by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER V
That evening Mr. Slippen's boy presented himself at Captain Hampton'slodgings with a note. It contained only the words 'Dear sir,--Our manuses the "White Horse," Frogmore Street, Islington. I await yourinstructions before moving further in the matter.'
'Well, youngster, what is your name?' Captain Hampton asked, as he putthe note on the table beside him.
'Jacob Wrigley,' the lad replied promptly.
'Here is half-a-crown for yourself, Jacob.'
'Thank you, sir,' the boy said, as he took it up with a duck of the headand slipped it into his pocket.
'Your office hours seem to be long, Jacob; that is, if you have beenthere since I saw you this morning.'
'No, sir, I ain't a-been there since one o'clock, not till an hour ago.I have been down at Greenwich, keeping my eye on a party there. I gotdone there at six o'clock, and as the governor had said "Come round andtell me what you have found out, I shall be in up to nine o'clock,"round I went in course. The governor and me don't have no regular hours.Some chaps wouldn't like that, but it doesn't matter to me, 'cause Isleeps there.'
'Sleep where, Jacob?'
'In where you see me. The things is stowed away in that cupboard in thecorner, and I get on first-rate. It is a good place, especially inwinter. I lays the blankits down in front of the fire, and keeps itgoing all night sometimes.'
'But haven't you got any place of your own to go to, Jacob?'
The boy shook his head. 'I was brought up in a wan, I was,' the boysaid. 'I hooked it one day, two years ago, 'cause they knocked me aboutso. I pretty nigh starved at first, but one day I saw a chap prigging anold gent's ticker. The old one shouted just as he got off; I was on thelook-out and as the chap came along I chucked myself down in front ofhim and down he came. I grabbed him, and afore he could shake me off alot of chaps got hold of him and held him till a peeler came up. Theydid not find the watch on him, but I had seen him as he ran passsomething to a chap he ran close to and pretty nigh knocked down. I gavemy evidence at the police court. The governor happened to be there, andarter it was over and the chaps had got six months, and the beak hadsaid I gave my evidence very well, and gave me five bob out of the poorbox, he came up to me and said, "You are a smart young fellow. Do youwant a job?" I said I just did, and so he took me on; that is how itcame about, you see. The only thing I don't like is, he makes me go to anight school. He says I shan't never do no good unless I can get to readand write; so I does it, but I hates it bitter.'
'He is quite right, Jacob. You stick to it; it will come easier as youget on.'
'Yes, I know I wants it, for letters and that sort of thing, but it isbitter hard. I would rather stand opposite a house all day in winterthan I would sit for an hour trying to make my pen go where I wants itto. It allus will go the other way, and the drops of ink will come outawful. Good night, sir.'
'Good night, lad. Tell Mr. Slippen when you see him that I shallprobably be round to-morrow or next day.'
On the following morning Captain Hampton called early at Chester Square.Mr. Hawtrey and Dorothy had just finished breakfast. Mrs. Daintree, aswas her custom after being out late the night before, had taken hers inbed.
'I have good news so far. I have discovered, or rather Slippen has,where Truscott is to be found. He frequents a public-house called theWhite Horse, Frogmore Street, Islington.'
'That is good news indeed, Ned,' Mr. Hawtrey said warmly, as he shookhands with him. As he turned to Dorothy, he saw with surprise that shehad turned suddenly pale, and that her hands shook as she put down thecup.
'You are pleased, are you not, Dorothy?' he asked in surprise.
The girl hesitated. 'Yes,' she said, 'of course, I am pleased in oneway, but not in another. It frightens me to think that the man may bebrought up, and that I may have to give evidence; it is horrid beingtalked about, but it would be much worse to stand up to be stared at,and to have it all put in the papers.'
'Pooh, pooh, my dear, your evidence will be very simple,' her fathersaid. 'You will only have to tell that you received the first of theseletters, that you know nothing of the man, and that his assertion thathe has letters of yours is utterly false.'
'Yes, father, but I have noticed that in all trials of this sort theyask such numberless questions, and that they always manage somehow toput the witnesses into a false light. They will say, "How do you knowthat he has no letters of yours? Do you mean to tell this court that youhave never written any letters?" And when I have said I have neverwritten any letters that I should object to having read out in courtthey will insinuate that I am telling a lie, and that I have done allsorts of dreadful things; and though they will not be able to prove aword of it, I shall know, as I go out, that half the people will believethat I have. I shall hate it, and I am sure that Algernon will hate iteven more.'
'Well, Algernon has no one but himself to thank for its having come tothis pass,' Mr. Hawtrey said sharply. 'It was his interference, and hisgoing down to Scotland Yard, that caused that paragraph to appear in thepaper. If he had left the matter alone nothing whatever would have beenheard about it outside our circle. I like Halliburn, but I must say thatat present nothing would give me more satisfaction than to hear that hehad gone for a month upon the Continent, for he comes round here everyafternoon, and worries and fusses over the matter until he upsets youand fills me with an almost irresistible desire to seize him by theshoulders and turn him out of the room.'
'He is a little trying, father,' Dorothy admitted, 'but of course hedoes not like it.'
'Nor do any of us. It is a hundred times worse for you than it is forhim, and yet--But there, let us change the subject. What is it you weresaying, Ned? Oh yes, you have heard where Truscott lives.'
'Not exactly where he lives, but the public-house where he is to be metwith, and in his case it comes to pretty well the same thing. I hadnothing to do with finding it out. The man Slippen took it in hand, andin a few hours did more than I had done in three weeks. He sent a fellowdown to Windsor, to some betting men he knew, and sent me word in theevening. It was rather mortifying, I must confess, and I feel as if Ihad been taken down several pegs in my own estimation.'
'And what is to be done next, father?' Dorothy asked anxiously.
'Ah, that is the point we shall have to talk over, my dear. At presentwe have not a thread of evidence to connect him with the affair. Wemust, in the first place, bring it home to him. Afterwards, we will seewhether we must have him arrested and charged in court, or whether wecan frighten him into making a confession. I am very much afraid that,after all that has been said about it, there will be nothing for it buta public prosecution; however, there will be time to think of thatafterwards.' Captain Hampton saw Dorothy go pale again, and mentallyresolved that he would do all in his power to save her from the ordealfrom which she evidently shrank. He was a little surprised at hernervousness, for as a child she had been absolutely fearless, but hesupposed that the worry, and perhaps the fidgeting of Halliburn hadshaken her somewhat, as, indeed, was natural enough. 'You are goinground to see this detective, I suppose?' Mr. Hawtrey asked.
'Yes, I came in on my way for instructions. Slippen will no doubtpropose that a sharp watch shall be kept over his movements, and Isuppose that there can be no doubt that is the right thing to be done.'
'I should say so, certainly.'
'That, at least, Miss Hawtrey, will commit us to nothing afterwards, andI trust even yet we may find some way of avoiding the unpleasantness youfeared.'
'I may as well go with you, Ned,' Mr. Hawtrey said; 'I have nothingparticular to do this morning; a walk will do me good. I am gettingbilious and out of sorts with all this worry, and would give a goodround sum to be quietly down in Lincolnshire again. Dorothy evidentlyfeels it a good deal more than I should have thought she would,' he wenton as they left the house.
'It is a horribly annoying sort of thing to happen to anyone, Mr.Hawtrey; because it is so desperately difficult to meet anonymousslander of this sort, and of cour
se her engagement makes it so much theworse for her.'
'Yes, that is the rub, Ned. I am not at all pleased with the fellow; heseems to think of nothing but the manner in which it affects himself. Ihave had, once or twice, as much as I could do not to let out at him. Ihad it on the tip of my tongue to say, "Confound it, sir! What the deucedo I care for you or your family? The ancestors through whom you gotyour title were doubtless respectable enough, and as far as I know, may,two or three generations back, have been washer-women, when our peoplehad already held their estates hundreds of years." Of course, Dorothytakes his part, but my own belief is that it is he who is worrying her,quite as much as the scandal itself.
'Dorothy is not marrying for a title; she refused a higher one than hislast autumn. I don't say that his being a lord might not have influencedher to some extent; I suppose all girls have vanity enough to like tocarry off a man whom scores of others will envy her for, but I don'tthink that went very far with her. I believe that, as far as she knew ofhim, she liked him for himself; not, I suppose, in any desperate sort ofway, but as a pleasant, gentlemanly sort of fellow of whom everyonespoke well, and whom she esteemed and thought she could be very happywith. She has no occasion to marry for money; of course my estate is, asI dare say you know, entailed, and will go to my cousin, Jack Hawtrey,who is a sporting parson down in Somersetshire--a good fellow, with alarge family; but there will be plenty for her from her mother, besidesmy unentailed property.
'I cannot help thinking that Halliburn's worrying, and the very evidentfact that he thinks more of the scandal as affecting his future wifethan of her feelings in the matter, may have shown her that she hadover-estimated him, and that although he may be a very respectable andwell-behaved young nobleman, he is a selfish and shallow-minded fellowafter all. Dorothy may say nothing now, but she is not the sort of girlto forgive that sort of thing, and I don't mind saying it to you, as anold friend, Ned, that I should not be at all surprised if, when oncethis affair is thoroughly cleared up, she throws Halliburn overaltogether.'
Captain Hampton made no reply, but had his companion turned to look athim he could hardly have avoided noticing that the expression on hisface expressed anything but sympathy with the tone of irritation inwhich he had himself spoken.
Mr. Slippen was in when they arrived at Clifford's Inn. The door wasopened by him when they knocked, a proof that the boy was not at hispost.
'Come in, Captain Hampton; I fancied that you would be down here.'
'This is Mr. Hawtrey, Mr. Slippen,' said Ned, as they followed him intohis room; 'he thought he would like to talk over with you the plan ofcampaign.'
'I am glad you have come, sir; it is always more satisfactory to meetone's principal in matters of this kind; there is less chance of anymistake being made. It is surprising sometimes to find, after one ishalf through one's work, that one has been proceeding under an entirelyfalse impression. One may think, for example, that one's client is bentupon carrying a matter out to the bitter end, and will not hear ofanything of a compromise, and then one discovers that he is perfectlyready to condone everything, and to make every sacrifice to avoidpublicity. Of course, if one had known that in the first place, it wouldhave immensely facilitated matters.'
'I should be very glad to avoid publicity myself,' Mr. Hawtrey said,'but unfortunately the matter has gone so far that I do not see how itcan possibly be avoided.'
Mr. Slippen shook his head.
'I don't see, myself, at present,' he agreed, 'how the scandal is to beset at rest, except by the prosecution of its author--that is to say, ifwe can get evidence enough to prosecute him. Of course, if we had suchevidence it would be easy enough to force him into making a completeretractation; but, if we did, such a retractation would hardly besatisfactory, as, supposing it were published, people would say, "Howare we to know that this letter is written by the fellow who wrote theothers? If it is the man, how is it that he is not prosecuted for it?"Certainly there would be a strong suspicion that he had been boughtoff.'
'I see that myself,' Mr. Hawtrey agreed. 'I don't see any other way ofclearing the matter up except by putting him in the dock, though I wouldgive a great deal to avoid it. My daughter is extremely averse to theidea of the publicity attending such an affair, and especially to havingto appear as a witness, which is not surprising when one knows theoutrageous licence given to counsel in our days to cross-examinewitnesses.'
Captain Hampton noticed the sudden keen glance shot at his client fromMr. Slippen's eyes, followed by a series of almost imperceptible littlenods, and was seized with a sudden and fierce desire to make a violentassault upon the unconscious detective.
'At any rate,' Mr. Hawtrey continued, 'I see nothing at present but tolet the matter go on, and for you to obtain, if possible, some decisiveproof of the man's connection with these letters. So far we have reallyonly the most shadowy grounds for our suspicion against him.'
Again Mr. Slippen nodded, this time more openly and decisively.
'Quite the most shadowy, Mr. Hawtrey. I am far from saying that he maynot be the man, but beyond his having, as I understand, a grievance ofvery many years' duration against yourself there is really nothingwhatever to connect him with the affair.'
'Nothing, Mr. Slippen. It is, in fact, simply because there is no oneelse against whom we have even such slight grounds as this to go upon,that we suspect this fellow of being the author of these rascallycommunications.'
'You will understand, Mr. Hawtrey, that being employed by you I considerit my duty to let you know exactly the light in which the matter strikesme. Of course, I do not know the man as you do, but from what I havelearnt from Captain Hampton he seems to be an unprincipled blackguard; aman who has been concerned in various shady transactions on the turf,and who has come down to the rank of the lowest class of betting men; afellow who pays his bets when he has made a winning book on a race andis a welsher when he loses.
'Of course, it may be that such a man is of so vindictive a nature thathe may have taken all this trouble simply to annoy you, but I cannothelp thinking that if he had embarked upon it he would have played hishand so as not only to annoy but to extort money to cease thatannoyance. Now the writer of these letters has certainly not done that.Had he had any idea of extorting money he would have sent some sort ofprivate intimation to you, by means of a cautiously worded letter, tothe effect that an arrangement could be made by which the thing could beput a stop to. You have received no such missive; therefore, if this manis the author he is simply a malicious scoundrel, and not, in thisinstance at any rate, a clever rogue, as I should certainly haveexpected to find him from his antecedents.'
'That is to say, you do not think he is the man?'
'Yes, I think it comes almost to that, Mr. Hawtrey. I do not know him,and, of course, he may be the man, but I own that I shall be a good dealsurprised if I find that he is so. Still, in the absence of any otherclue whatever, I propose to follow this up. It will be something atleast to clear it out of the way and to have done with it. I shalldetail my boy to watch the public-house till the man comes to it, andthen to find out where he lives and what are his habits; to follow hisfootsteps and take note of every place where he posts a letter. We shallget, at any rate, negative evidence that way. If, for instance, a letteris posted in the south of London, and we know that on that day the mannever went out of Islington, I think that it will be very strong proofthat he has nothing to do with the matter. Of course the reverse wouldnot be so convincing the other way; but if we had the coincidence, threeor four times repeated, of the letter bearing the mark of a district inwhich he had dropped one into the post, we should feel that we were along way towards proving his connection with the affair.'
'Quite so,' Mr. Hawtrey agreed; 'that will, as you say, either go far toconfirm our suspicions, or will altogether clear the ground so far as heis concerned, and we must then look for a clue in some other directionaltogether.'
That afternoon Captain Hampton, having nothing to do, made his way up toIslington
. The lad was not to be put on the watch until the nextmorning, and he thought that he might see this man at the public-househe frequented, and perhaps glean something from any conversation hemight have with the men he met there. After some inquiry as to thedirection of Frogmore Street, he turned up the Liverpool Road, and hadgone but a few hundred yards when his eye fell on a couple engaged inearnest conversation on the raised walk, on the opposite side of thestreet. He paused abruptly in his stride. One was unquestionably the manfor whom he was seeking. He was better dressed than when he had seen himbefore, and had more the air of a gentleman, but there could be noquestion as to his identity. The other was as unmistakably DorothyHawtrey.
There was no question of an accidental likeness; it was the girlherself, and he recognised the dress as one he had seen her wear.Turning sharply on his heel he turned down a bye street, and came outinto Upper Street. There were too many people here for him to think; hepassed on, walking in the road at the edge of the pavement, to theAngel, and then turned down the comparatively quiet pavement ofPentonville Hill.
What could it mean? He could see but one solution, and yet he refused toaccept it. To believe it was to believe Dorothy Hawtrey to be guilty ofdeception and lying. Was it possible that, after all, this man couldhave possessed letters of hers, and that she had been driven at last tomeet him and redeem them? He remembered her pallor when she had heardthat morning that this fellow's whereabouts had been discovered, and howshe had urged that no steps should be taken against him. It had allseemed natural then; it seemed equally natural now under this newlight--and yet he refused to believe it. So he told himself over andover again. That he had seen her in conversation with Truscott wasundeniable; of that, at least, he was certain, but equally certain wasit to him that there must be some other explanation of the meeting thanthat which had at first struck him. What could that explanation be? Noanswer occurred to him; he could hit upon no hypothesis consistent withher denial of any knowledge whatever of the writer of these letters.
He was at the bottom of the hill now; disregarding the hails of variouscabmen, he crossed the road and made his way down through the squares.It was better to be walking than sitting still. He scarcely noticedwhere he was going, and was almost surprised when he found himself inJermyn Street. He went upstairs, lighted a cigar, and sat down.
'What is coming to me?' he said to himself. 'I am generally pretty goodat guessing riddles, and there must be some explanation of this mystery,if I can but hit upon it.'
But after thinking for another hour, the only alternative to the firstidea that had occurred to him was that Dorothy, in her horror of theidea of a public trial and of being forced to appear in the witness box,had taken the desperate resolution to find this man herself, at theaddress he had mentioned to her and her father, to bribe him to desistfrom his persecution of her, and to warn him that unless he moved awayat once the police would be on his track.
It was all so unlike the high-spirited child he had known, and the girlas he had believed her still to be, that it was difficult to credit thatshe would allow herself to be driven to take such a step as this, inorder to escape what seemed to him a minor unpleasantness.
Still, as he told himself, there were men of tried bravery in manyrespects who were moral cowards, and it might well be that, thoughgenerally fearless, Dorothy might have a nervous shrinking from thethought of standing up in a crowded court, exposed to an inquisitionthat in many cases was almost a martyrdom. It was an awful mistake tohave made. If the scoundrel had been bribed into silence now, he wouldbe all the more certain to recommence his persecution later on, andafter having once met with and paid him for his silence how could sherefuse to do so when another demand was made?
One thing seemed to Ned Hampton unquestionable. He must maintain anabsolute silence as to what he had seen--the harm was done now and couldnot be undone. He was certain that she had not noticed him, and couldnever suspect that he had her secret. As for himself there was nothingfor him now but to stand aside altogether. Filled as he was with thedeepest pity for Dorothy, he was powerless to help her. When the nexttrouble came it was her husband who would have to stand beside her, andto whom, sooner or later, she would have to own the false step she hadtaken.
He felt that at any rate it was out of the question that he should seeher again at present. It was fortunate that he had retired from theinvestigation in favour of Mr. Slippen, and could therefore run away fora bit without seeming to have deserted Mr. Hawtrey. He had thought abouthiring a yacht, and this would serve as a pretext for him to run down toRyde. He could easily put away a fortnight between that town, Cowes,Southampton, and Portsmouth. As to the yacht he had no real intentionnow of looking for one. He must wait for a while and see what happenednext. He was sure to meet men he knew at Southsea, and anything wasbetter than staying in London.
He accordingly at once wrote a note to Mr. Hawtrey, saying that it wouldbe some time before Slippen obtained such evidence against Truscott aswould put them in a position to bring it home to him, and that as hecould not be of any use for a time he had resolved to run down for aweek to Southsea, and look round the various yards in search of a yachtof about the size he wanted, for a cruise of six weeks or two months,with the option of taking her up the Mediterranean through the winter.Then he wrote several letters of excuse to houses where he hadengagements, and started the next morning by the first train forPortsmouth. He was a fortnight absent, and on his return called on Mr.Hawtrey at an hour when he knew that he was not likely to meet Dorothy.
'So you are back again, Ned? Your note took me quite by surprise, foryou had said nothing as to your going away when I met you early in theday.'
'No, sir, it was a sort of sudden inspiration. I was sick of London, andhad had a very dull time of it going about to races for three weeksbefore; so I thought that I would have a complete change, made up mymind at once, packed my portmanteau, and was off. Have you had any newsfrom Slippen?'
'None. He has written to me two or three times; his last note came thismorning, saying that his boy has been watching the public-house eversince, and that the man has certainly not been there. The boy is a sharpfellow and found that the fellow had called in there on the very daybefore he began his watch, and he also discovered by bribing a postmanwhere he had lodged, but upon going there found he had given up his roomon the same day he had last been at the public-house, and had left noaddress, nor had the people of the house the slightest idea where he hadgone. I suppose the fellow took fright at the publicity there had beenabout the affair; at any rate, no more of those letters have come since.That is certainly a comfort, but it looks as if we were never going toget to the bottom of the mystery. Of course, it is extremely annoying,but I suppose we shall live it down. Halliburn offered a reward of ahundred pounds for the discovery of Truscott's, or as he calls himMarvel's, address. That was a week ago, and he has received no answer asyet, which is certainly a fresh proof that the fellow was the author ofthe letters. If not, he himself would have turned up and claimed thereward.'
'That is not quite certain, Mr. Hawtrey. He has doubtless been concernedin many other shady transactions, and may think he is wanted for someother affair altogether.'
'You are right, that may be so; I did not think of that. Still, it isstrange the offer of a reward has brought no news of him. He must bewell known to numbers of men who would sell their own father for ahundred pounds.'
'If he is really alarmed he may have changed his name, and gone to somepart of the country where he is altogether unknown, or he may havecrossed the Channel to some of the French or Belgian ports. There is alot of betting carried on from that side, and he may manage to livethere as he has lived here--by fleecing fools.'
Two days later, Hampton met the Hawtreys at a dinner-party. Dorothy waslooking pale and languid, but at times she roused herself and talkedwith almost feverish gaiety. Lord Halliburn was there; he was sittingnext to Dorothy, and seemed silent and preoccupied, and looked, Hamptonthought, vexed when she had one of her fit
s of talking. When they hadrejoined the ladies after dinner Hampton was chatting with the lady hehad taken down, and who was an old friend of his family.
'Is it not awfully sad, this affair of Miss Hawtrey's?' she said. 'It isevidently preying on her health. I never saw anybody more changed in thecourse of a few weeks. Of course, everyone who knows her is quitecertain that there is no foundation whatever for these wicked libelsabout her. Still, naturally, people who don't know her think that theremust be something in it, and she must know, wherever she goes, thatpeople are talking about it. It is terrible! I do not know what I shoulddo were she a daughter of mine.'
'Yes, it is a most painful position; there does not seem any method bywhich these anonymous libels can be met and answered. The mostscandalous part of the business is that any notice of a thing of thissort should get into the papers. The form in which it was noticedrendered it impossible to obtain redress of any kind; the statementscontained as to the annoyance caused by these letters, and as to thenature of their contents, were accurate, and Mr. Hawtrey is thereforeunable to take any steps against them. I have known Miss Hawtrey fromthe time that she was a little child; as you are aware they are mygreatest friends, and I assure you that one's powerlessness in thesedays to take any step to right a wrong of this sort, makes me wish I hadlived at any time save in the middle of the nineteenth century. Ahundred years ago one would have called out the editor or proprietor, orwhatever he calls himself, of a paper that published this thing, andshot him like a dog; four hundred years ago one would have sent him aformal challenge to do battle in the lists; if one had lived in Italy acouple of centuries back, and had adopted the customs of the country,one would have had him removed by a stab in the back by a bravo--not amanner that commends itself to me I own, but which, as against a manwhose journal exists by attacking reputations is, I should consider,perfectly legitimate.'
'But he is not the chief offender in the case, Captain Hampton.'
'I don't know. The anonymous libeller could really have done no harm hadit not been that there were organs that were ready to inform the worldof his attacks upon this lady; the letters could have been burnt andnone been any the wiser, and in time the annoyance would have ceased.'
'Do you think the author of these things will ever be found out?'
'I should hardly think so. It is clearly the outcome of malice on thepart of some man or woman who has either a grudge against Mr. Hawtrey,his daughter, or Lord Halliburn, or of some one interested in breakingoff Miss Hawtrey's engagement.'
'I don't think Lord Halliburn has behaved nicely in the matter,' Mrs.Dean said. 'If he had shown himself perfectly indifferent to the affairfrom the first, people would never have talked so much. It is hispalpable annoyance that has more than confirmed these gossipingrumours.'
'Between ourselves, Mrs. Dean, although I should not at all mind hisknowing it, my opinion is, that Halliburn is a cad.'
Mrs. Dean laughed. 'It is next door to blasphemy to speak in society ofa peer as a cad, Captain Hampton; still, I am not at all sure that youare wrong. But I must be going; my husband has been making signs to mefor the last ten minutes.'