The doctor examined em, and only said what every one could see plain enough, but he says as well that theyd been gone hours; and that we didnt know.
Then he gives a sniff or two, and says as theres a strong smell of acid about. Is there any cup or bottle anywhere? he says.
I gives a sorter jump, and felt my skin creep, for I recollects the bottle and glasses in the next room, and a cold shiver goes all down my back.
How-so-be, I goes round and opens the folding doors, and shows the doctor the sherry decanter, which had about three glasses at the bottom.
Ah! says he, taking the glassful as I poured out, holding it up to the light, and then sniffing it. Ah, says he, theres more than enough for one in that glassful; and that seems to be the same, he says, smelling at the decanter. Pour it in, pleeceman, and tie the stopper down, and seal it.
I takes up the glass and tries to pour it back, but if my hand didnt shake to that degree that the glass chattered against the neck of the decanter, and I spilt half the stuff on the cloth, I was so scared at the escape Id had.
Well, sir, you see some one as wont take no refusal had been beforehand with his warrant, and took both the forger and his lady, and I know I thought it a most awful affair, for I was rather new to such things then. But whether he poisoned her, or whether theyd agreed to it aforehand, nobody knew, not even the Coroner; but all I know is that never before, nor since, have I met with anything as upset me so much as finding them two poor things lying there in the dark dead, and stiff, and stark; it upset me wonderful at least, that and the sherry together.
Chapter Twelve. A Vulgar Tongue
But my surly driver would not fraternise, for he was of the class known as crusty. He was a sort of moral hedgehog, and, but for his forming a study, I should decidedly have abdicated.
Ah! Hes got his gruel, said my cynical friend as he drove past a fallen horse belonging to the General Omnibus Company. Theres another fall in the kumpnys shares. Sarve em right. No bisniss to have such bad cattle.
Now, the beast I sat behind was about as ill-favoured and lean-fleshed an animal as his master. Evidently given to wind-gall, spavin, and splint, he the horse, not the driver was to an unpractised eye decidedly a jibber; while even a female ear would have detected that he was a roarer. It was evident, though, that my friend could not detect the faults of his own steed, and therefore he lavished all his abuse upon the horses of his contemporaries, whether of cab or bus.
But this driver seemed to have a spite against the world at large; seeming to ooze all over until he broke out into quite a satirical perspiration, while his lips acted as a safety-valve to let off an explosive compound most rapidly formed in his interior. He had a snarl for everything and everybody, and could he have run over some unfortunate crossing-sweeper, he would probably have been in ecstasies. Whenever opportunity offered he snarled often and cruelly at the misfortunes of his fellow-creatures. Where the scavengers had left the scraped-up mud beside the road and where dont they? he would drive right through, noisily and rapidly, forming a large mud firework to the great increase of his after labour, certainly; but this seemed of no account; he was so amply recompensed by the intense gratification he enjoyed in besmirching as many passers-by as happened to be within range; while when he succeeded in producing a currant-dumpling appearance upon a footmans
calves, he was almost apoplectic, and rumbled with delight. Woe to the wandering dog that came within reach of his whip! It would have been better for him had he neer been pupped, for here there was no mercy shown. As to the passing salutations of brother cabs, they, though apparently pungent, glanced off our friends case-hardened composition, and the assailant would depart with a stinging sarcasm tingling and buzzing in his ears.
It was enough to make one ruminate upon the vast amount of the gall of bitterness in the mans mind, and ask how much the cab-riding world had to do with the sharpening of the thorns with which this modern Jehu bristled Jehu, indeed, for he drove most furiously spiny, hooked, venomous, lacerating, clinging, tearing points that would have at you and be in your skin whether you would or no; for upon asking the fare when about to alight, having previously formed the determination not to dispute a sixpence, I was told Two shillings, and then, tendering a florin, was greeted with
Ho! wun o them blessed pieces. Should ha thought as a swell as purfessed to be so interested in kebs would ha been ashamed to horfer less than arf a bull.
But there are amiable and advice-giving cabbies, who seem to take an interest in the welfare of their customers.
I once agreed in times gone by to conwoy Mrs Scribe and her sister, Miss Bellefille, as far as Richmond. Twas summer time, and our imaginations were full of sparkling rivers, green eyots, silver swans, and well, yes, Ill own it, the carnal delights of a Star and Garter dinner, with the following cigar. There was the rail, certainly, but in preference thereto I hired one of her Majestys carriages, VR 123,456. Our buttons had not come up in those days, so I fetched the vehicle from the stand, and rode back beside the driver. Upon reaching Miranda Villas, I lightly leaped down and rang the bell. Wonderful to relate, the ladies waited ready in the passage, and after handing them into the cab, I again mounted to the box, for the purpose of smoking upon the way down.