Ashes: a tale of two spheres

Preface

. A WORD BEFORE. Gentle Reader, This is a mythological legend of ancient times. when gods and goddesses, with good and bad genii, prowled over the face of the earth and dictated the destinies of mankind — a fairy story, as it were, written for the benefit of grown-up children, and costumed up to date, so as not to offend the modern proprieties. In ancient times the Phœnicians had a deity who was known as Baal-Moloch, or "The Destroyer." He was the incarnation of evil, whom they, his worshippers, sought to propitiate by the sacrifice of children. At Tyre he was called Melkarth, or " King of the City," a flattering title which ought to have turned his wrath away. He had also two pillars raised to his honour, one made from fine gold and the other from Smaragdus, or emerald. The ordinary symbol by which this regal monster was represented, however, was the Khamman, or upright stake, before which the fires were lit and

PREFACE.

. VI into which the little children were pitched alive to roast; this ceremony they termed "the passing through." When wise King Solomon sent to the city of Tyre for Hiram the builder to come and help him to build his palace, he, the wise one, had already married the Egyptian and had begun to turn towards her gods. Hiram, the Tyrian, added to the House of Lebanon a porch supported by two pillars made from fine gold and emerald. The name of the right pillar was Jachin, and the left one he called Boaz, so that, if ever his god Baal-Moloch went near that way, he might be satisfied and stay outside. The porch be longed to him ; the palace to the King and his friends. For Hiram was filled with wisdom, cunning, and understanding. Baal-Moloch, once created, lived on, although the city of Tyre was destroyed.

No god, or man, or quality, or vapour ever dies completely or passes altogether away, once they have had existence. Ah me ! how many fathers and mothers have wept tears of blood in Tyre, and since those days, for the little innocents whom they had sacrificed to this upright stake — this evil god, without face or form, who stood still to watch the burning while over all moved the spirit of the stake, sucking in as food the dying shrieks of infantine agony, blent with the gasping from breaking hearts : For this evil soul had been created from the pangs of those countless children of Tyre, and the pathetic abnegation of the miserable parents. So in this present legend of "Ashes" I have resummoned the spirit of Baal-Moloch, which still moved and battened upon sorrow and guilt. I had thought when I called upon him

PREFACE.

. VII that he would have appeared before me as a gigantic monster, black and terrible with smoke of sacrifice ; but, to my surprise, he came in nineteenth-century costume, puny and insignificant as a bottle imp, so paltry that I might have passed him over as worthless, but for a test sign whereby I knew him to be the demon in disguise, and that he was active as of yore, only now impish, malignant, and pitiless. I followed him through the mazes of an imaginary but every day life ; he had outlived the classic fashion of Tyre, but still held to his ancient appetites, the lives of children. I traced him through the city of Metaltown, into the country, over the vast continent of Australia ; for where he was not himself, his astral body wandered, leaving behind him a track covered with dead hopes and ashes ; and then, when 1 had studied him enough, I sat down and wrote out his adventures and those of his victims.

Metaltown is like " Man soul," a state rather than a place, where qualities good and evil are represented as men and women. It might be located in America or Russia, whichever pleases the reader most. Australia and its descriptions, of course, are real and geographically correct, but the other portions are where you please to place them. For it is only in the regions of romance (to quote the author of " Mr. Meason's Will ") that such adventures happen as take place in the lives of Dirk Davelock and his unlucky family. In real everyday life there are no such basenesses practised amongst men of the world, and no such extremes meet. People, now-a-days, do not suffer as the " Davelocks " are supposed to suffer ; and no such windfalls occur at the exact moment as are here depicted. Still, granting all these poetic

PREFACE.

. licenses, I trust that you will be able to follow the adventures of luckless Dirk, the paltry knaveries of the imaginary Mr. Moloch, and the eccentricities of that rugged angel the ex-tramp Jack Ridgeway, with interest to the last chapter ; and so pay the highest compliment which you possibly can confer upon THE AUTHOR. HOGARTH CLUB, 36 DOVER STREET, PICCADILLY, W., LONDON, 189O CONTENTS. PREFA CE. A WORD BEFORE V BOOK FIRST. FOG. CHAP. PAGE. I. A VAMPIRE FRIEND - I II. A YEAR IN METALTOWN - II III. THE HOUSE IN METALTOWN ----- 20 IV. MR. MOLOCH'S SANCTUM 35 V. A FRIEND IN NEED 41 VI. " ABOUT AS MUCH AS MAY MAKE A SAILOR'S SHIRT FROM" 48 VII. PLANNING OUT 56 VIII. IS BLOOD THICKER THAN WATER?- ... 6l IX. IN THE PRESENCE 68 X. FAREWELL 72 BOOK SECOND. SUNSHINE AND SHADOW, I. A PLEASANT COMPANION 78 II.

LETTERS FROM AUSTRALIA X CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE III. EXULTATION 93 IV. BELL'S DOG " TWEED " 97 V. DEPRESSION - I°7 VI. LITTLE BELL - I 19 VII. IN THE NEVER, NEVER LAND 127 VIII. MR. MOLOCH IS, ON THE WHOLE, FAIRLY WELL SATISFIED WITH THE PROGRESS OF EVENTS - 133 IX. THROUGH THE DESERT Ij6 3' X. "HER BOSOM'S LORD SAT LIGHTLY ON ITS THRONE" 1 47 XI. AFTER THE STORM I58 XII. "AND THEY PASSED THEIR CHILDREN THROUGH THE FIRE" 166 XIII. AN AUSTRALIAN FLOOD 173 XIV. WAITING AND WEEPING - I S I XV. A RAFT JOURNEY AND AFTERWARDS - - - 1 86 XVI. MIGHTY MOLOCH - 1 93 XVII. FROM FLOOD AND PLAIN I98 XVIII. A DRAMATIC APPEARANCE 207 BOOK THIRD. AUGHT. I. NEWS ONCE MORE - - - - 212 II. LANDED - - - - 217 III. THE HAPPY SIDE OF METALTOWN 227 IV. A RUDE AWAKENING AND A BUSINESS CONVERSA- TION 234 V. FIGHTING THE WIND 246 VI.

OUT OF DOUBTING CASTLE 254 VII. PEARSTONE IN THE MUD 259 VIII. TRYING TO CONQUER FATE 271 IX. GAINING EXPERIENCE CONTENTS. XI CHAP. PAGE. X. COUNTRY LIFE 284 XI. NURSES AND DOCTORS 295 XII. NEIGHBOURS 300 XIII. VILLAGE OPINIONS 310 XIV. KATIE 322 XV. NEAR THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 331 XVI. A BITTER CHRISTMASTIDE 336 BOOK FOURTH. MORNING. I. THE NEW YEAR 348 II. GOODBYE TO PEARSTONE 360 III. A PLEASANT WORLD ...... 370 IV. FASHIONABLE FADS 377 V. AN APPROACHING MARRIAGE ANNOUNCED - - 385 VI. MESSRS. GRABBLESON AND CO. ONCE MORE - - 389 VII. RIDGEWAY TAKES HIS LEAVE 394 THE LAST. MOLOCH DOWN 4or ASHES A TALE OF TWO SPHERES, BOOK FIRST. FOG.

Chapter I

A VAMPIRE FRIEND. " Metaltown. " Dear Sir, — " Your proposal concerning this work has been received and is now under consideration. I may tell you that the same idea had already been contemplated by the firm some time ago, but at that period had to be laid aside. If you can give us a definite and practical plan how it should be gone about, please call upon me at your earliest convenience. " Yours faithfully, " Moloch, Art Editor, " Grabbleson & Co. " At last I've got a chance," cried Dirk Davelock as he held the letter for his wife to read. "Just in the nick A ASHES. of time, Nell. I shall once more see Australia and the warm sunshine, once again get my blood heated, and feel while I work that there is some return for all the hard effort, something for you and the children." " And we will be left alone.

Ah, Dirk, is there no other way to keep us excepting by leaving us and risking your life ? " " Nonsense, dear, my life will be all right, and what other way have we left that does not lead to starvation ? Ask our old friend, Mr. Melgarf, that's his knock, punctual as usual in his visits and as comforting as the three friends of Job condensed into one. Let him in, Nell, for I suppose I am too sanguine to-night, and he will correct all that for me." Mrs. Davelock went out to the door and admitted their weekly visitor, Mr. Melgarf. " Well, and how are things going along since I saw you both last ? " asked the visitor, after he had taken from his overcoat his pipe and tobacco pouch, fixing a pair of cold, stone-coloured eyes upon the husband and wife. " I have had a letter from Messrs. Grabbleson and Company respecting the foreign tour I told you about last week."

" Favourable 1 hope for your own sake, Dirk, although, with the really first-class talent going idle about this wonderful city, and the number of clever applicants which there are sure to be — " " It is my own project, Mr. Melgarf." " Yes ! yes, of course, of course,— but— however, let me see what they say, and I'll be better able to judge of your having the ghost of a chance." Dirk groaned in his inmost spirit. Already the usual cold douche had begun to play down his shivering back. He was an old man, this weekly comforter, how old it would be difficult to guess ; a spare, thin figure, with a shrivelled, wrinkled face, hard in expression, whiskers and hair grizzly and harsh, and eyebrows over-pent and shaggy. There was about him the look of great age, a cold and unsympathetic age, and his eyes were of that colourless, yet penetrating light-grey into which no one could see beneath the surface, a grey old man with a bleak November air about him which was depressing at the onset, and which gathered in gloom like a London fog, the longer one stayed in his company, until the spirits drooped and became languid under the compromising and deadening influence.

He was always punctual in his times of call, to the day and hour which he had himself appointed, and waited the number of hours which he had fixed to wait. His time was in this manner planned out day after day without variation, either to himself or the people he chilled with his dreary presence. He was never too ill to come to his friends ; in fact he had never been confined to his bed in his life, and no inconvenience which he may have caused ever made him shorten his visits by as much as a quarter of an hour. There was a living and youthful vitality about him also which seemed to gain in power, as the energy and hope left those who entertained him, as if he had some occult gift of appropriating and using the vitality which they were losing. His inclinations led him to choose young people as companions, and as they grew wearied and jaded, he became fresher and more vivacious in his manner, so that Dirk and his wife noticed that while he came in to their company grey and bloodless, he departed with ASHES. 4 active pace and a flush upon his cheeks, although never with a warmer light in those wall-like eyes.

He indulged in the habits and tastes of youngsters, went to theatres and music-halls, enjoyed the gas-lit streets of a night, took his drink at bars as they took theirs, and could smoke with the most inveterate. Pos sessed of an independent fortune, he led the ordinary life of a young man about town, indefatigable, with a face which seemed to have long passed over the limits of man, upon which Death may have looked and gone by, seeing stamped there a special permit, and reserva tion for some other fate than the fate of mankind. Dirk and his wife both noticed that the day after he had been there had to be a day of languor and idleness with them, like the day after a debauch or a late party. To write a letter even seemed too great an effort ; while it took them generally about thirty-six hours to recover tone.

The hours he spent with them were spent in smoking and uttering discouraging remarks on his part, and a painful amount of talking on theirs ; perhaps it was this which wore them out so much. He sat down to listen, filling and emptying his pipe without intermission, and passively forcing them to unbosom themselves of all their projects, hopes and fears, which seemed to be poured out, as the sea-waves pour themselves upon a rocky coast. He suggested nothing, and they never felt the better of these unwilling confidences. Some imaginative or superstitious people believe in good and bad luck ; Dirk was almost forced into cred ence of this superstition, in spite of his ordinary o-0od sense and constant struggles against what he could not but regard as a folly, by the after effects of these visits.

After a visit from Mr. Melgarf, the projects which he had almost regarded as settled in a satisfactory manner fell through, and ended in disappointment ; indeed, so often had this result come to pass, that he would forego an engagement, or put off an application, if met by his friend, or else reckon for certain upon a direct " No," so that several times when he had a business engagement for the next day he would putoutthelights,and gotobed,where they could listen to the old man knocking at the front door. So far had this superstitious horror taken possession of them, that the sight of his card inserted in the letter box when he was not admitted was enough to give them a fit of the blues. Dirk would not touch it on these occasions, but would, with a hasty letter of apology for his rudeness, plead an unavoidable business engagement, and then look forward to the next week's inflic tion, praying that something might be settled definitely before the day came round.

It was a weekly nightmare which they could not get rid of; for no shut door offended him. He appeared in the name of friendship, and they had to endure it as best they could : one of the many unavoidable obligations of civili-ation. " Why did I let him in ? " thought poor Dirk, as he lit his pipe and watched the old man adjust his spectacles and prepare to peruse the letter. The fatal gas had done it, for they had expected this letter for the past three days; so much depended upon it in their present straitened circumstances that they had waited up for the postman, and so been caught. " Well, what do you think of it ? " asked Dirk, while his wife sat silent at the other side of the table with closely-clasped hands, as the old man silently folded it up, and, taking off his spectacles, slowly began to fill his pipe.

" It would not be a bad thing for you, if it comes to anything — and you could do it — but as I said — " ASHES, " Oh, I can do it, never sear. I know the country as well as you do Prig Street." " Yes, I daresay that's all very fine ; but there are so many men of first-class ability — oh, wonderfully clever fellows, who are starving in this wonderful city of bricks, and who will all be eager to do it also — well-known and tried men." " But this firm knows my work also ; they have already approved of it." " Yes, yes, perhaps " — a long pause, filled out with heavy puffs of smoke — "however, I have not come to discourage you ; it may be all right in the end ; let us hope so, for your sake." " Yes, I want both hope and encouragement badly," responded Dirk in a bitter tone. " Don't you think it will be very hard if Dirk has to leave us, Mr. Melgarf?" said Mrs. Davelock, with a miserable look in her rich brown eyes.

" Yes, it will be hard." " And wicked for husband and wife to have to part?" " It is a bitter world, Mrs. Davelock, for the poor. I don't know anything worse than to have no money, or no prospects, and there is no harder place to live in than Metaltown for the man of mediocre talents ; a wonderful place, though, for the few who succeed — that is, for the really talented." " Yes, I suppose so," said Dirk. " Oh, a wonderful city, where one may live a life-time and not know one quarter of it, for the miles and miles of piled-up bricks are amazing." " So are the successful men." " They are. You know Robert Tel more, quite a >oung man, and such a clever dog, he sold a picture the other day for five hundred pounds, about the size of that thing over there— five hundred pounds ! " " He had plenty of influential friends, I suppose?"

" Oh, hosts, hosts, but he also has a private income. Ah, he is a marvellously clever fellow." " Just so. Do you like his pictures? " Well, no, I can't say that I do like them." " Not much in colour or drawing, eh ? " " He is very faulty in both, I believe." " And slovenly in his way of working ? " " He is ; in fact, I don't quite see the meaning of some of his pictures ; but then, they sell, you know, and he is talked about, and so as he is successful, he must be talented. What is it you have got over there ? " Dirk rose and brought the picture to the light, and held it up before his friend, who did not trouble to put on the glasses to examine it. " How do you like it ?" asked Dirk, who waited patiently for a long time, while the old man turned his grey eyes upon the canvas, and smoked solemnly, without making a remark.

" A sea-scape, I notice.'' " Yes, some fishing boats in a calm." " Oh ! " Dirk replaced the picture with its face to the wall, and resumed his pipe. " Nell, will you sing us something? " " Yes, do," said Mr. Melgarf, in an indifferent tone, and poor Nell, with a choking lump at her throat, opened the piano and began to play and sing, the two men sitting opposite one another, and smoking hard all the while. She played, and turned the leaves over for herself; for her husband representing the great majority of unsuc cessful, therefore mediocre, men, Mr. Melgarf felt there ASHES. was no necessity to exert himself for her, and Dirk was, at the moment, too much occupied in reflecting upon his own incapacity, to notice what she was doing. " Thanks," absently remarked the ancient guest when she had finished, emptying his pipe on to the ash tray laid there for the purpose, and proceeding to fill up once more ; while the singer, seeing as little enthusiasm over her song as there had been over her husband's picture, left the piano, and once more took her place at the table.

" I was at a West- End concert the other night, got up in aid of the ' Convalescent Home,' and heard that song rendered really beautifully." " One of the great singers, I suppose ? " asked Mrs. Davelock, calmly. "No, she was the wife of one of our greatest builders, a millionaire, a wonderfully successful man. I don't think I ever saw such a handsome set of diamonds in my life as the set she wore on that occasion." Mrs. Davelock, who had hitherto rather fancied that she possessed the vocal gift, having a rich, full soprano voice, carefully trained by the best masters, felt now that both herself and the critics who had praised her before were at fault and gross flatterers when she heard about the lady with the diamonds, so that she felt humbled and properly wretched according as their unprosperous position deserved, that she had ventured to bore this kind friend with her common-place style.

Silence fell over the group, while the room gradually grew dense with smoke, as the comforter began to lose his ghastly pallor and the flush came into his face, while the host and hostess became wan and wearied as the timepiece on the mantel ticked out the lagging mo ments. A white tom-cat sprang on to the table at this pause in the conversation, and, arching his back, purred as he rubbed his soft sides against the dark, downcast cheeks of his mistress. The children were all in bed and sleeping, but at this moment the wail of a waking baby was heard upstairs. "There is tlie baby," cried out Mrs. Davelock, with a look of relief in her eyes. " I hope you will excuse me leaving you, Mr. Melgarf." " Certainly, I must be going soon myself." He glanced at his watch. " Half-past eleven ; I can wait another ten minutes."

"Good-night, then, if I do not comedown before you go." " Good-night." She held out her hand, which he took without either rising or taking his pipe from his mouth, after which she went out, leaving them together, the old man becoming rejuvenated and the young man looking older by years than before they had met that night. The ten minutes passed slowly as the two men puffed at their pipes, with a passing word now and then. " Snodjy," the white cat, now that his mistress had gone, devoted himself to his master, who, as he stroked him down, seemed to get a little comfort from the contact of flesh and fur. It looked at the visitor with its yellow eyes, but did not offer to go near him, and when, at last, the ten minutes had expired, and he rose to put on his coat, the cat followed them both out to the lobby, still rubbing against his master's legs and purring loudly.

" I'll be back next week to hear how you get on with Mr. Moloch." " Thank you, Mr. Melgarf." " Only don't build upon it, you know ; Metaltown is so full of disappointments." ASHES " No, I'll try not to build upon it." A beautiful starry night it was into which the old man briskly walked with a jaunty step, his stick sounding on the pavement as if three heels were ringing along, and the young man watched him as he receded, buttoning up his overcoat. " Come in, puss," to the cat as he stood with the door in his hand ; but puss had some work to do before he entered. Slowly he smelt the ground where the sturdy feet of the departed visitor had planted their impress, going over them to the gate and trailing his bushy tail along them as if to wipe out something which he knew in his cat wisdom to be evil, then he returned and went through some cat spell against the door-posts, where the overcoat had touched ; a long operation it was, during which his master looked with interest while he waited on it to be finished.

" That's right, ' Snodjy,' wipe out the bad luck if you can." As Dirk spoke, ' Snodjy ' sprang from the doorway into his arms, and held on to his breast all the while he was shutting up the door, purring loudly and contentedly as if he felt quite satisfied with his labours for the night.

Chapter II

A YEAR IN METALTOWN. DlRK DAVELOCK, with his wife and family of five children, dog, cat, and starling, had experienced one year of Metaltown life. Dirk had come up to Metaltown filled with confidence, as so many have come before him, thinking that he was not unknown or unappreciated, seeing that his provincial work both with brush and pen had been favourably noticed by the acknowledged authorities of art and literature, and that he had but to proffer his work in this wider field to find ready purchasers. He brought with him as vouchers, enough notices and reviews from town and country newspapers and magazines, besides private opinions from the critical magnates, to have made a good-sized volume in themselves, all favourable enough to have been reprinted in full without the asterisks of omitted sentences so often seen in re printed reviews.

In fact, he felt, as he landed at the Central Station, as if he had already won fame and only came here to gain the reward — fortune. One Metaltown editor had written to him often, strongly advising him to come up to where his talents would find proper recognition and remuneration. This editor had published several of his articles in his magazines, and had posted him many eulogies from other ASHES. papers upon these articles as they appeared, regretting only that while feeling grateful for them, it was out of his power to send him any pecuniary return, but when he came up to the " Metropolis," that he need have no fear ; he himself had landed with ten pounds only, and he would introduce him where he could. He therefore felt no fears about the future, for a friend had advanced him one hundred pounds to start him on his new career, ten times more than his editorial friend had begun with, and he had a just confidence in his double gift of painting and writing.

He had left his family behind until he could get a house for them, so after a hasty breakfast at a coffee house near, he began his search. First he went to the office of a young friend and admirer of his and made an appointment for the after noon, as the friend knew and suggested a good locality to stay in and kindly offered his services to help house hunting. Dirk mostly liked doing things by himself, but the turmoil and din of the great city had got into his brains on this first day, so that he felt helpless, dazed and incapable of thinking, and therefore gratefully accepted his young countryman's offer. Having an hour or two of waiting, he thought that he would best spend it by calling upon his editorial friend, who had an establishment in the west ; so partly to make time pass, and partly through economy, he resolved to walk the distance.

Along the business portions of the city, through the Square dedicated to glory, along the art centres he passed westward, where, finding it farther off than he had supposed, and seeing a local 'bus pause near him while the conductor held up his hand, he advanced quickly to step upon it. " Quick, sir ! wot are you a-standing there for ? " cried out the conductor roughly, for Dirk had stopped half way, all of a sudden, and was looking behind him with his hand pressing the calf of his left leg as if in great pain. " I am trying to see who threw the stone at me." " No one, sir, come on ! " and Dirk hobbled, and with great difficulty drew himself up to a seat. The pain grew excessive as they went along, with a sensation as if his leg was cut and bleeding. " I am sure some one threw a lump of sharp stone or coal and hit me as I was crossing the street," he said as he sat holding the part.

" No, sir, for I was looking all the time, but if it is bad, I'll stop at the first chemist's shop and you can find out what is the matter." " I wish you would," groaned Dirk, who could hardly bear the pain. In a few moments they stopped, and Dirk, trying to get out, found that he could not put his injured leg to the ground, but had to hop on the other one into the druggist's shop. The chemist looked for a moment very ponderous and solemn as Dirk rolled up his trousers, surprised himself to find no trace of a blow. " Ah ! very serious case, sir ; shouldn't wonder if you lost that limb ; it is an internal injury ; you will have to go to the hospital." A chill of horror struck Dirk as he heard this verdict, alone in Metaltown, and such a catastrophe in store ; he grew blind for a moment, while the place swam round and a cold sickness settled upon his heart, as all the dire consequences flashed before him.

" Here, sir, take this and let me send for a cab." ASHES, Dirk drank off the sal-volatile, while the boy brought a cab to the door of the shop. " How much ? " gasped Dirk, fumbling in his pocket. " Seven-and-sixpence, sir," responded the chemist. Dirk paid him with half-a-sovereign and received the change. ' " Where to ? " asked the cabman. He remembered that his afternoon appointment was for the King's Viaduct, so he directed him to drive there and wait ; no use bothering the editor just now, and as it was now past hospital hours, and the chemist did not volunteer any information as to how he was to proceed to get in, with a provincial shyness he did not think of asking him any more questions in case he might have to change another gold piece of his borrowed money, so he thought it best to go and get his country man's advice.