Round the Fire Stories

“No gammon!” cried the man with the freckles. “We’ll kill you joint byjoint if you try to fool us. Now then! Where are they?”

“In my bedroom.”

“Where is that?”

“The room above.”

“Whereabouts?”

“In the corner of the oak ark by the bed.”

The seamen all rushed to the stair, but the captain called them back.

“We don’t leave this cunning old fox behind us. Ha, your face drops atthat, does it? By the Lord, I believe you are trying to slip youranchor. Here, lads, make him fast and take him along!”

With a confused trampling of feet they rushed up the stairs, dragging myuncle in the midst of them. For an instant I was alone. My hands weretied but not my feet. If I could find my way across the moor I mightrouse the police and intercept these rascals before they could reach thesea. For a moment I hesitated as to whether I should leave my unclealone in such a plight. But I should be of more service to him—or, atthe worst, to his property—if I went than if I stayed. I rushed to thehall door, and as I reached it I heard a yell above my head, ashattering, splintering noise, and then amid a chorus of shouts a hugeweight fell with a horrible thud at my very feet. Never while I livewill that squelching thud pass out of my ears. And there, just in frontof me, in the lane of light cast by the open door, lay my unhappy uncle,his bald head twisted on to one shoulder, like the wrung neck of achicken. It needed but a glance to see that his spine was broken andthat he was dead.

The gang of seamen had rushed downstairs so quickly that they wereclustered at the door and crowding all round me almost as soon as I hadrealized what had occurred.

“It’s no doing of ours, mate,” said one of them to me. “He hove himselfthrough the window, and that’s the truth. Don’t you put it down to us.”

“He thought he could get to windward of us if once he was out in thedark, you see,” said another. “But he came head foremost and broke hisbloomin’ neck.”

“And a blessed good job too!” cried the chief, with a savage oath. “I’dhave done it for him if he hadn’t took the lead. Don’t make any mistake,my lads, this is murder, and we’re all in it, together. There’s only oneway out of it, and that is to hang together, unless, as the saying goes,you mean to hang apart. There’s only one witness——”

He looked at me with his malicious little eyes, and I saw that he hadsomething that gleamed—either a knife or a revolver—in the breast of hispea-jacket. Two of the men slipped between us.

“Stow that, Captain Elias,” said one of them. “If this old man met hisend it is through no fault of ours. The worst we ever meant him was totake some of the skin off his back. But as to this young fellow, we haveno quarrel with him——”

“You fool, you may have no quarrel with him, but he has his quarrel withyou. He’ll swear your life away if you don’t silence his tongue. It’shis life or ours, and don’t you make any mistake.”

“Aye, aye, the skipper has the longest head of any of us. Better do whathe tells you,” cried another.

But my champion, who was the fellow with the earrings, covered me withhis own broad chest and swore roundly that no one should lay a finger onme. The others were equally divided, and my fate might have been thecause of a quarrel between them when suddenly the captain gave a cry ofdelight and amazement which was taken up by the whole gang. I followedtheir eyes and outstretched fingers, and this was

what I saw.

My uncle was lying with his legs outstretched, and the club foot wasthat which was furthest from us. All round this foot a dozen brilliantobjects were twinkling and flashing in the yellow light which streamedfrom the open door. The captain caught up the lantern and held it to theplace. The huge sole of his boot had been shattered in the fall, and itwas clear now that it had been a hollow box in which he stowed hisvaluables, for the path was all sprinkled with precious stones. Threewhich I saw were of an unusual size, and as many as forty, I shouldthink, of fair value. The seamen had cast themselves down and weregreedily gathering them up, when my friend with the earrings plucked meby the sleeve.

“Here’s your chance, mate,” he whispered. “Off you go before worse comesof it.”

It was a timely hint, and it did not take me long to act upon it. A fewcautious steps and I had passed unobserved beyond the circle of light.Then I set off running, falling and rising and falling again, for no onewho has not tried it can tell how hard it is to run over uneven groundwith hands which are fastened together. I ran and ran, until for want ofbreath I could no longer put one foot before the other. But I need nothave hurried so, for when I had gone a long way I stopped at last tobreathe, and, looking back, I could still see the gleam of the lanternfar away, and the outline of the seamen who squatted round it. Then atlast this single point of light went suddenly out, and the whole greatmoor was left in the thickest darkness.

So deftly was I tied, that it took me a long half-hour and a brokentooth before I got my hands free. My idea was to make my way across tothe Purcells’ farm, but north was the same as south under that pitchysky, and for hours I wandered among the rustling, scuttling sheepwithout any certainty as to where I was going. When at last there came aglimmer in the east, and the undulating fells, grey with the morningmist, rolled once more to the horizon, I recognized that I was close byPurcell’s farm, and there a little in front of me I was startled to seeanother man walking in the same direction. At first I approached himwarily, but before I overtook him I knew by the bent back and totteringstep that it was Enoch, the old servant, and right glad I was to seethat he was living. He had been knocked down, beaten, and his cloak andhat taken away by these ruffians, and all night he had wandered in thedarkness, like myself, in search of help. He burst into tears when Itold him of his master’s death, and sat hiccoughing with the hard, drysobs of an old man among the stones upon the moor.

“It’s the men of the _Black Mogul_,” he said. “Yes, yes, I knew thatthey would be the end of ‘im.”

“Who are they?” I asked.

“Well, well, you are one of ‘is own folk,” said he. “‘E ‘as passed away;yes, yes, it is all over and done. I can tell you about it, no manbetter, but mum’s the word with old Enoch unless master wants ‘im tospeak. But his own nephew who came to ‘elp ‘im in the hour of need—yes,yes, Mister John, you ought to know.

“It was like this, sir. Your uncle ‘ad ‘is grocer’s business at Stepney,but ‘e ‘ad another business also. ‘E would buy as well as sell, and when‘e bought ‘e never asked no questions where the stuff came from. Whyshould ‘e? It wasn’t no business of ‘is, was it? If folk brought him astone or a silver plate, what was it to ‘im where they got it? That’sgood sense, and it ought to be good law, as I ‘old. Any’ow, it was goodenough for us at Stepney.

“Well, there was a steamer came from South Africa what foundered at sea.At least, they say so, and Lloyd’s paid the money. She ‘ad some veryfine diamonds invoiced as being aboard of ‘er. Soon after there came thebrig _Black Mogul_ into the port o’ London, with ‘er papers all right as‘avin’ cleared from Port Elizabeth with a cargo of ‘ides. The captain,which ‘is name was Elias, ‘e came to see the master, and what d’youthink that ‘e ‘ad to sell? Why, sir, as I’m a livin’ sinner ‘e ‘ad apacket of diamonds for all the world just the same as what was lost outo’ that there African steamer. ‘Ow did ‘e get them? I don’t know. Masterdidn’t know. ‘E didn’t seek to know either. The captain ‘e was anxiousfor reasons of ‘is own to get them safe, so ‘e gave them to master, sameas you might put a thing in a bank. But master ‘e’d ‘ad time to get fondof them, and ‘e wasn’t over satisfied as to where the _Black Mogul_ ‘adbeen tradin’, or where her captain ‘ad got the stones, so when ‘e comeback for them the master ‘e said as ‘e thought they were best in ‘is own‘ands. Mind I don’t ‘old with it myself, but that was what master saidto Captain Elias in the little back parlour at Stepney. That was ‘ow ‘egot ‘is leg broke and three of his ribs.

“So the captain got jugged for that, and the master, when ‘e was able toget about, thought that ‘e would ‘ave peace for fifteen years, and ‘ecame away from London because ‘e was afraid of the sailor men; but, atthe end of five years, the captain was out and after ‘im, with as manyof ‘is crew as ‘e could gather. Send for the perlice, you says! Well,there are two sides to that, and the master ‘e wasn’t much more fond ofthe perlice than Elias was. But they fair ‘emmed master in, as you ‘aveseen for yourself, and they bested ‘im at last, and the loneliness that‘e thought would be ‘is safety ‘as proved ‘is ruin. Well, well, ‘e was‘ard to many, but a good master to me, and it’s long before I come onsuch another.”

One word in conclusion. A strange cutter, which had been hanging aboutthe coast, was seen to beat down the Irish Sea that morning, and it isconjectured that Elias and his men were on board of it. At any rate,nothing has been heard of them since. It was shown at the inquest thatmy uncle had lived in a sordid fashion for years, and he left littlebehind him. The mere knowledge that he possessed this treasure, which hecarried about with him in so extraordinary a fashion, had appeared to bethe joy of his life, and he had never, as far as we could learn, triedto realize any of his diamonds. So his disreputable name when living wasnot atoned for by any posthumous benevolence, and the family, equallyscandalized by his life and by his death, have finally buried all memoryof the club-footed grocer of Stepney.