OF CORPORAL RICHARD ROE, LATE OF THE GRENADIERS; AND FURTHER
CONCERNING MR. SHRIG'S LITTLE READER
A small, dim chamber, with many glasses and bottles arrayed very
precisely on numerous shelves; a very tall, broad-shouldered man who
smiled down from the rafters while he pulled at a very precise
whisker with his right hand, for his left had been replaced by a
shining steel hook; and Mr. Shrig who shook his placid head as he
leaned upon a long musket whose bayonet twinkled wickedly in the dim
light; all this Barnabas saw as, sighing, he opened his eyes.
"'E's all right now!" nodded the smiling giant.
"Ha!" exclaimed Mr. Shrig, "but vith a lump on 'is 'ead like a negg.
'Run!' I sez. 'No!' sez 'e,--and 'ere's me vith vun eye a-going into
mourning, and 'im vith a lump on 'is nob like a noo-laid egg!"
"'E's game though, Jarsper," said the benevolent giant.
"Game! I believe you, Corp!" nodded Mr. Shrig. "Run!' I sez. 'No!'
sez 'e. 'Then v'ot vill you do?' sez I. 'Make them!' sez 'e. Game?
Lord love me, I should say so!" Here, seeing Barnabas sit upright,
Mr. Shrig laid by the musket and came towards him with his hand out.
"Sir," said he, "when them raskels got me down they meant to do for
me; ah! they'd ha' given me my quietus for good an' all if you
'adn't stood 'em off. Sir, if it ain't too much, I should like to
shake your daddle for that!"
"But you saved my life twice," said Barnabas, clasping the proffered
hand.
"V'y the coping-stone I'll not go for to deny, sir," said Mr. Shrig,
stroking his smooth brow, "but t'other time it were my friend and
pal the Corp 'ere,--Corporal Richard Roe, late Grenadiers. 'E's only
got an 'ook for an 'and, but vith that 'ook 'e's oncommonly 'andy,
and as a veapon it ain't by no means to be sneezed at. No, 'e ain't
none the worse for that 'ook, though they thought so in the army,
and it vere 'im as brought you off v'ile I vos a-chasing of the
enemy vith 'is gun, yonder."
"Why, then I should like to thank Corporal Richard Roe," said
Barnabas,--(here the Corporal tugged at his precise and carefully
trimmed whisker again), "and to shake his hand as well." Here the
giant blushed and extended a huge fist.
"Honored, sir," said he, clicking his heels together.
"And now," said Mr. Shrig, "ve're all a-going to drink--at my
expense."
"No, at mine," said Barnabas.
"Sir," said Mr. Shrig, round and placid of eye, "ven I says a thing
I means it. Consequent you are now a-going to sluice your ivory vith
a glass of the Vun an' Only, at my expense,--you must and you shall."
"Yes," said Barnabas, feeling in his pockets. "I must, my purse is
gone."
"Purse!" exclaimed Mr. Shrig, his innocent eyes rounder than ever,
"gone, sir?"
"Stolen," nodded Barnabas.
"Think o' that now!" sighed Mr. Shrig, "but I ain't surprised, no, I
ain't surprised, and--by Goles!"
"What now?"
"Your cravat-sparkler!--that's wanished too!" Barnabas felt his
rumpled cravat, and nodded. "And your vatch, now--don't tell me as
they 've took--"
"Yes, my watch also," sighed Barnabas.
"A great pity!" said Mr. Shrig, "though it ain't to be vondered
at,--not a bit."
"I valued the watch greatly, because it was given me by a very good
friend," said Barnabas, sighing again.
"Walleyed it, hey?" exclaimed Mr. Shrig, "walleyed it, sir?--v'y then,
'ere it be!" and from a capacious side-pocket he produced Natty
Bell's great watch, seals and all.
"Why--!" exclaimed Barnabas, staring.
"Also your purse, sir,--not forgetting the sparkler." Mr. Shrig
continued, producing each article in turn.
"But--how in the world--?" began Barnabas.
"I took 'em from you v'ile you vos a-lookin' at my castor. Lord love
me, a babe could ha' done it,--let alone a old 'and, like me!"
"Do you mean--?" began Barnabas, and hesitated.
"In my young days, sir," explained Mr. Shrig with his placid smile,
"I vere a champion buzman, ah! and a prime rook at queering the gulls,
too, but I ewentually turned honest all along of a flash, morning-sneak
covess as got 'erself conwerted."
"What do you mean by a morning-sneak covess?"
"I means a area-sneak, sir, as vorks werry early in the morning. A
fine 'andsome gal she vere, and vith nothing of the flash mollisher
about 'er, either, though born on the streets, as ye might say, same
as me. Vell, she gets con-werted, and she's alvays napping 'er bib
over me,--as you'd say, piping 'er eye, d'ye see? vanting me to turn
honest and be con-werted too. 'Turn honest,' says she, 'and ve'll be
married ter-morrow,' says she."
"So you turned honest and married her?" said Barnabas, as Mr. Shrig
paused.
"No, sir, I turned honest and she married a coal-v'ipper, v'ich,
though it did come a bit 'ard on me at first, vos all for the best
in the end, for she deweloped a chaffer,--as you might say, a tongue,
d' ye see, sir, and I'm vun as is fond of a quiet life, v'en I can
get it. Howsomever, I turned honest, and come werry near starving
for the first year, but I kept honest, and I ain't never repented
it--so fur. So, as for the prigs, and scamps, and buzmen, and flash
leary coves, I'm up to all their dodges, 'aving been one of them,
d'ye see. And now," said Mr. Shrig, as the big Corporal having
selected divers bottles from his precise array, took himself off to
concoct a jorum of the One and Only--"now sir, what do you think o'
my pal Corporal Dick?"
"A splendid fellow!" said Barnabas.
"'E is that, sir,--so 'e is,--a giant, eh sir?"
"A giant, yes, and handsome too!" said Barnabas.
"V'y you're a sizable cove yourself, sir," nodded Mr. Shrig,
"but you ain't much alongside my pal the Corp, are you? I'm
nat'rally proud of 'im, d'ye see, for 't were me as saved 'im."
"Saved him from what? How?"
"Me being only a smallish chap myself, I've allus 'ad a 'ankering
arter sizable coves. But I never seen a finer figger of a man than
Corporal Dick--height, six foot six and a quarter, chest,
fifty-eight and a narf, and sir--'e were a-going to drownd it all in
the River, all along o' losing his 'and and being drove out o' the
army, v'ich vould ha' been a great vaste of good material, as ye
might say, seeing as there's so much of 'im. It vas a dark night,
the night I found 'im, vith vind and rain, and there vos me and 'im
a-grappling on the edge of a vharf--leastvays I vere a-holding onto
'is leg, d'ye see--ah, and a mortal 'ard struggle it vere too, and
in the end I didn't save 'im arter all."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean as it vere 'im as saved me, for v'ot vith the vind, and the
rain, and the dark, ve lost our footing and over ve vent into the
River together--down and down till I thought as ve should never come
up again, but ve did, o' course, and then, jest as 'ard as 'e'd
struggled to throw 'imself in, 'e fought to get me out, so it vere
'im as really saved me, d'ye see?"
"No," said Barnabas, "it was you who really saved him."
"V'y, I'm as glad as you think so, sir, only d'ye see, I can't svim,
and it vos 'im as pulled me out. And it all come along of 'im losing
'is 'and--come nigh to breaking 'is 'eart to be discharged, it did."
"Poor fellow!" said Barnabas, "and how did he lose his hand?"
"V'y, I could tell you, or you could read of it in the Gazette--jest
three or four lines o' printing--and they've spelt 'is name wrong at
that, curse 'em! But Corporal Dick can tell you best. Let 'im. 'Ere
'e comes, vith a steaming brew o' the Vun and Only."
And indeed, at this moment the Corporal re-entered, bearing a jug
that gave forth a most enticing and delicious aroma, and upon which
Mr. Shrig cast amorous glances, what time he reached three glasses
from the marshalled array on the shelves.
And now, sitting at the small table that stood in a snug corner
beside the chimney, Mr. Shrig, having filled the three glasses with
all due care, tendered one to Barnabas with the words:
"Jest give that a snuff with your sneezer, sir,--there's perfume,
there's fray-grance for ye! There ain't a man in London as can brew
a glass o' rum-punch like the Corp,--though 'e 'as only got vun 'and.
And now, Corporal Dick, afore ve begin, three steamers."
"Ay, for sure, Jarsper!" said the Corporal; and opening a small
corner cupboard he took thence three new pipes and a paper of tobacco.
"Will you smoke, sir?" he inquired diffidently of Barnabas.
"Thank you, yes, Corporal," said Barnabas, and taking the proffered
pipe he filled and lighted it.
Now when the pipes were in full blast, when the One and Only had
been tasted, and pronounced by Mr. Shrig to be "up to the mark," he
nodded to Corporal Dick with the words:
"Tell our young gent 'ow you lost your 'and, Corp."
But hereupon the Corporal frowned, shuffled his feet, stroked his
trim whiskers with his hook, and finally addressed Barnabas.
"I aren't much of a talker, sir,--and it aren't much of a story, but
if you so wish--"
"I do so wish," said Barnabas heartily.
"Why, very good, sir!" Saying which the Corporal sat up, squared his
mighty shoulders, coughed, and began:
"It was when they Cuirassiers broke our square at Quatre-bras,
sir,--fine fellows those Cuirassiers! They rode into us, through us,
over us,--the square was tottering, and it was 'the colors--rally!'
Ah, sir! the colors means the life or death of a square at such times.
And just then, when horses was a-trampling us and the air full o'
the flash o' French steel, just then I see our colors dip and sway,
and down they went. But still it's 'the colors--rally!' and there's
no colors to rally to; and all the time the square is being cut to
pieces. But I, being nearest, caught up the colors in this here left
hand," here the Corporal raised his gleaming hook, "but a Cuirassier,
'e caught them too, and there's him at one end o' the staff and me
at t'other, pulling and hauling, and then--all at once he'd got 'em.
And because why? Because I hadn't got no left 'and to 'old with. But
I'd got my right, and in my right was 'Brown Bess' there," and the
Corporal pointed to the long musket in the corner. "My bayonet was
gone, and there weren't no time to reload, so--I used the butt. Then
I picked up the colors again and 'eld 'em high over my head, for the
smoke were pretty thick, and, 'To the colors,' I shouted,' Rally,
lads, rally!' And oh, by the Lord, sir,--to hear our lads cheer! And
so the square formed up again--what was left of it--formed up close
and true round me and the colors, and the last thing I mind was the
cheering. Ah! they was fine fellows, they Cuirassiers!"
"So that vere the end o' the Corp's soldiering!" nodded Mr. Shrig.
"Yes," sighed the Corporal, "a one-handed soldier ain't much good,
ye see, sir."
"So they--throwed 'im out!" snarled Mr. Shrig.
"Now Jarsper," smiled the giant, shaking his head. "Why so 'ard
on the sarvice? They give me m' stripe."
"And your dis-charge!" added Mr. Shrig.
"And a--pension," said the soldier.
"Pension," sniffed Mr. Shrig, "a fine, large vord, Dick, as means
werry little to you!"
"And they mentioned me in the Gazette, Jarsper," said the Corporal
looking very sheepish, and stroking his whisker again with his hook.
"And a lot o' good that done you, didn't it? Your 'eart vos broke
the night I found you--down by the River."
"Why, I did feel as I weren't much good, Jarsper, I'll admit. You see,
I 'adn't my hook then, sir. But I think I'd ha' give my other
'and--ah! that I would--to ha' been allowed to march on wi' the
rest o' the lads to Waterloo."
"So you vos a-going to throw yerself into the River!"
"I were, Jarsper, should ha' done it but for you, comrade."
"But you didn't do it, so later on ve took this 'ere place."
"You did, Jarsper--"
"Ve took it together, Dick. And werry vell you're a-doing vith it,
for both of us."
"I do my best, Jarsper."
"V'ich couldn't be bettered, Dick. Then look how you 'elp me vith my
cases."
"Do I, Jarsper?" said the Corporal, his blue eyes shining.
"That you do, Dick. And now I've got another case as I'm a-vaiting
for,--a extra-special Capital case it is too!"
"Another murder, Jarsper?"
"Ah, a murder, Dick,--a murder as ain't been committed yet, a murder
as I'm expecting to come off in--say a month, from information
received this 'ere werry arternoon. A murder, Dick, as is going to
be done by a capital cove as I spotted over a month ago. Now v'ot I
'm going to tell you is betwixt us--private and confidential and--"
But here Barnabas pushed back his chair.
"Then perhaps I had better be going?" said he.
"Going, sir? and for v'y?"
"That you may be more private, and talk more freely."
"Sir," said Mr. Shrig. "I knows v'en to speak and v'en not. My eyes
tells me who I can trust and who not. And, sir, I've took to you,
and so's the Corp,--ain't you, Dick?"
"Yes, sir," said the giant diffidently.
"Sir," pursued Mr. Shrig, "you're a Nob, I know, a Corinthian by
your looks, a Buck, sir, a Dash, a 'eavy Toddler, but also, I takes
the liberty o' telling you as you're only a man, arter all, like the
rest on us, and it's that man as I'm a-talking to. Now v'en a man
'as stood up for me, shed 'is good blood for me, I makes that man my
pal, and my pal I allus trusts."
"And you shall find me worthy of your confidence," said Barnabas,
"and there's my hand on it, though, indeed, you hardly know
me--really."
"More than you think, sir. Besides, it ain't v'ot a cove tells me
about 'imself as matters, nor v'ot other coves tell me about a cove,
as matters, it's v'ot a cove carries in 'is face as I goes by,--the
cock of 'is eye, an' all the rest of it. And then, I knows as your
name's Barnabas Barty--"
"Barty!--you know that?" exclaimed Barnabas, starting,--"how--how in
the world did you find out?"
"Took the liberty to look at your vatch, sir."
"Watch!" said Barnabas, drawing it from his fob, "what do you mean?"
"Give it 'ere, and I'll show ye, sir." So saying, Mr. Shrig took the
great timepiece and, opening the back, handed it to Barnabas. And
there, in the cavity between the two cases was a very small folded
paper, and upon this paper, in Natty Bell's handwriting, these words:
"To my dear lad Barnabas Barty, hoping that he may prove
as fine a gentleman as he is--a man."
Having read this, Barnabas folded the paper very gently, and putting
it back, closed the watch, and slipped it into his fob.
"And now," said Mr. Shrig, exhaling a vast cloud of smoke, "afore I
go on to tell you about this 'ere murder as I'm a-vaiting for, I
must show ye my little reader." Here Mr. Shrig thrust a hand into
his pocket,--then his pipe shivered to fragments on the stone floor
and he started up, mouth agape and eyes staring.
"Lord, Jarsper!" cried the Corporal, "what is it, comrade?"
"It's gone, Dick!" he gasped, "my little reader's been stole."
But now, even as he turned towards the door, Barnabas laid a
detaining hand upon his arm.
"Not stolen--lost!" said he, "and indeed, I'm not at all surprised!"
Here Barnabas smiled his quick, bright smile.
"Sir--sir?" stammered Mr. Shrig, "oh, Pal, d'ye mean--?"
"That I found it, yes," said Barnabas, "and here it is."
Mr. Shrig took his little book, opened it, closed it, thrust it into
his pocket, and took it out again.
"Sir," said he, catching Barnabas by the hand, "this here little
book is more to me nor gold or rubies. Sir, you are my pal,--and
consequent the Corp's also, and this 'ere chaffing-crib is allus
open to you. And if ever you want a man at your back--I'm your man,
and v'en not me--there's my pal Dick, ain't there, Di--"
Mr. Shrig stopped suddenly and stood with his head to one side as
one that listens. And thus, upon the stillness came the sound of one
who strode along the narrow passage-way outside, whistling as he went.
"'Sally in our Alley,' I think?" said Mr. Shrig.
"Yes," said Barnabas, wondering.
"V'ich means as I'm vanted, ah!--and vanted precious qvick too,"
saying which, Mr. Shrig caught up his "castor," seized the nobbly
stick, crossed to the door, and came back again.
"Dick," said he, "I'll get you to look after my little reader for me,
--I ain't a-going to risk losing it again."
"Right you are, Jarsper," nodded the Corporal.
"And sir," continued Mr. Shrig, turning towards Barnabas with the
book in his hand, "you said, I think, as you'd like to see what I'd
got inside o' this 'ere.--If so be you're in the same mind about it,
why--'ere it is." And Mr. Shrig laid the little book on the table
before Barnabas. "And v'ot's more, any time as you're passing, drop
in to the 'Gun,' and drink a glass o' the Vun and Only vith Dick and
me." So Mr. Shrig nodded, unlocked the door, shut it very gently
behind him, and his footsteps died away along the echoing passage.
Then, while the Corporal puffed at his long pipe, Barnabas opened
the little book, and turning the pages haphazard presently came to
one where, painfully written in a neat, round hand, he read this:
CAPITAL COVES
EXTRA-SPECIALS
___________________________________________________________________
|Name. |When |Date of |Sentence. |Date of |
| |spotted. |Murder. | |Execution.|
| ______________________| _________|________| __________|__________|
|James Aston (Porter) |Feb. 2 |March 30|Hanged |April 5 |
|Digbeth Andover (Gent) |March 3 |April 28|Transported|May 5 |
|John Barnes (Sailor) |March 10 |Waiting |Waiting |Waiting |
|Sir Richard Brock(Bart)|April 5 |May 3 |Hanged |May 30 |
|Thomas Beal (Tinker) |March 23 |April 15|Hanged |May 30 |
|_______________________|__________|________|___________|__________|
There were many such names all carefully set down in alphabetical
order, and Barnabas read them through with perfunctory interest.
But--half-way down the list of B's his glance was suddenly arrested,
his hands clenched themselves, and he grew rigid in his
chair--staring wide-eyed at a certain name. In a while he closed the
little book, yet sat there very still, gazing at nothing in
particular, until the voice of the Corporal roused him somewhat.
"A wonderful man, my comrade Jarsper, sir?"
"Yes," said Barnabas absently.
"Though he wouldn't ha' passed as a Grenadier,--not being tall enough,
you see."
"No," said Barnabas, his gaze still fixed.
"But as a trap, sir,--as a limb o' the law, he ain't to be
ekalled--nowheres nor nohow."
"No," said Barnabas, rising.
"What? are you off, sir--must you march?"
"Yes," said Barnabas, taking up his hat, "yes, I must go."
"'Olborn way, sir?"
"Yes."
"Why then--foller me, sir,--front door takes you into Gray's Inn
Lane--by your left turn and 'Olborn lays straight afore you,--this
way, sir." But, being come to the front door of the "Gun," Barnabas
paused upon the threshold, lost in abstraction again, and staring at
nothing in particular while the big Corporal watched him with a
growing uneasiness.
"Is it your 'ead, sir?" he inquired suddenly.
"Head?" repeated Barnabas.
"Not troubling you, is it, sir?"
"No,--oh no, thank you," answered Barnabas, and stretched out his
hand. "Good-by, Corporal, I'm glad to have met you, and the One and
Only was excellent."
"Thankee, sir. I hope as you'll do me and my comrade the honor to
try it again--frequent. Good-by, sir." But standing to watch
Barnabas as he went, the Corporal shook his head and muttered to
himself, for Barnabas walked with a dragging step, and his chin upon
his breast.
Holborn was still full of the stir and bustle, the rush and roar of
thronging humanity, but now Barnabas was blind and deaf to it all,
for wherever he looked he seemed to see the page of Mr. Shrig's
little book with its list of carefully written names,--those
names beginning with B.--thus:
_________________________________________________________
|Name. |When |Date |Sentence.|Date of |
| |spotted.|of Murder. | |Execution.|
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
|Sir Richard | | | | |
|Brock (Bart.)|April 5 | May 3 | Hanged | May 30 |
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
|Thomas Beal | | | | |
|(Tinker) |March 23| April 15 | Hanged | May 30 |
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|
|Ronald | | | | |
|Barrymaine | May 12 | Waiting | Waiting | Waiting |
|_____________|________|___________|_________|__________|