Read Online Jack Maggs by Peter Carey - Free Book Online Page B

times over, if my secrets came with it.”
    There was a long silence.
    “Do you read?” Tobias asked at last.
    “I am not an ignorant man, if that is what you’re thinking.”
    “You might like to read that little chap book by your elbow. There, that’s the one. Turn to the third last page. The date is the sixteenth of April. There you may read exactly what secrets you have given me.”
    Jack Maggs stared at the book but did not touch it. “Oh Sir,” he said, very quietly. “I do really wonder whether that were wise of you.”
    “Open it. Read.”
    The footman shivered so violently that Tobias Oates was reminded of Pharaoh, a race-horse belonging to his father whose freckled flanks would twitch and shiver at the onset of the saddle. Then, as Jack Maggs slowly and carefully read the two pages of handwriting, Tobias Oates hatched his scheme.
    “This is all I said? Naught else besides?”
    “That is all.”
    “Then I was drunk, Sir, if you’ll forgive my French.”
    “But this Phantom lives within you,” said Oates earnestly. “You have a creature who wishes you harm, who lives within you like a worm lives in the belly of a pig. It is the Phantom who hurts your face.”
    “I ain’t acquainted with any Phantom, Sir. I never heard his name before.”
    “I believe that I can remove this pain of yours for ever.”
    “Oh, I have had the pain for many years, Sir. It is an old friend by now.”
    “Was it friendly to be so attacked in public?”
    Jack Maggs closed the little chap book and placed it carefully back upon the desk. “I am happy as I am, Sir.”
    “But what if I should take the demons from your heart where they are causing you pain? What if I write them on paper and then place the pages in this box here? When we are done, we can go to this fireplace, Jack Maggs, and we can burn them together.”
    “But what is it to you, Sir? It is my pain after all.”
    “I am a naturalist.”
    “I heard you was an author.”
    “Yes, an author. I wish to sketch the beast within you. If you were to continue with this experiment I would not only attempt the cure, I would pay you wages.”
    “I do not want money, Sir.”
    Tobias laughed suddenly, bitterly. “Good. What other inducement might I offer you? Not to cure your pain? You are fond of your pain.”
    “I don’t need nothing.”
    “An introduction?”
    The footman hesitated. Oates felt that hesitation, like the dull pressure of an eel on the end of a baited line.
    “What mean you by introduction?”
    “I was imagining you might like an introduction to a superior household . . .”
    The footman waved this away.
    “It was some other type of introduction that you sought? Speak up.”
    “Well, I had planned to ask you, Sir, if you had visited the house again. It took my attention when you spoke of it.”
    “Ask now.”
    “There are still Thief-takers in business,” the footman began. “Is that what I understood you to have said?”
    “You were robbed?”
    “You mentioned a Thief-taker at dinner. Partridge. Him who can find any man in England.”
    “There is someone you want found?”
    “It’s a family matter, Sir.”
    “So that could be our bargain?” Tobias Oates leaned forward on his stool and put out his small square hand to shake on it.
    “I never said I wanted it.” Jack Maggs folded his arms across his chest. There was a pause. “But if I were inclined that way, when would you deliver him?”
    “Directly.”
    “Today?”
    “No, no. Good heavens. There would have to be value in the bargain for me. Four weeks, three.”
    “No, no,” the footman stood, shaking his head and knocking his knuckles together. “I could not wait four weeks.”
    “Three,” said Tobias Oates, also standing.
    “Two,” said Jack Maggs. “Two or nothing.”
    “Two then. Can’t say fairer than that.”
    The footman put out his hand to shake and Tobias Oates imagined he could feel an equal but opposite enthusiasm in the other’s violent