The Garret and the Garden, Robert Michael Ballantyne [websites to read books for free .TXT] 📗

of the situation, beams and masses of masonry were heard occasionally crashing in the interior of the building.

Sam advanced to take Susy in his arms, but Laidlaw stepped between them.

"Leave her t' me," he said; "the auld woman's lichter, an' ye're no sae strong as me."

Saying which, he lifted the girl in his left arm as if she had been but a little child, and mounted the parapet keeping his right arm free to balance himself or cling to anything if need be. Sam, who was quite equal to the emergency, took old Liz into his arms and followed, but cast one glance back at Tommy.

"Never mind me, Sam," cried the boy, who, having got over his first panic, rose heroically to the occasion.

The crowd below saw what they were attempting, and gave them a cheer of encouragement, yet with bated breath, as if they dreaded the issue.

A few seconds and they were past that danger, but still stood on the burning house at another part of the roof. Here, being suddenly drenched by spray from one of the engines, Sam and Tommy made for the shelter of a chimney-stack. As there was not room behind it for more, Laidlaw carried his light burden to another stack, and looked hastily round to see what next could be done. Just at that moment there was a wild cheer below, in the midst of which a stentorian voice came to them, as it were, on the wings of fire and smoke--"Stay where you are a minute--the escape is coming!"

"Thank God!" exclaimed Laidlaw, looking down at the fair head which rested on his shoulder. The cheeks were deadly white and the eyes closed, but the pressure of her arms showed that the girl clung to him for very life. A bright shower of sparks at the moment flew around them. "Heeven an' pandemonium brought thegither!" he thought as he bent over to protect her. His face was very near to hers!

"My puir wee doo!" he muttered, and placed a timid kiss upon the pale cheek, which instantly coloured as if the fires around had suddenly kindled them.

"O lassie, forgi'e me! I didna mean to do _tha_--I railly--did--not,-- but I couldna help it! I wad hae waited till ye gie'd me leave. But after a'--what for no? I thought t' ask ye t' gie me the right this very day. And O lassie! if I might only hope that--"

He stopped, and _something_ induced him to do _that_ again. At the same moment another mighty roar ascended from the crowd, and the head of the great fire-escape rose like a solemn spectre through smoke, fire, and steam, not ten yards from where he stood.

"Hooray!" shouted Tommy, for he felt that they were saved. Laidlaw said nothing, but sprang to the head of the ladder, got carefully upon it, and began steadily to descend with Susy. Sam was about to follow with old Liz, but glanced at Tommy.

"Go first, lad."

"Arter you, mate," said the boy, stepping politely back; "you see, tigers, like captings, are always last to leave a sinkin' ship."

It was neither the time nor place for ceremony. With something approaching almost to a laugh, the seaman got on the ladder as smartly as he would have taken to the shrouds of a ship, and Tommy followed.

Half-way down they met a swirl of smoke, with an occasional tongue of flame shooting through it from a shattered window. At the same moment they encountered a brass-helmeted fellow springing boldly up through the same to the rescue.

"Gang doon again, freen'," shouted Laidlaw, when his heel came in contact with the helmet. "We're a' safe here."

He paused just a moment to draw the shawl completely over Susy's head and arms, and to pull her dress well round her feet. Then, burying his face in the same shawl and shutting his eyes, he descended steadily but swiftly. For a moment or two the rounds of the ladder felt like heated iron bars, and there was a slight frizzling of his brown curly locks at the back. Then a fresh draught of air and a tremendous stream of water that nigh washed him off the ladder.

Next moment they were safe on the ground, in the midst of the wildly-cheering crowd, through which burst Mrs Rampy in a flood of joyful tears, and seized old Liz in her arms. Mrs Blathers followed close at her heels.

"My!" she exclaimed in sudden amazement, staring at old Liz's, "it's gone!"

"So it is," cried Mrs Rampy, for once agreeing.

And so it was! The last fang belonging to chimney-pot Liz had perished in that great conflagration!

Many were the offers that old Liz received of house accommodation that night, from the lowest of washerwomen to the highest of tradesmen, but Sam Blake, in her behalf, declined them all, and proceeded to the main street to hail a cab.

"She ain't 'urt, is she? You're not takin' 'er to a hospital?" cried one of the crowd. "You'll come back agin to stay with us, Liz--won't you?"

"No, we won't," cried a boy's voice. "We've come into our fortins, an' are a-goin' to live in the vest end for ever an' ever."

"Who's that blue spider?" asked a boy; "w'y--no--surely it ain't--yes--I do b'lieve it's Tommy Splint!"

"Don't believe Tommy, friends," said old Liz, as she was about to get into the cab. "I'll soon be back again to see you. Trust me!"

This was received with a tremendous cheer, as they all got inside except Laidlaw, who mounted the box.

"Stop!" said the latter, as the coachman was about to drive off. He pointed to the burning house, where the raging fire had reached the roof-tree. The crowd seemed awed into silence as they gazed.

One swirl more of the flaming tongues and the Garret was consumed-- another swirl, and the Garden was licked from the scene as effectually as though it had never been.


CHAPTER THIRTEEN.


THE LAST.

How that wonderful man Detective Dean managed it all is best known to himself and those myrmidons of the law who aided and abetted him in his investigations, but certain it is that he prepared as pretty a little thunderbolt for John Lockhart, Esquire, as any man could wish to see.

He not only ferreted out all the details of the matter involving the Washab and Roria railway and chimney-pot Liz, but he obtained proof, through a clerk in the solicitor's office, and a stain in a sheet of paper, and a half-finished signature, that the will by which Mr Lockhart intended to despoil Colonel Brentwood was a curiously-contrived forgery. As men in search of the true and beautiful frequently stumble by accident on truths for which they did not search, and beauties of which they had formed no conception, so our detective unearthed a considerable number of smaller crimes of which the lawyer had been guilty--to the satisfaction of all concerned and the establishment of Mrs Brentwood's character as a prophetess, so that "didn't I tell you so, Jack?" became a familiar arrangement of household words in the ears of the poor Colonel for some time afterwards.

But the man of law did not await the discharge of the thunderbolt. As Mr Dean expressed it, he was too 'cute for that. By some occult means, known only to legal men, he discovered what was in the air, took time by the forelock, and retired into privacy--perhaps to the back settlements of Peru--with all the available cash that he could righteously, or otherwise, scrape together. By so doing, however, he delivered Colonel Brentwood from all hindrance to the enjoyment of his rightful property, and opened the eyes of chimney-pot Liz to the true value of shares in the Washab and Roria railway.

A few days after the culminating of these events--for things came rapidly to a head--Mrs Rampy of Cherub Court issued invitations for a small tea-party. This was the more surprising that Mrs Rampy was extremely poor, and had hitherto been economical to an extent which deprived her of a sufficiency of food even for herself. But the neighbours soon came to know that a line of telegraph had been recently set up between Cherub Court and the West End, through which flowed continuously a series of communications that were more or less astounding and agreeable to the inhabitants. The posts of this telegraph were invisible, the wires passed high overhead, very high, and the particular kind of electricity used was--sympathy.

It must be explained here that it was the northern side of the court which had been burned, so that Mrs Rampy, inhabiting the south side, still occupied her suite of apartments--a parlour and a coal-hole. The parlour, having once been a ware-room, was unusually large and well adapted for a tea-party. The coal-hole, having been a mere recess, was well adapted for puzzling the curious as to what had been the object of its architect in contriving it.

The party was not large, but it was select. It included a washerwoman with very red arms; a care-taker who had obviously failed to take care of herself; a couple of chimney-sweeps with partially washed faces; a charwoman with her friend the female greengrocer, who had been burned out of the opposite side of the court; two or three coster-mongers, a burglar, several thieves, a footman in resplendent livery, a few noted drunkards, and chimney-pot Liz with her teapot--not the original teapot of course--that had perished in the flames--but one indistinguishably like it, which had been presented to her by Colonel Brentwood. She had insisted on carrying it with her to Cherub Court on that occasion, on the ground that they would hardly recognise her without it, especially now that the fang was gone.

The resplendent footman had been the first guest to arrive, along with Liz, and was welcomed by the hostess and Mrs Blathers--who aided and abetted her friend on that occasion--with effusive demonstrations of goodwill and surprise. Thereafter the footman, who seemed to be eccentric, sat in a corner with his face buried in his hands, and did not move while the other guests were assembling. When the room was full and the tea poured out, Mrs Rampy looked at Liz with a sly awkward air which was quite foreign to her nature.

"Ah, Mrs Rampy," said Liz, "don't be ashamed."

"Lord, bless us--an' our wittles," said Mrs Rampy, suddenly shutting her eyes as she opened her mouth, to the intense surprise of her guests. "Now then," she added, in a tone of great relief, "go a-'ead w'en you've got the chance. There's more w'ere that come from. 'And about the cake, Mrs Blathers, like a good creetur. An' it ain't much o' this blow-hout you owes to me. I on'y supplied the sugar, 'cause that was in the 'ouse anyways."

"It is a good deed, Mrs Rampy," said old Liz, with a smile, "if you've supplied all the sweetness to the feast."

"That's a lie!" cried the hostess sharply. "It was _you_ that supplied it. If it 'adn't bin for you, Liz, I'd never 'ave--"

Mrs Rampy broke down at this point and threw her apron over her head to conceal her feelings. At the same moment the eccentric footman raised his head, and something