Leading off from and immediately behind the public office, there was a
small carpeted room, provided with a sofa, some chairs, and a
writing-desk.
This room was appropriated to some of the upper functionaries connected
with the police establishment of ----, and was the scene of private
examinations of culprits, and of other kinds of proceedings of a private
nature.
At the time at which we introduce the reader to this apartment, there
lay extended on the sofa above spoken of, a gentleman who appeared to
have seen some recent service, if one might judge from the circumstance
of his head being bound up in a blood-stained handkerchief, and his
exhibiting some symptoms of languor and debility. This gentleman was Mr.
Thomson, who was awaiting the result of the expedition which had gone to
examine his house, and whose return he was now momentarily expecting.
Awaiting the same issue then, and awaiting it in the same apartment, was
another gentleman. This person was a sort of sub-superintendent of the
police; and was, at the moment of which we speak, busily engaged writing
at the desk formerly mentioned.
Both of those persons, then, were anxiously waiting the return of the
detachment whose proceedings are already before the reader, beguiling
the time, meanwhile, by discussing the probabilities of the case. They
were thus engaged, when a tremendous noise in the outer office gave
intimation of an arrival, and one of no ordinary kind; for the tramping
of feet was immense, and the hubbub astounding.
"That's _them_," said Mr. Thomson.
"I think it is," said the sub.
Ere any other remark could be made, the door of the private apartment
was opened, and in marched a short, stout, half-dressed, bloody-faced
gentleman, in a blue cloth cloak, between two policemen, and followed by
a mob of functionaries of the same description, who stood so thick as
to completely block up the door. This stout, half-dressed gentleman in
the blue cloth cloak was the doctor.
"Dear me, doctor," said Mr. Thomson, advancing towards the former, whom
he at once recognised, "what's the matter? What terrible affair is
this?"
"Terrible indeed--unheard of, monstrous!" exclaimed the doctor, in a
towering passion. "My house, sir, has been broken into by these
ruffians. I have been torn from my bed, maltreated in the way you see,
and dragged here like a felon by them, and for what I know not. But I
_will_ know it; and if I don't--"
"This is odd, doctor," here interposed Mr. Thomson; "I have been the
victim of a similar kind of violence to-night, as you may see by the
state of my head, although the case is in other respects somewhat
different. My house has been also broken into."
"Bless my soul, very strange!" said the doctor, taking a momentary
interest in the misfortunes of his neighbour. "By these ruffians?" he
added, pointing to the police.
"No, no, not them," replied Thomson; "housebreakers. Some villains had
got into the house; and I had no sooner entered it, on returning home a
little later than usual, than I was knocked down, dragged out to the
stair, and thrown down, where I was found in a state of insensibility
and brought here."
The doctor winced a little at this statement: a vague suspicion, we can
hardly say of the fact, but of something akin thereto, began to glimmer
dimly on his mental optics. He, however, said nothing; nor, even had he
been inclined to say anything, was opportunity afforded him; for here
the presiding official of the place, the sub-superintendent, to whom the
doctor was well known, and who had impatiently awaited the conclusion
of the conversation between the latter and Thomson, interfered with a--
"Good heaven, doctor, how came you to be in this situation? What is the
meaning of all this?" he added, turning to his men.
"The maining's as plain as a pike-staff, your honour," replied the Irish
watchman, to whom we have already introduced the reader. "We found this
little gentleman, since he turns out to be a gentleman, where he
shouldn't have been."
"And where was that, pray?" inquired the sub.
"Why, in Mr. Thomson's house, your honour. And not only that, but in bed
too, as snug as a fox in a chimbley."
"In ta fery peds, ta roke!" here chimed in our friend M'Kay.
"What! you don't mean to say that you found the doctor here in _Mr.
Thomson's_ house?" said the astonished official, laying a marked
emphasis on the name.
"To pe surely we do, sir," replied Duncan.
"I'll tak my Bible oath till't," added another personage, whom the
reader will readily recognise.
"In my house! The doctor in _my_ house!" exclaimed Mr. Thomson, in the
utmost amazement.
"Mr. Thomson's house! Me in Mr. Thomson's house!" said the doctor, with
a look of blank dismay; for a tolerably distinct view of the truth had
now begun to present itself to his mind's eye. It was, therefore, rather
in the desperate hope of there being yet some chance in his favour, than
from any conviction that the testimony against him was founded in error,
that he added--
"My _own_ house, you scoundrels; you found me in my _own_ house!"
Here the whole mob of policemen simultaneously, and as if with one
voice, shouted--"It's a lie, it's a lie. We found him in Mr. Thomson's."
"How do you explain this, doctor?" said Mr. Thomson mildly, although
beginning--he couldn't help it--to think rather queerly of the doctor.
"Why, why," replied the crest-fallen and perplexed doctor, "if I really
have been in your house, Mr. Thomson, although I can't believe it, I
must, I must--in fact, I must have mistaken it for my own. To tell a
truth, I came home rather cut last night; and it is possible, quite
possible, although I can hardly think probable, that I may have taken
your house for my own. That's the fact," added the doctor, with
something like an appeal to the lenity of the person whose rights he had
so unwittingly usurped, and whose corporeal substance he had so
seriously maltreated.
"And was it you that knocked me down, doctor?" said Mr. Thomson. "Too
bad that, to knock me down in my own house."
"Why, my dear sir, I trust I did not. I hope I did not. But really I
don't know; perhaps I--you see, I thought thieves were coming in, and
I--"
Here a burst of laughter from the presiding officer, which was instantly
taken up by every one in the apartment, and in which Thomson himself
couldn't help joining, interrupted the doctor's further explanations.
"Well, doctor," said the latter, who was a good-natured sort of person,
and who, like every one else, had a kind of esteem for the little
medical gentleman, "I must say that when you broke my head, you were
only in the way of your trade; but I think the least thing you can do is
to mend it for nothing."
"Most gladly, my dear sir," replied the doctor; "for I did the
damage,--at least I fear it, however unknowingly,--and am bound to
repair it."
"Done; let it be a bargain," said Thomson. "But, doctor, be so good as
to give me previous notice when you again desire to take possession of
my house. At any rate, don't knock me down when I come to seek a share
of it."
The doctor promised to observe the conditions; and shortly after, the
two left the office, arm in arm, in the most friendly way imaginable.
It is said, although we cannot vouch for the truth of the report, that
the doctor, after this, fell upon the expedient of casting a knot on his
handkerchief for each landing-place in the stair as he gained it, when
ascending the latter under such circumstances as those that gave rise to
the awkward occurrence which has been the subject of these pages.