Henry Fletcher

“ POLICE-CONSTABLE HOBBS.
“Never perhaps in the history of the colony has a crime claimed such universal interest, and aroused such general curiosity, as the so-called North Shore mystery. On train, boat, or ’bus, or wherever men are gathered together, it forms the sole and engrossing topic of conversation. Nearly every man one meets considers himself a born detective, and has a solution of the mystery at his fingers’ ends. Unfortunately, however, hardly two of three solutions agree, either as to the personality of the criminal or the method of the crime. ”

“ Cup Day was one of unbroken sunshine and brightness, one of those days, so frequent in Sydney, when only to breathe and respire is a pleasure and a joy.
At an early hour the trams and ’buses were loaded with sightseers bound for Randwick. A stranger might regret, at the sight of these orderly and well-dressed groups, the absence of that abandon and camaraderie between rich and poor that is so distinctive of a great racing carnival in conservative England. ”

“ Going into Windsor at last, he flogged the horse in a way unusual to him, and seeing Huey in George Street, hailed him with a sense of relief.
“I’m full up, Huey.”
“Full of what?”
“Full of this dog’s life, of slogging all day for a mere nothing. I’m going to give it best and clear.”
“So am I. I told the boss this morning this would be my last week; I’m off for Sydney. Windsor may be good enough for old men to die in, but for a young man who wants to live Sydney’s the place.” ”

“ On the wharf a few feet from the edge a pile of casks were stacked. Across the roadway rose the high façade of prison-like wool warehouses. The electric light that now makes this quarter of Sydney one of the best illuminated had not been installed at this date, and the yellow gas-jets visible here and there did little to lighten the darkness of the night.
Alec for a time looked about curiously, then paced up and down, assuring himself the while that he was a fool for his pains, and would have been far better off at that time of night seated at his club playing nap. ”

“ The evening began to wear on, and the bar to fill with an ever-increasing crowd. The drinks were called for more and more frequently, and a mingled buzz of conversation and cigar smoke filled the air. The one subject of conversation was to-morrow’s Cup, and the merits of the competing horses. The name of Revolver was in every mouth, bookmakers and backers. A few spoke of Bertha, and a voice here and there championed an outsider; but the vast majority of the public had gone solid for Revolver. ”

“ It was a week later that Huey received a telegram to go to Windsor, and from there to Wilberforce, to meet Soft Sam. He went at once; and was taken straight away to see a black horse grazing in a paddock.
“He’s not as cheap as the other,” said Soft Sam, “and I can’t say I’m quite so sweet on him; but then he’s a horse, and say what you like, a horse carries money better than a filly. He has never been raced. I heard on the quiet that the owner believes he is not sound, and he thinks I am a softy who knows no better. But take my tip, that horse is as sound as a bell.” ”

“ His first impulse was to destroy the letter as a venomous thing, but the doubt in his mind, once aroused by Ruby and Florrie, came to him again. He did not doubt Bertha—no! Ten thousand times no! But it would be so easy to put this slander to the test.
Bertha out at half-past eleven on Circular Quay! Bertha, who never went out after dark! It was absurd! Yet men, smarter men perhaps than himself, had been made fools of before to-day. ”

“ North Shore could not for ever remain so ferociously virtuous. A time might come when theft, even, perhaps, a good murder might occur on his beat. And then people would learn that it was not for nothing that he had qualified as B.A. at London University.
The dusky light and cold air of dawn now made our philosopher consider the time come to proceed on his round. Already fish-buyers and news-vendors were descending the steps to proceed by the first boat. The steamer was at the wharf puffing out steam as Hobbs looked down on her from the steps. ”

“ You know our position. At any moment this scoundrel may do us a mischief.”
“And what if he does, I’m not afraid; and I am surprised at you, a strong man, fearing a coward who is afraid to show himself!”
“That is just it, Bertha! If he would only show himself. I am afraid of no man alive; but a crawling wretch who springs on you unawares, I fear him as I would a death adder in the dark.”
“What can he do? He has not hurt either of us yet.”
“I suppose you think your cab drive was a pleasure trip?”
“Well, after all, Alec, there was not much harm done, was there? ”

“ It was Sunday night, or rather in the early darkness of the small hours of Monday morning, that Police-Constable Hobbs wended his slow and deliberate way down the vista of Walker Street. Why the force are trained to step with a measured tread, which proclaims their personality minutes before their arrival, is one of those questions only to be answered by the benevolent supposition that Authority is anxious to warn Criminality that it is coming! ”

“ I am sure it is beautiful to walk in the Gardens every day.”
“I don’t say no, Bertha; but I am always afraid some one will run off with you again, and next time I might not be able to find you.”
“I am very careful, Alec, now. I never go out after dark, and as for going in a cab, I believe I shall always hate the sight of them.”
“You had better make sure; marry me and done with it.”
“There you go again. I never heard of any one so impatient. This is the best time in our lives, if we only knew it. We are young and free, no cares, no troubles. Let us live and enjoy as we are for a little while. ”

“ And, say what you will, that Alec was little better than a brute. It was in one sense a good riddance.” At all hazards he would stick to her, and, above all, if she was accused he would fight her battle. It is not the innocent who want friends; it is the guilty. And, guilty or innocent, he would stand by her.
So the thoughts chased through his mind as the ferry-boat crossed Sydney Harbour in the moonlight of a bright summer’s night. ”

“ He had perhaps too much common-sense to take those dreams quite seriously, yet there was pleasure in the nursing of them and Youth and Hope sat by to fool him.
Alec, in his own more stolid, matter-of-fact way, had his dreams too. A well-paid billet, with little to do but drive about in a buggy and have unlimited drinks at the wayside pubs, was nearly his ideal, if put in words. He was not brought to Sydney in a hope to renew the sight of Bertha; he did not know she had gone there; for Huey, with an instinctive jealousy, had not told him. ”

“ And beyond the men-of-war, and across the wide stretch of harbour, there are the blue-grey shores of Neutral and Mosman Bays, the rugged heights of Cremorne and Bradley, all dotted with embowered villas, half-hidden cottages, and covered with a haze like a bloom.
And over all a cloudless sky, pale-blue and distant, with an unveiled sun that shines down its vivid light on land and sea. It is such a view as fairyland might offer, and the artist with his crude pigments and paints abandon in despair as hopeless of depiction. ”

“ Why, the law is a net made so delicate that all the big sharks can break through; the only question is, will you be a man eaten or a man-eater?
“It’s all the foolishness and humbug we are taught while we are boys that spoils life for most men. They start out at a game they don’t understand, with the certainty they do. Mind you, I’m not saying things are not pretty well as they are, for if there were no mugs where would our turn come in?”
Huey felt at first a certain revolt and repugnance to the doctrines of Soft Sam, but little by little the feeling wore off. ”

“ No man ever failed for debt. It was for not owing enough! Why, half Sydney firms would be wound up to-morrow but for their wise foresight in owing too much. The creditors dare not face the loss, so they keep them going. As for the squatters in the country, from what I hear there is not one in a score could pay ten shillings in the pound, and they are as jolly as sand-boys and as happy as kings. Does the price of wool trouble them? Not much!”
p. 99“And is it wise to pay nobody?”
“No, that is a fool’s game! A small creditor is a small enemy, while a big creditor is a big friend. ”

“ One afternoon the middle-aged man with bushy whiskers emerged from Huey’s lodgings, and walking to Elizabeth Street, took the tram to Randwick. And he was about that horsey suburb that night and several following nights, frequenting bars and billiard-rooms, listening to the talk, and being taken down at pool as a new chum. ”

“ No more does any other turf prophet. Do you think that even if they knew one certainty they would not go and pawn their shirts, make their pile, and retire to private life? Do you think these men are what they call philanthropists, who sell turf knowledge, equal to bank-notes, to the first comers, at five bob a head? Of course the public does—that Al copper-fastened fool, the public. You will have to learn the ‘pitch’—that’s easy. Always refer to the ‘stable,’ what the stable says, what the stable think. And when your tip loses, as it generally will, ‘Very sorry I could not tell you sooner. ”

“ Constable Hobbs continued his statement to his wife and his prawn-eating simultaneously—
“You will notice that now I have found the jealous lover, the man I have been looking for all this time. And that was the only motive that seemed to me sufficient to account for the crime. I have, in fact, found two lovers; but, in spite of Ruby and the rest, I rule out the man they call the Squatter. He is wealthy and fond, no doubt; but he is a man well known, he has been a member of Parliament, and is about as dull and stupid as he is rich. ”

“ Booth a man after your own mind—not the ideal, as you said, but an every-day representative you will be willing to live with till death do you part?”
“I have thought it over, Pro. Of course Alec is not clever. He has read next to nothing, and can talk of very little outside his business, but all the same he might be pleasanter to have about a house than some one who was very clever. I fancy these clever people are not very nice to live with, particularly if you are not so clever as they are.” ”

“ We have all to learn the use of our own eyes, and no strange spectacles will help us. Yet there are things which I think you can see, and one is the degradation of a great number of the frequenters of the Golden Bar. I have not been often, or stopped long, for the sight and sound of most of these men was repulsive to me. Hear what they say, what they talk about, think about. Is it not betting? ”

“ Certainly a man in Booth’s position, ignorant of accounts, much of whose business was done on ‘the nod,’ and required an expert to recognize all his varied customers, would be very slow to dismiss a confidential clerk. Probably the cause was something serious—perhaps criminal? At any rate, it looks shady. If there was a spirit of revenge in this man we have a motive for his master’s death; but if we add to this the possibility, as he himself suggested, of a betting-book being so arranged as to gain largely by Mr. Booth’s death, we have a second and still stronger motive. ”

“ His one desire is to spread what he calls the ‘Light of Modern Research’; but it’s my belief that people don’t want his ‘Light,’ or anybody else’s. Every one thinks himself so clever, you know. And when you try and prove to them they are just ignorant and stupid, they don’t like it.”
“And what do you think of it all, Miss Summerhayes?”
“I am afraid I am one of the stupid, ignorant people! I just want to be like everybody else—no better, no worse. Only let me be where there is somebody—some life. This is my last appearance on the platform. Once in Sydney, there I stop. Dear old Sydney! ”

“ I suppose you know a horse from a cow?”
“I should say so!” said Alec.
“Then that’s all you want to know to be a bookmaker. Directly you begin to know one horse from another you commence to be too clever; you are inclined to back your fancy on your own hook, and it’s very soon all up with you.”
“But don’t you have to make a book? Is there not some science or skill in taking the proper bets, or hedging, or something of that kind?”
“There is nothing in it that a baby can’t learn in five minutes. You back the field against the public all the time, and the public all finish by losing their money ”

“ One mug wins and shares, and swears by you ever after, or at least till you have cleaned him out. As for the others, you smooth them down as per usual—horse could have done it easy, his time at private trials was seconds under, but stable was not on the job!”
“It seems to me that this kind of thing is what is called swindling?”
“You can call it that if you like,” said Soft Sam, smiling. “Most people call it business, and very good business too. There is only one thing you have to get to make a start.” ”