Our Mutual Friend

by Charles Dickens

  Chapter 14

  THE BIRD OF PREY BROUGHT DOWN

  Cold on the shore, in the raw cold of that leaden crisis in thefour-and-twenty hours when the vital force of all the noblest andprettiest things that live is at its lowest, the three watchers lookedeach at the blank faces of the other two, and all at the blank face ofRiderhood in his boat.

  'Gaffer's boat, Gaffer in luck again, and yet no Gaffer!' So spakeRiderhood, staring disconsolate.

  As if with one accord, they all turned their eyes towards the light ofthe fire shining through the window. It was fainter and duller. Perhapsfire, like the higher animal and vegetable life it helps to sustain, hasits greatest tendency towards death, when the night is dying and the dayis not yet born.

  'If it was me that had the law of this here job in hand,' growledRiderhood with a threatening shake of his head, 'blest if I wouldn't layhold of HER, at any rate!'

  'Ay, but it is not you,' said Eugene. With something so suddenly fiercein him that the informer returned submissively; 'Well, well, well,t'other governor, I didn't say it was. A man may speak.'

  'And vermin may be silent,' said Eugene. 'Hold your tongue, youwater-rat!'

  Astonished by his friend's unusual heat, Lightwood stared too, and thensaid: 'What can have become of this man?'

  'Can't imagine. Unless he dived overboard.' The informer wiped hisbrow ruefully as he said it, sitting in his boat and always staringdisconsolate.

  'Did you make his boat fast?'

  'She's fast enough till the tide runs back. I couldn't make her fasterthan she is. Come aboard of mine, and see for your own-selves.'

  There was a little backwardness in complying, for the freight looked toomuch for the boat; but on Riderhood's protesting 'that he had had half adozen, dead and alive, in her afore now, and she was nothing deep in thewater nor down in the stern even then, to speak of;' they carefully tooktheir places, and trimmed the crazy thing. While they were doing so,Riderhood still sat staring disconsolate.

  'All right. Give way!' said Lightwood.

  'Give way, by George!' repeated Riderhood, before shoving off. 'If he'sgone and made off any how Lawyer Lightwood, it's enough to make me giveway in a different manner. But he always WAS a cheat, con-found him!He always was a infernal cheat, was Gaffer. Nothing straightfor'ard,nothing on the square. So mean, so underhanded. Never going through witha thing, nor carrying it out like a man!'

  'Hallo! Steady!' cried Eugene (he had recovered immediately onembarking), as they bumped heavily against a pile; and then in a lowervoice reversed his late apostrophe by remarking ('I wish the boat of myhonourable and gallant friend may be endowed with philanthropy enoughnot to turn bottom-upward and extinguish us!) Steady, steady! Sit close,Mortimer. Here's the hail again. See how it flies, like a troop of wildcats, at Mr Riderhood's eyes!'

  Indeed he had the full benefit of it, and it so mauled him, though hebent his head low and tried to present nothing but the mangy cap to it,that he dropped under the lee of a tier of shipping, and they lay thereuntil it was over. The squall had come up, like a spiteful messengerbefore the morning; there followed in its wake a ragged tear of lightwhich ripped the dark clouds until they showed a great grey hole of day.

  They were all shivering, and everything about them seemed to beshivering; the river itself; craft, rigging, sails, such early smoke asthere yet was on the shore. Black with wet, and altered to the eye bywhite patches of hail and sleet, the huddled buildings looked lowerthan usual, as if they were cowering, and had shrunk with the cold. Verylittle life was to be seen on either bank, windows and doors were shut,and the staring black and white letters upon wharves and warehouses'looked,' said Eugene to Mortimer, 'like inscriptions over the graves ofdead businesses.'

  As they glided slowly on, keeping under the shore and sneaking in andout among the shipping by back-alleys of water, in a pilfering waythat seemed to be their boatman's normal manner of progression, allthe objects among which they crept were so huge in contrast with theirwretched boat, as to threaten to crush it. Not a ship's hull, with itsrusty iron links of cable run out of hawse-holes long discoloured withthe iron's rusty tears, but seemed to be there with a fell intention.Not a figure-head but had the menacing look of bursting forward to runthem down. Not a sluice gate, or a painted scale upon a post or wall,showing the depth of water, but seemed to hint, like the dreadfullyfacetious Wolf in bed in Grandmamma's cottage, 'That's to drown YOU in,my dears!' Not a lumbering black barge, with its cracked and blisteredside impending over them, but seemed to suck at the river with athirst for sucking them under. And everything so vaunted the spoilinginfluences of water--discoloured copper, rotten wood, honey-combedstone, green dank deposit--that the after-consequences of being crushed,sucked under, and drawn down, looked as ugly to the imagination as themain event.

  Some half-hour of this work, and Riderhood unshipped his sculls, stoodholding on to a barge, and hand over hand long-wise along the barge'sside gradually worked his boat under her head into a secret littlenook of scummy water. And driven into that nook, and wedged as he haddescribed, was Gaffer's boat; that boat with the stain still in it,bearing some resemblance to a muffled human form.

  'Now tell me I'm a liar!' said the honest man.

  ('With a morbid expectation,' murmured Eugene to Lightwood, 'thatsomebody is always going to tell him the truth.')

  'This is Hexam's boat,' said Mr Inspector. 'I know her well.'

  'Look at the broken scull. Look at the t'other scull gone. NOW tell me Iam a liar!' said the honest man.

  Mr Inspector stepped into the boat. Eugene and Mortimer looked on.

  'And see now!' added Riderhood, creeping aft, and showing a stretchedrope made fast there and towing overboard. 'Didn't I tell you he was inluck again?'

  'Haul in,' said Mr Inspector.

  'Easy to say haul in,' answered Riderhood. 'Not so easy done. His luck'sgot fouled under the keels of the barges. I tried to haul in last time,but I couldn't. See how taut the line is!'

  'I must have it up,' said Mr Inspector. 'I am going to take this boatashore, and his luck along with it. Try easy now.'

  He tried easy now; but the luck resisted; wouldn't come.

  'I mean to have it, and the boat too,' said Mr Inspector, playing theline.

  But still the luck resisted; wouldn't come.

  'Take care,' said Riderhood. 'You'll disfigure. Or pull asunderperhaps.'

  'I am not going to do either, not even to your Grandmother,' said MrInspector; 'but I mean to have it. Come!' he added, at once persuasivelyand with authority to the hidden object in the water, as he played theline again; 'it's no good this sort of game, you know. You MUST come up.I mean to have you.'

  There was so much virtue in this distinctly and decidedly meaning tohave it, that it yielded a little, even while the line was played.

  'I told you so,' quoth Mr Inspector, pulling off his outer coat, andleaning well over the stern with a will. 'Come!'

  It was an awful sort of fishing, but it no more disconcerted MrInspector than if he had been fishing in a punt on a summer evening bysome soothing weir high up the peaceful river. After certain minutes,and a few directions to the rest to 'ease her a little for'ard,' and'now ease her a trifle aft,' and the like, he said composedly, 'Allclear!' and the line and the boat came free together.

  Accepting Lightwood's proffered hand to help him up, he then put on hiscoat, and said to Riderhood, 'Hand me over those spare sculls of yours,and I'll pull this in to the nearest stairs. Go ahead you, and keep outin pretty open water, that I mayn't get fouled again.'

  His directions were obeyed, and they pulled ashore directly; two in oneboat, two in the other.

  'Now,' said Mr Inspector, again to Riderhood, when they were all on theslushy stones; 'you have had more practice in this than I have had, andought to be a better workman at it. Undo the tow-rope, and we'll helpyou haul in.'

  Riderhood got into the boat accordingly. It appeared as if he hadscarcely had a moment's time to touch the rope or look over
the stern,when he came scrambling back, as pale as the morning, and gasped out:

  'By the Lord, he's done me!'

  'What do you mean?' they all demanded.

  He pointed behind him at the boat, and gasped to that degree that hedropped upon the stones to get his breath.

  'Gaffer's done me. It's Gaffer!'

  They ran to the rope, leaving him gasping there. Soon, the form of thebird of prey, dead some hours, lay stretched upon the shore, with a newblast storming at it and clotting the wet hair with hail-stones.

  Father, was that you calling me? Father! I thought I heard you call metwice before! Words never to be answered, those, upon the earth-sideof the grave. The wind sweeps jeeringly over Father, whips him with thefrayed ends of his dress and his jagged hair, tries to turn him where helies stark on his back, and force his face towards the rising sun, thathe may be shamed the more. A lull, and the wind is secret and pryingwith him; lifts and lets falls a rag; hides palpitating under anotherrag; runs nimbly through his hair and beard. Then, in a rush, it cruellytaunts him. Father, was that you calling me? Was it you, the voicelessand the dead? Was it you, thus buffeted as you lie here in a heap? Wasit you, thus baptized unto Death, with these flying impurities now flungupon your face? Why not speak, Father? Soaking into this filthy groundas you lie here, is your own shape. Did you never see such a shapesoaked into your boat? Speak, Father. Speak to us, the winds, the onlylisteners left you!

  'Now see,' said Mr Inspector, after mature deliberation: kneeling on oneknee beside the body, when they had stood looking down on the drownedman, as he had many a time looked down on many another man: 'the way ofit was this. Of course you gentlemen hardly failed to observe that hewas towing by the neck and arms.'

  They had helped to release the rope, and of course not.

  'And you will have observed before, and you will observe now, that thisknot, which was drawn chock-tight round his neck by the strain of hisown arms, is a slip-knot': holding it up for demonstration.

  Plain enough.

  'Likewise you will have observed how he had run the other end of thisrope to his boat.'

  It had the curves and indentations in it still, where it had been twinedand bound.

  'Now see,' said Mr Inspector, 'see how it works round upon him. It's awild tempestuous evening when this man that was,' stooping to wipesome hailstones out of his hair with an end of his own drowned jacket,'--there! Now he's more like himself; though he's badly bruised,--whenthis man that was, rows out upon the river on his usual lay. He carrieswith him this coil of rope. He always carries with him this coil ofrope. It's as well known to me as he was himself. Sometimes it lay inthe bottom of his boat. Sometimes he hung it loose round his neck.He was a light-dresser was this man;--you see?' lifting the looseneckerchief over his breast, and taking the opportunity of wiping thedead lips with it--'and when it was wet, or freezing, or blew cold, hewould hang this coil of line round his neck. Last evening he does this.Worse for him! He dodges about in his boat, does this man, till he getschilled. His hands,' taking up one of them, which dropped like a leadenweight, 'get numbed. He sees some object that's in his way of business,floating. He makes ready to secure that object. He unwinds the end ofhis coil that he wants to take some turns on in his boat, and he takesturns enough on it to secure that it shan't run out. He makes it toosecure, as it happens. He is a little longer about this than usual, hishands being numbed. His object drifts up, before he is quite ready forit. He catches at it, thinks he'll make sure of the contents of thepockets anyhow, in case he should be parted from it, bends right overthe stern, and in one of these heavy squalls, or in the cross-swell oftwo steamers, or in not being quite prepared, or through all or most orsome, gets a lurch, overbalances and goes head-foremost overboard. Nowsee! He can swim, can this man, and instantly he strikes out. But insuch striking-out he tangles his arms, pulls strong on the slip-knot,and it runs home. The object he had expected to take in tow, floats by,and his own boat tows him dead, to where we found him, all entangledin his own line. You'll ask me how I make out about the pockets? First,I'll tell you more; there was silver in 'em. How do I make that out?Simple and satisfactory. Because he's got it here.' The lecturer held upthe tightly clenched right hand.

  'What is to be done with the remains?' asked Lightwood.

  'If you wouldn't object to standing by him half a minute, sir,' wasthe reply, 'I'll find the nearest of our men to come and take charge ofhim;--I still call it HIM, you see,' said Mr Inspector, looking back ashe went, with a philosophical smile upon the force of habit.

  'Eugene,' said Lightwood and was about to add 'we may wait at a littledistance,' when turning his head he found that no Eugene was there.

  He raised his voice and called 'Eugene! Holloa!' But no Eugene replied.

  It was broad daylight now, and he looked about. But no Eugene was in allthe view.

  Mr Inspector speedily returning down the wooden stairs, with a policeconstable, Lightwood asked him if he had seen his friend leave them? MrInspector could not exactly say that he had seen him go, but had noticedthat he was restless.

  'Singular and entertaining combination, sir, your friend.'

  'I wish it had not been a part of his singular entertaining combinationto give me the slip under these dreary circumstances at this time of themorning,' said Lightwood. 'Can we get anything hot to drink?'

  We could, and we did. In a public-house kitchen with a large fire. Wegot hot brandy and water, and it revived us wonderfully. Mr Inspectorhaving to Mr Riderhood announced his official intention of 'keepinghis eye upon him', stood him in a corner of the fireplace, like a wetumbrella, and took no further outward and visible notice of that honestman, except ordering a separate service of brandy and water for him:apparently out of the public funds.

  As Mortimer Lightwood sat before the blazing fire, conscious of drinkingbrandy and water then and there in his sleep, and yet at one and thesame time drinking burnt sherry at the Six Jolly Fellowships, andlying under the boat on the river shore, and sitting in the boat thatRiderhood rowed, and listening to the lecture recently concluded, andhaving to dine in the Temple with an unknown man, who described himselfas M. H. F. Eugene Gaffer Harmon, and said he lived at Hailstorm,--ashe passed through these curious vicissitudes of fatigue and slumber,arranged upon the scale of a dozen hours to the second, he became awareof answering aloud a communication of pressing importance that hadnever been made to him, and then turned it into a cough on beholdingMr Inspector. For, he felt, with some natural indignation, that thatfunctionary might otherwise suspect him of having closed his eyes, orwandered in his attention.

  'Here just before us, you see,' said Mr Inspector.

  'I see,' said Lightwood, with dignity.

  'And had hot brandy and water too, you see,' said Mr Inspector, 'andthen cut off at a great rate.'

  'Who?' said Lightwood.

  'Your friend, you know.'

  'I know,' he replied, again with dignity.

  After hearing, in a mist through which Mr Inspector loomed vague andlarge, that the officer took upon himself to prepare the dead man'sdaughter for what had befallen in the night, and generally that he tookeverything upon himself, Mortimer Lightwood stumbled in his sleep toa cab-stand, called a cab, and had entered the army and committed acapital military offence and been tried by court martial and foundguilty and had arranged his affairs and been marched out to be shot,before the door banged.

  Hard work rowing the cab through the City to the Temple, for a cup offrom five to ten thousand pounds value, given by Mr Boffin; and hardwork holding forth at that immeasurable length to Eugene (when he hadbeen rescued with a rope from the running pavement) for making off inthat extraordinary manner! But he offered such ample apologies, and wasso very penitent, that when Lightwood got out of the cab, he gavethe driver a particular charge to be careful of him. Which the driver(knowing there was no other fare left inside) stared at prodigiously.

  In short, the night's work had so exhausted and worn out this actor init,
that he had become a mere somnambulist. He was too tired to rest inhis sleep, until he was even tired out of being too tired, and droppedinto oblivion. Late in the afternoon he awoke, and in some anxiety sentround to Eugene's lodging hard by, to inquire if he were up yet?

  Oh yes, he was up. In fact, he had not been to bed. He had just comehome. And here he was, close following on the heels of the message.

  'Why what bloodshot, draggled, dishevelled spectacle is this!' criedMortimer.

  'Are my feathers so very much rumpled?' said Eugene, coolly going up tothe looking-glass. They ARE rather out of sorts. But consider. Such anight for plumage!'

  'Such a night?' repeated Mortimer. 'What became of you in the morning?'

  'My dear fellow,' said Eugene, sitting on his bed, 'I felt that wehad bored one another so long, that an unbroken continuance of thoserelations must inevitably terminate in our flying to opposite points ofthe earth. I also felt that I had committed every crime in the NewgateCalendar. So, for mingled considerations of friendship and felony, Itook a walk.'