"I--I--I heard that if--if you were ta--taken you--you would get pe--penal servitude for life."
There was an ominous silence. The words had had exactly the effect he had intuitively expected. It was the long, thin man who spoke.
"Oh! you heard that if we were caught we should get penal servitude for life? And it didn"t occur to you that you might help to catch us, eh?"
"No-o, sir."
"It wouldn"t. Now wouldn"t it occur to you that such a thing as a reward might perhaps be offered, which it might perhaps be worth your while to handle, eh? That such a trifle as five or ten thousand pounds, in the shape of a reward, might come in useful, eh?"
Bertie did not answer. He could not have answered for his life. The fellow"s tone seemed to freeze his blood. The dark man put a question.
"Did you hear any names mentioned?"
"Yes, sir."
"What name did you hear mentioned?"
"I heard you call this gentleman Rosenheim, sir."
In an instant a hand was round his neck, which grasped him as though it were made of steel. There was a sudden twist, and Mr. Rosenheim had flung the lad upon his back. The grasp tightened; he began to choke.
If Mr. Rosenheim had been allowed to work his own sweet will it would have been over with him there and then. But the dark man interfered.
"What"s the use of killing him?"
The answer was hissed rather than spoken.
"I"ll tell you what"s the use; it is I who will put him away, not he who will put me away, eh?"
"Leave him alone for a minute; I want to speak to you. It"s a nuisance, but I don"t think it"s so bad as you think. Anyhow, I don"t see how we"re going to gain anything by killing the boy--at least, not in here."
There was a meaning conveyed in the speaker"s last few words which Mr.
Rosenheim seemed to understand. They looked at each other for a moment, eye to eye. Then Mr. Rosenheim, standing up, loosed his grasp on Bertie"s throat, and the lad was free to breathe again.
"Get up; walk to the end of the room, put your hands behind your back, shut your eyes, and stand with your face to the wall. I"m going to cover you with my revolver, and if you move it"ll be for the very last time of asking, for I"ll shoot you as dead as mutton. Sharp"s the word!"
Sharp was the word. Bewildered, half-stunned, panic-stricken as he was, Bertie had still sense enough to know that he had no alternative but to do as he was bid. The dark man meant what he said, and the youthful admirer of d.i.c.k Turpin knew it. The ever-ready revolver covered him as he walked quickly down the room, and took up the ignominious position he was ordered to. Hands behind his back, eyes shut, and his face against the wall! It was worse than standing in the corner at Mecklemburg House Collegiate School, and only little boys had been sent into the corner there.
How long he remained standing there he never knew. It seemed to him hours. But time goes slowly when we stand with our hands behind, eyes shut, face to the wall, and know that a revolver is taking deliberate aim at us behind our backs. A minute becomes an hour, and we feel that old age will overtake us prematurely if we stand there long. They say that when a man is drowning his whole life pa.s.ses in a moment before his eyes. As Bailey stood with his face against the wall he felt something of that feeling too, and if ever there was a veritable Land of Golden Dreams his home at Upton was that land then. If he could only stand again within the shadow of his mother"s door, ah, what a different young gentleman he would be!
Certainly, Mr. Rosenheim and his friend took their time. What they said Bertie could not hear, strain his ears how he might. The sound of their subdued whispering added to the terror of the situation. What might they not be resolving? For all he knew, they might be both examining their revolvers with a view of taking alternate pops at him.
The idea was torture. As the moments pa.s.sed and still no sign was made his imagination entered into details. There was a movement behind him.
He fancied they were taking their positions. Silence again. He waited for the shooting to begin. He wondered where the first shot would hit him. Somewhere, he fancied, about the region of the left knee. That would probably bring him to the ground, and the second and third shots would hit him where he fell--probably in the side. The fourth and fifth shots would miss, but the sixth would carry away his nose, while the seventh would finish his career. Promiscuous shooting would ensue, the details of which would have no interest for him, but for some occult reason he decided that they would not cease firing until they had put inside him about a couple of pounds of lead.
In the midst of these agreeable speculations it was a relief to hear the dark man"s voice.
"Turn round!"
Bertie turned round, with surprising velocity.
"Where are your clothes?"
"I think they"re on the bed, sir."
"Put them on! Sharp"s the word!"
Sharp always was the word. Bertie had done some quick things in dressing before to-day, but never anything quite so quick as that. Mr.
Rosenheim was sitting in the arm-chair, still fondling his revolver, eyeing Bertie with a most uncomfortable pair of eyes. When Bertie found that in his haste he was putting on his trousers hind side foremost Mr. Rosenheim gave a start. Bertie gave one too, a cold shiver went down his back, and the time in which he reversed the garment and got inside his breeches was perhaps the best on record.
The dark man meanwhile was brushing his hat, putting on his overcoat, and apparently preparing himself for a journey. There was a Gladstone bag on the table. Into this he put several articles which he took from the chest of drawers. Bertie had completed his own costume for some little time before either spoke.
It was Mr. Rosenheim who addressed him first.
"Come here!"
Bertie went with remarkable celerity. "For a doctor"s son, my friend, you are not too well dressed, eh?"
Bertie hung his head; he was conscious of the defects in his attire.
The dark man flung him a clothes-brush.
"Brush yourself, and make yourself presentable. There"s a jug and basin behind that curtain; wash yourself and brush your hair."
Bertie did as he was bid; never had he been so docile.
It was the most uncomfortable toilet he had ever made. When he had carefully soaped his face all over, and was about to wash it off again, there was a report. A shot whistled through the air and buried itself in the wall about a foot above his head. He dropped as though it had struck him, and all but repeated his former swoon.
"You can get up, my friend. It is only a little practice I am having."
Bertie got up, but the pleasure of that wash was destroyed for him.
Mr. Rosenheim"s ideas of revolver practice were so peculiar that he was in momentary terror of his aiming at an imaginary bull"s-eye in the centre of his back.
"How long are you going to be? Come here and let me have a look at you."
Though only half-dried, the soap-suds still remaining in the corners of his eyes, Bertie obeyed the dark man"s order and stood in front of him. That gentleman still held the too-familiar revolver in his hand.
It had long been the secret longing of Bertie"s soul to possess one of his own; henceforward he would hate the sight of the too-agile arm for evermore.
"You don"t look like a doctor"s son. Own up you lied."
"I--I didn"t, sir."
"A pretty sort of doctor"s son you look! Has your father any money?"
A wild idea entered Bertie"s brain. He remembered how Mr. and Mrs.
Jenkins had risen to the bait.
"Ye--yes, sir; he"s very rich. He"d give a thousand pounds to get me back again."
But this time the bait failed, and signally.
"Oh, he would, would he? Then he must be about the most remarkable fool of a father I ever came across. Don"t you try to stuff your lies down my throat, my joker, because I"m a liar myself, and know the smell. You listen to me. You"d better; because if you don"t listen to every word, and stick it inside your head, it"ll be a case of shooting, though I"m hung for you five minutes after. Do you hear?"