It Is Never Too Late to Mend Part 70

"Defiance! no," said Mr. Palmer innocently.

"Well, but, Palmer, his opposition to Mr. Hawes is opposition to us, and is so bitter that it leaves us no alternative. We must propose to the bench to remove you from your office."

Mr. Eden bowed.

"And meantime," put in Mr. Williams, "we shall probably suspend you this very day by our authority." Mr. Eden bowed.

"We will not detain you any longer, sir," said Williams, rather insolently.

"I will but stay to say one word to this gentleman, who has conducted himself with courtesy toward me. Sir, for your own sake do not enter on this contest with me; it is an unequal one. A boy has just been murdered in this prison. I am about to drag his murderer into the light; why hang upon his skirts and compel me to expose you to public horror as his abettor? There is yet time to disown the fell practices of--h.e.l.l!" He looked at his watch. "There is half an hour. Do not waste it in acts which our superiors will undo. See here are the prison rules; a child could understand them. A child could see that what you call 'the discipline' is a pure invention of the present jailer, and contradicts the discipline as by law established, and consequently that Josephs and others have been murdered by this lawless man. These are the prison rules, are they not? and here are the jailer's proceedings in the month of January--compare the two, and separate your honorable name from the contact of this caitiff, whose crimes will gibbet him in the nation's eyes, and you with him, unless you seize this chance and withdraw your countenance from him."

The three injustices rose by one impulse. "Make your preparations to leave the jail," said Mr. Woodc.o.c.k.

"Half an hour is quite enough under the circ.u.mstances," said Williams.

Palmer stood aghast--his mind was not fast enough to keep up.

Mr. Eden bowed and retired. He was scarcely out of the room when the justices drew up an order for his suspension from his office.

Mr. Hawes was next sent for.

"We have found the chaplain all you described him. Discipline is impossible with such a man; here is an order for his suspension."

Hawes's eyes sparkled. "We will enter it into the book, meantime you are to see it executed." Hawes went out, but presently returned.

"He won't go, gentlemen."

"What do you mean by he won't go?" said Williams.

"I told him your orders; and he said, 'Tell their worships they are exceeding their authority, and I won't go.' Then I said, 'They give you half an hour to pack up and then you must pack off.'"

"He! he! he! and what did he say?"

"'Oh, they give me half an hour, do they?' says he--'you take them this'--and he wrote this on a slip of paper--here it is."

The slip contained these words--

[Greek letters]

While the justices were puzzling over this, Hawes added, "Gentlemen, he said in his polite way, 'If it is like the prison rules and beats their comprehension, you may tell them it means--

"'There is many a slip 'Twixt the cup and the lip.'"

"Well, Mr. Hawes--what next?"

"'I am victualed for a siege,' says he, and he goes into his own room, and I heard him shoot the bolt."

"What does that mean?" inquired Mr. Palmer.

"It means, sir, that you won't get him out except by kicking him out."

Hawes had been irritating their wounded vanity in order to get them up to this mark.

"Then turn him out by force," said Williams. But the other two were wiser. "No, we must not do that--we can keep him out if once he crosses the door."

"I will manage it for you, gentlemen," said Mr. Hawes.

"Do."

Mr. Hawes went out and primed Fry with a message to Mr. Eden that a gentleman had ridden over from Oxford to see him, and was at his house.

Mr. Eden was in his room busy collecting and arranging several papers.

He had just tied them up in a little portfolio when he heard Fry's voice at the door. When that worthy delivered his message his lip curled with scorn. But he said, "Very well." I will disappoint the sly b.o.o.bies, thought he. But the next moment, looking out of his window, he saw a fly with a gray horse coming along the road. "At last," he cried, and instantly unbolted his door, and issued forth with his little portfolio under his arm. He had scarce taken ten steps when a turnkey popped out from a corner and stood sentinel over his room-door, barring all return.

Mr. Eden smiled and pa.s.sed on along the corridor. He descended from the first floor to the bas.e.m.e.nt. Here he found Hawes affecting business, but not skillfully enough to hide that he was watching Mr. Eden out.

In the yard leading to the great door he found the injustices. Aha!

thought he--waiting to see me out. He raised his hat politely. Williams took no notice. The others slight.

"There is many a slip 'Twixt the cup and the lip,"

said he to them, looking them calmly over, then sauntered toward the gate.

Mr. Hawes came creeping after and joined the injustices; every eye furtively watched the parson whom they had outwitted. Fry himself had gone to the lodge to let him out and keep him out. He was but a few steps from the door. Hawes chuckled; his heart beat with exultation. A nether moment and that huge barrier would be interposed forever between him and his enemy, the prisoners' friend.

"Open the door, Mr. Fry," said the chaplain. Fry pulled it quickly open.

"And let that gentleman in!"

A middle-aged gentleman was paying off his fly. The door being thus thrown open he walked quickly into the jail as if it belonged to him.

"Who is this?" inquired Mr. Williams sharply. The newcomer inquired as sharply, "The governor of this jail?"

Mr. Hawes stepped forward: "I am the governor." The newcomer handed him his card and a note.

"Mr. Lacy from the Home Office," said Mr. Hawes to the injustices.

"These, sir, are the visiting justices."

Mr. Lacy bowed, but addressed himself to Mr. Hawes only. "Grave charges have been made against you, sir. I am here to see whether matters are such as to call for a closer investigation."

"May I ask, sir, who makes the charges against me?"

"The chaplain of your own jail."

"But he is my enemy, sir, my personal enemy."

"Don't distress yourself. No public man is safe from detraction. We hear an excellent account of you from every quarter but this one. My visit will probably turn to your advantage."

Hawes brightened.

"Is there any room in which I could conduct this inquiry?"