I looked up and found, to my relief, that Cherry-Cheeks, like a sensible girl, had crept out of the room, and her share in the affair was never even suspected.
Drawing my tuck, I touched the back of his neck with the point. He flinched and squirmed, great drops of sweat larded his nasty face, and I knew the fear of death and h.e.l.l was in his marrow.
"Do exactly what I say," I whispered, "or through it goes. Understand?"
He could hardly nod his ugly head for the trembling of his body, and I fairly dithered as I knelt on him. I made him rise, and then caught hold of the skirt of his coat. Holding him by it at arm"s length, I stuck my point to his neck again, and said, "Forward."
I marched him downstairs and along the pa.s.sage. There was great risk of being met by some one, and it was the most anxious time I had had since the affair with the sergeant in the house-place at the Hanyards. Oddly enough, as I drove him along, the thought came to me of the bygone days when Jack and I had played horses just like this at the Hanyards, and when my prisoner stuck a trifle at the door of the guest-room, I growled at him, "Come up!" It was a strange trick of the mind. To me he was just play-horse Jack dawdling to look at ten-year-old Kate feeding her chickens.
I got him in unseen without and unnoticed within, for the Colonel and Master Freake were again at their arguments of state, hammer and tongs, and they minded the click of the door behind them no more than the crack of a spark at their feet. Indeed the Colonel said "Pish!" with great vehemence, and Master Freake"s "My dear sir!" had a shake of pepper in it.
As for me, I like a man who, when he gets into a thing, gets into it up to the neck.
Margaret added to my amus.e.m.e.nt, for as I p.r.i.c.ked my prisoner on into the fire-light, and peeped over his shoulder, he being a good six inches shorter than I, madam leaned forward and became absorbed in the high debate.
"I beg to report, sir," said I, as indifferently as I could manage to speak, "the capture of a spy."
"Hang him at daybreak," said the Colonel, without so much as looking at him. "Pish, man, the trade in salted herrings is no more a nursery of seamen than I"m--Damme, what"s this, Oliver? Damme, it"s Weir. Your servant, Mister Weir, and I shall vastly relish seeing you strung up."
I gave a brief account of where and how I had found him, making no mention of our helpful girl friend, but pointing out that he had co-scoundrels at work for him in the inn.
"Another good piece of work, Oliver," said the Colonel. "I like the way you use your available material. I"ve seen many things used as gags, but not a book before; yet it makes a very good one. Keeps him quiet as a stone and withal leaves him free to lick up a few crumbs of learning."
Margaret had not looked at me yet, and indeed seemed bent on keeping her face, heightened in colour by the warmth and glow of the fire, turned away from me. Now a rather big matter had come into my mind, so I said urgently, "Name of a dog," and thus shook her into looking at me.
Whereupon, I pointed first to Mr. Freake, then to the spy, and wagged my head sagely. Her quick mind saw at once that I was afraid that our friend would be compromised if we were not careful. She promptly said something to her father in an unknown tongue, and by the c.o.c.k of his eye I knew he"d taken the point.
"My good friend," he said, "pray step over to his worship the Mayor and ask him to come over and commit this rascally spy to the town jail. Say, I beg, that I am grieved to have to disturb him, but His Majesty"s servants must ever be at the disposal of His Majesty"s affairs."
I grinned behind the spy"s back at this masterly way of getting George"s servant to do James"s work. Master Freake started at once, and, stepping with him to the door, I whispered, "Give us fifteen minutes."
"Right!" he whispered back again. "Look in your holsters!"
As soon as he had gone, the Colonel ordered me to guard the door, and this gave me the chance of putting on my boots again. The Colonel, cutting off with his sword a good length of bell rope, made a swift and most workmanlike job of tying the spy into a knot. He then opened the window, and, Margaret taking my place meanwhile, he and I cautiously bundled Weir on to the balcony, shut down the window, and left him safe and silent.
"Be in the porch in ten minutes, Margaret, ready to start. Oliver, get the horses there ready in that time. You ride the troop-horse, and Freake has provided a mare for Margaret. Quick"s the work and sharp"s the motion!"
Margaret and I started together to carry out our orders. Once in the pa.s.sage we had to go different ways, and I bowed and was going mine without a word, when she put her hand on my arm and stayed me.
"I"m sorry you"ve lost your Virgil," she said.
I wondered, as already so many times I had wondered, at the somersaults of feeling she was capable of. Where was now the Margaret of the short, disdainful laugh? Not here, in the twilight between the bright room and the black yard. Here was a subtle, mysterious Margaret, half regret and half caprice, with one thought in her eyes and another on her lips.
"So am I, madam. I wish it had been Kate"s cookery-book."
She would have mastered me had I stayed another second. I bowed again and left her.
And this is, perhaps, the best place to say that I did not lose my Virgil after all. Here it is on the table as I write, still the dearest of all my books. On each side of the healing an irregular curve of teeth-marks cuts into the yellowing parchment. Dear, brave Cherry-Cheeks sent it home by the hands of a vagrom pedlar, laboriously and exactly writing on the package the inscription she found on the fly leaf:
OLIVER WHEATMAN, Esquire, of the Hanyards, Staffordshire, _Aetatis anno_ 13
I routed out ostlers, and by dint of a judicious blend of cursings and bribings had the horses ready under the archway in time. Margaret was there waiting, with our pretty maid fluttering around her. The Colonel was within, settling with the word-warrior host. I helped Margaret into the saddle and led her horse into the street, turning its head northward. In a moment, her father clattered after her on Sultan. I went back to smile farewell to Cherry-Cheeks and deal out my bribes, but was after them before they had trotted a stone"s throw.
They were cantering towards the bridge by which the high street of the town crosses a tiny streamlet and again becomes the high road to the north-west. It was only a pistol-shot from the portico of the "Rising Sun"
to the hither side of the bridge, where a group of townsmen were collected round a man with a lantern. We had ridden forth into a strangely quiet town, but before I was half-way to the bridge, and not yet settled down to my saddle, loud shrieks rang out behind me. Looking back, I saw a woman leaning forth, candle in hand, from the Duke"s bedroom window. She waved her light and yelled as one distraught. There was no mistaking what had happened. Sal, the sour-faced hussy who wanted me hanged, had learned the fate of the spy. Folks rushed from all quarters to see what was the matter. The sooner we were well out of it the better, and I p.r.i.c.ked on to overtake the Colonel and Margaret.
I was near on them at the bridge, where the gossips had lined up to watch them pa.s.s. Timothy was there, thankful for once, I thought, of his long coat, while the man who held the lantern was the man to whom I owed a drubbing. I wondered what he was doing there with a lantern, for it was a brilliant moonlight night, and, since he made to run townwards as soon as he saw who was pa.s.sing, I felt in my bones that he meant mischief and was probably in league with the spy. I turned my horse at him before he was clear of the bridge and tumbled him back headlong on Timothy, who yelled the most astonishing yell I ever heard, s.n.a.t.c.hed the lantern out of Beery Breath"s unresisting fingers, and with it smashed into him with such a fury that he beat him to his knees.
I laughed, for the man had got his drubbing after all, through me if not by me. As for the other townies, they enjoyed it like a play.
"Gom!" said one. "He"s trod on Tim"s gammy toe."
"d.a.m.n if he don"t turn on "is missus when "er does that," said another.
The Colonel and Margaret were looking back when I drew level.
"Anything the matter?" he asked.
"The spy is discovered, sir," I said.
"Does that mean harm to Master Freake?" inquired Margaret.
"Not it," replied the Colonel. "He"s got the Mayor in his pocket. Do you know this country, Oliver?"
"No, sir," was my answer. "Only in broad outline. This is the main road to Chester, and away on our right is an open country running up into roughish moorland and hills. Leek lies that way on the Derby road to London. The country to our left I know nothing about."
"Then we"ll stick to the main road as long as possible and stop at the first inn after all danger-spots are behind us. Sorry to turn you out, Madge, but it was impossible to stop once Weir found us out, since Kingston and his men might have turned up at any moment, and then we should have been done for. All we have to do is to get north of him. From the south we have nothing to fear now. Brocton"s dragoons would have turned up hours ago if there was any intention of trying to recapture me.
Freake had sent one of his men down the road to give us time to clear off if Brocton did pursue. That was why I was content to stay on at the inn."
"Weir knows who you are, sir, I take it?" said I.
"Exactly. He"s a notorious Government spy, and is busy here worming into our local plans. There are plenty of the honest party hereabouts, and especially over to the west there in Wales."
"Are we still in Staffordshire, Master Wheatman?" asked Margaret.
"Oh yes, for quite a distance ahead," I replied.
"The spirit of prophecy is upon me, gentlemen," she said merrily. "Our Staffordshire luck is not yet out, and this time it"s Master Wheatman"s turn."
"Well, then, Master Wheatman shall ride ahead and scout for it. About thirty yards, Oliver. Keep your horse well in hand, and be all eyes and ears. d.a.m.n this moon! It picks us out like three crows on a field of snow, and this infernal road"s as straight and level as a plank. Ride in any available shadow!"
I went ahead and set them an easy pace. Work had begun again, the work of my heart"s desire, and all along the Chester road there was no blither spirit than mine that night. I was astride a flaming sorrel, no match for Sultan, but still a good sound horse. He knew I was his master and so I made him a friend, patting his neck, crooning to him, and giving him a lick of sugar out of my hand. The danger we were in was like wine to my heart. Enemies ahead and enemies behind, and this bare, bleak, moon-smitten road between. Now and again, for remembrance" sake and the joy of it, I c.o.c.ked my ear to pick out the patter of Margaret"s mare from the heavier, longer strides of Sultan. Yes, there she was, doubtless murmuring Italian love-ditties to her happy inmost self and thinking of--Pshaw! This was romancing, and another"s romance at that, and it deadened me against my will, while here was a man"s work to do. So I turned to it and lived.
I examined the holsters, according to Master Freake"s orders. I found a pair of pistols which, even in the pale moonlight, looked what they indeed were--handsome, accurate weapons, the best work of the best gunsmith in London. I was the equal of most men with the pistol, and usually had, indeed, a capital pair at the Hanyards, but Jack had taken them off with him on his dragooning. Over and above the pistols and their ammunition I found a sizeable leathern bag, and the feel of it to my fingers showed that it was chock-full of money. When I did turn it out next day, I found near on sixty pounds, mostly in guineas and half-guineas, and a note:
"Dear lad, this town is very bare of guineas and many of them are lighter than the law alloweth, but you shall have more as occasion offers.--Your friend, J. F."
I turned to the road again with a merrier heart than ever, for I thought, as Smite-and-spare-not would have thought before me, that the very handiwork of G.o.d Himself was here displayed, in that the seemingly most untoward events of our journey had been turned into means of strength and a.s.surance. Had I, as I ought to have done, brought money of my own from the Hanyards, I should never have started highwayman, and so never have met Master Freake on Wes"on Bank.
Three miles or more we made in this manner, and I had heard nothing more alarming than the hoot of an owl from an ivy-crusted elm. Some distance back the road had climbed slightly for a s.p.a.ce, then fallen into the level again, and now ran, open and unhedged, across the bleaky top of a barren upland. I chirruped to the sorrel and gave him another lick of sugar to comfort him. A moment later, I knew by the forward c.o.c.k of his ears and the swift up-shake of his head that something was in the wind, and strained my own ears to listen, for there was nothing of note visible ahead or around.