"Don't you find it very dreary at night upon the river?" I said to one
of my regular patients--a river policeman--who preferred my services to
those of the divisional surgeon for a long bout of sciatica.
"Just like the old woman's eels, sir, and the skinning: one gets used to
it. It's lonesome like of a night upwards; but there you have the
lights on the bridges and there's gas here and gas there; and a faint
roar comes over the housetops from out of the streets. It's when you're
below bridge that it seems dull; where the big vessels are moored in the
black muddy stream, that goes hurrying by them with a low, rushing
noise--creeping and leaping at their slimy sides, covering their anchor
chains, or the buoy to which they swing, with all sorts of muddy refuse;
and sometimes of a night there'll be a body get hanging on somehow,
ready for us to find and take ashore.
"Now, if I give you a bit of tight chain going from a ship's bows to an
anchor down in the mud, on one side; and if I give you a dead body
floating along on the other side, you'd think directly as there'd be no
chance of the one stopping by the other--you'd think as one would float
down all slimy and horrible, touch against t'other, and then rising, it
would ride far enough out to sea. But, Lor' bless you, that's where
you're wrong; for how it is I can't tell you, but it always seems to me,
and has seemed ever since I was in the river police, that dead bodies
lash and hang themselves somehow against mooring chains, on purpose that
they might be found, and get a decent burial. Else how could they stop
as they do, over and over again? I can't tell, nor you can't tell, nor
nobody can't tell; it's a nat'ral mystery, and mysteries is things as
gets over all of us.
"Since I was nearly being found myself, hitched on to a mooring chain--
for I'll lay any money that if I had been bested I should have gone
quite naturally all the same to where I'd seen so many before--I've got
to take a little more than a business interest in such things. It's
very awful, you know; and though I'm an ignorant man, it often sets me
thinking on the dark nights when our galley's going slowly with the
stream, floating along the black, rushing river--yes, it often sets me
thinking about the state of affairs in our great city, and wondering
whether all our great civilisation's so good after all, when it brings
down stream to-night a decently-dressed body with the pockets inside
out, and marks as of blows on the swollen face; to-morrow night a
well-dressed body with no marks, and money and watch and all there; next
night the body of a young woman with an oldish face, but on that face a
weary, despairing look, that seems to say there was no rest anywhere but
in the river, and into the river she had come; next night, again,
perhaps another well-dressed body, most likely with a bit of paper and a
half washed-out address pinned inside the torn dress bosom--and this
one, perhaps, would be young, and fair, and pale, and sometimes not at
all horrible to look at.
"There, I've seen great, strong, rough men, used to all sorts of things,
stand with their hats off by such sights, and speak in even choky
voices, as if they could hardly keep back something that they would be
ashamed for others to see, down by some river stairs, where the muddy
tide has gone `lap, lap,' at one, two, or three o'clock in the morning.
Why, at such times I've often felt creepy myself; for people may say
what they like, but you never do get used to death, and whenever you
meet it you feel a strange sense of quietness stealing over you; and one
of the first things generally done when we land a body is, old or young,
to cover it with sheet or sack; and even then there's a horrible sort of
drawing of you in it; and I've sat before now watching, and unable to
get away from the uncouth covered thing, with the stream of water
trickling slowly away to get back to the river.
"But, there, I think you've had enough about what goes floating down the
river and floating up the the river, backwards and forwards, with the
tide grinding it against wharf, and pier, and buttress, till there's no
telling who or what it was. I dare say you've had enough; but it's a
thing I could go on talking about for hours--beginning with me, or one
of my mates, or a River Jack finding of them, and then going on, through
the giving notice, and the inquest, and all the rest of it; and it's all
going on day after day, month after month, year after year. Talk of the
River Jacks, though, what a singular thing it is: they never by any
chance find a body with any valuables about it; but always, when they
come across it, watch, money, pins, brooches, they're all gone; and
when, quite serious-like, I've asked them how they can account for it,
I've always got the same answer--a knowing wink of the left eye.
"Ours is a strange sort of life, and lots hardly know of our existence;
but, bless you, there'd soon be some rum goings-on if our little row
galleys were not always busy at work up and down the river. You take
plenty of precautions on shore, don't you, where there's wealth? Well,
don't you think there's as much need afloat, where there's millions of
pounds' worth of stuff almost at the mercy of the thief? For though
sailors are pretty good at keeping watch out at sea, get 'em in port,
and watching with them means choosing the softest plank under the
bulwarks, and having a good caulk. So that's where we come in useful--
working along with the Custom House officers to keep down the plundering
and smuggling that, but for us, would be carried on to an awful extent.
For, you see, there are gangs who make it a practice to work with
lightermen and with sailors; and sometimes by night, sometimes in open
day--they carry off prizes that are pretty valuable.
"River pirates you may call them, though they've got half a score of
cant names, and tea chests, bags of rice or sugar, kegs of spirits,
rolls of tobacco, all's fish that comes to their net; and if they can't
get things of that sort, why they'll go in for bits of sails, ropes and
chains, or blocks, anything even to a sheet of copper or a seaman's
kit--once they get their claws into it, there's not much chance of its
being seen again.
"It used to be ten times worse than it is now, and in those days there
was a fellow whom I'll call River Jack, who was about the most daring
and successful rascal that ever breathed. We knew his games, but we
could never catch him in the fact; and at last of all I got so riled at
the fault found with us, as robbery after robbery took place, that one
night, after a row about a ship's bell stolen off the deck of a large
Swedish corn barque, I made up my mind that I'd never let things rest
till I'd caught Mr River Jack at some one or other of his games, and
had him sent out of the country.
"Now, talking was one thing and doing another, and just at that time I'd
been making arrangements for putting a stop to my activity by hanging a
weight round my neck. I needn't mention any names, but there was a
young lady there--my wife now--that I used to go and see, and as soon as
ever it came to my time for going off to duty there used to be a scene,
for she got it into her head that I should be sure to meet with some
terrible accident on the river; and at last, from being rather soft
after her, what with the talk and tears, I used to be in anything but a
good trim for my spell.
"`There, don't be such a chicken,' I used to say, when she'd laid her
little head on my shoulder, and been talking a whole lot of unreasonable
nonsense; but it was of no use to talk, she would be a chicken; and one
night I went away, feeling as if I had caught the infection, for I never
felt more chicken-hearted in my life.
"An hour after I was on the river, with three more, pulling very gently
along in and out amongst the shadows of the great ships. But whether we
were in the shadow or out, it did not make much difference, for a darker
night I never saw, and one and all we came to the conclusion that if we
were lucky, there must be something for us to do; for that some of River
Jack's gang would be at work we were one and all sure. You see, it was
just the sort of night they would like; for looking out was no use,
since we could see nothing four yards ahead; all we could do was to wait
in the hope that our friends might come near us--and come they did.
"We had been paddling gently about for a couple of hours, and at last
had pulled under the stern of a great vessel that had come up the river
that evening, but had been too late to get into dock. She was fresh
over from the East Indies; and besides saltpetre, and tea, and
cochineal, she had on board a large freight of odds and ends--
curiosities and such-like. Of course we did not know this then; but a
big vessel like she was seemed very likely to prove a bait to the river
pirates, and there we lay holding on to the rudder chains.
"`I wish I was a-bed,' says Jack Murray, one of the men under me that
night.
"`I wish I was over a pipe and a glass of grog,' says Tom Grey, who was
another.
"And then we sat still again, knowing that we should be sure to hear of
something wrong in the morning, and knowing, too, that even if there was
some game carried on within a dozen yards of us we should not hear it.
"We were in luck, though, this night, for a minute after there was a
soft plash heard above the rushing of the river, something dark passed
over where a miserable glim of a lamp was shining. Then there was a
faint low whistle from over our heads, another from out of the black
darkness where we heard the plash, and then a boat brushed close by us;
there was the sound as of something being lowered down, and before you
could say `Jack Robinson' we'd grappled that boat, and the man in it;
slipped on the handcuffs, and got him fast, with a bale of silk
handkerchiefs in his boat; and in a few minutes we'd got a couple of the
sailors as well.
"You may guess my surprise and delight when I took a look at our
prisoner with a lantern, to find that it was River Jack himself; and, to
make a long story short, he was convicted and sentenced to ten years'
transportation.
"`But I'll be back before that, Tom Johnson,' he shouts to me as soon as
he had got his sentence; `and when I do come--look out.'
"He was hurried out of court before he could say any more; but those
words somehow, for a time, sunk into my memory, and worried me a deal,
till I got married, and then I forgot them.
"Well, my married life was just the same as any other man's married
life, except that my wife always had such a dislike to my way of
business. Twenty times over she would have had me leave it for
something else; but, as I said to her, `a bird in the hand's worth two
in the bush, 'specially if the one's bread and cheese and the other
ain't.' For, you know, what was the good of me giving up the certain
sure for the certain chance?
"`But I do have such horrible dreams about you,' she says.
"`Dreams never come true,' says I.
"`Oh, yes, they do,' she says. `My aunt once dreamt that they were
going to have the bailiffs in; only a month after, in they came.'
"`Well, I don't mind believing that,' says I, `for it's a very likely
thing to happen to any of us.'
"`But I'm always dreaming you're being drowned,' she says.
"`Well, then don't dream so any more,' I says huffishly, for I was in a
hurry to be off.
"And I ask you, just as a fair question, is it pleasant, if your duty
takes you on the water all day or all night, as the case may be, to have
the wife of your bosom always dreaming that you are brought home
drowned?
"I got to be obstinate at last, for it was all nonsense to think of
giving up a decent position on chance; so the more my wife dreamed about
me being drowned, the more I came home at regular times, sound as a
roach, and dry as a bone, except in wet weather. Matters went on as
usual; chaps were caught stealing or smuggling, and they were imprisoned
or fined; and all this time I'd forgotten about River Jack, till one
evening, when, from information I'd received, I had myself rowed, as
soon as it was dark, on to one of half a score of lighters moored off
the Surrey shore, and loaded with the freight they had been taking out
of a full-rigged ship, just about a hundred yards ahead. For, you see,
some owners won't go to the expense of having their vessel in dock, but
have it unladen where she lies. I had had a hint or two that there was
likely to be something on the way; but as it was a light night, I knew
very well that if our boat lay anywhere on the watch, the consequence
would be that the plundering party would never come near.
"Well, I had myself rowed there, crept on to one lighter quietly,
loosened an end of a tarpaulin, got underneath, and made myself snug as
possible, giving my men orders to lay off behind a brig two hundred
yards away, ready to come up to my help when they heard me whistle.
Then, in a moment or two, I heard the oars dip, growing fainter and
fainter each moment, till all was still but the sighing of the wind, and
the lapping, rushing noise of the tide running down hard.
"What an easy thing it is to plan out anything on paper, or in your own
head, and what a different affair it turns out when you work it out in
practice! Here was I lying snug in hiding, and all I'd got to do was to
wait patiently till anybody came to plunder the lighters, then jump up,
staff or pistol in hand, and arrest the lot; whistle, when our galley
would come up; the men be transferred into the boat; taken to the
station; and praise and promotion for me would most likely follow.
"That's how it was on paper; this is how it turned out in practice.
"I'd lain there for quite half an hour, in not the most comfortable of
positions, when, growing tired, I took a glance out through a hole I
slit with my knife in the tarpaulin; but all was still--nothing to be
heard but the rushing of the river past the great barge, and I lay back
once more, wondering whether the enemy would come, and, if they did
come, how long they would be first.
"I don't think I'm more of a coward than most men, but somehow just
about then I began to wish that I had made a couple of our fellows stay
with me; then I wished that it was morning; and then, as I turned cold
and shivering, I began to think about that dream of my wife's; and from
being cold I now grew hot and wet with perspiration, so that I was
thinking of lifting the tarpaulin a little, when I stopped the idea, for
I heard all at once a sharp, scratching noise.
"`Bats,' I said to myself; and I began to think of the amount of
mischief the little wretches do on shipboard, getting carried out, too,
in the bales to the lighters, and from them into warehouse and bonded
store.
"Then came the scratching again, and a slight rustling; and I uttered a
loud, sharp hiss to drive them away; for, shut up as I was, I did not
much like the idea of being nibbled by rats.
"That hiss did it; for it was all that some one wanted to know. My
whereabouts was nearly guessed at: that showed it exactly.
"The rats seemed to have gone, and I was peering about in the darkness,
when there came another faint rustling noise, and then--_crash_--it was
as though half a dozen bales of cotton had been thrown upon me. I was
nearly suffocated; but I had sense enough to know that several men had
thrown themselves upon the tarpaulin; that my enemies had been too much
for me, and had been lying in hiding beneath the coverings when I came,
and had now taken me at a disadvantage.
"The thoughts ran rapidly through my brain, and I struggled hard to get
myself sufficiently at liberty to blow my whistle, when a voice that I
seemed to know whispered--
"`Lie still, or we'll drive a knife through to you.'
"Struggling was, I knew, useless then; so I prepared myself for an
effort when opportunity offered. But they were too much for me. As the
tarpaulin was raised, three men crept under; a lot of oakum was thrust
into my mouth; my whistle taken away; the handcuffs in my pocket, ready
unlocked, thrust upon my own wrists; and, with many a warning growl, I
was rolled off the lighter side into a boat that I had supposed to
belong to one of the barges.
"`Now, Jack, you and Dick take him off,' was whispered; and I thought I
caught the word `Erith.'
"`They'll lay me in one of the reed-beds, bound hand and foot,' I
thought; `and the others will help clear this lighter the while.'
"I was so excited that I made a bit of a struggle, but only to have the
end of an oar brought down heavily across my forehead; and the next
moment some one leaned over me, and for a few seconds the glaring light
of a bull's-eye rested upon my face.
"The next minute my blood ran cold; for there was a low laugh at my ear,
and a voice I seemed to know said--
"`Every dog has its day, my lad. It's my turn now!'
"I wanted no telling--I could understand all plainly enough. River Jack
had come back, and he meant to have his revenge.
"But what would he do? He would not mur--
"Pooh! nonsense! his companions would interfere. But there was only one
here, and they were softly but swiftly rowing me down with the tide. If
they would land me at Erith! They said so; but then this scoundrel had
not known me, and now that we had openly recognised one another, he
could not afford to have me as a witness to his having returned before
his time.
"Was my wife's dream coming true? I shuddered from head to foot as I
heard the washing of the water beneath the boat's keel; and then I
thought of the bodies I had seen brought out, and the mooring chains;
and then it seemed to me that I was to be as I had seen others, and a
horrible sweat of terror broke out on me. But just then my attention
was taken up by a low muttering between the men, and Hope whispered that
one of them was opposing the other's plans. Whatever was said, though,
silence followed, and they rowed on swiftly for what must have been a
quarter of an hour, though to me it seemed an age, when, before I could
do more than utter an inarticulate roar of despair, I was lifted quickly
to the boat's gunwale, and in another moment I was beneath the cold,
rushing water.
"A struggle or two brought me to the surface again, and I made an effort
with my fastened hands to reach the boat; but, with brutal indifference,
Jack placed the blade of his scull against my chest, and thrust me
under; and when I again rose, it was out of sight of those who had
thrown me in.
"Even in that time of agony, with the water burning and strangling in my
nostrils, and thundering in my ears, I could think of the plunder the
scoundrels would get; of how my men would stay waiting for my whistle;
of my wife's dream; and lastly, of the finding of my handcuffed body,
floating up and down with the tide. The papers would call it a
mysterious murder, for I was sure to be found; but that River Jack would
have it brought home to him was not likely.
"I could do but little; every struggle seemed to send me lower; I tried
to float, but in vain; and the water whirled me round and round, drove
me against vessel sides that I could not clutch, past lights that I
could not hail, and I was fast lapsing into insensibility, when I struck
something hard, raised my arms over it, and clung there with my nostrils
above water--learning the secret of how bodies could hang to a mooring
chain.
"At the end of a fortnight's fever, I learned how that I had been found
soon after by another of our galleys, clinging to the mooring chain of a
great vessel; but it was for some time a question of doubt whether our
men had found a body with or without life.
"That's many years ago now, and such deeds have happily grown rare;
though you don't know of all that goes on down the river. I'm in the
force still, and mean to stay; for River Jack was taken, and report says
he was shot by a sentry while attempting to escape, out in one of the
penal settlements."