CHAPTER XXII. A Victim of Treachery.
Once more 'King Foo-foo the First' was roving with the tramps andoutlaws, a butt for their coarse jests and dull-witted railleries, andsometimes the victim of small spitefulness at the hands of Canty andHugo when the Ruffler's back was turned. ?None but Canty and Hugo reallydisliked him. ?Some of the others liked him, and all admired his pluckand spirit. ?During two or three days, Hugo, in whose ward and chargethe King was, did what he covertly could to make the boy uncomfortable;and at night, during the customary orgies, he amused the company byputting small indignities upon him--always as if by accident. ?Twice hestepped upon the King's toes--accidentally--and the King, as became hisroyalty, was contemptuously unconscious of it and indifferent to it; butthe third time Hugo entertained himself in that way, the King felledhim to the ground with a cudgel, to the prodigious delight of the tribe.?Hugo, consumed with anger and shame, sprang up, seized a cudgel, andcame at his small adversary in a fury. ?Instantly a ring was formedaround the gladiators, and the betting and cheering began.
But poor Hugo stood no chance whatever. ?His frantic and lubberly'prentice-work found but a poor market for itself when pitted againstan arm which had been trained by the first masters of Europe insingle-stick, quarter-staff, and every art and trick of swordsmanship.?The little King stood, alert but at graceful ease, and caught andturned aside the thick rain of blows with a facility and precision whichset the motley on-lookers wild with admiration; and every now and then,when his practised eye detected an opening, and a lightning-swift rapupon Hugo's head followed as a result, the storm of cheers and laughterthat swept the place was something wonderful to hear. ?At the end offifteen minutes, Hugo, all battered, bruised, and the target fora pitiless bombardment of ridicule, slunk from the field; and theunscathed hero of the fight was seized and borne aloft upon theshoulders of the joyous rabble to the place of honour beside theRuffler, where with vast ceremony he was crowned King of the Game-Cocks;his meaner title being at the same time solemnly cancelled and annulled,and a decree of banishment from the gang pronounced against any whoshould thenceforth utter it.
All attempts to make the King serviceable to the troop had failed. Hehad stubbornly refused to act; moreover, he was always trying to escape.?He had been thrust into an unwatched kitchen, the first day of hisreturn; he not only came forth empty-handed, but tried to rouse thehousemates. He was sent out with a tinker to help him at his work;he would not work; moreover, he threatened the tinker with his ownsoldering-iron; and finally both Hugo and the tinker found theirhands full with the mere matter of keeping his from getting away. ?Hedelivered the thunders of his royalty upon the heads of all who hamperedhis liberties or tried to force him to service. ?He was sent out, inHugo's charge, in company with a slatternly woman and a diseased baby,to beg; but the result was not encouraging--he declined to plead for themendicants, or be a party to their cause in any way.
Thus several days went by; and the miseries of this tramping life, andthe weariness and sordidness and meanness and vulgarity of it, becamegradually and steadily so intolerable to the captive that he began atlast to feel that his release from the hermit's knife must prove only atemporary respite from death, at best.
But at night, in his dreams, these things were forgotten, and he wason his throne, and master again. ?This, of course, intensified thesufferings of the awakening--so the mortifications of each succeedingmorning of the few that passed between his return to bondage and thecombat with Hugo, grew bitterer and bitterer, and harder and harder tobear.
The morning after that combat, Hugo got up with a heart filled withvengeful purposes against the King. ?He had two plans, in particular.One was to inflict upon the lad what would be, to his proud spiritand 'imagined' royalty, a peculiar humiliation; and if he failed toaccomplish this, his other plan was to put a crime of some kind upon theKing, and then betray him into the implacable clutches of the law.
In pursuance of the first plan, he purposed to put a 'clime' upon theKing's leg; rightly judging that that would mortify him to the last andperfect degree; and as soon as the clime should operate, he meant to getCanty's help, and _force_ the King to expose his leg in the highwayand beg for alms. ?'Clime' was the cant term for a sore, artificiallycreated. To make a clime, the operator made a paste or poultice ofunslaked lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, and spread it upon apiece of leather, which was then bound tightly upon the leg. ?This wouldpresently fret off the skin, and make the flesh raw and angry-looking;blood was then rubbed upon the limb, which, being fully dried, took on adark and repulsive colour. ?Then a bandage of soiled rags was put on ina cleverly careless way which would allow the hideous ulcer to be seen,and move the compassion of the passer-by. {8}
Hugo got the help of the tinker whom the King had cowed with thesoldering-iron; they took the boy out on a tinkering tramp, and as soonas they were out of sight of the camp they threw him down and the tinkerheld him while Hugo bound the poultice tight and fast upon his leg.
The King raged and stormed, and promised to hang the two the moment thesceptre was in his hand again; but they kept a firm grip upon himand enjoyed his impotent struggling and jeered at his threats. ?Thiscontinued until the poultice began to bite; and in no long time its workwould have been perfected, if there had been no interruption. ?But therewas; for about this time the 'slave' who had made the speech denouncingEngland's laws, appeared on the scene, and put an end to the enterprise,and stripped off the poultice and bandage.
The King wanted to borrow his deliverer's cudgel and warm the jacketsof the two rascals on the spot; but the man said no, it would bringtrouble--leave the matter till night; the whole tribe being together,then, the outside world would not venture to interfere or interrupt. ?Hemarched the party back to camp and reported the affair to the Ruffler,who listened, pondered, and then decided that the King should not beagain detailed to beg, since it was plain he was worthy of somethinghigher and better--wherefore, on the spot he promoted him from themendicant rank and appointed him to steal!
Hugo was overjoyed. ?He had already tried to make the King steal, andfailed; but there would be no more trouble of that sort, now, for ofcourse the King would not dream of defying a distinct command delivereddirectly from head-quarters. ?So he planned a raid for that veryafternoon, purposing to get the King in the law's grip in the course ofit; and to do it, too, with such ingenious strategy, that it should seemto be accidental and unintentional; for the King of the Game-Cocks waspopular now, and the gang might not deal over-gently with an unpopularmember who played so serious a treachery upon him as the delivering himover to the common enemy, the law.
Very well. ?All in good time Hugo strolled off to a neighbouring villagewith his prey; and the two drifted slowly up and down one street afteranother, the one watching sharply for a sure chance to achieve his evilpurpose, and the other watching as sharply for a chance to dart away andget free of his infamous captivity for ever.
Both threw away some tolerably fair-looking opportunities; for both,in their secret hearts, were resolved to make absolutely sure work thistime, and neither meant to allow his fevered desires to seduce him intoany venture that had much uncertainty about it.
Hugo's chance came first. ?For at last a woman approached who carried afat package of some sort in a basket. ?Hugo's eyes sparkled with sinfulpleasure as he said to himself, "Breath o' my life, an' I can butput _that_ upon him, 'tis good-den and God keep thee, King of theGame-Cocks!" He waited and watched--outwardly patient, but inwardlyconsuming with excitement--till the woman had passed by, and the timewas ripe; then said, in a low voice--
"Tarry here till I come again," and darted stealthily after the prey.
The King's heart was filled with joy--he could make his escape, now, ifHugo's quest only carried him far enough away.
But he was to have no such luck. ?Hugo crept behind the woman, snatchedthe package, and came running back, wrapping it in an old piece ofblanket which he carried on his arm. ?The hue and cry was raised in amoment, by the wom
an, who knew her loss by the lightening of her burden,although she had not seen the pilfering done. ?Hugo thrust the bundleinto the King's hands without halting, saying--
"Now speed ye after me with the rest, and cry 'Stop thief!' but mind yelead them astray!"
The next moment Hugo turned a corner and darted down a crookedalley--and in another moment or two he lounged into view again, lookinginnocent and indifferent, and took up a position behind a post to watchresults.
The insulted King threw the bundle on the ground; and the blanket fellaway from it just as the woman arrived, with an augmenting crowd at herheels; she seized the King's wrist with one hand, snatched up her bundlewith the other, and began to pour out a tirade of abuse upon the boywhile he struggled, without success, to free himself from her grip.
Hugo had seen enough--his enemy was captured and the law would get him,now--so he slipped away, jubilant and chuckling, and wended campwards,framing a judicious version of the matter to give to the Ruffler's crewas he strode along.
The King continued to struggle in the woman's strong grasp, and now andthen cried out in vexation--
"Unhand me, thou foolish creature; it was not I that bereaved thee ofthy paltry goods."
The crowd closed around, threatening the King and calling him names; abrawny blacksmith in leather apron, and sleeves rolled to his elbows,made a reach for him, saying he would trounce him well, for a lesson;but just then a long sword flashed in the air and fell with convincingforce upon the man's arm, flat side down, the fantastic owner of itremarking pleasantly, at the same time--
"Marry, good souls, let us proceed gently, not with ill blood anduncharitable words. ?This is matter for the law's consideration,not private and unofficial handling. ?Loose thy hold from the boy,goodwife."
The blacksmith averaged the stalwart soldier with a glance, then wentmuttering away, rubbing his arm; the woman released the boy's wristreluctantly; the crowd eyed the stranger unlovingly, but prudentlyclosed their mouths. ?The King sprang to his deliverer's side, withflushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, exclaiming--
"Thou hast lagged sorely, but thou comest in good season, now, SirMiles; carve me this rabble to rags!"