The Greatest Thrillers of Fergus Hume. Fergus Hume

yelled shrilly like a rabbit caught in a trap, and the next moment was dashed to the ground by the infuriated convict. Bolker ran out of the room crying for the police, and flew through the passage, out of the hall door, and into the windy night. His shrieks roused the neighborhood.

      In a flash Goliath saw a chance of gaining a pardon by saving Vark from being murdered. He threw himself on Bill, who was striking blindly with his knife at the struggling lawyer, and strove to wrench him off.

      "Let be, curse you!" shrieked the convict. "He sold me; he said he'd sell you! If I swing for it, I'll kill him!"

      "No, d--n you, no!"

      Goliath plucked the wretch off the prostrate man like a limpet off a rock; and then commenced a furious struggle between the pair. Vark, wounded and covered with blood, had fainted away. The next moment, while Smith and Goliath were swaying together in a fierce embrace, the room was filled with policemen, brought hither by the shrieking Bolker. Seeing them enter, Bill, wrenching himself free of Goliath, snatched up a revolver, that Bolker had left on the table when he fled, and fired two shots at the prostrate body of his enemy.

      "Yah! Brute! Curse you! Die!"

      Then he returned to the window which overlooked the river, and keeping the police at bay with the pistol, he wrenched it open. Goliath sprang forward to seize him, but Bill, with a howl of rage, dashed the revolver in his face.

      "Curse you for rounding on a pal!"

      The next moment he had swung himself out of the window, and those in the room heard the splash of his heavy body as it struck the waters of the Thames.

      * * *

      Two months after the foregoing event, a caravan, painted yellow and drawn by a gray horse, was rolling along one of the green lanes leading to Walton-on-Thames. It was the beginning of spring, and the buds were already running along the leafless branches of the trees, while the sharpness of the air was tempered by a balmy breath foretelling the advent of the warm months of the year. Beside the caravan strode a tall dark man arrayed in a rough suit of homespun, and near him walked a woman with an imperial carriage and lordly gait. She wore a dress of dark red, much stained and worn; but her eye was full of fire, and her cheek healthy. The pair were of humble condition, but looked contented and happy. As the horse plodded onward in the bursts of sunlight, the two talked.

      "So Vark died, after all, Hagar," said the man, gravely.

      "As you know," she replied, "the two pistol shots killed him; and Bill Smith was drowned in the river as he attempted to escape. He gave up his life to compass his revenge."

      "I am glad Goliath was pardoned."

      "Oh, as to that," said Hagar, indifferently, "I am neither glad nor sorry. I think myself that he only strove to save Vark in order to gain pardon."

      "Well, he got what he wanted," said Eustace, reflectively.

      "He wouldn't if the public hadn't taken the matter up," retorted Hagar: "but they made him out a hero. Nonsense! As if Goliath was the man to forgive Vark, who intended to sell him. Well, he is free now, and rich. I dare say he'll lose all his money in dissipation. He had much better have held on to the pawn-shop, instead of giving it up to Bolker."

      "Bolker is very young to have a business."

      "Don't you believe it," replied Hagar, drily. "Bolker is young in years, but old in wickedness. He bought the pawn-shop business with the reward he got from Lord Deacey for recovering the diamonds. Bolker will grind down the poor of Carby's Crescent, and develop into a second Jacob Dix."

      "You are glad to be away from the pawn-shop?"

      "I should think so!" she replied, with a loving glance at Eustace. "I am glad to leave dirty Lambeth for the green fields of the country. I am a gipsy, and not used to the yoke of commerce. Also, my dear, I am glad to be with you always."

      "Are you indeed, Mrs. Lorn?" said her husband, laughing.

      "Yes, Mrs. Lorn," repeated Hagar, very sedately, "I am Mrs. Lorn now, and Hagar of the Pawn-shop, with all her adventures, is a phantom of the past."

      Eustace kissed her, and then chirruped the horse onward. They passed down the lane, across the dancing shadows, and went away hopefully into the green country towards the gipsy life. Hagar of the Pawn-shop had come to her own at last.

      The Bishop’s Secret

       Table of Contents

       I. ‘Enter Mrs Pansey as Chorus’

       II. The Bishop Is Wanted

       III. The Unforeseen Happens

       IV. The Curiosity of Mr Cargrim

       V. The Derby Winner

       VI. The Man With the Scar

       VII. An Interesting Conversation

       VIII. On Saturday Night

       IX. An Exciting Adventure

       X. Morning Service in the Minster

       XI. Miss Whichello’s Luncheon-Party

       XII. Bell Mosk Pays a Visit

       XIII. A Stormy Night

       XIV. ‘Rumour Full of Tongues’

       XV. The Gipsy Ring

       XVI. The Zeal of Inspector Tinkler

       XVII. A Clerical Detective

       XVIII. The Chaplain on the Warpath

       XIX. The Bishop’s Request

       XX. Mother Jael

       XXI. Mrs Pansey’s Festival

       XXII. Mr Mosk Is Indiscreet

       XXIII. In the Library

       XXIV. The Bishop Asserts Himself

       XXV.