The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane

by Frank Barrett

  CHAPTER III.

  BY A CUNNING STRATAGEM I AM GOT OUT OF JACK GEDDES' HANDS, AND BROUGHTABOARD THE "SURE HAWK."

  The two parties of sheriff's men were distant from each other, as I tookit by the sound of their voices, no more than a hundred yards, so thatwe could not burst away in any direction without hazard of being seen;and a foolhardy hazard it had been, for Jack Geddes and his party werearmed with muskets, and would not have scrupled to use them. Yet how toescape did not appear until Rodrigues (as luck would have it) spied afairly deep hole which had served at one time for a sawpit, and to thishe hurried me, and we both leaped in, and there, in a twinkling, did hescrape aside the loose sawdust that lay at the bottom; and in the troughthus hastily made, I, seeing his intent, threw myself full length, andas quickly was smothered over from top to toe with the sawdust, so thatnothing was visible of me.

  By this time the two parties were joined, and there they set up a greatshouting and cursing because I was no longer bound to the tree as I hadbeen left. And not only did they curse me, but they cursed Rodrigues asheartily, vowing they would pepper him with their bullets as a faithlessvillain if they saw him. Whereupon this, Rodrigues, laying himself proneupon my body, set a most dismal groaning, like one in pain, hearingwhich Jack Geddes and the rest came rushing to the pit. Seeing him thereall alone and doubled up as though he had been broke, half a dozen, inone breath, began to question him how he came there, what was amiss withhim, etc. To which he replies with a groan:

  "'Tis all along of that Pengilly! I was but dozing, when I heard one cry'Jack Geddes'" (here a groan), "and the same moment I saw Pengilly witha mighty wrench tear himself from the tree. Up I started and after him,when, being but half awake, I threw myself in this cursed hole, and herehave I broke my arm, I do believe. But do you leave me here (where I amas well as elsewhere), and catch the villain. I would not for the lossof both arms miss seeing his ears cropped."

  "Ay! we will catch him: have no fear," says Geddes; "scatter yourselves,my fine fellows, and shoot down the rascal if you do but sight him, forwe shall suffer for it if he escape us."

  Whereupon the men, more concerned for themselves than for any hurt ofRodrigues, started off like hounds unleashed, and each, in his severaldirection, bent upon taking me again alive or dead. And it was none toosoon, for the sawdust entering my mouth and nostrils when I breathed, Iwas pretty nigh choked--to say nothing of the oppression I suffered fromthe cords that pinned my arms and Rodrigues lying upon my back.

  So when they were gone and Rodrigues, standing up and peering over theedge, said that all was clear, I lifted my head, shaking off the sawdustand spitting out that which had got into my throat, and breathed again.

  "Now," said Rodrigues; "Now may we escape, for being all scattered, ourpursuers are less likely to take us."

  "Do but cut this cord," says I, "and I warrant not any two shall takeme."

  "Ay," says he, "I will cut your bonds with a good heart. But first youmust swear to be secret and silent; nay, you must swear also to beobedient to my direction without question or murmuring, else will Ileave you here to fare for yourself."

  I promised him this, for I was in no position to haggle over terms; yetmy promise was not enough for him, but he, taking his dagger by theblade, held it to my mouth, and would have me kiss the cross of it,swearing by that sign as a Christian to obey him in every particular.And this I did, the more readily because of the cord which Jack Geddeshad knotted so cruelly about my arms that it bit into my flesh to myintolerable hurt.

  Having thus made me take oath, he cut the cord, and I was free; yet forsome time could I not use my arms with any freedom, by reason they wereso benumbed and bruised. Nevertheless, I managed to scramble up out ofthe pit after Rodrigues, and thence, I following on his heels, with thestealth of any cats, we pushed our way by bush and briar through thethickest part of the wood, where, at sight of an enemy, we might liedown and be unseen. On we went, Rodrigues leading and keeping the sunwell before, for a matter of three miles or thereabouts, withoutencountering any of my pursuers; and then, perceiving that if we kept onin this direction we must shortly come to Flushing, which lies (as Ihave said) on the hither side of the Fal, opposite Penny-come-quick, Itwitched Rodrigues by the skirt and gave him to understand this, addingthat there was not a fisherman there but knew me, and would have mehanged if he could; and this was true, for I was known and feared allround and about these parts, and held to be a wild man of the woods,very dreadful and dangerous, and a bogey to frighten children withal.

  "I know well enough where I am going," says he.

  "That may be," says I; "yet this is but a stepping out of the frying-paninto the fire, so far as I am concerned."

  Whereupon he taps the handle of his dagger as a sign to me to remembermy oath, and that is all the satisfaction I got.

  So on we go again, still keeping the sun before up; and descending thehill anon we come to the river-side, and here Rodrigues stops, lookingto the right and left, as if uncertain; then, putting his hand over hismouth, he gives the cry of "Cuckoo!" as natural as ever I did hear, andstraight there comes an answer in the same manner from a thicket furtherup the river-side. Thither we made our way, but with great care, nowbeing no more than a furlong or thereabouts from the village, screenedoff by a jutting point of land well timbered; and soon, passing throughthe said thicket, we came on a little creek, in which lay a boat,wherein sat a couple of seamen as tawny as Rodrigues, but stouter andbetter favored, albeit one lacked an eye.

  All about this creek there lay an open space, from which an alley ran upinto the wood; and, lest he should be observed, Rodrigues would notadvance beyond the brush, whence he signaled his fellows to know if allwere safe. And he with the one eye, rising up and stretching himself asif he were aweary, spied up the alley and all round and about, and thensignaled, by winking his one eye, that he could see nothing; whereuponRodrigues bade me cross the open quickly, get into the boat, and liedown under the sail that was there. He came not himself, but was gonewhen I got to the boat and cast my eye round for him. And here I maytell what I afterwards learnt concerning him. He made his way back withall speed to the sawpit, and lay there as if he had never budged whenthe men came back from their search after me, still feigning to begreatly hurt with his arm, though happily assured that it was notbroken.

  Meanwhile I, following his direction without knowing what the endthereof might be, got into the boat, and, lying down in the bottom, wascovered over with the sail-cloth by one of the mariners, while the otherloosed the boat from its moorings; and this was done none too quickly,for as the fellow was stepping into the boat from untying of theheadline, who should come down into the open but John Geddes himself, asI knew full well by his voice.

  "Hold, there!" says he, hailing the seamen. "Have you seen a great,sturdy fellow in a leather jerkin pass this way?"

  "Not we," replies one; "and we've been on the lookout for such a mansince yesterday afternoon--and a pox to him!"

  "And, pray, who set you to wait for him?" asked Geddes, and his voicetold that he was now close by the boat's side.

  "Why, that's my master's business that sent us, and none of yours," saidthe fellow.

  "Hold your clapper, Ned, and lend a hand with your oar," cries his mate,"for the boat is aground, and I can't shove her off. Yo, ho! alltogether! yo, ho?--there we be! Now off we go, Pengilly or no Pengilly,for, curse me," says he, "my in'ards will stand this griping no longer."

  Then there sprang up a dissension between the two seamen and Geddes, whowould have them ferry him over to Penny-come-quick, and they would not;and he, laying the stock of his musket on the gunwale to draw the boatso that he might step in, one of them flung it off, while the otherfetched him a blow on the head with his oar that laid Master Geddessenseless on his back. Then says the first to the other--

  "Lay to, Ned, for God's sake, or mischief will come of this."

  All this while I lay still under the sail-cloth, expecting, for the mostpart, nothing less but to
feel Geddes' foot step on to me. But hisbusiness being so concluded, I heard nothing more but the dip of theoars, the ripple of water under me, and the working of the rowlocks,until one of the men said to the other, "Pull under her lee, that we benot seen from the shore"; and the next minute the boat bumped, and thesail-cloth being whipped off, I found that we lay under the side of afine, high ship.

  "Up you go, comrade, quick," says Ned (he with one eye).

  Then up the rope steps that hung by the ship's side I sped, and beingcome on deck was as speedily hustled down into the dark hold below,where they who had followed me down barricaded me round about withdivers barrels, bidding me lie quiet until I should be told it was safeto venture forth.

  And all this time I knew not that I had come as a runaway aboard myuncle's ship the _Sure Hawk_; but so it was.