THE YOUNG COOK
It was about ten o'clock on an October night; everything was intensely
quiet in the big kitchen where Julia stood. It was not a cheerful
place even in the day time, the windows looked north, and were very
high up; the walls and floor were alike of grey stone, which gave it a
prison-like aspect, and also took much scrubbing, as she had reason to
know. It was far too large a place to be warmed by the small stove now
used; Julia sometimes wondered if the big one that stood empty in its
place would have been sufficient to warm it. She glanced at it now,
but without interest; she was very tired, it was almost bed-time, and
she had done, as she had every day since she first joined Herr Van de
Greutz's household, a very good day's work. She had scarcely been
outside the four walls since she first came there on the day after the
holiday on the Dunes. This had been her own choice, for, unlike all
the cooks who had been before her, she had asked for no evenings out.
Marthe, the short-tempered housekeeper, had not troubled herself to
wonder why, she had been only too pleased to accept the arrangement
without comment. Apart from the self-chosen confinement, the life had
been hard enough; the work was hard, the service hard and ill-paid,
and both the other inmates of the house cross-grained, and difficult
to please. These things, however, Julia did not mind; discomfort never
mattered much to her when she had an end in view; in this case, too,
the end should more than repay the worst of her two task-masters.
Which was agreeable, and almost made his unpleasantness desirable, as
providing her intended act with a justification.
She drew the coffee pot further on to the stove, and with a splinter
of wood stirred the fire. She had the kitchen to herself, old Marthe
had gone to bed; she liked going to bed early, with a glass of
something hot, and she had soon found that the young cook could be
trusted to finish the work down-stairs. It was her opinion that it is
as well to be comfortable when you can, as blessings are fleeting and
fickle, especially when they are cooks; so she indulged often both in
bed and the glass, notably the glass. She had not been able to go to
bed quite as early as she liked that day, for her master had a
visitor, and there had been some trouble after the dinner. It was
intended to be an hour later than usual to accommodate the visitor,
but the chemist had not mentioned the fact--he seldom troubled about
such trifles, expecting his household to divine his wishes
instinctively, and resenting their failure to do so with indignation
and some abuse. He did so to-day, and Marthe was consequently kept up
later than she had intended, though it was Julia who came in for most
of the reproof, and the trouble too; it was she who took away the
dinner and kept it hot, and presented it afresh when the time came in
as good condition as she could manage. There had to be a second omelet
made; the first would not stand an hour, and so was wasted, to the
indignation of Marthe. The chicken was a trifle dried by waiting,
which called down the wrath of Herr Van de Greutz. Julia had listened
to both of them with a meekness which was beautiful to see, albeit
perhaps a little suspicious in one of her nature.
She glanced up at the clock now, then rose and fetched two thick white
coffee cups, and set them ready on a tray, and sat down again. She
wondered drowsily how long Herr Van de Greutz's visitor would stay. He
was a German, a very great scientist; the chemist looked upon him as a
friend and an equal, a brother in arms; they talked together freely in
the cryptic language of science, and in German, which is the tongue
best fitted to help out the other. Julia heard them when she went to
and from with the dishes at dinner time. She did not understand
chemistry, a fact she much regretted; had she known even half as much
as Rawson-Clew, the desired end would have been much sooner within
reach. It is a very great disadvantage to have only a very vague idea
what it is you want. But she did understand German very well,
consequently part of the chemists' conversation was quite intelligible
to her, though they did not know it. Herr Van de Greutz knew and cared
nothing about her; he was not even aware that she was English, though,
of course, old Marthe was.
If the conversation had touched on the famous explosive at dinner
time, Julia would have known it; she was always on the watch for some
such occurrence. Unfortunately it had not, although, as she saw
plainly, the German was the sort of man with whom Van de Greutz would
discuss such things. She had still another chance of hearing
something; she would soon have to take the coffee into the laboratory;
they might be speaking of it then. She remembered once before Van de
Greutz had spoken of it to a scientific guest at such a time; she had
then heard some unenlightening technical details, which might have
been of some value to a chemist, but were of no use at all to her
ignorance. It was hard to come thus near, and yet be as far off as
ever, but such things are likely to occur when one is in pursuit of
anything, Julia knew that; she was prepared to wait, by and by she
would find out what it was she wanted, and then--
A bell rang peremptorily; she hastily poured the strong black coffee
into the two cups, and put a bottle of Schiedam on the tray. As she
did so she noticed that it was nearly empty, so she fetched another
full one, and added that to the tray. The bell did not ring again,
although getting the second bottle had hindered her, for by this time
the chemists had forgotten they wanted coffee. When she entered the
laboratory, Herr Van de Greutz had just taken a bottle from the lower
part of a cupboard near the door. Second shelf from the floor, five
bottles from the left-hand corner. Julia observed the place with
self-trained accuracy as she passed Herr Van de Greutz with the tray,
which she carried to the table far down the room.
"This is it," Van de Greutz said; "a small quantity only, you see, but
the authorities have a ridiculous objection to one's keeping any large
one of explosive. Of course, I have more, in a stone house in my
garden; it is perhaps safer so, seeing its nature, and the fact that
one is always liable to small accidents in a laboratory."
Julia put down the tray, but upset some of the coffee. Seeing that
excitement had not usually the effect of making her hand unsteady, it
is possible accident had not much to do with it. However, it happened;
she carefully wiped it up, and the two chemists, paying no more
attention to her than if she had been a cat, went on speaking of the
explosive. It was _the_ explosive; their talk told her that before she
had finished the wiping.
"The formula I would give for it?" Van de Greutz was saying; as she
sopped up the last drops, he gave the formula.
She lifted the full bottle of Schiedam from the tray, and carried it
away with her--in the hand farthest from the chemist's, certainly, but
with as little concealment as ostentation. Near the door she glanced
at the German, or rather, at what he held, the sample of the
explosive. It was a white powder in a wide-necked, stoppered bottle of
the size Julia herself called "quarter pint." The bottle was not more
than two-thirds full, and had no mark on it at all, except a small
piece of paper stuck to the side, and inscribed with the single letter
"A." This may have been done in accordance with some private system of
Herr Van de Greutz's, or it may have been for the sake of secrecy. The
reason did not matter; the most accurate name would have been no more
informing to Julia, but decidedly more inconvenient.
She went out and shut the door quietly; then she literally fled back
to the kitchen with the Schiedam. Scarcely waiting to set it down, she
seized a slip of kitchen paper, and scribbled on it the string of
letters and figures that Herr Van de Greutz had given as the formula
of his explosive. She did not know what a formula was, nor in what
relation it stood to the chemical body, but from the talks she had
heard between the chemist and his friends, she guessed it to be
something important. Accordingly, when he said the formula, she was as
careful to remember it accurately as she was to remember the place of
the bottle on the shelf. Now she wrote it down just as he spoke it,
and, though perhaps not exactly as he would have written it, still
comprehensible. She pinned the piece of paper in the cuff of her
dress; it would not be found there if, by ill luck, she was caught and
searched later on. Next she went to the kitchen cupboard; there were
several wide-necked stoppered bottles there, doubtless without the
chemist's knowledge, but Marthe found them convenient for holding
spices, and ginger, and such things. She took the one nearest in shape
and size to the one which she had seen in the German's hand; emptied
out the contents, dusted it and put in ground rice till it was
two-thirds full. Then, with the lap-scissors, she trimmed a piece of
paper to the right size, wrote "A" upon it, and stuck it to the side
of the bottle with a dab of treacle--she had nothing else. She was
hastily wiping off the surplus stickiness when the bell rang again.
She finished what she was doing, and shrouded the bottle in a duster,
so that there was another summons before she could set out. She took
the Schiedam with her--of course it was that which was rung for, but
also the bottle in the duster.
She did not hurry. "I'll give him time to put the explosive back," she
thought. It was just possible that it would be set on a bench, perhaps
in an awkward place, but from her knowledge of Van de Greutz's ways
she guessed not. It was also, of course, possible that the cupboard
where it was kept would be locked; in that case, nothing could be done
just now--annoying, but not desperate; ground rice will keep, and,
apparently, explosives too, so she reflected as she opened the
laboratory door. But the cupboard was not locked, and the bottle was
back in its place. Another from the shelf above had been taken out;
the chemists were discussing that as they sat smoking cigars at the
table far down the room, where the coffee cups stood.
"More Schiedam!" Herr Van de Greutz said, throwing the words at Julia
over his shoulder. "Why did you bring an empty bottle?"
"I am sorry, Mijnheer," Julia answered; "there was not much, I know; I
have brought more."
She pushed the door to with her foot as she spoke, and with the hand
not carrying the spirit set down the duster and the bottle it held on
a chair. The German had put his coat over the chair earlier; it stood
in front of the cupboard, a little way from it. With the true rogue's
eye for cover, Julia noted the value of its position, and even
improved it by moving it a little to the left as she knocked against
it in passing.
She brought the Schiedam to the table. "Shall I take the cups,
Mijnheer?" she asked.
"Yes," Van de Greutz answered shortly, resenting the interruption,
"and go to the devil. As I was saying, it is very unstable."
This was to the German, and did not concern Julia; she took the tray
of cups and went. But near the door there was an iron tripod lying on
the floor; she caught her foot in it, stumbled and fell headlong,
dropping tray and cups with a great clatter.
There was a general exclamation of annoyance and anger from Van de
Greutz, of surprise and commiseration from the German, and of
something that might have been fright or pain from Julia.
"You clumsy fool!" Van de Greutz cried. "Get out of here, and don't
let me see your face, or hear your trampling ass-hoofs again! Do you
hear me, I won't have you in here again!"
The German was more sympathetic. "Have you hurt yourself?" he asked.
"No, Mijnheer, nothing," Julia answered; "only a little--my knees and
elbows." Had she been playing Othello, though she might not have
blacked herself all over, it is certain she would have carried the
black a long way below high water mark. This was no painless stage
stumble, but one with real bruises and a real thud.
The German had half risen; perhaps he thought of coming to help pick
up the pieces of broken cups that were scattered between the cupboard
and the chair. But he did not do so, for Herr Van de Greutz went on to
speak of his unstable compound.
"I treated it with--" he said, and, seeing this was something very
daring, the other's attention was caught.
Julia picked up the pieces alone, and carried them out on the tray,
and on the tray also she carried a bottle wrapped into a duster. It
was a wide-necked stoppered bottle, two-thirds full of white powder;
very much like the one she had brought in, but also very much like the
one that stood five from the end on the second shelf of the cupboard.
Soon after that she went up to her room, and took the bottle with her.
Then, when she had set it in a place of safety, and securely locked
the door, she broke into a silent laugh of delighted amusement. She
pictured to herself Herr Van de Greutz's face when, in company with
some other chemist, he found the ground rice, while his cook with the
"ass-hoofs" carried the explosive to her native land.
"What a thief I should make," was her own opinion of herself. "I
believe I could do as well as Grimm's 'Master Thief,' who stole the
parson and clerk." She took up the bottle and shook a little of the
contents into her hand; she had not the least idea how it was set off,
whether a blow, a fall, or heat would reveal its dangerous
characteristics. For a little she looked at it with curiosity and
satisfaction. But gradually the satisfaction faded; the excitement of
the chase was over, and the prize, now it was won, did not seem a
great thing. She set the bottle down rather distastefully, and turned
away.
"He could not have got the stuff," she told herself defiantly--"he"
was Rawson-Clew--but the next moment, with the justice she dealt
herself, she admitted, "Because he would not get it this way; he is
not rogue enough; while as for me--I am a born rogue."
She pushed open the window and looked out, although it was quite dark,
and the air pervaded with a cold, rank smell of wet vegetation. She
was thinking of the other piece of roguery which she had meant to
commit, and yet had not. She had the bulb, in spite of that; it was
safe among her clothes--hers by a free gift, hers absolutely, yet as
unable to be sold as the lock of a dead mother's hair. The debt of
honour could not be paid by that. From her heart she wished she had
not got the daffodil; she put it in the same category with Mr.
Gillat's watch, as one of the things which made her ashamed of herself
and of her life, even of this last act, and the very skill that had
made it easy.
She took up the bottle again, and for a moment considered whether she
should give it back to Herr Van de Greutz--not personally, that would
hardly be safe; but she could post it from England after she left his
service. But she did not do so; Rawson-Clew stood in the way; it was
for him she had taken it, and her purpose in him still stood. He
wanted the explosive, it would be to his credit and honour to have it;
the government service to which he belonged would think highly of him
if he had it--if he received it anonymously, so that he could not tell
from whence it came, and they could not divide the credit of getting
it between him and another. He wanted it, and he had been good to her.
He had been kind when she was in trouble; he had not believed her when
she had called herself dishonest; he had treated her as an equal, in
spite of the affair at Marbridge, and he had asked her to marry him
when he thought she was compromised by the holiday in the Dunes. For a
moment her mind strayed from the point at issue, to that offer of
marriage. She remembered the exact wording of the letter as if she had
but just received it, and it pleased her afresh. She did not regret
that she had refused him; nothing else had been possible. She did not
want to marry him; albeit, when they had sat together under his coat,
she had not shrunk from contact with him as she had shrunk from Joost
when he had tried to take her hand--that was certainly strange. But
she was quite sure she did not want to marry him; now she came to
think about it, she could imagine that, were she a girl of his own
class, with the looks, training and knowledge that belonged, she might
have found him precisely the man she would have wanted to marry.
She went to a drawer and took out an old handkerchief. She was not a
girl of that sort--deep down she felt inarticulately the old primitive
consciousness of inferiority and superiority, at once jealous and
contemptuous; marrying him and living always on his plane were alike
impossible to her, but she could give him the explosive. There was not
one girl among all those others who could have got it and given it to
him!
She tore a piece from the handkerchief, and fastened it over the
stopper of the bottle; then she got out a hat trimmed with bows of
wide ribbon, and sewed the bottle into the centre bow. It presented
rather a bulgy appearance, but by a little pulling of the other
trimming it was hardly noticeable, and really nothing is too peculiar
to be worn on the head. After that she went to bed.
* * * * *
There was trouble in Herr Van de Greutz's kitchen the next day; the
young cook, who had behaved so admirably before, did what old Marthe
called "showing the cloven hoof." She was impertinent, she was idle;
she broke dishes, she wasted eggs, and she lighted a roaring fire in
the big stove, in spite of the strict economy of fuel which was one of
the first rules of the household. Finally she announced that she must
have a day's holiday. Marthe refused point blank, whereupon the cook
said she should take it, and a dispute ensued; Marthe called her
several names, and reminded her of the fact that she had no character,
and that she had confessed to being obliged to leave the Van Heigens
in haste. Julia retorted that that fact was known to the housekeeper
when she engaged her, and was the reason of the starvation wage
offered. Marthe then inquired what enormity it was that she had
committed at the Van Heigens', and intimated that it must be
disgraceful indeed for a person, pretending to be a lady-help, to be
thankful to accept the situation of cook. Julia's answer was scarcely
polite, and very well calculated to rouse the old woman further, and,
at the same time, she opened the door and skilfully worked herself and
her antagonist into the passage, and some way up it, raising her voice
so as to incite the other to raise hers. The result was that soon the
noise reached Herr Van de Greutz.
Out he came in a great rage, ordering them about their business, and
abusing them roundly. Marthe hurried back to the kitchen, effectually
silenced, but Julia remained; she had not got her dismissal yet, and
it was imperative she should get it, for there was no telling when the
ground rice would be discovered. But she soon got what she wanted;
after a very little more inciting, Herr Van de Greutz ordered her out
of his house a great deal more peremptorily than she had been ordered
out of the Van Heigens'. She was to go at once; she was to pack her
things and go, and Marthe was to see that she took nothing but what
was her own; she was the most untrustworthy and incompetent pig that
the devil ever sent to spoil good food, and steal silver spoons.
To this Julia replied by asking for her wages. At first Van de Greutz
refused; but Julia, with some effrontery, considering the
circumstances, declined to go without them, so eventually he thought
better of it and paid her. After that she and Marthe went up-stairs,
and she packed and Marthe looked on, closely scrutinising everything.
When all was done, and she herself dressed, she walked out of the
house, with the formula fastened inside her cuff, and the explosive
balanced on her head. And the old man who did the rough work about the
place came with her, wheeling her luggage on a barrow as far as the
gate. Here he shot it out, and left her to wait till she might hail
some passing cart, and so get herself conveyed to the town.