LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 427, 26 October 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A SEASIDE ADVENTURE. Continued, . ‘ We’ve got you, and will keep you,’ said the policeman. * Here comes the chaise to pick us up.’ So into the chaise I was put, in spite of all remonstrance. Now, lam a man of patient disposition, and my temper is not easily ruffled; although, in my present position, there was much to annoy, although the personal indignity of my arrest, and the mystery that hung over my immediate future, might make even the most stolid philosopher uneasy, there were some crumbs of comfort to be got from the ludicrous absurdity of the whole affair. Happily, in this out-of-the-way spot there was no one to recognise me as the branded felon borne back in fetters to the prison from which I had escaped. If “ the chief” in Crutched Friars were close at hand, or even the melancholy interesting young lady whose glances had pierced my green spectacles, I might have hung my head ; but I knew that, after all, this was only a case of temporary inconvenience ; I could not fail, sooner or later, to succeed in proving my identity, and that I must be then at once set free. Bar the personal discomfort, the loss of a good suit of clothes, &c, and the escape of some hardened wretch, thanks to my unconscious assistance, the present was a curious experience, which few were likely to compass. In this way I argued myself into laughing almost at this excellent practical joke, in which Self was the principal sufferer, and the end of which, for all I knew, might still be indefinitely delayed. Away, in the twilight gloaming, over the downs for a mile or two, and along the white winding chalk roads to the more level and wooded country ; then past farms, and between tall hedgerows and straggling villages, until we reached the outskirts of Weymouth ; then through the lighted streets and parades of the fashionable wateringplace, alive with gay company and merry music; threading our way across a bridge, amongst docks, and wharfs, and shipping, till at length we emerged upon the long fiat causeway that tops the Chisel Bank, and joins Portland to the mainland. The night had fallen, but the glories of a full moon flooded everything with light. On each side of the ridge slept the quiet sea beneath the twinkling stars, and right in front loomed the massive promontory of Portland, couched like a lion against the moonlit sky. Miles high it seemed, that hill, a terrible ascent, steep as the climb that faces many who have also travelled this road, if, when once again free, they seek to struggle from crime to honesty. My courage sank somewhat during that long gradient, and by the time we reached the gloomy portals of the prison it was at its lowest ebb. The place was lonely and silent as the tomb ; a solitary lamp flickered above the heavy gates, touching with spots of lustre the tips of the steel nails that studded all their panels. One of my escort jumped out and touched a deeptoned bell; and th. 3 next minute a little window, some six inches square, was opened in the door, and through it I saw the gleam of two white eyeballs, belonging, doubtless, to the same head, from which came now a very gruff and threatening ‘ Well V ’ ‘ We’ve got him ! ’ Instantly the voice changed. It was clear the escape was a source of deep anxiety to all at Portland, and that this was joyful news.

‘ What ! Raschkoff ? For these and all other mercies, the Lord’s name be praised ’ As if I, in my character of Raschkoff, was a very excellent dinner about to be digested by the establishment. With a solemn clanging sound, the heavy doors swung back upon their hinges, and I was inside. Almost like clock-work, they closed again behind me, and although I knew my incarceration was certain to be short, I felt quite as if hope were altogether extinguished from my breast. At that moment, 1 would gladly have purchased immediate release at any price, and I asked indignantly to see the governor at once. ‘ He says he’s Mr John Wray of Crutched Friars,’ said the policeman, with a grin. ‘Always was th’ artfullest villian out,’ replied the gatekeeper, pointing to me menacingly with his heavy key. ‘lt’s not the first time he’s done it, neither; calls himself a gentleman, because he was convicted for some genteel crime, forgery, or like that. He was away six months last time, but we nabbed him then, just as you have now. But he made his ‘guy’ again this morning {in the fog, and got away as smooth as butter. It’s here to-day with him, and gone to-morrow. ‘Ay, and back again at night,’ said the sailor profoundly. ‘ I insist on seeing the governor at once,’ I said, interrupting the dialogue. ‘ That you will, and sooner than you care to, either. He’ll be in his office about nine to-morrow morning, and he’ll have something to say to you, I suspect, private and particular. ’ ‘ There’s no call for us to wait,’ said the policeman ; ‘we can look up this way in the morning for the reward. ’ ‘ Off you go, then ; but you’d better stay in the village to-night; the major might want to speak to you to-morrow. Goodnight !’ ‘ Good-night!’ The gates were opened again, my late companions issued forth, and in another minute I heard the sound of their wheels retreating down the hill. Immediately afterwards, I was ordered to move on to the inner gate. There was a second gate under the archway, a dozen feet from the outer doors. This was of open iron-work, and through the bars I could see the tall outlines of the prison buildings. Just as we got to this inner gate, a man approached from the inner side.

‘Did you ring, Mr Tootle?’ ho asked. He was a tall man in uniform, wearing a longwaistecl, well-fitting greatcoat; at his side was a sword, on his belt a bull’s-eye lantern, and in the left hand a bunch of keys.

‘ Did you ring ?’ he repeated. ‘ I did, sir # It’s that Raschkoff; the police have brought him back.’

‘ That’s the best piece of news I’ve heard since noon. Hand him over. Have you sent word to the governor ?’ ‘l’ve rung his bell. He or the deputy will be here directly. It’s close on lockingup time.’ With these second gates, as they closed behind me, there seemed to fall another barrier between me and freedom, nor did my new escort encourage me to hope for much consideration.

Through more gates and doors, all of which were first unlocked, then locked, then rc-locked, and locked again, till it seemed as if I was now as safe as the crown jewels, or a toad entombed alive in a granite rock. At length, we reached a block of buildings a little apart, with double doors, through which we passed, as we had the others, and I found myself on the ground-floor of an unmistakable prison, There were three rows of cells, tier above tier, the upper with a narrow landing and a bright steel railing. As we entered, another warder met us ; he was in slippers, and walked noiselessly like a ghost. In a sepulchral voice, he said ; ‘ Forty- six, sir, and all correct. ’

‘ This will make forty-seven, Mr Mousey,’ said my conductor : ‘ It’s that Easchkoff.’ ‘ Shall I put him in the dark, sir ? ’ was the eager query.

‘ No; in an ordinary cell; but keep an eye on the trap, and watch him carefully, or he’ll break prison again; he’s clever enough. ’ I was introduced forthwith into an * ordinary cell ’ —four bare walls, with a loophole window well barred, and wired over. There was nothing in the place but a gutta-percha pint pot, and a bed of smooth bare plank a little raised from the floor.

‘ Keep silence, will you !’ said, for the thousandth time, the superior warder, as, for the thousandth time, I tried to protest that I was not Raschkoff.

‘ Mind, Mr Mousey, you don’t let him talk to you in the night; he’ll be trying it on again, you may depend. Give him his bed, and till his pint—there ; ’ and they left me. Alone, at last, and in a solitary cell in Portland Prison ! The dreadful truth was difficult to realise ; but bars and bolts, and iron doors, are solid facts, not easily explained away. I felt as miserable now as if I was doomed to be hanged next morning. As I have said, from the first moment of my capture I had treated my mishap as an unpleasant joke—no more ; and all along I had buoyed myself up with the knowledge that at the prison itself the mistake would be at once discovered. Of course 1 had said to myself, the officials there will know I am not the real Raschkoff the runaway. But it seemed as if no one knew anything of the sort. I had already passed through the hands of three, and though all had scanned my features closely, no syllable of doubt of my identity had followed their inspection. What if I should be kept to serve out the real convict’s time, seeking vainly from day to day, and year to year, to make my protest plain ? This would be too severe a dose indeed. Yes, T was most miserable. Cold, wretched, and nearly starved, for no food had crossed my lips since noon, 1 gathered myself together, and, sinking utterly dejected upon the hard pallet, tried to groan myself to sleep. I must have slept; but the slumber at first was fitful, and often disturbed by the click of a latch at my cell door, and a flash of bright light through a harrow slit turned on to where I lay. It was the warder on the alert to prevent another escape. Even the strangeness of this wore off, and I became thoroughly unconscious, to be roused at last by a deafening peal of bells rung just above my head. The dawn was struggling, in pale, sickly tones, through the wire-work of the tiny window, and I guessed that this was the prison bell, the signal^to begin the labours of the day. I was hardly at all refreshed by my sleep, and terribly faint from want of food.

‘ Can I see a doctor ?’ I asked, as two new warders came into my cell, and told me peremptorily to stand up and strip. ‘Of course you can. But first of all we must search you ; it ought to have been done last night, only you took us all by surprise—as you did too —when you hooked it. How did you get away, Easchkoff?’ * I tell you I’m not Easchkoff!’ Both the officers laughed heartily. ‘You’ll be the death of us, Easchkoff ! But there—wash yourself; it’s close on breakfast-time, and, after that, you shall see the young doctor. ’

They brought me a pannikin of scalding hot cocoa, and a small loaf which I devoured eagerly. They were capital; there was milk in the cocoa, and the bread was fresh and white. I got new courage from the food. Surely, said I to myself, there must be some one here who will confess that I am right; some one who can swear to the real Easchkoff. And then it occurred to me that I would let matters take their course, and desist from speaking another word in my own defence. I wondered only how long the farce would continue. I had plenty of visitors in the next hour or two. First, the ‘young’ doctor, as he had been styled, though he was old enough to have grey hair and a corporation. He was an airy, offhand gentleman, wearing a stethoscope, like a flower, in his button-hole. ‘There’s nothing wrong with you,’ he said angrily. ‘ Why did you send for me.’ ‘ I feel faint. ’

‘ Faint ! ’ The utter contempt of these words my my blood boil. ‘ Were you faint yesterday morning, when you ran four miles, and jumped the dyke in the fog?’ I sank back almost in despair. Happily nine o’clock was now approaching, and preparations began for my trial in the governor’s office. I was again stripped and searched ; my boots were taken from me, and I got a pair of list slippers. Then, all at once echoing along the passages came a cry for ‘ Easchkoft'; and Easchkoff—that is to say, J, John Wray of Grutched Friars—shambled up two Hights of narrow stairs, and entered a little dock on the further side of which stood a warder with a baton ; while in front, some way off, was seated a portly, imposing personage at a high desk, and surrounding him, a group of officials, among whom were my friends the coast-guard sailor and the policeman, {To he continued.)