The policeman looked from one to the other, and then proceeded to ferret somewhere in the tails of his tunic, whence he produced a notebook. This was obviously a case requiring literary expression.
The big man, seeing Mrs. Bindle fall back, turned his head and caught a glimpse of the policeman. Very cautiously he raised himself to a sitting posture.
"She"s been murderin" me," he said, with one eye fixed warily upon the mop. ""Ere, Charley!" he cried, looking over his left shoulder.
Charley reluctantly approached, regretful that law and order had triumphed over red revolution.
"Ain"t she been tryin" to kill me?" demanded the big man of his offspring.
"Biffed "im on the "ead wiv the "andle," corroborated the boy in a toneless voice.
"Poured water over me and "it me in the stummick too, didn"t she, Charley?" Once more the big man turned to his son for corroboration.
"Got "im a rare "un too!" agreed Charley, with a feeling in his voice that caused his father to look at him sharply. "Sloshed "im on the jaw too," he added, as if finding pleasure in dwelling upon the sufferings of his parent.
"Do you wish to charge her?" asked the policeman in an official voice.
""Charge me!"" broke in Mrs. Bindle. ""Charge me!" I should like to see "im do it. See what "e"s done to my geraniums, bringing his filthy sticks into my front garden. "Charge me!"" she repeated. "Just let him try it!" and she brought the mop to a position from which it could be launched at the big man"s head.
Instinctively he sank down again on to the path, and the policeman interposed his body between the weapon and the vanquished.
"There"s plenty of witnesses here to prove what he done," cried Mrs.
Bindle shrilly.
Once more the big man raised himself to a sitting posture; but Mrs.
Bindle had no intention of allowing him to control the situation. To her a policeman meant justice, and to this self-possessed lad in the uniform of unlimited authority she opened her heart and, at the same time, the vials of her wrath.
""Ere was I ironin" in my kitchen when this rabble," she indicated the crowd with the handle of the mop, "descended upon me like the plague of locusts." To Mrs. Bindle, scriptural allusion was a necessity.
"They said they wanted to take my "ouse. Said I"d told them it was to let, the perjured sc.u.m of Judas. Then _he_ came along"--she pointed to her victim who was gingerly feeling the b.u.mp that Mrs. Bindle"s mop had raised--"and threw all that dirty lumber into my garden, and--and----"
Here her voice broke, for to Mrs. Bindle those geranium slips were very dear.
"You"d better get up."
At the policeman"s words the big man rose heavily to his feet. For a moment he stood still, as if to make quite sure that no bones were broken. Then his hand went to his neck-cloth and he produced a piece of hearthstone which had, apparently, become detached from the parent slab.
"Threw bricks at me," he complained, holding out the piece of hearthstone to the policeman.
"Ananias!" came Mrs. Bindle"s uncompromising retort.
"Do you want to charge her?" asked the policeman brusquely.
"Serves "im jolly well right," cried the woman with the tweed cap and hat-pin, pushing her way in front of a big man who obstructed her view.
"Oughter be run-in "isself," agreed a pallid woman with a shawl over her head.
"Look wot "e done to "er garding," mumbled the rag-and-bone man, pointing at the flower-bed with the air of one who has just made an important discovery.
"It"s the likes of "im wot makes strikes," commented the woman in the dolman. "Blinkin" profiteer."
"She"s got pluck, any"ow," said a telephone mechanic, who had joined the crowd just before Charley"s father had bent before the wind of Mrs.
Bindle"s displeasure. "Knocked "im out in the first round. Regular George Carpenter," he added.
"You get them things out of my garden. If you don"t I"ll give you in charge."
The big man blinked, a puzzled expression creeping into his eyes. He looked at the policeman uncomprehendingly. This was an aspect of the case that had not, hitherto, struck him.
"Are they your things?" asked the policeman, intent upon disentangling the situation before proceeding to use the pencil, the point of which he was meditatively sucking.
Charley"s father nodded. He was still thinking over Mrs. Bindle"s remark. It seemed to open up disconcerting possibilities.
"Now then, what are you going to do?" demanded the policeman sternly.
"Do you wish to make a charge?"
"I will," said Mrs. Bindle, "unless "e takes "is furniture away and pays for the damage to my flowers. I"ll charge "im, the great, "ulking brute, attacking a defenceless woman because he knows "er "usband"s out."
"That"s right, missis, you "ave "im quodded," called out the rag-and-bone man. ""E didn"t ought to "ave done that to your garding."
"Tryin" to sw.a.n.k us "e"d taken the "ouse," cried the woman with the tweed cap and hat-pin. "I see through "im from the first, I did. There ain"t many men wot can throw dust in my eyes," she added, looking eagerly round for a dissenting look.
""Ullo, "ullo!" cried a voice from the outskirts of the crowd. "Somebody givin" somethink away, or is it a fire? "Ere, let me pa.s.s, I"m the cove wot pays the rent," and Bindle pushed his genial way through the crowd.
They made way without protest. The advent of the newcomer suggested further dramatic developments, possibly even a fight.
""Ullo, Tichborne!" cried Bindle, catching sight of the big man. "Been sc.r.a.ppin"?"
The three protagonists in the drama turned, as if with relief, to face this new phase of the situation.
""Oo"s "e?" enquired Bindle of the policeman, indicating the big man with a jerk of his thumb.
"He"s been tryin" to murder me, and if you were a man, Joe Bindle, you"d kill "im."
Bindle subjected the big man to an elaborate scrutiny. "Looks to me," he remarked drily, "as if someone"s got in before me. Wot"s "appened?" He looked interrogatingly up at the policeman.
""Oly "Orace," he cried suddenly, as he caught sight of the miscellaneous collection of furniture that lay about the geranium bed.
"What"s that little p.a.w.nshop a-doin" on our front garden?"
With the aid of the rag-and-bone man and the woman with the tweed cap and hat-pin, the whole situation was explained and expounded to both Bindle and the policeman.
When he had heard everything, Bindle turned to the big man, who stood sulkily awaiting events.
"Now, look "ere, cully," he said. "You didn"t oughter start doin" them sort o" things with a figure like yours. When Mrs. B. gets "old of a broom, or a mop, the safest thing to do is to draw in your solar-plexus an" run. It "urts less. Now, speakin" as a Christian to a bloomin"
"eathen wot"s done "imself pretty well, judgin" from the size of "is pinafore, you"d better send for the coachman, "arness up that there dray o" yours, carry orf them bits o" sticks an" let bygones be bygones.
Ain"t that good advice?" He turned to the policeman for corroboration.
There was a flicker of a smile at the corners of the policeman"s mouth, which seemed not so very many years before to have been lisping baby language. He looked at the big man. It was not for him to advise.
""Ere, Charley, blaaarst you," cried the big man, pushing his way to the gate. He had decided that the dice had gone against him. "Get them things on to the blinkin" barrer, you stutterin" young pup. Wot the purple----"