WE SET OUT FOR DEPTFORD POOL
Penfeather drew clenched hand across his brow, and coming to the table
reached the half-emptied flagon and drank what remained of the wine
thirstily, while Bym, his great body huddled in the chair, stared at
the bullet hole in the shutter with starting eyes: as to me, I picked
up Penfeather's fallen pistols and laid them on the table, where Godby
had set the lanthorn.
"Tressady!" says Bym at last in a hoarse whisper, "Tressady--O Cap'n,
be ye sarten sure?"
"Sure!" says Penfeather, in the same hushed manner, and reaching powder
and bullets from a cupboard he began methodically to reload his
pistols. "He'll be outside now where the shadows be thickest, waiting
me with Abnegation and Sol and Rory, and God knoweth how many more."
"Then he aren't dead, Cap'n?" Penfeather's black brows flickered and
his keen eyes glanced from his rent doublet round about the room:
"Howbeit--he was here, Joel!" said he.
"Why then, Cap'n, the dying woman's curse holds and he can't die?" says
Bym, clawing at his great beard.
"He was here, Joel, in this room," says Penfeather, busy with
powder-horn, "man to man, knife to knife--and I missed him. Since
midnight I've waited wi' pistols cocked and never closed eye--and yet
here was he or ever I was aware; for, as I sat there i' the dark by the
window above the porch, which is therefore easiest to come at, I spied
Mings and him staring up at the lattice of this chamber. So here
creeps I and opening the door saw him move against the open lattice
yonder--a shot no man could miss."
"Aye, Cap'n--aye?"
"And I--missed him, Joel--with both weapons and I within three yards of
him, aye, I missed him with both pistols."
"Which is small wonder," says I, "for as you fired he tripped over me,
Adam--"
"And why should he trip just then--at the one and only moment, Martin?
Chance, says you? Why, when he came leaping on me in the black dark
should his hook meet and turn my knife from his throat? Chance again,
says you? Why, when he flung me off and made for the window--why must
I catch my foot 'gainst that staff o' yours and bring up against the
wall with all the strength and breath knocked out o' me, and no chance
for one thrust as he clambered through the lattice? By the Lord,
Martin, here's more than chance, says I."
"Aye, by cock!" muttered Joel, shaking his head. "'Tis 'witched he be!
You'll mind what I told ye, Cap'n--the poor lady as died raving mad
aboard the 'Delight,' how she died cursing him wi' life. And him
standing by a-polishing o' that hook o' his--ah, Cap'n, I'll never
forget the work o' that same hook ... many's the time ... Bartlemy's
prisoners ... men and women ... aboard that cursed 'Ladies' Delight!'
By cock, I dream on't sometimes and wake all of a sweat--"
"Here's no time for dreams!" says Penfeather, ramming home the charge
of his second pistol, "Is the passage clear?"
"Save for the matter of a few kegs, Cap'n, but 'twill serve."
"We start in half an hour, Joel."
"The three o' you, Cap'n?"
"Aye, we must be aboard as soon as maybe now."
"Captain," says Godby, "speaking as a master-gunner, a mariner and a
peddler, I'm bold to say as there's nought like bite and sup to hasten
a man for a journey or aught beside--flog me else! And there's nought
more heartening than ham or neat's tongue, or brisket o' beef, the
which I chanced to spy i' the kitchen--"
"Why then, master-gunner," says Penfeather, "go you and engage those
same in close action and I'll join ye as soon as I've shifted these
rags o' mine."
"Adam," says I, unstrapping my wallet as Bym and Godby descended the
stair, "if we are to have our throats cut to-night, 'twere as well I
handed back your chart first"; and I laid it on the table.
"Why 'tis as safe with you, comrade--but as you will!" says he,
slipping the chain about his neck. "As for any throat-slitting,
Martin, you'll find that with danger my inborn caution groweth to
timidity--"
"Ha, yes!" I nodded. "Such timidity as walks under the very noses of
desperate, well-armed rogues of a moonlight night."
"Why, the moon is down--or nearly so, Martin. And then, besides, this
trim little inn hath divers exits discreetly non-apparent. 'Twas a
monastery once, I've heard."
"And now a smuggling-ken it seems, Adam."
"Even so, comrade, and no place better suited! And there's the Bo's'n
hailing!" says he, as a hoarse roar of "Supper O!" reached us. "Go
down, Martin, I stay but to make things ship-shape!" and he nodded
towards the books and papers that littered the table. Upon the stairs I
met Godby, who brought me to a kitchen, very spacious and lofty, paved
with great flagstones and with groined arches supporting the roof, and
what with this and the wide fireplace flanked with fluted columns and
enriched by carvings, I did not doubt that here had once stood a noble
abbey or the like.
"Pal," said Godby, as I stared about me, "you'd never guess as there be
nigh three hundred kegs stowed hereabouts besides bales and the like,
choke me else! Ha, many's the good cargo I've helped Jo and the lads
to run--eh, Joel?"
"So you're a smuggler, Godby," says I.
"Cock," says Bym reproachfully, and setting a goodly cheese on the
table with a bang, "say free-trader, cock--t'other 'un's a cackling
word and I don't like cackle--"
"Aye," nodded Godby, "that's the word, 'free-trader,' Mart'n. So I am
and what then? 'Twas summat o' the sort as got me suspicioned by
Gregory and his catchpolls, rot 'em." But here Adam entered, very
soberly dressed in sad-coloured clothes, and we sat down to sup
forthwith.
"Do we sail soon, Captain?" questioned Godby in a while.
"I hope to be clear o' the Downs a few days hence," says Adam.
"And you so short-handed, Cap'n," quoth Bym.
"Sir Rupert hath 'listed thirty new men, I hear, and rogues every one
I'll be sworn."
"Sir Rupert--?" says I.
"My lady's cousin, Martin, and captain of the expedition."
"Is he a sailor, Adam?"
"No, Martin, like most o' your fine gentlemen-adventurers, he knows no
more of navigation than this cheese, which is just as well, Martin,
aye, mighty well!"
"How so?"
"Who shall say, Martin, who shall say?" And here he took a long
draught of ale. In a while, our meal being ended, Penfeather rose:
"As to arms, Martin, ha' ye aught beside your knife?"
"My staff and this pistol," says I, taking out the silver-mounted
weapon my lady Brandon had thrust upon me.
"Is't loaded, Martin?" I examined charge and priming and nodded.
"Good!" says Adam, "Here's five shot betwixt us, that should suffice.
Up wi' the trap, Jo, and we'll out." Hereupon Bym lighted his lanthorn
and putting aside the great settle by the hearth, stooped and raised
one of the flagstones, discovering a flight of worn, stone steps, down
which we followed him and so into a great cellar or vaulted crypt,
where stood row upon row of barrels and casks, piled very orderly to
the stone roof. Along the narrow way between strode Bym, and halting
suddenly, stooped and lifted another flagstone with more steps below,
down which we followed him into a passage-way fairly paved, whence
divers other passages opened right and left. And when we had gone some
distance Adam halted.
"Best bring the light no further, Jo," says he. "And hark'ee, Joel, as
to this black rogue--this--y'know who I mean, Jo?"
"Aye--him, Cap'n!"
"That same, Jo. Well, keep an eye lifting and if you find out aught
worth the telling, let one o' your lads ride post to Deptford, Jo."
"Aye, Cap'n. Aboard ship?"
"Aboard ship."
"Cap'n," quoth he, grasping Adam's hand, "I'm man o' few words, an'
thanks t' you I'm snug enough here wi' my wife and darter as is away
till this cargo's run, but, say the word, and I'll sail along o' you
come battle, murder or shipwreck--"
"Or a hook, Joel?" says Penfeather softly, whereat Joel clawed at his
beard and blinked into the lanthorn; finally he gives a great tug to
his beard and nods:
"Aye, Cap'n," says he, "for you--even that, by cock!"
"Good lad," says Penfeather, clapping him on brawny shoulder. "Bide
where you are, Jo, and Fortune with you and yours. This way, Martin."
So having taken our leave of Bym, Godby and I followed Adam along the
passage, guided by the Bo's'n's lanthorn until, turning a sudden, sharp
corner, we plunged into pitchy gloom wherein I groped my way until
Penfeather's voice stayed me:
"Easy all!" says he, softly. "Have your pistols ready and heed how you
come." Creeping cautiously I found myself amid leaves that yielded
before me, and stepping through this natural screen, I stumbled into a
bush and presently found myself standing in a small copse dim-lighted
by a waning moon; and never a sound to be heard save the soft whisper
of leaves about us and the faint, far cry of some night-bird.
"Ha!" says Adam at last, gazing away to the sinking moon, "So our
journey begins, and from the look o' things, Martin, from the look o'
things here's going to be need of all your resolution and all my
caution ere we can see the end. Come!"