The Greatest Thrillers of Fergus Hume. Fergus Hume

Heath’s Tom Tiddler’s ground,

       Gold and silver are there to be found.

       It’s dropped by the priest, picked up by the knave,

       For the one is a coward, the other is brave.

      More brandy, waiter; make it stiff, sonny! stiff! stiff! stiff!’

      The man’s wild speech and rude song were unintelligible to his stupid, drink-bemused audience; but the keen brain of the schemer lurking near the door picked up their sense at once. Dr Pendle was the priest who was to drop the money on Southberry Heath, and Jentham the knave who was to pick it up. As certainly as though the man had given chapter and verse, Cargrim understood his enigmatic stave. His mind flashed back to the memory that Dr Pendle intended to ride over to Southberry in the morning, across the heath. Without doubt he had agreed to meet there this man who boasted that he could get blood out of a stone, and the object of the meeting was to bribe him to silence. But however loosely Jentham alluded to his intention of picking up gold, he was cunning enough, with all his excitement, to hold his tongue as to how he could work such a miracle. Undoubtedly there was a secret between Dr Pendle and this scamp; but what it might be, Cargrim could by no means guess. Was Jentham a disreputable relation of the bishop’s? Had Dr Pendle committed a crime in his youth for which he was now being blackmailed? What could be the nature of the secret which gave this unscrupulous blackguard a hold on a dignitary of the Church? Cargrim’s brain was quite bewildered by his conjectures.

      Hitherto Jentham had been in the blabbing stage of intoxication, but after another glass of drink he relapsed into a sullen, silent condition, and with his eyes on the table pulled fiercely at his pipe, so that his wicked face looked out like that of a devil from amid the rolling clouds of smoke. His audience waited open-mouthed for more stories, but as their entertainer seemed too moody to tell them any more, they began to talk amongst themselves, principally about horses and dogs. It was now growing late, and the most respectable of the crowd were moving homeward. Cargrim felt that to keep up the dignity of his cloth he should depart also; for several looks of surprise were cast in his direction. But Jentham and his wild speeches fascinated him, and he lurked in his corner, watching the sullen face of the man until the two were left the sole occupants of the room. Then Jentham looked up to call the waiter to bring him a final drink, and his eyes met those of Mr Cargrim. After a keen glance he suddenly broke into a peal of discordant laughter, which died away into a savage and menacing growl.

      ‘Hallo!’ he grumbled, ‘here is the busybody of Beorminster. And what may you want, Mr Paul Pry?’

      ‘A little civility in the first place, my worthy friend,’ said Cargrim, in silky tones, for he did not relish the insolent tone of the satirical scamp.

      ‘I am no friend to spies!’

      ‘How dare you speak to me like that, fellow?’

      ‘You call me a fellow and I’ll knock your head off,’ cried Jentham, rising with a savage look in his eyes. ‘If you aren’t a spy why do you come sneaking round here?’

      ‘I came to see Mrs Mosk,’ explained the chaplain, in a mighty dignified manner, ‘but she is asleep, so I could not see her. In passing the door of this room I heard you relating your adventures, and I naturally stopped to listen.’

      ‘To hear if I had anything to say about my visit to your bishop, I suppose?’ growled Jentham, unpleasantly. ‘I have a great mind to tell him how you watch me, you infernal devil-dodger!’

      ‘Respect my cloth, sir.’

      ‘Begin by respecting it yourself, d—— you. What would his lordship of Beorminster say if he knew you were here?’

      ‘His lordship does know.’

      Jentham started. ‘Perhaps he sent you?’ he said, looking doubtful.

      ‘No, he did not,’ contradicted Cargrim, who saw that nothing was to be learned while the man was thus bemused with drink. ‘I have told you the reason of my presence here. And as I am here, I warn you, as a clergyman, not to drink any more. You have already had more than enough.’

      Jentham was staggered by the boldness of the chaplain, and stared at him open-mouthed; then recovering his speech, he poured forth such a volley of vile words at Cargrim that the chaplain stepped to the door and called the landlord. He felt that it was time for him to assert himself.

      ‘This man is drunk, Mosk,’ said he, sharply, ‘and if you keep such a creature on your premises you will get into trouble.’

      ‘Creature yourself!’ cried Jentham, advancing towards Cargrim. ‘I’ll wring your neck if you use such language to me. I’ve killed fifty better men than you in my time. Mosk!’ he turned with a snarl on the landlord, ‘get me a drink of brandy.’

      ‘I think you’ve had enough, Mr Jentham,’ said the landlord, with a glance at Cargrim, ‘and you know you owe me money.’

      ‘Curse you, what of that?’ raved Jentham, stamping. ‘Do you think I’ll not pay you?’

      ‘I’ve not seen the colour of your money lately.’

      ‘You’ll see it when I choose. I’ll have hundreds of pounds next week—hundreds;’ and he broke out fiercely, ‘get me more brandy; don’t mind that devil-dodger.’

      ‘Go to bed,’ said Mosk, retiring, ‘go to bed.’

      Jentham ran after him with an angry cry, so Cargrim, feeling himself somewhat out of place in this pot-house row, nodded to Mosk and left the hotel with as much dignity as he could muster. As he went, the burden of Jentham’s last speech—‘hundreds of pounds! hundreds of pounds!’—rang in his ears; and more than ever he desired to examine the bishop’s cheque-book, in order to ascertain the exact sum. The secret, he thought, must indeed be a precious one when the cost of its preservation ran into three figures.

      When Cargrim emerged into the street it was still filled with people, as ten o’clock was just chiming from the cathedral tower. The gossipers had retired within, and lights were gleaming in the upper windows of the houses; but knots of neighbours still stood about here and there, talking and laughing loudly. Cargrim strolled slowly down the street towards the Eastgate, musing over his late experience, and enjoying the coolness of the night air after the sultry atmosphere of the coffee-room. The sky was now brilliant with stars, and a silver moon rolled aloft in the blue arch, shedding down floods of light on the town, and investing its commonplace aspect with something of romance. The streets were radiant with the cold, clear lustre; the shadows cast by the houses lay black as Indian ink on the ground; and the laughter and noise of the passers-by seemed woefully out of place in this magical white world.

      Cargrim was alive to the beauty of the night, but was too much taken up with his thoughts to pay much attention to its mingled mystery of shadow and light. As he took his musing way through the wide streets of the modern town, he was suddenly brought to a standstill by hearing the voice of Jentham some distance away. Evidently the man had quarrelled with the landlord, and had been turned out of the hotel, for he came rolling along in a lurching, drunken manner, roaring out a wild and savage ditty, picked up, no doubt, in some land at the back of beyond.

      ‘Oh, I have treked the eight world climes,

       And sailed the seven seas:

       I’ve made my pile a hundred times,

       And chucked the lot on sprees.

       But when my ship comes home, my lads,

       Why, curse me, don’t I know

       The spot that’s worth, the blooming earth,

       The spot where I shall go.

       They call it Callao! for oh, it’s Callao.

       For on no condition

       Is extradition

       Allowed in Callao.’

      Jentham roared and ranted the fierce old chanty with as