""In the parlor on the right?"
""No, sor, in a little room on the left--down one step----"
"He stopped and looked at me.
""Te"re sure ye put her in the fust white house?"
""I am, sor."
""Wid geraniums in the winder?"
""Yes, sor."
""Red?" he says.
""No, white," I says.
""On the north side of the Square?
""No," I says, "on the south."
""My G.o.d! Fin," he says, "ye left her in the wrong house!""
It was I who shook the boat this time.
"Oh, ye needn"t laugh, sor; it was no laughin" matter. I got me five bob, but I lost His Lordship"s custom, and I didn"t dare go near Cadogan Square for a month."
These disclosures opened up a new and wider horizon. Heretofore I had a.s.sociated Fin with simple country life--as a cheery craftsman--a Jack-of-all-trades: one day attired in overalls, with paste-pot, shears, and ladder, brightening the walls of the humble cottagers, and the next in polo cap and ragged white sweater, the gift of some summer visitor (his invariable costume with me), adapting himself to the peaceful needs of the river. Here, on the contrary and to my great surprise, was a cosmopolitan; a man versed in the dark and devious ways of a great city; familiar with life in its widest sense; one who had touched on many sides and who knew the cafes, the rear entrances to the theatres, and the short cut to St. John"s Wood with the best and worst of them. These discoveries came with a certain shock, but they did not impair my interest in my companion. They really endeared him to me all the more.
After this I was no longer content with listening to his rambling dissertations on whatever happened to rise in his memory and throat. I began to direct the output. It was not a difficult task; any incident or object, however small, served my purpose.
The four-inch dog acted as valve this morning.
Somebody had trodden on His Dogship; some unfortunate biped born to ill-luck. In and about Sonning to tread on a dog or to cause any animal unnecessary pain is looked upon as an unforgiveable crime. Dogs are made to be hugged and coddled and given the best cushion in the boat. "A man, a girl, and a dog" is as common as "a man, a punt, and an inn."
Instantly the four-inch morsel--four inches, now that I think of it, is about right; six inches is too long--this morsel, I say, gave a yell as shrill as a launch-whistle and as fetching as a baby"s cry. Instantly three chambermaids, two barmaids, the two maiden sisters who were breakfasting on the shady side of the inn gable, and the dog"s owner, who, in a ravishing gown, was taking her coffee under one of the j.a.panese umbrellas, came rushing out of their respective hiding-places, impelled by an energy and accompanied by an impetuousness rarely seen except perhaps in some heroic attempt to save a drowning child sinking for the last time.
"The darlin""--this from Katy the barmaid, who reached him first--"who"s stomped on him?"
"How outrageous to be so cruel!"--this from the two maiden sisters.
"Give him to me, Katy--oh, the brute of a man!"--this from the fair owner.
The solitary Englishman with his book and his furled umbrella, who in his absorption had committed the crime, strode on without even raising his hat in apology.
"D----d little beast!" I heard him mutter as he neared the boat-house where Fin and I were stowing cargo. "Ought to be worn on a watch-chain or in her b.u.t.tonhole."
Fin had his hand on his lips keeping his laughing apparatus in order until the solitary disappeared down the path to the trees, then he leaned my way.
"I know him, sor," he whispered. "He"s a barrister down in Temple Bar.
He don"t remember me, sor, but I know him. He"s always treadin" on something--something alive--always, sor, and wid both feet! He trod on me once. I thought it was him when I see him fust--but I wasn"t sure till I asked Landlord Hull about him."
"How came you to know him?"
"Well, sor, he had an old lady on his list two years ago that was always disputin" distances and goin" to law about her cab-fares. I picked her up one day in St. James Street and druv her to Kensington Gardens and charged her the rates, and she kicked and had me up before the magistrate, and this old ink-bottle appeared for her. She"s rich and always in hot water. Well, we had it measured and I was right, and it cost her me fare and fifteen bob besides. When it was figured up she owed me sixpence more measurement I hadn"t charged her for the first time, and I summoned her and made her pay it and twelve bob more to teach her manners. What pay he got I don"t know, but I got me sixpence.
He was born back here about a mile--that"s why he comes here for his holiday."
Fin stopped stowing cargo--two bottles of soda, a piece of ice in a bucket, two canvases, my big easel and a lunch-basket--and moving his cap back from his freckled forehead said, with as much gravity as he could maintain:
"I ought to have been a barrister, sor; I started as one."
The statement did not surprise me. Had he added that he had coached the winning crew of the regatta the year before, laid the marquetry floors of Cliveden (not far away), or led the band at the late Lord Mayor"s show, I should have received his statements with equal equanimity. So I simply remarked, "When was that, Fin"? quite as I should had I been gathering details for his biography--my only anxiety being to get the facts chronologically correct.
"When I was a gossoon of twenty, sor--maybe eighteen--I"m fifty now, so it"s far back enough, G.o.d knows. And it all happened, too, not far from that old ink-bottle"s place in Temple Bar. I was lookin" at it wan day last winter when I had a fare down there that I took up in old Bond Street. I did the sweepin" out and startin" fires. Wan day wan of the clerks got fired because he couldn"t serve a writ on another barrister chap who owed a bill that me boss was tryin" to collect. n.o.body could git into his rooms, try every way they could. He had nigh broke the head o" wan o" the young fellers in the office who tried it the day before.
He niver come out, but had his grub sent him. This had been goin" on for a month. All kinds o" games had been put up on him and he beat "em all.
""I"ll do it," I says, "in a week"s time or less." The manager was goin"
through the office and heard the laugh they give me. "What"s this?" he says, cross like. "Fin says he kin serve the writ," the clerk says. "I kin," I says, startin" up, "or I"ll throw up me job."
""Give him the writ," he says, "and give him two days off. It kin do no harm for him to try."
"Well, I found the street, and went up the stairs and read the name on the door and heard somebody walkin" around, and knew he was in. Then I lay around on the other side o" the street to see what I could pick up in the way o" the habits o" the rat. I knew he couldn"t starve for a week at a time, and that something must be goin" in, and maybe I could follow up and git me foot in the door before he could close it; but I soon found that wouldn"t work. Pretty soon a can o" milk come and went up in a basket that he let down from his winder. As he leaned out I saw his head, and it was a worse carrot than me own. Then along come a man with a bag o" coal on his back and a bit o" card in his hand with the coal-yard on it and the rat"s name underneath, a-lookin" up at the house and scratchin" his head as to where he was goin".
"I crossed over and says, "Who are ye lookin" for"? And he hands me the card. "I"m his man," I says, "and I been waitin" for ye--me master"s sick and don"t want no noise, and if ye make any I"ll lose me place.
I"ll carry the bag up and dump it and bring ye the bag back and, shillin" for yer trouble. Wait here. Hold on," I says; "take me hat and let me have yours, for I don"t git a good hat every day, and the bag"s that dirty it"ll spile it."
""Go on," he says; "I"ve carried it all the way from the yard and me back"s broke." Well, I pulled his hat ever me eyes and started up the stairs wid the bag on me shoulder. When I got to the fust landin" I run me hands over the bag, gittin" "em good and black, then I smeared me face, and up I went another flight.
""Who"s there?" he says, when I knocked.
""Coals," I says.
""Where from?" he says.
"I told him the name on the card. He opened the door an inch and I could see a chain between the crack.
""Let me see yer face," he says. I twisted it out from under the edge of the bag. "All right," he says, and he slipped back the chain and in I went, stoopin" down as if it weighed a ton.
""Where"ll I put it?" I says.
""In the box," he says, walkin" toward the grate. "Have ye brought the bill?"
""I have," I says, still keepin" me head down. "It"s in me side pocket.
Pull it out, please, me hand"s that dirty"--and out come the writ!
"Ye ought to have seen his face when he read it. He made a jump for the door, but I got there fust and downstairs in a tumble, and fell in a heap at the foot with everything he could lay his hands on comin" after me--tongs, shovel, and poker.
"I got a raise of five bob when I went back and ten bob besides from the boss.