Mr. Jocko. A novel

Front matter

MR JOCKO VOL. I. a EDINBURGH COLSTON AND COMPANY PRINTERS A NOVEL. BY J. FOGERTY, V AUTHOR OF " LAUTERDALB," " COUNTESS IRENE," "ROBERT LEEMAN'S DAUGHTERS," ETO. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: WARD _ DOWNEY, 12 YORK STREET, CO VENT GARDEN. 1891. [All rights reserved.] " What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life— to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting ? " — George Eliot. RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO PROFESSOR HUXLEY, IN RECOGNITION OF HIS ABLE AND CONSISTENT EXPOSITION OF THE TRUTH. WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. LAUTERDALE. A Story of Two Generations. CATERINA; or, Colonel Harding's Folly.

COUNTESS IRENE. A Romance of Austrian Life. ROBERT LEEMAN'S DAUGHTERS. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. — The Middleman, ..... 1 II. — Betsy Clinker, ..... 19 III.—" Mr Jocko," . ' . . . .42 IV.— "Sammil," ...... 64 V. — Dixon's Circus, ..... 87 VI. — Madeley Court, ..... 104 VII.— The Missing Link, . . . .126 VIII.— Ruth Weston, . . . .145 IX.— The Devil and His Works, . . .165 X.— The Mantrap, . . . . .187 XL— Paul Ferrier, ..... 214 XII.— The "Good Angel,' . . . .238

Chapter I. The Middleman

"Please the Lord, let us open the ware'us. It's arter eight, and I see a - many folks waitin' to catch the e'rly wurrums." So spake Tobias Miles, widely known in the Black Country as " Toby the Screw," as he approached a broad oaken door in serted in a blank brick wall which formed part of the irregular frontage of one of the outlying streets of the town of Dudley, then chiefly famed for the production of iron nails and some kinds of hardware. Mr Miles was a wholesale dealer in nails, or what was termed a nail-factor or " middleman." In these days he would probably be called a "sweater," but VOL. I. A at the period when this story opens, about thirty years ago, those who dealt with him were content merely to call him a " screw," although he did not deal in screws, which are chiefly made at Birming ham, where his principal place of business was situated.

Tobias had branch establishments or " ware'usses," as he termed them, in several dismal towns and villages of the nail - making districts, at one or other of which he attended on a day in each week to receive and pay for the nails he purchased, and to sell the iron rods required by the grimy nail makers, amongst whom, at the same time, he invari ably distributed religious tracts, of which he always carried a large supply on his journeys. Miles was a tall, lanky man, about fifty years of age, with a pale face, which generally wore an expression of metallic hardness. He had straight thin lips, and a wide mouth, which he had a curious trick of expanding still wider by compressing the lips tightly together when cogitating, whilst he grasped his pro jecting chin with a bony left hand. His eyes were large and rather restless, of a dull grey colour, and were overshadowed with dark, wiry -looking eyebrows.

He wore seedy black cloth clothes on week days, which were greasy and shining in many places from the friction engendered by his occupation and a habit he had of rubbing his trousers above the knees when he sat down to rest. On Sundays he always appeared in garments of glossy black cassimere, of rather clerical cut, and with his neck swathed in the folds of a stiff white neckcloth, tied in front with a small bow. He wore this neckcloth, with gradually darkening tint, right through the week, and was believed never to take it off until Saturday night came, when its original whiteness had totally disappeared. Tobias seemed to think his style of dress gave him an air of peculiar sanctity; he was most anxious to be esteemed a pious man, and, as a matter of fact, he was a religious man, according to his lights, and just such an one as the teaching of a narrow sect in which he had been brought up might be expected to produce.

He was ignorant of most things outside his own business, but prided himself greatly on his knowledge of the Bible, from which he continually made inaccurate quotations, accepting every word in a strictly literal sense as having a distinct bearing on the daily events of life, so that he could always find some satisfactory scriptural sanction for anything he did, coupled with wonderment that the morality of his dealings did not precisely strike other people in the same light as he viewed it himself. Tobias was not a hypocrite in the ordinary sense of the word, although many people called him so, but he had practised self-deception so long that virtually he was now a transparent humbug, incapable of understanding that he was so, which is a form of mental obscurity pervading society to a greater extent than is generally imagined.

" Please the Lord," Tobias repeated as he inserted a key in a large padlock which secured the door of his warehouse. " Drat it ! " he exclaimed imme diately, "some ungodly boys 'as bin stuffin' peas in the key 'ole. Wot's to be done ? " " Please, Muster Miles, 'ere's a 'airpin for to poke out the peases," said a stout young girl, with a very dirty face, who formed one of a group of females of all ages assembled round the door, each one carrying a small sack full of nails. "I seed Tummy Jones a - puttin' of 'em in," she added. " He said as 'ow it 'ud mak' you cuss wusser than a tom-cat in a sack." " Swear not at all," said Tobias solemnly. " Here, girl, you git 'em out if you can with your 'airpin. Tom Jones 'ull come to 'arm sooner or later when his full time is accomplished. Why didn't you tell 'im you'd tell me, and that I'd larrup 'im when next I see 'im ? ' It is as sport to a fool to do mischief, and a l'od is for the back of 'im that stops his neighbours key'ole,' them's the words of King Solomon in his Proverbs.

Your name, I think, is Betsy Clinker ? I'll give you a ha'penny if you git out the peas." Betsy diligently assailed the keyhole of the padlock with her hairpin on promise of this liberal reward. " There's grit in't too," she said presently. " Grit is worth more than a ha'penny to worrit out of a key'ole. Peases you can squash wi' the key, but grit 'as to be 'ooked for." "I'll mak' it a penny, Betsy," said Tobias. "Try what blowin' into the 'ole will do for the grit." Betsy essayed to blow into the keyhole with a force almost equal to a smith's bellows. "It's got in my eye," she exclaimed, lifting a coarse and very dirty apron to her face. " A penny is no good if you git your eye blinded and can't see to count the nails." Tobias vouchsafed no reply to this fresh demand, but again inserted the key in the padlock, and with some trouble succeeded in opening it.

" Here is your penny, Betsy," he said. " I agreed with you for a penny. Go and wash your eye with cold water. There's a pump next door, and they'll charge you nothin' for the use on't if you tell 'em I sent you. I'm afraid you 'elped that rascal Jones to put peas and grit in the lock. You seemed to know all about it. There is a tract for you called ' Evil communications corrupts good manners.' When you've read it — if you can read it at all — then you can lend it to your crony Jones. It may bring 'im to repentance." " Oh, but you be an ode screw wi' yer tracks and texes," said Betsy, shaking her clenched fist at Tobias' back as he entered the warehouse followed by about twenty poorly clad, miserable looking women, carrying hempen nail bags on their shoulders. Just then two men hurriedly entered the premises, and passed inside the counter at which Tobias was standing.

" You are late, you two," he said sharply. " I've 'ad to spend 'arf-an-hour idly waitin' outside the door, and to pay for clearin' of the padlock, w'ich you might 'ave saved me if you'd a-bin in time." " You told us to look round the smithies afore we kem in, to see 'ow they was off for rods, and we've been on the tramp all the mornin' 'untin' of 'em up," said one of the men. " Some of 'em is buyin' of Reynolds," he added, " and they says they saves two shillin' in the 'undredweight, 'sides gettin' better iron." " Tell 'em to tak' their nails to Reynolds to pay for his iron," said Tobias angrily. " Now then, who comes first ? It's you, Mrs Dunkey. Let's see w'ot you've got ; jest empty 'em here in the scale. Brads ! " he cried to his men when the little grimy sack was emptied into the hollow iron scale-bottom, " and lots of 'em crooked and split.

You've been buyin' iron of Reynolds, I s'pose ? Twenty-four pounds, Timmins, and four to deduct for wastrels," he sang out, as he shook up the scale-bottom and closely scanned the contents. " Say twenty pounds net, that's fourteen-and-six, and nine-and-six owin' for iron, leaves five shillings to pay. Are you satis fied or not, Mrs Dunkey ? If not, tak' 'em away and try if Reynolds 'ull buy 'em, or someone else with money to throw away." " Please, Muster Miles, they're all med of your own iron. We've 'ad none o' Reynolds', and they oughter weigh a good quarter of a 'undred. It should really be six-and-six at the least," said the poor woman, gazing anxiously at the heap of nails in the scale-bottom. " Six-and-six, my good woman ! 'Ow ever do you expect me to pay rent and taxes for this 'ere ware'us, and give you more than I can get for 'em by 'olesale — not countin' on bad debts with jerry-builders always failing ?

Say five-and-three, or fetch 'em out o' the scale and bag 'em again yourself." " Five-and-six at least, Mr Miles. Do'ee be a little fair ; and yer ought'nter charge so much for the rods. One bundle was as bad as bad could be, so as all to burn away in the fire," pleaded Mrs Dunkey earnestly. " I'd not tak' 'em at all but that you owes me for the iron," said Tobias in still sharper tones. " Tak' the money, or leave the brads as s'curity until you can pay me what you owes. That's on'y wot's fair 'tween man and man, or woman either." Mrs Dunkey raised her thin hands in deprecation and looked up at the roof, then sighed heavily, and sadly said : " Tak' 'em ; we are a'most clemm'd jest now, 'sides owin' for coals." Tobias made a rapid signal to one of his men to empty the scale-bottom into one of a number of large bins fixed round the walls of the store, then. without wasting more words, he handed over five and-threepence, wrapped in a tract, to Mrs Dunkey, and proceeded to call the next woman on the list, with whom he continued the same style of " hag gling " until the bargain was concluded.

And so he went on for two hours, varying his method now and then by refusing altogether to take some par ticular sack of nails of whose quality he did not approve. Long practice enabled him to judge rapidly at a glance as to the value of the parcels submitted to him by the wives of the nail-makers, whose husbands seldom appeared on the scene. Tobias Miles drove his hard bargains by a kind of cruel instinct, giving the least he possibly could for the manufactured article, and charging the highest market price for the raw material, which the thriftless nailers were satisfied to purchase from him on credit — ultimately to be paid for in nails — and yet he was thoroughly satisfied with himself, and not only had a conscience at ease, but conceived that he was acting as a sort of special Providence to the wretched people who were forced by stern necessity to sell their small wares to him.

Last of all came Betsy Clinker, whose usually warm temper had undergone no cooling down at the neighbouring pump, and whose red and inflamed eye did not appear to have been benefited by the cold water cure recommended by Tobias. She had been obliged, unaided, first to labour hard at the pump handle until the water flowed in a copious stream, and then quickly to dart her head under it in the hope of washing out the grit from her eye ; and in this process she had saturated her clothing, and converted the normal coat of dirt on her face into dark vertical streaks, wliich in no way added to her charms. Cold water was a thing she abhorred, as a rule, and in the shape of a deluge from a pump, in the fashion she had recently encountered it, it was particularly aggravating ; therefore she flung down her sack of nails on the counter in a defiant manner and jerked out the word " Scuppers," the technical name of the contents, as if it were a challenge to Tobias.

This class of nails was sold by number and not by weight. " 'Ow many ? " said Tobias, who was referring at the moment to an account book, and did not look up at the bedraggled Betsy. " Six thous'nd inch and 'arfs. " Dump 'em out," said Tobias curtly. Betsy seized the bottom corners of her sack and vigorously shook out the nails in a conical heap, which Miles bent down to examine. "They're mostly short 'uns," he said. "Lots of 'em 'ull 'ave to go as inch. W'ot for did you mix 'em like that, girl ? You must tak' 'em 'ome again and sort 'em." " You're a bloomin' liar ! " said the irate Betsy. " None of 'em's lesser than inch and quarter, and only a few a' that'n." " Ho ! ho ! Miss Spitfire — I'm a liar, am I ? Here, 'ook it out o' this directly. Bring a scoop, Timmins, and shove 'em all into her sack again, and then bundle her out for a wild cat."

" 'Ere's that track o' your'n," said Betsy when her sack was refilled, as she produced a wet and dirty scrap of paper. " You're an ode 'umbug, and a cantiu' 'ipercrit, you are ; that's w'ot folks sez o' yer. Ode 'Arry 'ull 'ave his claws in yer 'fore long, for cheatin' and lyin', and you'll 'ave red 'ot nails druv in your 'ide, and most of 'em 'ull be scuppers, as yer allus lies about. Yah ! " she concluded defiantly, thrusting out her tongue, and showing her gleaming teeth, as she shouldered her sack of nails. " You'll find summat in your key'ole next time, Muster Toby, that 'ull mak' you swear a good 'un, and more in't times arter times." " You are my witnesses, men," said Tobias solemnly, turning to his two assistants, who were grinning in amusement. " You've witnessed, both on you, that I reviled her not again, though she called me an 'ipercrit.

If you comes across the father o' that young wirago, tell 'im to clip her tongue afore he sends her 'ere again. She oughter get a month on the treadmill for abusin' o' me like o' that, and her 'ull never come to no good — neither in this world nor in the world w'ot is to come. ' Her tongue biteth like a sarpint and stingeth like a nadder.' " Betsy was by this time out of hearing or she probably would have further enlightened Tobias as to her private opinion, and the opinions of the Dudley nailers, regarding him and his dealings. As she strode sturdily away in the direction of her father's smithy she came upon a small group of rough lads engaged in playing a game of "marls," as they termed it, which seemed likely to end in a free fight from the strong language then being loudly interchanged.

Betsy descried Tom Jones vociferating in the midst of the group, with his back to her and straightway clutched him by the collar of his jacket. " 'Ere, j'ou come along wi' me, Tummas," she cried. "I'm got to 'ave a chat wi' yer that's pertickler." "Lemme finish this game, Betsy," he replied, shaking himself loose. "Butty Tubbs 'as bin cheatin', and I've 'arf a mind to lick 'im." Betsy deposited her sack on the grouud, and sat down on it to witness the completion of the game, which she quite understood. " I'll lay a penny on Butty," she said. " Butty " was a nickname attached to the lad Tubbs in reference to the nature of his employment in a neighbouring colliery. Betsy held up the penny she had received from Tobias Miles as evidence that she was the possessor of sufficient capital to warrant her in making the bet.

" Done wi' yer, lass," said the over-confident Jones, at the same time making a wild shot at his oppon ent's marble and landing his own in a bad place, of which fact Tubbs immediately took advantage. " That's game," he cried ; " now, Tummas, you shell out to Betsy." " I 'av'n't got a blessed copper," said Jones, turning out two dilapidated pockets in a torn pair of trousers, as if he was in search of a stray coin. " Then w'ot for did you bet wi' me, you rogue ? " said Betsy, rising from her seat in wrath. " 'Ere gi'e me your cap to 'old till you pays me. You know where to come for't, Tummas." Upon which the im pecunious Jones added insult to injury by placing the tip of his thumb to his nose and spreading his fingers out. This was too much for Betsy. She suddenly smote aside his outspread fingers with her left hand, and dealt him a severe blow, full on the nose, with her clenched right fist, which was as hard as iron, and brought the blood flowing freely from the assaulted feature.

Tom Jones was too much astonished by Betsy's sudden attack to retaliate at once in kind — which we fear he would otherwise have been ungallant enough to do, — he merely stood stock-still, with his snub nose thrust forward, bleeding copiously, and shaking his head from side to side as if to ease the stinging pain, when at this moment Tobias Miles loomed on the scene, as he wended his way to a small inn where he had ordered his dinner. He knew Jones very well by sight, as he had often suffered wrongs traceable to that practical joker, and now he stopped with evident satisfaction to have a good look at him in his damaged condition. " I guv it 'im, Muster Miles, 'cos o' that key'ole o' yourn," said the cunning Betsy, suddenly recollect ing that she might take a mean advantage of the situation.

" Now will yer 'ave the nails if I takes 'em back ? Yer oughter, yer know, seein' as 'ow I've saved yer the trouble of larrupin' of 'im, as yer said yer would." " You called me an ' 'ipercrit ' and a ' liar,' Betsy ; then 'ow can you expect me to buy your short scuppers ? Still, I can forgive you as I 'opes to be forgiven, and I'll consider on't when I've eaten my dinner in thankfulness, because this 'ere Jones has been righteously punished. It has been truly said by the wise king of Israel that ' the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood.' It seems to me, Betsy, that you are not altogether unregenerate, seein' as 'ow you've hastened to mak' some atonement for your wicked words by lickin' of this reprobate as he deserves. You may call at the ware'us in an VOL. I. B hour hence with your nails, and let me look at 'em ao-ain.

But keep watch over that lively tongue o' yourn ; ' the end of it is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword.' " With this amended quotation Tobias stalked ofl", leaving Betsy and the lads to their own devices. And now the indignant Jones, who had recovered from the shock he had sustained, and was wiping his nose on his sleeve, seemed inclined to renew the battle, whereupon his male companions were mag nanimous enough to interfere and take Betsy's side in the quarrel. She had, meanwhile, armed herself with a large stone, and stood watchfully on the defensive, and they thought that, although properly meant for their associate in wickedness, the missile might hit someone else in its flight, and cause further complications ; therefore they hustled Jones into a corner, and kept him there, leaving Betsy free to depart, sturdily carrying her sack on her shoulder, and with it all the honours of war. e¥ri&

Chapter II. Betsy Clinker

'■ These are very rough people you are introducing us to," we can hear some of our readers say. "A young girl who habitually uses strong language, and evidently can use her fists also, cannot become interesting, no matter what you do for her in the subsequent narrative." Well, perhaps not, but that is not the question just now. She is merely introduced as a type of a class of persons with whom Tobias Miles had to deal every day. We can only describe the people we write of as they actually were in the locality at the period of this story, excepting that we are compelled somewhat to modify their speech and dialect, lest it should be incomprehensible, or shock fair readers, who, if they were born and brought up amidst Betsy's surroundings, would probably be very like her. Still, Betsy has her good points.

She is inde pendent in her ways, and can sturdily fight her own battle in that condition of life to which — as the catechism says — it has pleased God to call her. She can exist and thrive under conditions in which my Lady de Montmorency would absolutely perish. If Betsy is angry, and thinks she has a just cause of quarrel, all the world in her vicinity will hear of it speedily, and if she can avenge herself on her enemy with her strong right arm, she does not hesitate to use it. She evidently has her ready wits about her, also, and can cunningly make use of them in emergencies, but when her battle is won, she can easily forget all about it, and bury the tomahawk for the time being. She will then smoke the peace pipe with her discomfited opponent ere his injuries have ceased smarting. There is not much apparent affection in Betsy's nature, because she has had but little experience of kindness at home or abroad during her short life time, but if a small sister of hers is ailing or cross, she will take the child on her lap and rock it to sleep, or merrily hoist it on her shoulder, as she hoists her nail sack, and then prance about with the little girl in the sunshine, whenever the sun can penetrate through the pall of smoke which hangs over her dingy habitation.

Smoke cannot be a very unhealthy thing when you are used to it, as since the time when Betsy had the measles in her infancy she has never had any other serious malady. Toothaches and ear aches, and small matters of that kind, don't count with her as illnesses, and she knows nothing of heartache, though she has often been hungry and wet and cold. She has a waist like that of a small buffalo, and the arm of a young blacksmith. She can scarcely read printed letters, and dislikes reading as she dislikes cold water. She is just a hardy kind of rough animal like an armadillo, whereas that delicate slim-waisted creature Lady de M. has " nerves," and suffers from the " vapours " and a host of fancied ills, and although she will not smite you openly when she conceives she has cause for smiting, you may be sure that if you offend her you will catch it some day unawares, especially if you happen to be of her own sex ; and as to making it up with her again, you will find it as difficult as trying to soothe a fretful porcupine.

Our friend Tobias Miles is not a nice person, we admit. He is certainly too much given to quoting Scripture like the arch - enemy of mankind on special occasions, and he grinds the faces of the poor, but he has heard so much about the wiles of his dark Majesty from the rostrum of a dingy chapel in the days of his youth, that he seems to have taken to Bible quotations as a kind of charm against the evil eye of a horned and cloven footed being whom he believes to be constantly around, although invisible, seeking whom he may devour, especially those who venture to differ from Tobias Miles in matters of business or belief. Tobias is hard in his dealings with the poor nailers, perhaps because the iron has long ago entered into his own soul, and he unjustly screws at least ten per cent more than he ought out of the earnings of men and women whom he considers to be heathens and half savage, because he has been taught that, as one of the prosperous "elect," it is his duty to hand over exactly that amount of his profits to propagate the narrow teaching which has obscured his mind and enslaved him.

But, then, do we not see everywhere men, who are esteemed highly-respectable and conscientious, with precisely similar tendencies ? Are there not well known " screws " in the payment of wages to their employes, or who are " hard as nails " in their money dealings with others, who are most liberal in their public offerings to some form of fanaticism like that to support which Tobias Miles paid his tithes ? Tobias had been moved at one time in his life to commence open-air preaching, on the top of an empty beer cask pitched on a waste piece of ground close to an English church. He was well aware that his loud voice distracted the attention of the con gregation, and was a special aggravation to one of the churchwardens, with whom he had had a difference, and who ultimately succeeded in putting the preacher to silence by hiring a Scotch piper to attend regularly and play upon the bagpipes in front of the cask whenever Tobias ascended it to hold forth.

Tobias consoled himself by calling the piper "a son of Belial," and other equally opprobrious names, which seemed to have the effect of inciting the player to greater efforts in the way of producing discordant music, to the delight of some rough lads, who finally upset the cask whilst wildly dancing round it, and compelled the occupant to beat an ignominious retreat. Driven from the exhibition of his eloquence abroad, Tobias devoted his attention to indoor ex hortations at his chapel, wherein lay brethren were invited to speak on some occasions ; but his attempts to set up a theory that the millenium was close at hand, coupled with his assertion that it had been revealed to him in a dream that he was to convey frightful warnings to such of the brethren as were sceptical on the subject, induced the society to hold a special meeting, and to prohibit him from public exhortation in future.

Tobias was very near retiring in disgust from a community which included such perverse brethren, but just then a domestic affliction befell him in the loss of his wife, and he was publicly reminded that this must be a " chastening " sent to him for attempt ing to sit in judgment on folks who conceived they were as good or better than himself, and who were satisfied the dream was either a direct instigation of Satan, or a delusion connected with indigestion. Tobias was thus for a time obliged to confine his exhortations to the domestic hearth, and to bore the few people of his household who could not use drastic measures to compel him to mitigate the infliction. It was said by persons who professed to be well informed that his deceased wife had suc cumbed to the everlasting flow of his eloquence ; but that statement was probably an exaggeration.

Mil JOCKO. Still, his wife's sister, who was a widow with means of her own, and who came to keep house for him, seems to have heard this rumour, for she had stipu lated that she and her daughter should have appro priated to them a separate sitting-room, into which Tobias was welcome to enter provided he refrained from preaching therein. If this rule were infringed, Mrs Weston was to be free to depart, and as she was willing to contribute to the household expenses, and to act as a mother to Tobias' two sons, it seemed good to him to accept the imposed condition on account of the collateral advantages, although his heart burned within him now and then to throw off the yoke and resume his tiresome homilies. But as time went on he saw clearly day by day that he was most fortunate in having such a woman as his sister-in-law to manage his domestic concerns.