CHAPTER XIX

A Meeting at Night

It was a dull, rainy summer evening when Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, turning out of the main street of the town, directed their course towards a group of ruined houses, about a mile and a half away from it, built on a low unhealthy swamp bordering upon the river.

In the heart of this group of buildings, and bordering the river, stood a larger building, formerly used as a factory of some kind, but it had long since gone to ruin. It was before this decayed building that Mr. and Mrs. Bumble stopped.

"The place should be somewhere here," said Bumble, consulting a scrap of paper he held in his hand.

"Hallo there!" cried a voice from above. "Stand still a minute. I'll be with you directly."

Presently a small door opened and Monks signalled them inwards.

"Come in!" he cried impatiently, stamping his foot upon the ground. "Don't keep me here!"

The woman, who had hesitated at first, walked boldly in, followed, rather unwillingly, by Mr. Bumble. Monks led the way up a ladder to another floor above and hastily closed the door of the room in which they were. Then he lowered a lantern which hung at the end of a rope and which cast a dim light upon an old table and three chairs that were placed beneath it.

"Now," said Monks, when they had all three seated themselves, "the sooner we come to our business the better for all. The woman knows what it is, does she?"

Mrs. Bumble said that she was perfectly acquainted with it.

"He is right in saying that you were with this old nurse the night she died, and that she told you something—"

"About the mother of the boy you named," replied Mrs. Bumble, interrupting him. "Yes."

"The first question is, of what nature was her information?" said Monks.

"That's the second," observed the woman with much determination. "The first is, what may the information be worth?"

"Who the devil can tell that, without knowing of what kind it is?" asked Monks.

"Nobody better than you, I am sure," answered Mrs. Bumble.

"How much do you want?" asked Monks sternly.

"What's it worth to you?" asked the woman coolly.

"It may be nothing; it may be twenty pounds," replied Monks. "Speak out, and let me know which."

"Add five pounds to the sum you have named, give me five-and-twenty pounds in gold," said the woman, "and I'll tell you all I know. Not before."

"What if I pay it for nothing?" asked Monks, hesitating.

"You can easily take it away again," replied the woman. "I am but a woman; alone here; and unprotected."

"Not alone, my dear, nor unprotected either," said Mr. Bumble, in a voice trembling with fear. "I am here, my dear."

"You are a fool," said Mrs. Bumble in reply, "and had better hold your tongue."

Mr. Monks thrust his hand into a side-pocket and, producing a canvas bag, counted out twenty-five gold pounds on the table and pushed them over to the woman.

"Now," he said, "gather them up and let's hear your story."

"When this woman, the woman we called Old Sally, died," Mrs. Bumble began, "she and I were alone, I stood beside the body when death came over it. She spoke of a young woman who had brought a child into the world some years before. The child was the one you named to him last night," said the woman, nodding carelessly towards her husband; "the mother was robbed by the nurse."

"In life?" asked Monks.

"In death," replied Mrs. Bumble. "She stole from the dead body something which the dead mother had prayed her, with her last breath, to keep for the child's sake."

"She sold it?" cried Monks desperately; "did she sell it? Where? When? To whom? How long ago?"

"As she told me, with great difficulty, that she had done this," said the woman, "she fell back and died."

"Without saying more?" cried Monks, furiously. "It's a lie! I'll not be played with. She said more. I'll tear the life out of you both, but I'll know what it was."

"She didn't utter another word," said the woman, to all appearance unmoved by the strange man's violence; "but she clutched my gown violently with one hand, which was partly closed; and when I saw that she was dead and removed the hand by force, I found it held a bit of jewellery."

"Where is it now?"asked Monks quickly.

"There," replied the woman, and she threw upon the table a small leather bag which Monks tore open with trembling hands. It contained a little gold locket, in which were two locks of hair, and a plain gold wedding ring.

"And is this all?" said Monks, after carefully examining the contents of the little packet.

"All," replied the woman. "Is that what you expected to get from me?"

"It is," replied Monks.

"What do you propose to do with it? Can it be used against me?"

"Never," replied Monks; "nor against me either. See here! But don't move a step forward, or your life is not worth a straw."

With these words he suddenly pushed the table aside, and, pulling an iron ring in the boards of the floor, threw back a large trap-door which opened at Mr. Bumble's feet, and caused that gentleman to retire several steps backward with great haste.

"Look down," said Monks, lowering the lantern through the opening. "Don't fear me. I could have let you down, quietly enough, when you were seated over it, if that had been my intention."

Thus encouraged, Mr. and Mrs. Bumble drew near to the edge of the opening; the muddy water, swollen by the heavy rain, was rushing rapidly on below.

Monks drew the little packet from his breast, where he had hurriedly thrust it, and, tying it to a piece of lead, dropped it into the stream. It fell straight into the water and was gone.

The three looking into each other's faces seemed to breathe more freely.

"There!" said Monks, closing the trap-door. "Light your lantern, and get away from here as fast as you can.

Mr. Bumble lighted his lantern and descended the ladder in silence, followed by his wife, and Monks brought up the rear.

They crossed the lower room slowly, and with caution, for Monks started at every shadow; and Mr. Bumble, holding his lantern a foot above the ground, looked nervously about him for hidden trap-doors. The gate at which they had entered was softly unfastened and opened by Monks, and the married couple emerged into the wet and darkness outside.