’I think I shall be home to-morrow, but I will
not say so for certain. I have been at the Home
Office, but they would tell me nothing. A man
was very civil to me, but explained that he was civil
only because he knew nothing about the case.
I think I shall call on Mr. Bagwax at the Post-office
to-morrow, and after that return to Folking. Send
in for the day-mail letters, and then you will hear
from me again if I mean to stay.’
At ten o’clock on the following day he was at
the Post-office, and there he found Bagwax prepared
to take his seat exactly at that hour. Thereupon
he resolved, with true radical impetuosity, that Bagwax
was a much better public servant than Mr. Brown.
’Well, Mr. Caldigate,—so we’ve
got it all clear at last,’ said Bagwax.
There was a triumph in the tone of the clerk’s
voice which was not intelligible to the despondent
old squire. ’It is not at all clear to
me,’ he said.
‘Of course you’ve heard?’
‘Heard what? I know all about the postage-stamp,
of course.’
’If Secretaries of State and judges of the Court
of Queen’s Bench only had their wits about them,
the postage-stamp ought to have been quite sufficient,’
said Bagwax, sententiously.
‘What more is there?’
’For the sake of letting the world know what
can be done in our department, it is a pity that there
should be anything more.’
‘But there is something. For God’s
sake tell me, Mr. Bagwax.’
’You haven’t heard that they caught Crinkett
just as he was leaving Plymouth?’
‘Not a word.’
’And the woman. They’ve got the lot
of ’em, Mr. Caldigate. Adamson and the
other woman have agreed to give evidence, and are to
be let go.’
‘When did you hear it?’
’Well;—it is in the “Daily
Tell-tale.” But I knew it last night,—from
a particular source. I have been a good deal thrown
in with Scotland Yard since this began, Mr. Caldigate,
and, of course, I hear things.’ Then it
occurred to the squire that perhaps he had flown a
little too high in going at once to the Home Office.
They might have told him more, perhaps, in Scotland
Yard. ’But it’s all true. The
depositions have already been made. Adamson and
Young have sworn that they were present at no marriage.
Crinkett they say, means to plead guilty; but the woman
sticks to it like wax.’
The squire had written a letter by the day-mail to
say that he would remain in London that further day.
He now wrote again, at the Post-office, telling Hester
all that Bagwax had told him, and declaring his purpose
of going at once to Scotland Yard.
If this story were true, then certainly his son would
soon be liberated.
Mr. Smirkie Is Ill-used
It was on a Tuesday that Mr. Caldigate made his visit
to the Home Office, and on the Thursday he returned
to Cambridge. On the platform whom should he
meet but his brother-in-law Squire Babington, who had
come into Cambridge that morning intent on hearing
something further about his nephew. He, too,
had read a paragraph in his newspaper, ’The
Snapper,’ as to Crinkett and Euphemia Smith.
