The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 8

  CHAPTER VI

  ARBLASTER AGAIN

  When Dick and Lawless were suffered to steal, by a back way, out of thehouse where Lord Risingham held his garrison, the evening had alreadycome.

  They paused in shelter of the garden wall to consult on their bestcourse. The danger was extreme. If one of Sir Daniel's men caught sightof them and raised the view-hallo, they would be run down and butcheredinstantly. And not only was the town of Shoreby a mere net of peril fortheir lives, but to make for the open country was to run the risk of thepatrols.

  A little way off, upon some open ground, they spied a windmill standing;and, hard by that, a very large granary with open doors.

  "How if we lay there until the night fall?" Dick proposed.

  And Lawless having no better suggestion to offer, they made a straightpush for the granary at a run, and concealed themselves behind the dooramong some straw. The daylight rapidly departed; and presently the moonwas silvering the frozen snow. Now or never was their opportunity togain the "Goat and Bagpipes" unobserved and change their tell-talegarments. Yet even then it was advisable to go round by the outskirts,and not run the gauntlet of the market-place, where, in the concourse ofpeople, they stood the more imminent peril to be recognised and slain.

  This course was a long one. It took them not far from the house by thebeach, now lying dark and silent, and brought them forth at last by themargin of the harbour. Many of the ships, as they could see by the clearmoonshine, had weighed anchor, and, profiting by the calm sky,proceeded for more distant parts; answerably to this, the rude alehousesalong the beach (although, in defiance of the curfew law, they stillshone with fire and candle) were no longer thronged with customers, andno longer echoed to the chorus of sea-songs.

  Hastily, half-running, with their monkish raiment kilted to the knee,they plunged through the deep snow and threaded the labyrinth of marinelumber; and they were already more than half-way round the harbour when,as they were passing close before an alehouse, the door suddenly openedand let out a gush of light upon their fleeting figures.

  Instantly they stopped, and made believe to be engaged in earnestconversation.

  Three men, one after another, came out of the alehouse, and the lastclosed the door behind him. All three were unsteady upon their feet, asif they had passed the day in deep potations, and they now stoodwavering in the moon-light, like men who knew not what they would beafter. The tallest of the three was talking in a loud, lamentable voice.

  "Seven pieces of as good Gascony as ever a tapster broached," he wassaying, "the best ship out o' the port o' Dartmouth, a Virgin Maryparcel-gilt, thirteen pounds of good gold money----"

  "I have bad losses too," interrupted one of the others. "I have hadlosses of mine own, gossip Arblaster. I was robbed at Martinmas of fiveshillings and a leather wallet well worth ninepence farthing."

  Dick's heart smote him at what he heard. Until that moment he had notperhaps thought twice of the poor skipper who had been ruined by theloss of the _Good Hope_; so careless, in those days, were men who worearms of the goods and interests of their inferiors. But this suddenencounter reminded him sharply of the high-handed manner and ill-endingof his enterprise; and both he and Lawless turned their heads the otherway, to avoid the chance of recognition.

  The ship's dog had, however, made his escape from the wreck and foundhis way back again to Shoreby. He was now at Arblaster's heels, and,suddenly sniffing and pricking his ears, he darted forward and began tobark furiously at the two sham friars.

  His master unsteadily followed him.

  "Hey, shipmates!" he cried. "Have ye ever a penny piece for a poor oldshipman, clean destroyed by pirates? I am a man that would have paid foryou both o' Thursday morning; and now here I be o' Saturday night,begging for a flagon of ale! Ask my man Tom, if ye misdoubt me. Sevenpieces of good Gascon wine, a ship that was mine own, and was myfather's before me, a Blessed Mary of plane-tree wood and parcel-gilt,and thirteen pounds in gold and silver. Hey! what say ye? A man thatfought the French too; for I have fought the French; I have cut moreFrench throats upon the high seas than ever a man that sails out ofDartmouth. Come, a penny piece."

  Neither Dick nor Lawless durst answer him a word, lest he shouldrecognise their voices; and they stood there as helpless as a shipashore, not knowing where to turn nor what to hope.

  "Are ye dumb, boy?" inquired the skipper.--"Mates," he added, with ahiccup, "they be dumb. I like not this manner of discourtesy; for an aman be dumb, so be as he's courteous, he will still speak when he wasspoken to, methinks."

  By this time the sailor, Tom, who was a man of great personal strength,seemed to have conceived some suspicion of these two speechless figures;and, being soberer than his captain, stepped suddenly before him, tookLawless roughly by the shoulder, and asked him, with an oath, what ailedhim that he held his tongue. To this the outlaw, thinking all was over,made answer by a wrestling feint that stretched the sailor on the sand,and, calling upon Dick to follow him, took to his heels among thelumber.

  The affair passed in a second. Before Dick could run at all, Arblasterhad him in his arms; Tom, crawling on his face, had caught him by onefoot, and the third man had a drawn cutlass brandishing above his head.

  It was not so much the danger, it was not so much the annoyance that nowbowed down the spirits of young Shelton; it was the profound humiliationto have escaped Sir Daniel, convinced Lord Risingham, and now fallhelpless into the hands of this old drunken sailor; and not merelyhelpless, but, as his conscience loudly told him when it was too late,actually guilty--actually the bankrupt debtor of the man whose ship hehad stolen and lost.

  "Bring me him back into the alehouse, till I see his face," saidArblaster.

  "Nay, nay," returned Tom; "but let us first unload his wallet, lest theother lads cry share."

  But though he was searched from head to foot not a penny was found uponhim; nothing but Lord Foxham's signet, which they plucked savagely fromhis finger.

  "Turn me him to the moon," said the skipper; and taking Dick by thechin, he cruelly jerked his head into the air. "Blessed Virgin!" hecried, "it is the pirate."

  "Hey!" cried Tom.

  "By the Virgin of Bordeaux, it is the man himself!" repeatedArblaster.--"What, sea-thief, do I hold you?" he cried. "Where is myship? Where is my wine? Hey! have I you in my hands?--Tom, give me oneend of a cord here; I will so truss me this sea-thief, hand and foottogether, like a basting turkey--marry, I will so bind him up--andthereafter I will so beat--so beat him!"

  And so he ran on, winding the cord meanwhile about Dick's limbs with thedexterity peculiar to seamen, and at every turn and cross securing itwith a knot, and tightening the whole fabric with a savage pull.

  When he had done, the lad was a mere package in his hands--as helplessas the dead. The skipper held him at arm's-length, and laughed aloud.Then he fetched him a stunning buffet on the ear; and then turned himabout, and furiously kicked and kicked him. Anger rose up in Dick'sbosom like a storm; anger strangled him, and he thought to have died;but when the sailor, tired of this cruel play, dropped him all hislength upon the sand and turned to consult with his companions, heinstantly regained command of his temper. Here was a momentary respite;ere they began again to torture him, he might have found some method toescape from this degrading and fatal misadventure.

  Presently, sure enough, and while his captors were still discussing whatto do with him, he took heart of grace, and, with a pretty steady voice,addressed them.

  "My masters," he began, "are ye gone clean foolish? Here hath Heaven putinto your hands as pretty an occasion to grow rich as ever shipmanhad--such as ye might make thirty over-sea adventures and not findagain--and, by the mass! what do ye? Beat me?--nay; so would an angrychild! But for long-headed tarry-Johns, that fear not fire nor water,and that love gold as they love beef, methinks ye are not wise."

  "Ay," said Tom, "now y' are trussed ye would cozen us."

  "Cozen you!" repeated Dick. "Nay, if ye be fools, it would be easy. Buti
f ye be shrewd fellows, as I trow ye are, ye can see plainly where yourinterest lies. When I took your ship from you, we were many, we werewell clad and armed; but now, bethink you a little, who mustered thatarray? One incontestably that hath made much gold. And if he, beingalready rich, continueth to hunt after more even in the face ofstorms--bethink you once more--shall there not be a treasure somewherehidden?"

  "What meaneth he?" asked one of the men.

  "Why, if ye have lost an old skiff and a few jugs of vinegary wine,"continued Dick, "forget them, for the trash they are; and do ye ratherbuckle to an adventure worth the name, that shall, in twelve hours, makeor mar you for ever. But take me up from where I lie, and let us gosomewhere near at hand and talk across a flagon, for I am sore andfrozen, and my mouth is half among the snow."

  "He seeks but to cozen us," said Tom contemptuously.

  "Cozen! cozen!" cried the third man. "I would I could see the man thatcould cozen me! He were a cozener indeed! Nay, I was not born yesterday.I can see a church when it hath a steeple on it; and for my part, gossipArblaster, methinks there is some sense in this young man. Shall we gohear him, indeed? Say, shall we go hear him?"

  "I would look gladly on a pottle of strong ale, good Master Pirret,"returned Arblaster.--"How say ye, Tom? But then the wallet is empty."

  "I will pay," said the other--"I will pay. I would fain see this matterout; I do believe, upon my conscience, there is gold in it."

  "Nay, if ye get again to drinking, all is lost!" cried Tom.

  "Gossip Arblaster, ye suffer your fellow to have too much liberty,"returned Master Pirret. "Would ye be led by a hired man? Fy, fy!"

  "Peace, fellow!" said Arblaster, addressing Tom. "Will ye put your oarin? Truly a fine pass, when the crew is to correct the skipper!"

  "Well, then, go your way," said Tom; "I wash my hands of you."

  "Set him, then, upon his feet," said Master Pirret. "I know a privyplace where we may drink and discourse."

  "If I am to walk, my friends, ye must set my feet at liberty," saidDick, when he had been once more planted upright like a post.

  "He saith true," laughed Pirret. "Truly, he could not walk accoutred ashe is. Give it a slit--out with your knife and slit it, gossip."

  Even Arblaster paused at this proposal; but as his companion continuedto insist, and Dick had the sense to keep the merest wooden indifferenceof expression, and only shrugged his shoulders over the delay, theskipper consented at last, and cut the cords which tied his prisoner'sfeet and legs. Not only did this enable Dick to walk; but, the wholenetwork of his bonds being proportionately loosened, he felt the armbehind his back begin to move more freely, and could hope, with time andtrouble, to entirely disengage it. So much he owed already to the owlishsilliness and greed of Master Pirret.

  That worthy now assumed the lead, and conducted them to the very samerude alehouse where Lawless had taken Arblaster on the day of the gale.It was now quite deserted; the fire was a pile of red embers, radiatingthe most ardent heat; and when they had chosen their places, and thelandlord had set before them a measure of mulled ale, both Pirret andArblaster stretched forth their legs and squared their elbows like menbent upon a pleasant hour.

  The table at which they sat, like all the others in the alehouse,consisted of a heavy, square board, set on a pair of barrels; and eachof the four curiously assorted cronies sat at one side of the square,Pirret facing Arblaster, and Dick opposite to the common sailor.

  "And now, young man," said Pirret, "to your tale. It doth appear,indeed, that ye have somewhat abused our gossip Arblaster; but whatthen? Make it up to him--show him but this chance to become wealthy--andI will go pledge he will forgive you."

  So far Dick had spoken pretty much at random; but it was now necessary,under the supervision of six eyes, to invent and tell some marvellousstory, and, if it were possible, get back into his hands theall-important signet. To squander time was the first necessity. Thelonger his stay lasted, the more would his captors drink, and the surershould he be when he attempted his escape.

  Well, Dick was not much of an inventor, and what he told was pretty muchthe tale of Ali Baba, with Shoreby and Tunstall Forest substituted forthe East, and the treasures of the cavern rather exaggerated thandiminished. As the reader is aware, it is an excellent story, and hasbut one drawback--that it is not true; and so, as these three simpleshipmen now heard it for the first time, their eyes stood out of theirfaces, and their mouths gaped like codfish at a fishmonger's.

  Pretty soon a second measure of mulled ale was called for; and whileDick was still artfully spinning out the incidents a third followed thesecond.

  Here was the position of the parties towards the end:

  Arblaster, three-parts drunk and one-half asleep, hung helpless on hisstool. Even Tom had been much delighted with the tale, and his vigilancehad abated in proportion. Meanwhile Dick had gradually wormed his rightarm clear of its bonds, and was ready to risk all.

  "And so," said Pirret, "y' are one of these?"

  "I was made so," replied Dick, "against my will; but an I could but geta sack or two of gold coin to my share, I should be a fool indeed tocontinue dwelling in a filthy cave, and standing shot and buffet like asoldier. Here be we four; good! Let us, then, go forth into the forestto-morrow ere the sun be up. Could we come honestly by a donkey, it werebetter; but an we cannot, we have our four strong backs, and I warrantme we shall come home staggering."

  Pirret licked his lips.

  "And this magic," he said--"this password, whereby the cave isopened--how call ye it, friend?"

  "Nay, none know the word but the three chiefs," returned Dick; "but hereis your great good fortune, that, on this very evening, I should be thebearer of a spell to open it. It is a thing not trusted twice a yearbeyond the captain's wallet."

  "A spell!" said Arblaster, half awakening, and squinting upon Dick withone eye. "Aroint thee! no spells! I be a good Christian. Ask my man,Tom, else."

  "Nay, but this is white magic," said Dick. "It doth naught with thedevil; only the powers of numbers, herbs, and planets."

  "Ay, ay," said Pirret; "'tis but white magic, gossip. There is no sintherein, I do assure you. But proceed, good youth. This spell--in whatshould it consist?"

  "Nay, that I will incontinently show you," answered Dick. "Have yethere the ring ye took from my finger? Good! Now hold it forth beforeyou by the extreme finger-ends, at the arm's length, and over againstthe shining of these embers. 'Tis so exactly. Thus, then, is the spell."

  With a haggard glance, Dick saw the coast was clear between him and thedoor. He put up an internal prayer. Then, whipping forth his arm, hemade but one snatch of the ring, and at the same instant, levering upthe table, he sent it bodily over upon the seaman Tom. He, poor soul,went down bawling under the ruins; and before Arblaster understood thatanything was wrong, or Pirret could collect his dazzled wits, Dick hadrun to the door and escaped into the moonlit night.

  The moon, which now rode in the mid-heavens, and the extreme whitenessof the snow, made the open ground about the harbour bright as day; andyoung Shelton leaping, with kilted robe, among the lumber, was aconspicuous figure from afar.

  Tom and Pirret followed him with shouts; from every drinking-shop theywere joined by others whom their cries aroused; and presently a wholefleet of sailors was in full pursuit. But Jack ashore was a bad runner,even in the fifteenth century, and Dick, besides, had a start, which herapidly improved, until, as he drew near the entrance of a narrow lane,he even paused and looked laughingly behind him.

  Upon the white floor of snow all the shipmen of Shoreby came clusteringin an inky mass, and tailing out rearward in isolated clumps. Every manwas shouting or screaming; every man was gesticulating with both arms inair; some one was continually falling; and to complete the picture, whenone fell, a dozen would fall upon the top of him.

  The confused mass of sound which they rolled up as high as to the moonwas partly comical and partly terrifying to the fugitive whom they werehunting. In itself, it
was impotent, for he made sure no seaman in theport could run him down. But the mere volume of noise, in so far as itmust awake all the sleepers in Shoreby, and bring all the skulkingsentries to the street, did really threaten him with danger in thefront. So, spying a dark doorway at a corner, he whipped briskly intoit, and let the uncouth hunt go by him, still shouting andgesticulating, and all red with hurry, and white with tumbles in thesnow.

  It was a long while, indeed, before this great invasion of the town bythe harbour came to an end, and it was long before silence was restored.For long, lost sailors were still to be heard pounding and shoutingthrough the streets in all directions and in every quarter of the town.Quarrels followed, sometimes among themselves, sometimes with the men ofthe patrols; knives were drawn, blows given and received, and more thanone dead body remained behind upon the snow.

  When, a full hour later, the last seaman returned grumblingly to theharbour side and his particular tavern, it may fairly be questioned ifhe had ever known what manner of man he was pursuing, but it wasabsolutely sure that he had now forgotten. By next morning there weremany strange stories flying; and a little while after, the legend of thedevil's nocturnal visit was an article of faith with all the lads ofShoreby.

  But the return of the last seaman did not, even yet, set free youngShelton from his cold imprisonment in the doorway.

  For some time after, there was a great activity of patrols; and specialparties came forth to make the round of the place and report to one orother of the great lords, whose slumbers had been thus unusually broken.

  The night was already well spent before Dick ventured from hishiding-place, and came, safe and sound, but aching with cold andbruises, to the door of the "Goat and Bagpipes." As the law required,there was neither fire nor candle in the house; but he groped his wayinto a corner of the icy guest-room, found an end of a blanket, which hehitched around his shoulders, and creeping close to the nearest sleeper,was soon lost in slumber.

  BOOK V

  CROOKBACK