his sense of self-respect; by "believing men to be better than they
are," one may even, as has been so well said, "make them better than
they are." In England we have always gone on a wrong principle; we
worship success, worldly success, far too much, and have scant
sympathy with the unfortunate. My friend outside says that he stole a
leg of mutton for his starving daughter. The result is he cannot now
get a situation, and his daughter has been taken from him, and is now
in a home. Well, if the man be treated with contumely, he may very
likely despair and give up all hope of improvement. Treat him well, on
the other hand, and you may yet turn him into a useful citizen.'
'You put a premium on wrong-doing,' said I, as I shook my head at his
argument, smiling, however, at the impassioned face before me.
His high, narrow forehead with the ruffled upstanding hair betrayed
the enthusiast; the broad, refined, and eager lips marked a perennial
emotion within; his eyes, notwithstanding their wonderful clarity, had
a far-away look in the depths of them; a spare form, thin wrists, and
shrunken hands completed the presentation of the idealistic, mystical,
Don Quixote type of human nature.
While I thus reflected, my friend continued to pour out fresh
instances proving satisfactorily to any non-prejudiced mind the
correctness of his theory.
'But what are you going to do with him?' I asked eventually, 'for
after all that is the important thing. I mean, his being here with you
may be very nice for him, but it doesn't teach him a trade, and you
can't afford to keep him, I know, for long.'
'First of all,' eagerly began my friend, 'I propose to keep him long
enough to re-instate him in his self-respect; secondly, to study his
temperament and character thoroughly in order to discover what line of
life he is best suited for, and then to get him some appropriate
situation. That is the programme, and, I think, a quite practical and
satisfactory one. There is no "pauperizing" here, you see; it is
simply giving a man a fair chance. And now,' he continued briskly,
'come out and inspect the garden.'
The protégé, it appeared, had been making himself useful therein,
which my friend thought was a highly encouraging sign, 'for,' said he,
'no bad man ever cared for gardening.'
The next few days I spent contentedly in absolute idleness, now
strolling up the waterside, now smoking and reading peacefully in the
little arbour behind the herbaceous border. I had almost forgotten the
existence of my _bête-noir_; he showed, indeed, a most commendable
readiness to efface himself as much as possible from observation, and
when I chanced to pass him he seemed rather to avoid me than to seek
my company. 'Good-morning,' I would say, if I happened to come out of
the house before breakfast for a stroll, and find him chopping
firewood, 'lovely weather, and looks like lasting, I think.'
'Ay,' he would usually reply, with a hurried touch to his cap, 'it's
canny weather,' then muttering something about being busy, would
incontinently hurry into the house. I took this as a sign of grace,
and was quite favourable to the mode of intercourse thus established.
But my host, I could see, was pained at my apparent lack of interest
in his protégé; so the next day, finding Blythe engaged in tying up
the suckers of the honeysuckle to the trellis of the arbour, I went
boldly up to him, determined to try and draw him out.
'Well, and how do you like the country?' I inquired. 'A pleasant
change after town life, eh?'
He gave me a quick, suspicious glance in return, then muttering, 'Ay,
dootless,' again devoted himself to his occupation.
I tried again, but, meeting with no encouragement, became, I am bound
to confess, a little nettled, as though with an insubordinate witness.
The happy insouciance I thought to have marked in him at our first
encounter had vanished, and ''Tis the knifing variety, after all,' I
murmured to myself, and fell to scrutinizing him somewhat severely.
There was something about him that somehow seemed familiar to me. I
determined to probe, and see if he would wince.
'Possibly you don't care about the country?' I suggested smoothly;
'towns, perhaps, attract you more. York, for example, is a nice town,
and, by chance, say September 30 for a little business in the
vicinity, eh?'
He looked me full in the face at this, a very ugly smile curving his
lips, as he replied abruptly, 'What is it you're wanting?'
'I don't know that I want anything for myself,' said I, somewhat
elated at the success of my conjecture, 'but I should like fair play
for my friend inside. Pheasants are scarce hereabouts, but possibly
other things might come in useful. I needn't specify,' I continued
airily, 'to a gentleman of your intelligence; 'twould be superfluous.'
For reply he made a bound at me, head down, and both fists
outstretched. It was as the rush of the bull for the matador's flag,
and my bound aside just saved me from his charge, though his right
fist touched me on the chest and sent me staggering backward.
He turned, and came again; this time I had more space for manoeuvre,
and the memory of an old fencing trick, learned in Angelo's school of
arms, swift as a flashlight, lit within my brain. I leant forward as
though to meet him like a boxer, then, as he rushed upon me, turned
quickly sideways, fencing fashion, and slipped half a foot backward.
He missed me by a hand's breadth; a reek of tobacco touched me hotly
on the cheek; another moment and I had leapt forward on a late 'time
thrust,' and caught my antagonist neatly just behind the ear. I had
been unable to put any strength into the blow, but it proved to be
enough to upset his poise. He staggered, stooped, and then fell
headlong on the path, scarce having time to break his fall with hand
or arm.
He lay there for a moment or two, apparently half-dazed; then, slowly
picking himself up, leant back with folded arms against an apple-tree,
and surveyed me with a sort of sulky resignation.
'Well, you've got the better o' me again,' said he; 'you've the luck
on your side, nae doot. "Bing lay your shero,"' I overheard him mutter
to himself under his breath, which, taken in conjunction with his
name, amply sufficed to confirm my conjecture of his gipsy origin.
'What is 't ye want wi' me?' he continued, in a louder voice.
'As I said before,' I replied slowly, seating myself upon a wooden
bench in front of the arbour, 'I only require fair play for my friend
within. A man of the world like yourself can easily deceive him, even
to the half of his kingdom; and if he has a fancy to cure the leopard
of his spots or whitewash the Ethiopian--or perhaps I might say the
"Egyptian" rather--I would like the process to be as inexpensive as
possible to him--you understand?' I queried of my opposite, smiling as
I spoke; for I had the whip-hand of him undoubtedly, and to be
unpleasant politely is part of the lawyer's art.
'To put the matter more clearly still,' I continued, for he had made
no response to my suggestion, 'I think a week of fresh air and quiet
seclusion in the country should be enough for any man of active habits
after a period of enforced leisure; the hair, moreover, grows quickly
in a country retreat, as Joshua's messengers found of old, and,
briefly, what I would advise is a moonlight flitting.'
Pleased with the brevity of my peroration, I took my cigarette-case
from my pocket, and, having selected a cigarette, carefully proceeded
to light it with the utmost deliberation.
I had taken my eyes off him for the moment, partly in order to
ascertain if the cigarette were properly alight, partly to perfect the
illusion of _sang froid_; and dearly I paid for my rashness, for with
a bound he was upon me.
I ducked; but it was too late, and over I went backward, my enemy
a-top of me, crash through the arbour on to the stone flagging within.
I was stunned, I suppose, for a minute or so, for I lay there
wondering what had happened, and annoyed that a wasp, as I thought,
should have stung me in the neck. In another moment I had discovered
that the smart was due to a bit of live cigarette-ash that had chanced
to drop inside my collar in my fall, and I tried to put up a hand to
remove it. To my disgust, I found my hands were knotted tightly
together; my legs, too, were bound, and, as I turned my head, my eyes
met those of my enemy, sitting beside me on a low stool.
'The gadgi' (viz., 'gorgio,' or man of non-gipsy race) 'is but a fool
in his pride and self-conceit,' said he; 'he is but a tortoise, for
all his pushkin's (hare) gallop at the start.'
This was what I heard him saying as I recovered consciousness, and as
I knew that gipsies always hide their origin, and refrain from their
language in the presence of the 'gorgios,' I felt certain he must be
labouring under great excitement, and momentarily expected to see him
out with his knife and finish me there and then. Here he stooped, and
I thought my hour had come, but apparently it was only to pick up my
fallen cigarette. Pinching off the blackened end, he put it between
his lips, and, lighting it at the other end, drew in deep breaths of
tobacco-smoke.
'I don't wonder you enjoy it,' said I, as I watched his proceedings
with an intense annoyance; 'successful theft is pleasant to a tchor
(thief), I presume?'
'And who's the tchor in the end,' retorted he--'you or me? Speak,
little gutterwhelp from the toon, that art paid to lie at so many bars
(sovereigns) the lie. Your kind take a man's money, plead so ill that
at the finish the "stande" (gaol) has him, while the big thief's left
behind in court wi' a white wig on, an' a smile on his ugly moi
(mouth). Who's the tchor, then?' he repeated with a leer, as he blew a
cloud of smoke in the air. 'I 'low ye got me nabbed at York 'Sizes,
but it wesn't yor doin', 'twas that dirty Jack Spraggon, who turned
informer an' legged me that time. Why, ye pink-eyed toon's-spawn, if
I'd my rights, an' things were as they aince was, I'd hang ye tae the
nearest tree. Look there,' he cried, as, stirring me with his foot, he
drew up his coat-sleeve and thrust a tattoed wrist over my eyes--'look
there, d'ye ken what that is?'
I gazed with interest, for it was evidently an heraldic coat,
excellently well punctured in his flesh.
'A lion rampant within a tressure fleury counter fleury, by Jove!
debruised by a bar sinister,' I murmured aloud.
My thoughts went back at a bound to memories of the 'Gaberlunzie Man'
of the ballad, the errant James V., and 'ane louit Johnnie Faa, Lord
and Earl of Little Egypt,' but all I said was, 'Still, people don't
boast of an illegitimate origin nowadays.'
'Illegitimate!' he cried angrily; 'I'll teach ye manners, ye ----' but
here a step sounded on the path outside, and in another moment my host
peered in at the doorway.
'Tut--tut--tut,' said my friend, removing his glasses from his nose in
his agitation, 'dear, dear! what can have happened? Speak, Ned;
explain, Will.'
My adversary rose to his feet, saluted our interrogator somewhat
shamefacedly, and, pointing to myself, replied, 'He wes sae impiddent
wi' me I'd just tae teach him a lesson, but nae harm's done.'
'Oh,' cried my little friend, and he positively wrung his hands in his
distress, 'but you shouldn't,' and here he looked at us reproachfully
in turn. Then a happy thought seemed to rise in his brain. 'We must
forget all about this unhappy occurrence,' cried he; 'we will not
inquire into it, but will shake hands all round, and begin afresh.'
So saying he immediately knelt down, undid my bandages, and helped me
to rise from the floor. 'Now,' he cried, and seized hold of our
respective hands.
'Well,' said my antagonist, 'I bear no malice, but keep yor tongue a
bit civiler i' future.'
'And refrain from pheasants and legs of mutton,' I nearly retorted,
but stayed my tongue in time, and the three of us shook hands promptly
all round, as desired. I was willing enough to shake hands because I
felt I had been in error in taunting my antagonist, but I was not
prepared for the reproof my host had in store for me, as he put his
arm through mine, and led me away for a stroll up the brae.
'Oh, how could you do it?' he said. 'You must have stung him beyond
endurance, and you promised, you remember, to respect him.'
'I only told him the truth,' I replied sulkily. 'As a matter of fact,
I recognised in him the first individual I ever had the pleasure of
getting convicted--at York Assizes--pheasant-poaching, stoning a
keeper, etc. One's first conviction is like one's first love--one
can't forget it.'
'Ah, but if it is so, that is just an incident in that past career of
his which is quite dead and buried now; you see yourself how annoyed
he was at your bringing it up against him. Of course, his conduct was
inexcusable,' he hastily added, suddenly remembering doubtless that he
was my host, 'but this vigour of resentment proves to my mind the
genuineness of his repentance.'
It was hopeless to argue, so I turned the subject, inwardly resolving
that I would leave on the morrow.
After supper that evening I went outside to smoke, and there lingered
long, enjoying the soft, luminous northern twilight.
The murmur of the stream in the valley trembled amidst the silence of
the night, as of some old monk telling his beads in the solitude of a
vast cathedral. Suddenly a discordant singing sounded down the vale.
'Some roysterer,' thought I with disgust. 'I suppose there must have
been a wedding or some festivity of that sort.'
The sounds rose and fell fitfully, but grew gradually louder. It was
evident someone was coming 'up the wattor,' and I waited to see who
the disturber of our quiet could be.
The last corner had apparently been turned, for now I could hear the
voice distinctly. 'The protégé again, by Jove!' I groaned.
I meditated instant flight, but a fit of laughter caught me, and I
stayed. Out of the gray twilight a toper lurched up to the gate on
which I leant, and, steadying himself, momentarily peered into my
face.
'No malish, little Wool-shack, eh?' quoth he with a grin. Then,
becoming confidential, he leant forward and whispered, 'Drink ye for a
"bar," turn an' turn about,' producing as he spoke a most
suspicious-looking black bottle.
'Look here,' said I, 'why did you come to this place?'
'It's a free-sh country,' replied my opposite solemnly, 'an'
wanderin's my trade, an' the wee big bairn upstairs, he's ta'en a sort
o' woman's fancy for us. Noo, Wull Blythe's like his ancient forbears,
royal Wull Faa, an' the lave, an' he cannot say nae to a woman, though
he'll ne'er tak' a look frae a man.'
'Well, good-night,' I said, 'and don't wake the big bairn upstairs.'
It was some time before I finished packing, and after that was done I
sat down and had another pipe by the window. I was just dozing off
when a smell of burning seemed to creep in upon my nostrils, and the
atmosphere grew thicker to my sub-consciousness.
'It can't be anything,' I murmured inwardly, and tried to recede still
further into the dark grove of sleep, but a step outside my door
effectually roused me.
A light gleamed upon me. 'Come, my friend, come quick; I fear the
house is on fire,' cried my host at the doorway; 'throw on a coat, wet
your blankets, and follow me upstairs at once with them.'
I rushed upstairs headlong some few seconds after, and stumbled over a
prostrate form on the small garret landing, a reek of whisky giving me
assurance of its identity. I rose hastily, and passed into the room
beyond, where, amidst heavy smoke-wreaths, I perceived my host, now
beating burning bedding with his hands, and again stamping with his
feet upon smouldering coverings on the floor.
I did my best to help him, and we succeeded shortly in getting the
better of the conflagration. After emptying buckets of water over bed
and bedding, we waited for some minutes to ascertain if any hidden
fire lingered anywhere.
'I think it will be all right now,' said my host; 'but come, we must
look after my poor friend outside--I fear he is badly burned. Poor
fellow, he was lying in bed stupefied with the smoke. I suppose he
must have fallen asleep reading, and the candle must have set fire
somehow to the bed-clothes or curtain.'
He had scarcely finished speaking when he swayed suddenly, and before
I could reach out an arm, had fallen to the ground in a dead faint. I
lifted him up and carried him downstairs at once, and found that he
was rather severely burnt about the hands.
After I had restored him to consciousness as best I could and dressed
his hurts, I proceeded, at my friend's earnest entreaty, to look after
the protégé, who was still lying prostrate on the garret landing;
absolutely unconscious and hopelessly intoxicated.
He was badly burnt on one arm, and scorched down one side of his body.
Appearances seemed to show that he must have thrown off the
counterpane and blankets on to the floor, that there they must have
become ignited either from his fallen pipe or candle, and eventually
have set fire to one side of the bed.
The doctor had to be sent for, and for a week the protégé was kept in
bed; when he did come down again he was as contrite as possible, and I
carefully avoided all mention of the disaster, for I had a dim feeling
of guilt in the matter, suspecting that he went down the valley that
evening to the alehouse in consequence of his excitement at his
triumph over myself.
Now that he was about again, and my friend too was quite restored, I
determined to depart, and the next morning went down early to the
Frolic to enjoy a last bathe.
I was sitting on a shelf of rock above a deep pool, drying myself
slowly after my swim, when I heard sounds below me. Looking out from
my shelter, I saw Blythe, who appeared to be about to follow my
example. His procedure, however, was curious; for first he cast his
cap upon the waters, then carefully deposited what looked to me like a
Bible on his coat on the bank, and, finally, having looked about him
stealthily, took off his shoes and proceeded to ford the burn.
'He's off,' I thought to myself, then cried to him, 'Holloa! what's
up?'
He stood stock-still in mid-stream like one petrified, then,
perceiving me, waded slowly to shore.
'Noo, don't ye blab tae Mistor Rutherford,' he said, as he came close
up underneath where I was standing. 'I's awa aff. I cannot stay, but I
doot the little man will be sair troubled aboot it, sae let him think
on as that I'm drooned, wi' the Bible there tae show I's a convarted
character, for he's been one tae many for Blythe, an' I wud'na like
him tae grieve ower my disappointing him. I cam' for a bit fun, but
it's turning tae seriousness noo, an' I can't bide any mair, that's a
sartinty.'
I don't know whether I acted wrongly or not, but I fell in with his
view of the situation, and when I had finished my dressing he had
already stolen out of sight.
I stayed on another week after this, and during that time successfully
concealed my connivance at the protégé's flight.
The discovery of his cap and coat was considered proof of his having
been drowned, and the Bible, borrowed from himself for the occasion,
provided at once a consolation for my friend and a rebuke to my
scepticism.
I spent a night in Oldcastle on my way back to town, and chance took
me through one of the most thickly populated, though not most
aristocratic, quarters of the city. It was a fine night, and I had
prolonged my stroll unconsciously. Suddenly the swing-door of a
public-house was thrown back violently, and a man came hurtling
through, and fell with a thud on the pavement beside me; a face peered
through the aperture of the doors for a moment, and in a flash I
recognised it.
The gentleman who had been thus ignominiously 'chucked out' slowly
pulled himself together, collected his faculties and his hat with
difficulty, uttered some violent and abusive epithets, then slowly
staggered off down the street with drunken dignity.
I went inside the aforesaid doors. My eyes had not deceived me, for
there was the protégé behind the counter in his new capacity of barman
and 'chucker out.' He signed to me to follow him into the 'snug,' and
there confided to me that he had got a permanent job for the first
time in his life.
'Here,' said he, 'is a bar' (sovereign); 'send it along tae Mister
Rutherford, an' tell him I's alive an' hearty, an' that I canna rest
till I's paid for the blankets an' beddin' I burnt the other week.
Mind,' says he, 'ye're not tae say where I am, but tell him I've a
situation, an's givin' satisfaction.'
'Well,' thought I to myself, as I returned to my hotel, 'if my friend
hasn't reformed the protégé, he has come at all events as near to
success as is good for the ordinary mortal.'
FOOTNOTE:
[22] The author understands that this is the case in regard to some of
the livings in the gift of Greenwich Hospital.
THE SPANISH DOUBLOON
Ransacking Jake's treasury one afternoon, I made an unexpected
find--no less than a Spanish doubloon hidden away in an old sporran of
a great-uncle of his.
The history of the fox-marked rapier, of the blood-stained tress of
hair found at Cawnpore, and of the yellow robe of the Brahmin, I knew
already; but the heavy Spanish coin suggested something of a different
order.
'Come,' said I, holding it up so as to attract his attention, 'tell me
the tale connected with this--something to do with a pirate, or the
Spanish Main, I dare swear.'
Jake smiled quaintly as he fingered the coin with deliberation. 'Weel,
it's a queer tale, sartinly, that's connected wi' yon coin, but all I
can tell ye is what my aunt telled me langsyne, when she presented it
to me on my joining the sarvice, just before I left for India.
'Noo, my aunt, ye mun ken, was a widow woman who lived on a bit
property she had left her doon at the small, ootlandish-named seaport,
as it was then, o' Bocca Chica, on the Northumberland coast.
'There was a man there she kenned nicely--in fact, she aye said
afterwards, wi' a shudder at the thocht o't, that at one time he
wanted to marry wi' her--who cut a big figure i' the place, by name
Isaac Stephenson--"Black Isaac," as he was mair usually styled. It
seems he had been bred and born i' the place, but had run awa to sea
i' his youth, an' after many voyagings here an' there turns up again
wi' pockets fu' o' siller, and a wee, misbegotten heathen dwarf o' a
Malay as his attendant.
'The dwarf called hissel' Chilpo, or some such uncanny name, an' was a
kind o' body-servant an' clerk an' dirty-job man to Isaac. But Isaac
never let on where he picked him up, an' Chilpo was a sour-tempered
little deil, whom maist folks were terrified o'; sae naebody e'er
kenned muckle o' his antecedents or ancestry.
'Weel, Isaac, on his settling doon again at home, set up i' business
as a shipowner an' broker, an' carried on a large business as an
exporter o' coals, an' did a bit, as maist everybody did i' those
days, i' the smuggling line--salt, an' lace, an' brandy, ye ken. He
had siller, as I said, when he started his new trade, though naebody
kenned hoo he had come by it; but it was no lang before he was the
richest man i' the toon, an' folk began to talk weel o' him, an'
praise him up as a good citizen as was a credit to the toon, an' ask
him to open bazaars for them, an' suchlike.
'There was just one strange thing aboot him, an' that was that the
womenfolk couldn't abide him. E'en after he had made hisself the
richest man i' the toon, he could ne'er get hissel' married, though
'twas said my aunt, when he took up wi' religion, had aince had a
thocht o' him, but no for lang, for there was suthin' aboot him that
tarrified her when it came near the point.
'He was no ill-favoured neither, for I mind seein' him mysel' as a lad
aince I was stayin' wi' my aunt--a tall, poo'erfu', black-haired man,
wi' heavy eyebrows, an' a lustfu' sort o' eye--half hectorin', half
cowardly. But he had a cruel sort o' look aboot him--thick-lipped, an'
greedy, sweaty sort o' hands.
'Weel, after a good few years o' prosperity he turned sort o'
sickly-like, an' for the first time i' his life began to think upon
his latter end, an' at the finish takes up wi' a sect o' Bible
Christians, or Christadelphians, or some such body, who were glad to
get hold o' such a rich, influential sort o' person withoot askin'
ower mony questions.