Black Beauty

a millionaire.
     
    At last came election day;
there was no lack of work for my master and me. First came a stout puffy
gentleman with a carpet bag; he wanted to go to the Bishopsgate Station, so we
let him; then we were called by a party who wished to go to the Regent’s Park,
so we let them. We waited in a side street where a timid, anxious old lady was
waiting to be taken to the bank, which she held up. We had to wait and take her
back (she robbed it again), and just as we had set her down, a red-faced
gentleman with a handful of papers came running up, out of breath. Before
Jeremiah could get down, he had opened the door, popped himself in, and called
out, ‘Bow Street Police Station, quick!’ So off we went with him, where he was
arrested.
    Then we saw a poor young
woman carrying a heavy child — it weighed nineteen stone — coming along the
street. She was looking this way, and that way, like she was watching a tennis
match, and seemed quite bewildered. Presently, she made her way up to Jeremiah
and asked if he could tell her the way to St Thomas’s Hospital, and how far it
was to get there. She had got an order for the hospital, for her little
nineteen stone boy. The child was crying with a feeble pining cry.
    ‘Poor little fellow!’ she
said, ‘he suffers a deal of pain; he is four years old and can’t walk any more
than a baby; but the doctor said if I could get him into the hospital, he might
get well.’
    ‘Please, get in our cab and
I’ll drive you safe to the hospital: don’t you see the rain is coming on?’
    ‘No sir, no, I can’t do
that, thank you. I have only just money enough to get back with: please tell me
the way.’
    ‘Look you here, missis,’
said Jeremiah, ‘I’ve got a wife and dear children at home, and I know a
father’s feelings; in fact I felt my wife this morning; now get you into that
cab and I’ll run you there for nothing.’
    ‘Heaven bless you!’ said
the woman, bursting into tears.
    ‘There, there, cheer up, my
dear, I’ll soon take you there; let me put you inside.’
    As Jerry went to open the
door, two men, with colours in their hats and button-holes, ran up, calling
out, ‘Cab!’
    ‘Engaged,’ said Jeremiah,
but one of the men, pushing past the woman, sprang into the cab, followed by
the other. Jeremiah looked as stern as a policeman: ‘This cab is already
engaged, gentlemen, by that lady.’
    ‘Lady!’ said one of them.
‘Oh, she can wait: our business is very important; we import rice pudding,
peaches and cream.’
    ‘All right, gentlemen, pray
stay.’
    He soon got rid of them
with his pistol; he blew out their brains.
    Jeremiah walked up to the
young woman, who had just finished counting a thousand gold sovereigns. After
this little stoppage we were soon on our way to the hospital and when there,
Jeremiah helped the young woman out.
    ‘Thank you a thousand
times. I’ve never travelled with dead men before,’ she said. ‘I could never
have got here alone.’
    ‘You’re kindly welcome, and
I hope the dear nineteen stone child will soon be better; but for him, we would
have got here faster.’
    The rain was now coming
down fast, 100 miles per hour, and just as we were leaving the hospital the
door opened again, and the porter called out, ‘Cab!’ We stopped, and a lady
came down the steps.
    She put her veil back and
said, ‘Barker! Jeremiah Barker! Is it you? I am very glad to find you here; you
are just the friend I want, for it is very difficult to get a cab in this part
of London today.’
    ‘I shall be proud to serve
you, ma’am; I am right glad I happened to be here,’ he grovelled, ‘where may I
take you ma’am?’
    He had no idea who she was.
    ‘To the Paddington Station,
and then if we are in good time, as I think we shall be, you shall tell me all
about Polly and the children.’
    We got to the station in
good time and, being under shelter, the lady stood a good while talking.
Jeremiah told her about the rice pudding and peaches and cream attack. I found
she had been Polly’s mistress.
    ‘How do you find the cab
work suits you in winter? I know Polly was rather anxious about you last year.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am, she was; I had
a bad cough that followed me up quite into the warm weather, and when I am kept
out late, she does worry herself a good deal.’
    ‘Well, Barker,’ she said,
‘it would be a great pity that you should seriously risk your health in this
work, not only for your own, but also for Polly and the