CHAPTER XXIV

THOMAS GARTH PLAYDEN

It was in London itself where I next set foot on land. Dirk marched me away to a riverside lodging where he seemed well known, and handing me some money gave me my freedom for the day, but told me to return without fail every evening at six, for he didn't know when he would need to be under way again. I promised faithfully not to fail him, and he merely gave my arm a little extra squeeze as he repeated his command, knowing quite well, I think, that I had learnt my lesson too thoroughly to put myself in fault any more.

So I trotted away to find Worthing. But what with the wonder of the new sights, the strange confusion of the streets, the stupefying hubbub of the traffic and the crowds, it was a long time before I reached the city and hunted out the office of Worthing's uncle. And even then I was afraid to enter. Everything within looked so neat and orderly, though dismally dark and stuffy, that I became acutely conscious of my ungainly seafaring apparel, though I was no longer dressed in the jersey of the fisherman's boy. But about this time I began to be aware of my own appearance, and felt a confused shame if my clothes didn't sit well upon me. So I peeped within, and then looked down at myself, realizing how my wrists stuck out from the short sleeves of my jacket; and I was ashamed to enter. I slunk away, but presently coming across a clothier's, after long hesitation and much passing and repassing of the stall, I at length made the plunge and demanded a suit of shore-going apparel. That led to a visit to a barber's where reluctantly I sacrificed my incipient sailor pig-tail which I had begun to cultivate with romantic zest.

However, all this is rather needless detail. I soon found myself trimmed up in a costume that satisfied my sense of the elegant and the decorous, and returning to the office didn't hesitate this time, but boldly marching in asked if I might see Worthing Bright. I was shown into a tiny inner room where I saw my friend perched up at a ridiculously high desk, a quill behind his ear, and busily scanning an imposing document. In the moment before he turned round I inhaled such a lungful of musty air smelling of dust and damp and old leather that I wondered how he could remain there more than five minutes without being sick.

At the announcement of my name he pivoted round on his stool, and at the sight of me dropped the document to the desk, and jumped to the floor. In a trice we were shaking each other by the hand, beaming our joy at the reunion.

It was lunch-time, so Worthing whisked me away to an ordinary, and over a savoury pie and a mug of porter we chatted of our doings. At least I did, for Worthing didn't have much to say for himself, though I managed to screw from him the story of the way he had rescued me from Rancey Bridge. He was able to laugh at the affair now, though something of the indignity he had suffered still seemed to rankle at his pride. But all I learnt fresh was that being in the confidence of the Doctor he had discovered where my knife and pistol were kept, and so had been able to steal them and bring them to me. He added no comment; and the rest I knew.

He shrugged at the affair, and dismissed it; but he was excited at my own particular business. However, he soon calmed down to his usual sedate self-control, and told me something of his progress in the solution of the mystery. He had been going into the whole affair, and his uncle was as keen as himself to unravel the thing, and was absent even then following up the clue; and though he wouldn't give me particulars he hinted that the matter was taking on a proportion that promised to make it of unique interest in the history of crime. "In fact, Tommy," he said, "I'm afraid your dad's very much in the background. We're after higher game."

All this wasn't of much comfort to me. I felt a little hurt that Worthing could so far forget my loss in the mere thrill of the legal triumph that he declared lay before him. But I knew his nature. The human counted for little, the legal for much. Indeed, apart from his friendship with me I don't think he had a tie to bind him to humanity.

He had set my own personal affairs in order, I soon found. My father had left, not a fortune indeed, but a competence which with husbanding would yield an income sufficient to guarantee independence. So at least Worthing assured me, though the figures which he set down for me in orderly columns conveyed exactly nothing to me. I asked him to look after the whole thing, and to let me have money when I wanted it. As for me, I intended to study seamanship under Dirk.

At this Worthing frowned slightly as though considering the matter; then drawing out a document he studied it carefully, and at last said that he thought that would do. It seemed that my father had stipulated that I was to apprentice myself to some profession, or, if I preferred, to continue at school till I was seventeen and then proceed to a university. But the thought of a scholastic career for a fellow like myself sent me into a roar of laughter.

I needn't detail all the legal business that had to be transacted. There were documents to sign of whose contents I was blissfully ignorant, and lawyers and magistrates to visit; but Worthing steered me safely through the confusing processes. I remembered how my father had said that Worthing was the kind of fellow to have for a friend. Evidently his dying thought turning towards me had been that Worthing would care for me if he left the whole matter in his hands. The matter was tangled enough too; for my father had no discoverable relations, and there seemed some difficulty in proving my identity. His money had been left in a lump sum at a goldsmith's who knew no more of him than his face and his signature. When in need of funds my father had called personally and taken what he wanted from the store. However, at last I found myself master of the inheritance, and entrusting it to Worthing was assured that I might count on a yearly income of a few hundred pounds; for he invested the money for me, and saw the deeds safely banked in my name.

He also handed me some papers of my father's: fragments of poems and stories for the most part, which I laid aside to examine at my leisure.

The most curious thing to me was the discovery that I really had a name. Of course at school I had had an appendage dangling in the rear of Tommy, but I had paid little heed to it, and cannot now remember what it was. Now I found I had a real name of my own, and felt extraordinarily elated at the discovery. I could sign myself Thomas Garth Playden.

But amazing as this discovery was, it was even more amazing to learn that my father, who hadn't even had a Christian name that I knew of, had been Walter Noel Playden, Esq. I couldn't reconcile myself to it. It seemed so utterly foolish to think of my father otherwise than as Daddy. He was associated in my mind with everything romantic and mysterious, and should have been nameless to the end of time. To fix him with a title like this was to strip him of the glamour that had always clouded him about like a glory. He was no longer an emanation from the pages of a wonderful tale, but merely a creature of flesh and blood who clothed himself like another and fed on bread and meat. It was indeed the first blow levelled at the illusions that had clung about my childhood. With a name of my own, and with a father who also had his individual title, I took my first step out of Fairyland into the world of men and women.