Our Mutual Friend

by Charles Dickens

  Chapter 13

  TRACKING THE BIRD OF PREY

  The two lime merchants, with their escort, entered the dominions ofMiss Abbey Potterson, to whom their escort (presenting them and theirpretended business over the half-door of the bar, in a confidentialway) preferred his figurative request that 'a mouthful of fire' mightbe lighted in Cosy. Always well disposed to assist the constitutedauthorities, Miss Abbey bade Bob Gliddery attend the gentlemen tothat retreat, and promptly enliven it with fire and gaslight. Of thiscommission the bare-armed Bob, leading the way with a flaming wisp ofpaper, so speedily acquitted himself, that Cosy seemed to leap out of adark sleep and embrace them warmly, the moment they passed the lintelsof its hospitable door.

  'They burn sherry very well here,' said Mr Inspector, as a piece oflocal intelligence. 'Perhaps you gentlemen might like a bottle?'

  The answer being By all means, Bob Gliddery received his instructionsfrom Mr Inspector, and departed in a becoming state of alacrityengendered by reverence for the majesty of the law.

  'It's a certain fact,' said Mr Inspector, 'that this man we havereceived our information from,' indicating Riderhood with his thumb overhis shoulder, 'has for some time past given the other man a bad namearising out of your lime barges, and that the other man has been avoidedin consequence. I don't say what it means or proves, but it's a certainfact. I had it first from one of the opposite sex of my acquaintance,'vaguely indicating Miss Abbey with his thumb over his shoulder, 'downaway at a distance, over yonder.'

  Then probably Mr Inspector was not quite unprepared for their visit thatevening? Lightwood hinted.

  'Well you see,' said Mr Inspector, 'it was a question of making a move.It's of no use moving if you don't know what your move is. You hadbetter by far keep still. In the matter of this lime, I certainly hadan idea that it might lie betwixt the two men; I always had that idea.Still I was forced to wait for a start, and I wasn't so lucky as to geta start. This man that we have received our information from, has gota start, and if he don't meet with a check he may make the running andcome in first. There may turn out to be something considerable for himthat comes in second, and I don't mention who may or who may not tryfor that place. There's duty to do, and I shall do it, under anycircumstances; to the best of my judgment and ability.'

  'Speaking as a shipper of lime--' began Eugene.

  'Which no man has a better right to do than yourself, you know,' said MrInspector.

  'I hope not,' said Eugene; 'my father having been a shipper of limebefore me, and my grandfather before him--in fact we having been afamily immersed to the crowns of our heads in lime during severalgenerations--I beg to observe that if this missing lime could be gothold of without any young female relative of any distinguished gentlemanengaged in the lime trade (which I cherish next to my life) beingpresent, I think it might be a more agreeable proceeding to theassisting bystanders, that is to say, lime-burners.'

  'I also,' said Lightwood, pushing his friend aside with a laugh, 'shouldmuch prefer that.'

  'It shall be done, gentlemen, if it can be done conveniently,' saidMr Inspector, with coolness. 'There is no wish on my part to cause anydistress in that quarter. Indeed, I am sorry for that quarter.'

  'There was a boy in that quarter,' remarked Eugene. 'He is still there?'

  'No,' said Mr Inspector. 'He has quitted those works. He is otherwisedisposed of.'

  'Will she be left alone then?' asked Eugene.

  'She will be left,' said Mr Inspector, 'alone.'

  Bob's reappearance with a steaming jug broke off the conversation. Butalthough the jug steamed forth a delicious perfume, its contents had notreceived that last happy touch which the surpassing finish of the SixJolly Fellowship Porters imparted on such momentous occasions. Bobcarried in his left hand one of those iron models of sugar-loaf hats,before mentioned, into which he emptied the jug, and the pointed end ofwhich he thrust deep down into the fire, so leaving it for a few momentswhile he disappeared and reappeared with three bright drinking-glasses.Placing these on the table and bending over the fire, meritoriouslysensible of the trying nature of his duty, he watched the wreaths ofsteam, until at the special instant of projection he caught up the ironvessel and gave it one delicate twirl, causing it to send forth onegentle hiss. Then he restored the contents to the jug; held over thesteam of the jug, each of the three bright glasses in succession;finally filled them all, and with a clear conscience awaited theapplause of his fellow-creatures.

  It was bestowed (Mr Inspector having proposed as an appropriatesentiment 'The lime trade!') and Bob withdrew to report thecommendations of the guests to Miss Abbey in the bar. It may be herein confidence admitted that, the room being close shut in his absence,there had not appeared to be the slightest reason for the elaboratemaintenance of this same lime fiction. Only it had been regarded by MrInspector as so uncommonly satisfactory, and so fraught with mysteriousvirtues, that neither of his clients had presumed to question it.

  Two taps were now heard on the outside of the window. Mr Inspector,hastily fortifying himself with another glass, strolled out with anoiseless foot and an unoccupied countenance. As one might go to surveythe weather and the general aspect of the heavenly bodies.

  'This is becoming grim, Mortimer,' said Eugene, in a low voice. 'I don'tlike this.'

  'Nor I' said Lightwood. 'Shall we go?'

  'Being here, let us stay. You ought to see it out, and I won't leaveyou. Besides, that lonely girl with the dark hair runs in my head. Itwas little more than a glimpse we had of her that last time, and yetI almost see her waiting by the fire to-night. Do you feel like a darkcombination of traitor and pickpocket when you think of that girl?'

  'Rather,' returned Lightwood. 'Do you?'

  'Very much so.'

  Their escort strolled back again, and reported. Divested of its variouslime-lights and shadows, his report went to the effect that Gaffer wasaway in his boat, supposed to be on his old look-out; that he had beenexpected last high-water; that having missed it for some reason orother, he was not, according to his usual habits at night, to be countedon before next high-water, or it might be an hour or so later; that hisdaughter, surveyed through the window, would seem to be so expectinghim, for the supper was not cooking, but set out ready to be cooked;that it would be high-water at about one, and that it was now barelyten; that there was nothing to be done but watch and wait; that theinformer was keeping watch at the instant of that present reporting, butthat two heads were better than one (especially when the second wasMr Inspector's); and that the reporter meant to share the watch. Andforasmuch as crouching under the lee of a hauled-up boat on a night whenit blew cold and strong, and when the weather was varied with blasts ofhail at times, might be wearisome to amateurs, the reporter closed withthe recommendation that the two gentlemen should remain, for a while atany rate, in their present quarters, which were weather-tight and warm.

  They were not inclined to dispute this recommendation, but they wantedto know where they could join the watchers when so disposed. Rather thantrust to a verbal description of the place, which might mislead, Eugene(with a less weighty sense of personal trouble on him than he usuallyhad) would go out with Mr Inspector, note the spot, and come back.

  On the shelving bank of the river, among the slimy stones of acauseway--not the special causeway of the Six Jolly Fellowships, whichhad a landing-place of its own, but another, a little removed, andvery near to the old windmill which was the denounced man'sdwelling-place--were a few boats; some, moored and already beginning tofloat; others, hauled up above the reach of the tide. Under one of theselatter, Eugene's companion disappeared. And when Eugene had observed itsposition with reference to the other boats, and had made sure that hecould not miss it, he turned his eyes upon the building where, as he hadbeen told, the lonely girl with the dark hair sat by the fire.

  He could see the light of the fire shining through the window. Perhapsit drew him on to look in. Perhaps he had come out with the expressintention. That part of the bank ha
ving rank grass growing on it, therewas no difficulty in getting close, without any noise of footsteps: itwas but to scramble up a ragged face of pretty hard mud some three orfour feet high and come upon the grass and to the window. He came to thewindow by that means.

  She had no other light than the light of the fire. The unkindled lampstood on the table. She sat on the ground, looking at the brazier, withher face leaning on her hand. There was a kind of film or flicker onher face, which at first he took to be the fitful firelight; but, on asecond look, he saw that she was weeping. A sad and solitary spectacle,as shown him by the rising and the falling of the fire.

  It was a little window of but four pieces of glass, and was notcurtained; he chose it because the larger window near it was. It showedhim the room, and the bills upon the wall respecting the drowned peoplestarting out and receding by turns. But he glanced slightly at them,though he looked long and steadily at her. A deep rich piece of colour,with the brown flush of her cheek and the shining lustre of her hair,though sad and solitary, weeping by the rising and the falling of thefire.

  She started up. He had been so very still that he felt sure it was nothe who had disturbed her, so merely withdrew from the window and stoodnear it in the shadow of the wall. She opened the door, and said in analarmed tone, 'Father, was that you calling me?' And again, 'Father!'And once again, after listening, 'Father! I thought I heard you call metwice before!'

  No response. As she re-entered at the door, he dropped over the bank andmade his way back, among the ooze and near the hiding-place, to MortimerLightwood: to whom he told what he had seen of the girl, and how thiswas becoming very grim indeed.

  'If the real man feels as guilty as I do,' said Eugene, 'he isremarkably uncomfortable.'

  'Influence of secrecy,' suggested Lightwood.

  'I am not at all obliged to it for making me Guy Fawkes in the vault anda Sneak in the area both at once,' said Eugene. 'Give me some more ofthat stuff.'

  Lightwood helped him to some more of that stuff, but it had beencooling, and didn't answer now.

  'Pooh,' said Eugene, spitting it out among the ashes. 'Tastes like thewash of the river.'

  'Are you so familiar with the flavour of the wash of the river?'

  'I seem to be to-night. I feel as if I had been half drowned, andswallowing a gallon of it.'

  'Influence of locality,' suggested Lightwood.

  'You are mighty learned to-night, you and your influences,' returnedEugene. 'How long shall we stay here?'

  'How long do you think?'

  'If I could choose, I should say a minute,' replied Eugene, 'for theJolly Fellowship Porters are not the jolliest dogs I have known. ButI suppose we are best here until they turn us out with the othersuspicious characters, at midnight.'

  Thereupon he stirred the fire, and sat down on one side of it. It struckeleven, and he made believe to compose himself patiently. But graduallyhe took the fidgets in one leg, and then in the other leg, and then inone arm, and then in the other arm, and then in his chin, and then inhis back, and then in his forehead, and then in his hair, and then inhis nose; and then he stretched himself recumbent on two chairs, andgroaned; and then he started up.

  'Invisible insects of diabolical activity swarm in this place. I amtickled and twitched all over. Mentally, I have now committed a burglaryunder the meanest circumstances, and the myrmidons of justice are at myheels.'

  'I am quite as bad,' said Lightwood, sitting up facing him, with atumbled head; after going through some wonderful evolutions, in whichhis head had been the lowest part of him. 'This restlessness began withme, long ago. All the time you were out, I felt like Gulliver with theLilliputians firing upon him.'

  'It won't do, Mortimer. We must get into the air; we must join our dearfriend and brother, Riderhood. And let us tranquillize ourselves bymaking a compact. Next time (with a view to our peace of mind) we'llcommit the crime, instead of taking the criminal. You swear it?'

  'Certainly.'

  'Sworn! Let Tippins look to it. Her life's in danger.'

  Mortimer rang the bell to pay the score, and Bob appeared to transactthat business with him: whom Eugene, in his careless extravagance, askedif he would like a situation in the lime-trade?

  'Thankee sir, no sir,' said Bob. 'I've a good sitiwation here, sir.'

  'If you change your mind at any time,' returned Eugene, 'come to me atmy works, and you'll always find an opening in the lime-kiln.'

  'Thankee sir,' said Bob.

  'This is my partner,' said Eugene, 'who keeps the books and attends tothe wages. A fair day's wages for a fair day's work is ever my partner'smotto.'

  'And a very good 'un it is, gentlemen,' said Bob, receiving his fee, anddrawing a bow out of his head with his right hand, very much as he wouldhave drawn a pint of beer out of the beer engine.

  'Eugene,' Mortimer apostrophized him, laughing quite heartily when theywere alone again, 'how CAN you be so ridiculous?'

  'I am in a ridiculous humour,' quoth Eugene; 'I am a ridiculous fellow.Everything is ridiculous. Come along!'

  It passed into Mortimer Lightwood's mind that a change of some sort,best expressed perhaps as an intensification of all that was wildest andmost negligent and reckless in his friend, had come upon him in the lasthalf-hour or so. Thoroughly used to him as he was, he found somethingnew and strained in him that was for the moment perplexing. This passedinto his mind, and passed out again; but he remembered it afterwards.

  'There's where she sits, you see,' said Eugene, when they were standingunder the bank, roared and riven at by the wind. 'There's the light ofher fire.'

  'I'll take a peep through the window,' said Mortimer.

  'No, don't!' Eugene caught him by the arm. 'Best, not make a show ofher. Come to our honest friend.'

  He led him to the post of watch, and they both dropped down and creptunder the lee of the boat; a better shelter than it had seemed before,being directly contrasted with the blowing wind and the bare night.

  'Mr Inspector at home?' whispered Eugene.

  'Here I am, sir.'

  'And our friend of the perspiring brow is at the far corner there? Good.Anything happened?'

  'His daughter has been out, thinking she heard him calling, unless itwas a sign to him to keep out of the way. It might have been.'

  'It might have been Rule Britannia,' muttered Eugene, 'but it wasn't.Mortimer!'

  'Here!' (On the other side of Mr Inspector.)

  'Two burglaries now, and a forgery!'

  With this indication of his depressed state of mind, Eugene fell silent.

  They were all silent for a long while. As it got to be flood-tide, andthe water came nearer to them, noises on the river became more frequent,and they listened more. To the turning of steam-paddles, to the clinkingof iron chain, to the creaking of blocks, to the measured workingof oars, to the occasional violent barking of some passing dog onshipboard, who seemed to scent them lying in their hiding-place. Thenight was not so dark but that, besides the lights at bows and mastheadsgliding to and fro, they could discern some shadowy bulk attached; andnow and then a ghostly lighter with a large dark sail, like a warningarm, would start up very near them, pass on, and vanish. At this timeof their watch, the water close to them would be often agitated by someimpulsion given it from a distance. Often they believed this beat andplash to be the boat they lay in wait for, running in ashore; and againand again they would have started up, but for the immobility with whichthe informer, well used to the river, kept quiet in his place.

  The wind carried away the striking of the great multitude of citychurch clocks, for those lay to leeward of them; but there were bells towindward that told them of its being One--Two--Three. Without that aidthey would have known how the night wore, by the falling of the tide,recorded in the appearance of an ever-widening black wet strip of shore,and the emergence of the paved causeway from the river, foot by foot.

  As the time so passed, this slinking business became a more and moreprecarious one. It would seem as if the ma
n had had some intimation ofwhat was in hand against him, or had taken fright? His movements mighthave been planned to gain for him, in getting beyond their reach, twelvehours' advantage? The honest man who had expended the sweat of his browbecame uneasy, and began to complain with bitterness of the proneness ofmankind to cheat him--him invested with the dignity of Labour!

  Their retreat was so chosen that while they could watch the river, theycould watch the house. No one had passed in or out, since the daughterthought she heard the father calling. No one could pass in or outwithout being seen.

  'But it will be light at five,' said Mr Inspector, 'and then WE shall beseen.'

  'Look here,' said Riderhood, 'what do you say to this? He may havebeen lurking in and out, and just holding his own betwixt two or threebridges, for hours back.'

  'What do you make of that?' said Mr Inspector. Stoical, butcontradictory.

  'He may be doing so at this present time.'

  'What do you make of that?' said Mr Inspector.

  'My boat's among them boats here at the cause'ay.'

  'And what do you make of your boat?' said Mr Inspector.

  'What if I put off in her and take a look round? I know his ways, andthe likely nooks he favours. I know where he'd be at such a time of thetide, and where he'd be at such another time. Ain't I been his pardner?None of you need show. None of you need stir. I can shove her offwithout help; and as to me being seen, I'm about at all times.'

  'You might have given a worse opinion,' said Mr Inspector, after briefconsideration. 'Try it.'

  'Stop a bit. Let's work it out. If I want you, I'll drop round under theFellowships and tip you a whistle.'

  'If I might so far presume as to offer a suggestion to my honourable andgallant friend, whose knowledge of naval matters far be it from me toimpeach,' Eugene struck in with great deliberation, 'it would be, thatto tip a whistle is to advertise mystery and invite speculation.My honourable and gallant friend will, I trust, excuse me, as anindependent member, for throwing out a remark which I feel to be due tothis house and the country.'

  'Was that the T'other Governor, or Lawyer Lightwood?' asked Riderhood.For, they spoke as they crouched or lay, without seeing one another'sfaces.

  'In reply to the question put by my honourable and gallant friend,'said Eugene, who was lying on his back with his hat on his face, as anattitude highly expressive of watchfulness, 'I can have no hesitation inreplying (it not being inconsistent with the public service) that thoseaccents were the accents of the T'other Governor.'

  'You've tolerable good eyes, ain't you, Governor? You've all tolerablegood eyes, ain't you?' demanded the informer.

  All.

  'Then if I row up under the Fellowship and lay there, no need towhistle. You'll make out that there's a speck of something or anotherthere, and you'll know it's me, and you'll come down that cause'ay tome. Understood all?'

  Understood all.

  'Off she goes then!'

  In a moment, with the wind cutting keenly at him sideways, he wasstaggering down to his boat; in a few moments he was clear, and creepingup the river under their own shore.

  Eugene had raised himself on his elbow to look into the darkness afterhim. 'I wish the boat of my honourable and gallant friend,' he murmured,lying down again and speaking into his hat, 'may be endowedwith philanthropy enough to turn bottom-upward and extinguishhim!--Mortimer.'

  'My honourable friend.'

  'Three burglaries, two forgeries, and a midnight assassination.' Yetin spite of having those weights on his conscience, Eugene was somewhatenlivened by the late slight change in the circumstances of affairs. Sowere his two companions. Its being a change was everything. The suspenseseemed to have taken a new lease, and to have begun afresh from a recentdate. There was something additional to look for. They were all threemore sharply on the alert, and less deadened by the miserable influencesof the place and time.

  More than an hour had passed, and they were even dozing, when one of thethree--each said it was he, and he had NOT dozed--made out Riderhoodin his boat at the spot agreed on. They sprang up, came out from theirshelter, and went down to him. When he saw them coming, he droppedalongside the causeway; so that they, standing on the causeway, couldspeak with him in whispers, under the shadowy mass of the Six JollyFellowship Porters fast asleep.

  'Blest if I can make it out!' said he, staring at them.

  'Make what out? Have you seen him?'

  'No.'

  'What HAVE you seen?' asked Lightwood. For, he was staring at them inthe strangest way.

  'I've seen his boat.'

  'Not empty?'

  'Yes, empty. And what's more,--adrift. And what's more,--with one scullgone. And what's more,--with t'other scull jammed in the thowels andbroke short off. And what's more,--the boat's drove tight by the tide'atwixt two tiers of barges. And what's more,--he's in luck again, byGeorge if he ain't!'