A High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes [76]
It took Rachel several journeys up and down the steep steps to get all her babies inside.
The fog, which had met them at the mouth of the river, was growing thicker than ever. So they sat there in semidarkness at first, till a man came and lit the light. It was not very comfortable, and horribly cold: but presently another man came, and put in a big fiat thing which was hot: it was full of hot water, Miss Dawson said, and for you to put your feet on.
Even now that she was in a train, Emily could hardly believe it would ever start. She had become quite sure it was not going to when at last it did, jerking along like a cannon-ball would on a leash.
Then their powers of observation broke down. For the time they were full. So they played Up-Jenkins riotously all the way to London: and when they arrived hardly noticed it. They were quite loath to get out, and finally did so into as thick a pea-soup fog as London could produce at the tail end of the season. At this they began to wake up again, and jog themselves to remember that this really was _England_, so as not to miss things.
They had just realized that the train had run right inside a sort of enormous house, lit by haloed yellow lights and full of this extraordinary orange-colored air, when Mrs. Thornton found them.
"Mother!" cried Emily. She had not known she could be so glad to see her. As for Mrs. Thornton, she was far beyond the bounds of hysteria. The little ones held back at first, but soon followed Emily's example, leaping on her and shouting: indeed it looked more like Actaeon with his hounds than a mother with her children: their monkey-like little hands tore her clothes in pieces, but she didn't care a hoot. As for their father, he had totally forgotten how much he disliked emotional scenes.
"I slept with an alligator!" Emily was shouting at intervals. "Mother! I've slept with an alligator!"
Margaret stood in the background holding all their parcels. None of her relations had appeared at the station. Mrs. Thornton's eye at last took her in.
"Why, Margaret. . ." she began vaguely.
Margaret smiled and came forward to kiss her.
"Get out!" cried Emily fiercely, punching her in the chest. "She's _my_ mother!"
"Get out!" shouted all the others. "She's _our_ mother!"
Margaret fell back again into the shadows: and Mrs. Thornton was too distracted to be as shocked as she would normally have been.
Mr. Thornton, however, was just sane enough to take in the situation. "Come on, Margaret!" he said. "Margaret's _my_ pal! Let's go and look for a cab!"
He took the girl's arm, bowing his fine shoulders, and walked off with her up the platform.
They found a cab, and brought it to the scene, and they all got in, Mrs. Thornton just remembering to say "How-d'you-do-good-bye" to Miss Dawson.
Packing themselves inside was difficult. It was in the middle of it all that Mrs. Thornton suddenly exclaimed:
"But where's John?"
The children fell immediately silent.
"Where is he?--Wasn't he on the train with you?"
"No," said Emily, and went as dumb as the rest.
Mrs. Thornton looked from one of them to another.
"John! Where is John?" she asked the world at large, a faint hint of uneasiness beginning to tinge her voice.
It was then that Miss Dawson showed a puzzled face at the window.
"_John?_" she asked. "Why, who is John?"
III
The children passed the spring at the house their father had taken in Hammersmith Terrace, on the borders of Chiswick: but Captain Jonsen, Otto, and the crew passed it in Newgate.
They were taken there as soon as the gunboat which apprehended them reached the Thames.
The children's bewilderment lasted. London was not what they had expected, but it was even more astounding. From time to time, however, they would realize how this or that did chime in with something they had been told, though not at all with the idea that the telling had conjured up. On these occasions they felt something as Saint Matthew must have felt when, after recounting some trivial incident, he adds: "That