DICK COMES TO AN ARRANGEMENT WITH CONSTABLE POND.
"Dear me, sir!" said Mrs. Pond, who had noticed that he had turned
pale. "Are you taken ill?"
"It is nothing, nothing," replied Dick, hurriedly, and contradicted
himself by adding, "It must be the perfume on this handkerchief. There
are perfumes that make me feel faint."
"I don't think there's any scent on it, sir," said Mrs. Pond,
"leastways, I didn't notice any. Some scents do have that effect upon
people. There's a cousin of mine who faints dead away at the smell of
a hot boiled egg. There's no accounting for things, is there, sir?"
"No, there's not. May I ask if you got this handkerchief from the lady
whose name is marked on it?"
"Oh, no, sir. Pond gave it me."
"Did _he_ obtain it from the lady?"
"There!" exclaimed Mrs. Pond. "That's just what I said to him. We had
a regular scene. 'You're jealous, Polly,' he said, laughing, and he
worked me up so that I as good as threw it in the fire. Then he told
me that he knew no more about the lady than I did, and that he picked
it up in the street."
"Whereabouts, Mrs. Pond?"
"He didn't say, sir. It's pretty, ain't it? Quite a lady's. I
shouldn't have minded if he'd picked up a dozen of 'em. I've got an
aunt who is always picking up things. It commenced when she was a
little girl. She found a farthing that had been sanded over, and
thinking it was a golden sovereign she went into a milk-shop and asked
for change. She cried her eyes out when they told her what it was,
There's hardly a week she don't find something. Some people are made
that way, sir."
"Yes, yes," said Dick, rather impatiently, "is your husband in the
house? I should like to see him."
"I expect him home every minute, sir. Why, there he is, opening the
street door just as we're talking of him. If you'll excuse me, sir,
I'll run down to him."
"Do. And ask him to be kind enough to come up and speak to me."
She nodded, and ran from the room with a light step, leaving the
handkerchief behind her in her haste to tell her husband that she had
got a lodger; and presently Constable Pond's heavier step was heard on
the stairs. His face beamed with satisfaction when Dick, stepping into
the passage, invited him into the room.
"Can I believe my eyes, sir!" he exclaimed. "This is what I call a
downright piece of good luck. Well, I _am_ glad to see you here, sir!"
His eyes fell upon the handkerchief in Dick's hand. "If I don't
mistake, that's the handkerchief my missis left behind her. She asked
me to fetch it down to her."
"It is about this handkerchief I wish to speak to you," said Dick;
"and for the sake of all parties, Constable Pond, it is as well that
our conversation should be private and confidential."
"Certainly, sir," said Constable Pond, his countenance falling at the
unusual gravity of Dick's voice and manner.
"She told me you picked it up in the street."
"She told you true, sir."
Now did Constable Pond feel the sting of conscience; now did it
whisper that he had been guilty of a breach of duty in not depositing
the handkerchief at the police station, with an account of how he came
by it; now did the thought of certain penalties afflict him. Here was
Dick Remington, Inspector Robson's own nephew, opening up a case with
the unuttered words, "From information received."
"I have a particular reason for wishing to know where, and when, and
under what circumstances, you found it," said Dick.
"It won't go beyond this room, I hope, sir. You won't use the
information against me?"
"I give you my word I will not."
"I ought to have handed it in and made my report," said Constable
Pond, with a rueful air, "but I didn't think there was any harm in my
giving it to the missis. Applebee and me were in Catchpole Square last
night, and he was talking of shadders when he thought he saw one. He
run across and caught hold of it, but it slipped from him and was gone
like a flash. He called to me and we ran after it through Deadman's
Court; we couldn't see which way we were going, so we knocked our
heads together, and my helmet fell off. I stooped to pick it up, and
there was the handkerchief underneath it. If I had considered a moment
I shouldn't have put it in my pocket, but we don't always do the thing
we ought."
"You did not tell Applebee that you had found anything?"
"No, sir, I did not, and sorry enough I am for it now. It sha'n't
occur again, I promise you."
"As the matter has gone so far without anybody knowing anything about
it but ourselves, I don't see the necessity of mentioning it to
anyone."
"If such is your wish, sir," said Constable Pond, gaining confidence,
"it sha'n't be."
"And tell your wife not to speak about it."
"I'll tell her, sir."
"Because you see, Mr. Pond, as it is too late to undo what's done, it
might get you into trouble."
"I see that, sir," said Constable Pond, ruefully.
"So there's an end of the matter. As for the handkerchief I'll take
possession of it, and if it should happen that any question is raised
concerning it--of which there is not the least probability--I will say
that _I_ found it. That will clear you entirely."
"I'm ever so much obliged to you for getting me out of the mess," said
Constable Pond.
Shaking hands with him, Dick accompanied him downstairs, and after
receiving the latchkey and exchanging a few pleasant words with Mrs.
Pond, he left the house greatly troubled in his mind.
"There's more in this than meets the eye, Polly," said Constable Pond,
when he had explained to her what had passed between him and Dick.
"That young fellow spoke fair and square, but he's got something up
his sleeve, for all that."
"Oh, you silly!" answered Mrs. Pond. "_I_ know what he's got up his
sleeve."
"Do you, now?" said Constable Pond, refreshing himself with a kiss.
"Well, if that don't beat everything! Give it a name, old girl."
"Why, a sweetheart, you goose, and her name's Florence. He's going
straight to her this minute."
"Is he? Then I hope she'll be able to satisfy him why she was in
Catchpole Square last night--always supposing that it was her as
dropped the handkerchief there."
Mrs. Pond was not far wrong, for Dick was now on his way to Aunt Rob's
house, in the hope of seeing Florence, over whom some trouble seemed
to be hanging. He tried in vain to rid himself of the belief that it
was Florence whom Constable Applebee had surprised in Catchpole
Square; all the probabilities pointed that way. In heaven's name what
took her there at that hour of the night? Search his mind as he might,
he could find no answer to the question. The handkerchief was hers,
but there were a hundred ways of accounting for its being in the
possession of another woman. Still, the longer he thought the heavier
seemed to grow the weight of circumstantial evidence. Fearing he knew
not what he accelerated his steps, as if swiftness of motion would
ward off the mysterious danger which threatened the woman he adored,
the woman who could never be his, but for whose dear sake he would
have shed his heart's blood.