Part 46 (1/2)
Meanwhile Mrs. Crane was vigilant. The detective police-officer sent to her by Mr. Rugge could not give her the information which Rugge desired, and which she did not longer need. She gave the detective some information respecting Madame Caumartin. One day towards the evening she was surprised by a visit from Uncle Sam. He called ostensibly to thank her for her kindness to his G.o.dson and nephew; and to beg her not to be offended if he had been rude to Mr. Losely, who, he understood from Dolly, was a particular friend of hers. ”You see, ma'am, Samuel Dolly is a weak young man, and easily led astray; but, luckily for himself, he has no money and no stomach. So he may repent in time; and if I could find a wife to manage him, he has not a bad head for the main chance, and may become a practical man. Repeatedly I have told him he should go to prison, but that was only to frighten him; fact is, I want to get him safe down into the country, and he don't take to that. So I am forced to say, 'My box, home-brewed and South-down, Samuel Dolly, or a Lunnon jail and debtors' allowance.' Must give a young man his choice, my dear lady.”
Mrs. Crane observing that what he said was extremely sensible, Uncle Sam warmed in his confidence.
”And I thought I had him, till I found Mr. Losely in his sick-room; but ever since that day, I don't know how it is, the lad has had something on his mind, which I don't half like,--cracky, I think, my dear lady,--cracky. I suspect that old nurse pa.s.ses letters. I taxed her with it, and she immediately wanted to take her Bible-oath, and smelt of gin, two things which, taken together, look guilty.”
”But,” said Mrs. Crane, growing much interested, ”if Mr. Losely and Mr.
Poole do correspond, what then?”
”That's what I want to know, ma'am. Excuse me; I don't wish to disparage Mr. Losely,--a das.h.i.+ng gent, and nothing worse, I dare say. But certain sure I am that he has put into Samuel Dolly's head something which has cracked it! There is the lad now up and dressed, when he ought to be in bed, and swearing he'll go to old Latham's to-morrow, and that long arrears of work are on his conscience! Never heard him talk of conscience before: that looks guilty! And it does not frighten him any longer when I say he shall go to prison for his debts; and he's very anxious to get me out of Lunnon; and when I threw in a word about Mr.
Losely (slyly, my good lady,--just to see its effect), he grew as white as that paper; and then he began strutting and swelling, and saying that Mr. Losely would be a great man, and he should be a great man, and that he did not care for my money; he could get as much money as he liked.
That looks guilty, my dear lady. And oh,” cried Uncle Sam, clasping his hands, ”I do fear that he's thinking of something worse than he has ever done before, and his brain can't stand it. And, ma'am, he has a great respect for you; and you've a friends.h.i.+p for Mr. Losely. Now, just suppose that Mr. Losely should have been thinking of what your flash sporting gents call a harmless spree, and my sister's son should, being cracky, construe into something criminal. Oh, Mrs. Crane, do go and see Mr. Losely, and tell him that Samuel Dolly is not safe,--is not safe!”
”Much better that I should go to your nephew,” said Mrs. Crane; ”and with your leave I will do so at once. Let me see him alone. Where shall I find you afterwards?”
”At the Gloucester Coffee-house. Oh, my dear lady, how can I thank you enough? The boy can be nothing to you; but to me, he's my sister's son,--the blackguard!”
CHAPTER XVII.
”Dices laborantes in uno Penelopen vitreamque Circen.”--HORAT.
Mrs. Crane found Poole in his little sitting-room, hung round with prints of opera-dancers, prize-fighters, race-horses, and the dog Billy.
Samuel Dolly was in full dress. His cheeks, usually so pale, seemed much flushed. He was evidently in a state of high excitement, bowed extremely low to Mrs. Crane, called her Countess, asked if she had been lately on the Continent and if she knew Madame Caumartin, and whether the n.o.bility at St. Petersburg were jolly, or stuck-up fellows, who gave themselves airs,--not waiting for her answer. In fact his mind was unquestionably disordered.
Arabella Crane abruptly laid her hand on his shoulder. ”You are going to the gallows,” she said suddenly. ”Down on your knees, and tell me all, and I will keep your secret, and save you; lie, and you are lost!”
Poole burst into tears, and dropped on his knees as he was told.
In ten minutes Mrs. Crane knew all that she cared to know, possessed herself of Losely's letters, and, leaving Poole less light-headed and more light-hearted, she hastened to Uncle Sam at the Gloucester Coffee-house. ”Take your nephew, out of town this evening, and do not let him from your sight for the next six months. Hark you, he will never be a good man; but you may save him from the hulks. Do so. Take my advice.” She was gone before Uncle Sam could answer. She next proceeded to the private house of the detective with whom she had before conferred; this time less to give than to receive information. Not half an hour after her interview with him, Arabella Crane stood in the street wherein was placed the showy house of Madame Caumartin. The lamps in the street were now lighted; the street, even at day a quiet one, was comparatively deserted. All the windows in the Frenchwoman's house were closed with shutters and curtains, except on the drawing-room floor.
From those the lights within streamed over a balcony filled with gay plants; one of the cas.e.m.e.nts was partially open. And now and then, where the watcher stood, she could just catch the glimpse of a pa.s.sing form behind the muslin draperies, or hear the sound of some louder laugh.
In her dark-gray dress and still darker mantle, Arabella Crane stood motionless, her eyes fixed on those windows. The rare foot-pa.s.senger who brushed by her turned involuntarily to glance at the countenance of one so still, and then as involuntarily to survey the house to which that countenance was lifted. No such observer so incurious as not to hazard conjecture what evil to that house was boded by the dark lurid eyes that watched it with so fixed a menace. Thus she remained, sometimes, indeed, moving from her post, as a sentry moves from his, slowly pacing a few steps to and fro, returning to the same place, and again motionless; thus she remained for hours. Evening deepened into night; night grew near to dawn: she was still there in that street, and still her eyes were on that house. At length the door opened noiselessly; a tall man tripped forth with a gay light step, and humming the tune of a gay French chanson. As he came straight towards the spot where Arabella Crane was at watch, from her dark mantle stretched forth her long arm and lean hand and seized him. He started and recognized her.
”You here!” he exclaimed, ”you!--at such an hour,--you!”
”Ay, Jasper Losely, here to warn you. To-morrow the officers of justice will be in that accursed house. To-morrow that woman--not for her worst crimes, they elude the law, but for her least by which the law hunts her down--will be a prisoner,--no, you shall not return to warn her as I warn you” (for Jasper here broke away, and retreated some steps towards the house); ”or, if you do, share her fate. I cast you off.”
”What do you mean?” said Jasper, halting, till with slow steps she regained his side. ”Speak more plainly: if poor Madame Caumartin has got into a sc.r.a.pe, which I don't think likely, what have I to do with it?”
”The woman you call Caumartin fled from Paris to escape its tribunals.
She has been tracked; the French government have claimed her--ho!--you smile. This does not touch you?”
”Certainly not.”
”But there are charges against her from English tradesmen; and if it be proved that you knew her in her proper name,--the infamous Gabrielle Desmarets; if it be proved that you have pa.s.sed off the French billets de banque that she stole; if you were her accomplice in obtaining goods under her false name; if you, enriched by her robberies, were aiding and abetting her as a swindler here,--though you may be safe from the French law, will you be safe from the English? You may be innocent, Jasper Losely; if so, fear nothing. You may be guilty: if so, hide, or follow me!”
Jasper paused. His first impulse was to trust implicitly to Mrs. Crane, and lose not a moment in profiting by such counsels of concealment or flight as an intelligence so superior to his own could suggest. But suddenly remembering that Poole had undertaken to get the bill for L1,000 by the next day,--that if flight were necessary, there was yet a chance of flight with booty,--his const.i.tutional hardihood, and the grasping cupidity by which it was accompanied, made him resolve at least to hazard the delay of a few hours. And, after all, might not Mrs. Crane exaggerate? Was not this the counsel of a jealous woman? ”Pray,” said he, moving on, and fixing quick keen eyes on her as she walked by his side, ”pray, how did you learn all these particulars?”