Chapter 57: Mr. Hastings, Do You Know God?

Chapter 57 Mr. Hastings, Do You Know God?
The crowd came to the second floor, and Adam stopped abruptly, crouching down in front of a buckled floorboard and putting his hand into the broken hollow of the floorboard.

After fumbling around for a while, he quickly pulled out of it a palm-sized wooden box and an old book that was curled up and barely stroked straight.

Adam wrenched the book upright with great effort and wiped his sleeve clean of the dust that had stained it, and Arthur recognized it as a Scourge magazine just by glancing at the cover.

It wasn’t that Arthur was so knowledgeable, but because he frequented used bookstores outside of his usual workday, and Scourge was popular with the general public of London as a magazine that focused on satirical cartoons.

In the used bookstores, the monthly issues of Scourge from 1811 to 1814 were the most popular.

The reason is very simple, because the main cartoonist of Scourge in these three years was the famous George Cruikshank.

Tom asked suspiciously, “What kind of book is this?”

Before Adam could answer, Arthur had already opened his mouth to explain for him.

“It’s a great book, the June 1812 issue of The Scourge, I’ve been to a number of used bookstores without being able to find it, and I didn’t realize Adam had a copy here.”

Tony came over, “Did it carry any important information this month? Why do you want it so badly?”

Arthur sipped his cigarette with a blank face, “I don’t know if there was any important information, but a month before the June issue went on sale, the then Prime Minister, Spencer Percival, was shot several times and killed in front of the Houses of Parliament.

So I’m guessing this issue is going to be really good, as evidenced by the fact that I can’t find the book in any used bookstore.”

Dickens asked, “Are you talking about the same Prime Minister Percival who enacted the Embargo Act, which ended up messing up the economies of both the United States and Great Britain, and who later ordered the suppression of the ‘Luddite Movement’ and the hanging of many of the rioting workers?”

Tom exclaimed, “My God! Is this book full of attacks on those politicians? It’s a miracle it wasn’t censored at the time.”

Arthur said, “It’s not all attacks on politicians, the attacks on politicians are usually when something special happens, like the ‘Luddite movement’ or something ……”

Tom sighed in relief, “I see ……”

“During the general period, the main comic book writer, George Cruikshank, was basically attacking the royal family, such as denouncing George III for abandoning his hairdresser for the throne, and the fact that it was due to his arbitrariness and insistence on violence that led to the independence of the North American colonies and whatnot.

Oh yeah, Mr. Cruikshank also had the great foresight to attack the current King George IV, who later succeeded to the throne, and he has since pungently commented that George IV, who was a prince at the time, was ‘not a human king to look at’.”

No sooner had Arthur’s words finished than Tom’s heart, which had just dropped, came back into his throat.

Tom only felt that the goosebumps all over his body were trembling: “This gentleman was actually not thrown into jail, how on earth did he do it?
I’ve heard the old folks say that it was different then than it is now, and the king still had quite a bit of power. And George III was a terrible king, even if he had a small mind, he had a big temper.

A lot of people who opposed him were thrown into prison by him, and even those who didn’t go in were basically exiled, so how in the world did this George Cruikshank make it through that period unscathed?”

The corners of Arthur’s mouth hung with an unspoken smile, “There are rather complicated reasons for that.

First of all, by that time, George III was already mentally deranged due to his age, and the power of the king had been transferred to the regent prince George IV to exercise.

And due to the old king’s bad decisions in North America, the parliament had already step by step re-limited his authority.

The bottom line, of course, is that Mr. Cruikshank is a wonderful man.

Both Whigs and Tories see the hidden potential in the magazine Scourge, which has a huge circulation.

So Mr. Cruickshank takes money from the Whigs to attack the Tories, and takes money from the Tories to attack the Whigs.

Finally, money was then collected from both parties together to attack the delirious, perennially bedridden old King.

Thus, he not only said all he wanted to say, but made a great deal of money along the way.”

Dickens wondered, “But even so, wouldn’t Mr. Cruikshank have been labeled a seditious and a traitor when he attacked the royal family and politicians every day? There was a war going on at the time, and I don’t suppose the Treason and Seditious Assembly Acts had been repealed yet?”

“No, no, no.” Arthur waved his hand, “Cruikshank didn’t always attack the crown and politicians, he only spent half of each issue doing that.”

Dickens wondered, “And the other half?”

“The other half?” Arthur said calmly, “Degrading the French, and insulting Napoleon.”

Upon hearing this, the crowd burst out laughing and couldn’t hold their heads up.

“No wonder The Scourge was published properly.”

“Based on this alone, it’s true that they can’t pronounce Mr. Cruikshank guilty of treason.”

Dickens also couldn’t help but say back, “It seems like I’ll have to visit more old bookstores in the future as well, I didn’t realize that there were actually so many interesting things hidden in there.”

While everyone was having a good laugh, the door to the next room suddenly opened a crack.

Adam looked toward the crack in the door and cried out in surprise, “Robin!”

The door to the room was slowly pushed open, revealing a little girl leaning on the edge of the doorframe, a head shorter than Adam.

She wore a small white dress with holes in it, her thin lips were blue and white, her black, yellowish hair was worn loose, and her sickly eyes seemed to have lost their sparkle.

She coughed gently twice, her chest rising and falling in succession, before she tremblingly reached out that small hand that was so thin and weak that it was almost transparent under the sunlight, and asked in a muffled voice that was so thin that it was almost inaudible.

“Is it Adam?”

Adam went up holding the book and the wooden box and took her small hand, rubbing it vigorously against the back of Robin’s hand in an attempt to warm the other’s cold palm a little. “It’s me, I’ve been released from prison. I was almost on the gallows, but I met a lot of nice gentlemen who saved me, and I brought them to see you.

You see, it’s these gentlemen behind me. The kind-looking one is my new father, and that’s Officer Tom, whom I mentioned to you before, and who invited me to dinner at his house.

The one with the mole on his face is Inspector Tony, the one with the satchel is Mr. Dickens, who writes the newspaper, and the tallest and biggest one is Mr. Hastings.

Do you remember what I told you? It was the time two months ago when Mr. Hastings gave me a shilling, and I bought sugar with that money, and we sat in the yard and ate it together.”

Robin smiled quietly as he listened to what Adam had to say, then ran his hand up Adam’s arm until he touched Adam’s hair, which was reassuring enough to touch his head.

“Adam, you’re a good man, and I’ve heard that good things happen to good people, and the fact that you’ve met so many good gentlemen is your good fortune.”

Adam stared at Robin in bewilderment, even though he was only a nine year old, at this point, he could see that something was wrong.

He reached out his hand and slowly shook it in front of Robin’s eyes.

Sensing the sudden silence, Robin smiled and asked, “Adam, why don’t you say something?”

“You …… you can’t see?”

Adam’s hand holding the book and the wooden box loosened, and with a thud, all the contents fell to the ground.

The wooden box contained nothing particularly expensive, just a few poorly wrapped sugar cubes and a few pennies left over from buying candy.

Adam hung his head, he didn’t want his face to be seen, but the shrug of his shoulders and body still betrayed him.

“Adam ……,” Officer Tom breathed heavily, wanting to step forward and hug his son.

But Arthur reached out and stopped him, taking a drag on his cigarette and saying softly, “Don’t go. A man doesn’t want to see his father when he cries.”

Robin stroked Adam’s face gently, warm tears staining her small hands, and she just smiled softly.

“Adam, don’t cry. It’s not that I can’t see, it’s just God and I playing a joke, maybe I’ll get some sleep.

But maybe he’s playing this joke a little too big, I haven’t been able to go to the factory to work for a long time now, and I can hear my mom and dad sighing every night.

When you have a chance to go to church and pray, you must help me to talk to God. I have to get well soon!

The bills at home are just too much, and if we don’t have any more money coming in, our family will have to be thrown out of here.”

Dickens couldn’t help but cover his eyes when he heard this, and Robin’s words reminded him of what had happened to him.

He pursed his lips and reddened his eyes as he fished a ticket out of his pocket and was about to walk up to the door when he didn’t realize that three hands with tickets suddenly reached out behind him and shoved them into his palms.

He looked back, Arthur, Tom and Tony coincidentally looked up at the ceiling, even the three old police officers who had been in the field for a long time and had seen all the suffering, could only resort to this way to keep their tears from falling.

Dickens warmed his heart and glared meaningfully at the three of them, then leaned down and picked up the wooden box on the floor, stuffed the money in his hand, and secretly handed it to Little Adam.

Adam glanced back at him and was about to speak when he saw Dickens holding a finger up between his lips, signaling him to keep quiet.

Adam bit his lip and nodded with tears in his eyes as he gulped and tried to put on his most cheerful tone, “Robin! Look what I found, lots of tickets, with this money your family won’t have to worry about being evicted for a while!”

Who knows that when Robin heard this, she was first stunned, and the smile on her face gradually tightened, she touched the tickets in the wooden box and carefully counted them.

“Adam, this money, you stole it, right? Didn’t you promise me that you would never go back to those things again?”

Adam shook his head vigorously as he denied, “I really didn’t steal this money! Although I often do those things, but that was all in the past.

Besides, even if I had continued to do it what would have happened! Those gentlemen and ladies have taken up all the good things in the world, so why can’t they share some with us?
They can eat dozens of pounds at a meal, and what I take from them is perhaps just a cherry on the cake of their dinner plate.

With that cherry, your family won’t have to be evicted from this place, and what’s wrong with that?

Robin, look at you, you …… you’re blinded …… by them.”

As Adam spoke, he reached out and hugged Robin, the nine year old falling to his knees and crying uncontrollably on the other child’s shoulder.

Even when he had faced the charge of capital punishment in the magistrate’s court, he had never cried as hard as he did today.

Suddenly, a large hand pressed on his head and Adam huffed and looked back; it was Arthur, who had his hat pressed down low.

Adam choked and asked, “Mr. Hastings, do you, do you know God? Maybe he’s the only one who can cure Robin now?”

Arthur picked up the brim of his hat slightly and crouched down, and beneath the shadows were eyes that glowed with a dull crimson aura.

“I’m sorry to say, Adam, but as a rule, I’m as far from God as I am close to the devil.”

Adam sniffed, only to feel his entire being fall into a pit of ice, he turned his head and sniffled softly, tears streaming down his face without words.

But immediately afterward, Arthur’s gentle voice sounded again.

“But if it’s for Robin, I can work very hard to know God.”

(End of chapter)