“Robbed!” he gasped as he sank into a chair and let his hands fall to his sides. He was the picture of hopeless despair, and his head sank upon his breast as though every muscle had lost its power to serve. “Robbed!” he groaned again. “T’ safe prised open and every penny ta’en! Every penny! Every penny!”
In the moment of his utter wretchedness he forgot to swear, and could only groan; but as Keturah screamed and put her hand to her side he raised his head and looked at her.
“Every penny, Keturah!” he groaned, holding out his trembling arms to his sister like a troubled child who seeks the refuge of its mother’s breast. “They’ve robbed me of every penny! Five hunderd golden sovereigns gone—clean gone!”
Roused by the shrill scream Nancy came downstairs. The sense of what seemed to Keturah an overwhelming disaster had wiped out all the antipathies of past weeks and dried up tears and reproaches alike, and she was kneeling on the rug with her arm on her brother’s shoulders, crooning into ears that were deaf to all she said, meaningless assurances that all would yet be well.
Baldwin’s face showed that he was insensible to all that was passing and conscious only of one great fact.
“Robbed, lass!” he repeated, gazing vacantly into Nancy’s eyes. “Every penny’s ta’en——!”
Nancy waited for nothing more; but hastened into the shop, and finding that the men assembled there knew nothing, despatched Frank for the policeman.
The “Packhorse” was uncomfortably full that evening but nobody complained of inconvenience or overcrowding, though there were those there whose faces were seldom seen in that company, and some who had walked through deep snowdrifts and past other houses of entertainment in order to be present. Albert was doing a roaring trade but found time to drop an observation from time to time as he moved about.
“In Hull, you say?” Swithin inquired. “And what time might he ha’ gone to Hull?”
“Our Jackie drave him down for t’ eight train,” the speaker replied, “and wor fain to see t’ last on him, for he wor as glum as a slug all t’ road, and never gave t’ lad a copper for his-sen, same as most of ’em does.”