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diff --git a/58232-0.txt b/58232-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f1904f --- /dev/null +++ b/58232-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19027 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58232 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Perspective View of the War Prison near +Tor Royal upon Dartmoor. +Designed for the accommodation of 10,000 Men, with Barracks +for 2000 men a Short distance, but not +represented in the Plate] + + + + + THE + AMERICAN PRISONER + + BY + + EDEN PHILLPOTTS + + + + METHUEN & CO. + 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. + LONDON + 1904 + + + + + Out of the land whence the 'Mayflower' sailed, + To + Jeannette L. Gilder + With hearty greeting + + + + + CONTENTS + + + BOOK I + + FOX TOR FARM + + CHAPTER + + I. CATER'S BEAM + II. THE MALHERB AMPHORA + III. BESIDE EXE + IV. "THE MARROW OF THE FARM" + V. DAWN + VI. MR. PETER NORCOT + VII. THE WAR PRISON + VIII. A LITTLE ACCIDENT + IX. CHILDE'S TOMB + X. THE FIRSTBORN + XI. MALHERB'S IDEA + + + BOOK II + + THE SEVEN + + I. MR. BLAZEY + II. A BRACE OF FOWLS + III. THE GREEN APPLE + IV. A FRIEND IN NEED + V. FOLLY + VI. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MR. NORCOT + VII. THE SEVEN FAIL + VIII. JOHN LEE'S FATHER + IX. GRACE MALHERB HEARS THE NEWS + X. HANGMAN'S HOLLOW + XI. FREE + XII. THE SNOWSTORM + XIII. A GRAVE IN THE HEATHER + XIV. THE OLD AND THE NEW + XV. STARK RIDES AWAY + XVI. GOOD NEWS + + + BOOK III + + UNDER THE EARTH + + I. THE TREASURE HOUSE + II. RHYME AND REASON + III. THE OATH + IV. JOHN TAKES HIS ROAD + V. STARS AND STRIPES + VI. UNDER LOCK AND KEY + VII. THE TUNNEL GROWS + VIII. HUE AND CRY + IX. THE FIRST THROUGH THE TUNNEL + X. A GOD OF GLASS + XI. APOCALYPSE + XII. THE VOICE + XIII. PETER TRIUMPHANT + XIV. STRATEGY + XV. THE SALMON IS SPOILED + + + BOOK IV + + THE PEACE + + I. HOPE WAKES AND DIES + II. ON CHRISTMAS DAY + III. BURNHAM AS LEADER + IV. OUT OF NIGHT + V. THE LEOPARD CHANGES HER SPOTS + VI. THE BURNING OF BLAZEY + VII. DEATH AT THE GATE + VIII. BEARDING THE LION + IX. A SPECIAL LICENSE + X. EYES IN THE DARK + XI. FAREWELL, LOVEY LEE + XII. MANOR WOODS + XIII. THE PASSING OF JOHN + XIV. NEWS FROM VERMONT + + + + +BOOK I + +FOX TOR FARM + + + +THE AMERICAN PRISONER + + +CHAPTER I + +CATER'S BEAM + +The huge and solitary but featureless elevation of Cater's +Beam on Dartmoor arrests few eyes. Seen from the +central waste, one hog-backed ridge swells along the southern +horizon, and its majestic outline, unfretted by tor or forest, +describes the curve of a projectile discharged at gentle elevation. +No detail relieves the solemn bulk of this hill, and upon it ages +have left but little imprint of their passing. Time rolls over the +mountain like a mist, and the mighty granite arch of the Beam +emerges eternal and unchanged. Its tough integument of peat +and heath and matted herbage answers only to the call of the +seasons, and it bears grass, bloom, berry, as it bore them for +palæolithic man and his flocks. Now, like a leopard, the Beam +crouches black-spotted by the swaling fires of spring; now, in +the late autumn time, its substance is coated with tawny foliage, +scarlet-splashed under the low sun; now, dwarfed by snow, the +great hill takes shape of an arctic bear. With spring the furzes +flame again, and wonderful mosses--purple, gold, and emerald +green--light the marshes or jewel the bank at every rill; and +with summer the ling shines out, the asphodel burns in the +bog, cloud-shadows drop their deep blue mantles upon the +mountain's bosom, and the hot air dances mile on mile. Beneath +Cater's Beam, and dwarfed thereby, arise the twin turrets of Fox +Tor; while not far distant from these most lonely masses and +pinnacles of granite shall be found the work of men's hands. +Beside the desolate morasses and storm-scarred wastes that here +lie like a cup upon Dartmoor, a stone cross lifts its head, and +ruins of a human habitation moulder back to the dust. + +In nettles, stereobate deep, stands Fox Tor Farm, and the +plant--sure and faithful follower of man--is significant upon +this sequestered fastness; for hither it came with those who +toiled to reclaim the region in time past, and no other nettles +shall be found for miles. Other evidences of human activity +appear around the perishing dwelling-house, where broken walls, +decaying outbuildings, and tracts of cleared land publish their +testimony to a struggle with the Moor. Great apparent age +marks these remains, and the weathered and shattered entrances, +the lichened drip-stones, the empty joist-holes, point to a +respectable antiquity. Yet one hundred years ago this habitation did +not exist. Its entire life--its erection and desertion, its prosperity +and downfall--are crowded within the duration of a century. In +1800 no stone stood upon another; long ago the brief days +of Fox Tor Farm were numbered, and already for fifty years +it has written human hope, ambition, failure upon the wilderness. + +One fragment of wrought granite remains, and the everlasting +nettles beneath shall be found heraldically depicted upon a +shattered doorway. There, where the ghost of a coat-of-arms +may still be deciphered, Time gnaws at the badge of the +Malherbs: Or, chev. gules inter three nettle-leaves vert. + +Upon the summit of Cater's Beam, some ninety years ago, a +member of that ancient and noble clan sat mounted, gazed into +the far-spreading valley beneath him and saw that it was good +and green. Thereupon he held his quest accomplished, and +determined here to build himself a sure abode, that his cadet +branch of the Malherb race might win foothold on the earth, and +achieve as many generations of prosperity in the future as history +recorded of his ancestors in the past. Seen a mile distant, sharp +eyes upon that August day had marked a spot creep like a fly +along the crest of Cater's Beam, crawl here and there, sink down +to Fox Tor, and remain stationary upon its stony side for a full +hour. Observed closely, one had watched a man at the crossroads +of life--a man who struggled to mould his own fate and +weave the skein of his days to his own pattern. Here he sat on +a great bay horse and pursued the path of his future, as oblivious +to its inevitable changes and chances as he was to a black +cloud-ridge that now lifted dark fringes against the northern sky and +came frowning over the Moor against the course of the wind. + +Maurice Malherb was close on fifty, and he had chosen to plough +the earth for his partage in the world's work. A younger son of +his house, he had turned from the junior's usual portion, and, by +some accident of character, refused a commission and sought the +peaceful occupations of agriculture. He had already wasted +some portion of his patrimony upon land near Exeter; and +he was seeking new outlet for his energies when arose a wide-spread +ardour for cultivation of Dartmoor. The age of enterprise +dawned there; "newtake" tenements sprang up like mushrooms +upon this waste; and a region that had mostly slept since Elizabethan +miners furrowed its breast and streamed its rivers for tin, +awoke. As a grim crown to the Moor, Prince Town and its +gigantic War Prison was created; while round about young +woods budded, homesteads appeared, and wide tracts of the +Royal Forest were rented to the speculative and the sanguine. + +Maurice Malherb was among those first attracted by the +prospect. A famous Dartmoor hero had influenced him in this +decision, and he was now spending a week with Sir Thomas +Tyrwhitt, at Tor Royal, and examining the knight's operations in +husbandry. He saw Dartmoor for the first time, and the frank, +stern face of it challenged him. For three days he rode forth +alone; and then he wandered to Cater's Beam and discovered +the dewy cup where rivers rise beneath it. To the right and left +he looked and smiled. His dark eyes drank up the possibilities +of the land. Already he pictured dykes for draining of the +marshes; already he saw crops ripening and slow oxen drawing +the ploughshare in the valley. Of the eternal facts, hard as +granite and stern as nature, that lurked here under the dancing +summer air, he knew nothing. The man was fifteen hundred +feet above the sea, in the playground of the west wind. The +inveterate peat encompassed him--the hungry, limeless peat, that +eats bone like a dog and fattens upon the life-blood of those who try +to tame it. He gazed upon a wilderness where long winters bury +the land in snow or freeze it to the granite core for months--save +where warm springs twinkle in the mosses and shine like wet +eyes out of a white face. Here the wise had observed and passed +upon their way; but Maurice Malherb was not wise. August +ruled the hour; the ling bloomed under the heat; a million +insects murmured and made a pleasant melody. Dartmoor for a +moment smiled, and weary of the tame monotony of green meads, +hedges elm-clad, and fields of ruddy earth, Malherb caught hope +from this crystal air and enormous scene outspread, fell to picturing +a notable future, and found his pulses leap to the great plans +that thronged his mind. + +He was of a square and sturdy habit of body. A clean-shorn +countenance, deep-set black eyes beneath black brows, a large +mouth underhung, and a nose very broad but finely moulded, were +the distinguishing attributes of his face. Restlessness was alike +the characteristic of his expression and of his nature. Generosity +and pride dominated him in turn. His failures were the work of +other people; his successes he claimed himself. His wife, his son, +his daughter, the blood in his veins, the wine in his cellar, were all +the best in the world. His demonian temper alone he deplored; +yet in that, also, he found matter for occasional satisfaction; since, +by a freak of atavism, he resembled at every physical and mental +point an ancestor from the spacious times, whose deeds on deep +and unknown seas had won him the admiration and friendship of +Drake. + +Malherb already saw a homestead spring upwards upon the +green hill beneath Fox Tor. There would he lift his eyrie; there +should successive generations look back and honour their founder; +there--thunder broke suddenly upon his dreams and the bay +horse shifted his fore-feet nervously beneath him. Whereupon he +lifted his eyes, and found that a great storm was at hand. +Unperceived it had crept out of the north while he stood wrapped in +meditation; and now a ghastly glamour extended beneath it, for +the Moor began to look like a sick thing, huddled here all bathed +with weak yellow light from a fainting sun. Solitary blots and +wisps of cloud darkened the sky and heralded the solid and +purple van of the thunderstorm. All insect music ceased, and a +hush, unbroken by one whisper, fell upon the hills. Cater's +Beam suggested some prodigious, couchant creature, watchful yet +fearless. Thus it awaited the familiar onset of the lightning, +whose daggers had broken in its granite bosom a thousand times +and left no scar. + +The wanderer spurred his horse, and regained firm foothold on +the crest of the land; then, bending to a torrent of rain, he galloped +westward where the gaunt wards and barracks of Prince Town +towered above the desolation. But the tempest broke long before +Malherb reached safety; darkness swallowed him and he struggled +storm-foundered among the unfamiliar hills. Then fortune sent +another traveller, and a young man, riding bare-backed upon a +pony, came into view. Sudden lightning showed the youth, and, +waiting for a tremendous volley of thunder that followed upon it, +Malherb shouted aloud. His voice, though deep and sonorous, +sounded thin as the pipe of a bird thus lifted immediately after +the peal. + +"Hold there! Where am I, boy? Which is the way to Tor +Royal?" + +"You be going right, sir," shouted the lad; "but 'tis a long +road this weather. Best to follow me, if I may make so bold, an +I'll bring 'e to shelter in five minutes." + +The offer was good, and Mr. Malherb accepted with a nod. + +"Go as fast as you can; I'll keep behind you." + +Both horses were moorland bred, for the visitor rode a stout +hackney lent by his host. Yet Malherb had to shake up his steed +to keep the native in sight. Presently the youth dismounted, and +his companion became aware of a low cabin rising like a beehive +before him. It stood at the foot of a gentle hill, within a rough +enclosure of stone. Some few acres of land had been reclaimed +about it, and not far distant, through the murk of the rain, its +granite gleaming azure under the glare of the lightning, stood an +ancient and famous stone. + +"Now I know where I stand," said the stranger. "I came this +way three hours since. There rises Siward's Cross--is it not so?" + +"Ess, your worship, 'tis so. An' this cot do belong to my +gran'mother. 'Tis a poor hole for quality, but stormtight. You +please to go in that door an' I'll take your hoss after 'e. Us do +all live under the same thatch--folks an' beastes." + +The boy took both bridles, then kicked open the door of the +hut, and shouted to his grandmother. + +"Here's a gentleman almost drownded. Put on a handful of +sticks an' make a blaze so as he can catch heat, for he be so wet +as a frog!" + +A loud, clear voice answered from the inner gloom. +"Sticks! Sticks! Be I made o' money to burn sticks at your +bidding? If peat keeps the warmth in my carcase, 'twill do the +like for him--king or tinker." + +Maurice Malherb entered the cabin, then started back with an +oath as an old woman rose and confronted him. She, too, +exhibited the liveliest astonishment. + +"Lovey Lee!" + +"Ess fay, Lovey Lee it is," she answered slowly; "an' you'm +Maurice Malherb or the living daps of him. To think! Ten +years! An' all your curses haven't come home to roost neither +by the looks of you." + +"No," he replied. "They've hit the mark rather--or you are +playing miser still and saving your crusts and tatters and living as +you loved to live." + +"I be an old, abused creature," she said. "I starve here wi' +scarce a penny in the world, an' your faither's paltry legacy +growing smaller day by day. I'll outlast it an' die wanting food, an' +laugh at churchyard worms, since there'll be nought of me for 'em +to breed in." + +She rose and proclaimed herself a woman of extraordinary +stature--a female colossus of bones. She stood six feet three +inches, and, but for her wild and long grey hair, looked like a man +masquerading. + +Lovey Lee was a widow, and had spent most of her life in the +service of the Malherbs. At twenty years of age she married a +gamekeeper, and, twelve months later, her husband lost his life in +a poaching affray. Then Lovey had returned to service. A +posthumous girl was born to her, and the son of that daughter, +now a lad of sixteen, dwelt with his grandmother upon the Moor. +Mrs. Lee was clad in rags, and barely wore enough of them for +decency. Her great gnarled feet were naked; her huge hands +protruded from tattered sleeves; and the round ulnar condyles at +her wrists were as big as pigeon's eggs. Lean, wiry, and as hard +as adamant, the miser lived in this fastness with her cattle and +her daughter's son. Mystery shrouded her doings in the past, +she seldom spoke, and seldom appeared among the moorland +haunts of men. Therefore humble folks feared her for a witch, +and avoided her by day or night. In reality, the passion of her +life and the mainspring of every action was greed; and she +exceeded the vulgar miser in this--that intrinsic worth, not alone +the rude glitter of money, commanded her worship. Value was +the criterion; she rose superior to the chink of gold; she loved +a diamond as well as the coins that represented it; or a piece of +land; or a milch cow. Her education in the house of the +Malherbs lifted her to some breadth of mind; and when the head of +the family had passed away, ten years before the beginning of these +events, a black cloud hung over this woman's behaviour, and +turned her old master's children against her. + +Now the man of all others most involved by this dame's doubtful +conduct stood before her eyes and asked an abrupt question. + +"What did you do with the Malherb amphora, Lovey Lee?" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MALHERB AMPHORA + +Upon the death of Sir Nicholas Malherb, his second son, +Maurice, found himself in possession of fifteen thousand +pounds and the famous Malherb amphora, an heirloom of the +family. By arrangement with the elder brother, Maurice took the +amphora instead of its equivalent in cash, and thus the succeeding +baronet was richer by twenty thousand pounds, which more +fully answered his purposes than the ancient treasure. + +Concerning this gem a word must be spoken. While slightly +inferior to the Portland vase in size, its workmanship equalled that +of the more famous curio, and it was esteemed by connoisseurs as +much superior to the Auldjo vase, or another marvellous example +of similar cameo glass, still the acquisition of Naples. In Maurice +Malherb's amphora, a bygone vitrarius had immortalised his art. +The opaque bubble of white glass was coated with cerulean blue, +and upon this surface another film of white had been spread. +With the gem engraver's tools these strata were sculptured into +a most exquisite design of little Loves playing hide and seek amid +the foliage of the acanthus. Herein genius had accomplished a +masterpiece, and all men capable of appreciating it wished Maurice +Malherb joy of the treasure. To desire the amphora in place of +its value was characteristic of his fine taste and spirit, and also +symbolic of his wayward disposition, since money had been of +far greater service to him in his agricultural pursuits. Then a +catastrophe overtook Malherb, for within a week of his father's +death, the amphora disappeared. The bubble of glass vanished +like a bubble of water. Upon the morning of a certain day +Maurice had moved it from its place in a locked cabinet, displayed +it to relations and put it back again; but, returning to this +receptacle within two hours, he found the amphora was no longer +there. All that man could do men did to recover the treasure; +but not one sign of the amphora nor one shadowy clue as to its +situation rewarded expert search. Then that nine days' wonder +waned, and only the sufferer still smarted under his loss. He +called upon his brother to make good this grave decrement of +fortune, but the heir refused to do so, and a breach in the family +widened from that hour. + +Maurice Malherb alone of all those interested in this theft had +suspected the old servant, Lovey Lee; yet knowledge of her +character and peculiar propensities led him most stoutly to +believe that she was the thief of the amphora. His father had +trusted and honoured this gaunt creature. He had admired her +remarkable physical courage, thrift, and common sense; and +while Mrs. Lee always annoyed and disgusted the family, Sir +Nicholas himself professed open respect for her, and found her +secretly useful in ways not published to the world. Yet, upon his +death, Lovey declared herself beyond measure shocked and +disappointed at a legacy of one thousand pounds which the knight +bequeathed to her. She fumed and fretted, spoke of unknown +services, and loudly cried that the dead had inflicted upon her a +cruel wrong. + +Presently she vanished unregretted from the home of the +Malherbs; and after her departure Maurice began to associate +the old servant with his loss. The woman was traced and +surprised. She posed as one deeply injured, and proved to +demonstration that she knew nothing of the amphora. Yet its owner +was not convinced, and within a year he himself sought out +Lovey Lee in hope to make a bargain with her and recover his +property by paying a generous sum and promising to take no +step against her. She had, however, forfeited her life if guilty, +for men and women hanged on light accusations a century ago. +But Malherb never found the opportunity he desired, because +Mrs. Lee had quite disappeared when he made search for her. +During ten years he heard nothing of her fate; then chance +threw him into the old woman's company again under this +fury of a Dartmoor storm; and his first thought was the lost +treasure. + +In answer to the straight question, Lovey revealed both +power of words and subtlety of mind. Her eyes glittered; each +wrinkle in her face gathered itself together, as though to repulse +an enemy; her sharp nose looked eager to stab him. She showed +her teeth, and Malherb noted that they were white and strong. + +"Still harping on that gimcrack; still babbling to the world +that 'twas I stole it! What a fool must you be--an' not the first +Malherb as was that--to think I've got your fortune. Look +around you. Put your nose in that cupboard. You'll find +barley bread an' rancid grease--not the Malherb amphora. Do +'e see thicky wall? 'Tis piled o' peat, an' I live 'pon one side an' +my donkey an' pony an' cows 'pon t'other. They save fuel in +winter; they keep the air warm with their breath. I often go an' +sleep with 'em when 'tis too cold to bear my bones. But they +say that your glass toy was worth twenty thousand pounds. Even +a thief might have got rid of it for thousands. An' should I +be here--should I make a jackass my pillow, an' live on berries +and acorns like a bird, an' stew snails to my broth, if I'd gotten +thousands? One dirty thousand I did have--may your faither +roast for his mean trick--an' this here slack-limbed great boy, +Jack Lee, to keep with it. But----" + +"Hear me!" interrupted Malherb. "What you say would be +true enough if it was not Lovey Lee who spoke. D'you think I +don't remember you and your ways--you that sold your good +food and lived on orts; that bartered your clothes and hated +wearing any raiment that was better than a scarecrow's? +Possession of my vase would be the light of your life. Not because +it is lovely; not because the genius of man never devised nor his +hand fashioned a nobler thing in such sort; but because it is +worth twenty thousand pounds, and because to be able to hug +that wealth all at once to your evil heart would be paradise +to you. That is why I believed you were the thief; and still +believe it." + +She snarled at him, then made a slow answer. + +"Believe as you please. I'll be very happy to hang for it--when +you find it. An' ban't no joy to me to see you under my +roof, for you hate me an' think evil against me, though I served +your parents so faithful as the humble can serve the great, an' +nursed your youngest brother at my own breast." + +"'Twas chance, not intention, led me," he answered. "A few +years ago I longed to meet you, and make you an offer. Now +the opportunity has come. I'll be reasonable, as I always am. +You cannot take the amphora with you when you die. At least +see that my son----" + +"Go your ways an' trouble me no more!" she cried, and +Malherb flashed into a passion. + +"As to that, if this hole is your home, I'm like to trouble +you not a little, you cross-grained hag. See there--where the +heart of the storm is bursting now, at the other side of this great +marsh--there you'll presently find a granite house lifting itself +four-square to the winds. I also have chosen the Moor for a +home. May that knowledge bring you to better wisdom." + +The old woman was deeply interested by this intelligence. + +"What! You be coming? Then you haven't flourished down +country after all, but must climb up here an' begin again. You're +mad! An' 'tis a wicked thing to steal the Moor acre by acre as +you an' the likes of you be doing now. An' Duchy always ready +with its cursed greedy paws stretched out to take your money." + +"I shall be a Moor-man, too, and enjoy rights of Venville," he +said, more to himself than to the woman. + +"'Tis a wicked thing and flat robbery," she repeated. "All +the countryside be raw under it; but for what count the rights of +the poor? All the best of the Moor--all the best strolls for +grazing, where the grass be greenest--all the lew spots--all +stolen away one after t'other an' barred against the lawful +commoners; an' not a hand lifted. That hill be where my cows +do graze an' roam. Now you'll drive 'em from their proper lairs, +an' they'll have to bide on the coarse grass, an' I'll be stinted of +milk, as is my poor livelihood." + +"You'll still have enough to fill the amphora," said Maurice +Malherb; then he turned to the boy. + +"Bring you my horse, lad. The storm is past. I can get on to +Tor Royal now." + +"An' tell Tyrwhitt what I tell you," said Lavey, "that him an' +the rest be no better'n a pack of thieves an' cadgers. 'Tis a +hanging matter if us steals the goose from the common; but nobody +says nought when the upper people steal the common from the +goose. There'll come a day of reckoning for Duchy yet--an' +Tyrwhitt too!" + +She stood and watched him mount, with her bent head thrust +out of the door, like a gigantic fowl looking out of a pen. + +Malherb made no answer, but turned to the boy. + +"There's a crown for you, youngster, and I wish you a better +grandmother." + +He went his way and the old woman twitched her long nose +and stared after him. + +"Born fool--born fool--to waste what he've got left on this +here wilderness. An' so awful nigh to my----" She broke off +and turned to the boy, John. + +"What did he give e', Jack? Quick! Out with it!" + +As a matter of custom the youth gave up his money. + +"A crown! Just the same great silly gawk he always was. +Never knowed anybody with such large notions touching money. +But them notions breed thin purses." + +"A very fine gentleman all the same, granny, an' a rides butiful, +an' have a flashing eye, an' a voice as makes you run to do his +bidding. He'm awful proud, but I like him." + +"'Like him!' You ungrateful little toad, you ought to cuss +him for speaking so wicked to your grandam." + +"There was laughter in his eyes more'n once." + +"Go an' pick snails; go an' pick snails! They'll swarm after +the rain. I see the ducks gulching 'em by the quart. My +snail-barrel be running low." + +She watched young John start to obey, then spoke to herself. + +"'Likes him!' Maybe he does. Blood's thicker'n water." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BESIDE EXE + +Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt loudly applauded the decision +to which his guest had come, for it was the knight's +conviction that Dartmoor's high places offered health, work, and +reward to all men. Himself a friend of the Prince Regent, he +commanded attention from other personages also, and his own +estates by the new settlement of Prince Town grew rapidly; his +own enterprises awoke a sanguine spirit in others. + +Three days after the thunderstorm, Mr. Malherb sat with the +High Bailiff of Dartmoor at the Duchy of Cornwall office; and, +such was his impetuous energy, that within two months the +walls of Fox Tor Farm began to rise. From Lew Trenchard +came the slates (a circumstance that set men wondering, for +reed thatch covered most heads upon the Moor in those days); +and teams of a dozen oxen struggled over the waste, dragging +sledges laden with stone. Roads there were none, and +no wheeled vehicle had ever entered that wild valley. Malherb +took up his temporary residence at an ancient tenement farm +within five miles of his land, and daily he rode to the scene of +action, planned and plotted, ordered and countermanded, now +entered upon passing periods of doubt, now threw aside his +dilemmas and turned to problems more easy of solution. + +In the placid homestead beside Exe awoke stir and bustle too, +for the farm on the Moor was now progressing rapidly, and +Annabel Malherb and her daughter Grace had learnt that their +new dwelling was to be ready within a year--a time quite short in +those leisurely days for the transference of a home. Mother and +daughter contemplated the great change brooding over their +existence, with lively hopes and fears. The enterprise loomed +tremendous to their simple minds; but both trusted the master +in their hearts, if at times their heads whispered treachery. + +The wife was of an ancient pattern, and set high religious +significance on marriage vows; the child loved her stormy father, +and bravely stood for him in the face of a critical and +unsympathetic world. To Malherb's faults these women blinded +themselves; his virtues they sang at all seasons. From Carew stock +the matron sprang, and her noble blood, her steadfastness of +view, her large trust in the goodness of Divine purpose, was all +her dowry, for wealth she had none. Grace Malherb resembled +her mother in mind and bearing. She was a simple, generous-hearted +maiden, and her life had passed without storm or stress. +She moved in the scented Devon lanes; she gathered the eglantine +and wild roses in spring, at autumn plucked the scarlet corals of +the iris or those glimmering green mosses that made fair vestment +for the red earth. But now her eyes were lifted to Dartmoor, +where its hills rose shadowy across the western sky; and awe and +wonder widened the limits of her mind, and mystery awoke in +dreams and added beauty to her face. + +The imperious farmer had a whim to keep his wife and daughter +away from their future home until it should be ready to receive +them; and since they were wholly ignorant of the great table-land, +the contrast between Fox Tor with its adjacencies and the +meadow farm by Exe was destined to come upon both women +with a force almost bewildering. Even to the thin voices of the +labouring men, their chastened outlook upon life and their +estimate of happiness, all was changed. + +The attitude of Annabel and Grace Malherb upon this radical +transformation will appear. From agricultural failure and +depression in the valleys they were at least well contented to escape. + +On an autumn day they walked and talked together upon a +meadow path by the river. Maurice Malherb was returning from +the Moor for a while to look after his business, and here his wife +and daughter waited for him. + +"That your father has built a house is well," declared +Mrs. Malherb, "for, come what may to his many projects, an abiding +place of our own will be a source of peace to me." + +"And no more coal bills!" cried Grace. "Father has said +that we shall dig our coal out of the earth within sight of +home." + +"'Tis peat he means--a very good form of warmth--yet I +doubt for the cooking." + +"Barbara would have made shift with it. Oh, mother, what +shall we do without her?" + +"I cannot guess yet." + +"To think of all new servants--all new--but that horrid old +Kek!" + +Mrs. Malherb smiled. + +"Kekewich is a sort of skeleton at life's feast. The sour truth +and nothing but the truth he utters. Yet truth's a tonic, and +your father knows it." + +"Truth is often very impertinent--especially as Kek tells it. +If any other man spoke to father as he does, he would soon be +measuring his length on the ground." + +"It shows my husband's marvellous judgment that Kekewich +never angers him." + +"To me the man is merely a piece of earth animated. Such +stuff would never have grown a good cabbage, so some wicked +fairy took it and made Kek. I'm sure he'll be a wet blanket on +hope, and, according to father, the mists are wet blankets enough +up there." + +"Kekewich suffers much pain of body, and it makes him harsh. +He is an honest man, and your father gets good out of him. +That is enough for us. He is at least the soul of common sense." + +But Grace shook her head. + +"'Tis no more common sense to look always on the dark side +of things than, like dear father, to be over-hopeful." + +"The golden mean----" murmured her mother. + +"Rainbow gold," answered the girl. "Human nature cannot +find it. What----? But here comes Kek himself. He looks +spry and peart for once. That bodes trouble for somebody." + +A gate opened upon the path, and in the red-gold light of +evening a man approached them. The ruddy earth had dyed +his garments to its rich hue, had soaked into his clothes and +body. He seemed incarnate clay. His frame had crooked, his +hair was grizzled. His mouth was like the stamp of a gouge +upon putty, and at first glance a grin appeared to sit upon his +face; but, better seen, one noted that the distortion was +accidental, and that in reality his features were stamped with the +eternal sadness of suffering. + +"Three barrow pigs be just drownded," he said. "I seed 'em +fighting in the water; then they went down an' comed up again, +an' squeaked proper till the river chucked 'em. 'Tis always what +I said would happen." + +"Where was Bob?" asked Grace, with much concern. "The +blame will fall upon him." + +"So it will, but that won't bring the pigs alive again; though +they'll do very well for common people to eat if we can get 'em +ashore inside twenty-four hours." + +The sound of a horse's hoofs broke upon the silence that +followed this bad news. Then Maurice Malherb appeared, +dismounted, kissed his wife and daughter, and nodded to the servant. + +"All goes forward most prosperously," he said. "Since I +promised the foreman ten pounds if the chimney-pots were on by +Christmas, the place grows like honeycomb in June." + +"Why, 'twas to be finished by then in any case, according to +contract, my dear!" + +"True; but you know what these people are." + +"You be one as would pay for honesty an' make it marketable, +'Tis a wrong way, an' don't do the world no good," grumbled +Kekewich. + +"We must oil the wheels of progress, Kek," said his master. +"I want to begin. I want to fight next winter up there." + +"Best way to fight Dartmoor winters be to flee from 'em," +answered the old man. + +"Nay, nay--that's a coward's policy. I'm going to do things +on Dartmoor that never have been done yet. I've not farmed +here all these years for nothing." + +"No, by Gor! you've not." + +Annabel Malherb and Grace now turned homeward, and the +farmer walked slowly beside Kekewich. + +"Up aloft they make a great many mistakes. I mean the folk +of the Moor. But to see error is to avoid it with a man of +sense. And I've let the people find out already that they will +have a powerful friend in me. I learn from them what to do, as +well as what not to do. We shall want all kinds to help us. I +believe in a big staff on a farm--especially a grazing farm. The +old, the strong, the young--light work for the men that are three +score and ten, and worn with a life of labour, though useful yet. +And none shall have tail corn, as too often happens up there, +for who can do man's work on pig's food? And my cider shall +be cider, as it always has been--not the vinegar they call cider +on Dartmoor." + +"'Ess--you'll make the place a hospital for them past +work--same as this be." + +"Not I. But I'll keep self-respect in my people. The women +shall have sixpence a day out of doors. The labourer is worthy +of her hire." + +"You'll never learn sense. You comed in the world to waste +money, not to make it, as I've always told 'e. Sixpence a day for +females! What next?" + +"'Cast thy bread on the waters.' I'm a working Christian, +and a lesson to you, heathen that you are." + +"A working Christian ban't no better for being a fool. What's +the sense of casting your bread 'pon the water while your wife an' +maiden be hungry upon the shore?" + +"Hungry! You're mad!" + +"'Twill come to hunger. You'd spoil any market--a very +good, open-hearted gentleman, us all knows; but sixpence a day +for outdoor females! 'Tis all summed up in that. There ban't a +outdoor woman in the world worth more'n fourpence." + +"Ask their husbands. You're an old bachelor." + +"'Ess--thank God!" + +"Some sloes there are that even winter will never sweeten; and +you are such a one. How fares the rheumatism?" + +"A sleeping dog for the minute. He was gnawing his bone +proper last week though. Maybe Dartymoor will lessen my +pangs." + +"I hope so with all my heart. 'Tis the least it can do for you, +seeing how much you are going to do for it. Such men as you +are greatly wanted there." + +"Such men as me take blamed good care to bide down in the +country--unless they've got reckless masters," said Kekewich. + +Then he took Malherb's horse and departed, while anon the +farmer discoursed very learnedly to his wife concerning +Dartmoor. But his knowledge was borrowed; his enthusiasm was no +substitute for personal experience. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt loved +the Moor like a mistress. To her faults he was blind; and he +had now inspired his friend with kindred ardour. + +"I long to begin looking for men, but 'tis too soon yet," +Malherb declared. "In a few months, however, I shall have +work for half a dozen." + +"And a dairymaid, remember, since you design a complete +change, and will not keep our Annie," said Mrs. Malherb. + +"Yes, the women understand calves and cows wonderfully well +up there. Such sheds as I am building--like the cloisters of a +cathedral! But stock on Dartmoor in winter needs snug houses +and generous treatment." + +The women caught his mood, and prattled as though they +already saw prosperity beckoning out of the future. + +"After the war 'twill all go well, I pray," said Mrs. Malherb. +"All human affairs languish just now; but when the war is ended +and Noel comes home---- Peter Norcot, from the Woollen +Factory at Chagford, was here in doleful dumps yesterday. The +East Indian Company, who is their first customer----" + +"Did you see him, Grace?" interrupted Maurice. + +The girl blushed and shook her head, whereupon her father's +face grew dark. + +"For another year you shall have your way, Miss. Then---- I +have said it. Then comes the pinch, and somebody will have +to learn the duty of a child to its parent." + +"I'll not marry with Peter--never," she said quietly. "He's +no man--a mere walking, talking chatterbox--a packman, with +nonsensical rags and tags of rhymes and jests for his +stock-in-trade. He would drive me mad with his borrowed wit." + +"We shall see," said Malherb. "His wit may be borrowed; +his wealth is his own. Now go you and get a bottle of the +Burgundy. We'll not argue--we love one another too dearly." + +But though he spoke calmly, his mood changed, and the +infernal temper that cursed his life, and lurked in his warm, big +heart like a wasp in a rose, broke forth. He heard the dismal +tale of the drowned pigs, dashed out of doors with his horsewhip, +and roared for the lad Robert. When Grace returned with his +wine, her father had disappeared; her mother, grown white and +careworn suddenly, stood by the window. + +Shrieks echoed through the autumn gloaming and rang against +the walls of the farm; while, round a corner, the unfortunate +youth whose errors were responsible for his master's loss lifted +up a bitter voice and yelled for mercy under the lash. + +"That'll teach you, you idle scoundrel! If you'd been drowned, +none would have cared a curse. But my pigs--there, and there, +and there; and never show your ugly face to me again, or +I'll----" + +Bob fled howling, and through a night of smart and sleeplessness +wriggled in much misery. But only the present suffering of +his back troubled him, for he knew what day would bring as +surely as it brought the sun. + +He met his master going the rounds before breakfast, and +touched his hat and fell into a great simulated lameness; whereon +Malherb gave him "Good morning" and threw him a shilling. + +"Mind the pigs closer henceforth, you vagabond," he said; +then added to himself as he saw the boy's rueful countenance, +"and I will mind my temper closer, please God." + +Kekewich appeared from a barn as the shilling was picked up. + +"Ah," he said, when Bob had departed, "usual way. Even +the misfortune of they pigs have cost 'e a coin more'n there was +any call to pay." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"THE MARROW OF THE FARM" + +The grievance uttered by Lovey Lee against those who +settled upon Dartmoor and appropriated to particular uses +that ancient domain, was widespread a hundred years ago, and +is alive to-day. Aforetime some five-and-thirty ancient Forest +Tenements were held as customary freeholds, or copyholds, from +the Manor of Lydford independent of the Duchy, and these +venerable homesteads shall be found scattered in the most +secluded and salubrious regions of the Moor. Of these, +however, the Duchy has now secured more than half, and it will +probably acquire the remainder in process of time. But a +different sort of farm sprang up on every side a century since; +"newtake" tenements appeared; and Maurice Malherb now +proposed to create another such in the virgin valley of Fox Tor. +These constant enclosures have been a source of discontent upon +Dartmoor for many generations, and the peasants protest with +reason, for theirs is the unalienable right to this great waste, and +every acre fenced off against their sheep and cattle is a defiance +of ancient charters and a robbery of the poor. The cry was old +before Tudor times, and you shall read in _Henry VI._ (Part 2) +how the Second Peter, representing his fellow-townsmen, petitions +"against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of +Melford." + +And so it happened that Malherb's advent made him more +enemies than friends in the border villages and among the +scattered homesteads of the Moor. + +A little knot of grumblers were met together at the "Saracen's +Head," near Prince Town--a modest tavern long since superseded +by the present famous hostelry at Two Bridges. This party now +aired its wrongs, and albeit no man amongst them had ever set +eyes upon Malherb, all spoke an evil word against him, and each +man could report some sinister story gleaned from another. It +appeared certain upon these rumours that the new "squatter" +was a hard and rapacious rascal. + +"The place will be finished home to the roof next year," said +a thin, straight man with a long beard and a face so hidden in +hair that little more than his nose and eyes protruded from it. +"Fox Tor Farm 'twill be named, an' Lovey Lee, up to Siward's +Cross, have said as she'll bewitch him from the day he enters the +house." + +"Somebody did ought to tell the Prince Regent," murmured +a very old man who sat by the fire. "He don't know about +these here goings on, an' how Duchy fills his pockets with gold +stolen from our pockets. This place was given to us in the early +ages of the earth, an' if the Prince knowed the rights of it, he +wouldn't take the money." + +"What be Duchy, Uncle Smallridge?" inquired a weak-eyed +youth with flaxen hair and fluffy, corn-coloured down about his +cheeks and chin. "For my part I can't grasp hold of it. Be it +a live thing as you might say?" + +The old man addressed as Uncle Smallridge laughed and spat +into the fire. + +"Duchy's alive enough; yet 'tis wasting wind to cuss it an' +breath to talk against it. 'Tis alive, but it can't be hurled; it +have ears, but it be deaf to the likes of us. It laughs at us, but +we never hear the laughter." + +"An' it's got a deep pocket," said the hairy man. "What say +you, neighbour Woodman?" + +"I say, 'tis a monster," answered another speaker. "'Tis the +invention of the Devil to breed anger an' evil thoughts in us. +Here be I, Harvey Woodman of Huccaby, son of Harvey +Woodman of Huccaby, grandson of Harvey Woodman of +Huccaby, great-grandson of Harvey Woodman of Huccaby; +an' I tell you that the vexations of the Duchy have so lighted +'pon my family from generation to generation, that it has got in +our blood an' we stand to it same as mankind in the Bible do +stand to the seed of the serpent." + +"Maybe--with a difference, Harvey," answered Uncle Smallridge. +"Duchy'll bruise your head for you, an' your son's head, +same as it did your forbears, but you won't bruise its heel; for +why? It haven't got no heel to bruise." + +"'Tis a wicked whole made up of decent bits," declared the +hairy man, whose name was Richard Beer. "The gents as stand +for Duchy, take 'em one by one, be human men same as us; but +when they meets together, the Devil's in the chair every time. +An' now another two hundred acres gone, an' all that butivul +stroll for cattle beyond Fox Tor Mire walled off against my +heifers an' yours." + +"I hate the chap afore I see him. He've got a wicked-sounding +name," said Thomas Putt, the youth with weak eyes. + +"If we was men instead of mice, we'd rise up an' show Duchy +that right's right, and that its ways be the ways of a knave," said +Harvey Woodman. Then he shook his bull neck and drank +deep. + +"Supposing us all had your great courage, no doubt something +would be done," answered Beer. "What you say be true; +but we spend our indignation in words an' leave none for deeds." + +"Where there's smoke there's fire," declared the ancient by +the hearth. "If I was a younger man I'd lead you forth against +Duchy an' be the fust to heave down they walls rising up-along--ay, +an' call upon the God o' Justice to lend His A'mighty Hand." + +"Which He wouldn't do; for there ban't no miracles now, +Uncle Smallridge," said Thomas Putt. + +"Ban't there? I think there be, else you'd be shut up, Tom, +an' not roaming free." + +This allusion made the company laugh, for, despite his slim +shape and peering eyes, Tom Putt was a daring poacher--one of +Izaac Walton's wicked but most skilful disciples. He killed many +a salmon, and he shot many a partridge intended for a nobler +destiny than slaughter at his hand. + +A stranger entered the bar of the "Saracen's Head" at this +moment. The man shook the wet from his coat, went to the fire, +and ordered a glass of hot brandy and water. + +"Nice plum weather still, your honour," said Uncle Smallridge, +as he made his way from the blaze. "The sun have been drawing +up the autumn rains these many days, but winter's here at last. +The water will all come home again in snow." + +"Wet enough," said the other. "I marvel your grass here +doesn't rot in the ground." + +"An' so it do in some places," answered Richard Beer; "as +if it wasn't hard enough to get a living for the dumb things +without walling the Moor off against the rightful owners. Come +presently there won't be a bit of sweet grazing us can call our +own. Now here's this Mr. Malherb--a foreigner from down +Exeter way--bitten off a few more hundred acres of the best." + +"Who says any ill of him?" asked the stranger. + +"'Tis only hearsay," declared Woodman. "There may be good +in him; but I wish he'd bided away." + +"Lord knows I wouldn't speak no malice against the gentleman," +continued Beer, "for I am going to ax him to give me +work. He wants a few understanding chaps, 'tis said. An' I +know the Moor better'n my Bible, more shame to me. You'll +bear me out, neighbours, that I can get what man may from +Dartymoor soil?" + +"You'm very witty at it, us all knows," admitted Harvey +Woodman. + +"How would you tackle those wet slopes under Fox Tor?" +asked the new-comer. + +"Well," answered Beer, "drain, drain, drain an' graze, graze, +graze; an' leave the natural herbage as much as you may. You +won't better it." + +The stranger laughed. + +"If Maurice Malherb can't improve upon Nature on Dartmoor, +'tis pity," he declared. + +But Richard Beer shook his head. + +"You've got to follow in these parts, not lead. Nature do know +her own business; an' you can't teach her, for her won't larn. +Farming be a sort of coaxing her to your way o' thinking. There's +two sorts o' stuff the place be made of: peaty moor, as'll yield +good grass; an' swamp, as be useful to nought but a frog. This +here Mr. Malherb must drain, an' pare, an' burn in reason; but +he must not overdo it." + +"Mind you, the natural things have their value," put in old +Smallridge. "French furze at four years' growth do fetch a pound +an acre. An' if the land be fatted properly the man might grow +potatoes." + +"Potatoes do eat up all afore you eat them," said Beer; "though +the appleing of 'em do keep the earth sweet an' mellow. Then +he'll follow with barley, not wheat." + +"As to the chances of corn?" asked the stranger. His wet +coat smoked and sent up a fire-lit steam in the darkening chamber. + +"Corn's a ticklish business, master," replied Beer. "Yet 'tis +to be done if you'll bring your soil to a husband-like tilth an' not +spare lime. Burn clean, plough, an' dress as generously as your +pocket will stand. Then spread fresh mould afore the seed earth. +Earth must be fetched, for you've got to remember there's none +there. Then sow your wheat--ten pecks to the acre--harrow in, +strike out the furrows, and pray God for eighteen bushels to the +acre. He can do it an' He's a minded. Next year the man must +refresh his stubble, plough, sow, hack in, an' hope for ten or twelve +bushels. Then turnips must follow--not broadcast like our fathers +sowed 'em--for that's to spread a table for the fly, but the +two-furrow way. Then the land must have three years' fallow; an' +that's the whole law an' the prophets about it, so far as I know +anything." + +"In my youth," said Uncle Smallridge, "when the world was +awful backward at farming, us growed nought but rye; an' a fool +here an' there do still cling to his fathers' coat-tails an' go on +growing it. But not one in the forefront of the day, like Dick +Beer." + +"All the same," concluded Mr. Beer, "the gentleman's best +stand-by will be beasts, like the rest of us. It don't pay trying to +tame Dartmoor--he'll soon find that out, despite all the talk of +Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt an' such-like great men." + +"And you want work?" asked the listener. + +"So I do. I'm ready to try an' make a fortune for anybody." + +"Why are you out of employment?" + +"My last master have gived up," confessed the labourer. + +"Did you make his fortune?" + +"To be plain, he was very unlucky. I couldn't help him. +Nobody couldn't. He was overlooked, I reckon. The evil eye +was upon him." + +"Ah!--Well, Maurice Malherb is not frightened of the evil +eye. What wages do you get?" + +"Nought to trumpet about. Seven shilling a week--'tis the +usual wage, but pinching. My wife be good for two shilling. +So us do very well--thanks to God, who didn't send no childer." + +"I'll give you ten shillings a week." + +"You! Who be you, master?' + +"I am Maurice Malherb, of Fox Tor Farm. Work must begin +in a month. I'm looking round me. My head man comes up +presently. But he doesn't know Dartmoor. You appear to do so. +Provided your credentials and character are good, I'll engage you +on trial." + +"Aw jimmery! this be great news. Ten shilling a week!" + +"My workpeople will be the marrow of my farm. I know that +very well." + +"You'd do wise to take his wife along with him, your honour," +said Uncle Smallridge. "Such a dairymaid ban't often met with. +Fifteen cows she've been known to tackle with no more than help +in the milking. That's three more'n any other woman I've ever +heard about." + +"'Tis true, your honour," declared Richard Beer; "though my +own wife, 'tis true. There be some as would rob the hearse an' +chase the driver--such be always crying out for help in their work; +but my Dinah's different. A towser for work; an' her temper +pretty near so sweet as the cream she makes." + +"She shall come," answered Mr. Malherb. "My lady has the +usual pin-money," he continued. "The poultry, pigs, and dairy +produce accrue to her; and out of it she keeps the house, save in +bread and green stuff. She will need a good dairymaid who can +go to market." + +"An' if there's any more men you want, Woodman here be a +masterpiece at ploughing an' wall-building an' handling stone in +general, ban't you, Harvey?" asked Mr. Beer, solicitous for his +friend. + +"Yes, I be," said Mr. Woodman. "Us was somebody in the +land once, but now I've only got a little old cottage left at +Huccaby, though in the past my people owned the farm there an' +scores an' scores of acres. But us have gone down. I'll come +if you want me; an' my son be a very handy lad. I live by +cutting peat an' building walls an' such like; but 'tis a poor +business, an' I'd gladly go over to you, master, if you'll give +me a trial." + +"An do, please your honour, find me a job," cried Thomas +Putt. "I wouldn't be so bold an' 'dashus as to ax for a shilling a +day; but, afore God, I'll do great deeds for ninepence!" + +"An' what great deeds can you do?" asked Malherb. "You +should go to a physician for your eyes." + +"They be only pink-rimmed, your worship," explained the +owner. "They'm diamonds for seeing with--'specially by night." + +"Putt be a very good man if he's got a better to watch him, +ban't you, Thomas?" asked Mr. Beer, and the poacher admitted it. + +"'Tis so," he confessed frankly. "I can't stand to work if I +know there ban't no eye upon me. 'Tis my nature." + +"Not but what you've got your vartues," added Beer kindly. +"An' come his honour wants a salmon, or a woodcock, or a fat +hare, he can't do better than go to you for it." + +Mr. Malherb enjoyed this subject. + +"I'm a sportsman myself, my lads. I love every bit of +sporting--gun, horse, hound, and rod. You shall have your chance, +Tom; but no poaching, mind, or it's all up with you. Now +I shall want but two more men and one more woman and my +household will be complete." + +As he spoke a figure crawled out from a corner. No word had +he spoken either before or since Malherb's arrival, but now this +singular man approached, pulled his hair, and addressed the new +power. He looked almost a dwarf, but his head was of normal +size, and his expression betokened character. The labourer had +seen sixty years. He was quite bald and as wrinkled as an old +russet apple. His costume differed much from that of the company, +for it seemed that he was chiefly clad in the pelts of vermin. +A martin's skin furnished his cap, and at its side glimmered the +sky-blue wing-feathers of a jay; his coat was green corduroy, but +his waistcoat was made of moleskins, and he had a white one on +each side for the pocket-lappet. + +"I be Leaman Cloberry, coney-catcher an' mole-catcher," he +said. "No man can teel a trap like me." + +"I shan't want a coney-catcher," declared Malherb. + +"Not regular, not regular; but off an' on, when the varmints +get too free. There's other things, too. There's grays--or +badgers, as you'd call 'em; there's pole-cats, an' martin-cats, an' +hawks, an' owls, not to name foxes." + +"Foxes?" said Malherb, frowning. + +"Plenty of 'em; an' I gets six-an'-eightpence for a fox. You'll +always find 'em hanging up on the yew tree in the churchyard, so +that all the parish on its way to worship 'pon Sundays may see +I earn my money." + +"Kill foxes?" + +"All varmints, your honour--from a hoop[*] to a hedge-pig." + + +[*] _Hoop_: A bullfinch. + + +"The man who kills foxes will never earn a shilling from me," +thundered Malherb. "Out of my sight, you old miscreant! Kill +foxes! What is Tyrwhitt about? I'd hang you to the church +yew yourself if I had my way. Honest foxes to be killed by +a clown!" + +Leaman Cloberry regarded the angry settler without flinching. + +"If you're that sort, your people be likely to have uneasy +dreams," he said. "As to foxes, there'll be plenty for you an' the +likes of you to run after on horseback--no need to fear that. I've +killed but ten dogs an' two vixens in cub this year. I lay you'll +meet more foxes around your hen-roosts up-along than you'll find +time to hunt. Then you'll be sorry you growed so fiery against +me." + +"Get you gone, you mouldy rascal! Go to your vermin and +foul the air no more." + +The mole-catcher smiled and put on his hat. + +"I'll go," he said, "since you be too great a man to breathe +alongside of me. Good evening to your honour; an' my duty +to you." + +Then he made his exit, singing: + + "A ha'penny for a rook; + A penny for a jay; + A noble for a fox; + An' twelvepence for a gray!" + + +It was the tariff of his trade, and he sang the words aloud at +all seasons and in all company. + +Nobody spoke after Malherb's explosion; but a moment +afterwards he grew calm again, finished his liquor, and prepared +to depart. + +"Come with your papers on Monday week to Tor Royal. And +now drink success to Fox Tor Farm, and when next you hear of +Maurice Malherb, remember that the devil is not so black as he +is painted." + +He flung half a crown upon the counter and went his way, +while the men in eager concert cried, "So us will, your honour!" +"Long life an' fortune to your honour!" and "Good luck to Fox +Tor Farm!" + +When Malherb was gone they discussed the matter, and no +emotion but a very active interest marked their attitude. + +"Dartymoor'll soon larn him not to fling half-crowns about," +said Uncle Smallridge. + +"Ten shilling a week!" mused Richard Beer. "He must be +made of money." + +"More likely soft in his head," answered a woman behind the +bar. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DAWN + +With the following spring Fox Tor Farm was habitable, +and Mrs. Malherb and her daughter prepared to enter +their new home. They had spent the winter in Exeter, for the old +farm by Exe passed into other hands at Christmas, but Mr. Malherb +himself already lived upon the Moor. In February he had gone +into residence with Kekewich, and though the place was still but +partially completed, his labourers also began work upon the scene +and made shift to dwell there. Good apartments for the people +were now finished, and Mr. Malherb's cattle had also arrived to +fill the fine yard and comfortable byres erected for their winter +uses. Kekewich cried failure from the first, but none laboured +more zealously to avert it, none toiled early and late with more +strenuous diligence than he. + +True to his whim, the master denied Annabel Malherb and +Grace one sight of Fox Tor Farm until they actually arrived to +dwell there; and even then he so ordered their advent that it fell +in darkness. At ten o'clock upon a night in mid-April, mother +and daughter passed over the nocturnal Moor, vaguely felt its +surrounding immensity, and turned from the unknown earth, +where it rolled formless and vast around them, to the familiar +moon, whose face they knew. + +From Holne, a border village whither they had driven by stage, +Mrs. Malherb and her daughter now rode on pillions; while behind +them came the tinkle of little bells and the thud of heavy hoofs +where six pack-horses followed. Annabel sat behind her husband; +while Grace had Harvey Woodman for her escort. Through the +silent darkness they passed, and the mother listened to Malherb's +hopes, and sometimes kissed the round ear next her while she +echoed his sanguine mind. But Grace paid little heed to Woodman, +who discoursed without tact upon the complicated miseries +of a Dartmoor life, and explained how that his father, grandfather, +great-grandfather, had all gone steadily downhill before the +insidious Duchy. + +A granite cross at length loomed up against the sky on a lofty +ridge, and its significance here uplifted upon the confines of her +new life sent a throb to Mrs. Malherb's heart. + +"This be Ter Hill," said Harvey Woodman to Grace; "an' +thicky cross be one of many set up around about by God-fearing +men some time since Adam. Now, if you'll look down into the +valley, you'll see a light like a Jack o' Lantern. That's your home, +Miss." + +With mingled feelings the women gazed, where square and ruddy +spots, sunk deep in the silver night, outlined the windows of the +farm and welcomed them. The pack-horses, with heavily-laden +crooks upon their backs, arrived. Then Malherb led the way, +and his cavalcade went slowly down the hill. + +Only one face from the past welcomed Mrs. Malherb and Grace, +where Kekewich stood and lighted them up the steps to the front +door. Supper awaited the party; then, aweary, and with the +emotions of a stranger in a strange land, the girl retired to her +little chamber facing west, and her mother sought the company +of Dinah Beer and Mrs. Woodman. She found them amiable, +courteous, and kindly. Their outlook upon life was not sanguine, +yet a warmth of heart marked them, and the sternness of their +days had left no special impress upon their simple natures. +Sympathy brightened their eyes--a sentiment that astonished +the new mistress, for she had not often met with it from her +inferiors. Yet these women appreciated the fact that she was +faced with new problems and new difficulties. They had also +seen something of Mr. Malherb and learned to appraise his +qualities. + +"You'll come to it, ma'am," said Dinah Beer, "same as your +butivul cows did. They was worritted cruel at first. That gert +red 'un, with a white star on her forehead--'Marybud' by name--why, +I could a'most swear that her shed tears when first she got +here; but now she an' the rest have settled to the Moor an' larned +the ways of it like Christians." + +"An' master be to the manner born," declared Mary Woodman. +"My man says he never seed a gentleman gather knowledge +so quick. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt from Tor Royal was over +here last week, an' he said us had all done wonders." + +The wife readily gathered up this comfort, and presently, ere +she entered into sleep, a gentle satisfaction crowned her spirit, +and her thoughts were a prayer, half thankfulness, half petition. + +Her daughter, too, from gloom arose into a healthy cheerfulness. +She set about ordering her treasures to her liking, and did +not retire until midnight. Then, where a sinking moon touched +the river mists with light, she gazed, plucked happiness from that +wonderful spectacle, and so slept contented and trustful of her +destiny. + +Early in the morning, hungering for the first glimpse of this +new world, Grace hastened to her window and looked out upon +Dartmoor. A lark, invisible in the blue above, found her heart +in that dawn hour. The day was glorious, and the bird music +dimmed her eyes, so that the girl had to blink a little before she +could see the outspread world. Beneath her the farm threw its +shadow upon reclaimed heath and ploughed land. New grey +walls extended round about, and raw pinewood gates marked the +enclosures. Beyond stretched out the cup of the mire, and sere +rushes still spread a pallor upon it, where ridge after ridge of peat +ranged away until detail vanished in the prevailing monochrome. +Red sunrise fires touched this waste into genial colour, and +threads of gold flashed through its texture where streamlets ran. +Majestic size and fundamental simplicity marked the materials of +the sunrise pageant. The Swincombe River sang on her way to +Dart; Fox Tor's turrets, touched with rose, ascended southward, +and beyond, looming darkly against the south, appeared the +bosom of Cater's Beam. A spire of blue smoke, miles away in +the brown distance, marked Lovey Lee's hut, while northerly rose +infant plantations at Tor Royal, and the spring light of larches +made a home upon the hill, and spoke of human enterprise. + +Grace drank the crystal air and listened to the lark. Then +another sight arrested her, and she noted, upon a little mound at +the edge of the river, a cross above three broad, shallow steps. +It stood upon a square pedestal which had been bevelled by +chamfering around the socket, and Grace knew that she saw the +historic cenotaph of Childe the Hunter. + +The lark, the river, the cross, all spoke their proper message, +and kind chance had willed that this first day of the new life +should be lovely, heralded by sunshine, unfolded beneath blue +skies. Grace Malherb's young spirit swam out through the golden +gates of the morning, and she praised her God in wordless +thoughts. A leaden day, haunted by low and crawling mists, a +welcome of dripping rain, and the plover's melancholy mew, had +awakened other emotions; but instead was this embodiment of +triumphant spring--a dawn of cloudless glory and the lark's +uplifted joy. + +Half an hour later Grace was watching Mrs. Beer milk +"Marybud." Dinah--a brown-faced woman with neat wrists and ankles, +grey eyes, and a face still pretty--looked up from under her +sunbonnet, where her cheek was pressed against the cow, and +saw a tall, rather thin maiden who had just stopped growing. +With loving hand Nature had completed her girl's five feet eight +inches, and now she was about to turn the child into a fair +woman. This the dairymaid readily perceived. + +"Us must keep the best of the cream for 'e, Miss," she said. +"You wants for they pretty hands to be plumper, an' your +cheeks too." + +"How kind to think of such a thing! I can return the +compliment, Mrs. Beer." + +"Nay; I've had my plump time. I be near five-an'-forty. Yet +I was round once, an' so milky as a young filbert nut. Now I be +in the middle season, when us does our hard work. But you--I +seem Dartymoor will soon bring colour to your cheeks, though +it couldn't make they eyes no brighter. Here, take an' drink, +will 'e? I love to see young things drinking milk. Milk be the +very starting-place of life, come to think of it. I never had no +babies, worse luck, though I always felt a gert softness for 'em." + +"But I'm not a baby, Mrs. Beer; I'm nearly seventeen!" + +Grace laughed and drank. The lustre of her red lips dulled +through the milky film. She gasped after her drink, and Dinah +saw her small white teeth. + +"You'm a bowerly maiden," she said, with extreme frankness. +"So lovely as the bud o' the briar in June; an' Dartymoor will +make a queen of 'e afore long. Fresh air, an' sweet water, an' +miles of heather to ride over. Your eyes be old friends to me, +miss--the brown of the leaves in autumn--just like my dead +sister's." + +"I have my father's eyes," said Grace; but Dinah questioned it. + +"His be darker far. There ban't no storm in yours--they +don't flash lightning. An', please God, they'll have no cause to +rain either. Wealth's a wonderful thing, though what's best +worth money ban't purchasable all the same." + +Richard Beer had arrived and heard his wife's platitude. + +"Money's a power 'pon Dartymoor, however," he said, "an' +I'm glad the master 'pears to be made of it, if I may say so +without offence, Miss." + +"Not at all," declared Grace. "Father isn't made of money, +and you mustn't think so. He looks for a return very soon for all +his outlay." + +Beer touched his hat with great respect before answering. + +"As to that, mustn't count on no miracles, Miss Malherb. The +master be larning that a'ready. Us can't go no quicker'n Nature's +own gait. She won't be pushed because a chap here an' there +goes bankrupt. 'Tis only at love-making she works so fast, not +at farm-making." + +"Her ways do often look slow to a man in a hurry," said +Dinah. + +"But us have got to wait for 'em to work, all the same," +concluded Beer, "an' all the cusses of David never made one blade +o' grass sprout so quick as a drop of warm rain." + +This apparent allusion to her father's forcible modes of speech +saddened Grace. + +"'Tis very true," she answered, then turned to the house and +went in to breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MR. PETER NORCOT + +Three months after the arrival of Maurice Malherb's family +at Fox Tor Farm, a visitor appeared to spend some days +with them. Mr. Peter Norcot set out from his home at Chagford +and rode across the Moor on a fine morning in July; while before +him at dawn a pack-horse with his luggage had started upon the +same journey. Leaving certain final directions at the great +factory by Teign River, in which he was a partner, the wool-stapler +ascended from his home to Dartmoor, climbed a broad common +or two, and in little more than an hour after noon he trotted +southward over the mighty crest of Hameldon. + +Norcot was a handsome, fair man of five-and-thirty. The only +ugly feature of his face appeared in an exaggerated chin. For +the rest, his countenance showed strength and abundant +determination. Any special distinction was lacking from it. He +exhibited a breezy and amiable exterior to the world, loved a jest +and doted upon an epigram. Frank honesty marked his utterances, +and his outlook upon life was generous. He had no +enemies, and enjoyed considerable wealth, for despite the wars, +his business prospered, and his grievances in connection with it +were more apparent than real. A humorous and hearty manner +concealed some traits of Peter's character, for tremendous tenacity +of purpose hid itself beneath superficial lightness of demeanour. +He had a great gift of constancy that rose superior to side issues. +His first object in life was to marry Grace Malherb, and now he +strove to win his way by careful study of the girl and by every +delicate art that he knew. Her father was upon his side, and the +end seemed assured; but Peter desired that Grace should come +to him of her own free will. + +Now misfortune unexpected overtook the lover, for out of fiery +sunshine crept a sudden mist, and soon the clouds grew dense +and the day changed. The fog in streaks and patches swept +down with heavy and increasing density, until man and horse +were brushed with its cold fingers. The light waned as evening +approached, and the mist thickened steadily into fine dense rain. +Norcot's hair dripped, his eyebrows were frosted, and he felt the +cold drops running from his hat under his collar. The +unexpected change of weather caused him no irritation, for the man +was never known to lose his temper, and that fact, in a tempestuous +and ill-educated age, won for him wide measure of respect. + +Now he murmured scraps from various sacred and profane +authors and addressed them aloud to his horse. + +"We must keep the weather on our right cheek, nag. Tut, +tut! How vast this silence and gloom! It helps us to know our +place in nature, albeit we have lost our place in it. Lost, and +found by being lost! Ha, ha! + + "'Come, man, + Hyperbolized Nothing! know thy span, + Take thine own measure here: down, down and bow + Before thyself in thine Idea, thou + Huge emptiness! + + +"Crashaw, I thank thee. And I pray that thou wilt help me +with Lady Grace. 'All daring dust and ashes,' indeed, to hope +in that quarter; but time is on my side. She must yield--eh, +Victor?" + +The horse pricked his ears at sound of his name and splashed +on, leaving a trail behind him where he had brushed the moisture +from heath and grass. By Norcot's calculations he should now +have been nearing the valley of West Dart, and from thence he +hoped to hit the mouth of the Swincombe River, and so reach +his destination; but time passed; the faint wind blew now on +one cheek, now upon the other, and at length Mr. Norcot realised +that he was quite hopelessly lost. The darkness crowded in upon +him and elbowed him; not one whisper penetrated it. He +pulled up, drank a dram from a little silver spirit flask, and +listened for the murmur of running water. But another sound +suddenly rewarded him. A shadow flitted across the gloom, and +a thin, old voice was heard lifted up in song. + + "A ha'penny for a rook; + A penny for a jay; + A noble for a fox; + An' twelvepence for a gray!'" + + +"Well met, neighbour!" shouted Norcot. "And since you +sing, I doubt not you are happy; and since you are happy, you +have a home and know the way to it." + +"'Ess fay! An' you too, sir. I be Leaman Cloberry, +coney-catcher of Dartmeet. An' who be you?" + +"One Peter Norcot, from Chagford. This is not my country, +and I'm seeking the River Swincombe--have been doing so for +many hours in vain. Now 'Light thickens; and the crow Makes +wing to the rooky wood.' But where's the river?" + +"You be within half a mile of it, your honour." + +"Then I came straighter than I knew. That's the reward for +always going straight, Mr. Cloberry; when darkness overtakes us, +we go straight still. It has become a habit. I want the new +farm of Mr. Malherb beneath Cater's Beam. And you shall +show me the way thereto." + +Leaman Cloberry shifted a small bag that he carried on his +shoulder. He was bound in the same direction; but while +Norcot might be supposed a friend to Fox Tor Farm, Cloberry +crept thither with intentions the reverse of friendly. He had +chosen the fog for a dark purpose. Now, however, he hid his +designs and spoke. + +"I know the place and a good few of the men as works there." + +"How do they prosper? Malherb and Dartmoor must be +flint and steel. Yet the man will prove tougher than the granite, +I hope." + +Cloberry stroked a red mark on his cheek. + +"Did you hear tell what chanced to Holne Church a week +ago?" he asked. + +"No, I did not." + +"My gentleman from Fox Tor Farm took his ladies there to +worship. An' I comed along same time with a vixen fox an' two +cubs to hang 'em up in the sight of the nation, so as all men +might see I'd earned my money. An' he falled on me like a +cat-a-mountain, an' used awfulest language ever let fly in a +burying-ground, an' hit me across the face with his whip." + +"I'm heartily sorry and ashamed to hear it. Under a sacred +fane, too! I grieve for this. It is a lesson to us all. Yet to +kill foxes! Tut, tut! 'Volpone, by blood and rank' a +gentleman.' I preserve game myself, yet pay tithe unquestioning to +reynard." + +"'Twas assault and battery, whether or no. An' Squire he +took Malherb's part, an' parson was o' my side. An' I said as +folks must live, an' Malherb, in his lofty way, sees the force of +that, an' flings me half a sovereign. But I let it bide on the +ground. You can't batter a man like that on a Sunday morning +for money. I'm set against him, and I'll set other folk against +him too." + +"Think better of it. Half a sovereign is a very convenient +embodiment of ten shillings. Take this one for showing me my +way. 'I would be friends with you and have your love.' It is +my rule of life." + +Cloberry accepted the coin thus offered, declared that Peter +was a hero, and presently put him upon his road to Fox +Tor. But after Mr. Norcot had trotted out of sight, his guide +followed in the same direction. The old man skulked under a +wall until darkness had fallen upon the moor; then, walking out +boldly into a fine piece of meadow-land upon which Maurice +Malherb especially prized himself, he opened his sack and took +therefrom a box with a pierced top. Gentle squeaking came +from inside this receptacle; and now, opening it, Cloberry +released a dozen fat and lively moles. + +"There, my little velvet-coats!" he said; "go to work an' tear +the heart out of him when he sees what you can do. Increase +an' multiply, my dears, like the children of Israel; an' presently +I'll bring up a dozen more to help 'e!" + +The moles crawled about uneasily, but presently began to dig +and sink into the earth. The fog had lifted, and the lights of +Fox Tor Farm now shone across the night. Leaman Cloberry +shook his fist at them. + +"That's a beginning," he growled. "An' I'll bring rats for +your byres an' stoats for your hen-roosts. I'll plague you; I'll +fret your gizzard! An' I wish that I was Moses, for then I'd +fetch along all the plagues of Egypt against 'e an' break your +stone heart!" + +Meanwhile, as the vermin-catcher tramped homeward, and +presently so far recovered good temper as to sing his only +song, Peter Norcot found a welcome and much sympathy. +Malherb now regarded himself as an old Dartmoor man, familiar +with every possible freak and manifestation of Nature upon the +waste. He explained to Norcot the course proper to be pursued +in a fog, and Peter, whose knowledge of the Moor extended from +boyhood, listened very gravely, acknowledged his errors, and +praised the older man's shrewdness in the matter. + +Before dinner Mr. Malherb, in all the splendour of fine black, +new pumps, and a frilled shirt-front with a diamond in it, went +off to his cellar for those remarkable wines that he assured +familiar guests were now no longer in the market; while the +lover enjoyed some precious moments with his lady. Grace +looked fair to see in her white muslin and blue ribbons. She +wore the high waist of the period; her hair towered in a mass on +the top of her head, yet little prim curls hung like flowers on +either side; white shoes cased her feet, and the elastic of them +made a cross between her ankles. + +"The Moor suits you nobly, dear Grace," said Mr. Norcot, +who was himself resplendent. "I never saw you lovelier." + +"Do leave all that," she said. "Let us meet in peace." + +"So be it," he answered, and continued-- + + "'Gracie, I swear by all I ever swore, + That from this hour I shall not love thee more,-- + What! love no more? Oh! why this altered vow? + Because I cannot love thee more than now!'" + + +A gentle look came into his blue eyes as he gazed upon her. +It was not natural to them, but he had practised it often before +the looking-glass, and could assume it at pleasure. + +"Still occupied with other men's jests, Peter. If you only +understood me! Do you know why I love Dartmoor? Because +it leaves me alone. Because it cares no more for me than for +the ant that crawls on the grass-blade. So big, so grand, so stern +it is. And it always tells the truth." + +"You are quite wrong. The Moor loves with a hopeless +passion. It has kissed you. I see the print of its kisses on your +cheek. It has kissed your little elbow, for I note a dimple there +that is new to me." + +Grace frowned and pulled up her mitten. She sat upon the +music-stool, struck a note or two, and did not answer. Peter +sighed. + +"You are cold, you are cold," he said. "What does Wycherley +remark? 'Out of Nature's hands they came plain, open, silly, +and fit for slaves, as she and heaven intended 'em; but damned +Love----' There it is! 'Blessed Love,' if you happened to +love me; doubly, trebly 'damned Love,' since your heart is set +on somebody else." + +"Not at all. I love nobody. I hate the word." + +"And you are seventeen to-morrow!" + + "'On that auspicious day began the race + Of every virtue joined in one sweet Grace.'" + + +"What is my birthday to you, Peter?" + +"You can ask that! I _must_ answer in an epigram. There is +only one reply possible. Martial--but I know a beautiful +translation:-- + + "'Believing hear what you deserve to hear: + Your birthday as my own to me is dear; + But yours gives most; for mine did only lend + Me to the world; yours gave to me a friend.' + +Only that word 'friend' is too weak." + +"I wish you would be content with friendship, and not fret me +to death with all this nonsense. Do you know that father has +bought me a lovely hunter for a birthday gift?" + +"I do. And that horse will want a whip--until he knows your +voice; and that whip Peter Norcot has provided. 'Tis almost +worthy of you--a pretty toy." + +"I don't want your whip," she said. + +Mr. Norcot cast about for something from _The Taming of +the Shrew_; but he changed his mind. Meantime Grace spoke +again. + +"I shall be sorry to give up riding my poor little 'Russet.' Still, +he's not up to my weight now; and he's growing elderly +and lazy, and I'm to hunt next season. Won't it be lovely?" + +"Our Dartmoor blades will hunt no more foxes; they'll hunt +for smiles from you," said Peter gloomily. + +"You shall have some good long gallops with me if you will. +I'm mastering the country well, and now with 'Cæsar'--that's my +new horse--I shall be able to go twice as far as formerly." + +"I rejoice. You must take me upon your favourite rides." + +"One has a horrid fascination for me. 'Tis to the top of +North Hisworthy Tor above Prince Town. From there you can +look straight down into that great War Prison--the saddest sight +for any woman's eyes." + +Mr. Malherb entered at this moment. + +"A tender fool," he said, "and her mother no better. Eight +thousand French tigers behind those bars; and these women in +their silly way would set 'em loose to-morrow." + +"They long for their dens and their cubs, poor fellows," said +Grace. + +"They fought for their country--that's their only sin," murmured +Annabel Malherb. + +"They fought against England--that's their sin," retorted her +husband hotly. "The lying, slippery rascals! Dartmoor's too +good for 'em. Honour! Three broke parole at Ashburton last +week!" + +"Isn't it wonderful? They play games and hold concerts and +have play-acting!" said Grace. + +"Their vile French levity," answered her father. "Instead of +being on their knees asking God to forgive 'em, they dance and +sing." + +Mr. Norcot shook his head, as though to imply he echoed +Malherb's sentiments. Then he asked a question, but did not +guess the storm it would awaken. + +"And what about the American prisoners?" + +"Curse 'em!" roared the farmer, like a sudden explosion of +thunder. "Curse 'em living and dying, and, if I had my way, +I'd hang the foul traitors--every man. Our own flesh and +blood--a British Colony----" + +"I'm afraid 'tis idle to dream that any more. The tea business. +Never was such a shattering storm bred in a teacup before," +answered Norcot. "A bad day for England----" + +"Matricides, murderers, insolent democratical scoundrels!" +cried the other. "My blood boils at the name. How is it that +the Almighty has not sunk their stolen continent fathoms deep in +the sea to cleanse it? Why are they allowed to live? +Pirates--slave-driving, slave-hunting, slave-breeding pirates, and lynchers, +and blackguards--self-constituted a Nation. _A Nation!_ They +make you believe in Hell against your will." + +"They have more pluck and originality than the French, I am +told," said Peter calmly. "They escape in a wonderful manner; +they give the guards ceaseless trouble and anxiety." + +"For why? They're bastard English. They've got our blood +in their veins. 'Twill take a few generations yet ere it all runs +into the sink and leaves nothing but mongrel. A poisoned race--a +fallen race. Pride has ruined 'em; as it ruined the Devil, +their dam. Hanging, drawing, quartering, I say! No honest +man----" + +"Come to dinner, Maurice," said Mrs. Malherb. "And don't +thus rage before eating. 'Tis very bad for you. They are at +least out of mischief now, poor creatures." + +"Never," answered her husband. "An American is never out +of mischief until he is dead." + +"The prison should be a good, handy market for farm +produce," ventured Peter. + +"It is; but I'd rather starve than touch their vile money," said +Malherb. + +He gave his arm to his daughter and went to the dining-room, +while Mr. Norcot and Mrs. Malherb followed them. + +Kekewich always waited upon the family, and not seldom he +was addressed during the course of a meal concerning subjects +within his wide knowledge. Now the talk turned to trade, and +Norcot explained a serious problem of his own business. + +"Everything is depressed in these fighting times," he said. +"One looks for that and provides for it. But what shall be +thought of our principal customers, the East India Company? +Wool don't get cheaper, that's very certain, but they are sending +down the price of long ells half-a-crown a piece. They say that +our woollens are often a drug in the Indian market; and now to +remedy the thin web, every piece of long ell in stripes shall weigh +twelve pounds. We work web at coarser pitch to meet this want, +and, of course, defeat the object of the demand by producing +rubbish." + +The conversation became profoundly technical, and Malherb, +who deemed himself an expert upon wool, as upon most other +subjects, uttered great words. Then Kekewich, himself an old +wool-comber, became so interested that he forgot his business. +At last he could stand it no more, but set down a dish violently +and plunged into conversation, much to Norcot's entertainment. +He perceived, however, that Kekewich knew far more about the +matter than Mr. Malherb, and when the servant was from the +room made a jest upon him. + +"A wonderful man, and sane too. Sound sense--every word +of it. + + "'Old Kek doth with his lantern jaws + Throw light upon the woollen laws.'" + + +"And upon most other matters," declared Grace. "And his +thoughts are all his own--borrowed from nobody." + +"It happens to me," confessed Peter, "that the things I think +have always been better worded by others. With becoming +modesty, therefore, I borrow." + +According to modern ideas of courtesy, Mrs. Malherb and her +daughter were somewhat slighted during the progress of dinner; +but women listened more and talked less a hundred years ago +than now. Annabel saw that Peter's plate and glass were kept +full, chatted with her daughter, laughed at her husband's jests, and +departed to the drawing-room as soon as the table was cleared. +Then Kekewich deposited two silver candlesticks and a pair of +silver snuffers within reach of his master, produced a dish of dry +walnuts, and tenderly stationed a bottle of port at the elbow of +each gentleman. + +"I know you're only a one-bottle man, and you are wise at +your age," said Malherb. "Indeed, I seldom do more myself, +save on rare occasions, and never except during the hunting +season." + +"I hope you'll account for two bottles upon the day I marry +Mistress Grace," answered Peter. "She grows an angel. Never +beamed such radiant beauty. + + "'Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, + Having some business, do intreat her eyes + To twinkle in their spheres till they return.' + +But I wish they would twinkle for me." + +"To-morrow she is seventeen--God bless her! They are my +heart and my soul--she and my son. But she's yours, Norcot, +for I've said it. She shall reign over your place at Chagford. Her +welfare is my first care in this world. Now leave that. Let our +talk be about sheep. I have discovered that Dartmoor is the best +sheep-walk in the kingdom. We shall have such wool for you +next year as will make you generous against your will. Already +I'm treating for certain three-year-old Dartmoor wethers that'll +shear nine pounds of unwashed wool a fleece. Think of it! Take +one shilling and threepence a pound and five hundred sheep--the +result is nearly three hundred pounds of money in one year! +Then I design to cross with the new Leicesters. Frankly, I see +a large fortune within ten years. It can hardly be avoided." + +Mr. Norcot nodded thoughtfully. He knew the farmer's figures +were absurdly high, both in wool and money. + +"You look so far ahead. I always envy you that gift of +foresight. Yet, in sober honesty, you must not count to get more +than a shilling a pound. If you could breed Merinos now." + +"I've thought of that, too." + +"Ah! I'll wager you have," said the merchant, with admiration. +"What don't you think of, Mr. Malherb? 'Tis good to +know that another man of ideas has come on Dartmoor." + +So the talk and the wine sped, and presently they joined the +ladies. Annabel was at the piano, and Grace sat beside a peat +fire, engaged with her needle. While the music ran, Peter, +inspired by dinner and the fair maiden under his eyes, pulled +forth a notebook and adventured an original rhyme. He was +hurt at the girl's recent allusion, and now determined to reveal +powers unsuspected. But the gem he designed would not polish, +and Grace herself went to the piano to sing an exceedingly doleful +ballad before Mr. Norcot's effort was complete. Then he +handed it to her in a book, while Mrs. Malherb spoke aside +to Dinah Beer, and the master, who cared little for music, +perused an agricultural survey of Devon. + +Miss Malherb read, and her lip curled visibly. + + "Sweet vestal Gracie's lovely eyes have lighted + Such fires within his breast that Peter's frighted; + For now, behold! This man of noble mettle + Doth feel his heart boil over like a kettle." + + +Annabel still talked with her woman, and Grace, after brief +cogitation, wrote a few lines under Mr. Norcot's effort, and +handed it back again. He saw what she had said, and smiled-- + + "Though water boils apace and fire be bold, + Pour one on t'other, quickly both grow cold. + Therefore, good Peter, let thy heart boil over. + 'Twill ease thee of thy pain; me of my lover." + + +He tore a scrap from the bottom of the sheet, and concluded +the correspondence. + +When Grace bade her father and his guest farewell and reached +her room, she scanned Mr. Norcot's final comment, and found +that it needed no reply. He had merely written-- + +"The epigrammatist rejoices; but the man weeps." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WAR PRISON + +On the morning of her seventeenth birthday, Grace rode +forth upon the new hunter, and tenderly touched 'Cæsar's' +flank with a whip of dainty workmanship. Peter, on his black +horse, accompanied her, and Mr. Malherb stood at the door of +Fox Tor Farm and watched them depart. + +"A fine couple," he said to his wife. "One sees that Grace +has got my skill in horsemanship now that she is properly +mounted." + +"And he rides well, too." + +"So, so. Better than most young men. She's coming to my +way of thinking. She laughs with him now and exchanges jests." + +His wife shook her head. + +"I misdoubt her. She's a Malherb--a jog-trot tradesman will +never win her." + +"Have done with such nonsense!" he said sharply. "He is +no more a tradesman than am I. You should have better feeling +than to use the word." + +"She won't marry him, nevertheless," said Mrs. Malherb +placidly. + +"Will she not? If I am her father she will." + +He turned and departed, while his wife, with a cloud upon her +countenance, watched Mr. Norcot and Grace climb the steep side +of Fox Tor and proceed to the heights above it. + +Soon afterwards, as they turned their horses' heads toward +Prince Town, Peter observed a strange, tall figure proceeding on +foot in the same direction. It was as though one of the moorland +crosses from the Abbot's Way had come to life and stole +over the wilderness upon some superhuman errand. + +"Look!" cried Norcot, "a walking scarecrow!" + +Grace recognised the being, and laughed. + +"A 'scarecrow,' you say. That's the richest woman on Dartmoor!" + +"A woman--and a wealthy one? Impossible!" + +"'Tis Lovey Lee, an old servant of my grandfather's. By +chance she lives here within a few miles of Fox Tor Farm. We +shall pass her hovel presently." + +"Was it not she whom your father accused of stealing the +amphora when Sir Nicholas died?" + +"Yes; and he still vows that she has it, for all her oaths to the +contrary. She's a weird old woman. Her grandson, John, tells +me that she lives upon frogs and herb tea." + +They were now abreast of the dame, and Peter inspected her +carefully. + +"Tut, tut! She does not throw away money upon her apparel," +he said. + +"No--isn't it horrid? I think she wears old sacks chiefly." + +"And reduces them to the minimum. Her naked feet must +be made of iron." + +"Good morning, Lovey," said Grace. "Have you been to +Holne? No; I see that you haven't, for you carry no basket." + +"Mornin', maiden; an' to you, my gentleman," she answered +very civilly. "No more Holne for me. I've got a better market +for my poor goods now; an' nearer." + +"The War Prison?" + +"Ess fay! Plenty of money there for them that have anything +to sell. I can scrape a few pence out of they Americans every +week; though how I keep body an' soul together is my daily +wonder." + +"You would do it easier if you wore more petticoats, granny," +said Peter. + +"Petticoats!" she answered. "'Tis very well for the likes of +you, bursting wi' fatness under your fine linen, to talk o' +petticoats. Give me a crown an' I'll buy one--since you'm so anxious +about it." + +"Why, you're the richest woman on the Moor, Lovey," said +Grace. "You know perfectly well that you have a gold mine +hidden away somewhere." + +The old woman showed her teeth and growled like a dog. + +"Don't you tell that trash, or you'll make me your enemy +I promise you! A gold mine--some 'crock o' gold' hid at a +rainbow's foot or in a dead man's grave--like the fools tell about +up here. I wish I knowed where. Do a woman salt down +reptiles and make her meal of blind-worms and berries if she +have got a gold mine hidden?" + +"That's just what father says you would do," answered Grace. + +"Tell Malherb to mind his business," she answered sourly, +"or 'twill be the worse for him. 'Twill take him all his time to +find a gold mine under Fox Tor, anyway, let alone the Lord's +hand being against him for stealing the earth from the meek, +as was meant to inherit it." + +"Nothing of the sort," answered Grace, with great indignation. +"She's a horrid old story-teller, Peter." + +But Norcot never quarrelled with man or mouse. + +"Mrs. Lee is naturally against the Duchy," he said. "The +Duchy we all know. But, on the other hand, nobody alive can +blame your father for availing himself of its propensities." + +"He'll curse himself for a fool yet, however," said the old +woman. + +"I shall not be friendly with you any more, Lovey Lee," +answered Grace frankly. "You're greedier than the Duchy, and +you don't tell the truth. You wouldn't be so unpleasant if your +conscience didn't hurt you. Henceforth I shall think with my +father that you took the amphora." + +"You may think what you please. It won't prove nothing but +that you've got a Malherb habit of mind and be your faither's +daughter." + +"Come, Peter!" cried Grace. "I'll hear no more." + +She trotted away, and, having dropped a coin behind him, +Mr. Norcot followed. It was his sagacious custom never to lose +any opportunity of making a friend. He had found possibilities +of usefulness in the humblest road-mender; and this woman, +with her evident strength and ferocity, attracted him. He +perceived that she was one who would do anything within her +power for payment. + +Lovey picked up the money with a loud blessing on the giver. +Then she watched the retreating figures. + +"They be coming courting a'ready," she thought, "an' her +only a half-growed giglet yet. Well, let the sky fall an' the sun +burn blue, a crown be still a crown." + +Before the old woman had reached home, Grace and Peter +Norcot passed her cabin, and the wool-stapler showed more +interest before Lovey's grim abode than at the more striking +object close at hand. Siward's Cross was dismissed with a nod, +but Mrs. Lee's lair awakened a lively attention. + +"There she lives with only a wall of piled peat between her +and her cows and donkey. She's got a grandson--a very handsome, +courteous young fellow--and he dwells in that stable there. +In her kitchen you would find stones for chairs." + +"And stones for bread by the look of it. A cheerful soul. I +wonder where her hiding-place may be? Did you see her +glittering eyes--like two diamonds set in yellow ivory--and the +fingers all crooked like a hawk's claws. She's a miser, or I +never met one. And yet 'God but little asks where little's +given.' Perhaps we wrong her." + +"Father never wrongs anybody," answered Grace. "He +storms, indeed, and will have his way; but good men always like +him, and understand his noble qualities." + +"Most true--one in a thousand. I'm thankful beyond measure +that he is pleased to think well of me; for he'd never bestow his +friendship on an unworthy object." + +"One word for father; two for Peter Norcot." + +"It is so; I rise above false modesty. If a good man praises +me, it is my best advertisement before the world." + +"You have a wonderful way with father." + +"I was looking into John Guillim's book a day or two since. +He is an old-time Pursuivant at Arms. Upon your family name +and the three nettle leaves, which you'll see cut in the amethyst +at the handle of your riding-whip, you shall find a quaint word or +two. Guillim says the nettle is of so tetchie and froward a +nature that no man may meddle with it, and he adds that a little +girl being once stung thereby, complained to her father that +there was such a curst herb in his garden, that it was worse than +a dog, for it would bite them of its own house. Her father told +her that the herb's nature was a notable impartiality, for friend +and foe were alike to it. Then there's a pleasant epigram-- + + "'Tender-handed stroke a nettle, + And it stings you for your pains; + Grasp it like a man of mettle, + And it soft as silk remains." + +Not that that applies to Mr. Malherb." + +"No, indeed! Father is no nettle," said Grace sharply. + +"Most true. The nettle's flower is plain, not exquisitely +beautiful," he answered, looking at her. "Your father has the +sturdy characteristics of his house, none of the prickles. A grand +singleness of purpose marks his ways." + +"He feels too deeply, if anything." + +"And too much feeling so often obscures perception. It is +unfortunate." + +"There's the War Prison," said Grace, changing the subject; +"that dreadful thing stretching out down there--a ring within a +ring. I always think it is like something in Dante made real." + +"Dante, eh? Hell, and so forth. Yes, that's a hell for many +a brave, lonely heart. Doubtless there are lovers among 'em. +By the way, I thought your dear father was a little hard upon the +American prisoners--if I may dare to say so." + +"He knows best," said Grace firmly; "and they do give a +great deal of trouble. To break away from their mother country +over a paltry question of money!" + +"It's wonderful how soon matters of money make every question +acute--lift it into a serious affair. Men will argue about +their Maker, or the chances of Eternity, or the heat of the sun, +with irreproachable temper; but let the matter be a sovereign---- As +to America--taxes or no taxes--fools in our Parliament or fools +in their Congress--it had to come. Look at a map of the world." + +"In this war, at any rate, they are utterly mistaken," said Grace. +"I know all about it, and facts are facts." + +"And facts never contradict each other. That's a blessing." + +"No doubt the wrong men are suffering now," she added, +looking down upon the prison; "but that is a general rule in war." + +"And life. What a beehive it is! 'A dungeon horrible on all +sides round.' Hark! you can hear the 'sorrowful sighing of the +prisoners.' Or rather you can hear their laughter. In fact, they +appear to be playing a game in that far-off corner. It must be +prisoners' base, no doubt." + +"I pity every one of them, and especially the poor little +powder-monkeys we captured in their ships," she said. + +The huge circumference of the War Prison stretched beneath +them, protected from the West under North Hisworthy Tor; the +limbo, at once famous and infamous, lay here in summer sunshine; +and never had Time thrown up a mushroom ring more grim, more +grey, upon earth's lovely face. In the midst of wild hills and +stone-crowned heights, skirted by the waters of a stream, separated +from mankind by miles of scattered granite and black bog, the +War Prison appeared. Late July ruled the land and brushed the +hills with green; the light of the ling was just dawning, and all +life rejoiced; but the solemn features of these stony mountains, +fold upon fold and range upon range, take no softness to the +stranger's eye at any season, and none who has not trodden it in +freedom can love its austere face, or understand its chastened +glory. Purple cloud-shadows drifted over the prison, and revealed +the details of Alexander's sinister masterpiece. Previously +they had been hidden by a great dazzle of sunlight. + +Some thirty acres were enclosed by two walls, one within the +other. The outer circle stood sixteen feet high; and separated +from it by a broad military parade, extended the second wall, +hung with bells on wires, and having sentry-boxes upon it at +regular intervals, to overlook each prison yard. The main area +of the gaol was of rounded shape, and contained five enormous +rectangular masses of masonry radiating from the centre, like +spokes from the hub of a wheel. At one side a segment was +cut out of the circle, and this contained the Governor's offices, +the turnkey's place, and other official buildings, together with an +open space into which the country people were admitted for their +daily traffic with the prisoners. Fuel, vegetables, poultry, butter, +and other articles were bought and sold in this market, and upon +its completion the gangs returned to their own divisions of the +gaol. Each of the five main buildings mentioned was constructed +to hold fifteen hundred men; all had two floors, and in the roof +of every one was an additional great chamber used as a promenade +at times of unusually inclement weather. Each block possessed +its own wide exercise yard and shelter from snow or rain, its +proper supply of sweet water always running, and its _cachot_, or +prison within a prison, for punishment of the refractory and +disobedient. A hospital and accommodation for petty officers +included the edifices within the walls, while a quarter of a mile +distant were barracks for four hundred troops, and various other +buildings not all connected with the establishment of the prison. +Of these the more conspicuous were a ruined cottage on the slope +north-eastward of the outer wall, two new taverns, about which +the soldiers swarmed like red ants; bakehouses, slaughter-houses, +and private habitations that rapidly grew into a little street. The +prisoners themselves were scattered by the thousand over their +exercise yards, with red-coats stationed upon the inner wall around +them. At one point outside the War Prison a large building arose +and, guarded by the soldiery, a crowd of men laboured upon it. + +"They are making a church," explained Grace. "The French +build and the Americans do the carving and the woodwork inside. +'Tis to be dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels." + +"Then you have a personal interest in it. And maybe I too +shall have. We might even be married there." + +"We might--though not to one another." + +"Who knows? Time can work wonders." + +"But only God can work miracles." + +"Beautiful!" he said, "and comforting too; for I am one who +holds that the age of miracles has not yet gone. You shall find +the man of parts will make his own miracles." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A LITTLE ACCIDENT + +As they descended into Prince Town Grace proposed to visit +the church now growing there. She knew one Lieutenant +Mainwaring, a young officer in command at these works; and +now, glad enough to be of service and display his little power, the +lad himself escorted Miss Malherb and Peter Norcot into a scene +of stir and activity. + +The Frenchmen chattered and sang to the clink of their +trowels; while within, more thoughtful and more silent, a hundred +Americans were engaged upon carpentering and carving in wood +and stone. The strangers regarded Grace with curiosity. Save for +the market folk, it was long since any among them had seen a +woman, and this lovely girl awoke invisible emotion. Many +a heart quickened, then slowed at the sight of her. She wakened +the thought of women in lonely bosoms; she bridged rolling +oceans with a sigh. Some cursed as memory probed their +helplessness; some sneered; some winked and whistled and kissed +their hands; some, sensitively conscious, turned away to hide +their rags from these well-clothed and prosperous visitors. + +They were soldiers and sailors, and they exhibited a wide +variety of spiritual and mental attributes. Many among them +crept about like thin ghosts clad in motley; a few looked stout +and happy, despite their shameful clothing; some toiled in sulky +and wooden silence; others maintained a gay and alert demeanour. +They wore yellow roundabout jackets, mostly too small, rough +waistcoats and pantaloons, shirts, caps of wool, and shoes made +from list and wood, that gaped at every seam. Those amongst +them whose shoes had fallen to pieces, cased their feet in strips +of blanket, and so limped through the dreary time until authority +should refurnish them. + +Young Mainwaring was called away at this moment, and before +he departed, the lad turned to an elderly American with grey hair +and a distinguished bearing, and asked him a favour. + +"May I beg you to show Miss Malherb and this gentleman +round the works, Commodore Miller?" said Mainwaring; and the +prisoner bowed a grave assent. In looking at this man's sad +eyes and noble face one forgot the ridiculous rags that covered +him. + +"Come this way, young lady," he said. "You see our labours +prosper. 'Twill be a monument for the generations that follow +us. Our dust will mingle with this desert and be forgotten; our +handiwork will remain." + +Suddenly as they proceeded a cry from overhead made Grace +stop, start back, and look upward. The warning saved her life, +for six inches in front of her breast an object cut the air, and +striking at the girl's feet upon the unpaved aisle, buried itself head +first in the earth. It was a heavy chisel that had dropped from a +beam and just missed Grace's head by inches. A cry rose on +several lips; some shouted a curse at a man aloft on the beam +from which the chisel had fallen; and Commodore Miller cried +to him-- + +"Good God, Stark; what have you done?" + +"Nothing--nothing at all," said Grace quickly. "I am not +touched." + +The man responsible for this accident was already half-way to +the ground. He descended a rope ladder so swiftly as to +endanger his own neck, and a moment later stood white and +trembling before Grace Malherb. + +"You stupid fellow," said Mr. Norcot; "'twas within a +hair's-breadth of her life." + +"I know it," answered the man. He was young and very tall, +with a clean-shorn face and curling brown hair. "I can only ask +you to forgive me. I turned suddenly and my foot struck the +chisel." + +"There's nothing to forgive," said Grace. "'Twas your voice +arrested me. If you hadn't shouted, I should not be here now; +so I owe you nothing but gratitude." + +She smiled at him, and the youngster's colour came back to his +cheek. Young Mainwaring, who had just returned, bustled +forward with his sword clanking as the sailor spoke. + +"You're good and brave, young mistress; and you understand. +'Twas a noble way to pardon me. A clumsy fool thanks you +from his heart." + +He was turning away when Grace spoke again, and blushed +a little as she did so. + +"Is that your chisel, sir?" she asked. + +He nodded. + +"Will you give it to me? May I keep it?" + +Taking it from the hand of Commodore Miller, who had +pulled it out of the earth, the girl looked at its two-inch blade +and glittering edge. + +"I should like to keep it," she repeated. "It ought to make +me feel humble and grateful when I look upon it." + +"I pray you keep it, then. And I shall thank God every time +that I miss it," said the young man quietly. + +Norcot was talking to Mainwaring aside, and in the silence that +followed these words, his voice, unfortunately for himself, came +directly to the American prisoner's ear. + +"Surely not. The Devil draws the line somewhere. One +would never presume to suggest a deliberate intention to murder +an innocent girl." + +The words came clear and cold; then, like a thunderbolt, a +heavy fist fell between Peter's eyes, and he was on his back half +unconscious. From trembling fear, from emotion almost prayerful +at the thought of what might have happened, from frank and +absolute sorrow for his carelessness, the young American leapt +suddenly into ungovernable and blazing wrath. His very body +seemed to expand and tower above the men around him. The +Commodore leapt forward, but Stark shook him off like a child. +"There!" he shouted, so that the naked walls rang with echoes. +"Take that, whoever you are! To hint such a foul crime from +your foul soul against an American!" + +"Who's this lunatic? Arrest him," cried Mainwaring, and +several soldiers hastened forward. + +"Cecil Stark is his name--a sailor and a leader in Prison +No. 4," said a sergeant. + +"Yes, Cecil Stark of Vermont," answered the lad passionately. +"Your General Burgoyne knew the name. 'Twas my kinsman +that made him surrender and so caused Louis of France and the +civilised world to acknowledge America free of your bullying, +braggart nation. To hint at murder! You scoundrel--if you're +a gentleman, you'll meet me; but you're not." + +"Candidly," said Mr. Norcot, who was now restored to +consciousness and sat on the ground with his hand over his eyes. +"Candidly, I don't want to meet you again. You are young, and +evidently Dartmoor has not tamed your fiery spirit. Nor has it +polished your nautical wits. You strike before you hear--like +your great nation. Tut, tut! My nose is broken. I was just +declaring on my honour that to credit you with malice was +madness. 'Twas this gentleman here who suspected that you dropped +the chisel of set purpose." + +"You said it!" exclaimed Stark, turning upon Lieutenant Mainwaring. + +"I did, and I repeat it; and don't look at me with that insolent +expression, or you'll repent it. 'Tis quite likely this was no +accident." + +The American regarded the little officer with contempt and +astonishment. + +"You're a knave to think that; and a coward to say it. At +least you don't believe him, young mistress? I'd give up all hope +of freedom, or heaven either, if I thought that any woman held +me so vile." + +"No woman, and no man either, would believe it," said Grace +calmly, and Mainwaring's face flamed. + +"Why, then, I'm content," declared Stark. "As for this red-coated +monkey, he's neither one nor t'other and his opinion don't +matter." + +"Take him to the cachot!" cried the indignant soldier in a +fury. "Away with him--insolent hound! We'll see what a few +days of bread and water will do for him." + +"And 'tis trash like this that they put into power over honest +men!" said the prisoner, with great show of scorn. "In America +no man can command others until he has learned to command +himself." + +"And did you use to command, my young hero?" asked Peter, +who had now risen to his feet again. + +Cecil Stark turned and laughed as he marched off with half a +dozen soldiers for an escort. + +"No, sir. You'll guess why. I'm a fool. Your nose will tell +you that. But I'm learning. I shall be free again some day. +Then I'll try to be wise. Meantime I beg you ten thousand +pardons that I hit the wrong man. If 'tis ever in my power, +I'll make generous amends." + +He departed, and among the guard his great stature was +revealed, for he towered above them. + +"What a stinging sermon against disinterestedness," said +Mr. Norcot, still patting his wounded face. "Yet 'tis nothing beside +your escape. If you had died--my light would have gone out. +Henceforth I should have lived with Petrarch under my pillow: +'To Laura--I mean Gracie--in death.' + + "'For I was ever yours; of you bereft, + Full little do I reck all other care.'" + + +"We'd better go back to our horses," she answered. "He's a +fine courageous gentleman. Only I very much wish that he had +struck Lieutenant Mainwaring instead of you." + +"So do I--cordially." + +"And yet I'm not quite sorry, either; for you are so kind that +you pass it with a jest; that little snappy soldier would have done +dreadful deeds. Why do soldiers always bear themselves with +such silly pride? Sailors don't." + +"Sailors are not so swollen with their own importance, certainly; +they've got more intellect as a rule; and don't blush to talk about +their profession, like so many of these fatuous warriors. My +dismal nose! Tut, tut! I see a mountain uplifting between my +eyes. Henceforth there will be another tor on Dartmoor." + +"Carry the chisel, please. He had a fine deep voice. He +might have been an Englishman. Certainly he was right to be +furious. I will never speak to Lieutenant Mainwaring more." + +"Cecil Stark of Vermont, eh? He'll be stark enough after a +week in a cachot. Let us home. My nose wants its luncheon +of brown paper and vinegar." + +The Commodore saw them to their horses, and Grace expressed +an earnest hope that young Stark would not suffer for his natural +anger. + +"'Twill make his trouble light enough to know you are sorry +for him," said the old sailor gallantly; then he gave the girl a +hand into her saddle and soon she and Mr. Norcot were galloping +homewards. + +Anon Mrs. Malherb uplifted placid thanksgivings for her +daughter's escape, and the farmer breathed forth indignation +at the adventure of the chisel. He took a dark view of the +incident, despite Grace's indignant assurances, and gave it as his +opinion that where an American was concerned the worst motives +might most justly be attributed. Yet he made far more of the +incident than anybody else, yearned towards the girl with emotion +hardly concealed, and hastened over his wine after dinner, that +he might return to her presence. + +"Come you here," he said, "and put your fingers in mine, so +I may feel you are alive." + +Therefore she sat beside him, and he patted her little hand +and exhibited the actions of quickened love. Yet his face was +stern the while, and betrayed no spark of the softness that +marked his gestures and his words. + +Peter's countenance had now taken upon itself the grotesqueness +of a gargoyle, but he exhibited neither self-consciousness nor +irritation. Indeed, he proved in a placid and didactic vein, +moralised the incidents of the day and illuminated them with +many quotations from many scribes. Conversation naturally +turned upon America, and Norcot declared that the hot-headed +and romantic person of Cecil Stark fairly typified his country. + +"Most just," allowed Maurice Malherb. "America exhibits +defects so glaring that he who runs may read. She is too +vainglorious, too boastful, too impatient of control, and too ignorant +ever to take commanding rank among the nations." + +He mentioned his own failings without an omission. + +"We must learn to walk before we can ride," said Mrs. Malherb. +"And yet how often does a child try to copy its elders +in advanced arts while yet the slow steps to those arts are hidden +from it! 'Tis hard to judge the Americans, for they are made of +our own flesh and blood." + +"They are, in fact, our younger selves broke loose from tradition +and control. They are scattered like sheep without a shepherd +in the mighty pasture of the New World," said Norcot. + +"Not so," returned his host. "England's virtues are just those +most notoriously lacking in this upstart, ingrate race. They have +broken the golden links of blood and brotherhood. They must +abide by the consequences. Doctor Johnson was in the right of +it touching America--as indeed always upon every subject." + +"What think you, Kek?" asked Grace, that the discussion +might be lightened. + +The old servant had entered to mend the fire, for a peat or two +always glowed upon the drawing-room hearth by night. + +"No matter what I think, missy. 'Tis one of the few blessings +of a common man that nobody do set a groat's value upon his +views," returned Kekewich. + +"So much the less need you mind uttering them," said Peter. + +"We differ like flint and steel, yet strike some sparks between +us--Kek and I," declared Malherb. "He is at once the best, +honestest, truest, and most wrong-headed man I ever met in his +class of life." + +"Then you'll guess what I hold about this," answered Kekewich, +who was indifferent alike to praise or censure. "I thinks +that a Yankee be only an Englishman turned inside out. They +says openly what we thinks in secret; but when it comes to +doing--'tis 'devil take the hindmost' an' the weakest to the wall with +them--just the same as it be with us. 'Tis a nation too young +to deceive--same as a child be too young to deceive till it be +growed. We shall hammer 'em this time; an' maybe next time; +but the day will come when they've got too big to hammer. +Then what? Us'll be 'pon top of our last legs some day. An' then +everything will be differ'nt, except human nature. An' a beaten +nation have a terrible long memory." + +"This is anti-British! I blush for you, Kek," said Grace. + +"Nay; the man is in the right," declared Peter. "A hundred +years hence the friendship of America will be better worth having +than anything in the world. Yet, where there's jealousy, there +can be no real friendship. I hope that they will not always be +jealous of us." + +"You're cowards, both you and Kek," shouted Malherb. +"You are worse than infidels, for you leave the Almighty out of +your calculations altogether. We make war in the name of Right. +We are the supreme example that history furnishes of an +absolutely impartial nation. We display justice and mercy to the +earth. We conquer by the hand of God. And will He desert +us for a cowardice of curs, for a rabble that knows not justice, for +a horde of highwaymen who mix the mortar for their dirty towns +with negroes' blood?" + +"Blare till you bust, Malherb," said Kek stoutly. "You won't +alter it. God A'mighty's never seen on the side of the weak, an' +so soon as thicky folks over the sea get strong enough to lather +us, they'll most likely try to do it." + +With this prophecy Mr. Kekewich departed. + +"An ancient fool," commented Peter; "yet a witty one. I'm +quite of his opinion; but our grandchildren, not we, will see the +issue." + +"Read 'Lear,'" said Malherb. "'Tis the only thing I ever do +read in the way of high poetry. Lear is England--America has +taken the vile daughter's part." + +"Doubtless they'll allow it--if you'll carry the similitude +through." + +"Nay--England won't go mad--a little righteous rage--a breath +from her nostrils, and these republican wolves will creep back into +their dens." + +"Yes--to breed there; to suckle the rising generations on----" + +"Upon lies!" roared the other. "Upon vile lies against the +mother country. To the Father of Lies let 'em go!" + +Presently he cooled down, and Mr. Norcot, who had turned +to Grace for a while, was wearied to hear Malherb reopen the +subject. + +"If they would but learn the dignity of manhood; if they +would use their brains and read in the books that wise Englishmen +have written on the highest duty of man, we might hope for +the return of the prodigal son even yet," he said; and Peter +answered-- + +"How true; how generous of you to put it so; how grand! +'The whole duty of man'--so vast, yet so simple--like Dartmoor. +A dozen words gives one, a dozen lines from an artist's pencil +will convey the vision of the other." + +"'Tis all in the best authors, I'm sure," declared Annabel. + +"It is, indeed. What does Juvenal say in an inspired moment? +'A sane mind in a sane body. A spirit above the fear of death; +a spirit that can endure toil; that counts the labours of Hercules +his joys and the joys of a certain goddess her shame; a spirit +that can keep its----'" He was going to say "temper," but +substituted "self-respect" out of consideration for his host, then +made an end. "'Through virtue lies the life of peace! Grasp +that fact, and Fortune has no divinity left in her.'" + +"All good," admitted Malherb, "except in one particular. A +life of peace is not to be prayed for. Peace is rust, and makes +against human progress. Now, ladies, it is time that you retired." + +Annabel and her daughter rose, and as he bid his girl "good +night," the master's thoughts returned to her great escape. +Whereupon he kissed her thrice, instead of once, and said, for her ear +alone, "Thank God! Thank God!" in an abrupt and brusque +but very earnest fashion. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CHILDE'S TOMB + +Mr. Norcot found the life at Fox Tor Farm so much +to his taste that he prolonged his visit, and sent the +young man, Thomas Putt, with a message to his sister Gertrude +at Chagford for more clothes. He felt secretly hopeful that each +day was strengthening his position, and, indeed, by riding to the +War Prison and seeing the Commandant on behalf of Cecil Stark, +he won some thanks and a definite expression of gratitude from +Grace Malherb. + +"They have released him out of the cachot," said Peter. +"Once more he labours at the place of worship, 'pride in his +port, defiance in his eye.'" + +Together the man and maid continued their excursions upon +Dartmoor, and Grace enjoyed both to hear and to tell stories +and legends of the ancient desert. Its romance found an echo +in her youthful spirit and awoke new intellectual interests in her +life. She soon learned the story of each lonely circle, uplifted +monolith, and empty barrow from the age of stone; of every +ruined cot or cross erected in times mediæval. Among these +last, perhaps the most famous upon the Moor lay now within +Malherb's own borders. + +"Childe's Tomb" had met Grace's eyes when first she opened +them upon a Dartmoor dawn. By a rivulet at the edge of Fox +Tor Mire it stood, and she had gleaned its story and mourned +the fate of the ancient hunter who fell there in winter tempest. +Mr. Norcot, too, was familiar with the narrative, and since early +boyhood he had gloated over its horrid details. Now he pretended +but a misty recollection of the tale, so that he might listen +to Grace. + +The thing was in their eyes at the time, for they started on +horseback and rode past it. Beside the cross, Harvey Woodman, +his son, Richard Beer, Thomas Putt, and another labourer were +collected at a task. They worked upon each side of the little +river that ran beside "Childe's Tomb," and levelled the banks +to make a ford at a shallow point of the water. Here they talked +together when aching backs required rest; and it happened that +their master and his guest were the theme of the moment. + +"I'll hold for Mister Peter," declared Putt. "He gived me +a week's wages for going to Chaggyford; an' he told me just so +friendly as you might, when he seed me bringing in trout, that a +grasshopper was a killing bait at this time of year. Of course +I know as much about grasshoppers as any man living; yet 'twas +a very great condescension in him." + +Uncle Smallridge made reply. He was now past work, but +had walked from his distant cottage for the pleasure of a little +conversation with familiars. + +"'Tis the human nature in 'un that counts," he said. "You'll +find as a general thing the best men ban't the easiest to get on +with." + +"Malherb's chock full o' human nature," declared Mr. Woodman. + +"So full that he bursts wi' it--like a falling thunderbolt, till +a man almost calls on the hills to cover him," admitted Putt. + +"That's because you catched it for idleness," answered Woodman. +"Mr. Narcot be like a machine oiled up to the last cog an' +going so smooth an' suent that a child may turn the handle; an' +maister's like a drashel[*] in clumsy hands--you don't know where +'twill fall next. But give me our man with all his faults an' fire." + + +[*] _Drashel_: A flail. + + +"I'm afraid he'll try you sorely yet," foretold Smallridge, and +little guessed how near the ordeal had come. + +"I'll cleave to him so long as it holds with honesty," said +Beer. "What mazes me is this: Mr. Peter never does nothing +out of the common, nor never lapses from the level way of man +with man, nor says a hard word to a fly; an' yet I doan't neighbour +with him; an' t'other, despite his rages and crooked words +and terrible rash goings on--as will damn your eyes for a +look--why, I'd hold out for him against an army." + +"'Tis his weakness draws you to him," said Uncle Smallridge. +"I know. Us all likes to catch our betters tripping. It levels up +the steep gulf that's fixed between master an' man, an' makes us +more content with ourselves. You know how extra good t'other +children get when one be extra naughty. This here Norcot is +above us in his estate, an' that we can forgive, for us can't help +it; but we'm never too comfortable or kindly towards them as be +much above us in vartues." + +"For my part, it don't seem natural," said Harvey Woodman. +"I don't believe in these great flights of goodness in man or +woman. Here and there a parson will stand out like a beacon +on a hill, for 'tis his trade; but not them as lives to make +money like Peter Norcot. When what shows in a man be so +shining, I always ax myself about what don't show." + +"'Tis your jealous spirit," said Putt. + +"All the same, I don't care for a man as hides behind hisself +like that wool-stapler do. The Devil's got his corner in him, +same as he have in every mother's son of us." + +"He may have cast him out, however," ventured Putt. + +"Cast him out at five-an'-thirty years of age--an' him a +bachelor! No fey." + +"Well, he ban't bound to belittle hisself before the likes of us," +said Putt. + +"Here he be, anyway," added Beer, for Grace and Peter now +approached. + +She was finishing the tragic history of Childe as she rode +beside him. + +"And so the monks of Tavistock found the poor frozen gentleman +where this cross now stands, and they took him away that he +might be buried in their town, for under his last will and +testament those who buried him were to possess all his estates. +Others sought then to gain the body; but the good monks were +too clever for them, and inherited the lands of Plymstock." + +"Ah! 'they must rise betime, or rather not go to bed at all, +that will overreach monks in matters of profit,' as Fuller +observes." + +"The people hereabout call it 'Childe's Tomb,' yet it can only +be a cenotaph, if the story is true." + +"The whole thing is a legend, be sure. We shall never know +the real use of this cross," answered Peter. + +"But might easily find a new one," said Mr. Kekewich, who +walked beside Grace on his way to the workers. "Them +stepstones be just the very thing we're wanting to bridge the river +here." + +"Oh, Kek! how can you?" cried Grace. + +"Pull down a cross? Tut, tut, iconoclast!" exclaimed Mr. Norcot. + +"You may use wicked words, but stone be stone," answered +the head man of Fox Tor Farm sulkily; "an' what was one way +of marking a grave in the old time may very well stand for a +bridge to-day. Look at they fools! What do they think they +be doing?" + +Woodman heard the question. + +"We'm making a ford, and you'm the fool, not us," he replied +stoutly. + +"What did the master say? Tell me that," asked Kekewich. + +"He said 'a bridge,' for I heard him," declared Norcot. + +"Ess, he did, an' when he sez 'bridge' he don't mean 'ford'; +an' when he sez 'steer' he don't mean 'heifer,' do he? A bridge +has got to be builded. So the sooner you fetch gunpowder an' +go 'pon the Moor to blast out a good slab of stone as'll go across +here without a pier, the better." + +"He don't always say what he mean, all the same," retorted +Putt, who was in a fighting mood. "Yesterday he told me +I was a pink-eyed rabbit, good for nought, an' this marning +he called it back, an' said he was sorry he'd spoke it. That +shows." + +"That shows he can change his own mind; it don't show the +likes of you can change it for him. Here he comes, anyway, an' +what I say, I say: that thicky cross-steps would make a very tidy +bridge, an' save a week's work." + +"You'd touch that cross!" gasped Smallridge. "You--a +foreigner from Exeter!" + +"Us have a right to it." + +"No man have a right to a stone once 'tis fashioned into a +cross; an' if you was a Christian 'stead of a crook-backed heathen, +you'd know it an' if a finger be laid against it, I'd not give a +straw for the future of any man amongst us," cried Uncle +Smallridge, rising to his feet in great agitation. + +"Fright childer with your twaddle, not a growed-up soul," +answered Kekewich. "But no call to shake your jaw an' bristle +up your old mane like that. My word ban't law. Here the +master cometh, an' you'm like to hear more than will be +stomachable when he sees what you've been doing." + +"The fault was mine, and I'll take the blame," answered +Richard Beer. "You men bide quiet an' let his anger fall upon +me." + +Grace and Norcot, not desiring to see the labourers' discomfiture, +rode away, and a moment later Maurice Malherb arrived +upon the scene. His strong face, scarred with passion +uncontrolled, grew dark again now, and the kindly look vanished from +his eyes as the customary storm-cloud of black eyebrow settled +upon them. + +"What are you doing? What means this digging?" he asked. + +"'Tis me as done it, your honour," answered Beer. "I thought +as a ford----" + +"A ford! What business have you to dare to think? I said +a bridge." + +"The stone----" + +"Look round you, you lazy rascal! Stone--stone--curse the +stone! Scratch the ground anywhere, and it grins at you with its +granite teeth! Let that bridge be finished by sundown or clear +out, the whole pack of ye! A ford! And had I said 'ford' you +would have built a bridge!" + +Mr. Beer grew pale behind his beard, but did not reply, and +Mr. Woodman also kept his temper and addressed his son. + +"Go an' harness two bullocks to a truckamuck,"[*] he said, "an' +you, Putt, slip up to the shed an' get some irons as you'll find +there." + + +[*] _Truckamuck_: A sort of sledge. + + +Then he turned to his master and spoke again-- + +"Us'll set to work this instant moment, your honour." + +"That's well--by sundown, mind." + +Malherb was riding off when old Smallridge addressed him, +and the ancient man precipitated the very accident he feared. + +"An' if it please you, your honour's goodness, I do pray as +you won't let no hand touch this here holy tomb. Kekewich, as +be grey enough to know better, have said that the stepstones +would make a very tidy bridge an' save labour; but t'others tell +me you never pay no heed to him, an' I hope your honour won't +now." + +The two old men glared at each other, and Malherb answered. +What he heard was nearly true, but that he heard it from Uncle +Smallridge instantly angered him. That the labourers should +have perceived how Kekewich was ignored--that these hirelings +should note their master's indifference to the wisdom of his +servitor--again awoke Malherb's temper. + +"They say I don't heed Kekewich? Then they lie. Kek's +little finger holds more sense than all their stupid heads together." + +Whereon Mr. Kekewich shone around him as the sun emerging +from a cloud. + +"That cross there--good wrought stone wasted," he explained. +"They steps might have been made for the bridge we want. So +I told 'em; an' all they did was to show the whites of their silly +eyes." + +The master reflected but a moment; then he issued a command. +He spoke in the name of reason--a favourite expedient +with the unreasonable. + +"Good practical sense. Now we'll see if I run counter to +Kekewich. He's right and you're wrong. Here are stones lying +useless on my land, and I want even such for a purpose. Reason +points to them, and I will use them. Pull down that cross and +build my bridge." + +"I'd rather take other stones and chance the extra work," said +Richard Beer uneasily. + +"Pull down that pile there and build my bridge before nightfall, +or go your way--all of you," repeated Malherb. Then he +departed and left the workers to make decision. + +"An' the cross itself, if us knocks off one arm, will be just what +we want for the pigs' house!" cried Kekewich triumphantly. + +"For God's love throw down your tools and come away!" +begged Smallridge, his ancient voice rising into a scream. "Turn +your backs upon this place before it's too late." + +"Hop off! Hop off an' croak somewhere else, you old raven!" +replied Kek indignantly. "Let these men use their brains without +your bleating. Ban't I old too? 'Tis vain growing old unless +you grow artful with it. If they have got their intellects, they +won't mind you." + +"Nor you--you limb of the Devil," groaned Smallridge. "You--with +his pitchfork in your forehead. I wish to God I'd never +heard tell of you." + +Kekewich turned from him to Harvey Woodman and the rest. + +"'Tis up ten o'clock," he said, "an' you strong men in the +prime of life have got to decide what you'll do about it, not this +tootling old mumphead here. Use your sense an' say whether +you'll look for a new master an' mistress an' seven shilling a week, +or bide here with better money an' corn an' cider an' all the +fatness of the earth. I'll speak no word; only I might remind you, +Beer, an' you, Woodman, that you've got wives--that's all." + +"Then 'tis for us to decide," said Woodman solemnly--"us +four: me, Beer, Putt, and you, Mark Bickford. Here us stands. +Now you have your tell first, Thomas Putt, 'cause you'm the +youngest." + +"I'm a poor tool for such a job, an' I shan't say nothing," +answered Putt. "I'll abide by what you men do." + +"So much for you then," said Woodman. "Us knows you +haven't got more sense than, please God, you should have, yet +'tis a question whether you did ought to let another man keep +your conscience. Now, Bickford, what's your view?" + +Mr. Bickford, a man of colourless mind in the affairs of life, +showed sudden and unexpected strength of purpose. + +"I guess I'll bide an' pull the cross down," he said. "Master +do clapper-claw a bit, but he pays me eight shilling a week; an' +where I gets such money as that 'tis my duty to stop. You may +squeak," he added to Uncle Smallridge, who uttered an inarticulate +exclamation of misery at his decision, "but I be keeping +company; an' I also be keeping my old bed-lying mother out o' +the poorhouse. An' I'd pull down fifty crosses afore I'd lose eight +shilling a week. If there's a mischief in it, ban't of my brewing." + +"Well, then, 'tis for me an' you, Harvey," proceeded Richard +Beer. "An' since I'm the older man, I'll come last an' wind up +on it when you've spoke your mind." + +"A man like me with a wife an' son be in the worse fix of all," +declared Woodman moodily. "If evil follows, I may be twisting +a scourge for the next generation, whereas you that be childless +can only catch it in your own case an' Dinah's. Still, to go back +to peat-cutting after Fox Tor Farm is a great fall." + +"The Devil's tempting you, Harvey!" cried Mr. Smallridge. + +"Shut your mouth, or I'll hit 'e on it!" retorted Kekewich +savagely. "Leave 'em to fight it out. They've got to do their +duty, an' I'd like to know whenever the A'mighty punished any +man for doing that?" + +"There's my duty to my master an' my duty to my conscience. +'Tis our duty to our master to do what he pays us to do; and us +be paid to work, not to think," argued Woodman. + +"If evil's to be hatched, us won't catch it," declared Bickford. +"When a man sets a rick on light, ban't the flint an' steel they +has up for arsony, but the chap hisself. We'm no more than the +flint an' steel in this matter." + +"We've got immortal parts, however," argued Beer. "We +may hide our bodies behind another chap; but can us hide our +souls? What I want to know is the nature of the harm we'll do. +What's the name of it?" + +"'Tis insulting the Lord of Hosts," said Uncle Smallridge +tremulously. + +"Gammon!" answered Kekewich. "'Tis obeying them as +the Lord have set in authority over you. We've got to do with +a dead stone; an' the chap who be buried here found his way to +heaven or hell long afore the Lord, in a weak moment, let your +parents get a fool like you." + +"'Tis the shape that shakes us, not the stone," explained +Woodman; "an' I wish you'd decide an' have done with it, +Richard Beer. We are ready to go by you, for 'tis well knowed +that you've a conscience as works so active as your skin in +harvest time." + +"Well," replied Beer, "I can't see no flaw in what Bickford +said. My conscience is allowed pretty peart, I believe; an it +don't give me a twinge in this matter; though I'd much rather +not do it all the same." + +"Suppose the lightning struck us," suggested Putt, and Beer +scanned the sky. + +"Can't without a Bible miracle; an', good or bad, the size of +this job be too small for that. What harm falls will most surely +fall 'pon master, not us." + +"If I thought Miss Grace would suffer, I'd see the stone rot +to dust afore I'd touch it," declared Putt. + +"Whether or no, we've got to pull down Childe's Tomb, an' +make a bridge; an' my conscience, an' my wages, an' my +common sense all point the same way, so here goes," summed up +Mr. Beer. + +"I'm with you," said Bickford. + +"An' me too," added Putt; "an' come Judgment Day, if +there's a sharp word said to me, I shall name your name, Dick +Beer." + +"An' you, Harvey?" + +For answer Mr. Woodman turned to the sledge that his son +had brought up. From this he took a rope and some long irons. + +"Come on! Let's get it over. Once the cross be down, our +minds will grow easier. 'Tis the shape, I tell you, as makes us +so weak for a moment." + +"God forgive you, souls!" cried Smallridge; "an' mind, when +you'm wading waist-deep in trouble, that it weren't no fault of +mine. Bide till I be out of sight, that's all. Then you an' this +here crooked old Apollyon can go to your wicked work." + +He looked at Kekewich, shook his head at the doomed monument, +and hobbled away as fast as his legs would carry him. + +"Us had better all spit over our left shoulders for luck," said +Mr. Beer; "then we can begin. An' see that all four of us hang +upon the rope together, so as the work an' the pay be equally +divided." + +Harvey Woodman's young son prepared to give assistance, +but his father roughly bade him begone. + +"You drop that rope an' get up to the farm to your mother," +he said. "She'll find you a job. Us don't want you to-day." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FIRSTBORN + +The destruction of Childe's Tomb awoke no protest upon +the county-side, for antiquaries had not yet turned their +attention to the interesting and obscure relics of former ages +scattered over Dartmoor. A few intelligent men mourned that +another mediæval landmark had been sacrificed to the advance +of civilisation; then the matter was forgotten, save at Fox Tor +Farm, where great unrest still reigned among the workers. + +The women exhibited chief concern; but while Annabel and +Grace Malherb showed sentimental regret and the master laughed +at them for their folly, Dinah Beer and Mary Woodman took +a far more serious view of the incident, and reduced their +husbands to the extremity of uneasiness. They foretold disaster +upon all concerned; Mr. Kekewich they specially tormented, +and declared that, as arch instigator of the outrage, upon him the +first grief must fall. He cared nothing; but Richard, Harvey, +and others went in growing fear. They longed for weeks and +months to pass that they might be removed by time from the +hour of their evil deed; then, as each uneventful day dwindled +and each night passed by, they drew a little nearer toward peace +of mind. After a month had passed they plucked up spirit and +faced the unseen with steadier gaze. + +"Another week gone an' nothing said," whispered Putt one +morning to Harvey Woodman, where they worked at wall-building. +He glanced sideways up to heaven as he spoke with a +gesture of suspicion. + +"No--the world goes on very easy. What did Peter Norcot +give 'e for taking the pack-horse with his leather boxes back to +Chaggyford?" + +"There again--good luck surely. A crown I got by it; an' I +ate my meat with Mason's mother an' sister who live there. +Mason be Mr. Norcot's man, and his sister is called Tryphena. +An' I be going over again, for she said, when I axed her, that +pinky rims to the eyes didn't stand against a chap in her +judgment. She thought 'twas a beauty, if anything. Her be a few +year older'n me; but that often works very well, an' keeps down +the family." + +"You'd best to be careful, all the same," said Woodman. +"The woman as you meets half-way, often makes you go t'other +half afore you think you've started." + +"I won't hear no word against that female from you or any +man," declared Thomas Putt, growing very red. + +"From me you certainly won't, seeing as I never heard tell of +her afore this minute," replied Woodman calmly. "Only, as +a married man, I say go slow. When a girl tells you such eyes as +yourn be beautiful, she's getting to that state of mind when they +put a home of their own afore truth and common sense an' +everything." + +Putt was about to answer rather warmly when Richard Beer +appeared. His beard blew about him; his eyes were sunk into +his head, and dull care stared from them. + +"It's come!" he said. "I've held my peace these twenty-four +hours; an' longer I will not. The ill luck have set in! There's +no more doubt about it." + +"Have it hit you?" asked Putt, his anger vanishing; "because +if so, us ban't safe neither." + +"Not directly. It strikes the farm. There's scores o' dozens +o' moles in the meadow; and the rats have come to the pig-styes +in an army." + +"They be natural things," declared Putt. "You might expect +'em. Where there's pigs there's rats." + +"Yes, but not like a plague. They've come up in a night, +same as them frogs in Egypt." + +"You'm down-daunted about nought," answered Woodman. +"Read what some of they Bible heroes had to suffer. There's +nought like dipping into the prophet Job when you'm out of +heart with your luck. 'Twill make you very contented. My +gran'faither always read Job slap through after he'd had a row wi' +the Duchy." + +"As for me, I shall bide wi' the man so long as he can pay +wages," said Putt. + +They passed to their work; and elsewhere Maurice Malherb, +not ignorant of the verminous inroad upon fields and styes, was +debating whether he should sink his pride and summon Leaman +Cloberry. But while time passed by and he hesitated, there +came a post and tidings so momentous that the rats and moles +were forgotten. + +Now, indeed, did trouble like an armed man break in on Fox +Tor Farm; the light of the Malherbs vanished, and their hope +set in lasting sorrow. Noel Malherb, serving under Sir Rowland +Hill, with the right of Lord Wellington's army in the Peninsula, +had fallen before Vittoria. + +Annabel and her daughter took this grief into secrecy, and +were hidden from the world through many weeks; Malherb +fought it down, and concealed his emotion from all eyes. He +laughed not less seldom, he fell into anger more often than of +yore. + +"Pharaoh cracked his heart when his first was took," said +Woodman to Kekewich; "but this man----" + +"His heart's hid in his breast, not open to your eye," answered +the other. "His heart be cracked all right, though he don't come +to us an' say so. But I know--by the voice of 'un, an' the long, +lonely rides he takes all about nothing, an' his look when he +stares at his darter--a miser's eyes--same as that old mully-grub +Lovey Lee when she claws a bit of money." + +"'Childe's Tomb' have done its work--Uncle Smallridge +didn't lie." + +"Seeing as this poor young gentleman was shot down and +dust in his grave weeks an' weeks afore we touched the cussed +cross--for I heard master say so--you'll allow you're talking +foolishness." + +"The Lord can work backwards so easy as he can work +forwards. Miss Grace will be the next, you mark me." + +"Norcot'll have her come presently," said Kekewich. "She've +got to wipe her mother's tears for the present. This here cruel +come-along-of-it have cut ten years off the life of Missis." + +The ancient spoke truth, for Annabel Malherb's sufferings +under her great trial proved terrible. They were more objective +than her husband's. The family and the race were nothing to +her; she only knew that a French bullet had taken the life of her +firstborn, and she would never look into his brown eyes again or +put her cheek against his. Even her boy's beloved dust was +buried within the hecatombs of Spain, and her tears would never +fall upon his grave. But Malherb, beside this present misfortune +of his son's sacrifice for the country, had a deeper and more +lasting pang of ambition blighted and hope for ever dead. He had +toiled in vain; he had lifted this stout dwelling as a heritage for +none. Presently his daughter would wed with Norcot, and no +young eyes of his own race would see the larches and Scotch firs +of his planting grow into trees; no heir would note the ebony +and golden lichens write dignity and age upon his roof of slate, +nor see the mosses mellow his granite walls. Aliens must follow +and the name of Malherb would vanish, like the fragrant memory +of last year's fern. + +Then, within six weeks of the ill tidings, a great conceit +suddenly flashed upon Malherb; and as the Witch of Endor +called forth that awful shade of Samuel to her own admiration, +so did this man raise the unexpected spirit of a thought. +Suddenly, amidst the mean and familiar imaginings of life, +uprising like a giant from among the dwarfish throng of practical +and common notions, there stalked tremendous an Idea; and he +stood astonished before it, appraised its magnitude and welcomed +it for an inspiration from the Gods. + +This fancy came to Malherb as he pursued the prosaic business +of casting figures; and he threw down his pen, picked up his hat, +and hastened into the little walled garden of the farm to find his +wife. He longed to tell of this message that seemed to point to +peace; but his impatience was not set at rest for the space of +hours. Mrs. Malherb had ridden out on a pillion behind +Mr. Beer, and Dinah could say nothing of their destination. + +Irritated at the accident, Maurice himself strode on to the +Moor, and proceeded towards Fox Tor, that he might note his +wife returning and reach her as quickly as possible. + +His way took him past a favourite haunt of his daughter's, and +when he reached the broken stonework of the tor, Malherb +surprised Grace in serious conversation with a young man. + +The girl had gone out alone to pass her summer hours with +mournful thoughts. The horizon of her life was clouded now, +and already sorrow in the present and cares for the future robbed +her young days of their former contentment. Her heart was +warm--a delicious empty chamber that awaiteth one as yet +unknown. Beyond the dark grief of her brother's death, another +now lurked, and Time, that should have dawdled with her in +these rosy hours of youth, while yet her heart had never throbbed +to one loved name, raced fast and pitiless as the east wind. +Down his closing avenues, outlined immediately ahead, stood one +at the horizon of her life, appeared a man as the goal and crown +of her maiden race. There beamed the neat, trim, and amiable +apparition of Mr. Peter Norcot. It was no precocity that forced +poor Grace into thinking so much of love, while yet she knew it +not; but in her esteem, love and marriage embraced the same +idea, and now she marvelled mutely to find not love, but a very +active aversion reigning in her mind against the wool-stapler. +Her father's attitude and repeated assurances that wed with Peter +she must, had thus thrown her thoughts upon the affairs of +womenkind, herself not yet a woman. But love haunted her, +and wonder concerning it. The chance young squire, who visited +Fox Tor Farm, had been fluttered to his green heart's core could +he have seen what was in Grace's mind or behind her drooping +lids. With interest she regarded the better-looking amongst her +father's visitors, wondered who loved them beside their mothers, +speculated as to what would happen if some sudden, invisible +spark flashed from their bosoms and found fuel within her own. + +One friend she had, and he was a boy even as she was a girl. +John Lee belonged to the people, yet he revealed a different mien +from them. The common speech was upon his tongue, the common +clothes of earth-colour hid his shapely form; yet he had a +way of speaking the one and wearing the other that set a mark of +distinction upon him. This lad possessed more imagination than +diligence; he knew the Moor with a different knowledge to that +of Beer, or Woodman, or Leaman Cloberry. He had garnered +its legends and its mysteries. He understood something of the +spirit of the eternal hills; he loved + + Their colours and their rainbows and their clouds, + And their fierce winds and desolate liberty." + +He could read, and owned a book or two hidden in the hay-loft +where he dwelt outside his grandmother's cottage. He called the +plants by their local names, and was skilled in the lore of wild +things and the weather. + +Grace found him very agreeable company and, upon first +mentioning at home that she sometimes met and spoke with him, +her father did not take it amiss. + +"Get the boy to tell you where that old demon on the hill has +hidden my amphora," he said. + +"As if he knew!" murmured Mrs. Malherb, who was a woman +of literal mind. + +"The boy doubtless knows nothing," her husband answered; +"but 'tis within the bounds of possibility that he might find out." + +Henceforward Grace, holding herself at liberty to do so, often +met John Lee and often made appointments to meet him. He +taught her Dartmoor; he rode his pony by her side and gloried in +the manifold virtues of her new hunter, the great and gallant +'Cæsar.' + +While Peter Norcot was at Fox Tor Farm, young John kept +clear of it. Indeed, he had plenty of work when he chose to +work, and toiled by fits and starts at peat-cutting, lichen-gathering, +or attending upon some military sportsman from the War Prison. +But his desire and ambition at eighteen years of age was to win +employment in the kennels of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt. From such +a position, if blessed by good luck, he trusted some day to rise +and become a whipper-in. Of any higher destiny he did not +dream. To be huntsman was a position in life that rose almost +as much above his hopes as to be Master. + +Now, some while before Maurice Malherb had entered on to +the Moor, so that he might see and meet his wife returning home, +John Lee, walking near a spot very well known to him as one of +Grace's favourite haunts, found her there where the grass made +pleasant cushions amid the granite boulders upon the southern +slope of Fox Tor; where the music of a little waterfall rose and +fell softly at the pleasure of the wind; and where the Beam's +mighty shoulders basked under the sun and took a tremulousness +of outline in the hot air which arose from off them. + +Rising suddenly out of the hollows where the streamlet ran, +John Lee appeared within thirty yards of Grace, and, to his +dismay and concern, discovered that she wept. Some coincidence +of thought with the solemn natural things about her; some +clash or chime of sadness at the spectacle of her future and the +vast and featureless mountain uplifted before her eyes, struck the +emotional chord that loosens tears, and Grace suffered them to +flow and carry away a little of her sorrow in the glittering drops. +She was young, and hope her proper heritage, therefore she grew +happier presently, and when the miser's grandson appeared, +hesitated, and, with a rueful countenance, began to creep away, +she called to him and bade him come. + +"I'm only crying, John Lee. Hast never seen a girl cry +before?" + +He advanced upon this, and his handsome young face was all +blushes. + +"Never, Miss Grace; an' never want to. I would I could take +your trouble on my own shoulders." + +"Your grandmother never weeps?" + +"Not she. A granite wall sweats more moisture than her eyes +fall tears. But you---- The young gentleman, your brother, +died like a hero. 'Tis a great and noble thing to be a hero." + +"How can a word stand for his dear beautiful face and bright +eyes and kind voice? Never a maid had such a brother as Noel. +Hero! Hero!" She lifted her voice bitterly. "An empty-handed, +senseless sound to take the place of a dear brother. Not +one pang does it lessen--no, not even in my father's heart, though +he says the syllables over and over again, like a parrot. Our +hope and our glory gone--that is what his death means." + +"I can't say nothing--I wish I could. I'd go and die +to-morrow if 'twould bring him back," declared John earnestly. +"You'll think 'tis easy to tell such things, but God's my Judge, I +mean it." + +"You are not unlike him in a way, John. He had your +manner of holding up his neck, and your mouth and your neat +ears." + +"I'm an awful fuzz-poll--like they curly-haired coloured men at +the War Prison." + +She did not answer for a moment, then spoke again of her +sorrows. + +"My heart's an empty nest now--all my plans to live with Noel +for ever and love his children are broken down. And I had a +secret hope that he"--she stopped, then decided to finish the +sentence--"that he might soften my father." + +"Your father be stern enough, but not to you--sure never to +you." + +He spoke with conviction and Grace did not reply. A +black-and-orange humble bee was working in the wild thyme at her feet. +It tumbled and laboured from cluster to cluster of the flowers, +pulled each tiny purple corolla to itself and dipped into each for +the stores there hidden. It droned hither and thither, full of +business, and at last, lifting itself heavily, flew away with a +cheerful boom of thanksgiving. So near Grace's ear did it go, that she +started, and Lee, though grave enough at heart, laughed. + +"He won't hurt 'e. They bumbles have no spears, I believe--anyway +they never use 'em." + +"I hate Peter Norcot!" she said aloud, suddenly, and with such +vehemence that John started and stared. + +"I hate him--hate--hate--hate him! Hark at the echo. I've +told the echo that many a time. And the echo always answers +very wisely, 'Hate him!'" + +"What have you got against him, if I may ax?" + +"Nothing; and that's everything. He's perfect." + +"An' do love your very shadow, so they say." + +"I forgot that. There is reason enough for not liking him." + +"Then you'll have to hate every man on the Moor. They all +love you--even I dare to do it." + +"Love me?" + +"Ess fay! Be it uncivil in me to say so, Miss?" + +"I should think it was, indeed!" + +"Truth's truth. I can't help it. Never seed nothing like you. +I'd go to the end of the world for you. I wish 'twas my happy +lot to be your servant." + +"Would you kill Mr. Norcot for me?" + +He was silent; then he nodded. + +"Well, John Lee, I had sooner you loved me than Mr. Norcot +should." + +"Don't say it even in fun. You don't know what it means to +me. I'm up eighteen year old now--a man. But I hate +Mr. Peter, too, for that matter." + +"Because I do?" + +"Yes, an' for another reason; because granny likes him. He +gived her money once. She said afterwards that there was that in +his face pleased her fancy, for he'd got a depth in it that would +make rocks and water do his will." + +"She's quite wrong there. He's a most superficial man and +amiable to weakness. He is always making feeble jests and +quoting the poets. He is a thing of shreds and patches. He put +your grandmother into an old verse once. I laughed, though I +hate him. He said:-- + + "'Through regions by wild men and cannibals haunted, + Old Dame Lovey Lee goes alone and undaunted; + But, bless you, the risk's not so great as it's reckoned; + She's too plain for the first and too tough for the second!'" + + +"He may laugh at her," replied John Lee. "But she don't +laugh at him. When he'd gone that day, she told me that he +was the first man ever she clapped eyes on as could be her master +if he liked; and I shivered to hear her say it." + +"He's welcome to be her master; he never shall be mine," said +Grace resolutely; and as she spoke, her father suddenly appeared +before them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MALHERB'S IDEA + +John Lee touched his hat, while Grace rose and welcomed +her father, who, still dominated by his Idea, proved in a very +amiable mood. + +"You grow fast--you'll be as tall as your grandmother at this +rate. Not that you are like her," he said to the lad. +John smiled and touched his hat again. + +Malherb scanned the finely built youngster, and thought of his +dead son. There was a resemblance, as Grace recently remarked +to John himself, and the father, who had a picture of Noel +Malherb painted lifelike upon memory, now perceived this similitude. +For a moment he stared in silence, then turned to Grace. + +"I seek your mother. Has she gone to visit Lady Tyrwhitt?" + +"Yes, she is at Tor Royal, father. Indeed, she should be on +her way home again by this time." + +"Then we'll walk along to meet her. And you, John Lee, tell +that old witch up there I'm not asleep. I shall have my amphora +yet; and the reckoning, when it does come, will mean a halter for +her." + +"Your servant, sir; an' I'll be sure to speak the message." + +As they proceeded together, Grace put a petition to her father, +and he was about to decline it, but bethought him. The Idea +entirely turned upon Grace herself, and he had no desire to cross +her will in minor matters, though she still differed from him upon +the great question of her own future. + +"Father," she said, "I ought to have a groom." + +"Why, that boy we have left is as good as a groom to you." + +"In a way. But I feel there should be a little more distinction +about the matter. In truth, John Lee's pony can't live with my +beautiful 'Cæsar' and if he was better mounted he could show +me the country that you and I are going to hunt in the winter. +'Twould be well for me to ride over it, and you are too busy +to take me. Now Lee, if he had a horse and a livery--and how +wonderfully well he rides." + +"That's true. I had observed it. Better far than any man I +have seen on the Moor--excepting Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt and +myself. A splendid natural seat." + +"Let him be my servant and look after your hacks and the +hunters. But only if you can afford it. I know you have had to +spend a great deal lately." + +"Yes, yes; we must spend to get; and Dartmoor wants a good +deal of cash down in advance on a bargain. But I think I generally +get the worth of my money. Well--he shall come. I like a livery +or two about me, and poor Kekewich will never cut much of a +figure in his. The boy is a fine up-standing boy, and civil. You +shall have him. He may help me too--in the direction of the +Malherb amphora." + +"Thank you, thank you! Was there ever such a kind father?" + +"I've only got you now," he said. "I'm not a talker, and it +is a vile thing to see a man of quality show his feelings; but +between father and daughter affection is natural, and may even +be declared in reason. You're the apple of my eye." + +"How well I know it!" + +She kissed him and, occupied with his Idea, he took her hand. +Thus they walked along until Mrs. Malherb appeared on her +homeward way from Tor Royal. She sat behind Richard Beer +on a pillion, for she was fearful of horses, and never rode alone. + +Annabel described an _émeute_ at the War Prison. + +"It seems," she said, "that the poor Americans are the chief +danger there. They were sent up from the hulks at Plymouth, +because they were always escaping from them; and now more +than one has got clean away in a disturbance. They think that +these Desperate men will presently be recaptured, or else lose their +lives in the lonely desert wastes towards Cranmere Pool. They +may, however, by good fortune get into touch with their +fellow-countrymen on parole at Ashburton or Tavistock, and so make to +the coast and escape to France from Dartmouth or Tor Quay." + +"If I should meet a runaway!" cried Grace. + +"You would ride him down, I should hope, unless he yielded +and followed you," said her father. + +Mrs. Malherb nearly dropped Richard's pillion-belt and fell to +the ground. + +"La! what sport for a young maid!" she cried. + +That night after they had gone to rest, the master placed his +great inspiration before Annabel, and her eyes grew round in the +darkness. The blind was up, for Malherb allowed the daylight +to waken him, and the seasons regulated the hour of his rising. +Now Mrs. Malherb watched a star cross the eastern-facing casement; +but only her eyes perceived that distant sun, for her mind +was occupied with a closer matter. + +"I have hit upon a thought which shows how I may still work +to some purpose here and not make a place for strangers to enjoy +when we are gone," he said. "A Malherb shall have all----" + +"You cannot mean that you will forgive your nephews!" cried +his wife in amazement. + +"'Nephews'! No. Curse the pack of 'em--curs that disgrace +the name. They're not even honest. And 'twas not I that +quarrelled with them, but they with me. I am fifty-one. In +a year I shall be fifty-two, and Grace will be marriageable. +Eighteen's a very proper age. My grand-aunt, Sibella, was a +famous beauty at sixteen, wedded with the Duke of Sampford on +her seventeenth birthday, had a daughter upon her eighteenth, +and was a grandmother when she was thirty-seven. By the time +Grace is nineteen she will be the mother of a son." + +"Good gracious, my love, how you run on!" + +"Not at all. I'm simply stating the probable course of nature. +A son, I say; and that son comes to us. When the lad is +one-and-twenty I shall be but seventy or so. What is that? +Nowadays, such a man as I am is merely middle-aged at seventy. We +have the lad for our own. He must be given to us. By God, it +shall be a condition of the match! And he shall be called +Malherb, and shall found a line of 'em here instead of my boy, +who is dead and gone. 'Tis but a jump of a generation." + +The stars at the window laughed in their courses and tumbled +before Mrs. Malherb's eyes. Her husband abounded in fantastic +projects, but this scheme was egregious even for him. She felt +the futility of it, not the humour. One objection specially beat +upon her mother's heart, and that she uttered-- + +"You couldn't expect Grace to give up her first baby, my +dear." + +"Why not? Why not? Not to me? Not to her own father? +'Slife! Who should be better able than I to make a man of a +young fellow? He would be my personal companion. He would +be brought up from the cradle with this place in his eyes. He +would understand that he was a Malherb and all that that means. +'Tis a very proper idea and, if the girl's not a fool, she'll be the +first to see it. Whether she sees it or not, however, don't matter +a button." + +"For God's sake say no such thing to her!" + +"Am I likely to? Do credit me with some understanding. +All the same, it will have to be. My heart's on it. The high +traditions of the family--Norcot will assent readily, I have little +doubt. I can twist him round my finger." + +"I fear Grace cares less and less for him." + +"I know better. Even you will allow me some knowledge +of human nature. Her indifference is assumed. She is deeply +interested in him." + +"Deeply interested? Yes; in how to escape him." + +"Be that as it may, within six weeks of her eighteenth birthday +she'll be Mrs. Peter Norcot; and her son will be called Maurice +Malherb and come hither as soon as he is weaned. If ever I meant +anything in my life, I mean that." + +"The way you order human destinies!" + +"It is the province of the strong man so to do," he answered +calmly. "My son cannot fill my shoes, because he has fallen for +his country; but my grandson can and shall. The rest of them +may be Norcot's; the first is mine." + +"To count your grandchildren before they are born!" murmured +Mrs. Malherb. + +"No such thing at all. Go to sleep, and don't be foolish. +I do not count them. That is Heaven's work. I merely reserve +the eldest to myself. The action may not be usual, but that +weighs very little with me. I speak in a spirit both scientific and +religious; and it shall be so, if the Devil himself said 'No!' so +there's an end on it." + +He turned over, and in ten minutes snored; but for long hours +Annabel watched the twinkling sky, and marvelled as to what +manner of planet reigned in heaven and lighted earth at the +moment when her husband first drew breath. + + + + +BOOK II + +THE SEVEN + + + +CHAPTER I + +MR. BLAZEY + +At the War Prison, in a crisis now rapidly approaching, it was +destined that the young man, Cecil Stark, should assume +sudden prominence. Thousands of French and American +prisoners were confined at Prince Town during this period; +and with the latter were herded a company of coloured men who +had been captured in the enemy's battleships or privateers. +Bitterly was this circumstance resented by the Americans; but, +worse than their slaves they found the presence of some seven +hundred French, who shared the granite hospitality of Prison +No. 4. These poor tatterdemalions had added to their necessary +griefs by personal folly. They had gamed away their very shoes +and blankets; and they were thrust hither by the hundred, +and kept alive, like cattle, with scarcely a rag to cover their +nakedness. + +Many times the Americans protested with indignation against +this wrong, and implored that these forlorn French might be +removed from amongst them. But months elapsed before their +reasonable complaints were heard, and the baser sort of soldier +guards was wont to laugh and ask the Americans wherein their +own fantastic and ridiculous habiliments presented a better +appearance than the Frenchmen's skins. + +Stark and certain of his companions were thus challenged on a +day in autumn as they patrolled together along the exercise yard. +Beside him walked Commodore Jonathan Miller, who had commanded +the United States frigate _Marblehead_ when she was taken, +while behind them followed one William Burnham, a junior officer +on the same vessel, and James Knapps, sometime boatswain of +the _Marblehead_. These four men, together with three others +presently to be mentioned, formed a little community of +friendship, and had entered into a compact to share their means, and +make common cause against the hardships that encompassed +them. They were known as "the Seven" and their companions +held them in high esteem, for it happened that Stark was among +the fortunate and obtained regular advances from home. With +his money he did no little good, and not the Seven only, but +many more who suffered from poverty or disease, had found him +a willing friend. + +A sentry perched before his box on the prison wall heard Stark +grumble to William Burnham and made a jesting remark. + +"Don't the Frenchmen's skins fit 'em as well as your clothes +fit you?" he said. + +Whereupon Burnham, a mere lad with red hair and a round +freckled face, made such a fiery retort that the soldier scowled +and fingered his musket. + +"You ask that--you coarse-hearted lout? Their skins don't +fit 'em. Count their ribs; look at the bones sticking out of their +elbows and ankles. No prisoner's skin can fit him in this cursed +country, for you starve us; your agents rob us; you strip your +scarecrows to clothe us!" + +They passed on, and Commodore Miller spoke. + +"The Americans are treated better elsewhere, however," he +remarked. "At Chatham, and at Stapleton too, they receive +more considerate attention. There, at least, they obtain what +the British Government is pleased to give them." + +"And the markets shut agin us--that's consarned robbery," said +James Knapps. "'Tis the loss of the market that angers me +most past bearing." + +"A very great injustice," answered Miller sadly. "It cannot +be known. The French are permitted to trade with the people +of the country. Farmers and farmers' wives are admitted into +the great court and they barter regularly there. But we can only +get our cheese, or butter, or eggs for our sick folk through the +French, and they charge five-and-twenty per centum above the +market prices." + +"So we are robbed every way," said Knapps. He was a +powerful, middle-aged man, of genial aspect and ordinary +appearance; but another American who now approached and walked +beside his friends, discovered a countenance that had called for +second glances in any company. He was tall, extraordinarily thin +and very high-shouldered. His eyes were of the palest grey, his +high cheek-bones seemed nearly thrusting through the skin. He +was almost bald, and his woollen cap came down over his ears. +A flat nose and a fan-shaped tuft of hair upon his chin completed +the man's physiognomy; and much bitterness usually sat upon +these strange features. + +"What say you, Leverett?" asked Stark of the new-comer. + +David Leverett, who had been a carpenter on the _Marblehead_, +and lost one hand in the engagement which ended that vessel's +career, waved his stump to the sky. + +"I say 'tis small wonder that some on us enlist in the King's +service, damn his eyes! It's their dirty, devilish game ter make +us. They torture us and starve us and freeze us, till narry a one +but would Judas his own mother, if 'twas only for the sight of salt +water again." + +Cecil Stark nodded. + +"That is what they mean, sure enough. Another batch came +up yesterday from the _Hector_ prison ship. Many, they say, have +gone into the King's service." + +"'Tis the refinement of cruelty to make a man turn against his +motherland," mused Miller; "yet there were a few good Englishmen +on the _Marblehead_." + +"Then there's Blazey," continued Mr. Leverett, who seldom +opened his mouth save to utter a grievance. "Call him an +Agent! One of the carved stone turrets we are going ter fix on +the church tower would be a better agent than him. I wish I +had the handling of the skunk." + +"Lordy! Have done with your growling," said Knapps. +"What's the use of it? You only drive other hot-heads into +the enemy's ships. I miss faces every day as it is." + +"Many are true enough," replied young Burnham. "There's +Mercer and Troubridge and our messmate, Caleb Carberry. You +miss them because they are all sick in hospital." + +"Troubridge is dead," said Cecil Stark shortly; "and Matthew +Mercer is dying. I saw the doctor this morning. He said 'twas +all over with him. He's unconscious." + +Leverett lifted his ribs in a deep sigh. + +"They are out of it. I most envy 'em. There's no escape +from this cussed bowery except by way of the 'orspital." + +None spoke; then upon their gloomy silence a black man +burst, in the very extremity of excitement. He was a big, +full-blooded negro--a splendid specimen of vigour, manhood and +health. Now he waved his arms and rolled his great brown eyes +and advanced upon them with a clumsy saltation. + +"Waal, now, look at that black imp!" cried Knapps. "Come +here, Sam Cuffee! What's happened to you? Has anybody left +you a fortune, or a pair of wings?" + +"Better dan dat, Jimmy Knapps! Good tings for all ob +us, please de Lord. Him coming, Sars. Ha, ha, ha! Him +coming!" + +"Who's coming?" asked Leverett. "The Lord? Don't you +think it, Sam. There's no God nowadays ter keep his weather +eye lifting on the likes of us." + +"'Tis vain to whine so, David Leverett," said Stark angrily. +"I'm weary of your eternal grumbling. If you chose fighting for +your business in life, you should expect hard knocks. You went +to be carpenter in a ship of war, and----" + +Here a shout from Burnham interrupted the speaker, for +Mr. Cuffee had told his great news to the other officers. + +"Yes, Sar--honour bright, Sar. Marse Jones, de turnkey, he +tell me. Marse Blazey--him coming to put all right dis berry +day, so I done run to tell you." + +"Then you can call back your words, carpenter," said +Commodore Miller. "There's a God yet--only He takes His own +time--not ours." + +"Blazey coming!" cried Knapps. "'Tis most too good to be +true. Some on you gentlemen had best think what to say to +him." + +As he spoke, Captain Cottrell, Commandant of the War +Prison, appeared and advanced with a guard into the midst of +the patrol ground. A trumpeter blew a blast to summon the +wandering throngs, and when they had crowded in a dense circle +round him, the Commandant raised his voice and made a statement +from the midst of the bristling bayonets that hemmed him +about. + +"I have to inform you, gentlemen, that your Agent, Mr. Blazey, +from Plymouth, will visit Prison No. 4 at three o'clock of +the afternoon to-day. Here in public he will meet you and hear +all your grievances, but there must be no private intercourse." + +He departed, and the Americans, with joy upon their faces, +raised a cheer--not for Captain Cottrell, but his news. The +black men, who were grouped together apart, also lifted a shout +of satisfaction. + +"One might think that peace was proclaimed rather than that +a paid official is merely about to do his duty," said Cecil Stark +with bitterness. + +But Commodore Miller shook his head. + +"Do not even assume so much, my lad. This man--well, a +sluggard in duty can never be trusted. If he discharges his task +reluctantly, he may also discharge it ill." + +Great stir and bustle marked the next few hours. Light and +air were let into every dark corner; broken hammocks were +patched, and each granite ward was cleansed. Only the prisoners +themselves remained unchanged. No power could instantly alter +their thin, hungry faces or their disgraceful attire. + +There came presently to Cecil Stark his friend and superior +officer, the Commodore. + +"As one not quite unknown to them, they have called upon +me to be spokesman," he said. + +"Of course, sir; you're the first man amongst us. Every +American knows that." + +"But I've no gift of words, Stark, and my nerve is not what it +was. I declined the task; whereon they invited me to name a +speaker likely to address this Blazey with force and judgment. +I come to you. I hold it to be your duty. You must not shrink +from it." + +Cecil Stark was much taken aback by this proposal. + +"Think better of it, sir. Who am I to voice so many older and +wiser men than myself?" + +"I wish you to do so. We must say much in little and hold +the Agent's attention. Be off now and collect your thoughts and +set your ideas in order," said the Commodore. "Look to it that +you justify my choice, for I shall bear the blame if you fail." + +"'Tis a very great responsibility, but I'll assume it, since you +command, Commodore. Now let me meet the leaders." + +After a brief conference with the prominent prisoners, Stark +vanished and, until the important person named Reuben Blazey +arrived at Prince Town, he secluded himself with certain papers +and prison orders, that he might prepare his speech. + +Then, towards evening, a trumpet announced the arrival of the +Agent; the captives drew up in a dense double line, and +Mr. Blazey, with his staff and a guard of red-coats, appeared. He +was a short, stout man, clad in plum-colour, with a face of +generous purple that matched his clothes. His little black eyes +shot sharp glances everywhere as he advanced, hat in hand; his +clean-shaven mouth was of a coarse pattern, yet it lacked not +kindliness. + +"Great God!" he said to a clerk at his elbow, "this is the +Valley of Bones; and they have come to life. But, indeed, I had +not dreamed there were so many." + +"There are some five or six hundred of 'em, I believe," +answered Lieutenant Mainwaring, who escorted the visitor. Then +he addressed the prisoners. + +"Now who is to speak for the rest with Mr. Blazey?" + +Stark instantly stepped forward and saluted. + +"You!" exclaimed the soldier. + +"Yes, my comrades honour me with this grave commission." + +"Then be brief, young man," said Blazey, "for I don't want to +ride over Dartmoor in the dark." + +"'Be brief!'" echoed Stark, with fire flashing to his eye. "'Be +brief!' Why, you----" + +Here with an effort and in response to the murmur of warning +voices behind him, he curbed his temper and made another +answer. + +"Our grievances can't be very briefly told, Mr. Reuben Blazey; +but I will set them out in as few words as possible. First and +worst, the scum and offscouring of the French prisons are poured +in upon us to our terrible discomfort. Next we desire to tell you +that our contractors are rogues. For five days in the week the +law directs that we receive one and a half pounds of brown bread, +one half-pound of beef, including bone--of which God knows we +get our share--one-third of an ounce of barley and salt, one-third +of an ounce of onions, and one pound of turnips. The residue +of the week we have one pound of pickled fish and coals enough +to cook it. These things are daily served by the contractors, and +we have watched them scrimp weight cruelly to fill their pockets +out of our starving bellies. Upon beef days we suffer most." + +"Go on," said Mr. Blazey. He yawned, scratched under his +wig, and turned to a clerk. + +"You are making notes, Mr. Williams?" + +"Yes, sir--full notes." + +"Next," continued Stark, "the printed regulations delivered to +us by Commandant Cottrell speak explicitly of what your Government +has undertaken to do on our account. We are not criminals, +but honest men. Why do not you understand that? We are +allowed each a hammock, one blanket, one horse-rug, and a bed +containing four pounds of flocks. Every eighteen months we are +to receive one woollen cap for our heads, one yellow roundabout +jacket, one pair of pantaloons, and a waistcoat such as you give +your soldiers. We are further promised one shirt and one pair +of shoes every nine months." + +"And 'tis high time your tarnal thieves was delivered of them +shoes. Look at our feet!" burst out a voice from the ranks of +the captives. + +"Silence!" cried Stark. Then he turned to Mr. Blazey. + +"These things----" + +"You have," interrupted the Agent. "Are you not attired in +them, you who speak?" + +"Look at me!" answered Stark. "Regard these scarecrows +behind me and say if such a pandemonium of grotesque devils +ever filled human eyes outside a nightmare. Heaven knows that +we are thin enough, yet our yellow jackets might have been made +for skeletons. Look!" He stretched up his arms. "Mine comes +scarce below my elbows." + +"You happen to be a giant," objected Blazey. + +"Then why, in the name of God, don't you give him a giant's +jacket?" roared Knapps from the rear. He was silenced and +Stark proceeded. + +"Our pantaloons you can study for yourself, Mr. Blazey. You +can note the space visible between them and our waistcoats. But +the shoes are still worse. They are made of wood and rotten +yarn, and these granite floors knock them to pieces in a week. I +pray you see to these things. Here surely are caricatures of men +that would make England weep if she could see them." + +"Have you done with your facts, sir?" inquired the Agent. + +"Very nearly. Now there are certain offices, such as sweeping, +shaving prisoners, cooking and the like, that receive payment; +and those who can execute mechanic arts here may daily earn +sixpence. Why are not our humbler folk allowed to share these +privileges? The French receive all these offices, though the +Americans are quite as deft as they. There is also the vital +matter of the market. The French traffic weekly with the +country people and so add fresh food to their store; we are not +permitted to do so--a cruel embargo. To sum up, I pray for +more food, more clothes, more generosity. We are men against +whom the authorities can find no real fault. Our cachot is always +empty. I was the last that occupied it. Our guards will tell you +that we are courteous, obedient, and patient. Then pray, +Mr. Blazey, help us. You know not the awful battle we have to fight +here--a battle worse ten thousand times than any between man +and man. We endure such cold as you have never endured, +sir; we eat such food as you have never eaten; we suffer from +such prison evils in shape of loathsome diseases as you will never +know. We are very sick and we daily die. How can starving +men battle with the reigning horror of smallpox? How can----" + +But at the word "smallpox," Mr. Blazey's countenance assumed +a pallor under its purple and he woke from indifference to extreme +activity. His little eyes wandered wildly over the great sea of +faces before him. Then he screamed to Lieutenant Mainwaring. + +"Is this truth that the man utters?" + +The young officer took pleasure in Mr. Blazey's terror, and +oblivious of the prisoners or their welfare, made answer-- + +"True enough. The atmosphere you are breathing is pure +poison. Half these men are infected." + +It was a lie, but the Agent believed it, and made an instant bolt +for the entrance. + +"Then I should have been told. This is murder--deliberate, +cold-blooded murder, and you shall smart for it! Let me out for +the Lord's sake, before I've gulped any more of their filthy air!" + +They made way and opened the gates. Then, before he +vanished, Mr. Blazey turned and bawled a word or two towards +Stark. + +"I'll see what can be managed for ye. I'll do my best +endeavours. But I've no power, and no funds neither. Besides, +all exchange of prisoners is stopped for this year. So you'll do +wisely to bide quiet, and trust in God and the Transport Board, +not me." + +He vanished, with his clerks and the soldiers after him; and +then for a moment silence, dreadful and solemn, fell upon the +captives. The haggard faces that had strained upon Blazey so +long as he was visible, turned each to gaze into his neighbour's +eyes; the gates fell to, the locks clashed, the sentries on the wall +resumed their eternal tramp. Some men, wrought up to a pitch +of mental excitement beyond their strength to conceal, shed tears +and sneaked in corners to hide them. The boys--powder-monkeys +out of captured ships--broke their ranks and went off whooping +to leap-frog; the negroes chattered and blubbered apart; some +Americans scowled and shook their fists at the blind doors; some +cursed their spokesman for bungling the matter; others walked +away mute, quite frozen by long suffering to a dead indifference. +Many fell to quarrelling among themselves, and their leaders, +including Commodore Miller and Stark, sat together and debated +upon the failure of this--their forlorn hope. In the dark +disappointment of the hour young Burnham lifted his voice against +his motherland. + +"They have forgotten us!" he said. "We have lived for the +States, fought and bled for them; and now we are forgot." + +"Nay, lad, don't think it," said Miller. "Your heart is low +and time drags into a daily eternity here; but remember that it +flies faster outside these walls than within them. Our country is +busy." + +"'Tis that cursed Agent," growled Leverett to Knapps. Then +he scratched the red-grey wedge of hair upon his chin and turned +to Stark. + +"I asked Blazey as he came in whether he had got our letters +and he nodded. He's in communication with both Governments. + +"Thet 'ere man will hev the devil's toasting-fork in his guts +afore he's much older," prophesied Knapps. "He's a traitor." + +"Please Providence smallpox will clutch the swine; then an +honester man may get his billet," said Leverett. + +Thus they uttered folly and went stormily to their rest; but +upon the morning of the next day the Seven, strolling together, +listened to reason and formulated a plan of action. Their sick +mate, Caleb Carberry, was this day discharged cured from hospital, +and he listened to Burnham, who narrated the events of the previous +evening. + +"We've done what we might by fair means. Now it remains +for us to trust to our wits and our right arms," said Stark. + +"The wall men have built, men can climb," declared Burnham. +"What say you, Commodore?" + +Miller gazed upward at the mighty ring of the inner +circumvallation, scarlet-dotted with the sentries. + +"I'm with you--over--or under. At Chatham eighteen brave +lads escaped from the prison ship, _Crown Prince_, by cutting +through the side of her. Well, oak or granite, 'tis all one." + +"If we no fly, we burrow berry nice, gentlemen," declared +Samuel Cuffee. + +"Then 'tis our life's work from this hour to get out," said +Carberry. "By hook or crook we'll do it. And with a boss like +Commodore Miller, I lay the way will come clear." + +"We don't want a lot o' poppy-cock talk, I reckon," added +Leverett. "'Tis just a secret for the seven of us--though," he +added under his breath to Carberry, "I'm consarned if I like +to work with a slave." + +Caleb Carberry was a thin, feeble-looking young man who had +been cook's mate on the _Marblehead_. He glanced at Cuffee, to +whom Leverett referred, and answered aside-- + +"Sam's all right. No smouch him. Besides, Mister Stark +have had him for a servant ever since we sailed." + +But Leverett shook his head. + +"I don't trust no black man. I'm fearsome of him. He's +always snooking around; and so like as not he'll end by busting +on the show." + +Despite the carpenter's distrust, however, a secret and desperate +determination henceforth actuated every member of the Seven, +Sam Cuffee included. What skill, energy and intrigue could do, +they meant to do. Miller and Stark had personal friends +quartered upon parole at Ashburton, some fifteen miles distant, +and their purpose now was to escape from Prince Town, enter +into communication with these Americans, and so win to the +sea-coast and to France. + +"Hunger will break through a stone wall," said the +Commodore. "How much more may love of liberty do it!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BRACE OF FOWLS + +The result of their Agent's visit was manifested in various +ways to the American prisoners at Prince Town. Some +sank back upon despair and cursed each grey morning's light, as +it awakened them from the blessed oblivion of sleep; many +entered the British Service, and of these not a few were American +only in name, for their birthplace was England and they had +fought in the enemy's privateers, tempted thereto by handsome +payment. Others, like the leaders of the Seven, to whom such +surrender meant dishonour, dreamed of escape and occupied their +energies with projects and plots toward liberty. + +But practical good ultimately accrued to the prisoners from +Mr. Reuben Blazey's brief appearance on Dartmoor. That +gentleman, perhaps in thanksgiving upon the discovery that he +had not taken smallpox, stirred himself to some purpose after all, +and not a few of the grievances that Cecil Stark had set forth +were presently redressed. The Transport Board sanctioned the +renewal of the market in Prison No. 4; the place was entirely +divided from its fellows for the greater comfort of those who +dwelt there; the French outcasts were put into durance apart, +and the negroes, with sole exception of Sam Cuffee, Stark's +servant, were also removed from among the Americans. + +More than one of the little band that had sworn to escape, now +doubted whether, under this amelioration of circumstances, it +would be wise or politic to exchange the inside of the prison for +the outside. They held that Dartmoor rather than Prince Town +made the real prison, and that the great unknown wilderness, +with its morasses and precipices, its barren mountain-tops and +dangerous tempests, would be but a poor exchange even for +the misery of No. 4. But these doubtful ones were overruled +by Stark, Commodore Miller and the youngster, Burnham. +Carberry and Leverett most lacked courage; Knapps was +indifferent and ready to follow any man; Cuffee took his master's +view. That the negro should be permitted to join their secret +association had occasioned some natural opposition; but Cecil +Stark, whose ideas upon the subject were more than a century +ahead of his time, won permission to include the servant; and +Sam's personal fitness none questioned, for aboard the _Marblehead_ +he had proved himself faithful and courageous. It was the +principle that awakened objections, not the man. + +Soon the markets were again open, and finding that many of +the American prisoners had more money than the French, +discovering also that they spoke their own tongue and thereby +rendered bargaining more easy, the native Moor folk crowded +among them and opened a brisk traffic in fowls and eggs, cheese, +bacon and butter. No small amount of intoxicating drink was +also smuggled among them, though it generally paid duty to +some turnkey or sentry before reaching the prisoners. The +market stalls were arranged in a wide yard; the current market +prices were cried out, so that all might understand, and none +from the outer world were permitted to begin his business until +he had been carefully searched. But as time went on, and the +regular merchants became known to the guards, a little strictness +relaxed and relations became friendly. The means of the +prisoners varied much. Some were penniless, and made trinkets +carved of bone or wood serve them in place of money; some +received regular supplies from home, and these privileged ones, +Cecil Stark and Burnham among the rest, shared their funds with +less fortunate neighbours. + +There came a day when, towards the close of the market hours, +Leverett and Knapps were standing at one of the stalls and +addressing the countrywoman who sat upon an upturned barrel +behind it. + +"Where's your grandson of late, Mrs. Lee? I ha'n't seen him +with you for many a week." + +"Nor won't no more," answered Lovey Lee. "He's gone into +sarvice--groom to a farmer's darter." + +"Waal now! Do your farmers' daughters hev grooms?" + +"Not often. She's a lady. 'Tis a newtake farm 'pon Dartymoor, +an' the man who started it has got more money than wits. +Jack takes good wages, an' I have half of 'em, as I ought, seeing +I brought him up." + +Sam Cuffee came up at this minute. + +"Missy Lovey Lee," he said, "you dun gib me my proper +butter yesterday for Marse Stark. I swear 'twas light, ma'am." + +The tall woman, whose head, though she sat on the barrel, was +as high as that of Mr. Knapps where he stood beside her, stared +at the negro with scorn in her ferocious eyes. + +"Get along with you, you black idol! Ban't eighteen ounces +to the pound good butter weight? You stole some yourself, I'll +swear, to oil your ugly face." + +"You's a berry imperent ole woman, and I dun take no notice +ob your talk. Har come Marse Stark hisself, so you may just +speak to him, ma'am," answered Cuffee. + +Stark, carrying a tray, appeared with Burnham. This signal +was concerted, and as soon as they saw him the other men moved +away together. + +"Look here, Mother Lee, these won't do, you know. I must +take my custom elsewhere if you are not going to deal straight +with me," began the sailor bluntly. + +"Eggs--well, what of 'em?" asked Lovey. + +"The less said of them the better. Here are six--the remnant +of the last dozen I bought. Of the first six that Cuffee broke, I +ate none. So the second six you have got to take back and +give me six fresh ones from your basket." + +But Lovey by no means saw the force of this suggestion. + +"What next will you ax? To rob me right an' left be your +pleasure always; but I've been weak as a fly with you afore, +'cause of your curly hair. You'd starve a poor woman to death." + +"Take them back, or I'll never buy another thing from you. +What's more, my friends shall not either," said Stark loudly. +Then, before she could answer, he added under his breath, "_Take +'em and look at the yelks!_" + +Lovey instantly perceived that more appeared than was spoken. +She remembered also more than one conversation with Stark's +friends. Struck by her intelligence, unusual education and +extraordinary greed, Commodore Miller had called attention to the +old woman as being a tool ripe for their hands. Now the +preliminary approach promised well, for it was manifest that +Mrs. Lee had caught the speaker's meaning. + +"I won't; I won't do it--'tis flat robbery, I tell you, an' you'd +not care if I starved on the Moor all alone in my hovel without +strength to lift a dying prayer. You are cruel devils--all of you, +and I'll go back to the French folks, as have got hearts in their +breasts. I'll----" + +Then Stark, now alive to the fact that Lovey was only acting +for the benefit of the sentry, interrupted with threats. But still +Mrs. Lee argued, and only after much chatter, and a great deal +of disgraceful language, she took back the eggs and gave the +sailor six fresh ones in exchange. + +"Now I must sell these to somebody else," she said, "or I +shan't get bit or sup inside my lips to-day." + +"Better eat 'em yourself, Missis," said the sentry. "Anyway, +time's up now, so off you go." + +A bell rang to clear the market, and the folk began to stream +out of the prison. + +"Here, Sam!" shouted Stark jubilantly. "Take these to the +kitchen. I've near choked myself talking and swearing at that +old witch; but I've won my way. She's taken the bad eggs and +give me fresh ones instead." + +Cuffee hurried forward. + +"You was dam smart, sar. I dun fink nobody in de prison +could hah git around dat party 'cept you." + +And Lovey Lee, grumbling and whining to the last, took +herself and her baskets back across the Moor; tramped home; +entered her hovel, and then turned with greedy curiosity to the +secret of the eggs. She was as safe from interruption in her lonely +cabin by Siward's Cross as she had been in the desert of Sahara; +yet caution and suspicion were a part of her; therefore she locked +her door and covered up her little window with an apron before +she turned to her basket. Then, one by one, she broke the eggs +into a basin, and her mouth watered at the sight of such food, +even while she mourned to see two pennyworth of marketable +commodity wasted upon herself. The fifth egg weighed normally; +but it was filled with dust, and, after all, Lovey made no rare +meal, for she spoilt the mess in the basin by pouring the dust on +top of it. A vital matter, however, she rescued, for in the dust +was a little roll of paper, and upon the paper a message closely +but clearly written. + +"_To mistress Lee, an offer of money in plenty if she will help +Cecil Stark to escape from the War Prison at Prince Town. Let +her sell two fowls next market day if she will serve him; let her +sell two ducks if she will not serve him. But if she betray Cecil +Stark, his friends will be revenged upon her._" + +To the young man from Vermont had fallen this first step in +the plot. Lots were drawn as to who should get the message to +Lovey Lee, for all agreed that one only need be inculpated until +it was certain that she would assist them. Now, if she proved +loyal to the authorities, Stark alone would suffer; but upon that +score little anxiety was felt, for Lovey had often expressed +sentiments much the reverse of patriotic, and had at all times made +it clear that money was the only sovereign lord she acknowledged +or served. + +Upon the following market day two fine fat fowls were displayed +at Mrs. Lee's stall. She sat behind them on her upturned +barrel, and gave Stark an indifferent "good morning" as he +strolled past with the Commodore and James Knapps. + +"Here's a nice brace of chicks, your honour," said Lovey. + +But Stark laughed and shook his head. + +"No luxuries to-day, ma'am; we're not made of money, you +know. They would look well upon Commandant Cottrell's table." + +"I serve him, too," she answered. "But he likes his poultry +stuffed wi' marjoram an' wild thyme." + +"And these?" + +"They be stuffed different." + +"Well, we won't quarrel as to that. Hungry men don't criticise +their sauces. What's the price?" + +"You shall have 'em for half-a-crown." + +"Lordy! Preserve us agin you greedy women!" cried Knapps. +"I reckon you'd make soup out o' stones an' sell it for ten cents +a pint if you dared." + +"Come along, Commodore," said Stark, "we'll try Mrs. Luscombe +at the next stall. Lovey Lee's too grasping." + +At that moment William Burnham approached and saw the +fowls. + +"Just what I want," he exclaimed. "Poor Matthew Mercer +is still alive; but he can't eat any victuals, so we'll make some +chicken broth for him. What's your price, Mrs. Lee?" + +Lovey glanced at Stark, and, seeing that he was not concerned, +understood that she might sell safely. + +"Half-a-crown, an' I'd sooner fling 'em into the Moor for the +foxes than take a penny less," she said. + +Commodore Miller turned to a sentry and asked the market +value of fowls. The man did not know, but a turnkey passing at +that moment answered him. + +"Fowls are tenpence each--eighteen pence a pair to-day," he +said. + +Whereupon Lovey called down lightning upon his head, and +behaved with such impropriety that the man turned round in a +rage and threatened to have her removed out of the markets. +Upon this she relapsed into sulky silence, and presently, after +some haggling, took the money that was her due, and almost +flung the fowls at Burnham. + +Anon Mr. Cuffee departed with the poultry under his arm, +and, guessing what to expect, he made a careful examination. A +few words much to the point were scrawled upon paper and +packed within one bird. Lovey Lee had written an answer to +Stark's invitation. + +"_Right. Tell me what you want and what you'll give. Put +message in a chaw of baccy next week._" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GREEN APPLE + +It sometimes happened that at those hours when the guard +was being changed, seconds and even minutes passed, during +which a sentry-box might be empty and a section of the inner +wall remain unguarded. It was proposed by the Seven to avail +themselves of such a moment in the dusky evening hour before +all prisoners were called upon to leave the exercise yard and pass +behind locked doors. Between the inner and outer walls of the +prison extended a space or patrol ground of ten yards in breadth; +but while the inner wall offered no special difficulties, as the +sentries' staircases were built into the side of it, the second wall +presented a harder problem. By climbing upon each other's +shoulders like acrobats it was hoped to scale it, but since the +message from the miser, this plan was abandoned in favour of +mechanical means. + +For necessary apparatus the conspirators looked to Lovey Lee. +Her businesslike reply to Stark promised well. + +"We must give her more to help us out than the authorities +would give her to reveal our plans," explained Commodore Miller. +"She would get but three pounds a head for us if she turned +traitor. Let her have ten pounds a head to free us and all will +probably be done that she can do. Lovey Lee sells herself to +the highest bidder. Her only steadfast principle is dollars." + +"Suppose I was ter give her a tarnation fright, and let on as her +life wouldn't be worth a chip if she rounded on us?" suggested +David Leverett. + +But Stark and Miller protested at such short-sighted policy. + +"She won't be driven, and she won't be frightened," declared +the Commodore. "Her friendship is vital now. We've got to +submit terms, and they will need to be high." + +"Best to offer a hundred pounds right off," said Burnham. + +"The difficulty will be to get her to help us without the money +in advance," declared Stark. + +Then came the great business of the communication to Mrs. Lee. +It was duly written and anon reached Lovey tight packed +in a huge piece of tobacco. Knapps apparently cut the quid +from a roll and handed it to her in exchange for a bundle of +watercresses. The woman put it into her cheek at once, and +kept it there until opportunity offered to hide it in her pocket. +Then, as before, she hastened home upon the completion of +market, locked her door, covered her window, and set to work to +read. + +"_We want_ + +_Item. A map or picture of the road from Prince Town to the +town of Ashburton._ + +_Item. A letter to be delivered to the first prisoner on parole, +who shall be seen walking by you along that road, within +the measured mile from Ashburton._ + +_Item. An answer to that letter acknowledging its receipt._ + +_Item. A map or picture of the road from Prince Town to +your Cottage, so that if one escapes he may lie hid with you, +and thus be of service to his friends._ + +_Item. Three hundred yards of thin copper wire in lengths +that can be wound up inside a fowl or other bird._ + +_Item. Twenty very large iron nails that may be driven +between the stones of masonry._ + +_We offer_ + +_One hundred English pounds. Ten will reach you from +time to time on market days during the next three weeks. +This will be placed between other moneys when we buy and +you sell. Ten will reach you on the day that the last of the +stipulated articles are received. Ten will reach you on the +day that the first man of us gets clear of Prince Town. The +balance will reach you when we are all free. There are +seven of us. We can only promise by the God of Heaven to +keep this contract. We place ourselves in your power, and +you must trust us as we trust you._" + + +Lovey Lee reflected long upon this communication. Then she +put it aside and ate a meal of black bread and pickled snails. +The snails were salted down in a barrel, and she forked them out +of their shells and ate them with indifference. Her senses of +taste and smell were alike faulty. She cared nothing for food +and only drank tea made of wild herbs. + +"'Tis a dreadful risk--an' me as never trusted a human soul +since I was short-coated!" reflected the miser. "Yet nothing +venture nothing have. A hundred would make up the thousand +down along to Hangman's Hollow. An' it might fall out that +after I'd got their money, 'twould be in my power to give 'em up +to the prison people again. Seven of 'em. That would add up +to twenty-one pound at three pound a head. There'll be ten +pound anyway--clean profit afore I do anything. Then I'll +make a journey, for I've got a bag full of small money waiting +to go." + +She referred to her secret treasure-house in the Moor. Money +she never kept beside her, but conveyed to her hoard at such +times as the moon shone after midnight and she could count upon +creeping over the wilderness unseen. + +Lovey Lee's answer was practical. Three days later she +tramped to Ashburton and walked ten miles to that town +and ten miles back again without weariness. Thus she +killed two birds with one stone, for she purchased a +hundred yards of thin copper wire, and she refreshed her mind +as to the road and its nature. Mile by mile the old +woman set down the track upon a sheet of paper bought at +Ashburton for that purpose. She marked the features of the +land upon it, wrote the names of the adjacent tors, and indicated +bridges and rivers across which the highway passed. As for the +wire, she purchased it ostensibly to make rabbit-snares, for which +purpose it was chiefly sold. A few of the prisoners upon parole +she also saw taking exercise, and knew them by their speech. + +Upon the following market day, Lovey appeared at the Prison +with full baskets, and her big teeth closed tightly under her lips +as the turnkey, from some unusual prick of conscience or accession +of zeal, stopped her and overhauled her basket. + +"Hullo, missis, what's this, then?" he inquired, looking at a +fine goose. + +"Your brother," said Mrs. Lee promptly. + +"Then best give him to me to bury decently, though 'twill be +a cannibal act. You shall have a shilling for him." + +"A shilling! Look at the market rates? Geese be paid +according to weight--an' this ere bird's nine pound if it's a grain. +But ban't for you. I promised young Cecil Stark as he should +have a goose to his birthday." + +"And so he shall then," said the turnkey. "Mr. Stark's a +gentleman. He made me a toy for my child last week. 'Twas a +clever little thing, fashioned like a windmill, out of mutton +bones. I lay he'll do summat with the skeleton of that goose." + +The Americans greeted Lovey with their usual heartiness, but +she refused to sell her bird until young Stark and his friends +approached. Then, before he could make any remark, she +lifted up her voice to him. + +"I've kep' my promise, young man, an' here's your birthday +feast, though you may think yourself lucky it have reached you, +for Mr. Turnkey there was terrible set upon it." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Lee; and the price?" + +"Half-a-crown, though a grasping party might ax three +shilling." + +"You shall have three." + +"'Tis but just. All the same, it ban't a very young bird--rather +old, in truth. An' I haven't drawn it, for their insides _be a +bit wiry_ when they come to full growth." + +"So much the better for our teeth," said Burnham. + +"For that matter, we shall hev plenty of time to eat him," +declared Knapps. + +"Well, lads, to-morrow night we'll pick his bones, and if +Mrs. Lee can manage to get a bottle of brandy past our friend +there----" + +The turnkey winked. + +"If 'tis for physic----" he said. + +"Certainly, certainly. Don't you wherrit about that. A jorum +o' drink for the sick folk. Narry a one on us would displeasure +you ter drink it ourselves, I'm sure," declared Leverett. + +"And a noggin hot--for you yourself," said Stark. Then he +handed silver coins to Lovey Lee; and, feeling between them in +her pocket as she slipped them down, the old woman knew that +a half-sovereign had come also. + +From that moment she conducted her business with most +unusual amiability. She jested with Burnham and Cecil Stark; +she cleared her baskets, and in a fit of reckless generosity +presented Leverett with a green apple, which remained when all else +was sold. + +"Can't eat it," said the sailor. "My stomach have struck +work; but this here nig will let it down, no doubt." + +"You'd do better to keep it for a love token," said the miser; +but Mr. Cuffee had already taken the fruit. + +"Don't eat it; treasure it," she said. "Then you can tell +your black maidens when you go home-along that you had a +sweetheart in England who loved you so bad that her hair +growed white for you." + +"I lub you too, ma'am. I lub anybody who gib me apples," +said Sam. "You's de boofullest young ting I ebber see, and I +dun fink about no udder gal no more. And I marry you when +dey let me out ob dis dam bowray, I swar!" + +At the same moment Mr. Cuffee opened his huge mouth and +the apple was gone. Mrs. Lee looked fixedly at him and laughed +a curious laugh. + +"You clunk apples like a dog do swallow bones," she said. +"There's the bell; an' I shan't come no more for a week belike, +for I've got to get in my peat now, because winter will be +knocking at the door again afore long. Then we must have heat +about us, for once let the marrow freeze in your bones 'pon +Dartymoor, an' you'm dead." + +She departed, and within the hour Mr. Cuffee made a careful +search upon the goose. Two skeins of wire were concealed +therein, and a scrap of paper, whose laconic message Stark +presently deciphered. + +"_I'll trust you since I must. Fifty yards wire along with this. +And in the apple I shall give to Leverett you'll find a map of the +road. Have your letter ready for they Ashburton chaps next time +I come._" + +Samuel Cuffee wept when he learned what he had done, and +vowed to atone for his greediness if only the Lord would offer +him an opportunity to do so; but the error was righted at +Mrs. Lee's next visit. On this occasion she brought a big red apple +for Stark. She also carried more wire concealed in a sucking +pig, and she took home with her a letter which the Americans +furnished. It was carefully hidden in a gift. + +They had made Lovey Lee a new pipe with a piece of hard +wood for its bowl and a mouthpiece of goose-bone. Packed +within this hollow bone was a missive for a friend of Stark--a +gentleman who dwelt upon parole with an Ashburton farmer. + +So, day by day and week by week the intercourse was continued, +until Lovey Lee found herself the richer by ten pounds, and the +plotters possessed maps, nails, wire, and certain communications +from their distant accomplices. These objects reached them in +pats of butter, in carrots or turnips, in ducks and fowls. Once, +when a sentry commented upon the fondness of the Americans +for poultry, Lovey Lee affected a furious indignation, accused the +man of paltering with her character, and insisted upon +disembowelling a bird under the public eye, that her innocence +might be established. + +At length all preliminaries for their attempt were completed, +and only an opportunity and a twilight of grey weather remained +to wait for. But each day augmented their difficulties, for the +vigilance of Commandant Cottrell increased. Others beside +Cecil Stark and his friends had not only prepared but executed +remarkable escapes. Several men safely cleared the prison +precincts only to be recaptured; several were found drowned +in the rivers, whose crystal floods deceived them by their seeming +shallowness; a few vanished never again to be seen or heard of; +others made successful escapes, and finally reaching Tor Quay or +Dartmouth, got clear to France, and so home again. One young +man from Cecil Stark's State of Vermont went boldly forth in a +girl's clothes, which were smuggled to him by a farmer's daughter +under a basket of cabbages. A French prisoner nearly came off +by stealing a sentry's coat and hat. But as he whistled on the +way out, and adopted the air of the _Marseillaise_, a guard +challenged and the man was arrested. Many other instances, +successful and futile, were recorded. Therefore Stark and the Seven +exercised all caution and patience until fair conditions should +open before them and their undertaking promise a triumphant +issue. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A FRIEND IN NEED + +Immediately without the War Prison stood a ruined cot, +and, distant some few hundred yards to the north-east beneath +it, a river ran. This stream, named Blackabrook, was crossed by +a pack-horse road that passed over Ockery Bridge; and here, +one hundred years ago, in place of the existing cottage, there +stood a neat little dwelling-house. Verandahs extended round it; +the walls were of granite, and the roof of reeds. Upon one side +a view of Prince Town spread, while southward its windows +commanded the valley of the river. + +Here dwelt Captain Cottrell, Commandant of the prison settlement; +and now, together with a handsome, genial man clad in +black, he shall be seen sitting under his verandah and drinking +port wine after midday dinner. The Captain's visitor was of a +kindly countenance and pleasant voice. + +"So much for that, then, Mr. Norcot. You'll send to us from +your mills at Chagford such quantities of flocks as Government +shall determine for the new mattresses." + +"Exactly. I'm always gratified to oblige the Government." + +"We can make them here--the mattresses, I mean. We have +a little world of skilled artificers within our walls. You see, +Holland is in league with Napoleon, and many of our captives +taken out of Dutch vessels are Eurasians, Malays and Chinese +from the service of the Dutch East India Company. The world +has sent us representatives of every civilised race, and among +them are craftsmen from each trade that man practises." + +Peter Norcot nodded. + +"'All sorts and conditions of men.' Do you recollect what +Shenstone says? + + "'Let the gull'd fool the toils of war pursue, + Where bleed the many to enrich the few.' + +You shall have your flocks and a good article. Since my lamented +senior partner's death I have been busy in certain directions. +Uncle Norman Norcot was a conscientious and a conservative +soul, and he regarded the new labour-saving contrivances with +the utmost suspicion. How he hated 'em! But amongst such +things there is a remarkable new flock-cutter. These matters, +however, will not interest you." + +The Captain emptied his glass and rose. + +"I'll take your word for all that. Now come along. You +desire a glimpse of our caged beasts and the Prison?" + +"Even so--delighted to exchange my flocks for your herds." + +An orderly brought round their horses and in five minutes +Peter departed with Captain Cottrell. + +"Now enter the bear garden, Mr. Norcot, and do not fear the +growling. For reasons not known to me, my beasts have a hearty +hatred of their head keeper." + +It was true, and Norcot observed that his guide won little +but scowls and indifference upon his way through the prisons. +Occasionally an officer among the captives would salute him; as +a rule the prisoners turned their backs. + +"A strange and many-coloured assembly--of rags," commented +Norcot. "'Spectatum admissi risum tenatis amici?' But really +to the man of sentiment 'tis a matter for tears rather than laughter. +I observe you are unpopular, Commandant." + +"The fate of most men who do their duty, sir." + +"How true!" + +"Not one fool amongst them has the wit to guess at my onerous +labours," continued Cottrell. "Old General Rochambeau, who +is living on parole with me at Ockery Bridge, will scarcely +exchange a civil word, and prefers to eat his meals in the seclusion +of his chamber. He is for ever abusing 'Les mirmidons de +Transport Service'; and yet the ancient ass makes me laugh +sometimes. He received letters recently, and one of them told +him that Napoleon would land in England on the twenty-third of +July last. Upon that day he appeared in full dress, booted and +spurred, with all his orders on--ready to welcome Boney should +he honour Dartmoor with a visit." + +"He may come here yet--to stop." + +"I hope so. Be very sure no parole will ever be granted to +one who has so often broke his oath." + +They had now entered Prison No. 4. + +"Here are my black sheep," said Captain Cottrell. "One +Yankee is more trouble than twenty Frenchmen. Never satisfied. +There are exceptional men amongst them--representatives of the +old American gentry; but the greater number are the very rubbish +and offscourings of the sea, swept here by our men-o'-war. I +believe that near half of them are Englishmen from the privateers. +They get high bounties for that work; but they are a reckless and +dangerous company. These men set the hulks on fire at Plymouth." + +"Made the ships too hot to hold 'em? But they are safe +enough here. Tut, tut! Dartmoor would tame the Devil +himself, once he was on a chain." + +The yellow-coated prisoners wandered about, and some exchanged +private jests as Cottrell passed, and some fell into silence +until he was out of earshot. Then a very tall, finely built man, +drew himself up and saluted the reigning power. + +"You see there is a gentleman now and then to be found among +them." + +"And that particular gentleman I have good cause to know," +answered Norcot. "May I exchange compliments with him? +'Twas he who, in a moment of undue haste, broke my head." + +Cecil Stark found himself summoned, and Mr. Norcot told the +Commandant of their meeting at the church. + +"Then, like a lion, he felled me with his paw. I hope no fist +will ever hit me so hard again." + +"He is prominent among them, and his influence is all for +good," said the Commandant carelessly in Stark's hearing. + +"And a sailor; and doubtless good-hearted, like all sailors. +Well, Mr. Stark, your servant, sir." + +Cecil Stark recognised the wool-stapler immediately, and shook +the hand extended to him. + +"I hope I see you well, sir," he said, "and none the worse for +my stupidity." + +"In excellent health, I thank you. My nose, as you see, stands +where it did. Yet I am much reduced from my usual level +humour by this sight." + +"A dreary spectacle enough." + +"You are probably unfamiliar with Cowper? It is your loss. + + "'War's a game which, were their subjects wise, + Kings should not play at." + +Neither kings nor yet Congresses. Perhaps, had you read Cowper, +you would have stopped at home, Mr. Stark?" + +"It takes two to fight, Mr. Norcot. My kinsman, General +Stark--but I'll not prate of that, though this I'll say: 'tis a base +and a cowardly deed to deny parole to Commodore Miller and +his officers. We handled the frigate _Marblehead_ like honest men; +and we had fairly beaten your _Thunderbolt_. She was about to +strike when the _Flying Fish_ and the _Squirrel_ hove in sight and +bore down. Then she fought on. We ourselves had hardly struck +to them before the _Thunderbolt_ sank. These things I learned from +the prize crew that brought the _Marblehead_ into Falmouth." + +"I understand that there were technical reasons why parole +was denied to the officers of the _Marblehead_," explained Captain +Cottrell. + +"You may understand, sir," retorted Stark, "but none among +us was ever made to do so." + +Norcot nodded thoughtfully. True to his invariable custom, +he set himself the task of making a friend. + +"You get supplies regularly?" he asked. + +"He does--and shares 'em with the poorer folks," said Cottrell. +"He has great wealth, I believe," he added under his breath. + +"You want parole, naturally--like any other officer and +gentleman. Why not? + + "'Rash, fruitless war, from wanton glory waged, + Is only splendid murder,' + +as Thomson very truly remarks. Yet even war has its laws." + +"Most certainly. And Commodore Miller and his officers +possess a right to parole. Miller is one of the ablest men in the +navy of the United States," declared the young sailor. + +"Ah--possibly that's where the difficulty lies. However, though +I cannot pretend to any considerable interest, yet some I have +with one or two very distinguished gentlemen of the British East +India Company. It has been my privilege to do them a service. +Maybe Peter Norcot will prove the mouse to nibble you lions out +of your granite cage. Who can tell? You have my word of +honour that I will endeavour to better your lot." + +At friendship so gratuitous, Cecil Stark found himself much +moved. He hurried forward and shook Peter very warmly by +the hand. + +"Thank you, thank you with all my heart and soul; and thank +God for sending you," he said. "'Tis not only for myself I speak, +but for better men. Miller is not young, and this terrible place +is making him old and infirm before his time." + +"Well, I'll see; and recollect that I'm doing good for evil. +My mistress owes you little thanks, Mr. Stark, and I still less. +But all's well that ends in Christian charity." + +"Are you going to marry that lovely young lady?" asked +Stark. + +"That is my happy privilege. What is your fate to mine? +You suffer until the end of the war--perhaps not so long. But +I--Mistress Grace Malherb has transported me for life! Tut, +tut! You do not see the jest? How dense a sailor can be! +Well, God be with you, Mr. Stark. May you dance at her +wedding." + +"'Twould be a glorious experience, Mr. Norcot. I hope your +fortune will prove worthy of you. May your life be a happy and +a blessed thing, for you are a noble man," said the youngster +earnestly. + +"I will not contradict a gentleman," said Peter. Then he +bowed and went upon his way, to be rated and laughed at by +Captain Cottrell for conduct the Commandant held most +Quixotic. + +With great good temper, Mr. Norcot explained his theory of +life, and denied that any human action was innocent of an +ulterior motive. Then, having seen the Prison, he rode on. +But home he did not go. His goal was Fox Tor Farm, and he +designed to spend a couple of days there before returning to +Chagford. + +Much had happened to him since his last visit, and his +position in the Wool Factory was now supreme. The senior +partner--an elderly man and Peter's uncle--had fallen upon evil +times in his home. Finally, Mr. Norman Norcot's young wife +ran away with a neighbouring squire; whereupon the unfortunate +husband descended into gloom and darkness, and life grew a +weariness to him. At last he relinquished the burden, and, +going upon the Moor to shoot game, he destroyed himself--an +action that placed his nephew at the head of the famous business. + +Now, conscious of these new dignities, Peter proceeded towards +Cater's Beam, and as he went he committed young Stark's +statement to memory. + +"_Marblehead_ fought and defeated _Thunderbolt_. Latter vessel +about to strike to the American when His Majesty's ships +_Squirrel_ and _Flying Fish_ appeared. _Marblehead_ taken. Parole +denied to her officers. Why? Cecil Stark--related to General +Stark, conqueror of our General Burgoyne. Yet the pen is +mightier than the sword, as Burgoyne knew. Commodore Miller, +noteworthy American sailor." + +In his mind Norcot was already dictating a letter to certain +friends who possessed interest at the highest quarters, when he +passed Siward's Cross. Then, lifting his eyes, he saw Lovey Lee +at work in a peat-cutting close at hand, and approached her with +a desire to be better acquainted. + +"Well met, mother. A drink of milk for a thirsty man, I pray +you." + +Lovey put down the glittering peat knife with which she toiled, +and rose to her full height. + +"So 'tis! The gentleman as I seed with Grace Malherb?" + +"The same. I hope I see you well." + +Mrs. Lee did not answer, but started to fetch the milk, and +Peter followed her. Presently she produced a teacup and handed +it to him. + +"I thank you. And here's a shilling; but you must let me +have some change--sixpence at least." This he said to try her. + +Bitterly disappointed, Lovey returned to her den, and while +she was absent, Mr. Norcot, who had not drunk milk since he +was a baby, emptied his teacup into the heather. He was +apparently smacking his lips when the old woman reappeared. + +"I've no change but these dirty coppers from the prisoners to +Prince Town. The hands that held 'em last was shaking with +smallpox, but of course you won't mind," she said. + +"Tut, tut! Keep them, keep them, my dear woman. I only +jested. So you traffic in the prison markets with the French?" + +"No--the Yankees. I understand their speech, and they've got +more money," said Lovey, stroking the coppers. + +"Ah!--'tis an ill wind that blows good to nobody. So you +begin to get money, my poor soul? But be very careful, I beg of +you. + + "'For Satan now is wiser than of yore, + And tempts by making rich, not making poor,'" + + +"Rich! Great riches mine! Look around." + +"For my part I pray daily that these ghastly wars will soon be +over," said Peter. + +"That's where we be of different minds, then," she answered. + +"Different minds and different interests, Mrs. Lee. Well, I'm +glad to see you again. It may happen some day that you can do +me a service, or I can do you one." + +"I see--with that maiden?" + +Her eyes glittered, and she pointed down the valley to Fox Tor +Farm. + +"Good gracious! No," said Peter, astonished that she had +guessed so near his thoughts. "The days of witchcraft and +love-potions are past, ma'am. Not that I want anything of that sort. +Grace Malherb adores me." + +She looked at him with curiosity. + +"My grandson be her groom now," she said; but did not add +that John Lee had confided to her the girl's dislike for Peter. + +"It is a wise and rare maiden who knows her own mind, +mother. I may add that 'None but the brave deserves the fair,' +as Dryden so happily remarks. Farewell." + +Lovey nodded, and he rode away. + +"A strong, dangerous fashion of man," she thought with her eyes +upon him. "An' wants my friendship for his own ends. Well, +my friendship is always open to the highest bidder, Lord He +knows. An' the maiden be going to take a bit of managing by +the looks of it. John Lee had more in his mind than he spoke, +last time he comed to tell with me an' pay me half his wages." + +Meantime Peter trotted forward, and presently he beheld the +raw stone walls and broken lands of the farm. He shook his +head at this display of much futile labour, then turned at the +thud of galloping horses and saw his sweetheart and her groom +approaching over the shaggy crest of the Beam. + +John Lee dropped back quickly as Mr. Norcot stopped, but the +wool-stapler had sharp eyes, and he made a mental note of what +he saw. + +"Well met, my lovely lady!" he cried a few minutes later. +"Of all maidens who sat a steed none ever became one as you do! + + "''Tis well in stone to have three Graces + With lovely limbs and lovely faces; + But better far, and not in stone, + To have the three combined in One.' + +Isn't that a pretty thing? I kept it to greet you with." + +"Not your own, I'll wager," said Grace; "but never mind--don't +come nearer, please; 'Cæsar,' is fidgety. I hope that you +are well, Peter." + +"Your groom was near enough as you came over the hill, my +treasure." + +"Yes, 'Cæsar' knows him. We were talking about his grandmother." + +"The horse's?" + +Peter turned and beckoned to Lee; then, as John cantered up, +Mr. Norcot regarded him critically. + +"What a picture! I never saw such a wonderfully handsome +lad--an Apollo's face. 'Disguised like a ploughman, Love stole +from the sky'--eh, Grace?" + +The heart of Miss Malherb beat fiercely, but in secret. + +"He's no ploughman," she answered. + +"I'm jealous," continued Peter. "Tut, tut! I feel the green-eyed +monster's fiery breath scorching my liver!" Then he spoke +to the groom, who now approached. "Give you good day, lad. +And, John Lee, dost know that Mr. Bolitho of Ivybridge is seeking +an underwhip for his pack of hounds? Say the word, and I'll +commend you." + +John's eyes flashed; he smiled and touched his hat. + +"Thank you very kindly, sir--very kindly indeed; but I'm well +suited in Mr. Malherb's service." + +"You mean in Miss Malherb's, you lucky dog!" said the man of +business. Then he winked genially, while Lee, reddening under +his clear brown skin, galloped forward to open a gate that led +into the outlying lands of the farm. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FOLLY + +Had Mr. Norcot heard the conversation which he +interrupted between John Lee and Grace, it must have amazed +him exceedingly and reminded him of his lady's youth and +inexperience. + +Those most concerned knew nothing of the relation that now +obtained between Grace and her servant, for that a daughter of his +could look upon a groom was an idea beyond the wildest mental +flight of Maurice Malherb; but humbler folks found themselves +not wholly ignorant of recent developments. Harvey Woodman +had hinted to his wife that the girl spent a great deal of her time +in riding with miser Lee's grandson, and Mary Woodman murmured +in secret upon this unquiet theme with Dinah Beer. The +question in their minds related to Mrs. Malherb. + +"Ought us to tell her?" asked Mary. "Such a good, high-minded +lady as her be. An' Miss Gracie--so promising as a +March calf, bless her." + +"'Tis a hard thing. I've nought against the boy for my part +either," declared Dinah. "He's civil an' smart, an' his face would +soften a stone. But they'm both young, an', loramercy! what +Nature teaches boys an' girls ban't wisdom, for sartain! Mr. Norcot +will never come it over her, for she hates him. Her told +me once, when I catched her crying all alone, poor maiden, that +she couldn't abide his shadow, an' when I said as her parents +knowed best about it, she talked treason wi' the fire in her cheeks. +'Love can't be made to order,' her said; an' when I telled +something about her duty, she cut me short an' axed, 'Do you love +your Richard, Dinah?' 'Ess fay!' I sez. 'An' if your faither +an' mother had told you to marry some person else--what then?' +she sez. 'There, Miss, let me get to my work,' I answered her; +but the truth--I couldn't tell it: that me an' Dick runned an' got +married against faither's orders, as meant for me to take a +cordwainer to Tavistock." + +"Shall we tell Kekewich?" suggested Mrs. Woodman. "For +all his wickedness he'd never do an unwitty thing. He's terrible +wise--not after the event, when us all be--but in time." + +"I couldn't," declared Dinah. "It do always bring a cloud to +my heart when I see his pain-stained face--such a prophet of evil +as he be." + +"He never promises any good to anybody, so he's always +right," answered Mrs. Woodman, who was in a pessimistic vein. + +"My husband don't like him, no more don't I," replied the +other woman. "Don't say nought to him--a baggering old Job's +comforter. He'd get John Lee turned off without a character. +Us have right an' reason to trust Miss Grace in such a thing. +Only I do wish the proper one would turn up. She never sees a +young man but him." + +"A terrible pretty chap--Lee, I mean. Have 'e noticed how +mincing he gets in's speech?" + +"Dick an' your husband was laughing at him for it last night. +He picks it up from Miss Grace." + +"Which shows they must have a lot to say to one another." + +Dinah nodded, and with an uneasy sense of guilt changed the +conversation. But the truth was in fact nearer their suspicions +than they guessed, and Grace Malherb, by slow degrees, had +come to make a close friend and confidant of John Lee. He +possessed other charms than beauty, for his mind was simple; his +heart was generous; his disposition kindly. Romance and some +mystery hovered round him; and Grace, left much to her own +devices, found the groom too often in her mind, his voice too +often upon her ear. + +A critical conversation fell out between them upon the day of +Norcot's return to Fox Tor Farm. For three months Lee had +now served his new master, and attended Grace to all parts of the +Moor. Sometimes Mr. Malherb accompanied these expeditions, +and generally he superintended Grace's hurdle practice, for she +was to hunt during the coming season; but the father did not +always find himself at leisure to follow this pleasant task, and +Lee, whose first duty was to wait upon Miss Malherb, went far +afield with her alone. + +From indifference Grace woke to pleasure at his delicate and +refined nature. She encouraged him to talk, and presently heard +as much of his scanty story as he himself knew. The narrative +fired her imagination, and lent him a romantic interest to her +mind. Gradually she divulged a few of her own secrets, and the +less he apparently desired to know, the more she found herself +telling him. His courteous reserve even piqued her upon occasion. +Once she quarrelled with him, and bade him retire. But +her apology upon the following day, brought him quickly to her +side. + +"'Twas not indifference, God knows, Miss Grace," he told her. +"I held back for fear I might seem too forward in your affairs. +Every breath you draw is a thing of account to me. I do know +by the very light in your eyes whither your thoughts be tending--up +or down. An' I'm loth to call Mr. Norcot into your mind; +for his name brings a shadow over your face, like a cloud across +noon sunshine." + +"I thought you yawned yesterday, John, when I mentioned +him. That is what angered me." + +"'Yawned'! I've never yawned since I knowed you." + +"Since you knew me, John. You are so slow to mend that +weak ending of the past tense. 'Tis a part of Devon +speech--a thing in their blood--but not in yours." + +"I wish I knew all that was in my blood," he answered. + +"You will some day. Light will come. Sometimes I think old +Lovey stole you, as gipsies steal little children. 'Tis monstrous to +suppose that you are kin of hers." + +"Not so; her daughter was my dear good mother without a +doubt." + +"'Tis strange how a man's heart warms to the very name of his +mother, though he has never known her," said Grace. + +"Mine does, but I can only remember a white face and great +frightened eyes that belonged to her. And when I ask my granddam +for my father, she laughs--that laugh like tin beating on +tin--and tells me to look in the river and I'll see him." + +"He was a very handsome man then. You've got about the +most beautiful ears I ever saw on anybody." + +She spoke in a pensive and a critical tone with her eyes lifted +to the hills, as though she spoke to them. + +"Good Lord, Miss Grace. Have I?" + +And so they talked and daily drifted nearer danger. A +conversation of moment happened between them concerning Lovey +Lee. John ransacked his memory for Grace's benefit and told +her of early recollections, of his mother's funeral, of his arrival +with Mrs. Lee at Siward's Cross when a child, and of his first +labours upon the Moor. + +"I had to collect the lichen of which they make dyes," he said; +"then I went wool-gathering, and grew very clever at setting briars +in the sheep-tracks. Later I learned to plait rexens, or rushes as +I should call 'em; then a man taught me how to ride. And as I +grew and got sense, my grandmother became a greater wonder +and mystery to me. She lived two lives, and of one I knew +nothing. Oftentimes I found that she went abroad by night. +Lying in my straw near the cattle, with their sweet breath coming +to me, I'd wake and see light in the slits of the boards overhead +where Granny slept. Then she would dout the flame--put it out, +I mean--and the boards would creak and she'd come down the +ladder and go out into the night. 'Twas moonlight she always +chose, and once, when I was a bit of a lad, up home twelve +years old, I reckoned I'd follow after and see what 'twas that took +her off so secret when all things slept. But 'twas a poor thought +for me. I followed 'pon a summer night in staring moonlight; +and half a mile from Fox Tor, under which she went, my foot +slipped where I was sneaking along a hundred yards behind her +and I fell into a bog. She heard me splash out of it, and afore I +could crouch down and hide, her cat's eyes had marked me and +she turned and catched me, breathless an' soaking wet to the +waist." + +"Alack, John! And what did she do?" asked the girl, reining +up her horse to hear his answer. + +"Well, 'tisn't too strong a word to say that she very nearly +knocked the life out of me. She changed from a woman into +a demon. She screamed like to a horrid vampire, and clapper-clawed +me from head to foot. 'You'd spy, you li'l devil!' she +said. 'I'll larn you to peep 'pon my doings; I'll tear your liver +out, I'll----' Then under her blows I went off fainty, an' she +scratched me like a cat-a-mountain, an', no doubt, left me for +dead. I was only a little boy, of course, and she was just the +same as she is now, only six years stronger. When I come to +again she'd gone; but I thought I'd waked to die, for there was +a dreadful bitter pang in my breast. I crawled back to the +cottage somehow, and next day, when she was out of the way, +I caught a donkey she had, and got up to Prince Town. The +doctor at the prison by good fortune passed me as I came, and +I made bold to tell him I was ill, and he had a look at me and +said two of my ribs were broken. They kept me at a cottage up +there, where Granny was known, and 'twas a round six weeks +afore I went back to her. Then first thing she said was that she'd +kill me and salt me down in her snail barrel if ever I spied on +her again; so you may be sure I never did." + +The story fascinated Grace. + +"How you must have suffered! But to think of the secrets +that horrid old woman has hidden! It makes my mouth water, +John. Father believes that she knows all about the Malherb +amphora--the priceless glass vase that vanished, you know--and +I believe she knows all about you. These things must +be discovered; and 'twill be your task to find them out, John +Lee." + +"Ah! if I could find my father. But that's a search I'm almost +fearful to make. I----" + +He broke off, and Grace felt the matter too delicate for +comment. Her interest in Lee grew daily, and, ignorant of love, +the girl now believed her emotion towards him must be called +by that name. He for his part loved indeed with all his young +heart and soul. Care clouded his life, because he knew that he +was wrong to think twice about his mistress. By night, when +alone, his courage sometimes increased; but daylight and duty +quenched it. Under darkness he dreamed dreams, yet when he +rose to hear rough men laugh at his amended speech, and see +Malherb order him hither and thither, as he ordered the rest, +John Lee's folly stared him in the face. He fought with himself +to relinquish his task and depart from Fox Tor Farm; he fancied +that he had conquered himself, and determined to go; then +would come a long, lonely ride with Grace, and a return to vain +unquiet hopes. His conscience urged him away; his power of +will proved insufficient to take him beyond temptation. As for +the girl, her tender feeling was an unconscious instinct of +self-preservation. She desired a strong protector rather than a lover; +and he who might secure her safety was sure to win her active +regard. Grace's delight in John Lee, her increasing admiration +for his goodness, honesty and chivalrous nature, she mistook for +love. The fatuity of such a conclusion was not impressed on +the girl's virgin mind; and the secret of John's parentage proved +no obstacle to attachment, but rather an incentive. That he was +a gentleman in every vital particular she perceived. + +Upon this day a barrier fell down between them. She had +found herself sad and weak before the approaching shadow of +Peter Norcot; and John had waxed desperate, and forgotten +everything in heaven and on earth but the lovely, mournful maid +beside him. They were but seventeen and eighteen; of the +world they knew nothing at all; but his world was in her eyes, +and she believed that her future welfare and hopes of happiness +now rode at her elbow in the handsome shape of the lad. + +"John," she said, exactly one hour before Mr. Norcot's horse +appeared nigh Cater's Beam--"John, he's coming to-day." + +"I know it. I know the weather of your heart, Miss Grace, +as soon as I look upon you; for the eyes are the sky of the mind." + +"Come closer," she answered; "come closer and comfort me." + +"Mr. Peter is a great man now--head of the Wool Factory, +and worth many thousands of pounds." + +"Cold comfort! If he was made of gold with diamond eyes +he would still be Peter Norcot." + +"'Tis strange, but you are the only person in the world that +don't like him." + +"And you," she said quickly, "you hate him too." + +"Yes, I hate him well enough--because he's a coward and a +hard-hearted man at bottom to plague you so, when you've made +it clear you cannot love him. I hate him for that, I promise +you. I could believe dark things against him gladly. Do you +know what Tom Putt said?" + +"No," replied Grace. "Not that Putt's opinion is of much +moment save in matters of salmon." + +"He is courting a maiden at Chagford; and her brother--a +man called Mason--is an outdoor servant to Mr. Norcot. And +last Sunday, when the women were at church, Putt had speech +with this man, and they got merry over drink. Tom praised +Mr. Norcot mightily, and his servant said with great admiration +that he believed as like as not, Mr. Peter had killed his uncle +to get head of the Wool Factory. Mason said he couldn't pay +Mr. Norcot a higher compliment for skill and cleverness; but +Tom Putt was rather afeared about it, and he's in doubt now +whether to go on courting that man's sister." + +"There was a mystery," declared Grace. "Peter Norcot last +saw his uncle alive on the Moor. Oh, John--to think of it! He +is cruel, for he sets man-traps and spring-guns in his woods. A +man who would do that would--he may be even a murderer! +Under all his rhymes and nonsense he surely has a tiger's heart!" + +"You mustn't think of it--either that he could do so wicked +a deed, or that you are going to marry him. Most gentlefolks +put man-traps in their preserves nowadays. But, to be honest, +he don't, for I heard him tell master he didn't last time he was +here. And as for you, the right man must soon come. He----" + +"Stop there, John! 'Tis like your kind self to talk so to me; +yet I know very well how it hurts you." + +"Sweet!" he cried. "I have told you how I love you. I +couldn't choke it down longer. And you forgave me, and pitied +me a little. You must let me hope and pray for the right man, +since 'tis impossible I can ever be anything to you." +Grace was silent, and he continued. + +"I've learned better since that moment. I'm not a fool. My +love at least is too big a pattern to offer it to you again." + +"Can a man love a maid too much then?" she exclaimed. + +"He may love too little and so offer himself. I love--there, +my love's all of me. But who am I to dare to lift eyes to +you?" + +"'Tis just that, John," she said with a fluttering heart. "Who +are you?" + +"Until 'tis known----" + +"What difference can that make? Can a fact not known alter +a fact known? Mr. Norcot taught me that much. Facts never +contradict themselves, he said once; and the fact is--you love +me. If a king was your father, you still love me; and you are +you--honest and true, and generous. And--and you've got a +dear face like my dead brother's." + +He stared in front of him, and Grace mused over his virtues. + +Suddenly he spoke. + +"You'll make me mad again!" he cried. "I ought to spur +away for dear life, and for honour and right; I ought to turn my +back and gallop to the ends of the world; but I can't--I can't +do it--more shame to me." + +"You certainly love me with all your heart, John. Well, John +dear, I think I love you too!" + +"No, no," he said. "You must not; it can't be; 'tisn't in +sober reason." + +"So much more likely to be real," she answered. "True love +is not reasonable, John. And you must fight a great battle for +me, because all the world is against us." + +"The world--the world's here--here! The rest I can put +under my foot and forget. You love me--oh! Grace, my +star--is it true?" + +"Yes, for I've never felt so before, and I've done almost everything +but fall in love in my time. 'Tis quite a new thing--sure +it must be love; for what other name is there to give it? I love +your beautiful face, and your voice, and your gentle ways; and +I love you best of all for loving me, John." + +"Every living thing loves you," he said solemnly. "Yet you +can come to a useless, poor, humble man like me, and trust me +with yourself!" + +"Yes, I trust you, John," she said with gravity equal to his. +"I know not what may betide; but you must stand between me +and--and that man. Do you love me well enough to run risks +and dangers for me?" + +"May time prove it!" + +"Your love is shield and buckler both to me," she said. + +"And yours such a blessing as God Almighty never poured +into any life before," he answered earnestly. "'Tis my prayer +henceforth that I may lift myself up to be worthy." + +"I love you with all my heart, indeed. And some day, far +on, when the world rolls kinder and everybody's wiser, and +Mr. Norcot is an angel or a married man--then I'll be your wife, +John Lee." + +The lad appeared more weighted by this mighty promise than +jubilant at it. + +"Do 'e call home all it means, my lovely?" he asked. "Do +'e know that your whole beautiful life rests on whether 'tis a wise +deed or a vain one?" + +Grace nodded. + +"Love casts out all fear," she said. + +"Then I can only fall back upon God to be on our side," he +answered. "'Tis my life and light and heaven on earth to hear +you say that. Ay--you shall be my song for evermore. I'll try +to live worthy of such bounty. There's no going back now--none, +for I'm only flesh and blood, and Michael and all his +angels shan't take 'e from me any more!" + +Before she could speak he was close at her side and she felt +his arm about her waist, his kisses raining upon her cheeks. + +"For ever and ever, Grace!" + +"Oh yes, dear John. Love never dies." + +"If we could ride away over the hills now----" he said, +dreaming his golden dream. + +"We should meet Mr. Norcot, for there he comes," she +answered. + +"I feel that I should like to go to him and take him out of +his saddle and crush him like an eggshell." + +"My valiant sweetheart! You may indeed have to do so some +day. Drop back now, dear John, and let my cheeks cool. Oh, +how lovely a thing it is to have this mighty secret between us!" + +"If I died now," he said, "I should have had far, far more +than my share of the good of the world." + +"Talk not of dying. You must live for me." + +"That will I--and die for you if need be." + +"We'll live and die together, John. Now fall you back, my +own dear love--else Mr. Peter will grow jealous." + +Thus it came about that when the manufacturer winked at +young Lee and called him "a lucky dog," he uttered a great +truth, although he was quite ignorant of the fact. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PHILOSOPHY OF MR. NORCOT + +A company all clad in black assembled at the dinner-table +of Maurice Malherb. The family still mourned their hope, +while Mr. Norcot's loss was even more recent. He bore himself +with great correctness and resignation. The narrative of his +uncle's sensational death was held back until later in the evening; +out a matter more pressing filled Mr. Malherb's mind, and he +hurried the ladies from the table when dessert was done, that he +might open his project. + +"How do you find Grace bear herself towards you now?" +began the farmer abruptly, when he found himself alone with his +future son-in-law. + +"Alas! 'A fellow that lives in a windmill has not a more +whimsical dwelling than the heart of a man lodged in a +woman.' But I must be patient." + +Malherb frowned. + +"She's a fool--yet a fool may make the heart of the wise ache. +Who shall escape a fool's folly if that fool be his daughter?" + +"Tut, tut! Don't call her a fool. She is young--still in her +halcyon hours. As Horace----" + +"Listen to me, Peter. You are a reasonable man, and thank +your God that it is so, for they grow rare. Now you will readily +understand my feelings when my son died." + +"I died myself when I pictured your sufferings, Mr. Malherb. + + "'World-wasting Time, thou worker of our woes, + Thou keen-edged razor of our famous name.'" + + +"Even so. To be frank and avoid sentiment, I've put my life +and soul into this place. I've made it a strong fortress for those +to come. I have built and planted with my thoughts upon my +son. And then, while the mortar was a-drying and the young +larches getting their first root-hold, he fell. Think of what that +meant to me." + +"My imagination can picture it. Death is so final. As Herrick +says:-- + + "'Man is a watch, wound up at first, but never + Wound up again: once down he's down for ever.' + +I have sympathised with all my soul." + +"Then you must be practical and prove your sympathy. I had +meant to write to you, but speech is more direct, and so I waited +until we met. Now thus it stands. My son has passed away; +my daughter remains." + +"I have appreciated that. There was a verse writ on the +Duchess of St. Albans by the Earl of Halifax for the toasting-glasses +of the Kit-Cat Club. A word or two makes it exquisitely +applicable:-- + + "'The line Malherb, so long renown'd in arms, + Concludes with lustre in fair Grace's charms. + Her conquering eyes have made their race complete: + They rose in valour, and in beauty set.'" + + +"They mustn't set; that's the whole matter," answered Maurice +Malherb. "I have sworn to my heart that set they shall not. +My son is dead; my grandson remains a possibility--nay, a +certainty, so far as anything human can be certain." + +"Your grandson! You amaze me. Tut, tut! Was Noel +married?" + +"No! My grandson will be your firstborn. Where's the +amazement in that? Two years hence you will be the father of +a boy; and that boy I ask of you. Some might almost say I had +right of possession, circumstances being what they are; but I am +reasonable in my dealings, and just to all men. That boy I +ask--nay, I beg. My heart yearns to the unborn lad. I live in the +future always, for 'tis both true wisdom and true happiness to +look ahead. The present generally proves cursedly disappointing +to a sanguine soul. I gave you my daughter and you give me +your son--your firstborn son. He will come hither; his name +shall be Malherb; he succeeds me and founds the family which +my own son would have founded. You catch my sense? 'Tis +but a link missed in the chain. I cannot believe that I am asking +too great a thing. What say you?" + +As a man of humour, Mr. Norcot always appreciated his present +host. Now he kept a judicial face and laughed out of sight. His +eyes were grave and his forehead wrinkled. He thought, of +course, of Grace, but he did not mention her. + +"You are the most original and gifted man it has been my +fortune to meet. Even the crushing changes and chances of life +leave you quite unperplexed. You evade them in a masterly +manner by sheer quickness of perception. It is genius. Positively +you do more than deserve success: you command it." + +"Sleep upon the proposition, Peter, if you find it too great +thing to decide instantly." + +"I see no need. I seldom find myself in a difference of +opinion with Maurice Malherb. The phlegm with which I view +the advent of this unborn man-child quite surprises me. Your +idea is worthy of a big heart. I seem to feel it both just and +honourable. These walls must not fall into alien hands when +your work is done. That a son of mine should face the world +as a Malherb and follow his grandfather's footsteps--what a +privilege! To be honest, I have never much desired children, +though doubtless the bachelor's heart expands when he is +married, and the usual result follows. But now the case is +altered. Tut, tut! + + "'Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, + To teach the young idea how to shoot'; + +and also how to ride, and to fish, and to be a gentleman. By +'young idea' I mean my son--your son. Yes, your son--to +grow as you would have him grow, in the traditions of the +Malherbs." + +"Upon my soul, you might have been my son yourself!" said +Malherb with stern exultation; "for you're the most level-headed +man that ever I met." + +"I have learned from you," said Peter modestly, "life is really +not half so difficult as people make it. Wise sacrifice is the secret +of success--nay, more, of happiness. Man cannot have his way +all round. He doesn't grow in a flower-pot alone, but in a jungle +of other living men and women--some stronger and some weaker +than himself. Then let him sacrifice where he can't succeed, +that where he can succeed he may succeed superlatively. Lop +off this limb, for that stout tree will bruise it; cut out these fine +twigs, they will never get to the sun. But keep such and such a +branch, for its way promises clear, and it can kill the weaker +things if you only make it strong enough. Limit your aspirations, +like a gardener limits his melons; but once determine where +lies your strength, then throw heart and nerve and every pulse of +life that way. Spare no pains, no brain-sweat, no toil there. Pour +your life's blood out for that purpose. So you have taught me." + +Mr. Malherb nodded with a satisfaction hardly concealed. It +was a system remote from his own, as the unwavering light of +the moon from fitful marsh fires; but Norcot knew well that he +would not perceive the fact. + +"Tenacity of purpose is vital to success," the elder man +declared. + +"Yes, it is so; our parts must limit our plans. I cannot do +much. I have neither your intellect, nor education, nor power of +driving many horses together; yet, what I can do--is done. My +subjects are few, but I have mastered them and pursued them to +the present limits of human knowledge. My ambitions are all +gratified save the greatest." + +"And you still short of forty! You were easily satisfied, +Peter." + +"Forgive me, but you would speak with more authority on +that point did you know what my ambitions were. Accident +gratified my penultimate desire two months ago. To achieve the +supreme place at the Wool Manufactory was impossible by my +own act, because a human life stood between; but my uncle +perished; and now the thing I thought would be so sweet proves +otherwise. 'Tis a sermon on the futility of human ambition." + +"He was unfortunate in his wife. You must keep that sad +story for the drawing-room. Annabel is most anxious to hear it. +And your last ambition is Grace?" + +"She is, indeed. She will, at least, exceed my highest hope." + +"Her mother presses for a season in town." + +"'Tis but natural that Mrs. Malherb should do so. Then +'farewell, a long farewell' to Peter Norcot. + + "'And too, too well the fair vermilion knew + And silver tincture of her cheeks, that drew + The love of every swain.' + +You don't read Marlowe?" + +"You have my word. She might marry a Duke for that +matter; but would a Duke make me a present of his firstborn +son?" + +"One may answer with absolute certainty that he would not, +Mr. Malherb. In fact, the constitution of the realm--She is, +however, of the stuff that Duchesses are made; I know that +perfectly; while I can never hope to be more than a plain +man--perhaps a knight and a member of Parliament, if all goes +well--yet----" + +"She is yours and she'll have an uncommonly good husband," +said Mr. Malherb shortly. "Now talk of the farm. Did you +note my sheep upon the Moor?" + +"I did. They look most prosperous." + +"There's a rascally law here that denies me the right to pasture +more cattle on the Forest than I can winter upon the farm. For +the overplus I am called to pay as though a stranger to Venville +rights. A monstrous injustice, as I've told 'em. But to meet it +I must build new great byres. Did you note the work?" + +"I saw no new byres," answered Peter. + +"Nay--I forgot. They are not yet begun. But so clearly do +I view them in my mind, that for the moment I thought they +existed already." + +"You incur tremendous expenses." + +"Why, naturally so. One does not come to Dartmoor empty-handed. +To tame a desert and turn it into an important agricultural +centre calls for capital among other things. Now let us +join the ladies." + +"Gladly," returned Mr. Norcot. "Those are the pleasantest +words I can hear spoken under this roof. 'Tis not always +so--but here. 'And beauty draws us with a single hair.' I wrote +that to Grace when I heard that she had caught her first trout. +She never answers my letters, by the way." + +Presently the visitor told of his uncle's death. The story +proved dramatic, and Mr. Norcot's method of delivering it was +very deliberate and effective. Her kinsman's unhappy end +specially interested Annabel, who had known him intimately in +earlier days. + +"You are to understand that the cloud fell upon my poor +Uncle Norman when his wife left him. Some might have held +her departure a happy circumstance, seeing the light nature of +the minx; he took his fortune differently. To us it may seem +strange that any circumstances would make life unendurable--apart +from the question of morals. Massenger has a word on +that--a sort of answer to Hamlet. + + "'This life's a fort committed to my trust, + Which I must not yield up till it be forced.' + +Poor verse, but good sense. Well, there came a day when I +made yet another attempt to lift my uncle from his deep despondency; +and I thought that I had succeeded, for he consented to +come upon the Moor and take his gun. I was to fish; he proposed +to shoot duck--his favourite amusement in the old times. I +rejoiced, little guessing his dark purpose. Indeed, who could +have done so with a mind so lofty? What does Blair say in +'The Grave'? + + "'Self-murder! Name it not; our island's shame; + That makes her the reproach of neighb'ring states.' + +It should be looked into, for the crime grows appallingly common. +But a female is too often at the bottom of it. My uncle +exhibited the utmost bitterness when his wife ran away from him. +'Women are all alike,' he said to me; and when a man says that, +you know his luck has been to meet the exception. Never did +Norman Norcot touch upon the deed in his mind, however, +though Parson Haymes has since told me that upon one occasion +he found it his duty severely to reprove my uncle for ideas +favourable and lenient to suicide. + +"To resume, he threw off dull care, as I fondly supposed, and +went to the Moor for a day's holiday along with me. I took my +man, Reginald Mason; while a lad accompanied my uncle. Our +plan was that I should fish the River Teign where it runs into +the central vastness of the Moor beneath Sittaford Tor; while he +proposed to shoot up the valley of the little Wallabrook, a stream +that rises in the marshes beneath Wattern and joins the Teign +near Scorhill. We were to meet at a lone dwelling by Teign +Head, where lives a shepherd. There we designed to take +luncheon; and my sister Gertrude had packed a goodly basket +with such delicacies as we knew that our uncle most esteemed. +There was a bottle of French burgundy at my order. ''Tis bad +for him,' said Gertrude. 'I know it,' I replied, 'but 'twill do him +no hurt for once after hard exercise.' + +"Mason left me at the junction of Teign and Wallabrook, and +proceeded up the river to the place where we were to lunch three +hours later. The boy, with uncle's great red dog and little black +spaniel, went up to the head of the lesser stream, for he told this +lad to work down towards him, and drive any birds that might +rise into the lower reaches of the river. This plan Uncle Norman +proposed, and I wondered at the time that he should make +arrangements so unusual. For myself, I set up my rod and was +a little impatient to get at the trout, for there chanced to be a +good morning rise. But my uncle desired me to stop with him +for a while, and of course I did so. + +"At last we parted, and he made no ado about leave-taking, +but compared his timepiece with mine and promised to be +punctual at the luncheon tryst. I wetted my fly and had moved +a hundred yards when he called me back and asked me for some +string. 'My bootlace has broken,' he said. I had no such thing +upon me, but cut off a yard of my line; then restored the cast +of flies and left him apparently putting his boot in order. I +never saw him again alive. When I had reached what I call +'the pool,' where Teign lies in long, still reaches between two +waterfalls, I thought that I heard the faint report of a gun; and +I smiled with satisfaction, little dreaming what had occurred. + +"Punctual to the appointed time, I met Mason at Teign Head +cot. But my uncle did not appear. An hour we waited; then +came the boy and the dogs. The lad had also heard one report +of a distant fowling-piece, but he had worked all the way down +to our starting-place without seeing his master. + +"Still I found myself not anxious. I partook of food, then +went down the valley expecting to meet him at every turn. At +last I reached the place where we had parted, and then Mason +and the dogs together made that terrible discovery. You know +the rest. My unhappy relative was reduced to the primal, 'porcelain +clay of human kind.' He had slain himself by putting his +weapon to his throat and pulling the trigger with his foot. My +fishing-line had been used for that terrible purpose. + +"'Ill news is wing'd with fate, and flies apace,' says Dryden. +Before set of sun, as though carried on magic pinions, the whole +little world of Chagford knew what had happened. It was a very +trying time for me. My spirit sank. But for thoughts of Fox +Tor Farm I could have relinquished my new responsibilities and +envied the eternal rest of the dead. I felt most dreadfully +unsettled. Nothing mattered. The dubiety of mundane affairs +was much borne in upon me. Reflections concerning the shortness +and darkness of man's days crowded down like a fog upon +my spirit. I felt as I never yet had felt, that + + "'The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.' + +Dryden again. + +"There he lay in his life's blood--extinct and cold as ice. He +had chosen to destroy himself within a hollow worked by the +old-time miners. Great deliberation and forethought clearly +marked his actions. Yet I am thankful that they brought it in +as insanity; and, for my part, I am positive that the dear +gentleman's mind had given way under his misfortunes. But there is +no marrying nor giving in marriage where he is now." + +Mrs. Malherb wept silently as Peter finished his story. Then +her husband spoke. + +"He was a coward, and a coward is better out of the way. +No human tribulations can justify the evasion of suicide. The +man's duty had been to follow them, find his false lady, and, +with proper formality, blow her lover's brains out, not his own. +Go to the piano, Grace." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SEVEN FAIL + +That night the weather changed from fair to foul. Dense +vapours descended upon the Moor, driving mists wrapped +hill and valley; scarce a mountain thrust its crown above the +gloom. For two days the rain prevailed and Grace was in some +fear that the change would delay Peter Norcot and lengthen his +stay at Fox Tor Farm; but when she whispered that belief to +Kekewich in the breakfast parlour on the morning of their visitor's +departure, the old man showed no fear. + +"He'll go. He'm not the sort to change his plans for a scat +o' rain. You'll be rids of him by noon." + +"Oh Kek, when shall I be rids of him altogether?" + +"'Twill be wiser to get rids of your dislike of the gentleman, +Miss Grace. Master means to see you married by next +Whitsuntide." + +"Somebody will have to run away with me." + +"There's many would be very willing, I doubt not. But them +as runs away with a maid, will often run away from her come +presently. In this here vale o' tears, the hard deed be the wisest, +nine times out o' ten. You'm so butivul as a painted picture; +but your sort is often miserable in their lives, just because 'love' +be the first thought and only thought in every heart as sees 'em. +So you pretty ones get to think that love be the sole thing as +matters." + +"I'm sure I don't, then; at least--I--oh, why do fathers plot +and plan for us so? Is it right? Is it fair?" + +"A grown-up faither must be wiser than a young giglet not out +of her teens." + +"Where's the wisdom of----?" began Grace; but her mother +appeared at this moment, and Mr. Norcot followed with the +master of Fox Tor Farm. + +After breakfast the weather mended, and Malherb insisted that +Peter should ride round the estate with him--a performance of +which they had been disappointed on the previous day. Norcot +obeyed and admired all things, but he ventured to doubt whether +a plan for bringing water from a spring by way of an open conduit +would serve the purpose in winter. + +"It is like to freeze or choke with snow," he said. + +"Nonsense!" answered Malherb. "Everybody here is always +whining about what will happen come winter. Did not I see last +winter here myself?" + +"A very unusually mild one." + +"Well, I don't fear it. But my men shiver at the name of it. +It haunts their summer. They begin to see the phantom of it +before September. Woodman and Beer are always crying about +it. Is it not so, man?" + +He addressed Mr. Beer, who was ploughing up potatoes with +a yoke of oxen. The stalks had been drawn and collected in +huge heaps, and now, with his coulter held close on the left of +each row, Richard flung up fine tubers at every step, while Tom +Putt, Mark Bickford, and several women, specially engaged for +this important business, followed and filled the carts. + +The crop was heavy, and Mr. Malherb regarded it triumphantly. + +"These will astonish some of our neighbours, I fancy," he +remarked. + +"You must have brought this land with you!" commented +Peter; and the farmer was constrained to admit that the soil had +called for costly preparation. + +The weather broke anon, and before midday the mist lifted +sluggishly to the crowns of the hills, sulked there awhile, then +prepared to roll down again. + +At his parting meal Norcot had some speech with Grace and, +afterwards, succeeded in winning a little conversation with her +alone. She showed indifference and impatience. Then he +interested her by describing his visit to Prince Town. + +"The hero of the chisel honoured me with his attention. I +am to do him a service if I can. He is a gentleman from the +State of Vermont. He congratulated me on my fortune and I +expressed a hope that he might be at your wedding. If I win +his parole for him, it is quite possible that he may be." + +"I am resolved with all my soul and all my strength never, +never to marry you, Peter; and you know it; and you are +ungenerous and cruel to press it." + +Mr. Norcot nodded thoughtfully. + +"Nothing in the world like a hearty resolution," he answered. +"'I have seen a woman resolve to be in the wrong all the days +of her life; and by the help of her resolution, she has kept her +word to a tittle.' But not so Grace Malherb. She is too sensible +for that. I can leave my future happiness with absolute +confidence in her little hands." + +"My happiness is of no account!" + +"Your happiness is my own. But let us return to Cecil Stark. +A handsome and a gallant lad. He and his companions should +enjoy parole without a doubt; and it may be that I shall assist +them in that direction." + +"You're a fool for your pains," declared Maurice Malherb, who +entered at this moment. "Are there not enough of his kidney +quartered all round about at Moreton, Tavistock, Ashburton and +elsewhere? Certain of the Americans have broken their parole as +it is. Conceive, if you can, the mind capable of such a crime. +A dog has more sense of honour than these people." + +"There are both heroes and rascals among them as amongst us +all. You know my weakness for physical perfection. He was +such a magnificent lad--Stark, I mean. And sailors always get +upon the blind side of me. I find them so sterling and so +simple. Of course, 'they that go down to the sea in ships, +that do their business in great waters,' surprise one, since you +might suppose that no man of intelligence would willingly select +such a deplorable profession; yet I like 'em for their modesty and +humble behaviour. I shall release Commodore Miller and the +rest, I believe, if Lord Hamilton prove still my friend. He is +_persona grata_ with the Regent." + +"And so is Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt at Tor Royal. I am almost +minded to pit my influence against yours," said Malherb, half in +jest, half in earnest. "I am myself privileged to know the Duke +of Clarence, and at his table I was once honoured by meeting the +Prince and received some flattering attention from him when he +learned that I was a friend of Tyrwhitt." + +"Oh, dad, don't!" pleaded Grace. "Let Peter free them if he +can." + +"And what interest have you in the matter, my dear?" + +"Why, didn't the young man nearly knock my brains out? +I have every right to be interested," declared his daughter. + +Anon, Mr. Norcot set off for Chagford, and Grace, yielding to +her father's wish, rode with him for some miles. Behind them +followed John Lee and Thomas Putt. The former had come +to escort Grace home again; the latter carried Mr. Norcot's +luggage. As for Lee, Peter's well-knit figure and prosperous mien +quite filled the forefront of his thoughts. His own helplessness +especially crushed him when Norcot occupied his mind, and +while Peter and Grace exchanged ideas, John kept a dark silence +behind them, nor could Putt win any word from him. + +At last Miss Malherb reached the turning-point and prepared +to take her farewell. + +"I wish you could find a reason for your coldness," said +Norcot, as they drew up on the lonely heights of Believer. "I'm +a logical man. If you convinced me of error, it would be so +different. But I have yet to know why I shouldn't love you and +why you shouldn't marry me." + +"I don't love you." + +"Tut, tut! That's nothing. What a pitiful fellow should I be +to let so small an accident frighten me from a noble purpose! +Besides, 'don't' and 'won't' are very different words. Patience +is my strong point, and you can't remain a child for ever." + +"Words--words, Peter! I often wonder what your real life is +behind so much talking." + +"Marry me and find out." + +"Never. You think I may love you presently. It is absolutely +impossible, so spare yourself the delusion, and spare me." + +"As to that, delusion is half the joy of life, and at least three +parts of true love. Hear Waller. His address to the 'Mutable +Fair' might do you good. + + "'For still to be deluded so, + Is all the pleasure lovers know; + Who, like good falconers, take delight, + Not in the quarry, but the flight.' + +Farewell, sweet Grace, until we meet again." + +He bent over her hand in a very courtly fashion, and then +set off for Chagford with Putt after him. + +When they were out of sight Grace turned to her lover and +quickly felt his arm round her, his gentle kisses upon her +cheek. + +"'Tis very well," she said; "but I can't live even on your +kisses, sweetheart. This man quite overclouds my spirit. I gasp +for air; I suffocate with quotations. You'll have to run away +with me, John." + +"Whither, my lovely Grace?" + +"Why--to your grandmother. I'll dye myself nut-brown and +pick snails for Lovey Lee." + +Than her jest nothing had better served to show young John +the futility of his hopes. + +He groaned aloud. + +"I have been mad," he said; "each day, each hour shows me +how mad." + +"Your love must find the way. Read some of my story-books. +I'll warrant they'll hearten you. You are meant to do dashing +deeds." + +"Life falls out so different. What can I do? How shall I +set about proving that I'm worthy to tie your shoe-string? The +bitter truth is that I'm not." + +"Now I see that Mr. Norcot has oppressed you as he oppresses +me. I always feel not good enough, nor great enough to breathe +the same air with him." + +"But he is not good, nor yet great," John answered. + +"Well, we stand where we did. You must see your grandmother +and be firm with her. You are a man now. Approach +her boldly upon the subject of your father. She knows all about +you--more even than I do--'tis not to be endured. And if you +cannot win her to our side, then I must. Just think how it +might chance if she has the amphora!" + +Upon this fascinating problem they spoke at length, and with +such earnestness, that they forgot their love affairs for full five +minutes. Not until familiar landmarks warned them that they +neared their home again, did they become personal. Then John +Lee's soul grew glad once more, and hope woke within him at her +voice. + +Peter Norcot, meantime, heard something of interest on his +homeward way. In a wild heath beyond Hameldon, he overtook +two old men plodding along together, and as he possessed a +remarkable memory, the horseman recollected one of them very +well, and offered him greeting. + +"How now, Mr. 'Ha'penny for a rook, a penny for a jay'! +How wags the world with you? You forget me, but I remember +Leaman Cloberry who showed me my road to Fox Tor Farm +when I was fog-foundered a while agone." + +"To be sure--an' they be reaping what they sowed there by all +accounts--I mean where I took you." + +"Reaping what you sowed more like," said Putt wrathfully. +"If I'd catched you at your May-games wi' rats and moles +up-along, I'd have broken your wicked neck--old as you be." + +"Stuff an' nonsense!" answered Cloberry, "I never went nigh +the place. 'Tis Childe's Tomb I speak of, not rats an' mice. 'Tis +pulling down of holy crosses wi'out more thought than an honest +man would draw a turnip. An' they lost their only son; and but +for the mercy of God might have had their throats cut last +night--eh, Uncle Smallridge?" + +"'Tis so indeed, your honour," piped Uncle. "An' me the +first to tell the news; for if they'd escaped, 'tis odds but they'd +have fallen on man, woman, 'an childern; for they'm little better'n +Red Injuns by all accounts." + +"What is this aged but animated earth chattering about?" +asked Peter. + +"'Tis thanks to the watching Lord an' Cap'n Cottrell they +didn't," declared Uncle. "But they tried, an' they'd a' gotten +their devilish contrivances all ready; but the red-coats was too +clever for 'em; an' now 'twill be bloody backs for every one of +'em; an' sarve 'em right, I say!" + +"The old chap overruns his subject, your honour," explained +Cloberry. "The matter be that last night but one, when the fog +blowed up so thick an' sudden, a party of them Yankees to the +War Prison concocted a wonnerful clever plan for escape. In the +thick of the dimsy light they popped over the first wall wi' a very +nice li'l ladder all made o' rabbit wire; but somehow--God he +knows how--afore they could scale the outer wall, up ran +Commander Cottrell an' his valiant men, as was snugly hidden away in +a covered shed there. The armed sojers made every man Jack +of 'em a prisoner in a moment. How the plot was found out an' +who told upon 'em ban't known; but somebody did for sure--else +they'd a' got clean off--all seven of 'em." + +"Pegs! 'tis a merciful escape for Dartymoor!" said Uncle +Smallridge. + +"Most interesting; but I hope 'twas not a young acquaintance +of mine," answered Peter, "else I much fear my efforts upon his +behalf will prove vain. Thank you, my men, for this remarkable +news. Now let us sing 'Long live the King,' and Cottrell, long +live he; and here's a trifle to cool your throats when you have +done so." + +He handed a shilling to each man, and they clamoured blessings +upon him. + +"Always knowed you was a gentleman. An' may it be your +turn next, sir," said Cloberry with great heartiness. "I only hopes +you'll be in a proper tight fix some of these days and 'twill be my +fortune to pull you out!" + +"An' me, too," declared Uncle Smallridge, "for you'm one of +the Lord's chosen heroes if ever I seed one. You can take an +old man's word for't." + + +Within a fortnight, Norcot had succeeded in obtaining the +privilege of parole for Commodore Jonathan Miller, Cecil Stark +and William Burnham. But the boon arrived too late, for in +response to the order came a communication, telling how these +officers, together with four other men, had recently been captured +in a bold attempt to break out of the War Prison. In what +manner the authorities had learned their secret and hindered +them, none knew; but the result proved definite enough; for the +promise of parole was immediately withdrawn and all future hope +of it denied. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JOHN LEE'S FATHER + +A week after his latest recorded ride with Grace, John Lee +visited Siward's Cross, to find his grandmother in a black +and savage temper. Not only had she lost her money, but all +chance of making more, because the Americans now firmly +believed that Lovey Lee was the traitress, since she alone, beside +the Seven, knew of their project and the time determined for it. +This woman was quite innocent; yet now, indeed, her sole regret +centred in the fact that she had not betrayed them. But an +unknown spy had taken the Government's money, and was richer +by twenty guineas, while Lovey went poorer every way. How to +regain the confidence of the prisoners was the problem before +her, and she had not solved it on a day when John Lee came to +her cabin. With him he brought some of his wages, and the +silver served to comfort Mrs. Lee. She was half tempted to tell +him her grievance, but natural caution arrested her. She held +her peace concerning her private affairs; then, by a sudden +question, unconsciously led him into his. + +"How do Malherb get on with Norcot? You can tell him +from me that thicky chap be built to be his master." + +"'Tis the daughter he wants to master, not Mr. Malherb. +She's promised to him. 'Tis all cut and dried in every mind but +Miss Grace's." + +"They won't ax her." + +"To think of such a maiden being flung to a man she hates!" + +"Stuff! She'll come round same as her betters afore her. +He'll make her like him. Ban't he made o' money? Us all +know that he be." + +"She's wept tears against him a thousand times. She's a +Malherb too, with all her father's strength of will and fifty times +his sense. She won't wed against her heart for any man." + +"What do you know about her heart, Jack Lee? You'll be +wise not to open your mouth so wide; else you'm like to lose +your job." + +"I'm not blind to hideous injustice." + +"Nor me neither. The man who would rob the poor would +sell his darter to the rich. His damn stone walls stretch out all +around yon valleys now, an' my cows get the fat of the pasture +no more. I wish I could fret the flesh off his bones for it." + +"Mr. Malherb has got his troubles and so much the more he +wants to have his daughter off his hands and be free of her. The +madness of the man! I learned from Kekewich, who is a very +good friend to me, that he has already asked Norcot for his +first-born to make him master of Fox Tor in the time to come. He +looks that far ahead." + +"The fool!" + +"It shan't be while I live and can stand between her and the +ruin of all her young life. I'm a man now--I----" + +"Since when did you larn to talk so fine? An' who taught 'e?" + +"Miss Malherb has been pleased to polish my speech. We--we +are very good friends, thank God." + +Lovey reflected over this curious remark. Then the matter in +her mind was suddenly echoed upon his tongue and he put the +familiar question. + +"Grandmother, when are you going to tell me my father's +name? I weary of asking you." + +"You'm travelling fast," she answered; "long rides, an' +mended speech, an' what else? She finds you're fair to see--'tis +natural. Yet 'twill dash this crack-brained foolery when you +know what you crave to know. For years I've kept that secret, +hoping there was money hanging to it. But I don't see none." + +"'Tis your duty to tell me now that I am a man." + +"As to that-- Do she want to know, or do you?" + +"We both--at least----" + +She caught him up. + +"Ho-ho! An' what be you to her that she should care a rush +who your faither was?" + +"Well--a secret understanding----" + +"Unknown to her faither?" + +"'Tis so, but for God's sake, grandmother----" + +"Say it out, then, or I'll peach. Come now----" + +"Will you swear before heaven to tell nobody--not a breath to +any living soul?" + +"I'll swear hard and fast--may my liver rot if I whimper it," +said Lovey, already speculating what the lad's confession might +be worth to Maurice Malherb. + +"And you'll tell me my father's name?" + +"As to that, yes. We'm prone to hunger after more truth +than's pleasant to taste. An' what you want to know won't make +you more light-hearted, nor yet that maiden, if she's been so daft +as to turn her eyes to you. Your mother was my daughter Jane. +Your faither was Norrington Malherb, the younger brother of +Maurice Malherb, as died long since. So you stand cousin, +wrong side the blanket, to that girl." + +She watched his face grow pale and heard him groan. + +"Only his faither, my old master, knowed, and that was why he +paid me anything at all--cussed miser that he was. You wince, +as if I'd thrashed 'e like I did when you was a boy. You'd +better have bided ignorant." + +"No, by God!" he swore. "'Twas right that I should know. +My only grief is that you hid it so long. 'Twill break her heart." + +Lovey jeered. + +"If that's all your trouble, you can laugh again. Maids as +ban't hardly growed to see their bosoms rounded don't break +their hearts for men. You tell her, an' she'll find it very easy to +forget you." + +"She has promised to be my wife!" + +"My stars! The moonshiney madness there is in children!" + +"She loves me--she always will. We can't be more than +mistress and man now. But she'll never think no worse of me; +for this is no fault of mine." + +Lovey Lee did not answer, but her mind worked busily. She +was wondering whether she might be able to pluck profit out of +this folly. + +"You'm a proper man--none can gainsay it. Have 'e the +pluck of a man? A church service an' the mumbo-jumbo of the +parsons never yet kept the rickets out of a weakly babe, nor +made the child of healthy folks more fair to see. Cuss the +world, as must needs drag God A'mighty in by the ears to their +twopenny-ha'penny plans an' plots an' marryings! Nature's made +you a fine, shapely mate for any female. Maybe this wench----" + +"No," he said; "I'm a gentleman at least. I cannot marry +her now, and I will not. Fate has cast me into the world and +has given me good blood, but it has denied the only thing that +makes blood worth having. She can never be my wife; yet I +may fight for her against the world; I may serve her well, please +Heaven." + +"Bah! What's the use of that knock-kneed twaddle? 'Tis for +you to fight for yourself against the world and beat it at its own +dirty games, not to whine about fate, just 'cause your faither an' +mother didn't happen to be yoked but by their own healthy +passions. Be a man! Ban't it better to have noble blood in 'e, +even o' the left hand, than wake and find yourself a labourer's +son--heir to nought? Here's such a chance as might find you +master of Fox Tor Farm in twenty years or less, if you was built +of fighting stuff. What's the bar? None at all to any but a fool. +There be Dukes of the Realm whose forbears comed in the +world when a King of England cuddled an actress. Larn what +happens an' take a big view of things. If you'm ashamed of +yourself, then slink away an' cut your throat comfortable behind +a haystack, an' get out of it. But if there's a pinch of your +faither in you--not to name your gran'mother--then pick up the +cards an' play 'em for all they be worth. Oh, I could almost +wish I was a pretty lad like you be, to have the living of your +life." + +"I'm in a maze. I must get away with my thoughts; and I +must speak to her." + +"But don't speak what I've told you. Don't be such a born +fool as that. Run away with her if there's one drop of lover's +blood in you. Marry her; then play for Fox Tor Farm after; +an' mind there's a lew corner by the fire for your poor starving +gran'mother come she gets old." + +He left her and went out with his head hung low and abiding +grief upon his face. The woman's talk had not fired him; the +thought of fighting and conquering the world did not quicken his +pulses. He only saw the gulf for ever fixed between himself and +Grace Malherb, and he was crushed. He felt not even curious +to find out how she would receive the news. His own mind +assured him that his determination could not waver. He must +leave the farm, and that immediately. He debated whether he +should vanish away without a word. But such a step appeared +both cruel and weak. Therefore he decided to tell Grace +everything and then depart. + +Lovey Lee meantime flung herself into the matter with great +mental zest and an itching palm. Come what might, a lively +promise of money rose out of this remarkable accident, and she +foresaw encounters such as her soul loved between the strong and +the feeble. Peter Norcot and Maurice Malherb were upon one +side; Grace and the boy upon the other. Her natural instinct +drew her to the powerful and the rich; then she reflected that in +the long run Grace Malherb herself might prove the best mistress +to follow. All depended upon the young woman's attitude +towards John Lee's information; for that he would tell her the +truth Lovey perceived, and that the girl's decision would presently +reach her own ears she was also assured. Dismissing the matter, +therefore, she returned to her former problems, and speculated +how to convince the American prisoners that she had acted in +good faith, and that the traitor to the enterprise must be sought +inside the War Prison, and not outside it. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +GRACE MALHERB HEARS THE NEWS + +Harvey Woodman was ploughing with a team of six +bullocks, and as he plodded behind them over the burnt +ground, he sang a strange song understanded of the cattle. It +cheered them at their toil, and the low, monotonous notes +sometimes broke suddenly, and leapt abruptly a whole octave upward. +When the song stopped, the steers also stopped, nor would they +resume their labour until the ploughman returned to his music. +Beside Woodman tramped his son to turn the team when necessary. +But they made poor ploughing through the heavy and +ill-drained ground, and Maurice Malherb, who watched the +operations from a distance, was alive to the fact. His personal +unwisdom prompted the enterprise, for he was engaged in +attempting to reclaim land that defied the effort; but, as usual, +he set all blame upon other shoulders than his own. Now he +approached Mr. Woodman and accosted him. + +"You're not getting what you might out of those brutes. If +you'd sing less and watch your work closer----" + +"Ban't that, your honour--devil a bit will they go unless a +man chants their proper song to 'em. 'Tis the nature of the +earth, not the cattle." + +"Nonsense. The land is no worse than the rest aloft there, +that I've drained and pared and turned into fine fallow. The +cattle go uneasily. I'll wager that fool blacksmith at Prince +Town shoed them ill." He examined the hoof of an ox as he +spoke. The inside claws behind were left unprotected, but the +outer ones had been carefully shod with iron. Malherb +perceived that the work was good. + +"Then he threw them carelessly, I'll wager. These big steers +should be thrown with the greatest skill." + +"To be just, your honour, 'twas very cleverly done, for I +helped myself," answered Woodman. + +The master turned away without another word. In his stormy +mind of late there had been growing a darkness foreign to it. +Dim suspicions, thrust aside only to reappear, shadowed his +waking hours and haunted his pillow. From cursing ill success +he had, by rare fits and starts, risen superior to his character and +asked himself the reason for it. With impatience and an oath +the answer was generally rapped out; but the question returned. +In secret arcana of his heart, Maurice Malherb knew that he had +acted with overmuch of haste. Thereupon he distributed the +blame of his enterprise right and left: and chiefly he censured +Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, in that the knight had always prophesied +smooth things. Yet honesty reminded Malherb that while +pursuing the suggestions of local men where it pleased him to do +so, he had widely departed from the beaten track of experience +in many directions. He remembered a recent interview with the +owner of Tor Royal, and the words bluntly uttered then: that in +certain particulars of husbandry Malherb attempted the +impossible. The impossible, indeed, had always possessed a fatal +charm for him. He had of late despatched cattle to Bideford +Fair and sheep to that at Bampton--a matter of considerable +expense in those days. But no prize nor commendation rewarded +his undertaking. He was spending money still with but meagre +return for it. He saw his means dwindling, and already the +future of his family depended largely upon the success of a +midland canal, in which Maurice Malherb, fired by glowing promises, +had embarked a very large proportion of his capital. Canals +were the rage amongst speculators a hundred years ago, but few +sensibly succeeded; many were no more than the schemes of +rascals and existed only upon paper. + +Now this man, conscious of gathering troubles, lifted a corner +of the veil that hid his spirit and looked upon himself. The +spectacle was disquieting and made him first impatient, then sad. +Angry he often was, but sadness before this apparition proved +something of a new emotion. For a few fleeting moments he +glimpsed the real and perceived that his own stubborn pride and +boyish vanity were near the roots of life's repeated failures. For +once, in the glare of a mental lightning-flash, he saw and +understood; then his troubled eyes caught sight of flocks feeding in +the bosom of Cater's Beam; and Malherb's misery lifted. +Scattered upon the hills like pearls, their fleeces washed to snowy +whiteness by recent rain, the farmer saw his sheep; and they put +heart into him, and dispelled the gloom begotten elsewhere. He +turned his back on Harvey Woodman and failure; he stopped +his ears to the cattle song, and looked out upon the Moor. + +"The music of a sheep-bell rings my fortune," he reflected. +"There lies my strength; that wool means high prosperity +presently and an issue out of these perplexities." + +Now his flocks represented the counsel of other men. + +A moment later the master went his way with mended spirits, +and as he entered his farmyard a grumbler met him. Mr. Putt +revealed a face red to his sandy locks, while the rims of his eyes +were even pinker than usual. Consciousness of wrong stared +out of his face and he spoke with great feeling. + +"I does my stint, God He knows. I work by night as well as +day, but 'tis too much to be agged into a rage six times a week +by they females, Dinah Beer an' t'other, just because I can't do +miracles. Ban't my fault things go awry in the fowl-house; ban't +in me to alter the laws of nature an'----" + +"What's the matter? Despite your scanty vocabularies, all +you men take a wearisome age to say what might be said in +a minute. But if you had more words perhaps you would make +shorter speeches." + +"Ban't vocableries at all, axing your pardon, sir," said Tom +Putt; "'tis rats--an' their breeding is no business of mine. I'm +at 'em all the time wi' ferrets an' traps an' terriers; but they will +have the chickens, for they'm legion. But what's the sense of +Mary Woodman using sharp words to me? I do all that a man +may. Look at the barnyard door next time you pass, your +honour, an' you'll see varmints of all sizes an' shapes nailed +against it. There's owls an' weasels, an' rats' tails by the score, +an' martin-cats, an' hawks. I can't do no more; an' Leaman +Cloberry hisself couldn't." + +"Go your way. I'm satisfied that you work hard enough. We +shall get 'em under presently. As to Cloberry--the old moth-eaten +knave--let him not show his face to me while he shoots foxes." + +"There was a brave gert fox round here two nights since," said +Putt. "I heard un bark, an' he got short in his temper, too, when +he found the ducks was out of reach. You could tell by the tone +of his voice that he was using the worst language he knowed. +An' I told Miss Grace; an' her laughed an' said she could wish +as he'd collared hold of a good fat bird for hisself and his family." + +Mr. Malherb smiled grimly. + +"Very right and proper," he said. "If any duck of mine will +help a good fox to stand before hounds, he's welcome to it. +Never touch a fox as you hope to be saved, Thomas Putt. Thank +the Lord cub-hunting begins in a fortnight." + +Cheered by this reflection, the master proceeded about his +business, and Putt went the round of the mole-traps to find not a +few of Mr. Cloberry's "velvet-coats" dangling from the hazel +switches that he had set. As he returned he met Grace about to +start on her ride, and hearing of Mr. Putt's speech with the master, +she bid him take to heart what her father had said. Then, turning +to John Lee as they trotted out of sight into the wilderness, +she continued upon the same matter. + +"To think that within a few short weeks I may win my first +brush! But a cub's little brush--it seems so unkind to kill the +baby things. Still the baby hounds must be brought up in the +way they should go--eh, John?" + +But the young man's thoughts were far from foxes, because he +was now to tell his lady of the conversation with Lovey Lee. + +"You're sad," she said, as they rode over the Beam and +descended into those heathery wastes that stretched south-east of +it. "Even the thought of my first brush wins no enthusiasm +from you. What's amiss, John? I fear that Lovey----?" + +"Even so," he answered. "'Twas but the day before yesterday, +and yet it seems long years since I heard it--my death-knell." + +"What a word!" + +"The true one. I only ask your leave to go. Bide here I +cannot any more." + +Grace looked very grave. + +"What dreadful thing has fallen out?" she asked. "Whatever +you have learned, it cannot make you other than you are. And +it cannot surely make you love me less." + +"My father was your father's brother, Grace--your Uncle +Norrington, who died." + +She did not answer, but stared before her. A flush lighted her +cheek, but it was of exultation rather than dismay, +"You're a Malherb! How glorious." + +He shook his head very sadly. + +"Not I. My mother's name and my mother's shame is all my +portion." + +"Poor John--'tis hard to smart for others so. Yet--you're +my own cousin." + +"Don't think it. These things run by law, not by blood. I'm +mere fatherless dust--not worthy to be trod upon by you. I can't +live for you now, Grace; I might die for you; 'tis the highest +fate I hope for." + +She reflected for some moments, then answered-- + +"I do not see that the case is much altered. We had guessed +at this, John; it hardly hurts me. We are still as we were. There +is nothing between us that prevents me from being your wife." + +"How ignorant you are of this cold, cursed world! You argue +like an angel might that had never been beyond the gate of +heaven. But we must face facts now. All is changed." + +"Except my word and yours. I've promised to wed you; and +a Malherb does not break promises. Don't I love you dearly? +Tell me that I do." + +"Right well I know it." + +"Then that's your weapon against this cold world you speak +of. You've got to make the world warm for yourself--and me; +you've got to make the world forget this accident of birth. How +are you different? You were born like any other. A man may +be born to power; but no man is born great. 'Tis but an extra +handicap and obstacle at the start. Oh, my brains are quick as +lightning to-day! You must conquer this thing, as many great +men have; you must see that it might have been ten thousand +times worse. Your father was my father's favourite brother. He +was a soldier and died in the wars. Now 'tis for you to make my +father your friend. Then he gets you a commission in the Army. +Then you go to the wars, and--oh, no, no--to think that I can +say that! I who still wear black for my brother!" + +But he saw her vision of himself--grown great despite his birth. +He beheld himself winning a place in the world even worthy to +offer her. He was young and sanguine, and her words had thrown +a veil over the harsh truth. Yet his spirit sank. + +"If such a thing could be!" + +"Such things have been a thousand times. History is rich in +them." + +"I might do something, yet never anything great enough to +offer to you." + +"It must mean that you went far away, and I don't think I +could let you go. And yet----" + +"The thought is too grand even for hope. Who am I that I +should ever win a commission in His Majesty's Army?" + +"You are the son of a good soldier. The time cries for +soldiers; but no, I couldn't let you--oh, dear, gentle John, I +couldn't. Perchance Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt might--but I can't +plot the details in cold blood, and I wish heartily I'd never +thought of such a horrid idea at all. You shall not go to the +wars for me. You must shine in a peaceful part." + +"Fighting's the only sure quick way to success in these days. +How to get Mr. Malherb's good word?" + +"I've thought of that already. I've been thinking of it ever +since you told me, and hating myself for thinking with such a +hard heart. You've got a grandmother, and she is shrewdly +suspected of a great crime. If, indeed, she robbed dear father, +and you could prove it----" + +"If I could find the amphora and bring it to him!" + +"You must do so! That is what lies before you." + +"But it may be all a dream, Grace." + +"Then we must go on with the dream until we waken. Our +love's no dream at least, and if one way won't serve, we will seek +another." + +"Honesty and right point the only way--for me: that leading +out of your life." + +"You are downcast and you try to make me so; but you shall +not succeed, I promise you. Am I nobody, that you talk so +easily of the road that leads away from me? Do you want to +be off with the old love, John? Ah! Now I know what +has fallen out: you've found a pretty girl and one easier to come +by!" + +"Don't--don't! 'Tis no time for jesting. My heart's breaking +to see my duty so cruel plain." + +"Your duty lies where your love is, and honour bids you keep +your word to me before everything, John. And if you love me +well enough to go into the world and fight for me, you shall; +though 'tis my heart that will break, not yours, when I think of it. +Thus it stands: you must win my father to your way and if good +chance helps you to bring him back his treasure, then so much +the more quickly will you come to your reward." + +"It may be so. Certainly there is some place that my +grandmother used to haunt by night, and I know the direction." + +"As a child she nearly killed you for spying; now, as a man, +you must do the like again to better purpose. She can't whip you +now." + +"You will jest." + +"The amphora is no jest. Secure it, and my father is under +an eternal obligation." + +"Would you have me ask for his daughter?" + +"No, indeed; he would fling the amphora back in your face. +But you ask--oh, that I should say it--for a commission. Yet, +please God, the war will be done; and yet, again, if it is, whence +are you going to win glory?" + +"Glory!" He sighed and said no more. + +"To be frank," continued Grace, "dear father would not keep +the amphora now. He loves beautiful things, but he loves his +farm better. He needs money. He looks so far ahead, that the +present often finds him very straitened. Just now 'tis money +he most wants, and you have to begin the campaign by finding +twenty thousand pounds for him." + +"I'll do my best--the Lord helping." + +"And think not, dear John, that I am light of heart because +my tongue wags so fast. I laugh, but my spirit is low enough +when I remember all that these things must mean. Your life will +be full of fret and fever and action; I shall have nothing but +thought and hope to fill mine." + +"I wish I could believe you. Your dangers will be real ones. +If I departed, who is to stand between you and Peter Norcot? +Since I am to fight, 'tis your battle, not the King's, that I long to +enter into." + +Grace shook her head. + +"Have no fear for me, John; I can take good care of myself--of +that I do assure you. Now tell me that no maid more practical +and sensible and brave than I, ever set sail to face a sea of +troubles." + +Then fell silence between them for a long season, and there +was no sound but the rasp of the dry, burnt heather twigs against +their horses' feet. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HANGMAN'S HOLLOW + +John Lee entertained a very vivid recollection of the spot +where his grandmother had turned on a moonlit night under +Fox Tor, and beat him for daring to follow her. That her +hiding-place was still the same he doubted not; and now he +determined to track the old woman down again, but with more stealth +and skill than had marked his boyish operations. + +Seven times he waited on the Moor beneath the hills, only to +find each vigil unbroken save by the familiar shapes and voices of +the night. Then two moons passed and the hunting season +opened in earnest. It now became Lee's duty to ride his master's +second horse, for Mr. Malherb was both a heavy weight and a +hard rider. As for Grace, she approached the sport with all her +father's ardour and quickly proved herself a brave and a brilliant +horsewoman. Oftentimes she made John's heart sink, for she +knew no fear; then Maurice Malherb cautioned her for incurring +of unnecessary risk, and in private John implored her to be more +cautious. + +"You are magnificent," he said. "'Tis a grand thing to see +Mr. Malherb's face when he watches you; but you are made of +flesh and blood, not moonbeams; and your horse, fine though he +is, can only do what a horse may." + +"'Tis so funny to hear dear father tell all men about his +wonderful system of teaching; while the sober truth is that you +have taught me what I know," she answered. "Father rides well +enough and with the courage of a lion; but you--I love to hear +them talk of it. Sir Thomas and the rest declare that you have +the most perfect style on Dartmoor. Father has to thank you for +much. You nurse his second horse marvellously." + +"He is always most generous with his praise--and his +half-guineas. I hate to take them," replied John. + +Grace Malherb got her first brush in November. Then came +a day when circumstances so fell out that she went to a meet with +Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt and the house party from Tor Royal. Upon +this occasion Mr. Malherb had business in Exeter and he rode +thither at dawn with John Lee. It was understood that Grace +might spend the night with friends at Holne, some miles from +Fox Tor Farm. + +An incident trivial in itself needs this much of elaboration, +since mighty matters sprang from it. Maurice Malherb, his +business of purchasing a new hunter happily completed, set off +homeward in good spirits; while John Lee followed, riding his +own horse and leading the new one. + +Upon his return the master found that Grace had not come +home; while John Lee, perceiving the night to be clear and lit by +the moon, determined once again to keep a vigil for Lovey. He +tumbled into bed soon after eight o'clock, slept soundly for three +hours, then, as he had often done of late, arose, dressed in his +thickest attire, left the loft wherein he lived and crept out of the +house. Slipping from a side door, John was startled to hear +footsteps, and, peeping cautiously over a gate that led to the +stable-yard, he saw his master, booted and spurred. A moment later +Maurice Malherb led a saddled horse from the stable, mounted it +and cantered away. + +John kept invisible until the other was gone; then, full of +wonder at a circumstance quite beyond his experience, he left the +farm and entered the Moor. The moon shone clearly, and there +was frost in the air. Dew glimmered grey upon the dying herbage; +and below in the valley waters murmured softly from a dense +cloud of silver mist that hid them. + +Now the object of Malherb's secret pilgrimage was one which +he would sooner have perished than declare. The man's soft +heart prompted him upon this mission; a simple matter of sentiment, +hidden jealously from every eye, took him forth into the +night. The morning kiss that he gave to Grace was always formal +and cold; and if sometimes he stroked her hair or patted her soft +cheek, he instantly assumed an attitude of indifference or said +some harsh word, as though contemptuous of his own weakness. +Annabel Malherb, affectionate and warm-hearted though she was, +possessed far more common-sense and infinitely more self-possession +in matters of human affection than did her husband. She +showed all that she felt and very properly passed for a gentle and +a tender-hearted woman; he secreted his emotions and banked up +volcanic fires out of sight. Thus he suffered as only those at once +self-conscious and deeply feeling can suffer. + +Upon returning from Exeter, Mr. Malherb supped with his wife +and heard how Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt had called upon his homeward +way after hunting and taken a dish of tea and a cordial. + +"'Twas a very good run--one hour and twenty minutes. They +killed upon East Dart, near Dury, and my lady Bastard had the +brush." + +"What of Grace?" + +"Sir Thomas saw her once, well up. Doubtless she returned +with the Fentons to Holne. Her things were sent in good time, +for Dinah Beer went in to market there and took 'em with her." + +"Yes, yes, of course," said the farmer, and spoke of other +matters. Yet sleep refused to close his eyes; and while Annabel +slumbered placidly enough, well knowing that her daughter was +safe and happy, the father, equally sure of the fact in his reason, +found a paternal instinct above reason keeping him awake and +restless. He tossed to the right and left; he swore half-sleeping; +then he started into wakefulness and saw his window full of +moonlight. The illumination decided him. With a shamed face he +stole from the side of his wife, and ten minutes later was ready +to take the road. Creeping out of doors, he went to the stable, +saddled a hack and rode off towards Holne village with a sulky +and guilty satisfaction. The thought of any human eye upon him +had driven him into a furious passion at once. He was ashamed +of himself, yet well content to be upon this business. + +Malherb trotted the four miles to Holne, fastened up his horse +at the edge of a wood, and proceeded cautiously to the dwelling +of the Fentons. Avoiding the front of the house, he presently +reached the back premises. All was still, and he passed +noiselessly to the window of the stables. The occasional thud of +hoofs and snort of nostrils reached him from here. Moonlight +illuminated the interior, and Malherb without difficulty saw what +he wished to see. His daughter's hunter stood comfortable and +asleep in its stall. For that sight alone the man had come, +because it revealed to him how all was well with Grace. Some +great dog bayed, and leaped to the length of its chain with a +rush and rattle, but before a sleepy voice from above bade it be +silent, Malherb was far away. He hurried back through the +trees to his horse, then returned homewards, happy. Other such +human secrets as this were locked in the casket of his heart, and +now, thinking upon the past, he remembered deeds to his account +as a young husband and father. He growled impatiently and +shook his head, for it vexed him that God's self should know +those things. + +Into the thread of the night's incidents Malherb anon returned, +but for the moment it is necessary that we follow John Lee. +Proceeding along the accustomed way, he hid closely where, +beneath the inky blackness of a rock's shadow, it was possible for +him to survey the shining vast, himself unseen. The sky twinkled +with frosty stars to the horizon; the moon sailed high overhead. +Then, almost before he had settled to his vigil, there came a +sound out of the night, a rhythm of feet, that bore a lean +grey figure who seemed woven of light and mist. It crept +towards him; it promised to pass along the sheep-track within five +yards of him; and Lee, with a tremor of boyish fear suddenly +chilling his bones, shrank into the darkness and scarcely dared +to breathe. Then Lovey Lee went past, and the light was in her +eyes where they glimmered out of her white face, like jewels set +in marble. Her breath came a little short, for she was moving +fast. As one in sleep she swept along, staring before her, until +her tall shape was swallowed up again within the pearly dimness +of the Moor. The sound of her footsteps died upon his ear; +the vision of her faded. + +John Lee gave his grandmother a few minutes' start before he +followed with extreme caution. For two miles he stalked the +shadow of her, then, perceiving that she must presently enter a +deep gorge known as Hangman's Hollow, where certain ruins of +old mining works and blowing-houses still stood, he made a wide +detour, mended his pace, and got to the neck of the coombe +before her. Here he concealed himself again beside one of the +rotting buildings, formerly used for smelting of tin. He hid +behind a broken wall, and through a chink in it kept watch upon +the ravine down which he had just hastened. Upon his left +yawned a disused gravel-pit, where a labourer had hanged himself +to a rowan tree and so given this sinister name to the spot. +Around about, dying brake-fern spread wanly under the night; +and here and there flashed the white of a rabbit's scut as it +bobbed from its hole to the open and back again. On the +watcher's right hand, deep sunk into the heather-clad earth, the +bulk of an old blowing-house still appeared; but one side had +bulged and broken out, so that the whole stood like a shattered +corpse of some habitation, and shone pallid there in its pall of +grey lichens and rusty moss. + +While still he panted after his run, and was vexed to see +his breath steam into the moonlight, there came Lovey Lee +slowly descending. She passed him, and turned the corner of +the ruin where two broken walls rose with a shattered alley-way +between them. Above towered the dome of the blowing-house; +beneath was a wilderness of broken stone. + +John heard no sound, so he took off his boots, and, keeping in +the shadow, peeped round the corner that Lovey had turned. +But he saw nothing. The place was a narrow cul-de-sac and no +visible exit offered from it; yet Lovey had quite vanished. Her +grandson rubbed his eyes, then crept forward, and, growing +bolder, searched every nook and cranny of the spot. But not +one evidence of life rewarded him. Beneath, green sward sloped +away at the embouchure of the combe, and a few sleeping +sheep appeared dotted upon it, all misty and silver-grey. No +shadow of his mysterious grandmother was visible. Again +he searched without avail, then turned homeward--in haste +to be gone. There was upon him now a cold and crawling +sensation of dread. Witches and devils, hobgoblins and +werwolves were dancing in his mind; each silent stock and stone +that stared moon-tranced upon him seemed to hide some +nocturnal thing of horror, some ghoul, or cacodemon. Impish +atoms of life twisted and wriggled under his feet; the owl's +cry uttered words of dark meaning to him; the night opened +sudden unexpected eyes, and spirits that he had never known +now jostled and elbowed poor John Lee. Even in his +superstitious dread he felt a wave of shame when he thought of +what Grace must say; yet he could not regain his courage +immediately, for every time that the problem of his grandmother's +disappearance turned uppermost in his mind there came an +unnatural solution to it. + +But had John Lee waited patiently with his eyes upon the +ruin, instead of flying so fast away, his fears had been stilled, and +the mystery solved without any superhuman aid. Long before +he reached home again Lovey had already reappeared, and was +tramping back by the way that she had come. + +Then the sound of a horse's feet fell suddenly upon her ear, +and knowing that it was no wandering pony, but a mounted +beast, she turned and saw the figure of Maurice Malherb +approaching. The old woman's first instinct was to secrete herself, +but time did not allow of it. The horseman had observed her +and now reached her side. Indeed, annoyance quickly gave +place to curiosity at this extraordinary apparition of him by +night; and he felt no less surprise on meeting the ancient woman +thus alone at such an hour. + +"Lord defend us!" she cried. "What ghost be you stealing +here afore cock-crow thus?" + +"You know me well enough," he answered. "And you, you +old miser? Going to visit your hoard, I'll wager--or else keeping +an appointment with the Devil." + +"Ess; only I've missed my gentleman. He's too busy to meet +me this evening," she said; "but you'll do very well. An' so +you ban't weary o' Dartymoor; but love it so dearly that you +must wander here by night as well as day? Most of your sort +be sick of the place before the moss begins to grow on the silly +walls they build." + +"There's no shepherd for sheep like the owner of them," said +Malherb. "A good wether was slaughtered not long since. I'd +pay handsomely to know whose belly bettered by him. There's +a man called Jack Ketch for that work, Lovey Lee." + +"You be fond of promising me a halter. See your own cursed +temper don't thrust your head into one afore long. You be all +alike--your brother, an' him as be dead, an' my old skinflint +master--robber that he was. But 'tis idle to cuss the dust." + +"You've no call to curse Malherbs--you with twenty thousand +pounds of my money stolen." + +"You still think as I've got you're beggaring old pot?" + +"I'll swear you had it; and I'd stake half its value that you +have it yet." + +"An' if I had? What better way of filling your eyes with +twenty thousand pound all to once?" + +"But not your own." + +"Bah! If I had it, 'twould be my own, as much as my body +an' bones be my own--mine to make or mar--to cherish or put +under my feet." + +"I'll swear your hag's eyes have mirrored it this night!" cried +Malherb. "I see you licking your lips as though you had just +come from a feast." + +"If 'twas so, 'tis a feast as I won't ax you to share." + +"Nevertheless, I shall share it some day unasked." + +"You'm welcome; but the day you see the Malherb amphora +again will be the last day you see anything." + +"You've got it then?" + +"Why, as to that--since there be no witness here but your +horse--I can speak. Ess, I've got it safe enough. 'Tis my +family to me, my fire, my food, my heaven. I catch heat from +it in the cold; it feeds me when I be hungry; it fires my blood +same as liquor would. I hug it like a lover an' it makes me +young again. But you--you that have lifted walls between my +cattle an' their best grazing ground--you that have cursed me +and promised to hang me--you that be what is worst in every +generation of your race rolled into one--you may ax an' pray to +all the devils of hell for your amphora; an' they'll sooner give it +back to you than ever I shall!" + +Malherb preserved a very remarkable restraint under these +insults. + +"As usual, my judgment is confirmed," he said. "You hold +my treasure and deny me possession. So be it. But you must +die some day, Lovey Lee. Now let us discuss the future." + +"Never--never," she screamed. "Die--who be you talking +to? I ban't built to die. I'm all steel springs and tough as +osiers. Not a sense failing, an' power to do a man's work when +I will. I'll last out you an' your brood, never fear; I'll live to +see your blasted walls in the dust yet an' your body resting on +the Coffin Stone up Dartmeet Hill. Don't fox yourself to think +I'm going to die afore you. An' when that time does come an' +I know that I've got to go, I'll scat your toy to little bits--pound +it to dust an' eat it--eat twenty thousand pounds! I've thought +of that--I, that live on snails an' efts, will make me such a meal +as no human has ever made. You! I'd rather fling the glass +under the hammers at the tin mine afore you should touch it or +see it more." + +"A ducking-stool would do you good, you foul-mouthed old +witch," he said. "Be very sure your secret's out now and the +end of you is not far off." + +"You're a fool to think so. You'll tell the world I've got your +amphora? And I'll say I have not. You'll say that I confessed +to it, and I'll ax when? You'll say upon the middle of Dartymoor +at a moonshiney midnight! An' the neighbours will reckon +another fool be taking to drink to drown his troubles. Get home +to your wife! Be you faithless to her, too, along of your other +faults? Go; throw over more crosses till the curse of God's ripe +for you! An' do me a hurt at your eternal peril. Your son be +took, but lift one finger against me, an' by the God as made us +both evil, I'll ruin your daughter's life. 'Tis in my power to do +it, so I can hit you harder than you can hit me." + +She stood still a moment, then turned her back upon him, and +hastened down a stony place into the darkness. He watched her +climb out upon the other side and fade into night. For a moment +his rage prompted him to gallop after her, but he changed his +mind and turned homeward. + +A grand problem filled the foreground of his life from that +moment. Daily his circumstances grew more straitened, and +that morning he had felt shamed in secret to spend fifty guineas +on a new hunter. Yet now twenty thousand pounds seemed +almost within reach again. He doubted not that his amphora +was hidden upon Dartmoor, and felt positive that the historical +jewel of the Malherbs must soon return to his possession. +Already he planned the spending of the money. + +In olden times this man would have thought it no sin to +torture the truth out of Lovey Lee by rack or red-hot iron. +Now he concerned himself with other ways of solving the problem. +Stealthily he returned home, stalled his horse and rubbed +it down, then crept back to bed. His mind was occupied with +fair means to recover his amphora. As for the miser's threats, +they were forgotten. He had as yet met no woman capable +of opposing herself successfully to his determination. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +FREE + +While John Lee carried his experience of the night to +Grace at the first opportunity, Malherb told no man +of the nocturnal meeting with Lovey. He turned his secret over, +and between intervals of hunting and of work, held deep speculation +with himself how best to circumvent the miser. Vaguely he +dreamed of cunning traps and surprises, but such warfare was +foreign to Maurice Malherb, and his mind lent itself to no subtlety +in that sort. Nor would he ask assistance of any man; for, +though he thought upon Peter Norcot more than once, and might, +indeed, have made no better choice, yet pride rebelled before the +spectacle of himself seeking aid to outwit a woman. That he +would recover Lovey's stolen treasure the master felt positive; +but no means of doing so immediately appeared. + +John Lee, meanwhile, had less than Malherb's knowledge in +one direction, much more in another. That the amphora was +actually in his grandmother's possession he did not guess; but +the locality of her hidden haunt he had discovered. All that +he knew Grace now learnt, and her mind awoke into great +enthusiasm. + +"'And then she vanished'! No, no, dear John; people don't +vanish--not even mysterious, savage old misers like Lovey. She +went somewhere out of your sight and out of your reach for +the present; but flesh and blood cannot vanish," said Grace very +seriously. + +"There were witches in the Bible, and there may be on +Dartmoor," he answered. "Not that I'm afeared any more. I'm +going to hunt Hangman's Hollow every moment of my spare time +henceforth. All the future depends on it for me, and for you, +and for Mr. Malherb also, since you say that without money +things must fall out hardly in a year or so." + +Yet, despite John Lee's great resolutions, a chance unforeseen +came now to thwart them, and it was many weeks before any +human foot explored the desolate ravine that hid Lovey Lee's +secrets. As though to convince the master of Fox Tor Farm that +the moor-men did well to fear winter, terrific weather fell upon the +upland waste. Long weeks of sulky black frost ended in white +frost. From lowering skies the sun crept forth above the +undulation of Cater's Beam; but his direct rays proved powerless to +thaw the ground. Each night the frost bit deeper; each morning +the cattle byres were coated with ice from the frozen breath +of the kine. Work was suspended, and the world seemed a +thing perished and insensible to any further touch of life. Then, +alter a cloudless week, the wind, that had puffed fitfully as it +listed, yet never found a cloud to drive along the pale azure floors +of heaven, went north and stopped there. Now the frost abated +by a degree or two, but still remained severe and, from day to +day, feathers and films of cloud swept southerly. For some time +these vanished before nightfall; then they increased and a few +light snow-showers fell. They heralded a notable and terrific +blizzard, whose sustained fury burst upon the Moor, swallowed +its boundaries, buried its lonely heart and piled mighty barriers +of snow between the central waste and all civilisation. Fox +Tor Farm was well equipped for such a siege; but many an +isolated homestead, now surprised by weather beyond man's +memory to parallel, found itself much straitened until the +thaw. + +At one place above all others this avalanche of snow brought +with it deep concern and anxiety. In the War Prison, +Commandant Cottrell and his staff, with ten thousand men to feed, +found great problems threatening their peace. Supplies promised +quickly to run short, and even the store of sealed provisions set +aside for any possible emergency, represented little more than +a week's fare for the hosts of Americans and French. Within +three days of the great isolation food was being nursed and rations +were decreased--a hardship terrible at such a time. But +unutterable suffering and woe beyond words marked these black +weeks at Prince Town. Infinite cold settled upon the waste, +and thousands of prisoners stuck all day to their hammocks, +leaving them only at the hour of meals. All buying and selling +had been suspended, for the country-folk now possessed nothing +they could part from. Within the War Prison order and +discipline were scarce maintained beneath the strain; death reigned +at the hospital, and nimiety of human misery found an end in +the frozen earth. + +The tempest that followed upon this arctic weather deeply +affected the fortunes of the Seven. After some weeks of +imprisonment in the cachots, Cecil Stark and his companions +rejoined their compatriots in Prison No. 4. What had happened +to defeat their scheme they knew not, and no thought of treachery +amongst their comrades darkened a single heart, because every +man supposed that Lovey Lee had betrayed them. For a time +after their failure each held aloof from the rest, since suspicious +eyes now closely marked their actions. Then came a meeting +with Captain Cottrell, and immediately after their liberation, the +three officers, Miller, Stark and Burnham, were summoned before +the Commandant. + +They appeared and for the first time learnt that Peter Norcot +had availed with the authorities. + +"But those who break prison would break parole," said Cottrell +drily. "Therefore upon my report, gentlemen, and as the result +of your own folly, the privileges that a generous Government was +prepared to extend to you are now denied." + +Commodore Miller answered for the Americans. + +"Little need be said to what you tell us, Captain Cottrell. +We stand under a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Norcot, for his +generous and disinterested effort on our behalf; and our failure +to make good escape will not unnaturally be punished by a +withdrawal of the privilege of parole. One other point only of +your remarks challenges my comment, and that I would willingly +avoid, since it is no wish of ours to quarrel personally with any +man in authority. But when you say that those who would break +prison would break parole, I declare that you speak for yourself, +and not for these gentlemen, or for me. We are honourable men +and the prisoners of an honourable country, but you--by these +words you have proclaimed yourself a mean and base soul, not +worthy either to have the control of gentlemen, or to mingle with +them." + +The Commodore spoke with calm self-restraint, and upon the +silence that followed his rebuke struck Stark with somewhat less +careful choice of words. + +"Every man has a right to regain his liberty at any cost; but +no man has a right to tell a lie and break a solemn oath. You +are much to be pitied, Commandant, in that you, who call yourself +an officer and a gentleman, can confuse such widely different +issues." + +The soldier gnawed his moustache and grew red. + +"I stand corrected," he said. "So many of your countrymen +have committed this crime of breaking their parole, that I assumed +the issues were not regarded as opposite in the American mind. +Commodore Miller, I pray that you will accept my apologies, and +I shall be very happy after the war is ended, to give you every +satisfaction." + +"It is enough," said Miller. "I would that you could extend +your ready sense of justice to the parole now tended to us by +authority; but that, of course, is a question for your personal +judgment." + +"In that connection no apology is needed nor will be offered," +returned the other. "Had you escaped, the onus of the achievement +must have fallen upon my shoulders. I had possibly been +cashiered." + +"Since we are on it, Captain Cottrell," said Stark, "may I, as +a sportsman and in good faith, inquire how you discovered our +enterprise and knew so punctually both when and where we +should endeavour to depart?" + +"What! the informer's name? Surely you know that informers +are sacred in this world, whatever may be their fate in the next?" + +"This much at least I beg you to tell us, if you hold it square +with duty. Was it from within or from without that we were +struck? We may desire to try again, and it is well to know +friend from foe." + +Captain Cottrell laughed at the bold question. He reflected +a moment, then made reply. + +"You've preached me a sermon on honour, and I'll pay for +it with a word of advice. A man's worst foes shall be they of his +own household. There's a seed to sow in your heart, Mr. Stark! +But since you will have it, then take it. At least I trust that it +may serve to break up a little family party of Seven which I +hear about. It will be better for all concerned that you respect +the prison regulations henceforth. Now, gentlemen, I wish you +a very good day." + +In darkness and indignation they departed before this cynical +speech. Stark and Burnham were for disbelieving it utterly; +Commodore Miller, more cautious and more experienced, deemed +the assertion not one to ignore without serious reflections. + +"'Tis a patent lie," declared Stark. "I marvel that you cannot +see it, sir. He actually dared to declare his object in uttering it. +He wishes to separate the Seven and scatter them finally. What +more certain way of so doing than by making each distrust the +rest?" + +"We shall only doubt each other, however, if we believe him," +said William Burnham. + +"Yet I will not say offhand that he lied," answered the +Commodore. + +Thus the cloud worked to bitterness from the outset. Four of +the Seven, their hearts fouled by racial prejudice, swore that +Cuffee was the culprit; while the Commodore supported poor +Sam, and Stark staked his own honesty and honour upon the +negro's. Acrimonious conversations passed among them, and +it seemed that Commandant Cottrell had fully effected his +purpose; but then came the awful weather, and certain necessary +relaxations called for by its severity, now drew the old friends +together again in hope of escape. + +The cold had long reduced all exercise in the open, and through +the greater part of every day the prisoners collected by thousands +in the chambers immediately beneath the roof of each main +building. Here, through the windows, a wide survey of the +surrounding country offered, and Stark and his friends often +noted the visible contours of the land, and realised to some +extent the accuracy of Lovey Lee's maps. They learned also +of a matter more interesting and nearer at hand. The boxes +upon the inner wall were empty, for one soldier had already +perished of frost-bite on sentry-go, and two others were at the +door of death. To stand in the open air for half an hour was a +proceeding so dangerous that the inner wall now remained +unguarded save by its automatic protection of bells and wires. + +Upon the occasion of the blizzard, while yet nature waited in +frozen silence and the north grew black at midday, six of the +Seven, taking their lives in their hands, made a second effort to +escape. David Leverett alone had no share in the enterprise, +for he was sick of a chill and kept his bed in the hospital. +Burnham and Stark demurred whether they might in honour repeat +their attempt without him, but Commodore Miller decided that +the greatest good to the greatest number must determine their +action. They were all sailors, and failing the apparatus of a wire +ladder, employed in their first experiment, they designed a living +ladder that could be quickly built up of their own persons. The +manoeuvre was not difficult, and they practised it out of sight of +the sentries until each man well knew his place and part in it. + +At the fall of evening, while yet faint grey light marked the +western sky and the snow had only just begun to fall, many men +went into the yards for water. This, in the shape of ice, they +conveyed to the prisons, and each party in turn broke a portion +from their frozen conduits and fled back shivering into the fetid +warmth of the great buildings. The guards and the guarded +alike shrank from the open air, and in that hour before the storm, +a hundred men might have climbed out of the prison with no eye +to mark their going. But the weather made escape suicide; the +north wind and the snow were the gaolers of Dartmoor for many +a day henceforth. + +Separating themselves from the throng, Commodore Miller and +his companions departed one by one and presently assembled +behind the angle of an empty cachot. From here they approached +the inner wall, and, while the blood was still warm in them, set +about their task. The square and solid shape of James Knapps +came first, Sam Cuffee leapt to his shoulders, Stark followed, and +then came Burnham, while the Commodore next worked his way +up the living ladder; and the light and weakly person of Caleb +Carberry brought up the rear. Once the warning bells jangled, +but the wind swept the sound away, and no turnkey heard them. +The darkness began to close in quickly, while far above ruddy +splashes of light blazed like fierce eyes from the squat windows +of the prison. + +The difficulty of the ascension was quickly tackled and mastered. +With Knapps centred the chief strain, but despite his weight the +man proved nimble enough, and though he bruised both Cuffee +and Stark not a little as he clambered over them, soon Jimmy +reached the top. Then the negro, full of muffled regrets at his +clumsy feet and hands, also went aloft, and within three minutes +of the start the whole six had safely passed the inner wall. +Descent from this was easy, for steps rose upon the outer side of +it and communicated with the sentry-boxes along the top. Now +snow fell upon them in great solitary flakes, and they got a +glimpse of inky cloud-banks swallowing the Moor to windward; +then they hurried down into the great fosse beneath them, crossed +it and prepared to scale the outer wall. + +Up they went, though more slowly than before, for the cold +began to touch them. Soon they crowded in a row aloft like +forlorn birds; then they felt the full force of the wind, and stood +aghast at the grim desolation spread beneath. + +"Get to earth, lads, while we can use our hands," shouted +Miller. "Once free, we'll speak a word or two as we move south. +When we are down, each man must determine for himself his +course of action. We can either follow the wall round to the +main entrance and give ourselves up to the guard again, or we +can turn our faces to the night and trust in God." + +No man answered, but the living ladder was formed, and +Knapps, taking a firm grip of the wall, lowered himself half over. +Cuffee slipped down and held the sailor's ankles, and the others, +one by one, thus lowered themselves to the ground. Then +Knapps, hanging to the full extent of his reach, let go, and those +on the ground stood by to break his fall. + +Now, face to face with night and tempest, the character of +each among that little throng appeared, stripped bare by +circumstance. + +Cuffee was the first to speak. He already wept and whined, as +the wind cut him to the bone, and the snow sweeping horizontally +over the heath stung through his rags. + +"For de lub ob Gard, sars, I'se go back afore I've froze into +one lump ob black ice! Oh, gemmen, we run quick, else we +nebber run no more!" + +"The chances of life are small," said Miller, "and no man +will think the worse of another if he turns to the gates. The +storm promises to be terrific, and though we might have reached +Lovey Lee's cottage in weather still and clear, 'tis but a forlorn +hope now. We are to hold on until we strike young plantations +of larch and beech. These we leave on our left, and then keep +south-east. 'Tis seeking a needle in a bottle of hay, and failure +must mean death. Let no man start in ignorance." + +"For God's sake be moving, sir," pleaded Burnham. "Whatever +happens, we must get abreast of the main gates. Then +those who will may go to the Moor. We shall freeze here while +we stand. For my part I return. Life is sweet." + +"An' me too," said Carberry. "I'm fearsome of this weather. +My lungs will fail me in a mile. 'Tain't no manner of use killing +myself for nought. I wants ter see the gate again. T'other side +the wall's only prison, but this side's death." + +"I'se with you, Marse Burnham and Marse Carberry," chattered +Cuffee. "My legs is gwine so funny, like as if dey belonged +to some udder gemman." + +"It's suicide, Stark," said Burnham, as they bent forward and +followed the wall. The wind now shrieked past them, and the +snow began to change its character. It had been very thick and +heavy, and the Moor was already an inch deep under it; but the +flakes ceased to fall, and dwindled into an icy dust that stabbed +like a rain of needles. Darkness increased; only by the wall +upon their right hands did they know their road. + +"My cheek him froze hard!" cried the negro. "Oh, my poor +mammy!" + +Stark, with his head down, spoke to Miller. + +"What do you do, sir?" he asked. "I'm going to make a +fight for it; but dare you?" + +"I'll come, lad, on one condition: that you do not stay a +single step for me. 'Tis each for himself. My life matters to no +man. And I take it into my hands with all reverence for the +Giver. If I die, I die a free man." + +"'Tis so with me," answered the younger; "none will mourn +me, for sorrow of heirs is only laughter under a mask. But we'll +win, not lose. And 'tis victory either way, whether we live or die." + +There remained James Knapps, and now Stark asked him his +purpose. + +"Waal, I reyther guess I'll hold on," he answered. "I ain't +frightened of snow and never stopped hum nights when I could +go out. I was a trapper in the Rockies once. This weather is +old company, and no man kin tell what's behind sich a smother. +Death or life, 'tis no great odds to me; so I'm for going ahead." + +"I hope it don't displeasure you us turning back," panted +Caleb Carberry to Stark; "but I'm very wishful ter get home +again some day. I've got a wife and family in Vermont----" + +"Then you'd be a knave to hold on," said the other. "I've +got nothing in Vermont but a good solid chunk of the State +itself. The beavers won't miss me, nor yet the maple trees, nor +yet my cousins, I'll swear." + +When the glare from a great lamp above the main entrance +was seen across the snow, three men huddled together in an +empty sentry-box near the gates, and three struck strongly +forward into the south-east. They held a steady course, and walked +in Indian file, with the storm on their left sides. + +Sam Cuffee sobbed and screamed. + +"Poor tings, dey got der marching orders! I nebber see +Marse Stark any more. I wish I born dead!" + +"Shut your mouth, you black scorpion," said Burnham savagely. +His heart was with his friends, and now he smarted to think that +he had turned. If they lived, they would never respect him more. +So he believed. He had always entertained a lively jealousy +where Stark was concerned. He knew that his messmate was a +better man than himself and, eaten by envy, could not pardon +his superiority. Now in his heart there sprang a base and fleeting +hope that Stark had departed to die. + +"I'se no scorpion," answered Cuffee. "I'se only berry dam +miserable nigger, sar." + +"Be silent! Do you want the men in the guardhouse to hear +us? We're to give Commodore Miller as much law as we dare +without getting ourselves frostbitten. Then we can ring the bell +and sneak back to kennel--like the hounds we are." + +"To the cachot," said Carberry. "I kinder guess we'll sleep +on granite to-night. Snow's softer and warmer, after all's said. +But if we sleep here, you bet we shan't wake no more." + +"They'll have a pretty down on us now," answered Burnham. +"We were fools not to go and die with the others." + +"De cachot--wid de snow coming in to bury us froo de naked +windows! Oh, I wish I dead and in hell--it warm dar. I no +care for twenty million debbils so long as dey take me into de +warm place." + +"You'll be warm enough to-morrow. They'll flog us for this +when we refuse to say anything about the others," returned +William Burnham. + +"Flogging's better'n dying. Durn the silly monkeys--they +might just as well have cut their throats as go," declared Carberry. +"I dare say every doodle of 'em's dead by now. Miller's a loss +to the country for sartain." + +In silence they waited another minute; then Burnham +addressed Sam Cuffee. + +"Ring the great bell, nigger; I can't lift my hand to it." + +Soon the three were back again within the prison walls, and as +Carberry had expected, a cachot opened frozen jaws for them. +Untold misery they endured, although a soldier at his own risk +fetched them a bundle of straw to spread between their bodies +and the stones. Commandant Cottrell himself directed the +punishment. + +"As for the others," he said, "we are well quit of the troublesome +rascals. They'll be out of further mischief before dawn. +Nothing could live in this, for Satan and all his angels are loose +to-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SNOWSTORM + +Now through the bursting heart of that great storm the +American prisoners struggled on their way. None spoke; +for all believed that death strode beside them and came closer +with each savage thrust of the northern wind. About them the +snow already lay in a heavy carpet and upon the Moor, in gorges +and old, deep ravines, an icy dust was piling into drifts that +would only vanish with the suns of April. The gale blew with +gigantic but irregular outbursts, so that it seemed as if fingers +invisible on cruel hands stretched out of the night to tear their +garments off them. The spirit of the storm escaped from its icy +chambers, swept chill around them, and each breath they drew +cut sharp to their lungs as the men panted onward. + +South of Prince Town roll high and open heaths, whereon, +under the tremendous impetus of the tempest, the snow was +swept horizontally. It fell, only to be gathered up again and +launched forward in writhing wisps and veils. Along these level +heights Commodore Miller, Stark, and Knapps made their way; +then when each heart sank low and every sanguine pulse was +nearly frozen, they touched the skirts of the young plantations +at Tor Royal and hoped again. Half a mile distant the hospitality +of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt had been at their command, and +the knight had gladly closed stout doors between the wanderers +and death; but of the establishment within these snow-bound +young forests they knew nothing. Their thought was the cabin +of Lovey Lee, concerning the position of which she had made +them clear; and now they held on to the end of the wood, then +turned a compass-point southward and faced the Moor again. + +Cecil Stark at length spoke, and shouted into the Commodore's +ear. + +"We're on the right road. We may pull through after all." + +"Save your breath and keep together," answered the older +man. "I have some fight in me yet." + +"And you, Jimmy?" + +"I wish I was ter prison." + +"Blame yourself that you're not," panted Stark. + +"I duz," answered the sailor. "I s'pose there's no grizzly +bars snooking around these parts? I thought I squinted +something back away." + +"No; but there are stone crosses; and one stands nigh Lovey +Lee's. Hit that and we're saved." + +"Miss it and--but no use to wherrit. 'Tis a very good end. I +knew a chap as slept hisself out of life very comfortable on such +a night. Narry a pang; and I found him in the morning froze +to the marrow, and smiling about it, like he was a statue in +church. Better than a bagonet in your belly, anyhow." + +"Drop that talk, bo'sun. We'll win yet!" + +They fought on silently, but the pace became slower as their +force abated and the snow increased. Now they felt the full +strength of the wind, and nature instinctively made them turn +and edge away from it. + +"Hold to your left, lads, or we are done for!" cried Miller. +"Keep the wind on the port bow." + +"Be damned if I kin suffer it against my cheek any more," +answered Knapps. "My ear and jaw are just frozen and my left +eye's bunged up with ice." + +Twice more Stark addressed the sailor, but received no answer. +Then, turning again, he found one shadow beside him instead of +two. + +"Is that you, Stark?" + +"Ay, sir." + +"Where's Knapps?" + +"I'm afraid he's lost, sir. He would hold off a point. Had +I sought him, I must have lost you." + +"Shout--shout with all your might. We may save him yet." + +They lifted their voices, but the piping of them was gulfed in +the roar of the wind. The ice poured out of the darkness, and, +despite the snow-blink, an awful circumambient gloom hid all +things from their eyes. Only the wan upthrown illumination at +their feet told of the snow beneath. + +"I implore you to be moving, sir. Right or wrong, we must +hold on now," cried Stark, for he saw that his companion seemed +to hesitate. + +"Knapps may be right. Can we have got too far east? However, +'tis all one. Blessed sleep's ahead, my poor boy. 'Tis good +to die in the great Hand of God and not behind stone walls." + +"Don't speak of dying, Commodore. Get closer; take my +arm and husband your strength as you may." + +Stark closed up on the other's left hand between his friend +and the weather; but Miller appreciated the action and fought +against it. + +"You shall not do this for me. I'm tougher, older, better +seasoned!" + +"For love of life, speak no more," Stark answered. "Hold +close. We may save each other." + +Now arm in arm, or sometimes hand in hand, but never apart, +they battled through a dread hour of agony. Often they fell and +bruised themselves upon ice and granite; often they dropped +headlong into some snow-hidden rift; then surmounting it, they +struggled on again, half blind, half strangled. Despite their +tremendous exertions, no warmth to fight the wind, no heat of +blood could either generate. They froze as they fought and their +progress became very slow. They grew conscious of sloping +land and passed where hills of stone rose to the right, while the +storm, from lower levels, leapt upwards as it seemed out of some +dark crater on the left of them. They had missed Siward's +Cross by miles and now wandered under Fox Tor above the +Mire. Each yearned to lie down and end it; and each knew +that a longing to yield was in the heart of the other. For a +moment they stood in deep snow where great rocks towered and +broke the wind. Then Commodore Miller addressed Stark, and +his dreamy, placid utterance sounded strange in the fury of the +hour. Shouts and a frenzy of fear or of energy had better, +chimed with the free and fearful forces of the air; but the +American spoke like a spirit and looked upon these material +phenomena of night and tempest as one already above their +influences and beyond their power. + +"'Tis a great thought that you and I are bigger than this +weather. A man's soul can steer through the worst storm ever +loosed against earth--steer a straight course and fear no evil of +earth or sea. This dust of us will soon be ice, my lad. We shall +sink into this frozen wilderness as rain falls on a river; but we +ourselves----" + +"Hope on, hope on," gasped the younger man. "We'll fight +the British weather as we've fought the British ships. There's a +shot in the locker yet!" + +They crawled forward, and Stark, himself failing slowly, well +knew that the increasing weight upon his arm must soon bring +him to earth with his friend. Miller was nearly spent. He began +to speak fitfully, but rambled in his speech, and discussed men +and matters beyond his companion's knowledge. For ten minutes +they pressed on, but advanced little more than two hundred yards +in the time. Snow still fell, though less heavily, and it seemed to +Stark that the wind abated a trifle, but he could not be sure, for +sensation was almost dead. His legs felt nothing, even when he +struck them against the stones. They had followed a wide slope +of the land, and now stood in the very shadow of death where +Childe the Hunter's ruined cenotaph had risen, and where legend +pointed to the sportsman's place of passing even on such a night, +and in such an hour. + +There was a sudden rent in the snow-clouds at this moment, for +out of heaven burst a blast so awful that it tore the inky curtains +of the storm, swept the air clear along its hurricane ways and +brought a fleeting glimmer of light to earth. In the black chasm +opened on high reeled suns, and the flames of bygone ages +flashed into the eyes of dying men. Then those silvery star-fires +were swallowed up again, and the tempest, shrieking like a fury, +tumbled its pall over them to lift it no more. Yet in that blast +another light than those of the indifferent universe had touched +upon Cecil Stark's fainting eyes. Dear as the smile of a friend, +as the sound of a voice, as the hand of a man stretched to save, +he had marked a ruddy flash from one little window high aloft on +the western face of Fox Tor Farm. Like a lighthouse lamp it +hung above the chaos. It flashed serene and steadfast; then the +blizzard thundered down again, and it vanished behind the snow. + +"All's over, old fellow," said Jonathan Miller. "I'm done +for--fought and lost, and glad to go. My heart's stopping. Go +on--good-bye." + +"Look, man, look! Right ahead! Ah! 'tis blotted again; +but I saw it clear enough--lifted above us--a light." + +"I shall see it too--held out of Heaven to guide us. God is +kind. The road's always clear to Him." + +"Be of good cheer yet! 'Twas an earthly light I saw--ruddy +and heart-warming! Don't--don't--give up the fight when we're +so near--one effort more--one----" + +For answer the other's hand relaxed, and he fell suddenly face +downwards. + +Stark instantly bent to raise his friend, but he could not. +Himself he dropped to his knees; then, with a great struggle, +stood again upon his freezing feet. + +"Go, lad--go," said the fallen man. "By stopping you slay +us both. Hold on to the light if you can. Speed--speed! +Death is alongside now--ready to board----" + +Stark knew the truth of this, and, striving in vain to note some +mark that should indicate where Miller lay, he turned whence the +light had shone. + +"Trust me then. I'll get back in time! Don't sleep--keep +shouting--keep shouting. We'll save you yet!" + +Stark spoke cheerily as though already in the company of other +men; but his hope perished as he turned and saw his friend a +silent spot in the darkness--already half obliterated by snow. A +sob rose in the man's throat, and he felt a tear like a spark of fire +upon his cheek. + +"The end of him--the cruel, bitter end of a great sailor and a +good man. God's curse on those that murdered him!" + +The cry came thickly and the shrieking wind carried it away. +Stark staggered against the hill, sometimes upon his feet, +sometimes on his knees. The light gleamed fitfully and directed him +across the storm. Now it vanished behind curtains of snow; +now it broke through once more, placid of flame and mellow of +hue. Higher it towered and higher, until it seemed to the +wanderer immediately above him. But even as he looked up to +it, the sailor fell into a little rivulet and struggled with fresh +bruises on to the further bank. A steep slope still subtended the +space between himself and the shining window. The light +beckoned him forward and forces unseen denied any further +advance. He could stand no longer, but grovelled on yard by +yard. Then a wall buried in the snow, raised a barrier, +mountainous to his feebleness, and he remained motionless beneath it +for a full minute. Peace was there and delicious silence. The +snow warmed him; the coverlet crept up and up. It was pulled +over his breast, neck, head, by gentle hands. He remembered +his mother and her cradle-songs in his childhood. "'Tis the +great Mother tucking me up," he thought. For a moment, as it +seemed, the glow of health and vigour drove his blood along. +Life was kissing him and saying 'good-bye.' His eyes shut; +all present things began to sink away out of his mind. He +smiled indifferently and, turning back along the pathway of +consciousness, retraced his life's short road and passed its +memories in final review. He remembered the defeat of the +_Marblehead_ and felt the sharp grief of failure. He saw the +'Stars and Stripes' flutter down, as the dying see their last sun +sink; and that darkest emotion of his days reawakened now, +mercifully held force enough to shatter the snow-trance. He +opened his eyes, found an impulse of restored energy from his +short respite, saw the light clear and sharp above, and surmounted +the stone wall, but fell prone upon the other side. Then, with a +sort of savage thankfulness that the last stage in the long fight +was come, he rolled and crawled thirty yards more, and reached +within twenty feet of Fox Tor Farm. + +Powerless to lift a finger more, he lay there, stared at the light +and blinked his eyes to keep the snow out of them, that the image +of that shining window might remain clear. Its radiance would +brighten his end, and the idea strangely comforted him. His +wits reeled again; he prayed a wild prayer: he began to long for +life with all his might, and the desire towards it poured in a frantic +torrent over him. A signal set within his eyes by man smiled +upon him, but he could not reach it. Thrice he shouted to +Miller to follow him; to shout for his own salvation did not +strike his mind; and whilst he cried aloud for the third time, the +storm, that had increased to sweep the snow clear of one bright +window, lulled, and for a moment drew a long, sobbing breath, ere +it shrieked again. In that oasis of silence the man poured out +his last cry to his friend; but only the raving voices from above +answered it, for Miller had long passed beyond sense. + +And yet, behind the granite of the farm were wakeful ears. +Aloft Grace Malherb lay sleepless, while she watched a great heap +of snow gather upon her bedroom hearth. The taper that was +leading Stark to salvation beamed steadfastly to him; to Grace, +under her blankets, it staggered and reeled and guttered, and +fought strange draughts that crept through unknown chinks and +crannies. Then, the hour being eleven, there fell that awful +simultaneous suspiration of breath in the yelling throats of the +storm. A mysterious silence touched the night and in the +moment of it a human cry--wild and faint--reached the girl's +straining ear. No other heard it, for though Malherb walked +below, uneasy before the onset of this hurricane, his dwelling lay +between him and the lost man, while for the rest all that +household slept in peace. + +Now did Death huddle close over Cecil Stark, hide him, muffle +his speech, and steal his senses one by one; yet with his last +throb of consciousness the sailor shouted on to Miller, and before +his voice stilled and his life was in the act to close, Grace +Malherb had reached her father where he walked and told her +news. He showed much doubt, yet lost not a moment, and the +last weak cry of the man in the snow saluted Beer and Malherb as +they crept round the southern front of the farm with a lantern. + +"Miller! Miller! Mil----!" + +Then they heard no more, but guided by the voice, struggled +across the snow to it and fell over a fellow-creature. + +Battered, bleeding, apparently lifeless, Beer and his master +discovered Cecil Stark; and they picked him up and thanked +God and carried him into Fox Tor Farm. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A GRAVE IN THE HEATHER + +For two days the great blizzard continued, and Cecil Stark +remained more or less unconscious. Sometimes he recovered +sufficiently to speak, and his friend's name was upon his +tongue when he did so; but the sick man could neither frame a +coherent sentence, nor make his desires understood to any listener. +At length, however, he began to mend, and Maurice Malherb, +who held himself something of a physician, pronounced that the +lad was out of danger. For this happy circumstance he took all +credit to himself, but Grace declared that she it was who had +saved the wanderer's life. As yet she had not seen him. Her +mother and Dinah Beer ministered to him during his unconsciousness, +obeyed the master in every particular, and, with most +assiduous care, steadily nursed Cecil Stark back into life after he +had said farewell to it. + +The American prisoner's return to intelligent speech brought +no small annoyance for his host. Stark's clothes were bought +from a Jew pedlar, and had not betrayed him; but he made +all clear as soon as he was able to do so; and Mr. Malherb, +stamping into the parlour after his first conversation with the +invalid, announced a discovery with considerable wrath. As yet +no news of the outer world had reached Fox Tor Farm. It lay +separated from all things by impenetrable barriers and drifts of +snow. + +"An American! A wretched prisoner who broke out of Prince +Town on the night of the storm. One Cecil Stark, by a vile +coincidence. Doubtless that rascal who came so near to braining +Grace in the summer. Himself and other blackguards climbed +over the walls, for our sentries had been moved and wrapped in +cotton wool, I suppose, to keep the weakly fools from freezing! +Once in the teeth of the storm, three of the six prisoners turned +tail and went back as fast as their legs would carry them. Three +held on. One--a common sailor--was soon lost; two--this lad +and another officer--struggled to within a hundred yards of my +mansion. Then the elder fell to rise no more, and the boy, with a +last effort, reached us. The rest you know. Thanks to Grace +and to me, he will regain his worthless life, and not lose a finger." + +"But the other poor souls--how monstrous sad to think that +one perished almost at our doorstep! I pray you despatch +Beer, Woodman, and the rest instantly, dear Maurice," cried +Mrs. Malherb. + +"Am I a stone?" he answered. "Already the men and dogs +are seeking this unfortunate creature. But he is far beyond all +help. It may be that we shall not find him before the melting of +the snows." + +Mr. Malherb hastened off, and Annabel, taking Grace with her, +went to see their guest. Young Lee had been appointed night +nurse to the sufferer, and now John met Grace and her mother as +they arrived. + +"Mr. Stark is sitting up," he said. "He finds himself too +weak to rise, but he awaits you very eagerly. I hear him +mumbling a speech that shall express his deep regret for all the +care he has given here." + +"He shall say no such things," declared Mrs. Malherb; yet, +before she could prevent it, Stark began upon the theme at his +heart. + +"Forgive me, madam, for this terrible trouble that I have +brought into your home. I had better far have died outside it. +Yet I bless you that I still live. To sharp ears and generous +courage and wonderful skill I owe my salvation, and 'tis beyond +human power ever to thank you for such goodness. Samaritans +indeed have you been to me. You have given me back my life." + +"Then I pray you to set a better value on it, Master Stark," +said Annabel, "for truly you rated it but low to venture it on such +a hazard." + +"It shall be precious henceforth. When I grow desperate I +will consider the price of skill and trouble with which you and +your husband have redeemed it." + +"And my daughter, sir; your best thanks are due to her, for +'twas she who heard your cry in the night." + +Grace, gazing down, saw a strong, young face, with wild black +hair, a powerful neck, square jaw, and clean, firm mouth. Stark's +countenance was very thin, and the grey eyes that burnt out of it +appeared dim and weary. Their lids kept falling upon them. But +now into his face came a flush. He had not yet looked at Grace +Malherb, nor did he do so now. + +"God bless your daughter, madam. And have they found +him--my friend--the Commodore? 'Twas to him I shouted, and +forgot that the cry might reach any other listener." + +"I fear you must not hope----" + +"No, no. I only trust that he may be found--his dust. Oh, +God of Mystery! to think that I led my friend directly to your +very gates and lost him then because my senses were sealed up. +Mayhap one word had saved him! And such a sailor as any +nation might take glory in! He lies there, frozen to death; +while I bide here alive, with angels to tend my good-for-nothing +body." + +"He's gone to greater and better work, young sir," said +Annabel. + +"There's no greater or better work on earth or in Heaven, +madam, than to fight for one's country," he answered wearily. + +"And is not Heaven the Country of us all? What nobler task +than to fight for that? You shall find there--not Frenchmen, +nor Englishmen, nor Americans--but only happy souls at rest." + +"Your land has killed a great man," he said. + +"Alas, sir! Of what nation on earth can less be confessed? +The conqueror's path is often over noble corpses. You are young +and our terrible solitudes have not yet tamed you. We shall see +you again to-morrow. Meantime John Lee and Mrs. Beer are at +your beck and call by night and day. And accept my earnest +and prayerful thanksgiving that you are spared to do worthy work +in the world." + +"And mine too, Mr. Stark," said Grace. + +Then, for the first time, he lifted his eyes to her face and +recognised her. Thereupon his slight colour faded away, and he +seemed like to faint. Instead, he braced himself, sat up, regarded +her with deep emotion and spoke. + +"I remember you! You have paid me good for evil, indeed. +I----" + +But here his fortitude failed him, his spirit was shaken in +its present feeble state, and he turned his face away to the wall. +Annabel hastened her daughter out of the room and followed her +immediately. + +"The poor young man is reduced to the utmost weakness," +she presently told her husband. "He must have all the strong +and sustaining fare that we can bestow upon him to restore his +masculine serenity. 'Twas he whose chisel nearly destroyed dear +Gracie, and when he saw her and thought upon it, he hid his +face to weep. 'Twas a pitiful sight--happily only seen by +women." + +"Death came so nigh that it robbed him of manhood--if +Americans have manhood--yet just missed to grasp at his life. +We must restore him to health and to prison as quickly as +may be. There is wine in my cellar--an elixir beyond reach of +any now, for none remains in the market. He shall be free of it. +Yet I hate to think that even in the name of humanity we have +suffered an American to cross this threshold." + +"Our country's enemy, father, not ours," said Grace. + +"And since when were my country's enemies not mine, chit?" +he asked. + +"Yet you praised Monsieur Marliac, who is on parole at +Ashburton, for his riding in that noble run before the ill +weather." + +"His riding, yes; not him. He happens to be a marvellous +fine horseman with British resource and courage. Some Englishman +doubtless taught him. Have done with that. When this +boy returned to consciousness, my first demand upon him was +that he should give me his parole. Needless to say, he instantly +agreed to do so." + +The baying of a hound, the shrill barking of two terriers, and +the murmur of men's voices came through the window. Other +sounds there were not, for the snow had long muffled up the +earth and made its frozen surface dumb. Glancing out of the +casement, Malherb saw the sight that he awaited, bade Grace +and her mother retire, then solemnly went forth uncovered to +meet the dead. + +An hour before, Thomas Putt, with Beer, Harvey Woodman +and Mark Bickford, had tramped out of doors to seek the body +of Cecil Stark's companion. The snow no longer fell; the sky +was clear, yet lacked colour; the wind, sunk from its sustained +fury, now uttered gigantic but irregular sighs and slept between +them. When it blew, snow-wreaths puffed aloft in little spirals, +and deep white snow-banks slipped and cracked. Like streams +of ink the rivers wound beneath, and every rush and briar beside +them bent under its proper weight of snow. The glare of the +earth upthrown made Mr. Putt's eyes smart. A bitter, steely +cold still held the Moor, and every man was wrapped up in such +thick garments as he possessed. Mr. Beer wore one of his wife's +shawls wrapped round his ears, while each labourer had fashioned +himself haybands to protect his legs. They held their task vain, +but hoped that the dogs might do what they could not. The +hound--a mastiff--rejoicing in its liberation, bellowed and +plunged dewlap deep in the snow, while the terriers tumbled +and rollicked after it until only their wagging tail-stumps were +visible. + +Richard Beer growled at the evil times and speculated where +the farm field-walls might lie under this universal carpet. + +"Us might so soon seek a storm-foundered sheep or steer as a +man," declared Putt. "I'll be tissicked up wi' brownkitty again +to-night, an' nobody to care a cuss whether my breathing be hard +or easy." + +"Never seed any man wi' so poor a spirit as you," answered +Bickford. "Once you get cold to the bone an' you haven't the +pluck of a louse." + +"I'm a poor tool when I'm cold, an' I know it," admitted +Putt. "Now us be all getting our death for nought. If there +was a live party lost 'twould be differ'nt--even though he was an +enemy of the nation. But this here chap's been food for foxes +these many days." + +"'Twas a great sign of the love o' freedom said to be born in +'em, that they Yankees would rather take to the open on such +a night than bide any more pent in that den of Frenchmen and +prison evil," mused Beer. + +"I'm the last to blame 'em," declared Woodman. + +"They'm too blown up as a nation, however," added Beer. +"'Twas a very unhandsome thing to get in holds with us just +when we had our hands full wi' Boney." + +"I reckon these chaps had to do what they were told, like us," +declared Mark Bickford. "They'm sailor men, so I hear, an' 'tis +no use cussing 'em same as master do. They be only earning +their living. A sailor have got to do what he'm bid, like any +other warrior." + +"God's word! but he makes my blood boil, no matter how +cold the weather be--master, I mean. I wouldn't speak to a dog +like he speaks to me. The manhood in me will blaze out some +day," declared Putt. + +"Then you'll get turned off," said Mr. Woodman. + +"'Tis very well for you; though Lord He knows how you can +stand the mouth-speech you suffer from him in his rash moments," +retorted Putt. + +"I stand it, like a donkey eats dachells:[*] I be built to. My +family's always had a marvellous power of putting up with hard +words from our betters. Not from smaller men, mind you, nor +yet from our equals; but what's simple impidence an' sauce not +to be borne from the common sort, be just greatness of mind in +the bettermost. They don't mean nothing. 'Tis only the haughty +blood in 'em." + + +[*] _Dachells_: Thistles. + + +"'Tis just their haughty blood that these here American chaps +won't sit down under no more," declared Mr. Beer. "There's no +bettermost among them, so I'm told. A man have got to work +his way to the top. He can't be born up top; though how it +answers to have no gentlefolks, I ban't witty enough to guess." + +Malherb's great mastiff presently, by skill or accident, +discovered the thing that these men sought. Beside Childe's +desolated cenotaph the hound stopped, lifted up its head and +bayed. Then it began to dig, and the terriers, yelping loudly, +rushed to aid it. The men with their shovels made quick work, +and the corpse of Jonathan Miller lay revealed. Neither physical +agony nor mental grief clouded his features. His eyes were shut; +his countenance appeared placid under the gentle snow-slumber +that had led him through the Valley of the Shadow. All perceived +that they stood before one who had been their superior. Thomas +Putt touched his hat to the corpse. Beer dragged a bottle from +his pocket, then, appreciating the futility of troubling the dead, +prepared to put it away again with a sorrowful oath. + +But Bickford proposed another course. + +"He can't drink, poor hero, but us can. If you've brought +brandy, gi' me a drop, for I'm in a proper case for it. My feet +be just conkerbils of ice beneath me." + +Therefore they all drank, and Woodman spoke as his turn came +for the bottle. + +"Here's to the gen'leman," said he, "an' may he be out of +trouble for evermore." + +"An' here's to his wife an' family," added Beer, wiping the +mouth of the bottle with his sleeve before he put it to his +lips. "You may be pretty sartain he's left a wife an' half a +dozen, for men in new countries allus get a quiver full, according +to the wonnerful wisdom of the Lord." + +"An' I'll drink to the sexton," said Bickford, "because the +ground's froze two feet, an' the digging of this carpse's grave be +going to fetch out a proper sweat on some man." + +"You take his honour's heels, will 'e, Woodman? An' walk +first. Me an' Putt will hold each a shoulder. You gather up the +tools, Bickford, an' keep back they dogs. Look at thicky baggering +hound! He knows he've done a clever thing an' wants the +world to know it." + +So they returned and cast their features into a solemn mould at +the direction of Richard Beer. + +"Us can't be axed to feel no more than the proper sorrow of +man for man," he explained, "but death's death; an' it might be +you or me as was going feet first an' shoulder high, but for the +goodness of God an' us being Englishmen." + +"The poor soul's feet would make a merry-andrew sober," said +Woodman. "What he's suffered only him an' his Maker will +ever know." + +"They'll be cured again afore his honour wants 'em," answered +Richard Beer. "He'll rise so well as ever he was at the Trump, +along with the best man amongst us." + +That night a coffin was built and the dead American's remains +laid with reverence therein. A few papers and a watch were +found in Miller's pockets, and Malherb, making a packet of them, +handed all to the prisoner on parole. Then, two days afterwards, +when the weather was bright and the temperature had a little +risen, Stark found himself strong enough to rise and creep about +and reach the grave that had been dug for his friend. + +Maurice Malherb selected a resting-place upon his own +domain; and to Bickford himself the task of sinking six feet into +the frozen soil was allotted. Thus within the bosom of Dartmoor, +as many of his countrymen before him, a good and wise son of +America was laid to rest; but his compatriots' dust mouldered +under the prison walls; the sailor slept on the central waste. And +still his pall is the solemn-moving and purple shadow of the +clouds in summer, and in winter the unstained snow; still his +knell is sounded in the musical echo of sheep-bells, or the cry of +birds by night. The life and activity of Fox Tor Farm have +vanished into the eternal past, and graves widely scattered hold +those who buried Miller then; but none sleep so grand, so +solitary as he in his forgotten tomb under the heather. A repulsed +civilisation has retreated before the severity of the land, before +the far-flung granite, hungry peat and rough greeting of winter +winds and storms; but these forces, harsh to living man, are the +patient watchers beside his grave; this earth and stone he cannot +tame, yet they open their hearts to him at the last. + +The American was present as chief mourner at his friend's +interment; while Maurice Malherb read the funeral service, and +at his order all the human life of the farm assembled beside the +grave. Stark, now restored to strength, exhibited no trace of +emotion during the ceremony, and at the completion of it he +limped homeward with Mrs. Malherb and her daughter. This +he did by direct command. + +"Your health and the weather do not permit me to allow you +to follow your wish," his host said curtly; "but I shall be proxy +for you in my own person." + +Therefore Maurice Malherb waited beside the grave alone until +Putt and Bickford had completely filled it up. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE OLD AND THE NEW + +In the restless eyes of Cecil Stark there seemed reflected the +hunger, ignorance and hope of a new-born nation, together +with the spirit of its genius and the solemn magnitude of its +destiny. He stood for young America; he typified that majestic +land over which the first silver of day had broken, whose +transcendent future, sung by the Sons of the Morning, already filled +with music a thrilling dawn. Dayspring had touched her eastern +shores and now, sweeping over her virgin bosom, warmed the +heart that beat there. It advanced with the speed of light, and +promised soon to illuminate her spirit, even as the sun himself +diurnally swept her being from ocean to ocean; then passed +beyond her Golden Gate, that he might dip in the Pacific and +behold the horizons of the East. + +Against this lad's single heart and sanguine ardour now stood +the stern figure of Maurice Malherb; and he was not the best +type of Englishman to discuss with youthful America the questions +of that hour. Yet the master stood for more than British +conservatism and prejudice. He represented glorious traditions +and a significant past. Wise and tolerant exposition of their +differences had made Stark the man's friend; rational argument +and some allowance for the point of view had impressed this +young heir of the future and warmed a heart already full of +personal gratitude; but Malherb adopted an unwise position. +Calm discussion never distinguished his methods; to find in the +welfare and advancement of humanity at large a common ground +for nations, was no ambition of his. He did not point backward +to history and invite Cecil Stark to claim his glorious birthright +in the story of the Anglo-Saxon race--a course reasonable enough +one hundred years ago, before the American family became +hybrid. He did not indicate his guest's just right, title and +share in British story and glory; he did not remind Stark that +he was the fellow in blood of Drake and Raleigh, of Shakespeare +and Milton; but he denounced all Americans as traitors to their +fatherland, spoke of the Revolution, not of the Wars of +Independence, and blamed the New World with a rabid bitterness +that indicated his class-attitude and justified America more +thoroughly than any power of rhetoric or oratory could have +done. + +Sometimes they agreed to differ, and dropped the subject +without heat; more often Malherb broke off with an oath and cursed +the weather for still keeping an enemy of England beneath his +roof. And yet, despite his flagrant passions and narrow sympathy, +he won Cecil Stark, as he won many others, by some magic of +character that rose superior to his temper and persistent pride. + +Once the American summed the situation in a biting phrase, +that stuck with his country's foe long after the speaker had +forgotten it. They sat over their wine after dinner, and the lad +spoke with pride of the part that a kinsman had played in the +capture of the British General Burgoyne. + +"Small credit to him," declared Malherb. "Burgoyne? The +man was better at making rubbishy pieces for the playhouse than +leading an army." + +"But those matters that fell out after--they sum the difference--the +fundamental differences of ideas between the respective +countries, Mr. Malherb," said the sailor. "Simplicity--childish +simplicity, if you like--is our keynote, and we shall never depart +from it back into old-world pomp. When Burgoyne, clad in a +magnificent uniform covered with gold lace, surrendered up his +sword, he found the conqueror wearing an old blanket for a cloak +and a cotton cap stuck over one ear. There was the type of +monarchy triumphed over by a despised but an inspired race. +Afterwards Congress, in a sudden fit of reckless generosity, +presented General Stark with two ells of blue and one of yellow +cloth to make him a conqueror's coat, and six shirts of Dutch +linen to wear under it withal! But my father well remembered +the general complaining when he received his nation's gift that +the cambric for his cuffs was not provided!" + +"What argument do you reap from beggarly poverty, sir?" + +"Why, sir, who are you to flout it? The beggars won! +The beggars had the genius on their side. Your country calls +for millions on millions to grease the old, creaking wheels of +its social and constitutional machinery before they will turn at +all; America's unique simplicity only places a single sentinel at +the President's door." + +"Our failure was an accident of men, not of system," declared +Malherb. "Fortune favoured a wicked cause as not seldom +happens. You had Washington--a man as great as a fallen +angel; we--well, it is idle to name names to-day. But it may +be permitted to allude to the Howes, who sacrificed to fraternal +affection the vital trust imposed upon them. It is granted that +we fought ill and taught you what to avoid; it is even allowed +that the scholar became as skilled as the master. Your +experience, courage and discipline are British; your treachery and +red-skin morality are your own. However, the last word is not +yet spoken. There are yet a great many Tories in America." + +"Of whom I am one," declared Cecil Stark. "Those who +pretend to read the future," he continued, "see two great +tendencies amongst us--one towards democracy, t'other towards +aristocracy. The nation may become vulgar, or it may become +noble; but it must become great. None can say more of our +future than that by all laws of revealed religion and human +history, it should be glorious so long as our aims are pure. To +foretell that calls for no prophet." + +"What religion sanctions the revolt of a child from its parent? +You were not of age. You had no right to think for yourselves." + +"The old British fallacy," answered Stark. "Freedom of +thought can be denied to none. Deny all other freedom, if you +will. But freedom of thought is an immortal fact." + +"And duty to your betters is also an immortal fact. Your +nation--so to call it--has disgraced itself at the opening of its +history. It has begun its separate existence in its father's blood. +For what prosperity and blessing shall the country seek that blots +the first page of its history with such a crime?" + +"A revolt against ignorance, oppression, greed and dishonesty +is no crime. Your Parliament had become a hell of narrow-minded, +cold-hearted, cynical devils, and to spurn them was a +glorious achievement in itself, and the first step upon our path. +Slaves do not lift their eyes to the stars and play a worthy part in +the history of the world." + +"Yet those of us who visited and reported upon you before +this war, told no great tale of progress." + +"No; they told lies. They were dishonest rascals and did +more harm than enough by their falsehoods. You'll regret their +deliberate mendacity in the time to come; you'll lament the +bitterness of many broad-sheets when the weeds sown in your +heads bear fruit in your children's hearts. Pull them out while +you can, if you are wise, sir. 'Tis a mad policy to leave them +there. Our destiny is sure as the daylight; dark clouds hang +over yours. You are old, we are young, yet, when an American +is on your lips, your error is that of youth, for you are always +hasty and intolerant when you speak of us. It was no unnatural +revolt of child against parent, but the noble self-assertion of a +growing man, whose liberty, dignity and honour were threatened +by a tyrant. We were of your heart's blood; us you might have +buckled to you with bonds impossible save between those of one +race and one mother. But you spurned us; our welfare was of +no account; our power to fill your coffers was everything. You +treated us damnably by the hands of base politicians, who +lacked common intelligence and foresight. And you have your +reward." + +"This is the parrot talk of your people, and your trashy +scribblers. Public opinion governs America as it must every +republic; and what is the public opinion of a nation of rebels +worth? You are poisoned by the circumstances of your birth. +You have built your stronghold on lawlessness; you spread false +reports into your backwoods and mountain fastnesses, your +pioneers will never know the thing their leaders did. There is +no purity in your public mind; every prejudice against England +is fostered until it festers. You are rotten at the roots, and time +must prove it." + +"I do not think so," answered Stark calmly. "We are a very +dispassionate people, Mr. Malherb, and of most unbiassed +judgments. We would have listened to Burke; his sublime voice +was unheeded amidst the chorus of your ignoble leaders. It +pleases you, and those who think as you do, to impute to us a +hot-headed and fanatic attitude in our dealings with this nation; +but you have driven us into a corner and made us fight for our +lives and liberties. Were we to be to England what our black +people are to us? God forbid! We are unprejudiced. Prejudice +is a wasting disease of old countries; you shall not find it among +the infantile ailments of a young state." + +"And will you crow as loudly of the justice of this present +shameful war, Mr. Stark? Will you dare hold America innocent +of a sinister object at this moment? This quarrel scraped on +false pretences, while we have France upon our hands--what +casuistry can justify that?" + +"I deem it unfortunate, not unnatural. You have taught us +to hate you, not to love you. There's no hatred worse than that +of kin." + +"Or of madmen, for what in sober sanity they should most +love and cherish. You're a mad people, and America at this +day is sunk to be the sink and lunatic asylum of the earth." + +Stark flushed, then sighed. + +"I hope you'll live to mourn the folly of such an utterance, +dear sir. And for your estimate of us, take mine of you: Great +Britain is becoming America's volume of reference--no more; +and soon enough at the gait she is ganging, she will be altogether +behind the van of progress." + +"Not yet. We're writing history somewhat quickly. You at +Prince Town should know that!" + +"The war's not over." + +"Why, I think it is--all but the terms of peace. I wish I had +the making of 'em." + +"Our turn will come. No country can conquer Time. A wise +man has said that nations crumble by the process of their own +up-massing, like sand in an hour-glass. The fall of every great +power is a natural corollary of its rise--as death must follow life. +It is not of vital importance to America whether England does +her justice now; but it is of vital and eternal importance to +England whether she does. We are separated, but the gulf in +space matters nothing; it is the gulf in thought that counts. +There will come a day when your country will curse those who +might have bridged that gulf and helped united England and +America to rule the round world. Now it is too late--successive +generations will drift further apart, until the bonds that unite us +are base and of utility alone. And God, Who judges Nations, +as He judges souls, will know how to measure blame when the +day of reckoning comes and the awful charge of setting back the +world's welfare is read at Doom." + +It was this boyish utterance that made Malherb reflect and +shadowed his dogmatic certainties. But for a moment only was +he silent. Then he rated Stark's ardour and mourned his +hopeless ignorance. + +They drank their wine and joined the ladies. Before Mrs. Malherb +and Grace, politics were not spoken, and intercourse +between Stark, his hostess and her daughter was of the friendliest +description. The women dispelled his mournful horror of life, +brightened existence, and made it a good, desirable, hopeful +thing again. They much softened the bitterness of his outlook +and appealed to the generosity and gentleness of his nature. To +them he spoke of his circumstances, since they showed a lively +and ingenuous interest concerning them. He told how that he +was an orphan, that he had an uncle of great wealth and +importance in his native state of Vermont, and that he was heir to +Allen Stark's lands and moneys. He described his youth beside +Lake Champlain; he explained his pleasures and ambitions, the +customs of his country and the social life of his order. + +Cecil Stark's home interested Grace; the people in it attracted +her mother. He told them of the Green Mountains and declared +that his native land had something in common with their own +wild Dartmoor. + +"Our great hills gather the water in their moss beds even as do +yours," he said. "Problems like these of the Moor on a larger +scale occupy the Vermont settlers. The intervales are a boon to +us--low, fertile lands about the rivers. Great floods overrun +them in spring and make them rich. But there is a wide +difference in other ways. We fight with forests, you with naked +wastes. We fell trees that the earth may receive the sun again +and grow warm and sweet; you plant them to shelter your lands +and homesteads. We hope in time to better our climate, make it +more equal and moderate and lessen the awful snows of winter." + +"Then your hills are clothed, not naked as ours?" inquired +Mrs. Malherb. + +"The Green Mountains are covered with aged forests of dwarf +evergreens; pine, spruce and hemlock, that spring above stone +and moss and winter grass," replied the sailor. "They rise green +into the blue sky; their great gorges and valleys are full of blue, +mysterious shadows; falling waters glimmer upon their sides and +make music there in summer and thunder in winter time." + +"We have our Wistman's Wood," said Grace; "but no forests +now; and no lakes such as the glorious sheets of water that you +tell us of." + +"The rivers leap down to them. My earliest childhood's +memory is a little boat on Champlain. Even then my small soul +longed for the greater sea. Other children would not believe in +it. I always did." + +Stark told Grace of the natural things her soul loved. + +"The brown beaver of North Vermont is a wonder of wonders," +he declared. "'Tis the most social of living things. It regulates +and governs its ideal republic in a manner so marvellous, that I +think a beaver had been the best image for our banner and +emblem of our hopes. A pure and perfect constitution obtains +amongst 'em. Such harmony men will never know, but must +always covet." + +He told of their dams and lodges, their arts of safety, their +home life. He added many startling facts believed a hundred +years ago concerning the beaver, but discredited to-day. + +Malherb shook his head. + +"You are too eager to flaunt the superiority of even your brute +beasts," he said. "You will praise the Red Indians next." + +"They have their virtues, sir. Perhaps the man of America +has learned from them something of that passionate love of +freedom that inspires him. At least Vermont's history is glorious +in that respect. We played a notable part before an evasive and +temporising Congress. We preserved our independence. We +declined to sacrifice our rights, either to the intrigues of our +neighbours, or the threats of our supreme tribunal. We challenged +the impartial world in 1779, and refused once and for all to +submit our sacred liberties to the arbitrament of man. Vermont +existed independently of the thirteen United States, and was not +accountable to them for the Creator's gift of freedom. We spent +our best blood and treasure fighting for it. Were we to give up +all at our neighbour's bidding? Were we to hold a great frontier +for the States and be rewarded with slavery? We had rather +have cast in our lot with Canada--we had even rather have +made terms with England than bend under the yoke of New +York." + +"A lifelong misfortune for you that you did not," answered +the farmer. + +"No, no. The sequel justified all. To turn to England to +settle the rights of man in the Colonies would have been an +insane act in those days. Your Government was not then +competent to approach such a question as the rights of man." + +"No politics, gentlemen," said Annabel; whereupon Cecil +Stark begged for pardon, and with sufficient tact turned to matters +of more personal interest. He told of sheep and the success +attending their breeding in Vermont. + +"A wether of three years will weigh one hundred and twenty +pounds with us, and yield you three or four pounds of wool," +he said. Then he discussed flax--a crop at that time grown +also upon Dartmoor--and he fascinated Grace with a description +of the maple sugar manufacture, of the precious juice flowing +from ancient trees, and of the gorgeous pageant of the maples +when Autumn's breath touched their foliage and lighted their +aboriginal forests with scarlet and purple and flaming gold. + +At other times the lad awakened sorrow in sympathetic hearts +by his descriptions of the War Prison and the pitiful life there. +But he did not guess the secret pain he thus occasioned; he did +not know that Annabel Malherb often sighed when she looked +into the wintry Moor. Soon a journey to Prince Town would be +again possible, and Maurice Malherb much desired it. Neither +did the American imagine that Grace suffered dire unrest at +this period; nor dream that her maiden happiness slowly +foundered in a sea of new sensations, mostly miserable. Yet such +was the simple case. Sometimes she shook herself out of these +amazing and unprecedented trances with a blushing face and +beating heart. Then to the night she would cry softly, "I +love John Lee--I love dear John!" But why the fact needed +this nocturnal declaration oft repeated, and what antithesis of +ideas called it forth under the darkness, Grace Malherb as yet +imperfectly perceived. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +STARK RIDES AWAY + +Within the space of ten short days Cecil Stark was +turned from supreme indifference concerning life or +death to the contrary emotion. Existence for him had become +endowed with a lively charm, and if Grace Malherb's heart +fluttered in secret, the sailor's also now beat less steadily, and +played him pranks at her approach. He found in the maiden all +that love asks, and more by much than ever he had seen in any +other woman. Here did beauty, spirit, force of soul, music of +voice and graciousness of mien all merge in one lovely girl; and +Stark very rightly and properly went down like a man before the +irresistible. Now greedily he counted the hours and prayed that +the snow might endure. He hated the red sun that daily crept +above Cater's Beam and sank where Prince Town lay, for it +touched the drifts and changed their character. The expanses of +white glittered and settled down, while from their bowels snow-water +eternally trickled until the rivers roared, and black, boiling +streams, all splashed with yellow spume, thundered from each +great hill. Now sunlit streaks and spots of stone, heath and bog +broke the huge whiteness of the mountains, and Stark's glimpse +of Paradise was nearly over. Each morning at the breakfast-hour +he waited in fear for Maurice Malherb to pronounce sentence of +departure; each day he breathed again to find a few hours were +still left to him. + +Grace Malherb proved such a listener as sailors love. She had +not imbibed many of her father's prejudices, and was too full of +the delight of life on one side, its personal problems and puzzles +on the other, to concern herself with politics or abstract ideas +touching the welfare of nations. Cecil Stark did what Grace's +father was powerless to do, and wakened in her an active interest +concerning war. She listened attentively while he rose to the +occasion and, inspired by her advertance, painted with all an +earnest lad's enthusiasm the cause for which he fought. She +watched from under lowered lids, and while he fancied that her +heart must throb to the cannon's roar or the crash of falling spars, +she was either comparing his powerful face with the more delicate +and more classic features of her lover, or contrasting the fire of +the fighting man with the dreamy disposition of John Lee. But +John Lee would presently be a fighting man also. + +Little basenesses crept into the soul of poor Grace under this +ordeal. By night she wept bitterly at herself and marvelled to +behold her own meanness. She found herself secretly thankful +that Cecil Stark knew nothing of her engagement; then, heartily +ashamed, she probed this instinct, and imagined that it must be +caused by the American's superiority of position and of rank. In +reality she erred and the truth was far different; but this the girl +had not as yet discovered. Her misery was extreme, and she +blamed herself bitterly when she reflected how much of her +thoughts the American prisoner already owned. Indeed, all other +concerns swept headlong into a remote, unimportant past. And +it was so with the man; for his first love now lighted life with +wild, unrestful glory. Of the maiden's heart, indeed, he knew +nothing, but, impelled to do so by a vague hope as to the future, +he had made a clean breast of his own affairs and dwelt egotistically +upon them. Not seldom Mr. Peter Norcot's former assertion +clouded those moments in which Stark had sense to pause +and reflect, yet the other's name was never mentioned by Grace, +and he began presently to hope that the wish was father to Peter's +thought and declaration. There seemed no evidence that Miss +Malherb's future was already determined. + +The sailor's ambitions Grace admired with enthusiasm; his +splendid future, his prospective flocks and herds, lands and +homesteads beside the Champlain, attracted her less keenly. But +more topics than one made the girl's eyes sparkle as he spoke of +them. + +"You are such a Diana that you'd love Vermont," Cecil once +said. "Our folks, however, hunt for business rather than sport. +We had moose, deer, bears, foxes and wolves once, and peltry +was the great business of the trappers and pioneers. Even yet +our furs fetch near two thousand pounds every year; but the +beasts are being killed faster than Nature can restore them. +They will soon vanish." + +"We had wolves here, too. I think the last was killed in +Tudor times. 'Twas an obligation under the old local laws that +the folk should slay them. Now we have little but foxes; and a +good, red Moor fox is the best in England." + +"I never hunted, though I can ride sailor-fashion. Now I +should like to see you in the saddle, Mistress Grace!" + +"Of course you hunt in the English way, if you have respectable +hound-fearing foxes?" she asked, ignoring his desire concerning +herself. + +"Yes; many amongst us stick stoutly to New England ways, +which, indeed, are the same as old England ways for that matter. +But in states of society such as ours, the conditions make for +change. We are deeply interested in education and enterprise; +we marry early; we advocate equality of rights, because that is +natural where all men have the same interests. But equality +of power we never pretend to. The idea is nonsensical; Nature +herself shows that. Men are unequal in power and capacity--so +are all other animals. We are, I think, both economical and +hospitable. We resent control of religion, and hold liberty +of thought in that matter vital. We have an elastic mind in +affairs of government, and don't attempt to bind posterity to our +forms in your English fashion. In England men are full of +opinions and empty of information. We let opinions go hang +and never tire of learning. We keep fluid; we respect human +life very much. Instead of a hundred and sixty capital crimes, as +there are in Great Britain, we have but nine sins in Vermont for +which a man is punished by death. We marry early----" + +"You said that before." + +"Did I? Well--it's interesting." + +"So it is." + +"But I bore you to distraction--I am sure that I must do so, +Miss Malherb." + +"Very far from it, Mr. Stark. You interest one and all of us. +It is marvellous to me how you tell each amongst us the sort +of things most likely to attract him, or her. You have made +every man your friend; and every woman too." + +She dimly guessed his meaning when he dwelt so much upon +himself, and told of his honoured family, and of his future as the +survivor of the race. + +Throughout the severe weather it was impossible for John Lee +to see more than a passing glimpse of his lady. The hardship +of this specially touched Grace's heart, and not seldom, after +intimate chatter with the American, she purposely sought +disconsolate John that she might cheer his loneliness and longing. +But in the vital matter of the guest, young Lee suffered less than +would have been supposed. Jealousy was no part of his nature. +He rejoiced heartily that Grace should have company so interesting +during the tedious days after the storm. In common with +Beer, Woodman and the rest, John appreciated Cecil Stark, and +found his own sentiments echo the sailor's on many subjects. +The labourers often discussed their visitor, admired the frank, +friendly spirit in which he came amongst them at their work, and +regretted the fact that he must soon return to prison. + +Once in a morning hour Grace played her piano to the guest, +and upon opening a music-book, the ghost of a sprig of white +heather, now turned brown, tumbled out of it. Mr. Peter Norcot +had presented this trophy, and placed it to mark a song of +Herrick's, with Purcell's accompaniment. + +Now Stark noted the flower. + +"You like it not, I see," he said, for memory suddenly clouded +the singer's eyes. + +"Dead heath," she answered; "and for me I vow that it +never lived. A gentleman placed it there because the song +pleased him." + +"I'd give the world to know who 'twas, Miss Malherb." + +"You shall hear for nothing. There is no secret. The name +will not be new to you, I think; Mr. Peter Norcot." + +Stark's face fell, and the recollection of many things crowded +down bleakly upon him. + +"He's a good man--a great-hearted, generous spirit," he +declared. + +Grace did not answer. + +"I have been blind lately," he continued. "My wits went +wandering in the blizzard and have never returned. It has pleased +me to forget Mr. Norcot too long. What might have been, Miss +Malherb! He won parole for us out of his own pure goodness +and love of humanity. But meantime we had tried to escape +and failed. A mad world! And but for that Jonathan Miller +might still be living. The man's name must be blessed by every +American that hears it--Norcot's, I mean." + +Still Grace made no reply. + +"Such a gentleman must be above possibility of error in such +a vital thing as he confided to me," pursued Cecil gloomily. +"I ought to have faced the fact sooner and not let my fool +thoughts---- So you are going to marry him, Miss Malherb?" + +"Never, Mr. Stark." + +"He told me so--truly he believed it." + +"He is wrong. He is a most worthy person, and he very +seldom makes a mistake. But he is wrong for once when he says +that, or thinks it--wildly, utterly, hopelessly wrong." + +"You do not love him?" + +"My father does. He desires that I should wed him." + +"But surely----?" + +"'Surely I could do no better,' you were going to say?" + +"Indeed, no. Surely your father's first thought is your future +happiness?" + +"My future--not my future happiness. You see, one's parents +have got over our young delusions about people being happy. +Fathers and mothers forget that love matters. They hold it as +we hold the fleeting wretchedness of a toothache. They don't +even pity us. Yet my father was a grand lover, for my mother +has told me so; but he has forgotten." + +"You honour me to divulge these sacred things about yourself. +Poor Norcot--and yet--in a sense--in truth from my whole heart +and soul, I mean. But how is this to the point? To sum up, you +don't love him?" + +"That is exactly what I strive day and night to make clear to +everybody." + +"Would it be beyond the limits of courtesy to breathe a +question on so great a subject? Yet I seem to know the answer. +It must be so. It sinks like lead into me; you love somebody +else, Miss Malherb?" + +"Heyday! And if I do, why should you be miserable, Mr. Stark? +I love my mother, sir, and my father, and--and all who +love me--excepting only Mr. Norcot. I love him too--the Bible +bids me love him; but I don't like Him. The Bible is too wise +to order the impossible. It does not tell us to like anybody." + +"Listen, if I may--at least----" + +"Do you hear the river in flood? It is like the sound of an +angry sea by night." + +"I hear it well enough. The snows are melting, and my +happiness with them. Oh, if I dared--before I left you! If I +had a pinch of my country's courage!" + +"You do not lack for that, else you would never have seen +Dartmoor." + +"That was the chance of defeat. But real bravery---- There's +such a madness here raging in me--such a hurricane +that----" + +"Oh, dearie me! Even such nonsense does Mr. Peter Norcot +talk!" + +"And so you answer him. Yet your eyes are gentler than +your tongue. I'll speak--I care not. I'm only a sailor swept +here by chance. Fate--at least Providence, I mean--to be plain, +I love you! I love you so dearly that I'd--but not until I'm no +longer a prisoner. After the war--could you listen then? I--oh, +my heart and my life, say I may come back again after the war!" + +The lightning progress of this business burnt poor Grace like +fire. She gasped as he spoke. Her senses reeled. She had not +strength to draw from him the hand that he had clasped and now +passionately kissed. He was down upon his knees beside her, +and she saw his great chest rise and fall, she felt his eyes pierce +to her heart and read the truth there. Now she understood her +mistake. This was love, and all the past only a ghostly phantom +and mockery of it. She longed to give herself up to him. She +felt that he offered her life, that his voice woke the soul that +had slept until now within her. Then she blushed at the baseness +of her thoughts and spoke with levity to hide the first mighty joy +and the first master-sorrow that her heart had ached over. + +"Come back if it pleases you, Mr. Stark. But not to me. +Worthless thing that I am, another already claims my love." + +He released her hand reverently, then rose. + +"'Twas an insult to you not to know that without being told. +I did right to say that I was mad." + +"You'll never speak of this," she whispered; "your own act +forced it from me. I am proud to think that you could love me; +but you will keep my secret?" + +"Trust me for that. As you'll keep my confession, so I shall +cherish yours. God knows how I can go on living any more. Yet +I'll even curse the end of the war that sets me free now, for free +in truth I'll never be again." + +"Then I shall feel sad to think I have a slave against my will. +I shall suffer to remember that." + +"Remember me no more at all. Only remember that you have +lifted me up and made my existence good and precious. You +saved my life and led me into a paradise. Now I must depart +again. Twice conquered by England am I; and blessed in +being conquered." + +"You are generous and I do greatly esteem you, sir," faltered +Grace. "You have brought happiness and interest and knowledge +into my ignorant days. More knowledge than you think for! I +thank you for all your goodness, and I mourn to know you are so +ill-paid. Had it not been--at least--I shall never forget you." + +"May God bless and keep you and the man you love," he said +earnestly. "You have been light in darkness to me; I shall +always love and worship you. And he who has won you has my +admiration and respect for ever. A king of men must he be!" + +Annabel Malherb entered at this moment, and she came the +bearer of stern news for Stark. Yesterday her intelligence had +sunk him into the depths of tribulation; to-day he welcomed it. +Henceforth his prison was not of stone and iron, but built in +memory. To breathe the same air with Grace Malherb would be +his sole remaining privilege now, since closer common interest +he could never claim. + +Maurice Malherb sent a courteous inquiry as to whether his +guest's convenience would be suited by early departure on the +following morning. + +"If so," said Annabel, "my husband proposes that you and he +should ride together after breakfast to--to Prince Town, dear +Mr. Stark." + +The sailor declared that he was ready. + +"And to thank you, madam, would be a vain, impossible task," +he said. "Your daughter saved my life; you and your husband +nursed me back to health, bore with me in my weakness and ill +humours, sympathised with my sorrows, treated me with a +consideration and kindness beyond belief. I shall never while I +live forget your goodness, nor forget to be grateful for it." + +Upon the following morning Cecil Stark departed, and it was +a secret joy to Grace amid all her secret grief, that he rode upon +'Cæsar.' She steeled herself to the farewell, for now she knew, +indeed, that she loved him; now she found her desire towards +him a live, gigantic and ponderable passion, not the gauzy and +delicate understanding that she had maintained with John Lee. +Love took her by the heart-strings, shook her, banished sleep, +killed appetite, wrote care within her young eyes and revealed it +upon her looking-glass at dawn. Her future life, from a vague +shadow, half shunned, half spied upon, as in the past, now came +close and stared at her. She found the time to come hideous +and wished that she might die to escape from it. She looked ill +when she bade the American prisoner "good-bye"; and he +observed it and felt it hard to keep his voice steady. + +Then Grace watched him ride away with her father, and +behind them trotted John Lee. He passed where she stood at +a wall on the farm boundaries and touched his hat to her, for he +could be seen by all. But only Grace was within reach of his +voice. + +"At last, my darling dear! At last I shall kiss your sweet lips +again! Such news--such brave news, my Gracie! I've found +the hiding-place of the amphora!" + +He passed on, and the girl, returning to her chamber, locked +the door of it and wept as she had not wept since childhood. + +"Three--three men," she sobbed to herself. "Three grown +men can all love this wretched thing. And I hate one; and +I--I--love one; and good John Lee, handsome, humble, kind, +faithful John Lee; I would rather die a thousand deaths than +break my troth to you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +GOOD NEWS + +In his own estimation Maurice Malherb had long since +mastered the mysteries of Dartmoor, and was now familiar +with its difficulties and dangers by night or day. But heavy +snow presented new problems; progress toward Prince Town +proved very difficult; many detours had to be made, and a chill +gloaming, lighted by the purity of the earth, already sank upon +the travellers before Siward's Cross was reached. + +As they approached Lovey's cottage, Malherb called up his +groom and bade him ride ahead. Until the present John had +kept behind, for his master objected to take advice or profit by +the lad's local experience. + +"Get you forward to your grandmother and order a brew of +hot drink, John Lee. A draught of milk with something from +my spirit-flask will not be amiss." + +John cantered forward and Stark, as many a man had done +before him, admired the rider's perfect skill. + +"How magnificently that fellow sits his horse," he said. + +"Well enough; but it was not I who taught him--a natural +gift," confessed Mr. Malherb. + +When they reached Mrs. Lee's hut, both dismounted and +entered the squalid den, to find a pan of milk already steaming +upon a great peat fire. Malherb showed by no word or sign the +nature of his last meeting with Lovey Lee, and the American +was similarly cautious. As for the miser, she treated them both +with equal indifference. + +Cecil Stark gazed round him to see the salvation he had +fought to find in the storm. With better knowledge of the +Moor, his amazement grew at his own recent escape; and yet +a thing not less remarkable had fallen out on the same +tremendous night. + +When Lovey Lee handed a cup to the prisoner, Malherb proposed +to add spirits from his flask, but the old woman objected. + +"Put nothing in, young sir. There's a drop of cordial there +already. Think you I don't know what cold men need to warm +their vitals?" + +Stark laughed but read the look in her eyes and took the +cup quickly. Then he saw that a hollow hazel-nut floated in the +milk and, familiar with Lovey's expedients, drank at once. The +nut he kept within his cheek and presently transferred to his +pocket. + +Anon they went their way refreshed, and, commenting upon the +grim and starved object who had ministered to them, Stark listened +to new sentiments from Maurice Malherb, and saw a little deeper +into the gulf that separated their convictions. + +"The peasant's mind has ever been my close study, and I +have endeavoured to supply his requirements all my life," declared +the older man. "His path is narrow, but well marked. To +attempt to draw him from it would be madness. Poverty is no +hardship in itself, and to teach a peasant to be other than poor +is no part of a wise man's work." + +"But education----" + +"Endangers the tranquillity of the community at large. It +unsettles their minds, loosens the bonds that holds them to +their native soil, provokes all manner of outrage. Think of the +Tories, the Peep-o'-Day Boys, the Hearts of Steel and other +ruffianly hordes of banditti that disturbed Ireland before the +rebellion." + +"But education is the watchword of civilisation," exclaimed +Stark. + +"You think so; but like every half-truth, the idea is abominably +dangerous. What do you do? Under the name of Liberty, +you invite to your naked shores the German, the Frenchman, or +any other needy and worthless adventurer who goes a-wandering. +You announce that the feudal services required by the great from +the humble in Europe are banished from your country. You tell +the new-come immigrants that lie--you, who keep your heel upon +the black and fill your pockets with the proceeds of his misery! +A race of slave-dealers to trumpet Liberty!" + +Stark flushed and felt the hit. + +"I grant some truth there. Please God, we'll live to see that +plague-spot healed. But our constitution is sound; we shall +throw our ailments off. To deny knowledge to your own +people--that is a worse disease. Consider the epidemic you will +breed!" + +"You are ignorant of history, Mr. Cecil Stark. We have centuries +of experience on which to base our judgment. What think +you fostered the naval rebellion of fifteen years agone? As a +sailor that will interest you. Why, the pen-and-ink gentry aboard +His Majesty's ships of war! They made a mutiny with their +devilish doctrines scratched on paper and spread in secret from +vessel to vessel. How shall we suppress concerted action in the +multitude, if every Jack among 'em learns to read and write? +Consider the sedition that must spring from such an abandoned +state. No, let the poor work, not think. These people are +only too ready to believe that their penury is the result of our +oppression, and grows incompatible with the rights of man. Then +what follows?" + +"They'll do as we did and cast off their chains for ever," +declared the sailor. + +"You would support anarchy then?" + +"And yet you yourself, sir, give your own workers more than +the usual wage, and pay the women as women were never paid +elsewhere--so Kekewich informed me." + +Malherb shook his head impatiently. + +"They will be talking, damn them, instead of doing their work. +Don't argue from a particular case. I've my own private +opinion--especially as to women's labour on the land. That's neither +here nor there. I'm possibly wrong. Education takes the poor +to the devil. Enlarge their views and you distort their views. +They institute uncomfortable and improper comparisons; they +begin to confuse the rights of property; the sanctity of birth is +forgotten; the interests of the country are threatened: the State +totters and falls." + +"Surely the sooner it falls, the better for England. A State +built on foundations of ignorance----" + +"So you echo your specious people. Ignorance is the solid +and everlasting rock on which the prosperity of every State must +exist. If you believe your Bible, you will see from Genesis that +the Creator made happiness depend on ignorance. The Tree of +Knowledge is a very statesmanlike conceit. Preserve a +fundamental ignorance at any cost. Your own life depends upon it. +Once let knowledge in--'tis like the foul air in a mine--death +follows. The Church battens on that golden rule; so does the +State. The security of both lie therein. But our spiritual and +temporal lords are far too wise openly to proclaim what I tell +you." + +"Then God help your country," answered the younger man; +"for a policy more cynical, more vile, was never uttered. I go to +prison now, but 'tis you who are in prison. I am free. This +State's a prison--a prison not made with hands, but with heads--a +prison of cruel prejudices, narrow distinctions, distrusts, +hatreds, and lies. But your prosperous errors shall not always +prevail against unpopular truths. Your time will come." + +"I wish you had been better brought up," said Malherb. +"You feel deeply; there is character in you; but unfortunately +it has been poisoned at the source." + +"And I wish that I could open your prison doors, sir, before +mine shut upon me. Stone and iron are only dust; they will +not endure; but the pride of Lucifer, the blind prejudice of the +Dark Ages, and such a damnable policy as you have this moment +uttered, make a prison-house for the spirit of man that it will +need a revolution to shatter." + +"It is such windy nonsense that has led you there!" answered +Malherb. + +He pointed where the grey walls of Prince Town, set in snow, +rose ashy against the twilight, and Stark's enthusiasm chilled a +little at sight of them. + +They fell into silence; then the American shook his host's +hand and bade him a grateful farewell. A moment later he had +dismounted from 'Cæsar' and entered the War Prison. + +Two surprises awaited the sailor. Within Lovey's hazel-nut +was a scrap of paper that told how, by miraculous chance, James +Knapps had escaped the blizzard, and, while turning from the +full force of it, in reality corrected his way and made a straight +journey to the hut by Siward's Cross. Thus wonderfully he +saved his life; and his eyes, at a crack in the boards of Lovey's +ceiling, had watched Cecil Stark beneath. Through Lovey, +Knapps now made urgent appeal to his friends, and the paper +in the nutshell called for money to pay the miser and for +instructions as to the future conduct of Mr. Knapps himself. + +Heartened by this circumstance, Cecil Stark presently went +before the authorities; and then another sensation greeted him. +During his absence Captain Cottrell had been superseded, and a +new commandant now reigned over the prisoners. + + + + +BOOK III + +UNDER THE EARTH + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE TREASURE HOUSE + +On a day when the storm had sunk to a grim memory, when +cold winds blustered and more snow fell through the dark +and sunless weeks before spring-time, did Harvey Woodman and +Richard Beer hold converse with ancient Kekewich. For once +the pessimist had those of the household with him; but no +sooner were the labouring men reduced to a condition of absolute +hopelessness before the picture he painted, when Kekewich +changed sides, according to his wont, took up his master's part +and foretold fair things out of contradiction. + +"Ban't our business," declared Woodman, "an' yet even a +common man have eyes; an' touching the potatoes, a fool could +see he's wrong." + +"Actually feeding the stock on 'em, an' grumbling when my +wife goes to fill a sack for the house!" said Beer. "Ban't good +husbandry or good sense to feed beastes on such human food. +Lord knows they potatoes cost enough to fetch up out o' the +airth. 'Twould be better far to face the trouble an' buy fodder +in a big spirit." + +"No method to him, if a man may say so without disrespect," +answered Woodman. "Of course you wants to look forward +more 'pon Dartymoor." + +"He fights the Moor same as he fights life," explained +Kekewich. "The masterfulness of un be so tremendous that us +might almost look to see Nature go down afore him." + +"Nature don't go down; 'tis us that do," replied Beer; "an' +if the storm haven't taught him that, nothing won't. 'Tis no +sense your telling that sort o' rummage, Kek, an' very well you +know it." + +"Not but the gentleman have his black moments," continued +Woodman. "I've seed him pass by me many a time wi' a cloud +on's face, an' a puzzled look in his eyes, as if he was trying to +read in a book an' couldn't catch the meaning. Essterday he +stood in the opeway an' stared out afore him so grim as a ghost, +as if he might have been waiting a message from the sky." + +"He'll get a message as he won't like the taste of afore long," +foretold Beer. + +"He don't go about the right way to larn, I'm sure--to say it +without offence," added Woodman. + +"He won't larn nought from you dumpheads, that's sartain," +said Kekewich. "But he'm far off a fool, an' his heart's got +eyes if his head haven't. When all's said, 'tis for his lady an' his +darter he thinks an' plans. He lies waking o' nights for the honour +an' glory of the family. Things will fall out right yet, an us +shall live to see it." + +"'Tis very well, though you'm the first to holler 'ruin' yourself +most days," retorted Beer, rather indignant that Kekewich should +thus take up a position so unusual. "Us all knows the man do +mean well as an angel, yet it looks a very unhandsome thing to +thrust his maiden into matrimony with a chap she hates like +sin." + +"So it do," assented Woodman. "You'm right, Richard. He'll +take his stand behind his darter's welfare an' put a husband she +hates upon her. Wise it may be; Christian it ban't. But +everything's cut and dried now, and Mordecai Cockey, the journeyman +tailor, be coming in six weeks to make the clothes, so my wife +tells me." + +"The maiden's Malherb, faither or no faither," said Beer, "and +Dinah, as understands such affairs, have marked by many a +foretoken that she won't wed out of her heart--not for fifty faithers." + +"Matters be coming to a climax then," declared Harvey +Woodman solemnly. "My wife dreamed o' blood t'other night; +an' for my part I've seen Childe's tomb in my dreams, wi' Childe +hisself rising up like a ragged foreign bear. I do hate for things +to come in a heap this way. Ban't natural we should be called +upon to suffer more ills than one to a time. There's the whole +Book of Lamentations bearing down on Fox Tor Farm in my +opinion, an' I'd so soon be away as not." + +"He've got money, however," argued Beer. "Money will +stem a good few mortal ills, let them as haven't got none say +what they please." + +"As to that, my Mary heard him tell Missis something about a +canal somewheres that's gone scat; an' the lady turned white as +curds an' went in her chamber for to get over it unseen," answered +Woodman. "If you ax me, I reckon he'm driven for money. +When I spoke to un of half a dozen more drashels,[*] as wouldn't +have cost half-a-crown, he got so touchy as proud-flesh, an' told +me to run out of his sight, an' said us was a lot o' lazy +good-for-nothing hirelings as never thought of his pocket. Of course he +was round next day as usual with a cheerful word an' the money; +but I tented un to the quick when I axed for it first." + + +[*] _Drashels_: Flails. + + +"An' that's why Miss Grace have got to marry Mr. Norcot, no +doubt," declared Beer. "'Tis so much for her father's good as +her own belike." + +He nodded to where Grace rode past the barn. She was clad in +a snug, short habit of purple Totnes serge; and upon her hands +were a pair of gloves made from the skin of a wild cat that had +been captured after prodigious exertions by Thomas Putt. +Behind Grace rode John Lee, and their enterprise was secret, for +it had to do with the young man's recent great discovery. Now +Grace, despite the languor of these days and the anti-climax +that followed upon Cecil Stark's departure, found herself awake +and much alive. Darkness shadowed her life and her home. +She knew that trouble slept with her parents and haunted her +father in all his goings; she suffered for them; yet she believed +that no such sorrow as her own private sorrow had ever crushed +into a human life before; that no such tragic experience as this +mistake of emotion for passion, had until now tortured an +unhappy young heart. Yet to fight upon her father's side seemed +good. She desired dangers and difficulties to lift her from her +personal tribulations. She herself had planned the present +expedition, and Lee was in some concern, for though undertaken +by daylight, it lacked not danger. John had at last discovered +Lovey's hiding-place, and now he was taking his mistress to +see it. + +"Your star-bright eyes will find this wondrous treasure if 'tis +there," he said. "For myself I could light on nothing but +money-bags. They had gold in 'em and were ranged on stone +ledges as high as I could reach. For the rest, there was a pitcher +under trickling water that runs in a corner of the place; a basin, +with mouldy bread and cheese in it; and a great stone upon +which stood half a dozen rush-lights. And as I first climbed +down, 'twas like the story of Arabia that you told me, for the +walls of the hole all shone as though they were plastered with +pure gold. A light in darkness they made. 'Tis a shining moss +that glitters there on the damp rocks. I'm right glad to have +found the place; an' yet my mind misgives me that more evil +than good will come out of it." + +"The only evil that can come out is Lovey Lee. If she +caught us!" + +"No--that won't happen. She's safe for to-day. You'll laugh, +but you know there's force in the old charms for all your laughing. +They work, though wiseacres may know better." + +"John, John!" + +"A maiden nail has power, I tell you, despite all scoffing." + +"A maiden nail! And what is that?" + +"A nail fresh made from bar iron--one that has never touched +ground. Drive such in the threshold of a witch's door and for a +day and night she cannot hurt a fly." + +"Really, John Lee, I could blush for you--here at the beginning +of the nineteenth century, in these dazzling days of +enlightenment!" + +"I got 'em from Noah Newcombe, hot off his anvil," said John, +"and I've driven them home into the dern of grandmother's +door. Believe it or not, I very well know she's harmless to all +mankind this day." + +"I wish I had such faith in men as you have in nails, John," +said the girl thoughtfully. Then silence fell between them, and +Grace reflected upon her sweetheart's credulity. She had never +realised the extent of it until recent events and the intercourse +with the American prisoner. Peter Norcot's manifold ingenuities +and petty cleverness of quips and cranks had but served to make +John Lee's simplicity shine bright by contrast; but the light that +Stark cast over thought was a white light, and smote pitiless upon +both the others. + +"You have faith in one man sure?" said John presently. He +had thought of her words long before replying to them. + +"In two--in two," she answered hastily; but more she would +not say. + +"'Tis old Kekewich and me," he mused aloud. "A very +strange thing, my lady dear, that two such men should get to be +trusted by your sweet spirit, afore all the rest of the world." + +But she could not let him remain in ignorance. + +"I meant Mr. Stark, not Kek," she answered. + +He nodded and looked away. + +"I know you meant him. 'Twas only to see if you'd tell me, +that I pretended you meant Kek. A sly thing to do, but +somehow I was tempted." + +She did not answer, nor did he speak again until they reached +the ruin in Hangman's Hollow. + +"Here we are at last--a queer sort of place. 'Twould call for +little fancy to see my grandmother meeting the Devil himself +here after dark. 'Pon that rowan above the gravel-pit a man +hanged himself a little while back, 'cause he found he'd been +cheated over a horse. Here, under our feet, is granny's den. +We'll dismount, tether up; an' then you follow me down this +blind alley-way to the top of the mound. By the wall-side at +the end, is a stone that will turn when we set foot upon it, and +open a hole down the blowing-house chimney into a great +chamber underground." + +Grace dismounted; John fastened up their horses and soon +led the way whither Lovey Lee had vanished. + +"But 'twas no miracle after all, you see. There--the stone +twists on a regular pivot. 'Tis balanced beneath like a logan." + +He showed where a large piece of granite slowly yielded under +his weight. Then he retained it in position with a stick and +made it firm. A black, perpendicular pit appeared, and upon +the side of it rough stones protruded irregularly and formed a +ladder. + +"I'll go down," said Lee, "and light a candle. 'Tis day-proof +and air-proof nearly; but you'll soon see and breathe when you're +used to it." + +He disappeared, and from beneath Grace heard him strike +flint and steel, then saw the gleam of candlelight, and prepared +to descend. The way proved easy enough to one of her activity, +and soon she found herself beside John Lee, ten feet beneath +the earth, in a large irregular chamber. The place was half +natural, and half built of masonry now ruinous. A shaft of +daylight from above revealed the steps, and the walls of the grotto +diffused a glimmering and golden radiance, so that it seemed to +Grace that she had, indeed, descended into some storehouse of +fabulous treasure. The shining moss[*] encrusted the cavern +with its phosphorescent light, and water tinkled drop by drop +unseen. Lee held above his head a candle that he had brought +with him, and slowly details stole out of the gloom as their eyes +focussed them. + + +[*] _The shining moss_: Schistostega Osmundacea. + + +For some time they found nothing more than John had already +recorded. Then the desiccated remains of a dog in a corner made +Grace exclaim with sorrow. The beast was fastened by its neck +to a staple in the wall, and had clearly perished of starvation +there. Close scrutiny revealed nine or ten money-bags perched +aloft in nooks of the granite and holes of the broken building. +Grace opened three, and all contained the same amount--one +hundred pounds in gold. They restored every bag to its proper +hiding-place, and continued their search. Yet the girl grew +listless, and John Lee felt it by his senses, although he could not +see her face. + +Presently he hit his shins against a square box corded up with +ropes, and his companion's heart throbbed as she thought that +within an hour the Malherb amphora would be restored to its +owner's hand. Then, while yet their new discovery remained +unproved, a dull indifference again invaded her spirit; and John +stood amazed to find her in no way disappointed when the box was +found to contain nothing more precious than silver plate, sundry +fine French snuff-boxes, watches and other trinkets. + +"How brave you are!" he said. "Yet this is something +worth discovering, for I'll wager my grandmother stole what is +here from your family in times past." + +"Be just to her. These French things perchance came from +the prisoners. Tie them up carefully, and put them where you +found them. Lovey must never guess that we have seen her +secrets." + +The man obeyed, and for half an hour they continued to make +laborious and unrewarded search. + +"'Tis a rogue's roost of a hole!" cried Lee. "You shall stop +in it no longer, else you'll faint for lack of sweet air. 'Twill take +much time and patience to exhaust all these crannies and clefts. +My candle wanes." + +"Let us depart then and visit the place again presently when +time allows it." + +"But you've lost your old eagerness," he said shortly. + +"Not so. I care very much. Why, it is life or death +almost--for father. I know him to be sore driven for money." + +"For your father. And is it nothing that it means life or +death for Jack Lee? Have you forgotten what you yourself +proposed? Oh, Grace, I'm afraid you have. I was to go to the +wars----" + +"The wars are like to be soon over now, dear John." + +He made no answer, but lighted her to the steps and helped +her to ascend them. Things recently suspected, like clouds +lifting their furrowed foreheads above a remote horizon, grew daily +nearer, and this experience within the treasure house had brought +alarm to the very zenith of John Lee's mind. He was quick to +see and to read each mood and humour of Grace Malherb. A +hesitation before a kiss, a wayward breaking off in mid-speech, +sudden ardours to atone for periods of coldness--all these shadows +and half-shades of change, and of a sense of honour at war with +overmastering love, had made themselves manifest in the girl; +and Lee had read them while she was ignorant of their visible +existence. At first such apparitions from her inner self merely +mystified him, and the memory of them vanished with the mood +that displayed them; but now more clearly he began to perceive +that her highest graciousness followed upon coolness; that she +was kindest after being least kind; that her outbursts of wild +affection sprang not from love, but remorse. He battled against +the belief; but it grew into a conviction, bitter and sure. + +To-day, as he restored the cover-stone of the cave, he felt that +another nail was struck into hope's coffin; and the thought +wakened no indignation against Grace, but rather a mighty, +melancholy anger with himself, that he had proved a man too +feeble to hold his pearl against all comers. + +"We must seek and seek and never despair," said Grace as they +turned to ride homeward. "I feel positive that the amphora is +there. If necessary you will have to hide in the den of the tigress +yourself, John, and mark her when she supposes herself alone. +Yet I should tremble for you. 'Twill be an awful day for that old +woman when she loses the amphora. It is her god." + +"If I got it, I could almost find it in my heart to break it." + +"John Lee!" + +"Why, I spoke as I felt. I'm beginning to see terrible things +beyond your strength to hide, Gracie. You would hide them if +you could; you think in your heart that they are hidden; but +they peep out and scourge me for my awful folly." + +"What--what can you mean?" + +"Don't think to deceive me, for you deceive yourself, dearest +heart, if you do. I'm sensible in flashes, though mostly blind +with you. I've read the riddle ever since he went away; now +I've read the answer too." + +"You wrong me to speak so. I have not changed to you, +John; and to him I am nothing in the world." + +"Be angry; be angry; I could rage, too; I could tear up the +earth and--and--but I haven't the heart. I wouldn't hurt him +excepting as man to man. I'd pray to Heaven to bring us face +to face in war. I'd seek him out on land or sea--I'd----" He +broke off, dropped his rein, and pressed his hands to his face. +Then Grace rode close to him and touched his arm. + +"You are unhappy, and I have made you so. This must not +be, dear John. 'Tis life and death between--between lovers, to +speak pure honesty at all times. Listen. He grew to love me. +'Twas the loneliness and friendlessness of his life. His eyes had +seen no woman for years; therefore he made more of me than +I deserved. He--he asked me to marry him some day; and I +told him that I belonged to another. Then he went out of my +life and blessed the unknown man who had been more fortunate +than himself. That is the truth; and if I've been half-hearted +and my wits a wool-gathering, forgive me, for the thought of +Master Stark's sorrow has made me sad. I have much desired +the war to end that he might go home to those who love him; +and--and--don't look at me like that, John, for God knows I +speak the truth to you. I hoped for his sake that the war might +cease; for yours that it might not cease. Then I settled it by +praying for peace with America--for his sake, and war with +France--for yours. I'm only a fool, John, but I'm a truthful +fool. There's nothing else in my silly heart but that." + +"But there is--looking out of your eyes when you forget to +shut them and hide it. My pretty darling--oh, God, to give you +up! I cannot. I never will. A thousand heroes shall not take +you----" + +"Give me up--what do you mean?" she cried, and her heart +beat fiercely. + +"Why, 'tis true there must be no secrets betwixt us," he said in +a gentle voice, "not so long as we are what we are to one +another. 'Pure honesty' was your word. You tell me he asked you to +marry him. And you tell me what you answered. I know all +that right well without your telling me. But I've got to know +more; I've got to know what you felt as well as said." + +"Sorry for him--most truly sorry for him, dear John. I _did_ +like him. I'll own to that." + +"Don't speak in a tone so light, sweetheart. 'Sweetheart' +still a little longer. You women do think a tone of voice makes +truth less true and falsehood less false. You say the same words +in different voices and mean different by them. And a man must +grow skilled in your sounds, like a hunter grows clever in the +sounds of wild things, not counting the weight of the words. You +say you liked him as you might like such a one that held your +stirrup or opened a gate; but you and me are at a place now +where you've got to speak sacred truth--solemn, slow, each word +forged to last till doom. Did you love that man?" + +"What is it to love a man?" + +He bowed his head. + +"I'm answered," he said. "Oh, Gracie dear--once mine, +never mine--you know what 'tis to love a man; but you never +did afore you saw him." + +She marvelled that one who had yesterday driven maiden nails +into a doorpost could see so deep. She remembered that it was +she who had taught him to read. Tears came to her eyes and +shining drops fell glittering on her horse's neck. + +"You break my heart," she said. + +"Please God, never! You didn't know; you mistook--what? you +mistook something else for love. We were a boy and a girl; +and I couldn't choose but worship--you were so lovely in soul +and body--so gentle to me--so----" + +"John," she declared solemnly, "I shall marry you or no +man." + +"You mean it with your whole heart, Gracie? Right well +I know you do, and I love to hear you say it, and to see you +think it while your beautiful, steadfast eyes fright the tears +away." + +"I love you, I love you indeed, John." + +"I am content to be loved so," he answered slowly. "And +maybe the time that's coming will show the colour of my love for +you, since 'tis all too big for words. 'Twill take deeds to set +it forth. It calls for deeds to show the pattern of a man's life, and +love for you be all that's left of life for me henceforward." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RHYME AND REASON + +A fortnight after the visit to the old blowing-house, +Mr. Peter Norcot arrived from Chagford to stay a while at +Fox Tor Farm, and with him he brought more snow. This fact +by no means troubled his level temper. He was neither more +plain-spoken nor less poetical than usual as he walked out with +Grace after noon, and reminded her of Maurice Malherb's +intention that she should marry during the coming summer. + +"Do not think, my dear girl, that Peter is blind. He knows +all about Endymion. But positively John Lee as a husband!" + +"'Tis not the first time I have bade you mind your own +business, Peter. You have no right or reason to say these +things to me. 'Tis worse than your rhymes. If you were half +the man he is!" + +"Hard words cannot break bones, or kill love. Do what you +please; say what you like," + + "'A very sandal I would be + To tread on--if trod on by thee.' + +I can even rise superior to the necessity of being loved back. I +love on and suffer on. + + "'It is not for our good in ease to rest; + Man, like to cassia, when bruised is best.'" + + +"I will never love you, nor marry you. Is not that enough?" + +"Too much--more than I could bear, if I believed it. But +you are very young, Grace. I am often relieved to remember +that you are too young to know your own mind." + +She was going to deny it indignantly; but stopped, vividly +conscious that he had come near the mark. Therefore sadness +followed anger in her face and cooled her cheek. + +"I do most seriously believe that before next year you will find +me a continual joy," declared Peter. "'Tis high time the world +should see what a husband awaits the making in me. Too long +I've pined alone. + + "'Life's a short summer--man a flower, + He dies--alas! how soon he dies.'" + + +"'He lives--alas! how long he lives!' So has many an +unhappy wife breathed to her soul; and so should I." + +"You might, indeed, if, like certain foolish but authentic +virgins, you married out of your status. Now John Lee----" + +"Have done, or I'll never speak to you more!" cried Grace +passionately. "I had rather a thousand times marry John Lee +than you; and if I please, I will." + +"Frankly, my poppet, you are something too much of a child +to marry anybody yet. 'Winter and wedlock tame maids and +beasts.' A true West Country proverb that. But I'd be your +lover still, not your master. Vile word! In sober honesty, +however, you can be very provoking, mistress." + +"Never less than now. Walk quicker and save your breath; +more snow is coming." + +The transient gleam of sun that had drawn them out on to the +Moor departed, and snow began to fall again. + +"I've wanted that to happen," said Mr. Norcot. "Now you +shall hear a charming thing--not my own, I regret to say, but +from Petronius Afranius--translated by one Smart. For its +perfection you must make a snowball and hurl it at me." + +"I'm in no mood for fooling." + +"I beg; I implore. 'Twill be worth your pains." + +She bent and picked up some snow. + +"Don't miss my manly bosom, or you'll spoil all," he said. + +"There--I would it could cool your heart and freeze every +thought of me out of your head!" + +Grace flung the snow, and, letting it melt upon his coat, +Mr. Norcot struck an attitude while he recited another rhyme. His +eyes were full of the snow light and seemed harder and brighter +than usual as he gazed at her. + + "'When, wanton fair, the snowy orb you throw, + I feel a fire before unknown in snow, + E'en coldest ice I find has pow'r to warm + My breast, when flung by Gracie's lovely arm!'" + + +He swept off his hat and bowed; whereon she laughed outright. + +"You should have been a player, for you are a most +unreal man--for ever feigning to be something else than you +are." + +"Then marry me and find the kernel in the nut." + +"How can I marry one I do not know?" + +"Even such you should choose if you are wise; for the following +sufficient reasons." + +He prattled on, and presently Maurice Malherb joined them. +The master had been that day in Prince Town upon various +business, and he returned with news of a sort to interest his +daughter. Now her eyes asked him a question and he answered +it. + +"I paid my respects to Commandant Short at the Prison. He +is a gentleman, but I think the business of that place will tax his +authority. A saint would grow impatient with the knaves." + +"And your visitor?" inquired Mr. Norcot. "'Twas a wonderful +Providence that sent him here." + +"The rascal! And yet Stark was one worthy of respect, had +he been properly educated. He listened to me, as a young man +should listen to his elders and betters. I could have found it in +my heart to like him, but for his soaring nonsense and his +disinclination to call treachery and revolt by their true names. +Doubtless his ideas are the common property of his country. +He suffered but a week's detention in the cachot and is now with +his friends again." + +Peter Norcot from under amber eyelashes studied Grace and +found further material for interest. + +"Another!" he said to himself. "An inflammable wench +truly! Quick to catch fire from every torch but mine. Well, +well--may war last until we are wedded. I ask no more." + +"There's further news of a parochial sort," continued Malherb. +"What think you, Grace? The old hag on the hill is off! She's +left Siward's Cross and gone to a hovel near the Prison, where a +few acres of land were to be let. She represented to the High +Bailiff, the Duchy's man, that I'd robbed her of her best cattle +lairs when I raised my boundaries! The old liar has money +too--ay, and more than money." + +"A wonderful creature. I mind her eyes that sparkled with +gorgonian fire; her starved abode, and her penury. It called to +my recollection Lucilius--his miser and his mouse:-- + + "'"You greedy rogue, what brings you to my house?" + Quoth an old miser to a little mouse; + "Friend," says the vermin, "you need have no fear, + I only lodge with you; I dine elsewhere."' + +Ha-ha-ha! She feeds on snails and berries. Such was Sycorax." + +"She's worth above twenty thousand pounds, nevertheless," +declared Malherb. + +"Impossible!" + +"True and not true. She has stolen my amphora. She +confessed it when we were without witnesses." + +"Now here's a matter indeed! Can you be sure that she is +not deceiving you?" + +"She has it. It is her very life." + +"Then we'll be innocent murderers and deprive her of life at +the first opportunity. Nothing shall become her life like the +leaving of it." + +Malherb turned and addressed Peter out of Grace's hearing +Indeed, the girl's heart beat fast at this conversation, and she +was busy with many private thoughts. + +"You speak unselfishly, for the jewel will be my son's--that is, +Grace's son's. It must remain under a Malherb's roof for ever, +not under yours, Peter." + +"Most just. The amphora is an heirloom." + +Norcot glanced at Grace and marked her profound indifference. +A wave of real indignation made his forehead hot and much +astonished him. It was a revelation of himself. Then his mind +chanced to roam towards Prince Town; he thought upon Cecil +Stark and speculated whether the American could be of any +service. While he thought clear prose he continued to utter +epigrams for Grace's amusement. + + "'The wanton snowflakes to her breast + Flew down, like birds into their nest, + And, vanquished by the whiteness there, + For grief they thawed into a tear.'" + + +Then he turned to Malherb again. + +"The amphora must be recovered at any cost. I need not ask +whether you have plans. Do you seek assistance, or undertake +the affair single-handed?" + +"I work alone. Bow Street runners would not run far on +Dartmoor. Lovey Lee may well be left to my mercies. It shall +never be said that an old and ignorant woman outwitted Maurice +Malherb." + +"Spoken well! I'll wager the amphora will grace dear +Annabel's cabinet before wool-shearing. To think of that +priceless fragment of glass in the keeping of such a bag of bones!" + +"And to know that she gets joy of it," said Grace, "that is +the amazing matter. She, who eats vermin and wears old sacks, +to find her greatest earthly pleasure in the plump Cupids upon +that antique!" + +"Human nature is full of these tricks," answered her father. +"I have studied such freakish traits in mankind so long that +nothing now has power to surprise me." + +"Not even yourself? Now I, though so near to forty, can yet +astonish myself. I have done so within this hour," confessed +Peter. "As to Lovey," he continued, "she'll clothe herself with +ashes as well as sackcloth when she loses her treasure." + +"Well, well, the snow increases. Hasten home, the pair of +you," answered Malherb; then he left them together, and turned +to an outlying shed where two men worked. + +"What a fate!" murmured Norcot when he had gone off; +"what a pleasing fate, Grace, to be imprisoned here, even as Cecil +Stark was imprisoned! How gladly I'd make exchange with +him--the rough with the smooth." + +She made no answer, and he continued-- + +"Talking of Loves, 'twas a pretty thing that Antonius Tebaltius +wrote, and Thompson paraphrased, and Norcot improved-- + + "'Venus whipt Cupid t'other day, + For having lost his bow and quiver; + The which he'd given both away + To Gracie by a Dartmoor river. + "Mamma! you wrong me while you strike," + Cried weeping Cupid, "for 'tis true + That you and she are so alike, + I thought that I had given 'em you!"'" + + +"You've missed the gate while you chattered," said Grace; +"now we must climb over the wall." + +"I generally do miss the gate with you," he answered. +"Don't these beautiful pearls that I utter move even a spark of +pity?" + +"Of pity--yes." + +"'Tis akin to love." + +"As often akin to contempt." + +"In mean natures; never in yours." + +He helped her over the wall, then spoke again as they hurried +on with heads bent to the snow. + +"'Twas that young American then? Why so silent about it? +Why ashamed to tell frankly who 'tis you really do love? I +blazon my emotions to the world and do it proudly. Can you +not be as open?" + +"I hate everybody; and it's all your fault." + +"Well, well; mend your pace; we shall be frozen. And if you +hate me, change every garment that you wear. I much fear that +you are wet and cold." + +This practical thought touched the woman in Grace and +softened her a little. + +"I wish I could love you, Peter, for it would be better for +me and happier for us all if I did. But I never, never +shall." + +"Well, try to tolerate me--fitfully. Even a fitful toleration is +something, and perhaps more beautiful than a fixed and steady +flame--just as moonlit clouds are lovelier than the moon +herself." + +They talked awhile longer, then reached the house. Grace +retired immediately to don dry clothes, while Mrs. Malherb spoke +with Peter. + +"Lord! what a poet was marred when you commenced wool +merchant," said she, while he drank a jorum of hot spirits and +held his coat to the fire. + +"Nay, nay, Annabel, the same man can serve both mistresses. +Thus, if I might but come at it, I would weave wool shorn off the +sheep in paradise for Grace's tender limbs; and I would clothe +her mind also with a robe spun of the best and the most beautiful +thoughts to be gleaned from books. But she'll none of me nor +my stock-in-trade. 'Tis the weather, not my prayers, that makes +her wear flannel next her skin. Yet I told her that I'd gladly be +the wether that furnished the wool." + +"And what said she?" inquired the lady. + +"I will be honest with you," answered Peter. "I will conceal +nothing. She replied in one word, 'Baa!' Believe me, Annabel, +that never since this mundane egg was hatched did such a +maddening maiden appear to torment honest men." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE OATH + +The reign of the new Commandant opened auspiciously at +Prince Town, for Captain Short came to his work with +understanding and sympathy. He was still young, and his heart +had not grown callous before the spectacle of human misery. +Compassion filled him at the sufferings of those half-naked hordes +who wandered through the War Prison; he countermanded many +of his predecessor's egregious enactments, and stated in feeling +terms to the Board of Transport the conditions that he discovered. +The zeal of a reformer first marked his achievements; then he +grew discouraged, erred, lost heart, and fell from his own ideals. + +Cecil Stark served a term of imprisonment in the cachot, after +which he returned to his compatriots and found familiar faces +missing. Some among his acquaintance were exchanged; not a +few had passed away. Caleb Carberry perished soon after his +punishment; Burnham had also suffered as a result of that awful +penance in ice and granite; but he was now restored to health. +Of the Seven, two were dead, and James Knapps remained hidden +with Lovey Lee. + +Now, even as the lowest note of their sad hearts had sounded, +came light upon the darkness of the Americans. While they +hung their heads and mourned as men forgotten of their country; +while hundreds daily threatened Mr. Blazey with letters and +vowed to transfer allegiance to Britain if he did not better their +case, good news arrived, and the first written communication ever +received from their representative reached the prisoners. + +Cecil Stark read Blazey's message aloud in the exercise yard of +No. 4, and jubilant crowds gave ear to it. + +"Fellow Citizens," wrote the Agent, "I am authorised by the +Government of the United States to allow you one penny +half-penny per day for the purpose of procuring you tobacco and +soap, which will commence being paid from the first day of last +January, and I earnestly hope it will tend towards a great relief +in your present circumstances." + +A roar of delight greeted the announcement. Men cheered +and wept flung their red caps into the air, fell upon each other's +necks, embraced, danced wildly, sang and laughed. + +"Not forgotten! Not forgotten!" was the burden of their cry. +A great emotion of thankfulness animated the mass and woke +fire in the meanest spirit amongst them. The actual blessing of +this pittance seemed less to that forlorn gathering than the +thought that had inspired it. A link, sorely tested, stood firm. +Now all again gloried in their sonship with the mother country; +for Congress had remembered. Every man viewed the news +through the glass of his own nature; but pride in their nation +glowed upon each face, and trust renewed uplifted their sinking +hearts. From the powder-monkeys and negroes to the Committee +of six leading men now appointed to administer the moneys all +rejoiced and blessed their native land. Their trustful natures +shone out of them, and Congress received many a cheer; Captain +Short was also saluted; and even the sluggard Blazey won his +meed. + +"Burn the old country; it ha'n't thrown us over after all," +said David Leverett to a companion. "I guess my first dollop +of money will go in drink, for we've done so long without soap +that we can easy keep dirty a while more. We've come out of +a tarnation tight snarl at last, and nobody's better pleased than +me." + +"Such a swipe ob money, gem'men!" cried Cuffee. "De Lord +Him send back Marse Stark; den he send free cents a day. Our +own mudders won't know us, nebber no more." + +"We-alls shall be eating money presently," laughed Leverett's +friend. "Things is on the bounce for sartin. We've got our +monkey up agin; and if we can't follow that chap's lead--Stark +I mean--and hev another try to quit this place, 'tis pity." + +"No smouch him," admitted Leverett. "If there's any hanky-panky +in the wind, we'll do well ter let him boss it. 'Tis the +differ between a man well aggicated and you and me. We'd be +as good as him if we'd had his luck and his money." + +"Maybe we should, maybe we should not," answered the +other. "Anyway, if we pull together and let him lead I lay +he'll hit on a contrapsion ter get every doodle of us clear of +this." + +Something prophetic marked the sailor's speech, for within +two months of that conversation Cecil Stark, Burnham, one Ira +Anson and other leaders in No. 4, were maturing their historic +scheme to liberate the whole of the American prisoners at one +stroke. Enthusiasm, like a subterranean fire, burnt in every man +when the project was whispered abroad, and each entered upon +his part with determination and courage. Until this enterprise, +defections, while rare, were yet regularly recorded. Nearly a +hundred Americans had entered British service rather than +endure the plagues of longer durance; but henceforth none could +be persuaded, despite well-directed efforts to win them. + +We are now concerned with an extraordinary undertaking. +The Seven were separated by death and other accidents, but +James Knapps was free; and henceforth the boatswain of the +_Marblehead_ enjoyed an importance beyond his ambitions. In +connection with Lovey Lee, Knapps was able greatly to assist his +countrymen in their endeavour; and first, he proved by the fact +of his personal safety that Mrs. Lee remained, after all, faithful +to the cause of the prisoners. It was agreed, therefore, that +Lovey might be further trusted, and she immediately received a +gift of ten guineas; while within a fortnight, and upon payment +of a much greater sum, she accepted Stark's proposals and +prepared to alter her manner of life accordingly. + +The markets reopened when the weather broke, and a brisk +correspondence with the miser and James Knapps was established +from inside the Prison. Thus Lovey learned that her co-operation +must be secured at closer quarters than Siward's Cross. She was +bidden to establish herself as near the War Prison as possible, +and chance enabled her to take up the identical position desired. +Mention has already been made of a ruinous cottage immediately +without the Prison walls. Some acres of rough land went along +with this deserted "newtake," and the authorities were well +content to let the worthless place to a tenant. Instantly grasping +the significance of the manoeuvre, and alive to the importance of +blinding all official eyes, Lovey, for the first time in her life, spent +the prodigious sum of twenty pounds in a week. She had the +old cottage thatched and rendered storm-proof; she ploughed up +a part of the land and fenced all in. She continued to traffic +among the Americans, and no question of her integrity had ever +arisen. Her stock increased and she became one of the most +important among the small merchants. She sold tobacco and +potatoes; she also smuggled many prohibited articles, such as +candles, alcohol, oil. She paid private taxes upon these things to +the turnkeys, but nobody in high authority ever heard of the +matter. Lovey even made the Commandant a friend, and +regularly provided his table with poultry. She deceived him by +her independent manners; and he fell into the common error +of supposing that one who is laconic, businesslike and dour, must +of necessity be honest. + +A general escape having been planned in every detail, conventions +were ordered, the plot revealed, and the Americans sworn +to secrecy. Such liberty did these prisoners of war enjoy within +their own confines, that their assemblies were never interrupted +nor their meetings for entertainment opposed. On this occasion, +however, special guards were set by the captives themselves and +every precaution taken to prevent surprise. + +Then Stark addressed his fellows, for by common consent the +ringleaders appointed him their spokesman. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "as honest Americans, born under the +Flag of Freedom, it becomes us to attempt escape. Our condition +of late has been much bettered, and I, for one, owe no grudge +against our present guards or their Commandant, Captain Short. +He is honourable, and does what he may to lessen our tribulations; +he is also generous; he has increased our privileges, and +by throwing open the new yards and admitting us to larger +quarters for exercise and the amusement of games, he has earned +universal blessings. Our bill of health is greatly improved, +thanks to him; he has, indeed, put fresh life into us. Yet are +we prisoners, and, upon careful study of the journals smuggled to +us, it is clear that no immediate hope of peace or of further +exchange can be held out. Our country is suffering a period of +sea losses, and it is not in the moment of these reverses that she +will tune her ear to peace. Our circumstances have, therefore, +prompted us to plan a scheme of escape, and we now submit it +to your opinions. Immediately the pending changes in our +disposal are made, and we have wider fields to work in, we mean to +dig under these walls a tunnel, that must be two hundred and +eighty feet long. It is planned and calculated most fully. It +will be sunk in Prison No. 6, and, concerning the exit of it on +to the Moor, no more need yet be said than that we have stout +friends outside who will look to that. Our numbers, as you +know, increase very rapidly, because our ships have fallen upon +a bout of ill-luck; but ever recollect that these relays of our +countrymen from Plymouth and elsewhere only represent American +mishaps. Our successes are hidden from us; yet our hearts +tell us that they exist and occur. Many English doubtless +languish in American prisons. So thus it stands. I speak to +two thousand men, and I ask them all to swear secrecy before +Almighty God." + +A dozen Bibles were circulated, and there arose a strange and +solemn murmur throughout the company as every man swore to +his neighbour that he would maintain absolute silence concerning +this matter, and that neither by word nor pen, by look nor +gesture, would he divulge the secret to any among those set in +authority. + +"To break this oath is death," said Stark. "You have now +sworn to keep the secret; and we, your leaders, have also sworn +that the man who gives one hint of this business to those whose +duty it is to stop it, will be cut off. He shall not escape. In +ancient Sparta there was a society called Crypteia who slew by +night. The Helots perished at their hands, but none knew who +struck the blow. They only left corpses behind them. So will +it be with us. Eyes are upon every one of us, and he that +watches has eyes upon him also. A traitor will most surely fall. +He will vanish from amongst us; his place will be empty, and +none will ever know where his dust lies rotting. I who speak to +you have been once betrayed with others whom death has since +freed. Woe to that man! Let him tremble yet while he hears +me, for his hour will surely come." + +The meeting disbanded, and a small sub-committee sat to select +five-and-twenty trustworthy persons who should fulfil the important +office of spies upon the majority. Many refused this unpleasant +work, until it was explained to them that they incurred no shame. +Among those finally chosen were Leverett and Samuel Cuffee. +The negro had work apportioned him with his kindred, while it +was the duty of Leverett and others to keep in touch with the +general throng, glean public opinion and report upon any sign of +unrest, disaffection, or other danger. A martial system marked +the plot. Every sentry and turnkey was under close surveillance; +the digging parties were chosen for their strength and sobriety; +while the work itself had been so planned that it proceeded night +and day without intermission. A pit was first sunk perpendicularly +to the depth of twenty feet, and then pursued upon a +horizontal plane. This tunnel, if extended for ninety yards, +would clear the foundations of the outer wall and reach beneath +Lovey Lee's cottage. + +While Stark and his companions cautiously opened their enterprise +in Prison No. 6, to which they were now admitted, James +Knapps, snugly hidden with Mrs. Lee, was engaged upon a +similar task. Here, when Lovey kept watch, the boatswain +laboured; and if she went abroad: to the prison, or upon other +business, he hid himself closely and smoked his pipe in a hole +under the roof of the cottage. + +As for Cecil Stark, a passionate zest marked his attitude to the +plot, and for mingled reasons he permitted it to fill his mind. But +greater than patriotic ardour or personal thirst for freedom, was +the desire to escape his own thoughts. He believed that liberty +could never more be anything but a word to him, for his soul was +for ever fast bound. One girl's face haunted him; one voice rang +musical upon his ear by day and night. He suffered enough; but +no man guessed it. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +JOHN TAKES HIS ROAD + +To move her household goods from the hut by Siward's Cross +was no great matter for Lovey Lee. A donkey carried all and +found the burden light. The things about which her life's interest +centred were buried deep in Hangman's Hollow, and her only +hesitation, when the great enterprise at the War Prison was +broken to her, arose out of the knowledge that she must now +abide three miles further from her treasure-house. To this fact, +however, the old woman grew reconciled, when she considered +the nature of the promised reward. She settled down beneath +the Prison walls; and now not the least of her grievances was the +enormous appetite of Mr. James Knapps. He worked exceedingly +hard and insisted upon having wholesome food and plenty +of it. + +"We're not all built like you, ma'am, ter do our stint of work +on ditch-water and shell-snails," he explained. "Victuals and +drink I'll have; else I must grumble ter them over the wall. I +can't dig my best on offal." + +There fell a morning when John Lee visited his grandmother, +and she saw by his face that a climax had come in his fortunes. +He was gloomy and sad, yet of his own affairs he said nothing +until Lovey mentioned them. + +"I'm on a private errand," he said, "and since 'tis too early +yet to see the prisoners, I thought I'd drop in and learn how +you're faring." + +She suspected that he was sent to spy by his master. + +"I keep body and soul together, an' that's all I ever shall do," +she answered, little thinking that John Lee had counted her +guineas but a few weeks before. "Even so I have to thank they +Yankees to the Prison." + +He marvelled at her cunning. + +"Do you hear anything of that fine gentleman, Master Cecil +Stark?" he inquired. + +"Ah, you was all in love with him to Fox Farm, I hear. I wish +there was more like him." + +John did not answer, and his grandmother jeered. + +"I see how 'tis! Your nose be out of joint. What did I tell +you, Jack? Broken hearts--broken fiddlesticks! Ban't the +wench's heart as have broke, anyhow. So her throwed you over +for a properer man?" + +"No, by God! But----" + +"You'm minded to let her off her bargain? Then the bigger +fool you!" + +She hit the truth in her brutal fashion. Lee had not trusted +himself to pursue the matter of his attachment; yet, as time +progressed, he saw more clearly what Grace strove with might and +main to conceal. The accesses of her affection, the thousand +little kindly thoughts for him--all wrote truth in letters of fire +upon his aching heart. True love had acted differently--had +claimed as well as given; and he knew, despite her assurance +oftentimes repeated, that her attitude was founded on another +impulse. Now, after grief and pain, his thoughts moved slowly +to Cecil Stark. In turn he was attracted by and repulsed from +the prospect of speech with the young prisoner. Finally he +braced himself to the ordeal; yet he knew not what he would say +when they stood face to face. He felt as a man in a dream at +this period. A most unreal and monstrous task lay before him. +Deliberately he was turning his back upon all that made life +precious; consciously he was hastening out of day into eternal +night. He chafed against the noble impulse that drove him +onward; for a season he resisted it; then Grace Malherb's own +steadfast purposes warmed his inspiration. Her delicacy, her +gentleness, her courage cried to him. Must he prove less brave +and more selfish than she? + +It was indeed sheer suffering that supported the girl now; but +her strength rose superior to it, and only one who knew and loved +her as this man knew and loved, had guessed at the things hidden +in her heart. The torture simulated Grace to a surface brilliance, +as a bird will sing out of pure misery in sight of his robbed nest. +Her eyes were ever bright, but unshed tears made them so; her +plots and plans were ceaseless and sanguine; but he knew that +she rushed into them to escape from her heart. Love, indeed, +had found her at last, but she struggled fiercely to shut him +out since he had come too late. She never wearied of plans +concerning the Malherb amphora, and of the future for John Lee +when he should discover it. And he humoured her and himself +a little longer, so that she scarcely realised that he had grasped +the truth, despite his first sure guess thereat. + +Now the story was told. He had wandered through the last +autumnal glade of his fool's paradise; he had witnessed the red +sunset of his dying romance; and he stood patient and strong +under the cold starlight at the end. + +John Lee was come to speak with Stark, for at certain times in +the War Prison visitors were permitted to enter and have +conversation or transact business with the captives. A tall grille +of iron alone separated them, but to this grating all men might +approach on certain days and traffic with the imprisoned for those +trifles which they wrought and sold to any purchaser. Work-boxes, +dinner mats, hand-screens, bone toys and ornaments they +manufactured; and many persons came from Plymouth and other +towns to see the spectacle of the great moorland limbo and carry +from it some memento of the sufferers there. Nefarious and +doubtful trades were also practised in the secret fastnesses of this +gaol. Exceeding good imitations of the eighteenpenny and +three-shilling pieces then current passed into the world from Prince +Town, and forged bank notes also circulated. Venal soldiery +helped the prisoners in the business of uttering base money; +but such simple and honest trash as passed to the visitors +between the bars of the grille, was openly sold. + +Hither from his grandmother's cottage came Lee, and soon he +noted the tall form of Stark standing with Burnham and Ira +Anson. They had nothing to sell, but watched the visitors with +interest. Then Cecil caught sight of John Lee, hastened to the +barrier and shook hands heartily through the bars. + +"Well met, well met," he said. "I'm right glad to see you, +Jack. Would that I could give you such a welcome as your +master gave to me!" + +"I hope you are well and strong again, Mr. Stark." + +"Well enough----" + +The American looked at Lee with intense scrutiny and wondered +how much or little he might know concerning the affairs of his +mistress. + +"All are happy at Fox Tor Farm, I trust?" + +"Well enough," answered the other, as Stark had answered him. + +"That means not absolutely well," replied Cecil quickly. +"Miss Malherb--all at least is well with her? Yet--Mr. Norcot. +'Tis intolerable, you know, Jack Lee, that I should speak of that +man except to bless him for his goodness. Nevertheless--Miss +Malherb--but this is none of your business I doubt?" + +"It won't be much longer; for the present it is," said John. +"I know she hates Mr. Peter Norcot. She's bound to hate him +in self-defence. But, nevertheless, 'tis intended she shall marry +him within six months." + +"Yet there's a man she--she loves. It's too terrible! She +suffers--she must suffer horribly. And this other--why doesn't +he come forward and sweep Norcot out of her path? What clay +is this creature made of that he holds back?" + +"The man?" + +"Do you know him?" + +"I do." + +"Then tell him from me--but what's the use of bellowing like +a pent-up bull? Can't you, at least, assure him from yourself +that he must be up and doing? You're in your lady's good +graces--therefore justify her trust. Seek this laggard and explain how +the land lies. Maybe 'tis her tyrant father he fears." + +"The man knows everything. He can't help her." + +"Cannot! What's the matter with him? Has he no arms, +nor legs, nor courage? Is he made of gingerbread? Oh, if +I---- But perhaps I speak ignorant of facts. Maybe he's +chained fast, too." + +"Yes, he's fast enough." + +"Then 'tis your duty to do what a man may, Jack. You, at +least, are free as well as faithful; and in love with Miss Malherb +also, I'll wager. You must love her if you're a man." + +"I do love her." + +"And can see her and speak to her every day of your blessed +life! Oh, if I might but help you; if I might come between her +and trouble----" + +He broke off and ended his aspirations to himself. Then Lee +spoke. + +"Could you escape from this place again?" + +Stark started and looked round about him. + +"For that cause--yes." + +"There may be good reason why you should presently--not +yet. The first thing----" + +Here Cecil interrupted. + +"'Good reason--good reason'? You know so much that you +must know more. And you must tell me more." + +"I'll tell you this. We are at cross purposes. I let you talk +because--because it amused me in a strange sort of painful way. +But the truth----" + +He hesitated, and the full, fatal significance of the next few +words impressed itself vividly upon his soul. There was no +blinking it. The fact stared pitiless. He stood at the cross roads +of fortune, and with his next word to Cecil Stark, his own path +would be chosen, his own desire renounced, for ever. + +The American saw that great emotions fought in this man's +mind, and waited for him to speak. + +"The truth is that Miss Malherb is a free woman--so far as +love is concerned." + +"She told me when I----" began Stark; then he looked +guilty and held his peace. + +But Lee understood. + +"When you asked her to marry you? I know. She could not +say otherwise then. Bide bold and patient; the time will come +when she may answer differently." + +The other was terribly moved. A great expiration burst from +him, half an oath of astonishment, half a hallelujah. + +"In God's name what are you that dare to speak these great +things?" he asked under his breath, as though he apostrophised +a sexless spirit. + +"Her servant--her slave. At least I tell truth. Thus it +stands--that other--he will not marry her." + +"And she still loves him? This is damnable! Let me but +meet that man!" + +"No need to rage against him. He's a harmless fool enough +and would be your friend--anybody's friend but his own. 'Twill +be no grief to her, a joy rather to find that she's mistaken in +him." + +"She never really loved him then?" + +"She didn't know--she didn't know. You forget how young +she is. I think she loved him with an innocent, baby love; I +think she'll always love him a little for the sake of--but let that +go--she's free--free to listen to a lover. Now you know what I +came to tell you." + +Stark stared silently up into the sky and John Lee saw a light +dawn upon his face, as though some angel passed in the air and +shone upon him. Then the prisoner turned to Lee and spoke +slowly and solemnly, for he was awestruck at the magnitude of +this great revealment. + +"If I owned a kingdom it should be yours this day. Please +God I can do something, though nothing worthy such news. If +you will, you shall have an acre of good Vermont earth presently +for every word you've spoken to me. Yet earth's a pitiful payment +for the hope of heaven on earth you've given to me." + +He knew not the sufferings he wakened or the wounds he tore +open. Voices laughed in John Lee's ears and told him that he +had sold his heart. + +"Leave that," he said roughly. "You mistake me. I'm here +for love of her--not you. Listen, then I'll be gone. You must +get in touch with her very gradual and delicate. I can go +between you." + +"I see; I see. What a learned man you are in these matters, +Jack! With your Apollo's face you've had your experiences, I'll +wager! But wait; I'll be gone and write a letter--just a reminder +that I live. I'll sell you a little bone windmill I made for a +turnkey's child; and in it I'll place a note. You must give me a +coin for it, but you shall find a larger one inside for yourself." + +He was gone, and Lee waited, seeing but not perceiving the +throng around him, hearing but not heeding the medley of voices +and the tramp of many feet. Aloft in the blue a hawk hung +poised upon trembling wings. It surveyed the bustling scene, +then glided away to the Moor. The American, David Leverett, +approached Lee and invited him to purchase a little mat of +woven grass. + +"Here, young feller," he said. "I reckon now your gal's just +fretting herself silly for a keepsake, whoever she is; and you'd +best not displeasure her by refusing. This was woven by a +one-armed man, you see, and that makes it worth twice as much +as any other mat. So 'tain't no manner o' use ter offer less than +ten cents for it. Hev a squint at the workmanship--not bad for +a crab with one claw--eh?" + +Lee shook his head and the sailor gibed:-- + +"Not ten cents! Then by God! you don't love her, and she +shall hear of it. Come now--fourpence, then--only four dirty +pennies. Think o' the kisses she'll give for it." + +Still Lee declined, his thoughts elsewhere, and Leverett cursed +him for a fool, shook his stump in John's face, and turned to find +a customer. + +A few minutes later, as bugles were sounding for the visitors to +depart, Cecil Stark came back with a little toy made of mutton +bones. + +"Hand me any small coin you have about you," he said. +"You'll find a billet for Miss Malherb and two guineas for +yourself in the drawer at the bottom." + +These simple words hurt poor John cruelly, for their business-like +and even sordid tenour jarred upon his own great renunciation +in a way that Stark little guessed. Lee's heart was numb; +his mind had grown dreamy and incoherent now. Mechanically +he took the windmill and handed Cecil a shilling. Then, without +any word of farewell, he turned away and followed the departing +crowds. He heard Cecil Stark say "God bless you!" as he +went; but only a strange loathing of the money he carried rose in +his mind. This mean detail of two guineas fretted him to madness. +He could not see the matter as Cecil saw it; he jealously +muffled his reason, and refused to behold in himself henceforth +no more than that necessary thing--a lover's messenger. + +Slowly he returned over the Moor towards Fox Tor Farm, and +the thought of all that he had lost swept down upon him like a +storm in the wilderness. Temptations shook him then. He +turned the toy of bone about in his hand. He might have +crushed it and stamped it down under the bog in a moment. +But nothing could crush the deed done. He relapsed into a +sullen and ferocious sorrow. His feet dragged under him. A +sense of age swept over him, and along with it came bitter +remorse that he had flung his fate away to another man and set +no store upon fortune's priceless gifts. A savage loathing of +himself awoke in his spirit. He hated the flesh that he was clad +in, poured contumely upon his own head and cried out aloud in +the loneliness that his repulsive weakness proclaimed him what +he was: a bastard and a creature fit only for the scorn of men. +He cumbered the earth. None was the better for him. The +cur that fled from a badger had greater courage; the baying +foxhound more pluck, than had he. His grandmother's words in +the past returned to his memory and clashed in his head like +bells rung by demons. This was how he had employed her +wisdom; this was how he had cast away his grand opportunity to +win fortune and love. + +Siward's Cross rose before him and he stood near the home +of his childhood. He sat awhile beside the hoary monument +and leant his back against it. Then he turned and examined +it with listless eyes, and watched the shadow cast by its squat +arms darken the heather. Long he delayed; and, at last, as +the sun, turning westward, warmed the Moor and touched the +cross with a gentle and roseate glory, the benignant, evening +hour found out John Lee, soothed his giant sorrow and set its +seal upon him. This venerable stone had power to comfort the +lad's grief. He began to think less of himself and more of Grace +Malherb. Her joy grew out of the sunset light; her young life's +story opened before him; he saw a ribbon of pure gold stretching +down into the West, where the sun was setting beyond a +distant sea; and he knew that it was her road home. + +Great words came to his recollection: "He that loseth his life +shall save it," was written for him in the soft and mellow +earth-shadows of sunset. + +"My life shall be lost in her life," he said; "and if she's saved, +I'm blessed above all deserving." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +STARS AND STRIPES + +When Mr. Mordecai Cockey entered Fox Tor Farm the +spirit of Grace Malherb sank within her. Had an executioneer +appeared, she had felt no greater horror; for Mr. Cockey +was a journeyman tailor, and, according to the custom of that +time upon Dartmoor, when clothes were needed, the maker of +them came to his customers and took up his abode in farm or +hamlet until local requirement was satisfied. A month's work +or more awaited Mr. Cockey, and first among the articles to be +fashioned with his skilful needle were certain gowns--a part of +Grace's wedding trousseau; for all men now knew that within the +space of a few weeks Miss Malherb was to become Mrs. Peter +Norcot. + +Two trestles and a dozen boards completed Mr. Cockey's +professional requirements in the servants' hall; and here, day by +day, he sat and snipped and sewed, and sewed and snipped. +He was a very full-bodied, pallid man, with flabby cheeks, mournful, +watery eyes and a puzzled expression. He came from Totnes, +and often mourned that his itinerant labours required him to be +much away from his wife and family. This tailor descended in +direct line from Mordecai Cockey, the famous seventeenth-century +bell-founder; and when he heard any one of those seven great +bells that the bygone Cockey had cast, he would lift his head +where the musical monster thundered from some Devon belfry, +and nod respectfully, as to the spirit of his ancestor. + +Now Mordecai worked at the wardrobe of the farm, and, +elevated upon his trestles, held a sort of conference, and told the +things life taught him. Once during the dinner hour, several +farm folk were at Mr. Cockey's feet, as he sat cross-legged amid +his tools and ate his meal of bread and cheese. Meat he might +have had in plenty, but he explained to Dinah Beer that his +sedentary life had long since turned him vegetarian. + +"By God's blessing I can stomach cheese," he said, "an' if so +be as a body's humours will cope with vinnied cheese, he may +hope for a long life." + +"Be my breeches mended, Mister?" asked Tom Putt. "'Cause +if so, I should like to don 'em afore afternoon. I've got a riding +job as'll take me to Holne by-an'-by." + +"They'm done. I've double-seated 'em for 'e." + +Mr. Cockey nodded towards the garment. + +"You'm always as good as your word, I'm sure," said Harvey +Woodman, "though how them fat hands of yours--as look more +like bunches of parsnips than hands--can do such finnicky work +makes me wonder." + +"Ah, I dare say a lot of things make you wonder," answered +the tailor. "Not but what I envy you your way of life, for 'tis +healthier'n mine. You chaps, as till the earth, have no time to +fret your intellects like what I do. Ploughmen never band +together and make trouble in the world. Tailors be a very +thinking race; but you'll not find they takes a hopeful view of +human nature." + +"Then they'm small-minded," said Beer firmly; "for, looked +at all round, human nature be a very hopeful thing." + +Mordecai Cockey sighed. + +"You may be in the right. Perhaps building of clothes do +narrow the heart, for we grow apt to think 'tis our feathers make +the birds. For that matter the world counts us but light. We'm +slighted tradesmen, we tailors. They say it takes nine of us to +make a man; though it only takes one to get a long family, as +I know to my cost. Thirteen children have I, an' all with the +tailoring spirit in 'em except my eldest son." + +"An' what might he be doing?" asked Putt. + +"Well, he's a baker." + +"A very honest trade." + +"That's just what it ban't," declared Mr. Cockey. "They'm +sly as lawyers; an' there's a damned sight more in bread than +corn nowadays. A man may be eating his own great gran'faither; +as I've said openly down to Totnes, an' nobody contradicted +me. + +"God's word! They don't rob churchyards for their bones, do +they?" asked Woodman. "If I thought that, I'd never take bit +nor sup to Totnes no more." + +"There's ways an' ways," explained the tailor. "Bone goes +in; as thus. Man is earth, an' earth is bread; an' when they +take the top spit off what was thought to be an old burial place +of the ancients an' turn it over an' make a wheat field--what +then?" + +"'Tis just short of a cannibal act!" declared Woodman; for +they never buried deep in them days." + +"Rubbish, Harvey!" answered Beer. "We ourselves be only +the fatness of the earth when all's said. 'Tis nature's plan; an' +I see no harm in it at all." + +"More don't I for that matter," declared Cockey. "With my +well-knowed feelings about human nature, you won't be surprised +if I say that many a man's better as corn or cabbage than ever he +was on two legs." + +"Then you don't believe in God, same as me," said Kekewich +grimly. + +"Not at all, not at all," answered the other. "I'm only saying +a man's body is mud, an' his clothes is mud in shape of wool +or flax; an' he's all mud to the eye; but as to his soaring spirit +I won't hazard a word. A tailor must believe in God. 'Twas +Him as gave the word for clothes an' put Adam an' his lady into +their first shifts of His own Almighty making." + +"You meet men whose spirits be the muddiest part about 'em, +all the same," declared Kekewich. + +"So you will; but every thinking creature turned of fifty must +have come across folks with souls looking out of their eyes. +Why, I've seed pictures in big houses where the paint had a soul! +Ess fay--beautiful dead an' gone women have pretty nigh spoke +to me where I sat an' worked below their gold frames." + +"I'll never believe in souls," said the older man. "We'm +a vile race, an' no God of Heaven would ever make such a poor +bargain as to overbuy such trash as us at the price of His only +Son. Why for should He? If He'd but lifted His finger, He +might have had us for nought." + +"The devil must be itching for you, Kek," said Harvey +Woodman. + +"You'm no hand at argument, Mr. Kekewich," continued +Cockey; "for half the beauty of argufying is to hold close to the +matter. You was saying as you didn't believe in souls; an' I was +saying as I did. Well, take an instance. There's Miss Grace +Malherb for who I be making this here lovely vest. Be that +bowerly maiden no more than the pink-an'-white china dust she +goes in? If so, she's no better'n this bit of flowered silk." + +"People can be good or evil, an' yet have no more souls than +dogs," began the head man; but at that moment Miss Malherb +herself entered as a bell rang to tell that the dinner hour was +done. + +The labourers departed to their work, and Grace was left with +Mr. Cockey. She came to beg a secret favour and now whispered +it into the tailor's ear, though there was none but himself to +hear it. + +"If you command, it must be done," he said. "I know a +mariner to the harbour at Totnes, where the Holne timber goes +down Dart to build His Majesty's great warships. The man has +goodly stores, an' will sell me so much bunting as I want--red, +white and blue. I'm going down to-morrow for the day to get +more cloth." + +"And, before all things, keep it secret. Not a whisper!" + +"It shall be as you please, Miss. An' I'll ax you to take this +here vest along, an' put it on, an' let me see if 'tis all right." + +"You work so dreadfully quick! You're sewing a shroud,--d'you +know that, Mordecai?" + +"What a word! How comes it you want stuff for flags +then?" + +"Ah! 'tis not for my wedding day. Now, if you could fashion +me a pair of wings to fly with----" + +Mr. Cockey drew a thread through his needle. + +"Fine clothes don't make a happy marriage, I know," he said; +"but they do put heart into a wedding party, an' speaking +generally, they'm a great softener of life to females. A parcel +from me has dried many tears--poor fools." + +"I'm not married yet, however." + +"No, but--Lord! what's that?" + +The tailor sat with his back to the window, and, unseen by him, +a horseman had ridden up to it. Now he stopped, rapped upon +the casement with his whip, doffed his hat and grinned at Grace. +The glass was not good, and it distorted a countenance generally +esteemed amiable and handsome. + +"Mercy on us, what a chap! 'Tis a face like to Satan!" cried +Cockey. + +"That's the gentleman my father wishes me to marry," answered +Grace quietly. + +"Then I'm sure I beg pardon, Miss. 'Twas a twist in the +glass." + +"You caught sight of his soul--not his face," she said. The +girl had turned pale, and now she hastily left the room. + + +Much had happened since Mr. Norcot's last visit, and soon +accident was to enlighten him in certain directions. Mordecai +Cockey went off on the following morning and returned in +eight-and-forty hours with various bales and packages. One of these +he handed to Grace in private, and she conveyed the parcel +unseen to her chamber. Its nature will presently appear. For the +moment it suffices to say that Miss Malherb's secret concerned +Cecil Stark, with whom, thanks to John Lee, she had now +established a correspondence. Their letters Grace showed to +John openly for some time, but, perceiving that they were the +joy of two lives, the messenger refused to read these missives +more. Grace still stood at the parting of the ways, nor knew that +John Lee's road was already chosen. The relation of three +became difficult beyond endurance; Stark understanding that +John had access to all letters, chafed at the mystery, and naturally +found little to admire in such control. He was meditating action +when a sudden incident upset their former relations and quickened +the catastrophe. + +Peter Norcot, upon this, his last visit to Fox Tor Farm before +the wedding, pursued a customary course and endeavoured by +imperturbable good humour and kindness to soften his lady's +temper. He well knew the futility of the task, yet persevered. + +On the night of his arrival Grace had a headache and did not +appear, whereupon he wrote her a letter and sent it to her by the +hand of Mary Woodman. + +"Dear Light of my Eyes," said he, "I am quite broken-hearted +to know that Mordecai Cockey has a greater place in your +affections just now than any other man. It is the Tailor's Hour! +Well, well! I must be patient. Yet what can a tailor do to make +Grace more graceful? Here's a beautiful epigram from our own +Devon poet, Browne. I transcribe it for you: + + "'To CUPID. + + "'Love! when I met her first, whose slave I am, + To make her mine why had I not thy flame? + Or else thy blindness not to see that day; + Or if I needs must look on her rare parts, + Love! why to wound her had I not thy darts? + Since I had not thy wings to fly away?' + +How cruel well these lines fit one Norcot! But I would never +fly. True love is patient--like charity it suffereth long; like hope +it is eternal; like faith it keeps its course with the stars. Bless +you! May the morning light restore you to health, and to the +presence of your devoted Peter. + +"Postscript:-- + + "'If all the earthe were paper white, + And all the sea were incke, + 'Twere not inough for me to write + As my poore hart doth thinke.--LYLY.'" + + +To this letter came no reply; but in the morning Grace +appeared as usual and spent a reasonable portion of her time +with the wool-stapler. For once Mr. Norcot tried an erotic vein, +quoted the most passionate things he knew and attempted to +warm a heart that--moonlike--ever turned one face to him. +But it was the dark frozen side he saw. + +"My ideas are boundless," he said. "I spurn space on the +day I call you my own. You were meant to mirror the Mediterranean +in those wonderful eyes of yours, and you shall. We'll +sail away to the land of wine and song--to Provence, the cradle +of the troubadours. It can be done now that we are friends with +the French again. Yes; and I'm going also to take you to Italy; +I----" + +"At the beginning of the hunting season? How ridiculous +you are, Peter. Why, even if I married you--which you know I +never shall--I would not----" + +"Grace, you must marry me. It is an accomplished fact. The +banns have been read for the first time of asking at Widecombe +and at Chagford. Nobody forbade 'em. You are absolutely +vital to my peace of mind, to my well-being, to my sanity. You +may not love me yet, but soon enough you'll look back to these +wayward days and mourn 'em." + +"Indeed I shall." + +"Mourn 'em, that you could so often have made so true a man +sad. You won't understand me." + +"Yes, I do--perfectly. If there is one thing about our dreadful +relations that I do see clearly, it is your nature. You have +been peculiarly and horribly clear of late. You want me--what +you call 'me'--my curls, eyes, lips, and all the rest of a wretched +girl. But you don't care a feather for the part of me that matters. +You never consider that I've got a soul, and that it's always sad +and sick and sorry when it thinks of you. You don't mind that +you're killing all my higher senses and instincts--poisoning them; +you----" + +"Now, my dear Grace, these assumptions are nonsense, and +show first how little you really know about me, and, secondly, +how absurdly scant attention you pay to my conversation. It is +a union of souls that I sigh for and shall assuredly establish when +the time comes. + + "'Tell me not of your starrie eyes, + Your lips that seem on roses fed, + Your breasts, where Cupid tumbling lies + Nor sleeps for kissing of his bed--' + +George Darley--a pretty boy-poet who has not published yet." + +"Really, Peter, you're impossible!" + +"I say tell me not of these things, Grace, because they are +nothing whatever to me. I don't want to hear about 'em. Soul +to soul--that's all I ask; and that is what I will have." + +"Never! It takes two people to be married, and they've got to +be of the same mind." + +"Happily you are mistaken in that last assertion. Your idea +is that one lover may take a maid to church, but the Bench of +Bishops can't make her his wife if she's averse. Tut, tut! What a +violent thought! We'll find ourselves of one mind yet. Greater +things than matrimony have happened in less time than lies +before us." + +"Plain English is wasted upon you, Peter Norcot, and upon my +father too." + +"I'm much afraid you'll hear some exceedingly plain English +yourself before long--from that same father. He grows singularly +savage of an evening when you have retired. How clear lies your +duty--why do you so shirk it? Is your conscience taking a +holiday? You know better than you speak--I'm positive you +do." + +Many such-like futile conversations passed between them; then +befell the accident aforesaid. It placed some sensational +information in the hands of Peter, and, little guessing at the result, +he hesitated not to avail himself of it. + +There came an afternoon when he sat with Maurice Malherb; +while the master mentioned Grace and inquired how matters +progressed in the affair of Peter's courtship. + +"To tell you truth, a very retrograde business. I had done +better to have copied your own unbending methods. But I'm a +soft-hearted fool. What says the poet? Those writing men +always know such a deal about it! + + "'He that will win this dame, must do + As Love does, when he bends his bow; + With one hand thrust the lady from, + And with the other pull her home!'" + + +"I'm amazed that any child of mine--but words only waste air +now. The wedding day's at hand. She'll be the first to see her +own folly when she looks back upon it. Obey she must and shall. +To-morrow I purpose to have speech with her. Things have +reached a climax. Heaven knows whence she got this sullen +and mulish humour. Not from me." + +"Nor from her mother, I'm very sure. Would she was more +like your wonderful lady. + + "'Prudently simple, providently wary, + To the world a Martha and to heaven a Mary.' + +Annabel is a jewel among her sex." + +"A wise man chooses his wife," said Malherb, "but it is denied +him to choose his daughter. To-morrow, at any rate, we'll try +and make the matter clear to her. I hate force. I am naturally +a man of mild manners; yet this thick-headed world will never +understand me until I clench my fist." + +"One thing I must beg," interrupted Peter. "Don't surprise +her. Don't suddenly appear before dear Grace. It would not be +fair. I passed her chamber door yesterday, and by chance it +stood ajar. She sat there busy with her needle; and the purpose +to which she was putting it nearly startled me into an ejaculation. +She does not know that I saw her. Candidly, I wish that I had +not done so. There are sad secrets--'She loves a black-hair'd +man.' In fact, there is somebody dearer to her than either you or +I. What did I see? 'Sight hateful--sight tormenting!' Stars +and stripes--stars and stripes--but all stripes to me. I'll swear +each one has left a bruise upon my soul!" + +"What, in God's name, are you ranting about?" cried +Malherb impatiently. "Is everybody going mad, or have I +already become so?" + +"You must ask Gracie that question. I saw her enfolded in a +mass of red, white, and blue bunting. There is nothing in that. +Bunting may stand for joy. + + "'The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, + But wonder how the devil they got there.' + +And I wondered the more since these coloured rags were taking +upon themselves the likeness of the United States national flag. +Now, what is that notable emblem doing under this roof? I +would not deny my future wife any rational amusement, but----" + +Peter stopped, for Maurice Malherb had hurried from him. + +The father strode straightway to his daughter's room, found the +door locked and kicked it open with a crash, to see Grace sitting +beside her window half hidden under billows of bunting. + +In the year 1814, America's banner consisted of fifteen alternate +red and white stripes with fifteen stars arranged in a circle on the +blue canton. Helped by designs from Cecil Stark, Grace was +carefully reproducing the historic standard upon a generous scale; +and her father surprised her in the act to fit the last star into the +circle. Upon one star was the word "Vermont," embroidered +with white silk, and round about it ran a tiny margent of golden +thread. + +"What means this, woman?" roared Malherb. + +"Why, that you've broken into my private chamber, dear +father, and kicked the door down. And this--this, that I am +making, is a flag of freedom for Mr. Cecil Stark and his friends. +They hoped to hoist it above their Prison and rejoice at the sight +of it on the Fourth of July--a very glorious day among them." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UNDER LOCK AND KEY + +No man nor woman at Fox Tor Farm had ever witnessed an +explosion of human passion so awful as shook Maurice +Malherb upon his discovery. Annabel, in tears, confided to +Peter Norcot that her husband had taken his daughter by the +shoulders, shaken her nearly senseless, then flung her upon her +bed. He had raged and roared until the house was a cave of +harsh echoes; he had made fast his daughter's chamber door +from the outside, and dared any living soul to approach the +sinner without his permission. + +"In the case of these tropical tempests," explained Peter, +"nothing can be done. Happily they are short. 'In rage deaf +as the sea, hasty as fire.' For my part, I return home +immediately. Everybody here must get under shelter and wait for a +change of wind." + +"Argument is vain," said Annabel. + +"Tut, tut! Who argues with a volcano? Write to me in a +day or two; and have no fear for the dear girl. Half his rage +now is because he so far lost his self-command as to shake her. +A shaking after all--well, by my faith, she deserves it. To +correspond with Cecil Stark! When I say that it was naughty, +I understate the offence. However, that matter lies in a +nutshell. Get rid of her messenger. John Lee's the man. Despatch +him; and let him know that I'll befriend him. Farewell, until a +brighter star shines over us, my dear Annabel." + +Towards evening, when his wrath had somewhat abated, Mrs. Malherb +told her husband of Norcot's departure--a fact he had +not noticed for himself. She added particulars of his last advice; +and before the moon rose John Lee had passed out of Fox Tor +Farm for ever. With difficulty Beer and Kekewich withstood +their master, for he had rushed among his people with a horsewhip. + +"I was her servant, sir, to do her bidding," said Lee quietly; +then he rose from his meal to depart. One ghastly blow he +received across his face; and he clapped his hand to it and went +out, while Kekewich interposed his stunted figure between Malherb +and the groom. + +"You've done enough for one day," he said without flinching. +"Best to cool down, else your raging fires will set your brain on +light and cast you into Bedlam." + +"'Enough'! Is it enough that a man's daughter----?" began +Malherb. Then he broke off and rolled his eyes upon their +frightened faces until the pallid and rotund orb of Mr. Cockey's +countenance challenged his glance. + +"And you, tailor, work as you never worked yet! Let your +trash be done next week, or take it back again." + +He quitted the hall abruptly; and for the rest of that dim day +his wife suffered him alone. Her prayers he cried down; her +tears he dried by terror. He ordered her not to weep, and +frightened her into obedience. She believed that he was going +mad and suffered untold dismay until, cast up like a drowned +thing by the waves of his passion, physical nature collapsed and +Malherb slept. Groaning and moaning in the dream scenery +begot of his wild spirit, she left him, crept to the prisoner and +took Grace to her bosom. + +For an hour they held mournful discourse, but Annabel did +all the weeping. Her father's temper animated the girl and she +panted with indignation. + +"I weary of your tears, dearest mother," she said. "If you +may fetch me some food I should be thankful for it. That smooth +coward to peep into my room! And to tell! I will jump from +my window on to the kind granite sooner than marry him!" + +Annabel mourned her daughter's folly; she explained how that +John Lee had been dismissed at a moment's notice; and then, +changing her mood, she talked herself into quite another frame +of mind, and began to upbraid the sinner with all her might. + +"'Twas a very unmaidenly thing, and that much I stoutly tell +you. To have an understanding with a man, and one who is +your country's enemy! Your father has destroyed the flag. He +thrust it into the red-hot peat and scorched his own hand badly. +He raved against the very foundations of the earth when he +burnt himself. Like Samson, he would have dragged down the +house if he could. Oh, you are a thorn, not a daughter! He is +breaking his great heart. Treachery is beyond his understanding. +I blush for you, Grace Malherb." + +"I wish you would get me some food; I'm starving," said the +girl wearily. "He would not grudge me bread and water." + +"That is what he said just before he slept. 'Bread and water,' +said he; then his voice grew softer on the brink of sleep, and he +said, 'She may have milk too.'" + +"I love him through it all!" + +Mrs. Malherb's tears flowed again. She left her daughter and +presently returned with the food. + +"He didn't say 'twas not to be warmed, so I've heated it for +you. Oh, my pretty, wicked sweet--how could you do a deed so +unbecoming?" + +"I don't know, mother," answered Grace, beginning to eat. +"These things happen. I liked Mr. Cecil Stark very much, and +I like his country and his ideas about right and wrong." + +"A young man's ideas upon such subjects are usually very +mistaken." + +"In the third letter he wrote me he asked me to make a flag +for him, and I consented after carefully weighing the matter in +my mind." + +"What should he want with a flag, poor soul?" + +"'Twas for the Fourth of July--the Anniversary of their +Independence. There--the bread and milk are gone. Good night, +kind mother. I'm sorry you ever had a daughter." + +"The female character has always been beyond me," confessed +Mrs. Malherb. "The difference between a boy and a girl, as +Peter once said, is the difference between a dog and a cat. A +dog is so much more reasonable, so much easier to comprehend +and direct. Slyness: 'tis a feline thing; and as to obedience, it +certainly comes more natural to a son than a daughter, though I +know not why. At any rate, it is so where a mother's concerned. +A son will do anything so gladly for his mother--if you don't ask +him to interfere with his own comfort. And what mother worthy +of the name would do that? Not that disobedience to parents +was ever recorded against either sex in our rank of society when I +was a girl. Now good night, child. Try to sleep, and let your +prayer be the same as mine--that it will please God to lift your +dear father's wrath by morning." + +But with the return of day Malherb still wasted his nervous +energy in anger. He refused to see his daughter or to liberate +her. He wandered miles upon the high Moors alone; then going +back again, he returned to the infamous treatment he had suffered +and the torment of possessing a thankless child. Presently +he attacked his wife, and cursed her past folly and ignorance. + +"You are to blame for all!" he said. "'Twas your upbringing--so +weak, so fond--that bred this devil in her. Would to +God you had more of my own mother's spirit in you. Look at +me. I owe everything to my education. She was a Roman +mother. Had you been more like her, this minx had never +dared to flout a father. But, by God, I'll break her now or +never!" + +Within the day Malherb arrived at a determination; but he +told his wife and Kekewich only. Then a letter reached Peter +Norcot. The secret, however, leaked out, for Kekewich confided +it to Mordecai Cockey, and Mr. Cockey uttered it aloud as a +mournful fact in the hearing of Dinah Beer. That night Richard +Beer naturally heard it; and then the news reached Harvey +Woodman's ears. Finally it came to the intelligence of Tom +Putt, and made his heart quicken by a stroke or two in the +minute. For Putt had taken this matter much to heart. + +"'Tis become a common prison, wi' that lovely miss locked up +as if she's done a murder, 'stead of fall into love with a fine +gentleman," grumbled Thomas. "For my part, I can't stand it +very much longer. Ban't a manly thing for us chaps to bide here +an' know a maiden's being starved to death on bread an' water +under the same roof with us." + +"Her done it underhand," said Woodman. "If it wasn't for +that, I'd feel the same as you." + +"Well she might do it underhand wi' a tiger for a parent." + +"Best you pick your words, else you'll go after Jack Lee, wi' a +flea in your ear," returned Woodman. "I say 'tis a very terrible +proceeding," he continued. "An' seeing the chap's a Yankee, +nought can be done. 'Tis an unthinkable thing for one of our +bettermost young women to marry an American. I'm 'mazed +she could give her mind to such a rash deed." + +"That's because you haven't got more ideas than a cow," said +Mary Woodman firmly. "What's the matter with the man--Mr. Stark, +I mean? God's goodness! You talk as if he was a +monkey, or some foreign savage as scalped people for his pleasure. +He'm good to look at, an' he had a beautiful gentle way with him +for all his fighting face. An' so straight as a fir tree a was, an' +full of learning, an' civil to the least of us, an' gave you a golden +half-sovereign afore he went away. So you'm a traitor to miscall +him. I won't have no narrowness, Harvey, an' you well know it. +You used to be so broad as Bible in your opinions, an' very +charitable-minded for a common man. But to tell such things +because a young gentleman be born out of England--I'm shamed +for 'e!" + +Woodman had little to say before this wifely rebuke. They all +talked on and expressed their concern; but Thomas Putt did +more than debate the situation and regret it. Despite lack of +opinions on all matters save sporting, he had plenty of common +sense and courage. He could act promptly, and danger or any +consciousness of unlawfulness in a task usually stimulated him to +successful achievement. On his own responsibility he took up +the cause of the prisoner. While there was yet time, Grace +Malherb must know the thing determined; so argued Putt; and +in that conviction he took a definite step, and conveyed his +information to another. + +Then came a morning when Grace from her prison window +witnessed the departure of Mr. Mordecai Cockey. She shivered +as he went, for she knew that his work was done. Some six +weeks yet remained before the day appointed for the marriage, +and gloomily she speculated as to whether her father could find +it in his heart to keep her thus shut up throughout the whole +splendour of summer. Annabel visited her daughter thrice daily; +but she brought little news and no comfort. Grace soon +discovered that her gentle parent suffered much under weight of +secrets. The mother felt often tempted to reveal what was now +afoot; but she had promised her husband to say nothing. + +"Mr. Cockey has gone off much earlier than it was proposed," +said Grace upon the evening of the tailor's departure. + +"He has done his work." + +"And wasted much good cloth." + +"I pray to Heaven that you will listen to reason when the time +comes to do so, Grace." + +"I shall never hear reason under this roof, mother. To think--a +grown woman so treated! How can father heap such insult +upon his own flesh and blood? How he would have scorned any +other man in the land who had treated a daughter so!" + +"It has pleased God to perplex his noble nature; and he +knows his own weaknesses. He has come near relenting more +than once. But, like Pharaoh, he hardens his heart again. He +suffers worse than you do. He has quite lost his appetite--a +very alarming symptom, I think. At table he helps himself, as +he helps everybody, with his usual generosity; then I see you +come into his mind, and he fumes and frets and thrusts his meat +from him. There is trouble, too, that I know not of. We are +much straitened. I shall hear all about it some night, when he +is in a soft mood." + +"Nobody can help him--that's the cruel thing with dear +father." + +"He'll not listen to his kind. It is as though God had cursed +him and said, 'Thou shall trust no judgment but thine own.' So +warm-hearted and so beyond reach of other men's wisdom as +he is!" + +"I trust in Heaven to bring him to his better self. There are +yet many weeks before this dreary farce is ended," said Grace. + +Mrs. Malherb looked exceeding guilty as her daughter uttered +these words. She answered nothing and prepared to depart; but +she hesitated at the door as though about to speak. Then she +changed her mind and withdrew quickly. + +Ere the morning's dawn, however, Grace heard the thing so +studiously concealed from her. She slept but little at this period +and busied her mind with futile thoughts. She did not doubt +that John Lee and Stark knew all and were busy upon her +behalf. Therefore, when a gentle tap fell on her casement an +hour after midnight, she felt neither fear nor astonishment, but +welcomed it as a thing expected. She struck a light to show that +she had heard, wrapped a gown about her and came to the +window. + +A scrap of paper tied round a pebble lay on the sill, and upon +the paper was written one word: "PULL." She obeyed and found +that a thread communicated with the ground below. At the +other end of this string was a length of whipcord, and when that +also had been drawn up, she found that it brought after it the +head of a slight rope-ladder. A further laconic direction appeared +upon another scrap of paper: "MAKE FAST." Grace fixed the +ropes to the iron grate of her fireplace and extinguished the light +for safety; then her heart beat fast as the cords strained and a +man rose up from the darkness of the earth below. + +Not until he was at the casement and she heard him whisper, +did she know that it was John Lee. A wave of disappointment +swept over her; and to hide any ray of it, she bent and kissed +his hand. + +"'Tis only me," he said; and his voice that read her heart so +clear, cried to her to be honest with him and speak the thing she +had longed yet feared to say. + +"Dear, dear John. I wish I could say what you deserve to +hear! You risk your life for me, for father would surely kill you +if he knew of this. Yet what have I to give you back for such +devotion? 'Tis no time for anything but solemn truth. I've +long feared to face it, dear John; but now I'm grown older and +braver. I will marry you, John, but I do not feel all that I +thought I felt. I am not the true, trustful girl you think me, but +a flighty fool who did not know her own mind. There--you +know--and I'm thankful that you should know, though you must +hate me and condemn me evermore." + +"Think you this is news, my pretty Grace? How strange to +hear these things retold after so many days! I'm long since +schooled to this cold truth. Dear heart, your eyes never hid a +secret--nor your soul! I know--I know everything--all that +you feel--all the sorrow you've suffered for me--all that you +cannot say--all--all--to the secret prayers you've prayed to +Christ about it! Suffer no more. The man you love will soon +be free to stand between you and trouble. And you'll never +quite forget me neither--never forget me--I know that. I'm +content; and I'm selfish too, you see. I've claimed one great +payment--the right to rescue you, and the joy of it. 'Twill be +his turn next. I'm saving you for him. You can trust me if he +does?" + +"Whom should we trust? We're both in prison now. 'Trust +you'! faithful, generous John!" + +"You must be so good as your word at once then. Your banns +have been asked out thrice. To-day is Saturday; you are to be +married on Monday. The date is changed. Putt brought me +the news where I dwell now. I have returned to my grandmother. +There's much to tell about what's doing at the War +Prison, and about him--Master Stark--but that must wait until +you're safe." + +"They have plotted to marry me--to dash me into it by a +surprise?" + +"They have." + +"I'll stay and brave them!" + +"No, no--what's one girl against two resolute and determined +men? Terrible things happen--women have been drugged as +maids and come to their senses wives. Don't pit yourself against +them. Stark knows that you must escape." + +She reflected a moment. + +"If he wishes it--if you wish it--yes. But not now. To-morrow +night, John." + +"All's ready. Your parents shall learn that you are safe and +well. But to find you will be beyond power of man. So that +you can trust me----" + +"To-morrow night, then, I'll be furnished for flight. +To-morrow--kiss me, John." + +"For him?" + +"For yourself. Is not my life worth that? Yet 'tis poor +payment for a poor thing." + +"For the last time before God." + +He bent over her and folded her in his arms. She felt his +young heart against her own. Then he kissed her lips. + +"Your lover no more; your slave for ever," he said. + +A moment later he had descended to earth, and Grace shed +tears for the first time since her imprisonment. She drew up the +ladder as he directed, hid it close and watched John Lee vanish +into the dim dawn. Then she turned into her room and felt +already that it was a memory of the past--a nest of youthful joys +and sorrows, of many a girlish fancy and old dead dream, now +left behind for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TUNNEL GROWS + +Cecil Stark and William Burnham walked side by side +in their exercise yard and discussed the affairs of the world. +While the American prisoners toiled like moles underground, +great events marked the time. The Allies were in Paris; +Napoleon had abdicated and, for a moment, the war with France +was ended. The Peace of Paris had been accomplished, and +Europe took breath. Yet liberty's glorious reveille woke the +French at Prince Town to more grief than joy. + +"I can find it in me to be truly sorry for them," said Stark. +"They have starved and frozen and suffered for an ideal cause +and the ideal is shattered. They trusted Bonaparte as our people +trust God; and now the idol they adored is fallen, and the master +they hate is lifted up again." + +"Men from Plymouth presented them with their old national +flag and advised them to wear the white cockade," answered +Burnham; "but every mother's son of 'em sticks to the tricolour +and has pinned the Bourbon favour to his dog!" + +"They cry out that Elba is too small to hold the spirit of +Napoleon. Perhaps they are right. Time will show that," said +Stark. + +"Their wives and children will soften their griefs when they +get home." + +"Doubtless. And their common sense, so soon as the first +smart of failure is past. War teaches men to look twice into the +claims of kings." + +Burnham did not immediately reply. Then he said-- + +"I've noticed a change in you since that awful experience when +Miller perished. You seem--forgive me--less patriotic-minded +than of yore." + +"I have wider interests than of yore. I get important private +letters." + +"From home?" + +"No--from friends in this country. To be frank, I have now +a personal stake in life that I lacked until recently. We cannot +live to the State only. We must also live to ourselves." + +"Do those interests of self and State clash then?" + +"As to that, my lad--why, mind your own business," replied +Stark. His tone was amiable, but Burnham knew the subject +could not be reopened. + +Presently others joined them and conversation turned to the +subterranean works. + +A shaft, whose adit was carefully concealed, now sank upon +the tunnel under Prison No. 6. The mouth was narrow, but +within it space had been dug for four men to work abreast. A +grand difficulty was the disposal of the excavated earth; and +ingenious methods had been taken to get rid of it. A stream, +which ran through each prison yard at the rate of four miles an +hour, carried away many tons of fine dirt, while much was mixed +with lime, plastered over the prison walls and then whitewashed. +A large cavity discovered under Prison No. 5 proved also of great +service, and many tons of surplus soil had been cast into it. Now, +as their passage crept yard by yard nearer to the outer walls, the +workers suffered for want of air; but means to eject the azotic gas +were devised; a system of lighted lamps answered this purpose; +and to Lovey Lee fell the task of smuggling large quantities of +oil into the War Prison. + +The leaders spoke with hope and enthusiasm. A week or less +would see the completion of the tunnel, and already plans were +being developed for the great exodus. + +Burnham, fresh from his conversation with Stark, found David +Leverett at his elbow; whereupon he discussed his recent rebuff +with the sailor. + +"Stark was wont to be open as daylight. But now there's a +bitterness about the man, and his mind wanders. To-day he +confessed to other interests than our common interests. And +at such a critical time!" + +"You can't trust any human in this world," said Leverett. "I +tell you there's not a doodle inside these walls--narry a Yankee +or Britisher--who hevn't got his figure. Man's built so; so's +God. You can't even get into Heaven for nought. 'Tis a +question of price. Only Hell lets you in free." + +"You don't mean----?" + +"I don't mean nothing. 'Tis dangerous ter mean anything in +this place, when you've always got unseen eyes watching you, +like a hawk watches a sparrow. But let the highest amongst us +be watched as well as the lowest--that's all. No treason in that. +I hevn't got any ill-will against Cecil Stark, though I know +you was always jealous of him. He's a good boss, and I trust +him as much as I trust anybody else. But liberty's sweeter than +love of man or country; and money with liberty would tempt the +angels I reckon, if they found themselves in this place. Money +and liberty's all the world can give a man." + +"What's money to him? He's made of money." + +"So much the more might he want ter be free ter spend it. +He's not the sort to stop home nights anyhow." + +"For that matter, there's money for all since the French +departed. Their offices fall to our men now. The prisoners +are making fifty pounds a week or more--apart from home +allowances." + +"Yes, an' that tarnal miser, Lovey Lee, pouches half of it," +grumbled Leverett. "Talk about money! If I'm first through +the rat-hole, I'd like ter get my four fingers on ter her windpipe +and strangle her by inches. That's the payment she deserves!" + +"We shall be through in four or five days. Knapps sends in +word that since they got a recruit--Lovey Lee's grandson--their +rate of progress has increased. 'Tis the letters that John Lee +gets to Stark that make him so unrestful, I believe." + +"Stark could give 'em the slip for that matter," said Leverett. +"Scores of Yankees as can speak the lingo have given up the +names of Frenchmen and gone out. I'd hev done it myself if +I could parley-voo." + +"Yes," admitted Burnham. "He's a good scholar. He could +go to-morrow; but if he did he would be a coward and a knave. +He knows that it is his duty to stop and see this thing through." + +"'Duty'! Well, I haven't got much more use for duty myself," +replied the other. "Life's short, and there's nobody on earth or +in heaven cares for me but David Leverett." + +"Stark happens to have bigger ideas than you," answered +Burnham coldly. + +"'Tis easy for the rich ter hev big ideas; but they ain't no +good to the likes of you and me." + +William Burnham resented these sentiments and turned on +his heel; while Leverett addressed Mr. Cuffee, who passed at +the moment, and, in default of a better listener, grumbled to him. + +"Devil take the hot-heads; and Devil take the hindermost! +'Tis every man for himself in this world, so far as I've seen. And +when all's done, and we're free--what? How's five thousand +unarmed men ter get ter Tor Quay and take ship ter France? +We want a fleet o' vessels! They'll send the sojers after us, and +they'll lick up and overtake us and cut us ter ribbons--that's +what they'll do. 'Twould be truest kindness ter stop the whole +thing." + +"Marse Stark he lead de way. He wiser den us." + +"You think so--and the rest likewise. But I say this snarl +is beyond his powers ter loose, and we're going the wrong way +about it." + +"You no blame Marse Stark?" + +"I duz then. He ought ter know, if he's so tarnation wise, +that it can't fall out right." + +Sam Cuffee shook his head. + +"If you fink Marse Stark ebber make a mistake in him life, +you no fren' ob mine no more," he said. + + +Elsewhere the subject of these criticisms was fighting with +mingled interests, and found himself torn in half between the +prisoner at Fox Tor Farm and the prisoners at Prince Town. +Escape was now easy enough for any intelligent man; and with +each draft of French prisoners many Americans had got clear off +by giving up the names of the dead; but in Stark's opinion, the +fortunes of the plot were his fortunes. Daily the difficulties +increased, and as larger numbers of prisoners became familiar +with the secret, the chances of treachery grew. A week or less +must see the tunnel bored; but meantime the temptation to +desert his post was terrible. Through John Lee, Stark had +learned of the catastrophe at Fox Tor Farm, and now understood +that secret means were afoot greatly to hasten Grace's marriage +with Peter Norcot. The American also knew clearly that, while +a prisoner in body, Grace Malherb was free in heart, and that +she loved him. His soul longed with a frantic desire to reach +her side and save her. By night he dreamed wild dreams of +rescue; in sleep he saw himself conveying his love to France, +wedding her there, and returning to England again that he might +face her father's fury; but with day his obligations to his +countrymen banished this picture. To desert the cause now was +impossible, for his escape would awake sleeping authority and +unsettle those he left behind him. Every hour new problems +had to be met and solved. Rumours of disaffection reached him +often. In this predicament he did not trust himself to think of +what he might do, had it not been for the presence of John Lee. +The vital matter of Grace's escape rested with John, and even +now, as Stark tramped the prison yard, he scanned the grille, +impatient to see his friend. For upon the preceding night Grace +had been rescued from her home and now hid in Lee's safe keeping +until Stark himself was free. + +As for John, no personal hopes and ambitions longer remained +in his mind. Never keen, they had waned utterly with his life's +sole joy. Now he stood for nothing but the happiness of Grace +Malherb, her safety and her welfare. She alone acted as an +incentive and made his life continue to possess attraction. For +her he entered into the plot of the Americans; for her he toiled +beside James Knapps to hasten the ends of Cecil Stark; for her +he now ran countless personal risks and came safely out of them, +helped by his very indifference to danger. + +Upon the day that was to have seen Grace married to the +wool-stapler, Lee appeared among the spectators at the barriers, +and pulled some small coins from his pocket as Stark approached +with one or two trinkets of prison manufacture. + +"All's well," he said shortly. "I brought her safely off. Even +now Norcot must be cooling his heels at Widecombe Church; for +when they discovered this morning that she had escaped 'em, +there was no time to communicate with him." + +"She is unhurt? No harm befell her?" + +"To earth she came like a pretty dove, and by sun-up she was +safe. She's not far off neither." + +"To think of another doing these things that should have +been my blessed privilege!" + +"D'you grudge me that much?" + +"No, no, Jack; but consider--her lover. Yes--I'm that now, +thank God." + +"This was what I could do for her and you could not. She +is out of danger now, and will be for a week--not longer." + +"In less time than that my work here is done and we shall be +free," answered Stark. "Then 'tis my turn; then I must----" + +"The tunnel will be through in less than four days--perhaps +three," interrupted John. "Knapps works eighteen hours a day +and I do my stint. He's made of iron. By night we get rid of +the soil; by day we work while my grandmother keeps guard. +When the time comes, we shall knock out the side of the cottage +so that the open door shall be as large as possible." + +With difficulty Stark brought his mind back to this great +matter. + +"She--yes--the exit must be as wide as you can make it. We +are planning the final stroke. At best it will take some hours, +however good our method and discipline. The danger of alarm +is manifest--also the danger of false alarm and panic." + +"You deserve to succeed. You have great authority over men." + +"My obligations cease when I take my turn with my fellows +and come through the tunnel. It is each man for himself then. +But I have given my word to depart no other way. Then! How +shall I pay you for all I owe you, Jack?" + +"Name that no more. You cannot. She will pay me. Her +future happiness is my payment." + +"And her future will rest with me. 'Tis a solemn thought +for one so little worthy of such a trust. Shall you see her +to-day?" + +"Every day until you are free and beside her." + +"My purpose is to get to Dartmouth and hire a vessel that +will take us to France. I have heard all about the place, and +believe that a little ship can lie hid at some appointed spot where +the trees hang over the river." + +"Such spots abound. I might see to that. When once you +and your countrymen are free, her hiding-place must be left +instantly, for another will come to it." + +A shadow of lover's jealousy clouded Stark's face; but it was +gone in an instant. + +"If we get successfully out of this, you and you only must be +thanked for all. I lag behind you every way. But I'll do my +share, Jack, when I get opportunity." + +"No fear of that. To-morrow I may beg a mount at Holne +and get to Dartmouth. But, to be frank, 'tis more vital that I +should watch over her than do any other thing just now. If +Norcot lays hands upon me, all may go wrong. He'll know right +well that I've a hand in this." + +"Then think first and only of her, and guard your own safety +before everything, for her sake." + +A mat of dyed grass and a little box of coloured wood passed +between them, while Lee handed a coin back through the bars. + +"Her letter is under a false bottom in the box," said Stark; +then he turned to some friends and Lee went his way. In his +mind was a great desire to visit Dartmouth and complete these +secret plans. Yet the awful danger to Grace if misfortune +overtook him and kept him from returning, made him hesitate +to incur other risks than those already run. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HUE AND CRY + +When Thomas Putt reached Widecombe Church on the +morning of the wedding, he found the company from +Chagford had already arrived. Peter Norcot's bottle-green coat, +gilt buttons, and noble shirt frill, presented an imposing and +attractive appearance; his sister Gertrude was attired in lace and +silk of a faded lavender hue; his man Mason wore a mighty +bouquet of flowers on his new livery. Last of this party was +the bridegroom's cousin from Exeter--a young Clerk in Orders, +one Relton Norcot, whose flat and somewhat vacant countenance +grew pale as he heard the news. He feared the issue and +expected an explosion, but his knowledge of Mr. Norcot was small. + +When Putt announced that Grace Malherb had vanished in the +night, Peter's eyes contracted a little; he rose from his seat, thrust +his hands deep in his breeches pockets, and began to pace up and +down in front of the altar rails, regardless of the whispering crowd +in the church. His reverend cousin drew him to the vestry; then +the disappointed lover spoke. + +"I'm very little surprised. We must act with the utmost +promptitude. She's not done this thing single-handed. I'll wager +that groom John Lee's in this, and, like enough, Stark, too. He +is the rascal for whom she suffered imprisonment." + +Peter next turned to Putt. + +"Tell us all you know," he said. + +"Only that the window was open, your honour," answered Tom, +who secretly prided himself on the entire conduct of the affair. +"'Twas by the window Miss Grace went out. Her left a letter for +her mother. They do say--Mrs. Beer I mean--that her wrote +her'd rather die a thousand deaths than have you, begging your +honour's pardon for mentioning it. She said as she was going to +be in trusty hands also." + +Peter nodded, while the young clergyman with the fatuous face +began to get out of his surplice. + +"She must have been very badly brought up," he remarked, and +Norcot stared at his cousin; but his mind was on the matter in +hand. + +"I shall proceed instantly to Dartmouth," he said. "Tell +Mason to saddle my horse and his own. Either from Dartmouth +or Tor Quay they will endeavour to leave the country. Mark me, +that man Stark has broke prison again. Is Mr. Malherb in +communication with Prince Town?" + +"Not that I knows about," answered Putt. "Master be like a +bull of Bashan--to say it with all respect. He've made Fox Tor +Farm shake to its roots. He's lamed two horses a'ready afore I +started, an' he's been tearing over the Moor since dawn, like the +Wild Hunter. He 'pears to think he's been hardly treated by +Providence; an' he's called down fire from Heaven, by all accounts, +on pretty near everybody as lives on Dartymoor. A proper +tantara, I warn 'e! God knows how 'twill end. He roareth against +all things but hisself." + +"'Tis a shattering stroke," wept Miss Norcot, "and you are a +marvel, Peter, to bear it with such composure." + +"Tut, tut! Get you home, you and Relton here. The marriage +is postponed. See her home, Relton, and bide my coming. I +may not be back for a day or two, but don't return to Exeter until +you hear from me." + +Then he again addressed Putt. + +"Ride back at once and direct your master to set a sharp watch +about Holne. They are lying close to-day; but they will doubtless +try for the coast at nightfall. First ascertain if Mr. Stark has +escaped again from the War Prison; next do all in your power to +capture the person of that groom. I've a hundred pounds for the +man who takes John Lee and keeps him fast. Now be off; and +let them know that I will be at Fox Tor Farm by midnight or +later." + +His horse was waiting for him, and quite indifferent to the +crowd that had assembled round it, Peter mounted, bade the +children get out of his way, and galloped off with his man after +him. The disappointed bridegroom purposed to inform the +authorities and place patrols above Dartmouth, both upon the +roads and river. + +As for Tom Putt, he rode home; while Miss Norcot and the +clergyman returned to Chagford. + + +At Fox Tor Farm, as the day wore on, wild turmoil reigned, +and the flock-master in fury was urging his exhausted labourers to +further efforts. Every spot for miles around about was searched; +the industrious Mark Bickford even tramped over Cater's Beam +and through Hangman's Hollow; but Grace Malherb, securely +hidden in Lovey's treasure-house, was beyond reach of discovery. +John Lee had laid his plans with care, and knowing that his +grandmother would stop at Prince Town until the completion of +the tunnel and the liberation of the Americans, he selected her +secret hiding-place for Grace. Here, until Lovey's next visit, she +was safe; but the miser would soon herself be flying hither with +her reward; and before that moment Grace must be gone. + +"When she does come," said Lee on the night of the rescue, +"she'll bring some fat money-bags with her; and she'll have to +lie low henceforth, for if they catch her----" + +"And there's danger for you too?" + +"None to name," he answered. "My fear is only for your +health--that you may suffer in this dismal pit. It is damp. But +here's a snug cubby-hole I've found--dry as a bone--and I've +filled it with sweet dead fern and heath. The water that trickles +yonder is pure. And upon that shelf, beside the money-bags, +you'll find bread and bacon and a jug of cider. 'Twas all I +could furnish yesterday, but I'll come back to-night with better +fare. Here's a few candles too, and a flint and steel. And--and +he'd be here now if he could--Master Stark--you know that +right well; but he's got a great weight on his shoulders--five +thousand fellow-men to answer for; and he knows you're safe +while I draw breath." + +"I can't thank you. Each word you say stabs me and makes +me ashamed to live." + +"Sleep--sleep soft and safe; and dream of him. 'Tis not +going to be long before he comes to you; but it won't be here. +To-morrow I see him; to-morrow night I'll return again. Don't +fear for him. Think of the light he's got to show him his road! +You're safe as sanctuary here. And remember, if time hangs +heavy, that you may be within touching distance of the amphora." + +She shook her head sadly. + +"Father will never forgive me now. I have done a deed +unpardonable. He cannot understand that I love him with all +my heart, and yet deem my poor, wretched body a sacred thing--beyond +his right to dispose of as he pleases. I only pray this +will not drive him to distraction." + +The man left her, and during that day had speech with Cecil +Stark at the War Prison, as we have noted. He worked also for +several hours beside James Knapps, and then, towards midnight, +returned to Grace. So silently did he descend into her +hiding-place that he did not waken her. She slept snug in the russet +sweetness of last year's bracken, and the candle by her side made +a play of great black shadows broken by the glow of the fern. +Her young shape was sunk in this soft resting-place, and her lips +shone very red in the candle-light. They held his eyes, since her +own eyes--those lovely lamps that generally attracted a +beholder--were hidden. Long he watched her peaceful breathing, and +stood fired to his heart, unwilling to rouse her. Once she half +awoke, and moved and lifted her head; then she cuddled into +the fern, sighed softly and slept again. + +Presently he called her in gentle tones, and she sat up, still +dreaming; then came to her senses and remembered. + +"Great news," he said. "First, here's some fresh wheaten +cake and some butter and three hard-boiled eggs. Next, you +must know that the tunnel is just finished. We were nearer +by five or six yards than we thought. To-day we heard them +knocking." + +"How is it with my mother and father?" + +"I have seen Putt within the last two hours. He stole out to +Fox Tor and met me as I came. Your mother keeps calm, +for she knows that you are safe; but Mr. Malherb is like one +possessed." + +"Alas, I can see him and hear him as though I was by." + +"Men fear to come to him. There is a settled battle in him +against every human soul. Yet a strange thing happened: at a +lonely cot yesterday, where he called to learn if they had heard of +you, a little girl stood by the door; and he looked at her, then +suddenly caught her up and kissed her before he got on his horse +again. The child was not feared at his fierceness neither, but +laughed into his bloodshot eyes. The mother told Tom Putt." + +"Oh, why was I your daughter?" + +"Norcot went straight from Widecombe to Dartmouth, so Putt +also tells. A deep man--how he hit the critical point--how he +knew what was in our heads! He'll have watchers on all the +beatable waters, and to-morrow he'll set to work to hunt himself." + +"If he should find me, John!" + +"Then I'll forgive him. Now farewell for a while. I shall see +you again to-morrow night." + +They parted, and Grace read the letter that John had brought +her. Stark was deeply concerned at her escape; but he wrote +not one word of love in this missive. She missed that word, yet +knew well how much he had upon his hands and how that this +was no time for softness. + +And Lee, returning over the Moor, heard a horse's hoofs +behind. He had scarcely dived into some old tin-streamer's +workings and flung himself flat behind a furze-bush, when Peter +Norcot went by in the dim tremor of dawn. So close was he that +John saw his eyes were half shut, and that he nodded and nearly +slept in his saddle. Light had broken eastward, and already the +small life of the Moor stirred amid glimmering grass-blades. + +Norcot jogged onward to Fox Tor Farm, and Lee, wondering +whether the lover or himself had worked harder during the past +day and night, got back to his grandmother's cottage at Prince +Town. + +Great bustle marked the farm when Peter reached it. +Mrs. Malherb, haggard and careworn, greeted him where sleepy-eyed +men and women were collected in the servants' hall. For a +moment there was respite, because Malherb had already risen and +ridden away. Norcot followed his kinswoman to her parlour, +then sank into a chair and began to drag off his top-boots. + +"Any news, Annabel? I see from your face that there is none. +This mad business of keeping her chained up! It was bound to +end thus." + +"Maurice has started again--this time to Prince Town. Oh, +Peter--his reason--I fear terribly for it! No human creature +could endure what he has endured and keep sane. I assure him +that she is safe on her own showing. I have it under her hand +and seal. But he will not believe me or her. He is like the sea +breaking on rocks--he never tires. After midnight he leapt up +and was soon in the saddle again. He has gone to the War +Prison now." + +"He should have gone there first. Many hours have been lost." + +"He will make trouble with Commandant Short, for he is in +no mood to be denied." + +"What news had he of Stark's escape?" + +"We did not so much as know that the young man was +escaped." + +"I feel little doubt of it. However, he'll hardly clear +Dartmouth, or Tor Quay either. Grace, Grace! Poor child--how +true--Hesiod--Earth and Chaos are the parents of Love. Now +I must lift myself out of this chair again! Fifteen hours in the +saddle--three horses. Do for pity's sake get me a bumper +of strong drink, Annabel. And my wedding breeches--worn +out. Only just now off to the War Prison! Tut, tut! His rage +has made him blind." + +"He has been brave as a lion and done ten men's work." + +"Ten fools' work, you mean. 'When valour preys on reason, +it eats the sword it fights with.'" + +"I fear, indeed, for his reason, and for his precious neck. He +is worn out in mind and body, and ought to be in bed instead +of on horseback." + +"So ought I. Send the drink to my usual room, my dear. +And bid them call me in three hours. Make 'em wake me +whether I will or not in three hours' time." + +"If my Maurice would but listen to sense!" + +"Men don't change the habits of a lifetime at fifty. What +does Cicero say? '_Utatur motu animi_----' I'm too sleepy to talk +English, let alone Latin. 'He only uses passion who cannot use +reason.' A very unreasonable man is Malherb." + +"You shall not criticise him at such a pass, Peter. None +shall. This wicked girl may cost him his life--you and she +between you. No man ever led a more honourable and +single-hearted existence. He is always trying to do right." + +"Yes, I know all that. A man trying to do right is only +interesting as long as he fails. Malherb has never yet ceased to +interest me." + +"Go sleep, cousin. You are saying things you would not say +in your proper senses." + +He rose with a groan and hobbled painfully to the door. + +"Death and fury! I'm an old man myself this morning; +gone in the hams and gone in the head! How I ache! But +wait until to-morrow. 'When Greeks joined Greeks, then was +the tug of war.' We'll catch my gipsy to-morrow. Don't forget +the beverage, Annabel. Half a pint of champagne and a little +drop of brandy in it. A drink for heroes. And a hero I am, +if ever there was one." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FIRST THROUGH THE TUNNEL + +Maurice Malherb, worn with futile rage and toil, +now turned his face towards the War Prison, and cursed +himself as he rode along, because he had left this vital business +until now. + +Dawn saw him far upon his way, and its grey light touched his +grey face and revealed new marks of storm for ever stamped +there. His cheeks were somewhat sunken; his life and energies +seemed concentrated in his eyes. He sat heavy and inert upon +his horse, yet sometimes spoke aloud. His eyes were never still. +Their dark gaze ranged the desert, and nothing, near nor far, +escaped his scrutiny in the murk of the dawn. The chill hour +cooled his forehead and helped him to reflect. + +"A man's daughter of all things living to turn upon him! And +of all daughters mine! She who has lived long enough to see +me in the right a thousand times. The only one left to me. And +knowing the deep love I bear her! And knowing how that my +judgment errs not. 'Tis beyond belief that we should bring out +of our own blood a thing that can feel so little thankfulness for +the blessing of worthy parentage. I grudged her nothing. I +gratified her every wish from childhood. And the only one left +to me! Oh, God, how comes it that a man's own offspring can +show him so little of his own self? She should be my image +and her mother's blended together. Yet what is she? An +exemplar of all that is hateful in woman. And yet--and +yet--when she was not crossed she could be as other +maids--sweet and daughterly to those that doted upon her. She +has made me think that I was all in all to her. But +disobedience--to break from the control of her father. And +to love an American! Fiends of hell, to love one of them! +Madness--'tis some strain of erotic madness that turned her eyes +to this enemy. The love I've wasted there--and would +again--and would again!" + +His mind broke off, then returned to the matter. +"But no--never again. She shall be nothing now--I've cast +her off; I have prayed to God that she may be dead--rather +than----" + +He yawned and his sleepy brain relaxed its grip upon his +wrongs. Memory was worn out. He stopped once and actually +asked himself upon what mission he rode thus in the dayspring +hour along this solitary waste. + +The morning star waned above the Prison and another dawn +broke to the murmur of many waters. Light stole out of the +thin sweet air; a rosy illumination washed the sky, tipped the +tors and spread beneath his horse's feet. Prince Town stretched +its granite rings before him; and some fairy tincture of light +touched even those solemn walls. They glowed as the morning +opened golden eyes, and the ascending sun arose from a pillow +of fire. + +The master rode straight to Ockery Bridge, where Captain +Short's cottage stood; and upon his demand instantly to see the +Commandant, a servant assured him that it was impossible. +This he expected, and it did not suffice. Before the man could +interpose, Malherb had pushed past him and entered the little +dwelling. He shouted aloud for Captain Short, and was about +to lift his voice again when the officer himself appeared. He +was dressed in full uniform. + +"They refused me, Short, but I would take no refusal. Matters +of life and death may be afoot." + +They were acquainted, and the soldier answered civilly. + +"Good morrow to you. As for life and death--why, I believe +it is as you say, though I pray the affair may end sans bloodshed. +My patience is near gone, however. These men have the devil +in them, but, luckily, there is always a traitor to reckon with. +Cottrell also found it so." + +"I am concerned about one man." + +"Then your business can wait, my dear sir; for I am concerned +about several thousands. You come at a momentous time. Look +yonder. Within eight-and-forty hours my hive would have been +empty and my bees swarming--God knows whither." + +Commandant Short laboured under excessive emotion. He +was very red and excited. His hands continually failed him while +he endeavoured to buckle on his sword. + +"I desire to learn all you can tell me of Cecil Stark," said +Malherb, "and know I must at once." + +"In good time. What think you of a tunnel burrowed under +those walls? They have done it--scraped a hole clean through! +At midnight came a message for me, and in secret I received the +news from one of themselves. Two hundred pounds and liberty +was his reward." + +"Not Stark! You do not say that he turned traitor?" + +"The rascal's name cannot be divulged. But at least you +shall see the sequel." + +"Stark has escaped--I know it." + +"Then you know more than I do. 'Tis a scheme almost wins +my admiration. Yet I should have had little admiration to waste +had they succeeded. Now I crush 'em--within this hour. All +is perfected by their leading men--and by me." + +"So much to your credit; but I must see Stark if he is yet +there." + +"It is not possible to have speech with him before my coup. +Afterwards I may arrange for it. You shall come with me, if +you please. To think that within two days my Yankee rats had +all been away to the sea!" + +The soldier's fervour grew. He had planned a dramatic +answer to the plotters and now set about it. Malherb rode +beside him to the War Prison; but first they visited the barracks, +where a regiment of soldiers was drawn up under arms. One +company immediately marched to the cottage of Lovey Lee +outside the walls; the remainder proceeded with Commandant +Short. + +It was then that Sam Cuffee, while engaged in preparing his +master's breakfast, caught sight of the troops, dropped a pot of +coffee, and came flying to Stark with his news. + +"Dey come, sar--de lobsters--tousands ob dem! And de +officers an' Marse Commandant wid de plumes in him hat. Dey +march straight off to No. 6. It am all ober wid us--we cotched +sure--damn de debbil!" + +Stark cried that discovery was impossible; but a moment later +he saw the truth for himself. Many hundred half-dressed +Americans swarmed into the yards and a hedge of steel +confronted them. + +Captain Short stepped to the front of his forces, and a subaltern +in a loud voice cried out certain names from a paper. He +rehearsed correctly every member of the prisoners' committee. +Stark, Burnham, Ira Anson, and the rest stood forward in turn as +they were called. + +"Follow me, gentlemen, if you please," said the Commandant; +then, while a growl of rage went up from the assembled masses, +Stark and the leaders, heavily guarded, were marched to the +scene of their operations in Prison No. 6. + +Short, who had been informed most punctually of this affair, +marched straight up to the flagstones that concealed the descent +to the tunnel. He bade two turnkeys raise the pavement, and +then all marvelled to see the perfection of engineering work +pursued under such difficulties. + +"A notable feat! Accept my hearty congratulations," said the +Commandant drily. "And when was this accomplished, good +sirs?" + +"It has taken many months, Captain," answered Cecil Stark. +"'Twas finished but yesterday at midnight." + +"I know that; one of your friends has thought better of the +matter and sold you all." + +"No true American," said Anson hotly; "I'll stake my life +'twas a renegade Britisher." + +"No, no. Don't imagine that. He is one of yourselves. +However, you'll not have any more to do with him. He has his +reward. Now tell me--where in thunder did you dispose of +the enormous quantities of soil you must have displaced in this +business?" + +"Ate it--to make up for short rations," shouted David +Leverett. + +"A good idea; but there will be no burrowing out of the +cachots, my man. 'Woe to the vanquished' is the tune now. +Away with them!" Then he added to the guard: "Let them +be separately confined. I will question each man in turn later +on. Now for their tunnel! You little thought, gentlemen, that +I, your Commandant, would be the first through this ingenious +exit!" + +The soldiers separated. A company one hundred strong, with +loaded muskets, marched Cecil Stark and his companions to the +cachots; while thrice that number of soldiers formed square and +stood facing all ways about the pit mouth. Then Captain Short +and two of his officers with lighted torches descended. Once +there was an ugly rush of prisoners in the confined space above +them; but the bayonets kept all back, and before any organised +resistance or counter demonstration was possible, the Americans +had been driven out of No. 6 and the doors locked against them. + +Meantime, while Captain Short crept from end to end of the +tunnel and presently thrust his head through the floor of Lovey +Lee's empty cottage without the walls of the War Prison, Malherb +had followed Stark and endeavoured to get speech with him. But +an officer in charge knew nothing of the master of Fox Tor Farm, +and ordered him back. Malherb made a rough retort, and the +soldier promptly sent him out of the Prison precincts. + +"I would serve you if in my power, sir," he said, "but to allow +any speech with these men at present is out of the question. +Get you gone, therefore, and impede us no more." + +"You whipper-snapper--what know you of this? There are +affairs of vital importance that demand my speech with that +rascal. I will speak with him! Have I toiled through a century +of suffering to be denied by a starveling subaltern? And the +knave actually under my eyes! Speak with him I will, so stay +me at your peril!" + +He woke the echoes from many walls; he fumed with indignation +that a youth should affront him thus; while the officer, +ignorant of all that boiled in this man's mind, and conscious of +the gravity of his own charge, made short work with Mr. Malherb. +He called a sergeant. + +"Take half a dozen men, Bradridge, and turn this lunatic out. +If he won't go, rogue's-march him! We've enough on our hands +without madmen to-day." + +As though to confirm his assertion, a great uproar rent the air +behind them--a clamour like the wind-driven sea breaking upon +some mighty cliff. The nature of their disappointment had +permeated through the prisons; and thousands of baffled captives +cursed their fortune and threatened those dangers that lie in +concerted action of desperate men. + +Sergeant Bradridge obeyed the word of command, and, despite +his impotent raving, Malherb was thrust forth by force. He called +down destruction upon the great fastness behind him; he wished +the Americans all free to overwhelm their guards; and then, at the +entrance, another company of soldiers appeared with two prisoners +handcuffed together. + +"Waal, I guess they'll be astonished--some of 'em--when they +see me alive and hearty," said James Knapps to his companion. +"Not many knew as I was snooking round t'other side that wall, +and digging like hell day and night." + +John Lee did not answer, for he had observed Maurice +Malherb. + +"I must speak to that man!" he cried to the soldiers. "For +God's love do not deny me! 'Tis like to be death for an +innocent woman if I don't!" + +"Not your grandmother--eh?" asked Knapps; "I reyther +reckon she can take care of herself." + +John had now turned to Sergeant Bradridge, and earnestly +addressed him. The sergeant was a local man--a native of +Buckfastleigh, and the uncle of Mr. Putt. + +"Sergeant," he said, "you know your nephew Tom: he's my +friend, and I beg you to let me speak to Mr. Malherb there. It's +a fearful thing if I'm denied." + +Then he lifted his voice to his old master. + +"I implore you, sir, to give heed. There's danger threatening +Miss Grace--I alone----" + +But the other turned and roared him down. + +"You hound--you lying rascal; you, that plotted to help this +knave Stark! Shall I hear a groom when I may not hear his +master? Take him away and shoot him for a traitor to his +country!" + +"Your daughter, sir!" + +"Keep her off your lips, or I'll strangle you with my own +hand," bellowed the other. "You're at the bottom of half this +cursed business--I know it--I know everything!" + +"Her life, I tell you----" + +"Is not in your keeping. I'll not hearken to a word from you. +Take the damned dog away and let him die as he deserves to die. +My horse--my horse!" + +Sergeant Bradridge addressed the raving man aside. + +"If he's got aught to say, your honour, best hear it. You may +not have another chance." + +"Never! He has nothing to do with my daughter. Is she not +a Malherb? Hang the lying, infamous scoundrel! Take him +from my sight. Let all such be hanged. I would say it if he was +my son!" + +A moment later he rode away full charged with frenzy: while +Lee and Knapps passed into the War Prison. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A GOD OF GLASS + +It had been Lovey Lee's part to keep guard during the +operations beneath her cottage, and, on the morning of discovery, +while Knapps was underground and John Lee lay in a heavy +sleep, she stood at her door and scanned the morning. Her +mind was on money; within eight-and-forty hours she would +receive her reward; and now every glittering dewdrop of the +dawn shone beneath her eyes like a gold piece. Then it was +that another scintillation--that of steel--struck upon Lovey's +sight, and she saw the flash of bayonets and the gleam of red +coats. They approached swiftly across the Moor, and, divining +their significance, the old woman instantly fled out at the rear +of her cottage, and climbed and crept with amazing speed into +the lonely fastnesses of North Hisworthy Tor above Prince +Town. Here, safe as a fox in earth, she remained close hidden +until nightfall, and then started for her holt at Hangman's Hollow. +The fate of the men she had deserted troubled her not at all. +To have informed them of danger would have been to lessen her +own chance of escape by a full minute, and she had felt no +temptation to take such risk. Now was all lost but her liberty; +and as she stalked along the nocturnal Moor, like a dark and +gigantic bird, the miser swore aloud and cursed fortune at every +step. A live thing in the path reminded her that she had not +eaten food for six-and-thirty hours; stooping, therefore, she picked +up a luckless frog, tore it asunder, and stayed her stomach with +its quivering hind legs. Never had Lovey fallen into a temper +more ferocious and brutal. Months of patient fraud were thrown +away, and she found herself actually out of pocket upon the +venture. This reflection maddened her. In a delirium of +disappointment she strode forward, and once, when an owl screeched +out of the coppice at Tor Royal, she screeched back at it like a +fury, and swung her long arms, and cursed the stars because they +looked like good money scattered and wasted upon the sky. She +sank into a calenture of crazy wrath; frantically she longed for +some object upon which to vent her mania of disappointed +hope; and every moment she hastened unconsciously nearer a +victim. + +Grace Malherb grew weary of the long hours that separated +her from John Lee's next visit. An eternity of time crawled by, +and the very hands of her watch appeared to drag as she sat with +it before her. Only once a sound fell on her ears through that +protracted day. Then she heard a bell, the fall of many feet and +the bleat of flocks. Soon the grazing sheep wandered away and +silence fell again. The tinkle of the dropping water and the +throb of her own heart were all her company. The gloom and +the chill of her hiding-place crept to her bosom and froze the +hope there. She fell to weaving fearful fancies; she pictured +failure in a thousand shapes. The rusty and glimmering gold of +the moss upon the walls grew hateful to her eyes. Yet it attracted +them and held them, so that hour after hour she scanned the +luminous cavern, and saw faces in it and read words scrawled in +dull fire there, like the Handwriting on the Wall. She ate and +drank a little, but her appetite failed her. All her emotions +merged into intense longing for John Lee. Her watch told her +that it was noon at last. Then she fought with herself to escape +forebodings and set about occupying time with a search for the +amphora. That treasure possessed none of the old fascination +now; yet, thinking upon her father, she much desired for his +sake to discover it, and made a diligent search both high and +low. Her explorations revealed two other boxes tied with cords; +and these she opened, only to find Sheffield plate in them. + +An eternity of twelve more hours crawled by; then, when midnight +had passed, Grace began to strain her ears for footsteps. +It was a close, black night, with thunder in the air; but as yet +no elemental murmur broke the stillness. + +At three o'clock, worn out and full of foreboding, the girl crept +to her fern bed and prayed long prayers. Finally she slept, +soothed by a determination to fly from this hated hole in the +morning and hide elsewhere, if John Lee did not come. Her +last waking thought turned to her father. "I will continue as +firm as he is firm," she whispered to herself. "Would I had +been different--for his sake; but not for my own." + +Within an hour she slumbered, and when Lovey Lee sank +silently down into her den, the girl heard nothing. Grace +was hidden within a deep alcove of the wall, and she slept +without a light. The miser, once in safety, stood silent and +listened. It was for a growl of thunder that she waited; nor +did she expect another sound. Heavy drops of rain began to +fall, but as yet no storm awoke, though so inky was the east that +dawn seemed delayed. + +First Lovey ate a loaf of bread from her mouldering stores; +then she sat down by the stone table in the midst of the grotto, +rested her head on her hand and considered the position. The +future bristled with dangers and difficulties; turning from it, +therefore, she rose, lighted a candle and drew forth her treasures. +The money she had not fingered for three weeks, and now she +counted it, and the steady stream, sliding through her fingers, +served to soothe her. Miser-like, she kept her supreme possession +to the last, and before she brought it to the light, her mouth +began to water and her eyes to glow. Though now crushed by +an uncontrollable weight of weariness and sleep, she prayed to +her glass god and performed his familiar rite before she slumbered. +From the ground at the foot of her granite altar, the old +woman scratched the soil, then drew forth a metal box. It +clashed as she picked it up, and Grace waking at the sound, was +just about to hasten forward when she heard the old woman's +voice lifted to address her deity. + +"Come to me, my purty blessing! To think as I haven't had a +sight of 'e for nigh a month! An' the devil's luck fallen to me +since I seed 'e!" + +The girl shrank back and watched, breathless, while Lovey +drew a mass of cotton wool from her box, and then, revealing +the Malherb amphora, placed it reverently on her granite table +and lighted other candles around it. Now she squatted down +before the vase and remained motionless, like a toad watching +a fly. Here was her support and power, the spring of her +existence, her sustenance, and the foundation-stone of her life. +She gazed and gazed with greedy eyes; she licked her lips and +nodded slowly, like a china image. The amphora, against its +gloomy background, flashed in the candle-glow. Its azure +splendours shone in the cavern's darkness; the acanthus leaves +were touched with flickering gold, and the Cupids seemed to +move and peep about behind the foliage. + +"Dance! dance, my naked boys!" said Lovey. "Though +there's nought to dance about to-night. All lost--an' me a +runaway! Where shall us go to next? Us can't live underground +like a badger for ever. But I sold my cows a fortnight +agone--that's something. Dance, you little devils; +dance--dance!" + +She gloated upon her treasure and trembled with joy of +possession. Presently she put out her hand gently, like a +cat touching a dazed mouse. Then the fit grew upon her. +With each hand in turn she stroked the amphora and twisted +it round and round. Anon she lifted it and brought it close +to her face; she kissed it and cuddled it against her breast, +and rubbed her cheeks upon it and slavered it, as might a fond +mother lust over her child. Grace Malherb heard a harsh +vibration, like a tiger purring. + +"I've got you, my heart an' liver an' reins! I've got you, +come what may, my lovely joanie! And the day I die, you'll +die too; for I'll grind you to powder an' eat you--fat babbies +an' all!" + +She laughed and nuzzled the glass, crooned to it and licked it. +Then her frenzy waned; she set the treasure gently down and +fell back exhausted. Her passion cooled; her eyes went out, like +extinguished lamps; she shrank as she sat there; and soon she +began to whine again before the thought of her losses. + +"Christ! what a cursed day! What----" + +A sudden sound struck her silent. Grace had moved and +loosened a fragment of stone. The noise, though slight enough, +reached Lovey's ear. She snatched up a candle and, hastening +into the recesses of the cavern, came face to face with her visitor. + +Amazement so absolute overwhelmed the miser at this discovery, +that for a space it smothered every other emotion. She +glared speechless, then fell back and at last spoke. + +"God's word! Be I drunk or dreaming? Are you alive, or +dead an' prying here a ghost from the grave? If you'm dead I +don't care a button for 'e! An' if you'm alive----" + +"I'm quite alive, Lovey Lee," said Grace without flinching +before the ancient's terrific face. + +"Alive, be you? Then 'tis the last minute you shall live to say +you'm alive! How did you get here? Tell me, or I'll kill you +by inches--a finger to a time!" + +"I've done you no harm, Lovey. And I'll thank you to speak +more quietly. There are men hunting for me on the Moor, and +I've no wish for them to find me," said Grace firmly. As yet no +fear had touched her heart. + +"Find you! They'll not find you! God A'mighty won't find +you. You'm dead a'ready!" + +"I'm not dead at all; and I'm not going to die. If you'd +listen, instead of screaming at me, I might tell you why I am +here, and how I came here." + +Lovey put the candle on a ledge above their heads; then +she sat upon the fern couch that her grandson had spread for +Grace. + +"Get you up on your feet and stand afore me!" she said. +"I'm mistress here--not you. Death! to think as ever I should +allow any human but myself in this pit. Tell me truth how you +found it--else I'll strangle you." + +"The truth is easily told: and you shall pay dearly for these +insults yet, you wicked woman! It was meant to marry me to +Peter Norcot; and your grandson helped me to escape from that +fate. John is always on the side of the weak. I owe my +salvation to him. I am waiting for him now." + +"Jack Lee found out then! Blast--but I needn't waste no +words there. His thread's spun. So you runned from your +faither an' that man? You might so soon think to trick Satan as +Norcot. But I'll trick him. He can't marry dead bones. An' +yet--there's money to it. Only I be so tight placed myself." + +"That candle-flame will crack the Malherb amphora, Lovey +Lee, if you don't move it," said Grace. + +The woman sprang up and extinguished a dip that flamed too +near her treasure. + +"There's the answer to my doubts. You know too much now. +I'll never sleep in peace no more while you are alive. There's a +dead dog in yon corner--shrivelled to bones an' leather. He'd +lost hisself 'pon the Moor and followed me here. I carried it +down the steps, for it stood and barked outside. But I never +carried it up again. None leaves this web but me, come in who +may. You ran choose how you'll go out o' life--an' that's all +the mercy I'll show 'e, Grace Malherb. You can starve, or you +can kill yourself, or I can do it for 'e; but die you shall--sure as +I'm a woman." + +The girl regarded her steadily, and measured her huge body, +long arms and broad chest. She knew that in a physical struggle +she must quickly have the life crushed out of her, and for the +first time she feared. Then she wondered if Lovey's heart was +inflexible, and whether a way to bend her will might not exist. + +"Is there no humanity in you--you who have been a mother?" + +"No more than a mother wolf--not for you. I was a grandmother, +too, wasn't I? I brought Jack up from childhood--an' +he spied upon me. He'd have robbed me next--maybe he has." + +"Not of a farthing." + +"You've met me in a black hour. All's lost to the Prison. +Some Judas have told the secret; an' as for me, I dare not show +myself to the daylight. So there's nought to be made out of +you." + +"You might trust me." + +"Not since you've seen that." + +Lovey pointed to the amphora. + +"My father rates me higher than a bit of old glass." + +"You'm daft to think so! Why for should he care a cuss for +you? More like he hates you, for you'm no daughter worth +naming to him--a froward, man-loving minx, as plays fast an' +loose with them he hates, an' defies him. Love the likes of you +better'n fifteen thousand pound! He'm not all fool." + +Thunder suddenly broke overhead, and subterranean echoes in +the grotto answered it. The noise punctuated Lovey's speech +and appeared to affirm her purpose. + +"Die you shall," she said. "God do so to me if I don't mean +it." + +"I know you mean it now," answered the girl. "And, since +everything is lost at the Prison, I care not very much about +living. Yet, after all, 'tis only a passing reverse; therefore, +I plead to live. Life is life. Somehow this choking hole makes +me long to live. I hate your money and your treasures. I hate +the gold in your bags as much as I hate the moss on these walls +that mocks it. I want to breathe sweet air and see the sky +again. I'll keep your secret. Don't kill me, Lovey. 'Twill +ruin your own life if you do." + +"Life's worth living, as you say. For all my cares and years +and cruel disappointments, I like it. But you hearken to the +thunder--I knowed 'twas brewing--you know too much. Let it +rage! I wish 'twould drown Short's cottage, an' him in it, an' +the Prison, an' the prisoners, an' the sojers, an' every living thing. +You know too much an' I won't take your word." + +"You're worn out and frantic. Sleep upon it." + +The old woman reflected. + +"So I will, then," she said. "Never heard better counsel. +But you--you must sleep too----" + +She came forward slowly, like some feline thing that stalks its +living food; then she lifted her hands to Grace's throat. + +The girl did not flinch, and Lovey dropped her great fingers +again. + +"You'm Malherb, I see--but I lay your heart's beating to a +merry tune! Let it beat--its beating be near done. Them +steady brown eyes too! I'll blind them, if you please, afore I put +my little god there to bed again. No, I won't kill you this +minute. I'll sleep on it. If you don't mean money from your +wool-stapler, I never counted money. An' Norcot wouldn't give +a poor, old, harmless granny up to the soldiers. Too much of the +milk o' human kindness in him for that. What's his figure, +I wonder? I must have a big one, an' my safety along with it." + +She hunted her stores, found the boxes, removed their cords +from them and approached Grace. "Here's a rope's end for 'e! +No, not for your neck--for your heels. I must sleep--my senses +are all addled--I can't think clear. An' you must watch--so no +harm befalls me. Ha-ha-ha! us'll bind they neat limbs an' little +ankles a thought tight, just to keep you from slumbering. 'Twas +a pretty young Yankee's arms you counted to have round 'e, not +a bit o' biting oakum!" + +She made Grace fast with unnecessary severity. Then, tearing +a strip from the girl's dress, she bandaged her prisoner's +eyes. Next Lovey extinguished all lights and, in the blank +darkness that followed, restored the amphora to its wrappings, +placed it within the metal box and put the box underground. +Then soil and stones were heaped over it, after which the +woman threw herself down on the earth above her treasure and +quickly fell into heavy sleep. + +The thunder roared, and through her bandages Grace was +conscious of lightning. The glare of the sky penetrated some +chance chinks above and found her. Close at hand she heard +Lovey snoring. The ropes began to burn as though red hot, and +each minute the torment grew. The storm died slowly, and she +missed its companionship when it was gone. She envied the +cattle that roamed free above her; she prayed fervently; but +physical pain continually distracted her devotion. After two +hours the agony became sharper than she could endure, and at +the risk of angering her conqueror, Grace cried out sharply and +woke Lovey from slumber. + +The miser was up in an instant, her senses alert and her frame +refreshed. She struck flint on steel and turned to the prisoner. + +"Morning light," she said. "And how be you fairing, my +pretty maid?" + +"I am suffering very terribly, Lovey. I could endure no more +without crying out. These ropes are gnawing into me as though +they were alive and had teeth." + +"Bah! You'm more fretted for your raw wrists and ankles +than for them poor, brave fools to Prison as meant to save 'e! +Bide as you be an' smart on a while. Your good time be +coming--when you go to church with Peter Norcot. Now I shall set +out to get a bellyful o' fresh air an' see to the weather. No +human foot will tread Hangman's Hollow for a week after the +flood us had last night. But don't you fear. You chose sure +hiding! I shall soon be back. An' if the rope hurts, just think +if 'twas round your neck instead of your leg!" + +The old savage sought her stores; and then she discovered the +bread and meat and eggs that Lee had brought for Grace. + +"My jimmery! This was what made Jack so hungry of +late! Well, us will have bit an' sup when I come back. I +must keep you fat and plump for Mr. Peter now. Afore sun's +up I'll be here again. Me an' the sun ban't like to be friends no +more this many a day. For that matter moon's always more +kindly to me." + +"Will you, at least, loose my eyes? I promise you faithfully +I'll make no attempt to escape while you are away." + +Lovey laughed and took the bandage from Grace's face. + +"Since there's nought to see but the gold moss you hate, look +about so much as you please; an' as for escaping--I'll give 'e +full leave to do it if you can. A horse couldn't break that rope, +let alone a slip of a girl." + +Lovey now climbed carefully out of her treasure house and +Grace saw one blessed gleam of blue daylight before the great +stone above was swung back into its place and Mrs. Lee tramped +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +APOCALYPSE + +Now were the threads of three lives to be tangled by Fate +upon the vast bosom of Cater's Beam; and here, within +the secret morasses beneath that great hill, walked Maurice +Malherb under the dawn and tempest. He ranged with the +thunderbolt, for the storm had called him from his bed; the +elemental chaos echoed his own heart and drew him forth into it. + +He suffered such misery as only men built in his great, futile +pattern are called to suffer. The calculating and responsible find +themselves in no such sea of troubles; for their flotillas hold +inshore; their sapient eyes ever scan the weather of life, and +their ready hands trim sail to it. But this faulty fool with his +mad temper and sanguine trust in self, had listened to none, +marked no sign, heeded no warning. He had played the greatest +game that he knew, in hope that an unborn babe might some +day bless his name and perpetuate it. He had staked all and +lost all. His daughter was driven from him; his wife, in the +agony of her bereavement, had shed bitter tears, and, for the +first time in her life, lifted up her voice against his judgment. +His plans had miscarried; his money was nearly all lost. He +stood under the storm bankrupt of everything that he had worked +for and hoped for. He felt naked when he thought of his life, +now stripped so bare; for every interest was torn out of it, and, as +a tree robbed of leaves, it threatened to perish. Present +tribulations thundered on his heart as the storm upon his ears. His +soul felt deafened and bewildered; therefore he ran for shelter +into the past. Time rolled back for him and he saw the tortuous +journey of his days stretching into childhood. The vernal, sweet +delights of youth appeared again, and he remembered old forgotten +springtimes--birds' eggs--minnows--his first pony--the +scent of the new-mown hay. Then his own disposition developed +and darkened the hour. Puberty was past; freedom became his +and he abused it. Manhood plunged him into gloomy and +sombre avenues of years, lighted only by the flashing flame-points +of his own temper. He marked how ungoverned wrath had at +last grown ungovernable, and had risen, time out of mind, like a +demon, between him and wisdom; how his own action had +ceaselessly turned him out of the proper road, had clouded +justice and threatened honour. He clung to honour as a drowning +man to a straw. He fought the cruel white light of truth +and strove to shut his eyes to it; for soaked in that blinding ray, +honour stood no longer undefiled. A canker grew there; a blot +dimmed it; and the spectacle, shattering self-respect, hurt him +worse than loss of friends and fortune and his only child. +Cowardice and high honour could not chime together; and light +showed him that the canker-growth spelt cowardice. He had +outraged the freedom of his daughter; he had used force against +her liberty; he had denied her sacred rights in the disposal of +her own life and body. + +Before this thought he came to his better self through his +worst. He called down a curse on the forces that played with +his convictions; he damned the inner voice of reason that showed +him what he had deemed duty was an interested crime. Standing +beneath the storm he put bitter facts behind him for vain +phantoms, and maligned the awful ray of truth. Then, moody +and sick in spirit, he leapt suddenly to sweeter and cleaner +thinking. Some phase of mind, some physical conjunction, or +some psychic crisis pervious to the influence of Nature, lifted +him, as often happened, into great longing for the better part. +The dawn showed him what no dawn had ever yet revealed. He +turned to the East and prayed to it. + +"Before Heaven I mourn for what I am! I see myself +cursed--self-cursed. Oh, God, give me back my child again, and I +will be a wiser man! Only my child--only my Grace. I humble +myself. Punish me, great God, but not by taking her--my only +one. I repent; I will mend my life if I may but have my child +again." + +The sun, struggling above wild new-born day and dying tempest, +answered his petition with shafts of flame, and wrapped that +desolate wilderness in a mingled splendour of mist and fire. +The pageant of the sky uttered a music proper to the man's sore +spirit, and unrolled with solemn glory. Heaven glowed and burnt, +or frowned and shuddered in black precipices of storm-cloud that +sank upon the West. Into the deep senses of the watcher these +things penetrated graciously. They touched the ragged wounds +of his heart and helped to heal them, while a harmony, as of +music, fell upon his helpless, hopeless soul. All the wonder of +the sky filled Malherb's dark eyes as he lifted them; but a light +greater than the sky or any inspiration born of day shone out. +Upon the verge of apocalypse he stood; yet gulfs unseen separated +him from it. His days were not accomplished; his darkest hour +was not yet come. + +Now, where a rock rose at a point not far distant, there +appeared Lovey Lee. She stood like some night-spirit, surprised +by dawn, blinking and disarmed in the unfamiliar sunshine. For +a moment she hesitated at the sight of Malherb; then approached +him, conscious of her complete power. This man, and perhaps +only this man in the world, was impotent against her. Not a +finger could he lift. Harm done to her must bring far worse +upon himself. Her wits planned a cunning lie and she advanced +to utter it. + +"You'm stirring early, Maurice Malherb. 'Tis strange that +you an' me should both choose to walk this here ill-wisht heath +all rotten wi' bog and water." + +"I came to seek peace--not you. I ask you to quit my sight +without more words. There is no anger in me now." + +"'Peace'! Do 'e find peace in your own company? I'll swear +you never have, nor never will. No peace for the likes of you +till you be dead. Come, let's talk secrets--shall us? I've got +things you'd dearly like to hear about." + +"Leave me," he said. "I've done with cursing and swearing. +There is much upon my mind. I will not be angry with you. +My daughter is lost." + +"They say you drove her away with a whip." + +"They lie! 'Twas her own damnable folly that drove her +away." + +"Maybe you lie too, to say it. You've held me in such contempt +and scorn--you've treated me so vile--that it's good, even +at a time like this, to make you bleed a bit. An' I'm going to +now. You shall cringe yet, though I have got the gallows hanging +over me; you shall grovel yet, though I do stand an +outlawed, doomed woman for helping them at the Prison. I'll crack +your heart first; then I'll ax you to save me from the soldiers. +And yet I doubt if t'other ban't a more solid man to trust--Norcot +I mean. Anyway, he's a wiser one, and can pay better, too." + +"Do you dare to mean that you know where Grace Malherb +is hidden?" + +"Ah! that wakes you up--you that have done wi' cursing an' +swearing--you that stole my grazing rights and called me 'hag' and +'miser'! I've got your fortune in my hand still, for all your bluster +and great oaths. And I've got your daughter, too! Now you can +listen--eh? Now I don't worrit you no more? Yes, I've got +her hard an' fast, wi' cords biting at her wrists an' ankles like +poisonous snakes--she said it felt so. I told you I'd wreck your +stupid, brawling fool's life; an' I have. You owe every pang you +suffer to yourself--then to me; every curse you utter hops back +to roost on your own head--so grey it grows with their droppings! +My work--all mine! Now howl an' roar--I want to hear you!" + +The man preserved an astounding self-control before Lovey's +confession. + +"This is what her grandson tried to tell me yesterday, and I +would not listen," he said aloud. + +"Ah!--you was ever a poor listener. More poison for 'e! +He was your nephew--Jack Lee--the son of your younger +brother, an' so like him as peas in a pod! He knowed, but you +wouldn't heed him. But you always heed me, Malherb--doan't 'e?" + +Still he spoke no angry word, though his great chest rose and +his face grew dark. + +"If you tell me the truth--that my daughter is alive and in +your keeping--that is well. Much has happened since she went +away. If she knew, she would be glad to come back to me. I--I +am not faultless--I have erred. My eyes are opened. Give me +back my daughter, woman--I will reward you." + +"'Give' her back! When was I ever knowed to give aught +to anybody? That's your own fool's way--give--give--give. I +might sell her; but you've not enough money to buy her. I'd +rather kill her by inches under your nose an' see you wriggle an' +rave till them black veins on your brow burst!" + +His passion began to beat up strong and tempestuous under her +lash. The spiritual dawn-light was still-born. Storm awoke in +his soul before this infernal provocation and the sea of his mind +fell into its accustomed waves before the wind of wrath. He +forgot the danger of passion now; he did not appreciate the +importance of self-control. His voice rose to the familiar roar +and he clutched his riding-stock. + +"What a loathsome reptile can a woman be! No man would +descend to such filthy degradation. To treat you like a fellow-creature +is vain; you are a beast, and must feel like a beast, and +understand like a beast. Force at least you recognise; then see +force here figured in me! Disobey at your peril, for I'll not stand +upon words with you again. Get before me to my daughter! +Instantly lead the way. Deny me, and I'll destroy you and rid +the world of a venomous fury who has lived too long." + +She did not guess that he intended actual and instant violence, +but supposed he threatened to give her up to the authorities. + +"Lies--lies!" she answered, mocking him. "You kill me? +I know better. You're not mad every way. Do your own errands--I +spit at you! I wasn't born to obey a fool. The hills and +rivers laugh to see you dance an' blow, as if you'd got poison in +your vitals. Never--never again shall you see her; never, not +for millions! To give me up! Bah! how's that going to help? +An' I'd laugh to think of her starving alongside fifteen thousand +pounds. How black you get! Why don't you use that great +horn handle you're waving about like a lunatic? Come, there's +only white hair on my head, an' little of that. Smash my skull +in! And then? Kill me. Ha, ha!----" + +For the first time in her life, Lovey Lee mistook the nature of +a man. That there was a sort of anger capable of rising high +above its own interest her own cautious nature could not guess. +She saw that the whole of Malherb's earthly desires were in her +hand; and that he, who also realised this, would, with one mad +stroke, rob himself of his last hope, she never imagined even as +a possibility. Had he kept his reason, she had never succeeded +in goading him to this murder pitch; but now he grew insane, and +the woman paid forfeit. + +She intended to show him the folly of threats. But the words +were never uttered; her laugh was not finished. Beside himself, +the master leapt forward; his whip shrieked across the air, and +the massive handle dropped like a hammer on the miser's crown. +To her knees she came, without a sound; next she fell prone +before him. Her legs and arms shot forth convulsively twice; a +patch of blood swelled on her sun-bonnet, then soaked through +and ran. One groan came with it and only one. After that she +was still, and Malherb knew she was dead. + +He turned away and lifted his eyes and saw the golden reefs +and rosy cloud-islands of that wonderful dawn. Still the pomp +and glory of sunrise filled the sky, for only minutes had passed +since he stared upwards and prayed and uttered premises. He +marvelled that so much could happen in such a brief compass of +time. He mused of this experience and of his former hatred of +a psalmist's curse. He had rebelled against that awful petition +as being the demon's plea, beyond a good God's power to grant. +Yet the thing had happened to himself in this hour: his prayer +was turned into sin. + +And then he hid himself within the hollow and lonely +antres of the land. From dawn till dusk he tramped the desert +beyond man's sight, and called on darkness to inspire him. +Once without set purpose, he returned within sight of the spot +where Lovey Lee had fallen. She lay there just as he had +struck her down; and there she would lie until the carrion crows +scattered her bones. His crime was safe enough from discovery +unless it pleased him to reveal it. The deed he gradually grasped; +its consequence still evaded his mind; but as he worked backwards +in thought he came to Grace. Then he stood still before +the vision of her perchance perishing of starvation. He was +doubly a murderer; and, to escape that awful imputation, he told +himself that the dead woman had lied to torture him; that her +tales concerning his amphora were as untrue as the things that +she had asserted concerning his child. He strove to find comfort +in the thought that her life had stood forfeit to the State; then +sophistry faded from him and a man, at best but little versed +in the force of speech, stood dumb before a terrific truth. +Murder overtook him and stuck to his side like a ponderable, +shadow-casting shape. Far away he knew that foxes were +creeping at the dim edge of dusk and barking of what they had +found. First an aversion from any thought of a human face +crowded upon him; then as the stars began to shine, he found +himself craving hungrily for the companionship of man. He sat +and rested for a while; he drank and watched a young moon in +a green sky. The heath rolled here in deep billows, unfretted by +stock or stone. As it held unshed waters, so it could suck up +darkness; and already detail was dying out of it ere twilight fell. He +rose and walked onwards, careless of direction, into a chaos of +marsh and broken peat hillocks. His mind worked quicker +while his body moved; it stagnated into a slough of sheer blood +when he sat still. Deep longing to see a fellow-creature held +him; and suddenly, though he was got beyond the power of +astonishment, a thing astonishing happened, and he found another +man. It was improbable that two human beings had met in this +shunned spot for years; perhaps no foot of man had trodden it +since some storm-lost miner wandered that way when Elizabeth +was queen. + +Here now Malherb chanced upon one who sat motionless +on a bank with his feet in the mire. He turned as the other +approached, but showed no interest at sight of him. + +"What lonely soul art thou?" cried Malherb; and as he spoke +he remembered that for the first time in his life he heard a +murderer's voice. + +The figure revealed a strange countenance, made stranger still +by suffering. + +"No man me--just a skinful of hell-fire burning itself out! +Get gone, for I poison the air around me. I never want ter see +no human more." + +The speaker's awful despair had power to arrest one, himself +despairing. Malherb came nearer, and sought confidence. His +crime had shaken his nature and unsettled the tenour of his +disposition as a drug unsettles human organs. Now he thirsted to +talk. + +"You can rail so loud and confess so much! And yet here I +stand; and to my misery yours, be it what it may, is the short +grief of a child to a man's abiding woe." + +"Lordy, what big words! You to prattle about trouble, +stranger--ter me--ter me--a man who's touched bottom deeper +than any man since Judas hanged himself. Away you and +sorrow that can bear speech! Leave me ter burn." + +An opal light from the West was in the speaker's eyes, and +they glittered green. Their dreadful expression held Malherb, +for agony far beyond the fear of death looked out of them. The +sufferer's head was bare and nearly bald; his face was +hatchet-shaped and narrow; the yellow skin seemed drawn to bursting +over his high cheek-bones; and upon his chin was a fan-shaped +and grizzled beard. + +"I perceive you are an American--a lonely wretch who might +carry all his cursed country's crimes and sorrows on his own +forehead. Yet what are national troubles to a man's own? You sit +gazing and glaring. What then have you done that makes such +a night of life for you?" + +"A thing Satan's self never did--a thing as would heat hell +again if 'twere cold--a thing not yet writ against any starving +ragtail on God's earth. Past hope--past praying for. And it seemed +nought until it were done; but after--it's brought me ter this. +Tell me, you who talk as if you knew big trouble, why did it seem +nought till afterwards?" + +"What have you done?" + +"It seemed nought till afterwards, I tell you. Then it grew up +into a mountain. The fallen angels will be took back ter heaven +sooner than me. Prayer's vain beyond a certain pass. Has life +showed you that?" + +"It has. Yet what is there in your torture that can make me +unbosom mine?" + +"Because 'tis the first longing that comes after crimes--to tell +'em," said the American. "So you've prayed too?" he added. + +"'Prayed'? Yes, I've prayed hard and earnestly. I've +frightened my horse by night as I suddenly challenged my God. I +have dismounted and fallen upon my knees by lonely roads and +secret places. I've bruised my soul and cried aloud to the +Almighty and bade Him touch my fiend's temper and give me a +clean heart." + +"Never had no truck with Heaven myself. Kinder knew I'd +have no use for it." + +"Heaven--Heaven--you talk of Heaven! Another heart--a +humble heart was all the heaven I wanted. To be at peace with +myself--to learn patience: that was my unanswered prayer. And +now the deed I have done has made me mad. Mad must I be, +since I can talk of it to you. Yet 'tis to the thing looking out of +you--not to you--I speak." + +David Leverett stared into the dark face above him, and his +starved, hollow countenance grew hard. + +"What a trumpet! Ter bleat because you've got a nasty +temper! What full-grown baby are you, that thinks God's its +nurse, and cries becuz it's lost Him! Look at me! Like the +rest of men, you've lived ter find your puny misery capped by +worse. But look at me! Christ's sweat! you're an angel of +light beside of me! A short temper----" + +"That has driven me into murder." + +"Murder--what's that? David was a murderer. So was +scores that have marble stuck up to 'em all over the earth. 'Tis +worse ter bring life inter the world than put it out. Have you +never larned that much? You make a man in a moment of +passion, and set another puppet strutting ter suffer life. And +you mar a man in a passion, and--well, journey's end is no evil; +death's no evil ter them that die. There's thousands of men +this day as would tear me to pieces, limb by limb, and reckon +they did heaven and hell both a service. And so they would. +Curse the man as got me; curse the woman as bore me; not +him who would kill me." + +"All this is nothing; you are only mad," said Malherb. + +"Nothing at all! See here now--this great bag of leather. +I've dragged it thus far--further I won't. That is what I'm +damned for; that is why hell's gathering up heat for me." + +He dragged out a big knife; opened it with his teeth; then +fell upon the bag and slashed the leather. A flash answered +every stroke, and gold coin tumbled and twinkled and fell in a +shower upon the ground. + +"Murder--if I could murder that; if I could cut the throat of +what that bag means! But I can't--so I'll cut my own. It +seemed nought in the planning and promising--nought till after +I'd done it and felt the weight of the money here--here." + +He beat at his chest. + +"Murder--killing kittens! I've murdered a whole country--murdered +America! For this filth here mixing with the mire--for +this and for liberty! Whoever you are, help me ter curse +liberty! The name of a thing that is not. Judas only betrayed +one man. A little matter that, come to think on it. I betrayed +my own flesh and blood--them that had wives and children +yonder, and old, fond mothers. Sold the whole of 'em--every +blessed monkey of 'em; played God and Fate--for two hundred +pound--and liberty! + +"I sold men who had shared their all with me--who had +spared the coats off their backs when I was sick, the food for +their stomachs when I was hungry. They trusted me with their +secrets. I was a sailor--I'd had a hand shot away for my +country. God tell why my head wasn't shot away! And first I +betrayed my own true friends and hoarded the money, and felt +no smart from that. And next I sneaked upon a nation. They +took me along with the rest and put me in the cachot, that none +might guess and turn and kill me. Then, when night came, they +thrust me out--me and my money and my liberty! And out of +the thunder came what I suffer now. Tell me why I didn't see +the punishment sooner and escape it? Tell me why the money +looked different till 'twas mine? And tell me what's left for me?" + +"There's death for you and for me," said Malherb. + +"That's the same as hell. Just judge! Then take my knife. +You that fear ter let blood--let more. You was sent ter do it. +Then you'll be forgiven, and your durned tender conscience will +prune its feathers and pipe up again. Kill me. Let me get the +worst of hell over; for thoughts of things are worse than any +things themselves can be. I hoped the lightning would do it; +but 'twouldn't foul its blade with me. I thought a great red-eyed +bull would do it, and stood in his path; but he knew, and turned +out of the road; he wouldn't red his horn with me." + +"You see yourself," said Malherb solemnly, "even as I see +myself--too late. You are the second who has asked me to kill +them since the sun rose. The first I took at her word, and she +is dead." + +"A woman! One less to breed men." + +"There may be repentance for you, if you can endure life till +memory grows blunt. For me there can be nothing but increasing +horror at my crime. Nothing can save me now." + +"I reckon we have done the worse that was in our nature ter +do," said the American. "That's nought--so have many and +slept no worse. The scourge is that we've been made ter feel it." + +"You are right; we feel; therefore we suffer. Farewell," +answered Maurice Malherb. + +Leverett did not reply, and the other passed out of his sight. +One man plunged onward, never resting, never halting; one +sat like a stone with his chin resting on his palm and his +handless arm hanging beside him. The light of the stars was +reflected on the knife at his feet; and presently a glitter caught +his eye; whereupon he stooped and picked up the blade. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE VOICE + +In the past--from a standpoint of fixed opinions and no +experience--Maurice Malherb had condemned suicide and +pronounced the action improper under any circumstances. But +now, in the light of that day's deed, it seemed that suicide opened +the sole road which led from ignominy and disgrace immeasurable. +He had forfeited his life. His exhausted body cried out +for food and rest; but his mind was active, and chaos, untouched +by the light of any star, raged there. He stayed his steps, sat +down amid old ruins and brooded upon death. + +His purpose slowly established itself, and he determined to +depart in such a manner that no man should know of his going +or gaze upon his corpse. He might perish in the tenantless +wastes westward of the Beam, and feed vermin, and make the +wild asphodel sweeter, as his victim would; or he might choose +some forgotten cavern or deserted mine where ready graves +yawned to hide dead things until doom. He knew of such +places, and recollected a natural chamber hard by Dartmeet. +Here in the woods lay a deep hole that ran underground, and +was known as the Pixies' Holt. He determined to creep thither, +as old dying foxes did, that he might perish in peace. + +Then it was that, rising again and stumbling forward, in doubt +whether his strength would last to take him to his goal, a voice +reached him and Malherb heard a faint cry for succour. At first +he thought it but a late lamb that had lost its mother's warm side +and bleated for cold. Then the sound became articulate, and, +forgetting his own circumstances, he listened very intently. +Presently he shouted with all his might, and from under the earth +came instant answer. + +"Help me--help me! Come back to me, Lovey, or I shall die!" + +Then were the man's ears opened, and he heard his daughter's +voice. She was buried alive and at hand, for he stood in +Hangman's Hollow. Now Malherb forgot everything but his +girl. + +"'Tis I, Grace--your father! Be of good cheer. I'm +close--I'm close!" + +He rushed hither and thither, bruising himself against the +broken walls. Then he entered the _cul-de-sac_, and stood, and +cried out again. + +"Where are you now? How shall I come at you?" + +"I am here beneath you, dear father! There is a great stone--part +of the floor where you stand. It reaches to the left-hand +wall. Stamp every way, and when you stamp upon the inner +edge the stone will turn slowly and show you a steep stair." + +She heard him grope about and stamp as she directed. Then +he struck the cover and it turned, and showed him steps that +sank into the darkness. Slowly he let himself down, and soon +stood at the bottom with a starry space of sky above and the +glimmer of the moss around him. + +"Move gently towards me," cried Grace. "A flat stone lies +between us, with flint and steel and candles upon it." + +The master obeyed, soon lighted a dip on Lovey Lee's altar, +then hurried where his girl lay fast bound. Malherb released her +and she fainted. He chafed her blue, swollen wrists and, for the +first time, thought of the dead miser without a pang. + +Grace slowly regained her senses, but not her courage. She +clung to her father and wept and prayed him for the love of God +not to loose her hand from between his own. + +"Save me--save me from her," she said. "Let me die anywhere +but here--not smothered and starved here. Never let me +see her and hear her voice again, or I shall go mad." + +"You are safe, my little child. Cry no more; tremble no +more; 'tis your own father has found you." + +"My own dear father! My own dear father has saved me. I +called and called and counted the falling drops of water. Sometimes +I screamed when the ropes bit sharpest. But I called after +every hundred drops had fallen. Then I heard a step----" + +She fainted again, and, seeking for the dropping water that she +mentioned, Malherb found bread and meat where John Lee had +placed it. + +He restored his daughter's consciousness, then made her eat +and drink. After she had done so he finished the remainder of +the food, and marvelled at himself that his appetite was keen. + +"Come," he said, "now, with my hand to help, your strength +will lift you out of this den for ever." + +Anon they reached the air. + +"A century has gone over my head since dawn," he said. + +The girl took deep inhalations and looked at the sky. + +"To see the dear stars again! Speak to me, father--speak +and hold my hand. I have come to fear silence. Have you +forgiven--can you forgive me for all the suffering I have brought?" + +He held her hand and pressed it, but did not answer. + +Slowly they moved away; then Grace stopped. + +"Return, father--you must return and cover the mouth of the +place, and make it fast against her. Else, when she comes again +herself, thinking to find me dead, and finds me vanished, she will +fly and take the amphora too." + +"It is there, then?" + +"Yes indeed! I have seen it with my own eyes. She kissed +it--her hideous lips kissed it! Then she hid it again." + +"She will kiss it no more. She will not come back. The +amphora and you--both in one moment! And I had determined +to---- The irony of God! A banquet He spreads--but my +teeth are gone. Yesterday this would have turned me into a +good man; to-day it is too late. Lean on my arm, little heart. +I'm strong enough to hold you up still." + +They spoke again of the past, and Grace told her father what +he had already learned: that John Lee was his brother's son. He +heard the fact with indifference now. + +So they passed painfully and slowly to their home, and in an +hour Grace was upon her mother's bosom. + +With wine came strength, and the suffering of her raw wrists +was quickly lessened. She sank to sleep holding Annabel's hand; +and when she was in easy slumber, the wife returned to her +husband. He was sitting below beside a fire of peat, and he +also slept heavily. She loosened his collar, and, though the +touch was light as down, her hand at his throat awoke him. He +leapt to his feet and cried out aloud and bade her stand back. + +"I meant to ease you," she said. + +Then he awoke and took her in his arms. + +"Forgive me. I dreamed an evil dream. Come, gentle nurse; +I know that she sleeps, else you would not have left her. And +you are heavy-eyed with much prayer and thanksgiving to God. +How well I guess what's filled your heart since I brought her +home! Now, wife, you may rest in peace." + +"Come you too," she answered. "And have not you also +thanked the watching God? Surely I know that you have." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PETER TRIUMPHANT + +Peter Norcot had left Fox Tor Farm the night before +Grace's discovery and return. Upon hearing this great news, +he wrote a magnanimous letter of forgiveness, congratulation and +quotation; but he did not follow it himself for the space of three +days. Then the richer by information of very significant +character, he reappeared at the dwelling of the Malherbs. + +Meantime the sorry truth had come to Grace. Cecil Stark +and the leaders of the conspiracy at Prince Town were all +suffering imprisonment in the cachots; John Lee was at Plymouth; +Lovey Lee had vanished. These things she comprehended and +mourned; her mother's grief at temporal troubles she also shared +and understood; only her father had changed in every respect, +and she could find little explanation for his actions. The crisis +of his affairs approached, and yet he made no effort to avert +it; once only she spoke to him concerning the amphora; but he +desired her to leave the subject, and commanded her neither to +return to her former prison nor mention the matter to anybody. + +"The affair is in my hands," he said; "I pray you, Grace, to +leave it there for the present. Utter no word upon this subject. +I have reasons strong enough for desiring silence." + +She promised, bewildered to think why her father could thus +desert his treasure now that she had restored it to him; then +Norcot arrived without invitation to spend a day or two. + +He quickly perceived that mighty changes marked the situation. +His first intention had been to let the past alone; but, +finding that Maurice Malherb was indifferent to it, and would +not so much as express regret at all the indignity Peter had +suffered, the lover, for the first time in his relations with his +future father-in-law, struck a firmer note and permitted some +flash of that steel in him to catch the other's eye. + +They rode together upon the land, and the subject was opened +by Peter. + +"You'll guess that I'm not here just now for rest and change, +Malherb. There's a good deal to be said between us. But you +seem indisposed to say it. Naturally I should like to know all +about this wonderful rescue. Yet, since you are so taciturn, I'll +leave that until it pleases you or Grace to tell the story. Suffice +it that she's alive and well, and I hope wise at last. Now, how +do we stand?" + +Malherb noted the difference of tone, but made no comment +upon it. + +"She and I stand in the relation of father and daughter," he +answered. "That is not new; and yet it is new. I have learned +a good deal of late. My judgment is shaken within me." + +"'Where the judgment's weak, the prejudice is strong.' You +talk as if you had been in fault, instead of your daughter." + +"You were not wont to speak so to me." + +"Nor you to act so. Life is short, and even my astounding +patience has run out." + +"Listen," said Malherb, reining up his horse and lifting his +hand. "Trouble has fallen upon me--terrible trouble. You shall +know--everybody shall know; but not yet. It is in Job--set +there in the awful words of Scripture: 'He discovereth deep +things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of +death.' I have done evil, Norcot; I have fallen as I pray you +may never fall. Invisible powers have rent me and torn me. I +tell you that I have been through dark waters." + +"Bless my soul! all the deities in a rumpus over one man! +Tut, tut! What then? If you've learned some wisdom--if you've +found out that God is jealous and takes mighty good care none +of us shall be wiser than He is--then there's hope for you." + +"I have learned much. This girl--my girl--she has suffered +a great deal. Frankly, we have overlooked her rights." + +"What moonshine do you talk, my dear Malherb?" + +The other's eyes flashed--then dulled. His rage was but a +shadow of its old self, and, like a shadow, vanished. He answered +listlessly. + +"I am not what I was. I have heavy anxieties, and I will not +fight with my child. My opinion is changed. She is a woman." + +"'Little force suffices to break what's cracked already.' You +mean that she has prevailed with you to forswear yourself--to +turn traitor to me. You a traitor! 'Tis a thing impossible!" + +"What is impossible? No depth of error is impossible to one +who knows not himself. To upbraid me is vain. The solid +earth has shifted under my feet, Peter Norcot. But 'traitor'--I'll +not brook that. Worse than that I may be, but not that." + +"Not that, indeed! If you only knew how I respect you and +approve your staunch, fearless outlook upon life! But I, too, +have endured not a little. Think of it--the marriage broken off +at the altar rails! And then fifteen hours in the saddle. +Nocturnal adventures to fill a volume. Terrific +expenditure--wear and tear to body and soul and clothes. + + "'And winged lovelings round my aching heart + Still flutter, flutter--never to depart.' + + +"You cannot go back on your oath, Malherb. If you did, you +wouldn't be Malherb." + +"We are fighting against nature." + +"We are fighting against Cecil Stark, not nature at all. + + "'Man's life is but a cheating game + At cards, and Fortune plays the same, + Packing a queen up with a knave----' + +as Bancroft so appositely remarks. But the knave of hearts is +hard and fast in a Prince Town cachot and like to stop there; +and the knave of clubs--so to call that meddling rascal, John +Lee--has stood his trial at Plymouth. They are done with; and +King Peter shall come to his own queen again. I'm patient as a +spider and sure as time. I'm going to marry Grace Malherb, +though the heavens fall. I never change; but you? Am I more +steadfast than the man who taught me steadfastness? + + "'An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven: + Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?' + +Ask yourself that question." + +"Let it rest awhile. I have much else on my mind--far +greater things even than this marriage. There are heavy +secrets--heavy secrets." + +"Who has not got 'em? God knows how well I wish you. But +to behold you weak! 'Tis like believing that you see granite, +only to find it painted paper." + +The other man's mind was running on. + +"I want no son of the next generation to be my glory and my +hope. I want no son, nor daughter neither. I weary of the +future; I turn from it; I have no longer any wish that my name +should outlive me." + +"Why then, the case is clear: you're ill! How blind one can +be! Somehow I'd never associated your iron constitution with +physical griefs. Yet you, too, can be sick. Your vitality is +lowered; I see it in your face. At such times there is danger of +cancers, declines and murrains. They fix their dreadful fangs in +us when we are enervated and weak. Man! trust me more. +I'm no wind-bag. I can do things. I have many very definite +deeds to my credit. Often I came to you for advice; now take +from me what's better; coin of the realm. Forgive bluntness +and accept blunt. This has nought to do with Grace at all. 'I +will not purchase hope with ready money.' There's no room for +false pride between us, thank God! I say you shall! I hate to +see you troubled over the trashy aspect of human life. To be +cornered for a little metal! Consider: + + "'Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul, + Sweet'ner of life! and solder of society!' + +Blair. But what is friendship if we do not permit it to take shape +or substance?" + +The older man was touched instantly and deeply. He bent +from his saddle and shook Peter's hand. + +"You've a great, generous soul, Norcot," he said. "I thank +you with my heart, but not with words. You don't guess what +manner of man you would befriend. Yet thank you a thousand +times. No, no--such things have happened that I would starve +sooner than accept a loan. And you--if you knew--as you must +know--you would desire Grace no more. I am growing old, +Peter. Age surprises such men as I am--age and crime. Yes, I +say 'crime.' But age creeps with calmer men. Upon me he +has sprung. I'm not so wise as people have been good enough +to think. But I'm going to pay for that. I'm going to pay for +everything." + +"Leave your affairs for the present. We'll return to them. +You must see a physician. Meanwhile I insist on your taking +five thousand pounds. 'Tis pure friendship, and so I hope you'll +hold it. Now Grace--well, she is a woman. You said that not +long since. I was struck with the remark. Now, being a woman, +she cannot possibly know her own mind. Trite but true. It is +only fair that I should make a final appeal--only fair to both of +us. Something leads me to think that she may yet see the true +and proper course. + + "'Hope, heaven-born cherub, still appears, + Howe'er misfortune seem to lower. + +See! she comes out to meet us! It is an augury! How lovely +she looks, despite her trying experiences. Ride you off, Malherb; +but hear me promise ere you go that I'll not distress her." + +"Better that you should leave us all and forget us all, Peter +Norcot." + +"Ride on, I say, and let the maid come with me. This business +shall be ended for ever, before time for tea-drinking." + +Grace approached, and Peter waved his hat with customary +politeness. Malherb turned away and galloped off; then the +girl, dismayed, was about to follow him, when she found Norcot +already at her side. + +"Don't go!" he said. "'Twas your father's wish that we +should speak in private together. Have no fear. 'Tis but a +simple matter to do with the future, not the past. But we'll get +within doors, so please you. I hate talking of anything important +from the back of a horse. I believe in transmigration of souls, +you see. Who knows what spirit inhabits your gallant 'Cæsar'?" + +Without answer Grace turned homeward, and ere long she sat +in the dining-room of Fox Tor Farm, while Peter stood before +her and twirled his seals. + +"Your father has explained facts, my dear. He is very unwell, +and his judgment has left him with his health. He's haunted by +something. I hope drugs will lay the ghost. Now you--I begged +for the boon of a little talk. Tut, tut! 'tis beginning all over +again--and that after the banns were called for the third and last +time! Poor cousin Relton--how he squinted when Tom Putt +brought the news of your retreat!" + +"'To begin again'! Oh, Peter, have I not made my answer clear?" + +"No; because your actions were not clear. They were very +mysterious actions. For two pins I was going to rescue you from +your father myself. But I had a suspicion that even if I brought +wings you wouldn't wear 'em. Really, Grace, you've wickedly +wronged a good man, though I say it. You've hurt me through +and through." + +"And what of all that you have made me suffer?" + +"You haven't suffered. You've merely enjoyed an extremely +exciting experience. Mentally you have not endured anything to +name. No woman can suffer acutely so long as she's interested +in three men. I say 'three.' 'Twas John Lee helped you to +escape and risked his life and ruined his fortune for you. First, +how do you stand towards that romantic young fellow now? 'Tis +rather important--for him. To be frank, his life is in your hands. +The law of the land has dealt with him finally; but the book of +John Lee's days lies with you to shut or open at will. Have you +forgot him, or do you desire to? That hardly sounds like another +offer of marriage, does it? Yet I'm proposing with all my heart." + +"Forget John! Forget him--forget to love him? Never. He +saved my life." + +"Indeed! All these delightful incidents are still hidden from +me. But the question now is his life--happily not yours. You've +doubtless heard that he helped that formidable skeleton, his +grandmother, to dig a tunnel under the walls of the War Prison. +Maybe he did it as much for you as anybody--to assist the young +hero No. 2--Stark of the 'Stars and Stripes.' Well, call it what +you like, 'twas high treason and poor John Lee must hang for it. +I heard sentence of death pronounced at Plymouth yesterday--a +solemn experience." + +"John Lee--John!" + +The girl reeled backwards, then started to her feet. + +"He must be saved; he shall be saved. I cannot live if he +dies. The guards--the soldiers. There must be some among +them who would--oh, God, help me now! He must be saved if +I tramp to the King myself!" + +"Bravely spoken! + + "'God and a soldier all people adore + In time of war--but not before.' + +Better leave the King out and trust to God and a soldier. And +we'll set the soldier first, since pounds get answered quicker than +prayers. There's no time to pray when the gibbet's up." + +"He must be saved." + +"He shall be--if I can save him. He shall be saved, though +the price should be my wool factory. But this is a proposal of +marriage--don't forget that." + +"He must be saved." + +Norcot nodded. + +"So be it. 'I'll dare all heat but that in Gracie's eyes.' I +may add that I'm probably the only man in Devonshire who +could save him. And even I must do it by foul means, not fair +ones. Say the word then!" + +"I implore you, if ever you loved me. Oh, if I could do it +myself I would not ask you." + +"You can't do it." + +"Then do you." + +"And afterwards? Tut, tut! I may dance on the gallows I +rob of him! One doesn't risk these highly coloured possibilities +for a hand-shake. What afterwards, Grace?" + +As she answered, Mr. Kekewich entered at the other end of +the chamber, and he heard her reply. + +"If you save John Lee's life, I'll marry you." + +"Before Heaven you mean it?" + +"Before Heaven." + +"There's my brave heroine!" + +"Tea is served in the drawing-room, Miss Grace," said +Kekewich. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +STRATEGY + +When approaching a problem Peter Norcot rarely made +any error in his point of attack. By nightfall upon the +day of Grace's promise he had left Fox Tor Farm, and only she +knew the reason. But to Plymouth Peter did not go. He returned +home, visited his safe and took from it the sum of one thousand +pounds in notes. Any appeal to authority on behalf of John Lee +must be vain. He had been sentenced to death for high treason, +and four days separated him from the gallows. Norcot knew +that the man would be hanged at Exeter, and that he was to leave +Plymouth for that city under a military escort two days after his +trial. He had learned the route of march and the constitution of +the company responsible for the prisoner's safe custody. The +journey would take two days, and the half-way house stood near +Ashburton. A non-commissioned officer commanded, and upon +that man Peter Norcot centred his hopes. Quarters for the +company were already taken at Westover Farm, outside Ashburton; +and here the wool-stapler designed to appear in good time. +During the hours of that night he doubted little but that he would +achieve his purpose. + +Meanwhile a lesser man--one Thomas Putt--commands +undivided attention. When Kekewich returned to the servants' +hall after announcing tea to Grace and her lover, he found +Mrs. Beer there. To them entered Tom with a fine salmon; but no +voice of approval rewarded his achievement, for Kekewich was +full of the tragic thing he had just heard. + +"What a light it do throw!" cried Dinah Beer. "Poor tibby +lamb; an' the hunger of that dreadful wolf for her! Now he'll +get Lee off--see if he don't--though he's got to ax King +George." + +"If Lee knowed the price, I'm thinking as 'twould be more +than Norcot could do to free him," said Kekewich. "I was for +this marriage heart an' soul, so much as master; but he've changed +since she runned away; an' so have I. I'm generally of his mind +in secret, though I never tell the man so." + +"'Tis too dreadful to think of," declared Dinah. "Poor dear +Jack!--yet the price of his getting off be dreadful too." + +"'Twill kill her to marry him--honest gentleman though he +be," said Kekewich. "An' she'll do it. If Mr. Norcot gets Lee +off, she'll take him without another murmur." + +Then Tom Putt spoke. He knew a great deal about the +matter of Lee, for he had been permitted to see John at Prince +Town and had afterwards got a message to him, through Sergeant +Bradridge, that Grace Malherb was safe. To the sergeant fell +Lee's custody, and Putt knew that on the morrow his uncle +Septimus Bradridge would convey John from Plymouth a day's +march to Westover Farm. + +Apart from any question concerning Grace, Tom had already +determined to see his old companion once again, and he knew +exactly where the soldiers would make their noontide halt upon +the following morning. Now his mind quickened and he showed +a spark of the genius that had so often been wasted in successful +poaching on Dart. First Mr. Putt begged Kekewich to give him +a few moments of private conversation, and then, when he and +the old man were closeted together, John Lee's friend explained +a part of his purpose. + +"My uncle's a fierce warrior, but he've always showed a great +liking for me, and I know he'll not stand between me and a word +or two with Jack. The day's journey is to be broken where Dean +Burn flows down out o' the woods between Buckfastleigh and +Dean Prior. 'Tis a spot where two roads meet, and there's a +bridge there. Now I can get to that place afore they do; an' if +I have speech with Jack Lee, 'twill put iron into his will." + +"You might see Norcot?" + +"I shall not. Norcot will tackle my Uncle Septimus to-morrow +night at Westover. An' he'll find my uncle's a man as wants a +tidy mort o' money to go behind his duty. As to Norcot, he'll +get Lee off, sure's fate; for Jack would run like any other chap +to save his neck. But not if he knowed what price Norcot be +getting for saving him. The gentleman may override Sergeant +Bradridge, but he won't override Jack Lee." + +"You'll want a bit of money, won't 'e, to get leave to talk to +him?" + +"Ess, I shall," said Putt. "That's what I wanted to say. A +pound will go a long way with a common sojer, but not with my +uncle. I wouldn't dare for to offer him small money. I shall +just ax if I may speak to an old friend afore he's choked off; and +I shall offer all you can let me have, an' hope for my mother's +sake as Uncle Septimus will let me get a few private words." + +"I can give 'e twenty pounds," said Kekewich, "an' that's every +penny I've got by me. Money's scarce just now." + +Putt nodded gloomily, because the elder touched a thorny +subject. For the first time since Fox Tor Farm was built, had +the master of it asked his men upon pay day to let their wages +stand over for a week. + +"I've not got a farden. Gived my maid to Chagford every +penny," confessed Mr. Putt. + +The old man nodded and produced his cash in the shape of +two notes. + +"I won't ax you your plans, Thomas, for you wasn't born +yesterday. 'Tis a great source of strength that Sergeant Bradridge +is your relation. Be witty about it; an' if John Lee can save her +by taking his bad fortune like a man--well, so much the better, +though 'tis a poor come along of it for him, poor chap." + +Tom pouched the money carefully, but made no comment on +the other's words. + +"I'll take my uncle this here fish I've catched," he said, +"for he's a man fond of pretty eating, and was brought up on +Dart salmon. And I shall leave at cock-light to-morrow morning." + +"Good luck go with you. Ban't often I wish anybody that; +but this time I will for the maiden's sake. An' her good fortune +will be his bad, poor blid! unless 'tis good fortune to die in +a good cause." + +"Us never knows what'll happen," declared Putt. "An' +whether or no, 'tis bad fortune to be hanged, for it stops a man's +usefulness." + +The conversation ended with this just reflection, and very early +next morning Thomas went his way. Mrs. Beer provided him +with plentiful supplies of food and, upon his own account, he +visited the tool-shed and work-loft before setting out. With him +he carried a stout stick, and his salmon as a gift for Sergeant +Bradridge. + +He struck into Dean Woods while it was yet early, then called +at a farm hard by, where he was known, partook of a pint of beer +and had some conversation with the farmer's son. Presently, +seated with this lad in front of a load of manure, Putt jogged +onwards and proceeded to a cross-road not far distant from +Robin Herrick's old home at Dean Prior. Here ran Dean Burn +from its fountains on Dartmoor; and to Mr. Putt this stream, +now in full torrent after rain, offered interesting problems. He +examined the waters with a professional eye, and his friend upon +the cart laughed at him. + +"Ever thinking of fish; even at such a time as this!" + +"No, by Gor!" answered Tom. "I'm just wondering how +shallow it runs to the bridge yonder. Lend me your whip an' I'll +find out." + +He proved to his satisfaction that there was deep water at +hand, and then, while still in earnest conversation with the young +farmer, Thomas heard a tramp of feet and saw the troops +advancing. Thereupon his friend drew his cart and its burden +into a side path by the stream, and Putt, with the salmon well +displayed, advanced to meet Sergeant Bradridge. The halt +sounded as he approached. The troops grounded their arms +and, weary and hungry after a march of fifteen miles, pulled food +from their knapsacks and scattered in comfort by the grassy way. +For drink, the river rolled at their feet. + +Sergeant Bradridge himself had selected a comfortable spot +upon a milestone, with a bank behind it for his back, just as +Tom appeared. All the soldiers were now at ease, save two +sentries, who kept guard over the prisoner. Lee was handcuffed, +but his legs were free, and he had walked with his guards. He +sat now, nodded and smiled at Putt, and welcomed him +gratefully. But Thomas held his nose high, walked past the +prisoner, and treated Lee as one no longer to be recognised by +self-respecting people. + +"Morning, Uncle Sep. I knowed you was passing this way, so +I took a half-holiday, an' made bold to walk across the Moor." + +The sergeant was an elderly man with a ruddy face, a pompous +bearing, and a feeble, kindly mouth quite concealed under heavy +moustaches. + +"Tom, to be sure! Sit down an' have a bite. 'Tis dooty, an' +a painful dooty. But us safeguards of the land have to do dirty +work so well as clean work. That poor soul--well, but come to +think of it, you knowed him better'n ever I shall. 'Tis a strange +world. Back along I had to march your master out of War Prison, +'cause Mr. Malherb got in a rage the day we found out about +that hole under the walls; then I had to take this here poor +soul down along to Plymouth; an' now I be marching him +to be hanged. Talk o' wars! Us as stays at home have just +as terrible dooties thrust upon us." + +"You was always ready for anything. Nothing never puzzles +you. My mother says that if an earthquake comed, you wouldn't +run. But as for Jack Lee--well, I grant us liked him very +well. But he turned traitor to please the women, an' I've done +with him." + +"Ah!--a face like his was bound to get him mixed up with the +female sex." + +"You didn't ought to pity him--such a renowned King's man +as you be," declared Putt. + +"You'm quite correct," assented the sergeant, proceeding with +his bread and cheese. "But though a King's man, I'm one as +looks to the bottom of my glass, and to the bottom of everything. +Many a poisonous root do bear wholesome seed. I've had +speech with that chap, an' I'm devilish sorry for him--sorrier +than he is for himself." + +"You'm such a large-minded warrior, Uncle Sep. I wish there +was more Bradridge and less Putt in my character, I'm sure. +Bradridges is always heroes." + +"Always--to a man," admitted the sergeant. "But your +mother is a very proper-minded woman, an' you've got proper +feelings, though you wouldn't go for a sojer when I wanted you." + +"If he'd 'listed now," said Tom, pointing with his thumb to +John Lee, "he'd never have found hisself in this fix." + +"True for you. I wish I could take him to barracks 'stead of +Exeter gaol. A modest man; and since I give him your message +that 'twas well with the young lady, he's been quite content. He +told me he didn't fear death no more than I do." + +"All comes of bad company," replied his nephew. "I was half +in mind to take the man's hand just now, but I couldn't bring +myself to do it." + +The sergeant shook his head. + +"That's the Putt blood in you, Thomas. A Bradridge would +never turn against a broken man just 'cause his life had fallen out +crooked. Granted he've done wrong. Very well; he'm going to +suffer for it. If you'd been tempted by a pretty maid, mayhap +you'd be in the same box." + +"He'm a traitor an' he tried to help they Yankees out of prison. +That's enough for me," said Putt stoutly. "Us'll leave him to +his righteous fate. See here, Uncle Sep, here's a brave fish I've +brought 'e, knowing what a tooth you've got for Dart salmon. I +thought as Mother Coaker--to Westover Farm where you lie +to-night--would cook it for your supper." + +Without words Sergeant Bradridge smelt the fish carefully; then +his face shone. + +"Fresh as a rose!" he said. + +"Catched essterday morn." + +"You'm a good boy, Tom, an' I thank you. Call that chap +there who's just had a drink in the river. I'll send him forward +with this here fish an' give him a pound of it for his trouble. He +knows the way." + +Thomas obeyed, and in ten minutes a soldier had started off +with his sergeant's supper, while Putt professed great amazement. + +"What power to put in one man's hands. You can order 'em +about seemingly like a shepherd orders his dog! In these parts, +of course, the name of Bradridge is a masterpiece. I lay they'll +all turn out at Buckfastleigh as you go marching through." + +"'Tis right a man's native town should mark his fame," said the +soldier. "Of course my name be a household word there; and +for that very reason I'm going round by King's Wood and Bilberry +Hill, so as this poor chap shan't have all the eyes of the town upon +him.'" + +"'Tis a rough road." + +"Not to me. I've knowed the way ever since I was breeched." + +"Well," said Putt, rising, "I wish you kindly, Uncle Sep, and +I hope you'll take it proper in me to have come. There's a chap +going up through Dean Wood with a cart in a minute and I'll get +a lift part o' the way to home." + +"Well, I'm much obliged to you and I won't forget it. I've +often thought, Thomas, as my maid 'Liza wouldn't say 'no' to +you. Hast ever turned your mind to her?" + +"Never reckoned I was good enough." + +"Well, modesty's a very proper part of youth; but in love-making +it can be carried too far. Think of it. She'm homely, +but for that matter so be you. An' none the worse for that. Us +can't all have picture-book faces." + +"Like that poor chap-fallen gallows man there. Well, +good-bye to 'e. An' my dooty." + +Tom shook hands with his uncle, moved a step or two off and +glanced irresolutely where John Lee sat between the standing +soldiers. His hands were under his chin and his elbows on his +knees. + +"Be damned if I can bring myself to do it!" said Putt aloud; +whereupon Sergeant Bradridge rose from the milestone and laid +a hand upon his nephew's shoulder. + +"Don't harden your heart against him, my lad. He's in a +tight place, and no man can ever give him more than a handshake +and a 'God speed.' It won't hurt 'e to wish him better +luck in a better world; an', being your comrade, you ought to +do it." + +Putt scowled in the direction of John Lee. + +"If you say it's my dooty--you're such a masterful man. You +get my secrets out of me like a lawyer! To tell truth, I had a +dozen messages for the fellow from Fox Tor Farm. And a last +word from a maiden too. A good few tears have been shed for +the chap, as hadn't an enemy in the world an' scores o' friends. +'Twas Kekewich axed me to speak to him; an' I named you, an' +said as you'd never let me do it. And old Kek, he said, 'Your +Uncle Bradridge is a man of valour an' a man knowed for his +righteous character. Such as him,' Kek said, 'with a wife an' +children an' a good heart, ain't going to stand between an orphan +lad on his way to the gallows, and a last message from his +friends.' He said also, 'Give the sergeant this here token with an old +man's respects to a hero, an' ax him from me to let you just have +five minutes with poor Jack Lee out o' ear-shot o' the sojers. This +money, he says, 'ban't no more'n a sign of respect for his character +as a sojer and a Christian; an' if there wasn't such men as him in +the nation, us would have had Boney over long afore to-day,' says +Kekewich." + +"An' you wasn't going to deliver the old man's message?" + +"Didn't think 'twas worth while, for I never knowed, Uncle +Sep, that you was so powerful a sojer you could allow me to go +aside an' have a talk with the rascal. Not as I wants to, I'm sure. +'Why,' I said to Kek, 'a general couldn't do it, let alone my +Uncle Bradridge!' An' Kek, he says, 'Your uncle's every bit so +good as a general in this job. He've got sole command, and his +word's law. Sergeants be the very thews of an army,' said Kek, +an' I suppose I ought to have believed him." + +"Certainly you did," declared the warrior. "Every word he +told you was truth. He'm a wise old man, and knows very well +what he'm talking about. But as to money--'tis a ticklish thing +to name it." + +"So I told him, but he said you'd understand better'n a green +lad like me. 'Do 'e think I'd offer money to a great man like +Septimus Bradridge?' I asked him. An' he said, 'I've got far +too much respect for him to dream of such an insult; but I want +him to take this here twenty pound just as a token of admiration +from an old man who once had a son a sojer. And if he'll let +you have ten minutes with poor Jack, so as to cheer him up afore +he goes into the Valley of the Shadow--why, 'tis only a sign he's +as big in his heart as his valour, and nought to do at all with my +present to him.'" + +Tom pulled out the money and handed it to Sergeant Bradridge. + +"I'm glad you remembered your dooty," said his uncle sternly, +taking the notes and putting them into his breast. "An' 'tis lucky +that I'm a parent and a man above suspicion of a mean trick; so +I can take this here momentum just the same as I'd take a medal +for valour--in a big military spirit. You'll bear me witness I've +twice axed you to speak to the prisoner afore; an' now I ax you +to speak to him again." + +"If as my Uncle Septimus you command me, I must obey," +said Putt reluctantly; "but I vow I won't be left with him over +fifteen minutes. I can say all I've got to say inside that time. +An', though the sojers mus'n't listen, I'd rather for 'em not to be +too far off, for he might turn upon me." + +"A handcuffed man! To think my sister's son be a coward!" + +"He'm a desperate chap, an' us ban't all born with your great +courage. If I sit 'pon yonder bank with him above the bridge, us +won't be heard; an' if he sits 'pon top of the bank you can keep +your eye upon us. Out of your sight I will not trust myself with +that man." + +"That's reasonable," admitted the sergeant; "let him keep +his head over the grass, so as I can see him all the while I smoke +my pipe." + +He looked at his watch. "Fifteen minutes or so you shall +have--him being an orphan." + +"Don't make it a minute longer, for 'tis a very nasty job for me. +An' if I call out, I pray you'll run an' save me," implored Putt. + +With open contempt Sergeant Bradridge gave his order, and in +a few moments Tom found himself alone beside John Lee on a +shady bank above the stream. Some thirty yards and a hillock +of grass now separated him from the soldiers; while a little further +off, sitting on the milestone, Tom's uncle lighted his pipe, felt a +pleasant crispness at his breast, and kept his eyes firmly fixed +upon the back of John Lee's head. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE SALMON IS SPOILED + +Sergeant Bradridge smoked his tobacco, thought of +his twenty pounds, of his salmon, and of his high position +in the world. + +"Some," he reflected, "might say that Tom there would never +have seen yonder poor chap but for they two ten-pound notes. +But old Kekewich knowed better. 'Tis merely a momentum. +Give me an old man if you want an understanding man." + +Nobody had ever before presented the soldier with twenty +pounds, and the sensation was not only pleasant, but tended to +the increase of self-respect. His days had been uneventful, and +albeit an admirable officer, accident kept him at home despite +the stirring times. He was a great recruiter, and had sent many +a lad to the wars, though never himself had he heard a shot fired +in anger. The hour was at hand when he would do so; and that +in his own mother-county of Devon. Now he thought upon his +wife and family, and then concerning the prisoner. Heartily he +regretted John Lee's fate, but knew no way to mend it. + +Meantime the doomed man and Putt conversed with earnestness. +Their talk was of a practical nature, and they wasted not +a moment in vain sorrow. + +Tom told his friend the news and the solemn promise that +Grace Malherb had given to Norcot. + +"No man can save me if I won't be saved," said John. "It +only makes death easier to know what hangs upon it." + +"We've got but minutes," answered the other; "an' 'tis a fool's +trick to die if you can live. Dead, you're no good to none but +worms and body-snatchers; alive, you can't tell what might come +along. You've got to get out of this coil without Norcot's help; +then she's free again. 'Twas only if he freed you--not if you +freed yourself." + +"'Tis beyond human power." + +"'Tis as easy as eating. D'you see that cart full of muck? +Behind the tail-board there's a place scraped out big enough to +hold you. An' there's a knot-hole in the bottom of the cart +where you can put your mouth so you won't be choked. 'Twill +be a thought foul, but better'n a rope. Here's a file for them +bracelets presently. Wait a moment and watch." + +Putt went across to the cart and opened the tail-board, behind +which a space had been scooped in the farmyard stuff. Then he +took a bundle of the dirty straw, rolled it into a ball, and returned +to John Lee. + +"'Tis a matter of moments now," he said. "Yonder chap, +pretending to be asleep under the trees, only waits for you to +slip in the cart; then he'll cover you up deep and set off through +Dean Wood." + +While he spoke Tom rolled his ball of straw into the shape of +a head and stuck it upon his stick. Next he watched his uncle +through the grass, and when Bradridge had turned away for a +moment to speak to a soldier, John Lee's hat was thrust upon +the dummy, while John himself slipped down the bank. Tom +Putt's uncle, from his standpoint, still supposed that he saw the +condemned man's head, and his nephew talking earnestly beside +the prisoner; but in reality John was already under a mass of hot +ordure behind the tail-board of the cart; and a moment later the +vehicle took its lumbering way among the soldiers. It crept +through the little camp, then ascended a hill upon the driver's +left hand, and slowly disappeared from view in the direction of +Dean Wood. + +Meantime Putt sat by John Lee's hat on the stick and watched +his uncle. The precious minutes passed until at last Sergeant +Bradridge looked at his watch again, rose, and knocked the +burning tobacco from his pipe. + +Thereupon Thomas played his part. He removed Lee's hat +and flung it into the river, where it floated fast down stream; he +then struck himself a formidable blow on the side of the face +with his stick, and shouting with all his might, himself leapt +down into the water. It took him to his middle, and he waded +deeper. + +"Help, help, Uncle Sep! Help, sojers! Help; you'll never +hang him, for he'll drown hisself, sure as death!" + +A dozen redcoats answered Tom's bawling, and Sergeant +Bradridge also ran to the spot as fast as he was able. + +"He's done for me--I shall die!" cried Putt, holding his face; +"I know'd how 'twould be. He leapt up like lightning, and then +struck me with his handcuffed hands. I'll swear my jaw's broke. +'Death by water's better'n hanging!' he says, an' flings hisself +into the river!" + +"There's his hat," said a soldier; "but his head isn't under it." + +"Get in the water! Get in the water!" shouted Sergeant +Bradridge. "With his hands fast together he'll be drownded +like a dog wi' a brick round his neck!" + +"If he's carried under the bridge you'll lose him sure as +death. Oh, my head! an' I never said a hard word to the +man." + +They waded in the rolling reaches of Dean Burn, but found +nothing; then, at the sergeant's direction, his men prepared to +make a drag that they might scrape the bottom of the river. + +"There's scarce water to drown a sheep," said a soldier. "Are +you sure of this chap?" he added, and looked at Putt. + +Tom, still nearly up to his waist in the river, took the insult ill. + +"Sure o' me, you gert cock-eyed lobster! Sure o' me! Ban't +your officer my own uncle? Better you comed in the water to help +than talk against your betters. But you'm too frightened of +wetting your pipe-clay and getting more work! Do a man have his +jaw split for fun? I hope as you'll be shot first time ever you go +to war; an' a good riddance!" + +"All the same," answered the soldier, "there was a cart full of +straw went by ten minutes agone. Might be wise to overtake it +and see that all's open and honest." + +"I never took my eyes off the prisoner's head," declared Bradridge. +"I suppose you'll not call my sight in question, Private +Chugg?" + +"No, sergeant; no man living's got a sharper eye; but there's +heads and there's hats. How if his head weren't under his hat +when you see'd it 'pon the mound there?" + +"Three of you run up along after thicky cart, an' us'll scour the +river banks," said Bradridge; "an' if there's any hookem-snivey +dealings, Thomas Putt, 'tis you who will swing at Exeter, not +t'other." + +"You'll be sorry for that speech, Uncle Sep, when us gets his +gashly carkiss out the water," answered Tom calmly. "He's +here, I tell you--sunk down into some hole at the bottom--and +dead as a hammer by now. An' if he ban't here, where is he? +Tell me that?" + +The soldiers hunted and probed without success; then they +went down the stream and searched beneath the bridge and in +every place where a fugitive might lurk with his head above +water. + +Meanwhile others, led by Private Chugg, ran fast, and soon +overtook the cart that had conveyed John Lee. It stood half-way +up a steep hill in the woods, with a stone stuck beneath one +wheel while the horse rested. + +Without ceremony, and despite fierce protests from Tom Putt's +friend, the soldiers pitched the entire contents of this vehicle into +the road. But they found nothing. Their prisoner had left his +unpleasant quarters ten minutes before, and was now half a mile +away in the deep woods of Dean. + +Throughout that night the screech owls heard a steady sound +like their own harsh voices, but subdued to a murmur. It was +John at his handcuffs. To separate them proved a difficult task, +even with Tom Putt's file; but that done, the man was quickly +free. + + +Far away, as evening fell, Mr. Norcot waited with admirable +patience for the arrival of Sergeant Bradridge and his prisoner; +while Mother Coaker of Westover Farm mourned a good fish +wasted. Tom Putt's salmon, despairing of being eaten, had +fallen to pieces in the pot. + + + + +BOOK IV + +THE PEACE + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOPE WAKES AND DIES + +On a day in late autumn, while sad winds whispered of +winter and the heather blossoms perished, Harvey Woodman +and Thomas Putt were setting up hurdles round about +a portion of a turnip field. Hard by Uncle Smallridge sat +upon a stone, chewed tobacco and watched them. This aged +man had made a close study of Providence's work at Fox Tor +Farm, and, finding that all the evils resulting from the +demolition of Childe's Tomb had fallen upon the head of Malherb, he +felt increased respect for the logic of Heaven. Now he +approached the labourers fearlessly, discussed the state of affairs +with relish, and threw his weight upon the side of justice. But +the household of Malherb showed an inclination to think the +farmer too hardly treated. According to their measure of +intelligence and gratitude, they mourned the master's evil fortune. + +"He's changed under our living eyes," said Woodman. + +"A scantle of his old self, an' goes heavily with backward +glances as though the wisht-hounds was arter him day an' night," +declared Putt. "So meek as Moses now most times. I miss +the thunder of him. We'm so used to it that he seems like a +new man without his noise." + +"Not but he flashes up, like a dying fire, now an' again, +however," added Woodman. + +Uncle Smallridge chewed and nodded and uttered complacent +platitudes. + +"What did I say? What a picture of the wrath of the loving +God! You won't find in all Scripture no case where the Lord +took a matter into His own hands quicker an' polished off a +sinner so sharp. First his son cut down; then his darter +undutiful; then that tantara to the War Prison; then Lovey Lee +carried away by the Devil, as I hopes an' believes; an' then Jack +Lee vanished like a cloud; an' a bad wool year; an' wages +coming by fits an' starts; an' doom writ upon the man's forehead. +'Tis all the hatched-out egg of the Lord. Full of meat--full of +meat are His ways." + +"Hard enough to stomach all the same," said Woodman; and +Putt viewed the ancient with considerable disgust. + +"You'm worse than Kekewich," he declared. "You fatten on +other folks' troubles, like a crow on offal. I'd blush to smack +my lips over a brave man's cares. Who gave 'e that tobacco +you'm chowing?" + +"Mr. Malherb," confessed Uncle. "An open-handed gentleman +as need be, an' a good friend to me. An' why not? 'Tis +the duty of the gentlefolks to support such as me. I've growed +two-double working for 'em. An' now my balance of years be +their proper business. I've nought against him myself; I be +only pointing out how much the Lord had against him. We'm +all corn for the A'mighty's grindstones; an' a very comforting +thought that is for a common man. There's justice there." He +waved to the sky. "Us shan't be driven about to work for small +money an' bad masters in Eternity; but sit 'pon golden thrones +an' share the property with the best of 'em." + +"You're a Whig," said Woodman. "They talk like that in +the Parliament." + +"I be what I be. I know there won't be no squires an' ban-dogs +an' man-traps an' spring-guns to maim honest men up-along. +If us be all equal in Heaven, that should be the rule on earth, +same as the Lord prayed in His own Prayer." + +"You'd better keep them ideas till you get to Heaven then," +said Thomas Putt; "for they won't work on Dartymoor." + +As he spoke Mr. Beer arrived, and with him he brought +interesting news. + +"Leave that, souls," he said; "since the weather's lifted, us +have all got to go along with master to Hangman's Hollow 'bout +that job there was talk of a fortnight since. He's made up his +mind all on a sudden. Go back to the farm for ropes an' picks, +then come along." + +"What's in the wind now, neighbour?" inquired Uncle +Smallridge, and Beer answered him. + +"Why, 'tis the hole where Miss Grace was found. 'Tis said +'twas old Lovey Lee's den afore she bolted. Dinah heard a +whisper of treasures there, too. Anyway us have got to go an' +pull the place down an' let in light an' air, so as us can see if +there be aught worth fetching." + +Uncle Smallridge went his way speculating as to what was the +next unpleasant surprise hidden for Malherb by the Lord of +Hosts; while Putt, Woodman and Beer returned home. They +collected their tools and set out soon afterwards with Mark +Bickford for Hangman's Hollow. + +The first result of his present experiences and position had +been a development of astounding patience in Maurice Malherb. +Patient, indeed, he was not in any real sense; but a self-control +relatively wonderful marked his goings now. He waited for the +inevitable. Every instinct called out to him to hasten it, yet he +took no step. This personal attitude amazed him in secret. +Sometimes even a gleam of hope touched his darkness, and the +fact that no word had been heard of Lovey, and no report of her +death had reached mankind, awoke a shadowy thought that she +was not dead. But he knew right well that no human foot trod +the desert south of Cater's Beam once in a year. The dead might +there mingle with dust and never be discovered or recorded. He +did nothing from day to day for thinking of his wife and daughter. +They stood between him and open confession of the crime. Yet +each week of delay galled him worse than the last. Memory kept +such a vivid wakefulness as it only holds under conditions of +remorse. His sin coloured his life, and the hues of it faded neither +by day nor night. As the hideous incubus of a dream slowly crawls +upon us, to fasten its fangs in our bosom, so this horror nightly +destroyed sleep, and by day it rode abroad with him, ate with him, +thought with him, thrust its shadow between him and the few +things he still loved. + +A thousand times his feet turned to Cater's Beam, a thousand +times he chose rather to live on and cherish the pallid hope that +his daughter and his wife were not for ever disgraced. For him +the events of that appalling dawn were neither gyves nor ropes +about his real nature. He had long since retraced all in spirit, +probed his act to the core, and even taken the consequences of it. +For no thought of self-destruction returned to him; but his women +came between and held his hand, and, though they knew it not, +played the first part in his hidden life, as they now stood openly +for all that he still held dear. + +Yet at last, by an indirect road, he consented to satisfy himself, +and after countless petitions from Grace and from Annabel, he +gave way and abandoned what, from their standpoint, was a +senseless determination. His daughter finally prevailed with him. + +"Lovey Lee fled to save her own life," declared Grace. "Perchance +she never returned to her hiding-place at all. There, then, +remain her treasures and the amphora that I saw with my own +eyes. Surely it is worth the trouble of a search?" + +"'Twould be fifteen thousand pounds at least to us. Your +brother himself might purchase it," said Annabel. + +"He at least never will," answered her husband. "Rather +would I grind it under my heel. 'Brother'! 'Tis too noble a +title for him. Norcot can offer to aid me in my extremity, yet he +whose duty it should be, and whose privilege--does he come +forward?" + +"For the best of all reasons, dearest. You have not told him +a word of your circumstances." + +"'Told him'! Do such things want telling to a brother? He +ought to feel it in his bones; he ought to dream that all is not +well with me; he ought to breathe it in with the air. If he were +in trouble, my blood would have beat it into my heart. +Nevertheless, no farthing of his would I take to keep my wife and +daughter from starving." + +"Yet here's your own money as like as not hid within five +miles," said Grace. "How I've longed to go! Once I rode in +sight, and I never felt so tempted to break my word to you, dear +father. But I was glad afterwards, for, looking back, I marked a +man moving in the ruin. He saw me too and vanished." + +The matter dropped then; yet, within a week Malherb resolved +to permit a search. To him the enterprise must be a crucial test +of matters more vital than the amphora. If it was there, then +Lovey indeed had perished; if it was not there, then she lived. +But the truth might still be buried in his own bosom. It was not +necessary that others should know of it; and, in any case, the +circumstances of his family must be ameliorated by recovery of +the treasure. That fact alone he strove to keep before him; +yet now, as he tramped over the Moor with his daughter, and +saw wan sunlight all soaked in moisture, spread great fleeting +vans along the way, he prayed very earnestly that his mission +might fail. + +Grace was silent and busy with her own thoughts. That Lovey +Lee had long since escaped from Dartmoor and taken her treasure +with her, the girl felt certain; but that John Lee might be using +the cavern in Hangman's Hollow seemed likely enough. His +escape was a nine days' wonder, and some persons, Sergeant +Bradridge among the number, stoutly maintained that John must +have been born to drown and had met his destiny. The +sergeant was back at Prince Town; only Kekewich knew of +Putt's successful proceedings; while, as for Peter Norcot, he took +this further rebuff from fortune smiling, and absented himself +from Fox Tor Farm for a considerable time. For the present he +was reported to be very diligent about his own affairs. + +"You dream," said Malherb. "Twice I have spoken and +received no answer, Grace." + +"I did dream--of the blessedness of finding this treasure; yet +I am sure 'tis too late to hope." + +Her father sighed. + +"Who can tell?" he said. + +Only the carrion crows, that croaked aloft out of the morning +air and flapped their sooty wings towards Cater's Beam, knew the +truth. Often with his eyes he followed them out of sight; with +his mind's eye he saw what they saw; and that was never out of +sight. + +Presently the labourers drew up in Hangman's Hollow and +stood amazed at the secret which Grace revealed to them. From +the top, Beer and Woodman set to work; and Putt and Bickford +attacked the place beneath. They cut away the masses of briar +and undergrowth that bound the foundations of the old blowing-house, +forced a hole in the wall, and made entry from that point. +Malherb also toiled and wearied his body with great feats of +strength to distract his mind. + +"If us should catch the old cat-a-mountain now!" said Woodman. +"My stars, she'd scratch our faces to the bone, I lay!" + +But the treasure house was empty. They let in light from +every side, and after two hours' hard work had dismantled the +den. Sweet air searched its dark corners; day illuminated its +secrets. + +Malherb's heart fell as Grace pointed to two great boxes of +plate and jewels; but it rose with a bound, for they proved to be +empty. Where Lovey's money-bags had stood and leered at +Grace out of the darkness, like a row of little pot-bellied fiends +roosting there, they found nothing. The ledges were bare. +Malherb made no attempt to conceal his exultation. Dissimulation +was impossible before his growing hope. He toiled like a +giant, tore his clothes and smothered himself in dust and dirt. + +"Not a watch--not a coin--not a teaspoon!" he shouted. +"All gone--everything. But don't give up yet; seek and seek; +make very sure. Tear every stone from another; break every +stone in half. Dig up the floors; sound the nooks and crannies. +Let no shadow of doubt remain!" + +The men spoke under their breath to one another. + +"He'm going daft, or I am," said Putt. "The less we find, +the better he likes it!" + +"'Tis his troubles have turned his head," answered Beer. "I've +knowed it happen so. Look at him--all in a muck o' sweat like +a common man." + +Woodman, as he ripped up the floor, discovered a hole by +Lovey's stone altar. + +"See here, your honour; I be much feared something's been +took out of this place. 'Tis lined wi' stone an' the cover lies +beside it. But 'tis empty." + +Maurice Malherb smiled and approached eagerly. + +"Yes, yes; even here might she have hidden her treasure--not +a doubt of it--not a doubt. Say!" he continued to Bickford, +who stood nearest to him, "don't stand like a clown carved in +wood. Speak. Tell me--is it not clear something has been +lifted up from here and carried off?" + +"Clear enough," answered the man in a surly voice. "Us was +only wondering, begging your honour's pardon, why for you was +so mighty pleased to find your trouble wasted." + +"Then take yourself and your insolent wonder from Fox Tor +Farm to-morrow at daybreak!" cried Malherb. The old flash +was in his eyes, the old deep thunder in his voice. + +"Jimmery! he'm coming back to hisself!" murmured Putt. + +Then Malherb spoke again. + +"Wonder as you will. What are your thoughts to me? Work--work +on--all of you, and keep your wonder to yourselves." + +His daughter, like the rest, felt upon the brink of mystery, yet +doubted not but that her father would presently explain. She +was bitterly disappointed yet not surprised. + +At last Malherb flung down a pick and mopped his forehead. + +"'Tis done--to the last corner!" he cried. "And what have +we found?" + +"A dead dog, some old rotten boxes, some-candle-ends and +some crustes, your honour," said Mr. Beer. + +"So be it. I thank God--before you all I thank God! And +let each man remember this day!" + +He pulled off two heavy signet rings, the only adornments that +he wore, gave one to Beer and the other to Harvey Woodman. + +"Keep them for a sign of your fruitless labour. And you +men, come to me to-morrow: I've a guinea for each of you. +Remember, all, that I'm your best friend for evermore. I'll +never forget one of ye! You stare, you good, worthy clods--well, +stare and wonder. It is your part to do so. Know at least +that my heart is light." + +He turned, drew on his coat, then gave his daughter his arm. +He seemed to have shaken off a weight of years with his hard +work. His step was elastic, his head was thrown back. + +"I cannot say that I am sorry any more when I see your joy, +dear father. Yet, like the men, I wonder too. But I will not +ask you why you are glad to have lost your treasure, or I may get +answered as Bickford was." + +"The rascal had an impudent tone in his voice, though I'll +swear he meant no offence. But for you, indeed, do not ask, my +little maid. 'Tis enough that what looks evil news is not so. +This day, as the wrecked sailor, who, from his perilous spar +floating on ocean, sees suddenly a great ship at hand, and finds +salvation even in the grave of his hopes, even so am I. I--I +have been through dark waters--I have suffered to the very last +hiding-places of the heart. My life turned upon me and rent +me. My wrath roused up such a devil as I knew not man could +harbour. God hid His face and I was lost in the darkness. But +now--now my cup is full. He has spared me; He has lifted my +load. I must commune with Him. I cannot talk to mankind +until I have praised the name of the Lord. With David I could +dance before Him, because He has made my heart whole again +and lifted my head in my own sight." + +"Then will I bless God too, dear father. Indeed, your face +says more to me than your words. You are grown young. +There is even laughter in your eyes again." + +He held her hand and pressed it. + +"Money's not everything--how well I know that," she said. +"'Tis nothing--less than nothing--glorified mould--scum--a +dirty mantle on the deep water of life--the poisonous berries we +children clutch at. I hate it. I scorn it. The gilded moss in +that hole there--the moss that will grow black and die in the +glare of day--that is money. Let in light and we see it as it is." + +"You never cared for money." + +"And now less than before. A man might live in that den +we've just torn down, and live happy, too, if he'd escaped from +such dreams as have of late tormented me. This hour, with my +own hands, would I build up a hut of stone and shaggy heath and +dwell therein for ever rather than go back to yesterday. But +yesterday is past, and to-morrow I shall make holiday and hold a +revel that all must share if they still want my friendship." + +"You are your dear self again!" + +"What is myself? What am I? I have been a storm-cloud +drifting over men's heads to burst in unseasonable hail. Now +will I be a sun to shine upon men's hearts and warm 'em. Oh, +I have learnt wisdom in a dreadful book; but leave that. Talk +about her--the old woman--so tough and so terrible in her ways. +She's far enough off now--in France, I'll wager." + +"Indeed, she may be. I hope rather that poor John Lee is +safe. He haunted me to-day. It seemed so possible that he +might have chosen this place. Why, father, father! what has +happened? Forgive me; I should not have named him." + +She stopped, for Malherb suddenly stood still and stared up +into the sky. The gladness fell away from his face like sunlight +suddenly shadowed. He struck one fist thrice into his open +palm, then dropped his hands again. + +"Forgive me--I have hurt you cruelly," cried the girl. "I had +thought you quite pardoned John Lee." + +"Yes," he said gently; "I had pardoned him and I had forgot +him too. Poor fool of one thought that I am! He knew--he +knew this secret place and the wealth stored in it! 'Tis +possible--nay, certain--that he rifled all. Who would blame him? +'Twas he whom you saw from far off in the ruins." + +"Never! Had he found the amphora---- Is he not a +Malherb himself?" + +"Hold your peace," her father answered, in a voice grown harsh +again. "That man has all, and who shall blame him? He may +well hold it his dead father's portion. I, that thought I had +awakened, only dreamed. Things are as they were." + +"Oh, if I could understand! If I could help you in this +suffering that you hide from us!" + +"It is impossible. A dream, I say. Things are as they were." + +He turned to her and she heard his voice sink down into a +dreary lifeless monotone. + +"The ship has passed by; but no man has seen the struggling +wretch in the water or heard him shout." + +"Come home," she said. "This suffering will kill you. If +you would but let those who love you---- A great grief, though +nothing shared by three, may break the heart of one." + + +Next morning Putt and Bickford approached their master in +the farmyard and ventured to remind him of his promise. He +had forgotten it, and now turned upon them and cursed them for +a pair of greedy fools. + +"Guineas--guineas! What have you to do with them? +Madmen! If you only knew. There--take them, and get out of +my sight. You can grin still. Gather enough of that and you'll +grin no more!" + +He dashed down the money at their feet and turned his back +upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON CHRISTMAS DAY + +Mr. Norcot invited himself to Fox Tor Farm for +Christmas, but Maurice Malherb begged him to change +his mind. Peter's generous offer of a loan had not been +accepted; but he knew that Fox Tor Farm was now mortgaged +to meet Malherb's demands. + +Within the home circle a great difference of opinion obtained, +yet it was impossible to argue the matter out, because it referred +to Lovey Lee. Grace felt positive that the miser had returned +to her hiding-place; the master expressed an opinion equally +strong that John Lee had abstracted the fortune and hastened +with it for safety to the Continent. His reasons he would not +give; but that made no uncommon difficulty, for he was not used +to offer reasons. His daughter marvelled at his obstinacy, for +her heart well knew that John was incapable of such an act. He +understood the significance of the amphora, and would have +gloried to restore it at any personal risk. The matter slowly +ceased to be a subject of conversation, not that Malherb forbade it, +for he longed to discuss the possibility, and welcomed any shadow +of hope; but now rumours of peace had grown into a promise. +It seemed to Grace Malherb as though her ambitions for John +Lee and Cecil Stark were to be realised; because while peace +with America was soon to be declared, Bonaparte had left Elba, +and Europe awakened from her brief respite. + +Malherb sank into a settled but a gentle melancholy. Gloom +folded him like a garment; yet he was kindly and even +considerate to all. He ceased to hunt, a circumstance that brought +more tears to his wife's eyes than any other, for she appreciated +its full force. A thousand times he had dreaded the day when +his passion for sport could be gratified no more. She had heard +him desire to die before infirmity should keep him from riding to +hounds. Now he abandoned his delight without a murmur; at +a wrench he tore twenty years out of his book of life and +performed the operation with indifference. In secret he marvelled +at himself and at the tremendous operations of chance that could +thus alter the whole ingrained tenour and bent of his existence. + +Christmas came, and Grace with her mother rode to worship +at Holne. Harvey Woodman was responsible for Annabel's +safety, since she sat on a pillion behind him; while Grace rode +'Cæsar.' + +"Peace comes to us through every sense," said Mrs. Malherb +as they returned homeward. "It is in the air to feel, on men's +tongues to hear, in their eyes to see. 'Peace on earth,' too, I +pray. Peace everywhere, but----" + +She broke off with a sigh. To speak further was not possible +before Mr. Woodman. But now Harvey made a diversion. They +were at the top of Ter Hill, half a mile distant from home, when +his keen eyes caught sight of a small black object afar off on the +Moor. He watched a while, then spoke. + +"If there ban't that baggering sow as got out a week ago an' +master thought was stolen! 'Tis her for sartain." + +The wandering beast was a distinguished matron, and her loss +had caused annoyance. + +"How glad the master will be!" cried Mrs. Malherb. "Don't +lose sight of her on any account, Woodman. Indeed, you will +do well to follow her at once. I can easily walk home from here." + +She alighted, and Harvey galloped off to secure the pig. + +"Send Bickford or one of 'em after me!" he shouted back to +the ladies. + +The day was fine and the Moor dry and frozen, but Bickford +grumbled not a little at his duty, for the Christmas dinner only +waited to be eaten when Mrs. Malherb and her daughter returned. +The servants' hall was full of grateful savours; the peat blazed in +a pure, still heart of red-hot fire under a purple corona of flame; +the walls were decked with holly and fir; it was a scene painful +to leave. But the labourer soon returned, for he had not gone +far when he met Harvey riding homeward at a great pace. + +"Where's the pig to?" he asked. + +"'Twas no pig at all, but a message from Heaven," gasped +Mr. Woodman. + +"If I didn't know, I should say you was drunk," answered +Bickford; "but you wouldn't have dared get in liquor, having to +ride back with missis. Be you mazed or pixy-led in daylight?" + +"Mazed I be--to think--but five mile from our very doors--that +awful--my flesh be creaming to my bones with the sight, an' +my scalp's crawling down my back." + +"You've catched the small-pox, I reckon. I'd best walk to +windward of 'e." + +"I can say nought till I stand afore the company. Then I'll +properly terrify the whole pack of 'e." + +As they entered the servants' hall Maurice Malherb was already +standing over a great sirloin at one end of the table, while +Mr. Beer carved two turkeys at the other. Threads of holly berries +glittered against the shining green. There was a smell of gravy +and evergreens in the air, and bright sunshine poured through +the windows. On Christmas Day the family dined with their men +and women, for it was an old custom of the Malherbs to do so. + +Now appeared Harvey Woodman, and conscious that perhaps +the greatest moment of his life had come, he determined to make +the most of it. + +"For the love of charity a drop of brandy, souls!" he cried. +"Oh, your honour's goodness--such a shock as I've had--such +a thing! I failed away in my middle when I seed it an' nigh +dropped off the hoss." + +"Fegs!" said Bickford, "when I comed to un, the man looked +as if he'd been drawed through a brimble hedge backwards!" + +Mrs. Woodman rushed to her husband's side, and Malherb, +putting down the carvers, also approached. + +"Speak," he said. "What has happened? Are you ill?" + +"The pig, the pig, your honour. To the Beam her went--straight +as any Christian; an' me after her. Then, far beyond, in +they gashly bogs where the Jacky-twoads dance on moony summer +nights, I seed the horridest sight ever these eyes rested on. I +knowed there was a dead thing there very soon, an' thought 'twas +a pony. But when I comed nearer--there--let me have another +drink--my inward organs turn to vinegar when I think upon it." + +"Speak on," said Malherb. He stood before Mr. Woodman +with his eyes fixed upon him. + +"First I seed a great patch of rotted turf; for a dead body +decays the grass under it, your honour; then I seed a litter of +bones lying on the stones around about, where the crows an' +buzzards had carried 'em for cleaner picking; an' then--lor-amercy! a +human face-bone staring at me with hollow eyes an' +grinning like Death! I plucked up courage, however, an' got +off my hoss an' went up to the rames of the poor soul. An' next +thing I knowed was that I'd found out the secret of that old +mullygrubs, Lovey Lee! To hell the old vixen went; not to +France as was thoughted, for there was an awful crack in her +skull upon the brow. All rags an' bones she was; an' I seed her +old petticoat made of stolen sacks, an' her sun-bonnet, catched +in a thorn bush an' black wi' blood yet; an' the long white hair +of her shed round about in locks hither an' thither, like the +cotton grass that waves on the bogs. Let me drink, for the +picture of that unholy masterpiece do cleave to my brain like +moss to a rock." + +A great hum of excitement followed upon this news. Then +Malherb spoke. + +"Let us eat our dinner with what appetite we may," he said, in +a dull and hollow voice. "Forget what we have heard until +to-morrow. Then we will go with a sledge and a pair of oxen and +gather up her dust and coffin it." + +"Don't let the old varmint lie beside that American gentleman, +your honour's goodness," said Dinah Beer; "for 'twould be an +unseemly thing that such evil earth should rise, come Judgment, +so near his clay." + +Malherb stared round the table and spoke again in the heavy +accents of one who talks in sleep. + +"She shall lie at Widecombe in holy ground; and when we +bury her I will tell you something concerning her." + +They supposed that he spoke of Lovey Lee's rumoured +treasures. Then the meal began, but no joy accompanied it. +The men whispered, and Woodman repeated his story again and +again, adding some particulars with each recital. + +The banquet had turned into a funeral feast, whereat nobody +loved the dead. This tragedy, indeed, added a zest to their food; +they could not leave the subject, but returned to it between every +mouthful. Then, like thunder upon their whisperings and excited +speculations, burst the master's voice. + +"Have done, ghouls! Cease to speak of this matter any more. +Do you not remember that the house honours your board to-day? +Sweeten your speech, I pray you." + +Everybody lapsed into uneasy silence and soon afterwards +Malherb, his wife and daughter, rose and left the company. + +Then the voices broke loose and this rare business was turned +and twisted and tasted by many tongues. + + +That night Maurice Malherb told his wife the thing he had +done; and she thrust her meek disposition behind her and +derided the crime as nothing, even while her teeth chattered with +terror to hear him tell it. + +"We are the ministers of God," she said. "To you fell this +dreadful duty. It is well, because you had to do it. Forget +it--pray God to let you forget it. None else must know but your +wife." + +"The sin--the sin. You are blind to that, or pretend to be. +Heaven forces no man into sin. To say so is to deny free will. +I have ever been on the side of freedom." + +"She was doomed to die." + +"Her death was the hangman's work--not mine. Murder! +A Malherb a common murderer." + +"Sins are forgiven before they are committed. The Lord +was born and died to forgive this deed." + +"Vain comfort. What is forgiveness to me? 'Tis a bribe for +women and children. Can it make a reasonable man easy? +God may forgive me; can I forgive myself? There lies the +poison of evil-doing. This awful climax to my life of wrath has +brought about such a thing as---- The Everlasting cannot give +me yesterday, or bridle the sun and lead it back into the East. +The thing done--the thing done--what will banish that? It lies +frozen in Time for all eternity. God's own voice is vain to heal; +His own hand powerless to take this sword from my heart--the +sword I have planted there myself. The thing done. Yesterday! +yesterday! That's the prayer that such as I am pray, and know, +even while we pray, that it is in vain. She was a woman with +hidden good in her, because she was human and made in the +image of God; and when we put those ashes under the earth--I +shall tell all that stand beside the pit that 'twas I slew her." + +"You never shall!" she cried, leaping from her bed and striking +flint on steel. "I have not thwarted your life until this night. I +have yielded to every wish, trusted your wisdom in all things, +never rebelled even in unspoken thoughts--questioned nothing. +But upon this I'll speak, and struggle, and weary the air, and +weep till I madden you into sense. I've done your will for near +five-and-twenty years; and please God will do it for five-and-twenty +more; but to-night, I'm a maiden again--a maid of the +Carews; and you shall obey me, as you obeyed when you came +a-courting." + +"Hide that light and come to bed. You will be cold. I have +spoken. At least let there be peace between us." + +"There shall be no peace. You forget that you have a wife and +a daughter." + +"'Tis the part of sin to make us egoists--as all suffering does. +And 'tis the part of sin not to stop at the sinner. God grants that +interest on wickedness to the devil: that the ill deed done should +strike more than he who does it." + +But his wife poured out a flood of alternate entreaties and +commands; and he marvelled even in that hour that the helpmate +of many years had hidden so much from him. + +"There is a greatness of purpose in you that I had not +guessed," he said. "Maybe no man knows all of his wife until +he comes before her a master sinner as I do now. She smiles on +his fair hour, content to see him happy; but with storm---- It +is my glory in this agony to know---- And yet no woman was +ever born to lead me. To bury the dead without confession +would be to act a lie. She shall have her rights and her revenge." + +"We are not bound to trumpet our sins. And the rights of the +dead are in the hand of the Lord. If it is His will that you +suffer more than you have suffered, it will happen so. By making +this unhappy thing known, you throw all into disorder, and strew +many paths with difficult problems." + +"What then? Difficulty is the road that every man walks." + +Until dawn of day they spoke together; and then Maurice +Malherb fell asleep and his wife, fancying that she had conquered, +crept out of bed and knelt and thanked God for victory. + +Yet her husband's waking words shattered Annabel's hope. + +"I'm fixed and bate no jot of my intention," he said. "All +shall know the thing I have done. I clung to the shadow of +doubt like a coward. Now there is not even a shadow of doubt to +cling to. Come what may to me, I'll speak. And for you--you +who have shown what courage lies in you at a bad cause, now +let it be your part to support a good one." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BURNHAM AS LEADER + +For Cecil Stark a matter greater far than his own failure and +the treachery that had ruined the tunnel plot centred in +thoughts of John Lee and the price that he must pay. Much the +American suffered before news reached him in his solitary +confinement, through a friendly turnkey who knew Tom Putt. And +then the prisoner heard that Grace Malherb was safe at home, +and John Lee had either escaped or been drowned in attempting +to do so. + +As for the prisoners, like the sea after a storm, their passions +slowly stilled. Once only did they break into active rage, when, +upon the release of their leaders, David Leverett did not return, +and a soldier confessed that he had betrayed them for two +hundred pounds. Then the plot and its failure were dismissed +before rumours of peace. At first these woke and died again, +yet gradually a greater degree of truth characterised them, and +all men felt the music of freedom and of home playing at their +hearts. + +But in Prince Town was witnessed the spectacle of a worthy +gentleman struggling with a task somewhat beyond his strength. +As Commandant of a War Prison, wherein were nearly six thousand +souls, now grown turbulent and reckless at rumours of approaching +liberation, Captain Short found himself involved in countless +difficulties. + +After the discovery and defeat of their plot, the mass of prisoners +was removed and confined in Nos. 1 and 3; while, by way of +comprehensive punishment for their attempt, every man was +docked of one-third of his allowance for the space of ten days. +Grave friction resulted from this measure, and Short's officers +went in secret fear of a rising. To check the possibility of such +a disaster, he adopted stringent methods, and continual strife +between the turnkeys and prisoners was the result. Both sides +displayed passion, and many a sentry, for some disrespectful +word concerning Congress or the President of the United States, +had his head broken. + +With the severe mid-winter weather, increased sickness fell +upon the War Prison, and the most popular man at Prince Town +in these days was Doctor Magrath, a surgeon whose humanity, +energy and skill made him the personal friend of every sufferer. +He struck up an acquaintance with Cecil Stark, and, at the +doctor's advice, the young American henceforth eschewed prison +politics and threw all his weight upon the side of law, order and +patience. + +A partial exchange of prisoners had wakened general hopes, +but when it was found that nothing more in that sort would be +done, the Americans vented their annoyance by playing a +thousand pranks upon authority. On one occasion a man was +seen ostentatiously escaping out of a window by moonlight. When +challenged he refused to answer and continued to descend a rope. +The guard at Short's own order fired, rushed in as the figure fell +heavily to the earth, and found a dummy. Unfortunately, such +jests bred an evil temper, and once when certain soldiers +discovered a candle burning by night and ordered its extinction, +they fired a volley through the windows almost before it had +been possible to comply with their demand. By a miracle no +harm was done, but every prisoner knew next day how the watch +had fired upon sleeping men, and the soldiery justly suffered +under the lash of a thousand tongues. + +William Burnham it was who suspected that the outbursts of +severity probably marked British reverses at sea; and the thing +became a jest, so that whenever a hard word was spoken, or a +harsh punishment ordered, the Americans shouted together and +cheered their country's successes. + +Burnham, indeed, had come into distinction of late days. +Despite the advice of Stark and others, who now preached +patience and obedience while all waited for peace, Burnham, +ever jealous of his old messmate, and glad to find himself a +leader of men, stayed not to consider the manner of men he led, +but stood for a factious and unruly multitude, and promised to +support their fancied rights. Ira Anson joined this party also +and to him as much as Burnham belonged the discredit of various +ill-timed and vicious commotions. Their conduct maddened +Short, and finally they led him into tribulation and themselves +paid the penalty. + +With the end of the year came a persistent rumour that the +crew of the _Marblehead_ was about to be exchanged, but this +hoped-for circumstance did not happen, and William Burnham, +with his faction, grew more desperate and more unwise. +Unfortunately, they numbered secret friends among the soldiers and +non-commissioned officers at the Prison, for not a few of the +baser sort were disaffected against their own superiors, and at +least pretended sympathy with the Americans. On the other +side laboured many more sensible men, and while each heart +throbbed for the news so long withheld, law and order were +re-established, and the schools, arranged for the young and +ignorant, were opened again. For two years these institutions +had done valuable work; it was only after the failure of the +great plot to burrow out of the Prison that they became +neglected. + +There fell a memorable day at the year's end when news +reached Prince Town that the Commissioners at Ghent had +signed the Treaty of peace and that the sloop-of-war, _Favourite_, +would sail immediately with the document to the United States. +This occasion was seized for widespread rejoicings within the +Prison, and Captain Short felt as thankful at heart as any of his +charges. But while the day of thanksgiving drew to its close, +the tumult in the prisons drew deafening; great masses of men +stampeded from yard to yard; a mad spirit animated reckless +thousands; the air grew heavily charged with human passion; +and danger threatened in many shapes. + +Burnham's party had obtained a quantity of gunpowder unknown +to their guards, and with this they manufactured bombs +which exploded with reports like cannon. Alarming rumours +followed these discharges; some said efforts were being made +to blow down the walls; many junior officers approached +Commandant Short with fear upon their faces. + +At midday a pennant was seen to flutter out above each +division of the Prison, and on No. 3, styled "The Commodore," +a huge white flag broke and revealed a legend printed upon it. +"Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." A salute of seventeen bombs +accompanied this display and the riot became deafening. Far +distant upon the Moor many a traveller heard the sound, as of +remote thunders grumbling under the horizon, and hastened upon +his journey in dread of approaching tempest. + +At the Prison, as the flags flew out, and the multitudes roared, +Cecil Stark approached Burnham and prayed him to consider his +position. + +"You are doing a mad thing," he said. "You know as well as +I that while a spark of reason lurked in efforts to escape authority, +I was eager as any man. Ay, and beyond reason too, for, looking +back, I see that the tunnel plot was folly. But now, to what +purpose is this frantic nonsense? We shall be free men in three +months. Then why make vexatious friction and lend the weight +of your support to so much brainless folly?" + +Burnham had been drinking and he answered fiercely. + +"Cease your preaching! I calculate things are just about +cooked now; and they'll have to be eaten. We know you, at +any rate--ever ready to make trouble when you had no temptation +to do otherwise. But now--you're an Englishman in disguise!" + +"If you were not drunk, I'd thrash you before your bullies, for +that insult." + +"Threats--threats and big words. We know you, I say; we see +through you. A place-seeker, who tried to lead that he might +gratify his own cursed vanity. Now you are a pious prig and +teach in the school and say your prayers, I dare say! Much +good your leadership did--you with big patriotic words on your +lips and an English girl in your mean heart!" + +"Leave that, or I'll----" + +"Do it--do it! D'you think I fear you? I'm leader now--leader +of braver men than ever listened to you. Touch me, and a +hundred men will break every bone in your body! A Yankee--you! +I'll swear, if the truth was known, we should find you were +leagued with Judas Leverett himself. Take that pill and swallow +it, you canting humbug!" + +Stark fell back and stared at his old companion. + +"You!" he cried. "Bill Burnham to say that to me!" + +He was silent and the other repeated his charge. + +"I'll speak with you when you're sober then." + +"And what will you say?" began the younger; but Stark turned +from him; and at the same moment a peculiar whistle, used by +his gang as a signal, told Burnham that he was wanted. Captain +Short, with a bodyguard of armed troops, had appeared, and he +desired to speak with a representative of the prisoners. + +Burnham, with Ira Anson, stepped forward, and the rest of the +mischief-makers stood in a group and watched them. + +"Do you speak for these troublesome men?" asked the +Commandant. + +"I do," answered the young American. "I lead them all; +and I'll not answer for them if any attempt is made to oppress +them to-day." + +"At least their spokesman should not be drunk himself, whatever +his rag-tag and bob-tail are. You stand condemned, for you +know that liquor is forbidden." + +"The lad's not drunk," said Anson; "or, if he is, it is only at +the same tap as all of us: the news from Ghent." + +"I'll not argue it, sir. I'm only sorry you cannot receive the +news in a spirit more worthy. At least you'll oblige me by +striking that flag on Prison No. 3. It is an invitation to foolish +and ignorant sailors to mutiny, and I will not permit it to float +here while I'm in command." + +"The word 'Rights' is a red rag to your Government," said +Anson insolently. + +"Your rights at least have always been respected," answered +Short patiently. "I wish I could help you benighted fellows to +see reason and take juster views. Your conduct proceeds from +hatred of us and fear of us, instead of hatred of evil and fear of +God. But 'tis your nation that must answer for you. Believe +me, I shall be very well pleased to wash my hands of you." + +Stark approached at this moment, and Captain Short turned to +him. + +"You at least are intelligent; and you fought fair," said the +soldier. "Now I desire that yonder flag should be hauled down. +I ask politely; I sink authority and approach these foolish fellows +here as man to man. One is intoxicated; the other is, unfortunately, +not a gentleman. I desire that that offensive flag shall be +pulled down, and since we are in the atmosphere of peace, I will +hoist an American emblem at the Prison gate and let it wave +beside the Union Jack." + +"You are generous," declared Cecil Stark. "Nothing could +be fairer." + +"I say 'no,'" interposed Burnham doggedly. "My men will +have their flag; and if the motto stings--let it sting." + +"In that case I order all flags down," answered Short, his neck +flushing crimson. "Since you are such an intractable ass, you +must be driven. Let every shred of bunting be down ere the sun +sets, or it shall be brought down. If you court hard knocks, you +may expect them." + +He turned away in a rage, and Burnham whistled "Yankee +Doodle," while a few silly sailors who had overheard the conversation +cheered their representatives and hissed at Cecil Stark. But +later in the day Anson prevailed with his detachments, and at +sunset, rather than provoke an actual struggle, the flags came +down. To the end, however, they defied their guards. Captain +Short himself led three hundred men with fixed bayonets, and +Sergeant Bradridge, who was of the number, expected at last to +hear the sound of battle. But as the red winter sun sank behind +the Moor, every flag fluttered simultaneously to earth, and for +that time acute danger vanished with the daylight. + +Many sailors were now arriving from the British battleships. +These men, on hearing of peace, claimed the rights of American +citizenship, and refused longer to fight against their fellow-countrymen. +Those guilty of such tergiversation met but a frosty welcome +at Prince Town, and new strifes followed upon their arrival. +Among these shifty mariners were six from H.M.S. _Pelican_, who +had fought in the action between that vessel and the United +States brig _Argus_. The crew of the captured brig had been +imprisoned at Prince Town; and after the _Pelican's_ men arrived, +such was the bitter animosity displayed against them that they +found their lives in danger. To Captain Short these people +appealed for protection, and another grave collision occurred +between Burnham's party and the Commandant, when a detachment +of soldiers entered the War Prison and rescued the six by +force of arms. Then came two more defaulters from an English +ship, and as both had actually volunteered for British service from +Prince Town a year before, they were received back again with +universal execration. A court convened by Ira Anson sat upon +these poor wretches, and while some cried for their instant death, +others proposed a flogging. + +It was Mr. Knapps who hit upon an agreeable punishment to +meet their crime. + +"Take the doodles and brand 'em," he said. "They've got +the name of a British ship tattooed over their dirty hearts, for I +seed it there; now put U.S.T. on their faces, so as they'll be +known evermore for United States Traitors." + +The proposal was cheered and acted upon. To the hospital +the sufferers went after their punishment, and Doctor Macgrath +did what was possible to eradicate the damning letters; but they +had been bitten in too well. Captain Short took this matter +gravely, and the men responsible for the actual assault were thrust +into the cachots to stand their trial. + +Another incident to illustrate the growing rancour and bitterness +may be given. A prisoner--one of four unfortunates who +had suffered six months in a cachot--watched his opportunity +when at exercise, and escaped from his yard to the next. He +was immediately surrounded by his countrymen, and when Short +demanded him back, the Americans refused to give him up. +Thereupon the Commandant appeared with fixed bayonets and +directed all prisoners to retire into their respective quarters, that +a strict search might be made for the escaped man. Burnham, +however, defied this order in the name of his comrades. + +"This poor devil has suffered enough," he said. "His crime, +which was an alleged attempt to blow up a British schooner, was +never proved against him, and we will not restore him to renewed +tortures. I am master here, and we lack not for arms or skill to +use them. That you will learn to your cost, if you try force +against us. You forget that the war is ended now." + +Captain Short perceived that with his small company he would +have little chance against the threatening hordes arrayed against +him; therefore, without answering Burnham, he gave the order +to retire, and left the prison amid wild and derisive shouts and +cat-calls. + +But albeit defeated, the Commandant took a weak man's +revenge and shut up the Prison markets. Instantly Burnham +and his friends issued an order that no carpenter, mason nor +other mechanic should do any further work for the British +Government until the markets were re-opened. This 'strike' +caused such unexpected expense and inconvenience, that Captain +Short was constrained to yield again. The markets were set +going once more and the artificers promptly returned to their +labours. Thus the prisoners achieved their ends, and Burnham, +flushed with success, continued to take the side of lawlessness; +while Short, much embittered by his reverse and uneasily +conscious that his own officers were laughing at him, sank into +a brooding ferocity that darkened his face and boded ill for the +future. + +An interval of calm succeeded; and then fell out those tragic +events that closed the history of the Prince Town War Prison. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OUT OF NIGHT + +Mr. Peter Norcot dwelt in one of the comfortable +border farmhouses that lie among the foothills of Dartmoor +near Chagford. It was an old Elizabethan domicile, and +with it the wool-stapler owned a hundred acres of forest and +three farms. His property adjoined the estates of the Manor of +Godleigh; but he was not upon genial terms with the lord of the +manor, one Sir Simon Yeoland. The knight had old-fashioned +ideas on the subject of trade and looked down upon Peter; +while Mr. Norcot for his part, held his neighbour a mere machine +for slaughter of game and oppression of the common people--a +bundle of hereditary and predatory instincts handed down from +the dark ages. + +There came a night in early spring when Peter sat beside his +parlour fire, sipped his grog and read his Shakespeare. Gertrude +Norcot, a faded but still handsome woman of five-and-thirty, +kept him company until the clock chimed ten; then she stopped +her work, kissed her brother on the temple and retired. + +Mr. Norcot sat on until midnight; after which he put up a guard +before the dying fire and was just about to go to bed when the +flame burst out anew and he delayed and spread his hands to +warm them. His thoughts were busy of late, for he matured +the next attempt to win Grace Malherb. Still there was but one +woman in the world for him, and his purpose towards her +remained unshaken. But the task grew difficult indeed, for now +Maurice Malherb was to be counted upon the side of his +daughter. + +Alone, without need of any mask, Peter's countenance lacked +that geniality usually associated with it. To-night, in the +flickering fire-gleam, he looked as though his face was carved out of +yellow ivory. It revealed stern lines such as shall be seen in the +facial severity of the Red Man. + +Now, upon his grim and midnight cogitations, there fell +suddenly a sound. The noise of tapping reached him from the +window; but supposing it to be but an ivy spray escaped from +the mullion and blown against the casement by nightly winds, he +paid no heed. Then the sound increased and became sharper; +so Norcot knew that some wanderer stood outside and +summoned him. Without hesitation he threw open the shutter, +pulled up the blind and looked out, to see a man with his face +close against the glass. An aged but virile countenance with +brilliant eyes peered in. The man beckoned, and Peter nodded +and prepared to unfasten the window. The face was not +unfamiliar to him, and he puzzled to recollect the person of his +visitor, but failed to do so. + +"'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way +comes,'" said Mr. Norcot to himself as the stranger entered. + +"Give 'e good even. I'll speak with you if you'm alone," he +began, and immediately approached the light. + +"I know your face; yet I know it not. Who are you?" asked +Peter. + +The wanderer uttered a sound that might have indicated +amusement. + +"I've had a long journey and feared every moment to find my +feet in a man-trap." + +"That you need not have done upon my land. The gorge of +humanity rises at such damnable contrivances. The ruffian +Yeoland, lord of the manor, has both traps and spring-guns in +his coverts--he showed them to me himself, cold-blooded devil. +Yes, he exhibited them with such pride as a mother might +display her first-born! Engines of hell! But they answer their +purpose; he does not lose a bird now." + +"Since when was you so merciful? Your words is soft--your +eyes give 'em the lie." + +Then Norcot, recognising his visitor, leapt from his seat and +stared with real amazement. For once he was startled into an +oath. + +"Good God, it's Lovey Lee!" + +The miser grinned. + +"You was a long time finding out. Ess fay--poor old Lovey, +still in the land of the living." + +"But your bones were found and buried! There was a most +dramatic scene, I hear. Malherb--he cried out before them all +in the churchyard at Widecombe that he had slain you, that your +blood was upon his head. It's eating his heart out, they say." + +"Let it eat with poisoned teeth. No fault of his that I didn't +die. An' I've cussed heaven for two months because the law +haven't taken the man an' hanged him, as I meant it to. But +yet hanging's an easier death than what he's dying." + +"Alive!" said Norcot. "Alive--very much alive. And turned +into a man. 'Doubtless a staunch and solid piece of framework, +as any January could freeze together!' And where learnt you +the trick of rising from the dead? What devil taught you that, +you 'ceaseless labourer in the work of shame'?" + +"If you've only got hard words----" + +"Nay, nay; I love you; you are the Queen of the Moor!" + +"He left me for dead, and Lord knows how long I was dead. +He struck me down at dawn, and when I comed to my senses, +the moon was setting. I got back to my secret place somehow, +and found 'twas empty. So I seed that the Devil had helped him +to find his darter. Well for her he did!" + +Norcot nodded. + +"Not a doubt of it," he said. + +"Be you still of a mind about the wench?" + +He did not answer, but prepared to pour some spirits into a +glass for the old woman. Lovey, however, refused them. + +"Be you still of a mind? That's my question." + +"Maurice Malherb has changed his views. Your death has +done wonders and quite broke him. An ignoble type of man + + "'We call a nettle but a nettle + And the faults of fools but folly.' + +So Shakespeare dismisses Malherb. Now tell me about yourself; +then I'll answer your question." + +"Soon told. After I seed my den was found out, bad as I was, +with my skull near split and scarce able to crawl, I dragged my +goods away an' carried 'em--every stick--two mile off. For +I knowed they'd come next day an' tear the place down an' pull +all abroad, like a boy pulls out a bird's nest. I reckoned the +bloodhounds was arter me, too, and might finish me any minute; +but nought happened and I got clear off. Then 'twas that two +nights after, seeking for another hiding-place where I could be +safe, I comed across a corpse. Never was a stranger sight seen. +A man wi' only one hand an' his throat cut from ear to ear. His +eyes glared through the dim fog of death upon 'em, an' the foxes +had found him. I be wearing his clothes now. They'm very +comfortable, an' 'tis a wonder I never took to man's garments +afore, for they'm always to be had where there's scarecrows. +I needn't tell 'e the rest, for you've guessed it by your grinning. +I seed how 'twould fall out, an' so it did. My white rags +of hair I cut off an' left beside his bald poll, an' my clothes +I put about his clay. His knife I took, an' what's more, I got +two hundred and eight pound by him, for there was gold pieces +covered with his blood all round him. More there might have +been, but the cursed greedy bogs had swallowed 'em, though +I raked elbow deep for 'em. Then I smashed in the man's head +an' left winter an' the crows an' wild beasts to do the rest. My +locks be growing again now." + +She took off her close cap of rabbit's skin and revealed a tangle +of snow-white hair with evident satisfaction. + +"What next?" asked Peter. + +"That be all. I'm hid very snug just now, right up where the +river springs nigh the Grey Wethers on Sittaford Tor. Not a bee +gathers honey there; not a beast grazes that way. An' Jack Lee +be along wi' me; for us met by chance nigh Holne Wood in the +night, both hunting for food. 'Twas three days after he slipped +the sojers." + +"A scurvy trick he served me. I'd got her promise to marry +me if I saved him." + +"Well, I'll sell him to 'e if you wants to pay him out." + +"A grand-dam to be proud of! And now, my old treasure, +what do you come to me for?" + +"First I want you to change my money into paper an' buy my +snuff-boxes an' watches an' bits of plate. I be going to France." + +"Going to leave us! You mustn't. We couldn't get on without +you. Damme, I'm in love with you myself. There's something +about those clothes----" + +"Be you in love with that girl still? That's the question. If +so, us may do each other a service." + +"Yes, she marries me sooner or later. I never change. The +good wife of Bath's motto is my own: + + "'I followeth aye mine inclination + By vertue of my constellation." + +My star is steadfastness--the fixed pole is not more stable. I'm +going to marry Grace Malherb." + +"You'll ne'er get her by fair means." + +"In love all is fair. 'Tis strange, but your gaunt presence +actually shattered thoughts of her. Things have now come to +a crisis and I must use the remarkable brains that Heaven has +given me. 'Nor do men light a candle and put it under a +bushel.' I've tried to marry her and failed utterly to do so upon +simple and conventional lines. Now I must be serious with +myself. 'The Destinies find the way,' if we only let them have +their heads." + +He toyed with his watch-guard. The seals were fastened to a +piece of black silk. + +"She wore that once about her waist," he said. + + "Give me but what this ribband bound; + Take all the rest the sun goes round.'" + + +"I can help you." + +"It's so difficult to realise that you are alive. The countryside +has quite settled it. All men believe you to be in another world. +Malherb's announcement was taken with wonderful self-control. I +don't want to hurt your delicate feelings, Lovey, but not a soul +went into mourning. In fact, only one man in all Devon felt +your taking off, and that was Maurice Malherb." + +"You laugh at me. Well, here's a thing to make you laugh +again. I'll tell you how to get her without any more trouble." + +"I had thought perhaps to approach the parent birds once +more. But what's the use? Her mother counts for nought. +Her father has got his head full of his own miseries. 'Doubtful +ills plague us worst,' as Seneca so justly observes. While he +hesitated as to whether you were really extinct, he must have +gone through hot fires. Now he knows the worst and waits to +suffer for it; but, what's interesting, not a soul moves against +him." + +"That's where my plan comes in then. You lay a charge of +murder on him, an' the maid will marry you to shut your mouth." + +"Worthy of you, but foreign to my genius. Besides, though I +blush to say it, everybody sympathises with him. It is always +very painful to hear the estimate of our fellow-creatures upon us; +but people who die and come to life again must expect to learn +some particularly painful facts. There's an Eastern proverb +apposite to that, 'Nobody knows how good we are except +ourselves'! No; for my part, since have this girl I must and will, +I'm inclined now to take her by main force--to do something +feudal and old-fashioned. Until she comes under my roof and +finds all that she is losing, she will never get sense. And +then--stolen fruit! Consider the charm of it to an epicure like myself." + +"I'll do anything woman can do for money," answered Mrs. Lee. +"My grandson an' me bide in a ruined shepherd's cot +beyond Sittaford. Us have made it watertight; but 'tis plaguey +cold, an' I'm sick of it. Change my money an' add a bit to it, +an' I'll help 'e with that girl afore I go to France. I always +knowed 'twould be my lot to help you." + +"We ought to use your nephew. She would trust him." + +"Ess, she do. If you want her here, Jack Lee's the properest +tool to use. I can fox him with a word an' make him help us +without knowing what he's doing." + +"Of course--of course. I'll not insult you by planning +details. The thing is obvious." + +"Only one man knows where we be hidden, an' that's Leaman +Cloberry. He'll help 'e. He hates Malherb, 'cause he dusted +rat-catcher's mangy jacket for him long ago. 'Tis Cloberry keeps us +in food; an' a cruel lot of money he makes us pay for it." + +They conversed for the space of another hour; then Norcot +directed the old woman to return to him in three weeks from that +night, and let her out of the window. + +"An' you'll give me a clear hundred over what you change for +me, an' buy my trinkets?" she said. + +"All that." + +"An' help me to take ship at Dartmouth an' get out o' the +country?" + +"It is agreed." + +Lovey vanished and Peter watched her. The Malherb amphora +was for that moment uppermost in his mind, but he had +not mentioned it for fear of alarming her. His plot was +adumbrated and the details began to grow. He meant to marry Grace +after abducting her from her home; and he designed subsequently +to propitiate Malherb with the amphora. + +"'Twill be a little surprise for our old lady to lose it after all," +he thought. + + +Peter appeared at seven o'clock to take breakfast, as usual, and, +as Gertrude poured out coffee, he surprised his sister with an item +of intelligence. + +"I go to London to-morrow," he said. "It is a bore to travel +just now, but the East India Company must be obeyed." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LEOPARD CHANGES HER SPOTS + +John Lee had reached a supreme height of indifference to +fortune even before his capture, condemnation and sentence. +He awaited his end without concern, and only averted it at +the instance of Thomas Putt. Afterwards, for mingled reasons, +he carefully abstained from any intercourse with Fox Tor Farm. +And thus it happened that he knew nothing of the supposed +death and burial of his grandmother. The miser herself had +gloated over the success of her enterprise as related by +Mr. Cloberry, but Leaman was expressly directed by Lovey Lee to +keep the truth a secret; and this he did, being well paid for his +pains. Meantime the old woman's indignation grew that Maurice +Malherb was not arrested and hanged. + +"'Tis a blackguard beast of a world," she told Leaman +Cloberry. "One law for rich an' one for poor; but if there's any +justice left stirring in the land, us may live to see him dancing in +the air outside of Exeter Gaol yet." + +Now, after a period of most miserable seclusion in a shepherd's +ruined cot near the secret sources of Dart, John Lee was to find +himself again thrust into the affairs of Grace Malherb, and to +thank God that he had been spared to do her further service. + +It was not until Peter Norcot had returned from London, after +a visit of three weeks' duration, that Lovey Lee opened the new +project to her grandson, and then, indeed, she approached it in a +fashion so remarkable that one might have been stirred to +admiration. + +She returned late one night to their haunt, and plunged into a +startling narrative which quickly roused John Lee from sleep. + +"The wickedness of this world! Oh, Jack, if ever you go out +among men again, an' get safe off to America, as you hope, try an' +keep straight." + +He turned over in his bed of dry heath and stared while his +grandmother ate her supper. Only a streak of moonlight through +the roof lighted their forlorn hiding-place. + +"That's strange advice from your lips," he said. + +"I know I've been a bad old devil--nobody knows it better. +But whose fault? The world's, not mine. An' I'm white to +black compared to some of us." + +"That's very comforting for you, I'll wager. But he must be +a night-black colour that makes you look fair. Yet since you can +mourn, 'tis well. Give back the Malherb amphora and I'll say +you're the best woman in England." + +"All in good time. Have you thought what that bit of glass +has cost me? I can't change my god in a minute. For my god +it be. But I'm minded to alter my way of living--I swear +it--after what I've heard this night." + +"Have you met the Devil himself then?" + +"No--his right hand, Peter Norcot. I was just sitting by the +wayside, full of wonder how I could get out of this evil an' clear +the country, an' turn my fag end of life to good, when past he rode +'pon his great horse. ''Tis Lovey Lee!' he cries out, for his lynx +eyes remembered my face, even in moonlight. And the black +spleen of him! His first thought was you! He's hopeful to see +you hanged yet. 'Give him up an' I'll give 'e five hunderd +pound,' he said. But I ban't sunk so low as that, though by your +starting you seem to think so. I said I knowed nought about 'e. +'Leave that then,' says he. 'You can help me in another job, +and richly I'll reward you.' + +"Then he fell to telling 'bout Malherb an' his darter. He'm +set there still--the black patience of him! An' now his plan be +to kindiddle her away altogether. He's plotting to get her under +his own roof; and once there--oh Lord! even I--stone-hearted +as I've been till now--felt my inwards curdle to hear him an' see +the moonlight in his steel eyes! But I was so cunning as a viper +an' promised to help him if he'd help me." + +"What do you want of him?" + +"He'm going to change all my gold money into paper, an' he'm +going to buy my watches an' snuff-boxes an' teaspoons, as I can't +take with me. Then, that done, I've promised to help with the +maiden. She'm to meet him 'pon Saturday week, an' if she do, +home she'll never go no more till her name be Grace Norcot." + +"And you promised to help in that?" + +"I didn't dare refuse; but I'm going to play him false. I've +done with wickedness. These latter days have drove the fear of +God into me. I wouldn't help that tiger, not for another amphora; +an' I be going to prove it by taking the side of right." + +"She must be warned." + +"I know it; an' that's your work. Us can't go to Fox Tor +Farm; but you've got to see her by hook or by crook, else 'tis all +over with her." + +"I might write." + +"You must write. 'Tis the only way. An' since she taught 'e +to write, she'll know your penmanship an' trust it. My only fear +was you'd had about enough of the girl an' wouldn't care to do no +more for her. But so it lies: if she's to be saved, you must do it. +I'm too old and weak to do anything. Besides, I'm feared of +Norcot." + +"I must see her." + +"You can't--not at Fox Tor Farm. He've got his spies set as +though he'd made war upon the house. His plot be deeper than +the sea. Go near an' you'm a dead man, for there's money on +your head. Us can only trust Leaman Cloberry to take a letter +for a reward; an' since he'll be sure to read what you say, 'twill +be well in the letter to do no more than ax the maid to come an' +see you." + +"See me!" + +"Why not? She's free; you ban't. You can slip down to +Cloberry's cot at Dartmeet by night, an' she can come next day +an' see you there an' get her warning." + +Lee nodded. + +"A written word will bring her, an' Cloberry would get it to her +for money. That I'll pay. He's as fond of gold as I was afore I +began to get sense. I'll give Leaman ten pounds if he does what +you want." + +John Lee's simple heart was too concerned with Grace to reflect +upon his grandmother's attitude toward this business. Full of the +perils that lay in wait for her, and aware she was ignorant of them, +he thanked heaven that he was still alive and possessed power to +do her vital service. He did not weigh Lovey's words, but her +startling news; he did not question the probable veracity of her +present sentiments; but considered little more than her proposals +to assist him in a righteous cause. That he must now see Grace +was clear; and if, as had been declared, the plot against her only +wanted a week for its fulfilment, the event cried for instant action. +Since to approach Fox Tor Farm and pierce the cordon said to be +set around was doubtless impossible, John determined to follow +his grandmother's advice and write and bid Grace meet him at +Leaman Cloberry's cottage. To walk or ride thither was easy +for her and could rouse no suspicion. Then what he had to say +might be quickly said, though it could not safely be written. + +"I'll go after nightfall to-morrow," he declared. + +"And bid her come to see you on Friday, be it wet or fine," +answered Lovey; "for after that date she'll be free no more. Her +father's hardened his heart like Pharaoh. He'll see that she don't +trick him again." + +"Her father!" + +"So Norcot told me--grinning like a rain-shoot. They'm +both against her. 'Tis two to one; and 'twould be three to one +if I'd done what they wanted. But I couldn't. I'm weary of +wickedness." + +"After nightfall to-morrow, then," said the man. + +Lovey spoke no more, and they retired into their respective +corners of the hut; but when, two hours later, John Lee's steady +breathing told his grandmother that he was unconscious, she rose, +left him asleep, and crept away into the Moor. Southward she +went, and then, near the tor called Hartland, heard a voice out +of the night--a cracked and ancient voice, that sang of the +owner's business and repeated its refrain with the monotony of a +bird. + + "A ha'penny for a rook; + A penny for a jay; + A noble for a fox; + An' twelvepence for a gray!" + + +Soon Lovey found Leaman Cloberry, where he waited by +appointment in a cleft of the rocks, snugly clad as usual in the +raiment of dead beasts. + +"'Tis all so easy as cursing," she said. "He'll come to you +to-morrow--poor sheep--an' write the letter. You'll get it to +her through Tom Putt, who won't know what he's doing; an' +she'll go to him Friday. Then he'll pour his nonsense into her +ears; and as she passes home, along by Whispering Wood, you +an' me will be waiting for her. She'll jump for joy and fear no +evil when she sees me alive; for it means that her father's guiltless +of blood." + +"An' this here Mr. Norcot?" asked Cloberry. "A good +friend to me an' very generous in the past; but the money ought +to be big." + +"So it will be. We take the maiden by night up to where the +springs of Dart break out; an' then he comes along by chance +and rescues her from us. 'Tis all planned. He'll seem in a +grand rage, an' may even fetch you a blow or two; but they'm +light at fifty pounds. Then off he goes with her to Chagford, +and not a living soul that cares for her will know where she be +hidden till it pleases him to tell." + +"An' John Lee?" inquired the vermin-catcher. + +"Well--what of him? Who troubles about the cheese when +the mouse is catched? He'll know nought till he hears she has +been caught. And she'll always think that 'twas his treachery +laid the trap for her!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BURNING OF BLAZEY + +On the fourteenth day of March, 1815, came peace, borne +upon the white wings of the _Favourite_: for the President +of the United States had ratified the treaty. + +But, unhappily, the history of the War Prison on Dartmoor was +not yet written, and the last bloody chapter still remained to tell. +Ignorant of the complicated task set for authority, the bulk of +the Americans instantly clamoured to be free; nor could the +better instructed among them induce patience at this juncture. +Letters from Mr. Blazey cooled enthusiasm; but these were +written in a callous spirit, and impatience quickly rose to anger. +Nothing had as yet been prepared for exodus, and the Agent not +only gave no promise of immediate liberation, but explained that +certain precautions, highly offensive to many of the Americans, +must first be taken before a man left Dartmoor. + +"I am informed," he wrote, "that great numbers of you refuse +to be inoculated with the smallpox, which I hear has been very +mortal among you. I therefore acquaint you that it will be +impossible for me to send home any prisoners unless they have +gone through the same." + +Later he wrote again concerning American prisoners taken +under the French flag; and then, as no further communication +was received for many days, the sailors, like schoolboys on the +verge of holiday, began mischievous pranks, flouted their guards +and planned all the trouble that ingenuity could devise. Many +escaped, for discipline was relaxed. Then Captain Short, from +carelessness, proceeded to the other extreme, until even those +who desired to assist him in the maintenance of order despaired. +The prisoners were out of hand, and their Commandant knew it. +He blamed them, not himself, for his heart would not accuse him, +though a soldier's conscience sometimes whispered censure. + +One night a strange glare filled the courtyard of No. 4, and +lurid lights with inky shadows leapt and fell against the granite +walls. In the midst a great bonfire blazed, and round about it +thousands of wild figures ran, shouted and yelled. At the grilles +stood the officers of the prison, some fearful, some indifferent, +some enraged. + +Sergeant Bradridge, off duty, was watching this scene, and +beside him stood his nephew, Mr. Putt. + +"There'll be trouble yet," declared the sergeant gloomily, "for +they be bent on it. They're mad at the delay, and the party for +sense--Mr. Cecil Stark and a grey-head or two, and most of the +other gentlemen among 'em--count for nothing." + +As he spoke a procession of prisoners appeared, carrying a +hurdle on which was seated the semblance of a man. The figure +wore a plum-coloured coat, had a scratch wig, a three-cornered +hat and knee breeches. Its face was red, its nose was scarlet, its +great eyes coal-black. + +"'Tis meant for Agent Blazey," explained Putt's uncle. +"They've been playing the fool with that great doll all day. First +they tried it for bringing 'em to nakedness and starvation here; +then they found it guilty; then they made it confess all its sins, +which took a mighty long time; then they hanged it by the neck; +and now they'm going to burn it to ashes. So they'd treat the +real man if they could get at him. An' they'll break loose afore +long, so sure as my name's Bradridge, for the Devil's in 'em." + +With songs and a wild war dance the effigy of Reuben Blazey +was flung upon the flames; then, while it burned, the prisoners +roared "Yankee Doodle" together until the walls vibrated. + +Apart among them stood Burnham, and with him was Cecil +Stark. A sort of friendship still subsisted between them, for the +younger man had apologised after their last quarrel as soon as he +found himself sober again. Relations, however, were strained to +breaking, and to-night they broke for ever. + +Stark, indeed, had lost interest in everything but his own +affairs now. He might have left the prison at any moment by the +expedient of a bribe to the guard; but, as before, the interests of +the great plot had kept him, so now the welfare of the mass of +prisoners held him still among them. There was little he could +do, for he represented patience, which was an unpopular virtue +after peace had been declared; but he saw the futility of this +behaviour, and tried as far as possible to make his fellows +reasonable. A few begged him to remain to the end, and, knowing +from letters pretty regularly received through Putt, that all was +well with Grace, he waited on. + +His future line of action was difficult, but he had determined +upon it. Grace gave him to understand that Norcot troubled +her no more, and that her father, stricken by a terrible grief, was +changed and took a gentler view of life's many-sided problems. +Therefore, he proposed to return to Fox Tor Farm and attempt +a reconciliation between himself and the Malherbs. Great +personal circumstances armed him with strong arguments from a +worldly point of view, for his uncle in Vermont was dead, and he +now stood heir to a notable fortune. + +"I wish to God 'twas the living man that roasted there!" cried +Burnham, pointing to the bonfire. "Of all devilish things in this +war, our treatment after peace is declared has been the most +devilish. 'Tis two weeks since we should have been set free, yet +here we still are." + +"But they are active. Three ships have set sail from London +for Plymouth." + +"D'you believe that yarn? Ask the soldiers and they'll tell +you the ships are held in the Downs by contrary winds; then +they turn aside and wink at each other." + +"You take the conduct of these hirelings too seriously. It is +folly to let the vulgarity of turnkeys and guards anger you, or to +answer the indifference of the authorities with this buffoonery." + +He pointed to the bonfire. + +"You're a prig," said the other. "You can't help it, but an +infernal prig are you, Cecil Stark; and now every word you speak +shows that you've changed sides and are only an American in +name." + +"Bad company has demoralised a good fellow," answered the +other. "You want the discipline of a ship-of-war and a whiff of +salt air to make you your own man again, Burnham. You pretend +it is a fine thing to lead these ignorant, silly fellows; but in your +heart you are ashamed, and that makes you break with an old +friend. 'Tis the same with Captain Short. He's been weak in +the past, and the weakest thing about him is that now he's looking +for gratitude for his former good nature. Gratitude's the rare +virtue of individuals--never of a mob." + +"You prose and prose and blink at facts, like an owl blinks at +daylight. Why don't you escape and get out of it?" + +"Because I reckon I'm more use here." + +"I know better; you're frightened to do it. If you had the +pluck of a powder-monkey, and if your love for that girl over there +was worth a damn, you'd have vanished long ago; but you know +this cursed Government is letting us escape now, so that we may +fall into the hands of the press-gangs that are hunting all round +Dartmoor like packs of wolves--you know that, and you're +frightened they'll catch you too. Nothing makes a man such a +coward as coming into a fortune." + +"See him--see him!" shouted Mr. Cuffee, who ran by at this +moment. "See him fizzle, gemmen! Marse Blazey blaze--him +blaze--him blaze like dat in hell!" + +He rushed screaming past with the other black men, whose +rags, gleaming teeth and ferocious faces, suggested the demon +throng proper to Mr. Blazey's future environment. + +"You will pick a quarrel, drunk or sober," said Stark, "though +of late you've sunk to be not worth kicking. As you like--but +even at the risk of more nonsense from you, I'd wish to explain +that I'm no Englishman, though it happens I'm not mad. +Consider how this nation stands. Hardly has it concluded peace +with us than comes the news that Bonaparte has left Elba, and is +now in Europe at the head of three hundred thousand men." + +"Don't I know it? Doesn't every cur among them turn pale +and look over his shoulder like a frightened woman when you cry +'Boney is coming'?" + +"They are busy and rather preoccupied. I had speech with +Short yesterday." + +"What do I care with whom you had speech? I'm here for +nearly six thousand free men, who are shut up and still treated as +prisoners. Let them see to that. We want our liberty, and we'll +take it before many days are done. What do you suppose we are +made of?" + +"The Lord knows," said Stark. "You are men no more, but +a horde of savage and silly monkeys. How can they get ships +to convey six thousand of us to America in a week? You, at +least, who pretend to some knowledge of warfare and seamanship, +should have patience and do your small part to help the British +Government, not hinder it." + +"I'm not an Englishman." + +"I wish you were. Unfortunately the fact remains that you're +an American; but your country's not likely to be proud of you if +ever this chapter in your career is written." + +At this moment, as the ashes of Blazey sank into one glowing +mass, and the bonfire slowly died, the Americans burst into a +mournful dirge that had been written by Ira Anson the day +before, and committed to memory by a hundred men. + +Stark left his old shipmate, not guessing that he would never +speak to him again; but he had caught sight of Putt with some +soldiers near the grille, and now he approached. They strolled +on different sides of the barrier into a dark corner under shadow +of a cachot wall. Then Putt spoke. + +"A letter, your honour, an' I think 'tis important, for Miss +sent it by one of our women with urgent orders to get it to you +before to-morrow." + +"Wait here," answered the other, and, taking the note, he +returned within the light of the waning fire and read it. + +"Dear heart," wrote Grace. "Yesterday through a villager I +had a line from John Lee. He is near us, and I fear that he has +heard of evil. He sends but two lines: 'Meet me after noon +to-morrow at Leaman Cloberry's cot, where I shall lie hid till +you come. I must see you. Danger. John Lee.' I am going. +It is his writing, therefore I fear nothing. When are you coming +to me? The time of waiting is endless to your Grace." + +Stark reflected rapidly. That Lee should not approach him +was easily understood; yet that some new danger threatened and +John had wind of it, filled him with alarm. He returned to +Putt, but made no mention of the letter, for Thomas was in +ignorance of all matters between Grace and the prisoner. He +glorified in his secret duties as messenger, and in the substantial +payment they received; but of John Lee he knew nothing, and +Stark, guessing at Lee's personal dangers, did not increase them +by whispering of his presence, even to his most faithful friend. +He wrote a few words on a leaf from his pocket-book. "My +life, trust him, of course; and write to me to-morrow what he +tells you. Within a week, if all be well, I may reach Fox Tor +Farm; but, if necessary, I can be there to-morrow. C." + +"I be going to take supper with the soldiers an' my uncle," +said Mr. Putt; "but I'll see Miss Grace gets this first thing +in the morning. Mrs. Beer will hand it to her at daylight." + +The fire was nearly out now, and the great courts deserted. +Soon lights streamed from the windows of the prison; then they +too disappeared. Silence fell at last. Under night, in their long +rows of hammocks, men slept, or tossed and swore; while beneath +the stars, the sentries stood like ghosts upon the walls, or tramped +backwards and forwards within them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +DEATH AT THE GATE + +Fate, ordering that the War Prison should be for ever +remembered in the annals of Prince Town, now crowned +all horrors of the past with a supreme catastrophe before those +gloomy haunts of sorrow were deserted and echo reigned alone +in their courts and corridors. An accident fostered the turbulent +spirit that still animated these great companies, and daily infected +the minds of new subjects, even as smallpox gained power over +their bodies. Mr. Blazey thought it best to take no notice of the +insult to which he had been subjected, and soon after the event +wrote to his fellow-citizens in an amicable spirit. He explained +that to grant passports must not be expected save by those +who had friends and connections in England. For the rest, he +assured the prisoners that all possible despatch marked the +preparation of the cartel ships. "You are much wanted in the +United States," he wrote, "and the encouragement for seamen +there is very great." + +The message soothed not a few impatient hearts, and many +of the wiser sailors used it to good purpose in allaying the +prevalent bitterness and disorder. But close upon it fell out an +unfortunate occurrence for which the prison contractors were +responsible. During a whole day the prisoners remained short +of bread, and they were called upon to subsist as best they +might on four and a half ounces of beef to each man. Captain +Short was away at the critical moment upon business in Plymouth, +and his subordinates refused to oblige the hungry hordes. A +pound and a half of soft bread by right belonged to every +prisoner, but the contractor's clerk lost his presence of mind and +refused to serve rations of any sort until the return of the +Commandant. + +This accident was enough for William Burnham's hot-headed +faction. A bread riot became imminent, and the prisoners +threatened to force the prisons and break open the store-house. +Panic and terror swept through Prince Town; chaos fell upon +the gaol, and from all the surrounding neighbourhood the women +and children fled into the villages, for it was reported that the +prisoners were about to break loose and pour, like an angry sea, +over the countryside. Many, indeed, escaped before Captain +Short returned with a reinforcement of two hundred soldiers +from Plymouth; but in the meanwhile fresh supplies of bread +had reached the prison, and the bulk of the Americans, having +no desire to brave the unknown while liberty promised to be but +a thing of days, remained quiet and orderly. Their numbers +acted as a weight to render the more daring inert; the disturbance +passed and the Commandant expressed a frank and courteous +regret for the occasion of the trouble. + +Yet alarm did not subside so quickly without the prison walls. +Rumours daily gained ground that the Americans contemplated a +desperate deed, and Captain Short began to credit these reports. +His suspicions and the folly of those in his charge precipitated a +conflict, and the innocent suffered for the guilty. + +Upon the 6th day of April, towards a peaceful Spring twilight, +a large body of men, under Burnham's leadership, collected by +twos and threes in one place. The numbers increased, and began +ominously to swarm round about a great gate that led from the +exercise yards to the marketplace. Ordered by the turnkeys to +disperse, they refused; implored by some of their friends to +avoid risk of suspicion, Burnham himself bade these +peace-seekers go their way or join the party for freedom. + +A subaltern, hearing the words, hastened to Captain Short. + +"There's trouble brewing, sir. They're swarming like bees at +No. 1 gate from the yard, and it's only secured against 'em with a +chain. There's a breach, too, in the prison wall of No. 6. The +guards are frightened, and the turnkeys won't face the prisoners. +I fear that they only wait for darkness." + +He came in an evil hour, because the Commandant had already +heard warnings of like character from one or two of the Americans +themselves. For their information they had received their +liberty. + +Short started up. + +"The dogs! Will nothing satisfy 'em? Must it come to +bayonets? Then, by God, it shall! I've done all living man +can do to tame these chattering hyaenas. I've endured enough +to make me stand self-condemned for a poltroon. More I'll +not endure. They are not to be tamed by kindness. The whip, +then!" + +He raged and ordered that the alarm bells should be rung +immediately. + +A brazen clangour echoed and re-echoed through Prince Town; +the walls of the prison flung it to the mountain-tops, and the great +tors resounded it, until, sunk to a mellow murmur, the bells were +heard afar off. Upon their clash followed the rattle and hubbub +of drums, for a tattoo broke out and beat the guard to quarters. +No more unfortunate act could have marked the moment. Thousands +of prisoners, just then turning in to their evening meal, +rushed back to the yards, and the group at the gate became a +centre of theatrical attraction. Upon one side of them advanced +the Commandant, his officers and the bulk of the garrison; on +the other their inquisitive and excited compatriots began to +crowd. The mass was augmented from the rear until it became +a moving force, impelled forward and powerless to take action +against itself. Thus, when bayonets were lowered, the unfortunate +van of this great movement found itself pushed remorselessly +upon them. + +Captain Short, taking sole command at the fatal moment, when +his own self-command had vanished, drew up his force in position +to charge. Simultaneously a crash above the hubbub told that +the great chain at the gate was broken, and a hundred voices +were lifted to cheer Mr. Knapps, whose powerful arm, wielding a +sledge, had done the deed. Until now it is certain that any +design of escaping had but actuated a handful of the prisoners. +No concerted enterprise existed among them; but as the barrier +fell and the gate yawned open, others, seeing the opportunity, +crowded among Burnham's faction, and prepared to break out +under the eyes of their guardians. Captain Short understood +nothing more than what he saw, and the immediate danger +cooled his passion. But his hatred of this many-headed monster +was not cooled. Cries resounded, and behind the breaking gates +the civil guards were flying. Yet to the Commandant's credit it +may be recorded that he addressed the prisoners and called upon +them to yield and fall back. Only yells and laughter greeted +him; while at the portals themselves an energetic handful were +already forcing the great gates off their hinges. + +Thereon the Commandant ordered fifteen file of the guard to +this barrier, and with lowered bayonets the men advanced. +Many fell back; many were driven on with curses and sharp +wounds; but the inert mass behind yielded slowly, while the +phalanx in front refused to yield. They kept their ground and +held the gate. They insulted the soldiers, and even dared Short +to fire upon them. + +The first use of that awful word was in Burnham's mouth. +"We are free men!" he shouted; "and you have no jurisdiction +upon us, and no right to lift these bars between us and +liberty. You might as soon dare to fire upon us as order us to +bide here. This night we take our liberty, since you abuse your +trust and deny it to us in a country that is at peace with ours." + +The mass who heard yelled and pressed forward; those who +heard not answered the yell, and guessing nothing of the bayonets +in front, fought to get there. + +Short answered Burnham. + +"Before God, they shall fire if----" + +But his troops, now maddened with anger, and sore buffeted +by the foremost of the prisoners, heard the word "fire," and +waited for no context. + +A crash and a vibrating roar followed, and Short's sentence was +never spoken. Into the waning light flashed the muskets, and +with the billowy smoke there rolled aloft a shriek of fear and of +agony where souls parted from life. + +William Burnham fell shot through the head, and several +perished with him. About fifty men were wounded, and the great +yard ran blood. Many of the soldiers had fired reluctantly and +discharged their weapons over the heads of the prisoners; but +the cry of "Blank cartridge!" lifted in the rear had no power to +stay the awful panic that followed. A bellow went up from +thousands of throats, and the masses of men fell back and +poured like rivers into the gaols. It was then that certain knaves +among the soldiery, themselves secure on the wall of the prison, +opened a cross fire and slew not a few innocent men as they fled +to safety. None was brought to justice for this damnable deed, +because not one criminal could be discovered when the +catastrophe was investigated. + +Chaos indescribable ruled that hour. Short toiled like a +madman to stay the mischief. He stood before his own men and +yelled himself hoarse with execration and command. But the +soldiers were out of hand. They had suffered much, and in +their base minds the hour of vengeance was come. + +At length non-commissioned officers succeeded where their +superiors had failed. Sergeant Bradridge and others drew off +the garrison, and Doctor Macgrath, with his orderlies and many +recruits, hastened to the dead and dying. Not a few had already +perished; others were mortally wounded. + +Recognising Cecil Stark, the doctor approached where he knelt +beside his old messmate; but a glance sufficed. + +"That man is dead," he said, and hastened on to tend the +living. + +Those few of this vast host with whom we have been concerned +had all gathered here. Knapps was down with a ball in his leg +and a bayonet wound in the arm. Mr. Cuffee, uninjured, howled +with sorrow beside one Haywood, a black from Virginia, who +had perished. The air stank with the smells of blood and smoke. +Voices and cries rang in it; deep groans, like the bass of an +organ, persisted beneath the high-pitched cries. As the doctors +turned or moved a sufferer, some, restored to consciousness, +shrieked till the walls rang out their exquisite grief; others sighed +and died under the gentle hands now stretching out to succour +them. Captain Short had withdrawn his men, and nearly all the +Americans were finally driven back to their respective prisons +and locked in; but the Commandant and his officers laboured +among the wounded and toiled on under torchlight until the last +fallen sufferer had been moved to the hospital or dead-house. +Seven ultimately deceased, and of those who recovered many lost +a limb. The Americans first responsible for the catastrophe +nearly all suffered. They were standing beside Burnham and +received a point-blank fire. + +After the prisoners had been removed, Cecil Stark, who worked +with the English to aid them, prepared to return to his quarters +when he found himself accosted by a man with a swarthy face +and a black beard. Many Hebrew merchants from the surrounding +towns swarmed about the prison with garments to sell to the +prisoners at this season, and Stark, supposing the man to be a +Jew who had entered with hundreds of others after the catastrophe, +was turning from him, when the stranger spoke. + +"A moment," he said. "'Tis a terrible hour in which I'm +come; but this ill wind will blow you good luck and perchance +one who's more to you than yourself." + +"John Lee!" + +"Ay!--I've come, for there was none else that I dared to +send. Evil has fallen out to Grace Malherb. This time there +must be nothing to keep you from her, or else the worst will +happen. Even as it is you may be too late." + +"She sent your letter and I told her to fall in with any plan or +warning that you might have for her." + +"Take this," said Lee, producing a handful of something dark. +"'Tis a beard made of sheep's wool. Wondering as I came how +I should hide my face, I saw a black sheep. For once 'twas not +a sign of ill-luck, but good. I cornered her, threw her, and cut +from her back enough wool for the purpose. I browned my face +by rubbing peat upon it. Now I am a Jew. Don this quickly +and follow the crowd that is now being thrust outside the walls. +The rest you shall know as we go on our way." + +Stark adjusted the crisp wool about his chin, drew his hat over +his eyes, fetched the cloak about him, and passed unchallenged +out beside John Lee. It seemed the most natural and simple +matter thus to depart. The long months of suffering, the +privations, plots, excitements and disappointments did not return to +his mind for many a day. Henceforth, one solitary thought +informed him, and he hastened straightway forward into a trap +more cunning than any made with granite. + +Lee explained what had happened as far as he knew it. + +"To me she came two days ago in answer to my urgent +message. I had heard that Norcot meant to get her into his +personal power at any cost, for he told my grandmother that he +would do so. Weary of evil, or pretending so, the old woman +confessed to me, and I explained to Grace Malherb the threatened +danger. She promised that she would not stir abroad again, and +assured me that her father knew nothing. She could hardly stop +for joy when she heard that Lovey Lee was alive; for it seems +that Mr. Malherb, who struck her down upon Cater's Beam, +believed that he had slain her." + +"But of Miss Malherb?" + +"She left me and has not since been seen. This I have heard +to-day, for as my grandmother did not return, I grew fearful and +last night got to Fox Tor Farm. It was easy to lie in wait until I +could speak with Putt, for once more the place is disturbed and +they seek high and low for Miss Grace." + +"You saved her from Norcot then, and some other ill has +overtaken her?" + +"I do not know. It may be that in ignorance I only worked +for Norcot. I cannot question my grandmother, since she is still +absent from our hiding-place. Therefore, there was no course but +to come to you." + +"Norcot may have used you after all through your grandmother?" + +"I can only fear it." + +"Then to him! I will not sleep until I have met that man." + +"We are going there now. To-night you shall lie hid close to +Chagford, and to-morrow night--not sooner--you can tackle him. +I've been to Chagford, but I dared not go to him myself until I +had been to you, for his answer would be to arrest me. You've +got to show your quality now. If my grandmother is guilty of +this, you'll find the cleverest man and the wickedest woman on +Dartmoor against you." + +Stark did not answer. His thoughts wandered backwards as it +seemed. + +"Seven there were, and now--Miller, Burnham, Carberry--all +dead. And Leverett in the hand of God, if still he lives. And +Jim Knapps badly wounded. That leaves but poor Cuffee and +me." + +"To-night you'd better lie in my den. If my grandmother has +returned to it, you can tackle her; but indeed I fear you'll see her +no more. Norcot was to turn her gold and trinkets into paper +money. Then she meant to go to France." + +"Why wait till to-morrow? Why not to-night?" + +"I cannot get there, Mr. Stark. I've walked forty miles and +more to-day. Five yet lie before us, and that will settle me. +Food's been scarce, too, of late. I'm not in good fighting trim, I +fear." + +Stark seized his hand. + +"By God! you've done your share! But your troubles are +near over. You come with me to Vermont, or I'll not go. I've +sworn to myself that you come. I don't leave this country +without you." + +"You are very generous and good." + +They tramped over the night-hidden land in silence. Twice +Lee had to stop and rest awhile. Then he walked forward. +Before midnight they reached the ruined cot under Sittaford Tor. +Plenty of food was hidden there, and both ate heartily, drank +from a rivulet at hand, and then slept side by side. + +The place was empty, for Lovey Lee had not returned to it; +but before dawn the old woman, like an aged tigress, came slinking +back. Upon entering the cot and striking a light, she saw not +only her grandson, but the pale upturned face of Cecil Stark. + +Neither moved in their profound slumber; but the woman +instantly extinguished her taper, and crept out of doors again. + +"It's a hell of a tramp to take twice in one night," she thought. +"Yet 'tis good for another clear hundred, and Norcot shan't hear +it for less." + +Then she set her old bones creaking again upon the way to +Chagford. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BEARDING THE LION + +To Maurice Malherb it seemed that he was living his life over +again. Upon the second disappearance of his daughter, the +old turmoil recurred; but less fury marked his manners and more +method. Grace had gone for a long tramp over the Moor, and +had never returned home. She set out after her mid-day meal +and was no more seen. Neither had any man nor woman heard +of her. Tom Putt, indeed, remembered the letter that he had +conveyed to her through Mr. Cloberry; but he also knew this +missive came from John Lee. Therefore he felt no alarm, but +doubted not that John was working with Cecil Stark, and that +Grace was safe. + +When the catastrophe at Prince Town became known and it +transpired that not a few besides Stark were reported missing, the +Americans declared their compatriots were fallen in the struggle +and had been hastily buried by night, that the numbers of the +slain might not challenge too much attention; but the history of +the time may be relied upon in this matter, and it is safe to +assume that those unaccounted for upon that unhappy night +escaped in the subsequent confusion, even as Cecil Stark had +done. + +So, at least, concluded Maurice Malherb; and, awake to the +significance of the incident in connection with his daughter's +disappearance, he was first minded to yield and let her have her +way; but then he came back to himself, and fury awoke him, and +he sought Peter Norcot, that the wool-stapler might assist him to +recover his daughter. + +Malherb rode over the Moor to Chagford upon the morning +after the tragedy at Prince Town; and on his way he reflected +concerning his own peculiar position. + +It was now generally known that in a fit of rage he had slain +an ancient woman upon Cater's Beam. But since the attributes +of Lovey Lee and her history came also to be apprehended; so +soon as it was understood that Lovey had plotted with the +American prisoners and herself was hiding from a rope when +Malherb destroyed her, no further concern in the matter touched +men's minds. The times were troublous; there was much to +think of; none made it his business to take action, and Malherb's +only punishment lay within his own heart and brain. + +His personal grief did not lessen; his wife alone knew of the +tortures that he still suffered. His physical health began to +break under the strain, for the man's old zest in food departed; +his zest in sport was dead; and his zest in life and the work of +life had wholly vanished. Remorse ate him alive. + +To Chagford he came, and Gertrude Norcot, who had not seen +him for many days, started to find the master of Fox Tor Farm +much changed. His demeanour had altered; his carriage had +grown humble; his head had sunk forward under the blows of +time. Native pugnacity had given place to melancholy; even +the incisive and stern methods of his speech were merged into +a hollow and phlegmatic indifference, as of one careless of +affairs. + +Yet to-day he was sufficiently himself to be eager, and even +passionate, as he recounted events. + +"Peter has heard all," said Miss Norcot. "He has not been +idle. Indeed, for three days he has lived in the saddle. +Certainly we have seen very little indeed of him here." + +"Your daughter must have a strange disposition," said a weak +voice; and, turning round, Malherb saw a little clergyman, who +held out his hand. He was flat-faced, meek and humble. + +"Our kinsman, Mr. Relton Norcot," said the lady. "Peter +had occasion to go to London recently, and on his way back +through Exeter he picked up Relton. My cousin stands in need +of rest, for he works too hard." + +"It is the duty of man to toil," said the minister. "What is +life without work? A formless void." + +"And where is Peter now?" inquired Malherb. + +"Heaven knows," answered Gertrude. "He may return to +dinner, or he may not do so. Will you stay with us for the +night?" + +"No, no; I must home to my wife. I am sorry to miss him. +Let him know that Cecil Stark has escaped from the War Prison. +This will quicken his wits as it has quickened mine. I have +watchers set round about Holne. And also at Dartmouth. And +yet there is that in me which begets a great indifference now. It +is vain to fight the young, for Time is on their side." + +"You must be brave, dear Mr. Malherb." + +Miss Norcot put a light hand upon his arm. + +"You can touch me," he said, "knowing what you know?" + +"Indeed, yes. You have atoned." + +He shook his head, and the clergyman spoke. + +"Who shall fling the first stone, my dear sir? Who shall hale +you before your outraged country?" + +Malherb stared at him, as a man who sees an unpleasant +insect suddenly where before there was none. Then his +expression changed. + +"You say well. Who shall? There is but one man. His +duty it is, and he hangs back." + +Miss Norcot was much interested. + +"You mean her grandson? But he cannot, dear Mr. Malherb, +for he, too, stands in danger of the law. He ought to have +been hung long ago." + +"I mean Maurice Malherb," he said, speaking to himself +rather than to her. "Farewell. Tell Peter that I have been +here. If he learns anything of comfort, let him hasten to us at +Fox Tor Farm." + +"Be of good cheer," said the clergyman; but Malherb did not +answer. He departed and left them whispering together. + +Hardly had his horse gone out of the courtyard when Peter +appeared. He had been above, in his bedchamber. + +"You have made your sister say the thing which was not, my +dear Peter," said the clergyman mournfully. + +"Pardon me," she answered. "I did nothing of the sort. +He asked where my brother was, and I said that Heaven knew. +That was not to say I did not know." + +They fell to talking, and Maurice Malherb went slowly towards +Chagford. For a moment he stopped at Norcot's place of business +beside Teign river, and asked if Peter was there; but a +doorkeeper shook his head, and the master went on his way to +the "Three Crowns," that he might bait his horse before +returning home. + +And as he passed the great manufactory, Maurice Malherb +had been within twenty yards of his daughter; for there she was +hidden; there, where hundreds of busy men and women circled +round about her and the roar of water-wheels and the hum of +looms made grand music of industry from dawn till eve, Grace +Malherb was securely shut up in Norcot's private rooms. Two +apartments had been prepared for her, and Peter's sister visited +the girl every night after dark. The full extent of her brother's +purpose Gertrude only suspected when he returned from London +and brought the Rev. Relton Norcot along with him; but how +Peter proposed to compass the marriage his sister had not yet +comprehended. Her sympathies were with him, however, and +she was true and trustworthy. She guessed which way things +were tending. She understood now that Peter's sole reason for +going to London was that he might procure a Special License of +marriage; and she knew that he had got it. Gertrude doubted +not that days--perhaps hours--would bring the sequel; and +nightly she exhausted her powers of persuasion upon Grace from +eleven o'clock until one, in the silent factory; but as yet the +captive showed no signs of being tamed. Norcot had also striven with +her, and now she was a chained fury, so that Peter told his sister +frankly that he went in fear of his eyes. Even his equanimity had +given out, and he was casting round to know by what channel the +ceremony might be celebrated as quickly as possible. But no +course of action appeared until the night before Malherb's visit. +Then Lovey Lee had brought her news out of the cottage on +Sittaford's side, and, from that moment, Peter began to see light. +Long ago he had asked himself whether Cecil Stark could be +made of any service in the great matter of Grace; and now, +when he learned that the American was almost at his door, +Peter's spidery instincts served him well. While yet he waited, +confident of the speedy advent of Stark, the future began to +unfold, and a project as extraordinary as it was difficult matured in +the merchant's brains. + +"An enterprise involving violent melodrama, no doubt," he +told himself, "but then these are melodramatic times, and in the +rush and hurry of wars, and rumours of wars--in the scare of +Bonaparte and the tragedy over the hills at Prince Town, a little +lawlessness must pass unnoticed. Tut, tut! Does not the world +still think that fool at Fox Tor Farm a murderer? Yet no hand +is lifted against him. And there is a source of strength there; +for when we tell him that he is innocent of blood, he'll be so +overjoyed that he'll forgive anything and anybody. And she--once +married all must right itself. Let it work then. Come, Mr. Cecil +Stark of Vermont! I'm nearly ready for you; indeed, 'tis +perfectly plain that I can't get on much further without you. +But pray God Malherb don't run upon him riding home! Yet +'tis improbable, for he'll hardly stir till nightfall. Then the man +Lee will bring him hither. And now to see my lady. Here's +news indeed for her." + +All that afternoon Norcot was closeted with Grace, and when +he left her, she let him kiss her! + +"May the night bring him," she said, "for each moment is +a century when I think of my dear ones at home and all their +sufferings now." + +And that night Cecil Stark arrived. As a fugitive himself, liable +to be recaptured and returned to Prince Town by any man eager +to earn three pounds, the young sailor exercised caution; and for +the sake of his guide it was also necessary that he should incur +no risk; but ere midnight he came, and Norcot himself ushered +him into the house. + +"A hearty welcome!" he said, with the most genial handgrip. +"I expected you. Had you not escaped yesterday, I was coming +to Prince Town to see Short and go bail for you; but love has a +thousand wings and a thousand voices. Come in, Mr. Stark. +Henceforth you are my guest." + +He offered his hand, but the other did not take it. + +"One word, sir. Is Miss Malherb here?" + +"Come in, come in. You gladden my heart; for Heaven can +bear witness that I took to you from the first moment ever I saw +you--when you came so near to braining that beautiful lady. +I'm 'a beast of company but not of the herd,' as Plutarch says. +Give me a friend or two, not a regiment of 'em. There was that +in your face-- + + Born to command, to conquer and to spare; + As mercy mild, yet terrible as war.' + +Come in." + + "'Wolves do change their hair, but not their hearts'! + +There's a quotation for yours," said Stark suddenly and bluntly. + +Mr. Norcot started. + +"Tut, tut! I thought we were old friends." + +"Answer me. Is Miss Malherb here?" + +"Here, yet not here," replied Peter, pressing his breast. + + "'Smiling then Love took his dart + And drew her picture on my heart.' + +But I can relieve your mind. The maiden is well and exceedingly +happy." + +"Then was John Lee right; you abducted her." + +"Ah! that agile lad! Mercury's a fool to him." + +Stark took off his hat and entered the house. + +"I am here to escort Miss Malherb to her parents, Mr. Norcot." + +"And a pleasant enough task too--for both of you. Now +enter and rest your weary limbs--nay; don't look suspicious. +There's no mystery here--merely the library of a very busy +man." + +Stark sat down and rubbed a wounded foot, while Mr. Norcot +regarded him with a very whimsical expression. + +"So you are a new Quixote, come to rescue distressed maidens? +Yet, if you could see the joy on Grace Malherb's countenance at +this moment, you might suspect that your disinterested labour +was in vain, Mr. Stark." + +"Only her own assurances will satisfy me. As for you, in +the past I owe you much, Mr. Norcot. With a single-hearted +generosity that I cannot sufficiently admire and I cannot quite +understand, you exerted yourself on behalf of strangers and +captives. But now----' + +"Now, perhaps, I am doing the same thing again, Mr. Stark. +Would it surprise you to hear that within this month I have been +to London on your behalf?" + +"Why should you do so?" + +"Ah!--my modesty refuses to reply. But believe the fact: +for you and Grace Malherb I have been as industrious as a man +can be. She knows and blesses me. You have yet to know." + +"Is this true, sir?" + +"Why not? And yet against one of your credulous character +a lie would be a good weapon." + +"Yes, for a slave to use," said Stark. + +"It's a nice point. I'm a casuist, you know. I could mention +a few classical lies that have helped to make the world what it is +to-day-- + + "'Why should not conscience have vacation + As well as other courts o' the nation?'" + + +"You jest to ask such a question, or you mistake me, Mr. Norcot." + +"'Tis easy to understand how willingly men would give their +monitor a life-long holiday if they could. Yet, 'He that sins +against his conscience sins with a witness.' Fuller. That +inimitable man! I wish my young clerical cousin had something of +his sublime sense and understanding. But Relton's a good lad, +and no bishop can marry you tighter." + +"Be frank, Mr. Norcot," said Stark. "Here am I, and I trust +you. I accept your word that Miss Malherb is also here, and +that she is well. But I am determined to take her back to her +father and mother, because I learn that they are ignorant of her +safety, and are suffering much, as it is natural they should suffer." + +Peter beamed upon his visitor. + +"'How fresh and green you are in this old world!' Now I +understand why your plots miscarried and you failed of your +heroic enterprises, Cecil Stark. Think you that if I'd been rogue +enough to bear off this maid for selfish ends, I should welcome +you so warmly and prepare so frankly to tell you the truth? +Suppose--as doubtless you do suppose--that I had Miss Grace +here, and my parson cousin here, and my Special License to +marry her here, should I make you a welcome and honoured +guest? What was your plan of action then? Do reveal it. As +a student of character I should like to know." + +"I trusted to right and honour, and still do so." + +"Yet you'd have cut but a poor figure if I had proved that +wolf-hearted wool-dealer you so rudely described." + +"I judged from what John Lee told me. Your passion for +Grace Malherb and your determination to marry her are widely +known." + +"Well, granted; but first John Lee. Have a care there. He's +malignant and dangerous. Powerless himself, he would leave no +stone unturned to do me a hurt--or you a hurt. Yet all that +ever I did was to try and save his neck. Remember his +granddam." + +"I believe him to be honest." + +"I know him to be a very silly rascal. He has much +endangered Miss Malherb's happiness. 'A whip for the horse, a +bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back'; but better still, +a bullet for the fool's head. The fools--the fools--they make +nearly all the trouble in the world." + +"Lee is a good man and no fool, if I am any judge. At least, +he seems shrewd enough to me. He has served both his mistress +and me nobly before to-day. He correctly guessed all along +where Miss Malherb was now, and he brought me to you." + +"Because 'twas his own folly helped to bring her here. We +may use a fool in the affairs of life; and often there's no better +tool. But be careful that no inkling of your ends is trusted to +the fool." + +Cecil Stark seemed to see a sinister personal significance in +this speech. He regarded Norcot's smiling countenance with +the closest attention. + +"I might take that hint to myself," he said. + +"You might; but you would be wrong and ungenerous if you +did," answered the other. "I'm your friend, and I'm going to +prove it under the hand and seal of a greater than either of us." + +"Her own?" + +"Alas! no. I'm coming to that. If she could have written, +she would have done so. But for the moment it is unhappily +impossible. She desired a thousand messages, but these I would +not bring, because I could only give my word that they were +true. But the written word is none the less convincing." + +"Begin at the beginning if you are being honest with me," +said Stark. + +"I would say with the man in the play-- + + "'A sudden thought strikes me, + Let us swear an eternal friendship'; + +but, under the circumstances, I'll leave that quotation for you. +When you hear what I've got to say, you'll make it, if you're as +just and honourable as I believe." + +"Speak then." + +Peter looked at the clock over the mantelpiece. + +"Like a sermon, what I have to say must be set forth under +three heads. The application I shall leave with you," he answered. +"First, however, here's a glass of wine. Allow me to drink before +you do so. You would not be justified in trusting me until you +have heard more." + +Mr. Norcot poured out two glasses of port, sipped his own +and began his explanations. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A SPECIAL LICENSE + +"We must deal," said Norcot, "with the relations of four +people each to the others. And first let us examine +my relations with Grace Malherb. I loved her; I loved her +with a whole-hearted, true and deep love that can only find the +faintest echo in poetry. Herrick's 'To Anthea, who may +command him anything,' comes closest to the real sentiment. But +love grows sick like an ill-grown tree, if it grows one-sided. A +dark hour struck when with acute sorrow and grief I discovered +that I could never win Grace's heart. The bitter truth was +stamped into my soul. She would never love me; she risked her +life to escape from me; frankly, I was odious to her. Yet I had +observed that this emotion of loathing was not always excited +in the female heart by my presence. I was blessed, even in the +moment of desolation, by discovering that I was loved by another +woman. + + "'Who'er she be, + That not impossible She + That shall command my heart and me' + +does not matter. Suffice it that she exists; and she is beautiful +and virtuous. + +"As a matter of fact, I had given up all thought of marrying +when once I discovered that Grace Malherb could never love me. +I had faced the existence of a bachelor with an indifference bred +from disappointment. I had said with Shakespeare-- + + "'The sweet embraces of a loving wife + Loaden with kisses, arm'd with thousand Cupids, + Shall never clasp our necks.' + +But now I think otherwise. To put it conventionally, I am consoled. +You will, I know, express your gratification at this, even +as Grace did. She kissed me and enjoyed doing it! Think of +that! What a piece of work is the feminine throne of the +emotions!--eh? She kissed me and wished me abundant +blessings--only yesterday. + + "''Tis done; I yield; adieu, thou cruel fair! + Adieu, th' averted face, th' ungracious cheek! + From thee I fly to end my grief and care, + To hang--To hang?--yes, round another's neck!' + +So I made light of the matter, and now leave it for ever. + +"You ask what next? Next comes Grace's relation to you. I +knew that she loved you with all her heart and soul. For you she +suffered the cruel indignities of the past; for you she starved; +for you she fled and risked her life rather than marry me. Her +father was the sole obstacle between you when I dropped out and +came over to your side. He is both hard and senseless--a difficult +type of man. One must not say 'by your leave' to such as he, +because to ask is to be refused. So I propose to take without +asking, and allow him to digest facts only after the occurrence. +He is dangerous now, and those who fear all strike at all. Yet +we've more than one surprise in store for Malherb. Is it nothing +to think yourself a murderer and find yourself innocent? That's +the trump card! There'll be little room for anger in his bosom +on the day when he learns that. + +"Well, I'm working without him--for love of his daughter. +'Tis settled betwixt you that you must marry though the heavens +fall. You shall. I'm as set on it as either of you. The day +after to-morrow you are man and wife. So much good news will +bewilder you; but there's bad to go as a tonic with it. You +naturally ask why these great matters do not come to you under +Grace's own hand and seal. Alas! she is blind!" + +"Good God! My Grace!" + +"Be patient. The fault was entirely mine. Those appointed +to bring her hither at any cost, discovered that she was +young and strong and valiant. An old man and an old woman, +albeit tough enough, found it as much as they could do, and +before they had prevailed and hidden her in the depths of an +ancient wood, all three were scratched and wounded with the +briars and brambles, in which they had struggled. She fought +with true Malherb spirit, but the conquerors came best off; Miss +Malherb was torn, and badly torn, across the face. I have had +the first advice both from Plymouth and from Exeter. For the +present she lives in a dead darkness, and must continue so to do +for a week or more." + +"But she will recover her sight? Oh, do not tell me that those +wonderful eyes will see no more." + +"I could hardly have borne to jest over the past, my dear +Stark, had the future held anything so terrible. Your lady's +lovely eyes are but dimmed for a time. I spoke with Sir George +Jenning only yesterday. He has little fear of the ultimate result; +but blackest possible night must hem her in for the present. A +gleam might work terrible havoc; the optic nerve is affected, and +such sympathy prevails between the eyes that injury to one may +quickly involve both." + +"I hope you look to this yourself. 'Tis hard to avoid daylight +in April." + +"My sister Gertrude is nurse." + +"If I could but see Grace!" + +"See her you certainly cannot. Nobody can. Never sibyl was +wrapped in gleam more Cimmerian; but marry her you may and +shall, if that will suffice you." + +The rapidity of these revelations; the intense seriousness and +most kindly expression upon Norcot's face; the bewildering rush +and hurry of his own life during the past few days, all combined +to move Cecil Stark. His wits swooned; his emotions yearned +to believe this marvellous story. He pressed his hand to his +forehead, then noticed the wine at his elbow, picked up the glass +and drained it. + +"Man," he said solemnly, "surely it is not in humanity to +juggle upon such a theme? You cannot be deceiving me?" + +"Emphatically no," answered Norcot. "I am no juggler, but +a simple wool-merchant of some character and renown in these +parts. In fact, a big toad in a small puddle, as the saying is. +My heart went out to you when first we met, and I resolved, +if opportunity offered, to do you a service. I failed; but it was +your own action that defeated my good offices. This time I +shall succeed, because nobody on this earth can break a marriage +contract if the conditions are within the law of the land." + +"She is willing?" + +"For a thousand reasons; and, first, before any thought of +you, that her parents may suffer no more. They have +undoubtedly endured a good deal." + +"'Tis an insult to the family to wed so." + +"She is not of that opinion. The ceremony once complete, +you can go back to prison with a cheerful heart; or, better still, +obtain a passport. I shall ride off instantly to Grace's parents +and explain all. Upon her recovery, and before you depart +to your own land the richer by this lovely rose, a marriage +ceremony as splendid as Malherb's purse can bear may take +place. Would that he would forget to play Lucifer for once +and let me bear the cost." + +"Such things as this don't happen," said Stark slowly. + +"They don't," answered the other. "Such things can only be +found within the pages of poetry. And yet you see how one +romantic ass, out of the dead love of his past, has planned this +little fairy tale. I am that ass, Mr. Stark. Such things don't +happen; yet this thing is going to happen if you are of the same +mind as Grace Malherb. She has forgiven me everything--even +robbing her of daylight. 'What is the sun compared with him?' +cried she. My God, how she loves you!" + +Yet something in Cecil Stark's heart still doubted and cried +for proof positive. Norcot's perfect voice, flowing on like an +oily river, hurt his nerves. He felt that he was being muffled up +and choked in honey. He dashed his hand on the table. + +"Proofs--facts--realities--give me these!" he cried. "Show +me how this can be, and I will bless your name for ever." + +"I was waiting for you to come to your senses. This astounding +news has acted like strong drink on a hungry man. Proofs +are here--facts--realities too. Read this. You never heard of +Charles Manners Sutton? Yet, 'tis a very well-known name +among respectable people. This word he wrote. 'Tis the +sign-manual of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, +Mr. Stark." + +"Go on--explain." + +"There's your worthy name also, and that of Grace Sibella +Malherb. You knew not that she was called Sibella too? An +old family name on the mother's side. She was a Carew and my +mother was also a Carew. But this family history won't interest +you?" + +"Not now." + +"Well, having determined to see you married to my Grace, +I sought the means. There are but three ways in this kingdom +to be married, and all demand the co-operation of the Church. +We lack a purely civil rite, but there is a talk of establishing +such. First comes marriage by Banns, which necessitates three +weeks' notice in a place of worship. This I tried myself, with +results not unfamiliar to you. 'Twas for the best. Marriage by +ordinary license requires but a fifteen days' residence in the parish +where the ceremony is to take place. Doctors' Commons can +supply this document at a moment's notice, or the Bishop of the +Diocese will do so through his Chancellor and Surrogates. Another +glass of wine? You look as if you wanted it. Now this method +is equally out of place, because we cannot entertain you here for +the next fifteen days, much as we should like to do so. The +secret of Grace's whereabouts must be hidden no more. There +remains marriage by Special License--a ceremony permission to +perform which can only be given by the Archbishop of Canterbury +himself. It allows the contracting parties to be married +anywhere they please: in a church, or on a high road, or within +a private dwelling, or at the top of Dartmoor. A priest of the +Church of England and two witnesses complete the entire +necessary conditions. How witnesses can witness a wedding in +the dark is doubtful; but they must do their best, and trust to +their ears if not their eyes. + +"That document, beaming upon you there, is the Special +License which will permit you to marry Miss Malherb. I have +friends at Court. His Grace was easily convinced of the +propriety of my application. And fate favoured me, for he loves +your country with a Christian charity very proper in a primate. +It was enough for him that you desired instantly to return home +after your long incarceration, and that your future wife was both +eager and willing to accompany you. Feel it, read it, touch it! +Has it not the very odour of sanctity? All this have I done for +you and for her. You see, I'm not quite the rascal you thought +me. + + "'I never bark when out of season, + I never bite without a reason.' + +Indeed, barking and biting are quite foreign to my nature." + +Stark stared at the Special License without speaking. + +"Still you find it difficult to believe in such a torrent of hard +facts. There remains to point out the necessity for a speedy +marriage. I supposed that you would be free a fortnight ago at +latest. Consequently I named a date which will expire in two days. +You must marry the day after to-morrow, if you can bring yourself +to the ordeal so soon. You will stop here, I trust, or if not +here, then at my lodge, which will be safer. As a leading man +among the Americans, they'll seek you sharply. They might find +you in my house; but in my lodge you will be safe. Now what +say you? You must believe or not--all or none. Accept my +simple good faith or reject it." + +"Your honour upon it?" + +"May I perish miserably, and vanish from among men, and +from the Book of Life, if I am lying to you." + +"It is enough! No false man would take such an oath as +that." + +Stark leapt to his feet, pressed the other's hand and shook it +warmly. + +"God reward you for your deed, Peter Norcot. Generations +to come shall bless you as I do. I believe you with all my heart. +I trust you with all that makes life best living to me." + +"So be it. Now get you gone. For safety I'll hold this +document until after your marriage. I have planned the ceremony +for the morning of the day after to-morrow. If possible you shall +speak to Grace to-morrow, but Malherb has his spies here, and +you'll be followed too. Therefore we must run no risk. See +John Lee and send him about his business once and for all; +next repair to my lodge, where you are expected. There a meal +awaits you. Keep close within doors meantime, and I shall come +again to you after dark." + +A few moments later Norcot himself took the American to his +door, showed him the lodge at his avenue gates not a quarter of +a mile distant and left him there. + +Then he returned to his study, lighted a taper and carefully +destroyed the Special License by fire. + +"A neat enough copy," he said, as it curled and flamed and +vanished; "so like the real thing that a man may be forgiven for +calming his mind through the perception of his senses." + +Next Norcot went to his desk and drew therefrom another +document in most respects resembling the first. But it was set +out upon thicker paper and the seal was of black wax, not red, as +in the case of the destroyed forgery. + + +Meanwhile Stark met Lee, and the hollow unreality of his story +fell sinister and threatening upon John's ear. + +"You don't believe this nonsense," he asked simply when the +tale was told. + +"Every word of it! He has taken a solemn--a terrific oath. +He is a man of the highest honour, or I never yet met with +one!" + +"You can credit these unheard-of deeds and believe that he +performed them simply that you may get what you wanted?" + +"Not so. 'Tis all done for her sake. He loved her. Even +in losing her, he shows the noble character of his love for ever. +His one thought is her happiness." + +"I will never believe it. This is a gigantic lie. There's some +foul deed hiding behind it, and you will live to see that I'm +right." + +"We shall not agree there, John. Don't think that I undervalue +your great services to me. Don't think that I can ever forget +your grand loyalty to your mistress. But in this matter, as a man +of the world not lacking for sense and experience, I know that I +am right. I am not clever, yet I feel that I can trust him. +Norcot is a rare figure; but it heartens one, it enlarges one's +ideas to know that such men exist. He himself is loved +elsewhere; and now he desires to make us happy. I have told you +all; I need only add that I believe him as I believe in Heaven, +and I trust him absolutely. He has always been a true friend to +me. For the present I remain here at this lodge, and on the +night after our marriage, if the doctor allows it, I convey my +wife back to her home. Now what shall I do for you, John +Lee? The best can only be a shadow of what you have done +for me." + +"You're wrong; you're madly wrong! Where is Miss Grace +herself? Did he tell you that?" + +"No; but I gathered that she is in his house." + +"Go your way then, and ask me no questions, for I shall go +mine. You are mad in this and will live to repent such trust +bitterly. His life--his whole life and behaviour towards her cry +on my side." + +"You forget his past behaviour to me. Is that to count for +nothing? He has always wished me well. For you, John, I have +to thank you for much," he said; "for much, much more than I +can ever pay you back; yet now I ask for another favour. I am +older than you, and perhaps more experienced in the ways of men. +I am not deceived in Peter Norcot. At any rate, the future now +lies with me. Let me ask you to renounce the affair entirely +from this moment, and leave the rest to me. If I am content, +you should be also." + +"Never! What do I care for you, or Norcot either? 'Tis only +her that I care for; only her I'm here for. Go your way, but +don't dictate to me. I'll do what I can for her against you both; +and though fifty thousand Norcots took their oath that they meant +you fair, I'd not believe one of 'em. There's no truth in that +man. He's trapped her for himself--not for you. Oh, how clear +it is to me! I was the bait to bring her here; now Providence +has made me bring you; and in some dark, magic way this devil +will make you serve his turn too." + +"Go!" said Stark, solemnly and sternly. "I mourn that you +can so misread an honourable man. I am not concerned with his +methods now, but his motives. He planned to lead my love into +happiness by a rough road. I came in the nick of time. He has +expected me. Do you understand? _He expected me_! He has +foreseen every step in these events. I bid you leave my affairs in +my own hands henceforth, John Lee; and I say here from my +heart that, do what you will, you are my friend for ever." + +"So be it then. Follow your own fool's way and see whether +it will lead you back to the War Prison, or into the arms of Grace +Malherb, or into your grave. And I, too, will go my way. Her +happiness is my life; not you, or any man living, shall deny me +to strive and fight for her to the end. I marvel and mourn for you. +Your wits are dulled by the cruel prison yonder. Your senses are +held captive by this man." + +He spoke sorrowfully, then turned away, and before Stark had +time to beg for patience and consideration, John Lee hastened +into the woods and disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EYES IN THE DARK + +Mr. Norcot and his kinsman, the clergyman, were walking +together upon a broad terrace before the wool-stapler's +dwelling-house. They had dined, and now they smoked their +pipes out of doors, for the spring night was mild and clear. + +Not twenty yards distant, behind the lattice of a little +summer-house, a man lay concealed; and it chanced that both speakers +came within earshot of him, for the minister, feeling his dinner, +proposed to enter the summer-house and sit down there awhile. + +"'Tis your port wine," he said. "What has a poor priest to do +with such liquor?" + +"He shall have much to do with it, and be a poor priest no +more after to-morrow." + +They sat down within two yards of John Lee. Convinced +that Grace must be hidden here in Norcot's house, John was +endeavouring to learn her apartment, that when nightfall came he +might communicate with her. Through four-and-twenty hours, +since his last interview with Cecil Stark, he had toiled without +success to find her; to-night he was determined to succeed, for +early on the morrow the wedding would take place, if Stark spoke +the truth. + +And now kindly chance threw to him information more valuable +than the hiding-place of Grace Malherb. A wedding, indeed, +was to be celebrated; but Peter Norcot, not the American, would +be bridegroom. + +The first words that fell upon Lee's ear were spoken by the +clergyman. + +"'Tis a very subtle piece of work; a wonderful stroke; yet I +wish you had broke it to any man but me, Peter." + +"My dear Relton, you're not in an after-dinner humour. +'Twas not that you drank too much port, but too little. I've a +hundred dozen of that vintage--put down by a loving father +thirty years ago. Well, how like you the thought of +five-and-twenty dozen? 'Tis emphatically a clergyman's wine. What +potential tone--what tolerance--what breadth of view--what a +fine literary flavour to your discourses all lie there!" + +"To do evil that good may come--a parlous doctrine." + +"Most true. I'll go further and say a damnable doctrine. I'm +asking you to attempt no such thing. You are invited to marry +me to a woman in the dark--a literal, not a spiritual darkness. +She refuses to marry me in the daylight; therefore it is proposed +to put this trick upon her for her own welfare. The young fellow +from Prince Town comes to help us with his presence. He is +sent, as the ram was sent to save Isaac's life. But I do not +sacrifice him: I merely send him back whence he came. This +girl of ours thinks that she loves him; and she believes that she +will marry him to-morrow. Well, you know better." + +"My part is a dastard's part." + +"What? To say 'Cecil Stark' in the marriage service when +you mean 'Peter Norcot'! What nonsense! As soon as the daylight +bursts in upon our little ceremony, you have only to forget +your error." + +"I fear the issue." + +"Then you fear a handsome income--a sum which to a man of +your abilities and ambitions should mean power. By assisting at +this pious fraud, you assure the welfare of a good but headstrong +girl, and you oblige me. From being a penniless parson you rise +to wealth and dignity. You----" + +"What of Cecil Stark?" + +"Mr. Stark broke prison very improperly, and to-morrow morning, +as he quits the matrimonial chamber, a file of soldiers will be +waiting to take him back again. His subsequent story of a cock +and bull no one will heed. Leave that. Have you the service by +heart? 'Tis a great feat." + +"I know it well enough." + +"There can be no prompting, recollect. The darkness of +Egypt was light compared to the darkness in my study to-morrow. +The grave is not darker. Both he and she are prepared for that. +She thinks that his eyes suffered in an explosion of gunpowder at +Prince Town; he believes that she was seriously injured while +coming here. By a closely shrouded way they enter the room. +Gertrude will bring Grace; I follow with Stark. You are already +there to meet us. In the pitchy dark I hold Grace's hand and +stand beside her; Stark holds Gertrude's hand and thinks that +she is Grace. You'll do your part as fast as may be. Then +Stark, believing himself married, comes out into the daylight +with me, and is packed off to Prince Town in a jiffy, while, soon +afterwards, Grace and I bowl off to Exeter in a barouche and +four. She will think I am taking her home; and then for the +first time she will learn that she is my wife." + +"May it so fall out!" + +"It cannot fail. I've forgot nothing. There are, of course, a +thousand minor problems and subordinate possibilities; but all +have been provided for." + +"You and your wife vanish; Stark returns to prison; and I +am left. How if an infuriated father comes to challenge me?" + +"Tut, tut! You are too poor a thing for this business. Well, +what then? You have but to say that at my desire you +conducted a legal and proper service; you have but to show the +marriage license that I leave behind me. You speak of a +straight-forward wedding in honest daylight, and the bride willing. +Concerning Cecil Stark you know nothing. Gertrude and my man, +Mason, the other witness, substantiate you; and soon there will +come a dutiful letter from Grace----" + +"You believe that?" + +"Once married all is well. The honeymoon will throw a +genial light upon duty. She forgives me in a week and even +begins to understand me. There's only one cloud: I couldn't +get what I wanted out of old Lovey--a certain amphora. She's +much too clever for me. Your pipe is out." + +John Lee had heard every syllable of this conversation; and +he had forgotten himself so completely that now, dead to danger, +he was as close to the speakers as he could get, with his face +pressed to the lattice of the summer-house. Suddenly Relton +Norcot struck a light, and before Lee could duck his head the +flame had touched his eyes and revealed him. Peter was quick, +but the other man had the advantage. There was a crash in the +shrubbery, then a figure broke cover, sped into the grass-lands +below, and vanished. + +"We are undone!" cried the clergyman. "I knew this could +not come to good. Oh, Peter, my reputation!" + +"Peace, you silly sheep, this is no time for babble! All's yet +well. I marked the man and know him. 'Tis the gipsy, John +Lee, and I can deal with him. The problem's simple. He runs +to get at Stark; but that can be prevented." + +"For God's sake, let us go in. I'm struck with an ague." + +"That such a worm should have power to wield the sacraments +of God! Come you in, and hasten to my sister. Bid Gertrude +summon Mason and go down to the factory at once. Grace +Malherb must be under this roof as quickly as possible. Let +them fetch her now. I cannot trust her there longer, with that +rogue on the prowl. I'll deal with Lee once for all. Hasten, +hasten, my bold jellyfish; your fortune depends on't!" + +Relton Norcot, trembling in every limb, entered the house, +while Peter, familiar with the land, and well knowing that he +could reach the lodge where Cecil Stark lay, much more quickly +and directly than was possible for John Lee, now proceeded +thither, knocked at the window of the little room in which the +American resided, mounted the sill and soon stood beside his +guest. Stark was already impatient. + +"But eight hours, friend. Then your pearl is yours--the +wealth of Ind! And you'll lunch at Fox Tor Farm with your +stepfather! I wonder a little what wine Malherb will bring out +of his cellar!" + +"Eight hours--eight hours." + +"When the stable clock beats six and the pheasants call in the +pine-woods yonder, we shall expect you at the house. Farewell +until morning. And one word of caution. Lie very low to-night. +They're hunting for you. They have set a price upon you. A +file of soldiers is in Chagford. It seems that they much resent +your departure at the Prison, for many of the Americans cry that +you were slain when the soldiers fired, and the authorities cannot +easily disprove it since your disappearance." + +"I'll disprove it instantly after that I am married." + +"Until then bury yourself. John Lee's responsible for this, I +fear. He means us both mischief now. Poor devil--he dared +to love her too." + +Norcot departed, whistled for a woodman, and was presently +placing his servants all round his lodge, with injunctions to +prevent any meeting between Cecil Stark and a stranger. He had +offered a handsome reward for the capture of Lee, and was about +to return to his house, when from the stables came unexpected +news. + +A groom with a broken head appeared roaring for his master; +and, confronted with Peter, he explained that sudden noises had +brought him into the stable-yard, to find a strange man hastening +out of it on Norcot's own black horse, 'Victor.' + +"I knowed un in the dark by his white stocking, an' I said, +'Be that you, maister?' But the man made no answer, so I got +in the way an' axed him who the dowl he was, an' wheer he might +be off to. With that he fetched me such a whisterpoop 'pon the +side of the head that I went down like a man shot, an' afore I +could get up again he was off." + +"So much the better," said Mr. Norcot. "Keep quiet about +it for the present. I know the rascal, and I know where he has +gone. He'll come back in the morning." + +Then, confident that Lee was safe for the present, Peter hastened +off to the wool factory, that he might assist to bring Grace to his +house. + +Lee, indeed, was far away. He had guessed that Norcot would +forestall his approach to Stark, and though John tried hard to get +to the lodge, he knew nothing of the nearest way, and after +running a roundabout course of a mile, finally found himself in +the stable-yard. This accident inspired him to another action, +and he determined to take a horse and ride over to Fox Tor +Farm for Maurice Malherb. It yet wanted two hours of midnight, +and it might be possible to get Malherb to Chagford by dawn. +Lee himself hoped to perform his journey and be back again +while it was yet dark. He carried his plan out instantly, to the +detriment of the stableman who attempted to stop him, and soon, +with a bridle, but bare-backed, he sped over the nightly Moor, +while a glory of rapid motion brought joy to his heart under the +darkness. It was long since he had felt a good horse between +his legs. + +Grace Malherb meantime, suspecting nothing, entered the web +of the spider and longed for her marriage hour to come. She +beamed upon the house party assembled, was the soul of graciousness +to Peter Norcot, counted the hours that still kept her from +her father and mother, and mourned only one circumstance; that +her sweetheart's wounded eyes would never see the sun shine +upon his wedding day. It was understood by poor Grace that +Cecil Stark must remain at Chagford until well again; while as +soon as the marriage ceremony was ended, Peter had promised to +escort her home. She was marvellously reconciled to the +wool-stapler. From her first indignation and passion he had weaned +her day by day, and as with the subtlest ingenuity he had +developed his fairy story and lent to it the colours of reality, Grace +at last believed and blessed his name. The natural desire of the +lovers that they should meet, Norcot overruled by many pleas. +Each continued to believe the other blind; each had seen the +forgery; for the rest, oral messages passed between them and +were carefully garbled to fit the pretended circumstances. With +hyperbolical gleam and glitter did Peter do his work, and throw +an enchanted mantle of verity over his enterprise. Actual genius +marked his operations; he made the fantastic solid, the imaginary +real. His masterpiece rang true; it was enduring and full +of vitality. He had, of course, to do with a man and a woman +plunged deep in love; and his deception was absolute. + +Now there remained to settle with John Lee, and Norcot prepared +to undertake that task himself. Very accurately he gauged +John's intentions, guessed his destination, and calculated the hour +of his return. Once back again, he would risk all things to +communicate with Stark; but he might be met upon the way, and +stopped once for ever before he did further mischief. Peter +planned his operations to an hour; saw Grace settled with his +sister; prepared his study so that no ray of light could penetrate +it; directed Relton Norcot exactly where to take his place; said +a final word to his man, Mason; and then returned into the +darkness. + +"He will come much faster than Malherb," reflected the +wool-stapler, "and, yes--it may be necessary." + +He went back into the house, visited his dressing-room, and +brought from it a double-barrelled pistol. + +There was but one way by which John Lee would return: down +a narrow lane which separated Norcot's estate from the domains +of the Manor; and here the wool-stapler stationed himself. It +was still dark, and after a patient hour, the night wind quickened +Peter's wits. Upon the first glimmer of dawn, he asked himself +a question. + +Why wait a moment longer? Why not escape this simple +difficulty by a little haste? + +In an instant he determined to call up Cecil Stark and precipitate +the marriage. But his intention came too late. A horse's +hoofs already clattered down the lane, and the shadowy figure +of a mounted man approached. Whereupon Peter Norcot leapt +into the path from a high hedge, where he had taken his position. +He lifted up his voice and called to the horse; and 'Victor,' +knowing his master's tones, stood still. + +John Lee had fulfilled his task, and was now returning from +Fox Tor Farm; while, many miles behind him, followed Maurice +Malherb with Thomas Putt and Mark Bickford, at the best pace +they could command. All three were mounted, and all three +were well armed. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +FAREWELL, LOVEY LEE + +Dawn, like a red slant gash on a dead man's throat, surprised +Putt and Bickford where they waited for their master on +the way. They had started before him, for Malherb's saddle-horse +was at grass and had to be captured after Lee brought his +news. + +"I shall, however, quickly overtake you," Mr. Malherb said to +his men. "Travel by Sherberton; hold over Believer Tor; then +pass under Dagger Farm and cross East Dart at the pack-horse +bridge." + +These things the labourers had done and now hesitated to +proceed to Chagford without Maurice Malherb. They dismounted, +therefore, by the old 'cyclopean' span that still crosses Dart +at Postbridge, sheltered themselves and their steeds against the +sting of the air and listened where Dart sang to the savage +dawn. Young green things of the year shivered in the morning +chill; nature still slept; the men got under a flaming brake +of spring furze that made light in the grey; then, waiting there, +they heard the clink of iron-shod feet on granite and knew +that somebody was crossing the bridge. A heron floated upon +broad wings down stream; and in the marshes at hand a +cock curlew woke and uttered strange, bubbling cries of warning +to his mate. + +One tall, thin figure appeared upon the bridge, and Putt +observed it. + +"What a maypole!" he cried, "yet how a minces in his going +for such a long-legged un!" + +"I'll wager the man's up to no good at this hour. Us have +both got hoss pistols: let's stop him! 'Twill warm us," exclaimed +Bickford. + +Thomas agreed, and together they leapt from their hiding-place +and blocked the passage of the bridge. Then Putt, at close +quarters, stared into the great white face frowning down upon him +and nearly fell into the water. + +"God's Word! 'Tis a ghost from the grave," he shouted. +"'Tis the old varmint us buried after Christmas, come to life an' +got into breeches!" + +But Mark Bickford had no imagination. + +"If she'm alive, us never buried her," he declared. "Cock +your pistol an' hold it to her head." + +"You stand still, Lovey Lee, an' give an account of yourself," +commanded Putt. "Since you'm alive, I don't care a farden for +you." + +"That ban't my name," answered the ancient woman gruffly. +"Stand by an' let me pass, or I'll knock 'e in the river, the pair +of 'e!" + +"Her can talk an' tell lies, so her's no more a ghost than us," +said Bickford. "Now what be you doing here, an' where be you +going, you bad old devil?" + +Lovey drew herself up and regarded the two clowns with indignation. +She felt it hard that at this critical moment of her life +such rubbish should beard her thus. All had fallen out as she +desired. Her wealth was secure. In her flat bosom she carried +two thousand pounds of paper money provided by Peter Norcot; +upon her back was a little box strapped tightly there. For the +rest she bore a heavy stick and was now upon her way to +Ashburton. Plans were completed for her escape. She would +proceed to Dartmouth and thence to France. + +Perceiving that she had been recognised, the miser attempted +no further evasion. These peasants must be bought and that +instantly. Putt was angry with Lovey for the tricks that she had +played on honest men; but Bickford appeared merely curious to +learn her recent history. + +"They wanted to hang you, and still want to," declared Tom. +"But now the world thinks as master killed you." + +"Let it go on thinking so," said Lovey. "What matter what +the world thinks, my bold heroes, so long as you've got money in +your purses? I be busy just now, so let me go my way, please, +without more speech." + +"A man's purse be his stronghold as you say," answered +Bickford; "an' mine's nought better'n a shelled peascod this +many days; but since there's twenty pound on your head, me an' +Putt here will make ten apiece by you." + +"Ten pound was offered, not twenty," answered Lovey. + +"I say 'twas twenty." + +"You'm a cruel devil to rob an old woman." + +"'Tis the State will pay, not you," answered Bickford. + +"An' you'm the cruel devil," retorted Putt--"you as have +brought Malherb's head so low--to the grave a'most." + +"Money's money," repeated Bickford, "an' if you've got any, +Mother Lee, now be the time to spend some. Us know you'm +made of it, for all your rags. What'll you pay us not to take you +along to Prince Town?" + +Lovey wrung her hands. + +"You silly zanies--me--look at me--clad in a dead man's +clothes! Money--a few poor pounds scraped together--God He +knows how few. An' a long life of starvation to come by 'em." + +"What's in thicky box?" asked Bickford abruptly. + +"Nought--a mere glass toy kept for old sake's sake. A thing +not worth a rush but for memory. An' since you ax for money, +I'll give 'e half I've got, though 'tis like giving 'e my life's +blood--a five-pound note to share." + +Her greed, even in this tremendous crisis, overreached her wit. +A round sum had dazzled the labourers, and they had doubtless +accepted it and let her depart, only to regret their conduct too +late. But this miserly offer ruined Lovey Lee. Bickford was of +a grasping nature also. Now greed met greed, and both man and +woman were presently punished. + +"'Tis much too little. Us want to see what be in that box +slung so snug on your shoulder." + +"An' see I will," added Tom Putt. + +"My solemn word of honour, 'tis no more than a little trashy +joney of glass--a keepsake of one long dead. Not worth a +shilling to anybody but me. Leave that. Since five won't satisfy +you I'll make it ten. Then I'm a ruined woman." + +"Give me that box--else I'll take it," said Putt firmly. + +"Not that, not that; if you'm a man, don't touch it. 'Tis +everything to me, nought to nobody else. I was lying--I was +lying to 'e. I be in such a hurry. I've got more than I said--just +a few pounds. Fifty-fifty sovereigns in paper--twenty-five +apiece to let me go my way." + +"That's better," said Putt. "I'll close at that if you will, +Mark." + +"Not me--not now. Her's lying still. Us have got her, now +us'll squeeze her. Us must see what's in that box--money or no +money. I lay 'tis stuffed with diamonds." + +"Oh, Christ!" cried the woman. "What 'tis to deal with two +pig-headed fools! Here--here be a hundred pounds--take it +and let me pass." + +She turned from them, dived in her breast and flourished the +notes before their faces. + +"Pretty money seemingly, but not enough," said Bickford. +"I lay there's thousands hid where your damned old heart beats. +An' not a penny of it but what was stolen." + +"An' I be more set than ever on seeing the inside of that there +li'l box," added Putt stolidly. "An' I be going to, or God's my +judge, I'll take you to Prince Town, Lovey Lee." + +The woman stared helplessly upon them. + +"There ban't no law on your side," continued Putt calmly; +"for you'm dead an' buried in Widecombe churchyard; and a +human, once dead an' buried, have no more rights than a bird in +a tree. So you'd best to open that box afore I take it away from +'e for good an' all." + +Fire flashed in Lovey's eyes and her teeth closed like a trap. +More than her life was now at stake; yet she stood powerless +before this determined man. + +"Will you swear to give it back to me, afore the God of +Doom?" she asked, drawing the box round from her shoulder. + +"I'll swear to nought. If 'tis only a glass image, it be useless +to any sensible chap, an' you can keep it. But if 'tis watches or +gold trinkrums, then you've stole 'em, an' we'll take 'em for +ourselves," declared Bickford. + +"See for yourself, then, you cursed clods! An' come off this +bridge. If it fell!" + +The woman's anger died as she opened her box; her hands +trembled; her man's hat had fallen off, and tattered wisps of +white hair hung round her head. She sat down, cowered over +the treasure, and revealed her sex in this attitude. + +Lovey opened her box with utmost care, and from a close +packing of sphagnum moss, brought forth the Malherb amphora. +Putt took it clumsily, and she screamed to him to be cautious. +Bickford then examined the box, and reported that nothing more +remained in it. + +"Then give my poor vase back for the love of your mothers," +she cried. "You see 'twas solemn truth I spoke to 'e." + +"First, there's the matter of money," answered Bickford. +"What money be you going to part with? You'm made of banknotes +by the look of it. Maybe you'll never get the chance of +setting up two young men in life again." + +"If I could get my hands on your dog's throat!" + +"You can't; an' best be civil, or you'll repent it," answered +Bickford. + +Then he took the amphora from Putt's hand, walked twenty +yards away, and set it up carefully on a rock. + +"You said fifty each," said Mark as he returned. "I lay you +meant more." Then the labourer broke off and addressed his +companion. "Ban't no sin to drag money out of this old +mully-grubs; for you know so well as me that she never come by an +honest penny in her life. Now I've slicked up her trash 'pon +yonder rock, an' I be going to chuck stones at it till she comes to +my figure; and sarve her damn well right, for she's bad to the +bone--as all Dartymoor knows." + +Lovey shrieked and Thomas Putt answered judicially-- + +"To terrify some money out of her be a fair thing. 'Tis +payment for what master suffered." + +The woman screamed and groaned. She fell at their feet, +clasped their knees, grovelled, uttered blessings and cursings, +raved until a steam hung over her lips in the chill air, called upon +God and the devil to help her. + +"What's the figure then?" asked Putt. + +"Five hunderd--five hunderd pound this instant between you. +For your sweethearts for----" + +In answer, and before Putt, who was well satisfied, could stop +him, Mark Bickford had flung a stone at the amphora. The +pebble started to the right, came round true with the throw, and +missed the precious vessel by inches. The woman followed the +flight, and a lifetime of agony passed over her in the space of +seconds. Then she turned upon Mark and poured forth a flood +of appalling curses. + +"Ban't five hunderd enough?" asked Thomas calmly. + +"No, Tom, it ban't," answered the avaricious Bickford. "This +here's the chance of a lifetime. Us'll be made men or mice, for +evermore." + +Putt picked up a stone. + +"I do think she'm rich enough to part with a bit more," he +said. "Now I be going to have a chuck, an' I'm a better shot +than him, ban't I, Mark?" + +"Yes, you be." + +"Three hunderd--three hunderd--four hunderd--four hunderd +for each of 'e. I'd tear my heart out for 'e if I could, you greedy, +cruel dogs. Spare it, spare all that an old woman have got in +the wide world. If you knew--if----" + +Putt flung a stone and took care to do no harm. His missile fell +into the river a yard wide. Then Bickford prepared to fling again. + +"Third time be lucky," he said. "I'll bet you all the old +bitch's money as I scat un to shivers now." + +"Four fifty for each of 'e--four hunderd an' fifty each; an' it +do leave me picked clean to the bone." + +She plunged her hand into her breast and dragged out a pile +of notes. + +"Take it an' leave me to starve, you sarpints; you as rob +widows' houses. Take it; an' may it turn to hell fire an' burn +your entrails for everlasting!" + +"Four fifty's good enough for me," said Putt. + +"Bah! you'm a fool," answered Bickford. "You don't know +how to pick a nut when you've got one. Leave her to me. I +say five hunderd apiece--that, or this stone goes." + +"Before the eyes of Heaven, I haven't got it! Strip these +dead man's rags off me; you'll find no more. 'Tis every farthing +I have in the world--a long life's bitter earnings!" + +The labourer, with an eye upon her, drew his hand slowly +back to throw again. For a second Lovey's fingers fluttered +involuntarily towards her breast; and Mark Bickford saw and +laughed in triumph. + +"Ha, ha, ha! I knowed I was right. Yet I'll send it along; +just to bring the old hell-cat to reason." + +He flung again, without meaning to injure the amphora, but +hit the rock on which it stood and missed the treasure by a hair's +breadth. At the same moment Maurice Malherb's horse appeared +round the rock, and the glancing stone very nearly struck +Mr. Bickford's master. + +"You vagabonds! What means----?" cried out Malherb. + +Then he broke off and stared at an object near his elbow. There, +under red dawnlight, glittered the Malherb amphora, and the +frank yet lurid illumination awoke new beauties in that dazzling +gem. Each Cupid blushed with life as he peeped from the +acanthus leaves. For a moment the master glared at his treasure +while Bickford and Putt shivered. Then Lovey Lee, perceiving, +indeed, that hope was dead, uttered a mournful howl. The +sound wakened Malherb from his trance. He dismounted, picked +up the amphora, and came forward. + +"What man is that?" he asked; "and what are you knaves +doing, loitering here?" + +Then he approached Lovey, and knew her, and his servants +saw him turn pale. He dropped back a pace and the amphora +fell out of his hand--into soft heather where it took no hurt. +A moment later his face turned cherry-red and his eyes rolled +up. Putt rushed forward, but the danger passed and Malherb's +brain resisted the shock. + +"I must not rejoice too soon, or I may perish. And +yet--speak. This is a woman--the woman of all women!" + +"'Tis true, your honour's goodness. Lovey Lee, begging your +pardon; her as you thought you'd properly knocked 'pon the +head." + +"An' she'm wrapped up in fifty-pound notes, your honour," +said Bickford, "an' I hope your honour won't let her keep 'em +from two honest men, for 'tis stolen money, an' her was going +to----" + +"Peace!" thundered Malherb. "Take yourselves and your +buzzing behind me." + +He had not removed his eyes from Lovey Lee's face. His +mind and soul were there. + +Now he approached her and spoke gently. + +"Tell me," he said. "Let me hear your voice. Do not fear. +Are you Lovey Lee--she whom I struck down and left for dead +a thousand years ago on Cater's Beam?" + +Lovey calculated the chances. She was broken now, for at +last the Malherb amphora lay in the power of its rightful owner. +Unconquerable hate gleamed in her eyes, but her voice sounded +meek and mild. + +"A cruel blow, Malherb, an' me so old. Yet I agged 'e to it. +Forgive my evil tongue. I'm a woman still, for all my wickedness. +I'll kneel to 'e; I'll pray to 'e; I'll lick thy boots. I've +paid for my sins, God knows that; don't send me to the gallows, +after all these days." + +"You are Lovey Lee?" + +"Ess--that forlorn wretch. Look!" + +She pulled back her hair and he saw his handiwork. + +"Forgive a coward's blow, woman." + +"'Twas the hand of God, not yours," she answered. "When +you cracked my head, you let a thousand devils out. I bless +your name--even I----" + +"This day is sacred for evermore," he said very slowly. "To +many you have brought darkness and sorrow; to me you stand +here now a messenger of light from Heaven--an angel of good +tidings. Henceforth may your name be blessed. Alive and not +dead!" + +The labourers stared, and Lovey cast them a bitter glance that +penetrated to their rude consciousness. Their hopes, at least, +were shattered. + +She pointed to the amphora, where it lay at Malherb's feet. + +"They've stabbed me to the soul and taken half my remaining +years from me. A moment more and it would have been splinters +in the river--my life and my heart's blood." + +Maurice Malherb stared at the glass bubble. To him it was +an atom of inconceivable insignificance in the face of this +stupendous discovery that Lovey lived. + +"Her snake's life be wrapped up in that toy, your honour," +said Bickford, "an' I'll swear to God she said it weren't of no +account to anybody but her." + +"'Twas true. If you'd cracked it, my life would have cracked +with it. But now--'tis mine no more. My light's out; my +thread's spun. I only ax that I may hold it in this old hand +once again; then I'll give it to 'e, an' vanish out of man's sight +for ever." + +This she said meaning to destroy the vase, to dash it into a +thousand fragments at Malherb's feet and take the consequences. +He did not guess at her malignant purpose. Her harsh, high +voice was now the music of Heaven to his ear; the lizard life in +her wrinkled carcase oozed like balm upon his sight and made +him young. He feasted his senses upon her, even while he +doubted his senses; and in spirit uttered a petition to his Maker +that this might be no dream. + +"Touch me, Lovey Lee," he commanded. "Hold my hand +in yours, press upon it. I must feel your flesh warm; I must +put my finger upon your pulse that I may know your heart is +beating. You have risen from the dead and lifted me from +worse than death. Give me your hand." + +She held out to him her gnarled, huge paw. It was wrinkled +and bony; each great artery ran like a blue cord under the brown +skin; each black nail was sharp as an eagle's claw. + +"Heed your going," she said, "else that treasure there will fall +under your heel--the amphora." + +He saw her eyes burning upon it, and a sudden, mad, Malherb +impulse took him. + +"You have given me my life once more, shall I rob you of +yours again? No! Take up that trash and begone. Bear +witness she lives, you men. Now depart, and let that +glass--priceless as the world goes--be my payment to you. 'Tis little +enough for what I gain this day--light, air, life, Heaven, the +right to walk the earth and to look the world in the face. An +innocent man! Oh, God of Mercy, I thank Thee!" + +With a strange cry, as of some mother-beast that recovers her +lost young, the ancient creature fell upon her treasure, hid it +away quickly and disappeared, like a shadow, behind the mist. +Not a word she spoke of thanks nor of blessing; but she gathered +up the amphora and melted away into the morning air, like some +fantastic exhalation of dawn that vanishes at sunrise. + +Neither did Malherb speak again. He mounted his horse, +watched Lovey depart, and then, forgetting, as it seemed, the +men behind him, galloped fast upon his way. Exultation marked +his movements. His attitude was of a boy that rode to hounds, +liven the gravity of the present enterprise was for a time +powerless to make him grave. + +The men behind him felt that their master was struggling +with a full heart. They knew that had he been alone, Malherb +had shouted to the sun and wakened the echoes of the ancient +hills with thanksgivings. The nature of his joy they failed +signally to apprehend. As for Bickford and Putt, their own +state was the reverse of gracious. + +"I can't go so fast," said Mark to Tom. "Us have made damned +fools of ourselves to-day--got within reach of hundreds and +missed 'em. I could tear my hair off. Blast the old witch!" + +"'Tis fair payment for being so beastly greedy," answered Putt. +"All your fault. If you'd took what she offered last, you'd have +had it in your pocket now, instead of nought. Sarve you right." + +"I ban't much in a mind to sit down under it, however," +growled Bickford. + +"No more be I, for that matter--only just let me think a +minute." + +After riding forward another hundred yards Mr. Putt stopped +suddenly. + +"My hoss have fallen lame," he said. + +"Not she," answered Bickford. "Her goeth well as ever." + +"I say she's lame," retorted the other. "Get you after master, +best pace you can. I'll come presently. There's a stone in the +mare's hoof." + +Bickford's slow brains now perceived his friend's drift. + +"You'll get the sack for it," he said, looking back into the +valley where Lovey Lee had disappeared. + +"No great matter if I did; but I shan't. When the man +comes to his senses--why, that's the blessed jug all the fuss was +about! 'Tis worth thousands of pounds." + +"Halves wi' me," said Bickford. + +"Shares, perhaps," answered Putt. "I ban't going to say +'halves'; I've growed rather sick of you since the morning." + +In a moment Thomas turned on his tracks and Mark +Bickford hastened after his master. Malherb never looked back, +and the riders were already upon the high ground above Chagford +and just about to enter that lane, where, two hours earlier, John +Lee had met with Peter Norcot, when Bickford heard a galloping +horse and saw that Putt was returning. At sight of Tom's +countenance even his phlegmatic companion was staggered, for +Putt presented a dismal and hideous spectacle. His breast +was soaked with blood and four deep parallel gashes between +white weals scored his face from brow to chin. His pink-rimmed +eyes were bulging and one of his ears had swollen to ridiculous +dimensions. But upon his back was a box that contained the +Malherb amphora. + +"Aw jimmery! you've got it!" cried Mark. "But, 'slife! +she've torn your eyes out of your head!" + +"Her tried to. I've fought a cargo of mountain cats. God +knows how I've come out alive. But I didn't fire--not a shot; +though sore tempted. I didn't kill her; she've done for herself. +I catched her down nigh Drury Farm, and went for her without +words. She seed my meaning in a flash. Curse! Never I heard +such a hail of gashly curses; an' she come at me all ends up like +a bulldog. Her nails was in my eyes afore I could draw breath; +but I kept my seat while she tore an' scratched, an' grabbed the +box; an' by good chance the strap gived way. Then she ran +fifty yards after my hoss; an' then she knowed 'twas all up wi' +her, an' stopped. 'Twas awful what comed after. Her heart +cracked. I heard a sound like a woodpecker tapping, an' looked, +an' seed her beating her head in with a gert stone. But she +couldn't die that way, so she went to a rock an' flinged herself +against it skull first, like a ram butting. An' then she rolled +over, over an' over into the river. God's my judge I'd have saved +her if it had been any other mortal she!" + +"All that pile of paper money?" + +"'Twas nought to her, after the vase was gone." + +"All that good money!" + +"Pulp by now. She'm dead this time, anyway, if she'm flesh +and blood." + +"I wish you'd took the money, all the same." + +"You can go to hell an' ax her for the money," said Putt +indignantly. "I've got this here thing for master--not you. You'm a +miserly hunks, an' I hope you won't be a penny the better by this +job, for you don't desarve to be." + +As he spoke the men drew up to their leader, and all three +riders trotted slowly down the steep lane which led into Chagford. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MANOR WOODS + +When John Lee saw Peter Norcot at his horse's head, +he was well satisfied. That Norcot was determined he +should not have any communication with Cecil Stark, John +perceived, but he also knew that while Peter stood beside him here, +no harm could befall Grace. To keep the man from returning to +his house and his enterprise would answer Lee's purpose quite as +well as speech with Stark. + +"Excellently met," said Norcot. "I've waited long for you. I +need not ask if 'Victor' carried you well. But you're growing too +busy, John Lee. Now come aside and explain why you are so +active in this business. Have a care, young man! You run into +considerable danger." + +"I don't fear you. And you know well enough the reasons +that I am busy. You've hatched a piece of damnable knavery, +and by God's goodness I overheard it. Stark trusts you; you've +deceived his honest heart. But I never trusted you. Not one +word of your wickedness surprised me." + +"Well, plain speaking is good for the soul, my poor John. +And any soul-prescription may be worth your attention just now, +for, unless you mend your manners, I shall have to be short and +sharp with you. + + "'The dreadful reckoning; and men smile no more.' + +You overheard me and my cousin. Was it all clear to you? +Were there any gaps? You may as well know exactly what is +going to happen since the affair interests you so deeply. Ask +what questions you please, but be brief. Poor 'Victor'! You've +made him gallop to-night." + +Norcot tethered his horse at a gate; then he entered it and +Lee followed him. + +"Come into the Manor Woods. I can give you half an hour, +no more. After that time our little play begins, and I am to be +wedded to Grace Malherb, for better, for worse. You know all +that." + +"And Cecil Stark?" + +"Stark, good soul, will play his part and press a wedding-ring +upon my sister's finger. Then the light of day serves to show +him Sergeant Bradridge and a file of soldiers patiently waiting for +his sapient person to convey him back to Prince Town." + +"Think better of it. Don't blast your own life and that of this +man and woman. She will always hate you, as she always has." + +"Advice! Well, take some from me. I cannot stop long, +but----" + +"Stop you shall, Peter Norcot! Not until you've killed me do +you return to this knavery." + +"I was afraid you'd take that view. I don't want blood on my +hands to-day. Even I have my superstitions and sentiments. +Consider; if you detain me how things must fall awry. It would +be the play of _Hamlet_ without the Dane. Why, my fool cousin +might even lose his head and marry 'em, if that was possible! A +pretty conceit. She'll feel my hand in the dead darkness and +think 'tis his. I am dumb and he speaks the answers. He'll feel +my sister's hand and think 'tis hers. Gertrude is dumb, and +Grace speaks the answers. But these things cannot be managed +without me. I must get back at any cost. My wedding tour is +planned. Better live to think of me and my happy bride upon +the Continent than perish in this cold dawn. Death is so final." + +"'Tis you shall die, for I will kill you rather than let you +return now." + +"The possibility of this attitude on your part had occurred to +me, John Lee. Unfortunately for yourself, you have never +understood me. I am no enemy to any living man. I wish the world +well. But I, too, have my life to live, and those who intervene +between me and my plans and purposes pay for their blunder. I +will tell you something, since we have no witness. It may help +you to comprehend me and draw you out of the jaws of death, +wherein frankly you stand at this moment. I killed my late uncle, +Norman Norcot. I took his gun while he sat in thought, and +thrust it under his chin and shot him like a rabbit. Do you wish +to follow him?" + +Without answering, John Lee dashed forward at Norcot's throat; +but Peter's hand, though in his pocket, was on a pistol trigger. +He leapt swiftly aside, and before Lee could turn, the +wool-stapler had fired into his body. For a second John stood +shaking; then he sank forward and fell on his face. Frightened +blackbirds fled shrieking, with shrill chink-chink-chink-chinketty-chink; +the smoke arose and hung in a thin flat layer under the +boughs of the trees. + +"Lucky wretch!" said the murderer, looking down. "'Death +is a morsel best bolted whole,' as divine Montaigne remarks. +Naught is nastier to chew upon. May I go as easy when my turn +comes! + + "'Light lay the earth, John Lee, upon thy clay-- + That so the dogs may easier find their prey.' + +Yes--Squire Yeoland's dogs, and his gamekeepers. It remains +to plan your next appearance before I hasten on to my own." + +He stood and reflected, then nodded his head quickly. + +"They stand along the covert side at regular intervals, and +happily I know how to find 'em. Rest there, 'thou wretched, +rash, intruding fool,' until I've found what I seek." + +He put up his pistol, then looked at his watch. + +"How time flies!" + +Turning round, Peter now plunged into the forest, and at a +covert side, where a drive was cut through dense larch woods +with undergrowth of furze and briar, he began to make search, +and advanced, foot by foot, with the utmost caution. Each yard +of the ground he scrutinised as though his own life depended +upon it; and, indeed, the man's present quest did not lack for +personal danger. Here, a yard within the pheasant coverts, were +set spring-guns two feet above the ground. The countryside +raged against these infernal engines, but at that date they were +legal, and a man might place them in his own preserves if it +pleased him to do so. + +Norcot's purpose was now to discover one of these weapons +and to drag John Lee before it. He then designed to discharge +the gun into his victim's wounded side, and so leave the corpse +for others to find. With utmost care he pursued his search; and +presently he started back with an oath, for his foot actually scraped +a wire, and, looking up, he saw the short, squat muzzle of a gun +fastened to a young larch and pointing straight at his belly. +Peter sweated at this escape. For a moment it unsteadied him. +Then tearing down an ash sapling, peeling it, and sticking it +beside the wire, he returned hastily where the dead man +lay--thirty yards distant. + +Now Norcot deliberately took off his coat and waistcoat, that +they might escape all mark of this deed. Next, he bent down, +grasped Lee under the armpits, gripped his own hands round the +other's back, and began steadily to drag him where stood the +peeled ash wand at the edge of the copse. + +He had approached to within ten yards of the wire, and was +turning his head to see his exact position, when a startling quiver +ran through the inert mass he dragged along. Lee, though +wounded to death, was not yet dead. His feet stuck to the +ground, and Peter felt a pair of arms, limp until now, suddenly +lifted and tightening round his waist. This unexpected spark of +life galvanising a corpse shook him. His own breast was wet +with the other's blood, for John bled from the lung; but he was +still alive, and Norcot guessed at his vitality by the sudden +tightening of the wounded man's arms round his neck. For answer he +squeezed his wretched burden with a hug like a bear, whereon +poor Lee relaxed his hold and his head fell forward again. +But just as Peter had reached the wire and was about to drop +the dying man in a line with the muzzle of the spring-gun, +John's consciousness returned. He appeared to divine the +enemy's intent, and for a moment his strength waxed and he +struggled desperately. Drenched with blood and blinded by +Lee's arm over his face, Peter started back, to be free of his +foe, took him by the throat and hurled him to the ground with +all his strength. + +"Die!" cried the murderer. "Cease this struggling like a +stuck pig and die decently. I----" + +John had hold of the other's leg, but Norcot kicked him and +tore himself free as he spoke. The force of this action, however, +made Peter lose equilibrium. He stepped backwards, hit a +hidden root, slipped his foot and fell heavily upon the wire of the +spring-gun. + +Lee, kicked in the face, had fainted; but he was out of the +line of fire; and now he recovered consciousness in time to gaze +about him and witness the end of Peter Norcot. + +The unlucky wool-stapler, falling as he struck the wire, had +received the charge, at close quarters, in his back. The shot, +though intended to maim or wound, but not to kill, was, under +these circumstances, and at this range, fatal. Moments separated +Norcot from death. The stinging, red-hot agony of the blow +did not deprive him of consciousness. Then, using his last +breath, he cried aloud-- + +"Death and hell--done for! To leave life now! No luck! +Tut--urg--gurg----" + +And Lee, with fading eyes, saw Peter Norcot's life-blood choke +him. + +Thrice he writhed; thrice he beat the earth with his hands and +fought for air; then he perished. + +Cock pheasants began to crow in the coverts; and far away, a +keeper, hearing gun-fire, put a whistle to his mouth and blew it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE PASSING OF JOHN + +Gertrude Norcot stood under the morning light, in +misery and suspense, for the appointed time had passed; +all was in readiness; only her brother tarried. Cecil Stark had +been closeted in the darkened library with Relton Norcot for half +an hour; the man Mason waited at the door; Grace Malherb, +wild with impatience, and already frightened at the delay, asked a +thousand questions, and was with difficulty prevented from leaving +the drawing-room, where she waited with Gertrude. + +Peter Norcot's sister stood irresolute and fearful. That Peter +should be late on such a critical occasion was only to be explained +by unlooked-for ill fortune. What to do she could not guess; +possibility of action there was none; nor dared she speak to +Relton, for he had his hands full with the American. Then, as +she stood in the first clear sunshine of that day, came the sound +of a galloping horse. It approached swiftly, and, not even waiting +until the rider appeared, Miss Norcot, positive that her brother +was close at hand, hastened into the house and bade Grace +Malherb follow her as quickly as possible. + +"At last Peter has returned," she said. "He will come after +us in a moment. Without him we could not begin, for he is one +of the witnesses of the marriage; but we may precede him now. +Already I hear him in the hall. Hasten! And do not fear the +dead darkness. It is vital to Mr. Cecil that no ray of light shall +yet touch his eyes." + +"Thank God that Peter is here, dear Gertrude. I began to +fear a thousand things. Go in front and I will follow you close." + +Gertrude hastened behind the heavy curtains that led to the +study. Through successive folds of increasing gloom they appeared +to penetrate; and then a door stayed their progress. + +"Hold my hand now," said Miss Norcot. "Enter with me and +let me shut the door quickly behind us. Do not speak yet, or let +him know that you are here." + +"Hark!" cried Grace. "Voices behind us--but not Peter's +voice! Gertrude, it is father! No other man speaks so deep or +roars so loud." + +A great volume of sound echoed in the rear, and for a +moment Gertrude Norcot lost her presence of mind. + +"Something has happened to my brother," she said. "I feel +it--I know it. He would be here if he had power to be here. +Come quickly!" + +She pushed Grace into the darkened room, followed her and +locked the door. + +"Peace," she said; "let no voice be lifted. We are in danger!" + +Meanwhile Maurice Malherb, followed by Thomas Putt and +Mark Bickford, had appeared before the dwelling of Peter Norcot, +and become witnesses to strange sights. Upon one side of the +building, standing at ease and evidently waiting for information +from within, were Sergeant Bradridge and a dozen soldiers; +while close at hand a barouche, with four horses and a postilion, +drove slowly up and down. + +Sergeant Bradridge saluted Malherb, but received no answering +compliment. + +"There's devilry afoot here!" cried the master. "We'll not +wait to ring bells, I only pray we're in time. 'Twould match +my usual fortune if the blessing that Heaven sent at dawn was +to be followed by a crushing catastrophe in this affair. Follow +close, my men, and use your weapons if occasion demands it." + +He dismounted, while his blown horse, with outstretched legs, +bent its head and panted hard. Then, banishing ceremony, +Malherb entered the house, and his followers came close at his +heels. Gertrude Norcot heard him bawl for Peter as she locked +the door of the study. But none answered, and for a moment +Norcot's sister regretted her action. She should have faced the +furious father and, with an excuse, have led him from the house. +She lacked her brother's intelligence and ready wit, however, and +now the four waited in silence, while noises without approached +and grew louder. + +Malherb was raving aloud and tramping through the silent house. + +"I'll leave no room unsearched! The scoundrel lied to me +when last I came here--or his sister and that white-faced worm +her cousin, did so. Come; be rough and ready. Fiends and +furies! What trap of curtain on curtain is this? The house is +a spider's web! Prime your pistols and fire 'em if any man stops +you." + +Malherb began tearing down the black hangings that separated +him from the study; Bickford lent a hand. Behind them came +Putt and his uncle, in hasty converse. + +Sergeant Bradridge explained that he was here to capture Cecil +Stark and take him back to the War Prison; while Thomas in +few words told the news, and related how that Peter Norcot had +stolen Grace Malherb from her home and was even now supposed +to be wedding her against her will by special license. + +"'Tis him an' the Lord Archbishop against Mr. Malherb an' +me an' Bickford here; an' I'll back us," said Putt; "an' if you +want to make him a friend for evermore, you'd better lend a +hand to catch this here Peter Norcot; for if I know him, the +man will take a darned lot of catching. He may have scented +John Lee's work and be off a'ready." + +"Close up!" ordered Malherb. "Here's a locked door; but I +heard voices behind it. Stand by while I break it down, and +help me to take him if he shows fight." + +He fired his pistol into the lock of the door, blew it out, and +then dashed into the pitchy darkness beyond. + +He felt a woman against him, and Gertrude Norcot's voice was +lifted. + +"Stand back, Maurice Malherb; you are doing a wicked and +a dangerous thing. My brother----" + +"Where is he?--let him answer for himself. Who are here +in this Egyptian darkness? Grace--Grace--speak! It is your +father." + +"Dear father--oh, listen, I pray you, and try to understand. +All is well--all will be well. Peter has been most good and +generous. He----" + +"Light!" shouted Malherb. "Who can breathe in this inky +air? Hold the door, Putt. Let no man escape while I make +for the window and let in day." + +"Her eyes, sir!" cried Cecil Stark. "For Heaven's sake have +caution! It may mean eternal blindness for her!" + +"Not my eyes, dear Cecil--yours, yours! Oh, father, his +eyes!" + +"Damn everybody's eyes!" roared the master. "There are +foul things wriggling here--as we find under the upturned stone. +But see 'em we must, to crush 'em!" + +Stark interposed fiercely, and the men closed in the dark. + +"You shall not, sir; you know not that Grace's eyes depend +upon it for their recovery." + +"Who the deuce are you? Not Peter----?" + +"Cecil Stark. I am here to marry your daughter at Norcot's +wish and hope." + +"That Yankee again! Light, I say, or I shall go mad!" + +The men reeled and crashed against the window. + +Stark lost his adversary for a moment, and Malherb, feeling +the curtains, tore them down, got to the shutter behind them, +and by main force dragged it off its hinges and broke the bolt. + +A great flood of light burst upon the room, and every eye was +dazzled by the morning sunshine. Cowering in one corner, clad in +his black robe and bands, sat Relton Norcot; Stark stood against +Malherb and turned with a cry of horror to Grace as the daylight +streamed upon her; while she in her turn hastened to him. The +brown eyes fell upon the grey, and each saw that the other's were +unharmed. + +Gertrude Norcot spoke to Malherb. + +"My brother alone can solve this apparent mystery," she said. +"I pray you to withhold your judgment and your passion, +Maurice Malherb, until Peter is here to speak and explain all for +himself." + +"I'm waiting for him. I've nothing to do with anybody else. +Where is he? How comes it that he is not here to marry my +daughter as he intended, the knave?" + +"'Twas for me that he had plotted this romance," said Stark. +"I cannot hear his name abused. The fault is all mine. I----" + +"I'll hark to you later. For the present your business is with +Bradridge here. This was what your admirable friend, Peter +Norcot, had planned for you: a quick return to Prince Town. +Nothing could be better, I trow. And now, my clerk----" + +He turned to where Relton Norcot had been sitting, but the +clergyman was gone. Unobserved he had slipped behind the +curtains, got out of a window and disappeared. + +"He's wise," said Malherb. "He feels that fresh air and daylight +will best serve his purpose now. We shall find him anon." + +Then he approached Grace and took her into his arms. + +"Come what may, I'm in time. This is the greatest day of all +my life. You shall hear about that. I could forgive the +world--I could pardon all my enemies! But let those who know +where Norcot bides hasten to him and bring him hither. He +must answer for much. And answer to me he shall before I +break bread. That he should prove a knave!" + +"If evil has been done," said Gertrude Norcot, "remember +that my brother is still absent. Do not wrong the absent, +Maurice Malherb. Wait until he can speak for himself. Yet +ill has without doubt overtaken him. Nothing but sudden +tribulation can have kept him from us." + +Her prophecy was scarcely uttered when the man Mason ran +past Putt and entered the room without ceremony. + +"Come," he said; "'tis all over with 'em--both. One be +dead an' t'other dying. They'm bringing 'em 'pon hurdles. +Keeper Rowe heard gun-fire, and at last, after searching in the +spinneys above an hour, he found what had failed out there. Oh, +my God!--all up with poor master! Dead as a nail, an' drowned +in his own blood by the looks of it." + +They hastened out upon the terrace, there to find the soldiers +and a dozen working-men crowding round two hurdles. With a +bitter cry Gertrude flung herself upon one, and pressed her arms +about her brother. In the bosom of death he reposed; his +features were ash-coloured; peace marked his countenance. +Upon each of his eyes the labouring men had set a penny +to hide them, but the coins fell off as his sister flung herself upon +Norcot's corpse, and underneath, filmed with death, yet reflecting +something of the vanished man himself, his blue eyeballs +stared upwards through a glaze. They altered his expression and +brought back to it a shadow of Norcot's eternal smile. + +"Shot, your honour," said the keeper to Mr. Malherb. +"The rights of it be hid, unless yonder man have got enough +wind in him to tell it. Us found Mr. Norcot wi' a hole blowed +through his poor back by one of them damned spring-guns; an' +t'other be shot too--through the side. Doctor's coming, for I +sent a lad after un; but how it all fell out us'll never know, onless +this poor blid can say." + +While he spoke, Grace knelt by John Lee, and he saw her and +smiled. Her arms enfolded him. He had lived to rest his head +upon her breast and feel her tears flow. + +"John, John--dear John; you must not die! All is well--you +must live. There was something hidden. We shall never +know. He said that I was blind, and he told me that my love +was blind. And you knew what the mystery was. Oh, if you +could speak! But you mustn't try till you are strong again. +Rest--shut your eyes--God will never let you die, dear John." + +The man spoke faintly. + +"Is Mr. Stark there?" + +"Here; here's my hand holding yours, Lee. I know now that +you were right. He is dead--but you were in the right. Forgive +me for doubting. Your love guided you, mine only blinded +me." + +"I didn't kill him," whispered John. "I meant to do it; but +he killed me. He was dragging me away because he thought me +dead. But I had strength left--and he fell back. Then a gun +fired and he died. I can't tell who shot him. Be you there, Miss +Grace?" + +"My arms are round you, dear John." + +"He meant to wed you in the darkness. He told me so after +I'd fetched the master. He told me all. Now Norcot's dead, +for I saw him die. You're safe--quite safe." + +Malherb and a physician were hanging over Lee, but his eyes +had already grown dim and he did not perceive them. The +medical man shook his head. + +"Only a matter of minutes," he said. "'Tis wonderful that he's +lived so long." + +"John Lee," said Malherb. "You're dying, lad; you're going +the road we all must go. But know that you were in time. My +daughter is safe, as you say. All's out. You've done your duty, +and, though the hand of God killed this man, 'twas you who were +the instrument." + +"You've died for us, John!" sobbed Grace. Her cheek sank +down to his and she kissed him. + +"A good way to die--some use--some use. 'Tis better'n I +deserve--above my highest hopes. Yet often I dreamed I'd die +for 'e. Mr. Stark?" + +"I'm holding your hand, John." + +"Love her--love her while your heart beats." + +"God knows that I will." + +There was a silence, then a sigh; then Malherb lowered John +Lee's head. + +"He's gone--a truer Malherb than many who bear the name. +Let every honest man mourn him, for his life was a pure life and +his end noble. He has saved our honour; he----" + +The speaker broke off and stared where Grace was weeping in +Cecil Stark's arms. + +"What right have you----?" he asked. + +"The right that man died for, sir. His love makes mine but +pale, yet, for Grace's sake and for mine, he laid down his life. I +would perish for him if I could bring him back to the living; but +that cannot be. Therefore I will live to bless his name. I will +strive to be worthy of his sacrifice." + +"And you, daughter Grace?" + +"I was stolen from you, my darling father; and I should have +been stolen for evermore but for what has happened. I love +Cecil and have loved him since I first saw him, so pale and weary +from his struggle with the storm. You saved his life for me, +father. And dear John died for us; his last gentle words----" + +"I heard them as well as you," said Maurice Malherb slowly. +"I understood them. Who could not understand them? There +is a solemn obligation that attaches to the last wish of any good +man. I am in his debt for ever. God forgive me, for I used him +ill. Come hither, Stark. To-day the lightning of heaven would +strike me if I spoke one harsh word, or brought one pang to any +human spirit. The Almighty has blessed me; yet his ways are +past our understanding. That you who are an American--yet--yet +of English blood. And there are closer bonds even than +those of country. How simple were the last words he spoke! +Here you stand--you two. So be it. Take my girl's hand, Cecil +Stark. And before Heaven, remember what that dead man, with +his last breath, said to you--'Love her--love her while your +heart beats.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NEWS FROM VERMONT + +Eighteen months after Peter Norcot and John Lee were +laid to their rest in the dewy and tree-shadowed churchyard +of Chagford, there arrived a post at Fox Tor Farm with two +packets from a far country. For Annabel Malherb from her +son-in-law, Cecil Stark, of Vermont, came one communication; and +the second reached Mr. Richard Beer. His old companion and +fellow-worker, Putt, had sent it. + +After the catastrophe that terminated Peter Norcot's life, it is +to be noted that Thomas Putt assumed a position of some +prominence. Despite his family and his own straitened affairs, +Malherb regretted the ancient Lovey's tragic end; but since she +was now without further question dead and buried: at a cross +road in a suicide's grave, the amphora returned to its owner; and +Tom Putt, as the man responsible for this notable circumstance, +received a very generous reward. With comparative wealth and +the possibilities of a new country before him, Thomas accepted +service under Cecil Stark, and when the young sailor returned to +his own country, he took with him not only his bride, but also a +white and a black attendant. Before the lover sailed for home, +James Knapps had already returned in a cartel ship to his native +land; but Sam Cuffee rejoined Stark as soon as the American +procured his liberation; and Sam never lost sight of his master +again. + +At last the mournful mansions of Prince Town were empty +and deserted; grasses and weeds blossomed where sorrowful +feet had pressed their courts; the bats squeaked and clustered +in their mighty corridors; decay and desolation claimed them all. +Moor folk told how no sweet water would cleanse those floors of +blood, how pestilence still lurked in the vaults and foul recesses, +how shadows of mournful spirits here stalked together through +the livelong night, wailed to the moon and only vanished when +grey dawn disturbed them. Dark stories gathered above the +empty War Prison, like crows around a corpse. Rumour hinted +of secret graves and murders unrecorded and unguessed; the +crypts gave up human bones to the searchers; unholy inscriptions +and curses against a forgetful God stared out upon dark +walls at the light of torches; signs of infamy, of evil, and of +all the passion, agony and heartbreak of vanished thousands +appeared; hoarded horrors came to light; a spirit of misery +untold still haunted the mouldering limbo. Yet as time passed, the +forces of Nature worked within these barred gates and toiled by +day and night to sweeten and purify, to obliterate and cleanse. +The west wind and the rain, the frost and the mist, the sunlight +and the storm all laboured here. Torrents washed and hurricanes +howled into every hole and alley; up-springing seeds and +swelling mosses softened the old sentry-ways upon the ramparts; +green things broke the cruel contours of the walls; rusting and +shattered iron at a thousand windows grew red and dripped +streaks of warm colour upon the weathered granite. + +Now the War Prison has vanished, and its story is told. In +the vast archives of human torment the narrative fills but a brief +paragraph; and therein all that pitiful history, to the last secret +tear and the last act of malice, to the last noble self-denial +and unanswered prayer, is recorded, to endure for time. + +Mr. Beer read his letter aloud after supper in the servants' hall. + +"A very understanding man was Thomas Putt, though cunning +an' tricky as a fox, as I always told him," declared Kekewich, +from his seat beside the fire. + +"An' larned to write since he went to America, seemingly," +said Dinah Beer. "There was nought that chap couldn't reach +when he gave his intellects to it." + +"He starts off with some general good wishes for all the +company at Fox Tor Farm an' his Uncle Bradridge, if we should +chance to meet with him," began Beer. "Then he goes on +upon affairs in general in these words." + +Richard read from Putt's letter:-- + + +"An' I be glad I didn't marry Mason's sister to Chaggyford, +for to be plain, there's better here, an' a man of sense can have +his pick of very fine maidens. But I ban't going to rush at 'em. +I've got my own bit of ground rented from Mr. Stark, an' pretty +soil it is too. The first crop of wheat I takes off it will more than +pay the expenses of clearing! That'll make your mouths to water, +I reckon. Such crops as come up I never did see or hear tell +about, an' if anybody had told me there was such fat virgin land +in the world, just natural with never a load of muck on it since +the Flood, I should have said the man was a liar. An' there +ban't no Duchy in Vermont! An' never a bigger-minded, more +generous gentleman living than Mr. Stark. Thousands upon +thousands of acres he've got. Blamed if I don't believe as you +could put Dartymoor down in the middle an' lose it! He'm a +great farmer; an' I've heard un say 'tis the best of the human +crafts after sailoring. T'other sorts of business teach a man to +be rich, an' powerful like, an' witty; but the land--where should +us be without that? It keeps the world alive an' finds food an' +clothes for all the humans on the earth." + + +"'Tis true," said Woodman. "An', what's more, I hold as the +land be next to the Bible for keeping a man out of mischief--so +long as he sticks to it. 'Tis the sticking does it. If Adam's self +had but kept to his job----" + +"Putt says a bit more; us can have a tell after," interrupted +Beer. Then, amid real and lively interest, he narrated a matter +with which, elsewhere, the master and his wife were also most +deeply concerned. + +Maurice Malherb sat and calculated the value of his next year's +crop of wool. As usual, he set it as high as his hopes. He had +sold the Malherb amphora for eighteen thousand pounds, and +henceforth found himself and his farm in prosperous circumstances. + +Now Annabel read slowly the budget from Cecil Stark. It was +in the nature of a diary, and anon Malherb, pushing his papers +and figures violently from him, spoke. + +"For love of Heaven, leave that solid prosing, and look forward +to the end. Grace--how is it with her? There should be great +news. But he's so balanced, so self-contained, so methodical. +He'll set things in their proper order though the heavens fall. +Look on--look on to the end!" + +"He writes from day to day, dear Maurice." + +"Let him. We need not read so. Turn the pages quickly." + +Mrs. Malherb obeyed, glanced forward, then uttered a joyful +cry and dropped the budget. + +"A boy--a precious little boy; and our sweet one well--quite +well--before the letter sailed. 'Gloriously happy,' he says." + +"I knew it! Pick up the letter. A boy! They have called +him Maurice Malherb? That is certain." + +She read again; then shook her head. + +"Not so?" he asked with a heightened voice. "Then 'tis +'Malherb'--just the name. Yet I could have wished----" + +"No, dear heart. They have not called him Malherb." + +He started and flushed. + +"Stark's name alone, I suppose? That is not well. I marvel +they could do so improper a thing! Is it not enough that she +has broken our hearthstone? Will she also forget us? + +"The little one is called John, dear Maurice--only that." + +He was quite silent for a moment, staring before him. His +warmth died away and then he spoke. + +"Good--very good! Well thought on! I'm glad they've done +that. And the dead would be glad. Perchance he is so. All is +right with our girl, you say--you hide nothing?" + +"All is as right as our love could wish." + +"God be praised for His manifold mercies then." + +She rose and came to his side. + +"Do you remember, Maurice, how once you wished for Grace's +firstborn, and planned and hoped that he should be a Malherb?" + +"Forget it," he said. "'Tis but a fool's part to remember +dreams." + +He bent his head and his great square jaw hardened. + +"No, no. This place follows me to the dust, and with me +vanishes from man's memory for ever. None shall remember +me after I have passed by, and none bear my name any more. +Let it depart, like the mist 'of the morning, and be forgotten." + +"May our grandchild be even such as you, brave heart! A +man among men--generous, honest, just." + +Malherb shook his head. + +"Never--never. Rather pray that he follow his father. But +not like me--not like me." + +She put her arms round his neck and kissed him. + + + +THE END + + + + PLYMOUTH + WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON + PRINTERS + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The American Prisoner, by Eden Phillpotts + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58232 *** |