He was the first man who had ever said a kind word about the spirit, and Whibley loved him for it. The Count seemed as though he could never see enough of Whibley after that evening, and the three of them--Whibley, the Count, and "Maria"--would sit up half the night talking together.
The precise particulars I never heard. Whibley was always very reticent on the matter. Whether "Maria" really did exist, and the Count deliberately set to work to bamboozle her (she was fool enough for anything), or whether she was a mere hallucination of Whibley"s, and the man tricked Whibley by "hypnotic suggestions" (as I believe it is called), I am not prepared to say. The only thing certain is that "Maria" convinced Whibley that the Count had discovered a secret gold mine in Peru. She said she knew all about it, and counselled Whibley to beg the Count to let him put a few thousands into the working of it.
"Maria," it appeared, had known the Count from his boyhood, and could answer for it that he was the most honourable man in all South America.
Possibly enough he was.
The Count was astonished to find that Whibley knew all about his mine.
Eight thousand pounds was needed to start the workings, but he had not mentioned it to any one, as he wanted to keep the whole thing to himself, and thought he could save the money on his estates in Portugal. However, to oblige "Maria," he would let Whibley supply the money. Whibley supplied it--in cash, and no one has ever seen the Count since.
That broke up Whibley"s faith in "Maria," and a sensible doctor, getting hold of him threatened to prescribe a lunatic asylum for him if ever he found him carrying on with any spirits again. That completed the cure.
THE MAN WHO WENT WRONG
I first met Jack Burridge nearly ten years ago on a certain North-country race-course.
The saddling bell had just rung for the chief event of the day. I was sauntering along with my hands in my pockets, more interested in the crowd than in the race, when a sporting friend, crossing on his way to the paddock, seized me by the arm and whispered hoa.r.s.ely in my ear:--
"Put your shirt on Mrs. Waller."
"Put my--?" I began.
"Put your shirt on Mrs. Waller," he repeated still more impressively, and disappeared in the throng.
I stared after him in blank amazement. Why should I put my shirt on Mrs.
Waller? Even if it would fit a lady. And how about myself?
I was pa.s.sing the grand stand, and, glancing up, I saw "Mrs. Waller, twelve to one," chalked on a bookmaker"s board. Then it dawned upon me that "Mrs. Waller" was a horse, and, thinking further upon the matter, I evolved the idea that my friend"s advice, expressed in more becoming language, was "Back "Mrs. Waller" for as much as you can possibly afford."
"Thank you," I said to myself, "I have backed cast-iron certainties before. Next time I bet upon a horse I shall make the selection by shutting my eyes and putting a pin through the card."
But the seed had taken root. My friend"s words surged in my brain. The birds pa.s.sing overhead twittered, "Put your shirt on "Mrs. Waller.""
I reasoned with myself. I reminded myself of my few former ventures. But the craving to put, if not my shirt, at all events half a sovereign on "Mrs. Waller" only grew the stronger the more strongly I battled against it. I felt that if "Mrs. Waller" won and I had nothing on her, I should reproach myself to my dying day.
I was on the other side of the course. There was no time to get back to the enclosure. The horses were already forming for the start. A few yards off, under a white umbrella, an outside bookmaker was shouting his final prices in stentorian tones. He was a big, genial-looking man, with an honest red face.
"What price "Mrs. Waller"?" I asked him.
"Fourteen to one," he answered, "and good luck to you."
I handed him half a sovereign, and he wrote me out a ticket. I crammed it into my waistcoat pocket, and hurried off to see the race. To my intense astonishment "Mrs. Waller" won. The novel sensation of having backed the winner so excited me that I forgot all about my money, and it was not until a good hour afterwards that I recollected my bet.
Then I started off to search for the man under the white umbrella. I went to where I thought I had left him, but no white umbrella could I find.
Consoling myself with the reflection that my loss served me right for having been fool enough to trust an outside "bookie," I turned on my heel and began to make my way back to my seat. Suddenly a voice hailed me:--
"Here you are, sir. It"s Jack Burridge you want. Over here, sir."
I looked round, and there was Jack Burridge at my elbow.
"I saw you looking about, sir," he said, "but I could not make you hear.
You was looking the wrong side of the tent."
It was pleasant to find that his honest face had not belied him.
"It is very good of you," I said; "I had given up all hopes of seeing you. Or," I added with a smile, "my seven pounds."
"Seven pun" ten," he corrected me; "you"re forgetting your own thin "un."
He handed me the money and went back to his stand.
On my way into the town I came across him again. A small crowd was collected, thoughtfully watching a tramp knocking about a miserable-looking woman.
Jack, pushing to the front, took in the scene and took off his coat in the same instant.
"Now then, my fine old English gentleman," he sang out, "come and have a try at me for a change."
The tramp was a burly ruffian, and I have seen better boxers than Jack.
He got himself a black eye, and a nasty cut over the lip, before he hardly knew where he was. But in spite of that--and a good deal more--he stuck to his man and finished him.
At the end, as he helped his adversary up, I heard him say to the fellow in a kindly whisper:--
"You"re too good a sort, you know, to whollop a woman. Why, you very near give me a licking. You must have forgot yourself, matey."
The fellow interested me. I waited and walked on with him. He told me about his home in London, at Mile End--about his old father and mother, his little brothers and sisters--and what he was saving up to do for them. Kindliness oozed from every pore in his skin.
Many that we met knew him, and all, when they saw his round, red face, smiled unconsciously. At the corner of the High Street a pale-faced little drudge of a girl pa.s.sed us, saying as she slipped by "Good-evening, Mr. Burridge."
He made a dart and caught her by the shoulder.
"And how is father?" he asked.
"Oh, if you please, Mr. Burridge, he is out again. All the mills is closed," answered the child.
"And mother?"
"She don"t get no better, sir."
"And who"s keeping you all?"
"Oh, if you please, sir, Jimmy"s earning something now," replied the mite.
He took a couple of sovereigns from his waistcoat pocket, and closed the child"s hand upon them.
"That"s all right, my la.s.s, that"s all right," he said, stopping her stammering thanks. "You write to me if things don"t get better. You know where to find Jack Burridge."