“Uncle Twice alive and well!” breathed Emily.
“Aye, child, alive and well and in this very room! Now go ee and take him this confession, signed before witnesses!”
Uncle Twice in that room? Where? The bronzed, bearded, broad-shouldered stranger looked nothing at all like the pale, slender man pictured in Emily’s locket. She looked around the room in confusion.
Then the man stepped out of the shadows and stood in full light with his arms outstretched, and it was Uncle Twice! Tears streaming down her cheeks, Emily ran into the waiting arms and felt them fold around her. At long, long last, she was home!
“My darling Emily, forgive me for remaining silent, but I came to this room a murderer, and I thought I might leave a murderer. And never did I want you to know me as that! It was only by this confession that I could make myself known to you.”
No sooner had Uncle Twice said these words, than the Captain raised his hand weakly, wanting to be heard. “I have no right to ask forgiveness of ee, William Luccock, but I ask it all the same, if ee can find it in thy heart to forgive”.
With Emily’s hand in his, Uncle Twice drew close to the Captain. “Because of what was done to my wife and this innocent child, I find it hard to forgive now. Perhaps in time I will be able to. But for myself, I do forgive, and for saving the lives of these so precious to me, I do also thank you with all my heart!”
“I thankee!” said the Captain. “ ’Tis more than I deserve.”
By now his face had become such a ghastly color and his breathing so difficult for him, it was clear his life was rapidly ebbing away. Tears again poured down Emily’s face, this time for the old man, now losing his life for having tried to save hers.
“Shed no tears for me, Emily Luccock,” he said, “for I’m as blackhearted a villain as ever lived.”
“No, never!” sobbed Emily, and she bent over and placed a kiss on the terrible scar that stabbed across his face.
“Thankee, child!” he whispered. Then his head rolled over, and he died.
Pa removed the blanket from under his head and gently laid it over his grizzled face. For moments, there was silence in the small room as they all gazed in sadness at the dead Captain.
Then Pa turned to Uncle Twice. “What’s to be done now, sir?”
“What do you think best, sir?” replied Uncle Twice, returning the compliment by addressing Kipper’s Pa as sir. For it was easy to see that in his eyes, the fishmonger was every bit as much a gentleman as he himself had been and was to be again.
“I think as how we ain’t got a choice but to pay a visit to the police for you to present your credentuals, followed by a visit to The Jolly Sailor to present Mrs. Plumly and Mrs. Meeching with their comeuppance. You and me can take care o’ that, whilst Kipper and Emily fly back to Sugar Hill Hall to carry the happy news to her Aunt Twice.” Pa beamed at the two children before him.
“How ’bout Little Shrimper, Pa?” Kipper asked. “He ain’t needed to keep watch now.”
“Well, looks as how first thing I got to do is pay a visit to his ma and make a delivery that ain’t got anything to do with fish, Kipper!”
Pa leaned over and scooped Little Shrimper up in his strong arms. Despite all the drama being enacted in the little boy’s presence that night, he had been unable to hold up any longer. With his head dropped on the table, he had once again fallen fast asleep.
EIGHTEEN
Peppermints in the Parlor
It wasn’t until she was racing along beside Kipper through the dark streets with Pa’s splendid warm fishy coat flapping comfortingly about her knees, that an alarming thought struck Emily. “The tunnel!” she gasped.
“What ’bout the tunnel?” Kipper asked. “Well, if Mrs. Plumly and Mrs. Meeching should learn about Uncle Twice and Pa coming for them with the policemen, wouldn’t they try to escape?” said Emily. She was panting breathlessly as she scurried to keep up with Kipper.
“If I was in them shoes, I would,” Kipper replied. “But what’s it got to do with the tunnel?”
“Mightn’t they try to escape through it?” said Emily. “Then they could collect some of the jewels in the ballroom on their way.”
“Dingus, Emily, you’re right!” Kipper exclaimed. “Knowing them two, that’s exactly what they’d be likely to do. Pa don’t know ’bout that tunnel either, ’cause I never told him for fear he’d have ten fish fits, as he always says, ’bout my messing ’round with such a nasty business. But then”—Kipper paused to think—“your Uncle Twice probably knows ’bout it, ’cause Sugar Hill Hall belongs to him.”
“No, Kipper, he doesn’t!” Emily said anxiously. “Don’t you remember my telling you about the well he never had opened?”
Kipper frowned. “But there’s them other steps and trapdoor too, Emily. I mean, the ones into the ballroom.”
“The steps are much, much newer than the ones to the Remembrance Room,” Emily said. “I noticed it when we went up them. And even though I was only a very small girl when I was first at Sugar Hill Hall, I remember Uncle Twice waltzing me right over the very place where the trapdoor is now. I think Mrs. Plumly and Mrs. Meeching must have had the steps and trapdoor made, and Uncle Twice knows nothing about it.”
“Which explains a lot o’ things,” said Kipper. “Them two lovely ladies must o’ found out ’bout the tunnel private like and wanted to get their hands on it. They could o’ just done in your Uncle Twice, but then they would o’ had to finish off your Aunt Twice, and after that
