The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-07-11
CAPTAIN BROCK ApNAps AT COURT
With M LORD PETERBOROUGH

and Thomas Billings. GATHERINGS
child, was with his adaptive parents
in the same county. The Count had
paid the blacksmith. Billings, six
months advance board Tor him when
he had sent him to nurse. and then
had quite forgotten the existence of
the boy. Cat, too, had hardly thought
of the brat until lately. but now, for
want of something else to long for,
she began to sigh for sight of the
child Therefore, 1t was most Oppor-
tune that the corporal, having return
ed from his transatlantic trip and go
ing DOWN to Warwickshire to lay
hand on a secret hoard Of money which
he knew of. should meet with Mrs.
Hayes and concoct with her plan for
bestowing upon the carpenter
sprightly stepson.
The gold of which the corporal was
in quest had been hidden by the gang
of which he had once been a member,
in a secret receptacle In the very inn
in which he had once held Catherine
and her, husband captive. All the
other members of the~gang had met
with sudden and violent deaths. so
that Brock was pretty sure he would
find the hoard northumberland he
did His experience in America. as
well as his advancing age. had taken
the bravado and love of adventure out
of old Brock, and he resolved to buy
an annuity with the spoils of the sec
ret hoard, and, as the Rev. DIR. Wood.
to settle down in some obscure part
of London as a clergyman out of a
living. and be as quiet and respectable
in his declining years as his natural
viciousness would allow him.
But first he attended to the business
of Mistress Catherine. Posing as the
companion in arms of mythical
brother of Cats who had died in the
Spanish wars, he appeared in the happy
home of the Hayeses bringing with him
Master Billings, whom, he said, the
brother had begged him to take to
Catherine. The child was this broth
er's only son and had been brought
up in England during his fathers alb
sence in the service Of his country I'M
der the name of Thomas Billings.
Hayes made objections at first to be-
ing saddled with the boy, but Cathe-
rine had her way.
A more depraved brat than Master
Thomas Billings did not exist. He
would fight with the strongest and
lxick the weakest; he would lie and
steal for the sheer love Of doing so;
he was insensible to kindness and surly
and vengeful under discipline: vain,
selfish, cruel and with q capacity for
mlScnleI DeyOuQ HIS years WHICH was
almost weird. Under the judicious
tutelage OF his doting mother, all
these amiable qualities of the boy
were brought to their full flower. SO
that ten years after. when we are
again privileged to meet the engaging
youth in London. tall. strapping fell
low of II. but looking much older, he
was admirably qualified for the destiny
which awaited him ana fitted In every
way for the hero OF one of those pop
uIar novelists whose mission II is to
Elorify highwaymen and murderers.
Hayes. beside being a carpenter. was
a money lender, and had removed to
London to extend the field of his finan-
cial operations. While he boarded and
saved and oppressed his debtors Cath
crime took dodgers. and Master Billings
was apprenticed to a tailor. One of
Cats dodgers was the Dew. DR.. Wood,
alias Corporal Brock, and the other
was a woman of no especial import
ance to this story except that she at