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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38872-h.zip b/38872-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..60b10b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/38872-h.zip diff --git a/38872-h/38872-h.htm b/38872-h/38872-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..871a5c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/38872-h/38872-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3639 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>A Little Wizard</title> +<meta name="Author" content="Stanley J. Weyman"> + +<meta name="Publisher" content="R. F. Fenno & Company"> +<meta name="Date" content="1895"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +.center {margin: auto; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} +.stage {margin-left:10%} + + +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + + +.poem0 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 0%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem1 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 2em; + margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem2 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem3 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 30%; + margin-right: 30%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + + + + + +figcenter {margin:auto; text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} + +.t0 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;} +.t1 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;} +.t2 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;} +.t3 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;} +.t4 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;} +.t5 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;} +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;} +.t7 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;} +.t9 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:9em; margin-right:0px;} +.t10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10em; margin-right:0px;} +.t11 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:11em; margin-right:0px;} +.t12 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:12em; margin-right:0px;} +.t13 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:13em; margin-right:0px;} +.t14 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:14em; margin-right:0px;} +.t15 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:15em; margin-right:0px;} +.t16 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:16em; margin-right:0px;} + + +.quote {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} +.ctrquote {text-align: center; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} + +.dateline {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:110%;} +span.sc2 {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;} + +hr.W10 {width:10%; color:black; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; color:black; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; color:black;} +hr.W90 {width:90%; color:black;} + +p.hang1 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0em;} + + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Little Wizard, by Stanley J. Weyman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Little Wizard + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 13, 2012 [EBook #38872] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE WIZARD *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +http://www.archive.org/details/littlewizard00weymiala<br> +<br> +2. Table of Contents added by Transcriber.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>A LITTLE WIZARD</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><img src="images/weyman.png" alt="Stanley J. Weyman"><br> +STANLEY J. WEYMAN</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>A LITTLE WIZARD</h1> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> +<h2>STANLEY J. WEYMAN</h2> +<h5>AUTHOR OF<br> +"A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "FRANCIS CLUDDE,"<br> +"UNDER THE RED ROBE," ETC., ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><span class="sc">NEW YORK</span><br> +R. F. FENNO & COMPANY<br> +<span class="sc">9 and 11 EAST 16th STREET</span></h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1895</span>.<br> +R. F. FENNO & COMPANY.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="continue"><i>A Little Wizard</i></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br> +<table cellpadding="10" style="width:60%; margin-left:20%; font-weight:bold"> +<colgroup><col style="width:10%; text-align:right"><col style="width:90%"></colgroup> +<tr> +<td><span class="sc2">CHAPTER</span></td> +<td> </td> +</tr><tr> +<td>I.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01"><span class="sc">Pattenhall.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>II.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02"><span class="sc">Malham High Moors.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>III.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03"><span class="sc">Langdale's Horse.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>IV.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04"><span class="sc">The Meal Chest</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>V.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05"><span class="sc">Treasure Trove.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VI.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06"><span class="sc">Dead Sea Apples.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07"><span class="sc">The Wooden Cross.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>VIII.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08"><span class="sc">A Strange Trial.</span></a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td>IX.</td> +<td><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09"><span class="sc">His Excellency's Judgment.</span></a></td> +</tr></table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + +<h1>A LITTLE WIZARD</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">PATTENHALL.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When the agent of General Skippon, to whom the estate of Pattenhall by +Ripon fell, as part of his reward after the battle of Naseby, went +down to take possession, he found a little boy sitting on a heap of +stones a few paces from the entrance gate. The old house (which has +since been pulled down) lay a quarter of a mile from the road and +somewhat in a hollow; but its many casements, blushing and sparkling +in the glow of the evening sun, caught the rider's eye, and led him +into the comfortable belief that he had reached his destination. He +had come from Ripon, however, and the village lies on the farther side +of the house from that town; consequently he had seen no one whom he +could question, and he hailed the boy's presence with relief, checking +his horse, and calling to him to know if this was Pattenhall.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lad crouching on the stones, and nervously plucking the grass +beside him, looked up at the four stern men sitting squarely in their +saddles. But he did not answer. He might have been deaf.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come!" Agent Hoby said, repeating his question roughly. "You have got +a tongue, my lad. Is this old squire Patten's?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy shook his head mutely. He looked about twelve years old.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it farther on?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, farther on," the lad muttered, scarcely moving his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Still keeping his eyes, which were large and brown, on his questioner, +the boy pointed towards the tower of the church, a quarter of a mile +away.</p> + +<p class="normal">The agent stifled an exclamation, such as in other times would have +been an oath. "Umph! I thought we were there!" he muttered. "However, +it is but a step. Come up, mare."</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy watched the four riders plod on along the road until the +trees, which were in the full glory of their summer foliage, and +almost met across the dusty way, hid them from his eyes. Then he rose, +and shaking his fist with passionate vehemence in the direction in +which they had gone, turned towards the gateway as if he would go up +to the house. Before he had taken three steps, however, he changed his +mind, and coming slowly back to the heap of stones, sat down in the +same place and posture as before. The movement to retreat and the +return were alike characteristic. In frame the boy was altogether +childish, being puny and slight, and somewhat stunted; but his small +face, browned by wind and sun, expressed both will and sensibility. As +he sat waiting for the travellers to return, there was a sparkle, and +not of tears only, in his eyes. His mouth took an ugly shape, and his +small hand found and clutched one of the stones on which he sat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Agent Hoby had never been more astonished in his life than when he +returned hot and angry and found him still there. It was the last +thing he had expected. "You little villain!" he cried, shortening his +whip in his hand, and spurring his horse on to the strip of turf, +which then, as now, bordered the road--"how dare you tell lies to the +Commons' Commissioners?"</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg9.png" alt="Page9"><br> +He turned and rode in.--Page 9.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">There was a slender gap in the wall behind the heap of stones, and the +lad fell back into this, still clutching his missile in his hand. "I +told no lies!" he said, looking defiantly at the angry man. "You asked +me for Squire Patten, and I sent you to him--to the churchyard!"</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the men behind Hoby chuckled grimly; and Hoby himself, who had +ridden with Cromwell at Naseby, and looked the Robber Prince in the +eyes, held his hand. "You little whelp!" he said, half in anger and +half in admiration. "It is easy to see what brood you come of! I have +half a mind to lash your back for you! Be off to your mammy, and bid +her whip you! My hand is too heavy."</p> + +<p class="normal">With that, taking no further notice of the boy, he turned and rode in +through the gate. The aspect of the house, the quality of the herbage, +the size of the timber, the lack of stock, all claimed at once his +agent's eye, and rendered it easy for him to forget the incident. He +grumbled at the sagacity of the Roundhead troopers, who had lain a +night at Pattenhall before Marston Moor, and swept it as bare as a +board. He had a grunt of sympathy to spare for Squire Patten, who, +sore wounded in the same fight, had ridden home to die three days +later. He gave a thought even to young Patten, who had forfeited the +last chance of saving his sequestrated estate by breaking his parole, +and again appearing in arms against the Parliament. But of the lad +crawling slowly along the path behind him he thought nothing. And the +boy, young as he was, felt this and resented it.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the party presently reached the house, and the few servants who +remained came out obsequiously to receive them, the boy felt his +loneliness and sudden insignificance still more keenly. He saw +stirrups held, and heard terms of honor passing; and he crept away to +the hayloft to give vent to the tears he was too proud to shed in +public. Safe in this refuge, he flung himself down on the hay and +showed himself all child; now sobbing as if his heart was broken, and +now clenching his little fists and beating the air in impotent +passion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The solitude to which he was left showed that he had good cause for +his grief. No one asked for him, no one sought him, who had lately +been the most important person in the place. The loft grew dark, the +windows changed to mere patches of grey in the midst of blackness. At +any other time, and under any other circumstances, the child would +have been afraid to remain there alone. But grief and indignation +swallow up fear, and in the darkness he called on his dead father and +mother, and felt them nearer than in the day. Young as he was, the +child could remember a time when his absence for half an hour would +have set the house by the ears, and started a dozen pairs of legs in +search of him; when loving voices, silent now forever, would have +cried his name through yard and paddock, and a score of servants, whom +death and dearth had not yet scattered, would have rushed to gratify +his smallest need.</p> + +<p class="normal">No wonder that at the thought of those days, and of the loving care +and gentle hands which had guarded him from hour to hour, the solitary +child crouching in the hay and darkness cried long and passionately. +He knew little of the quarrel between King and Commons, and nothing of +Laud or Strafford, Pym or Hampden, Ship-money or the New Model. But he +could suffer. He was old enough to remember and feel, and compare past +things with present; and understanding that today his father's house +was passing into the hands of strangers, he experienced all the terror +and anguish which a sense of homelessness combined with helplessness +can inflict. Lonely and neglected he had been for some time now; but +he had felt his loneliness little (comparatively speaking) until +to-day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Agent Hoby had finished his supper. Stretching his legs before the +empty hearth in the attitude of one who had done a day's work, he was +in the act of admonishing Gridley the butler on his duty to his new +master, when he became aware of a slight movement in the direction of +the door. The panelled walls of the parlor in which he sat swallowed +up the light, and the candles stood in his way. He had to raise one +above his head and peer below it before he could make out anything. +When he did, and the face of the lad he had seen by the gate grew as +it were out of the panel, his first feeling was one of alarm. He +started and muttered an exclamation, thinking that he saw amiss; and +that either the October he had drunk was stronger than ordinary, or +there was something uncanny in the house. When a second look, however, +persuaded him that the boy was there in the flesh, he gave way to +anger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gridley!" he said, knitting his brows, "who is this, and how does he +come to be here? Is he one of your brats, man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"One of mine?" the butler answered stupidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, one of yours! Or how comes he to be here?" the agent answered +querulously, sitting forward with a hand on each arm of his chair, and +frowning at the boy, who returned his gaze with interest.</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler looked at the lad as if he were considering him in some new +light, and hesitated before he answered. "It is the young master," he +said at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The young what?" the agent exclaimed, leaning still farther forward, +and putting into the words as much surprise as possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is the young master," Gridley repeated sullenly. "And he is here +in season, for I want to know what I am to do with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you mean that he is a Patten?" Hoby muttered, staring at the lad +as if he were bewitched.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure," Gridley answered, looking also at the boy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But your master had only one son? Those were my instructions."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Two," said the butler. "Master Francis--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is with Duke Hamilton in Scotland, and if caught in arms in +England will hang," rejoined the agent, sternly. "Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And this one."</p> + +<p class="normal">Hoby glared at the boy as if he would eat him. To find that the +estate, which he had considered free from embarrassing claims, was +burdened with a child, annoyed him beyond measure. The warrants under +which he acted overrode, of course, all rights and all privileges; in +the eye of the law the boy before him had no more to do with the old +house and the wide acres than the meanest peasant who had a hovel on +the land. But the agent was a humane man, and in his way a just one; +and though he had been well content to ignore the malignant young +reprobate whom he had hitherto considered the only claimant, he was +vexed to find there was another, more innocent and more helpless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He must have relations," he said at last, after rubbing his closely +cropped head with an air of much perplexity. "He must go to them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has none alive that I know of," the butler answered stolidly. He +was a high-shouldered, fat-faced man, with sly eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There are no other Pattens?" quoth Hoby.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not so much as an old maid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then he must go to his mother's people."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was Cornish," Gridley answered, with a slight grin. "Her family +were out with Sir Ralph Hopton, and are now in Holland, I hear."</p> + +<p class="normal">Repulsed on all sides, the agent rose from his chair. "Well, bring him +to me in the morning," he said irritably, "and I will see what can be +done. His matter can wait. For yourself, however, make up your mind, +my man; go or stay as you please. But if you stay it can only be upon +my conditions. You understand that?" he added with some asperity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gridley assented with a corresponding smack of sullenness in his tone, +and taking the hint, bore off the boy to bed. Soon the few lights, +which still shone in the great house that had so quietly changed +masters, died out one by one; until all lay black and silent, except +one small room, low-ceiled, musty, and dark-panelled, which lay to the +right of the hall, but a step or two below its level. This room was +the butler's pantry and sleeping-chamber. The plate which had once +glittered on its shelves, the silver flagons and Sheffield cups, the +spice bowls and sugar-basins, were gone, devoted these five years past +to the melting-pot and the Royal cause. The club and blunderbuss which +should have guarded them remained, however, in their slings beside the +bed; along with some show of dingy pewter and dingier blackjacks, and +as many empty bottles as served at once to litter the gloomy little +dungeon and prove that the old squire's cellar was not yet empty.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the midst of this disorder, and in no way incommoded by the close +atmosphere of the room, which reeked of beer and stale liquors, the +butler sat thinking far into the night. On the table beside him, which +had been cleared to make room for it, lay an open Bible; but as he +never consulted its pages or even looked towards it, we may assume +that it lay there rather for show than use, and possibly had been +arranged for the express purpose of catching the eye of Master Hoby +should he push his inquiries as far as this apartment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Heedless or forgetful of it, Gridley now sat staring into vacancy, +with a dark expression on his face. Now and again he bit his +finger-nails as if some problem of more than ordinary importance +occupied his thoughts. His aspect too was changed in sympathy with the +dark hours of the night. Tear and anticipation, greed and cunning, +peered from behind the mask of sly composure which he had worn in the +parlor. He had now the air of a man who would and dare not, and then +again who would not shrink at risks. At last he rose with his mind +made up, and creeping to the door secured it. With a stealthy glance +round, he next extinguished the light, plunging the room into +darkness. After that he was still to be heard shuffling about for some +time, but of his actions or the business on which he was bent nothing +could be known for certain. Only once a rich ringing sound as of metal +on metal surprised the silence, and hanging on the air--for an +eternity as it seemed to his alarmed ear--died reluctantly in the +hollows of the pewter flagons on the shelf. It was nothing, it was the +merest tinkle, it could scarcely have awakened the suspicions of the +most critical listener. But the man who made the sound and heard the +sound was a coward with an evil conscience; and for a full minute +after the last echo had whispered itself away, he crouched on the +floor, with the cold dew on his brow and his hand shaking. After that, +silence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Little Jack Patten, awaking suddenly as the first glimmer of dawn +entered his room, found the butler standing by his side. The boy would +have cried out, not knowing him in the half light, but Gridley +muttered his name, and enjoining silence with a finger on his lip, sat +down on the pallet by the lad's side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What is it?" Jack said, sitting up. The man's cautious and +apprehensive air, no less than the gloom which still filled the room +and rendered objects indistinct, scared him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" the butler answered in a low voice, "and listen to me, Jack. I +have been thinking about you. You know this house is not yours any +longer. It will be shut up, and there will be none but Roundheaded +soldiers here, and the man below will be master. You don't want to +stay here and eat his bread?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy shook his head. But, even as he shook it, the tears rose to +his eyes. For where was he to go? Yesterday's events, his +friendlessness and helplessness, recurred to his mind in a rush of +bitter memories.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Would you like to come away with me?" Gridley muttered, keenly +watching the effect of his words.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack peered at him doubtfully. The butler had not been so kind to him +of late as to give this proposal an air of complete naturalness. The +manner and the tone of it were strange even in the child's judgment. +"Where are you going?" he asked cautiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To my home," said the butler, licking his lips, as if they were dry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is on the moors, is it not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler nodded. "Above Pateley?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is many a mile above Pateley--up, up, up; ay, miles above it."</p> + +<p class="normal">The child's eyes glistened at that. The moors were his fairyland. He +had passed many and many a happy hour in dreaming of the marvellous +things which lay beyond the purple hills to westward; the rugged +broken line behind which the sun went down each day in a glory of +crimson or orange. That line, he knew, was the beginning of the moors. +The blue distance beyond it he had peopled with his own visions of +giants and dwarfs, and witches and warlocks, and added besides all the +tales which passed current in Pattenhall and the low country of doings +<i>in t' moors</i>. He knew the moor people kept to themselves and were +wild and savage, inhabiting hills a mile high and valleys miles in +depth; and he longed to visit them and see these things for himself. +His eyes dried quickly as he listened to Gridley, and eagerly asked, +"Above Pateley?" which was the boundary of his known world, "miles and +miles above Pateley, Gridley?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, up Skipton way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that in the heart of the moors, Gridley?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is no other heart," the butler answered gruffly, "unless, +maybe, it is Settle. And it is Settle side of Skipton."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are you going now?" the lad said impulsively, standing up straight in +his bed, with his brown eyes staring and his fair cheeks glowing with +anticipation and excitement.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This very minute."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll come with you! You will let me dress, Gridley?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, dress quickly. We must be away before any one is awake."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll be quick!" Jack answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was too young to see anything strange in the hurry and secrecy of +such a departure. The troubles of the times had made him familiar with +abrupt comings and goings. He trembled, it is true, as he stole down +the dark staircase on tiptoe and clinging to the butler's hand; but it +was with excitement, not fear. He felt no surprise at finding one of +the great plough-horses standing saddled in its stall; nor did the +size of the wallets which he saw behind the saddle arouse any doubt or +suspicion in his mind. Gridley's haste to be gone, the trembling which +seized the butler as they crossed the farmyard, the frequent glances +he cast behind him until the road was fairly gained, seemed to the boy +natural enough. All Jack knew was that he was leaving his enemies +behind him. They had killed his father and exiled his brother. +Naturally he feared and hated them. He was too young to understand +that he stood in no peril himself, but that on the contrary his proper +disposal had caused Master Hoby the loss of at least an hour's sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before it was fairly light the fugitives were already a mile away. The +boy rode behind Gridley, clinging to a strap passed round the latter's +waist; and the two jogged along comfortably enough as far as the body +was concerned, though it was evident that Gridley's anxiety was little +if at all allayed. They shunned the highway, and went by hedge paths +and bridle-roads, which avoided houses and villages. When the sun rose +the two were already five or six miles from Pattenhall, in a country +new to the lad, though sufficiently like his own to whet his curiosity +instead of satisfying it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How far are we from the moors, Gridley?" he asked as often as he +dared, for the butler's temper seemed uncertain. "Shall we be there to +breakfast?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, we'll be there to breakfast," was the usual answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">And presently, to the boy's delight, the country began to trend +upwards, the path grew steeper. The coppices and hedgerows, the clumps +of elms and oaks and beeches, which had hidden the higher prospects +from his eyes, and almost persuaded him that he was making no +progress, began to grow more sparse; until at last they failed +altogether, and he saw before him a rising slope of marsh and +moorland, swelling here and there into rocky ridges, between which the +sycamores and ashes grew in stunted bunches. Above he raised his eyes +to a heaven wider and more open than that to which he was accustomed; +while lark beyond lark, soaring each higher than the other, seemed +striving which should celebrate most fitly the balmy air and warm +sunshine which flooded all.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Are these the moors, Gridley?" the boy asked with delight.</p> + +<p class="normal">"These, the moors?" the man answered, with the first smile he had +allowed himself that morning. "You wait a bit, and you'll see!"</p> + +<p class="normal">His tone was not encouraging, but as he hastened to give the lad his +breakfast and a drink of beer, Jack passed over the change of manner, +and rocking himself from side to side, as far as the strap would let +him, went merrily upwards, munching as he rode. Over Pateley Bridge +and Pateley moors they went, and upwards still to Bewerley Fell, +whence they saw the Riding stretched like a picture behind them. Jack +fancied, but that was, impossible, that he could see the chimneys and +the great oak at Pattenhall. Leaving Bewerley they skirted Hebdon Moor +on the north side, rising here so high that Jack could see nothing on +either hand but horrid crags, and ridges of grey limestone and vast +slopes of grey rock. Here, too, there was little turf and no heather, +but only stone-crop and saxifrages, with cruel quagmires and bogs in +the hollows. The very sky seemed changed. It grew dark and overcast, +and clouds and mist gathered round the travellers, hiding the path, +yet disclosing from time to time the huge brow of Ingleborough or the +flat head of Penighent. The wind moaned across the grey steeps, and a +small rain began to fall and quickly wet them to the skin.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy shuddered. "Are these the moors?" he asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, these are the moors!" his companion answered grimly. "And +moorland weather. Yon's the High Moors and Malham Tarn. Your eyes are +young. Do you see a grey spot in the nook to the right, yonder, two +miles away! That is Little Howe, and we are bound for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who lives there?" Jack answered, as he looked drearily over the +desolate upland.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My brother," the butler answered, with a touch of ferocity in his +tone. "Simon Gridley, he is called, and you will know him soon +enough."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">MALHAM HIGH MOORS.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Still nearly an hour elapsed before the tired horse stopped at the +door of the small grey dwelling which Gridley had pointed out. The +house, a rough farmstead of four rooms, stood high in a nook of the +moor, facing Ingleborough. A few yew-trees filled the narrowing dell +behind it with black shadow; a low wall of loose stones which joined +one ridge to another formed a fold before it. The clatter of hoofs, as +the horse climbed the rocky slope leading to the house, brought out a +man and woman, who, leaning on this wall, watched the couple approach.</p> + +<p class="normal">The aspect of the man was stern, dry, and austere; in a word, at one +with the harsh and rugged scene in which he lived. His gloomy eyes and +square jaw seemed signs of a character resolute, narrow, bigoted, and +it might be cruel. At first sight the woman appeared a helpmeet well +suited to him. Her narrow forehead and thin lips, her pinched nose and +small blue eyes, seemed the reproduction in a feminine mould of his +more massive features. Despite this, she constantly produced upon +strangers a less favorable impression than he did; and though this +impression was rarely understood, it lingered long and faded slowly if +at all.</p> + +<p class="normal">The aspect of the two as they stood side by side was so forbidding, +that the child, faint with fatigue and disappointment, had hard work +to repress his tears. Nor was the uneasiness confined to him only, for +the butler's voice, when he raised it to greet his kinsfolk, sounded +unnatural. His words tumbled over one another, and he alighted with a +fussiness which betrayed itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other side the most absolute composure existed; so that +presently the man's fulsome words died on his lips. "Why, brother," he +stammered, with something of a whine, "you are glad to see me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It may be, and again it may not be," the other answered grimly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How so?" Gridley asked, changing countenance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you turned your back on the flesh-pots for good?" was the severe +response. "Have you come out of Egypt and away from its abominations? +For I will have no malignants here, nor those who eat their bread and +grow fat on their vices? If you have left the tents of Kedar, then you +are welcome here. But if not, pass on."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have left Pattenhall, if that is what you mean," the younger +brother answered sullenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And its service?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, and its service."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is the lad you have with you?" Simon Gridley asked keenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is a Patten," the butler answered reluctantly; "but he has neither +house nor land, nor more in the world than the clothes he stands up +in."</p> + +<p class="normal">The answer took both the man and the woman by surprise. They stood +gazing as with one accord at the boy, who, with his lips trembling, +changed feet and shifted his eyes from one stern face to another.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have heard something of that," the elder Gridley said, with a stern +smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He comes of a bad brood."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nevertheless, you will not refuse him shelter," his brother answered. +"He is a child, and I have nowhere else to take him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why take him at all?" the Puritan snarled fiercely. "What have you to +do with the children of transgression? Have you not sins enough of +your own to answer for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler did not reply, and for a moment the boy's fate seemed to +hang in the balance. Then the woman spoke. "Bring him in," she said +harshly and suddenly. "It may be that he is a brand snatched from the +burning."</p> + +<p class="normal">She spoke with authority, and her words seemed to be accepted as a +final decision. Gridley pulled the child sharply by the arm, and, +himself wearing a somewhat hangdog expression, led him across the fold +and through the doorway, the others following. The scene outside, the +leaden sky and grey moor and falling rain, had reduced the boy to the +depth of misery; the interior to which he was introduced did little to +comfort him. The hearth was fireless, the stone floor bare and +unstrewn. A couple of great chests, a chair and two stools, formed, +with a table, a spinning-wheel, and a rude loom, the only furniture. +The rafters displayed none of the plenty which Jack was accustomed to +see in kitchens, for neither flitch nor puddings adorned them, but in +the window-seat a gaunt elderly man with a long grey beard sat reading +a large Bible. He looked up dreamily when the party entered, but said +nothing, the rapt expression of his face seeming to show that he was +virtually unconscious of their presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Luke is the same as ever?" the butler said in a low voice to his +sister-in-law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has his visions, if that is what you mean," she answered tartly. +"Same as he ever had, and clearer of late. Set the child there. You +are hungry, I dare say. Well, you'll have to wait. In an hour it will +be supper-time, and in an hour you will have your supper. But you will +get no Pattenhall dainties here."</p> + +<p class="normal">The elder Gridley went to the loom and began to work, while his +brother, repressing a sigh of discontent, sat down and gazed at the +hearth, regretting already the step he had taken. Mistress Gridley +looked fixedly and with compressed lips at the boy, who sat in the +cold chimney corner, too much terrified to cry. The only sounds which +broke the dreary stillness of the house were the rattling of the loom +and the murmur of Luke Gridley's voice, as his tongue followed the +mechanical movement of his finger.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was their reception; the child, hungry and fear-stricken, thought +with a bursting heart of the home he had left, of the friends and the +very dogs of Pattenhall, its trees and sunshine, and warm kitchen. The +grim silence of the room, the woman's cruel eyes, the bareness and +greyness, seemed to crush him with an iron hand, so that it was only +by an effort, almost beyond his years, that he repressed a scream of +passionate revolt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor did he suffer alone. The butler, despite the care with which he +hid his feelings, was little more at home in his company. He had no +longer anything in common with his kinsfolk. In his heart he cringed +before their rugged natures as a guilty dog crouches before its +master. But he had thoughts of his own and a purpose to serve; and +this enabled him to put a good face on the matter, or at least to +endure with a wry smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">The scanty meal of cheese and oatmeal eaten, and Luke's long +extemporary prayer brought to an end, the strangers were taken to one +of the two upper rooms. In five minutes the tired child was asleep; +not so his companion. Gridley, fatigued as he was, lay and watched the +last glimmer of daylight die away, and then, when all the house was +dark and quiet, he sat up and listened. His wallets lay on the floor +beside him. He rose and crawled to them, and for a long time crouched +on the boards by them, thinking. He wanted a hiding-place--before +morning he must have a hiding-place; but the scanty furniture of the +room afforded none. This he had not anticipated, and the perplexity +into which it threw him was so largely mingled with fear, that he +fancied the loud beating of his heart must attract attention even +through the walls. After some minutes of misery he made up his mind, +and rising from the floor crept to the door and opened it. All was so +still in the house that he took fresh courage. He went back to his +wallets, and drawing something from them stole on tiptoe down the +stairs, each creaking board--and there were many--throwing him into a +cold perspiration. When a coward gives himself to wickedness, he pays +dearly for his fancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The staircase opened directly into the kitchen, where he stood awhile +listening on the hearth. Luke, the preacher, slept in the back-room, +and the door seemed to be ajar. Gridley felt his way through the +darkness to it and softly closed it. Then he peered round him. Where +could he hide what he had to hide? Memory, conjuring up the objects +round him, suggested one place after another, but in each case he +foresaw the possibility of accident. The linen-chest? Mistress Gridley +might take it into her head to inspect her store of linen. The +under-part of the sink? She might be about to clean it. The dresser +was out of the question. He decided at last on the oatmeal chest, and +groping his way to it found it, to his delight, unlocked and half +full. The objects he had to hide were small; he ran little risk, he +thought, if he buried them near the bottom of the meal.</p> + +<p class="normal">After pausing again to listen and assure himself that he was not +watched, he plunged his treasure deep in the soft meal. Then with +trembling hands he drew the stuff over it, jealously smoothing and +patting the surface in his fear lest daylight should disclose some +signs of what he had been about. This done, and as he believed, +effectually, he heaved a sigh of relief, and laid his hand on the lid +of the chest to close it. At that moment a thin ray of light pierced +the darkness in which he stood, and falling across the floor of the +kitchen, chilled him to the heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even in his panic he had sufficient presence of mind to close the lid +softly, but the act detained him so long that he had no chance of +moving away from the chest; and there Mistress Gridley found him when +she entered, with her rushlight shaded, and her small eyes gleaming +triumphantly behind it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ho! ho!" she said, in a whisper; "I have caught a rat, have I?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was hungry," he stammered, recoiling before her, "and came down to +see if there was any porridge left."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You lie!" she answered contemptuously, pointing to his hands as she +spoke. They were covered with oatmeal. "I know you of old. You have +been hiding something. Let me see what it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment, despair giving him courage, he raised his hand as if he +would have done her some injury; but the woman's eyes cowed him. "Hold +the light, fool!" she said. "Let me see what you have got here."</p> + +<p class="normal">She rummaged an instant in the meal, and presently, with an abrupt +exclamation, drew out something which glittered as she held it up. It +was a small gold cup. As she turned it to and fro, and the light which +trembled in the man's craven hands played quiveringly on the burnished +surface of the metal, her eyes glistened with avarice. She drew a long +breath. "It is gold!" she muttered wonderingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">The wretched Gridley murmured that it was.</p> + +<p class="normal">Glancing at him askance, and still clutching the cup as if she feared +he might snatch it from her, she plunged her other hand into the meal, +and drew out in quick succession a flagon and a small plate of the +same precious metal. Such success, as one came forth after the other, +almost frightened her. She gazed at the spoils with all her greedy +soul in her eyes. She had never handled such things before, and +scarcely ever seen them, but with intuitive avarice she knew their +value, and loved them, and clutched them to her breast. "You stole +them!" she hissed. "They are from some church. Tell me the truth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"They have been hidden at the Hall--since before the Squire's death," +he stammered.</p> + +<p class="normal">She held them out again and looked lovingly at them. When she turned +to him again, it was to wave him off. "Go!" she said fiercely, "they +are not yours. I shall take them. I shall give them to--"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your husband?" he retorted desperately, moved to boldness and action +by the imminence of the danger. "Your husband? He would call them the +accursed thing, and grind them to powder and strew them on Malham +Tarn. What would you gain by that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She scowled at him, knowing that what he said was true; and so they +stood a moment gazing breathlessly at one another. Before he spoke +again their eyes had made an unholy compact. "Let them remain here, +and do you play fair," he said slowly, "and I will give you the large +one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I might take all," she muttered jealously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," he snarled, showing his teeth; "I should tell him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Her eyes fell at that, so that it scarcely needed the slight shiver +which passed over her to assure him that he had touched the right +chord. Smooth and hypocritical, and, like all hypocrites, afraid of +some one, she feared above all things her husband's stern and pitiless +code; knowing that no offence could seem more heinous or less +pardonable in his eyes than this dallying with the accursed thing, +this sin of Achan.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the compact was made. The larger vessel was hidden at one end of +the meal-tub, the two smaller vessels at the other end. Each +accomplice showed the same reluctance to trust the other, the same +unwillingness to take leave of the spoil; but at last the chest was +closed, and the two prepared to retire. Then a thought seemed to +strike Mistress Gridley. "Why have you brought that brat here?" she +whispered, as they prepared to mount the stairs. "Don't talk to me of +gratitude, man! Tell me the truth."</p> + +<p class="normal">He shifted his feet, and would have fenced with her, but she knew him, +and he gave way. "Times may change," he said. "The land and the house +may come back. Then it will be well to know where the lad is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Umph!" she said. "I see."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps her knowledge of the butler's plan prevented her being +actively cruel to the child. On the other hand, neither she nor any +one gave him a word or look of kindness. He had no place among them. +Luke was wrapt in visions. Simon was too sternly self-contained, too +completely under the mastery of his cold and ascetic faith, to give +thought or word to the boy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The other two had the meal chest to guard and each other to watch.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was left to feel the full influence of the grey moorland life. The +dismal stillness of the house, the lengthy prayers and repellent +faces, drove him out of doors; the silence and solitude of the fells, +which even in sunshine, when the peewits screamed and flew in circles, +and the sky was blue above, were dreary and lonesome, scared him +back to the house. Once a week the family went four miles to a +meeting-house, where Luke Gridley and a Bradford weaver preached by +turns. But this was the only break in his life, if a break it could be +called. In Simon's creed boyhood and youth held no place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rumors of trouble and war, moreover, diverted from the child some of +the attention which the elder people might otherwise have paid him. +Sir Marmaduke Langdale's riders, scouting in front of the army which +Duke Hamilton had raised in Scotland, were reported to be no farther +off than Appleby. Any day they might descend on Settle, or a handful +of them pass the farmstead, and levy contributions in the old +high-handed Royalist fashion. Simon and Luke, wearing grimmer faces +than usual, cleaned their pikes, and got out the old buff-coats which +had lain by since Naseby, and held long conferences with their friends +at Settle. The boy, aimless and without companions, acquired a habit +of wandering in and out during these preparations, and more than once +his pale face and dwarfish form appearing suddenly in their midst gave +Luke Gridley, who was apt to weave what he saw into the unsubstantial +texture of his dreams, a start beyond the ordinary.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is that child?" he said one day, looking after him with a +troubled face. "There used to be no child here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The child?" Simon exclaimed, glancing at him impatiently. "What has +the child to do with us? Let it be."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let it be?" said the other, softly. "Ay, for a season. For a season. +Yet remember that it is written, 'A child shall discover the matter.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tush!" Simon answered angrily. "This is folly. Isn't it written also, +resist the devil, and he will fly from you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, the devil--and his angels," Luke repeated gently.</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon shrugged his shoulders. Nevertheless he too, when he next met +the lad wandering aimlessly about, looked at him with new eyes. Though +he was subject to no active delusions himself, he had a strong and +superstitious respect for his brother's fantasies. He began to watch +the boy about, and surprising him one day in a solitary place in the +act of forming patterns on the turf with stones, noted with a feeling +of dread that these took the shape of a circle and a triangle, with +other cabalistic figures as odd as they were unfamiliar. He would not +at another time have given such a trifle a second thought. But we see +things through the glasses of our own prepossessions. The morose and +rugged fanatic, who feared no odds, and whom no persecution could +bend, looked askance at the child playing unconsciously before him, +looked dubiously at the grey moor strewn with monoliths, and finally +with a shiver turned and walked homewards.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">LANGDALE'S HORSE.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was well he did so, for the fiery cross had chosen that moment to +arrive; Simon found his household waiting for him at the foldgate, and +with them a red-faced man from Settle, who had ridden across the fells +with the news that Langdale's people were harrying the place. Before +the messenger had had time to come to details, the Puritan was himself +again. The light of battle gleamed in his sober eyes, his face grew +hard as his native rock. Knowing that he was looked for with anxiety, +and that at the rendezvous few would be more welcome, he lost not a +moment, but quickly, yet without hurry, fetched his pike and coat, +girt on his pistols, and filled his bandoliers. Luke, who had had some +minutes the start of him, and whose eyes burned with a sombre +enthusiasm, showed himself equally forward. When the two stood ready +at the gate, then, and then only, they discovered that the third +brother had no intention of accompanying them. He stood back on the +inner side of the wall with a frown on his pale face, his attitude a +curious mixture of shrinking and resolution.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come, man, be quick!" Simon cried sharply. "What are you waiting +for?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'm not coming, Simon," was the reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not coming?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some one must stay and take care of the place," the butler answered, +wiping his forehead. "I'll stay. Your wife will need some one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fool! what can one man do here?" the Puritan retorted fiercely. +"Come, I say. This is no time for loitering when the work calls us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gridley shook his head and moistened his lips with his tongue. "I'm +not a fighting man," he muttered feebly.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the elder brother glared at him, as though he were minded +to cross the fence and strike him down. Fortunately, however, Simon +found a vent for his passion as effectual and more characteristic. "If +you do not fight, you do not eat," he said coldly. "At any rate in my +house. Mistress," he continued to his wife, "see that my orders are +obeyed. Give that craven neither bit nor sup until I come again. If he +will not fight he shall not feed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And with that he went.</p> + +<p class="normal">When little Jack came back to the house an hour later, and crept shyly +into the kitchen, as his manner was, he found it empty. The light was +beginning to wane, and the coming evening already filled the corners +of the gaunt, silent room, in which not even a clock ticked, with +shadows. The boy stood awhile, looking about him and listening in the +stillness for any movement in the inner room, or on the floor above. +Hearing none, he went outside in a kind of panic; but there too he +found no one. Still, the light gave him courage to re-enter and mount +the stairs. He called "Gridley!" again and again, but no one answered. +He tried Luke's room; it was empty. On this the lad was about to fly +again in a worse panic than before--for the loneliness of the house +might have appalled an older heart than his--when the sound of +footsteps relieved his fears. He stole to the window, and saw the +butler and Mistress Gridley come round the corner of the house, the +former carrying a spade on his shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack wondered timidly what they had been about with the spade, and +where Simon and Luke were; but naturally he got no explanation, and +was glad to escape from the grim looks with which they greeted him. It +was time for the evening meal, and the woman set it on, and gave him +his share as usual. The butler, however, he saw with surprise took no +part in it, but sat at a distance with a scowl on his face, and +neither ate nor drank. On the other hand, Mistress Gridley ate more +than usual. Indeed, he had never seen her in better appetite or +spirits, She rallied her companion, too, on his abstinence so +pleasantly and with so much good-temper, that the child was quite +carried away by her humor, and went to bed in better spirits than had +been his since the beginning of his life at Malham.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the morning it was the same, with the exception that Gridley looked +strangely pale about the cheeks. Again he took no share of the meal, +but in the middle of breakfast he came up to the table in an odd, +violent fashion, falling back only when Mistress Gridley snatched up a +knife, and made a playful thrust at him. She laughed at the same time, +but the laugh was not musical, and the child, detecting a false note +in it, grew puzzled. Even for him the scene had lost its humor. The +man's face, as he retired cowed and baffled to the window-seat, where +the side light brought out all that was most repulsive in his craven +features, told a tale there was no mistaking. The child stayed awhile, +fascinated by the spectacle, and saw the woman take her seat on the +meal chest and spin, smiling and patient, while Gridley gnawed his +nails and devoured her with his eyes. But the longer he watched the +more frightened he grew; and at last he broke the spell with an +effort, and fled to the purer air outside.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was wise, for the morn was at its best. It was the most perfect +morning of the year. Ingleborough had no cap on, Penighent stood up +hard and sharp against the blue sky. The summer sunshine, unrelieved +by a single cloud or so much as a wreath of mist, fell hotly on the +open moor, where the larks sank and the bees hummed, and the boy's +heart rose in sympathy with the life about him. Feeling an unwonted +lightness and cheerfulness, he started to climb the fell at the back +of the house, following the right bank of the hollow in which the +yew-trees grew. This hollow, as it rose to a level with the upper +moor, spent itself in a dozen fissures, which, radiating in every +direction, drained the moss. Some were three or four feet deep, some +ten or twelve, with steep and everhanging edges.</p> + +<p class="normal">Presently the boy found his progress barred by one of these, and +peeping into its shadowy depths, which a little to his left melted +into the gloom of the yew-trees, grew timid and stopped, sitting down +and looking back the way he had come, to gain courage. For a while his +eyes dwelt idly on the sunny slope. Then on a sudden he saw a sight +which he remembered all his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">A quarter of a mile below the house, a road crossed the moor. On this +a solitary horseman had just appeared, urging a piebald horse to a +tired trot, while continually looking back the way he had come. The +boy had scarcely remarked him and the strange color of his steed, when +a second rider came into sight over the brow, with a man running by +his side and clinging to his stirrup-leather. To him succeeded two +more horsemen, trotting abreast and spurring furiously; and then while +the lad wondered what it all meant, and who these people were, a +single footman topped the brow, and after running a score of +paces--but not in the direction the others had taken--flung himself +down on his face among the bracken.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg59.png" alt="Page 59"><br> +Flung himself on his face among the bracken.--Page 59.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He had scarcely executed this manœuvre, when a party of six men, +three mounted--the boy could see them rising and falling briskly in +their stirrups--and three running beside them, appeared above the +ridge, and quickening their pace followed with a loud cry on the +others' heels. The cry seemed to spur on the fugitives--such he now +saw the first party to be--to fresh exertions, but despite this, the +two horsemen who brought up the rear were quickly overtaken by the +six. The lad saw a tiny flash and heard a faint report. One of the two +threw up his arms and fell backwards. The other made as if he would +have turned his horse to meet his pursuers; but it shied and carried +him across the moor. Two of the six rode after him, one on either +side, and the lad saw the flash of their blades in the sunshine as +they rained cuts on his head and shoulders--which the poor wretch +vainly strove to shield by raising his arms--till he too sank down, +and the two turned back to their comrades, who were still following +after the three who survived.</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy, sick and shuddering, and utterly unmanned by the sight he had +seen, hid his eyes; and for a time saw no more. His very heart melted +within him for terror and for pity. Sweating all over, he rolled +himself into a little hollow beside him where the ground sank, and lay +there trembling. By-and-by he heard a scream, and then another, and +each time he drew in his breath and closed his eyes. Then silence fell +again upon the moor. The bees hummed round him. A peewit screamed and +wheeled above his head.</p> + +<p class="normal">He plucked up heart after a while to peep fearfully over the edge of +the little basin in which he lay, and saw that the six men were +retracing their steps, but not, as they had gone, in a body. They were +now beating the moor backwards in a long line, each man a score of +paces from his neighbor. The lad, after watching them a moment, had +wit enough to understand what they were doing, and from his elevated +position could see also their quarry, who had lost no time in removing +himself from the spot where he had first thrown himself down in the +fern. He was half way up the fell now, on a level with the farm, and a +hundred paces above the uppermost of his enemies. Apparently he was +satisfied with his position, or despaired of bettering it, for he lay +still, though the searchers drew each moment nearer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack could see their flushed cheeks and streaming brows as they toiled +along in the sunshine, probing the fern with pikes and going sometimes +many yards out of the way to inspect a likely bush. He felt his heart +stand still when they halted opposite the man's lair and seemed to +suspect something; and again he felt it race on as if it would choke +him, when they passed by unnoticing, and began to quarter the ground +towards the farm.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their backs were scarcely turned before the man, whose conduct from +the first had proved him a hardy and resolute fellow, moved again, and +crawling stealthily on his stomach, as the ground afforded him +shelter, began to make his way up the hill. The lad, lying still and +fascinated, watched him; forseeing that the fugitive's course must +bring him, if pursued, to the hollow in which he lay, yet unable to +move or escape. It seemed an age before the man reached the mound, and +wriggling himself up its least exposed side, pushed his head +cautiously over the rim, and met the boy's eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Both started violently; but whereas Jack saw before him only a +swollen, blood-stained face, white and haggard with fatigue, and half +disguised by a kerchief which covered the man's brow and came down to +his eyes, the man saw more--much more.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack!" he muttered, the instinct of caution remaining with him even +in his great astonishment. "Jack! Why, don't you know me, lad? It is +I, Frank."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Frank?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, Frank! You know me now."</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy did know him then, more by his voice than his face; and broke +into a passion of weeping, holding out his hands and murmuring +incoherent words. The fugitive whom chance had brought to his feet was +his brother! the brother whom he had not seen for more than a year, of +whose misfortunes and misdeeds he had dimly heard, the brother whom he +had mourned as dead!</p> + +<p class="normal">Twelve months of hardship and danger and rough companionship had +changed Frank Patten much, inwardly as well as outwardly; but they had +not sapped the family tie nor closed his heart against such a meeting +as this. He crept into the hollow beside the child with every nobler +feeling in his nature aroused, and with one eye on the moor below and +one on him strove to comfort him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Courage is contagious. The elder brother possessed it in a peculiar +degree, uniting the daring of youth to the hardihood and resource +which as a rule come only of long experience; and Jack was not slow to +feel his influence. The boy quickly stilled his sobs and dried his +tears. In such crises resolutions are formed rapidly, the impulse to +help is instinctive. In a few moments he was back in the old place, +watching the moor; while Frank, whose bandaged head was so much more +likely to catch the eye and attract attention, lay resting in the lap +of the hollow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you see them now?" Frank asked presently, when he had somewhat +recovered his breath and strength.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are standing in front of the farm," Jack answered. "Now they are +beating the ground towards the further brow."</p> + +<p class="normal">Frank nodded. "They think I must have doubled back," he said coolly. +"It was a narrow squeak, but I am all right as it is, if I can get +three things."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What are they, Frank?" Jack asked timidly, gazing with awe and +admiration at the ragged, blood-stained, sinewy figure beside him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Water, food, and a hiding-place," his brother answered tersely; "but +first, water. The sun has burned me to a cinder, and I am parched with +thirst. I little thought when I rode gaily into Settle yester-even +that this would come of it. But the game is not fought out yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have they not beaten you?" Jack ventured to ask.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not a bit of it!" his brother answered with a reckless laugh. "'Twas +only an affair of outposts, lad. In a week, Duke Hamilton will be at +Preston with thirty thousand gallant fellows at his back. It will not +be a handful of disbanded troopers will scatter it. But I thirst, +Jack, I thirst."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack slid back into the hollow and sprang to his feet. "There is a +spring at the back of the house," he said eagerly. "I can go to it +through the yew-trees, Frank, and be back in five minutes, or ten at +most. But I have nothing to carry the water in, and the pitcher is +kept in the house."</p> + +<p class="normal">In a trice Frank pulled off one of his long boots. "Take that," he +said. "It is as nearly water-tight as awl and needle and good leather +can make it. Many a man has used a worse blackjack. But can you go and +return unseen, lad?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Trust me," said Jack, bravely, taking up the boot. "You shall see."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had just bethought him of the fissure in the moss which had set a +limit to his explorations. It ran athwart the slope a few paces behind +the hollow in which he lay, and seemed to promise safe and secret +access through the yew coppice to the rear of the house where the well +was. Nodding confidently to his brother, he crawled back to the rift; +then dropping into it where it grew shallow, a little to the right, he +turned down it and followed it until it presently opened into the dell +in which the yew-trees grew. Their cool shadow no longer terrified +him, for he was thinking of another, and had a purpose; two things +which form the best of armor against empty fears. Carrying the boot +with caution, so that it might not be seen easily or at once were he +surprised, he plunged into the gloom under the trees, and creeping +along, presently reached the spring, which lay a few paces only from +the back of the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was clear of the trees, and here he had to venture something. He +waited and listened, and presently heard Mistress Gridley's voice. She +was on the farther side of the house talking to some of the Puritan +troopers, who had dismounted at the wall of the fold, and were +discussing their victory. Taking his courage in his hand the boy +advanced to the spring, and dipping the boot, staggered back with it +into the shelter of the trees, where he lay a moment under cover to +assure himself that he had not been observed. Quickly satisfied on +this point, and the more quickly as he discovered that the boot leaked +a little, he lost no more time, but hastening back the way he had +come, in three or four minutes reached the surface of the moor, and +had the satisfaction of seeing his brother plunge his burning face +into the boot and quench his thirst with water of his providing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never had the boy known so proud a moment. It was an epoch in his +life. He was athirst himself, his lips were parched and his mouth was +burning, but he would have suffered a hundred times as much before he +would have taken a drop. He looked on, glowing with happiness: fear +and weakness, heat and thirst all forgotten. For he had done a man's +deed.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">THE MEAL CHEST.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was high noon, and the sun shone hotly on the hillside where the +two lay. The rim of the hollow which sheltered them from hostile eyes +kept off also such light breezes as were blowing, and served to +collect and focus the burning rays. Jack panted and fanned himself, +longing for shade and water, and cool sounds. But no thought of +deserting his brother occurred to his mind. When Frank looked up at +last, after drinking three long draughts from his queer blackjack, he +found the lad had gone bravely back to his post of espial, and was +searching the moor with diligent eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wonder and astonishment stirred afresh in the hunted man's breast. +"Why, Jack, lad," he said, gazing at him as if he now for the first +time comprehended the full strangeness of his presence; "how come you +to be here? I thought you were safe at Pattenhall, thirty miles off."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gridley brought me," Jack answered, lowering his voice cautiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Old Gridley! He did, did he! He is a rogue if ever there was one. But +why did he bring you? And why here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack explained, as far as his knowledge went; which was not far. +Frank's worldly wisdom, gained in a hard school, helped him to the +rest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I see," he replied, nodding darkly. "The old schemer had his own +reasons for a sudden flitting. And he thought it a fine stroke to get +possession of you, in case our cause and his Majesty's should come +uppermost again--as, please Heaven, it will now. But you had better +have stopped at Pattenhall, Jack," Frank continued gravely. "Those +crop-eared knaves must have done something for you. They don't fight +with children, to do them justice."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Still, I am glad I came, Frank," Jack said softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So am I, lad," his brother answered. "That water and you saved my +life. I could not have held out till night, and I should not have +known where to turn for it myself. But we are being scorched here, and +the buzzing of the bees goes through my head. You said something of a +yew wood? It sounds better. Could I crawl there without being seen, +think you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack told him, sliding down eagerly, how he had come and gone, and +described the position of the fissure in the moss.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The very thing!" the fugitive cried, his face lighting up. "I know +the kind of thing. There are no better hiding, places. They turn and +twist and throw off a dozen branches. And the nearer the house, if +these Gridleys are Parliament men, the better. They will not be +suspected of hiding malignants. Is the coast clear?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack answered in the affirmative, and eagerly led the way, his brother +crawling after him, through bracken and under gorse-bushes, and over +hot patches of turf where the sun grilled them, until the edge of the +rift was safely gained. Here Frank fell over at once into the cool +depth, and then standing up helped Jack down. The shade and the +feeling of moisture which prevailed in this under-world were so +welcome that for a moment the two stood leaning against the dark wall, +the overhanging edge of peat effectually protecting them from the +sun's rays. The chasm at this point was about eight feet deep and six +wide; the bottom of a dull white color, with water percolating over +it. Away to the right it grew more shallow, and after throwing out +numerous channels, rose at last to the level of the moor it drained. +To the left it grew deeper, attaining a depth of twelve or fourteen +feet where it opened on the ravine behind the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good!" Frank said, looking round him with sombre satisfaction. "I can +find a dozen hiding-places here, and lie as snug and cool in the +meantime as a nymph in a grot. The rogues are lazy, or they would have +climbed the brow an hour ago. They will not do so now. One thing only +remains, and that is the question of food."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will fetch some!" Jack cried impetuously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, but softly," his brother answered, laying his hand on his arm, +and restraining him. "It is past dinner-time, and you will have been +missed, my lad. There will be strange eyes in the house, and you will +not find it so easy to slip away again unnoticed. Whatever you do, +bide your time. I shall not starve for a bit; but if I am taken--and a +careless word or a hasty step may bring these gentry upon us--they may +give me quarter; and little gain to me!--a drum-head court-martial for +breach of parole will do the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">His face grew hard, and instead of meeting the boy's eyes he looked +downward and moodily kicked a lump of peat with his foot. Jack longed +to ask the meaning of that phrase "breach of parole" which he had +heard so often of late in connection with his brother's name. He did +not dare to put the question, but his patience was presently rewarded, +for Frank began to speak again, not to him, but to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A promise!" he muttered, his face still dark. "A promise under +compulsion is no promise. If I promised not to bear arms for the king +again, it was a promise made to rebels, and against my duty and +theirs, and was null and void from the beginning! Who shall say it was +not, or that my honor was concerned in it? Still, these Roundheads, if +they catch me, will fling it in my face! And Duke Hamilton looked +coldly on me. I would, after all," he added, in a voice still louder, +"that I had not taken Goring's advice."</p> + +<p class="normal">What Goring had advised was so clear, though Frank said no more, that +Jack looked at his brother with his eyes full of sympathy. He saw, +with the astonishing clearness which children possess, that Frank's +conscience was ill at ease--so ill at ease that the mere thought of +his broken parole, now it was too late to undo the wrong, brought all +that was hard, and fierce, and desperate in his nature to the surface, +mingling a kind of ferocity with his native courage, and converting +hardihood into recklessness. Comprehending this, the lad gazed at him +with a face full of timid sympathy; until Frank, awakening from his +absent fit, glanced suddenly up and met his look.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What! have you not gone?" he said roughly, and with a reddening +cheek. "You do not help me by staring at me like a dead pig! If you +can get food, no matter what it is, don't bring it here. You may be +followed. Lay it down at the opening of this rat-run, where you enter +it from the house. I shall find it when the coast is clear."</p> + +<p class="normal">His manner was changed, and Jack would have been more than mortal if +he had not felt the change. It hurt and disappointed him sorely; +coming just when he had done all he could. But he hid his chagrin, +and, turning obediently away, set off without a word down the rift, +and thence through the wood of yews, where the sheltering gloom was +now as welcome to him as it had been before alarming. As he approached +the house, however, and the immediate necessity of facing Mistress +Gridley and the brothers with an unmoved countenance forced itself +upon him, he paused involuntarily, trembling under the sense of sudden +fear which beset him. The horrible events of the morning, the cries of +the men whom he had seen cut down on the moor, his brother's danger, +and the consequences of a hapless word, all rushed into his mind +together, and for the moment, if the word may be used of so young a +child, unmanned him. Clutching the trunk of the last tree he had to +pass, he leaned against it in a very ague of terror; afraid to go +forward, shaking at the very thought of going forward and facing those +unfriendly eyes, yet knowing that if he would save his brother, if he +would not shame his blood and breeding, he must go forward.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg75.png" alt="Page 75"><br> +He leaned against it in a very ague of terror.--Page 75.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">While he stood in this agony--for it was nothing less--butler Gridley, +loitering about the back-door with thoughts and for a purpose of his +own, espied him; and with a stealthy foot and a glance in the +direction of the house, made towards him. The least observant eye must +have detected the boy's terror, or seen at least that he was laboring +under some strange emotion. But Gridley's eyes were not observant at +all; they were only hungry. He had fasted against his will for +twenty-four hours, and his plump cheeks were pallid. He had a wolf +within him that demanded all his attention. He saw in the boy only a +means of satisfying his craving.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack!" he whispered, with his lips almost at the boy's ear and his +eyes devouring his face, "I have always been good to you. I want you +to do something. It is a little thing," he repeated feverishly. "It is +a nothing. Just----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He had got so far--and alas! for him, no farther--when a harsh, +discordant laugh behind him caused him to straighten himself as if an +unseen hand had propelled him. "Let the child alone!" Mistress Gridley +cried from the door; "do you hear me? I will have no plotting and +colloguing in my house! And do you, Jack, come here!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a world of sarcasm in the woman's gibing tone; and it cut +the butler like a knife. He crept away with a savage glare in his +eyes. The boy went slowly to the door with thoughts happily diverted +from the weighty issues which had a moment before overburdened him. +The incident was, indeed, his salvation; for, though the woman could +not fail to remark his embarrassment, she naturally set it down to the +wrong cause, supposing merely that the butler had been trying to +corrupt him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where have you been all day?" she cried roughly, hustling him into +the house--so violently that he stumbled on the threshold. "You don't +deserve your food either," she continued, shaking him fiercely, +"playing truant all day! But you shall have it, if only to tantalize +that craven fool yonder. Where have you been, eh? You will stop at +home in future, do you hear? This is your place--inside these four +walls--until this business is over. You remember that, my lad, or it +will be the worse for you!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon Gridley and two men, whom the boy did not know, were in the +kitchen, sitting dour and silent over the remains of a meal. They +looked up on the boy's entrance, but took no further notice of him. +The woman set food before him, scolding all the while, and then went +off to her work in the back premises. The boy had little heart to eat; +but presently he found occasion while Simon was talking to the two +strangers (who were brothers, of the name of Edgington, ex-troopers +and weavers of Bradford) to secrete part of his meal inside his +jacket. Mistress Gridley, when she came back, looked sharply at what +he had left; but the boy had eaten so little that her suspicions were +not aroused, and she flounced away with the platter, bidding him +remain indoors and sit where he was.</p> + +<p class="normal">She had scarcely gone when Luke entered and joined the party by the +window, and there ensued much solemn jubilation over the morning's +work and the peculiar judgments vouchsafed to the neighborhood; and +particularly over the reported arrival at Ripon of Lieutenant-General +Cromwell, with forces which might be trusted to give a good account of +the Scotch army. Jack, sitting trembling on a stool in a corner of the +fireless chimney-place, heard their sanguine predictions and +shuddered. He knew Cromwell by name, and dimly associated him with +Marston Moor, and the sad night which had seen his father ride home to +die. The kitchen grew to the lad's eyes as he listened full of dark +shadows and forebodings of fate. The men who loomed between him and +the window seemed to increase in size. Only the purpose he had in his +mind, and the necessity of action if he would pursue it, saved him +from breaking down and bursting into childish weeping.</p> + +<p class="normal">By dint of fixing his mind on this, however, he steadied himself; and +by-and-by, choosing a moment when the talk was loud, stole across the +room to a tub in which the oatcake was kept. Ordinary the lid lay +loose upon it: now, to his huge disappointment, he found it locked! +Baffled, and more than half inclined to cry, he wandered back to his +place and resumed his seat on the floor, affecting to be engaged in +playing with two billets of wood. In reality his thoughts were keenly +at work. The cheese and cake he had secreted were scarcely worth +carrying to his brother. Where could he get more?</p> + +<p class="normal">It occurred to him at last that, failing everything else, raw oatmeal +might be of use. Inspired by the thought, he rose and sauntered round +three sides of the room until he reached the chest. Pretending to play +about it he presently tried the lid, and to his joy found it +unfastened. He raised it cautiously an inch or two, and thrusting his +hand in found the wooden bowl which was used for measuring the meal. +He filled this, and withdrew it successfully. Then he let the lid fall +without noise.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had still to escape unseen with his plunder, but the men were so +busily engaged in talk that he feared no interruption from them, and +Mistress Gridley was neither to be heard nor seen. He moved towards +the back door, opened it, and slipped outside, holding the bowl under +the skirt of his jacket. The afternoon sun shone in his eyes, and for +a moment he stood blinking like an owl in the daylight, so great was +the change from the cool, sombre kitchen. Softly he advanced a step. +Before he could take another, a heavy hand fell on his shoulder, and +Mistress Gridley had him in her clutch.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You little thief!" she screamed, her voice shrill with savage +triumph, "I have caught you, have I? You thought to deceive me, did +you? To deceive me, you little ninny? What is this, eh? Whose is +this?" she repeated, grasping the child's wrist, and forcing him to +hold up the little bowl of meal which his fingers still gripped +mechanically. "Whose is this, eh? Is it yours? This way, my little +thief; this way!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She dragged him into the kitchen, and exulting in her own sharpness, +told the men, who had risen at the sound of her outcry, how she had +caught him. "He thought himself clever," she continued, shaking him to +and fro without mercy, "but he was not clever enough for me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What did he want with the meal?" one of the strangers asked +suspiciously. "It looks to me very much as if----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?" Mistress Gridley asked rudely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As if the malignant who gave us the slip this morning were hid here, +and had employed this boy to get him food."</p> + +<p class="normal">The woman sniffed contemptuously. "Stuff and rubbish!" she said. "The +meal is for the cowardly sneak who brought the boy here. He is +outside, on short commons," she continued, laughing without mirth.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I met him going down to Settle," Luke said briefly. "Ay, but the +child did not know he was gone," she answered with confidence. "The +child did not know it, do you see? But I will make him know enough not +to steal again, the little thief!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The men nodded in stern approval. "Open me that closet door," Mistress +Gridley continued, pointing with her unoccupied hand to a cupboard +made in the thickness of the wall beside the chimney, and used in +winter for storing wood. "I will lock him up there for the present. It +is nice and dark. He may keep the oatmeal, and when he has finished +it, but not before, we will see about finding him some other food. In +with you!" she continued, dragging the boy forcibly to the place; "the +beetles will keep you company!" and pushing him in, she closed the +door and locked it upon him.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far the boy had neither spoken nor resisted. But finding the door +closed on him inexorably, and the horrors of the black closet round +him--horrors which a child alone can thoroughly comprehend--he flung +himself, shrieking loudly, against the door. He beat on it with his +hands, he kicked it, he cried frantically to be let out. The woman +listened and laughed cruelly. "It is as good as beating him, and less +labor," she said. "Take no heed of him, and he will soon tire of +shouting."</p> + +<p class="normal">The men laughed too--the boy was a thief--and went back to their talk, +while the woman sat down to her wheel. The child's cries were music to +her ears; and yet she was ill at ease. The butler had gone down to +Settle, had he? What if he had visited a certain place among the +yew-trees before going, and dug a little? She did not think he +would have had the courage to play her such a trick. Still it was +possible--it was possible, and she longed for night that she might go +to the place and have the assurance of her own eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a time the boy raved and beat the door, his fear increased by that +sense of physical oppression which children, and many who are not +children, experience when shut up in a confined space without the +power of freeing themselves. By-and-by, however, as the woman had +predicted, he grew calmer. He had a talisman which availed, when the +first paroxysm had spent itself, to keep selfish terrors at a +distance; and that was the thought of his brother. In proportion as +his sobs grew feebler his brain grew clearer. Anxiety on Frank's +account took the place of fear for himself. Crouching beside the door +with his ear laid against it, he drew such comfort from the murmur of +voices and the thin line of light which marked the threshold, that he +grew almost content with his position. He was safe from further +punishment. Only there was his brother. He pictured Frank waiting and +looking for him, waiting and looking in vain for the food which did +not come! And this fancy causing his tears to flow again, in the +middle of a stifled sob he fell asleep.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">TREASURE TROVE.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When he awoke and found himself in darkness, he could not for a time +understand where he was. The line of light which had comforted him was +gone, and with it the homely sounds of kitchen life. He stretched his +sore limbs in the darkness and shivered, looking timidly for the +outline of a window. Finding none, he put out his hand to feel for his +bedfellow, and lit instead on the rough surface of the door, against +which he had sunk down in his sleep until only his head rested upon +it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The touch recalled everything to the boy's mind. With a low whimper of +alarm he sat up, and crouching against the door, which seemed some +kind of company, listened, holding his breath. All was still in the +house, and he presently comprehended that it was night and that the +family had gone to bed, leaving him there.</p> + +<p class="normal">Use and sleep had rendered him in a way familiar with his prison, and +he did not on making this discovery break into any loud wailing. +Instead, he huddled himself with a moan into as small a space as +possible, and not daring to put out his hand again lest it should rest +on some horror, some crawling thing or clammy hand, he tried with all +his might to go to sleep. He was dozing off and had almost succeeded, +when a slight noise aroused him. In a moment a light shone under the +door.</p> + +<p class="normal">He scrambled eagerly to his feet, and tapped softly. "Gridley!" he +whispered, "Gridley! Is that you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">No one answered, but the bearer of the light seemed to pause in the +middle of the floor as if struck by a sudden thought. Then Jack heard +the bolts of the outer door withdrawn, and even in his closet felt a +rush of cold air. Some one was going out!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gridley! Gridley!" he cried desperately. "Let me out, will you? +Please let me out."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Gridley, if Gridley it was, took no heed. The light disappeared, +and Jack heard the door close as softly as it had been opened.</p> + +<p class="normal">He sat down, whimpering and wondering. The use of candles was so +uncommon in that house that he could not remember to have once seen +one lighted, though he knew that a lanthorn hung behind the kitchen +door. Who then was this who used them, and went in and out by night +with a foot fall which scarcely broke the stillness? The lad felt his +hair move and his skin creep as he crouched trembling in the darkness. +Then, on a sudden, he heard the door creak afresh and the footstep +return--the same stealthy, cautious footstep, it seemed to him, which +he had heard before. But this time there was no light.</p> + +<p class="normal">None the less was he sure that some one was now standing in the middle +of the floor, within a yard or two of his place of confinement. His +ears, strained to the utmost, caught the sound of hurried breathing +close to him, and besides he had that ill-defined sense of another's +presence which we are all apt to feel. Terrified as he was, he still +clung desperately to the idea that it was Gridley, and he called the +man's name again, his voice shaking with fear. To his surprise he this +time got an answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" some one muttered in the darkness. "Who is that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is I--Jack," the boy cried joyfully "Please to let me out."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where are you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am locked in the closet by the fireplace, Gridley."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush! Is the key in the door?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think so!" Jack answered desperately. "Oh, please, please let me +out."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was the sound of a hand being passed over the door, as if some +one unacquainted with it, and uncertain on which side it opened, were +groping for the fastening. It seemed an age to the boy before the key +grated suddenly in the lock and the door yielded, and he felt the cold +air rush in. For a moment he still hung back.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it you, Gridley?" he whispered timidly, putting out his hand and +trying to pierce the darkness, which was scarcely less dense in the +kitchen than in the closet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, it is I--Frank!" his brother's voice answered. And thereon a hand +seized him roughly by the shoulder and drew him out. "I must have +food--food!" the voice hissed in his ear. "Don't waste a moment, lad, +but tell me where it is kept. The woman is outside digging among the +trees--heaven knows on what witch's errand! She may return at any +moment. Where is the food kept?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The harsh, fierce note in his brother's voice did more than any words +to persuade the boy of the necessity of haste. Collecting his senses +as well as he could, he answered, "Will oatmeal do, Frank?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Better than nothing," was the answer. "Where is the tub? Lead me to +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack felt his way to the chest, and found it; to his joy it was still +unfastened. His brother rapidly took out several handfuls and thrust +them into his pouch. "Have you no cheese, oatcake, nothing else, lad?" +he muttered.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack remembered the scraps of cheese and cake which he still carried +in the bosom of his jacket, and gave them into the other's hand. "Now +I am off," Frank muttered on the instant. "I can do with this until +to-morrow night. If the woman finds me here I must do her a mischief, +and I do not want to. So good-night, lad!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He glided hurriedly away, leaving the child standing in the middle of +the floor. Jack heard him go, and heard the door open and shut; and +still stood listening, wondering whether it was all a dream, or his +brother had really been and was gone. Assured at length that he had +had to do with reality, he wondered what course he ought to take +himself. He had no mind to go back to his former prison, in comparison +with which his hard bed upstairs seemed the height of comfort; and so +he presently crept to the closet door, and turned the key, and then +felt his way up to his room. Gridley was not there, but this troubled +him little. He threw off his clothes in a hurry, and in a moment was +in bed, where he lay listening with all his ears. He heard Mistress +Gridley come back, and detected the sound of the key as she turned it +in the outer door. He trembled lest she should come up to look for +him, but nothing of the kind happened; and while he still listened, +the fatigues of the day proved too much for him and he fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was broad day, and the sun had been up for hours, and the house +astir as many, when he awoke in his bed and found three people gazing +at him. Instinctively at sight of their faces he began to cry, +expecting a blow, or to be roughly plucked up and upbraided for his +laziness. But no blow came, nor did either of the three persons who +looked at him with eyes of such astonishment and perplexity offer to +touch him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are sure that the door was really locked?" one of the men was +saying when he awoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Am I sure that you stand there?" the woman answered tartly. "Am I one +to make a mistake of that kind?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon Gridley shook his head. "I remember now," he muttered, "that I +tried the door myself. It was locked sure enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And it was locked this morning," Mistress Gridley added.</p> + +<p class="normal">Luke's eyes, always wild, glittered with excitement. It was difficult +to believe that he saw or could see anything except helplessness in +the child who quaked and shrank before them: but so it was. "There are +those whom locks will not bind, but they shall be bound on the Great +Day!" he said in a hollow voice; "of such it is written, 'These sholl +ye make to cease from the earth!'"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tut tut!" Simon answered sternly. "This is folly. What does the lad +say himself? Who let him out?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, who let you out, you imp of Satan?" the woman cried fiercely.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the boy discerned that, with all her fierceness, panic and terror +possessed her; and it was this evidence of an evil conscience which +inspired him to answer as he did, "A woman came down stairs with a +light in a lanthorn," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">The men stared and waited for more, but the woman recoiled with a pale +face. "You little liar!" she cried hoarsely. "What woman? What woman +is there here?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy shook his head. "I did not see her face," he said, "but she +came down with a lanthorn."</p> + +<p class="normal">Mistress Gridley gasped. The boy knew something, but she could not +tell how much. And then beyond this doubt lay the mystery, which was +as much of a mystery to her as to the others, how he came to be here +instead of in the locked cupboard.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bring the lanthorn!" Simon Gridley exclaimed on a sudden. "We can see +if it has been lately used, at any rate; and so far test his story."</p> + +<p class="normal">His wife went for it. When she returned with it, it was empty. "There +is no candle in it," she said sullenly. "The boy is a liar."</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon took it from her hand and thrust his nose into the opening. +"Softly, woman," he said. "It has been used within the week. Come, +boy," he continued sharply, "who opened the door for you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I saw no one," the child answered with tears. "There was a woman with +a lanthorn. But I saw no one when the door was opened!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon glared at him impatiently, and raised his hand as if he were +minded to try if a little correction would not render his account more +intelligible; but Luke, breaking in with one of his fierce rhapsodies, +called off his brother's attention, and the three, without further +questioning, went downstairs to discuss the matter there. Simon alone, +however, was able to do so with any degree of coolness and judgment; +for though the woman did not altogether agree with Luke's +interpretation, or find his gloomy fancies convincing, she had more +substantial reasons than either of the others for fearing and hating +the child: and no more notion than they had how he had contrived to +free himself from the closet in which she had placed him. That riddle +she could not read; and the longer she considered it, the darker grew +her thoughts and suspicions, until nothing, not even Luke's sombre +theory, seemed too strange or too improbable for belief. Conscience +makes not only cowards of us all, but the most credulous of cowards.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack would scarcely have escaped further examination but for the +return of the butler; who brought such news as not only broke up the +family council, but caused the bearer to be taken back into +fellowship. The main road westward to Clitheroe and Preston crossed +the moor not far from the house. He came to say that the advanced +guard of the Parliamentary army was even then passing along it. Simon +and Luke, with the Edgingtons, who arrived at the moment, hurried off +on the instant to a sight than which none could be better calculated +to fill their stern breasts with joy. This left Mistress Gridley and +the butler together, and they had so much to say to one another that +the boy, stealing timidly downstairs, found himself ignored, and, +seizing the opportunity, slipped out on his own account at the back of +the house. Taking every precaution he could think of to avoid notice, +he passed through the yew-trees, and reached the mouth of the rift in +safety.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here he waited a little, sitting on the ground, and presently Frank +came to him. "Are you quite sure you are not followed, lad?" he said, +glancing warily round.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack replied that he was, and brought out a little food which he had +managed to secrete. Then he told his brother what he had heard about +the march of Cromwell's army. "They say the main body will pass +to-morrow," he added.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Preston way, do you say?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes."</p> + +<p class="normal">Frank's face grew dark and thoughtful. "If he is in strength he will +take them by surprise," he muttered. "What does he number, I wonder? +Has he got only Ashton and the western Presbyterians, or is his +southern army with him? If I knew, I would get across the moors at all +risks, and take the news. But it would not do to go with wolf in one's +mouth, and be called a fool and a croaker for pay!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They talk of twenty-five thousand men passing to-morrow," Jack said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If that be true, and the Duke be marching, as he was marching three +days back, with his head a score of miles from his tail, he will be +cut in two as surely as he lives!" Frank cried with an oath. He +started up and began to pace the hollow, three steps this way and +three that, while Jack watched him eagerly. Four-and-twenty hours of +skulking had not improved the fugitive's appearance. He was hatless +and had lost his sword. His face was caked with dust and sweat, his +clothes were frayed and stained with blood. He had torn off part of +one sleeve to bind his head, and this, with his unshaven chin and +haggard eyes, contributed to his wild and desperate appearance.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet the boy looked at him with pure admiration. The lad felt himself a +man by reason of the share he had in his perils. The younger brother +longed to help the elder. "You can see the road from the lower moor," +he said eagerly; "that is no more than a mile from here. Could you not +go there and see them pass, Frank, and then go to the Duke?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Could I see them pass in these clothes?" Frank answered, with a +bitter smile. "True, I am not much like a cavalier, but I am not much +like a Parliament man either! I should have the cry raised on me +before I was a mile across the moor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I forgot that," the boy said despondently. "Yet it would be a great +thing to warn Duke Hamilton, Frank, would it not? Do you think he will +be beaten if you cannot reach him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The elder brother nodded gloomily, standing still and gazing at the +ground. The sides of the rift rose high above them, for the place +where Jack had seated himself to wait lay close to the yew wood, where +the fissure at its first starting from the ravine was deepest. They +had little to fear from observation; and familiarity with danger so +early breeds contempt that Frank fancied he had been in hiding here a +week instead of a day, and felt a proportionate confidence in his +lurking place. The sun lay hot on the moor: the shadow where the two +stood was cool and pleasant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I suppose I could not do it," Jack said at last, humbly, and as one +expecting a rebuff. "I am afraid I could not count well enough, Frank; +but I will try, if you like."</p> + +<p class="normal">His brother looked at him with a sudden light in his face. "You?" he +said. "I never thought of that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But he began to think of it; and as he thought, his face bore witness +to the struggle which was passing in his mind. The lad beside him was +a mere child; the risk to which he would expose him was such that a +grown man might shun it without shame. And the boy was not a child +only, but his own brother--one who had a claim upon him and a right to +expect at his hands peculiar care and protection.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg108.png" alt="Page 108"><br> +But he began to think of it.--Page 108.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He knew, in a word, that he was not justified in exposing the child to +the risk he meditated. But on the other side lay inclination and more +than one cunning argument. The prospect of turning defeat into +victory, and building on misfortune a claim to gratitude shone +brightly before him. He saw himself the saviour of the army, thanked, +honored, and exalted by men who had lately looked coldly on him. And +then again was it not the duty of every subject, young and old, to +dare all for the King; to think nothing which aided him dishonorable, +nor any danger by which he might profit excessive? In some such creed +he had been brought up, and it came to his help at this moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not see why you should not do it," he said slowly and +thoughtfully. "You would run less risk after all than a grown man, and +be subject to less suspicion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Only I don't think I could count--not thousands," said Jack +despondently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is easily managed," Frank answered with a slight frown. "But you +had better not do it if you are afraid."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not afraid," Jack said, with a flushed face. "It is only the +counting, Frank."</p> + +<p class="normal">Frank nodded and stood awhile in doubt, twisting a bit of fern to and +fro between his fingers. "If they caught you doing it they might--I do +not know what they would do to you, Jack, lad," he said at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not mind," the boy cried bravely. "It is for the King, is it +not, Frank?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It might put him on the throne again, might it not, Frank?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It might," said Frank. "But----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What?" the boy asked, his face falling at the word.</p> + +<p class="normal">Frank did not answer. The child's loyalty and courage touched him +almost to the point of giving way. For a moment it was on his tongue +and in his mind to refuse the offer. But then his own past error +stepped in his way. The temptation to turn the tables by a dazzling +success on those who had blamed him for his breach of parole--the +still greater temptation to justify the breach by showing, at least, +that he had not sinned in vain, overcame him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You think you could do it, lad?" he said at last--instead of that +which he had meant to say.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sure I could--if I could count," Jack answered eagerly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, then, look here," Frank said. "Or wait a moment."</p> + +<p class="normal">He began to search up and down the rift until he came upon two pieces +of wood, one a foot long or something less, the other half as long. He +trimmed them with his knife, and then cutting off one of the points +which fastened his breeches at the knee, tied the two sticks together +with it in such a way that they became a rude cross. He put it into +Jack's hands, and gave him his knife also. "Now," he said, "look here! +The thing I want you to notice first and foremost, lad, is the number +of guns. For every cannon, Jack, cut a nick on this long piece. Do you +see, Jack? For a regiment of foot cut a notch on the right arm. They +will pass by in regiments, probably with a space between, for they +have discipline enough to suit old Leslie, and so you will have no +trouble with them. The horse you will not count easily, and may not be +exact with them. Still, notch them on the other arm as well as you +can, troop by troop. If you get the cannon and foot regiments right, I +shall be able to guess the horse pretty nearly."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And then shall I bring it to you?" Jack said, gazing with childish +pleasure at his new plaything.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, as soon as you think that they have all passed. But do not be in +a hurry. When you come, if you do not find me, leave the cross on the +bank here under the moss. Do you understand now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I understand," said Jack.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will not be the only thing hidden here," his brother continued. +"Look, lad, what do you think of that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He displaced some overhanging moss with his hand, and Jack, looking +into the crevice thus revealed, fairly gasped with surprise. "Why, +they are----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are the gold vessels from Pattenhall Church!" Frank exclaimed, +in a tone of triumph. "I have despoiled the spoilers! The woman who +came out with the light last night had them buried under yonder +tree--the one you can see at the end here. Come this way, and I will +show you! When I slipped out, fearing she might surprise me, I found +her at work covering something up with a spade. I watched her go, and +then as soon as it was light I tried my luck there. I found these +little matters tied up in a napkin."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you took them?" Jack said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Took them? Of course I took them. I put three stones in the napkin in +place of them, and filled up the ground neatly. And one of these days +some one will be disappointed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" said Jack, raising his hand quickly. "What is that?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">DEAD SEA APPLES.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The two had advanced without thought to the foot of the tree which +Frank had indicated, and in doing so had quitted the shelter of the +rift, from which an open space a dozen yards in width now separated +them. The deep shade of the yew-tree which stretched its arms above +them still afforded some protection, the glare of the sun on the +moorland intensifying its gloom and blackness. But such protection was +partial only; it could not avail against persons approaching the tree +closely.</p> + +<p class="normal">The horror of the two may be imagined, therefore, when they awoke +suddenly to this fact, and to the conviction that some one was +approaching--nay, was already near. Before Jack's muttered warning had +well been uttered, the sharp crack of a stick, broken under foot, and +the tones of voices drawing each moment nearer placed the danger +beyond dispute.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the brothers stood as still as stones, the man's face +growing hard and stern as he listened and comprehended too late the +reckless folly he had committed in leaving a secure hiding-place at +that time of the day. His eyes traveled from the boy's, in which he +read a pitiful alarm more overmastering if less intense than his own, +to the space which separated him from the rift and from safety. Alas! +he measured it with a despairing eye. A moment before he could have +passed that interval at a bound, and at will; now he recognized with +an inward groan that the attempt was hopeless. A single step in that +direction must place him at once in full view of those who were +approaching.</p> + +<p class="normal">Would they stop short of the tree which hid him? That seemed his only +chance. He set his teeth together, and gripped Jack's shoulder hard as +he listened, and heard them still come on--come on and come nearer. +His brain sought desperately for some way, some plan of escape. At the +last moment, when all seemed lost, and less than a score of paces now +lay between him and the newcomers, he hit upon one which might +possibly help him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is that woman!" he hissed in Jack's ear. "Lie down and pretend to +be asleep! Take their attention for a moment only, and I may slip +round this tree and reach another."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack, poor lad, was almost paralyzed with terror, but he understood; +and he found one part of his instructions easy enough to execute. His +knees were already so weak under him with fear and excitement that he +sank to the ground under the pressure of his brother's hand, with +scarce any volition of his own; and crouching in the shadow with his +knees drawn up to his chin, remained motionless with dismay.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment after reaching the spot, Mistress Gridley and the butler +did not see him. The boy sat deep in the shadow, and the sun shone in +their eyes as they crossed from one tree to another, and from that +one to the farthest of all. The butler had even begun the argument +afresh--they had been disputing about the removal of the treasure--and +had stuck his spade into the ground that he might lean upon it while +he talked, when he espied the pale face shining in the gloom beside +the trunk, and started with affright. "Ha!" he exclaimed in a high +tone, "what is that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The woman started too. Her mind was ill at ease; and it was strange +that the child should have chosen that particular square yard of +ground to sit upon. But she recovered herself more quickly. "You +little brat!" she cried, peering at him with her eyes shaded, "what +are you doing here? Be off! Go to the house, and stay there till I +come, do you hear?"</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg118.png" alt="Page 118"><br> +"What is that!"--Page 118.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The child did not move.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you hear, you little booby?" she repeated angrily. "Get up and be +off before I give you something to remember me by!" As she spoke, she +advanced a step nearer to him and raised her hand to strike him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still the child did not move: and the woman's hand fell harmless by +her side. The peculiar pallor of the boy's face, a pallor heightened +by the shade in which he sat, his immobility, the strangeness of his +attitude and position, above all the fixed glare of his eyes, had +their effect upon her, scared and impressed as she already was by his +unexplained delivery from the closet. She hesitated and fell back a +step.</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler, who knew nothing of the closet episode, attributed the +move to prudence. "Soft and easy," he muttered approvingly, "or he +may suspect something. It is odd he should be here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Suspect!" the woman answered with a shiver; for when a strong nature +gives way to panic, the rout is complete. "I doubt he knows. The child +is not canny," she added, staring at him in an odd, shrinking fashion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler was at all times a coward, and without understanding the +woman's reasons he felt the influence of her fear. "Not canny!" he +said uneasily; "why, what is the matter with him? Hi, Jack, my boy, +what are you doing here?" he continued, addressing the lad with a poor +attempt at good-fellowship. "Are you ill, or what is it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy did not move.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gridley advanced gingerly towards him, as a timid man approaches a +strange dog. When he came near, however, and saw that it really was +the boy, little Jack Patten whom he had known from his birth, the +assurance made him laugh at the woman's fears. "Come, get up, lad," he +said roughly; "get up and go and play!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He seized Jack by the collar and raised him to his feet. "Jump, lad, +jump!" he said. "Be off! You will get the ague here. Go into the sun +and play!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy had shaken off his first terror. Frank, he thought, must be +safe by this time. He kept his feet therefore, but hesitated in doubt +what to do; standing, to outward view a sullen pale-faced child, +beside the dark trunk of the yew. Gridley noticed that he kept his one +hand closed, and acting on a momentary impulse asked him roughly what +he had there. The boy, without answering, opened his fingers +mechanically, disclosing three tiny whinberries which he had picked +while he talked with his brother in the rift, and had involuntarily +retained in his hand ever since. The butler struck them out of his +little palm with a disappointed "pish!" and turning him round by the +shoulder sent him off with a push. "There, go and pick some more!" he +said. "Be off! Be off!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The lad obeyed slowly, and with apparent reluctance. When he was out +of sight, Gridley, who had stepped a few paces from the tree that he +might watch him the better, returned and picked up his spade. "There, +he is gone!" he said, with an inquisitive look at the woman, whose +mood puzzled him. "And if you will have the things up, it must be +done. Let us lose no more time."</p> + +<p class="normal">He struck the spade into the ground, and began to dig, while his +companion watched him. But her face betrayed none of the greedy +excitement which had always marked it before when the treasure was in +question. Instead, it wore a look of dread and expectation. Something +like grey fear lay like a shadow upon it, and left it only when the +man stopped digging, and throwing down his spade, dragged a small +white bundle from the shallow hole he had made.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she showed at last some animation. "They <i>are</i> there," she +muttered, her eyes beginning to burn. "I fancied----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, they are here," he answered, chuckling as he stooped to unfasten +the napkin. "They are here, never fear! Safe bind safe find, you know, +my lady."</p> + +<p class="normal">Scarcely were the words out of his mouth, however, when he fell back +pale and trembling. A hideous look of disappointment and dismay took +in a moment the place of the gloating smile which had before distorted +his features. The napkin being untied disclosed three stones; no gold, +no cups, no treasure, but only three stones!</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the two stood silent and thunderstruck, gazing at the +pebbles, which in their perfect worthlessness seemed to mock them. +Then the man turned swiftly and suddenly on the woman, rage and +suspicion so transforming him, that he did not look like the same +person. "You hag!" he cried, with lips which writhed under the effort +he made to control himself. "You thieving witch! This is your work! +Where is my gold? Where is my gold, I say?" he repeated wildly. "Tell +me, or I will murder you!" And he advanced upon her, his hands opening +and shutting on the empty air.</p> + +<p class="normal">His frantic gestures and the passion of his manner might have appalled +even a brave man. But the woman, who had evinced less surprise and +more fear on making the discovery, waved him back with the purest +contempt. "Fool!" she hissed, with a flash of scorn in her eyes, "do +you think that I should have played this farce with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the gold?" he cried, cowering away from her in a moment like the +craven he was. "It is gone, woman! It is gone, you see! If you have +not taken it, who has? For heaven's sake, say you have taken it, and +hidden it somewhere else!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked darkly at him, and the look did more to persuade him she +was innocent than any words. He wrung his hands and all but wept. +"Some one has taken it," he moaned. "It is gone, and I shall never see +it again!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What brought the boy sitting here?" she muttered on a sudden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack Patten?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Mistress Gridley nodded with a strange look in her eyes. "Ay, little +Jack. And he had three whinberries in his hand," she continued in the +same hushed tone. "Look about, if you are not afraid. Find the +whinberries, and something may come of it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not understand, but he saw she was in deadly earnest; and he +was a coward, and afraid of her. "The whinberries?" he stammered, +edging a pace away from her. "What of them?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are our gold cups," she muttered between fear and rage. "The +child has bewitched them."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gridley cried out "Nonsense." But all the same he looked quickly over +his shoulder. The sun was high and gave him courage. "The child?" he +said; "why, I have known him from his birth!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Find the whinberries!" was all the answer she vouchsafed. And she +pointed imperatively to the ground. "Find them, I say, if you are not +afraid, man."</p> + +<p class="normal">He went down on his knees and began to search. But the earth he had +thrown out of the hole lay thick on the ground, and he failed to find +even one of them. He rose, and told the woman so; and she nodded as if +she had expected the answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shuddered at that. He saw her afraid, and he knew she feared few +things. Besides, she had all the influence over him which a strong +mind is sure to possess over a weak one. Seeing her afraid he grew +fearful also. Though he did not believe, he trembled. He remembered +how strangely the boy had looked at him, how obstinately he had +refused to speak, what an odd persistence he had shown in clinging to +that spot. Yet how had the boy known? How had he found the place?</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtfully he put that thought into words, and got his answer. "How +did he get out of the wood closet when I locked him in last night?" +Mistress Gridley asked contemptuously. "I left the door locked when I +went to bed, and the boy inside. I found the door locked this morning, +but the boy was in his own bed. That is not canny."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He may have taken the cups without--without that," said the butler, +glancing round him with a shiver.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then where are they?" the woman retorted swiftly. "Or do you mean +that he took them and hid them, and then came again and sat on the +place for us to find him? I tell you the lad can go through locked +doors."</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler was not convinced, but he trembled. He stood gnawing his +nails with a gloomy face, one thing only quite clear to him; that +whether the child possessed the power which the woman attributed to +him or not, it was certainly he who had taken the treasure. This +excited such a degree of rage in Gridley's mind as fear alone kept +within bounds. He longed to follow the child and force the secret and +the gold from him, and only the dread which the woman manifested kept +him from doing this on the instant. As it was, he stood undecided, +turning over in his mind all the stories he had heard of strange +powers and weird possession--stories which then filled all the +country-side, especially in lonely and ill-populated districts--and +striving to recollect whether anything in little Jack's history seemed +to bring him within the scope of these marvellous narratives.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mistress Gridley watched him for a time, but presently her patience +gave way. She bade him, fiercely, pick up the spade and come to the +house; and together the two returned, each hating the other as the +cause of a fruitless and unprofitable sin.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">THE WOODEN CROSS.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Released in a manner so much beyond his hopes, Jack lost no time in +betaking himself to the house, where he found all quiet and himself +alone in possession. He had every reason to congratulate himself on +the success of his scheme; yet he knew he was not out of the wood. +Child as he was, he saw that the woman, finding herself robbed in that +place, must lay the blame on him; and in his dread of what would +happen when the pair returned, he found it impossible to remain still +a moment, but wandered from front to back, and kitchen to stairs, +expecting yet dreading the first sound of their approach. When it came +he crouched in the chimney corner and held his breath, waiting for the +storm to break.</p> + +<p class="normal">And there the woman found him when she entered. She had not expected +to see him, and she started violently, for nothing her companion had +urged had availed in the least to shake her belief in the child's dark +powers. His pale face and huddled form and his odd and elfish +position, as she came upon him, in the shadowy corner only served to +confirm and support it. She shrank away without a word, and busied +herself at the back of the house, until the boy finding himself free +from attack took heart of grace, and little by little emerged from his +retreat.</p> + +<p class="normal">He could not understand how he had escaped suspicion and punishment, +but the fact was enough, and his spirits soon rose. He wanted no +reasons. Assured of his brother's safety, and delighted to think that +he had contributed to it, he could scarcely restrain the impulse that +would have had him hunt Frank out and share his joy with him. +Fortunately, he did restrain it, however; for during the rest of the +day he was the unconscious object of the strictest watchfulness. +Wherever he went and whatever he did, his steps were dogged and his +actions noted, though he did not perceive it himself. The woman, by an +immense effort, hid her fears, while Gridley, balanced between terrors +and fits of rage which became at times ungovernable, had the prudence +to shun the object of his hatred, and leave the task of surveillance +to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Accordingly, the child remained in perfect ignorance. He went +about his small and--to the adult mind--incomprehensible employments +in his own small fashion; playing here and there, and presently +rendering the woman's task more easy by the completeness with which he +gave himself up to rehearsing the morrow's plan. Mistress Gridley +found him continually slipping away, and as often stalked him into +corners, where she soon learned that he had something hidden about +him--something which he took out when he was alone, and put away +stealthily on her approach.</p> + +<p class="normal">The woman's covetous spirit took fire afresh at this discovery, and +for the moment overcame her fears. Her eyes began to burn, her cheek +grew hot. When he sauntered away again, she watched him secretly, and +by-and-by marked him down in a corner of the fold where the wall was +highest. There she saw him sit down with his back to the house and his +face to the wall, and, taking something, which she could not see, from +his clothes, begin to toy with it, stooping over it, and caressing it +with the utmost devotion.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not doubt that the thing he fondled in this strange fashion +was the treasure of which he had robbed her by his arts; and in a +transport of anger she slipped out of the house by the back door, and, +making a circuit, stole up to the corner, keeping on the farther side +of the wall. When she reached the place she paused and listened, +crouching low that he might not see her. The child was muttering +softly to himself--muttering some monotonous unintelligible jargon, +which in her ears could be nothing but a charm. The woman shuddered at +the thought, but still she persisted. Cautiously raising her eyes +above the level of the wall, she got a sight of the object he was +crooning over. It was neither gold nor cup nor treasure, but a +strange-looking cross of wood!</p> + +<p class="normal">Mistress Gridley shrank away, trembling in every limb. The sight +confirmed all her apprehensions. She hurried back to the house. But in +the excitement of the pursuit she had not noticed the change in the +sky, which had grown in the last few moments dark and overcast. The +first peal of the tempest, therefore, surprised her as she retreated. +Startled and affrighted, she looked up and saw the black canopy +impending over her head; with a cry, she crouched still lower, as if +she might in that way escape the wrath she had invoked. Her nerves +were so shaken that she never doubted the child had brought this +sudden storm upon her, and even when it did her no harm, when it +resolved itself into the most ordinary phenomenon and descended in +sheets of rain, while the mountains clothed themselves in mist, and +the moor streamed at a hundred pores--even then, though she had seen +such a storm a hundred times and knew its every aspect, she still +quailed. A terror of great darkness was upon her. She dared no longer +meet the child's eyes, but sat in the farthest corner of the room, +furtively watching him; while the eaves dripped outside, and the cold +light of a wet summer evening stole across the moor.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he was gone to bed and his eye withdrawn from her, she felt more +at ease. But her discomposure was still so great that Simon and Luke +must have remarked it when they returned, if they had not been +themselves full of an anxiety which occupied their minds to the +exclusion of everything else.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This rain!" Simon cried, as he shook out his dripping cloak on the +floor and turned to take a last look through the open door. "Who would +have foreseen it? Who would have foreseen it, I say, this morning? +Never did sky look better. Yet if it goes on through the night they +will scarcely get the guns over the hills by this road. The General +will be late."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It grows more heavy," Luke answered moodily, looking out over the +other's shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, and the clouds are low," Simon assented. "I never knew rain more +sudden in my life, nor, surely, more untimely. There is many a man +will be damp tonight and march the slower to-morrow. Heaven grant it +hinders the malignants also!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The wind is westerly," Luke answered shrewdly. "I doubt it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon shrugged his shoulders as sharing the doubt, and would have +closed the door. But at that moment his wife, who had already risen +from her seat, laid her hand on his arm. The hand trembled. The +woman's eyes were glittering, her cheeks white. "Simon!" she said, +peering into his face, and speaking in a tone of suppressed +excitement, "what is it--this storm? Whom does it hinder? What does it +matter? What was it you were saying about it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"What does it matter, and whom does it hinder?" the man answered +fiercely. "It hinders the Lord's work, woman! It matters to all +Christian men! It hinders guns and horses, men and wagons, that should +be at Preston to-morrow to cut off the malignant Hamilton and his +brood. In twelve hours, if this rain continues, the road to Preston +will be a quagmire, and the Philistines will laugh at us. But we must +rest content. It is the Lord's doing!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is <i>not</i> the Lord's doing!" she answered in a tone of surprising +emotion. "It is not his doing! It is Satan's!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tush!" said her husband, harshly; but he started nevertheless at her +tone. "You rave, woman!"</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg138.png" alt="Page 138"><br> +"It is not the Lord's doing!"--Page 138.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"I do not rave!" she answered, throwing up her arms wildly. "I tell +you this tempest, that you talk of--I saw it raised! This hindrance--I +saw it begotten! I--I, Simon Gridley! There is one here who can brew +the storm and hush the whirlwind! There is one here beside whom your +General is powerless!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then he must have the devil's aid indeed!" Simon answered, with a +grim chuckle. "But softly, wife, what is this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">In rapid, hurried words, rendered weighty by the terror and belief +which were in her, the woman detailed what she had seen the boy do, +and how the storm, of which the heavens had given so little warning, +had followed immediately thereon. She could not tell them all the +bases of her belief; she dared not mention the gold vessels, or the +strange scene under the yew-tree. But belief in such things is +infectious. The mystery of the locked door was still a mystery +unsolved and inexplicable. That they all knew; and nothing in the +solitary life these people had led among the fells, nothing in the +harsh, narrow creed they professed, or in their custom of literally +applying the Scriptures to everyday events, was at odds with the +conclusion that the child was possessed by an evil spirit. No one in +that day was so bold as to doubt the existence of the black art. And +if at the first glance this helpless child seemed the most unlikely of +professors, the discovery that his powers were being used against the +cause which they believed to be the cause of heaven, furnished a +probability which enabled them to dispense with the other. The men +looked in each other's faces uneasily. The light was waning, the +corners of the room were full of shadows. Those who felt no terror +felt wrath, which was near akin to it. For the woman, her eyes +flickered with hatred; which was only more intense because it was held +in check by abject fear.</p> + +<p class="normal">At length Simon, whose bold and hardy spirit alone accepted the idea +with any real reluctance, rose; they had long ago formed themselves +into a council round the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" he said, raising his hand. "The rain has stopped. What do you +say to that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">They listened and found that it was so. The eaves no longer dripped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If he is a wizard, he is a poor one," Simon continued, with a little +contempt in his tone. "But if you will have it so, see here, we will +watch him. There is a power greater than his, and in the strength of +that I do not fear him."</p> + +<p class="normal">The woman shuddered, while Luke, who was for immediate action, replied +in a wild rhapsody, quoting the priests of Baal and the witch of +Endor, the order of the law respecting magicians, and the fate of +Magus. But Simon was firm; he was not to be moved, and in the end his +proposal was accepted. The matter was thought so momentous, however, +that it was decided to consult the Edgingtons next day, and bring them +into the affair.</p> + +<p class="normal">When all was settled Simon rose, and went to the door and threw it +open. He knew that, within a circuit of a few miles from where he +stood, thousands upon thousands of soldiers were at that moment lying +under the bare heavens, without so much as a tree to cover them; and +he had a soldier's feeling for their distresses. He saw with +satisfaction, therefore, that though the clouds still hung low, in one +quarter there was a rift in them, through which the full moon was +shining out of the blue black of heaven. "It looks better," he said, +as he came in again. "It will be fine to-morrow. And there is no great +harm done yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">But, to all appearance, more rain fell during the night, for when the +household rose at daybreak, the hills were running with water, and +every little streamlet was musical. A fine drizzle filled the air, and +obscured even the nearer surface of the moor, while fog veiled the +mountains and hung like a curtain before the distant prospects. The +boy eating his porridge with the others, unconscious of the strange +glances and suspicious shrinkings of which he was the object, looked +through the window and wondered how he was to manage his counting, and +whether it would be possible to tell horse from foot. From this his +thoughts strayed to Frank. Frank must be suffering horribly in this +weather, with no roof over him, and no cloak, and no sufficient food. +At the thought Jack felt his eyes fill with tears, tears which he +would fain have hidden; but he found Simon's harsh glance upon him, +and whichever way he looked he could not escape it. He grew hot; he +changed color and trembled in his seat, and presently, feeling his +position insufferable--for he longed to think, and could not do so +under eyes which seemed to read his secrets--he rose suddenly, and +sidled from the room. He went, as he supposed, unnoticed, and without +a thought of evil seized his cap and left the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never had the moor looked more desolate; more sad and dreary and +grey-colored. Here and there a stone stood upright, peering boldly +through the rain; and here and there, where the fell rose, a whirl of +mist floated above the surface as the fog thickened and broke before a +puff of wind. The child shivered as he looked about him; and an older +heart might have quailed. But shiver or quail, he held on. He had a +purpose, and he clung to it. He knew the way to the high road, which +passed over the moor half a league from the house, and he pressed on +bravely towards it, thinking of his brother and the King, and the +service he was about to perform, until, despite the rain, his puny +frame glowed all over. The thoughts in his mind were childish enough, +the ideas he entertained of men and things as shadowy and unreal as +the fog about him. But the spirit and self-denial which supported him +were as real as any which animated the greatest man who that day +marched or fought for his cause.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even the passage of an army with horse and foot and great guns could +not in such a district draw together any large number of spectators; +and the boy, saved from immediate pursuit by the fog, found himself +free to choose his position. Avoiding a group of countryfolk who had +taken possession of a hillock which would otherwise have suited him +well, he made for a second mound that rose a hundred paces farther on, +and seemed also to overlook the road. Climbing to the top of this, he +sat down in the damp bracken to wait for the troops.</p> + +<p class="normal">A sutler or two passed presently below him, some straggling horsemen, +a few knots of yokels bent on satisfying their curiosity. But the day +was four hours old before the measured tramp of hoofs and the murmur +of many voices, the clang of steel, and hoarse cries of command +thrilled the child with the consciousness that the time was come. +Trembling with excitement, he peered over the edge of the mound. The +rain had ceased for a while. There was some show of clearing in the +air. The sun which had broken through the clouds struck full on the +head of the column, as it came on slowly and majestically, in a frame +of steaming mist; cuirass and helmet, spur and scabbard, flashing and +sparkling in the white glare.</p> + +<p class="normal">These were the horsemen who had stemmed the pride of Rupert and +shattered the Cavaliers. The boy looked and looked at them, looked +until the last man--a grave sergeant with a book at his belt--had +ridden by him. Then he remembered himself with a sigh, and quickly +drawing out his cross, cut six nicks upon it, for the six troops of +horse which had formed the column.</p> + +<p class="normal">After these, three regiments of foot passed; stern, war-worn men, +muddy and travel-stained, in buff coats, and with long pikes trailing +behind them. Then more troops of horse, whom he duly nicked, and then +some tumbrils, which at first the boy took for guns, but afterwards +perceived to be laden with ammunition. On all these the sun shone, not +cheerfully but with a stern glare, which seemed confined to that part +of the moor, so that they passed before the boy in a vision as it +were, and he notched them off in a dream. It was strange to stand so +near these thousands of marching men, to hear the murmur of their +multitudinous voices, and the tramp of their feet, and yet to be apart +from them and unheeded by them. For they passed in perfect order, no +man stepping out of the ranks; so that at last the boy took courage +and rose to his feet under their eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">When the tumbrils had passed the sun went in, and three regiments of +musketeers came up, marching on one another's heels, with the rain and +storm gathering about them, and the men grumbling at the weather. The +boy notched them off, and watching for the great guns (of which none +had passed), walked from end to end of his little platform, scanning +the road. More than one of the men who plashed along beneath him +noticed the strange figure of the boy moving against the sky.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the fog, through which he loomed larger than life, distorted his +gestures. He seemed at times to be cursing the men below him, and at +times to be raising his hands to heaven in their behalf. The troopers +who remarked his strange figure perched above them, looked on +indifferently, neither heeding nor understanding. Not so all who had +their eyes at that moment upon him. The watcher was also the watched; +and presently, when the rain had set in steadily once more, and the +mist had grown so thick that he despaired of finishing his count where +he was, and thought of descending into the road, a sudden end was put +to his calculations. Something rose up behind him and dashed him +violently to the ground. Stunned and terrified, the child clung, even +in his fall, to the precious cross; in a moment it was wrenched from +him. He cried out wildly for help, but instantly a cloak was flung +over his head, and blind, and breathless, he felt himself raised from +the ground. Some one tied his hands at the wrists and his feet at the +ankles; then he felt himself carried hastily off. He could scarcely +breathe, he could not struggle, he could not see. He could not even +guess what had happened to him.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">A STRANGE TRIAL.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">For some distance he felt himself carried across a man's shoulder. +Then another man took him up and carried him on more briskly. His head +hung down, the cloak covered his face tightly; he felt himself at +times far on the way to suffocation. But, gagged and bound as he was, +he could neither cry out nor help himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The shortest journey taken under such circumstances must needs seem +endless, and so this one seemed to the child. He long remembered it; +but at last it did come to an end, with all its misery and +terror--things not to be described in words. His bearer stopped. He +heard voices, and the hollow sound of steps on a stone floor. He was +set on his feet, and the cloak roughly removed from his head. He +looked about him dazed. To his intense surprise and astonishment he +found himself standing in the middle of the kitchen at the farmhouse. +There was the settle; there was the table at which he had eaten his +morning porridge!</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the sight filled him with excess of joy. In the instant +of recognition the familiar surroundings, the things and faces to +which, meagre and harsh as they were, he had grown accustomed, brought +blessed relief to the child's mind. He uttered Gridley's name with a +sob of joy, and tried to move towards him. But his hands and feet were +still bound, and he lost his balance and fell forward on the floor.</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon Gridley, amid perfect silence, advanced and took him up and set +him in a chair. The other five, four men and a woman, stood round the +table looking at him. Each held a bible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Between fright and perplexity, and the hurt of his fall, the boy began +to cry. Still, no one spoke to him. He stopped crying.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then at last the strange way they looked at him, the strange silence +they kept, went to the boy's heart. He cried no longer, but he looked +from one to the other, terrified by the fierce glare in their eyes. +"Gridley," he said faintly; "Gridley, what is it, please?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler, at the sound of his voice, sank down pale and trembling on +the meal chest. The woman shrank before his eye. But the four men met +his look with stern, pitiless faces and set lips. It was Simon who +spoke. "We have taken him in the act," he said, in a low, impassive +voice. "What shall we do with him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ye shall make him to cease!" Luke answered, in the monotonous tone of +one repeating a form. "He comes of an accursed brood, and he is in +league with the father of curses, whose child he is! He would have +bewitched the Lord General and his army with his enchantments. We have +seen it with our eyes. What need have we of further evidence?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Simon Gridley thought otherwise. "Stand forward, woman," he said, +disregarding his brother's last remark. "Say what you saw yesterday."</p> + +<p class="normal">The woman, amid that strange silence, began to speak in a low voice. +The rain was still falling, and the eaves dripped outside. The cold +light which found its way into the room showed her white to the lips. +But she told without faltering her tale of the storm which had fallen +on the moor when the child rubbed the cross; and no one doubted it, +any more than, to do her justice, she doubted it herself. For was she +not confirmed by the presence of the cross itself, which lay in the +middle of the table for all to see! They looked at it with horror, +never doubting that the knots were devil's knots, that the wood of +which it was formed came from no earthly tree.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meantime the child, terrified by the stern, harsh faces and the +glances of unintelligible abhorrence which met him wherever he looked, +had no wit to understand the charge made against him. He knew only +that the cross had something to do with it--that it was the cross at +which they all looked; and he supposed from this that his brother was +in danger. For his simple soul this was enough. He seemed to be in a +dreadful dream. He cried and trembled, sobbing, while they spoke, like +the child he was. But his mind was made up. He would be cut to pieces, +but he would never let Frank's name pass his lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hence, when one of the Edgingtons, who had met Master Matthew Hopkins, +the great witch-finder, and would fain have probed the matter further +with such skill as he fancied he had acquired, adjured him solemnly to +speak and say where he got the cross, the child was silent; so +obstinately silent that it was plain he could have told something if +he would.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is mute of malice," Simon said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is mute of the devil!" Luke answered fiercely. "What need of talk +when we saw him with our own eyes rule the storm? And it rains still. +It rains, and will 'rain,' until his power is broken."</p> + +<p class="normal">This monstrous idea seemed to his hearers in no way incredible. The +belief in witchcraft and in demoniacal possession of every kind had +reached its height in England about this time, when men's minds, +released from the wholesome leading-strings of custom and the church, +evinced a natural proneness to run into all manner of extremes. Had +the child been a woman, his fate had been sealed on the spot, the +popular fancy attributing the black art to that sex in particular. But +the fact that he was a boy was so far abnormal, that it stuck in the +throat of the Edgington who had spoken before. "Has he any mark upon +him?" he asked.</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg156.png" alt="Page 156"><br> +He is mute of malice.--Page 156.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The woman replied, almost in a whisper, that he had a black mole on +his left shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it a common mark?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head without speaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">Luke waited for no more. "This is folly!" he cried wildly. "What need +have we of signs? We have seen. Bolts and bars will not hold him, nor +will water receive him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is to be seen!" Edgington answered quickly. "There is a pool +below. Let us make trial of him there, Master Gridley. If the lad +sinks, well and good. If he will not sink, well and good also. We +shall know what to do with him."</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon nodded sternly. "Good," he said; "let it be so."</p> + +<p class="normal">But this the boy had still the sense to understand. A vision of the +dark bog pool sullenly lipping the rocks which fringed its shores +flashed before his childish eyes. In a second the full horror of the +fate which threatened him burst upon him, and those eyes grew large +with terror. The color left his face. He tried to rise, he tried to +frame the word Gridley, he tried to ask for mercy. He could not. Fear +had deprived him of the power of speech, and he could only look. But +his look was one to melt the heart of any save a fanatic.</p> + +<p class="normal">Gridley the butler was no fanatic, and though he was a bad man he was +not inhuman. Something in the boy's piteous look went straight to his +heart. He alone of those present, though he never doubted the +existence of witchcraft, doubted the boy's guilt, for he alone had +known him all his life, and could see nothing unfamiliar in him. He +remembered him a baby, prattling and crawling, and playing like any +other baby; and despite himself--for there was nothing noble or brave +in the man--he stepped forward and interposed between Simon and his +victim.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have known the child all his life," he said hoarsely. "He has been +as other children, Simon."</p> + +<p class="normal">His brother looked at him coldly. "Is he as other children to-day?" he +said, and he pointed to the cross on the table.</p> + +<p class="normal">The butler, thus challenged, made as if he would take up the talisman. +But at the last moment, when his hand was near it, his heart failed +him. He doubted, he was a coward, and he drew back. "He was always as +other children," he muttered again, hopelessly, helplessly. "I have +known him from his birth."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well," Simon answered, with pitiless logic. "We shall see +presently if he is as other children now. The water will show."</p> + +<p class="normal">He stepped towards the boy as he spoke, but Jack saw him coming, and +reading his fate in the grim, unrelenting looks which everywhere met +his eyes, screamed loudly. The child was fast bound, and could not +fly, but bound as he was he managed to fling himself on the floor, and +lay there screaming. Simon plucked him up roughly, and looked round +for something to muffle his cries. "The cloak!" he said hurriedly--the +noise discomposed him. "The cloak!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Luke went to fetch it from the dresser on which it had been laid, but +before he could bring it, the boy on a sudden stopped screaming, and +stiffened himself in Simon's arms. "I will tell," he cried wildly. +"Let me go! Let me go, and I will tell."</p> + +<p class="normal">The man was astonished, as were they all. But he set the boy back in +the chair, and took his hands off him, and stood waiting, with a stern +light in his eyes, to hear this devil's tale.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment the boy lay huddled up and panting, with his lips apart, +and the sweat on his flushed brow. He had said--with the man's hands, +on him and the black water before his eyes--that he would tell. But as +he crouched there, getting his breath, and looking from one to another +like a frightened animal, thoughts of his brother whom he must betray, +thoughts of devotion and love, all childish but all living, surged +through his brain. The men and the woman waited, some sternly curious, +and some in fear; but the boy remained dumb. He had conquered his +terror. He was learning that what men suffer for others is no +suffering.</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon lost patience at last. "Speak!" he cried, "or to the water!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The boy eyed him trembling, but remained silent. "Give him a little +more time," said one of the other men.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, hurry him not," said Luke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He has had time enough," Simon retorted. "He is but playing with us."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet he left him a little longer, while all stood round and looked, +greedy to hear with their own ears one of those strange confessions of +witchcraft, which, whether they had their origin in delusion or in +some interested motive, were not uncommon in the England of that day. +But the child, though his breath came quick and fast, and his heart +throbbed like the heart of a little bird, and he feared unspeakably, +remained obstinately silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Enough!" Simon cried at last, his patience utterly exhausted; "he is +dumb. We shall get nothing from him here. Let us see what the water +will do for him. Luke, the cloak!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack controlled his fears until the man's hands were actually upon +him. Then instinct prevailed, and in despair he gave way to shriek +upon shriek, so that the house rang with the pitiful outcry. "The +cloak!" Simon cried impatiently, looking this way and that for it, +while the butler turned pale at the sounds. "That is better; now open +the door."</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the Edgingtons went towards it, but when he was close to it, +stopped on a sudden and held up his hand. The gesture was one of +warning, but it came too late; for before those behind could profit by +it, or do more than surmise what it meant, the door shook under a +heavy knock, and a hand outside lifted the latch. The neighing of +horses and the sound of hoofs trampling the stones of the fold gave +the party some idea what they had to expect; but late also, for ere +Simon could lay down the child, or Edgington move from his position, +the door was thrown wide open. Half a dozen figures appeared on the +threshold, and one detatching itself from the crowd strode in with an +air of sturdy authority.</p> + +<p class="normal">The person who thus put himself forward was a middle-aged man of good +height, strongly and squarely made. His reddish face and broad, +massive features were shaded by a wide-leaved hat, in the band of +which a little roll of papers was stuck. He wore a buff coat and +breastplate, and a heavy sword, and had, besides, a pistol and a +leather glove thrust through his girdle. For a second after his +entrance, he looked from one face to another with quick, searching +glances which nothing escaped. Then he spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tut-tut-tut-tut!" he said. "What is this? Have we honest, God-fearing +soldiers here, halting by the way, whether such halting is in the way +or not, or in the morning orders? Or have we ramping, roystering, +babe-killing free-companions?--eh, man? Speak!" he continued rapidly, +his utterance somewhat thick. "What have you here? Unfasten this +cloak, some one!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Thunderstruck, and taken completely by surprise--for the doorway was +filled with faces--the party in the room fell back a step. Simon +mechanically laid the boy down, but still maintained his position by +him. Nor did the Puritan, though he found himself thus abruptly +challenged by one who seemed to be able to make good his words, lose a +jot of his grim aspect. He was aware of no wrong he had done. His +conscience was clear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are not soldiers, your excellency," one of the persons in the +doorway said briskly. "Four of them live here, and the other two are +honest men from Bradford."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That man has worn the bandoliers," the first speaker retorted, in a +voice which brooked no denial. "Sirrah, find your tongue," he +continued sternly, bending a brow which was never of the lightest. +"Have you not served?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was in the forlorn of horse at Naseby," Simon answered sullenly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In what troop?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Captain Rawlins's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is it so?" his excellency answered, dropping his voice at once to a +more genial note. "Well, friend, you had for commander a good man and +serviceable. You could no better. And who are these with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Two are his brothers," the voice in the doorway explained. "They were +very forward against Langdale's horse in the skirmish at Settle three +days ago, your excellency."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good, good, all this is good," Cromwell answered briskly; for that +redoubtable man, Lieutenant-General at this time of the armies of the +Parliament, it was. "Then why were you backward to answer my +questions, friend, being questions it lay in me to put, I being at the +head of this poor army and in authority? But there, you were modest. +Here, Pownall," he continued, "lay the maps on the table. We can +examine them here in shelter. 'Twas a happy thought of yours. And let +the prisoners be brought here also. Yet, stay," he added, feeing round +once more, his brow dark. "Methinks there comes a strange whimpering +from that cloak! Is't a dog? To it, Pownall, and see what it is."</p> + +<p class="normal">The officer he addressed sprang zealously forward, and whipping up the +cloak disclosed the child lying bound on the floor. Terror and the +exertion of screaming had reduced the boy to the last stage of +consciousness. He lay motionless, his face pale, and his eyes half +closed; his little bound hands appealing powerfully to the feelings of +the spectators. Even the presence of so many strangers failed to rouse +him, or move him to a last appeal. He appeared to be unconscious of +their entrance, or of any change in his surroundings.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sight was one to awaken indignation in a man, and Cromwell was a +man. "What!" he exclaimed roundly, and with something like an oath; +"what is this? Why have you bound him? Who is he? Is he your son?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," Simon answered, scowling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"His name is Patten."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Patten, Patten, Patten? Where have I heard the name?" Cromwell +answered. "Ho, I remember! There is a young malignant of that name on +the black list, is there not? For this county, too!"</p> + +<p class="normal">An officer replied that there was; adding that the young man was +supposed to be in Duke Hamilton's army.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well! We will deal with him when we catch him," Cromwell +answered sharply. "But, in the name of sense, what has that to do with +this boy? Why, 'tis a child! His mother's milk is hardly dry on his +lips! Why have you bound him, man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Simon Gridley strove to give back look for look, and to make the +outward countenance answer to the inward innocence. But the General's +sharp questions, and the astonished and indignant faces which filled +the room, made this difficult. A sudden doubt springing up in his own +mind, thus untimely, lent additional gloom to his manner, as he +answered: "He is no child. He is a witch!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A witch!" Cromwell cried, his voice drowning a dozen exclamations of +astonishment. "Why, mercy on us, a witch is a woman! And 'tis a boy!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, but 'tis a witch too," Simon answered stubbornly.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">HIS EXCELLENCY'S JUDGMENT.</a></h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">If Duke Hamilton had suddenly appeared in the room and surrendered +himself without terms--a thing beyond doubt unlikely to happen as long +as that gallant gentleman had thirty thousand men at his back--those +present could scarcely have looked more astonished. Not that they, or +the majority of them at all events, doubted the existence of +witchcraft. On the contrary; but anything less like the common idea of +a witch than this helpless child it would have been difficult to +conceive. Respect for their chief did indeed silence the laughter +which the man's answer would otherwise have caused, but it could not +still the murmur of amazement and ridicule, or the hum of indignation +which rose to their lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The man is mad!" cried one by the door, a person privileged.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Silence!" Cromwell answered sharply. "And do you, sirrah," he +continued to Simon, "explain yourself at once, or I will find means to +lash sense into you. What has the boy done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Before Simon could answer Luke interposed. The enthusiast could +restrain himself no longer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What has he done?" he cried. "He has sold himself to do evil and +stint not. Why do our horses fail and the wheels of our chariots drive +heavily, so that the work is not done, nor the task accomplished? +Because of the learning of the Egyptians which he has learned, and +because of the witchcraft of Jezebel which he has practised, that the +people may remain in bondage and our leader fall and rise not. Be +warned, O Joshua, and hear reason, O deliverer! It rains, and will +rain in the land until----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tie up the knave's mouth, some one!" thundered Cromwell. "And do +you," he continued, addressing Simon, "who seem to have some wit in +your madness, answer me briefly, what has the child done?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Simon's answer was destined to be again interrupted; this time by +the arrival of the officer in charge of the prisoners, who came in to +learn whether the General would examine them in the house. Cromwell +gave the order, and the men, two in number, were accordingly brought +in and made to stand by the door. This caused a momentary delay and +commotion; but, so great was the interest taken in the child, who had +been by this time raised from the floor and relieved of his bonds, +that scarcely any one turned to notice them. The moment the stir +ceased, the General nodded to Simon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The boy has a spell," Gridley answered, getting speech at last. "He +has a charm, and when he rubs it, it rains. He brought the rain +yesterday, and brought it again to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tush, man!" Cromwell said contemptuously. "You play with me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You do not believe me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, in faith I do not," the General answered darkly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then here is the proof!" the fanatic cried, in a voice of triumph. +And he pointed to the wooden cross which lay on the table. "There is +the charm! There, look at it, touch it, handle it; tell me what it is, +if you can!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A child's toy," Cromwell answered scornfully, as he stepped forward +and without hesitation took up the implement. "Well, man, I see it," +he continued, turning it over in his hand. "What of it? Be brief with +your madness, for I have larger fish to fry to-day. Be brief, I say."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will," the Puritan answered, undaunted. And therewith, beginning +with the story of the strange evasion from the closet, he told the +tale, so far as he knew it, of Jack's mysterious proceedings and +powers. For a while, Cromwell listened or appeared to listen with half +an ear only, his attention divided between the speaker and a map which +the obsequious Pownall had placed on the table. But when Simon came to +the boy's singular proceedings on the hillock above the road, and +described, with some advantages which his imagination lent the +narrative, the manner of the boy's behavior while the army passed +below him, Cromwell's attitude underwent a sudden change. He closed +the map with a quick gesture, and for a moment gazed full at the man +from under his bushy eyebrows.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Umph! And so you think that caused the storm, Master Numskull?" he +rapped out, when Simon had come to an end. "Where is this cross?"</p> + +<p class="normal">It had been passed from hand to hand, but was at once brought back to +him. "Here, Hodgson," he said sharply; "what do you make of it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The officer to whom he appealed turned the thing over and over in his +hands, but could make nothing of it. Cromwell watched him with a +sparkle in his eye, and at length snatched it from him. "Chut!" +he said--but although he scolded, it was evident he was well +pleased--"you are as big a fool as Master Numskull there! Didst never +see a tally, man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A tally, your excellency?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ay, a tally, a tally, a tally!" replied his excellency, impatiently. +"A thing, I tell thee, that was known in this England of ours, and in +the exchequer, when rogues were fewer and thy ancestors were hung +without benefit of clergy! This is a tally if ever I saw one. To take +an honest tally for a witch's broomstick? But softly! Said I an +<i>honest</i> tally?" he continued, looking suddenly about him, while his +voice grew hard and stern. "Pownall! count those notches."</p> + +<p class="normal">The officer obeyed. "There are twenty-three, your excellency," he +said, when he had accomplished the task.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And how many troops of horse have gone by to-day?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Twenty-three, your excellency," was the answer, given with military +brevity.</p> + +<p class="normal">A murmur of intelligence passed round the circle of officers. The clue +once found by Cromwell's sharp eye and strong common sense, the secret +became an open one, patent to the dullest intellect. When further +examination showed that the number of notches on the other arm of the +cross corresponded with the number of foot regiments which had passed +that morning, even Simon Gridley began to understand that here was no +question of the supernatural, but of some human agency equally hostile +to the good cause. Only Luke Gridley remained unconvinced. "Bolts and +bars could not hold him," he murmured, "nor----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We will come to that by-and-by," Cromwell answered. "Let the boy +stand forward. Where is he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Some one thrust Jack forward into the middle of the room, where he +stood exposed to the full brunt of Cromwell's formidable gaze. The +shock through which the child had passed had left him dazed and weak; +his color came and went, his legs faltered under him, and he trembled +perceptibly. But his heart was stout, and his breeding stood him in +good stead at this crisis. Barely understanding what had passed, or +the steps by which his plan had been discovered, on one point he was +still clear, steadfast, and resolute: and that was, that come what +might, he would not betray his brother!</p> + +<p class="normal">But for the moment Cromwell said nothing about that. The question he +put to him took all present by surprise. "Who let you out of the +closet, my lad?" he said, in a tone of rough good-nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A man," the boy muttered, with dry lips.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Was it one of the men in the house? No? Then how did the man get into +the house? Tell us that."</p> + +<p class="normal">Jack looked about him like a trapped animal. He did not know which +questions he ought to answer and which he ought to refuse to answer. +Confused and terrified by the gaze of so many men and the possession +of a secret, aware only that he must keep back his brother's name and +hiding-place, the instinct of a drowning man led him to give up all +else. After a moment's hesitation he muttered: "His wife," pointing to +Simon, "went out in the middle of the night. She left the door open, +and the man came in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very good," Cromwell answered. "That is clear and explicit. And now, +my man," he continued, turning suddenly upon Simon, who stood silent +and confounded, "what do you say? More seems to go on in your house +than you wot of. Let the woman stand out."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gridley the butler, sitting doubled up on the meal chest, where his +brothers figure sheltered him, almost fell forward with terror. He saw +his crime on the point of being discovered, and all his craven soul +was in alarm. Were attention once drawn to him, were he once +challenged and bade to stand forth, he knew that no power could save +him. In the absence of evidence he would infallibly betray himself. +The dreadful tremors, the sickening apprehension, which he had felt +during the first part of his flight from Pattenhall, when he had the +damning evidences of his crime upon him, returned upon him now, and +bitterly, most bitterly, did he regret that he had ever given way to +temptation.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came near to swooning when he heard the woman called out, for he +thought it a hundred chances to one that she would falter, and in a +moment weave a rope for his neck. The sweat ran down his face as he +strained his ears to catch--he dared not look--the first syllable of +accusation.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Mistress Gridley, though she had had scant notice of the occasion, +was of a harder kind. Relieved of ghostly fears, her mind quickly +regained its balance, and instinctively took refuge in the falseness +which had become second nature. Her shrewdish face wore a flush as she +came forward, and there was a flicker of secret fear in her eye. But +the tone in which she denied that she had ever left her house on the +night in question was even and composed, and "As for a man," she added +scornfully, "what man is there within three miles of us?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The man who taught this lad to spy!" Cromwell retorted, swiftly and +severely. "That man, woman! Do you know him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She could say No to that with a good conscience, and she did so.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cromwell signed to her stand back. "Very well," he said, "then the boy +shall tell us." He turned to Jack, and after glaring at him for a +moment, cried in a loud voice: "Hark ye, sirrah! who gave you this +cross? What is his name, and where is he?"</p> + +<p class="normal">That voice, at which so many men had trembled and were to tremble, +made the very marrow in Jack's bones quiver. That fierce red face with +its fiery eyes seemed to grow before Jack's gaze until the child saw +nothing else save that and a dancing haze which framed it. "Hark ye, +sirrah!" He heard the words repeated again and again, and his soul +melted within him for fear. But he remained dumb.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Come!" Cromwell said grimly when he had thrice bidden him to speak in +vain. "This is what I expected. But I will find a means to open your +lips. Pownall, bid one of the guard bring a rope!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A movement in the room seemed to indicate that the order caused +emotion of some kind, and Captain Hodgson, a bluff North-countryman, +high in the General's favor, stepped forward as if to interpose. But +apparently he thought better of it, and in a moment a rope was +brought. "Now," Cromwell thundered, "will you speak?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Jack, whose white face and straining eyes, as he stood alone in +the middle of the kitchen, a child among men, were pitiful to behold, +remained silent. Only one idea, and that was rather an instinct than a +conscious determination, remained with him--to shelter Frank.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tie him up!" said Cromwell, in a hard voice. "Sergeant," he +continued, "take two files and the boy outside, and if he does not +speak in five minutes, string him up." No one spoke or interposed, and +the child, half led and half carried by the burly sergeant, had almost +reached the threshold, when a voice close by exclaimed suddenly: +"Enough, you cowards! Shame on you! Let the child go!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who spoke?" Cromwell cried, wheeling round from the map he was +scanning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The man you want!" was the reckless answer. "Take him, and let the +child go!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a brief commotion at the door, which ended in one of the +prisoners being thrust forward until he stood face to face with the +General. "So, so!" said Cromwell, eyeing him with a frown. "Who are +you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have told you!" the man answered flippantly, though the +perspiration stood in beads on his brow, and behind that brave face +which he showed the crowd was a human soul sick with fear of that +which all men fear. "I am the man you want. The boy is my brother, and +I told him what to do. He is a mere baby."</p> + +<p class="normal">For the speaker was Frank Patten. There was a stir among the officers +round the door, but Cromwell remained unmoved. "Where was this fellow +taken?" he asked, looking him over critically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Between here and Settle, your excellency," Hodgson answered. "The +scoutmaster found him loitering on the road and seized him on +suspicion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is a zealous man," Cromwell answered. "Let a note of it be made, +Pownall. For you, fellow," he continued, addressing the prisoner, "say +what you have to say. Your time is short."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have only one thing to say," the young man answered coldly--and few +among the many who admired his self-control marked the tiny pulse +beating madly in his cheek. "There is some gold plate hidden hard by. +My brother knows where it is. It was stolen by that craven hound +yonder, and buried by night by that lying shrew there. Perhaps the man +who recovers it will have a care of the child until something fall out +for him. That is all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait!" said Cromwell. "Let that man stand out. Is this the man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">But Gridley the butler saved Frank the trouble of answering. With a +moan of terror he flung himself on his knees on the floor, and with +tears flowing down his pale, fat face, uttered such abject entreaties +for mercy as shamed the very men who heard them. Punishment had indeed +fallen on the wretched creature, for while he lay there, now excusing +himself and now accusing the woman--who stood by, dark and +unrepentant, her face full of impotent spite--he tasted the bitterness +of death a dozen times over.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Faugh!" Cromwell exclaimed at last, spurning him from him with his +booted foot; "take him away. Let him run the gauntlet of whatever +regiment is first in quarters to-night! And see they lay on roundly, +Hodgson. For this lying woman, your wife, man----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She is no longer wife of mine!" the Puritan answered, so grimly that +more than one shuddered. "She shall cross my threshold once, and never +again. She has sinned; let her starve."</p> + +<p class="normal">General Cromwell shrugged his shoulders and stood a moment in thought. +Then he turned to Patten. "For you," he said harshly, "you are a +soldier, and know your sentence. You can have an hour's grace. +Sergeant Joyce, retain four files, and see the sentence carried out. +Or stay, I will reduce it to writing. The boy may be with him."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The voices of the General's staff, as they mounted and rode briskly +away at his heels, had long died away, and only the sobbing of the +child as he lay in Frank's arms broke the silence of the ill-fated +house. The guards left in charge, grave stalwart men, not without +bowels of compassion, had retired outside the door and left the two to +pass these last moments together; with an intimation that when the +hour was up they would call their prisoner. All things, even the ray +of golden light which presently pierced the window, as if to warn +Frank to look his last on the sun, combined to heighten the stillness +and peace, if not the solemn resignation, of this last hour. But alas, +the approach of death withers life itself. The young man's blood +curdled and stood at the thought of it, so that at last the moments +slowly passing in that silence grew intolerable. An hour? It seemed to +him that he had sat with the child in his arms for thrice that time. +When would they come?</p> + +<p class="normal">He grew so desperate at last that he set the boy down, and with a +parting passionate embrace hurried to the door; the sooner it was over +now, the better. Desperately he opened the door and stepped out into +the daylight.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment after he had done so he stood confounded, staring about +him with wild eyes. Before him lay the moorland, half in sunshine, +half in shadow. Above him the clouds had parted, and the infinite +expanse of heaven lay open to his view. But nowhere was a living +creature in sight. The troop-horses, whose bits he had heard jingling +a few minutes before, were gone; the troopers had melted into thin +air!</p> +<br> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/pg190.png" alt="Page 190"><br> +He bent his head and peered at it.--Page 190.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He clapped his hand to his forehead, and stood awhile battling to +control himself. Was this a trick? If not--and then his eye, +travelling dizzily round, lit on a piece of paper which some one had +nailed to the outside of the door with a knife. He bent his head, and +peered at it, and read:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"<i>To Sergeant Joyce.--Half an hour after my departure you will let the +prisoner, Francis Patten, go free. And this shall be your authority</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General</i>."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Little Wizard, by Stanley J. Weyman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE WIZARD *** + +***** This file should be named 38872-h.htm or 38872-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/7/38872/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Weyman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Little Wizard + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: February 13, 2012 [EBook #38872] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE WIZARD *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/littlewizard00weymiala + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + 3. Table of Contents added by Transcriber. + + + + + + A LITTLE WIZARD + + + + + + +[Illustration: STANLEY J. WEYMAN] + + + + + + + A LITTLE WIZARD + + + BY + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + AUTHOR OF + "A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "FRANCIS CLUDDE," + "UNDER THE RED ROBE," ETC., ETC. + + + + + + NEW YORK + R. F. FENNO & COMPANY + 9 and 11 EAST 16th STREET + + + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1895. + R. F. FENNO & COMPANY. + + + + + + _A Little Wizard_ + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + + I. Pattenhall. + + II. Malham High Moors. + + III. Langdale's Horse. + + IV. The Meal Chest + + V. Treasure Trove. + + VI. Dead Sea Apples. + + VII. The Wooden Cross. + + VIII. A Strange Trial. + + IX. His Excellency's Judgment. + + + + + + + A LITTLE WIZARD + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + PATTENHALL. + + +When the agent of General Skippon, to whom the estate of Pattenhall by +Ripon fell, as part of his reward after the battle of Naseby, went +down to take possession, he found a little boy sitting on a heap of +stones a few paces from the entrance gate. The old house (which has +since been pulled down) lay a quarter of a mile from the road and +somewhat in a hollow; but its many casements, blushing and sparkling +in the glow of the evening sun, caught the rider's eye, and led him +into the comfortable belief that he had reached his destination. He +had come from Ripon, however, and the village lies on the farther side +of the house from that town; consequently he had seen no one whom he +could question, and he hailed the boy's presence with relief, checking +his horse, and calling to him to know if this was Pattenhall. + +The lad crouching on the stones, and nervously plucking the grass +beside him, looked up at the four stern men sitting squarely in their +saddles. But he did not answer. He might have been deaf. + +"Come!" Agent Hoby said, repeating his question roughly. "You have got +a tongue, my lad. Is this old squire Patten's?" + +The boy shook his head mutely. He looked about twelve years old. + +"Is it farther on?" + +"Yes, farther on," the lad muttered, scarcely moving his lips. + +"Where?" + +Still keeping his eyes, which were large and brown, on his questioner, +the boy pointed towards the tower of the church, a quarter of a mile +away. + +The agent stifled an exclamation, such as in other times would have +been an oath. "Umph! I thought we were there!" he muttered. "However, +it is but a step. Come up, mare." + +The boy watched the four riders plod on along the road until the +trees, which were in the full glory of their summer foliage, and +almost met across the dusty way, hid them from his eyes. Then he rose, +and shaking his fist with passionate vehemence in the direction in +which they had gone, turned towards the gateway as if he would go up +to the house. Before he had taken three steps, however, he changed his +mind, and coming slowly back to the heap of stones, sat down in the +same place and posture as before. The movement to retreat and the +return were alike characteristic. In frame the boy was altogether +childish, being puny and slight, and somewhat stunted; but his small +face, browned by wind and sun, expressed both will and sensibility. As +he sat waiting for the travellers to return, there was a sparkle, and +not of tears only, in his eyes. His mouth took an ugly shape, and his +small hand found and clutched one of the stones on which he sat. + +Agent Hoby had never been more astonished in his life than when he +returned hot and angry and found him still there. It was the last +thing he had expected. "You little villain!" he cried, shortening his +whip in his hand, and spurring his horse on to the strip of turf, +which then, as now, bordered the road--"how dare you tell lies to the +Commons' Commissioners?" + + +[Illustration: He turned and rode in.--Page 9.] + + +There was a slender gap in the wall behind the heap of stones, and the +lad fell back into this, still clutching his missile in his hand. "I +told no lies!" he said, looking defiantly at the angry man. "You asked +me for Squire Patten, and I sent you to him--to the churchyard!" + +One of the men behind Hoby chuckled grimly; and Hoby himself, who had +ridden with Cromwell at Naseby, and looked the Robber Prince in the +eyes, held his hand. "You little whelp!" he said, half in anger and +half in admiration. "It is easy to see what brood you come of! I have +half a mind to lash your back for you! Be off to your mammy, and bid +her whip you! My hand is too heavy." + +With that, taking no further notice of the boy, he turned and rode in +through the gate. The aspect of the house, the quality of the herbage, +the size of the timber, the lack of stock, all claimed at once his +agent's eye, and rendered it easy for him to forget the incident. He +grumbled at the sagacity of the Roundhead troopers, who had lain a +night at Pattenhall before Marston Moor, and swept it as bare as a +board. He had a grunt of sympathy to spare for Squire Patten, who, +sore wounded in the same fight, had ridden home to die three days +later. He gave a thought even to young Patten, who had forfeited the +last chance of saving his sequestrated estate by breaking his parole, +and again appearing in arms against the Parliament. But of the lad +crawling slowly along the path behind him he thought nothing. And the +boy, young as he was, felt this and resented it. + +When the party presently reached the house, and the few servants who +remained came out obsequiously to receive them, the boy felt his +loneliness and sudden insignificance still more keenly. He saw +stirrups held, and heard terms of honor passing; and he crept away to +the hayloft to give vent to the tears he was too proud to shed in +public. Safe in this refuge, he flung himself down on the hay and +showed himself all child; now sobbing as if his heart was broken, and +now clenching his little fists and beating the air in impotent +passion. + +The solitude to which he was left showed that he had good cause for +his grief. No one asked for him, no one sought him, who had lately +been the most important person in the place. The loft grew dark, the +windows changed to mere patches of grey in the midst of blackness. At +any other time, and under any other circumstances, the child would +have been afraid to remain there alone. But grief and indignation +swallow up fear, and in the darkness he called on his dead father and +mother, and felt them nearer than in the day. Young as he was, the +child could remember a time when his absence for half an hour would +have set the house by the ears, and started a dozen pairs of legs in +search of him; when loving voices, silent now forever, would have +cried his name through yard and paddock, and a score of servants, whom +death and dearth had not yet scattered, would have rushed to gratify +his smallest need. + +No wonder that at the thought of those days, and of the loving care +and gentle hands which had guarded him from hour to hour, the solitary +child crouching in the hay and darkness cried long and passionately. +He knew little of the quarrel between King and Commons, and nothing of +Laud or Strafford, Pym or Hampden, Ship-money or the New Model. But he +could suffer. He was old enough to remember and feel, and compare past +things with present; and understanding that today his father's house +was passing into the hands of strangers, he experienced all the terror +and anguish which a sense of homelessness combined with helplessness +can inflict. Lonely and neglected he had been for some time now; but +he had felt his loneliness little (comparatively speaking) until +to-day. + +Agent Hoby had finished his supper. Stretching his legs before the +empty hearth in the attitude of one who had done a day's work, he was +in the act of admonishing Gridley the butler on his duty to his new +master, when he became aware of a slight movement in the direction of +the door. The panelled walls of the parlor in which he sat swallowed +up the light, and the candles stood in his way. He had to raise one +above his head and peer below it before he could make out anything. +When he did, and the face of the lad he had seen by the gate grew as +it were out of the panel, his first feeling was one of alarm. He +started and muttered an exclamation, thinking that he saw amiss; and +that either the October he had drunk was stronger than ordinary, or +there was something uncanny in the house. When a second look, however, +persuaded him that the boy was there in the flesh, he gave way to +anger. + +"Gridley!" he said, knitting his brows, "who is this, and how does he +come to be here? Is he one of your brats, man?" + +"One of mine?" the butler answered stupidly. + +"Ay, one of yours! Or how comes he to be here?" the agent answered +querulously, sitting forward with a hand on each arm of his chair, and +frowning at the boy, who returned his gaze with interest. + +The butler looked at the lad as if he were considering him in some new +light, and hesitated before he answered. "It is the young master," he +said at last. + +"The young what?" the agent exclaimed, leaning still farther forward, +and putting into the words as much surprise as possible. + +"It is the young master," Gridley repeated sullenly. "And he is here +in season, for I want to know what I am to do with him." + +"Do you mean that he is a Patten?" Hoby muttered, staring at the lad +as if he were bewitched. + +"To be sure," Gridley answered, looking also at the boy. + +"But your master had only one son? Those were my instructions." + +"Two," said the butler. "Master Francis--" + +"Who is with Duke Hamilton in Scotland, and if caught in arms in +England will hang," rejoined the agent, sternly. "Well?" + +"And this one." + +Hoby glared at the boy as if he would eat him. To find that the +estate, which he had considered free from embarrassing claims, was +burdened with a child, annoyed him beyond measure. The warrants under +which he acted overrode, of course, all rights and all privileges; in +the eye of the law the boy before him had no more to do with the old +house and the wide acres than the meanest peasant who had a hovel on +the land. But the agent was a humane man, and in his way a just one; +and though he had been well content to ignore the malignant young +reprobate whom he had hitherto considered the only claimant, he was +vexed to find there was another, more innocent and more helpless. + +"He must have relations," he said at last, after rubbing his closely +cropped head with an air of much perplexity. "He must go to them." + +"He has none alive that I know of," the butler answered stolidly. He +was a high-shouldered, fat-faced man, with sly eyes. + +"There are no other Pattens?" quoth Hoby. + +"Not so much as an old maid." + +"Then he must go to his mother's people." + +"She was Cornish," Gridley answered, with a slight grin. "Her family +were out with Sir Ralph Hopton, and are now in Holland, I hear." + +Repulsed on all sides, the agent rose from his chair. "Well, bring him +to me in the morning," he said irritably, "and I will see what can be +done. His matter can wait. For yourself, however, make up your mind, +my man; go or stay as you please. But if you stay it can only be upon +my conditions. You understand that?" he added with some asperity. + +Gridley assented with a corresponding smack of sullenness in his tone, +and taking the hint, bore off the boy to bed. Soon the few lights, +which still shone in the great house that had so quietly changed +masters, died out one by one; until all lay black and silent, except +one small room, low-ceiled, musty, and dark-panelled, which lay to the +right of the hall, but a step or two below its level. This room was +the butler's pantry and sleeping-chamber. The plate which had once +glittered on its shelves, the silver flagons and Sheffield cups, the +spice bowls and sugar-basins, were gone, devoted these five years past +to the melting-pot and the Royal cause. The club and blunderbuss which +should have guarded them remained, however, in their slings beside the +bed; along with some show of dingy pewter and dingier blackjacks, and +as many empty bottles as served at once to litter the gloomy little +dungeon and prove that the old squire's cellar was not yet empty. + +In the midst of this disorder, and in no way incommoded by the close +atmosphere of the room, which reeked of beer and stale liquors, the +butler sat thinking far into the night. On the table beside him, which +had been cleared to make room for it, lay an open Bible; but as he +never consulted its pages or even looked towards it, we may assume +that it lay there rather for show than use, and possibly had been +arranged for the express purpose of catching the eye of Master Hoby +should he push his inquiries as far as this apartment. + +Heedless or forgetful of it, Gridley now sat staring into vacancy, +with a dark expression on his face. Now and again he bit his +finger-nails as if some problem of more than ordinary importance +occupied his thoughts. His aspect too was changed in sympathy with the +dark hours of the night. Tear and anticipation, greed and cunning, +peered from behind the mask of sly composure which he had worn in the +parlor. He had now the air of a man who would and dare not, and then +again who would not shrink at risks. At last he rose with his mind +made up, and creeping to the door secured it. With a stealthy glance +round, he next extinguished the light, plunging the room into +darkness. After that he was still to be heard shuffling about for some +time, but of his actions or the business on which he was bent nothing +could be known for certain. Only once a rich ringing sound as of metal +on metal surprised the silence, and hanging on the air--for an +eternity as it seemed to his alarmed ear--died reluctantly in the +hollows of the pewter flagons on the shelf. It was nothing, it was the +merest tinkle, it could scarcely have awakened the suspicions of the +most critical listener. But the man who made the sound and heard the +sound was a coward with an evil conscience; and for a full minute +after the last echo had whispered itself away, he crouched on the +floor, with the cold dew on his brow and his hand shaking. After that, +silence. + +Little Jack Patten, awaking suddenly as the first glimmer of dawn +entered his room, found the butler standing by his side. The boy would +have cried out, not knowing him in the half light, but Gridley +muttered his name, and enjoining silence with a finger on his lip, sat +down on the pallet by the lad's side. + +"What is it?" Jack said, sitting up. The man's cautious and +apprehensive air, no less than the gloom which still filled the room +and rendered objects indistinct, scared him. + +"Hush!" the butler answered in a low voice, "and listen to me, Jack. I +have been thinking about you. You know this house is not yours any +longer. It will be shut up, and there will be none but Roundheaded +soldiers here, and the man below will be master. You don't want to +stay here and eat his bread?" + +The boy shook his head. But, even as he shook it, the tears rose to +his eyes. For where was he to go? Yesterday's events, his +friendlessness and helplessness, recurred to his mind in a rush of +bitter memories. + +"Would you like to come away with me?" Gridley muttered, keenly +watching the effect of his words. + +Jack peered at him doubtfully. The butler had not been so kind to him +of late as to give this proposal an air of complete naturalness. The +manner and the tone of it were strange even in the child's judgment. +"Where are you going?" he asked cautiously. + +"To my home," said the butler, licking his lips, as if they were dry. + +"It is on the moors, is it not?" + +The butler nodded. "Above Pateley?" + +"It is many a mile above Pateley--up, up, up; ay, miles above it." + +The child's eyes glistened at that. The moors were his fairyland. He +had passed many and many a happy hour in dreaming of the marvellous +things which lay beyond the purple hills to westward; the rugged +broken line behind which the sun went down each day in a glory of +crimson or orange. That line, he knew, was the beginning of the moors. +The blue distance beyond it he had peopled with his own visions of +giants and dwarfs, and witches and warlocks, and added besides all the +tales which passed current in Pattenhall and the low country of doings +_in t' moors_. He knew the moor people kept to themselves and were +wild and savage, inhabiting hills a mile high and valleys miles in +depth; and he longed to visit them and see these things for himself. +His eyes dried quickly as he listened to Gridley, and eagerly asked, +"Above Pateley?" which was the boundary of his known world, "miles and +miles above Pateley, Gridley?" + +"Ay, up Skipton way." + +"Is that in the heart of the moors, Gridley?" + +"There is no other heart," the butler answered gruffly, "unless, +maybe, it is Settle. And it is Settle side of Skipton." + +"Are you going now?" the lad said impulsively, standing up straight in +his bed, with his brown eyes staring and his fair cheeks glowing with +anticipation and excitement. + +"This very minute." + +"I'll come with you! You will let me dress, Gridley?" + +"Ay, dress quickly. We must be away before any one is awake." + +"I'll be quick!" Jack answered. + +He was too young to see anything strange in the hurry and secrecy of +such a departure. The troubles of the times had made him familiar with +abrupt comings and goings. He trembled, it is true, as he stole down +the dark staircase on tiptoe and clinging to the butler's hand; but it +was with excitement, not fear. He felt no surprise at finding one of +the great plough-horses standing saddled in its stall; nor did the +size of the wallets which he saw behind the saddle arouse any doubt or +suspicion in his mind. Gridley's haste to be gone, the trembling which +seized the butler as they crossed the farmyard, the frequent glances +he cast behind him until the road was fairly gained, seemed to the boy +natural enough. All Jack knew was that he was leaving his enemies +behind him. They had killed his father and exiled his brother. +Naturally he feared and hated them. He was too young to understand +that he stood in no peril himself, but that on the contrary his proper +disposal had caused Master Hoby the loss of at least an hour's sleep. + +Before it was fairly light the fugitives were already a mile away. The +boy rode behind Gridley, clinging to a strap passed round the latter's +waist; and the two jogged along comfortably enough as far as the body +was concerned, though it was evident that Gridley's anxiety was little +if at all allayed. They shunned the highway, and went by hedge paths +and bridle-roads, which avoided houses and villages. When the sun rose +the two were already five or six miles from Pattenhall, in a country +new to the lad, though sufficiently like his own to whet his curiosity +instead of satisfying it. + +"How far are we from the moors, Gridley?" he asked as often as he +dared, for the butler's temper seemed uncertain. "Shall we be there to +breakfast?" + +"Ay, we'll be there to breakfast," was the usual answer. + +And presently, to the boy's delight, the country began to trend +upwards, the path grew steeper. The coppices and hedgerows, the clumps +of elms and oaks and beeches, which had hidden the higher prospects +from his eyes, and almost persuaded him that he was making no +progress, began to grow more sparse; until at last they failed +altogether, and he saw before him a rising slope of marsh and +moorland, swelling here and there into rocky ridges, between which the +sycamores and ashes grew in stunted bunches. Above he raised his eyes +to a heaven wider and more open than that to which he was accustomed; +while lark beyond lark, soaring each higher than the other, seemed +striving which should celebrate most fitly the balmy air and warm +sunshine which flooded all. + +"Are these the moors, Gridley?" the boy asked with delight. + +"These, the moors?" the man answered, with the first smile he had +allowed himself that morning. "You wait a bit, and you'll see!" + +His tone was not encouraging, but as he hastened to give the lad his +breakfast and a drink of beer, Jack passed over the change of manner, +and rocking himself from side to side, as far as the strap would let +him, went merrily upwards, munching as he rode. Over Pateley Bridge +and Pateley moors they went, and upwards still to Bewerley Fell, +whence they saw the Riding stretched like a picture behind them. Jack +fancied, but that was, impossible, that he could see the chimneys and +the great oak at Pattenhall. Leaving Bewerley they skirted Hebdon Moor +on the north side, rising here so high that Jack could see nothing on +either hand but horrid crags, and ridges of grey limestone and vast +slopes of grey rock. Here, too, there was little turf and no heather, +but only stone-crop and saxifrages, with cruel quagmires and bogs in +the hollows. The very sky seemed changed. It grew dark and overcast, +and clouds and mist gathered round the travellers, hiding the path, +yet disclosing from time to time the huge brow of Ingleborough or the +flat head of Penighent. The wind moaned across the grey steeps, and a +small rain began to fall and quickly wet them to the skin. + +The boy shuddered. "Are these the moors?" he asked. + +"Ay, these are the moors!" his companion answered grimly. "And +moorland weather. Yon's the High Moors and Malham Tarn. Your eyes are +young. Do you see a grey spot in the nook to the right, yonder, two +miles away! That is Little Howe, and we are bound for it." + +"Who lives there?" Jack answered, as he looked drearily over the +desolate upland. + +"My brother," the butler answered, with a touch of ferocity in his +tone. "Simon Gridley, he is called, and you will know him soon +enough." + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + MALHAM HIGH MOORS. + + +Still nearly an hour elapsed before the tired horse stopped at the +door of the small grey dwelling which Gridley had pointed out. The +house, a rough farmstead of four rooms, stood high in a nook of the +moor, facing Ingleborough. A few yew-trees filled the narrowing dell +behind it with black shadow; a low wall of loose stones which joined +one ridge to another formed a fold before it. The clatter of hoofs, as +the horse climbed the rocky slope leading to the house, brought out a +man and woman, who, leaning on this wall, watched the couple approach. + +The aspect of the man was stern, dry, and austere; in a word, at one +with the harsh and rugged scene in which he lived. His gloomy eyes and +square jaw seemed signs of a character resolute, narrow, bigoted, and +it might be cruel. At first sight the woman appeared a helpmeet well +suited to him. Her narrow forehead and thin lips, her pinched nose and +small blue eyes, seemed the reproduction in a feminine mould of his +more massive features. Despite this, she constantly produced upon +strangers a less favorable impression than he did; and though this +impression was rarely understood, it lingered long and faded slowly if +at all. + +The aspect of the two as they stood side by side was so forbidding, +that the child, faint with fatigue and disappointment, had hard work +to repress his tears. Nor was the uneasiness confined to him only, for +the butler's voice, when he raised it to greet his kinsfolk, sounded +unnatural. His words tumbled over one another, and he alighted with a +fussiness which betrayed itself. + +On the other side the most absolute composure existed; so that +presently the man's fulsome words died on his lips. "Why, brother," he +stammered, with something of a whine, "you are glad to see me?" + +"It may be, and again it may not be," the other answered grimly. + +"How so?" Gridley asked, changing countenance. + +"Have you turned your back on the flesh-pots for good?" was the severe +response. "Have you come out of Egypt and away from its abominations? +For I will have no malignants here, nor those who eat their bread and +grow fat on their vices? If you have left the tents of Kedar, then you +are welcome here. But if not, pass on." + +"I have left Pattenhall, if that is what you mean," the younger +brother answered sullenly. + +"And its service?" + +"Ay, and its service." + +"Who is the lad you have with you?" Simon Gridley asked keenly. + +"He is a Patten," the butler answered reluctantly; "but he has neither +house nor land, nor more in the world than the clothes he stands up +in." + +The answer took both the man and the woman by surprise. They stood +gazing as with one accord at the boy, who, with his lips trembling, +changed feet and shifted his eyes from one stern face to another. + +"I have heard something of that," the elder Gridley said, with a stern +smile. + +"He comes of a bad brood." + +"Nevertheless, you will not refuse him shelter," his brother answered. +"He is a child, and I have nowhere else to take him." + +"Why take him at all?" the Puritan snarled fiercely. "What have you to +do with the children of transgression? Have you not sins enough of +your own to answer for?" + +The butler did not reply, and for a moment the boy's fate seemed to +hang in the balance. Then the woman spoke. "Bring him in," she said +harshly and suddenly. "It may be that he is a brand snatched from the +burning." + +She spoke with authority, and her words seemed to be accepted as a +final decision. Gridley pulled the child sharply by the arm, and, +himself wearing a somewhat hangdog expression, led him across the fold +and through the doorway, the others following. The scene outside, the +leaden sky and grey moor and falling rain, had reduced the boy to the +depth of misery; the interior to which he was introduced did little to +comfort him. The hearth was fireless, the stone floor bare and +unstrewn. A couple of great chests, a chair and two stools, formed, +with a table, a spinning-wheel, and a rude loom, the only furniture. +The rafters displayed none of the plenty which Jack was accustomed to +see in kitchens, for neither flitch nor puddings adorned them, but in +the window-seat a gaunt elderly man with a long grey beard sat reading +a large Bible. He looked up dreamily when the party entered, but said +nothing, the rapt expression of his face seeming to show that he was +virtually unconscious of their presence. + +"Luke is the same as ever?" the butler said in a low voice to his +sister-in-law. + +"He has his visions, if that is what you mean," she answered tartly. +"Same as he ever had, and clearer of late. Set the child there. You +are hungry, I dare say. Well, you'll have to wait. In an hour it will +be supper-time, and in an hour you will have your supper. But you will +get no Pattenhall dainties here." + +The elder Gridley went to the loom and began to work, while his +brother, repressing a sigh of discontent, sat down and gazed at the +hearth, regretting already the step he had taken. Mistress Gridley +looked fixedly and with compressed lips at the boy, who sat in the +cold chimney corner, too much terrified to cry. The only sounds which +broke the dreary stillness of the house were the rattling of the loom +and the murmur of Luke Gridley's voice, as his tongue followed the +mechanical movement of his finger. + +Such was their reception; the child, hungry and fear-stricken, thought +with a bursting heart of the home he had left, of the friends and the +very dogs of Pattenhall, its trees and sunshine, and warm kitchen. The +grim silence of the room, the woman's cruel eyes, the bareness and +greyness, seemed to crush him with an iron hand, so that it was only +by an effort, almost beyond his years, that he repressed a scream of +passionate revolt. + +Nor did he suffer alone. The butler, despite the care with which he +hid his feelings, was little more at home in his company. He had no +longer anything in common with his kinsfolk. In his heart he cringed +before their rugged natures as a guilty dog crouches before its +master. But he had thoughts of his own and a purpose to serve; and +this enabled him to put a good face on the matter, or at least to +endure with a wry smile. + +The scanty meal of cheese and oatmeal eaten, and Luke's long +extemporary prayer brought to an end, the strangers were taken to one +of the two upper rooms. In five minutes the tired child was asleep; +not so his companion. Gridley, fatigued as he was, lay and watched the +last glimmer of daylight die away, and then, when all the house was +dark and quiet, he sat up and listened. His wallets lay on the floor +beside him. He rose and crawled to them, and for a long time crouched +on the boards by them, thinking. He wanted a hiding-place--before +morning he must have a hiding-place; but the scanty furniture of the +room afforded none. This he had not anticipated, and the perplexity +into which it threw him was so largely mingled with fear, that he +fancied the loud beating of his heart must attract attention even +through the walls. After some minutes of misery he made up his mind, +and rising from the floor crept to the door and opened it. All was so +still in the house that he took fresh courage. He went back to his +wallets, and drawing something from them stole on tiptoe down the +stairs, each creaking board--and there were many--throwing him into a +cold perspiration. When a coward gives himself to wickedness, he pays +dearly for his fancy. + +The staircase opened directly into the kitchen, where he stood awhile +listening on the hearth. Luke, the preacher, slept in the back-room, +and the door seemed to be ajar. Gridley felt his way through the +darkness to it and softly closed it. Then he peered round him. Where +could he hide what he had to hide? Memory, conjuring up the objects +round him, suggested one place after another, but in each case he +foresaw the possibility of accident. The linen-chest? Mistress Gridley +might take it into her head to inspect her store of linen. The +under-part of the sink? She might be about to clean it. The dresser +was out of the question. He decided at last on the oatmeal chest, and +groping his way to it found it, to his delight, unlocked and half +full. The objects he had to hide were small; he ran little risk, he +thought, if he buried them near the bottom of the meal. + +After pausing again to listen and assure himself that he was not +watched, he plunged his treasure deep in the soft meal. Then with +trembling hands he drew the stuff over it, jealously smoothing and +patting the surface in his fear lest daylight should disclose some +signs of what he had been about. This done, and as he believed, +effectually, he heaved a sigh of relief, and laid his hand on the lid +of the chest to close it. At that moment a thin ray of light pierced +the darkness in which he stood, and falling across the floor of the +kitchen, chilled him to the heart. + +Even in his panic he had sufficient presence of mind to close the lid +softly, but the act detained him so long that he had no chance of +moving away from the chest; and there Mistress Gridley found him when +she entered, with her rushlight shaded, and her small eyes gleaming +triumphantly behind it. + +"Ho! ho!" she said, in a whisper; "I have caught a rat, have I?" + +"I was hungry," he stammered, recoiling before her, "and came down to +see if there was any porridge left." + +"You lie!" she answered contemptuously, pointing to his hands as she +spoke. They were covered with oatmeal. "I know you of old. You have +been hiding something. Let me see what it is." + +For a moment, despair giving him courage, he raised his hand as if he +would have done her some injury; but the woman's eyes cowed him. "Hold +the light, fool!" she said. "Let me see what you have got here." + +She rummaged an instant in the meal, and presently, with an abrupt +exclamation, drew out something which glittered as she held it up. It +was a small gold cup. As she turned it to and fro, and the light which +trembled in the man's craven hands played quiveringly on the burnished +surface of the metal, her eyes glistened with avarice. She drew a long +breath. "It is gold!" she muttered wonderingly. + +The wretched Gridley murmured that it was. + +Glancing at him askance, and still clutching the cup as if she feared +he might snatch it from her, she plunged her other hand into the meal, +and drew out in quick succession a flagon and a small plate of the +same precious metal. Such success, as one came forth after the other, +almost frightened her. She gazed at the spoils with all her greedy +soul in her eyes. She had never handled such things before, and +scarcely ever seen them, but with intuitive avarice she knew their +value, and loved them, and clutched them to her breast. "You stole +them!" she hissed. "They are from some church. Tell me the truth." + +"They have been hidden at the Hall--since before the Squire's death," +he stammered. + +She held them out again and looked lovingly at them. When she turned +to him again, it was to wave him off. "Go!" she said fiercely, "they +are not yours. I shall take them. I shall give them to--" + +"Your husband?" he retorted desperately, moved to boldness and action +by the imminence of the danger. "Your husband? He would call them the +accursed thing, and grind them to powder and strew them on Malham +Tarn. What would you gain by that?" + +She scowled at him, knowing that what he said was true; and so they +stood a moment gazing breathlessly at one another. Before he spoke +again their eyes had made an unholy compact. "Let them remain here, +and do you play fair," he said slowly, "and I will give you the large +one." + +"I might take all," she muttered jealously. + +"No," he snarled, showing his teeth; "I should tell him." + +Her eyes fell at that, so that it scarcely needed the slight shiver +which passed over her to assure him that he had touched the right +chord. Smooth and hypocritical, and, like all hypocrites, afraid of +some one, she feared above all things her husband's stern and pitiless +code; knowing that no offence could seem more heinous or less +pardonable in his eyes than this dallying with the accursed thing, +this sin of Achan. + +So the compact was made. The larger vessel was hidden at one end of +the meal-tub, the two smaller vessels at the other end. Each +accomplice showed the same reluctance to trust the other, the same +unwillingness to take leave of the spoil; but at last the chest was +closed, and the two prepared to retire. Then a thought seemed to +strike Mistress Gridley. "Why have you brought that brat here?" she +whispered, as they prepared to mount the stairs. "Don't talk to me of +gratitude, man! Tell me the truth." + +He shifted his feet, and would have fenced with her, but she knew him, +and he gave way. "Times may change," he said. "The land and the house +may come back. Then it will be well to know where the lad is." + +"Umph!" she said. "I see." + +Perhaps her knowledge of the butler's plan prevented her being +actively cruel to the child. On the other hand, neither she nor any +one gave him a word or look of kindness. He had no place among them. +Luke was wrapt in visions. Simon was too sternly self-contained, too +completely under the mastery of his cold and ascetic faith, to give +thought or word to the boy. + +The other two had the meal chest to guard and each other to watch. + +He was left to feel the full influence of the grey moorland life. The +dismal stillness of the house, the lengthy prayers and repellent +faces, drove him out of doors; the silence and solitude of the fells, +which even in sunshine, when the peewits screamed and flew in circles, +and the sky was blue above, were dreary and lonesome, scared him +back to the house. Once a week the family went four miles to a +meeting-house, where Luke Gridley and a Bradford weaver preached by +turns. But this was the only break in his life, if a break it could be +called. In Simon's creed boyhood and youth held no place. + +Rumors of trouble and war, moreover, diverted from the child some of +the attention which the elder people might otherwise have paid him. +Sir Marmaduke Langdale's riders, scouting in front of the army which +Duke Hamilton had raised in Scotland, were reported to be no farther +off than Appleby. Any day they might descend on Settle, or a handful +of them pass the farmstead, and levy contributions in the old +high-handed Royalist fashion. Simon and Luke, wearing grimmer faces +than usual, cleaned their pikes, and got out the old buff-coats which +had lain by since Naseby, and held long conferences with their friends +at Settle. The boy, aimless and without companions, acquired a habit +of wandering in and out during these preparations, and more than once +his pale face and dwarfish form appearing suddenly in their midst gave +Luke Gridley, who was apt to weave what he saw into the unsubstantial +texture of his dreams, a start beyond the ordinary. + +"Who is that child?" he said one day, looking after him with a +troubled face. "There used to be no child here." + +"The child?" Simon exclaimed, glancing at him impatiently. "What has +the child to do with us? Let it be." + +"Let it be?" said the other, softly. "Ay, for a season. For a season. +Yet remember that it is written, 'A child shall discover the matter.'" + +"Tush!" Simon answered angrily. "This is folly. Isn't it written also, +resist the devil, and he will fly from you!" + +"Ay, the devil--and his angels," Luke repeated gently. + +Simon shrugged his shoulders. Nevertheless he too, when he next met +the lad wandering aimlessly about, looked at him with new eyes. Though +he was subject to no active delusions himself, he had a strong and +superstitious respect for his brother's fantasies. He began to watch +the boy about, and surprising him one day in a solitary place in the +act of forming patterns on the turf with stones, noted with a feeling +of dread that these took the shape of a circle and a triangle, with +other cabalistic figures as odd as they were unfamiliar. He would not +at another time have given such a trifle a second thought. But we see +things through the glasses of our own prepossessions. The morose and +rugged fanatic, who feared no odds, and whom no persecution could +bend, looked askance at the child playing unconsciously before him, +looked dubiously at the grey moor strewn with monoliths, and finally +with a shiver turned and walked homewards. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + LANGDALE'S HORSE. + + +It was well he did so, for the fiery cross had chosen that moment to +arrive; Simon found his household waiting for him at the foldgate, and +with them a red-faced man from Settle, who had ridden across the fells +with the news that Langdale's people were harrying the place. Before +the messenger had had time to come to details, the Puritan was himself +again. The light of battle gleamed in his sober eyes, his face grew +hard as his native rock. Knowing that he was looked for with anxiety, +and that at the rendezvous few would be more welcome, he lost not a +moment, but quickly, yet without hurry, fetched his pike and coat, +girt on his pistols, and filled his bandoliers. Luke, who had had some +minutes the start of him, and whose eyes burned with a sombre +enthusiasm, showed himself equally forward. When the two stood ready +at the gate, then, and then only, they discovered that the third +brother had no intention of accompanying them. He stood back on the +inner side of the wall with a frown on his pale face, his attitude a +curious mixture of shrinking and resolution. + +"Come, man, be quick!" Simon cried sharply. "What are you waiting +for?" + +"I'm not coming, Simon," was the reply. + +"Not coming?" + +"Some one must stay and take care of the place," the butler answered, +wiping his forehead. "I'll stay. Your wife will need some one." + +"Fool! what can one man do here?" the Puritan retorted fiercely. +"Come, I say. This is no time for loitering when the work calls us." + +Gridley shook his head and moistened his lips with his tongue. "I'm +not a fighting man," he muttered feebly. + +For a moment the elder brother glared at him, as though he were minded +to cross the fence and strike him down. Fortunately, however, Simon +found a vent for his passion as effectual and more characteristic. "If +you do not fight, you do not eat," he said coldly. "At any rate in my +house. Mistress," he continued to his wife, "see that my orders are +obeyed. Give that craven neither bit nor sup until I come again. If he +will not fight he shall not feed!" + +And with that he went. + +When little Jack came back to the house an hour later, and crept shyly +into the kitchen, as his manner was, he found it empty. The light was +beginning to wane, and the coming evening already filled the corners +of the gaunt, silent room, in which not even a clock ticked, with +shadows. The boy stood awhile, looking about him and listening in the +stillness for any movement in the inner room, or on the floor above. +Hearing none, he went outside in a kind of panic; but there too he +found no one. Still, the light gave him courage to re-enter and mount +the stairs. He called "Gridley!" again and again, but no one answered. +He tried Luke's room; it was empty. On this the lad was about to fly +again in a worse panic than before--for the loneliness of the house +might have appalled an older heart than his--when the sound of +footsteps relieved his fears. He stole to the window, and saw the +butler and Mistress Gridley come round the corner of the house, the +former carrying a spade on his shoulder. + +Jack wondered timidly what they had been about with the spade, and +where Simon and Luke were; but naturally he got no explanation, and +was glad to escape from the grim looks with which they greeted him. It +was time for the evening meal, and the woman set it on, and gave him +his share as usual. The butler, however, he saw with surprise took no +part in it, but sat at a distance with a scowl on his face, and +neither ate nor drank. On the other hand, Mistress Gridley ate more +than usual. Indeed, he had never seen her in better appetite or +spirits, She rallied her companion, too, on his abstinence so +pleasantly and with so much good-temper, that the child was quite +carried away by her humor, and went to bed in better spirits than had +been his since the beginning of his life at Malham. + +In the morning it was the same, with the exception that Gridley looked +strangely pale about the cheeks. Again he took no share of the meal, +but in the middle of breakfast he came up to the table in an odd, +violent fashion, falling back only when Mistress Gridley snatched up a +knife, and made a playful thrust at him. She laughed at the same time, +but the laugh was not musical, and the child, detecting a false note +in it, grew puzzled. Even for him the scene had lost its humor. The +man's face, as he retired cowed and baffled to the window-seat, where +the side light brought out all that was most repulsive in his craven +features, told a tale there was no mistaking. The child stayed awhile, +fascinated by the spectacle, and saw the woman take her seat on the +meal chest and spin, smiling and patient, while Gridley gnawed his +nails and devoured her with his eyes. But the longer he watched the +more frightened he grew; and at last he broke the spell with an +effort, and fled to the purer air outside. + +He was wise, for the morn was at its best. It was the most perfect +morning of the year. Ingleborough had no cap on, Penighent stood up +hard and sharp against the blue sky. The summer sunshine, unrelieved +by a single cloud or so much as a wreath of mist, fell hotly on the +open moor, where the larks sank and the bees hummed, and the boy's +heart rose in sympathy with the life about him. Feeling an unwonted +lightness and cheerfulness, he started to climb the fell at the back +of the house, following the right bank of the hollow in which the +yew-trees grew. This hollow, as it rose to a level with the upper +moor, spent itself in a dozen fissures, which, radiating in every +direction, drained the moss. Some were three or four feet deep, some +ten or twelve, with steep and everhanging edges. + +Presently the boy found his progress barred by one of these, and +peeping into its shadowy depths, which a little to his left melted +into the gloom of the yew-trees, grew timid and stopped, sitting down +and looking back the way he had come, to gain courage. For a while his +eyes dwelt idly on the sunny slope. Then on a sudden he saw a sight +which he remembered all his life. + +A quarter of a mile below the house, a road crossed the moor. On this +a solitary horseman had just appeared, urging a piebald horse to a +tired trot, while continually looking back the way he had come. The +boy had scarcely remarked him and the strange color of his steed, when +a second rider came into sight over the brow, with a man running by +his side and clinging to his stirrup-leather. To him succeeded two +more horsemen, trotting abreast and spurring furiously; and then while +the lad wondered what it all meant, and who these people were, a +single footman topped the brow, and after running a score of +paces--but not in the direction the others had taken--flung himself +down on his face among the bracken. + + +[Illustration: Flung himself on his face among the bracken.--Page 59.] + + +He had scarcely executed this man[oe]uvre, when a party of six men, +three mounted--the boy could see them rising and falling briskly in +their stirrups--and three running beside them, appeared above the +ridge, and quickening their pace followed with a loud cry on the +others' heels. The cry seemed to spur on the fugitives--such he now +saw the first party to be--to fresh exertions, but despite this, the +two horsemen who brought up the rear were quickly overtaken by the +six. The lad saw a tiny flash and heard a faint report. One of the two +threw up his arms and fell backwards. The other made as if he would +have turned his horse to meet his pursuers; but it shied and carried +him across the moor. Two of the six rode after him, one on either +side, and the lad saw the flash of their blades in the sunshine as +they rained cuts on his head and shoulders--which the poor wretch +vainly strove to shield by raising his arms--till he too sank down, +and the two turned back to their comrades, who were still following +after the three who survived. + +The boy, sick and shuddering, and utterly unmanned by the sight he had +seen, hid his eyes; and for a time saw no more. His very heart melted +within him for terror and for pity. Sweating all over, he rolled +himself into a little hollow beside him where the ground sank, and lay +there trembling. By-and-by he heard a scream, and then another, and +each time he drew in his breath and closed his eyes. Then silence fell +again upon the moor. The bees hummed round him. A peewit screamed and +wheeled above his head. + +He plucked up heart after a while to peep fearfully over the edge of +the little basin in which he lay, and saw that the six men were +retracing their steps, but not, as they had gone, in a body. They were +now beating the moor backwards in a long line, each man a score of +paces from his neighbor. The lad, after watching them a moment, had +wit enough to understand what they were doing, and from his elevated +position could see also their quarry, who had lost no time in removing +himself from the spot where he had first thrown himself down in the +fern. He was half way up the fell now, on a level with the farm, and a +hundred paces above the uppermost of his enemies. Apparently he was +satisfied with his position, or despaired of bettering it, for he lay +still, though the searchers drew each moment nearer. + +Jack could see their flushed cheeks and streaming brows as they toiled +along in the sunshine, probing the fern with pikes and going sometimes +many yards out of the way to inspect a likely bush. He felt his heart +stand still when they halted opposite the man's lair and seemed to +suspect something; and again he felt it race on as if it would choke +him, when they passed by unnoticing, and began to quarter the ground +towards the farm. + +Their backs were scarcely turned before the man, whose conduct from +the first had proved him a hardy and resolute fellow, moved again, and +crawling stealthily on his stomach, as the ground afforded him +shelter, began to make his way up the hill. The lad, lying still and +fascinated, watched him; forseeing that the fugitive's course must +bring him, if pursued, to the hollow in which he lay, yet unable to +move or escape. It seemed an age before the man reached the mound, and +wriggling himself up its least exposed side, pushed his head +cautiously over the rim, and met the boy's eyes. + +Both started violently; but whereas Jack saw before him only a +swollen, blood-stained face, white and haggard with fatigue, and half +disguised by a kerchief which covered the man's brow and came down to +his eyes, the man saw more--much more. + +"Jack!" he muttered, the instinct of caution remaining with him even +in his great astonishment. "Jack! Why, don't you know me, lad? It is +I, Frank." + +"Frank?" + +"Ay, Frank! You know me now." + +The boy did know him then, more by his voice than his face; and broke +into a passion of weeping, holding out his hands and murmuring +incoherent words. The fugitive whom chance had brought to his feet was +his brother! the brother whom he had not seen for more than a year, of +whose misfortunes and misdeeds he had dimly heard, the brother whom he +had mourned as dead! + +Twelve months of hardship and danger and rough companionship had +changed Frank Patten much, inwardly as well as outwardly; but they had +not sapped the family tie nor closed his heart against such a meeting +as this. He crept into the hollow beside the child with every nobler +feeling in his nature aroused, and with one eye on the moor below and +one on him strove to comfort him. + +Courage is contagious. The elder brother possessed it in a peculiar +degree, uniting the daring of youth to the hardihood and resource +which as a rule come only of long experience; and Jack was not slow to +feel his influence. The boy quickly stilled his sobs and dried his +tears. In such crises resolutions are formed rapidly, the impulse to +help is instinctive. In a few moments he was back in the old place, +watching the moor; while Frank, whose bandaged head was so much more +likely to catch the eye and attract attention, lay resting in the lap +of the hollow. + +"Do you see them now?" Frank asked presently, when he had somewhat +recovered his breath and strength. + +"They are standing in front of the farm," Jack answered. "Now they are +beating the ground towards the further brow." + +Frank nodded. "They think I must have doubled back," he said coolly. +"It was a narrow squeak, but I am all right as it is, if I can get +three things." + +"What are they, Frank?" Jack asked timidly, gazing with awe and +admiration at the ragged, blood-stained, sinewy figure beside him. + +"Water, food, and a hiding-place," his brother answered tersely; "but +first, water. The sun has burned me to a cinder, and I am parched with +thirst. I little thought when I rode gaily into Settle yester-even +that this would come of it. But the game is not fought out yet." + +"Have they not beaten you?" Jack ventured to ask. + +"Not a bit of it!" his brother answered with a reckless laugh. "'Twas +only an affair of outposts, lad. In a week, Duke Hamilton will be at +Preston with thirty thousand gallant fellows at his back. It will not +be a handful of disbanded troopers will scatter it. But I thirst, +Jack, I thirst." + +Jack slid back into the hollow and sprang to his feet. "There is a +spring at the back of the house," he said eagerly. "I can go to it +through the yew-trees, Frank, and be back in five minutes, or ten at +most. But I have nothing to carry the water in, and the pitcher is +kept in the house." + +In a trice Frank pulled off one of his long boots. "Take that," he +said. "It is as nearly water-tight as awl and needle and good leather +can make it. Many a man has used a worse blackjack. But can you go and +return unseen, lad?" + +"Trust me," said Jack, bravely, taking up the boot. "You shall see." + +He had just bethought him of the fissure in the moss which had set a +limit to his explorations. It ran athwart the slope a few paces behind +the hollow in which he lay, and seemed to promise safe and secret +access through the yew coppice to the rear of the house where the well +was. Nodding confidently to his brother, he crawled back to the rift; +then dropping into it where it grew shallow, a little to the right, he +turned down it and followed it until it presently opened into the dell +in which the yew-trees grew. Their cool shadow no longer terrified +him, for he was thinking of another, and had a purpose; two things +which form the best of armor against empty fears. Carrying the boot +with caution, so that it might not be seen easily or at once were he +surprised, he plunged into the gloom under the trees, and creeping +along, presently reached the spring, which lay a few paces only from +the back of the house. + +It was clear of the trees, and here he had to venture something. He +waited and listened, and presently heard Mistress Gridley's voice. She +was on the farther side of the house talking to some of the Puritan +troopers, who had dismounted at the wall of the fold, and were +discussing their victory. Taking his courage in his hand the boy +advanced to the spring, and dipping the boot, staggered back with it +into the shelter of the trees, where he lay a moment under cover to +assure himself that he had not been observed. Quickly satisfied on +this point, and the more quickly as he discovered that the boot leaked +a little, he lost no more time, but hastening back the way he had +come, in three or four minutes reached the surface of the moor, and +had the satisfaction of seeing his brother plunge his burning face +into the boot and quench his thirst with water of his providing. + +Never had the boy known so proud a moment. It was an epoch in his +life. He was athirst himself, his lips were parched and his mouth was +burning, but he would have suffered a hundred times as much before he +would have taken a drop. He looked on, glowing with happiness: fear +and weakness, heat and thirst all forgotten. For he had done a man's +deed. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE MEAL CHEST. + + +It was high noon, and the sun shone hotly on the hillside where the +two lay. The rim of the hollow which sheltered them from hostile eyes +kept off also such light breezes as were blowing, and served to +collect and focus the burning rays. Jack panted and fanned himself, +longing for shade and water, and cool sounds. But no thought of +deserting his brother occurred to his mind. When Frank looked up at +last, after drinking three long draughts from his queer blackjack, he +found the lad had gone bravely back to his post of espial, and was +searching the moor with diligent eyes. + +Wonder and astonishment stirred afresh in the hunted man's breast. +"Why, Jack, lad," he said, gazing at him as if he now for the first +time comprehended the full strangeness of his presence; "how come you +to be here? I thought you were safe at Pattenhall, thirty miles off." + +"Gridley brought me," Jack answered, lowering his voice cautiously. + +"Old Gridley! He did, did he! He is a rogue if ever there was one. But +why did he bring you? And why here?" + +Jack explained, as far as his knowledge went; which was not far. +Frank's worldly wisdom, gained in a hard school, helped him to the +rest. + +"I see," he replied, nodding darkly. "The old schemer had his own +reasons for a sudden flitting. And he thought it a fine stroke to get +possession of you, in case our cause and his Majesty's should come +uppermost again--as, please Heaven, it will now. But you had better +have stopped at Pattenhall, Jack," Frank continued gravely. "Those +crop-eared knaves must have done something for you. They don't fight +with children, to do them justice." + +"Still, I am glad I came, Frank," Jack said softly. + +"So am I, lad," his brother answered. "That water and you saved my +life. I could not have held out till night, and I should not have +known where to turn for it myself. But we are being scorched here, and +the buzzing of the bees goes through my head. You said something of a +yew wood? It sounds better. Could I crawl there without being seen, +think you?" + +Jack told him, sliding down eagerly, how he had come and gone, and +described the position of the fissure in the moss. + +"The very thing!" the fugitive cried, his face lighting up. "I know +the kind of thing. There are no better hiding, places. They turn and +twist and throw off a dozen branches. And the nearer the house, if +these Gridleys are Parliament men, the better. They will not be +suspected of hiding malignants. Is the coast clear?" + +Jack answered in the affirmative, and eagerly led the way, his brother +crawling after him, through bracken and under gorse-bushes, and over +hot patches of turf where the sun grilled them, until the edge of the +rift was safely gained. Here Frank fell over at once into the cool +depth, and then standing up helped Jack down. The shade and the +feeling of moisture which prevailed in this under-world were so +welcome that for a moment the two stood leaning against the dark wall, +the overhanging edge of peat effectually protecting them from the +sun's rays. The chasm at this point was about eight feet deep and six +wide; the bottom of a dull white color, with water percolating over +it. Away to the right it grew more shallow, and after throwing out +numerous channels, rose at last to the level of the moor it drained. +To the left it grew deeper, attaining a depth of twelve or fourteen +feet where it opened on the ravine behind the house. + +"Good!" Frank said, looking round him with sombre satisfaction. "I can +find a dozen hiding-places here, and lie as snug and cool in the +meantime as a nymph in a grot. The rogues are lazy, or they would have +climbed the brow an hour ago. They will not do so now. One thing only +remains, and that is the question of food." + +"I will fetch some!" Jack cried impetuously. + +"Yes, but softly," his brother answered, laying his hand on his arm, +and restraining him. "It is past dinner-time, and you will have been +missed, my lad. There will be strange eyes in the house, and you will +not find it so easy to slip away again unnoticed. Whatever you do, +bide your time. I shall not starve for a bit; but if I am taken--and a +careless word or a hasty step may bring these gentry upon us--they may +give me quarter; and little gain to me!--a drum-head court-martial for +breach of parole will do the rest." + +His face grew hard, and instead of meeting the boy's eyes he looked +downward and moodily kicked a lump of peat with his foot. Jack longed +to ask the meaning of that phrase "breach of parole" which he had +heard so often of late in connection with his brother's name. He did +not dare to put the question, but his patience was presently rewarded, +for Frank began to speak again, not to him, but to himself. + +"A promise!" he muttered, his face still dark. "A promise under +compulsion is no promise. If I promised not to bear arms for the king +again, it was a promise made to rebels, and against my duty and +theirs, and was null and void from the beginning! Who shall say it was +not, or that my honor was concerned in it? Still, these Roundheads, if +they catch me, will fling it in my face! And Duke Hamilton looked +coldly on me. I would, after all," he added, in a voice still louder, +"that I had not taken Goring's advice." + +What Goring had advised was so clear, though Frank said no more, that +Jack looked at his brother with his eyes full of sympathy. He saw, +with the astonishing clearness which children possess, that Frank's +conscience was ill at ease--so ill at ease that the mere thought of +his broken parole, now it was too late to undo the wrong, brought all +that was hard, and fierce, and desperate in his nature to the surface, +mingling a kind of ferocity with his native courage, and converting +hardihood into recklessness. Comprehending this, the lad gazed at him +with a face full of timid sympathy; until Frank, awakening from his +absent fit, glanced suddenly up and met his look. + +"What! have you not gone?" he said roughly, and with a reddening +cheek. "You do not help me by staring at me like a dead pig! If you +can get food, no matter what it is, don't bring it here. You may be +followed. Lay it down at the opening of this rat-run, where you enter +it from the house. I shall find it when the coast is clear." + +His manner was changed, and Jack would have been more than mortal if +he had not felt the change. It hurt and disappointed him sorely; +coming just when he had done all he could. But he hid his chagrin, +and, turning obediently away, set off without a word down the rift, +and thence through the wood of yews, where the sheltering gloom was +now as welcome to him as it had been before alarming. As he approached +the house, however, and the immediate necessity of facing Mistress +Gridley and the brothers with an unmoved countenance forced itself +upon him, he paused involuntarily, trembling under the sense of sudden +fear which beset him. The horrible events of the morning, the cries of +the men whom he had seen cut down on the moor, his brother's danger, +and the consequences of a hapless word, all rushed into his mind +together, and for the moment, if the word may be used of so young a +child, unmanned him. Clutching the trunk of the last tree he had to +pass, he leaned against it in a very ague of terror; afraid to go +forward, shaking at the very thought of going forward and facing those +unfriendly eyes, yet knowing that if he would save his brother, if he +would not shame his blood and breeding, he must go forward. + + +[Illustration: He leaned against it in a very ague of terror.--Page +75.] + + +While he stood in this agony--for it was nothing less--butler Gridley, +loitering about the back-door with thoughts and for a purpose of his +own, espied him; and with a stealthy foot and a glance in the +direction of the house, made towards him. The least observant eye must +have detected the boy's terror, or seen at least that he was laboring +under some strange emotion. But Gridley's eyes were not observant at +all; they were only hungry. He had fasted against his will for +twenty-four hours, and his plump cheeks were pallid. He had a wolf +within him that demanded all his attention. He saw in the boy only a +means of satisfying his craving. + +"Jack!" he whispered, with his lips almost at the boy's ear and his +eyes devouring his face, "I have always been good to you. I want you +to do something. It is a little thing," he repeated feverishly. "It is +a nothing. Just----" + +He had got so far--and alas! for him, no farther--when a harsh, +discordant laugh behind him caused him to straighten himself as if an +unseen hand had propelled him. "Let the child alone!" Mistress Gridley +cried from the door; "do you hear me? I will have no plotting and +colloguing in my house! And do you, Jack, come here!" + +There was a world of sarcasm in the woman's gibing tone; and it cut +the butler like a knife. He crept away with a savage glare in his +eyes. The boy went slowly to the door with thoughts happily diverted +from the weighty issues which had a moment before overburdened him. +The incident was, indeed, his salvation; for, though the woman could +not fail to remark his embarrassment, she naturally set it down to the +wrong cause, supposing merely that the butler had been trying to +corrupt him. + +"Where have you been all day?" she cried roughly, hustling him into +the house--so violently that he stumbled on the threshold. "You don't +deserve your food either," she continued, shaking him fiercely, +"playing truant all day! But you shall have it, if only to tantalize +that craven fool yonder. Where have you been, eh? You will stop at +home in future, do you hear? This is your place--inside these four +walls--until this business is over. You remember that, my lad, or it +will be the worse for you!" + +Simon Gridley and two men, whom the boy did not know, were in the +kitchen, sitting dour and silent over the remains of a meal. They +looked up on the boy's entrance, but took no further notice of him. +The woman set food before him, scolding all the while, and then went +off to her work in the back premises. The boy had little heart to eat; +but presently he found occasion while Simon was talking to the two +strangers (who were brothers, of the name of Edgington, ex-troopers +and weavers of Bradford) to secrete part of his meal inside his +jacket. Mistress Gridley, when she came back, looked sharply at what +he had left; but the boy had eaten so little that her suspicions were +not aroused, and she flounced away with the platter, bidding him +remain indoors and sit where he was. + +She had scarcely gone when Luke entered and joined the party by the +window, and there ensued much solemn jubilation over the morning's +work and the peculiar judgments vouchsafed to the neighborhood; and +particularly over the reported arrival at Ripon of Lieutenant-General +Cromwell, with forces which might be trusted to give a good account of +the Scotch army. Jack, sitting trembling on a stool in a corner of the +fireless chimney-place, heard their sanguine predictions and +shuddered. He knew Cromwell by name, and dimly associated him with +Marston Moor, and the sad night which had seen his father ride home to +die. The kitchen grew to the lad's eyes as he listened full of dark +shadows and forebodings of fate. The men who loomed between him and +the window seemed to increase in size. Only the purpose he had in his +mind, and the necessity of action if he would pursue it, saved him +from breaking down and bursting into childish weeping. + +By dint of fixing his mind on this, however, he steadied himself; and +by-and-by, choosing a moment when the talk was loud, stole across the +room to a tub in which the oatcake was kept. Ordinary the lid lay +loose upon it: now, to his huge disappointment, he found it locked! +Baffled, and more than half inclined to cry, he wandered back to his +place and resumed his seat on the floor, affecting to be engaged in +playing with two billets of wood. In reality his thoughts were keenly +at work. The cheese and cake he had secreted were scarcely worth +carrying to his brother. Where could he get more? + +It occurred to him at last that, failing everything else, raw oatmeal +might be of use. Inspired by the thought, he rose and sauntered round +three sides of the room until he reached the chest. Pretending to play +about it he presently tried the lid, and to his joy found it +unfastened. He raised it cautiously an inch or two, and thrusting his +hand in found the wooden bowl which was used for measuring the meal. +He filled this, and withdrew it successfully. Then he let the lid fall +without noise. + +He had still to escape unseen with his plunder, but the men were so +busily engaged in talk that he feared no interruption from them, and +Mistress Gridley was neither to be heard nor seen. He moved towards +the back door, opened it, and slipped outside, holding the bowl under +the skirt of his jacket. The afternoon sun shone in his eyes, and for +a moment he stood blinking like an owl in the daylight, so great was +the change from the cool, sombre kitchen. Softly he advanced a step. +Before he could take another, a heavy hand fell on his shoulder, and +Mistress Gridley had him in her clutch. + +"You little thief!" she screamed, her voice shrill with savage +triumph, "I have caught you, have I? You thought to deceive me, did +you? To deceive me, you little ninny? What is this, eh? Whose is +this?" she repeated, grasping the child's wrist, and forcing him to +hold up the little bowl of meal which his fingers still gripped +mechanically. "Whose is this, eh? Is it yours? This way, my little +thief; this way!" + +She dragged him into the kitchen, and exulting in her own sharpness, +told the men, who had risen at the sound of her outcry, how she had +caught him. "He thought himself clever," she continued, shaking him to +and fro without mercy, "but he was not clever enough for me!" + +"What did he want with the meal?" one of the strangers asked +suspiciously. "It looks to me very much as if----" + +"What?" Mistress Gridley asked rudely. + +"As if the malignant who gave us the slip this morning were hid here, +and had employed this boy to get him food." + +The woman sniffed contemptuously. "Stuff and rubbish!" she said. "The +meal is for the cowardly sneak who brought the boy here. He is +outside, on short commons," she continued, laughing without mirth. + +"I met him going down to Settle," Luke said briefly. "Ay, but the +child did not know he was gone," she answered with confidence. "The +child did not know it, do you see? But I will make him know enough not +to steal again, the little thief!" + +The men nodded in stern approval. "Open me that closet door," Mistress +Gridley continued, pointing with her unoccupied hand to a cupboard +made in the thickness of the wall beside the chimney, and used in +winter for storing wood. "I will lock him up there for the present. It +is nice and dark. He may keep the oatmeal, and when he has finished +it, but not before, we will see about finding him some other food. In +with you!" she continued, dragging the boy forcibly to the place; "the +beetles will keep you company!" and pushing him in, she closed the +door and locked it upon him. + +So far the boy had neither spoken nor resisted. But finding the door +closed on him inexorably, and the horrors of the black closet round +him--horrors which a child alone can thoroughly comprehend--he flung +himself, shrieking loudly, against the door. He beat on it with his +hands, he kicked it, he cried frantically to be let out. The woman +listened and laughed cruelly. "It is as good as beating him, and less +labor," she said. "Take no heed of him, and he will soon tire of +shouting." + +The men laughed too--the boy was a thief--and went back to their talk, +while the woman sat down to her wheel. The child's cries were music to +her ears; and yet she was ill at ease. The butler had gone down to +Settle, had he? What if he had visited a certain place among the +yew-trees before going, and dug a little? She did not think he +would have had the courage to play her such a trick. Still it was +possible--it was possible, and she longed for night that she might go +to the place and have the assurance of her own eyes. + +For a time the boy raved and beat the door, his fear increased by that +sense of physical oppression which children, and many who are not +children, experience when shut up in a confined space without the +power of freeing themselves. By-and-by, however, as the woman had +predicted, he grew calmer. He had a talisman which availed, when the +first paroxysm had spent itself, to keep selfish terrors at a +distance; and that was the thought of his brother. In proportion as +his sobs grew feebler his brain grew clearer. Anxiety on Frank's +account took the place of fear for himself. Crouching beside the door +with his ear laid against it, he drew such comfort from the murmur of +voices and the thin line of light which marked the threshold, that he +grew almost content with his position. He was safe from further +punishment. Only there was his brother. He pictured Frank waiting and +looking for him, waiting and looking in vain for the food which did +not come! And this fancy causing his tears to flow again, in the +middle of a stifled sob he fell asleep. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + TREASURE TROVE. + + +When he awoke and found himself in darkness, he could not for a time +understand where he was. The line of light which had comforted him was +gone, and with it the homely sounds of kitchen life. He stretched his +sore limbs in the darkness and shivered, looking timidly for the +outline of a window. Finding none, he put out his hand to feel for his +bedfellow, and lit instead on the rough surface of the door, against +which he had sunk down in his sleep until only his head rested upon +it. + +The touch recalled everything to the boy's mind. With a low whimper of +alarm he sat up, and crouching against the door, which seemed some +kind of company, listened, holding his breath. All was still in the +house, and he presently comprehended that it was night and that the +family had gone to bed, leaving him there. + +Use and sleep had rendered him in a way familiar with his prison, and +he did not on making this discovery break into any loud wailing. +Instead, he huddled himself with a moan into as small a space as +possible, and not daring to put out his hand again lest it should rest +on some horror, some crawling thing or clammy hand, he tried with all +his might to go to sleep. He was dozing off and had almost succeeded, +when a slight noise aroused him. In a moment a light shone under the +door. + +He scrambled eagerly to his feet, and tapped softly. "Gridley!" he +whispered, "Gridley! Is that you?" + +No one answered, but the bearer of the light seemed to pause in the +middle of the floor as if struck by a sudden thought. Then Jack heard +the bolts of the outer door withdrawn, and even in his closet felt a +rush of cold air. Some one was going out! + +"Gridley! Gridley!" he cried desperately. "Let me out, will you? +Please let me out." + +But Gridley, if Gridley it was, took no heed. The light disappeared, +and Jack heard the door close as softly as it had been opened. + +He sat down, whimpering and wondering. The use of candles was so +uncommon in that house that he could not remember to have once seen +one lighted, though he knew that a lanthorn hung behind the kitchen +door. Who then was this who used them, and went in and out by night +with a foot fall which scarcely broke the stillness? The lad felt his +hair move and his skin creep as he crouched trembling in the darkness. +Then, on a sudden, he heard the door creak afresh and the footstep +return--the same stealthy, cautious footstep, it seemed to him, which +he had heard before. But this time there was no light. + +None the less was he sure that some one was now standing in the middle +of the floor, within a yard or two of his place of confinement. His +ears, strained to the utmost, caught the sound of hurried breathing +close to him, and besides he had that ill-defined sense of another's +presence which we are all apt to feel. Terrified as he was, he still +clung desperately to the idea that it was Gridley, and he called the +man's name again, his voice shaking with fear. To his surprise he this +time got an answer. + +"Hush!" some one muttered in the darkness. "Who is that?" + +"It is I--Jack," the boy cried joyfully "Please to let me out." + +"Where are you?" + +"I am locked in the closet by the fireplace, Gridley." + +"Hush! Is the key in the door?" + +"I think so!" Jack answered desperately. "Oh, please, please let me +out." + +There was the sound of a hand being passed over the door, as if some +one unacquainted with it, and uncertain on which side it opened, were +groping for the fastening. It seemed an age to the boy before the key +grated suddenly in the lock and the door yielded, and he felt the cold +air rush in. For a moment he still hung back. + +"Is it you, Gridley?" he whispered timidly, putting out his hand and +trying to pierce the darkness, which was scarcely less dense in the +kitchen than in the closet. + +"No, it is I--Frank!" his brother's voice answered. And thereon a hand +seized him roughly by the shoulder and drew him out. "I must have +food--food!" the voice hissed in his ear. "Don't waste a moment, lad, +but tell me where it is kept. The woman is outside digging among the +trees--heaven knows on what witch's errand! She may return at any +moment. Where is the food kept?" + +The harsh, fierce note in his brother's voice did more than any words +to persuade the boy of the necessity of haste. Collecting his senses +as well as he could, he answered, "Will oatmeal do, Frank?" + +"Better than nothing," was the answer. "Where is the tub? Lead me to +it." + +Jack felt his way to the chest, and found it; to his joy it was still +unfastened. His brother rapidly took out several handfuls and thrust +them into his pouch. "Have you no cheese, oatcake, nothing else, lad?" +he muttered. + +Jack remembered the scraps of cheese and cake which he still carried +in the bosom of his jacket, and gave them into the other's hand. "Now +I am off," Frank muttered on the instant. "I can do with this until +to-morrow night. If the woman finds me here I must do her a mischief, +and I do not want to. So good-night, lad!" + +He glided hurriedly away, leaving the child standing in the middle of +the floor. Jack heard him go, and heard the door open and shut; and +still stood listening, wondering whether it was all a dream, or his +brother had really been and was gone. Assured at length that he had +had to do with reality, he wondered what course he ought to take +himself. He had no mind to go back to his former prison, in comparison +with which his hard bed upstairs seemed the height of comfort; and so +he presently crept to the closet door, and turned the key, and then +felt his way up to his room. Gridley was not there, but this troubled +him little. He threw off his clothes in a hurry, and in a moment was +in bed, where he lay listening with all his ears. He heard Mistress +Gridley come back, and detected the sound of the key as she turned it +in the outer door. He trembled lest she should come up to look for +him, but nothing of the kind happened; and while he still listened, +the fatigues of the day proved too much for him and he fell asleep. + +It was broad day, and the sun had been up for hours, and the house +astir as many, when he awoke in his bed and found three people gazing +at him. Instinctively at sight of their faces he began to cry, +expecting a blow, or to be roughly plucked up and upbraided for his +laziness. But no blow came, nor did either of the three persons who +looked at him with eyes of such astonishment and perplexity offer to +touch him. + +"You are sure that the door was really locked?" one of the men was +saying when he awoke. + +"Am I sure that you stand there?" the woman answered tartly. "Am I one +to make a mistake of that kind?" + +Simon Gridley shook his head. "I remember now," he muttered, "that I +tried the door myself. It was locked sure enough." + +"And it was locked this morning," Mistress Gridley added. + +Luke's eyes, always wild, glittered with excitement. It was difficult +to believe that he saw or could see anything except helplessness in +the child who quaked and shrank before them: but so it was. "There are +those whom locks will not bind, but they shall be bound on the Great +Day!" he said in a hollow voice; "of such it is written, 'These sholl +ye make to cease from the earth!'" + +"Tut tut!" Simon answered sternly. "This is folly. What does the lad +say himself? Who let him out?" + +"Ay, who let you out, you imp of Satan?" the woman cried fiercely. + +But the boy discerned that, with all her fierceness, panic and terror +possessed her; and it was this evidence of an evil conscience which +inspired him to answer as he did, "A woman came down stairs with a +light in a lanthorn," he said. + +The men stared and waited for more, but the woman recoiled with a pale +face. "You little liar!" she cried hoarsely. "What woman? What woman +is there here?" + +The boy shook his head. "I did not see her face," he said, "but she +came down with a lanthorn." + +Mistress Gridley gasped. The boy knew something, but she could not +tell how much. And then beyond this doubt lay the mystery, which was +as much of a mystery to her as to the others, how he came to be here +instead of in the locked cupboard. + +"Bring the lanthorn!" Simon Gridley exclaimed on a sudden. "We can see +if it has been lately used, at any rate; and so far test his story." + +His wife went for it. When she returned with it, it was empty. "There +is no candle in it," she said sullenly. "The boy is a liar." + +Simon took it from her hand and thrust his nose into the opening. +"Softly, woman," he said. "It has been used within the week. Come, +boy," he continued sharply, "who opened the door for you?" + +"I saw no one," the child answered with tears. "There was a woman with +a lanthorn. But I saw no one when the door was opened!" + +Simon glared at him impatiently, and raised his hand as if he were +minded to try if a little correction would not render his account more +intelligible; but Luke, breaking in with one of his fierce rhapsodies, +called off his brother's attention, and the three, without further +questioning, went downstairs to discuss the matter there. Simon alone, +however, was able to do so with any degree of coolness and judgment; +for though the woman did not altogether agree with Luke's +interpretation, or find his gloomy fancies convincing, she had more +substantial reasons than either of the others for fearing and hating +the child: and no more notion than they had how he had contrived to +free himself from the closet in which she had placed him. That riddle +she could not read; and the longer she considered it, the darker grew +her thoughts and suspicions, until nothing, not even Luke's sombre +theory, seemed too strange or too improbable for belief. Conscience +makes not only cowards of us all, but the most credulous of cowards. + +Jack would scarcely have escaped further examination but for the +return of the butler; who brought such news as not only broke up the +family council, but caused the bearer to be taken back into +fellowship. The main road westward to Clitheroe and Preston crossed +the moor not far from the house. He came to say that the advanced +guard of the Parliamentary army was even then passing along it. Simon +and Luke, with the Edgingtons, who arrived at the moment, hurried off +on the instant to a sight than which none could be better calculated +to fill their stern breasts with joy. This left Mistress Gridley and +the butler together, and they had so much to say to one another that +the boy, stealing timidly downstairs, found himself ignored, and, +seizing the opportunity, slipped out on his own account at the back of +the house. Taking every precaution he could think of to avoid notice, +he passed through the yew-trees, and reached the mouth of the rift in +safety. + +Here he waited a little, sitting on the ground, and presently Frank +came to him. "Are you quite sure you are not followed, lad?" he said, +glancing warily round. + +Jack replied that he was, and brought out a little food which he had +managed to secrete. Then he told his brother what he had heard about +the march of Cromwell's army. "They say the main body will pass +to-morrow," he added. + +"Preston way, do you say?" + +"Yes." + +Frank's face grew dark and thoughtful. "If he is in strength he will +take them by surprise," he muttered. "What does he number, I wonder? +Has he got only Ashton and the western Presbyterians, or is his +southern army with him? If I knew, I would get across the moors at all +risks, and take the news. But it would not do to go with wolf in one's +mouth, and be called a fool and a croaker for pay!" + +"They talk of twenty-five thousand men passing to-morrow," Jack said. + +"If that be true, and the Duke be marching, as he was marching three +days back, with his head a score of miles from his tail, he will be +cut in two as surely as he lives!" Frank cried with an oath. He +started up and began to pace the hollow, three steps this way and +three that, while Jack watched him eagerly. Four-and-twenty hours of +skulking had not improved the fugitive's appearance. He was hatless +and had lost his sword. His face was caked with dust and sweat, his +clothes were frayed and stained with blood. He had torn off part of +one sleeve to bind his head, and this, with his unshaven chin and +haggard eyes, contributed to his wild and desperate appearance. + +Yet the boy looked at him with pure admiration. The lad felt himself a +man by reason of the share he had in his perils. The younger brother +longed to help the elder. "You can see the road from the lower moor," +he said eagerly; "that is no more than a mile from here. Could you not +go there and see them pass, Frank, and then go to the Duke?" + +"Could I see them pass in these clothes?" Frank answered, with a +bitter smile. "True, I am not much like a cavalier, but I am not much +like a Parliament man either! I should have the cry raised on me +before I was a mile across the moor." + +"I forgot that," the boy said despondently. "Yet it would be a great +thing to warn Duke Hamilton, Frank, would it not? Do you think he will +be beaten if you cannot reach him?" + +The elder brother nodded gloomily, standing still and gazing at the +ground. The sides of the rift rose high above them, for the place +where Jack had seated himself to wait lay close to the yew wood, where +the fissure at its first starting from the ravine was deepest. They +had little to fear from observation; and familiarity with danger so +early breeds contempt that Frank fancied he had been in hiding here a +week instead of a day, and felt a proportionate confidence in his +lurking place. The sun lay hot on the moor: the shadow where the two +stood was cool and pleasant. + +"I suppose I could not do it," Jack said at last, humbly, and as one +expecting a rebuff. "I am afraid I could not count well enough, Frank; +but I will try, if you like." + +His brother looked at him with a sudden light in his face. "You?" he +said. "I never thought of that!" + +But he began to think of it; and as he thought, his face bore witness +to the struggle which was passing in his mind. The lad beside him was +a mere child; the risk to which he would expose him was such that a +grown man might shun it without shame. And the boy was not a child +only, but his own brother--one who had a claim upon him and a right to +expect at his hands peculiar care and protection. + + +[Illustration: But he began to think of it.--Page 108.] + + +He knew, in a word, that he was not justified in exposing the child to +the risk he meditated. But on the other side lay inclination and more +than one cunning argument. The prospect of turning defeat into +victory, and building on misfortune a claim to gratitude shone +brightly before him. He saw himself the saviour of the army, thanked, +honored, and exalted by men who had lately looked coldly on him. And +then again was it not the duty of every subject, young and old, to +dare all for the King; to think nothing which aided him dishonorable, +nor any danger by which he might profit excessive? In some such creed +he had been brought up, and it came to his help at this moment. + +"I do not see why you should not do it," he said slowly and +thoughtfully. "You would run less risk after all than a grown man, and +be subject to less suspicion." + +"Only I don't think I could count--not thousands," said Jack +despondently. + +"That is easily managed," Frank answered with a slight frown. "But you +had better not do it if you are afraid." + +"I am not afraid," Jack said, with a flushed face. "It is only the +counting, Frank." + +Frank nodded and stood awhile in doubt, twisting a bit of fern to and +fro between his fingers. "If they caught you doing it they might--I do +not know what they would do to you, Jack, lad," he said at last. + +"I do not mind," the boy cried bravely. "It is for the King, is it +not, Frank?" + +"Of course it is." + +"It might put him on the throne again, might it not, Frank?" + +"It might," said Frank. "But----" + +"What?" the boy asked, his face falling at the word. + +Frank did not answer. The child's loyalty and courage touched him +almost to the point of giving way. For a moment it was on his tongue +and in his mind to refuse the offer. But then his own past error +stepped in his way. The temptation to turn the tables by a dazzling +success on those who had blamed him for his breach of parole--the +still greater temptation to justify the breach by showing, at least, +that he had not sinned in vain, overcame him. + +"You think you could do it, lad?" he said at last--instead of that +which he had meant to say. + +"I am sure I could--if I could count," Jack answered eagerly. + +"Well, then, look here," Frank said. "Or wait a moment." + +He began to search up and down the rift until he came upon two pieces +of wood, one a foot long or something less, the other half as long. He +trimmed them with his knife, and then cutting off one of the points +which fastened his breeches at the knee, tied the two sticks together +with it in such a way that they became a rude cross. He put it into +Jack's hands, and gave him his knife also. "Now," he said, "look here! +The thing I want you to notice first and foremost, lad, is the number +of guns. For every cannon, Jack, cut a nick on this long piece. Do you +see, Jack? For a regiment of foot cut a notch on the right arm. They +will pass by in regiments, probably with a space between, for they +have discipline enough to suit old Leslie, and so you will have no +trouble with them. The horse you will not count easily, and may not be +exact with them. Still, notch them on the other arm as well as you +can, troop by troop. If you get the cannon and foot regiments right, I +shall be able to guess the horse pretty nearly." + +"And then shall I bring it to you?" Jack said, gazing with childish +pleasure at his new plaything. + +"Yes, as soon as you think that they have all passed. But do not be in +a hurry. When you come, if you do not find me, leave the cross on the +bank here under the moss. Do you understand now?" + +"Yes, I understand," said Jack. + +"It will not be the only thing hidden here," his brother continued. +"Look, lad, what do you think of that?" + +He displaced some overhanging moss with his hand, and Jack, looking +into the crevice thus revealed, fairly gasped with surprise. "Why, +they are----" + +"They are the gold vessels from Pattenhall Church!" Frank exclaimed, +in a tone of triumph. "I have despoiled the spoilers! The woman who +came out with the light last night had them buried under yonder +tree--the one you can see at the end here. Come this way, and I will +show you! When I slipped out, fearing she might surprise me, I found +her at work covering something up with a spade. I watched her go, and +then as soon as it was light I tried my luck there. I found these +little matters tied up in a napkin." + +"And you took them?" Jack said. + +"Took them? Of course I took them. I put three stones in the napkin in +place of them, and filled up the ground neatly. And one of these days +some one will be disappointed." + +"Hush!" said Jack, raising his hand quickly. "What is that?" + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + DEAD SEA APPLES. + + +The two had advanced without thought to the foot of the tree which +Frank had indicated, and in doing so had quitted the shelter of the +rift, from which an open space a dozen yards in width now separated +them. The deep shade of the yew-tree which stretched its arms above +them still afforded some protection, the glare of the sun on the +moorland intensifying its gloom and blackness. But such protection was +partial only; it could not avail against persons approaching the tree +closely. + +The horror of the two may be imagined, therefore, when they awoke +suddenly to this fact, and to the conviction that some one was +approaching--nay, was already near. Before Jack's muttered warning had +well been uttered, the sharp crack of a stick, broken under foot, and +the tones of voices drawing each moment nearer placed the danger +beyond dispute. + +For a moment the brothers stood as still as stones, the man's face +growing hard and stern as he listened and comprehended too late the +reckless folly he had committed in leaving a secure hiding-place at +that time of the day. His eyes traveled from the boy's, in which he +read a pitiful alarm more overmastering if less intense than his own, +to the space which separated him from the rift and from safety. Alas! +he measured it with a despairing eye. A moment before he could have +passed that interval at a bound, and at will; now he recognized with +an inward groan that the attempt was hopeless. A single step in that +direction must place him at once in full view of those who were +approaching. + +Would they stop short of the tree which hid him? That seemed his only +chance. He set his teeth together, and gripped Jack's shoulder hard as +he listened, and heard them still come on--come on and come nearer. +His brain sought desperately for some way, some plan of escape. At the +last moment, when all seemed lost, and less than a score of paces now +lay between him and the newcomers, he hit upon one which might +possibly help him. + +"It is that woman!" he hissed in Jack's ear. "Lie down and pretend to +be asleep! Take their attention for a moment only, and I may slip +round this tree and reach another." + +Jack, poor lad, was almost paralyzed with terror, but he understood; +and he found one part of his instructions easy enough to execute. His +knees were already so weak under him with fear and excitement that he +sank to the ground under the pressure of his brother's hand, with +scarce any volition of his own; and crouching in the shadow with his +knees drawn up to his chin, remained motionless with dismay. + +For a moment after reaching the spot, Mistress Gridley and the butler +did not see him. The boy sat deep in the shadow, and the sun shone in +their eyes as they crossed from one tree to another, and from that +one to the farthest of all. The butler had even begun the argument +afresh--they had been disputing about the removal of the treasure--and +had stuck his spade into the ground that he might lean upon it while +he talked, when he espied the pale face shining in the gloom beside +the trunk, and started with affright. "Ha!" he exclaimed in a high +tone, "what is that?" + +The woman started too. Her mind was ill at ease; and it was strange +that the child should have chosen that particular square yard of +ground to sit upon. But she recovered herself more quickly. "You +little brat!" she cried, peering at him with her eyes shaded, "what +are you doing here? Be off! Go to the house, and stay there till I +come, do you hear?" + + +[Illustration: "What is that!"--Page 118.] + + +The child did not move. + +"Do you hear, you little booby?" she repeated angrily. "Get up and be +off before I give you something to remember me by!" As she spoke, she +advanced a step nearer to him and raised her hand to strike him. + +Still the child did not move: and the woman's hand fell harmless by +her side. The peculiar pallor of the boy's face, a pallor heightened +by the shade in which he sat, his immobility, the strangeness of his +attitude and position, above all the fixed glare of his eyes, had +their effect upon her, scared and impressed as she already was by his +unexplained delivery from the closet. She hesitated and fell back a +step. + +The butler, who knew nothing of the closet episode, attributed the +move to prudence. "Soft and easy," he muttered approvingly, "or he +may suspect something. It is odd he should be here." + +"Suspect!" the woman answered with a shiver; for when a strong nature +gives way to panic, the rout is complete. "I doubt he knows. The child +is not canny," she added, staring at him in an odd, shrinking fashion. + +The butler was at all times a coward, and without understanding the +woman's reasons he felt the influence of her fear. "Not canny!" he +said uneasily; "why, what is the matter with him? Hi, Jack, my boy, +what are you doing here?" he continued, addressing the lad with a poor +attempt at good-fellowship. "Are you ill, or what is it?" + +The boy did not move. + +Gridley advanced gingerly towards him, as a timid man approaches a +strange dog. When he came near, however, and saw that it really was +the boy, little Jack Patten whom he had known from his birth, the +assurance made him laugh at the woman's fears. "Come, get up, lad," he +said roughly; "get up and go and play!" + +He seized Jack by the collar and raised him to his feet. "Jump, lad, +jump!" he said. "Be off! You will get the ague here. Go into the sun +and play!" + +The boy had shaken off his first terror. Frank, he thought, must be +safe by this time. He kept his feet therefore, but hesitated in doubt +what to do; standing, to outward view a sullen pale-faced child, +beside the dark trunk of the yew. Gridley noticed that he kept his one +hand closed, and acting on a momentary impulse asked him roughly what +he had there. The boy, without answering, opened his fingers +mechanically, disclosing three tiny whinberries which he had picked +while he talked with his brother in the rift, and had involuntarily +retained in his hand ever since. The butler struck them out of his +little palm with a disappointed "pish!" and turning him round by the +shoulder sent him off with a push. "There, go and pick some more!" he +said. "Be off! Be off!" + +The lad obeyed slowly, and with apparent reluctance. When he was out +of sight, Gridley, who had stepped a few paces from the tree that he +might watch him the better, returned and picked up his spade. "There, +he is gone!" he said, with an inquisitive look at the woman, whose +mood puzzled him. "And if you will have the things up, it must be +done. Let us lose no more time." + +He struck the spade into the ground, and began to dig, while his +companion watched him. But her face betrayed none of the greedy +excitement which had always marked it before when the treasure was in +question. Instead, it wore a look of dread and expectation. Something +like grey fear lay like a shadow upon it, and left it only when the +man stopped digging, and throwing down his spade, dragged a small +white bundle from the shallow hole he had made. + +Then she showed at last some animation. "They _are_ there," she +muttered, her eyes beginning to burn. "I fancied----" + +"Oh, they are here," he answered, chuckling as he stooped to unfasten +the napkin. "They are here, never fear! Safe bind safe find, you know, +my lady." + +Scarcely were the words out of his mouth, however, when he fell back +pale and trembling. A hideous look of disappointment and dismay took +in a moment the place of the gloating smile which had before distorted +his features. The napkin being untied disclosed three stones; no gold, +no cups, no treasure, but only three stones! + +For a moment the two stood silent and thunderstruck, gazing at the +pebbles, which in their perfect worthlessness seemed to mock them. +Then the man turned swiftly and suddenly on the woman, rage and +suspicion so transforming him, that he did not look like the same +person. "You hag!" he cried, with lips which writhed under the effort +he made to control himself. "You thieving witch! This is your work! +Where is my gold? Where is my gold, I say?" he repeated wildly. "Tell +me, or I will murder you!" And he advanced upon her, his hands opening +and shutting on the empty air. + +His frantic gestures and the passion of his manner might have appalled +even a brave man. But the woman, who had evinced less surprise and +more fear on making the discovery, waved him back with the purest +contempt. "Fool!" she hissed, with a flash of scorn in her eyes, "do +you think that I should have played this farce with you?" + +"But the gold?" he cried, cowering away from her in a moment like the +craven he was. "It is gone, woman! It is gone, you see! If you have +not taken it, who has? For heaven's sake, say you have taken it, and +hidden it somewhere else!" + +She looked darkly at him, and the look did more to persuade him she +was innocent than any words. He wrung his hands and all but wept. +"Some one has taken it," he moaned. "It is gone, and I shall never see +it again!" + +"What brought the boy sitting here?" she muttered on a sudden. + +"Jack Patten?" + +Mistress Gridley nodded with a strange look in her eyes. "Ay, little +Jack. And he had three whinberries in his hand," she continued in the +same hushed tone. "Look about, if you are not afraid. Find the +whinberries, and something may come of it!" + +He did not understand, but he saw she was in deadly earnest; and he +was a coward, and afraid of her. "The whinberries?" he stammered, +edging a pace away from her. "What of them?" + +"They are our gold cups," she muttered between fear and rage. "The +child has bewitched them." + +Gridley cried out "Nonsense." But all the same he looked quickly over +his shoulder. The sun was high and gave him courage. "The child?" he +said; "why, I have known him from his birth!" + +"Find the whinberries!" was all the answer she vouchsafed. And she +pointed imperatively to the ground. "Find them, I say, if you are not +afraid, man." + +He went down on his knees and began to search. But the earth he had +thrown out of the hole lay thick on the ground, and he failed to find +even one of them. He rose, and told the woman so; and she nodded as if +she had expected the answer. + +He shuddered at that. He saw her afraid, and he knew she feared few +things. Besides, she had all the influence over him which a strong +mind is sure to possess over a weak one. Seeing her afraid he grew +fearful also. Though he did not believe, he trembled. He remembered +how strangely the boy had looked at him, how obstinately he had +refused to speak, what an odd persistence he had shown in clinging to +that spot. Yet how had the boy known? How had he found the place? + +Doubtfully he put that thought into words, and got his answer. "How +did he get out of the wood closet when I locked him in last night?" +Mistress Gridley asked contemptuously. "I left the door locked when I +went to bed, and the boy inside. I found the door locked this morning, +but the boy was in his own bed. That is not canny." + +"He may have taken the cups without--without that," said the butler, +glancing round him with a shiver. + +"Then where are they?" the woman retorted swiftly. "Or do you mean +that he took them and hid them, and then came again and sat on the +place for us to find him? I tell you the lad can go through locked +doors." + +The butler was not convinced, but he trembled. He stood gnawing his +nails with a gloomy face, one thing only quite clear to him; that +whether the child possessed the power which the woman attributed to +him or not, it was certainly he who had taken the treasure. This +excited such a degree of rage in Gridley's mind as fear alone kept +within bounds. He longed to follow the child and force the secret and +the gold from him, and only the dread which the woman manifested kept +him from doing this on the instant. As it was, he stood undecided, +turning over in his mind all the stories he had heard of strange +powers and weird possession--stories which then filled all the +country-side, especially in lonely and ill-populated districts--and +striving to recollect whether anything in little Jack's history seemed +to bring him within the scope of these marvellous narratives. + +Mistress Gridley watched him for a time, but presently her patience +gave way. She bade him, fiercely, pick up the spade and come to the +house; and together the two returned, each hating the other as the +cause of a fruitless and unprofitable sin. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE WOODEN CROSS. + + +Released in a manner so much beyond his hopes, Jack lost no time in +betaking himself to the house, where he found all quiet and himself +alone in possession. He had every reason to congratulate himself on +the success of his scheme; yet he knew he was not out of the wood. +Child as he was, he saw that the woman, finding herself robbed in that +place, must lay the blame on him; and in his dread of what would +happen when the pair returned, he found it impossible to remain still +a moment, but wandered from front to back, and kitchen to stairs, +expecting yet dreading the first sound of their approach. When it came +he crouched in the chimney corner and held his breath, waiting for the +storm to break. + +And there the woman found him when she entered. She had not expected +to see him, and she started violently, for nothing her companion had +urged had availed in the least to shake her belief in the child's dark +powers. His pale face and huddled form and his odd and elfish +position, as she came upon him, in the shadowy corner only served to +confirm and support it. She shrank away without a word, and busied +herself at the back of the house, until the boy finding himself free +from attack took heart of grace, and little by little emerged from his +retreat. + +He could not understand how he had escaped suspicion and punishment, +but the fact was enough, and his spirits soon rose. He wanted no +reasons. Assured of his brother's safety, and delighted to think that +he had contributed to it, he could scarcely restrain the impulse that +would have had him hunt Frank out and share his joy with him. +Fortunately, he did restrain it, however; for during the rest of the +day he was the unconscious object of the strictest watchfulness. +Wherever he went and whatever he did, his steps were dogged and his +actions noted, though he did not perceive it himself. The woman, by an +immense effort, hid her fears, while Gridley, balanced between terrors +and fits of rage which became at times ungovernable, had the prudence +to shun the object of his hatred, and leave the task of surveillance +to her. + +Accordingly, the child remained in perfect ignorance. He went +about his small and--to the adult mind--incomprehensible employments +in his own small fashion; playing here and there, and presently +rendering the woman's task more easy by the completeness with which he +gave himself up to rehearsing the morrow's plan. Mistress Gridley +found him continually slipping away, and as often stalked him into +corners, where she soon learned that he had something hidden about +him--something which he took out when he was alone, and put away +stealthily on her approach. + +The woman's covetous spirit took fire afresh at this discovery, and +for the moment overcame her fears. Her eyes began to burn, her cheek +grew hot. When he sauntered away again, she watched him secretly, and +by-and-by marked him down in a corner of the fold where the wall was +highest. There she saw him sit down with his back to the house and his +face to the wall, and, taking something, which she could not see, from +his clothes, begin to toy with it, stooping over it, and caressing it +with the utmost devotion. + +She did not doubt that the thing he fondled in this strange fashion +was the treasure of which he had robbed her by his arts; and in a +transport of anger she slipped out of the house by the back door, and, +making a circuit, stole up to the corner, keeping on the farther side +of the wall. When she reached the place she paused and listened, +crouching low that he might not see her. The child was muttering +softly to himself--muttering some monotonous unintelligible jargon, +which in her ears could be nothing but a charm. The woman shuddered at +the thought, but still she persisted. Cautiously raising her eyes +above the level of the wall, she got a sight of the object he was +crooning over. It was neither gold nor cup nor treasure, but a +strange-looking cross of wood! + +Mistress Gridley shrank away, trembling in every limb. The sight +confirmed all her apprehensions. She hurried back to the house. But in +the excitement of the pursuit she had not noticed the change in the +sky, which had grown in the last few moments dark and overcast. The +first peal of the tempest, therefore, surprised her as she retreated. +Startled and affrighted, she looked up and saw the black canopy +impending over her head; with a cry, she crouched still lower, as if +she might in that way escape the wrath she had invoked. Her nerves +were so shaken that she never doubted the child had brought this +sudden storm upon her, and even when it did her no harm, when it +resolved itself into the most ordinary phenomenon and descended in +sheets of rain, while the mountains clothed themselves in mist, and +the moor streamed at a hundred pores--even then, though she had seen +such a storm a hundred times and knew its every aspect, she still +quailed. A terror of great darkness was upon her. She dared no longer +meet the child's eyes, but sat in the farthest corner of the room, +furtively watching him; while the eaves dripped outside, and the cold +light of a wet summer evening stole across the moor. + +When he was gone to bed and his eye withdrawn from her, she felt more +at ease. But her discomposure was still so great that Simon and Luke +must have remarked it when they returned, if they had not been +themselves full of an anxiety which occupied their minds to the +exclusion of everything else. + +"This rain!" Simon cried, as he shook out his dripping cloak on the +floor and turned to take a last look through the open door. "Who would +have foreseen it? Who would have foreseen it, I say, this morning? +Never did sky look better. Yet if it goes on through the night they +will scarcely get the guns over the hills by this road. The General +will be late." + +"It grows more heavy," Luke answered moodily, looking out over the +other's shoulder. + +"Ay, and the clouds are low," Simon assented. "I never knew rain more +sudden in my life, nor, surely, more untimely. There is many a man +will be damp tonight and march the slower to-morrow. Heaven grant it +hinders the malignants also!" + +"The wind is westerly," Luke answered shrewdly. "I doubt it." + +Simon shrugged his shoulders as sharing the doubt, and would have +closed the door. But at that moment his wife, who had already risen +from her seat, laid her hand on his arm. The hand trembled. The +woman's eyes were glittering, her cheeks white. "Simon!" she said, +peering into his face, and speaking in a tone of suppressed +excitement, "what is it--this storm? Whom does it hinder? What does it +matter? What was it you were saying about it?" + +"What does it matter, and whom does it hinder?" the man answered +fiercely. "It hinders the Lord's work, woman! It matters to all +Christian men! It hinders guns and horses, men and wagons, that should +be at Preston to-morrow to cut off the malignant Hamilton and his +brood. In twelve hours, if this rain continues, the road to Preston +will be a quagmire, and the Philistines will laugh at us. But we must +rest content. It is the Lord's doing!" + +"It is _not_ the Lord's doing!" she answered in a tone of surprising +emotion. "It is not his doing! It is Satan's!" + +"Tush!" said her husband, harshly; but he started nevertheless at her +tone. "You rave, woman!" + + +[Illustration: "It is not the Lord's doing!"--Page 138.] + + +"I do not rave!" she answered, throwing up her arms wildly. "I tell +you this tempest, that you talk of--I saw it raised! This hindrance--I +saw it begotten! I--I, Simon Gridley! There is one here who can brew +the storm and hush the whirlwind! There is one here beside whom your +General is powerless!" + +"Then he must have the devil's aid indeed!" Simon answered, with a +grim chuckle. "But softly, wife, what is this?" + +In rapid, hurried words, rendered weighty by the terror and belief +which were in her, the woman detailed what she had seen the boy do, +and how the storm, of which the heavens had given so little warning, +had followed immediately thereon. She could not tell them all the +bases of her belief; she dared not mention the gold vessels, or the +strange scene under the yew-tree. But belief in such things is +infectious. The mystery of the locked door was still a mystery +unsolved and inexplicable. That they all knew; and nothing in the +solitary life these people had led among the fells, nothing in the +harsh, narrow creed they professed, or in their custom of literally +applying the Scriptures to everyday events, was at odds with the +conclusion that the child was possessed by an evil spirit. No one in +that day was so bold as to doubt the existence of the black art. And +if at the first glance this helpless child seemed the most unlikely of +professors, the discovery that his powers were being used against the +cause which they believed to be the cause of heaven, furnished a +probability which enabled them to dispense with the other. The men +looked in each other's faces uneasily. The light was waning, the +corners of the room were full of shadows. Those who felt no terror +felt wrath, which was near akin to it. For the woman, her eyes +flickered with hatred; which was only more intense because it was held +in check by abject fear. + +At length Simon, whose bold and hardy spirit alone accepted the idea +with any real reluctance, rose; they had long ago formed themselves +into a council round the table. + +"Hush!" he said, raising his hand. "The rain has stopped. What do you +say to that?" + +They listened and found that it was so. The eaves no longer dripped. + +"If he is a wizard, he is a poor one," Simon continued, with a little +contempt in his tone. "But if you will have it so, see here, we will +watch him. There is a power greater than his, and in the strength of +that I do not fear him." + +The woman shuddered, while Luke, who was for immediate action, replied +in a wild rhapsody, quoting the priests of Baal and the witch of +Endor, the order of the law respecting magicians, and the fate of +Magus. But Simon was firm; he was not to be moved, and in the end his +proposal was accepted. The matter was thought so momentous, however, +that it was decided to consult the Edgingtons next day, and bring them +into the affair. + +When all was settled Simon rose, and went to the door and threw it +open. He knew that, within a circuit of a few miles from where he +stood, thousands upon thousands of soldiers were at that moment lying +under the bare heavens, without so much as a tree to cover them; and +he had a soldier's feeling for their distresses. He saw with +satisfaction, therefore, that though the clouds still hung low, in one +quarter there was a rift in them, through which the full moon was +shining out of the blue black of heaven. "It looks better," he said, +as he came in again. "It will be fine to-morrow. And there is no great +harm done yet." + +But, to all appearance, more rain fell during the night, for when the +household rose at daybreak, the hills were running with water, and +every little streamlet was musical. A fine drizzle filled the air, and +obscured even the nearer surface of the moor, while fog veiled the +mountains and hung like a curtain before the distant prospects. The +boy eating his porridge with the others, unconscious of the strange +glances and suspicious shrinkings of which he was the object, looked +through the window and wondered how he was to manage his counting, and +whether it would be possible to tell horse from foot. From this his +thoughts strayed to Frank. Frank must be suffering horribly in this +weather, with no roof over him, and no cloak, and no sufficient food. +At the thought Jack felt his eyes fill with tears, tears which he +would fain have hidden; but he found Simon's harsh glance upon him, +and whichever way he looked he could not escape it. He grew hot; he +changed color and trembled in his seat, and presently, feeling his +position insufferable--for he longed to think, and could not do so +under eyes which seemed to read his secrets--he rose suddenly, and +sidled from the room. He went, as he supposed, unnoticed, and without +a thought of evil seized his cap and left the house. + +Never had the moor looked more desolate; more sad and dreary and +grey-colored. Here and there a stone stood upright, peering boldly +through the rain; and here and there, where the fell rose, a whirl of +mist floated above the surface as the fog thickened and broke before a +puff of wind. The child shivered as he looked about him; and an older +heart might have quailed. But shiver or quail, he held on. He had a +purpose, and he clung to it. He knew the way to the high road, which +passed over the moor half a league from the house, and he pressed on +bravely towards it, thinking of his brother and the King, and the +service he was about to perform, until, despite the rain, his puny +frame glowed all over. The thoughts in his mind were childish enough, +the ideas he entertained of men and things as shadowy and unreal as +the fog about him. But the spirit and self-denial which supported him +were as real as any which animated the greatest man who that day +marched or fought for his cause. + +Even the passage of an army with horse and foot and great guns could +not in such a district draw together any large number of spectators; +and the boy, saved from immediate pursuit by the fog, found himself +free to choose his position. Avoiding a group of countryfolk who had +taken possession of a hillock which would otherwise have suited him +well, he made for a second mound that rose a hundred paces farther on, +and seemed also to overlook the road. Climbing to the top of this, he +sat down in the damp bracken to wait for the troops. + +A sutler or two passed presently below him, some straggling horsemen, +a few knots of yokels bent on satisfying their curiosity. But the day +was four hours old before the measured tramp of hoofs and the murmur +of many voices, the clang of steel, and hoarse cries of command +thrilled the child with the consciousness that the time was come. +Trembling with excitement, he peered over the edge of the mound. The +rain had ceased for a while. There was some show of clearing in the +air. The sun which had broken through the clouds struck full on the +head of the column, as it came on slowly and majestically, in a frame +of steaming mist; cuirass and helmet, spur and scabbard, flashing and +sparkling in the white glare. + +These were the horsemen who had stemmed the pride of Rupert and +shattered the Cavaliers. The boy looked and looked at them, looked +until the last man--a grave sergeant with a book at his belt--had +ridden by him. Then he remembered himself with a sigh, and quickly +drawing out his cross, cut six nicks upon it, for the six troops of +horse which had formed the column. + +After these, three regiments of foot passed; stern, war-worn men, +muddy and travel-stained, in buff coats, and with long pikes trailing +behind them. Then more troops of horse, whom he duly nicked, and then +some tumbrils, which at first the boy took for guns, but afterwards +perceived to be laden with ammunition. On all these the sun shone, not +cheerfully but with a stern glare, which seemed confined to that part +of the moor, so that they passed before the boy in a vision as it +were, and he notched them off in a dream. It was strange to stand so +near these thousands of marching men, to hear the murmur of their +multitudinous voices, and the tramp of their feet, and yet to be apart +from them and unheeded by them. For they passed in perfect order, no +man stepping out of the ranks; so that at last the boy took courage +and rose to his feet under their eyes. + +When the tumbrils had passed the sun went in, and three regiments of +musketeers came up, marching on one another's heels, with the rain and +storm gathering about them, and the men grumbling at the weather. The +boy notched them off, and watching for the great guns (of which none +had passed), walked from end to end of his little platform, scanning +the road. More than one of the men who plashed along beneath him +noticed the strange figure of the boy moving against the sky. + +For the fog, through which he loomed larger than life, distorted his +gestures. He seemed at times to be cursing the men below him, and at +times to be raising his hands to heaven in their behalf. The troopers +who remarked his strange figure perched above them, looked on +indifferently, neither heeding nor understanding. Not so all who had +their eyes at that moment upon him. The watcher was also the watched; +and presently, when the rain had set in steadily once more, and the +mist had grown so thick that he despaired of finishing his count where +he was, and thought of descending into the road, a sudden end was put +to his calculations. Something rose up behind him and dashed him +violently to the ground. Stunned and terrified, the child clung, even +in his fall, to the precious cross; in a moment it was wrenched from +him. He cried out wildly for help, but instantly a cloak was flung +over his head, and blind, and breathless, he felt himself raised from +the ground. Some one tied his hands at the wrists and his feet at the +ankles; then he felt himself carried hastily off. He could scarcely +breathe, he could not struggle, he could not see. He could not even +guess what had happened to him. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + A STRANGE TRIAL. + + +For some distance he felt himself carried across a man's shoulder. +Then another man took him up and carried him on more briskly. His head +hung down, the cloak covered his face tightly; he felt himself at +times far on the way to suffocation. But, gagged and bound as he was, +he could neither cry out nor help himself. + +The shortest journey taken under such circumstances must needs seem +endless, and so this one seemed to the child. He long remembered it; +but at last it did come to an end, with all its misery and +terror--things not to be described in words. His bearer stopped. He +heard voices, and the hollow sound of steps on a stone floor. He was +set on his feet, and the cloak roughly removed from his head. He +looked about him dazed. To his intense surprise and astonishment he +found himself standing in the middle of the kitchen at the farmhouse. +There was the settle; there was the table at which he had eaten his +morning porridge! + +For a moment the sight filled him with excess of joy. In the instant +of recognition the familiar surroundings, the things and faces to +which, meagre and harsh as they were, he had grown accustomed, brought +blessed relief to the child's mind. He uttered Gridley's name with a +sob of joy, and tried to move towards him. But his hands and feet were +still bound, and he lost his balance and fell forward on the floor. + +Simon Gridley, amid perfect silence, advanced and took him up and set +him in a chair. The other five, four men and a woman, stood round the +table looking at him. Each held a bible. + +Between fright and perplexity, and the hurt of his fall, the boy began +to cry. Still, no one spoke to him. He stopped crying. + +Then at last the strange way they looked at him, the strange silence +they kept, went to the boy's heart. He cried no longer, but he looked +from one to the other, terrified by the fierce glare in their eyes. +"Gridley," he said faintly; "Gridley, what is it, please?" + +The butler, at the sound of his voice, sank down pale and trembling on +the meal chest. The woman shrank before his eye. But the four men met +his look with stern, pitiless faces and set lips. It was Simon who +spoke. "We have taken him in the act," he said, in a low, impassive +voice. "What shall we do with him?" + +"Ye shall make him to cease!" Luke answered, in the monotonous tone of +one repeating a form. "He comes of an accursed brood, and he is in +league with the father of curses, whose child he is! He would have +bewitched the Lord General and his army with his enchantments. We have +seen it with our eyes. What need have we of further evidence?" + +But Simon Gridley thought otherwise. "Stand forward, woman," he said, +disregarding his brother's last remark. "Say what you saw yesterday." + +The woman, amid that strange silence, began to speak in a low voice. +The rain was still falling, and the eaves dripped outside. The cold +light which found its way into the room showed her white to the lips. +But she told without faltering her tale of the storm which had fallen +on the moor when the child rubbed the cross; and no one doubted it, +any more than, to do her justice, she doubted it herself. For was she +not confirmed by the presence of the cross itself, which lay in the +middle of the table for all to see! They looked at it with horror, +never doubting that the knots were devil's knots, that the wood of +which it was formed came from no earthly tree. + +Meantime the child, terrified by the stern, harsh faces and the +glances of unintelligible abhorrence which met him wherever he looked, +had no wit to understand the charge made against him. He knew only +that the cross had something to do with it--that it was the cross at +which they all looked; and he supposed from this that his brother was +in danger. For his simple soul this was enough. He seemed to be in a +dreadful dream. He cried and trembled, sobbing, while they spoke, like +the child he was. But his mind was made up. He would be cut to pieces, +but he would never let Frank's name pass his lips. + +Hence, when one of the Edgingtons, who had met Master Matthew Hopkins, +the great witch-finder, and would fain have probed the matter further +with such skill as he fancied he had acquired, adjured him solemnly to +speak and say where he got the cross, the child was silent; so +obstinately silent that it was plain he could have told something if +he would. + +"He is mute of malice," Simon said. + +"He is mute of the devil!" Luke answered fiercely. "What need of talk +when we saw him with our own eyes rule the storm? And it rains still. +It rains, and will 'rain,' until his power is broken." + +This monstrous idea seemed to his hearers in no way incredible. The +belief in witchcraft and in demoniacal possession of every kind had +reached its height in England about this time, when men's minds, +released from the wholesome leading-strings of custom and the church, +evinced a natural proneness to run into all manner of extremes. Had +the child been a woman, his fate had been sealed on the spot, the +popular fancy attributing the black art to that sex in particular. But +the fact that he was a boy was so far abnormal, that it stuck in the +throat of the Edgington who had spoken before. "Has he any mark upon +him?" he asked. + + +[Illustration: He is mute of malice.--Page 156.] + + +The woman replied, almost in a whisper, that he had a black mole on +his left shoulder. + +"Is it a common mark?" + +She shook her head without speaking. + +Luke waited for no more. "This is folly!" he cried wildly. "What need +have we of signs? We have seen. Bolts and bars will not hold him, nor +will water receive him." + +"That is to be seen!" Edgington answered quickly. "There is a pool +below. Let us make trial of him there, Master Gridley. If the lad +sinks, well and good. If he will not sink, well and good also. We +shall know what to do with him." + +Simon nodded sternly. "Good," he said; "let it be so." + +But this the boy had still the sense to understand. A vision of the +dark bog pool sullenly lipping the rocks which fringed its shores +flashed before his childish eyes. In a second the full horror of the +fate which threatened him burst upon him, and those eyes grew large +with terror. The color left his face. He tried to rise, he tried to +frame the word Gridley, he tried to ask for mercy. He could not. Fear +had deprived him of the power of speech, and he could only look. But +his look was one to melt the heart of any save a fanatic. + +Gridley the butler was no fanatic, and though he was a bad man he was +not inhuman. Something in the boy's piteous look went straight to his +heart. He alone of those present, though he never doubted the +existence of witchcraft, doubted the boy's guilt, for he alone had +known him all his life, and could see nothing unfamiliar in him. He +remembered him a baby, prattling and crawling, and playing like any +other baby; and despite himself--for there was nothing noble or brave +in the man--he stepped forward and interposed between Simon and his +victim. + +"I have known the child all his life," he said hoarsely. "He has been +as other children, Simon." + +His brother looked at him coldly. "Is he as other children to-day?" he +said, and he pointed to the cross on the table. + +The butler, thus challenged, made as if he would take up the talisman. +But at the last moment, when his hand was near it, his heart failed +him. He doubted, he was a coward, and he drew back. "He was always as +other children," he muttered again, hopelessly, helplessly. "I have +known him from his birth." + +"Very well," Simon answered, with pitiless logic. "We shall see +presently if he is as other children now. The water will show." + +He stepped towards the boy as he spoke, but Jack saw him coming, and +reading his fate in the grim, unrelenting looks which everywhere met +his eyes, screamed loudly. The child was fast bound, and could not +fly, but bound as he was he managed to fling himself on the floor, and +lay there screaming. Simon plucked him up roughly, and looked round +for something to muffle his cries. "The cloak!" he said hurriedly--the +noise discomposed him. "The cloak!" + +Luke went to fetch it from the dresser on which it had been laid, but +before he could bring it, the boy on a sudden stopped screaming, and +stiffened himself in Simon's arms. "I will tell," he cried wildly. +"Let me go! Let me go, and I will tell." + +The man was astonished, as were they all. But he set the boy back in +the chair, and took his hands off him, and stood waiting, with a stern +light in his eyes, to hear this devil's tale. + +For a moment the boy lay huddled up and panting, with his lips apart, +and the sweat on his flushed brow. He had said--with the man's hands, +on him and the black water before his eyes--that he would tell. But as +he crouched there, getting his breath, and looking from one to another +like a frightened animal, thoughts of his brother whom he must betray, +thoughts of devotion and love, all childish but all living, surged +through his brain. The men and the woman waited, some sternly curious, +and some in fear; but the boy remained dumb. He had conquered his +terror. He was learning that what men suffer for others is no +suffering. + +Simon lost patience at last. "Speak!" he cried, "or to the water!" + +The boy eyed him trembling, but remained silent. "Give him a little +more time," said one of the other men. + +"Ay, hurry him not," said Luke. + +"He has had time enough," Simon retorted. "He is but playing with us." + +Yet he left him a little longer, while all stood round and looked, +greedy to hear with their own ears one of those strange confessions of +witchcraft, which, whether they had their origin in delusion or in +some interested motive, were not uncommon in the England of that day. +But the child, though his breath came quick and fast, and his heart +throbbed like the heart of a little bird, and he feared unspeakably, +remained obstinately silent. + +"Enough!" Simon cried at last, his patience utterly exhausted; "he is +dumb. We shall get nothing from him here. Let us see what the water +will do for him. Luke, the cloak!" + +Jack controlled his fears until the man's hands were actually upon +him. Then instinct prevailed, and in despair he gave way to shriek +upon shriek, so that the house rang with the pitiful outcry. "The +cloak!" Simon cried impatiently, looking this way and that for it, +while the butler turned pale at the sounds. "That is better; now open +the door." + +One of the Edgingtons went towards it, but when he was close to it, +stopped on a sudden and held up his hand. The gesture was one of +warning, but it came too late; for before those behind could profit by +it, or do more than surmise what it meant, the door shook under a +heavy knock, and a hand outside lifted the latch. The neighing of +horses and the sound of hoofs trampling the stones of the fold gave +the party some idea what they had to expect; but late also, for ere +Simon could lay down the child, or Edgington move from his position, +the door was thrown wide open. Half a dozen figures appeared on the +threshold, and one detatching itself from the crowd strode in with an +air of sturdy authority. + +The person who thus put himself forward was a middle-aged man of good +height, strongly and squarely made. His reddish face and broad, +massive features were shaded by a wide-leaved hat, in the band of +which a little roll of papers was stuck. He wore a buff coat and +breastplate, and a heavy sword, and had, besides, a pistol and a +leather glove thrust through his girdle. For a second after his +entrance, he looked from one face to another with quick, searching +glances which nothing escaped. Then he spoke. + +"Tut-tut-tut-tut!" he said. "What is this? Have we honest, God-fearing +soldiers here, halting by the way, whether such halting is in the way +or not, or in the morning orders? Or have we ramping, roystering, +babe-killing free-companions?--eh, man? Speak!" he continued rapidly, +his utterance somewhat thick. "What have you here? Unfasten this +cloak, some one!" + +Thunderstruck, and taken completely by surprise--for the doorway was +filled with faces--the party in the room fell back a step. Simon +mechanically laid the boy down, but still maintained his position by +him. Nor did the Puritan, though he found himself thus abruptly +challenged by one who seemed to be able to make good his words, lose a +jot of his grim aspect. He was aware of no wrong he had done. His +conscience was clear. + +"They are not soldiers, your excellency," one of the persons in the +doorway said briskly. "Four of them live here, and the other two are +honest men from Bradford." + +"That man has worn the bandoliers," the first speaker retorted, in a +voice which brooked no denial. "Sirrah, find your tongue," he +continued sternly, bending a brow which was never of the lightest. +"Have you not served?" + +"I was in the forlorn of horse at Naseby," Simon answered sullenly. + +"In what troop?" + +"Captain Rawlins's." + +"Is it so?" his excellency answered, dropping his voice at once to a +more genial note. "Well, friend, you had for commander a good man and +serviceable. You could no better. And who are these with you?" + +"Two are his brothers," the voice in the doorway explained. "They were +very forward against Langdale's horse in the skirmish at Settle three +days ago, your excellency." + +"Good, good, all this is good," Cromwell answered briskly; for that +redoubtable man, Lieutenant-General at this time of the armies of the +Parliament, it was. "Then why were you backward to answer my +questions, friend, being questions it lay in me to put, I being at the +head of this poor army and in authority? But there, you were modest. +Here, Pownall," he continued, "lay the maps on the table. We can +examine them here in shelter. 'Twas a happy thought of yours. And let +the prisoners be brought here also. Yet, stay," he added, feeing round +once more, his brow dark. "Methinks there comes a strange whimpering +from that cloak! Is't a dog? To it, Pownall, and see what it is." + +The officer he addressed sprang zealously forward, and whipping up the +cloak disclosed the child lying bound on the floor. Terror and the +exertion of screaming had reduced the boy to the last stage of +consciousness. He lay motionless, his face pale, and his eyes half +closed; his little bound hands appealing powerfully to the feelings of +the spectators. Even the presence of so many strangers failed to rouse +him, or move him to a last appeal. He appeared to be unconscious of +their entrance, or of any change in his surroundings. + +The sight was one to awaken indignation in a man, and Cromwell was a +man. "What!" he exclaimed roundly, and with something like an oath; +"what is this? Why have you bound him? Who is he? Is he your son?" + +"No," Simon answered, scowling. + +"Who is he?" + +"His name is Patten." + +"Patten, Patten, Patten? Where have I heard the name?" Cromwell +answered. "Ho, I remember! There is a young malignant of that name on +the black list, is there not? For this county, too!" + +An officer replied that there was; adding that the young man was +supposed to be in Duke Hamilton's army. + +"Very well! We will deal with him when we catch him," Cromwell +answered sharply. "But, in the name of sense, what has that to do with +this boy? Why, 'tis a child! His mother's milk is hardly dry on his +lips! Why have you bound him, man?" + +Simon Gridley strove to give back look for look, and to make the +outward countenance answer to the inward innocence. But the General's +sharp questions, and the astonished and indignant faces which filled +the room, made this difficult. A sudden doubt springing up in his own +mind, thus untimely, lent additional gloom to his manner, as he +answered: "He is no child. He is a witch!" + +"A witch!" Cromwell cried, his voice drowning a dozen exclamations of +astonishment. "Why, mercy on us, a witch is a woman! And 'tis a boy!" + +"Ay, but 'tis a witch too," Simon answered stubbornly. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + HIS EXCELLENCY'S JUDGMENT. + + +If Duke Hamilton had suddenly appeared in the room and surrendered +himself without terms--a thing beyond doubt unlikely to happen as long +as that gallant gentleman had thirty thousand men at his back--those +present could scarcely have looked more astonished. Not that they, or +the majority of them at all events, doubted the existence of +witchcraft. On the contrary; but anything less like the common idea of +a witch than this helpless child it would have been difficult to +conceive. Respect for their chief did indeed silence the laughter +which the man's answer would otherwise have caused, but it could not +still the murmur of amazement and ridicule, or the hum of indignation +which rose to their lips. + +"The man is mad!" cried one by the door, a person privileged. + +"Silence!" Cromwell answered sharply. "And do you, sirrah," he +continued to Simon, "explain yourself at once, or I will find means to +lash sense into you. What has the boy done?" + +Before Simon could answer Luke interposed. The enthusiast could +restrain himself no longer. + +"What has he done?" he cried. "He has sold himself to do evil and +stint not. Why do our horses fail and the wheels of our chariots drive +heavily, so that the work is not done, nor the task accomplished? +Because of the learning of the Egyptians which he has learned, and +because of the witchcraft of Jezebel which he has practised, that the +people may remain in bondage and our leader fall and rise not. Be +warned, O Joshua, and hear reason, O deliverer! It rains, and will +rain in the land until----" + +"Tie up the knave's mouth, some one!" thundered Cromwell. "And do +you," he continued, addressing Simon, "who seem to have some wit in +your madness, answer me briefly, what has the child done?" + +But Simon's answer was destined to be again interrupted; this time by +the arrival of the officer in charge of the prisoners, who came in to +learn whether the General would examine them in the house. Cromwell +gave the order, and the men, two in number, were accordingly brought +in and made to stand by the door. This caused a momentary delay and +commotion; but, so great was the interest taken in the child, who had +been by this time raised from the floor and relieved of his bonds, +that scarcely any one turned to notice them. The moment the stir +ceased, the General nodded to Simon. + +"The boy has a spell," Gridley answered, getting speech at last. "He +has a charm, and when he rubs it, it rains. He brought the rain +yesterday, and brought it again to-day." + +"Tush, man!" Cromwell said contemptuously. "You play with me." + +"You do not believe me?" + +"No, in faith I do not," the General answered darkly. + +"Then here is the proof!" the fanatic cried, in a voice of triumph. +And he pointed to the wooden cross which lay on the table. "There is +the charm! There, look at it, touch it, handle it; tell me what it is, +if you can!" + +"A child's toy," Cromwell answered scornfully, as he stepped forward +and without hesitation took up the implement. "Well, man, I see it," +he continued, turning it over in his hand. "What of it? Be brief with +your madness, for I have larger fish to fry to-day. Be brief, I say." + +"I will," the Puritan answered, undaunted. And therewith, beginning +with the story of the strange evasion from the closet, he told the +tale, so far as he knew it, of Jack's mysterious proceedings and +powers. For a while, Cromwell listened or appeared to listen with half +an ear only, his attention divided between the speaker and a map which +the obsequious Pownall had placed on the table. But when Simon came to +the boy's singular proceedings on the hillock above the road, and +described, with some advantages which his imagination lent the +narrative, the manner of the boy's behavior while the army passed +below him, Cromwell's attitude underwent a sudden change. He closed +the map with a quick gesture, and for a moment gazed full at the man +from under his bushy eyebrows. + +"Umph! And so you think that caused the storm, Master Numskull?" he +rapped out, when Simon had come to an end. "Where is this cross?" + +It had been passed from hand to hand, but was at once brought back to +him. "Here, Hodgson," he said sharply; "what do you make of it?" + +The officer to whom he appealed turned the thing over and over in his +hands, but could make nothing of it. Cromwell watched him with a +sparkle in his eye, and at length snatched it from him. "Chut!" +he said--but although he scolded, it was evident he was well +pleased--"you are as big a fool as Master Numskull there! Didst never +see a tally, man?" + +"A tally, your excellency?" + +"Ay, a tally, a tally, a tally!" replied his excellency, impatiently. +"A thing, I tell thee, that was known in this England of ours, and in +the exchequer, when rogues were fewer and thy ancestors were hung +without benefit of clergy! This is a tally if ever I saw one. To take +an honest tally for a witch's broomstick? But softly! Said I an +_honest_ tally?" he continued, looking suddenly about him, while his +voice grew hard and stern. "Pownall! count those notches." + +The officer obeyed. "There are twenty-three, your excellency," he +said, when he had accomplished the task. + +"And how many troops of horse have gone by to-day?" + +"Twenty-three, your excellency," was the answer, given with military +brevity. + +A murmur of intelligence passed round the circle of officers. The clue +once found by Cromwell's sharp eye and strong common sense, the secret +became an open one, patent to the dullest intellect. When further +examination showed that the number of notches on the other arm of the +cross corresponded with the number of foot regiments which had passed +that morning, even Simon Gridley began to understand that here was no +question of the supernatural, but of some human agency equally hostile +to the good cause. Only Luke Gridley remained unconvinced. "Bolts and +bars could not hold him," he murmured, "nor----" + +"We will come to that by-and-by," Cromwell answered. "Let the boy +stand forward. Where is he?" + +Some one thrust Jack forward into the middle of the room, where he +stood exposed to the full brunt of Cromwell's formidable gaze. The +shock through which the child had passed had left him dazed and weak; +his color came and went, his legs faltered under him, and he trembled +perceptibly. But his heart was stout, and his breeding stood him in +good stead at this crisis. Barely understanding what had passed, or +the steps by which his plan had been discovered, on one point he was +still clear, steadfast, and resolute: and that was, that come what +might, he would not betray his brother! + +But for the moment Cromwell said nothing about that. The question he +put to him took all present by surprise. "Who let you out of the +closet, my lad?" he said, in a tone of rough good-nature. + +"A man," the boy muttered, with dry lips. + +"Was it one of the men in the house? No? Then how did the man get into +the house? Tell us that." + +Jack looked about him like a trapped animal. He did not know which +questions he ought to answer and which he ought to refuse to answer. +Confused and terrified by the gaze of so many men and the possession +of a secret, aware only that he must keep back his brother's name and +hiding-place, the instinct of a drowning man led him to give up all +else. After a moment's hesitation he muttered: "His wife," pointing to +Simon, "went out in the middle of the night. She left the door open, +and the man came in." + +"Very good," Cromwell answered. "That is clear and explicit. And now, +my man," he continued, turning suddenly upon Simon, who stood silent +and confounded, "what do you say? More seems to go on in your house +than you wot of. Let the woman stand out." + +Gridley the butler, sitting doubled up on the meal chest, where his +brothers figure sheltered him, almost fell forward with terror. He saw +his crime on the point of being discovered, and all his craven soul +was in alarm. Were attention once drawn to him, were he once +challenged and bade to stand forth, he knew that no power could save +him. In the absence of evidence he would infallibly betray himself. +The dreadful tremors, the sickening apprehension, which he had felt +during the first part of his flight from Pattenhall, when he had the +damning evidences of his crime upon him, returned upon him now, and +bitterly, most bitterly, did he regret that he had ever given way to +temptation. + +He came near to swooning when he heard the woman called out, for he +thought it a hundred chances to one that she would falter, and in a +moment weave a rope for his neck. The sweat ran down his face as he +strained his ears to catch--he dared not look--the first syllable of +accusation. + +But Mistress Gridley, though she had had scant notice of the occasion, +was of a harder kind. Relieved of ghostly fears, her mind quickly +regained its balance, and instinctively took refuge in the falseness +which had become second nature. Her shrewdish face wore a flush as she +came forward, and there was a flicker of secret fear in her eye. But +the tone in which she denied that she had ever left her house on the +night in question was even and composed, and "As for a man," she added +scornfully, "what man is there within three miles of us?" + +"The man who taught this lad to spy!" Cromwell retorted, swiftly and +severely. "That man, woman! Do you know him?" + +She could say No to that with a good conscience, and she did so. + +Cromwell signed to her stand back. "Very well," he said, "then the boy +shall tell us." He turned to Jack, and after glaring at him for a +moment, cried in a loud voice: "Hark ye, sirrah! who gave you this +cross? What is his name, and where is he?" + +That voice, at which so many men had trembled and were to tremble, +made the very marrow in Jack's bones quiver. That fierce red face with +its fiery eyes seemed to grow before Jack's gaze until the child saw +nothing else save that and a dancing haze which framed it. "Hark ye, +sirrah!" He heard the words repeated again and again, and his soul +melted within him for fear. But he remained dumb. + +"Come!" Cromwell said grimly when he had thrice bidden him to speak in +vain. "This is what I expected. But I will find a means to open your +lips. Pownall, bid one of the guard bring a rope!" + +A movement in the room seemed to indicate that the order caused +emotion of some kind, and Captain Hodgson, a bluff North-countryman, +high in the General's favor, stepped forward as if to interpose. But +apparently he thought better of it, and in a moment a rope was +brought. "Now," Cromwell thundered, "will you speak?" + +But Jack, whose white face and straining eyes, as he stood alone in +the middle of the kitchen, a child among men, were pitiful to behold, +remained silent. Only one idea, and that was rather an instinct than a +conscious determination, remained with him--to shelter Frank. + +"Tie him up!" said Cromwell, in a hard voice. "Sergeant," he +continued, "take two files and the boy outside, and if he does not +speak in five minutes, string him up." No one spoke or interposed, and +the child, half led and half carried by the burly sergeant, had almost +reached the threshold, when a voice close by exclaimed suddenly: +"Enough, you cowards! Shame on you! Let the child go!" + +"Who spoke?" Cromwell cried, wheeling round from the map he was +scanning. + +"The man you want!" was the reckless answer. "Take him, and let the +child go!" + +There was a brief commotion at the door, which ended in one of the +prisoners being thrust forward until he stood face to face with the +General. "So, so!" said Cromwell, eyeing him with a frown. "Who are +you?" + +"I have told you!" the man answered flippantly, though the +perspiration stood in beads on his brow, and behind that brave face +which he showed the crowd was a human soul sick with fear of that +which all men fear. "I am the man you want. The boy is my brother, and +I told him what to do. He is a mere baby." + +For the speaker was Frank Patten. There was a stir among the officers +round the door, but Cromwell remained unmoved. "Where was this fellow +taken?" he asked, looking him over critically. + +"Between here and Settle, your excellency," Hodgson answered. "The +scoutmaster found him loitering on the road and seized him on +suspicion." + +"He is a zealous man," Cromwell answered. "Let a note of it be made, +Pownall. For you, fellow," he continued, addressing the prisoner, "say +what you have to say. Your time is short." + +"I have only one thing to say," the young man answered coldly--and few +among the many who admired his self-control marked the tiny pulse +beating madly in his cheek. "There is some gold plate hidden hard by. +My brother knows where it is. It was stolen by that craven hound +yonder, and buried by night by that lying shrew there. Perhaps the man +who recovers it will have a care of the child until something fall out +for him. That is all." + +"Wait!" said Cromwell. "Let that man stand out. Is this the man?" + +But Gridley the butler saved Frank the trouble of answering. With a +moan of terror he flung himself on his knees on the floor, and with +tears flowing down his pale, fat face, uttered such abject entreaties +for mercy as shamed the very men who heard them. Punishment had indeed +fallen on the wretched creature, for while he lay there, now excusing +himself and now accusing the woman--who stood by, dark and +unrepentant, her face full of impotent spite--he tasted the bitterness +of death a dozen times over. + +"Faugh!" Cromwell exclaimed at last, spurning him from him with his +booted foot; "take him away. Let him run the gauntlet of whatever +regiment is first in quarters to-night! And see they lay on roundly, +Hodgson. For this lying woman, your wife, man----" + +"She is no longer wife of mine!" the Puritan answered, so grimly that +more than one shuddered. "She shall cross my threshold once, and never +again. She has sinned; let her starve." + +General Cromwell shrugged his shoulders and stood a moment in thought. +Then he turned to Patten. "For you," he said harshly, "you are a +soldier, and know your sentence. You can have an hour's grace. +Sergeant Joyce, retain four files, and see the sentence carried out. +Or stay, I will reduce it to writing. The boy may be with him." + + +The voices of the General's staff, as they mounted and rode briskly +away at his heels, had long died away, and only the sobbing of the +child as he lay in Frank's arms broke the silence of the ill-fated +house. The guards left in charge, grave stalwart men, not without +bowels of compassion, had retired outside the door and left the two to +pass these last moments together; with an intimation that when the +hour was up they would call their prisoner. All things, even the ray +of golden light which presently pierced the window, as if to warn +Frank to look his last on the sun, combined to heighten the stillness +and peace, if not the solemn resignation, of this last hour. But alas, +the approach of death withers life itself. The young man's blood +curdled and stood at the thought of it, so that at last the moments +slowly passing in that silence grew intolerable. An hour? It seemed to +him that he had sat with the child in his arms for thrice that time. +When would they come? + +He grew so desperate at last that he set the boy down, and with a +parting passionate embrace hurried to the door; the sooner it was over +now, the better. Desperately he opened the door and stepped out into +the daylight. + +For a moment after he had done so he stood confounded, staring about +him with wild eyes. Before him lay the moorland, half in sunshine, +half in shadow. Above him the clouds had parted, and the infinite +expanse of heaven lay open to his view. But nowhere was a living +creature in sight. The troop-horses, whose bits he had heard jingling +a few minutes before, were gone; the troopers had melted into thin +air! + + +[Illustration: He bent his head and peered at it.--Page 190.] + + +He clapped his hand to his forehead, and stood awhile battling to +control himself. Was this a trick? If not--and then his eye, +travelling dizzily round, lit on a piece of paper which some one had +nailed to the outside of the door with a knife. He bent his head, and +peered at it, and read: + + +"_To Sergeant Joyce.--Half an hour after my departure you will let the +prisoner, Francis Patten, go free. And this shall be your authority_. + +"_Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General_." + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Little Wizard, by Stanley J. 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