Too late--too late--to bring back life and happiness; but not too late to thrust dishonour from my brother's grave. I rushed frantically to the office to denounce French; and, boy as I was, I should have taken him by the throat, but he was not there. Breathlessly I told the brothers all; but, for awhile, the narrative seemed so extravagant, that they looked upon me as mad. But upon knowing the truth of my statement, they were prompt in their endeavours to obtain justice upon the base villain who had brought those young hearts to a premature grave.

Too late--too late. French had fled, whither no one knew; but if a man--if a human heart beat within his breast, he must have carried a fearful punishment with him.

Twenty years since then I have served Ranee Brothers; and you can tell a little of the kindness and consideration they have always shown me; while I suppose I begin the new year as a member of the firm.

And do you wonder now that I should have grown into a staid and quiet man--that people should call me reserved--and that grey hairs should already have appeared in my head?

But what are these, Minnie? Tears, love? Come, light the candles; we must have no more tales told in the dusk.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

MEPHITIC FUMES.

I don't believe that old well of ours would ever have been cleaned out if it had not been for the magpie, which, by the way, in its tame state is most decidedly as ill-conditioned, dishonest a bird as was ever fledged. Now of course a magpie does not seem to have much to do with a well; but as great oaks grow from little acorns, so do large matters grow out of very small causes.

Our magpie was kept under the impression that he would some day talk; but he never got any further than the monosyllable "Chark," which with him meant as much as the Italian's "Altro." He could say the word plainly when he was six months old; and he could say no more when he was five years, and had achieved to a perpetual moult about the poll, which had the effect of making him look ten times more weird and artful than ever. He would say "chark" for everything, merely varying the key higher or lower according to the exigencies of the case. Goblin came into my possession in exchange for that piece of current money of the merchant called sixpence, which was given to a little, consequential, undersized, under-gardener at a neighbouring seat. This personage, who was known in the place as "my lord," had early one morning scaled an elm-tree to take a magpie's nest, but he was so unsuccessful as to secure only one bird--the Goblin in question.

He was a beauty was Goblin; if I believed in the doctrine of metempsychosis, I should say that his little body had been the receptacle of the immortal part of Jack Sheppard--Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard; for a more mischievous, thieving scamp never held head on one side, leaped out of reach, after any amount of threatening, stared at you with a keen black eye, and cried "chark." He was a bird that was always in a state of voracity, or pretended to be so, and dearly loved to hide sc.r.a.ps of meat in all sorts of out-of-the-way places, where he would punch them in, and then forget them; although they smelt loud enough to cause no end of complaints. He was a cleanly bird, too, in his habits, and always took advantage of Newfoundland Nero's trough being filled with clean water to have a wash, sully the fount, and then hop shivering off to dry the plumage which stuck down to his sides.

So much for the magpie. The well was beneath the walnut-tree, and so close to it that from time to time large pieces of chalk had been pushed in by the roots that forced their way through the sides as if in search of moisture. It was an old, old well, sunk no one knew how many centuries before; but probably dug down out of the chalk, when the monks held the old priory which we tenanted in its modernised form. The old well was always an object of dread to me in childhood; and often have I stealthily crept up to the old green wood cover, dropped a pebble through the rope hole, and listened shudderingly to the hollow, echoing, vibrating sound that came quivering up after the plash. Even in maturer years the old well was one that would obtrude itself into dreams and offer suggestions of the horrors to be found within its depths, and the consequences of a fall to the bottom.

We only used the water for the garden, and hard work it used to be to turn the moss-covered windla.s.s, and drag up the heavy bucket at the end of a hundred feet of rope, when up it came full of greeny-looking water, with some times a frog for pa.s.senger. To look down and listen to the hollow drip of the water was enough to make any one shudder, so profound seemed the depth to where a ring of light could be seen, and in spite of its depth, carved as it was right out of the solid chalk, there was never more than some seven or eight feet of water at the bottom, and that none of the cleanest.

Uncle Tom said it would be better filled up; a remark which found a most enthusiastic backer in the old gardener; but water even if green and discoloured was costly in those parts, and therefore the well was not filled up. While as to my uncle's suggestion, to have it cleaned out, although most excellent, I was too deeply imbued with the Toryish ideas of letting things be as heretofore; and, therefore, the old gardener ground and ground at the old windla.s.s, and the water still came up green; while, contrary to direct orders, the lid of the dangerous place was often left off.

Now, as before said, I don't believe that old well of ours would ever have been cleaned out if it had not been for the magpie.

One day in summer I had been sitting dreamily trying to follow out some of the rather knotty thoughts in "Festus," when on raising my eyes I caught sight of Goblin perched upon the little table in the bay window, and before I could move I had the pleasure of seeing him nimbly hook up my wife's diminutive watch off the little stand, and then hop on to the window-sill, where I made a rush at him and nearly secured his spoil, for the thin chain caught in the Westeria twining round the window. In an instant, however, it had given way, and I had the satisfaction of seeing the little black and white miscreant alight on the gravel walk; and then after fixing the fragile timekeeper with his foot, begin to peck vigorously at the gla.s.s, which was shivered directly.

I hurried downstairs, for the window was too high for a jump; and as soon as I rushed to the door, Goblin gave utterance to his one syllable address, seized the watch, and went hopping along the path till he reached the well, where he perched upon the open lid; and as I stopped, half paralysed, and stooped to pick up a stone, Goblin made me a bow, raised his tail with a flick, and then to my horror he left hold of the watch, and I just reached the well in time to hear it, not say "tick,"

but "splash," while the thief hopped into the walnut-tree overhead.

This settled the matter; and two mornings after, a cart stopped at the gate, and Thomas Bore, well-sinker, arrived, accompanied by two labourers, for the purpose of nominally cleaning out the well, but really recovering the watch.

"Now, yer see, sir," said Thomas Bore, leaning on the windla.s.s and spitting down the well, of course, from habit, "yer see, sir, when we've done, this here water 'll be clear as crischial. But all this here wood-wuck's old-fashioned. Now I could fit yer up a fust-rate, double action, wheel crank forcer, as 'ud send the water a-flying up like a steam-engine."

"Rather expensive," I hinted.

"Mere trifle, sir. Fifty pun, at the outside."

"Well, suppose we have the cleaning done first," I said; and being rather timid over such matters, for fear of being persuaded, I turned upon my heel and fled to my breakfast.

Being of a fidgetty turn of mind, and liking to have my money's worth for my money, I kept an eye upon the proceedings beneath the walnut-tree; and I found that the first two hours were taken up with sitting down, Indian fashion, for a palaver or consultation, during which, in a way of speaking, the trio felt the patient's pulse--Goblin fitting in the walnut-tree to see how matters progressed.

The rest of the day was taken up with the removal of the old green windla.s.s, and the fixing of one brought over for the purpose; and then two buckets having been flung, the windla.s.s began to turn, and, very slowly, bucket after bucket of water was drawn up; and so eagerly did the men work, that at the end of three days the well was p.r.o.nounced dry.

Now I had been reckoning that a couple of days would have sufficed for the job; and, therefore, felt disposed to stare when, on going out upon the fourth morning, I found the men still groaning over the task, so as to get out the water that had come in during the night. By noon, however, this was accomplished; when there followed another consultation, the theme being that the well was not safe.

I felt that I was in for it, and muttered to myself "Let well alone;"

but it was too late now, so I grinned and bore my troubles--to wit, the very calm proceedings of the men whose united energies, tools, tackling, etc, were costing me at least a guinea per diem, while the well was as dirty as ever.

At last a candle was lit and attached to a piece of wire, the wire to a string, and then it was lowered so fast that before it had attained to two-thirds of the depth it was out.

"Ah," said Mr Bore, wagging his head sagely; "werry foul indeed, sir; werry foul. We shall have to burn it out."

This, I found, was accomplished by throwing down a quant.i.ty of straw, which was afterwards ignited by sending after it shovelfuls of hot cinders from the kitchen fire, and so making a blaze and a great deal of smoke; while this day pa.s.sed over and no further progress was made.

The next morning I was out in good time, to the great disgust of Mr Bore, and by ten o'clock I had the satisfaction of seeing the water out once more.

"I 'spose one o' my men can get a candle in the kitchen, sir," said Mr Bore.

I signified a.s.sent, and then had the satisfaction of seeing the testing process gone through: the light going out before it reached the bottom, which I could not believe was from mephitic gas, though sworn to by Mr Bore, who proceeded to make another bonfire on the top of my wife's watch, when I was called away, and did not go out again till half-past two, when I found that a man armed with a shovel had just stepped into one of the buckets, and the other man, who had a very red face, began, with the a.s.sistance of his master, to let him down.

"Is it all right, d.i.c.k?" said Mr Bore, when the man was about half down.

"Ah!" was the response, in a hollow voice; and then he was lowered, further and further, till he must have been near the bottom, when the rope shook; there was an evident loss of the load at the end; and I must confess to a shudder of horror going through me, as a dull, plashing thud came from the depths of the well.

Bore looked at me, and I at him, for a few seconds in silence, when the other man spun round the now light windla.s.s till the other bucket rose.

"Here, lay hold o' this here," he cried to me; and from the readiness to obey felt by all in an emergency, I seized the windla.s.s and a.s.sisted his master to let him down, as he thrust one leg through the pail-handle and was soon out of sight, for we lowered him down as fast as was possible.

"I'm blowed if there won't be a coroner's inquess over this job," panted Mr Bore, as he turned away at his handle; "I know'd it warn't safe, only he would go."

"For goodness sake, turn quicker man," I cried; and at last, after what seemed ten minutes at least, the empty bucket rose.

"Now, then," I shouted down the well, "tie the rope round him, quick, and then hang on."

No answer.

"Do you hear there?" I cried again, with a horrid dread coming over me that the catastrophe was to be doubled; but at last a dull, "All right,"

came echoing up.

As for Bore, he sat there upon his handle looking the colour of dough.

I saw at once there was no help to be expected from him, so I shouted to one of the maids, and in a few minutes my wife and half a dozen neighbours, male and female, were standing, pale and horror-stricken, around the well.

In the mean time I had tried again and again to rouse the last man down, but could get nothing but a sort of half-stifled "All right;" while at last even that was not forthcoming, nothing but a hollow stertorous groan at intervals.

Brown, a stout young fellow, wanted to go down; but I stopped him, and in a few seconds had our own well-rope secured round my waist, after giving it a twist on the windla.s.s; and then having seen the handles in the hands of trusty men, I stepped into the bucket and prepared to descend, feeling compelled to go, but all the while in a state of the most horrible fear imaginable, for I always was from a boy a sad coward.

"Oh! don't; pray don't go, Fred," whispered my wife, as she clung to me.

"I must, I must, darling," I whispered again. "It would be worse than murder to let the poor fellows lie there when a little exertion would save them."

"Oh! for my sake, don't, pray;" and then the poor little woman staggered, and would have fallen down the well if I had not caught her in my arms; when we should both have fallen but for the rope round my waist, which fortunately stood the strain, but cut into my ribs fearfully.

There were plenty of hands, though, ready to a.s.sist, and the poor fainting girl was borne into the house.