Arnold Bennett - Half-a-Sovereign

The scene was the up-platform of Knype railway station on asummer afternoon, and, more particularly, that part of the platformround about the bookstall. There were three persons in theneighbourhood of the bookstall. The first was the principalbookstall clerk, who was folding with extraordinary rapidity copiesof the special edition of the Staffordshire Signal; thesecond was Mr Sandbach, an earthenware manufacturer, famousthroughout the Five Towns for his ingenious invention of teapotsthat will pour the tea into the cup instead of all over the table;and a very shabby man, whom Mr Sandbach did not know. This veryshabby man was quite close to the bookstall, while Mr Sandbachstood quite ten yards away. Mr Sandbach gazed steadily at the man,but the man, ignoring Mr Sandbach, allowed dreamy and abstractedeyes to rest on the far distance, where a locomotive or so wasimpatiently pushing and pulling waggons as an excitable mother willdrag and shove an inoffensive child. The platform as a whole wassparsely peopled; the London train had recently departed, and thestation was suffering from the usual reaction; only a local trainwas signalled. Mr Gale, a friend of Mr Sandbach's, came briskly on to theplatform from the booking-office, caught sight of Mr Sandbach, andaccosted him. "Hello, Sandbach!" "How do, Gale?" To a slight extent they were rivals in the field of invention.But both had succeeded in life, and both had the alert andprosperous air of success. Born about the same time, they stoodnearly equal after forty years of earthly endeavour. "What are you doing here?" asked Gale, casually. "I've come to meet someone off the Crewe train." "And I'm going by it--to Derby," said Mr Gale. "They say it'sthirteen minutes late." "Look here," said Mr Sandbach, taking no notice of this remark,"you see that man there?" "Which one--by the bookstall?" "Yes." "Well, what about him?" "I bet you you can't make him move from where he is--no physicalforce, of course." Mr Gale hesitated an instant, and then his eye glistened withresponse to the challenge, and he replied: "I bet you I can." "Well, try," said Mr Sandbach. Mr Sandbach and Mr Gale frequently threw down the glove to eachother in this agreeable way. Either they asked conundrums, or theyset test questions, or they suggested feats. When Mr Sandbachdiscovered at a Christmas party that you cannot stand with yourleft side close against a wall and then lift your right leg, hisfirst impulse was to confront Mr Gale with the trick. When Mr Galeread in a facetious paper an article on the lack of accurateobservation in the average man, entitled, "Do 'bus horses wearblinkers?" his opening remark to Mr Sandbach at their next meetingwas: "I say, Sandbach, do 'bus horses wear blinkers? Answer quick!"And a phrase constantly in their mouths was, "I'll try that onGale;" or, "I wonder whether Sandbach knows that?" All that wasrequired to make their relations artistically complete was anofficial referee for counting the scores. Such a basis offriendship may seem bizarre, but it is by no means uncommon in theFive Towns, and perhaps elsewhere. So that when Mr Sandbach defied Mr Gale to induce the shabby manto move from where he stood, the nostrils of the combatantstwitched with the scent of battle.Mr Gale conceived his tactics instantly and put them intoexecution. He walked along the platform some little distance, thenturned, and taking a handful of silver from his pocket, began tocount it. He passed slowly by the shabby man, almost brushing hisshoulder; and, just as he passed, he left fall half-a-crown. Thehalf-crown rolled round in a circle and lay down within a yard anda half of the shabby man. The shabby man calmly glanced at thehalf-crown and then at Mr Gale, who, strolling on, magnificentlypretended to be unaware of his loss; and then the shabby manresumed his dreamy stare into the distance. "Hi!" cried Mr Sandbach after Mr Gale. "You've droppedsomething." It was a great triumph for Mr Sandbach. "I told you you wouldn't get him to move!" said Mr Sandbach,proudly, having rejoined his friend at another part of theplatform. "What's the game?" demanded Mr Gale, frankly acknowledging bytone and gesture that he was defeated. "Perfectly simple," answered Mr Sandbach, condescendingly, "whenyou know. I'll tell you--it's really very funny. Just as everyonewas rushing to get into the London express I heard a coin drop onthe platform, and I saw it rolling. It was half-a-sovereign. Icouldn't be sure who dropped it, but I think it was a lady. Anyhow,no one claimed it. I was just going to pick it up when that chapcame by. He saw it, and he put his foot on it as quick aslightning, and stood still. He didn't notice that I was after ittoo. So I drew back. I thought I'd wait and see what happens." "He looks as if he could do with half-a-sovereign," said MrGale. "Yes; he's only a station loafer." "Then why doesn't he pick up his half-sovereign and hookit?" "Can't you see why?" said Mr Sandbach, patronizingly. "He'safraid of the bookstall clerk catching him at it. He's afraid it'sthe bookstall clerk that has dropped that half-sovereign. You waittill the bookstall clerk finishes those papers and goes inside, andyou'll see." At this point Mr Gale made the happy involuntary movement of aman who has suddenly thought of something really brilliant. "Look here," said he. "You said you'd bet. But you didn't bet.I'll bet you a level half-crown I get him to shift this time." "But you mustn't say anything to him." "No--of course not." "Very well, I'll bet you." Mr Gale walked straight up to the shabby man, drewhalf-a-sovereign from his waistcoat pocket, and held it out. At thesame time he pointed to the shabby man's boots, and then in themost unmistakable way he pointed to the exit of the platform. Hesaid nothing, but his gestures were expressive, and what theyclearly expressed was: "I know you've got a half-sovereign underyour foot; here's another half-sovereign for you to clear off andask no questions." Meanwhile the ingenious offerer of the half-sovereign wasmeditating thus: "I give half-a-sovereign, but I shall gather upthe other half-sovereign, and I shall also win my bet. Net result:Half-a-crown to the good." The shabby man, who could not have been a fool, comprehended atonce, accepted the half-sovereign, and moved leisurely away--not,however, without glancing at the ground which his feet had covered.The result of the scrutiny evidently much surprised him, as itsurprised, in a degree equally violent, both Mr Gale and MrSandbach. For there was no sign of half-a-sovereign under the feetof the shabby man. There was not even nine and elevenpencethere. Mr Gale looked up very angry and Mr Sandbach looked veryfoolish."This is all very well," Mr Gale exploded in tones low andfierce. "But I call it a swindle." And he walked, with anundecided, longing, shrinking air, in the wake of the shabby manwho had pocketed his half-sovereign. "I'm sure I saw him put his foot on it," said Mr Sandbach indefence of himself (meaning, of course, the other half-sovereign),"and I've never taken my eyes off him." "Well, then, how do you explain it?" "I don't explain it," said Mr Sandbach. "I think some explanation is due to me," said Mr Gale, with apeculiar and dangerous intonation. "If this is your notion of apractical joke." "There was no practical joke about it at all," Mr Sandbachprotested. "If the half-sovereign has disappeared it's not myfault. I made a bet with you, and I've lost it. Here's yourhalf-crown." He produced two-and-six, which Mr Gale accepted, though he had astrange impulse to decline it with an air of offended pride. "I'm still seven-and-six out," said Mr Gale. "And if you are!" snapped Mr Sandbach, "you thought you'd do medown by a trick. Offering the man ten shillings to go wasn't at alla fair way of winning the bet, and you knew it, my boy. However,I've paid up; so that's all right." "All I say is," Mr Gale obstinately repeated, "if this is yournotion of a practical joke--" "Didn't I tell you--" Mr Sandbach became icily furious. The friendship hitherto existing between these two excellentindividuals might have been ruined and annihilated for acomparative trifle, had not a surprising and indeed almostmiraculous thing happened, by some kind of freak of destiny, in thenick of time. Mr Sandbach was sticking close to Mr Gale, and MrGale was following in the leisurely footsteps of the very shabbyman, possibly debating within himself whether he should boldlydemand the return of his half-sovereign, when lo! a golden coinseemed to slip from the boot of the very shabby man. It took thestone-flags of the platform with scarcely a sound, and Mr Sandbachand Mr Gale made a simultaneous, superb and undignified rush forit. Mr Sandbach got it. The very shabby man passed on, passedeternally out of the lives of the other two. It may be said that hewas of too oblivious and dreamy a nature for this world. But onemust not forget that he had made a solid gain of ten shillings. "The soles of the fellow's boots must have been all cracks, andit must have got lodged in one of them," cheerfully explained MrSandbach as he gazed with pleasure at the coin. "I hope you believeme now. You thought it was a plant. I hope you believe me now." Mr Gale made no response to this remark. What Mr Gale saidwas: "Don't you think that in fairness that half-sovereign belongs tome?" "Why?" asked Mr Sandbach, bluntly. "Well," Mr Gale began, searching about for a reason. "You didn't find it," Mr Sandbach proceeded firmly. "You didn'tsee it first. You didn't pick it up. Where do you come in?" "I'm seven and sixpence out," said Mr Gale. "And if I give you the coin, which I certainly shall not do, Ishould be half-a-crown out." Friendship was again jeopardized, when a second interference offate occurred, in the shape of a young and pretty woman who wascoming from the opposite direction and who astonished both menconsiderably by stepping in front of them and barring theirprogress. "Excuse me," said she, in a charming voice, but with a severeair. "But may I ask if you have just picked up that coin?" Mr Sandbach, after looking vaguely, as if for inspiration, at MrGale, was obliged to admit that hehad. "Well," said the young lady, "if it's dated 1898, and if there'san 'A' scratched on it, it's mine. I've lost it off mywatch-chain." Mr Sandbach examined the coin, and then handed it toher, raising his hat. Mr Gale also raised his hat. The young lady'sgrateful smile was enchanting. Both men were bachelors andinvariably ready to be interested. "It was the first money my husband ever earned," the young ladyexplained, with her thanks. The interest of the bachelors evaporated. "Not a profitable afternoon," said Mr Sandbach, as the traincame in and they parted. "I think we ought to share the loss equally," said Mr Gale. "Do you?" said Mr Sandbach. "That's like you."