POLICEMAN FITZROY'S ROMANCE.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 107, 7 May 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

POLICEMAN FITZROY'S ROMANCE.

■+ Good-looking Policeman Fitzroy sat in the midst of half-a-dozen men one cold ■winter's night, listening with a show of impatience to the cynical conversation of his bluecoated brethren, but refraining from participating in the discussion. " I believe in giving any one who attempts suicide the full penalty," said the sergeant, who was buttoning up his great-coat preparatory to a :tour. "Or let 'em drown," growled 'O'Neil. "Of course, you can't let 'em ; but it's what they deserve." A frown overcast Fitzroy's face, but quickly disappeared. Then, for f the first time, joining in the conversation, he said : — " You are partly right and partly wrong. After all your growling about suicides, there is not one of jou that would not risk his neck to save a woman. I'll tell you tin oxperience of mine that will rub up the eofter sides of some of you, perhaps, and do you good." The policemen settled themselves for Fitzroy's story, for he was a quiet earnest .fellow, who seldom contributed much to the talk. " It was while I was up in a riverside district," continued Fitzroy, " that the incident I am going to relate occurred. I was trying to keep warm one bitterly cold night, while the snow fell thick and fast, and the wind howled a doleful chorus. I had one of those terribly long beats that run down to the river, and take a man half the night to get round. " The snow lay some inches deep on the ground, except where it was swept up into wreaths, and the flying flakes blinded me so that I could hardly see, yet I had to keep moving or freeze. " I don't think I ever longed for the end of the watch so much as on that night. Besides, I was a new man in the force then, and had not toughened up as I am now. There were not more than half-a-dozen Ixouses along my entire route, and the wind had a clear sweep up from the river. ""Well, it was getting towards 11 o'clock, and an hour more would let me free and entitle me to flounder back to the station-house and thaw out. " I was only a short distance from the river, and I thought that I would juit about reach there and back by midnight. "I stopped a moment under the last lamp-post, so as to get a glimpse at my watch, when something apgeared to flit by me. I was startled and looked up, but saw nothing, and concluded I was nervous. " Still, I felt uneasy, and hastened down towards the river. " I had advanced but a few yards, when I thought I heard something like a sob come to me out of the blackness. " The snow blinded me so that I could not see ten yards, and there were no more gas lamps. "I'll own that I felt a bit squeamish, for you must remember I was a new man on the force in those days, and there was something mysterious and unnerving about the whole business. "It did'nt occur to me that burglars could be slouching about that lonely place on such a night; but all the same I felt queer. "Then l just ran as fast aslcould in the direction of the sound. I could hear no footfalls, for the snow deadened all sounds, and for that reason my own progress was noiseless. " The road fell rapidly as it neared the river, and I was almost on the wharf before I knew it. I could hear the ice go crunching by, driven along by the swift current, and it made me shudder to think of the fate of any poor creature whom accident or design should consign to that awful flood of jagged ice. " The thought had hardly crossed niy brain when my blood froze with horror, for there arose out of the storm the most heartrending wail. "Imagine all the sorrow, all the despair, all the terror and all the suffering in the world concentrated into one long wail, and you will get an idea of the horror that took possession of me. "I couldn't stop, for I was going down hill at too great a speed. Then, right in front of me, I saw a figure with hands outstretched over the water. " I never believed much in spirits and supernatural things, and had always said that nothing that was flesh and blood could scare me. "But the old folk came from a part of Ireland where banshees are common as fireflies, and deathwatches, and all manner of horrible things are common talk. "All the blood-curdling stories of my boyhood came up before me, and that long, heartrending wail sounded for all the world like the wail of the banshee. The next instant the figure sprang from the wall into the river. " I had never heard of the banshee or any other supernatural thing doing that, and I sprang to the wall in an instant. " There, upon the ice, lay a form. The set-back into the pier made the ice stationary, and it had piled up thick and jagged and frozen sold. " I jumped over upon the ice without a second thought. It was a risky thing to do, for five feet further out the ice was grinding in the current, and nothing could have saved me. "I raised the form in my arms. It was a young girl or a child. The burden was very light. "It lay limp in my arms, and my first thought was that the poor thing was dead. "But there was no time to lose. The ice, shaken by the force of my descent, was trembling under the combined weight of myself and burden, and I made haste to extricate myself from the dangerous position. "Luckily I, with some difficulty, got out and landed my burden on the dock. > "I feared the poor creature was past all human aid, but ran to the nearest house and called for help. "It seemed an age until the welcome sound of voices came to my ears. " During the interval I took off my overcoat and wrapped it about the little form, and. kept chafing the hands to restore circulation, if life

remained. It was too dark to see the features, but I could see that there was a great gash on the forehead, where the jagged ice had wounded her. " I don't think I could have held out many more minutes, when the people came. I lost consciousness as the lamps flashed in my face, and knew nothing more until I woke up in the hospital. " The doctor told me the girl had not opened her eyes, and he feared the cold and exposure and the wound would prove fatal. He said the poor thing was emaciated, as if starved. "You may well believe I was sorry for the bad news, boys. Some brandy brought me round all right, but the doctor would not let me go until morning, when I returned to the station and reported my case of attempted suicide " Well, it waß three weeks before 1 was called on to go down and testify against the little girl I had tried to save. "I tell you it was the hardest thing I ever had to do, for I felt that I was going to send the poor creature to prison for at least a year. "When I saw the little girl my heart just failed me. I had not till then seen the features of the little body I had taken from the ice. " Such mournful eyes, such lovely features, I had never seen. The poor little girl sat in a chair in the room, looking so frightened, and every now and then sobbing. The magistrate, a big, bluff, kindhearted gentleman, had very like a tear in his eye, for he had a disagreeable task to perform. " Out of consideration for the girl, he held tho examination in his private room. I was forced to tell the whole story, and the easiest way I could put it made it black for the girl. " Then the magtstrate questioned her. She was a wee little woman, hardly bigger than a fourteen-year-old girl, but she said she was nineteen. Her story was a sorrowful one. She had been left an orphan, had been unable to find work, been taken sick and was starving. She denied all knowledge of that dreadful night. " Then she turned her big, black eyes so pleadingly towards me, as if asking me to intercede for her, that I couldn't help tears coming into my eyes. " ' Officer,' said the magistrate, turning quite fircely on me, ' how do you know this is the young woman you saw jump into the river ? Did you ever see her face before ?' "'No, sir,' said I. " ' Then you can't swear that this is the same person ? ' "'Ah!' said the old gentleman, with a sigh of relief. 'It seems that there is not sufficient proof to, hold this young woman, and so I shall discharge her. You have done very well, officer. But what is to become of her ? She is too old to send to a charitable institution.' " ' Sir, 1 said I, ' I know a nice old lady who will be glad to give her a home until she can do better.' "The magistrate looked straight at me for a full minute, as if he wanted to read my heart, and then he shook me by the hand, and said — " All right, young man. Bring the old lady to see me this afternoon.' "I went home and told my old mother all about it, and the good soul warmed to the friendless girl, and Bhe went with me to court and had a talk with the magistrate, and brought her home." Officer Fitzroy arose, yawned, and started for the stairs amid a chorus of questions. " Fitzroy, don't leave off that way," said the sergeant' who had delayed his departure. "What became of the poor girl ? " The good-looking young officer hesitated a minute; then, with a half-embarrassed expression, answered — " Nothing became of her, only she got well, and is the prettiest girl in the town." "Yes; but where is she — who is she?" "Well, who she is don't matter. Where is she ? She is still with my mother, and she'll be Mrs. Fitzroy if she don't change her mind."