Fighting the Flames by Robert Michael Ballantyne (suggested reading TXT) 📕

ain't much better."

"Some men think it's worse," replied Gorman, with a savage grin; "but you've no need to fear. If you only take the right precautions it's impossible to find it out, an' I'll engage to put ye up to doin' it in such a way that there won't be a scrap the size of a sixpence left to convict you. Only put a bold face on it and the thing's done, and your fortune made as well as mine."

The man's voice and manner softened a little as he said this, for he thought he perceived symptoms of wavering in his tenant, who covered his face with his large thin hands and sighed deeply.

"Come, don't be hard on me," he said at length; "I really haven't got courage to go through with this. Only give me a little more time, and I'll--"

"Very good," interrupted Gorman, with an oath, as he rose and dashed his pipe into fragments on the hearth; "if you won't burn yourself out o' this scrape."

"Hush! hush, man!" said Boone in a hoarse whisper; "not so loud; my lad will hear you. Come, I'll think of it."

"Will you _do_ it?" demanded the other fiercely. "You know the alternative if you don't?"

"Ruination?"

"Exactly so; and that without delay."

"Ruination either way," murmured Boone sadly to himself, as though he were counting the cost.

"Tut, man," said his landlord, becoming more gentle, "it's nothing of the sort. If you only take my advice, it'll be a jolly blaze, which, instead of ending in smoke will end in some thousands of pounds and commencing business again on fresh capital. Come, I've not got time to waste with you. There's no escape for you, so you'd better say yes, else I'll go and have a talk with a legal friend of mine who is used to screwing gold out of most unpromising mines."

David Boone's face had by this time become so pale that it could not become paler, so it turned somewhat green instead. His teeth, too, had a tendency to chatter when he spoke, but by a strong mental effort he prevented this, and said in a subdued voice that he was willing to do whatever his landlord pleased to command.

"That's all right," said Gorman, resuming his seat in front of the fire; "now you speak like a man. Sit down and I'll go over the matter with you, and make your mind easy by showing you that it ain't either a difficult or risky piece of work. Bless you, it ain't the first time I've been up to that sort o' thing."

It did not require the diabolical leer that accompanied this remark to convince his hearer of its truth.

"Now, then," said Gorman, with a business air, "first of all, how stands the stock in the shop?"

"Rather low," answered Boone, who had reseated himself on the stool; "in fact, I've got little or nothing more than what is visible. I've bin so hard-up of late that I've had to crowd everything into view an' make the most of appearances. All the dressed dolls has got their frocks spread out, and the undressed ones their arms an' legs throwed about to make 'em take up as much room as possible. The lids of all the work boxes is open, the slates and puzzle boxes stuck up in single rows, with their broadsides to the front, and the collapsin' worlds is all inflated. Everything in the front is real, but all behind is sham dummies an' empty boxes."

Gorman opened his eyes a little on hearing this.

"Good," he said, after a pause; "you're a cleverer fellow than I took you for. I thought you was well off, and I'm sure the neighbours think the same, for the place looks pretty full an' thrivin'. I suppose, now, if it was all sold off you wouldn't have enough to pay up my loans?"

"Nothink like it," said Boone earnestly. "I've slaved night and day, an' done my best, but luck's again' me."

"Ah, that's 'cause you've bin faint-hearted in time past; you're goin' to be bold in time to come, my good fellow; you'll have to be bold, you will. Come, I'll explain how. But first, let me ask how much you think the stock is worth."

"Not much above fifty pounds."

"Hum! it looks like more."

"That's true, an' the people about think it's worth two or three hundred, for you see I have a lot o' cheap jewellery, and some of the inquisitive ones have been trying to pump me of late. They all think I'm thriving," said Boone, shaking his head sorrowfully.

"So you are, so you are, man," said Gorman jocosely, "and you're going to make your fortune soon, and so am I, though at present I'm poor enough. However, that don't matter. Here's your course for the future, which you're to steer by. You'll go an' begin chatting with your neighbours at odd times, and your conversation, curiously enough, will always be about the times bein' better than usual, an' about the approach of Christmas, an' the stock you mean to lay in against that festive season. After that you'll lay in the stock--fifty pounds' worth; and it won't be sham; it'll be real--"

"But where is the money to come from?" asked Boone.

"Oh, don't you trouble about the money; I'll provide that. I've a curious power of raisin' the wind on easy terms. Fifty pounds' worth of real goods will be bought by you, my thriving shopman, and you'll let some of the neighbours, partiklerly these same inquisitive 'uns, see the goods and some of the invoices, and you'll tell them that you've laid in 150 pounds worth of stock, and that you think of layin' in more. On the strength of the press o' business you'll get another shop-lad, and you'll keep 'em employed a good deal goin' messages, so that they won't get to know much about the state o' things, and I'll take care to send you a rare lot o' customers, who'll come pretty often for small purchases, and give the shop an uncommon thrivin' look. Oh, we'll make a splendid appearance of doin' business, and we'll have lots of witnesses ready to bother these sharp lawyers if need be--won't we, Boone?"

Poor Boone, whose colour had not yet improved much, smiled in a ghastly way, but said nothing.

"Well, then," resumed Gorman, after a few minutes' meditation, "when this thriving trade is in full swing we'll get it insured. You know it would never do to risk the loss of such valuable stock by fire--eh, Boone? common prudence pints that out! You say what you have is worth fifty, and what you'll lay in is fifty more, makin' a hundred, so we'll insure for five hundred; there's a clear gain of four hundred per cent, only think of that! Well, the house I have already insured for five hundred, that makes nine hundred, and we'll insure the furniture and fixings for fifty; that'll look business-like, you know. Then the goods laid in will be carefully removed in the night at various times before the fire, so you had better see that they are small and portable objects; that'll make another fifty pounds, if not more. So I see my way to a thousand pounds. That's a neat sum, ain't it, Boone?"

Still Boone made no reply, but favoured his visitor with another ghastly smile.

"Well, then," pursued Gorman, "all you've got to do is, on a certain night that I will fix, to set the shop alight, and the thing's done quite easy. But that's not all. You've got an old mother, I believe; well, it would be very unnatural in you to run the risk of being burned to death, an' leaving her penniless; so you'll insure your life for five hundred pounds, and I'll pay the first premium on it, and then you'll die--"

"Die!" exclaimed Boone, with a start.

"Ay; why not, if you're to get a small fortune by it."

"But how's that to be managed?" inquired Boone, with a look of doubt.

"Managed? Nothing easier. You'll be so desperately upset by the fire-- perhaps singed a little too--that you'll be taken ill and won't get better. I'll look carefully after you as your loving friend, and when you're about dead you'll get up and clear off in a quiet way. I'll make arrangements to have a corpse as like you as possible put in your bed, and then you'll be buried comfortably, and we'll share the insurance. Of course you'll have to leave this part of the town and disguise yourself, but that won't be difficult. Why, man, if you were only fond of a joke you might even attend your own funeral! It's not the first time that sort of thing has bin done. So, then, you'll have your life insured, but not yet. Your first business is to set about the purchase of the stock, and, let me tell you, there's no time to lose, so I advise you to write out the orders this very night. I'll fetch you fifty pounds in a day or two, and you'll pay up at once. It'll look well, you know, and after it's all settled we'll divide the plunder. Now then, good-night. I congratulate you on your thriving business."

Gorman opened the door of the inner room as he said the last words, so that the lad in the shop might hear them. As he passed through the shop he whispered in his friend's ear, "Mind the consequences if you fail," and then left him with another hearty good-night.

Poor David Boone, having sold himself to the tempter, went about his duties like an abject slave. He began by ordering goods from various wholesale dealers in the city, after which he took occasion to stand a good deal at his shop door and accost such of his neighbours as chanced to pass. The conversation at such times invariably began with the interesting topic of the weather, on which abstruse subject Boone and his friends displayed a surprising profundity of knowledge, by stating not only what the weather was at the time being, and what it had been in time past, but what it was likely to be in time to come. It soon diverged, however, to business, and usually ended in a display of fresh goods and invoices, and in references, on the part of Boone, to the felicitous state of trade at the time.

Do what he would, however, this thriving tradesman could not act his part well. In the midst of his prosperity his smiles were ghastly and his laughter was sardonic. Even when commenting on the prosperity of trade his sighs were frequent and deep. One of his friends thought and said that prosperity was turning the poor man's brain. Others thought that he was becoming quite unnatural and unaccountable in his deportment; and a few, acting on the principle of the sailor's parrot, which "could not speak much, but was a tremendous thinker," gave no outward indication of their thoughts beyond wise looks and grave shakes of the head, by which most people understood them to signify that they feared there was a screw loose somewhere.

This latter sentiment, it will be observed, is a very common