Higginson

“ Higginson who would, in any case, have forced the return to Hunston; Higginson who had given this girl the right to think, as she did think, that she owed her escape wholly to an "accident" to the machinery.
He had thought that he had saved Uncle Elbert's daughter from himself, and lo, his enemy had plucked the honor from him. The world should not be big enough for this man to elude his vengeance.
"You mention Mr. Higginson. Where is he?"
She glanced at him, impersonally, struck by the unconscious sternness of his voice. ”

“ The Professor assented through his gag with a voice like the distant lowing of a cow. The strong grip that held his wrists pulled his arms behind him, the taxi door was opened, and he was thrust out, still held by the hands. He poised himself upon his bound feet, and whoever it was that had spoken—he had a strong, young voice, and looked broad and powerful in the half-light behind the lamps—began unfastening the handkerchief at his ankles. Professor Higginson was not a soldier. ”

“ It was with no gratitude that Professor Higginson cautiously and fearfully descended the stairs. He knew so little of men, that he dreaded further capture and some vigorous young scoundrel leaping upon him from an unexpected door. ”

“ A moment ago, the thought had filled him with a strange exhilaration: the prospect of a final accounting with the intriguing fly-by-night who had wronged him past all forgiveness had set his blood to leaping. But, exactly because that wrong went so deep, his pleasurable excitement ebbed faster than it had mounted. The wound that he had had from Higginson was one that no vengeance would heal. And with the recurrence of this knowledge his battle-joy flickered and went out like a spent match, and the little alley was a war-list no longer but a stretch without end of dry and dusty years.... ”

“ Professor Higginson had never in his life been rude to a man at the first meeting. He did not know how it was done.
"Yes," he said ... "after a fashion.
"Ah!" said the Reverend Charles, and they went on another fifty yards in silence through the rain. The streets were quite deserted.
Professor Higginson was appalled to find his companion's hand laid firmly upon his shoulder; the other hand held the umbrella above. The parson looked immensely into his eyes. ”

“ Professor Higginson heard the door slam behind him: His curiosity prompted him to gaze upon them out of a window. They were going off together through the rain, into the heart of the town, and it seemed to the Philosopher that the Parson was more animated than before. He turned to his companion continually, and his gestures were broad. More fame was brewing!
All that Friday afternoon he kept his room. He forbade Mrs. Randle to admit a soul. He went to bed early and slept ill. The wages of sin is death.
Professor Higginson came down next morning in a very miserable mood. ”

“ Then the devil entered into me again. 'He had the doosid intelligence even to take in Lady Georgina.'
'Yaas; that's just it, don't you know. Georgey told me that story. Screamingly funny, wasn't it? And I said to myself at once, "Higginson's the man for me. I want a courier with jolly lots of brains and no blooming scruples. I'll entice this chap away from Marmy." And I did. I outbid Marmy. Oh, yaas, he's a first-rate fellah, Higginson. What I want is a man who will do what he's told, and ask no beastly unpleasant questions. Higginson's that man. ”

“ Higginson was playing clock at the centre-table. She was a wiry little woman, capable of great exertion and showing remarkable endurance when set on some purpose, such as a shopping trip to Chicago; but suffering at other times from languor, and low spirits, and in constant need of medical attendance.
She had never been able to understand why “Mr. H.” should insist on burying himself in the lumber business, when he was plenty rich enough to sell out and take her and her daughter forth from the slumberous quiet of Wauchung into the stir of the world. ”

“ Higginson, his courier. After the first day, Higginson appeared to be politeness and deference itself to us. He behaved to us both, almost as if we belonged to the titled classes. He treated us with the second best of his twenty-seven graduated manners. He fetched and carried for us with a courtly grace which recalled that distinguished diplomat, the Comte de Laroche-sur-Loiret, at the station at Malines with Lady Georgina. It is true, at his politest moments, I often caught the undercurrent of a wicked twinkle in his eye, and felt sure he was doing it all with some profound motive. ”

“ Mr. Higginson looked blankly at these men, then his eyes lit with anger. He was upon the very point of pouring out the whole story of his woes, when with that cold wind upon the heart which the condemned feel when they awake to reality upon the morning of execution, he remembered the cheque and was suddenly silent.
"You 'd better leave me!" he muttered. "You 'd better leave me, officer!"
"We were instructed, sir," began the senior man more respectfully than ever—then Professor Higginson bolted to refuge. ”

“ Old Lady Frances Higginson [458] frightened a mincing curate out of his life who said to her, ‘Will you take some potatoes?’ by saying in her most abrupt way, ‘God bless my soul, aren’t you going to give me some?’”
“July 20.—At luncheon at the Higginsons’, I met the Storys from Rome, very happy in London, but ‘it is surely a bad arrangement of Nature,’ he said, ‘that one should have so many coats and only one body. ”

“ Higginson was desperate, I suppose, and grasped at you because you happened to be there and he could not wait."
She put out a hand toward Lee.
"Don't scold him please," she said.
"Little good it would do now," he replied. "He'll be so cocky that he'll dare me to fire him if I say a word, and grin in my face, for he knows now that he's a good man and that I know it and will never let him go."
"Higginson, is that his name?" Louise asked. "Well, he is a good man. When he started the engineer using the chloroform and me arranging things, he was swallowing hard. ”

“ And having put the matter plainly and simply in such a fashion, Professor Higginson was silent.
"We quite understand, sir," said the senior of the two policemen gravely, sympathetically and respectfully. "There shan't be a word from us, sir, except of course——"
"No," said Professor Higginson firmly, "I am determined to do my duty in this matter; those whom it is proper to tell——"
At this moment Mrs. Randle, accompanied by a half-dressed servant, herself in an untied bonnet and somewhat out of breath, was heard at the open door with the reluctant and sleepy chemist, who was her medical adviser. ”

“ Higginson walked steadily on, with the girl following. So far they had not met a single human being, but, as they neared the top of the hill where the pagoda-prison opened to the road with a huge gate, they were halted by the snick of a breech-bolt and a raucous voice—evidently a challenge—in Chinese. But Marie let out a whoop of joy when the sentinel stepped forth from behind a tree, rifle in hand, for, in spite of his Chinese uniform, there was no doubt that he was a European. ”

“ An excellent servant, Higginson, though a trifle too omniscient. All men are equal in the [Pg 165] eyes of their Maker, of course; but we must have due subordination. A courier ought not to be better informed than his master—or ought at least to conceal the fact dexterously. Well, Higginson knows this young person's name; my sister wrote to me about her disgraceful conduct when she first went to Schlangenbad. ”

“ He's going to have the whole damned zodiac buzzing around in his head before he gets through with Higginson—that's what it means! I've come up here this morning to tell you that we want an engineer, and that you're the man we want. And we want you to go on the 9:53 train—that's about forty minutes now.”
MacGregor was thinking hard. He knew a little about Bigelow and a good deal more about Higginson. He liked the phrase, too—what was it—oh, “the best engineer on the lakes.”
“Can't you give me a day to think it over, Mr. Halloran?” ”

“ If what you are swearing isn't true—remember, you are on your oath—what you told Miss Petherick or Petheridge or Pennyfarthing, "at the time," can hardly be regarded as corroborative evidence. Your word then and your word now are just equally valuable—or equally worthless. The only person who knows besides yourself is Higginson. Now, I ask you, where is Higginson? ”

“ He went on to insinuate that Higginson and I had concocted the disputed will between us; that we had passed it on to our fellow-conspirator, Harold; and that Harold had forged his uncle's signature to it, and had appended those of the two supposed witnesses. But who, now, were these witnesses? One, Franz Markheim, was dead or missing; dead men tell no tales: the other was obviously suggested by Higginson. ”

“ Mind speaks to mind in moments of strong emotion without the medium of words. Professor Higginson recognised that unless he drank something he would be thrown to the wolves. He had never been in a public-house in his life. He had no conception of its habits. But the woman's eye was strong upon him, and he had to give an order. He gave it in this form—
"I think I should like—no, I think on the whole I should prefer a glass of, let us say, ale."
"Four Ale?" said the woman severely. ”

“ She is Higginson's sister. For all I know, she may be prepared to swear, or to forswear, anything.'
'Don't cast doubt upon our witnesses without cause! Miss Higginson is an eminently respectable woman. You gave this document to Mr. Ashurst, you say. There your knowledge of it ends. A signature is placed on it which is not his, as our experts testify. It purports to be witnessed by a Swiss waiter, who is not forthcoming, and who is asserted to be dead, as well as by a nurse who denies her signature. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII. In which the Subliminal Consciousness gives itself away. The work of the Sunday had tired Professor Higginson. He did not know that glory could weary man so much.
He rose very late upon the Monday morning: he rose certainly without ambition, and almost without fear. ”

“ Professor Higginson had forged!
It would all come right. There was the "clearing" ... and the thing called "stopping a cheque," and anyhow—damn it, or rather dash it, a man was of no use for a good cause until he was free. .... Yes, he had done right. He must be free first.. ... Free, in spite of the bonds which cut him as he leant half forward, half sideways, with his eyes closed and his hands dropping on the arms of the chair ... free to take good deep breaths ... ”

“ It is interesting to study a man's life in terms of those early scuffles. In Pilgrim's Progress the fight of Christian and Apollyon was the kernel of the story. Henry Higginson, "Bully Hig," a business man of remarkable success in Boston, was the leader of the Latin school forces and engagements which were as fiercely fought as some in which the same boys later took part on the battle fields of the South. A boy's anger and a boy's pain pass away like clouds on a summer morning and leave the sky purer and fairer than before. ”

“ Higginson genuinely enough. His calendar had got a little muddled. "What 's to-day?" he said it easily. Then he saw a look on her face.
To-day the occasion was decisive and she stood firm.
There is a rank in society in which to forget the day of the week has a very definite connotation—it means ... it means something wrong with the Brain. Like a flash an avenue of salvation was suggested to the hunted man by Mrs. Randle's look. ”

“ Professor Higginson gasped.
"But isn't that very familiar, Babcock," he said doubtfully.
"Yes, it is," said Babcock, "that 's the point."
"And I don't know the hour," said Higginson, still hesitating.
"But I do," said Babcock. "It 's half-past five. Listen, Higginson, and don't be a fool. That 's how men are made in this country. Do as I tell you."
Professor Higginson, wondering vaguely how he could be "made," and what happened when a man was so dealt with by those that govern us, took a sheet of the University paper, and wrote out carefully that horribly familiar note. ”

“ You understand me, and you know I mean it. Wriggling is useless; we intend to prosecute. We have unravelled this vile plot. We know the whole truth. Higginson and Lord Southminster forged a will between them——'
'Oh, sir, not Lord Southminster! His lordship, I'm sure——'
Mr. Hayes's keen eye had noted the subtle shade of distinction and admission. But he said nothing openly. 'Well, then, Higginson forged, and Lord Southminster accepted, a false will, which purported to be Mr. Marmaduke Ashurst's. Now, follow me clearly. ”

“ I have."
"I——" began Professor Higginson, but Babcock interrupted.
"Now, I knew a fellow once in Italy, not like you, my dear Higginson, not half so honest a man, but he had got hold of what convinces people. ... It 's not what's true, it 's what convinces." ”

“ Hayes interposed. 'An ordinary rascal would have forged a later will in Lord Southminster's favour and run the risk of detection; Higginson had the acuteness to forge a will exactly like the real one, and to let your husband bear the burden of the forgery. ”

“ One to a Cabinet Minister—an inveterate meddler who dabbled in such things in the intervals of his enormous occupations—the other to an ex-Cabinet Minister—another inveterate meddler who also dabbled in such things in the intervals of his.
Professor Higginson had never written to such great men before. He worked really hard, and he composed two masterpieces. Upon the addressing of his first ten envelopes he spent the best part of twenty minutes with books of reference at his side. ”