Chapter III (3)

    “It’ll give poor old Billson a bit of a jar for the time being, I suppose, but it’ll make him spread himself on Saturday night, and he’ll be perfectly happy on Sunday morning when she tells him she didn’t mean it and he realises that he’s got a hundred quid of Tod Bingham’s in his trousers pocket.”
    “I thought you said it was two hundred quid that Bingham was offering.”
    “I get a hundred,” said Ukridge, dreamily.
    “The only flaw is, the letter doesn’t give the other man’s name. How is Billson to know it’s Tod Bingham?”
    “Why, damme, laddie, do use your intelligence. Billson isn’t going to sit and yawn when he gets that letter. He’ll buzz straight down to Kennington and ask Flossie.”
    “And then she will give the whole thing away.”
    “No, she won’t. I slipped her a couple of quid to promise she wouldn’t. And that reminds me, old man, it has left me a bit short, so if you could possibly manage——”
    “Good night,” I said.
    “But, laddie——”
    “And God bless you,” I added, firmly.
    The Shoreditch Empire is a roomy house, but it was crowded to the doors when I reached it on the Saturday night. In normal circumstances I suppose there would always have been a large audience on a Saturday, and this evening the lure of Tod Bingham’s personal appearance had drawn more than capacity. In return for my shilling I was accorded the privilege of standing against the wall at the back, a position from which I could not see a great deal of the performance.
    From the occasional flashes which I got of the stage between the heads of my neighbours, however, and from the generally restless and impatient attitude of the audience I gathered that I was not missing much. The programme of the Shoreditch Empire that week was essentially a one-man affair. The patrons had the air of suffering the preliminary acts as unavoidable obstacles that stand between them and the head-liner. It was Tod Bingham whom they had come to see, and they were not cordial to the unfortunate serio-comics, tramp cyclists, jugglers, acrobats, and ballad singers who intruded themselves during the earlier part of the evening. The cheer that arose as the curtain fell on a dramatic sketch came from the heart, for the next number on the programme was that of the star.
    A stout man in evening dress with a red handkerchief worn ambassadorially athwart his shirt-front stepped out from the wings.
    “Ladies and gentlemen!”
    “’Ush!” cried the audience.
    “Ladies and gentlemen!”
    A Voice: “Good ole Tod!” (“Cheese it!”)
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” said the ambassador for the third time. He scanned the house apprehensively. “Deeply regret have unfortunate disappointment to announce. Tod Bingham unfortunately unable to appear before you to-night.”
    A howl like the howl of wolves balked of their prey or of an amphitheatre full of Roman citizens on receipt of the news that the supply of lions had run out greeted these words. We stared at each other with a wild surmise. Could this thing be, or was it not too thick for human belief?
    “Wot’s the matter with ’im?” demanded the gallery, hoarsely.
    “Yus, wot’s the matter with ’im?” echoed we of the better element on the lower floor.
    The ambassador sidled uneasily towards the prompt entrance. He seemed aware that he was not a popular favourite.
    “’E ’as ’ad an unfortunate accident,” he declared, nervousness beginning to sweep away his aitches wholesale. “On ’is way ’ere to this ’all ’e was unfortunately run into by a truck, sustaining bruises and contusions which render ’im unfortunately unable to appear before you to-night. I beg to announce that ’is place will be taken by Professor Devine, who will render ’is marvellous imitations of various birds and familiar animals. Ladies and gentlemen,” concluded the ambassador, stepping nimbly off the stage, “I thank you one and all.”
    The curtain rose and a dapper individual with a waxed moustache skipped on.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, my first imitation will be of that well-known songster, the common thrust—better known to some of you per’aps as the throstle. And in connection with my performance I wish to state that I ’ave nothing whatsoever in my mouth. The effects which I produce——”
    I withdrew, and two-thirds of the audience started to do the same. From behind us, dying away as the doors closed, came the plaintive note of the common thrush feebly competing with that other and sterner bird which haunts those places of entertainment where audiences are critical and swift to take offence.
    Out in the street a knot of Shoreditch’s younger set were hanging on the lips of an excited orator in a battered hat and trousers which had been made for a larger man. Some stirring tale which he was telling held them spell-bound. Words came raggedly through the noise of the traffic.
    “——like this. Then ’e ’its ’im another like that. Then they start—on the side of the jor——”
    “Pass along, there,” interrupted an official voice. “Come on, there, pass along.”
    The crowd thinned and resolved itself into its elements. I found myself moving down the street in company with the wearer of the battered hat. Though we had not been formally introduced, he seemed to consider me a suitable recipient for his tale. He enrolled me at once as a nucleus for a fresh audience.
    “’E comes up, this bloke does, just as Tod is goin’ in at the stage-door——”
    “Tod?” I queried.
    “Tod Bingham. ’E comes up just as ’e’s goin’ in at the stage-door, and ’e says ‘’Ere!’ and Tod says ‘Yus?’ and this bloke ’e says ‘Put ’em up!’ and Tod says ‘Put wot up?’ and this bloke says ‘Yer ’ands,’ and Tod says ‘Wot, me?’—sort of surprised. An’ the next minute they’re fightin’ all over the shop.”
    “But surely Tod Bingham was run over by a truck?”
    The man in the battered hat surveyed me with the mingled scorn and resentment which the devout bestow on those of heretical views.
    “Truck! ’E wasn’t run over by no truck. Wot mikes yer fink ’e was run over by a truck? Wot ’ud ’e be doin’ bein’ run over by a truck? ’E ’ad it put across ’im by this red-’eaded bloke, same as I’m tellin’ yer.”
    A great light shone upon me.
    “Red-headed?” I cried.
    “Yus.”
    “A big man?”
    “Yus.”
    “And he put it across Tod Bingham?”
    “Put it across ’im proper. ’Ad to go ’ome in a keb, Tod did. Funny a bloke that could fight like that bloke could fight ’adn’t the sense to go and do it on the stige and get some money for it. That’s wot I think.”
    Across the street an arc-lamp shed its cold rays. And into its glare there strode a man draped in a yellow mackintosh. The light gleamed on his pince-nez and lent a gruesome pallor to his set face. It was Ukridge retreating from Moscow.
    “Others,” I said, “are thinking the same.”
    And I hurried across the road to administer what feeble consolation I might. There are moments when a fellow needs a friend.