LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 715, 4 October 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A SPECIAL CONSTABLE.

(BY CHARLES READE.)

Two women, sisters, kept the toll-bar at a village in Yorkshire. It stood apart from the village, and they often felt uneasy at night, being lone women. One day they received a considerable sum of money, bequeathed them by a relative, and that set the simple souls all in a flutter. They had a friend in the village, the black smith’s wife; so they went and told her their fears. She admitted that theirs was a lonesome place, and she would not live there, for one—without a man. Her discourse sent them home downright miserable. The blacksmith’s wife told her husband all about it, when he came in for his dinner.

‘ The fools !’ said he : how is anybody to know they have got brass in the house ?’ ‘Well,’ said the wife, ‘they make no secret of it to me ; but you need not go for to tell it to all the town—poor souls. ’ ‘Not I,’ said the man: ‘but they will publish it, never fear; leave women-folk alone for makiug their own trouble with their tongues.’ There the subject dropped, as man and wife have things to talk about besides their neighbours. The old women at the toll-bar, what with their own fears, and their Job’s comforter, began to shiver with apprehension as night came on. However, at sunset the carrier passed through the gate; and at sight of his friendly face they brightened up. They told him their care, and begged him to sleep in the house that night. ‘ Why, how can I?’ said he. ‘ I’m due at ; hut I will leave you my dog.’ The dog was a powerful mastiff.

The women looked at each other expressively. ‘He won’t hurt us V sighed one of them faintly. ‘Not he,’ said the carrier cheerfully. Then he called the dog into the house, and told them to lock the door, and went away whistling. The women were left contemplating the dog with that tender interest apprehension is sure to excite. At first he seemed staggered at this off-hand proceeding of his master; it confused him; then he snuffed at the door ; then, as the wheels retreated, he began to see plainly that he was an abandoned dog ; he delivered a fearful howl and flew at the door, scratching and barking furiously. The old women fled the apartment, and were next seen at an upper window, screaming to the carrier. ‘ Come back I—come back, John ! He is tearing the house down. ‘ Drat the varmint!’ said John ; and came back. On the road he thought what was best to be done. The good-natured fellow took his great coat out of the cart, and laid it down on the floor. The mastiff instantly laid himself on it. ‘Now,’ said John, sternly, ‘ let us have no more nonsense ; you take charge of that till I come back, and don’t ye let nobody steal that there, nor yet t’ wives’ brass. There now,’ said he to the women, ‘ I shall be back this way breakfast time, and he won’t budge till then.’ ‘ And he won’t hurt us, John V 1 Lord, no. Bless your heart, he is as sensible as' any Christian; only, Lordsake, woman, don’t ye go for to take the coat from him; or you will be wanting a new gown yourself, and may-be, a petticoat and all. ’ He retired, and the old women kept at a respectful distance from their protector. He never molested them ; and, indeed, when they spoke cajolinglytohim, he even wagged his tail in a dubious way ; but still, as they moved about, he squinted at them out of his blood-shot eye in a way that cheeked all desire on their parts to try on the carrier’s coat.

Thus protected, they went to bed earlier than usual; but they did not undress, they were too much afraid of everything, especially their protector. The night wore on, and presently their sharpened senses let them know that the dog was getting restless : he snuffed, and then he growled, and then he got up and pattered about, muttering to himself. Straightway, with furniture, they barricaded the door, through which their protector must pass to devour them. But by and by, listening acutely, they heard a scraping and a grating outside the window of the room where the dog was ; and he continued growling low. This was enough; they slipped out at the back door, and left their money to save their lives: they got into the village. It was pitch dark, and all the houses black but two : one was the public-house, casting a triangular gleam across the road a long way off, and the other was the blacksmith’s house. Here was a piece of fortune for the terrified women. They burst into their friend’s house. ‘ Oh Jane ! the thieves are come ! ’ and they told her in a few words all that had happened, ‘La!’ said she; ‘how timoursome you are : ten to one he was only growling at some one that passed by, ’ ‘Nay, Jane, we heard the scraping outside the window; oh, woman, call your man, and let him go with us.’ ‘ My man—he is not here.’ ‘ Where is he, then ? ’ ‘ I suppose he is where other working women’s husbands are—at the public-house,’ said she rather bitterly, for she had her experience. The old women wanted to go to the publichouse for him, but the blacksmith’s wife was a courageous woman, and, besides, she thought it was most likely a false alarm. ‘Nay, nay,’ said she, ‘last time I went for him there, I got a fine affront. I’ll come with you,’ said she. ‘l’ll take the poker, and we have got our tongues to raise the town with, I suppose.’ So they marched to the toll-bar. When they got near it, they saw something that staggered this heroine. There was actually a man half in aud half out of the window. This bx-ought the blacksmith’s wife to a standstill, and the timid pair implored her to go back to the village. ‘ Nay,’ said she, ‘what for ? I see but one—and—hark ! it is my belief the dog is holding of him.’ However, she thought it best to be on the same side with the dog, lest the man might turn on her. So she made her way into the kitchen, followed by the other two; and there a sight met their eyes that changed all their feelings, both towards the robber aud towards each other. The great mastiff had pinned a man by the throat, and was pulling at him, to draw him through the window, with fierce but muffled snarls. The man’s weight alone prevented it. The window was like a picture frame, and in that frame there glared, with lolling tongue and starting eyes, the white face of the blacksmith, their courageous friend’s villauous husband. She uttered an appalling scream, and flew .upon the dog and choked

him with her two hands. He held, and growled, and tore, till he was all but throttled himself ; then he let go, and the man fell. But what struck the ground outside, like a lump of lead, was, in truth, a lump of clay; the man was quite dead, and fearfully torn about the throat. So did a comedy end in an appalling and most piteous tragedy; not that the scoundrel himself deserved any pity, but his poor brave honest wife, to whom he had not dared to confide the villany he meditated. The outlines of this tiue story were in several journals. I have put the disjointed particulars together as well as I could. I Have tried to learn the name of the village, and what became of this poor widow, but have failed hitherto. Should these lines meet the eye of anyone who can tell me, I hope he will, and without delay.