CAPTURED
It was settled that Cyril was to take the first watch, and that the
Captain should relieve him at one o'clock. At nine, the family went
to bed. A quarter of an hour later, Cyril stole noiselessly from his
attic down to John Wilkes's room. The door had been left ajar, and
the candle was still burning.
"I put a chair by the window," the sailor said, from his bed, "and
left the light, for you might run foul of something or other in the
dark, though I have left a pretty clear gangway for you."
Cyril blew out the candle, and seated himself at the window. For a
time he could see nothing, and told himself that the whole contents
of the warehouse might be carried off without his being any the
wiser.
"I shall certainly see nothing," he said to himself; "but, at least,
I may hear something."
So saying, he turned the fastening of the casement and opened it
about half an inch. As his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he
was able to make out the line of the roof of the warehouse, which was
some three or four feet below the level of his eyes, and some twenty
feet away on his left. The time passed slowly. He kept himself awake
by thinking over the old days in France, the lessons he had learnt
with his friend, Harry Parton, and the teaching of the old clergyman.
He heard the bell of St. Paul's strike ten and eleven. The last
stroke had scarcely ceased to vibrate when he rose to his feet
suddenly. He heard, on his left, a scraping noise. A moment later it
ceased, and then was renewed again. It lasted but a few seconds; then
he heard an irregular, shuffling noise, that seemed to him upon the
roof of the warehouse. Pressing his face to the casement, he suddenly
became aware that the straight line of the ridge was broken by
something moving along it, and a moment later he made out a second
object, just behind the first. Moving with the greatest care, he made
his way out of the room, half closed the door behind him, crossed the
passage, and pushed at a door opposite.
"Captain Dave," he said, in a low voice, "get up at once, and please
don't make a noise."
"Ay, ay, lad."
There was a movement from the bed, and a moment later the Captain
stood beside him.
"What is it, lad?" he whispered.
"There are two figures moving along on the ridge of the roof of the
warehouse. I think it is the apprentices. I heard a slight noise, as
if they were letting themselves down from their window by a rope. It
is just over that roof, you know."
There was a rustling sound as the Captain slipped his doublet on.
"That is so. The young scoundrels! What can they be doing on the
roof?"
They went to the window behind. Just as they reached it there was a
vivid flash of lightning. It sufficed to show them a figure lying at
full length at the farther end of the roof; then all was dark again,
and a second or two later came a sharp, crashing roar of thunder.
"We had better stand well back from the window," Cyril whispered.
"Another flash might show us to anyone looking this way."
"What does it mean, lad? What on earth is that boy doing there? I
could not see which it was."
"I think it is Ashford," Cyril said. "The figure in front seemed the
smaller of the two."
"But where on earth can Tom have got to?"
"I should fancy, sir, that Robert has lowered him so that he can get
his feet on the crane and swing it outwards; then he might sit down
on it and swing himself by the rope into the loft if the doors are
not fastened inside. Robert, being taller, would have no difficulty
in lowering himself--There!" he broke off, as another flash of
lightning lit up the sky. "He has gone, now; there is no one on the
roof."
John Wilkes was by this time standing beside them, having started up
at the first flash of lightning.
"Do you go up, John, into their room," the Captain said. "I think
there can be no doubt that these fellows on the roof are Ashford and
Frost, but it is as well to be able to swear to it."
The foreman returned in a minute or two.
"The room is empty, Captain; the window is open, and there is a rope
hanging down from it. Shall I cast it adrift?"
"Certainly not, John. We do not mean to take them tonight, and they
must be allowed to go back to their beds without a suspicion that
they have been watched. I hope and trust that it is not so bad as it
looks, and that the boys have only broken out from devilry. You know,
boys will do things of that sort just because it is forbidden."
"There must be more than that," John Wilkes said. "If it had been
just after they went to their rooms, it might be that they went to
some tavern or other low resort, but the town is all asleep now."
They again went close to the window, pushed the casement a little
more open, and stood listening there. In two or three minutes there
was a very slight sound heard.
"They are unbolting the door into the yard," John Wilkes whispered.
"I would give a month's pay to be behind them with a rope's end."
Half a minute later there was a sudden gleam of light below, and they
could see the door open. The light disappeared again, but they heard
footsteps; then they saw the light thrown on the fastening to the
outer gate, and could make out that two figures below were applying a
key to the padlock. This was taken off and laid down; then the heavy
wooden bar was lifted, and also laid on the ground. The gate opened
as if pushed from the other side. The two figures went out; the sound
of a low murmur of conversation could be heard; then they returned,
the gate was closed and fastened again, they entered the warehouse,
the light disappeared, and the door was closed.
"That's how the things went, John."
"Ay, ay, sir," the foreman growled.
"As they were undoing the gate, the light fell on a coil of rope they
had set down there, and a bag which I guess had copper of some kind
in it. They have done us cleverly, the young villains! There was not
noise enough to wake a cat. They must have had every bolt and hinge
well oiled."
"We had better close the casement now, sir, for as they come back
along the ridge they will be facing it, and if a flash of lightning
came they would see that it was half open, and even if they did not
catch sight of our faces they would think it suspicious that the
window should be open, and it might put them on their guard."
"Yes; and we may as well turn in at once, John. Like enough when they
get back they will listen for a bit at their door, so as to make sure
that everything is quiet before they turn in. There is nothing more
to see now. Of course they will get in as they got out. You had
better turn in as you are, Cyril; they may listen at your door."
Cyril at once went up to his room, closed the door, placed a chair
against it, and then lay down on his bed. He listened intently, and
four or five minutes later thought that he heard a door open; but he
could not be sure, for just at that moment heavy drops began to
patter down upon the tiles. The noise rose louder and louder until he
could scarce have heard himself speak. Then there was a bright flash
and the deep rumble of the thunder mingled with the sharp rattle of
the raindrops overhead. He listened for a time to the storm, and then
dropped off to sleep.
Things went on as usual at breakfast the next morning. During the
meal, Captain Dave gave the foreman several instructions as to the
morning's work.
"I am going on board the _Royalist_," he said. "John Browning wants
me to overhaul all the gear, and see what will do for another voyage
or two, and what must be new. His skipper asked for new running
rigging all over, but he thinks that there can't be any occasion for
its all being renewed. I don't expect I shall be in till dinner-time,
so anyone that wants to see me must come again in the afternoon."
Ten minutes later, Cyril went out, on his way to his work. Captain
Dave was standing a few doors away.
"Before I go on board the brig, lad, I am going up to the Chief
Constable's to arrange about this business. I want to get four men of
the watch. Of course, it may be some nights before this is tried
again, so I shall have the men stowed away in the kitchen. Then we
must keep watch, and as soon as we see those young villains on the
roof, we will let the men out at the front door. Two will post
themselves this end of the lane, and two go round into Leadenhall
Street and station themselves at the other end. When the boys go out
after supper we will unlock the door at the bottom of the stairs into
the shop, and the door into the warehouse. Then we will steal down
into the shop and listen there until we hear them open the door into
the yard, and then go into the warehouse and be ready to make a rush
out as soon as they get the gate open. John will have his boatswain's
whistle ready, and will give the signal. That will bring the watch
up, so they will be caught in a trap."
"I should think that would be a very good plan, Captain Dave, though
I wish that it could have been done without Tom Frost being taken. He
is a timid sort of boy, and I have no doubt that he has been entirely
under the thumb of Robert."
"Well, if he has he will get off lightly," the Captain said. "Even if
a boy is a timid boy, he knows what will be the consequences if he is
caught robbing his master. Cowardice is no excuse for crime, lad. The
boys have always been well treated, and though I dare say Ashford is
the worst of the two, if the other had been honest he would not have
seen him robbing me without letting me know."
For six nights watch was kept without success. Every evening, when
the family and apprentices had retired to rest, John Wilkes went
quietly downstairs and admitted the four constables, letting them out
in the morning before anyone was astir. Mrs. Dowsett had been taken
into her husband's confidence so far as to know that he had
discovered he had been robbed, and was keeping a watch for the
thieves. She was not told that the apprentices were concerned in the
matter, for Captain Dave felt sure that, however much she might try
to conceal it, Robert Ashford would perceive, by her looks, that
something was wrong.
Nellie was told a day or two later, for, although ignorant of her
father's nightly watchings, she was conscious from his manner, and
that of her mother, that something was amiss, and was so persistent
in her inquiries, that the Captain consented to her mother telling
her that he had a suspicion he was being robbed, and warning her that
it was essential that the subject must not be in any way alluded to.
"Your father is worrying over it a good deal, Nellie, and it is
better that he should not perceive that you are aware of it. Just let
things go on as they were."
"Is the loss serious, mother?"
"Yes; he thinks that a good deal of money has gone. I don't think he
minds that so much as the fact that, so far, he doesn't know who the
people most concerned in it may be. He has some sort of suspicion in
one quarter, but has no clue whatever to the men most to blame."
"Does Cyril know anything about it?" Nellie asked suddenly.
"Yes, he knows, my dear; indeed, it was owing to his cleverness that
your father first came to have suspicions."
"Oh! that explains it," Nellie said. "He had been talking to father,
and I asked what it was about and he would not tell me, and I have
been very angry with him ever since."
"I have noticed that you have been behaving very foolishly," Mrs.
Dowsett said quietly, "and that for the last week you have been
taking Robert with you as an escort when you went out of an evening.
I suppose you did that to annoy Cyril, but I don't think that he
minded much."
"I don't think he did, mother," Nellie agreed, with a laugh which
betrayed a certain amount of irritation. "I saw that he smiled, two
or three evenings back, when I told Robert at supper that I wanted
him to go out with me, and I was rarely angry, I can tell you."
Cyril had indeed troubled himself in no way about Nellie's coolness;
but when she had so pointedly asked Robert to go with her, he had
been amused at the thought of how greatly she would be mortified,
when Robert was haled up to the Guildhall for robbing her father, at
the thought that he had been accompanying her as an escort.
"I rather hope this will be our last watch, Captain Dave," he said,
on the seventh evening.
"Why do you hope so specially to-night, lad?"
"Of course I have been hoping so every night. But I think it is
likely that the men who take the goods come regularly once a week;
for in that case there would be no occasion for them to meet at other
times to arrange on what night they should be in the lane."
"Yes, that is like enough, Cyril; and the hour will probably be the
same, too. John and I will share your watch to-night, so as to be
ready to get the men off without loss of time."
Cyril had always taken the first watch, which was from half-past nine
till twelve. The Captain and Wilkes had taken the other watches by
turns.
As before, just as the bell finished striking eleven, the three
watchers again heard through the slightly open casement the scraping
noise on the left. It had been agreed that they should not move, lest
the sound should be heard outside. Each grasped the stout cudgel he
held in his hand, and gazed at the roof of the warehouse, which could
now be plainly seen, for the moon was half full and the sky was
clear. As before, the two figures went along, and this time they
could clearly recognise them. They were both sitting astride of the
ridge tiles, and moved themselves along by means of their hands. They
waited until they saw one after the other disappear at the end of the
roof, and then John Wilkes quietly stole downstairs. The four
constables had been warned to be specially wakeful.
"They are at it again to-night," John said to them, as he entered.
"Now, do you two who go round into Leadenhall Street start at once,
but don't take your post at the end of the lane for another five or
six minutes. The thieves outside may not have come up at present. As
you go out, leave the door ajar; in five minutes you others should
stand ready. Don't go to the corner, but wait in the doorway below
until you hear the whistle. They will be only fifteen or twenty yards
up the lane, and would see you if you took up your station at the
corner; but the moment you hear the whistle, rush out and have at
them. We shall be there before you will."
John went down with the last two men, entered the shop, and stood
there waiting until he should be joined by his master. The latter and
Cyril remained at the window until they saw the door of the warehouse
open, and then hurried downstairs. Both were in their stockinged
feet, so that their movements should be noiseless.
"Come on, John; they are in the yard," the Captain whispered; and
they entered the warehouse and went noiselessly on, until they stood
at the door. The process of unbarring the gate was nearly
accomplished. As it swung open, John Wilkes put his whistle to his
lips and blew a loud, shrill call, and the three rushed forward.
There was a shout of alarm, a fierce imprecation, and three of the
four figures at the gate sprang at them. Scarce a blow had been
struck when the two constables ran up and joined in the fray. Two men
fought stoutly, but were soon overpowered. Robert Ashford, knife in
hand, had attacked John Wilkes with fury, and would have stabbed him,
as his attention was engaged upon one of the men outside, had not
Cyril brought his cudgel down sharply on his knuckles, when, with a
yell of pain, he dropped the knife and fled up the lane. He had gone
but a short distance, however, when he fell into the hands of the two
constables, who were running towards him. One of them promptly
knocked him down with his cudgel, and then proceeded to bind his
hands behind him, while the other ran on to join in the fray. It was
over before he got there, and his comrades were engaged in binding
the two robbers. Tom Frost had taken no part in the fight. He stood
looking on, paralysed with terror, and when the two men were
overpowered he fell on his knees beseeching his master to have mercy
on him.
"It is too late, Tom," the Captain said. "You have been robbing me
for months, and now you have been caught in the act you will have to
take your share in the punishment. You are a prisoner of the
constables here, and not of mine, and even if I were willing to let
you go, they would have their say in the matter. Still, if you make a
clean breast of what you know about it, I will do all I can to get
you off lightly; and seeing that you are but a boy, and have been,
perhaps, led into this, they will not be disposed to be hard on you.
Pick up that lantern and bring it here, John; let us see what
plunder, they were making off with."
There was no rope this time, but a bag containing some fifty pounds'
weight of brass and copper fittings. One of the constables took
possession of this.
"You had better come along with us to the Bridewell, Master Dowsett,
to sign the charge sheet, though I don't know whether it is
altogether needful, seeing that we have caught them in the act; and
you will all three have to be at the Court to-morrow at ten o'clock."
"I will go with you," the Captain said; "but I will first slip in and
put my shoes on; I brought them down in my hand and shall be ready in
a minute. You may as well lock up this gate again, John. I will go
out through the front door and join them in the lane." As he went
into the house, John Wilkes closed the gate and put up the bar, then
took up the lantern and said to Cyril,--
"Well, Master Cyril, this has been a good night's work, and mighty
thankful I am that we have caught the pirates. It was a good day for
us all when you came to the Captain, or they might have gone on
robbing him till the time came that there was nothing more to rob;
and I should never have held up my head again, for though the Captain
would never believe that I had had a hand in bringing him to ruin,
other people would not have thought so, and I might never have got a
chance of proving my innocence. Now we will just go to the end of the
yard and see if they did manage to get into the warehouse by means of
that crane, as you thought they did."
They found that the crane had been swung out just far enough to
afford a foot-hold to those lowering themselves on to it from the
roof. The door of the loft stood open.
"Just as you said. You could not have been righter, not if you had
seen them at it. And now I reckon we may as well lock up the place
again, and turn in. The Captain has got the key of the front door,
and we will leave the lantern burning at the bottom of the stairs."
Cyril got up as soon as he heard a movement in the house, and went
down to the shop, which had been already opened by John Wilkes.
"It seems quiet here, without the apprentices, John. Is there any way
in which I can help?"
"No, thank you, sir. We shan't be moving the goods about till after
breakfast, and then, no doubt, the Captain will get an extra man in
to help me. I reckon he will have to get a neighbour in to give an
eye to the place while we are all away at the Court."
"I see there is the rope still hanging from their window," Cyril
said, as he went out into the yard.
"I thought it best to leave it there," John Wilkes replied, "and I
ain't been up into the loft either. It is best to leave matters just
as they were. Like enough, they will send an officer down from the
Court to look at them."
When the family assembled at breakfast, Mrs. Dowsett was looking very
grave. The Captain, on the other hand, was in capital spirits.
Nellie, as usual, was somewhat late.
"Where is everybody?" she asked in surprise, seeing that Cyril alone
was in his place with her father and mother.
"John Wilkes is downstairs, looking after the shop, and will come up
and have his breakfast when we have done," her father replied.
"Are both the apprentices out, then?" she asked.
"The apprentices are in limbo," the Captain said grimly.
"In limbo, father! What does that mean?"
"It means that they are in gaol, my dear."
Nellie put down the knife and fork that she had just taken up.
"Are you joking, father?"
"Very far from it, my dear; it is no joke to any of us--certainly not
to me, and not to Robert Ashford, or Tom Frost. They have been
robbing me for the last year, and, for aught I know, before that. If
it had not been for Master Cyril it would not have been very long
before I should have had to put my shutters up."
"But how could they rob you, father?"
"By stealing my goods, and selling them, Nellie. The way they did it
was to lower themselves by a rope from their window on to the roof of
the warehouse, and to get down at the other end on to the crane, and
then into the loft. Then they went down and took what they had a
fancy to, undid the door, and went into the yard, and then handed
over their booty to the fellows waiting at the gate for it. Last
night we caught them at it, after having been on the watch for ten
days."
"That is what I heard last night, then," she said. "I was woke by a
loud whistle, and then I heard a sound of quarrelling and fighting in
the lane. I thought it was some roysterers going home late. Oh,
father, it is dreadful to think of! And what will they do to them?"
"It is a hanging matter," the Captain said; "it is not only theft,
but mutiny. No doubt the judges will take a lenient view of Tom
Frost's case, both on the ground of his youth, and because, no doubt,
he was influenced by Ashford; but I would not give much for Robert's
chances. No doubt it will be a blow to you, Nellie, for you seem to
have taken to him mightily of late."
Nellie was about to give an emphatic contradiction, but as she
remembered how pointedly she had asked for his escort during the last
few days, she flushed up, and was silent.
"It is terrible to think of," she said, after a pause. "I suppose
this is what you and Cyril were consulting about, father. I have to
ask your pardon, Master Cyril, for my rudeness to you; but of course
I did not think it was anything of consequence, or that you could not
have told me if you had wished to do so."
"You need not beg my pardon, Mistress Nellie. No doubt you thought it
churlish on my part to refuse to gratify your curiosity, and I am not
surprised that you took offence. I knew that when you learned how
important it was to keep silence over the matter, that you would
acquit me of the intention of making a mystery about nothing."
"I suppose you knew, mother?" Nellie asked.
"I knew that your father believed that he was being robbed, Nellie,
and that he was keeping watch for some hours every night, but I did
not know that he suspected the apprentices. I am glad that we did
not, for assuredly we should have found it very hard to school our
faces so that they should not guess that aught was wrong."
"That was why we said nothing about it, Nellie. It has been as much
as I have been able to do to sit at table, and talk in the shop as
usual, with boys I knew were robbing me; and I know honest John
Wilkes must have felt it still more. But till a week ago we would not
believe that they had a hand in the matter. It is seven nights since
Cyril caught them creeping along the roof, and called me to the
window in John Wilkes's room, whence he was watching the yard, not
thinking the enemy was in the house."
"And how did you come to suspect that robbery was going on, Cyril?"
"Simply because, on making up the books, I found there was a great
deficiency in the stores."
"That is what he was doing when he was sitting up at night, after you
were in bed, Miss Nellie," her father said. "You may thank your stars
that he took a berth in this ship, for the scoundrels would have
foundered her to a certainty, if he had not done so. I tell you,
child, he has saved this craft from going to the bottom. I have not
said much to him about it, but he knows that I don't feel it any the
less."
"And who were the other men who were taken, father?"
"That I can't tell you, Nellie. I went to the Bridewell with them,
and as soon as I saw them safely lodged there I came home. They will
be had up before the Lord Mayor this morning, and then I dare say I
shall know all about them. Now I must go and take my watch below, and
let John Wilkes come off duty."
"Why, John, what is the matter?" Mrs. Dowsett said, when the foreman
entered.
"Nothing worth speaking of, Mistress. I got a clip over the eye from
one of the pirates we were capturing. The thing mattered nothing, one
way or the other, but it might have cost me my life, because, for a
moment, it pretty well dazed me. That young villain, Bob, was just
coming at me with his knife, and I reckon it would have gone hard
with me if Master Cyril here hadn't, just in the nick of time,
brought his stick down on Robert's knuckles, and that so sharply that
the fellow dropped his knife with a yell, and took to his heels, only
to fall into the hands of two of the watch coming from the other end
of the lane. You did me a good turn, lad, and if ever I get the
chance of ranging up alongside of you in a fray, you may trust me to
return it."
He held out his hand to Cyril, and gave a warm grip to the hand the
latter laid in it.
"It is a rum start, Mistress," John went on, as he sat down to his
meal, "that two old hands like the Captain and I were sailing on, not
dreaming of hidden rocks or sand-banks, when this lad, who I used to
look upon as a young cockerel who was rather above his position,
should come forward and have saved us all from shipwreck."
"It is indeed, John," his mistress said earnestly, "and I thank God
indeed that He put the thought into the minds of Captain Dave and
myself to ask him to take up his abode with us. It seemed to us then
that we were doing a little kindness that would cost us nothing,
whereas it has turned out the saving of us."
"Dear, dear!" Nellie, who had been sitting with a frown on her pretty
face, said pettishly. "What a talk there will be about it all, and
how Jane Greenwood and Martha Stebbings and the rest of them will
laugh at me! They used to say they wondered how I could go about with
such an ugly wretch behind me, and of course I spoke up for him and
said that he was an honest knave and faithful; and now it turns out
that he is a villain and a robber. I shall never hear the last of
him."
"You will get over that, Nellie," her mother said severely. "It would
be much better if, instead of thinking of such trifles, you would
consider how sad a thing it is that two lads should lose their
character, and perhaps their lives, simply for their greed of other
people's goods. I could cry when I think of it. I know that Robert
Ashford has neither father nor mother to grieve about him, for my
husband's father took him out of sheer charity; but Tom's parents are
living, and it will be heart-breaking indeed to them when they hear
of their son's misdoings."
"I trust that Captain Dave will get him off," Cyril said. "As he is
so young he may turn King's evidence, and I feel sure that he did not
go willingly into the affair. I have noticed many times that he had a
frightened look, as if he had something on his mind. I believe that
he acted under fear of the other."
As soon as John Wilkes had finished his breakfast he went with
Captain Dave and Cyril to the Magistrates' Court at the Guildhall.
Some other cases were first heard, and then the apprentices, with the
two men who had been captured in the lane, were brought in and placed
in the dock. The men bore marks that showed they had been engaged in
a severe struggle, and that the watch had used their staves with
effect. One was an elderly man with shaggy grey eyebrows; the other
was a very powerfully built fellow, who seemed, from his attire, to
follow the profession of a sailor. Tom Frost was sobbing bitterly.
One of Robert Ashford's hands was bandaged up. As he was placed in
the dock he cast furtive glances round with his shifty eyes, and as
they fell upon Cyril an expression of deadly hate came over his face.
The men of the watch who had captured them first gave their evidence
as to finding them in the act of robbery, and testified to the
desperate resistance they had offered to capture. Captain Dave then
entered the witness-box, and swore first to the goods that were found
on them being his property, and then related how, it having come to
his knowledge that he was being robbed, he had set a watch, and had,
eight days previously, seen his two apprentices getting along the
roof, and how they had come out from the warehouse door, had opened
the outer gate, and had handed over some goods they had brought out
to persons unknown waiting to receive them.
"Why did you not stop them in their commission of the theft?" the
Alderman in the Chair asked.
"Because, sir, had I done so, the men I considered to be the chief
criminals, and who had doubtless tempted my apprentices to rob me,
would then have made off. Therefore, I thought it better to wait
until I could lay hands on them also, and so got four men of the
watch to remain in the house at night."
Then he went on to relate how, after watching seven nights, he had
again seen the apprentices make their way along the roof, and how
they and the receivers of their booty were taken by the watch, aided
by himself, his foreman, and Master Cyril Shenstone, who was dwelling
in his house.
After John Wilkes had given his evidence, Cyril went into the box and
related how, being engaged by Captain David Dowsett to make up his
books, he found, upon stock being taken, that there was a deficiency
to the amount of many hundreds of pounds in certain stores, notably
such as were valuable without being bulky.
"Is anything known as to the prisoners?" the magistrate asked the
officer of the city watch in charge of the case.
"Nothing is known of the two boys, your honour; but the men are well
known. The elder, who gave the name of Peter Johnson, is one Joseph
Marner; he keeps a marine shop close to the Tower. For a long time he
has been suspected of being a receiver of stolen goods, but we have
never been able to lay finger on him before. The other man has, for
the last year, acted as his assistant in the shop; he answers closely
to the description of a man, Ephraim Fowler, who has long been
wanted. This man was a seaman in a brig trading to Yarmouth. After an
altercation with the captain he stabbed him, and then slew the mate
who was coming to his assistance; then with threats he compelled the
other two men on board to let him take the boat. When they were off
Brightlingsea he rowed away, and has not been heard of since. If you
will remand them, before he comes up again I hope to find the men who
were on board, and see if they identify him. We are in possession of
Joseph Marner's shop, and have found large quantities of goods that
we have reason to believe are the proceeds of these and other
robberies."
After the prisoners had left the dock, Captain Dave went up to the
officer.
"I believe," he said, "that the boy has not voluntarily taken part in
these robberies, but has been led away, or perhaps obliged by threats
to take part in them; he may be able to give you some assistance, for
maybe these men are not the only persons to whom the stolen goods
have been sold, and he may be able to put you on the track of other
receivers."
"The matter is out of my hands now," the officer said, "but I will
represent what you say in the proper quarter; and now you had better
come round with me; you may be able to pick out some of your
property. We only made a seizure of the place an hour ago. I had all
the men who came in on duty this morning to take a look at the
prisoners. Fortunately two or three of them recognised Marner, and
you may guess we lost no time in getting a search warrant and going
down to his place. It is the most important capture we have made for
some time, and may lead to the discovery of other robberies that have
been puzzling us for months past. There is a gang known as the Black
Gang, but we have never been able to lay hands on any of their
leaders, and such fellows as have been captured have refused to say a
word, and have denied all knowledge of it. There have been a number
of robberies of a mysterious kind, none of which have we been able to
trace, and they have been put down to the same gang. The Chief
Constable is waiting for me there, and we shall make a thorough
search of the premises, and it is like enough we shall come across
some clue of importance. At any rate, if we can find some of the
articles stolen in the robberies I am speaking of, it will be a
strong proof that Marner is one of the chiefs of the gang, and that
may lead to further discoveries."
"You had better come with us, John," Captain Dave said. "You know our
goods better than I do myself. Will you come, Cyril?"
"I should be of no use in identifying the goods, sir, and I am due in
half an hour at one of my shops."
The search was an exhaustive one. There was no appearance of an
underground cellar, but on some of the boards of the shop being taken
up, it was found that there was a large one extending over the whole
house. This contained an immense variety of goods. In one corner was
a pile of copper bolts that Captain Dave and John were able to claim
at once, as they bore the brand of the maker from whom they obtained
their stock. There were boxes of copper and brass ship and house
fittings, and a very large quantity of rope, principally of the sizes
in which the stock had been found deficient; but to these Captain
Dave was unable to swear. In addition to these articles the cellar
contained a number of chests, all of which were found to be filled
with miscellaneous articles of wearing apparel--rolls of silk,
velvet, cloth, and other materials--curtains, watches, clocks,
ornaments of all kinds, and a considerable amount of plate. As among
these were many articles which answered to the descriptions given of
goods that had been stolen from country houses, the whole were
impounded by the Chief Constable, and carried away in carts. The
upper part of the house was carefully searched, the walls tapped,
wainscotting pulled down, and the floors carefully examined. Several
hiding-places were found, but nothing of any importance discovered in
them.
"I should advise you," the Chief Constable said to Captain Dave, "to
put in a claim for every article corresponding with those you have
lost. Of course, if anyone else comes forward and also puts in a
claim, the matter will have to be gone into, and if neither of you
can absolutely swear to the things, I suppose you will have to settle
it somehow between you. If no one else claims them, you will get them
all without question, for you can swear that, to the best of your
knowledge and belief, they are yours, and bring samples of your own
goods to show that they exactly correspond with them. I have no doubt
that a good deal of the readily saleable stuff, such as ropes, brass
sheaves for blocks, and things of that sort, will have been sold, but
as it is clear that there is a good deal of your stuff in the stock
found below, I hope your loss will not be very great. There is no
doubt it has been a splendid find for us. It is likely enough that we
shall discover among those boxes goods that have been obtained from a
score of robberies in London, and likely enough in the country. We
have arrested three men we found in the place, and two women, and may
get from some of them information that will enable us to lay hands on
some of the others concerned in these robberies."