shall come in. These are
some of your reformed friends, I suppose, Mr Fred. I'd like to see
them. Let them come in."
"Oh no, uncle," I cried, in agitation, "they mustn't come in, indeed
they mustn't, they are--"
As I spoke the shouting outside increased twofold, and at the same
moment the door was flung open, and Whipcord, Crow, the Field-Marshal,
the Twins, Daly, and Masham, burst into the room!
Is it any wonder if, as I looked first at them, then at my uncle, a
feeling of utter despair took possession of me?
They were all, evidently, in a highly festive state of mind and ready
for any diversion.
"Here he is," cried Whipcord, who appeared to be leader of the party.
"Here you are, Batch, my boy--we got your address at the police-station
and came to look you up, and oh, I say, what a glorious old codger!"
This last note of admiration was directed to my uncle, who sat sternly
back in his chair, gazing at the intruders with mingled wrath and
astonishment.
"I say, introduce us, Batch," said the Field-Marshal, "and to the other
aristocrat, too, will you?"
"Why, that's Bull's-eye," cried Crow. "You know, Twins, the fellow I
told you about who's--"
"Oh, that's the Botany Bay hero, is it?" cried Masham. "I must shake
hands with him. One doesn't get the chance of saying how d'ye do to a
real gaol-bird every day. How are you, Treadmill?"
Jack, whose face was very pale, and whose eyes flashed fiercely,
remained motionless, and with an evident effort, as Masham held out his
hand.
"What--thinks we aren't good enough for him, does he?" said Masham.
"So used to the handcuffs," said Abel, "doesn't know how to use his
hands, that's it."
"But we don't know yet who this old weathercock is," cried Whipcord,
turning again to my uncle. "What do they call you at home, old Stick-
in-the-mud?" and he nudged him in the ribs by way of emphasis.
It was time I interposed. Hitherto, in sheer helplessness, I had stood
by and watched the invasion with silent despair. Now, however, that my
uncle seemed to be in danger of rough handling, something must be done.
"If you fellows have any pretence to be called gentlemen," I shouted, in
tones choked with mingled shame and anger, "you will leave Jack's room
and mine."
"Jack's! who's Jack? Is the old pawnbroker called Jack, then? Oh, I
say, you fellows," cried Whipcord, dropping on a chair, and nearly
choking himself with a fit of laughter. "Oh, you fellows, I've got it
at last. I've got it. Jack! I know who it is."
"Who is it?" cried the others.
"Why, can't you guess?" yelled Whipcord.
"No! Who?"
"Jack Ketch!"
This new idea was taken up with the utmost rapture, and my uncle was
forthwith dubbed with his fresh title.
"Three cheers for Uncle Ketch, you fellows!" shouted Whipcord.
The cheers were given with great hubbub. Then my uncle was called upon
for a speech, and, as he declined, a proposal was made to compel him.
Up to this time, protest as well as resistance had seemed worse than
useless. Jack and I were only two against seven, and our visitors were
hardly in a condition to give us fair play, even if we did come to
blows. But our wrath had been gradually approaching boiling-point, and
now the time seemed to have come to brave all consequences and assert
ourselves.
Whipcord and Masham had each seized one of my uncle's arms, with a view
to carry out their threat, when by a mutual impulse Jack, and I assumed
the defensive and rushed into the fray. Both our adversaries were, of
course, utterly unprepared for such a demonstration, and in consequence,
and before they could either of them take in the state of affairs, they
were sprawling at full length on the floor. The whole action was so
rapidly executed that it was not for a moment or two that the rest of
the party took in the fact that the affair was something more than a
joke. When, however, they did so, a general engagement ensued, in which
Jack and I, even with the unlooked-for and gallant aid of my uncle,
could do very little against superior numbers.
What the upshot might have been--whether we should have been eventually
ejected from our own lodgings, or whether the invaders would presently
have wearied of their sport and made off of their own accord--I cannot
say, but just as things were looking at their worst for us an opportune
diversion occurred which turned the tide of battle.
This was none other than the simultaneous arrival of Billy and Flanagan.
The latter, I recollected, had promised to look in during the evening,
to see how Jack had fared at the examination.
In the general confusion the new-comers entered the room almost
unnoticed. The unexpected scene which met their eyes in our usually
quiet quarters naturally alarmed them, and it was a second or more
before, in the midst of all the riot, they could make out what was the
matter.
Billy was the first to recover himself. The sight of Jack Smith being
attacked by Masham was quite enough for him, and, with a cry of, "Do you
hear, you let him be!" he sprang upon his patron's assailant like a
young tiger.
Poor, gallant Billy! Masham, taken aback to find himself thus attacked
by a small boy who seemed to come from nowhere, recoiled for an instant
before his vigorous onslaught. But it was only for an instant.
Stepping back, and leaving the others to engage Jack and me, he seized
the boy by the arm, and, dealing him a blow on the side of the head,
flung him savagely to the floor, adding a brutal kick as he lay there,
stunned and senseless at his feet.
The sight of this outrage was all that was wanted to rouse us to one
desperate effort to rid ourselves of our cowardly invaders. Jack closed
in an instant with Masham, and by sheer force carried him to the door
and literally flung him from the room. The others, one by one,
followed. Some, half ashamed at the whole proceeding, slunk away of
their own accord; the others, seeing themselves worsted, lost spirit,
and made but a slight resistance to our united assault, now vigorously
reinforced by Flanagan.
The last to leave was Whipcord, who endeavoured to carry the thing off
with his usual swagger to the last. "Well, ta, ta, Batch," he said; "we
just looked in to see how you were, that's all. Thanks for the jolly
evening. By-bye, old Jack Ketch, and--"
And here, in consequence of a sudden forward movement from Flanagan, he
hurriedly withdrew, and left us for the first time that evening with
leisure to look about us.
It was no time, however, for asking questions or giving explanations.
An exclamation from Jack turned all attention to Billy, who lay still
unconscious and as white as a sheet where he had fallen. Jack gently
raised him and laid him on the bed. "Open the window, somebody," said
he.
The air seemed to revive the boy somewhat, for he opened his eyes and
looked vacantly round. But a fit of sickness followed this partial
recovery, and again he swooned.
Jack's face was nearly as pale as the boy's as he looked up and said,
"Fetch the doctor! Quick!"
Flanagan darted off almost before the words were out of his lips.
There was nothing for us who were left behind to do but to watch with
painful anxiety the poor little sufferer, who lay mostly unconscious,
and still at intervals violently sick.
Masham's ruffianly blow and kick had evidently done far more damage than
he or any one supposed. As we waited in silence for the doctor to come
our alarm increased, and it even seemed doubtful whether, as we stood
there, we were not destined to see a terrible end to that evening's
proceedings.
"Has the boy a father or mother?" whispered my uncle to me.
Jack who sat with the sufferer's head on his arm, heard the question,
and said hurriedly, "Yes. You must fetch his mother, Fred!"
There was such a tone of alarm in his voice that had Billy's mother been
a wild beast I could hardly have disobeyed.
I darted off on my unenviable quest, meeting the doctor on the stairs.
I knew the house in the court by this time, and was myself well-known to
its inmates.
The woman was not at home; she had not been home since the morning, and
no one knew where she was. I left a message apprising her of what had
happened, and telling her to come at once to the lodgings. Then with
much foreboding I hastened back to Drury Lane.
The evening had been a strangely different one from what I had expected.
I was to have broken the news to Jack of his father's discovery,
instead of which, here was I rushing frantically about trying to find an
unhappy woman and summon her to what, for all I knew, might be the
death-bed of her son!
I found when I returned that Billy had somewhat revived. He was lying
back, very white still, and apparently unconscious, but they told me the
doctor had given some hope of his recovery, and that the fits of
sickness had stopped and left him stronger.
My uncle, whose concern for the poor boy was scarcely less than ours,
had relieved Jack at the patient's bedside. Jack, who, now that the
imminent anxiety was over, had given way to a natural reaction, was, I
could see, in a terrible state of misery and rage.
"If he dies," muttered he to me, "I'll--"
What he meant to say I do not know. He stopped short and flung himself
in the empty seat by the window, trembling all over. I had never known
before how fond he was of the poor boy.
"What about his mother?" he said presently, turning to me.
"I couldn't find her, or hear of her anywhere," I said. "But I left a
message for her."
Just then my uncle beckoned with his hand.
Billy had opened his eyes, and was looking about him. He had done so
once or twice before, but always in a vacant, stupid sort of way. Now,
to our intense joy, there was a glimmer of something like the old life
in his pale face, especially when, catching sight of Jack, who sprang to
his side in a moment, his features broke into a faint smile.
My uncle came quietly to me across the room.
"I'll go now," said he--more kindly than I had ever heard him speak. "I
shall stay in town to-night, and will look in in the morning;" and so
saying he went.
Mr Smith and I accompanied him to the door. As we were returning up
the stairs some one called after us. I turned, and saw that the new-
comer was Billy's mother.