"They listened, but could hear no sound. They shook the door and called to him, then beat with their fists upon the wooden panels. But still no sound came from the room.
"Becoming alarmed, they decided to burst open the door, and, after many blows, it gave way, and they crowded in.
"He sat bolt upright in his high-backed chair. They thought at first he had died in his sleep. But when they drew nearer and the light fell upon him, they saw the livid marks of bony fingers round his throat; and in his eyes there was a terror such as is not often seen in human eyes."
Brown was the first to break the silence that followed. He asked me if I had any brandy on board. He said he felt he should like just a nip of brandy before going to bed. That is one of the chief charms of Jephson"s stories: they always make you feel you want a little brandy.
CHAPTER VI
"Cats," remarked Jephson to me, one afternoon, as we sat in the punt discussing the plot of our novel, "cats are animals for whom I entertain a very great respect. Cats and Nonconformists seem to me the only things in this world possessed of a practicable working conscience. Watch a cat doing something mean and wrong--if ever one gives you the chance; notice how anxious she is that n.o.body should see her doing it; and how prompt, if detected, to pretend that she was not doing it--that she was not even thinking of doing it--that, as a matter of fact, she was just about to do something else, quite different. You might almost think they had a soul.
"Only this morning I was watching that tortoise-sh.e.l.l of yours on the houseboat. She was creeping along the roof, behind the flower-boxes, stalking a young thrush that had perched upon a coil of rope. Murder gleamed from her eye, a.s.sa.s.sination lurked in every twitching muscle of her body. As she crouched to spring, Fate, for once favouring the weak, directed her attention to myself, and she became, for the first time, aware of my presence. It acted upon her as a heavenly vision upon a Biblical criminal. In an instant she was a changed being. The wicked beast, going about seeking whom it might devour, had vanished. In its place sat a long-tailed, furry angel, gazing up into the sky with an expression that was one-third innocence and two-thirds admiration of the beauties of nature. What was she doing there, did I want to know? Why, could I not see, playing with a bit of earth. Surely I was not so evil- minded as to imagine she wanted to kill that dear little bird--G.o.d bless it.
"Then note an old Tom, slinking home in the early morning, after a night spent on a roof of bad repute. Can you picture to yourself a living creature less eager to attract attention? "Dear me," you can all but hear it saying to itself, "I"d no idea it was so late; how time does go when one is enjoying oneself. I do hope I shan"t meet any one I know--very awkward, it"s being so light."
"In the distance it sees a policeman, and stops suddenly within the shelter of a shadow. "Now what"s he doing there," it says, "and close to our door too? I can"t go in while he"s hanging about. He"s sure to see and recognise me; and he"s just the sort of man to talk to the servants."
"It hides itself behind a post and waits, peeping cautiously round the corner from time to time. The policeman, however, seems to have taken up his residence at that particular spot, and the cat becomes worried and excited.
""What"s the matter with the fool?" it mutters indignantly; "is he dead?
Why don"t he move on, he"s always telling other people to. Stupid a.s.s."
"Just then a far-off cry of "milk" is heard, and the cat starts up in an agony of alarm. "Great Scott, hark at that! Why, everybody will be down before I get in. Well, I can"t help it. I must chance it."
"He glances round at himself, and hesitates. "I wouldn"t mind if I didn"t look so dirty and untidy," he muses; "people are so p.r.o.ne to think evil in this world."
""Ah, well," he adds, giving himself a shake, "there"s nothing else for it, I must put my trust in Providence, it"s pulled me through before: here goes."
"He a.s.sumes an aspect of chastened sorrow, and trots along with a demure and saddened step. It is evident he wishes to convey the idea that he has been out all night on work connected with the Vigilance a.s.sociation, and is now returning home sick at heart because of the sights that he has seen.
"He squirms in, unnoticed, through a window, and has just time to give himself a hurried lick down before he hears the cook"s step on the stairs. When she enters the kitchen he is curled up on the hearthrug, fast asleep. The opening of the shutters awakes him. He rises and comes forward, yawning and stretching himself.
""Dear me, is it morning, then?" he says drowsily. "Heigh-ho! I"ve had such a lovely sleep, cook; and such a beautiful dream about poor mother."
"Cats! do you call them? Why, they are Christians in everything except the number of legs."
"They certainly are," I responded, "wonderfully cunning little animals, and it is not by their moral and religious instincts alone that they are so closely linked to man; the marvellous ability they display in taking care of "number one" is worthy of the human race itself. Some friends of mine had a cat, a big black Tom: they have got half of him still. They had reared him from a kitten, and, in their homely, undemonstrative way, they liked him. There was nothing, however, approaching pa.s.sion on either side.
"One day a Chinchilla came to live in the neighbourhood, under the charge of an elderly spinster, and the two cats met at a garden wall party.
""What sort of diggings have you got?" asked the Chinchilla.
""Oh, pretty fair."
""Nice people?"
""Yes, nice enough--as people go."
""Pretty willing? Look after you well, and all that sort of thing?"
""Yes--oh yes. I"ve no fault to find with them."
""What"s the victuals like?"
""Oh, the usual thing, you know, bones and sc.r.a.ps, and a bit of dog-biscuit now and then for a change."
""Bones and dog-biscuits! Do you mean to say you eat bones?"
""Yes, when I can get "em. Why, what"s wrong about them?"
""Shade of Egyptian Isis, bones and dog-biscuits! Don"t you ever get any spring chickens, or a sardine, or a lamb cutlet?"
""Chickens! Sardines! What are you talking about? What are sardines?"
""What are sardines! Oh, my dear child (the Chinchilla was a lady cat, and always called gentlemen friends a little older than herself "dear child"), these people of yours are treating you just shamefully. Come, sit down and tell me all about it. What do they give you to sleep on?"
""The floor."
""I thought so; and skim milk and water to drink, I suppose?"
""It _is_ a bit thin."
""I can quite imagine it. You must leave these people, my dear, at once."
""But where am I to go to?"
""Anywhere."
""But who"ll take me in?"
""Anybody, if you go the right way to work. How many times do you think I"ve changed my people? Seven!--and bettered myself on each occasion.
Why, do you know where I was born? In a pig-sty. There were three of us, mother and I and my little brother. Mother would leave us every evening, returning generally just as it was getting light. One morning she did not come back. We waited and waited, but the day pa.s.sed on and she did not return, and we grew hungrier and hungrier, and at last we lay down, side by side, and cried ourselves to sleep.
""In the evening, peeping through a hole in the door, we saw her coming across the field. She was crawling very slowly, with her body close down against the ground. We called to her, and she answered with a low "crroo"; but she did not hasten her pace.
""She crept in and rolled over on her side, and we ran to her, for we were almost starving. We lay long upon her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and she licked us over and over.
""I dropped asleep upon her, and in the night I awoke, feeling cold. I crept closer to her, but that only made me colder still, and she was wet and clammy with a dark moisture that was oozing from her side. I did not know what it was at that time, but I have learnt since.
""That was when I could hardly have been four weeks old, and from that day to this I"ve looked after myself: you"ve got to do that in this world, my dear. For a while, I and my brother lived on in that sty and kept ourselves. It was a grim struggle at first, two babies fighting for life; but we pulled through. At the end of about three months, wandering farther from home than usual, I came upon a cottage, standing in the fields. It looked warm and cosy through the open door, and I went in: I have always been blessed with plenty of nerve. Some children were playing round the fire, and they welcomed me and made much of me. It was a new sensation to me, and I stayed there. I thought the place a palace at the time.
""I might have gone on thinking so if it had not been that, pa.s.sing through the village one day, I happened to catch sight of a room behind a shop. There was a carpet on the floor, and a rug before the fire. I had never known till then that there were such luxuries in the world. I determined to make that shop my home, and I did so."