A PEER'S ROMANCE.

Mt Benger Mail, Volume V, Issue 261, 13 December 1884, Page 5

A PEER'S ROMANCE.

In my last stery *' The Signalman's Blunder," I incidentally mentioned t'.e long pile bridge on which the first rai'way r;»u into FleetWood. When the telegraph w*s re established at Fleetwood, after the town bad been without such accommodation for several years, the buts ©f wire still wont alone tbe old bridge, although t had net beeo used tor railway purpose? since a great storm—l think in '57, when the Royal Charter was wrecked-swept away several of tht piles. Our company, the British and Irish Magnetic, were at the time running a race with the rival company, the Eleetnc, extending their system as rapidly as possible all over the country. And thus, for some time after I went te Fleetwood, the telegraph wires were allowed to remaie along the old railway route. But there were so many breakdowns that at last a gsag of linesrosn were seut to lay the wires on the new line? of railway, and then to take down the wires and posls on the old route. The tret portion of the work was easy enough, and was quiekly carried out ; but the pile brid-e had become so rotten that more than one ot the linesmen refused to assist in the none, preferring to quit the compauy'* service. The work of a linesman is not regarded as especially cangerens, but it proved to be somewhat difficult to replace the men who thus left, and as the gang gradually dwindled iu number until there were only seven, the company's engineer did not harry those who remained at the job. One of the men attracted my attention after they came, and the marked difference between him and the rest of the gang excited my cariosity. Tall, well-kait, with curly brown hair and regular features, strong aad active is his move mente, the man wai as much a puzzle to his mates as he was to me. He called himself Riohard Smith, but the M gaffer "of the gang told me privately that Smith was not the man's aarae, for when he first joined the company* service it was some time before he could remember te answer to that name when called by it. He was known as " Dare-Devil-Dick " by the other mei, for he seemed to know no fear, and te see no danger in any of the work to be undertaken. Hence he was greatly liked by the rest af his party, although he never joined them in the evenings, and in fact kept quite aloef from them when not at work. Seeing him eating bis dinner iu the porters' room on the station one day, when the room was full of smoke, there being present a number of other railway men, who at that time had plenty^of leisure, I hinted that he might take his dinner in my office if he chose, and from that time we became quite friendly. One of his whims seemed to me to be a strange one for a telegraph linesman. The " Fleetwood Chronicle " of that day was published twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, and tbe proprietors showed a little enterprise by arranging for a summary of the Parliamentary news for that day to be wire to them on Tuesday and Friday ereaiugs. When my friend Smith learned this, he used to look in at the time I expected the " special Farly," as we called it, and seeur.ed much interested therein, especially if there was anything important in tbe House of L ords portion of the message. I knew he wan an educated man, probably hiding himsalf from his friends. Why he should have chosen the occupation in which 1 found him was a puzzle I thought I should like to unravel But he never let fall a single word that would have justified me in putting inquisitive questions to him. and he wag, besides, three or four .years my senior. One Friday night Smith stayed with me in the office until past eleven, waiting to see if the result of an impoitant division in tbe House of Lords came to hand. I was not supposed to stay beyond eleven, but at the urgent request of the proprietors of the M Chronicle," 1 consented w> remain until tbe expected message arrived,however late it might be. Smith would probably have stayed and kept me company had not the Kationmaster looked in. aud hiuted pretty oroadly that it was aa unusual hour for me to have visitor*.

It was a warm Jight for May, and after Smith ieft me I turned down the gas as low as possible, intending to have a "snooze, knowing that the bell of the instrument would rouse me when wanted. I was just dropping off to when 'the sound of voices outside beueath my window chased away for the time being the go„d Morpheus. One of the voices sounied so peculiar that I rose and went nearer the window, which was slightly open <»» the top. A deep b-ss voice with a decided lisp or impediment that prevented the roan sounding the s and th , his yes being like yet t

«' It a titky bittuett, and wort more lau fifty poundt, ' heard him say. " I'll doubl- the sum, but act a penny more," was the response of the other man. " Tat'll do. Hand over the money." " When you have earned it." " Not to green. Mittor. Money firtt. Why mutt 1 uutt you ?" '• Will you really do it if I pay you now , •« Telp a>e God !' •• Here fou are, then iwo for twenty, uvo for tea, »ud two fives Be careful to leave no traces behind. And dou'i 'et the tut ot aeea. • "•'■utt ,ne, guv'nor I'm not a too 1 Here • fcar*jt««> poieetmau good night What did it ill mean ? Wh«- wa.; the Tisky*}oi for which the ether man nad been willing to psy £IOO down on the nail ? Had 1 beeu on good terms with 'he nation night constable, « snould probably ha.e asked his opinion of the strange scraps >f conversation I had heard but the watchman was, in my opinion, a meddlesome feilow, and had reported me for having three friends in my sffice oae evening celebrating tht> birthday of one of the party, by the aid of jundry sample oottles of strong liquor, the young fellow's father sing traveller for a spirit merchant Aoout one oMock the expected message arrived, the Lords had thrown out the bill for the aoolition A the Paper Duty, and I went home

Sometmng or other, I canaot now remember what, caused me to forget what 1 had heard at midnight, and I should probably have forgotten the affair altogether had not it been brought to my remembrance in » way that made that im possible. Oa the following Monday morniig there was a thick fog and the telegraph liner men engaged in taking down the poles and wires on the old pile bridge did not go to wora until nreaKfast time Then, the tog having partly cleared away, .nd the red sun peeped out a little, the linesmeu went to work. Before they reached that, part of the ondge at which they were engaged, however, the fog was again thick , but the foreman was not inclined to turn bact.. saying it must clear soon. " Dare-devil Diek " had from the first volunteered to remove the insulators, and do otlftr preliminary work at the top of the poles, preparatory to their being carefully taken down. So far as appearenee went, the creosote with which the poles had been well coated to a height beyond the •pray of the tide, had kept them from decay.but there *u the risk oi one being rotten internally, and the prospect of a fall from the top of the ladder into the sea was all the mere unpleasant on such a morning.

*' Wait a bit, Smith, the fog is clearing." said one of the men " Hold the ladder, will you t I'm not afraid. I do not care to steed here doing Mthing," and ao saving, Smith mounted tbe •adder.

The other mu wai in the act of hoisting t ■ole on to the trolly to be takes ashore, when without the slightest warnhag the pole against which Smith'* ladder was placed suddenly broke off abort at the bottom, and both Smith - * 4nte the tea, the tide being almest foil at the mmi \ The companions of the unfortunate men were jpewerles* to render any aaaiatance. For a few Wtflnrmti they saw both men in the water, *Zwfr swimming towards the pile? of the letUge ; then the fog §e*noe.i te become deu-r-r spot, aajl wheel it cleared do trace of the 'Therm<n*aa bed the meet presence of mind,

for he ran as fast as he could to tbe station end of the b more than half-an-hour before a boat was launched aud roaed to the plice ; and then ft was too lite. There was no sign of the two linesmen. Before noon I heard of the fatality, and felt really sorry for Smith, whom I bad decided in my own miud was a prodigal, working hi* way bark to respectability and houour. In the afternoon it was' wLispered about that foul play was suspreled. and no one in F!ee>twouil was more startled tuat I when I beard 'lutthe telegraph pole which had given way bad o»en deliberately aawn nearly through at the bottom. J be strange conversation I Lad accidentally overheard on Friday night flashed through my braiu 1 had the key to it now. 'I hat liumlrtd pound* had becu paid for the perpetration of a murder ! And the men who paid it must have knowu that poor smith was the one who mounted the ladder. What ought 1 to do? I asked myself. Uive information to the police ? Everyone would blame me tor not doing so before, and thus, possibly, frustrating the outrage. The presence of the man with the curious speech cou'd easily have beeu discovered in such a small town ; he might have been "shadowed, ' and bis diabolical scheme nipped in the bud No ', I must say nothing for my own sake, of that midnight conference beneath my office window On the following day, search parties having beeu oa the lookout, the body of ti«e man who held the ladder was picked up aboo* a mile up the river Wyre. An inquest was opened, and adjourned for a week. Every effort was put forth by the police, aspisted by a noted detective from Manchester, at the instance of our company, to endeavour to trace the miscreaul who bad sawn through the telegraph pole , but with bo clue to work upon, the efforts ompletely failed. At tbe end of the week the inquest was again adjourned, in the hope that the body of Dick Smith would be found, but the hope was not realised, and a erdict of " Found drowned ' was come to by th : jury, there being no proof that the pole had been cut with an intention to take the lives of any of the inesraen. It might have been intended, the jury thought, to steal the cut pole, bat for the fog on the Sunday night I could have told them a different siory, but held my peace. Three weeks elapsed; and then a secoud body was found on the Bhore, near Rossnll. It was very much decomposed, but when brought to Fleetwood, the blue pilot jacket worn by the dead mao was at once identified aa having belonged to Smith, aad the finding in the inside pocket of a letter addressed to "Mr. R. Smith " set to rest any doubts as to the identity of the, corpse. A second inquest was opened, and, contrary to the wishes of the majority of the jury. adjourned for a week. The corouer. said be had ample reasons for the course he was taking, but declined to state them. When the jury again met, two strange gentlemen attended, and " Dick Smith, tb« telegraph linesman," being described minutely t>y three of the men with whom he had worked it transpired that Dick Smith was the pseudonym taken by tbe man when he left his home »ed fneuds about two /ears previously Ibo body, encased in a leaden .offiu. was taken away to Scotland, te tbe ancestral home ot the family, for interment, and there, I thought, the romance ended If, as I believe he did, the corouer knew the real name of the ci-devant Die* Smith, he showed that he could keep a secret, even from those keen-nosed gentlemen the reporters ; but lommon rurnonr in Fleetwood set him dowu as the runaway sua of a county family. Five mouths passed »w»y, and having in the meantime bei-n removed from Fleetwood, I had almost forgotten Dick Smith. But 1 had not done with biro Dun att*moon a letter, origin„tly addressed tome at tbe Fleetwood telegraph office, was delivered to me at Preston. Imagine my surprise, and alto my delight, wheu 1 opened it, and not recognising the handwriting, looked for tbe ii«rae at che end of the letter, to bud •' trie man you knew as Richard bunith He nad not been drowned, then I should probably now learn who and what he really was, for he stated in the letter that he intended jailing upon me at Fleetwood on the - r oilowiug day. He wrote f rom the Graud Hotel, Liverpool, and I therefore w i-ed to him my change of residence. As intimated he came to see me noi wishing i.o visit Fleetwood and yet naturally lesirone U ieam whax had happened a> rl.itime of his supposes death. He explained u*i joon after fulling it the sea he managed to strike the pole when swimming, and thai ny its. fcelp he easily kept afloat, the returning, tide arried him out to sea, and when he Had almost given himsea up for lost he war beard by the lookout man on a passing vessel, and taken on uoard. The captain oid oo< wish to be at tht. v rouble of putting him a,.hore, and Smith had special reason: of his own tor preferring the request to be allowed to work his passage. This oeiug agreed to, his fearlessness soon made him a prime favourite with tbe crew aud officers ; and che vessel being on a trading voyage to South American ports, Smith's knowledge cf Spanish proved highly useful '• And now Mr. Luptou,' he said, with a smile, "as there nt longer exist any reasons for hiding myself from my fnends I will draw oside che veil of anonymity My father having died since we last met, I am Lord ' I suppose I must have evinced sopietning like incredulity, for he smiled amusedly. " I see you are » bit sceptics- Mr Luptou, but I am >iot joking. I left home after a terrible quarrel with my fatner, who bad set his near! on my marrying an exceedingly wealtny uistant cousin, some eight years ray senior ; and when I finally refused aad in terms he could not mistake, he declared that henceforth js had no son He would stop my allowance ; I might starve for aught he cared. It was mere accident caused me to become a linesman in the service of the telegraph company ; I overheard two men talking in a Liverpool public-boude that such men were much wanted, but that the work was somewhat' dangerous. I kuew that I possessed a clear head, and I handle most carpenter's tools fairly well for an amateur, so I offered myself, preferring an outdoor occupation to that of a clerk, which I had at first thought of adopting. Since arriving in Liverpool, I have learnt tint a cousin of mine, the next heir to the title, has not only adopted it, in the belief that I was drowned at Fleetwood but has also contrived to secure the hand of my wealthy relative. My utt aexpected return will be a sore disappointment to the. husband, and also, I have reason to believe, to his bride ; for she could have been married years ago if she had been williDg to a:cept a suitor of less rank th»n an earl My lady, the countess, as she now styles herself, candidly admitted that she did not love me, but that she was willmg to marry me, and that her money would enable me to re-assume the proud position held by the head of our family a hundred years ago, before my great granduncle squandered the best of the estates. I am, tbrefore. not at all sorry for her romiog discomfiture." " (tee c;iu»ti o-.." I '.'t -m ! '•>""' ' ever suspect Umt the accident jou met with was brought about by foul play F " •• No ! What do you mean ? " " The pole which gave way when you were were thrown into the water had been sawn thorough, and I think I can throw such a light upon the affair as will enable your lordship to fix upon the guilty parties." ' Aid I told him the whole story. "Ton are right, Mr. Lupten : the villain who paid that hundred pounds must have been the man I will speedily anmask. As for his dupe, the man you describees having, deep bass ! voice, with an impediment in his speech, I know | nothing of him. Possibly either you or I may I come across him som. day, for the world is a I very smell place, after all. you know. Can ! you come up to the Victoria and take lauch with me P n I w*j oblige* to aeciine, not having *oy«ue

in +he office competent to woik the instrument in my absence , and had to be content with a couple of glasses of wine in tbe refreshment* room. Having no proof of the truth of bis suspieions Lord gave no hint to his cousin anent his presence in Fleetwood prior to '.be " accident * The supposed new peer professed to rejoice at the extraordinary escape of bis cousin, and re signed his honours aud estates with seeming goodwill. Not so the woman who had bartered her wealth for a title. She was furious ; and even went so far as to declare her believe that the whole scheme had been concocted by the two! xen, to euable tbe. man she married to 'obtain che control of her money, and the other to avoid a marriage with one whom he did riot care, for She had, however, taKen the precaution to have all she possessed settled absolutely upon herself; and now refused point-blank to live with the disfranchised peer, who found himself iu a worse position than before. All this tbe Earl informed me a few weeks afterwards, wheu he left the Scotch express at Preston, and stayed chatting with me until the next express came through. Not an hour after hi* train bad left, a rough looking,though respeotably dressed man entered my office. " I want to tend a metted to Edinburgh," he sa'd, iu a deep voice I at once recognised, with a thrill that caused me to etart violently, in spite oi myself •' Write the .Tiea»t>£« en this form," I said, as jalmly as I could. " I can't write ; never went to tooL Pleat do it tor me." " Very well; go ahead. Who is nto ? " 74 Never mind ;. I'll tend a letter," and be turned te quit the office. " A moment, please. You were in Fleetwood about seven months since,and earned a hundred pounds for a nice little job you did one Sunday, night. How long did it take you to saw through: thai old telegraph pole ? " The mau'.'< ruddy«face assumed a hi.e of yel> low-ish white, and hi.- eyes seemed as though' they would come out of his head. M I don't know what you mean, tir ; you are dokmg," he said at last. " I am not joking, as you know only too well. The man who paid you the money—l want his, name." The fellow had now regained his presence of nind, and rusLing oat of the office he fled along tbe platform. I went after him instantly, and being young and lithe would have caught him' easily had be not suddenly dashed across the metals. At that period as old Prestonians will remember,the engine of au incoming train from the north was uncoupled before entering the tunnel, and the train allowed to come into the station controlled by the guard's break alone.' An engins of such a tram was at tbe moment running through, and the man I had accused l was knocked down and ruu over, his body being awfully mutilated When the clothing was searched a letter was fouud in one of his pockuts, which was to me conclusive proof that the man had beeu levying blackmail from the " gentleman " who bribed' him to commit a murder \ I wired to the earl, who returned, and managed to obtain possession of the letter, as it bore his crest and monogram. By means of tbe' letter bis infamous cou.-in was compelled to quit England never to raturn.