Johnny Ludlow, Fourth Series

d Pym found dead; and no one could tell for a c

g in falling, was a question put to the doctors-and it was Captain Tanerton who put it. It perhaps might be possible, the medical men answered, but not at all probable. Mr. Pym coul

her newly-appointed third mate, Alfred Saxby. So far as might be ascertained at present, Captain Tanerton was the last man wh

only one of her old officers, sailing in her, being Mark Ferrar. The brokers were put out frightfully at the detention of Tanerton. A third mate was soon found to replace Saxby: a master not so easily. T

rokers and Sir Dace Fontaine. In a back-room of the office in Eastcheap, the people met; and-I am glad to say-I was one of them, or I could not have told you what passed. Sir Dace sat in the corner, his elbow resting on

g, his ship, the Rose of Delhi, being about to go out of dock. Mr. Saxby, who had lodged in the rooms above Mr. Pym, got appointed to the same ship, and he also left. In the afternoon she heard that the ship had got off all right: a workman at the docks told her so. Later, who shou

this?" interrup

ad been taking a glass. He bade me make him a big potful of strong tea-whi

Mrs. Ric

o know where he was. Of course, sirs, I could not say; ex

"I wanted Pym," he said. "This must have be

had been having more to drink. 'Light my lamp, Mother Richenough,' says he roughly, 'and shut the shutters: I've got a letter to write.' I lighted the lamp, and he got out som

Mr. Freeman's lawyer, for she

ad asked the same question afore, sir: Mr. Pym's cousin, or sister, I b

t th

y my bit o' fire; and, being all lonely like, I a'most dozed off.

ng?" cried

aring out at one anoth

it after you admitted Captain Tanert

t mood to take it unkindly,' I thought to myself. However, it was no business of mine. The sounds soon ceased, and I was jus

ent p

was quarrelling with him?" cried the lawyer, who a

, how could it be anybody else? Hadn't I just let in Capta

to Jack. He answered the

us. Pym had been drinking; Mrs. Richenough is right in that. He was not in a state t

his, Mrs. R

don't speak or look like one who could do suc

a question for the first time. He had listened in silence. His dark

of Captain Tanerton, Mistress Landl

anybody else's, sir. Nobody bu

rned Sir Dace, knitting his brow. "Did you kn

oors and the passage was between me and him. I had only heard him speak once or twice before, and then in a pleasant,

to this: You did not recognize t

say, if you put i

ad three or four people been with Mr. Pym in his parlour, you could not ha

u see, I knew it was his

uestioning over. Mrs. Richenough was done with for the present, an

Ship Street in search of him, as I have already s

," interrupted the lawyer; "what tim

question I had come to ask, and he answered me. Scarcely anything more passed between us. He was three-parts tipsy. I had intended to tell him that he was no

d he did no

ve attempted to quarrel had he known he was discharged; but he did not know it. We were perfectly civil t

no one w

o one was in the parlour with us: whether any one wa

t, Captain

told me Edward Pym was dead. I could not at first believe it. I went back to Ship Street and found it too true. In

some great care upon him. The other hearers, not knowing Jack as I knew him, would not notice this; though I cannot answer for it that one of them did not James Freeman. He nev

very much put out and disappointed to find Miss Verena Fontaine had left for her own home. He spoke of the ship's having sprung a leak and put back again, but he believed she would get out again on the morrow. Mrs. Ball did not notice that he had been drin

expressed by anybody. Time enough for that when the jury met on the morrow. As we were turning out of the b

remark to me not long ago, in this, my private room-that if we persisted

, quietly. "They were fooli

Freeman. "As things have turned out, it woul

Jack. "They have done n

larly verified. The m

rd the Rose

Off

said Jack, looking calmly at the broker. "At th

ou will find, will call it

r they

that effect. I waited too. Jack never spoke them: he remained silent and still. Since the past day his manner had chang

o travel down

reakfast, looking this way and that. Dark clouds were chasing each other over the face

he Squire. "It's too windy, J

o had set his mind upon a day's fishing

e! Why, if-halloa,

he pace of a steam-engine, his mild

d'ye do, or to shake hands, dragged two

ley!" he exclaimed. "Pym-y

ine dance we had, looking for him and Verena Fo

asped the colon

acles, thinking they must af

d the colonel, "that-that

Letsom! You c

has been given above. It could not have been done by any hand but Captain Tanerton's, she said; though of course not intentionally; nobody thought that: her father, Sir Dace, scorned any worse idea. Altogether,

ay be relied upon, colonel-that if Tanerton did

l, after putting Coralie's aside. And he turned round

that he did do it, it could only have been done by a smartly-provoked blow, devoid of ill-intention. No one knows better than myself how quarrelsome and overbearing that unfortunate young man was. But I, fo

ll lay my fortune upon

wait till you've got one," rebuked the pater. "I mu

said the colonel. "It will be but neighbou

he Squire, leaning on the gate, appeared to be lookin

in it, "this is curious, taken in conjunction wi

r," conceded Tod. "Something li

retorted

then. Po

te news. And when the reader hears the whole, though it won't be just yet, he will be ready to call out, It is not

k. They had no wish to go anywhere in particular, and their steps might just as well have been turned Crabb way as Timberdale way-or, fo

we are here," remarked the Squire. For Herbert had a touc

t forget it-poor, honest, simple-minded Jack bringing strawberries on a cabbage-leaf for crafty Aunt Dean. The suspected hay-f

w?" cried the Squire, who neve

s women around you, no better than babies! Here's Alice in a world

Does she k

flicking a growing gooseberry off a bush with t

Tod threw up his

g did she come down," continued Herbert in an injured tone. "She had dreamt a dream, fores

nued the Squire. "She is too sensi

. And Grace would have condoled w

as the

r relate it, to me, or to Grace. Alice burst into tears and

e Squire, all sympathy. "She's not strong, you know, just now. I dreamt one night the public

day Jack was to sai

y down the channel by this time. If-- Here comes Alice!" he br

Alice, wearing a light print gown and black silk apron, her smooth brown h

ugh whether it was a blunder to say it, I know not; or whether, but for that, she would have spo

-off look. "It is quite true, Mr. Todhetley," she

Tod, his whole face in a l

ridicule it?

red. "Ridicule

that it rather took him aback to see her solemn sadness. "I should like to

be above such things," was the Squire's soothing answer. "If it will e

s of the pear-tree, the pater admonishing Tod t

n. "This very present day, say, or yesterday;

he always goe

to me the morning of the day he was to sail, looking very patient, pale, and sorrowful. It seemed that he and I had h

for she had stopped, and was

ed. "It was more as though I were wide awake, and enacting it

don't y

adness and sorrow. It was not he who had told me what had happened. I seemed to have known it already. Everybody knew it, everybody spoke of it, and we were in cruel distress. Suddenly I remembered that when I was in the town the previous time, the man who was murdered had had a bitter quarrel with another man, a gentleman: and a sort of revelation came over

o be troubled at,"

d all. Presently I got to sleep again, and found myself in the same dream. I was go

ip the Rose

wore a long brown coat. He walked along with his eyes on the ground. I knew him by intuition-that it was the man who had had the quarrel years before, and who had done the murder now. 'There's the gentleman you would have accused,' said my companion before I could speak, pointing to this man: 'he stands higher in position than anybody

at else

woke for good then. But the pai

green gooseberries, or some such trash. Nothing's mo

ied Alice, never so much as hearing the pater's irreverent suggestion. "If it meant noth

and Tod both saw how useless it would be; no argument could

n manner had told upon him. "I can't make much out of the dream, Joe," he remarked, as they walked back through the Ravine; "but I don't say dreams are always to be ridiculed, sinc

Cot in the evening with her little girl-a sprightly child with Jack's own

nd so unpleasantly as this dream. I cannot get it out of my mind for a moment; every hour, as it goes by, only serves to render it clearer. I have written it down here, every particu

k nonsense," interrupted t

es upon me a dread-an apprehension that startles me. I dare say I express myself badly; but it is there. And, do you know

ndering how Jack could be so silly, if she was. "If your husband told you th

n me; he laughed as he said it: I don't suppos

lnut bureau in his bedroom. He told Alice where he had put it. And she, dec

d Tod laughingly, as he wen

"He never will, if you mean a

them with all his might, asserting that there never had been, and never could be anything in them to affect sensible people. The Squire, now t

ews of Pym's death, calling it murder, and that Jack was suspected, and the ship had gone out without him, this dream of

k, and had again gone out; he himself being detained in London on business, but he expected to be off in a day or two and join her at so

to the old lawyer at Islip, John Paul, recounted the dream to him, and asked what she was to d

nt away with all her sails set for the E

from time to time, and prolonged and procrastinated. Capt

lay hold of him. At any rate, the law did not. Perhaps the persistent advocacy of Sir Dace Fontaine went some way with the jury. Sir Dace gave it as his strong opinion that his misguided nephew, being the worse for drink, had

ued, saddened man who seemed to have a care upon him. The foolish speech he had thoughtlessly made to Mr. Freeman preceded him: and

Squire, he was more helpless than an old sheep. He had always liked Jack, had believed in him as in one of us: but, you see, wh

s is," croaked Herbert to Ja

is," si

gone without

ayed to await the convenience of on

you to do

o fault of mine. I was one of the chief witn

. Not that. How came

at?" repe

ll

t his brother. "I should have thought, Herbert, that you

tor in his coldest manner. "But that was a very awkward threat of yours-that if the brok

ly reflect on what you would imply-that I spo

ended Herbert. Just the same thing, you see, that

that I had said an

could be no question that the affair had crossed him more than anything

r spoke them, Herbert-as

dangerous member. Let us drop the subject:

-that all the world suspected h

d earnestly. He said he was not guilty, it's true, but he said it too quietly. A man accused of so terrible a crime would move heaven and earth t

orrying himself into a chronic fever: chiefly because disgrace was reflected on his immaculate self, Jack being his brother. Squire Todhetley, meeting Jack one day in Robert Ashton's cornfield, took Jack's hands in his, and whispered that if Jack did

ought little of it. Nothing, in fact. It was no big, evil-faced man who harme

ved him coolly and distantly. The misfortune had put her out frightfully: with Jack's income threatened, there would be less for herself to prey upon.

s command. For, he was still attached ostensibly to the Rose

put you into another ship, one going on a shorter voyag

ence in me. All the world seems to believe me guilty.

were no

he affair, he spoke now: and his truthful, candid

Before Heave

relief. He liked Jack, and the

service? The Shamrock is going to Madras; sails in a day or two; and you shall have her. She'll be home

"This suspicion has troubled me more than you c

t your innocence in this same emphatic manner,"

of evasion at once. "I

at him. A sudden though

ing some one, C

deep and sudden flush that rose with the words, gave fresh

ne who-who killed him? The uncle a

with his whole heart. "No, no," he impressively said, "it

e inquest, they had gone again to Brighton. Poor Verena looked like a

her, as we walked on together after servic

Ludlow," was her answer, spoken in a w

er and thither during the service, like a man who has a sc

either of us until we were ne

s John T

erpool,

r fe

were white, dry, and trembling. In Coralie there was no change; her smiles were pleasant as ever, her mann

and Verena branched off to Maythorn Bank. Cor

r father is looking!"

ince that night in London. He said one day that he could not get the sigh

ave been a

r; just, I'm sure, as if she intended to die over it. That must vex papa: I see him glancing at her every minute in the day. O

them that year. On the mor

anced to mention it incidentally when writing to Alice-and poor Jack thought if he could only take it his fortune was made. He was an excellent, practical farmer, and knew he cou

nse," was the Rector's sarcastic rejoiner to t

: you know how energetic I am. A

when I lend it you.

ut

erbert, cutting him short. And he positively refu

as miserable as Jack. For Sir Dace to look out of sorts was nothing unusual; for Jack it was. Sir Dace asked what was amiss: and Jack-candid, free-spoken, open-nat

urn to the sea, Captain

return to it," w

hy

ea again, Sir Dace," h

o to sea

uspicion lies upon me I am not fit to take the command of others. So

aking an angry turn. "You know, I presume, your o

d round, and saw Verena Fontaine. They had not met since the time of Pym's death, and Jack thought he had never seen such a change in any one. Her bright co

Captain Tanerton-not much of it. I was in the arbour. Why is it

d as usual, but somewhat agitated, as if the topic were a sore one. "No man wit

with all the world as you are in my heart, and-and"-she paused from emot

eseechingly to his. "It is kind of you to say so much," he answered. "It struck

ze were too much for her, she turned

er hand. "I only wanted to say this-to let

g her hand. "It is gratifying

all the distressed, sad, aching countenances ever seen in thi