"I thought that was Sir Andrew Barton," said Dan.
"Ay, but foundations before roofs," Hal answered. "Sebastian first put me in the way of it. I had come down here, not to serve G.o.d as a craftsman should, but to show my people how great a craftsman I was. They cared not, and it served me right, one split straw for my craft or my greatness. What a murrain call had I, they said, to mell with old St. Barnabas"s? Ruinous the church had been since the Black Death, and ruinous she should remain; and I could hang myself in my new scaffold-ropes! Gentle and simple, high and low-the Hayes, the Fowles, the Fanners, the Collinses-they were all in a tale against me. Only Sir John Pelham up yonder to Brightling bade me heart-up and go on. Yet how could I? Did I ask Master Collins for his timber-tug to haul beams? The oxen had gone to Lewes after lime. Did he promise me a set of iron cramps or ties for the roof? They never came to hand, or else they were spaulty or cracked. So with everything. Nothing said, but naught done except I stood by them, and then done amiss. I thought the countryside was fair bewitched."
"It was, sure-ly," said Puck, knees under chin. "Did you never suspect any one?"
"Not till Sebastian came for his guns, and John Collins played him the same dog"s tricks as he"d played me with my ironwork. Week in, week out, two of three serpentines would be flawed in the casting, and only fit, they said, to be remelted. Then John Collins would shake his head, and vow he could pa.s.s no cannon for the King"s service that were not perfect.
Saints! How Sebastian stormed! _I_ know, for we sat on this bench sharing our sorrows inter-common.
"When Sebastian had fumed away six weeks at Lindens and gotten just six serpentines, Dirk Brenzett, Master of the _Cygnet_ hoy, sends me word that the block of stone he was fetching me from France for our new font he"d hove overboard to lighten his ship, chased by Andrew Barton up to Rye Port."
"Ah! The pirate!" said Dan.
"Yes. And while I am tearing my hair over this, Ticehurst Will, my best mason, comes to me shaking, and vowing that the Devil, horned, tailed, and chained, has run out on him from the church-tower, and the men would work there no more. So I took "em off the foundations, which we were strengthening, and went into the Bell Tavern for a cup of ale. Says Master John Collins: "Have it your own way, lad; but if I was you, I"d take the sinnification o" the sign, and leave old Barnabas"s Church alone!" And they all wagged their sinful heads, and agreed. Less afraid of the Devil than of me-as I saw later.
"When I brought my sweet news to Lindens, Sebastian was limewashing the kitchen-beams for Mother. He loved her like a son.
""Cheer up, lad," he says. "G.o.d"s where He was. Only you and I chance to be pure pute a.s.ses! We"ve been tricked, Hal, and more shame to me, a sailor, that I did not guess it before! You must leave your belfry alone, forsooth, because the Devil is adrift there; and I cannot get my serpentines because John Collins cannot cast them aright. Meantime Andrew Barton hawks off the Port of Rye. And why? To take those very serpentines which poor Cabot must whistle for; the said serpentines, I"ll wager my share of new Continents, being now hid away in St. Barnabas church tower.
Clear as the Irish coast at noonday!"
""They"d sure never dare to do it," I said; "and for another thing, selling cannon to the King"s enemies is black treason-hanging and fine."
""It is sure large profit. Men"ll dare any gallows for that. I have been a trader myself," says he. "We must be upsides with "em for the honour of Bristol."
"Then he hatched a plot, sitting on the lime-wash bucket. We gave out to ride o" Tuesday to London and made a show of making farewells of our friends-especially of Master John Collins. But at Wadhurst Woods we turned; rode by night to the watermeadows; hid our horses in a willow-tot at the foot of the glebe, and stole a-tiptoe up hill to Barnabas"s church again. A thick mist, and a moon coming through.
"I had no sooner locked the tower-door behind us than over goes Sebastian full length in the dark.
""Pest!" he says. "Step high and feel low, Hal. I"ve stumbled over guns before."
"I groped, and one by one-the tower was pitchy dark-I counted the lither barrels of twenty serpentines laid out on pease-straw. No conceal at all!
""There"s two demi-cannon my end," says Sebastian, slapping metal.
"They"ll be for Andrew Barton"s lower deck. Honest-honest John Collins! So this is his warehouse, his a.r.s.enal, his armoury! Now, see you why your pokings and pryings have raised the Devil in Suss.e.x? You"ve hindered John"s lawful trade for months," and he laughed where he lay.
"A clay-cold tower is no fireside at midnight, so we climbed the belfry stairs, and there Sebastian trips over a cow-hide with its horns and tail.
""Aha! Your Devil has left his doublet! Does it become me, Hal?" He draws it on and capers in the slits of window-moonlight-won"erful devilish-like.
Then he sits on the stair, rapping with his tail on a board, and his back-aspect was dreader than his front; and a howlet lit in, and screeched at the horns of him.
""If you"d keep out the Devil, shut the door," he whispered. "And that"s another false proverb, Hal, for I can hear your tower-door opening."
""I locked it. Who a-plague has another key, then?" I said.
""All the congregation, to judge by their feet," he says, and peers into the blackness. "Still! Still, Hal! Hear "em grunt! That"s more o" my serpentines, I"ll be bound. One-two-three-four they bear in! Faith, Andrew equips himself like an admiral! Twenty-four serpentines in all!"
"As if it had been an echo, we heard John Collins"s voice come up all hollow: "Twenty-four serpentines and two demi-cannon. That"s the full tally for Sir Andrew Barton."
""Courtesy costs naught," whispers Sebastian. "Shall I drop my dagger on his head?"
""They go over to Rye o" Thursday in the wool-wains, hid under the wool packs. Dirk Brenzett meets them at Udimore, as before," says John.
""Lord! What a worn, handsmooth trade it is!" says Sebastian. "I lay we are the sole two babes in the village that have not our lawful share in the venture."
"There was a full score folk below, talking like all Robertsbridge Market.
We counted them by voice.
"Master John Collins pipes: "The guns for the French carrack must lie here next month. Will, when does your young fool (me, so please you!) come back from Lunnon?"
""No odds," I heard Ticehurst Will answer. "Lay "em just where you"ve a mind, Mus" Collins. We"re all too afraid o" the Devil to mell with the tower now." And the long knave laughed.
""Ah! "tis easy enow for you to raise the Devil, Will," says another-Ralph Hobden from the Forge.
""Aaa-men!" roars Sebastian, and ere I could hold him, he leaps down the stairs-won"erful devilish-like-howling no bounds. He had scarce time to lay out for the nearest than they ran. Saints, how they ran! We heard them pound on the door of the Bell Tavern, and then we ran too.
""What"s next?" says Sebastian, looping up his cow-tail as he leaped the briars. "I"ve broke honest John"s face."
""Ride to Sir John Pelham"s," I said. "He is the only one that ever stood by me."
"We rode to Brightling, and past Sir John"s lodges, where the keepers would have shot at us for deer-stealers, and we had Sir John down into his Justice"s chair, and when we had told him our tale and showed him the cow-hide which Sebastian wore still girt about him, he laughed till the tears ran.
""Wel-a-well!" he says. "I"ll see justice done before daylight. What"s your complaint? Master Collins is my old friend."
""He"s none of mine," I cried. "When I think how he and his likes have baulked and dozened and cozened me at every turn over the church"--and I choked at the thought.
""Ah, but ye see now they needed it for another use," says he, smoothly.
""So they did my serpentines," Sebastian cries. "I should be half across the Western Ocean by this if my guns had been ready. But they"re sold to a Scotch pirate by your old friend."
""Where"s your proof?" says Sir John, stroking his beard.
""I broke my shins over them not an hour since, and I heard John give order where they were to be taken," says Sebastian.
""Words! Words only," says Sir John. "Master Collins is somewhat of a liar at best."
"He carried it so gravely, that for the moment, I thought he was dipped in this secret traffick too, and that there was not an honest ironmaster in Suss.e.x.
""Name o" Reason!" says Sebastian, and raps with his cow-tail on the table, "Whose guns are they, then?"
""Yours, manifestly," says Sir John. "You come with the King"s Order for "em, and Master Collins casts them in his foundry. If he chooses to bring them up from Nether Forge and lay "em out in the church tower, why they are e"en so much the nearer to the main road and you are saved a day"s hauling. What a coil to make of a mere act of neighbourly kindness, lad!"
""I fear I have requited him very scurvily," says Sebastian, looking at his knuckles. "But what of the demi-cannon? I could do with "em well, but _they_ are not in the King"s Order."
""Kindness-loving-kindness," says Sir John. "Questionless, in his zeal for the King and his love for you, John adds those two cannon as a gift. "Tis plain as this coming daylight, ye stockfish!"
""So it is," says Sebastian. "Oh, Sir John, Sir John, why did you never use the sea? You are lost ash.o.r.e." And he looked on him with great love.
""I do my best in my station." Sir John strokes his beard again and rolls forth his deep drumming Justice"s voice thus:-"But-suffer me!-you two lads, on some midnight frolic into which I probe not, roystering around the taverns, surprise Master Collins at his"-he thinks a moment-"at his good deeds done by stealth. Ye surprise him, I say, cruelly."