"The less said the better," said the man, when he had shut the door. "How can I serve you, sir?"
"We wish to take our horses and ourselves across to Greenhithe," said Anthony, "and Mrs. Kirke, to whom we are going, bade us make ourselves known to you."
The man nodded and smiled.
"Yes, sir, that can be managed directly. The ferry is at the other bank now, sir; and I will call it across. Shall we say in half an hour, sir; and, meanwhile, will you and your lady take something?"
Anthony accepted gladly, as the time was getting on, and ordered dinner for the servants too, in the outer room. As the landlord was going to the door, he stopped him.
"Who is that man in the other room?" he asked.
The landlord gave a glance at the door, and came back towards Anthony.
"To tell the truth, sir, I do not know. He is a sailor by appearance, and he knows the talk; but none of the watermen know him; and he seems to do nothing. However, sir, there"s no harm in him that I can see."
Anthony told him that he had broken the bread before him, thinking he was the landlord. The real landlord smiled broadly.
"Thank G.o.d, I am somewhat more of a man than that," for the sailor was lean and sun-dried. Then once more Mr. Bender went to the door to call the servants in.
"Why, the man"s gone," he said, and disappeared. Then they heard his voice again. "But he"s left his groat behind him for his drink, so all"s well"; and presently his voice was heard singing as he got the table ready for the servants.
In a little more than half an hour the party and the horses were safely on the broad bargelike ferry, and Mr. Bender was bowing on the bank and wishing them a prosperous journey, as they began to move out on to the wide river towards the chalk cliffs and red roofs of Greenhithe that nestled among the ma.s.s of trees on the opposite bank. In less than ten minutes they were at the pier, and after a little struggle to get the horses to land, they were mounted and riding up the straight little street that led up to the higher ground. Just before they turned the corner they heard far away across the river the horn blown to summon the ferry-boat once more.
There were two routes from Greenhithe to Stanstead, the one to the right through Longfield and Ash, the other to the left through Southfleet and Nursted. There was very little to choose between them as regards distance, and Mrs. Kirke had drawn a careful sketch-map with a few notes as to the characteristics of each route. There were besides, particularly through the thick woods about Stanstead itself, innumerable cross-paths intersecting one another in all directions. The travellers had decided at the inn to take the road through Longfield; since, in spite of other disadvantages, it was the less frequented of the two, and they were anxious above all things to avoid attention. Their horses were tired; and as they had plenty of time before them they proposed to go at a foot"s-pace all the way, and to take between two and three hours to cover the nine or ten miles between Greenhithe and Stanstead.
It was a hot afternoon as they pa.s.sed through Fawkham, and it was delightful to pa.s.s from the white road in under the thick arching trees just beyond the village. There everything was cool shadow, the insects sang in the air about them, an early rabbit or two cantered across the road and disappeared into the thick undergrowth; once the song of the birds about them suddenly ceased, and through an opening in the green rustling vault overhead they saw a cruel shape with motionless wings glide steadily across.
They did not talk much, but let the reins lie loose; and enjoyed the cool shadow and the green lights and the fragrant mellow scents of the woods about them; while their horses slouched along on the turf, switching their tails and even stopping sometimes for a second in a kind of desperate greediness to s.n.a.t.c.h a green juicy mouthful at the side.
Isabel was thinking of Stanfield, and wondering how the situation would adjust itself; Mary Corbet would be there, she knew, to meet them; and it was a comfort to think she could consult her; but what, she asked herself, would be her relations with the master of the house?
Suddenly Anthony"s horse stepped off the turf on the opposite side of the road and began to come towards her, and she moved her beast a little to let him come on the turf beside her.
"Isabel," said Anthony, "tell me if you hear anything."
She looked at him, suddenly startled.
"No, no," he said, "there is nothing to fear; it is probably my fancy; but listen and tell me."
She listened intently. There was the creaking of her own saddle, the soft footfalls of the horses, the hum of the summer woods, and the sound of the servants" horses behind.
"No," she said, "there is nothing beyond----"
"There!" he said suddenly; "now do you hear it?"
Then she heard plainly the sound either of a man running, or of a horse walking, somewhere behind them.
"Yes," she said, "I hear something; but what of it?"
"It is the third time I have heard it," he said: "once in the woods behind Longfield, and once just before the little village with the steepled church."
The sound had ceased again.
"It is some one who has come nearly all the way from Greenhithe behind us. Perhaps they are not following--but again----"
"They?" she said; "there is only one."
"There are three," he answered; "at least; the other two are on the turf at the side--but just before the village I heard all three of them--or rather certainly more than two--when they were between those two walls where there was no turf."
Isabel was staring at him with great frightened eyes. He smiled back at her tranquilly.
"Ah, Isabel!" he said, "there is nothing really to fear, in any case."
"What shall you do?" she asked, making a great effort to control herself.
"I think we must find out first of all whether they are after us. We must certainly not ride straight to the Manor Lodge if it is so."
Then he explained his plan.
"See here," he said, holding the map before her as he rode, "we shall come to Fawkham Green in five minutes. Then our proper road leads straight on to Ash, but we will take the right instead, towards Eynsford.
Meanwhile, I will leave Robert here, hidden by the side of the road, to see who these men are, and what they look like; and we will ride on slowly. When they have pa.s.sed, he will come out and take the road we should have taken, and he then will turn off to the right too before he reaches Ash; and by trotting he will easily come up with us at this corner," and he pointed to it on the map--"and so he will tell us what kind of men they are; and they will never know that they have been spied upon; for, by this plan, he will not have to pa.s.s them. Is that a good plot?" and he smiled at her.
Isabel a.s.sented, feeling dazed and overwhelmed. She could hardly bring her thoughts to a focus, for the fears that had hovered about her ever since they had left Lancashire and come down to the treacherous south, had now darted upon her, tearing her heart with terror and blinding her eyes, and bewildering her with the beating of their wings.
Anthony quietly called up Robert, and explained the plan. He was a lad of a Catholic family at Great Keynes, perfectly fearless and perfectly devoted to the Church and to the priest he served. He nodded his head briskly with approval as the plan was explained.
"Of course it may all be nothing," ended Anthony, "and then you will think me a poor fool?"
The lad grinned cheerfully.
"No, sir," he said.
All this while they had been riding slowly on together, and now the wood showed signs of coming to an end; so Anthony told the groom to ride fifty yards into the undergrowth at once, to bandage his horse"s eyes, and to tie him to a tree; and then to creep back himself near the road, so as to see without being seen. The men who seemed to be following were at least half a mile behind, so he would have plenty of time.
Then they all rode on together again, leaving Robert to find his way into the wood. As they went, Isabel began to question her brother, and Anthony gave her his views.
"They have not come up with us, because they know we are four men to three--if, as I think, they are not more than three--that is one reason; and another is that they love to track us home before they take us; and thus take our hosts too as priests" harbourers. Now plainly these men do not know where we are bound, or they would not follow us so closely. Best of all, too, they love to catch us at ma.s.s for then they have no trouble in proving their case. I think then that they will not try to take us till we reach the Manor Lodge; and we must do our best to shake them off before that. Now the plot I have thought of is this, that--should it prove as I think it will--we should ride slower than ever, as if our horses were weary, down the road along which Robert will have come after he has joined us, and turn down as if to go to Kingsdown, and when we have gone half a mile, and are well round that sharp corner, double back to it, and hide all in the wood at the side. They will follow our tracks, and there are no houses at which they can ask, and there seem no travellers either on these by-roads, and when they have pa.s.sed us we double back at the gallop, and down the next turning, which will bring us in a couple of miles to Stanstead. There is a maze of roads thereabouts, and it will be hard if we do not shake them off; for there is not a house, marked upon the map, at which they can ask after us."
Isabel did her utmost to understand, but the horror of the pursuit had overwhelmed her. The quiet woods into which they had pa.s.sed again after leaving Fawkham Green now seemed full of menace; the rough road, with the deep powdery ruts and the gra.s.s and fir-needles at the side, no longer seemed a pleasant path leading home, but a treacherous device to lead them deeper into danger. The creatures round them, the rabbits, the pigeons that flapped suddenly out of all the tall trees, the t.i.ts that fluttered on and chirped and fluttered again, all seemed united against Anthony in some dreadful league. Anthony himself felt all his powers of observation and device quickened and established. He had lived so long in the expectation of a time like this, and had rehea.r.s.ed and mastered the emotions of terror and suspense so often, that he was ready to meet them; and gradually his entire self-control and the unmoved tones of his voice and his serene alert face prevailed upon Isabel; and by the time that they slowly turned the last curve and saw Robert on his black horse waiting for them at the corner, her sense of terror and bewilderment had pa.s.sed, her heart had ceased that sick thumping, and she, too, was tranquil and capable.
Robert wheeled his horse and rode beside Anthony round the sharp corner to the left up the road along which he had trotted just now.
"There are three of them, sir," he said in an even, businesslike voice; "one of them, sir, on a brown mare, but I couldn"t see aught of him, sir; he was on the far side of the track; the second is like a groom on a grey horse, and the third is dressed like a sailor, sir, on a brown horse."
"A sailor?" said Anthony; "a lean man, and sunburnt, with a whistle?"