II
Arriving at the town, we had no difficulty in finding the inn. The town is composed of one desolate street; and midway in that street stands the inn – an ancient stone building sadly out of repair. The painting on the sign-board is obliterated. The shutters over the long range of front windows are all closed. А cock and his hens are the only living creatures at the door. Plainly, this is one of the old inns of the stage-coach period, ruined by the railway. We pass through the open arched doorway, and find no one to welcome us. We advance into the stable yard behind; I assist my wife to dismount – and there we are in the position already disclosed to view at the opening of this narrative. No bell to ring. No human creature to answer when I call. I stand helpless, with the bridles of the horses in my hand. Mrs. Fairbank saunters gracefully down the length of the yard and does – what all women do, when they find themselves in а strange place. She opens every door as she passes it, and peeps in. On my side, I have just recovered my breath, I am on the point of shouting for the hostler for the third and last time, when I hear Mrs. Fairbank suddenly call to me:
‘Percy! come here!’
Her voice is eager and agitated. She has opened а last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view. I hitch the horses’ bridles on а rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife. She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
‘Good heavens!’ she cries; ‘look at that!’
I look – and what do I see? I see а dingy little stable, containing two stalls. In one stall а horse is munching his corn. In the other а man is lying asleep on the litter.
A worn, withered, woebegone man in а hostler’s dress. His hollow wrinkled cheeks, his scanty grizzled hair, his dry yellow skin, tell their own tale of past sorrow or suffering. There is an ominous frown on his eyebrows – there is а painful nervous contraction on the side of his mouth. I hear him breathing convulsively when I first look in; he shudders and sighs in his sleep. It is not а pleasant sight to see, and I turn round instinctively to the bright sunlight in the yard. My wife turns me back again in the direction of the stable door.
‘Wait!’ she says. ‘Wait! he may do it again.’
‘Do what again?’
‘He was talking in his sleep, Percy, when I first looked in. He was dreaming some dreadful dream. Hush! he’s beginning again.’
I look and listen. The man stirs on his miserable bed. The man speaks in а quick, fierce whisper through his clinched teeth. ‘Wake up! Wake up, there! Murder!’
There is an interval of silence. He moves one lean arm slowly until it rests over his throat; he shudders, and turns on his straw; he raises his arm from his throat, and feebly stretches it out; his hand clutches at the straw on the side toward which he has turned; he seems to fancy that he is grasping at the edge of something. I see his lips begin to move again; I step softly into the stable; my wife follows me, with her hand fast clasped in mine. We both bend over him. He is talking once more in his sleep – strange talk, mad talk, this time.
‘Light gray eyes’ (we hear him say), ‘and а droop in the left eyelid – flaxen hair, with а gold-yellow streak in it – all right, mother! fair, white arms with а down on them – little, lady’s hand, with а reddish look round the fingernails – the knife – the cursed knife – first on one side, then on the other – aha, you she-devil! where is the knife?’
He stops and grows restless on а sudden. We see him writhing on the straw. He throws up both his hands and gasps hysterically for breath. His eyes open suddenly. For а moment they look at nothing, with а vacant glitter in them – then they close again in deeper sleep. Is he dreaming still? Yes; but the dream seems to have taken а new course. When he speaks next, the tone is altered; the words are few – sadly and imploringly repeated over and over again. ‘Say you love me! I am so fond of you. Say you love me! say you love me!’ He sinks into deeper and deeper sleep, faintly repeating those words. They die away on his lips. He speaks no more.
By this time Mrs. Fairbank has got over her terror; she is devoured by curiosity now. The miserable creature on the straw has appealed to the imaginative side of her character. Her illimitable appetite for romance hungers and thirsts for more. She shakes me impatiently by the arm.
‘Do you hear? There is а woman at the bottom of it, Percy! There is love and murder in it, Percy! Where are the people of the inn? Go into the yard, and call to them again.’
My wife belongs, on her mother’s side, to the South of France. The South of France breeds fine women with hot tempers. I say no more. Married men will understand my position. Single men may need to be told that there are occasions when we must not only love and honour – we must also obey – our wives.
I turn to the door to obey my wife, and find myself confronted by а stranger who has stolen on us unawares. The stranger is а tiny, sleepy, rosy old man, with а vacant pudding-face, and а shining bald head. He wears drab breeches and gaiters, and а respectable square-tailed ancient black coat. I feel instinctively that here is the landlord of the inn.
‘Good morning, sir,’ says the rosy old man. ‘I’m а little hard of hearing. Was it you that was a-calling just now in the yard?’
Before I can answer, my wife interposes. She insists (in а shrill voice, adapted to our host’s hardness of hearing) on knowing who that unfortunate person is sleeping on the straw. ‘Where does he come from? Why does he say such dreadful things in his sleep? Is he married or single? Did he ever fall in love with а murderess? What sort of а looking woman was she? Did she really stab him or not? In short, dear Mr. Landlord, tell us the whole story!’
Dear Mr. Landlord waits drowsily until Mrs. Fairbank has quite done – then delivers himself of his reply as follows:
‘His name’s Francis Raven. He’s an Independent Methodist. He was forty-five year old last birthday. And he’s my hostler. That’s his story.’
My wife’s hot southern temper finds its way to her foot, and expresses itself by а stamp on the stable yard.
The landlord turns himself sleepily round, and looks at the horses. ‘A fine pair of horses, them two in the yard. Do you want to put ‘em in my stables?’ I reply in the affirmative by а nod. The landlord, bent on making himself agreeable to my wife, addresses her once more. ‘I’m a-going to wake Francis Raven. He’s an Independent Methodist. He was forty-five year old last birthday. And he’s my hostler. That’s his story.’
Having issued this second edition of his interesting narrative, the landlord enters the stable. We follow him to see how he will wake Francis Raven, and what will happen upon that. The stable broom stands in а corner; the landlord takes it – advances toward the sleeping hostler – and coolly stirs the man up with а broom as if he was а wild beast in а cage. Francis Raven starts to his feet with а cry of terror – looks at us wildly, with а horrid glare of suspicion in his eyes – recovers himself the next moment – and suddenly changes into а decent, quiet, respectable serving-man.
‘I beg your pardon, ma’am. I beg your pardon, sir.’
The tone and manner in which he makes his apologies are both above his apparent station in life. I begin to catch the infection of Mrs. Fairbank’s interest in this man. We both follow him out into the yard to see what he will do with the horses. The manner in which he lifts the injured leg of the lame horse tells me at once that he understands his business. Quickly and quietly, he leads the animal into an empty stable; quickly and quietly, he gets а bucket of hot water, and puts the lame horse’s leg into it. ‘The warm water will reduce the swelling, sir. I will bandage the leg afterwards.’ All that he does is done intelligently; all that he says, he says to the purpose.