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MY first few days' experience
in my new position satisfied
me that Doctor Dulcifer preserved
himself from betrayal by a system
of surveillance worthy of the
very worst days of the Holy Inquisition
itself.
No man of us ever knew that
he was not being overlooked at
home, or followed when he went
out, by another man. Peepholes
were pierced in the wall of each
room, and we were never certain,
while at work, whose eye was
observing, or whose ear was listening
in secret. Though we all lived
together, we were probably the
least united body of men ever
assembled under one roof. By
way of effectually keeping up
the want of union between us,
we were not all trusted alike.
I soon discovered that Old File
and Young File were much further
advanced in the doctor's confidence
than Mill, Screw, or myself.
There was a locked-up room, and
a continually-closed door shutting
off a back staircase, of both
of which Old File and Young File
possessed keys that were never
so much as trusted in the possession
of the rest of us. There was
also a trap-door in the floor
of the principal workroom, the
use of which was known to nobody
but the doctor and his two privileged
men. If we had not been all nearly
on an equality in the matter
of wages, these distinctions
would have made bad blood among
us. As it was, nobody having
reason to complain of unjustly-diminished
wages, nobody cared about any
preferences in which profit was
not involved.
The doctor must have gained
a great deal of money by his
skill as a coiner. His profits
in business could never have
averaged less than five hundred
per cent; and, to do him justice,
he was really a generous as well
as a rich master.
Even I, as a new hand, was,
in fair proportion, as well paid
by the week as the rest.
We, of course, had nothing
to do with the passing of false
money--we only manufactured it
(sometimes at the rate of four
hundred pounds' worth in a week);
and left its circulation to be
managed by our customers in London
and the large towns. Whatever
we paid for in Barkingham was
paid for in the genuine Mint
coinage. I used often to compare
my own true guineas, half-crowns
and shillings with our imitations
under the doctor's supervision,
and was always amazed at the
resemblance. Our scientific chief
had discovered a process something
like what is called electrotyping
nowadays, as I imagine. He was
very proud of this; but he was
prouder still of the ring of
his metal, and with reason: it
must have been a nice ear indeed
that could discover the false
tones in the doctor's coinage.
If I had been the most scrupulous
man in the world, I must still
have received my wages, for the
very necessary purpose of not
appearing to distinguish myself
invidiously from my fellow-workmen.
Upon the whole, I got on well
with them. Old File and I struck
up quite a friendship. Young
File and Mill worked harmoniously
with me, but Screw and I (as
I had foreboded) quarreled.
This last man
was not on good terms with
his fellows, and had
less of the doctor's confidence
than any of the rest of us. Naturally
not of a sweet temper, his isolated
position in the house had soured
him, and he rashly attempted
to vent his ill-humor on me,
as a newcomer. For some days
I bore with him patiently; but
at last he got the better of
my powers of endurance; and I
gave him a lesson in manners,
one day, on the educational system
of Gentleman Jones. He did not
return the blow, or complain
to the doctor; he only looked
at me wickedly, and said: "I'll
be even with you for that, some
of these days." I soon forgot
the words and the look.
With Old File, as I have said,
I became quite friendly. Excepting
the secrets of our prison-house,
he was ready enough to talk on
subjects about which I was curious.
He had known his present master
as a young man, and was perfectly
familiar with all the events
of his career. From various conversations,
at odds and ends of spare time,
I discovered that Doctor Dulcifer
had begun life as a footman in
a gentleman's family; that his
young mistress had eloped with
him, taking away with her every
article of value that was her
own personal property, in the
shape of jewelry and dresses;
that they had lived upon the
sale of these things for some
time; and that the husband, when
the wife's means were exhausted,
had turned strolling-player for
a year or two. Abandoning that
pursuit, he had next become a
quack-doctor, first in a resident,
then in a vagabond capacity--taking
a medical degree of his own conferring,
and holding to it as a good traveling
title for the rest of his life.
From the selling of quack medicines
he had proceeded to the adulterating
of foreign wines, varied by lucrative
evening occupation in the Paris
gambling houses. On returning
to his native land, he still
continued to turn his chemical
knowledge to account, by giving
his services to that particular
branch of our commercial industry
which is commonly described as
the adulteration of commodities;
and from this he had gradually
risen to the more refined pursuit
of adulterating gold and silver--or,
to use the common phrase again,
making bad money.
According to Old File's statement,
though Doctor Dulcifer had never
actually ill-used his wife, he
had never lived on kind terms
with her: the main cause of the
estrangement between them, in
later years, being Mrs. Dulcifer's
resolute resistance to her husband's
plans for emerging from poverty,
by the simple process of coining
his own money. The poor woman
still held fast by some of the
principles imparted to her in
happier days; and she was devotedly
fond of her daughter. At the
time of her sudden death, she
was secretly making arrangements
to leave the doctor, and find
a refuge for herself and her
child in a foreign country, under
the care of the one friend of
her family who had not cast her
off. Questioning my informant
about Alicia next, I found that
he knew very little about her
relations with her father in
later years. That she must long
since have discovered him to
be not quite so respectable a
man as he looked, and that she
might suspect something wrong
was going on in the house at
the present time, were, in Old
File's opinion, matters of certainty;
but that she knew anything positively
on the subject of her father's
occupations, he seemed to doubt.
The doctor was not the sort of
man to give his daughter, or
any other woman, the slightest
chance of surprising his secrets.
These particulars I gleaned
during one long month of servitude
and imprisonment in the fatal
red-brick house.
During all that time not the
slightest intimation reached
me of Alicia's whereabouts. Had
she forgotten me? I could not
believe it. Unless the dear brown
eyes were the falsest hypocrites
in the world, it was impossible
that she should have forgotten
me. Was she watched? Were all
means of communicating with me,
even in secret, carefully removed
from her? I looked oftener and
oftener into the doctor's study
as those questions occurred to
me; but he never quitted it without
locking the writing-desk first--he
never left any papers scattered
on the table, and he was never
absent from the room at any special
times and seasons that could
be previously calculated upon.
I began to despair, and to feel
in my lonely moments a yearning
to renew that childish experiment
of crying, which I have already
adverted to, in the way of confession.
Moralists will be glad to hear
that I really suffered acute
mental misery at this time of
my life. My state of depression
would have gratified the most
exacting of Methodists; and my
penitent face would have made
my fortune if I could only have
been exhibited by a reformatory
association on the platform of
Exeter Hall.
How much longer was this to
last? Whither should I turn my
steps when I regained my freedom?
In what direction throughout
all England should I begin to
look for Alicia?
Sleeping and walking--working
and idling--those were now my
constant thoughts. I did my best
to prepare myself for every emergency
that could happen; I tried to
arm myself beforehand against
every possible accident that
could befall me. While I was
still hard at work sharpening
my faculties and disciplining
my energies in this way, an accident
befell the doctor, on the possibility
of which I had not dared to calculate,
even in my most hopeful moments.
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