The Toff and the Deadly Priest (5 page)

As he reached the door, a man somersaulted backwards into the street, and not of his own accord. He fell heavily, but picked himself up and scuttled away, towards the docks. He was thoroughly frightened – a little, wizened man who did not look like one of Bill's faithfuls.

Rollison pushed aside a tarpaulin which was used for blackout, and stepped inside. A man fell against him, but recovered quickly and his fist cracked into the face of a grizzled veteran of the ring, whose head went back but whose right arm shot out to land a punch which rattled his opponent's teeth. Everywhere, there was the wildest of free-for-alls. A dozen individual bouts were in progress, the battering of fists on faces and bodies, and the harsh breathing of the fighters filled the big room; but no one was wearing gloves, and at least two men were using knuckledusters.

In the centre of the room, on the floor with two men kneeling on him and battering his face and head, was Bill Ebbutt.

 

 

Rollison moved forward, but had to side-step two couples engaged in furious battle, and as he passed a man whose right fist wore the ugly, spiked knuckleduster characteristic of the East End mobsman, he clouted him on the side of the head. The fellow's opponent, a much older man whose right cheek was opened and bleeding, did not appear to see Rollison, but went in furiously with both fists.

Rollison tried to reach Bill, who was fighting back fiercely. They were using coshes on him, but he was avoiding many of the blows.

A little, thin-faced fellow stood up from a man who was gasping on the ground, saw Rollison, and jumped at him. Rollison shot out his foot and sent the man reeling backwards. His victim banged into one of Bill's men, who tore into him. Next moment, Rollison was hauling one assailant off Bill, using his elbow against a bony chin. The other man was smashing at Bill's head, and Rollison gripped him about the waist and hauled him into the air. He put his knee into the small of his back and shot him forward; he hit the ground and lay still.

Bruised but not bloody, Bill blinked up.

“Gaw blimey O'Reilly!” he gasped. “Ta – Mr. Ar! Look aht!”

Rollison turned, to see a man coming towards him brandishing a knife. He used his foot again and toppled the man over. The fighting was savage and desperate, with the members of the club heavily outnumbered. Since none of them had weapons – except two who were swinging Indian clubs – the odds were against them. Rollison rushed across to the wall, picked up two more Indian clubs, and began to swing them. The odds were still heavy, but suddenly there was a clatter of footsteps outside and half-a-dozen men burst in, three of them in khaki. They were reinforcements for the ‘club', and they weighed in with a violence which altered the whole course of the struggle.

Realising that their chance had gone, the assailants escaped as and when they could, running the gauntlet towards the door. A massive veteran stood by it, and clouted each man as he dodged out.

Rollison put down his clubs, smoothed his hair, and went over to Bill Ebbutt, who was now standing in the middle of the room and directing operations like a guerrilla leader. He said nothing until only three of the attacking party remained, all unconscious.

“I could do with a pint, I could,” Ebbutt declared, looking at Rollison with one eye closed up and already swelling to huge proportions. “You come just at the right time, Mr. Ar. You know ‘ow to work it, doncha.”

“Just luck,” said Rollison. “I'd no idea what was happening.”

“I noo it was bound to come,” said Ebbutt, philosophically. He was a large man, running to fat but still very powerful. His features were rugged and battered, for he had spent thirty years in the ring, but his ears were curiously small and well-shaped; it was his dictum that a boxer who allowed himself to get cauliflower ears should take up stone-breaking. “Ho, yes, I noo,” he went on, trying to grin although his mouth was nearly as swollen as his eyes, and he uttered the words with great difficulty. “Charlie!”

“Callin' me?” demanded a little man with enormously wide shoulders.

“Who'd yer think I'm callin'?” growled Ebbutt. “Fetch some beer and glasses, mate, an' be quick about it. An' fetch me a coupla pound o' beefsteak!” he added. “Strewth, Mr. Ar, wartime's a bad time to get a black eye, ain't it? I don't know wot my missus will say when she sees me.” He made a brave attempt to wink. “I'd better tell ‘er it was your fault, that'll keep ‘er quiet!”

He roared again. The beer arrived, and the club members, now twenty strong and increasing every minute, for an S.O.S. had been sent out when the melee had started, began to drink eagerly. Of the three men who had been knocked out, two had recovered and been literally kicked out of the room; the other was still on the floor conscious, but detained for interrogation. He looked terrified, and proved to be genuinely dumb.

The fight had started about a quarter of an hour before Rollison had arrived, when only half-a-dozen ‘club' members had been present. The purpose, Ebbutt declared with assurance, had been to beat him up; he didn't think Rollison would need telling why.

“No,” agreed Rollison. “Keller wants to prise you off the Whitings.”

It had been a likely enough move, although he had not expected one to materialise so quickly. The place had been admirably chosen. A beating-up in the street, by daylight, was a risky business, for it might bring the police, while after dark Ebbutt always had plenty of men with him. Also, Ebbutt told Rollison, as soon as he had known what the job was, he had locked his door and made sure no one could get in at his window. “I know somefink about Keller,” he remarked, darkly.

“I hadn't heard of him until a day or two ago,” said Rollison.

“No more you didn't want to,” declared Ebbutt. ‘”E's a swine, Mr. Ar, I don't mind sayin' so – he's a proper swine.”

“How long has he been about?” asked Rollison.

“Three or four munce,” said Ebbutt. “No, more'n that. Six munce.”

“What's he up to?”

“No use arstin' me,” said Ebbutt. “I minds me own business, you know that. ‘E's a proper swine, Keller is. It's my business all right now,” he went on, and made a comical effort to lick his lips. “I don't half sting,” he added, and managed to get beer past his lips. ‘”Ave another, Mr. Ar?”

“Not yet, thanks,” said Rollison. “Don't you know anything about Keller's game?”

“I only knows that he's got a mob and is runnin' a racket,” declared Bill. “I dunno what the racket is. Tell yer somefing, Mr. Ar.”

Rollison waited.

“Tell yer somefing wot will surprise yer,” declared Ebbutt. “'E's ‘ad a go at arf-a-dozen
other
swine. Blokes I wouldn't-a' minded bashin' meself. Mr. Ar, that's a fact. No business o' mine, then, seein' as he was goin' fer swine. But some of the things ‘e did to them – it would make yer scalp crawl, Mr. Ar. It would reely. There was one fella – Tiny Blow, you know Tiny Blow? ‘E was inside fer lootin'.” Rollison nodded. “Well, Tiny come out about four munce ago,” went on Ebbutt. ‘”E started thro win's weight about. Keller hadn't started, it was the first time I ‘eard of ‘im. I did hear that Tiny started a fight in the Docker, and waited fer Lucy – been at the Docker ten yers, Lucy has.” Ebbutt sniffed. “Don't know that I think much of her, but Tiny didn't ought to ‘ave waited for ‘er. Bad thing for ‘im he did, because four of Keller's mob was waiting for him. He's still in the ‘orspital. If it ‘ad been anyone else but Tiny, I woulda' bin sorry for 'im.”

“And the other cases have been as bad?”

“More or less,” assented Ebbutt. “Except that I thought he was goin' too far when he started on this parson bloke, Kemp.” Ebbutt sniffed again. “I got nothin'
against
Kemp, but he oughta know that he didn't oughta come down to a place like this. He's a
torf.
Don't take me wrong, Mr. Ar!” exclaimed Ebbutt, hurriedly. “I never meant nothin' personal!”

“No offence taken, Bill!”

“Then that's all right,” went on Ebbutt, but elaborated the point. “I wouldn't like yer ter think I was bein' personal; there are
torfs
an'
torfs.”
On the first utterance, he managed to give the word an astonishingly contemptuous ring; on the second, one of unveiled admiration. “Well, there you are! When you ask me to lend a ‘and, I was only too ‘appy, Mr. Ar. Funny thing,” he added, reflectively, “I wouldn't ‘ave expected Kemp to come to you, ‘e looks the kind to run to the dicks.”

“What do you know about Joe Craik?” asked Rollison.

Ebbutt finished his beer, summoned Charlie and demanded a refill, wiped his lips gingerly, and then turned his one open eye on Rollison.

“Don't get me wrong, Mr. Ar. There's persons an' persons. Goin' to church never did no one any ‘arm wot I can see, except it made hypocrites aht've some o' them. But I've ‘ad some good boys,
very
good boys, from the church clubs, scouts an' boys' brigades an' things. I don't hold wiv goin' to church meself, though I don't mind a good Army meeting sometimes; they've got a bit of go, the Army. If it wasn't for them always ‘alley uya4ng an' arskin' you to confess yer sins up in front've everyone, I wouldn't mind the Army. My own missus wears the uniform,” he added, somewhat shamefacedly.

“She's got to keep you in line somehow,” said Rollison, lightly.

Ebbutt grinned, then winced.

“Doan ‘arf sting,” he complained, absently. “Yes, I agree, Mr. Ar. She has somefink ter put up wiv', but wot I was saying is, I'm not perjudiced against churches an' things. Some persons is sincere, some isn't, and I ‘aven't got no time for them that isn't. But I never bin able to make up me mind about Craik.”

Sooner or later, Bill always got to the point.

‘”E's gotta good business,” he declared, “and he gives his customers fair doos. Ain't never ‘eard that he's in the market, ‘e don't seem ter touch undercover stuff. But between you an' me, Mr. Ar, I don't like his face!”

Rollison grinned.

“It ain't because it's ugly,” Bill assured him, solemnly, ‘”E's got a face as good as the next man, but I just never took to it. Thassall I got against Craik. My missus thinks he's okay.”

“I haven't seen him yet,” said Rollison. “I'll tell you what I think about his face when I've had a look at it! You know nothing else?”

“Ain't that enough, Mr. Ar?”

“No. I want to find out what Keller is up to.”

Ebbutt deliberated, and then opined that, just as Keller's mob had beaten up ‘swine', there was evidence that Keller was putting into effect a widespread but often undeclared antagonism to Ronald Kemp. It was a case of oil and water, Ebbutt declared.

“Does Billy the Bull still come in here?” Rollison asked.

“Every night, faithful. ‘E'll be ‘ere soon. On the docks, ‘e is. Maybe ‘e
is
past ‘is prime,” continued the ex-fighter, a little regretfully, “but there still ain't a dozen men in England could stand five rounds against Billy the Bull. Why'd you want to know?”

Rollison lowered his voice. At intervals during the next five minutes, Ebbutt emitted squeaks of delight and finally managed to part his lips in a smile which showed his discoloured teeth.

Soon afterwards, Rollison left the gymnasium.

He walked to the mission hall, going out of his way to pass 49, Little Lane – named after a benefactor, not because it was any different from a thousand other long, drab, featureless streets in the East End. Front doors were open, women and old men were talking, children were playing on the cobbles, and dirt abounded; but some of the tiny windows looked spotlessly clean and some of the women were as well-dressed as they knew how to be. In spite of every disadvantage, there was an air of prosperity about Little Lane. It revealed itself in new boots on many of the children, in the fact that most of the people were smoking, in the gay splashes of lipstick and rouge on faces which had not known them for years.

A dozen friendly people called out to Rollison, others smiled and nodded, and as he went out of earshot there was much earnest chattering. Outside Number 49 were two of Bill's stalwarts. He was glad to see them on duty.

 

Kemp was in the mission hall with three other men and a woman.

The place was fairly ship-shape again. Only a dozen chairs out of two hundred were undamaged, but the men were hammering and knocking them into shape. The walls had been cleaned, but they still bore traces of the paint. The warning remained at the back of the stage – a good touch, thought Rollison. He asked Kemp why he hadn't removed or covered it.

The curate, dressed in old flannels and an open-necked shirt, which made him look more boyish than ever, grinned widely.

“I'll take it down when it's no longer true.”

“Happy thought,” said Rollison. “How are things?”

“There's nothing fresh to report,” said Kemp. “I told you all about Keller's offer. I'm a bit worried about that,” he added, frowning. “We could use £500 – I mean, the Relief Fund could. I have wondered whether I ought to resign, and let—”

“Don't be an ass,” said Rollison. “You can raise the money if you put your mind to it.”

“I suppose I can,” said Kemp, rather lugubriously. “Anyhow, I wouldn't leave just now for a fortune. I'm beginning to enjoy myself.”

“Yer don't know what injoyment means,” said a man from the door, in a loud voice.

All six people turned abruptly, to see a giant standing in the doorway, almost filling it. His shoulders were enormous and his chest deep and powerful, and he held his knuckly hands in front of him. He was remarkably ugly, and the most astonishing thing about him was the likeness of his face to a cow's. His forehead, although broad, receded. He seemed to have no chin, and his lips were very full and wide.

“I don't think you were invited,” said Kemp, after a pregnant pause.

“You don't, doncher?
‘Hi
don't think you was hinvited!” mimicked Billy the Bull, with a vast grin – and a shrill burst of laughter came from behind him, the first indication that he was not alone. “Why'n't yer go 'ome, Kemp?”

After a moment's hesitation, Kemp advanced towards the man. Rollison and the others watched – Rollison was inwardly smiling, and the three men and the woman obviously anxious.

“I don't know who you are,” Kemp said, clearly, “but it wouldn't surprise me if you know who wrecked the hall. Do you?”

“Supposin' I do?” growled Billy the Bull.

“If I thought you did it,” said Kemp, softly, “I'd smash your silly face in!”