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 GIFT OF 
 
 University of California Berkeley 
 
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The Pharisee and 
 the Publican 
 
 BY 
 EDWARD BOSANKETH 
 
 Author of "Tin" 
 
 BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 NEW YORK, BALTIMORE, ATLANTA 
 IQIO 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1910, 
 
 BY 
 BROADWAY PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
TKe PHarisee and tKe Publican 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Standing at one of the windows of his cham- 
 bers, gazing meditatively on to the roof of the 
 Temple Church, was a young man of twenty-six, 
 who had just been called to the bar. He was not 
 tall, but was well proportioned and of a healthy 
 hue. The room had rather the appearance of a 
 living room than an office, as there was a piano, 
 and there were curtains of heavy tapestry at the 
 windows. One wall was entirely occupied by books 
 and the others were without pictures, except one 
 photograph of a college eleven and another of a 
 Cambridge social club. The mantelpiece bore a 
 row of "pots" as mementos of former athletic 
 prowess, but was without the conventional mirror, 
 and the writing desk was so neat that it did not 
 seem "open for business." It would have been a 
 mistake to assume this, however, from the fact that 
 Frank East was only just fledged, for, if there was 
 one thing that he really did believe in, it was that 
 
 43537-1 
 
"order is heaven's first law." The room altogether 
 had an air of elegance and comfort, but seemed 
 to be quite without those trifling additions for the 
 sake of mere ornament which usually come from a 
 woman's hands and which one does not miss in the 
 chambers of a bachelor. 
 
 Suddenly a whirlwind seemed to have taken pos- 
 session of the room and a voice out of the midst 
 of it cried : "So, there y* are again gazing at noth- 
 ing, for surely ye see nothing new on the roof of 
 that old kirk. Now, here is something new, some- 
 thing from the new worrld, something that passes 
 for humor over there. Did y' ever hear of Arrte- 
 mus Warrd? Just listen while I give y' a little of 
 the Amairican accent," and Mr. Malcolm McLean 
 proceeded to read Artemus Ward "Among the 
 Mormons" in a manner which he was convinced 
 was the true Yankee drawl : 
 
 "Fellerr citizens and fellerr citizenesses, I feel 
 truly glad to see ye heerr to-night, more especially 
 those who have paid." 
 
 "That'll do, McLean," shouted East, "I know that 
 speech by heart, but I'm afraid I can't deliver it 
 with your 'faine Amairican occent.' Where did you 
 acquire that familiarity with the tongue of the 
 daown-easter ? In Aberdeen?" 
 
 "Ah! So I prepared this little treat for ye all 
 for nothing, did I? I might have spared myself 
 the trouble of getting cheated, then." 
 
 "Why, who cheated you ? What do you mean ?" 
 
auD tfte Publican 3 
 
 "I mean simply this, that on a barrow of books 
 in the street was a larrge carrd ohn which was 
 vairy apparent a figure 2 and a small d, signifying 
 that two pence was the price of those books. Ohn 
 the vairy tope was this book, and the idea occurred 
 to me that I would surprise ye with a vairitable 
 eemiteetion of the writer's own worrds, so I ten- 
 dered the man twopence, for I had a mind to spend 
 that much on ye, but the rascal pointed to the 
 carrd and showed me the weeest bit of a marrk 
 for a ha'penny that ye can imagine a vairitable at- 
 tempt to obtain money by false pretenses. I re- 
 gret now that I fell into the trap, which cerrtainly 
 I would noht have done had I noht the ulterior 
 ohbject in view to surprise ye." 
 
 "So you got surprised, instead, but I am none the 
 less so at the manner of it. It will be a lesson to 
 you." 
 
 Malcolm McLean had been called to the bar in 
 the same term as East, but lived in the suburbs. 
 As yet he had contented himself with placing his 
 name on East's door, sharing with him the use of 
 the third room, which was furnished as an office, but 
 really spending such time as he could spare from 
 his studies in the library in the sitting room of his 
 friend for, curious as it may appear, these two 
 were friends. Their exterior was very different, 
 as their course through life had been, but they both 
 looked at the future from the same standpoint and 
 in much the same way. The Scot had all the char- 
 
Cfte 
 
 acteristics of his race and was particularly careful 
 about drawing a right line on all occasions. The 
 detail of its cutting across his territory instead of 
 his opponent's made no difference: the line must 
 be drawn straight. But the Sassenach, as his friend 
 called him, was equally punctilious, though less 
 demonstrative. All kinds of shams and frauds they 
 put far from them, even the suave deceptions of 
 the most polished diplomacy, and this need not 
 surprise the uninitiated for whom tricks and law- 
 yers have been, from time immemorial, associated, 
 for it should be equally possible for an advocate, 
 as for a general, to fool the enemy, though he would 
 not so treat his friend. As a matter of fact, how- 
 ever, the great legal game no matter what may be 
 done in small arenas is not so played. Great 
 counsel are sometimes great actors, but they are in- 
 variably great men. 
 
 Again McLean was possessed by a sudden im- 
 pulse, and, making a dive for a bundle of papers 
 lying on the desk, he exclaimed : "Hello ! East, 
 what have ye heerr? A brief? Upohn my worrd, 
 it is a brief!" 
 
 "Well, it is and it is not. It is a deed of dis- 
 entail sent me to peruse, but it is very like perusing 
 my own death-warrant." 
 
 "So your father wants to disentail ye, does he? 
 Well, I can answerr for ye that he won't." 
 
 "Oh, yes, I know well enough what would be 
 your answer, but I am not sure what mine will be." 
 
tfjc pu&licatt 
 
 "I am : ye'll noht mak' a fule o' yourself" Mac's 
 accent got a little worse when he became emphatic 
 "I've seen ye before when ye didn't know your 
 own mind, but if I was by ye, ye very soon found 
 it out." 
 
 "Your father is dead, McLean, whilst mine is 
 not only alive but in a hole, and I shall help him 
 out, if I can, but I shall take time to think before 
 I act." 
 
 "Ye may well say that my father is dead. In- 
 deed he is, and I vainerate his memory as that of 
 an unnatural parent." 
 
 "What! When it is with his guineas that you 
 pay your tailor to-day?" 
 
 "No, sir, I pay my tailor, when I indulge in new 
 garments, with my own guineas, few as they are, 
 and fewer than they should have been had he noht 
 married one o' your Sassenach hussies when he 
 was old enough to know better, and to whom he 
 gave what was rightfully mine, sir." 
 
 "So I have heard you say before, Mac, and I 
 think you'll believe it yourself some day." 
 
 "Well, never mind me, East, ye'll not do this 
 thing, will ye? I have worrk in the library to do 
 that I must be at, but I shall naiver do it while I 
 have this ohn my mind and think that I leave ye 
 heerr studying out a prohblem that ye're already 
 biased about. Prohmise me this, that ye'll do noth- 
 ing till I have time to talk to ye." 
 
Cfte 
 
 "It is refreshing to hear you advise deliberation. 
 Perhaps you'll learn to deliberate some day, but I 
 haven't detected any signs of the effort becoming 
 a habit yet. As for me, I know my weakness, too. 
 If I could make up my mind with a little more 
 promptitude I shouldn't miss so many opportuni- 
 ties to outwit the Scotch. At present I don't 
 think I shall sign that deed. I shall have to be 
 cruel to be kind." 
 
 "Now ye're talking more like a Scot. I think I 
 can safely leave ye for an hour or two." 
 
 McLean betook himself to the library where he 
 spent most of his time. He was forever delving 
 among commentaries and reports and making vol- 
 uminous-notes, the purpose of which never trans- 
 pired, but it was, at any rate, useful to be able to 
 locate him somewhere when so many men at the 
 threshold of their profession were very much harder 
 to find. 
 
 East, left to himself, began to turn over in his 
 mind the arguments that should sway his action. 
 He had the kindest of fathers, who had turned 
 many a sharp corner that his son should be launched 
 on a great, career in the most approved fashion 
 without a trace of anxiety for the future to cloud 
 his outlook, but fate had been harder with him 
 day by day. The mines from which he had once 
 drawn a comfortable and steady income, owing 
 to the discovery of tin in Australia lowering the 
 price, no longer paid the expenses of working, and 
 
antrtfie publican 
 
 by degrees all his available property had been mort- 
 gaged to pay calls on his shares. Now there was 
 nothing left but what had been entailed on Frank, 
 and it seemed that that must be so freed that he 
 could mortgage it, or he must relinquish his shares 
 for unpaid calls, for they were no longer salable. 
 This, however, he would never for a moment have 
 thought of doing but that he believed as firmly as 
 he did in the coming millennium that Cornwall was 
 bound to recover its prestige in the mining world 
 and that Australia would soon be beaten to a stand- 
 still. It is usually the young who are sanguine, the 
 mature who are wise, and the old who are pessi- 
 mistic, but in this instance it was the son who was 
 the soul of caution. He did not believe that the 
 price of tin would ever recover itself, as the sup- 
 ply seemed to have overtaken the demand, and there 
 was no hope for Cornwall in competition with 
 Australia because the mineral was found at no 
 great depth, and could be sent home to London as 
 ballast in the wool ships. Frank had made up 
 his mind that there was nothing to be hoped from 
 the future, and the only question was whether he 
 could do so little for one who had done for him 
 so much. He brooded on the matter all day, list- 
 ened to a great deal more advice from McLean 
 when he had finished the "worrk" he had to do in 
 the library, and finally made up his mind and wrote 
 his father the following letter : 
 
8 Cfte ptmrfeee 
 
 "My DEAR FATHER : It is very painful for me 
 at the outset of my career, when it is entirely to 
 you that I owe the fact that I, instead of you 
 who would have been far more fit to do so 'have 
 an opportunity to devote myself to the profession 
 which opens so many avenues to distinction, to 
 have to refuse the only request you ever made me, 
 but you already know my reason. You know that 
 I do not believe in the future of Cornish mining 
 and that I fear even worse things if you continue 
 to hold your shares. You are on the horns of a 
 dilemma : either way points to ruin. If you relin- 
 quish your shares you throw away all chance of 
 income from them, but if you hold on to them you 
 will certainly throw away whatever money you can 
 scrape together after what has gone before. This 
 being my conviction, I have determined to hold 
 on to Tremayne, not for myself, but for you, so 
 that the family may be held together when the in- 
 evitable smash comes. I had no suspicion it was 
 so near, but you know I have anticipated it. I have 
 no heart to dwell lightly on other subjects in this 
 same letter, so I will close at once, with the hope 
 that you will be able to see this thing in the same 
 light as I do, though I can hardly expect that you 
 will. Some day, however, you will appreciate how 
 hard it was for me to be cruel to be kind. Your 
 loving son, FRANK." 
 
ant) tl)t publican 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 East and McLean had already joined the West- 
 ern Circuit, and it became necessary, after the in- 
 cident recorded in the first chapter, to hold a coun- 
 cil of war as to the advisability of undertaking 
 the campaign. It is an expensive luxury to "go 
 circuit" for most men, and unless there is a pros- 
 pect of briefs it is not an advisable thing to do. 
 One thing, however, was certain: there was no 
 prospect of any briefs in London, and, if there 
 were any to be had anywhere, it was only in the 
 country that they would be found. East had enough 
 left of the last installment of his allowance to make 
 the trip, and he thought he had better use it to 
 give himself a chance than show the white feather 
 at the outset. McLean, though he grumbled at the 
 paltry pittance the Fates had allowed him, had 
 enough to provide for his temperate wants for some 
 years, if need be, as indeed East had, if he would 
 only use what was rightfully his own, but which 
 he had determined to sacrifice as a justification of 
 the stand he had taken in reference to his father's 
 position. To McLean it was a matter of indiffer- 
 ence where they joined the mess as he was entirety 
 
10 
 
 without connections anywhere. His home was 
 Aberdeen and why he ever left there he never 
 vouchsafed to explain to anybody, but it was prob- 
 ably for the same reason as most men go to the 
 bar: because it is the most powerful and most hon- 
 ored profession in the world, and they want to 
 be members of it. Their fitness, of course, goes 
 without saying. McLean was probably just as un- 
 conscious of his need of equipment as he was of 
 his accent. As the choice was left to East it was 
 determined to go first to the town where he was 
 at school, not in the anticipation of business, but 
 that they might become au fait with circuit cus- 
 toms before going to the Cornish county seat, 
 which was the next place and the only one where 
 any work could be hoped for at this stage. But 
 it is not only true that "the best concerted schemes 
 are vain"; the converse is equally so: we often 
 succeed most unexpectedly when we have had lit- 
 tle or nothing to do with the concerting. It was 
 so with McLean, for in a foreign land and at the 
 very first place in his very first year an opportunity 
 was afforded him to fight the battle of his accent 
 before an audience that had never heard the like 
 before. A man from the northern circuit had been 
 engaged to defend in a murder case, and it was 
 the custom of the circuit that the junior member 
 present at that place must be employed to assist 
 him. There was no one there who had joined 
 after East and McLean, and, of the two, McLean 
 
anD tfte Publican 
 
 was the junior, for he had signed after his friend, 
 so the five guineas were his, and it was he who 
 would be called upon to open the defense in court. 
 It was a pity there was no library to which he 
 could retire, but he did the best he could by shut- 
 ting himself up in his lodgings for the careful study 
 of his precious brief, although the part he would 
 have to play would merely be of the most per- 
 functory character, the whole weight of the de- 
 fense really resting on the shoulders of the man 
 who was great enough to be called from another 
 circuit to do the work. Still, there was no know- 
 ing what would happen, and McLean never lost a 
 chance to be prepared. 
 
 The crime which McLean had been suddenly 
 called upon to defend was committed by the male 
 member of a disreputable old couple, both blind and 
 both frequently drunk. The two usually gathered 
 alms in company, but on this occasion they had by 
 some means become separated, and the old man 
 had returned to their home alone. After a while 
 the wife followed, and it was alleged that her hus- 
 band had thrown her down, or that she had herself 
 fallen, and he had jumped on her chest until all 
 her ribs were broken and her heart had ceased to 
 beat. It was not a case that anybody would wish 
 to defend, and here it may perhaps be not alto- 
 gether out of place to interpolate .a few words on 
 criminal defense which he who runs may read, and 
 he who doesn't wish to may skip instead. 
 
12 Cfre pimtfcee' 
 
 It is a common practice of some ignorant and 
 irresponsible people to condemn the advocate who 
 takes up the defense of an undeniably guilty per- 
 son, as if he were "an accessory after the fact, 5 ' 
 entirely overlooking the circumstance that it is a 
 part of not only the merciful, but the just, procedure 
 of our criminal courts to require that both sides 
 of every case be presented by counsel. It is some- 
 body's duty to defend the criminal and public opin- 
 ion should uphold the man who does, and not be 
 misled by the inconsequent utterances of one who, 
 as the American slang expressively puts it, is "talk- 
 ing through his hat." Not only so, but surely the 
 most honorable and the most enviable position is 
 that of the man whose prerogative it is to ask for 
 mercy for the poor guilty wretch rather than that 
 of the man whose duty is, as it were, to drive in 
 the dagger up to the hilt. There is a distinct dif- 
 ference, however, in the manner of conducting a 
 criminal trial in two of the countries where the 
 English common law prevails. In one both prose- 
 cution and defense use their utmost endeavors to 
 win by fair means or foul, while in the other the 
 prosecution offers a mere unadorned statement of 
 the naked facts, giving the defense the advantage 
 of all the rhetoric it can bring to its aid. In one 
 bought juries and lying witnesses are the com- 
 monest weapons used, while in the other juries can- 
 not be bought, and if counsel found one of his 
 witnesses to be lying he would immediately throw 
 
attD tfte Publican 13 
 
 up his brief. This brings to the front another 
 point of view. By the profession itself a case is 
 looked upon as a great game in which the best 
 player will win. The rules are rigidly adhered to, 
 and skill has every opportunity to count for its 
 full worth. There is no fear that it will be check- 
 mated by cheating. But this high standard of 
 honor can only be maintained where the legal pro- 
 fession is divided into two parts. A man who has 
 to interview criminals and haggle for fees cannot 
 be expected to reach the level of one to whom fees 
 are merely incidental and who never comes in con- 
 tact with business "methods" or plain crime, ex- 
 cept as a bacteriologist comes into contact with dis- 
 ease through the medium of a microscope. The 
 barrister reads of crime in his brief and in the 
 pages of a novel, but he comes no nearer to it than 
 when he cross-examines the criminal's accomplices 
 across the well of a court, whereas the attorney in 
 the country where there is no bar, stands shoulder 
 to shoulder with a brother criminal and bandies 
 words with him at his side. 
 
 It may appear strange that a poor old blind 
 beggar should be able to secure the services of one 
 of the greatest advocates of the day, but, though 
 professional skill commands a high price when it 
 commands any, it is often to be had for quite other 
 reasons. There are within the ranks of the legal 
 fraternity men who are ever as ready to come to 
 the assistance of the unfortunate as there are physi- 
 
14 Cfic Pimtteee 
 
 cians of eminence ready to minister to the pauper 
 sick. Sometimes a friend will secure their aid for 
 a relative of an attached servant, and again it may 
 be a merely cheerfully rendered service at the re- 
 quest of the judge. The offer of assistance, how- 
 ever, in one of the countries referred to, is unpro- 
 fessional, though not in the other where the prac- 
 tice of the law is a business, and properly so-called. 
 The cold-blooded American dollar hunter will say 
 that all this is nonsense, that the practice of law or 
 medicine is just as much a business as the prac- 
 tice of buying and selling shares, or sugar, and we 
 have no reason to quarrel with his point of view, 
 but chivalry has not yet passed out of existence, 
 and it is necessary to be a member of a high and 
 honorable profession to understand just how high 
 and honorable it can be. In a country which has 
 no history and no traditions there can be no cus- 
 toms and no standards. Everything is temporary, 
 stability is unknown, and there is a contemptuous 
 disregard for whatever cannot be measured by a 
 yardstick. 
 
anO tfre Pii&lican 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The wisdom of McLean's careful study of his 
 brief was apparent the next morning, for a tele- 
 gram arrived from his leader to the solicitor for 
 the defense announcing that owing to domestic af- 
 fliction he would be unable to leave home and the 
 case would have to proceed without him. This, of 
 course, led to a consultation with the junior and 
 the decision to ask the judge to let the case go over 
 until the next term. In the event of his refusal 
 there was no other course open than that McLean 
 should have entire charge of the defense. This by 
 no means disconcerted that confident Scot. He 
 merely thought that his opportunity had arrived. 
 
 On application being made to the judge for de- 
 lay the anticipated happened. His reply was simply 
 that the course of justice could not in any way be 
 affected by any mischance which might befall coun- 
 sel, however regrettable the incident might be. He 
 was sure that the defense would be quite adequately 
 taken care of by the other counsel engaged. This 
 was simply in accordance with the invariable cus- 
 tom. The public time is not subordinated to the 
 convenience or even the misfortune of the bar. If 
 
16 Cfte 
 
 one man cannot attend to his work, somebody else 
 can, and so the wheels of justice grind on. 
 
 When the case came up McLean took his part 
 with entire confidence, and cross-examined wit- 
 nesses with great spirit. It was evident that he 
 felt himself to be in his element and was bent on 
 making a record, but it was a painful time for the 
 spectators, most of whom were impressed by the 
 solemnity of a murder trial, only the members of 
 the bar, however, appreciating the ludicrousness of 
 the situation. To the "man in the street" the ac- 
 cent was all that was amusing, but to the profes- 
 sion it was pitiful to see how a really easy defense 
 was being mangled. There was certainly a strong 
 probability that the prisoner was guilty, but no- 
 body saw the deed committed, in this case not even 
 the perpetrator himself. The woman was certainly 
 dead, and there was not a rib in her body that 
 was not broken, but it would have to be a very 
 hardy medical man that would be ready to swear 
 that this was the result of her being jumped upon 
 by the boots of the prisoner. Might she not have 
 fallen forward on to the corner of the fender or 
 the bed, or might not any other ingenious supposi- 
 tion of counsel have accounted for her death? The 
 medical testimony, which was all that there was 
 to fight, might be assailed in various ways, but 
 none of these things occurred to McLean. He sol- 
 emnly asked the doctor: 
 
and the Pu6ltom 
 
 "Hoo mainy inches was the bed from the wall?" 
 and the witness replied : 
 
 "A foot or fourteen inches, I should say." 
 "D'ye say a fute or forrteen inches?" 
 "Oh, I don't know. It was about that." 
 "About what, sir? Forrteen inches or a fute?" 
 "Well, say a foot, if you like. I don't know." 
 "Now, be careful, sir. Is it a fute ye say?" 
 Here the judge interposed : 
 "I am loth to interfere with counsel at all times, 
 and I don't know what your theory of defense may 
 be, Mr. McLean, but I would suggest that the wit- 
 ness has answered you as well as he is able. I don't 
 suppose he carried a tape measure in his pocket, or, 
 if he did, his attention was no doubt centered on 
 the woman." 
 
 "Very well, my lord," said the unabashed Mc- 
 Lean, "I will try him with something else. 
 "Cozweed peevmint?" 
 "I didn't catch that." 
 "Cozweed peevmint, I said, sir." 
 "Really, I am afraid I don't understand." 
 Again the judge came to the rescue, and to the 
 witness he said, "I think counsel wants to know if 
 there was a causeway outside the house not, I 
 presume, within a foot or fourteen inches of the 
 bed." 
 
 The suggestion no doubt was that the old woman 
 had fallen on the pavement, broken all her ribs, and 
 dragged herself upstairs afterward, but why the 
 
Cfte 
 
 doctor should be the witness asked about the con- 
 dition of the street was not apparent. 
 
 A skilful defender will have a theory of defense 
 and will only cross-examine those witnesses which 
 bear on it, in this case the theory naturally being 
 that the old woman had fallen forward with her 
 whole weight on to some projection, striking her 
 sternum, or breastbone, crushing it inward, and so 
 forcing the ribs to be fractured outward, just as 
 would have been the case if her husband had ac- 
 tually jumped on her chest, as alleged. But Mc- 
 Lean had no theory, and cross-examined all wit- 
 nesses indiscriminately, worrying them about cir- 
 cumstances of which they could not have any knowl- 
 edge and transgressing the laws of evidence at 
 nearly every venture, the last proceeding bringing 
 him into frequent conflict with the judge. This 
 made the bar very uncomfortable, and great re- 
 lief was felt when the last irritated witness, with 
 feelings bruised and mangled, left the box. Mc- 
 Lean's speech to the jury might have been deliv- 
 ered in Coptic for all they could understand of 
 it, but the slow emphasis with which the perora- 
 tion was rendered enabled them, as well as the 
 other auditors, to comprehend that Mr. McLean was 
 endeavoring to impress upon them the affectionate 
 character of the accused, who, "wham endaivoring 
 to raise mohney for the defainse refused to sail 
 the old dohg Tray." 
 
 The greatest protection to a prisoner often lies 
 
anD tfte puBHcan 
 
 in the fact that a weak defense is followed by an 
 able summing-up by a clear-minded and experi- 
 enced judge. In this case Mr. Justice Bounty care- 
 fully pointed out to the jury that the case against 
 the accused turned entirely on the question whether 
 it was possible that the deceased came to her death 
 by accident. The medical witness on whose evi- 
 dence this matter rested had not been asked spe- 
 cifically if such a thing was possible, and he him- 
 self had been loth to do it for the reason that so 
 much might depend upon the answer, and that 
 answer might in the ultimate depend upon the 
 character of the witness. There were some 
 things on which a medical witness was com- 
 petent to speak to the exclusion of the mere 
 layman on the question of the microscopical 
 examination of blood, for instance but there 
 were others on which medical opinion, although 
 dealing with subjects in its own domain, was 
 hardly any more valuable than unskilled opin- 
 ion. Most educated people nowadays knew the 
 relation of the bones of the thorax to one another 
 and also knew that the bones of the aged were brit- 
 tle; consequently a layman was just as competent 
 as a surgeon to form an opinion on the question 
 whether a fall forward on to the corner of a fender 
 would be sufficient to snap all the ribs at once. A 
 cautious and prudent surgeon might well hesitate 
 to answer the question, but a confident and more or 
 less ignorant one would no doubt speak with the as- 
 
20 C6e Pimrisee 
 
 surance of an oracle. For this reason he had hesi- 
 tated to put the question. A negative answer 
 would undoubtedly have prejudiced the prisoner 
 in the eyes of the jury, while a hesitating one would 
 not have bettered the prisoner's position, and a con- 
 fident declaration that the woman's own fall, or her 
 husband's accidental fall upon her, might have 
 caused such a rupture, could hardly have been ex- 
 pected from a witness for the prosecution. Under 
 the circumstances he had thought it better to let 
 the matter pass, point it out to the jury, and let 
 them give it the weight to which they thought it 
 entitled. 
 
 The jury left the box to deliberate on their ver- 
 dict, and during their absence the prisoner was nat- 
 urally the object of curiosity, and seldom was it 
 better deserved. The accused was considerably 
 over seventy years of age, and in appearance was 
 more venerable than Mr. Justice Blount himself. 
 His forehead was high and shapely, his features 
 regular, and his long white hair and snowy beard 
 gave him the appearance of a patriarch. Yet his 
 history showed him to be a drunken, quarrelsome 
 old vagabond. The spectators gazed on him with 
 wonder, but not with more wonder than they did 
 on the foreman of the jury on his return, who, in 
 answer to the accustomed question, responded, 
 "We find the prisoner not guilty." The judge re- 
 reived the verdict without remark, and merely wrote 
 
anD tfte Pufiltom 21 
 
 the two words in his notes and left the bench, this 
 being the last case for the day. 
 
 It was impossible to get the case threshed out 
 at the mess that evening, as "the learned counsel 
 for the defense" was present and in great feather, 
 especially as, before they left the court the mem- 
 bers of the jury had taken it upon them to cross 
 over and shake him by the hand, and condole with 
 him for the rough treatment he had received from 
 the judge. So it goes in this world. Consolation 
 and applause oftener come to those who appreciate 
 them than to those who deserve them. 
 
 Frank's feelings may be imagined by those who 
 have stood and watched the tide of fortune at the 
 flood sweep up and pass them by, leaving them 
 alone and untouched on an isolated little rock. Here 
 was a man who was his junior from the mere cir- 
 cumstance that he had signed the roll in the Lord 
 Chief Justice's court immediately after him, and 
 for that reason a great opportunity had come to 
 him, and been wasted. No solicitor on that cir- 
 cuit would ever give McLean a brief after the ex- 
 hibition he had made of himself, notwithstanding 
 the fact that the jury had given a verdict in his 
 favor, their action largely influenced by sympathy 
 with one whom they imagined hardly used by a 
 judge whose patience was tried beyond endurance 
 by ignorance and incompetence which was to them 
 no more than fervour in his client's behalf, and it 
 seemed very hard that the Fates should pass by 
 
22 Cfte 
 
 one who felt that, though he might not win a ver- 
 dict, he would have shown qualities which would 
 have marked him out for service in the future. He 
 knew that there were men who painfully struggled 
 with the laws of evidence to the end of their ca- 
 reers, while there were others who, without ever 
 reading a word on the subject, instinctively fell into 
 their spirit and from the first never had any diffi- 
 culty with them. A tone of fairness pervades them 
 and a man with a fair mind naturally heeds them, 
 while a blunderer, whose rule is the letter and not 
 the spirit, never appreciates their appropriateness 
 and the ease with which transgressions of them 
 may be avoided. 
 
 East and McLean were friends, yes, but Frank 
 had never imagined for a moment that they ever 
 could become rivals. They had been thrown to- 
 gether by the circumstance that McLean had needed 
 a door for his name until his practice should de- 
 velop sufficiently to warrant his taking chambers 
 for himself, but Frank had become interested in 
 him as a curiosity, and had found him to be hu- 
 morous, absolutely honest and fearless, and not 
 without a considerable share of worldly wisdom, 
 but he saw clearly that, even disregarding his ac- 
 cent, he was quite out of place at the bar. He ex- 
 pected him to hang on for a time with despera- 
 tion, but eventually to find his way to some colony 
 where the Scotch were in force, or drift into other 
 
anD 
 
 pursuits. That he should be deprived by him of 
 so favorable an opportunity to let the circuit know 
 his quality, just when he needed it in a very special 
 manner, he did not expect. Under such circum- 
 stances it is difficult not to transfer some of the 
 consequences of the chagrin to the unconscious ve- 
 hicle of the misfortune and it would not have been 
 surprising if a coldness had sprung up between 
 East and McLean, but these were two exceptional 
 spirits, the former a young philosopher who had 
 been much influenced both by Seneca and by Scho- 
 penhauer and the latter the most unsentimental of 
 an unsentimental nation. His attitude toward his 
 deceased parent was a sufficient indication of the 
 sort of regard he would have for the living. His 
 friesd continued to be his friend until he played 
 him a dirty trick, when he immediately ceased to be 
 his friend forever and a day. He forgave nobody 
 and never expected to be forgiven. 
 
 Consequently the two lodged together, ate to- 
 gether, and moved to the next town together in 
 perfect harmony, each chaffing the other on the 
 outcome. It was impossible, however, that all could 
 travel in one compartment of the train and in that 
 one where the friends were not there was noticeable 
 hilarity. Mr. Diamond was entertaining the other 
 members of the circuit with an imitation of Mc- 
 Lean's cross-examination of the doctor and address 
 to the jury. For years afterward this was one of 
 
24 
 
 his "set pieces" for production at after-dinner en- 
 tertainments and suchlike gatherings of the bar, 
 and "D'ye say a fute or forrteen inches ?" was requi- 
 sitioned on every possible occasion when the learned 
 gentlemen were in light mood. 
 
anD tfie publican 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It will be remembered that the home county 
 was the only one in which Frank could hope for 
 work on his first circuit. He knew nearly all the 
 solicitors and he thought it possible that some one 
 or more of them might recall their promises made 
 to him in early days, while others might not alto- 
 gether forget their old schoolfellow. There was, 
 however, a rule to which he would be loyal. No 
 barrister on circuit may stay at the same hotel as 
 the solicitors, nor may he fraternize with them in 
 any way; that is to say, there may not be even the 
 appearance of "touting." McLean, on the other 
 hand, would no doubt follow the instincts of his 
 worldly wise unsentimental nature and respect this 
 rule or abuse it at his pleasure. Consequently it 
 was not altogether surprising that the experience 
 he had had at the last town should be repeated. 
 Again he had a brief, while East was still without 
 one. The fact is thai- his reputation, reflected in 
 the press from the point of view of the jury and 
 the people, had preceded him, and one solicitor, 
 who knew nobody, being in want of a junior in a 
 small criminal matter, determined, as he said, to 
 
26 Cfre 
 
 "play the winner." Another, an old friend, passed 
 East on the street, but as he had apparently been 
 forgotten by that young man, "who held his head 
 so high," he gave the two briefs he had intended 
 for him to another man. These were the perfectly 
 natural results of the courses followed, but we are 
 all apt to go astray in our thinking as a result of 
 what we are led to believe in our youth. Principles 
 of honor and loyalty are inculcated in the hope of 
 an adequate reward, and "honesty is the best policy" 
 we are taught concurrently with the process of copy- 
 ing "all the letters in a big round hand," but the 
 nature of the reward is not expatiated upon. The 
 only one which appeals to our imagination at that 
 time is associated with purple and fine linen, and so 
 we grow up with the idea that if we will be good 
 we shall be happy and own the earth. Later on, if 
 we are good which, of course, we are we rather 
 find that we have to pay for the privilege, and the 
 competitor gets the purple and fine linen with the 
 accessories. Then by degrees we begin to realize 
 that if we want to be wealthy it does not pay to 
 be good. If, on the other hand, we would rather 
 lay ourselves down to sleep each night in the calm 
 assurance that we have robbed no neighbor's hen- 
 roost that day, we shall continue to be good. While 
 we have been adding to our inches we have in- 
 creased our chances for unhappiness by the devel- 
 opment of a conscience, and we must bear the con- 
 sequences, take up our cross, stay poor, and draw 
 
anD tfte publican 27 
 
 the attention of the public to the enormity of the 
 other fellow's rascality. If perchance, however, a 
 conscience would not grow in the arid soil of our 
 stomach, all we have to do is to turn over a new 
 leaf and paint it red with the blood of the inno- 
 cents. They are being offered up every day on the 
 altar of mammon, and there are two other parties 
 present at the sacrifice the priests and the crowd. 
 Not everybody can be a priest, but we need never 
 despair if we will only lighten ourselves of our 
 baggage early enough. 
 
 McLean's case, much to the relief of the judge 
 and the disappointment of the younger members 
 of the bar, came to an abrupt termination by the 
 prisoner pleading guilty, which was rather a set- 
 back for the redoubtable Scot, who confidently ex- 
 pected to score another triumph. The accused had 
 given no previous indications of such an inten- 
 tion, and if any knowledge of the tower of strength 
 on which he might have leaned could have reached 
 him in his dungeon, he surely would not have thrown 
 away his chances in that reckless fashion, but the 
 criminal, especially the inexperienced one, is very 
 much the creature of moods, and is at any time just 
 as likely to surprise his friends as his foes. 
 
 At dinner the man who sat next to East, and who 
 had been to Bodmin two or three times before, 
 mentioned that he was always in the habit of go- 
 Lig once to Looe Pool for a swim before break- 
 fast, and that he would be going the next morn- 
 
Cfie 
 
 ing. Would East like to go? He certainly would, 
 for swimming was the exercise of all others that 
 delighted him most, so he agreed to be ready to 
 start at six o'clock. 
 
 During the night the hours went by one by one 
 without any sleep for East while his heart beat far 
 beyond its usual rate. Nevertheless, when the time 
 arrived to start on the walk to Looe Pool, East was 
 ready, and started off with vigor. The walk was 
 along wooded and pleasant country lanes, but rather 
 longer than one not accustomed to such early ex- 
 ercise would care for. To East, however, anything 
 of an athletic nature always appealed, and it was a 
 new experience to him to feel himself weakening, 
 and only keeping pace with his companion by a 
 great effort. When at length they arrived at the 
 pool he felt so ill that he considered it unsafe to 
 trust himself to the water, so he let his companion 
 go in alone while he sat and watched him from 
 the bank. The rest, however, did him no good, 
 and on the return journey it became apparent that 
 there was something more than temporary discom- 
 fort to be reckoned with. Several times he was 
 sick and could scarcely drag himself back to the 
 lodgings. After failing to eat breakfast and know- 
 ing that he was nearer home than he would be later 
 on if he continued with the circuit, he decided to 
 take the next train south. He ate nothing during 
 the journey, and the two or three brandies and soda 
 he took seemed to have little or no effect. Late 
 
anD tfre Publican 29 
 
 in the evening he arrived at home and was rallied 
 by his father on his precipitate flight from the bar. 
 Still without food he went to bed and slept. In the 
 morning he felt better, but his throat was very 
 sore, so he got out of bed and examined it by the 
 aid of a mirror. Inside he saw the small white 
 patch which he had seen before in other throats 
 at the time when he had visited patients with his 
 uncle as a medical student, which he had been be- 
 fore his father had consented to his following the 
 real bent of his mind in that profession which of 
 all others was the most uncertain in its rewards. 
 On his father coming into the bedroom to inquire 
 how he felt, he told him that he had diphtheria. 
 The elder, as people who are well usually do, made 
 light of such a fear, but promised to send for the 
 regular family doctor. 
 
 Like a wise man, the family doctor said nothing. 
 That is always the wiser course, particularly in a 
 family doctor. It would be equally wise if the med- 
 ical men called to attend a distinguished patient in 
 extremis would say nothing: there would be less 
 to account for when he died, which he usually does. 
 President McKinley's wound was a trifle at first, 
 and so was the sickness of Mark Hanna. As a 
 matter of fact, the former was suffering from a 
 mortal injury and the latter from typhoid fever. 
 Had they kept quiet, the doctors might have saved 
 their reputations. 
 
 After two days' illness and an evident amend- 
 
30 
 
 ment, during which the doctor's gargle had been 
 continually used and his mixture periodically 
 poured into the slop pail, the wise man vouchsafed : 
 
 "Did you ever have quinzy?" 
 
 "Never." 
 
 "You won't be able to say that any longer." 
 
 Frank had no wish to dispute about a name for 
 his illness, especially as he knew that the growth 
 had been checked, and that, whatever the disease 
 might be called, it would be treated in the same 
 way, so he resigned himself to the joys of the 
 convalescent and lived most of the time with 
 Dr. Lydgate in "Middlemarch." It is better for us 
 than opium or hasheesh just to open the pages of 
 a new book not a thumbed, dirty, second-hand 
 library thing and so transport ourselves to fresh 
 fields and pastures new, when the grass is getting 
 short for us where we are. Imagination is a great 
 aid to restoration, even as it is the most powerful 
 factor in collapse. 
 
 On the first morning of Frank's arrival down- 
 stairs he found the house apparently deserted and 
 his sister Gertrude sitting in a corner of the dining 
 room weeping silently. 
 
 "Why, what is the matter, Gertrude," he in- 
 quired, "is there anything amiss?" 
 
 For answer his sister pointed silently to a bunch 
 of keys lying on the table. 
 
 "Those are father's keys. Isn't he down yet?" 
 asked Frank. 
 
nnO the Pufllfcan 31 
 
 But the girl could not reply, and simply aban- 
 doned herself to a torrent of weeping. Frank 
 rushed upstairs, found the door of his father's 
 bedroom wide open, and the room empty. It was 
 perfectly clear that his father had gone but where 
 and why? 
 
 On going down he found his sister calmer again, 
 and from her he learned that when breakfast time 
 had arrived and her father had not appeared she 
 had gone up to his room, only to find it empty, and 
 it was not until then that the significance of the 
 bunch of keys on the table had struck her. What 
 since had happened she did not know. She thought 
 John and the servants were out looking for him, 
 and the other children were probably with them. 
 
 Gertrude was a girl of about seventeen years of 
 age, and the eldest of the second family. John was 
 a year younger, and he was followed by three girls 
 and one boy, the youngest being but three years 
 old. The mother had died soon after the birth of 
 this boy. The children were all bright and pretty 
 and the eldest especially so not what one would 
 call a beautiful girl or of the stately mould that 
 appropriately goes with such a description, but at- 
 tractive-looking and even pert. Her figure was 
 rapidly developing into that of a perfect woman 
 and her light-brown hair and blue eyes were in 
 keeping with the sunny disposition marked by the 
 dimples of her cheeks. Never before had she been 
 in such distress as now overcame her, and it was 
 
32 Cfre 
 
 with difficulty that she could be comforted. Frank, 
 however, was diverted from his attempts at conso- 
 lation by the appearance of John, a well-grown 
 youngster of sixteen, who had early begun to show 
 indications of maturity. There was very little of 
 the boy left in his disposition, and he went about 
 his pursuits with a calm, self-centered demeanor 
 that had a different influence on different people. 
 Most people trusted him wholly, while others looked 
 upon him as uncanny, and needing to be watched. 
 On this occasion of universal sorrow and distrac- 
 tion he was perfectly calm, and met Frank as if 
 everything was proceeding according to programme 
 and there was nothing whatever to worry about. 
 
 "Well, John, what do you know?" asked Frank. 
 
 "There's nothing to worry about," replied the 
 boy for so he was, little as he appeared to be 
 "father has gone either to Camruth or London. 
 His Gladstone bag is gone 'that looks like Lon- 
 don and Bob and the dogcart are gone. He isn't 
 dead, anyway, and there isn't anything to cry 
 about." 
 
 Frank considered a moment or two, and then 
 said: 
 
 "Well, John, we must go and see the people at 
 the bank. They will undoubtedly throw some light 
 on the matter. Either they know the reason for 
 father's sudden disappearance, or they do not. If 
 they do, it will relieve us, and if they do not, it 
 may be that we shall be in time to prevent some 
 
anD tfre puSltorn 33 
 
 scheme for throwing money into a shaft. Since 
 he took Bob and the dogcart, we must have Lucy 
 and the four-wheel." 
 
 "All right, I'll have her put in," replied John, 
 and went away to have the mare harnessed and 
 brought round. 
 
 While this was being done Frank found himself 
 sufficiently reassured to talk with confidence to Ger- 
 trude about the probability of the mystery being 
 soon satisfactorily cleared up. He knew that his 
 father's finances must be giving him considerable 
 trouble, and that he was perhaps in very .sore 
 straits. He also knew that at such a time his own 
 advice would rather be shunned than courted, and 
 it had probably been necessary to act promptly and 
 without reference to him. Any business move of 
 importance would be likely to involve a visit to 
 London, and consequently the disappearance was 
 not so wonderful, after all, and need be no further 
 cause for alarm. All this he could not venture to 
 say to Gertrude, but he was evidently able to com- 
 municate some of his confidence to her, for when 
 they left for Camruth she bid them a cheerful 
 good-by and went about her accustomed occupa- 
 tions much as she would have done had her father 
 eaten breakfast with them and gone to one of the 
 mines as usual. 
 
34 Cfce Pftati0ee 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The journey from Redborne to Camruth might 
 not altogether inaptly be compared to that historic 
 one from the desert to the promised land, but there 
 was no Red Sea to be crossed. Halfway there was 
 a small brook, locally called a river, over which, 
 however, there was a substantial stone bridge. 
 Redborne was situated in the midst of mines and 
 barren hills while Camruth was surrounded by lux- 
 urious woods which covered the gentle slope to a 
 bay which was scarcely surpassed for beauty by the 
 Bay of Naples. It could not be expected that the 
 .scenery would appeal strongly to Frank this morn- 
 ing, but whatever the occasion might be, he could 
 never look from the highest point of the road down 
 over the green trees, white housetops, and spires to 
 the blue and gray bay beyond without being Phar- 
 isee enough to thank God that he was not "as other 
 men are" and incapable of deriving pleasure from 
 such a view as that. John was never known to have 
 expressed admiration for any scene yet, and the 
 inference was that he belonged to the other men, 
 but nobody had found it sufficiently worth while 
 yet to study John enough to find out. At school 
 
mtP tljc Publican 35 
 
 he had been a model boy so far as behavior went, 
 but his place in his classes had not been high, while 
 of Frank it had been prophesied by the headmaster 
 that he would come to the gallows, though his place 
 both indoors and out had been of the highest. John 
 had always been apparently meek, but Frank was 
 really unmanageable. He took nobody's judgment 
 but his own on all matters, great or small. We shall 
 see how those characters developed. At present 
 there was no one who knew Frank who would not 
 have trusted him implicitly with his wife or his 
 Cremona, but everybody was shy of John. He ap- 
 peared to harbour dark designs, but he had done 
 nothing yet so far as known to justify the sus- 
 picion which was really the result of his quiet man- 
 ner his exemplary behaviour, in fact. 
 
 The brothers had little in common as a rule, but 
 it is hardly likely that they could ride side by side 
 for six miles without exchanging views about a 
 variety of subjects. The one thing uppermost in 
 their minds, however, gave both more food for re- 
 flection than speech. 
 
 "Have you seen anything that would seem to 
 foreshadow this sudden move on father's part, 
 John, while I have been in bed ?" asked Frank, after 
 a pause in more general talk. 
 
 "Not a thing," was John's sole response. 
 
 "Haven't you noticed any nervousness, absent- 
 mindedness, or anything at all strange?" 
 
 "Not a thing." 
 
36 Cfre ptmtteee 
 
 The exchange of ideas was as productive as usual. 
 John did not appear to be in funds : he had no spare 
 cash. 
 
 On their arrival at Camruth they went to the 
 hotel to which all members of the family invariably 
 drove and expected at least to find Bob and the dog- 
 cart there, for in either of the cases to which they 
 had given a thought that their father had gone 
 to Camruth or London they took it for granted 
 that he would have left the horse in his accustomed 
 stable, but there was no Bob. Now, what had hap- 
 pened? One thing was clear: it was all the more 
 necessary to hurry to the bank and endeavor to 
 get some light on the matter there. 
 
 The bank to which they were directing their 
 steps was that of Messrs. Ellis & Dee, the men who 
 owned Camruth, Redborne, and all the surrounding 
 country: body, soul, and accoutrements. As smel- 
 ters they took all the tin the mines raised and paid 
 what they chose for it, for there was no competition 
 to make a price, and as bankers all the mines and 
 everybody connected with them owed them money. 
 There were some few farmers mostly, for all the 
 merchants and shopkeepers had to have shares in 
 the mines to get any trade whom their tentacles 
 had not yet reached, but in one way or another they 
 were slowly gathering them in. They spread special 
 nets for the farmers, for they dearly loved their 
 land. They were not really interested in banking 
 or mining except as mere mediums for the acquire- 
 
anO tfre Ptifilfcan 37 
 
 ment of that commodity, and any man who had 
 any who could be persuaded to take an interest in 
 mining would as sure as fate very soon find that 
 interest grow and grow until it became the in- 
 terest on a mortgage which kept on growing and 
 growing until it suddenly burst and Ellis & Dee 
 assumed a benevolent protectorate over the land that 
 was the patrimony of his forefathers. These sim- 
 ple, honest yokels could not stand up against mod- 
 ern methods: they were not transparent enough, 
 did not exhibit a map of the route, and did not 
 afford facilities for getting out to walk when they 
 came to a hill. 
 
 When Frank arrived, both partners were seated 
 in their private room, and, as he entered, Ellis ex- 
 tended his right hand, -which was closed with the 
 exception of one finger. Frank had heard of this 
 practice and took no notice. Dee was doing some 
 work at his desk, which he continued to do. 
 
 This was the customary method of reception 
 adopted by this powerful firm and was expected to 
 impress, which it did those for whom it was in- 
 tended, but Frank was neither awed nor offended 
 by it. He was quite careless about salutations him- 
 self and never deemed them of sufficient importance 
 to give a second thought to. 
 
 Ellis was a man considerably past the prime of 
 life, with a bald head around which there was a 
 fringe of thin, ragged, colorless hair, the fringe be- 
 ing continued beneath the chin, but the face being 
 
38 cfte ptmrteee 
 
 shaven. The head was low and the forehead had a 
 backward slope. The nose was bottle-shaped, and 
 the under lip protruded aggressively. It would be 
 difficult to imagine a smile on such a face. Per- 
 haps it would look something like a ray of sun- 
 shine on a battlefield or a robin redbreast amid the 
 tombs. 
 
 Dee can be described in one word. He was not 
 a Jew, but he looked exactly like one. The thin, 
 dark, curly hair and beard and the hooked nose 
 were there to the life, and the same old, keen, and 
 cunning leer was as much at home on his face as on 
 Shylock's or Fagin's. He lived in money and for 
 money, and knew absolutely nothing about anything 
 else in the world. 
 
 "I've come to see you this morning, Mr. Ellis," 
 began Frank, "to know if you can tell me of any 
 reason why my father should go to London at this 
 time." 
 
 "Go to London? I don't understand you," re- 
 turned the old man. "Is he going to London ? He 
 always tells us, I believe, when he intends to. Has 
 he sent you as ambassador this time?" 
 
 "That is all I wanted to know. You can't tell 
 me where he is, then?" 
 
 "What, have you lost your father and come to 
 us to find him for you?" 
 
 "Not at all. I haven't any desire that you should 
 do anything in the matter, but he has certainly gone 
 somewhere without leaving word as to his destina- 
 
anD tfje 
 
 tion, and I thought that under such circumstances 
 the bank would be the first place where I should 
 make inquiries/' 
 
 Ellis pulled the bell there were no electric but- 
 tons at that date and asked for the cashier, to 
 whom he said: 
 
 "When was East in here last?" 
 
 "One day last week." 
 
 "How is his account?" 
 
 "About even, not overdrawn nor yet in funds." 
 
 "I should say," commented Ellis as the cashier 
 withdrew, "he cannot have gone far, or we should 
 have heard of it. Travel costs money, and that in- 
 volves a visit to the bank." 
 
 "That is what I thought and principally why I 
 came to you. However, I am much obliged for the 
 information, and shall be further beholden to you 
 if you can suggest anything else I should do." 
 
 "How did he go drive?" 
 
 "Yes, the dogcart is gone, and it has not arrived 
 at the Occidental." 
 
 "Well, you might inquire at the other hotels be- 
 fore you go home, but I expect you will find him 
 there when you get there." 
 
 It was evident that since the account was all 
 right Mr. Ellis took very little interest in the move- 
 ments of East, Senior. That was the impression he 
 intended to convey, but as soon as Frank had left 
 the bank, the cashier was immediately recalled and 
 told to use every means known to him to find out 
 
40 Cfte 
 
 where East had gone, to take time by the forelock, 
 but at present go quietly to work as it was by no 
 means certain that he had done anything but go 
 somewhere to do something which his family had 
 no concern in, and which could be best done with- 
 out any preliminary discussion. Ellis' interest in 
 East, however, was by no means slight, and it was 
 a matter of vital importance to him that a man 
 whose influence in keeping the mines afloat for the 
 last seven years had been greater than that of all 
 other men in the locality combined should be kept 
 at work raising tin for them at whatever sacrifice 
 to himself, the shareholders, or the miners, who 
 existed only for the purpose of enabling Ellis & 
 Dee to grind the faces of the poor. 
 
 Inquiry at the other hotels in Camruth developed 
 no news of Bob and the dogcart, so Frank and John 
 were obliged to turn homeward without a solution 
 to the mystery. They were now somewhat inclined 
 to believe that when they reached home they might 
 find their father there, whilst Gertrude was at the 
 same time hoping that they would bring him back 
 with them. It seemed now certain that he had not 
 gone to Camruth and that he had not taken the 
 train, at least there, and there was no such reason 
 for secrecy that he should wish to take it anywhere 
 else. No clue, however, of any kind presented itself, 
 and when at length they arrived at home without 
 their father, Gertrude rushed out to meet them, fol- 
 lowed by all the other children, not knowing which 
 
mtP tfte Publican 41 
 
 would be the first to arrive, but fully expecting in 
 either event good news of some sort. Seeing the 
 brothers still alone, she was once more overcome 
 by grief and with the others returned disconsolate 
 to the house, little Jem continually wailing, "Where 
 is Pa? I want him," but, still too young to appre- 
 ciate anything that had happened, he left the others 
 to fondle the dog. 
 
 Day after day passed, and for a time the gloom 
 and the sorrow deepened. Not a clue was discov- 
 ered and not a ray of hope appeared. Mr. East, the 
 horse, and the dogcart, seemed to have disappeared 
 from human ken without leaving a trace behind. The 
 grief of Gertrude and the children had become a sort 
 of chastened sorrow. There were no longer any 
 bursts of weeping, but the sun seemed to have gone 
 down behind a bank of black clouds and never to 
 have risen again. Frank, however, had to be active 
 and almost every day was in Camruth in consulta- 
 tion with the bankers. As he had been familiar from 
 his youth up with his father's duties, he was easily 
 able to step into his shoes at the mines where he was 
 purser and conduct his correspondence, and for the 
 time affairs were allowed to drift along in that way, 
 as it seemed impossible that any long period could 
 elapse without some news of the missing man. It 
 will serve no useful purpose, however, to dwell on 
 this painful interval, and it soon became evident 
 that some steps must be taken to appoint a perma- 
 nent successor to Mr. East Meetings of the com- 
 
42 Cfre 
 
 mittees were held, to which emissaries from the 
 bank were sent with instructions, and Frank was 
 elected to succeed the purser, it being understood 
 that he would act as guardian of his father's in- 
 terest without being compelled to own any indi- 
 vidual shares himself. Time passed in this way, 
 and meanwhile an inventory of Mr. East's estate 
 was being taken to ascertain how his affairs stood 
 and whether Frank would be able to maintain the 
 status quo ante. His land had all been mortgaged 
 to the bank, foreclosed on and passed into the hands 
 of Ellis & Dee, and the estate now consisted only 
 of several thousand mine shares, none of which were 
 saleable. There were, however, no debts except for 
 the current household expenses. The salaries from 
 the purserships had never been sufficient to keep 
 the family in the style to which it had been accus- 
 tomed, and unless there was to be a material falling 
 off in this respect Frank must add to his income 
 from some source or other. Just then the principal 
 merchant in the town, who had been chiefly engaged 
 in supplying the mines with coal and candles, had 
 stepped into Charon's boat and was being ferried 
 across the Styx, and his business was for sale as he 
 had left no heir who could carry it on. This ap- 
 peared to be something like a providential open- 
 ing. It might even eventuate in bringing up John 
 to be the mainstay of the family, while Frank re- 
 turned to his practice at the bar. It necessitated the 
 raising of money, however, and here was where 
 
and tfte publican 43 
 
 Tremayne came in to perform the duty which had 
 been reserved for it. In short, Ellis & Dee effected 
 another mortgage, which they had foreseen, and 
 which they had anticipated when they gave the com- 
 ,inittees instructions to vote for Frank for purser. 
 As before, they had the mines under their control, 
 with the chief official under their thumb. Had 
 they? 
 
 Messrs. Ellis & Dee were very shrewd in their 
 way and perfectly well able to deal with the simple 
 country people in the midst of whom they had be- 
 come what they were, but their horizon was lim- 
 ited. They had not been educated in the great 
 marts of the world, nor had they ever known what 
 it was to be opposed in any of their designs ex- 
 cept by the inevitable forces of nature, and so far 
 they had amassed wealth with as much regularity 
 and certainty as the mine shafts had raised what 
 was called a burrow by the men in the immediate 
 vicinity of their mouths. From their point of view 
 they were nourishing a viper in their bosom, but as 
 yet they knew it not. The viper, however, had a 
 point of view, too. 
 
44 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Frank had now to take up his cross. When he de- 
 termined that Tremayne should be saved to provide 
 for the family in the event of his father's bank- 
 ruptcy, he had not anticipated the present denoue- 
 ment. He had expected that his father would be still 
 at the helm and that this little farm entailed on him 
 would at least provide him with a cargo to make 
 another voyage. He had not intended also to offer 
 himself up as a sacrifice, which he seemed to have 
 done. He had only contributed to the making of 
 his own bed, but he must lie on it, and it was evi- 
 dent that he was not going to get much sleep. He 
 had suddenly become father of a family which was 
 without a mother, and purser of mines which made 
 no profits, but he was not of those who indulge in 
 a folding of the hands to sleep in the face of diffi- 
 culty, but rather of those who like to be where the 
 blows fall thickest and where the hills are steep 
 and the way is dark. The greatest battles, as has 
 often been said but still is not understood, are not 
 fought with shrapnel and bayonet, but with the un- 
 romantic and commonplace weapons, the tongue and 
 the pen, and he was about to have work enough for 
 both. 
 
anD tfte Pufrlican 45 
 
 It was apparently going to be all work, too: 
 there was to be no play. McLean and the other 
 choice spirits with whom he had whiled away his 
 leisure time seemed now further off than Atlantis 
 or the Hesperides, and he would have to angle for 
 pleasure in a very shallow pool. There was a vicar, 
 a distinguished scholar of a very uncertain temper, 
 who had several sons, none of whom were scarcely 
 ever at home; there were two or three dissenting 
 ministers of narrow belief and little education, two 
 doctors, both old men and "cranks," and only one 
 man in the whole community who promised to be 
 worth cultivating, but Frank had already been 
 warned against him as "a publican and a sinner." 
 Like that worthy mariner who said he would like 
 to go to heaven "but not with such a crew," Frank, 
 after enduring his loneliness as long as he could, was 
 fain to welcome the overtures of the landlord of 
 "The Three Tuns" and ride and drive and swim 
 and shoot with him, though he was a pariah and 
 had seen the pariahs in their own home. Mitchell 
 had been a great traveller, and was possessed of a 
 mind fitted to be improved by travel, as, in addition 
 to having come of a good stock, he had sufficiently 
 suffered from the cane and the ruler before he ran 
 away from home to enable him to read the daily 
 newspaper at least and profit thereby. His horizon 
 was not bounded by Camruth on the east, the sea 
 on the west, the mines on the north, and the arable 
 land on the south, nor were his ideas entirely de- 
 
46 C&e Pfmti0ee 
 
 rived from the scriptures as interpreted by the Rev. 
 Hezekiah Bunchgrass, whilst it was undeniable that 
 he sometimes tasted whiskey in his capacity as host, 
 thereby, as he said, setting an example to his critics 
 by practising what he preached. He said he thought 
 good liquor was a good thing for a man who knew 
 how to use it, and he did know how and took it 
 with a feeling of satisfaction that he was able to 
 pay for it. Those who spent no money at his house 
 said that he put poison in his stomach to steal away 
 his brains, and he was thankful that he had some to 
 steal. One who talked in this loose manner was not 
 regarded as fit company for a young man in Frank's 
 position, and perhaps he was not, but Frank pre- 
 ferred him to any other to be had in that locality, 
 and was accustomed to follow his own counsel in all 
 things, as has been before remarked. Was it not 
 enough that he should resign his profession and his 
 patrimony for the sake of his father's second fam- 
 ily? Must he also make a hermit of himself be- 
 cause he was surrounded by "such a crew?" It is 
 surely a very bad thing for a fish to be out of 
 water. 
 
 Tom Mitchell had no more sympathy with his sur- 
 roundings than Frank had, for, though his hotel 
 was in Redborne, his customers were chiefly the 
 commercial men who had to come there for busi- 
 ness and beyond these he had only the few old 
 cronies who made his barroom their club of an even- 
 ing. Both the doctors came when they could find 
 
and tfte Pti61ican 4? 
 
 time and always disputed when they did, and two 
 or three mine managers, a butcher, and the Irish 
 drill sergeant of the rifle corps completed the as- 
 sembly. Once a month or so Frank took a seat with 
 this respectable and quiet company, but he rarely 
 extended his fellowship beyond the landlord, with 
 whom he often spent a large portion of the day. 
 Sometimes a little entertainment was to be had in 
 the barroom, but unless there was unusual excite- 
 ment about something, the sittings were rarely 
 marked by anything more moving than a practical 
 joke played upon one of their number who had 
 fallen asleep. Nevertheless, these old boys were 
 held by the pious faction to be on the road to perdi- 
 tion and rapidly going beyond even the prayers of 
 the elect. Where dissent is not in the ascendent they 
 would be regarded as very respectable citizens. 
 
 Gradually the usual course of proceedings came 
 to be that either Frank went to one of the mines 
 and Tom accompanied him on horseback, whilst his 
 wife looked after the business, or Tom had business 
 of his own at Camruth or elsewhere and Frank be- 
 came the fidus Achates. Tom's trips abroad on his 
 own account, however, were not frequent. They 
 usually consisted of visits to his friend Billy Mann, 
 landlord of the hotel at the Land's End, with whom, 
 or from whom, he often bought supplies for the 
 house, thus avoiding the middleman's profit, this 
 course being quite feasible, as Billy's business in 
 wine and cigars during the season was quite a large 
 
48 Cfte 
 
 one, for great numbers of all kinds of people vis- 
 ited the "first and last hotel in England" during the 
 summer months. The winter was the best time to 
 see the Atlantic waves sweeping up in majesty or 
 breaking in fury against the granite cliffs, but the 
 majority of mankind do not grow enthusiastic over 
 nature in her sterner moods, especially if she has 
 to be contended with for several miles before the 
 scene comes in view, much preferring the glorious 
 sunshine, the gentle breezes, and the well-covered 
 tablecloth spread on the grassy summits of the gran- 
 ite walls of the sea. 
 
 One day as they were trotting along toward the 
 Land's End, Tom suddenly broke out with : 
 
 "I believe something's going to happen. I dreamt 
 last night about you and no end of wheels. I 
 couldn't keep you out of the wheels to save me." 
 
 "I suppose it is nothing unusual for you to have 
 wheels in your head." 
 
 "No, they enable me to talk through my hat by 
 machinery. But seriously, I think you're going to 
 break your neck or something." 
 
 "I have no doubt I shall. In fact, I have broken 
 something since you dreamt that." 
 
 "What, your fast?" 
 
 "You are so sharp this morning that one would 
 think you hadn't broken yours. See! Lucy is 
 breaking, too, like her sisters do at the appearance 
 of a male biped. She must have seen a male quad- 
 
anO tfte Pufaltcan 49 
 
 ruped around here somewhere. What I broke was a 
 good resolution." 
 
 "Oh, that's nothing. I break them every morn- 
 ing and mend them every night. They're just as 
 good as ever next morning." 
 
 "What did you have for supper? Mushrooms? 
 They might account for the wheels in your head. 
 The 'piskies,' you know, are said to use them for 
 wheels, which they fasten to 'kraugen' shells and 
 drive across the Gump with a team of fireflies." 
 
 "I'm not piskie-lidden, if I do believe in dreams." 
 
 "Do you really believe in dreams? Nearly every- 
 body has some pet superstition." 
 
 "Of course I believe in dreams. I must be vis- 
 ited by some unseen influence or I couldn't have 
 them when I am dead to the world." 
 
 "I never know when you are serious, if you 
 ever are, but that sounds as if you were, because 
 you defend yourself by what you intend shall do 
 duty for a reason. Don't you know that dreams take 
 place when we are semi-conscious? When we are 
 dead to the world, as you say, we can't dream, or 
 can't know that we do, but on our passage from 
 the sleeping to the waking state we become gradu- 
 ally conscious as the circulation in the brain becomes 
 stronger, and those ideas which are stored in our 
 memory present themselves to our consciousness 
 undisturbed and unregulated by the sights and 
 sounds of our environment. Those come to the 
 surface which have been recently made use of and 
 
50 Cfte Pimrtsee 
 
 are stored in that part of the brain where the cir- 
 culation was most active when we fell asleep and 
 bring along with them ideas which are related to 
 them in some way and are stored in the same neigh- 
 borhood, though they do not always bring along 
 with them also the explanation of their connection. 
 Dreams are always consequents; they are never 
 prophecies." 
 
 "Thank you, that was just as good as if I had 
 read it all in a book. I suppose you did in an en- 
 cyclopaedia probably." 
 
 "No, you won't find that in any book. I have 
 evolved it from the depths of my inner conscious- 
 ness. That's where I keep my choicest things. But 
 I can tell you something else. I have often had 
 dreams that told their own story quite plainly. 
 For instance, I once dreamt that I saw my friend 
 Haskell seated before a white tablecloth, on which 
 he was cutting cocoanut cake. As I came up, he 
 offered me a piece and said, 'Take this before Frank 
 Jacobs comes/ whom I could see coming across 
 country, which was white with snow. You will ob- 
 serve that everything in this dream is white and that 
 all the ideas are connected by a 'k' sound. The 
 whiteness was caused by the light of the rising sun 
 shining full on my face and the 'k' sounds were all 
 occasioned by the kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-oo of a cock 
 which was crowing as I awoke." 
 
 "I thought you said the ideas are provided by the 
 memory and do not come from the outside." 
 
anD tfre publican 51 
 
 so, when you awake gently and naturally 
 because you have slept enough, but when you are 
 aroused, as in this instance, the strength of the pres- 
 entation is so strong that it is that which will de- 
 termine from which quarter of the brain the dream 
 will proceed. You thus have an inconsequent jum- 
 ble which is more or less ridiculous according to the 
 proportions of the mixture of presentations and 
 representations, as the psychologists say." 
 
 "Now, you're getting learned. Thank goodness, 
 there's Billy. You might try him with that disser- 
 tation on dreams. He sees things when he dreams, 
 not wheels, but serpents, flames, blue, green, and red 
 demons, fiery dragons and things that he never could 
 remember unless from his previous dreams. He 
 never really saw them anywhere." 
 
 "You are speaking of a diseased brain now and 
 the fact that it is diseased means that it distorts. 
 The things he sees are all memories, nevertheless, 
 twisted into all manner of confused representa- 
 tions." 
 
 "Hullo, Billy! How's your insomnia, old man?" 
 
 Billy Mann was a swollen, bottle-nosed, blue and 
 red, bloated landlord, with a rough voice, an un- 
 steady walk, and a bleary eye. He was always suf- 
 fering from insomnia and always talking about it. 
 As a rule patients of this description pick up a name 
 for their malady which is as bad a distortion as 
 their dreams. Some have debetus, others rheumatiz, 
 and most dispepsy, but Billy had got hold of the 
 
52 Cfte Pftati0ee 
 
 right word. He was proud of it and displayed it 
 every time he took a glass of anything "for his 
 complaint." 
 
 "How are you, Mr. Mitchell ?" was Billy's greet- 
 ing, the formality of which to the uninitiated would 
 appear to be cold after Tom's hearty familiarity, but 
 it was not, for Tom was one of those people who, 
 though apparently genial enough, always inspire a 
 kind of respect which requires them to be addressed 
 as "Mr." He was a fine big man who dressed well 
 and carried himself on all occasions with confidence. 
 You could no more shake his nerve than that of the 
 great pyramid. This may seem a cheap kind of 
 advantage to take of others, but in reality it is not. 
 It cannot be acquired and is only natural to those 
 who have the character to sustain it. The modest, 
 retiring man may be made of much finer material, 
 but he won't wear so well. 
 
 As their horses were led to the stable Billy invited 
 his visitors to "come in and have a glass of Mo- 
 selle" (pronounced as a word of three syllables), 
 which was the drink he invariably offered to the 
 most favored guests, and which, by the bye, no man, 
 if he is honest, will refuse. Those wee people-- 
 that Scotch term suits them best whose god is 
 fashion, pretend to like champagne better than Mo- 
 selle because it is "the thing" to drink a "dry" wine, 
 but the real reason is that it costs more and gives 
 them a better chance to show their vulgarity. The 
 muscat grape is unequalled by any other that grows, 
 
Publican 53 
 
 and the wine made from it is absolutely unsurpass- 
 able, but that contemptible tyrant fashion, which 
 none but the Lilliputians will pay any attention to, 
 discards it for a wine distinctly its inferior. Some 
 children prefer a green, sour, and coppery pickle to 
 a lump of sparkling bright white sugar, but they are 
 not nice children. 
 
 Mitchell's treatment of Billy invariably consisted 
 in the process familiarly known as "pulling his leg," 
 a very few minutes of which became very tiresome 
 to Frank, so he excused himself that they might 
 "talk business" while he strolled down to the point. 
 
 Frank was as familiar with every foot of ground 
 at the Land's End as he was with the garden at 
 home, but he never visited it without a thrill of 
 pleasure that made the blood course through his 
 arteries with a prouder throb. What a magnificent 
 scene it was, headland after headland of massive 
 granite sitting like a lion couchant facing the might 
 of the Atlantic and presenting an immovable front 
 to the battering of its waves. To-day the sea was 
 calm and cool and deep, the gentle swells just kissing 
 the granite feet of the cliff which stretches furthest 
 west and south into the ocean, and in the bright sun- 
 shine nature was decked in all her radiant sheen. 
 The dark-blue of the waters, flecked here and there 
 with white, went out to meet the lessening color of 
 the sky as it approached the horizon, between which 
 and the spot on which he stood the white shaft of 
 the lighthouse shot upward from its black crag as 
 
54 C6e Pftarfcee 
 
 much of an ornament by day as it was a beacon by 
 night. The cliffs at this time were clad in purple 
 heather, the mauve flower familiarly known as the 
 sea pink and that most beautiful of all wildflowers 
 because of its delicate shape and tints, known to 
 some by the unsuitable and pretentious name of con- 
 volvulus, to others by the equally unfit name of 
 bindweed, and to yet others as the morning glory. 
 It certainly should have done better than this in the 
 course of time and should have earned for itself a 
 name expressive in one word as far as possible of 
 gentle birth. Do you wonder what was the name 
 that Adam gave it? 
 
 Frank gazed in silent awe at the magic scene and 
 again thanked God that he was not as other men 
 are. Once, he thought, I drove a little whippersnap- 
 per of a parson down here to see the Land's End 
 in a storm, and, standing at the extremity, two hun- 
 dred feet perpendicularly above the wrestling waves 
 whose spray was flung above his head, he folded 
 his hands behind his back and muttered, "I'm dis- 
 appointed." That man will be disappointed in "the 
 great white throne." What an uncomfortable thing 
 it must be to go about the world with an imagination 
 too big for it! 
 
 On Frank's return to the hotel he found that 
 Billy was being removed upstairs to bed in a som- 
 nolent condition, for guests would soon be arriving 
 the drive from Camruth was a long one and, 
 for the credit of the house, it would be best to have 
 
and tftc Pufalfccin 55 
 
 him out of the way. Billy's "Moselley" had stirred 
 up the whiskey he had been previously taking, and 
 the inevitable had happened. There was also some- 
 thing else inevitable: if Billy did not speedily 
 straighten up and keep himself sober enough to look 
 after his own house, there would be another land- 
 lord of the first and last hotel in England. One 
 Tom Mitchell would not mind if there was. 
 
 On the way home the talk of the two friends had 
 a directer bearing on the local situation than had 
 their banter on the outward journey. Mitchell's 
 style was usually of a mocking character, and he 
 was just as likely to mean what he said jokingly as 
 not to mean what he asserted was an article of his 
 creed. He also very soon adopted that style, and 
 East had not known him many days before he found 
 him to be a sort of animated riddle. This made his 
 company much more entertaining than would have 
 been that of a more matter-of-fact individual, and 
 especially one of the type prevalent in Redborne. 
 
 As they rode along, Mitchell suddenly blurted out, 
 "Why don't you join the church?" 
 
 "Why don't you?" Frank returned. 
 
 "I have the floor or shall have if I get pitched 
 off. When you've answered my question I'll answer 
 yours." 
 
 "In the first place, you don't care two straws 
 whether I go to church or not, and in the second 
 place, it wouldn't do you any good to know why I 
 do not." 
 
56 Cfte Pimrteec 
 
 "I assure you I take quite a paternal interest in 
 your welfare, and I know that in this community 
 you'll be among the rocks before you know it if you 
 don't go to church." 
 
 "Then you think I ought to consult my temporal 
 welfare by pretending to be anxious about my im- 
 mortal soul?" 
 
 "Of course. Your bread and butter is a matter 
 of immediate consequence; the other you can 'take 
 under advisement/ ' 
 
 "Then why don't you take your own medicine?" 
 
 "Because I'm a publican, of course. I haven't got 
 a soul to save or, if I have, it won't be saved, 
 which comes to the same thing." 
 
 "You said just now that in my case that was a 
 matter that could wait. What about the bread and 
 butter?" 
 
 "Don't eat any. Since I became a man I put away 
 childish things. But it wouldn't do me any good, 
 anyhow, to go to church. I don't want that crowd 
 in my house if they would come, and they don't 
 want me in theirs, but you've got to go or you'll 
 find you can't live here." 
 
 "Nonsense ! What business is it of anybody else's 
 what I do so long as I keep the mine accounts 
 straight?" 
 
 "You don't hear all the talk I do. You are fre- 
 quently the topic for our barroom crowd, and if 
 they are sufficiently interested in you to make you. 
 the subject of their conversation, don't you suppose 
 
and tftc publican 5? 
 
 that all the old women in the parish are spreading 
 artful insinuations about you that become wilful 
 lies before the fifth repetition?" 
 
 "What if they do? How can it affect me?" 
 
 "In this way. First they will notice that you are 
 seen in my company very frequently, then they will 
 wonder how we spend our time in the evenings 
 and will suggest cards, next one will say definitely 
 that we play, after that the suggestion will be added 
 that we play for money and then will come the re- 
 flection as to the unwisdom of trusting such large 
 sums of money as pass through your hands on ac- 
 count of the mines to a gambler. I'm willing to bet 
 you that if you don't join the church you will be 
 called into old Ellis' sweatbox pretty soon and 
 treated to a little fatherly counsel." 
 
 "Nonsense! Ellis won't pay any attention to the 
 gossip of these busybodies, and if he does, it will be 
 quite easy to show him that it is only the talk of 
 idle, mischievous people." 
 
 "On the contrary. You can't show him that you 
 don't associate with me, and the fact that you 
 do that will be enough. As I told you, you had bet- 
 ter join the church, and in addition well, they go 
 together, anyhow you had better drop me." 
 
 "I wish I could tell when you are serious and 
 when not, but I have never been able to discover 
 any indicator which would give me the clue as yet." 
 
 "I don't see," replied Mitchell, "that it makes 
 
58 Cfre ptmtigee 
 
 any difference whether I am serious or not. You 
 can see yourself that it is a serious matter for you." 
 
 "On the contrary, I am quite unable to see any- 
 thing more than the banter which it amuses you to 
 indulge in." 
 
 "All right, I've warned you. Go to the devil in 
 spite of me if you want to, but you'll have to ac- 
 knowledge when you get to Hades that I tried my 
 best to keep you on this side of the river." 
 
 "Well, now," said Frank, "just for the sake of 
 argument, how could it mend matters for me to 
 join the church?" 
 
 "Why, you'd be able to protect yourself then. In 
 the first place, you wouldn't be an object of so much 
 interest and there wouldn't be so many lies told 
 about you. Those that were told you would hear 
 of and be in a position to contradict. They would 
 be brought to you by your good friends, whilst now 
 the mischief is done without your knowing any- 
 thing at all about it. Take, for instance, our party 
 in the bar. You would never think from the way 
 old Slow meets you that he ever had anything 
 against you, would you ? Yet I have heard him say- 
 ing the most uncomplimentary things about you. 
 Of course, I shut him up when I heard him, but 
 you can bet he improved the opportunity as soon 
 as I was out of hearing." 
 
 "Why on earth is it that these old beasts can't 
 let a man alone when he never interferes with 
 them?" 
 
ana tfte pufiliran 59 
 
 "You can't look at anything from the same point 
 of view as they do." 
 
 "No, thanks be. But fancy anybody that had any 
 knowledge of me at all accusing me of playing 
 cards! Do you play?" 
 
 "Not if I can help it, but once in a great while 
 I do in order not to be the only man in the room 
 who won't take a hand, but I never by any chance 
 play for any more than nominal or penny points." 
 
 "I don't even do that. It is not a point of moral- 
 ity with me, but merely of common sense. Card- 
 playing is the most stupid way of spending the time 
 I know of. I prefer rational conversation about 
 even the most ordinary topic." 
 
 "Well, I can hardly agree with you there. You 
 have been accustomed to talk to people who have 
 ideas to exchange. I would certainly rather play a 
 good game of whist than listen to those two bril- 
 liant lights of the medical profession that adorn my 
 barroom, Drs. Slow and Bumm." 
 
 "If I can't find anybody worth talking to, I keep 
 my own counsel, or read a book. Card playing I 
 don't consider at all. It is simply a sinful waste 
 of time and that is far worse than waste of money." 
 
 "Oh, I don't know. I'm a bit of philosopher my- 
 self, too, you know. The same reason that induces 
 us to converse prompts us to play cards. The game 
 calls forth the same desires. In each we have an 
 adversary and the majority care more for victory in 
 
eo Cfte 
 
 both contests than they do for the matter of con- 
 troversy." 
 
 "To me to sit down to play cards is like deliber- 
 ately throwing my money into the sea. If I specu- 
 late, I may get some return, and if I listen I may 
 learn, but of malice aforethought recklessly to 
 squander hours of that precious time which can 
 never return in the manipulation of bits of paste- 
 board is such a silly and contemptible thing to do 
 that I should be more ashamed of doing it than I 
 should of getting drunk. There's one thing I escape, 
 anyhow. They can't accuse me of the twin folly 
 called dancing. There's no chance of that here." 
 
 "Well, if they can't accuse you of dancing they'll 
 accuse you of something worse before long. There's 
 no compromise with these people. Your only course 
 I tell you is to join the church." 
 
 "In the sixteenth century men were burned for 
 refusing to join the church. I am not willing to 
 go that length because I think a man is a fool to 
 throw away the only life he has, or ever will have, 
 for any cause, but I am willing to endure a reason- 
 able or unreasonable amount of persecution, 
 rather than turn hypocrite." 
 
 "I know. You belong to that pigheaded race 
 who prefer to butt at a stone wall rather than climb 
 over it, whereas I belong to the crowd who would 
 even prefer to dig a hole under it. I don't want to 
 'fix baynits' and charge, or perform any acro- 
 batics, if any obliging person will make a hole for 
 
me with a spade. I don't even want to do the dig- 
 ging myself." 
 
 "Not a bit of it. You're no more a diplomat 
 than I am, and you wouldn't join the church on any 
 consideration whatever." 
 
 "I don't have to, but if I had to I would. You'll 
 have to : that's all there is about it." 
 
 "Not much. I have read everything valuable that 
 ever has been written on the subject and have given 
 it years of careful thought. I don't intend to waste 
 any more time on the conflict between religion and 
 science. My mind is made up, and I shall save my 
 time for better things." 
 
 "That's neither here nor there. I don't care what 
 you believe. That's not the question. You can't 
 do the work you are trying to do here unless you 
 submit to the public opinion that rules this com- 
 munity." 
 
 "But I am only here to carry out a temporary pur- 
 pose. As soon as John is able to step into my shoes 
 I shall only be too glad to resign them." 
 
 "Even that will be a matter of years, and you 
 won't be allowed to go on even for one year as 
 you are going. You may think that if you want to 
 sacrifice yourself on the altar of duty or humanity 
 or on whatever other altar you are offering your- 
 self up all you have to do is to make up your mind 
 to do it, but I tell you you won't be allowed even to 
 do that unless you join the church." 
 
62 Cfie 
 
 Just then the horses cantered into town and they 
 separated as the hotel came in view, Frank going 
 on home, which was only two or three hundred 
 yards farther. 
 
anD t&e publican 63 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 John was in the habit of getting the letters from 
 the post office rather than wait until they were de- 
 livered, as that left very little time for answering 
 any that had to be replied to by return, and when 
 one morning Frank was looking over those ad- 
 dressed to him, he said: 
 
 "Here's another invoice addressed to the mine I 
 wish you'd tell them not to give you any of these 
 things but put them in the mine bag. The boy 
 is gone now, and I shall have to take this thing down 
 there myself. Letters addressed to the purser 
 should, of course, come here, but those addressed 
 to the manager, or to the mine simply, should go 
 there. Very often they are way-bills of goods com- 
 ing in that day and are wanted at once." 
 
 "I've told them that already," replied John, "but 
 you know what a pigheaded lot they are. They 
 will do things their own way." 
 
 "You can always trust people who are secure in 
 their jobs to be as disobliging as possible. Those 
 who have to win and keep customers acquire very 
 different habits." 
 
 "Did you hear how they refused to deliver a let- 
 
64 C&e 
 
 ter to old Dr. Slow because it was addressed to 
 Chapel Street, where he used to live, instead of to 
 Market Street, where he is now? They said there 
 wasn't any Dr. Slow on Chapel Street and sent the 
 letter back." 
 
 "Yes, I've heard lots of stories of that kind 
 about them. They won't inconvenience me by their 
 stubbornness or their stupidity any more than I can 
 help, though." 
 
 "Hulloh! What's this?" exclaimed Frank, as he 
 went on looking through the letters. "Here's a note 
 from the bank, enclosing a clipping from a Falmouth 
 paper and asking if it doesn't refer to our horse and 
 dogcart." 
 
 This would have startled most people, but not 
 (John He merely looked up from an invoice of 
 candles he was reading, and Frank went on : 
 
 "Horse and dogcart left at Union Hotel. Owner 
 can have it on proper proof and paying expenses. 
 Now, what does that indicate, John? It seems to 
 me more mysterious than ever." 
 
 "It shows he drove to Falmouth," replied John. 
 
 "Of course, of course. Haven't you got any 
 further than that? Why did he drive to Falmouth 
 to take train or ship, or had he business in Fal- 
 moutn and met with foul play or lost his life acci- 
 dentally there?" 
 
 "If he wanted to go by train he would go to 
 Camruth, and if he wanted to go by ship he would 
 
anD tjje pufiltom 
 
 go to Plymouth, and I never heard of his having 
 business in Falmouth." 
 
 "Well, I suppose I shall have to go and claim tfiiS 
 horse and perhaps I can find out something more 
 there, but the advertisement is now more than a 
 month old, and they may have sold old Bob to pay 
 expenses. In the first place I'll write and find that 
 out. As to the getting of information, the bank 
 will already have attended to that. The whole 
 county is honeycombed with their secret agents. 
 Meanwhile don't say anything to Gertrude. It's no 
 use raising false hopes." 
 
 That day the first account under Frank's purser- 
 ship was to be held at North Decamp, but there was 
 nothing to be anxious about. The mine had about 
 paid cost, so there would be no necessity for a call, 
 and Mr. East's shares could still continue to be held 
 in his name. For the present this gave Frank some 
 standing, but when the time should come that they 
 must pay a call or be relinquished, his position 
 would hang on a very slender thread. His disposi- 
 tion always had been to meet trouble more than 
 halfway, but he had always found, when it arrived, 
 that he was more than a match for it and that it 
 really was not so bad as he had feared. In any event 
 he was secure for another sixteen weeks, and that 
 is always a comfortable margin to have. 
 
 The business meeting, called for one o'clock, pre- 
 ceded by the committee meeting at twelve, was as 
 uninteresting as meetings of this kind usually are, 
 
66 Cfre 
 
 and at two o'clock the shareholders present, with a 
 few visitors from neighboring mines and Camruth, 
 passed upstairs to dinner in good spirits and with 
 appetites sharpened by a drive in the fresh air and 
 by being delayed an hour, or, in some cases, two 
 hours beyond their usual time for dinner. The meal 
 is a very plain and substantial one, cooked by a 
 woman in the account house who in her early days 
 acted in the same capacity in some of the best houses 
 in the neighborhood, but is far fresher, cleaner, 
 and more bountiful than most of the dinners to be 
 had in fashionable restaurants. Mere flavors would 
 be wasted on these healthy stomachs which, how- 
 ever, are never allowed to be scared by a speck of 
 dirt. The very floor, freshly scrubbed, is as clean as 
 soap and water can make it. The thing, though, 
 which is really distinctive about a Cornish mine 
 dinner, is the punch, which is not introduced until 
 the cloth is removed and the speech-making begins. 
 Most mines are willing to stand or fall by the qual- 
 ity of this seductive drink and those who indulge 
 in it stand or fall according to the quantity of it they 
 consume. It is brewed by the local expert who 
 knows the proper proportions for the huge jug 
 which has done duty for the purpose ever since the 
 mine was started, an idea of which may be afforded 
 by giving the recipe for a tumblerful, which is : the 
 juice of half a lemon, sufficient sugar to absorb it, 
 a wineglassful two-thirds rum and one-third brandy 
 and enough boiling water to fill the tumbler. The 
 
anD tftc pufllftan 6? 
 
 reservoir is kept at the head of the table and two 
 smaller jugs are filled from it, one going down 
 while the other comes up the hospitable board. As 
 long as the punch lasts it continues to be drunk 
 while speeches are made in response to the various 
 toasts. "The Queen" (it was then), is the first, 
 and next "The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and 
 the rest of the Royal Family/' to which no replies 
 are made unless an agent from the Duchy should be 
 present, as is sometimes the case, but the third is 
 "The health of our purser," invariably proposed by 
 the committeeman on the right of the chair, in 
 which the purser sits. To this he is expected to re- 
 spond, and then follow in their order "Success to 
 the mine," responded to by the manager and the dif- 
 ferent agents, "The neighboring mines," to which 
 their representatives reply, and finally "The vis- 
 itors," all of whom are expected to "sing for their 
 supper" not literally. That would be considered a 
 breach of decorum to which a mine account dinner 
 has never been known to descend. 
 
 On the present occasion Frank determined to 
 issue his manifesto, as he knew that his speech would 
 be reported in extenso in the local papers, represen- 
 tatives of which were present, in order to correct the 
 false impressions which Mitchell had warned him 
 were abroad and which were evidently entertained 
 by the gentleman who had proposed his health and 
 that of his father for a generation past. A faculty 
 for ready speech had been inherited from his par- 
 
68 Cfre 
 
 ent and he really never felt so much at home as he 
 did when giving formal utterance to his own 
 thoughts. From his habit of going out to meet 
 things he always felt nervous for a time before- 
 hand, but as soon as he had really begun to say 
 what he had to tell, he spoke with the ease and 
 grace of a veteran, though his experience until now 
 had been almost entirely limited to school and col- 
 lege debating societies. The part of his speech 
 which concerns us was this : 
 
 "Mr. Limpet appears to be echoing the popular 
 impression when he takes it for granted that I am 
 here to stay, but nothing is further from my inten- 
 tion. My presence here is pure accident and will be 
 as temporary as I can possibly manage to make it. 
 Most of you probably know that I am right at the 
 threshold of a profession for which I have been 
 preparing for many years and which I have no in- 
 tention whatever of abandoning, but for the present 
 there seemed to be no other course open to me than 
 the one I have adopted. As long as I hold this posi- 
 tion I shall do my duty, as I see it, but I sincerely 
 hope that the day will not be far distant when I 
 may be permitted to retire in favor of another. In 
 saying so much, however, I do not wish to seem un- 
 grateful for your kind reception, which I am deeply 
 sensible of, but I take this course that I may not 
 sail under false colors and that I may improve this 
 semi-public occasion to upset the structure which 
 has been raised on the basis of the dark designs 
 
attD the puBtican 69 
 
 manifested by my father in disappearing and by 
 me in fortunately being led by diphtheria to take a 
 peep over the side of the grave so as to be on hand 
 at the right moment." 
 
 Frank cared a great deal more to be thoroughly 
 understood than he did whether his speech was ac- 
 ceptable or not to those in whose hearing it was 
 spoken, for he very well knew that the tenure of his 
 office did not in the least depend on them, but on 
 their owners, Ellis & Dee. He had been put in 
 with a view to further their own objects, and they 
 thought he would be obedient, as they held his mort- 
 gage, but he was determined that they should know 
 that he was perfectly independent and had no in- 
 tention of acting, even temporarily, as the mere 
 mouthpiece of another. He intended to do his duty 
 as he alone saw it, and every one concerned would 
 please take notice. 
 
 The speech was received with a kind of mild sur- 
 prise by the hoary old temporisers at the head of 
 the board, between whom significant smiles and 
 deprecatory shakes of the head were exchanged, 
 but some of the younger spirits at the other end of 
 the room, led by Tom Mitchell, who was a small 
 shareholder, seemed to appreciate the declaration of 
 independence and applauded accordingly. 
 
 Frank's attitude was no doubt unwise from a con- 
 servative point of view, but he was irritated at the 
 evident misconception formed of him and the evil- 
 speaking and uncharitableness which Mitchell had 
 
Cfte 
 
 hinted at, and he thought that he had better take 
 advantage of an opportunity like this to make his 
 position clear. A preliminary assertion of independ- 
 ence, however, is seldom called for. It is quite 
 proper as a defense, but impolitic as a defiance. 
 Diplomatic Frank could never be. There was noth- 
 ing for which he had greater scorn. Polite lying 
 he would never stoop to. He was determined that 
 his course at all times should be an open book which 
 "the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err" 
 in. 
 
 The effect of this speech, however, was only 
 temporary at this time, as much greater entertain- 
 ment was expected in those which were to follow. 
 An account was a mine agent's gala day and the 
 efforts he made to shine as an orator were much 
 appreciated by those who, like Mitchell, apprehended 
 the situation and relished the display of familiarity 
 with words which bore no relation to the meaning 
 they were intended to convey. One worthy man, 
 for instance, said truly that speaking was not his 
 "fault," but one thing he could say was that "the 
 proximity of the ends" was everything that could 
 be desired. 
 
 The last of the agents to speak was a son of the 
 manager. Talent is so common in families that a 
 clever parent can generally manage to find room 
 on the pay-roll of the corporation that employs him 
 for an able scion of his own stock, and it was for 
 this reason that Captain Samuel Shuffler drew dou- 
 
and tfte Ptifilicatt 
 
 ble the wages of a working* miner and was per- 
 mitted to eat with "the quality" once every sixteen 
 weeks. Had it been possible he would gladly have 
 avoided the ordeal through which he now had to 
 pass, but to do so he would have to go without the 
 dinner and the punch, and rather than that should 
 happen he would do all the speech-making himself. 
 Calls for "Sam" were heard proceeding from 
 Mitchell and others in his neighborhood, so reluc- 
 tantly the young man got on his feet and tried to 
 begin, but he couldn't say "Gentlemen." He satis- 
 factorily proceeded so far as "Mr. Chairman and," 
 but there he stuck. 
 
 "Never mind the gentlemen, Sam," prompter 
 Mitchell interpolated. "Go right ahead: 'Unac- 
 customed as I am/ ' 
 
 But no stammerer will ever consent to be helped. 
 He always changes his word if you try to do it. So 
 Sam resigned his attempt in favor of "friends all," 
 which he thought equally appropriate and managed 
 to enunciate. "It is a great pleasure to" here he 
 broke down again, and as the next letter appeared 
 to be "f," Mitchell suggested "feed/' but Sam shook 
 his head and changed again. "D" seemed to be 
 coming now, so Tom tried "drink," and as often as 
 he changed somebody suggested help, but in due 
 time Sam managed to get out "do my best," and, 
 after sundry further attempts and interruptions, to 
 add, "and I thank you, gentlemen (he got out the 
 word with wonderful ease this time, as he had a 
 
Cfte Pfmrigee 
 
 purpose in view)' and Mr. Mitchell for - " He 
 could not be heard to say any more, but resumed 
 his seat amid tumultuous applause. 
 
 The remaining toasts brought forth neither bud- 
 ding nor latent talent, and the company was get- 
 ting torpid when tea and coffee, with thin slices 
 of bread and butter, were introduced and revived 
 them somewhat. The joy of the occasion, however, 
 was yet to come in the shape of hot spirit and 
 water, which the seasoned would continue to imbibe 
 for some hours yet, the majority, including the pur- 
 ser, leaving after the first or second glass. 
 
 Frank had brought Mitchell with him, and they 
 left together. On the way home he told him that 
 he had had news of Bob and the dogcart and that 
 they were at the Union Hotel, Falmouth. He ex- 
 pected to have to go and claim them. 
 
 "You don't say so," replied Tom. "Does that 
 fall in with your theory? It is the last place I 
 should have thought of. I don't suppose you know 
 anybody there, do you?" 
 
 "I don't believe I do, and I didn't know that 
 father did. It's off our beat altogether." 
 
 "Then here I come in as a blessing in disguise 
 again. I know the proprietor of the Union very 
 well. I'll go with you and prove your ownership." 
 
 "It may be that the horse is sold by this time. 
 I should never have known about it, as an advertise- 
 ment in a Falmouth paper would be no more likely 
 to reach me than one in the Edinburgh Scotstmn 
 
and tl)C Publican 73 
 
 or the Berliner Tageblatt, but very few things escape 
 Ellis & Dee. They sent me the clipping." 
 
 "You ought to be very much obliged to your good 
 friends. You'll get the horse back, all right, if he 
 has been sold, and I should say you would be mighty 
 glad to. Lucy is good enough as a general pur- 
 poses animal, but I've seldom seen a horse I liked 
 better than Bob. He's good-looking, good-tem- 
 pered, willing, strong and fast. His action's good, 
 too. Lucy is a daisy-clipper." 
 
 "I agree with you about Bob. He's the best- 
 tempered animal I ever had to do with for one of 
 so much spirit. I always put the horse away my- 
 self when I come home late, you know, and, when 
 I began to do it I didn't know enough to turn the 
 collar upside down before taking it off, and he used 
 to let me pull it over his ears without a murmur." 
 
 "That would be enough to drive any horse crazy. 
 I wonder he let you come near him after doing it 
 once." 
 
 "Well, I suppose he said to himself, 'He doesn't 
 know any better, and as long as he never uses the 
 whip or bearing-rein and never jerks my mouth 
 about, I can put up with this. Besides, he always 
 gives me a carrot as soon as he gets the infernal 
 thing off.' ' 
 
 "My mare is going very thin. I can't make out 
 what's the matter with her. I feed her myself, and 
 she eats well enough, but she doesn't thrive at all. 
 Sometimes she looks around as if she wants some- 
 
74 
 
 thing and doesn't touch the food for quite a while." 
 
 "Do you water her, too?" 
 
 "No, I never do. Henry does that the first thing 
 in the morning." 
 
 "Are you sure he does? You try her with some 
 water before you give her any oats and notice if 
 she seems to want it. Very few of us know how 
 these noble animals suffer from the neglect of their 
 inferiors." 
 
 "If I find you're right I'll make Mr. Henry drink 
 a bucket of that water himself instead of the pint of 
 beer he gets with his dinner every day." 
 
 "Well, to get back to the point we started from," 
 said Frank. "How does the fact of the horse and 
 dogcart being in Falmouth affect any theory you 
 may have had about my father's disappearance ?" 
 
 "I can't say that I've had any theory, but we can 
 tell better when we find out who drove into the 
 stableyard of the Union. That seems to me the 
 main thing." 
 
 "Of course. I don't know why I should have 
 taken it for granted that he did, except that it 
 seemed naturally to follow from the fact of his 
 having driven away from home." 
 
 "How do you know he did ? You have no knowl- 
 edge of him from the time he went to Camruth the 
 day before, have you ?" 
 
 "No. I took it for granted that he came home 
 late and left early the next morning. I couldn't 
 know as I was ill in bed. But he may have gone 
 
anD tfte Puftlican 
 
 straight from Camruth to Falmouth. If he came 
 home late he would put away the horse himself, as 
 I do. William has been told never to wait after 
 ten o'clock." 
 
 "Probably it doesn't matter much now whether 
 he came home or not. William can tell if the stable 
 was occupied. But, seeing that you have taken it 
 for granted that he came home, perhaps you haven't 
 considered the matter in the light of a possible at- 
 tempt at robbery, have you?" 
 
 "No. How could it be?" asked Frank, much in- 
 terested. 
 
 "Well, you know your father had always been 
 in the habit of bringing the money for the pay on 
 Saturday home with him on Thursday. Everybody 
 knew that, and somebody may have thought he was 
 doing it that Thursday evening, but, as a matter 
 of fact, the practice had been discontinued only the 
 week before. Now, the manager always fetches the 
 cash on Saturday morning, and is accompanied by 
 one other man besides the driver. I believe the 
 bank had got wind of something. Capt. Shuffler 
 told me this himself." 
 
 "And so my father may have been killed and the 
 horse driven to Falmouth by the murderer." 
 
 "Possibly. That is only a suggestion, you know. 
 We shall probably be able to tell better if there is 
 anything in it after we have been to Falmouth." 
 
 "Yes, I think we had better go there even if the 
 horse has been sold." 
 
Cfce 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Frank was not the only one who felt the need of 
 society at Redborne. Gertrude was just as unhappy. 
 Until lately she had been away at school and had 
 been unaccustomed for any lengthened period to be 
 without companions of her own age and tastes. 
 Household cares occupied most of her day, but a 
 desire for the society of her kind was all the more 
 keenly felt as a relaxation from these. 
 
 John seemed to feel no such need, or, if he did, 
 kept the reflection to himself, but nobody had any 
 very clear notion what he did with his time. The 
 business that he was now engaged in kept him fairly 
 located during the hours usually devoted to affairs, 
 but there was nothing in it calling for strenuous 
 exertion, and consequently he had a good deal of 
 spare time to devote to whatever interested him 
 most. 
 
 Women are more dependent on society than men. 
 They must talk. They are like a kettle on the fire 
 which in due time must boil over. They cannot 
 contain themselves any longer but must let off steam 
 on somebody. Men, on the other hand, go away 
 long distances alone or become hermits without any 
 
anD tf)e ptifiltom 
 
 apparent difficulty. They have no such impelling 
 need for sympathy, but find themselves quite able 
 to carry on almost any pursuit without a partner. 
 Frank was of a very independent temper, and prob- 
 ably would have maintained his isolation had not 
 Mitchell advanced first, but he very soon found Tom 
 to be possessed of such sterling qualities that he 
 would have been glad to know him under any cir- 
 cumstances. He had a faculty for taking a whim- 
 sical view of everything and seeming never to be 
 serious, but truth and honor were things that he 
 never trifled with, and he was never known to do 
 an unmanly or ungenerous action. His chief de- 
 light seemed to be to ridicule prigs and snobs. 
 
 Gertrude must have friends, or, at least, some- 
 body on whom she could pour out the stream of 
 pent up words which threatened to burst its banks 
 and flood the plain with tears, but her outlook was 
 no more promising than Frank's, and if she made 
 a more unfortunate choice, she could hardly be 
 blamed, seeing her greater need. The companion 
 she chose was in her way something of a public 
 character, like Frank's friend, for her associations 
 were intimate with the indoor life of all in the 
 parish who were in the habit of employing a dress- 
 maker. She was the chief repository for all the 
 idle tales that flourished in the community and acted 
 as common carrier for all the gossips. At first she 
 came to the Easts' only to sew, but she very soon 
 began to talk, and, after a while, Gertrude got into 
 
78 Cfte 
 
 the habit of calling at her house to get her to come 
 to work and sometimes even spending half an hour 
 there with her mother. Occasionally she would walk 
 home with Martha after her day's work was done, 
 as the path led almost the whole way through what 
 were once her father's fields, and this was all very 
 well as long as the summer lasted, but soon it began 
 to grow dark after she had remained chatting for a 
 while, and Martha's brother, a handsome young 
 miner, had to see her safely home again. Before 
 very long it appeared as though these visits to Mar- 
 tha's cottage were undertaken for the express pur- 
 pose of the return journey, and Frank began to be 
 troubled in spirit about another difficulty. "Church 
 and State I believe myself competent to deal with," 
 he said to himself, "but woman is beyond me. If 
 Gertrude will not respect the proprieties, I suppose 
 I cannot help it, but it will not do for me to over- 
 look the matter altogether. It is an unpleasant job, 
 but I must speak to her about it." So, one evening, 
 as she came in, he took an opportunity of suggest- 
 ing to her that, as she was without a mother, she 
 might occasionally ask herself if she was in all 
 respects acting just as she knew a mother would like 
 her to act, or, if she were herself a mother, as she 
 would like her daughter to act, but it was evident 
 that something of the kind had been expected and 
 prepared for, as he was met with a tu quoque. 
 
 "Yes, I know the opinion in which I am held here 
 because of my association with Mitchell, but he has 
 
anD tftc Pufiliran 
 
 virtues which these little people are unable to ap- 
 preciate. I am also quite willing to allow that the 
 Eddys are very estimable people, but you know your- 
 self that the social code is being strained when two 
 young people of opposite sexes are much together 
 after dark. If I got into the habit of walking with 
 a miner's daughter in the evenings, her father would 
 have good cause to keep her indoors. I hope you 
 will see the application and accept a suggestion 
 kindly offered rather than give occasion for com- 
 ment by others who may not be so considerate." 
 
 The "thank you" with which this speech was re- 
 ceived sounded very much more like "Mind your 
 own business" as far as accent went, but, at any 
 rate, either that, or something else, was effectual in 
 keeping Miss Gertrude at home in the evenings, at 
 least for a while. 
 
 Frank himself was suffering from no such criti- 
 cism and as a kind of continuous entertainment in 
 the shape of a Fisheries Exhibition was in progress 
 at Camruth at this time, it had become his practice 
 to spend the evening there. There was a concert 
 each night, and he was extremely fond of good 
 music, having himself a voice of unusual range, 
 good power, and excellent quality, besides being able 
 to play more than one instrument with considerable 
 taste and as much skill as is usually acquired by one 
 who does not rob more serious pursuits of the time 
 which they demand. There was a very capable 
 organist at Camruth, and his recitals at the exhibi- 
 
Cfre 
 
 tion were appreciated by none more than Frank, but 
 singing he liked better than anything instrumental 
 when it was really good, and on two or three occa- 
 sions he had heard what he called really good sing- 
 ing. A girl whom he had known when she was 
 quite a child had now grown up and developed a 
 voice of remarkable quality which had been carefully 
 nurtured at the Royal Academy of Music in London, 
 and she was now at home for what possibly might 
 be a vacation or a rest before either continuing her 
 studies on the continent or trying her wings in her 
 native air. She sang one night a simple ballad, 
 for she knew that any vocal display, such as the 
 most ordinary operatic air would have been in Cam- 
 ruth, would be out of place, and, whatever the re- 
 sult may have been on the audience in general, nine 
 out of ten of whom were not in the least capable 
 of deriving the exquisite joy of a musician from the 
 purity of tone and flawless rendering of the song, 
 though they applauded till the building shook, one 
 man was overcome, one strong man was bent like 
 a willow twig. Under the influence of that thrill- 
 ing melody his iron will and independent spirit had 
 disappeared and the beautiful vision that had come 
 and lifted him up into the environment of her own 
 heaven might have taken him captive and led him 
 into any folly. At her bidding he would have made 
 himself as ridiculous as any other idiot he could 
 gleefully laugh at under similar stress. If Mitchell 
 
anD tlir publican 81 
 
 could only for one moment look into the apology 
 for a mind that was left him now! 
 
 This is the great compensation which those of 
 finer fibre have because a large share of the good 
 things of this world are not distributed to them: 
 those that do come they can enjoy. What are 
 gorgeous sunsets, beautiful pictures, and heaven- 
 sent music to the average millionaire? If he has 
 made his money out of pork, the sight of a well 
 "dressed" hog brings the greatest delight his soul 
 is capable of, and if it came to him from a run of 
 luck in the "pit," it may be that he shares with 
 the tinhorn gambler some of the excitement that 
 comes from such ventures, but of the real pleasures 
 of life he knows no more than the horse he drives. 
 
 Still, artistic delight is one thing and to make a 
 fool of yourself over a girl is another, but it is by 
 no means an uncommon occurrence for an impres- 
 sionable youth for juvenility is always plastic, no 
 matter how stubborn it may be to attempt to join 
 in the worship of Melpomene or Terpsichore and 
 find himself seated at the feet of Venus. 
 
 Frank determined that when the concert was over 
 he would take advantage of the intimacy of other 
 days and compliment the fair singer on her tri- 
 umph. There was no outlet for the entertainers ex- 
 cept through the crowd of promenaders on the floor 
 below the gallery in which he was, and he sat and 
 watched for his quarry with such impatience that 
 the minutes seemed to him as though they slowly 
 
82 Cfte 
 
 dragged themselves along to mock his restless soul. 
 In truth but two numbers had followed Miriam's 
 song when she came from the left of the stage for- 
 ward into the throng, which she had no sooner done 
 than she was joined by a tall and dark man, whose 
 face Frank could not see, and immediately left the 
 hall before any of those who would have pressed 
 forward to congratulate her were aware that she 
 had gone. 
 
 Poor Frank! All of us over twenty have gone 
 through it and Frank himself had felt the same 
 thing before, but he was none the less restless and 
 unhappy on that acount. Every time it occurs it 
 appears to be the first and only time that the genuine 
 passion has ever been felt, but after a vigorous 
 springtime and a healthy summer, if no canker at- 
 tacks it before, it generally succumbs to the first 
 frost, though it has been known to last till the thaw. 
 The stump does not die, though, and usually may be 
 grafted with success next spring. 
 
publican 83 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Falmouth could be reached from Redborne by a 
 drive of thirty-five miles, but few would think of 
 taking it. There was scarcely any communication 
 between the two places, but any one making the 
 journey would drive to Camruth and from there 
 take the train to Truro and down the other leg of 
 the Y to his destination. Thirty-five miles would 
 be considered an ordinary day's work for a horse 
 in California, but in England, where the roads are 
 far better and the climate much more conducive to 
 comfort in open air work, anything beyond twenty 
 miles would be considered excessive. Even that 
 would not be done two days following, as, for 
 instance, in driving to a place and returning next 
 day; consequently Frank did not give the subject 
 a thought when he and Tom Mitchell set out to- 
 gether to find out what had become of Bob. Tom 
 was in good spirits, for he dearly loved to get away 
 from Redborne for a day or two, though his old 
 passion for more extensive roving had long since 
 disappeared, but Frank was moody and inclined 
 to be silent. Of course, a man of Mitchell's experi- 
 ence was not long in accurately diagnosing the com- 
 
84 Cfte 
 
 plaint and in administering medicine. He hadn't 
 much faith in any cure but disillusion, but ridicule 
 sometimes had an alterative effect and from his 
 point of view was very pleasant to administer, if not 
 to take. 
 
 "You don't seem to be anxious to deliver a homily 
 on anything this morning," he said, as they drove 
 along toward Camruth. "I suppose you haven't fin- 
 ished incubating yet." 
 
 "And you can't wait till the chick is hatched but 
 must break the shell yourself." 
 
 "I think your egg is addle this time, my bird. 
 I've sat on a good many eggs of that kind myself, 
 but the time spent on them was always wasted." 
 
 "How can you possibly know what I'm thinking 
 about?" 
 
 "I know you've been to that Fisheries Exhibi- 
 tion every night for a week, and that the weather 
 most of the time has been vile. I also know that 
 nothing but a woman will make a man behave like 
 that. You don't suppose that I thought you had 
 developed a sudden passion for fish, do you? An- 
 other thing: if there wasn't a woman in the case 
 you would have asked me to go with you." 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder if you're right. It had not 
 occurred to me that I was suffering from any mal- 
 ady, but from what you say I suppose I must be. 
 Well, she's a very fine girl." 
 
 "Oh, no doubt. She always is. I don't know 
 
tftc puiiiican 85 
 
 her, but I'll admit that right off. Still, if I were 
 you, I should take a strong emetic at once." 
 
 "Indeed! What would you recommend?" 
 
 "Well, most people under these circumstances 
 try to divert a man's attention and lead him off 
 after other pursuits, but there they show their ig- 
 norance. If I wanted a man to drop a girl I would 
 give him a surfeit of her. Perhaps it wouldn't 
 work with some men, but it was always effective 
 with me." 
 
 "But suppose you can't get near her, how does 
 your plan work then?" 
 
 "Can't get near her ? Oh, you're not so bad after 
 all. When a man is really smitten he can't be kept 
 away from her vicinity with a shotgun, but yours, I 
 see, is a case of divinity worship fear to approach 
 and all that. Now, there aren't any divinities in 
 the flesh, my son, and the sooner you approach and 
 get the thing over, the better it will be for your 
 peace of mind. You have too much on your hands 
 just now to be able to find any time for worship." 
 
 "You're altogether too matter-of-fact, Mitchell. 
 You miss all the good things of life. There is noth- 
 ing really enjoyable but has its foundation in sen- 
 timent. The gross, animal pleasures are not to be 
 considered beside those which affect what is usually 
 referred to as the heart." 
 
 "I know we're differently constituted and that I 
 was never so romantic as you perhaps haven't 
 sympathies of so refined a nature but as I have 
 
86 Cfte 
 
 grown older I have never seen reason to shake my 
 faith in the belief that anything sentimental which 
 will interfere with a man's appetite or sleep, or 
 cause him to be moody, discontented and solitary, 
 is any other than a disease and should be treated 
 as such. This particular craziness about a woman 
 is the worst disease there is, and is only aggravated 
 by our social customs. As soon as the first symp- 
 toms appear a man ought to be treated to a surfeit 
 of his innamorata and if he doesn't get nauseated 
 in less than a week he isn't worth saving." 
 
 "Innamorate know better than to make them- 
 selves cheap to every quack who would like to use 
 them as prescriptions." 
 
 It is not much use interfering with one who is 
 suffering from the malady whicji has troubled man 
 ever since there began to be competition for the 
 hand of a woman, and, though Mitchell made spas- 
 modic efforts to arouse Frank to some sense of his 
 surroundings, they completed their journey to Cam- 
 ruth with very little further conversation. On the 
 train Mitchell found others with whom he could 
 while away the hours, and when they reached Fal- 
 mouth there were many old friends he expected to 
 meet again. 
 
 From the train they went straight to the Union 
 Hotel where they found that Bob and the dogcart 
 still were. 
 
 "Yes, I shall be very sorry to lose him," said the 
 landlord, when Mitchell had satisfactorily proved 
 
and tfje Pufalican 87 
 
 to his friend Frank's ownership of the horse, "I 
 have been using him myself, and a better horse I 
 never drove. We found out his name, too, for one 
 day I was having a rather animated discussion with 
 a man I was driving when I offered several times 
 to bet him five bob and it seemed to me that the 
 horse pricked up his ears and gave a start every 
 time I spoke. I shouldn't have put it down to the 
 right cause, however, if he hadn't answered to his 
 name one day in the yard when a namesake of his 
 was being spoken to by the ostler." 
 
 "But you haven't told us yet how he came here, 
 Mr. Williams," said Frank. 
 
 "Well, he just walked in, so Dick says. When 
 he looked round there was the horse standing in 
 the middle of the yard waiting to be put away, and 
 he just did what he ordinarily would under such 
 circumstances. It doesn't often happen, of course, 
 but once in a while a man in a hurry will drive 
 to the yard gate, jump off and let the horse walk 
 in. This is generally a regular customer, but the 
 thing wasn't so unusual as to make Dick think 
 there was anything extraordinary about it." 
 
 "Well, that's curious, 1 must say," remarked 
 Mitchell. "Didn't anybody come in during the 
 day that claimed ownership? Wasn't there any 
 strange man in the bar that you can think of as 
 being likely to be the owner? Do you remember 
 any man, say, about five foot seven in height, of 
 stocky build, with a short, full beard turning gray 
 
Cfte 
 
 a man not altogether unlike yourself in appear- 
 ance, but not quite so tall?" 
 
 "You may think that I have tried every means 
 to find out whose horse it was, but there was no- 
 body in the hotel that day that we could suppose 
 was the owner, nor have I been able to find any- 
 body who saw the dogcart arrive. It was in the 
 early morning before there was anybody much 
 about and nobody knows how long the horse was 
 standing there before Dick saw him. He never 
 heard him come in and had been busy in the stables 
 for an hour or more." 
 
 "This is very extraordinary," said Mitchell, "I 
 have seen some funny things in curious places, but 
 never did I come across anything to beat this. 
 Let's go and clarify our intelligence with a 
 drink." 
 
 After the interview between Frank and Bob 
 there could be no doubt as to who owned the 
 horse. He no sooner heard Frank's voice than it 
 became perfectly evident in which stall he was 
 secured. He whinnied, rattled his chain, stamped 
 his feet, and, when Frank went in to him, trem- 
 bled all over with excitement, but on Frank's step- 
 ping to his side, he calmly laid his chin on his 
 master's shoulder and looked across at the others 
 with an expression of quiet content in his big 
 brown eyes. 
 
 Although the distance from Falmouth to Red- 
 borne was beyond what was considered a fair day's 
 
mitt tfte Publican 
 
 work for a horse, it is hardly to be supposed that 
 East and Mitchell would emulate the performance 
 of the old man and his son in yEsop's fable, who 
 carried the ass between them, and take Bob home 
 by train, so they prepared to remain at Falmouth 
 for the night and make a reasonably early start 
 the next day. Neither belonged to the fraternity 
 who seem to think that nothing worth while can 
 be accomplished without torturing themselves by 
 rising before the sun, as an old chap in Redborne 
 did whenever he had a letter to write, the mail 
 leaving at 2 P. M., and they knew that Bob would 
 need no urging to make good time on his home- 
 ward way. 
 
 During their stay in the town the travellers made 
 every effort to find some clue to the mystery they 
 were trying to solve, but without the least suc- 
 cess. It seemed now as if that intelligent animal 
 Bob had been abandoned somewhere in the vicin- 
 ity to his own devices and had found his way un- 
 aided to the principal hotel in the town, which, 
 however, was very near the junction of the High 
 Street with the road from Camruth. 
 
 As to Falmouth itself little need be said. It 
 is not an attractive town, though the suburbs are 
 not without beauties of their own, as might be 
 expected from their situation on the high banks of 
 a wooded river which there meets the sea, but the 
 town itself, like so many others which have not 
 made use of the advantages lavished upon them by 
 
9Q Cfte 
 
 nature, is without any redeeming feature of its 
 own. 
 
 It will be supposed that the two men were on 
 the alert on the homeward trip for any indica- 
 tion which might point to a clue, but at such a dis- 
 tance of time it was not likely that anything would 
 be lying on the road or hanging from a hedge 
 which would have a familiar appearance. There 
 were no mine shafts near that road, so it was im- 
 possible that Mr. East's body could have been made 
 away with by being thrown into one of them, as 
 would have been so easy on the moors across which 
 the road led from Redborne to Camruth, though it 
 was an excellent locality for the operations of high- 
 waymen, as the habitations were extremely few 
 and very far between, nor were there any dangers 
 to be overcome like swollen streams or awkward 
 corners overhanging a yawning gulf. But the 
 theory of highway robbery seemed absurd as no 
 such thing had happened in West Cornwall in the 
 memory of man. Once a few hundred pounds in 
 a leather bag, being transferred from the Cam- 
 ruth bank to its branch at Redborne, had been re- 
 moved from the "boot" of a 'bus unobserved by 
 the driver, but that peaceful community had long 
 endured poverty without resort to robbery with 
 violence. 
 
anD t&e Pti&lfom 91 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 One morning, before Frank was dressed, Paul 
 Young, the butcher, arrived on urgent business, 
 and Frank hurried down to meet him. From his 
 pocket the butcher took a paper which he handed 
 to Frank with the remark: 
 
 "This was found upon the bridge this morning 
 by my little girl." 
 
 Frank took it, and, on opening it, found it to 
 be a draft for the proceeds of the last month's sale 
 of tin by Redborne Consols. Seeing which, he 
 said: 
 
 "This ought to have come to me by post yes- 
 terday, Mr. Young, and I was surprised that it 
 did not. How it could have got out of its envelope 
 and been found on the bridge is something that I 
 cannot understand, can you?" 
 
 "No, I certainly cannot, but I suppose you ought 
 to have it?" 
 
 "Of course, but I will at once write to the bank 
 and give them an account of how it got here. I 
 am much obliged to you for bringing it. Is there 
 nothing else you can tell me about it?" 
 
Cfte 
 
 "That is all I know. My daughter handed it to 
 me, and I brought it here at once." 
 
 When the butcher had gone, Frank found John 
 and asked him if he knew whether the Redborne 
 Consols draft had arrived the day before or not. 
 
 "No," he replied, "of course it didn't. You 
 remember what the letters were. There were only 
 two: one for Gertrude and the bill from Hender- 
 son for coal." 
 
 "Well, Paul Young has just brought the draft 
 here, and says his daughter found it on the bridge. 
 How do you account for that?" 
 
 "That's plain enough. It's the result of the 
 stupidity or malice of those post-office people. I 
 told them to take letters for the mine to Captain 
 Shuffler or deliver them to the boy, but specially 
 excepted all letters addressed directly to you. 
 Either this one wasn't addressed by name to you 
 or else they saw an opportunity to be ugly and took 
 advantage of it." 
 
 "That doesn't account for its being loose. Har- 
 man might have dropped it when out delivering 
 letters, but you have to account for its getting out 
 of the envelope," said Frank. 
 
 "And that's simple enough, too. If he dropped 
 it, anybody a child most likely would pick it up 
 and open it, and, not finding anything interesting, 
 would throw it away again." 
 
 "I have thought of that, but it seems to me more 
 likely that it was delivered to Captain Shuffler, who 
 
and tfie Pufrltom 93 
 
 opened it and gave the draft to a messenger prob- 
 ably to that bright son of his who lost it when 
 bringing it here." 
 
 "That might be. Anyhow, it is a blessing it 
 was found uninjured." 
 
 "Yes, but I must report the matter to the bank 
 and there'll be an investigation. Everybody con- 
 cerned will try and shield himself, and there's no 
 knowing where the blame will ultimately fall." 
 
 Frank at once wrote Ellis & Dee, detailing sim- 
 ply the facts as he knew them without hazarding 
 any guesses to account for the occurrence. 
 
 For some days nothing further was heard of the 
 matter, both the post-office people and Captain 
 Shuffler denying all knowledge of it, but it was not 
 long before a post-office inspector arrived and ex- 
 amined into the affair thoroughly. Frank could 
 only repeat to him what he had already told the 
 bank, with the addition that nothing further had 
 transpired to throw any light on the question, but 
 after a visit to the post office he came back to say 
 that the brother of the postmistress had told him 
 that on a certain day since the draft was missed 
 Frank had informed him that it had been delivered, 
 but he had lost it. 
 
 "What an infamous lie!" immediately exclaimed 
 Frank. "Why, you have only to ask my brother, 
 who always gets the letters, to disprove any such 
 story as that in an instant." 
 
 "Well, before I do that, have you any objection 
 
Cfre Pimrfgee 
 
 to this man making the statement in your presence, 
 if he will?" 
 
 "Not a bit. He'll hardly dare to." 
 
 The inspector went out and came back with the 
 man, who actually had the hardihood to repeat the 
 statement and to say that it was made to him when 
 he was accompanying Frank to the mine. After 
 his return home he had written it down and now 
 read it from the memorandum then made. 
 
 For a moment or two Frank was too astounded 
 to speak, but to the inspector's question as to what 
 he had to say, he replied : 
 
 "Well, I certainly never heard more deliberate 
 falsehood than that. Aside from the fact that that 
 memorandum is not evidence and that the writer 
 of it is brother of the postmistress, it would be 
 impossible that I could have made such a state- 
 ment to him because the last time I was ever in his 
 company was when I incautiously invited him to 
 go with me to the mine on the day I went there 
 to audit the pay and before the tin for which this 
 draft was payment was sold. I overtook him in 
 the lane, and, knowing him to be an old mine agent, 
 I thought he would be interested and would like a 
 glass of grog and a chat with the agents." 
 
 "I have also been told, Mr. East," pursued the 
 inspector without remarking on this speech, "that 
 you have been in the habit of going to Paul 
 Young's to play cards, and it is suggested that you 
 
anD tftc puBltom 95 
 
 took this draft out of your pocket as security for 
 some of your losses." 
 
 "Same informant, I suppose? Now, just no- 
 tice how far from the truth any such slander can 
 be. I would no more think of playing cards than 
 I would marbles not because I think it immoral, 
 but simply because I should be ashamed to waste 
 my time in any such way. If I wanted to, how- 
 ever, I should not go to Paul Young's to do it, nor 
 should I produce that draft in the house of a share- 
 holder in the mine. These things you can ask Paul 
 about, but is there any other cheerful calumny that 
 you can relate?" 
 
 "I should like to see your brother, please." 
 
 Frank submitted humbly to all this, for, having 
 allowed it to begin, he thought it best to let it 
 continue to the end that he might gather some in- 
 formation as to the esteem in which he was held 
 by this extraordinary community, so he called in 
 John, who, of course, denied emphatically that the 
 draft had ever been delivered to him. 
 
 All this time the slanderer had been standing 
 meekly by with his hat in his hand, as if it was the 
 most ordinary occurrence that he should be accused 
 of lying. Even the manifest contradictions and ab- 
 surdities in his statement, when pointed out, made 
 no impression on him whatever, and he did not 
 move until the inspector intimated that he might 
 retire. 
 
 It was impossible to divine from the manner of 
 
96 Cfre 
 
 the inquisitor, or from anything that he said, what 
 opinion he had formed, for, his work being chiefly 
 of a detective nature, he had acquired a secretive 
 style and was not accustomed to share his views 
 with others. Frank, however, cared very little 
 what they were. As far as he was concerned, the 
 important factor was that the draft had been re- 
 covered and there was no actual harm done. How 
 it had been lost He cared very little to know. Under 
 these circumstances there was no more said on 
 either side, and the inspector speedily went back 
 into the obscurity from which he had emerged, 
 while Frank betook himself to the hotel in search 
 of Mitchell, as he felt badly in need of blowing 
 off his safety valve. We despise wasps and flies 
 one eastern professor advises that even mosquitoes 
 be "ignored" but they do sting and bite neverthe- 
 less, and when petty malice stimulates our combus- 
 tion, we must discharge the resultant steam upon 
 some cool brow. Mitchell's was emphatically a 
 brow of that sort, and, however old he might be- 
 come, it seemed likely that it would never be fur- 
 rowed. He looked at life from the point of view 
 of "the man in the street" and seemed to be with- 
 out concern in the strife that affected others. He 
 took a humorous view of the situation, was readily 
 moved to smiles but not to anger, and appeared to 
 think that there really was not anything in the 
 heavens above, in the earth beneath, or in the 
 waters under the earth, worth quarreling about or 
 
and tfte publican 97 
 
 getting excited over. He was perfectly in accord 
 with Solomon that all is vanity but regarded the 
 outlook with greater cheerfulness than that sati- 
 ated sage. Such a friend is a citadel in distress to 
 the nervous individual who worries over trifles 
 from the time he opens his eyes in the morning till 
 Morpheus seals them up again at night and whose 
 very dreams are distilled from the fiery vapors left 
 behind by the terrors that have possessed his un- 
 quiet brain by day. 
 
 When Frank arrived he found the barroom oc- 
 cupied by Mitchell and his wife who were enter- 
 taining themselves by watching their son and heir, 
 four years old, seated in an armchair smoking a 
 long clay pipe. Mrs. Mitchell, a large, handsome, 
 and very fresh and healthy-looking woman, seemed 
 to enjoy the performance quite as much as her hus- 
 band, and neither seemed to be in the least con- 
 scious of the impropriety of it. As for Tom, 
 Junior, he played his part with the utmost grav- 
 ity, and to all appearance was deriving consider- 
 able comfort from the exercise. 
 
 Mrs. Mitchell was the first to speak : 
 
 "Seems to enjoy it, doesn't he?" she asked, 
 without the least show of embarrassment. 
 
 "That looks pretty evident," replied Frank, "but 
 do you regard that as training a child in the way 
 he should go?" 
 
 "That's the way to train my child," put in 
 Mitchell. "What other people think right to do 
 
98 C6e Pimtisee 
 
 with their children is no business of mine, but my 
 boy is going to be taught that nothing he sees his 
 father do is wrong for him to do." 
 
 "Drinking hot whisky and water, for instance," 
 interpolated Frank. 
 
 "Certainly. He can have it if he wants it. He 
 does have a spoonful or two out of mine once in 
 a while, but he doesn't seem to care much about 
 it." 
 
 "Of course, I have no business to criticize any- 
 thing you may choose to do," said Frank, "but this 
 interests me, and, if you don't mind, I should like 
 to ask if you think this freedom will be beneficial 
 on the whole." 
 
 "I am not a bit sensitive about criticism, espe- 
 cially from you," replied Mitchell, "for, if I were, 
 you could very soon turn the tables on me, for I 
 never hesitate a minute to criticize you or any- 
 body else for that matter. My belief is that there 
 is nothing which will so powerfully incline the 
 average boy to do a thing as the knowledge that it 
 is forbidden, but there is another influence that 
 runs it pretty close, and that is the sight of what 
 he sees his elders do. I am not in the business 
 of preaching on the duties of parents, but for my- 
 self I can say that I never let my boy see me do 
 what I am not willing that he should do. If he 
 wants to drink or smoke, he can do it to the ex- 
 tent he sees his father do it, but if he takes to 
 
ana tfre Pufrlkan 99 
 
 lying, or cruelty, I flatter myself he'll have to look 
 elsewhere to learn the way." 
 
 "I believe with you that children should be 
 trained by example instead of precept, for no child 
 can understand that what is wrong for him is right 
 for you and me, but the application of the prin- 
 ciple to alcohol and tobacco seems rather risky." 
 
 "If I find it hurting him, I'll give it up myself, 
 but I'll not ask him to unless I do. So far it 
 hasn't done him any harm. He doesn't care a bit 
 about either. That smoking he does simply to 
 show off. He never does it when alone, though 
 he can fill up and light all by himself and the tools 
 are all the time handy." 
 
 "Well, I shall watch the experiment with con- 
 siderable interest, but I did not come here to talk 
 about that. I suppose you have heard about the 
 post-office investigation from some source or 
 other?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, Paul Young told me all he knew. He's 
 as bad as a woman except in matters connected 
 with his own trade. He never lets out any of those 
 secrets, but, as a talebearer he takes the hot cross 
 bun." 
 
 Frank took up the story at the point where Paul 
 had necessarily to leave off and continued it to the 
 point where the brother of the postmistress took 
 up his parable. 
 
 "The old rascal," broke in Mitchell. "Didn't I 
 
tell you to join the church? Well, go on, we'll 
 get back to that." 
 
 Frank continued his story to the end without 
 further interruption, but at its conclusion Mitchell 
 remarked : 
 
 "Now, we'll have a glass of bitter and then ride 
 down and see Billy. You want to air yourself. 
 You've been in poor company." 
 
 "Well, what do you think about it, anyway?" 
 
 "I don't think about it," replied Mitchell, 
 "there's nothing lost 110 harm done. If there was, 
 I'd make them think." 
 
 "But this kind of thing is very annoying." 
 
 "Bah! Fiddlesticks! If you let a thing like 
 that worry you, how would you feel if the draft 
 had been lost, or, worse still, if it had been cashed 
 and the money lost?" 
 
 "I don't believe I worry so much over actual 
 calamities as I do over mere contretemps like 
 this." 
 
 "So I have observed. You were in a pretty bad 
 hole when you started here, but you bobbed up like 
 a cork. Now you're suffering from the evil-speak- 
 ing and uncharitableness of a crowd that I posi- 
 tively take less notice of than I do of the fowls 
 out in our back yard. The clucking of a hen means 
 that an egg has been laid, but the chatter of this 
 rabble is nothing more to me than the cawing of 
 rooks. They have stings in their tails like wasps, 
 but there's no poison in them unless you rub the 
 
anD tfte Publican 101 
 
 place. They've stung me a good deal more than 
 they have you, but you can see there's not a mark 
 on me." 
 
 It took them but a short time to saddle their 
 horses, which they were both in the habit of doing 
 themselves whenever they started without due no- 
 tice. Their men were sure to be busy about some- 
 thing else. Whichever finished first would ride out 
 to meet the other. On this occasion Frank man- 
 aged to reach the front of the hotel just as the 
 landlord issued from the back, and as he rode up 
 Frank said: 
 
 "The mare's looking all right now. What was 
 the matter with her?" 
 
 "Oh, she's as fine as silk. It was water she 
 wanted, all right. I gave that rascal a bucketful 
 of the same liquor, but he didn't seem to think I 
 meant it when I told him to drink it, so I stood him 
 on his head in it." 
 
 "You made the punishment fit the crime." 
 
 "That's what I did. I believe in the quid pro 
 quo every time. He won't neglect to water that 
 mare any more. If I had mentioned to him po- 
 litely that I would like him to have a regard for 
 the mare's thirst he might some day forget that 
 I had expressed a wish to that effect, but he will 
 not fail to remember the occasion when he dis- 
 covered that I could turn him upside down. Next 
 time he will expect to be turned inside out." 
 
 Now that Frank had Bob again, his spirits had 
 
102 QC 
 
 manifestly risen, and every now and then he would 
 jump into a field and out again for their mutual 
 pleasure, but Tom Mitchell forbore, for "the good 
 man is merciful to his beast/' and he weighed 
 about fifty pounds more than Frank. 
 
 "When you two are tired of your antics/' ob- 
 served Mitchell, as Bob bounded into the road for 
 the seventh or eighth time, "perhaps you'll come 
 back and be quiet. You are having all the fun, 
 while I am getting the exercise. The mare thinks 
 she can jump as well as Bob, but I am not going to 
 give her a chance to try to take the mountain to 
 Mahomet." 
 
 "All right, we'll come to the mountain," re- 
 plied Frank, and forthwith ranged himself along- 
 side, the mare at once settling down to a steadier 
 gait. An active beast is all very well, but a rest- 
 less one makes a man weary. 
 
 "So you wouldn't take my advice and join the 
 church," began Mitchell. "You see what your 
 obstinacy has brought on you." 
 
 "You mean, of course, that difficulty with the 
 post office; but what has that to do with the 
 church?" 
 
 "In the first place, they wouldn't have antago- 
 nized you at all, and in the second place, if any 
 mistake occurred, they wouldn't try to blame you 
 for it." 
 
 "But why ? They don't belong to the church any 
 more than I do, do they?" 
 
ana tfjc publican 103 
 
 "Don't you know that that old rascal that lied 
 about you goes to class every Sunday morning be- 
 fore he goes to chapel and teaches in the Sunday- 
 school before he goes to chapel in the evening?" 
 
 "Oh, I see. You meant the Methodist church. 
 Do you really suppose that I could with a grave 
 face take part in an irreverent farce such as they 
 call worship, during which the minister several 
 times harangues his Creator and orders him about 
 as if he were his footman come here, go there, 
 do this, do that, and so on?" 
 
 "That's neither here nor there. You take every- 
 thing too seriously. You are not in the least bound 
 to do or believe as they do. I merely wanted you 
 to pay your pew rent and subscribe to the missions. 
 You'd be on the right road then and they'd pray 
 for you instead of lying about you." 
 
 "I have no doigbt I do take things too seriously, 
 but religion at any rate is a serious matter, and I 
 cannot jest about it." 
 
 "Nobody asks you to. I think my beliefs are 
 pretty much the same as yours, only you trouble 
 too much about them. For my part I don't care 
 two straws what anbody believes, and if it comes 
 to a question whether I will pay pew rent or be 
 persecuted by a set of pestilent vermin that I am 
 doomed to live amongst for better, for worse, I'll 
 lay down the coin." 
 
 "Well, I won't. I will not temporize with a lot 
 of ignorant fanatics like these. To do so would be 
 
104 Cfte 
 
 simply to humiliate knowledge before ignorance 
 and truth before bigotry." 
 
 "All right. You go on personating truth and 
 knowledge, and I'll back ignorance and bigotry to 
 get away with the stakes." 
 
 "Mitchell, you're an opportunist." 
 
 "East, you're another another martyr, I mean." 
 
 After a pause, which lasted while they let their 
 horses out for a gallop, Mitchell began again with : 
 
 "Well, what about the girl? Have you got over 
 that attack of angina pectoris yet?" 
 
 "I have been trying to take your prescription, 
 but without any success. I have been to Camruth 
 nearly every day and have become an altogether 
 too familiar figure on the promenade, but have only 
 seen the girl once. She was with the same man she 
 disappeared with when I saw her the first night." 
 
 "Do you know either of them?" 
 
 "The girl is Miriam Penrose, but I don't know 
 the man at all." 
 
 "Well, I can tell you. I heard that Miriam was 
 home again and that she had developed into a very 
 fine girl. The man is one of the Ellis boys who 
 has just come home from Oxford. He doesn't 
 mean any good, and I'm astonished that Miriam 
 doesn't know any better than ito be seen with 
 him." 
 
 "Women never seem to know or care much about 
 the character of the men they allow to be intimate 
 with them. I expect this one has learned to 
 
anD tfre publican 105 
 
 tolerate many things in London which would have 
 been distasteful before she left home." 
 
 "The best of them prefer wild game to the do- 
 mestic fowl. The most successful man with the 
 women belongs to a type that we haven't much re- 
 spect for." 
 
 "That's natural. I am glad to know who the man 
 is, though. I thought it might be somebody seri- 
 ous." 
 
 Here Mitchell imitated the crow of a cock with 
 much faithfulness, considering that his natural 
 voice was a rough baritone. 
 
 When they reached the Land's End it was later 
 than on the occasion of their previous visit, and 
 the tourists had begun to arrive. As they handed 
 their horses over to an ostler, Mitchell was recog- 
 nized by a former employee of his, who touched 
 his hat. 
 
 "Hulloh, Hen," exclaimed Mitchell; "what are 
 you doing now?" 
 
 "Well, I'm drivin' them tourists out here while 
 the season last," replied the cabman. 
 
 "That must be a great entertainment for you, 
 Hen," said his former master, who well remem- 
 bered his partiality for practical joking. 
 
 "Sometimes I has the honor of drivin' a bird. 
 See that giglamps over there? He was my fare 
 's forenoon. When we was passin' a field o' rid 
 clawver, says he to me, says he, 'What's that, my 
 man?' he says. Tepp'mint, sir/ says I. 'Indeed!' 
 
106 Cfte 
 
 he says, 'let me get out and pluck some/ 'By hall 
 means/ I says, an' hout he gits. He picked some 
 clawver an' smilt to it. 'Ah don' smill like pepp'- 
 mint/ he says. Taste 'n, sar,' says I. 'Ah don' 
 taste like 'n/ he says. 'Clunk um, sar,' says I, 
 'you'll feel 'n warmen when he's gwean down." 
 
 After a laugh which was joined in by two or 
 three others who had come up, Mitchell observed : 
 
 "So you made the Cockney eat grass like the ox, 
 Hen? You'll catch a Tartar one of these fine days 
 and get your head punched." 
 
 "Not by one o' them things. I don't ax no man 
 that I'm afeared of to chow clawver. He maight 
 gi' me a slap in the chacks." 
 
 The real accent of West Cornwall, which has 
 seldom appeared in print, is not received with favor 
 either by readers or critics. The latter have even 
 said that it is worse than Aberdonian, with which 
 this truthful narrative began. As to the letter 
 "h" it may be said that the native uses it purely 
 for emphasis, but when this practice is ridiculed 
 it is customary to place it before words beginning 
 with a vowel, but not accented on the first syllable, 
 which he would never do. He would naturally 
 say "hemigrant," but never "Hamerican." Let us 
 step into the hotel where the cockney is liberally 
 scattering his "haspirates hall hover the floor." 
 
 The house is full of guests and Billy Mann, 
 rushing hither and thither, as busy as a wet hen 
 and employing his activity to no better purpose. 
 
a no the Publican 
 
 Nobody thinks of taking any notice of him except 
 to avoid collision with him in the passage. 
 Mitchell had seen him excited before and knew 
 what to anticipate. As they entered he extended 
 both hands and conducted them past him, whilst 
 he said hurriedly : 
 
 "Terrible busy, terrible busy, gentlemen. De- 
 lighted to see you. Take some M'zelly with you in 
 a minute." 
 
 Then he continued issuing orders to all and sin- 
 gular, of which nobody seemed to be aware, and 
 the business of satisfying the wants of the guests 
 went smoothly on while the landlord made a brave 
 showing of superintending the whole. Mitchell 
 was apprehensive and said to Frank: 
 
 "I've seen Billy acting like this many times, but 
 he always came a cropper. He is only built up for 
 the occasion. In a few minutes he will be speech- 
 less/' 
 
 The words were hardly uttered before there was 
 the sound of a heavy body falling in the passage. 
 Mitchell and East at once rushed out of the room, 
 into which they had only just entered, and, taking 
 Billy by the arms and legs, pulled him out of 
 sight of the visitors and placed him as nearly up- 
 right as possible in an armchair, but he had evi- 
 dently lost all control of his muscles, his arms 
 hung limp at his sides, and his head fell forward 
 on his breast. 
 
Cfie 
 
 "This looks bad," said Frank, "we had better get 
 him to bed." 
 
 "It's only the ordinary thing," Mitchell re- 
 marked, "they are used to this here and will get 
 him upstairs as soon as they get a chance. At 
 present they are too busy with the people." 
 
 "But this looks serious very much like apo- 
 plexy." 
 
 "I don't know what it is but whiskey. He has 
 come through it, however, a good many times. 
 Some time it will be the last attack." 
 
 "Let's get him upstairs and send for the doc- 
 tor. I'm sure he is in a very bad way." 
 
 "All right. Up you come, Billy." 
 
 So they carried him up by the back stairs out of 
 sight of his guests. 
 
 When Billy was safely stowed away between the 
 sheets with the aid of the domestics. East being 
 somewhat upset, but Mitchell not at all moved by 
 the spectacle which was familiar to him, they sal- 
 lied forth to view the Cockney on his vacation. 
 
 Very few people from the continent of Europe 
 or from America visit the Land's End, for it has 
 no special historic interest nor are its scenic fea- 
 tures striking when compared with those to be 
 found almost anywhere around the coast of Corn- 
 wall, but to the Cockney it is the extreme point 
 both south and west of his beloved Hingland and 
 is as remote as possible, both actually and figura- 
 tively, from Baow Bells. During the summer he 
 
anD tfie Pufiltom io 
 
 swarms here in considerable numbers, and it is 
 pretty safe to prophecy when you see a group in 
 the distance that, as you pass them, you will hear 
 the "daown't yuh knaow" of 'Ornsey, the "I s'y" 
 of Bermondsey, "hand the hantics of the haitch" 
 of Hupper Tooting. 
 
 'Arry's sweet innocence of everything connected 
 with country life is charming. The fauna he is to 
 some extent familiar with from pictures, but the 
 flora of the land and both flora and fauna of the 
 deep he is as ignorant of as he is of the cotton plant 
 or the abalone. But, though 'Arry is amusing, he 
 is good. He "p'ys his w'y" and behaves himself, 
 after his own peculiar fashion. Though the na- 
 tions of the earth may laugh at him, it would be 
 well if they would imitate him. He is not a van- 
 dal, or a cheat or a liar. He knows enough to 
 worship beauty, venerate age, and keep his hands 
 off, and, with the assistance of Tommy Atkins, he 
 has done great things in this world. 
 
no Cfte 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 All the world may be divided into two classes 
 those who serve and those who do not. The former 
 are mere chattels, the latter the real men of the 
 earth. It matters not if a man be a president of 
 a railroad or the manager of a mine, if it is not his 
 railroad, or his mine, he is a serf. He has sold 
 himself to capital, and he may not do his own will. 
 On the other hand, the Chinaman who grows tur- 
 nips in his own field is a free man and therefore the 
 superior of the serf. He need not grow turnips 
 unless he pleases. He may change to leeks if it 
 suits his purpose, but the highest officer of the big- 
 gest corporation in America will do just precisely 
 what he is told to do or he will find himself ap- 
 pointed inspector of buildings for his health's sake 
 without any ceremony whatever. 
 
 But the chattel has it in its power to vitalize 
 itself, become a driver, and hold the whip. It is 
 only necessary for chattels to combine, which they 
 have never yet had the sense to see or the pluck 
 to do. They are always fighting amongst them- 
 selves about nonessentials. What are the "plat- 
 forms" which divide the people into Conservatives 
 
ant) tfte Publican 111 
 
 and Liberals, Republicans and Democrats to the 
 serf, the man who Jives by the sweat of his brow 
 at the behest of another? Protection and free trade 
 are shibboleths which have always divided the peo- 
 ple into two camps, and there are others of less 
 importance, but all sink into insignificance beside 
 the one great antagonism between capital and labor, 
 the driver and the driven. The beast of burden 
 has set up his own master as he has made his own 
 God, and he permits himself to be led as a lamb 
 to the slaughter when he has it in his power to be 
 his own master his own God if he will. He only 
 has to combine on the one thing which is of im- 
 portance to him instead of allowing his forces to 
 be divided and wasted by those whose interest it 
 is to hide knowledge and darken wisdom with the 
 shadows of their shibboleths which only concern 
 him after he has attained the power which is his 
 birthright, but which has been usurped by his astute 
 antagonist. 
 
 Whilst the laborer remains in ignorance he will 
 stay as he is, but as soon as he begins to know he 
 will assuredly begin to do. The idle will be made 
 to work or be allowed to starve, and the laborer, 
 instead of being "worthy of his hire," will take his 
 due and appropriate to capital what is rightfully 
 its hire. 
 
 We have heard enough of the natural partner- 
 ship and the common interests of labor and capital, 
 but how does it work out? Where did the capital 
 
112 Cfte 
 
 come from? Did the millionaire just find it or did 
 the laborer hew it out of the rocks of the earth? 
 And who gets the purple and fine linen that it buys ? 
 Who fares sumptuously every day? The laborer 
 the serf the chattel? 
 
 Fellow workmen for all who work, whether by 
 pen, voice, or hand are one in opposition to the 
 tramp and the spender of "the unearned incre- 
 ment" it needs only that you unite to have what 
 you will. Why should you choose your President 
 from the ranks of the Republicans or the Demo- 
 crats? Take your champion from the ranks of 
 labor and God speed to him! 
 
 One thing, however, labor must learn -to sink 
 nonessentials. That is what has always been its 
 bane. Strife about trifles, such as local or personal 
 prejudices, have been allowed to divide the camp 
 into parties. Not even the tariff itself is of any 
 moment beside the one cardinal principle of owner- 
 ship in the work of a man's own hands. Not one 
 quarter, two-thirds, or three-fifths belongs to him, 
 but all. If capital has lent its aid it shall be paid 
 the current rate of interest determined by com- 
 petition between capitalists, not as at present tak- 
 ing all and giving to labor, the producer of the 
 whole, only such share as the wolf of hunger com- 
 pels him to accept. He that makes shall have, he 
 that earns shall hold, not "to him that hath shall 
 be given and from him that hath not shall be taken 
 even that he hath," 
 
anD tftc publican 113 
 
 This is no apotheosis of labor, meaning thereby 
 what is commonly called unskilled labor, but is in- 
 tended to set forth, the basic principle upon which 
 the whole of politics and sociology should be 
 founded, that the worker, be he Prime Minister 
 or hodcarrier, is the owner of this earth and should 
 govern it. The idler is its curse and should be 
 exterminated. And so when it is urged that a 
 President should be chosen from the ranks of labor 
 it is not meant that he need necessarily be a car- 
 penter or a plumber, for a lawyer is often as hard 
 a worker as either. We are only raising a pro- 
 test against the worship of Baal and the laying 
 of the fruits of the earth at his feet. Why should 
 not labor run its own railroads? Then would its 
 brass buttons be the badge of its independence 
 instead of the mark of its slavery to capital. In 
 this lies the difference between the uniform of the 
 soldier and that of the janitor. The former wears 
 his country's uniform and serves under his coun- 
 try's colors, himself an integral and independent 
 unit in the formation of the system by which he 
 allows himself to be controlled, but the servant of 
 capital sells himself to his employer and dares dis- 
 obey no unjust or arbitrary order on pain of be- 
 ing deprived of the right to earn his bread, a right 
 to which he was born, and of which no man, be 
 he priest or king, might rob him in a state founded 
 on the basic principle of man's inherent right to 
 the product of his toil. 
 
Cfte 
 
 Of all laborers the Cornish miner is most inde- 
 pendent in principle but most unhappy in practice. 
 There are those who work on the surface at the 
 preparation of the ore which has been brought 
 up from below for the smelting house, but the actual 
 digger, whether on the tribute system by which he 
 is paid a percentage on the value of the tin he gets 
 
 or on that known as "tutwork" by which he 
 is paid according to the extent of ground he breaks 
 
 may please himself whether he works or not, 
 and, subject to arrangement with his fellows, may 
 work either "forenoon, afternoon, or night chore." 
 The product, however, of the hardest toil known 
 to man is the most meagre on record. If he can 
 gather together from fifty to sixty shillings, or 
 from twelve and a half to fifteen dollars a month, 
 he deems himself to be doing well, and such is their 
 love of home and independence that many who 
 have emigrated to California, where they earn 
 more in a week than they could at home in a month, 
 frequently give voice to their longing to return 
 if they can "only be sure o' sixty shellun a month." 
 Meanwhile capital goes on adding barn to barn 
 and field to field. Ellis & Dee have grown wealthy 
 whilst John Thomas and Benny Uren have lived 
 for fifty years on salt fish and potatoes, bored holes 
 in the solid granite in a temperature of a hun- 
 dred degrees in an atmosphere like that of the 
 Black Hole of Calcutta, and died of phthisis to 
 erect stately mansions for the bankers and hovels 
 
and tfte pufrttam 
 
 for themselves. From the products of their labor 
 deductions should be made for the owner of the 
 soil and for the lender of the capital, but the bal- 
 ance is undoubtedly theirs. The practice, however, 
 is to make a deduction for the owner of the hole in 
 the ground and enough to provide "fish and 'tates" 
 for the man who makes the hole, while capital ap- 
 propriates the remainder. When education has 
 spread its beneficent influence into all the dark 
 places of the earth and man has really learned that 
 "unity is strength," which now he believes in theory 
 but disowns in practice, the iniquitous reign of cap- 
 ital will be over and gambling on the stock ex- 
 change will come to an ignominious end. The man 
 who digs tin, or directs a machine how to do it, 
 like the man who cuts hay or carries a hod, equally 
 with the man who speaks in Congress or Parlia- 
 ment, will, when that day shall dawn, be able to 
 wear purple and fine linen if he wants to, with a 
 sense that he has the right, and may spend his 
 evenings in the cultivation of literature or music 
 with his family, while those who have been con- 
 victed of vagrancy will carry in the coal and keep 
 the streets clean. 
 
 This is not a political pamphlet, or a treatise 
 on sociology, or it might be appropriate to enlarge 
 on the ethical and social difference between the 
 free man who owns and works his own garden and 
 the serf whose sole property is his servility, and 
 still less is it a recommendation of a socialist pana- 
 
Cfte 
 
 cea for the sufferings of the incompetent, or, in 
 other words, the under dog, or we might dwell on 
 the beauty of the lovingkindness that never did in- 
 herit the earth of a "light that never was on land 
 or sea/' It is merely a plain statement of the in- 
 evitable trend of history. In the course of cen- 
 turies the laborer has evolved from the position 
 of a mere chattel attached to the soil to that of a 
 man whose voice has the same value in the gov- 
 ernment of the nation as that of Croesus or Ploutos. 
 The only trouble with him is that he is still ig- 
 norant. He allows all the members of the fam- 
 ilies of Croesus, Ploutos, Rothschild, Rockefeller, 
 Morgan, et hoc genus omne, to combine against 
 him, whilst there are more members in his family 
 than in all the others put together, and all he wants 
 to take the entire direction of affairs into his own 
 hands is to get them all to pull together on the 
 same rope at the same time. He must choose a 
 leader merely as a rallying point and vote for 
 him. When labor once gets into power it may 
 take what steps with the tariff or any other less 
 important or incidental matter, it sees fit. 
 
 Our business here is merely with the aspect of 
 this question presented in West Cornwall, with the 
 miner as its exponent, and we are now on the way 
 from the Land's End back to Redborne with East 
 and Mitchell, whose conversation has been of other 
 matters. As they ride along they are about to pass 
 the little four-roomed granite cottage, with a 
 
anD tfre publican 
 
 thatched roof, like hundreds of others in the par- 
 ish, with a tiny patch of ground in front used for 
 growing potatoes and surrounded by a stone hedge, 
 where lives a miner who is nearing the inevitable 
 bourne, when Mitchell says : 
 
 "Let's look in and see how John Hollow is get- 
 ting on. I hear the poor chap is on his last legs." 
 
 John had been a noted character in the commu- 
 nity, a cricket player and an enthusiastic volunteer. 
 Frank remembered him well and was quite willing 
 to pull up for a few minutes to look in on him. 
 As they entered they found the sick man seated 
 just inside the open door looking out on the sun- 
 shine in which he would never play again, but as 
 he caught sight of them he welcomed them quite 
 cheerfully, and to Mitchell's question as to how he 
 felt he replied : 
 
 "Well, I don' b'lieve I c'u'd skat a ball very fur 
 to-day, but I am 'ot so bad. I maight ha' b'en 
 wuss." 
 
 "Oh, yes, you've only to keep your spirits up, 
 John, and we shall see you making the big score 
 against Camruth again." 
 
 "I shaan't play rickets no more, Mester Mitchell. 
 You d' knaw that's well's I do. But I've 'ad a good 
 deal to be thankful far Mester Mitchell, and I'm 
 gwean now weer ee ezn't no rickets played." 
 
 "Nonsense, John, you mustn't talk that way. 
 Why, if I felt like that I should be going, too, but 
 
Cfre 
 
 I try to think that I am able to take my part yet, 
 and strive to do it." 
 
 "I've kipt it up a bra' while, Mester Mitchell, 
 but I be'n here s'long like this now an' I d' knaw 
 s' well 's you do when the game's arver. I b'lieve 
 I ain't done so bad; I made a bra' tidy score, but 
 I be'n playin' again' a baowler that do baowl us all 
 out some time or 'nother, an' I shaan't play no 
 
 more." 
 
 Here East broke in: 
 
 "Well, good-bye, now, John. We'll come and 
 see you again soon, and I'll see if I can't bring you 
 something that will do you good. You want more 
 nourishing food than you're getting and two or 
 three glasses of port wine every day. You should 
 also keep out of the house as much as ever you 
 can. I don't despair of you a bit yet, John." 
 
 "My appetite's most nean gone now." 
 
 "We'll fetch it back, John, you see if we don't," 
 said Frank as they once more mounted their horses 
 and rode back to Redborne. 
 
 "It's only hard work and want of nourishment 
 that kills these poor devils," commented Mitchell. 
 
 "Do you think it is possible to save that fellow's 
 life?" asked Frank. 
 
 "I don't know," replied Mitchell, "but he never 
 would have become ill but for the want of nutri- 
 tious food. When a man has to work the way 
 these men have to and under such fearful condi- 
 tions, he needs a more than ordinarily nutritious 
 
ana t&e publican 
 
 diet and plenty of fresh air when he is above 
 ground, and how these poor beggars don't die 
 sooner even than they do is a mystery to me." 
 
 "But with fresh air and good food now, don't 
 you think John might be put on his feet again?" 
 
 "It was a spell of bad luck that he had that 
 bowled him over. He earned hardly any tribute on 
 account of the lode becoming poor, and was un- 
 able to feed himself and the children, he, of course, 
 stinting himself for them. You know they'll never 
 take any help from the parish, however hard pressed 
 they may be." 
 
 "Well, I think I will try feeding him for a 
 while and see what that will do. The family is no 
 doubt living on about thirty shillings a month from 
 the club." 
 
 "All right, I'll stand the port wine if you'll pay 
 for the beef. I hate to see a man like John die. 
 A man like that is a great help to a place. En- 
 thusiasm about things that are good for people is 
 a good influence in a community. It makes people 
 pull together and keeps them interested and out of 
 mischief." 
 
 "He seems quite content to die and go to heaven 
 now. That will be the greatest obstacle to his re- 
 covery. We must get him out of that frame of 
 mind somehow." 
 
 "What a good friend religion is to the rich. The 
 Bible says they can no more get to heaven than a 
 camel can go through the eye of a needle, and that 
 
120 Cfre 
 
 is quite right, too, for they have had all the benefit 
 they are entitled to from it here. If the poor man 
 thought there was no hope for him beyond the 
 grave, he would be up and doing now. That beau- 
 tiful fiction that it will be all right with him by 
 and bye keeps him harmless here." 
 
 "Do you think that is why the rich in so many 
 cases are so generous to the church?" 
 
 "I'm not one of them. I don't know, but I do 
 know that their donations pay them good interest 
 if they keep the poor, deluded, plundered laborer 
 quiet." 
 
 "And you would have me join that institution?" 
 
 "Not to uphold that form of iniquity, of course 
 not, but merely for the same reason as I am a 
 hotelkeeper. You don't suppose I enjoy keeping a 
 hotel, I hope ? I do it because I think I can get my 
 living that way with the least inconvenience to my- 
 self, and, if you join the church, merely for the 
 sake of appearances, you will find that your stay in 
 this community will be less like the visit of an in- 
 vestigator to a hornet's nest." 
 
 "I think you can make a pretty good parson out 
 of a very poor tinker, but you can't make a hypo- 
 crite or a temporizer out of a man that had the 
 misfortune to be born honest. Consequently, if 
 you are anxious about my welfare, I advise you to 
 try and awaken enthusiasm in some direction that 
 promises better results." 
 
anD t&e Pu&lican 121 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 At the great chapel a huge granite building cap- 
 able of seating two thousand people, with a mas- 
 sive portico, but without other ornament whatever, 
 a series of revival services was about to be held by 
 a young man who had spent most of the years of 
 his adolescence behind a ribbon counter, but who 
 had attained such success as a local preacher in 
 awakening the sinner by the force of his impas- 
 sioned appeals that he had devoted himself entirely 
 to the work of evangelism. The young man was 
 tall, thin and dressed entirely in black, with the 
 exception of his collar, which he dispensed with 
 entirely, leaving his long, lean neck bare to the 
 caress of his raven curly locks. 
 
 Considerable interest was awakened in the visit 
 of this preacher throughout the parish as he came 
 heralded by astonishing success in other towns of 
 the county, and the voice of rumor reached even as 
 far as Mitchell, who lived on a hillside apart, but, 
 anxious as he was for the good of the souls of 
 others, he had no care for his own, and felt no in- 
 terest whatever in Robinson Jones, either as a re- 
 former or as a freak. It was not so, however, with 
 
Frank. He loved to study everything out of the 
 common, and anything psychologic particularly ap- 
 pealed to him. A priori he thought the explanation 
 of the influence of an enthusiast on the minds of 
 the rabble was simple enough, but a priori reasons 
 never satisfied him. He was convinced by noth- 
 ing but what would satisfy at least two of his 
 senses, and for that reason never had the slight- 
 est faith in anything occult or mysterious what- 
 ever. Everything was capable of simple and satis- 
 factory explanation as soon as you knew enough 
 about it, and the only way to know was to examine. 
 The evolution of theories out of the depths of one's 
 inner consciousness did not constitute knowledge. 
 In this light he looked at the phenomenon pre- 
 sented by the revivalist, and in this mood he de- 
 termined to attend his opening service, as it was 
 in the breaking of the ice that his power would be 
 seen. After that was done the subsequent passage 
 would be easy. 
 
 There are orators who seem by a sort of subtle 
 magic to play on the emotions of their audience 
 as a pianist plays on his instrument, and the nature 
 of their influence is no doubt of a complex charac- 
 ter, but it mainly consists in effectively presenting 
 a picture which, placed before unreflecting minds, 
 will arouse the particular emotion desired, just as 
 waving a red rag in front of a bull will inevitably 
 awaken his rage. The shading of a natural picture 
 is carefully obliterated and blood, fire or hurri- 
 
ana tfje publican 123 
 
 cane is shown in all its naked terror. Without al- 
 lowing time for reflection the speaker hurries on, 
 adding scene to scene, until his audience is worked 
 up to an enthusiasm which will enable him to 
 launch his craft on the surging waters sweeping to 
 the desired haven. 
 
 Not all oratory is of this kind, however. This 
 requires genius. There is another type which at- 
 tains the same end by much simpler means, to wit, 
 by the use of a trick known from the time of the 
 first prophet, but just as effective for its purpose 
 as the electric button for the production of light or 
 sound. This is the unconscious method of enthu- 
 siasts and the predetermined plan of fakers. The 
 revivalist sometimes has all these means at his 
 command. If so, his skill is great, but the audiences 
 to which such a speaker appeals are of the kind 
 most easily swayed and no delicate or complicated 
 series of mental gymnastics is required to produce 
 the desired effect. 
 
 On these occasions the bout usually opens with 
 the Sunday morning service, but this is understood 
 to be merely a prelude and "results" are never to be 
 expected until the shades of evening fall on an ap- 
 propriate atmosphere. Therefore Frank knew it 
 would be safe to omit Act I, Scene I. 
 
 On entering the chapel he seated himself just 
 within the door and for that reason at such a dis- 
 tance from the speaker as to be unable to observe 
 the play of his features, but his words could be dis- 
 
124 Cfre 
 
 tinctly heard, for his voice was loud and clear, and 
 his manner and motions were perfectly visible as 
 he stood at a reading desk on a rostrum rather 
 than in a pulpit. 
 
 After the usual preliminary hymns, prayers and 
 reading of the Scriptures, the preacher came to his 
 text: "I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock 
 when your fear cometh," and the sermon he deliv- 
 ered on this foundation should have been enough 
 to shake the stolidity of a hippopotamus, supposing 
 that thick-skinned beast to be a believer in "a judg- 
 ment to come," for the wicked were pictured as ar- 
 rayed before a tribunal where forgiveness was un- 
 known, the appropriate time for the exercise of 
 clemency having passed, and which would measure 
 out to each culprit no matter what the degree of 
 his guilt the uniform and unalterable sentence: 
 "Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting dark- 
 ness prepared for the devil and his angels." This 
 audience, however, was used to that kind of thing. 
 It might affect one who was new to the exploitation 
 of such terrors, but these people had heard of them 
 before. They were seasoned reprobates not by 
 any means great sinners, but even earthquakes have 
 very little effect on those who are accustomed to 
 them. The sermon ended, no "results" followed 
 so a hymn was sung, and then one of the brethren 
 was called upon to pray, which he did in a style 
 which to a stranger would appear fluent and im- 
 passioned, coupled with an astonishingly familiar 
 
anO tfac Publican 125 
 
 method of address to the Deity, quite as if they 
 were old chums, in fact, but to the frequenters of 
 this place of "worship" (forsooth) was recognized 
 merely as Captain Joe Harvey's contribution to the 
 entertainment, the manner and phraseology of 
 which they knew by heart. But still there were no 
 results. Then another hymn was sung, but when 
 the time came for the giving out of the third verse, 
 behold the preacher was on his knees, so the con- 
 gregation subsided, too, but not a word came from 
 the desk. Presently, however, the prostrate figure 
 arose and in a solemn manner and hushed tone he 
 said to the people who were now some of them 
 standing, others sitting and not a few still kneel- 
 ing: "I could not have so spoken two minutes ago, 
 but now I deliver you this solemn and awful mes- 
 sage from on high: 'If there are not souls saved 
 here to-night, some of you will be in hell before 
 the morning.'" Immediately women shrieked, and 
 both men and maidens rushed helter-skelter pell- 
 mell to the penitent form, while their wailings re- 
 sounded through the "sacred" edifice and Frank 
 left the place with a loathing and a pain at his 
 heart, which convinced him that revivalism was a 
 feature of modern empirics which required no 
 further study from him. In future his reasoning 
 on this subject would be conducted by the a priori 
 method. 
 
126 Cfte 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 As Frank had been seen at the chapel by a great 
 many interested people it was natural that he should 
 be very speedily waited upon by one of the minis- 
 ters in the discharge of his duty in looking up "in- 
 quirers" those who were in the first stage of the 
 Methodist neophyte; consequently he was not sur- 
 prised to receive a call from Rev. Jabez Higgs. 
 
 This worthy divine was not much older than 
 Frank himself, and had not yet taken to himself a 
 wife, for the rules of his sect enforced a sort of 
 limited celibacy. No married man could enter the 
 ministry nor could the rite of matrimony be per- 
 formed until several years after the ceremony of 
 ordination. In person he was large and bony, but 
 unhealthy-looking, and a silk hat and broadcloth 
 seemed strangely out of place on his uncouth fig- 
 ure. His manner was a mixture of roughness and 
 shyness derived from his origin and present envi- 
 ronment, but perhaps he was not so uncomfortable 
 as he appeared to be. His earlier years had been 
 spent as a coal miner, and though he might not be 
 very acceptable as a "rounder" in the neighborhood 
 of the place of his birth, in a strange environment 
 
anP the Publican 
 
 he might perhaps pass muster. A tin miner would 
 have done equally well if sent to the north of Eng- 
 land. In the theological seminary he had acquired 
 a somewhat uncertain familiarity with the English 
 grammar and a few other things that schoolboys 
 usually become more or less intimate with, but the 
 majority of his time there had been spent in the 
 study of theology the so-called science which 
 measures the powers of the omnipotent and the 
 knowledge of the omniscient. To take the name of 
 God in vain is said to be blasphemy. What, then, 
 is theology? 
 
 Frank received the Rev. Jabez courteously enough 
 and the minister began: 
 
 "We were very glad to see you at chapel on Sun- 
 day night, Mr. East, and hope you will come again 
 soon." 
 
 "I am afraid, Mr. Higgs," said Frank, "that if 
 we enter into a discussion on this topic I shall have 
 to say unpleasant things, which I would rather 
 avoid. You see, I am no diplomatist, and am in 
 the habit of expressing myself without reserve at 
 all times. Perhaps it would be better not to go any 
 further." 
 
 "I am afraid you do not understand me, Mr. 
 East. I take it that your visit to the chapel shows 
 an interest in our work, and I shall be glad to see 
 that interest continue and grow." 
 
 "Very well, sir, if you insist on it. I am not in- 
 
128 Cfie Pimrisee 
 
 terested in your work, and shall not go to the 
 chapel again." 
 
 "Is there not some prejudice that I could over- 
 come if you would confide in me?" 
 
 "There is not. Again let me say that I am very 
 anxious not to be offensive, and would rather you 
 took some other line," said Frank. 
 
 "But this is my line, Mr. East. It is for this 
 that I came here. It is just such work that I have 
 devoted myself to do in the world." 
 
 "Between you and me, Mr. Higgs, there is a 
 great gulf fixed, as your own book says. You can 
 believe that the God that made Sirius was crucified 
 on Calvary. I cannot." 
 
 "God made serious, you say? I don't quite fol- 
 low you." 
 
 "I see you don't," said Frank, with wonderful 
 self-command, quite calmly. When telling the story 
 afterward he would not be able to refrain from 
 roaring with laughter. 
 
 "It is a serious matter, Mr. East." 
 
 "I know it. Therefore we will drop it, please." 
 
 "Could I not advise you as to some reading which 
 you could take up, sir, to lead you to a more rev- 
 erent frame of mind?" 
 
 This was too much to be taught reverence by 
 a preacher of an ignorant, blaspheming sect like 
 this, but Frank again restrained himself and asked : 
 
 "Do you read Greek, Mr. Higgs?" 
 
 "Not very well, Mr. East." 
 
anD tftc Publican 129 
 
 "I do; and Hebrew, too. I have also read the 
 works of scores of learned men holding every va- 
 riety of view on religious questions in fact, I be- 
 lieve everything of real importance that has ever 
 been written on that topic and I am even more 
 firmly convinced than I was at the beginning that 
 all religions are as wholly of human manufacture 
 as the clothes you wear. I do not believe that man 
 is at the summit of evolution. I think it quite 
 likely that there are many grades of beings over 
 his head, but it is impossible for me to have an 
 idea of a thing which is supernatural, that is, above 
 the natural which we know, and I refuse to spend 
 my time in worthless speculations on the subject. 
 We cannot express infinity in finite terms, so we 
 may as well make up our minds, like the cobbler, to 
 stick to our lasts/' 
 
 Frank did not conclude with "Chacun a son 
 metier," because he knew that the Rev. Jabez was 
 altogether out of his depth, and it would be no 
 use drowning him in a little French dipper. 
 
 The minister, however, recovered his metier 
 when he took up his hat and bowed himself out 
 with the remark that on some future occasion he 
 hoped to find Mr. East in a more "favorable" frame 
 of mind. 
 
 Frank's deplorable state was of course reported 
 to the revivalist, and it was decided to make him 
 the subject of special prayer and the whole of the 
 church was called upon to intercede at the throne 
 
130 Cfte Pimrigee 
 
 of grace on his behalf. This action naturally formed 
 the occasion for many pious reflections by the ir- 
 repressible Mitchell. When they were together in- 
 specting a lump which had formed in the mare's 
 neck, and which seemed to be very tender, Frank's 
 mentor observed. 
 
 "I told you what it would come to. You had 
 better go up to the rail now and join the church in 
 a blaze of glory. Then everything will be for- 
 given." 
 
 "Even I don't make fun of these things." 
 
 "Yes you do. Fancy talking Astronomy to that 
 coal-heaver Higgs ! Both solemn, both earnest, and 
 both funnier than David James or Toole. You 
 might as well talk Sanscrit to the cat in the kitchen." 
 
 "Well, what else could I do? He drove me to 
 it. He would have it out with me. Now, let's 
 know what you, in your superior wisdom, would 
 have done?" , 
 
 "In the first place, I should have had some fun 
 with the gentleman myself. I should have wel- 
 comed him warmly and have offered him a cigar 
 and something to drink. I should have looked 
 most surprised and pained when he refused both. 
 Then I should have taken the greatest apparent in- 
 terest in the work of the talented young preacher 
 and wished him all the success in the world." 
 
 "But that would have been hypocrisy." 
 
 "It would, but that would have been the end of 
 |t. You coul<d simply keep yourself gracefully in 
 
anO tfie publican 
 
 the background for the future, but now, as the 
 Yankees say, you're up against it." 
 
 "I should like to be able to cultivate your happy- 
 go-lucky temperament. I don't believe any more 
 than you do that there is anything really worth 
 worrying about, but I cannot feel cheerful about it 
 as you do." 
 
 "Why not? If I were to give you my actual 
 opinion of the difference between us, I'm afraid 
 you would think me a good deal too straightfor- 
 ward." 
 
 "I might, but I assure you that whatever you 
 say will make absolutely no difference whatever to 
 our relations or my opinion of you, about which my 
 mind is finally made up." 
 
 "Very well, then. You're too self-conscious, 
 whilst I am utterly indifferent as to what sort of a 
 figure I cut. You try my prescription again, and 
 see how it works. You say to yourself, here I am 
 so and so. I have a certain position to maintain 
 and I am going to maintain it. You prepare for 
 battle like a bantam cock and your feathers are all 
 ruffled the wrong way at once. As for me, I don't 
 strive to maintain any position, and I never see 
 anybody trying to maintain one unless he makes 
 me laugh. When a man really treads on my toes 
 so as to hurt I hit him such a smash in the solar 
 plexus that he keeps off my feet in future, but noth- 
 ing ever disturbs my normal equanimity but actu- 
 ally violent bodily injury. For a few seconds you 
 
132 Cfte 
 
 can smell brimstone, but the smoke blows off in a 
 minute and immediately I forget that I have any 
 feet or anything else that I want to maintain intact 
 or spick and span with a polish on, and go my way 
 rejoicing as before." 
 
 "You are partially right. I am self-conscious, I 
 know, but that is temperamental; I can't help it. 
 The great distinction between you and me, how- 
 ever, is the attitude each takes toward deception. 
 To me 'it is a matter of principle, to you merely one 
 of expediency." 
 
 "Well, what's the odds CD long as you're happy?" 
 
 "But I am not happy if I am deceiving anybody 
 or anybody is deceiving me." 
 
 "On the other hand, it gives me a peculiar pleas- 
 ure to deceive people, and I am quite willing to 
 take my chances as to being deceived myself rather 
 than worry about it." 
 
 "How did you feel, for instance, when you found 
 Henry was not watering the mare?" 
 
 "Pretty bad. So did Heinrich. So did the mare. 
 As I say, I take my chances. Once in a while I get 
 caught, but not twice by the same individual. I 
 take care of that." 
 
 "Both of us have to act according to the dictates 
 of our own temperaments. There is no escape from 
 that. What heredity and environment have made 
 us, that we are, and we shall behave accordingly. 
 I cannot compromise with deceit in any shape " 
 
 "We all have to, and even you do." 
 
nnP tlic publican 133 
 
 "I know what you mean. There are various 
 small deceits which it seems inevitable that we 
 should practice, rather than do a greater injury, but 
 I find that even those can be usually avoided. How- 
 ever, I am not dogmatic about it. I am conscious 
 usually when deceit will work injury and under 
 such circumstances I will neither do it nor suffer it." 
 
 "But I will, eh?" 
 
 "No, I don't think you will deliberately do any- 
 body a grave injury, but you would rather annoy 
 a man or make him ridiculous than not." 
 
 "I would. I am sorry that you should forego 
 that pleasure, but it would be a melancholy specta- 
 cle to see you playing the part of one of the "In- 
 nocents Abroad." You could no more deceive a 
 man than a mirror could." 
 
 "Well, that's enough mutual depreciation. Let's 
 try the mare's collar on. THat's probably what's 
 wrong." 
 
134 Cfte 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Gertrude had apparently been behaving with 
 more discretion lately, for there had been no 
 further occasion to draw her attention to the fact 
 that the gloom of Redborne should not be enlivened 
 by the paradoxical process of taking advantage of 
 the gloom of the evening for walks with young 
 miners. Ennui was, however, still felt, which the 
 young lady showed when she said to Frank one 
 morning : 
 
 "Why shouldn't we have somebody to visit us? 
 There is nobody here to make a companion of, and 
 jf I didn't keep busy, I should go crazy." 
 
 "Ask somebody, by all means," her brother re- 
 plied. "Is there anybody you specially want ?" 
 
 "Well, I haven't thought much about it. I didn't 
 think you would care for it. Miriam Penrose is 
 home now. She and I used to be at school together, 
 you know, and were great friends. I haven't seen 
 anything of her since she went to London. How 
 would she do if she would come?" 
 
 "Get anybody you would like to have. Don't 
 consider me in the matter at all," said Frank, as 
 composedly as he could, but, of .course, he never 
 
anD tfte publican 135 
 
 deceived anybody, or tried to! But he wondered 
 if Gertrude could possibly have got wind of his state 
 of mind on that particular topic from anywhere. 
 He had said nothing to anybody but Mitchell and 
 he would certainly hold his tongue, but women are 
 very shrewd in these matters, and his sister had, 
 no doubt, drawn her own conclusions from his fre- 
 quent visits to Camruth, and the evident preoccu- 
 pation of his thoughts, which, of course, had been 
 obvious to others besides Mitchell. Still, Gertrude, 
 no doubt, wanted a friend, and a friend she should 
 have. Why should he not take the hint on his own 
 behalf? McLean could no doubt come down for 
 a day or two when on circuit, if he continued to go, 
 but it would doubtless be better not to ask him at 
 the same time as Miriam, or he might find himself 
 neglected. 
 
 Frank did not know it, but it was with consid- 
 erable forethought that Gertrude had chosen Miriam 
 as the friend who should be invited, for the ma- 
 jority of the mothers of Gertrude's school friends 
 would have hesitated on the ground of propriety 
 to let one of their daughters pay a visit to a family 
 that had had the misfortune to lose their parents. 
 It was not likely, however, that a mother who had 
 given her consent, even reluctantly, to her daugh- 
 ter's going to London to live alone, would raise 
 any objection to her visiting her young friends in 
 the immediate vicinity. And so the event proved, 
 for Miriam gladly accepted the invitation, but, 
 
136 Cfte Pfjarigee 
 
 meanwhile, we have two sick people on our hands. 
 We left Billy* Mann in articulo mortis in an apo- 
 plectic fit, and John Hollow going slowly down the 
 valley of the shadow. Billy had several times had 
 what were locally called "seizures," and had recov- 
 ered, but now he had ordered M'zelly for the last 
 time, and, with no one to mourn for him, had com- 
 pleted the cycle which had given him individuality 
 and the disintegrating process, which, in the course 
 of years, would fit his component atoms or elec- 
 trons for other uses, had begun. John Hollow was 
 still on the hither side of the Styx and his two 
 friends were trying their best to keep him there, 
 but he was a difficult subject to deal with. His en- 
 vironment was so much against him. He had an 
 ignorant wife and six young children, all of whom 
 had been out on the occasion when Frank and Tom 
 first looked in on him, the former at work in the 
 house of a neighboring farmer on "washing day," 
 and the latter at school, the invalid being thus neces- 
 sarily left to his own melancholy reflections. Such 
 is the condition of the poor those who have to 
 drag out a miserable life of pain and toil that cap- 
 ital may enjoy the profits of labor. The little house 
 was full to overflowing with humanity and noxious 
 vapors, the sun and the fresh air being as rigor- 
 ously excluded as the pig and the ducks, and it 
 seemed useless to try and overcome these difficulties, 
 for Mrs. Hollow looked with a patronizing in- 
 credulity upon such "new-fangled notions" as let- 
 
and ttic Pu6ltom 
 
 ting light and air into the dark places of their hab- 
 itation. A show of compliance would be made dur- 
 ing the visit of her guests, but immediately on their 
 departure steps would be forthwith taken promptly 
 to exclude anything so positively dangerous as the 
 pure air of heaven. Mrs. Hollow was also a stum- 
 bling block as a dietician, for her notions as to 
 what was good for the sick would infallibly reduce 
 a healthy person to that condition in short order. 
 She had, however, poor woman, very restricted 
 limits for working harm in this direction. Her own 
 breakfast consisted of barley bread and weak tea, 
 and her evening meal of the same, whilst dinner 
 was no different, but for the addition of potatoes, 
 and perhaps a couple of ounces of salt fish. For 
 the sick there was nothing more, except that his 
 feeDJe stomach must try to assimilate a little more of 
 the fish In order to nourish him properly it was 
 necessary to feed the whole family, for, if he had 
 not insisted on dividing everything with the chil- 
 dren, they would have clamored for the unwonted 
 luxury of flesh like young wolves. The value of 
 oxygen and cleanliness was not so well understood, 
 especially by those who needed them most, as it is 
 to-day, but, notwithstanding all obstacles, John's 
 constitution, which was still young, was show- 
 ing a gratifying response to the unwonted assist- 
 ance given it by a generous diet. He felt stronger 
 and the well-known symptoms of the consumptive 
 began somewhat to abate. With this came hope 
 
138 Cfte 
 
 and with that a determination to make a good fight 
 for life. Frank liked to drop in alone, now and 
 then, when he knew that the family would not be 
 there, for the distance was not great, and John 
 had many interesting traits. One morning he was 
 seated in the sun, as on the first occasion of their 
 meeting, but as East entered, he rose, and said 
 cheerfully : 
 
 "I tho't we was licked, but we aren't. We're 
 gwean to 'ave another innin's." 
 
 "I'm mighty glad to hear it, John. Now you 
 see that you carry out your bat. Don't take any 
 chances, play every over cautiously, only hit the 
 balls that are off the wicket, and you'll keep your 
 bails on all right." 
 
 "I never played again' no baowler like this wan 
 afore, but I reg'n I'd knaw his tricks most nea 'n' 
 all now. He's made me sweat a bra' deal larnin' 
 'em howsomever." 
 
 Were it not that a little of his dialect goes a 
 long way with both compositor and reader it might 
 perhaps be entertaining to give more of John's 
 ideas of life quaintly expressed in the imagery of 
 his favorite game, but little of what he says throws 
 much light on the social or economic condition of 
 his class, which, after all, is of much greater im- 
 portance than his own poor individuality. 
 
 Frank had been born in the parish in which he 
 now lived, but at the age of ten he had gone hun- 
 dreds of miles from home to school, where he had 
 
ana the puflUcan 189 
 
 remained till it became time to move to the uni- 
 versity, whence he had gone to London for the pur- 
 pose of preparation for the profession which he had 
 but lately entered; consequently, he and the people 
 were strangers to one another, but his vacations 
 had been long enough to make him a friend of all 
 the brute creation, notably of Bob, his constant com- 
 panion. With Mitchell, the case was different. He 
 also had been brought into the world in Redborne 
 parish, but had continued to live there as a boy, 
 and for some years after his return from wander- 
 ing about the world. With the religious section, 
 which included by far the majority of the com- 
 munity, he was, of course, an outcast, but he was 
 always at the front in all movements which had for 
 their purpose the pleasure or health of the young 
 men, such as cricket and the prize competitions of 
 the corps in rifle shooting. In this way he had be- 
 come intimate with those in whose bodies the real 
 red blood of the community ran. 
 
 These men were both gentlemen, and their re- 
 lations with those with whom they came in con- 
 tact were never those of superior and inferior. 
 Every man was made to feel that he had an in- 
 dividuality that was worthy of respect, and such, 
 indeed, is the attitude in which a gentleman always 
 stands to others, no matter what their rank in life 
 may be. Unfortunately, it is invariably the man 
 who knows what it is to be snubbed that makes it 
 his business to snub others. The hero who is his 
 
140 Cfte 
 
 own artist at the same time that he is his own 
 model, the self-sufficient, self-made genius is the 
 real Simon pure cad. It is he who tramples on 
 those he has the impudence to call his "inferiors." 
 One born in the gutter knows that he wears a trans- 
 parent coat, but he is determined to show the canaille 
 he belongs to that he rides on horseback now, and 
 can and will splash them with the mud he used 
 to grovel in, whereas, one who has been used to 
 ride from the nursery up skillfully pirouettes 
 through the crowd, and is admired for his dex- 
 terity, not a man of whom but will deem himself 
 honored to be allowed to hold his horse while he 
 dismounts. 
 
 The elder East had been captain of the rifle corps, 
 and it had become necessary, at least temporarily, 
 to fill his place, so the first lieutenant was promoted 
 to command the company, and an invitation was 
 conveyed to Frank to join as first lieutenant, the 
 company to remain as it had done for some years 
 without a full complement of officers. Suitable men 
 were scarce. Mitchell might, perhaps, have quali- 
 fied, but he would rather remain outside and laugh 
 at the others. 
 
 Frank had been a member of the corps at the 
 university, and knew his drill pretty well, besides 
 being a passable shot, so he rather welcomed the 
 oflFer of an opportunity to mix with the men and 
 make himself useful, but he never undertook to do 
 anything, even the most trifling, without trying to 
 
and tfte Pufillcan 141 
 
 do it as well as it could be done, and as there 
 were three kinds of examination for efficiency open 
 to him, the only one which really connoted much 
 being that conducted by the Colonel at the School of 
 Instruction, Grenadier Barracks, he determined td 
 take a month off, and go through the proper cur- 
 riculum in London. It was, of course, not diffi- 
 cult for him to choose a time between accounts and 
 arrange so as to be away over only one pay, and 
 in due time he found himself back again for a 
 brief stay in his old haunts. He had, however, 
 counted without his host when he had imagined that 
 the school was more or less of a perfunctory and 
 ornamental character, for the colonel in charge was' 
 a martinet of martinets, and our budding soldier 
 very soon found that out, to his great discomfort. 
 A notice was sent him to be at the barracks at 10 
 A. M., and, thinking that many others would be in 
 receipt of a similar notice, he made no effort to be 
 punctual, as he anticipated that they would be in- 
 terviewed, one by one, as they came in, and pos- 
 sibly he would have to wait an hour or two till his 
 turn came. Arriving at ten minutes past the hour, 
 however, he found the officers standing in line, 
 and being addressed by the colonel. Curtly he was 
 asked why he was late, and, making no reply 
 which he believed to be in accordance with mili- 
 tary practice was informed that the colonel would 
 have to begin all over again. As that was not the 
 first time a colonel would have "to begin all over 
 
143 Cfte 
 
 again/' it didn't seem important to the recruit, so 
 he took his place at the foot of the line and listened. 
 The address was of the usual type indulged in by 
 the man who glorifies the profession he happens to 
 belong to as the greatest in the world, and the pane- 
 gyric of discipline made Bartholdi's statue of lib- 
 erty look like a monkey on a stick, but the only mat- 
 ter of importance to the little audience of about 
 thirty militia and volunteer officers, the programme 
 for the month, was omitted from the oration. At 
 its close they were asked to walk out to the parade 
 ground, which they did, and were immediately 
 called upon to "fall in," when they were put through 
 what most of them had already gone through at 
 school, where the exercises were known as the "ex- 
 tension motions." 
 
 East began to think that he had made a mistake. 
 He thought he had come there to be made an effici- 
 ent volunteer officer, but it seemed that he was to be 
 converted into an imitation Tommy Atkins, and his 
 reflective mood interfered with his alertness so 
 much that the colonel took it upon him to step 
 around and remark to him that if he didn't wish to 
 pay attention he need not proceed any further with 
 the instruction. Immediately Tommy awoke to his 
 surroundings and executed the goose step thereafter 
 with ludicrous precision, taking the continuance of 
 the "instruction," for the time being, "under advise- 
 ment," as the California judges say. This child's 
 guide to knowledge continued till lunch time, when 
 
anD tf)c publican 143 
 
 the bulwarks of England's greatness "fell out" for 
 sustenance, an hour being allowed for the purpose, 
 which was consummated at a neighboring hotel. 
 
 After lunch there was still no programme vouch- 
 safed, but forty grenadiers, divided up into groups 
 of ten to* represent companies, were provided, and 
 these were officered by the candidates for the colo- 
 nel's certificate as instructor, captain, right and left 
 guide, and right and left marker, each moving 
 through the cycle by changes being effected every 
 morning and afternoon. Company drill was now 
 commenced, and the prospects looked brighter. 
 
 In the evening East met McLean and a couple of 
 other men at dinner in the hall of the inn, when he 
 related his experiences, and said that, but that real 
 instruction seemed now to have begun, he should be 
 inclined to content himself with the lower certifi- 
 cate, rather than put up with any more of the colo- 
 nel's airs. He blamed his unfortunate habit of 
 pocketing his wrath for the time being, so as to 
 consider the question carefully before acting, for 
 not having marched out of the barracks with the 
 dignity becoming to the offended majesty of the 
 law, but McLean observed: 
 
 "Go ahead with it, man; they'll noht hurrt ye. 
 Whane they stick a sword in ye, ye can saind f'r 
 th' p'lice, but as lohng as they confine themsailves 
 to ohbsairvations, ye need pay no more attention to 
 them than I do to those of my lairned fraind heer, 
 Mr. Joan .White. If ye must lairn this monkey^ 
 
144 C6e Pharisee 
 
 business, which, however, I see no need for, stick to 
 it till ye've lairnt it, and whain ye have the colonel's 
 certificate, if ye see fit then to condescend to ad- 
 dress any ohbservations to that bantam, stick out 
 yer chaist, ailevate yer right arrm and call him a 
 parallelogram or any other respectable geometrical 
 figure ye've a mind to degrade by the comparison." 
 It will serve no useful purpose to dwell on the 
 monotonous course of instruction at the barracks, 
 for company drill and guard mounting were con- 
 tinued without variation, morning and evening, for 
 two weeks, when battalion drill was begun, but 
 during the progress of these evolutions two inci- 
 dents worthy of notice occurred. The first was 
 when the "march past" was being executed and 
 markers were placed for the purpose. When East's 
 company, of which he was then acting as captain, 
 came to the saluting point, the marker, who was 
 sergeant major, had rushed at something he had 
 seen amiss in the ranks, and there was no marker, 
 so East gave no word of command, and the com- 
 pany actually marched by the invisible presence 
 without sticking their rifles in front of their noses. 
 Immediately the colonel halted the whole battalion 
 and addressed them on the unbelievable stupidity 
 of a man not knowing enough to give a word of 
 command when a mark had been placed to make it 
 easy for him. East saw that this drill worshipper 
 had determined to make himself odious to him, if 
 possible, for it was as patent to him as to anybody 
 
and tftc puftlitan 145 
 
 else that the marker had moved, but again he re- 
 served his reply till he was ready, though it would 
 have been only right for him to resent this last at- 
 tack by shouting at the top of his voice: "You saw 
 the marker move. I did not, as he was hidden from 
 me by the company, and it was not till I saw him 
 coming back that I knew that it was he who was 
 in the wrong." 
 
 The final occasion was too much even for East's 
 patience. The battalion was drawn up in line, and 
 the colonel gave the word to form square. It was 
 then the duty of the commanders of the flank com- 
 panies to give the word to wheel, but seeing the 
 colonel start suddenly forward they did nothing. 
 He rushed across the two hundred paces which 
 separated him from the men, stuck his cane in 
 East's stomach he was then acting as right guide 
 and shouted: "What are .you doing there spoiling 
 the face of the square?" Most men would have 
 thereupon knocked him down, but East continued 
 the conduct he believed to be expected of him as a 
 soldier and never moved. He knew he was right, 
 and simply silently stayed where he was. The 
 colonel was nonplused. He could not do anything 
 with this man, so he marched back, once more 
 sung out: "The battalion will form square," the 
 flank commanders gave the word to wheel, and the 
 right guide of number two stepped within the 
 square, as was his duty. 
 
Cfre Pfmtigee 
 
 When the men were dismissed for lunch, East 
 stepped up to the colonel, and said: 
 
 "I shall not be coming back this afternoon or on 
 the two days of the month that remain. For some 
 reason or other you have made it your business to 
 be insolent to me, and on two occasions when I was 
 right, and you were wrong, you have sought to 
 degrade me before the whole battalion. I have 
 borne with this because I came here to learn the 
 child's play you have to teach and not to pay any 
 attention to the ill-manners of my instructors. On 
 going, however, I recommend that in future when 
 you place markers you do not allow them to move 
 while an evolution is being executed, and before 
 you seek to correct an officer for not moving at a 
 word which is merely cautionary, and not executory, 
 you inform yourself on the principles which you 
 practice." 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the colonel willingly 
 submitted to the delivery of this harangue, but the 
 men were gone, a wall was behind him, and a man 
 with fire in his eye was in front, there being only 
 one or two sympathetic listeners, who were almost 
 as offended as East, in the vicinity. 
 
 Frank turned and walked through the barracks 
 gates, while the colonel heaved a sigh out of the 
 bottom of his boots and went to his quarters, hav- 
 ing, for the first time since he had become a thing 
 of beauty in gold lace and spurs, had the truth 
 about himself spoken plainly to his face, and hav- 
 
anP tfte publican 
 
 ing thereat quite lost the customary presence of 
 voice which was habitual to him. Frank would have 
 to content himself with an ordinary certificate, but 
 that was a mere detail. He had learned how they 
 did things at the Grenadier Guards, and whatever 
 that might be worth to a volunteer officer, he had 
 acquired. In company drill, four officers had been 
 called up before him, and all had failed. The 
 colonel did his best to make him the fifth, but it 
 was impossible. He would do the things he was 
 called upon to do, and he had to be the first let 
 through, even though it was the martinet's con- 
 stant assertion that he would give his certificate to 
 no officer that "was not fit to command a company 
 in action" a thing he knew just as much about as 
 any other vox et prater ea nihil. 
 
148 Cfte 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A few days prior to our hero's return from Lon- 
 don, Miriam had arrived, and before he made his 
 appearance, had become a familiar member of the 
 household, the delight of the children, and the in- 
 divisible other half of Gertrude. His coming, how- 
 ever, acted as a check on the prevailing exuberance 
 of spirits, and especially between him and the source 
 of all the mirth a dense cloud seemed to have de- 
 scended. Until this time, even the contemplative 
 John had given way to gayety somewhat resem- 
 bling the efforts of a hippopotamus to join the 
 dance, but now, wherever Frank was, even Miriam 
 became pensive. With him out of the way dull care 
 was soon dissipated, but gloom seemed to follow in 
 his wake. This was not ordinarily the effect of 
 his presence, for, though not boisterous, he was 
 never a killjoy, but Gertrude very soon noticed that 
 this was the effect he seemed to have on the visitor, 
 and with the instinct of her sex, she perceived it to 
 be a symptom of the first stage of the tender pas- 
 sion. She quickly changed her mind, however, 
 when she found that Miriam seemed apparently in- 
 different to any attentions that Frank might offer, 
 
miD tfte Publican 149 
 
 or any observations he might make, and in this, she 
 showed that she was still young, for an old cam- 
 paigner would have recognized this as a much more 
 serious symptom than the other. Love, when it be- 
 gins naturally, is a slow and gentle poison which 
 gradually transfuses through the system until the 
 victim becomes oblivious and careless about its man- 
 ifestations, but, on the other hand, when the arrow 
 suddenly strikes in a vital spot, the wounded one 
 writhes and struggles in vain to hide the barb 
 which pierces still, and ever throbs and burns. 
 
 After the manner of women, Miriam and Ger- 
 trude preferred not to be alone; consequently they 
 occupied the same bedroom. They usually went up- 
 stairs about an hour before Frank, but their light 
 was always burning when he went to his room, and 
 he silently wondered "what on earth these girls can 
 put away the time about." There is not anything 
 wonderful about it. They simply sit and talk, talk, 
 talk, till their tongues refuse to wag any more. The 
 time is divided unequally between the men and their 
 own clothes, but they never stray outside these two 
 subjects. Men have other interests, and so have 
 women, occasionally, when others are listening, but 
 two of them alone never desert the only topics that 
 really interest them. One night this is what our 
 hero might have heard, had he listened : 
 
 "Why are you so snappish with Frank, Miriam?" 
 "I didn't know that I was, but why shouldn't I 
 
150 Cfre ptmtigee 
 
 be? He treats me as if I belonged to another 
 species." 
 
 "You don't understand him. You forget that he 
 has developed a lot since you knew him as a little 
 boy." 
 
 "I think I make every allowance for that," said 
 Miriam, "but he seems to have frozen stiff. We 
 appear to have developed along different lines." 
 
 "Well, you're not. going the way to melt him. 
 Perhaps you don't want to." 
 
 "Or I might try a little warmth ?" 
 
 "Exactly. Unless you unbend to him he never 
 will to you. He has too much respect for you to 
 be familiar." 
 
 "I'll see what I can do to oblige you." 
 
 "You were not so before he came. Why don't 
 you behave just as you did when he was not here?" 
 
 "My dear girl, that was all very well with the 
 children, but what do you suppose such a very 
 proper person as your brother would think of a 
 tomboy?" 
 
 "Then you do care what he thinks?" 
 
 "Just as much as I care what anybody thinks. I 
 don't positively try to make myself objectionable 
 to my friends, you know. I should like to be 
 thought well of, even by the Sphinx." 
 
 "Well, I can tell you this about Frank. He likes 
 only people who are natural. Any affectation of any 
 kind he simply despises." 
 
anD tfte Pufiltom 151 
 
 "Do you mean that I am not natural when I try 
 to behave with sanity ?" 
 
 "I know that your natural self is a good deal 
 more cheerful than you have been for some days." 
 
 And so on and so on ad dormiendum. 
 
 Miriam had often sung- to please the children or 
 Gertrude, but, as yet, Frank had not heard her, so, 
 on the following evening, addressing her, he said : 
 
 "I have not asked you to sing because I know 
 how much professional people dislike doing what 
 becomes a weariness to them, after years of prac- 
 tice, but, if you only knew how much I should 
 like to hear you, I believe you would be willing to 
 gratify me." 
 
 "I shall be very glad. I understand what you 
 mean about professional people. Even the most 
 delightful things that we once loved to distraction 
 can become tiresome, but I am still in love with 
 singing." 
 
 "I am very glad to hear it, for I shall have cour- 
 age to ask you oftener than I otherwise would." 
 
 "I suppose your taste is rather severe, isn't it? 
 You would prefer something classical?" 
 
 "I would rather hear what pleases you best to 
 sing. You will sing it best, and we shall all be 
 pleased." 
 
 "I really don't know what I like best. It de- 
 pends on my mood. Just now I am taken by a 
 simple little thing, just out, 'Only An Ivy Leaf/ 
 Have you heard it?" 
 
152 Cfie 
 
 He had not, so Miriam sang it, and, of course, 
 had to follow it by another, and yet another. Then 
 turning to Frank, she said: 
 
 "Now it's your turn. What will you sing?" 
 
 "I'm afraid it would be too much like a frog 
 trying to answer a nightingale. After the singing 
 you have been accustomed to listen to, my wood- 
 notes wild would sound even more wild and woody 
 than usual." 
 
 "On the contrary, it is quite seldom that I hear 
 good singing. Some of the pupils at the Academy 
 are like the donkey, with plenty of voice, but no 
 notion ; others are like the owl, with lots of notion, 
 but no voice. There are very few nightingales, I 
 assure you/' 
 
 "Sing something out of // Trovatore, Frank," put 
 in Gertrude. "You never have anybody to listen 
 to the really great things you sing that knows 
 enough to appreciate them." 
 
 "What is that? // Trovatore?" exclaimed Miriam, 
 "so I have been singing before a critic, have I? 
 Why didn't you tell me, Gertrude?" 
 
 "Yes, I know good singing when I hear it, and 
 I get the greatest delight of my life when I do, 
 but it is quite another thing to do yourself what 
 you would have others do." 
 
 "Well, I do want to hear somebody sing Ah clue 
 la Morte, like it ought to be sung. May be you 
 are not a tenor?" 
 
 "I don't know what I am," replied Frank. 
 
ana tfte Ptiftlfcan 
 
 "When you have heard me, perhaps, you will be 
 able to say whether my voice is a wheelbarrow tone 
 or what." 
 
 "Will you please sing Ah che la Mortef 
 
 Frank, of course, complied, and hardly had he 
 uttered the first note than Miriam was visibly 
 profoundly affected. She trembled, her colour came 
 and went, and she seemed to have the greatest dif- 
 ficulty in maintaining a composure which had been 
 singularly unruffled for some days. At the close of 
 the song her hands dropped to her lap, and she 
 said nothing for some moments, when she appar- 
 ently came to herself, said simply, "Thank you," 
 left the music stool, and seated herself by Gre- 
 trude's side. 
 
 "Well/ 5 said the latter, "what is it, a tenor?" 
 
 "Oh, don't ask me. I don't want to say anything 
 now." 
 
 "Now, Frank, sing something for the rest of 
 us," said John. "Let's have Father O'Flynn, or 
 the German drinking song." 
 
 "Oh, John, you're of the earth earthy," said Ger- 
 trude. 
 
 "Why not sing something yourself, John?" 
 asked Miriam, who seemed to be waking up again, 
 now that things were getting mundane. 
 
 "I only sing to the accompaniment of the trom- 
 bone," replied John. "I need competition to bring 
 out the excellencies of my voice production. Go 
 on, Frank; sing Drinking. 
 
Cfte 
 
 "The idea!" exclaimed Miriam. "Fancy expect- 
 ing a tenor to sing the great show-off bass song!" 
 
 "Well, I have heard that tenor do it before now," 
 replied John, "and it wouldn't surprise me if he 
 could do it again. Silence, gentlemen, please. Mr. 
 East will oblige." 
 
 So Frank sang Im tiefen Keller, as if bass was 
 his native language and Miriam could contain her- 
 self no longer : 
 
 "Is this a spiritual seance, or what?" she said, 
 "do we sleep or do we dream? Such curious things 
 are happening that I am not quite sure that I am 
 in complete possession of my senses." 
 
 "We are accustomed to it," laughed Gertrude. 
 "I am only surprised that he doesn't treat us to 
 some soprano sometimea I have no doubt he 
 could if he would." 
 
 Not very long afterward the girls went upstairs 
 to bed and the conversation of the night before 
 was resumed. 
 
 "Will you please tell me what it was you would 
 not say about Frank's voice?" asked Gertrude. 
 
 "I simply could not say anything. I never 
 heard anything so wonderful in my life. I don't 
 believe there is any such compass in all the world, 
 the quality of it is simply superb, and he never let 
 himself out once to-night. He could fill Albert 
 Hall either with a tenor B or a bass F. He sings, 
 too, like one who had never done anything else all 
 his life. Even his Italian and his German seem 
 
attO tfre Publican IBS 
 
 as familiar to him as English. He never once got 
 mixed in those difficult Italian syllables. You 
 know how it is. As it were, you sing two or three 
 syllables to one note and many people never learn 
 to do it properly." 
 
 "So you think he can sing a bit?" 
 
 "I am satisfied that he has one of the most mar- 
 vellous voices that ever issued from the throat of 
 
 man." 
 
 "You twp will no doubt get on better together 
 now." 
 
 "Why doesn't he make singing his profession?" 
 
 "He says he wants to get his living by his brains, 
 not his throat. Of course, that doesn't mean that 
 he thinks any the less of you on that account." 
 
 "I understand that. He is right. Singing is 
 all very well for a woman, but a man ought to 
 live by his brains, if he has any. There is no 
 longer any market for muscle, though we all of 
 us admire brawn more than we do brain still, don't 
 we?" 
 
 "I do, I know; but the man I fall in love with 
 will have both. The sentiment will be inspired by 
 the brawn, but my self-respect will require that 
 he possess at least sufficient mind to command those 
 he comes in contact with. The complacent, snick- 
 ering timeserver won't suit me. My man will put 
 his foot down, and his motto will be J'y suis et 
 j'y rested 
 
156 C&e 
 
 "I hope you'll find him, my dear, but I believe 
 that most of us will have to put up with an in- 
 ferior article or one that we look at through rose- 
 colored glasses." 
 
ana tfte Publican 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Next morning the change in Miriam's manner to 
 Frank was obvious. Instead of disagreeing with 
 him and cutting him short at every opportunity, she 
 seemed to dwell on every word he uttered as though 
 it proceeded from an oracle. And to what was the 
 difference due? Merely to the fact that she had 
 discovered that he could sing. Such is the influ- 
 ence of the voice of the male biped on the mind 
 of the female. He was no wiser, no stronger, no 
 greater in any way, but he could warble to her and 
 she could but coo in response. 
 
 At breakfast Frank announced that business 
 would take him to Camruth that day and that the 
 girls would have to get on without him. Miriam 
 was visibly disappointed. 
 
 When the meal was over Frank strolled over to 
 the hotel to see if Mitchell hadn't business in Cam- 
 ruth, too, and naturally found that he had. In 
 half an hour they were on horseback and on their 
 way. They had not gone far when Tom broke 
 out with: 
 
 "Well, how is the lovemaking progressing? You 
 must have been having a high old time lately." 
 
158. Cfte Pimtigee 
 
 "I think your prescription is working. At first 
 I got worse because the girl would none of me, 
 but I sang to her and broke the spell. Now she is 
 like a lamb. I know that I have won and in conse- 
 quence of that fact I am already losing interest in 
 the game. It is always so with me. The pursuit of 
 anything is exhilarating, but when once I have at- 
 tained my end I want some other quarry." 
 
 "I knew how it would be. You were no more 
 in love with the girl than I was. You were sim- 
 ply in love with yourself. You saw something you 
 fancied you wanted and you went after it till you 
 got it. Now you are satisfied." 
 
 "I am afraid it is not a very lovable character, 
 but it is mine. Besides, what business should I 
 have falling in love with a girl? I have all these 
 children on my hands now, and then have a ca- 
 reer to make at the bar, if I ever get back there. 
 I could not possibly get married for ten years to 
 come." 
 
 "Hold hard a minute. The mare has picked up 
 a stone," said Mitchell, as he flung himself off and 
 pulled a pocketknife from somewhere about his 
 person. In a moment the stone was out by the 
 aid of the hook attached to the knife, and Mitchell's 
 attention was attracted by an object in a bush close 
 by. "Well, I'll be jiggered! I'm a Dutchman if 
 I don't know that hat," and reaching forward he 
 pulled a battered black square-topped hard felt hat 
 out of a tangle of hawthorn branches. 
 
anD tfte ptiflUcan 159 
 
 Frank instantly recognized the hat of his father, 
 and close scrutiny convinced him. 
 
 "Well, what do you think?" said Mitchell. "That 
 solves the mystery, doesn't it?" 
 
 "No, I hardly think it does." 
 
 "Why, it is plain to me. He was waylaid in this 
 lonely spot under the supposition that he was car- 
 rying the bank money, resisted, was murdered, and 
 his body thrown into one of the shafts around 
 here." 
 
 "That sounds plausible, but how did the hat get 
 hidden in that bush? It would have gone into the 
 shaft with him or be lying around loose, whereas 
 there it has been securely hidden and might have 
 been for all time if your mare hadn't happened to 
 pick up a stone just opposite the place." 
 
 "/Very likely the affray occurred at some dis- 
 tance from here, and the hat, at first loose, was 
 blown into the bush. You see, its position was 
 such that the prevailing wind could have done it, 
 except that I don't know if it wasn't too far in. 
 At any rate, it was too much hidden to have been 
 placed there purposely to throw people off the 
 scent." 
 
 "Well, I think you had better put it back. It 
 is no use taking it to Camruth, and on the way we 
 can determine what is best to be done. At any 
 rate, we had better say nothing about it at home. 
 The family are quiet now, and it is no use opening 
 the old wound unless we can heal it." 
 
160 C&e 
 
 "We had better have these shafts looked into, 
 though. We can arrange for that without exciting 
 suspicion, though most of them are too deep and 
 the ladders have been taken out of nearly all of 
 them/' 
 
 "The surface of the water can be reached in some 
 of them by a rope, but I think it will be useless. 
 In fact, I would rather not have the mystery 
 cleared than find out that he was actually mur- 
 dered." 
 
 In due time they arrived at Camruth, and Frank 
 repaired to the bank while Tom went about his 
 "business," which consisted mainly in waiting in 
 the barroom of the hotel chatting with acquaint- 
 ances until his friend should again make his ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 On being ushered into old Ellis' private room 
 Frank said : 
 
 "I got your letter asking me to call when I had 
 business in town next, so here I am." 
 
 "Yes, I didn't want to see you about anything 
 in particular merely to have a chat about Red- 
 borne affairs, you know. How are things up 
 there?" 
 
 "There is no difference worth mentioning. The 
 mines are about paying cost, as they have been 
 ever since my father's disappearance. The lodes 
 don't cut out nor do they improve to any great 
 extent." 
 
 "Well, how are you getting on with the people? 
 
anD tfte Publican 
 
 Are you getting more reconciled to your surround- 
 ings?" 
 
 "Do you think it possible that a fish out of water 
 would become reconciled to his surroundings?" 
 asked Frank, with a smile. 
 
 "Ah!" sighed the old man, "I didn't suppose it 
 was quite as bad as that, but certainly from what 
 I hear you don't seem to be getting on as well as 
 I hoped you would." 
 
 "So the gossip reaches you, does it?" 
 
 "Gossip, do you call it? We get anonymous 
 letters about you by the score/' 
 
 "Can that really be so? What can I possibly 
 have done to make enemies? I was not aware that 
 I had injured anybody." 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know what you've done, but, 
 if these letters were to be believed, there wouldn't 
 be much left that you hadn't done." 
 
 "I suppose I may take it for granted that you 
 don't believe them?" 
 
 "It is a kind of thing we are accustomed to, and 
 as a rule we don't pay much attention to them. 
 We frequently get threatened with death our- 
 selves. When they get very frequent and very bad, 
 however, there is usually some foundation of some 
 sort for them, and we generally look into the mat- 
 ter a bit if we have enough regard for the person 
 vilified." 
 
 "And that is why you wanted to see me?" 
 
 "Well, not altogether that, either. I wanted to 
 
162 Cfte 
 
 talk more particularly about the mines. It seems 
 you have been having some correspondence with 
 the shareholders in London." 
 
 ''Naturally. I often hear from them, of course." 
 
 "But some you have been advising, I believe." 
 
 "When my advice has been sought, yes." 
 
 "Then I may take it that you feel fully compe- 
 tent to give advice about mining?" 
 
 "No, you may not. Nobody has asked for any 
 such advice. What I have given has been about 
 investing in mining." 
 
 "And you have not recommended it." 
 
 "Would you?" 
 
 "That would depend." 
 
 "That is to say, you would advise some people 
 to do it but not others?" 
 
 "Well, my advice has not been sought in the 
 particular case or cases I refer to, but yours has, 
 and you have advised against it, as I am informed." 
 
 "I certainly have." 
 
 "Do you call that business-like?" 
 
 "No, I call it honest." 
 
 "I thought as much. Thank you, that is all I 
 want to know. Good morning." 
 
 The one finger was held out, but not seen, and 
 Frank went back to Tom, whom he found seated 
 in the barroom surrounded by a small crowd of 
 habitues, whom he was entertaining with a story 
 about the Redborne rifle corps continuing to march 
 
tfjc publican 163 
 
 while its captain puffed behind shouting "Halt! 
 Halt, please! Halt!" 
 
 John Hollow lived almost at the junction of the 
 roads from Camruth and the Land's End, so, on 
 the way home, our well-nigh inseparable pair looked 
 in on the sick man. For a time he had improved 
 greatly on the nutritious diet which his friends had 
 supplied, but at that time phthisis was not so well 
 understood as it is to-day, and that terrible scourge 
 of the poor in pocket and poor in blood had taken 
 too firm a grip of the exhausted frame before the 
 aid had come. He had suffered in silence, and even 
 Tom had not heard how seriously ill he was. 
 
 As they entered they found the children seated 
 in hushed silence in the kitchen. Their mother, 
 hearing the sound of the door, came out of the 
 adjoining room and invited them in. The skin- 
 clothed skeleton of what was once the rural ath- 
 lete was stretched motionless upon the bed and Dr. 
 Slow was standing by its side. A faint voice 
 broke the stillness : 
 
 "Ez gittin' dark. I cayn't see nobody. Who 
 ez et?" 
 
 "Mester Heast and Mester Mitchell come to see 
 'e, John," replied his wife. 
 
 "I'm bra'n' glad," said the poor fellow, "I ded 
 want to say good-by to they. Ef 'e was more like 
 they in the world e' w'udn' be s j many like me. 
 Gi'e me your 'and, Mester Mitchell, I cayn't play 
 no more. I'm too tired " 
 
164 Cfce 
 
 For a moment or two his lips continued to move, 
 then a slight shiver passed through the worn-out 
 frame, the blind eyes became fixed, and John's 
 "innings" was over. 
 
attD tfte pu&lfcan 165 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 After leaving the cottage of the dead miner for 
 some time the Pharisee and the Publican rode 
 along in silence, but eventually the former ob- 
 served : 
 
 "Well, we've seen one finish to-day. I see an- 
 other." 
 
 "Which particular one do you refer to?" asked 
 Tom. 
 
 "My own/' replied Frank. "I am convinced that 
 old Ellis means mischief. I advised one or two 
 London shareholders who have been losing heavily 
 in Cornish mining to get out of it, and naturally 
 the report of it has reached him, as I knew it 
 would." 
 
 "Oh! If you've done that it's all U P. But 
 fthat's just like you. That head of yours must be 
 "pretty sore with running up against stone walls." 
 
 "For my part I don't see how it is possible to be 
 honest and avoid it." 
 
 "I know it isn't, but why must you be honest? 
 [Nobody else is honest to you. You should treat 
 .other people as they do you. That's the Golden 
 (Rule, isn't it? Do them." 
 
166 Cfte Pimti0ee 
 
 "When I was a youngster I unfortunately be- 
 lieved what my elders told me. When they said 
 that honesty was the best policy I believed them 
 and laid the foundation for my subsequent char- 
 acter. When they said that I should do to others 
 as I would that they should do to me, the plan 
 commended itself to my understanding, and I have 
 been trying to do it ever since, with the result that, 
 as the Yankees say, I am played for a sucker every 
 time." 
 
 "When you became a man you should have put 
 away childish things." 
 
 "These maxims will be suitable for rules of con- 
 duct during the Millennium, but applied to mun- 
 dane affairs as at present regulated they will be 
 the surest way to the poorhouse that can be taken. 
 At the same time, amongst professional men they 
 are faithfully observed, and I don't believe that 
 any barrister or doctor would any more treat a fel- 
 low practitioner in any other way than with per- 
 fect honesty and precisely as he would wish to be 
 treated than he would debase the coinage of the 
 realm." 
 
 "You ought to have changed your clothes before 
 you came home. The miners, poor beggars, are 
 honest enough, for they haven't any opportunity to 
 be otherwise so as to amount to much, but those 
 who are so kind as to keep the mines afloat on 
 London capital that they may be paid their monthly 
 dole of fifty shillings have principles of their own." 
 
aitD tfte putilfcan 167 
 
 "As the mathematicians say, a miner's dishon- 
 esty would be a 'negligible quantity/ but I think I 
 could detect it if I saw it I never did, however." 
 
 "Old Diogenes wouldn't have to go very far 
 with his light in this community before coming 
 across the article he was in search of. But what 
 was it precisely that you did, if I may be so bold 
 as to inquire?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, we have been getting into generali- 
 ties. Well, there was one man who kept after 
 me for advice, but for a time I evaded answering 
 his direct questions until at last he sprung the gol- 
 den rule on me and told me he expected to be 
 treated precisely as he would treat me if I wanted 
 his advice on investing in South Africa, which he 
 knew as much about as I did about West Corn- 
 wall. I thought the matter over carefully, fore- 
 saw precisely what has happened, and took the 
 leap. I told him that it was my opinion that 
 Australia had beaten Cornwall, and that Cornwall 
 would stay beaten. She had been 'counted out' 
 long ago. He was very much obliged to me, and 
 said that he would stand by Redborne Consols as 
 long as he could afford to, as he knew that there 
 was an honest man in charge." 
 
 "And you think that honest man won't be in 
 charge much longer?" 
 
 "Precisely." 
 
 "Che sara sara." 
 
 "Hello! Where did you come by your Italian?" 
 
Cfte 
 
 "Well, that motto, being the Duke of Bedford's, 
 embellishes the notepaper of the hotel where I stay 
 in London, the plutocrat named being the owner 
 thereof. I have often heard worthy gentlemen 
 from the provinces apparently meditating on what 
 they should say to Sarah when they were really 
 endeavoring to comprehend what Chee, Sarah, 
 Sarah, could possibly mean." 
 
 "The Spaniards have a saying, too, which is very 
 much to the point : Cuando no podemos lograr 
 lo que deseamos, debemos contentarnos con lo que 
 tenemos." 
 
 "I have picked up scraps of a good many tongues 
 in my wanderings around the world. I know more 
 Hindustani and Choctaw than I do Spanish, but as 
 I heard the word content, or something like it, I 
 have no doubt that I understand what the hidalgo 
 wants to say. He and I think very much alike, but 
 you're an anarchist. You can't do business on pro- 
 fessional principles." 
 
 "I know it, and am sorry for it, but I'm not 
 going to alter my principles for the sake of my 
 business, but rather to alter my business for the 
 sake of my principles. I think I shall have to take 
 the family to London, rent a little house in the 
 suburbs, and get something for John to do in the 
 city. I shall only lose the salaries from the pur- 
 serships, and I think in a little while I can make 
 very much more at the bar than they amount to." 
 
 "You know your own business best, m' son, 
 
anD tftc pufllican 169 
 
 but I should not wonder if a compromise will not 
 be effected, for your name is worth a good deal in 
 Cornish mining not on your account, you know 
 please don't misunderstand me but your father's." 
 
 "I shall try not to anticipate my fate, but I am 
 prepared for eventualities." 
 
 "I am going to make a move, too, pretty soon. 
 I've taken a lease of Billy's house at the Land's 
 End." 
 
 "I thought you would. I suppose you'll keep 
 the same brand of M'zelly for your friends?" 
 
 "My guests will not be obliged to drink Moselle. 
 I shall also keep beer." 
 
 "Well, Redborne Consols account will be held 
 next week, and I quite expect to meet my Waterloo 
 in some shape or other. Will you be my Bliicher?" 
 
 "I always maintain a watchful neutrality in these 
 conflicts until some fool steps on my feet. Then 
 I put coals of fire on his head, and I find the 
 easiest way is to put his head in the fireplace." 
 
 "That reminds me. You know I'm a thorough- 
 going materialist. I think I have hit on the ac- 
 tual physical basis of pleasure and pain." 
 
 "That's nothing new. Pleasure means a full 
 belly and pain means an empty belly." 
 
 "Can't you be got to listen to something really 
 dry and serious for a few seconds?" 
 
 "Haven't I often listened to you patiently for 
 a much longer period? Pray proceed." 
 
 "I believe pleasure to be merely a form of mo- 
 
70 Cfre 
 
 tion, just as light, heat, sound, and electricity are. 
 It is always apparent where there is motion, and 
 is absent where there is stagnation." 
 
 "That is in accordance with the Irishman's ex- 
 perience when he fell off the roof. The fall was 
 pleasant enough, but it was the check to the motion 
 when he struck the ground that caused the pain." 
 
 Ignoring Mitchell's facetiousness, Frank went 
 on: 
 
 "When our machinery is active we are healthy 
 and happy, but when our circulation becomes 
 clogged pain ensues. As long as the constant 
 change, what the physiologists call katabolism, or 
 tearing down, and anabolism, or building up, is 
 continued without check, we experience a pleasant 
 sensation of exhilaration, but let a cold, a burn, or 
 a wound set up an opposition or a check to the 
 even flow of these activities and pain is the result. 
 I have thought it out in detail, and I believe it is 
 in accordance with the facts, but I know you don't 
 take any interest in such things, so I won't bother 
 you with any more of it. I wouldn't have men- 
 tioned it at all but that you are the only man in 
 the place who could possibly have understood what 
 I have already said to you." 
 
 "Oh, I'm not all buffoon, mister. It might per- 
 haps surprise you to know that I've read all Her- 
 bert Spencer, except some of the detail in biology 
 and psychology. I have absorbed all the philo- 
 sophic parts and I know that he makes pleasure 
 
ann tfte Pufilfom 
 
 consist of those things which minister to the vi- 
 tality of the organism." 
 
 "I wish I had known this sooner, for we should 
 have been much better friends even than we have 
 been. I go a step further than Spencer, for I say 
 that it is the vitality itself which is the pleasure 
 not merely the building up, but also the tearing 
 down and casting out, both of which are equally 
 necessary to the maintenance of the organism. The 
 motion constituting this process is what is present 
 to consciousness as pleasure. Apply it to the 
 senses. Take taste. A sweet morsel excites the 
 nerves which make its sweetness apparent to the 
 brain. The nerve acts, is wasted and built up 
 again, the process being felt by consciousness as 
 pleasure. The same explanation applies to hear- 
 ing, sight, smell, and feeling. Pain comes when 
 their rhythmic, healthy action is interfered with, 
 as by a discord in music." 
 
 "And we get pain in the stomach when the nor- 
 mal motions of digestion are interfered with and 
 pain in the finger when we cut it because the regu- 
 lar action of the blood and nerve currents are in- 
 terfered with?" 
 
 "Yes, and you can follow the same idea out into 
 the more delicate sense perceptions and even into 
 the intellectual region. What displeases is always 
 what interferes, what jars." 
 
 "We ought to move along like a smooth stream, 
 water pouring in at the source and out into the 
 
172 Cfte 
 
 sea without let or hindrance, but put in a dam and 
 you set up a disturbance directly?" 
 
 "Just so, but here we are once more. I am 
 sorry that the even flow of your discourse should 
 be broken in upon by our arrival at the end of our 
 ride, but remember Sarah, Sarah." 
 
 They had ridden past the place where the hat 
 had been found without having given the matter 
 a thought, either of them. This was not so strange 
 as it might appear, however, as they had just been 
 present at the bedside of a dying man, and Frank's 
 mind was preoccupied with the thoughts which his 
 interview with old Ellis had awakened. They did 
 not begin their conversation about it until they 
 had passed the place, which was only a short walk 
 from the town. 
 
anD t&e publican 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Frank was standing in front of the house when 
 the family returned from church on the following 
 Sunday morning, and as Miriam came up, address- 
 ing him, she said, with a mock expression of seri- 
 ousness : 
 
 "Wicked man, why haven't you been to church ?" 
 
 "On the contrary, I should be wicked if I went." 
 
 "How could you possibly be? Surely it can't be 
 wrong to go to church, whatever else is wrong." 
 
 "Possibly it may be all right for you, but it 
 would not be for me but you had better talk about 
 something else. I never discuss religion with any- 
 body if I can help it." 
 
 "Oh, I do. I discuss anything and everything 
 that I can learn anything about. Besides, you have 
 excited my curiosity when you make such a strange 
 statement as that it is wrong to go to church." 
 
 "Very well, then. Your sin be upon your own 
 head. I don't go to church because it would be 
 hypocritical in me to go, and there was a time 
 when I thought that those who could swallow the 
 Christian creed at one gulp would get no harm by 
 going, but I have become more wicked now. I be- 
 lieve that even they are harmed by going. I be- 
 
174 
 
 lieve that even you would be the better for stay- 
 ing away. Now, do you want to hear any more? 
 Remember, you have stirred up the beast, and you 
 must be prepared for the consequences." 
 
 "Go on. It does not follow that I shall agree 
 with you." 
 
 "I thought at one time that those who are in- 
 capable of examining into the grounds of their be- 
 lief would be the better for adhering to a standard 
 of some sort than to none at all, but now I think 
 that everybody is injured by pretending to believe 
 what no sane man could by any possibility really 
 believe." 
 
 "Don't you believe in God?" 
 
 "That is a question to which a Christian ex- 
 pects a prompt and satisfactory answer, but, as a 
 matter of fact, in that shape it cannot be answered. 
 If by God you mean an embodiment of infinite 
 power, wisdom, and goodness, or a being in whom 
 these attributes may be supposed to dwell, I say it 
 is a matter wholly beyond the comprehension of the 
 human intellect, but as a point d'appw, let it pass. 
 If by God you mean a being who is actuated by 
 human passions, or who is a human being in any 
 manner whatever or resembles one in any respect, 
 I do not believe in him. Mankind are no more 
 than the parasites that infest Mother Earth, and 
 analogy would lead us to suppose that there are in- 
 numerable grades of beings interposed between us 
 and any God we can conceive." 
 
anD tyt publican 
 
 "You certainly have a poor opinion of man." 
 
 "I have, and a much worse opinion when he pre- 
 tends to believe what he cannot possibly under- 
 stand." 
 
 '"What, for instance?'* 
 
 "That God Almighty was crucified on Calvary, 
 and at the same time that he wasn't, and that re- 
 pulsive blasphemy about the cannabalism in the sac- 
 rament of the Lord's Supper. There are many 
 other things only less blasphemous and ridiculous 
 than these which Christians pretend to believe, but 
 which no sane man amongst them really believes for 
 an instant, and to pretend to do so is to accustom 
 yourself to self-deception and make it all the easier 
 to deceive others. It is for that reason that I say 
 a pretended belief in the Christian religion de- 
 stroys a man's sincerity and cripples him for ac- 
 quiring a love and a reverence for that most sacred 
 and important of all virtues truth." 
 
 "Your objections would seem to be aimed prin- 
 cipally against the Catholic church. Protestants 
 don't believe anything out of the way, that I know 
 of." 
 
 "What about the very first point I mentioned? 
 Do you believe that it is possible that a thing that 
 is three can be one, and the one be three? I was 
 not particularly referring to the fact that it was 
 the God who made the worlds who consented to 
 come to this insignificant little one and die here." 
 
 "Great is the mystery of godliness." 
 
176 Cfre pimtlsee 
 
 "That is a remark that you might make of any 
 nonsense. For my part I don't believe a thing be- 
 cause it is mysterious but because it is reasonable. 
 Everything that we do believe depends on our rea- 
 son. It is only by the exercise of it that we can 
 tell whether we believe or not. I know, however, 
 by experience, that pretense is wrong. I see its 
 injurious results. Therefore I will not pretend to 
 believe what I do not, and I will not be seen where 
 people do these things if I can stay away." 
 
 "Would you do away with churches, then?" 
 asked Miriam. 
 
 "By no means. If the parsons would give up 
 preaching blasphemous nonsense and teach moral- 
 ity instead, they would be doing some good, but 
 before everything else they have to hold up truth 
 as the one thing needful." 
 
 "Don't people want the terrors of the law to 
 keep them straight?" 
 
 "They have had them for nearly two thousand 
 years, but they are just as wicked now as they were 
 twenty centuries ago. Their lust for blood is dif- 
 ferently gratified, but it is the same in essence. 
 Whatever difference there is is due to education, 
 and that is what should be strengthened and ex- 
 tended. Let the churches spread light, not the 
 darkness of error and fable, and they will become 
 a valuable adjunct of the schools. At present they 
 are only a hindrance." 
 
 "If you think you are in possession of the light, 
 
anD tfte publican 
 
 why don't you shed it abroad, then, instead of 
 hiding it under a bushel?" 
 
 "My thousand-candlepower luminary," replied 
 Frank facetiously, "would be too bright for their 
 vision. Most of them are mere troglodytes. They 
 have to be brought out into the sun gradually." 
 
 "Well, couldn't you partially turn off the current, 
 reduce the supply of gas, or do whatever is neces- 
 sary to lower the flame for the weak eyes?" 
 
 "I expect to as I see the opportunity. I thought 
 this would be a fine field, but nemo mortalium, etc." 
 
 The others had by this time become accustomed 
 to seeing these two talking earnestly together, but 
 it was not often that they were allowed such a long 
 and uninterrupted conversation. Miriam was a 
 very beautiful girl of most artistic tastes, but she 
 was a great deal more. For a long time she had 
 been living practically alone in the greatest city 
 in the world and dependent upon her own resources 
 chiefly. Most girls would have become even more 
 frivolous than they were by nature, but she had 
 become even more thoughtful and had read a great 
 deal that usually fails to appeal to the female mind, 
 or even to the artist, so that Frank's remarks were 
 not really so much out of place as they appeared to 
 be when addressed to a young girl whose distin- 
 guishing characteristics were beauty and a voice. 
 For a little while she was pensive, but very soon 
 she returned to the attack : 
 
 "Don't you think this proposal of yours to teach 
 
178 Cfte Pimtisee 
 
 morality without religion will be rather thin? To 
 most people I think it will appear very much like 
 mere clothes without a body. You want something 
 to hang your precepts on." 
 
 "That idea is merely derived from association. 
 You have been accustomed to the only religion and 
 the only morality you know going hand in hand, 
 while I would have them preach an entirely inde- 
 pendent morality based on experience. As it is, 
 the only good the preachers do is by unconsciously 
 spreading that selfsame doctrine, whereas all the 
 dogmas they proclaim only lead to strife, hatred of 
 fellow man, and bloodshed." 
 
 "Not nowadays." 
 
 "And why? Because these dogmas are no 
 longer believed either by priest or people. Usually 
 they are refined and explained away until they mean 
 nothing, but they are no longer believed and died 
 for as they were from three to four hundred years 
 ago. As education has spread people have be- 
 come disgusted at such enormities as infant dam- 
 nation and a material everlasting hell not for 
 those who have deserved it, but for those who 
 have refused doctrines they were called upon to 
 accept or have never even heard of. Reason is 
 made to act upon religion now, and the more it 
 acts on it the less of it there will be left." 
 
 "Well, what is to be done? Have you a substi- 
 tute ready?" 
 
 "Regenerative systems do not start up full 
 
anD tfte pufiltcan 179 
 
 fledged in a day. As dogma and superstition de- 
 cline, morality and good works will grow, as they 
 are growing on every hand, and the churches will 
 be gradually transformed into associations for so- 
 cial progress." 
 
 "I don't see why people should not be as sincere 
 in their beliefs now as they were centuries ago, 
 even though they do not burn one another." 
 
 "But you know that if they were there would not 
 be asylums enough to contain them all, for mothers 
 would be shrieking and fathers tearing their hair 
 to think of the horrible fate in store for their chil- 
 dren who persisted in refusing to repent." 
 
 "I suppose you don't believe in any immortality 
 of any kind, do you?" 
 
 "How can I? I can't possibly comprehend it. 
 When I was quite a child I used to dread to go to 
 bed as I could not keep my thoughts from dwelling 
 on that theme. It made me shudder as it was so 
 absolutely incomprehensible. I dreaded inexpress- 
 ibly to think that I must live forever and to doubt 
 the truth of the conception never occurred to me 
 for an instant. It was given me on the authority 
 of my father, mother, the parson, Sunday-school 
 teacher, and other such people whose word I would 
 never think of doubting, but, thank God, as I grew 
 up I learned to think for myself and threw off the 
 burden of this frightful nightmare." 
 
 "I never heard anybody tell of such an experience 
 
180 
 
 before. I believe in immortality as firmly as I do 
 in anything that I know." 
 
 "But surely, if you will permit me to say so, that 
 is because you have never thought on the subject. 
 To me the idea is absolutely without any warrant 
 whatever, contradicts all analogies, and is absolutely 
 repulsive and terrible." 
 
 "Well, let's turn to something else. I don't think 
 we can ever think together on this subject." 
 
 "I suppose not. I am merely coldly analytic, 
 while your reason is swayed by your affections." 
 
 "I expect I don't know enough, that's all. 
 Wouldn't it be right to say that the more you 
 know the greater weight your knowledge must 
 have in forming your convictions and directing 
 your actions?" 
 
 "I should say so ; but I don't want to be dog- 
 matic like the theologians. You certainly would 
 have a great burden of temperament to overcome, 
 whilst in my case I easily follow the dictates of un- 
 adulterated logic." 
 
 "That reminds me. I don't know anything. 
 Couldn't you advise me what to read? I only 
 flounder about in a haphazard way, and I don't 
 want to waste my time on trash. Life is too short 
 to read all I want to." 
 
 "You can't do better than read good novels. 
 Those people who recommend lists of books that 
 everybody should read I am persuaded have never 
 read them themselves. On them, for instance, you 
 
anD tfre Publican 
 
 will always find Marcus Aurelius and Plutarch. 
 The former only says one thing, which he keeps on 
 repeating ad nauseam, while all the other says 
 worth remembering can be written down on two 
 pages of ordinary letter paper. He pretends to 
 write the lives of great men, but he knows next to 
 nothing about any of them, and what he says is 
 mostly surmise. Occasionally he lets fall a pearl, 
 but you have so many empty shells to open to come 
 to it that it is hardly worth the labor. It is the 
 same with nearly all the ancients, but I would, ex- 
 cept Seneca and Epictetus. The Stoic philosophy 
 is still valuable. I might continue in this strain 
 almost ad infinitum, but it will be better to cut the 
 matter short by recommending you to read Charles 
 Reade and George Eliot before all others. The 
 Cloister and the Hearth' alone is an education for 
 anybody, and much the same might be said for 
 'Middlemarch/ 'Adam Bede,' or 'Daniel De- 
 ronda/ There is one American writer, too, who 
 has an immense influence for good. There is more 
 wisdom in Oliver Wendell Holmes than in Plato 
 and Aristotle put together, and more humor than 
 in all the professional humorists combined." 
 
 "Thanks. It is so nice to combine one's tastes 
 with one's duty." 
 
 "What a beautiful day this is! What a splen- 
 did blending of colors there seems to be in the 
 sky and on the land." 
 
 "Isn't it magnificent? But what is it we mean 
 
182 Cfte Pfmrigee 
 
 when we say that some colors blend while others 
 don't match?" 
 
 "Precisely the same thing as it means in music. 
 A discord is the simultaneous sounding of two 
 notes whose rates of vibration will not combine, 
 and in the same way colors which do not match 
 are impressions made on the retina by parts of the 
 spectrum whose rates of vibration do not har- 
 
 monize." 
 
 "How consoling!" 
 
 Frank laughed, as no doubt he was expected to, 
 and said: "Of course I appreciate the humor of 
 the situation just as much as you do, but it's a 
 great treat to me in this wilderness to have an op- 
 portunity of talking to one who can take an in- 
 terest in the really important things of this life." 
 
 "It is equally so to me, I assure you. I have 
 never talked to a young man in my life before who 
 was capable of keeping up a conversation on any- 
 thing but music or nonsense. Some of them seem 
 to think I am a fairy and others that I am a sort 
 of cross between a phonograph and a fiddle." 
 
ana tfte pii&iican 183 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The day of Redbbrne Consols account had come 
 around again and shareholders were standing about 
 in groups in the vicinity of the account house while 
 the committee were holding their meeting within. 
 At the table in the small room on the ground floor 
 where the books were audited were seated the iron 
 founder and the timber merchant with the purser, 
 the two other members of the quartette not being 
 represented. As a rule the bank sent an emissary, 
 but the purser of the adjoining mine, who had been 
 made a member of the committee because he was 
 lord of the soil and not because, which was the fact, 
 that he knew more about practical mining than any 
 other man in the community, consistently refused 
 to attend, as he regarded committees of merchants 
 as the greatest curse of Cornish mining. 
 
 "We can't pass the accounts till we have the 
 bank passbook," said the ironfounder, "or we might 
 call in the shareholders. Lickspittle must have had 
 a breakdown." 
 
 Just then the sound of wheels was heard, and 
 in a few minutes no less a personage than Dee him- 
 self drove up to the door. With scant ceremony 
 
184 Cfre Pfmrigee 
 
 he rushed by those who saluted him and burst into 
 the committee room, threw the passbook on the 
 table, and dived simultaneously at the books and a 
 chair at the head of the table. 
 
 Frank took the passbook and began to check 
 the items in it with those in the ledger, but pres- 
 ently his brow became clouded, and it was evident 
 that there was something he could not find. 
 
 "Come," said Dee, from the chair, with nervous 
 impatience, "aren't these accounts ready yet?" 
 
 "We must compare them with the bank pass- 
 book, of course," replied Frank, "and you have only 
 just brought it." 
 
 "If your accounts were all right that wouldn't 
 take a minute." 
 
 Frank did not reply, but the ironfounder edged 
 over toward him and asked : "What is it ? Is 
 there something you can't find? Let me have a 
 look." 
 
 "I don't find the check to Bayley entered, can 
 you?" 
 
 After a careful search, aided by the timber mer- 
 chant, the ironfounder was obliged to confess that 
 there was no sign of Bayley's check. 
 
 "Here, give me the book," said Dee, and with- 
 out a moment's hesitation he pointed out the entry. 
 
 "Well, but Mr. Dee," said the timber merchant, 
 "that is prior to the date at which the check was 
 drawn." 
 
 "I can't help that. This is only a passbook, a 
 
and tfte pufllitan iss 
 
 copy of our ledger. Perhaps the clerk who wrote 
 it up omitted this check and afterward just stuck 
 it in where there was a vacant line." 
 
 "How did you manage to find it so promptly?" 
 asked Frank. 
 
 "That is the effect of having had to do with ac- 
 counts all my life." 
 
 "And not through being accustomed to the way 
 in which your books are written up?" 
 
 "Now, I don't want any insinuations from you. 
 If you don't know how to keep accounts we will get 
 somebody who can." 
 
 "I understand perfectly why you came here and 
 why you are determined to be unpleasant to me. 
 Perhaps you know more about accounts than I do. 
 If so you can put your knowledge at the service of 
 the committee. I am going. Good-by, gentle- 
 men," he said, bowing in the direction of the mer- 
 chants. 
 
 "What! You are not going to leave us?" ex- 
 exclaimed the old timber dealer. 
 
 "Certainly," replied Frank, "I cannot be asso- 
 ciated in any business undertaking with an im- 
 pertinent ruffian like that. I will send you my res- 
 ignation this evening." 
 
 Without another word he left the room, and, 
 avoiding the groups of loitering shareholders, 
 walked toward home, a little over a mile away. 
 His reflections as he trudged along may be easily 
 imagined. He felt a sort of dull consciousness that 
 
186 Cfte Pimrfeee 
 
 he had committed suicide, but he knew that if he 
 had not done it he would have been murdered, so 
 it was perhaps just as well that he had taken the 
 matter into his own hands. He had committed the 
 unpardonable crime, he had dared to be honest, he 
 had had the insufferable impertinence to be inde- 
 pendent in the Ellis and Dee preserves, and he must 
 be cast out. 
 
 Well, what was to be done? The income from 
 Tremayne was about enough to pay the interest on 
 the mortgage, not much more, and the coal and 
 candle business would have to be sold to somebody 
 who could secure the orders from the mines, for it 
 was not to be supposed that they were going to be 
 altruistic enough to support the former purser's 
 family as a mark of respect to his memory. He 
 certainly had been the means of keeping the mines 
 afloat for several years after they ought to have 
 been closed, but presumably he did this because he 
 expected his reward in returning prosperity. At 
 any rate, as a cold business proposition they could 
 not be considered to owe him or his family any- 
 thing, and as a very much colder proposition they 
 certainly would not pay if they did. Frank was, 
 therefore, once more a castaway with a large fam- 
 ily to provide for and nothing to do it with. Nev- 
 ertheless he forwarded his resignation that evening 
 to the iron founder, and informed his brother and 
 sister of what he had done. As might be expected, 
 John took the announcement as calmly as if it had 
 
miD tjje Pu6ltom is? 
 
 been an invitation to dinner, but his sister was not 
 so cool. She, however, did not give way to hys- 
 terics, or any other foolishness, as she secretly 
 thought that anything must surely be better than 
 Redborne. The wherewithal to support life any- 
 where else, of course, the men would provide some- 
 how. The younger children went to bed in bliss- 
 ful ignorance of the impending change. 
 
 Miriam had gone back to her home two days 
 before, both the girls having promised a frequent 
 exchange of visits, but between Frank and her no 
 vows had been made, nor, indeed, had any word 
 of sentiment been spoken. Neither was quite sure 
 about the sentiments of the other, but each heart 
 "knew its own bitterness." 
 
188 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 After breakfast next morning, among the letters 
 which John brought from the post office was one 
 with a United States postmark and stamp, ad- 
 dressed to Frank, which he immediately seized and 
 quickly opened. With intense (excitement he 
 shouted : 
 
 "Come here, all of you. Here's a letter from 
 father." 
 
 Children and servants all came rushing to the 
 parlor, and Frank read aloud the following long 
 letter in the well-known hand : 
 
 "I am sure I don't know why I have not heard 
 from you, but I suppose the letters I have written 
 must have gone astray somehow." 
 
 "That's that darned post office," put in John. 
 
 "The first I wrote was immediately after landing 
 in America, and in it I gave a full account of my 
 sudden departure, but as you do not appear to have 
 received it, I will go over the ground once more. 
 Although you have not heard of me, I have heard 
 of you more than once from miners who have come 
 out here from home, and I am surprised that they 
 have not mentioned having seen me in their letters 
 
ann tfre pufilican 189 
 
 to their wives, but, of course, it might happen that 
 they did not. Certainly my whereabouts would 
 have come to your ears somehow soon. The rea- 
 son I have not written oftener is that I wanted to 
 be able to offer to relieve you of your charge be- 
 fore writing at all, but the time it has taken to es- 
 tablish myself has been longer than I expected. At 
 the same time I knew you were getting on all right, 
 and naturally I was a bit inclined to offer you a 
 surprise. Well, to my story once more: I was 
 driving home from Camruth it is now just four- 
 teen months ago when I was 'held up/ as they 
 say and as they commonly do in this country. I 
 knew both the men. They were miners who had 
 been abroad and learned the tricks of the highway- 
 man's trade. They were disappointed, however, 
 for I was not carrying the money for the Consols' 
 pay, and it became a question as to what they 
 should do with me. They had expected to take 
 the money and board an Atlantic liner at Fal- 
 mouth the next morning, but without the cash 
 they did not want to go, though they had paid their 
 passage, nor would it be comfortable for them to 
 stay home if they let me loose. Finally they de- 
 cided that one of them should accompany me to 
 America while the other would stay and get the 
 money yet. While they were arguing the matter 
 out a puff of wind carried away my hat, but one 
 of them pulled a new cap out of his pocket which 
 he had bought for travelling purposes and made me 
 
190 Cfte 
 
 wear that as we all three proceeded to Falmouth. 
 It was hardly light when we drove up to the door 
 of the Union Hotel, and I had to say good-by to 
 Bob and leave him standing there. We then went 
 to the waterfront and breakfasted in a public house 
 there. My two companions never left me, and, of 
 course, I was forbidden to have any communication 
 with any one else. I watched carefully for an 
 opportunity to signal to somebody so as to indicate 
 that I was 'in durance vile/ but not a chance did 
 I get, and, when the time came, I was taken on 
 board the boat and carried out to the great liner 
 lying outside as 'Jay Adams/ which was the alias 
 by which the highwayman I was representing had 
 chosen to be known. During the voyage it might 
 be supposed that I should have a chance to give 
 my companion the slip, but none such was ever 
 vouchsafed. We occupied the same room and he 
 never left me. He even showed no respect what- 
 ever for the ordinary decencies of civilization, and 
 at night he locked the stateroom door and put the 
 key in a pocket of his pajamas. At the same time 
 it must be confessed that I was not as anxious to 
 be free as, under other circumstances, I should 
 have been, for at the very time when I was at- 
 tacked I was actually turning over in my mind 
 some plan of escape from the difficulties in which 
 I found myself. However, we can talk of that 
 another time. What is of importance to say now 
 is that I am manager of one of the most success- 
 
anD tfte Publican 
 
 ful mines in Grass Valley, in which there are at 
 least a score of Redborne men working, and that 
 I am in a better position to offer the children a 
 home than I have been any time these last ten 
 years. Will they come?" 
 
 A universal shout of joy immediately went up, 
 and even John was constrained to remark: 
 
 "Well, I guess I'll have to be a Yankee, too." 
 There is just one paragraph more, said Frank: 
 
 "When you found my Gladstone bag missing 
 and the keys on the table I suppose you thought I 
 had left on purpose, but as a matter of fact I had 
 taken the Gladstone to Camruth to be repaired, and, 
 if it has not been sent you, you will find it at 
 Thomas' yet. The keys I left, as I thought you 
 might need them when you came down, and I did 
 not want to disturb you." 
 
 "So," said Frank, "the dear old boy's last 
 thought was for me. Bless him!" 
 
 S 
 
 THE END. 
 
tfto 
 
NON-CIRCULATING BOOK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 ' 
 
Ill 
 
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