SHORT STORY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 16, Issue 93, 2 December 1902, Page 7

SHORT STORY.

The Vengeance of Joe Hideous By Ashmoke Russan. I. A Pariah, an outcast; a solitary, pitiable figure, walking in tbe shadow of an awful curse. Such was Joseph Widdows ; though if anyone had spoken of him by that name in Warley, where he lived, the person addressed might have wondered who was meant. Cut everybody knew Joe Hideous. Strangers meeting him involuntarily drew aside. Acquaintances—even his fellowminers at the Warley Main Colliery—shunned him, fearing the Evil Eye. His ugliness was indeed appalling. Gustave Dore never drew a figure and features mor e grotesquely hideous. To describe him more particularly would harrow the reader. Nevertheless, though an ourang-outang might have fled howling at sight of him, he had a very human heart, and he loved—nay, worshipped—Nelly Riley, the prettiest girl in the village. Of this, however, Nelly had not the slightest idea, and she might have remained in happy ignorance but for a chance conversation with a rejected and spiteful lover— Isaac Murgatroyd. In some inscrutable way Isaac had become aware of Joe’s infatuation—the poor fellow had no hope of winning her at this time—and, meeting Nelly alone in Warley Lane, he seized the opportunity to vent his spleen. “ Well, lass,” he said, with a sneering laugh ; “ when’s it coming off?” Nelly hesitated a moment; then, blushing, answered :

“ You had better ask him, Isaac.”

She naturally supposed he was alluding to her marriage witli Tom Edwards, a handsome young collier, who was generally uppermost in her thoughts. Isaac gtinned. “ Nay, lass ;Ah sudn’t like. If he hiked at me crosswise summat wod go wrong, happen.” “ What do you mean ?” she demanded. ‘‘Not much. Ah wor but thinking as Mrs. Hideous wean’t be a pretty name, an’ Joe vvean’t be a pretty husband.” Nelly’s lips curled in contempt of her mean-spirited ex-lover. But she was not angry.

“ Perhaps not, poor fellow !”she rejoined. “ But that doesn’t concern me; though I can tell you this, Isaac—ugly as he is, I’d rather have Joe Hideous than you, any day. He has a deal better heart.”

Murgatroyd burst into a loud laugh, looking beyond the scornful girl. She turned, and met Joe face to face. He was close behind her, and he had heard every word. His distorted features crimsoned with pleasure, but he passed on with his usual greeting: “ Good-day to you, Miss Nelly.”

The girl left Murgatroyd still shaking with laughter, and soon forgot all about the matter. But her wo'rds sank deeply into poor Joe’s heart. He was unaware that she was “ walking out ” with Edwards. Mur: gati oyd was good-looking in his way, and he had a iady killer’s reputation. Joe Hideous had envied him and been jealous of him, and now he had learnt from Nelly’s own lips that she had preferred himself ! Stil, he might never have spoken had not an uncle died and left him LSOO. It was not a-large sum, but it made Joe Hideous a capitalist among the colliers of Warley.

Nelly’s father, who was also employed at the Warley Main, told her the news.

“Has ta heard?” he asked. “Joe Hideous has had a fortin left him—five hundred paand. Nah lass,” he added jokingly, “ there’s a chance for thee. Folks say he’s sweet on thee, tha knaws, an’ happen tlia’ll do waur.” “ Happen I shall,” she rejoined gravely. “ Poor fellow; I’m very glad to hear it, and I hope he’ll find some good woman to share it with as won’t mind his looks.”

“ There’s very decent blind women about,” said Luke Riley enigmatically, and the subject dropped. In the collier’s opinion Joe’s humble adoration was a capital joke nothing more, but a surprise awaited him.

Next day, when returning from work, he overtook the ug y fellow near the Miners’ Arms.

“ Well, lad,” he cried cheerily,” has ta gotten ony o’ that brass on ye ? Ah’m reet thirsty, tha knaws.” “I’ve a pound or two,” answered Joe, who, like Nelly Riley, spoke something approaching Queen’s English, regardless of the sarcasm of his fellows, in whose opinion “ talking fine ” was synonymous with affectation. “If you’ll step inside the Arms, Mr, Riley, I’ll be happy to treat you.” Nothing loth, the thirsty collier followed Joe Hideous into the bar, wheic half a score more miners were refreshing themselves after the toil of the day. Joe paid for as many glasses as each cared to drink. It was the first time that he had treated anyone, almost the only occasion that he had mixed with his fellows on social terms. The rough colliers seemed surprised at his liberality, but none refused; and as the generous ale acted its part, each looked more kindly on the outcast than he had ever done before.

On Joe, who drank sparingly, this unwonted intercourse had an exhilarating effect. He was excited, garrulous, intoxicated with the pleasure of the discovery that here was a way of conquering the aversion in which he had so long been held, grateful as a stray dog which has been given an unexpected meal. “ Now I’ve got this money,” he said rather suddenly, when tho others had gone* and Luke Riley and himself were alone, “ I’ve been wondering if anybody would marry me. Do you think,” wistfully, “.yom - Nelly would?”

Notwithstanding his jocular remarks of the previous day, Nelly’s father was considerably taken aback. It was on the end of his tongue to say, “Not likely,” or its equivalent in tho Warley dialect, hut being a kindly man he refrained. “ Well, tha Knows,” he answered at length, “ that’s a question Ah sudn’t like to answer. Ask her theesen, in a lad.” “ You would have no objection ?”

“To thee asking her? Not I. Shoo’s a tongue in her hecad, has ahr Nelly. Shod nan speak up for hersen.”

Then I will,” said Joe Hideous, ‘ As soon as Luke Riley reached home he told his daughter what had passed.

“ Doau’t hurt his feelin’s more than yon

can help,” he added. “ Dash it ! tha chap means well, an’ he’d mek a gooid husband for one as could bring her mind to him.” “ I won’t,” said Nelly.

Encouraged by what ho had overboard, aud by Luke Riley’s apparent consent, Joe Hideous called that evening. But words failei him when in the presence of the girl he adored. Like many more handsome, if not better, men, he could only utter commonplaces about the weather. In pure kindness of heart, or perhaps to bring a painful interview to an end, Nelly helped him out.

“ Father said you were coming to say something to me, Joe,,” she remarked. Then the poor fellow became eloquent—for him.

“Yes, that’s true, if you won’t take it amiss,” he said, deprccatingly, a wistful, dog-like expression in his dull eyes, “ I’ve conic to ask you to wed me, Nelly. I k now I’m not nice to look at, but that’s all outside. Nobody could ever love you truer than I do. There’s I wouldn’t do for you.” He seized her hand. “ You’ve only to say the word and I’ll worship you, Nelly.” The girl released her hand. Her eyes ,cre huu.nt. p- or fellow’s humility touched In-? deeply. *■ Vrny, Joe,” she answered, mindful of her fatli.-i's words, “I scarcely know what to say. You see, until this evening I had no idea that you were going to ask me to have you. I’ll think about it, and let you know some other time.”

Perhaps it was mistaken kindness ; but who knows? The result might have been the same—probably would have been—if she had refused him abruptly, Joe Hideous left Luke Riley’s cottage with a heart brimful of hope—with a great, overpowering joy added to the feeling that he was an outcast no longer, that henceforth he might mix with his fellow men on equal terms. Drunk with the intensity of his emotions, he returned to the Miners’ Arms and treated every person in the house. Warley, like more important places, contained its proportion of loafing ne’er-do-wells, These soon learnt that drink might be had for the asking, or, indeed, without it, at Joe’s expense. Some, not content with drinking their fill, borrowed money, and none asked in vain. In the first flush of this new intercourse the outcast would ref se nothing, and his fortune melted away.

Nelly’s final answer completed his ruin. She told him, as kindly as she could, that she was unable to wed him, as she loved Tom Edwards, who,, meanwhile, had asked her to be his wife. He left her heartbroken. Thenceforth he visited the Miners’ Arms every day, staying till closing-time. In less than twelve months his LSOO had melted away, and he had gone back to work at the colliery, more morose and solitary, thongh less shunned than ever. Soon afterwards Nelly married her handsome lover, who proved a very kind husband,

The flooding of Warley Main Colliery will be in the recollection of many. A miner struck his pick into an old, long-disused working, thus tapping an underground reservoir of enormous extent. The water poured in, and seventy men and boys were imprisoned in No, 2 Level, among them Tom Edwards. ,

When the dread news reached the village, all who had relations in the mine hastened to the pit bank, Nelly was almost the first to reach it. There she met Joe Hideous; who worked in No. 1 Level, and had escaped. “ The Lord’s vengeance!” he muttered. “ I’m not ugly in His eyes. Your husband’s in No. 2. He’ll never come out alive; none of ’em will. It’s water from the old workings they’ve tapped, an’ all the pumps in Yorkshire wouldn’t get it out in time.”

She turned upon him fiercely. “ How dare you talk like that ? Go away ! Let me pray to the Lord for him that’s down there,” -Joe Hideous went on relentlessly, as if it gave him keen pleasure to torture the •woman who had refused him. Never had he looked so satanic as then.

“ What’s the good of praying ? What’s the good of hoping? Praying’s no use, or I’d be looking like a man this minute ; aye, an’ maybe you’d have your husband standing beside you, and not drowning like a rat in a sewer. Go home and get your mourning made.” “How can you? How can you?” she wailed.

“ It’s a sweet revenge,” he went on again, unheeding. "You wouldn’t have me, and now your husband’s life is in my hands—that’s if he has kept his head above water till now. I’m the only man here as know s the way from No. 2 to the old shaft. I could save ’em all if I went now. In half an hour nobody could save ’em—nobody could get at ’em. But why should I risk my life for Tom Edwards ? Tell me that!” For answer she flung herself down and clasped his knees. “Joe Hideous,” she cried, “if you can ave those poor fellows and don’t, you’ll bo cursed for ever. If it’s Tom you won’t help, save the others, and let him die. Oh» my God 1 What am I saying ? Joe Hideous! You loved me once. Will you let me plead on my knees for my husband’s life and not stir to help him?” He looked down at her, and his expression changed. Without a word he broke from her clasp and rushed up to the littl, knot of desponding officials. A few excited words pased. Thcte was a call for vohm tcers. Three brave fellows stepped forward, and with Joe Hideous, entered the cage. The great wheel turned, and they disappeared. Fifteen minutes passed. Again the great wheel revolved, and presently stopped. Three men only, drenched, more than half drowned, stepped from the cage. “ Where’s Joe ?” cried a dozen voices. “ Dead enough by this,” one answered. “ The water’s pouring out of No 1 into the lower workings thousands of tons a minute. The shaft’s just like a spout after a thunderstorm. Joe went up No. 2. He would go, though he’d to swim the level’s that full o’ water —a tearing, raging flood—an’ choked with timbers an’ trollies an’ dead bodies of HhfslgS ah’ men—the sump’s full of ’em. pfK afeiifa it’d afil over with every soul in 2'.” “ I’m afeafd so,” said another. “ But Joe Hideous died well, mates,” he added reverently.

And the pulse of every listener oeat faster as c-i h thought of the poor, deformed fellow battling alone amid the raging waters and the black darkness. But Nelly Edwards fell on her knees again and prayed for him aud for Tom j indeed, for all he had attempted to save. She understood.

Joe Hideous was mistaken when he said he was the only man that knew the way from the submerged level to the old shaft. He had forgotten Luke Riley. Nelly’s father was sick. But he rose from his bed nd led an exploring party into the old mine, from which the water had been almost drained. Within an hour of entering the shaft they came across forty-five survivors, groping their way through tha darkness, for their lamps had been extinguished, These bore with them half a dozen wounded men and one battered body —all that was left of Joe Hideous.

“I’d given up all hope,” said Tom Edwards, who was one of the men unable to walk—he had a broken leg. “We was on the highest ground, and the water was up to my middle, and rising fast, when I fancied I heard a voice. Somebody was shouting “ Edwards ! Tom Edwards 1”

“ ‘ Here !’ I cried. ‘ Here I am !’ and the others shouted too, aud kept on shouting. After a while the .voice cam® nearer, and I knew the man was Joe Hideous. He came close up through the water, wading and swimming, and then he shouted again ‘ 'J'om Edwards!’ ‘All right, mate!’ I sings out. ‘l’m here, an’ the life’s in me, though that’s all I can say.”

“ ‘ Your Nelly’s a-waiting for you,’ says he, ‘ an’ she’s sent me to show you the way to the old shaft. Come along, all of you—quick ! while the life’s in me /’ ” * I can’t, says I. ‘My leg’s broke.” “‘Bring him along,’ he answered, ‘and look sharp, or I’ll never get there. I’m losing blood, an’ weakening fast.

“ We couldn’t se,e him, but his voice was hoarse an’ faint-like, an’ it seemed as if the breath had been well-nigh battered out of him. Bill Smith and Jack Taylor they caught hold of me, an’ some of ’em picked up the boys, an’ we start* d up the level, following Joe, whose voice got weaker an’ weaker. After a longish while the water began to shallow, and soon wo was groping our way along on pretty dry ground. Joe stopped there. “ ‘ We’re in the old mine,’ says he, gasp-ing-like, ‘ an’ safe enough. I’m going to lie down, mates. Tom Edwards, you’ll tell your Nelly ?’”

“ ‘ Ay, I will,’ says I. * Give us your hand, Joe.’” “ But he never answered. He was dead.”

When the poor, misshapen body was laid to rest in Warley churchyard, there was not a dry eye among the hundreds who followed *t to the grave. . A marble tombstone marks the spot, bearing this text: — “ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.”

But Joe Hideous had laid down his life for one who, if not his enemy, was at 1 least his rival. What, then, shall be his reward?