A Double Knot Part 64

"I'll do everything I can," he said sternly.

"Won't you shake hands?"

"No," replied d.i.c.k, "not till you are cleared. Huish," he said in a whisper. "I shall work day and night to clear you, for Gerty's sake; but I've heard some blackguardly things about you lately. This, though, is worse than all."

Huish turned from him, looking dazed and strange, to shake hands with Sir Humphrey, who began protesting to and scolding the inspector on duty.

"I--I--don't believe a word of it," he cried angrily. "You--you--you police fellows are always--yes, damme, always making mistakes of this kind, and--and, confound me, if I don't have the matter brought before the House of Lords. Good-night, my dear boy; make them give you everything you want, and we'll be here first thing in the morning.-- It's--it's--it's about the most disgraceful thing I ever knew, my dear d.i.c.k," he said as soon as they were in the street; "but if you don't take me on to the club and give me some supper I shall faint."

"You must be sharp, then, father. Gertrude will be horribly anxious."

"Yes, yes, poor girl, she will; but it will be all right to-morrow. I'm not so strong as I was, and this has upset me terribly."

There was no doubt about it, for the old gentleman looked very haggard.

A hearty supper, however, restored him, and he left the club in pretty good spirits to accompany d.i.c.k to Westbourne Road, where they were met by the announcement that "master came back a bit ago, and went away with missus."

"What does this mean?" said d.i.c.k sternly.

"Mean, my boy? Why, that he has got bail."

"I'm afraid not," said d.i.c.k to himself, and, with the full belief that his brother-in-law had contrived to escape, he accompanied his father home, keeping, however, his thoughts to himself.

In the morning, however, there was the news that a message had come for her ladyship to go to Wimpole Street, where Mrs Huish had arrived on the previous night.

"Was John Huish there, too?" asked d.i.c.k sharply.

"I did not hear," said her ladyship haughtily. "I know nothing of such a person, and I will not have my name sullied by mention in connection with his."

"But you'll go and see Gertrude?"

"No," exclaimed her ladyship. "It was Gertrude's duty to come to me if she were in trouble. If she prefers her uncle's help, let her enjoy it.

I have no more to say, except that I shall not go; and, Humphrey, I forbid you to go there--for the present."

"And me, too," said d.i.c.k quietly.

"You have long ceased to obey me," said her ladyship austerely, "and must take your own course. _I_ will not, however, be dragged into this dreadful scandal."

"Humph!" said d.i.c.k. "Then you let it all out, father, after you'd gone to bed?"

"Yes, my son, yes. Your mamma was very anxious, and I told her all."

"As you like. I'm off now to secure counsel. We'll have him out before night."

Lady Millet sighed and wiped her eyes, but no one paid any heed to her, so she consoled her injured feelings with a good breakfast.

Meantime, John Huish sat through the night, thinking, and calling up from the past all the strange things that had been laid to his charge.

"What does it mean?" he said aloud. "Am I a madman or a somnambulist, or do I lead a double life?"

It was terrible, that being shut up in such a place; for when the other prisoners were silent, there was a dreadful clock close by, which seemed in its cold, harsh, brazen way to goad him to distraction. It was a hurried clock, that always seemed manifesting itself and warning people of the flight of time, so that every quarter of an hour it fired off a vicious "ting-tang" in the two discordant notes that made a bad descending third, repeating itself at the half-hours, tripling at the third quarter, and at the hour snapping as it were at the world four times before allowing the hammer on another bell to rapidly go off _slam--slam--slam_! till its duty was done. "Clocks are bad enough," he thought, "from the warnings they give of how short our lives are growing; but when a man is in trouble and bells are added, the effect is maddening indeed."

He sat trying to think till he was bewildered, and at last, in a complete maze, he sat listening to the noisy singing of a woman in the next cell, and the drunken howlings of a man on the other side.

"My poor darling!" he cried at last; "it will almost break her heart. A burglary! and if they should prove that I was guilty--oh, it is monstrous!"

He tried to pace his cell, but it was too narrow, and he sat down again with his hands pressed to his forehead, with the mental darkness coming down upon him thicker than that of his cell.

"It's like some nightmare," he said at last, "and as if in some way my brain were unhinged. Absence--absence of mind! My G.o.d! will a judge believe me if I say for defence that I committed a robbery in a fit of absence of mind? One has read of strange things in people's lives," he thought after a time--"how they have been totally unconscious of what took place in one half of their existence. Is it possible that my life is divided into two parts, in each of which I am ignorant of what pa.s.ses in the other? But who would believe it! I'll have Stonor here first thing to-morrow."

He sat with his mind growing darker and darker, and vainly struggling against the black oppression; and at last, with a weary wail; he exclaimed unconsciously:

"My poor darling, what a night for you! Last night happy and admired-- to-night--oh, thank G.o.d--thank G.o.d!"

For the light had come.

The police declared that the burglary had taken place the previous night about nine o'clock at a City house, and that he was seen and nearly captured. Why, a dozen people could prove that he was at Dr Stonor's the whole evening.

He rose and tapped sharply at his cell door.

"Now then," said a rough voice. "What is it?"

"Kindly ask the inspector to come here for a moment," said Huish.

The officer on night duty came from his desk where he had been entering the last charge. "Well, sir?" he said, with official brevity.

"Sorry to trouble you," said Huish, "but that burglary--when was it?"

"Nine o'clock last night--that is, the night before last, for it is now four o'clock."

"Thank G.o.d," said Huish, and he lay down upon that peculiarly soft bed provided by a humane Government at police-stations for arrested people, and slept soundly for hours.

"Precious eager to know when, the crack was done," said the officer, as he looked in at the cell. "Clever dodge--going to try an _alibi_?"

What was intended for a preliminary examination took place in the course of the afternoon, and the officer in charge of the case brought forward two or three witnesses to give a sufficiency of evidence to justify a remand, informing the magistrate that he believed that he should be able to produce a long catalogue of crime against the prisoner, who had succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the police for some time past.

On the other side, however, the services of the rising young counsel, Mr Douglas, had been secured. He made a brief and indignant address to the magistrate on the way in which the sanct.i.ty of Mr Huish's home had been invaded, and a gentleman dragged off to answer this disgraceful trumped-up charge. In conclusion, Mr Douglas said he should bring forward witnesses whose social position was such that their testimony must be taken as unimpeachable, and they would prove on oath that at the time when this gentleman--the defendant; he would not insult him by calling him the prisoner--was stated to have been seen by the police in company with some notorious scoundrels engaged in a burglary--his worship would excuse him for smiling, the charge was so absurd--Mr Huish was partaking of the hospitality of a well-known physician at his house at Highgate.

"Call Dr Stonor."

Dr Stonor stepped into the witness-box, was sworn, and stated that Mr John Huish often dined with him at Highgate, and was there on the night in question, that he arrived there about seven, and did not leave till twelve, and was never out of his sight the whole time.

Daniel Repson, Dr Stonor's confidential servant, testified to the same effect.

Then Sir Humphrey Millet was sworn, and stated that he called at his son-in-law's at six o'clock, and went up with him in the carriage to Highgate, and was set down at Grosvenor Square on the return. He certainly did have a nap after dinner, for about half an hour, but not for more.

Mr Richard Millet gave similar testimony, and lastly Miss Stonor was sworn, and stated that, saving the interval between leaving the table and tea-time, she saw Mr Huish the whole evening.