Читать книгу No. 17 - J. Farjeon Jefferson - Страница 6

Fog had London by the throat. It blinded its eyes and muffled its ears. Such traffic as was not at a standstill groped its way with scarcely a sound through the jaundiced streets, and to cross a road was no longer a casual matter, but an adventure into the unknown. For this reason, the timid stayed indoors, while the more daring, and those who had no choice, groped gingerly along the pavements. The pickpockets were busy.

But it is not in the heart of London that our story commences. The fog had stretched its fingers far and wide, and a man who was approaching along one of the arteries that led Londonwards from the north-east paused for a few moments to rub his eyes, and then his stubby chin.

‘Gawd ’elp us!’ he muttered, staring into the great, gloomy smudge ahead of him. ‘If that ain’t the Yeller Peril, wot is?’

He had trudged out of a land of sunshine into a land of white mist, and now the white mist was becoming opaque orange. The prospect was so thoroughly unappetising that he even considered the idea of turning back. Had he known what awaited him in that gloomy smudge he would have acted very promptly on the idea, but the future itself is as impenetrable as a fog, and he decided to go on.

‘Arter all,’ he argued to himself, ‘one plice is as good as another, when you ain’t got nowhere helse!’

So he lit his best cigarette—barely more than half of it had been smoked by its previous owner—and resumed his way.

A figure suddenly loomed towards him, out of the mist.

‘Oi!’ exclaimed our traveller, and jumped. His nerves were never of the best, and hunger was beginning to tell on him. But he reacted quickly, and grinned as the figure stopped. ‘Why didn’t yer sound yer ’ooter?’

The figure grinned, too.

‘A bit thick, mate, isn’t it?’ said the stranger.

‘Thick as cheese. Cheese! Lummy, I wish I ’ad a bit o’ cheese!’

‘Hungry?’

‘Not ’arf! Yer ain’t got sich a thing as a leg o’ beef on yer, I s’pose?’

The other laughed.

‘There’s an inn a little way up the road.’

‘Ah! Well, jest run back and tell ’em to put dahn the red carpet, will yer? Ben, o’ the Merchant Service, is a-comin’. And ’e’s got fourpence to spend. Oi! Where yer goin’? Oi!’

The stranger had turned, and darted off. Ben, of the Merchant Service, stared after him.

‘Well, if that don’t tike the bloomin’ ticket!’ he murmured. ‘Seemed like as if ’e thort I meant it!’

Once more, an instinct rose in him to turn back. He was just entering the fringe of the thick fog belt, and its uncanniness depressed him. He recalled that the stranger had stood almost next to him, yet he had not seen his face. Out of the fog he had come, and back into the fog he had returned. A shadow with a voice—that was all.

But the glory of the Merchant Service, however humble your position in it, must be maintained. You could not let it down; not, at least, until you were sure you were going to get hurt! And, after all, what was a little bit of fog? So, deriding himself for his fears, the subtle source of which he was not fitted to understand, he again ignored the kindly warning, and resumed his onward trudge.

The thought of the inn a little way up the road certainly did something to dissipate the gloom. Fourpence wouldn’t go far, but a friendly innkeeper might make it go a little further. Then he might earn a few coppers by doing something. You never knew. Ben, of the Merchant Service—perhaps it should be explained, late of the Merchant Service—was not in love with work. The stomach, however, drives.

He came upon the inn abruptly. All meetings are abrupt in a fog. It loomed up, a vague, shadowy outline, on his right, and a feeble lamp burned over the door. Ben plunged his hand into his pocket, to corroborate his impression of his bank balance, found the impression correct, and entered.

If he hoped to escape the fog inside, he was disappointed. The bar parlour was full of it. A cough directed him to the counter, and he found a young woman peering at him with half-frowning eyes.

‘It’s orl right, miss,’ Ben assured her. ‘I ain’t no matinay idol, but then, on the hother ’and, I ain’t so bad as I looks. ’Ow far’ll fourpence go?’

The young woman smiled, glanced towards an inner room, and then turned back to Ben.

‘Fourpence don’t go far,’ she commented.

‘It ain’t so dusty, miss, with a bit o’ good nacher thrown hin,’ said Ben slyly.

‘How do you know I’ve got any good nature?’ she retorted.

‘It’s a guess, miss. But I reckon it’s a good ’un. Any’ow, I’ll see yer doesn’t lose by it. I’ll leave yer me di’mond studs in me will.’

Her smile grew more friendly, but once more she glanced towards the inner room. Ben began to grow vaguely uneasy.

‘Wotcher got in there, miss?’ he asked. ‘A hogre?’

The woman shook her head, as though impatient with herself.

‘No—just another customer,’ she replied.

‘Then wotcher keep on—’

‘Nothing! What do yer want for your fourpence?’

‘Soup, fish, cut orf the joint, and a couple o’ veg.,’ grinned Ben cheekily.

‘Go on—you don’t want much, do you?’ laughed the woman. ‘Well, I must say, you look as if you could do with it. I’ll see what I can manage. Get in there.’

‘Eh? Wot’s that?’ jerked Ben.

He glanced towards the door of the inner room, at which she was pointing.

‘What’s the matter?’ she demanded. ‘He won’t eat you!’

‘’Oo sed ’e would?’ retorted Ben, and shuffled towards the door.

The door was closed, and he opened it slowly and cautiously. Whatever the young woman might say, something was disturbing her, and that something was in the inner room. All right, then. No one was afraid. Just the same, it didn’t harm to be careful, did it?

When he had opened the door a little more than a crack, he paused. Two seconds of inaction went by. Then he whispered over his shoulder, to the young woman.

‘Ain’t yer givin’ us a light?’

‘Don’t be silly,’ replied the woman. ‘Isn’t a lamp good enough?’

‘There ain’t no lamp, miss!’

‘No lamp? Here, you do want something to eat. Open the door a bit wider, then you’ll see.’

‘I tells yer, there ain’t no light!’ whispered Ben. ‘And I ain’t goin’—’

He stopped abruptly. The woman stared at him, now frankly uneasy. Her mouth remained half open, while five more inactive seconds went by. Then, suddenly, a violent shiver revivified the statuesque figure of Ben, and he swiftly and silently closed the door.

‘Goodness, what’s that?’ asked the woman, with her hand at her heart.

Ben slithered to a seat, and, sitting down abruptly, blinked at her.

‘What is it, what is it?’ repeated the woman, in a low voice.

‘I ain’t goin’ in there,’ muttered Ben.

‘For goodness’ sake—’

‘I’ll tell yer, miss. Jest a minit. Sorter took me in the wind, like … There wasn’t no light, see? Wot I ses. If you’ve give ’im one, ’e’s put it aht. And orl I sees, miss, when I looks in that there room, was nothin’ … nothin’ …’

‘All right, I heard you the first time,’ interposed the woman. ‘Don’t give me the creeps! Oh, dear, I wish father was home, that I do. Well—what made you shut the door so quick?’

Ben looked at her, slightly injured.

‘Ain’t I tellin’ yer?’ he demanded. ‘Orl right, then. I sees nothin’, as I ses. But then, sudden like, I sees—somethin’. It’s a figger. Your customer, I reckons, miss. But ’e ain’t sittin’ at the table. ’E ain’t doin’ that.’

‘What’s he doing, then?’

‘’E seems to be listenin’, miss,’ said Ben sepulchrally. ‘Standin’ by the wall, ’e is, listenin’, miss … listenin’ …’

‘Oh, hark to the man!’ gasped the young woman, with her eyes on the door. ‘Now he’s off again!’

‘Yus, but that ain’t orl,’ he went on. ‘I sees the winder. Lummy, I sees the winder. And orl of a suddin, another figger outside pops up agin’ it, and shoves ’is fice agin’ the glass.’ The woman stifled a little shriek, while Ben took out a large red handkerchief and mopped his brow. ‘So, arter that,’ he concluded, ‘I closes the door, and comes away. And so’d anyone.’

There was a short pause. The young woman appeared undecided what to do.

‘What did he look like—the man at the window?’ she asked.

‘Nothin’. Yer couldn’t see,’ replied Ben. ‘Jest shadders, both on ’em. Wot do they call them black things? Sillyhetts, don’t they? Well, that’s what they was. A couple o’ sillyhetts. But—I dunno,’ he added reflectively. ‘I did seem ter reckernise that chap at the winder—in a kind ’f a way. Seemed like a feller I met up the road. Some’ow. I dunno.’ A practical streak entered into him. ‘Wotcher goin’ ter do, miss? Go in and light ’is lamp for ’im agin?’

‘Not me!’ she retorted.

‘’Corse not,’ agreed Ben. ‘And no more ain’t I goin’ in there to heat my Carlton lunch!’

‘You can eat it in here, if you like.’

‘Yus, I do like. Though, mind yer, miss—if it wasn’t fer you, I’d ’ook it.’

The young woman looked at Ben a little more intently after this frank statement, and a new light came into her eye.

‘You haven’t got no call to stay here for me,’ she said, watching him.

‘Yus, I ’ave,’ he responded. ‘The call o’ the Merchant Service.’

‘Oh! Are you in the Merchant Service, then?’

‘Well, speakin’ strict, miss,’ answered Ben carefully, ‘I ’ave bin. And ’opes ter be agin. But, jest nah … get me?’

‘I see,’ she nodded. ‘You’re out of a job.’

‘That’s right. Man o’ lesher.’

‘Well, I’ve got a brother in the Merchant Service, and you can keep your fourpence,’ said the young woman. ‘I ain’t going to charge you for your Carlton lunch, as you call it. You stay here till my father returns, that’s all I ask.’

‘And yer doesn’t hask in vain,’ exclaimed Ben roundly. ‘I’ll proteck yer. Oh, my Gawd, wot’s that?’

The door of the inner room flew open, a figure darted across the floor, and vanished through the porch.