shadow of britain

Chapter 554: Hastings the Unforgivable

How do you spell Arthur Hastings? A, S, S, H, O, L, E. What? No, I didn't spell it wrong.

—Charles Wheatstone

As the sun sets, the sky over Göttingen is filled with fiery clouds.

After finishing a day's classes, the college students in Göttingen rushed to entertainment venues all over the city like wild donkeys, and the number of guests in the Black Bear Tavern increased.

After bidding farewell to the high-spirited Ohm and Siemens who was facing the crisis of dropping out of school, Arthur finally had time to entertain two old friends who came from London.

Fiona asked the servant to take out the black tea leaves and silver teapot she brought from London, and asked the tavern owner to boil some hot water and make a pot of tea. Wheatstone huddled in the corner of the dining table. This British scientist who made a fortune from the phonograph did not have any noble temperament at all.

If no one told him, people would probably think he was some poor relative of the British lady sitting across the table.

Arthur's seat was next to Whetstone's, and he deliberately sat near the exit in case this guy suddenly jumped up and ran away.

Others might not do such a ridiculous thing, but Arthur knew the temper of his old friend very well. After all, dear Mr. Whetstone was a guy who could pick locks, open doors and climb over walls to avoid giving a speech at the Royal Society.

The daily lectures of the Royal Society could push him to that point, and the upcoming European Electromagnetism Conference to be held at the University of Göttingen would undoubtedly be an even more severe test for Wheatstone.

Because Arthur sponsored the Royal Society's special lecture, and he had a close personal relationship with Faraday and maintained a good personal relationship with the Duke of Sussex, the president of the Royal Society, the Royal Society responded very positively to the European Conference on Electromagnetism led by Arthur.

The list of the Royal Society delegation was sent to the University of Göttingen by email a few days ago. The President of the Royal Society, the Duke of Sussex, made it clear that he should attend the meeting in person, both for the sake of helping the Kingdom of Hanover stabilize the situation and for the sake of scientific exchange.

Other Royal Society scientists who attended with him included: Michael Faraday, Peter Barlow, William Sturgeon, Charles Babbage and others.

As for the French Academy of Sciences, perhaps in order to thank Arthur for traveling all the way to Paris to present the Copley Medal to Poisson this year, the Academy's lifelong secretary, Mr. François Arago, also enthusiastically stated in his reply that the delegation of the French Academy of Sciences led by him will be a luxurious lineup that includes France's most outstanding electromagnetic researchers such as Simone Poisson, André-Marie Ampere, Jean-Baptiste Biot, and Felix Savart.

As for the three Nordic countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, their delegations will be led by their country's most outstanding electromagnetic scientists and electrochemists, Hans Öster, Johann Berzelius and Christian Boll respectively.

As for Germany, Gauss successfully invited his good friends through his personal connections: Alexander von Humboldt, the president of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and many electromagnetic researchers in Prussia.

Weber contacted his supervisor at the University of Halle, Mr. Johann Schweiger, the inventor of the galvanometer and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Chemistry and Physics, which had published Ohm's erroneous paper.

Look at this long list. Arthur's calves trembled when he saw all these names piled up together, not to mention the useless guy Wheatstone.

"Charles, I'm sure you're very happy to meet so many outstanding electromagnetic researchers at once?"

Wheatstone did not buy Arthur's behavior of bringing up irrelevant issues at all, and he protested solemnly.

"Do you know how I came to Göttingen? I was kidnapped by a group of thugs! You damned East End gangster, you actually instigated them to pry open the door of my house and carried me and my blanket onto the carriage! What's more damning is that Scotland Yard, the largest gangster gang in London, turned a blind eye to my kidnapping! I originally moved to Regent Crescent because it was quiet and safe there. If I had known that the police didn't care about that place, I might as well have slept in the sewers of Greenwich!"

"Oh, the sewers in Greenwich?" Fiona picked up the teapot and filled them with tea one by one. "If you live there, I won't even have to pick the lock. Mr. Whetstone, next time you speak, you should at least find out the name of the inspector in charge of Greenwich."

Whitstone asked in alarm, "What's that?"

Fiona pushed the cup in front of him: "Tony Eckhart."

"Damn it! Tony is now a police inspector?" Whiston slapped him in the face: "Arthur, you bastard, you Scotland Yard are really a nest of snakes and rats!"

Arthur picked up the teacup and took a sip. The taste of Twinings black tea was still so cordial and familiar. "Charles, you can't do this. I also know that Scotland Yard is a nest of snakes and rats. But the reason why His Majesty the King specially gave Scotland Yard the royal crown is to prevent people from saying that."

Whetstone looked at Arthur's calm demeanor and was so angry that his teeth itched: "Yes! Yes! It's all my fault. I thought you retired from Scotland Yard and became a good man, but now it seems that when you were in Scotland Yard, the most you could do was to find loopholes in the law. But since you left there, you don't even bother to find loopholes! Just wait, when I return to London, I will spend a lot of money to hire the best lawyer in the country to sue you in court! I can't believe that there is no fairness and justice in the great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland!"

Fiona heard this and said kindly, "Mr. Whetstone, if there is fairness and justice in the UK, would you still spend a lot of money to hire a lawyer?"

Fiona's words choked back Wheatstone's string of curse words before they came out of his mouth. He held it in for a long time with his face flushed, but finally he couldn't stand the cruel reality and suddenly lost his temper.

"If I could go back in time, I shouldn't have coveted the economic benefits brought by inventing the phonograph. Then, I wouldn't have had so much contact with you. If I hadn't had so much contact with you, I wouldn't have been forced to attend the Royal Society's academic conference, and I wouldn't have been kidnapped to Germany. I could run my small music store peacefully, and live a simple life that was not rich but happy, pure, and noble..."

"Simple and noble?" Arthur stretched out his hand to stop Fiona from pouring more tea for him. "I don't think a simple and noble person would hide in his little house all day long to decipher the disgusting code words published by lovers in the newspaper."

Arthur had exposed Wheatstone's secret plan, and he immediately became red-faced and angry. Usually, Wheatstone, who could not hold back a word in front of others, attacked in rapid succession, "That... that's better than you! Arthur Hastings, you dirty ditch rat, look at what you have done! You sell beer to harm believers, you take black money to support mistresses, you shield and condone criminal gangs, you order the shooting of demonstrators, you embezzle the government's public budget, and you bribe Louis to collude with foreign countries!"

Arthur was stunned by Wheatstone's sudden eloquence, but in the next moment, he saw his face darken visibly. "Charles, if you take back what you just said, we can still be friends. Apart from anything else, don't you know how much money the Police Intelligence Bureau spent on the purchase of monitoring equipment was spent on you?"

But Wheatstone didn't care about that. He had already been kidnapped and brought to Göttingen, and there was a high possibility that he would be embarrassed at the European Conference on Electromagnetism. At least before he died socially, he had to take revenge on Arthur Hastings and would never bow to such evil forces.

Even if there is no way to punish him by law or physically punish him, it is good to at least satisfy his verbal urge.

He had to make this guy understand that he, Charles Wheatstone, was also a gangster in Greenwich, and once he took off his pants, he was a man!

Whitstone fired at full force: "Arthur, fuck..."

Seeing that the situation was not good, Fiona quickly picked up the bread on the table and stuffed it directly into Whiston's open mouth.

Whiston's breath was cut off when it was about to be exhaled, and he almost rolled his eyes on the spot.

Fiona unfolded a delicate ivory-handled silk embroidered folding fan and covered her lips with it to hide her embarrassment. "Mr. Whiston, if you have so much trouble in your heart, you can come to my place when you return to London someday. If you feel shy, we have a prayer room like the one in the church. You can talk to the girls through the small window. They all like to listen to stories told by a cultured and profound gentleman like you. By the way, don't you like to decipher the code words in the newspaper? You can pass small notes to each other and communicate in code words. I guarantee that other people won't understand this way of communication."

Wheatstone finally caught his breath, and he chewed the bread into pieces with all his might.

He folded his hands on the table, chewed the bread, and sulked in silence for a long time. Then he swallowed the bread and suddenly asked, "Do the ladies in your place know cryptography?"

Fiona's heart finally settled after hearing that. She said with a smile, "If they don't know how, can't you teach them? Who can be born with a doctorate degree?" Whiston thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense."

The Red Devil, who had been watching the show for a long time, heard this and laughed happily, holding Whiston's shoulder and said, "Does it make sense? I see you just want to go but are too embarrassed to go."

Arthur calmly said to Wheatstone, "Charles, I was indeed inconsiderate in bringing you to Göttingen without prior notice. But looking across Europe, there is no one more professional than you in the construction of telegraph equipment. I know what you are worried about. Don't worry, I will not force you to speak at the European Electromagnetic Conference. If you mind, you can choose to watch the ceremony from the backstage of the lecture hall."

"Really?" Whiston raised his eyebrows with a look of disbelief: "Are you trying to trick me again?"

Arthur smiled, holding the back of the seat with one hand and holding the teacup with the other, and said, "Charles, we are both past the age of youth and recklessness. Why would I want to play tricks on you?"

"Okay...ok, then I'll trust you again."

"I don't want to play tricks on you." Arthur took a sip of tea: "I just want to beat you now."

"Ah?!" Whiston was so shocked that he stood up quickly: "You robber really want to use force!"

"Calm down, Charles, it was just a joke."

Arthur took out a pen and paper from his jacket pocket, signed a small note, and handed it to the servant standing beside Fiona: "Take this and take Mr. Wheatstone to the observatory of Göttingen University to familiarize him with the environment. If you are lucky, you may even run into Professors Gauss and Weber. They have been obsessed with studying telegraph equipment recently."

Under normal circumstances, if Wheatstone were asked to go to a strange place to meet strangers, he would probably be unwilling.

But if you tell him that if he continues to stay in the Black Bear Tavern, he is likely to be attacked violently, then Wheatstone will feel that meeting one or two strangers is not so unacceptable.

He hurried out of his seat as if he was avoiding the plague, put on his hat again, looked at the increasing number of customers in the tavern, and shivered.

Whiston pulled up his collar to try to cover half of his face, then quietly pleaded with Arthur: "I hope you can keep your promise if you really regard me as a friend."

Arthur nodded slightly and said, "Of course, if you feel the need, I can also set up a prayer room for you in the observatory. You can stay in there and work alone, while Gauss and Weber stay outside, and the three of you can communicate through a small window."

Whetstone imagined the scene and shuddered. "What do you take me for? I'm not a monkey!" he cursed.

After saying this, Whiston followed the servant away, cursing softly all the way.

Arthur watched his good friend leave the pub and turned his gaze to Fiona: "I say..."

"Hmm?" Fiona waited expectantly.

Arthur took a sip of tea and said, "If Charles really goes to your place after returning to London, you have to find an experienced person to serve him well and control the intensity."

Fiona thought he was going to say something important, but when she heard that he was planning to take revenge on Whetstone, she couldn't help but smile and said, "If you want to beat him so much, why don't you do it yourself?"

Arthur shook his head slightly and said, "This is the most unfair thing in the world. Because if it's me, it's a violent crime, a street fight. But if it's the ladies, everyone will say it's a spice of life. I don't want to mess with Charles. He's a millionaire now. Didn't you hear him just now? He can always hire the best lawyer in the country to deal with me."

"So what?" Fiona replied, "Everyone knows that you are the best prosecutor in Britain. It's still unclear who will win or lose in court."

"That's all old news." Arthur joked, "I'm not a policeman now, but a university professor. But I'm better at teaching students how to fight than teaching. But there's nothing I can do. In the current situation, schools can't promote this."

"Are you sure?"

Fiona smiled as she stirred the teacup to dissolve the sugar cube. "I see that many students in this tavern have scars on their faces. They are probably from private duels. I heard that duels are very popular in German schools, and I was thinking about recruiting some thugs here."

"What's the matter? Didn't Tom and Tony give you any help in London?"

"No, they are still as generous as ever, but I usually don't cause them any trouble. Now we are different from before, we have a license and we are doing a legitimate business, there is no need to use knives and guns in the alleys. Even if someone comes to cause trouble occasionally, we just tie them up and hand them over to the police station, we don't need to worry about what happens next."

"Sounds like business is good?"

Hearing this, Fiona winked at him playfully and showed off the emerald ring on her right index finger to Arthur.

"This is all thanks to Mr. Schneider. He introduced us to many good clients. Among them are not only his colleagues in Whitehall Street, officials in government departments, but also many people with titles. And these people, in turn, introduced more people. Among these introduced clients, one or two even have royal blood. If it weren't for opening this shop, I wouldn't have known that those upright bigwigs in the Palace of Westminster were actually like this in private."

Arthur looked at the ring and laughed. "The index finger is often used to wear family signet rings or noble rings, symbolizing power and status. It seems that you not only made money from this, but also learned a lot of useful or useless knowledge. Fiona, you are no longer the street girl who can't live without two sips of laudanum every day."

"You are the same, aren't you?" Fiona pursed her lips and said, "A swineherd can become a Royal Police Superintendent in a police uniform and a university professor in a robe. He can get great help from the scholars of the Royal Society just by writing a letter. So, what role are you going to play next? Tell me as soon as possible so that I can familiarize myself with the script in advance and strive to make progress as soon as possible."

"The world is unpredictable. Who can tell how tomorrow will go?"

Arthur put on his hat and said, "But it's always good to have more friends. It's the same in London. A swineherd mixed with a group of princes, then he is a prince. A low-class girl mixed with a group of ladies, then she is a lady."

Fiona stood up and asked, "Are you going home? Where do you live now?"

"um, I……"

Arthur nodded, but then he seemed to have thought of something else, as if he had overlooked a possible troublesome thing.

There were several women living in his house, all of whom were girls brought from Paris who had connections with the royalists.

"Hmm..." Arthur stood still, thinking deeply, then suddenly turned around, smiled, bowed slightly, and stretched out his hand to Fiona, saying: "It's my fault for not thinking it through. At this time, I should be the one to escort the lady back to her residence first."

Fiona's slightly angry mood calmed down immediately after hearing this. She put her hand on Arthur's palm and said, "I came all the way from London to help you kidnap someone. At least you still have some conscience."

(End of this chapter)