it was the first time that anyone had dined at the house in hyde park gardens since general mathieson's death, and it seemed strange to hilda when mr. pettigrew, at her request, faced her at the table. the gentlemen had all arrived within a minute or two of each other, and no word had been said by hilda as to the subject about which she had specially asked them there. the table was well lighted and bright with flowers, and the lawyer and colonel bulstrode were both somewhat surprised at the cheerful tone in which hilda began to talk as soon as they sat down. it was, however, eight months since the house was first shut up, and though all had sincerely regretted the general's death, it was an old story now, and they were relieved to find that it was evidently not hilda's intention to recall the past.
during dinner the talk went on as usual, and it was not until the servants had left the room that hilda said:
"now, mr. pettigrew, i have no doubt that both you and colonel bulstrode are wondering what the matter of importance about which i asked you to come here can be. it is rather a long story, so instead of going upstairs we will stop here. my news is great news. we have discovered—at least my friend miss purcell has discovered—that without doubt walter is alive and well."
an exclamation of surprise broke from mr. pettigrew and the colonel.
"by gad, that is great news indeed!" the latter exclaimed; "and i congratulate you most heartily. i had quite given up all hope myself, and although i would have fought that fellow to the last, i never had any real doubt in my mind that the child they fished out of the canal was general's mathieson's grandson."[pg 248]
"you astonish me indeed," mr. pettigrew said. "i own that, while i was able to swear that i did not recognize him, yet as a reasonable man i felt that the evidence was overpowering the other way. though i would not dash your hopes by saying so, it appeared to me certain that, sooner or later, the courts would decide that the provisions of the will must be carried out. and so you discovered this, miss netta? may we ask how you did it?"
"netta wanted her share in the matter to remain a secret, mr. pettigrew; but i told her that was out of the question, and that it was quite necessary that you and colonel bulstrode should know the precise facts, for that, as a lawyer, you could not take any action or decide upon any course to be pursued unless you knew the exact circumstances of the case. however, she asked me, as she has given me the whole particulars, to tell the story for her. when i have done she will answer any questions you may like to ask."
hilda then repeated, almost word for word, the story netta had told her. mr. pettigrew and the colonel several times broke in with exclamations of surprise as she went on. dr. leeds sat grave and thoughtful.
"splendidly done!" colonel bulstrode exclaimed when she brought her story to an end. "it was a magnificent idea, and it must have needed no end of pluck to carry it out as you did. but how, by looking at a fellow's mouth through a hole, you knew what he said beats me altogether."
"that part was very simple, colonel bulstrode," netta said quietly. "i learned it by a new system that they have in germany, and was myself a teacher in the institution. you may not know, perhaps, that i am stone-deaf."
"you are not joking, miss purcell; are you?" the colonel said, looking at her earnestly. "why, i have talked to you a dozen times and it never struck me that you were in the slightest degree deaf."
"i am absolutely so, as miss covington will tell you,[pg 249] and mr. pettigrew knows it also. fortunately i did not lose my hearing until i was six years old, and i had not altogether lost the habit of speaking when i went out to germany, three years later. had i been born deaf and dumb i could have learned to understand what was said perfectly, but should never have spoken in a natural voice."
"well, it is wonderful altogether, and i should not have believed it if a stranger had told me. however, the great thing at present is that you have found out that the child is alive. we ought not to be long in laying hands on him now, pettigrew, eh?"
"i hope not, colonel; but you must not be too sanguine about that; we have evidently very crafty scoundrels to deal with. still, now that we feel sure that the child is alive and well, the matter is a comparatively straightforward one, and we can afford to work and wait patiently. tilbury is only a bit of a village, but beyond that stretch great marshes—in fact, all south essex as far as the mouths of the rivers crouch, blackwater, and coln. he would say, 'i went down to tilbury,' because tilbury is the terminus of the railway. possibly he may have crossed to gravesend; possibly he may have gone inland to upminster or some other village lying in that district; or he may have driven down as far as foulness, which, so far as anybody knows anything about it, might be the end of the world. therefore, there is a wide area to be searched."
"but he can be followed when he goes down again, mr. pettigrew?"
"of course, my dear, that is what must be done, though there is no reason why we should not set about inquiries at once. but, you see, it is not so easy to follow a man about country roads as it is in the streets of london. no doubt he must drive or ride, unless, indeed, walter is within two or three miles of the station, and you may be sure that if he sees a trap coming after him he will not go near the place where the child is. possibly, again, he may not go near the place at all, but may[pg 250] meet someone who takes the money for the child's keep. it may be a bargeman who sails round to harwich or somewhere along the south coast. it may be the steward of a steamer that goes regularly backwards and forwards to france.
"i don't want to dishearten you, my dear," he broke off, as he saw how hilda's face fell as he went on, "but, you see, we have not common rogues to deal with; their whole proceedings have shown an exceptional amount of coolness and determination. although i own that i can see nothing absolutely suspicious in the way that last will was drawn up and signed, still i have never been able to divest my mind of an idea that there is something radically wrong about it. but putting aside the strange death of your uncle, we have the cunning way in which the boy was stolen, the complete success with which our search was baffled, the daring attempt to prove his death by what we now know must have been the substitution of the body of some other child of the same age dressed in his clothes. all this shows how carefully every detail must have been thought out, and we must assume that equal care will be shown to prevent our recovering the boy. were they to suspect that they had been traced to tilbury, and were watched there, or that any inquiries were being made in the neighborhood, you may be sure that walter would be at once removed some distance away, or possibly sent abroad, perhaps to australia or the states. there could be no difficulty about that. there are hundreds of emigrants going out every week with their families, who would jump at the offer of a hundred pounds for adopting a child, and once away it would be next to impossible ever to come upon his traces. so, you see, we shall need to exercise the most extreme caution in our searches."
"i see, mr. pettigrew," hilda said quietly, "that the difficulties are far greater than i ever dreamt of. it seemed to me that when we had found out that walter was alive and well, and that tilbury was, so to speak, the starting place of our search, it would be an easy matter[pg 251] to find him. now i see that, except for the knowledge that he is alive, we are nearly as far off as ever."
"i think mr. pettigrew is rather making the worst of things, miss covington," dr. leeds said, speaking for the first time. "no doubt the difficulties are considerable, but i think we have good heads on our side too, as miss purcell has proved, and i feel confident that, now that we have learned as much as we have done, we shall be successful in the end."
"my opinion," colonel bulstrode said, "is that we ought to give these two fellows in custody as rogues, vagabonds, and kidnapers. then the police will set to work to find out their antecedents, and at least while they are shut up they can do no harm. gad, sir, we should make short work of them in india."
"i am afraid that that would hardly do, colonel bulstrode," mr. pettigrew said mildly. "we have practically nothing to go upon; we have no evidence that a magistrate would entertain for a moment. the men would be discharged at once, and we should no doubt be served the next morning with a writ for at least ten thousand pounds' damages, and, what is more, they would get them; and you may be very sure that you would never find the child."
"then it is shameful that it should be so," the colonel said warmly; "why, i served three years as a police officer in india, and when i got news that a dacoit, for instance, was hiding in a jungle near a village, down i would go, with a couple of dozen of men, surround the place, and make every man and woman a prisoner. then the police would examine them, and let me tell you that they have pretty rough ways of finding out a secret. of course i knew nothing about it, and asked no questions, but you may be sure that it was not long before they made someone open his mouth. hanging up a man by his thumbs, for instance, freshens his memory wonderfully. you may say that this thorough way of getting at things is not according to modern ideas. i don't care a fig for modern ideas, and, as far as that goes, neither do the[pg 252] natives of india. my object is to find out the author of certain crimes; the villagers' object is to shield him. if they are obstinate, they bring it on themselves; the criminal is caught, and justice is satisfied. what is the use of police if they are not to catch criminals? i have no patience with the maudlin nonsense that prevails in this country, that a criminal should have every chance of escape. he is warned not to say anything that would incriminate himself, material evidence is not admitted, his wife mayn't be questioned. why, it is downright sickening, sir. the so-called spirit of fairness is all on the side of the criminal, and it seems to me that our whole procedure, instead of being directed to punish criminals, is calculated to enable them to escape from punishment. the whole thing is wrong, sir—radically wrong." and colonel bulstrode wiped his heated forehead with a huge indian silk handkerchief. hilda laughed, netta smiled, and mr. pettigrew's eyes twinkled.
"there is a good deal in what you say, colonel bulstrode, though i cannot go with you in the matter of hanging men up by their thumbs."
"why, sir," broke in colonel, "what is it? their own native princes would have stretched them over a charcoal fire until they got the truth out of them."
"so, possibly, would our own forefathers, colonel."
"humph! they had a lot more common sense in those days than they have now, mr. pettigrew. there was no sentimentality about them; they were short and sharp in their measures. they were men, sir—men. they drank like men, and they fought like men; there was sterling stuff in them; they didn't weaken their bodies by drinking slops, or their minds by reading newspapers."
"well, colonel bulstrode," hilda said, smiling, "if it is not contrary to your convictions, we will go upstairs and have a cup of tea. no doubt there is something to be said for the old days, but there is a good deal to be said on the other side of the question, too."
when they went upstairs dr. leeds sat down by netta.[pg 253]
"i am afraid that you blame me for what i did, dr. leeds," she said timidly.
"no, i do not blame you at all for doing it, but i do think that you ought to have consulted us all before undertaking it. your intention was a noble one, but the risk that you ran was so great that certainly i should not have felt justified in allowing you to undertake it, had i had any voice in the matter."
"but i cannot see that it was dangerous," the girl said. "he could not have knocked me down and beaten me, even if he had caught me with my eye at the peep-hole. he could only have called up johnstone and denounced me as an eavesdropper, and at the worst i should only have been turned straight out of the house."
"i do not think that that would have been at all his course of action. i believe, on the contrary, that although he would have spoken angrily to you, he would have said nothing to the lodging-house keeper. he would have at once guessed that you had not taken all this trouble merely to gratify a silly curiosity, but would have been sure that you had been employed as a spy. what he would have done i do not know, but he would certainly have had you watched as you watched him, and he would, in his conversation with his confederates, have dropped clews that would have sent us all off on wild-goose chases. i don't think that he would have ventured on getting you removed, for he would have known that he would have been suspected of foul play at once by those who had employed you. i hope you will give me a promise that you will never undertake any plan without consulting miss covington and myself. you can hardly realize what anxiety i have suffered while you have been away."
"i will promise willingly, dr. leeds. i did not think anything of the danger, and do not believe even now there was any; but i do think that hilda would not have heard of my going as a servant, and that you would not have approved of it. still, as i saw no harm in it myself, i thought that for once i would act upon my own ideas."
"there are circumstances under which no one need[pg 254] disapprove of a lady acting as a servant," he said quietly. "if a family misfortune has happened, and she has to earn her own living, i think that there are many who would be far happier in the position of a servant in a good family, than as an ill-paid and over-worked governess. the one is at least her own mistress, to a large extent, as long as she does her work properly; the other can never call her time her own. in your case, certainly, the kind object with which you undertook the task was a full justification of it, had you not been matching yourself against an unscrupulous villain, who, had he detected your disguise, would have practically hesitated at nothing to rid himself of you. it happened, too, in this case you were one of the few persons who could have succeeded; for, as you say, it would have been next to impossible for anyone unpossessed of your peculiar faculty to have overheard a conversation, doubtless conducted in a somewhat low voice, through such a hole as you made."
"then you don't think any worse of me for it?"
"you need not be afraid of that," he said quietly. "my opinion is already so fixed on that subject that i doubt if anything you could do would shake it."
then he got up and walked across to where the others were chatting together.
"now, are we to have another council?" hilda asked.
"i think not," dr. leeds said; "it seems to me that the matter requires a great deal of thinking over before we decide, and fortunately, as the man went down to tilbury only two days ago, he is not likely to repeat his visit for another month at least, possibly for another three months. men like that do not give away chances, and he would probably pay for three months' board for the child at a time, so as to avoid having to make the journey oftener, however confident he might be that he was not watched."
"i agree with you, dr. leeds," mr. pettigrew said. "it would never do to make a false step."
"still," hilda urged, "surely there cannot be any[pg 255] need to wait for his going down again. a sharp detective might find out a good deal. he could inquire whether there was anyone at tilbury who let out traps. probably nothing beyond a gig or a pony-cart could be obtained there. he would, of course, hire it for a drive to some place within three or four miles, and while it was got ready would casually ask if it was often let; he might possibly hear of someone who came down from town—a bagman, perhaps, who hired it occasionally for calling upon his customers in the villages round."
"i think that that is a capital suggestion," mr. pettigrew said. "i don't see why, while we are thinking over the best way to proceed, we should not get these inquiries made. they might be of some assistance to us. i will send a man down to-morrow or next day. as you say, it may give us something to go upon."
netta went down two days later to reading. she had the box labeled to oxford, and took a third-class ticket for herself. she had a suspicion that a man who was lolling on a seat on the platform looked closely at her, and she saw him afterwards saunter away towards the luggage office. when the train came in her box was put into the van, and she got out at the next station and returned by the first train to london, feeling satisfied that she would never hear anything more of the box.
the next day a detective called who had been engaged earlier in the search for walter and had frequently seen hilda.
"mr. pettigrew said, miss covington, that i had better come to you and tell you exactly what i have done. i went down to tilbury yesterday. i took with me one or two cases made up like a traveler's samples, and i presently found that the man at the public house by the water had a pony-trap which he let. i went over to him and said that i wanted it for the day.
"'how far are you going?' he asked.
"'i am going to stanford,' i said; 'then by a crossroad by laindon to hornchurch and back.'
"'it is rather a long round for one day,' he said.[pg 256]
"''tis a long round,' i said. 'well, maybe i might sleep at hornchurch, and go on to upminster.'
"'you will have to pay a deposit of a couple of pounds,' he said, 'unless you like to take a boy.'
"i said i preferred driving myself, and that it was less weight for the pony. 'i suppose you often let it out?' i remarked.
"'pretty often,' he said; 'you see, there is no way of getting about beyond this. it would pay me to keep a better trap if it wasn't that commercials generally work this country in their own vehicles, and take the road from barking through dagenham, or else from brentwood or chelmsford or one of the other great eastern stations. there is one in your line comes occasionally; he goes by the same route you are taking, and always has the trap to himself. he travels for some spirit firm, i think; he always brings down a couple of cases of bottles.'
"'that is my line too,' i said. 'he hasn't been here lately, i hope?'
"'well, yes, he was here three or four days ago; he is a pretty liberal chap with his samples, i should say, for he always comes back with his cases empty.' of course i hired the pony and trap. i drove through new tilbury, low street, and stanford. i put up there for three or four hours. at each place i went to all the public houses, and as i marked the liquors cheap i got several orders. i asked at every place had anyone in my line been round lately, and they all said no, and nobody had noticed the pony cart; but of course that did not prove that he might not have driven through there."
"you did not make any inquiries about a missing child?"
"no, miss covington. mr. pettigrew particularly told me that i was not to make any inquiries whatever."
"yes, that is what we agreed upon, bassett; we don't want to run the slightest risk of their suspecting that we are inquiring in that direction. my own idea is that[pg 257] you could do no harm if you went round several times, just as you did yesterday; and perhaps it would be better for you not to start from the same place, but to hire a vehicle and drive round the country, stopping at all the villages, and apparently trying to get orders for spirits or tobacco. that idea of yours is an excellent one, because your inquiry whether another man had been along in the same trade would seem natural. you might say everywhere that you had heard of his going round there, but that it did not look much like business driving a rickety little trap with a pony not worth fifty shillings. at any village public houses at which he stopped they could hardly help noticing it, and if you heard that he had put up there for an hour or two, it would certainly be something to go upon, and a search round there might lead to a result. however, do not go until you hear again from me. i will talk it over with mr. pettigrew, and see what he thinks of it."
"it certainly seems to me that we might light upon a clew that way, miss covington, and if he were to happen to hear that another man in the same line had been there asking questions about him, it would seem natural enough, because of course a commercial would like to know what line another in the same branch was following, and how he was doing. then i will wait your further orders. there would be sure to be traps to be hired at barking or rainham, and if there are not, i could get one at bromley. indeed, as i should want it for a day or two, it would be just as well to get it there as farther east, and i should be likely to get a better-looking turnout. in little places a man with a good turnout is more likely to do business than one who looks second-rate altogether. it seems a sort of credit to the place; and they would give him orders where they would not to a man who made no sort of show. i should say, miss, that as i shall be going over the ground more than once, it would be best to send on the goods i get orders for; they don't amount to very much, and i should get about the same price that i gave for them. i know a[pg 258] clerk in the firm whose liquors i took down. i told him that i was going down in that part of essex, and asked if they would give me a commission on anything that i could sell. they said 'yes' willingly enough, and the clerk said i was a respectable man who could be trusted; and so it will cost nothing, and will open the way for my making another call. of course when i am known there i can ask questions more freely, sit in the bar-parlor, smoke a cigar with the landlord, and so on."
"i think that is an excellent idea. well, at any rate you shall hear in the course of a day or two."
miss purcell had gone on quietly with her knitting and uttered no remarks while the man was present. immediately he had left, she said, "i think, netta, that we shall gradually get at it."
"yes, i think so; that man seems really a sharp fellow. i had quite lost all faith in detectives, but i see that when they have really got something to go upon, they know how to follow it up."
hilda wrote a long letter to mr. pettigrew, and received three words in answer: "by all means." so bassett was written to and told to continue his career as a commercial traveler, but to abstain altogether, for the present, from any questions about the boy.
ten days later mr. pettigrew forwarded a letter that he had received from bassett, which was as follows:
"sir: i have to report that i have for the last fortnight been engaged in driving about the country in accordance with miss covington's instructions. the only place where i can ascertain that the pony and cart from tilbury was noticed about that time was at stanford. my inquiries there before had failed, but after dining at the inn, i went out into the yard behind, and asked the helper whether the same trap that i drove over in from tilbury had been there since.
"'not since you were here last,' he said; 'at least if it was you as drove the pony over somewhere about three weeks ago. i did not see you then, i was doing a job over[pg 259] at the cowhouse. that pony aint been here since then, though he was here two days before. the man put him up for three or four hours, and hired a horse from the landlord to ride over to billericay. he must have gone cross country, i should say, by the mud on its legs. however, he tipped me a bob, so i cleaned it up and said nothing to master; but the horse was all in a lather and must have been taken along at a hunting pace all the way.' waiting further orders,
"i remain,
"yours respectfully,
"h. bassett."
mr. pettigrew came down himself in the evening.
"well, miss covington, i think that the scent is getting warm. now is the time that you must be very cautious. i think we may take it that the child is somewhere within ten or twelve miles of stanford, north or east of it. the man was away for over three hours, and he rode fast. it's not likely that the horse was anything out of the way. however, allowing for half an hour's stay somewhere, i think we may take twelve miles as the limit. still, a circle of twelve miles' radius covers a very large area. i have been looking up the map since that man set about inquiring down there. twelve miles would include the whole of the marshes as far as leigh. it goes up to brentwood, billericay, downham, and touches rayleigh; and in that semicircle would be some sixty or seventy villages, large and small."
"i have been looking at the map too, mr. pettigrew, and it does not seem to me at all likely that he would go near the places that you first mentioned; they are quite close to the great eastern railway, by which he would have traveled, instead of going round such an enormous detour by tilbury and stanford."
"one would think so, my dear, certainly; but, you see, a man having the least idea that he was watched, which i admit we have no reason for believing that this fellow has, would naturally choose a very circuitous route.[pg 260] however, i think that we need hardly try so far to the north, to begin with; i should say that the area of our search need go no farther north than downham, and that between a line running west from that place and the river the child is most likely to be hidden."
"i should say, mr. pettigrew, that the detective might engage four or five fellows who could act separately in villages on each of the roads running from stanford east or northeast. the villages should be at least two miles away from stanford, because he might start by one road and then turn off by another. but in two miles he would probably settle down on the road he was going to follow and we should, therefore, get the general direction of walter's hiding place. then, as soon as he passed, the watcher should follow him on foot till he met him coming back. if he did meet him, he would know that at any rate he had been farther; if he did not meet him, he would know that he had turned off somewhere between him and the village that he had passed. netta and i have been talking the matter over, and it seems to us that this would be the best plan, and that it would be as well, also, to have a man to watch at tilbury station; because he may possibly choose some entirely different route the next time he comes, and the men in the villages, not knowing that he had come down at all, might be kept there for a month waiting for his next visit."
"you and your friend have certainly put your heads together to good purpose," the old lawyer said, "and i do not see any better plan than you suggest. you had better have bassett down here, and give him your instructions yourself."
"yes, mr. pettigrew; and i shall be glad if you will write a line to him to-night, for in three days it will be a month since this man last went down, or at any rate since we know that he went down. of course, it may be three months before he goes again, and if he does not come in four or five days the men must be recalled; for although each of them could stop in a village for a day or two under the pretense of finding work in the[pg 261] neighborhood, they certainly could not stop for a month."
"very well, i leave you a free hand in the matter, altogether, miss covington; for frankly i acknowledge that you are vastly more likely to ferret the thing out than i am."
