Spring Heeled Jack | Page 9

as to his life in India, and the relations that existed between his father and his mother. One thing is certain, however, and that is he will appear here again."
"Well, and if he does!" asked the angry baronet.
"Well, and if he does he will find a firm friend in Sam Reece," answered the lawyer. "I shall retain these papers--not by virtue of any legal right that I can claim to possess. So, if you want them, you have only to apply to the courts of law to recover possession of them."
"Then you shall do no more business for me," cried Michael Dacre.
"I should have thought," replied the solicitor, "that my few words had effectually severed all business relations between us. As it appears that you do not take this view, allow me to say that all the gold in the Indies would not tempt me to act as your legal adviser for another hour. A man who can behave to an unfortunate boy-cousin in the manner you have behaved to Jack Dacre, legitimate or not, can hold no business communications with Sam Reece."
"But how about my papers?" quoth the now half-frightened baronet.
"I will send you your bill, and on receipt of a cheque for my coats I will return you all the papers of yours that I hold--save and except, mark you, those relating to the marriage of the late baronet and the birth and baptism of his son."
The new baronet looked at his ally, Mr. Alfred Morgan, but saw very little that was consoling in that worthy man's face.
He therefore accepted the position, and with as haughty a bow as he could possibly make under the circumstances, he allowed Mr. Reece to take his departure.
By this time Jack Dacre and Ned Chump were more than a mile away from the hall.
Ned, although far more experienced in the ways of the world than Jack Dacre, tacitly allowed the latter to take the lead of the "expedition," if such a word may be used.
Jack, boy as he was, was in no way deficient in common sense, so perhaps Ned was justified in accepting the youngster as his leader.
For some miles not a word escaped Jack Dacre's lips.
At last they arrived at the old-fashioned town of Arundel, and here Jack suddenly turned to his companion, and said--
"We'll stop here and rest, and think over what will be our best course to pursue."
"All serene, skipper," answered Ned, "I am quite content."
Jack gave a melancholy smile as he replied to the sailor's salutation--
"Oh! then you don't object to calling me your skipper, although you have heard that I am base born, and have no right to bear any name at all."
"Never fear, Master Jack--or Sir John, perhaps, I ought to say--there is some rascality at work, and I believe that that Mr. Alfred Morgan is at the bottom of it. But we shall circumvent the villains, I am sure, never fear."
"Yes," replied Jack, "I think we shall."
"Ah!" said Ned, "but how?"
"I have not been idle during our long walk," said Jack, as the two entered the hospitable portals of the Bridge House Hotel.
"I have not been idle, and if we can get a private room we will talk the matter over, and see how much money the good lawyer was kind enough to give us."
"To give you, you mean," said Chump, with a chuckle. "It's precious little he'd have given me, I reckon."
They managed to obtain a private room, and over a plain but substantial repast they counted the contents of the lawyer's purse.
To the intense surprise of both, and to the extreme delight of Ned Chump, it was found to contain very little short of fifty guineas.
The sailor had never in the whole of his life had a chance of sharing in such a prize as this.
With Jack, of course, the thing was different.
In India he had been accustomed to see money thrown about by lavish hands.
Between the ideas of Ned Chump, the common sailor, and those of the son of the rich planter, there could hardly be anything in common as far as regarded the appreciation of wealth.
But, nevertheless, the friendship that had sprang up between them in so short a time, never faded until death, the great divider, stepped in and made all human friendship impossible.
As soon as Jack had satisfied himself as to the actual strength of their available capital, he turned to Ned Chump and said--
"This money will not last long, and I do not see how I can do anything in the way of working for a living, if I am ever to hope to prove my title to the Dacre baronetcy and estates."
"That's as it may be, skipper," said Ned, "but I don't quite see how we are to live without work when this here fifty pounds