The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories Page 7
_THE GOLD WULFRIC._
PART I.
I.
There are only two gold coins of Wulfric of Mercia in existenceanywhere. One of them is in the British Museum, and the other one is inmy possession.
The most terrible incident in the whole course of my career isintimately connected with my first discovery of that gold Wulfric. It isnot too much to say that my entire life has been deeply coloured by it,and I shall make no apology therefore for narrating the story in somelittle detail. I was stopping down at Lichfield for my summer holiday inJuly, 1879, when I happened one day accidentally to meet an oldploughman who told me he had got a lot of coins at home that he hadploughed up on what he called the "field of battle," a place I hadalready recognized as the site of the Mercian kings' wooden palace.
I went home with him at once in high glee, for I have been a collectorof old English gold and silver coinage for several years, and I was inhopes that my friendly ploughman's find might contain something good inthe way of Anglo-Saxon pennies or shillings, considering the verypromising place in which he had unearthed it.
As it turned out, I was not mistaken. The little hoard, concealed withina rude piece of Anglo-Saxon pottery (now No. 127 in case LIX. at theSouth Kensington Museum), comprised a large number of common FrankishMerovingian coins (I beg Mr. Freeman's pardon for not calling themMerwings), together with two or three Kentish pennies of some rarityfrom the mints of Ethelbert at Canterbury and Dover. Amongst these minortreasures, however, my eye at once fell upon a single gold piece,obviously imitated from the imperial Roman aureus of the pretenderCarausius, which I saw immediately must be an almost unique bit of moneyof the very greatest numismatic interest. I took it up and examined itcarefully. A minute's inspection fully satisfied me that it was indeed agenuine mintage of Wulfric of Mercia, the like of which I had neverbefore to my knowledge set eyes upon.
I immediately offered the old man five pounds down for the wholecollection. He closed with the offer forthwith in the most contentedfashion, and I bought them and paid for them all upon the spot withoutfurther parley.
When I got back to my lodgings that evening I could do nothing but lookat my gold Wulfric. I was charmed and delighted at the actual possessionof so great a treasure, and was burning to take it up at once to theBritish Museum to see whether even in the national collection they hadgot another like it. So being by nature of an enthusiastic and impulsivedisposition, I determined to go up to town the very next day, and try totrack down the history of my Wulfric. "It'll be a good opportunity," Isaid to myself, "to kill two birds with one stone. Emily's peoplehaven't gone out of town yet. I can call there in the morning, arrangeto go to the theatre with them at night, and then drive at once to theMuseum and see how much my find is worth."
Next morning I was off to town by an early train, and before one o'clockI had got to Emily's.
"Why, Harold," she cried, running down to meet me and kiss me in thepassage (for she had seen me get out of my hansom from the drawing-roomwindow), "how on earth is it that you're up in town to-day? I thoughtyou were down at Lichfield still with your Oxford reading party."
"So I am," I answered, "officially at Lichfield; but I've come up to-daypartly to see you, and partly on a piece of business about a new coinI've just got hold of."
"A coin!" Emily answered, pretending to pout. "Me and a coin! That's howyou link us together mentally, is it? I declare, Harold, I shall begetting jealous of those coins of yours some day, I'm certain. You can'teven come up to see me for a day, it seems, unless you've got somematter of a coin as well to bring you to London. Moral: never getengaged to a man with a fancy for collecting coins and medals."
"Oh, but this is really such a beauty, Emily," I cried enthusiastically."Just look at it, now. Isn't it lovely? Do you notice theinscription--'Wulfric Rex!' I've never yet seen one anywhere else at alllike it."
Emily took it in her hands carelessly. "I don't see any points aboutthat coin in particular," she answered in her bantering fashion, "morethan about any other old coin that you'd pick up anywhere."
That was all we said then about the matter. Subsequent events engrainedthe very words of that short conversation into the inmost substance ofmy brain with indelible fidelity. I shall never forget them to my dyingmoment.
I stopped about an hour altogether at Emily's, had lunch, and arrangedthat she and her mother should accompany me that evening to the Lyceum.Then I drove off to the British Museum, and asked for leave to examinethe Anglo-Saxon coins of the Mercian period.
The superintendent, who knew me well enough by sight and repute as aresponsible amateur collector, readily gave me permission to look at adrawerful of the earliest Mercian gold and silver coinage. I had broughtone or two numismatic books with me, and I sat down to have a good lookat those delightful cases.
After thoroughly examining the entire series and the documentaryevidence, I came to the conclusion that there was just one other goldWulfric in existence besides the one I kept in my pocket, and that wasthe beautiful and well-preserved example in the case before me. It wasdescribed in the last edition of Sir Theophilus Wraxton's "Northumbrianand Mercian Numismatist" as an absolutely unique gold coin of Wulfric ofMercia, in imitation of the well-known aureus of the false emperorCarausius. I turned to the catalogue to see the price at which it hadbeen purchased by the nation. To my intense surprise I saw it entered ata hundred and fifty pounds.
I was perfectly delighted at my magnificent acquisition.
On comparing the two examples, however, I observed that, though bothstruck from the same die and apparently at the same mint (to judge bythe letter), they differed slightly from one another in two minuteaccidental particulars. My coin, being of course merely stamped with ahammer and then cut to shape, after the fashion of the time, was rathermore closely clipped round the edge than the Museum specimen; and it hadalso a slight dent on the obverse side, just below the W of Wulfric. Inall other respects the two examples were of necessity absolutelyidentical.
I stood for a long time gazing at the case and examining the twoduplicates with the deepest interest, while the Museum keeper (a man ofthe name of Mactavish, whom I had often seen before on previous visits)walked about within sight, as is the rule on all such occasions, andkept a sharp look-out that I did not attempt to meddle with any of theremaining coins or cases.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, I had not mentioned to thesuperintendent my own possession of a duplicate Wulfric; nor had Icalled Mactavish's attention to the fact that I had pulled a coin of myown for purposes of comparison out of my waistcoat pocket. To say thetruth, I was inclined to be a little secretive as yet about my goldWulfric, because until I had found out all that was known about it I didnot want anybody else to be told of my discovery.
At last I had fully satisfied all my curiosity, and was just about toreturn the Museum Wulfric to its little round compartment in the neatcase (having already replaced my own duplicate in my waistcoat pocket),when all at once, I can't say how, I gave a sudden start, and droppedthe coin with a jerk unexpectedly upon the floor of the museum.
It rolled away out of sight in a second, and I stood appalled in anagony of distress and terror in the midst of the gallery.
Next moment I had hastily called Mactavish to my side, and got him tolock up the open drawer while we two went down on hands and knees andhunted through the length and breadth of the gallery for the lostWulfric.
It was absolutely hopeless. Plain sailing as the thing seemed, we couldsee no trace of the missing coin from one end of the room to the other.
At last I leaned in a cold perspiration against the edge of one of theglass cabinets, and gave it up in despair with a sinking heart. "It's nouse, Mactavish," I murmured desperately; "the thing's lost, and we shallnever find it."
Mactavish looked me quietly in the face. "In that case, sir," heanswered firmly, "by the rules of the Museum I must call thesuperintendent." He put his hand, with no undue violence, but in astrictly official manner, upon my right sh
oulder. Then he blew awhistle. "I'm sorry to be rude to you, sir," he went on, apologetically,"but by the rules of the Museum I can't take my hand off you till thesuperintendent gives me leave to release you."
Another keeper answered the whistle. "Send the superintendent,"Mactavish said quietly. "A coin missing."
In a minute the superintendent was upon the spot. When Mactavish toldhim I had dropped the gold Wulfric of Mercia he shook his head veryominously. "This is a bad business, Mr. Tait," he said gloomily. "Aunique coin, as you know, and one of the most valuable in the whole ofour large Anglo-Saxon collection."
"Is there a mouse-hole anywhere," I cried in agony; "any place where itmight have rolled down and got mislaid or concealed for the moment?"
The superintendent went down instantly on his own hands and knees,pulled up every piece of the cocoa-nut matting with minute deliberation,searched the whole place thoroughly from end to end, but found nothing.He spent nearly an hour on that thorough search; meanwhile Mactavishnever for a moment relaxed his hold upon me.
At last the superintendent desisted from the search as quite hopeless,and approached me very politely.
"I'm extremely sorry, Mr. Tait," he said in the most courteous possiblemanner, "but by the rules of the Museum I am absolutely compelled eitherto search you for the coin or to give you into custody. It may, youknow, have got caught somewhere about your person. No doubt you wouldprefer, of the two, that I should look in all your pockets and the foldsof your clothing."
The position was terrible. I could stand it no longer.
"Mr. Harbourne," I said, breaking out once more from head to foot into acold sweat, "I must tell you the truth. I have brought a duplicate goldWulfric here to-day to compare with the Museum specimen, and I have gotit this very moment in my waistcoat pocket."
The superintendent gazed back at me with a mingled look of incredulityand pity.
"My dear sir," he answered very gently, "this is altogether a mostunfortunate business, but I'm afraid I must ask you to let me look atthe duplicate you speak of."
I took it, trembling, out of my waistcoat pocket and handed it across tohim without a word. The superintendent gazed at it for a moment insilence; then, in a tone of the profoundest commiseration, he saidslowly, "Mr. Tait, I grieve to be obliged to contradict you. This is ourown specimen of the gold Wulfric!"
The whole Museum whirled round me violently, and before I knew anythingmore I fainted.
II.
When I came to I found myself seated in the superintendent's room, witha policeman standing quietly in the background.
As soon as I had fully recovered consciousness, the superintendentmotioned the policeman out of the room for a while, and then gentlyforced me to swallow a brandy and soda.
"Mr. Tait," he said compassionately, after an awkward pause, "you are avery young man indeed, and, I believe, hitherto of blameless character.Now, I should be very sorry to have to proceed to extremities againstyou. I know to what lengths, in a moment of weakness, the desire topossess a rare coin will often lead a connoisseur, under stress ofexceptional temptation. I have not the slightest doubt in my own mindthat you did really accidentally drop this coin; that you went down onyour knees honestly intending to find it; that the accident suggested toyou the ease with which you might pick it up and proceed to pocket it;that you yielded temporarily to that unfortunate impulse; and that bythe time I arrived upon the scene you were already overcome with remorseand horror. I saw as much immediately in your very countenance.Nevertheless, I determined to give you the benefit of the doubt, and Isearched over the whole place in the most thorough and conscientiousmanner.... As you know, I found nothing.... Mr. Tait, I cannot bear tohave to deal harshly with you. I recognize the temptation and the agonyof repentance that instantly followed it. Sir, I give you one chance. Ifyou will retract the obviously false story that you just now told me,and confess that the coin I found in your pocket was in fact, as I knowit to be, the Museum specimen, I will forthwith dismiss the constable,and will never say another word to any one about the whole matter. Idon't want to ruin you, but I can't, of course, be put off with afalsehood. Think the matter carefully over with yourself. Do you or doyou not still adhere to that very improbable and incredible story?"
Horrified and terror-stricken as I was, I couldn't avoid feelinggrateful to the superintendent for the evident kindness with which hewas treating me. The tears rose at once into my eyes.
"Mr. Harbourne," I cried passionately, "you are very good, verygenerous. But you quite mistake the whole position. The story I told youwas true, every word of it. I bought that gold Wulfric from a ploughmanat Lichfield, and it is not absolutely identical with the Museumspecimen which I dropped upon the floor. It is closer clipped round theedges, and it has a distinct dent upon the obverse side, just below theW of Wulfric."
The superintendent paused a second, and scanned my face very closely.
"Have you a knife or a file in your pocket?" he asked in a much sternerand more official tone.
"No," I replied, "neither--neither."
"You are sure?"
"Certain."
"Shall I search you myself, or shall I give you in custody?"
"Search me yourself," I answered confidently.
He put his hand quietly into my left-hand breast pocket, and to my utterhorror and dismay drew forth, what I had up to that moment utterlyforgotten, a pair of folding pocket nail-scissors, in a leather case, ofcourse with a little file on either side.
My heart stood still within me.
"That is quite sufficient, Mr. Tait," the superintendent went on,severely. "Had you alleged that the Museum coin was smaller than yourown imaginary one you might have been able to put in the facts as goodevidence. But I see the exact contrary is the case. You have stooped toa disgraceful and unworthy subterfuge. This base deception aggravatesyour guilt. You have deliberately defaced a valuable specimen in orderif possible to destroy its identity."
What could I say in return? I stammered and hesitated.
"Mr. Harbourne," I cried piteously, "the circumstances seem to lookterribly against me. But, nevertheless, you are quite mistaken. Thomissing Wulfric will come to light sooner or later and prove meinnocent."
He walked up and down the room once or twice irresolutely, and then heturned round to me with a very fixed and determined aspect which fairlyterrified me.
"Mr. Tait," he said, "I am straining every point possible to save you,but you make it very difficult for me by your continued falsehood. I amdoing quite wrong in being so lenient to you; I am proposing, in short,to compound a felony. But I cannot bear, without letting you have justone more chance, to give you in charge for a common robbery. I will letyou have ten minutes to consider the matter; and I beseech you, I beg ofyou, I implore you to retract this absurd and despicable lie before itis too late for ever. Just consider that if you refuse I shall have tohand you over to the constable out there, and that the whole truth mustcome out in court, and must be blazoned forth to the entire world inevery newspaper. The policeman is standing here by the door. I willleave you alone with your own thoughts for ten minutes."
As he spoke he walked out gravely, and shut the door solemnly behindhim. The clock on the chimney-piece pointed with its hands to twentyminutes past three.
It was an awful dilemma. I hardly knew how to act under it. On the onehand, if I admitted for the moment that I had tried to steal the coin, Icould avoid all immediate unpleasant circumstances; and as it would besure to turn up again in cleaning the Museum, I should be able at lastto prove my innocence to Mr. Harbourne's complete satisfaction. But, onthe other hand, the lie--for it _was_ a lie--stuck in my throat; I couldnot humble myself to say I had committed a mean and dirty action which Iloathed with all the force and energy of my nature. No, no! come whatwould of it, I must stick by the truth, and trust to that to clear upeverything.
But if the superintendent really insisted on giving me in charge, howvery awkward to have to telegraph about it to Emily! Fancy s
aying to thegirl you are in love with, "I can't go with you to the theatre thisevening, because I have been taken off to gaol on a charge of stealing avaluable coin from the British Museum." It was too terrible!
Yet, after all, I thought to myself, if the worst comes to the worst,Emily will have faith enough in me to know it is ridiculous; and,indeed, the imputation could in any case only be temporary. As soon asthe thing gets into court I could bring up the Lichfield ploughman toprove my possession of a gold Wulfric; and I could bring up Emily toprove that I had shown it to her that very morning. How lucky that I hadhappened to take it out and let her look at it! My case was, happily, asplain as a pikestaff. It was only momentarily that the weight of theevidence seemed so perversely to go against me.
Turning over all these various considerations in my mind with anxioushesitancy, the ten minutes managed to pass away almost before I hadthoroughly realized the deep gravity of the situation.
As the clock on the chimney-piece pointed to the half-hour, the dooropened once more, and the superintendent entered solemnly. "Well, Mr.Tait," he said in an anxious voice, "have you made up your mind to makea clean breast of it? Do you now admit, after full deliberation, thatyou have endeavoured to steal and clip the gold Wulfric?"
"No," I answered firmly, "I do not admit it; and I will willingly gobefore a jury of my countrymen to prove my innocence."
"Then God help you, poor boy," the superintendent cried despondently. "Ihave done my best to save you, and you will not let me. Policeman, thisis your prisoner. I give him in custody on a charge of stealing a goldcoin, the property of the trustees of this Museum, valued at a hundredand seventy-five pounds sterling."
The policeman laid his hand upon my wrist. "You will have to go alongwith me to the station, sir," he said quietly.
Terrified and stunned as I was by the awfulness of the accusation, Icould not forget or overlook the superintendent's evident reluctance andkindness. "Mr. Harbourne," I cried, "you have tried to do your best forme. I am grateful to you for it, in spite of your terrible mistake, andI shall yet be able to show you that I am innocent."
He shook his head gloomily. "I have done my duty," he said with ashudder. "I have never before had a more painful one. Policeman, I mustask you now to do yours."
III.
The police are always considerate to respectable-looking prisoners, andI had no difficulty in getting the sergeant in charge of the lock-up totelegraph for me to Emily, to say that I was detained by importantbusiness, which would prevent me taking her and her mother to thetheatre that evening. But when I explained to him that my detention wasmerely temporary, and that I should be able to disprove the whole storyas soon as I went before the magistrates, he winked most unpleasantly atthe constable who had brought me in, and observed in a tone of vulgarsarcasm, "We have a good many gentlemen here who says the same,sir--don't we, Jim? but they don't always find it so easy as theyexpected when they stands up afore the beak to prove their statements."
I began to reflect that even a temporary prison is far from being apleasant place for a man to stop in.
Next morning they took me up before the magistrate; and as the Museumauthorities of course proved a _prima facie_ case against me, and as mysolicitor advised me to reserve my defence, owing to the difficulty ofgetting up my witness from Lichfield in reasonable time, I was dulycommitted for trial at the next sessions of the Central Criminal Court.
I had often read before that people had been committed for trial, buttill that moment I had no idea what a very unpleasant sensation itreally is.
However, as I was a person of hitherto unblemished character, and wore agood coat made by a fashionable tailor, the magistrate decided to admitme to bail, if two sureties in five hundred pounds each were promptlyforthcoming for the purpose. Luckily, I had no difficulty in findingfriends who believed in my story; and as I felt sure the lost Wulfricwould soon be found in cleaning the museum, I suffered perhaps a littleless acutely than I might otherwise have done, owing to my profoundconfidence in the final triumph of the truth.
Nevertheless, as the case would be fully reported next morning in allthe papers, I saw at once that I must go straight off and explain thematter without delay to Emily.
I will not dwell upon that painful interview. I will only say that Emilybehaved as I of course knew she would behave. She was horrified andindignant at the dreadful accusation; and, woman like, she was veryangry with the superintendent. "He ought to have taken your word for it,naturally, Harold," she cried through her tears. "But what a good thing,anyhow, that you happened to show the coin to me. I should recognize itanywhere among ten thousand."
"That's well, darling," I said, trying to kiss away her tears and cheerher up a little. "I haven't the slightest doubt that when the trialcomes we shall be able triumphantly to vindicate me from this terrible,groundless accusation."
IV.
When the trial did actually come on, the Museum authorities began byproving their case against me in what seemed the most horribly damningfashion. The superintendent proved that on such and such a day, in suchand such a case, he had seen a gold coin of Wulfric of Mercia, theproperty of the Museum. He and Mactavish detailed the circumstancesunder which the coin was lost. The superintendent explained how he hadasked me to submit to a search, and how, to avoid that indignity, I hadmyself produced from my waistcoat-pocket a gold coin of Wulfric ofMercia, which I asserted to be a duplicate specimen, and my ownproperty. The counsel for the Crown proceeded thus with theexamination:--
"Do you recognize the coin I now hand you?"
"I do."
"What is it?"
"The unique gold coin of Wulfric of Mercia, belonging to the Museum."
"You have absolutely no doubt as to its identity?"
"Absolutely none whatsoever."
"Does it differ in any respect from the same coin as you previously sawit?"
"Yes. It has been clipped round the edge with a sharp instrument, and aslight dent has been made by pressure on the obverse side, just belowthe W of Wulfric."
"Did you suspect the prisoner at the bar of having mutilated it?"
"I did, and I asked him whether he had a knife in his possession. Heanswered no. I then asked him whether he would submit to be searched fora knife. He consented, and on my looking in his pocket I found the pairof nail-scissors I now produce, with a small file on either side."
"Do you believe the coin might have been clipped with those scissors?"
"I do. The gold is very soft, having little alloy in its composition;and it could easily be cut by a strong-wristed man with a knife orscissors."
As I listened, I didn't wonder that the jury looked as if they alreadyconsidered me guilty: but I smiled to myself when I thought how utterlyEmily's and the ploughman's evidence would rebut this unworthysuspicion.
The next witness was the Museum cleaner. His evidence at first producednothing fresh, but just at last, counsel set before him a paper,containing a few scraps of yellow metal, and asked him triumphantlywhether he recognized them. He answered yes.
There was a profound silence. The court was interested and curious. Icouldn't quite understand it all, but I felt a terrible sinking.
"What are they?" asked the hostile barrister.
"They are some fragments of gold which I found in shaking the cocoa-nutmatting on the floor of gallery 27 the Saturday after the attemptedtheft."
I felt as if a mine had unexpectedly been sprung beneath me. How onearth those fragments of soft gold could ever have got there I couldn'timagine; but I saw the damaging nature of this extraordinary andinexplicable coincidence in half a second.
My counsel cross-examined all the witnesses for the prosecution, butfailed to elicit anything of any value from any one of them. On thecontrary, his questions put to the metallurgist of the Mint, who wascalled to prove the quality of the gold, only brought out a very strongopinion to the effect that the clippings were essentially similar incharacter to the metal composing the clipped Wulfric.
Then my counsel called his witnesses. I listened in the profoundestsuspense and expectation.
The first witness was the ploughman from Lichfield. He was awell-meaning but very puzzle-headed old man, and he was evidentlyfrightened at being confronted by so many clever wig-wearing barristers.
Nevertheless, my counsel managed to get the true story out of him atlast with infinite patience, dexterity, and skill. The old man told usfinally how he had found the coins and sold them to me for five pounds;and how one of them was of gold, with a queer head and goggle eyespointed full face upon its surface.
When he had finished, the counsel for the Crown began hiscross-examination. He handed the ploughman a gold coin. "Did you eversee that before?" he asked quietly.
"To be sure I did," the man answered, looking at it open-mouthed.
"What is it?"
"It's the bit I sold Mr. Tait there--the bit as I got out o' the oldbasin."
Counsel turned triumphantly to the judge. "My lord," he said, "thisthing to which the witness swears is a gold piece of Ethelwulf ofWessex, by far the commonest and cheapest gold coin of the wholeAnglo-Saxon period."
It was handed to the jury side by side with the Wulfric of Mercia; andthe difference, as I knew myself, was in fact extremely noticeable. Allthat the old man could have observed in common between them must havebeen merely the archaic Anglo-Saxon character of the coinage.
As I heard that, I began to feel that it was really all over.
My counsel tried on the re-examination to shake the old man's faith inhis identification, and to make him transfer his story to the Wulfricwhich he had actually sold me. But it was all in vain. The ploughman hadclearly the dread of perjury for ever before his eyes, and wouldn't goback for any consideration upon his first sworn statement. "No, no,mister," he said over and over again in reply to my counsel's blandsuggestion, "you ain't going to make me forswear myself for all yourcleverness."
The next witness was Emily. She went into the box pale and red-eyed, butvery confident. My counsel examined her admirably; and she stuck to herpoint with womanly persistence, that she had herself seen the clippedWulfric, and no other coin, on the morning of the supposed theft. Sheknew it was so, because she distinctly remembered the inscription,"Wulfric Rex," and the peculiar way the staring open eyes wererepresented with barbaric puerility.
Counsel for the Crown would only trouble the young lady with twoquestions. The first was a painful one, but it must be asked in theinterests of justice. Were she and the prisoner at the bar engaged to bemarried to one another?
The answer came, slowly and timidly, "Yes."
Counsel drew a long breath, and looked her hard in the face. Could sheread the inscription on that coin now produced?--handing her theEthelwulf.
Great heavens! I saw at once the plot to disconcert her, but was utterlypowerless to warn her against it.
Emily looked at it long and steadily. "No," she said at last, growingdeadly pale and grasping the woodwork of the witness-box convulsively;"I don't know the character in which it is written."
Of course not: for the inscription was in the peculiar semi-runicAnglo-Saxon letters! She had never read the words "Wulfric Rex" either.I had read them to her, and she had carried them away vaguely in hermind, imagining no doubt that she herself had actually deciphered them.
There was a slight pause, and I felt my blood growing cold within me.Then the counsel for the Crown handed her again the genuine Wulfric, andasked her whether the letters upon it which she professed to have readwere or were not similar to those of the Ethelwulf.
Instead of answering, Emily bent down her head between her hands, andburst suddenly into tears.
I was so much distressed at her terrible agitation that I forgotaltogether for the moment my own perilous position, and I cried aloud,"My lord, my lord, will you not interpose to spare her any furtherquestions?"
"I think," the judge said to the counsel for the Crown, "you might nowpermit the witness to stand down."
"I wish to re-examine, my lord," my counsel put in hastily.
"No," I said in his ear, "no. Whatever comes of it, not anotherquestion. I had far rather go to prison than let her suffer thisinexpressible torture for a single minute longer."
Emily was led down, still crying bitterly, into the body of the court,and the rest of the proceedings went on uninterrupted.
The theory of the prosecution was a simple and plausible one. I hadbought a common Anglo-Saxon coin, probably an Ethelwulf, valued at abouttwenty-two shillings, from the old Lichfield ploughman. I had thereuponconceived the fraudulent idea of pretending that I had a duplicate ofthe rare Wulfric. I had shown the Ethelwulf, clipped in a particularfashion, to the lady whom I was engaged to marry. I had then defaced andaltered the genuine Wulfric at the Museum into the same shape with theaid of my pocket nail-scissors. And I had finally made believe to dropthe coin accidentally upon the floor, while I had really secreted it inmy waistcoat pocket. The theory for the defence had broken down utterly.And then there was the damning fact of the gold scrapings found in thecocoa-nut matting of the British Museum, which was to me the one greatinexplicable mystery in the whole otherwise comprehensiblemystification.
I felt myself that the case did indeed look very black against me. Butwould a jury venture to convict me on such very doubtful evidence?
The jury retired to consider their verdict. I stood in suspense in thedock, with my heart loudly beating. Emily remained in the body of thecourt below, looking up at me tearfully and penitently.
After twenty minutes the jury retired.
"Guilty or not guilty?"
The foreman answered aloud, "Guilty."
There was a piercing cry in the body of the court, and in a moment Emilywas carried out half fainting and half hysterical.
The judge then calmly proceeded to pass sentence. He dwelt upon theenormity of my crime in one so well connected and so far removed fromthe dangers of mere vulgar temptations. He dwelt also upon the vandalismof which I had been guilty--myself a collector--in clipping and defacinga valuable and unique memorial of antiquity, the property of the nation.He did not wish to be severe upon a young man of hitherto blamelesscharacter; but the national collection must be secured against such apeculiarly insidious and cunning form of depredation. The sentence ofthe court was that I should be kept in--
Five years' penal servitude.
Crushed and annihilated as I was, I had still strength to utter a singlefinal word. "My lord," I cried, "the missing Wulfric will yet be found,and will hereafter prove my perfect innocence."
"Remove the prisoner," said the judge, coldly.
They took me down to the courtyard unresisting, where the prison van wasstanding in waiting.
On the steps I saw Emily and her mother, both crying bitterly. They hadbeen told the sentence already, and were waiting to take a last farewellof me.
"Oh, Harold!" Emily cried, flinging her arms around me wildly, "it's allmy fault! It's my fault only! By my foolish stupidity I've lost yourcase. I've sent you to prison. Oh, Harold, I can never forgive myself.I've sent you to prison. I've sent you to prison."
"Dearest," I said, "it won't be for long. I shall soon be free again.They'll find the Wulfric sooner or later, and then of course they'll letme out again."
"Harold," she cried, "oh, Harold, Harold, don't you see? Don't youunderstand? This is a plot against you. It isn't lost. It isn't lost.That would be nothing. It's stolen; it's stolen!"
A light burst in upon me suddenly, and I saw in a moment the full depthof the peril that surrounded me.
PART II.
I.
It was some time before I could sufficiently accustom myself to my newlife in the Isle of Portland to be able to think clearly and distinctlyabout the terrible blow that had fallen upon me. In the midst of all thepetty troubles and discomforts of prison existence, I had no leisure atfirst fully to realize the fact that
I was a convicted felon withscarcely a hope--not of release; for that I cared little--but ofrehabilitation.
Slowly, however, I began to grow habituated to the new hard life imposedupon me, and to think in my cell of the web of circumstance which hadwoven itself so irresistibly around me.
I had only one hope. Emily knew I was innocent. Emily suspected, likeme, that the Wulfric had been stolen. Emily would do her best, I feltcertain, to heap together fresh evidence, and unravel this mystery toits very bottom.
Meanwhile, I thanked Heaven for the hard mechanical daily toil ofcutting stone in Portland prison. I was a strong athletic young fellowenough. I was glad now that I had always loved the river at Oxford; myarms were stout and muscular. I was able to take my part in the regularwork of the gang to which I belonged. Had it been otherwise--had I beenset down to some quiet sedentary occupation, as first-classmisdemeanants often are, I should have worn my heart out soon withthinking perpetually of poor Emily's terrible trouble.
When I first came, the Deputy-Governor, knowing my case well (had therenot been leaders about me in all the papers?), very kindly asked mewhether I would wish to be given work in the book-keeping department,where many educated convicts were employed as clerks and assistants. ButI begged particularly to be put into an outdoor gang, where I might haveto use my limbs constantly, and so keep my mind from eating itself upwith perpetual thinking. The Deputy-Governor immediately consented, andgave me work in a quarrying gang, at the west end of the island, nearDeadman's Bay on the edge of the Chesil.
For three months I worked hard at learning the trade of a quarryman, andsucceeded far better than any of the other new hands who were set tolearn at the same time with me. Their heart was not in it; mine was.Anything to escape that gnawing agony.
The other men in the gang were not agreeable or congenial companions.They taught me their established modes of intercommunication, and toldme several facts about themselves, which did not tend to endear them tome. One of them, 1247, was put in for the manslaughter of his wife bykicking; he was a low-browed, brutal London drayman, and he occupied thenext cell to mine, where he disturbed me much in my sleepless nights byhis loud snoring. Another, a much slighter and more intelligent-lookingman, was a skilled burglar, sentenced to fourteen years for "cracking acrib" in the neighbourhood of Hampstead. A third was a sailor, convictedof gross cruelty to a defenceless Lascar. They all told me the nature oftheir crimes with a brutal frankness which fairly surprised me; but whenI explained to them in return that I had been put in upon a falseaccusation, they treated my remarks with a galling contempt that wasabsolutely unsupportable. After a short time I ceased to communicatewith my fellow-prisoners in any way, and remained shut up with my ownthoughts in utter isolation.
By-and-by I found that the other men in the same gang were beginning todislike me strongly, and that some among them actually whispered to oneanother--what they seemed to consider a very strong point indeed againstme--that I must really have been convicted by mistake, and that I was aregular stuck-up sneaking Methodist. They complained that I worked agreat deal too hard, and so made the other felons seem lazy bycomparison; and they also objected to my prompt obedience to ourwarder's commands, as tending to set up an exaggerated and impossiblestandard of discipline.
Between this warder and myself, on the other hand, there soon sprang upa feeling which I might almost describe as one of friendship. Though bythe rules of the establishment we could not communicate with one anotherexcept upon matters of business, I liked him for his uniform courtesy,kindliness, and forbearance; while I could easily see that he liked mein return, by contrast with the other men who were under his charge. Hewas one of those persons whom some experience of prisons then and sincehas led me to believe less rare than most people would imagine--men inwhom the dreary life of a prison warder, instead of engendering hardnessof heart and cold unsympathetic sternness, has engendered a certainprofound tenderness and melancholy of spirit. I grew quite fond of thatone honest warder, among so many coarse and criminal faces; and I found,on the other hand, that my fellow-prisoners hated me all the morebecause, as they expressed it in their own disgusting jargon, I wassucking up to that confounded dog of a barker. It happened once, when Iwas left for a few minutes alone with the warder, that he made anattempt for a moment, contrary to regulations, to hold a little privateconversation with me.
"1430," he said in a low voice, hardly moving his lips, for fear ofbeing overlooked, "what is your outside name?"
I answered quietly, without turning to look at him, "Harold Tait."
He gave a little involuntary start. "What!" he cried. "Not him that tooka coin from the British Museum?"
I bridled up angrily. "I did not take it," I cried with all my soul. "Iam innocent, and have been put in here by some terrible error."
He was silent for half a second. Then he said musingly, "Sir, I believeyou. You are speaking the truth. I will do all I can to make things easyfor you."
That was all he said then. But from that day forth he always spoke to mein private as "Sir," and never again as "1430."
An incident arose at last out of this condition of things which had avery important effect upon my future position.
One day, about three months after I was committed to prison, we were alltold off as usual to work in a small quarry on the cliff-sideoverhanging the long expanse of pebbly beach known as the Chesil. I hadreason to believe afterwards that a large open fishing boat lying uponthe beach below at the moment had been placed there as part of aconcerted scheme by the friends of the Hampstead burglar; and that itcontained ordinary clothing for all the men in our gang, except myselfonly. The idea was evidently that the gang should overpower the warder,seize the boat, change their clothes instantly, taking turns aboutmeanwhile with the navigation, and make straight off for the shore atLulworth, where they could easily disperse without much chance of beingrecaptured. But of all this I was of course quite ignorant at the time,for they had not thought well to intrust their secret to the ears of thesneaking virtuous Methodist.
A few minutes after we arrived at the quarry, I was working with twoother men at putting a blast in, when I happened to look round quiteaccidentally, and to my great horror, saw 1247, the brutal wife-kicker,standing behind with a huge block of stone in his hands, poised justabove the warder's head, in a threatening attitude. The other men stoodaround waiting and watching. I had only just time to cry out in a toneof alarm, "Take care, warder, he'll murder you!" when the stonedescended upon the warder's head, and he fell at once, bleeding and halfsenseless, upon the ground beside me. In a second, while he shrieked andstruggled, the whole gang was pressing savagely and angrily around him.
There was no time to think or hesitate. Before I knew almost what I wasdoing, I had seized his gun and ammunition, and, standing over hisprostrate body, I held the men at bay for a single moment. Then 1247advanced threateningly, and tried to put his foot upon the fallenwarder.
I didn't wait or reflect one solitary second. I drew the trigger, andfired full upon him. The bang sounded fiercely in my ears, and for amoment I could see nothing through the smoke of the rifle.
With a terrible shriek he fell in front of me, not dead, but seriouslywounded.
"The boat, the boat," the others cried loudly. "Knock him down! Killhim! Take the boat, all of you."
At that moment the report of my shot had brought another warder hastilyto the top of the quarry.
"Help, help!" I cried. "Come quick, and save us. These brutes are tryingto murder our warder!"
The man rushed back to call for aid; but the way down the zigzag pathwas steep and tortuous, and it was some time before they could manage toget down and succour us.
Meanwhile the other convicts pressed savagely around us, trying to jumpupon the warder's body and force their way past to the beach beneath us.I fired again, for the rifle was double-barrelled; but it was impossibleto reload in such a tumult, so, after the next shot, which hit no one,I laid about me fiercely with the butt end of th
e gun, and succeeded inknocking down four of the savages, one after another. By that time thewarders from above had safely reached us, and formed a circle of fixedbayonets around the rebellious prisoners.
"Thank God!" I cried, flinging down the rifle, and rushing up to theprostrate warder. "He is still alive. He is breathing! He is breathing!"
"Yes," he murmured in a faint voice, "I am alive, and I thank you forit. But for you, sir, these fellows here would certainly have murderedme."
"You are badly wounded yourself, 1430," one of the other warders said tome, as the rebels were rapidly secured and marched off sullenly back toprison. "Look, your own arm is bleeding fiercely."
Then for the first time I was aware that I was one mass of wounds fromhead to foot, and that I was growing faint from loss of blood. Indefending the fallen warder I had got punched and pummelled on everyside, just the same as one used to get long ago in a bully at footballwhen I was a boy at Rugby, only much more seriously.
The warders brought down seven stretchers: one for me; one for thewounded warder; one for 1247, whom I had shot; and four for the convictswhom I had knocked over with the butt end of the rifle. They carried usup on them, strongly guarded, in a long procession.
At the door of the infirmary the Governor met us. "1430," he said to me,in a very kind voice, "you have behaved most admirably. I saw you myselfquite distinctly from my drawing-room windows. Your bravery andintrepidity are well deserving of the highest recognition."
"Sir," I answered, "I have only tried to do my duty. I couldn't stand byand see an innocent man murdered by such a pack of bloodthirstyruffians."
The Governor turned aside a little surprised. "Who is 1430?" he askedquietly.
A subordinate, consulting a book, whispered my name and supposed crimeto him confidentially. The Governor nodded twice, and seemed to besatisfied.
"Sir," the wounded warder said faintly from his stretcher, "1430 is aninnocent man unjustly condemned, if ever there was one."
II.
On the Thursday week following, when my wounds were all getting well,the whole body of convicts was duly paraded at half-past eleven in frontof the Governor's house.
The Governor came out, holding an official-looking paper in his righthand. "No. 1430," he said in a loud voice, "stand forward." And I stoodforward.
"No. 1430, I have the pleasant duty of informing you, in face of allyour fellow-prisoners, that your heroism and self-devotion in saving thelife of Warder James Woollacott, when he was attacked and almostoverpowered on the twentieth of this month by a gang of rebelliousconvicts, has been reported to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for theHome Department; and that on his recommendation Her Majesty has beengraciously pleased to grant you a Free Pardon for the remainder of thetime during which you were sentenced to penal servitude."
For a moment I felt quite stunned and speechless. I reeled on my feet somuch that two of the warders jumped forward to support me. It was agreat thing to have at least one's freedom. But in another minute thereal meaning of the thing came clearer upon me, and I recoiled from thebare sound of those horrid words, a free pardon. I didn't want to bepardoned like a convicted felon: I wanted to have my innocence provedbefore the eyes of all England. For my own sake, and still more forEmily's sake, rehabilitation was all I cared for.
"Sir," I said, touching my cap respectfully, and saluting the Governoraccording to our wonted prison discipline, "I am very greatly obliged toyou for your kindness in having made this representation to the HomeSecretary; but I feel compelled to say I cannot accept a free pardon. Iam wholly guiltless of the crime of which I have been convicted; and Iwish that instead of pardoning me the Home Secretary would giveinstructions to the detective police to make a thorough investigation ofthe case, with the object of proving my complete innocence. Till that isdone, I prefer to remain an inmate of Portland Prison. What I wish isnot pardon, but to be restored as an honest man to the society of myequals."
The Governor paused for a moment, and consulted quietly in an undertonewith one or two of his subordinates. Then he turned to me with greatkindness, and said in a loud voice, "No. 1430, I have no power anylonger to detain you in this prison, even if I wished to do so, afteryou have once obtained Her Majesty's free pardon. My duty is to dismissyou at once, in accordance with the terms of this document. However, Iwill communicate the substance of your request to the Home Secretary,with whom such a petition, so made, will doubtless have the full weightthat may rightly attach to it. You must now go with these warders, whowill restore you your own clothes, and then formally set you at liberty.But if there is anything further you would wish to speak to me about,you can do so afterward in your private capacity as a free man at twoo'clock in my own office."
I thanked him quietly and then withdrew. At two o'clock I duly presentedmyself in ordinary clothes at the Governor's office.
We had a long and confidential interview, in the course of which I wasable to narrate to the Governor at full length all the facts of mystrange story exactly as I have here detailed them. He listened to mewith the greatest interest, checking and confirming my statements atlength by reference to the file of papers brought to him by a clerk.When I had finished my whole story, he said to me quite simply, "Mr.Tait, it may be imprudent of me in my position and under such peculiarcircumstances to say so, but I fully and unreservedly believe yourstatement. If anything that I can say or do can be of any assistance toyou in proving your innocence, I shall be very happy indeed to exert allmy influence in your favour."
I thanked him warmly with tears in my eyes.
"And there is one point in your story," he went on, "to which I, whohave seen a good deal of such doubtful cases, attach the very highestimportance. You say that gold clippings, pronounced to be similar incharacter to the gold Wulfric, were found shortly after by a cleaner atthe Museum on the cocoa-nut matting of the floor where the coin wasexamined by you?"
I nodded, blushing crimson. "That," I said, "seems to me the strangestand most damning circumstance against me in the whole story."
"Precisely," the Governor answered quietly. "And if what you say is thetruth (as I believe it to be), it is also the circumstance which bestgives us a clue to use against the real culprit. The person who stolethe coin was too clever by half, or else not quite clever enough for hisown protection. In manufacturing that last fatal piece of evidenceagainst you he was also giving you a certain clue to his own identity."
"How so?" I asked, breathless.
"Why, don't you see? The thief must in all probability have beensomebody connected with the Museum. He must have seen you comparing theWulfric with your own coin. He must have picked it up and carried itoff secretly at the moment you dropped it. He must have clipped thecoin to manufacture further hostile evidence. And he must have droppedthe clippings afterwards on the cocoa-nut matting in the same gallery onpurpose in order to heighten the suspicion against you."
"You are right," I cried, brightening up at the luminoussuggestion--"you are right, obviously. And there is only one man whocould have seen and heard enough to carry out this abominableplot--Mactavish!"
"Well, find him out and prove the case against him, Mr. Tait," theGovernor said warmly, "and if you send him here to us I can promise youthat he will be well taken care of."
I bowed and thanked him, and was about to withdraw, but he held out hishand to me with perfect frankness.
"Mr. Tait," he said, "I can't let you go away so. Let me have your handin token that you bear us no grudge for the way we have treated youduring your unfortunate imprisonment, and that I, for my part, amabsolutely satisfied of the truth of your statement."
III.
The moment I arrived in London I drove straight off without delay toEmily's. I had telegraphed beforehand that I had been granted a freepardon, but had not stopped to tell her why or under what conditions.
Emily met me in tears in the passage. "Harold! Harold!" she cried,flinging her arms wildly around me. "Oh, my darling! my darling! how canI ever say it
to you? Mamma says she won't allow me to see you here anylonger."
It was a terrible blow, but I was not unprepared for it. How could Iexpect that poor, conventional, commonplace old lady to have any faithin me after all she had read about me in the newspapers?
"Emily," I said, kissing her over and over again tenderly, "you mustcome out with me, then, this very minute, for I want to talk with youover matters of importance. Whether your mother wishes it or not, youmust come out with me this very minute."
Emily put on her bonnet hastily and walked out with me into the streetsof London. It was growing dark, and the neighbourhood was a very quietone; or else perhaps even my own Emily would have felt a little ashamedof walking about the streets of London with a man whose hair was stillcropped short around his head like a common felon's.
I told her all the story of my release, and Emily listened to it inprofound silence.
"Harold!" she cried, "my darling Harold!" (when I told her the tale ofmy desperate battle over the fallen warder), "you are the bravest andbest of men. I knew you would vindicate yourself sooner or later. Whatwe have to do now is to show that Mactavish stole the Wulfric. I know hestole it; I read it at the trial in his clean-shaven villain's face. Ishall prove it still, and then you will be justified in the eyes ofeverybody."
"But how can we manage to communicate meanwhile, darling?" I criedeagerly. "If your mother won't allow you to see me, how are we ever tomeet and consult about it?"
"There's only one way, Harold--only one way; and as things now stand youmustn't think it strange of me to propose it. Harold, you must marry meimmediately, whether mamma will let us or not!"
"Emily!" I cried, "my own darling! your confidence and trust in me makesme I can't tell you how proud and happy. That you should be willing tomarry me even while I am under such a cloud as this gives me a greaterproof of your love than anything else you could possibly do for me. But,darling, I am too proud to take you at your word. For your sake, Emily,I will never marry you until all the world has been compelledunreservedly to admit my innocence."
Emily blushed and cried a little. "As you will, Harold, dearest," sheanswered, trembling, "I can afford to wait for you. I know that in theend the truth will be established."
IV.
A week or two later I was astonished one morning at receiving a visit inmy London lodgings from the warder Woollacott, whose life I had beenhappily instrumental in saving at Portland Prison.
"Well, sir," he said, grasping my hand warmly and gratefully, "you see Ihaven't yet entirely recovered from that terrible morning. I shall bearthe marks of it about me for the remainder of my lifetime. The Governorsays I shall never again be fit for duty, so they've pensioned me offvery honourable."
I told him how pleased I was that he should have been liberally treated,and then we fell into conversation about myself and the means ofre-establishing my perfect innocence.
"Sir," said he, "I shall have plenty of leisure, and shall becomfortably off now. If there's anything that I can do to be of serviceto you in the matter, I shall gladly do it. My time is entirely at yourdisposal."
I thanked him warmly, but told him that the affair was already in thehands of the regular detectives, who had been set to work upon it by theGovernor's influence with the Home Secretary.
By-and-by I happened to mention confidentially to him my suspicions ofthe man Mactavish. An idea seemed to occur to the warder suddenly; buthe said not a word to me about it at the time. A few days later,however, he came back to me quietly and said, in a confidential tone ofvoice, "Well, sir, I think we may still manage to square him."
"Square who, Mr. Woollacott? I don't understand you."
"Why, Mactavish, sir. I found out he had a small house near the Museum,and his wife lets a lodging there for a single man. I've gone and takenthe lodging, and I shall see whether in the course of time something orother doesn't come out of it."
I smiled and thanked him for his enthusiasm in my cause; but I confess Ididn't see how anything on earth of any use to me was likely to arisefrom this strange proceeding on his part.
V.
It was that same week, I believe, that I received two other unexpectedvisitors. They came together. One of them was the Superintendent ofCoins at the British Museum; the other was the well-known antiquary andgreat authority upon the Anglo-Saxon coinage, Sir Theophilus Wraxton.
"Mr. Tait," the superintendent began, not without some touch of naturalshamefacedness in his voice and manner, "I have reason to believe that Imay possibly have been mistaken in my positive identification of thecoin you showed me that day at the Museum as our own specimen of thegold Wulfric. If I _was_ mistaken, then I have unintentionally done youa most grievous wrong; and for that wrong, should my suspicions turn outill-founded, I shall owe you the deepest and most heartfelt apologies.But the only reparation I can possibly make you is the one I am doingto-day by bringing here my friend Sir Theophilus Wraxton. He has acommunication of some importance to make to you; and if he is right, Ican only beg your pardon most humbly for the error I have committed inwhat I believed to be the discharge of my duties."
"Sir," I answered, "I saw at the time you were the victim of a mistake,as I was the victim of a most unfortunate concurrence of circumstances;and I bear you no grudge whatsoever for the part you bore in subjectingme to what is really in itself a most unjust and unfounded suspicion.You only did what you believed to be your plain duty; and you did itwith marked reluctance, and with every desire to leave me every possibleloophole of escape from what you conceived as a momentary yielding to avile temptation. But what is it that Sir Theophilus Wraxton wishes totell me?"
"Well, my dear sir," the old gentleman began, warmly, "I haven't theslightest doubt in the world myself that you have been quiteunwarrantably disbelieved about a plain matter of fact that ought atonce to have been immediately apparent to anybody who knew anything inthe world about the gold Anglo-Saxon coinage. No reflection in the worldupon you, Harbourne, my dear friend--no reflection in the world upon youin the matter; but you must admit that you've been pig-headedly hasty injumping to a conclusion, and ignorantly determined in sticking to itagainst better evidence. My dear sir, I haven't the very slightest doubtin the world that the coin now in the British Museum is _not_ the onewhich I have seen there previously, and which I have figured in thethird volume of my 'Early Northumbrian and Mercian Numismatist!' Quiteotherwise; quite otherwise, I assure you."
"How do you recognize that it is different, sir?" I cried excitedly."The two coins were struck at just the same mint from the same die, andI examined them closely together, and saw absolutely no differencebetween them, except the dent and the amount of the clipping."
"Quite true, quite true," the old gentleman replied with greatdeliberation. "But look here, sir. Here is the drawing I took of theMuseum Wulfric fourteen years ago, for the third volume of my'Northumbrian Numismatist.' That drawing was made with the aid ofcareful measurements, which you will find detailed in the text at page230. Now, here again is the duplicate Wulfric--permit me to call it_your_ Wulfric; and if you will compare the two you'll find, I think,that though your Wulfric is a great deal smaller than the original one,taken as a whole, yet on one diameter, the diameter from the letter U inWulfric to the letter R in Rex, it is nearly an eighth of an inchbroader than the specimen I have there figured. Well, sir, you may cutas much as you like off a coin, and make it smaller; but hang me if bycutting away at it for all your lifetime you can make it an eighth of aninch broader anyhow, in any direction."
I looked immediately at the coin, the drawing, and the measurements inthe book, and saw at a glance that Sir Theophilus was right.
"How on earth did you find it out?" I asked the bland old gentleman,breathlessly.
"Why, my dear sir, I remembered the old coin perfectly, having been sovery particular in my drawing and measurement; and the moment I clappedeyes on the other one yesterday, I said to my good friend Harbourne,here: 'Harbourne,' said I, 'somebody's been changing your Wulfr
ic in thecase over yonder for another specimen.' 'Changing it!' said Harbourne:'not a bit of it; clipping it, you mean.' 'No, no, my good fellow,' saidI: 'do you suppose I don't know the same coin again when I see it, andat my time of life too? This is another coin, not the same one clipped.It's bigger across than the old one from there to there.' 'No, itisn't,' says he. 'But it is,' I answer. 'Just you look in my"Northumbrian and Mercian" and see if it isn't so.' 'You must bemistaken,' says Harbourne. 'If I am, I'll eat my head,' says I. Well,we get down the 'Numismatist' from the bookshelf then and there; andsure enough, it turns out just as I told him. Harbourne turned as whiteas a ghost, I can tell you, as soon as he discovered it. 'Why,' says he,'I've sent a poor young fellow off to Portland Prison, only three orfour months ago, for stealing that very Wulfric.' And then he told meall the story. 'Very well,' said I, 'then the only thing you've got todo is just to go and call on him to-morrow, and let him know that you'vehad it proved to you, fairly proved to you, that this is not theoriginal Wulfric.'"
"Sir Theophilus," I said, "I'm much obliged to you. What you point outis by far the most important piece of evidence I've yet had to offer.Mr. Harbourne, have you kept the gold clippings that were found thatmorning on the cocoa-nut matting?"
"I have, Mr. Tait," the superintendent answered anxiously. "And SirTheophilus and I have been trying to fit them upon the coin in theMuseum shelves; and I am bound to admit I quite agree with him that theymust have been cut off a specimen decidedly larger in one diameter andsmaller in another than the existing one--in short, that they do not fitthe clipped Wulfric now in the Museum."
VI.
It was just a fortnight later that I received quite unexpectedly atelegram from Rome directed to me at my London lodgings. I tore it openhastily; it was signed by Emily, and contained only these few words: "Wehave found the Museum Wulfric. The superintendent is coming over toidentify and reclaim it. Can you manage to run across immediately withhim?"
For a moment I was lost in astonishment, delight, and fear. How and whyhad Emily gone over to Rome? Who could she have with her to take careof her and assist her? How on earth had she tracked the missing coin toits distant hiding-place? It was all a profound mystery to me; and aftermy first outburst of joy and gratitude, I began to be afraid that Emilymight have been misled by her eagerness and anxiety into following upthe traces of the wrong coin.
However, I had no choice but to go to Rome and see the matter ended; andI went alone, wearing out my soul through that long journey withsuspense and fear; for I had not managed to hit upon the superintendent,who, through his telegram being delivered a little the sooner, hadcaught a train six hours earlier than the one I went by.
As I arrived at the Central Station at Rome, I was met, to my surprise,by a perfect crowd of familiar faces. First, Emily herself rushed to me,kissed me, and assured me a hundred times over that it was all right,and that the missing coin was undoubtedly recovered. Then, thesuperintendent, more shamefaced than ever, and very grave, but with acertain moisture in his eyes, confirmed her statement by saying that hehad got the real Museum Wulfric undoubtedly in his pocket. Then SirTheophilus, who had actually come across with Lady Wraxton on purpose totake care of Emily, added his assurances and congratulations. Last ofall, Woollacott, the warder, stepped up to me and said simply, "I'mglad, sir, that it was through me as it all came out so right and even."
"Tell me how it all happened," I cried, almost faint with joy, and stillwondering whether my innocence had really been proved beyond all fear ofcavil.
Then Woollacott began, and told me briefly the whole story. He hadconsulted with the superintendent and Sir Theophilus, without saying aword to me about it, and had kept a close watch upon all the lettersthat came for Mactavish. A rare Anglo-Saxon coin is not a chattel thatone can easily get rid of every day; and Woollacott shrewdly gatheredfrom what Sir Theophilus had told him that Mactavish (or whoever elsehad stolen the coin) would be likely to try to dispose of it as far awayfrom England as possible, especially after all the comments that hadbeen made on this particular Wulfric in the English newspapers. So hetook every opportunity of intercepting the postman at the front door,and looking out for envelopes with foreign postage stamps. At last oneday a letter arrived for Mactavish with an Italian stamp and acardinal's red hat stamped like a crest on the flap of the envelope.Woollacott was certain that things of that sort didn't come to Mactavishevery day about his ordinary business. Braving the penalties forappropriating a letter, he took the liberty to open this suspiciouscommunication, and found it was a note from Cardinal Trevelyan, thePope's Chamberlain, and a well-known collector of antiquities referringto early Church history in England, and that it was in reply to an offerof Mactavish's to send the Cardinal for inspection a rare gold coin nototherwise specified. The Cardinal expressed his readiness to see thecoin, and to pay a hundred and fifty pounds for it, if it proved to berare and genuine as described. Woollacott felt certain that thiscommunication must refer to the gold Wulfric. He therefore handed theletter to Mrs. Mactavish when the postman next came his rounds, andwaited to see whether Mactavish any day afterwards went to the post toregister a small box or packet. Meanwhile he communicated with Emily andthe superintendent, being unwilling to buoy me up with a doubtful hopeuntil he was quite sure that their plan had succeeded. Thesuperintendent wrote immediately to the Cardinal, mentioning hissuspicions, and received a reply to the effect that he expected a coinof Wulfric to be sent him shortly. Sir Theophilus, who had been greatlyinterested in the question of the coin, kindly offered to take Emilyover to Rome, in order to get the criminating piece, as soon as itarrived, from Cardinal Trevelyan. That was, in turn, the story that theyall told me, piece by piece, in the Central Station at Rome thateventful morning.
"And Mactavish?" I asked of the superintendent eagerly.
"Is in custody in London already," he answered somewhat sternly. "I hada warrant out against him before I left town on this journey."
At the trial the whole case was very clearly proved against him, and myinnocence was fully established before the face of all myfellow-countrymen. A fortnight later my wife and I were among the rocksand woods at Ambleside; and when I returned to London, it was to take aplace in the department of coins at the British Museum, which thesuperintendent begged of me to accept as some further proof in the eyesof everybody that the suspicion he had formed in the matter of theWulfric was a most unfounded and wholly erroneous one. The coin itself Ikept as a memento of a terrible experience; but I have given upcollecting on my own account entirely, and am quite content nowadays tobear my share in guarding the national collection from other depredatorsof the class of Mactavish.