Fighting the Flames by R. M. Ballantyne (ebook reader that looks like a book .TXT) 📕

deep scar on his right temple; but that was the result of accident, not of time. Many a hairbreadth escape had he made during these seven years of fighting with the flames, and often had his life been in imminent danger; but he was fortunate in having escaped, hitherto, with only a broken leg and a variety of small cuts, scalds, and bruises. The cut on his temple was the severest, and most recent of these. He had got it in a fall through a second floor, which gave way under him as he was attempting to rescue an old bedridden man, who lay in an inner chamber. Frank was carried out in a state of insensibility on the broad shoulders of his friend Baxmore, while Dale rescued the old man.

“How goes it, Frank?” cried Willie, advancing and giving his brother’s hand a warm shake; “the cut head mending—eh?”

“Oh, it’s all right,” replied Frank, with a smile, as they sauntered up and down by the margin of the pond; “the headaches have left me now, I’m thankful to say, and the–doctor tells me it won’t leave much of a mark.”

“You don’t need to care much if it does, for it’s an honourable scar, and does not spoil your beauty, old boy.”

“Well, Willie,” said Frank, “here I am at your request. What have you got to tell me; nothing serious, I hope?”

The stalwart fireman looked earnestly into his brother’s face, and exhibited more anxiety than there seemed to be any occasion for.

“No, nothing very serious. It may be serious enough for all I know; but as far as my knowledge goes it’s not bad enough to make you look so anxious. Why, what’s the matter with you?”

“Nothing, Willie. Perhaps my late accident has shaken my nerves a bit.”

Willie burst into a loud laugh, and said that it was so awfully absurd to hear a man like Frank talking of nerves at all that he could not help it.

“Well, but what is the news you’ve got to tell me?” resumed Frank. “You’re not going to be married, are you?”

Frank asked this with a look and expression so peculiar that Willie again laughed and said that really he could not understand him at all; for even suppose he had been going to be married, that was no reason why he should take it so much to heart, as the expression on his face implied he did.

“Perhaps not, Willie,” said Frank with a quiet smile; “but that is not what you want to speak about, then?”

“No, certainly not.”

Frank appeared relieved, and Willie, observing the appearance, said—

“Come, now, I really don’t see why you should be so very much pleased to hear that. I’m young, it is true, but I’m old enough, and I have a good business, with brilliant prospects, and there appears to me no reason on earth why I should not marry if I felt so disposed.”

“None in the world, Willie,” said Frank, with some haste, “but you tell me you are not thinking of that just now; so pray let’s hear what you’ve got to say.”

“Oh! it’s all very well in you, old Blazes, to change the subject in that way, but I’m nettled at your implied objection to my getting married if I choose. However, we won’t quarrel over it, so here goes for the point.”

Willie’s bantering manner instantly left him. He walked in silence for a few seconds, as if he pondered what he had to say.

“There are two points which trouble me just now, Frank, and I want your opinion in regard to them. The first is, Miss Tippet. She is a small point, no doubt, whether we regard her physically or mentally, but she is by no means a small point if we regard her socially, for the good that that little woman does in a quiet, unobtrusive way is almost incredible. D’ye know, Frank, I have a sort of triumphant feeling in regard to the sour, cynical folk of this world—whom it is so impossible to answer in their fallacious and sophistical arguments—when I reflect that there is a day coming when the meek and lowly and unknown workers for the sake of our Lord shall be singled out from the multitude, and their true place and position assigned them. Miss Tippet will stand higher, I believe, in the next world than she does in this. Well, Miss Tippet has been much out of sorts of late, mentally; and Mr Tippet, who is the kindest man alive, has been very anxious about her, and has begged of me to try to counsel and comfort her. Now, it is not an easy matter to comply with this request, because, in the first place, Miss Tippet does not want me to counsel or comfort her, so far as I know; and, in the second place, my motives for attempting to do so might be misunderstood.”

“How so?” exclaimed Frank quickly.

“Well, you know, Miss Ward lives with her,” said Willie, with a modest look.

There was again something peculiar about Frank’s expression and manner, as he said, “Well, it would not signify much, I daresay, if people were to make remarks about you and Miss Ward, for you know it would not be misconstruction after all.”

“What mean you?” asked Willie in surprise.

“You remember what you once said to me about your bosom being on fire,” pursued Frank. “I suppose the fire has not been got under yet, has it?”

Willie burst into a loud laugh.

“Why, Blazes, do you not know—? But, no matter; we came here to talk of business; after that is done we can diverge to love.”

Willie paused here again for a few seconds and then resumed:

“You must know, Frank, that the cause of Miss Tippet’s disturbance just now is the strange conduct of her landlord, David Boone, who has been going on of late in a way that would justify his friends putting him in an asylum. His business affairs are, I fear, in a bad way, and he not only comes with excessive punctuality for Miss Tippet’s rent, but he asks her for loans of money in a wild incoherent fashion, and favours her with cautions and warnings of a kind that are utterly incomprehensible. Only the other night he came to her and asked if she did not intend soon to visit some of her friends; and on being informed that she did not, he went further and advised her to do so, saying that she was looking very ill, and he feared she would certainly get into bad health if she did not. In fact, he even said that he feared she would die if she did not go to the country for a few weeks. Now, all this would be laughable, as being the eccentricity of a half-cracked fellow, if it were not that he exhibits such a desperate anxiety that his advice should be followed, and even begged of the poor lady, with tears in his eyes, to go to visit her friends. What d’ye think of it, Frank? I confess myself utterly nonplussed.”

“I don’t know what to think,” said Frank after a pause. “Either the man must be mad, or he wishes to rob Miss Tippet’s house in her absence.”

Willie admitted that the first supposition might be true, but he held stoutly that the second was impossible, for Boone was too honest for that. They conversed for some time on this point, and both came ultimately to the conclusion that the thing was incomprehensible and mysterious, and that it ought to be watched and inquired into. Willie, moreover, said he would go and consult his friend Barret about it.

“You know Barret, Frank?”

“No; but I have heard of him.”

“Ah, he’s a first-rate fellow—in one of the insurance offices—I forget which. I came to know him when I first went to Mr Tippet’s. He lived then in the floor below us with a drunken companion whom he was anxious to reclaim; but he found him so hard to manage that he at last left him, and went to live in Hampstead. He and I became great friends when he lived under our workshop. He got married two years ago, and I have not seen much of him since, but he’s a sharp fellow, and knows a good deal more of the Tippets than I was aware of. I’ll go and see if he can throw any light on this subject.”

“The next point,” pursued Willie, “is Cattley the clown. Have you seen or heard of him lately?”

Frank said he had not.

“Well, I am greatly troubled about him. He has become a regular drunkard, and leads his poor daughter a terrible life. He is so broken down with dissipation that he can scarcely procure employment anywhere. His son is fortunately a pretty decent fellow, though somewhat wild, and helps in a small way to support his father, having obtained a situation as clown at one of the minor theatres. The daughter, Ziza, has long ago given up the profession, and has been struggling to maintain herself and her father by painting fire-screens, and making artificial flowers; but the work is severe and ill paid, and I see quite well that if the poor girl is not relieved in some way she will not be able to bear up.”

“I grieve to hear this, Willie,” said Frank, “but how comes it that you take so great an interest in these people?”

“Frank,” said Willie, assuming a tone of deep seriousness, while a glow suffused his cheeks, “can you keep a secret?”

“I think so, lad; at least I promise to try.”

“Well, then,” said Willie, “I love Ziza Cattley. I knew her first as a fairy, I know her now as a woman who is worthy of a place among the angels, for none but those who know her well and have seen her fighting the battle of life can have the least idea of the self-denial, the perseverance under difficulties, the sweetness of temper, and the deep-seated love of that devoted girl. She goes every night, after the toil of each day, to the door of the theatre, where she waits to conduct her father safely past the gin-palaces, into which, but for her, he would infallibly stray, and she spends all she has in making him comfortable, but I see well enough that this is killing her. She can’t stand it long, and I won’t stand it at all! I’ve made up my mind to that. Now, Frank, I want your advice.”

To say that Frank was hearty in his assurances that he would do what he could to help his brother, would be a faint way of stating the truth. Frank shook Willie by the hand and congratulated him on having gained the affections of one whom he knew to be a good girl, and then condoled with him on that girl’s unfortunate circumstances; but Willie stopped him short at this point by asking him in a tone of surprise what could be the matter with him, for at first he had been apparently annoyed at the notion of his (Willie’s) being in love, and now he seemed quite pleased about it. In short, his conduct was unaccountable!

Frank laughed, but said eagerly—

“Why. Willie, did you not tell me long ago that there was a fire in your bosom, lit up by a certain young friend of Miss Tippet’s—”

“Oh,” interrupted Willie, “Emma Ward; ah, yes, I confess that I did feel spooney once in that direction when I was a boy, but the fairy displaced her long ago. No, no, Frank, I’m not accountable for boyish fancies. By the way, I have just parted from the fair Emma. We had a tête-à-tête here not half an hour before you arrived.”

“Here!” exclaimed Frank in surprise.

“Ay, here,” repeated Willie; “she passes this pond every morning, she told me, on her way to teach a family in Kensington; by the way, I didn’t think of asking whether the father, mother, and servants were included