Not less than gods, p.8
Not Less Than Gods, page 8
At the Privy Gardens Ludbridge developed an agonizing stitch in his side, but he kept up the chase into Parliament Street. By the time the cab reached New Palace Yard he had to stop, gasping, staring in unbelief as Bell-Fairfax kept straight on after the cab. But it was slowing and stopping at last; Ludbridge sucked in breath and sprinted to see the outcome.
The subject of the pursuit emerged from the cab and turned back a moment, reaching in for his stick. Bell-Fairfax came from behind the cab and passed him, touching him lightly on the back as he did so. As the subject straightened up with his stick in his hand, Ludbridge saw clearly the pink gummed label on the back of his coat. Bell-Fairfax, meanwhile, had doubled back and walked toward the subject at a leisurely pace. He smiled, tipping his hat, as he passed him. The subject acknowledged him with an absent nod and went into the House of Commons.
"You young bastard," said Ludbridge, wheezing painfully.
"I should judge that he was not the one who had been furnished with my description," said Bell-Fairfax cheerfully.
"You're not even sweating, are you? Back to the club; I'll need a brandy before the next one. And you might want to change your suit. The next one's in Whitechapel."
In rough clothing they had requisitioned from Costuming, Ludbridge and Bell-Fairfax walked up Aldgate High Street toward Whitechapel. It was mid-morning, with bright cold sunlight in abundance; and yet the streets opening off from side to side seemed to fade back into impenetrable smoky gloom. A more than customary layer of coal-soot had lacquered the cheap lodging houses, the derelict factories and ancient timber-framed shop fronts.
Bell-Fairfax turned down Goulston Street, looking from the photographic image in his hand to each building in turn. At last he stopped before one with perhaps a slight claim to respectability, in that some effort had been made to sweep and water the front step.
"This is where he lives," he murmured.
"So it is," said Ludbridge. "What will you do now, I wonder? It's half past ten in the morning. He may still be abed in there; then again, perhaps he isn't. He may be blissfully unaware you're standing out here in plain sight, or he may be watching you and studying your portrait. How will you know?"
Bell-Fairfax tucked the picture into his pocket. "I shall ask," he said brightly. He went to the door and pulled on the bell. Its handle came off in his hand. He set it carefully on the door's lintel, a second before the door opened a crack.
A gaunt female peered out, and then up, at Bell-Fairfax. Her iron-gray hair stuck out from under her cap all round, like a wiry halo. "Hallo, missus," said Edward, in quite passable Cockney. "Looking for my mate Bob. He says he dosses down here. Little fellow, turned out regular foppish, nice set of viskers? Vould he be in?"
The old dame's eyes glittered. She licked her dry lips and said, "Oh, yes? No, no, he ain't in. Gone down the Ten Bells. Corner of Red Lion and Church. Right at Wentworth, left at the next corner, straight on to Church. You'll find him there now, if you make haste."
"Much obliged, missus," said Bell-Fairfax, touching his hat brim. She closed the door and he stepped down with an air of triumph. "And I proceed to the Ten Bells."
"You do," said Ludbridge, falling into step beside him as he strode away. "I wonder how often you'll have the assistance of voluble landladies?"
Bell-Fairfax shrugged. They marched on, passing now and then the denizens of Whitechapel who staggered along in mid-morning intoxication or sprawled in the alleys sleeping off the previous night's gin. And here were a ragged couple, in violent quarrel: the male drove home his argument by clouting the female soundly. She clutched her jaw and wept. Bell-Fairfax halted, turned on his heel; Ludbridge blocked him.
"Let it alone," he said quietly. "She wouldn't thank you, and you'd have to kill him to make him give over."
"Small loss to anyone," said Bell-Fairfax, glaring at the man. Ludbridge raised his eyebrows.
"Do you think so? You may be right; but, after all, what would it accomplish? She'd only find another such tomorrow. In any case, men beat their wives as often in Belgravia as here. If you were to wring the neck of every brute who deserved it, you'd be obliged to reduce the population by a third. Your duty is to change the world itself, not to mete out justice. Put your strength to better use."
Bell-Fairfax pressed his lips together and walked on.
The Ten Bells loomed out of the haze at last, uninviting premises with windows smoked very nearly opaque. Stepping across the threshold, Ludbridge blinked as his eyes sought to adjust to the gloom. Lamps burned sullenly along the wall behind the bar, affording only enough light to make out that the place was tiny and shabby. Not by any means enough light for Ludbridge to have spotted the half-brick that came sailing out of the shadows, and it had broken his nose but for Bell-Fairfax snatching it out of midair.
Ludbridge caught a glimpse of some three or four grinning shadows, coming forward with clubs in their fists, before he was grabbed and dragged backward through the door by Bell-Fairfax. "I've led us into a trap—," Bell-Fairfax muttered in disgust. Ludbridge, who did not need to be told so much, took to his heels down Church Street, with Bell-Fairfax following closely. They rounded the corner onto Brick Lane and kept running, back toward Whitechapel Road.
"I think your mate Bob was waiting for you," Ludbridge said, panting as he ran.
"He wasn't in there," said Bell-Fairfax.
"How the devil could you tell?"
"They were all older men, and taller," said Bell-Fairfax, slowing his pace. He looked over his shoulder and, satisfied that they were not pursued, stopped to let Ludbridge catch his breath. As they walked briskly on, he added: "My fault, sir. Clearly, this was the one who knew to look for me. I ought to have been more circumspect."
"I'd say so, yes," said Ludbridge.
They came into Whitechapel Road once more and headed back toward Aldgate. "And shall you give it up for a bad job, and slink back to Whitehall defeated?" Ludbridge inquired jovially.
"No, sir," said Bell-Fairfax. "I will get him."
"Really? When your quarry has clearly put the word out against you? 'Here, mates, keep your eyes open for a gent what's all of seven feet tall if he's an inch, likely to come asking for me'? I should expect half the East End is aware of you now," said Ludbridge. "You'll be lucky if those chaps from Spitalfields haven't decided to—"
He became aware that Bell-Fairfax had stiffened beside him, halting for a split second as they made their way through the crowds along the high street. He glanced over to follow his companion's cold fixed stare, and saw that Bell-Fairfax was watching a slight figure some few yards ahead of them. A young man, nattily dressed, sauntered along the pavement. From time to time he veered close to another pedestrian, jostling each gentleman or lady as though by accident, generally absolving himself with a polite murmur and a tip of the hat. It required very sharp eyes indeed (and Ludbridge had them, in daylight) to note the handkerchiefs, watches and other oddments that leaped from the jostled parties to the jostler, apparently without the agency of human fingers.
Bell-Fairfax moved forward swiftly, closing the gap until he walked a mere yard behind his quarry. He worked his way through the crowd to one side as he paced the dapper gentleman, to view him sidelong. His hand slid into his own pocket. He fell back, edged to the right, and moved in once more. Ludbridge caught the flash of the pink label as it was drawn forth, and then, with a feather-touch, Bell-Fairfax had set it on the dapper gentleman's back. Bell-Fairfax then dodged forward, between his quarry and a well-dressed woman toward whom his quarry had been sidling, and thrust her roughly to one side.
"Mind your feet, can't you?" he snarled at his quarry, and tipped his hat to the lady. "Very sorry, ma'am."
The woman, recovering herself, moved off on a new trajectory through the crowd. The dapper gentleman looked indignant; he turned around, spotted Ludbridge, and at once his expression changed to one of chagrin. He shrugged and vanished in the throng as though he had been a wisp of fog.
Bell-Fairfax, meanwhile, sidestepped back to join Ludbridge. He was scowling.
"Cut that one a little fine, didn't you?" said Ludbridge.
"May I ask why there is a common thief among our ranks?"
"Because he's not a common thief," said Ludbridge, steering them back toward Aldgate. "He's an exceedingly uncommon thief, as you must have noticed. Remarkably talented. It sometimes happens that the Society has a use for his talents. Allowing him to ply his trade is a necessary evil, I'm afraid—keeps his skills in trim. Your righteous wrath is commendable, but consider the greater good, Bell-Fairfax."
Bell-Fairfax exhaled sharply. He thrust the portrait into his pocket and drew out the next one, studying it.
"Ah," he said. "This one's at Gravesend."
Rosherville Gardens was generally reached by excursion steamer, though it was nowadays a little more fashionable to go there by railway. Smart and exclusive as the steam locomotive might be, Ludbridge and Bell-Fairfax discovered that it could not be said to be a swifter mode of transport, on account of frequent stops.
As the train idled through Greenwich, Ludbridge leaned back in his seat and considered Bell-Fairfax.
"So you served in China, did you?"
Bell-Fairfax looked up from the third portrait. "I did, sir, yes."
"You can't have been much more than a boy then. Midshipman?"
"Yes, sir." Bell-Fairfax seemed unwilling to enlarge on his reply. Ludbridge took out his cigar case, offered a cigar to Bell-Fairfax, and lit his own cigar when Bell-Fairfax declined. He puffed smoke.
"So you can't have got up to much, I suppose."
"No, sir, not much."
"I served in China too," said Ludbridge casually. "Royal Marines. What'd you think of the whole business?"
Bell-Fairfax raised his eyes, looking wary. "I didn't care for it, sir."
"I didn't either." Ludbridge blew a smoke ring. "And I served under Stransham, you know. When we were at Zhenjiang... there were three merchants there and, you know, they were supposed to have obliged us in a certain matter and—to make a long story short—they hadn't. So I was sent out with my men to round up the merchants' wives and concubines and children and servants. Which we did, of course. We herded them into the courtyard in front of the house we'd commandeered, and our C.O.—won't tell you his name, but he was knighted a few years ago—he brought the merchants to the window looking out over the courtyard, and he bid them look well. Then he told me to give the order to prepare to fire.
"And I did. We raised our muskets and aimed into that crowd of weeping women and squalling babies. I assumed, of course, that all we'd have to do was threaten—the Chinese are very particular about their offspring, the sons at least—and the merchants would fall to their knees, begging for a second chance to do as they'd been told.
"And that was exactly what they did. But, do you know, the C.O. gave the order to fire anyway?"
Bell-Fairfax looked steadily at Ludbridge. "And did you?"
"No." Ludbridge blew another smoke ring. "I refused a direct order. Made no difference, of course. The C.O. was set on making an example of the merchants, you see. He had me relieved of command and my men fired into the crowd, and about half the women and children died at once. Then the C.O. ordered my men to reload and shoot the rest of them.
"I was told a great deal during my dressing-down about how yellow heathens only understood that sort of cruelty, how they often did worse to their own people, how they were scarcely human anyhow. You know the sort of things we were told out there, I expect."
"I remember," said Bell-Fairfax, in a whisper.
"Well, and then my C.O. went on to make an example of me. Soldiers, themselves, only understand that sort of cruelty. I was cashiered and sent home, and spent a year in prison. When I got out, Greene came round to see me, on the Society's behalf. I was recruited and became a Residential."
Bell-Fairfax said nothing. Ludbridge took a last pull on his cigar.
"The reason is all, you see," he said meditatively. "I'd killed before; I've killed since. But that wanton slaughter, all to make a point in what was after all an unjust war ... no, by God. I've never regretted refusing that order."
"I set fire to houses," said Bell-Fairfax, in a faraway voice. "I was serving aboard the Repulsion. We went ashore in the gig with Mr. Hastleigh, our lieutenant. Jermyn and Shawe and I, all midshipmen. We had kegs of oil and matches and tow and oakum, to start the fires . .. we were to creep in amongst the houses of this little village, and set them alight. They were only fishermen's huts. We were laughing, because we didn't know anything. We thought it would be some sort of grand Guy Fawkes prank.
"We followed our orders. The little huts went up in flames. People ran out of them. I saw a woman carrying a baby, with her clothing afire. I tried to help her; Mr. Hastleigh stopped me and boxed my ears. He ordered me back to the boat. We all ran ... he told me I might have gotten us all killed, and all I could think of was that poor woman beating at her rags, and the baby screaming.
"We rowed like madmen. As we came alongside the Repulsion, her guns began firing on the village. We cowered in the boat, with the guns roaring out over our heads. I had to hold my hands over my ears.
"When we'd given them three or four good broadsides, we pulled up anchor and sailed out of the harbor, and sat just offshore. I heard the screaming a long while after. I could see the fires burning for hours.
"In the morning, the smoke lay heavy as fog, in big rifts. We couldn't see where the village had been, or what had happened to the people there. The captain called us before him and commended us on a job well done."
Bell-Fairfax fell silent. Ludbridge shook his head.
"Wretched business," he said. "All of it. We really must make a better world, don't you think?"
Bell-Fairfax nodded. He looked down at the third portrait once more.
Stepping down from their railway carriage, they beheld Rosherville Gardens. It was a genteel place, green and well kept, and solidly genteel folk strolled amid the trees. They admired the Greek temples and statuary, or practiced at the archery range, or lost themselves in the shrubbery maze, or took refreshments at the various pavilions provided for that purpose. All the lower middle classes were dressed in their very best and on their best behavior.
"I expect you're thinking we ought to have changed our costumes before coming," remarked Ludbridge. "Rather conspicuous, aren't we?"
"No help for it now," said Bell-Fairfax shortly. He took a last glance at the portrait. "Perhaps they'll think we're gardeners. He looks as though he must be a waiter. We ought to go somewhere and order tea."
"If you like," said Ludbridge. He put his hands in his pockets and strolled along beside Bell-Fairfax, who glowered rather as they made their way through the crowds of children bowling hoops and shopgirls on the arms of tailors. "You might at least attempt to look as though you're enjoying your outing. I know what it is; you're making a comparison between all these happy Britons and the memory of those poor wretched Chinese. Do you find yourself despising us all? I did, at first."
"Rubbish," Bell-Fairfax muttered.
"Ah! I see you're particularly affected. But you mustn't allow it to distract you from the job at hand, you know."
Bell-Fairfax looked at him sidelong. Ludbridge only smiled.
"One can't despise whole nations," said Bell-Fairfax, with some heat. "There are innocents everywhere."
"Really? Point to one of these smug, comfortable people and tell me which has a pure heart."
"You don't know them. Any one of them might be a saint. Shall I feel contempt for them because you use words like smug and comfortable? That's just the same as telling me the villagers didn't matter, because they were yellow heathens. The clever use of words to reduce living people, for whom we ought to feel compassion, to mere ciphers who can be erased to suit someone's purpose." Edward kicked savagely at a stone in the path.
Ludbridge raised his eyebrows. "Bravo," he said. An infant, who had been staggering ahead of its parents along a grassy slope, tottered and fell. Its long skirts hindered its rise, and it went rolling over and over down the slope in a whirl of white lace. Edward jumped forward and caught it, swinging it up.
"Here you are," he said, smiling into the child's eyes. The baby, too astonished to cry, stared back. "Here's a pure heart, Ludbridge. Unless you're a desperate criminal in disguise, baby? No, I didn't think so."
He returned the infant to its father, who came running down the slope after it, and looked after them a trifle wistfully as they returned to the infant's mother, who stood above them wringing her hands.
"You never know," said Ludbridge sotto voce. "Might grow up to be a burglar."
"Bollocks," said Bell-Fairfax.
They spotted their man carrying a tray of sandwiches and lemonade to a group of chaperoned misses. He wore a striped apron and was of average build, was in fact average in nearly every unmemorable feature of his person. A careful observer might note that his gaze darted to and fro as he performed his office, and his expression was perhaps a little uneasy; but these were the only things that marked him out in any way.
"I think we'll just go take a seat." Bell-Fairfax strode toward the dining terrace. Ludbridge followed. They sat at a little table and waited. Minutes passed, and neither their quarry nor any other waiter came to wait on them. The waiters swooped perilously near, like swallows, and off again, pouncing on empty cups and saucers and whisking them in on trays, clearing away uneaten crusts, hovering attentively at the elbows of the respectably dressed; but they did not wait on Bell-Fairfax and Ludbridge.
"Then again, it must be admitted that the attire of the common laborer does confer a kind of invisibility," said Ludbridge.
