FIFTY POUNDS REWARD.

Te Aroha News, Volume 1, Issue 47, 26 April 1884, Page 4

FIFTY POUNDS REWARD.

It was the Christmas week, and " things " had come to the worst. When a young married clerk suddenly loses his situation in a provincial bank where employers are reducing their hands, it does not follow that work can be had for the asking in London ; and so Mr Tom Craven found himself still seeking employment many months after his savings had dwindled down to a few pounds. The last resource of the young couple was the sale of every available article of value they possessed, and when my story opens young Mrs Craven was on the point of starling to sell the last remaining valuable — namely, her husband's boots. " The children must live," said the young man, looking at two tiny figures in the bed, " and all my other clothes are done for, so the boots are no use to me ; the only trouble is that you should have to take them, Clara." "But, Tom, you can't go without boots !" " I've got slippers," replied Tom ; " make haste, dear— no one will see you in the dark." Resolved to keep up, Clara stooped for the boots. " Something must turn up soon — perhaps you'll hear from Brown & Co. to-morrow," she said. " Very likely," responded Tom, in a desponding tone. Brown & Co. were his late employers, and he had written to thorn asking if they could possibly take him back —with faint hopes of success. Quickly the boots were put into an old leather bag, and Mrs Craven dressed herself in a shabby waterproof and bonnet, and covered her face with a thick veil. Then she crept down the creaky old stairs and out into the narrow street with a heavy heart, and eyes into which the tears would come It was one of those old Westminster streets which are so close to the dwellings of the great, and yet dirty and disreputable themselves. The respectable persons dwelling there had all been reduced to the depths of poverty. The other inhabitants were chiefly remarkable for their varied vices. Gusts of wind made the street lamps flicker and cast strange shadows as Clara Craven sped on towards the shop where "left-off" clothing was purchased. She paused a few doors off to let some persons go on their way, for she was sorely ashamed of her errand ; and as she stood thus her eyes^ fell on a placard that was fixed under the light of a lamp on the wall of a police station. "£SO reward." " £50 !— how nice to get it ?" thought Mrs Craven ; and then she took another look to see if the coast was clear for the business she had in hand. Two more people were coming. Back went her eyes to the placard, and she read that this reward waß offered to any person who would give such information as would lead to the conviction of the perpetrator of a daring jewel robbery. " Wish I could catch the thief j" said Clara to herself, half laughing, half sadly ; and when she looked again towards the wardrobe shop she saw she might venture in. After hearing her husband's boots depreciated in every possible manner, she timidly accepted the pitiful price offered, and then stole back into the street. There she purchased a few of the absolute necessaries of life, and ordered some coals ; which a greengrocer's boy wheeled in a barrow behind her until they reached the door of the lodging-house. " Would you mind carrying them up to my room in two basketsful, if I give you twopence ?" asked Clara gently. The boy nodded by way of answer, and tbe young wife opened the door with her

latch-key, and ran up for an old basket. While she was getting this out of her room a man had swiftly eiitered the house and passed up the stairs. The coal-boy never noticed him, for his back was turned to the door, and he was eagerly watching the signs of an approaching hght between two tomcats on an opposite door-step. Tho staircase was very dark, so when Clara came down with the basket the man had squeezed himself into a corner unobserved ; and when she went on her way the stranger passed on to the top of the house, and entered the room behind that occupied by the Cravens. An hour later a snug slow of fir« warmed the young couple and £lieir children ; and the latter having been satisfied with a meal, went sound asleep. Tom watched his wife's busy fingers mending shabby clothes for awhile ; and then he too went to bed, sharing her fervent hope that "something good would turn up to-morrow." And so it came about thab, when all were fast asleep, Clara sat on by the fire that still burned cheorily ; and after eleven strokes had fallon slowly from tho big clock, and the restless roar of traffic was somewhat less in the ever busy streets, her hands lay idle in her lap, and she blew out the candlo to save its light for another time, and turned such a sad younerface, such troubled blue ©yes upon the flickering fire, that it seemed hard, hard so young a life should bo so old in sorrow. A sound of voices in the next room roused her. There was a door of communication between the two rooms, which was of course locked, but which made soun Is easily hoard. Clara knew that their neighbour was an elderly woman ; she had met her on the stairs sometimes, and she wondered who her visitor could be at such an hour. Then the sound of frightened sobbing and expostulation made her listen attentively, for she feared her neighbour was in ti-ouble, and determined to rouse her husband, if necessary. "Not yet, Joe! Oh, don't say you must go yet !" "Mother, I've stayed too long already; they'll be all after me sharp, now the reward's out ; think of £50, mother ; the men who tempted me, and got the jewels, would round on me now and get the reward." This was it, then • But one slight wooden door stood between Clara and the thief she had said she wished she conld find ! only to step round tho corner. There, she knew, was the police station, and for the news she brought them she would got £50 ! She clasped her hands tight, and sat perfectly still, all the while knowing that every second lessened her chance of securing this living piece oi property valued at £50. In her present straits, £50 seemed a fortune to her. No one who has not gone through a similar experience can ever know what that temotatiou was to Mrs Craven. As she sat, her strained ears caughtthe mother's voiceagain. " I'll not keep you, though my heart is breaking ; my bonny boy come to this \ Oh, Cod, most merciful, save him from a felon's doom !" " Mother, pray for me ; if I escape, I vow to lead an honest life and make a home for you ; it has not been my fault ; pray God te forgive and help me. " Clara's grasp of her hands relaxed. Then with white face and sorrowful eyes she stood up and looked at her two tiny sleeping boys. Then on her knees she fell, and stayed in earnest prayer until she hoard the stealthy footsteps creep down the stairs, and the front door closed, and then she stole to the window of her darkened room, and looking out into the lamp-lit street, watched a quick walking figure in an old country woman's cloak with a deep cape and a large poke bonnet, such as her old neighbour always wore, and she knew that the young- man had escaped in his mother's clothes. One of the most old fashioned houses in an old country town was Miss Greybrook's. A steep flight of immaculately clean steps led from the pavement of the High -street to her hall door with its shining brass kntckei and bell handle. On each side of this hall door was a large bow window, just high enough to make it inconvenient for any one to offer to shake hands with Miss Greybrook when they were in the street and she was tending her flowers in the window. At the back of the broad hall that went straight across the house there were steps leading down into large, well kept-gardens, and these were enclosed by a substantial brick wall that effectually protected the fruit and flowers from pilfering fingers. Inside the house everything was expressive of wealth and solid comfort. Miss Greybrook herself was regarded by the townsfolk as peculiar, but her pecularity being accmopanied by riches she was never made to feel it unpleasantly. In person she was tall and angular, and a pair of piercing black eyes shone out in vivid contrast to her grey hair gave her a remarkable appearance. Her caps were always made high, and her dresses shorter than anybody else's, and she made no change for fashion or favour. Now this old lady was Mr Tom Craven's godmother. And on the very cold, dull winter morning, of which I have now to speak, she had ri3en from her high-backed chair in front of the bright steel fender at the sound of ,the postman's knock, and advanced to meet the elderly servant who brought in the letters on a silver salver. "None from him," said the old lady, when she was alone again, turning over four letters eagerly in search of a handwriting that was not there; "poor and proud, like his father ! Well, I've seen much folly in my time, but if he refuses my offer, I question if there is a companion idiot for such a man. It was three weeks since she had written to Tom Cravern, addressing her letter to the office of Brown and Co., by whom she thought he was still employed, and offering to overlook the hideous mistake he had made in marrying a penniless orphan girl, and to devote a substantial sum to further his prospects in life. On the very morning that she was bewailing openly her godson's pride, and secretly her own, Tom received a reply to the letter he had sent to Brown and Co., politely regretting that they could do nothing further to help him, and enclosing Miss Greybrook's letter, which had been lying nearly three weeks at their office. Clara, with the sadness of the last night's struggle still upon her, ran down the rickety stairs at the sound of the postman's knock, and received the letter for her husband. When she arrived, breathless, at the top floor again, she watched his face as he opened it. The few polite lines from the business men fell unread to the ground, while the envelope they enclosed was torn eagerly open. Clara looked over his shoulder and read too, and then with one glance at the renewed light and vigour in his worn, anxious face, she relinquished her role of bravery, and cried out the misery of months in his arms. Bobby walked and Bertie crawled to the scene of action, and seeing their mother in tears, lent a shrill aid to the chorus. Upon which they were kissed, blessed, and cried over till they thought the world (represented to them by their father and mother) had gone mad. When partial calmness was restored, Tom spoke joyously — "Now wife, take a shilling of your small store, and send a telegram for me to the dear old girl ! " " Tom ! " cried his wife, laughing through her tears, " how disrespectf ul ! "

But the telegram was sent, and brought in solemn woniernment to Miss Greybrook's doors before ten o'clock by the postmaster himself. The yellow envelope shook in the old servant's hand, and was taken from her to tremble still more in that of Miss Greybrook. When onco she lad the open pink paper in front of her eyes, and devoured the information that her godson was in London, and desirous of seeing her immediately, she gave orders for a fly to be in readiness to catch the next up train, and that her fur travelling cloak and boots should be put to the fire immediately. In the anxiety that all the domestics felt to take a share in the general excitement, Mips Greybrook's cloak threatened to bo torn in pieces, and when wanted, one fur boot was found warming in front of the kitchen fire, the other reposing on the sheepskin rug beside the drawingvoom steel fender. However, vouchsafing never, a word of explanation, but happily for the sanity of those she left behind dropping the telegram in the hall as she walked out to tho fly, Miss Grey brook started alone on her travels. Tho dull, foggy shades of a London winter evening had gathered, and two big and two little faces were pressed tight against the grimy top windows of a house in West-minster-street, as a cab drove up. "Go and bring her upstairs, Clara," said Tom ; " I can't go in my slippers." " Yes — but I'm so afraid of her !" All fears were obliged to disappear, however, for the object of them had not "waited to be brought up. She had intimidated the landlady by the commanding voice in which she had desired to be shown to the apartments of Mr and Mrs Thomas, Greybrook Craven ; and that fat and lazy person had preceded the stange lady rapidly up so many flights, that on reaching the top landing Miss Greybrook stood silent and stately, for she could not speak. She waved the landlady clown again, just as the latter wanted to look in and see what would happen ncct. Then Tom advanced, and his godmother kisssed him first, then his wife. Then, observing Bobby and Bertie, v^he grimly smiled, and remarked aloud, but to herself, evidently— " Children, of course ! being as poor as church mice." Looking round the wretched room, and shaking the three chairs, she chose the least ricketty, and sat down. " Pack up — haven't gjot much to pack that I can see ; you must all come back with me to-night." Tom Craven and his wife exchanged glances, and at last Tom deferentially yen tured to speak—" You see, dear godmother, we — W e need a few things to make us presentable at your house." "Eh • what? My house is my own. Come as you arc." The worst must be said then? "But— please excuse such a state of matter's, but I've got no boots !" Miss Greybrook gasped, and stared from one to tho other. "Boots! my godson without boots? Here, Clara — that's your name, I believe — run out, child, and buy all you need for everybody ; and let us get out of this place ; 1 can't breathe." Away ran poor Clara, holding the fat purse Miss Greybrook pushed into her hand, and all unconscious what &he carried in it. It felt so full, however, that she took a cab and drove first to a boot shop, where she purchased for her husband, her children, and herself. Then came a big overcoat for Tom, and wraps for the little ones — and she told the cabman to drive home fast. She had paid for her purchases with gold, and bank notes crackled as she closed the purse. Mi^s Gi'eybrook carried out her intention, and bustled them all off to the station. The children slept all the way in the comfortable first-class carriage. It was eleven o'clock when they drove up to the door of the old lady's house, and she grimly counted five heads in nightcaps thrust out into the night air from her neighbour's window amongst them the rector's, with a flannel rolled round as extra protection. Inside the house all was done in the right way as soon as the word was given. " My godson, his wife, and children, have come to live with me. Light large fires in the two best rooms, and get supper." Three years had passed. Tom was flourishing in a large firm in a seaport town where his godmother's money had bought him a partnership. It was only a short day's journey to his work, and he and his family were still happy inmates of Miss Greybrook's house. One day Clara accompanied her husband to this seaport town, and before taking leave of him at his office door, and proceeding to make the purchase which was her ostensible reason for bringing her bonnie face and fresh winter costume through the grimy streets, she waited while he went in for a book he wanted to change. While she was standing outside great crowds of poor, respectable people came in and passed on to a large room beyond. She was told they were emigrants just about to start for New Zeatand. She watched their faces with kindly interest as young and old passed by, and presently a woman who seemed old to bo thinking of such a journey dropped her purse in front of Clara, who stooped to pick it up. In returning it she saw what made her stop the woman and eagerly question her. Yes, it was her fellow lodger in the old Westminster street, and with a face of quiet happiness she told the lady that a young son who had gone to New Zealand three years before had sent her money to join him. "He's my only one, ma'am, and was a trouble to me once, but, praise God, he's doing well now." Then Clara in gentle tones wished her well, and when her husband came back to her she reminded him of the events of that miserable night which seemed so very far off from the prosperous to-day, and in a hushed and reverent tone she said, " Thank God, Tom, we never had that 1 £50 reward !' "