A SPECIAL CONSTABLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 238, 4 November 1876, Page 1

A SPECIAL CONSTABLE

Two women, sisters, kept a 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. Thej- had a friend in the village, tho blacksmith's wife ; so they went and told her all 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 : ' 1 10 w is anybody to know thay have «jrot brass in the liouac ?' 'Well, 1 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 making 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 ° ; but I will leave you my dog.' The dog was a powerful mastiff. The women looked at each other expressively. 'He won't hurt us, will he ?' sighed one of them, faintly. 'Not he,' said the carrier cheerfully. Then 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 ; and he snuffed at the door ; then, as the wheels retreated, he began to see plainly 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. .'Comeback! — come back, John ! He is tearing the house down.' 'Drat the varmint !' said John ; and came back. On the road he thought what was the 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, 1 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, kindly, to the women, 'I shall be back this way broakfirst time, and he wont budge till then." 'And he won't hurt us, John ?' 'Lord, no. Bless your heart he is a 8 sensible as any Christian ; only, Lordeake, woman, don't you go to take the coat from him ; or you'll be wanting a new gowa yourself, and maybe, a petticoat and all.' Ho retired, and the old women kept at &

respectable distance from their protector. He never molested them ; and, indeed, when they spoke cajolingly to him, he even wagged his tail in a dubious way ; but st'll lie moved about, and squinted at them out of his blood-shot eye in away that cheeked all desire, on their parts, to try on the carrier's coat. Thus protected, they went t<> 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 le,t 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, tliey 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 i off, and the other was the blacksmith's I bouse. Here was a piece of fortune for i the terrified women. They burst into their j friend's house. ;Oh Jane ! the thieves , are come ! ' and they told her in a few i words all that had happened. I 'La ! ' said she ; ' how timoursome you are : ten to one he was only growling- m j some one that passed by.' j ' Nay, Jane, we heard the scraping out- j side the window ; oh, woman, call your man, and let him go with us.' ' My man — lie is not here.' ' Where is he, thenV ' I suppose he is where other working women's husbands are — at the publichouse,' she said rather bitterly, for she had her experience. The old woman wanted to go to the public-house for him, but the blacksmith's j wife was a courageous woman, and besides j she thought it was most likely a false I alarm. l Nay, nay, 1 said she, 'last time 1 | went tor him there, I got a line affront, j I'll come with you,' said she. ' Til take the poker, and we have got our tongues to raise the town with, I suppose.' "!So they inarched to the toll-bar. When they got I near it, they .saw something that straggered j this heroine. There was actually a man half in am! half out of the wiudow. This j brought the blacksmith's wife to a j standstill, and the timid pair implored her to go back to the village. ' Kay," said she, 'what for? I see but one — and — hark 1 it is my belief the dogis holding of him.' However, she thought j it safest to be on the same side with the j dog, lest the man might turn on her. So j she made her way into the kitchen, J'ol- j lowed by the other two ; and there a sight met their eyes that changed all their feelings, both towards the robber and towards each other. The great mastiff had pinned a man by the tluroal, and was pulling at him, to draw him through the window, with tierce but inullled 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 j starting eyes, the white face of the black- j smith, their courageous friend's villainous j husband. She uttered an appalling scream, i and ilew upon the dog and choked him j with her two hands. He held, and growled i and tore, till he was all but throttled him- ! self ; then lie let go, and the man fell, j But what .struck the ground outside, like a j lump of lead, was, in truth, a lump of clay; '< the man was quite dead, and fearfully torn j about the throat. So did the comedy end i in an appalling and most piteous tragedy ; not that the scoundrel himself deserved any pity, but his poor brave honest wiJ'e, to whom be bad not dared confide the villany he meditated.