the wind was westerly, and the boat ran fast down the river from gravesend; roberts and andrew, both in civilian clothes, were sitting in the bows, where there were stowed a large hamper and a small traveling-bag with some clothes. one waterman sat by the mast, in case it should be necessary to lower sail; the other was aft at the tiller. the men must have thought that they had never had so silent and grave a pleasure party before: two elderly gentlemen and two girls, none of whom seemed inclined to make merry in any way. colonel bulstrode, indeed, tried hard to keep up a conversation about the ships, barges, and other craft that they met, or which lay at anchor in the stream, and recalling reminiscences of trips on indian rivers.
netta was the only one of his hearers who apparently took any interest in the talk. to her the scene was so new that she regarded everything with attention and pleasure, and looked with wonder at the great ships which were dragged along by tiny tugs, wondered at the rate at which the clumsy-looking barges made their way through the water, and enjoyed the rapid and easy motion with which their own boat glided along. mr. pettigrew was revolving in his mind the problem of what should next be done; while hilda's thoughts were centered upon walter, and the joy that it would be to have him with her again.
"this is hole haven," the boatman in the stern said, as a wide sheet of water opened on their left.
"why don't you turn in, then?" colonel bulstrode asked.
"there is scarce water enough for us, sir; they are[pg 288] neap tides at present, and in half an hour the sands will begin to show all over there. we have to go in onto the farther side—that is, where the channel is. you see those craft at anchor; there is the landing, just in front of the low roof you see over the bank. that is the 'lobster smack,' and a very comfortable house it is; and you can get as good a glass of beer there as anywhere on the river."
as they turned into the creek they saw two constables on the top of the bank, and at the head of the steps stood a gentleman talking with a coastguard officer.
"that is my friend, mr. bostock," mr. pettigrew said. "he told me that, if he could manage it, he would drive over himself with the two constables. i am glad that he has been able to do so; his presence will strengthen our hands."
a coast guard boat, with four sailors in it, was lying close to the steps, and the officer came down with mr. bostock, followed by the two constables. the magistrate greeted mr. pettigrew and took his place in the boat beside him, after being introduced to the two ladies and the colonel. the officer with the two constables stepped into the coastguard boat, which rowed on ahead of the other.
"i could not resist the temptation of coming over to see the end of this singular affair, of which i heard from mr. pettigrew," mr. bostock said to hilda. "the officer of the coastguard is going on, partly to show us the way to the house, and partly because it will be a good opportunity for him to search the place thoroughly for smuggled goods. he tells me that the barge is up the creek now; it went up yesterday evening. so we may find the fellow at home."
"now, my men," colonel bulstrode said to the boatmen, "we have got to follow that boat. you will have plenty of time for beer when you get there, and a good lunch besides. so pull your hardest; we have not got very far to go. can either of you men row?"
"i am a magistrate of the county of essex."
"i can pull a bit," roberts said, and, aided by the[pg 289] sail and the three oars, the boat went along at a fair rate through the water, the coastguard boat keeping a short distance ahead of them. after a quarter of an hour's rowing the bargeman's house came in view. the revenue officer pointed to it.
"now, row your hardest, men," colonel bulstrode said; "we have but a hundred yards further to go."
the two boats rowed up to the bank together; mr. bostock sprang out, as did the constables and sailors, and ran up the bank, the others following at once. as they appeared on the bank a boy working in the garden gave a shrill whistle; a man immediately appeared at the door and looked surprised at the appearance of the party. he stepped back a foot, and then, as if changing his mind, came out and closed the door after him.
"i am a magistrate of the county of essex," mr. bostock said, "and i have come to see a warrant executed for the search of your house for a child named walter rivington, who is believed to be concealed here, and who has been stolen from the care of his guardians."
"i know nothing of any child of that name," the man replied, "but i have a child here that i am taking care of for a gentleman in london; i have had him here for just a year, and no one has made any inquiries about him. you are welcome to enter and see if he is the one you are in search of. if he is, all that i can say is that i know nothing about his being stolen, and shall be very sorry to lose him."
he stood aside, and the two constables entered, followed closely by hilda. the latter gave a cry of joy, for seated on the ground, playing with a box of soldiers, was walter. she would hardly have known him anywhere else. his curls had been cut short, his face was brown and tanned, and his clothes, although scrupulously clean, were such as would be worn by any bargeman's boy at that age. the child looked up as they entered. hilda ran to him, and caught him up in her arms.
"don't you know me, walter? don't you remember cousin hilda?"[pg 290]
"yes, i remember you," the child said, now returning her embrace. "you used to tell me stories and take me out in a carriage for drives. where have you been so long? and where is grandpapa? oh, here is netta!" and as hilda put him down he ran to her, for during the four months spent in the country she had been his chief playmate.
"i have learned to swim, netta. uncle bill has taught me himself; and he is going to take me out in his barge some day."
the woman, who had come in with her arms covered with lather, from the little washhouse adjoining the house, now came forward.
"i hope, miss, that there is nothing wrong," she said to hilda. "we have done our best for the little boy, and i have come to care for him just as if he had been my own; and if you are going to take him away i shall miss him dreadful, for he is a dear little fellow," and she burst into tears.
walter struggled from netta's arms, and ran to the woman, and, pulling her by the apron, said:
"don't cry, aunt betsy; jack is not going away from you. jack will stay here; he likes going in a barge better than riding in a carriage."
"well, miss covington," mr. bostock said, "the recognition appears to be complete on both sides; now what is the next step? do you give this man into custody for unlawfully concealing this child and aiding and abetting in his abduction?"
"will you wait a minute while i speak to mr. pettigrew?" she said; and they went out of the house together.
"well, what do you think, mr. pettigrew?"
"i have been thinking it over all the way as we came down," the lawyer said. "of course, we have no shadow of proof that this man was aware who the child was, and, in fact, if he had seen the placards offering altogether fifteen hundred pounds for his recovery, we must certainly assume that he would have given him up; for[pg 291] however well he may have been paid for taking charge of him, the offer would have been too tempting for a man of that kind to have resisted. no doubt he had strong suspicions, but you can hardly say that it amounted to guilty knowledge that the child had been abducted. if walter had been ill-treated i should have said at once, 'give him into custody'; but this does not seem to have been the case."
"no; they have evidently been very kind to him. i am so grateful for that that i should be sorry to do the man any harm."
"that is not the only point," the lawyer went on. "it is evident that the other people very seldom come down here, and from what you heard, in future simcoe is going to write. if we arrest this man the others will know at once that the game is up. now, if you will take the child away quietly, we can tell the man that he shall not be prosecuted, providing that he takes no steps whatever to inform his employers that the child is gone; even if one of them came down here to see the child, the wife must say that he is away on the barge. anyhow, we shall have ample time to decide upon what steps to take against simcoe, and can lay hands upon him whenever we choose; whereas, if he got an inkling that we had discovered the child, he and his associate would probably disappear at once, and we might have lots of trouble to find them."
"yes, i think that would be a very good plan, mr. pettigrew. i will ask him and his wife to come out."
"that will be the best way, my dear. we could hardly discuss the matter before bostock."
hilda went in. as soon as she spoke to the man and his wife mr. bostock said, "if you want a conference, miss covington, i will go out and leave you to talk matters over."
he and the two constables withdrew, and mr. pettigrew came in.
"now, my man," he began, "you must see that you have placed yourself in a very awkward position. you[pg 292] are found taking care of a child that has been stolen, and for whose recovery large rewards have been offered all over the country. it is like the case of a man found hiding stolen goods. he would be called upon to account for their being in his possession. now, it is hardly possible that you can have been ignorant that this child was stolen. you may not have been told so in words, but you cannot have helped having suspicions. from what the child no doubt said when he first came here, you must have been sure that he had been brought up in luxury. no doubt he spoke of rides in a carriage, of servants, his nurse, and so on. however, miss covington is one of the child's guardians, and i am the other, and we are most reluctant to give you in charge. it is evident, from the behavior of the child, and from the affection that he shows to yourself and your wife, that you have treated him very kindly since he has been here, and these toys i see about show that you have done your best to make him happy."
"that we have, sir," the man said. "betsy and i took to him from the first. we have no children of our own, none living at least, and we have made as much of him as if he had been one of our own—perhaps more. we have often talked it over, and both thought that we were not doing the fair thing by him, and were, perhaps, keeping him out of his own. i did not like having anything to do with it at first, but i had had some business with the man who gave him to me, and when he asked me to undertake the job it did not seem to me so serious an affair as it has done since. i am heartily sorry that we have had any hand in it; not only because we have done the child harm, but because it seems that we are going to lose him now that we have come to care for him as if he was our own."
"of course you played only a minor part in the business, nibson. we quite understand that, and it is the men who have carried out this abduction that we want to catch. do you know the name of the man who brought the child to you?"[pg 293]
"i don't, sir. he knows where to find me, but i have no more idea than a child unborn who he is or where he lives. when he writes to me, which he generally does before he comes down, which may be two or three times a month, or may be once in six months, he signs himself smith. i don't suppose that is his right name, but i say fairly that if i knew it, and where he lived, i would not peach upon him. he has always been straight with me in the business i have done with him, and i would rather take six months for this affair than say anything against him."
"we are not asking you at present to say anything against him, and he is not the principal man in this business. i believe he is only acting as agent for another more dangerous rascal than himself. we are not prepared at the present moment to arrest the chief scoundrel. before we do that we must obtain evidence that will render his conviction a certainty. we have reason to believe that this man that you know will not come down for some time, and that you will receive the money for the child's keep by post; but if we abstain altogether from prosecuting you in this matter, you must give us your word that you will not take any steps whatever to let them know that the child is no longer with you. he says that you promised to take him out in your barge. well, if by any chance this man—not your man, but the other—comes down here, and wants to see the child, you or your wife will lead him to believe that he is on board your barge. it will also be necessary that, if we do arrest them, you should enter as a witness to prove that the man handed the child over to you. you could let it be seen that you are an unwilling witness, but the evidence of the handing over of the child will be an absolute necessity."
"all right, sir, i will undertake that. there is no fear of my letting him know that the child has gone, for i don't know where to write him; and if he or the other should come down, if i am here i shall have no difficulty in keeping it from him that the child has[pg 294] gone, for my man has never set foot in this house. he just meets me on the road near pitsea, says what he has to say, and gives me what he has to give me, and then drives off again. of course, if i am summoned as a witness, i know that the law can make me go. i remember now that when he gave me the child he said he was doing it to oblige a friend of his, and he may be able to prove that he had nothing to do with carrying it off."
"that is as it may be," the lawyer said dryly. "however, we are quite content with your promise."
"and i thank you most heartily, you and your wife," hilda covington said warmly, "for your kindness to the child. it would have made me very happy all this time if i could have known that he was in such good hands, but i pictured him shut up in some vile den in london, ill treated, and half starved. he has grown very much since he has been with you, and looks a great deal more boyish than he did."
"yes, he plays a good deal with my barge boy, who has taken to him just as we have."
"well, your kindness will not be forgotten nor unrewarded, mr. nibson."
"i'm sure we don't want any reward, miss; we have been well paid. but even if we hadn't been paid at all after the first month, we should have gone on keeping him just the same."
"now, walter," hilda said, "we want you to come home with us; we have all been wanting you very badly. nurse and tom roberts have been in a terrible way, and so has dr. leeds. you remember him, don't you? he was very kind to you all the time that you were down in the country."
the child nodded. "i should like to see tom roberts and nurse, but i don't want to go away. i am going out in the barge soon."
"well, dear, i dare say that we shall be able to arrange for you to come down sometimes, and to go out in it, especially as you have learned to swim. we are going away now in a boat."[pg 295]
"i often go out in the boat," walter pouted. "i go with joshua; he is a nice boy, joshua is, and i like him."
"well, dear, we will see what we can do for joshua."
"you are sure that i shall come back and go out in the barge?"
"quite sure, dear; and perhaps i will go out with you, too."
"yes, you must go, like a good boy," mrs. nibson said. "you know, dear, that i shall always love you, and shall be very, very glad if the ladies can spare you to come down to see me sometimes. you won't forget me, will you?"
"no, aunt betsy, i shall never forget you; i promise you that," the child said. "and i don't want to go away from you at all, only cousin hilda says i must."
mr. pettigrew went out to tell mr. bostock that they should not give nibson into custody.
"the principal scoundrels would take the alarm instantly," he said, "and, above all things, we want to keep them in the dark until we are ready to arrest them. it will be much better that we should have this man to call as a witness than that he should appear in the dock as an accomplice."
"i think that you are right there," the magistrate agreed; "and really, he and his wife seem to have been very kind to the child. i have been talking to this young barge boy. it seems he is no relation of these people. his mother was a tramp, who died one winter's night on the road to pitsea. he was about ten or eleven years old then, and they would have sent him to the workhouse; but nibson, who was on the coroner's jury, volunteered to take him, and i dare say he finds him very useful on board the barge. at any rate, he has been well treated, and says that nibson is the best master on the river. so the fellow must have some good in him, though, from what the coastguard officer said, there are very strong suspicions that he is mixed up in the smuggling business, which, it seems, is still carried on in these marshes. well,[pg 296] no doubt you have decided wisely; and now, i suppose, we shall be off."
at this moment they were joined by the coastguard officer.
"he has done us again," he said. "we have been investigating these outhouses thoroughly, and there is no question that he has had smuggled goods here. we found a clever hiding-place in that cattle-shed. it struck me that it was a curious thing that there should be a stack of hay built up right against the side of it. so we took down a plank or two, and i was not surprised to find that there was a hollow in the stack. one of the men stamped his foot, and the sound showed that there was another hollow underneath. we dug up the ground, and found, six inches below it, a trapdoor, and on lifting it discovered a hole five or six feet deep and six feet square. it was lined with bricks, roughly cemented together. it is lucky for him that the place is empty, and i should think that after this he will go out of the business for a time. of course we cannot arrest a man merely for having a hidden cellar; i fancy that there are not many houses on the marshes that have not some places of the sort. indeed, i am rather glad that we did not catch him, for in other respects nibson is a decent, hard-working fellow. sometimes he has a glass or two at the 'lobster smack,' but never takes too much, and is always very quiet and decent in his talk. i doubt whether the men would have found that hiding-place if i had not been there; they all know him well, and would not get him into a scrape if they could help it, though there are some fellows on the marshes they would give a month's pay to catch with kegs or tobacco."
the door of the house opened, and the three women and nibson came out with walter, who was now dressed in the clothes that they had brought down for him.
while the others were getting ready to enter the boat the officer took nibson aside.
"you have had a close squeak of it, nibson; we found[pg 297] your hiding-place under the stack, and it is lucky for you that it was empty. so we have nothing to say to you. i should advise you to give it up, my man; sooner or later you are bound to be caught."
the man's brow had darkened as the officer began, but it cleared up again.
"all right," he said; "i have been thinking for the last half hour that i shall drop the business altogether, but when a man once gets into it, it is not so easy to get out. now that you have found that cellar, it is a good excuse to cut it. i can well say that i dare not risk it again, for that, after so nearly catching me, you would be sure to keep an extra sharp eye on me in the future."
"you give me your word for that, nibson?"
"yes, sir; i swear off it altogether from the present day."
"good. i will take your word for it, and you can go in and come out as you like without being watched, and you need not fear that we shall pay you another visit."
walter went off in fair spirits. the promise that he should come down again and see his friends and have a sail in the barge lessened the pang of leaving, and as hilda's and netta's faces came more strongly back to him, as they talked to him and recalled pleasant things that had almost faded from his memory, he went away contentedly, while betsy nibson went back to the house and had what she called "a good cry." she too, however, cheered up when her husband told her how narrow an escape he had had, and how he had given his word that he would drop smuggling altogether.
"that makes my mind easier than it has been for years, bill. and will you give up the other thing, too? there may not be much harm in running kegs and bacca, but there is no doubt about its being wrong to have anything to do with stolen goods and to mix yourself up with men who steal them."
"yes, i will give that up, too, betsy; and, as soon as i[pg 298] have time to look round, i will give an order for a new barge to be built for me. i have been ashamed of the old thing for a long time past with her patched sails. of course, she suited my purpose, for when the other barges kept on their course it gave me a good excuse for anchoring; but it aint pleasant to have every barge passing you. there is old joe hargett; he said the other day that, if i ever thought of getting a new barge, he would give a hundred for her. he has got a set of decent sails, and he is a pretty handy carpenter, and no doubt he will make her look decent again. a hundred pounds aint much, but it will help. i can get a new one complete, sails and all, for fourteen or fifteen hundred, and have a hundred or two left in the bag afterwards. i tell you what, betsy, i will get an extra comfortable cabin made, and a place forward for joshua. it will be dull for you here now the child is gone, and it would be a sight more comfortable for us both to be always together."
"that it will, bill," she said joyfully. "i was always very happy on board till we lost our billy. i took a dislike to it then, and was glad enough to come here; but i have got over it now, and this place is very lonely during the long winter nights when you are away."
then they talked over the barge, and how the cabin should be fitted up, and, in spite of having lost walter, the evening was a pleasant one to them.
that was not the only conversation that took place that day with reference to a new barge for bill nibson. as they rowed up against the tide, hilda said:
"we must do something for that bargeman, colonel bulstrode. i am sure we cannot be too grateful to him and his wife for their treatment of walter. think how different it might have been had he fallen into bad hands. now he looks the picture of health; the change in the life and the open air has done wonders. you know, dr. leeds said that the officer of the coastguard had told him that nibson's barge was one of the oldest and rottenest crafts on the river. now, i propose that[pg 299] we buy him a new one. what would it cost, colonel bulstrode?"
"i have not the slightest idea," the colonel replied; "it might cost five hundred pounds, or it might cost five thousand, for all i know."
"i will ask the waterman," hilda said, and raising her voice she said, "how much do barges cost when they are new?"
"from ten or eleven hundred up to fifteen," the man said.
"does that include sails and all?"
"yes, miss; down to the boat."
"who is considered the best barge-builder?"
"well, there are a good many of them, miss; but i should say that gill, of rochester, is considered as good as any."
"what do you think, mr. pettigrew?" hilda said. "should we, as walter's guardians, be justified in spending this money? mind, i don't care a bit whether we are or not, because i would buy it myself if it would not be right for us to use his money."
"i am afraid that it would not be right," mr. pettigrew said. "as a trustee of the property, i should certainly not feel myself justified in sanctioning such a sum being drawn, though i quite admit that this good couple should be rewarded. i cannot regard a barge as a necessary; anything in reason that the child could require we should be justified in agreeing to. of course, whatever may be his expenses at a public school, we should pay them without hesitation; but for a child of that age to give a present of fifteen hundred pounds would be altogether beyond our power to sanction."
"very well," hilda said decidedly, "then i shall take the matter into my own hands, and i shall go down to rochester to-morrow and see if these people have a barge ready built. i don't know whether they are the sort of things people keep in stock."
"that i can't say, my dear. i should think it probable that in slack times they may build a barge or two on[pg 300] speculation, for the purpose of keeping their hands employed, but whether that is the case now or not i don't know. if these people at rochester have not got one you may hear of one somewhere else. i want you all to come up to the office one day next week to talk over this matter of the order simcoe is applying for—for us to carry out the provisions of the will—at any rate, as far as his legacy is concerned."
"very well, mr. pettigrew, i will come up any time that you write to me, but you know that i have very strong opinions about it."
"i know your opinions are strong, as ladies' opinions generally are," mr. pettigrew said with a smile; "but, unfortunately, they are much more influenced by their own view of matters than by the legal bearing of them. however, we will talk that over when we meet again."
the arrival of walter occasioned the most lively joy in hyde park gardens. hilda had written to his nurse, who had gone home to live with her mother when all hope of finding walter had seemed to be at an end, to tell her that he would probably be at home on wednesday evening, and that she was to be there to meet him. her greeting of him was rapturous. it had been a source of bitter grief to her that he had been lost through a momentary act of carelessness on her part, and the relief that hilda's letter had caused was great indeed. the child was scarcely less pleased to see her, for he retained a much more vivid recollection of her than he did of the others. he had already been told of his grandfather's death, but a year had so effaced his memory of him that he was not greatly affected at the news. in the course of a few hours he was almost as much at home in the house as if he had never left it.
