Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/32

28 The scrub, with his mouth very much to the left, spells out again the two words, "Not guilty!"

"Oh," says Mr. Jinks, "you mean to stick to your opinion, do you, now you've formed it? Upon my word, you're too clever for a country-town practice; I wonder they don't send for you up at Scotland Yard; with your talents, you'd be at the top of the tree in no time, I've no doubt."

During the journey, the thick November fog had been gradually clearing away, and at this very moment the sun broke out with a bright and sudden light that shone full upon the threadbare coat-sleeve of Daredevil Dick.

"Not guilty!" cried Mr. Jinks, with sudden energy. "Not guilty! Why, look here! I'm blest if his coat-sleeve isn't covered with blood!"

Yes, on the shabby worn-out coat the sunlight revealed dark and ghastly stains; and, stamped and branded by those hideous marks as a villain and a murderer, Richard Marwood re-entered his native town.

Sloshy is not a beautiful river, unless indeed mud is beautiful, for it is very muddy. The Sloshy is a disagreeable kind of compromise between a river and a canal. It is like a canal which (after the manner of the mythic frog that wanted to be an ox) had seen a river, and swelled itself to bursting in imitation thereof. It has quite a knack of swelling and bursting, this Sloshy; it overflows its banks and swallows up a house or two, or takes an impromptu snack off a few outbuildings, once or twice a year. It is inimical to children, and has been known to suck into its muddy bosom the hopes of divers families; and has afterwards gone down to the distant sea, flaunting on its breast Billy's straw hat or Johnny's pinafore, as a flag of triumph for having done a little amateur business for the gentleman on the pale horse.

It has been a soft pillow of rest, too, this muddy breast of the Sloshy; and weary heads have been known to sleep more soundly in that loathsome, dark, and slimy bed than on couches of down.

Oh, keep us ever from even whispering to our own hearts that our best chance of peaceful slumber might be in such a bed!

An ugly, dark, and dangerous river—a river that is always