It was so sudden that Elsie cried out and fell backwards in her chair.
She had brought on the thing by her own words, by conjuring up a vision of the Chambers. But--the trouble was not the struggle of the memory getting hold of evasive facts.
"Why, child," he remonstrated, "you look pale. Is it the heat? Come, it is cooler outside. Let us go to the Chambers in Gray"s Inn. This old fellow--this Dering--here he sits all day long. It is Tom Tiddler"s ground. It is paved with gold, which he picks up. The place--let us whisper--because he must be in the outer office--it reeks of Property--reeks of Property."
He took his hat and gloves. "My Scholar, let us go." By force of habit, he shut and locked the safe and dropped the bunch of keys in his pocket.
CHAPTER XXVIII
ATHELSTAN"S DISCOVERY
On the evening of that same day the same discovery was made by another of the persons chiefly concerned.
You have seen that Athelstan on his return made haste to find out the commissionaire who had presented the forged cheque. Happily, the man remembered not only the circ.u.mstance itself but also his employer on that occasion. A generosity far above what is commonly found among those who employ the services of that corps endeared and preserved the memory of the day. He had received, in fact, half a sovereign for an eighteenpenny job; and the commissionaire is not like the cabby, to whom such windfalls are common. Not at all. With the former we observe the letter of the law.
After eight years this man"s memory was rewarded. This thrice blessed job produced yet more golden fruit. Heard one ever of a more prolific job?
After breakfast, Athelstan was informed that a commissionaire desired to speak with him. It was his one-armed friend.
"Beg your pardon, sir," he said, saluting after the military manner--"you said I was to come and tell you, first thing, if I found your man for you."
"Certainly. I told you also that I would give you a five-pound reward for finding my man, as you call him. Well--I will be as good as my word if you have found him."
"I saw him yesterday. The very same old gentleman that sent me to the Bank that day. He"s older, and he doesn"t look so jolly, and he walks slower; but I knew him at once."
"Oh! are you quite sure? Because a resemblance, you know----"
"Well, sir, I can swear to him. I remember him as well as I remember anybody. He sat in the chair, and he laughed, and he said: "You"ve been quick over the job, my man. There"s something extra, because you might have dropped the money down a grating, or run away with it, or something," he says. "Here"s half a sovereign for you, my man," says he; "and I daresay you can do with it." "I can so, sir," I says, "and with as many more like them as I can pick up." Then he laughed, and I laughed, and we both laughed.--And that"s the same man that I saw yesterday evening."
"Oh! this is very curious. Are you quite sure?"
"I"d swear to him anywhere. A man can"t say fairer."
"No--as you say--a man can hardly say fairer, can he? Now, then, when did you see him?"
"It was between six and seven. I"d been doing a message for a gentleman in the Strand--a gentleman in the dining-room line to a gentleman in Holborn in the sausage and tripe line--and I was going back with a letter, and going through Lincoln"s Inn for a short cut. Just as I was getting near the gate to the Fields, I saw coming out of the door at No.
12 the very man you want to find. I wasn"t thinking about him, not a bit-- I was thinking of nothing at all, when he come out of the door and walked down the steps. Then I knew him. Lord! I knew him at once.
"You"re the man," I says to myself, "as give me the half-sov. instead of eighteenpence." Well, I stood at the corner and waited to see if he would remember me. Not a bit of it. He stared at me hard, but he never recollected me a bit--I could see that. Why should he? n.o.body remembers the servant any more than they remember the private in the ranks. The very same old gentleman; but he"s grown older, and he didn"t look jolly any more. P"raps he"s lost his money."
"Came out of No. 12, did he? Why, Dering & Son"s office is there. What does this mean?"
"I thought I"d like to find out something more about him; and I thought that a five-pound note was better worth looking after than eighteenpence--so I let the letter from the tripe and sausage man lay a bit, and I followed my old gentleman at a good distance."
"Oh! you followed him. Very good. Did you find out where he lived? I can tell you that. He went to No. 22 South Square, Gray"s Inn."
"No; he didn"t, sir.--But you are not very far wrong. He went through Great Turnstile; then he crossed Holborn and turned into Featherstone Buildings, which is all lodging-houses. But he doesn"t live there. He walked through the Buildings, and so into Bedford Row, and he stopped at a house there----"
"What! In Bedford Row?"
"Yes; in Bedford Row--and he pulls out a latch-key and lets himself in.
That"s where he lives. No. 49 Bedford Row, on the west side, very near the bottom. He lives in Bedford Row.--Well, sir, I like to do things proper, and so, to make the job complete, I went to the _Salutation_, Holborn, where they keep a Directory, and I looked out his name. The gentleman that lives at No. 49 Bedford Row is named Edward Dering--and among the names of No. 12 New Square, Lincoln"s Inn, is the name of Dering & Son.--So, sir, I don"t think it is too much to say that your man is Mr. Dering, who belongs both to Bedford Row and Lincoln"s Inn.
He"s the man who sent me to the Bank eight years ago."
Athelstan stared at him. "He the man?" he cried. "You are talking impossibilities. He can"t be the man."
"n.o.body else, sir. If that was Mr. Dering that I saw yesterday walking home from New Square to Bedford Row--he"s the man who sent me for the money."
To this statement the man stuck firm. Nor could he be moved by any a.s.sertion that his position was impossible. "For, my friend," said Athelstan, "the man who sent you with the cheque was the man who robbed Mr. Dering."
"Can"t help that, sir. If the gentleman I saw yesterday walking from Lincoln"s Inn to Bedford Row was Mr. Dering--then he robbed hisself."
"That"s foolishness. Oh! there must be some explanation. Look here! Mr.
Edward Dering leaves his office every evening between six and seven. I will be in New Square on the west side this evening at six. You be there, as well. Try not to seem as if you were watching for anybody.
Stand about at your ease."
"I"ll make it sentry-go, sir," said the old soldier. "I"ll walk up and down in front of the door same as some of our chaps got to do in front of shops. You trust me, sir, and I won"t take no notice of you."
This little plot, in fact, was faithfully carried out. At six o"clock Athelstan began to walk up and down outside the gate which opens upon Lincoln"s Inn Fields--the commissionaire at the same time was doing sentry-go in front of No. 12 in New Square. When the clock struck six there was a rush and a tramp of hurrying feet; these were the clerks set free for the day. There are not many solicitors" offices in New Square, and these once gone, the place becomes perfectly quiet. At half-past six there was the footfall as of one man on the stairs, and he descended slowly. He came out of the door presently, an old bent figure with white hair and shrivelled face. Paying no heed to the sentry, he walked away with feeble step in the direction of Chancery Lane. Checkley this was, on his way to look after his tenants and his property.
Athelstan looked after him, through the gate. Then he called his old soldier. "See that man?" he asked. "That"s the man who sent you to the Bank."
"No--he isn"t." The man was stout on that point. "Not a bit like him.
That old man"s a servant, not a gentleman. See the way he holds his hands. Never a gentleman yet carried his hands that way. You can always tell "em by their hands. The other day I met an old pal--seemed to forget me, he did. Wanted to make out that he"d never been in the army at all. So I lay by for a bit. Then I gets up--and he gets up too.
""Tention," says I, and he stood to "tention like a good old Tommy Atkins. You watch their hands whatever they say. Always tell "em by their hands. That old man he"s a servant. He isn"t a gentleman. He can"t sit among the swells and order about the waiters. He hasn"t learned that way. He"d get up himself, if you asked him, and put the napkin under his arm and bring you a gla.s.s of sherry wine. He"s not my man. You wait a bit."
At a quarter to seven another footstep was heard echoing up and down the empty building. Then an old man, erect, thin, tightly b.u.t.toned, wearing neat gloves and carrying an umbrella, came out of the door. His face was hard, even austere. His walk was firm. The Sentry, as this person walked out of the gate, followed at a distance. When he was beside Athelstan, he whispered: "That"s the man. I"d swear to him anywhere. That"s the man that sent me to the Bank."
Athelstan heard in unbounded astonishment. That the man? Why--it was Mr.
Dering himself!
"Let us follow him," he whispered. "Not together. On opposite sides of the road. Good Heavens! This is most wonderful. Do not lose sight of him."
To follow him was perfectly easy, because Mr. Dering turned neither to the right nor to the left, but marched straight on through Great Turnstile, across Holborn, through Featherstone Buildings, and into Bedford Row. At No. 49, his own house. Where else should he stop?
Athelstan took out his purse and gave the man the five pounds. "I don"t know what it means," he said. "I can"t understand a word. But I suppose you have told me the truth. I don"t know why you should make up a lie----"
"It"s Gauspel Truth," said the man.
"And therefore again--I don"t understand it. Well--I"ve got your name and your number. If I want you again I will send for you."
The man saluted and walked away. Half a sovereign for an eighteenpenny job, and eight years afterwards five pounds on account of the same job.
Robbery, was it? Robbery--and the old man pretending to rob himself. Now what did that mean? Laying it on to some poor harmless innocent cove, the soldier guessed: laying it on to some one as he had a spite against--the old villain--very likely this young governor--most likely-- Donation on account of that same job, very likely--the old villain!
As for Athelstan, he returned to Lincoln"s Inn Fields, where, the evening being fine and the sun warm and the place quiet except for the children at play, he walked up and down the east or sunny side for half an hour turning the thing over in his mind.
For, you see, if Mr. Dering went through the form of robbing himself and finding out the robbery and coldly suffering the blame to fall upon himself--then Mr. Dering must be one of the most phenomenally wicked of living men. Or, if Mr. Dering robbed himself, and did not know it--then Mr. Dering must be mad.