"I thought all the excitement was over," said Alicia languidly.
"Oh, no. There was a riot in the streets last night, and they arrested some popular favourite and took him to prison. The mob"s furious, and the police are afraid of a disturbance when he"s brought before the magistrate this morning. Then Mr. Medland is to arrive at twelve o"clock, and they"re afraid of another riot then. Sir Robert was here at half-past eight, and at his request the Governor authorised calling out the Mounted Volunteers to keep order. Lord Eynesford says he"ll go with them. Do get up," and Eleanor went off, eager to hear the latest news.
The present situation was justifying her tenacious opinion that new communities were interesting.
In spite of her many inquiries, her intelligence was not quite the latest. The police had stolen a march on the crowd, and Big Todd had been quietly brought before the seat of justice at nine o"clock, remanded for a week, and carried off to the prison, which was situated outside the town, about half-a-mile beyond Government House. The van containing the captive had rolled unsuspected through the streets, and it was not till the crowd had waited an hour outside the court that the secret leaked out. The outwitted men were in a fury. The mounted police lined the sides of the street, and their impa.s.sive demeanour seemed to rouse the mob to fresh anger. There had been a plan to rescue Big Todd, now it was too late, and men looked at one another in sullen wrath. The crowd drifted off towards the railway station, thinking to welcome Medland. The Mounted Volunteers were on guard there. They saw Kilshaw at the head of his company and hailed him with a groan. Behind the ranks, the Governor sat on his horse, flanked by his _aides-de-camp_ and talking to Sir Robert Perry. No one was allowed within the station-yard, every one was compelled to move about, the preparations were complete, to riot would be to run against a stone wall.
Suddenly an idea, a suggestion, flew through the crowd. It was greeted with surly smiles and emphatic nods. To the surprise of the officers and of the Governor, the crowd began to melt away. Splitting up in twos and threes, it sauntered off, as if it had made up its mind to submit quietly to the inevitable. Soon only women and children were left, and the Governor began to feel that the array of force was almost ridiculously out of proportion to the need. The whole thing was, as Captain Heseltine regretfully observed, "fizzling out," and he proposed to go home to lunch.
Medland"s train arrived half-an-hour later, and he came out of the station, looking round in surprise at the martial aspect of the scene.
Then he smiled.
"We look rather a.s.ses," whispered Heseltine. "I wonder if they did it on purpose."
Medland came down the steps and found himself almost face to face with Kilshaw. The ex-Premier was smoking a cigar, and he took it out of his mouth, in order to smile more freely.
"If," he said to Kilshaw, "it"s not dangerous to public order, I should like a cab."
Kilshaw heard a shamefaced, stifled giggle from his men behind him and turned very red. The next minute Sir Robert came up, holding out his hand.
"This is a great compliment to you," he said, smiling.
"Evidently beyond my deserts," answered Medland, getting into his cab.
"To my house," he called to the man, and was driven rapidly away.
The Governor rode up to Sir Robert with a look of vexation on his face.
"The sooner we end this farce the better," he said. "I"m going home. I suppose you"ll send the men to quarters."
"I really don"t understand it," protested Sir Robert. "They looked like mischief."
"I suppose we frightened them. Oh, no doubt you were right," and the Governor turned his horse.
Suddenly the figure of a man on horseback, going at a gallop, was seen in the distance. The Governor drew rein and waited. The man came nearer, and, as soon as he was within earshot, he shouted.
"The prison! the prison! They"ve all gone to the prison."
"What?" cried the Governor.
"All the crowd," panted the messenger. "They mean to have Big Todd out.
We"ve only got ten men there, and the people are threatening to burn the place down if he"s not given up."
"By Jove, they"ve jockeyed us!" cried Captain Heseltine, and he turned to his chief for orders.
"We must be after them," exclaimed the Governor. "Let the orders be given. You, Heseltine, go and bring up the police. This looks like business."
The column was soon on the march, followed by a string of women and children, which was speedily outstripped when the word to trot was given. The outskirts of the town were reached; they met man after man who told them of a gathering crowd round the prison; they overtook more men, armed with cudgels, who slunk on one side and tried to hide their sticks. They reached the gates of Government House, and Lord Eynesford spied his wife and Alicia looking out of the windows of the lodge.
"Go and tell them what"s up," he said to Flemyng. "Say there"s no danger," and the column trotted on.
"This is what Mr. Medland has brought us to," observed Lady Eynesford, when Mr. Flemyng made his report. "I"m glad we"ve done with him, anyhow, aren"t you, Eleanor?"
"Perhaps we haven"t," suggested Eleanor. "I wonder if he"s come back."
"No doubt he"s encouraging this riot. I only hope he"ll get the treatment he deserves."
Alicia stood by in silence. The little room felt close and hot. She was tired and worn out, for she had spent the morning writing a letter that seemed very hard to write.
"Mightn"t we go into the garden?" she asked. "There"s no danger to us, is there, Mr. Flemyng?"
"Oh dear, no, Miss Derosne. They"re only thinking of Big Todd. I"ll go on if you don"t want me, Lady Eynesford."
He trotted off and overtook the rest just as they came in sight of the prison. The crowd was thick round it.
"By heaven, they"ve got the door open!" cried Heseltine.
They had. The heavy door hung on its hinges, and, as the Governor drew nearer, he saw the prisoner, Big Todd himself, in the centre of the crowd. There were near three thousand there, almost all men; most had sticks, here and there the sun caught the gleam of a knife or the glint from a revolver-barrel. A rude kind of rampart of the tables and chairs from the gaol formed a slight makeshift barricade, and behind it, the crowd, backed by the building, stood waiting for the attack.
The Governor halted.
"It really looks rather serious," he said.
Sir Robert Perry, whose fat cob was panting with unusual exertions, nodded a.s.sent.
"We don"t want bloodshed, if we can help it," he observed.
"No, but we"ll have that fellow," said the Governor curtly, "or I"ll know the reason why."
His old instincts were astir in him. He had been a soldier in his time, and he almost regretted that his first duty was to reason with these men. Endeavouring to carry out this duty, he said to Heseltine,
"Go and say I"ll give them three minutes to hand over Todd and disperse."
Heseltine rode forward till he came to the barricade and delivered his message, adding,
"Look sharp. There you are, Todd! Now come along, my man."
"Come and fetch me," grinned Big Todd.
"So we will," answered the Captain, smiling, "but you"d better come quietly."
"Look here, sir. Say no more about what happened last night and we"ll give the Governor back his prison. We ain"t hurt it, not to speak of."
Heseltine laughed.
"You"re an insolent scoundrel," he said.
"You"d better get a bit further off before you talk like that, young man," growled a fierce-looking little fellow.
"Let the gentleman alone, Tim," said Big Todd. "He"s a flag o" truce."