SHORTLY before daybreak I was wakened by a voice beneath my window.
“Captain Percy,” it cried, “the Governor wishes you at his house!” and
was gone.
I dressed and left the house, disturbing no one. Hurrying through the
chill dawn, I reached the square not much behind the rapid footsteps
of the watch who had wakened me. About the Governor's door were horses,
saddled and bridled, with grooms at their heads, men and beasts gray and
indistinct, wrapped in the fog. I went up the steps and into the hall,
and knocked at the door of the Governor's great room. It opened, and I
entered to find Sir George, with Master Pory, Rolfe, West, and others of
the Council gathered about the great centre table and talking eagerly.
The Governor was but half dressed; West and Rolfe were in jack boots and
coats of mail. A man, breathless with hard riding, spattered with swamp
mud and torn by briers, stood, cap in hand, staring from one to the
other.
“In good time, Captain Percy!” cried the Governor. “Yesterday you called
the profound peace with the Indians, of which some of us boasted, the
lull before the storm. Faith, it looks to-day as though you were in the
right, after all!”
“What 's the matter, sir?” I asked, advancing to the table.
“Matter enough!” he answered. “This man has come, post haste, from the
plantations above Paspahegh. Three days ago, Morgan, the trader, was
decoyed into the woods by that Paspahegh fool and bully, Nemattanow,
whom they call Jack of the Feather, and there murdered. Yesterday, out
of sheer bravado, the Indian turned up at Morgan's house, and Morgan's
men shot him down. They buried the dog, and thought no more of it. Three
hours ago, Chanco the Christian went to the commander and warned him
that the Paspaheghs were in a ferment, and that the warriors were
painting themselves black. The commander sent off at once to me, and I
see naught better to do than to dispatch you with a dozen men to bring
them to their senses. But there 's to be no harrying nor battle. A show
of force is all that 's needed,--I'll stake my head upon it. Let them
see that we are not to be taken unawares, but give them fair words. That
they may be the sooner placated I send with you Master Rolfe,--they'll
listen to him. See that the black paint is covered with red, give them
some beads and a knife or two, then come home. If you like not the
look of things, find out where Opechancanough is, and I'll send him an
embassy. He loves us well, and will put down any disaffection.”
“There's no doubt that he loves us,” I said dryly. “He loves us as a
cat loves the mouse that it plays with. If we are to start at once, sir,
I'll go get my horse.”
“Then meet us at the neck of land,” said Rolfe.
I nodded, and left the room. As I descended the steps into the growing
light outside, I found Master Pory at my side.
“I kept late hours last night,” he remarked, with a portentous yawn.
“Now that this business is settled, I'll go back to bed.”
I walked on in silence.
“I am in your black books,” he continued, with his sly, merry, sidelong
glance. “You think that I was overcareful of the ground, that morning
behind the church, and so unfortunately delayed matters until the
Governor happened by and brought things to another guess conclusion.”
“I think that you warned the Governor,” I said bluntly.
He shook with laughter. “Warned him? Of course I warned him. Youth would
never have seen that molehill and fairy ring and projecting root, but
wisdom cometh with gray hairs, my son. D' ye not think I'll have the
King's thanks?”
“Doubtless,” I answered. “An the price contents you, I do not know why I
should quarrel with it.”
By this we were halfway down the street, and we now came upon the guest
house. A window above us was unshuttered, and in the room within a light
still burned. Suddenly it was extinguished. A man's face looked down
upon us for a moment, then drew back; a skeleton hand was put out softly
and slowly, and the shutter drawn to. Hand and face belonged to the man
I had sent tumbling among the graves the evening before.
“The Italian doctor,” said Master Pory.
There was something peculiar in his tone. I glanced at him, but his
broad red face and twinkling eyes told me nothing. “The Italian doctor,”
he repeated. “If I had a friend in Captain Percy's predicament, I should
bid him beware of the Italian doctor.”
“Your friend would be obliged for the warning,” I replied.
We walked a little further. “And I think,” he said, “that I should
inform this purely hypothetical friend of mine that the Italian and his
patron had their heads mighty close together, last night.”
“Last night?”
“Ay, last night. I went to drink with my lord, and so broke up their
tete-a-tete. My lord was boisterous in his cups and not oversecret.
He dropped some hints”--He broke off to indulge in one of his endless
silent laughs. “I don't know why I tell you this, Captain Percy. I am
on the other side, you know,--quite on the other side. But now I bethink
me, I am only telling you what I should tell you were I upon your side.
There's no harm in that, I hope, no disloyalty to my Lord Carnal's
interests which happen to be my interests?”
I made no answer. I gave him credit both for his ignorance of the very
hornbook of honor and for his large share of the milk of human kindness.
“My lord grows restive,” he said, when we had gone a little further.
“The Francis and John, coming in yesterday, brought court news. Out of
sight, out of mind. Buckingham is making hay while the sun shines. Useth
angel water for his complexion, sleepeth in a medicated mask such as the
Valois used, and is grown handsomer than ever; changeth the fashion of
his clothes thrice a week, which mightily pleaseth his Majesty. Whoops
on the Spanish match, too, and, wonderful past all whooping, from the
prince's detestation hath become his bosom friend. Small wonder if my
Lord Carnal thinks it's time he was back at Whitehall.”
“Let him go, then,” I said. “There's his ship that brought him here.”
“Ay, there 's his ship,” rejoined Master Pory. “A few weeks more, and
the Due Return will be here with the Company's commands. D' ye think,
Captain Percy, that there's the slightest doubt as to their tenor?”
“No.”
“Then my lord has but to possess his soul with patience and wait for the
Due Return. No doubt he'll do so.”
“No doubt he'll do so,” I echoed.
By this we had reached the Secretary's own door. “Fortune favor you with
the Paspaheghs!” he said, with another mighty yawn. “As for me, I'll
to bed. Do you ever dream, Captain Percy? I don't; mine is too good a
conscience. But if I did, I should dream of an Italian doctor.”
The door shut upon his red face and bright eyes. I walked rapidly on
down the street to the minister's house. The light was very pale as yet,
and house and garden lay beneath a veil of mist. No one was stirring. I
went on through the gray wet paths to the stable, and roused Diccon.
“Saddle Black Lamoral quickly,” I ordered. “There's trouble with the
Paspaheghs, and I am off with Master Rolfe to settle it.”
“Am I to go with you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “We have a dozen men. There's no need of more.”
I left him busy with the horse, and went to the house. In the hall I
found the negress strewing the floor with fresh rushes, and asked her
if her mistress yet slept. In her soft half English, half Spanish, she
answered in the affirmative. I went to my own room and armed myself;
then ran upstairs to the comfortable chamber where abode Master Jeremy
Sparrow, surrounded by luxuries which his soul contemned. He was not
there. At the foot of the stair I was met by Goodwife Allen. “The
minister was called an hour ago, sir,” she announced. “There's a man
dying of the fever at Archer's Hope, and they sent a boat for him. He
won't be back until afternoon.”
I hurried past her back to the stable. Black Lamoral was saddled, and
Diccon held the stirrup for me to mount.
“Good luck with the vermin, sir!” he said. “I wish I were going, too.”
His tone was sullen, yet wistful. I knew that he loved danger as I
loved it, and a sudden remembrance of the dangers we had faced together
brought us nearer to each other than we had been for many a day.
“I don't take you,” I explained, “because I have need of you here.
Master Sparrow has gone to watch beside a dying man, and will not be
back for hours. As for myself, there's no telling how long I may be
kept. Until I come you are to guard house and garden well. You know what
I mean. Your mistress is to be molested by no one.”
“Very well, sir.”
“One thing more. There was some talk yesterday of my taking her across
the neck to the forest. When she awakes, tell her from me that I am
sorry for her to lose her pleasure, but that now she could not go even
were I here to take her.”
“There 's no danger from the Paspaheghs there,” he muttered.
“The Paspaheghs happen not to be my only foes,” I said curtly. “Do as I
bid you without remark. Tell her that I have good reasons for desiring
her to remain within doors until my return. On no account whatever is
she to venture without the garden.”
I gathered up the reins, and he stood back from the horse's head. When
I had gone a few paces I drew rein, and, turning in my saddle, spoke to
him across the dew-drenched grass. “This is a trust, Diccon,” I said.
The red came into his tanned face. He raised his hand and made our old
military salute. “I understand it so, my captain,” he answered, and I
rode away satisfied.