'BIAS RENOUNCES.
"Is Cap'n Hunken upstairs?"
"Ay, ay, sir," answered Mr Tabb from behind his pile of biscuit tins and
soapboxes. The pile had grown--or so it seemed to Cai--and blocked out
more of the daylight than ever. "Won't you step up? You'll be kindly
welcome."
"I was told I should find him here." Cai, on requesting Mrs Bowldler
that morning to inform him how soon Captain Hunken would be finishing
breakfast, had been met with the information that Captain Hunken had
breakfasted an hour before, and gone out. ("Which," said Mrs Bowldler,
"it becomes not one in my position to carry tales between one
establishment and another: but he bent his steps in the direction of the
town. I beg, sir, however, that you will consider this to be strickly
between you and me and the gatepost, as the saying is.") Cai at once
surmised the reason of this early sallying forth, and, following in
chase, ran against the Quaymaster, from whom he learnt that 'Bias had
entered the ship-chandler's shop half an hour ago. "He has not since
emerged," added the Quaymaster Bussa darkly, as doubtful that in the
interim Captain Hunken might have suffered forcible conversion into one
of the obscurer "lines" of ship-chandlery, wherein so much purports to
be what it is not.
--"I was told I should find him here," said Cai. "But would ye mind
fetchin' him down to me? The fact is, I want him on a matter of private
business."
Mr Tabb considered for a moment. "If I may advise, sir," he suggested
meekly, "you'll find it as private up there as anywhere. The master's
past hearin' what you say--or, if he hears, he's past takin' notice:
whereas down here, you're liable to be interrupted by customers--let
alone that I mustn't leave the shop. And," concluded Mr Tabb, "I would
hardly recommend the Quay. Mr Philp's just arrived there."
On recovering from his previous stroke, Mr Rogers had given orders that,
if another befell him, his bed was to be fetched downstairs and laid in
the great bow-window of the parlour. There Cai found him with Fancy in
attendance, and 'Bias seated on a chair by the bedside.
"Good-mornin'," Cai nodded, hushing his voice, and advanced towards the
bed almost on tiptoe. "He won't reckernise me, I suppose?"
The invalid reclined in a posture between lying and sitting, his back
propped with pillows, his eyes turned with an expressionless stare
towards the harbour. Save for its rigidity and a slight drawing down of
the muscles on the left side of the mouth, there was nothing to shock or
terrify in the aspect of the face, which kept, moreover, its customary
high colour.
"He can't show it, if that's what you mean," answered Fancy. "But he
knows us, somewhere at the back of his eyes--of that I'm sure. I got to
be very clever watchin' his eyes, the last stroke he had, and there was
quite a different look in 'em when he was pleased, or when he was
troubled or wanted something. If you go over quiet and stand by the
window, right where he must see you if he sees at all, maybe you'll
notice what I mean."
But Cai, though he obeyed, and stood for a moment in the direct line of
their vision, could detect no change in the unwinking eyes.
"Cap'n Hunken will even have it that he hears what's said, or scraps of
it. But that I don't believe. . . . I believe 'tis but a buzzin' in his
ears, with no sense to it, an' 'twould be jus' the same if we was the
band of the R'yal Lifeguards."
"Well, whether he hears or not, I've a piece o' news for 'Bias Hunken,
here. . . . P'raps he'd like to step outside an' discuss it?" suggested
Cai awkwardly, remembering how he and 'Bias had parted overnight.
"I don't want to hear anything you can say," growled 'Bias.
"Oh, yes, you do! . . . I reckoned as you'd be down here, first thing
after breakfast, sarchin' for them papers we talked about."
"Did you, now?"
"And I tried to catch you afore you started; but you'd breakfasted
early. . . . Well, the long and short is, they're not lost after all!"
Cai produced the bundle triumphantly.
"Eh! Where did you find 'em?" asked Fancy, while 'Bias took the parcel
without a word of thanks, glanced at it carelessly, and set it down on
the little round table beside the bed.
"In my strong-box. . . . There was two parcels, pretty much alike, on
the top shelf of the safe yonder, and I must have taken 'Bias's by
mistake. I'm glad, anyway," he went on, turning with moist eyes upon
'Bias, who appeared to have lost interest in the conversation.
"I'm glad, anyway, t'have eased your mind so soon, let alone to have cut
short your sarchin' which must ha' been painful enough--in a house o'
sickness."
"Who was sarchin'?" asked 'Bias curtly. "Not me."
"And that's true enough," corroborated Fancy. "Why, Cap'n Hunken has
never mentioned the papers! I guessed as you hadn' told him they was
missin'."
"Eh? . . . I thought--I made sure, by his startin' down here so early--"
"Not a word of any papers did he mention," said Fancy. "He just come
early to sit an' keep master company, havin' a notion that his poor old
mind takes comfort from it somehow. Seven hours he sat here yesterday,
an' never so much as a pipe of tobacco the whole time. Doctor said as a
bit o' tobacco-smoke wouldn' do any harm in the room: but Cap'n Hunken
allows as he'll be on the safe side."
Cai started. . . . For aught 'Bias knew then--as indeed 'Bias had reason
to suspect--this husk of a man, helpless on the bed, had robbed him of
his all, ruined him, left him no prospect but to begin life over again
when late middle-age had sapped his vigour, attenuated the springs of
action, left sad experience in the room of hope. And 'Bias's thought,
ignoring it all, had been to sit beside this man's calamity, on the
merest chance of piercing it with one ray of comfort!
Whereupon, as goodness takes inspiration from goodness, in Cai's heart,
too, a miracle happened, He forgot himself, forgot his loss which was
'Bias's gain: forgot that, keeping his surly attitude, 'Bias had uttered
neither a "thank you" nor a word of pity. Old affection, old
admiration, old faith, and regard came pouring back in a warm tide,
thrilling, suffusing his consciousness, drowning all but one thought--
one proud thought that stood like a sea-mark above the flood, justifying
all--"Even such a man I made my friend!"
For a long time Cai stared. Then, as 'Bias made no sign of lifting his
sullen gaze from the strip of carpet by the bed, he turned half-about
towards the door.
"'Bias Hunken," said he gently, "you're a good man, an' deserved this
luck better'n me. . . . If you can't put away hard thoughts just yet,
maybe you'll remember, some day, that I wished 'ee long life to enjoy
it."
His hand was on the door. "Here, though--hold hard!" put in Fancy, who
had picked up the bundle of papers. "I don't think Cap'n Hunken
understands; nor I don't clearly understand myself. Was it _both_
packets you carried home, sir? or only this one?"
"I thought as I'd made it clear enough," answered Cai. His eyes were
still on his friend, and there was weariness as well as pain in his
voice. "There's only one packet--'Bias's--what you have in your hand.
I must have carried it home by mistake."
"Then your's is missin'?"
"That's so," said the broken man quietly.
The child turned and walked to the window. On her way she halted a
moment and peered earnestly into the invalid's eyes, as if the riddle
might possibly be read there. But they were vacant and answered her
nothing. Then for some twenty seconds, almost pressing her forehead to
the window-pane, she stood and gazed out upon the glancing waters of the
harbour.
"There's only one thing to be done--" She wheeled about sharply.
"Why, wherever _is_ the man? . . . You don't mean to tell me," she
demanded of 'Bias indignantly, "that you sat there an' let him go!"
"I couldn' help his goin', could I?" muttered 'Bias, but his eyes were
uneasy under the wrath in hers.
"You couldn' help it?" she echoed in scorn, and pointed to the figure on
the bed. "Here you come playin' the Early Christian over a man that,
for aught you knew, had robbed you to a stair: and when 'tis your tried
friend fetchin' back riches to you--fairly bringin' you back to life at
the cost o' bein' a beggar hisself--you let him go without so much as a
thank'ee!"
"Cai Hocken don't want my thanks."
"Didn't even want politeness, I suppose--after runnin' here hot foot
with the news that made you rich an' him a poor man! Oh, you're past
all patience! . . . Who should know what he wanted an' didn't get--
I, that had my eyes on his face, or you, that sat like a stuck pig,
glowerin' at the carpet?"
"Gently, missy! . . . There--there didn' seem anything to say."
"There was one thing to say," answered the girl sternly, "and there's
one thing to be done."
"What's that?"
"It mayn't be an easy thing, altogether. But you'll be glad of it
afterwards, and you may as well make up your mind to it."
"Out with it!"
"Mrs Bosenna--Why, what's the matter?"--for 'Bias had interrupted with a
short laugh.
"I'd forgot Mrs Bosenna for the moment."
"Right. Then go on forgettin' her, an' give her up. When you come to
think it over," urged Fancy with the air of a nurse who administers
medicine to a child, "you'll find 'tis the only fit an' proper thing to
do."
Again 'Bias laughed, and this time his laugh was even shorter and
grimmer than before.
"Well and good--but wait one moment, missy! D'ye know what Cai Hocken
said to me, last night in the garden, when he reckoned as I'd lost my
money? No, you don't. 'Look here,' he said, 'if you've still a mind to
that woman and she've a mind to you, I'll stand aside.' That's what he
said: and d'ye know what I answered? I told him to go to hell."
"I see." Fancy stood musing.
"Makes it a bit awkward, eh?--Cai bein' a man of spirit, with all his
faults."
"Well," she decided, "unless we can find his money for him, he'll have
to marry her, whether or no. 'Faults,' indeed? I believe," went on the
wise child, "you two be more to one another than that woman ever was to
either, or ever will be."
"We won't discuss that," said 'Bias, "now that Cai's got to marry her."
Cai retired to bed early that night, wearied in all his limbs with much
and aimless walking. If, as he trudged highroad or lane in the early
summer heat, any thought of Mrs Bosenna arose for a moment and conquered
the anodyne of bodily exercise, it was not a thought of grudging her to
'Bias. By the turn of Fortune's wheel 'Bias would win her now.
To _him_, at all events, she was lost. Cai had never courted her for
her money: but he had courted without distrust, on the strength of his
own security in a competence. At the back of his mind there may have
lurked a suspicion that Mrs Bosenna, as a business woman, was not in the
least likely to bestow her hand on a penniless sailor: but there was no
reason why he should allow this suspicion to obtrude itself, since
self-respect would have forbidden him, being penniless, to pursue the
courtship.
No; if he thought of Mrs Bosenna at all, it was in a sort of dull rage
against her sex: not specially against her, who happened to be her sex's
delegate to work this particular piece of mischief, but generally
against womankind, that with a word or two, a look or two, it could rob
a man of a friend--and of such a friend as 'Bias!
'Bias was undemonstrative, Cai had always prided himself on recognising
a worth in him which did not leap to the eyes of other men--which hid
itself rather, and shunned the light. It had added to his sense of
possession that he constantly detected what others overlooked. In this
matter of his behaviour to Rogers, 'Bias had eclipsed all previous
records. It was (view it how you would) magnificent in 'Bias--a high
Christian action--to tend, as he had tended, upon a man who presumably
had robbed him of his all.
And at the same moment 'Bias could behave so callously to a once-dear
friend--to a friend bringing glad tidings--to a friend, moreover,
rejoicing to bring them, though they meant his own undoing! It was
almost inconceivable. It was quite unintelligible unless you supposed
the man's nature to be perverted, and by this woman.
Cai's heart was bruised. It ached with a dull insistent pain that must
be deadened at all costs, even though his own wrecked prospects called
out to be faced promptly, resolutely, and with a practical mind.
He would face them to-morrow. To-day he would tire himself out:
to-night he would sleep.
And he slept, almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. His sleep
was dreamless too.
"_Dame, get out and bake your pies--bake your pies--bake your pies--_"
"_Whoo-oo-sh!_"
He sat up in bed with a jerk. . . . What on earth was it? A squall of
hail on the window? Or a rocket?--a ship in distress, perhaps, outside
the harbour? . . .
"_Dame, get out and bake your pies--_" piped a high childish voice.
Some one was unbarring a door below. A voice--'Bias's voice--spoke out
gruffly, demanding what was the matter?
Was the house on fire? . . . No: outside the half-open window lay spread
the moonlight, pale and tranquil. The night wind entering, scarcely
stirred the thin dimity curtains. This was no weather for sudden
hail-storms or for shipwreck. Cai flung back the bedclothes, jumped
out--and uttered a sharp cry of pain. His naked foot had trodden on a
gritty pebble, small but sharp.
Someone had flung a handful of gravel at the window.
He picked his way cautiously across the floor, and looked out. . . .
In the moonlit roadway, right beneath, a girl--Fancy Tabb--was dancing a
fandango, the while in her lifted hand she waved a white parcel.
"Ah, there you be!" she hailed, catching sight of him. "I've found
'em!"
"Found what?"
"Your papers! . . . I couldn' sleep till I told you: and I had to fetch
Mr Benny along--here he is!"
"Good evening, Captain," spoke up Mr Peter Benny, stepping out into the
roadway from the doorway where he had been explaining to 'Bias.
"It's all right, sir. Your papers are found."
"Good evening, Benny! Tis kind of you, surely,"--Cai's voice trembled a
little. "What's the hour?" he asked.
"Scarce midnight yet. I reckoned maybe you might be sittin' up,
frettin' over this--'Twas the child here, though, that found it out and
insisted on bringing me."
"After we'd locked up," broke in Fancy, "and just as I was packin' Dad
off to bed, it came into my head to ask him--'I suppose you don't know,'
said I, 'of anyone's havin' been to master's safe without my bein'
told?' He thought a bit, and 'No,' says he; 'nobody 'cept myself, an'
that but once. '_You?_' says I, 'and whoever sent _you_ there?'
'Why, the master hisself,' says Dad.--Who else?' 'But what for?' I
asks, feelin' as you might have knocked me down with a feather.
'I meant to ha' told you,' says Dad, 'but it slipped my mind. 'Twas one
afternoon, when you was out on your walk. I heard Master's stick tap on
the plankin' overhead so I went up, thinkin' as he might be wantin' his
tea in a hurry. He told me to open the safe an' take out a packet o'
papers from the top shelf; which I did.' 'What papers?' said I
'How should I know?' says Dad: 'I don't meddle with his business--I've
seen too much of it in _my_ life. I didn' even glance at 'em, but
locked the safe again, an' put 'em where he told me--which was in the
japanned box by his chair!' 'Why,' says I,' that's his Insurance Box as
he called it--the same as I handed to Mr Benny only yesterday, to take
away and sort through!' . . . After that, as you may guess, I was like a
mad person till we'd taken down the bolts again and I'd run to Mr
Benny's."
"Ay," chimed in Mr Benny, "I was upstairs and half-undressed: but she
had me dressed again an' down as if 'twas a matter of life and death.
. . . And when we got out the box, there the papers were, sure enough.
After that--for I saw their value to you--no one with a human heart
could help running along with her, to bear the news. . . . So here we
are."
"'Bias!" called Cai softly. "Didn' I hear 'Bias's voice below there, a
while since?"
"Ay, here I be."--It was 'Bias's turn to step out from the shadow of his
doorway into the broad moonlight. "And glad enough to hear this news."
"Would ye do me a favour? . . . Dressed, are you?"
"Ay--been sittin' up latish to-night."
"Well, I'm not azackly in a condition to step down--not for a minute or
two; and I doubt Mrs Bowldler, if I called her, wouldn' be in no
condition either. . . . 'Twould be friendly of you to ask Mr Benny in
and offer him a drink; and as for missy--"
"No thank 'ee, Cap'n," interposed Mr Benny. "Bringin' you this peace o'
mind has been cordial enough for me--and for the child too, I reckon,
Good-night, gentlemen!"
"Cap'n Hunken," said Fancy, "will you take the papers up to him?
Then we'll go."
"May I bring the papers to 'ee?" asked 'Bias, lifting his face to the
window.
"Ay, do--if they won't come in. . . . I'll step down and unbar the
door."
He lit a candle and hurried downstairs, his heart in his mouth.
By the time he had unbarred and opened, Mr Benny and Fancy had taken
their departure; but their "good-nights" rang back to him, up the
moonlit road, and his friend stood on the threshold.