In my blind fear of capture I did not study which way I went, but
doubling down the first turning I came to, I ran on, and then along the
next, to stop short directly afterwards, being sharply caught by the
constable from whom I had fled, and who now held me fast.
"Ah! you thought it, did you?" he said coolly, while, panting and
breathless, I feebly struggled to get away. "But it won't do, my lad.
You've got to come along o' me."
"And then I shall be sent back," I cried, as I tried to wrestle myself
free. "I've never done any harm, sir; and he'll half kill me. You
don't know him. Pray let me go."
"I know you to be a reglar young coward," he said roughly. "Why, when I
was your age, I shouldn't have begun snivelling like this. Now, then,
look here. You ain't come to London only to see your Mr Hot Roll, or
whatever you call him. Is there any one else you know as I can take you
to? I don't want to lock you up."
"No, sir, nobody," I faltered. "Yes, there is--there's Mr Revitts."
"Mr who?"
"Mr Revitts, sir," I said excitedly. "He's a policeman, like you."
"Ah, that's something like a respectable reference!" he said. "What
division?"
"What did you say, sir?"
"I said what division?"
"Please, sir, I don't know what you mean."
"Do you know P.C. Revitts, VV division?"
"No, sir," I said, with my heart sinking. "It's Mr William Revitts I
know."
"Which his name is William," he muttered. Then, aloud, "Here, come
along."
"No, no, sir," I cried in alarm. "Don't send me back."
"Come along, I tell yer."
"What's up?" said a gruff voice; and a second policeman joined us.
"Don't quite know yet," said the first man; and then he said something
in a low voice to the other, with the result that, without another word,
I was hurried up and down street after street till I felt ready to drop.
Suddenly my guide turned into a great blank-looking building and spoke
to another policeman, and soon, after a little shouting, a tall,
burly-looking constable in his buttoned-up greatcoat came slowly towards
us in the whitewashed room.
"Here's a lad been absconding," said my guide, "and he says he'll give
you for a reference."
"Eh! me?" said the newcomer, making me start as he stared hard in my
face. "Who are you, boy. I don't know you."
"Antony Grace, please, sir," I faltered.
"And who's Antony Grace?"
"There, I thought it was a do," said the first constable roughly. "What
d'yer mean by gammoning me in this way? Come along."
"No, sir, please. Pray give me time," I cried. "Don't send me back.
Please, Mr Revitts, I have run away from Mr Blakeford, and if I am
sent back to Rowford he'll kill me. I know he will."
"'Old 'ard, Smith," said the big constable. "Look here, boy. What did
you say? Where did you come from?"
"Rowford, sir. Pray don't send me back."
"And what's the name of the chap as you're afraid on?"
"Mr Blakeford, sir."
"I'm blest!"
"What did you say, sir?"
"I said I'm blest, boy."
"Then you do know him?" said the first constable.
"I don't quite know as I do, yet," was the reply.
"Well, look here, I want to get back. You take charge of him. I found
him on a doorstep in Great Coram Street. There's his bundle. If he
don't give a good account of himself, have it entered and lock him up."
"All right," said the other, after a few moments' hesitation.
"Then I'm off," said the first man; and he left me in charge of the big
constable, who stood staring down at me so fiercely, as I thought, that
I looked to right and left for a way of escape.
"None o' that, sir," he said sharply, in the words and way of the other,
whose heavy footsteps were now echoing down the passage. "Lookye here,
if you try to run away, I've only got to shout, and hundreds of
thousands of pleecemen will start round about to stop yer."
As he spoke he pushed me into a Windsor arm-chair, where I sat as if in
a cage, while he held up one finger to shake in my face.
"As the Clerkenwell magistrate said t'other day, the law's a great
network, and spreads wide. You're new in the net o' the law, young
fellow, and you can't get out. Just look here, we knows a deal in the
law and police, and I can find out in two twos whether you are telling
me the truth or doing the artful."
"Please, sir--"
"Hold your tongue, sir! You can make your defence when your time comes;
and mind this, it's my dooty to tell you that what you says now may be
used in evidence again you."
Thus silenced, I stood gazing up in his big-whiskered face, that seemed
to loom over me, in the gaslight, and wondered why there should be so
much form and ceremony over taking my word.
"Now look here," he said pulling out a notebook and pencil, like the
auctioneer's, only smaller, and seeming as if he were going to take an
inventory of my small person. "Now, look here," he repeated, moistening
the point of his pencil, "you told Joe Smith you knowed me, and I never
set eyes on you afore."
"Please, sir," I said hastily, "I told him I know Mr Revitts, who's in
the police."
"Yes, and you said you had run away from Rowford and a Mr Blake--
Blake--What's his name?"
"Blakeford, sir," I said despondently, for it seemed that this was not
my Mr Revitts.
"Blakeford. That's right; and he ill-used you?"
"Yes, sir."
"He's a little fair man, ain't he, with blue eyes?" And he rustled the
leaves of his notebook as if about to take down my answer.
"No, sir," I cried eagerly; "he's tall and dark, and has short hair, and
very white teeth."
"Ho! Tall, is he?" said the constable, making believe to write, and
then holding out his pencil at me. "He's a nice, kind, amiable man,
ain't he, as wouldn't say an unkind word to a dorg?"
"Oh no, sir," I said, shuddering; "that's not my Mr Blakeford."
"Ho! Now, then, once more. There's a servant lives there at that
house, and her name's Jane--ain't it?"
"No, sir, Mary."
"And she's got red hair and freckles, and she--she's very little and--"
"No, no," I cried excitedly, for after my heart had seemed to sink
terribly low, it now leaped at his words. "That isn't Mary, and you are
saying all this to try me, sir. You--you are Mr William Revitts, I
know you are;" and I caught him eagerly by the arm.
"Which I don't deny it, boy," he said, still looking at me suspiciously,
and removing my hand. "Revitts is my name. P.C. Revitts, VV 240; and I
ain't ashamed of it. But only to think of it. How did you know of me,
though?"
"I wrote Mary's letters for her, sir."
"Whew! That's how it was she had so improved in her writing. And so
you've been living in the same house along a her?"
"Yes, sir," I said, "and she was so good and kind."
"When she wasn't in a tantrum, eh?"
"Yes, sir, when she wasn't in a--"
"Tantrum, that's it, boy. We should ha' been spliced afore now if it
hadn't been for her tantrums. But only to think o' your being picked up
in the street like this. And what am I to do now? You've absconded,
you have; you know you've absconded in the eyes of the law."
"Write to Mary, please, sir, and ask her if it wasn't enough to make me
run away."
"Abscond, my lad, abscond," said the constable.
"Yes, sir," I said, with a shiver, "abscond."
"You didn't--you didn't," he said in a half hesitating way, as he felt
and pinched my bundle, and then ran his hand down by my jacket-pocket.
"You didn't--these are all your own things in this, are they?"
"Oh yes, sir!" I said.
"Because some boys when they absconds, makes mistakes, and takes what
isn't theirs."
"Do they, sir?"
"Yes, my lad, and I'm puzzled about you. You see, it's my duty to treat
you like a runaway 'prentice, and I'm uneasy in my mind about what to
do. You see, you did run away."
"Oh yes, sir, I did run away. I was obliged to. Mr Blakeford wanted
me to tell lies."
"Well, that seems to come easy enough to most people," he said.
"But I am telling the truth, sir," I said. "Write down to Rowford, and
ask Mary if I'm not telling the truth."
"Truth! Oh, I know that, my boy," he said kindly. "Here, give's your
hand. Come along."
"But you won't send me back, sir?"
"Send you back? Not I, boy. He's a blackguard, that Blakeford. I know
him, and I only wish he'd do something, and I had him to take up for it.
Mary's told me all about him, and if ever we meets, even if it's five
pounds or a month, I'll punch his head: that's what I'll do for him. Do
yer hear?"
"Yes, sir," I said.
"Now, what's to be done with you?"