第20章

In the room the gas was burning full head; on a chair was a pile of clothing.He ran to the window, could not get it up, but smashed it with a chair, and stepped out on the landing of the fire-escape; below him was a crowd of men, with a sprinkling of women and youth, massed in a ruddy light.Must he go down in his spectral night dress? No--this side of the house was not yet on fire except at the further end; he would snatch on those clothes.Which he did.They fitted well enough, though a trifle loosely, and they were just a shade loud as to pattern.Also as to hat--which was of a new breed to him, Buffalo Bill not having been to England yet.One side of the coat went on, but the other side refused;one of its sleeves was turned up and stitched to the shoulder.He started down without waiting to get it loose, made the trip successfully, and was promptly hustled outside the limit-rope by the police.

The cowboy hat and the coat but half on made him too much of a centre of attraction for comfort, although nothing could be more profoundly respectful, not to say deferential, than was the manner of the crowd toward him.In his mind he framed a discouraged remark for early entry in his diary: "It is of no use; they know a lord through any disguise, and show awe of him--even something very like fear, indeed."Presently one of the gaping and adoring half-circle of boys ventured a timid question.My lord answered it.The boys glanced wonderingly at each other and from somewhere fell the comment:

"English cowboy! Well, if that ain't curious."Another mental note to be preserved for the diary: "Cowboy.Now what might a cowboy be? Perhaps--" But the viscount perceived that some more questions were about to be asked; so he worked his way out of the crowd, released the sleeve, put on the coat and wandered away to seek a humble and obscure lodging.He found it and went to bed and was soon asleep.

In the morning, he examined his clothes.They were rather assertive, it seemed to him, but they were new and clean, at any rate.There was considerable property in the pockets.Item, five one-hundred dollar bills.Item, near fifty dollars in small bills and silver.Plug of tobacco.Hymn-book, which refuses to open; found to contain whiskey.

Memorandum book bearing no name.Scattering entries in it, recording in a sprawling, ignorant hand, appointments, bets, horse-trades, and so on, with people of strange, hyphenated name--Six-Fingered Jake, Young-Man-afraid-of his-Shadow, and the like.No letters, no documents.

The young man muses-maps out his course.His letter of credit is burned;he will borrow the small bills and the silver in these pockets, apply part of it to advertising for the owner, and use the rest for sustenance while he seeks work.He sends out for the morning paper, next, and proceeds to read about the fire.The biggest line in the display-head announces his own death! The body of the account furnishes all the particulars; and tells how, with the inherited heroism of his caste, he went on saving women and children until escape for himself was impossible; then with the eyes of weeping multitudes upon him, he stood with folded arms and sternly awaited the approach of the devouring fiend;"and so standing, amid a tossing sea of flame and on-rushing billows of smoke, the noble young heir of the great house of Rossmore was caught up in a whirlwind of fiery glory, and disappeared forever from the vision of men."The thing was so fine and generous and knightly that it brought the moisture to his eyes.Presently he said to himself: "What to do is as plain as day, now.My Lord Berkeley is dead--let him stay so.Died creditably, too; that will make the calamity the easier for my father.

And I don't have to report to the American Claimant, now.Yes, nothing could be better than the way matters have turned out.I have only to furnish myself with a new name, and take my new start in life totally untrammeled.Now I breathe my first breath of real freedom; and how fresh and breezy and inspiring it is! At last I am a man! a man on equal terms with my neighbor; and by my manhood; and by it alone, I shall rise and be seen of the world, or I shall sink from sight and deserve it.

This is the gladdest day, and the proudest, that ever poured it's sun upon my head!"