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To The West, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 5. A Miserable Night |
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_ CHAPTER FIVE. A MISERABLE NIGHT "Hah! The scoundrels!" panted Dempster, as he came up, flushed, bareheaded, his glossy coat covered with dust, and a great dark weal growing darker moment by moment on his forehead, while for the first time I became aware of the fact that my right ear was cut and bleeding freely. "What is it, sir?" said the policeman; and I shivered slightly as I felt his grip tighten on my arm. "Take them. I give them in charge," panted Mr Dempster, hoarse with rage--"robbery and assault." "What?" shouted Esau, furiously. "It is not true!" I cried wildly. "Take them," shouted Mr Dempster. "I'll follow in a cab. Take them." "You'll have to charge them, sir," said the constable. "Yes. I know. I must make myself decent first." "You can do that afterwards, sir. Better all get in a cab at once before there's a crowd." The cool matter-of-fact policeman was master of the situation, and, summoning a cab, he seemed to pack us all in, and followed to unpack us again a few minutes later, both Esau and I with the spirit evaporating fast, and feeling soft and limp, full of pain too, as we were ushered into the presence of a big, stern-looking inspector, who prepared to fill up a form. All that passed is very misty now; but I remember Mr Dempster, as he glared at us, telling the inspector that he had had cause to complain about our conduct, and that we had, evidently after planning it, made a sudden attack upon him, and beaten him savagely with a stick. "But you said robbery, sir," the policeman suggested. "Ah!--I will not press that," cried Mr Dempster. "I don't want to quite ruin the boys. I proceed against them for assault." I looked wildly at Esau for him to speak out, and he was looking at me as if half stupefied. The next I recollect is that the big policeman signed to us to follow him, and we were marched away. Then we were in a whitewashed cell, a door was banged to, and we heard the bolts shot. For a few minutes I stood there as if stunned, but was brought back to myself by Esau. "Well," he said loudly, "this is a nice game." "Oh, Esau!" I said weakly. "Yes, it is 'Oh!'" he cried. "What will my mother say?" I could not answer--only look at him in the dim light hopelessly, and feeling in my mental and bodily pain as if everything was over for me in this world. To my horror Esau burst into a heavy fit of laughter, and sitting down he rocked himself to and fro. "What a game!" he cried; "but, I say, you didn't half give it to him." "Oh, Esau!" I cried, "it's horrible." "For him," he replied. "I say, I'm precious stiff and sore though; did he hurt you very much?" "Yes; my arms ache, and my ear bleeds. Esau, we shall never be able to go back." "Hooray!" cried my companion defiantly. "Who wants to? But that isn't the worst of it; he will not pay us our wages." "No," I said; "and we shall be punished." "Then it's a jolly shame; for he ought to be punished for hitting us. I say, can't we have a summons against him for assaulting us?" "I don't know," I said, wondering. "How my head does ache!" "Some one coming," whispered Esau. For there were heavy footsteps, and the bolts were drawn. Then the door opened, to show the inspector and the big policeman. "Here, boy," said the former roughly, "let me look at your ear." I was holding my handkerchief to the place, which was bleeding a good deal. "Better have the doctor," he said. "What, for that! Only wants bathing and some sticking-plaster." He smiled. "Well, we shall see," he said, looking at me curiously. "What did you do with the money?" "What money?" "That Mr Dempster said you took." "He didn't take any!" cried Esau indignantly. "He knocked us about, and we hit him again, and he got the worst of it." "Oh, that's it, is it? Come, my lad, that's not true." "It is, sir, indeed," I said earnestly. "But look at your handkerchief. Seems to me you got the worst of it." "Oh, that's nothing," I said. "You had a regular scrimmage, then?" "Yes, sir," I said; and I told him exactly how it happened. "Humph!" ejaculated the inspector, when I had finished, "I dare say you will not get more than seven years." "Seven years, sir!" cried Esau. "What for? Old Demp ought to get it, not us." "You must tell the Lord Mayor that, or the alderman, to-morrow." "But are we going to be kept in prison, sir?" I asked, with my courage sinking. "You are going to be locked up here till tomorrow, of course. Like to have a good wash?" Of course we said "Yes," and before long we looked fairly respectable again, with the exception of scratches, bruises, and the ugly cut I had on my ear. The thing that encouraged me most was the way in which I saw the inspector and constable exchange a smile, while later on they and the other constables about gave us a good tea with bread and butter and meat, and we had to tell all our adventures again before we were locked up for the night, after refusing an offer that was made. "Think we ought to have sent?" said Esau, as we sat together alone. "I have no one I could send to but Mr John, and I shouldn't like to do that," I said, as I wondered the while whether he would be very angry. "And I've got nobody but mother," said Esau, "and that's what made it so queer." "What do you mean? Queer?" "Yes, if I sent to her and she knew I was locked up at the station, she'd come running down here in a dreadful fright and be having fits or something." "But she'll be horribly frightened now!" "Not so much frightened. She'll think we've gone to see something, or been asked out to supper." "But she'll sit up." "That won't matter, because she's sure to go to sleep." So no message was sent--no opportunity afforded of our having bail; but after a time this did not trouble us much. In fact, as we were discussing our future in a low tone, wondering what punishment would be meted out to us, and what we could do afterwards, Esau burst into a fit of laughter. "It was fine," he said, as he sat afterwards wiping his eyes. "And you such a quiet, patient fellow!" "What was fine?" "To see you go on as you did. I say, I wonder what he'll say to the judge?" "We shall not go before a judge," I told him. "Well, madjistrit then. He'll say anything, and you'll see if we don't get sent to prison." I said I hoped not, but I felt pretty sure that we should be punished very severely, and the outlook seemed so bad that I began to think my only chance would be to follow Esau's fortune, and go for a soldier. All at once, just after he had been wondering how long "mother" would be before she dropped off to sleep, and what she would say when she found that we had not been home, I became aware of a low dull guttural sound, which told me that Esau had dropped off, and was sleeping soundly. But I could not follow his example for thinking. What would Mr John say? What would Mrs John think? They would set me down as a reckless lad with a savage temper, and if we were punished they would never know the truth. Then another idea, one which made me shiver, occurred to me; the whole account would be in the newspapers, given as Police Intelligence, and that completely baffled all my attempts to sleep. It was a very quiet night at the station. I heard doors opened and closed twice over, with a good deal of talking; and once while I was thinking most deeply, I started and stared curiously at a bright blaze of light, beyond which I could not see; but I felt that a constable had that light in his hand, and that he had come to see if we were asleep. I had not heard the door open, I suppose I was thinking too deeply; but I heard it shut again, and heavy steps in the long stone passage outside. Then I began thinking again intently, full of remorse for what I had done, and how soon it would be morning; and then I began to envy Esau, who could sleep so soundly in spite of our position. I remember it all--the trampling of feet outside, the dull muttering of voices, and the curious guttural sound Esau made as he slept, one that I was often to hear in years to come; and I sat there with my head resting in a corner, envying him, and wishing that I too could forget. And over and over again came the events of the past day--the struggle in the office, and the savage, malicious look of Mr Dempster as he struck me. Weary, aching, and with my head throbbing, I sat and wondered now at my daring; and then came all kinds of mental questions as to the amount of punishment I, a poor boy, would receive. All at once, as these miserable thoughts kept on repeating themselves in a strange, feverish way, that was somehow connected with a throbbing, smarting sensation in one ear, Mr Dempster seemed to have raised me by the arm once more, and to begin shaking me roughly--so vigorously that I made a desperate effort to escape, when he cried-- "Steady, steady! You're all right. Come, rouse up and have a wash, my lad. It's nearly eight. Ready for some coffee and bread and butter?" I looked up in the dim light to see the big, burly policeman leaning over me, while Esau was giving vent to a noisy yawn. It was morning, indeed, and though not aware of the fact, I must have slept about seven hours. _ |
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