The School Friends Part 4

"You take our tickets," said Sa.s.s, "second cla.s.s for me, there are no third, and a first for yourself. We had better be separate; and if by any chance we are traced thus far, it will help to put them off the scent."

Emery having no gold, took out a bank-note for ten pounds. He felt somewhat nervous as the booking-clerk examined it. It was all right, however, and he received his change, and going on to the next shutter took a ticket for his companion.

"All right," said Gange, "get in, and sit at the further side, and pretend to be sleepy or drunk, only keep your face away from the light.

Your portmanteau is ticketed for Liverpool. Good-bye, my lad, till we stop on the road, and I will come and have a look at you."

Gange disappeared. Off went the train, and Emery's brain whirled round and round, even faster than the carriage seemed to be moving. He tried not to think, but in vain.

The other seats were filled, but he had not dared to look at his companions. He heard them laughing and talking. A board was opened, and dice rattled, still he did not look up. Cards were produced.

"Will any other gentleman join us?" asked a man sitting opposite to the seat, next to him. He caught Emery's eye. "Will you, sir," he added in a bland voice. "We play for very moderate stakes."

Emery knew something about the game proposed. It would have been better for him had he been ignorant of it altogether. A game of cards would enable him to turn his thoughts from himself. He agreed to play. He knew that he did not play well, but to his surprise he found himself winning. The stakes were doubled. He still won. He thought that his companions were very bad players. Again the stakes were increased, he still occasionally won, but oftener lost. He had soon paid away all his gold, and was compelled to take out one of the notes which he had stolen; that quickly went, and another, and another. He felt irritated, and eager to get back the money he had lost; he had won at first, why should he not again? His companions looked calm and indifferent, as if it mattered very little if the luck turned against them.

When they came to a station, they shut up the board, and put the cards under their railway rugs.

Emery had lost fifty pounds of the stolen money. He felt ready for any desperate deed. Two of the men got out at the next large station.

Could he have been certain that the money was in the possession of the remaining man, he would have seized him by the throat, and tried to get it back.

The man kept eyeing him sternly, as if aware of his thoughts. Just before the train started, he also stepped out, carrying the board concealed in his rug.

"You have been a heavy loser, I fear," said a gentleman in the seat near the door. "I would have warned you had I thought you would have lost so much, but it will be a lesson to you in future. I am convinced, by their movements, that those were regular card-sharpers. It's too late now, but you may telegraph from the next station to try and stop them."

As this remark was made, it flashed into Emery's mind that some one might telegraph to Liverpool to stop him. He scarcely thought about his loss, but dreaded that his agitation might betray him. The gentleman naturally thought it arose from his being cheated of so much money.

Emery tried to look unconcerned.

"A mere trifle," he said, forcing a laugh, "I will try and catch the rogues, though."

However, when he reached the next station, remembering Sa.s.s Gange's caution, he was afraid to leave his seat.

"I might lose the train," he said, "and business of importance takes me to Liverpool."

"As you think fit," observed the gentleman, "but you will now have little chance of recovering your money."

Emery was thankful when the train again moved on.

Sa.s.s Gange had not appeared at either of the stations.

Liverpool was at length reached. He looked about expecting to see Sa.s.s, but he was nowhere to be found. His own portmanteau was in the luggage-van, but the sailor's bag was not with it.

Where to go he could not tell. His eye caught the name of a hotel. He took a cab and drove to it.

It was too late to change any notes that night; but he determined in the morning, as early as possible, to get rid of those evidences of his guilt. In the meantime, he went to bed utterly miserable.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Mr Padman became anxious when neither Emery nor Sa.s.s Gange returned at the expected time. On sending to the bank he found that no money had been paid in. He made inquiries if they had been seen, and learned that Emery had sent for his portmanteau in the morning. He at once despatched a messenger to Gange's lodgings. Gange had left with his bag in the afternoon. Mr Padman immediately suspected the truth. He sent to the police, and to each of the railway stations. Lance's master, Mr Gaisford, was his lawyer. He hurried to consult him as to what other steps it would be advisable to take. Lance was in the room receiving instructions about a draft, and not being told to withdraw, remained.

With sincere grief he heard of Emery's guilt.

"He comes from Elmerston, do you know him?" asked Mr Gaisford, turning to Lance.

"Yes," said Lance, "he was a schoolfellow, and I saw him but a few days ago. I have also frequently seen the man who is supposed to have accompanied him."

"If we can find out where they have gone to I will send you down with an officer and a warrant. It will save much trouble, and you will be able at once to identify them, and the sooner they are captured the less money they will have spent."

The number of the cab happened to consist but of two figures; a fellow-lodger of Sa.s.s had remarked it, and heard him order the cabman to drive to Euston Square station. A clue was obtained in the course of a few hours, and a telegraph message sent to stop the fugitives. Before Emery had reached Liverpool, Lance and the officer, having warrants for his and Gange's apprehension, were on their way.

The cunning old sailor, however, having obtained all the gold as his share, had quitted the train and gone off to Hull, leaving his unhappy dupe to follow his own devices. The Liverpool police being on the look-out for an old man and a young one allowed Emery to pa.s.s, though not altogether unnoticed; and when Lance and the London officer arrived, the latter, suspecting the true state of the case, inquired if a young man of Emery's appearance had arrived alone. The hotel which he had driven to was at once discovered, and he was still in bed when the officer, followed by Lance, entered the room. He awoke as the door opened. As the officer, turning to Lance, asked, "Is that the man?"

Emery gazed at Lance with a look of the most abject terror, unable to utter a word.

"Yes, I am sorry to say he is Emery Dulman," said Lance, his voice choking with emotion.

The usual form of arrest was gone through. The officer examined his clothes, and found the pocket-book with the remainder of the stolen notes.

"Is this your doing, Lance?" asked Emery, at length making an effort to speak.

"No, it is not; I wish that I could have prevented you from committing the crime, and I am anxious, to serve you as far as I have the power,"

answered Lance; "I advise you to confess everything, and to restore the money to your employer."

The unhappy youth was allowed to dress, and while at breakfast told Lance everything that had occurred. Of Sa.s.s Gange he could say nothing, except that he believed he had entered a second-cla.s.s carriage.

The wretched Emery, instead of enjoying the liberty and pleasure he had antic.i.p.ated, as he sat waiting for the train, with his hands between his knees and his head bent down, looked the very picture of misery and despair.

"I have been befooled and deceived by every one--right and left!" he murmured, evidently wis.h.i.+ng to throw blame on others rather than to condemn himself. "Mr Padman shouldn't have given the money to me to carry to the bank, and he ought to have known what an old rascal that Sa.s.s Gange is. To think that the villain should have played me so scurvy a trick, and have gone off and left me in the lurch! Then to have lost so much money to these cheating card-sharpers. I expected only to meet gentlemen in a first-cla.s.s carriage. I would punish them for robbing me if I could catch them--that I would, and they would deserve it! And now to have you, Lance, whom I looked upon as a friend, ferret me out and a.s.sist to hand me over to prison, and for what you can tell to the contrary, to the hangman's noose, if the matter is proved against me. I wish that I was dead, that I do. If I had a pistol, I'd shoot myself, and get the affair settled at once!" he exclaimed, jumping up and das.h.i.+ng his fists against his forehead.

Lance did his utmost to calm the unhappy youth. "My poor Emery, Satan has duped you as he dupes all those who listen to his agents, or to the evil suggestions of their own wicked hearts. `All our hearts are deceitful, and desperately wicked above all things,' the Bible tells us.

Notwithstanding which, had you sought for strength from G.o.d's Holy Spirit, you would a.s.suredly have resisted the temptations thrown in your way. I have ever been your friend, and I wish to remain so. You remember the line in our Latin Grammar--`A true friend is tried in a doubtful matter.' As a friend, I rejoice that through G.o.d's mercy you have been arrested in the downward course you had commenced. It must have led to your utter destruction. Think what you would have become old Sa.s.s Gange as your counsellor and guide. You will have much that is painful to go through--from that you cannot escape; but thank our loving Father in heaven for it. Far better is it to suffer a light affliction here for a short season, than to be eternally cast out. Never--let me entreat you--again utter the impious threat of rus.h.i.+ng into the presence of your Maker; but turn to Him with a penitent heart, seeking forgiveness for all your sins through the one only way He has appointed--faith in our crucified Saviour: and oh! believe me, He will not deny you, for He has promised to receive all who thus come to Him.

He has said, `Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' Text upon text I might bring forward to prove G.o.d's readiness to forgive the greatest of sinners. Trust Him. Throw yourself upon His mercy. Do not fear what man can do to you. Submit willingly to any punishment the just laws of our country may demand you should suffer. Not that imprisonment or any other punishment you may receive can atone for the sin you have committed in G.o.d's sight--not if you were to refund every farthing of the sum you stole. As the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, so through that precious blood alone can the slightest as well as the deepest shade of sin be washed away. I say this now, Emery, in case I should be prevented from speaking again to you on the subject.

Reflect, too, on the condition in which you would have been placed had you committed this crime a few years ago, for then an ignominious death on the scaffold would have been your inevitable doom, and bless G.o.d that you will now be spared to prove the sincerity of your repentance in some new sphere of life."

Happy would it be for criminals if they had, when placed as Emery Dulman now was, faithful friends like Lance Loughton to speak to them. Emery now and then, as Lance was addressing him, looked up, but again turned aside his head with an expression of scorn on his lips. Lance, however, was too true a Christian, and too sincerely desirous of benefiting his former acquaintance, to be defeated in his efforts to do so. Again and again he spoke to him so lovingly and gently that at length Emery burst into tears. "I wish that I had listened to you long ago, when you warned me of my folly, and it would not have come to this," he exclaimed. "I will plead guilty at once, and throw myself on the mercy of my employer whom I have robbed."

"I do not know whether he will be inclined to treat you mercifully. It may be considered necessary, as a warning to others, to punish you severely," answered Lance. "But, my dear Emery, I am very sure that our Father in heaven, whom you have far more grievously offended, will, if you come to Him in His own appointed way, through faith in the Great Sacrifice, with sincere repentance, not only abundantly pardon you, but will inflict no punishment, because the punishment justly your due has been already borne by the Just and Holy One when He died on the Cross for sinners."

The officer, looking at his watch, interrupted Lance by saying that it was time to start. Emery was conveyed to the station, and in a short time they were on their way back to London.

The officer made inquiries at the different stations, and at length discovered the one at which Gange had left the train. He sent to London for another officer to follow on his track.

Emery was conveyed to prison. He was tried, convicted, and sent to gaol for twelve months' imprisonment. Old Sa.s.s, however, was too cunning to be caught, and got off to sea.

Lance obtained leave frequently to visit his unhappy schoolfellow, who, now left to his own reflections, listened to him attentively when with gentle words he impressed on him the truths he had hitherto derided.

Before he left the prison Emery became thoroughly and deeply convinced that he was an utterly lost sinner, and that so he would have been, had he not been guilty of the crime for which he was suffering, or the countless others he had committed which his memory conjured up. Often had he cried, "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!" That prayer had been heard, and he now knew that G.o.d is merciful, and that He has given good proof of His mercy by sending Jesus, the pure and sinless One, to suffer on the cross for every one who will trust to that sufficient atonement which He thus made for sin.

"G.o.d as a Sovereign with free grace offers pardon to rebellious man,"

said Lance. "He leaves us with loving grat.i.tude to accept it, and if we reject His mercy, justly to suffer the consequence of that rejection, and to be cast out for ever from His presence."

"I see it!--I understand!--I do accept His gracious offer, and from henceforth, and with the aid of His Holy Spirit, will seek to obey and serve Him," said Emery. "And I feel thankful that all this has come upon me, for I might never otherwise have learned to know Him in whom I can now place all my trust and love."

At the end of Emery's term of imprisonment, with the help of Mr Gaisford, Lance was able to procure him a pa.s.sage to Australia, where he had in the meantime learned that his father had obtained a situation of trust, and would be able to find employment for his son.