"For ten per cent on good security, I repeat," answered Master Freake gravely.
"d.a.m.n your ten per cent!"
"Looks like it, and the security into the bargain!" said Master Freake very quickly.
"Swounds! that"s just it!" said Sir James. He rose and paced backwards and forwards between me and the hearth. "A year ago, sir,"--he addressed me in particular--"I should have shouted with joy at the summons to take the place among the adherents of the cause which my father would have held had he lived, and which it was his heart"s wish on his death-bed that I should take for him. The cause and the creed are nothing to me as such, for I place no value on either. Your talk about the right divine of old Mr. Melancholy, mumming and mimicking away there at Rome, makes me smile.
He"s an old fool, that"s the long and short of it. But a Blount"s a Blount after all. I owe something to my ancestors. My word to my father ought not to be an empty breath. Yet here I am, with all the interests of life pulling one way--wait till you"ve a boy five weeks old by a wife you"d be cut in little pieces for, and you"ll know, sir,--and a dead father and a dead creed pulling the other. I knew what was coming, and I"ve talked about it and thought about it till my head"s like a bee-hive. Now, sir, give me your advice!"
"I have joined the standard of your Prince," I said.
"Damme, sir, you mock me. That"s not advice. That"s torture."
"I have turned my back on the creed of my life and on every sound instinct in me," I continued.
He stopped his walk and looked intently at me.
"I have ancestors whose memory I cherish, and I have torn up their work as if it were a sc.r.a.p of paper covered with a child"s meaningless scribble."
Sir James stepped up to the table, his fine face alive with emotion.
"For what?" he asked.
I rose and looked straight into his eyes.
"For a woman," I whispered, very low but very proudly.
Our hands met across the table in a hard grip.
"You have done well, sir!" he said. "I asked you to give me advice. You have set me an example."
He sat down again, and looked hopefully at the fire and then moodily at Master Freake.
"There is this unfortunate difference between Mr. Wheatman"s case and mine. I have, and he has not, given my plain word to a father."
"I admit that is a striking difference," said Master Freake. "I am no Jesuit, however, and cannot decide cases of conscience. I deal with business problems only, which are all cut and dry, legal and formal. When I make a promise in the way of business I always keep it precisely and punctually, for the penalty of failure to do so is a business man"s death--bankruptcy."
"There"s such a thing as moral bankruptcy," said Sir James gloomily.
"Very likely," replied Master Freake.
"This is all nothing whatefer but words, words, words," said the Welshman. "And words, my goot sirs, are indeed no goot whatefer. Sir James"s head is wrapped up in a mist of words, words, words, and indeed he cannot see anything whatefer. I am not a man of words, and what you call "em--broblems."
"Very good," said I.
"Indeed it is goot," said he. "To h.e.l.l with your words and your broblems.
They are of no use whatefer, whatefer. Our good friend, Sir James, is up to his neck in broblems like a man in a bog, and he cannot move. Now I have not your broblems. To h.e.l.l with your broblems. My Cousin Wynne is full of "em, and he"s still gaping up at the cloud on Snowdon, while I"m here, ready. I say plain: if the Prince cross south of the Trent I will join him."
"Why the Trent?" said I.
"It is my mark. It is my way of knowing what I will do. It is all so simple. Indeed I am a simple man, not a broblem in my brain, none whatefer, I tell you plain. It is as this--so. If the Prince cross the Trent, say I to myself, well and goot. He do his share. It is time for me to do mine. It is better indeed, I tell you plain, to have it settled by a simple thing like the Trent than to have it all muddled up by your broblems. I can sing you off my ancestors by dozens, right back to the standard-bearer of the great Llewellyn, but they"re all dead, and indeed I"m not going to poke about among their bones to find out what to do. I look at your pretty river, and I wait."
Sir James had looked at him during this harangue with unconcealed impatience.
"I sent a letter to Chartley of Chartley Towers," he said, "one of us, and a strong one by all accounts. At any rate, my father always reckoned him as such. So I asked him guardedly what he thought, and his reply was, "The chestnut is on the hob. I am waiting to see whether it jumps into the fire or into the fender." I cannot decide by appealing to rivers or nuts.
There"s much more in it than that."
Fate s.n.a.t.c.hed the problem out of his hands. Without a tap, without a word, the door of the room was flung open, and a dozen troopers filed swiftly and silently in, and covered us with their carbines. An officer, sword in hand, pushed through a gap in their line and stepped half a dozen paces towards us. He saluted us ceremoniously with his sword and said, "In the King"s name!" Behind the line a man in citizen clothes hovered uncertainly, and dim as the light was I made him out only too plainly. It was the Government spy, Weir. My goose was cooked. I had played for life"s highest stake, and thrown amb"s ace. It was good-bye to Margaret.
The Welshman stuck to his chair, stolid as his native hills. Master Freake, whose back was to the new-comers, made a swift half turn, and then he, too, settled down again as indifferently as if the interruption had only been old Inskip with the bedward candles. Blount leaped to his feet, livid with rage, and strode up to the officer.
"My Lord Tiverton, what does this intrusion mean?" he demanded.
"It means," was the composed reply, "that if any one of you makes the slightest attempt to resist, he will be shot out of hand. Close up, lads, and cover your men!"
The order was obeyed briskly and exactly. The three on the left of the line attended to me, and I sat there, toying with a wine-gla.s.s for appearance sake, though the three brown barrels levelled straight and steady at my head made my heart rattle like a stone in a can. These were none of Brocton"s untrained grey-coats, but precise, disciplined veterans in blue tunics and mitre-shaped hats, white breeches and high boots, belted, b.u.t.toned, and bepouched. It was almost a compliment to be shot by such tall fellows.
Seeing we were all harmless, the officer dropped his military preciseness as if it were an ill-fitting garment. He was the daintiest, handsomest wisp of a man I had ever set eyes on, and looked for all the world like an exquisite figure in Dresden china come to life. He could not have had much soldiering--the air and aroma of the London _salon_ still hung closely around him--and he was so very self-possessed that he was play-acting half his time, doing everything with a grace and relish that were highly diverting. It took all my pride in my new hat out of me to see this desirable little picture of a man.
"I a.s.sure you, my dear Sir James," he said, "that it"s a d.a.m.ned annoying thing to me to have to act so unhandsomely. Stap me! I shouldn"t like it myself, but law"s law and duty"s duty, and so on, you know the old tale, and I"m obleeged to do it."
He opened his snuff-box and offered it to Sir James, who brusquely waved it aside, saying, "Your explanation, if you please, my lord!"
"Damme, don"t be peevish! Smoke the Venus in the lid? Isn"t she a sparkler? Wish I"d lived in the times when ladies lay about on seash.o.r.es like it! I hate these d.a.m.ned crinolines. Saw Somerset in "em in the Pantiles. Could have pushed her over and trundled her like a barrel."
"My lord," reiterated Blount, "I await your explanation."
"Boot"s on the other leg," he chirped. "A"nt I pouched you all cleverly, stap me, seeing the ink on my commission"s hardly dry? Didn"t think it was in me!"
"I will take the authority of your commission as sufficient, my lord, the times being what they are. But will you be good enough to tell me why you come?"
"Gadso! Certainly! There"s a dirty rascal in pewter b.u.t.tons behind there--come here, sir, and let Sir James see your ugly face!--who says you"re a disloyal person, a traitor, and so forth. I don"t believe him. I wouldn"t crack a flea on his unsupported testimony, but he"s in the know of things, and showed me a commission from Mr. Secretary, calling on His Majesty"s liege subjects, etc., you know the run of it, and I was bound to look into it. Charges are charges, stap me if they a"nt. Don"t come too near, pig"s eyes! Out with your tale!"
His lordship plainly disliked the whole business, and it was a very awkward thing for Sir James that I was here, a circ.u.mstantial piece of evidence against him. I looked straight into Weir"s eyes as he came forward, ungainly and uncertainly, smiling half his dirty teeth bare, and mopping his yellowy face with a dirty handkerchief. To my astonishment he made not a single sign of recognition. I was his trump card, and he left me unplayed.
"Sir James is a known Jacobite, my lord!" he quavered.
"Quite right, Mr. Weir, and if you propose to keep me out of bed these cold nights calling on known Jacobites, stap my vitals, Mr. Weir, if I don"t have you flung into a pond with a brick tied round your sweaty neck like an unwanted pup. Anything else?"
"This is a Jacobite plot, my lord. There"s scheming and plotting against our gracious lord the King agoing on here, my lord."
"I"ll e"en have a closer look at "em. Plots are d.a.m.ned interesting things, stap me if they a"nt, and I"m glad to see one. Here"s a likely young fellow," striding up and examining me. "His is a plot in a meat-pie, it seems. There was one in a meal-tub once, I remember, so the meat-pie does look mighty suspicious, Mr. Weir. We"re getting on. And here"s a plotter toasting his toes. Not an intelligent member of the cabal. Stap me, if he a"nt asleep! I must circ.u.mambulate and have a quiz at him."
He walked gaily in his play-acting way round Master Freake"s chair on to the hearth and then turned and took a peep at him. As soon as he had done so he gave a great shout, and then, recovering himself, burst into a roar of laughter. He clapped his hands on his knees and fairly swayed with merriment. Master Freake looked at him with a sedate half-smile, and said, "How d"ye do, my lord?"
"Very well, thankee!" cried his lordship gaily, too gaily. "Damme! It"s the funniest thing that"s happened since Noah came out of the Ark. Come here, spy! Mean to tell me this is a Jacobite?"
As the spy crept near, Master Freake stood up, wheeled round on him smartly, and said, "How d"ye do, Turnditch?"
"Stap me!" cried his lordship. "His name"s Weir!"