Smeaton

“ Mr. Smeaton said. "I cannot just say to you all that is in my heart, but you have taught me a lesson on what it is to be a gentleman."
He held out his hand, which Arthur took without hesitation, and they parted.
That night as Jack Smeaton was selecting a pearl necklace for Thursa, along with all sorts of other beautiful gifts, he was pondering deeply one thought—that perhaps, after all, successive generations of gentle breeding do count for something in the make-up of a man, and having a bishop in the family may help a little, too. ”

“ His confidential man of business, steward or secretary or something, runs the house in his absence.”
“And her ladyship?” queried Smeaton eagerly.
“I’m coming to that, sir. Her ladyship has been away for some time; travelling abroad they think. My informant gave me the date of her departure. Here it is, sir.”
Smeaton looked at the little pencilled note. He rose, and shook his subordinate cordially by the hand, saying:
“Really you’ve done more than well. You forget nothing, I see. I shall watch your career with great interest. If I can push you I will. You may rely on that.” ”

“ Not but what some people like that sort of life. Smeaton tells a story of a shoemaker who went out as light-keeper to the Eddystone because he did not like confinement, having found himself in effect a greater prisoner at his lapstone than he would be at the rock; but then Smeaton confesses a few pages farther on that at times the keepers have been so short of provisions as to be compelled to eat the candles. ”

“ Late one afternoon, while Smeaton was seated in his bare official room on the second floor at Scotland Yard, the window of which overlooked Westminster Bridge, a constable ushered in a taxi-driver, saying:
“This man has come to see you, sir, regarding a fare he drove to Chesterfield Street the other night.”
“Excellent!” exclaimed Smeaton, lounging back in his chair, having been busy writing reports. “Sit down. What is your name?”
“Davies, sir—George Davies,” replied the man, twisting his cap awkwardly in his hands as he seated himself. ”

“ As the increasing trade in the Channel impelled its re-erection, the proprietors took at once the necessary steps for the work, and casting around for the best man their choice fell upon John Smeaton, whose name will ever live in connection with one of the proudest triumphs of human skill and patience. ”

“ She was either perfectly straightforward, or as cool a hand as he had ever met.
“You are interested in Mr Stent? How strange! Gentlemen of your profession do not generally interest themselves in other persons without some strong motive, I presume?”
“The motive is a pretty strong one. At present, other interests require that I do not divulge it,” replied Smeaton gravely. He was pleased with one thing, he had already got the name of the man; he preferred not to confess that he did not know it. And her frank allusion to him as Mr Stent seemed to show that she had nothing to hide. ”

“ Smeaton went to the point at once.
“I heard of you from Morgan, of Grimmel and Grice. I went there to make a few inquiries, and he recommended me to you.”
Mr Millington nodded his head.
“A very good fellow, Morgan; he always put as much business in my way as he could.”
“He directed me to you,” Smeaton said, and he pulled out the envelope and handed it to Millington. “This kind of cipher Mr Morgan tells me was in great vogue between twenty and twenty-five years ago. He thinks that you cut it. Will you kindly examine it, and tell me if you recognise it as your handiwork?” ”

“ And yet this was the man who, according to the dead man, Giovanni Roselli, had been the perpetrator of a great wrong to some person or persons unknown. Well, Smeaton had too vast an experience to trust overmuch to outside appearances. Still, he had never seen anybody who looked less like a rogue than Mr James Whyman, as he stood smiling at him with the most cordial expression in his clear blue eyes. ”

“ The world looks still upon John Smeaton as a wonderful engineer—a great mechanic—a man who climbed to the top of his profession, and the sound of whose fame spread over Europe; but he will ever be best remembered by the light of the Eddystone, that memorial monument that stood firm for more than a century, sometimes hid in blinding spray, anon gleaming out clear and steady, a rescuer from shipwreck and death. ”

“ Strange to say, these few blows of the hammer were the means, in all probability, of saving the sloop Smeaton from being wrecked on the Bell Rock!
That vessel had been away with Mr. Stevenson at Leith, and was returning, when she was overtaken by the calm and the fog. At the moment that Ruby began to hammer, the Smeaton was within a stone's cast of the beacon, running gently before a light air which had sprung up.
No one on board had the least idea that the tide had swept them so near the rock, and the ringing of the anvil was the first warning they got of their danger. ”

“ Smeaton tells me that this has now taken the form of imagining that some one is conspiring to poison him with copper, against which he takes the most extravagant precautions. It is the strangest sight, he says, to see Cullingworth at his meals; for he sits with an elaborate chemical apparatus and numerous retorts and bottles at his elbow, with which he tests samples of every course. I could not help laughing at Smeaton’s description, and yet it was a laugh with a groan underlying it. Of all ruins, that of a fine man is the saddest. ”

“ Smeaton regarded Johnson approvingly. For some time past he had discerned in this comparatively young man qualities that bade fair to secure him a high position in his profession. He was level-headed, quick at instructions, possessed of considerable initiative, cautious, yet daring on occasion, confident without being boastful.
“One last word before you leave. You will make quite sure he is in the house before you enter it; in other words, that he has returned to London.”
“I heard yesterday from my cousin, who had met his valet, that his lordship arrived late the previous evening. ”

“ That is sound and useful knowledge.”
“I am glad you think so,” said Smeaton sarcastically.
“In a case like this, however, you want another sort of knowledge altogether,” pursued Mr Boyle, callously indifferent to the detective’s sarcasm. “You want a man who has mixed in the big world from his boyhood, who knows all the ins and outs, all the intrigue of social life, all the gossip, all the scandal that has been going round the clubs and drawing-rooms for the last forty years.”
“In other words, men like yourself—eh? We have plenty such in our pay.” ”

“ Johnson pursued his advantage. “After the lapse of twelve months, by which time he had probably found his feet again, he would recognise it, to use a phrase we both know well, sir, as ‘a fair cop.’ He had defied the law; the law had got the better of him. He would take off his hat, and say to the law: ‘I give you best. You are the better man, and you won.’”
Smeaton regarded his subordinate with genuine admiration.
“I am not too old to learn, Johnson; you have taught me something to-night.” ”

“ London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East.
13
SMEATON. John Smeaton will long be remembered as one of the most laborious and most successful civil engineers whom Britain has produced: a class to which our country is deeply indebted for its commercial greatness. He was born at Austhorpe, near Leeds, May 28, 1724. His father was an attorney, and intended to bring his son up to his own profession: but the latter finding, to use his own words, “that the law did not suit the bent of his genius,” obtained his parent’s consent that he should seek a more congenial employment. ”

“ Lindsey got up, shaking his head.
"A big job!" he answered. "A stiff job! You'd have to work back a long way. But—it could be done. What time can I look in this afternoon, Mr. Smeaton, to get a glance at those letters?"
"Three o'clock," replied Smeaton. He walked to the door of his office with us, and he gave me a smile. "You're none the worse for your adventure, I see," he remarked. "Well, what about this man Carstairs—what news of him?" ”

“ Look here, Allingford, I'll thank you not to call me a blackguard for nothing, for I suppose that's what you're driving at. If you don't think I'm speaking the truth, ask Smeaton. I suppose you'll take his word, if you won't take mine. ”

“ The great detective shook his head.
“But we thought of it, Mr Wingate. My friend here has had every hospital in the radius rung up. No solution there.”
There was silence for a long time. It seemed that the last hope had vanished. Smeaton stood for a long time lost in thought. Then he roused himself from his reverie.
“It’s no use blinking the fact that we are confronted with a more than usually difficult case,” he said, at length. “Still, it is our business to solve problems, and we shall put our keenest wits to work. I wish it were possible, for Miss Monkton’s sake, to keep it from the Press.” ”

“ Smeaton was a man of simple tastes and few wants. The Princess Dashkoff of Russia tried in vain to tempt him to Russia with the most splendid offers, but he steadfastly refused to leave his native country. Astronomical and antiquarian pursuits afforded him a relaxation; on the former he contributed several papers to the Royal Society between 1768 and 1788, but his incessant labours gradually destroyed his naturally strong constitution, and after a short illness he died at Austhorpe, in his sixty-eighth year, on 28 Oct. ”

“ There was a pause before Smeaton put his next question.
“This man tells me that at one time there was a scandal about Mr Monkton and a certain Lady Wrenwyck—a woman of fashion and a noted beauty. I take the liberty of asking you to confirm or refute that.”
Mr Chesterton frowned slightly. “I take it, Mr Smeaton, you have a good reason for asking me this. But, frankly, I am not fond of raising old ghosts.”
Smeaton answered him a little stiffly. “In my calling, sir. we are often compelled to put inconvenient questions, but only when, in our judgment, they are absolutely necessary.” ”

“ Suppose we have him in, and see what he wants. Smeaton is a first-class man, no doubt, but this chap unearthed the Balham mystery that baffled Scotland Yard; all London rang with it, at the time. A fresh brain might help us.”
Sheila yielded to her lover’s suggestion. Privately, she thought etiquette demanded that they should first ring up to consult Smeaton as to whether the newcomer should be shown the door or not. But Wingate had been so good, so tender to her in her hour of trial, that she did not like to oppose him. ”

“ Smeaton, he knew, was still searching for Stent, and he, the amateur, had forestalled him. Was he right, after all, in his surmise that by some curious lapse the man of wider experience had left Farloe out of his calculations, and the man Stent was identical with the man Strange?
His survey finished, he mounted his machine, and rode along, thinking out his plans.
“Find a nice comfortable inn somewhere near, but not too close, pose as an artist out for a brief holiday, and find out all there is to be found about the mysterious Mr Strange,” was the result of his meditations. ”

“ Smeaton nodded.
The old man went out and returned with the dipper. “Reckon I hain’t jest a fust-class nuss,” he said, “but you’ll have to put up with me fur a spell yit. How’s the leg feelin’?”
“Can’t kick,” replied Smeaton.
“I persume not,” replied Avery, with a touch of irony.
“Say, Hoss—I—a feller—you wouldn’t say as I was much on looks, would you?”
“Not if I didn’t want to put a dent in my rep’tation fur callin’ hosses hosses.”
“U-huh. I knowed it. Wimmen-folks don’t fancy red hair as a giniral thing, do they?”
“Depends on the man what’s wearin’ it. Had red hair m’self when I were a colt. ”

“ The third Eddystone lighthouse still rears its head, as it has done for more than a century. John Smeaton, a clever and practical mathematician, was the man to whose skill as an architect, and courage and perseverance as a man, the world is indebted for the light which still shines upon Eddystone. ”

“ The story of the present structure at the Eddystone has been told with quaint simplicity by the man who raised it. Smeaton had this advantage over Whiteside, that he had precursors in his work: but then the work was harder, and was done more enduringly. Whiteside’s work at the Smalls is coming away in the course of a season or two; Smeaton’s, at the Eddystone, is to remain the pattern lighthouse of the world for ever. The first Eddystone, built in 1696, was a strange affair—something like a Chinese pagoda, or a belvedere in some suburban tea-gardens, with open galleries and projecting cranes. ”

“ The honour of conveying the upper part of the lighthouse, and of landing the last stone of the building on the rock, was considered to belong to Captain Pool of the Smeaton, who had been 141 longer in the service than the master of the Patriot. The Smeaton was, therefore, now partly loaded with old iron, consisting of broken railways and other lumber which had been lying about the rock. After landing these at Arbroath, she took on board James Craw, with his horse and cart, which could now be spared at the workyard, to be employed in carting the stones from Edinburgh to Leith. ”

“ He spoke with his accustomed deliberation, his usual deference.
“The mystery, if it ever is solved, sir, will be solved at Forest View. Keep a watch on that house, day and night.” He emphasised the last word, and looked squarely at his chief.
Smeaton gave a sudden start. “You know Varney is watching it.”
“A clever fellow, sir; relies upon intuition largely and has little patience with our slower methods. He watches it by day—well, no doubt—but he doesn’t watch it by night. Many strange things happen when the sun has gone down.” ”