True Tilda Part 13

"It has often suggested to me that his parentage was out of the ordinary--that he probably has relatives at least--er--well-to-do.

But the main point is that he did not escape to-day of his own accord.

He was kidnapped, and in circ.u.mstances that convince me there has been a deliberate plot. To my mind it is incredible that these children, without collusion--" But here Doctor Gla.s.son pulled himself up and sat blinking.

"Eh? Was there more than one?" queried Mr. Hucks, sharp as a knife.

"There was a small girl, not one of my charges. She called on me shortly after midday with a story that an aunt of hers, who may or may not exist, but whom she pretended to antic.i.p.ate, took an interest in this child. While she waited for this aunt's arrival, the--er--matron, Mrs. Huggins, incautiously allowed her access to the kitchen garden, where--without my knowledge and against my rules--the boy happened to be working. The pair of them have disappeared; and, further, I have convinced myself that their exit was made by way of the coal-shaft."

"A small girl, you say? What age?"

"About ten, as nearly as I can guess. A slip of a child, very poorly dressed, and walking with a decided limp."

"I follow you this far," said Mr. Hucks, ruminating. "--Allowin'

there's a plot, if 'tis worth folks' while to get hold o' the child, 'tis worth your while to get him back from 'em. But are you sure there's a plot? There it don't seem to me you've made out your case."

Mr. Hucks said it thoughtfully, but his mind was not working with his speech. The coals, as he knew--though he did not propose to tell the Doctor, at any rate just yet--had been delivered by Sam Bossom.

Of complicity in any such plot as this Sam was by nature incapable.

On the other hand, Sam was just the fellow to help a couple of children out of mere kindness of heart. Mr. Hucks decided to have a talk with Sam before committing himself. He suspected, of course--nay, was certain--that Gla.s.son had kept back something important.

Thus his meditations were running when the Doctor's reply switched the current in a new direction.

"You have not heard the whole of it. As it happens, the man in charge of the coal-boat was not, as I should judge, one of your regular employees--certainly not an ordinary bargeman--but a person whose speech betrayed him as comparatively well educated."

"Eh?" Mr. Hucks sat upright and stared.

"I am not suggesting--"

"No, damme--you 'd better not!" breathed Mr. Hucks.

"Very possibly he had bribed your man with the price of a pot of beer.

At all events, there he was, and in charge of the boat."

"You saw him? Spoke to him?"

"To be accurate, he spoke to me--down the coal-shaft, as I was examining it. I judged him to be simulating drunkenness. But his voice was a cultivated one--I should recognise it anywhere; and Mrs. Huggins, who saw and spoke with him, describes him as a long-faced man, of gentlemanly bearing, with a furred collar."

"Good Lord! Mortimer!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Hucks, but inwardly.

"I need hardly point out to you that a bargee in a furred collar--"

"No, you needn't." Mr. Hucks rose from his chair. "See here, Gla.s.son, you've come with a notion that I'm mixed up in this. Well, as it happens, you're wrong. I don't ask you to take my word--I don't care a d--n whether you believe me or not--only you're wrong. What's more, I'll give no promise to help--not to-night, anyway. But I'm goin' to look into this, and to-morrow I'll tell you if we play the hand together. To-morrow at nine-thirty, if that suits? If not, you can go and get the police to help."

"Time may be precious," hesitated Gla.s.son.

"Mine is, anyway," Mr. Hucks retorted. "Let me see you out. No, it's no trouble. I'm goin' to look into this affair right away."

He handed the Doctor his lantern, opened the door for him, and walked with him three parts of the way across the yard. As they pa.s.sed the caravan door his quick ear noted a strange sound within. It resembled the m.u.f.fled yap of a dog. But Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer did not keep a dog.

He halted. "There's the gate. Good night," he said, and stood watching while Gla.s.son pa.s.sed out. Then, swinging on his heel, he strode back to the caravan.

"Mortimer!" he challenged, mounting to the third step and knocking.

"Ha! Who calls?" answered the deep voice of Mr. Mortimer after two seconds' interval.

"Hucks. And I want a word with you."

The door opened a little way . . . and with that someone within the van uttered a cry, as a dark object sprang out over the flap, hurtled past Mr. Hucks, and hurled itself across the court towards the gate.

"'Dolph! 'Dolph!" called an agonised voice--a child's voice.

"The dog's daft!" chimed in Mr. Mortimer.

"'E'll kill 'im!"

As Mr. Hucks recovered his balance and stared in at the caravan doorway, now wide open, from the darkness beyond the gate came a cry and a fierce guttural bark--the two blent together. Silence followed. Then on the silence there broke the sound of a heavy splash.

CHAPTER VIII.

FLIGHT.

"_So all night long and through the dawn the ship cleft her way."

--ODYSSEY, ii.

Mr. Hucks ran. Mr. Mortimer ran. As they reached the gate they heard the voice of Doctor Gla.s.son uplifted, gurgling for help.

They spied him at once, for by a lucky chance his lantern--one of the common stable kind, with panes of horn--had fallen from his grasp as he pitched over the edge of the basin. It floated, bobbing on the waves cast up by his struggles and splashings, and by the light of it they quickly reached the spot. But unluckily, though they could see him well enough, they could not reach Doctor Gla.s.son. He clung to the head-rope of a barge moored some nine feet from sh.o.r.e, and it appeared that he was hurt, for his efforts to lift himself up and over the stem of the boat, though persistent, were feeble, and at every effort he groaned.

The dog--cause of the mischief--craned forward at him over the water, and barked in indecent triumph.

Mr. Mortimer, who had gone through the form of tearing off his coat, paused as he unb.u.t.toned his waistcoat also, and glanced at Mr. Hucks.

"Can you swim?" he asked. "I--I regret to say it is not one of my accomplishments."

"I ain't goin' to try just yet," Mr. Hucks answered with creditable composure. "They 're bound to fetch help between 'em with the row they 're making. Just hark to the d--d dog."

Sure enough the alarm had been given. A voice at that moment hailed from one of the boats across the water to know what was the matter, and half a dozen porters, ca.n.a.l-men, night watchmen from the warehouses, came running around the head of the basin; but before they could arrive, a man dashed out of the darkness behind the two watchers, tore past them, and sprang for the boat. They heard the thud of his feet as he alit on her short fore-deck, and an instant later, as he leaned over the stem and gripped Dr. Gla.s.son's coat-collar, the light of the bobbing lantern showed them his face. It was Sam Bossom.

He had lifted the Doctor waist-high from the water before the other helpers sprang on board and completed the rescue. The poor man was hauled over the bows and stretched on the fore-deck, where he lay groaning while they brought the boat alongside the quay's edge. By this time a small crowd had gathered, and was being pressed back from the brink and exhorted by a belated policeman.

It appeared as they lifted him ash.o.r.e that the Doctor, beside the inconvenience of a stomachful of dirty ca.n.a.l water, was suffering considerable pain. In his fright (the dog had not actually bitten him) he had blundered, and struck his knee-cap violently against a bollard close by the water's edge, and staggering under the anguish of it, had lost his footing and collapsed overboard. Then, finding that his fingers could take no hold on the slippery concrete wall of the basin, with his sound leg he had pushed himself out from it and grasped the barge's head-rope. All this, between groans, he managed to explain to the policeman, who, having sent for an ambulance stretcher, called for volunteers to carry him home; for home Dr. Gla.s.son insisted on being taken, putting aside--and with great firmness--the suggestion that he would be better in hospital.

Sam Blossom was among the first to offer his services. But here his master interposed.

"No, no, my lad," said Mr. Hucks genially, "you've behaved pretty creditable already, and now you can give the others a turn. The man's all right, or will be by to-morrow; and as it happens," he added in a lower tone, "I want five minutes' talk with you, and at once."

They watched while the sufferer was hoisted into his stretcher. So the escort started, the policeman walking close behind and the crowd following the policeman.