Mrs Van Heldre let her work fall in her lap and gazed across at her
husband.
"I suppose Harry Vine will walk home with Madelaine?" she said.
"Eh? Maddy? I'd forgotten her," said Van Heldre, laying down his pipe.
"No; I'll go up and fetch her myself."
"Do, dear, but don't stay."
"Not I," was the reply; and going out of the dining-room, where he
always sat when he had his evening pipe, the merchant went into the
study, where by the dim light he saw that his writing-table drawer was
open,
"How's that?" he thought. "Did I--No."
He ran out into the passage, saw that his office door was open, and
entered to receive the blow which laid him senseless before the safe.
Van Heldre did not lie there long.
Crampton came away from the old inn, stick in hand, conscious of having
done a good evening's work over the business of the Fishermen's Benefit
Club, the men having paid up with unusual regularity; but all the same,
he did not feel satisfied. Those pedlar sailor men troubled him. They
had been hanging about the town for some time, and though he knew
nothing against them, he had, as a respectable householder, a confirmed
dislike to all nomadic trading gentry. To him they were, whether Jew or
Gentile, French or German, all gipsies, and belonging to a class who, to
use his words, never took anything out of their reach.
He felt sure that the man he had seen in the darkness was one of these,
and warning himself now for not having taken further notice of the
matter, he determined to call at his employer's on his way home to
mention the fact.
"Better late than never," he said, and he stumped steadily down the main
street as a man walks who is possessed of a firm determination to do his
duty.
As he went on he peered down every one of the dark, narrow alleys which
led to the waterside places, all reeking of tar and old cordage, and
creosoted nets, and with more than a suspicion of the celebrated ancient
and fish-like smell so often quoted.
"If I had my way," said Crampton, "I'd have a lamp at each end of those
places. They're too dark--too dark."
But though he scanned each place carefully, he did not see any lurking
figure, and he went on till he reached his employer's house, where,
through the well-lit window, he could see Mrs Van Heldre looking plump,
rosy, and smiling, as she busied herself in putting away her work.
Crampton stopped at the opposite side, took off his hat and scratched
his head.
"Now if I go and tell him what I think, he'll call me a nervous old
fool, and abuse me for frightening his wife."
He hesitated, and instead of going to the front door, feeling that
perhaps, after all, he had taken an exaggerated view of things, he went
on to the corner of the house and lane, with the intention of having a
look round and then going on home.
He had just gone about half-way, when there was a loud rap given by the
gate leading down into Van Heldre's yard. Some one had thrown it
violently back against the wooden stop, and that somebody had sprung out
and run down the lane in the opposite direction to that by which the old
clerk had come.
"Hah!" he ejaculated, and hurrying on he hastily descended the steps,
entered the passage, and trembling now in every limb, made his way into
the office, where, with all the regular method of the man of business,
he quickly took a box of matches from the chimney-piece, and turned on
and lit one of the gas-burners.
The soft light from the ground-glass globe showed nothing wrong as he
glanced round.
Yes: something was missing--the heavy ebony ruler which always reposed
on the two brass hooks like a weapon of war at the end of his desk.
That was gone.
Crampton's brow knitted, and his hands shook so that he could hardly
strike a second match, as he pushed open the door and entered the inner
office, where, forcing himself not to look round, he lit another gas-jet
before taking in the scene at a glance.
There lay Van Heldre, bleeding profusely from a terrible cut on the
forehead, the safe was open, and in a very few minutes the old clerk
knew that the packet of bank-notes was gone.
"But I've got all their numbers entered," he said to himself, as he went
down on his knee by his master's side, and now, knowing the worst,
growing moment by moment more calm and self-contained.
His first act was to take his voluminous white cravat from his neck, and
bind it tightly round Van Heldre's temples to staunch the bleeding.
"I knew no good would come of it," he muttered. "I felt it from the
first. Are you much hurt, sir?" he said aloud, with his lips close to
the injured man's ear.
There was no reply: just a spasm and a twitching of the hands.
"What shall I do?" thought Crampton. "Give the alarm? No: only
frighten those poor women into fits. Fetch the doctor."
He hurried out by the back way as quietly as he could, and caught the
principal medical man just as he was going up to bed for a quiet night.
"Eh? Van Heldre?" he said. "Bless my soul! On directly. Back way?"
"Yes."
Crampton hurried out, displaying wonderful activity for so old a man,
and took the police station on his way back.
The force in Hakemouth was represented by a sergeant and two men, the
former residing at the cottage which bore the words "Police Station"
over the door.
"Where is your husband?" said Crampton to a brisk-looking woman.
"On his rounds, sir."
"I want him at our office. Can I find him? Can you?"
"I know where he'll be in about ten minutes, sir," said the woman
promptly, as if she were a doctor's helpmate.
"Very well," said Crampton. "Get him and send him on."
The divergence had taken so long that he had hardly reached the office
and poured out some water from a table filter, to bathe the injured
man's face, when he heard the doctor's step.
"Hah!" said the latter, after a brief examination, "we must get him to
bed, Mr Crampton."
"Is he much hurt, sir?"
"Badly. There is a fracture of the skull. It must have been a terrible
blow. Thieves, of course?"
"Or thief, sir," said the old clerk, with his lip quivering. "My dear
master! what would his poor father have said?"
"Hush! Be firm, man," said the doctor, who was busy readjusting the
bandage. "Does Mrs Van Heldre know?" Crampton shook his head. "I
found him like this, sir, and came over to fetch you at once."
"But she must be told."
"John, John dear, are you there? I thought you had gone on to fetch
Madelaine."
Crampton rose hastily to try and bar the way; but he was too late. Mrs
Van Heldre was at the door, and had caught a glimpse of the prostrate
man.
"Doctor Knatchbull! what is the matter--a fit?"
The trouble was culminating, for another voice was heard in the glass
corridor.
"Papa! papa! here is Mr Vine. He walked home with me. I made him come
in. Oh, what a shame to be at work so late!"
"Keep her--keep her back," gasped Mrs Van Heldre, and then with a
piteous sob she sank down by Van Heldre's side.
"John, my husband! speak to me, oh, speak," she moaned as she raised his
head to her lap.
"Ah, you want Brother Luke to you, John Van," cried Vine, as with
Madelaine on his arm he came to the door of the inner room.
There was a moment's silence, and then Madelaine uttered a wild cry, and
ran to her father's side.
"Good heavens! Crampton, what is it?" cried Vine excitedly,--"a fit?"
"No, sir, struck down by a villain--a thief--and that thief--"
Crampton stopped short in the midst of his excitement, for there was a
heavy step now in the passage, and the sergeant of police and one of his
men came in.
"Yes. I've had my eye on a couple of strangers lately," he said, as he
took out a book and gave a sharp look round. "P'r'aps Mr Crampton,
sir, you'll give me the information I want."
"Mr Crampton will give you no information at all," said the
keen-looking doctor angrily. "The first thing is to save the man's
life. Here, sergeant, and you, my man, help me to carry him up to his
bed--or no--well, yes, he'll be better in his own room. Pray, ladies,
pray stand aside."
"Yes, yes," cried Madelaine excitedly, as she rose. "Mother, dear, we
must be calm and helpful."
"Yes; but--but--" moaned the poor woman.
"Yes, dearest," cried Madelaine, "afterwards. Dr Knatchbull wants our
help."
"Good girl," said the doctor, nodding. "Get the scissors, some old
linen, and basin, sponge and water, in the bedroom."
"Yes, doctor," said Madelaine, perfectly calm and self-contained now.
"Mother, dear, I want your help."
She knelt down and pressed her lips for a moment to her father's cheek,
and then placed her arm round her mother, and led her away.
An hour later, when everything possible had been done, and Mrs Van
Heldre was seated by her husband's pillow, Vine being on the other side
holding his friend's hand, Madelaine showed the doctor into the next
room.
"Tell me," she said firmly. "I want to know the truth."
"My dear child," said the doctor, "you know all that I know. Some
scoundrel must have been surprised by your father, and--"
"Doctor," said Madelaine quietly, and with her clear matter-of-fact eyes
gazing into his, "I have been praying for strength to help my mother and
my poor father in this terrible affliction. I feel as if the strength
had been given to me, so speak now as if I were a woman whom you could
trust. Tell me the whole truth."
The doctor gazed at her with a look full of admiration, and taking her
hand, he said kindly:
"I was treating you as if you were a girl, but I will tell you the
truth. I am going to telegraph to town for Mr Reston; there is a
fracture and pressure on the brain."
"And great danger, doctor?"
"Yes," he said, after a pause, "and great danger. But, please God, my
child, we will save his life. He is a fine, strong, healthy man.
There: I can say no more."
"Thank you," said Madelaine calmly, and she quietly left the room.
"Any one might think that she did not feel it," said the doctor slowly;
"but I know better than that. It's wonderful what a woman will suffer
without making a sign. I cannot telegraph till eight o'clock, but I may
as well write my message," he muttered, as he went down-stairs. "Humph!
the news is spreading. Somebody come."
Volume 2, Chapter II.