第 16 页

"Eh, what?" he exclaimed. "Is it you, Cyril? Why, we had all thought

you dead! I did not know you in this dim light and in that big coat

you have got on. Come upstairs, master. Captain Dave and the ladies

will be glad indeed to see you. They have been mourning for you

sadly, I can tell you."

Cyril took off his wrap and hung it on a peg, and then followed John

upstairs.

"There, Captain Dave," the sailor said, as he opened the door of the

sitting-room. "There is a sight for sore eyes!--a sight you never

thought you would look on again."

For a moment Captain Dave, his wife, and daughter stared at Cyril as

if scarce believing their eyes. Then the Captain sprang to his feet.

"It's the lad, sure enough. Why, Cyril," he went on, seizing him by

the hand, and shaking it violently, "we had never thought to see you

alive again; we made sure that those pirates had knocked you on the

head, and that you were food for fishes by this time. There has been

no comforting my good wife; and as to Nellie, if it had been a

brother she had lost, she could not have taken it more hardly."

"They did knock me on the head, and very hard too, Captain Dave. If

my skull hadn't been quite so thick, I should, as you say, have been

food for fishes before now, for that is what they meant me for, and

there is no thanks to them that I am here at present. I am sorry that

you have all been made so uncomfortable about me."

"We should have been an ungrateful lot indeed if we had not,

considering that in the first place you saved us from being ruined by

those pirates, and that it was, as we thought, owing to the services

you had done us that you had come to your end."

"But where have you been, Master Cyril?" Nellie broke in. "What has

happened to you? We have been picturing all sorts of horrors, mother

and I. That evil had befallen you we were sure, for we knew that you

would not go away of a sudden, in this fashion, without so much as

saying goodbye. We feared all the more when, two days afterwards, the

wretches were so bold as to attack the constables, and to rescue

Robert Ashford and another from their hands. Men who would do this in

broad daylight would surely hesitate at nothing."

"Let him eat his supper without asking further questions, Nellie,"

her father said. "It is ill asking one with victuals before him to

begin a tale that may, for aught I know, last an hour. Let him have

his food, lass, and then I will light my pipe, and John Wilkes shall

light his here instead of going out for it, and we will have the yarn

in peace and comfort. It spoils a good story to hurry it through.

Cyril is here, alive and well; let that content you for a few

minutes."

"If I must, I must," Nellie said, with a little pout. "But you should

remember, father, that, while you have been all your life having

adventures of some sort, this is the very first that I have had; for

though Cyril is the one to whom it befell, it is all a parcel with

the robbery of the house and the capture of the thieves."

"When does the trial come off, Captain Dave?"

"It came off yesterday. Marner is to be hung at the end of the week.

He declared that he was but in the lane by accident when two lads

opened the gate. He and the man with him, seeing that they were laden

with goods, would have seized them, when they themselves were

attacked and beaten down. But this ingenuity did not save him. Tom

Frost had been admitted as King's evidence, and testified that Marner

had been several times at the gate with the fellow that escaped, to

receive the stolen goods. Moreover, there were many articles among

those found at his place that I was able to swear to, besides the

proceeds of over a score of burglaries. The two men taken in his

house will have fifteen years in gaol. The women got off scot-free;

there was no proof that they had taken part in the robberies, though

there is little doubt they knew all about them."

"But how did they prove the men were concerned?"

"They got all the people whose property had been found there, and

four of these, on seeing the men in the yard at Newgate, were able to

swear to them as having been among those who came into their rooms

and frightened them well-nigh to death. It was just a question

whether they should be hung or not, and there was some wonder that

the Judge let them escape the gallows."

"And what has become of Tom?"

"They kept Tom in the prison till last night. I saw him yesterday,

and I am sure the boy is mighty sorry for having been concerned in

the matter, being, as I truly believe, terrified into it. I had

written down to an old friend of mine who has set up in the same way

as myself at Plymouth. Of course I told him all the circumstances,

but assured him, that according to my belief, the boy was not so much

to blame, and that I was sure the lesson he had had, would last him

for life; so I asked him to give Tom another chance, and if he did

so, to keep the knowledge of this affair from everyone. I got his

answer yesterday morning, telling me to send him down to him; he

would give him a fair trial, and if he wasn't altogether satisfied

with him, would then get him a berth as ship's boy. So, last night

after dark, he was taken down by John Wilkes, and put on board a

coaster bound for Plymouth. I would have taken him back here, but

after your disappearance I feared that his life would not be safe;

for although they had plenty of other cases they could have proved

against Marner, Tom's evidence brought this business home to him."

Captain Dave would not allow Cyril to begin his story until the table

had been cleared and he and John Wilkes had lighted their pipes. Then

Cyril told his adventure, the earlier part of which elicited many

exclamations of pity from Dame Dowsett and Mistress Nellie, and some

angry ejaculations from the Captain when he heard that Black Dick and

Robert Ashford had got safely off to Holland.

"By St. Anthony, lad," he broke out, when the story was finished,

"you had a narrow escape from those villains at Rotterdam. Had it

chanced that you were out at the time they came, I would not have

given a groat for your life. By all accounts, that fellow Black Dick

is a desperate villain. They say that they had got hold of evidence

enough against him to hang a dozen men, and it seems that there is

little doubt that he was concerned in several cases, where, not

content with robbing, the villain had murdered the inmates of lonely

houses round London. He had good cause for hating you. It was through

you that he had been captured, and had lost his share in all that

plunder at Marner's. Well, I trust the villain will never venture to

show his face in London again; but there is never any saying. I

should like to meet that captain who behaved so well to you, and I

will meet him too, and shake him by the hand and tell him that any

gear he may want for that ketch of his, he is free to come in here to

help himself. There is another thing to be thought of. I must go

round in the morning to the Guildhall and notify the authorities that

you have come back. There has been a great hue and cry for you. They

have searched the thieves' dens of London from attic to cellar; there

have been boats out looking for your body; and on the day after you

were missing they overhauled all the ships in the port. Of course the

search has died out now, but I must go and tell them, and you will

have to give them the story of the affair."

"I shan't say a word that will give them a clue that will help them

to lay hands on the captain. He saved my life, and no one could have

been kinder than he was. I would rather go away for a time

altogether, for I don't see how I am to tell the story without

injuring him."

"No; it is awkward, lad. I see that, even if you would not give them

the name of the craft, they might find out what vessels went into

Ipswich on that morning, and also the names of those that sailed from

Rotterdam on the day she left."

"It seems to me, Captain, that the only way will be for me to say the

exact truth, namely, that I gave my word to the captain that I would

say naught of the matter. I could tell how I was struck down, and how

I did not recover consciousness until I found myself in a boat, and

was lifted on board a vessel and put down into the hold, and was

there kept until morning. I could say that when I was let out I found

we were far down the river, that the captain expressed great regret

when he found that I had been hurt so badly, that he did everything

in his power for me, and that after I had been some days on board the

ship he offered to land me in Holland, and to give me money to pay my

fare back here if I would give him my word of honour not to divulge

his name or the name of the ship, or that of the port at which he

landed me. Of course, they can imprison me for a time if I refuse to

tell, but I would rather stay in gaol for a year than say aught that

might set them upon the track of Captain Madden. It was not until the

day he left me in Holland that I knew his name, for of course the men

always called him captain, and so did I."

"That is the only way I can see out of it, lad. I don't think they

will imprison you after the service you have done in enabling them to

break up this gang, bring the head of it to justice, and recover a

large amount of property."

So indeed, on their going to the Guildhall next morning, it turned

out. The sitting Alderman threatened Cyril with committal to prison

unless he gave a full account of all that had happened to him, but

Captain Dowsett spoke up for him, and said boldly that instead of

punishment he deserved honour for the great service he had done to

justice, and that, moreover, if he were punished for refusing to keep

the promise of secrecy he had made, there was little chance in the

future of desperate men sparing the lives of those who fell into

their hands. They would assuredly murder them in self-defence if they

knew that the law would force them to break any promise of silence

they might have made. The Magistrate, after a consultation with the

Chief Constable, finally came round to this view, and permitted Cyril

to leave the Court, after praising him warmly for the vigilance he

had shown in the protection of his employer's interests. He regretted

that he had not been able to furnish them with the name of a man who

had certainly been, to some extent, an accomplice of those who had

assaulted him, but this was not, however, so much to be regretted,

since the man had done all in his power to atone for his actions.

"There is no further information you can give us, Master Cyril?"

"Only this, your worship: that on the day before I left Holland, I

caught sight of the two persons who had escaped from the constables.

They had just landed."

"I am sorry to hear it," the Alderman said. "I had hoped that they

were still in hiding somewhere in the City, and that the constables

might yet be able to lay hands on them. However, I expect they will

be back again erelong. Your ill-doer is sure to return here sooner or

later, either with the hope of further gain, or because he cannot

keep away from his old haunts and companions. If they fall into the

hands of the City Constables, I will warrant they won't escape

again."

He nodded to Cyril, who understood that his business was over and

left the Court with Captain Dave.

"I am not so anxious as the Alderman seemed to be that Black Dick and

Robert Ashford should return to London, Captain Dave."

"No; I can understand that, Cyril. And even now that you know they

are abroad, it would be well to take every precaution, for the others

whose business has been sorely interrupted by the capture of that

villain Marner may again try to do you harm. No doubt other receivers

will fill his place in time, but the loss of a ready market must

incommode them much. Plate they can melt down themselves, and I

reckon they would have but little difficulty in finding knaves ready

to purchase the products of the melting-pot; but it is only a man

with premises specially prepared for it who will buy goods of all

kinds, however bulky, without asking questions about them."

Cyril was now in high favour with Mistress Nellie, and whenever he

was not engaged when she went out he was invited to escort her.

One day he went with her to hear a famous preacher hold forth at St.

Paul's. Only a portion of the cathedral was used for religious

services; the rest was utilised as a sort of public promenade, and

here people of all classes met--gallants of the Court, citizens,

their wives and daughters, idlers and loungers, thieves and

mendicants.

As Nellie walked forward to join the throng gathered near the pulpit,

Cyril noticed a young man in a Court suit, standing among a group who

were talking and laughing much louder than was seemly, take off his

plumed hat, and make a deep bow, to which she replied by a slight

inclination of the head, and passed on with somewhat heightened

colour.

Cyril waited until the service was over, when, as he left the

cathedral with her, he asked,--

"Who was that ruffler in gay clothes, who bowed so deeply to you,

Mistress Nellie?--that is, if there is no indiscretion in my asking."

"I met him in a throng while you were away," she said, with an

attempt at carelessness which he at once detected. "There was a great

press, and I well-nigh fainted, but he very courteously came to my

assistance, and brought me safely out of the crowd."

"And doubtless you have seen him since, Mistress?"

Nellie tossed her head.

"I don't see what right you have to question me, Master Cyril?"

"No right at all," Cyril replied good-temperedly, "save that I am an

inmate of your father's house, and have received great kindness from