"Uncommon strong smell o" roast apples there is about "ere," commented the stoker, sniffing.
"That beer we "ad must "ave bin uncommon strong," said the engineer in a low, uneasy voice. "I seem to see three fires ahead of us, that"s what I do."
"One whopping big one to the left, one little one farther on, right plumb ahead, and another small one lower down on my right "and. I see "em as well as you," confirmed the stoker in troubled accents. "And that"s how that young nipper thinks to get off a licking from one of us----"
"By obeying both," said the engineer, quickening his pace indignantly.
"This is Board School, this is. Well, you"ll learn "im to be clever, you will."
"You won"t leave a whole bone in his dirty little carcase once you"re started," said the stoker confidently.
By this time they were well upon the scene of the disaster. Before their dazed and horrified eyes rose the incandescent sh.e.l.l of what had been, for eight months past, their movable home, and a crawling crisping rustle came from the pile of ashes that represented the joint property of two men and one boy.
"Pinch me, Alfred," said the stoker, after an interval of appalled silence.
"Don"t ask me," said the engineer, in a weak voice, "I "aven"t the power to kill a flea."
"There ain"t one left living to kill," retorted the stoker, as he contemplated the smoking wreck. "There was "undreds in that van, too,"
he added as an afterthought.
"Burned up the old cabin!" moaned the engineer, "an" my Sunday rig-out in my locker, an" my Post Office Savings Bank book sewed up in the pillar o" my bunk, along o" my last week"s wages what I "adn"t paid in."
"I shouldn"t wonder if Government "ung on to they savings o" yourn,"
said the stoker, shaking his head. "It"s a pity, but you"d invested yours as I "ave mine," he added.
"In public "ouses?" retorted the engineer.
"Some of it "as went that way," the stoker admitted, "but for three weeks past I"ve denied myself to put a bit into a concern as I think is going to prove a paying thing."
"Owch!" exclaimed the engineer, who had been restlessly pacing in the velvety darkness round the still glowing wreck of the living-van.
"Don"t you believe wot I"ve told you?" demanded the stoker haughtily.
"You don"t always lie, George," said the engineer, gently. "Wot made me shout out like that just now," he explained, "was treading on something queer, down by the near side wheels. Somethink brittle that cracked like rotten sticks under my "eel, an" then I slid on something round an"
squashy. An" the smell like roast apples, what I noticed before, is stronger than ever."
""Ave you a match about you?" asked the stoker eagerly.
"One," said the engineer, delicately withdrawing a solitary "kindler"
from the bottom of his waistcoat pocket.
The stoker received the match, and struck it on his trousers. A blue glimmer resulted, a faint s-s-s! followed, and the match went out.
"On"y a glim," said the stoker in a satisfied tone, "but it showed me as I"ve made my money. An" made it easy, too."
""Ow much "ave you pulled orf, then?" asked the engineer.
"Double the value," replied the stoker, smiling broadly through the darkness, "of the property what I"ve lost in this here conflagration."
"That "ud bring you in about eighteenpence," retorted the engineer bitterly.
The stoker laughed pleasantly.
"Wot do you say to three pun" seventeen?" he demanded.
"Better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick," said the engineer.
"Wot did you say was the concern you invested in?"
The stoker felt in the darkness for his superior"s arm, grasped it, and putting his mouth close to where he thought his ear ought to be, said loudly:
"A boy."
"Look "ere, mate," began the engineer, hotly, "if you"re trying a joke on me----"
"It ain"t no joke," responded the stoker cheerfully. "Leastways not for the boy, it ain"t. But Lord! when I think "ow near I come to lettin" the policy fall through." He chuckled. "It"s three weeks gone since I took it out," he said contentedly, "an" paid three weeks" money in advance, an" at threepence a week, that makes ninepence, an" the thought o" them nine half-pints I might "ave "ad out o" money "as drove me "arf wild with thirst, over an" over. I should "ave "ad to pay again come Monday, if only "e "ad "ave lived."
"If only "e "ad lived--" repeated the engineer in a strange far-away tone, "Oo"s "e?" he asked eagerly.
"You know old Abey Turner as keeps the little sweet-an"-tobaccer shop over to Dorton Ware?" pursued the stoker. "Old Abey is a agint for the Popular Thrifty Life Insurance Company----"
"I know "e is," confirmed the engineer.
"Abey "as bin at me over an" over again to insure my life," explained the stoker, "but I told "im as I didn"t "old with laying out good money wot wouldn"t never come "ome to roost-like, until I was dead. Then Abey leans over the counter an" ketches me by the neck "andkerchief an" says, "Think of the worst life you know, an" "ave a bit on that." Naturally, talkin" o" bad lives, you"re the first chap whose name comes into my "ead."
"Me!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the engineer, starting.
"But it wasn"t wickedness old Abey meaned," continued the stoker, "only un"ealthiness in general. Somebody wot wasn"t likely to live long, that"s the sort o" man or woman "e wanted me to insure. "A child"ll do,"
says "e, smiling, an" tells me "ow a large family may be made a source of blessing to parents "oo are wise enough to insure in the Popular Thrifty. Then it comes into my mind all of a sudden as "ow Billy "ud do a treat, an" I names "im to Old Abey. "That young shaver!" calls out old Abey, disgusted like. "Why, "e"s as "ard as nails. Wot"s likely to "appen to "im?" "If you was to see the "andling "e gets when my mate is in "is tantrums," I says to old Abey, "you"d put your bit o" money on "im cheerful an" willin"." "Is Alfred Evans such a savage in "is drink?"
says old Abey, quite surprised----"
"I"ll surprise "im!" muttered the engineer, "when I meets "im!"
The stoker continued: "So the long an" the short is, I insured Billy, an" Billy"s dead!"
"You don"t really think so?" cried the engineer, in shocked accents.
"I don"t think," said the stoker, in a hard, high tone, "I knows "e is."
"Not--burned with the van!" gasped the engineer.
"Burned to cinders," said the stoker comfortably. ""Ow about that smell o" roasting you kep" a sniffing as we came along, an" wot were it if not cooked boy? Wot was it your foot crashed into when you called out awhile back? "Is ribs, "im being overdone to a crisp. Wot was it you slipped on----?"
"Stop!" shuddered the engineer. ""Old "ard! I can"t bear it."
"I can," said the stoker, following his comrade as he gingerly withdrew from the immediate scene of the tragedy. "I could if it was twice as much."
"It will be that to me!" sighed the engineer, seating himself upon the parish boundary stone, over which he had stumbled in his retreat, and sentimentally gazing at the star-jewelled skies. "Twice three pound is six, an" twice seventeen bob is one-fourteen. Seven pounds fourteen is wot that pore boy"s crool end "as dropped into my pocket, and I"d "ad those best clothes ever since I got married; an" there was only eight an" fourpence in the piller o" the bunk, an----"
The engineer stopped short, not for lack of words, but because the stoker was clutching him tightly by the windpipe.