_A Decisive Battle._
It would be idle to deny that Philip was startled by the sight. No
braver or more resolute boy breathed; but the silence, the mystery--the
gloomy aloofness of Johnson's Mews--lent a sinister aspect to an
apparition formidable enough under any circumstances, but absolutely
threatening and full of danger to one situated as he at that moment.
He never remembered seeing the man before. Not that this repellent
physiognomy was of a type to be soon forgotten. A bullet head with
prominent, blood-shot eyes, a strong, cruel mouth, a huge nose badly
broken--a certain strength of character in features debased by drink and
criminality--these were the tokens writ legibly on the countenance
glaring intently at the boy from without.
The two gazed at each other for an appreciable time. The man's face
wandered from Philip's face to his costume, and then rested on the open
portmanteau at the boy's feet. There was in his expression an air of
astonishment--a certain gloating bewilderment--as of one who had
stumbled unawares upon some object of such potential value that the
finder could hardly believe it to be true. He was thinking, wondering,
debating with himself. The goggle eyes seemed to see more than the brain
was inclined to credit.
Philip, despite his alarm, felt that the right course was to resent this
impertinent prying into his affairs.
"Hello, you!" he shouted. "What do you want?"
The man grinned. He seemed to be about to answer when he suddenly turned
his head and looked down the yard toward the entry.
Instantly he swung round and vanished noiselessly, with the silent
alertness of a cat, for the boy heard no sound. He simply disappeared in
the darkness, and Philip, who knew every inch of the ground, realized
that his most unpleasant-visaged spy had not only dived into the further
obscurity of the mews--which formed a _cul-de-sac_--but also was either
in his stocking feet or wore something over his boots to deaden any
possible clatter on the paving stones.
Here was a nice thing--his habitat discovered by some tramp or criminal
skulking in the untenanted building marked out for the housebreakers
within a few days. It was too bad. He was sorely annoyed that he had not
thought sooner of the potentialities of the window when the interior of
the house was illumined by a candle and a ruddy fire. How long had the
man stood there watching him? He had certainly seen some portion of the
contents of the last portmanteau. Had he also witnessed the removal of
the others to the pantry?
Philip's experience as a newspaper vender told him that all London was
now familiar with his own personal appearance, as well as with the
semblance and value of his meteoric diamonds. The white stones, the
clumps of iron ore, had been described minutely by clever journalists,
who supplemented Isaacstein's clear statement by facts gleaned from
encyclopediæ and interviews with geologists.
Most probably this man had read long articles about him, for the story
was such as to bring watery curses to the lips of every penniless
vagrant in the kingdom. Indeed, the careful scrutiny bestowed on his
face and clothes bore out this suspicion. Had he not changed his
garments the stranger would have known his identity beyond all question.
As it was, the man was puzzled, and disturbed at the very moment he was
about to say something. What had happened to cause him to run away? What
had he seen or heard? Above all, how much did he know of Philip and his
affairs?
Well, the door was locked, and it would be folly to go out again that
night. The house was absolutely unapproachable save by the front. Philip
resolved to remain awake until daybreak. O'Brien's spade stood against
the fireplace. It was a formidable weapon, and he would not hesitate to
use it if forcible entry was attempted. He must sit quietly in the dark,
listening for each sound, and threatening boldly when he heard anyone
endeavoring to open door or window.
He sighed, for he was very tired, but the vigil was imperative.
He dropped the drugget and scissors and bent again over the portmanteau.
The packing operations might as well be finished now, and, indeed, when
the light was extinguished, it would be better to keep away from the
window, through which a sudden thrust with an implement might do him an
injury.
He took his discarded clothes and arranged them on top of the last
parcels of ore and diamonds. Then he reached out for the small bundle of
documents resting on the chair behind him, intending to place them in a
little pocket in the flap which already covered one-half of the bag.
At that instant he again heard footsteps. Of course, a very few seconds
had elapsed since he first caught sight of the living specter without.
The ideas recorded at such length whirled through his active brain with
lightning speed, just as the knowledge now came that the footsteps
proceeded from the entrance to the mews and not from its extremity,
while their firm regularity betokened the advent of some person who had
no special reason to conceal his movements.
The boy listened breathlessly. The oncomer reached his door, passed it,
stopped opposite the window, and then another face peered over the
curtain.
This time it was a policeman.
For an instant their eyes met in mutual astonishment. Then the policeman
came so close that his helmet rested against a pane of glass. He grinned
affably, and cried:
"Here! I want to speak to you."
Intuitively grasping the essential fact that his best policy was one of
ready acquiescence, Philip sprang toward the door and unlocked it. He
stood on the step. The constable approached.
"I hope I didn't startle you," he began, "but I just looked in on the
off chance----"
"I am very glad indeed, to see you," interrupted the boy. "I am leaving
here to-morrow. Just now, while I was packing some of my belongings, a
very nasty-looking man came and peeped in at me in the same way as you
did."
He backed into the house. The policeman half followed him, his quick
glance noting the open portmanteau and its array of old clothes.
"Just now?" he questioned. "Do you mean some time since?"
"No, no. Not half a minute--a few seconds ago."
"But where can he be? He hasn't left the mews, or I must have seen him.
I crossed the road, and no one came out in so short a time."
"Well, he is somewhere in the place--he had a horrid appearance--a man
with a broken nose. He made me jump, I can assure you."
"A man with a broken nose! By Jove, I'm looking for a party of that
description. A rank wrong 'un. Robbery with violence and a few other
little things. What sort of man was he? You saw his face only, I
suppose?"
The constable stepped back into the paved court. A rapid twist of his
hand sent a vivid beam of light dancing over ruined tenements,
disheveled doorways and shattered windows.
"A tall man," said Philip, "taller than you, for I could see his chin
over the string of the curtain. He had a big face, with eyes that stuck
out boldly----"
"By the Lord, it's Jocky right enough!" cried the constable. "Now, where
can he have got to? He's an ugly customer to tackle single-handed," he
added, beneath his breath.
"Won't you wait a bit, until I get some help?" said Philip, anxiously.
The man appeared to debate the point. The nearest comrade was an acting
sergeant, newly promoted. If he were summoned, the kudos of a smart
capture would be his by right of seniority.
"No," announced the constable, stubbornly. "If he is here, I will handle
him myself."
Again his lamp swept the small area of the mews and revealed no living
object. He quickly unfastened his belt, took off his greatcoat, and
readjusted belt and lamp again.
"Now I'm ready for him," he grinned. "Put my coat inside, boy, and stand
at the door yourself with the candle in your hand. If you see anything,
yell out to me."
Philip obeyed. These preparations for a deadly struggle appealed to his
very soul, for your healthy-minded boy of fifteen has generally ceased
to be a highwayman or a pirate in imagination, and aims rather at
planting the Union Jack on a glacis bristling with hostile cannon.
The policeman, feeling for the loose strap of his truncheon, commenced a
careful survey of the mews. He had not gone five yards when there was a
loud crash of broken glass. The building at the other end of the yard
possessed a couple of windows facing into another inclosure at the back.
Obviously, the broken-nosed "Jocky," unseen himself, had observed the
constable's movements.
Realizing that discovery was imminent, he was effecting a strategic
movement to the rear.
The policeman instantly abandoned his cautious tactics. He ran toward
the door of the house whence the sound came. It resisted somewhat, but
yielded to his shoulder. He disappeared inside. Philip, after closing
his own door, also ran to the new center of interest, shielding the
candle with one hand lest it should blow out.
Quick as he was, he missed the first phase of a Homeric combat. The
violent "Jocky," foiled by an unnoticed iron bar in his attempt to
escape, turned like a madman on the policeman. There was no sort of
parley between them. Cursing the luck that had revealed his hiding
place, the man, an ex-convict, with the frame of a giant, sprang at his
pursuer suddenly from an inner room.
The policeman had a second's warning. It was something, but not enough
to give him an advantage. He got his truncheon out, but simultaneously
his assailant was on him with the ferocity of a catamount. They closed
in bone-breaking endeavor, and before they were locked together for ten
fearful seconds the officer of the law bitterly regretted the
professional pride which sent him single-handed into this unequal
strife.
For he was physically outclassed, and he knew it, and there is no more
unnerving knowledge can come to a man in such a supreme moment.
Nevertheless, he was a brave man, and he fought with all the resolution
that is born of the consciousness of justice and moral right. But
Providence is on the side of big battalions, and "Jocky" was taller,
heavier, very much more active. Moreover, liberty is as potent an
incentive as law any day, and law was being steadily throttled when the
pale gleam of Philip's candle lit up the confines of the ruinous hovel
about which the two men stamped and lurched and wrestled.
At the precise moment of the boy's entrance the policeman's knees
yielded and he fell, with his remorseless antagonist uppermost. Philip,
gazing at them wide-eyed, almost fell too, for his left foot rolled on
the constable's staff.
Being fashioned of the stuff which founds empires--on the principle
that instant action is worth a century of diplomacy--he picked up the
truncheon and brought it down on "Jocky's" hard skull with such emphasis
that the convict emitted a queer sort of cough, and collapsed limply on
top of his conquered adversary.
Then the boy was horrified. The two lay so still that he imagined both
were dead. It is one thing to help the law, but quite another to kill a
man. He did not want to be a murderer as well as a millionaire, not
knowing then the qualities which go to form these varieties of the
_genus homo_ are strangely alike.
He gazed at them as in a trance, but relief came when he heard them
breathing stertorously. At last, after a pause that apparently endured
unnumbered minutes, the constable weakly rolled himself free from the
bulky form of his would-be slayer, and sat up.
He inflated his lungs vigorously. Then he managed to gasp:
"Thank you! You've saved my life!"
He pressed his ribs with both hands and gingerly felt his throat. He
stood up. His lamp was still alight, but a quantity of oil had run over
his tunic and trousers.
"By Jove, boy, you are a brick," he said, and his voice was under
control again.
Philip answered not a word; his eyes were glued on the prostrate form of
Jocky. The policeman understood his fear, and laughed.
"Don't you worry about him. He'll do a stretch all right. I would have
given him a harder one than that if I got a swing at him."
His words were quickly justified. The fallen man yowled unintelligibly
and moved. With a rapidity born of much practice the officer handcuffed
him. There must have been some sense of familiarity in the touch of the
steel bracelets, for the recipient of this delicate attention stirred
uneasily.
"You knocked him silly," grinned the policeman, "but he will get his
wits back in a minute or two. Can you bring him a drink of water? It
won't do me any harm, either."
Philip hurried away to comply with this request. His mind was relieved
now, and with the backward swing of the mental pendulum came the
reflection that the least said of his connection with the case the
better.
He filled a small tin at the scullery tap and ran with it to the scene
of the capture. The constable was gently shaking his prize and
addressing him by name.
"Jocky! Jocky Mason! Pull yourself together. This way for the Old
Bailey!"
"If you please," said Philip, "I would be very greatly obliged were my
name not mentioned at all with reference to this affair."
The policeman, whose senses were normal again, was instantly impressed
by the boy's grand manner. His accent was that of the men of the
University Mission. And how many boys of his age would have struck so
straight and truly at a critical moment?
"Well, don't you see, that will be rather difficult," was the answer.
"It was you who told me where he was, and the man himself knows that
without somebody's help I could not have arrested him. There is no need
to mince matters. I have you to thank for not being laid here stiff."
Philip said no more. To press his request implied a powerful motive.
The stars in their courses must have conspired that day to supply him
with excitement.
Mason eagerly gulped the water held to his lips. Then he tried to raise
his right hand to his head. Ah! He understood. A flood of oaths began to
meander thickly from his mouth.
"That's better," said the constable, encouragingly. "Now, up you get!
It's no use, Jocky. I won't let you kick me. You must either go quietly
or I will drag you to the street over the stones, and that will hurt."
The man glared dully at his captor. With the apathy of his class he knew
when he was beaten, and became submissive in demeanor. Philip, holding
his candle aloft, marveled at his own temerity in hitting this giant,
oxlike in size and strength.
Mason wobbled his head and craned his neck awkwardly.
"Oo gev me that crack on the nut?" he asked.
"The roof dropped," was the jocular reply.
"Not it. I 'ad yer dahn, Sailor. I was on yer afore ye could use yer
stick. Ye was fairly bested until somebody ahted me wiv a welt on the
skylight."
"Never mind, Jocky. It'll hurt you to think just now. Come on."
But the ex-convict became sensible of the unwonted light in the deserted
house, and slowly turned his head until his glance rested on Philip.
"Why!" he roared, with an imprecation, "that's the bloomin' kid 'oo
found the di-monds. I seed 'im a-countin' of 'em. White stones, the
paper said, an' bits of iron, too. A trunk full of 'em. 'E 'as one in
'is pocket as big as an egg."
The policeman laughed. So did Philip, shrilly, with ready acceptance of
the cue.
"Come along, Jocky, you're wool-gathering. I'll get you a pint of coffee
at the station just to show there's no malice," said the constable.
"The water was too strong for him," put in Philip.
The ex-convict began to protest, but he wasted words in swearing. The
"Sailor" grasped him by the arm and marched him down the yard, saying
over his shoulder:
"Pull that door to. I'll come back for my coat in half an hour."
Philip followed, but in a sea of perplexity. He heard Mason's frantic
expostulations to the policeman--what was an extra stripe to the loss of
untold wealth--that youngster was richer than Rothschild, the papers
said--the small lot he showed in the police court were worth fifty
thousand pounds--and he had tons more.
It was all of no avail. Certainly the constable had never heard such
queer reasons advanced for stopping an arrest, but Mason was obviously
dazed for the time--maundering about the story which everybody talked
of. He would change his tune when he learned to whom he was indebted for
his capture.
The boy walked behind them mechanically, shading the candle with his
hand. He was so absorbed with his tumultuous thoughts that the first
indication he received of anything bizarre in his appearance was the
giggling of a girl who saw him standing in the arch of the mews
carefully shielding the flickering wick.
He blew it out. A clock in the small jeweler's shop opposite showed the
time--ten minutes past eleven. In that part of London, a busy hive of
men and women of the working class, he had no chance of removing his
belongings before the policeman returned.
What would happen if the friendly constable believed Jocky Mason's
excited statements? True, Philip had no reason to fear the law. But with
exposure might come other troubles. Would anyone advance a claim to his
meteor? Mr. Abingdon hinted at such a thing. He paid no rent for his
house; he might be turned out instantly--refused permission to remove
anything except his few unsalable household goods.
Assuredly he was in an awkward predicament. Of course, there was a
chance that the policeman would continue to laugh at the convict's
folly. If he did not, there would certainly be complications. Could he
avoid them by any means? Where was there a safe hiding place for his
diamonds until next day? Would mother inspire him again as she had not
failed to do during so many strange events? Would her spirit guide his
footsteps across this new quicksand on whose verge he hesitated?
A few doors to the left was O'Brien's shop. The old man crept into
sight, staggering under the weight of a shutter. Good gracious! Why had
he not thought of this ally sooner? Some precious minutes were wasted
already.
"Arrah, Phil, phwat in the worruld----"
"Wait just the least bit, Mr. O'Brien. I have some portmanteaux that I
want to store for the night. Do let me put them at the back of your
shop. My place is not very safe, you know."
"Sure, boy, that's a shmall thing to ax. Bring 'em, an' welcome."
With the speed of a deer Philip dived into the mews. He carried the two
lesser bags without extraordinary difficulty, and deposited them behind
O'Brien's counter. The third was almost too much for him, as the weight
was all in one hand. But he got it there, breathless with the exertion.
He had to open the fourth and tear out the stuffing of paper. When
filled with the packages taken from the fifth it was beyond his power to
lift it. So he dragged it bodily along the mews and into the shop.
A passer-by offered to help him.
"No, thanks," he managed to say, though the effort to speak calmly took
away his remaining breath. "I am only taking it to the shop there."
The man glanced at the shop--it was a marine store dealer's--a place
where lead and iron and brass found ready sale. He passed on.
"Be the forchun uv war, Phil, where did ye get the iligant leather
thrunks, an' phwat's in them?" inquired the astonished pensioner.
The boy bravely called a smile to his aid. "I have a big story to tell
you one of these days, Mr. O'Brien, but I have no time to-night. These
things will not be in your way until the morning?"
"The divil a bit. If things go on as they are, there'll soon be room
enough in the poor ould shop. To think, afther all these years, that a
murtherin' thief in the War Office----"
Philip was safe. He rapidly helped his friend to put up the shutters,
and rushed back to No. 3. Even yet he was not quite prepared for
eventualities. He ran upstairs and gathered a few articles belonging to
his mother, articles he never endeavored to sell even when pinched by
hunger.
The last dress she wore, her boots, a hat, an album with photographs,
some toilet accessories from the tiny dressing table, the coverlet of
the bed on which she died--these and kindred mementoes made a very
credible bulk in the denuded portmanteau.
He gave one glance at the hole in the back yard as he went to the coal
house for a fresh supply of coal. That must remain. It probably would
not be seen. In any case it remained inexplicable.
He was stirring the fire when a tap sounded on the door and the
policeman entered, followed by an inspector.