For a moment Humphrey was disconcerted, but he did not relinquish his own plan. Presently he said: "If we must go to Selby, let us cross the river here. We can go on the south side of it as well as the north."
Hugo reflected. Then without a word he directed his horse down the bank and into the water, which was here swimming deep. Well satisfied, Humphrey followed.
"I did not dream of acorns and of eating one of them for nothing," he said to himself. "I shall be master yet."
And hardly had the words pa.s.sed through his mind when _splash_ went a heavy body into the water behind the two swimming horses.
Fleetfoot had come up with his master. Swiftly Hugo and Humphrey turned their heads, Hugo with a smile and an encouraging motion of the hand toward his dog, and Humphrey with a frown. "I would I knew who sent the hound after us," grumbled the disgusted serving-man to himself when, the shallow water reached, both riders drew rein for the horses to drink.
Once across the Wharfe Humphrey led the way to a heavy thicket, and dismounting pushed the growth this way and that and so made a pa.s.sage for the horses, Fleetfoot, Hugo, and himself. In the middle of the thick was a little cleared gra.s.sy place where, crowded closely together, all might find room, and here Humphrey announced that they would take their midday rest and meal.
Hugo still said nothing, but he looked very determined, as Humphrey could see. "But I go not to Selby," thought the stubborn serving-man.
"I run not my head into the king"s noose so near home."
It was an early nooning they had taken, for it was barely half-past twelve when Humphrey broke the silence. He rose, tied each horse securely, and then turning to Hugo said: "Bid the dog stay here. We will go and have a look over the country."
Hugo rose, laid down his bow and arrows, and, bidding the dog watch them, followed Humphrey out of the thicket.
The serving-man, who was well acquainted with this part of the country, now made a little detour into a path which he followed a short distance till he came out a quarter of a mile away from the thicket into a gra.s.sy glade in the centre of which towered one of those enormous oaks of which there were many in England at this time. "We will climb up,"
said Humphrey, "and have a look."
Up they went; Hugo nimbly and Humphrey clumsily and slowly, as became his years and experience, as William Lorimer would have said if he had seen him. Barely had they reached complete cover, and the rustling they made had just ceased, when the tramp of two approaching horses was heard. The sky was now overcast with clouds in spite of the prognostications of the owls, and the rain began to descend heavily, so that the two riders sought refuge beneath the tree. Hugo and Humphrey looked at each other and then down upon the hors.e.m.e.n, who were the two spies, Walter Skinner and Richard Wood.
"I had thought to have come up with them ere this," said Walter Skinner. "They had not more than half an hour the start of me."
"Have no fear," replied Richard Wood, who was a tall and determined-looking man. "They have most like gone on to Selby on the north side of the river. We shall catch them there."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Humphrey and Hugo in the Oak Tree]
"Thou saidst there is no one to watch the castle?" inquired Walter Skinner.
"Ay, I said it," returned Richard Wood. "Why, who should there be when Sir Thomas hath taken the other two and gone off to get a troop together against Robert Sadler"s return? There be thirty men-at-arms within the castle, and all will fight to the death if need be, and none more fiercely than William Lorimer. So saith Robert Sadler. He giveth not so brave an account of the warder and the grooms at the drawbridge, for, saith he, "The warder is old and slow, and the grooms stupid." It was well we fell in with Robert Sadler as he departed on his journey."
There was a brief silence while the rain still fell heavily, though the sky showed signs of clearing. Then Walter Skinner in his small cracked voice laughed aloud. "The troop will be there, and there will be hard fighting for naught," he said. "For the prize is escaped and we shall capture it and have the reward."
"What thinkest thou of Selby?" asked Humphrey, when the two spies had gone on toward the river.
"I think thou art right," answered Hugo, frankly.
Without a word Humphrey climbed still higher in the tree and gazed after the two till they were hidden from view in the forest.
"Hast thou been before in this wood?" he inquired, when he and Hugo had descended and stood upon the ground.
"Nay," replied Hugo.
"I thought not. Ask me no questions and I will lead thee through it. I know it of old."
Hugo at this looked rather resentful. He had regarded himself as the important personage on the journey just undertaken, and now it seemed that the serving-man regarded the important personage as Humphrey. And the boy thought that because Humphrey had been right in his purpose to avoid Selby was no reason why he should a.s.sume the charge of the expedition. He did not dispute him, however, but followed the triumphant serving-man back to the thicket, to the horses, his bow and arrows, and his dog.
In a short time they were out of the thicket and mounted; and then Humphrey condescendingly said to Hugo: "Follow me, and thou shalt see I will keep out of sight of keepers and rangers. And keep thy hound beside thee, if thou canst. He is like to make us trouble."
At this Hugo felt indignant. He was not accustomed to be treated as if he were a small child.
They now jogged on in silence a few zigzag miles until Humphrey came to another thicket, in which he announced they would pa.s.s the night. "Had we kept the open path," he observed, "we might have been further along on our journey, if, perchance, we had not been entirely stopped by a ranger or a king"s man."
"The two spies went down the Wharfe toward the Ouse and Selby,"
remarked Hugo.
"Oh, ay," returned Humphrey. "But the king hath many men, and they all know how to do a mischief for which there is no redress. Hadst thou been a Saxon as long as I have been, and that is forty years, thou hadst found it out before this. And now I will make a fire, for the night is chill, and, moreover, I would have a cake of meal for my supper." So saying, he set to work with his flint and soon had a fire in the small open place in the midst of the thicket.
"Hast thou no fear of the ranger?" asked Hugo.
"Not I. This thick is well off his track. I would have no fear of him at any time but for thy dog. Moreover, he is a timid man, and the wood hath many robbers roving around in it. Could he meet us alone with thy dog, there would be trouble. But here I fear him not."
Hugo laid his hand on Fleetfoot"s head. "Thou hast no friend in Humphrey," he said in a low tone as he looked into the dog"s eyes.
Then, while Humphrey baked the oatmeal cake in the coals, Hugo gave the dog as liberal a supper as he could from their scant supply.
"Be not too free," cautioned Humphrey, as he glanced over his shoulder.
"We have yet many days to journey ere we reach London if we escape the clutches of the king"s men. Could they but look in at the castle now, I warrant they would laugh louder and longer than they did under the big oak."
Hugo glanced around him nervously.
"Tush, boy! what fearest thou?" said Humphrey. "Here be no listeners.
Thou knowest this is the hour. I tell thee frankly I had rather be with her ladyship than to lead thee in safety; yea, even though the way lay, as her way doth lie, through that robber-infested forest of Galtus.
Hast heard how there be lights shown in York to guide those coming into the town from that wild place?"
"Yea," answered Hugo, briefly.
Humphrey sighed. "There will be somewhat to do on that journey," he said. "A train of sumpter mules carry the clothing, the ma.s.sy silver dishes, and the rich hangings; and with them go all the serving-men and half the men-at-arms."
"I pray thee, cease thy speech," said Hugo, still more nervously as he looked about him apprehensively in the semi-darkness of the fire-lit enclosure. "Thy prating may mar all."
"Was it for this," demanded Humphrey, "that I did dream of acorns and of eating one of them, which foretelleth, as all men know, a gradual rise to riches and honor, that I should be bid to cease prating by a stranger, and he a mere lad? But I can cease, if it please thee. I had not come with thee but for her ladyship"s commands." And in much dudgeon he composed himself to sleep.
As for Hugo, he lay on the gra.s.s, his eyes on the glimmering fire, and his ears alert for any sound. But all was still; and he soon fell to picturing the scene at the castle,--Lady De Aldithely and Josceline, mounted for their journey, going out at the postern gate at the head of the train of sumpter mules and attended by the band of serving-men and men-at-arms. And with all his heart he hoped for their safety. He did not wonder at their taking their treasures with them. It was the custom of the time to do so, and was quite as sensible as leaving them behind to be stolen.
The great deerhound blinked his eyes lazily in the firelight and drew, after a while, the lad"s thoughts away from the castle. What should he do with Fleetfoot? How should he feed him, and with what? And how should he get him through the town of Ferrybridge near which they now were, and which they must pa.s.s through in the morning, unless Humphrey would agree to swim the horses across the Aire above the town and so avoid it?
And now the wood seemed to awake. Owls insisted to the ears of the sleeping Humphrey that the morrow would be a fair day. Leaves rustled in the gentle wind. Far off sounded a wildcat"s cry. And with these sounds in his ears Hugo fell asleep.
CHAPTER V
The fire was plentifully renewed, and Humphrey was preparing breakfast when, in the morning, Hugo awoke.
With what seemed to the boy a reckless hand, the serving-man flung Fleetfoot his breakfast. "He may eat his fill if he will," said Humphrey, noting Hugo"s expression of surprise. "He hath already so lowered our store that more must be bought."