We saw him go, sitting darkly on the top of his coffin, like a
dyspeptic Jack Sheppard being jogged off to Tyburn; and thereafter for
a desperate week or more heard or saw nothing of him. Then one day, a
great trumpeting and cheering in the street brought us all out
pell-mell; and there he was, worshipful in the repute of fabulous
riches, being carried shoulder high.
He had won his cause; and through whom do you think? Why, Mr. Quayle.
The little Q.C. accompanied the procession, and shared in its triumph.
Joshua had alighted on him, quite accidentally, in Ipswich, and
revealing to him everything--not without an ironic satisfaction, one
may be sure, in returning at this eleventh hour a Rowland for his
Oliver--had engaged him to conduct his case. And he had done it, and
won it; and the treasure was ours.
“Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,” said the little man,
meeting me again with delight. “Richard, I am rebuked. I once said you
were the son of your father, but not so good a lawyer. I withdraw the
riservation, entirely. You could see further than some of us into a
stone wall. To think now that your friend spoke the truth through ut
all! I’ll never trust the evidence of me nine senses again. Five, is
ut? Well, I was thinking of the Muses, I suppose. ’Tis a weakness I
have, and will prove my undoing in the end. Never you bother about the
girls, Richard. They spoil your law.”
I have only a word or two to add. I am afraid to declare what that box
of gold realized. The sum, anyhow, was so large as to enrich us all. A
great part of its treasures was distributed into the cabinets of
collectors, the beautiful chalice finding its way, I believe, at an
immense figure, into the museum of a famous cardinal and virtuoso in
Rome. From the total proceeds Joshua handsomely presented to Harry the
equivalent of a comfortable income, which was the means of helping my
dear friend to the very satisfactory position to which he attained a
few years later in London. For me he held the residue nominally in
trust till I was come of age, when he proposed to establish himself
and Uncle Jenico as pensioners on my bounty. The question was one
merely of terms. We made, in fact, our common home together until the
end, even after I had so far neglected Mr. Quayle’s advice as to
bother my head very much indeed about one girl, and to wive her into
the bargain.
We had left Dunberry soon after the events narrated above, taking Mrs.
Puddephatt with us for housekeeper, and not forgetting Fancy-Maria.
For some time, I understand, after our departure, the famous crypts
were a gazing-stock, attracting so many visitors that in the end Mr.
Sant’s dearest wish was realized, and a popular watering-place
established on the foundations of the old smugglers’ haunt. But long
before that the vaults had been closed, as unsafe, by councillors’
authority; and at this day only a deep depression in the soil above
denotes the spot under which the tragedy of Abel Pilbrow was enacted.
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