("Mine _ought_ to be brass, from her goings on," thought Leander.)
"And while he played he took off his finger-ring and put it upon the statue's hand; a mighty foolish act, as you will agree."
"Ah!" said Leander, shaking his head; "you may say that! What next, sir?" He became excited to find that he really was on the right track at last.
"Why, when the game was over, and he came to get his ring, he found he couldn't get it off again. Ha! ha!" and the old man chuckled softly, and then relapsed once more into silence.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Freemoult, sir! I'm a-listening; it's very funny; only do go on!"
"Go on? Where was I? Hadn't I finished? Ah, to be sure! Well, so Paris gave _her_ the apple, you see."
"I didn't understand you to allude to no apple," said his puzzled hearer; "and it was at Rome, I thought, not Paris. Bring your mind more to it, sir; we'd got to the ring not coming off the statue."
"I know, sir; I know. My mind's clear enough, let me tell you. That very night (as I was about to say, if you'd had patience to hear me) Venus stepped in and parted the unfortunate pair----"
"It was a apple just now, you aggravating old muddle 'ed!" said Leander, internally.
"Venus informed the young man that he had betrothed himself to her by that ring" ("Same game exactly," thought the pupil), "and--and, in short, she led him such a life for some nights, that he could bear it no longer. So at length he repaired to a certain mighty magician called----Let me see, what was his name again? It wasn't Agrippa--was it Albertus? Odd; it has escaped me for the moment."
"Never mind, sir; call him Jones."
"I will _not_ call him Jones, sir! I had it on my tongue--there, _Palumbus_! Palumbus it was. Well, Palumbus told him the goddess would never cease to trouble him, unless he could get back the ring--unless he could get back the ring."
Leander's heart began to beat high; the solution of his difficulty was at hand. It was something to know for certain that upon recovery of the ring the goddess's power would be at an end. It only remained to find out how the other young man managed it. "Yes, Mr. Freemoult?" he said interrogatively; for the old gentleman had run down again.
"I was only thinking it out. To resume, then. No sooner had the magician (whose name as I said was Apollonius) come to the wedding, than he promptly conjectured the bride to be a serpent; whereupon she vanished incontinently, after the manner of serpents, with the house and furniture."
"Haven't you missed out a lot, sir?" inquired Leander, deferentially; "because it don't seem to me to hook on quite. What became of Venus and the ring?"
"How the dickens am I to tell you, if you will interrupt? Ring! _What_ ring? Why, yes; the magician gave the young man a certain letter, and told him to go to a particular cross-road outside the city, at dead of night, and wait for Saturn to pass by in procession, with his fallen associates. This he did, and presented the magician's letter; which Saturn, after having read, called Venus to him, who was riding in front, and commanded her to deliver up the ring."
Here he stopped, as if he had nothing to add.
"And did she, sir?" asked Leander, breathlessly.
"Did she what? give up the ring? Of course she did. Haven't I been saying so? Why not?"
"Well," observed Leander, "so that's how _he_ got out of it, was it?
Hah! he was a lucky chap. Those were the days when magicians did a good trade, I suppose? Should you say there were any such parties now, on the quiet like, eh, sir?"
"Bah! Magic is a lost art, degraded to dark seances and juvenile parties--the last magician dead for more than two hundred years. Don't expose your ignorance, sir, by any more such questions."
"No," said Leander; "I thought as much. And so, if any one was to get into such a fix nowadays--of course, that's only my talk, but if they did--there ain't a practising magician anywhere to help him out of it.
That's your opinion, ain't it, sir?"
"As the danger of such a contingency is not immediate," was the reply, "the want of a remedy need not, in my humble opinion, cause you any grave uneasiness."
"No," agreed Leander, dejectedly. "I don't care, of course. I was only thinking that, in case--but there, it's no odds! Well, Mr. Freemoult, you've told me what I was curious to know, and here's your little honnyrarium, sir--two shillings and two sixpences, making three shillings in all, pre-cisely."
"Keep your money, sir," said the old man, with contemptuous good humour.
"My working hours are done for the day, and you're welcome enough to any instruction you're capable of receiving from my remarks. It's not saying much, I dare say."
"Oh, you told it very clear, considering, sir, I'm sure! I don't grudge it."
"Keep it, I tell you, and say no more about it."
So, expressing his thanks, Leander left the place; and, when he was outside, felt more keenly than ever the blow his hopes had sustained.
He knew the whole story of his predecessor in misfortune now, and, as a precedent, it was worse than useless.
True, for an instant a wild idea had crossed his mind, of seeking some lonely suburban cross-road at dead of night, just to see if anything came of it. "The last time was several hundred years ago, it seems," he told himself; "but there's no saying that Satan mightn't come by, for all that. Here's Venus persecuting as lively as ever, and I never heard the devil was dead. I've a good mind to take the tram to the Archway, and walk out till I find a likely-looking place."
But, on reflection, he gave this up. "If he did come by, I couldn't bring him a line--not even from the conjuror in High 'Oborn--and Satan might make me put my hand to something binding, and I shouldn't be no better off. No; I don't see no way of getting back my ring and poor Tillie's cloak, nor yet getting rid of that goddess, any more than before. There's one comfort, I can't be any worse off than I am."
Oppressed by these gloomy reflections, he returned to his home, expecting a renewal of his nightly persecution from the goddess; but from some cause, into which he was too grateful to care to inquire, the statue that evening showed no sign of life in his presence, and after waiting with the cupboard open for some time in suspense, he ventured to make himself some coffee.
He had scarcely tasted it, however, before he heard, from the passage below, a low whistle, followed by the peculiar stave by which a modern low-life Blondel endeavours to attract attention. The hairdresser paid no attention, being used, as a Londoner, to hearing such signals, and not imagining they could be intended for his ear.
But presently a handful of gravel rattled against his window, and the whistle was repeated. He went to the window cautiously, and looked out.
Below were two individuals, rather carefully muffled; their faces, which were only indistinctly seen, were upturned to him.
He retreated, trembling. He had had so much to think of lately, that the legal danger he was running, by harbouring the detested statue, was almost forgotten; but now he remembered the Inspector's words, and his legs bent beneath him. Could these people be _detectives_?
"Is that Mr. Tweddle up there?" said a voice below--"because if it is, he'd better come down, double quick, and let us in, that's all!"
"'Ere, don't you skulk up there!" added a coarser voice. "We know y'er there; and if yer don't come down to us, why, we'll come up to you!"
This brought Leander forward again. "Gentlemen," he said, leaning out, and speaking in an agitated whisper, "for goodness' sake, what do you want with me?"
"You let us in, and we'll tell you."
"Will it do if I come down and speak to you outside?" said Leander.
There was a consultation between the two at this, and at the end of it the first man said: "It's all the same to us, where we have our little confabulation. Come down, and look sharp about it!"
Leander came down, taking care to shut the street door behind him. "You ain't the police?" he said, apprehensively.
They each took an arm, and walked him roughly off between them towards Queen Square. "We'll show you who we are," they said.
"I--I demand your authority for this," gasped Leander. "What am I charged with?"
They had brought him into the gloomiest part of the square, where the houses, used as offices in the daytime, were now dark and deserted. Here they jammed him up against the railings, and stood guard over him, while he was alarmed to perceive a suppressed ferocity in the faces of both.
"What are you charged with? Grr----! For 'arf a pint I'd knock your bloomin 'ed in!" said the coarser gentleman of the two--an evasive form of answer which did not seem to promise a pleasant interview.
[Illustration: "FOR 'ARF A PINT I'D KNOCK YOUR BLOOMIN' 'ED IN!"]
Leander was not naturally courageous, and what he had gone through lately had shaken his nerves. He thought that, for policemen, they showed too strong a personal feeling; but who else could they be? He could not remember having seen either of them before. One was a tall, burly, heavy-jawed man; the other smaller and slighter, and apparently the superior of the two in education and position.