A THRILLING INCIDENT.
"The wonder is," said Constable Nightingale, while Mrs. Middlemore
shook the snow out of her clothes, "how you had the courage to venture
out in such weather."
"It's 'abit, Mr. Nightingale, that's what it is. Once I get to doing a
thing regular, done it must be if I want to keep my peace of mind.
There wouldn't be a wink of sleep for me if I didn't go and fetch my
supper beer myself every night. I don't keep a gal, Mr. Winks----"
"Wigg," said that gentleman in correction, with a dreamy look at the
beer-jug.
"I beg you a thousand pardons, Mr. Wigg, I'm sure. I don't keep a gal,
and that's why my place is always nice and clean, as you see it now.
If you want your work done, do it yourself--that's my motter. Not that
I can't afford to keep a gal, but Mr. Felix he ses when he come to me
about the rooms when I didn't 'ave a blessed lodger in the 'ouse,
'I'll take 'em,' he ses, 'conditionally. You mustn't let a room in the
place to anybody but me.' 'But I make my living out of the rooms,
sir,' ses I, 'and I can't afford to let 'em remain empty.' 'You _can_
afford,' ses Mr. Felix, 'if I pay for 'em remaining empty. What rent
do you arks for the whole 'ouse with the exception of the basement?' I
opened my mouth wide, I don't mind telling you that, Mr. Wigg, when I
put a price upon the 'ouse. All he ses is, 'Agreed.' 'Then there's
attendance, sir,' I ses. 'How much for that?' he arks. I opens my
mouth wide agin, and all he ses is, 'Agreed.' You see, Mr. Wigg,
seeing as' ow you're a friend of Mr. Nightingale's, and as no friend
of his'n can be anything but a gentleman, there's no 'arm in my
telling you a thing or two about Mr. Felix, more especially as you're
on night duty 'ere."
"Here's to our better acquaintance," said Constable Wigg, laying hands
on the beer-jug in an absent kind of way, and raising it to his mouth.
When, after a long interval, he put it down again with a sigh of
intense satisfaction, he met the reproachful gaze of Constable
Nightingale, who gasped:
"Well, of all the cheek! Without ever being asked!"
"Love your heart," said Mrs. Middlemore, "what does that matter? He's
as welcome as the flowers in May, being a friend of your'n." She
handed the jug to Constable Nightingale, asking, as she did so, "Did
you ever 'ave a inspiration, Mr. Nightingale?"
Constable Nightingale did not immediately reply, his face being buried
in the jug. When it was free, and he had wiped his mouth, he said, in
a mild tone--any harsh judgment he may have harbored against Constable
Wigg being softened by the refreshing draught--
"I must have had one to-night when I come this way, out of my beat, to
have a talk with Wigg, and to see that you was all right. The taters
in the oven'll be burnt to a cinder if they're not took out
immediate."
"You've got a nose for baked taters, you 'ave," said Mrs. Middlemore,
admiringly. "Trust you for finding out things without eyes! But you
always can smell what I've got in the oven."
Constable Wigg rubbed his hands joyously when he saw Mrs. Middlemore
lay three plates and draw three chairs up to the table. Then she
whipped the baked potatoes out of the oven, saying,
"Done to a turn. Now we can talk and 'ave supper at the same time.
Make yourself at 'ome, Mr. Wigg, and 'elp yourself to what you like.
I'll 'ave a bit of fowl, Mr. Nightingale, and jest a thin slice of the
cold pork, if you please Mr. Wigg. It's a favorite dish of yours, I
can see. Mr. Nightingale, _you_ won't make compliments, I'm sure.
You're the last man as ought to in this 'ouse." Constable Nightingale
pressed her foot under the table, and she smiled at him, and
continued, "I was going to tell you about my inspiration when I got
the supper beer. A pint and a half won't be enough,' ses I to myself;
a pint and a half's my regular allowance, Mr. Wigg, and I don't find
it too much, because I don't drink sperrits. 'A pint and a half won't
be enough,' ses I to myself; 'I shouldn't be surprised if a friend
dropped in, so I'll double it.' And I did."
"That's something like an inspiration," said Constable Nightingale,
looking amorously at Mrs. Middlemore, who smiled amorously at him in
return.
Constable Wigg cut these amorous inclinings short by remarking, "We
was talking of Mr. Felix. Nightingale commenced twice to-night telling
a story about him, and it's not told yet."
"Not my fault, Wigg," Constable Nightingale managed to say, with his
mouth full.
"I'll tell my story first," said Mrs. Middlemore, "and he can tell his
afterward. Try them sausages, Mr. Wigg. Mr. Felix always 'as the best
of everythink. I buy 'em at Wall's. So when he ses 'Agreed' to the
rent and attendance, he ses, 'And about servants?' 'I can't afford to
keep more than one, sir,' I ses. 'You can, ses he; 'you can afford to
keep none. You'll find me the best tenant you ever 'ad, and what
you've got to do is to foller my instructions. 'I'll do my best, sir,'
ses I. 'It'll pay you,' ses he, 'to let me do exactly as I please, and
never to cross me.' And I'm bound to say, Mr. Wigg, that it 'as paid
me never to cross 'im and never to arks questions. 'We shall git along
capitally together,' ses he, 'without servants. They're a prying, idle
lot, and I won't 'ave 'em creeping up the stairs on welwet toes to
find out what I'm doing. So keep none, Mrs. Middlemore,' he ses, 'not
the ghost of one. You can wait on me without assistance. If I want to
entertain a visitor or two I'll 'ave the meals brought in ready
cooked, and if we want hextra attendance I'll git Gunter to send in a
man as knows 'is business and can 'old 'is tongue.' Of course I was
agreeable to that, and he pays me down a month in advance, like the
gentleman he is. Though I don't drink sperrits, Mr. Nightingale,
that's no reason why you should deny yourself. You know where the
bottle is, and per'aps Mr. Wigg will jine you."
"Mrs. Middlemore," said Constable Wigg, "you're a lady after my own
heart, and I'm glad I'm alive. Here's looking toward you."
"Thank you, Mr. Wigg," said Mrs. Middlemore, "and what I say is it's a
shame that men like you and Mr. Nightingale should be trapesing the
streets with the snow coming down and the wind a-blowing as it is now.
Jest listen to it; it's going on worse than ever. Might I take the
liberty of inquiring--you being on the beat, Mr. Wigg--whether you sor
a lady come out of the house while I was gone for the supper beer?"
"No lady came out of the house," replied Constable Wigg. "A man did."
"A man!" cried Mrs. Middlemore. "Not Mr. Felix, surely!"
"No, not him," said Constable Nightingale. "A strange-looking man with
a red handkercher round his neck."
"A strange-looking man, with a red 'andkercher round 'is neck?"
exclaimed Mrs. Middlemore. "'Ow did he git in?"
"That's not for us to say," said Constable Nightingale. "Perhaps Mr.
Felix let him in when you was away."
"Yes, most likely," said Mrs. Middlemore, with an air of confusion
which she strove vainly to conceal from the observation of her
visitors; "of course, that must be. Mr. Felix often lets people in
'isself. 'Mrs. Middlemore,' he ses sometimes, 'if there's a ring or a
knock at the door, I'll attend to it. You needn't trouble yourself.'
And I don't--knowing 'im, and knowing it'll pay me better to foller
'is instructions. For there's never a time that sech a thing 'appens
that Mr. Felix doesn't say to me afterward, 'Here's a half-sovering
for you, Mrs. Middlemore.'"
"You're in for one to-morrow morning, then," observed Constable Wigg,
"because it was a man we saw and not a woman."
"He won't forgit it," said Mrs. Middlemore, "not 'im. He's too free
and generous with 'is money, so long as he's let alone, and not pry'd
upon. What he does is no business of mine, and I'm not going to make
it mine."
"Ah," Mrs. Middlemore, said Constable Wigg, emptying his second glass
of whiskey, "you know which side your bread is buttered."
"I wasn't born yesterday," said Mrs. Middlemore, with a shrewd smile,
"and I've seed things that I keep to myself. Why not? You'd do the
same if you was in my shoes, wouldn't you?"
"That we would," replied both the policeman in one breath; and
Constable Wigg added, "You're a lucky woman to have such a lodger."
"Well," said Mrs. Middlemore, "I don't deny it. I never met with such
a man as Mr. Felix, and I don't believe there is another. Why, when he
took possession, he ses, 'Clear out every bit of furniture there is in
the rooms. Send it to auction if you like and sell it, and pocket the
money. When I leave you shall either 'ave all my furniture, or I'll
furnish the rooms over agin according to your fancy, and it shan't
cost you a penny.' I was agreeable. Because why? Because he give me
forty pound on account, to show that he was in earnest. Then he begins
to furnish, and if you was to see 'is rooms, Mr. Wigg, you'd be that
took aback that you wouldn't know what to say. All sorts of wonderful
woods, satings, picters, swords and daggers, strange rugs and carpets,
painted plates and dishes, 'angings, old lamps, and goodness only
knows what I don't understand 'arf of 'em. There! I've talked enough
about Mr. Felix for once. Let's talk of something else."
"Do you keep cats, Mrs. Middlemore?" asked Constable Nightingale,
brewing another grog for himself and Constable Wigg.
"I don't," replied Mrs. Middlemore. "Mr. Felix won't 'ave one in the
'ouse."
"There's one in the house now, though," said Constable Nightingale.
"It come in when the wind burst open the street door, and Wigg and me
fell into the passage. He says it's not a cat, but a spectre, a
ghost."
"Lord save us!" ejaculated Mrs. Middlemore. "If Mr. Felix sees it
he'll never forgive me. He 'as a 'atred of 'em. And the ghost of a
cat, too!" She was so impressed that she edged closer to Constable
Nightingale.
"It was a spectre cat," said Constable Wigg, desirous to do something
to divert Mrs. Middlemore's thoughts from Mr. Felix, and also from her
leaning toward his comrade. "And then there was that cry for 'Help' I
fancied I heard."
"What cry for help?" asked Mrs. Middlemore.
"I thought I heard it three times," said Constable Wigg--but he was
prevented from going further by an incident which was followed by a
startling picture. Constable Nightingale, rather thrown off his
balance by the drink he had imbibed, and desirous to meet the advances
of Mrs. Middlemore, slyly put his arm round her waist, and to hide the
movement from the observation of his brother constable, made a clumsy
movement over the table, and overturned the candle, the effect of
which was to put out the light and to leave them in darkness. He was
not sorry for it, for the reason that he was hugging Mrs. Middlemore
close. But Constable Wigg started up in fear, and cried:
"Somebody has pushed open the door!"
In point of fact the kitchen-door had been quietly pushed open, and
the other two observed it when their attention was directed toward it.
"What is it?" whispered Mrs. Middlemore, shaking like a jelly, "Oh,
what is it?"
Constable Nightingale, for the second time that night pulled out his
dark lantern, and cast its light upon the door. And there, imbedded in
the circle of light, was the cat which had already twice before
alarmed Constable Wigg. They uttered a cry of horror, and indeed they
were justified by the picture which presented itself. The cat was
_red_. Every bristle, sticking up on its skin, was luminous with
horrible color. It was a perfect ball of blood.