Post Haste Part 8

"What! you don't mean to say you can eat it all yourself for dinner?"

"The extent of my ability in the disposal of wittles," answered Pax, "I have never fairly tested. I think I could eat this at one meal, though I ain't sure, but it's meant to serve me all day. You see I find a good, solid, well-made plum-pudding, with not too much suet, and a moderate allowance of currants and raisins, an admirable squencher of appet.i.te. It's portable too, and keeps well. Besides, if I can't get through with it at supper, it fries up next mornin' splendidly.--Come, I'll let you taste a bit, an' that's a favour w'ich I wouldn't grant to every one."

"No, thank 'ee, Pax. I'm already loaded and primed for the forenoon, but I'll sit by you while you eat, and chat."

"You're welcome," returned Pax, "only don't be cheeky, Philip, as I can't meet you on an equal footing w'en I'm at grub."

"I'll be careful, Pax; but don't call me Philip--call me Phil."

"I will, Phil; come along, Phil; `Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can'--that sort o' thing you understand, Phil, me darlint?"

There was such a superhuman amount of knowing presumption in the look and air of Pax, as he poked Phil in the ribs and winked, that the latter burst into laughter, in which however he was not joined by his companion, who with the goblet in one hand and the other thrust into his pocket, stood regarding his new friend with a pitiful expression till he recovered, and then led him off to a confabulation which deepened their mutual esteem.

That same evening a gentleman called at the Post-Office, desiring to see Philip Maylands. It turned out to be George Aspel.

"Why, George, what brings you here?" said Phil in surprise.

"I chanced to be in the neighbourhood," answered Aspel, "and came to ask the address of that little creature who posted my letter the other night. I want to see her. She does not go to your cousin's, I know, till morning, and I must see her to-night, to make sure that she _did_ post the letter, for, d'you know, I've had no reply from Sir James, and I can't rest until I ascertain whether my letter was posted. Can you tell me where she lives, Phil?"

At that moment Phil was summoned for duty. Giving his friend the address hastily, he left him.

George Aspel pa.s.sed the front of the General Post-Office on his way to visit Tottie Bones, and, observing a considerable bustle going on there, he stopped to gaze, for George had an inquiring mind. Being fresh from the country, his progress through the streets of London, as may be well understood, was slow. It was also hara.s.sing to himself and the public, for when not actually standing entranced in front of shop-windows his irresistible tendency to look in while walking resulted in many collisions and numerous apologies. At the General Post-Office he avoided the stream of human beings by getting under the lee of one of the pillars of the colonnade, whence he could look on undisturbed.

Up to six o'clock letters are received in the letter-box at St.

Martin's-le-Grand for the mails which leave London at eight each evening. The place for receiving book-parcels and newspapers, however, closes half-an-hour sooner. Before five a bra.s.s slit in the wall suffices for the public, but within a few minutes of the half-hour the steady run of men and boys towards it is so great that the slit becomes inadequate. A trap-door is therefore opened in the pavement, and a yawning abyss displayed which communicates by an inclined plane with the newspaper regions below. Into this abyss everything is hurled.

When Aspel took up his position people were hurrying towards the hole, some with single book-parcels, or a few newspapers, others with armfuls, and many with sackfuls. In a few minutes the rapid walk became a run.

Men, boys, and girls sprang up the steps--occasionally tumbled up,-- jostled each other in their eager haste, and tossed, dropped, hurled, or poured their contributions into the receptacle, which was at last fed so hastily that it choked once or twice, and a policeman, a.s.sisted by an official, stuffed the literary matter down its throat--with difficulty, however, owing to the ever-increasing stream of contributors to the feast. The trap-door, when open, formed a barrier to the hole, which prevented the too eager public from being posted headlong with their papers. One youth staggered up the steps under a sack so large that he could scarcely lift it over the edge of the barrier without the policeman's aid. Him Aspel questioned, as he was leaving with the empty sack, and found that he was the porter of one of the large publis.h.i.+ng firms of the city.

Others he found came from advertising agents with sacks of circulars, etcetera.

Soon the minutes were reduced to seconds, and the work became proportionally fast and furious; sacks, baskets, hampers, trays of material were emptied violently into that insatiable maw, and in some cases the sacks went in along with their contents. But owners' names being on these, they were recoverable elsewhere.

Suddenly, yet slowly, the opening closed. The monster was satisfied for that time; it would not swallow another morsel, and one or two unfortunates who came late with large bags of newspapers and circulars had to resort to the comparatively slow process of cramming their contents through the narrow slit above, with the comforting certainty that they had missed that post.

Turning from this point George Aspel observed that the box for letters-- closing, as we have said, half an hour later than that for books and papers--was beginning to show symptoms of activity. At a quarter to six the long metal slit suddenly opened up like a gaping mouth, into which a harlequin could have leaped easily. Through it Aspel could look--over the heads of the public--and see the officials inside dragging away great baskets full of letters to be manipulated in the mysterious realms inside. At five minutes to six the rush towards this mouth was incessant, and the operations at the newspaper-tomb were pretty much repeated, though, of course, the contents of bags and baskets were not quite so ponderous. At one side of the mouth stood an official in a red coat, at the other a policeman. These a.s.sisted the public to empty their baskets and trays, gave information, sometimes advice, and kept people moving on. Little boys there, as elsewhere, had a strong tendency to skylark and gaze at the busy officials inside, to the obstruction of the way. The policeman checked their propensities. A stout elderly female panted towards the mouth with a letter in one hand and a paper in the other. She had full two minutes and a half to spare, but felt convinced she was too late. The red-coated official posted her letter, and pointed out the proper place for the newspaper. At two minutes to six anxious people began to run while yet in the street.

Cool personages, seeing the clock, and feeling safe, affected an easy nonchalance, but did not loiter. One minute to six--eager looks were on the faces of those who, from all sides, converged towards the great receiving-box. The active sprang up the wide stairs at a bound, heaved in their bundles, or packets, or single missives, and heaved sighs of relief after them; the timid stumbled on the stairs and blundered up to the mouth; while the hasty almost plunged into it bodily. Even at this critical moment there were lulls in the rush. Once there was almost a dead pause, and at that moment an exquisite sauntered towards the mouth, dropped a solitary little letter down the slope where whole cataracts had been flowing, and turned away. He was almost carried off his legs by two youths from a lawyer's office, who rushed up just as the first stroke of six o'clock rang out on the night air. Slowly and grandly it tolled from St. Paul's, whose mighty dome was visible above the house-tops from the colonnade. During these fleeting moments a few dozens of late ones posted some hundreds of letters. With kindly consideration the authorities of St. Martin's-le-Grand have set their timepieces one minute slow. Aware of this, a clerk, gasping and with a pen behind his ear, leaped up the steps at the last stroke, and hurled in a bundle of letters. Next moment, like inexorable fate, the mouth closed, and nothing short of the demolition of the British Const.i.tution could have induced that mouth to convey another letter to the eight o'clock mails.

Hope, however, was not utterly removed. Those who chose to place an additional penny stamp on their letters could, by posting them in a separate box, have them taken in for that mail up to seven. Twopence secured their acceptance up to 7:15. Threepence up to 7:30, and sixpence up to 7:45, but all letters posted after six without the late fees were detained for the following mail.

"Sharp practice!" observed George Aspel to the red-coated official, who, after shutting the mouth, placed a ticket above it which told all corners that they were too late.

"Yes, sir, and pretty sharp work is needful when you consider that the mails we've got to send out daily from this office consist of over 5800 bags, weighing forty-three tons, while the mails received number more than 5500 bags. Speaks to a deal of correspondence that, don't it, sir?"

"What!--every day?" exclaimed Aspel in surprise.

"Every day," replied the official, with a good-humoured smile and an emphatic nod. "Why, sir," he continued, in a leisurely way, "we're some what of a literary nation, we are. How many letters, now, d'you think, pa.s.s through the Post-Office altogether--counting England, Scotland, and Ireland?"

"Haven't the remotest idea."

"Well, sir," continued the red-coated man, with impressive solemnity, "we pa.s.ses through our hands in one year about one thousand and fifty-seven million odd."

"I know enough of figures," said Aspel, with a laugh, "to be aware that I cannot realise such a number."

"Nevertheless, sir," continued the official, with a patronising air, "you can realise something _about_ such a number. For instance, that sum gives thirty-two letters per head to the population in the year; and, of course, as thousands of us can't write, and thousands more don't write, it follows that the real correspondents of the kingdom do some pretty stiff work in the writing way. But these are only the _letters_.

If you include somewhere about four hundred and twenty million post-cards, newspapers, book-packets, and circulars, you have a sum total of fourteen hundred and seventy-seven million odd pa.s.sing through our hands. Put that down in figures, sir, w'en you git home-- 1,477,000,000--an p'r'aps it'll open your eyes a bit. If you want 'em opened still wider, just try to find out how long it would take you to count that sum, at the rate of sixty to the minute, beginning one, two, three, and so on, workin' eight hours a day without takin' time for meals, but givin' you off sixty-five days each year for Sundays and holidays to recruit your wasted energies."

"How long _would_ it take?" asked Aspel, with an amused but interested look.

"W'y, sir, it would take you just a little over one hundred and seventy years. The calculation ain't difficult; you can try it for yourself if you don't believe it.--Good-night, sir," added the red-coated official, with a pleasant nod, as he turned and entered the great building, where a huge proportion of this amazing work was being at that moment actively manipulated.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

DOWNWARD--DEEPER AND DEEPER.

As the great bell of St. Paul's struck the half-hour, George Aspel was reminded of the main object of his visit to that part of the City.

Descending to the street, and pondering in silent wonder on the vast literary correspondence of the kingdom, he strode rapidly onward, his long legs enabling him to pa.s.s ahead of the stream of life that flowed with him, and causing him to jostle not a few members of the stream that opposed him.

"Hallo, sir!" "Look out!" "Mind your eye, stoopid!" "Now, then, you lamp-post, w'ere are you a-goin' to?" "Wot asylum 'ave _you_ escaped from?" were among the mildest remarks with which he was greeted.

But Aspel heeded them not. The vendors of penny marvels failed to attract him. Even the print-shop windows had lost their influence for a time; and as for monkeys, barrel-organs, and trained birds, they were as the dust under his feet, although at other times they formed a perpetual feast to his unsophisticated soul. "Letters, letters, letters!"

He could think of nothing else. "Fourteen hundred and seventy-seven millions of letters, etcetera, through the Post-Office in one year!"

kept ringing through his brain; only varied in its monotony by "that gives thirty-two letters per head to the entire population, and as lots of 'em can't write, of course it's much more for those who can! Take a man one hundred and seventy years to count 'em!"

At this point the brilliant glare of a gin-palace reminded him that he had walked far and long, and had for some time felt thirsty. Entering, he called for a pot of beer. It was not a huge draught for a man of his size. As he drained it the memory of grand old jovial sea-kings crossed his mind, and he called for another pot. As he was about to apply it to his lips, and shook back his flaxen curls, the remembrance of, a Norse drinking-cup in his possession--an heirloom, which could not stand on its bottom, and had therefore to be emptied before being set down,-- induced him to chuckle quietly before quaffing his beer.

On setting down the empty pot he observed a poor miserable-looking woman, with a black eye and a black bottle, gazing at him in undisguised admiration. Instantly he called for a third pot of beer. Being supplied by the wondering shop-boy, he handed it to the woman; but she shook her head, and drew back with an air of decision.

"No, sir," she said, "but thank you kindly all the same, sir."

"Very well," returned the youth, putting the pot and a half-crown on the counter, "you may drink it or leave it as you please. I pay for it, and you may take the change--or leave that too if you like," he added, as he went out, somewhat displeased that his feeling of generosity had been snubbed.

After wandering a short distance he was involved in labyrinths of brick and mortar, and suddenly became convinced that he was lost. This was however a small matter. To find one's way by asking it is not difficult, even in London, if one possesses average intelligence.

The first man he stopped was a Scot. With characteristic caution that worthy cleared his throat, and with national deliberation repeated Aspel's query, after which, in a marked tone of regret, he said slowly, "Weel, sir, I really div not ken."

Aspel thanked him with a sarcastic smile and pa.s.sed on. His next effort was with a countryman, who replied, "Troth, sur, that's more nor I can tell 'ee," and looked after his questioner kindly as he walked away. A policeman appearing was tried next. "First to the right, sir, third to the left, and ask again," was the sharp reply of that limb of the Executive, as he pa.s.sed slowly on, stiff as a post, and stately as a law of fate.

Having taken the required turns our wanderer found himself in a peculiarly low, dirty, and disagreeable locality. The population was in keeping with it--so much so that Aspel looked round inquiringly before proceeding to "ask again." He had not quite made up his mind which of the tawdry, half-drunken creatures around him he would address, when a middle-aged man of respectable appearance, dressed in black, issued from one of the surrounding dens.

"A city missionary," thought George Aspel, as he approached, and asked for direction to the abode of a man named Abel Bones.

The missionary pointed out the entrance to the desired abode, and looked at his questioner with a glance which arrested the youth's attention.

"Excuse me, sir," he said, "but the man you name has a very bad character."