The Case of the Ward Lane Tabernacle | Page 8

the peak in the bedclothes made hy her bent knees.
The servant screamed in her ear, but she neither moved nor spoke.
Hewitt laid his hand on her shoulder and said, in the slow and distinct
tones he had found best for reaching the senses of deaf people, "I hope
you are well. Did anything disturb you in the night?"
But she only turned her head half toward him and mumbled peevishly,
"I wish you'd bring my tea. You're late enough this morning."
Nothing seemed likely to be got from her, and Hewitt asked the servant,
"Is she altogether bedridden?"
"No," the girl answered; "leastways she needn't be. She stops in bed

most of the time, but she can get up when she likes--I've seen her. But
missis humours her and lets her do as she likes--and she gives plenty of
trouble. I don't believe she's as deaf as she makes out."
"Indeed!" Hewitt answered. "Deafness is convenient sometimes, I
know. Now I want you to stay here while I make some inquiries.
Perhaps you'd better keep Mrs. Rudd's servant with you if you want
company. I don't expect to be very long gone, and in any case it
wouldn't do for her to go to her mistress and say that Mrs. Mallett is
missing, or it might upset her seriously."
Hewitt left the house and walked till he found a public-house where a
post-office directory was kept. He took a glass of whisky and water,
most of which he left on the counter, and borrowed the directory. He
found "Greengrocers" in the "Trade" section and ran his finger down
the column till he came on this address:--
"Penner, Reuben, 8, Little Marsh Row, Hammersmith, W."
Then he returned the directory and found the best cab he could to take
him to Hammersmith.
Little Marsh Row was not a vastly prosperous sort of place, and the
only shops were three--all small. Two were chandlers', and the third
was a sort of semi-shed of the greengrocery and coal persuasion, with
the name "Penner" on a board over the door.
The shutters were all up, though the door was open, and the only
person visible was a very smudgy boy who was in the act of wheeling
out a sack of coals. To the smudgy boy Hewitt applied himself. "I don't
see Mr. Penner about," he said; "will he be back soon?"
The boy stared hard at Hewitt. "No," he said, "he won't. 'E's guv' up the
shop. 'E paid 'is next week's rent this mornin' and retired."
"Oh!" Hewitt answered sharply. "Retired, has he? And what's become
of the stock, eh! Where are the cabbages and potatoes?"

"'E told me to give 'em to the pore, an' I did. There's lots o' pore lives
round 'ere. My mother's one, an' these 'ere coals is for 'er, an' I'm goin'
to 'ave the trolley for myself."
"Dear me!" Hewitt answered, regarding the boy with amused interest.
"You're a very business-like almoner. And what will the Tabernacle do
without Mr. Penner?"
"I dunno," the boy answered, closing the door behind him. "I dunno
nothin' about the Tabernacle--only where it is."
"Ah, and where is it? I might find him there, perhaps."
"Ward Lane--fust on left, second on right. It's a shop wot's bin shut up;
next door to a stable-yard." And the smudgy boy started off with his
trolley.
The Tabernacle was soon found. At some very remote period it had
been an unlucky small shop, but now it was permanently shuttered, and
the interior was lighted by holes cut in the upper panels of the shutters.
Hewitt took a good look at the shuttered window and the door beside it
and then entered the stable-yard at the side. To the left of the passage
giving entrance to the yard there was a door, which plainly was another
entrance to the house, and a still damp mud-mark on the step proved it
to have been lately used. Hewitt rapped sharply at the door with his
knuckles.
Presently a female voice from within could be heard speaking through
the keyhole in a very loud whisper. "Who is it?" asked the voice.
Hewitt stooped to the keyhole and whispered back, "Is Mr. Penner here
now?
"No."
"Then I must come in and wait for him. Open the door."
A bolt was pulled back and the door cautiously opened a few inches.

Hewitt's foot was instantly in the jamb, and he forced the door back and
entered. "Come," he said in a loud voice, "I've come to find out where
Mr. Penner is, and to see whoever is in here."
Immediately there was an assault of fists on the inside of a door at the
end of the passage, and a loud voice said, "Do you hear? Whoever you