The Trumpet-Major

  XXXI. MIDNIGHT VISITORS

  Miss Garland and Loveday walked leisurely to the inn and called for horse-and-gig. While the hostler was bringing it round, the landlord, who knewBob and his family well, spoke to him quietly in the passage.

  'Is this then because you want to throw dust in the eyes of the BlackDiamond chaps?' (with an admiring glance at Bob's costume).

  'The Black Diamond?' said Bob; and Anne turned pale.

  'She hove in sight just after dark, and at nine o'clock a boat havingmore than a dozen marines on board, with cloaks on, rowed into harbour.'

  Bob reflected. 'Then there'll be a press to-night; depend upon it,' hesaid.

  'They won't know you, will they, Bob?' said Anne anxiously.

  'They certainly won't know him for a seaman now,' remarked the landlord,laughing, and again surveying Bob up and down. 'But if I was you two, Ishould drive home-along straight and quiet; and be very busy in the millall to-morrow, Mr. Loveday.'

  They drove away; and when they had got onward out of the town, Annestrained her eyes wistfully towards Portland. Its dark contour, lyinglike a whale on the sea, was just perceptible in the gloom as thebackground to half-a-dozen ships' lights nearer at hand.

  'They can't make you go, now you are a gentleman tradesman, can they?'she asked.

  'If they want me they can have me, dearest. I have often said I ought tovolunteer.'

  'And not care about me at all?'

  'It is just that that keeps me at home. I won't leave you if I can helpit.'

  'It cannot make such a vast difference to the country whether one mangoes or stays! But if you want to go you had better, and not mind us atall!'

  Bob put a period to her speech by a mark of affection to which historyaffords many parallels in every age. She said no more about the BlackDiamond; but whenever they ascended a hill she turned her head to look atthe lights in Portland Roads, and the grey expanse of intervening sea.

  Though Captain Bob had stated that he did not wish to volunteer, andwould not leave her if he could help it, the remark required somequalification. That Anne was charming and loving enough to chain himanywhere was true; but he had begun to find the mill-work terriblyirksome at times. Often during the last month, when standing among therumbling cogs in his new miller's suit, which ill became him, he hadyawned, thought wistfully of the old pea-jacket, and the waters of thedeep blue sea. His dread of displeasing his father by showing anythingof this change of sentiment was great; yet he might have braved it butfor knowing that his marriage with Anne, which he hoped might take placethe next year, was dependent entirely upon his adherence to the millbusiness. Even were his father indifferent, Mrs. Loveday would neverintrust her only daughter to the hands of a husband who would be awayfrom home five-sixths of his time.

  But though, apart from Anne, he was not averse to seafaring in itself, tobe smuggled thither by the machinery of a press-gang was intolerable; andthe process of seizing, stunning, pinioning, and carrying off unwillinghands was one which Bob as a man had always determined to hold outagainst to the utmost of his power. Hence, as they went towards home, hefrequently listened for sounds behind him, but hearing none he assuredhis sweetheart that they were safe for that night at least. The mill wasstill going when they arrived, though old Mr. Loveday was not to be seen;he had retired as soon as he heard the horse's hoofs in the lane, leavingBob to watch the grinding till three o'clock; when the elder would rise,and Bob withdraw to bed--a frequent arrangement between them since Bobhad taken the place of grinder.

  Having reached the privacy of her own room, Anne threw open the window,for she had not the slightest intention of going to bed just yet. Thetale of the Black Diamond had disturbed her by a slow, insidious processthat was worse than sudden fright. Her window looked into the courtbefore the house, now wrapped in the shadow of the trees and the hill;and she leaned upon its sill listening intently. She could have heardany strange sound distinctly enough in one direction; but in the otherall low noises were absorbed in the patter of the mill, and the rush ofwater down the race.

  However, what she heard came from the hitherto silent side, and wasintelligible in a moment as being the footsteps of men. She tried tothink they were some late stragglers from Budmouth. Alas! no; the trampwas too regular for that of villagers. She hastily turned, extinguishedthe candle, and listened again. As they were on the main road there was,after all, every probability that the party would pass the bridge whichgave access to the mill court without turning in upon it, or evennoticing that such an entrance existed. In this again she wasdisappointed: they crossed into the front without a pause. Thepulsations of her heart became a turmoil now, for why should these men,if they were the press-gang, and strangers to the locality, have supposedthat a sailor was to be found here, the younger of the two millersLoveday being never seen now in any garb which could suggest that he wasother than a miller pure, like his father? One of the men spoke.

  'I am not sure that we are in the right place,' he said.

  'This is a mill, anyhow,' said another.

  'There's lots about here.'

  'Then come this way a moment with your light.'

  Two of the group went towards the cart-house on the opposite side of theyard, and when they reached it a dark lantern was opened, the rays beingdirected upon the front of the miller's waggon.

  '"Loveday and Son, Overcombe Mill,"' continued the man, reading from thewaggon. '"Son," you see, is lately painted in. That's our man.'

  He moved to turn off the light, but before he had done so it flashed overthe forms of the speakers, and revealed a sergeant, a naval officer, anda file of marines.

  Anne waited to see no more. When Bob stayed up to grind, as he was doingto-night, he often sat in his room instead of remaining all the time inthe mill; and this room was an isolated chamber over the bakehouse, whichcould not be reached without going downstairs and ascending thestep-ladder that served for his staircase. Anne descended in the dark,clambered up the ladder, and saw that light strayed through the chinkbelow the door. His window faced towards the garden, and hence the lightcould not as yet have been seen by the press-gang.

  'Bob, dear Bob!' she said, through the keyhole. 'Put out your light, andrun out of the back-door!'

  'Why?' said Bob, leisurely knocking the ashes from the pipe he had beensmoking.

  'The press-gang!'

  'They have come? By God! who can have blown upon me? All right,dearest. I'm game.'

  Anne, scarcely knowing what she did, descended the ladder and ran to theback-door, hastily unbolting it to save Bob's time, and gently opening itin readiness for him. She had no sooner done this than she felt handslaid upon her shoulder from without, and a voice exclaiming, 'That's howwe doos it--quite an obleeging young man!'

  Though the hands held her rather roughly, Anne did not mind for herself,and turning she cried desperately, in tones intended to reach Bob's ears:'They are at the back-door; try the front!'

  But inexperienced Miss Garland little knew the shrewd habits of thegentlemen she had to deal with, who, well used to this sort of pastime,had already posted themselves at every outlet from the premises.

  'Bring the lantern,' shouted the fellow who held her. 'Why--'tis a girl!I half thought so--Here is a way in,' he continued to his comrades,hastening to the foot of the ladder which led to Bob's room.

  'What d'ye want?' said Bob, quietly opening the door, and showing himselfstill radiant in the full dress that he had worn with such effect at theTheatre Royal, which he had been about to change for his mill suit whenAnne gave the alarm.

  'This gentleman can't be the right one,' observed a marine, ratherimpressed by Bob's appearance.

  'Yes, yes; that's the man,' said the sergeant. 'Now take it quietly, myyoung cock-o'-wax. You look as if you meant to, and 'tis wise of ye.'

  'Where are you going to take me?' said Bob.

  'Only aboard the Black Diamond. If you choose to take the bounty andcome voluntarily, you'll be allow
ed to go ashore whenever your ship's inport. If you don't, and we've got to pinion ye, you will not have yourliberty at all. As you must come, willy-nilly, you'll do the first ifyou've any brains whatever.'

  Bob's temper began to rise. 'Don't you talk so large, about yourpinioning, my man. When I've settled--'

  'Now or never, young blow-hard,' interrupted his informant.

  'Come, what jabber is this going on?' said the lieutenant, steppingforward. 'Bring your man.'

  One of the marines set foot on the ladder, but at the same moment a shoefrom Bob's hand hit the lantern with well-aimed directness, knocking itclean out of the grasp of the man who held it. In spite of the darknessthey began to scramble up the ladder. Bob thereupon shut the door, whichbeing but of slight construction, was as he knew only a momentarydefence. But it gained him time enough to open the window, gather up hislegs upon the sill, and spring across into the apple-tree growingwithout. He alighted without much hurt beyond a few scratches from theboughs, a shower of falling apples testifying to the force of his leap.

  'Here he is!' shouted several below who had seen Bob's figure flying likea raven's across the sky.

  There was stillness for a moment in the tree. Then the fugitive madehaste to climb out upon a low-hanging branch towards the garden, at whichthe men beneath all rushed in that direction to catch him as he dropped,saying, 'You may as well come down, old boy. 'Twas a spry jump, and wegive ye credit for 't.'

  The latter movement of Loveday had been a mere feint. Partly hidden bythe leaves he glided back to the other part of the tree, from whence itwas easy to jump upon a thatch-covered out-house. This intention theydid not appear to suspect, which gave him the opportunity of sliding downthe slope and entering the back door of the mill.

  'He's here, he's here!' the men exclaimed, running back from the tree.

  By this time they had obtained another light, and pursued him closelyalong the back quarters of the mill. Bob had entered the lower room,seized hold of the chain by which the flour-sacks were hoisted from storyto story by connexion with the mill-wheel, and pulled the rope that hungalongside for the purpose of throwing it into gear. The foremostpursuers arrived just in time to see Captain Bob's legs and shoe-bucklesvanishing through the trap-door in the joists overhead, his person havingbeen whirled up by the machinery like any bag of flour, and the trapfalling to behind him.

  'He's gone up by the hoist!' said the sergeant, running up the ladder inthe corner to the next floor, and elevating the light just in time to seeBob's suspended figure ascending in the same way through the same sort oftrap into the second floor. The second trap also fell together behindhim, and he was lost to view as before.

  It was more difficult to follow now; there was only a flimsy littleladder, and the men ascended cautiously. When they stepped out upon theloft it was empty.

  'He must ha' let go here,' said one of the marines, who knew more aboutmills than the others. 'If he had held fast a moment longer, he wouldhave been dashed against that beam.'

  They looked up. The hook by which Bob had held on had ascended to theroof, and was winding round the cylinder. Nothing was visible elsewherebut boarded divisions like the stalls of a stable, on each side of thestage they stood upon, these compartments being more or less heaped upwith wheat and barley in the grain.

  'Perhaps he's buried himself in the corn.'

  The whole crew jumped into the corn-bins, and stirred about their yellowcontents; but neither arm, leg, nor coat-tail was uncovered. Theyremoved sacks, peeped among the rafters of the roof, but to no purpose.The lieutenant began to fume at the loss of time.

  'What cursed fools to let the man go! Why, look here, what's this?' Hehad opened the door by which sacks were taken in from waggons without,and dangling from the cat-head projecting above it was the rope used inlifting them. 'There's the way he went down,' the officer continued.'The man's gone.'

  Amidst mumblings and curses the gang descended the pair of ladders andcame into the open air; but Captain Bob was nowhere to be seen. Whenthey reached the front door of the house the miller was standing on thethreshold, half dressed.

  'Your son is a clever fellow, miller,' said the lieutenant; 'but it wouldhave been much better for him if he had come quiet.'

  'That's a matter of opinion,' said Loveday.

  'I have no doubt that he's in the house.'

  'He may be; and he may not.'

  'Do you know where he is?'

  'I do not; and if I did I shouldn't tell.'

  'Naturally.'

  'I heard steps beating up the road, sir,' said the sergeant.

  They turned from the door, and leaving four of the marines to keep watchround the house, the remainder of the party marched into the lane as faras where the other road branched off. While they were pausing to decidewhich course to take, one of the soldiers held up the light. A blackobject was discernible upon the ground before them, and they found it tobe a hat--the hat of Bob Loveday.

  'We are on the track,' cried the sergeant, deciding for this direction.

  They tore on rapidly, and the footsteps previously heard became audibleagain, increasing in clearness, which told that they gained upon thefugitive, who in another five minutes stopped and turned. The rays ofthe candle fell upon Anne.

  'What do you want?' she said, showing her frightened face.

  They made no reply, but wheeled round and left her. She sank down on thebank to rest, having done all she could. It was she who had taken downBob's hat from a nail, and dropped it at the turning with the view ofmisleading them till he should have got clear off.