For some reason the young man seemed to hesitate. Likely enough he did not hear; perhaps had lost presence of mind. At any rate, for a second or so, his arm hung on the stroke, and as the bull swerved again he jabbed his bayonet feebly at the haunch.
The butcher swore furiously. "Murdered by folly if ever man was!
Ye bitter fool," he shouted, "it"s p.r.i.c.ked him on, ye"ve done!"
The black-faced man, having gained maybe a dozen yards by his manoeuvre, was now heading for the Citadel gate; beside which--so far away that we saw them as toys--stood a sentry-box and the figure of a sentry beside it. Could he reach this gate? His altered course had taken him a little downhill, to the left of the ridge, and to regain it by the Citadel he must fetch a slight loop. Luckily the bull could not reason: he followed his enemy. But there was just a chance that by running along the ridge the chase might be headed off.
The crowd saw this and set off anew, with Master Archibald still a little in front and increasing his lead. I scrambled from under the seat and followed.
But almost at once it became plain that we were out-distanced.
Alone of us Master Archibald had a chance; and if the man were to be saved, it lay either with him or with the sentry at the gate.
I can yet remember the look on the sentry"s face as we drew closer and his features grew distinct. He stood in the middle of the short roadway which led to the drawbridge, and clearly it had within a few moments dawned upon him that _he_ was the point upon which these fatal forces were converging. A low wall fenced him on either hand, and as he braced himself, grasping his Brown Bess--a fine picture of Duty triumphing over Irresolution--into this narrow pa.s.sage poured the chase, rolled as it were in a flying heap; the hunted man just perceptibly first, the bull and Archibald Plinlimmon cannoning against each other at the entrance. Master Archibald was hurled aside by the impact of the brute"s hindquarters and shot, at first on all fours, then p.r.o.ne, alongside the base of the wall; but he had managed to get his thrust home, and this time with effect. The bull tossed his head with a mighty roar, ducked it again and charged on his prey, who flung up both arms and fell spent by the sentry-box.
The sentry sprang to the other side of the roadway and let fly his charge at random as box, man, and bull crashed to earth together, and a dreadful bellow mingled with the sharper notes of splintered wood.
It was the end. The bullet had cut clean through the bull"s spine at the neck, and the crowd dragged him lifeless, a board of the sentry-box still impaled on his horns, off the legs of the black-avised man--who, at first supposed to be dead also, awoke out of his swoon to moan feebly for water.
While this was fetching, the butcher knelt and lifted him against his knee. He struck me as ill-favoured enough--not to say ghastly--with the dust and blood on his face (for a splinter had laid open his cheek), and its complexion an unhealthy white against his matted hair. I took note that he wore sergeant"s stripes.
"What"s the poor thing called?" someone inquired of the sentry.
The sentry, being an Irishman, mistook the idiom. "He"s called a Bull," said he, stroking the barrel of his rifle. "H"what the divvle else?"
"But "tis the man we mean."
"Oh, _he"s_ called Letcher; sergeant; North Wilts."
Letcher gulped down a mouthful of water and managed to sit up, pushing the butcher"s arm aside.
"Where"s Plinlimmon?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely. "Hurt?"
"Here I am, old fellow," answered Archibald, reeling rather than stepping forward. "A crack on the skull, that"s all. Hope you"re none the worse?" His own face was bleeding from a nasty graze on the right temple.
"H"m?" said Letcher. "Mean it? You"d better mean it by--!" he snarled suddenly, his face twisted with pain or malice. "You weren"t too smart, the first go. Why the deuce didn"t you hamstring the brute? You heard them shouting?"
"That"s asackly what I told "en," put in the butcher.
"Oh, stow your fat talk, you silly Devonshire-man!" The butcher"s tongue was too big for his mouth, and Letcher mimicked him ferociously and with an accuracy quite wonderful, his exhaustion considered. He leaned back and panted. "The brute touched me--under the thigh, here. I doubt I"m bleeding." He closed his eyes and fainted away.
They found, on lifting him, that he spoke truth. The bull had gored him in the leg: a nasty wound beginning at the back of the knee, running upward and missing the main artery by a bare inch. A squad of soldiers had run out, hearing the shot, and these bore him into the Citadel, Master Archibald limping behind.
The crowd began to disperse, and I made my way back to Miss Plinlimmon.
"A providential escape!" said she on hearing my report. "I am glad that Archibald acquitted himself well." She went on to tell me of a youthful adventure of her own with a mountain bull, in her native Wales.
Some days later she sent me a poem on the occurrence:
"Lo, as he strides his native scene, The bull--how dignified his mien!
When tethered, otherwise!
Yet _one_ his tether broke and ran After a military man Before these very eyes!"
"I feel that I have been more successful with the metre than usual,"
she added, "having been guided by a little poem, a favourite of mine, which, as it also inculcates kindness to the brute creation, you will do well, Harry, to commit to memory. It runs:
""Poor little birds! If people knew What sorrows little birds go through, I think that even boys Would never deem it sport, or fun, To stand and fire a frightful gun For nothing but the noise.""
The shadow of Mr. Archibald seemed doomed to rest upon our anniversaries. This second one, though more than exciting enough, had not answered my expectations: and, on the third, when I presented myself at the Bun Shop it was to learn with dismay that Miss Plinlimmon had not arrived; with dismay and something more--for I had walked into the country towards Plympton early that morning and raided an orchard under the trees of which grew a fine crop of columbines, seeded from a neighbouring garden. Also I jingled together in my pocket no less a sum than two bright shillings, which Mr. Trapp had magnificently handed over to me out of a wager of five he had made with an East Country skipper that I could dive and take the water, hands first, off the jib-boom of any vessel selected from the shipping then at anchor in Cattewater. I knew that Miss Plinlimmon wanted a box to hold her skeins, and I also knew the price of one in a window in George Street, and had the shopman"s promise not to part with it before five o"clock that evening. I wished Miss Plinlimmon to admire it first, and then I meant to enter the shop in a lordly fashion and, emerging, to put the treasure in her hands.
So I paced the pavement in front of Mr. Tucker"s, the prey of a thousand misgivings. But at length, and fully half an hour late, she hove in sight.
"I have been detained, dear," she explained as we kissed, "--by Archibald," she added.
Always that accursed Archibald! "Did he wish you many happy returns?" I asked, thrusting my bunch of columbines upon her with a blush.
"You dear, dear boy!" she chirruped. But she ignored my question.
When we were seated, too, she made the poorest attempt to eat, but kept exclaiming on the beauty of my flowers.
The meal over, she drew out her purse to pay. "We shan"t be seeing Mr. Archibald to-day?" I asked wistfully, preparing to go.
"You may be certain--" With that she paused, with a blank look which changed to one of shame and utter confusion. The purse was empty.
"Oh, Harry--what shall I do? There were five shillings in it when--. I counted them out and laid the purse on the table beside my gloves. I was just picking them up when--when Archibald--"
Her voice failed again and she turned to the shop-woman. "Something most unfortunate has happened. Will you, please, send for Mr.
Tucker? He will know me. I have been here on several previous occasions--"
I had not the slightest notion of the price of eatables; but I, too, turned on the shopwoman with a bold face, albeit with a fluttering heart.
"How much?" I demanded.
"One-and-ninepence, sir."
I know not which made me the happier--relief, or the glory of being addressed as "sir." I paid, pocketed my threepence change, and in the elation of it offered Miss Plinlimmon my arm. We walked down George Street, past the work-box in the window. I managed to pa.s.s without wincing, though desperately afraid that the shopman might pop out--it seemed but natural he should be lying in wait--and hold me to my bargain.
Our session upon the Hoe, though uninterrupted, did not recapture the dear abandonment of our first blissful birthday. Miss Plinlimmon could neither forget the mishap to her purse, nor speak quite freely about it. A week later she celebrated her redemption in the following stanza:
"A friend in need is a friend indeed, We have oft-times heard: And King Richard the Third Was reduced to crying, "My kingdom for a horse!"
O, may we never want a friend!
"Or a bottle to give him," I omit, as coa.r.s.e."
She enclosed one-and-ninepence in the missive: and so obtained her work-box after all--it being, by a miracle, still unsold.
CHAPTER VI.
I STUMBLE INTO HORRORS.
It was exactly seven weeks later--that is to say, on the evening of June 18th, 1811--that as I stood in the doorway whistling _Come, cheer up, my lads_, to Mrs. Trapp"s tame blackbird, the old Jew slop-dealer came shuffling up the alley and demanded word with my master.
His name was Rodriguez--"I. Rodriguez, Marine Stores"--and his shop stood at the corner of the Barbican as you turn into Southside Street. He had an extraordinarily fine face, narrow, emaciated, with a n.o.ble hook to his nose (which was neither pendulous nor fleshy) and a black pointed beard divided by a line of grey. We boys feared him, one and all: but in a furred cloak and skull-cap he would have made a brave picture. The dirt of his person, however, was a scandal.