He cleared his throat.
"Well, the Bishop wouldn"t give me a cure, because I didn"t know the Catechism. So I kicked my heels till the Peace was broken, and things looked up a bit. And when little Boney began to get his Army of England together on the cliffs yonder, I cheered up, and came and pitched my tent on the nearest spot I could find to be ready. And here I"ve been ever since.
"On calm summer evenings I"ve seen the cliffs of France from Beachy Head, and with the spy-gla.s.s I"ve thought I"ve made out the tents of Lannes" camp. That"s been bread and meat to me these two years past.
Then a month ago I had that little affair with my lord. That knocked ten years off my life. I"ve been in training ever since. Today I think I"m a better man than I"ve ever been." He inhaled a deep breath, swelling his chest.
"And this morning, when I woke and saw that ship hove-to off the Wish, and old Piper told me she was a Frenchman, I just went down on my two knees and thanked G.o.d for His great mercies."
He blew his nose boisterously.
"Then I ran up my colours to tempt em ash.o.r.e. And I"ve been waiting in hope ever since."
CHAPTER x.x.xVI
THE FIGHTING MAN
He clapped on his hat.
"And now the first thing to be done is to hold a Council of War with old Piper."
The boy looked up shyly.
"Could I have something to eat first, sir? I haven"t tasted food for twenty-four hours."
The Parson fussed off to the cupboard.
"Just like me. Just like a man. No thought--no consideration. All comes of there being no woman about the place."
He brought out a knuckle of ham, a loaf, a pot of jam, and a jug of milk.
As he did so there came a groaning gurgle from the corner.
The Parson whirled round and shot a denouncing finger at the piled bed.
"You dare!" he roared.
"I was ony sniffin, sir," whimpered a c.o.c.kney voice.
Then for the first time Kit saw that in the bed lay a man. A shaven head, pert and pug-like, and a face shining with sweat protruded. All the rest was lost beneath that mountain of clothes.
As Kit stared, the man winked a merry brown eye at him.
The boy approached.
"Isn"t it rather stuffy under all those clothes?" he asked compa.s.sionately.
"It"s like a h"oven, sir--that ot!" chirped the little man.
"You"ll go to a much hotter place when you die, if you so much as stir a finger out," called the Parson with firm cheerfulness. "I"m a Parson, mind you. I know what I"m talkin about."
"Ah, I know you wouldn"t go for to put a pore bloke away for fetchin his thumb to mop a drop o sweat off his conk," whined the other.
"Ha! you sweat, Knapp?"
"I spouts pushpiration, sir!"
"Capital, capital!" The Parson hopped across the room and bent his ear to the bed. "I can almost hear him simmer!" He twinkled up at Kit.
"It"s the very weather for him. He"s in a sweet muck-sweat. Lying between two feather-beds, ain"t you, me boy?"
He sat down on the table beside the eating lad.
"That"s Nipper Knapp. He was my batman in the Borderers. I brought him down here to train, while I was waiting for the French. Such a pretty little bit o stuff! Arms like legs, and legs like bodies. I"ll strip him for you one day. Only thing is I have to sweat the meat off him so. Get a belly on him in a day, little pig, if I"d let him."
He spoke of the man much as a farmer speaks of his beasts. The boy"s sensitive soul recoiled.
"He can hear every word," he whispered.
"I don"t mind," replied the Parson cheerfully.
"Nor don"t I," chirped the voice from the bed.
"And what are you training him for?" asked Kit--"the Church, like yourself?"
"No, sir!" retorted the Parson shortly. "I"m training him to make the best use he can of the gifts G.o.d has given him--that"s his hands and his feet. He can rattle his dukes, and chuck his trotters, as I never saw man yet. Strips ten six. All good, too; all guts. You can"t glut him.... I"m backing him to run ten miles in the hour against any man in England, and fight him to a finish in a 24-ft. ring at the end."
The boy shoved back his plate.
"And have you any other spiritual duties, sir?" he asked.
"I stand over Blob while Piper teaches him his prayers," replied the Parson sullenly.
"Who is Piper?"
The Parson was staring out of the window.
It was some time before he answered.
"I once asked Nelson who was the bravest man he"d ever met. He answered like a flash, "My captain of the foretop aboard the _Agamemnon_--Ralph Piper. The bravest man," said Nelson, "because the best. He"s my hero!" And I remember the voice in which he said it now."
Kit had risen to his feet.
All his life Nelson had been his hero; and now he was within touch of his hero"s hero.
"Where is he?" with glowing eyes.