"Oh, golly," he said aloud; "just wait till Toady Lion grows up a bit.
By hokey, won"t I take this out of him with a wicket? Oh no--not at all!"
Now Toady Lion was not usually a selfish little boy; but this day it happened that he was cross and hot, also he had a tooth which was bothering him. And most of all he wanted his own way, and had a very good idea how to get it too.
That same night, when Hugh John was wandering disconsolately without at the hour of supper, wondering whether Janet Sheepshanks meant to keep her word, a small stout figure came waddling towards him. It was Toady Lion with the cover of a silver-plated fish-server in his hand.
It was nearly full of a miscellaneous mess, such as children (and all hungry persons) love--half a fried sole was there, three large mealy potatoes, green peas, and a whole boiled turnip.
"Please, Hugh John," said Toady Lion, "I"se welly solly I broked your cannon. I bringed you mine supper. Will "oo forgive me?"
"All right, old chap," said the generous hero of battles instantly, "that"s all right! Let"s have a jolly feed!"
So on the garden seat they sat down with the fish-cover propped between them, and ate their suppers fraternally and happily out of one dish, using the oldest implements invented for the purpose by the human race.
CHAPTER x.x.x.
SAINT PRISSY, PEACEMAKER.
This is the letter which, according to his promise, General Napoleon Smith despatched to the accredited leader of the Smoutchy boys--or, as they delighted to call themselves, the Comanche Cowboys.
WINDY STANDARD HOUSE, BORDERSHIRE.
_Mistr. Nippr. Donnan, Esqr.,_
_DEAR SIR,--This is to warn you that on Sat.u.r.day the 18th, between the hours of ten in the morning and six in the evening, we, the rightful owners of the Castle of Windy Standard, will take possession of our proppaty. Prevent us at your peril. You had better get out, for we"re coming, and our motty is "Smith for ever, and No Quarter!"_
_Given under our hand and seal._
(_Signed_) _NAPOLEON SMITH_,
_General-Feeld-Marshall-Commanding._
_P.S.--I"ll teach you to kick my legs with tacketty butes and put me in nasty dunguns. Wait till I catch you, Nipper Donnan._
The reply came back on a piece of wrapping paper from the butcher"s shop, rendered warlike by undeniable stains of gore. It had, to all appearance, been written with a skewer, and contrasted ill with the blue official paper purloined out of Mr. Picton Smith"s office, on which the challenge had been sent. It ran thus:----
_Matthew Donnan & Co., Butchers and Cattle Salesmen, 21 High Street, Edam, Bordershire._
_DEAR SIR.--Yours of the 13th received, and contents noted.
Come on, you stuck-up retches. We can fight you any day with our one hand tied behind us. Better leave girls and childer at home, for we meen fightin" this time--and no error.--We"ll nock you into eternal smash._
_Hoping to be favoured with a continuance of your esteemed orders,--I have the honour to remain, Sir, your obedient servant to command,_
_N. DONNAN._
The high contracting parties having thus agreed upon terms of mutual animosity, to all appearance there remained only the arbitrament of battle.
But other thoughts were working in the tender heart of Prissy Smith.
She had no sympathy with bloodshed, and had she been in her father"s place she would at once have given the town all their desires at any price, in order that the peace might be kept. Deeply and sincerely she bewailed the spirit of quarrelling and bloodshed which was abroad. She had her own intentions as to the enemy, Hugh John had his--which he had so succinctly summed up in the "favour of the 13th," acknowledged with such businesslike precision by Mr. Nipper Donnan in his reply to General Napoleon"s blue official cartel.
Without taking any one into her confidence (not even Sammy Carter, who might have laughed at her), Priscilla Smith resolved to set out on a mission of reconciliation to the Comanche Cowboys. Long and deeply she prepared herself by self-imposed penances for the work that was before her. She was, she knew, no Joan of Arc to lead an army in battle array against a cruel and taunting enemy. She was to be a St. Catherine of Siena rather, setting out alone and unfriended on a pilgrimage of mercy. She had read all she could lay her hands on about the tanner"s daughter, and a picture of the great barn-like brick church of San Dominico where she had her visions, hung over the wash-stand in Prissy"s little room, and to her pious eyes made the plain deal table seem the next thing to an altar.
Prissy wanted to go and have visions too; and so, three times a day she went in pilgrimage to the tool-house where the potatoes were stored, as being the next best thing to the unattainable San Dominico.
This was a roomy place more than half underground, and had a vaulted roof which was supported by pillars--the remains, doubtless, of some much more ancient structure.
Here Prissy waited, like the Scholar Gipsy, for the light from heaven to fall; but, alas, the light refused to come to time. Well, then, she must just go on without it as many another eager soul had done before her. There only remained to make the final preparations.
On the morrow therefore she waited carefully after early dinner till General Smith and Toady Lion had gone off in the direction of the mill-dam. Then she took out the little basket which she had concealed in the crypt of San Dominico--that is to say in the potato house. It stood ready packed and covered with a white linen cloth.
It was a basket which had been prepared upon the strictest missionary models. She had no printed authorities which went the length of telling her what provision for the way, what bribes and presents Saint Catherine carried forth to appease withal the enemies of her city and country. But there was on record the exact provision of the mission-chest of a woman, who in her time went forth to turn to gentleness the angry hearts of brigands and robbers--one Abigail, the wife of a certain churl of Maon, a village near to the roots of Mount Carmel.
True, Prissy could not quite make up the tale of her presents on the same generous and wholesale scale. She had to preach according to her stipend, like the Glasgow wife of the legend, who, upon the doctor ordering her husband champagne and oysters, informed a friend that "poor folk like us couldna juist gie Tammas champeen-an"-ighsters, but we did the next best thing--we gied him whelks-an"-ginger-beer."
So since it might have attracted some attention, even on pastures so well stocked as those of Mr. Picton Smith of Windy Standard, if Prissy had taken with her "five sheep ready dressed," she had to be content with half of a sheep"s-head-pie, which she had begged "to give away"
from Janet Sheepshanks. To this she added a four pound loaf she had bought in Edam with her own money (Abigail"s two hundred being distinctly out of her reach)--together with the regulation cl.u.s.ter of raisins and cake of figs which were both well within her means. In addition, since Prissy was a strict teetotaler, she took with her a little apparatus for making tea, some sugar and cream from the pantry, and her largest and best set of dolls" cups and saucers.
All this occupied a good deal of room and was exceedingly heavy, so that Prissy had very often to rest on the way towards the castle. She might have failed altogether, but that she saw Mike raking the gravel of the path near the edge of the water, and asked him to carry the basket for her over the stepping-stones.
Prince Michael, who as he often remarked was "spoiling for another taste of Donnybrook," conveyed the basket over Edam Water for his young mistress, without the least idea of the strange quest upon which the girl was going.
He laid it down and looked at the linen cover.
"Faix," he said, "sure "tis a long road to sind a young lady wid a heavy load like that!"
Now, this was his mode of inviting an explanation, but Prissy was far too wise to offer one. She merely thanked him and went on her way towards the castle.
"Don"t go near thim ruins till after Sat.u.r.day, when we will clean every dirty spalpeen out of the place like thunder on the mountains,"
cried Mike, who, like some other people, loved to round off his sentences with sounding expressions without troubling himself much as to whether they fitted the place or not.
"Thank you!" cried Prissy over her shoulder, with a sweet and grateful, but quite uninforming smile.
She continued on her way till Mike was out of sight, without altering her course from the straight road to the wooden bridge which led into the town of Edam. Then at the edge of the hazel copse she came upon a small footpath which meandered through lush gra.s.s meadows and patches of the greater willow herb to the Castle of Windy Standard. The willow herb flourished in glorious red-purple ma.s.ses on the ancient masonry of the outer defences, for it is a plant which loves above all things the disintegrating lime of old buildings from which its crown of blossom shoots up three or four, or it may be even six feet.
She skirted the moat, green with the leaves of pond-weed floating like small veined eggs on the surface. From the sluggish water at the side, iris and bog-bean stood n.o.bly up, and white-lilies floated on the still surface in lordly pride among the humbler wrack and sc.u.m of duckweed and water b.u.t.tercup. The light chrome heads of "Go-to-bed-John" flaunted on the dryer bank beyond.
Prissy eyed all these treasures with anxious glances.
"I want just dreadfully to gather you," she said. "I hope all this warring and battling will be over before you have done blooming, you nice waterside things."
And indeed I agree with her, for there is nothing much nicer in the world than wayside and riverside flowers--except the little children who play among them; and nothing sweeter than a bairns" daisy-chain, save the fingers which weave it, and the neck about which it hangs.
Prissy had arrived within sight of the castle now. She saw the flaunting of the red republican flag which in staggery capitals condemned her parent to instant dissolution. She stood a moment with the basket on her arm in front of the great ruined gate. A sentry was pacing to and fro there. Bob Hetherington was his name, and there were other lads and boys lounging and pretending to smoke in the deep embrasures and recesses of the walls. Clearly the castle was occupied in force by the enemy.
Prissy stopped somewhat embarra.s.sed, and set down her basket that she might have a good look, and think what she was to do next. As she did so she caught the eye of Nosie Cuthbertson, a youth whom Nipper Donnan permitted in his corps because his father had a terrier which was undoubtedly the best ratter in Edam. But the privilege of a.s.sociation with such a distinguished dog was dear at the price, for no meaner nor more "ill-set" youth than Nosie Cuthbertson c.u.mbered honest Bordershire soil. Nosie was seated trying to smoke dry dock-leaf wrapped in newspaper without being sick, when his eye caught the trim little figure on the opposite side of the moat.