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he lived among the old houses on the stone huts where the old folk used to live but how about his food found out that he has got a lad who works for him and brings him all he needs i he goes to for what he wants very good we may talk further of this some other time the butler had gone i walked over to the black window and i looked through a pane at the driving i c ne ire b the op dr v and at the tossing outline of the wind swept it is a wild night indoors and what must it be a stone hut upon the what pas on of hatred can it be which leads a man to in such a place at such a time and what deep and earnest pose can he have which calls for such a there in that hut upon the seems to lie the very centre of that problem which has vexed me so sorely i swear that another day shall not ha e passed before i have done all that man can do reach the heart of the mystery xi the man on the tor the extract from my private which forms the last chapter has brought ray narrative up to the i th of october a time when these strange events began to move swiftly towards their terrible conclusion the incidents of the next few days are upon my recollection and i can tell them without reference to the notes made at the time i start then from the day which succeeded that upon which i had established two facts of great importance the one that mrs of had written to sir charles and made an appointment with him at the very place and hour that he met his death the other that the lurking man upon the was to be found among the stone upon the hill side with these two facts in my possession i felt that either my intelligence or my j age must be deficient if i could not throw further light upon these dark places had no opportunity to tell the what i had learned about mrs upon the evening before for dr remained with him at cards until it was very late at breakfast however ij informed him about my discovery and asked i a the man on the tor whether he would care to accompany me to at first he was very eager to come but on second thoughts it seemed to both of us that if i went alone the results might be better the more formal we made the visit the less information we might obtain i left sir henry behind therefore not without some of conscience and drove off upon my new quest when i reached i told to put up the horses and i made inquiries for the lady whom i had come to i had no difficulty in finding her rooms which were central and well appointed a maid showed me in without ceremony and as i entered the sitting room a lady who was sitting before a sprang up a pleasant smile of welcome her face fell however when she saw that i was a stranger and she sat down again and asked me the object of my visit the first impression left by mrs was one of extreme beauty her eyes and hair were of same rich colour and her cheeks though considerably were flushed with the exquisite bloom of the the dainty pink which at the heart of the rose admiration was i repeat the first impression but the second was criticism there was something wrong with the face some s of expression some hardness perhaps of eye some of lip which its perfect beauty but these of the hound op the b as k e r v i are after thoughts at the moment i was simply conscious that i was in the presence of a very handsome woman and that she was asking me the reasons for my visit i had not quite understood until that instant how delicate my mission was i have the pleasure said i of knowing father it was a clumsy introduction and the lady mad me feel it there is nothing in common between my father and me she said i owe him nothing and his friends are not mine if it were not for the late sir charles and some other kind hearts i might have starved for all that ray father cared it was about the late sir charles hat i have here to see you the started out on the lady s face what can i tell you about him she and her fingers played nervously over the stops her you knew him did you not i have already said that i owe a great deal his kindness if i am able to support myself it u largely due to the interest which he took in my unhappy situation did you correspond with him the lady looked quickly up with an angry in her eyes what is the object of these questions sharply ite the man on the tor the object is to avoid a public scandal it is better that i should ask them here than that the matter should pass outside our control she was silent and her face was still very pale at last she looked up with something reckless and defiant in her manner well i ll answer she said what are questions did you correspond with sir charles i certainly wrote to him once or twice to knowledge his delicacy and his generosity have you the dates of those letters no have you ever met him yes once or twice when he came into he was a very retiring man and he preferred to do good by but if you saw him so seldom and wrote so how did he know enough about	4
your affairs to be able to help you as you say that he has done she met my difficulty with the utmost readiness there were several gentlemen who knew my sad history and united to help me one was mr a neighbour and intimate friend of sir charles s he was exceedingly kind and it was through him that sir charles learned about my affairs i knew already that sir charles had i the hound of the b as k e r v i made his upon several occasional so the lady s statement bore the impress of upon it i did you ever write to sir charles asking to meet you i continued i mrs flushed with anger again i really sir this is a very extraordinary tion i i am sorry madame but i must repeat it i then i answer certainly not not on the very day of sir charles s death the flush had faded in an instant and a face was before me her dry lips could not speak the no which i saw rather than heard surely your memory you said i i could even quote a passage of your it ran please please as you are a gentleman burn this letter and be at the gate by ten o clock i thought that she had fainted but she recovered herself by a supreme effort is there no such thing as a gentleman she gasped you do sir charles an injustice he did bum the letter but sometimes a letter may be even when burned you acknowledge now that you wrote it yes i did write it she cried pouring her soul in a torrent of words i did write it why should i deny it i have no reason to be ashamed of it i wished him to help me i believed that il x i i the man on the tor i had an interview i could gain his help so i asked him to meet me but why at such an hour because i had only just learned that he was going to london next day and might be away for months there were reasons why i could not get there earlier but why a in the garden instead of a a visit to the house do you think a woman could go alone at that hour to a bachelor s house well what happened when you did get there i never went mrs no i swear it to you on all i hold sacred i never went something to prevent my going what was that that is a private matter i cannot tell it you acknowledge then that you made an appointment with sir charles at the very hour and place at which he met his death but you deny that you kept the appointment that is the truth again and again i cross questioned her but i could never get past that point mrs said i as i rose from this long and interview you are taking a very great responsibility and putting yourself in a very false position by not making an absolutely clean tbe hound of the breast of all that you know if i have to call in thi aid of the police you will find how seriously you are if your position is innocent why did you in the first instance deny having written to sir charles upon that date because i feared that some false might be drawn from it and that i might find myself involved in a scandal and why were you so pressing that sir destroy your letter if you have read the letter you will know i did not say that i had read all the letter you quoted some of it i quoted the the letter had as i laid been burned and it was not all i ask you once again why it was that you were so press that sir charles should destroy this letter he received on the day of his death the matter is a very private one the more reason why you avoid a public investigation i will tell you then if you have heard anything of my unhappy history you will know that i made a rash marriage and had reason to regret it i have heard so much my life has been one incessant persecution from s husband whom i the is upon his side nd every day i am faced by the possibility that he force me to live with him at the time that i w o this letter to sir charles i had learned thai i i k s the man om the t o tt there was a prospect of my my if certain expenses could be met it meant everything to me peace of mind happiness self respect everything i knew sir charles s generosity and i thought that if he heard the story from my own lips he would help me then how is it that you did not go because i received help in the interval from an other source why then did you not write to sir charles and explain this so i should have done had i not seen his in the paper next morning the woman s story hung together and all my questions were unable to shake it i could only check it by finding if she had indeed divorce proceedings against her husband at or about the time of the tragedy it was that she would dare to say that the had not been to hall if she really had been for a trap would be necessary to take her there and could not have returned to until the early hours of the morning such an excursion could not be kept secret the probability was therefore that she was telling the truth or at least a part of the truth i came away baffled and	4
once again i had reached that dead wall which seemed t o be built across every path by which i tried to get at the object of my and yet the more i thought of the lack s fist i op and of her manner the more i felt that some thing was being held back from me why should she turn so why should she fight against every admission until it was forced from her why should she have been so at the time of the tragedy surely the explanation of all this could not be as innocent as she would have me believe for the moment i could proceed no farther in that direction but must turn back to that other clue which was to be sought for am the stone huts upon the and that was a most vague direction i realized it as i drove and noted how hill after hill showed traces of the ancient people s only indication had been that the stranger lived in one of these abandoned huts and many hundreds of them are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the but i had my own experience for a guide since it had show le the man himself standing upon the summit of ti black tor that then should be the centre o my search from there i should explore every hut upon the until i lighted upon the right one if this man tt inside it i should find out from his own lips at the point of my revolver if necessary who he was and why he had dogged us so long he might slip away from us in the crowd of street but it would puzzle him to do so upon the lonely on the other hand if i should find the hut and it tenant should not be within it i must remain then the man on the tor long the until he returned i had missed him in london it would indeed be a i triumph for me if i could run him to earth where i my master had failed luck had been against us again and again in this i inquiry but now at last it came to my aid and i the messenger of good fortune was none other than i mr who was standing grey i red faced outside the gate of his garden which opened on to the high road along which i travelled good day dr cried he with unwonted good humour you must really give your horses a rest and come in to have a glass of wine and to congratulate me my feelings towards him were far from being friendly after what i had heard of his treatment of his daughter but i was anxious to send and the home and the opportunity was a good one i alighted and sent a message to sir henry that i should walk over in time for dinner then i followed into his dining room it is a great day for me sir one of the red i letter days of my life he cried with many i i have brought off a double event i mean to f teach them in these parts that law is law and that there is a man here who does not fear to it i have established a right of way through the centre of old s park slap across it sir within a hundred yards of his own front door what do you think of that we ll teach these that the hound of the they cannot ride rough shod over the rights o the confound them and i ve closed the wood where the folk used to these infernal people seem to think that there are no rights of property and that they can swarm where they like with their papers and their bottles both cases decided dr and both in my favour i haven t had such a day since i had john for because he shot in hit own how on earth did you do that look it up in the books sir it will reading v court of queen s bench it cost me but i got ray verdict did it do you any good none sir none i am proud to say that i had no interest in the matter i act entirely from l sense of public duty i have no doubt for j pie that the people will burn me to night i told the police last time they did it that they should stop these disgraceful the county is in a scandalous state sir and it has not afforded me the protection to which i am entitled the case of v will bring the matter before the attention of the public i told them that they would have sion to regret their treatment of me and my words have come true how so i asked the old man put on a very knowing expression i a i the man on the tor because i could tell them what they are dying to know but nothing would induce me to help the in any way i had been casting round for some excuse by which i could get away from his gossip but now i began to wish to hear more of it i had seen enough of the contrary nature of the old sinner to understand that any strong sign of interest would be the way to stop his confidences some case no doubt said i with an indifferent manner ha ha my boy a very much more important matter than that what about the on the i started you don t mean that you know where he is said i i may not know exactly where he is but i am quite sure that i could help the police to lay their hands on him has it never	4
struck you that the way to catch that man was to find out where he got his food and so trace it to him he certainly seemed to be getting near the truth no doubt said i but how do you know that he is anywhere upon the i know it because i have seen with my own eyes the messenger who takes him his food my heart sank for it was a serious thing to be in the power of this old but his next remark took a weight from my mind the hound op the you ll be surprised to hear that his food is taken to him by a child i see him every day through my upon the roof he passes along the same path at the same hour and to whom should he be going except to the here was luck indeed and yet i suppressed all appearance of interest a child had said that our unknown was supplied by a boy was on his track and not upon the s had stumbled if i could get his edge it might save me a long and weary hunt incredulity and indifference were evidently strongest cards i should say that it was much more likely that it was the son of one of the taking out his father s dinner the least appearance of opposition struck fire out of the old his eyes looked at me and his grey whiskers like those o an angry cat j indeed sir said he pointing out over wide stretching do you see that black tor over yonder well do you see the low hill beyond with the upon it it is the part of the whole is that a place where a shepherd would be likely to take his station your suggestion sir is a most absurd one i meekly answered that i had spoken without knowing all the acts my submission pleased and led him to further confidences the man on the tou you may be sure sir that i have very good grounds before i come to an opinion i have seen the boy again and again with his bundle every day and sometimes twice a day i have been able but wait a moment dr do my eyes deceive me or is there at the present moment something moving upon that hill side it was several miles off but i could distinctly see a small dark dot against the dull green and grey come sir come cried rushing upstairs you will see with your own eyes and judge for yourself the a formidable instrument mounted upon a stood upon the flat leads of the house clapped his eye to it and gave a cry of satisfaction quick dr quick before he passes over the hill there he was sure enough a small with a little bundle upon his shoulder toiling slowly up the hill when he reached the crest i saw the ragged uncouth figure for an instant against the cold blue sky he looked round him with a and stealthy air as one who pursuit then he vanished over the hill well am i right certainly there is a boy who seems to have some secret errand and what the errand is even a county the hound op the b as k e r v i l i could guess but not one word shall they have from and i bind also dr l you to secrecy son not a word you understand just as you wish they have treated me m en the facts come out in w i venture to think that a thrill of indignation will nm through the country nothing would induce me to help the police in any way for all they cared it might have been me instead of my which these burned at the stake surely you are not you will help me to empty the in honour of this great occasion ut i resisted all his and succeeded in him from his announced intention ol walking home with me i kept the road as long as his eye was on me and then i struck off across the and made for the stony hill over which the boy had disappeared everything was working in my favour and i swore that it should not be through lack of energy or perseverance that i should miss the chance which fortune had in my way ij the sun was already sinking when i reached summit of the hill and the long slopes beneath me were all golden green on one side and grey shadow on the other a haze lay low upon the farthest sky line out of which the fantastic shapes of and tor over the wide expanse there was no sound and no movement one great the man on the tor i grey bird a or aloft in the blue heaven he and i seemed to be the only living things between the huge arch of the sky and the desert beneath it the barren scene the sense of loneliness and the mystery and of my task all struck a chill into my heart the boy was nowhere to be seen but down beneath me in a of the hills there was a circle of the old stone huts and in the middle of them there was one which retained sufficient roof to act as a screen against the weather my heart leaped within me as i saw il this must be the where the stranger at last my foot was on the threshold of his hiding place his secret was within my grasp as i approached the hut walking as as do when with poised net he drew near the settled butterfly i satisfied myself that tht place had indeed been used as a habitation a vague pathway among the led to the opening which served as a door ab was silent within the	4
see the of a marked oxford street i know that my friend is in the neighbourhood you will see it there beside the path you threw it down no doubt at that supreme moment when you charged into the empty hut exactly i thought as much and knowing your admirable i was convinced that you were sitting in a weapon within reach waiting for the tenant to return so you actually thought that i was the criminal i did not know who you were but i was determined to find out excellent t and how did you me you saw me perhaps on the night of the hunt when i was so as to allow the moon to rise behind me yes i saw you then i a i i death on the and have no doubt searched all the huts until you came to this one no your boy had been observed and that gave me a guide where to look the old gentleman with the no doubt i could not make it out when first i saw the light flashing upon the he rose and peeped into the hut ha i see that has brought up some supplies what s this paper so you have been to have you yes to see mrs exactly well done our have evidently been running on parallel lines and when we unite our results i expect we shall have a fairly full knowledge of the case well i am glad from my heart that you are here for indeed the responsibility and the mystery were both becoming too much for my nerves but how in the name of wonder did you come here and what have you been doing i thought that you were in baker street working out that case of that was what i wished you to think then you use me and yet do not trust mc i cried with some bitterness i think that i have deserved better at your hands my dear fellow you have been invaluable to mc in this as in many other cases and i beg that you the hound of the b ask e r vi i l i will forgive me if i have seemed to play a trick ap on you in truth it was partly for your own sake that i did it and it was my appreciation oe the danger which you ran which led me to come down and examine the matter for myself had i been with sir henry and you it is confident that my point of view would have been the same as yours and my presence would have warned our very formidable to be on their guard as it is i have been able to get about as i could not possibly have done had i been living in the hall and i remain an unknown in the business ready to throw in all my weight at a critical moment but why keep me in the for you to know could not have helped us and might possibly have led to my discovery you would have wished to tell me something or in your kindness you would have brought me out some comfort or other and so an unnecessary risk would be run i brought down with me you remember the chap at the express office and he has seen after my simple wants a loaf of bread and a clean collar what does man want more he has given me an extra pair of eyes upon a very active pair of feet and both have been invaluable then my reports have all been wasted my voice trembled as i recalled the pains and the pride with which i had composed them took a bundle of papers from his pocket i i death on the here are your reports my dear fellow and very well i assure you i made excellent arrangements and they are only delayed one day upon their way i must compliment you exceedingly upon the zeal and the intelligence which you have shown over an difficult case i was still rather raw over the deception which had been practised upon me but the warmth of s praise drove my anger from my mind i felt also in my heart that he was right in what he said and that it was really best for our purpose that i should not have known that he was upon the that s better said he seeing the shadow rise from my face and now tell me the result of your visit to mrs it was not difficult for me to guess that it was to see her that you had gone for i am already aware that she is the one person in who might be of service to us in the matter in fact if you had not gone to day it is exceedingly probable that i should have gone to morrow the sun had set and dusk was settling over the the air had turned chill and we withdrew into the hut for warmth there sitting together in the twilight i told of my conversation with the lady so interested was he that i had to repeat some of it twice before he was satisfied this is most important said he when i had concluded it fills up a gap which i had been the of the unable to bridge in this most complex affair are aware perhaps that a close exists i this lady and the man i did not know of a close intimacy there can be no doubt about the matter they meet they write there is a complete understanding between them now this puts a very powerful weapon into our hands if i could only use it t h his wife m his wife m i am ng you some information now in re turn for all that you have given me	4
the lady who has passed here as miss is in reality wife good heavens are you sure of what you say how could he have permitted sir henry to fall in love with her sir henry s falling in love could do no harm to anyone except sir henry he took particular care that sir henry did not make love to her as you have yourself observed i repeat that the is his wife and not his sister but why this elaborate deception because he foresaw that she would be very much more useful to him in the character of a free woman all my instincts my vague suspicions suddenly took shape and upon the in that man with his straw hat and his butterfly net i seemed to see t death on the something terrible a creature of infinite patience and craft with a smiling face and a heart it is he who is our enemy it is he who dogged us in london so i read the riddle and the warning it must have come bom exactly the s of some monstrous half seen half guessed loomed through the darkness which had me so long but are you sure of this how do you know that the woman is his wife because he so far forgot himself as to tell you a true piece of upon the occasion when he first met you and i he has many a time regretted it since he was once a school master in the north of england now there is no one more easy to trace than a there are by which one may identify any man who has been in the profession a little investigation showed me that a school had come to grief under circumstances and that the man who had owned it the name was different had disappeared with his wife the descriptions agreed when i learned that the missing man was devoted to the was com the darkness was rising but much was still den by the shadows the hound op the ba if this woman is in truth his wife where da mrs come in i asked that is one of the points upon which your own have shed a light your interview with the lady has cleared the situation very much i did not know about a projected divorce between and her husband in that case regarding as an unmarried man she counted no l upon becoming his wife m and when she is m why then we may find the lady of service it must be our first duty to see her both of us to morrow don t you think that you are away from your charge rather long your place should be at hall the last red streaks had faded away in the west and night had settled upon the a few faint stars were gleaming in a violet sky one last question i said as i j surely there is no need of secrecy between you and me what is the meaning of it all what is he after s voice sank as he answered it is murder refined cold blooded deliberate murder do not ask me for particulars my are closing upon him even as his are upon sir henry and with your help he is already almost at ray mercy there is but one danger which can threaten us it is that he should strike before wa re ready to do so another day two at the most death on ie and i have my case complete but until then guard your charge as closely as ever a fond mother watched her child your mission to day has justified itself and yet i could almost wish that you had not left his side hark a terrible scream a prolonged yell of horror and anguish burst out of the silence of the that frightful cry turned the blood to ice in my veins oh my god i gasped what is it what does it mean had sprung to his feet and i saw his dark outline at the door of the hut his shoulders stooping his head thrust forward his face peering into the darkness hush he whispered hush the cry had been loud on account of its vehemence but it had out from somewhere far off on the shadowy plain now it burst upon our ears nearer louder more urgent than before where is it whispered and i knew from the thrill of his voice that he the man of iron was shaken to the sou where is it there i think i pointed into the darkness no there again the cry swept through the silent night louder and much nearer than ever and a new sound mingled with it a deep muttered musical and yet menacing rising and falling the low constant murmur of the sea i the hound of the the hound cried come come great heavens if we are too late he had started running swiftly over the and i had followed at his heels but now from somewhere among the broken ground immediately in front of us there came one last despairing yell and then a dull heavy we halted and listened not another sound broke the heavy silence of the night i saw put his hand to his forehead like a man distracted he stamped his feet upon the ground he has beaten us we are too late no no surely not j fool that i was to hold my hand and l see what comes of your charge but by heaven if the worst has happened we ll him blindly we ran through the gloom against forcing our way through bushes panting up hills and rushing down slopes heading always in the direction whence those dreadful sounds had come at every rise looked eagerly round him but the shadows	4
were thick upon the and nothing moved upon its dreary face can you see anything nothing but hark what is that a low moan had fallen upon our ears there i death on the r s again upon our left i on that side a ridge ol ended in a sheer cliff which overlooked a strewn slope on its jagged face was some dark irregular object as we ran towards it the vague outline hardened into a definite shape it was a prostrate man face downwards upon the ground the head doubled under him at a horrible angle the shoulders rounded and the body together as if in the act of throwing a so grotesque was the attitude that i could not for the instant that that moan had been the passing of his soul not a whisper not a rustle rose now from the dark figure over which we stooped laid his hand upon him and held it up again with an exclamation of horror the gleam of the match which he struck shone upon his fingers and upon the ghastly pool which slowly from the crushed of the victim and it shone upon something else which turned our hearts sick and faint within the body of sir henry there was no chance of either of us forgetting that peculiar ruddy suit the very one which he had worn on the first morning that we had seen him in baker street we caught the one clear glimpse of it and then the match and went out even as the hope had gone out of our souls groaned and his face white through the darkness the brute the brute i i with clenched the round of the b a e r vi ll ji hands oh i shall never forgive for having left him to his fate i am more to blame than you in or to have my case well rounded and complete have thrown away the life of my it is the greatest blow which has befallen me in my career but how could i know how could i know that he would risk his alone upon the in the face of all my that we should have heard his screams my god those screams and yet have been unable to save him i where is this brute of a hound which drove him to his death it may be lurking among these rocks at this instant and is he he shall answer for this deed he shall i will see to that uncle nephew have been murdered the one frightened to death by the very sight of a beast which he thought to be supernatural the other driven to his end in his wild flight to escape from it but now we have to prove the connection between the man and the beast save from what we heard we cannot even swear to the existence of the latter since sir henry has evidently died from the fall but by heavens cunning as he is the fellow shall be in my power before another day is past we stood with bitter hearts on either side of the body overwhelmed by this sudden and disaster which had brought all our long and weary labours to so piteous an end then i death on the the moon rose we climbed to the top of the rocks over which cur poor friend had fallen and from the summit we gazed out over the shadowy halt silver and half gloom far away miles off in the direction of a single steady yellow light was shining it could only come from the lonely abode of the with a bitter curse i shook my fist at it as i gazed why should we not seize him at once our case is not complete the fellow is wary and cunning to the last degree it is not what we know but what we can prove if we make one false move the villain may escape us yet what can we do there will be plenty for us to do to morrow to night we can only perform the last offices to our poor friend together we made our way down the slope and approached the body black and clear against the stones the agony of those limbs struck me with a of pain and my eyes with tears we mu t send for help we cannot carry him all the way to the hall good are you mad he had uttered a cry and bent over the body now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand could this be my stern self contained friend these were hidden fires indeed a beard a beard the man has a beard the hound op tbe a beard it is not the it is why it is neighbour the with feverish haste we had turned the body over l and that dripping beard was pointing up to the cold l clear moon there could be no doubt about the i forehead the sunken animal eyes it was j indeed the same face which had glared upon in the light of the candle from over the rock the face of the criminal then in an instant it was all clear to me i remembered how the had told me that he had handed his old wardrobe to had passed it on in order to help j in his escape boots shirt cap it was all sir j henry s the tragedy was still black enough but this man had at least deserved death by the laws of his country i told how the matter stood my heart over with and joy then the clothes have been the poor i death said he it is clear enough that the i hound has been laid on from some article of sir j henry s the boot which	4
was abstracted in the hotel in all probability and so ran this man down j there is one very singular thing however how came in the darkness to know that the hound was on his trail he heard him to hear a hound upon the would death on the i work a hard man like this into such of terror that he would risk by a wildly for help by his cries he must lave run a long way after he knew the animal was i on his track how did he know a greater mystery to me is why this hound r that all our conjectures are correct i presume nothing then why this hound should be loose i suppose that it does not always run loose upon the would not let it go unless he had reason to think that sir henry would be there my difficulty is the more formidable of the two for think that we shall very shortly get an explanation of yours while mine may remain for ever mystery the question now is what shall we do this poor wretch s body we cannot leave it here to the and the i suggest that we put it in one of the huts until we can communicate with the police exactly have no doubt that you and i could carry it so far what s this it s the man himself by all that s wonderful and audacious not a word to show your suspicions not a word or my plans to the ground a figure was approaching us over the and i saw the dull red glow of a cigar the moon shone upon him and i could distinguish the shape and walk of the the hound of the he stopped when he saw us and then came again why dr that s not you is it y are the last man that i should have expected see out on the at this time of night but dear me what s this somebody hurt not don t tell me that it is our friend sir he hurried past me and stooped over the dead man i heard a sharp of his breath and the cigar fell from his fingers who who s this he stammered it is the man who escaped from print town turned a ghastly face upon us but by a supreme effort he had overcome his amazement and his disappointment he looked sharply from to me dear me what a very shocking affair h did he die he appears to have broken his neck by falling over these rocks my friend and i were strolling en the when we heard a cry i heard a cry also that was what brought me out i was uneasy about sir henry why about sir henry in particular i could not help asking because i had suggested that he should come over when he did not come i was surprised and i naturally became alarmed for his safety when i heard cries upon the by the way his i ut t he an jar ind h it by from death on the darted again from my face to s did you hear anything else besides a cry no said did you no what do you mean then oh you know the stories that the tell about a phantom hound and so on it is said to be heard at night upon the i was wondering if there were any evidence of such a sound tonight we heard nothing of the kind said i and what is your theory of this poor fellow s death i have no doubt that anxiety and exposure have driven him off his head he has rushed about the in a crazy state and eventually fallen over here and broken his neck that seems the most reasonable theory said and he gave a sigh which i took to indicate his relief what do you think about it mr my friend bowed his compliments you are quick at said he we have been expecting you in these parts since dr came down you are in time to see a tragedy yes indeed i have no doubt that my friend s explanation will cover the facts i will take an unpleasant remembrance back to london with me tomorrow t e bound op the oh you return to morrow that is my intention i hope your visit has cast some light upon have puzzled us shrugged his shoulders one cannot always have the success for one hopes an needs facts not legends or it has not been a satisfactory ease my friend spoke in his and most manner still looked hard at him he turned to me i would suggest carrying this poor fellow te my house but it would give my sister such a fright that i do not feel justified in doing it i think that if we put something over his face he will be safe morning and so it was arranged resisting of hospitality and i set off to hall leaving the to return alone looking back we saw the figure moving slowly over the broad and behind him that ont on the slope which here the man who had so n m u tub nm we re at close at last as we walked together across the what a nerve the fellow how he pulled himself together in the face vi what must have been a shock when he found that the wrong man had fallen a victim to his plot i told you in london and i tell yoa now again that we have never had a worthy of our steel i am sorry that he has seen you and so was i at but there was no get ng out of it what effect do you think it will have upon his plans now	4
that he knows you are here it may cause him to be more cautious or it drive him to desperate measures at once like most clever he may be too confident in own cleverness and imagine that he has com deceived us why should we not arrest him at once my dear you were bom to be a id action your instinct always to do something energetic but for argument s sake that we him to night what on bo nd of the better off should v e be for that prove nothing him there s tl cunning of it h he were acting agent we could get some evidence but i to drag this great dog to the of da not help us in putting a rope round the i master surely we have a case not a shadow of one only ture we should be laughed out of c came with such a story and such there is sir charles s death found dead without a mark upon li and i know that he died of sheer know also what frightened him but how get twelve stolid to know it v are there of a hound where are the m of course we know that a bite a dead body and that sir charles wai fore ever the brute overtook him but to prove all this and w are not in a p do it well then to night we are not much better off to night there was no direct connection between and the man s death we never saw tl we heard it but we could not prove tl running upon this man s trail there is a absence of motive no my dear fellow reconcile ourselves to the fact that we hai f f o hit present and that tt is worth our white to fm l any risk in order to establish one and how do you propose to do so i have great hopes of what mrs do for us when the position of is made to her and i have my own plan as well t for to is the evil thereof but i hope before the day is past to have the upper hand t last i could draw nothing further from him and he walked lost in thought as far as the gates are you coming up yes i see no reason for further concealment but one last word say nothing of the hound to sir henry let him think that s death was as would have us believe he will have a better nerve tor the ordeal which he will have to undergo to morrow when he is engaged if i remember your report aright to dine with these people and so am i then you must excuse yourself and he must go alone that will be easily arranged and now tf we are too late for dinner i think that we are both ready for our sir henry was more pleased than surprised to see for he had for some days been expecting that recent events would bring him down from london he did raise his eyebrows however the hound op the when he found that my friend had nor any explanations for its us we soon supplied his wants and a supper we explained to the i much of our e as it seemed he should know but first i had the i duty of breaking the news to wife to him it may have been an but she wept bitterly in her world he was the man of violence half a half demon but to her he always wilful boy of her own the child to her hand evil indeed is the has not one woman to mourn him i ve been in the house all went off in the morning said th guess i should have some credit for i my promise if i hadn t sworn not to alone i might have had a more lively had a message from asking there i have no doubt that you would ha more lively said way i don t suppose you appreciate that been mourning over you as having neck sir henry opened his eyes how wa this poor wretch was dressed in fear your servant who gave them to him into trouble with the police the i that is unlikely there was no mark on any of them as far as i know that s lucky for him in fact it s lucky for all of you since you are all on the wrong side of the law in this matter i am not sure that as a conscientious my first duty is not to arrest the whole household s reports are most documents but how about the case asked the have you made anything out of the i don t know that and are much the wiser since we came down think that i shall be in a position to make the situation rather more clear to you before long it i has been an exceedingly difficult and most business there are several points upon which we still want light but it is coming all the same we ve had one experience as has no doubt told you we heard the hound on the k i can swear that it is not all empty superstition i had something to do with dogs when i was out west and i know one when i hear one if you can that one and put him on a chain i ll be ready to swear you are the greatest of all time i think i will him and chain him all i right if you will give me your help r whatever you tell me to do i will do very good and i will ask you also to do it blindly without always asking the reason the hound op the	4
just as you like if you will do this i think the chances are that our little problem will soon be solved i have no doubt he stopped suddenly and stared up over my head into the air the lamp beat upon his and so intent was it and so still that it might have been that of a clear cut classical statue a of and expectation what is it we both cried i could see as he looked down that he was re pressing some internal emotion his features were still composed but his eyes shone with amused exaltation excuse the admiration of a said he as he waved his hand towards the line of portraits which covered the opposite wall won t allow that i know anything of art but that is mere jealousy because our views upon the subject differ now these are a really very fine series of portraits well fm glad to hear you say so said sir henry glancing with some surprise at my friend i don t pretend to know much about these things and i d be a better judge of a horse or a steer than of a picture i didn t know that you found time for such things i know what is good when i see it and i see it now that s a i ll swear that lady in the blue silk over yonder and the stout gentleman r fixing the with the wig ought to be a they are all family portraits i presume every one do you know the names has been me in them and i think i can say my lessons fairly well who is the gentleman with the that is rear admiral who served under in the west indies tht man with the blue coat and the roll of paper ts sir william who was of of the house of under and this opposite to me the one with the black velvet and the lace ah you have a right to know about him that is the cause of all the mischief the wicked who started the hound of the we re not likely to forget him gazed with interest and some surprise upon the portrait dear me said he seems a quiet meek man enough but i that there was a lurking devil in his eyes i had him as a more robust and person there s no doubt about the for the name and the date o he back of the canvas said little more but the picture of the old seemed to have a fascination for him and his eyes were continually fixed upon it during i ol nd op the supper it was not until later when sir gone to his room that i was able to of his thoughts he led me ba ting hall his bedroom candle ir and he held it up against the time stain on the wall do you see anything there i looked at the broad hat love locks the white lace collar and th severe face which was framed between was not a brutal countenance but it was and stern with a firm set thin n a coldly eye is it like anyone you know there is something of sir henry aw just a suggestion perhaps but w he stood upon a chair and h the light in his left hand he curved bis over the broad hat and round the long good heavens i cried in the face of had sprung out o vas ha you see it now my eyes have to examine faces and not their first quality of a criminal that i see through a disguise but this is marvellous it might be trait yes it is an interesting instance of ao r back which appears to be both physical and a study of family portraits is enough to convert a man to the doctrine of the fellow is a that is evident with designs upon the succession exactly this chance of the picture has supplied us with one of our most obvious missing links we have him we have him and i dare swear that before to morrow night he will be fluttering in our net as helpless as one of his own a pin a cork and a cord and we add him to the baker street collection he burst into one of his rare fits of laughter as he turned away from the picture i have not heard him laugh often and it has always ill to somebody i was up in the morning but was earlier still tor i saw him as i dressed coming up the drive yes we should have a full day to day he remarked and he rubbed his hands with the joy of action the are all in place and the drag is about to begin we ll know before the day is out whether we have caught our big lean or whether he has got through the have you been on the already i have sent a report from to as to the death of i i can promise that none of you will be troubled in the matter and i have also communicated with my who would certainly have or v away at the door of my hut as dog c s grave if i had not set his mind at my safety what is the next move to see sir henry ah here he good morning said the you look like a general who is with his chief of the staff that is the exact situation ing for orders and so do i very good you are engaged as stand to dine with our friends the night i hope that you will come also thej hospitable people and i am sure that th be very glad to see you i fear that and i must go to to london yes i think	4
that we should be mo there at the present juncture the b s face i hoped that you were going to see me this business the hall and the are pleasant places when one is alone my dear fellow you must trust me i and do exactly what i tell you you can friends that we should have been happy come with you but that urgent business re to be in town we hope very soon to r fixing the will you remember to give them that message if you insist upon it there is no alternative i assure you i saw by the s clouded brow that he was deeply hurt by what he regarded as our desertion when do you desire to go he asked coldly immediately after breakfast we will drive in to but will leave his things as a pledge that he will come back to you you will send a note to to him that you regret that you cannot come i have a good mind to go to london with you said the why should i stay here alone because it is your post of duty because you gave me your word that you would do as you were told and i tell you to stay all right then i ll stay one more direction i wish you to drive to house send back your trap however and let them know that you intend to walk home to walk across the yes but that is the very thing which you have so often me not to do this lime you may do it with safety if i not every confidence in your nerve and courage i would not suggest it but it is that yoa do it then i will do it thb hound of the and as you value your life do not go across the in any direction save along the straight path which leads from house to the road and is your natural way home i will do just what you say very good i should be glad to get away as soon after breakfast as possible so as to reach don in the afternoon i was much astounded by this programme though i remembered that had said to on the night before that his visit would next day it had not crossed my mind however that he would wish me to go with him nor could i understand how we could both be absent at a moment which he himself declared to be critical there was nothing for it however but obedience so we bade good bye to our friend and a couple of hours afterwards we were at the station of and had the trap upon its return journey a small boy was waiting upon the platform any orders sir you will take this train to town the moment you arrive u will send a wire to sir henry in my name to say that if he finds the pocket book which i have dropped he is to send it by post to baker street yes sir and ask at the station office if there is a message for me id u i the boy returned with a which handed to me it ran wire received coming down with warrant arrive five forty that is in answer to mine of this morning he is the best of the i think and we may need his assistance now i think that we cannot employ our time better than by calling upon your acquaintance mrs his plan of campaign was beginning to be evident he would use the in order to convince the that we were really gone while we should actually return at the instant when we were to be needed that from london if mentioned by sir henry to the must remove the last suspicions from their minds already i seemed to see our drawing closer round that mrs was in her office and opened his interview with a frankness and which considerably amazed her i am the circumstances which attended the death of the late sir charles said he my friend here dr has informed me of what you have communicated and also of what you have withheld in connection with that matter what have i withheld she asked you have confessed that you asked sir charles to be at the gate at ten o clock we know that the hound of the that was the place and hour of his death you have withheld what the connection is between these events there is no connection in that case the coincidence must indeed be an extraordinary one but i think that we shall in establishing a connection after all i wish to be perfectly frank with you mrs we regard this case as one of murder and the evidence may not only your friend mr but his wife as well the lady sprang from her chair his wife she cried the fact is no longer a secret the who has passed for his sister is really his wife mrs had resumed her seat her hands were grasping the arms of her chair and i saw that the pink nails had turned white with the pressure of her grip f is wife she said again his wife he is not a married man shrugged his shoulders prove it to me prove it to me and if you can do so the fierce flash of her eyes said more than any words i have come prepared to do so said drawing several papers from his pocket here is a photograph of the couple taken in york four years ago it is mr and mrs but you will have no difficulty in fixing the m and her also if you know her by here three written descriptions by wit of mr and mrs who at that time st s private school read them and see if	4
you can doubt the identity of these people she glanced at them and then looked up at us with the set rigid face of a desperate woman mr she said this man had offered me marriage on condition that i could get a divorce from my husband he has lied to me the in every conceivable way not one word of truth has he ever told me and why why i imagined that all was for my own sake but now i see that i was never anything but a tool in his hands why should i e faith with him who never kept any with me why should i try to shield him from the consequences of his own wicked acts ask me what you and there is nothing which i shall hold back one thing i swear to you and that is that when i wrote the letter i never dreamed of any harm to the old gentleman who had been my kindest friend i entirely believe you madam said the recital of these events must be very painful to you and perhaps it will make it easier if i tell you what occurred and you can check me if i make any material mistake the sending of this letter was suggested to you by he dictated it i i presume that the reason he gave was that the hound of the b ask e r v i i l et would receive help from sir charles for the legal expenses connected with your divorce exactly and then after you had sent the letter he you from keeping the appointment he told me that it would hurt his self respect that any other man should find the money for such an object and that though he was a poor man self he would devote his last penny to removing the obstacles which divided us he appears to be a very consistent character and then you heard nothing until you read the re ports of the death in the paper no and he made you swear to say nothing about your appointment with sir charles he did he said that the death was a very mysterious one and that i should certainly be if the facts came out he frightened me into remaining silent quite so but you had your suspicions she hesitated and looked down i knew him she said but if he had kept faith with me i should always have done so with him i think that on the whole you have had a fortunate escape said you have had him in your power and he knew it and yet you are alive you have been walking for some months very near to the edge of a precipice we must ai fixing the j good r mrs and it i shortly r probable that you will v again our case becomes rounded off and difficulty after difficulty away in front of us said as we stood waiting for the arrival of the express from town i shall soon be in the position of being able to put into a single connected narrative one of the most singular and crimes of modern times students of will remember the incidents in in little russia in the year and of course there are the in north but this case possesses some features which are entirely its own even now we have no clear case against this man but i shall be very much surprised if it is not clear enough before we go to bed this night the london express came roaring into the station and a small of a man had sprung from a first class carriage we all three shook hands and i saw at once from the way which gazed at my companion that he id learned a good deal since the days when they id first worked together i could well remember the scorn which the theories of the used then to excite in the practical man anything good he asked the biggest thing for years said we have two hours before we need think of start the hound of the ing i think we might employ it in gi dinner and then we will take fog out of your throat by giving you the pure night air of never ah well i don t suppose you will the hound of the one of s defects if indeed one may call it a defect was that he was exceedingly loth to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment partly it came no doubt from his own nature which loved to and surprise those who were around him partly also from his professional caution which urged him never to take any chances the result however was very trying for those who were acting as his agents and i had often suffered under it but never more so than during that long drive in the darkness the great ordeal was in front of us at last we were about to make our final effort and yet had said nothing and i could only what his course of action would be my nerves thrilled with anticipation when at last the cold wind upon our faces and the dark void spaces on either side of the narrow road told me that w were back upon the once again every of the horses and every turn of the wheels was taking us nearer to our supreme adventure our conversation was by the presence rf the driver of the hired so that we were the bound of the forced lo talk of trivial matters were tense with emotion and relief to me after that unnatural at last passed s house and i were drawing near to the hall and to action we did not drive up to the d down near the gate of the avenue tl was paid off	4
and ordered to return forthwith while we started to house are you armed the little smiled as long as i have my trousers i pocket and as long as i have my hip pi something in it good my friend and i are you re mighty close about this what s the game now a waiting game my word it does not seem a ve place said the with a round him at the gloomy slopes of t at the huge lake of fog which lay over pen mire l see the lights of a us that is house and the end i i must request you to walk on not to talk above a whisper we moved cautiously along the p were bi the bound of the were bound for the house but halted as when we were about two hundred yards from it this will do said he these rocks upon th right make an admirable screen we are to wait here yes we shall make our little here get into this hollow you have been inside the house have you not can you tell the position ol the rooms what are those windows at this end i think they are the kitchen windows and the one beyond which shines so bright that is certainly the dining room the blinds are up you know the lie ol the land best creep forward quietly and see what they are doing but for heaven s sake don t let them know that they are watched i down the path and stooped behind the low wall which surrounded the orchard creeping in its shadow i reached a point whence i could look straight through the window there were only two men in the room sir henry and they sat with their towards me on either side of i he round table both of them were smoking cigars and coffee and wine were in front of them was talking with animation but the looked pale and perhaps the thought of that lonely walk across the ig the of the ill was weighing heavily upon his mind as i watched them rose and left the room while sir henry filled his glass again and leaned back in his chair puffing at his cigar i heard the of a door and the crisp sound of boots upon gravel the steps passed along the path on the other side of the wall under which i crouched looking over i saw the pause at the door of an out house in the corner of the orchard a key turned in a lock and as he passed in there was a curious noise from within he was only a minute or so inside and then i heard the key turn once more and he passed me and re entered the house i saw him his guest and i crept quietly back to where my companions were waiting to tell them what i had seen you say that the lady is not there asked when i had finished my report no where can she be then since there is no light in any other room except the kitchen i cannot think where she is i have said that over the great mire there hung a dense white fog it was drifting slowly in our direction and itself up like a wall on that side of us low but thick and well defined the moon shone on it and it looked like a great with the heads of the i hound of the distant as rocks borne upon its surface s face was turned towards it and he muttered impatiently as he watched its drift it s moving towards us is that serious very serious indeed the one thing upon earth which could have my plans he can t be very long now it is ten o clock our success and even his life may depend upon his coming out before the fog is the path the night was and fine above us the shone cold and bright while a moon bathed the scene in a soft uncertain light as lay the dark bulk of the house its roof and chimneys hard against the silver sky broad bars of golden light from the lower windows stretched across the orchard and the one of them was suddenly shut oft the servants had left the kitchen there only remained the lamp in the dining room where the two men the host and the guest still over their cigars every minute that white plain which covered one half of the was drifting closer and to the house already the first thin of it were curling across the golden square of the lighted window the farther wall of the orchard was already invisible and the trees were standing ut of a of white as we watched it fog wreaths came crawling round both the hound op the of the house and rolled slowly into one on which the upper floor and the roof a strange ship upon a shadowy sea ho his hand passionately upon the rock in and stamped his feet in his impatience i he isn t out in a quarter of an ho wiu be covered in half an hour we wc to see our hands in front of us shall we move farther back ground yes i think it would be as well so as the fog bank flowed before it until we were half a mile from and still that dense white sea with the ir ing its upper edge swept slowly and we are going too far said dare not take the chance of his being fore he can reach us at all costs we our ground where we are he drop knees and clapped his ear to the ground god think that i hear him coming a sound of quick steps broke the crouching among the stones we	4
at the silver tipped bank in front o steps grew louder and through the fog a curtain there stepped the man awaiting he looked round him in emerged into the clear star lit night came swiftly along the path passed wc lay and went on up the long slope the hound of the as he walked he glanced continually over either shoulder like a man who is ill at ease i cried and i heard the click of a pistol look it s coming there was a thin crisp continuous from somewhere in the heart of that crawling bank the cloud was within fifty yards of where we lay and we glared at it all three uncertain what horror was about to break from the heart of it i was at s elbow and i glanced for an instant at face it was pale and his eyes shining brightly in the moonlight but suddenly they started forward in a rigid fixed stare and his lips parted in amazement at the same instant gave a yell of terror and threw himself face downwards upon the ground i sprang to my my hand grasping my pistol my mind by tl p dreadful shape which had sprung out upon us from the shadows of the fog a hound it was an enormous coal black hound but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen fire burst from its open mouth its eyes glowed with a glare its and and were in flickering flame never in the dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage more appalling more be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog with long bounds the huge black creature j i the of the leaping down the track following footsteps of our friend so the apparition that we allowed him to we had recovered our nerve then ht both fired together and the creature howl which showed that one at least h he did not pause however but far away on the path we saw sir hei back his face white in the moonlight raised in horror glaring helplessly at tl thing which was hunting him down but that cry of pain from the hound all our fears to the winds if he was was mortal and if we could wound kill him never have i seen a man run ran that night i am reckoned fleet of f me as much as i the in front of us as we flew up we heard scream after scream from sir the deep roar of the hound i was in t the beast spring upon its victim ground and worry at his throat but tl had emptied five barrels into the creature s flank with of agony and a vicious snap in the air it n its back four feet furiously am limp upon its side i stooped panting ai my pistol to the dreadful he was useless to press the the gi was dead the hound of the sir henry lay insensible where he had fallen we tore away his collar and breathed a prayer of gratitude when we saw that there was no sign of a wound and that the rescue had been in time already our friend s eyelids shivered and he made a feeble effort to move thrust his brandy between the s teeth and two frightened eyes were looking up at us my god he whispered what was it what in heaven s name was it it s dead whatever it is said we ve laid the family ghost once and for ever in mere size and strength it was a creature which was lying stretched before us it was not a pure and it was not a pure but it appeared to be a combination of the two gaunt savage and as large as a small even now in the stillness of death the huge jaws seemed to be dripping with a flame and the small deep set cruel eyes were with fire i placed my hand upon the glowing and as i held them up my own fingers and gleamed in the darkness i said a cunning preparation of it said at the dead animal there is no smell which might have interfered with his power of scent we owe you a deep apology sir henry for having exposed you to this fright i was prepared for a hound but not for such a creature as tbe hound op the this and the fog gave us little him you have saved my having first it are enough to stand give me another of that i shall be ready for anything will help me up what do you to leave you here you are not fi adventures to night if you will wait c of us will go back with you to the hall he tried to to his feet but ghastly pale and trembling in every helped him to a rock where he sat his face buried in his hands we must leave you now said rest of our work must be done and eve is of importance we have our case a only want our man it s a thousand to one against our at the house he continued as we re steps swiftly down the path those have told him that the game was up we were some distance off and th have them he followed the hound to call him o you may be certain no no he s go time but we ll search the house and m the front door was open so we hurried from room to room to the the hound of the ba old who met us in the passage there was no light save in the but caught up the lamp and left no corner of the house no sign could we see of the man whom	4
we were chasing on the upper floor however one of the bedroom doors was locked there s in here cried i can hear a movement open this door a faint moaning and rustling came from within struck the door just over the lock with the flat of his foot and it flew open pistol in hand we all three rushed into the room but there was no sign within it of that desperate and defiant villain whom we expected to see instead we were faced by an object so strange and so unexpected that we stood for a moment staring at it in amazement the room had been fashioned into a small museum and the walls were lined by a number of glass cases full of that collection of and the formation of which had been the of this complex and dangerous man in the centre of this room there was an upright beam which had been placed at some period as a for the old worm eaten of timber which the roof to this post a figure was tied so and muffled in the sheets which had been used to secure it that one could not for the moment tell whether it was that of a man or a the hound of the woman one passed round thi was secured at the back of the pillar i the lower part of the face and eyes eyes full of grief and shame an questioning stared back at us in had torn off the the mrs sank upon the floor in as her beautiful head fell upon her clear red of a across her the brute cried hei your brandy bottle put her in the has fainted from ill usage and she opened her eyes again is he safe she asked has he he cannot escape us madam no no i did not mean my ht henry is he safe yes and the hound it is dead she gave a long sigh of satisfaction thank god thank god oh see how he has treated me she sh out from her sleeves and we saw with they were all with nothing nothing it is my mind and has tortured and i could usage solitude a life of deception ev long as i could still cling to the hope his love but now i know that in this hound of the b as k e r v i l l eh r been his and his tool she broke into passionate sobbing as she spoke you bear him no good will madam said tell us then where we shall find him if you have ever aided him in evil help us now and so there is but one place where he can have fled she answered there is an old tin mine on an island in the heart of the mire it was there that he kept his hound and there also he had made preparations so that he might have a refuge that is where he would fly the fog bank lay like white wool against the window held the lamp towards it see said he no one could find his way into the mire to night she laughed and clapped her hands her eyes and teeth gleamed with fierce merriment he may find his way in but never out she cried how can he see the guiding tonight we planted them together he and i to mark the pathway through the mire oh if i could only have plucked them out to day then indeed you would have had him at your mercy it evident to us that all pursuit was in vain until the fog had lifted meanwhile we left in possession of the house while and i went back with the to the story of the could no longer be withheld from him but he took the blow bravely the hound of the he learned the truth about the woman w loved but the shock of the night s had shattered his nerves and before i lay in a high fever under the the two of them were i travel together round the world before had become once more the hale heart he had been before he became master estate and now i come rapidly to the singular narrative in which i have the reader share those dark fears and which clouded our lives so long in so tragic a manner on the death of the hound the fog had lifted ai guided by mrs to the point had found a pathway through the us to realize the horror of this woman we saw the eagerness and joy with us on her husband s track we left h upon the thin of firm out into the end of it a small planted here showed where the path from of rushes among those green p which barred the way to thi rank and water plan of decay and a heavy v our faces while a false step plunged us bound of the b as k e r v t once deep into the dark quivering mire which shook for yards in soft around our feet its grip plucked at our heels as we walked and when we sank into it it was as if some malignant hand was us down into those depths so grim and was the clutch in which it held us once only we saw a trace that had passed that perilous way before us from amid a of cotton grass which bore it up out of the some dark thing was projecting sank to his waist as he stepped from the path to seize it and had we not been there v drag him out he could never have set his foot firm land again he held an old black boot in the air was printed on the leather inside it is worth a mud bath said he it is our friend sir	4
henry s missing boot thrown there by in his flight exactly he retained it in his hand after using it to set the hound upon the track he fled when he knew the game was up still clutching it and he hurled it away at this point of his flight we know at least that he came so far in safety but more than that we were never destined to know though there was much which we might there was no chance of finding footsteps in the mire for the rising mud swiftly in upon them but as we at last reached firmer ground beyond the we all looked eagerly for the hound of the but no slightest sign of them ever if the earth told a true story then reached that island of refuge struggled through the fog upon thai somewhere in the heart of the great gi down in the foul of the huge n had sucked him in this cold and for ever buried many traces we found of him in the and where he had hid his savage ally j ing wheel md a fi ed the position oi an ed mine b the crumbling remains of the cottages o driven away no doubt by the swamp in one of these a chain with a quantity of be where the animal had been confined with a of brown hair to i the a dog said by haired poor will n pet again well i do not know that th any secret which we have not he could hide his hound but t hush its voice and hence came those even in daylight were not pleasant to h emergency he could keep the hound house at but it was always a was only on the supreme day which as the end of all his efforts that he the hound of the this in the tin is no doubt the luminous mixture with which the creature was it was suggested of course by the story of the family and by the desire to frighten old sir charles to death no wonder the poor devil of a ran and screamed even as our friend did and as we ourselves might have done when he saw such a creature bounding through the darkness of the upon his track it was a cunning device for apart from the chance of driving your victim to his death what peasant would venture to inquire too closely into such a creature should he get sight of it as many have done upon the i said it in london and i say it again now that never yet have we helped to hunt down a more dangerous man than he who is lying yonder swept his long arm towards the huge expanse of green which stretched away until it into the slopes of the xv a it was the end of november and and i sat upon a raw and night on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting room in baker street since the tragic of our visit to he had been engaged in two affairs of the utmost importance in the first of which he had exposed the conduct of colonel in connection with the famous card scandal of the club while in the second he had defended the unfortunate from the charge of murder which hung over her in connection with the death of her step daughter mile the young lady who as it will be remembered was found six months later alive and married in new york my friend was in excellent spirits over the success which had attended a succession of difficult and important cases so that i was able to induce him to discuss the details of the mystery i had waited patiently for the opportunity for i was aware that he would never permit cases to and that his clear and logical mind would not be drawn from its present work to dwell upon memories of the past sir henry and dr were however in london on their wa a to that long voyage which had been recommended for the restoration of his shattered nerves they had called upon us that very afternoon so that it was natural that the subject should come up for discussion the whole course of events said from the point of view of the man who called himself was simple and direct although to os who had no means in the beginning of knowing the motives of his actions and could only learn part of the facts it all appeared exceedingly complex i have had the advantage of two conversations with mrs and the case has now been so entirely cleared up that i am not aware that there is anything which has remained a secret to us you will find a few notes upon the matter under the heading b in my list of cases perhaps you would kindly give me a sketch ol the course of events from memory certainly though i cannot that i carry all the facts in my mind intense mental has a curious way of out what has passed the who has his case at his fingers end and is able to argue with an expert upon his own subject finds that a week or two of the courts will drive it all out of his head once more so each of my cases the last and mile has my recollection of hall to morrow some other little problem may be submitted to my notice which will in turn dis s the ro nd of the possess the fair french lady and the wood so far as the case of the hound ever i will give you the course of even s i can and you will suggest anything i ha ve forgotten my inquiries show beyond all portrait did not lie and that this indeed a he was a son o t	4
the younger brother of sir c fled with a sinister reputation to where he was said to have died as a matter of fact and had od fellow whose real name is the same as he married one of the and having a o sum of public money he changed his and fled to england where he es school in the east of his tempting this special line of business w had struck up an acquaintance with a c upon the voyage home and that h this man s ability to make the the died school which had begun well sank into the found it to change their name to and i the remains of his fortune his future and his taste for to tl england i learn at the british was a recognised authority upon the su i a that the name o has been permanently attached to a certain which he had in his days been the first to describe we now come to that portion of his life which has proved to be of such intense interest to us the fellow had evidently made inquiry and found that only two lives between him and a valuable estate when he went to his plans were i believe exceedingly but that he meant mischief from the first is evident from the way in which he took his wife with him n the character of his sister the idea of using her as a was clearly already in his mind though he may not have been certain how the details of his plot were to be arranged he meant in the end to have the estate and he was ready tc use any tool or run any risk for that end his first act was to establish himself as near to his home as he could and his second was to cultivate a friendship with sir charles and with the neighbours the himself told him about the family hound and so prepared the way for his own death as i wiu continue to call him knew that the old man s heart was weak and that a shock would kill him so much he had learned from dr he had heard also that sir charles was superstitious and had taken this grim legend very seriously his ingenious mind instantly suggested way by which the could be done to death j the hound of the ba ke and yet it would be hardly possible to the guilt to the real murderer having conceived the idea he pi carry it out with considerable j would have been content to savage hound the use of artificial the creature was a of his part the dog he bought in and the in ro the strongest and most savage in their he brought it down by the north walked a great distance over the it home without exciting any remarks ready on his insect learned to p mire and so had found a safe for the creature here he it his chance but it was some time coming the could not be outside of i at night several times with his hound but without avail it these fruitless that he or rather seen by and that the legend of dog received a new confirmation he that his wife might sir charles to h here she proved unexpectedly would not endeavour to the old in a sentimental attachment which him over to his enemy threats and to say blows refused to move p a have nothing to do with it and for a time was at a he found a way out of his difficulties through the chance that sir charles who had conceived a friendship for him made him the minister of his charity in the case of this unfortunate woman mrs by representing himself as a single man he acquired complete influence over her and he gave her to understand that in the event of her obtaining a divorce from her husband he would marry her his plans were suddenly brought to head by his knowledge that sir charles was about to leave the hall on the advice of dr with whose opinion he himself pretended to he must act at once or his victim might get beyond his power he therefore put pressure upon mrs to write this letter imploring the old man to give her an interview on the evening before his departure for london he then by a argument prevented her from going and so had the chance for which he had waited driving back in the evening from he was in time to get his hound to treat it with his infernal paint and to bring the beast round to the gate at which he had reason to expect that he would find the old gentleman waiting the by its master sprang over the and pursued the unfortunate who fled screaming down the alley in that gloomy it must indeed have been a dreadful sight o the of the b fee that huge black creature with its flaming jaws and blazing eyes bounding after its victim he fell dead at the end of the alley from heart disease and terror the hound had kept upon the grassy border while the had run down the path o that no track but the man s was visible on seeing him lying still the creature had probably to at him but finding him dead had turned away again it was then that it left the print which was actually observed by dr the hound was called off and hurried away to its in the mire and a mystery was left which puzzled the authorities alarmed the and finally brought the case within the scope of our observation so much for the death of sir charles you perceive the devilish cunning of it for really it would be almost impossible to make a case against the real murderer his	4
only was one who could never give him away and the grotesque inconceivable nature of the device only served to make it more effective both of the women concerned in the case mrs and mrs were left with a strong suspicion against mrs knew that he had designs upon the old man and also of the existence of the hound mrs knew neither of these things but had been impressed by the death at the time of an appointment which was only known to him however both of a were under his influence and he had nothing to ear from them the first half of his task was successfully accomplished but the more difficult still remained it is possible that did not know of the existence of an heir in canada in any case he would very soon learn it from his friend dr and he was told by the latter all details about the arrival of henry s first idea was that this young stranger from canada might possibly be done to death in london without coming down to at all he his wife ever since she had refused to help him in laying a trap for the old man and he dared not leave her long out of his sight for fear he should lose his influence over her it was for this reason that he took her to london with tliey lodged i find at the private hotel in street which was one of those called upon by my agent in search of evidence here he kept his wife imprisoned in her room while he disguised in a beard followed dr to baker street and afterwards to the station and to the hotel his wife had some of his plans but she had such a fear of her husband a fear founded upon brutal ill treatment that she dare not write to warn the man whom she knew to be in danger if the letter should fall s hands her own life would not b eventually as we know she adopted the ex x the of the of cutting out the words which the message and addressing the letter ii hand it reached the and g first warning of his danger it was very essential for article of sir henry s attire so that in driven to use the dog he might means of setting him upon his track and audacity he s at once and we cannot doubt that tl o the hotel was well him iti his design by chance boot which was procured for him was and therefore useless for his purpose had i returned and obtained incident since it proved mind that we were dealing with a real hi other could explain this an tain an old boot and this to the more and grotesque an more carefully it deserves to be very point which appear to when duly considered and h one which is most likely to it then we had the visit from our fr morning always by from his knowledge of our rooms and as well as from his general com inclined to think that s bu been hy no means limited to this sing a a p affair it is suggestive that during the three years there have been four considerable in the west country for none of which was any criminal ever arrested the last of these at court in may was remarkable for the blooded of the page who surprised the and solitary i cannot doubt that his resources in this fashion and that for years he has been a desperate and dangerous man we had an example of his readiness of resource that morning when he got away from us so successfully and also of his audacity in sending back my own name to me through the from that moment he understood that i had taken over the case in london and that therefore there was no chance for him there he returned to and awaited the arrival of the one moment said i you have no doubt described the of events correctly but there is one point which you have left what became of the hound when its master was in london i have given some attention to this matter and it is undoubtedly of importance there can be no question that had a though it is unlikely that he ever placed himself in his power by sharing all his plans with him there was an old at house whose name was his connection with the can thb of the be traced for several years as far days so that he must ha that his master and mistress were and wife this man has from the country it is sl is not a common name in i is so in all spanish or countries the man like mrs spoke good english but with a cent i have myself seen this old i mire by the path which marked out it is very probable the the absence of his master it was he the hound though he may never ha purpose for wliich the beast was used the then went down ti whither they were soon followed by s you one word now as to how i that time it may possibly to that when i examined the paper up printed words were fastened i made a tion for the water mark in doing within few inches of my eyes and of a faint smell of the scent known a mine there are seventy five perfume very necessary that a criminal expert si to distinguish from each other and than once within my own experience on their prompt recognition the see the presence of a lady and already my a i to turn towards the thus i had made certain of the hound and had guessed at the before ever we went to the west country it was my game to	4
i s oak ii the of royal hi the play of s iv the peace of v buck vi on the threshold vii the hope of england viii the road ix s x the men of the ring xi the fight in the coach house xii the room of s xiii lord xiv on the road xv foul play xvi downs xvii the ring side xviii the smith s last battle vii contents xix royal xx xxi the s xxii the end notes stone chapter i s oak on this the first of january of the year the nineteenth century has reached its term and many of us who shared its youth have which tell us that it has us we put our heads together we older ones and we talk of the great days that we have known but we find that when it is with our children that we talk it is a hard matter to make them understand we and our fathers before us lived much the same life but they with their railway trains and their belong to a different age it is true that we can put history books into their hands and they can read fi om them of our weary struggle of two and twenty years with that great and evil man they can learn how freedom fled firom the whole broad continent and how s blood was shed and s noble heart was broken in striving that she should not pass us for ever to take with our brothers across stone the atlantic all this they can read with the date of this treaty or that battle but i do not know where they are to read of ourselves of the folk we were and the lives we led and how the world seemed to our eyes when they were young as theirs are now if i take up my pen to tell you about this you must not look for any story at my hands for i was only in my earliest manhood when these things and although i saw something of the stories of other lives i could scarce claim one of my own it is the love of a woman that makes the story of a man and many a year was to pass before i first looked into the eyes of the mother of my children to us it seems but an affair of yesterday and yet those children can now reach the in the garden whilst we are seeking for a ladder and where we once walked with their little hands in ours we are glad now to lean upon their arms but i shall speak of a time when the love of a mother was the only love i knew and if you seek for something more then it is not for you that i write but if you would come out with me into that forgotten world if you would know boy jim and champion if you would meet my father one of s own men if you would catch a glimpse of that great seaman and of g afterwards the unworthy s oak king of england if above all you would see my famous uncle sir charles the king of the and the great fighting men whose names are still household words amongst you then give me your hand and let us start but i must warn you also that if you think you will find much that is of interest in your guide you are destined to disappointment when i look over my i can see that it is only the wise and witty and who have ventured to write down their experiences for my own part if i were only assured that i was as clever and brave as the average man about me i should be well satisfied men of their hands have thought well of my brains and men of brains of my hands and that is the best that i can say of myself save in the one matter of having an readiness for music so that the mastery of any instrument comes very easily and naturally to me i cannot recall any single advantage which i can boast over my fellows in all things i have been a half way man for i am of middle height my eyes are neither blue nor grey and my hair before nature it with her powder was and brown i may perhaps claim this that through life i have never felt a touch of jealousy as i have admired a better man than myself and that i have always seen all things as stone they are myself included which should count in my favour now that i sit down in my mature age to write my memories with your permission then we will push my own as far as possible out of the picture if you can conceive me as a thin and cord upon which my would be pearls are strung you will be accepting me upon the terms which i should wish our family the stones have for many generations belonged to the navy and it has been a custom among us for the eldest son to take the name of his father s favourite commander thus we can trace our back to old stone who commanded a high peak fifty gun ship against the dutch through stone and stone we came down to my father stone who in his turn me at the parish church of st thomas at in the year of grace out of my window as i write i can see my own great lad in the garden and if i were to call out you would see that i have been true to the traditions of our family my dear mother the best that ever a man had was the second daughter of the reverend john of milton which is a small parish	4
upon the borders of the of s oak stone she came of a poor family but one of some position for her elder brother was the famous sir charles who having inherited the money of a wealthy east indian merchant became in time the talk of the town and the very particular friend of the prince of wales of him i shall have more to say hereafter but you will note now that he was my own uncle and brother to my mother i can remember her all through her beautiful life for she was but a girl when she married and little more when i can first recall her busy fingers and her gentle voice i see her as a lovely woman with kind dove s eyes somewhat short of stature it is true but carrying herself very in my memories of those days she is clad always in some purple with a white round her long white neck and i see her fingers turning and darting as she works at her knitting i see her again in her middle years sweet and loving planning with the few shillings a day of a lieutenant s pay on which to support the cottage at s oak and to keep a fair face to the world and now if i do but step into the parlour i can see her once more with over eighty years of life behind her placid faced with her dainty cap her gold glasses and her stone shawl with the blue border i loved her young and i love her old and when she goes she will take something with her which nothing in the world can ever make good to me again you may have many friends you who read this and you may chance to marry more than once but your mother is your first and your last cherish her then whilst you may for the day will come when every hasty deed or heedless word will come back with its sting to hive in your own heart such then was my mother and as to my father i can describe him best when i come to the time when he returned to us from the during all my childhood he was only a name to me and a face in a miniature hung round my mother s neck at first they told me he was fighting the french and then after some years one heard less about the french and more about general i remember the awe which one day in thomas street i saw a print of the great in a s window this then was the arch enemy with whom my father spent his life in terrible and ceaseless contest to my childish imagination it was a personal affair and i for ever saw my father and this clean shaven man and in a deadly year long it was not until i went to s oak the grammar school that i how many other little boys there were whose fathers were m the same case only once in those long years did my father return home which wiu show you what it meant to be the wife of a sailor in those days it was just after we had moved from to s oak whither he came for a week before he set sail with admiral to help him to turn his name into lord st i remember that he frightened as well as fascinated me with his talk of battles and i can recall as if it were yesterday the horror with which i gazed upon a spot of blood upon his shut which had come as i have no doubt from a in at the time i never questioned that it had from some stricken frenchman or and i shrank from hun in terror when he laid his hand upon my head my mother wept bitterly when he was gone but for my own part i was not sorry to see his blue back and white going down the garden walk for i felt with the heedless selfishness of a child that we were closer together she and i when we were alone i was in my year when we moved from to s oak a httle village to the north of which was recommended to us by my uncle sir charles stone one of whose grand friends lord had had his seat near there the reason of our moving was that living was cheaper in the country and that it was easier for my mother to keep up the appearance of a when away from the circle of those to whom she could not hospitality they were trying times those to all save the who made such profits that they could as i have heard afford to let half their land lie while living like gentlemen upon the rest wheat was at a hundred and ten shillings a quarter and the loaf at one and even in the quiet of the cottage at s oak we could scarce have lived were it not that in the in which my father was stationed there was the occasional chance of a little prize money the of battle ships themselves on and off outside could earn nothing save honour but the in attendance made of many and these as is the rule of the service were counted as belonging to the fleet and their produce divided into head money in this manner my father was able to send home enough to keep the cottage and to pay for me at the day school of mr where for four years i learned all that he had to teach it was at s school that i first knew jim boy jim as he has always been called the s oak nephew of champion of the village i can see him as he was in those days with great half formed limbs like a	4
and a face that set every woman s head round as he passed her it was in those days that we began our friendship a friendship which stiu in our years us closely as two brothers i taught him his exercises for he never loved the sight of a book and he in turn made me box and on the and on down for his hands were as active as his brain was slow he was two years my elder however so that long before i had finished my he had gone to help his uncle at the s oak is in a dip of the downs and the forty third between london and lies on the skirt of the village it is but a small place with an church a fine and a row of red brick cottages each in its own little garden at one end was the of champion with his house behind it and at the other was mr s school the yellow cottage standing back a little from the road with its upper story forward and a of black let into the plaster is the one in which we lived i do not know if it is still standing but i should think it stone likely for it was not a place much given to change just opposite to us at the other side of the broad white road was the s oak inn which was kept in my day by john a man of excellent at home but liable to strange when he travelled as will afterwards become apparent though there was a stream of traffic upon the road the from were too fresh to stop and those from london too eager to reach their journey s end so that if it had not been for an occasional broken trace or loosened wheel the landlord would have had only the thirsty throats of the village to trust to those were the days when the prince of wales had just built his singular palace by the sea and so from may to september which was the season there was never a day that from one to two hundred and did not rattle past our doors many a summer evening have boy jim and i lain upon the grass watching all these grand folk and cheering the london as they came roaring through the dust clouds leaders and stretched to their work the screaming and the with their low crowned curly hats and their faces as scarlet as their coats the passengers used to laugh when boy jim shouted at them but if they could have read his s oak big half set and his loose shoulders aright they would have looked a little harder at him perhaps and given him back his cheer boy jim had never known a father or a mother and his whole life had been spent with his uncle champion was the s oak blacksmith and he had his because he fought tom johnson when he held the english belt and would most certainly have beaten him had the not appeared to break up the fight for years there was no such to take punishment and no more finishing than though he was always as i understand a slow one upon his feet at last in a fight with black the jew he finished the battle with such a hit that he not only knocked his opponent over the inner ropes but he left him life and death for long three weeks during all this time half expecting every hour to feel the hand of a bow street upon his collar and to be tried for his life this experience with the prayers of his wife made him the ring for ever and carry his great muscles into the one trade in which they seemed to give him an advantage there was a good business to be done at s oak fix m the passing traffic and the farmers so that he soon became the richest of the stone and he came to church on a sunday with his wife and his nephew looking as respectable a family man as one would wish to see he was not a tall man not more than five feet seven inches and it was often said that if he had had an extra inch of reach he would have been a match for or at their best his chest was like a barrel and his were the most that i have ever seen with deep between the smooth swelling muscles like a piece of water worn rock in spite of his strength however he was of a slow orderly and kindly disposition so that there was no man more beloved over the whole country side his heavy placid clean shaven face could set very sternly as i have seen upon occasion but for me and every child in the village there was ever a smile upon his lips and a greeting in his eyes there was not a beggar upon the country side who did not know that his heart was as soft as his muscles were hard there was nothing that he liked to talk of more than his old battles but he would stop if he saw his little wife coming for the one great shadow in her life was the ever present fear that some day he would throw down and and be off to the ring once more and you must be reminded here once for all that that former calling of his was by no means at that s oak time in the condition to which it afterwards fell public opinion has gradually become opposed to it for the reason that it came largely into the hands of and because it even the honest and brave was found to draw round him just as the pure and noble does for this reason the ring is dying in england and	4
we may hope that when and have passed away they may have none to succeed them but it was different in the days of which i speak public opinion was then largely in its favour and there were good reasons why it should be so it was a time of war when england with an army and navy composed only of those who volunteered to fight because they had fighting blood in them had to encounter as they would now have to encounter a power which could by law turn every citizen into a soldier if the people had not been fuu of this lust for combat it is certain that england must have been and it was thought and is on the face of it reasonable that a struggle between two men with thirty thousand to view it and three million to discuss it did help to set a standard of and endurance brutal it was no doubt and its is the end of it but it is not so brutal as war which will survive it whether it is logical stone now to teach the people to be peaceful in an age when their very existence may come to depend upon their being warlike is a question for wiser heads than mine but that was what we thought of it in the days of your and that is why you might find and like fox and at the side of the ring the mere fact that solid men should it was enough in itself to prevent the which afterwards crept in for over twenty years in the days of brain the and the rest the leaders of the ring were men whose honesty was above suspicion and those were just the twenty years when the ring may as i have said have served a national purpose you have heard how saved the girl from the burning house how won the respect and friendship of the best men of his age and how rose to a seat in the first parliament these were the men who set the standard and their trade carried with it this obvious recommendation that it is one in which no drunken or man could long succeed there were exceptions among them no doubt like and brutes like in the main i say again that they were honest men brave and enduring to an incredible degree and a credit to s oak the country which produced them it was as you will see my fate to see something of them and i speak of what i know in our own village i can assure you that we were very proud of the presence of such a man as champion and if folks stayed at the inn they would walk down as far as the just to have the sight of him and he was worth seeing too especially on a winter s night when the red glare of the would beat upon his great muscles and upon the proud hawk face of boy jim as they heaved and swayed over some glowing plough themselves in sparks with every blow he would strike once with his thirty pound and jim twice with his hand hammer and the would bring me flying down the village street on the chance that since they were both at the there might be a place for me at the only once during those village years can i remember champion showing me for an instant the sort of man that he had been it chanced one summer morning when boy jim and i were standing by the door that there came a private coach from with its four fresh horses and its brass work shining flying along with such a merry rattle and that the champion came running out with stone a half shoe in his to have a look at it a gentleman in a white coachman s cape si as we would call him in those days was driving and half a dozen of his fellows laughing and shouting were on the top behind him it may have been that the bulk of the smith caught his eye and that he acted in pure or it may possibly have been an accident but as he swung past the of the driver s whip round and we heard the sharp snap of it across s leather apron master shouted the smith looking after him you re not to be trusted on the box until you can handle your whip better n that what s that cried the driver pulling up his team i bid you have a care master or there will be some one eyed folk along the road you drive oh you say that do you said the driver putting his whip into its and pulling off his driving gloves i ll have a little talk with you my fine fellow the sporting gentlemen of those days were very fine for the most part for it was the mode to take a course of just as a few years afterwards there was no man about town who had not had the on with s oak knowing their own they never refused the chance of a adventure and it was seldom indeed that the or the had much to boast of after a young blood had taken off his coat to him this one swung himself off the box seat with the alacrity of a man who has no doubts about the of the quarrel and after hanging his coat upon the bar he turned up the ruffled of his white shirt i ll pay you for your advice my man said he i am sure that the men upon the coach knew who the smith was and looked upon it as a prime joke to see companion walk into such a trap they roared with delight and out scraps of advice to him knock	4
some of the off him lord they shouted give the raw his breakfast hun in among his own sharp s the word or you ll see the back of him encouraged by these cries the young advanced upon his man the smith never moved but his mouth set grim and hard while his brows came down over his keen grey eyes the had and his hands were free have a care master said he you ll get if you don t stone something in the assured voice and something also in the quiet pose warned the young lord of his danger i saw him look hard at his and as he did so his hands and his jaw dropped together by he cried it s jack i my name master and i thought you were some why man i haven t seen you since the day you nearly killed black and cost me a cool hundred by doing it how they roared on the coach smoked i smoked by i they it s jack the lord was going to take on the ex champion give him one on the apron and see what happens but the driver had already climbed back into his perch laughing as loudly as any of his companions we ll let you off this time said he are those your sons down there this is my nephew master here s a guinea for him he shall never say i robbed of his uncle and so having turned the laugh in his favour by his merry way of taking it he cracked his whip and away they flew to make london under the five hours while jack with his half shoe in his hand went whistling back to the chapter ii the of royal so much for champion i now i wish to say something more about boy jim not only because he was the comrade of my youth but because you will find as you go on that this book is his story rather than mine and that there came a time when his name and his fame were in the mouths of all england you will bear with me therefore while i tell you of his character as it was in those days and especially of one very singular adventure which neither of us are likely to forget it was strange to see jim with his uncle and his aunt for he seemed to be of another race and breed to them often i have watched them come up the aisle upon a sunday first the square thick set man and then the uttle worn anxious eyed woman and last this glorious lad with his clear cut face his black curls and his step so and light that it seemed as if he were bound to earth by some lesser tie than the heavy footed villagers round him he had not yet attained his six foot of stature but no judge of a man and every woman at least is stone one could look at his perfect shoulders his narrow and his proud head that sat upon his neck like an eagle upon its perch without feeling that sober joy which all that is beautiful in nature gives to us a vague self content as though in some way we also had a hand in the making of it but we are used to associate beauty with softness in a man i do not know why they should be so coupled and they never were with jim of all men that i have known he was the most iron hard in body and in mind who was there among us who could walk with him or run with him or swim with him who on all the country side save only boy jim would have swung himself over cliff and down a hundred feet with the mother hawk flapping at his ears in the vain struggle to hold him from her nest he was but sixteen with his not yet all set into bone when he fought and beat lee of hill who called himself the cock of the south downs it was after this that champion took his training as a in hand i d rather you left alone boy jim said he and so had the but if mill you must it will not be my fault if you cannot hold up your hands to anything in the south country the of royal and it was not long before he made good his promise i have said that boy jim had no love for his books but by that i meant school books for when it came to the reading of or of anything which had a touch of gallantry or adventure there was no tearing him away from it until it was finished when such a book came into his hands s oak and the became a dream to him and his life was spent out upon the ocean or wandering over the broad with his heroes and he would draw me into his also so that i was glad to play friday to his when he proclaimed that the at was a desert island and that we were cast upon it for a week but when i found that we were actually to sleep out there without covering every night and that he proposed that our food should be the sheep of the downs wild he called them cooked upon a fire which was to be made by the rubbing together of two sticks my heart failed me and on the very first night i crept away to my mother but jim stayed out there for the whole weary week a wet week it was too and came back at the end of it looking a deal and than his hero does in the picture books it is well that he had only promised to stay a week	4
for if it had been a month he would have stone died of cold and hunger before his pride would have let him come home his pride that was the deepest thing in all jim s nature it is a mixed quality to my mind half a virtue and half a vice a virtue in holding a man out of the dirt a vice in making it hard for him to rise when once he has fallen jim was proud down to the very of his bones you remember the guinea that the young lord had thrown him from the box of the coach two days later somebody picked it from the roadside mud jim only had seen where it had fallen and he would not even to point it out to a beggar nor would he stoop to give a reason in such a case but would answer all with a curl of his lip and a flash of his dark eyes even at school he was the same with such a sense of his own dignity that other folk had to think of it too he might say as he did say that a right angle was a proper sort of angle or put in but old would as soon have thought of raising his cane against him as he would of letting me off if i had said as much and so it was that although jim was the son of nobody and i of a king s officer it always seemed to me to have been a condescension on his part that he should have chosen me as his friend the of royal it was this pride of boy jim s which led to an adventure which makes me shiver now when i think of it it happened in the august of or it may have been in the early days of september but i remember that we heard the in wood and that jim said that perhaps it was the last of him i was still at school but jim had left he being nigh sixteen and i thirteen it was my saturday half holiday and we spent it as we often did out upon the downs our favourite place was beyond where we could stretch ourselves upon the soft chalk grass among the plump little sheep with the as they leaned upon their queer old made in the days when turned out more iron than all the of england it was there that we lay upon that glorious afternoon if we chose to roll upon our right sides the whole lay in front of us with the north downs away in green folds with here and there the snow white of a chalk pit if we turned upon our left we overlooked the huge blue stretch of the channel a as i can well remember was coming up it that day the timid flock of in front the uke well trained dogs upon the skirts and two line of battle stone ships rolling along behind them my fancy was soaring out to my father upon the waters when a word from jim brought it back on to the grass like a broken winged said he have you heard that royal is haunted had i heard it of course i had heard it who was there in all the down country who had not heard of the of royal do you know the story of it why said i with some pride i ought to know it seeing that my mother s brother sir charles was the nearest friend of lord and was at this card party when the thing happened i heard the and my mother talking about it last week and it was all so clear to me that i might have been there when the murder was done it is a strange story said jim thoughtfully but when i asked my aunt about it she would give me no answer and as to my he cut me short at the very mention of it there is a good reason for that said i for lord was as i have heard your uncle s best friend and it is but natural that he would not wish to speak of his disgrace tell me the story it is an old one now fourteen years old and yet they have not got to the end of it the of royal there were four of them who had come down from london to spend a few days m lord s old house one was his own young brother captain another was his cousin sir sir charles my was the third and lord the fourth they are fond of playing cards for money these great people and they played and played for two days and a night lord lost and sir lost and my uncle lost and captain won until he could win no more he won their money but above all he won papers from his elder brother which meant a great deal to him it was late on a monday night that they stopped on the tuesday morning captain was found dead beside his bed with his throat cut and lord did it his papers were found burned in the grate his was clutched in the dead man s hand and his knife lay beside the body did they hang him then they were too slow in laying hands upon him he waited until he saw that they had brought it home to him and then he fled he has never been seen since but it is said that he reached america and the ghost walks there are many who have seen it stone u why is the house still empty because it is in the keeping of the law lord had no children and sir the same who was at the card party is his nephew and heir	4
but he can touch nothing until he can prove lord to be dead jim lay silent for a bit at the short grass with his fingers said he at last will you come with me to night and look for the ghost it turned me cold the very thought of it my mother would not let me slip out when she s i ll wait for you at the royal is locked i ll open a window easy enough i m afraid jim but you are not afraid if you are with me i ll promise you that no ghost shall hurt you so i gave him my word that i would come and then the rest of the day i went about the most sad faced lad in it was all very well for boy jim it was that pride of his which was taking him there he would go because there was no one else on the country side that would dare but i had no pride of that sort i was quite of the same way of thinking as the others and would as soon have thought the of royal of passing my night at jacob s on common as in the haunted house of royal still i could not bring myself to desert jim and so as i say i about the house with so pale and a face that my dear mother would have it that i had been at the green apples and sent me to bed early with a dish of tea for my supper england went to rest in those days for there were few who could afford the price of candles when i looked out of my window just after the clock had gone ten there was not a light in the village save only at the inn it was but a few feet from the ground so i out and there was jim waiting for me at the comer we crossed john s common together and so past ridden s farm meeting only one or two riding officers upon the way there was a brisk wind blowing and the moon kept peeping through the of the so that our road was sometimes silver clear and sometimes so black that we found ourselves among the and bushes which lined it we came at last to the wooden gate with the high stone pillars by the roadside and looking through between the rails we saw the long avenue of oaks and at the end of this ill the pale face of the house in the that would have been enough for me that stone one glimpse of it and the sound of the night wind sighing and groaning among the branches but jim swung the gate open and up we went the gravel beneath our tread it high the old house with many little windows in which the moon and with a strip of water running round three sides of it the arched door stood right in the face of us and on one side a hung open upon its hinges in luck whispered jim here s one of the windows open don t you think we ve gone far enough jim said i with my teeth chattering i u you in first no no i ll not go first then i will he the sill and had his knee on it in an instant now give me your hands with a pull he had me up beside him and a moment later we were both in the haunted house how hollow it sounded when we jumped down on to the wooden floor there was such a sudden boom and that we both stood silent for a moment then jim burst out laughing what an old drum of a place it is he cried we ll strike a and see where we are the of royal he had brought a candle and a box m his pocket when the flame burned up we saw an arched stone roof above our heads and broad deal shelves all round us covered with dusty dishes it was the i ll show you round said jim merrily and pushing the door open he led the way into the hall i remember the high oak walls with the heads of deer out and a single white bust which sent my heart into my mouth in the corner many rooms opened out of this and we wandered from one to the other the the stiu room the morning room the dining room with the same choking smell of dust and of this is where they played the cards jim said i in a hushed voice it was on that very table why here are the cards themselves cried he and he pulled a brown from something in the centre of the sure enough it was a pile of playing cards forty i should think at the least which had lain there ever since that tragic game which was played before i was bom i wonder whence that stair leads said jim don t go up there jim i cried clutching at his arm that must lead to the room of the murder stone how do you know that the said that they saw on the oh jim you can see it even now he held up his candle and there was a great dark upon the white plaster above us i believe you re right said he but anyhow i m going to have a look at it don t jim don t i cried tut you can stay here if you are afraid i won t be more than a minute there s no use going on a ghost hunt unless great lord there s something coming down the stairs i heard it too a shuffling footstep in the room above and then a from the steps and then another and another	4
i saw jim s face as if it had been carved out of ivory with his parted and his staring eyes fixed upon the black square of the stair opening he still held the but his fingers and with every the shadows sprang from the walls to the ceiling as to myself my knees gave way under me and i found myself on the floor crouching down behind jim with a scream frozen in my throat and stiu the step came slowly from stair to stair then hardly daring to look and yet unable to turn away my eyes i saw a figure dimly in the comer upon which the stair opened there was a silence in which i could hear my the of royal poor heart and then when i looked the figure was gone and the low was heard once more upon the stairs jim sprang after it and i was left half fainting in the but it was not for long he was down again in a minute and passing his hand under my arm he half led and half carried me out of the house it was not until we were in the fresh night air again that he opened his mouth can you stand yes but i m shaking so am i said he passing his hand over his forehead i ask your pardon i was a fool to bring you on such an errand but i never believed in such things i know better now could it have been a man jim i asked up my courage now that i could hear the dogs barking on the farms it was a spirit how do you know because i followed it and saw it vanish into a wall as easily as an into sand why what s amiss now my fears were all back upon me and every nerve creeping with horror take me away jim take me away i cried i was glaring down the avenue and his eyes stone followed mine amid the gloom of the oak trees something was coming towards us quiet whispered jim by heavens come what may my are going round it this time we crouched as motionless as the trunks behind us heavy steps their way through the soft gravel and a broad figure loomed upon us in the darkness jim sprang upon it like a tiger you re not a spirit anyway he cried the man gave a shout of surprise and then a growl of rage what the deuce he roared and then break your neck if you don t let go the threat might not have loosened jim s grip but the voice did why uncle he cried well i m blessed if it isn t boy and what s this why it s young master stone as i m a living sinner what in the world are you two doing up at royal at this time of night we had all moved out into the moonlight and there was champion with a big bundle on his arm and such a look of amazement upon his face as would have brought a smile back on to mine had my heart not still been cramped with fear the of royal we re exploring said jim exploring are you well i don t think you were meant to be captain either of you for i never saw such a pair of faces why jim what are you afraid of i m not afraid uncle i never was afraid but spirits are new to me and i ve been in royal and we ve seen the ghost the champion gave a whistle that s the game is it said he did you have speech with it it vanished first the champion whistled once more i ve heard there is something of the sort up yonder said he but it s not a thing as i would advise you to with there s enough trouble with the folk of this world boy jim without going out of your way to mix up with those of another as to young master stone if his good mother saw that white face of his she d never let him come to the more walk slowly on and i ll see you back to s oak we had gone half a mile perhaps when the champion overtook us and i could not but observe that the bundle was no longer under his arm we were nearly at the before jim tt stone asked the question which was in my mind what took you up to royal uncle well as a man gets on in years said the champion there s many a duty turns up that the likes of you have no idea o when you re near forty yourself you ll maybe know the truth of what i say so that was all we could draw from him but yoimg as i was i had heard of coast and of carried to lonely places at night so that from that time on if i had heard that the had made a capture i was never easy until i saw the jolly face of champion looking out of his door chapter iii the play of cross i have told you something about s oak and about the life that we led there now that my memory goes back to the old place it would gladly linger for every thread which i draw from the of the past brings out half a dozen others that were entangled with it i was in two minds when i began whether i had enough in me to make a book of and now i know that i could write one about s oak alone and the folk whom i knew in my childhood they were hard and uncouth some of them i doubt not and yet seen through the golden haze of time they all seem sweet	4
and there was our good mr who loved the whole world save only mr slack the minister of and there was kindly mr slack who was all men s brother save only of mr the of s oak then there was the french who lived over on the road and who when the news of a victory came in was with joy because we had beaten and shaken with rage because we stone had beaten the french so that after the he wept for a whole day out of and then for another one out of alternately clapping his hands and stamping his feet well i remember his thin upright figure and the way in which he his little cane for cold and hunger could not cast him down though we knew that he had his share of both yet he was so proud and had such a grand manner of talking that no one dared to offer him a cloak or a meal i can see his face now with a flush over each cheek bone when the butcher made him the present of some ribs of beef he could not but take it and yet whilst he was off he threw a proud glance over his shoulder at the butcher and he said i have a dog yet it was and not his dog who looked for a week to come then i remember mr the farmer who was what you would now call a radical though at that time some called him a and some a fox ite and nearly everybody a traitor it certainly seemed to me at the time to be very wicked that a man should look when he heard of a british victory and when they burned his straw image at the gate of his farm boy jim and i were among those who lent a hand but we were bound to confess that he was game though he might be a traitor for of cross down he came into the midst of us with his brown coat and his shoes and the fire beating upon his grim face my word how he us and how glad we were at last to quietly away you of a lie said he you and those like you have been preaching peace for nigh two thousand years and cutting throats the whole tune if the money that is lost in taking french lives were spent in saving english ones you would have more right to bum candles in your windows who are you that dare to come here to insult a law abiding man we are the people of england cried young master the son of the tory squire you you horse racing cock fighting ne do you presume to talk for the people of england they are a deep strong silent stream and you are the the the poor silly that upon the surface we thought him very wicked then but looking back i am not sure that we were not very wicked ourselves and then there were the the downs with them for since there might be no trade france and england it had all to run in that channel i have been up on st john s common upon a stone dark night and l among the i have seen as many as seventy and a man at the head of each go flitting past me as silently as in a stream not one of them but bore its two of the right french or its of silk of and lace of i knew dan scales the head of them and i knew tom the riding officer and i remember the night they met do you fight dan asked tom yes tom thou must fight for it on which tom drew his pistol and blew dan s brains out it was a sad thing to do he said afterwards but i knew dan was too good a man for me for we tried it out before it was tom who paid a poet from to write the lines for the which we all thought were very true and good alas swift flew the fatal lead which pierced through the young man s head he instantly fell resigned his and closed his languid eyes in death there was more of it and i dare say it is all still to be read in churchyard one day about the time of our royal adventure i was seated in the cottage looking round at the which my father had fastened play of cross on to the walls and wishing like the lazy lad that i was that mr had died before ever he wrote his latin grammar when my mother who was sitting knitting in the window gave a little cry of surprise gk od gracious she cried what a vulgar looking woman it was so rare to hear my mother say a hard word against anybody unless it were general that i was across the room and at the window in a jump a pony chaise was coming slowly down the village street and in it was the looking person that i had ever seen she was very stout with a face that was of so dark a red that it shaded away into purple over the nose and cheeks she wore a great hat with a white curling feather and from under its brim her two bold black eyes stared out with a look of anger and defiance as if to tell the folk that she thought less of them than they could do of her she had some sort of scarlet with white about her neck and she held the reins slack in her hands while the pony wandered from side to side of the road as the fancy took him each time the chaise swayed her head with the great hat swayed also so that sometimes we saw the crown of it	4
and sometimes the brim what a dreadful sight i cried my mother stone what is amiss with her mother heaven forgive me if i her but i think that the unfortunate woman has been drinking why i cried she has pulled the chaise up at the i ll find out all the news for you and catching up my cap away i champion had been a horse at the door and when i got into the street i could see him with the creature s still under his arm and the in his hand kneeling down amid the white the woman was him fi om the chaise and he staring up at her with the expression upon his face presently he threw down his and went across to her standing by the wheel and shaking his head as he talked to her for my part i slipped into the where boy jim was finishing the shoe and i watched the neatness of his work and the way in which he turned up the when he had done with it he carried it out and there was the strange woman still talking with his uncle is that he i heard her ask champion nodded she looked at jim and i never saw such eyes in a human head so large and black and boy as i was i knew that in spite of play of cross that face this woman had once been very beautiful she put out a hand with all the fingers going as if she were playing on the and she touched jim on the shoulder i hope i hope you re well she stammered very well ma am said jim staring from her to his uncle and happy too yes ma am i thank you nothing that you for why no ma am i have all that i lack that will do jim said his uncle in a stem voice blow up the again for that shoe wants but it seemed as if the woman had something else that she would say for she was angry that he should be sent away her eyes gleamed and her head tossed while the smith with his two big hands seemed to be soothing her as best he could for a long time they whispered at last she appeared to be satisfied to morrow then she cried loud out to morrow he answered you keep your word and i ll keep mine said she and dropped the lash on the pony s back the smith stood with the in his hand looking after her until she was just a little stone red spot on the white road then he turned and i never saw his face so grave jim said he that s miss who has come to live at the out cross way she s taken a kind of a fancy to you jim and maybe she can help you on a bit i promised her that you would go over and see her tomorrow i don t want her help uncle and i don t want to see her but i ve promised jim and you wouldn t make me out a liar she does but want to talk with you for it is a lonely life she leads what would she want to talk with such as me about why i cannot say that but she seemed very set upon it and women have their fancies there s young master stone here who wouldn t refuse to go and see a good lady i ll warrant if he thought he might better his fortune by doing so well uncle i ll go if stone will go with me said jim of course he ll go won t you master so it ended in my saying yes and back i went with all my news to my mother who dearly loved a little bit of gossip she shook her head when she heard where i was going but she did not say nay and so it was settled of cross it was a good four miles of a walk but when we reached it you would not wish to see a more little house all and with a wooden porch and windows a looking woman opened the door for us miss cannot see you said she but she asked us to come said jim i can t help that cried the woman in a rude voice i tell you that she can t see you we stood for a minute maybe you would just tell her i am here said jim at last tell her i how am i to tell her when she couldn t so much as hear a pistol in her ears try and tell her yourself if you have a mind to she threw open a door as she spoke and there m a at the further end of the room we caught a of a figure au together huge and with tails of black hanging down the sound of dreadful swine uke breathing fell upon our ears it was but a glance and then we were off for home as for me i was so young that i was not sure whether this was or terrible but when i looked at jim to see how he took it he was looking quite white and ill you ll not tell any one said he not unless it s my mother stone i won t even tell my uncle i ll say she was ill the poor lady it s enough that we should have seen her in her shame without its being the gossip of the village it makes me feel sick and heavy at heart she was so yesterday jim was she i never marked it but i know that she has kind eyes and a kind heart for i saw the one in the other when she looked at me	4
maybe it s the want of a friend that has driven her to this it his spirits for days and when it had all gone from my mind it was brought back to me by his manner but it was not to be our last memory of the lady with the scarlet for before the week was out jim came round to ask me if i would again go up with him my uncle has had a letter said he she would speak with me and i would be easier if you came with me rod for me it was only a pleasure but i could see as we drew near the house that jim was in his lest we should find that things were amiss his fears were soon set at rest however for we had scarce the garden gate before the woman was out of the door of the cottage and running down the path to meet us she was so strange a figure with some sort of purple on and her big of cross flushed face smiling out of it that i might if i had been alone have taken to my heels at the sight of her even jim stopped for a moment as if he were not very of himself but her hearty ways soon set us at our ease it is indeed good of you to come and see an old lonely woman said she and i owe you an apology that i should give you a fruitless journey on tuesday but in a sense you were yourselves the cause of it since the thought of your coming had excited me and any excitement throws me into a nervous fever my poor nerves you can see for how they serve me she held out her hands as she spoke then she passed one of them through jim s arm and walked with him up the path you must let me know you and know you well said she your uncle and aunt are quite old acquaintances of mine and though you cannot remember me i have held you in my arms when you were an infant tell me little man she added turning to me what do you call your friend boy jim ma am said i then if you will not think me forward i will call you boy jim also we elderly people have our privileges you know and now you shall come in with me and we will take a dish of tea together stone she led the way into a room the same which we had caught a glimpse of when last we came and there in the middle was a table with white and shining glass and gleaming china and red apples piled upon a centre dish and a great of smoking which the cross faced maid had just carried in you can think that we did justice to all the good things and miss would ever keep pressing us to pass our cup and to fill plate twice during our meal she rose from her chair and withdrew into a cupboard at the end of the room and each time i saw jim s face cloud for we heard a gentle of glass against glass come now little man said she to me when the table had been cleared why are you round so much because there are so many pretty things upon the walls and which do you think the prettiest of them why that said i pointing to a picture which hung opposite to me it was of a tall and slender girl with the cheeks and the tenderest eyes so dressed too that had never seen anything more perfect she had a of flowers in her hand and another one was lying upon the of wood upon which she was standing it play of cross oh that s the prettiest is it said she laughing well now walk up to it and let us hear what is writ beneath it i did as she asked and read out miss on as in the country wife played for her benefit at the theatre september th it s a play said i oh you rude little boy to say it in such a tone said she as if a play wasn t as good as any one else why twas but the other day that the duke of who may come to call himself king of england married mrs who is herself only a play and whom think you that this one is she stood under the picture with her arms folded across her great body and her big black eyes looking firom one to the other of us why where are your eyes she cried at last was miss of the theatre and perhaps you never heard the name before we were compelled to confess that we never had and the very name of play had filled us both with a kind of vague horror like the country bred folk that we were to us they were a class apart to be hinted at rather than named with the wrath of the almighty hanging over them uke a indeed stone his judgments seemed to be in visible operation before us when we looked upon what this woman was and what she had been well said she laughing like one who is hurt you have no cause to say anything for i read on your face what you have been taught to think of me so this is the that you have had jim to think evil of that which you do not understand i wish you had been in the theatre that very night with prince and four in the boxes and all the wits and of london rising at me m the pit if lord had not given me a cast in his carriage had never got my flowers back to	4
my lodgings in york street westminster and now two little country lads are sitting in judgment upon me i jim s pride brought a flush on to his cheeks for he did not like to be called a country lad or to have it supposed that he was so far behind the grand folk in london i have never been inside a play house said he i know nothing of them nor i either well said she i am not in voice and it is ill to play in a little room with but two to listen but you must conceive me to be the queen of the who is her countrymen to rise up against the who are them play of cross and straightway that coarse swollen woman became a queen the queen that you could dream of and she turned upon us with such words of fire such lightning eyes and sweeping of her white hand that she held us in our chairs her voice was soft and sweet and at the first but louder it rang and louder as it spoke of wrongs and freedom and the joys of death in a good cause until it thrilled into my every nerve and i asked nothing more than to run out of the cottage and to die then and there in the cause of my and then in an instant she changed she was a poor woman now who had lost her only child and who was it her voice was fall of tears and what she said was so simple so true that we both seemed to see the dead babe stretched there on the carpet before us and we could have joined in with words of pity and of grief and then before our cheeks were dry she was back into her old self again how like you that then she cried that was my way in the days when sally would turn green at the name of it s a fine play is and who wrote it ma am who wrote it i never heard what matter who did the writing of it i but there are stone some great lines for one who knows how they should be spoken and you play no longer ma am no jim i left the boards when when i was weary of them but my heart goes back to them sometimes it seems to me there is no smell like that of the hot oil in the and of the in the pit but you are sad it was but the thought of that poor woman and her child tut never think about her i i will soon wipe her from mind this is miss from the you must conceive that the mother is speaking and that the forward young is answering and she began a scene between the two of them so exact in voice and manner that it seemed to us as if there were really two folk before us the stem old mother with her hand up like an ear trumpet and her daughter her great figure danced about with a wonderful lightness and she tossed her head and her lips as she answered back to the old bent figure that addressed her jim and i had forgotten our tears and were holding our ribs before she came to the end of it that is better said she smiling at our laughter i would not have you go back to play of cross s oak with long faces or maybe they would not let you come to me again she vanished into her cupboard and came out with a bottle and glass which she placed upon the table you are too young for strong waters she said but this talking gives one a and then it was that boy jim did a wonderful thing he rose from his chair and he laid his hand upon the bottle don t said he she looked him in the face and i can stiu see those black eyes of hers softening before the gaze am i to have none please don t with a quick movement she the bottle out of his hand and raised it up so that for a moment it entered my head that she was about to drink it off then she flung it through the open and we heard the crash of it on the path outside there jim said she does that satisfy you it s long since any one cared whether i drank or no you are too good and kind for that said he good she cried well i love that you should think me so and it would make you happier if i kept from the brandy jim well stone then i ll make you a promise if you ll make me one in return what s that miss no drop shall pass my lips jim if you will swear wet or shine blow or snow to come up here twice in every week that i may see you and speak with you for indeed there are times when i am very so the promise was made and very did jim keep it for many a time when i have wanted him to go fishing or rabbit he has remembered that it was his day for miss and has off to cross at first i think that she found her share of the bargain hard to keep and i have seen jim come back with a black face on him as if things were going amiss but after a time the fight was won as all fights are won if one does but fight long enough and in the year before my father came back miss had become another woman and it was not her ways only but herself as well for fix m being the person that i have described she became in	4
one as fine a looking lady as there was in the whole country side jim was of it by far than of anything he had had a hand in in his life but it was only to me that he ever spoke about it for he had that tenderness towards her that one has for those whom one has helped and she helped play of cross him also for by her talk of the world and of what she had seen she took his mind away from the country side and prepared it for a broader life beyond so matters stood between them at the time when peace was made and my father came home from the sea chapter iv the peace of many a woman s knee was on the ground and many a woman s soul spent itself in joy and thank when the news came with the fall of the leaf in that the of peace had been settled all england waved her gladness by day and it by night even in little s oak we had our flags flying bravely and a candle in every window with a big g r in the wind over the door of the inn folk were weary of the war for we had been at it for eight years taking and spain and france each in turn and all together all that we had learned during that time was that our little army was no match for the french on land and that our large navy was more than a match for them upon the water we had gained some credit which we were sorely in need of after the american business and a few colonies which were welcome also for the same reason but our debt had gone on rising and our sinking until even stood aghast still if we had known that there never could be peace between napoleon and the peace of ourselves and that this was only the end of a round and not of the battle we should have been better advised had we fought it out without a break as it was the french got back the twenty thousand good whom we had captured and a fine dance they led us with their and of invasion before we were able to catch them again my father as i remember him best was a tough strong little man of no great breadth but solid and weu put together his face was burned of a colour as bright as a and in spite of his age for he was only forty at the time of which i speak it was shot with lines which deepened if he were in any way so that have seen him turn on the instant from a man to an elderly his eyes were round with wrinkles as is natural for one who had them all his life in facing foul wind and bitter weather these eyes were perhaps his strangest feature for they were of a very clear and blue which shone the brighter out of that ruddy setting by nature he must have been a man for his upper brow where his cap came over it was as white as mine and his hair was he had served as he was proud to say in the last of our ships which had been chased out of stone the in and in the first which had re entered it in he was under miller as third lieutenant of the when our fleet like a pack of eager fox hounds in a covert was dashing from to and back again to trying to pick up the lost scent with the same good fighting man he served at the where the men of his command and and trained until when the last had come down they up the sheet anchor and fell dead asleep upon the top of each other under the bars then as a second lieutenant he was in one of those grim three with powder blackened and crimson holes their spare tied round their and over their to hold them together which carried the news into the bay of from thence as a reward for his services he was transferred as first to the engaged in cutting off supplies from and in her he still remained until long after peace was declared how well i can remember his home coming though it is now eight and forty years ago it is clearer to me than the doings of last week for the memory of an old man is uke one of those glasses which shows out what is at a distance and all that is near my mother had been in a tremble ever since the peace of the first rumour of the came to our ears for she knew that he might come as soon as his message she said uttle but she my ufe by that i should be for ever clean and tidy with every of wheels too her eyes would glance towards the door and her hands steal up to smooth her pretty black hair she had embroidered a white welcome upon a blue ground with an anchor in red upon each side and a border of laurel leaves and this was to hang upon the two bushes which the cottage door he could not have left the before we had this finished and every morning she looked to see if it were in its place and ready to be hanged but it was a weary time before the peace was and it was april of next year before our great day came round to us it had been all morning i a soft spring rain which sent up a rich smell fi om the brown earth and pleasantly upon the behind our cottage the sun had shone out in the evening and i had come down with my fishing rod for i had promised	4
cried looking m triumph at my mother have you learned geography stone yes father said i though with less confidence than before well how far is it from port to i could only shake my head if lay three upon your quarter what would be your nearest port again i had to give it up well i don t see that your geography is much better than history said he you d never get your at this rate can you do addition well then let us see if you can up my prize money he shot a mischievous glance at my mother as he spoke and she laid down her knitting on her lap and looked very earnestly at him you never asked me about that mary said he the is not the station for it i have heard you say that it is the atlantic for prize money and the for honour i had a share of both last which comes from changing a of for a now there are two pounds in every hundred due to me when the prize courts have done with them when we were watching off we got a matter of seventy and with wine food and powder lord wiu want his finger the peace of in the pie but that s for the courts to settle put them at four pounds apiece to me and what will the seventy bring two hundred and eighty pounds i answered why it is a fortune cried my mother clapping her hands try you again said he shaking his pipe at me there was the out of with twenty thousand spanish dollars aboard which make four thousand of our pounds her should be worth another thousand what s my share of that a hundred pounds why the couldn t work it out quicker he cried in his delight here s for you again i we passed the straits and worked up to the where we fell in with the la from the with sugar and twelve hundred pounds she s worth to me mary my darling and never again shall you soil your pretty fingers or pinch upon my pay my dear mother had borne her long struggle without a sign all these years but now that she was so suddenly of it she fell sobbing upon his neck it was a long time before my father had a thought to spare upon my examination in stone it s all in your lap mary said he dashing his own hand across his eyes by g when this leg of mine is sound we u for a spell to and if there is a frock than yours upon the may i never tread a again but how is it that you are so quick at figures when you know nothing of history or geography i tried to explain that addition was the same upon sea or land but that history and geography were not well he concluded you need figures to take a reckoning and you need nothing else save what your mother wit will teach you there never was one of our breed who did not take to salt water like a young lord has promised me a for you and hell be as good as his word so it was that my father came home to us and a better or no lad could wish for though my parents had been married so long they had really seen very little of each other and their affection was as warm and as fresh as if they were two newly wedded lovers i have learned since that sailors can be coarse and foul but never did i know it from my father for although he had seen as much rough work as the wildest could wish for he was always the same patient good humoured man with a smile the peace of and a word for all the village he could suit himself to his company too for on the one hand he could take his wine with the or with sir james the squire of the parish while on the other he would sit by the hour amongst my humble friends down m the with champion boy jim and the rest of them telling them such stories of and his men that i have seen the champion knot his great hands together while jim s eyes have like the embers as he listened my father had been placed on half pay like so many others of the old war officers and so for nearly two years he was able to remain with us during all this time i can only once remember that there was the slightest between him and my mother it chanced that i was the cause of it and as great events sprang out of it i must tell you how it came about it was indeed the first of a series of events which affected not only my fortunes but those of very much more important people the spring of was an early one and the middle of april saw the leaves thick upon the chestnut trees one evening we were all seated together over a dish of tea when we heard the of steps outside our door and there was the with a letter in his hand stone i think it is for me said my mother and sure enough it was addressed in the most writing to mrs mary stone of s oak and there was a red seal the size of a half crown upon the outside of it with a flying in the middle whom think you that it is from she asked i had hoped that it was from lord answered my father it is time the boy had his commission but if it be for you then it cannot be from any one of much importance can it not i she cried pretending to be offended you	4
will ask my pardon for that speech sir for it is from no less a person than sir charles my own brother my mother seemed to speak with a hushed voice when she mentioned this wonderful brother of hers and always had done as long as i can remember so that i had learned also to have a subdued and feeling when i heard his name and indeed it was no wonder for that name was never mentioned unless it were in connection with something brilliant and extraordinary once we heard that he was at with the king often he was at with the prince sometimes it was as a that his reputation reached us as when his the peace of beat the duke of s at or when he brought jim up from and sprang him upon the london but usually it was as the friend of the great the of fashions the king of and the best dressed man in town that his reputation reached us my father however did not appear to be elated at my mother s triumphant ay and what does he want asked he in no very amiable voice i wrote to him and told him that was growing a man now thinking since he had no wife or child of his own he might be disposed to advance him we can do very well without him growled my father he off from us when the weather was foul and we have no need of him now that the sim is shining nay you him said my mother warmly there is no one with a better heart than charles but his own life moves so smoothly that he cannot understand that others may have trouble during all these years i have known that i had but to say the word to receive as much as i wished from him thank god that you never had to stoop to it mary i want none of his help but we must think of stone has enough for his sea chest and he needs no more but charles has great power and influence in london he could make known to all the great people surely you would not stand in the way of his advancement let us hear what he says then said my father and this was the letter which she read to him ni street st james s april th my dear sister mary in answer to your letter i can assure you that you must not conceive me to be wanting in those finer feelings which are the chief of humanity it is true that for some years absorbed as i have been in of the highest importance i have seldom taken a pen in hand for which i can assure you that i have been reproached by many des of your charming sex at the present moment i lie having stayed late in order to pay a compliment to the of at her ball last night and this is writ to my by my clever rascal of a i am interested to hear of my nephew mon and as i shall be on my way to visit the prince at next week i break my journey at s oak the peace of for the sake of seeing both you and him make my compliments to your husband i am ever my dear sister mary brother s what do you think of that cried my mother in triumph when she had finished i think it is the letter of a said my father you are too hard on him you will think better of him when you know him but he says that he will be here next week and this is thursday and the best curtains and no in the sheets away she half distracted while my father sat moody with his upon his hands and i remained lost in wonder at the thought of this grand new relative from london and of au that his coming might mean to us chapter v buck now that i was in my year and had some need for a i had begun to weary of the narrow life of the and to long to see something of the great world beyond the craving was all the stronger because i not speak openly about it for the least hint of it brought the tears into my mother s eyes but now there was the less reason that i should stay at home since my father was at her side and so my mind was all filled by this prospect of my uncle s visit and of the chance that he might set my feet moving at last upon the road of life as you may think it was towards my father s profession that my thoughts and my hopes turned for from my childhood i have never seen the heave of the sea or tasted the salt upon my lips without feeling the blood of five generations of thrill within my veins and think of the challenge which was ever waving in those days before the eyes of a coast living lad i had but to walk up to in the war time to see the sails of the french mar es and again and again i have heard buck the roar of the guns coming from far out over the waters would tell us how they had left london and been engaged ere nightfall or sailed out of and been yard arm to before they had lost sight of st s light it was this of the danger which warmed our hearts to our sailors and made us talk the winter fires of our little and and and the rest of them not as being great high with titles and but as good whom we loved and honoured above all others what boy was there through the length and breadth of britain who	4
did not long to be out with them under the red cross flag but now that peace had come and the which had swept the channel and the were in our there was less to draw one s fancy it was london now of which i thought by day and by night the huge city the home of the wise and the great from which came this constant stream of carriages and those crowds of dusty people who were for ever flashing past our window pane it was this one side of life which first presented itself to me and so as a boy i used to picture the city as a gigantic stable with a huge of which were for ever streaming off down the country roads but stone then champion told me how the fighting men there and my ther how the heads of the navy lived there and my mother how her brother and his grand were there until at last i was consumed with impatience to see this marvellous heart of england this coming of my then was the breaking of light through the darkness though i hardly dared to hope that he would take me with him into those high circles in which he lived my mother however had such confidence either in his good nature or in her own powers of persuasion that she already began to make preparations for my departure but if the of the village life my easy spirit it was a torture to the keen and ardent mind of boy jim it was but a few days after the coming of my uncle s letter that we walked over the downs together and i had a peep of the bitterness of his heart what is there for me to do he cried i a shoe and i fuller it and i it and i it and i knock five holes in it and there it is finished then i do it again and again and blow up the and feed the and a or two and there is a day s work done and every day the same as the other was it for this only do you think that i was bom into the world buck i looked at him his proud eagle face and his figure and i wondered whether in the whole land there was a finer man the army or the navy is the place for you jim said i that is very well he cried if you go into the navy as you are likely to do you go as an officer and it is you who do the ordering if i go in it is as one who was bom to receive orders an officer gets his orders fix m those above him but an officer does not have the lash over his head i saw a poor fellow at the inn here it was some years ago who showed us his back in the tap room all cut into red diamonds with the s whip who ordered that i asked the captain said he and what would you have had if you had struck him dead said i the yard arm he answered then if i had been you that s where i should have been said i and i spoke the truth i can t help it rod i there s something here in my heart something that is as much a part of myself as this hand is which holds me to it i know that you are as proud as said i it was bom with me and i can t help it life would be easier if i could i was stone made to be my own master and there s only one place where i can hope to be so where is that in london miss has told me of it until i feel as if i could find my way through it fi om end to end she loves to talk of it as well as i do to listen i have it all laid out in my mind and i can see where the are and how the river runs and where the king s house is and the prince s and the place where the fighting men live i could make my name known in london how never mind how rod i could do it and i will do it too wait says my uncle wait and it will all come right for you that is what he always says and my aunt the same why should i wait what am i to wait for no i ll stay no longer eating my heart out in this little village but i ll leave my apron behind me and i u seek my in london and when i come back to s oak it will be in such style as that gentleman yonder he pointed as he spoke and there was a high crimson mail coming down the london road with two bay fashion before it the reins and were of a light colour and the gentleman had a driving coat to match with a servant in dark buck livery behind they flashed past us in a rolling cloud of dust and i had just a glimpse of the pale handsome face of the master and of the dark features of the man i should never have given them another thought had it not chanced that when the village came into view there was the mail again standing at the door of the inn and the busy taking out the horses jim i cried i believe it is my uncle i and taking to my heels i ran for home at the top of my speed at the door was standing the dark faced servant he carried a cushion upon which lay a small and you will excuse me young sir said he	4
in the most soothing of voices but am i right in supposing that this is the house of lieutenant stone in that case you will perhaps do me the to hand to mrs stone this note which her brother sir charles has just committed to my care i was quite abashed by the man s way of talking so unlike anything which i had ever heard he had a face and sharp little dark eyes which took in me and the house and my mother s startled face at the window all in the instant my parents were together the two of them in the sitting room and my mother read the note to us stone my dear mary it ran i have stopped at the mn because i am somewhat by the dust of roads a water bath may restore me to a condition in which i may pay my compliments to a lady meantime i send you as a pray give him a half pint of milk with six drops of pure brandy in it a better or more never lived a charles have him in have him in cried my father heartily running to the door come in mr every man to his own taste and six drops to the half pint seems a watering of but if you like it so you shall have it a smile over the dark face of the servant but his themselves instantly into their usual mask of respectful you are under a slight error sir if you will permit me to say so my name is and i have the honour to be the of sir charles this is upon the cushion tut the dog cried my father in disgust heave him down by the fireside why should he have brandy when many a christian has to go without hush said my mother taking the buck cushion you will tell sir charles that his wishes shall be carried out and that we shall expect him at his own convenience the man went off noiselessly and swiftly but was back in a few minutes with a flat brown basket it is the madam said he will you permit me to lay the table sir charles is accustomed to partake of certain dishes and to drink certain so that we usually bring them with us when we visit he opened the basket and in a minute he had the table all shining with silver and glass and studded with dainty dishes so quick and neat and silent was he in all he did that my father was as taken with him as i was you d have made a right good if your heart is as stout as your fingers are quick said he did you never wish to have the honour of serving your country it is my honour sir to serve sir charles and i desire no other master he answered but i will convey his dressing case from the inn and then all wiu be ready he came back with a great silver mounted box under his arm and close at his heels was the gentleman whose coming had made such a disturbance my first impression of my uncle as he entered stone the room was that one of his was swollen to the size of an apple it caught the breath from my lips that monstrous eye but the next instant i perceived that he held a round glass in the front of it which it in this fashion he looked at us each in turn and then he bowed very to my mother and kissed her upon either cheek you will permit me to compliment you my dear mary said he in a voice which was the most mellow and beautiful that i have ever heard i can e you that the country air has used you wondrous well and that i should be proud to see my pretty sister in the i am your servant sir he continued holding out his hand to my father it was but last week that i had the of dining with my friend lord st and i took occasion to mention you to him i may tell you that name is not forgotten at the sir and i hope that i may see you soon walking the of a gun ship of your own so this is my nephew is it he put a hand upon each of my shoulders in a very friendly way and looked me up and down how old are you nephew he asked seventeen sir you look older you look eighteen at the least i find him very mary very buck indeed he has not the air the in our uncouth english we have no word for it but he is as healthy as a in bloom so within a minute of his entering our door he had got himself upon terms with au of us and with so easy and a manner that it seemed as if he had known us all for years i had a good look at him now as he stood upon the with my mother upon one side and my father on the other he was a very large man with noble shoulders small waist broad well turned legs and the smallest of hands and feet his face was pale and handsome with a prominent chin a nose and large blue staring eyes in which a sort of dancing mischievous light was for ever playing he wore a deep brown coat with a collar as high as his ears and tails as low as his knees his black breeches and silk stockings ended in very small pointed shoes so highly polished that they with every movement his was of black velvet open at the top to show an embroidered shirt front with a high smooth white above it which kept his neck for	4
mistaken for me and he has some taste in dress though he gets if i am too long away fi om him i warrant you that i find a in his coat to morrow we were all seated round the fire by this time for the evening had turned chilly the lamp was lighted and so also was my father s pipe i suppose said he that this is your first visit to s oak my uncle s face suddenly very grave and stern it is my first visit for many years said he i was but one and twenty years of age when last i came here i am not likely to forget it i knew that he spoke of his visit to royal at the time of the murder and i saw by her face that my mother knew it also my father however had either never heard of it or had forgotten the circumstance was it at the inn you stayed he asked i stayed with the unfortunate lord x buck it was the occasion when he was accused of his younger brother and fled from the country we all fell silent and my uncle leaned his chin upon his hand looking thoughtfully into the fire if i do but close my eyes now i can see the light upon his proud handsome face and see also my dear father concerned at having touched upon so terrible a memory shooting little glances at him the of his pipe i dare say that it has happened with you sir said my uncle at last that you have lost some dear in battle or wreck and that you have put him out of your mind in the routine of your daily life until suddenly some word or some scene brings him back to your memory and you find your sorrow as raw as upon the first day of your loss my father nodded so it is with me to night i never formed a close friendship with a man i say nothing of women save only the once that was with lord we were of an age he a few years perhaps my senior but our tastes our judgments and our characters were save only that he had in him a touch of pride such as i have never known in any other man putting aside the little of a rich young man of fashion i stone could have sworn that he was as good a man as i have ever known how came he then to such a crime asked my father my uncle shook his head many a time have i asked myself that question and it comes home to me more to night than ever all the had gone out of his manner and he had turned suddenly into a sad and serious man was it certain that he did it charles asked my mother my uncle shrugged his shoulders i wish i could think it were not so i have thought sometimes that it was this very pride turning suddenly to madness which drove him to it you have heard how he the money which we had lost nay i have heard nothing of it my father answered it is a very old story now though we have not yet foimd an end to it we had played for two days the four of us lord his brother captain sir and myself of the captain i knew little save that he was not of the best and was deep in the hands of the jews sir has made an evil name for himself since tis the same sir buck who shot lord in the affair at chalk farm but in those days there was nothing against him the oldest of us was but twenty four and we on as i say until the captain had cleared the board we were all hit but host far the hardest that night i tell you now what it would be a bitter thing for me to tell in a court of law i was restless and sleepless as often happens when a man has kept awake over long my mind would dwell upon the fall of the cards and i was tossing and turning in my bed when suddenly a cry fell upon my ears and then a second louder one coming from the direction of captain s room five minutes later i heard steps passing down the passage and without striking a light i opened my door and peeped out thinking that some one was taken there was lord walking towards me in one hand he held a candle and in the other a brown bag which as he moved his face was all drawn and distorted so much so that my question was frozen upon my lips before i could utter it he turned into his chamber and softly closed the door next morning i was awakened by finding him at my bedside charles said he i cannot abide to think stone that you should have lost this money in my house you will find it here upon your table it was in vain that i laughed at his telling him that i should most certainly have claimed my money had i won so that it would be strange indeed if i were not permitted to pay it when i lost neither i nor my brother will touch it said he there it lies and you may do what you like about it he would listen to no argument but dashed out of the room like a madman but perhaps these details are familiar to you and god knows they are painful to me to tell my father was sitting with staring eyes and his forgotten pipe in his hand pray let us hear the end of it sir he cried well then i had finished my toilet in	4
an hour or so for i was less in those days than now and i met sir at breakfast his experience had been the same as my own and he was eager to see captain and to ascertain why he had directed his brother to return the money to us we were talking the matter over when suddenly i raised my eyes to the corner of the ceiling and i saw i saw my uncle had turned quite pale with the buck of the memory and he passed his hand over his eyes it was crimson said he with a shudder crimson with black cracks and from every crack but i will give you dreams sister mary suffice it that we rushed up the stair which led direct to the captain s room and there we found him lying with tiie bone gleaming white through his throat a hunting knife lay in the and the knife was lord s a lace was found in the dead man s grasp and the was lord s some papers were found in the grate and the papers were lord s oh my poor mend in what moment of madness did you come to do such a deed the light had gone out of my uncle s eyes and the extravagance from his manner his speech was clear and plain with none of those strange london ways which had so amazed me here was a second uncle a man of heart and a man of brains and i liked him better than the first and what said lord cried my father he said nothing he went about like one who walks in his sleep with horror stricken eyes none dared arrest him until there should be due inquiry but when the s court brought murder against him the came for him in full cry but they found him fled stone there was a rumour that he had been seen in westminster in the next week and then that he had escaped for america but nothing more is known it will be a bright day for sir when they can prove him dead for he is next of kin and till then he can touch neither title nor estate the telling of this grim story had cast a chill upon all of us my uncle held out his hands towards the blaze and i noticed that they were as white as the which fringed them i know not how things are at royal now said he thoughtfully it was not a cheery house even before this shadow fell upon it a stage was never set forth for such a tragedy but seventeen years have passed and perhaps even that horrible ceiling it still bears the stain said i i know not which of the three was the more astonished for my mother had not heard of my adventures of the night they never took their wondering eyes off me as i told my story and my heart swelled with pride when my uncle said that we had carried ourselves well and that he did not think that many of our age would have stood it as stoutly but as to this ghost it must have been the creature of your own minds said he imagination plays us strange tricks and though i have buck as steady a nerve as a man might wish i cannot answer for what i might see if i were to stand under that blood stained ceiling at midnight uncle said i i saw a figure as plainly as i see that fire and i heard the steps as clearly as i hear the of the besides we could not both be deceived there is truth in that said he thoughtfully you saw no features you say it was too dark but only a figure the dark outline of one and it retreated up the stairs yes and vanished into the wall yes what part of the wall cried a voice fix m behind us my mother screamed and down came my father s pipe on to the i had sprung round with a catch of my breath and there was the his body in the shadow of the doorway his dark face into the light and two burning eyes fixed upon mine what the deuce is the meaning of this sir cried my uncle it was strange to see the gleam and passion fade out of the man s face and the mask of the replace it his eyes still n stone but his features regained their composure in an instant i beg your pardon sir charles said he i had come in to ask you if you had any orders for me and i did not like to interrupt the young gentleman s story i am afraid that i have been somewhat carried away by it never knew you forget yourself before said my uncle you will i am sure forgive me sir charles if you will call to mind the relation in which i stood to lord he spoke with some dignity of manner and with a bow he left the room we must make some little allowance said my uncle with a sudden return to his manner when a man can a dish of or tie a as does he may claim consideration the fact is that the poor fellow was to lord that he was at royal upon the fatal night of which i have spoken and that he is most devoted to his old master but my talk has been somewhat sister mary and now we shall return if you please to the dresses of the and the gossip of st james n chapter vi on the threshold my ther sent me to bed early that night though i was very eager to stay up for every word which this man said held my attention his face his	4
manner the large waves and sweeps of his white hands his easy air of superiority his fantastic fashion of talk all filled me with interest and wonder but as i afterwards learned their conversation was to be about myself and my own prospects so i was despatched to my room whence far into the night i could hear the deep growl of my father and the rich tones of my uncle with an occasional gentle murmur from my mother as they talked in the room beneath i had dropped asleep at last when i was awakened suddenly by something wet being pressed against my face and by two warm arms which were cast round me my mother s cheek was against my own and i could hear the click of her sobs and feel her quiver and shake in the darkness a faint light stole through the window and i could dimly see that she was in white with her black hair loose upon her shoulders stone you won t forget us you won t forget us why mother what is it your uncle he is going to take you away from us when mother to morrow god forgive me how my heart bounded for joy when hers which was within touch of it was breaking with sorrow oh mother i cried to london first to that he may present you to the prince next day to london where you will meet the great people and learn to look down upon to look down upon your poor simple old fashioned father and mother i put my arms about her to console her but she wept so that for all my seventeen years and pride of manhood it set me weeping also and with such a noise since i had not a woman s of quiet tears that it finally turned her own grief to laughter charles would be flattered if he could see the gracious way in which we receive his kindness said she be still dear or you will certainly wake him i ll not go if it is to grieve you i cried nay dear you must go for it may be the one great chance of your life and think how on the threshold proud it will make us all when we hear of you in the company of charles s grand friends but you will promise me not to you heard to night of the dreadful things which come from it i promise you mother and you will be of wine you are young and unused to it yes mother and play also and you will not cast your until june is in young master came by his death through it think well of your dress so as to do your uncle credit for it is the thing for which he is himself most you have but to do what he will direct but if there is a time when you are not meeting grand people you can wear out your country things for your brown coat is as good as new and the blue one if it were and would take you through the summer i have put out your sunday clothes with the since you are to see the prince to morrow and you will wear your brown silk stockings and shoes be guarded in crossing the london streets for i am told that the are past all imagining fold your clothes when you go to bed and do not forget your evening prayers for oh my dear boy the days of temptation are stone at hand when i will no longer be with you to help you so with advice and guidance both for this world and the next did my mother with her soft warm arms around me prepare me for the great step which lay before me my uncle did not appear at breakfast in the morning but him a dish of and took it to his room when at last about midday he did descend he was so fine with his curled hair his shining teeth his glass his snow white and his laughing eyes that i could not take my gaze from him well nephew he cried what do you think of the prospect of coming to town with me i thank you sir for the kind interest which you take in me said i but you must be a credit to me my nephew must be of the best if he is to be in keeping with the rest of me you ll find him a of good wood sir said my father we must make him a before we have done with him your aim my dear nephew must always be to be in bon ton it is not a case of wealth you understand mere riches cannot do it golden price has forty on the threshold thousand a year but his clothes are disastrous i assure you that i saw him come down st james s street the other day and i was so shocked at his appearance that i had to step into s for a glass of orange brandy no it is a question of natural taste and of following the advice and example of those who are more experienced than yourself i fear charles that s wardrobe is country made said my mother we shall soon set that right when we get to town we shall see what or can do for him my uncle answered we must keep him quiet until he has some clothes to wear this slight upon my best sunday suit brought a flush to my mother s cheeks which my uncle instantly observed for he was quick in noticing trifles the clothes are very well for s oak sister mary said he and yet you can understand that they might seem in the if you leave him in my hands i shall see to the matter	4
on how much sir asked my father can a young man dress in town with prudence and reasonable care a young man of fashion can dress upon eight hundred a year my uncle answered stone i saw my poor father s face grow longer i fear sir that must keep his country clothes said he even with my tut sir cried my uncle i already owe something over a thousand so how can a few odd hundreds affect it if my nephew comes with me my nephew is my care the point is settled and i must to argue upon it he waved his white hands as if to brush aside all opposition my parents tried to thank him but he cut them short by the way now that i am in s oak there is another small piece of business which i have to perform said he i believe that there is a man named here who at one time might have held the in those days poor and i were his principal i should like to have a word with him you may think how proud i was to walk down the street with my magnificent relative and to note out of the corner of my eye how the folk came to the doors and windows to see us pass champion was standing outside the and he pulled his cap off when he saw my uncle bless me sir i who d ha thought of on the threshold you at s oak why sir charles it old memories bade to look at your ce again glad to see you looking so fit said my uncle running his eyes over him why with a week s training you would be as good a man as ever i don t suppose you scale more than and a half thirteen ten sir charles i m in my my old woman would have let me off my promise i d ha had a try with some of these young ones before now i hear that they ve got some good stuff up from of late yes the has been the winning colour of late how d ye do mrs i don t suppose you remember me she had come out from ihe house and i noticed that her worn face on which some past terror seemed to have left its shadow hardened into stem lines as she looked at my uncle i remember you too well sir charles said she i trust that you have not come here to day to try to draw my husband back the ways that he has forsaken that s the way with her sir charles said resting his great hand upon the s shoulder she s got my promise and she holds me to it i there was never a better stone or more hard working wife but she ain t what you d call a patron of sport and that s a fact sport cried the woman bitterly a fine sport for you sir charles with your pleasant twenty mile drive into the country and your luncheon basket and your and so merrily back to london in the cool of the evening with a well fought battle to talk over think of the sport that it was to me to sit through the long hours listening for the wheels of the chaise which would bring my man back to me sometimes he could walk in and sometimes he was led in and sometimes he was carried in and it was only by his clothes that i could know him come said patting her on the shoulder i ve been cut up in my time but never as bad as that and then to live for weeks afterwards with the fear that every knock at the door may be to tell us that the other is dead and that my man may have to stand in the dock and take his trial for murder no she hasn t got a drop in her veins said she d never make a patron never it s black s business that did it when we thought he d it once too often well she has my promise and i ll never my hat over the ropes unless she gives me leave on the threshold keep your hat on your head like an honest god man john said his wife turning back into the house i wouldn t for the world say anything to make you change your resolutions said my uncle at the same time if you had wished to take a turn at the old sport i had a good thing to put in your way well it s no use sir said but i d he glad to hear about it all the same they have a very good bit of stuff at thirteen stone down way is his name and they call him on account of his style shook his head never heard of him sir very likely not for he has never shown in the p but they think great things of him in the west and he can hold his own with either of the with the ain t said the smith i am told that he had the best of it in a with james of there s no man on the list sir than james the said i saw him myself fight fifty rounds after his jaw had been cracked in three places if could beat him will go far so they think in the west and they mean to spring him on the london talent sir stone is his patron and to make a long story short he lays me odds that i won t find a young one of his weight to meet him i told him that i had not heard of any good young ones but that i had an old one who	4
had not put his foot into a ring for many years who would make his man wish he had never come to london young or old under twenty or over you may bring whom you will at the weight and i shall lay two to one on said he i took him in thousands and here i am it won t do sir charles said the smith shaking his head there s nothing would please me better but you heard for yourself well if you won t fight i must try to get some promising i d be glad of your advice in the matter by the way i take the chair at a supper of the fancy at the and horses in st martin s lane next friday i should be very glad if you will make one of my guests who s this up flew his glass to his eye boy jim had come out fi om the with his hammer in his hand he had i remember a grey flannel shirt which was open at the neck and turned up at the sleeves my uncle ran his eyes over the fine lines of his magnificent figure with the glance of a that s my nephew sir charles on the threshold is he living with you his parents are dead it has he ever been in london no sir charles he s been with me here since he was as high as that hammer my uncle turned to boy jim i hear that you have never been in london said he your uncle is coming up to a supper which i am giving to the fancy next friday would you care to make one of us boy jim s dark eyes sparkled with pleasure i should be glad to come sir no no jim cried the smith abruptly i m sorry to you lad but there are reasons why i had rather you stayed down here with your aunt tut let the lad come cried my uncle no no sir charles it s dangerous company for a lad of his there s plenty for him to do when i m away poor jim turned away with a clouded brow and strode into the again for my part i slipped after him to try to console him and to tell him all the wonderful changes which had come so suddenly into my life but i had not got half through my story and jim uke the good fellow that he was had just begun to forget his own troubles in his delight at my good stone when my uncle called to me from without the mail with its was waiting for us outside the cottage and had placed the basket the lap dog and the precious toilet box inside of it he had himself climbed up behind and i after a hearty from my father and a last sobbing embrace from my mother took my place beside my uncle in the front let go her head cried he to the and with a snap a crack and a away we went upon our journey across all the years how clearly i can see that spring day with the green fields the windy sky and the yellow cottage in which i had grown from a child to a man i see too the figures at the garden gate my mother with her face turned away and her handkerchief waving my father with his blue coat and his white leaning upon his stick with his hand his eyes as he peered after us all the village was out to see young stone go off with his grand relative from london to call upon the prince in his own palace the were waving to me from the and john from the steps of the inn and i saw my old pointing me out to the people as if he were showing what came from his teaching to make m on the threshold it complete who should drive past just as we cleared the village but miss the the pony and the same as when first i saw her but she herself another woman and i thought to myself that if boy jim had done nothing but that one thing he need not think that his youth had been wasted in the country she was driving to see him i have no doubt for they were closer than ever and she never looked up nor saw the hand that i waved to her so as we took the curve of the road the little village vanished and there in the dip of the downs past the of and of lay the broad blue sea and the grey houses of with the strange eastern and of the prince s shooting out from the centre of it to every traveller it was a sight of beauty but to me it was the world the great wide free world and my heart thrilled and fluttered as the young bird s may when it first hears the of its own flight and along with the blue heaven above it and the green fields beneath the day may come when it may look back to the snug nest in the but what does it of that when spring is in the air and youth in its blood and the old hawk of trouble has not yet darkened the sunshine with the ill shadow of its wings chapter vii the hope of england my uncle drove for some time in silence but i was conscious that his eye was always coming round to me and i had an uneasy conviction that he was already beginning to ask himself whether he could make of me or whether he had been betrayed into an when he had allowed his sister to persuade to show her son something of the grand world m which he lived you sing don t	4
you nephew he asked suddenly yes su a little a i should fancy yes sir and mother tells me that you play the fiddle these things will be of service to you with the prince music runs in his family your education has been what you could get at a village school well you are not examined in greek roots in polite society which is lucky for some of us it is as well just to have a or two of or sub or in which gives a to the hope of england one s conversation like the touch of in a it is not hon ton to be learned but it is a graceful thing to indicate that you have forgotten a good deal can you write verse i fear not sir a small book of may be had for half a crown de t are a great assistance to a young man if you have the ladies on your side it does not matter whom you have against you you must learn to open a door to enter a room to present a snuff box raising the with the forefinger of the hand in which you hold it you must acquire the bow for a man with its necessary touch of dignity and that for a lady which cannot be too humble and should still contain the least suspicion of abandon you must cultivate a manner with women which shall be and yet audacious have you any it made me laugh the easy way in which he asked the question as if it were a most natural thing to possess you have a pleasant catching laugh at all events said he but an is very bon ton at present and if you feel any leaning towards one i should certainly advise you to let it run its course would have remained a mere peer au his ufe had it not come out that he had a snuff box for every day in the stone year and that he had caught cold through a mistake of his who sent him out on a bitter winter day with a thin china box instead of a thick shell that brought him out of the you see and people remember him even some small characteristic such as having an on your all the year round or putting your candle out at night by it under your serves to separate you from your neighbour in my own case it is my precise judgment upon matter of dress and decorum which has placed me where i am i do not profess to follow a law i set one for example i am taking you to day to see the prince in a what do you think will be the consequence of that my fears told me that it might be my own very great discomfiture but i did not say so why the night coach will carry the news to london it will be in s and white s tomorrow morning within a week st james s street and the will be full of a most incident happened to me once my came undone in the street and i actually walked from house to s in street with the two ends hanging loose do you suppose it shook my position the same evening there were of young walking the streets of london with the hope of england their loose if i had not mine there would not be one tied in the whole kingdom now and a great art would have been lost you have not yet began to practice it i confessed that i had not you should begin now in your youth i will myself teach you the by using a few hours in each day which would otherwise be wasted you may hope to have excellent in middle life the whole lies in pointing your chin to the sky and then arranging your folds by the gradual descent of your lower jaw when my uncle spoke like this there was always that dancing mischievous light in his dark blue eyes which showed me that this humour of his was a conscious depending as i believe upon a natural of taste but driven to grotesque for the very reason which made him recommend me also to develop some peculiarity of my own when i thought of the way in which he had spoken of his unhappy friend lord upon the evening before and of the emotion which he showed as he told the horrible story i was glad to think that there was the heart of a man there however much it might please him to conceal it and as it happened i was very soon to have stone another peep at it for a most unexpected event us as we drew up in front of the crown hotel a swarm of and had rushed out to us and my uncle throwing down the reins gathered on his cushion from under the seat he cried you may take but there came no answer the seat behind was was gone we could hardly our eyes when we alighted and found that it was really so he had most certainly taken his seat there at s oak and from there on we had come without a break as fast as the could travel whither then could he have vanished to he s fallen off in a fit cried my uncle i d drive back but the prince is expecting us where s the landlord here send your best man back to s oak as fast as his horse can go to find news of my see that no pains be spared now nephew we shall lunch and then go up to the my uncle was much disturbed by the strange loss of his the more so as it was his custom to go through a whole series of and after even the shortest journey	4
for my own part of my mother s advice i carefully brushed the dust from my clothes and made myself as neat as possible my heart was the hope of england down in the of my little silver shoes now that i had the immediate prospect of meeting so great and terrible a person as the prince of wales i had seen his yellow flying through s oak many a time and had and waved my hat with the others as it passed but never in my wildest dreams had it entered my head that i should ever be called upon to look him in the face and answer his questions my mother had taught me to regard him with reverence as one of those whom god had placed to rule over us but my uncle smiled when i told him of her teaching you are old enough to see things as they are nephew said he and knowledge of them is the that you are in that inner circle where i mean to place you there is no one who knows the prince better than i do and there is no one who him less a stranger contradiction of was never gathered imder one hat he is a man who is always in a hurry and yet has never to do he about things with which he has no concern and he every obvious duty he is generous to those who have no claim upon him but he has ruined his by refusing to pay his j debts he is affectionate to casual acquaintances but he his father his mother and is not on speaking terms with stone his wife he claims to be the first gentleman of england but the gentlemen of england have responded by his friends at their clubs and by warning him off from under suspicion of having with a horse he his days in uttering noble sentiments and them by actions he tells stories of his own doings which are so grotesque that they can only be explained by the madness which runs in his blood and yet with all this he can be courteous dignified and kindly upon occasion and i have seen an impulsive in the man which has made me overlook faults which come mainly from his being placed in a position which no one upon this earth was ever less fitted to fill but this is between ourselves nephew and now you will come with me and you wiu form an opinion for yourself it was but a short walk and yet it took us some time for my uncle stalked along with great dignity his lace bordered handkerchief in one hand and his cane with the clouded head dangling fix m the other every one that we met seemed to know him and their hats flew fix m their heads as we passed he took little notice of these greetings save to give a nod to one or to slightly raise his forefinger to another it chanced however that as we turned into the grounds we met a magnificent team of the hope of england four coal black horses driven by a rough looking middle aged fellow in an old weather stained cape there was nothing that i could see to distinguish him from any professional driver save that he was very freely with a dainty little woman who was perched on the box beside him gk od drive down he cried my uncle bowed and smiled to the lady broke it at s oak said he i ve my light mail and two new half thorough bred half bay what d you think of my team of asked the other yes sir charles what d you think of them ain t they smart cried the little woman plenty of power gk od horses for the clay too thick about the for me i like to travel travel i cried the woman with extraordinary vehemence why what the and she broke into such language as i had never heard from a man s lips before we d start with our bars touching and we d have your dinner ordered cooked laid and eaten before you were there to claim it by george yes is right i cried the man d you start to morrow stone yes jack well i ll make you an offer look ye here i i ll spring my cattle from the castle square at quarter before nine you can follow as the clock strikes i ve double the horses and double the weight if you so much as see me before we cross westminster bridge i ll pay you a cool hundred if not it s my money play or pay is it a match very good said my uncle and raising his hat he led the way into the grounds as i followed i saw the woman take the reins while the man looked after us and a jet of tobacco from between his teeth in coachman fashion that s sir john said my uncle one of the richest men and best in england there isn t a professional on the road that can handle either his tongue or his ribbons better but his wife lady is his match with the one or the other it was dreadful to hear her said i oh it s her we all have them and she the prince now nephew keep close at my elbow and have your eyes open and your mouth shut two lines of magnificent red and gold who guarded the door bowed deeply as my uncle and i passed between them he with his the hope op england head in the air and a manner as if he entered into his own whilst i tried to look assured though my heart was beating thin and fast within there was a high and large ornamented with eastern which with the and of	4
the exterior a number of people were moving quietly about forming into groups and whispering to each other one of these a short man full of fuss and self importance came hurrying up to my uncle i have de news sir charles said he sinking his voice as one who speaks of measures es ist is i have it at last thoroughly done well serve it hot said my uncle coldly and see that the are a little better than when last i dined at house ah mine you i talk of de it is de affair of de prince i speak of is one little vol au vent is worth one hundred pound ten per cent and double to be repaid when de royal die of de have took it up and de dutch public has de money gk d help the dutch public muttered my as the fat little man off with his news to some new comer that s the prince s famous cook nephew he has not his equal in stone england for b he his master s money affairs the cook i exclaimed in bewilderment you look surprised nephew i should have thought that some respectable firm my inclined his lips to my ear no respectable house would touch them he whispered ah is the prince in the private saloon sir charles said the gentleman addressed any one with him and francis he said he expected you then we shall go through i followed him through the strangest succession of rooms full of curious which impressed me as being very rich and wonderful though perhaps i should think differently now gold and scarlet in designs gleamed upon the walls with gilt and monsters along and out of comers look where i would on or ceiling a score of flashed back the picture of the tall proud white faced man and the youth who walked so at his elbow finally a footman opened a door and we found ourselves in the prince s own private apartment the hope of england two gentlemen were lounging in a very easy fashion upon luxurious at the end of the room and a third stood between them his thick well formed legs somewhat apart and his hands clasped behind him the sun was shining in upon them through a and i can see the three faces now one in the dusk one in the light and one cut across by the shadow of those at the sides i recall the nose and dark flashing eyes of the one and the hard austere face of the other with the high coat and many these i took in at a glance but it was upon the man in the centre that my gaze was fixed for this i knew must be the prince of wales george was then in his forty first year and with the help of his tailor and his he might have passed as somewhat less the sight of him put me at my ease for he was a man handsome too in a way with laughing eyes and sensitive lips his nose was turned upwards which increased the good humoured effect of his countenance at the expense of its dignity his cheeks were pale and uke those of a man who lived too well and took too little exercise he was dressed in a single black coat up a pair of leather stretched tightly across his broad stone boots and a huge white he cried in the fashion as my uncle crossed the threshold and then suddenly the smile faded from his face and his eyes gleamed with resentment what the deuce is this he shouted angrily a thrill of fear passed through me as i thought that it was my appearance which had produced this outburst but his eyes were gazing past us and glancing round we saw that a man in a brown coat and scratch wig had followed so closely at our heels that the had let him pass under the impression that he was of our party his face was very red and the folded blue paper which he carried in his hand shook and in his excitement why it s the furniture man cried the prince what am i to be in my own private room where s where s what the deuce is tom doing i wouldn t have your royal but i must have the money or even a thousand on account would do must have it must you that s a fine word to use i pay my debts in my own time and i m not to be turn him out footman i take him away the hope of england if i don t get it by monday i shall be in your papa s bench the little man and as the footman led him out we could hear him amidst shouts of laughter still protesting that he would wind up in papa s bench that s the very place for a man said the man with the red nose it should be the longest bench in the world answered the prince for a good many of his subjects will want seats on it very glad to see you back but you must really be more careful what you bring in upon your skirts it was only yesterday that we had an infernal here howling about some of interest and the deuce knows what my good fellow said i as long as the starve me i have to starve you and so the matter ended i think sir that the would respond now if the matter were fairly put before them by fox or myself said the prince burst out against the with an energy of hatred that one would scarce expect from that good humoured face why curse them he cried after all their preaching and throwing my father s model life as they called	4
it in my teeth they had to pay his debts to the tune of nearly a million whilst i can t get a hundred thousand out of stone them and look at all they ve done for my brothers york is commander in chief is admiral what am i colonel of a damned regiment under the orders of my own younger brother it s my mother that s at the bottom of it all she always tried to hold me back but what s this you ve brought eh my uncle put his hand on my sleeve and led me forward this is my sister s son sir stone by name said he he is coming with me to london and i thought it right to begin by presenting him to your royal quite right quite right said the prince with a good natured smile patting me in a friendly way upon the shoulder is your mother yes sir said i if you are a good son to her you will never go wrong and mark my words mr stone you should honour the king love your country and the glorious british constitution when i thought of the energy with which he had just been cursing the house of i could scarce keep from and i saw put his hand up to his lips you have only to do this to show a regard the hope of england for your word and to keep out of debt in order to a happy and respected life what is your father mr stone royal navy well it is a glorious service i have had a touch of it myself did i ever tell you how we laid aboard the french of war hey no sir said my uncle and francis exchanged glances behind the prince s back she was flying her out there within sight of my windows never saw such monstrous impudence in my life it would take a man of less than me to stand it out i went in my little cock boat you know my sixty ton with two four on each side and a six m the bows well sir well sir and what then sir cried francis who appeared to be an rough man you will permit me to tell the story in my own way sir philip said the prince with dignity i was about to say that our metal was so light that i give you my word gentlemen that i carried my port in one coat pocket and my in the other up we came to the big frenchman took her fire and scraped the paint off her before we let drive but it was no use by george gentlemen our balls just stuck in her like stones in a stone mud wall she had her up but we scrambled aboard and at it we went hammer and it was a sharp twenty minutes but we beat her people down below made the fast on them and her into surely you were with us i was in london at the time said gravely you can for it francis i can to having heard your tell the story it was a rough little bit of and pistol work but for my own part i uke the it s a gentleman s weapon you heard of my bout with the d i had him at my sword point for forty minutes at s he was one of the best blades in europe but i was a uttle too in the wrist for him i thank god there was a button on your s foil said he when we had finished our by the way you re a bit of a yourself how often have you been out i used to go when i needed exercise said my uncle carelessly but i have taken to now instead a painful happened the last time that i was out and it me of it you killed your man u a the hope of england no no sir it was worse than that had a coat that has never equalled to say that it fitted me is not to express it it was me like the hide on a horse ive had sixty fix m him since but he could never approach it the sit of the collar brought tears into my eyes sir when first i saw it and as to the waist but the cried the prince well sir i wore it at the like the thoughtless fool that i was it was major hunter of the guards with whom i had had a uttle because i hinted that he should not come into s smelling of the stables i fired first and missed he fired and i shrieked in despair he s hit a surgeon a surgeon they cried a tailor a tailor said i for there was a double hole through the tails of my no it was past all repair you may laugh sir but i ll never see the like of it again i had seated myself on a in the comer upon the prince s invitation and very glad i was to remain quiet and unnoticed listening to the talk of these men it was all in the same extravagant vein with many senseless oaths but i observed this difference that whereas my uncle and had something of humour in their exaggeration francis tended always to ill nature and the prince to self stone finally the conversation turned to music i am not sure that my did not bring it there and the prince hearing from him of my tastes would have it that i should then and there sit down at the little piano all with mother of pearl which stood in the corner and play him the accompaniment to his song it was called as i remember the but to save and he rolled it	4
out in a very fair bass voice the others joining in the chorus and clapping vigorously when he finished mr stone said he you have an excellent touch and i know what i am talking about when i speak of music of the opera said only the other day that he had rather hand his button to me than to any amateur in england it s fox by all that s he had run forward with much warmth and was shaking the hand of a singular looking person who had just entered the room the was a stout square built man plainly and almost carelessly dressed with an uncouth manner and a rolling gait his age might have been something over fifty and his harshly face was deeply either by his years or by his i have never seen a countenance in which the angel and the hope of england the devil were more obviously wedded above was the high broad forehead of the philosopher with keen humorous eyes looking out from imder thick strong brows below was the heavy of the in a broad over his that brow was the brow of the public charles fox the the the man who rallied and led the liberal party during the twenty most years of its existence that jaw was the jaw of the private charles fox the the the yet to his sins he never added the crowning one of his vices were as open as his virtues in some quaint of nature two spirits seemed to have been joined m one body and the same frame to contain the best and the worst man of his age i ve run down from sir just to shake you by the hand and to make sure that the have not carried you off hang it you know that i sink or swim with my friends a i started and a i shall remain i thought that i could read upon fox s dark face that he was by no means so confident about the prince s principles has been at you sir i understand yes confound i hate the sight of stone that sharp pointed of his which he wants to be ever into my affairs he and have been about the debts again why look ye if held me in contempt he could not behave different i gathered from the smile which flitted over s expressive face that this was exactly what did do but straightway they all plunged into varied by the drinking of sweet which a footman brought round upon a the king the queen the lords and the were each in succession cursed by the prince in spite of the excellent advice which he had given me about the british constitution why they allow me so little that i can t look after my own people there are a dozen to old servants and the uke and it s all i can do to scrape the money together to pay them however my he pulled himself up and in a way my financial agent has arranged for a loan upon the king s death this isn t good for either of us we re both getting monstrous stout i can t get any exercise for the said fox i am blooded a month but the more i take the more i make you wouldn t the hope of england think to look at us that we could do what we have done we ve had some days and nights together fox smiled and shook his head you remember how we posted to before the races we took a public coach clapped the into the and jumped on to their places rode the leader and i the one fellow wouldn t let us through his and off and had his coat off in a minute the fellow thought he had to do with a fighting man and soon cleared the way for us by the way sir speaking of fighting men i give a supper to the fancy at the and horses on friday next said my uncle if you should chance to be in town they would think it a great honour if you should condescend to look in upon us i ve not seen a fight since i saw tom the tailor kill earl fourteen years ago i swore off then and you know me as a man of my word of course i ve been at the many a time but never as the prince of wales we should be vastly honoured if you would come to our supper sir well well make a note of it we ll be at house on friday the prince stone can t come you know but you might reserve a chair for the earl of sir we shall be proud to see the earl of there said my uncle by the way said fox there s some rumour about your having a sporting bet with sir what s the truth of it only a small matter of a couple of to a thou he giving the odds he has a fancy to this new man and i m to find a man to beat him under twenty or over thirty five at or about thirteen stone you take fox s advice then cried the prince when it comes to a horse playing a hand a cock or picking a man he has the best judgment in england now whom have we upon the list who can beat of was amazed at the interest and knowledge which all these great people showed about the ring for they not only had the deeds of the principal men of the time or dutch sam at their fingers ends but there was no fighting man so obscure that they did not know the details of his deeds and prospects the old ones and then the yoimg were discussed	4
their weight their their power and their constitution the hope of england who as he saw and fox eagerly arguing as to whether the westminster could hold his own with the jew would have guessed that the one was the deepest political philosopher in europe and that the other would be remembered as the author of the comedy and of the finest speech of his generation the name of champion came very early into the discussion and fox who had a high idea of s powers was of opinion that my uncle s only chance lay in the taking the field again he may be slow on his pins but he fights with his head and he like the kick of a horse when he finished black the man flew across the outer ring as well as the inner and fell among the spectators if he isn t absolutely stale he is your best chance my uncle shrugged his shoulders if poor were here we might do something with him for he was s first patron and the man was devoted to him but his wife is too strong for me and now i must leave you for i have had the misfortune to day to lose the best in england and i must make inquiry for him i thank your royal for your kindness in receiving my nephew in so gracious a fashion stone till friday then said the prince holding out his hand i have to go up to town in any case for there is a poor devil of an east india company s officer who has written to me in his distress if i can raise a few hundreds i shall see him and set things right for hun now mr stone you have your life before you and i hope it will be one which your uncle may be proud of you will honour the king and show respect for the constitution mr stone and hark ye you wiu avoid debt and bear in that your honour is a sacred thing so i carried away a last impression of his good humoured face his high and his broad leather again we passed the strange rooms the gilded monsters and the gorgeous and it was with relief that i found myself out in the open air once more with the broad blue sea in front of us and the fresh evening breeze upon our faces chapter vm the road my uncle and i were up next morning but he was much out of temper for no news had been heard of his he had indeed become uke one of those of which i have read who are so accustomed to be fed that when they are left to themselves they die of hunger it was only by the aid of a man whom the landlord procured and of fox s who had been sent expressly across that his toilet was at last performed i must win this race nephew said he when he had finished breakfast i can t afford to be beat look out of the window and see if the are there i see a red four in hand in the square and there is a crowd it yes i see the lady upon the box seat is our out it is at the door come then and you shall have such a drive as you never had before he stood at the door on his long brown stone driving and giving his orders to the every will tell said he we ll leave that dinner basket behind and you can keep my dog for me you know him and understand him let him have his warm milk and the same as usual my you ll have your fill of it before you reach westminster bridge shall i put in the toilet case asked the landlord i saw the struggle upon my uncle s face but he was true to his principles put it under the seat the front seat said he nephew you must keep your weight as far forward as possible can you do anything on a yard of tin well if you can t we ll leave the trumpet that up thomas have you the as i told you well jump up nephew and well see them off quite a crowd had gathered in the old square men and women dark from the prince s court and officers from all in a of excitement for sir john and my uncle were two of the most famous of the time and a match between them was a thing to talk of for many a long day the prince will be sorry to have missed the start said my uncle he doesn t show before s the road midday ah jack good morning your servant madam it s a fine day for a little bit of as our came alongside of the four with the two bay gleaming like shot silk in the sunshine a murmur of admiration rose from the crowd my in his coloured driving coat with all his harness of the same tint looked the ideal of a whip while sir john with his many coat his white hat and his rough weather beaten face might have taken his seat with a line of upon any ale house bench without any one being able to pick him out as one of the in england it was an age of but he had carried his peculiarities to a length which surprised even the by marrying the sweetheart of a famous when the gallows had come between her and her lover she was perched by his side looking very smart in a bonnet and grey travelling dress while in front of them the four splendid coal black horses with a flickering touch of gold upon their quarters were the dust in their eagerness to be off it s a hundred	4
that you don t see us before westminster with a quarter of an hour s start said sir john stone i ll take you another hundred that we pass you answered my uncle very good time s up good bye he gave a of the tongue shook his reins saluted with his whip in true coachman s style and away he went taking the curve out of the square in a fashion that fetched a cheer from the crowd we heard the roar of the wheels upon the stones until they died away in the distance it seemed one of the longest quarters of an hour that i had ever known before the first stroke of from the parish clock for my part i was in my seat in my impatience but my uncle s calm pale face and large blue eyes were as tranquil and as those of the most spectator he was keenly on the alert however and it seemed to me that the stroke of the clock and the of his whip fell together not in a blow but in a sharp snap over the leader which sent us flying with a and a rattle upon our fifty miles journey i heard a roar from behind us saw the gliding lines of windows with staring faces and waving handkerchiefs and then we were off the stones and on to the good white road which curved away in front of us with the sweep of the green downs upon either side i had been provided with shillings that the the road gate might not stop us but my uncle in the and took them at a very easy trot up all the heavy stretch which ends in hill he let them go then and we flashed through s oak and across st john s common without more than catching a glimpse of the yellow cottage which contained all that i loved best never have i travelled at such a pace and never have i felt such a sense of from the rush of keen air upon our faces and from the sight of those two glorious creatures stretched to their utmost with the roar of their hoofs and the rattle of our wheels as the light mail bounded and swayed behind them it s a long four miles from here to hand cross said my uncle as we flew through i must ease them a bit for i cannot afford to break the hearts of my cattle they have the right blood in them and they would gallop until they dropped if i were brute enough to let them stand up on the seat nephew and see if you can get a glimpse of them i stood up myself upon my uncle s shoulder but though i could see for a mile or perhaps a quarter more there was not a sign of the four in hand if he has sprung his cattle up all these hills they ll be spent ere they see said he stone they have four to two said i j en sir john s black strain makes a good honest creature but not like these there lies place where the towers are yonder get your weight right forward on the now that we are going nephew look at the action of that leader did ever you see more easy and more we were taking the hill at a quiet trot but even so we made the in the shadow of his huge broad wheeled canvas covered stare at us in amazement close to hand cross we passed the royal stage which had left at half past seven dragging heavily up the slope and its passengers toiling along through the dust behind gave us a cheer as we whirled by at hand cross we caught a glimpse of the old landlord hurrying out with his gin and his but the dip of the ground was downwards now and away we flew as fast as eight gallant hoofs could take us do you drive nephew very little su there is no driving on the road how is that sir too good a road nephew i have only to give them their heads and they will race me into westminster it wasn t always so when the road i was a very young man one might learn to handle his twenty yards of here as well as elsewhere there s not much really good now south of show me a man who can hit em and hold em on a and that s the man who comes from the right school we had over down and into the broad main street of village between two country in a way which showed me that even now a driver might do something on the road with every turn i peered ahead looking for our but my uncle seemed to concern himself very little about them and occupied himself in giving me advice mixed up with so many phrases of the craft that it was all that i could do to follow him keep a finger for each or you will have your reins said he as to the whip the less the better if you have willing cattle but when you want to put a little ufe into a coach see that you get your on to the one that needs it and don t let it fly round after you ve hit i ve seen a driver warm up the off side passenger on the roof behind him every time he tried to cut his off side i believe that is their dust over yonder a long stretch of road lay before us barred with the shadows of trees through stone the green fields a lazy blue river was drawing itself slowly along passing under a bridge in front of us beyond was a young fir plantation and over its olive line there rose a white	4
whirl which drifted swiftly like a cloud on a day yes yes it s they cried my uncle no one else would travel as fast come nephew we re half way when we cross the at bridge and we ve done it in two hours and fourteen minutes the prince drove to house with a three in four hours and a half the first half is the worst half and we might cut his time if all goes well we should make up between this and and we flew the bay seemed to know what that white puff in front of us signified and they stretched themselves like we passed a and pair london bound and we left it behind as if it had been standing still trees gates cottages went dancing by we heard the folks shouting from the fields under the impression that we were a faster and faster yet they the hoofs rattling like the yellow flying the wheels and every joint and creaking and groaning while the vehicle swung and swayed until i found myself clutching to the side rail my uncle them and the road glanced at his watch as we saw the grey and dingy red houses of in the hollow beneath us we did the last six well under twenty minutes said he we ve time in hand now and a little water at the red lion will do them no harm red four in hand passed just gone sir going hard galloping split sir took the wheel off a butcher s cart at the comer of the high street and was out o sight before the butcher s boy could see what had hurt him z z z z went the long and away we flew once more it was market day at and the road was crowded with carts of produce of and farmers it was a sight to see how my uncle his way amongst them all through the we dashed amidst the shouting of men the screaming of women and the of poultry and then we were out in the country again with the long steep of the road before us my uncle waved his whip in the air with a shrill view there was the dust cloud rolling up the hill in front of us and through it we had a shadowy peep of the backs of our with a flash of brass work and a gleam of scarlet stone there s half the game won nephew now we must pass them hark my beauties by george if isn t the leader had suddenly gone dead lame in an instant we were both out of the and on our knees beside her it was but a stone between and shoe in the off but it was a minute or two before we could it out when we had regained our places the were round the curve of the hill and out of sight bad luck growled my uncle but they can t get away from us for the first time he touched the up for he had but cracked the whip over their heads before if we catch them in the next few miles we can spare them for the rest of the way they were beginning to show signs of exhaustion their breath came quick and hoarse and their coats were with moisture at the top of the hill however they settled down into their swing once more where on earth have they got to cried my uncle can you make them out on the road nephew we could see a long white ribbon of it all dotted with carts and coming from to but there was no sign of the big red four in hand the road there they are stole away stole away he cried the round into a side road which struck to the right out of that which we had travelled there they are nephew on the brow of the hill sure enough on the rise of a curve upon our right the four in hand had appeared the horses stretched to the utmost our laid themselves out gallantly and the distance between us began slowly to i found that i could see the black band upon sir john s white hat then that i could count the folds of his cape finally that i could see the pretty features of his wife as she looked back at us we re on the side road to and said my uncle i suppose he thought that he could make better time by getting out of the way of the market carts but we ve got the deuce of a hill to come down you ll see some fun nephew or i am mistaken as he spoke i suddenly saw the wheels of the in hand disappear then the body of it and then the two figures upon the box as suddenly and abruptly as if it had down the first three steps of some gigantic stairs an instant later we had reached the same spot and there was the road beneath us steep and narrow winding in long curves into the the four m stone hand was down it as hard as the horses could gallop thought so cried my uncle if he doesn t why should i now my one good and we ll show them the colour of our we shot over the brow and flew madly down the hill with the great red coach roaring and thundering before us already we were in her dust so that we could see nothing but the dim scarlet in the heart of it rocking and rolling with its outline at every stride we could hear the crack of the whip in front of us and the shrill voice of lady as she screamed to the horses my uncle was very quiet but when i glanced up at him i saw that his lips were	4
set and his eyes shining with just a little flush upon each pale cheek there was no need to urge on the for they were already flying at a pace which could neither be stopped nor controlled our leader s head came abreast of the off hind wheel then of the off front one then for a hundred yards we did not gain an inch and then with a the bay leader was neck to neck with the black and our fore wheel within an inch of their hind one dusty work said my uncle quietly fan em jack fan em shrieked the lady if it the road he sprang up and lashed at his horses look out he shouted there s a coming for somebody we had got fairly abreast of them now the of the horses exactly a line and the fore wheels together there was not six inches to spare in the breadth of the road and every instant i expected to feel the jar of a wheel but now as we came out from the dust we could see what was ahead and my uncle whistled between his teeth at the sight two hundred yards or so in front of us there was a bridge with wooden posts and rails upon either side the road down at the point so that it was obvious that the two carriages abreast could not possibly get over one must give way to the other already our wheels were abreast of their i lead shouted my uncle you must pull them not i he roared no by george shrieked her fan em jack keep on em it seemed to me that we were all going to eternity together but my uncle did the only thing that could have saved us by a desperate effort we might just clear the coach before reaching the mouth of the bridge he sprang up and lashed right and left at the who u stone by the pain hurled themselves on in a frenzy down we thundered together all shouting i at the top of our voices in the madness of the moment but still we were drawing steadily away and we were almost clear of the leaders when we flew on to the bridge i glanced back at the coach and i saw lady with her savage little white teeth clenched together throw herself forward and with both hands at the off side reins jam them jack she cried jam the before they can pass had she done it an instant sooner we should have against the wood work carried it away and been hurled into the deep below as it was it was not the powerful of the black leader which caught our wheel but the which had not weight enough to turn us from our course i saw a red wet suddenly through the black hair and next instant we were flying alone down the road whilst the four in hand had halted and sir john and his lady were down in the road together tending to the wounded horse easy now my beauties cried my uncle down into his seat again and looking back over his shoulder i could not have believed that sir john would have been the road guilty of such a trick as pulling that leader across i do not permit a of that sort he shall hear from me tonight it was the lady said i my uncle s brow cleared and he began to laugh it was uttle was it said he i might have known it there s a touch of the late lamented sixteen string jack about the trick well it is only messages of another kind that i send to a lady so we u just drive on our way nephew and thank our stars that we bring whole bones over the thames we stopped at the at where the two good little were and and fed after which at an easier pace we made our way through and at last the fields grew fewer and the walls longer the closed up thicker and thicker until their shoulders met and we were driving between a double line of houses with shops at the comers and such a stream of traffic as i had never seen roaring down the centre then suddenly we were on a broad bridge with a dark coffee brown river flowing beneath it and bluff bowed drifting down upon its bosom to right and left stretched a broken irregular line of stone many coloured houses winding along either bank as far as i could see that s the house of parliament nephew said my uncle pointing with his whip and the black towers are westminster abbey how do your grace how do that s the duke of the stout man in blue upon the mare now we are in there s the treasury on the left and the horse guards and the where the stone are carved above the gate i had the idea which a country bred lad brings up with him that london was merely a of houses but i was astonished now to see the green slopes and the lovely spring trees showing between yes those are the gardens said my uncle and there is the window out of which charles took his last step on to the you wouldn t think the had come fifty miles would you see how les step out for the credit of their master look at the with the sharp man peeping out of the window that s going down to the house we are coming into pall now and this great building on the left is house the prince s palace there s st james s the big dingy place with the clock and the two red before it and u the road here s the famous street of the same name nephew which is the very centre	4
of the world and here s street opening out of it and finally here s my own little box and we are well under the five hours from old square chapter ix s my uncle s house in street was quite a small one five rooms and an a and a cottage he said are all that a wise man requires on the other hand it was with the neatness and taste which belonged to his character so that his most luxurious friends found something in the tiny rooms which made them discontented with their own even the which had been converted into my bedroom was the most perfect little that could possibly be imagined beautiful and valuable filled every comer of every apartment and the house had become a perfect miniature museum which would have a my uncle explained the presence of all these pretty things with a shrug of his shoulders and a wave of his hands they are des said he but it would be an for me to say more we found a note from for us which increased rather than explained the mystery of his disappearance s my dear sir charles it ran it will ever be a subject of regret to me that the force of circumstances should have compelled me to leave your service in so abrupt a fashion but something occurred during our journey from s oak to which left me without any possible alternative i trust however that my absence may prove to be but a temporary one the for the shirt fronts is in the strong box at s bank yours well i suppose i must fill his place as best i can said my uncle but how on earth could something have occurred to make him leave me at a time when we were going fuu trot down in my i shall never find his match again either for or je but now nephew we must send to and have you fitted up it is not for a gentleman to go to a shop but for the shop to come to the gentleman until you have your clothes you must remain en the measuring was a most solemn and serious function though it was nothing to the trying on two days later when my uncle stood by in an agony of apprehension as each garment was adjusted he and arguing over every and and skirt until i was dizzy with turning round in front of them then just as i had stone hoped that all was settled in came young mr who promised to be an even greater exquisite than my uncle and the whole matter had to be out between them he was a good sized man this with a long fair face light brown hair and slight sandy his manner was languid his voice and while he my uncle in the extravagance of his speech he had not the air of and decision which all my s why george cried my uncle i thought you were with your regiment i ve sent in my papers the other i thought it would come to that yes the tenth was ordered to and they could hardly expect me to go to a place like that besides i found the major monstrous rude how was that he expected me to know about his absurd and i had other things to think of as you may suppose i had no difficulty in taking my right place on parade for there was a with a red nose on a bitten grey and i had observed that my post was always immediately in front of him this saved a great deal of trouble the other day however when i came on parade i galloped up one line and it i s down the other but the deuce a glimpse could i get of that long nose of his i then just as i was at my wits end i caught sight of him alone at one side so i formed up in front it seems he had been put there to keep the ground and the major so far forgot himself as to say that i knew nothing of my duties my uncle laughed and looked me up and down with his large eyes these will do very said he and blue are always very but a waistcoat would have been better i think not said my uncle warmly my dear you are upon a but you must allow me the right of my own judgment upon i like it vastly as it stands but a touch of red would give it the finish that it needs they argued with many examples and for a good ten minutes revolving round me at the same time with their heads on one side and their glasses to their eyes it was a relief to me when they at last agreed upon a compromise you must not let anything i have said shake your faith in sir charles s judgment mr stone said very earnestly i assured him that i should not if you were my nephew i should expect you to my taste but you will cut a very stone good figure as it is i had a young cousin who came up to town last year with a recommendation to my care but he would take no advice at the end of the second week i met him coming down st james s street in a snuff coloured coat cut by a country tailor he bowed to me of course i knew what was due to myself i looked all round him and there was an end to his career in town you are from the country mr stone from sir i why that is where i send my washing to there is an excellent clear living near s heath i send my shirts two at a time for if you	4
send more it the woman and her attention i cannot abide but country washing but i should be vastly sorry to have to live there what can a man find to do you don t hunt george when i do it s a woman but surely you don t go to hounds charles i was out with the last winter the did you hear how i smoked the story has been in the clubs this month past i bet him that my bag would weigh more than his he got three and a half brace but i shot his liver coloured so he had to pay but as to hunting what amusement can there be in flying about among a s crowd of greasy galloping farmers every man to his own taste but s window by day and a snug comer of the table at s by night give me all i want for mind and body you heard how i plucked the i i have been out of town i had eight thousand from him at a sitting i shall drink your beer in mr said i every in london does said he it was monstrous of him but some people cannot lose with grace well i am going down to street to pay jew king a little of my interest are you bound that way well good bye then i ll see you and your young friend at the club or in the no doubt and he sauntered off upon his way that young man is destined to take my place said my gravely when had departed he is quite young and of no descent but he has made his way by his cool his natural taste and his extravagance of speech there is no man who can be in so polished a fashion he has a half smile and a way of raising his eyebrows for which he will be shot one of these mornings already his opinion is quoted in the clubs as a rival to my own well every man has his day and when i am convinced that mine is passed st james s street shall know me no more for it is not in stone my nature to be second to any man but now nephew in that and suit you may pass anywhere so if you please we will step into my m d m and i will show you something of the town how can i describe all that we saw and all that we did upon that lovely spring day to me it was as if i had been to a fairy and my uncle might have been some benevolent in a high long coat who was guiding me about in it he showed me the west end streets with the bright carriages and the gaily dressed ladies and men all crossing and hurrying and like an nest when you turn it over with a stick never had i formed a conception of such endless banks of houses and such a ceaseless stream of life flowing between then we passed down the strand where the crowd was thicker than ever and even penetrated beyond temple bar and into the city though my uncle begged me not to mention it for he would not wish it to be generally known there i saw the exchange and the bank and s coffee house with the brown sharp faced merchants and the hurrying clerks the huge horses and the busy it was a very different world this from that which we had left in the west a world of energy and of strength where s there was no place for the and the idle young as i was i knew that it was here in the forest of merchant shipping in the which swung up to the windows in the loaded which roared over the that the power of britain lay here in the city of london was the from which empire and wealth and so many other fine leaves had fashion and speech and manners may change but the spirit of enterprise within that square mile or two of land must not change for when it all that has grown from it must also we at s the fashionable inn in bond street where i saw a line of and saddle horses which stretched from the door to the further end of the street and thence we went to the in st james s park and thence to s the great club and thence again to s where the men of fashion used to everywhere i met the same sort of men with their stiff figures and small all showing the utmost deference to my uncle and for his sake an easy of me the talk was always such as i had already heard at the talk of politics talk of the king s health talk of the prince s extravagance of the expected renewal of war of horse racing and of the ring i saw too that was as stone my uncle had told me the fashion and if the folk upon the continent look upon us even to this day as being a nation of it is no doubt a tradition handed down from the time when the only travellers whom they were likely to see were drawn from the class which i was now meeting it was an age of heroism and of folly on the one hand soldiers sailors and of the quality of and afterwards had been forced to the front by the imminent menace of we were great in arms and were soon also to be great in literature for scott and were in their day the strongest forces in europe on the other hand a touch of madness real or assumed was a through doors which were closed to wisdom and to virtue the man who could enter a walking upon his hands the	4
uncle who seemed to have made up his mind to in extravagance i used to get my coloured gloves from the royal when the war broke out in i was cut off from them for nine years had it not been for a which i specially hired to them might have been reduced to english tan the english are excellent at a flat iron or a kitchen but anything more delicate is beyond them our are good cried my uncle but our lack taste and variety the war has made us more than ever it has cut us off from travel and there is nothing to match travel for the mind last year for example i came upon some new in the square of san at it was yellow with the prettiest little of pink running through it how could i have seen it had stone i not travelled i brought it back with me and for a time it was all the rage the prince took it up yes he usually follows my lead we dressed so alike last year that we were frequently mistaken for each other it tells against me but so it was he often that things do not look as well upon him as upon me but how can i make the obvious reply by the way george i did not see you at the of s yes i was there and lingered for a quarter of an hour or so i am surprised that you did not see me i did not go past the doorway however for undue preference gives rise to jealousy i went early said my uncle for i had heard that there were to be some tolerable d it always pleases me vastly when i am able to pass a compliment to any of them it has happened but not often for i keep to my own standard so they talked these singular men and i looking from one to the other could not imagine how they could help bursting out a laughing in each other s faces but on the contrary their conversation was very grave and filled out with many little bows and opening and shutting of snuff boxes and of handkerchiefs s quite a crowd had gathered silently around and i could see that the talk had been regarded as a contest between two men who were looked upon as rival of fashion it was finished by the of passing his arm through s and leading him off while my uncle threw out his shirt front and shot his as if he were well satisfied with his share in the encounter it is seven years since i looked upon that circle of and where now are their dainty little hats their wonderful and their boots in which one could arrange one s they lived strange lives these men and they died strange deaths some by their own hands some as beggars some in a s some like the most brilliant of them all in a in a foreign land there is the card room said my uncle as we passed an open door on our way out glancing in i saw a line of little green tables with small groups of men sitting round while at one side was a longer one from which there came a continuous murmur of voices you may lose what you like in there save only your nerve or your temper my uncle continued ah sir i trust that the luck was with you a tall thin man with a hard austere face stone had stepped out of the open doorway his heavily eyebrows covered quick grey eyes and his gaunt features were at the cheek and temple like water flint he was dressed entirely in black and i noticed that his shoulders swayed a little as if he had been drinking lost like the deuce he snapped no you couldn t get very hard hit over that couldn t you he play a hundred a trick and a thousand on the rub losing steadily for five hours and see what you think of it my uncle was evidently struck by the haggard look upon the other s face i hope it s not very bad he said bad enough it won t bear talking about by the way have you got man for this fight yet no you seem to be hanging m the wind a long time it s play or pay you know i shall claim if you don t come to scratch if you will name your day i shall produce my man sir said my uncle coldly this day weeks if you like very good the th of may s i hope to have changed my name by then how is that asked my uncle in surprise it is just possible that i may be lord what you have had some news cried my uncle and i noticed a tremor in his voice i ve had my agent over at and he believes he has proof that died there anyhow it is absurd to suppose that because a murderer chooses to fly from justice i won t have you use that word sir cried my uncle sharply you were there as i was you know that he was a murderer i tell you that you shall not say so sir s fierce little grey eyes had to lower themselves before the imperious anger which shone in my uncle s well to let that point pass it is monstrous to suppose that the title and the estates can remain hung up in this way for ever i m the heir and i m going to have my rights i am as you are aware lord s dearest friend said my uncle sternly his disappearance has not affected my love for him and until his fate is finally ascertained i shall exert myself to see that his	4
settle down again after once he had a taste o london i left him behind me with enough work to keep him busy until i get back to him a tall and man very dressed was strolling towards us he stared in surprise and held out his hand to my companion why jack he cried this is a where in the world did you come from glad to see you said my companion you look as well and as young as ever thank you yes i resigned the belt when i could get no one to fight me for it and i took to teaching i m doing smith s work down way i ve often wondered why you never had a shy at my belt i tell you honestly between man and man i m very glad you didn t well it s real good of you to say that i might ha done it perhaps but the old woman was against it she s been a good wife to me and i can t go against her but i feel a stone bit here for these boys are since my time you could do some of them over now said feeling my friend s upper arm no better bit of stuff was ever seen in a twenty four foot ring it would be a rare treat to see you take some of these young ones on won t you let me spring you on them s eyes at the idea but he shook his head it won t do my old woman holds my promise that s ain t it the young chap with the flash coat yes that s you ve not seen him i he s a jewel so i ve heard who s the beside him he looks a tidy chap that s a new man from the west s his name looked at him with interest i ve heard of him said he they are getting a match on for him ain t they yes sir the thin faced gentleman over yonder has backed him against sir charles s man we re to hear about the match to night i understand thinks great things of there s s young brother tom he s looking out for a match too they say he s quicker the men of the ring than with the but he can t hit as hard i was speaking of your brother the young un will make his way said who had come across to us he s more a than a just at present but when his sets he ll take on anything on the list s as o young men now as a bin is of bottles we ve got two more up and who ll make you london wish they was back in the west country again here s the prince said as a hum and bustle rose from the door i saw george come bustling in with a smile upon his comely face my uncle welcomed him and led some of the up to be presented we ll have trouble nor said to here s joe gin out of a and you know what a swine he is when he s drunk you must put a on im nor said several of the other prize e ain t what you d call a when e s sober but there s no standing im when e s fresh on account of his and of the tact which he possessed had been chosen as general of the whole prize fighting body by whom he was usually alluded to as the com stone in chief he and went across now to the table upon which was still perched the s face was already flushed and his eyes heavy and you must keep yourself in hand to night said the prince is here and i never set eyes on im yet cried off the table where is e nor tell im joe would like to do proud by im by the and no you don t joe said laying his hand upon s chest as he tried to push his way through the crowd you ve got to keep place joe or we ll put you where you can make all the noise you like where s that nor into the street through the window we re going to have a evening as and i will show you if you get up to any of your games no arm nor grumbled i m sure i ve always ad the name of bein a very like man so i ve always said joe and mind you prove yourself such but the supper is ready for us and there s the prince and lord going in two and two lads and don t forget whose company you are in the men of the ring the supper was laid in a large room with union and hung thickly upon the walls the tables were arranged in three sides of a square my uncle occupying the centre of the principal one with the prince upon his right and lord upon his left by his wise precaution the seats had been allotted beforehand so that the gentlemen might be scattered among the and no risk run of two enemies finding themselves together or a man who had been recently beaten falling into the company of his conqueror for my own part i had champion upon one side of me and a stout faced man upon the other who whispered to me that he was bill landlord of the one public house of street and one of the men upon the list it s my flesh that s beat me sir said he it over me fast i should fight at thirteen eight and ere i am nearly seventeen it s the business that does it what with about behind the bar all day	4
ring he could boast also of the higher honour of having been the first bom american to win in the british ring there also i saw the keen features of dan the jew just retired from active work and leaving behind him a reputation for elegance and perfect science which has to this day never been exceeded the worst fault that the critics could find with him was that there was a want of power in his blows a remark which certainly could not have been made about his neighbour whose long face curved nose and dark flashing eyes proclaimed him as a member of the same ancient race this was the formidable dutch sam who fought at nine stone six and yet possessed such powers that his admirers in after years were willing to back him against the fourteen stone tom if each were a to a bench half a dozen other sallow hebrew faces showed how the jews of and had taken to the sport of the land of their and that in this as in more serious fields of effort they could hold their own with the best it was my neighbour who very pointed out to me all these the men of the ring ties the echoes of whose fame had been down even to our little village there s the irish champion said he it was e that beat james the and was afterwards nearly killed by in the of common by s the two that are next im are irish also jack o and bill when you get a good you can t better em but they re dreadful that little with the face is the im that they call the pride of westminster e s but five foot seven and nine stone five but e s got the of a giant e s never been beat and there ain t a man within a stone of im that could beat im except only dutch sam there s george too another o the same breed and as good a man as ever his coat off the man that eats with a fork im what looks like a only that the bridge of is nose ain t quite as it ought to be that s dick the same that was cock of the middle until cut his comb for im you see the other with the grey and the on his face why it s old tom the cried following the line of bill s forefinger he s the in the and at his best there weren t many stone in england that could stand up against him you re right there jack e was one of the three who came up to fight when the best men of the best men of london e s an is tom why he was turned five and fifty when he and beat after fifty minutes of it jack who was tough enough to take it out of many a it s better to give odds in weight than in years youth will be served said a voice from the other side of the table ay masters youth will be served the man who had spoken was the most extraordinary of all the many curious figures in the room he was very very old so old that he was past all comparison and no one by looking at his skin and fish like eyes could give a guess at his years a few scanty grey hairs still hung about his yellow as to his features they were scarcely human in their for the deep wrinkles and of extreme age had been added to a face which had always been ugly and had been crushed and smashed in addition by many a blow i had noticed this creature at the beginning of the meal leaning his chest against the edge of the table as if its support was a welcome the men of the ring one and feebly picking at the food which was placed before him gradually however as his neighbours him with drink his shoulders grew his back his eyes brightened and he looked about him with an air of surprise at first as if he had no clear recollection of how he came there and afterwards with an expression of deepening interest as he listened with his ear up in his hand to the conversation around him that s old whispered champion he was just the same as that when i joined the ring twenty years ago time was when he was the terror of london e was so said bill e would fight uke a and e was that ard that e would let any swell knock im down for a crown e ad no face to spoil d ye see for e was always the man in england but e s been on the shelf now for near sixty years and it cost im many a before e could understand that is strength was away from im youth wiu be served masters the old man shaking his head miserably fill up is glass said ere tom give old a sup o warm his for im the old man poured a glass of neat gin down his throat and the effect upon him was stone extraordinary a in each of his dull eyes a tinge of colour came into his cheeks and opening his mouth he suddenly a bell like and most musical cry a hoarse roar of laughter from all the company answered it and flushed faces over each other to catch a glimpse of the there s they cried is round again you can laugh if you masters he cried in his lane dialect holding up his two thin vein covered hands it von t be long that you ll be able to see my ave been on s and on jack s and on gray s and many another good man	4
in the office e vas ow soon e could get a passage to parts there was much laughter and of glasses upon the table at the conclusion of old s story and i saw the prince of wales hand something to the waiter who brought it round and slipped it into the hand of the who upon it before thrusting it into his pocket the table had in the meanwhile been cleared and was now studded with bottles and glasses while long clay pipes and tobacco boxes were handed round my uncle never smoked thinking that the habit might his teeth but many of the and the prince amongst the first of them set the example of lighting up all restraint had been done away with and the prize flushed with wine roared across the tables to each other or shouted their greetings to fi at the other end of the room the falling into the humour of their company were hardly less noisy and loudly the merits of the different men their of fighting before their faces and making upon the results of future matches in the midst of the uproar there was an imperative rap upon the table and my uncle rose to speak as he stood with his pale calm face stone and fine figure i had never seen him to greater advantage for he seemed with all his elegance to have a quiet air of amongst these fierce fellows like a walking carelessly through a springing and pack he expressed his pleasure at seeing so many good under one roof and acknowledged the honour which had been done both to his guests and himself by the presence there that night of the illustrious personage whom he should refer to as the earl of he was sorry that the season prevented him from placing game upon the table but there was so much sitting round it that it would perhaps be hardly missed cheers and laughter the sports of the ring had in his opinion tended to that contempt of pain and of danger which had contributed so much in the past to the safety of the country and which might if what he heard was true be very quickly needed once more if an enemy landed upon our shores it was then that with our small army we should be forced to fall back upon native trained into by the practice and contemplation of manly sports in time of peace also the rules of the ring had been of service in the principles of fair play and in turning public opinion against that use of the knife or of the boot which was so common in foreign countries he begged therefore to drink the men of the ring success to the fancy coupled with the name of john who might stand as a type of all that was most admirable in british having replied with a readiness which many a public man might have envied my uncle rose once more we are here to night said he not only to the past glories of the prize ring but also to arrange some sport for the future it should be easy now that and are gathered together under one roof to come to terms with each other i have myself set an example by making a match with sir the terms of which will be communicated to you by that gentleman sir rose with a paper in his hand the terms your royal and gentlemen are briefly these said he my man of having never yet fought a prize battle is prepared to meet upon may th of this year any man of any weight who may be selected by sir charles sir charles s selection is to men below twenty or above thirty five years of age so as to and the other for honours the are two thousand pounds against a thousand two hundred to be paid by the to his man play or pay stone it was curious to see the intense gravity of them all and as they bent their brows and weighed the conditions of the match i am informed said sir john that s age is twenty three and that although he has never fought a regular p r battle he has none the less fought within ropes for a stake on many occasions i ve seen him half a dozen times at the least said it is precisely for that reason sir john that i am laying odds of two to one in his favour may i ask said the prince what the exact height and weight of may be five foot eleven and thirteen ten your royal long enough and heavy enough for anything on two legs said and the all murmured their assent read the rules of the fight sir the battle to take place on tuesday may the th at the hour of ten in the morning at a spot to be afterwards named the ring to be twenty foot square neither to fall without a knock down blow subject to the decision of the three to be chosen upon the ground namely two in ordinary and one in reference does that meet your wishes sir charles the men of the ring my uncle bowed have you anything to say the young who had a curious figure and a bony face passed his fingers through his close hair if you please said he with a slight a twenty ring is too small for a thirteen stone man there was another murmur of professional agreement what would you have it an twenty sir have you any objection sir charles not the slightest anything else if you please i d like to know whom i m with i understand that you have not publicly your man sir charles i do not intend to do so until the very morning of the fight i believe i have that right within	4
fight tom an for that matter i ll fight or bill or any other that ever came out of it was clear that had got to the stage when he must fight some one his heavy face was and the veins stood out on his low forehead while his fierce grey eyes looked from man to man in quest of a quarrel his great red hands were into huge fists and he shook one of them as his drunken gaze swept round the tables the fight in the i think agree with me gentlemen that joe would be all the better for some fresh air and exercise said my with the of his royal and of the company i shall select him as our champion on this occasion you do me proud cried the fellow staggering to his feet and pulling at his coat if i don t him within the five minutes may i never see again wait a bit cried several of the where s it going to be held where you like masters ih fight him in a or on the outside of a coach if it please you put us toe to toe and leave the rest with me they can t fight here with all this litter said my uncle where shall it be my soul cried the prince i think our unknown friend might have a word to say upon that matter he u be vastly if you don t let him have his own choice of conditions you are right sir we must have him up that s easy enough said the landlord for here he comes through the doorway i glanced round and had a side view of a tall and well dressed young man in a long brown travelling coat and a black felt hat the next stone instant he had turned and i had clutched with both my hands on to champion s arm i gasped it s boy jim and yet somehow the and even the of it had occurred to me from the beginning and i that it had to also for i had noticed that his face grew grave and troubled from the very moment that there was talk of the stranger below now the instant that the of surprise and admiration caused by jim s face and figure had died away was on his feet in his excitement it s my nephew jim gentlemen he cried he s not twenty yet and it s no doing of mine that he should be here let him alone cried he s big enough to take care of himself this matter has gone rather far said my uncle i think that you are too good a to prevent your nephew from showing whether he takes after his uncle it s very different from me cried in great distress but i ll tell you what i ll do gentlemen i never thought to stand up in a ring again but i ll take on joe with pleasure just to give a bit o sport to this company boy jim stepped across and laid his hand upon the prize s shoulder the fight in the it must be so uncle i heard him whisper i am sorry to go against your wishes but i have made up my mind and i must carry it through shrugged his huge shoulders jim jim you don t know what you are doing but i ve heard you speak like that before boy and i know that it ends in your getting your way i trust that your opposition is withdrawn said my uncle can i not take his place you would not have it said that i gave a challenge and let another carry it out whispered jim this is my one chance for heaven s sake don t stand in my way the smith s broad and usually stolid face was all working with his conflicting emotions at last he his fist down upon the table it s no fault of mine he cried it was to be and it is jim boy for the lord s sake remember your distances and stick to out with a man that could give you a stone i was sure that would not stand in the way of sport said my uncle we are glad that you have stepped up that we might consult you as to the arrangements for giving effect to your very sporting challenge whom am i to fight asked jim looking stone round at the company who were now all upon feet young man you ll know enough of who you ave to fight before you are through with it cried heavily through the crowd you ll need a friend to swear to you before i ve finished d ye see jim looked at him with disgust in every of his face surely you are not going to set me to fight a drunken man said he where is my name young man i should be glad to try you if i may you must work up to me my lad you don t take a ladder at one jump but you do it rung by rung show yourself to be a match for me and i ll give you a turn i m much to you and i like the look of you and wish you well said holding out his hand they were not unlike each other either in face or figure though the man was a few years the older and a murmur of critical admiration was heard as the two tall figures and keen clean cut faces were contrasted have you any choice where the fight takes place asked my uncle i am in your hands sir said jim the fight in the why not go round to the five s court suggested sir john yes let us go to the five s court but this did not	4
at all suit the views of the landlord who saw in this lucky incident a chance of a fresh harvest from his company if it please you he cried there is no need to go so far my coach house at the back of the yard is empty and a better place for a mill you ll never find there was a general shout in favour of the coach house and those who were nearest the door began to sup through in the hope of securing the best places my stout bill pulled to one side i d stop it if i were you he whispered i would if i could it s no wish of mine that he should fight but there s no turning him when once his mind is made up all his own fights put together had never reduced the to such a state of agitation wait on im yourself then and up the when things begin to go wrong you know joe s record he s since my time well e s a terror that s all it s only that can master im you see the man for yourself six foot fourteen stone and of u stone the devil s beat im twice but the second time e ad all is work to do it well well we ve got to go through with it you ve not seen boy jim put his up or maybe you d think better of his chances when he was short of sixteen he licked the cock of the south downs and he s come on a long way since then the company was through the door and down the stair so we followed in the stream a fine rain was falling and the yellow lights from the windows upon the wet of the yard how welcome was that breath of sweet damp air after the atmosphere of the supper room at the other end of the yard was an open door sharply by the gleam of within and through this they poured and each other in their eagerness to get to the front for my own part being a man i should have seen nothing had i not found an bucket in a comer upon which i perched myself with the wall at my back it was a large room with a wooden floor and an open square in the ceiling which was fringed with the heads of the and stable boys who were looking down from the harness room above a carriage lamp was in each comer and a very large stable lantern hung from a in the fight in the coach house the centre a of rope had been brought m and under the direction of four men had been stationed to hold it what space do you give them asked my uncle twenty four as they are both big ones sir very good and half minutes between rounds i suppose i ll if sir will do the same and you can hold the watch and with great speed and every preparation was rapidly made by these experienced men and dutch sam were to attend to while and jack did the same for boy jim and some brandy in a were passed over the heads of the crowd for the use of the seconds here s our man cried come along or we ll go to fetch you jim appeared in the ring stripped to the waist with a coloured handkerchief tied round his middle a shout of admiration came from the spectators as they looked upon the fine lines of his figure and i found myself roaring with the rest his shoulders were sloping rather than and his chest was deep rather than broad but the muscle was all in the right place rippling down in long low curves from neck to shoulder and from shoulder to elbow his work at the stone had developed his arms to their utmost and his healthy gave a sleek to his ivory skin which shone in the t his expression was of spirit and confidence and he wore a grim sort of half smile which i had seen many a time in our boyhood and which meant i knew that his pride had set iron hard and that his senses would fail him long before his courage joe in the meanwhile had in and stood with folded arms between his seconds in the opposite comer his face had none of the eager of his opponent and his skin of a dead white with heavy folds about the chest and ribs showed even to my inexperienced eyes that he was not a man who should fight without training a life of and ease had left him and gross on the other hand he was famous for his and for his power so that even in the face of the advantages of youth and condition the was three to one in his favour his heavy face expressed ferocity as well as courage and he stood with his small blood shot eyes fixed upon jim and his shoulders stooping a little forwards like a fierce hound straining on a the of the had risen until it drowned all other sounds men shouting their the fight in the coach house opinions from one side of the coach house to the other and waving their hands to attract attention or as a sign that they had accepted a sir john standing just in front of me was roaring out the odds against jim and laying them freely with those who fancied the appearance of the unknown i ve seen fight said he to the honourable no country is going to knock out a man with such a record he may be a country the other answered but i have been reckoned a judge of either on two legs or four and i teu you sir john that i never saw a man	4
who looked better bred in my life are you still against him three to one have you once in hundreds very good there they go i think that i shall trouble you for that hundred the two men had stood up to each other jim as light upon his feet as a goat with his left well out and his right thrown across the lower part of his chest while held both arms half extended and his feet almost level so that he might lead off with either side for an instant they looked each other over and then his head and rushing in with a hand it stone over hand style of bored jim down into his comer it was a backward slip rather than a but a thin of blood was seen at the comer of jim s mouth in an instant the seconds had seized their men and carried them back into their comers do you mind our bet said who was his neck to get a of jim four to one on four to one on cried the the odds have gone up you see will you have four to one in hundreds very good sir john you seem to fancy him more for having been knocked down he was pushed down but he stopped every blow and i liked the look on his face as he got up well it s the old for me here they come again he s got a pretty style and he covers his points well but it isn t the best looking that wins they were at it again and i was jumping about upon my bucket in my excitement it was evident that meant to finish the battle off hand whilst jim with two of the most experienced men in england to advise him was quite aware that his correct were to allow the fight in the coach house the to his strength and wind in vain there was something horrible in the ferocious energy of s every blow from him as he smashed it in and after each i gazed at jim as i have gazed at a vessel upon the beach when wave after wave has roared over it fearing each time that i should find it miserably but still the shone upon the lad s clear alert face upon his well opened eyes and his mouth while the blows were taken upon his or allowed by a quick duck of the head to whistle over his shoulder but was as well as violent gradually he worked jim back into an angle of the ropes from which there was no escape and then when he had him fairly he sprang upon him like a tiger what happened was so quick that i cannot set its down in words but i saw jim make a quick stoop under the swinging arms and at the same instant i heard a sharp ringing and there was jim dancing about in the middle of the ring and lying upon his side on the floor with his hand to his eye how they roared prize prince stable boy and landlord were all shouting at the top of their lungs old was about on a box beside me shrieking out and advice in strange stone ring which no one could understand his dull eyes were shining his face was quivering with excitement and his strange musical call rang out above all the the two men were hurried to their comers one second them down and the other flapping a in front of their faces whilst they with arms hanging down and legs extended tried to draw all the air they could into their lungs in the brief space them where s your now cried triumphantly did ever you witness anything more he s no raw certainly said sir john shaking his head what odds are you giving on lord two to one i take you twice in hundreds here s sir john cried my uncle smiling back at us over his shoulder time said and the two men sprang forward to the mark again this round was a good deal shorter than that which had preceded it s orders evidently were to close at any cost and so make use of his extra weight and strength before the superior condition of his could have time to tell on the other hand jim after his experience in the last round was less disposed to make the fight in the coach house any great exertion to keep him at arms length he led at s head as he came rushing in and missed him receiving a severe body blow in return which left the of four angry above his ribs as they closed jim caught his opponent s bullet head under his arm for an instant and put a couple of half arm blows in but the prize pulled him over by his weight and the two fell panting side by side upon the ground jim sprang up however and walked over to his comer while distressed by his evening s leaned one arm upon and the other upon dutch sam as he made for his seat to cried where s the four to one now give us time to get the lid off our said we mean to make a night of it looks like it said jack he s shut one of his eyes even money that my boy wins it how much asked several voices two pound and cried counting out all his worldly wealth time said once more they were both at the mark in an instant jim as full of confidence as ever and with a fixed grin upon his bull dog face and a stone most vicious gleam in the only eye which was of use to him his half minute had not enabled him to recover his breath and his huge hairy chest was rising and falling	4
with a quick loud panting like a spent hound go in boy bustle him roared and get your wind joe get your wind cried the jews so now we had a of for it was jim who went in to hit with all the vigour of his young strength and energy while it was the savage who was paying his debt to nature for the many injuries which he done her he gasped he his face grew purple in his attempts to get his breath while with his long left arm extended and his right thrown across he tried to screen himself from the attack of his drop when he cried drop and have a rest but there was no shyness or about s fighting he was always a gallant who to go down before an as long as his legs would sustain him he propped jim off with his long arm and though the lad sprang lightly round him looking for an opening he was held off as if a forty inch bar of iron were between them every instant now was in favour of and already his breathing was easier and the tinge fading the fight in the coach house from his face jim knew that his chance of a speedy victory was slipping away from him and he came back again and again as swift as a flash to the attack without being able to get past the passive defence of the trained fighting man it was at such a moment that was needed and luckily for jim two masters of it were at his back get your left on his mark boy they shouted then go to his head with the right jim heard and acted on the instant came his left just where his s ribs curved from his breast bone the force of the blow was half broken by s elbow but it served its purpose of bringing forward his head went the right with the clear crisp sound of two balls clapping together and flung up his arms spun round and fell in a huge heap upon the floor his seconds were on him instantly and propped him up in a sitting position his head helplessly from one shoulder to the other and finally backwards with his chin pointed to the ceiling dutch sam thrust the brandy between his teeth while shook him savagely and howled in his ear but neither the spirits nor the sense of injury could break into that serene time was duly called and the jews seeing that the stone affair was over let their man s head fall back with a crack upon the floor and there he lay his huge arms and legs whilst the and fighting men crowded past him to shake the hand of his conqueror for my part i tried also to press through the throng but it was no easy task for one of the smallest and men in the room on all sides of me i heard a brisk discussion from s and of jim s performance and of his prospects he s the best bit of new stuff that i ve seen since fought his first fight with jones at four years ago last april said you ll see him with the belt round his waist before he s five and twenty or am no judge of a man that handsome face of his has cost me a cool five hundred grumbled sir john who d have thought he was such a for all that said another i am confident that if joe had been sober he would have eaten him besides the lad was in training and the other would burst like an if he were hit i never saw a man so soft or with his wind in such condition put the men in training and it s a horse to a hen on the some agreed with the last speaker and some u the fight in the coach house were against him so that a brisk argument was being carried on me in the midst of it the prince took his departure which was the signal for the greater part of the company to make for the door in this way i was able at last to reach the comer where jim had just finished his dressing while champion with tears of joy still shining upon his cheeks was helping him on with his overcoat in four rounds he kept repeating in a sort of an ecstasy joe in four rounds and it took fourteen well cried jim holding out his hand i told you that i would come to london and make my name known it was splendid jim dear old i saw your white face staring at me from the comer you are not changed for all your grand clothes and your london friends it is you who are changed jim said i i hardly knew you when you came into the room nor i cried the smith where got you all these fine feathers jim sure i am that it was not your aunt who helped you to the first step towards the prize ring miss has been my friend the best i ever had stone i thought as much grumbled the smith well it is no doing of mine jim and you must bear witness to that when we go home again i don t know what but there it is done and it can t be helped after all she s now the deuce take my clumsy tongue i could not tell whether it was the wine which he had taken at supper or the excitement of boy jim s victory which was affecting but his usually placid face wore a most disturbed expression and his manner seemed to betray an of exultation and embarrassment jim looked at him wondering evidently what it was that lay behind these abrupt sentences and	4
as was his custom of an evening clad in his green riding frock his plate buttons his boots and his round hat to show himself upon his crop in the i had remained behind for indeed i had already made up my mind that i had no calling for this fashionable life these men with their small their gestures and their unnatural ways had become wearisome to me and even my uncle with his cold and manner filled me with very mixed feelings my thoughts were back in and i was dreaming of the kindly simple ways of the country when there came a rat at the the ring of a hearty voice and there in the door stone way was the smiling weather beaten face with the eyelids and the light blue eyes why you are grand indeed he cried but i had rather see you with the king s blue coat upon your back than with all these and and i had rather wear it father it my heart to hear you say so lord has promised me that he would find a berth for you and to morrow we shall seek him out and remind him of it but where is your uncle he is riding in the a look of relief passed over my father s honest face for he was never very easy in his brother s company i have been to the said he and i trust that i shall have a ship when war breaks out by all accounts it will not be long first lord st told me so with his own lips but i am at s where if you will come and sup with me you will see some of my from the when you think that in the last year of the war we had and afloat commanded by officers and that half of these had been tiu ned adrift when the peace of laid their ships up in the or creek you will understand that the coffee room of s don as well as the towns was of you could not walk the streets without catching sight of the faced keen eyed men whose plain clothes told of their thin as plainly as their air showed their weariness of a life of forced and amid the dark streets and brick houses there was something out of place in their appearance as when the sea driven by stress of weather are seen in the es yet while or there was a chance of an appointment by showing their faces at the so long they would continue to pace with their quarter deck down or to gather of an evening to discuss the events of the last war or the chances of the next at s in oxford street which was reserved as entirely for the navy as slaughter s was for the army or s for the church of england it did not surprise me therefore that we should find the large room in which we crowded with naval men but i remember that what did cause me some astonishment was to observe that all these sailors who had served under the most varying conditions in all quarters of the globe from the to the east indies should have been into so uniform a type that they were more like each other than brother is com stone to brother the rules of the service that every face should be clean shaven every head powdered and every neck covered by the little of natural hair tied with a black silk ribbon biting winds and tropical had combined to them whilst the habit of command and the menace of ever dangers had stamped them all with the same expression of authority and of there were some jovial faces amongst them but the older officers with their deep lined cheeks and their mastered noses were for the most part as austere as so many weather beaten from the desert lonely watches and a discipline which cut them off from all companionship had left their mark upon those red indian faces for my part i could hardly eat my supper for watching them young as i was i knew that if there were any freedom left in europe it was to these men that we owed it and i seemed to read upon their grim harsh features the record of that long ten years of struggle which had swept the from the seas when we had finished our supper my father led me into the great coffee room where a hundred or more officers may have been assembled drinking their wine and smoking their long clay pipes until the air was as thick as the in a close fought action as we entered the coffee room of s we found ourselves face to face with an elderly officer who was coming out he was a man with large thoughtful eyes and a placid face such a face as one would expect from a philosopher and a rather than from a fighting seaman here s whispered my father lieutenant stone cried the famous admiral very cheerily i have scarce caught a of you since you came aboard the excellent after st you had the luck to be at the also i understand i was third of the under sir it nearly broke my heart to have missed it i have not yet it to think of such a gallant service and i engaged in the market boats the miserable of st your was better than mine sir said a voice from behind us and a large man in the full uniform of a post captain took a step forward to include himself in our circle his face was heavy with emotion and he shook his head miserably as he spoke yes yes i can understand and with your feelings i passed through torment that night it left a mark on me that i	4
shall stone never lose until i go over the ship s side in a canvas cover to have my beautiful laid on a just out of to hear and see the fight the whole night through and never to pull a or take the out of my guns twice i opened my pistol case to blow out my brains and it was but the thought that might have a use for me that held me back shook the hand of the unfortunate captain admiral was not long in finding a use for you said he we have all heard of your siege of and how you ran up your ship s guns without or and fired point blank through the the melancholy cleared away fi om the massive face of the big seaman and his deep laughter filled the room i m not clever enough or slow enough for their z z fashions said he we got alongside and it in through their port holes until they struck their colours but where have you been sir with my wife and my two little at in the north country i have but seen them this once in ten years and it may be ten more for all i know ere i see them again the coffee room of s i have been doing good work for the fleet up yonder i had thought sir that it was inland said my father took a little black bag out of his pocket and shook it inland it is said he and yet i have done good work for the fleet there what do you suppose i hold in this bag bullets said something that a sailor needs even more than that answered the admiral and turning it over he a pile of on to his palm i carry them with me in my country walks and where i see a nook i thrust one deep with the end of my cane my oak trees may fight those over the water when i am long forgotten do you know lieutenant how many oaks go to make an eighty gun ship my father shook his head two thousand no less for every ship that carries the white there is a grove the less in england so how are our to beat the french if we do not give them the trees with which to build their ships he replaced his bag in his pocket and then passing his arm through s they went through the door together there s a man whose life might help you to stone trim your own course said my father as we took our seats at a vacant table he is ever the same quiet gentleman with his thoughts busy for the comfort of the ship s company and his heart with his wife and children whom he has so seldom seen it is said in the fleet that an oath has never passed his lips though how he managed when he was first lieutenant of a raw crew is more than i can conceive but they all love for they know he s an angel to fight how d ye do captain my respects sir ed ard i why if they could but press the company they would man a with flag officers there s many a man here continued my father as he glanced about him whose name may never find its way into any book save his own ship s log but who in his own way has set as fine an example as any admiral of them all we know them and talk of them in the fleet though they may never be in the streets of london there s as much and pluck in a good action as in a o battle ship fight though you may not come by a title nor the thanks of parliament for it there s for example the quiet man who is leaning against the pillar it was he who with six boats cut out the gun fi om under the the coffee room of s of two hundred shore guns in the harbour of no finer action was done in the whole war there s with the whiskers it was he who attacked twelve spanish in his one uttle and made four of them strike to him there s of the rose who with thirteen men engaged three french with of a hundred and forty six he sank one captured one and chased the third how are you captain ball i hope i see you well two or three of my father s acquaintances who had been sitting close by drew up their chairs to us and soon quite a circle had formed all talking loudly and arguing upon sea matters shaking their long red tipped pipes at each other as they spoke my father whispered in my ear that his neighbour was captain of the who led the van at the and that the tall thin haired man opposite was lord the most dashing captain in the service even at s oak we had heard how in the uttle speedy of fourteen small guns with fifty four men he had carried by boarding the spanish with her crew of three hundred it was easy to see that he was a quick high blooded man for he was talking hotly about his with a flush of anger upon his cheeks stone we shall never do any good upon the ocean until we have hanged the he cried i d have a dead as a figure head for every first rate in the fleet and a provision dealer for every i know them with their and their devil five hundred lives that they may steal a few pounds worth of copper what became of the and of the martin and of the they at sea and were never heard of more and i say that the of them were	4
deck was in a blaze beneath them and when they must have known that they were standing over an magazine the general hope was that the west indian expedition since the peace might have given many of their fleet an ocean training and that they might be tempted out into mid channel if the war were to break out afresh but would it break out afresh we had spent gigantic sums and made enormous exertions to the power of napoleon and to prevent him from becoming the universal of europe would the government try it again or were they appalled by the gigantic load of debt which must bend the backs of many generations was there and surely he was not a man to leave his work half done stone and then suddenly there was a bustle at the door amid the grey of the i could catch a glimpse of a blue coat and gold with a crowd gathering thickly round them while a hoarse murmur rose from the group which into a cheer every one was on his feet peering and asking each other what it might mean and the crowd and the cheering swelled what is it what has happened cried a score of voices put him up him up shouted somebody and an instant later i saw captain appear above the shoulders of the crowd his face was flushed as if he were in wine and he was waving what seemed to be a letter in the air the cheering died away and there was such a hush that i could hear the of the paper in his hand great news gentlemen he roared glorious news rear admiral has directed me to communicate it to you the french has received his papers tonight every ship on the list is to go into commission admiral is ordered out of bay to off a is starting for the north sea and another for the irish channel the coffee room of s he may have had more to say but his audience could wait no longer how they shouted and stamped and in their delight harsh old flag officers grave post captains young all were roaring like breaking up for the holidays there was no thought now of those manifold and weary to which i had listened the foul weather was passed and the sea birds would be out on the foam once more the of god save the king swelled through the and i heard the old lines sung in a way that made you forget their bad and their bald sentiments i trust that you will never hear them so sung with tears upon rugged cheeks and of the breath from strong men dark days will have come again before you hear such a song or see such a sight as that let those talk of the of our countrymen who have never seen them when the crust of restraint is broken and when for an instant the strong enduring fires of the north glow upon the surface i saw them then and if i do not see them now i am not so old or so foolish as to doubt that they are there chapter lord my father s appointment with lord was an early one and he was the more anxious to be as he knew how much the admiral s movements must be affected by the news which we had heard the night before i had hardly then and my uncle had not rung for his when he called for me at street a walk of a few hundred yards brought us to the high building of brick in which served the as a town house and which used as his when business or pleasure called him from a footman answered our knock and we were ushered into a large drawing room with sombre furniture and melancholy curtains my father sent in his name and there we sat looking at the white italian in the corners and the picture of and the bay of which hung over the i can remember that a black clock was loudly upon the and that every now and then amid the of the lord we could hear boisterous laughter fit in some inner chamber when at last the door opened both my father and i sprang to our feet expecting to find ourselves face to face with the greatest it was a very different person however who swept into the room she was a lady tall and as it seemed to me exceedingly though perhaps one who was more experienced and more critical might have thought that her charm lay in the past rather than the present her figure was upon large and noble lines while her face though already tending to become somewhat heavy and coarse was still remarkable for the of the complexion the beauty of the large light blue eyes and the tinge of the chestnut hair which curled over the low white forehead she carried herself in the most stately fashion so that as i looked at her majestic entrance and at the pose which she struck as she glanced at my father i was reminded of the queen of the as in the person of miss she boy jim and myself to lieutenant stone she asked yes your answered my father ah she cried with an affected and exaggerated start you know me then stone have seen your at then you have doubtless seen my poor sir william also my poor poor sir william she touched her dress with her white ring covered fingers as if to draw our attention to the fact that she was in the deepest mourning i heard of your s sad loss said my father we died together she cried what can my life be now save a long drawn living death she spoke in a beautiful rich voice with the most heart broken thrill in it	4
but i could not conceal from myself that she appeared to be one of the most robust persons that i had ever seen and i was surprised to notice that she shot arch little questioning glances at me as if the admiration even of so insignificant a person were of some interest to her my father in his blunt sailor fashion tried to out some commonplace but her eyes swept past his rude weather beaten face to ask and what effect she had made upon me there he hangs the angel of this house she cried pointing with a grand sweeping gesture to a painting upon the wall which represented a very thin faced high gentleman with several orders upon his coat but enough of my private sorrow she dashed invisible tears from her eyes you have come u lord to see lord he bid me say that he would be with you in an instant you have doubtless heard that are about to we heard the news last night lord is under orders to take command of the fleet you can think at such a moment but ah is it not his s step that i hear my attention was so by the lady s curious manner and by the gestures and attitudes with which she accompanied every remark that i did not see the great admiral enter the room when i turned he was standing close by my elbow a small brown man with the slim figure of a boy he was not clad in uniform but he wore a high brown coat with the right sleeve hanging limp and empty by his side the expression of his face was as i remember it exceedingly sad and gentle with the deep hues upon it which told of the of his urgent and fiery soul one eye was and fix m a wound but the other looked from my father to myself with the and of expressions indeed his whole manner with his short sharp glance and the fine of the head spoke of energy and so that he reminded me if i may compare great things with small of a well bred stone fighting gentle and slim but keen and i for whatever chance might send why lieutenant stone said he with great cordiality holding out his left hand to my father i am very glad to see you london is of men but i trust that in a week there will not be an officer amongst you all with his feet on dry land i had come to ask you sir if you could assist me to a ship you shall have one stone if my word goes for anything at the i shall want all my old men at my back i cannot promise you a first rate but at least it shall be a gun ship and i can tell you that there is much to be done with a handy well well found gun ship who could doubt it who has heard of the i cried lady and straightway she began to talk of the admiral and of his doings with such extravagance of praise and such a shower of and of that my father and i did not know which way to look shame and sorrow for a man who was compelled to listen to such things said in his own presence but when i ventured to glance at lord i found to my surprise that far from showing any embarrassment he was smiling with pleasure as if this gross flattery of her lady lord ship s were the dearest thing in all the world to him come come my dear lady said he you speak vastly beyond my merits upon which encouragement she started again in a theatrical to britain s darling and s eldest son which he endured with the same signs of gratitude and pleasure that a man of the world five and forty years of age shrewd honest and acquainted with courts should be by such crude and coarse homage amazed me as it did all who knew him but you who have seen much of life do not need to be told how often the strongest and noblest nature has its one weakness showing up the more obviously in contrast to the rest as the dark stain looks the upon the sheet you are a sea officer of my own heart stone said he when her had exhausted her you are one of the old breed he walked up and down the room with little impatient steps as he talked with a upon his heel every now and then as if some invisible rail had brought him up we are getting too fine for our work with these and quarter deck when i joined the service you would find a lieutenant and his own or aloft maybe with a ft it stone round his neck showing an example to his mai now it s as much as he ll do to his own up the companion when could you join to night my lord right stone right that is the true spirit they are working double tides in the yards but i do not know when the ships will be ready i my flag on the victory on wednesday and we sail at once no no not so soon she cannot be ready for sea said lady in a wailing voice clasping her hands and turning up her eyes as she spoke she must and she shall be ready cried with extraordinary vehemence by heaven if the devil stands at the door i sail on wednesday who knows what these may be doing in my absence it me to think of the which they may be at this very instant dear lady the queen our queen may be straining her eyes for the of s ships thinking as i did that he was speaking of our own old	4
queen i could make no meaning out of this but my father told me afterwards that both and lady had conceived an extraordinary affection for the queen of and that it was the interests of lord her little kingdom which he had so at heart it may have been my expression of bewilderment which attracted s attention to me for he suddenly stopped in his quick quarter deck walk and looked me up and down with a severe eye well young gentleman said he sharply this is my only son sir said my father it is my wish that he should join the service if a berth can be found for him for we have all been king s officers for many generations so you wish to come and have your bones broken cried roughly looking with much at the fine clothes which had cost my uncle and mr such a debate you will have to change that grand coat for a jacket if you serve under me sir i was so embarrassed by the of his manner that i could but out that i hoped i should do my duty on which his stem mouth relaxed into a good humoured smile and he laid his little brown hand for an instant upon my shoulder i dare say that you will do very well said he i can see that you have the stuff in you but do not imagine that it is a light service which you undertake young gentleman when you enter his majesty s navy it is a hard profession you hear of the few who succeed but stone what do you know of the hundreds who never find then way look at my own luck out of who were with me in the san expedition died in a single night i have been in engagements and i have as you see lost my eye and my arm and been sorely wounded besides it chanced that i came through and here i am flying my admiral s flag but i remember many a man as good as me who did not come through yes he added as her broke in with a protest many and many as good a man who has gone to the or the land but it is a useless sailor who does not risk himself every day and the lives of all of us are in the hands of him who best knows when to claim them for an instant in his earnest gaze and manner we seemed to catch a glimpse of the deeper truer the man of the eastern in the which sent from that district the to fashion england within and the pilgrim fathers to spread it without here was the who declared that he saw the hand of god pressing upon the french and who waited on his knees in the cabin of his flag ship while she bore down upon the enemy s line there was a human tenderness too in his way of speaking of his dead comrades which made me why it lord was that he was so beloved by all who served with him for iron hard as he was as seaman and there ran through his complex nature a sweet and un english power of affectionate emotion showing itself in tears if he were moved and in such tender impulses as led him afterwards to ask his flag captain to kiss him as he lay dying in the of the victory my father had risen to depart but the admiral with that which he ever showed to the young and which had been chilled by the splendour of my clothes still paced up and down in front of us shooting out crisp little sentences of and advice it is that we need in the service young gentleman said he we need red hot men who will never rest satisfied we had them in the and we shall have them again there was a band of brothers when i was asked to recommend one for special service i told the they might take the names as they came for the same spirit animated them all had we taken nineteen vessels we should never have said it was well done while the twentieth sailed the seas you know how it was with us stone you are too old a man for me to tell you anything i trust my lord that i shall be with you when next we meet them said my father stone meet them we shall and must by heaven i shall never rest until i have given them a shaking the wishes to humble us let him try and god help the better cause he spoke with such extraordinary animation that the empty sleeve about in the air giving him the strangest appearance seeing my eyes fixed upon it he turned with a smile to my father i can still work my fin stone said he putting his hand across to the stump of his arm what used they to say in the fleet about it that it was a sign sir that it was a bad hour to cross your they knew me the you can see young gentleman that not a scrap of the with which i serve my has been shot away some day you may find that you are flying your own flag and when that time comes you may remember that my advice to an is that he should have nothing to do with tame slow measures lay all your stake and if you lose through no fault of your own the will find you another stake as large never mind go for them the only you need is that which will place you alongside your enemy always fight and you will always be right give not a thought to your lord own ease or your own life for from the day that you draw the blue	4
coat over your back you have no life of your own it is the country s to be most freely spent if the smallest gain can come from it how is the wind this morning stone east south east my father answered read then is doubtless keeping well up to though for my own part i had rather tempt them out into the open sea that is what every officer and man in the fleet would prefer your said my father they do not love the service and it is little wonder since neither money nor honour is to be gained at it you can remember how it was in the winter months before stone when we had neither firing wine beef pork nor flour aboard the ships nor a spare piece of rope canvas or we the old with our spare and god knows there was never a that i did not expect it to send us to the bottom but we held our grip all the same yet i fear that we do not get much credit for it here in england stone where they light the windows for a great battle but they do not understand that it is easier for us to fight the six times over than to keep our station all winter in the but i pray god that stone we may meet this new fleet of theirs and settle the matter by a battle may i be with you my lord said my father earnestly but we have already taken too much of your time and so i beg to thank you for your kindness and to wish you good morning gk od morning stone said you shall have your ship and if i can make this young gentleman one of my officers it shall be done but i gather from his dress he continued running his eye over me that you have been more fortunate in prize money than most of your comrades for my own part i never did nor could turn my thoughts to money making my father explained that i had been imder the charge of the famous sir charles who was my uncle and with whom i was now then you need no help from me said with some bitterness if you have either guineas or interest you can climb over the heads of old sea officers though you may not know the from the or a from a long nine nevertheless but what the deuce have we here the footman had suddenly himself into the room but stood abashed before the fierce glare of the admiral s eye lord your told me to rush to you if it should come he explained holding out a large blue envelope by heaven it is my orders cried it up and with it in his awkward one handed attempt to break the lady ran to his assistance but no sooner had she glanced at the paper than she burst into a shrill scream and throwing up her hands and her eyes she sank backwards in a i could not but observe however that her fall was very carefully executed and that she was fortunate enough in spite of her to arrange her and attitude into a graceful and classical design but he the honest seaman so incapable of deceit or affectation that he could not suspect it in others ran madly to the bell shouting for the maid the doctor and the smelling with words of grief and such passionate terms of emotion that my father thought it more discreet to me by the sleeve as a signal that we should steal from the room there we left him then in the london drawing room beside himself with pity for this shallow and most artificial woman while without at the edge of the there stood the high dark ready to start him upon that long journey which was to end in his chase of the french fleet over seven thousand stone miles of ocean his meeting with it his victory which confined napoleon s ambition for ever to the land and his death coming as i would it might come to all of us at the crowning moment of his life chapter xiv on the road and now the day of the great fight began to approach even the outbreak of war and the renewed threats of napoleon were secondary m the eyes of the and the in those days made a e half of the population in the club of the and the gin shop in the coffee house of the merchant or the of the soldier in london or the provinces the same question was interesting the whole nation every west country coach brought up word of the fine condition of who had returned to his own native air for his training and was known to be under the immediate care of captain the expert on the other hand although my uncle had not yet named his man there was no doubt amongst the public that jim was to be his and the report of his and of his performance found him many on the whole however the was in favour of for and the west country stood by him to a man whilst london opinion was divided three to two were to be had on stone son at any west end club two days before the battle i had twice been down to to see m his training quarters where i found him the severe which was usual from early dawn until nightfall he was running jumping striking a which swung upon a bar or with his formidable his eyes shone and his skin glowed with health and he was so confident of success that my own vanished as i watched his gallant bearing and listened to his quiet and cheerful words but i wonder that you should come and see me now said he when	4
we parted trying to laugh as he spoke i have become a and your s paid man whilst you are a upon town if you had not been the best and truest uttle gentleman in the world you would have been my patron instead of my friend before now when i looked at this splendid fellow with his high bred clean cut face and thought of the fine and gentle generous impulses which i knew to he within him it seemed so absurd that he should speak as though my friendship towards him were a condescension that i could not help laughing aloud that is all very well said he look on the road ing hard into my eyes but what does your uncle think about it this was a and i could only answer enough that much as i was indebted to my uncle i had known jim first and that i was surely old enough to choose my own friends jim s were so far correct that my did very strongly object to any intimacy between us but there were so many other points in which he of my conduct that it made the less difference i fear that he was already disappointed in me i would not develop an although he was good enough to point out several by which i might come out of the as he expressed it and so catch the attention of the strange world in which he lived you are an active young fellow nephew said he do you not think that you could engage to climb round the furniture of an ordinary room without setting foot upon the ground some uttle tour de force of the sort is in excellent taste there was a captain in the guards who attained considerable social success by doing it for a small lady who is exceedingly used to invite him to her evenings merely that he might exhibit it i had to assure him that the feat would be beyond me stone you are just a little said he his shoulders as my nephew you might have taken your position by my own delicacy of taste if you had made bad taste your enemy the world of fashion would willingly have looked upon you as an by virtue of your family traditions and you might without a struggle have stepped into the position to which this young but you have no instinct in that direction you are incapable of minute attention to detail look at your shoes look at your look at your watch chain two links are enough to show i have shown three but it was an at this moment i can see no less than five of yours i regret it nephew but do not think that you are destined to attain that position which i have a right to expect from my blood relation i am sorry to be a disappointment to you sir said i it is your misfortune not to have come under my influence earlier said he i might then have you so as to have satisfied even my own aspirations i had a younger brother whose case was a similar one i did what i could for him but he would wear ribbons in his shoes and he publicly white for wine eventually the poor on the road fellow took to books and lived and died in a country he was a good man but he was commonplace and there is no place in society for commonplace people then i fear sir that there is none for me said i but my father has every hope that lord will find me a position in the fleet if i have been a failure in town i am none the less conscious of your kindness in trying to advance my interests and i hope that should i receive my commission i may be a credit to you yet it is possible that you may attain the very spot which i had marked out for you but by another road said my there are many men in town such as lord st lord hood and others who move in the most respectable circles although they have nothing but their services in the navy to recommend them it was on the afternoon of the day before the fight that this conversation took place between my uncle and myself in the dainty of his street house he was clad i remember in his flowing dressing gown as was his custom before he set off for his club and his foot was extended upon a stool for had just been in to treat him for an attack of the it may have been the pain or it may have been his disappointment stone at my career but his manner was more than was usual with him and i fear that there was something of a sneer in his smile as he spoke of my for my own part i was re at the explanation for my father had left london in the full conviction that a would speedily be found for us both and the one thing which had weighed upon my mind was that i might have foimd it hard to leave my uncle without interfering with the plans which he had formed i was heart weary of this empty life for which i was so ill fashioned and weary also of that talk which would make a of frivolous women and foolish the central point of the universe something of my s sneer may have upon my lips as i heard him allude with surprise to the presence in those circles of the men who had stood between the country and destruction by the way nephew said he or no and whether it or not we must be down at to night the battle will take place upon downs sir and his man are at i have reserved beds	4
at the george for both of us the crush will it is said exceed anything ever known the smell of these country is always most offensive to me on the road was saying in the club last night that there is not a bed within twenty miles of which is not and that they are charging three guineas for the night i hope that your young friend if i must describe him as such will fulfil the promise which he has shown for i have rather more upon the event than i care to lose sir has been plunging also he made a single bye bet of five thousand to three upon in s yesterday from what i hear of his a it will be a serious matter for him if we should pull it off well a person to see you sir charles said the new you know that i never see any one my dressing is complete he upon seeing you sir he pushed open the door pushed it open what d you mean why didn t you put him out a smile passed over the servant s face at the same moment there came a deep voice from the passage you show me in this instant young man d ye ear let me see your master or it ll be the worse for you i thought that i had heard the voice before but when over the shoulder of the i caught stone a glimpse of a large bull face with a michael nose in the centre of it i knew at once that it was my at the supper party it s the prize sir said i yes sir said our visitor pushing his huge form into the it s bill landlord of the one street and the man upon the list there s only one thing that ever beat me sir charles and that was my flesh which over me that fast that i ve always got four stone that as no business there why sir i ve got enough to spare to make a feather weight champion out of you d think to look at me that even after fought me i was able to jump the four foot ropes at the ring side just as light as a little but if i was to my into the ring now i d never get it till the wind blew it out again for blow my if i could climb after my s to you young sir and i i see you well my s face had expressed considerable disgust at this invasion of his privacy but it was part of his position to be on good terms with the fighting men so he contented himself with asking what business had brought him there for answer the huge prize looked at the on the road it s important sir charles and between man and man said he you may go now what is the matter the very calmly seated himself of a chair with his arms resting upon the back of it i ve got information sir charles said he well what is it cried my uncle impatiently information of value out with it then information that s worth money said and up his lips i see you want to be paid for what you know the prize smiled an affirmative well i don t buy things on trust you should know me better than to try on such a game with me i know you for what you are sir charles and that is a noble slap up but if i was to use this against you d ye see it would be worth in my pocket but my won t let me do it for bill s always been on the side o good sport and fair play if i use it for you then i expect that you won t see me the you can do what you like said my uncle stone if your news is of service to me i shall know how to treat you you can t say fairer than that well let it stand there nor and you ll do the thing as you ave always ad the name for well then your man jim fights of at down tomorrow for a stake what of that did you to know what the was yesterday it was three to two on right you are nor three to two was offered in my own bar parlour d you know what the is to day i have not been out yet then i ll tell you it s seven to one against your man what seven to one nor no less you re talking nonsense how could the change from three to two to seven to one i ve been to tom s and i ve been to the in the wall and i ve been to the and and you can get seven to one in any of them there s tons of money being laid against your man it s a to a en in every and ken from ere to on the road for a moment the expression upon my uncle s face made me realize that this match was really a serious matter to him then he shrugged his shoulders with an incredulous smile all the worse for the fools who give the odds said he my man is all right you saw him yesterday nephew he was all right yesterday sir if an had gone wrong i should have heard but perhaps said it as not gone wrong with im yet what d you mean i ll tell you what i mean sir you remember you know that e ain t to be depended on at any time and that e ad a grudge against your man cause e laid im out in the coach well last night about ten o clock	4
in e comes into my bar and the three in london at is there was red ike im that was warned oflf the ring cause e fought a cross with and there was who would sell is mother for a seven bit the third was mc who is a by trade with a pitch outside the a theatre you don t often see four such beauties together and all with as much as they could carry save only who is too a to drink when stone there s goin forward for my part i showed em into the parlour not they was worthy of it but i knew right well they would start some of my customers and maybe get my license into trouble if i left em in the bar i served em with drink and stayed with em just to see that they didn t lay their on the stuffed and the pictures well nor to cut it short they began to talk about the fight and they all laughed at the idea that young jim could win it all except and e kept a and at the others until joe nearly gave him a wipe across the face for is trouble i saw was in the wind and it wasn t very ard to guess what it was especially when red ike was ready to put up a that jim would never fight at all so i up to get another bottle of and i slipped round to the that we pass the liquor through from the private bar into the parlour i drew it an inch open and i might ave been at the table with them i could ear every word that clearly there was at them for not their tongues still and there was joe that e would knock is face in if e dared give im any of is lip so e sort of argued with them for e was frightened on the road of and e put it to them whether they would be fit for the job in the and whether the nor would pay the money if e found they ad been and were not to be trusted this struck them sober all three an fighting asked what time they were to start said that as long as they were at before the george shut up they could work it it s poor pay for a chance of a rope said red ike rope be damned cried a little loaded stick out of his side pocket if three of you old him down and i break his with this we ve earned money and we don t risk more n six months e ll fight said well it s the only fight e ll get answered and that was all i of it this out i went and i found as i told you afore that the money is goin on to by the ton and that no odds are too long for the so it stands nor and you know what the of it may be better than bill can tell you very good said my rising i am very much obliged to you for telling me this and i will see that you are not a by it i put it down as the gossip of drunken but none the less you have served me vastly by calling my attention to it i suppose i shall see you at the downs to morrow stone mr as asked me to be one o the out sir very good i hope that we shall have a and good fight day to you and thank you my uncle had preserved his as long as was in the room but the door had hardly closed upon him before he turned to me with a face which was more agitated than i had ever seen it we must be off for at once nephew said he ringing the bell there s not a moment to be lost order the to be in the put the toilet things in and tell to have it round at the door as soon as possible see to it sir said i and away i ran to the in little street where my uncle his horses the groom was away and i had to send a lad in search of him while with the help of the i dragged the from the coach house and brought the two out of their it was half an hour or possibly three quarters before everything had been found and was already waiting in street with the inevitable baskets whilst my uncle stood in the open door of his house clad in his long coloured driving coat with no sign upon his calm pale face of on the road the tumult of impatience which must i was sure be raging we shall leave you said he we might find it hard to get a bed for you keep at her head william jump in nephew what is the matter now the prize was hastening towards us as fast as his bulk would allow just one word before you go sir charles he panted i ve just card in my that the four men i spoke of left for at one o clock very good said my uncle with his foot upon the step and the odds ave risen to ten to one let go her head william i just one more word nor excuse the liberty but if i was you i d take my pistols with me thank you i have them the long cracked between the ears of the leader the groom sprang for the pavement and street had changed for st james s and that again for with a swiftness which showed that the gallant were as impatient as their master it was half past by the parliament clock as we flew on to westminster bridge there	4
with of foam headed to those throats the ale drinking the rude good fellowship the the laughter at the craving to see the fight all these may be set down as vulgar and trivial by those to whom they are but to me listening to the far off and uncertain echoes of our distant past they seem to have been the very bones upon which much that is most solid and in this ancient race was but alas for chance of hastening even my s skill could not pick a passage through that moving mass we could but fall on the road into our places and be content to along from to and on to cross and over heath while day shaded away into twilight and that deepened into night at bridge the carriage lamps were all lit and it was wonderful where the road curved downwards before us to see this serpent with the golden scales crawling before us in the darkness and then at last we saw the mass of the huge elm before us in the gloom and there was the broad village street with the glimmer of the cottage windows and the high front of the old george inn glowing from every door and pane and in honour of the noble company who were to sleep within that night chapter xv foul play my uncle s impatience would not suffer him to wait for the slow which would bring us to the door but he flung the reins and a to one of the rough who thronged the side walk and pushing his way vigorously through the crowd he made for the entrance as he came within the circle of light thrown by the windows a whisper ran round as to who this gentleman with the pale face and the driving coat might be and a lane was formed to admit us i had never before understood the popularity of my uncle in the sporting world for the folk began to as we passed with cries of for buck i good luck to you and your man sir charles clear a path for a bang up noble whilst the landlord attracted by the shouting came running out to greet us good evening sir charles i he cried i hope i see you well sir and i trust that you will find that your man does credit to the george how is he asked my uncle quickly foul play never better sir looks a picture he does and fit to fight for a kingdom my uncle gave a sigh of relief where is he he asked he s gone to his room early sir that he had some very business to morrow said the landlord where is here he is in the bar parlour he opened a door as he spoke and looking in we saw a score of well dressed men some of whose faces had become to me during my short west end career seated round a table upon which stood a steaming soup filled with at the further end very much at his ease amongst the and who surrounded him sat the champion of england his superb figure thrown back in his chair a flush upon his handsome face and a loose red handkerchief knotted carelessly round his throat in the picturesque fashion which was long known by his name half a century has passed since then and i have seen my share of fine men perhaps it is because i am a creature myself but it is my peculiarity that i had rather look upon a splendid man than upon any work of nature yet during all that time i have never seen a finer man than jim and if i wish to match him in my memory i can only stone turn to that other whose and fortunes i am trying to lay before you there was a shout of jovial greeting when my uncle s face was seen in the doorway come in i we were expecting you i there s a ordered what s the latest fix m london what is the meaning of the long odds against your man have the folk gone mad what the devil is it all about they were all talking at once excuse me gentlemen my uncle answered i shall be happy to give you any information in my power a little later i have a matter of some slight importance to decide i would have a word with you i the champion came out with us into the passage where is man he has gone to his room sir i believe that he should have a clear twelve hours sleep before what sort of day has he had i did him lightly in the matter of exercise clubs walking and a half with the he ll do us all proud sir or i m a but what in the world s amiss with the if i didn t know that he was as straight as a line i d ha thought he was planning a cross and laying against foul play it s about that i ve hurried down i have good that there has been a plot to him and that the are so sure of success that they are prepared to lay anything his appearance whistled between his teeth i ve seen no sign of anything of the kind sir no one has been near him or had speech with him except only nephew there and myself four with at their head got the start of us by several hours it was who told me what bill says is straight and what joe does is crooked who were the others sir red ike fighting and a pretty gang too i well sir the lad is safe but it would be as well perhaps for one or other of us to stay in his room with him for	4
my own part as long as he s my charge i m never very far away it is a pity to wake him he can hardly be asleep with all this in the house this way sir and down the passage i we passed along the low of the old fashioned inn to the back of the house stone this is my room sir said nodding to a door upon the right this one upon the left is his he threw it open as he spoke here s sir charles come to see you jim said he and then good lord what is the meaning of this the uttle chamber lay before us brightly illuminated by a brass lamp which stood upon the table the bed clothes had not been turned down but there was an upon the which showed that some one had lain there one half of the window was swinging on its and a cloth cap lying upon the table was the only sign of the my uncle looked round him and shook his head it seems that we are too late said he that s his cap sir where in the world can he have gone to with his head bare i thought he was safe in his bed an ago jim jim i he shouted he has certainly gone through the window cried my i these have him out by some device of their own hold the lamp nephew ha i i thought so here are his upon the flower bed outside the landlord and one or two of the from the bar parlour had followed us to the foul play back of the house some one had opened the side door and we found in the kitchen garden where upon the gravel path we were able to hold the lamp over the soft newly turned earth which lay between us and the window that s his i said he wore his running boots this evening and you can see the nails but what s this some one else has been here a woman i i cried by heaven you re right nephew said my uncle gave a hearty curse he never had a word to say to any girl in the village i took notice of that and to think of them coming in like this at the last moment i it s clear as possible said the hon who was one of the company from the bar parlour whoever it was came outside the window and tapped you see here and here the small feet have their toes to the house while the others are all leading away she came to summon him and he followed her that is perfectly certain said my uncle there s not a moment to be lost we must divide and search in different directions we can get some clue as to where they have gone stone there s only the one path out of the garden cried the landlord leading the way it opens out into this back lane which leads up to the stables the other end of the lane goes out into the side road the bright yellow glare from a stable lantern cut a ring suddenly from the darkness and an came lounging out of the yard who s that cried the landlord it s me master bill how long have you been there bill well master i ve been in an out of the stables this hour back we can t pack in another and there s no use i t give them their feed for if they was to out just ever so little see here bill be how you answer for a mistake may cost you your place have you seen any one pass down the lane there was a in a rabbit skin cap some time ago e was about until i asked im what is business was for i didn t care about the looks of im or the way that e was in at the windows i turned the stable lantern on to im but e is face an i could only swear to is red i cast a quick glance at my uncle and i saw that the shadow had deepened upon his face what became of him he asked foul play e away sir an i saw the last of im you ve seen no one else you didn t for example see a woman and a man pass down the lane together no su or hear an i unusual why now that you mention it sir i did ear but on a night like this when all these london blades are in the village what was it then cried my uncle impatiently well sir it was a kind of a cry out yonder as if some one ad got into trouble i thought maybe two sparks were and i took no lar notice where did it come from from the side road yonder was it distant no sir i should say it didn t come from more n two hundred yards a single cry well it was a kind of sir and then i card somebody very ard down the road i remember that it was strange that any one should be driving away from on a great night like this my uncle seized the lantern from the fellow s hand and we all behind him down the stone lane at the further end the road cut it across at right angles down this my uncle hastened but his search was not a long one for the glaring fell suddenly upon something which brought a groan to my lips and a bitter curse to those of along the white surface of the dusty highway there was drawn a long of crimson while beside this ominous stain there lay a little pocket such as had described in the morning chapter xvi downs all through that	4
lies drunk in the passage he s been pouring it down like water ever since he drove in at six o clock so it s no wonder he s like that stone stooped down and turned over the man s head so as to show his features he s a stranger to me sir and to me added my uncle but not to me i cried it s john the landlord of the inn at s oak i ve known him ever since i was a boy and i can t be mistaken well what the devil can he know about it said nothing at all in all answered my uncle he is young jim because he knows him and because he has more brandy than sense his drunken confidence set others to do the same and so the odds came down he was as sober as a judge when he drove in here this morning said the landlord he began sir charles s from the moment he arrived some of the other boys took the office from him and they very soon brought the odds down amongst them i wish he had not brought himself down as well said my uncle i beg that you wiu bring me a little water landlord for the smell of this crowd is appalling i suppose you could not get any sense from this drunken fellow nephew or find out what it is he knows it was in vain that i rocked him by the shoulder and shouted his name in his ear downs ing could break in upon serene well it s a unique situation as far as my experience goes said here we are within a couple of hours of the fight and yet you don t know whether you have a man to represent you i hope you don t stand to lose very much my uncle shrugged his shoulders carelessly and took a pinch of his snuff with that sweeping gesture which no man has ever ventured to imitate pretty well my boy said he but it is time that we thought of going up to the downs this night journey has left me just a little and i should like half an hour of privacy to arrange my toilet if this is my last kick it shall at least be with a well brushed boot i have heard a traveller from the of america say that he looked upon the red indian and the english gentleman as closely akin the passion for sport the and the of the emotions in each i thought of his words as i watched my uncle that morning for i believe that no victim tied to the stake could have had a worse outlook before him it was not merely that his own fortunes were largely at stake but it was the dreadful position in which he would stand before this stone immense of people many of whom had put their money upon his judgment if he should find himself at the last moment with an impotent excuse instead of a champion to put before them what a situation for a man who himself upon his and upon all that he undertook to the very highest standard of success i who knew him well could tell from his wan cheeks and his restless fingers that he was at his wit s ends what to do but no stranger who observed his bearing the of his lace handkerchief the handling of his glass or the shooting of his would ever have thought that this butterfly creature could have had a care upon earth it was close upon nine o clock when we were ready to start for the downs and by that time my uncle s was almost the only vehicle left in the village street the night before they had lain with their wheels and their under each other s bodies as thick as they could fit from the old church to the elm the road five deep for a good half mile in length now the grey village street lay before us almost deserted save by a few women and children men horses carriages all were gone my uncle drew on his and arranged his costume with neatness but i observed that he glanced up and u downs down the road with a haggard and yet expectant eye before he took his seat i sat behind with while the hon took the place beside him the road from curves gently upwards to the clad which extends for many miles in every direction strings of most of them so weary and that it was evident that they had walked the y miles from london during the night were along by the sides of the road or trailing over the long slopes of the a dressed in green and splendidly mounted was waiting at the cross roads and as he towards us i recognized the dark handsome face and bold black eyes of i am waiting here to give the office sir charles said he it s down the road half a mile to the left very good said my uncle his round into the cross road you haven t got your man there remarked with something of suspicion in his manner what the devil is that to you cried furiously it s a good deal to all of us for there are some funny stories about stone you keep them to yourself then or you may wish you had never heard them all right your breakfast don t seem to have agreed with you this morning have the others arrived asked my uncle carelessly not yet sir charles but tom is there with the ropes and drove by just now and most of the ring are up we have still an hour remarked my uncle as he drove on it is possible that the others may be late since they have to	4
come from you take it like a man said we must keep a bold face and brazen it out until the last moment of course sir cried ill never believe the would rise like that if somebody didn t know something we ll hold on by our teeth and nails sir charles and see what comes of it we could hear a sound like the waves upon the beach long before we came in sight of that mighty multitude and then at last on a sudden dip of the road we saw it before us a of humanity with an open in the centre all round the thousands of car downs and horses were dotted over the and the slopes were gay with tents and a spot had been chosen for the ring where a great basin had been out in the ground so that all round that natural a crowd of thirty thousand people could see very well what was going on in the centre as we drove up a of greeting came fix m the people upon the fringe which was nearest to us spreading and spreading until the whole multitude had joined in the then an instant later a second shout broke forth beginning from the other side of the and the faces which had been turned towards us round so that in a twinkling the whole changed from white to dark it s they they are in time said my uncle and together standing up on our we could see the approaching over the downs in front came a huge yellow in which sat sir and captain his the were yellow from their caps those being the colours under which was to fight behind the carriage there rode a hundred or more and gentlemen of the west country and then a line of and carriages wound away down the road stone as far as our eyes could follow it the big came over the in our direction until sir caught sight of us when he shouted to his to pull up good morning su charles said he springing out of the carriage i thought i knew your scarlet we have an excellent morning for the battle my uncle bowed coldly and made no answer i suppose that since we are all here we may begin at once said sir taking no notice of the other s manner we begin at ten o clock not an instant before very good if you prefer it by the way sir charles where is your man i would ask you that question sir answered my uncle where is my man a look of astonishment passed over sir s features which if it were not real was most admirably affected what do you mean by asking me such a question because i wish to know but how can i tell and what business is it of mine i have reason to believe that you have made it your business downs if you would kindly put the matter a little more clearly there would be some possibility of my understanding you they were both very white and cold formal and in their bearing but exchanging glances which crossed like blades i thought of sir s as a and i trembled for my uncle now sir if you imagine that you have a grievance against me you will oblige me vastly by putting it into words i will said my uncle there has been a conspiracy to or my man and i have every reason to believe that you are to it an ugly sneer came over sir s face i see said he your man has not come on quite as well as you had expected in his training and you are hard put to it to invent an excuse still i should have thought that you might have found a more probable one and one which would less serious consequences sir answered my uncle you are a liar but how great a liar you are nobody knows save yourself sir s hollow cheeks grew white with passion and i saw for an instant in his deep set eyes such a glare as comes from the stone hound and at the end of its chain then with an effort he became the same cold hard self contained man as ever it does not become om position to quarrel like two at a fair said he we shall go into the matter afterwards i promise you that we shall answered my uncle grimly meanwhile i hold you to the terms of your unless you produce your within five and twenty minutes i claim the match eight and twenty minutes said my uncle looking at his watch you may claim it then but not an instant before he was admirable at that moment for his manner was that of a man with all sorts of hidden resources so that i could hardly make myself realize as i looked at him that our position was really as desperate as i knew it to be in the meantime who had been exchanging a few words with sir came back to our side i have been asked to be sole in this matter said he does that meet with your wishes sir charles i should be vastly obliged to you if you will undertake the duties and has been suggested as downs i could not wish a better one very good that is settled in the meantime the last of the carriages had come up and the horses had all been upon the the who had dotted the grass had closed in until the huge crowd was one with a single mighty voice which was already beginning to its impatience looking round there was hardly a moving object upon the whole vast expanse of green and purple down a was coming at gallop down the road which led from the south and a few were still trailing	4
up from but nowhere was there a sign of the missing man the keeps up for all that said i ve just been to the ring side and it is still even there s a place for you at the outer ropes sir charles said there is no sign of my man yet i won t come in until he arrives it is my duty to tell you that only ten minutes are left i make it five cried sir that is a question which lies with the said firmly my watch makes it ten minutes and ten it must be here s cried and at stone the same moment a shout like a burst from the crowd the west had emerged from his dressing tent followed by dutch sam and tom who were acting as his seconds he was to the waist with a pair of white drawers white silk stockings and running shoes round his middle was a yellow and dainty little ribbons of the same fluttered from the sides of his knees he carried a high white hat in his hand and running down the lane which had been kept open through the crowd to allow persons to reach the ring he threw the hat high into the air so that it fell within the then with a double spring he cleared the outer and inner line of rope and stood with his arms folded in the centre i do not wonder that the people cheered even could not help joining in the general shout of applause he was certainly a splendidly built young and one could not have wished to look upon a finer sight as his white skin sleek and luminous as a s gleamed in the light of the morning sun with a beautiful rippling of muscles at every movement his arms were long and his shoulders loose and yet with the downward which is a index of power than can be he clasped his hands behind downs his head threw them aloft and swung them backwards and at every movement some fresh expanse of his smooth white skin became and with muscles whilst a yell of admiration and delight from the crowd greeted each fresh exhibition then folding his arms once more he stood like a beautiful statue waiting for his sir had been looking impatiently at his watch and now he shut it with a triumphant snap time s up i he cried the match is time is not up said i have still five minutes my uncle looked round with despairing eyes only three i a deep angry murmur was rising from the crowd it s a cross i it s a cross i it s a was the cry two minutes i where s your man sir charles where s the man that we have backed flushed faces began to over each other and angry eyes glared up at us one more minute i i am very sorry but it will be my duty to declare it against you there was a sudden in the crowd a rush stone a shout and high up in the air there spun an old black hat floating over the heads of the and flickering down within the ropes saved by the lord i screamed i rather fancy said my uncle calmly that this must be my man too late cried sir no answered the it was still twenty seconds to the hour the fight will now proceed chapter the side out of the whole of that vast multitude i was one of the very few who had observed whence it was that this black hat so over the ropes had come i have already remarked that when we looked around us there had been a single very rapidly upon the southern road my uncle s eyes had rested upon it but his attention had been drawn away by the discussion between sir and the upon the question of time for my own part i had been so struck by the furious manner in which these travellers were approaching that i had continued to watch them with all sorts of vague hopes within me which i did not dare to put into words for fear of adding to my s disappointments i had just made out that the contained a man and a woman when suddenly i saw it off the road and come with a galloping horse and bounding wheels right across the crashing through the bushes and sinking down to the in the and as the driver pulled up his foam stone horse he threw the reins to his companion sprang from his seat furiously into the crowd and then an instant afterwards up went the hat which told of his challenge and defiance there is no hurry now i presume said my uncle as coolly as if this sudden effect had been carefully devised by him now that your man has his hat in the ring you can take as much time as you like sir charles your friend has certainly cut it rather fine nephew it is not jim sir i whispered it is some one else my uncle s eyebrows betrayed his astonishment some one else he ejaculated and a good man too roared his with a crack like a pistol shot why blow my if it ain t old jack himself looking down at the crowd we had seen the head and shoulders of a powerful and man moving slowly forward and leaving behind him a long v shaped ripple upon its surface like the wake of a swimming dog now as he pushed his way through the fringe the head was raised and there was the grinning the ring side hardy face of the smith looking up at us he had left his hat in the ring and was enveloped in an overcoat with a blue bird s eye handkerchief tied round his neck as he emerged	4
from the throng he let his great coat fly loose and showed that he was dressed in his full fighting black drawers stockings and white shoes i m right sorry to be so late sir charles he cried i d have been sooner but it took me a little time to make it all straight with the i couldn t convince her all at once an so i brought her with me and we argued it out on the way looking at the i saw that it was indeed mrs who was seated in it sir charles beckoned him up to the wheel of the what in the world brings you here he whispered i am as glad to see you as ever i was to see a man in my life but i confess that i did not expect you well sir you heard i was coming said the smith indeed i did not didn t you get a message sir charles from a man named landlord of the s oak inn there would know him we saw him dead drunk at the george stone there now if i wasn t afraid of it i cried angrily he s always like that when he s excited and i never saw a man more off his head than he was when he heard i was going to take this job over he brought a bag of sovereigns up with him to back me with that s how the got turned said my he found others to follow his lead it appears i was so afraid that he might get upon the drink that i made him promise to go straight to you sir the very instant he should arrive he had a note to deliver i understand that he reached the g at six whilst i did not return from until after seven by which time i have no doubt that he had drunk his message to me out of his head but where is your nephew jim and how did you come to know that you would be needed it is not his fault i promise you that you should be left in the as to me i had my orders to take his place from the only man upon earth whose word i have never yes sir charles said mrs who had left the and approached us you can make the most of it this time for never again shall you have my jack not if you were to go on your knees for him the ring side she s not a patron of sport and that s a fact said the smith sport i she cried with shrill contempt and anger tell me when all is over she hurried away and i saw her afterwards seated amongst the her back towards the multitude and her hands over her ears and in an agony of apprehension whilst this hurried scene had been taking place the crowd had become more and more tumultuous partly from their impatience at the delay and partly from their spirits at the unexpected chance of seeing so celebrated a fighting man as his identity had already been abroad and many an elderly plucked his long net purse out of his in order to put a few guineas upon the man who would represent the school of the past against the present the younger men were still in favour of the west and small odds were to be had either way in proportion to the number of the of each in the different parts of the crowd in the meantime sir had come bustling up to the honourable who was still standing near our i beg to lodge a formal protest against these proceedings said he stone on what grounds sir because the man produced is not the original of sir charles i never named one as you are well aware said my uncle the has all been upon the understanding that young jim was my man s opponent now at the last moment he is withdrawn and another and more formidable man put into his place sir charles is quite within his rights said firmly he undertook to produce a man who should be within the age limits and i understand that all the conditions you are over five and forty one next month master very good i direct that the fight proceed but alas i there was one authority which was higher even than that of the and we were destined to an experience which was the and sometimes the conclusion also of many an old time fight across the there had ridden a black gentleman with hunting boots and a couple of behind him the little knot of showing up clearly upon the and then dipping down into the alternate hollows some the ring side of the more observant of the crowd had glanced suspiciously at this advancing figure but the majority had not observed him at all until he up his horse upon a which overlooked the and in a voice announced that he represented the of his majesty s county of that he proclaimed this assembly to be gathered together for an purpose and that he was to it by force if necessary never before had i understood that fear and wholesome respect which many centuries of at the hands of the law had beaten into the fierce and turbulent natives of these islands here was a man with two attendants upon one side and on the other thirty thousand very angry and disappointed people many of them by profession and some fi om the and most dangerous classes in the country and yet it was the single man who appealed confidently to force whilst the huge multitude swayed and murmured like a fierce willed creature brought face to face with a power against which it knew that there was neither argument nor resistance my uncle however with	4
sir john and a dozen other lords and gentlemen hurried across to the of the sport stone i presume that you have a warrant sir said yes sir i have a warrant then i have a legal right to inspect it the magistrate handed him a blue paper which the little knot of gentlemen clustered their heads over for they were mostly themselves and were keenly alive to any possible flaw in the at last shrugged his shoulders and handed it back this seems to be correct sir said he it is entirely correct answered the magistrate to prevent waste of your valuable time gentlemen i may say once for all that it is my determination that no fight shall under any circumstances be brought off in the county over which i have control and i am prepared to follow you all day in order to prevent it to my this appeared to bring the whole matter to a conclusion but i had the foresight of those who arrange these s and also the advantages which made down so favourite a there was a hurried consultation between the the the and the it s seven miles to border and about two to said the the ring side master of the ring was clad in honour of the occasion in a most scarlet coat worked in gold at the a white stock a hat with a broad black band knee breeches white silk stockings and a costume which did justice to his magnificent figure and especially to those famous which had helped him to be the and as weu as the most formidable in england his hard high face large piercing eyes and immense made him a fitting leader for that rough and tumultuous body who had named him as then commander in chief if i might venture to offer you a word of advice said the official it would be to make for the line for sir james ford on the border has as great an objection to such as i have whilst mr of long hall who is the magistrate has fewer scruples upon the point sir said my uncle raising his hat in his most impressive manner i am infinitely obliged to you with the s permission there is nothing for it but to shift the in an instant a scene of the wildest animation had set in tom and his assistant with the help of the ring plucked up the and ropes and carried them off across stone country was enveloped in great coats and borne away in the whilst champion took mr s place in our then off the huge crowd started and rolling slowly over the broad face of the the carriages rocked and pitched like boats in a as they along fifty abreast and over everything which came in their way sometimes with a snap and a one would come to the whilst a wheel off amidst the of and of delight greeted the owners as they looked at the ruin then as the grew thinner and the more level those on foot began to run the struck in their spurs the drivers cracked their and away they all streamed in the wildest cross country the yellow and the crimson which held the two leading the van what do you think of your chances i heard my ask as the two picked their way over the broken it s my last fight sir charles said the smith you heard the say that if she let me off this time i was never to ask again i must try and make it a good one but your the ring side i m always in training sir i work hard from morning to night and i drink little else than water i don t think that captain can do much better with all his rules he s rather long in the reach for you i ve fought and beat them that were longer if it comes to a rally i should hold my own and i should have the better of him at a throw it s a match of youth against experience well i would not hedge a guinea of my money but he was acting under force i cannot forgive yoimg jim for having deserted me he was acting imder force sir charles you have seen him then no master i have not seen him you know where he is well it is not for me to say one way or the other i can only tell you that he could not help himself but here s the a for us again the ominous figure galloped up once more alongside of our but this time his mission was a more amiable one my ends at that ditch sir said he i should fancy that you could hardly wish a better place for a mill than the sloping field beyond i am quite sure that no one will interfere with you there his anxiety that the fight should be brought stone off was in such contrast to the zeal with which he had chased us from his county that my uncle could not help remarking upon it it is not for a magistrate to wink at the breaking of the law sir he answered but if my of has no scruples about its brought off his i should very much like to see the fight with which he his horse up an adjacent from which he thought that he might gain the best view of the proceedings and now i had a view of all those points of etiquette and of custom which are so recent that we have not yet appreciated that they may some day be as interesting to the social historian as they then were to the a dignity was given to the contest by a rigid code of ceremony just as the clash of knights was and adorned by	4
climbed in a very leisurely manner over the ropes as his more mature years and less elastic joints the yell which greeted him was even more enthusiastic than that which had and there was a louder ring of admiration in it for the crowd had already had their opportunity of seeing s whilst s was a surprise to them i had often looked upon the mighty arms and neck of the smith but i had never before seen him stripped to the waist or understood the marvellous of development which had made him in his youth the favourite model of the london there was none of that white sleek skin and play of which made a picture but in its stead there was a rugged grandeur of knotted and tangled muscle as though the roots of some old tree were from breast to shoulder and from shoulder to elbow even in repose the sun threw shadows from the curves of his skin but when he stone exerted himself every muscle itself up distinct and hard breaking his whole trunk into knots of his skin on face and body was darker and than that of his youthful but he looked and harder an effect which was increased by the sombre colour of his stockings and breeches he entered the ring a with jim and the at his heels strolling across to the post he tied his blue bird s eye handkerchief over the west x s yellow and then walked to his opponent with his hand out i hope i see you well said he pretty tidy i thank you answered the other we ll speak to each other in a different i afore we part but no ill feeling said the smith and the two fighting men grinned at each other as they took their own comers may i ask mr whether these two men have been weighed asked sir standing up m the outer ring their weight has just been taken under my sir answered mr your man brought the scale down at thirteen three and at thirteen eight he s a fifteen from the upwards cried dutch sam firom his comer d it the we ll get some of it off him before we finish you ll get more off him than ever you for answered jim and the crowd laughed at the rough chapter xviii the smith s last battle clear the outer ring cried standing up beside the ropes with a big silver watch in his hand ss ss ss went the for a number of the spectators either driven by the pressure behind or willing to risk some physical pain on the chance of getting a better view had crept under the ropes and formed a ragged fringe within the outer ring now amidst of laughter from the crowd and a shower of blows from the out they madly back with the haste of frightened sheep through a gap in their their case was a hard one for the folk in front refused to yield an inch of their places but the arguments from the rear prevailed over everything else and presently every frantic fugitive had been absorbed whilst the out took their stands along the edge at regular intervals with their held down by their cried again i am requested to inform you that sir charles the smith s last battle s is jack fighting at thirteen eight and sir s is at thirteen three no person can be allowed at the inner ropes save the and the i have only to beg that if the occasion should require it you will all give me your assistance to keep the ground clear to prevent and to have a fair fight all ready all ready fix m both comers time there was a breathless hush as and dutch sam walked very briskly into the centre of the ring the two men shook hands whilst their seconds did the same the four hands crossing each other then the seconds dropped back and the two stood toe to toe with their hands up it was a magnificent sight to any one who had not lost his sense of appreciation of the noblest of all the works of nature both men that requisite of the that they should look larger without their clothes than with them in ring they well and each showed up the other s points on account of the extreme contrast between them the long loose deer footed and the square set rugged with his trunk like the stump of an oak the stone began to rise upon the younger man from the instant that they were put face to face for his advantages were obvious whilst those qualities which had brought to the top in his youth were only a memory in the minds of the older men all could see the three inches extra of height and two of reach which possessed and a glance at the quick cat like motions of his feet and the perfect of his body upon his legs showed how swiftly he could spring either in or out from his slower adversary but it took a insight to read the grim smile which over the smith s mouth or the fire which shone in his grey eyes and it was only the old who knew that with his mighty heart and his iron frame he was a perilous man to lay odds against stood in the position from which he had derived his his left hand and left foot well to the front his body very far back from his and his guard thrown across his chest but held well forward in a way which made him exceedingly hard to get at the smith on the other hand assumed the attitude which and introduced but which had not for ten years been seen in a first class battle both his knees were slightly bent he	4
stood square to his opponent and his two big brown fists were held over his the smith s last battle mark so that he could lead equally with either s hands which moved incessantly in and out had been stained with some with the purpose of preventing them from puffing and so great was the contrast between them and his white that i imagined that he was wearing dark close fitting gloves until my uncle explained the matter in a whisper so they stood in a quiver of eagerness and expectation whilst that huge multitude hung so silently and upon every motion that they might have believed themselves to be alone man to man in the centre of some it was evident from the beginning that meant to throw no chance away and that he would trust to his of foot and quickness of hand until he should see something of the of this rough looking he paced swiftly round several times with uttle elastic menacing steps whilst the smith slowly to correspond then as took a backward step to induce to break his ground and follow him the older man grinned and shook his head you must come to me lad said he i m too old to round the ring after you but we have the day before us and i ll wait he may not have expected his invitation to be so promptly answered but in an instant with stone a spring the west was on him i the first three were on s face the last two were heavy upon s body back danced the himself in beautiful style but with two angry red over the lower line of his ribs blood for the crowd and as the smith faced to follow the movements of his adversary i saw with a thrill that his chin was crimson and in came again with a at the mark and a flush hit on s cheek then breaking the force of the smith s ponderous right counter he brought the round to a conclusion by down upon the grass first knock down for i roared a thousand voices for ten times as many pounds would change hands upon the point i appeal to the cried sir it was a slip and not a knock down i give it a slip said and the men walked to their comers amidst a general shout of applause for a spirited and well round in his mouth with his finger and thumb and then with a sharp half turn he out a tooth which he threw into the basin quite like old times said he to the smith s last battle have a care jack i whispered the anxious second you got rather more than you gave maybe i can carry more too said he serenely whilst the big over his face and the shining bottom of the tin basin ceased suddenly to glimmer through the water i could gather from the comments of the experienced around me and from the remarks of the crowd behind that s chance was thought to have been lessened by this round i ve seen his old faults and i haven t seen his old merits said sir john our opponent of the road he s as slow on his feet and with his guard as ever hit him as he liked may hit him three times to his once but his one is worth s three remarked my uncle he s a natural and the other an excellent but i don t hedge a guinea a sudden hush that the men were on their feet again and so had the seconds done their work that neither looked a the worse for what had passed led with his left but his distance receiving a counter on the mark in reply which sent him and gasping to the ropes for the old one stone the mob and my uncle laughed and sir john the west smiled and shook himself like a dog from the water ss with a stealthy step he came back to the centre of the ring where his man was still standing bang came s right upon the mark once more but broke the blow with his elbow and jumped laughing away both men were a little and their quick high breathing with the light of their feet as they danced round each other blended into one continuous sound two with the left made a clap uke a pistol shot and then as rushed in for a fall slipped him and over went my old friend upon his face partly from the of his own attack and partly from a half arm blow which the west brought home upon his ear as he passed knock down for cried the and the answering roar was like the of a seventy four up went hundreds of curly hats the ah and the slope before us was a bank of flushed and yelling faces my heart was cramped with my fears and i at every blow yet i was conscious also of an absolute fascination with a wild thrill of fierce joy and a certain exultation in our common human nature which could rise above pain the smith s last battle and fear in its straining after the very form of fame and had upon their man and had him up and in his comer in an instant but in spite of the coolness with which the hardy smith took his punishment there was immense exultation amongst the west got him he s beat i he s beat i shouted the two jew seconds it s a hundred to a on beat is he answered need to rent this field before you can beat him for he ll stand a month of that kind of he was a in front of as he spoke whilst him with the how is it with you asked my uncle hearty	4
as a buck sir it s as right as the day the cheery answer came with so merry a ring that the clouds cleared from my uncle s face you should recommend your man to lead more said sir john he ll never win it he leads he knows more about the game than you or i do i ll let him take his own way the is three to one against him now stone said a gentleman whose moustache showed that he was an officer of the late war very true general but you ll observe that it is the raw young who are giving the odds and the who are taking them i still stick to my opinion the two men came briskly up to the scratch at the call of time the smith a little on one side of his head but with the same and yet menacing smile upon his lips as to he was exactly as he had begun in appearance but twice i saw him close his lips sharply as if he were in a sudden of pain and the over his ribs were darkening from scarlet to a sullen purple he held his guard somewhat lower to screen this point and he danced round his opponent with a lightness which showed that his wind had not been by the body blows whilst the smith still adopted the with which he had commenced many had come up to us from the west as to s fine science and the quickness of his but the truth surpassed what had been expected of him in this and the two which followed he showed a swiftness and accuracy which old declared that in his prime had never surpassed he was in and out like lightning and his blows the smith s last battle were heard and felt rather than seen but still took them all with the same dogged smile occasionally getting in a hard body blow in return for his adversary s height and his position combined to keep his face out of danger at the end of the fifth the odds were four to one and the west were in their exultation what think you now cried the behind me and in his excitement he could get no save to repeat over and over again what think you now when in the sixth round the smith was twice without getting in a counter and had the worst of the fall as well the fellow became inarticulate altogether and could only wildly in his delight sir was smiling and nodding his head whilst my was coldly though i was sure that his heart was as heavy as mine this won t do said general my money is on the old one but the other is the finer my man is un pen pass but he will come through all right answered my uncle i saw that both and were looking grave and i knew that we must have a change of some sort or the old tale of youth and age would be told once more stone the seventh round however showed the reserve strength of the hardy old and lengthened the faces of those of odds who had imagined that the fight was practically over and that a few finishing rounds would have given the smith his de it was clear when the two men faced each other that had made himself up for mischief and meant to force the fighting and maintain the lead which he had gained but that grey gleam was not yet in the s eyes and still the same smile played over his grim face he had become more too in the swing of his shoulders and the of his head and it brought my confidence back to see the brisk way in which he up to his man led with his left but was short and he only just avoided a dangerous right which whistled in at his ribs old un one of those will be a dose of if you get it home cried there was a pause of shuffling feet and hard breathing broken by the of a tremendous body blow from which the smith stopped with the utmost coolness then again a few seconds of silent when led at the head but took it on his smiling and nodding at his opponent get the box open i and sprang in the smith s last battle to carry out his instructions but was hit out again by a heavy drive on the chest now s the time follow it up i cried and in rushed the smith in his half arm blows and taking the returns without a until went down exhausted in the corner both men had their marks to show but had all the best of the rally so it was our turn to throw our hats into the air and to shout ourselves hoarse whilst the seconds clapped their man upon his broad back as they hurried him to his comer what think you now shouted all the neighbours of the west repeating his own refrain why dutch sam never put in a better rally cried sir john what s the now sir i have laid all that i intend but i don t think my man can lose it for all that the smile had faded from his face and i observed that he glanced continually over his shoulder into the crowd behind him a sullen purple cloud had been drifting slowly up from the south west though i dare say that out of thirty thousand folk there were very few who had spared the time or attention to mark it now it suddenly made its presence apparent by a few heavy drops of rain rapidly into stone a sharp shower which filled the air with its and rattled upon the high hard hats of the coat were turned up and handkerchiefs	4
will find out my uncle put the note into his pocket i don t move until i have seen you safely in the hands of the surgeon never mind for me sir the and me can drive down to in the and a yard of plaster and a raw will soon set me to rights but my uncle was by no means to be persuaded and he drove the pair into where the smith was left under the charge of royal wife in the very best quarters which money could procure then after a hasty luncheon we turned the heads for the south this ends my connection with the ring nephew said my uncle i perceive that there is no possible means by which it can be kept pure from i have been cheated and but a man wisdom at last and never again do i give countenance to a prize fight had i been older or he less formidable i might have said what was m my heart and begged him to give up other things also to come out from those shallow circles in which he lived and to find some work that was worthy of his strong brain and his good heart but the thought had hardly formed itself in my mind before he had dropped his serious vein and was away about some new silver mounted harness which he intended to spring upon the and about the match for a thousand guineas which he meant to make between his and lord s famous old we had got as far as s green which is rather more than between down and s oak when looking backwards i saw far down the road the gleam of the sun upon a high yellow carriage sir was following us stone he has had the same summons as we and is bound for the same destination said my uncle glancing over his shoulder at the distant we are both wanted at royal we the two of that black business and it is jim of all people who calls us there nephew i have had an life but i feel as if the very strangest scene of it were waiting for me among those trees he whipped up the and now from the curve of the road we could see the high dark of the old house shooting up above the ancient oaks which ring it round the sight of it with its blood stained and reputation would in itself have been enough to send a thrill through my nerves but when the words of my uncle made me suddenly realize that this strange summons was indeed for the two men who were concerned in that old world tragedy and that it was the of my youth who had sent it i caught my breath as i seemed vaguely to catch a glimpse of some thing forming itself in front of us the gates between the crumbling pillars were folded back and my uncle the impatiently as we flew up the weed grown avenue until he pulled them on their before the time steps royal the front door was open and boy jim was waiting there to meet us but it was a different boy jim from him whom i had known and loved there was a change in him somewhere a change so marked that it was the first thing that i noticed and yet so subtle that i could not put words to it he was not better dressed than of old for i well knew the old brown suit that he wore he was not less comely for his training had left him the very model of what a man should be and yet there was a change a touch of dignity in the expression a suggestion of confidence in the bearing which seemed now that it was supplied to be the one thing which had been needed to give him harmony and finish somehow in spite of his his old school name of boy had clung very naturally to him until that instant when i saw him standing in his and magnificent manhood in the doorway of the ancient house a woman stood beside him her hand resting upon his shoulder and i saw that it was miss of cross you remember me sir charles said she coming forward as we sprang down from the my uncle looked hard at her with a face stone i do not think that i have the privilege madame and yet of the you surely cannot have forgotten forgotten why we have mourned for you in alley for more years than i care to think of but what in the name of wonder i was privately married and retired from the stage i want you to forgive me for taking jim away from you last night it was you then i had a stronger claim even than you could have you were his patron i was his mother she drew his head down to hers as she spoke and there with their cheeks together were the two faces the one stamped with the beauty of womanhood the other with the strength of man and yet so alike in the dark eyes the blue black hair and the broad white brow that i that i had never read her secret on the first days that i had seen them together yes she cried he is my own boy and he saved me from what is worse than death as your nephew could tell you yet my lips were sealed and it was only last night that i could tell him that it was his mother whom he had brought back by his gentleness and his patience into the sweetness of royal hush mother i said jim turning his lips to her cheek there are some things which are between ourselves but tell me sir charles how went the fight your uncle	4
would have won it but the broke the ring he is no uncle of mine sir charles but he has been the best and truest friend both to me and to my father that ever the world could offer i only know one as true he continued taking me by the hand and dear old stone is his name but i trust he was not much hurt a week or two will set him right but i cannot pretend to understand how this matter stands and you must allow me to say that i have not heard you advance anything yet which seems to me to justify you in your engagements at a moment s notice come in sir charles and i am convinced that you will acknowledge that i could not have done otherwise but here if i mistake not is sir the yellow had swung into the avenue and a few moments later the weary panting horses had pulled up behind our sir sprang out looking as black as a thunder cloud stay where you are said he and stone i caught a glimpse of a bottle green coat which told me who was his travelling companion well he continued looking round him with an insolent stare i should vastly like to know who has had the insolence to give me so pressing an invitation to visit my own house and what in the devil you mean by daring to upon my grounds promise you that you will understand this and a good deal more before we part sir said jim with a curious smile playing over his face if you will follow me i will endeavour to make it all clear to you with his mother s hand in his own he led us into that ill room where the cards were still heaped upon the and the dark shadow in the comer of the ceiling now your explanation cried sir standing with his arms folded by the door my first explanations i owe to you sir charles said jim and as i listened to his voice and noted his manner i could not but admire the effect which the company of her whom he now knew to be his mother had had upon a rude country lad i wish to tell you what occurred last night i will tell it for you jim said his mother you must know sir charles that though my royal son knew nothing of his parents we were both alive and had never lost sight of him for my part i let him have his own way in going to london and in taking up this challenge it was only yesterday that it came to the ears of his father who would have none of it he was in the health and his wishes were not to be he ordered me to go at once and to bring his son to his side i was at my wit s end for i was sure that jim would never come unless a substitute were provided for him i went to the kind good couple who had brought him up and i told them how matters stood mrs loved jim as if he had been her own son and her husband loved mine so they came to my help and may god bless them for their kindness to a distracted wife and mother would take jim s place if jim would go to his father then i drove to i found out which was jim s room and i spoke to him through the window for i was sure that those who had backed him would not let him go i told him that i was his mother i told him who was his father i said that i had my ready and that he might for all i knew be only in time to receive the dying blessing of that parent whom he had never known still the boy would not go until he had my assurance that would take his place stone why did he not leave a message with my head was in a whirl sir charles to find a father and a mother a new name and a new rank in a few minutes might turn a stronger brain than ever mine was my mother me to come with her and i went the was waiting but we had scarcely started when some fellow seized the horses heads and a couple of attacked us one of them i beat over the head with the butt of the whip so that he dropped the with which he was about to strike me then the horse i shook off the others and got safely away i cannot imagine who they were or why they should us perhaps sir could tell you said my uncle our enemy said nothing but his little grey eyes slid round with a most glance in our direction after i had come here and seen my farther i went down my uncle stopped him with a cry of astonishment what did you say young man you came here and you saw your father here at royal yes sur royal my uncle had turned very pale in god s name then tell us who your father is jim made no answer save to point over our shoulders and glancing round we became aware that two people had entered the room through the door which led to the bedroom stair the one i recognized in an instant that mask like face and manner could only belong to the former of my uncle the other was a very different and even more singular figure he was a tall man clad in a dark dressing gown and leaning heavily upon a stick his long countenance was so thin and so white that it gave the strangest illusion of only within the folds of a have i ever seen so	4
wan a face the hair and the rounded back gave the impression of advanced age and it was only the dark brows and the bright alert eyes glancing out from beneath them which made me doubt whether it was an old man who stood before us there was an instant of silence broken by a deep oath from sir lord by god he cried very much at your service gentlemen answered the strange figure in the dressing gown chapter xx lord my uncle was an man by nature and had become more so by the tradition of the society in which he he could have turned a card upon which his fortune depended without the of a muscle and i had seen him myself driving to imminent death on the road with as calm a face as if he were out for his daily in the but now the shock which had come upon him was so great that he could only stand with white cheeks and staring incredulous eyes twice i saw him open his lips and twice he put his hand up to his throat as though a barrier had risen himself and his utterance finally he took a sudden little run forward with both his hands thrown out in greeting ned he cried but the strange man who stood before him folded his arms over his breast no charles said he my uncle stopped and looked at him in amazement lord surely ned you have a greeting for me after all these years you me to have done this deed charles i read it in your eyes and in your manner on that terrible morning you never asked me for an explanation you never considered how impossible such a crime must be for a man of my character at the first breath of suspicion you my intimate friend the man who knew me best set me down as a thief and a murderer no no ned you did charles i read it in your eyes and so it was that when i wished to leave that which was most precious to me in safe hands i had to pass you over and to place him in the charge of the one man who from the first never doubted my innocence better a thousand times that my son should be brought up in a humble station and in ignorance of his unfortunate father than that he should learn to share the doubts and suspicions of his equals then he is really your son cried my uncle staring at jim in amazement for answer the man stretched out his long withered arm and placed a gaunt hand upon the shoulder of the whilst she looked up at him with love in her eyes i married charles and i kept it secret from stone my friends for i had chosen my wife outside our own circles you know the foolish pride which has always been the strongest part of my nature i could not bear to that which i had done it was this neglect upon my part which led to an between us and drove her into habits for which it is i who am to blame and not she yet on account of these same habits i took the child fix m her and gave her an allowance on condition that she did not interfere with it i had feared that the boy might receive evil firom her and had never dreamed in my blindness that she might get good from him but i have learned in my miserable life charles that there is a power which fashions things for us though we may strive to it and that we are in truth driven by an unseen current towards a certain goal however much we may deceive ourselves into thinking that it is our own sails and oars which are us upon our way my eyes had been upon the face of my as he listened but now as i turned them from him they fell once more upon the thin face of sir he stood near the window his grey thrown up against the square of dusty glass and i have never seen such a play of evil passions of anger of jealousy of disappointed upon a human face before am i to understand said he in a loud lord harsh voice that this young man claims to be the heir of the of he is my lawful son i knew you fairly well sir in our youth but you will allow me to observe that neither i nor any friend of yours ever heard of a wife or a son i defy sir charles to say that he ever dreamed that there was any heir except myself i have already explained sir why i kept my marriage secret you have explained sir but it is for others in another place to say if that explanation is satisfactory two blazing dark eyes flashed out of the pale haggard face with as strange and sudden an effect as if a stream of light were to beat through the windows of a shattered and ruined house you dare to doubt my word i demand a proof my word is proof to those who know me excuse me lord but i know you and i see no reason why i should accept statement it was a brutal speech and delivered lord staggered forward and it was only his son on one side and his wife on the other who kept his quivering hands from the throat of his sir from the pale stone fierce face with the black brows but he still glared angrily about the room a very pretty conspiracy this he cried with a criminal an and a prize all playing their parts sir charles you shall hear from me again and you also my lord he turned upon his heel and strode the room he	4
has gone to me said lord a of wounded pride his features shall i bring him back cried boy jim no no let him go it is as well for i have already made up my mind that my duty to you my son that which i owe and have at such bitter cost fulfilled to my brother and my family you did me an injustice ned said my uncle if you thought that i had forgotten you or that i had judged you if ever i have thought that you had done this deed and how could i doubt the evidence of my own eyes i have always believed that it was at a time when your mind was and when you knew no more of what you were about than the man who is walking in his sleep what do you mean when you talk about the evidence of your own eyes asked lord looking hard at my uncle lord i saw you ned upon that accursed night saw me where in the passage and doing what you were coming from your brother s room i had heard his voice raised in anger and pain only an instant before you carried in your hand a bag full of money and your face betrayed the utmost agitation if you can but explain to me ned how you came to be there you will take from my heart a weight which has pressed upon it for all these years no one now would have recognized in my uncle the man who was the leader of all the of london in the presence of this old friend and of the tragedy which him round the veil of and affectation had been rent and i felt all my gratitude towards him deepening for the first time into affection whilst i watched his pale anxious face and the eager hope which shone in his eyes as he awaited his friend s explanation lord sank his face in his hands and for a few moments there was silence in the dim grey room i do not wonder now that you were shaken said he at last my god what a net was cast round me had this vile charge been brought against me you my dearest friend would have been compelled to tear away the last doubt as to stone my guilt and yet in spite of what you have seen charles i am as innocent in the matter as you are i thank god that i hear you say so but you are not satisfied charles i can read it on your face you wish to know why an innocent man should conceal himself for all these years your word is enough for me ned but the world will wish this other question answered also it was to save the family honour charles you know how dear it was to me i could not clear myself without proving my brother to have been guilty of the crime which a gentleman could commit for eighteen years i have him at the expense of everything which a man could sacrifice i have lived a living death which has left me an old and shattered man when i am but in my year but now when i am faced with the alternative of telling the facts about my brother or of my son i can only act in one fashion and the more so since i have reason to hope that a way may be found by which what i am now about to disclose to you need never come to the public ear he rose from his chair and leaning heavily upon his two he across the t lord room to the dust covered there in the centre of it was lying that ill pile of time stained cards just as boy jim and i had seen them years before lord turned them over with trembling fingers and then picking up half a dozen he brought them to my uncle place your finger and thumb upon the bottom comer of this card charles said he pass them lightly backwards and forwards and tell me what you feel it has been pricked with a pin precisely what is the card my turned it over it is the king of clubs try the bottom corner of this one it is quite smooth and the card is the three of and this one it has been pricked it is the ace of hearts lord hurled them down upon the floor there you have the whole accursed story he cried need i go further where every word is an agony i see something but not all you must continue ned stone the frail figure itself as though he were visibly himself for an effort i will tell it you then once and for ever never again i trust will it be necessary for me to open my lips about the miserable business you remember our game you remember how we lost you remember how you all retired and left me sitting in this very room and at that very table far from being tired i was exceedingly and i remained here for an hour or more thinking over the incidents of the game and the changes which it promised to bring about in my fortunes i had as you will recollect lost heavily and my only consolation was that my own brother had won i knew that owing to his reckless mode of life he was in the of the jews and i hoped that that which had shaken my position might have the effect of restoring his as i sat there the cards in an abstracted way some chance led me to observe the small needle which you have just felt i went over the and found to my unspeakable horror that any one who was in the secret could hold them in in	4
such a way as to be able to count the exact number of high cards which fell to each of his and then with such a flush of shame and disgust as i had never known i remembered how my attention had lord been drawn to my brother s mode of dealing its and the way in which he held each card by the lower comer i did not condemn him i sat for a long time calling to mind every incident which could tell one way or the other alas it au went to confirm me m my first horrible suspicion and to turn it into a certainty my brother had ordered the firom s in bond street they had been for some hours in his chambers he had played throughout with a decision which had surprised us at the time above all i could not conceal firom myself that his past ufe was not such as to make even so abominable a crime as this impossible to him with anger and shame i went straight up that stair the cards in my hand and i him with this lowest and meanest of all the crimes to which a villain could descend he had not retired to rest and his ill gotten gains were spread out upon the dressing table i hardly know what i said to him but the facts were so deadly that he did not attempt to deny his guilt you will remember as the only of his crime that he was not yet one and twenty years of age my words overwhelmed him he went on his knees to me imploring me to spare him i told him that out of consideration for our family i should make no stone lie exposure of him but that he must never again in his life lay his hand upon a card and that the money which he had won must be returned next morning with an explanation it would be social ruin he protested i answered that he must take the consequence of his own deed then and there i burned the papers which he had won firom me and i replaced in a canvas bag which lay upon the table all the gold pieces i would have left the room without another word but he clung to me and tore the fix m my wrist in his attempt to hold me back and to prevail upon me to promise to say nothing to you or sir it was his despairing cry when he found that i was proof against all his entreaties which reached your ears charles and caused you to open your chamber door and to see me as i returned to my room my uncle drew a long sigh of relief nothing could be clearer he murmured in the morning i came as you remember to your room and i returned your money i did the same to sir i said nothing of my reasons for doing so for i found that i could not bring myself to confess our disgrace to you then came the horrible discovery which has darkened my life and which was as great a mystery to me as it has been to you i saw that i was suspected and i saw also that even if i lord were to clear myself it could only be done by a public confession of the of my brother i shrank from it charles any personal suffering seemed to me to be better than to bring public shame upon a family which has held an record through so many centuries i fled from my trial therefore and disappeared from the world but first of all it was necessary that i should make arrangements for the wife and the son of whose existence you and my other friends were ignorant it is with shame mary that i confess it and i acknowledge to you that the blame of all the consequences rests with me rather than with you at the time there were reasons now happily long gone past which made me determine that the son was better apart from the mother whose absence at that age he would not miss i would have taken you into my confidence charles had it not been that your suspicions had wounded me deeply for i did not at that time understand how strong the reasons were which had prejudiced you against me on the evening after the tragedy i fled to i and arranged that my wife should have a fitting allowance on condition that she did not interfere with the child i had as you remember had much to do with the and i had often had occasion to admire stone his simple and honest nature i took my boy to him now and i found him as i expected incredulous as to my guilt and ready to assist me in any way at his wife s entreaty he had just retired fix m the ring and was uncertain how he should employ himself was able to fit him up as a smith on condition that he should his trade at the village of s oak my agree ment was that james was to be brought up as their nephew and that he should know nothing of his unhappy parents you will ask me why i selected s oak it was because i had already chosen my place of concealment and if i could not see my boy it was at least some consolation to know that he was near me you are aware that this mansion is one of the oldest in england but you are not aware that it has been built with a very special eye to concealment that there are no less than two secret chambers and that the outer or thicker walls are into passages the existence of these rooms has always been a family secret though it	4
was one which i valued so little that it was only the chance of my seldom using the house which had prevented me fix m pointing them out to some friend now i found that a secure retreat was provided for me in my extremity i stole down to my own mansion entered it at night and leaving all that was lord dear to me behind i crept like a rat behind the to live out the remainder of my weary ufe in solitude and misery in this worn face charles and in this hair you may read the of my most miserable existence once a week used to bring me up provisions passing them through the window which i left open for the purpose sometimes i would steal out at night and walk under the stars once more with the cool breeze upon my forehead but this i had at last to stop for i was seen by the and of a spirit at royal began to get about one night two ghost hunters it was i father cried boy jim i and my friend stone i know it was told me so the same night i was proud james to see that you had the spirit of the and that i had an heir whose gallantry might redeem the family blot which i have so hard to cover over then came the day when your mother s kindness her mistaken kindness gave you the means of escaping to london ah edward cried his wife if you had seen our boy uke a eagle beating against the bars you would have helped to give him even so short a flight as this tt stone i do not blame you mary it is possible that i should have done so he went to and he tried to open a career for himself by his own strength and courage how many of our ancestors have done the same save only that a sword lay in their closed hands but of them all i do not know that any have carried themselves more gallantly i that i dare swear said my uncle heartily and then when at last returned i learned that my son was actually matched to fight in a public prize battle that would not do charles it was one thing to fight as you and i have fought in our youth and it was another to for a purse of gold my dear friend i would not for the world of e you would not charles you chose the best man and how could you do otherwise but it would not do i i determined that the time had come when i should reveal myself to my son the more so as there were many signs that my most unnatural existence had seriously weakened my health chance or shall i not rather say providence had at last made clear all that had been dark and given me the means of establishing my innocence my wife went yesterday to bring my boy at last to the side of his unfortunate father lord there was silence for some time and then it was my uncle s voice which broke it youve been the most ill used man m the world ned said he please god we shall have many years yet in which to make up to you for it but after all it seems to me that we are as far as ever from learning how your unfortunate brother met his death for eighteen years it was as much a mystery to me as to you charles but now at last the guilt is manifest stand forward and tell your story as frankly and as as you have told it to me chapter xxi the story the had shrunk into the dark of the room and had remained so motionless that we had forgotten his presence upon this appeal from his former master he took a step forward into the light turning his sallow ee in our direction his usually features were in a state of painful agitation and he spoke slowly and with hesitation as though his trembling lips could hardly frame the words and yet so strong is habit that even in this extremity of emotion he assumed the air of the high class and his sentences formed themselves in the fashion which had struck my attention upon that first day when the of my uncle had stopped outside my father s door my lady and gentlemen said he if i have in this matter and i freely confess that i have done so i only know one way in which i can for it and that is by making the full and complete confession which my noble master lord has demanded i assure you then that what i am about to tell you the s story surprising as it may is the absolute and truth concerning the mysterious death of captain it may seem impossible to you that one in my humble walk of life should bear a deadly and hatred against a man in the position of captain you think that the gulf between is too wide i can tell you gentlemen that the gulf which can be by love can be also by an hatred and that upon the day when this young man stole from me all that made my life worth living i vowed to heaven that i should take from him that foul life of his though the deed would cover but the of the debt which he owed me i see that you look at me sir charles but you should pray to god sir that you may never have the chance of finding out what you would yourself be capable of in the same position it was a wonder to all of us to see this man s fiery nature breaking suddenly through the artificial with which he	4
held it in check his short dark hair seemed to upwards his eyes glowed with the intensity of his passion and his face expressed a of hatred which neither the death of his enemy nor the lapse of years could the servant was gone and there stood in his place a stone deep and dangerous man one who might be an ardent lover or a most foe we were about to be married she and i when some black chance threw him across our path i do not know by what base he her away from me i have heard that she was only one of many and that he was an at the art it was done before ever i knew the danger and she was left with her broken heart and her ruined life to return to that home into which she had brought disgrace and misery i only saw her once she told me that her had burst out a laughing when she had reproached him for his and i swore to her that his heart s blood should pay me for that laugh i was a at the time but i was not yet in the service of lord i applied for and gained that position with the one idea that it might give me an opportunity of settling my accounts with his younger brother and yet my chance was a terribly long time coming for many months had passed before the visit to royal gave me the opportunity which i longed for by day and dreamed of by night when it did come however it came in a fashion which was more favourable to my plans than anything that i had ever ventured to hope for lord was of opinion that no one but the s story himself knew of the secret passages in royal in this he was mistaken i knew of them or at least i knew enough of them to serve my purpose i need not tell you how one day when preparing the chambers for the guests an accidental pressure upon part of the caused a to in the and showed me a narrow opening in the wall making my way down this i found that another led into a larger bedroom beyond that was all i knew but it was all that was needed for my purpose the disposal of the rooms had been left in my hands and i arranged that captain should sleep in the larger and i in the smaller i could come upon him when i wished and no one would be the wiser and then he arrived how can i describe to you the fever of impatience in which i lived until the moment should come for which i had waited and planned for a night and a day they and for a night and a day i counted the minutes which brought me nearer to my man they might ring for fresh wine at what hour they liked they always found me waiting and ready so that this young captain out that i was the model of all my master advised me to go to bed he had noticed my flushed cheek and my bright eyes and he set me down as being in a fever stone so i was but it was a fever which only one medicine could then at last very early in the morning i heard them push back their chairs and i knew that their game had at last come to an end when i entered the room to receive my orders i found that captain had already stumbled off to bed the others had also retired and my master was sitting alone at the table with his empty bottle and the scattered cards in front of him he ordered me angrily to my room and this time i obeyed him my first care was to provide myself with a weapon i knew that if i were face to with him i could tear his throat out but i must so arrange that the fashion of his death should be a noiseless one there was a hunting m the hall and from it i took a straight heavy knife which i sharpened upon my boot then i stole to my room and sat waiting upon the side of my bed i had made up my mind what i should do there would be little satisfaction in killing him if he was not to know whose hand had struck the blow or which of his sins it came to could i but bind him and him in his drunken sleep then a or two of my dagger would arouse him to listen to what i had to say to him i pictured the look in his eyes as the haze of sleep cleared slowly away from the s story them the look of anger turning suddenly to horror as he understood who i was and what i had come for it would be the supreme moment of my life i waited as it seemed to me for at least an hour but i had no watch and my impatience was such that i dare say it really was little more than a quarter of that time then i rose removed my shoes took my knife and having opened the slipped silently through it was not more than thirty feet that i had to go but i went inch by inch for the old rotten boards snapped like breaking twigs if a sudden weight was placed upon them it was of course pitch dark and very very slowly i felt my way along at last i saw a yellow of light glimmering in front of me and i knew that it came from the other i was too soon then since he had not extinguished his candles i had waited many months and i could afford to wait another hour	4
for i did not wish to do anything or in a hurry it was very necessary to move silently now since i was within a few feet of my man with only the thin wooden between age had and cracked the boards so that when i had at last very stealthily crept my way as far as the sliding i found that i could without any difficulty see into the room captain stone was standing by the dressing table with his coat and off a large pile of sovereigns and several slips of paper were lying before him and he was counting over his gambling gains his face was flushed and he was heavy from want of sleep and from wine it rejoiced me to see it for it meant that his slumber would be deep and that all would be made easy for me i was still watching him when of a sudden i saw him start and a terrible expression come upon his face for an instant my heart stood still for i feared that he had in some way divined my presence and then i heard the voice of my master within i could not see the door by which he had entered nor could i see him where he stood but i heard all that he had to say as i watched the captain s face flush fiery red and then turn to a livid white as he listened to those bitter words which told him of his my revenge was sweeter far sweeter than my most pleasant dreams had ever pictured it i saw my master approach the dressing table hold the papers in the flame of the candle throw their ashes into the grate and sweep the golden pieces into a small brown canvas bag then as he turned to leave the room the captain seized him by the wrist imploring him by the memory of their mother to have mercy upon him and i loved my master as i saw him drag the s story his sleeve from the grasp of the clutching fingers and leave the stricken wretch upon the floor and now i was left with a difficult point to settle for it was hard for me to say whether it was better that i should do that which i had come for or whether by holding this man s guilty secret i might not have in my hand a and more deadly weapon than my master s hunting knife i was sure that lord could not and would not expose him i knew your sense of family pride too well my lord and i was certain that his secret was safe in your hands but i both could and would and then when his life had been and he had been fi om his regiment and fi om his clubs it would be time perhaps for me to deal in some other way with him you are a black villain said my uncle we au have our own feelings sir charles and you will permit me to say that a may resent an injury as much as a gentleman though the of the is denied to him but i am telling you frankly at lord s request all that i thought and did upon that night and i shall continue to do so even if i am not fortunate enough to win your approval when lord had left him the captain stone remained for some time in a kneeling attitude with his face sunk upon a chair then he rose and paced slowly up and down the room his chin sunk upon his breast every now and then he would pluck at his or shake his clenched hands in the air and i saw the moisture upon his brow for a time i lost sight of him and i heard him drawer after drawer as though he were in search of something then he stood over by his again with his back turned to me his head was thrown a little back and he had both hands up to the collar of his shirt as though he were striving to undo it and then there was a as if a had been upset and down he sank upon the ground with his head in the comer twisted round at so strange an angle to his shoulders that one glimpse of it told me that my man was slipping swiftly from the clutch in which i had fancied that i held him i slid my and was in the room in an instant his eyelids still quivered and it seemed to me as my gaze met his eyes that i could read both recognition and surprise in them i laid my knife upon the floor and i stretched myself out beside him that i might whisper in his ear one or two little things of which i wished to remind him but even as i did so he gave a gasp and was gone the s story it is singular that i who had never feared him in life should be frightened at him now and yet when i looked at him and saw that all was motionless save the creeping stain upon the carpet i was seized with a sudden foolish of terror and catching up my knife i fled swiftly and silently back to my own room closing the behind me it was only when i had reached it that i found that in my mad haste i had carried away not the hunting knife which i had taken with me but the bloody which had dropped from the dead man s hand this i concealed where no one has ever discovered it but my fears would not allow me to go back for the other as i might perhaps have done had i foreseen how terribly its presence might tell against my master and that lady	4
and gentlemen is an exact and honest account of how captain came by his end and how was it asked my uncle angrily that you have allowed an innocent man to be persecuted all these years when a word from you might have saved him because i had every reason to believe sir charles that that would be most unwelcome to lord how could i tell all this without revealing the family scandal which he was so anxious to conceal i confess that at the beginning i did not teu him what i had seen and stone my excuse must be that he disappeared before i had time to determine what i should do for many a year however ever since i have been in your service sir charles my conscience tormented me and i swore that if ever i should find my old master i should reveal everything to him the chance of my a story told by young mr stone here which showed me that some one was using the secret chambers of royal convinced me that lord was in hiding there and i lost no time in seeking him out and offering to do him all the justice in my power what he says is true said his master but it would have been strange indeed if i had hesitated to sacrifice a frail life and failing health in a cause for which i freely surrendered all that youth had to offer but new considerations have at last compelled me to alter my resolution my son through ignorance of his true position was drifting into a course of life which accorded with his strength and his spirit but not with the traditions of his house again i reflected that many of those who knew my brother had passed away that all the facts need not come out and that my death whilst under the suspicion of such a crime would cast a deeper stain upon our name than the sin which he had so terribly for these reasons the s story the tramp of several heavy footsteps through the old house broke in suddenly upon lord s words his wan face turned even a shade as he heard it and he looked to his wife and son they will arrest me i he cried i must submit to the degradation of an arrest this way sir james this way said the harsh tones of sir from without i do not need to be shown the way in a house where i have drunk many a bottle of good cried a deep voice in reply and there in the doorway stood the broad figure of squire in his and top boots a riding crop in his hand sir was at his elbow and i saw the faces of two country peeping over his shoulders lord said the squire as a magistrate of the county of it is my duty to tell you that a warrant is held against you for the wilful murder of your brother captain in the year i am ready to answer the charge this i tell you as a magistrate but as a man and the squire of i m right glad to see you ned and here s my hand on it and never will believe that a good tory like yourself and a man who could show his horse s tail to any field in the whole down it ii stone county would ever be capable of so vile an act you do me justice james said lord clasping the broad brown hand which the country squire had held out to him i am as innocent as you are and i can prove it glad i am to hear it ned that is to say lord that any defence which you may have to make will be decided upon by your and by the laws of your country until which time added sir a stout door and a good lock will be the best that lord will be there when called for the squire s weather stained face flushed to a deeper red as he turned upon the are you the magistrate of a county sir i have not the honour sir james then how dare you advise a man who has sat on the bench for nigh twenty years i when i am in doubt sir the law me with a clerk with whom i may confer and i ask no other assistance you take too high a tone in this matter sir james i am not accustomed to be taken to task so sharply nor am i accustomed sir to be interfered with in my official duties i speak as a the s story sir but i am always ready to sustain my opinions as a man sir bowed you will allow me to observe sir that i have personal interests of the highest importance involved in this matter i have every reason to believe that there is a conspiracy which will affect my position as heir to lord s titles and estates i desire his safe in order that this matter may be cleared up and i call upon you as a magistrate to execute your warrant plague take it ned cried the squire i would that my clerk johnson were here for i would deal as kindly by you as the law allows and yet i am as you hear called upon to secure your person permit me to suggest sir said my uncle that so long as he is under the personal of the magistrate he may be said to be under the care of the law and that this condition will be fulfilled if he is under the roof of nothing could be better cried the squire heartily you will stay with me ned until this matter blows over in other words lord i make myself responsible as the representative of the law that	4
had ever deemed possible my eyes had rested upon nothing which was so sweet and so as our own little sitting room with its coloured walls and those trifles which are so insignificant in themselves and yet so rich in memories the blow fish from the the s horn from the and the picture of the a with lord in chase i how cheery too to see at one side of the shining grate my father with his pipe and his merry red face and on the other my mother with her fin the end ever turning and darting with her i as i looked at them i that i could ever have longed to leave them or that i could bring myself to leave them again but leave them i must and that speedily as i learned amidst the boisterous congratulations of my father and the tears of my mother he had himself been appointed to the with post rank whilst a note had come from lord at to say that a was open for me if i should present myself at once and your mother has your sea chest all ready my lad and you can travel down with me to morrow for if you are to be one of s men you must show him that you are worthy of it all the stones have been in the sea service said my mother to my uncle and it is a great chance that he should enter under lord s own patronage but we can never forget your kindness charles in showing our dear something of the world on the contrary sister mary said my uncle graciously your son has been an excellent companion to me so much so that i fear that i am open to the charge of having neglected my dear i trust that i bring him back somewhat more polished than i foimd him it would be folly to call him but he is at least un stone objectionable nature has denied him the highest gifts and i find him adverse to the advantages of art but at least i have shown him something of life and i have taught him a few lessons in and which may appear to be wasted upon him at present but which none the less may come back to him in his more mature years if his career in town has been a disappointment to me the reason lies mainly in the that i am foolish enough to measure others by the standard which i have myself set i am well disposed towards him however and i consider him eminently adapted for the profession which he is about to adopt he held out his sacred snuff box to me as he spoke as a solemn pledge of his and as i look back at him there is no moment at which i see him more plainly than that with the old mischievous light dancing once more in his large eyes one thumb in the of his and the little shining box held out upon his snow white palm he was a type and leader of a strange breed of men which has vanished away from england the full blooded buck exquisite in his dress narrow in his thoughts coarse in his amusements and eccentric in his habits they walk across the bright stage of english history with their step their preposterous the end their high their dangling and they vanish into those dark from which there is no return the world has them and there is no place now for strange fashions their practical jokes and cultivated and yet behind this outer of folly with which they so draped themselves they were often men of strong character and robust personality the languid of st james s were also the of the the fine of the and the hardy in many a battle and many a morning picked his best officers from amongst them they condescended occasionally to poetry or and charles james fox and preserved some reputation amongst them in spite of their i cannot think how the historian of the can hope to understand them when i who knew one of them so well and bore his blood in my veins could never quite tell how much of him was real and how much was due to the which he had cultivated so long that they had ceased to deserve the name through the of that of folly i have sometimes thought that i had caught a glimpse of a good and true man within and it pleases me to hope that i was right stone it was destined that the exciting incidents of that day were even now not at an end i had retired early to rest but it was impossible for me to sleep for my mind would turn to boy jim and to the extraordinary change in his position and prospects i was still turning and tossing when i heard the sound of flying s coming down the london road and immediately afterwards the grating of wheels as they pulled up in front of the inn my window chanced to be open for it was a fresh spring night and i heard the of the inn door and a voice asking whether sir was within at the name i sprang from my bed and i was in time to see three men who had alighted from the carriage file into the lighted hall the two horses were left standing with the glare of the open door falling upon their brown shoulders and patient heads ten minutes may have passed and then i heard the clatter of many steps and a knot of men came through the door you need not employ violence said a harsh clear voice on whose suit is it several suits sir they over in the that you d pull off the fight this total is twelve	4
thousand pound look here my man i have a very important appointment for seven o clock to morrow the end i ll give you fifty pounds if you will leave me until then couldn t do it sir really it s more than our places as officers is worth in the yellow glare of the carriage lamp i saw the look up at our windows and if hatred could have killed his eyes would have been as deadly as his pistol i can t mount the carriage unless you fi ee my hands said he old ard bill for e looks let go o one arm at a time ah would you then i screamed a voice and i saw a plunge a struggle and one fi figure breaking its way from the rest then came a heavy blow and down he fell in the middle of the road flapping and among the dust like a new landed he s it this time get im by the wrists jim now au together he was hoisted up like a bag of flour and fell with a brutal into the bottom of the carriage the three men sprang in after him a whip whistled in the darkness and i had seen the last that i or any one else save some charitable visitor to a was ever again destined to see of sir the once fashionable stone lived for two years longer long enough with the help of to fully establish his innocence of the horrible crime in the shadow of which he had lived so long what he could not clear away however was the effect of those years of morbid and life spent in the hidden chambers of the old house and it was only the devotion of his wife and of his son which kept the thin and flickering flame of his life alight she whom i had known as the play of cross became the lady whilst boy jim as dear to me now as when we birds nests and together is now lord beloved by his the finest and the most popular man fix m the north of the to the channel he was married to the second daughter of sir james and as i have seen three of his within the week i fancy that if any of sir s descendants have their eye upon the property they are likely to be as disappointed as their was before them the old house of royal has been pulled down owing to the terrible family associations which hung round it and a modem building sprang up in its place the lodge which stood by the road was so dainty with its work and its rose bushes that i was not the only visitor who de the end that i had rather be the owner of it than of the great house amongst the trees there for many years in a happy and peaceful old age lived jack and his wife receiving back in the of their lives the loving care which they had themselves bestowed never again did champion throw his leg over the ropes of a twenty four foot ring but the story of the great battle between the smith and the is still familiar to old ring and nothing pleased him better than to re fight it au round by round as he sat in the sunshine under his rose porch but if he heard the tap of his wife s stick approaching him his talk would break off at once into the garden and its prospects for she was still haunted by the fear that he would some day go back to the ring and she never missed the old man for an hour without being convinced that he had off to the belt from the latest champion it was at his own very earnest request that they inscribed he fought the good fight upon his and though i cannot doubt that he had black and in his mind when he asked it yet none who knew him would grudge its spiritual meaning as a up of his clean and manly life sir charles continued for some years stone to show his scarlet and gold at and his coats in st james s it was he who invented buttons and at the ends of dress and who broke fresh by his investigation of the comparative merits of and of in the preparation of shirt fronts there are old still lurking in the comers of arthur s or of white s who can remember s that a should be so that three parts of the length could be raised by one comer and the which followed when lord and his school that a half was then came the of and the open breach upon the subject of velvet in which the town followed the lead of the younger man my uncle who was not bom to be second to any one retired instantly to st and announced that he would make it the centre of fashion and of society instead of london it chanced however that the mayor and waited upon him with an address of thanks for his good intentions towards the town and that the having ordered new coats from london for the occasion were all arrayed in velvet which so upon my uncle s spirits that he took to his bed and never showed his face in public the end again his money which had ruined what might have been a great life was divided amongst many an to his being amongst them but enough has come to his sister my dear mother to help to make her old age as and as pleasant as even i could wish and as for me the poor string upon which these beads are strung i dare scarce say another word about myself lest this which i had meant to be the last	4
word of a chapter should grow into the first words of a new one had i not taken up my pen to tell you a story of the land i might perchance have made a better one of the sea but the one frame cannot hold two opposite pictures the day may come when i shall vn ite down all that i remember of the greatest battle ever fought upon salt water and how my father s gallant life was brought to an end as with his paint rubbing against a french eighty gun ship on one side and a spanish seventy four upon the other he stood eating an apple in the break of his i saw the smoke banks on that october evening slowly up over the atlantic swell and rise and rise until they had into air and lost themselves in the infinite blue of heaven stone and with them rose the cloud which had hung over the country and it also and until god s own sun of peace and security was shining once more upon us never more we hope to be the end notes notes upon the prize bob the of bob s fight with the as told by old in chapter x may be from the account of captain the first of the ring so fine a house says captain alluding to the company which assembled to see fight the was too engaging to fig not to count another he therefore stepped up and told the gentlemen that they might think he had picked out the best man in london on this occasion but to convince them to the contrary he said that if they would come on that day se he would bring a man who should beat this in ten minutes by fair this brought near as great and fine a company as the week before the man was who knowing the other s bottom and his deadly way of flinging took a most judicious manner to beat him let his character come in here he was an admirable and i do not know one he was not a match for before he lost his finger he was famous like pipes for fighting at the face but was stronger in his blows he knew s and being doubtful of beating him determined to fight at his eyes his judgment carried his arm so well that in about six minutes both of s eyes were shut when groping about a while for his man he wisely notes gave oat gave in with these odd words i m not beat but what mj fighting when i can t see my man as ugly as was a phrase in london about the middle of the the prize was not a beauty by nature but as he was in the habit on pa of a trifling fee of allowing any one to knock him down who wished to the strength of his arm it can be imagined that his appearance at last became hardly human s real name was john smith and he was bom in s lane the comer of london early in the century his natural humour his musical powers and his reputation as a fighting man made the little a noted personality in the intervals of other and less trades he sold little at a half penny each and singular call with which he advertised his wares was so well known that the one of his greatest by his imitation of it from the stage as a he was at his best in the very first rank and beat the harry gray joe was a native of in and a by trade he was a of great ferocity and courage but was not conspicuous for science his as a fighting man was in a bye battle of common when on the occasion of a fight between tom jones and the jew this formidable appeared with a cry of where s young where s your champion on i notes appearing and asking him what he wanted the reply was a blow in the face a combat of nineteen rounds followed in which did so well that he was instantly backed by lord in a proper fight for guineas afterwards however in two successive battles he that all his and strength were useless against the perfect science of the west after a short experience of a jail was rescued by the good offices of his brother and ended by he distinguished himself in the war and rose to be of a company i think that he died in the great breach of john was the son of a well known london and his family were all people of a decent position he soon made a name as a resolute and skilful it is t of the spirit which animated these men that having slipped and broken a bone of his leg in one of his earliest fights he begged that he and his opponent george might be to a bench that they might fight it out upon equal terms shortly afterwards he then champion through his over and after a sharp contest of nine rounds he defeated him always declared that had won through holding him by the hair and the matter left a great deal of behind it there is no doubt that did hold his hair which was not forbidden by the laws of the ring from that day all were close was a great all round and left a name in other things besides he was a famous held the record for the standing jump and could lift ten and one quarter and write his own name notes with an four pound weight suspended from his finger after his defeat of retired from the ring and opened his famous rooms at old bond street the event may be said to have been of almost national importance for it became	4
of suddenly lighting up into a rapid smile and gleam when anything caught his an was crushing and his and he ignored what was obvious while expressing keen appreciation for what seemed to the average man to oe either trivial or he chose walter for his travelling author and sat all day reserved but under the with his novel and his sketch book upon a camp stool beside him his personal dignity him from making to others but if they chose to address him they found him a courteous and amiable companion the americans formed a group by themselves john h was a new a of who was his education by a tour round the world he stood for the best type of young american quick observant serious eager for knowledge and free from a fine of but religious feeling which held him steady amid all the sudden of youth he had less of the the tragedy of the appearance and more of tbe reality of culture than tne young oxford for he had emotions though less exact knowledge miss and miss were and niece the former a little energetic hard old maid with a huge of unused love behind her stem and features she had never been from home b ore and she was now busy upon the self imposed task of bringing the east up to the of she had landed in egypt before she that the needed putting to rights and since the conviction struck her she had men very fully occupied the saddle the starved p dogs the flies round the eyes of the babies the naked children the begging the ragged women they were all to her conscience and she plunged in bravely at her work of as she could not speak a word of the language however and was unable to make any of the understand what it was that she wanted her passage up the left the east very much as she had found it but afforded a good deal of sympathetic amusement to her fellow travellers no one enjoyed her efforts more than her niece who shared with mrs the distinction of being the most popular person upon the boat she was very young afresh from smith fe and she stiu possessed many both of the virtues and of the of a child she had the frankness the trusting confidence the innocent the high spirits and also the and the want of reverence but even her caused amusement and if she had preserved many o the the tragedy of the characteristics of a clever child she was none the less a tall and handsome woman who looked older than her years on account of that low curve of the hail over the ears and that of and skirt which mr has either or the of those skirts and the frank voice and pleasant catching laugh were and welcome sounds on board of the even the colonel softened into and the bred forgot to be unnatural with miss as a companion the other passengers may be dismissed more briefly some were interesting some and all amiable was a good but frenchman who held the most decide views as to the deep of great britain and the of her position in egypt mr was an iron grey sturdy as an good long range who had carried off eveiy prize which or had to offer with him was his wife a very charming and refined woman full of the pleasant of her country mrs was a middle aged widow quiet soothing with her thoughts all taken up by her child as a mother s thoughts are likely to be in a boat which has an open rail for a the reverend john was a non minister from a or a a man of immense slow and in his ways but blessed with a considerable of homely humour which made him i am told a very favourite preacher and an effective speaker from advanced radical finally there was mr james st a man l he tragedy ot the junior partner of ward and who was travelling to shake off the effects of an attack of was a man who in the course of thirty years worked himself up from cleaning the mm s windows to managing its business for most of that long time he had heen absolutely in dry work with the one idea of satisfying old and new ones until his mind and soul had become as formal and precise as the laws which he a fine and sensitive nature was in danger of being as as a busy city man s is liable to become his work had become an habit and being a bachelor he had hardly an interest in life to draw him away from it so that his soul was being gradually up uke the of a bi t at last there came this kindly illness and nature james out of his and sent him into the broad world far away from roaring and his shelves full of calf skin at first he resented it deeply everything seemed trivial to him compared to his own petty routine but gradually his eyes were opened and he began dimly to see that it was his work which was trivial when compared to this wonderful varied inexplicable world of which he was so ignorant vaguely he that the interruption to his career might be more important than the career itself all sorts of new interests took possession of him and the middle aged lawyer developed an after glow of that youth which had been wasted among his books his character was too formed to admit of his being anything but dry and precise in his ways and a trifle in his mode of speech but he read the tragedy of the and and observed his with and as he had once done his s he had travelled	4
up from with the party and had contracted a friendship with miss and her niece the young american girl with her chatter her audacity and ner constant flow of high spirits amused and interested him and she in turn felt a mixture of respect and of pity for his knowledge and his so they became good friends and people smiled to see his clouded face and her sunny one bending over the same guide book the little and her way up the river kicking up the white water behind her and making more noise and fuss over her five knots an hour than an atlantic on a record voyage under the thick sat her little family and every few hours she down and up to the to allow them to visit one more of that innumerable succession of temples the remains however grow more modem as one from and travellers who have themselves at and with the contemplation of the very oldest buildings which the hands of man have constructed become impatient of temples which are hardly older than the christian era ruins which would be gazed upon with wonder and veneration in any other country are hardly noticed in egypt the viewed with languid interest the half greek art of the they climbed the hill of to see the sun rise over the savage desert they were moved to wonder by the great shrine of where some old race has out a mountain as if it were a the tragedy op the cheese and finally upon the evening of the day of their arrived at the frontier garrison town some few hours after they were due on account of a small in the engine room the next morning was to he devoted to an expedition to the famous rock of from which a great view may be obtained of the second at ei t thirty as the passengers sat on deck after dinner the half half came forward according to the nightly custom to announce the programme for the morrow ladies and gentlemen said he plunging boldly into the rapid but broken stream of his english to morrow you will remember not to forget to rise when the strikes you for to the journey before twelve o clock having arrived at the place where the expect us we shall ride five miles over the desert passing a very fine temple of ra which dates itself from the upon the way and so reach the pulpit rock of the pulpit rock is supposed to have been called so because it is a rock like a pulpit when you have reached it you will know that you are on the very edge of and that very little more will take you into the country of the which will be obvious to you at the top having passed the summit you will perceive the full extremity of the second embracing wild natural beauties of the most dreadful variety here all very famous people their names and so you will your names also waited for a and bowed to it when it arrived you will then return to and there remain the tragedy of the two hours to suspect the including the of the beasts and the before returning so i wish you a very happy good night there was a gleam of his white teeth in the and his long dark his english cover coat and his red vanished down the ladder the low of conversation which had been suspended by his coming broke out anew i m on you mr to tell me all about said miss i do like to know what i am looking at right there at the time and not six hours in my state room i haven t got and the wall pictures t in my mind yet i saw them yesterday never hope to keep up with it said her aunt when i am safe back m avenue and s no to me around have time to read about it all and then i expect i shall b to and want to come r ht back again but it s just too good of you mr to try and keep us informed i thought that you might wish precise information and so i pr a small of the matter said handing a slip of to miss she looked at it in the light of the deck lamp and broke into her low hear laugh se she read now what do you mean by re mr you put re the second on the last paper you gave me it is a habit i have acquired miss said it is the custom in tiie legal profession when they make a make what mr the tragedy of the a a you know we put re so md so to show what it is about i suppose it s a good short way said miss out it feels queer somehow when applied to scenery or to dead e kings e t that strike you as funny no i can t say that it does said i wonder if it is true that the english have less humour than the americans or whether it s just another kind of humour said the girl she bad a quiet abstracted way of talking as if she were aloud i used to imagine they had less and yet when you come to of it and and and so many other of the we admire most are besides i never in all my days heard people laughed so hard as in that london there was a man behind us and every time he laughed looked round to see if a door had opened he made such a draught but you have some funny expressions mr i what else strikes you as miss well when you sent me the temple ticket and the little map you began your letter enclosed please	4
find and then at the bottom in you had that is the usual form in business yes in business said and there was a silence there s one thing i wish remarked miss in the hard voice with which she disguised her softness of heart and that is that i could see the of this country and lay a few cold drawn in ont of them i d make a platform of my own mr and run a l the tragedy of the on my ticket a bill for the use of would be one of my and another would be for the of those veil things which turn a woman into a of cotton goods with a pair of eyes looking out of it i never could why they wore them said until one day i saw one with her veil lifted then i knew they make me tired those women cried miss one might as well try to preach duty and decency and cleanliness to a line of why good land it was only yesterday at mr i was passing one of their houses if you can call a like that a house and i saw two of the children at the door with the usual crust of flies round their eyes and great holes in their poor little blue gowns so i got off my donkey and i turned up my sleeves and i washed their well with my handkerchief and up the rents for in this country i would as soon think of going ashore without my needle case as without my umbrella mr then as i warmed on the job i got into the room such a room i and i packed the folks out of it and i did the as if i had been the hired help i ve seen no more of that temple of than if i had never left boston but my i saw more dust and mess than you would think they c crowd into a house the size of a from the time i pinned up my skirt until i came out with my face the colour of that wasn t more than an hour or maybe an hour and a half but i had that house as clean and as a new pine wood box i had a new york l the tragedy of the herald with me and i lined their shelf with paper for them well mr when i had done washing my hands outside i came past the door r n and there were those two children sitting on stoop with then eyes of flies and all the same as ever except that each had a httle paper cap made out of the new york herald upon his head but say it s goin on to ten o clock and to morrow an early excursion it s just too beautiful this purple sky and the treat silver stars said look at the silent and the black shadows of the hills it s grand but it s terrible too and then when you think that we really are as that said just now on the very end of and with nothing but and down there where the southern cross is twinkling so prettily why it s like standing on the edge of a live don t talk like that child said the older woman nervously v it s enough to scare any one to to you well but don t you feel it yourself look at that great desert stretching away and away until it is lost in the shadows hear the sad whisper of the wind across it it s just the most solemn thing that ever i saw in my ufe i m glad we ve found something that will make you solemn my dear said her aunt i ve sometimes thought alive what s that from somewhere amongst the hill shadows upon the other side of the river there had risen a high shrill rising and swelling to end in a long weary wail it s only a miss said l the tragedy of the i heard one when we went out to see the by moonlight but the american lady had risen and her face showed that her nerves had been ed if i had my time over again i t have come past said she i can t think what possessed me to bring you all the way up here your mother will think that i am clean crazy and i d never dare to look her in the eye if anything went wrong with us i ve seen all i want to see of this river and all i ask now is to be back at a ain why cried the girl it isn t like you to be faint hearted well i don t know how it is but i feel a bit and that beast over yonder was just more than i could put up with there s one consolation we are to be on our way home to morrow after we ve seen this one rock or temple or whatever it is i m up of rocks and temples mr i shouldn t if i never saw another come good night night miss i and the two ladies passed down to their was in a subdued voice with the young bending forward between the of his i said he speaking excellent but separating his as a frenchman will there are no they do not exist why i thought the woods were of them said the american is the tragedy of the across to where the red core of colonel s cigar was glowing through the darkness you are an american and you do not like the english he whispered it is perfectly comprehended upon the continent that uie americans are opposed to the english well said with his slow ate manner	4
i won t say that we have not our and there are some of our people mostly of irish stock who are always with england but the most of us have a thought for the mother country you see they may oe folk sometimes but after all they are our folk and we can t wipe that off the slate eh said the frenchman at least i can say to you what i could not without offence say to these others and i repeat that there are no they were an invention of lord in the year you don t say cried r it is well known in paris and has been exposed in la and of our so well informed papers but this is colossal said do you mean to tell me that the siege of and the death of and the rest of it was just one great bluff i will not deny that there was an but it was local you and now long forgotten since thai there has been profound peace m the but i have heard of and i ve read of battles too when the tried to egypt it was only two days ago that is l i the tragedy of the we passed where the said there had a fight is that all also my you do not know the english you look at them as you see them with their pipes and their contented faces and you say these are good simple folk who will never hurt any one but all the time they are thinking and watching and p here is egypt weak and down they like a upon a crust you have no ri t there says come out of it i but england already begun to tidy just like the good miss when she forces her way into the house of an come out says the world certainly says england just wait one little minute until i have made everything nice and proper so the world waits for a year or so and then it says once again come out just wait a little says there is trouble at and when i have set that all right i shall be very glad to come out so they wait until it is all over and then again th say come out how i come out says england when there are still and battles going on i if we were to leave egypt would be run over but there are no says the world oh are there not says england and then within a week sure enough the papers are of some new of we are not all we understand very well how such things can be done a few a little some blank and behold a i well well said the american i m glad to know the rights of this business for it has oft puzzled me but what does england get out of it the tragedy of the she gets the i see you mean for example that there is a for british goods no it is the same for all well then she gives the to precisely for example the railroad that they are building right through the country the one that runs alongside the river that would be a valuable contract for the british was an honest man if an imaginative one it is a french company which holds the railway contract said he the american was they don t seem to get much for their trouble be still of course must be some pull somewhere for example egypt no doubt to pay and keep all those in egypt no they are paid by england well i suppose they know their own business best but they seem to me to take a great deal of trouble and to get mighty little in exchange if they don t mind keeping order and guarding the frontier with a constant the on their hands i don t know why any one should object i suppose no one that the prosperity of the country has increased they came the returns show that they tell me also that the poorer folks have which they never had before what are they doing here at all the the tragedy of the frenchman angrily let them go back to their island we cannot have them all over the world well certainly to us americans who live all in our own land it does seem strange how you european nations are for ever over into some other country which was not meant for you it s easy for us to talk of course for we have still got room and to spare for all our people when we start pushing each other over the edge we shall have to start also but at present just here in north africa there is italy in and england in egypt and france in france i cried belongs to france you laugh i have the honour to wish you a very good night he rose from his seat and walked off rigid with outraged patriotism to his cabin i chapter ii the american hesitated for a little in his mind whether he should not go down and post up the daily record of his impressions which he kept for his home staying sister but the cigars of colonel and of brown were still twinkling in the far comer of the deck and the student was in the search of information he did not quite know how to lead up to the matter but the colonel very soon did it for him come on said be pushing in his direction this is the place for aa i see that has been pouring politics into your ear i can always recognise the confidential stoop of his shoulders when he la said the but what a upon a night like this what a in blue and silver might be	4
suggested by that moon rising above the desert there is a movement in one of s songs which seems to it all a sense of of repetition the cry of the wind over an interminable expanse the emotions which cannot be translated into words are still to be hinted at by and it seems and more savage than ev tonight remarked the american it me the same feeling of pitiless force that the atlantic does upon a cold dam winter day perhaps it is the the tragedy of the knowledge that we are light there on the veiy edge of any kind of law and order how far do you suppose that we are from any colonel well on the side said he colonel we have the egyptian fortified camp of about forty miles to the south of us beyond that are sixty miles of very wild country before you would come to the post at on this other side however there is nothing between us and them is on this side is it not yes that is why the excursion to the rock has been forbidden for the last year but things are now what is to prevent them from coming down oa that absolutely nothing said brown in his voice nothing except their fears the coming of course would be absolutely simple the difficulty would lie in the return they might find it hard to get back if their were spent and the garrison with their beasts sh got on their track they know it as weu as we do and it has kept them from trying it isn t safe to reckon upon a s fears brown we must always bear in mind that they are not to the same motives as other people many of them are anxious to meet death and all of them are absolute in destiny they exist as a ad of all a proof of how surely it leads toward blank you think these people are a real menace to e c the tragedy of the egypt asked the american there seems from what i have heard to be some of about it for example does not seem to think that the danger is a very pressing one i am not a rich man colonel answered after a little pause but i am prepared to lay all i am worth that within three years of the british officers being withdrawn the be upon the where would the of egypt be where would the hundreds of millions be wliich have been invested in this country where the monuments which all nations look upon as most precious of the past come now colonel cried laughing surely you don t mean that th would the you cannot what th would do there is no in the world like an extreme last time they this country they burned the library you know that all representations of the human s are against the letter of the a statue is always an object in their eyes what do these fellows care for the sentiment of europe the more they could offend it the more delighted they would be down would go the the the statues of as the saints went down in england before s well now in his slow suppose i grant you that uie could egypt and suppose also that you english are holding them out what i m never the tragedy of the done asking is what reason have you for spending all these of dollars and the lives of so many of your what do you get out of it more than france gets or germany or any other country that runs no risk and never lays out a cent there are a good many englishmen who are asking themselves that question remarked brown it s my opinion that we have been the of the world long enough we the seas for and now we police the land for and and every sort of danger to there is never a mad priest or a witch doctor or a of any sort on this planet who does not report his appearance by the nearest british officer one of it at la if a breaks loose in asia minor the world wants to know why great does not keep him in order if there is a military in j or a in the it is still great britain who has to set it right and all to an accompaniment of curses such as the policeman gets he a among his we get hard and no thanks ana why should we do it let europe do its own dirty work well said colonel crossing his legs and leaning forward with the decision of a man who has definite opinions i don t at all agree with you brown and i think that to advocate such a course is to take a very view of our national duties i think that behind national interests and and all that there lies a great guiding force a providence in feet which is for ever getting the best out of each nation and using it for good of the whole when a nation ceases to respond it is time that she went into hospital for a the tragedy of the few centuries like spun or greece the virtue has gone out of her a man or a nation is not here upon this earth merely to do what is pleasant and profitable it is oft called upon to carry out what is unpleasant and but if it is obviously n t it is mere not to undertake it nodded each its own mission is in abstract thought france in art and grace but we and you for the are all in the same boat however much york sun may scream over it we and you have among our best men a	4
higher conception of moral sense and public duty than is to be found in any other people now these are the two qualities which are needed for directing a weaker race you can t help them by abstract thought or by graceful art but only by that moral sense which will hold the scales of justice even and keep itself free from every taint of corruption that is how we rule india we came there by a kind of natural law like air rushing into a all over the world against our interests and our deliberate intentions we are drawn into the same thing and it will happen to you also the pressure of destiny will force you to administer the whole of america from to the horn whistled our would be pleased to hear you colonel said he they d vote you into our and make you one of the committee on foreign relations the world is small and it grows smaller every day it s a single body and one spot of sa the tragedy of the is enough to the whole there s no room upon it for de as long as they exist they will always be of and of danger but there are many races which appear to be so incapable of improvement that we can never hope to get a good gk out of them is to be done then the former device of i in such a case was by some more stock an or a off the weaker branch now wc have a more of rulers or even of mere advice from a more advanced race that is the case with the central and with the protected states of india if the work has to be done and if we the best fitted for the work then i think that it would be a cowardice and a crime to it but who is to decide it is a fitting case for your interference objected the american a country could every other land in the world upon such a pretext events inexorable inevitable events will decide it take this egyptian business as an example in there was nothing in this world further from the minds of our people than any interference with egypt and yet left us in possession of the country there was never any choice in the chain of events a in the streets of and t e mounting of guns to drive out our fleet which was there you understand in fulfilment of solemn treaty obligations led to the the led to a landing to save the city from destruction the landing caused an extension of operations and here we the tragedy of the are th the country upon our hands at th time of trouble we b and implored the french or any one else to come and help tis to set the thing to rights but they all deserted us when there was work to be done though they are ready enough to and to us now when we tried to get out of it up came this wild movement and we had to sit than ever we never wanted the task but now that it has come we must put it through in a we ve brought justice into the and purity of administration and protection the poor man it has made more advance in the last twelve years than since the invasion in the seventh century except the pay of a couple of hundred men who spend their money in the country england has neither directly nor indirectly made a shilling out of it and i don t believe you will find in history a more and more disinterested bit of work puffed at his there is a house near ours down on the back bay at boston which just ruins the whole prospect said he it has old chairs about the stoop and the are loose and the garden runs wild but i k n t know that the neighbours are exactly justified in rushing in and stamping around and running the thing on their own lines not if it were on fire asked the laughed and rose from his well it doesn t come within the provisions of the doctrine colonel he i m beginning to think that modem egypt is every bit as the tragedy of the interesting as ancient and that the second wasn t the last live man in the country the two englishmen rose and yawned yes it s a of fortune which has sent men from a little island in the atlantic to administer the land of the we shall pass away and never leave a trace among the successive races who have held the country for it is an saxon custom to write their deeds upon rocks i say that the remains of a c ro system wiu be our most permanent record unless they prove a thousand years hence that it was the work of the remarked brown but here is the shore party come back down below they could hear the mellow irish accents of mrs and the deep voice of her husband the iron grey rifle shot mr clergyman was out a of with a noisy donkey boy and le others were joining in with and advice then the died away the party from above came down the ladder there were good nights the shutting of doors and the little steamer lay silent dark and motionless in the shadow of the high bank and beyond this one point of and of comfort there lay the savage desert straw coloured and dream like in the moonlight over with the black shadows of the hills chapter m i i cried the native pilot to the european ei the bluff bows of the stem had into the soft brown mud and the cur rent had swept the boat alongside the bank the was	4
thrown across and the six tall of the escort filed along it their blue gold trimmed and their yellow and red caps showing up m the clear morning light above u on the top of the bank was ranged the line of and the air was full of the of the boys in shrill voices each was crying out the virtues of his own beast and that of his neighbour colonel and mr stood together in the bows each wearing the broad white tu hat of the miss and niece leaned against the rail beside them sorry your wife isn t coming said the colonel i think she had a touch of the sun yesterday her head very badly his voice was strong and thick hke his figure i should stay to keep her mr said the uttle american old but i that mrs finds the ride too l for her and has some letters which she must mi to day so mrs will not be l hi the of the you re very good miss we shall be back you know by two o clock is that it must be certain for we are taking no lunch with us and we shall be by then yes i expect we shall be ready for a and at any rate said the colonel this desert dust gives a to the worst wine now ladies and gentlemen cried the moving forward with something of the priest in his flowing garments and smooth clean shaven face we must start early that we we may return before the heat of the weather he ran his dark eyes over the little group of his with a paternal expression you take your green glasses miss for very great out in the desert ah mr i set aside very fine donkey for you prize donkey sir always put aside for uie gentleman of most weight never mind to take your monument ticket to day now ladies and gentlemen if you please like a grotesque the party moved me by one along the plank and up the brown crumbling bank mr led them a thin dry serious figure in an english straw hat his red gleamed under his arm and in one hand he held a little paper of notes as if it were a he took miss by one arm aud her aunt by the other as they toiled up the bank and the girl s laughter rang frank and clear in the morning fur as came fluttering down at their feet mr and colonel followed the of their sun hats touching as they discussed the relative advantages the y of the of the the and the lee behind them walked brown cynical self contained the fat puffed slowly up the bank with many gasping at his own defects i m one of those men who before them said he glancing at his and at his own httle last of all came slight and tall with the student stoop about his shoulders and the good natured you see we have an escort to day he whispered to his companion so i observed i cried the throwing out his arms in derision as well have an escort from paris to this is all part of the play it no one but it is of the play dr les de it was the s to be all things to all men so he looked cautiously round before he answered to make sure that the english were mounted and out of c est ridicule said he his fat shoulders ai ms cried the angry frenchman the now was more grotesque than ever but had changed suddenly to an one sharply against uie deep blue egyptian sky those who have never ridden before have to ride in e and when the break into a and the are at full charge the tragedy of the such a scene of flying clutching hands huddled swaying figures and anxious is nowhere to be seen his square figure balanced upon a small white donkey was his hat to his wife who had come out upon the saloon deck of the sat veiy erect with a stiff military seat hands low head high and heels down while beside him rode young oxford man looking about him with drooping eyelids as if he the desert hardly respectable and had his doubts about the universe behind them the whole party was strung along the bank in varying st es of and discomfort a brown faced noisy donkey my running after each donkey looking back they could see the little lead coloured stem with the gleam of mrs s handkerchief from the deck beyond ran the broad brown river winding down in long curves to where five miles off the square white block houses upon the black ragged hills marked the outskirts of which had been their starting point that morning isn t it just too for anything cried i ve a donkey that runs on and the is just elegant did you ever see anything so as these beads and things round his neck you must make a re mr isn t that correct legal english looked at the pretty animated boyish looking i at him from under the straw hat and he wished that he had the courage to her in her own language that she was just too sweet for anything but he feared above all things lest he should offend her and so put an end the tragedy of the to present pleasant intimacy so his compliment into a smile you look very happy said he well who could help feeling good with this dry clear air and the blue sky and the crisp yellow sand and a superb donkey to you i ve lust got everything in the world to make me well everything that i have any use for just now i suppose you never know what it is to be	4
sad oh when i am ble i am just too miserable for words i ve sat and cried for days and days at smith s college and the other girls were just crazy to know w t i was crying and what the reason was that i wouldn t tell the time the real true reason was that i didn t know you know how it comes like a great dark shadow over you and you don t know why or wherefore but you ve just got to settle down to it and be miserable but you never had any real cause no mr i ve had such a good time all my hfe that i don t think when i look back that i ever had any real cause for sorrow well miss i hope with all my heart that you will be able to say the same when you are the same age as your aunt surely i hear her calling i i wish mr you would strike my with your whip if he the donkey again miss joking up on a high law beast hi you the tragedy of the tell this boy that i won t hare the animals hi used and that he ought to be ashamed of himself yes you little rascal you ought i he s grinning at me hke an advertisement for a tooth do you think mr that if i were to knit that black soldier a pair of stockings he would be allowed to wear them the poor creature has round his legs those are his miss said colonel looking back at her we have found in in a that are the best support to the le in marching they are very much ter than any well you don t say i they remind me mostly of a sick horse but it s nt to have the soldiers with us though me there s nothing for us to be scared about that is only my opinion miss said the frenchman hastily it may be that colonel thinks otherwise it is s opinion a that of the officers who have the of for the safety of the frontier said the coldly at least we will all agree that they have the effect of making the scene very much more picturesque the desert upon their right lay in long curves of sand like the which might have fringed some foi sea them they could see the black of the curious hills which rise upon the side on the crest of the low sand hills they would a every now and then of a tall sky blue soldier walking swiftly his rifle at the trail for a moment the warlike figure would be sharply the tragedy of the the sky then he would dip into a hollow and disappear while some hundred yards off another would show for an instant and vanish wherever are they raised asked watching the moving figures they look to me just about the same tint as the hotel boys in the states i thought some question might arise about them said mr who was never so happy as when he could anticipate some wish of the pretty american i made one or two this morning in the ship s here it is re that s to say about black soldiers i have it on my notes that they are m the th of the egyptian army they are fi m the and the two tribes living to the south of the country near e how can the come through the then asked sharply i dare say there is no su very great difficulty over that said with a wink at the american the older men are the remains of the old black some of them saved with at have his to show the others are many of them m the s army said tiie colonel well so long as th are not wanted th look elegant in those blue miss observed but if there was any trouble i guess we would wish they were less ornamental and a bit i am not so sure of that miss said tjie the tragedy of the colonel i hare seen these fellows in the field and i assure you that i have the utmost confidence in their well m take your word without said miss with a decision which every one smile so far their road had lain along the side of the river which was down upon their left hand deep and strong from the above here and there the rush of the current was broken by a black shining over which the foam was higher up they could see the white of the and the banks grew into rugged cliffs which were by a peculiar rock it did not require the s aid to tell the party that this was the to which they were bound a long level stretch lay before them and the took it at a at the farther side were scattered rocks black upon orange and in the midst of them rose some broken shafts of pillars and a length of engraved wall looking in its and its more like some work of nature than of man the fat sleek had dismounted and stood waiting in his aad his coat for the to gather round him t this temple ladies and gentlemen he cried with the ur of an who is about to sell it to the highest very fine example from here is the of t the third he pointed up with his donkey whip at the rude but deep upon the wall above him he five sixteen hun d years before christ and this is made to remember the tragedy of the his exhibition into here we have his history from the time he was with his mother he return with tied to his chariot in this you see him	4
one hand and was pointing over the desert with the other well now if that isn t too picturesque for anything she cried with a of excitement upon her pretty face do look mr that s just the one only thing we wanted to make it just perfectly grand see the men upon the coming out from between those hills i they all looked at the long string of red who were winding out of the and there fell such a hush that the of the flies sounded quite loud upon their ears colonel had lit a match and he stood with it in one hand and the in the other until the his fin rs whistled the stood with his mouth ana a curious tint in his full red lips the others looked from one to the other with an uneasy sense that there was something wrong it was the colonel who broke the silence by george i believe the hundred to one has come said he chapter iv what s the of this cried harshly who are these people and why are you standing as if you had lost your senses the made an effort to compose himself and licked his lips before be answered i do not know who they are said he in a voice i did not expect to see any in this part w ho they are cried the frenchman you can see who they are they are armed men upon in short such as are employed by the government upon the frontier by jove he may be right said looking at the colonel why shouldn t it be as he says why shouldn t these fellows be there are no upon this side of the river said the colonel abruptly i am perfectly about that is no use in matters we must prepare fear the worst but in spite of his words they stood stock still in a group staring out over the plain their nerves were by the sudden shock and to all of them it was like a scene in a dream vague and unreal the men on the had streamed out from a which lay a mile or so distant on the side of the path the of the along they had travelled their retreat therefore was entirely cut off it appeared from the dust and the length of the line to be quite an army which was emerging from the hills for seventy men upon cover a considerable stretch of ground having reached the sandy plain they very formed to the fix nt and then at the harsh call of a they trotted forward in line the coloured figures all swaying and the sand smoking in a rolling yellow cloud at the heels of their at the same moment the six black soldiers doubled in from the front with their at the trail and down like well trained behind the rocks upon the of the hill their blocks all snapped together as their gave them the order to load and now suddenly the first stupor of the passed away and was succeeded by a frantic and impotent energy they all ran about upon the of rock in an foolish like frightened fowls in a yard they could not bring themselves to acknowledge that there was no possible escape for them again and again they to the edge of the great cliff which rose from the river but the youngest and most daring of them could never have descended it the two women clung one on each side of the trembling with a feeling that he was responsible for their safety when he ran up and down in his desperation his skirts and all fluttered together the lawyer k close to muttering mechanically don t be alarmed miss don t be at all t though his own limbs were with agitation the tragedy of the stamped about with a rolling of r s glancing angrily at his companions as if they had m some way betrayed him while the fat stood with his umbrella up staring with big frightened eyes at the men brown curled his small moustache and looked white but contemptuous the colonel and the young were the three most cool headed and members of the party s no escape for us so we may as well remain united they ve halted said they are us they know very well that there is no escape fix m them and th are taking their time i don t see what we can do suppose we hide the women suggested they can t know how many of us are here when tliey have taken us the women can come out of their hiding and make their way back to the boat admirable i cried colonel admirable i this way please miss bring the ladies here there is not an instant to be lost there was a part of the which was invisible from the plain in feverish haste they built a little many of stone were lying about and it did not take long to the largest of these against a rock so as to make a lean to and then to put two side pieces to complete it the were of the same colour as the rock so that to a casual glance the hiding place was not very visible the two ladies were squeezed into this and they crouched together s arms l the tragedy of the thrown round her aunt when they had walled them up the men turned with lighter hearts to see what was going on as they did so there out the sharp crack of a rifle shot firom the escort followed by another and but these isolated shots were drowned in the long roll of an irregular from the ain and the ur was full of the of the bullets the all huddled the rocks with the exception of the	4
frenchman who still stamped angrily about striking his sun hat with his clenched hand and crawled down to where the soldiers were firing slowly and steadily resting their upon the in front of them the had halted about five hundred yards away and it was evident from their leisurely movements that they were perfectly aware that there was no possible escape for the travellers they had paused to ascertain their number before closing in upon them most of them were firing from the backs of their but a few had dismounted and were here and there uttle white spots against the golden round their shots came sometimes singly in quick sharp and sometimes in a rolling with a sound like a boy s stick drawn across iron the hill like a bee hive and the bullets made a sharp sound as they struck against the rocks you do no good by exposing yourself said drawing colonel behind a large jagged which already furnished a shelter for three of the e a bullet is the best we have to hope said l the tragedy of the grimly what an infernal fool i have been not to protest more against this ridiculous expedition i deserve i get but it is hard on these poor souls who never knew the danger i suppose there s no help for us not the don you think this firing might bring the troops up from they ll never hear it it is a good six miles firom h to the steamer from that to would be another five well when we don t return the steamer will give the alarm and where shall we be by that time my poor i my poor little i muttered in the depths of his moustache what do you suppose that they will do with us he asked after a pause they may cut our throats or they may take us as slaves to i don t know that there is much to choose there s one of us out of his troubles anyhow the soldier next them had sat down abruptly and leaned forward over his knees his movement and attitude were so natural that it was hard to that he had been shot through the head he neither stirred nor groaned his comrades bent over him for a moment and then g shoulders they turned dark faces to the once more picked up the dead man s and his only three more rounds said he with the little brass upon the palm of his the tragedy of the let them shoot too soon and too often we should have waited for the rush you re a famous shot cried the colonel i ve heard of you as one of the cracks don t you think you could pick off their leader which is he as r as i can make out it is that one on the white on their right front i the fellow who is peering at us om under his two hands thrust in his and the sights it s a shocking bad li t for judging distance said he this is where the low of the lee comes in useful weu we ll try him at five hundred he fired but there was no change in the white or the peering rider did you see any sand fly no i saw nothing i fancy i took my sight a trifle too try hun again man and rifle and rock were steady but ain the and chief remained the third shot must have been nearer for he moved a few paces to the right as if he were becoming restless threw the empty rifle down with an exclamation of disgust it s this confounded light he cried and his cheeks flushed with annoyance think of my wasting three in that if i had him at i d shoot the off him but this glare means what s the matter with the frenchman was stamping about the with the gestures of a man who has been stung by l the tragedy of the a s s cr he shouted showing his strong white teeth under his black moustache he wrung his right hand violently and as he did so he sent a httle spray of blood from his finger tips a bullet had his wrist ran out from the cover where he had been crouching with the intention of dragging the frenchman into a place of safety out he had not taken three paces before he was himself hit in the and fell with a crash among the stones he staggered to his feet and then fell again in the same place up and down like a horse which has broken its back i m done i he whispered as the colonel ran to his aid and then he lay still with his china white cheek against the black stones when but a year before he bad wandered under the elms of cambridge surely the last fate upon this earth which he have predicted for himself would be that he should be slain by the bullet of a in the of the desert meanwhile the fire of the escort had ceased for they had shot away their last a sec hid man had been and a third who was the in charge had received a bullet in his he sat upon a stone tying up his injury with a grave look upon wrinkled black face like an old woman together a broken plate the three others fastened their with a determined and snap and the air of men who intended to sell their lives dearly they re coming t cried looking over the plain the tragedy of the let them come i the colonel answered his hands into his pockets suddenly he pulled one fist out and shook it furiously in the air oh the the confounded he shouted and his	4

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