Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-25
CHAPTER III.

me after that for months come from my
turnkey at Newgate 1t was before the
Thames court ma gistrate. The magistrate,
a bad tempered man. snuffy. with red eyes,
and the air of being a piece of worn and
dirty furniture of his court. had snapped
al me when l tried to speak:
Keep your lies for the admiralty session.
I've only time to commit you. Din your
Spaniards; why can't they translate their
own papers," had signed something with a
squeaky quill, tossed 1t to his clerk, and
grunted, Next case"
! had gone back to Newgate.
The turnkey, a man with the air OF an
innkeeper. bandy-legged with dubious,
purple-veined nose and watering eyes,
slipped out of the gate house door, whist
the great. Understanding gate still shook
behind me
hadn't heard anything for months and
months of solitude. of darkness-on board
the admiral's ship stranded In the guard
ship at Plymouth. humping round the
coast, and now here in Newgate. And 1t
had been darkness all the time. Jove! That
Cuban time, with its movements, Its petit
ness. its intrigue, its warmth. even its vi,
lanies showed plainly enough In the chill
of that blackness. 1t had been romance,
that life.
Little. and var away. and irrevocably done
with 1t showed all golden. There WASH
any romance where / lay them and there
had been irons on my wrist; gruff hatred,
the darkness. and always despair
On board the flagship coming home l had
been chained down In the cabletler-a place
where l could feel every straining of the
great ship. Once these had risen to a
pandemonium, a frightful tumuit Ihere
was q great gale outside. y sailor came
down with a lanthorn, and tossed my DIS
cult to me. ,.,.
You ID pirate" he said, maybe it's
you saving from drowning:
rs the gale very bad?' l had called
He muttered-and the fact that ne spohe
to me at all showed how great the strain
of the weather must have been to wiring
any words out of him:
''Bad-there's large Indiaman gone We
saw her one minute and then ne
went away muttering.
And suddenly the thought had come u
me- What If the Indiaman We're the Lion
the Lion with Seraphina on board! Inc
man would not speak to me when he came
again No one would speak to me- was
a pirate who had fired on his own country
men And the thought had pursued me
right into Newgate-if she were deau, ~
/ had taken her from that security, from
that peace, to end there. Ana ~
end myself.
Swing" the turnkey said; you'll swing
right enough He slapped the great Key 81,
on his fabby hand. You can tell that by
the signs You, being an admiralty case
ought to have been in the Marshalsea.
And you're ordered solitary cell. ana III
tipped the straight wink against your
Why don't they let you see an attorney
Why? Because they mean you TO swing.
l said Never mind that Have you
heard of a ship called the Lion! Gan You
find out about herr" 1t,
He shook his head cunningly. and did
not answer. If the Lion had been here,
] must have heard. They couldn't have
said. For Gods sake find out. Get
shipping gazette.
He affected not to hear.
There's money in plenty l said
He winked ponderously and began again.
"Oh You'll swing all right. man with
nothing against him has chance; with
the rhino he has 1t, even II he's guilty.
But you'll swing. Charlie. who brought
YOU back Just now, had chat with the
'Torney Generals devils clerks clerk,
while old Nog o Bow street was trying to
read their Spanish. He says It's gown
ment matter. They wants to hang you
bad. they do, sos to go the Jacky Span
iards and say, He were a mob. nobby
mob $50 you are. arnt you? One uncle
an earl and tother dean. If so be what
they saws truel He were a nObby mob
and we swung i'm. Go you'n do likewise
They want striking example t keep the
West-India trade quiet
Find out about the Lion" 1 called, as
the door closed
1t cleared the air for me- that speech. !
understood that they wanted to hang me,
and ! wanted not to be hung, desperately,
from that moment. l had not much cared
really believed, really senSed 1t out. 1t Isn't
easy to conceive that one is going to be
hanged. doubt If one does even with the
rope round ones neck. ] hadn't much want
ed to live but now l wanted to fght-one
good fight before l went under for good
and all, condemned or acquitted There
wasn't anything left for me to live for.
Seraphine could not'be alive. The lion must
have been lost.
But was going to make a fight for 1t;
curse It, l was going to give them trouble
My them was not so much the govern
ment that meant to hang me as the unseen
powers that suffered such a state of things,
that allowed a number of little meannesses,
accidents. fatalities. to hang me. l said to
the turnkey again and again
Man 1 will promise you a thousand
pounds or pension for life, If you will get
II letter through to my mother or Squire
Rooksby of Horton"
He said he daren't do 1t; enough was
known OF him to hang him If he gave Of
Tense. His iabby fingers trembled, and his
eyes grew large with successive shocks of
cupidity. He became afraid OF coming near
me; OF the strain of the temptation. On the
next day he did not speak a word nor the
next nor the next l began to grow horri-
bly, afraid OF Icing hung. The day before
the trial arrived, toward noon. he flung the
door open.
Here's paper; here's pens" he said.
You can prepare your defense. You may
write letters oh. hell! why didn't they let
1t come sooner, I'd have had your thousand
pounds III run a letter down to your peo-
pie fast as the devil could take 1t. / know
n man. a gentleman of the road. For TWEEN
~ pun promised split between us. hell
travel faster Turpin did to York" He
was waving large sheet of newspaper agi-
tatcdly.
What does II mean?' 1 asked. My head
was whirliug.
"Radicle papers got holt Of It, he said
Trust them for nosing out And the gov
ernrnents answering them. They say you re
going to suffer for your crimes, Hank to
ills usn um The wrctched
felon now in Newgate Will incur the just
penalty Then they slaps the West
indies in the face. When the planters
threaten to recur TO some other power for
protection, they, of course. believe that the
loss OF the colonies would be severely felt
But
1.-THE Lions home" I said.
1t burst upon me that she was-that she
must be. Williamson Sebright-he was
the man. had been speaking up for me. or
Serapmna had been to the Spanish ambas-
sador
Sic was back should see her. 1 start
ed up.
The Lions home l repeated.
The turnkey snarled. she was posted as
missing flve days ago
| couldn't believe il was true.
II saw II in the papers" he grumbled on.
81 dursen't tell you" He continued vio-
lently. BLOW my dickey. 1t would make a