The Third R. Austin Freeman Megapack. R. Austin Freeman
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this flashed through the fugitive’s brain in a matter of seconds. In those seconds he realized that the priceless heap of clothing was derelict. As to what had become of the owner, he gave no thought but that in some mysterious way he had apparently vanished for good. Scrambling up the slope of the sea wall, he once more scanned the path on its summit in both directions; and still there was not a living soul in sight. Then he slid down, and breathlessly and with trembling hands stripped off the hated livery of dishonour and, not without a certain incongruous distaste, struggled into the derelict garments.
A good deal has been said—with somewhat obvious truth—about the influence of clothes upon the self-respect of the wearer. But surely there could be no more extreme instance than the present one, which, in less than one brief minute, transformed a manifest convict into a respectable artisan. The change took effect immediately. As the fugitive resumed his flight he still kept off the skyline; but he no longer hugged the base of the wall, he no longer crouched nor did he run. He walked upright out on the more or less level saltings, swinging along at a good pace but without excessive haste. And as he went he explored the pockets of the strange clothes to ascertain what bequests the late owner had made to him, and brought up at the first cast a pipe, a tobacco-pouch, and a box of matches. At the first he looked a little dubiously, but could not resist the temptation; and when he had dipped the mouthpiece in a little salt pool and scrubbed it with a handful of grass, he charged the bowl from the well-filled pouch, lighted it and smoked with an ecstasy of pleasure born of long deprivation.
Next, his eye began to travel over the abundant jetsam that the last spring-tide had strewn upon the saltings. He found a short length of old rope, and then he picked up from time to time a scrap of driftwood. Not that he wanted the fuel, but that a bundle of driftwood seemed a convincing addition to his make-up and would explain his presence on the shore if he should be seen. When he had made up a small bundle with the aid of the rope, he swung it over his shoulder and collected no more.
He still climbed up the wall now and again to keep a lookout for possible pursuers, and at length, in the course of one of these observations, he espied a stout plank set across the ditch and connected with a footpath that meandered away across the marshes. In an instant he decided to follow that path, whithersoever it might lead. With a last glance towards the town, he boldly stepped up to the top of the wall, crossed the path at its summit, descended the landward side, walked across the little bridge and strode away swiftly along the footpath across the marshes.
He was none too soon. At the moment when he stepped off the bridge, three men emerged from the waterside alley that led to the sea wall and began to move rapidly along the rough path. Two of them were prison warders, and the third, who trundled a bicycle, was a police patrol.
“Pity we didn’t get the tip a bit sooner,” grumbled one of the warders. “The daylight’s going fast, and he’s got a devil of a start.”
“Still,” said the constable cheerfully, “it isn’t much of a place to hide in. The wall’s a regular trap; sea one side and a deep ditch the other. We shall get him all right, or else the patrol from Clifton will. I expect he has started by now.”
“What did you tell the sergeant when you spoke to him on the ’phone?”
“I told him there was a runaway coming along the wall. He said he would send a cyclist patrol along to meet us.”
The warder grunted. “A cyclist might easily miss him if he was hiding in the grass or in the rushes by the ditch. But we must see that we don’t miss him. Two of us had better take the two sides of the wall so as to get a clear view.”
His suggestion was adopted at once. One warder climbed down and marched along the saltings, the other followed a sort of sheep-track by the side of the ditch, while the constable wheeled his bicycle along the top of the wall. In this way they advanced as quickly as was possible to the two men stumbling over the rough ground at the base of the wall, searching the steep sides, with their rank vegetation, for any trace of the lost sheep, and making as little noise as they could. So for over a mile they toiled on, scanning every foot of the rough ground as they passed but uttering no word. Each of the warders could see the constable on the path above, and thus the party was enabled to keep together.
Suddenly the warder on the saltings stopped dead and emitted a shout of triumph. Instantly the constable laid his bicycle on the path and slithered down the bank, while the other warder came scrambling over the wall, twittering with excitement. Then the three men gathered together and looked down at the little heap of clothes, from which the discoverer had already detached the jacket and was inspecting it.
“They’re his duds all right,” said he. “Of course, they couldn’t be anybody else’s. But here’s his number. So that’s that.”
“Yes,” agreed the other, “they’re his clothes right enough. But the question is, Where’s my nabs himself?”
They stepped over to the edge of the saltings and gazed at the line of footprints. By this time the rising tide had covered up the strip of smooth, unmarked sand and was already eating away the footprints, winch now led directly to the water’s edge.
“Rum go,” commented the constable, looking steadily over the waste of smooth water. “He isn’t out there. If he was, you’d see him easily, even in this light. The water’s as smooth as oil.”
“Perhaps he’s landed farther down,” suggested the younger warder.
“What for?” demanded the constable.
“Might mean to cross the ditch and get away over the marshes.”
The constable laughed scornfully. “What, in his birthday suit? I don’t think. No, I reckon he had his reasons for taking to the water, and those reasons would probably be a barge sailing fairly close inshore. They’d have to take him on board, you know; and from my experience of bargees, I should say they’d probably give him a suit of togs and keep their mouths shut.”
The elder warder looked meditatively across the water.
“Maybe you are right,” said he, “but barges don’t usually come in here very close. The fairway is right out the other side. And, for my part, I should be mighty sorry to start on a swim out to a sailing vessel.”
“You might think differently if you’d just hopped out of the jug,” the constable remarked as he lit a cigarette.
“Yes, I suppose I should be ready to take a bit of a risk. Well,” he concluded, “if that was his lay, I hope he got picked up. I shouldn’t like to think of the poor beggar drifting about the bottom of the river. He was a decent, civil little chap.”
There was silence for a minute or two as the three men smoked reflectively. Then the constable proposed, as a matter of form, to cycle along the wall and make sure that the fugitive was not lurking farther down. But before he had time to start, a figure appeared in the distance, apparently mounted on a bicycle and advancing rapidly towards them. In a few minutes he arrived and dismounted on the path above them glancing down curiously at the jacket which the warder still held.
“Those his togs?” he asked.
“Yes,” replied the constable. “I suppose you haven’t seen a gent bathing anywhere along here?”
The newcomer shook his head. “No,” said he. “I have patrolled the whole wall from Clifton to here and I haven’t seen a soul excepting old Barnett, the shepherd.”
The elder warder gathered up the rest of the clothes and handed them to his junior. “Well,” he said, “we must take it that he’s gone to sea. All that we can do is to get the Customs people to give us a passage on their launch to make the round of all the vessels anchored about here. And if we don’t find him on any of them, we shall have to hand the case over to the police.”
The three men climbed to the top of the wall and turned their faces towards the town; and the Clifton patrol, having turned his bicycle about, mounted expertly and pedalled away at a smart pace to get back to his station before the twilight merged into night.
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