the moment i arrived in london i drove straight off without delay to emily's. i had telegraphed beforehand that i had been granted a free pardon, but had not stopped to tell her why or under what conditions.
emily met me in tears in the passage. "harold! harold!" she cried, flinging her arms wildly around me. "oh, my darling! my darling! how can i ever say it to you? mamma says she won't allow me to see you here any longer."
it was a terrible blow, but i was not unprepared for it. how could i expect that poor, conventional, commonplace old lady to have any faith in me after all she had read about me in the newspapers?[pg 103]
"emily," i said, kissing her over and over again tenderly, "you must come out with me, then, this very minute, for i want to talk with you over matters of importance. whether your mother wishes it or not, you must come out with me this very minute."
emily put on her bonnet hastily and walked out with me into the streets of london. it was growing dark, and the neighbourhood was a very quiet one; or else perhaps even my own emily would have felt a little ashamed of walking about the streets of london with a man whose hair was still cropped short around his head like a common felon's.
i told her all the story of my release, and emily listened to it in profound silence.
"harold!" she cried, "my darling harold!" (when i told her the tale of my desperate battle over the fallen warder), "you are the bravest and best of men. i knew you would vindicate yourself sooner or later. what we have to do now is to show that mactavish stole the wulfric. i know he stole it; i read it at the trial in his clean-shaven villain's face. i shall prove it still, and then you will be justified in the eyes of everybody."
"but how can we manage to communicate meanwhile, darling?" i cried eagerly. "if your mother won't allow you to see me, how are we ever to meet and consult about it?"
"there's only one way, harold—only one way; and as things now stand you mustn't think it strange of me to propose it. harold, you must marry me immediately, whether mamma will let us or not!"
"emily!" i cried, "my own darling! your confidence and trust in me makes me i can't tell you how proud and happy. that you should be willing to marry me even while i am under such a cloud as this gives me a greater proof of your love than anything else you could possibly do for me. but, darling, i am too proud to take you at[pg 104] your word. for your sake, emily, i will never marry you until all the world has been compelled unreservedly to admit my innocence."
emily blushed and cried a little. "as you will, harold, dearest," she answered, trembling, "i can afford to wait for you. i know that in the end the truth will be established."
iv.
a week or two later i was astonished one morning at receiving a visit in my london lodgings from the warder woollacott, whose life i had been happily instrumental in saving at portland prison.
"well, sir," he said, grasping my hand warmly and gratefully, "you see i haven't yet entirely recovered from that terrible morning. i shall bear the marks of it about me for the remainder of my lifetime. the governor says i shall never again be fit for duty, so they've pensioned me off very honourable."
i told him how pleased i was that he should have been liberally treated, and then we fell into conversation about myself and the means of re-establishing my perfect innocence.
"sir," said he, "i shall have plenty of leisure, and shall be comfortably off now. if there's anything that i can do to be of service to you in the matter, i shall gladly do it. my time is entirely at your disposal."
i thanked him warmly, but told him that the affair was already in the hands of the regular detectives, who had been set to work upon it by the governor's influence with the home secretary.
by-and-by i happened to mention confidentially to him my suspicions of the man mactavish. an idea seemed to occur to the warder suddenly; but he said not a word to me about it at the time. a few days later, however, he[pg 105] came back to me quietly and said, in a confidential tone of voice, "well, sir, i think we may still manage to square him."
"square who, mr. woollacott? i don't understand you."
"why, mactavish, sir. i found out he had a small house near the museum, and his wife lets a lodging there for a single man. i've gone and taken the lodging, and i shall see whether in the course of time something or other doesn't come out of it."
i smiled and thanked him for his enthusiasm in my cause; but i confess i didn't see how anything on earth of any use to me was likely to arise from this strange proceeding on his part.
v.
it was that same week, i believe, that i received two other unexpected visitors. they came together. one of them was the superintendent of coins at the british museum; the other was the well-known antiquary and great authority upon the anglo-saxon coinage, sir theophilus wraxton.
"mr. tait," the superintendent began, not without some touch of natural shamefacedness in his voice and manner, "i have reason to believe that i may possibly have been mistaken in my positive identification of the coin you showed me that day at the museum as our own specimen of the gold wulfric. if i was mistaken, then i have unintentionally done you a most grievous wrong; and for that wrong, should my suspicions turn out ill-founded, i shall owe you the deepest and most heartfelt apologies. but the only reparation i can possibly make you is the one i am doing to-day by bringing here my friend sir theophilus wraxton. he has a communication of some importance to make to you; and if he is right, i can only beg your[pg 106] pardon most humbly for the error i have committed in what i believed to be the discharge of my duties."
"sir," i answered, "i saw at the time you were the victim of a mistake, as i was the victim of a most unfortunate concurrence of circumstances; and i bear you no grudge whatsoever for the part you bore in subjecting me to what is really in itself a most unjust and unfounded suspicion. you only did what you believed to be your plain duty; and you did it with marked reluctance, and with every desire to leave me every possible loophole of escape from what you conceived as a momentary yielding to a vile temptation. but what is it that sir theophilus wraxton wishes to tell me?"
"well, my dear sir," the old gentleman began, warmly, "i haven't the slightest doubt in the world myself that you have been quite unwarrantably disbelieved about a plain matter of fact that ought at once to have been immediately apparent to anybody who knew anything in the world about the gold anglo-saxon coinage. no reflection in the world upon you, harbourne, my dear friend—no reflection in the world upon you in the matter; but you must admit that you've been pig-headedly hasty in jumping to a conclusion, and ignorantly determined in sticking to it against better evidence. my dear sir, i haven't the very slightest doubt in the world that the coin now in the british museum is not the one which i have seen there previously, and which i have figured in the third volume of my 'early northumbrian and mercian numismatist!' quite otherwise; quite otherwise, i assure you."
"how do you recognize that it is different, sir?" i cried excitedly. "the two coins were struck at just the same mint from the same die, and i examined them closely together, and saw absolutely no difference between them, except the dent and the amount of the clipping."
"quite true, quite true," the old gentleman replied[pg 107] with great deliberation. "but look here, sir. here is the drawing i took of the museum wulfric fourteen years ago, for the third volume of my 'northumbrian numismatist.' that drawing was made with the aid of careful measurements, which you will find detailed in the text at page 230. now, here again is the duplicate wulfric—permit me to call it your wulfric; and if you will compare the two you'll find, i think, that though your wulfric is a great deal smaller than the original one, taken as a whole, yet on one diameter, the diameter from the letter u in wulfric to the letter r in rex, it is nearly an eighth of an inch broader than the specimen i have there figured. well, sir, you may cut as much as you like off a coin, and make it smaller; but hang me if by cutting away at it for all your lifetime you can make it an eighth of an inch broader anyhow, in any direction."
i looked immediately at the coin, the drawing, and the measurements in the book, and saw at a glance that sir theophilus was right.
"how on earth did you find it out?" i asked the bland old gentleman, breathlessly.
"why, my dear sir, i remembered the old coin perfectly, having been so very particular in my drawing and measurement; and the moment i clapped eyes on the other one yesterday, i said to my good friend harbourne, here: 'harbourne,' said i, 'somebody's been changing your wulfric in the case over yonder for another specimen.' 'changing it!' said harbourne: 'not a bit of it; clipping it, you mean.' 'no, no, my good fellow,' said i: 'do you suppose i don't know the same coin again when i see it, and at my time of life too? this is another coin, not the same one clipped. it's bigger across than the old one from there to there.' 'no, it isn't,' says he. 'but it is,' i answer. 'just you look in my "northumbrian and mercian" and see if it isn't so.' 'you must be mistaken,' says harbourne. 'if i am, i'll eat my head,' says i.[pg 108] well, we get down the 'numismatist' from the bookshelf then and there; and sure enough, it turns out just as i told him. harbourne turned as white as a ghost, i can tell you, as soon as he discovered it. 'why,' says he, 'i've sent a poor young fellow off to portland prison, only three or four months ago, for stealing that very wulfric.' and then he told me all the story. 'very well,' said i, 'then the only thing you've got to do is just to go and call on him to-morrow, and let him know that you've had it proved to you, fairly proved to you, that this is not the original wulfric.'"
"sir theophilus," i said, "i'm much obliged to you. what you point out is by far the most important piece of evidence i've yet had to offer. mr. harbourne, have you kept the gold clippings that were found that morning on the cocoa-nut matting?"
"i have, mr. tait," the superintendent answered anxiously. "and sir theophilus and i have been trying to fit them upon the coin in the museum shelves; and i am bound to admit i quite agree with him that they must have been cut off a specimen decidedly larger in one diameter and smaller in another than the existing one—in short, that they do not fit the clipped wulfric now in the museum."
vi.
it was just a fortnight later that i received quite unexpectedly a telegram from rome directed to me at my london lodgings. i tore it open hastily; it was signed by emily, and contained only these few words: "we have found the museum wulfric. the superintendent is coming over to identify and reclaim it. can you manage to run across immediately with him?"
for a moment i was lost in astonishment, delight, and fear. how and why had emily gone over to rome?[pg 109] who could she have with her to take care of her and assist her? how on earth had she tracked the missing coin to its distant hiding-place? it was all a profound mystery to me; and after my first outburst of joy and gratitude, i began to be afraid that emily might have been misled by her eagerness and anxiety into following up the traces of the wrong coin.
however, i had no choice but to go to rome and see the matter ended; and i went alone, wearing out my soul through that long journey with suspense and fear; for i had not managed to hit upon the superintendent, who, through his telegram being delivered a little the sooner, had caught a train six hours earlier than the one i went by.
as i arrived at the central station at rome, i was met, to my surprise, by a perfect crowd of familiar faces. first, emily herself rushed to me, kissed me, and assured me a hundred times over that it was all right, and that the missing coin was undoubtedly recovered. then, the superintendent, more shamefaced than ever, and very grave, but with a certain moisture in his eyes, confirmed her statement by saying that he had got the real museum wulfric undoubtedly in his pocket. then sir theophilus, who had actually come across with lady wraxton on purpose to take care of emily, added his assurances and congratulations. last of all, woollacott, the warder, stepped up to me and said simply, "i'm glad, sir, that it was through me as it all came out so right and even."
"tell me how it all happened," i cried, almost faint with joy, and still wondering whether my innocence had really been proved beyond all fear of cavil.
then woollacott began, and told me briefly the whole story. he had consulted with the superintendent and sir theophilus, without saying a word to me about it, and had kept a close watch upon all the letters that came for mactavish. a rare anglo-saxon coin is not a chattel that[pg 110] one can easily get rid of every day; and woollacott shrewdly gathered from what sir theophilus had told him that mactavish (or whoever else had stolen the coin) would be likely to try to dispose of it as far away from england as possible, especially after all the comments that had been made on this particular wulfric in the english newspapers. so he took every opportunity of intercepting the postman at the front door, and looking out for envelopes with foreign postage stamps. at last one day a letter arrived for mactavish with an italian stamp and a cardinal's red hat stamped like a crest on the flap of the envelope. woollacott was certain that things of that sort didn't come to mactavish every day about his ordinary business. braving the penalties for appropriating a letter, he took the liberty to open this suspicious communication, and found it was a note from cardinal trevelyan, the pope's chamberlain, and a well-known collector of antiquities referring to early church history in england, and that it was in reply to an offer of mactavish's to send the cardinal for inspection a rare gold coin not otherwise specified. the cardinal expressed his readiness to see the coin, and to pay a hundred and fifty pounds for it, if it proved to be rare and genuine as described. woollacott felt certain that this communication must refer to the gold wulfric. he therefore handed the letter to mrs. mactavish when the postman next came his rounds, and waited to see whether mactavish any day afterwards went to the post to register a small box or packet. meanwhile he communicated with emily and the superintendent, being unwilling to buoy me up with a doubtful hope until he was quite sure that their plan had succeeded. the superintendent wrote immediately to the cardinal, mentioning his suspicions, and received a reply to the effect that he expected a coin of wulfric to be sent him shortly. sir theophilus, who had been greatly interested in the question of the coin, kindly offered to take emily over to rome, in order to get the criminating piece, as soon as it arrived, from cardinal trevelyan. that was, in turn, the story that they all told me, piece by piece, in the central station at rome that eventful morning.
"and mactavish?" i asked of the superintendent eagerly.
"is in custody in london already," he answered somewhat sternly. "i had a warrant out against him before i left town on this journey."
at the trial the whole case was very clearly proved against him, and my innocence was fully established before the face of all my fellow-countrymen. a fortnight later my wife and i were among the rocks and woods at ambleside; and when i returned to london, it was to take a place in the department of coins at the british museum, which the superintendent begged of me to accept as some further proof in the eyes of everybody that the suspicion he had formed in the matter of the wulfric was a most unfounded and wholly erroneous one. the coin itself i kept as a memento of a terrible experience; but i have given up collecting on my own account entirely, and am quite content nowadays to bear my share in guarding the national collection from other depredators of the class of mactavish.
