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s l k c m g etc and the prize of the now lay between the brothers here was s opportunity at last the brothers had never it is true been cordial when word came that joseph was in asia minor had expressed himself with irritation i call it simply he had said mark my words we shall hear of him next at the north pole and these bitter expressions had been reported to the traveller on his return what was worse had refused to attend the lecture on education its aims objects purpose and although invited to the platform since then the brothers had not met on the other hand they never had openly quarrelled joseph by s orders was prepared to the advantage of his had enjoyed all through life the reputation of a man neither greedy nor unfair here then were all the elements of compromise assembled and suddenly beholding his seven thousand eight hundred pounds restored to him and himself dismissed from the of the leather trade the wrong box hastened the next morning to the office of his cousin michael michael was something of a public character launched upon the law at a very early age and quite without he had become a in shady he was known to be the man for a lost cause it was known he could extract testimony from a stone and interest from a gold mine and his office was in consequence by all that numerous class of persons who have still some reputation to lose and find themselves upon the point of losing it by those who have made acquaintances who have a correspondence or who are by their own in private life michael was a man of pleasure but it was thought his dire experience at the office had gone far to sober him and it was known that in the matter of he preferred the solid to the brilliant what was yet more to the purpose he had been all his life a consistent at the it was therefore with little fear for the result that presented himself before his cousin and proceeded to set forth his scheme for near upon a quarter of an hour the lawyer suffered him to dwell upon its manifest advantages then michael rose from his seat and ringing for his clerk uttered a single it won t do it was in vain that the leather merchant pleaded and in which reasoned and returned day after day to plead and reason it was in vain that he offered a of one thousand of two thousand of three thousand pounds in vain that he offered in joseph s name to be content with only of the pool still there came the same answer it won t do i can t see the bottom of this he said at last you answer none of my arguments you haven t a word to say for my part i believe it s malice the lawyer smiled at him tou may believe one thing said he whatever else i do i am not going to gratify any of your curiosity you see i am a trifle more to day because this is our last interview upon the subject our last interview i cried the cup dear boy returned michael i can t have my business hours upon and by the by have you no business of your own are there no in the leather trade i believe it to be malice repeated you always hated and despised me from a boy no no not hated returned michael soothingly i rather like you than otherwise there s such a permanent surprise about you you look so dark and attractive from a distance do you know that to the naked eye you look romantic like what they call a man with a history and indeed from all that i can hear the history of the leather trade is full of incident the box yes said these remarks it s no use coming here i shall see your father oh no you won t said michael nobody shall see my father i should like to know why cried his cousin i never make any secret of that replied the lawyer he is too ill if he is as ill as you say cried the other the more reason for accepting my proposal i see him will you said michael and he rose and rang for his clerk it was now time according to sir bond the medical whose name is so familiar at the foot of that joseph the poor golden goose should be removed into the purer air of and for that wilderness of the family now shook off the dust of delighted because at she sometimes made acquaintances john in despair for he was a man of city tastes joseph indifferent where he was so long as there was pen and ink and daily papers and he could avoid at the office himself perhaps not displeased to these visits to the city and have a quiet time for thought he was prepared for any sacrifice all he desired was to get his money again and clear his feet of leather and it would be strange since he was so modest in his desires and the pool amounted to upward of a hundred and sixteen thousand pounds it would be in which su strange indeed if he could find no way of if i could only guess his reason he repeated to himself and by day as he walked in woods and by night as he turned upon his bed and at meal times when he forgot to eat and in the bathing machine when he forgot to dress himself that problem was constantly before him why had michael refused at last one night he burst into his brother s room and woke him what s all this asked john leaves this place to	38
south western it drew up at the platform of a station in the midst of the new forest the real name of which in case the railway company might have the law of me i shall veil under the of many passengers put their heads to the window and among the rest an old gentleman on whom i willingly dwell for i am nearly done with him now and in the whole course of the present narrative i am not in the least likely to meet another character so decent his name is not so his habits he had passed his life wandering in a suit on the continent of europe and years of s messenger having at length his he suddenly remembered the rivers of and came to london to consult an from the to the and from both to the in which takes action physician the step appears inevitable presently he was in the hands of sir in cloth and sent to and to that who was his only friend upon his native soil he was now returning to report the case of these suited is unique we have all seen them entering the table d h te at or or with a genteel melancholy and a faint appearance of having been to india and not succeeded in the offices of many hundred hotels they are known by name and yet if the whole of this wandering were to disappear to morrow their absence would be wholly how much more if only one say this one in the cloth should vanish i he had paid his at his worldly effects were all in the van in two and these after the proper interval would be sold as baggage to a jew sir s butler would be a half crown poorer at the year s end and the hotel of europe about the same date would be mourning a small but quite decline in profits and that would be literally all perhaps the old gentleman thought something of the sort for he looked melancholy enough as he pulled his bare gray head back into the carriage and the train smoked under the bridge and forth with ever speed across the mingled and woods of the new forest not many hundred yards beyond however a sudden of set everybody s teeth on edge thb box and there was a brutal was aware of a confused uproar of voices and sprang to the window women were screaming men were tumbling from the windows on the track the guard was crying to them to stay where they were at the same time the train began to gather way and move very slowly backward toward and the next moment all these various sounds were blotted out in the whistle and the thundering of the down express the actual collision did not hear perhaps he fainted he had a wild dream of having seen the carriage double up and fall to pieces like a trick and sure enough when he came to himself he was lying on the bare earth and under the open sky his head ached savagely he carried his hand to his brow and was not surprised to see it red with blood the air was filled with an intolerable throbbing roar which he expected to find die away with the return of consciousness and instead of that it seemed but to swell the louder and to pierce the more cruelly through his ears it was a raging thunder like a factory and now curiosity began to stir he sat up and looked about him the track at this point ran in a p curve about a wooded all of the near side was heaped with the of the train that of the express was mostly hidden by the trees and just at the turn under clouds of steam and piled about with of living coal lay what remained of the in which takes action two engines one upon the other on the margin of the line were many people running to fro and crying aloud as they ran and many others lying motionless like sleeping suddenly drew an there has been an accident i thought he and was elated at his almost at the same time his eye lighted on john who lay close by as white as paper poor old john poor old i he thought the expression forth from some forgotten treasury and he took his brother s hand in his with childish tenderness it was perhaps the touch that recalled him at least john opened his eyes sat suddenly up and after several ineffectual movements of his lips what s the row said he in a phantom voice the din of that devil s still thundered in their ears let us get away from that cried and pointed to the of steam that still from the broken and the pair helped each other up and stood and and wavered and stared about them at the scene of death just then they were approached by a party of men who had already organized themselves for the purposes of rescue are you hurt cried one of these a young fellow with the sweat streaming down his pallid face and who by the way he was treated was evidently the doctor shook his head and the young man nodding grimly handed him a bottle of some spirit the box take a drink of that he said your friend looks as if he needed it badly we want every man we can get he added there s terrible work before us and nobody should if you can do no more you can carry a the doctor was hardly gone before under the spur of the awoke to the full possession of his wits my god i he cried uncle joseph i yes said john where can he be he can t be far o i hope the old	38
party isn t and help me to look said with a snap of savage determination strangely foreign to his ordinary bearing and then for one moment he broke forth if he s dead i he cried and shook his fist at heaven to and fro the brothers hurried staring in the faces of the wounded or turning the dead upon their backs they must have thus examined forty people and still there was no word of uncle joseph but now the course of their search brought them near the centre of the collision where the were still blowing off steam with a it was a part of the field not yet by the party the ground especially on the margin of the wood was full of here a pit there a surmounted with a bush of it was a place where many bodies might lie concealed and they beat it like after game suddenly who was leading paused and reached forth his index in which takes action with a tragic gesture john followed the direction of his brother s hand in the bottom of a sandy hole lay something that had once been human the face had suffered severely and it was but that was not required the snowy hair the coat of the cloth the flannel everything down to the health boots from messrs identified the body as that of uncle only the cap must have been lost in the for the dead man was the poor old beggar i said john with a touch of natural feeling i would give ten we hadn t him in the train but there was no sentiment in the face of as he gazed upon the dead his nails with eyes his brow marked the stamp of tragic indignation and tragic intellectual effort he stood there silent here was a last injustice he had been robbed while he was an orphan at school he had been lashed to a leather business he had been with miss his cousin had been him of the and he had borne all this we might almost say with dig and now they had gone and killed his uncle i here he said suddenly take his heels we must get him into the woods i m not going to have anybody find thia oh i said john where s the use the box do what i tell you as he took the corpse by the shoulders am i to carry him myself r they were close upon the borders of the wood in ten or twelve paces they were under cover and a little farther back in a sandy clearing of the trees they laid their down and stood and looked at it with what do you mean to do whispered john bury him to be sure i responded and he opened his pocket knife and began to dig never make a hand of it with that objected the other if you won t help me you cowardly screamed you can go to the devil i it s the folly said john but no man shall call me a coward and he began to help his brother the soil was sandy and light but with the roots of the surrounding tore their hands and as they the sand from the grave it was often with their blood an hour passed of energy upon the part of of help on that of john and still the was barely nine inches in depth into this the body was rudely flung sand was piled upon it and then more sand must be dug and had to be cut to pile on that and still from one end of the sordid mound a pair of feet projected and caught the in which takes light upon their patent leather toes but by this time the nerves of both were shaken even had enough of his task and they off like animals into the of the neighboring covert it s the best that we can do said sitting down and now said john perhaps you ll have the politeness to tell me what it s all about upon my word cried if you do not understand for yourself i almost despair of telling you oh of course it s some rot about the returned the other but it s the merest we ve lost it and there s an end i tell you said uncle is dead i know it there s a voice here that tells me so well and so is uncle joseph said john he s not dead unless i choose returned and come to that cried john if you re right and uncle s been dead ever so long all we have to do is to tell the truth and expose michael tou seem to think michael is a fool sneered can t you understand he s been preparing this fraud for years he has the whole thing ready the nurse the doctor the all bought the all ready but the date let him get wind of this business and you mark my words uncle will die in two days and be buried in a week but see here what michael can do i can do if he plays a game of bluff so the box can i if his father is to live forever by god so shall my uncle i it s ain t it said john a man must have some moral courage replied with dignity and then suppose you re wrong suppose uncle s alive and kicking well even then responded the we are no worse than we were before in fact we re better uncle must die some day as long as uncle joseph was alive he might have died any day but we re out of all that trouble now there s no sort of limit to the game that i propose it can be kept up till kingdom come	38
if i could only see how you meant to set about it i sighed john but you know you always were such a i d like to know what i ever cried i have the best collection of rings in london well you know there s the leather business suggested the other that s considered rather a it was a mark of singular self control in that he suffered this to pass and even about the business in hand said he once we can get him up to there s no sort of trouble we bury him in the cellar which seems made for it and then all i have to do is to start out and nd a doctor why can t we leave him where he is asked john in takes because we know nothing about the country retorted this wood may be a regular lovers walk turn your mind to the real difficulty how are we to get him up to various schemes were and rejected the railway station at was of course out of the question for it would now be a centre of curiosity and gossip and of all things they would be least able to despatch a dead body without remark john feebly proposed getting an ale and sending it as beer but the objections to this course were so overwhelming that scorned to answer the purchase of a packing case seemed equally hopeless for why should two gentlemen without baggage of any kind require a packing case they would be more likely to require clean linen we are working on wrong lines cried at last the thing must be gone about more carefully suppose now he added excitedly speaking by fits and starts as if he were thinking aloud suppose we rent a cottage by the month a can buy a packing case without remark then suppose we clear the people out to day get the packing case to night and to morrow i hire a carriage or a cart that we could drive ourselves and take the box or whatever we get to or or somewhere we could it specimens don t you see i believe i ve hit the nail at last well it sounds more admitted john the box of course must take assumed names continued it would never do to keep our own what do you say to itself it sounds quiet and dignified i will not take the name of returned his brother you may if you like i shall call myself the great positively the last six nights there s some go in a name like thai i cried do you think we are playing a for our amusement there was never anybody named who wasn t a music hall singer that s the beauty of it returned john it gives you some standing at once you may call yourself all s blue and nobody cares but to be gives a man a natural nobility but there s lots of other theatrical names cried devil a one will i take returned his brother i am going to have my little lark out of this as well as you very well said who perceived that john was determined to carry his point i shall be robert and i shall be george cried john the only original george rally round the only original as well as they were able the disorder of their clothes brothers returned to by a route in quest of luncheon and a suitable cottage it is not always easy to drop at a moment s notice in which takes action on a residence in a retired locality but fortune presently introduced our to a deaf carpenter a man rich in cottages of the required description and eager to supply their wants the second place they visited standing as it did about a mile and a half from any neighbors caused them to exchange a glance of hope on a nearer view the place was not without features it stood in a looking hollow of a heath tall trees obscured its windows the visibly on the and the walls were stained with of green the rooms were the low the furniture merely a strange chill and a smell of damp pervaded the kitchen and the bedroom boasted only of one bed with a view to the place remarked on this defect weu returned the man if you can t sleep two you d better take a villa residence and then pursued there s no water how do you get your water we fill that from the spring replied the carpenter pointing to a big barrel that stood beside the door the spring ain t so very far ofl after all and it s easy brought in there s a bucket there his brother as they examined the it was new and very constructed for its office if anything had been wanting to decide them this eminently practicable barrel would have turned the scale the box a bargain was promptly struck the month s rent was paid upon the nail and about an hour later brothers might have been observed returning to the cottage having along them the key which was the symbol of their a spirit lamp with which they fondly told themselves they would be able to cook a pork pie of suitable dimensions and a of the worst in nor was this all they had effected already under the plea that they were landscape painters they had hired for dawn on the morrow a light but solid cart so that when they entered in their new character they were able to tell themselves that the back of the business was already broken john proceeded to get tea while about the house was presently delighted by discovering the lid of the water butt upon the kitchen shelf here then was the packing case complete in the absence of straw the	38
blankets which he himself at least had not the smallest intention of using for their present purpose would exactly take the place of packing and as the difficulties began to vanish from his path rose almost to the brink of exultation there was however one difficulty not yet faced one upon which his whole scheme depended would john consent to remain alone in the cottage he had not yet dared to put the question it was high good humor that the pair sat to the deal table and proceeded to fall to on the pork pie the discovery of the lid and the great in which takes action was pleased to by on the table with his fork in true music hall style that s the he cried i always said a was what you wanted for this business of course said thinking this a favorable opportunity to prepare his brother of course you must stay on in this place till i give the word give out that uncle is resting in the new forest it would not do for both of us to appear in london we could never conceal the absence of the old man john s jaw dropped oh come he cried you can stay in this hole yourself i won t the color came into s cheeks he saw that he must win his brother at any cost you must please remember he said the amount of the if i succeed we shall have each fifty thousand to place to our bank account ay and nearer sixty but if you fail returned john what then what ll be the color of our bank account in that case i will pay all expenses said with an inward struggle you shall lose nothing well said john with a laugh if the ex s are yours and half profits mine i don t mind remaining here for a couple of days a couple of days i cried who was beginning to get angry and controlled himself with difficulty why t the box you would do more to win five pounds on a horse race perhaps i would returned the great it s the artistic temperament this is monstrous burst out i take all risks i pay all expenses i divide profits and you won t take the slightest pains to help me it s not decent it s not honest it s not even kind but suppose objected john who was considerably impressed by his brother s vehemence suppose that uncle is alive after all and lives ten years longer must i rot here all that time of course not responded in a more tone i only ask a month at the outside and if uncle is not dead by that time you can go abroad go abroad repeated john eagerly why shouldn t i go at once tell em that joseph and i are seeing life in paris nonsense said well but look here said john it s this house it s such a pig it s so dreary and damp you said yourself that it was damp only to the carpenter distinguished and that was to reduce the rent but really you know now we re in it i ve seen worse and what am i to do complained the victim how can i entertain a friend in which takes action my dear if you don t think the worth a little trouble say so and tu give the business up you re dead certain of the figures i suppose asked john well with a deep sigh send me the tin and all the comic papers regularly i ll face the music as afternoon drew on the cottage breathed more of its native marsh a creeping chill inhabited its chambers the fire smoked and a shower of rain coming up from the channel on a of wind on the window panes at intervals when the gloom deepened despair would produce the bottle and at first john welcomed the diversion not for long it has been said this spirit was the worst in only those acquainted with the county can appreciate the force of that and at length even the great who was no waved the from his lips the approach of dusk feebly with a single candle added a touch of tragedy and john suddenly stopped whistling through his fingers an art to the practice of which he had been reduced and bitterly lamented his i can t stay here a month he cried no one could the thing s nonsense the parties that lived in the would rise against a place like thia with an admirable affectation of indifference proposed a game of pitch and toss to what will not the condescend i it was john s favorite game the box indeed his only game he had found all the rest too intellectual and he played it with equal skill and good fortune to himself on the other hand the whole business was detestable he was a bad he had no luck in tossing and he was one who suffered when he lost but john was in a dangerous humor and his brother was prepared for any sacrifice by seven o clock with incredible agony had lost a couple of half crowns even with the before his eyes this was as much as he could bear and remarking that he would take his revenge some other time he proposed a bit of supper and a before they had made an end of this refreshment it was time to be at work a bucket of water for present necessities was withdrawn from the water butt which was then emptied and rolled before the kitchen fire to dry and the two brothers set forth on their adventure under a heaven chapter m the at mankind is really partial to happiness is an open question not a month passes by but some	38
cherished son runs off into the merchant service or some valued husband to with a lady help have fled from their and even judges have been known to to an open mind it will appear upon the whole less strange that joseph should have been led to entertain ideas of escape his lot i think we may say was not a happy one my friend mr with whom i travel up twice or thrice a week from park is certainly a gentleman whom i esteem but he was scarce a model nephew as for john he is of course an excellent fellow but if he was the only link that bound one to a home i think the most of us would vote for foreign travel in the case of joseph john if he were a link at all was not the only one bonds had long the old gentleman to and by these expressions i do not in the least refer to of whom however he was fond enough but to that collection of manuscript note books in which his life lay buried that he the box should ever have made up his mind to separate himself from these and go forth upon the world with no other resources than his memory supplied is a circumstance highly pathetic in itself and but little creditable to the wisdom of his the design or at least the temptation was already some months old and when a bill for eight hundred pounds to himself was suddenly placed in joseph s hand it brought matters to an issue he retained that bill which to one of his meant wealth and he promised himself to disappear among the crowds at or if that should prove impossible to out of the house in the course of the evening and melt like a dream into the millions of london by a peculiar of providence and railway he had not so long to wait he was one of the first to come to himself and scramble to his feet after the catastrophe and he had no sooner remarked his prostrate than he understood his opportunity and fled a man of upward of seventy who has just met with a railway accident and who is besides with the full uniform of sir bond is not very likely to flee far but the wood was close at hand and offered the fugitive at least a temporary covert hither then the old gentleman with extraordinary expedition and being somewhat and a good deal shaken here he lay down in a convenient grove and was presently overwhelmed by the at slumber the way of fate is often highly entertaining to the on and it is certainly a pleasant circumstance that while and john were in the sand to conceal the body of a total stranger their uncle lay in sleep a few hundred yards deeper in the wood he was awakened by the jolly note of a from the neighboring where a was by with some the sound cheered his old heart it directed his steps into the bargain and soon he was on the highway looking east and west from under his and doubtfully revolving what he ought to do a deliberate sound of wheels arose in the distance and then a cart was seen approaching well filled with driven by a good natured looking man on a double bench and displaying on a board the legend in the mind of mr certain streaks of poetry survived and were still efficient they had carried him to asia minor as a giddy youth of forty and now in the first hours of his recovered freedom they suggested to him the idea of continuing his flight in mr s cart it would be cheap properly it might even cost nothing and after years of and flannel his heart leaped out to meet the notion of exposure mr was perhaps a little puzzled to find so old a gentleman so strangely clothed and begging for a lift on so retired a roadside but he was a good natured man glad to do a service and so he took the stranger up the wrong box and he had his own idea of civility and so he asked no questions silence in fact was quite good enough for mr but the cart had scarcely begun to move forward ere he found himself involved in a one sided conversation i can see began mr by the mixture of and boxes that are contained in your cart each marked with its individual and by the good mare you drive that you occupy the post of in that great english system of transport which with all its defects is the pride of our country yes sir returned mr vaguely for he hardly knew what to reply them posts has done us a world of harm i am not a prejudiced man continued joseph as a young man i travelled much nothing was too small or too obscure for me to acquire at sea i studied learned the complicated knots employed by and acquired the at i would learn the art of making at nice the principles of making fruit i never went to the opera without first buying the book of the piece and making myself acquainted with the principal airs by picking them out on the piano with one finger you must have seen a deal sir remarked the touching up his horse i wish i could have had your advantages do you know how often the word whip occurs in the the at old testament continued the old gentleman one hundred and if i remember exactly forty seven times do it indeed sir said mr i never should have thought ii the bible contains three million five hundred and one thousand two and forty nine letters of verses i believe there are upward of eighteen thousand there have been many of the bible was the first	38
to introduce it into england about the year the paragraph bible as it is called is a well known edition and is so called because it is divided into the breeches bible is another well known instance and gets its name either because it was printed by one breeches or because the place of publication bore that name the remarked that he thought that was only natural and turned his attention to the more congenial task of passing a cart of hay it was a matter of some difficulty for the road was narrow and there was a ditch on either hand i perceive began mr when they had successfully passed the cart that you hold your reins with one hand you should employ two well i like that cried the contemptuously why you do not understand continued mr what i tell you is a scientific fact and on the theory of the a branch of there are the box some very interesting little shilling books upon the field of study which i should think a man in your station would take a pleasure to read but i am afraid you have not cultivated the art of observation at least we have now driven together for some time and i cannot remember that you have contributed a single fact this is a very false principle my good man for instance i do not know if you observed that as you passed the hay cart man you took your left of course i did cried the who was now getting he d have the law on me if i hadn t in france now resumed the old man and also i believe in the united states of america you would have taken the right i would not cried mr indignantly i would have taken the left i observe again continued mr to r that you mend the parts of your harness with string i have always protested against this carelessness and of the english poor in an essay that i once read before an audience it ain t string said the sullenly it s i have always protested resumed the old man that in their private and domestic hfe as well as in their laboring career the lower classes of this country are and extravagant a in time the at large who the devil are the lower classes cried the tou are the lower classes yourself if i thought jou were a blooming i shouldn t have given you a lift the words were uttered with ill feeling it was plain the pair were not congenial and further conversation even to one of mr s pathetic was out of the question with an angry gesture he pulled down the brim of the cap over his eyes and producing a note book and a blue pencil from one of his pockets soon became absorbed in calculations on his part the fell to whistling with fresh zest and if now and again he glanced at the companion of his drive it was with mingled feelings of triumph and alarm triumph because he had succeeded in that of speech and alarm lest by any accident it should begin again even the shower which presently overtook and passed them was endured by both in silence and it was still in silence that they drove at length into dusk had fallen the shop windows forth into the streets of the old in private houses lights were kindled for the evening meal and mr began to think complacently of his night s lodging he put his papers by cleared his throat and looked doubtfully at mr will you be civil enough said he to recommend me to an inn the wrong box mr pondered for a moment well he said at last i wonder how about the arms the arms will do very well returned the old man if it s clean and cheap and the people civil i wasn t thinking so much of you returned mr thoughtfully i was thinking of my friend as keeps the he s a friend of mine you see and he helped me through my trouble last year and i was thinking would it be fair like on to saddle him with an old party like you who might be the death of him with general information would it be fair to the inquired mr with an air of candid appeal mark me cried the old gentleman with spirit it was kind in you to bring me here for nothing but it gives you no right to address me in such terms here s a shilling for your trouble and if you do not choose to set me down at the arms i can find it for myself was surprised and a little startled muttering something he returned the shilling drove in silence through several intricate lanes and small streets drew up at length before the bright windows of an inn and called loudly for mr is that you cried a hearty voice from the come in and warm yourself i only stopped here mr explained to let the at large down an old what wants food and lodging mind i warn you him he s worse nor a ml dismounted with difficulty for he was cramped with his long drive and the shaking he had received in the accident the friendly mr in spite of the s scarcely agreeable introduction treated the old gentleman with the utmost courtesy and led him into the back parlor where there was a big fire burning in the grate presently a table was spread in the same room and he was invited to seat himself before a fowl somewhat the worse for having seen service before and a big of ale from the tap he rose from supper a giant refreshed and changing his seat to one nearer the fire began to examine the other guests with an eye to	38
and for the rest of the run mr was left alone over his the magistrate in the luggage van on the one side and on the other michael and the guard were together in familiar tall i can get you a here sir observed the official as the train began to speed before station you had best get out at my door and i can bring your friend mr whom we left as the reader has suspected beginning to play t with the in the van was a young gentleman of much wealth a pleasing but sandy exterior and a highly vacant mind not many months before he had contrived to get himself black by the family of a resident for political reasons in the gay city of paris a common friend to whom he had confided his distress recommended him to michael and the lawyer was no sooner in possession of the facts than he instantly assumed the offensive fell on the flank of the forces and in the inside of three days had the satisfaction to behold them and for the it is no business of ours to follow them on this retreat over which the police were so obliging as to thus relieved from what he loved to refer to as the mr returned to london with the most unbounded and embarrassing gratitude and admiration for his these sentiments were not repaid either in kind or degree indeed michael was a trifle ashamed of his new s friendship it had taken invitations to get him to and the box but he had gone at last and was now returning it has been remarked by some judicious possibly j f smith that providence to employ no instrument however humble and it is now plain to the that both mr and the were liquid lead and in the hand of destiny smitten with the desire to shine in michael s eyes and show himself a person of original humor and resources the young gentleman who was a magistrate more by token in his native county was no sooner alone in the van than he fell upon the with all the zeal of a and when he rejoined the lawyer at his face was flushed with his exertions and his cigar which he had suffered to go out was almost bitten in two by george but this has been a lark i he cried sent the wrong thing to everybody in england these cousins of yours have a packing case as big as a house the whole business up to that extent that if it were to get out it s my belief we should be it was useless to be serious with mr take care said michael i am getting tired of your perpetual my reputation is beginning to suffer your reputation will be all gone before you finish with me replied his companion with a grin clap it in the my boy for total loss of reputation six and but continued mr with more serious the in the van ness could i be out of the commission for this little jest i know it s small but i like to be a j p speaking as a professional man do you think there s any risk what does it matter responded michael they ll you out sooner or later somehow you don t give the effect of being a good magistrate i only wish i was a retorted his companion instead of a poor devil of a country gentleman suppose we start one of those ourselves i to pay five hundred a year and you to me against every misfortune except illness or marriage it strikes me remarked the lawyer with a meditative laugh as he lighted a cigar it strikes me that you must be a cursed nuisance in this world of ours do you really think so responded the magistrate leaning back in his cushions delighted with the compliment yes i suppose i am a nuisance but mind you i have a stake in the country don t forget that dear boy chapter v and the box it has been mentioned that at sometimes made acquaintances it is true she had but a glimpse of them before the doors of john street closed again upon its but the glimpse was sometimes and the consequent regret was tempered with hope among those whom she had thus met a year before was a young of the name of about three o clock of the day when the magistrate with the a somewhat moody and had carried mr to the comer of john street and about the same moment miss was called to the door of no by a thundering double knock mr was a happy enough young man he would have been happier if he had had more money and less one and twenty pounds a year was all his store but his uncle mr edward this with a handsome allowance and a great deal of advice in language that would probably have been judged on board a ship mr was indeed a figure quite peculiar mr f b and the box to the days of mr what we may call for the lack of an accepted expression a having acquired years without experience he carried into the radical side of politics those noisy after dinner table passions which we are more accustomed to connect with in its severe and aspects to the opinions of mr in fact he added the temper and the sympathies of that extinct animal the squire he admired he carried a formidable staff he was a and it was hard to know which would have more stirred his a person who should have defended the established church or one who should have neglected to attend its he had besides some catch words justly dreaded in the family circle and when he could not go so far as to declare a step un	38
english he might still and with hardly less effect it as it was under the ban of this lesser that had fallen his views on the study of law had been pronounced and it had been intimated to him in a interview with the that he must either take a new start and get a brief or two or prepare to live on his own money no wonder if was moody he had not the slightest wish to his present habits but he would not stand on that since the recall of mr s allowance would them still more he had not the least desire to himself with law thk wrong box he had looked into it and it seemed not to repay attention but upon this also he was ready to give way in fact he would go as far as he could to meet the views of his uncle the but there was one part of the programme that appeared independent of his will how to get a brief there was the question and there was another and a worse suppose he got one should he prove the better man suddenly he found his way barred by a crowd a illuminated van was backed against the from its open stem half resting on the street half supported by some glistening the end of the largest in the county of might have been seen while on the steps of the house the person of the driver and the slim figure of a young girl stood as upon a stage it is not for us the girl was saying i beg you to take it away it couldn t get into the house even if you managed to get it out of the van i shall leave it on the pavement then and m can arrange with the as he likes said the but i am not m the girl it doesn t matter who you are said the van man you must allow me to help you miss said putting out his hand gave a little cry of pleasure ob mr she cried i am so glad to see you we must get this mb and the box horrid thing which can only have come here by mistake into the house the man says we ll have to take off the door or knock two of our windows into one or be by the or custom house or something for leaving our on the pavement the men by this time had successfully removed the box from the van had it down on the pavement and now stood leaning against it or gazing at the door of no in visible physical distress and mental embarrassment the windows of the whole street had filled as if by magic with interested and entertained spectators with as thoughtful and scientific an expression as he could assume measured the doorway with his cane while entered his observations in a he then measured the box and upon comparing his found that there was just enough space for it to enter next throwing off his coat and waistcoat he assisted the men to take the door from its hinges and lastly all by being pressed into the service the packing case mounted the steps upon some fifteen pairs of wavering legs scraped loudly grinding through the doorway and was deposited at length with a formidable in the for end of the which it almost blocked the of this victory smiled upon each other as the dust subsided it was true they had smashed a bust of and the wall into deep but at least they were no longer one of the public spectacles of london thb box well sir said the van man i never see such a job expressed his in this sentiment by pressing a couple of sovereigns in the man s hand make it three sir and til stand sam to everybody here cried the latter and this having been done the whole body of into the van which drove off in the direction of the nearest public house closed the door on their departure and turned to their eyes met the most mirth seized upon them both and they made the house ring with their laughter then curiosity awoke in s mind and she went and examined the box and more especially the this is the strangest thing that ever happened she said with another burst of laughter it is certainly s handwriting and i had a letter from him only this morning telling me to expect a barrel is there a barrel coming too do you think mr with fragile read aloud from the painted warning on the box then you were told nothing about this no responded oh mr don t you think we might take a peep at it yes indeed cried just let me have a hammer come down and i ll show you where it is cried mb and the gigantic box the shelf is too high for me to reach and opening the door of the kitchen stair she bade follow her they found both the hammer and a but was surprised to see no sign of a servant he also discovered that miss had a very pretty little foot and ankle and the discovery embarrassed him so much that he was glad to fall at once upon the he worked hard and earnestly and dealt his blows with the precision of a blacksmith the while standing silently by his side and regarding rather the workman than the work he was a handsome fellow she told herself she had never seen such beautiful arms and suddenly as though he had overheard these thoughts turned and smiled to her she too smiled and colored and the double change became her so prettily that forgot to turn away his eyes and swinging the hammer with a will discharged a blow on his own with admirable presence	38
of mind he crushed down an oath and the harmless comment butter fingers but the pain was sharp his nerve was shaken and after an trial he found he must from further operations in a moment was off to the in a moment she was back again with a basin of water and a and had begun to his wounded hand i am dreadfully sorry said if i had had any manners i should have opened the box the box first and smashed my hand afterward it feels much better he added i assure you it does and now i think you are well enough to direct operations said she tell me what to do and tu be your workman a very pretty workman said rather forgetting himself she turned and looked at him with a suspicion of a frown and the young man was glad to direct her attention to the packing case the bulk of the work had been accomplished and presently had burst through the last barrier and disclosed a of straw in a moment they were kneeling side by side engaged like the next they were rewarded with a glimpse of something white and polished and the next again laid bare an unmistakable marble leg he is surely a very person said i never saw anything like it responded his muscles stand out like penny rolls another leg was soon disclosed and then what seemed to be a third this resolved itself however into a knotted club resting upon a it is a cried i might have guessed that from his i m supposed to be rather partial to but when it comes to the police should interfere i should say he added glancing with at the swollen leg that this was about the biggest and the worst in europe what in heaven s name can have induced him to come here me and thb box i suppose nobody else would have a gift of him said and for that matter i think we could have done without the monster very well oh don t say that returned this has been one of the most amusing experiences of my life i don t think you ll forget it very soon said your hand will remind you well i suppose i must be going said reluctantly no pleaded why should you stay and have tea with me if i thought you really wished me to stay said looking at his hat of course i should only be too delighted what a person you must take me for returned the girl why of course i do and besides i want some cakes for tea and i ve nobody to send here is the latch key put on his hat with alacrity and casting one look at miss and another at the legs of threw open the door and departed on his errand he returned with a large bag of the and most tempting of cakes and and found in the act of spreading a small tea table in the the rooms are all in such a state she cried that i thought we should be more and comfortable in our own and under our own vine and ever so much better cried the box oh what cream i said opening the bag and the dearest little cherry with all the out into the cream i yes said concealing his dismay i knew they would mix beautifully the woman behind the counter told me so now said as they began their little festival i am going to show you s letter read it aloud please perhaps there s something i have missed took the letter and spreading it out on his knee read as follows i write you from where we are stopping over for a few days uncle was much shaken in that dreadful accident of which i dare say you have seen the account to morrow i leave him here with john and come up alone but before that you will have received a barrel containing specimens for a friend do not open it on any account but leave it in the till i come yours in haste m p s be sure and leave the barrel in the no said there seems to be nothing about the monument and he nodded as he spoke at the marble legs miss he continued would you mind me asking a few questions certainly not replied and if you can make me understand why has sent a statue of me f b and the gigantic box instead of a barrel containing specimens for a friend i shall be grateful till my dying day and i hat are specimens for a friend i haven t a guess said specimens are usually bits of stone but rather smaller than our friend the monument still that is not the point are you quite alone in this big house yes i am at present returned i came up before them to prepare the house and get another servant but i couldn t get one i liked then you are utterly alone said in amazement are you not afraid no responded stoutly i don t see why i should be more afraid than you be i am weaker of course but when i found i must sleep alone in the house i bought a revolver wonderfully cheap and made the man show me how to use it and how do you use it demanded much amused at her courage why said she with a smile you pull the little thing on top and then pointing it very low for it springs up as you fire you pull the underneath little thing and it goes off as well as if a man had done it and how often have you used it asked oh i have not used it yet said the determined young lady but i know how and that makes me wonderfully courageous	38
especially when i my door with a chest of drawers the wrong box tm awfully glad they are coming back soon said this business strikes me as excessively if it goes on much longer i could provide you with a maiden aunt of mine or my landlady if you preferred me an aunt cried oh what generosity i begin to think it must have been you that sent the believe me cried the young man i admire you too much to send you such an infamous work of art was beginning to reply when they were both startled by a knocking at the door oh mr don t be afraid my dear girl said laying his hand tenderly on her arm i know it s the police she whispered they are coming to complain about the statue the knock was repeated it was louder than before and more impatient it s cried in a startled voice and she ran to the door and opened it it was indeed that stood before them not the of ordinary days but a v looking fellow pale and haggard with blood shot eyes and a two days beard upon his chin the barrel i he cried where s the barrel that came this morning and he stared about the his eyes as they fell upon the legs of literally mr and the gigantic box in his head what is that he screamed what is that wax work speak you fool what is that and s the barrel the water butt no barrel came responded coldly this is the only thing that has arrived this i shrieked the miserable man i never heard of it i it came addressed in your hand replied we had nearly to pull the house down to get it in and that is all that i can tell you gazed at her in utter bewilderment he passed his hand over his forehead he leaned against the wall like a man about to faint then his tongue was and he overwhelmed the girl with torrents of such fire such such a choice of language none had ever before suspected to possess and the girl trembled and shrank before his fury you shall not speak to miss in that way said sternly it is what i will not suffer i shall speak to the girl as i like returned with a fresh outburst of anger i ll speak to the as she deserves not a word more sir not one word cried miss he continued addressing the young girl you cannot stay a moment longer in the same house with this fellow here is my arm let me take you where you will be secure from insult mr returned you are right i cannot the box stay here longer and i am mire i trust myself to an honorable gentleman pale and resolute offered her his arm and the pair descended the steps followed by for the latch key had scarcely handed the key to before an empty drove into john street it was hailed by both men and as the drew up his horse made a dash into the vehicle sixpence above fare he cried station for your life sixpence for yourself i make it a shilling ner said the man with a grin the other parties were first a shilling then cried with the inward reflection that he would it at the man whipped up his horse and the vanished from john street i chapter vi the of the as the span through the streets of london sought to rally the forces of his mind the with the dead body had and it was essential to recover it so much was clear and if by some good fortune it was still at the station all might be well if it had been sent out however if it were already in the hands of some wrong person matters looked more ominous people who receive are usually keen to have them open the example of miss whom he cursed again was there to remind him of the circumstance and if anyone had opened the water butt oh lord cried at the thought and carried his hand to his damp forehead the private conception of any breach of law is apt to be for the scheme while yet wears dashing and attractive colors not so in the least that part of the criminal s later reflections which deal with the police that useful corps as now began to think had scarce been kept sufficiently in view when he embarked upon his enterprise must play devilish close thb wrong box he reflected and he was aware of an exquisite thrill of fear in the region of the main line or inquired the through the main line replied and mentally decided that the man should have his shilling after all it would be madness to attract attention thought he but what this thing will cost me and last begins to be a nightmare i he passed through the office and wandered on the platform it was a breathing space in the day s traffic there were few people there and these for the most part on the benches seemed to attract no remark which was a good thing but on the other hand he was making no progress in his quest something must be don something must be every passing instant only added to his dangers all his courage he stopped a porter and asked him if he remembered receiving a barrel by the morning train he was anxious to get information for the barrel belonged to a friend it is a matter of some moment he added for it contains specimens i was not here this morning sir responded the porter somewhat reluctantly but ask bill do you recollect bill to have got a barrel from this morning containing specimens i don t know about specimens replied bill but the of	38
childish he turned and struck at the offending statue there a crash o lord what have i done next and he his way to find a candle yes he reflected as he stood with the light in his hand and looked upon the leg from which about a pound of muscle was detached tes i have destroyed a genuine antique i may be in for thousands i and then there sprung up in his bosom a sort of angry hope let me see he s got rid of there s nothing to connect me with that beast the men were all drunk and what s better they ve been all discharged oh come i think this is another case for moral courage i deny all knowledge of the thing a moment more and he stood again before the his lips sternly compressed the coal axe and the meat under his arm the next he had fallen upon the packing case this had been already seriously by the operations of a few blows and it already and yet a few more and it fell about in a shower of boards followed by an of straw and now the leather merchant could behold the nature of his task and at the first sight his spirit it was indeed no more ambitious a task for de with all his men and horses to attack the hills of than for a single slim young gentleman with no previous experience of labor in a to measure himself against the box that monster on his and yet the pair were well encountered on the one side bulk on the other genuine heroic fire down you shall come you great big ugly brute i cried aloud with something of that passion which swept the mob against the walls of the down you shall come this night i ll have none of you in my the face from its expression had particularly animated the zeal of our and it was against the face that he began his operations the great height of the for he stood a and half in his feet offered a preliminary obstacle to this attack but here in the first of the battle intellect already began to triumph over matter by means of a pair of library steps the injured gained a posture of advantage and with great of the coal axe proceeded to the brute two hours later what had been the erect image of a gigantic coal porter turned white was now no more than a of members the prone against the the countenance down the kitchen stair the legs the arms the hands and even the fingers scattered on the half an hour more and all the had been laboriously to the kitchen and with a gentle sentiment of triumph looked round upon the scene of his achievements yes he could the of m part the deny all knowledge of it now the beyond the fact that it was partly betrayed no trace of the passage of but it was a weary that crept up to bed his arms and shoulders ached the palms of his hands burned from the rough kisses of the coal axe and there was one finger that stole continually to his mouth sleep long delayed to visit the hero and with the first peep of day it had again deserted him the morning as though to accord with his disastrous fortunes dawned an gale was shouting in the streets of rain angrily assailed the windows and as dressed the draught from the fireplace vividly played about his legs i think he could not help observing bitterly that with all i have to bear they might have given me decent weather there was no bread in the house for miss like all women left to themselves had entirely upon cake but some of this was foimd and along with what the poets a glass of fair cold water made up a semblance of a morning meal and then down he sat to his delicate task nothing can be more interesting than the study of written as they are before meals and after during and written when the is trembling for the life of his child or has come from winning the in his lawyer s office or under the box the bright eyes of his sweetheart to the vulgar these seem never the same but to the expert the bank clerk or the they are constant quantities and as as the north star to the night watch on deck to all this was alive in the theory of that graceful art in which he was now our spirited leather merchant was beyond all reproach but happily for the is an affair of practice and as sat surrounded by examples of his s signature and his own depression stole upon his spirits from time to time the wind in the chimney at his back from time to time there swept over a so dark that he must rise and light the gas about him was the chill the mean disorder of a house out of commission the floor bare the sofa heaped with books and accounts enveloped in a dirty table cloth the pens the paper glazed with a thick of dust and yet these were but of misery and the true root of his depression lay round him on the table in the shape of it s one of the strangest things i ever heard of he complained it almost seems as if it was a talent that i didn t possess he went once more through his proofs a clerk would simply at them said he well there s nothing else but tracing possible he waited till a had passed and there came a the of the first of then he went to the window and in the face of all john street traced his uncle s signature it was a poor	38
thing at the best but it must do said he as he stood gazing on his he s dead anyway and he filled up the for a couple of a hundred and forth for the bank there at the desk at which he was accustomed to business and with as much indifference as he could assume presented the to the big red bearded the seemed to view it with surprise and as he turned it this way and that and even the signature with a glass his surprise appeared to warm into begging to be excused for a moment he passed away into the quarters of the bank whence after an interval he returned again in earnest talk with a superior an and a but a very gentlemanly man mr i believe said the gentlemanly man fixing with a pair of double that is my name said is there anything wrong well the fact is mr you see we are rather surprised at receiving this said the other at the there are no effects no effects cried why i know myself there must be eight and twenty hundred pounds if there s a penny the box two six four i think replied the gentlemanly man but it was drawn yesterday drawn cried by your uncle himself sir continued the other not only that but we a bill for him for let me see how much was it for mr bell eight hundred mr replied the cried staggering back i beg your pardon said mr it s it s only an said i hope there s nothing wrong mr said mr bell all i can tell you said with a harsh laugh is that the whole thing s impossible my uncle is at unable to move really i cried mr bell and he recovered the from mr but this is dated in london and to day he observed how d ye account for that sir oh that was a mistake said and a deep tide of color his face and neck no doubt no doubt said mr but he looked at his customer and and resumed even if there were no effects this is a very trifling sum to our firm the name of is surely good enough for such a wretched sum as this no doubt mr returned mr the of m the first and if you insist i will take it into consideration but i hardly think in short mr if there had been nothing else the signature seems hardly all that we could wish that s of no consequence replied nervously i ll get my uncle to sign another the fact is he went on with a bold stroke my uncle is so far from well at present that he was unable to sign this without assistance and i fear that my holding the pen for him may have made the difference in the signature mr shot a keen glance into s face and then turned and looked at mr well he said it seems as if we have been by a pray tell mr we shall put on at once as for this of yours i regret that owing to the way it was signed the bank can hardly consider it what shall i say business like and he returned the across the counter took it up mechanically he was thinking of something very in a case of this kind he began i believe the loss falls on us i mean upon my uncle and myself it does not sir replied mr bell the bank is responsible and the bank will either recover the money or it you may depend on that s face fell then it was visited by another gleam of hope ill tell you what he said you leave this entirely in the box hands ill the matter an at any rate and he added are bo expensive the bank would not hear of it returned mr the bank stands to lose between three and four thousand pounds it will spend as much more if necessary an is a permanent danger we shall clear it up to the bottom mr set your mind at rest on that then stand the loss said boldly i order you to abandon the search he was determined that no inquiry should be made i beg your pardon returned mr but we have nothing to do with you in this matter which is one between your uncle and if he should take this opinion and will either come here himself or will let me see him in his sick room quite impossible cried well then you see said mr how my hands are tied the whole affair must go at once into the hands of the police mechanically folded the and restored it to his pocket book good morning said he and scrambled somehow out of the bank i don t know what they suspect he reflected i can t make them out their whole behavior is thoroughly like but it doesn t matter all s up the op the the money has been paid the police are on the scent in two hours that idiot will be and the whole story of the dead body in the evening papers if he could have heard what passed in the bank after his departure he would have been less alarmed perhaps more that was a curious mr bell said mr yes sir said mr bell but i think we have given him a fright oh we shall hear no more of mr returned the other it was a first attempt and the house have dealt with us so long that i was anxious to deal gently but i suppose mr bell there can be no mistake about yesterday it was old mr himself there could be no possible doubt of that said mr bell with a chuckle he explained	38
to me the principles of well well said mr the next time he calls ask him to step into my room it is only proper he should be warned chapter vn in takes legal street king s known among mr s as island is neither a long a handsome nor a pleasing dirty maids of all work issue from it in pursuit of beer or linger on its listening to the voice of love the cat s meat man passes twice a day an occasional organ in and out again disgusted in holiday time the street is the of the young of the neighborhood and the have an opportunity of studying the manly art of self defence and yet street has one claim to be respectable for it contains not a single shop unless you count the public house at the comer which is really in the king s road the door of no bore a brass plate inscribed with the legend w d artist it was not a particularly clean brass plate nor was no itself a particularly inviting place of residence and yet it had a character of its own such as may well the pulse of the reader s curiosity for here was the home of an artist and a distinguished artist too highly distinguished by his william takes legal ill success which had never been made the subject of an article in the illustrated magazines no wood had ever a comer in the back drawing room or the of no no young lady author had ever commented on the unaffected simplicity with which mr received her in the midst of his treasures it is an i would gladly supply but our business is only with the backward parts and abject rear of this dwelling here was a garden a dwarf fountain that never played in the centre a few looking flowers in pots two or three newly planted trees which the spring of visited without noticeable consequence and two or three statues after the antique representing and in the worst possible style of art on one side the garden was over by a pair of crazy usually hired out to the more obscure and youthful of british art opposite these another lofty out building somewhat more carefully finished and of a communication with the house and a private door on the back lane the industry of mr all day it is true he was engaged in the work of education at a for young ladies but the evenings at least were his own and these he would far into the night now dashing off a landscape in oil now a bust in marble as he would gently but proudly observe of some public character now stooping his to a mere the box for a gas on a stair sir or a life samuel for a religious nursery mr had studied in paris and he had studied in borne supplied with funds by a fond parent who went subsequently in consequence of a fall in and though he was never thought to have the smallest of talent it was at one time supposed that he had learned his business eighteen years of what is called had him of the dangerous knowledge his artist would sometimes reason with him they would point out to him how impossible it was to paint by gas light or to life sized without a model i know that he would reply no one in street knows it better and if i were rich i should certainly employ the best models in london but being poor i have taught myself to do without them an occasional model would only disturb my ideal conception of the figure and be a positive in my career as for painting by an artificial light he would continue that is simply a i have found it necessary to acquire my days being engrossed in the work of at the moment when we must present him to our readers was in his alone by the dying light of the october day he sat sure enough with unaffected simplicity in a chair his low crowned black felt hat by his side a dark weak harmless pathetic little man clad in the hue of mourning his coat longer i william takes legal advice than is usual with the his neck enclosed in a collar without a parting his pale in hue and simply tied the whole outward man except for a pointed beard there was a on the top of s head there were silver hairs at s temple poor gentleman he was no longer young and years and poverty and humble ambition make a cheerless lot in front of him in the comer by the door there stood a barrel and let him turn them where he mighty it was always to the barrel that his eyes and his thoughts returned should i open it should i return it should i communicate with mr at once he wondered no he concluded finally nothing without mr s advice and he arose and produced a shabby desk it opened without the formality of and displayed the thick cream colored note paper on which mr was in the habit of communicating with the of schools and the parents of his pupils he placed the desk on the table by the window and taking a of indian ink from the laboriously composed the following letter my dear mr it ran would it be on your kindness if i asked you to pay me a visit here this evening it is in no trifling matter that i your valuable assistance for need i say more than it con gems the welfare of mr s statue of the box i write you in agitation of mind for i have made all inquiries and greatly fear that this work of ancient art has been i labor besides under another perplexity not with the first	38
pray excuse the of this and believe me yours in haste d armed with this he set forth and rang the bell of no s the private residence of michael he had met the lawyer at a time of great public excitement in michael who had a sense of and a great deal of careless kindness in his nature followed the acquaintance up and having come to laugh remained to drop into a contemptuous kind of friendship by this time which was four years after the first meeting was the lawyer s dog no said the elderly housekeeper who opened the door in person mr michael s not in but ye re looking terrible poorly mr take a glass of sir to cheer ye up no i thank you ma am replied the artist it is very good in you but i scarcely feel in sufficient spirits for just give mr this note and ask him to look round to the door in the lane you will please tell him i shall be in the all evening and he turned again into the street and walked slowly homeward a hair s window caught his attention and he stared long and earnestly at the proud high bom lady in evening dress who in the centre william takes advice of the show the artist woke in him in spite of his troubles it is all very well to run down the men who make these things he cried but there s a something there s a haughty something about that figure it s what i tried for in my he added with a sigh and he went home reflecting on the quality they don t teach you that direct appeal in paris he thought it s british come i am going to sleep i must wake up i must aim higher aim higher cried the little artist to himself all through his tea and afterward as he was giving his eldest boy a lesson on the fiddle his mind dwelt no longer on his troubles but he was into the better land and no sooner was he at liberty than he hastened with positive to his not even the sight of the barrel could entirely cast him down he flung himself with rising zest into his work a bust of mr from a photograph turned with extraordinary success the difficulty of the back of the head for which he had no documents beyond a recollection of a public meeting delighted himself by his treatment of the collar and was only recalled to the cares of life by michael s rattle at the door well what s wrong said michael advancing to the grate where knowing his friend s delight in a bright fire mr had not spared the fuel i suppose you have come to grief somehow box there is no expression strong enough said the artist mr s statue has not turned up and i am afraid i shall be for the money but i think nothing of that what i fear my dear mr what i fear alas that i should have to say it is exposure the was to be out of italy a thing positively wrong a thing of which a man of my principles and in my responsible position should have taken as i now see too late no part whatever this sounds like very serious work said the lawyer it will require a great deal of drink i took the liberty of in short of being prepared for you replied the artist pointing to a kettle a bottle of gin a and glasses michael mixed himself a and offered the artist a cigar no thank you said i used occasionally to be rather partial to it but the smell is so disagreeable about the clothes all right s the lawyer i am comfortable now your tale at some length set forth his sorrows he had gone to day to expecting to receive the colossal and he had received instead a barrel not big enough to hold yet the barrel was addressed in the hand with which he was perfectly acquainted of his roman correspondent what was stranger still a case had arrived by the same train large enough and heavy william legal advice enough to contain the and this case had been taken to an address now the van man i regret to say it had been drinking and his language was such as i could never bring myself to repeat he was at once discharged by the of the line who behaved most properly throughout and is to make inquiries at in the meanwhile what was i to do i left my address and brought the barrel home but remembering an old i determined not to open it except in the presence of my lawyer is that all asked michael i don t see any cause to worry the has stuck upon the road it will drop in to morrow or the day after and as for the barrel depend upon it it s a from one of your young ladies and probably contains oh don t speak so loud i cried the little artist it would cost me my place if i were heard to speak lightly of the young ladies and besides why from italy and why should they come to me addressed in well let s have a look at it said michael let s roll it forward to the light the two men rolled the barrel from the comer and stood it on end before the fire it s heavy enough to be remarked michael shall we open it at once inquired the artist who had grown decidedly cheerful under the combined the box effects of company and gin and without waiting for a reply he began to strip as if for a prize fight tossed his paper basket hung his coat upon	38
a nail and with a m one hand and a hammer in the other struck the first blow of the ing that s the style william i cried michael there s fire for your money it may be a romantic visit from one of the young ladies a sort of business have a care and don t in s head but the sight of s alacrity was the lawyer could sit still no longer tossing his cigar into the fire he snatched the instrument from the unwilling hands of the artist and fell to himself soon the sweat stood in beads upon his large fair brow his trousers were with iron and the state of his to energies a is not an easy thing to open even when you set about it in the right way when you set about it the whole structure must be resolved into its elements such was the course pursued alike by the artist and the lawyer presently the last had been removed a couple of smart blows tumbled the upon the ground and what had once been a barrel was no more than a confused heap of broken and distorted boards in the midst of these a certain dismal something in blankets remained for an instant upright and then to one side and heavily before the william takes legal advice fire even as the thing subsided an eye glass to the floor and rolled toward the screaming hold your tongue i said he to the house door it then with a pale face and lip he drew near pulled aside a corner of the blanket and shuddering there was a long silence in the now tell me said michael in a low voice had you any hand in it and he pointed to the body the little artist could only utter broken and sounds michael poured some gin into a drink that he said don t be afraid of me i m your friend through thick and thin put the liquor down i swear before god he said this is another mystery to me in my worst fears i never dreamed of such a thing i would not lay a finger on a infant that s all square said michael with a sigh of huge relief i believe you old boy and he shook the artist warmly by the hand i thought for a moment he added with rather a ghastly smile i thought for a moment you might have made way with mr it would make no if i had groaned all is at an end for me there s the writing on the wall to begin with said michael let s get him out of sight for to be quite plain with you i don t like your thb box s appearance and with that the lawyer shuddered where can we put it you might put it in the closet there if you could bear to touch it answered the artist somebody has to do it returned the lawyer and it seems as if it had to be me you go over to the table turn your back and mix me a that s a fair division of labor about ninety seconds later the closet door was heard to shut there observed michael that s more home like you can turn now my pallid is this the he ran on heaven forgive you it s a i but oh what are we to do with it the artist laying a clutching hand upon the lawyer s arm do with it repeated michael bury it in one of your flower beds and erect one of your own statues for a monument i tell you we should look devilish romantic out the sod by the moon s pale ray here put some gin in this i beg of you mr do not trifle with my misery cried you see before you a man who has been all his life i do not hesitate to say it eminently respectable even in this solemn hour i can lay my hand upon my heart without a blush except on the really trifling point of the of the and even of that i now humbly ent my life has been entirely fit for william takes legal publication i never feared the light cried the little man and now now i cheer up old boy said michael i assure you we should count this little a trifle at the office it s the sort of thing that may occur to anyone and if you re perfectly sure you had no hand in it what language am i to find began oh do that part of it interrupted michael you have no experience but the point is this or rather since you know nothing of the crime since the the party in the closet is neither your father nor your brother nor your nor your mother in law nor what they call an injured husband oh my dear sir i since in short continued the lawyer you had no possible interest in the crime we have a perfectly free field before us and a safe game to play indeed the problem is really entertaining it is one i have long contemplated in the light of an a b case here it is at last under my hand in and i mean to pull you through do you hear that i mean to pull you through let me see it s a long time since i have had what i call a genuine holiday send an excuse to morrow to the office we had best be lively he added significantly for we must not spoil the market for the other man what do you mean inquired what other man the of police it ths box damn the of police his companion if you won t take the cat	38
and bury this in your back garden we find who will it in his we must place the in short in the hands of of fewer and more a perhaps suggested there are times when yoa fill me with the lawyer by the way he added in another key i haye always regretted that yoa hate no piano in this den of yours even if yoa don t play yourself your friends might like to entertain themselves with a little music while you were i shall get one at once if you like said nervously anxious to please i play the fiddle a little as it ia i know you do said michael but what s the fiddle above all as you play it what you want is music and hi tell you what it is since it s too late for you to buy a piano give you mine thank you said the artist you will give me yours i am sure it s very good in you yes i ll give you mine continued michael for the of police to play on while his men are digging up your back garden stared at him in pained amazement no tm not insane michael went on i m playful but quite see here follow me one half minute i mean to profit by the refreshing fact that william takes legal advice we are really and truly innocent nothing but the presence of the you know what us with the crime once let us get rid of it no matter how and there is no possible clue to trace us by well i give you my piano well bring it round this very night to morrow we the out deposit the our friend inside plump the whole on a cart and carry it to the chambers of a young gentleman whom i know by sight whom do you know by sight repeated and what is more to the purpose continued michael whose chambers i know better than he does himself a friend of mine i call him my friend for he is now i understand in and most likely in jail was the previous i defended him and i got him off too all saved but honor his were but he gave me what he had poor gentleman and along with the rest the key of his chambers it s there that i propose to leave the piano and shall we say it seems very wild said and what will become of the poor young gentleman whom you know by sight it will do him good said michael cheerily just what he wants to steady him but my dear sir he might be involved in a charge of a charge of murder the artist well hell be just where we are returned the lawyer he s innocent you see what hangs people my dear is the unfortunate circumstance of guilt it thb box but indeed indeed pleaded the whole scheme appears to me so wild would it not be safer after all just to send for the police and make a scandal inquired michael the mystery alleged innocence of how would that do at the it would imply my discharge admitted the i cannot deny thai and besides said michael i am not going to in such a business and have no fun for my money oh my dear sir is that a proper spirit cried oh i only said that to cheer you up said the michael nothing like a little judicious levity but it s quite needless to discuss if you mean to follow my advice come on and let us get the piano at once if you don t just drop me the word and leave you to deal with the whole thing according to your better judgment you know perfectly well that i depend on you entirely returned but oh what a night is before me with that horror in my how am i to think of it on my pillow well you know my piano will be there too said michael that ll raise the average an hour later a cart came up the lane and the lawyer s piano a momentous grand was deposited in mr s chapter m a holiday at eight o clock next morning the lawyer rattled according to previous appointment on the door he found the artist sadly altered for the worse and a man upon wires the tail of his haggard eye still wandering to the closet nor was the professor of drawing less inclined to wonder at his friend michael was usually attired in the height of fashion with a certain brilliancy best described perhaps as nor could anything be said against him as a rule but that he looked a trifle too like a wedding guest to be quite a gentleman to day he had fallen altogether from these heights he wore a flannel shirt of washed out shepherd s and a suit of of the color known to as mixture his was black and tied loosely in a sailor s knot a rusty partly concealed these advantages and his feet were shod with rough walking boots his hat was an old soft felt which he removed with a flourish as he entered here i am william he cried and drawing from his pocket two little of hair he held thb box them to his cheeks like side whiskers and danced about the with the graces of a girl laughed sadly i should never have known you said he nor were you intended to returned michael his false whiskers in his pocket now we must you and your wardrobe and disguise you up to the disguise i cried the artist must i indeed disguise myself has it come to that my dear creature returned his companion disguise is the of life what is life	38
the strength of a leg of i have to be cautious he added one drunken man excellent business two drunken men all my eye in which michael a holiday on the production of coffee and departure of the waiter michael might have been observed to make efforts after gravity of mien he looked his friend in the face one eye perhaps a trifle off and addressed him thickly but severely enough of this was his not to business mark me closely i am an my name is john though you t think it from my appearance you will be relieved to hear that i am rich sir very rich you can t go into this sort of thing too thoroughly the whole secret is preparation and i get up my biography from the beginning and i could tell it you now only i have forgotten it perhaps i m stupid began that s it cried michael very stupid but rich too richer than i am i thought you would enjoy it so i ve arranged that you were to be literally in wealth but then on the other hand you re only an american and a maker of india rubber at thai and the worst of it is why should i conceal it from you the worst of it is that you re called now said michael a really appalling seriousness of manner tell me who we are the unfortunate little man was cross examined till he knew these facts by heart there cried the our plans are laid thoroughly consistent that s the great thing the wrong box but i don t understand objected oh you ll understand right enough when it comes to the point said michael rising there doesn t seem any story to it said the artist we can invent one as we go along returned the lawyer but i can t invent protested i never could invent in all my life you ll find you have to my boy was michael s easy comment and he began calling for the waiter with whom he at once resumed a sparkling conversation it was a down cast little man that followed him of course he is very clever but can i trust him in such a state he asked himself and when they were once more in a he took heart of grace don t you think he faltered it would be wiser considering all things to put this business off put off till to morrow what can be done to day cried michael with indignation never heard of such a thing cheer up it s all right go in and win there s a lion hearted at cannon street they inquired for mr brown s piano which had duly arrived drove thence to a neighboring where they contracted for a cart and while that was being got ready took shelter in the harness room beside the stove here the lawyer presently against the wall and fell into a gentle slumber so that found himself launched on his own resources in in which michael a holiday the midst of several staring such as love to spend days about a stable bough day sir observed one do you go far yes it s a rather a rough day said the artist and then feeling that he must change the conversation my friend is an he is very impulsive he added an said another i ve a brother myself in does your friend come from that way at all no not exactly replied the artist whose ideas of the geography of new holland were a little scattered he lives immensely far inland and is very rich the gazed with great respect upon the well remarked the second speaker it s a mighty big place is do you come from there away too no i do not said i do not and i don t want to he added and then feeling some diversion needful he upon michael and shook him up said the lawyer what s vn the cart is nearly ready said sternly i will not allow you to sleep all right no offence old man replied michael yawning a little sleep never did anybody any harm i feel comparatively sober now but what s all the hurry he added looking round him i toe box don t bee the cart and ive forgotten where we left the piano what more the lawyer might have said in the confidence of the moment is with a matter of tremulous conjecture to this day but by the most blessed circumstance the cart was then announced and michael must bend the forces of his mind to the more difficult task of rising of course you ll drive he remarked to his companion as he on the vehicle i drive i cried i never did such a thing in my life i cannot drive very well responded michael with entire composure neither can i see but just as you like anything to oblige a friend a glimpse of the s darkening countenance decided all right he said desperately you drive i ll tell you where to go on michael in the character of since this is not intended to be a novel of adventure it would be superfluous to dwell at length as he sat holding on and gasping counsels sole witness of this singular feat knew not whether most to admire the driver s or his good fortune but the latter at least prevailed the cart reached cannon street without disaster and mr brown s piano was speedily and cleverly got on board well sir said the leading porter smiling as he men in which michael a holiday reckoned up a handful of loose that s a mortal heavy piano it s the richness of the tone returned michael as he drove away it was but a little distance in the rain	38
michael roughly wake up he cried with genuine irritation in his tones i cannot do it and you know i can t you must excuse my friend said michael he s no hand as a of stirring incident the case is simple he went on my friend is a man of very strong passions and accustomed to a simple style of the box life you see the thing from here unfortunate visit to europe followed by unfortunate acquaintance with sham foreign count who has a daughter mr thomas was quite carried away he proposed he was and he wrote wrote in a style which i am sure he must regret to day if these letters are produced in court sir mr thomas s character is gone am i to understand began my dear sir said the emphatically it isn t possible to understand unless you saw them that is a painful circumstance said he glanced in the direction of the and observing on his countenance eveiy mark of confusion withdrew his eyes and that would be nothing continued mr sternly but i wish i wish from my heart sir i could say that mr thomas s hands were clean he has no excuse for he was engaged at the time and is still engaged to the of my friend s conduct was unworthy of the brutes that perish repeated a in current use said michael q for in the same way as co for company i was aware it was sometimes so written returned the but not that it was so pronounced fact i assure you said michael you now see for yourself sir that if this unhappy person is to be saved some devilish sharp practice will be needed there s in which michael fin bury a holiday money and no desire to spare it mr thomas could write a to morrow for a hundred thousand and mr there s better than money the foreign count count he calls himself was formerly a in and passed under the humble but expressive name of his daughter if she is his daughter there s another point make a note of that mr his daughter at that time actually served in the shop and she now to marry a man of the eminence of mr thomas i now do you see our game we know they contemplate a move and we wish to em down you go to court where they live and threaten or bribe or both until you get the letters if you can t god help us we must go to court and thomas must be exposed i ll be done with him for one added the friend there seem some elements of success said was at all known to the police we hope so said michael we have every ground to think so mark the neighborhood i doesn t occur to you as very suggestive for perhaps the sixth time during this remarkable interview wondered if he were not becoming i suppose it s just because he has been he thought and then added aloud to what figure may i go perhaps five thousand would be enough for to day said michael and now sir do not let me detain you the box any longer the afternoon wears on there are plenty of trains to court and i needn t try to describe to you the impatience of my friend here is a five pound note for current expenses and here is the address and michael began to write paused tore up the paper and put the pieces in his pocket i will dictate he said my writing is so uncertain took down the address count villa court then he wrote something else on a sheet of paper you said you had not chosen a he said for a case of this sort here is the best man in london and he handed the paper to michael god bless me ejaculated michael as he read his own address oh i dare say you have seen his name connected with some rather painful cases said but he is himself a perfectly honest man and his capacity is recognized and now gentlemen it only remains for me to ask where i shall communicate with you the of course returned michael tiu to night till to night replied smiling i suppose i may knock you up at a late hour any hour any hour cried the vanishing now there s a young fellow with a head upon his shoulders he said to as soon as they were in the street in which michael fin a holiday was heard to murmur perfect fool not a bit of him returned michael he knows who s the best in london and it s not every man can say the same but i say didn t i pitch it in hot returned no answer i said the lawyer pausing what s wrong with the long suffering you had no right to speak of me as you did the artist broke out your language was perfectly you have wounded me deeply i never said a word about you replied michael i spoke of thomas and do please remember that there s no such party it s just as hard to bear said the artist but by this time they had reached the comer of the and there was the faithful standing by the horses heads with a splendid assumption of dignity and there was the piano forlorn upon the cart while the rain beat upon its sides and down its legs the was again put in to bring five or six strong fellows from the neighboring public house and the last battle of the campaign opened it is probable that mr had not yet taken his seat in the train for court before michael opened the door of the chambers and the deposited the	38
grand in the middle of the floor thb wrong box and now said the lawyer after he had sent the men about their business one more precaution we must leave him the key of the piano and we must contrive that he shall find it let me see and he built a square tower of cigars upon the top of the instrument and dropped the key into the middle poor young man said the artist as they descended the stairs he is in a devil of a position assented michael brace him up and that reminds me observed the excellent that i fear i displayed a most ungrateful temper i had no right i see to resent expressions as they were which were in no sense directed that s all right cried michael getting on the not a word more very proper feeling on your part no man of self respect can stand by and hear his insulted the rain had now ceased michael was fairly sober the body had been disposed of and the friends were reconciled the return to the was therefore in comparison with previous stages of the day s adventures quite a holiday and when they had returned the cart and walked forth again from the stable yard and even drew a deep breath of joy and now he said we can go home said the lawyer stopping short your in which michael a holiday fills me with concern what i we have been wet through the greater part of the day and you propose in cold blood to go home i no sir hot scotch and taking his friend s arm he led him sternly toward the nearest public house nor was i regret to say wholly unwilling now that peace was restored and the body gone a certain innocent began to appear in the manners of the artist and when he touched his steaming glass to michael s he aloud like a school girl at a chapter conclusion of michael s i know michael personally my business i know the awkwardness of having such a man for a lawyer still it s an old story now and there is such a thing as gratitude and in short my legal business although now i am thankful to say of quite a placid character remains entirely in michael s hands but the trouble is i have no natural talent for addresses i learn one for every man that is friendship s offering and the friend who subsequently changes his residence is dead to me memory refusing to pursue him thus it comes that as i always write to michael at his office i cannot swear to his number in the king s of course like my neighbors i have been to dinner there of late years since his accession to wealth neglect of business and election to the club these little have become common he up a few fellows in the smoking room all men of wit myself for instance if he has the luck to find me disengaged a string of may be observed by her majesty through si james s park and in a quarter of an hour the party one of the best appointed boards in london conclusion of michael s holiday but at the time of which we write the house in the king s let us still continue to call it no was kept very quiet when michael entertained guests it was at the halls of or that he would them and the door of his private residence remained closed against his the upper story which was sunny was set apart for his father the drawing room was never opened the dining room was the scene of michael s life it is in this pleasant apartment sheltered from the curiosity of king s by wire blinds and entirely surrounded by the lawyer s library of poetry and criminal trials that we find him sitting down to his dinner after his holiday with a spare old lady with very bright eyes and a mouth compressed waited upon the lawyer s needs in every line of her countenance she betrayed the fact that she was an old in every word that fell from her lips she the glorious circumstance of a origin and the fear with which this powerful combination fills the was obviously no stranger to the bosom of our friend the hot scotch having somewhat warmed up the embers of the it was touching to observe the master s eagerness to pull himself together under the servant s eye and when he remarked i think take a brandy and he spoke like a man doubtful of his and not half certain of obedience no such a thing mr michael was the prompt return t and water thb wrong box well well i you know best said the master very day at the office though what said the ye never were near the office i oh yes i was though i was repeatedly along fleet street returned michael pretty ye ve been at this day i cried the old lady with humorous alacrity and then take care don t break my crystal i she cried as the lawyer came within an ace of knocking the glasses off the table and how is he keeping asked michael oh just the same mr michael just the way he ll be till the end worthy man i was the reply but ye u not be the first that s asked me that the day no said the lawyer who else ay that s a joke too said grimly a friend of yours mr what was the little beggar doing here inquired michael to see him replied the housekeeper her meaning by a movement of the thumb toward the upper story that s by his way of it but i ve an of my own he tried to bribe	38
harm to my little scheme but what am i to do asked joseph i cannot upon nothing don t you hear returned michael i send you a for a hundred which leaves you eighty to go along upon and when that s done apply to me again i would rather not be to your all the same said joseph biting at his white moustache i would rather live on my own money since i have it michael grasped his arm will nothing make you believe he cried that i am trying to save you from his earnestness staggered the old man i must turn my attention to law he said it will be a new field for though of course i understand its general principles i have never really applied my mind to the details and this view of yours for example comes on me entirely by surprise but you may be right and of course at my the box time of life for i am no longer yoimg any really long term of imprisonment would be highly but my dear nephew i have no claim on you you have no call to support me that s au rights said michael ih probably get it out of the leather business and having taken down the old gentleman s address michael left him at the comer of a street what a wonderful old i he reflected and what a singular thing is life i i seem to be condemned to be the instrument of providence let me see what have i done to day disposed of a dead body saved saved my uncle joseph brightened up and drunk a devil of a lot of most indifferent liquor let s top off a visit to my cousins and be the instrument of providence in earnest to morrow i can turn my attention to leather to night just make it lively for em in a friendly spirit about a quarter of an hour later as the were striking eleven the instrument of providence descended from a and bidding the driver wait at the door of no john street it was promptly opened by oh it s you michael he said carefully up the narrow opening it s very late michael without a word reached forth grasped warmly by the hand and gave it so extreme a squeeze that the sullen fell back by this conclusion of michael s holiday movement the lawyer obtained a footing in the and marched into the dining room with at his heels where s my uncle joseph demanded michael sitting down in the most comfortable chair he s not been very well lately replied he s staying at john is nursing him and i am alone as you see michael smiled to himself i want to see him on particular business he said tou can t expect to see my uncle when you won t let me see your father returned said michael my father is my father but joseph is just as much my uncle as he s yours and you have no right to his person i do no such thing said he is not weu he is ill and nobody can see him i ll tell you what then said michael i u make a clean breast of it i have come down like the i have come to compromise poor turned as pale as death and then a flush of wrath against the injustice of man s destiny his very temples what do you mean he cried i don t believe a word of it i and when michael had assured him of his seriousness well then he cried with another deep flush i won t so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it said michael tou say your uncle it the box is ill and you won t compromise there s something very about that what do you mean cried hoarsely only say it s returned michael that is to the tribe do you mean to anything cried trying the high hand repeated michael oh don t let s begin to use awkward expressions let us drown our differences in a bottle like two the two sometimes attributed to shakespeare he added mind was laboring like a mill does he suspect or is this chance and stuff should i soap or should i bully soap he concluded it gains time well said he aloud and with rather a painful affectation of it s long since we have had an evening together michael and though my habits as you know are very temperate i may as well make an exception excuse me one moment till i fetch a bottle of from the cellar no for me said michael a little of the old still champagne or nothing for a moment stood for the wine was very valuable the next he had quitted the room without a word his quick mind had perceived his advantage in thus him for the cream of the cellar michael was playing into his hand one bottle he thought conclusion of michael s holiday by george give him two this is no moment for economy and once the beast is drunk it s strange if i don t his secret out of him with two bottles accordingly he returned glasses were produced and filled them with hospitable grace i drink to you cousin i he cried don t spare the wine cup in my house michael drank his glass deliberately standing at the table filled it again and returned to his chair carrying the bottle along with him the spoils of war he said the goes to the wall science science could think of no reply and for an interval silence reigned but two glasses of the still champagne produced a rapid change in michael there s a want of vivacity about you he observed tou may be deep but i ll be hanged if	38
you re what makes you think me deep asked with an air of pleased simplicity because you won t compromise said the lawyer you re deep dog very deep dog not t compromise remarkable deep dog and a very good glass of wine it s the only respectable feature in the family this wine thing than a title much now a man with glass wine like this in cellar i wonder why won t compromise i thb box well you wouldn compromise before you know said the smiling turn about is fair play i wonder why wouldn compromise i wonder why you wouldn inquired michael i wonder why we each think the other wouldn quite a remarkable problem he added over obstacles not without obvious pride wonder what we each don t you what do you suppose to have been my reason asked michael looked at him and winked tha s cool said he next thing ask me to help you out of the i know tm of providence but not that kind i you get out of it yourself like and the other fellow must be dreadful for young orphan o forty leather business and all i am sure i don t know what you mean said not sure i know said michael this is lent sir lent nothing against the only thing here s a valuable uncle disappeared now what i want to know where s valuable uncle i have told you he is at answered wiping his brow for these repeated hints began to tell upon him cruelly very easy say brown no so easy after all cried michael easy say anything s easy say when you can say it what i don like s total disappear conclusion of michael s holiday ance of an uncle not business like and he bis bead it is all perfectly simple returned witb laborious calm there is no mystery he stays at where he got a shake in the accident ah i said michael got devil of a shake why do you say that cried sharply best possible authority told me so yourself said the lawyer but if you tell me contrary now of course i m bound to believe either the one story or the other point is upset this bottle still champagne s thing carpet point is is valuable uncle dead an bury sprang from his seat what s that you say he gasped i say it s lent thing carpet replied michael rising thing promote healthy action of the skin well it s all ne anyway give my love to uncle champagne you re not going away said sorry man got to sit up sick friend said the wavering michael tou shall not go till you have explained your hints returned fiercely what do you mean what brought you here no offence i trust said the lawyer turning round as he opened the door only doing my duty as of providence the wrong box groping his way to the front door he opened it with some difficulty and descended the steps to the the tired driver looked up as he approached and asked where he was to go next michael observed that had followed him to the steps a brilliant inspiration came to him anything t give pain he reflected drive yard he added aloud holding to the wheel to steady himself there s something devilish about those cousins be cleared up drive yard you don t mean that sir said the man v ith the ready sympathy of the lower orders for an gentleman i had better take you home sir you can go to scotland yard to morrow is it as friend or as man you advise me not to go yard t night inquired michael all never yard drive gaiety bar the bar is closed said the man then home said michael with the same cheerfulness sir i don t remember tm sure said michael entering the vehicle drive yard and ask but have a card said the man through the little in the top give me your card case what imagination in a cried the lawyer producing his card case and handing it to the driver in which michael a holiday the man read it by the light of the lamp mr michael king s is that it sir eight you are cried michael drive there if you can see way chapter x and the grand the reader has perhaps read that remarkable who put back the clock f by e h b which appeared for several days upon the railway and then vanished entirely from the face of the earth whether eating time makes the chief of his diet out of old whether providence has passed a special on behalf of authors or whether these last have taken the law into their own hand bound themselves into a dark conspiracy with a which i would die rather than reveal and night after night sally forth under some vigorous leader such as mr james or mr walter on their task of secret certain it is at least that the old pass giving place to new to the proof it is believed there are now only three copies of who put back the clock f one in the british museum successfully concealed by a wrong entry in the catalogue another one of the the cellar where the music of the library at and a third bound in in the possession of to account for the very different fate attending this third the theory is to and thk grand suppose that admired the tale how to explain that admiration might appear to those who have the work more difficult but the weakness of a parent is extreme and and not his uncle whose he had borrowed was the author of who put back the clock f he had never acknowledged it	38
or only to some intimate friends while it was still in proof after its appearance and alarming failure the modesty of the had become more pressing and the secret was now likely to be better kept than that of the of a copy of the work for the date of my tale is already yesterday still figured in dusty solitude in the at and as he passed with his ticket for court smiled contemptuously at the creature of his thoughts what an idle ambition was the author s how far beneath him was the practice of that childish art with his hand closing on his first brief he felt himself a m i at last and the muse who over the police romance a lady of french fled his neighborhood and returned to join the dance round the springs of among her sisters robust practical reflection still cheered the young upon his journey again and again he selected the little country house in its of great oaks which he was to make his future home like a prudent be projected improvements as he passed to one he added the box a stable to another a courts a third he supplied with a becoming rustic boat house how little a while ago he could not but reflect i was a careless young dog with no thought but to be comfortable i cared for nothing but and novels i would have passed an old fashioned country house with large kitchen garden boat house and spacious offices without so much as a look and certainly would have made no inquiry as to the how a man with the years the intelligent reader will perceive the of miss had carried straight to mr s house and that gentleman having been led to understand she was the victim of oppression had her cause he worked himself into a fine breathing heat in which to a man of his temperament action became needful i do not know which is the worse he cried the old villain or the young i will write to the and expose them nonsense sir they must be exposed i it s a public duty did you not tell me the fellow was a tory oh the uncle is a radical is he no doubt the uncle has been wronged but of course as you say that makes a change it becomes scarce so much a public duty and he sought and instantly found a fresh outlet for his alacrity miss he now perceived must be kept out of the way his was lying ready he and the grand had returned bnt a day or two before from his usual there was no place like a for concealment and that very morning in the teeth of the gale mr and mrs and miss had started forth on their voyage in vain to be allowed to join the party no said liis uncle you will be watched you must keep away from us nor had the ventured to contest this strange illusion for he feared if he rubbed off any of the romance that mr might weary of the whole and his discretion was rewarded for the laying a heavy hand upon his nephew s shoulder had added these notable expressions i see what you are after but if you re going to get the girl you have to work sir these pleasing sounds had cheered the all day as he sat reading in chambers they continued to form the ground base of his manly as he was whirled to court even when he landed at the station and began to pull himself together for his delicate inter view the voice of uncle ned and the eyes of were not forgotten but now it began to rain surprises in all court there was no villa no count and no count this was strange but viewed in the light of the of his instructions not perhaps inexplicable mr had been and he might have made some fatal in the address what was the the box thoroughly prompt manly and business like step thought and he answered himself at once a very speedily the wires were flashing the following important hotel villa and persons both here suppose address follow self next train and at the hotel sure enough with a brow expressive of despatch and intellectual effort descended not long after from a smoking i do not suppose that ever forget the hotel no count was one thing no john and no thomas quite another how why and what next danced in his bewildered brain from every centre of what we call the human intellect messages were and before the of dismay had quite subsided the found himself driving furiously for his chambers there was at least a cave of refuge it was at least a place to think in and he climbed the stair put his key in the lock and opened the door with some approach to hope it was all dark within for the night had some time fallen but knew his room he knew where the matches stood on the end of the piece and he advanced boldly and in so doing dashed himself against a heavy body where slightly the expressions of the song no heavy body should have been there had been nothing there when went out he had locked the door behind him he had found it locked on his re and the grand turn no one could have entered the furniture could not have changed its own position and jet there was a something there he thrust out his hands in the darkness yes there was something something large something smooth something cold heaven forgive me said it feels like a piano and the next moment he remembered the in his waistcoat pocket and had struck a light it was indeed a piano that met his doubtful gaze a vast and costly instrument stained with the	38
a pleasant one for was it not to publish abroad a number of singular facts about himself a child ought to have seen through the story of these and he had and swallowed it a of the least self respect should have refused to listen to who came before him in a manner so irregular and he had listened and oh if he had only listened but he had gone upon their errand he a even by the shadow of a upon an errand fit only for a private and alas and for the time the blood to his brow he had taken their money no said he the thing is as plain as st paul s i shall be i have smashed my career for a five pound note between the possibility of being hanged in all innocence and the certainty of a public and disgrace thb box bo gentleman of spirit could long hesitate after three of that hot and muddy that passes on the streets of london for a of the coffee s mind was made up he would do without the police he must face the other side of the and be skill in what would skill have done how does a gentleman dispose of a dead body honestly come by he remembered the story of the its course and dismissed it for a worthless it was impossible to a corpse on the comer of court without f curiosity in the of the by as for lowering it down a london chimney the physical obstacles were to get it on board a train and drop it out or on the top of an and drop it o were equally out of the question to get it on a and drop it overboard was more conceivable but for a man of moderate means it seemed extravagant the hire of the was in itself a consideration the subsequent support of the whole crew which seemed a necessary consequence was simply not to be thought of his uncle and the here occurred in very luminous colors to his mind a musical say of the name of might very well suffer like s before him from the of london he might very well be pressed for time to finish an opera say the comic opera orange orange music by this young and the grand one of the most promising of our recent english school entrance of the drums etc the whole character of and his music arose in bulk before the mind of what more likely than s arrival with a grand piano say at and his residence in a alone with the unfinished score of orange f his subsequent disappearance leaving nothing behind but an empty piano ease it might be more difficult to account for and yet even that was susceptible of explanation for suppose had gone mad over a f passage and had thereupon destroyed the of his and plunged into the welcome river what end on the whole more probable for a modem by jove ril do it cried is the chapter xl the mr edward having announced his intention to stay in the neighborhood of what more probable than that the should turn his mind toward near this pleasant village he remembered to have observed an ancient lying beside a of it had stirred in him in his careless hours as he pulled down the river under a more familiar name a certain sense of the romantic and when the nice contrivance of his story was already complete in his mind he had come near pulling it all down again like an clock in order to introduce a chapter in which skill who was always being somewhere should be on board that lonely by lord and the american gin it was fortunate he had not done so he reflected since the was now required for very different purposes a man of costume but manners had little difficulty in finding the who had charge of the and stiu less in persuading him to resign his care the rent was almost the the entry immediate the key was exchanged against a suitable advance in money and returned to town by the afternoon train to see about his piano i will be down to morrow he had said my opera is waited for with such impatience you know and sure enough about the hour of noon on the following day might have been observed ascending the road that goes from to great carrying in one hand a basket of provisions and under the other arm a leather case containing it is to be the score of orange it was october weather the stone gray sky was full of the leaden mirror of the thames brightened with foliage and the fallen leaves of the under the s footing there is no time of the year in england more courageous and though he was not without his troubles whistled as he went a little above the river lies very solitary on the opposite shore the trees of a private park the view the chimneys of the mansion just forth above their clusters on the near side the path is bordered by close among these lay the a thing so soiled by the tears of the overhanging so grown upon with so decayed so battered so neglected such a haunt of rats so advertised a of agonies that the heart of an intending oc the box might well a plank by way of flying joined it to the shore and it was a dreary moment for when he pulled this after him and found himself alone on this fortress he could hear the rats and in the interior the key cried among the wards like a thing in pain the sitting room was deep in dust and smelt strong of water it could not be called a cheerful spot even for a	38
absorbed in beloved toil how much less for a young gentleman haunted by and awaiting the arrival of a corpse i he sat down cleared away a piece of the table and attacked the cold luncheon in his basket in case of any subsequent inquiry into the fate of it was desirable he should be little seen in other words that ho should spend the day entirely in the house to this end and further to his fable he had brought in the leather case not only writing materials but a of large size music paper such as he considered suitable for an ambitious character like s and now to work said he when he had satisfied his appetite we must leave traces of the wretched man s activity and he wrote in bold characters orange op j b f score the jim n i suppose ihey never do begin like this reflected but then it s quite out of the question for me to tackle a full score and was so a would be found convincing i believe to let me see to william by his obedient servant the and now some music i had better avoid the it seems to present difficulties let s give an air for the tenor key o something modem seven and he made a business like signature across the and then paused and for a while on the handle of his pen melody with no better inspiration than a sheet of paper is not usually found to spring in the mind of the amateur nor is the key of seven a place of much repose to the he cast away that it will help to build up the character of remarked and again waited on the muse in various keys and on divers sheets of paper but all with results bo that he stood aghast it s very odd thought he i seem to have less fancy than i thought or this is an off day with me yet must leave something and again he bent himself to the task presently the penetrating chill of the began to attack the very seat of life he from his trial and to the audible annoyance of the rats walked briskly up and down the cabin still he was cold this is all nonsense said he i don t care thb box about the risk but i will not catch a i most get out of this den he stepped on deck and passing to the bow of his looked for the first time up the river he started only a few hundred yards above another lay among the it was very and span an elegant hung at the stem the windows were concealed by snowy curtains a flag floated from a the more looked at it the more there mingled with his disgust a sense of impotent surprise it was veiy like his uncle s it was exceedingly like it was identical but for two circumstances he could have sworn it was the same the that his had gone to might be explained away by that of purpose which is so common a trait among the more than usually manly the second however was it was not in the least like mr to display a banner on his floating residence and if he ever did it would certainly be in hues of propriety now the like the vast majority of the more manly had drawn knowledge at the wells of cambridge he was wooden spoon in the year and the flag upon the streamed on the afternoon air with the colors of that seat of that cradle of that home of the and the oxford still it was strangely like thought and as he thus looked and thought the door opened the tb and a young lady stepped forth on deck the dropped and fled into his cabin it was through the window he watched her draw in the get on board of it cast off and come dropping down stream in his direction well all is up now said he and he fell on a seat gk od afternoon miss said a voice on the water knew it for the voice of his landlord af replied but i don t know who you are do i oh yes i do though you are the nice man that gave us leave to sketch from the old s heart leaped with fear that s it returned the man and what i wanted to say was as you couldn t do it any more you see i ve let it let it cried let it for a month said the man seems strange don t it can t see what the party wants with it it seems very romantic of him i think said what sort of a person is he in her the landlord in his were close alongside and holding on by the of the so that not a word was lost on he s a music man said the landlord or at least that s what he told me miss come down here to write an op ra cried i never heard of anything so thb box delightful i we shall be able to slip down at night and hear him i what is his name said the man repeated and her memory in vain but indeed our rising school of english music so many professors that we rarely hear of one till he is made a are you sure you have it right made him spell it to me replied the landlord j i m s o n and his op ra s called some kind of tea ome bind of tea cried the girl what a very singular name for an opera what can it be about and heard her pretty laughter flow abroad we must try to get acquainted with this mr i feel sure he	38
must be nice well miss tm afraid i must be going on i ve got to be at you see oh don t let me keep you you kind man i said good afternoon good afternoon to you mis sat in the cabin a prey to the most thoughts here he was to a soon to be to it still more emphatically by the presence of the corpse and here was the country about him and young ladies already proposing pleasure parties to surround his house at night well that meant the gallows and much he cared for that what the te troubled him now was s indescribable levity that girl would scrape acquaintance with anybody she had no reserve none of the of the lady she was familiar with a brute like his landlord she took an immediate interest which she lacked even the delicacy to conceal in a creature like he could conceive her asking to have tea with her and it was for a girl like this that a man like down manly heart i he was interrupted by a sound that sent him behind the door in a miss had stepped on board the her sketch was promising judging from the stillness she supposed not yet come and she had decided to seize occasion and complete the work of art down she sat therefore in the bow produced her block and water colors and was soon singing over what used to be called the accomplishment now and then indeed her song was interrupted as she searched in her memory for some of the odious little by means of which the game is practised or used to be practised in the brave days of old they say the world and those ornaments of the world young ladies are become more now but had probably studied under and she stood firm in the old ways meanwhile stood behind the door afraid to move afraid to breathe afraid to think of what must follow by confinement and borne to the ground with this particular phase he felt with gratitude the box could not last forever whatever even the gallows he bitterly and perhaps reflected could not fail to be a relief to calculate occurred to him as an ingenious and even profitable refuge from distressing thoughts and he threw his manhood into that dreary exercise thus then were these two young persons occupied attacking the perfect number with resolution vigorously colors on her block when providence despatched into these waters a steam panting up the all along the banks the water swelled and fell and the the itself that ancient stationary creature became suddenly with life and rolled briskly at her like a sea going ship when she begins to smell the harbor bar the wash had nearly died away and the quick panting of the sounded already faint and far of when was startled by a cry from peering through the window he beheld her staring down stream at the fast vanishing the whatever were his faults displayed on this occasion a worthy of his hero skill with one effort of his mind he foresaw what was about to follow with one movement of his body he dropped to the floor and crawled under the table on her part was not yet alive to her position she saw she had lost the and she looked forward with something less than to her next interview the jim n with mr but she had no idea that she was imprisoned for she knew of the plank bridge made the circuit of the house and found the door open and the bridge withdrawn it was plain then that must have come plain too that he must be on board he must be a very shy man to have suffered this invasion of his residence and made no sign and her courage rose higher at the thought he must come now she must force him from his for the plank was too heavy for her single strength so she tapped upon the open door then she tapped again mr she cried mr here come you come you know sooner or later for i can t get off without you oh don t be so exceedingly silly i oh please come still there was no reply if he is here he must be mad she thought with a little fear and the next moment she remembered he had probably gone abroad like herself in a boat in that case she might as well see the and she pushed open the door and stepped in under the table where he lay smothered with dust s heart stood still there were the remains of s lunch he likes rather nice things to eat she thought oh i am sure he is quite a delightful man i wonder if he is as as mr mrs i don t believe it sounds as nice as mrs but then is so really odious and here is some of his music too this the wrong box is delightful orange oh that s what he meant by some kind of tea and she with laughter she read next for the literary part of a s business was well equipped how very strange to have all these directions and only three or four notes oh here s another with some more and she began to glance over the music o dear me she thought he must be terribly modem it all seems to me let s try the air it is very strange it seems familiar she began to sing it and suddenly broke off with laughter why it s make room for your uncle i she cried aloud so that the soul of was filled with indeed i the man must be a mere and just at this moment there came a confused sound from underneath the table a strange note like that of a	38
barn door fowl ushered in a most the head of the sufferer was at the same time brought in contact with the boards above and the was followed by a hollow groan fled to the door and there with the instinct of the brave turned and faced the danger there was no pursuit the sounds continued below the table a crouching figure was to be seen by the of a fit and that was all surely thought this is most unusual behavior he cannot be a man of the world the jim n meanwhile the dust of years had been disturbed by the young s and the fit was succeeded by a passionate access of began to feel a certain interest i am afraid you are really quite ill she said drawing a little nearer please don t let me put you out and do not stay under that table mr indeed it cannot be good for you mr only answered by a distressing cough and the next moment the girl was on her knees and their faces had almost knocked together under the table oh my gracious goodness i exclaimed miss and sprang to her feet mr gone mad i i am not mad said the gentleman himself from his position dearest miss i vow to you upon my knees i am not mad you are not i she cried panting i know he said that to a superficial eye my conduct may appear if you are not mad it was no conduct at all cried the girl with a flash of color and showed you did not care one penny for my feelings this is the very devil and all i know i admit that cried with a great effect of manly it was abominable conduct i said with energy i know it must have shaken your esteem said the but dearest miss i beg of you to hear me out my behavior strange as it may seem is not the box of explanation and i cannot and will not consent to continue to try to exist without without the esteem of one whom i admire the moment is i am well aware of that but i repeat the one whom i admire a touch of amusement appeared on miss s face very well said she come out of this dreadfully cold place and let us sit down on deck the followed her now said she making herself comfortable against the end of the house go on i will hear you out and then seeing him stand before her with so much obvious to the task she was suddenly overcome with laughter s laugh was a thing to lovers she rolled her with the freedom and the melody of a s song upon the river and repeated by the echoes of the further bank it seemed a thing in its own place and a sound native to the open air there only one creature who heard it without joy and that was her unfortunate admirer miss he said in a voice that with annoyance i speak as your sincere well but this can only be called levity made great eyes at him i can t withdraw the word he said already the freedom with which i heard you with a boat man gave me exquisite pain then there was a want of reserve about but appears to be yourself objected the jim n i am far from denying that cried the but you did not know it at the time what could be to you who was miss it cut me to the heart this seems to me to be very silly returned with severe decision tou have behaved in the most extraordinary manner you pretend you are able to explain your conduct and instead of doing so you begin to attack me i am well aware of that replied i i will make a clean breast of it when you know all the circumstances you will be able to excuse me and sitting down beside her on the deck he poured forth his miserable history oh mr she cried when he had done i am sorry i wish i hadn t laughed at you only you know you really were so exceedingly funny but i wish i hadn t and i wouldn t either if i had only known and she gave him her hand kept it in his own you do not think the worse of me for this he asked tenderly because you have been so silly and got into such dreadful trouble you poor boy no cried and in the warmth of the moment reached him her other hand you may count on me she added said and really i replied the girl i do then and i will cried the young man i admit thb box the moment is not well chosen but i have no friends to speak ol no more have i said but don t you think it s perhaps time you me back my hands ci la said the the merest moment more i i have so few friends he added i thought it was considered such a bad account of a young man to have no friends observed oh but i have crowds of friends cried that s not what i mean i feel the moment is ill chosen but oh if you could only see yourself i mr don t call n by that name i cried the youth call me oh never that from besides we have known each other such a short time not at all i protested we met at ever so long ago i never forgot you since say you never forgot me say you never forgot me and call me isn t this rather a want of reserve about inquired the girl oh i know i am an ass cried the and i don	38
t care a half penny i know i m an ass and you may laugh at me to your heart s delight and as s lips opened with a smile he once more dropped into music there s the land of cherry isle he sang her with his eyes the jim n it s like an opera said rather faintly what should it be said am i not it would be strange if i did not my love oh yes i mean the word my and i mean to win you i am in dreadful trouble and i have not a penny of my own and i have cut the figure and yet i mean to win you look at me if you can and tell me no she looked at him and whatever her eyes may have told him it is to be supposed he took a pleasure in the message for he read it a long while and uncle ned will give us some money to go on upon in the meanwhile he said at last well i call that cool i said a cheerful voice at his elbow and sprang apart with wonderful alacrity the latter annoyed to observe that although they had never moved since they sat down they were now quite close together both presenting faces of a very heightened color to the eyes of mr edward that gentleman coming up the river in his boat had captured the and what had happened had thought to steal a march on miss at her sketch he had unexpectedly brought down two birds with one stone and as he looked upon the pair of flushed and breathless the pleasant human instinct of the match maker softened his heart well i call that cool he repeated you seem to t the box very upon uncle ned but look here i thought i had told you to keep away to keep away from replied but how should i expect to find you here there is something in that mr admitted you see i thought it better that even you should be ignorant of my address those the would have it out of you and just to put them off the scent i hoisted these abominable colors but that is not all you promised me to work and here i find you playing the fool at please mr you must not be hard on mr said poor boy he is in dreadful straits what s this inquired the have you been fighting or is it a bill these in the opinion of the were the two misfortunes incident to gentlemen and indeed both were from his own career he had once put his name as a matter of form on a friend s paper it had cost him a cool thousand and the friend had gone about with the fear of death upon him ever since and never turned a comer without in front of him for mr and the staff as for fighting the was always on the brink of it and once when in the character of president of a radical club he had cleared out the hall of his things had gone even further mr the can the who lay bo long on the bed of was prepared to swear to mr i will swear to it in any court it was the hand of that brute that struck me down he was reported to have said and when he was thought to be sinking it was known that he had made an statement in that sense it was a cheerful day for the when was restored to his it s much worse than that said a combination of circumstances really unjust a in fact a of seem to have perceived my latent ability to rid them of the traces of their crime it s a legal study after all you see i and with these words for the second time that day began to describe the adventures of the grand i must write to the times cried mr do you want to get me asked i come it can t be as bad as that said his uncle it s a good honest liberal government that s in and they would certainly move at my request thank god the days of tory are at an end it wouldn t do uncle ned said but you re not mad enough cried mr to persist in trying to dispose of it self there is no other path open to me said it s not common sense and i will not of it cried mr i command you positively to from this criminal interference the box very well then i hand it over to you said and you can do what you like with the dead body god forbid ejaculated the president of the radical club i ll have nothing to do with it then you must allow me to do the best i can returned his nephew believe me i have a distinct talent for this sort of difficulty we might forward it to that house the club observed mr it might damage them in the eyes of their and it could be worked up in the local if you see any political capital in the thing said you may have it for me no no no no i thought you might i will have no hand in the thing on reflection it s highly that either i or miss should linger here we might be observed said the president looking up and down the river and in my public position the consequences would be painful for the party and at any rate it s dinner time what cried plunging for his watch and it is great heaven the piano should have been here hours ago i mr was back into his boat but at these words he paused i saw it arrive myself	38
at the station i hired a man he had a round to make but he was to be here the by four at the latest cried the no doubt the piano is open and the body found you must fly at once cried mr it s the only manly step but suppose it s all right suppose the piano comes and i am not here to receive it i shall have hanged myself by my cowardice no uncle ned inquiries must be made in i dare not go of course but you may you could hang about the police office don t you see no no my dear nephew said mr with the voice of one on the rack i regard you with the most sacred affection and i thank god i am an englishman and all thai but not not the police then you desert me said say it plainly far from it i far from it i protested mr i only propose caution common sense should always be an englishman s guide will you let me speak said i think had better leave this dreadful and wait among the over there if the piano comes then he could step out and take it in and if the police come he could slip into our and there needn t be any more at all he could go to bed and we could burn his clothes couldn t we in the steam and then really it seems as if it would be all right mr is so respectable you know and such a leading thb box it would be quite impossible even to fancy that he could be mixed up with it this young lady has strong common sense said the oh i don t think tm at all a fool said with conviction but what if neither of them come asked what shall i do then why then said she you had better go down to the village after dark and i can go with you and then i am sure you could never be suspected and even if you were i could tell them it was altogether a mistake i will not permit that i will not suffer miss to go cried mr why asked mr had not the least desire to tell her why for it was simply a fear of being drawn himself into the but with the usual of a man who is ashamed of himself he took the high hand god forbid my dear miss that i should dictate to a lady on the question of propriety he began oh is that all interrupted then we must go all three caught i thought the the last of the grand england is supposed to be but without dwelling on the patronage extended to the organ without seeking to found any argument on the of the jew s there is surely one instrument that may be said to be national in the fullest acceptance of the word the in the already musical in the days of father and perhaps pains the lark with this pipe and in the hands of the skilled the thing becomes a trumpet whence he blows as a general rule either the british or cherry ripe the latter air is indeed the and piece of the penny i hazard a guess it was originally composed for this instrument it is singular enough that a man should be able to gain a or even to tide over a period of by the display of his upon the penny whistle still more so that the professional should almost invariably confine himself to cherry ripe but indeed surround the subject thick like why for in the wrong box should the pipe be called a penny whistle i think no one ever bought it for a penny why should the alternative name be tin whistle i am deceived if it be made of tin lastly in what deaf in what desert does the pass the interval of his we have all heard people learning the piano the fiddle and the but the young of the penny like that of the salmon is from observation he is never heard until and providence perhaps alarmed by the works of mr human hearing from his first attempts upon the upper a really thing was taking place in a green lane not far from on the bench of a s cart there sat a tow headed modest looking youth the reins were on his lap the whip lay behind him in the interior of the cart the horse proceeded without guidance or encouragement the or the s man into a higher sphere than that of his daily tions his looks dwelling on the skies devoted himself wholly to a brand new d penny whistle whence he endeavored to that pleasing melody the to any observant person who should have chanced to in that lane the hour would have been thrilling here at last he would have said is the the tow headed youth whose name was had just himself for the nineteenth time when he was last ot the grand struck into the extreme of confusion by the discovery that he was not alone there you have it i cried a manly voice from the side of the road that s as good as i want to hear perhaps a in the run the voice suggested with meditative give it us again glanced from the depths of his humiliation at the speaker he beheld a powerful sun brown fellow about forty years of age beside the cart with a non military bearing and as he strode spinning in the air a cane the fellow s clothes were very bad but he looked clean and self i m only a gasped the blushing i didn t think anybody could hear me well i like that returned the other you re a pretty old come i ll	38
give you a lead myself give us a seat here beside you the next moment the military gentleman was perched on the cart pipe in hand he gave the instrument a knowing rattle on the shaft mouthed it appeared to commence for a moment with the muse and dashed into the girl i left behind me he was a great rather than a fine he lacked the bird like richness he could scarce have extracted all the honey out of ripe he did not fear he even displayed and seemed to in the of the instrument but in fire speed precision and in linked oi a expression by your leave answer the box ing to on the bag pipe and perhaps above all in that inspiring side glance of the eye with which he followed the effect and as by a human appeal out the of his performance in these the fellow stood without a the girl i left behind me filled him with despair the soldier s joy carried him beyond jealousy into generous enthusiasm turn about said the military gentleman offering the pipe oh not after you cried you re a professional no said his companion an like that s one style of play yours is the other and i hke it best but i began when i was a boy you see before my taste was formed when you re my age you ll play that thing like a give us that air again how does it go and he affected to endeavor to recall the a timid insane hope sprang in the breast of was it possible was there something in his playing it had indeed seemed to him at times as if he got a kind of a richness out of it was he a genius meantime the military gentleman stumbled over the air no said the unhappy that s not quite it it goes this way just to show you and taking the pipe between his lips he sealed his doom when he had played the air and then a second time and a third when the military gentleman had tried last appearance of the grand it once more and once more failed when it became clear to that he the blushing was actually giving a lesson to this full grown and the under his care was not very brilliantly how am i to tell what floods of glory brightened the how unless the reader were an amateur himself describe the heights of vanity to which the climbed one significant fact shall paint the situation it was who played and the military gentleman listened and approved as he listened however he did not forget the habit of precaution looking both behind and before he looked behind and the value of the s load the contents of the brown paper and the and briefly setting down the grand piano in the brand new piano case as difficult to get lid of he looked before and at the corner of the green lane a little country public house in roses i ll have a shy at it concluded the military gentleman and proposed a glass well i m not a drinking man said look here now cut in the other i ll tell you who i am tm color brand of the that ll tell you if i m a drinking man or not and it might not thus a greek chorus would have and gone on to point out how very far it fell short of telling why the was a country lane in or even to argue that he must have the wrong box some ago his labors for the general defence and in the interval possibly turned his attention to but there was no greek chorus present and the man of war went on to contend that drinking was one thing and a glass another in the blue lion which was the name of the country public house color brand introduced his new friend mr to a number of ingenious calculated to prevent the approaches of these he explained to be in the service so that a self respecting officer should always appear upon parade in a condition honorable to his corps the most of these devices was to lace a pint of mild ale with worth of london gin i am pleased to hand in this to the reader who may find it useful even in civil station for its effect upon mr was he must be helped on board his own wagon where he proceeded to display a spirit entirely given over to mirth and music alternately with laughter to which the hastened to bear chorus and on the pipe the man of war meantime possessed himself of the reins it was plain he had a taste for the secluded beauties of an english landscape for the cart although it wandered under his guidance for some time was never observed to issue on the dusty highway between hedge and ditch and for the most part under overhanging it was plain besides he had an eye to the true last op the grand interests of mr for though the cart drew up more than once at the doors of public houses it was only the who set foot to ground and being equipped himself with a bottle once more proceeded on his rural drive to give any idea of the of the s course a map of that part of would be required and my is averse from the suffice it that a little after the night had closed the cart was brought to a in a road where the lifted from among the and tenderly deposited upon the the form of if you come to before daylight thought the i shall be surprised for one from the various pockets of the he gently collected the sum of seventeen shillings and sterling and getting once more into	38
the cart drove thoughtfully away k i was exactly sure of where i was it would be a good job he reflected anyway here s a corner be turned it and found himself upon the a little above him the lights of a house boat shone cheerfully and already close at hand so close that it was impossible to avoid their notice three persons a lady and two gentlemen were deliberately drawing near the put his trust in the convenient darkness of the night and drove on to meet them one of the gentlemen who was of a figure walked in the the box of the and held up a staff by way of signal my man have you seen anything of a s cart he cried dark as it was it seemed to the as though the of the two gentlemen had made a motion to prevent the other speaking and finding himself too late had aside with some alacrity at another season brand would have paid more attention to the fact but he was then in the perils of his own a s cart said he with a perceptible of voice no sir ah said the gentleman and stood aside to let the pass the lady appeared to bend forward and study the cart with every mark of sharpened curiosity the gentleman still keeping in the rear i wonder what the devil they would be at thought brand and looking fearfully back he saw the standing together in the midst of the way like folk consulting the of military heroes are not always equal to themselves as to their reputation and fear on some singular provocation will find a in the most bosom the word might have been heard to in the s throat and vigorously applying the whip he fled up the road to great at the gallop of the s horse last of the grand the lights of the house boat flashed upon the flying wagon as it passed the beat of hoofs and the rattle of the vehicle and died away and presently to the on the silence had it s the most extraordinary thing cried the of the two gentlemen but that s the cart i and i know i saw a piano said the girl oh it s the cart certainly and the extraordinary thing is it s not the man added the first it must be the man it must be said the one well then why is he running away asked his horse bolted i suppose said the nonsense i heard the whip going like a said it simply the human reason i ll tell you broke in the girl he came round that comer suppose we went and what do they call it in books followed his trail there may be a house there or somebody who saw him or something well suppose we did for the fun of the thing said the of the thing it would appear consisted in the extremely close of himself and miss to uncle ned who was excluded from these simple pleasures the excursion appeared hopeless from the first and when a fresh perspective of darkness opened up dimly contained between park on the one side and a hedge and ditch upon the other the whole without the wrong box the smallest sign of human habitation the drew tip this is a wild goose chase said ha with the of the another sound smote upon their ears oh what s that cried i can t think said the had his stick presented like a sword he began i oh mr cried the girl oh i don t go forward you don t know what it might be it might be something perfectly horrid it may be the devil itself said himself but i am going to see it don t be rash cried his uncle the drew near to the sound which was certainly of a character in quality it appeared to the strains of the cow the fog horn and the and the startling manner of its added to its terrors a dark object not unlike the human form appeared on the brink of the it s a man said it s only a man he seems to be asleep and he added a moment after there must be something wrong with him he won t produced his struck one and by its light recognized the tow head of last appearance of the grand this is the man said he as drunk as i see the whole and to his two companions who had now ventured to him he set forth a theory of the divorce between the and his cart which was not unlike the truth drunken brute said ned let s get him to a pump and give him what he deserves not at all said it is highly he should see us together and really do you know i am very much obliged to him for this is about the thing that could have possibly occurred it seems to me uncle ned i declare to heaven it seems to me i m clear of it clear of what asked the the whole i cried that man has been ass enough to steal the cart and the dead body what he hopes to do with it i neither know nor care my hands are free ceases down with shake hands with me uncle darling girl i said his uncle oh it s all right uncle when we re going to be married so soon said you know you said so yourself in the house did i said uncle ned i am certain i said no such thing appeal to him tell him he did get on his soft side cried he s a real brick if you get on his soft side the wrong box dear mr said i know will be such a veiy good boy	38
and he has promised me to do such a lot of law and i will see that he does too and you know it is so very to young men everybody admits that though of course i know i have no money mr she added my dear young lady as this told you today on the boat uncle ned has plenty said the and i can never forget that you have been so as there s nobody looking you had better give your uncle ned a there you rogue resumed mr when the ceremony had been performed this very pretty young lady is yours and a vast deal more than you deserve but now let us get back to the house boat get up steam on the and away back to town that s the thing cried and to morrow there will be no house boat and no and no s cart and no piano and when on the ditch side he may tell himself the whole has been a dream said uncle ned but there s another man who will have a awakening that fellow in the t will find he has been too clever by half uncle ned and said i am as happy as the king of my heart is like a bit my heels are like feathers lam out of all my troubles s hand is in mine is this a time for anything but last appearance of the broad wood handsome sentiments why there s not room in me for anything that s not a and when i think of that poor unhappy in the cart i stand here in the night and cry with a single heart god help him i amen said ned chapter the of the second in a really polite age of literature i would have scorned to cast my eye again on the of but the study is in the spirit of the day it presents besides features of a high almost a repulsive morality and if it should prove the means of preventing any respectable and inexperienced gentleman from plunging light into crime even political crime this work will not have been in vain he rose on the morrow of his night with michael rose from the leaden slumber of distress to find his hand tremulous his eyes closed with his throat and his obviously lord knows it s not from eating thought and as he dressed he his position under several heads nothing will so well the troubled seas in which he was now as a review of these various anxieties i have thrown them for the reader s convenience into a certain order but in the mind of one poor human equal they whirled together like the dust of with the same obliging i have put a name to each of his and it will be observed with pity of part the second that every individual item would have and commended the cover of a railway novel anxiety the first where is the body or the mystery of bent it was now plain that bent as was to be looked for from his ominous belonged to the darker order of the criminal class an honest man would not have the bill a humane man would not have accepted in silence the tragic con tents of the water butt a man who was not already up to the in would have lacked the means of secretly them this process of reasoning left a horrid image of the monster doubtless he had long ago disposed of the body dropping it through a trap door in his back kitchen supposed with some recollection of a picture in a penny dreadful and doubtless the man now lived in wanton splendor on the proceeds of the bill so far all was peace but with the habits of a man like bent who was no doubt a in the bargain eight hundred pounds could be easily melted in a week when they were gone what would he be likely to do next a like voice in s own bosom gave the answer me anxiety the second the fraud of the or is my uncle dead this on which all s hopes depended was yet a question he had tried to bully he had tried to bribe her and nothing came of it he had his moral conviction still but you cannot a sharp lawyer on a moral conviction and the wrong box since his interview with michael the idea wore a attractive countenance was michael the man to be and was the man to do it grave considerations it s not that i am afraid of him so far condescended to himself but i must be very certain of my ground and the deuce of it is i see no way how unlike is life to novels i wouldn t have even begun this business in a novel but what have met a dark fellow in the oxford who d have become my and known all about bow to do it and probably broken into michael s house at night and found nothing but a wax work image and then or murdered me but here in real life i might walk the streets till i dropped dead and none of the criminal classes would look near me though to be sure there is always he added thoughtfully anxiety the third the cottage at or the for he had an and that was blooming unseen in a damp cottage in with empty pockets what could be done about that he really ought to have sent him something if it was only a post office order for five bob enough to prove that he was kept in mind enough to keep him in hope beer and tobacco but what would you have thought and poured into his hand a half crown a and in small change for a man in s position at	38
war with all society and conducting with the hand of of th second a widely the sum was already a derision john would have to be doing no mistake of that but then asked the hell like voice how long is john likely to stand it anxiety the fourth the leather business or shutters at last a tale of the city on this head had no news he had not yet dared to visit the family concern yet he knew he must delay no longer and if anything had been wanted to this conviction michael s of the night before rang in his ear well and good to visit the city might be indispensable but what was he to do when he was there he had no right to sign in his own name and with all the will in the world he seemed to lack the art of with his uncle s under these circumstances could do nothing to the crash and when it came when eyes began to be applied to every joint of his behavior two questions could not fail to be addressed sooner or later to a speechless and where is mr joseph and how about your visit to the bank questions how easy to put ye gods how impossible to answer the man to whom they should be addressed went certainly to jail and eh what was this possibly to the gallows was trying to when this idea struck him and he laid the down here in michael s words was the total disappearance of a valuable uncle here was a time of inexplicable conduct on the part of a nephew who had the wrong box been in bad blood with the old man any time these seven years what a chance for a blunder i but no thought cannot they dare not make it murder not thai but honestly and speaking as a man to a man i don t see any other crime in the except that i don t seem somehow to have committed and yet i m a perfectly respectable man and wished nothing but my due law is a pretty business with this conclusion firmly seated in his mind descended to the hall of the house in john street still half shaven there was a letter in the box he knew the handwriting john at last well i think i might have been spared this he said bitterly and tore it open dear it ran what the do you mean by it i m in an awful hole down here i have to go on and the parties on the spot don t cotton to the idea they couldn t because it is so plain i m in a of i ve got no bed clothes think of that i must have the hole thing s a i won t stand it nobody would i would have come away before only i have no money for the railway fair don t be a lunatic you don t seem to understand my situation i have to get the stamp on a fact ever your brother j can t even spell i reflected as he crammed the letter in his pocket and left the house what can i do for him i have to go to the expense of a of part the second tm so shattered i how can i send anybody it s hard lines i dare say but does he think i m living on hot one comfort was his grim reflection he can t cut and run he s got to stay he s as helpless as the dead and then he broke forth again does he and he s never even heard of bent if he had what i have on my mind he might complain with a good grace but these were not honest arguments or not wholly honest there was a struggle in the mind of he could not disguise from himself that his brother john was miserably situated at without news without money without bed clothes without society or any entertainment and by the time he had been shaved and picked a hasty breakfast at a coffee tavern had arrived at a compromise poor he said to himself he s in a j awful box i can t send him but tell you what i ll do i ll send him the pink un it ll cheer john up and besides it ll do his credit good getting anything by post accordingly on his way to the leather business whither he proceeded according to his habit on foot purchased and despatched a single copy of that to which in a sudden pang of re he added at random the the and the penny weekly so there was john set up with literature and bad laid upon his conscience the wrong box as if to reward him he was received in his place of business with good news orders were x in there was a run on some of the back stock and the figure had gone up even the manager appeared elated as for who had almost forgotten the meaning of good news he longed to sob like a little child he could have caught the manager a pallid man with startled eyebrows to his bosom he could have found it in his generosity to give a check for a small sum to every clerk in the as he sat and opened his letters a chorus of airy sang in his brain to most exquisite music this old concern may be profitable yet profitable yet profitable yet to him in this sunny moment of relief enter a mr a but not one who was expected to be pressing for his connection with the firm was old and regular oh said he not without embarrassment it s of course only fair to let you know the fact is money is	38
a trifle tight i have some paper out for that matter every one s complaining and in short it has never been our habit said turning pale but give me time to turn round and i ll see what i can do i dare say we can let you have something to account well that s just where it is replied i was tempted i ve let the credit out of my hands out of your hands repeated that s of part the second playing rather hat and loose with us mr well i got cent for cent for it said the other on the nail in a cent for cent i cried why that s something like thirty per cent a singular thing who s the party don t know the man was the reply name of moss a jew reflected when his visitor was gone and what could a jew want with a claim of he the amount in the a claim of three five eight nineteen ten against the house of and why should he pay cent for cent the figure proved the loyalty of even admitted that but it proved unfortunately something else the eagerness of moss the claim must have been wanted instantly for that day for that morning even why the mystery of moss promised to be a fit to the mystery of and just when all was looking well too i cried his hand upon the desk and almost at the same moment mr moss was announced mr moss was a radiant hebrew handsome and polite he was acting it appeared for a third party he understood nothing of the circumstances his desired to have his position but he would accept an by two months if mr chose thb wrong box bat i don t understand said what made you pay cent per cent for it to day mr moss had no idea only bis orders the whole thing is thoroughly irregular said it is not the custom of the trade to settle at this time of the year what are your instructions if i refuse i am to see mr joseph the head of the firm said mr moss i was directed to insist on tbat it was implied you had no here the expressions are not mine you cannot see mr joseph he is said in that case i was to place the matter in the hands of a lawyer let me see said mr moss opening a with perhaps suspicious care at the right place of mr michael a relation perhaps in that case i presume the matter will be pleasantly arranged to pass into the hands of michael was too much for he struck his colors a at two months was nothing after all in two months he would probably be dead or in a at any rate he bade the manager give mr moss a chair and the paper i m going over to get a signed by mr said he who is lying ill at john street a cab there and a cab back here were on his wretched capital he counted the cost when he was done with mi moss he would be left with twelve pence of part the second half penny in the world what was even worse he had now been forced to bring his uncle up to no use for poor in now he reflected and how the farce is to be kept up completely passes me at it was just possible in it seems beyond human ingenuity though i suppose it s what michael does but then he has that and the whole gang ah if i had i necessity is the mother of the arts under a spur so immediate surprised himself by the neatness and despatch of his new and within three of an hour had handed it to mr moss that is very observed that gentleman rising i was to tell you it will not be presented but you had better take care the room swam round what what s that he cried grasping the table he was miserably conscious the next moment of his shrill tongue and face what do you mean it will not be presented why am i to take care what is all this i have no idea mr replied the smiling hebrew it was a message i was to deliver the expressions were put into my mouth what is your s name asked that is a secret for the moment answered mr moss bent toward him it s not the bank he asked hoarsely the box i have no authority to say more mr returned mr m i will wish you a good morning if you please wish me a good morning i thought and the next moment seizing his hat he fled from his place of business like a madman three streets away he stopped and groaned lord i should have borrowed from the manager i he cried but it s too late now it would look to go back i m simply like the he went home and sat in the dining room with his head in his hands never thought harder than this victim of circumstance and yet no clearness came it may be a defect in my intelligence he cried rising to his feet but i cannot see that i am fairly used the bad luck had is a thing to write to the times about its enough to breed a revolution and the plain english of the whole thing is that i must have money at once i m done with all now i m long past that stage money i must have and the only chance i see is bent bent is a criminal and therefore his position s weak he must have some of that eight hundred left if he has force	38
reading a book the picture of good humor and repose he said laying down his book the box what brings you here at this hour ought to be in church my boy i have little thought of church to day mr said the drawing master i am on the brink of something new sir and he presented the advertisement why what is this cried michael sitting suddenly up he studied it for half a minute with a frown i don t care about this document a said he it will have to be attended to however said i thought you d had enough of returned the lawyer have you started a morbid craving you ve never been yourself anyway since you lost that beard i believe now it was where you kept your senses mr said the drawing master i have tried to reason this matter out and with your permission i should like to lay before you the results fire away said michael but please remember it s sunday and let s have no bad language there are three views open to us began first this may be connected with the barrel second it may be connected with mr statue and third it may be from my wife s brother who went to in the first case which is of course possible i confess the matter would be best allowed to drop the court is with you there brother said michael of something to his advantage in the second continued the other it is plainly my duty to leave no stone for the of the lost antique my dear fellow has come down like a he has the loss and left you the profit what more would you have inquired the lawyer i conceive sir under that mr generosity me to even greater exertion said the drawing master the whole business was unfortunate it was i need not disguise it from you it was from the first the more reason that i should try to behave like a gentleman concluded flushing i have nothing to say to that returned the lawyer i have sometimes thought i should like to try to behave like a gentleman myself only it s such a one sided business with the world and the legal profession as they are it st then in the third resumed the drawing master if it s uncle tim of e our fortune s made it s not uncle tim though said the lawyer have you observed that very remarkable expression something to his advantage inquired you innocent mutton said michael it s the commonplace in the english language and only proves the is an ass let me your house of cards for you at once would uncle tim make that blunder in your name in itself the blunder is delicious a huge improvement on the gross reality and i the box mean to adopt it in the future but it like uncle tim no it s not like him admitted but his mind may have become at if you come to that said michael the may be queen victoria fired with the desire to make a duke of you i put it to yourself if that s probable and yet its not against the laws of nature but we sit here to consider and with your genteel permission i her majesty and uncle tim on the threshold to proceed we have your second idea that this has some connection with the statue possible but in that case who is the not for he knows your address not the person who got the box for he doesn t know your name the van man i hear you suggest in a interval he might have got your name and got it at the station and he might have failed to get your ess i grant the van man but a question do you really wish to meet the why should i not asked if he wants to meet you replied michael observe this it is because he has found his address book has been to the house that got the statue and mark my words is moving at the of the murderer i should be very sorry to think so said but i still consider it my duty to mr interrupted michael this will not do hears of something to his advantage don t seek to impose on your legal adviser don t try to pass yourself off for the duke of for that is not your line come i a dinner i can read your thoughts you still believe it s uncle tim mr said the drawing master you are not a man in narrow circumstances and you have no family is growing up a very promising girl she was confirmed this year and i think you will be able to enter into my feelings as a parent when i tell you she is quite ignorant of dancing the boys are at the board school which is all very well in its way at least i am the last man in the world to the institutions of my native land but i had fondly hoped that might become a professional and little shows a quite remarkable for the i am not exactly an ambitious man well well interrupted michael be explicit you think it s uncle tim it might be uncle tim insisted and if it were and i neglected the occasion how could i ever look my children in the face i do not refer to mrs c no you never do said michael but in the case of her own brother returning from continued with his mind put in the lawyer returning from with a large c the box her impatience may be more easily imagined than described concluded all rights said be it sa and what do you propose to do	38
i am going to said in disguise all by your little self inquired the lawyer well i hope you think it safe mind and send me word from the police oh mr i had ventured to hope perhaps you might be induced to to make one of us faltered disguise myself on sunday cried michael how little you understand my principles t mr i have no means of showing you my gratitude but let me ask you one question said if i were a very rich would you not take the risk diamond diamond you know not what you do cried michael why man do you suppose i make a practice of cutting about london with my in disguise do you suppose money would induce me to touch this business with a stick i give you my word of honor it would not but i own i have a real curiosity to see how you conduct this interview that me it me more than gold it should be exquisitely rich and suddenly michael laughed well said he have all the ready in the i ll go of something to his advantage about twenty minutes after two on this day the vast and gloomy shed of lay like the temple of a dead religion silent and deserted here and there at one of the a train lay here and there a wandering echoed the cab horses outside stamped with startling on the stones or from the neighboring wilderness of railway an engine forth a whistle the main departure platform like the rest the closed the backs of mr haggard s novels with which upon a week day the book stall shines hidden behind dingy shutters the rare officials and the customary even to the middle aged woman with the and the fled to more congenial scenes as in the inmost of some small island the throbbing of the ocean so here a faint hum and told in every comer of surrounding london at the hour already named persons acquainted with john of and thomas of the united states of america would have been cheered to behold them enter through the office what names are we to take inquired the latter anxiously the window glass spectacles which he had been suffered on this occasion to assume there s no choice for you my boy returned michael bent or nothing as for me i think i look as if i might be called something agreeably old thb box world about breathes of talking of which suppose you wet your whistle the interview is likely to be trying i think ru wait till afterward returned on the whole i think i ll wait till the thing s over i don t know if it strikes you as it does me but the place seems deserted and silent mr and filled with very singular echoes kind of jack in the box feeling inquired michael as if all these empty trains might be filled with waiting for a signal and sir charles perched among the with a silver whistle to his lips it s guilt in this uneasy frame of mind they walked nearly the whole l of the departure platform and at the western extremity became aware of a slender figure standing backed against a pillar the figure was plainly sunk into a deep abstraction he was not aware of their approach but gazed far abroad over the station michael stopped i said he can that be your if so fm done with it and then on second thoughts not so either he resumed more cheerfully here turn your back a moment so give me the but you agreed i was to have them protested s ah but that man knows me said michael does he what s his name cried hears of something to bis advantage oh he took me into his confidence returned the lawyer but i may say one thing if he s your and he may be for he seems to have been seized with criminal you can go ahead with a conscience for i hold him in the hollow of my hand the change effected and comforted with this good news the pair di near to are you looking for mr william bent inquired the drawing master i am he raised his head he saw before him in the speaker a person of almost indescribable in white and a shirt cut low a little behind a second and more figure offered little to criticism except whiskers spectacles and hat since he had decided to call up devils from the of london had pondered deeply on the of their appearance his first tion like that of when she beheld the sea was one of disappointment his second did more justice to the case never before had he seen a couple dressed like these he had struck a new i must speak with you said he you need not mind mr returned he knows au do you know what i am here to speak of inquired the barrel turned pale but it was with manly indignation the box you are ihe man i he cried you yery wicked per am i to speak before him disregard ing these severe expressions he has been present throughout said he opened the barrel your guilty secret is already known to him as well as to your maker and well then said what have you done with the money i know nothing about any money said you needn t try that on said i have you down you came to the station disguised as a clergyman procured my barrel opened it the body and the bill i have been to the bank i tell you i i have followed you step by step and your are childish and absurd come come keep your temper said michael cried michael here too here too echoed the lawyer here and everywhere my good fellow	38
and is now i should imagine on his way to the of and michael said i am in a very weak state and i beg your consideration for a say it slowly again and be sure you are correct when did he get it michael repeated his statement yes that s the worst thing yet said drawing in his breath what is asked the lawyer even the dates are sheer nonsense said the leather merchant the bill was on tuesday there s not a gleam of reason in the whole transaction a young gentleman who had passed the and suddenly started and turned back at this moment laid a heavy hand on michael s shoulder so this is mr said he the of judgment could scarce have rung with a more dreadful note in the ears of and the lawyer to this name seemed a legitimate enough of the nightmare in which he had so long been wandering and when michael with his brand new whiskers broke from the grasp of the stranger and turned to run and the weird little shaven creature in the low shirt followed his example with a and the stranger finding the rest of his prey escape him with a rude grasp on himself that gentleman s frame of might be the box yery nearly expressed in the phrase i told you so i i have one of the gang said i do not understand said oh i will make you understand returned grimly you will be a good friend to me if you can make me understand anything cried with a sudden energy of i don t know you personally do i continued examining his prisoner never mind i know your friends they are your friends are they not i do not understand you said you had possibly something to do with a piano suggested a piano cried clasping by the arm then you re the other man where is it where is the body and did you cash the where is the body this is very strange mused do you want the body want it cried my whole fortune depends upon it i lost it where is it take me to it oh you want it do you and the other man does he want it inquired who do you mean by oh michael why of course he does he lost it too if he had it he d have won the to morrow michael i not the cried hears of something to his advantage yes the said but where is the body then that is why he sent the brief i what is mr s private address asked king s what brief where are you going where is the body cried clinging to s arm i have lost it myself returned and ran out of the station chapter xv the of the great returned from in a frame of mind that description he was a modest man be had never conceived an notion of his own powers he knew himself unfit to write a book turn a table entertain a christmas party with in short any of those conspicuous accomplishments that are usually under the head of genius he knew he admitted his parts to be but he had considered them until quite lately fully equal to the demands of life and to day he owned himself defeated life had the upper hand if there had been any means of flight or place to flee to if the world had been so ordered that a man could leave it like a place of entertainment would have instantly resigned all further claim on its rewards and pleasures and with contentment ceased to be as it was one aim shone before him he could get home even as the sick dog under the sofa could shut the door of john street and be alone the dusk was when he drew near this place of the return of the great refuge and the first thing that met his eyes was the figure of a man upon the step alternately at the bell handle and on the the man had no hat his clothes were hideous with he had the air of a hop yet knew him it was john the first impulse of flight was succeeded in the elder brother s bosom by the empty of despair what does it matter now he thought and his latch key ascended the steps john turned about his face was ghastly with weariness and and fury and as he recognized the head of his family he drew in a long breath and his eyes glittered open that door he said standing back i am going to said and added mentally he looks uke murder the brothers passed into the hall the door closed behind them and suddenly john seized by the shoulders and shook him as a shakes a you httle he said td serve you right to your skull and shook him again so that his teeth rattled and his head smote upon the wall don t be violent said it can t do any good now shut your mouth said john your time s come to listen he strode into the dining room fell into the easy chair and taking off one of his burst walking shoes nursed for the wrong box a while his foot like one in agony i m lame for life he said what is there for dinner nothing said nothing what do you mean by that inquired the great don t set up your chat to me i i mean simply nothing said his brother i have nothing to eat and nothing to buy it with i ve only had a cup of tea and a all this day myself only a sneered i suppose ie going to complain next but you had better take care i ve had all i mean to take and i	38
can tell you what it is i mean to dine and to dine well take your and sell them i can t to day objected it s sunday i tell you i m going to dine cried the younger brother but if it s not possible pleaded the other you cried ain t we don t they know us at that hotel where uncle used to come be off with you and if you ain t back in half an hour and if the dinner ain t good first i ll you till you don t want to breathe and then go straight to tlie police and blow the do you understand that because if you do you had better jump the idea smiled even upon the wretched who was sick with famine he sped upon his errand and returned to find john still nursing his foot in the arm chair c the return of the great what would you like to drink he inquired soothingly said john some of the stuff from the end bin a bottle of the old port that michael liked to follow and see and don t shake the port and look here light the and the gas and di aw down the blinds it s cold and it s getting dark and then you can lay the cloth and i say here you bring me down some clothes the room looked comparatively by the time the dinner came and the dinner itself was good strong soup of sole mutton and roast beef done rare with roast potatoes cabinet a piece of cheese and some early a meal british but supporting thank god said john his nostrils wide surprised by joy into the unwonted formality of grace now i m going to take this chair with my back to the fire there s been a strong frost these two last nights and i can t get it out of my bones the will be just the ticket i m going to sit here and you are going to stand there and play butler but i m so hungry myself pleaded you can have what i leave said you re just beginning to pay your score my i owe you one pound ten don t you rouse the british lion there was something menacing in the face and voice of the great as he uttered these words at the wrong box which the soul of withered there the give us a glass of the to start with soup i and i thought i didn t like soup i do you know how i got here he asked with another explosion of wrath no how could i said the i walked on my ten toes i cried john the whole way from and begged i i would like to see you beg it s not so easy as you might suppose i played it on being a fi om i don t know where is do you but i thought it sounded natural i begged from a little beast of a school boy and he out a bit of and asked me to make a i did too i know i did but he said it wasn t he said it was a s knot and i was a what d ye call em and he would give me in charge then i begged from a naval officer he never me with knots but he only gave me a tract there s a nice account of the british navy i and then from a widow woman that sold and i got a of bread from her another party i fell in with said you could generally always get bread and the thing to do was to break a plate glass window and get into jail seemed rather a brilliant scheme pass the beef why didn t you stay at ventured to inquire said john on what the pink un and the return of the great a religious paper i had to leave i bad to i tell you i got at a public and set up to be the great so would you if you were leading such a existence and a card stood me a lot of ale and stuff and we got talking about music halls and the piles of tin i got for singing and then they got me on to sing around her splendid form i the magic circle and then he said i couldn t be and i stuck to it like grim death i was it was rot of me to sing of course but i thought i could brazen it out with a set of it settled my at the public said john with a sigh and then the last thing was the carpenter our landlord inquired that s the party said john he came about the place and then wanted to know where the water butt was and the bed clothes i told him to go to the devil so would you too when there was no possible thing to say and then he said i had them and did i know it was then i made a pretty neat stroke i remembered he was deaf and talked a whole lot of rot very politely just so low he couldn t hear a word i don t hear you says he i know you don t my buck and i don t mean you to says i smiling away like a tm hard of hearing he td be in a pretty hot corner if you weren t says i making signs as if i was explaining everything it was tip top as long as it lasted well he said i m deaf worse luck thb box but i bet the can hear you and off he started one way and i the other they got a spirit lamp and the un and that	38
old religious paper and another you sent me i think you must have been drunk it had a name like one of those spots tiiat uncle joseph used to hold forth at and it was all full of the most awful about poetry and the use of the it was the kind of thing that nobody could read out of a lunatic asylum the that was the name what a paper you mean said i don t care what you call it said john so as i don t require to take it in there i feel better now tm going to sit by the fire in the easy chair pass me the cheese and the and the bottle of port no a champagne glass it holds more and now you can pitch in there s some of the fish left and a chop and some ah sighed the refreshed michael was right about that port there s old and for you michael s a man i like he s clever and reads books and the and all that but he s not dreary to meet he don t talk like the other parties why the most of them would throw a over a alley i talking of michael i ain t bored myself to put the question because of course i knew it from the first you ve made a of it eh michael made a it said flushing the return of the great what have we got to do with that inquired john he has lost the body that s what we have to do with it cried he has lost the body and the death can t be established hold on said john i thought you didn t want to oh we re tar past that said his brother it s not the now it s the leather business it s the clothes upon our back the slow music said john and tell your from beginning to end did as he was bid well now what did i tell you cried the great when the other had done but i know one thing tm not going to be out of my property i should like to know what you mean to do said tell you that responded john with extreme decision i m going to put my interests in the hands of the lawyer in london and whether you go to or not is a matter of indifference to me why we re in the same boat i are we cried his brother i bet we re not i have i committed have i lied about uncle joseph have i put in the comic papers have i smashed other people s statues i like your cheek no i ve let you mn my too long now the box they shall go to michael i like michael anyway and it s time i understood my situation at this moment the brethren were interrupted by a ring at the bell and going to the door received from the hands of a a letter addressed in the hand of michael its contents ran as follows if this should meet the eye o he will hear of to his at my office in lane at a m to morrow michael so utter was s that he did not wait to be asked but handed the note to john as soon as ho had glanced at it himself that s the way to write a letter cried john nobody but michael could have written thai and did not even claim the credit of chapter final of the leather business brothers were ushered at ten the next morning into a large apartment in office the great somewhat restored from yesterday s exhaustion but with one foot in a not positively but a man ten years older than he who had left eight days before his face full of anxious wrinkles his dark hair liberally at the temples three persons were seated at a table to receive them michael in the midst at his right hand on his left an ancient gentleman with spectacles and silver hair by it s uncle joe i cried john but approached his uncle with a pale countenance and eyes ril tell you what you did i he cried you i good morning returned joseph with no less you are looking seriously ill no use making trouble now remarked michael the box look the facts in the face tour uncle as you see was not so much as shaken in the accident a man of humane disposition ought to be delighted then if that s so broke forth how about the body you don t mean to that thing i and for and with my own hands was the body of a total stranger oh no we can t go as far as that said michael soothingly you may have met him at the fell into a chair i would have found it out if it had come to the house he complained and why didn t it why did it go to what right had to open it if you come to that what have you done with the colossal asked michael he went through it with the meat axe said john its all in in the back garden well there s one thing snapped there my uncle again my he s mine anyway and the too i claim the i it now i uncle s dead i must put a stop to this nonsense said michael and that forever you say too near the truth in one sense your uncle is dead and has been so long but not in the sense of the which it is even on the cards be may yet to win uncle joseph w him this he will tell you he still lives but his mind is in final of the leather business he did not know me said	38
joseph to do him justice not without emotion so you re out again there said john my eye what a fool youve made of yourself i and that was why you wouldn t compromise said as for the absurd position in which you and uncle joseph have been making yourselves an exhibition resumed michael it is more than time it came to an end i have prepared a proper discharge in full which you shall sign as a preliminary what i cried and lose my seven thousand eight hundred pounds and the leather business and the interest and get nothing thank you it s like you to feel gratitude began michael oh i know it s no good appealing to you you devil cried but there s a stranger present i can t think why and i appeal to him i was robbed of this money when i was an orphan a mere child at a commercial academy since then i ve never had a wish but to get back my own you may hear a lot of stuff about me and there s no doubt at times i have been but it s the pathos of my situation that s what i want to show you interrupted michael i do wish you would let me add one point for i think it will affect your judgment it s pathetic too since that s your taste in literature the wrong box well what is it said it s only the name of one of the persons who s to witness your signature replied michael his name s moss my dear there was a long silence i might have been sure it was you i cried you ll sign won t you said michael do you know what you re doing cried you re a very well then we won t compound it returned michael see how little i understood the sterling integrity of your character i thought you would prefer it so look here michael said john this is all very fine and large but how about me is gone up i see that but not and i was robbed too mind you and just as much an orphan and at the blessed same academy as himself said michael don t you think you d better leave it to me i m your man said john you wouldn t deceive a poor orphan i ll take my oath you sign that document or i ll start in and astonish your weak mind with a sudden alacrity his clerks were brought in the discharge was executed and there was joseph a free man once more and now said michael hear what i propose to do here john and is the leather business made over final of the business to the pair of you in i have valued it at the lowest possible figure and s and here is a for the balance of your fortune now you see you start fresh from the commercial academy and as you said yourself the leather business was looking up i suppose you ll probably marry before long here s your marriage present from a mr moss bounded on his check with a countenance i don t understand the performance remarked john it seems too good to be true it s simply a re michael explained i take up uncle joseph s and if he gets the it s to be mine if my father gets it it s mine anyway you see so that i m rather placed my friend you ve got left was john s comment and now mr resumed michael turning to his silent guest here are all the before you except i really didn t like to interrupt his career but you can have him arrested at the i know his hours here we are then we re not pretty to look at what do you propose to do with us nothing in the world mr returned i seem to understand that this gentleman indicating is the et of the trouble and from what i gather he has already paid through the nose and really to be quite frank i do not see who is to gain the wrong box by any scandal not me at least and besides i have to thank you for that brief michael blushed it was the least i could do to let you have some business he said but there s one thing more i don t want you to poor who is i the most harmless being upon earth i wish you would dine with me to night and see the creature on his native heath say at s i have no engagement mr replied i shall be delighted but subject to your judgment can we do nothing for the man in the cart i have of conscience nothing but said michael the i author s robert louis s books the wrong box by r l and i mo cloth i oo strange case of dr and mr i paper c cloth being op the adventures of david in the year with x full page illustrations i mo without illustrations paper see cloth the merry men and other tales and i paper c cloth x oo new nights i cloth i oo paper c the more new nights with mrs x mo cloth paper c the black arrow a tale of the two roses with full page illustrations i mo paper c cloth memories and portraits i mo cloth familiar studies of men and books i mo cloth and other papers i mo cloth i oo of cloth x do x mo cloth a child s garden of verse z mo cloth charles s sons the wrong box by robert louis and i mo cloth a wild spirit of humor this story making it unique among recent tales the action is incessant the grotesque the fun	38
the way of the and behold how fitting the time for here do i cover my fire i see the fire for the cooking but never the meat to cook said a tut said here in the brook and there in the tumbling sea the fishes are thick as flies hungry like healthy men and like pigs for and size crowding the river sea fish the sea well it may be says the other and yet be nothing to me fain would i eat but alas i have needful matter in hand since i carry my tribute of fish to the jealous king of the land now at the word a light sprang in ro s eyes i will gain me a dinner thought he and lend the king a surprise and he took the lad by the arm as they stood by the side of the track and smiled and rallied and flattered and pushed him forward and back it was yoa that sing like a bird i never have heard you sing and the lads when i was a lad were none so feared of a king and of what account is an hour when the heart is empty of but come and sit in the house and laugh with the women awhile and i will but drop my hook and behold the dinner made so the hung up his fish in the shade on a tree by the side of the way and ro carried him in smiling as smiles the when the bird to the gin and chose him a shining hook and viewed it with eye and breathed and it well on the of his naked and set a mat for the and bade him be merry and bide like a man concerned for his guest and the fishing and nothing beside now when was forth he paused and and heard the jest in the house and the women laugh at his word and stealthily crossed to the side of the way to the shady place where the basket hung on a and craft his face he opened the basket and of the fat of the fish the cut of kings and enough for a goodly dish this he wrapped in a leaf set on the fire to cook and and next the remains of the tribute he took lo and doubled and packed them well and covered the basket close there is a my king he and a dose and hung the basket again in the shade in a cloud of flies and there is a to your dinner king of the eyes soon as the oven was open the fish smelt excellent good in the shade by the house of ro down they sat to their food and cleared the leaves in silence or uttered a jest and laughed and raising the buried their faces and but chiefly in silence they ate and soon as the meal was done ro feigned to remember and measured the hour by the sun and a he it is time to be my lad so a arose doing ever the thing he was bade and carelessly shouldered the basket and kindly saluted his host and again the way of his going was round by the roaring coast long he went and at length was aware of a pleasant green and the stems and shadows of palms and roofs of between there in the door of his palace the king on a seat and stood armed around and the sat at his feet but fear was a worm in his heart fear darted his eyes and he men s faces for and pondered their speech for lies to him came a the basket in his hand and paid him the due standing as stand in silence the king and closed the eyes in his face odious thoughts and the fears of the base in silence accepted the gift and sent the away so a departed turning his back on the day and lo as the king sat brooding a rose in the crowd the and whispered the murmured aloud fell upon all at sight of the impudent thing at the sight of a gift flung in the face of a king and the face of the king turned white and red with anger and shame in their midst and the heart in his body was water and then was flame till of a sudden turning he an hard a youth that stood with his mare one of the daily guard and in his ear a command and pointed and uttered a name and hid in the shade of the house his impotent anger and shame now a the fool was far on the homeward way the rising night in his face behind him the dying day ro saw him go by and the heart of ro was glad shame to the king and harm to the lad and all that dwelt by the way saw and saluted him well for he had the face of a friend and the news of the town to tell and pleased with the notice of folk and pleased that his journey was done a drew homeward turning his back to the sun and now was the hour of the bath in far and near the lovely laughter of rose and delighted his ear night in the valleys the san on the mountain coast struck end long and above the clouds their host gems and glowed and on the heights and the heads of the palms were and far to the rising eve extended the shade of their stems and the shadow of a hovered already at home and sudden the sound of one coming and running light as the foam struck on his ear and he turned and lo a man on his track and armed with an mare following hard at his back at a	38
bound the man was upon him and or ever a word was said the loaded end of the mare fell and laid him dead ii the of thus was ro s treason thus and no further it sped the king sat safe in his place and a kindly fool was dead but the mother of a arose with death in her eyes all night long and the next rang with her cries as when a babe in the wood turns with a chill of doubt and nor home nor friends for the trees have closed her about the mountain rings and her breast is torn with the voice of despair so the lion like woman idly wearied the air for awhile and pierced men s hearing in vain and wounded their hearts but as when the weather changes at sea in dangerous parts and sudden the up the front of the sky at once the ship lies idle the sails hang silent on high the breath of the wind that blew is blown out like the flame of a lamp and the silent armies of death draw near with tramp so sudden the voice of her weeping ceased in silence she rose and passed from the house of her sorrow a woman clothed with repose carrying death in her breast and death with her hand hither she went and thither in all the of the land they tell that she feared not to slumber alone in the dead of night in accursed places beheld the ribbon of light spin from temple to temple guided the perilous not the paths of the mountain and trod the verge of the cliff from end to end of the island thought not the distance long but forth from king to king carried the tale of her wrong to king after king as they sat in the palace door she came claiming verses her name and the names of all of her fathers and still with a heart on the rack to capture a hearing and laughed when they back so would deceive them awhile and change and return in a and on all the men of instant death and tempt her kings for was a rich and prosperous land and flatter for who would attempt it but warriors mighty of hand and change in a breath again and rise in a strain of song the beaten drums beholding the fall of the strong calling the fowls of the air to come and feast on the dead and they held the chin in silence and heard her and shook the head for they knew the men of famous in battle and feast marvellous and the men of not least to the land of the to at length she came to men who were foes to the and hated their race and name there was she well received and spoke with the king and listened and weighed d wisely considered the thing here in the back of the isle we dwell in a sheltered place he to the woman in quiet a weak and race but far in the teeth of the wind lofty lies strong blows the wind of the trade on its face and cries aloud in the top of mountains and its song in green continuous forests strong is the wind and strong and fruitful and hardy the race famous in battle and feast marvellous and the men of not least now to me my daughter and hear a word of the wise how a strength goes linked with a weakness two by two like the eyes they can the mare well and cast the far yet are they greedy and weak as the swine and the children are is plant we then here at a garden of excellent plant we and and the king of roots let the pigs in be and no man fish for a year and of all the meat in gather we here so shall the fame of our plenty fill the island and so at last on the tongue of go where we wish it to go then shall the pigs of raise their in the air but we sit quiet and wait as the sits by the and fold our hands till the pigs come the food but meanwhile build us a house of trot a the stubborn wood bind it with set a roof to the room too strong for the hands of a man to or fire to and there when the pigs come trotting there shall the feast be spread there shall the eye of the mom the dead so be it done for i have a heart that your state and and n are fire and water for hate all was done as he said and the gardens and now the fame of their plenty went out and of it came to for the men of n sailed to the far lay in the by south where the towns of the are and cast overboard of their plenty and lo at the feet the surf on all of the tumbled treasures of meat in the salt of the sea a harvest tossed with the foam and the children it in playing and ate and carried it home and the elders stared and and wondered and passed the jest but whenever a guest came by eagerly questioned the guest and little by little from one to another the word went round in all the borders of the on the ground and swine are plenty as rats and now when they fare to the sea the men of the from under the tree and load the to the with all that is to eat and all day long on the sea the jaws are crushing the meat the eats at the the at the oar and at length when their are full overboard with the store now was the	38
word made true and soon as the bait was bare all the pigs of raised their in the air songs were and was counted and tales were told how war had severed of late but peace had of old the of the island to war said they now set we an end and hie to the even as a friend to a friend so judged and a day was named and soon as the morning broke were thrust in the sea and the houses emptied of folk strong blew the wind of the south the wind that the along all the line of the the ran and the clouds were piled on the top of the island mountain high a mountain on a mountain the fleet of swept by in the midst on the green with a crew released from care sailing an even water breathing a summer air cheered by a sun and ever to left and right bursting on the storms on the height so the folk of sailed and were glad all day the palm tree cape and crossing the bay by all the towns of the and still as they along boat would answer to boat with jest and laughter and song and the people of all the towns to the sides of the sea and gazed from under the hand or sprang aloft on the tree and cheering time failed them for more to do the holiday village to the wind and was gone from view swift as a passing bird and ever as onward it bore like the cry of the passing bird its song to the shore desirable laughter of maids and the cry of delight of the child and the left behind stared at the wake and smiled by all the towns of the they went and last the home of the chief the place of muster in war and passed the march of the lands of the to the lands of an alien folk and there from the dusk of the palms a column of smoke mounted and wavered and died in the gold of the setting sun they cried it is and so was the voyage done in the early fall of the night came to the shore and beheld and counted the comers and lo they were forty score x the feet of the that ran already and played the clean smile of the boy the slender breasts of the maid and mighty limbs of women mothers of men the stood forth but a little back from his ken clustered the scarcely the lads and maids in a ring fain of each other afraid of themselves aware of the king and behavior but clinging together with hands and eyes with looks that were kind like kisses and laughter tender as sighs there too the stood raising his silver crest and the impotent hands of a in his barren breast the childhood of love the pair well married the innocent brood the tale of the generations repeated and ever renewed beheld them together all the ages of man and a moment shook in his purpose but these were the foes of his and he trod upon pity and came and greeted the king and gravely entreated ro and for all that could fight or sing and claimed a name in the land had fitting phrases of praise but with all who were well descended he spoke of the ancient days and tis true said he that in the on the ground but friends your number is and pigs must be hunted and found and the lads troop to the mountains to bring the f is down and around the of the cluster the maids of the town so for to night sleep here bat king common and priest to morrow in order due shall sit with me in the feast sleepless the live long night s followers toiled the pigs screamed and were the of the guest house the leaves spread on the floor in many a mountain the moon drew shadows of trees on the naked bodies of men and bearing fruits and in all the bounds of the town red glowed the fires and were buried and trodden down thus did seven of the toil with their tale of the but the eighth wrought with his lads hid from the sight of man in the of the woods they the fuel high in the load of a man fuel and dry thirsty to seize upon fire and apt to into flame and now was the day of the feast the forests as morning came tossed in the wind and the peaks in the blaze of the day and the on the ground and rolling away a glorious for a feast a famous wind for a fire to the hall of led them mother and and maid and babe in a tale the whole of the holiday throng smiling they came g een not dreaming of wrong and for every three a pig tenderly cooked in the ground waited and the staff of life heaped in a mound for each where he sat for each and raw piled with a hand as for horses hay and straw are in a stable and fish the food of desire and plentiful vessels of and gilt in the fire and was common as water have there been ere now and many but never a feast like that of the folk of all day long they ate with the resolute of brutes and turned from the pigs to the fish and again from the fish to the fruits and emptied the vessels of and drank of the deep till the young lay stupid as stones and the strongest nodded to sleep sleep that was mighty as death and blind as a night them hand and foot and their souls were drowned and the light was from their eyes	38
senseless together the old and the young the deadly to and ths cunning of tongue the woman wedded and fruitful to the pangs of birth and the maid that knew not of kisses blindly on the earth from the hall the king and his chiefs came stealthily forth already the sun hung low and enlightened the peaks of the north but the wind was stubborn to die and blew as it blows at the nuts in the dusk and e en as a banner is torn high on the peaks of the island shattered the mountain cloud and now at once at a signal a silent crowd set hands to the work of death hurrying to and fro like to furnish the building them broad and low and them high and higher around the walls of the hall silence persisted within for sleep lay heavy on all bat the mother of t mat a stood at s side and shook for terror and joy like a girl that is a bride night fell on the and first the wise made the round of the house visiting all with his eyes and all was piled to the and fuel the door and within in the house the forty score then was an and came with fire in his hand and took it within said he is the life of a land and behold i breathe on the coal i breathe on the of the east and silence falls on forest and shore the voice of the feast is and the smoke of cooking the and falls on the empty lodge and the winds deserted walls to the fuel he laid the glowing coal and the ran in the mass and within like a and copious smoke was conceived but as when a dam is to burst the water lips it and crosses in silver at first and then of a sudden and bears it away so now in a moment the flame sprang and in the night and and roared in the wind and high over house and tree stood like a streaming torch land and sea but the mother of a threw her arms abroad of my son she shouted vengeance of god late late i behold you yet i behold you at last and glory beholding for now are the days of my agony past the lust that my soul now eats and drinks its desire and they that my son alive in the fire precious the vengeance that comes after lingering years ye the voice of my singer hark in your dying ears the song of the ye left me a widow alone behold the whole of your race and bone and flesh together man mother and maid heaped in a common and already borne by the trade the smoke of your dissolution the stars of night thus she spoke and her stature g in the people s sight m ro was there in the hall asleep beside him his wife comely a woman one that delighted in life and a girl that was ripe for marriage shy and sly as a mouse and a boy a of trees all the hopes of his house with open hands he slept in the midst of his folk and dreamed that he heard a voice crying without and awoke leaping blindly like one from a dream that he fears a glow and cl were about him it roared in his ears like the sound of the fall that and steep and ro swayed as he stood and his reason was still asleep now the flame struck hard on the house wind a blow and the end of the roof was burst and fell on the below and the lofty hall and the feast and the prostrate bodies of folk shone red in his eyes a moment and then were swallowed of smoke in the mind of clearness came and he opened his throat and as when a comes sudden the straining sail of a boat aloud and bursts so thundered the voice of the man the wind and the rain he shouted the word of the and up and to arms men of but silence replied or only the voice of the of the fire and nothing beside ro stooped and he handled his but the of the fire and the had the life of their mind and they lay like pillars prone and his hand encountered the boy and there sprang in the gloom of his soul a sudden lightning of joy him can i save i he thought if i were speedy enough and the cloth from his and the child in the stuff and about the strength of his neck he knotted the burden well there where the roof had fallen it roared like the mouth of hell thither ro went stumbling on senseless folk and a post of the house and began to climb in the smoke the last alive of and the son borne by the the post glowed in the grain with of eating fire a and the fire bit to the blood and his hands and and the sang in his head like wine and stung in his eyes and still he climbed and came to the top the place of proof and thrust a hand through the flame and alive on the roof but even as he did so the wind in a garment of flames and pain wrapped him from head to heel and the parted in twain and the living fruit of his dropped in the are below about the blazing feast house clustered the eyes of the foe watching hand upon weapon lest ever a soul should flee the brow from the glare straining the neck to see only to the flames in the wind swept far and wide and the forest on fire and there might no man abide thither crept and	38
dropped from the burning and crouching low to the ground in a covert of leaves and fire and smoke ran for the life of his soul unseen and behind him under a furnace of ardent coal with a wonder of flame and the night with smoke blazed and were together the bones of all his folk he fled at first but hearing the roar shaped his way and came at length to the shore sound he was dry eyed but in every part and the mighty cage of his ribs heaved on his straining heart with sorrow and rage and fools he cried fools of heads of swine alas and where are they now those that i played with those that me those that i god and i them i the least and the worst i that thought myself by this herd of swine in the of hell and desolate stripped of all that was mine all my friends and my fathers the silver heads of that to the council the children that ran to the open door crying with innocent voices and clasping a father s knees and mine my wife my daughter my sturdy of trees ah never to again thus in the dusk of the night for clouds rolled in the sky and the moon was swallowed from sight pacing and his fists ro raged by the shore vengeance that must be his but much was to do before and first a single life to be snatched from a deadly place a life the root of revenge plant of the race and next the race to be raised anew and the lands of the so ro designed a prudent man even in wrath and turned for the means of revenge and escape a boat to be seized by a wife to be taken by still was the dark beyond on the coral wall he saw the shine he heard them and fall alone on the top of the a man with a flaming brand walked gazing and pausing a fish spear poised in his the foam boiled to his calf when the came and the torch shed in the wind scattering of flame afar on the dark a lay idly at wait a figure dimly guiding it surely the s mate ro saw and he smiled he straightened his mighty naked with never a weapon and covered with and he straightened his arms he filled the void of his body with breath and strong as the wind in his manhood doomed the to death silent he entered the water and silently swam and came there where the walked holding on high the flame loud on the pier of the the breach of the sea and hard at the back of the man ro crept to his knee on the coral and suddenly sprang and seized him the elder hand clutching the joint of his throat the other the brand ere it had time to fall and holding it steady and high strong was the brave and swift of mind and of eye strongly he threw in the clutch but ro resisted the strain and jerked and the of life snapped with a crack in twain and the man came slack in his hands and tumbled a lump at his feet one moment and there on the where the and ro was standing alone glowing and and bare beat a victor unknown of any raising the torch in the air a stranger mother naked and with the marks of fire bat comely and great of a man to obey and admire and ro regarded her also fixed with a frowning face judging the woman s fitness to mother a warlike race broad of shoulder ample of long in the deep of bosom she was and bravely supported his eye woman said he last night the men of your folk man woman and maid smothered my race in smoke it was done like and i a mighty man of my hands escaped a single life and now to the empty lands and of my people sail with yourself alone before your mother was born the die of to day was thrown and you selected your husband vainly striving to fall broken between these hands yourself to be severed from all the places the people you love home kindred and and to dwell in a desert and bear the of a man notes to the song of introduction this tale of which i have not changed a single feature i received from tradition it is highly popular through all the country of the eight the to which ro belonged and particularly in the of where he lived i have heard from end to end two and as many as five different persons have helped me details there seems no reason why the tale should not be true note i verse aa the van champion or brave one skilled in the use of some weapon who wandered die country distinguished rivals and taking part in local quarrels it was in the natural course of his advancement to be at last employed by a chief or king and it would then be a part of his duties to the victim for sacrifice one of the doomed families was indicated the took his weapon and went forth alone a little behind him followed with the basket sometimes the victim showed fight sometimes prevailed more often doubt he fell but whatever body was found the took up note verses f persons of all natives of t of the two first i have collected singular although imperfect legends which i hope soon to lay before the public in another place of except in of song little memory appears to linger she dwelt at least about the sea the eastern of the isle walked by paths known only to herself upon	38
the mountains was by dangerous who came swimming from adjacent islands and defended and rescued as i gather by the loyalty of native fish my anxiety to learn more of became during my stay in t a cause of some diversion to that people the inhabitants note verse o covered an oven the cooking fire is made in a hole in the ground and is then buried x note j flat this ii id lo day of a mile where the air look the of hole o foi of in ihe the of eight sub note loi thi light and from to on or so have it evidence that the note is t the complete name is te why il be pronounced i cannot see but so have a ay heard it this was the dan immediately beyond the on the south coast of the island at the date of the tale the dan organization must have been weak there is no particular mention of s mother going to to the head chief of her own dan chiefs among the and these to ha excused themselves solely on the danger of the enterprise the here drawn between and king was the of tl never learn thai o ihe king of pronounce i j i gave the name where it wai most needed this readers who have never heard of of these two r perhaps there is only one person in the world capable at once of reading my verses and the for him for mr salmon hereditary high chief of the the note is solely written a small attention from a to his chief note verse let the pigs be it is impossible to explain ta u in a note we have it as an english word suffice it that a thing which was must not be touched nor a e that was visited note verse ike food of desire there is a special word in the language to signify after fish i may remark that here is one of my chief difficulties about the whole story how did king women and all come to eat together at this feast but it troubled none of my numerous authorities so there must certainly be some natural explanation note verse the word of the te ua te the wind the rain note verse note verse the star of the as a morning star i have collected much curious evidence as to this belief the dead retain their taste for a fish diet enter into with living and haunt the and the the conclusion attributed to the nameless lady of the legend would be reached to day under the like circumstances by ninety per cent of and here i probably by one tenth the feast of famine the feast of famine manners i the priest s in all the land of the tribe was neither fish nor fruit and the deepest pit of stood empty to the foot the upon the left and the upon the right now their and their bright they them to the thicket to the deepest of the shade and lay with sleepless eyes in the deadly and oft in the even the song of morning rose what time the oven smoked in the country of their foes for oft to loving hearts and waiting ears and sight the lads that went to returned not with the night now first the children and then the women and the great arms of the warrior no more for war availed hushed was the deep drum discarded was the dance and those that met the priest now glanced at him the priest was a man of years his eyes were red he neither feared the dark nor the terrors of the dead i h m ft ma mt i l k r k f fr m f a v t rf a t f a v ff f na m rf r v r v o na y f n m y n f a l ff y r m n f pf v z r ff ff l f r f f r r r there was never a foot on the floor there was never a whisper of speech only the stared on the blinding beach again were the mountains fired again the morning broke and all the houses lay still but the house of the priest awoke close in their covering roofs lay and trembled the but the ag d red eyed priest ran forth like a lunatic man and the village panted to see him in the jewels of death again in the silver of the old and the hair of women slain frenzy shook in his limbs frenzy shone in his eyes and still and again as he ran the valley rang with his cries all day long in the land by cliff and thicket and den he ran his lunatic rounds and howled for the flesh of men all day long he ate not nor ever drank of the brook and all day long in their houses the people listened and shook all day long in their houses they listened with breath and never a soul went forth for the sight of the priest was death three were the days of his running as the gods appointed of two the nights of his sleeping alone in the place of the drunken slumber of frenzy twice he drank to the on the sacred stones of the high place under the sacred trees with a lamp at his head he lay in the place of the feast and the sacred leaves of the around the priest last when the stated even fell upon terrace and tree and	38
long in the land by cliff and thicket and den he ran his lunatic rounds and howled for the flesh of men all day long he ate not nor ever drank of the brook and all day long in their houses the people listened and shook all day long in their houses they listened with breath and never a soul went forth for the sight of the priest was death three were the days of his running as the gods appointed of two the nights of his sleeping alone in the place of the drunken slumber of frenzy twice he drank to the on the sacred stones of the high place under the sacred trees with a lamp at his head he lay in the place of the feast and the sacred leaves of the around the priest last when the stated even fell upon terrace and tree and the shade of the island lay away to sea and all the valleys of were heavy with and the wreck of the red eyed priest came gasping home in the dusk he across the village he staggered along the shore and between the crept groping through his door there went a stir through the the voice of speech awoke once more from the arose the evening smoke and those who were mighty in war and those renowned for an art sat in their stated seats and talked of the morrow apart ii the lovers hark away in the woods for the ears of love are sharp stealthily quietly touched the note of the one harp in the lighted house of her father why should start heavy of hair tender of heart the well descended a dealer in love of foot like the deer and kind of eye like the dove sly and shy as a cat with never a change of face slips to the door like one that would breathe a space and pauses and looks at the stars and lists to the seas then sudden and swift as a cat she under the trees swift as a cat she runs with her garment gathered high leaping of foot running certain of eye and ever to guide her way over the smooth and the sharp ever nearer and nearer the note of the one harp till at length in a of the wood with a naked mountain above the sound of the harp thrown down and she in the arms of her love they cry my heart my soul and my eyes and clasp and and kiss with lovely laughter and sighs my love star of my night clasp me hold me and love me single spring of delight and folded her close he folded her near and long the living knit to the living and sang the lover s song night it is night the palms night it is the land wind has blown night deep and height love love in the valley love all alone heavy of hair a foolish thing have we done to bind what gods have into one why should a lowly lover have touched s skirt the well descended and child of the dirt x on high with the my father sits in state ten times fifty salute him in the gate round all his martial body and in bands across his face the marks of the proclaim his lofty place i too in the hands of the cunning in the sacred cabin of palm s have shrunk like the and like the lamb round half my tender body that none shall clasp but you for a crest and a fair go dainty lines of blue love love beloved love all degrees no and the well panting to your knees song of the morning how long is the longest love a cry a clasp of the hands a star that falls from above ever at in the blue and at night when all is black ever it and with the hunter death on its track hear me death for to morrow the priest shall awake and the names be named of the victims to for the nation s sake and first of the numbered many that shall be slain ere noon the child of the dirt the for him shall the drum be beat for him be raised the song for him to the sacred high place the people throng for him the oven smoke as for a speechless beast and the of my come greedy to the feast be silent spare me her ears pity my yearning heart pity my girlish years i a flee from the cruel hands flee from the knife and coal lie hid in the of the woods of my soul whither to flee whither in all of the land the fires of the bloody kitchen are kindled on every hand on every hand in the isle a hungry of teeth eyes in the trees above arms in the brush beneath patience to lie in wait cunning to follow the abroad the foes i have fought and at home the friends of my youth love love beloved love has a clearer eye hence from the arms of love you go not forth to die there where the broken mountain drops sheer into the there shall you find a hold from the hunter of men there in the deep recess where the sun falls only at noon and only once in the night enters the light of the moon nor ever a sound birds or he rain when it falls with a shout for death and the fear of death the valley about it is but the gods will surely pardon despair but what of that if can only dare and and i know they are every one right but the god of every is not always quick to lie secret there my in the arms of awful	38
gods sleep in the shade of the trees on the couch of the kindly sleep and dream of will wake for yon and whenever the land wind blows and the woods are heavy with dew alone through the horror of night with food for the soul of her love the will harry true as the dove the pit of the night with treacherous things spirits of ultimate air and the evil souls of things the souls of the dead the that perch in the trees of the wood for all things human of evil and good behold me kiss me look in my eyes and read are these the eyes of a maid that would leave her lover in need brave in the eye of day my father ruled in the fight the child of his will play the man in the night so it was spoken and so agreed and arose and smiled in the stars and was gone swift as the swallow goes and stood on the hill and sighed and followed her flight and there were the below each with its door alight from folk that sat on the terrace and drew out the even long sudden wings of laughter monotonous of song the quiet passage of souls over his head in the trees and from all the haven the crumbling thunder of seas farewell my home said farewell o quiet seat to morrow in all your valleys the drum of death shall beat iii the feast dawn as yellow as leaped on the naked peak and all the village was stirring for now was the priest to speak forth on his terrace he came and sat with the chief in talk his lips were blackened with fever his cheeks were than chalk fever clutched at his hands fever nodded his head but quiet and steady and cruel his eyes shone red in the earliest rays of the sun the chief rose up content were summoned and messengers came and went ran to their weapons were snatched from the wall the together and fear was over them all festival dresses they wore but the tongue was dry in their mouth and the eyes in their faces skirted from north to south now to the sacred gathered the greatest and least and from under the shade of the arose the voice of the feast the roll of the drum and a swift monotonous song higher the sun swam up the trade wind level and strong awoke in the tops of the palms and rattled the aloud and over the heads and shining robes of the crowd tossed the of shadow scattered the jewels of sun forty the tale of the drums and the forty like one a thousand hearts in the crowd and the even chorus of song swift as the feet of a trampled a thousand strong and the old men at the and licked their lips for the food and the women stared at the lads and laughed and looked to the wood as when the baker at night when the city is dead alone in the of labor and fashions the bread so in the heat and the and the touch of woman and man the naked spirit of evil the hearts of the dan now cold was at many a heart and shaking in many a seat for there were the empty baskets but was to furnish the meat for here was the nation assembled and there were the and out of a thousand singers nine were numbered to die till of a sudden a shock a in the air a yell and struck in the edge of the crowd the first of the victims fell terror and horrible glee divided the shrinking terror of what was to follow glee for a diet of man frenzy hurried the frenzy rattled the drums the high on the terrace mouthed their and once and again and again in the ignorant crowd below once and again and again descended the blow now smoked the oven and now with the cutting lip of a shell a butcher of ninety the bodies well the lodge silent in order due the of the nation one after one withdrew and a line of laden brought to the terrace foot on poles across their shoulders the last reserve of fruit the victims for the in the old appointed way the fruit was spread for the for all should eat to day and now was the and now the ran now was the hour of the dance for child and woman and man and mirth was in every heart and a on every head and all was well with the living and well with the eight who were dead only the chiefs and the priest talked and consulted awhile smile to morrow they said and to morrow and nodded and seemed to the child of dirt the creature of common clay must die to morrow since is gone to day out of the groves of the valley where clear the sang sheer from the trees of the valley the face of the mountain sprang sheer and bare it rose beaten and blown against by the generous draught of the trade dawn on its brow painted rainbow light on its crown trembled the stars at night here and there in a clustered trees or the silver beard of a stream hung and swung in the breeze high overhead with a cry the torrents leaped for the main and silently sprinkled below in thin rain dark in the staring noon dark was s damp and cold was the air and the face of the cliffs was green here in the rocky pit accursed already of old on a stone in the midst of a river sat and was cold valley of mid day shadows valley of silent falls sang and his voice went hollow about the walls valley of shadow and rock a prison to	38
bolder plan never a path was trod by the children of man and your evil dealer through all the days of his years counts it honor to hate you honor to fall by your and straightened his back o a scheme for a scheme i cried and turned and descended the turbulent stair of the stream leaping from rock to rock as the water at home through valleys and by and foam and burst from the and leaped on the shore of the brook and straight for the roofs of the his vigorous way he took swift were the heels of his flight and loud behind as he went rattled the leaping stones on the line of his long descent and ever he thought as he ran and caught at his gasping breath o the fool of a that runs to his death but the right is the right thought and ran like the wind on the foam the right is the right for ever and home for ever home a i for what though the oven smoke and what though i die ere there was i nourished and tended and there was born noon was high on the high place the second noon of the feast and heat and shameful slumber weighed on people and priest and the heart slow in bodies heavy with monstrous meals and the senseless limbs were scattered abroad like of wheels and women sat and stared at the stones with a of the lip and a in the eye as about the dome of the bees in the time for the to fall the dead and the are scattered and lie and and crawl so on the of the terrace in the ardent eye of the day the half awake and the clustered and crawled and lay and loud as the dome of the bees in the time of a a horror of many insects hung in the air and roared looked and wondered he said to himself in his heart poor are the pleasures of life and death is the better part but lo on the higher benches a cluster of tranquil folk sat by themselves nor raised their serious eyes nor spoke women with robes and duly arranged gazing far from the feast with faces of people and quiet amongst the quiet and fairer than all the fair the well descended heavy of hair and the soul of awoke courage enlightened his eyes and he uttered a shout and called on the to rise i over against him at once in the spotted shade of the trees and creatures scrambled to hands and knees on the of the sacred terrace the woke to fear and the hand of the ham drooped warrior a wavering spear and folded his arms and scorn discovered his teeth above the war crowd and stood smiling beneath thick like leaves in the autumn faint like april from tremulous hands quivered around his feet and leaped from her place and the priest the eyed ran to the front of the terrace and his arms and cried hold o fools he brings tidings and hold t is the love of my till lo i in front of the terrace pierced with a dart heart cherished his head and the aged priest stood by and gazed with eyes of at s darkening eye here is the end i die a death for a man i have given the life of my soul to save an see them the drooping of behold me the crew fifty they cast and one of fifty true and you o priest the for yourself if you can the hour of the day when the shall burst on your by the head of the with death and fire in their hand thick and silent like the warriors swarm in the land f and they tell that when next the sun had climbed to the skies it shone on the smoke of in the country of the notes to the feast of famine in this ballad i have strung together some of the more striking of the it rests upon no authority it is in no sense like ro a native story but a of details of manners and the impressions of a traveller it may seem strange when the scene is laid upon these islands to make the story on love but love is not less known in the than elsewhere nor is there any cause of suicide more in the islands note i verse pit of where the bread fruit was stored for preservation note verse red the priest s eyes were probably red from the abuse of his beard verse is said to be worth an estate for the of old men are the favourite head of the as the hair of women formed their most costly the former among this generally and short lived people fetch today considerable sums note verse the is an ugly image out of wood or stone note verse the usually employed for note s verse the sacred cabin of which however no woman could approach i do not know where women were probably in the common house or in the bush for a woman was a creature of small account i must guard the reader against supposing was at all the art of the is extreme and she would appear to be clothed in a web of lace delicate exquisite in pattern and of a hue that at once and with the warm of the native skin it would be hard to find a more adorned than a well note verse the horror of night the fear of ghosts and of the dark has been already referred to their life is by the dead note verse th quiet passage of souls so i am told the natives explain the sound of a little wind passing overhead note verse the of the victims fell without doubt this whole scene	38
is to fact the victims were disposed of privately and some time before and indeed i am firom claiming the credit of any high degree of accuracy for this ballad even in a time of famine it is probable that life went far more gaily than is here represented but the melancholy of to day on the writer s mind a legend of the west this is the tale of the man who heard a word in the night in the land of the hills in the days of the and the fight by the sides of the rainy sea where never a stranger came on the awful lips of the dead he heard the name it sang in his sleeping ears it in his waking head the name the utterance of the dead i the saying of the name on the sides of when the mist blew from the sea a stood with a an angry man was he the blood beat in his ears the blood ran hot to his head the mist blew from the sea and there was the dead o what have i done to my friend o what have i done to that should be cold and dead and i in the danger of all nothing bat danger about me danger behind and before de th at wait in the in and hate at all of the and death at each of the and swords but this was a man of counsel this was a man of a score there dwelt no in or he looked on the blowing mist he looked on the awful dead and there came a smile on his face and there slipped a thought in his head out over and moss out over and he ran as runs the that bears the cross of war his heart beat in his body his hair to his face when he came at last in the to the dead man s brother s place the east was white with the moon the west with the sun was red and there in the house doorway stood the brother of the dead i have slain a man to my danger i have slain a man to my death i put my soul in your hands the panting i lay it bare in your hands for i know your hands are and be you my and from the bullet and the steel then up and spoke the and gave him his hand again there shall never a man in scotland set faith in me in vain z and whatever man you have of whatever name or line by my sword and yonder mountain i make your quarrel mine i bid you in to my fireside i share with you house and hall it stands upon my honor to see yon safe from all it fell in the time of midnight when the fox in the den and the were over the faces in all the houses of men that as the living lay sleepless on his bed out of the night and the other world came in to him the dead my blood is on the my bones are on the hill there is joy in the home of that the young shall eat their fill my blood is poured in the dust my soul is in the air and the man that has undone me sleeps in my brother s care i m for your death my brother but if all of my house were dead i withdraw the hand nor break the word once said o what shall i say to our father in the place to which i fare o what shall i say to our mother who to see me there and to all the kindly that have lived and died long is this the word you send them hearted brother mine it s neither fear nor duty it s neither quick nor dead shall me withdraw the hand or break the word once said thrice in the time of midnight when the fox in the den and the were over the faces in all the houses of men thrice as the living lay sleepless on his bed out of the night and the other world came in to him the dead and cried to him for vengeance on the man that laid him low and thrice the living told the dead no thrice have you seen me brother but now shall see me no more till you meet your angry fathers upon the farther shore thrice have i spoken and now before the cock be heard i take my leave forever with the of a word it shall sing in your sleeping ears it shall hum in your waking head the name and the warning of the dead now when the night was over and the time of people s fears the walked abroad and the word was in his ears many a name i know but never a name like this o where shall i find a man shall tell me what it is with many a man he of high and low degree with the on the mountains and the of the sea and he came and went and read the books of and the that were written of old on stones upon the and many a name he was told but never the name of his fears never in east or west the name that rang in his ears names of men and of names for the grass and the tree for the smallest in the mountains the smallest in the sea names for the high and low the names of the and the flat but in all the land of scotland never a name like that n the seeking of the name and now there was speech in the south and a man of the south that was wise s a	38
d lord of london i o called on the to rise and the rode and the summons came to the western shore to the land of the sea and the to and it called on all to gather from every and that loved their fathers and the ancient game of war and down the watery valley and up the windy hill once more as in the the pipes were sounding shrill again in sunshine the naked steel was bright and the lads once more in went forth again to fight o why should i dwell here with a weird upon my life when the shout for battle and the war swords clash in strife i joy at feast i sleep in bed for the wonder of the word and the warning of the dead it sings in my sleeping ears it in my waking head the name the utterance of the dead then up and with the fighting men to march away from here till the cry of the great war pipe shall drown it in my ear where flew king george s the soldiers went they drew the sword in germany in pitched the tent the bells of foreign cities rang far across the plain they passed the happy they drank the rapid main through the filed their way and the of the war pipes struck terror in many a name have i heard he thought in all the tongues of men i full many a name both here and there full many both now and then when i was at home in my father s in the land of the naked knee between the that fly in the lift and the that swim in the sea and now that i am a captain man with a in my hat many a name have i heard he thought but never a name like that ui the place of the name there fell a war in a place lay far across the sea a war of the march in the midnight and the shot from behind the tree the shaven head and the painted face the silent foot in the wood in a land of a strange tongue that was hard to be understood it fell about the the general stood with his staff he stood and he looked east and west with little mind to laugh far have i been and much have i seen and both gain and loss but here we have woods on every hand and a water to cross far have i been and much have i seen but never the beat of this and there s one must go down to that to see how deep it is it fell in the dusk of the night when things the captain the went down to that and soft the went and a man of the land with the shaven head and the painted face went down at his right hand it fell in the quiet night there was never a sound to ken but all of the woods to the right and the left lay filled with the painted men far have i been and much have i seen both as a man and boy but never have i set forth a foot on so perilous an employ it fell in the dusk of the night when things that he was aware of a captain man drew near to the he was aware of his coming down in the alone and he looked in the face of the man and lo the face was his own this is my weird he said and now i ken the worst for many shall fall the but i shall fall with the first o you of the tongue you of the painted face this is the place of my death can you tell me the name of the place since the have been here they have called it but that is a name for priests and not for you and me it went by another word he of the shaven head it was called in the days of the great dead an it fell on the morrow s morning in the of the fight that the bit the as he foretold at night and far from the hills of far from the of the sea he sleeps in the place of the name as it was doomed to be notes to i first heard this legend of my own country from that friend of men of letters mr alfred there in roaring london s central stream and since the ballad first saw the light of day in s magazine mr and lord have been in public on the facts two the and the lay claim to this story and they do well the man who preferred his to the commands and of the dead is an worth but the must rest content they have the broad lands and the broad page of history this must be denied them for between the name of and that of the muse never hesitate note x verse mr reminds me it was by my sword and ben the swore note a verse a d lord london the first note verse there must be some in general s charming history of the a book that might well be and continued or it scarce appears how our friend could have got to china ale ale a legend from the bells of they a drink long was sweeter far than honey was stronger far than wine they it and they drank it and lay in a blessed for days and days together in their dwellings there rose a king in scotland a fell man to his foes he smote the in battle he hunted them like over miles of the red mountain he hunted as they fled and the bodies of the dying and the dead came in the country red was	38
would yet me from the bonds of gratitude you know enough doubtless of the process of to be aware that a hundred years after the death of there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the advocate after that noble brother of mine and of all frail clay shall have lain a century at rest one shall accuse one defend him from the observer father an open letter to the reverend doctor of robert louis london and f i e p fo t and a to her majesty father an open letter to the reverend dr of it may probably occur to you that we have met and visited and conversed on my side with interest you may remember that you have done me several for which i was prepared t be grateful but there are duties which come before gratitude and which justly divide friends far more acquaintances letter to the reverend h b is a document which in my sight if you had me with bread when i was starving if you had sat up to nurse my father when he lay a dying would yet me from the bonds of gratitude you know enough doubtless of the process of to be aware that a years after the death of there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the advocate after that noble brother of mine and of all frail clay shall have lain a century at rest one shall accuse one defend him father an open letter to the reverend dr of y february y it may probably occur ta you that we have met and visited and conversed on my side with interest you may remember that you have done me several for which i was prepared t be grateful but there are duties which come before gratitude and which justly divide friends far more acquaintances letter to the reverend h b is a document which in my sight if you had me with bread when i was starving if you had sat up to nurse my father when he lay a dying would yet me from the bonds of gratitude you know enough doubtless of the process of to be aware that a hundred years after the death of there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the advocate after that noble brother of mine and of all frail clay shall have lain a century at rest one shall accuse one defend him father the circumstance is unusual that the advocate should be a should be a member of a immediately rival and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly office ere the bones are cold and of a taste which i shall leave my readers free to and to me inspiring if i have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to arouse emotion you have at last furnished me with a subject for it is in the interest of all mankind and the cause of public decency in every quarter of the world not only that should be but that you and your letter should be displayed at length in their true colours to the public eye to do this properly i must begin by quoting you at large i shall then proceed to your utterance from several points of view divine and human in the course of which i shall attempt to draw again and with more the character of the dead saint whom it has pleased you to so much being done i shall say farewell to you for ever y august rev h b dear brother in answer to your inquiries about father i can only reply that we father who knew the man are surprised at the extravagant newspaper as if he was a most the simple truth is he was a coarse dirty man and he was not sent to but went there without orders did not stay at the settlement before he became one himself but freely over the whole island less than half the island is devoted to the and he came often to he had no hand in the and improvements which were the work of our board of health as occasion required and means were provided he was not a pure man in his relations with women and the of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness others have done much for the our own ministers the government and so forth but never with the catholic idea of eternal life yours etc c m to deal with a letter so extraordinary i must draw at the outset on my private knowledge of the and his it may offend others scarcely you who have been so busy to from the october j rf j father collect so bold to publish gossip on your rivals and this is perhaps the moment when i may best explain to you the character of what you are to read i conceive you as a man quite beyond and below the of civility with what measure you with that shall it be measured you again with you at last i rejoice to feel the button off the foil and to plunge home and if in aught that i shall say i should offend others your whom i respect and remember with affection i can but offer them my regret i am not free i am inspired by the consideration of interests far more large and such pain as can be inflicted by anything from me must be indeed trifling when compared with the pain with which they read your letter it is not the but the criminal that brings on the house you belong sir to a i believe my and that in which my ancestors which has enjoyed and partly failed to an exceptional advantage in the islands of the first came	38
they found tb land already self of its old and bloody faith they were embraced almost on their arrival with enthusiasm what troubles they supported came far more from than from and s father to these last they stood in a rough figure in the shoes of god this is not the place to enter the degree or causes of th failure such as it is one element alone is and must here b plainly dealt with in the course of their calling or too many of them grew rich it may be news to you that the houses of are a cause of on the streets of it will at least be news that when i returned your civil visit the driver of my cab commented on the size the taste and the comfort of home it would have been news certainly to myself had any one told me that that i should live to drag such matter into print you see sir how you better men to your own level and it is needful that those who are to judge you and me and the advocate should understand your letter to have been in a house which could raise and that very justly the envy and the comments of the by i think to employ a phrase of yours which i admire it should be attributed to you that you have never visited the scene of s life and death if you had and had recalled it and looked about your pleasant rooms even your pen perhaps would have been stayed father your and remember as far as any me it is mine has not done ill in a worldly sense in the when innocent w en descended and took root in the eight islands a pro was to be locked for to that prosperous and to you as one of its god bad sent at last an opportunity i know i am touching upon a nerve sensitive i know that others of your look back on the of you church and the and decisive heroism of d mien with something almost to be called remorse i am sure it is so wi h yourself i am letter was inspired by a certain envy not essentially and the one human trait to be in that performance you were thinking of the lost chance the past day of that which should have been conceived and was not of the service due and not rendered time was said the voice in your ear in your pleasant room as you sat raging and writing and if the words written were base beyond parallel the rage i am happy to repeat it is the only compliment i shall pay you the rage was almost virtuous but sir when we have failed and another has succeeded when we have stood by and another father has stepped in when we sit and grow in our charming and a plain uncouth peasant steps into the battle under the eyes of god and the afflicted and the dying and is himself afflicted in his turn and dies upon the field of honour the battle cannot be as your unhappy irritation has suggested it is a lost battle and lost for ever one thing remained to you in your defeat some rags of common honour and these you have made haste to cast away common honour not the honour of having done anything right but the honour of not having done aught foul the honour of the that was what remained to you we are not all expected to be a man may conceive his duty more narrowly he may love his comforts better and none will cast a stone at him for that but will a gentleman of your reverend profession allow me an example from the fields of gallantry when two gentlemen for the favour of a lady and the one and the other is rejected and as will sometimes happen matter to the successful rival s credit reaches the ear of the defeated it is held by plain men of no pretensions that his mouth is in the circumstance almost necessarily father closed your church and s were in upon a to do well to help to to set divine examples you having in one huge instance failed and succeeded i marvel it should not have occurred to you that you were doomed to silence that when you had been in that high and sat in the midst of your well being in your pleasant room and crowned with glories and horrors toiled and in that of his under the cliffs of you the elect who would not were the last man on earth to collect and gossip on the who would and did i think i see you for i try to see you in the flesh as i write these sentences i think i see you leap at the word a expression at the best he had no hand in the he was a coarse dirty man these were your own words and you may think it possible that i am come to support you with fresh evidence in a sense it is even so has been too much depicted with a conventional and conventional features so drawn by men who perhaps had not the eye to remark or the pen to express the individual or who perhaps were only blinded and silenced by generous admiration such as i father partly envy for myself such as you if your soul were enlightened would envy on your knees it is the least defect of such a method of that it makes the path easy for the devil s advocate and leaves for the of the a considerable field of truth for the truth that is suppressed by friends is the weapon of	38
the enemy the world in your despite may perhaps owe you something if your letter be the means of once for all a likeness for a wax abstraction for if that world at all remember you on the day when of shall be named saint it will be in virtue of one work your letter to the reverend h b you may ask on what authority i speak it was my destiny to become acquainted not with but with dr when i visited the wa s already in his resting grave but such information as i have i gathered on the spot in conversation with those who knew him well and long some indeed who his memory but others who had and with him who beheld him with no who perhaps regarded him with small respect and through whose unprepared and scarcely partial communications the plain human father features of the man shone on me these gave me what knowledge i possess and i learnt it in that scene where it could be most completely and understood which you have never visited about which you have never so much as endeavoured to inform yourself for brief as your letter is you have found the means to into that confession less them one half of the island you say is devoted to the the grey lofty and most desolate island along all its northern side a front of precipice into a sea of unusual this range of cliff is from east to west the true end and frontier of the island only in one spot there projects into the ocean a certain and rugged down grassy stony windy and rising in the midst into a hill with a dead the whole bearing to the cliff that it somewhat the same relation as a to a wall with this hint you will now be able to pick out the station on a map you will be able to judge how much of is thus cut off between the surf and precipice whether less than a half or less than a quarter or a fifth or a tenth or say a twentieth and the next time you burst into print you will be in a father position to share with us the issue of your calculations i imagine you to be one of those persons who y talk with cheerfulness of that place which oxen and could not drag you to behold you who do not even know its situation on the map probably descriptions stretching your limbs the while in your pleasant parlour on street when i was pulled ashore there one early morning there sat with me in the boat two sisters bidding farewell in humble imitation of to the lights and joys of human life one of these wept silently i could not withhold from joining her had you been there it is my belief that nature would have even in you and as the boat drew but a little nearer and you beheld the stairs crowded with abominable of our common manhood and saw yourself landing in the midst of such a population as only now and then us in the horror of a nightmare what a haggard eye you would have rolled over your reluctant shoulder towards the house on street had you gone on had you found every fourth face a blot upon the landscape had you visited the hospital and seen the of human beings lying there almost father but still breathing still thinking still remembering you would have understood that life in the is an ordeal from which the nerves of a man s spirit shrink even as his eye under the brightness of the sun you would have felt it was even to day a pitiful place to visit and a hell to dwell in it is not the fear of possible that seems a little thing when compared with the pain the pity and the disgust of the visitor s surroundings and the atmosphere of affliction disease and physical disgrace in which he breathes i do not think i am a man more than usually timid but i never recall the days and nights i spent upon that island eight days and seven nights without that i am somewhere else i find in my that i speak of my stay as a grinding experience i have once in the margin is the word and when the bore me at last towards the outer world i kept repeating to myself with a new conception of their those simple words of the song tis the most country that ever yet was seen and observe that which i saw and suffered from was a settlement the new village built the hospital and father the bishop home arranged the sisters the doctor and the all in their noble tasks it was a different place when came there and made his great and slept that first night under a tree amidst his brethren alone with and looking forward with what courage with what pitiful of dread god only knows to a lifetime of dressing and you will say perhaps i am too sensitive that sights as abound in and are confronted daily by doctors and nurses i have long learned to admire and envy the doctors and the nurses but there is no hospital so large and as and and in such a matter every fresh case like every inch of length in the pipe of an organ the note of the impression for what the is that monstrous sum of human suffering by which he stands surrounded lastly no doctor or nurse is called upon to enter once for all the doors of that they do not say farewell they need not abandon hope on its sad threshold they but go for a time to their high calling and can look forward as they go to relief to and to	38
rest but b father shut to with his own hand the doors of his own f i shall now extract three passages from my at a is dead and already somewhat remembered in the field of his labours and sufferings he was a good man but very says one another tells me he had fallen as other priests so easily do into something of the ways and habits of thought of a but he had the wit to recognise the fact and the good sense to laugh at over it a plain man it seems he was i cannot find he was a popular b after s death was a famous or of the settlement there followed a brief term of office by father which served only to publish the weakness of that noble man he was rough in his ways and he had no control authority was relaxed s life was threatened and he was soon eager to resign c of i begin to have an idea he seems to have been a man of the peasant class certainly of the peasant type shrewd ignorant and yet with an open mind and capable of receiving and a reproof if it were father administered generous in the least thing as well as in the greatest and as ready to give his last shirt although not without human grumbling as he had been to sacrifice his life essentially and which made him a troublesome in all his ways which made him with the but yet destitute of real authority so that his boys laughed at him and he must carry out his wishes by the means of he learned to have a for and set up the against the of his regular rivals perhaps if anything matter at all in the treatment of such a disease the worst thing that he did and certainly the easiest the best and worst of the man appear very plainly in his dealings with mr s money he had originally laid it out intended to lay it out entirely for the benefit of and even so not wisely but after a long plain talk he admitted his error fully and the list the sad state of the boys home is in part the result of his lack of control in part of his own ways and false ideas of brother officials used to call it s well they would say your keeps growing and he would laugh with father perfect good nature and to his errors with perfect obstinacy so much i have gathered of truth about this plain noble human brother and father of ours his are the traits of his face by which we know him for our fellow his and his example nothing can lessen or and only a person here on the spot can properly appreciate their greatness i have set down these private passages as you perceive without thanks to you the public has them in their they are almost a list of the man s faults for it is rather these that i was seeking with his virtues with the heroic of his life i and the world were already sufficiently acquainted i was besides a little suspicious of catholic testimony in no ill sense but merely because s admirers and were the least likely to be critical i know you will be more suspicious still and the facts set down above were one and all collected from the lips of who had opposed the father in his life yet i am strangely deceived or they build up the image of a man with all his weaknesses essentially heroic and alive with rugged honesty generosity and mirth take it for what it is rough private father of the worst sides of s character collected from the lips of those who had with and in your own phrase knew the man though i question whether would have said that he knew you take it and observe with wonder how well you were served by your how ill by your intelligence and sympathy in how many points of fact we are at one and how widely our vary there is something wrong here either with you or me it is possible for instance that you who seem to have so many ears in had heard of the affair of mr s money and were singly struck by s intended wrong doing i was struck with that also and set it fairly down but i was struck much more by the fact that he had the honesty of mind to be convinced i may here tell you that it was a long business that one of his sat with him late into the night arguments and that the father listened as usual with perfect good nature and perfect obstinacy but at the last when he was persuaded yes said he i am very much obliged to you you have done me a service it would have been a there are many not merely who require their heroes and saints to be to these the story will be father painful not to the true lovers and servants of mankind and i take it this is a t of our division that you are one of those who have an eye for faults and failures that you take a pleasure to find and publish them and that having found them you make haste to forget the virtues and the real success which had alone introduced them to your knowledge it is a dangerous frame of mind that you may understand how dangerous and into what a situation it has already brought you we will if you please go hand in hand through the different phrases of your letter and candidly examine each from the point of view of its truth its and its charity was coarse it is very possible you make us sorry for the who had only a coarse	38
old peasant for their friend and father but you who were so refined why were you not there to cheer them with the lights of culture or may i remind you that we have s me reason to doubt if john the were genteel and in the case of peter on whose career you doubtless dwell in the pulpit no doubt at all father he was a coarse yet even in our peter is called saint was dirty he was think of the poor annoyed with this dirty comrade but the clean dr was at his food in a fine house was i believe you are right again and i thank god for his strong head and heart was i am not fond of myself because they are not fond of me but what is meant by that we should regard it as a in a priest believed his own religion with the simplicity of a peasant or a child as i would i could suppose that you do for this i wonder at him some way ofi and had that been his only character should have avoided him in life but the point of interest in which has caused him to be so much talked about and made him at last the subject of your pen and mine was that in him his his intense and narrow faith wrought for good and strength father him to be one of the s heroes and was not sent to but went ther without orders is this a or do you really mean the words for blame i have heard christ in the of our church held up for imitation on the ground that his sacrifice was voluntary does dr think otherwise did not stay at the settlement etc it is true he was allowed many am i to understand that you blame the father for by these or the officers for them in either case it is a mighty standard to issue from the house on street and i am convinced you will find yourself with few had no hand in the etc i think even you will admit that i have already been frank in my description of the man i am defending but before i take you up upon this head i will be still and tell you that perhaps nowhere in the world can a man taste a more sense of contrast than when he father passes from s at to the beautiful bishop home at at this point in my desire to make all fair for you i will break my rule and catholic testimony here is a passage from my about my visit to the from which you will see how it is even now regarded by its own officials we went round all the etc dark and dingy enough with a superficial cleanliness which he mr the lay brother did not seek to defend it is almost decent said he the sisters will make that all right when we get them here and yet i gathered it was already better since was dead and far better than when he was there alone and had his own not always excellent way i have now come far enough to meet you on a common ground of fact and i tell you that to a mind not prejudiced by jealousy all the of the and even those which he most vigorously opposed are properly the work of they are the evidence of his success they are what his heroism provoked from the reluctant and the careless many were before him in the field mr for instance of whose faithful work we hear too little there have been many since and some had more father worldly wisdom though none had more devotion than our saint before his day even you will confess they had little it was his part by one striking act of to direct all men s eyes on that country at a blow and with the price of his life he made the place illustrious and public and that if you will consider largely was the one reform needful of all that should succeed it brought money it brought best individual addition of them all the sisters it brought for public opinion and public interest landed with the man at if ever any man brought and died to bring them it was he there is not a clean cup or in the bishop home but dirty washed it w is not a pure man m his relations with women etc how do you know that is this the nature of the conversation in that house on street which the envied driving past details of the of the poor peasant priest toiling under the cliffs of many have visited the station before me they seem not to have heard the rumour when i was there i heard many shocking tales for my a father were men speaking with the of the and i heard plenty of complaints of why was this never mentioned and how came it to you in the retirement of your parlour but i must not even seem to deceive you this scandal when i read it in your letter was not new to me i had heard it once before and i must tell you how there came to a man from he in a public house on the beach volunteered the statement that had contracted the disease from having connection with the female and i find a joy in telling you how the report was welcomed in a public house a man sprang to his feet i am not at liberty to give his name but from what i heard i doubt if you would care to have him to dinner in street you miserable little here is a word i dare not print it would so shock your ears you miserable little he cried if the story were	38
t l you candidly is a good place indeed and i have been very happy there but then i have never been anywhere my father and since they are both dead i be no nearer to in than in the kingdom of and to speak truth if i thought i had a chance to better myself where i waa going i go with a good will ay said mr very well then it me to tell your or so far as i may when your mother was gone and your father the worthy christian man began to for his end he gave me in chaise a certain letter which he said was your inheritance so soon says he as i am gone and the house is up and the gear disposed of all which hath been done give my boy this letter into his hand and start him off to the house of not far from that is the place i came from he said and it s where it that my boy should return he is a steady lad your father said and a and i doubt not he will come safe and be well liked where he goes the house of i cried what had my poor father to do with the house of nay said mr who can tell that for mr to thb of a but the name of that family boy is the name you bear of an ancient honest house in these latter days decayed your father too was a man of learning as his position no man more conducted school j nor had he the manner or the speech of a common but bs ye will yourself remember i took aye a pleasure to have him to the to meet the gentry and those of my own house of of of aiid others all well gentlemen had pleasure in his society lastly to put all the elements of this affair before you here the letter itself by the own hand of our departed brother he gave me the letter which was addressed in these words to the hands of of in his house of these will be delivered by my son david my heart was beating hard at this great prospect now suddenly opening before a lad of sixteen years of age the son of a poor country in the forest of mr i stammered and if you were in my shoes would you go of a said the minister that would i and without pause a pretty lad like you should get to which is near in by in two days of walk if the worst came to the worst and your high relations as i cannot but suppose them to be somewhat of your blood should put you to the door ye can b bat walk the two days back ag ain and at the door but i would rather hope that ye shall be well received as your poor father for you and for anything that i ken come to be a great man in time and here he resumed it lies near upon my conscience to improve this parting and set you on the right guard against the dangers of the world here be cast about for a comfortable seat lighted on a big under a by the down upon it with a very long serious lip and the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks put pocket handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him there then with uplifted forefinger he first put me on my guard against a considerable number of hei to which i bad no temptation and urged upon me to be instant in my prayers and reading of the bible that done he drew a picture of the great house that i was bound to and how i should conduct myself with its inhabitants be in things said he bear ye this in mind that though gentle born ye have had a country shame ue shame us i in yon great house with all these upper and under show yourself as nice as as quick at the conception and as slow of speech as any as for the remember he s the i say no more honour to whom honour it e a pleasure to obey a or should be to young to ths house of well sir said i it may be and tu promise you i ll try to make it so why very well said replied mr heartily and now to come to the material or to make a to the i have here a little packet which contains four things he it as he spoke and with some difficulty from the skirt pocket of his coat of these four things the first is your legal due the little money for your father s books and which i have bought as i have explained from the first in the design of re selling at a profit to the the other three are that mrs and myself would be of your acceptance the first which is round will likely please ye best at the first off go but o it s but a drop of water in the sea it ll help you but a step and vanish like the morning the second which is flat and square and written upon will stand by you through life like a good staff for the road and a good pillow to your head in sickness and as for the last which is that ll see you it s my wish into a better land with that he got upon his feet took off his hat and prayed a little while aloud and in affecting terms for a young man setting out into the world then suddenly took me in his arms and embraced me very hard then held me at arm s length looking at me with his face all	38
working with sorrow and then whipped about and crying good bye to me set ff backward by the way that we had come at a sort of g ing run it might have been to another but i was m no mind to laugh i watched him aa long as he was in eight and he never stopped hurrying nor once back then it came in upon my mind that this was all his sorrow at my departure and my conscience smote ma hard aud fast because i for my part was to get away out of that quiet country side and go to a great busy house among rich and respected of my own name and blood i thought was ever seen such black ingratitude can you forget old and old friends at the mere whistle of a name think shame and i sat down on the the good man had just left and opened the parcel to see the nature of my gifts that which he had called i had never had much doubt of sure enough it was a little to carry in a that which ha had called round i found to be a shilling piece and the third which was to help me so wonderfully both in health and sickness all the days of my life was a little piece of coarse yellow paper written upon thus in red ink to make of the valley water take of of tha and them in sack and drink a or two as there is occasion it speech to those that liave the it is good ag the goat it comforts heart the memory and the put into a close and into hill of for a then take it ont and yon will find a liquor my to the house of from the flowers keep in a it is good ill or well and whether man or woman and then in the minister s own hand was added likewise for it in and for the a great in the hour to be sure i laughed over this but it was rather tremulous laughter and i was glad to get my bundle on my end and set out over the ford and up the hill upon the farther side till just as i came on the green drove road running wide through the i took my last look of the trees about the and the big in the where my and my mother lay chapter ii i comb to my s end on the of the second day coming to the top ol a hill i saw all the country fall away before me down to the sea and in the midst of this descent on a long ridge the city of smoking like a there was a flag upon the castle and ships moving or lying in the both of which for as far away as they were i could distinguish clearly and both brought my country heart into my mouth presently after i came by a house where a shepherd lived and got a rough direction for the neighbourhood of and so from one to another worked my way to the westward of the capital by till i came out upon the road and there to my great pleasure and wonder i beheld a regiment marching to the every foot in time an old red faced general on a grey horse at the one end and at the other the company of with their pope s hats the pride of life seemed to mount into my brain at the sight of the and the hearing of that merry music a uttle farther on and i was told i was in parish and began to substitute in my inquiries the name of the house of it was a word that seemed to come to my journey s end surprise those of whom i sought my way at first i thought the of my appearance in my country habit and that all dusty from the road ill with the greatness of the place to which i was bound but after two or maybe three had given me the same look and the same answer i began to take it in my head there was something strange about the itself the better to set this fear at rest i changed the form of my inquiries and an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of his cart i asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called the house of he stopped his cart and looked at me like the others ay said he what for it s a great house i asked doubtless says he the house is a big house ay said i but the folk that are in it folk cried he are ye there s folk to call folk what says i not mr oh ay says the man there s the to be sure if it s him you re wanting what ll like be your business i was led to think that i would get a situation i said looking as modest as i could what cries the in so sharp a note that his very horse started and then well he added it s o my affairs but ye seem a lad and if ye ll a word from me ye ll keep clear of the the next person i came across was a little man in a beautiful white wig whom i saw to be a on his rounds and knowing well that were great i asked him plainly what sort of a man was mr of the said the of a kind of a man at all and began to ask me very what my was but i was more than a match for him at that and he went on to his next customer no wiser than he e i	38
cannot well describe the blow this dealt to my illusions the more indistinct the were the less i liked them for they left the wider field to fancy what kind of a great house was this that all the parish should start and re to be asked the way to it or what sort of a gentleman that his ill fame should bo thus current on the if an hour s walking would have brought me back to i had left my adventure then and there and returned to mr but when i had come bo far a way already mere shame would not suffer me to till i had put the matter to the touch of proof i was bound out of mere self respect to carry it through and little as i liked the sound of what i heard and slow as i began to travel i still kept asking my way and still kept i come to my journey s end it was ji on to when i met a stout dark sour looking woman coming down a hill and she when i had put my usual question turned sharp about accompanied me back to the summit she had just left and pointed to a great bulk of building standing very bare upon a green in the bottom of the next valley the country was pleasant round about running in low hills pleasantly watered and wooded and the crops to my eyes v good but the house itself appeared to be a kind of ruin no road led up to it no smoke arose from any of the chimneys nor was there any semblance of a garden my heart sank that i i cried the woman s face lit up with a anger that is the house of she cried blood built it blood stopped the building of it blood shall bring it down see here she cried again i spit upon the ground and crack my thumb at it black be its fall i if ye see the tell him what ye hear tell him this makes the twelve and nineteen time that has called down the curse on him and his house and stable man guest and master wife miss or black black be their fall and the woman whose voice had risen to a kind of sing song turned with a and was gone i stood where she left me with my hair on end in these days folk still believed in and trembled at a curse and this one falling so pat like a omen to arrest me ere i carried out my purpose took the out of my legs i sat me down and stared at the house of the more i looked the pleasanter that appeared j being all set with bushes full ol flowers the fields dotted with sheep a fine flight of in the sky and every sign of a kind soil and climate and yet the in the midst of it went bore ag my country folk went by from the fields as i sat there on the side of the ditch but i lacked the spirit to give them a good e en at the sun went down and then up against the yellow sky i saw a of smoke go mounting not much thicker as it seemed to me than the of a candle but still there it was and meant a fire and warmth and and some living that must have lit it and this comforted my heart wonderfully more i feel sure than a whole of the lily of the valley water that mrs set so great a store by so i set forward by a little track in the grass that led in my direction it was very faint indeed to be the only way to a place of habitation yet i saw no other presently it brought me to stone with an lodge beside them and coats of arms upon the top a main entrance it was plainly meant to be but never finished instead of gates of wrought iron a pair of were tied across with a straw rope and as there were no park walls nor any sign cf avenue tho i comb to my journey s end track that i was following passed on the right hand of the pillars and went wandering on toward the house the nearer i got to that the it appeared it seemed like the one wing of a house that had never been finished what should have been the inner end stood open on the upper floors and showed against the sky with steps and stairs of many of the windows were and flew in and out like out of a dove the night had begun to fall as i got close and in three of the lower windows which were very high up and narrow and well barred the changing light of a little fire began to glimmer was this the palace i had been coming to was it within these walls that i was to seek new friends and begin great fortunes why in my father s house on the fire and the bright lights would show a mile away and the door open to a beggar s knock i came forward cautiously and giving ear as i came heard some one rattling with dishes and a little dry eager cough that came in fits but there was no sound of speech and not a dog the door as well as i could see it in the dim light was a great piece of wood all studded with nails and i lifted my hand with a faint heart under my jacket and knocked once then i stood and waited the house had fallen into a dead silence a whole minute passed away and nothing stirred but the overhead i knocked again and again by this time my	38
ears had grown so accustomed to the quiet that i could hear the of the clock inside as it slowly counted out the seconds hut whoever was in that house t deadly still and must have held his i was in two minds whether to run away but anger got the upper hand and i began instead to rain and on the door and to shout out aloud for mr i was in full career when i heard the cough right overhead and jumping back and looking up beheld a man s head in a tall and the bell mouth of a at one of the first windows it s loaded said a voice i have come here with a letter i said to mr of is he here whom is it asked the man with the that is neither here nor there said i for i was growing very well was the reply ye can put it down the and be off with ye i will do no such thing i cried i will deliver it into mr s hands as it was meant i should it is a letter of introduction a what cried the voice sharply i repeated what i had said who are ye yourself was the next question after a considerable pause i come to my journey s end i am not ashamed of my name said i they call me david at that i made sure the man started for i heard the rattle on the window sill and it was after quite a long pause and with a curious change of that the next question followed is your father dead i was so much surprised at this that i could find no voice to answer but stood staring ay the man resumed he ll be dead no doubt and that ll be what brings ye to my door another pause and then well man he said til let ye in and he disappeared from the window chapter iii i make acquaintance op my uncle presently came a great rattling of chains and and the door was cautiously opened and shut to again behind me as soon as i had passed into the kitchen and touch said the voice and while the person of the house set himself to the of the door i my way forward and entered the kitchen the fire had burned up fairly bright and showed me the room i think i ever put my eyes on half dishes stood upon the shelves the table was laid for supper with a bowl of a horn spoon and a cup of small beer besides what i have named there was not another thing in that great stone empty chamber but arranged along the wall and a comer cupboard with a as soon as the last chain was up the man rejoined me he was a mean stooping narrow shouldered creature and his age might have been anything between fifty and seventy his was of flannel and was the that he wore instead of coat and waistcoat over his ragged shirt he was long but what most distressed and even me i make acquaintance of my uncle he would neither take his eyes away from me nor look me fairly in the face what he was whether by trade or birth was more than i could but he seemed most like an old serving man who should have been left in charge of that big house upon board wages are ye sharp set he asked glancing at about the level of my knee ye can eat that drop i said i feared it was his own supper oh said he i can do fine wanting it i ll take the ale though for it my cough he drank the cup about half out still keeping an eye upon me as he drank and then suddenly held out his hand let s see the letter said he i told him the letter was for mr not for him and who do ye think i am says he give me alexander s letter you know my father s name it would be strange if i he returned for he was my bom brother and little as ye seem to like either me or my house or my good i m your bom uncle my man and you my born nephew so give us the letter and sit down and fill your if i had been some years younger what with shame weariness and disappointment i believe i had burst into tears as it was i could find no words neither black nor white but handed him the letter and sat down q to the with as little appetite for meat as ever a young man bad meanwhile my stooping over the fire turned the letter over and over in hia hands do ye ken what s in it he asked yon see for yourself sir said i tliat the sea not been broken ay said he but what brought you here to give the letter said i no says he but ye ll have had hopes doubt i air said i when i was told that i had well to do i did indeed indulge the hope that they might help me in my life but i am no beggar i look for no at your hands and i want none that are not freely given for as poor as i appear i have friends of my own that will be to help me said uncle fly up in the snuff at me we ll agree fine yet and my man if you re with that bit i could just take a sup of it myself ay he continued as soon as he had me from the stool and spoon they re fine food they re grand food he murmured a little grace to himself and fell to your father was very	38
fond of his meat i mind he was a hearty if not a great but as for me i could never do than at food he took a pull at the small beer which probably him r make a of my of hospitable duties for his next speech ran thus if ye re dry ye ll find water behind the door to this i returned no answer standing stiffly on my two feet and looking down upon my with a mighty angry heart he on his part continued to eat like a man under some pressure of time and to throw out little darting glances now at my shoes and now at my home spun stockings once only when he had ventured to look a little higher our eyes met and no thief taken with a hand in a man s pocket could have shown more lively of distress this set me in a muse whether his timidity arose from too long a of any human company and whether perhaps upon a little trial it might pass off and my uncle change into an altogether different man from this i was awakened by his sharp voice your father s been long dead he asked three weeks sir said l he was a secret man alexander a secret silent man he continued he never said when he was young he ll never have spoken of me i never knew sir till you told it me yourself that he had any brother dear me dear me said nor yet of i not so much as the name sir said i to think o that said he a strange nature of a for all that he seemed singularly c h but witli himself or me or with this of my father s was more than i could read however he to be that or ill will that he had conceived at against my person for presently he jumped up came across the room me and hit me a upon the shoulder we ll agree fine yet i he cried i m just as glad i let you in and now come to your lied to my surprise he lit no lamp or candle but set forth into the dark passage his way breathing deeply up a flight of steps and paused before a door which he unlocked i was close upon his heels having stumbled after him as best i might and he bade me go in for that waa my chamber i did as he bid but paused after a few steps and begged a light to go to bed with said uncle there s a fine moon neither moon nor star sir and pit said l i see the bed said he lights in a house is a thing i agree with i m feared of fires good night to ye my man and before i had time to add a further protest he pulled the door to and i heard him lock me in from the outside i did not know whether to laugh or cry the room dark u i of my was as cold as a well and the bed when i had found my way to it as damp as a but by good fortune i had caught up my bundle and my and rolling myself in the latter i lay down upon the floor under lee of the big and fell speedily asleep with the first peep of day i opened my eyes to find myself in a great chamber hung with stamped leather furnished with fine embroidered furniture and lit by three fair windows ten years ago or perhaps twenty it must have been as pleasant a room to lie down or to awake in as a man could wish but damp dirt and the and had done their worst since then many of the window panes besides were broken and indeed this was so common a feature in that house that i believe my uncle must at some time have stood a siege from his indignant perhaps with at their head meanwhile the sun was shining outside and being very cold in that miserable room i knocked and shouted till my came and let me out he carried me to the back of the house where was a draw well and told me to wash my face there if i wanted and when that was done i made the best of my own way back to the kitchen where he had lit the fire and was making the the table was laid with two and two thorn but the same single measure of small beer perhaps my eye rested on this surprise and perhaps my uncle observed it for he up as if in answer to my thought asking me if i would like to drink ale for bo he called it i told bim was my habit but not to put himself about na na said he i ll deny you nothing in he fetched another cup from the shelf and then to my great surprise instead of drawing more beer he an accurate half from one to the other there was a kind of in this that took my breath away if my uncle was certainly a he was one of that thorough breed that goes near to make the vice respectable when we had made an end of our meal my uncle unlocked a drawer and drew out of it a clay pipe and a lump of tobacco from which he cut one fill before he locked it up again then he sat down in the sun at one of the windows and silently smoked time to time bis eyes came round to me and he shot out one of hie questions once it was and your mother and when i had told him that she too was dead ay she was a i then after another long pause	38
were these friends o yours i told him they were different gentlemen of the name of though indeed there was only one and that the minister that bad ever taken the least note of me but i began to think my uncle made too i make acquaintance of my uncle light of my position and finding myself all alone with him i did not wish him to suppose me helpless he seemed to turn this over in his mind and then my man said he ye ve come to the right bit when ye came to your uncle ive a great notion of the family and i mean to do the right by you but while i m taking a bit think to of what s the best thing to put you to whether the law or the or maybe the army is what boys are of i like the to be before a and i ll ask you to keep your tongue within your teeth letters messages no kind of word to or else there s my door uncle said i i ve no manner of reason to suppose you mean anything but well by me for all that i would have you to know that i have a pride of my own it was by no will of mine that i came seeking you and if you show me your door again i ll take you at i he word he seemed put out said he ca man ca bide a day or two i m to find a fortune for you in the bottom of a bowl but just you give me a day or two and say to and as sure as sure i ll do the right by you very well said i enough said if you want to help me there s no doubt but i ll be glad of it and none but be grateful it to me too soon i that i was getting the upper hand o my uncle and i began nest to say that i must have the bed and and put to sun dry for nothing would make sleep in a is this my house or yours said he in his keen voice and then all of a sudden broke off na na said he i mean that what s mine ia yours my man and what s yours is mine blood s thicker water and there s but you and me that ought the name and then on he about the family and its ancient greatness and his father that began to the house and himself that stopped the building as n sinful waste and this put it in my head to give him s message the he cried twelve and fifteen that s every day since i had the david i ll have her on red before i m by with it t a h a proclaimed witch i i ll and see the clerk and witli that he opened a chest and got out a very old and well preserved blue coat and waistcoat and a good enough hat both without lace these he threw on anyway and taking a from the cupboard locked all up again and was for setting out when a thought arrested him i leave you by in tlie house said he i ll have to lock you out bow i make acquaintance of ml tlie blood came into my face if you lock me out i said it l be the last you see of me in friendship he turned very pale and sucked his mouth in this is no the way he said looking at a comer of the floor this is no the way to win my favour david sir says i with a proper reverence for your age and our common blood i do not value your favour at a s purchase i was brought up to have a good conceit of myself and if you were all the uncle and all the family i had in the world ten times over i wouldn t buy your liking at such prices uncle went and looked out of the window for a while i could see him all trembling and like a man with but when he turned round he had a smile upon his face well well said he we must bear and forbear i ll no go that s all that s to be said of it uncle i said i an make nothing out of this you use me like a thief you hate to have me in this house you let me see it every word and every minute it s not possible that you can like me and as for me i ve spoken to you as i never thought to speak to any man why do you seek to keep me then let me gang back let me gang back to the friends i have and that like me na na na na he said very earnestly i like you fine we ll agree fine yet and for the honour of the i let you leave the way ye came bide here quiet there s a good lad just you bide here quiet a and ye u find that we agree well sir said i after i had thought the matter out in silence i ll stay a while it s more just i should be helped by my own blood than strangers and if we don t agree i ll do my best it shall be through no fault of mine chapter iv i run a great danger in the house of for a day that was begun so ill the day passed fairly well we had the cold again at noon and hot at night and small beer was my uncle s diet he spoke but little and that in the same	38
way as before shooting a question at me after a long silence and when i sought to lead him in talk about my future slipped out of it again in a room next door to the kitchen where he suffered me to go i found a great number of books both latin and english in which i took great pleasure all the afternoon indeed the time passed so lightly in this good company that i began to be almost reconciled to my residence at and nothing but the sight of my uncle and his eyes playing hide and seek with mine revived the force of my distrust one thing i discovered which put me in some doubt this was an entry on the fly leaf of a one of s plainly written by my father s hand and thus conceived to my brother on his fifth birthday now what puzzled me was this that as my father was of course the younger brother he must either have made some strange error or he must have written before he was yet five an clear manly hand o writing i tried to get this out o my head but though i took down many interesting authors old and new history poetry and story book this notion of my father s hand oe writing stuck to me and when at length i went back into the kitchen and sat down once more to and small beer the first thing i said to was to ask him i my father had not been very quick at hie book alexander no him i was the reply i was far quicker j i was a clever when i was young why i read as soon as he could this puzzled me yet more and a thought coming into my head i asked if he and my father had been he jumped upon his stool and the horn spoon fell out of his hand upon the floor what ye ask that he said and caught me by the breast of the jacket and looked this time straight into my eyes his own were little and light and bright like a bird s and strangely what do you mean i asked very calmly for i was far stronger than he and not easily frightened take your band from my jacket this is no way to behave my uncle seemed to make a great effort upon himself man david he said ye speak to me about your father where the i a at in the house of mistake is he sat a while and in his plate he was all the brother that ever i had he added but with no heart in his voice and then he caught up his spoon and fell to supper again but still shaking now this last passage this laying of hands upon my person and sudden profession of love for my dead father went so clean beyond my comprehension that it put me into both fear and hope on the one hand i began to think my uncle was perhaps insane and might be dangerous on the other there came up into my mind quite by me and even discouraged a story like some ballad i had heard folk singing of a poor lad that was a heir and a wicked that tried to keep him from his own for why should my uncle play a part with a relative that came almost a beggar to his door unless in his heart he had some cause to fear him with this notion all but nevertheless getting firmly settled in my head i now began to imitate his covert looks so that we sat at table like a cat and a mouse each stealthily observing the other not another word had he to say to me black or white but was busy turning something secretly over in his mind and the longer we sat and the more i looked at him the more certain i became that the something was to myself when he had cleared the he got out a single of tobacco just as in the morning turned round a stool into the chimney corner and sat a while smoking with his back to me he said at length i ve been thinking then he paused and said it again there s a bit that i half promised ye before ye were bom he continued promised it to your father oh legal ye understand just gentlemen at their wine well i that bit money separate it was a great expense but a promise is a promise and it grown by now to be a of just precisely just exactly and here he paused and stumbled o exactly forty pounds this last he out with a glance over his shoulder and the next moment added almost with a scream the pound being the same thing as an shilling the difference made by this second thought was considerable i could see besides that the whole story was a lie invented with some end which it puzzled me to guess and i made no attempt to conceal the tone of in which i answered oh think again sir pounds sterling i believe i that s what i said returned my uncle pounds sterling and if you ll step out by to the door a minute just to see what kind of a night it is i ll get it out to ye and call ye in again i did his will smiling to myself in my contempt that lie should think i was so easily to be deceived it was a dark night with a few stars low down and as i stood just outside the door i beard a hollow moaning of wind i run a great danger in the house of far off among the hills i said to myself there was something and in the	38
weather and little knew of what a vast importance that should prove to me before the evening passed when i was called in again my uncle counted out into my hand seven and thirty golden guinea pieces the rest was in his hand in small gold and silver but his heart failed him there and he crammed the change into his pocket there said he that ll show you i m a queer man and strange wi strangers but my word is my bond and there s the proof of it now my uncle seemed so that i was struck dumb by this sudden generosity and could find no words in which to thank him no a word said he thanks i want thanks i do my duty i m no saying that everybody would have done it but for my part though i m a careful body too it s a pleasure to me to do the right by my brother s son and it s a pleasure to me to think that now we ll agree as such near friends should i spoke him in return as handsomely as i was able but all the while i was wondering what would come next and why he had parted with his precious guineas for as to the reason he had given a baby would have refused it presently he looked towards me sideways and see here says he for i told him i was ready to prove my gratitude in any and waited looking for some monstrous demand and yet when at last he up courage to it waa only to tell me very properly as i ht that he was growing old and a little broken and that he would expect me to help him with the house and the bit garden i answered and expressed my readiness to serve well he said let s begin he pulled out of his pocket a rusty key there says he there s the key of the stair tower at the far end of the house ye can only win into it from the outside for that part of the house is no finished gang ye in there and up the stairs and bring me down the chest that s at the top there s papers in t he added can i have a light sir said i na said he very lights in my house very well sir said i are the stairs good they re grand said he and then as i was going keep to the wall he added there s but the stairs are grand under foot out i went into the night the wind was still moaning in the distance though never a breath of it came near the house of it had fallen than ever and i was glad to feel along the wall till i came the length of the stair tower door at the far end of the unfinished wing i had got the key into the and had just turned it when all upon a sudden without sound of wind or thunder the whole sky i run a great danger in the house of lighted up with wild fire and went black again i had to put my hand over my eyes to get back to the colour of the darkness and indeed i was already half blinded when i stepped into the tower it was so dark inside it seemed a body could scarce breathe but i pushed out with foot and hand and presently struck the wall with the one ai d the round of the stair with the other the wall by the touch was of fine stone the steps too though somewhat steep and narrow were of polished and regular and solid under foot my uncle s word about the i kept close to the tower side and felt my way in the pitch darkness with a beating heart the house of stood some five full high not counting well as i advanced it seemed to me the stair grew and a thought more and i was wondering what might be the cause of this change when a second of the summer lightning came and went if i did not cry out it was because fear had me by the throat and if i did not fall it was more by heaven s mercy than my own strength it was not only that the shone in on every side through in the wall so that i seemed to be aloft upon an open but the same passing brightness showed me the steps were of unequal length and that one of my feet rested that moment within two inches of the well this was the grand stair i thought and with the d thought a gust of a kind of angry courage came into my heart my uncle had sent me here certainly to run great risks perhaps to die i swore i would settle that perhaps if i should break my neck for it got down upon my hands and knees and as slowly as a feeling before me every inch and the of every stone i continued to ascend the stair the darkness by contrast with the flash appeared to have nor was that all for my ears were now troubled and my mind confounded by a great stir of in the top part of the tower and the foul beasts flying downwards sometimes beat about my face and body the tower i should have said was square and in every comer the step was made of a great stone of a different shape to join the flights well i had come close to one of these turns when feeling forward as usual my hand slipped upon an edge and found nothing but beyond it the stair had been carried no higher to set a stranger mounting it in the darkness was to send him straight to	38
his death and although thanks to the lightning and my own precautions i was safe enough the mere thought of the peril in which i might have stood and the dreadful height i might have fallen from brought out the sweat upon my body and relaxed my joints but i knew what i wanted now and turned and my way down again with a wonderful anger in my heart about half way down the wind sprang up i a at in the of in a clap and shook the tower and died again the rain followed and before i had reached the ground level it fell in i put out my head into the storm and looked along towards the kitchen the door which i had shut behind me when i left now stood open and shed a little glimmer of light and i thought i could see a figure standing in the rain quite still like a man and then there came a blinding flash which showed me my uncle plainly just where i had fancied him to stand and hard upon the heels of it a great tow row of thunder now whether my uncle thought the crash to be the sound of my fall or whether he heard in it god s voice murder i will leave you to guess certain it is at least that he was seized on by a kind of panic fear and that he ran into the house and left the door open behind him i followed as softly as i could and coming into the kitchen stood and watched him he had found time to open the corner cupboard and bring out a great case bottle of and now sat with his back towards me at the table ever and again he would be seized with a fit of deadly shuddering and groan aloud and carrying the bottle to his lips drink down the raw spirits by the i stepped forward came close behind him where he sat and suddenly clapping my two hands down upon his shoulders ah cried i my uncle gave a kind of broken cry like a sheep h n s flung up his arms and tumbled to the floor like a dead man i was somewhat shocked at this but i had myself to look to first o all and did not hesitate to let him lie as he had fallen the keys were hanging in the cupboard and it was my design to furnish myself with arms before my uncle should come again to his senses and the power of evil in the cupboard were a few bottles some apparently of medicine a great many bills and other papers which i should willingly enough have had i had the time and a few necessaries that were nothing to my purpose thence i turned to the the first was full of meal the second of money bags and papers tied into in the third with many other things and these for the most part clothes i found a rusty ugly looking without the this then i concealed inside my waistcoat and turned to my uncle he lay as he had fallen all huddled with one knee up and one arm abroad his face had a strange colour of blue and he seemed to have ceased breathing fear came on me that he was dead then i got water and dashed it in his face and with that he seemed to come a little to himself working his mouth and fluttering his eyelids at last he looked up and saw me and there came into his eyes a terror that was not of thi world come come said i sit up are ye alive he sobbed o man are ye alive that am i said i small thanks to you i a run a great danger in the house of he had begun to seek for his breath with deep sighs the blue said he in the the blue his breath came slower still i ran to the cupboard and sure enough found there a blue of medicine with the dose written on it on a paper and this i administered to him with what speed i might it s the trouble said he a little j i have a trouble it s the heart i set him on a chair and looked at him it is true i felt some pity for a man that looked so sick but i was full besides of righteous anger and i numbered over before him the points on which i wanted explanation why he lied to me at every word why he feared that i should leave him why he disliked it to be hinted that he and my father were is that because it is true i asked why he had given me money to which i was convinced i had no claim and last of all why he had tried to kill me he heard me all through in silence and then in a broken voice begged me to let him go to bed i ll tell ye the he said as sure as death i will and so weak was he that i could do nothing but consent i locked him into his room however and the key and then returning to the kitchen made up such a blaze as had not shone there for many a long year and myself in my lay down upon the and fell asleep chapter v i go to the s much rain fell in the night j and the next morning there blew a bitter wintry wind out of the north west driving scattered clouds for all that and before the sun began to peep or the last of the stars had vanished i made my way to the side of the bum and had a plunge in a deep whirling pool all from my	38
bath i sat down once more beside the fire which i and began gravely to consider my position there was now no doubt about my uncle s enmity there was no doubt i carried my life in my hand and he would leave no stone that he might compass my destruction but i was young and spirited and like most lads that have been country bred i had a great opinion of my i had come to his door no better than a beggar and little more than a child j he had met me with treachery and violence it would be a fine to take the upper hand and drive him like a herd of sheep i sat there nursing my knee and smiling at the fire and i saw myself in fancy smell out his secrets one after another and grow to be that man s king and ruler the of they say had made a mirror i go to tub queen s in men could read the future it must have been of other than burning coal for in all the shapes and pictures that i sat and gazed at there was never a ship never a seaman with a hairy cap never a big for my silly head or the least sign of all those that were ripe to fall on me presently all swollen with conceit i went up stairs and gave my prisoner his liberty he gave me good morning and i gave the same to him smiling down upon him from the heights of my soon we were set to breakfast as it might have been the day before well sir said i with a tone have you nothing more to say to me and then as he made no articulate reply it will be time i think to understand each other i continued you took me for a country raw with no more mother wit or courage than a stick i took you for a good man or no worse than others at the least it seems we were both wrong what cause you have to fear me to cheat me and to attempt my life he murmured something about a jest and that he liked a bit of fun and then seeing me smile changed his tone and assured me he would make all clear as soon as we had i saw by his face that he had no lie ready for me though he was hard at work preparing one and i think i was about to tell him so when we were interrupted by a knocking at the door bidding my uncle sit where he was i went to open io it and found on the a half grown boy in he had n sooner seen me than he began to dance some steps of the sea which i had never before heard of far less seen snapping his fingers in the air and footing it right cleverly for all that he was blue with the cold and there was something in his face a look between tears and laughter that was highly pathetic and consisted ill with this gaiety of manner what cheer mate says he with a cracked voice i asked him to name his pleasure oh pleasure says he and then began to sing for it s my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year well said i if you have no business at all i will even be so as to shut you out stay brother he cried have you no fun about you or do you want to get me ive brought a letter from old to mr he showed me a letter as he spoke and i say mate he added fm mortal hungry well said i come into the house and you shall have a bite tf i go empty for it with that i brought him in and set him down to my own place where he fell to on the remains of breakfast to me between and making many faces which i think the poor soul considered manly meanwhile my uncle had read the letter and i go to the s sat thinking then suddenly he got to his feet with a great air of and pulled me apart into the farthest corner of the room read that said he and put the letter in my hand here it is lying before me as i write the inn at the queen s sir i lie here with my up and down and send my boy to if you have any further commands for over seas to day will be the last occasion as the wind will us well out of the i wiu not seek to deny that i have had crosses with your mr of which if not speedily up you may to see some losses follow i have drawn a bill upon you as per margin and am sir your most humble servant you see resumed my uncle as soon as he saw that i had done i have a venture with this man the captain of a trading the of now if you and me was to walk over with yon lad i could see the captain at the or maybe on board the if there was papers to be signed and so far from a loss of time we can on to the lawyer mr s after a that s come and gone ye would be f to believe me upon my naked word but yell believe he s to half the gentry in these parts an man highly and he your father i stood awhile and thought i was going to some agent t unwilling place of shipping was and where my attempt no and indeed even the society of the cabin boy bo far protected me once there i believed i could force on the visit to the	38
lawyer even if my uncle were now in proposing it and perhaps in the bottom of my heart i wished a nearer view of the sea and you are to i i had lived all my life in the inland hills and just two days before had my first sight of the lying like a blue floor and the sailed ships moving on the face of it no bigger than toys one thing with another i up my mind very well says i let us go to the my uncle got into his hat and coat and an old rusty on and then we trod the fire out locked the door and set forth upon our walk the wind being in that cold quarter the north west blew nearly in our faces as wo went it was the month of june the grass was all white with and the trees with blossom but to judge by onr blue nails and aching wrists the time might have been winter and the whiteness a december frost uncle in the ditch from side to side like an old coming home from work he never said a word the whole way and i was thrown for talk on the cabin boy he told me his name was and that he had followed the sea since he was nine but could not say how old he was as be had lost his reckoning he me i to the s marks his breast in the teeth of the wind and in spite of my for i thought it was enough to kill him he swore horribly whenever he remembered but more like a silly than a man and boasted of many wild and bad things that he had done stealthy false ay and even murder but all with such a of in the details and such a weak and crazy in the delivery as disposed me rather to pity than to believe him i asked him of the which he declared was the finest ship that sailed and of captain in whose praise he was equally loud for so he still named the was a man by his account that minded for nothing either in heaven or earth one that as people said would crack on all sail into the day of judgment rough fierce and brutal and all this my poor cabin boy had taught himself to admire as something and manly he would only admit one flaw in his idol he ain t no seaman he admitted that s mr that the he s the finest seaman in the trade only for drink and i tell you i believe it why look ere and turning down his he showed me a great raw red wound that made my blood run cold he done that mr done it he said with an air of pride what i cried do you take such savage usage at his hands why you are no slave to be so handled i in no said the poor moon calf changing hie tune at once and bo he ll find see ere and he me a great which he told me was stolen oh says he let me see him try j i dare him to i ll do for oh be ain t the first i and he confirmed it with a poor silly oath i have never felt pity for any one in this wide world aa i felt for that half d creature and it began to over me that the for all her pious name was little better than a hell upon the seas have you no friends said i he said he had a father in some english i forget which he was a fine man too be said bnt he s dead in heaven s name cried i can you find no life on shore oh no says lie and very sly they would put me to a trade i know a trick worth two of that i do i i asked him what trade could he so dreadful as the one he followed where he ran the continual peril of his life not alone from wind and sea but by the cruelty of those who were his masters he said it was t very true and then began to praise the life and tell what a pleasure it was to get on shore with money in pocket and spend it like a man and buy and and surprise what he called stick in the mud boys and then it s not all as bad as that be i go to the queen s there s worse off than me there s the twenty oh you should see them taking on why i ve seen a man as old as you i to him i seemed old ah and he had a beard too well and as soon as we cleared out of the river and he had the out of his head my how he cried and carried on i made a fine fool of him i tell you and then there s little too oh little by me i tell you i keep them in order when we carry little i have a rope s end of my own to em and so he ran on until it came in on me that what he meant by twenty were those unhappy who were sent over seas to slavery in north america or the still more unhappy who were or as the word went for private interest or vengeance just then we came to the top of the hill and looked down on the and the hope the of forth as is very well known at this point to the width of a good sized river which makes a convenient going north and turns the upper reach into a land locked haven for all manner of ships in the	38
midst of the an with some ruins on the south shore they have built a pier for the service of the and at the end of the pier on the other side of the road and backed against a pretty garden of trees and i could see the building which they call the inn the town of lies farther west and the neighbourhood of the inn looked pretty lone y at that time of day for the boat had just gone north with passengers a however lay beside the pier with some sleeping on the this as told me was the s boat waiting for the captain and about half a mile and all alone in the he showed me the herself there was a bustle on board yards were swinging into place and as the wind blew from that quarter i could hear the song of the sailors as they pulled upon the ropes after all i had listened to upon the way i looked at that ship with an extreme and from the bottom of my heart i pitied all poor souls that were condemned to sail in her we had all three pulled up on the brow of the hill and now i marched across the road and addressed my uncle i think it right to tell you sir says i s nothing that will bring me on board that he seemed to from a dream eh he said what s that i told him over again well well he said we ll have to please ye i suppose but what are we standing here for it s cold and if i m no mistaken they re the for sea vi at the queen s as soon as we came to the inn led us up the stair to a small room with a bed in it and heated like an oven by a great fire of coal at a table hard by the chimney a tall dark sober looking man sat writing in spite of the heat of the room he wore a thick sea jacket to the neck and a tall hairy cap drawn down over his ears yet i never saw any man not even a judge upon the bench look cooler or more and self possessed than this ship captain he got to his feet at once and coming forward offered his large hand to i am proud to see you mr our said he in a fine deep voice and glad that ye are here in time the wind s fair and the tide upon the turn we ll see the old coal bucket burning on the isle of may before to night captain returned my uncle you keep your room hot it s a habit i have mr said the i m a cold man by my nature i have a cold blood sir there s neither fur nor flannel no sir nor hot rum will warm up what they call the sir it s the same with most men that have been as they call it in the seas well well captain replied my uncle we must all be the way we re made but it chanced that this fancy of the captain s had a great share in my misfortunes for though i had promised myself not to let my out of sight i was both so impatient for a nearer look of the sea and so by the of the room that when he told me to run down stairs and play myself awhile i was fool enough to take him at his word away i went therefore leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle and a great mass of and crossing the road in front of the inn walked down upon the beach with the wind in that quarter only little not much bigger than i had seen upon a lake beat upon the shore but the weeds were new to me some green some brown and long and some with little that between my fingers even so far up the the smell of the sea water was exceedingly salt and stirring the besides was beginning to shake out her sails which hung upon the yards in clusters and the spirit of all that i beheld put me in thoughts of far voyages and foreign places i looked too at the with the big brown fellows some in shirts some with some with coloured handkerchiefs about their throats one with a brace of pistols stuck into his pockets two or three with and all with their case what at the queen s knives i passed the time of day with one that looked less desperate than his fellows and asked him of the sailing of the he said they would get under way as soon as the ebb set and expressed his gladness to be out of a port where there were no and but all with such oaths that i made haste to get away from him this threw me back on who seemed the least wicked of that gang and who soon came out of the inn and ran to me crying for a bowl of punch i told him i would give him no such thing for neither he nor i was of an age for such but a glass of ale you may have and welcome said i he and at me and called me names but he was glad to get the ale for all that and presently we were set down at a table in the front room of the inn and both ea ting and drinking with a good appetite here it occurred to me that as the landlord was a man of that county i might do well to make a friend of him i offered him a share as was much the custom in these days but he was far too a man	38
to sit with such poor customers as and myself and he was leaving the room when i called him back to ask if he knew mr ay says he and a very honest man and oh by the bye says he was it you that came in with and when i had told him yes ye u be no friend of his he asked meaning in the way that i would be no relative e i told him no none i thought not said he and yet ye have a kind of of mr alexander i said it seemed that was ill seen in the country doubt said the landlord he s a wicked man and there s many would like to see him in a tow t and that he has out of house and and yet he was ance a fine young fellow too but that was before the sought abroad about mr alexander that was like the death of him and what was it i asked ou just that he had killed him said the landlord did ye never hear that and what would he kill him for said i and what for but just to get the place said he the place said i the sha other place that i ken said he ay man said i is that so was my was alexander the eldest son deed was he said the landlord what else would he have killed him for and with that he went away as he had been impatient to do from the beginning of course i had guessed it a long while ago but it is one thing to guess another to know and i sat stunned with my good fortune and could scarce w to believe that the same poor lad who had in look t hope j t at the s the dust from forest not two days ago was now one of the rich of the earth and had a house and broad lands and if he but knew how to ride might mount his to morrow all these pleasant things and a thousand others crowded into my mind as i sat staring before me out of the inn window and paying no heed to what i saw only i remember that my eye lighted on captain down on the pier among his and speaking with some authority and presently he came marching back towards the house with no mark of a sailor s but carrying his fine tall figure with a manly bearing and still with the same sober grave expression on his face i wondered if it was possible that s stories could be true and half them they fitted so ill with the man s looks but indeed he was neither so good as i supposed him nor quite so bad as did for in fact he was two men and left the better one behind as soon as he set foot on board his vessel the next thing i heard my uncle calling me and found the pair in the road together it was the captain who addressed me and that with an air very flattering to a young lad of grave equality sir said he mr tells me great things of you and for my own part i like your looks i wish i was for longer here that we might make the better friends but we ll make the most of what we have ye shall come on board my for half an b our till the ebb sets and drink a bowl with me now i longed to see the inside of a ship more words can tell but i was not going to put myself iii and i told him nay uncle and i had an appointment with a lawyer ay ay said he he passed me word of that but ye see the boat ll set ye ashore at the town pier and that s but a penny from s house i and here he suddenly leaned down and whispered in my take care of the old he means mischief come aboard till i can get a word with ye and then passing his arm through mine he continued aloud as he set off towards his boat but come what can i bring ye from the any friend of mr s can command of tobacco indian of a wild beast a stone pipe the mocking bird that for all the world like a cat the cardinal bird that is as red as blood take your pick and say your pleasure by this time we were at the boat side and be was handing me in i did not dream of back thought the poor fool that i had found a good friend and and i was rejoiced to see the ship aa soon as we were all set in our places the boat was thrust off from the pier and began to move over the waters and what with my pleasure in this new movement and my surprise at our low position and the appearance of the shores and the growing of the as we drew near to it i could hardly understand what the i and must have answered him at random at thb queen s as soon as we were alongside where i sat gaping at the ship s height the strong humming of the tide against its sides and the pleasant cries of the at their work declaring that he and i must be the first aboard ordered a tackle to be sent down from the main yard in this i was whipped into the air and set down again on the deck where the captain stood ready waiting for me and instantly slipped back his arm under mine there i stood some while a little dizzy with the of all around me perhaps a little afraid and yet vastly pleased with these strange	38
sights the captain meanwhile pointing out the strangest and telling me their names and uses but where is my uncle said i suddenly ay said with a sudden that s the point i felt i was lost with all my strength i plucked myself clear of him and ran to the sure enough there was the boat pulling for the town with my uncle sitting in the stem i gave a piercing cry help help murder so that both sides of the rang with it and my uncle turned round where he was sitting and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror it was the last i saw already strong hands had been me back from the ship s side and now a seemed to strike me i saw a great flash of fire and fell senseless chapter i go to sea in op i came to myself in darkness in great pain bound hand and foot and by many noises there sounded in my ears a roaring of water as of a huge mill dam the of heavy the thundering of the sails and the shrill cries of the whole world now heaved up and now rushed downward and so sick and hurt was i in body and my mind so much confounded that it took me a long while chasing my thoughts up and down and ever stunned again by a fresh of pain to that i must be lying somewhere bound in the belly of that unlucky ship and that the wind must have strengthened to a gale with the clear perception of my plight there fell upon me a blackness of despair a horror of remorse at my own folly and a passion of anger at my uncle that once more me of my senses when i returned again to life the same uproar the same confused and movements shook and me and presently to my other pains and there was added the sickness of an unused on the sea in that time of my adventurous youth i suffered many hardships but none that was so crush i go to sea in the op ing to my mind and body or lit by so few hopes as first hours on board the i heard a gun fire and supposed the storm had proved too strong for us and we were firing of distress the thought of even by death in the deep sea was welcome to me yet it was no such matter but as i was afterwards told a common habit of the captain s which i here set down to show that even the worst man may have his sides we were then passing it appeared within some miles of where the was built and where old mrs the captain s mother had come some years before to live and whether outward or inward bound the was never suffered to go by that place by day without a gun fired and colours shown i had no measure of time day and night were alike in that ill smelling of the ship s where i lay and the misery of my situation drew out the hours to double how long therefore i lay waiting to hear the ship split upon some rock or to feel her head foremost into the depths of the sea i have not the means of but sleep at length stole from me the consciousness of sorrow i was by the light of a hand lantern shining in my face a small man of about thirty with green eyes and a of fair hair stood looking down at me well said he how goes it i answered by a sob and my visitor then felt my pulse and temples and set himself to wash and dress the wound upon my ay said he a sore what man cheer up the world s no done you ve made a had start of it hut you ll make a have you had any meat i said i could not look at it and thereupon he gave me some brandy and water in a tin and left me once more to myself the next time he came to see me i was lying sleep and waking my eyes wide open in the darkness the sickness quite departed hut succeeded by a horrid and swimming that was almost worse to hear i ached besides in every limb and the that bound me seemed to be of fire the smell of the hole in which i lay seemed to have become a part of me and during the long interval since his last visit i had suffered of fear now from the of the ship s rats that sometimes on my very face and now from the dismal that haunt the bed of fever the glimmer of the lantern as a trap opened shone in like the heaven s sunlight and though it only showed me the strong dark beams of the ship that was my prison i could have cried aloud for gladness the man with the green eyes was the first to descend the ladder and i noticed that he came somewhat he was followed by the captain neither said a word but the first set to and examined me and dressed my stroke i go to sea in the of wound as before while looked me in ray face with an odd black look now sir you see for yourself said the first a high fever no appetite no light no meat you see for yourself what that means i am no mr said the captain give me leave sir said you ve a good head upon your shoulders and a good scotch tongue to ask with but i will leave you no manner of excuse i want that boy taken out of this hole and put in the what ye may want sir is a matter of	38
from whom i had heard of these came in at times from the round house where he and served now nursing a bruised limb in silent agony now against the cruelty of mr it made my heart but the men had a great respect for the chief mate who was as they said the only seaman of the whole bang and none such a bad man when he was sober indeed i found there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates that mr was sullen unkind and harsh when he was sober and mr would not hurt a fly except when he was drinking i asked about the captain but i was told drink made no difference upon that man of iron i did my best in the small time allowed me to make something like a man or rather i should say something like a boy of the poor creature but his mind was scarce truly human he could remember nothing of the time before he came to sea only that his father had made and had a in the parlour which could whistle the north all else had been blotted out in these years of hardship and he had a strange notion of the dry land picked up from sailors stories that it was a place where lads were put to some kind of slavery called a trade and where x were continually lashed and clapped into foul in a town lie every second person a and every third a place in which would be and murdered to be sure i could how kindly i had myself been used upon that dry land he was so much afraid of and how well fed and carefully taught both by my friends and mj parents and if he bad been recently hurt he would weep bitterly and to run away but if he was in his usual humour or still more if be had had a glass of spirits in the round house he would the notion it was mr heaven forgive him i who gave the boy drink and it was kindly meant but besides that it was ruin to his health it was the thing in life to see this unhappy creature staggering and dancing and talking he know not what some of the men laughed but not all others would grow as black as thunder thinking perhaps of their own childhood or their own children and bid him stop that nonsense and think what he was doing as for me i felt ashamed to look at him and the poor still comes about me in my dreams ah this time you should know the was meeting continual head winds and tumbling up and down against head seas so that the was almost constantly shut and the lighted only by a lantern on a beam there was constant labour for all hands the sails had to be made and every hour the strain told on the men s temper there t go to sea in thb op was a growl of quarrelling all day long from berth to berth and as i was never allowed to set my foot on deck you can picture to yourselves how weary of my life i grew to be and how impatient for a change and a change i was to get as you shall hear but i must first tell of a conversation i had with mr which put a little heart in me to bear my troubles getting him in a favourable stage of drink for indeed he never looked near me when he was sober i pledged him to secrecy and told him my whole story he declared it was like a ballad that he would do his best to help me that i should have pen and ink and write one line to mr and another to mr and that if i had told the truth ten to one he would be able with their help to pull me through and set me in my rights and in the meantime says he keep your heart up you re not the only one i ll tell you that there s many a man tobacco over seas that should be mounting his horse at his own door at home many and many i and life is all a at the best look at me i m a s son and more than half a doctor and here i am man jack to i thought it would be civil to ask him for his story he whistled loud never had one said he i liked fun all and he out of the chapter viii the round house one night about twelve o clock a man of mr s watch which was on deck came down for his jacket and instantly there began to go a whisper about the that had done for him at last there was no need of a name we all knew who was meant but we had scarce time to get the idea rightly in our heads far less to speak of it when the was again flung open and captain came down the ladder he looked sharply round the in the tossing light of the lantern and then walking straight up to me he addressed me to my surprise in tones of kindness my man said he we want ye to serve in the round house you and are to change run away aft with ye even as he spoke two appeared in the carrying in their arms and the ship at that moment giving a great sheer into the sea and the lantern swinging the light fell direct on the boy s face it was as white as wax and had a look upon it like a dreadful smile the blood in me ran cold and i drew in my breath as if i had been struck the run away aft run away aft	38
with ye cried and at that i brushed by the sailors and the boy who neither spoke nor moved and ran up the ladder on deck the was swiftly and through a long swell she was on the tack and on the left hand under the arched foot of the i could see the sunset still quite bright this at such an hour of the night surprised me greatly but i was too ignorant to draw the true conclusion that we were going north about round scotland and were now on the high sea between the and the islands having avoided the dangerous currents of the for my part who had been so long shut in the dark and knew nothing of head winds i thought we might be half way or more across the atlantic and indeed beyond that i wondered a little at the of the sunset light i gave no heed to it and pushed on across the decks running between the seas catching at ropes and only saved from going overboard by one of the hands on deck who had been always kind to me the round house for which i was bound and where i was now to sleep and serve stood some six feet above the decks and considering the size of the was of good dimensions inside were a fixed table and bench and two one for the captain and the other for the two mates turn and turn about it was all fitted with from top to bottom so as to away the officers and a part of the ship s stores there was a second store room underneath which yoa entered by a in the middle of the deck all the best of the meat and drink and tlie whole of the powder were collected in place and all the except the two pieces of brass were set in a rack in the wall of the round the most of the were in another place a small window with a on each and a in the roof gave it light by day and after dark there was a lamp always burning it was burning when i entered not brightly but enough to show mr sitting at the table with the brandy bottle and a tin in front of him he was a tall man strongly made and very black and he stared before him on the table like one stupid he took no notice of my coming in nor did he the captain followed and on the berth beside me looking darkly at the mate i stood in great fear of and bad my reasons for it but something told me i need not be afraid of him just then and i whispered in hia ear how is be he shook his head like one that does not know and does not wish to think and bis face was very stem presently mr came in he gave the captain a glance that meant the boy was dead as plain as speaking and took his place like the rest of us so that we all c stood without a word down at sir the round house and mr on liis side sat without a word looking hard upon the table all of a sudden he put out his hand to take the bottle and at that mr started forward and caught it away from him rather by surprise than violence crying out with an oath that there had been too much of this work altogether and that a judgment would fall upon the ship and as he spoke the weather standing open he tossed the bottle into the sea mr was on his feet in a he still looked dazed but he meant murder ay and would have done it for the second time that night had not the captain stepped in between him and his victim sit down the captain ye and swine do ye know what ye ve done murdered the boy mr seemed to understand for he sat down again and put up his hand to his brow well he said he brought me a dirty at that word the captain and i and mr all looked at each other for a second with a kind of frightened look and then walked up to his chief officer took him by the shoulder led him across to his and bade him lie down and go to sleep as you might speak to a bad child the murderer cried a little but he took off his sea boots and obeyed ah cried mr with a dreadful voice ye should have interfered long it s too late now mr said the captain this night s work must never be in the boy went over f board sir that s what the story is and i would give five pounds out of my pocket it was true he turned to the table what made ye throw the good bottle away he added there was sense in that sir here david draw me another they re in the bottom and he tossed me a key ye ll need a glass yourself sir he added to yon was an ugly thing to see so the pair sat down and a and while they did so the murderer who had been lying and in his berth raised himself upon his elbow and looked at them and at me that was the first night of my new duties and in the course of the next day i had got well into the run of them i had to serve at the meals which the captain took at regular hours sitting down with the officer who was o e duty all the day through i would be running with a to one or other of my three masters and at night i slept on a blanket thrown on the deck boards at the end of the round	38
house and right in the draught of the two doors it was a hard and a cold bed nor was i suffered to sleep without interruption for some one would be always coming in from deck to get a and when a fresh watch was to be set two and sometimes all three would sit down and a bowl together how they kept their health i know not any more than how i kept my own and yet in other ways it was an easy service there was no cloth to lay the meals were either of the or salt except twice a week when there was and though i was clumsy enough and not being firm on my sea legs sometimes fell with what i was bringing them both mr and the captain were singularly patient i could not but fancy they were making up lee way with their and that they would scarce have been so good with tne if they had not been worse with as for mr the drink or his crime or the two together had certainly troubled his mind i cannot say i ever saw him in his proper wits he never grew used to my being there stared at me continually sometimes i could have thought with terror and more than once drew back from my hand when i was serving him i was pretty sure from the first that he had no clear mind of what he had done and on my second day in the round house i had the proof of it we were alone and he had been staring at me a long time when all at once up he got as pale as death and came close up to me to my great terror but i had no cause to be afraid of him you were not here before he asked no sir said i there was another boy he asked again and when i had answered him ah he i thought that and went and sat down without another word except to call for brandy you may think it strange but for all the horror t bad i was still sorry for him he was a married man k with a wife in but whether or no he had a family i have now forgotten i hope not altogether it was no very hard life for the time it which as you are to hear was not long i was as well fed ae the best of them even their which were the great dainty i was allowed my share of and had i t might have been drunk from morning to night like mr i had company too and good company of its sort mr who had been to the college spoke to me like a friend when he was not and told me many curious things and some that were informing and even tlie captain though he kept me at the stick s end the moat part of the time would sometimes a bit and tell me of the fine countries he had visited the shadow of poor to be lay on all four of us and on me and mr in particular most heavily and then i had another trouble of my own here i was doing dirty work for three men that i looked down upon and one of whom at least should have hung upon a gallows that was tor the present and as for the future i could only see myself alongside of in the tobacco fields mr perhaps from would never suffer me to say another word about my story the captain whom i tried to approach me like a dog and would not hear a word and as the days came and went my heart sank lower and lower till was even glad of the work which kept me from thinking chapter ix tne man with the belt of more than a week went by in which the ill that had hitherto pursued the upon this voyage grew yet more strongly marked some days she made a little way others she was driven actually back at last we were beaten so far to the south that we tossed and to and fro the whole of the ninth day within sight of cape wrath and the wild rocky coast on either hand of it there followed on that a council of the and some decision which i did not rightly understand seeing only the result that we had made a fair wind of a foul one and were running south the tenth afternoon there was a falling swell and a thick wet white fog that hid one end of the from the other all afternoon when i went on deck i saw men and listening hard over the for they said and though i did not so much as understand the word i felt danger in the air and was excited may be about ten at night i was serving mr and the captain at their supper when the ship struck something with a great sound and we heard voices singing out my two masters leaped to their feet said mr said the captain we v only i she no sir boat down and they hurried out the captain waa in the right of it we had run down a boat in the fog and she had t d in the and gone to the bottom with all her crew but one this man as i heard afterwards bad been sitting in the stern as a passenger while the rest were on the benches at the moment of the blow the stern i had been thrown into the air and the man having bis i hands free and for all he was with a overcoat that came below bis knees had leaped up and hold of the s it showed he had luck and much and strength that he	38
should have thus saved himself from such a pass and yet when the captain brought him into the and i set eyes on him for the time he looked as cool as i did was in stature but well set and as aa a goat his face was of a good open expression but very dark and heavily and with the his eyes were unusually i light and a kind of dancing madness in them that was both engaging and alarming and when he took off is great coat he laid a pair of fine silver mounted pistols on the table and i saw that he was with a great sword his manners besides were elegant and pledged the captain handsomely altogether i the man with the belt op gold thought of him at the first sight that here was a man i would rather call my friend than my enemy the captain too was taking his observations but rather of the man s clothes than his person and to be sure as soon as he had taken off the great coat he showed forth mighty fine for the round house of a merchant having a hat with feathers a red waistcoat breeches of black and a blue coat with silver buttons and handsome silver lace costly clothes though somewhat spoiled with the fog and being slept in i m vexed sir about the boat says the captain there are some pretty men gone to the bottom said the stranger that i would rather see on the dry land again than half a score of boats friends of yours said you have none such friends in your country was the reply they would have died for me like dogs well sir said the captain still watching him are more men in the world than boats to put them in and that s true too cried the other and ye seem to be a gentleman of great penetration i have been in france sir says the captain so that it was plain he meant more by the words than showed upon the face of them well sir says the other and so has many a pretty man for the matter of that no doubt sir says the captain and fine coats says the stranger is that how the wind sets and he laid his hand quickly on his pistols don t be hasty said the captain don t do a mischief before ye see the need for it a french soldier s coat upon your back and a scotch tongue in your head to be sure but so has many an honest fellow in these days and i dare say none the worse of it so said the gentleman in the fine coat are ye of the honest party meaning was he a for each side in these sort of civil takes the name of honesty for its own why sir replied the captain i am a true blue and i thank god for it it was the first word of any religion i had ever heard from him but i learnt afterwards he was a great church while on shore but for all that says he i can be sorry to see another man with his back to the wall can ye so indeed asks the well sir to be quite plain with ye i am one of those honest gentlemen that were in trouble about the years and six and to be still quite plain with ye if i got into the hands of any of the red gentry it s like it would go hard with me now sir i was for france and there was a french ship pick me up but she gave us the go by in the fog as i wish from the heart that ye had done i and the man with the belt of gold the best that i can say is this if ye can set me ashore i was going i have that upon me will reward you highly for your trouble in france says the captain no sir that i cannot do but where ye come from we might talk of that and then unhappily he observed me standing in my corner and packed me to the to get supper for the gentleman i lost no time i promise you and when i came back into the round house i found the gentleman had taken a money belt from about his waist and poured out a guinea or two upon the table the captain was looking at the guineas and then at the belt and then at the gentleman s face and i thought he seemed excited half of it he cried and i m your man the other swept back the guineas into the belt and put it on again under his waistcoat i have told ye sir said he that not one of it belongs to me it belongs to my and here he touched his hat and while i would be but a silly messenger to grudge some of it that the rest might come safe i should show myself a hound indeed if i bought my own any too dear thirty guineas on the or sixty if ye set me on the take it if ye will if not ye can do your worst ay said and if i give ye over to the soldiers ye would make a fool s bargain said the other my let me tell you sir is every honest man in scotland his estate is in the hands o the they call king george and it is his that collect the rents or try to collect them but for the honour of scotland the poor tenant take a thought upon their chief lying in exile and this money is a part of that very rent for which king george is looking now bit ye seem	38
to me to be a man that understands things bring this money within the reach of government and how much of it ii come to you little enough to be sure said and then if they knew he added but i think if i was to try that i could hold my tongue about it ah hut i ll ye there i cried the gentleman play me false and i ll play you cunning if a hand s laid upon me shall ken what money it well returned the captain what be must i sixty guineas and done here s ray hand upon it and here s mine said the other and thereupon the captain went out rather hurriedly i thought and left me alone in the with the stranger at that period so soon after the forty five there i many gentlemen coming hack at the peril of r lives either to see their friends or to collect a little money j and as for the chiefs that had l it was a common matter of talk how the man with thb belt of gold tenants would themselves to send them money and their the to get it in and run the o our great navy to carry it across all this i had of course heard tell of d now i had a man under my eyes whose life was on all these counts and upon one more for he was not only a rebel and a of rents but had taken service with king louis of france and as if all this were not enough he had a belt full of golden guineas round his whatever my opinions i could not look on such a man without a lively interest and so you re a said i as i set meat before him ay said he beginning to eat and you by your long face should be a and between said i not to annoy him for indeed i was as good a as mr could make me and that s said he but fm saying mr and between he added this bottle of yours is dry and it s hard if i m to pay sixty guineas and be a upon the back of it i ll go and ask for the key said i and stepped on deck the fog was as close as ever but the swell almost down they had laid the to not knowing precisely where they were and the wind what little there was of or was the cant name for those who were loyal to king george it not serving well for their true course some of tho hands were still for but the captain and the two officers were in the waist with their heads together it struck me don t know why that they were after no good and the first word i heard as i drew softly near more than confirmed me it was mr crying out as if upon a sudden thought couldn t we him out of the round house he s better where he is returned he hasn t room to use his well that s true said but he s hard to come at hut said we can get the man in talk one upon each side and pin him by the two arms or if that ll not hold sir we can make a run by both the doors and get him under hand before he has the time to draw at this hearing i was seized with both fear and anger at these treacherous greedy bloody men that i sailed with my first mind was to run away my second was bolder captain said i the gentleman is seeking a and the bottle s out will you give me the key they all started and turned about why here s our chance to get the i cried and then to me hark ye david he said do ye ken where the pistols are the man with the belt op gold i ay ay put in david david s j good lad ye see david my man yon wild man is a danger to the ship besides being a rank foe to king george god bless him i had never been so be since i came on board but i said yes as if all i heard were quite natural the trouble is resumed the captain that all our great and little are in the round house under this man s nose likewise the powder now if i or one of the officers was to go in and take them he would fall to thinking but a lad like you david might snap up a horn and a pistol or two without remark and if ye can do it cleverly bear it in mind when it ll be good for you to have friends and that s when we come to here mr whispered him a little very right sir said the captain and then to myself and see here david yon man has a ul of gold and i give you my word that you shall have your fingers in it i told him i would do as he wished though indeed i had scarce breath to speak with and upon that he gave me the key of the spirit and i began to go slowly back to the round house what was i to do they were dogs and thieves they had stolen me from my own country they had killed poor and was i to hold the candle to another murder but then upon the other hand there was the fear of death very plain before me for what could a boy and a man if tbey were as brave as lions against a whole ship s company i was still arguing it back and forth and getting no great clearness when i came into the round house	38
and saw the eating his supper under the lamp and at that my mind was made up all in a moment i have no credit by it it was by no choice of mine but as if by that i walked right up to the table and put my hand on his shoulder do ye want to be killed said i he sprang to his feet and looked a question at me as clear as if he had spoken oh cried i they re all here it s a ship full of them they ve murdered a boy already now it s you ay ay said he but they haven t got me yet and then looking at me curiously will ye stand with me that will i said i i am no thief nor yet murderer i ll stand by you why then said he what s your name david said i and then thinking that a man with so fine a coat must like fine people i added for the first time of it never occurred to him to doubt me for a is used to see great in great poverty but as he had no estate of his own my words a very childish vanity he had the man with the belt op gold g my name is he said drawing himself np they call me a king s name is good enough for though i bear it plain and have the name of no farm to clap to the hind end of it and having administered this rebuke as though it were something of a chief importance he turned to examine our the round house was built very strong to support the of the seas of its five only the and the two doors were large enough for the passage of a man the doors besides could be drawn close they were of stout oak and ran in and were fitted with hooks to keep them either shut or open as the need arose the one that was already shut i secured in this fashion but when i was proceeding to slide to the other stopped me david said he for i bring to mind the name of your landed estate and so will make so bold as call you david that door being open is the best part of my it would be yet better shut says i not so david says he ye see i have but one face but so long as that door is open and my face to it the best part of my enemies will be in front of me where i would aye wish to find them then he gave me from the rack a of which there were a few besides the choosing it with great care shaking his head and saying he had never in g all his life seen poorer weapons and next he set me down to the table with a powder horn a bag of bullets and all the pistols which he bade me charge and that will be better work let me tell you said he for a gentleman of decent birth than plates and to a sailors thereupon he stood up in the midst with his face to the door and drawing his great sword made trial of the room he had to it in i must stick to the point he said shaking his head and that s a pity too it doesn t set my genius which is all for the upper guard and now said he do you keep on charging the pistols and give heed to me i told him i would listen closely my chest was tight my month dry the light dark to my eyes the thought of the numbers that were soon to leap in upon us kept my heart in a flutter and the sea which i heard washing round the and where i thought my dead body would be cast ere morning ran in my mind strangely first of all said he how many are against us i reckoned them up and such was the hurry of my mind i had to cast the numbers twice fifteen said i whistled well said he that can t be cured and now follow me it is my part to keep this door where i look for the main battle in that the man with the belt of gold ye have no hand and mind and fire to this side unless they get me down for i would rather have ten foes in front of me than one friend like you pistols at my hack i told him indeed i was no great shot and that s very said he cried in a great admiration of my there s many a pretty gentleman that dare to say it but then sir said i there is the door behind you which they may perhaps break in ay said he and that is a part of your work no sooner the pistols charged than ye must climb up into yon bed where ye re handy at the window and if they lift hand against the door ye re to shoot but that s not all let s make a bit of a soldier of ye david what else have ye to guard there s the said i but indeed mr i would need to have eyes upon both sides to keep the two of them for when my face is at the one my back is to the other and that s very true said but have ye no ears to yo ir bead to be sure i cried i i must hear the bursting of the glass ye have some of sense said grimly chapter x the siege of the but now our time of was come to an end those on deck had waited for my coming till they grew impatient and scarce	38
had spoken when the captain showed face in the open door stand cried and pointed his sword at him the captain stood indeed but he neither nor drew back a foot a naked sword says he this is a strange return for hospitality do ye see me said i am come of kings i bear a king s name my is the oak do ye see my sword it has the heads off than you have toes upon your feet call up your to your back sir and fall on i the sooner the clash begins the sooner ye u taste this steel throughout your the captain said nothing to but he looked over at me with an ugly look david said he mind this and the sound of his voice went through me with a jar next moment he was gone and now said let your hand keep your bead for the grip is coming the siege op the round house drew a which he held in his left hand in case they should run in under his sword i on my part up into the berth with an of pistols and something of a heavy heart and set open the window where i was to watch it was a small part of the deck that i could overlook but enough for our purpose the sea had gone down and the wind was steady and kept the sails quiet so that there was a great stillness in the ship in which i made sure i heard the sound of muttering voices a little after and there came a clash of steel upon the deck by which i knew they were dealing out the and one had been let fall and after that silence again i do not know if i was what you call afraid but my heart beat like a bird s both quick and little and there was a came before my eyes which i continually rubbed away and which continually returned as for hope i had none but only a darkness of despair and a sort of anger against all the world that made me long to sell my life as dear as i was able i tried to pray i remember but that same hurry of my mind like a man running would not suffer me to think upon the words and my chief wish was to have the thing begin and be done with it it came all of a sudden when it did with a rush of feet and a roar and then a shout from and a sound of blows and some one crying out as if hurt i looked over my shoulder and saw mr in the doorway crossing blades with that s him that killed the boy i cried look to your window said and as i turned back to my place i saw him pass his sword through the mate s body it was none too soon for me to look to my own part for my head was scarce back at the window before five men carrying a spare yard for a ram i an past me and took post to drive the door in i had never fired with a pistol in my life and not often with a gun far less against a fellow creature but it was now or never and just as they the yard i cried out take that and shot into their midst i must have hit one of them for he sang out and gave back a step and the rest stopped as if a little disconcerted before they had time to recover i sent another ball over their heads and at my third shot which went as wide as the second the whole party threw down the yard and ran for it then i looked round again into the deck house the whole place was full of the smoke of my own firing just as my ears seemed to be burst with the noise of the shots but there was standing as before only now his sword was running blood to the and himself so swelled with triumph and fallen into so fine an attitude that he looked to be invincible right before him on the floor was mr on his hands and knees the blood was pouring from his mouth and he was sinking slowly lower with a terrible white face and just as i looked some of those from behind caught the op the hold of him by the heels and dragged him bodily out of the round house i believe he died as they were doing it there s one of your for ye cried and then turning to me he asked if i had done much execution i told him i had winged one and thought it was the captain and i ve settled two says he no there s not enough blood let they be back again to your watch david this was but a before meat i settled back to my place re charging the three pistols i had fired and keeping watch with both eye and ear our enemies were not far off upon the deck and that so loudly that i could hear a word or two above the washing of the seas it was it i heard one say and another answered him with a man i he s paid the after that the voices fell again into the same muttering as before only now one person spoke most of the time as though laying down a plan and first one and then another answered him briefly like men taking orders by this i made sure they were coming on again and told it s what we have to pray for said he unless we can give them a good of us and done with it there ll be sleep for either you or me but this time mind they	38
ll be in earnest by this my pistols were ready and there was nothing to do but listen and wait while the brush lasted i had not the time to think if i was but now when all was still again my mind ran upon nothing else the thought of the sharp swords and the cold steel was strong in me and presently when i began to hear stealthy steps and a brushing of men s clothes against the round house wall and knew they were taking their places in the dark i could have found it in my mind to cry out aloud all this was upon s side and i had begun to think my share of the fight was at an end when i heard some one drop softly on the roof above me there came a single call on the sea pipe and that was the signal a knot of them made one rush of it in hand against the door and at the same moment the glass of the was dashed in a thousand pieces and a man leaped through and landed on the floor before he got his feet i had clapped a pistol to his back and might have shot him too only at the touch li him and him alive my whole flesh me and i could no more pull the than i could have flown he had dropped his as he jumped and when he felt the pistol whipped straight round and laid hold of me roaring out an oath and at that either my courage came again or i grew so much afraid a came to the siege of the round house the same thing for i gave a shriek and shot him in the midst of the body he gave the most horrible ugly groan and fell to the floor the foot of a second fellow whose legs were dangling through the struck me at the same time upon the head and at that i snatched another pistol and shot this one through the so that he slipped through and tumbled in a lump on his companion s body there was no talk of missing any more than there was time to aim i clapped the to the very place and fired i might have stood and stared at them for long but i heard shout as if for help and that brought me to my senses he had kept the door so long but one of the while he was engaged with others had run in under his guard and caught him about the body was him with his left hand but the fellow clung like a another had broken in and had his raised the door was thronged with their faces i thought we were lost and catching up my fell on them in flank but i had not time to be of help the dropped at last and leaping back to get his distance ran upon the others like a bull roaring as he went they broke before him like water turning and running and falling one against another in their haste the sword in his hands flashed like into the of our enemies and at every flash there came the scream of a man hurt i was still thinking we were lost when lo they were all gone and was driving them along the deck as a sheep yet he was no sooner out than he was back again being as cautious as he was brave and meanwhile the i continued running and crying out as if he was still behind them and we heard them tumble one upon another into the and clap to the upon the top the round house was like a three were dead inside another lay in his death agony across the threshold and there were and i victorious and he came up to me with open arms come to my arms he cried and embraced and kissed me hard upon both cheeks david said he i love you like a brother and oh man he cried in a kind of ecstasy am i no a thereupon he turned to the four enemies passed his sword clean through each of them and tumbled them out of doors one after tl other as he did so he kept humming and singing and whistling to himself like a man trying to recall an air only what ae was trying was to make one all the while the flush was in his face and his eyes were as bright as a five year old child s with a new toy and presently he sat down upon the table sword in hand the air that he was making all the time began to run a little clearer and then clearer still and then out he burst with a great voice into a song the of the round house i have translated it here not in verse of which i have no skill but at least in the king s english he sang it often afterwards and the thing became popular so that i have heard it and had it explained to me many s the time this is the song of the sword of the smith made it the fire set it now it in the hand of their eyes were many and bright swift were they to behold many the hands they the sword was alone the deer troop over the hill they are many the hill is one the don deer vanish the hill remains come to me from the hills of come from the of the sea o far beholding here is your meat now this song which he made both words and music in the hour of our victory is something less than just to me who stood beside him in the mr and five more were either killed outright or thoroughly but of these two fell by my hand	38
the two that came by the four more were hurt and of that number one and he not the least important got his hurt from me so that altogether i did my fair share both of the killing and the and might have claimed a place in s verses but poets as a very wise man once told me have to think upon their and in good prose talk always did me more than justice in the meanwhile i was innocent of any wrong being done me for not only i knew no word of the but what with the long suspense of the waiting and the and strain of our two of fighting and more than all the horror i had of some of my own share in it the thing was no sooner over than i was glad to to a seat there was that on my chest that i could hardly breathe the thought of the two men i had shot sat upon me like a nightmare and all upon a sudden and before i had a guess of what was coming i began to sob and cry like any child clapped my shoulder and said i was a brave lad and wanted nothing but a sleep i ll take the first watch said he done well by me david first and last and i wouldn t lose you for all no nor for so he made up my bed on the floor and took the first spell pistol in hand and sword on knee three hours by the captain s h upon the wall then he roused me up and i took my turn of three hours before the end of which it was broad day and a very quiet morning with a smooth rolling sea that tossed the ship and made the blood run to and fro on the round house floor and a heavy rain that upon the siege op the hound the roof all my watch there was nothing and by the of the i knew they had even no one at the indeed as i learned afterwards they were so many of them hurt or dead and the rest in so ill a temper that mr and the captain had to take turn and turn like and me or the might have gone and nobody the wiser it was a mercy the night had fallen so still for the wind had gone down as soon as the rain began even as it was i judged by the wailing of a great number of that went crying and fishing round the ship that she must have drifted pretty near the coast or one of the islands of the and at last looking out of the door of the round house i saw the great stone hills of on the right hand and a little more tbe e isle of rum chapter xi the captain under and i sat down to breakfast about six of the clock the floor was covered with broken glass and in a horrid mess of blood which took away my hunger in all other ways we were in a situation not only agreeable but merry having the officers from their own cabin and having at command all the drink in the both wine and and all the dainty part of what was such as the and the fine sort of this of itself was enough to set us in good humour but the richest part of it was this that the two men that ever came out of scotland mr being dead were now shut in the fore part of the ship and condemned to what they hated cold water and depend upon it said we shall hear more of them ere long ye may keep a man from the fighting but never from his bottle we made good company for each other indeed expressed himself most lovingly and taking a knife from the table cut me off one of the silver buttons from his coat had them says he from my father the captain under and now give ye one of them to be a for last night s work and wherever ye go and show that button the friends of will come around you he said this as if he had been and commanded armies and indeed much as i admired his courage i was always in danger of smiling at his vanity in danger i say for had i not kept my countenance i would be afraid to think what a quarrel might have followed as soon as we were through with our meal he in the captain s till he found a and then taking off his coat began to visit his suit and brush away the with such care and labour as i supposed to have been only usual with women to be sure he had no other and besides as he said it belonged to a king and so to be looked after for all that when i saw what care he took to pluck out the threads where the button had been cut away i put a higher value on his g ft he was still so engaged when we were hailed by mr from the deck asking for a and i climbing through the and sitting on the edge of it pistol in hand and with a bold front though inwardly in fear of broken glass hailed him back again and bade him speak out he came to the edge of the round house and stood on a of rope so that his chin was on a level with the roof and we looked at each other a while in silence mr as i do not think he had been very forward in the battle so he had got off with nothing worse than a blow upon the cheek but he looked out of heart and very weary having been	38
all night either standing watch or the wounded this is a bad job said he at last shaking his head it was none of our choosing said i the captain says he would like to speak with your friend they might speak at the window and how do we know what treachery he means cried i he means none david returned mr and if he did ni tell ye the honest truth we get the men to follow is that so said i i ll tell ye more than that said he it s not only the men it s me i m f rich and he smiled across at me no he continued what we want is to be shut of him thereupon i consulted with and the was agreed to and given upon either side but this was not the whole of mr s business and he now begged me for a with such and such of his former kindness that at last i handed bim a with about a of brandy he drank a part and then carried the rest down upon the deck to share it i suppose with his superior the captain under a little after the captain came as was agreed to one of the windows and stood there in the rain with his arm in a and looking stern and pale and so old that my heart smote me for having fired upon him at once held a pistol in his face put that thing up said the captain have i not passed my word sir or do ye seek to me captain says i doubt your word is a last night ye and like an apple wife j and passed me your word and gave me your hand to back it and ye ken very well what was the be damned to your word i says he well well sir said the captain ye u get little good by swearing and truly that was a fault of which the captain was quite free but we have other things to speak he continued bitterly ye ve made a sore of my i haven t hands enough left to work her and my first officer whom i could ill spare has got your sword throughout his and passed without speech there is nothing left me sir but to put back into the port of after hands and there by your leave ye will find them that are better able to talk to you ay said and faith i ll have a talk with them unless there s speaks english in that town i have a tale for them fifteen sailors the one bide and a man and a boy the other oh man it s flushed red continued that ll no do ye ll jest have to set me ashore as we an ay said but my first officer is dead ye ken best how there s none o the rest of us with this coast sir and one very dangerous to ships i give ye choice set me on dry ground in or ur or in or or or in brief where ye please within thirty miles of my own country except in a country of the that s a broad if ye miss that ye must be as at the ae i have found at the fighting why my poor country people in their bit pa s from island to island in all ay and by night too for the matter of that a s not a ship sir said the captain it has draught of water well then to if ye list i says we ll have the laugh of yo at the least my mind runs little upon laughing said the captain but all this will cost money sir well sir says i am thirty guineas if ye land me on the sea side and sixty if ye me in the a boat used in fishing the captain under but see sir where we lie we are but a few hours from said give me sixty and i ll set ye there and i m to wear my and run of the red coats to please you cries no sir if ye want sixty guineas earn them and set me in my own country to risk the sir said the captain and your own lives along with her take it or want it says could ye pilot us at all asked the captain who was frowning to himself well it s doubtful said vm more of a fighting man as ye have seen for than a but i have been often enough picked up and set down upon this coast and should ken something of the ue of it the captain shook his head still frowning if i had lost less money on this says he i would see you in a rope s end before i risked my sir but be it as ye will as soon as i get a of wind and there s some coming or i m the more mistaken i ll put it in hand but there s one thing more we may meet in with a king s ship and she may lay us aboard sir with no blame of mine they keep the thick upon this coast ye ken who for now sir if that was to befall ye might leave the money captain says if ye see a it shall h be your part to run away and now as i hear you re a little short of brandy in the offer ye a change a bottle of brandy against two of water that was the last of the treaty and was duly executed on both sides so that and i could at last wash out the round house and be quit of the of those whom we had slain and the captain and mr could be happy again	38
in their own way the name of which was drink chapter xii i hear of the red fox before we had done cleaning out the round house a breeze sprang up from a little to the east of north this blew off the rain and brought out the sun and here i must explain and the reader would do well to look at a map on the day when the fog fell and we ran down s boat we had been running through the little at dawn after the battle we lay to the east of the isle of or between that and isle in the chain of the long island now to get from there to the the straight course was through the of the sound of but the captain had no he was afraid to trust his so deep among the islands and the wind serving well he preferred to go by west of and come up under the southern coast of the great isle of all day the breeze held in the same point and rather than died down and towards afternoon a swell began to set in from round the outer our course to go round about the inner was to the west of south so that at first we had this swell upon out beam and were much rolled about but after when we had turned the end of and r began to bead more to the the came right f meanwhile the early part of the day before the swell came up waa very pleasant sailing as we were in a bright sunshine and with many islands upon different sides and i sat in the with the doors open on each side the wind being straight and smoked a pipe or two of the captain s fine tobacco it was at this time we heard each other s stories which waa the more important to me as i gained some knowledge of that wild country on which i was so soon to land in those days so close on the back o the great rebellion it was needful a man should know what he was doing when he went upon the it was i that showed the example him all my misfortune which he heard with great good nature only when i came to that good friend of mine mr the minister fired up and cried out that he hated all tha t were of that name why said i he is a man you should be proud to give your hand to i know nothing i would help a to says be it was a leaden bullet i would hunt all of that like if i lay dying i would crawl upon my knees to my chamber window for a shot i hear of the red fox why i cried what ye at the well says he ye ken very well that i am an and the have long and wasted those of my name ay and got lands of us by treachery but never with the sword he cried loudly and with the word brought down his fist upon the table but i paid the less attention to this for i knew it was usually said by those who have the there s more than that he continued and all in the same story lying words lying papers tricks fit for a and the show of what s legal over all to make a man the more angry you that are so of your buttons said i i can hardly think you would be a good judge of business ah says he falling again to smiling i got my from the same man i got the buttons from j and that was my poor father grace be to him he was the prettiest man of his kindred and the best in the david and that is the same as to say in all the world i should ken for it was him that taught me he was in the black watch when first it was and like other gentleman had a at his back to carry his for him on the march well the king it appears was to see and my father and three more were chosen out and to london town to let him see it at the best so they were had into the palace and showed the whole art of the sword for two hours at a stretch before king george and queen and the butcher and many more of whom i mind and when were through the king for all he was a rank spoke them fair and gave each man three guineas in his hand now as they were going out of the palace they had a porter s lodge to go by and it came in on my father as he was perhaps the first private gentleman that had ever gone by tliat door it was right he should give the poor porter a proper notion of their quality so he gives the king s three guineas into the man s hand as if it was bis common custom the three others that came behind him did the same and there they were on the street never a penny the better for their pains some say it was one that was the first to fee the king s porter and some say it was another hut the truth of it is that it was as i am willing to prove with either sword or pistol and that was the father that i had god rest him i think he was not the man to leave you rich i said i and that s true said he left me my to cover me and little besides and that was how i came to which waa a black spot upon my character at the beat of times and would still be a e i job for	38
me if i fell among the red coats what cried i were you in tlie english i of the red that was i said but i deserted to the right side at and that s some comfort i could scarcely share this view holding desertion under arms for an fault in honour but for au i was so young i was wiser than say my thought dear dear says i the punishment is death ay said he if they got hands on me it would be a short and a tow for but i have the king of france s commission in my which would aye be some protection i it much said i i have doubts said and good heaven man cried i you that are a condemned rebel and a and a man of the french king s what ye back into this country it s a of providence tut says i have been back every year since forty six and what brings ye man cried i well ye see i weary for my friends and country said he france is a place doubt but i weary for the and the deer and then i have bit things that i attend to i pick up a few lads to serve the king of france ye see j and s aye a little money but the heart of the matter is the business of my chief i thought they called your chief said i ay but is the captain of the said he which scarcely cleared my mind ye see te he that was all his life bo great a man and come of the blood and bearing the name of kings is now brought down to live in a french town hke a poor and private person he that had four hundred swords at his i have seen with these of mine butter in the market place and taking it home in a leaf this is not only a pain but a disgrace to us of his family and there are the the and the hope of that must be learned their letters and how to hold a sword in that far country now the tenants of have to pay a rent to george but their hearts are they are true to their chief and what with love and a bit of pressure and maybe a threat or two the poor folk scrape up a second rent for well david i m the hand that carries it and he struck the belt about hia body so that the guineas rang do they pay both cried i ay david both says he what two rents i repeated ay david said he i told a tale to yon captain man but this is the truth of it and it s wonderful to me how little pressure is needed but that s the of my good and my father s friend james of the james that is s half brother he it is that gets the money in and does the was the first time i heard the name of that james who was afterwards so famous at th i hear op the red fox time of his hanging but i took little heed at the moment for all my mind was occupied with the generosity of these poor i call it noble i cried tm a or httle better but i call it noble ay said he ye re a but ye re a gentleman j and that s what does it now if ye were one of the cursed race of ye would your teeth to hear tell of it if ye were the red fox and at that name his teeth shut together and he ceased speaking i have seen many a grim face but never a than s when he had named the red fox and who is the red fox i asked but still curious who is he cried well and til tell you that when the men of the were broken at and the good cause went down and the horses rode over the in the best blood of the north had to flee like a poor deer upon the mountains he and his lady and his a job we had of it before we got him and while he still lay in the the english that come at his life were striking at his rights they stripped him of his powers they stripped him of his lands they plucked the weapons from the hands of his that had borne arms for thirty centuries ay and the very clothes off their backs so that it s now a sin to wear a and a man may be cast into a it he has but a about hie legs one thing they kill that was the love the bore chief these guineas are the proof of it and now in there steps a man a red headed of ore ib that him yon call the red fox said l will ye bring me his brush fiercely ay the man lu he steps and gets papers from king george to be so called king s on the lands of and at first he sings small and ia well met with that s james of the my s agent but by and bye that came to hia ears that i have just told how the poor of the farmers and the and the were wringing their very to get a second rent and send it over seas for and his poor what was it ye called it when i told ye i called it noble said i and you little better than a common cries but when it came to the black blood in him ran wild he sat his teeth at the wine table what should a get a bite of bread and him not be able to prevent	38
was skilled in all kinds of music but principally pipe music was a well considered poet in his own tongue had read several books both in french and english j was a dead shot a good and an excellent with the small sword as well as with own particular weapon for his faults they were on his face and i now knew them all but the worst pf them his childish to take and to i hear of the red l ox pick quarrels he greatly laid aside in my case out of regard for the battle of the round house but whether it was because i had done well myself or because i had been a witness of his own much greater is more than i can tell for though he had a great ta te for courage in other men yet he admired it most in chapter the loss op the it was already late at night and as dark as it ever would be at that season of the year and that is to say it was still pretty bright when clapped his head into the round house door here said he come out and see if ye can pilot is this one of your tricks asked do i look like tricks cries the captain i have other things to think of my s in danger by the concerned look of his face and above all by the sharp tones in which he spoke of his it was plain to both of us he was in deadly earnest and so and i with no great fear of treachery stepped on deck the sky was clear it blew hard and was bitter cold a great deal of daylight lingered and the which was nearly full shone brightly the was close hauled so as to round the south west comer of the island of the hills of which and ben more above them all with a of mist upon the top of it lay full upon the bow though it was no good point of sailing for the she tore through the the loss of the at a great rate and straining and pursued by the swell altogether it was no such ill night to keep the seas in and i had begun to wonder what it was that sat so heavily upon the captain when the rising suddenly on the top of a high swell he pointed and cried to us to look away on the lee bow a thing like a fountain rose out of the sea and immediately after we heard a low sound of roaring what do ye call that asked the captain gloomily the sea breaking on a said and now ye ken where it is and what better would ye have ay said if it was the only one and sure enough just as he spoke there came a second fountain further to the south there said ye see for yourself if i had of these if i had had a or if had been spared it s not sixty guineas no nor six hundred would have made me risk my in a but you sir that was to pilot us have ye never a word i m thinking said these u be what they call the rocks are there many of them says the captain truly sir i am pilot said but it sticks in my mind there are ten miles of them mr and the captain looked at other i there s a way them i suppose said the captain said but where but it somehow runs in my mind once that it is clearer under the land so said we ll have to haul our i wind then mr we ll have to come as near in about the end of as we can take her sir and even then well have the land to the wind off us and that on our lee well we re in for it now and may as well crack on with that he gave an order to the and sent to the there were only five men on deck counting the officers these were all that were fit or at least both fit and willing for their work and two of these were hurt so as i say it fell to mr to go aloft and he sat there looking out and the deck with news of all he saw the sea to the south is thick he cried and then after a while it does seem clearer in by the land well sir said to we ll try your way of it but i think i might as well trust to a blind pray god you re right pray god i am i says to me but where did i hear it well well it will be as it must as we got nearer to the turn of the land the began to he sown here and there on our very path and i mr sometimes cried down to us to change the course sometimes indeed none too soon for one the loss of the was so close on the s weather board that when a sea burst upon it the lighter fell upon her deck and us like rain the brightness of the night showed us these perils as clearly as by day which was perhaps the more alarming it showed me too the face of the captain as he stood by the now on one foot now on the other and sometimes blowing in his hands but still listening and looking and as steady as steel neither he nor mr had shown well in the fighting but i saw they were brave in their own trade and admired them all the more because i found very white david says he this is no the kind of death i fancy what i cried you re not afraid no said he	38
his lips but you ll allow yourself it s a cold ending by this time now and then to one side or the other to avoid a but still the wind and the land we had got round and begun to come alongside the tide at the tail of the land ran very strong and threw the about two hand were put to the and himself would sometimes lend a help and it was strange to see three strong men throw their weight upon the and it like a living thing struggle against and drive them back this would have been the greater danger had not the sea been for some while free of obstacles mr besides announced from the top that he saw clear water ahead h ye were right said to ye h have saved the sir j i ll mind that when we come h to clear accounts and i believe he not only meant f what he said hut would have done so high a i did the hold in his i but this is matter only for conjecture things having gone otherwise tha n he l keep her away a point sings out mr h beef to i and just at the same time the tide caught the and threw the wind out of her sails she came round into the wind like a top and the next moment struck the with such a as threw us all flat upon the deck and came neat to shake mr from his upon the mast i was on my feet in a minute the on which we had struck was close in under the south west end oe off a little isle they call which lay low and black upon the sometimes the broke clean over us sometimes it only ground the poor upon the so that we hear her beat herself to pieces and what with the great noise of the sails and the singing of the wind and the flying of the spray in the moonlight and the sense of danger i think my head must have been partly turned for i could understand the things i saw presently i mr and the busy round the and still in the same blank ran over to assist and as soon as i set my hand to work my thb loss of the came clear again it was no very easy task for the lay and was full of and the breaking of the heavier seas continually forced us to give over and hold on but we all wrought like horses while we could meanwhile such of the wounded as could move came out of the fore and began to help while the rest that lay helpless in their me with screaming and begging to be saved the captain took no part it seemed he was struck stupid he stood holding by the talking to himself and groaning out aloud whenever the ship on the rock his was like wife and child to him j he had looked on day by day at the of poor but when it came to the he seemed to suffer along with her all the time of our working at the boat i remember only one other thing that i asked looking across at the shore what country it was and he answered it was the worst possible for him for it was a land of the we had one of the wounded men told off to keep a watch upon the seas and cry us warning well we had the boat about ready to be launched when this man sang out pretty shrill for god s sake hold on i we knew by his tone that it was something more than ordinary and sure enough there followed a sea so huge that it lifted the right up and her over on her beam whether the cry came too late or my hold s too weak i know not but at the sudden of l tbe i cast clean over the into the i went down and drank my ill and then came np and got a of the and then down again they say a man sinks the third time for good i cannot be made like other folk then for i would not like to i how often i went down or how often i came up i again all the while was being and beaten upon and choked and then swallowed whole and the thing was so to my wits that i was neither nor afraid presently i found i was holding to a which helped me somewhat and then all of a sudden i was in quiet water and began to come to myself it was the spare yard i had got hold of and i was amazed to see how far i had travelled from the i hailed her indeed but it was plain she was already out of cry she was still holding together but whether or not they had yet launched the boat i was too far off and too low down to see while i was the i a tract of water lying between us where no great waves came but which yet boiled white all over and in the moon with rings and sometimes the whole tract swung to one side like the tail of a live serpent some i times for a glimpse it all would disappear and then i boil np again what it was i had no guess which for i time increased my fear of it but i now know it the loss of the must have been the or tide race which had carried me away so fast and tumbled me about so cruelly and at last as if tired of that play had flung out me and the spare yard upon its margin i now lay quite and began to feel that a man can die	38
of cold as well as of drowning the shores of were close in i could see in the moonlight the of and the sparkling of the in the rocks well thought i to myself if i cannot get as far as that it s strange i had no skill of swimming water being small in our neighbourhood but when i laid hold upon the yard with both arms and kicked out with both feet i soon begun to find that i was moving hard work it was and slow but in about an hour of kicking and i had got well in between the points of a sandy bay surrounded by low hills the sea was here quite quiet there was no sound of any surf the moon shone clear and i thought in my heart i had never seen a place so desert and desolate but it was dry land and when at last it grew so shallow that i could leave the yard and ashore upon my feet i cannot tell if i was more tired or more grateful both at least i was tired as i never was before that night and grateful to god as i trust i have been often though never with more cause chapter xiv the with my stepping ashore i began the most unhappy part of my adventures it was half past twelve in the morning and though the wind was broken by the land it was a cold night i dared not sit down for i thought i should have frozen but took off my shoes and to and fro upon the sand and beating my breast with infinite weariness there was no sound of man or cattle not a cock crew though it was about the hour of their first waking only the surf broke outside in the distance which put me in mind of my perils and those of my friend to walk by the sea at that hour of the morning and in a place so desert like and struck me with a kind of fear as soon as the day began to break i put on my shoes and climbed a hill the scramble i ever undertook falling the whole way between big blocks of granite or leaping from one to another when i got to the top the dawn was come there was no sign of the which must have lifted from the and sunk the boat too was nowhere to be seen there was never a sail upon the ocean and in what i could see of the land was neither house nor man the i was afraid to think what had befallen my ship mates and afraid to look longer at so empty a scene what with my wet clothes and weariness and my belly that now began to ache with hunger i had enough to trouble me without that so i set off eastward along the south coast hoping to find a house where i might warm myself and perhaps get news of those i had lost and at the worst i considered the sun would soon rise and dry my clothes after a little my way was stopped by a creek or of the sea which seemed to run pretty deep into the land and as i had no means to get across i must needs change my direction to go about the end of it it was still the kind of walking indeed the whole not only of but of the neighbouring part of which they call the is nothing but a of granite rocks with in among at first the creek kept as i had looked to see but presently to my surprise it began to out again at this i scratched my head but had still no notion of the truth until at last i came to a rising ground and it burst upon me all in a moment that i was cast upon a little barren isle and cut off on every side by the salt seas instead of the sun rising to dry me it came on to rain with a thick mist so that my case was lamentable i stood in the rain and shivered and wondered what to do till it occurred to me that perhaps the creek was back i went to the point and in but not three yards from shore in over ears and if ever i was heard of more it was rather by god s than my own prudence i was no for that could hardly be but i was all the colder for this j and having lost another hope the more unhappy and now all at once the yard came in my head what had carried me through the would surely me to cross little quiet creek in safety with that i set off across the top of the isle to fetch and carry it back it was a weary tramp in all ways and if hope had not me up i must have cast myself down and given up whether with the sea salt or because i was growing i was distressed with thirst and had to stop aa i went and drink the water out of the i came to the bay at last more dead than alive and at the first glance i thought the yard was something further out than when i left it in i went for the third time into the sea the sand was smooth and firm and gradually down j so that i could out till the water was almost to my neck and the little waves into my face but at that depth my feet began to leave me and i venture in no further as for the yard i saw it very quietly some twenty feet in front of me i had borne up well until this last disappointment i but at that i came ashore	38
and flung myself down upon the sands and wept the the time i spent upon the island is still so horrible a thought to me that i must pass it lightly over in all the books i have read of people cast away they had either their pockets full of tools or a chest of things would be throw upon the beach along with them as if on purpose my case was very different i had nothing in my pockets but money and s silver button and being inland bred i was as much short of knowledge as of means i knew indeed that shell fish were counted good to eat and among the rocks of the isle i found a great plenty of which at first i could scarcely strike from their places not knowing quickness to be needful there were besides some of the little shells that we call i think is the english name of these two i made my whole diet devouring them cold and raw as i found them and so hungry was i that at first they seemed to me delicious perhaps they were out of season or perhaps there was something wrong in the sea about my island but at least i had no sooner eaten my first meal than i was seized with and and lay for a long time no better than dead a second trial of the same food indeed i had no other did better with me and revived my strength but as long as i was on the island i never knew what to expect when i had eaten sometimes all was well and sometimes i was thrown into a miserable sickness nor could i ever distinguish what particular fish it was that hurt me all day it streamed rain the island ran like a there was no dry spot to be found and when i lay down that night between two that made a kind of roof my feet were in a the second day i crossed the island to all sides there was no one part of it better than another it was all desolate and rocky nothing living on it but game birds which i lacked the means to kill and the which haunted the rocks in a prodigious number but the creek or straits that cut off the isle from the main land of the opened out on the north into a bay and the bay again opened into the sound of and it was the neighbourhood of this place that i chose to be my home though if i had thought upon the very name of home in such a spot i must have burst out weeping i had good reasons for my choice there was in this part of the isle a little hut of a house like a pig s hut where used to sleep when they came there upon their business but the turf roof of it had fallen entirely in so that the hut was of no use to me and gave me less shelter than my rocks what was more important the shell fish on which i lived grew there in great plenty when the tide was out i could gather a at a time and this was doubtless a convenience but the other reason went deeper i had become in no way used to the horrid solitude of the isle but still looked round me on all sides like a man that was hunted between fear and hope that i might see some human the creature coming now from a little up the over the bay i could catch a sight of the great ancient church and the roofs of the people s houses in and on the other hand over the low country of the i saw smoke go up morning and evening as if from a in a hollow of the land i used to watch this smoke when i was wet and cold and had my head half turned with loneliness and think of the fireside and the company till my heart burned it was the same with the roofs of altogether this sight i had of men s homes and comfortable lives although it put a point on my own sufferings yet it kept hope alive and helped me to eat my raw shell fish which had soon grown to be a disgust and saved me from the sense of horror i had whenever i was quite alone with dead rocks and fowls and the rain and the cold sea i say it kept hope alive and indeed it seemed impossible that i should be left to die on the shores ot my own country and within view of a church tower and the smoke of men s houses but the second day passed and though as long as the light lasted i kept a bright look out for boats on the sound or men passing on the no help came near me it still rained and i turned in to sleep as wet as ever and with a cruel sore throat but a little comforted perhaps by having said good night to my next neighbours the people of charles the second declared a man could stay more days in the year in the climate of england in this was very like a king with a palace at back and changes of dry clothes but he must have had better luck on his flight from than i had that miserable isle it was the height of the summer yet it rained for more than twenty four hours and did not clear until the afternoon o the third day this was the day of incidents in the morning i a red deer a buck with a fine spread of in the rain on the top of the island but ho had scarce seen me rise from under my rock before he trotted off upon	38
the other side i supposed he must have the straits though what should bring any creature to was more than i could fancy a httle after as i was jumping about after my i was startled by a guinea piece which fell upon a rock in front of me and glanced into the sea when the sailors gave me my money again they kept back not only about a third o the whole sum but my father s leather purse so that from that day out i carried my gold loose in a pocket with a button i now saw there must be a hole and clapped my hand to the place in a great hurry but this was to lock the stable after the was stolen i had left the shore at with near on fifty pounds now i found no ore than two guinea pieces and a silver shilling it is true i picked up a third guinea a little r i where it lay shining on a piece of turf that made a fortune of three and four shillings english the money for a lad the heir of an estate and now starving on an isle at the extreme end of the wild this state of my affairs dashed me still further and indeed my plight on that third morning was truly pitiful my clothes were beginning to rot my stockings in particular were quite worn through so that my went naked my hands had grown quite soft with the continual my throat was very sore my strength had much and my heart so tm ned against the horrid stuff i was condemned to eat that the very sight of it came near to me and yet the worst was not yet come there is a pretty high rock on the north west of which because it had a flat top and overlooked the sound i was much in the habit of not that ever i stayed in one place save when asleep my misery giving me no rest indeed i wore myself down with continual and and in the rain as soon however as the sun came out i lay down on the top of that rock to dry myself the comfort of the sunshine is a thing i cannot tell it set me thinking of my of which i had begun to despair and i the sea and the with a fresh interest on the south of my rock a part of the island out and hid the open ocean so that a boat could thus come quite near me upon that side and i be none the wiser well all of a sudden a with a brown sail and a pair o aboard of it came flying round that comer of the isle bound for i shouted out and then fell on my knees on the rock and reached up my hands and prayed to them they were near enough to hear i could even see the colour of their hair and there was no doubt but they observed me for they cried out in the tongue and laughed but the boat never turned aside and flew on right before my eyes for i could not believe such wickedness and ran along the shore from rock to rock on them even after they were out of reach of my voice i still cried and waved to them and when they were quite gone i thought my heart would have burst all the time of my troubles i wept only twice once when i could not reach the yard and now the second time when these turned a deaf ear to my cries but this time i wept and roared like a wicked child tearing up the turf with my nails and grinding my face in the earth if a wish would kill men those two would never have seen morning and i should likely have died upon ray island when i was a little over my anger i must eat again but with such of the mess as i could now scarce control sure enough i should have done as well to fast for my fishes poisoned me again i had all my first pains my throat was so sore could scarce swallow i had a of strong shuddering which tt j r w it i lu v r i r z vl z thb my teeth together and there came on me that dreadful sense of illness which we have no name for either in scotch or english i thought i should have died and made my peace with god all men even my uncle and the and as soon as i had thus made up my mind to the worst clearness came upon me i observed the night was falling dry my clothes were dried a good deal truly i was in a better case than ever before since i had landed on the isle and so i got to sleep at last with a thought of gratitude the next day which was the fourth of this horrible life of mine i found my bodily strength run very low but the sun shone the air was sweet and what i managed to eat of the shell fish agreed well with me and revived my courage i was scarce back on my rock where i went always the first thing after i had eaten before i observed a boat coming down the sound and with her head as i thought in my direction i began at once to hope and fear exceedingly for i thought these men might have thought better of their cruelty and be coming back to my assistance but another disappointment such as yesterday s was more than i could bear i turned my back accordingly upon the sea and did not look again till i had counted	38
i in some wonder well then said the old gentleman i have a word for you that you are to follow your friend to his country by he then asked me how i had and i told him my tale a south country man would certainly have laughed j but this old gentleman i call him so because of his manners for his clothes were dropping his back heard me all through with nothing but gravity and pity when i had done he took me by the hand led me into his hut it was no better and presented me before his wife as if she had been the queen and i a duke the good woman set oat bread before me and a cold patting my shoulder and smiling to me all the through the isle op time for she had no english and the old gentleman not to be behind me a strong punch out of their country spirit all the while i was eating and after that when i was drinking the punch i could scarce come to believe in good fortune and the house though it was thick with the smoke and as full of holes as a seemed like a palace the punch threw me in a strong sweat and a deep slumber the good people let me lie and it was near noon of the next day before i took the road my throat already easier and my spirits quite restored by good fare and good news the old gentleman although i pressed him hard would take no money and gave me an old bonnet for my head though i am free to own i was no sooner out of view of the house than i very washed this gift of his in a fountain thought i to myself if these are the wild i could wish my own folk i not only started late but i must have wandered nearly half the time true i met plenty of people in little miserable fields that would not keep a cat or little about the of the dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion and the people condemned to the habit which they much disliked it was strange to see the variety of their array some went bare only for a hanging cloak or great coat and carried their trousers on their backs like a useless some had made an imitation of the with little coloured pat together like an old others again still wore tlie but by putting a few between the transformed it into a pair of trousers like a s i all those were condemned and punished for the law was harshly applied in hopes to break up the spirit but in that out of the way sea bound isle i there were few to make remarks and fewer to toll i tales they seemed in great poverty which was no doubt natural now that put down and the chiefs kept no longer an open and the roads even such a wandering country by as the one i followed were with beggars and here again i marked a difference from ray own part of the country for our beggars even the themselves who beg by patent had a flattering way with them and if you gave them a and asked change very return you a but these beggars stood on their dignity asked only to buy by their account and would give no change to be sure this was no concern of mine except in so for as it entertained me by the way what was much more to the few had any english and those few unless they were of the brotherhood of beggars not very anxious to place it at my service i knew to bo my destination and repeated the name to and pointed but instead of simply pointing in reply they would give me a of the that through the isle set me foolish so it was small wonder if i went out of my road as often as i stayed in it at last about eight at night and already very weary i came to a lone house where i asked and was refused until i me of the power of money in so poor a country and held up one of my guineas in my finger and thumb thereupon the man of the house who had hitherto pretended to have no english and driven me from his door by suddenly began to speak as clearly as was needful and agreed for five shillings to give me a night s lodging and guide me the next day to i slept uneasily that night fearing i should be robbed but i might have spared myself the pain for my host was no robber only miserably poor and a great cheat he was not alone in his poverty for the next morning we must go five miles about to the house of what he called a rich man to have one of my guineas changed this was perhaps a rich man for he would have scarce been thought so in the south for it took all he had the whole house was turned down and a neighbour brought under contribution before he could scrape together twenty shillings in silver the odd shilling he kept for himself protesting he could ill afford to have so great a sum of money lying locked up for all that he was very courteous and well spoken made us both sit down with his family to dinner and punch in a fine china bowl over which my rascal guide grew so merry that he refused to start i i was for getting angry and appealed to rich man was his name who had a witness to our bargain aud to my payment of the five shillings but had taken his share of the punch and vowed tbat no gentleman should leave	38
his table after the bowl was j so there was nothing for it but to sit and hear and i till all were staggered off to the bed or f the bam for their night s rest next day the fourth of my travels we were up before five upon the clock but my rascal guide got to the bottle at once and it was three hours before i had i him clear of the house and then as you shall hear only a worse disappointment as long as we went down a valley that lay before mr s house all went well only my guide looked constantly over his shoulder and when i asked him the cause only grinned at me no sooner however had we crossed the back of a and got out of sight of the house windows than ho told me lay right in front and that a hill top which he pointed out was my best i care very little for that said i since you are going with me the impudent cheat answered me in the that i he had no english my fine fellow i said i very well your i english comes and goes tell me what will bring it f hack is it more money you wish through the isle op five shillings said he and will bring ye there i reflected a while and then offered him two which he accepted and insisted on having in his hands at once for luck as he said but i think it was rather for my misfortune the two shillings carried him not quite as many miles at the end of which distance he sat down upon the and took off his from his feet like a man about to rest i was now red hot ha said i have you no more english he said no at that i boiled over and lifted my hand to strike him and he drawing a knife from his rags back and grinned at me like a wild cat at that forgetting everything but my anger i ran in upon him put aside his knife with my left and struck him in the mouth with the right i was a strong lad and very angry and he but a little man and he went down before me heavily by good luck his knife flew out of his hand as he fell i picked up both that and his wished him a good morning and set off upon my way leaving him bare foot and i chuckled to myself as i went being sure i was done with that rogue for a variety of reasons first he knew he could have no more of my money next the were worth in that country only a few pence and lastly the knife which was really a dagger it was against the law for him to carry in about half an hour of walk i overtook a great ragged man moving pretty fast but feeling before him with a staff he was quite blind and told me he was a which should have put me at my ease but his face went against me it seemed dark and dangerous and secret and presently as we began to go on alongside i saw the steel butt of a pistol sticking from under the of his coat pocket to carry such a thing meant a fine of fifteen pounds sterling upon a first offence and to the colonies upon a second nor could i quite see why a religious teacher should go armed or what a blind man could be doing with a pistol i told him about my guide for i was proud of what i had done and my vanity for once got the heels of my prudence at the mention of the five shillings he cried out so loud that i made up my mind i should say nothing of the other two and was glad he could not see my was it too much i asked a little faltering too much cries he why i will guide you to myself for a of brandy and give you the great pleasure of my company me that is a man of some learning in the bargain i said i did not see how a blind man could be a guide but at that he laughed aloud and said his stick was es enough for an eagle through the isle of h in the isle of at least says he where i knew every stone and bush by mark of head see now he said striking right and left as if to make sure down there a burn is running and at the head of it there stands a bit of a small hill with a stone cocked upon the top of that and if s hard at the foot of the hill that the way runs by to and the way here being for is plainly trodden and will show grassy through the i had to own he was right in every feature and told my wonder ha says he s nothing would ye believe me now that before the act came out and when there were in this country i could shoot ay could i cries he and then with a if ye had such a thing as a pistol here to try with i would show ye how it s done i told him i had nothing of the sort and gave him a wider berth if he h known his pistol stuck at that time quite plainly out of his pocket and i could see the sun twinkle on the steel of the butt but by the better luck for me he knew nothing thought all was covered and lied on in the dark he then began to question me where i from whether i was rich whether i could change a five shilling piece	38
for him which he declared he had that moment in his and all the time he kept up to me and i avoiding him we were now upon a sort of green cattle track which crossed the hills de j and we kept sides upon like dancers in a i had bo plainly tke upper hand that my spirits rose and indeed i took a pleasure in this game of man e but the grew and and at last began to swear in and to strike for my legs with his staff i told him that sure enough i had a pistol in my pocket as well as he and if he did not strike across the hill due south i would even blow bis brains out he became at once very polite and after trying to me for some time but quite in vain he cursed me once more in the and took himself off i watched liim along through and bi tapping with lis stick until he turned the end of a bill and disappeared in the next hollow then i struck on again for much better pleased to ha alone than to travel with that man of learning this was an unlucky day and these two of whom i had just rid one after the other were the two worst men i met with in the at on the sound of and looking over to the of there was an inn with an who of a very high family for to keep an inn is thought even more genteel iu the than it is with us perhaps as part of hospitality or perhaps because the trade is idle and drunken he spoke good and finding me to be something of a scholar tried me first in french where ho easily beat me and then in the latin in which i through isle op don t know which of us did best this pleasant put us at once upon friendly terms and i sat up and drank punch with him or to be more correct sat up and watched him drink it until he was so that he wept upon my shoulder i tried him as if by accident with a sight of s button but it was plain he had never seen or heard of it indeed he bore some grudge against the family and friends of and before he was drunk he read me a in very good latin but with a very ill meaning which he had made in verses upon a person of that house when i told him of my he shook his head and said i was lucky to have got clear that is a very dangerous man he said is his name he can shoot by the ear at several yards and has been often accused of highway and once of murder the cream of it is says i that he called himself a and why should he not says he when that is what he is it was of gave it to him because he was blind but perhaps it was a says my host for he is always on the road going from one place to another to hear the young folk say their religion and doubtless that is a great temptation to the poor man at last when my landlord could drink no more he showed me to a bed and i lay down in very good spirits k having travelled the greater part of that big and island of from to fifty miles as the crow flies and with my wanderings much nearer a hundred in four days and with little fatigue indeed i was by far in better heart and health of body at th e end of tbat long tramp than i had been at the beginning chapter the lad with the silver button there is a regular from to on the both shores of the sound are in the country of the strong of the and the people that passed the with me were almost all of that the of the boat on the other hand was called and since was one of the names of s and himself had sent me to that i was eager to come to private speech of in the crowded boat this was of course impossible and the passage was a very slow affair was no wind and as the boat was equipped we could pull but two oars on one side and one on the other the men gave way however with a good will the passengers taking to help them and the whole company giving the time in boat songs and what with the songs and the sea air and the good nature and spirit of all concerned and the bright weather the passage was a pretty thing to have seen but there was one melancholy part in the mouth of we found a g at sea going ship at e anchor this i at first to be one of king s which were kept along that coast both and winter to prevent with the french as we got a little nearer it became plain waa a ship o and what still more puzzled me not only her decks bat the sea beach also were quite black with people and were continually to and fro between them yet nearer and there began to come to our ears a great sound of mourning the people on board and those on the shore crying and one to another so as to pierce the heart then i understood this was an ship bound for the american colonies we put the boat alongside and the leaned over the weeping and reaching out their hands to my fellow passengers among whom they counted some near friends how long this might have gone on i do not know for they seemed to have no sense of time but at last the	38
captain of the ship who seemed near beside himself and no great wonder in the midst of this crying confusion came to the side and begged as to depart thereupon off and the chief singer in our boat struck into a melancholy air which was presently taken up both by the and their friends upon the beach so that it sounded from all sides like a lament for the dying i saw the tears run down the cheeks of the men and women in the boat even as they t at the oars j and the circumstances and the music across of the song which is one called no more were highly affecting even to myself at i got upon one side on the beach and said i made sure he was one of s men and what for no said he i am seeking somebody said i and it comes in my mind that you will have news of him is his name and very foolishly instead of showing him the button i sought to pass a shilling in his hand at this he drew back i am very much he said and this is not the way that one should behave to another at all the man you ask for is in france but if he was in my says he and your belly full of shillings i would not hurt a hair upon his body i saw i had gone the wrong way to work and without wasting time upon apologies showed him the button lying in the hollow of my palm said and i think ye might have begun with that end of the stick whatever but if ye are the lad with the silver button all is well and i have the word to see that ye come safe but if ye will pardon me to speak plainly says he there is a name that you should never take into your mouth and that is the of and there is a thing that ye would never do and that is to offer your dirty to a it was not very easy to for i could scarce tell him what was the truth that i had never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman he told me so on his part had no wish to his dealings with me only to fulfil his orders and be done with it and he made haste to give me my route this was to lie the night in in the public inn to cross the next day to and lie the night in the house of one john of the who was warned that i might come the third day to be set across one at and another at and then ask my way to the house of james of the at in of there was a good deal of as you hear the sea in all this part running deep into the mountains and winding about their roots it makes the country strong to hold and difficult to travel but full of prodigious wild and dreadful prospects i had some other advice from to speak with no one by the way to avoid and the red soldiers to leave the road and lie in a bush if i saw any of the latter coming for it was never to meet in with them and in brief to conduct myself like a or a agent as perhaps thought me the inn at was the most vile place that ever pigs were in full of smoke and silent i was not only discontented with my lodging but with myself for my of and thought i could hardly be worse off across i l but very as i was soon to see for i had not been half an hour at the inn standing in the door most of the time to ease my eyes from the smoke when a came close by the springs broke in a little hill on which the inn stood and one end of the house became a water places of public entertainment were bad enough all over scotland in those days yet it was a wonder to myself when i had to go from the fireside to the bed in which i slept over the shoes early in my next day s journey i overtook a little stout solemn man walking very slowly with his toes turned out sometimes reading in a book and sometimes marking the place with his finger and dressed decently and plainly in something of a style this i found to be another but of a different order from the blind man of being indeed one of those sent out by the society for christian knowledge to the more savage places of the his name was he spoke with the broad south country tongue which i was beginning to weary for the sound of and besides common we soon found we had a more particular bond of interest for my good friend the minister of had translated into the in his by time a number of hymns and pious books which used in his work and held in great esteem indeed it was one of these he was carrying and reading when we met we fell in company at once our ways lying as far as to as we went he stopped and spoke with all the and workers that we met or passed and though of course i could not tell what they about yet i judged mr must be well liked in the for i observed many of them to bring out their share a pinch of with him i told him as far in my affairs as i judged wise as far that is as they were none of s and gave as the place i was travelling to to meet a friend for i thought or even would be too particular and might put him	38
on the scent on his part he told me much of bis work and the people he worked among the hiding priests and the act the dress and many other of the time and place he seemed moderate parliament in several points and especially because they had framed the act more severely against who wore the dress than against those who weapons this moderation put it in my mind to question of the red fox and the tenants questions which i thought would seem natural enough in the mouth of one travelling to that country he said it was a bad business it s wonderful said he where the tenants find the money for their life is mere starvation ye don t carry such a thing as do ye mr no well i m better across wanting it but these tenants as i was saying are doubtless partly driven to it james in that s him they call james of the is to the captain of the and he is a man much looked up to and drives very hard and then there s one they call ah cried i what of him what of the wind that where it he s here and here to day and gone to morrow a fair cat he might be at the two of us out of yon bush and i wonder i ye u no carry such a thing as will ye i told him no and that he had asked the same thing more than once it s highly possible said he sighing but it seems strange ye carry it however as i was saying this is a bold desperate customer and well to be james s right hand his life is already he would at and maybe if a tenant body was to hang back he would get a in his you make a poor story of it all mr said i if it is all fear upon both sides i hear no more of it na said mr but there s love too and self denial that should put the like of you and me to shame there s something fine about it no perhaps christian but fine even by all that i hear is a to be respected there s many a lying draw sits close in in our own part of the country and stands well in the world s eye and maybe is a far worse man mr than yon of man s blood ay ay we might take a lesson by them ye ll perhaps think i ve been too long in the he added smiling to me i told him not at all that i had seen much to admire among the and if he came to that mr himself was a ay said he that s true it s a fine blood and what is the king s agent about i asked says putting his head in a bees he is to turn the tenants out by force i hear said i yes says he but the business has gone back and forth as folk say first james of the rode to and got some lawyer a doubt they all together like in a and had the proceedings stayed and then in again and had the upper hand before the of and now they tell me the first of the tenants are to to morrow it s to begin at under james s very windows which seem wise by my humble way of it do you think they u fight i asked well says they re or supposed to be for there s still a good deal of cold iron across lying by in quiet places and then has the coming but for all that i i was his lady i be well pleased till i got him home again they re queer customers the i asked if they were worse than their neighbours no they said he and that s the worst part of it for if can get his business done in he has it all to begin again in the next country which they call and which is one of the countries of the he s king s upon both and from both he has to drive out the tenants and indeed mr to be open with ye it s my belief that if he escapes the one lot he ll get his death by the other so we continued talking and walking the great part of the day until at last mr after expressing his delight in my company and satisfaction at meeting with a friend of mr s whom says he i will make bold to call that sweet singer of our proposed that i should make a short stage and lie the night in his house a little beyond to say truth i was for i had no great desire for john of the and since my double first with the guide and next with the gentleman i stood in some fear of any stranger accordingly we shook hands upon the bargain and came in the afternoon to a small house standing alone by the shore of the the sun was gone from the desert mountains of upon the hither side but shone on those oe on the farther the lay as still as a lake only the were crying round the sides o it aiid the whole place seemed solemn and uncouth we had no sooner come to the door of mr s dwelling than to my great surprise for i was now used to the politeness of he burst rudely past me dashed into the room caught up a jar and a small bom spoon and began snuff into his nose in most excessive quantities then he had a hearty fit o and looked round upon me with rather silly it s a tow i took b he i took a	38
vow upon me that i carry it doubtless it s a great but when i think upon the not only to the but to other points of christianity i think shame to mind it aa soon as we had eaten and and was the best of the good man s diet he took a grave face and said he had a duty to perform by mr bell and that was to inquire into my state of mind towards god i was inclined to smile at him since the business of the but he had not spoken long before he brought the tears into my eyes there are two things that men should never weary of goodness and humility we get none too much of them in this rough world and among cold proud people but mr bad their very speech upon bis tongue and though i was a good deal puffed up with my across and with having come off as the saying is with flying colours yet he soon had me on my knees beside a simple poor old man and both proud and glad to be there before we went to bed he offered me sixpence to help me on my way out of a scanty store he kept in the turf wall of his house at which excess of goodness i knew not what to do but at last he was so earnest with me that i thought it the more part to let him have his way and so left him poorer than myself chapter the death op the red fox the next day mr found for me a man who had a boat of his own and was to cross the that afternoon into fishing him he prevailed on to take me for he was one of his flock and in this way i saved a day s travel and the price of the two public i must otherwise have passed it was near noon before we set out a dark day with clouds and the sun shining upon little patches the sea was here very deep and still and had scarce a wave upon it so that i must put the water to my lips before i could believe it to be truly salt the mountains on either side were high rough and barren very black and gloomy in the shadow of the clouds but all with little where the sun shone upon them it seemed a hard country this of for people to care as much about as did there was but one thing to mention a little after we had started the sun shone upon a little moving of scarlet close in along the to the north it was much of the same red as soldiers coats every now and then too there came little sparks and as though the sun had struck upon bright steel the death op the red fox i asked my what it should be and he answered he supposed it was some of the red soldiers coming from fort william into against the poor of the country well it was a sad sight to me and whether it was because of my thoughts of or from something prophetic in my bosom although this was but the second time i had seen king george s troops i had no good will to them at last we came so near the point of land at the entering in of that i begged to be set on shore my who was an honest fellow and of his promise to the would fain have carried me on to but as this was to take farther from my secret destination i insisted and was set on shore at last under the wood of or for i have heard it both ways in s country of this was a wood of growing on a steep side of a mountain that the it had many and and a road or bridle track ran north and south through the midst of it by the edge of which where was a spring i sat down to eat some oat bread of mr s and think upon my situation here i was not only troubled by a cloud of but far more by the doubts of my mind what i ought to do why i was going to join myself with an and a would be murderer like whether i should not be acting more like a man of sense to tramp back to the south direct by my own and at my own charges and what mr or even mr would think o me if they should ever learn my folly and presumption these were the doubts that now began to come in on me stronger than ever as i was so sitting and thinking a sound of men and horses came to me through the wood and presently at a turning of the road i saw four travellers come into view the way was in this part so rough and narrow that they came single and led their horses by the reins the first was a great rod headed gentleman of an imperious and flushed face who carried his hat in his hand and himself for he was in a breathing heat the second by bis decent black garb and white wig i correctly took to be a lawyer the third was a servant and wore some part of his in which showed that his master was of a family and either an or else in singular good with the government since the wearing of was against the act if i had been better in these things i would have known the to be of the or colours this servant had a good sized on his horse and a net of to punch with hanging at the saddle bow as was often enough the custom with luxurious travellers in that part of the country as	38
some of them to run and others to put up their pieces and cover me and still i stood the death op the red fox in here among the trees said a voice close by indeed i scarce knew what i was doing but i obeyed and as i did so i heard the bang and the balls whistle in the just inside the shelter of the trees i found standing with a fishing rod he gave me no salutation indeed it was no time for only come says he and set running along the side of the mountain towards and i like a sheep to follow him now we ran among the now stooping behind low upon the mountain side now crawling on all among the the pace was deadly my heart seemed bursting against my ribs and i had neither time to think nor breath to speak with only i remember seeing with wonder that every now and then would himself to his full height and look back and every time he did so there came a great far away cheering and crying of the soldiers quarter of an hour later stopped clapped down in the and turned to me now said he it s earnest do as i do for your life and at the same speed but now with infinitely more precaution we traced back again across the mountain bide by the same way that we had come only perhaps duck i higher till at last threw himself down in the upper wood of where i had found him at the first and lay with his face in the panting like a dog my own sides so ached my head so swam my tongue so hung out of my mouth with heat and that i lay beside him like one dead chapter xviii i talk with in the wood of was the first to come round he rose went to the border of the wood peered out a little and then returned and sat down well said he yon was a hot burst david i said nothing nor so much as lifted my face had seen murder done and a great ruddy jovial gentleman struck out of life in a moment the pity of that sight was still sore within me and yet that was but a part of my concern here was murder done upon the man hated here was in the trees and running from the troops and whether his was the hand that fired or only the head that ordered signified but little by my way of it my only friend in that wild country was blood guilty in the first d i held him in horror i could not look upon his face i would have rather lain alone in the rain on my cold isle than in that warm wood beside a murderer are ye still wearied he asked again no said i still with my face in the no i am not wearied now and i can speak you and me must i said i liked you very well part t tt but your ways are not mine and they re not s and the short and the long of it is just that we must i will hardly from ye david without some kind of reason for the same said mighty gravely if ye ken anything against my reputation it s the least thing that ye should do for old acquaintance sake to let me hear the name of it and if ye have only taken a to my society it will be proper for me to judge if i m insulted said i what is the sense of this ye ken very well yon man lies in his blood upon the road he was silent for a little then says he did ever ye hear tell of the story of the man and the good people by which he meant the no said i nor do i want to hear it with your permission mr i will tell it you whatever says the man ye should ken was cast upon a rock in the sea where it appears the good people were in use to come and rest as they went through to the name of this rock is called the and it s not far from where we suffered well it seems the man cried so sore if he could just see his little before he died t that at last the king of the good people took upon him and sent one flying that brought back the in d and laid it down beside the man where he lay bag talk with in the wood sleeping so when the man woke there was a beside him and something into the inside of it that moved well it seems he was one of these gentry that think aye the worst of things and for greater security he stuck his throughout that before he opened it and there was his dead i am thinking to myself mr that you and the man are very much alike do you mean you had no hand in it cried i sitting up i will tell you first of all mr of as one friend to another said that if i were going to kill a gentleman it would not be in my own country to bring trouble on my and i would not go wanting sword and gun and with a long fishing rod upon my back well said i that s true and now continued taking out his and laying his hand upon it in a certain manner i swear upon the holy iron i had neither art nor part act nor thought in it i thank god for that cried i and offered him my hand he did not appear to see it and here is a great deal of work about a said	38
he they are not so scarce that i ken at least said i you cannot justly blame me foi you know very well what you told me in the but j the temptation and the act are different i thank god again for that we may all be tempted but to take a life in cold blood and i could say no more for the moment and do you know who did it i added do you know that man in the black coat i have clear mind about his coat said but it sticks in my head that it was blue blue or black did ye know him said i i just swear to him says he very close by me to be sure but it s a strange thing that i should just have been my can you swear that you don t know him i cried half half in a mind to laugh at his not yet says he but i ve a grand memory for forgetting david and yet there was one thing i saw clearly said i and that was that you exposed yourself and me to draw the soldiers it s very likely said and so would any you and me were innocent of that transaction the better reason since we were suspected that we should get clear i cried the innocent should surely come before the guilty why david said he the innocent have aye a chance to get in court but for the lad that i talk with in the wood shot the bullet i think the best place for him will be the them that dipped their hands in any little difficulty should be very of the case of them that have and that is the good christianity for if it was the other way round about and the lad whom i just clearly see had been in our shoes and we in his as might very well have been i think we would be a good deal obliged to him if he would draw the soldiers when it came to this i gave up but he looked so innocent all the time and was in such clear good faith in what he said and so ready to sacrifice himself for what he deemed his duty that my mouth was closed mr s words came back to me that we ourselves might take a lesson by these wild well here i had taken mine s morals were all tail first but he was ready to give his life for them such as they were said i fu not say it s the good christianity as i understand it but it s good enough and here i offer ye my hand for the second time whereupon he gave me both of his saying surely t had cast a spell upon him for he could forgive me anything then he grew very grave and said we had not much time to throw away but must both flee that country he because he was a and the whole of would now be searched like a chamber and every one obliged to give a good account of himself and i because i was certainly involved in the murder oh says willing to give him a little lesson i have no fear of the justice of my country as if this was your country said he or as if ye would be tried here in a country of it s au scotland said i man i wonder at ye said this is a s been killed well it ll be tried in the head place with fifteen in the jury box and the biggest of all and s the duke sitting on the bench justice david the same justice by all the world as found a while ago at the road side this me a little i confess and would have me more if i had known how nearly exact were s indeed it was but in one point that he exaggerated there being but eleven on the jury though as the other four were equally in the duke s it mattered less than might appear still i cried out that he was unjust to the duke of who for all he was a was yet a wise and honest nobleman said the man s a doubt but i would never deny he was a good to his and what would the think if there was a shot and hanged and their own chief the justice general but i have often observed says that you low country bodies have no clear idea of what s right and wrong at this i did at last laugh out aloud t o i talk with al in the wood my surprise joined in and laughed as merrily as myself na na said he we re in the david and when i tell ye to run take my word and run doubt it s a hard thing to and starve in the but it s harder yet to lie in a red coat prison i asked him whither we should flee and as he told me to the i was a little better inclined to go with him for indeed i was growing impatient to get back and have the upper hand of my uncle besides made so sure there would be no question of justice in the matter that i began to be afraid he might be right of all deaths i would truly like least to die by the gallows and the picture of that instrument came into my head with extraordinary clearness as i had once seen it engraved at the top of a s ballad and took away my appetite for courts of justice ru chance it said i i ll go with you but mind you said it s no small thing ye lie bare and hard and brook many an empty belly your	38
bed shall be the s and your life shall be like the hunted deer s and ye shall sleep with your hand upon your weapons ay man ye shall many a weary foot or we get clear i tell ye this at the start for it s a that i ken well but if ye ask what other chance ye have i answer either take to the with me or else hang and s a choice very easily made said i and we shook hands upon it and now let s another at the red coats i says and he led me to the north eastern fringe of f the wood looking out between the trees we could see a great bide o mountain running down exceeding steep into the waters o the it was a rough part all hanging stone and and bit of and away at the far end towards little red soldiers were dipping up and down over hill and and growing smaller every minute there was no cheering now for i think they bad other uses for what breath was left them but they still stuck to the trail and doubtless thought that we were close in front of them watched them smiling to himself ay said he they ll be weary before they ve j got to the end of that employ and so you and me i david can sit down and eat a bite and breathe a bit longer and take a from my bottle then we ll strike for the house of my james of the where i must get my clothes and my arms and money to carry us along and then david we ll cry forth fortune i and take a cast among the so we sat again and ate and drank in a place whence we could see the sun going down into a field of great wild and as i now i talk with in wood to wander in with my companion partly as we so sat and partly afterwards on the way to each of us his adventures and i shall here set down so much of s as seems either curious or needful it appears he ran to the as soon as the wave was passed saw me and lost me and saw me again as i tumbled in the and at last had one glimpse of me clinging on the yard it was this that put him in some hope i would maybe get to land after all and made him leave those and messages which had brought me for my sins to that unlucky country of in the meanwhile those still on the had got the launched and one or two were on board of her already when there came a second wave greater than the first and heaved the out of her place and would certainly have sent her to the bottom had she not struck and caught on some of the when she had struck first it had been bows on so that the stern had hitherto been lowest but now her stern was thrown in the air and the bows plunged under the sea and with that the water began to pour into the like the pouring of a mill dam it took the colour out of s face even to tell what followed for there were still two men lying impotent in their and these seeing the water pour in and thinking the ship had begun to cry out aloud and that with such cries that all who were on deck tumbled one after another into the and fell to their oars they were not two hundred yards away when there came a third great sea and at that the lifted clean over the her canvas filled for a moment and she seemed to sail in chase of them but settling all the while and presently she drew down and down as if a hand was drawing her and the sea closed over the of never a word they spoke as they pulled ashore being stunned with the horror of that screaming but they had scarce set foot upon the beach when woke up as if out of a muse and bade them lay hands upon they hung back indeed having little taste for the employment but was like a that was alone that he had a great sum about him that he had been the means of losing the and drowning all their comrades and that here was both revenge and wealth upon a single cast it was seven against one in that part of the shore there was no rock that could set his back to and the sailors began to spread out and come behind him and then said the little man with the red head i mind of the name that he is called said i ay said well it was him that took up the clubs for me asked the men if they feared of a judgment and says he i ll put my back to the s that s none such an i talk with in the wood entirely bad little man yon little man with the red head said he has some of decency well said i he was kind to me in his way and so he was to said he and by my i found his way a very good one but ye see david the loss of the ship and the cries of these poor lads sat very ill upon the man and i m thinking that would be the cause of it well i would think so says i for he was as keen as any of the rest at the beginning but how did take it it sticks in my mind that he would take it very ill says but the little man cried to me to run and indeed i thought it was a good observe	38
and ran the last that i saw they were all in a knot upon the beach like folk that were not agreeing very well together what do you mean by that said i well the fists were going said and saw one man go down like a pair of but i thought it would be better no to wait ye see there s a strip of in that end of which is no good company for a gentleman like me if it been for that i would have waited and looked for ye let alone giving a hand to the little man it was droll how dwelt on mr s stature for to say the truth the one was not much smaller than the other so says he continuing i set my best foot forward and whenever i met in with any one i cried out there was a wreck ashore man they stop to with me ye should have seen them for the beach and when they got there they found they had had the pleasure of a run which is aye good for a i m thinking it was a judgment on the that the went down in the lump and break but it was a very unlucky thing for you that same for if any wreck had come ashore they would have hunted high and low and would soon have found ye chapter xix the house of night fell as we were walking and the clouds had broken up in the afternoon settled in and so that it fell for the season of the year extremely dark the way we went was over rough mountain sides and though pushed on with an assured manner i could by no means see how he directed himself at last about half past ten of the clock we came to the to of a and saw lights below us it seemed a house door stood open and let out a beam of fire and candle light and all the house and five or six persons were moving hurriedly about each carrying a lighted brand james must have tint his wits said if this was the soldiers of you and me he would be in a mess but i dare say he ll have a on the road and he would ken well enough no soldiers would find the way that we came he whistled three times in a particular manner it was strange to see how at the first sound of it all the moving came to a stand as if the were and how at the third the bustle again as before m z having thus set folks minds at rest we came down the and were met at the yard gate for this place was like a well doing farm by a tall handsome man of more than fifty who cried out to in the james said i will ask ye to speak in scotch for here is a young gentleman with me that has of the other this is him he added putting his arm through mine a young gentleman of the and a in his country too but i am thinking it will be the better for his health if we give his name the go by james of the turned to me for a moment and greeted me courteously enough the next he had turned to this has been a dreadful accident he cried it will bring trouble on the country and he wrung hands said ye must take the sour with the sweet man is dead and be thankful f oi that ay said james and by my i wish he was alive again if s all very fine to blow and boast beforehand but now it s done and who s to bear the of it the accident fell out in mind ye that it s that must pay and i am a man that has a family while this was going on i looked about me at the servants some were on digging in the blame the of fear of the house or the farm buildings from which they brought out guns swords and different weapons of war others carried them away and by the sound of blows from somewhere further down the i suppose they buried them though they were all so busy there prevailed no kind of order in their efforts men struggled together for the same gun and ran into each other with their burning and james was continually turning about from his talk with to cry out orders which were apparently never understood the faces in the were like those of people with hurry and panic and though none spoke above his breath their speech sounded both anxious and angry it was about this time that a came out of the house carrying a pack or bundle and it has often made me smile to think how s instinct awoke at the mere sight of it what s that the has he asked we re just setting the house in order said james in his frightened and somewhat way they ll search with candles and we must have all things straight we re digging the bit guns and swords into the moss ye see and these i am thinking will be your ain french clothes bury my french clothes cried no and he laid hold upon the packet and retired into the bam to shift himself me in the meanwhile to his me into the kitchen and but down with me at table smiling and talking at first in a very hospitable manner but presently the gloom npon him he sat frowning and biting his fingers only me from time to time and then gave me hut a word or two and a poor smile and back into his private terrors his wife sat by the fire and wept with her face in her bands bis eldest	38
habit saw him in but i thought he seemed indeed he was at every straw and all the time i i dare say saw the faces of his hereditary foes on the i bench and in the jury box and the gallows in the back l ground well sir says turning to me what say i ye to that ye are here under the of my honour j and it s my part to see nothing done but what shall please you i have but one word to say said i for to all this dispute i am a perfect stranger but the plain common sense is to set the blame where it belongs and that is on the man that fired the shot paper him as ye call it set the hunt on him and let honest innocent folk show their faces in safety but at this both and james cried out in horror j bidding me hold my tongue for that was not to be thought of and asking me what the would think which confirmed me it must have been a from that did the act and if i did not see that the l id might be caught ye i surely thought of that said they with such i innocent earnestness that my hands dropped at my side and i o the house of fear very well then said i paper me if you please paper paper king george we re all three innocent and that seems to be what s wanted i but at least sir said i to james recovering from my little fit of annoyance i am s friend and if i can be to friends of his i will not at the risk i thought it best to put a fair face on my consent for i saw troubled and besides thinks i to myself as soon as my back is turned they will paper me as they call it whether i consent or not but in this i saw i was wrong for i had no sooner said the words than mrs leaped out of her chair came running over to us and wept first upon my neck and then on s blessing god for our goodness to her family as for you it was no more than your duty she said but for this lad that has come here and seen us at our worst and seen the like a him that by rights should give his commands like any king as for you my lad she says my heart is not to have your name but i have your face and as long as my heart beats my bosom i will keep it and think of it and bless it and with that she kissed me and burst once more into such sobbing that i stood abashed said looking mighty silly the day comes soon in this month of july and to morrow there ll be a fine to do in a fine riding of and crying of and running of red coats and it you and me to the sooner gone thereupon we said farewell and set out again bending somewhat eastward in a fine mild dark night and over much the same broken country as before the word of the chapter xx the flight in the the rocks sometimes we walked sometimes ran and as it drew on to morning walked ever the less and ran the more though upon its face that country appeared to be a desert yet there were huts and houses of the people of which we must have passed more than twenty hidden in quiet places of the hills when we came to one of w these would leave me in the way and go himself and rap upon the side of the house and speak a while at the window with some awakened this was to pass the news which in that country was so much of a duty that must pause to attend to it even while for his life and s well attended to by others that in more than half of the houses where we called they had heard already of the murder in the others as well as i could make out standing back at a distance and hearing a strange tongue the news was received with more of consternation than surprise for all our hurry day began to come in while we were still far from any shelter it found us in a prodigious valley strewn with rocks and where ran a foaming river wild mountains stood around it there there neither grass nor trees and t have thought since then tliat it ma y have been the valley called where the was in the time of king william but for the details o our i am all to seek our way lying now by short cuts now by great onr pace being so hurried our time of usually by night and the names oe such places as i asked and heard being in the tongue and the more easily forgotten the first peep of morning then showed us this horrible place and i could see knit his brow this is no fit place for you and me he said this is a place they re bound to watch and with that he ran harder than ever down to the water side in a part where the river was split in two among three rocks it went through with a horrid thundering that made my belly and there hung over the a little mist of spray looked neither to the right nor to the left but jumped clean upon the middle rock and fell there on his hands and knees to check himself for that rock was small and he might have pitched over on the far side i had scarce time to measure the or to understand the peril before i bad followed him	38
and he had caught and stopped me so there we stood side by side upon a small rock slippery with spray a far broader leap in front of us and the river upon all sides when i saw where i was there came on me a deadly sickness of fear and i put my hand over my eyes took me and the flight in the shook me i saw he was but the roaring of the falls and the trouble of my mind prevented me from hearing only i saw his face was red with anger and that he stamped upon the rock the same look showed me the water raging by and the mist hanging in the air and with that i covered my eyes again and shuddered the next minute had set the brandy bottle to my lips and forced me to drink about a which sent the blood into my head again then putting his hands to his mouth and his mouth to my ear he shouted hang or drown and turning his back upon me leaped ever the farther branch of the stream and landed safe i was now alone upon the rock which gave me the more room the brandy was singing in my ears i had this good example fresh before me and just wit enough to see that if i did not leap at once i should never leap at all i bent low on my knees and flung myself forth with that kind of anger of despair that has sometimes stood me in stead of courage sure enough it was but my hands that reached the full length these slipped caught again slipped again and i was back into the when seized me first by the hair then by the collar and with a great strain dragged me into safety never a word he said but set off again for his life and i must to my feet and run bim i had been weary before but now i was sick and bruised and partly drunken with the brandy i kept stumbling as i ran i had a that came near to me and when at last paused under a great rock that stood there among a number of others it was none too soon for david a great rock i have said but by rights it was two rocks leaning together at the top both some twenty feet high and at the first sight inaccessible even though you may say he had as good as four hands failed twice in an attempt to climb them and it s only at the third trial and then by standing on my shoulders and leaping up with such force as i thought must have broken my collar bone that he secured a once there he let down his and with the aid of that and a pair of shallow in the rock i scrambled up beside him then i saw why we had come there for the two rocks being both somewhat hollow on the top and sloping one to the other made a kind of dish or where as many as three or four men might have lain hidden all this while had not said a word and had and climbed with such a savage silent frenzy of hurry that i knew he was in mortal fear of some even now we were on the rock he said nothing nor so much as relaxed the frowning look upon his face but clapped flat down and keeping only one eye above the edge of our place of shelter all round the compass the dawn had quite clear we could the flight in the heath e i see the stony sides of the valley and its bottom which was with rocks and the river which went from one side to another and made white falls but nowhere the smoke of a house nor any living creature but some screaming round a cliff then at last smiled ay said he now we have a chance and then looking at me with some amusement ye re no very at the jumping said he at this i suppose i coloured with mortification for he added at once small blame to ye to be feared of a thing and yet to do it is what makes the prettiest kind of a man and then there was water there and water s a thing that even me no no said its no you that s to blame it s me i asked him why why said he i have proved myself a this night for first of all i take a wrong road and that in my own country of so that the day has caught us where we should never have been and thanks to that we lie here in some danger and discomfort and next which is the worst of the two for a man that has been so much among the as myself i have come wanting a water bottle and here we lie for a long summer s day with but neat spirit ye may think that a small matter but before it comes night david yell give me news of it i was anxious to redeem my character and offered brisk if he would pour out the brandy to run down and fill the bottle at the river i waste the good spirit either says he it s been a good friend to you this night or in my poor opinion ye would still be on yon stone and what s says he ye may have observed you that s a man of so much penetration that was perhaps walking quicker than his you i cried you were running fit to burst was i so said he well then ye may depend upon it there was time to be lost and now here is enough said gang you to your sleep lad and	38
ril watch accordingly i lay down to sleep a little earth had drifted in between the top of the two rocks and some grew there to be a bed to me the last thing i heard was still the crying of the i dare say it would be nine in the morning when i was roughly awakened and found s hand pressed upon my mouth he whispered ye were well said i surprised at his anxious and dark face and why not he peered over the edge of the rock and signed to me to do the like it was now high day and veiy hot the valley was as clear as in a picture about half a mile up the water was a camp of red coats a big fire blazed in their midst at which some were cooking and near by the flight in the on the top of a rock about as high as ours there stood a with the sun on his arms x ll the way down along the river side were posted other here near together there scattered some planted like the first on places of command some on the ground level and and counter marching so as to meet half way higher up the where the ground was more open the chain of posts was continued by horse soldiers whom we could see in the distance riding to and fro lower down the continued but as the stream was suddenly swelled by the of a considerable bum they were more widely set and only watched the and stepping stones i took but one look at them and again into my place it was strange indeed to see this valley which had lain so solitary in the hour of dawn with arms and dotted with the red coats and breeches ye see said this was what i was afraid of that they would watch the burn side they began to come in about two hours ago and man but ye re a grand hand at the sleeping i we re in a narrow place if they get up the sides of the hill they could easy spy us with a glass but if they ll only keep in the foot of the valley we ll do yet the posts are thinner down the water and come night we ll try our hand at getting by them and what are we to do till night i asked lie here says he and that one g ood scotch word was indeed m the of the of the day that we had now to you are to remember that we lay on the bare top of a rock like upon a the sun beat ua cruelly j the rock grew bo heated a man could scarce endure the touch o it and the little of earth and which kept cooler was only large enough for one at a time we took turn about to lie on the naked rock which was indeed like the position of that saint that was oo a and it ran in my mind how strange it was that in the same climate and at only a few days distance i should have suffered so cruelly first from cold upon my island and now from heat upon this rock all the while we had no water only raw brandy for a drink which was worse than nothing but we t the bottle as cool as we could burying it in the earth aad got some relief by bathing our breasts and temples the soldiers kept all day in the bottom of the valley now changing guard now in parties hunting among the rocks these lay round iu so great a number that to look for men among them waa like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay j and being so hopeless a task it was gone about with the loss care yet we could sec the soldiers their among the which sent a cold into my and they would sometimes hang about our rock that we scarce dared to breathe it was in this way that i the right english speech one fellow as he went by actually the flight in the clapping his hand upon the sunny face of the rock on which we lay and it off again with an oath i tell you it s ot says he j and i was amazed at the tones and the odd sing song in which he spoke and no less at that strange trick of dropping out the letter h to be sure i had heard but he had taken his ways from all sorts of people and spoke so imperfectly at the best that i set down the most of it to my surprise was all the greater to hear that manner of speaking in the mouth of a grown man and indeed i have never grown used to it nor yet altogether with the english grammar as perhaps a very critical eye might here and there spy out even in these the and pain of these hours upon the rock grew only the greater as the day went on the rock getting still the and the sun there were and sickness and sharp pangs like to be supported i minded then and have often minded since on the lines in our scotch the moon by night thee shall not nor yet the sun by day and indeed it was only by god s blessing that we were neither of us sun smitten at last about two it was beyond men s bearing and there was now temptation to resist as well as pain to for the sun being now got a little into the s west there came a patch of on the east of our rock which was the side from the soldiers ab well one death as another said and slipped over the edge	38

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