"Then where are they?"
He glared around the roomy police office, but it was only tenanted by policemen attending to various books or chatting quietly across a huge counter.
His surly att.i.tude did not diminish the inspector"s kindliness.
"Don"t be so doubtful on that point, Mason. Have you no children?"
Something in the police officer"s eyes gave the man a clew. His swarthy face flushed and his hands clinched.
"Yes," he said, huskily. "I left two boys. Their mother died. They were lost. I have looked for them everywhere."
Inspector Bradley pointed to a door.
"Go into that room," he said, quietly, "and you will find them. They are waiting there for you."
Mason crossed the sanded floor like one walking in his sleep. He experienced no emotion. He was a man stunned for the nonce.
He opened the door of the waiting room, and entered cautiously. He might have expected a hoax, a jest, from his att.i.tude.
Two stalwart young men were standing there talking. Their chat ceased as he appeared. For an appreciable time father and sons looked at each other with the curiosity of strangers.
He knew them first. He saw himself, no less than their unfortunate and suffering mother, in their erect figures, the contour of their pleasant faces.
To them he was unknown. The eldest boy was ten years old, the younger eight, when they last met. But they read a message in the man"s hungering eyes, and they were the first to break the suspense.
"Father!" cried John.
The other boy sprang to him without a word.
He took them in his arms. He was choked. From some buried font came long-forgotten tears. He murmured their names, but not a coherent sentence could he utter.
They were splendid fellows, he thought, so tall and well knit, so nice-mannered, so thoroughly overjoyed to meet him.
That was the best of it. They had sought him voluntarily. They knew his record, and were not ashamed to own him. During the long days and nights of ceaseless inquiry he was ever tormented by the dread lest his children, if living, should look on him as accursed, a blot on their existence.
He half hoped that he might discover them in some vile slum, where crime was hallowed, and convicts were heroes. He never pictured them as honest, well-meaning youths, sons of whom any father might be proud, for in that possibility lurked the gnawing terror of shame and repudiation.
Mason"s heart was full. He could not thank G.o.d for His mercy--that resource of poor humanity was denied him, and, to his credit be it said, he was no hypocrite.
His seared soul awoke to softer feelings, as his eyes, his ears, his very heart, drank in fuller knowledge of them. But he was tormented in his joy by an agonized pang of remorse. Oh, that he could have met them with hands free from further crime!
In some vague way he felt that his punishment for Philip Anson"s death would be meted out by a sterner justice than the law of the land. He was too hard a man to yield instantly. He crushed back the rising flood of horror that threatened to overwhelm him in this moment of happiness. He forced himself again to answer their anxious inquiries, to note their little airs of manliness and self-reliance, to see with growing wonder that they were well dressed and wore spotless linen.
A police station was no place for confidences. Indeed, both boys were awed by their surroundings.
They pa.s.sed into the outer office, and Mason went to thank Inspector Bradley.
"Don"t forget your ticket," whispered the pleased officer.
The reminder jarred, but it was unavoidable. Mason got his ticket indorsed, the lads looking on shyly the while, and the three regained the freedom of the street.
"Let us find some place to sit down and have a drink," suggested Mason.
"No, father," said John, with a frank smile. "Neither of us takes drink.
Come home with us. We have a room ready for you."
"I have lodgings----"
"You can go there to-morrow, and get your belongings."
"Yes. Jump into this cab," urged Willie. "We live in Westminster. It is not very far."
Mason was fascinated by the boys" pleasant a.s.sumption of authority. They spoke like young gentlemen, with the accent that betokens a good education. He yielded without a protest.
They sat three abreast in a hansom, and the vehicle scurried off toward the Westminster Bridge Road.
Mason was in the center. His giant form leaned over the closed doors of the cab, but he turned his head with interested eagerness as one or other of his sons addressed him.
"I suppose, father, you are wondering how we came to meet in such a place," said John.
"It might puzzle me if I found time to think."
"Well, the superintendent arranged everything. Unfortunately, he was away on his holidays when--when you were released--or we would have met you then, and his deputy was not aware of the circ.u.mstances. As soon as the superintendent returned he wrote to the governor, and was very much annoyed to find that you had slipped away in the meantime."
"He wouldn"t be so annoyed if he was there himself," growled Mason, good-humoredly.
"Oh, John didn"t mean that, father," broke in Willie. "The annoyance was his, and ours. You see, we had not known very long where you were. We didn"t even know you were alive."
"Of course, of course. Somebody has been looking after you well. That"s clear enough. They wouldn"t be always telling a pair of boys that their father was in Portland."
"It gave us such a shock when we heard the truth," said downright John.
"But we were so glad to hear that our father was living, and that we should soon see him," explained the younger.
"When did you hear first?"
"About four months ago. Just before we took our present situations. We are saddlers and ornamental leather workers. Between us we earn quite a decent living. Don"t we, John?"
"In fifteen weeks we have saved enough to pay for half our furniture, besides keeping ourselves well. There"s plenty to eat, dad. You won"t starve, big as you are."
They all laughed. The cab was pa.s.sing St. Thomas" Hospital. Across the bridge a n.o.ble prospect met their eyes. London had a glamour for Mason that night it never held before.
"So Robinson wrote to Bradley, knowing that I would report myself to-day, and Bradley arranged----"
"Who is Robinson, father?" interrupted John.
"The superintendent, to be sure. He used to be inspector at Whitechapel."
"He is not the man we mean. We are talking of Mr. Giles, superintendent of the Mary Anson Home."