love embrace, was perhaps more dissatisfied than ever, and hearing the
click of the bolt under Isabella's stealthy hand got more resolute. Out
goes the light, and now commenced one of those struggles for which the
Happy Land was so famous. Another man, on thus finding himself encaged,
and so suddenly deprived of light, might have succumbed to fear; but our
hero was not of the timid order, who can enjoy love and be dead to the
trump of war. Not even when he heard the spring of Kidd, as he bounced
from his cell, did he think of yielding, but, by a strong effort
throwing off the women, he made towards the door. He had even succeeded
so far as to search for the lock, but found, to his dismay, that the key
had been taken out. On turning round he was immediately in the grasp of
Kidd, with the women hanging upon him. And now was the real conflict;
all the contortions--the deep breathings from the oppressed lungs--the
thumps on the sides of the room--but not a word of speech, only
smothered mutterings and oaths ground between the teeth.
The effort on the part of the assailants was to get the gentleman on his
back on the floor; nor could this issue be prolonged for many minutes,
with a force of three arrayed against one. Yet the attempt failed more
than once, an interval being occupied by a cry for help, shouted at the
top of his voice, and responded to by an orgie-laugh from the further
end of the lobby, and some suppressed mirth at the back of the door, as
if some creatures of human shape were there, in the full enjoyment of
what was likely to be their own game at another time. As confessed by
Mr ---- afterwards, this evidence of how completely he was, as it were,
doubly or trebly caged, struck him with more dismay than even the
extinguishing of the light or the bound of Kidd from his recess. The
idea took hold of him that he was to be murdered, and though under this
energy, inspired by the love of life, the increased strain brought up in
his enemies by his now desperate resistance laid him flat on his back,
with such force that his head dirled to the brain.
The remaining part of the process was easy--the gold watch pulled out of
his pocket, the click of the bolt, and Kidd was gone.
"Catch the thief!" cried Margaret, with just enough of force as to reach
the ears of the poor victim, as he lay stunned with the knock on the
head, and almost exhausted by the struggle.
"He's gone," added the gentle Isabella.
"Who is gone?" said Mr ----, as he looked up in the now lighted room.
"Why, the d----d villain who has taken your watch," replied Margaret.
"An accomplice," groaned the victim, as he attempted to rise.
"It's a lie, sir," replied Margaret again, with increased fury, as she
breathed fast from her exertions. "The fellow lives ben in the other
room, and this is not the first time he has played us a trick of the
same kind; but he'll be hanged some day."
"Yes, and the sooner the better," joined Isabella. "Come, we cannot help
it. There's no use following him. Give us a dram for defending you."
"Ay, for saving your life," added her neighbour; "for we know he would
have murdered you."
"I felt _your_ hand on my throat," cried Mr ----.
"Bob's, you mean," was the answer. "He has a hand like a woman, and yet
it would choke a tiger."
"I felt all your _six_ hands on me," roared he, unable to stand even
this transparent dodge.
"How could we know you from him in the dark?" cried Margaret. "We
intended to pull him off, and that's our thanks, and you'll not even
give us a 'budge,' but accuse two innocent girls for being robbers."
"Oh, it's the way with them all," added Isabella. "They first ruin us,
and then charge us with theft; but we deserve it, don't we, for trusting
their lying words."
"Liars and thieves, one and all of you," replied the gentleman. "You
know you inveigled me here to be robbed by your bully. That watch cost
me £20."
"Well, then," said Margaret, "give us £5--you have money about you
somewhere--and we'll tell you where you will catch him."
"Worse and worse," ejaculated Mr ----; "but what am I doing here?" he
added, as he for the first time, after recovering from his stupor,
bethought himself of following the thief; and gathering up his hat, and
arranging his torn garments, he made for the door.
"Not till you pay us for saving your life," said Margaret, as she stood
between him and the door, with the intention, no doubt, merely of
gaining time for Kidd.
And so, to be sure, she made only a faint effort to hold him back, and
he, pulling open the door, rushed out into the dark passage, saluted as
he disappeared by the hoarse laugh of the women, and, as he thought,
some other indications of the same kind from the sympathisers further
ben. Glad to get off a living man, but yet not inclined to give up as
lost his valuable property, he half walked and half tumbled down the
stair of this, to him, most _unhappy_ land; nor did he stop till he was
in my presence in the Office. A few words, uttered with much difficulty,
very soon satisfied me that he was one of a host who had been turned
away from the Happy Land with less ceremony than "Frau Schnipps," on an
occasion not altogether similar.
"Wait there," said I, "I will bring up the women in the first place."
"Oh, you know them?" said he.
"Yes, about as well as you, sir."
"And that's too well," said he, with something like a heave of the
chest.
"Bell Marshall and Margaret Tait," said I; "but they haven't the watch,
and I know they will say they were helping you. The man is my object."
So leaving him, and taking with me two constables, I went to the scene.
As I expected, I found the girls. Two or three of the children of the
Happy Land were with them, all engaged in drinking and laughing, no
doubt at the excellent drama that had just ended, and upon which they
thought that the green curtain had been drawn for ever, for it is not
very often that the slain hero makes his appearance again at our Office;
and there can be no question that sometimes it is as prudent to pocket
shame as it is to put a gold sovereign into your purse, with the
difference, that while the one ought to remain, the other should come
out for the benefit of society. I was not expected, and was accordingly
greeted with the honour of perfect silence.
"The old game, my lasses," said I, as I beckoned to the others to get
off, which they very soon did, growling as they went along the passage;
"where is the gentleman's watch?"
"Search, and answer for yourself," replied Margaret. "The man has it."
"What man?"
"How should we know? He came in upon us; we did our best to save the
gentleman, and the scurvy dog wouldn't give us a penny to buy pins."
"Came _out_, you mean," said I; "the old story, 'the great unknown.' Yet
I think I know him."
Just as I was speaking, I felt some small object under my foot, and
stooping down found a small gold watch-key. The women looked sharp to
try and find out what I had picked up and put into my pocket, but they
said nothing, neither did I.
"Come," said I. "The gentleman is in the Office, and wishes to thank you
for trying to save his life."
"Umph, and true, by ----," said the reprobate.
"A terrible fellow this 'unknown,'" said I, rather by way of amusing
myself as they were getting equipped. "Don't pare your nails, for I
intend to introduce him to you."
And proceeding to make a search, which I knew would be attended by no
greater result than a mocking laugh from my lasses, I was forced to be
content with my small recovery of the gold key.
I marched them up to quarters where they had been before. It was too
late that night to go after Kidd. I was sure enough of him, and an early
catch was of no use as regarded the recovery of the watch, which I knew
he would not carry with him a moment longer than he could find a
hiding-place for it, and that he would find far more readily than one
for himself.
Next morning some of the constables, who knew where Kidd's mother lived
in the Pleasance, thought very wisely they might help me in their way by
searching the house. This they accordingly did before I was well out of
bed; but their report was unfavourable. He was not in the house, and
the mother denied all knowledge of her worthless son. I have often had
reports of this kind made to me before, but I have been always fond of
making my own searches. So away I went to do the work over again; but,
to say the truth, I had little hope. It was as early as nine.
"I want to know where James is," said I, as I entered the little shop.
"God bless me," said she, with wondering eyes, "more policemen! why the
men are scarcely awa'. They searched the hail house, and found naebody.
Am I no enough tormented and heartbroken wi' a neer-do-weel son, but I
maun be treated as his keeper, whether I hae him or no, and my house
searched by man after man, as if I mysel' were a breaker of the laws."
"I know you are not a breaker of the laws, Mrs Kidd," replied I, calmly,
"and that's the very reason why you should even cheerfully allow an
officer to go through your house. I am not in the habit of stealing,
and, besides, I wish you to go along with me."
"But there's nae occasion," was the reply. "Have I no tauld ye your men
are scarcely out o' the house, and lang and sair they searched. It's no
that I fear aught, nor the trouble either, but it's the nonsense."
"I will put up with the nonsense," said I.
"Maun I tell you a third time," said she, with increased firmness,
"that my house has been searched by twa men, wi' twa een each, this
morning already?"
"Then two eyes more can do the less harm," replied I, with a quiet
pertinacity at least equal to her own, especially, and no doubt a
consequence of, the said pertinacity on her part, which appeared to me
somewhat more than was required, according to her own theory.
"Weel, een here or een there, there's naebody in my house, and what's
the use of our paying for your men, when you have nae faith in them ony
mair than in me?"
An adroit reply, but somehow the more she said the more I thought, only
in a different direction. I had dallied myself into suspicion, and had
little time to spare.
"Come," said I, "let us end this; but I have consideration. I don't want
to trouble you to go up stairs with me."
"I've been up already with the men," she persisted, "and really I'm no
just pleased to hae my word doubted. I'm no a policeman, and I've aye
thought that when a man doesna believe me, he thinks me a leer. Just gae
your wa's, and be sure there's nae James Kidd in my house."
"Well," replied I, getting impatient, "I must just step up myself."
"Weel," was the tardy reply, "a wilfu' man maun hae his ain way. Come
awa', and ye'll see what you'll mak o't."
And leading the way very reluctantly, she preceded me up to the little
flat. I entered the kitchen, and began to peer about as carelessly to
appearance as usual; but I confess I saw nothing which could lead me to
suspect that there was any human being there except Mrs Kidd and myself;
and she did not seem inclined to condole with me in my disappointment,
though I could see, too, that she abstained from shewing any triumph in
my discomfiture.
"You see how little harm my survey is doing you," said I. "It is even
pleasant work."
"It's no to me, whatever it may be to you," said she. "You are searching
for my son, and isn't that enough for the heart of a mother? You're
maybe no a father, and canna ken thae things. Ay, it's sair to hae the
heart broken by the hands that should hae comforted it and bound it up.
It's the turning back o' the yearning that braks it; but now I fancy
ye're satisfied James is no here."
And I felt for the poor woman. I had the parlour to look through; but as
the sounds of her grief fell on my ear, I stood musing a little, and
when the mind is occupied, the eye trifles, and mine trifled, as well as
did my foot, as I used it in kicking away a bit of coal, a "churl" as we
call it, that lay before me. At the same instant my eye caught the heap
of coals in the corner, and two thoughts came into my head--first, why
the coals should be in _that_ place; and secondly, why the "churl"
should be in _this_ place. It had not come there where it lay by having
been dropped, because it was not in the line to the fire, and then it
was at the edge of a little door which had escaped my notice; or rather,
I should say, it was so small an affair, without sneck or lock-handle,
that I thought it a mere cupboard. Again, why was the "churl" so
situated as if it had come out of the small recess? And once more, why
was the cupboard without a projection whereby it could be opened? Ah,
well, how the mind will work even when it is playing.
"What place is this?" said I.
"Oh, a little cupboard," said Mrs Kidd; "just a place for cups and
saucers."
"Which you use every day?"
"Every day."
"And yet there is no sneck-handle, whereby you can get in when you are
maybe in a hurry for a cup of tea?"
No answer from poor Mrs Kidd, and the thought came that the coals in the
corner were surely out of place, in a little tidy house; and just mark
how that kind of natural logic works.
"I should just like to look in."
"And what would be the use? Hae ye never seen a number o' marrowless
cups and saucers?"
And maybe something even more marrowless, thought I, as, taking out a
penknife and inserting it in a small slit, something like that of a
check lock, I opened the door, and there, lying in a hole--the veritable
bunker--was my friend of the Happy Land, extended on a small mattress.
On this exposure, the poor mother covered her face with her hands and
sobbed hysterically.
"The last o't," she said, in a voice broken by sobs. "The lang train o'
griefs a' frae whaur there should hae come comfort and help is wound up.
I hide and conceal nae mair, and what signified my hiding when God saw
through a'. Tak him, sir; and may ye mak o' him a better man to his
brither-man, than he has been a son to me."
"Has he given you a watch?" said I, in the expectation of profiting by
what I considered to be a breaking down.
"No," she replied, "I have never had ony o' his secrets, nor for a lang
time has he been near me, except when he wanted meat. His wild ways are
best kenned to himsel', but I fear women and drink have been his ruin."
"Rise, James," said I, "and give me the watch you robbed the gentleman
of last night in the Happy Land."
"I deny it," replied the incorrigible rogue, as he rose slowly, cursing
between his teeth.
I searched the house, but the watch was never recovered. The three were
brought to the High Court. It was a difficult case, in consequence of
the darkness of the scene, which prevented recognition of Kidd; but a
strange circumstance supplied the want. Mr ---- could swear that Kidd
had a large hard wart upon the right hand--the rough pressure of which
in his neck had pained him so as to leave an impression on his mind. The
wart was found still upon the thumb. Then the watch-key served its
purpose, and it was found that Kidd was the daily associate of the
women. They were each transported for fourteen years.
The Half-Crowns.
I have often thought we are a little mole-eyed in social questions. How
much were we to have paid the devil for our letting in mental food to
the people, for the introduction of machinery, for giving up hanging
poor wretches! and yet we have paid him nothing,--all movements coming
to a poise. When I lay hold of a robber by the throat, we have a tussle,
but it does not last long. Either he or I may be down; we don't murder
each other; the forces destroy themselves, and there's peace. Where is
all the expected crop of forgeries and coinings that were to spring up
under the spread of the guano of education? The art of learning to write
was to be the learning to forge, and electro-plating (if I can spell it)
was to turn off half-crowns by the thousand. Nothing of all this. The
people are better fed, the working men better employed, fewer murders,
fewer forgeries, fewer coinings. I think we have rather taken from his
majesty below, and I suspect he is fretful. What a fury we would put him
in were we to take the young from him, of whom, in a certain class, he
has had the charge since Adam coined that bad penny, Cain!
So I thought, when I told the story of the pewter spoons. I thought I
had not another case of coining in my books; but I find I was wrong. Not
long ago, in November 1858, I happened (I was always happening) to meet,
at the foot of the stair leading to Ashley Buildings, in Nether Bow,
near John Knox's Church, a clot of little boys and girls busy looking at
some wonderful things, with eyes as bright and round as a new-turned-out
shilling. On bending my head over the little people, and directing my
eyes down through the midst of them, I found that the objects of their
delight were a number (turned out to be a dozen) of beautiful glittering
half-crowns and florins, all new from the mint. Was ever a nest of
Raggediers shone upon with a blaze of such glory! Did ever her Majesty's
face appear so beautiful to any of her loyal subjects!
On inquiry, I found that the urchins, when playing in the stair of
Ashley Buildings, had found the pieces secreted in the corners of two
window-soles. They were placed outside, so that any person going up the
stair could reach them without entering any of the flats. I examined the
places of deposit under the direction of my leaders--six of the pieces
were on the window-sole of the first flat, and the other six on that of
the highest. Then they had been cunningly placed in small-scooped
crevices, close by the rybats. On coming down with my coins in my hand,
and my troop around me, all chattering and vindicating their rights to
the waifs, I was a little taken aback by the appearance of two ladies
coming up the dark, dingy stair. At the first glance, and under the
impression of the rustle of their heavy silk skirts, I took them for
philanthropical grandees from the New Town on a visit of mercy to the
hags of Ashley Land; and no wonder, for the very gayest of our
crinolined nymphs, so far as regarded silk velvet and ribbons, were not
qualified to tie the latchet of one of their boots. Nor was my
impression changed when, standing to a side to give space to the swirl
of their wide skirts, as well as honour to their progress, I looked
respectfully, if not with a little awe (not much in my way) into their
faces,--delicate, pretty, genteel, nor with a single indication of the
flaunting lightness sometimes, in my experience, accompanying, but not
adorning very gay attire.
On ascending two steps above me, one of them turned round, and, with an
inquiring gaze, asked what was the matter, in a clear, bell-like voice,
which was to me at the moment perhaps the more musical, because it came
from such a delicate throat; but the speech was English, and we want
that _spoken_ music in Scotland,--at least there's not much of it among
the denizens of Ashley Land.
"A little row among the boys," said I, just as a suddenly rising thought
suggested something,--I won't say what.
"He's ta'en our half-croons, mem," cried a bantam, whose windpipe I
could have squeezed.
Upon hearing which, my ladies turned somewhat abruptly, and proceeded
down stairs. I could even fancy that the noise of their silks was
increased by a flurry,--a movement altogether which I could not, even
with the aid of my sudden thought, very well understand. On getting to
the foot of the stair, and quit of my brawlers, I observed my two
damsels walking majestically up the High Street, as if they had utterly
forgotten their visit of mercy, for which their purses, and probably
their Bibles, had been put in preparation. I had intercepted grace,
condescension, and mercy, even when about to light, like ministering
angels, on the hearts and homes of the miserable. Well, another
time--mercy is long-suffering.
Just as I thus found myself a little satirical perhaps, up comes the man
Richardson, who lived in Ashley Buildings.
"It's not often," said he, "that folks like me and my wife have lodgers
in our small room like yon," pointing in the direction of my ladies.
"Like whom?" said I.
"Why, did you not see them coming out of our stair?"
"Yes, I saw two ladies superbly dressed; who are they?"
"Just my lodgers; your common lodging-house keepers can't touch that, I
think."
"Why, no," said I; "but you haven't told me who or what they are."
"That's a hard question," replied he; "I can only say they are English,
very polite, and pay their score."
"Any more?" said I; for although I had no doubt of the man's honesty, I
did not wish to be forward with my half-crowns, as a "let up" in the
first instance.
"Why, we are not sure of them," said he. "They are the strangest
customers we ever had. They keep their door shut, and every second day
there comes to them a man, as much a tailor and jeweller-made swell in
his way as they are in theirs. Then the door is still more sure to be
locked, and the key-hole screened."
"Did you ever hear his name?"
"Oh, yes--Mr Harvey."
"And theirs?"
"Miss Matilda Jerome and Miss Elizabeth Jackson."
"Is he English too?" inquired I.
"Yes, of the highest tone, but very condescending. He asks Mrs
Richardson how she does, and she says, 'Quite well, I thank you, sir;'
but this doesn't prevent her, you know, from sometimes trying a
_chink_--the _key-hole_ is an impossibility."
"And what has she seen?"
"Not much yet. The little is strange. The great Mr Harvey, the moment he
gets in, takes off his fine suit and his rings, and puts on a fustian
jacket and breeches. They work at something requiring a great deal of
the fire, and then we hear _birrs_, and _clanks_, and _whizzes_--what
you might expect where some small machinery is in gear."
"Producing, perhaps," said I, "something like _that_?" shewing him a
half-crown piece.
"Our very suspicion," replied he, as he took the piece into his hand,
and seemed to wonder at the "turn out" of his little room. "But where
got you it?"
"With eleven more, on two of the window-soles of your staircase."
"Hidden there by them?"
"I can't say," replied I; "but hark ye, when would be the best time for
me to see the ladies and Mr Harvey together--if in the fustian, so much
the better?"
"To-morrow forenoon," replied he. "They are all on the _stravaig_
to-day."
"Well, in the meantime, Richardson, you are mum."
"Dumb."
And leaving my useful informant, I proceeded on my way, ruminating as
usual. It didn't need a witch to tell the intention of the deposit, or
the place selected for it. The false money would, of course, be
dangerous in their room, and even in their pockets it would be imprudent
to have more at a time than perhaps the single piece they were trying to
utter. The deposit was thus a little outside bank, from which the three
might severally supply themselves any number of times a-day; and though
the bank stood a chance of being broken, they could lose nothing, while
there would always be the difficulty of connecting them with it either
as _depositors_ or _drawers_. The scheme exhibited at least adroitness
enough to satisfy me that the three were experienced hands. And yet,
just observe the insanity of crime, whereby it renders itself a fool to
itself. These clever people, no doubt, never thought that their splendid
dresses, their engrossing admiration of their persons, and their
exacting claims on the attention of those who would have been very
willing to pass them by, only tended to the sharpening of official
vision.