Chapter 53

Herbert lay asleep in his bed, and our old fellow-student lay asleep on the sofa. I made up the fire, and got some coffee ready for them. In good time they too started up strong and well, and we admitted the sharp morning air at the windows, and looked at the tide that was still flowing towards us.

“When it turns at nine o’clock,” said Herbert, cheerfully, “look out for us, and stand ready, you over there at Mill Pond Bank!”

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. I took a bag. Of all my worldly possessions I took no more than the few necessaries that filled the bag. My mind was wholly set on Provis’s safety.

We loitered down to the Temple stairs, and stood there. After that we went on board and cast off; Herbert in the bow, I steering. It was then half-past eight.

Our plan was this. The steamer for Hamburg and the steamer for Rotterdam would start from London at about nine on Thursday morning. We should know at what time to expect them, and would hail the first; so that, if by any accident we were not taken abroad, we should have another chance. We knew the distinguishing marks of each vessel.

The crisp air, the sunlight, the movement on the river, and the moving river itself freshened me with new hope.

Now I, sitting in the stern, could see, with a faster beating heart, Mill Pond Bank and Mill Pond stairs.

“Is he there?” said Herbert.

“Not yet.”

“Right! He was not to come down till he saw us. Can you see his signal?”

“Not well from here; but I think I see it. – Now I see him! Pull both. Easy, Herbert. Oars!”

Provis had his boat-cloak on him, and looked a natural part of the scene. It was remarkable that he was the least anxious of any of us.

“If you knew, dear boy,” he said to me, “what it is to sit here with my dear boy and have my smoke, after being between four walls! But you don’t know what it is.”

“I think I know the delights of freedom,” I answered.

“Ah,” said he, shaking his head gravely. “But you don’t know it equal to me.”

“If all goes well,” said I, “you will be perfectly free and safe again within a few hours.”

“Well,” he returned, drawing a long breath, “I hope so.”

The air felt cold upon the river, but it was a bright day, and the sunshine was very cheering. The tide ran strong.

Our oarsmen were still fresh. We got ashore among some slippery stones while we ate and drank what we had with us, and looked about. It was like my own marsh country, flat and monotonous, and with a dim horizon.

We pushed off again. It was much harder work now, but Herbert and Startop rowed and rowed and rowed until the sun went down.

Finally we ran alongside a little causeway made of stones. Leaving the rest in the boat, I stepped ashore, and found the light to be in a window of a public-house. It was a dirty place enough; but there was a good fire in the kitchen, and there were eggs and bacon to eat, and various liquors to drink. Also, there were two double-bedded rooms. No other company was in the house than the landlord, his wife, and a worker.

I lay down with the greater part of my clothes on, and slept well for a few hours. When I awoke, the wind had risen, and the sign of the house was creaking and banging about. I looked out of the window and I saw two men looking into our boat.

My first impulse was to call up Herbert, and show him the two men going away. But reflecting, before I got into his room, which was at the back of the house, that he and Startop had had a harder day than I, and were fatigued, I forbore. Going back to my window, I could see the two men moving over the marsh. In that light, however, I soon lost them, and, feeling very cold, lay down to think of the matter, and fell asleep again.

We were up early.

Provis smoked his pipe as we went along, and sometimes stopped to clap me on the shoulder. It seemed that it was I who was in danger, not he, and that he was reassuring me. We spoke very little. By that time it was ten minutes of one o’clock, and we began to look out for the steamer’s smoke.

But, it was half-past one before we saw the smoke, and soon afterwards we saw behind it the smoke of another steamer. As they were coming on at full speed, we got the two bags ready, and took that opportunity of saying good by to Herbert and Startop. We had all shaken hands cordially, and neither Herbert’s eyes nor mine were quite dry, when I saw a strange boat a little way ahead of us.

The galley was visible, it was coming head on. I called to Herbert and Startop to keep before the tide, that she might see us lying by for her, and I adjured Provis to sit quite still, wrapped in his cloak. He answered cheerily, “Trust to me, dear boy,” and sat like a statue. Meantime the galley had crossed us.

“You have a returned Transport there,” said the man who held the lines. “That’s the man, wrapped in the cloak. His name is Abel Magwitch, otherwise Provis. I apprehend that man, and call upon him to surrender, and you to assist.”

At the same moment, without giving any audible direction to his crew, he ran the galley abroad of us. They were holding on to us, before we knew what they were doing. This caused great confusion on board the steamer, and I heard them calling to us. In the same moment I saw the face of the other convict of long ago, and heard a great cry on board the steamer, and a loud splash in the water, and felt the boat sink from under me.

Magwitch fell in the water with his enemy. They drowned together, and Magwitch went up alone. He began to swim, but he was not swimming freely. He was taken on board, and instantly manacled at the wrists and ankles.

Magwitch – Provis no longer – had received some very severe injury in the chest, and a deep cut in the head. The injury to his chest (which rendered his breathing extremely painful) he thought he had received against the side of the galley.

Chapter 54

We remained at the public-house until the tide turned, and then Magwitch was carried down to the galley and put on board. Herbert and Startop were to get to London by land, as soon as they could. We had a doleful parting, and when I took my place by Magwitch’s side, I felt that that was my place while he lived.

In the hunted, wounded creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had been my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately and gratefully towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe.

His breathing became more difficult and painful, and often he could not repress a groan. That he would be leniently treated, I could not hope. He who had been presented in the worst light at his trial, who had since broken prison and had been tried again, who had returned from transportation under a life sentence, and who had occasioned the death of the man who was the cause of his arrest.

“Dear boy,” he said, “I’m quite content. I’ve seen my boy, and he can be a gentleman without me.”

No. I had thought about that, while we had been there side by side. No. I understood Wemmick’s hint now. I foresaw that Magwitch’s possessions would be forfeited to the Crown.

“Look here, dear boy,” said he. “Only come to see me. Sit where I can see you, and I don’t ask anymore.”

“I will never leave you,” said I, “I will be as true to you as you have been to me!”

Chapter 55

He was taken to the Police Court next day. Mr. Jaggers told me that the case must be over in five minutes, and that no power on earth could prevent its going against us.

Mr. Jaggers was angry with me for having “let money slip through my fingers.” I understood that very well. I was not connected with Magwitch by any tie.

It was at this dark time of my life that Herbert returned home one evening and said —

“My dear Handel, I fear I shall soon have to leave you. I shall go to Cairo, and I am very much afraid I must go, Handel, when you most need me.”

“Herbert, I shall always need you, because I shall always love you; but my need is no greater now than at another time.”

“You will be so lonely.”

“My dear fellow,” said Herbert, “have you thought of your future?”

“No, for I have been afraid to think of any future.”

“My dear dear Handel, in the branch house of ours, Handel, we must have a – ”

I saw that his delicacy was avoiding the right word, so I said, “A clerk.”

“A clerk. And I hope that he may expand (as a clerk of your acquaintance has expanded) into a partner. Now, Handel – in short, my dear boy, will you come to me?”

I thanked him heartily, but said I could not yet make sure of joining him as he so kindly offered.

On the Saturday in that same week, I took my leave of Herbert. Then I went into a coffee-house; and on the stairs I encountered Wemmick, who was coming down.

“You don’t blame me, I hope, Mr. Pip?” said Wemmick, “I am sure I tried to serve you, with all my heart.”

“I am as sure of that, Wemmick, as you can be, and I thank you most earnestly for all your interest and friendship.”

“Thank you, thank you very much. It’s a bad job,” said Wemmick, scratching his head, “So much portable property! Lost! Gone!”

“What I think of, Wemmick, is the poor owner of the property.”