Post Haste by Robert Michael Ballantyne (free reads .txt) 📕

shop, and you can go home. By the _way_, have you a home?"

"O yes," said Aspel, with a laugh. "A poor enough one truly, off the Strand."

"Indeed?--that reminds me: we always pay salaries in advance in this office. Here is a sovereign to account of your first quarter. We can settle the amount afterwards."

Aspel accepted the coin with a not particularly good grace.

"Now then, you had better--ha--excuse me--put up the shutters."

Instantly the youth pulled out the sovereign and laid it on the counter.

"No, sir," he said firmly; "I am willing to aid you in your difficulties, but I am not willing to become a mere shop-boy--at least not while there is man's work to be had."

Mr Blurt looked perplexed. "What are we to do?" he asked.

"Hire a little boy," said Aspel.

"But there are no little boys about," he said, looking out into the street, where the wind was sending clouds of dust and bits of straw and paper into the air. "I would do it myself, but have not time; I'm late as it is. Ah! I have it--Mrs Murridge!"

Calling the faithful domestic, he asked if she knew how to put up the shutters, and would do it. She was quite willing, and set about it at once, while Mr Blurt nodded good-night, and went away.

With very uncomfortable feelings George Aspel stood in the shop, his tall figure drawn up, his arms crossed on his broad breast, and his finely formed head bent slightly down as he sternly watched the operation.

Mrs Murridge was a resolute woman. She put up most of the shutters promptly in spite of the high wind, but just as she was fixing the last of them a blast caught it and almost swept it from her grasp. For two seconds there was a tough struggle between Boreas and the old woman. Gallantry forbade further inaction. Aspel rushed out just in time to catch Mrs Murridge and the shutter in his strong arms as they were about to be swept into the kennel. He could do no more, however, than hold them there, the wind being too much even for him. While in this extremity he received timely aid from some one, whom the indistinct light revealed as a broad-shouldered little fellow in a grey uniform. With his assistance the shutter was affixed and secured.

"Thank you, friend, whoever you are," said Aspel heartily, as he turned and followed the panting Mrs Murridge.

But the "friend," instead of replying, seized Aspel by the arm and walked with him into the shop.

"George Aspel!" he said.

George looked down and beheld the all but awe-stricken visage of Philip Maylands.

Without uttering a word the former sat down on the counter, and burst into a fit of half-savage laughter.

"Ah, then, you may laugh till you grow fat," said Phil, "but it's more than that you must do if I'm to join you in the laugh."

"What more can I do, Phil?" asked Aspel, wiping his eyes.

"Sure, ye can explain," said Phil.

"Well, sit down on the counter, and I'll explain," returned Aspel, shutting and locking the door. Then, mounting the stool, he entered into a minute explanation--not only in reference to his present position and circumstances but regarding his recent misfortunes.

Phil's admiration and love for his friend were intense, but that did not altogether blind him to his faults. He listened attentively, sympathetically but gravely, and said little. He felt, somehow, that London was a dangerous place compared with the west of Ireland,--that his friend was in danger of something vague and undefined,--that he himself was in danger of--he knew not what. While the two were conversing they heard a step in the now quiet street. It advanced quickly, and stopped at the door. There was a rustling sound; something fell on the floor, and the step passed on.

"It's only a few letters," said Aspel; "Mr Blurt explained matters to me this morning. They seem to have been a careless lot who have managed this business hitherto. A slit was made in the door for letters, but no box has ever been attached to the slit. The letters put through it at night are just allowed to fall on the floor, as you see, and are picked up in the morning. As I am not yet fully initiated into my duties, and don't feel authorised to open these, we will let them lie.--Hallo! look there."

The last words were uttered in a low, soft tone. Phil Maylands glanced in his friend's face, and was directed by his eyes to a corner near the front door, where, from behind the shelter of an over-stuffed pelican of the wilderness, two intensely bright little eyes were seen glistening. The gradual advance of a sharp nose revealed the fact that their owner was a rat!

No Red Indian of the prairie ever sat with more statuesque rigidity, watching his foe, than did these two friends sit watching that rat. They were sportsmen, both by nature and practice, to the backbone. The idiotic owl at their elbow was not more still than they--one point only excepted: Phil's right hand moved imperceptibly, like the hour-hand of a watch, towards a book which lay on the counter. Their patience was rewarded. Supposing, no doubt, that the youths had suddenly died to suit its convenience, the rat advanced a step or two, looked suspicious, became reassured, advanced a little farther and displayed its tail to full advantage. After smelling at various objects, with a view, no doubt, to supper, it finally came on the letters, appeared to read their addresses with some attention, and, seizing one by a corner, began apparently to open it.

At this point Phil Maylands' fingers, closing slowly but with the deadly precision of fate, grasped the book and hurled it at the foe, which was instantly swept off its legs. Either the blow or the fright caused the rat to fly wriggling into the air. With a shriek of agonised emotion, it vanished behind the pelican of the wilderness.

"Bravo, Phil! splendidly aimed, but rather low," cried Aspel, as he vaulted the counter and dislodged the pelican. Of course the rat was gone. After a little more conversation the two friends quitted the place and went to their respective homes.

"Very odd and absolutely unaccountable," observed Mr Blurt, as he sat next morning perusing the letters above referred to, "here's the same thing occurred again. Brownlow writes that he sent a cheque a week ago, and no one has heard of it. That rascal who made off with the cash could not have stolen it, because he never stole cheques,--for fear, no doubt, of being caught,--and this was only for a small amount. Then, here is a cheque come all right from Thomson. Why should one appear and the other disappear?"

"Could the rats have made away with it?" suggested Aspel, who had told his patron of the previous night's incident.

"Rats might destroy letters, but they could not eat them--at least, not during the few hours of the night that they lie on the floor. No; the thing is a mystery. I cannot help thinking that the Post-Office is to blame. I shall make inquiries. I am determined to get to the bottom of it."

So it ever is with mankind. People make mistakes, or are guilty of carelessness, and straightway they lay the blame--not only without but against reason--on broader shoulders than their own. That wonderful and almost perfect British Post-Office delivers quickly, safely, and in good condition above fourteen hundred millions of letters etcetera in the year, but some half-dozen letters, addressed to Messrs. Blurt and Company, have gone a-missing,--therefore the Post-Office is to blame!

Full of this idea Mr Enoch Blurt put on his hat with an irascible fling and went off to the City. Arrived at St. Martin's-le-Grand he made for the principal entrance. At any other time he would have, been struck with the grandeur of the buildings. He would have paused and admired the handsome colonnade of the old office and the fine front of the new buildings opposite, but Mr Blurt could see nothing except missing letters. Architecture appealed to him in vain. Perhaps his state of irritability was increased by a vague suspicion that all Government officials were trained and almost bound to throw obstacles in the way of free inquiry.

"I want," said he, planting himself defiantly in front of an official who encountered him in the passage, "to see the--the--Secretary, the-- the--Postmaster-General, the chief of the Post-Office, whoever he may be. There is my card."

"Certainly, sir, will you step this way?"

The official spoke with such civility, and led the way with such alacrity, that Mr Blurt felt it necessary to think exclusively of his wrongs lest his indignation should cool too soon. Having shown him into a comfortable waiting-room, the official went off with his card. In a few minutes a gentleman entered, accosted Mr Blurt with a polite bow, and asked what he could do for him.

"Sir," said Mr Blurt, summoning to his aid the last rags of his indignation, "I come to make a complaint. Many of the letters addressed to our firm are missing--have been missing for some time past,--and from the inquiries I have made it seems evident to me that they must have been lost in passing through the Post-Office."

"I regret much to hear this," returned the gentleman, whom--as Mr Blurt never ascertained who he was--we shall style the Secretary, at all events he represented that officer. "You may rely on our doing our utmost to clear up the matter. Will you be kind enough to give me the full particulars?"

The Secretary's urbanity gave the whole of Mr Blurt's last rags of indignation to the winds. He detailed his case with his usual earnestness and good-nature.

The Secretary listened attentively to the close. "Well, Mr Blurt," he said, "we will investigate the matter without delay; but from what you have told me I think it probable that the blame does not lie with us. You would be surprised if you knew the number of complaints made to us, which, on investigation, turn out to be groundless. Allow me to cite one or two instances. In one case a missing letter having fallen from the letter-box of the person to whom it was addressed on to the hall-floor, was picked up by a dog and buried in some straw, where it was afterwards found. In another case, the missing letter was discovered sticking against the side of the private letter-box, where it had lain unobserved, and in another the letter had been placed between the leaves of a book as a mark and forgotten. Boys and others sent to post letters are also frequently unfaithful, and sometimes stupid. Many letters have been put into the receptacles for dust in our streets, under the impression that they were pillar letter-boxes, and on one occasion a letter-carrier found two letters forced behind the plate affixed to a pillar letter-box which indicates the hours of collection, obviously placed there by the ignorant sender under the impression that that was the proper way of posting them. Your mention of rats reminds me of several cases in which these animals