“I guessed it,” said Mr. Highcrofft, a catch in his throat.
“But there’s more,” said Hawker. “And it’s much worse. The same night your wife was havin’ her baby, my wife was havin’ hers. It was the baby already on its way when I married her and became this boy’s step-pa.”
“But why are you telling me all this?” asked Mr. Highcrofft. “You have already explained how you came by the locket, so precious to me because of the photograph in it of my dear wife, as well as my own. It isn’t necessary for you to say more, and you are very weak. This is taking a lot out of you.”
“I’m tellin’ you because it got to be told,” moaned Hawker. “Because what happened is that my wife’s baby was born dead …yours was born alive. And I got paid a lot o’ money to switch them that same night. How I did it is no matter. I did it. Robin, your brother was never your real brother.”
Danny never Robin’s real brother!
“Did Mama know?” gasped Robin, his head reeling.
“No way she could o’ not known about her own baby not bein’ born alive. So I had to tell her, only she never knowed whose baby was put in her own baby’s place, or where it come from. But I told her she better not say a word about any o’ it, or it’d be your life.” Hawker’s voice faded into silence after this grim admission.
“But who put you up to this, man?” asked the stunned Mr. Highcrofft, finally able to speak. “Who was it paid you a lot of money to do this terrible thing?”
“It was Franklin Highcrofft,” replied Hawker.
“Franklin? My cousin?” breathed Jonathan Highcrofft, his face contorted with shock and disbelief. “Why? Why?”
“He never told me why,” replied Hawker, his voice barely above a hoarse whisper. “And I never asked why. I just wanted the money. But he said he didn’t care if the baby never lived. If it did, he’d take care o’ sending it someplace where no one here could ever find it. But he wanted to know, always, where it was.”
“Then tell me,” Jonathan Highcrofft cried out, “where is our baby now? Has Franklin already taken him and sent him away? Please, I beg you, you must tell me.”
“I don’t know if he is alive or dead,” replied Hawker, now struggling for every breath. “The baby got stolen, but not by Mr. Highcrofft. Had me searching high and low for it, afraid someone’d find out the story and would take it back where it belonged.”
“Stolen? You mean kidnapped? How did it happen, man? How? Please, can’t you tell me more?” pleaded Jonathan Highcrofft.
But in reply, Hawker only gave a terrible groan. His head rolled over, and he was gone. Gone into another world, never to speak in this world again, nor ever answer another question.
“May God have mercy on his soul,” said Jonathan Highcrofft.
Then tears suddenly streamed down from his eyes, and he threw his face into his hands. “Oh God!” he sobbed. “Our baby! Found only to be snatched away again. And where in this big, cruel city have we any hopes of ever finding him? Oh, please let me wake from this nightmare! Our baby, alive but gone!”
Then Robin put his hand gently on Mr. Highcrofft’s shoulder, shaking with his sobs. “I know where your baby is, Mr. Highcrofft,” he said.
Chapter XVIII
A Supper Invitation
“St. Katherine’s Church! And hurry!” said Jonathan Highcrofft to his driver as he and Robin climbed back into the carriage. “I would dearly love to stop by home first,” he said when he and Robin were settled inside. “I know my wife Adelaide is anxiously awaiting what news I have to bring her about the locket, which of course I showed her before I left the house. Yet think of the other news I’ll now be bringing her as well! But I want to make certain our baby is indeed alive and well before I see her. You say he’s been named Danny?”
“Mama let me choose the name,” said Robin. “His name is Daniel, but we always called him Danny.”
“We’ll have to see how that sits with Adelaide,” said Jonathan Highcrofft. “For the moment he’ll certainly remain Danny. Oh, I still can’t believe this! Our baby alive and all this while cared for under the floorboards of the very church our family attends. Why, I even serve on the church vestry! So far, though, Robin, I know nothing of how he came to be there, for indeed you’ve not had the chance to tell me. So please now, you must tell me everything you can. Every last thing!”
So Robin did, starting with describing the dread baby farm run by Mrs. Jiggs, where Danny was put by Hawker after Robin’s mama died. He told of how he had seen Hawker Doak’s deadly hand raised against Danny just as it had been raised against Robin himself, and how he feared for Danny’s life. That, in the end, he said, was what caused him to run away. For running away, no matter how difficult it would prove to be, would give Danny a chance to live and not face almost certain death at the hands of Mrs. Jiggs and Hawker Doak.
Robin even told how he was, in desperation, going to leave Danny on the steps of St. Katherine’s Church, hoping someone would take him home and care for and love him as Robin did. And that was when he discovered the boys living in the cellar of the church. Asking nothing in return, they had taken in Robin and Danny. They had become a family, Robin said. Piggy, who could not work because of his bad leg, stayed home to look after Danny, while the rest of them went off to shine shoes.
“They’re all Danny’s uncles now,” said Robin. “Uncle Piggy, Uncle Duck, Uncle Spider, and Uncle Mouse. And oh, Mr. Highcrofft, I hope
