"Wouldn't run to six shillings if we did," said I.
That settled it, and we set ourselves to fill up the blanks.
"Chapter the First," wrote I. "Theft of Alicia--Sorrow of her Parents--
The Organ-grinder's Lodgings--Suspicions of the Police--The Hero in the
Room underneath."
"Hold hard!" cried Harry; "that's too much for one chapter. We shall
have to make that do for four of 'em, or else we shall run out in ten."
"How on earth can you make four chapters of that?" said I.
"Well, you can make `Theft of Alicia' spin out into one."
"Oh, ah! Why, all there is to say is that Aunt Sarah--I mean Mother
Vixen--came across her in the square and collared her. However are you
to make a dozen pages of that?"
"Oh," said Harry, "we shall have to make her call at public-houses on
the way, and that sort of thing, and describe the scenery in the square,
and have the nursemaid go off to see the militia band go by, and leave
the baby on the seat. Bless you, it'll spread out!"
Harry seemed to know all about it.
So we went, on with our skeleton, trotting our little foundling round
town on the organ, where she witnessed with infant eyes street rows,
cricket matches, bicycle races, a murder or two, and such other little
incidents of life which we deemed calculated to enliven our story.
About the twelfth chapter she and our hero had already exchanged tender
passages.
In the twentieth chapter her real father and mother happen to see her in
the street (she being then sixteen), and are immediately struck by her
resemblance to their lost baby.
By chapter twenty-five our hero had saved the lives of his future mother
and father-in-law, and had rescued the heroine, single-handed, from a
Hatton Garden mob.
In the twenty-ninth chapter Aunt Sarah had committed her murder with
every circumstance of brutality and unpleasantness, the victim being one
of our schoolfellows whom we neither of us loved.
Then for a chapter or two there was some very active police play,
interspersed with a few love scenes between the hero and heroine, who--
though it never occurred to us at the time--must have enjoyed
independent means, which made it quite unnecessary for them to follow
the ordinary avocations of organ-grinders.
About the thirty-fifth chapter there was to be a sudden drawing-in of
threads from all quarters.
Sub-Chapter thirty-sixth was to be devoted to Sarah in the condemned
cell.
Thirty-seventh--Alicia discovers her name by seeing it marked on a
pocket-handkerchief she had been using at the time she was stolen.
Sub-Chapter thirty-eighth--The hero discovers his name by being told it
by a solicitor who has known all about it all the time.
Sub-Chapter thirty-ninth--All comes right; everybody goes back to their
mothers and fathers, and a quiet wedding ensues.
Sub-Chapter forty--Execution of Sarah. Finis.
We were tired and hungry by the time our paper was full, but we were
jubilant all the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account