To The West Part 6

"What?" shouted Esau, furiously.

"It is not true!" I cried wildly.

"Take them," shouted Mr Dempster. "I'll follow in a cab. Take them."

"You'll have to charge them, sir," said the constable.

"Yes. I know. I must make myself decent first."

"You can do that afterwards, sir. Better all get in a cab at once before there's a crowd."

The cool matter-of-fact policeman was master of the situation, and, summoning a cab, he seemed to pack us all in, and followed to unpack us again a few minutes later, both Esau and I with the spirit evaporating fast, and feeling soft and limp, full of pain too, as we were ushered into the presence of a big, stern-looking inspector, who prepared to fill up a form.

All that pa.s.sed is very misty now; but I remember Mr Dempster, as he glared at us, telling the inspector that he had had cause to complain about our conduct, and that we had, evidently after planning it, made a sudden attack upon him, and beaten him savagely with a stick.

"But you said robbery, sir," the policeman suggested.

"Ah!--I will not press that," cried Mr Dempster. "I don't want to quite ruin the boys. I proceed against them for a.s.sault."

I looked wildly at Esau for him to speak out, and he was looking at me as if half stupefied. The next I recollect is that the big policeman signed to us to follow him, and we were marched away.

Then we were in a whitewashed cell, a door was banged to, and we heard the bolts shot.

For a few minutes I stood there as if stunned, but was brought back to myself by Esau.

"Well," he said loudly, "this is a nice game."

"Oh, Esau!" I said weakly.

"Yes, it is 'Oh!'" he cried. "What will my mother say?"

I could not answer--only look at him in the dim light hopelessly, and feeling in my mental and bodily pain as if everything was over for me in this world.

To my horror Esau burst into a heavy fit of laughter, and sitting down he rocked himself to and fro.

"What a game!" he cried; "but, I say, you didn't half give it to him."

"Oh, Esau!" I cried, "it's horrible."

"For him," he replied. "I say, I'm precious stiff and sore though; did he hurt you very much?"

"Yes; my arms ache, and my ear bleeds. Esau, we shall never be able to go back."

"Hooray!" cried my companion defiantly. "Who wants to? But that isn't the worst of it; he will not pay us our wages."

"No," I said; "and we shall be punished."

"Then it's a jolly shame; for he ought to be punished for hitting us. I say, can't we have a summons against him for a.s.saulting us?"

"I don't know," I said, wondering. "How my head does ache!"

"Some one coming," whispered Esau.

For there were heavy footsteps, and the bolts were drawn. Then the door opened, to show the inspector and the big policeman.

"Here, boy," said the former roughly, "let me look at your ear."

I was holding my handkerchief to the place, which was bleeding a good deal.

"Better have the doctor," he said.

"What, for that! Only wants bathing and some sticking-plaster."

He smiled.

"Well, we shall see," he said, looking at me curiously. "What did you do with the money?"

"What money?"

"That Mr Dempster said you took."

"He didn't take any!" cried Esau indignantly. "He knocked us about, and we hit him again, and he got the worst of it."

"Oh, that's it, is it? Come, my lad, that's not true."

"It is, sir, indeed," I said earnestly.

"But look at your handkerchief. Seems to me you got the worst of it."

"Oh, that's nothing," I said.

"You had a regular scrimmage, then?"

"Yes, sir," I said; and I told him exactly how it happened.

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the inspector, when I had finished, "I dare say you will not get more than seven years."

"Seven years, sir!" cried Esau. "What for? Old Demp ought to get it, not us."

"You must tell the Lord Mayor that, or the alderman, to-morrow."

"But are we going to be kept in prison, sir?" I asked, with my courage sinking.

"You are going to be locked up here till tomorrow, of course. Like to have a good wash?"

Of course we said "Yes," and before long we looked fairly respectable again, with the exception of scratches, bruises, and the ugly cut I had on my ear.

The thing that encouraged me most was the way in which I saw the inspector and constable exchange a smile, while later on they and the other constables about gave us a good tea with bread and b.u.t.ter and meat, and we had to tell all our adventures again before we were locked up for the night, after refusing an offer that was made.