The gentleman pulled into a little boat-house by the river"s side, belonging to one of the villas on the bank, made fast his boat, and then stepped into ours.
"Now, we"ve plenty of time; just pull quietly for the present." We continued down the river, and after we had pa.s.sed Kew Bridge, he directed us in sh.o.r.e, on the right side, till we came to a garden sweeping down to the river from a cottage _ornee_, of large dimensions, about fifty yards from the bank. The water was up to the brick-wall, which rose from the river about four or five feet. "That will do, st---, st---, not a word," said he, rising in the stern sheets, and looking over. After a minute or two reconnoitring, he climbed from the boat on to the parapet of the wall, and whistled two bars of an air which I had till then never heard. All was silent. He crouched behind a lilac bush, and in a minute he repeated the same air in a whistle as before; still there was no appearance of movement at the cottage. He continued at intervals to whistle the portion of the air, and at last a light appeared at an upper window: it was removed, and re-appeared three times. "Be ready now, my lads," said he. In about two minutes afterwards, a female, in a cloak, appeared, coming down the lawn, with a box in her hand, panting with excitement.
"Oh, William, I heard your first signal, but I could not get into my uncle"s room for the box; at last he went out, and here it is."
The gentleman seized the box from her, and handed it to us in the boat.
"Take great care of that, my lads," said he; "and now, Cecilia, we have no time to lose; the sooner you are in the boat the better."
"How am I to get down there, William?" replied she.
"Oh, nothing more easy. Stop, throw your cloak into the boat, and then all you have to do is, first to get upon the top of the wall, and then trust to the watermen below and to me above for helping you."
It was not, however, quite so easy a matter; the wall was four feet high above the boat, and moreover, there was a trellised work of iron, above a foot high, which ran along the wall. Still, she made every effort on her own part, and we considered that we had arranged so as to conquer the difficulty, when the young lady gave a scream. We looked up and beheld a third party on the wall. It was a stout, tall, elderly man, as far as we could perceive in the dark, who immediately seized hold of the lady by the arm, and was dragging her away. This was resisted by the young gentleman, and the lady was relinquished by the other, to defend himself; at the same time that he called out--"Help, help! Thieves, thieves!"
"Shall I go to his a.s.sistance?" said I to Mr Turnbull. "One must stay in the boat."
"Jump up, then, Jacob, for I never could get up that wall."
I was up in a moment, and gaining my feet, was about to spring to the help of the young man, when four servants, with lights and with arms in their hands, made their appearance, hastening down the lawn. The lady had fainted on the gra.s.s; the elderly gentleman and his antagonist were down together, but the elderly gentleman had the mastery, for he was uppermost. Perceiving the a.s.sistance coming, he called out "Look to the watermen, secure them." I perceived that not a moment was to be lost.
I could be of no service, and Mr Turnbull might be in an awkward sc.r.a.pe. I sprang into the boat, shoved off, and we were in the stream and at thirty yards" distance before they looked over the wall to see where we were.
"Stop, in that boat! stop!" they cried.
"Fire, if they don"t," cried their master.
We pulled as hard as we could. A musquetoon was discharged, but the shot dropped short; the only person who fell was the man who fired it.
To see us he had stood upon the coping bricks of the wall, and the recoil tumbled him over into the river: we saw him fall, and heard the splash; but we pulled on as hard as we could, and in a few minutes the scene of action was far behind us. We then struck across to the other side of the river, and when we had gained close to the sh.o.r.e we took breath.
"Well," said Mr Turnbull, "this is a spree I little looked for; to have a blunderbuss full of shot sent after me."
"No," replied I, laughing, "that"s carrying the joke rather too far on the river Thames."
"Well, but what a pretty mess we are in: here we have property belonging to G.o.d knows whom; and what are we to do with it?"
"I think, sir, the best thing we can do is, for you to land at your own house with the property, and take care of it until we find out what all this is about; and I will continue on with the sculls to the hard. I shall hear or find out something about it in a day or two; they may still follow up the pursuit and trace us."
"The advice is good," replied Mr Turnbull, "and the sooner we cut over again the better, for we are nearly abreast of my place."
We did so. Mr Turnbull landed in his garden, taking with him the tin-box (it was what they call a deed-box) and the lady"s cloak. I did not wait, but boating the oars, took my sculls and pulled down to Fulham as fast as I could. I had arrived, and was pulling gently in, not to injure the other boats, when a man with a lantern came into the wherry.
"Have you anything in your boat, my man?" said he. "Nothing, sir,"
replied I. The man examined the boat, and was satisfied.
"Tell me, did you see a boat with two men in it as you came along?"
"No, sir," replied I, "nothing has pa.s.sed me."
"Where do you come from now?"
"From a gentleman"s place near Brentford."
"Brentford? Oh, then, you were far below them. They are not down yet."
"Have you a job for me, sir?" said I, not wishing to appear anxious to go away.
"No, my man, no; nothing to-night. We are on the lookout, but we have two boats in the stream, and a man at each landing-place."
I made fast my boat, shouldered my oars and sculls, and departed, not at all sorry to get away. It appeared that as soon as it was ascertained that we were not to be stopped by being fired at, they saddled horses, and the distance by the road being so much shorter, had, by galloping as hard as they could, arrived at Fulham some ten minutes before me. It was, therefore, most fortunate that the box had been landed, or I should have been discovered. That the contents were of value was evident, from the anxiety to secure them; but the mystery was still to be solved. I was quite tired with exertion and excitement when I arrived at Stapleton"s. Mary was there to give me my supper, which I ate in silence, complained of a headache, and went to bed.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
THE WATERMAN TURNS WATER-KNIGHT--I BECOME CHIVALROUS, SEE A BEAUTIFUL FACE, AND GO WITH THE STREAM--THE ADVENTURE SEEMS TO PROMISE MORE LAW THAN LOVE, THERE BEING PAPERS IN THE CASE THAT IS, IN A TIN-BOX.
That night I dreamed of nothing but the scene, over and over again, and the two bars of music were constantly ringing in my ears. As soon as I had breakfasted the next morning I set off to Mr Turnbull"s, and told him what had occurred.
"It was indeed fortunate that the box was landed," said he, "or you might have now been in prison; I wish I had had nothing to do with it; but, as you say, "what"s done can"t be helped;" I will not give up the box, at all events, until I know which party is ent.i.tled to it, and I cannot help thinking that the lady is. But, Jacob, you will have to reconnoitre, and find out what this story is. Tell me, do you think you could remember the tune which he whistled so often?"
"It has been running in my head the whole night, and I have been trying it all the way as I pulled here. I think I have it exact. Hear, sir."--I whistled the two bars.
"Quite correct, Jacob, quite correct; well, take care not to forget them. Where are you going to-day?"
"Nowhere, sir."
"Suppose, then, you pull up the river, and find out the place where we landed, and when you have ascertained that, you can go on and see whether the young man is with the skiff; at all events you may find out something--but pray be cautious."
I promised to be very careful, and departed on my errand, which I undertook with much pleasure, for I was delighted with anything like adventure. I pulled up the river, and in about an hour and a-quarter, came abreast of the spot. I recognised the cottage _ornee_, the parapet wall, even the spot where we lay, and perceived that several bricks were detached and had fallen into the river. There appeared to be no one stirring in the house, yet I continued to pull up and down, looking at the windows; at last one opened, and a young lady looked out, who, I was persuaded, was the same that we had seen the night before. There was no wind, and all was quiet around. She sat at the window, leaning her head on her hand. I whistled the two bars of the air. At the first bar she started up, and looked earnestly at me as I completed the second. I looked up; she waved her handkerchief once, and then shut the window.
In a few seconds she made her appearance on the lawn, walking down towards the river. I immediately pulled in under the wall. I laid in my sculls, and held on, standing up in the boat.
"Who are you? and who sent you?" said she, looking down on me, and discovering one of the most beautiful faces I had ever beheld.
"No one sent me ma"am," replied I, "but I was in the boat last night. I am sorry you were so unfortunate, but your box and cloak are quite safe."
"You were one of the men in the boat. I trust no one was hurt when they fired at you?"
"No ma"am."
"And where is the box?"
"In the house of the person who was with me."
"Can he be trusted? For they will offer large rewards for it."
"I should think so, ma"am," replied I, smiling; "the person who was with me is a gentleman of large fortune, who was amusing himself on the river. He desires me to say that he will not give up the box until he knows to whom the contents legally belong."
"Good heavens, how fortunate! Am I to believe you?"