CHAPTER II.
THE DICE-BOX.
That same afternoon, at four o'clock, Captain Barker and CaptainRunacles entered Harwich and advanced up the West Street side byside. Each had a bulky letter in his side-pocket, and the addressupon each letter was the same. They talked but little.
On the right-hand side of West Street, as you enter the town, and ahundred yards or more from the town gate, there stood at that time atwo-storeyed house of more pretensions than its fellows--from whichit drew back somewhat. A line of railings, covered with ironwork ofa florid and intricate pattern, but greatly decayed, shut it off fromthe roadway. The visitor, on opening the broad iron gate over whichthis pattern culminated in the figure of a Triton blowing aconch-shell, found himself in a pebbled court and before a massivefront-door.
Neglect hung visibly over house and court alike as the two captainsentered by the iron gate and looked around them with more trepidationthan they had ever displayed in action. Grass sprouted between thepebbles and a greenish stain lay upon the flagstones. The drabfrontage was similarly streaked; dust and rain together had set acrust upon the windows, and tufts of dark mossy grass againflourished in the gutter-pipes beneath the eaves.
Surveying this desolation, Captain Jemmy uttered a grunt and CaptainJohn a "p'sh!" They fumbled in their pockets, drew out their twoletters, and moved to the blistered front-door. A bell-pull, asrusty as the railings outside, depended by the jamb. Captain Jemmytugged at it. It was noteworthy that whenever any effort had to beput forth, however small, the tall man stepped forward and thehunchback looked on. It was Captain Jemmy, for instance, who had, amoment before, pushed back the gate.
He had to tug thrice before a discordant bell sounded within thehouse, and twice again before footsteps began to shuffle along thepassage.
A bolt was let down and the big door fell open, disclosing a smallserving-girl, who stared upon the visitors with round eyes.
"Is your mistress within?"
"Mistress Salt is within, sirs; but--"
"But what?"
"She--she can't see you!" The girl burst into tears.
"Who the devil asked her to see us?" rapped out Captain Barker.
"You are to take these two letters," interposed Captain Runacles.Each captain held out his letter. "You are to take these two--blowyour nose and dry your eyes--letters to your mistress at once--mindyou, _at once_--and together--_together_, you understand, and--whatin thunder are you whimpering about?"
"I c-c-can't, sirs."
"Can't! Why, in the name of--don't drip on 'em, I tell you! Why, inthe name of--"
The iron gate creaked behind them, and the two captains turned theirheads. A portly, broad-shouldered gentleman, in a suit of snuffcolour, came slowly across the court, with both hands behind him, anda cane rapping against his heels.
"Dr. Beckerleg."
"Hey? Why--Captain Barker! Captain Runacles! Glad to see youboth--glad to see you both home again! Also I'd be glad to know whatyou're both doing here, at such a time."
The captains looked at each other and coughed. They turned towardsthe doorway. The serving-girl had disappeared, taking their letterswith her. Captain Barker faced round upon the Doctor.
"You said 'at such a time,' sir."
"I did."
"And why not at this time, as well as another?"
"God bless me! Is it possible you don't know?"
"It is not only possible, but certain."
The Doctor bent his head, pointed up at a window, and whispered; thenwent softly up the three steps into the house.
He left the two friends staring at each other. They stood and staredat each other for three minutes or more. Then Captain Barker spokein a hoarse whisper.
"Jemmy, do you know anything about this--this kind of business?"
"Nothing. I was abroad, you know, when my own little maid--"
"Yes, I remember. But I thought, perhaps--say, I can't go hometill--till I've seen the Doctor again."
"Nor I."
A dull moan sounded within the house.
"Oh, my God!" groaned Captain Runacles; "Meg--Meg!"
A lattice was opened softly above them and the doctor leant out.
"Go away--you two!" he whispered and waved his hand towards the gate.
"But, Doctor--"
"H'sh! I'll come and tell you when it's over. Where shall you be?"
"At the Three Crowns, down the street here."
"Right."
The lattice was closed again very gently. Captain Barker laid hishand upon the tall man's sleeve.
"Jemmy, we're out of this action. I thought I knew what it meant tolay-to and have to look on while a fight went forward; but I didn't.Come--"
They passed out of the courtyard and down the street towards theThree Crowns. Beneath the sign of that inn there lounged a knot ofofficers wearing the flesh-coloured facings of the Buffs, and withina young baritone voice was uplifted and trolling, to theaccompaniment of clinking glasses, a song of Mr. Shirley's:
You virgins that did late despair To keep your wealth from cruel men, Tie up in silk your careless hair: Soft Peace is come again! . . .
There was one sitting-room but no bedroom to be had at the ThreeCrowns. So they ordered up a dinner which they could not touch, butsat over in silence for two weary hours, drinking very much moreburgundy than they were aware of. Captain Jemmy, taking up threebottles one after another and finding them all empty, ordered upthree more, and drew his chair up to the hearth, where he sat kickingthe oaken logs viciously with his long legs. The little hunchbackstared out on the falling night, rang for candles, and began to pacethe room like a caged beast.
Before midnight Captain Runacles was drunk. Six fresh bottles stoodon the table. The man was a cask. Even in the warm firelight hisface was pale as a sheet, and his lips worked continually.
Captain Barker still walked up and down, but his thin legs would notalways move in a straight line. His eyes glared like two globes ofgreen fire, and he began to knock against the furniture. Few men canwait helplessly and come out of it with credit. Every time CaptainJohn hit himself against the furniture Captain Jemmy cursed him.
Tie up in silk your careless hair; Soft Peace is come again!
--Sang the little man, in a rasping voice. "Your careless hair," hehiccoughed; "your careless hair, Meg!"
Then he sat down on the floor and laughed to himself softly, rockinghis distorted body to and fro.
"Bah!" said his friend, without looking round. "You're drunk."And he poured out more burgundy. He was outrageously drunk himself,but it only affected his temper, not his wits.
"Meg," he said, "will live. What's more, she'll live to marry me."
"She won't. She'll die. Hist! there's a star falling outside."
He picked himself up and crawled upon the window-seat, clutching atthe red curtains to keep his footing.
"Jemmy, she'll die! What was it that old fool said to-day?The door's closing on us both. To think of our marching up, justnow, with those two letters; and the very sun in heaven cracking hischeeks with laughter at us--us two poor scarecrows making love thirtyyears after the time!"
His wry head dropped forward on his chest.
After this the two kept silence. The rest of the house had longsince gone to rest, and the sound of muffled snoring alone marked thetime as it passed, except when Captain Jemmy, catching up another oaklog, drove it into the fire with his heel; or out in the street thewatch went by, chanting the hour; or a tipsy shouting broke out insome distant street, or the noise of dogs challenging each other fromtheir kennels across the sleeping town.
A shudder of light ran across the heavens, and over against thewindow Captain Barker saw the east grow pale. For some while thestars had been blotted out and light showers had fallen at intervals.Heavy clouds were banked across the river, behind Shotley; and theroofs began to glisten as they took the dawn.
Footsteps sounded on the
roadway outside. He pushed open the windowand looked out. Doctor Beckerleg was coming up the street, his hatpushed back and his neckcloth loosened as he respired the morningair.
The footsteps paused underneath, by the inn door; but the littleCaptain leant back in the window-seat without making a sign. He hadseen the Doctor's face. Before the fire Captain Jemmy brooded, withchin on breast, hands grasping the chair-rail and long legs stretchedout, one on each side of the hearth. The knocking below did notrouse him from this posture, nor the creaking of feet on the stairs.
Doctor Beckerleg stood in the doorway and for a moment contemplatedthe scene--the empty bottles, the unsnuffed candles guttering downupon the table, and the grey faces of both drunken men. Then heturned and whispered a word to the drawer, who had hurried out of bedto admit him and now stood behind his shoulder. The fellow shuffleddownstairs.
Captain Barker struggled with a question that was dried up in histhroat. Before he could get it out the Doctor shook his head.
"She is dead," he announced, very gravely and simply.
The hunchback shivered. Captain Runacles neither spoke nor stirredin his chair.
"A man-child was born at two o'clock. He is alive: his mother diedtwo hours later."
Captain Barker shivered again, plucked aimlessly at a rosette in thewindow-cushion, and stole a quick glance at his comrade's back.Then, putting a finger to his lip, he slid down to the floor andlurched across to the Doctor.
"She was left penniless?" he whispered.
"That, or almost that, 'tis said," replied Dr. Beckerleg in the samekey, though the question obviously surprised him. "Her father lefthis money to the town, as all know--"
"Yes, yes; I knew that. Her husband--"
"Hadn't a penny-piece, I believe: pawned her own mother's jewels andgambled 'em away; thereupon left her, as a dog his cleaned bone."
The little man laid a hand on his collar, and as the doctor stoopedwhispered low and rapidly in his ear.
Their colloquy was interrupted.
"I'll adopt that child!" said Captain Runacles from the hearth.He spoke aloud, but without turning his head.
Captain Barker hopped round, as if a pin were stuck into him.
"You!--adopt Meg's boy!"
"I said that."
"But you won't."
"I shall."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Jemmy; but I intend to adopt himmyself."
"I know it. You were whispering as much to the Doctor there."
"You have a little girl already."
"Precisely. That's where the difference comes in. This one, you'llnote, is a boy."
"A child of your own!"
"But not of Meg's."
Captain Runacles turned in his chair as he said this, and, reaching ahand back to the table, drained the last bottle of burgundy into hisglass. His face was white as a sheet and his jaw set like iron."But not of Meg's," he repeated, lifting the glass and nodding overit at the pair.
His friend swayed into a chair and sat facing him, his chin butjust above the table and his green eyes glaring like an owl's.
"Jemmy Runacles, _I_ adopt that boy!"
"You're cursedly obstinate, Jack."
"Having adopted him, I shall at once quit my profession and devotethe residue of my life to his education. For a year or two--that is,until he reaches an age susceptible of tuition--I shall mature ascheme of discipline, which--"
"My dear sir," the Doctor interposed, "surely all this is somewhatprecipitate."
"Not at all. My resolution was taken the instant you entered theroom."
"That hardly seems to me to prove--"
The little man waved aside the interruption and continued:"Tristram--for I shall have him christened by that name--"
"He'll be called Jeremiah," decided Captain Runacles shortly.
"I've settled upon Tristram. The name is a suitable one, andsignifies that its wearer is a child of sorrow."
"Jeremiah also suggests lamentations, and has the further merit ofbeing my own name."
"Tristram--"
"Jeremiah--"
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," cried Dr. Beckerleg, "would it not be as wellto see the infant?"
"I can imagine," Captain Barker answered, "nothing in the infant thatis likely to shake my resolution. My scheme of discipline will bebased--"
"Decidedly, Jack, I shall have to run you through," said his friendgloomily. Indeed, the Doctor stood in instant fear of thiscatastrophe; for Captain Runacles' temper was a byword, and not evenhis customary dark flush looked so dangerous as the lustreless,sullen eyes now sunk in a face that was drawn and pinched andabsolutely wax-like in colour. To the Doctor's astonishment,however, it was the little hunchback who now jumped up and whippedout his sword.
"Run me through!" he almost screamed, dancing before the other andthreatening him with absurd flourishes--"Run me through?"
"Listen, gentlemen; listen, before blood is spilt! To me it appearsevident that you are both drunk."
"To me that seems an advantage, since it equalises matters."
"But whichever of you survives, he will be unable to forgive himself;having sinned not only against God, but also against logic."
"How against logic?"
"Permit me to demonstrate. Mrs. Salt, whom (as I well know) youesteemed, is lost to you; and in her place is left a babe whom--healthy though he undoubtedly is--you cannot possibly esteem withouttaking a great deal for granted, especially as you have not yet seteyes on him. Now it is evident that, if one of you should kill theother, a second life of approved worth will be sacrificed for aninfant of purely hypothetical merits. As a man of business I condemnthe transaction. As a Christian I deprecate the shedding of blood.But if somebody's blood must be shed, let us be reasonable and killthe baby!"
Captain Barker lowered his point.
"Decidedly the question is more difficult than I imagined."
"At least it cannot be settled before eating," said Dr. Beckerleg, asthe drawer entered with a tray. "You will forgive me that I took theliberty of ordering breakfast as soon as I looked into this room.Without asking to see your tongues, I prescribed dried herrings andhome-brewed ale; for myself, a fried sole, a beef-steak reasonablyunder-done, a kidney-pie which the drawer commended on his ownmotion, with a smoked cheek of pork, perhaps--"
"You wish us to sit still while you devour all this?"
"I am willing to give each side of the argument a fair chance."
"But I find nothing to argue about!" exclaimed Captain Runacles,pushing his plate from him after a very faint attempt to eat."My mind being already made up--"
"And mine," interrupted Captain Barker.
"If I suggest that both of you adopt the child," Dr. Beckerleg begun.
"Still he must be educated; and our notions of education differ.Moreover, when we differ--as you may have observed--we do so withsome thoroughness."
"Let me propose, then, a system of alternation, by which you couldadopt the boy for six months each, turn and turn about."
"But if--as would undoubtedly happen--each adoptive parent spent hissix months in undoing the other's work, it must follow that, at theend of any given period, the child's mind would be a mere _tabularasa_. Suppose, on the other hand, we failed to wipe out eachother's teaching, the unfortunate youth would be launched upon lifewith half his guns pointed inboard and his needle jerking from onepole to the other. Consider the name, Jeremiah Tristram!"
"It is heterogeneous," admitted the Doctor.
"He would be called Tristram Jeremiah," Captain Barker put in.
"Well, but that is not less heterogeneous. O wise Solomon!" criedthe Doctor, with his mouth full of kidney-pie; "had I but theauthority you enjoyed in a like dispute, I would resign to you allthe credit of originality!"
"As it is, however, you are wasting our time, and it becomes clearthat we must fight, after all."
"By no means; for I have this moment received an inspiration.Drawer!"
The drawer an
swered this summons almost before it was uttered, byappearing in the doorway with a dish of eggs and a fresh tankard.
"Set the dish down and attend," commanded Dr. Beckerleg. "You have adice-box and dice in the house?"
"No, sir. His worship the Mayor--"
"My good fellow, the regulations against play in this town are wellknown to me; also that the Crowns is an orderly house. Let mesuggest, then, that you have several gentlemen of the army lodgingunder this roof; that one of these, if politely asked, might own thathe had come across such a thing as a dice-box during his sojourn inthe Low Countries. It may even be that in the sack of someunpronounceable town or other he has acquired a specimen, and isbringing it home in his valise to exhibit it to his family. Be sogood as to inform him that three gentlemen, in Room No. 6, who areabout to write a tractate on the amusements of the Dutch--"
"By your leave, sir, I don't know how it may be on campaign; but inthis house we never awaken a soldier for any reason which he cannotgrasp at once."
"In that case let him have his sleep out before you vex him with ourapologies. But meanwhile bring the dice."
The fellow went out, whispered to the chamber-maid, and returned inless than five minutes with a pair of dice and a leathern box muchworn with use.
"They belong," he whispered, "to a young gentleman of the Admiral'sregiment, who was losing heavily last night."
"Thank you; they are the less likely to be loaded. You may retirefor a while. My friends," the Doctor continued, as soon as they werealone, "Aristotle invented Chance to account for the astonishing factthat there were certain things in the world which he could notexplain. I appeal to it for as cogent a reason. Indeed, hadMistress Margaret--whose soul God has this night resumed--had she, Isay, been spared to receive and ponder the two letters which I sawyou deliver at her door; and had she invited me, as a tried friend,to decide between them, I feel sure I should have ended by putting adice-box into her hands. Do not blush. No true man need blush thathe has loved such a woman: and you are both true men, if a trifleobstinate--_justi et tenaces propositi_. Men of your character,Flaccus tells us, do not blench at the thunderbolts of Jove himself;and truly, I can well imagine his missile fizzing harmlessly intoyour party hedge, unable to decide between the pavilion of CaptainJohn and the pavilion of Captain Jeremy. But Chance, being witless,discriminates without trouble; and because she is blind, herarbitraments offend nobody's sensibility. Do you consent?"
The two captains looked at the dice-box and nodded.
"The conditions?"
"One throw," said Captain Runacles.
"And the highest cast to win," added Captain Barker.
"You, Captain Barker, are the senior by a year, I believe. Will youthrow first?"
The little man caught up the box, rattled the dice briskly, andthrew--four and three.
Captain Runacles picked them up, and made his cast deliberately--sixand ace.
"Gentlemen, you must throw again. Fortune herself seems to hesitatebetween you."
Captain Barker threw again, and leant back with a sob of triumph.
"Two sixes, upon my soul!" murmured the Doctor.
"I'm afraid, Captain Jeremy--" Captain Jeremy took the dice up,turned them between finger and thumb, and dropped them slowly intothe box. As he lifted his hand to make the cast he looked up and sawthe gleam in his friend's greenish eyes.
The next moment box and dice flew past the hunchback's head and outat the open window.
"That's my throw," Captain Runacles announced, standing up andturning his back on the pair as he staggered across the room for hishat. But the little man also had bounced up in a fury.
"That's a vile trick! I make the best throw, and you force me tofight."
"Ah," said the other, facing slowly about and putting on his hat."I didn't see it in that light. Very well, Jack, I decline to fightyou."
"You apologise?"
"Certainly."
The little man held out a hand. "I might have known, Jemmy, you weretoo good a fellow--" he began.
"Oh, stow away your pretty speeches and take back your hand. I can'tprevent your playing the fool with Meg's child; but if I had a decentexcuse, you may make up your mind I'd use it. As it is, the sight ofyou annoys me. Good morning!"
He went out, slamming the door after him, and they heard him descendthe stairs and turn down the street.
"A day's peace," mused Captain Barker, "strikes me as more expensivethan a year's war. It has cost me my two dearest friends."
He strode up and down the room muttering angrily; then looked up andsaid:
"Take me to Meg; I want to see her."
"And the child?"
"To be sure. I'd clean forgotten the child."
Dr. Beckerleg led the way downstairs. A pale sunshine touched theedge of the pavement across the road, and while Captain Barker wassettling the bill, the doctor stepped across and picked a dice-boxout of the gutter.
"Luckily I found the dice, too; they were lying close together," saidhe, as his companion came out. He turned the box round and appearedto be reflecting; but next moment walked briskly into the bar andreturned the dice to the drawer, with a small fee.
"She is not much changed?" asked the Captain, as they moved down thestreet arm in arm.
"Eh? You were saying? No, not changed. A beautiful face."
Though middle-aged and lined with trouble it was, as Dr. Beckerlegsaid, a beautiful face that slept behind the dusty window above thecourt where the sparrows chattered. From a chamber at the back ofthe house the two men were met, as they climbed the stairs, by thesound of an infant's wailing. Dr. Beckerleg went towards this, afteropening for the Captain the door of a room wherein no sound was atall.
When, half an hour later, Captain Barker came out and closed thisdoor gently, Dr. Beckerleg, who waited on the landing, forbore tolook a second time at his face. Instead he stared fixedly at thestaircase wall and observed:
"I think it is time we turned our attention upon the child."
"Take me to him by all means."
Margaret's son was reclining, very red and angry, in the arms ofan old woman who attempted vainly to soothe him by tottering upand down the room as fast as her decrepit legs would carry her.The serving-girl, who had opened the door on the previous evening,stood beside the window, her eyes swollen with weeping.
"He is extremely small," said the Captain.
"On the contrary, he is an unusually fine boy."
"He appears to me to want something."
"He wants food."
"Bless my soul! Has none been offered to him?"
"Yes; but he refuses it."
"Extraordinary!"
"Not at all. I understand--do I not?--that you have adopted thisinfant."
The Captain nodded.
"Then your parental duties have already begun. You must come with meat once and choose a wet nurse."
As they passed through the hall to the front-door, Captain Barkerperceived two letters lying side by side upon a table there.He snatched them up hastily and crammed one into his pocket.Then, handing the other to Dr. Beckerleg:
"You might give that to Jemmy when you see him, and--look here, assoon as the child is out of the house, I think--if you went toJemmy--he might like to see Meg, you know."