The meeting came to an end and the men began to stream out. Helps kept his post. Suddenly he felt a light hand touch his arm; he turned; his daughter, her eyes gleaming with the wildest excitement, was standing by his side.
"Have you seen him, father?"
"Who, child--who? I"m precious hungry, and that"s the truth, Esther."
"Never mind your hunger now--you have not let him escape--oh, don"t tell me that."
"Essie, I think you have taken leave of your senses to-night. Who is it that I have not let escape?"
"A tall man in a frock coat, different from the others; he has a beard, and he wears his hat well pushed forward; his hands are white. You must have noticed him; he is certain to be here. You did not let him go?"
"I know now whom you mean," said Helps. "I saw the fellow. Yes, he is still in the room."
"You did not recognize him, father?"
"No, child. That is, I seem to know something about him. Whatever are you driving at, Esther?"
"Nothing--nothing--nothing. Go, follow the man with the frock coat.
Don"t let him see you. Find out where he lives, then bring me word.
Go. Go. You"ll miss him if you don"t."
She disappeared, flying upstairs again, light as a feather.
Helps found himself impelled against his will to obey her.
"Here"s a pretty state of things," he muttered. "Here am I, faint for want of food, set to follow a chap n.o.body knows nothing about through the slums."
It never occurred to Helps, however, not to obey the earnest dictates of his daughter.
He was to give chase. Accordingly he did so. He did so warily. Dodging sometimes into the road, sometimes behind a lamp post in case the tall man should see him. Soon he became interested in the work. The figure on in the front, which never by any chance looked back, but pursued its course undeviatingly, struck Helps once more with that strange sense of familiarity.
Where had he seen a back like that? Those steps, too, the very way the man walked gave him a queer sensation. He was as poor looking a chap as Helps had ever glanced at, and yet the steps were not unknown--the figure must have haunted the little clerk in some of his dreams.
The pursuer and pursued soon found themselves in quarters altogether new to Helps. More and more squalid grew the streets, more and more ruffianly grew the people. There never was a little man less likely to attract attention than this clerk with his humble unpretentious dress and mien. But in these streets he felt himself remarkable. A whole coat, unpatched trousers, were things to wonder at here. The men and the women, too, took to jostling him as he pa.s.sed. One bold-faced girl tilted his hat well forward over his eyes, and ran away with a loud laugh.
Helps felt that even for Esther"s sake he could not proceed any further. He was about to turn back when another glance at the figure before him brought such a rush of dazed wonderment, of uncanny familiarity, that all thought of his own possible danger deserted him, and he walked on, eager as Esther herself now in pursuit.
All this time they had been going in the direction of the docks.
Suddenly they turned down a very badly lighted side street. There was a great brewery here, and the wall of the brewery formed for a long way one side of the street. It was so narrow as to be little better than a lane, and instead of being a crowded thoroughfare was now almost deserted. Here and there in the brewery wall were niches. Not one of these niches was empty. Each held its human being--man, woman, or child. It seemed to be with a purpose that the tall stranger came here.
He slackened his pace, pushed his hat a little back, and began to perform certain small ministrations for the poor creatures who were to pa.s.s the night on the cold damp pavement.
A little girl was asleep in one of the niches; he wrapped her shawl more closely round her, tucking it in so as to protect her feet. Her hair hung in a tangled ma.s.s over her forehead. He pushed it back with a tender hand. Finally he pressed into the little thin palm two lollypops; they would give comfort to the child when she awoke.
Helps kept behind, well in the shadow; he was absolutely trembling now with suppressed excitement. He had seen by the glitter of the flaring gas the white hand of the man as he pushed back the child"s elf-locks.
The two went on again a few steps. The man in front stopped suddenly--they were pa.s.sing another niche. It had its occupant. A girl was stretched p.r.o.ne on the ground--a girl whose only covering was rags.
As they approached, she groaned. In an instant the stranger was bending over her.
"You are very ill, I fear. Can I help you?"
"Eh? What"s that?" exclaimed the girl.
She raised her head, stretching out something which was more like a claw than a hand.
"What"s that noise?" she repeated.
The noise had been made by Helps. It was an amazed terrified outcry when he heard the voice of the man who was bending over the girl. The man himself had observed nothing.
"You are very ill," he repeated. "You ought to be in a hospital."
"No, no, none of that," she said, clutching hold of his hand. "I ha"
lain down to die. Let me die. I wor starving--the pain wor awful. Now I"m easy. Don"t touch me--don"t lift me; I"m easy--I"m a-goin" to die."
The stranger knelt a little lower.
"I won"t hurt you," he said. "I will sit here by your side. Don"t be frightened. I am going to raise your head--a little--a very little. Now it rests on my knee. That is better."
"Eh, you"re a good man; yes, that"s nice."
Her breath came in great pants. Presently she began to wander.
"Is that you, mother? Mother, I"ve been such a bad gel--bad every way.
The Almighty"s punishing me. I"m dying, and He"s a sending me to h.e.l.l."
"No," said the quiet voice of the man. "No; _you_ are the one He wants.
He is seeking _you_."
"Eh?" she said. Once more her clouded brain cleared. "Eh, how my breath does go. I"m a-going to h.e.l.l!"
"No. He has sent me to find you; you are not going there."
"How do you know?"
She turned herself an inch or two in her astonishment and stared up at him.
Something in his face seemed to fill her with astonishment.
"Take off your hat," she said. "Are you Jesus Christ?"
It was at this juncture that Helps turned and fled.
He ran as he never ran before in the whole course of his life. n.o.body saw him go, and n.o.body obstructed him in his headlong flight. Presently he got back to the Mission Hall. The place was closed and dark. He was turning away when a woman came out of the deep shelter of the doorway and touched his arm.
"Essie, is that you? My G.o.d, Essie, I"ve seen a ghost!"
"No, father, no--a living man."
"This is awful, child. I"m shaking all over. I"d sooner be in my grave than go through such a thing again."