"In milady"s room. I paid the sovereign."
Her ladyship rose and glided gracefully toward the door, followed by the maid, who whispered to a French waiter--bowing most deferentially to the guest as he held the door open--that her mistress was a cat. He confided his own opinion that her ladyship was a holy pig, and the two pa.s.sed along a corridor.
Lady Morland hastily tore open the recovered dressing case, and consulted an address book.
"Oh! here it is," she cried, triumphantly. "Number three, Johnson"s Mews, Mile End Road, E. What a horrid-smelling place. However, Messrs.
Sharpe & Smith will now be able to obtain some definite intelligence for me. Julie! My carriage in ten minutes."
Thus it happened that during the afternoon, a dapper little clerk descended from an omnibus in the neighborhood of Johnson"s Mews, and began his inquiries, as all Londoners do, by consulting a policeman.
Certain facts were forthcoming.
"A Mrs. Anson, a widow, who lived in Johnson"s Mews? Yes, I think a woman of that name died a few weeks ago. I remember seeing a funeral leave the mews. I don"t know anything about the boy. Sometimes, when I pa.s.s through there at night, I have seen a light in the house. However, here it is. Let"s have a look at it."
The pair entered the mews and approached the deserted house. The solicitor"s clerk knocked and then tried the door; it was locked. They both went to the window and looked in. Had Philip hanged himself, as he intended, they would have been somewhat surprised by the spectacle that would have met their eyes. As it was, they only saw a small room of utmost wretchedness, with a mattress lying on the floor in front of the fireplace. An empty tin and a bundle of old letters rested on a rickety chair, and a piece of sacking was thrust through two broken panes in the small window opposite.
"Not much there, eh?" laughed the policeman.
"Not much, indeed. The floor is all covered with dirt, and if it were not for the bed, one would imagine that the house was entirely deserted.
Are you sure Mrs. Anson is dead?"
"Oh, quite sure. Hers was rather a hard case, some one told me. I remember now; it was the undertaker. He lives near here."
"And the boy. Has he gone away?"
"I don"t know. I haven"t seen him lately."
Each of these men had read all the reports concerning Philip and his diamonds. Large numbers of tiny, white pebbles were lying on the floor beneath their eyes, but the window was not clean, and the light was far from good, as the sky was clouded. Yet they were visible enough. The clerk noticed them at once, but neither he nor the policeman paid more heed to the treasures almost at their feet than was given by generations of men to the outcrop of the main reef at Johannesburg. At last they turned away. The clerk gave the policeman a cigar with the remark:
"I will just ask the undertaker to give me a letter, stating the facts about Mrs. Anson"s death. I suppose the boy is in the workhouse?"
"Who knows! It often beats me to tell what becomes of the kids who are left alone in London. Poor, little devils, they mostly go to the bad.
There should be some means of looking after them, I think."
Thus did Philip, bravely sustaining his heart in the solitude of a prison, escape the greatest danger that threatened the preservation of his secret, and all because a scheming woman was too clever to tell her solicitors the exact reason for her anxiety concerning the whereabouts of Mrs. Anson and her son.
The boy pa.s.sed a dolorous Sat.u.r.day night and Sunday. Nevertheless, the order, the cleanliness, the comparative comfort of a prison, were not wholly ungrateful to him. His meals, though crude, were wholesome, luxurious, even, compared with the privations he had endured during the previous fortnight. The enforced rest, too, did him good, and, being under remand, he had nothing to do but eat, take exercise, read a few books provided for him, and sleep.
With Monday came a remarkable change in his fare. A pint of first-rate cocoa and some excellent bread and b.u.t.ter for breakfast evoked no comment on his part, but a dinner of roast beef, potatoes, cabbage and rice pudding was so extremely unlike prison diet that he questioned the turnkey.
"It"s all right, kid," came the brief answer. "It"s paid for. Eat while you can, and ask no questions."
"But----"
The door slammed, and at the next meal Philip received in silence a cup of tea and a nice tea cake. This went on during three days. The good food and rest had already worked a marvelous change in his appearance.
He entered the prison looking like a starved dog. When he rose on the Thursday morning and washed himself, no one would have recognized him as the same boy were it not for his clothes.
After dinner, he was tidying his cell and replacing the plates and the rest on a tin tray, when the door was suddenly flung open and a warder cried:
"Come along, Morland. You"re wanted at the court."
"At the court!" he could not help saying. "This is only Thursday."
"What a boy you are for arguing. Pick up your hat and come. Your carriage waits, my lord. I hope you will like your quarters as well when you come back. A pretty stir you have made in the papers the last five days."
Philip glanced at the man, who seemed to be in a good humor.
"I will not come back," he said, quietly, "but I wish you would tell me who supplied me with food while I have been here."
They were pa.s.sing along a lofty corridor, and there was no superior officer in sight. The warder laughed.
"I don"t know, my lord," he said, "but the menoo came from the Royal Star Hotel, opposite."
Philip obtained no further news. He pa.s.sed through an office, a voucher was signed for him, and he emerged into the prison yard, where the huge prison van awaited him. He was the only occupant, just as on the first memorable ride in that conveyance. When he came to the prison from the police court he had several companions in misery. But they were "stretched." His case was the only "remand."
During the long drive Philip endeavored to guess the cause of this unexpected demand for his presence. Naturally, he a.s.sumed that Johnson"s Mews no longer held safe the secret of his meteor. Such few sensational romances as he had read credited detectives with superhuman sagacity. In his mind, Johnson"s Mews was the center of the world. It enshrined the marvelous--how could it escape the thousands of prying eyes that pa.s.sed daily through the great thoroughfare of the East End, but a few yards away? Judging from the remark dropped by the warder, all London was talking about him. A puzzling feature was the abundant supply of good food sent to him in the prison. Who was his unknown friend--and what explanation was attached to the incident?
Philip"s emotions were no more capable of a.n.a.lysis than a display of rockets. Immured in this cage, rattling over the pavements, he seemed to be advancing through a tunnel into an unknown world.
At last the van stopped, and he was led forth into the yard of the police court. He followed the same route as on the previous Sat.u.r.day, but when he ascended into the court itself he discovered a change. The magistrate, a couple of clerks, and some policemen alone were present.
The general public and the representatives of the press were not visible.
He had scarcely faced the bench when the magistrate said:
"You are set at liberty. The police withdraw the charge against you."
Philip"s eyes sparkled and his breast heaved tumultuously. For the life of him he could utter no word, but Mr. Abingdon helped him by quietly directing the usher to permit the lad to leave the dock and take a seat at the solicitors" table.
Then, speaking slowly and with some gravity, he said:
"Philip Morland--that is the only name by which I know you--the authorities have come to the conclusion that your story is right. You have unquestionably found a deposit of diamonds, and although this necessarily exists on some person"s property, there is no evidence to show whose property it is. It may be your own. It may be situated beyond the confines of this kingdom. There are many hypotheses, each of which may be true; but, in any event, if others lay claim to this treasure trove--and I warn you that the Crown has a right in such a matter--the issue is a civil and not a criminal one. Therefore, you are discharged, and your property is now handed back to you intact."
A clerk placed before Philip his parcel of diamonds, his key, the rusty knife, the pieces of string, and the two b.u.t.tons--truly a motley collection. The boy was pale, and his voice somewhat tremulous as he asked:
"May I go now, sir?"
Mr. Abingdon leaned back in his chair and pa.s.sed his hand over his face to conceal a smile.
"I have something more to say to you," he answered. "It is an offense against the law to withhold your name and address. I admit the powerful motives which actuated you, so I make the very great concession that your earlier refusal will be overlooked if you privately tell me that which you were unwilling to state publicly."
Philip instantly decided that it would be foolish in the extreme to refuse this offer. He pocketed his diamonds, looked the magistrate straight in the face, and said:
"I will do that, sir. As the information is to be given to you alone, may I write it?"
The policemen and other officials sn.i.g.g.e.red at this display of caution, but the magistrate nodded, and Philip wrote his name and address on a sheet of foolscap, which he folded before handing it to the usher.
To his great surprise, Mr. Abingdon placed the paper in a pocketbook without opening it.
"I will make no use of this doc.u.ment unless the matter comes before me again officially. I wish to point out to you that I have brought you from prison at the earliest possible moment, and have spared you the publicity which your movements would attract were your case settled in open court. You are not aware, perhaps, that you figure largely in the eyes of the public at this moment. There are newspapers which would give a hundred pounds to get hold of you. There are thieves who would shadow your every movement, waiting for a chance to waylay and rob you--murder you, if necessary. I have taken precautions, therefore, to safeguard you, at least within the precincts of this court, but I cannot be responsible beyond its limits. May I ask what you intend to do?"