"I wish I had a better head," sighed Frank, as he lay in bed that night;
"it seems to get thicker and thicker, and as if every time I tried to
think out what is the best thing to do it got everything in a knot."
He turned over, and lay hot and uncomfortable for a few minutes, and
then perhaps for the hundredth time he turned over again, found his
pillow comfortless, and jumped up into a sitting position, to punch and
bang it about for some minutes, before returning it to its place, lying
down, and finding it as bad as ever.
"It's of no use," he groaned; "I shall never get a wink of sleep
to-night. I wish I could get up and dress, and go for a walk out there
in the cool by the side of the water; but as soon as I got outside I
should be challenged by the guard. I don't know the password, and I
should be arrested and marched off to the guardroom. Even if I could
get down there by the canal, I should feel no better, for I should be
thinking of nothing else but feeding the ducks."
This thought made him twist and writhe in the bed to such an extent that
the clothes refused to submit to the rough treatment, and glided off to
seek peace and quietness upon the floor. The pleasant coolness was
gratifying for a few minutes; but the boy's love of order put an end to
his lying uncovered, and he sprang out of bed, dragged the truant
clothing back, remade his bed extremely badly, and once more lay down.
The occupation relieved him for a while, and he began to hope that he
would go to sleep; but the very fact of his endeavouring to lose
consciousness made him more wakeful, and he lay with wide-open eyes,
going over the events of the evening, till he got into a passion with
Andrew Forbes, with Mr George Selby, and most of all with himself.
"How could I be such an idiot as to go? I ought to have known better.
I might have been sure, after what I had seen, that there was something
wrong. But then," he groaned, "I did fancy something was wrong, and I
went to try and keep Drew out of mischief. Oh, what an unlucky fellow I
am!
"It's of no use," was his next thought. "I shall never do any good
here, only keep on getting into trouble. Why, if this were to be known,
it would bring disgrace on my father and mother, and they would have to
leave court--father would perhaps lose his commission."
He sprang up again in horror at the very thought of this, drew up his
knees, and passed his arms round them, to sit for long enough packed up
with his chin upon his knees somewhat after the fashion of a Peruvian
mummy.
"It's horrible," he groaned to himself--"horrible, that's what it is.
And this is being what mother calls a good son. They'll be nice and
proud of me when they know.
"Ah-h-h-ah! There goes that wretched old clock over the gateway again!
It can't be five minutes since it chimed before. It seems to have been
chiming ever since I came to bed. What time is it, I wonder? Bah!
three-quarters past. Three-quarters past what? Oh dear, how thirsty I
am! and I've had three glasses of water since I came to bed. Going to
feed the ducks! Oh, I wish I'd said I'd go out and fight with Drew, and
pinked him as he calls it. He wouldn't have been able to lead me into
this scrape. But more likely he would have pinked me. Well, and a
precious good thing too. It would have been all right, and I couldn't
then have gone.
"Phew! how hot it is. My skin seems to prickle and tingle, as if
somebody had been playing tricks with the bed; and all this time I
believe that miserable dandy Drew is snoring away, and not troubling a
bit. There, if it isn't chiming again! It can't be a quarter of an
hour since I heard it last. Ting, tang. Last quarter. Well, go on;
four quarters, and then strike, and I shall know what time it is. What!
A quarter past? Well, a quarter past what? Oh, that clock's wrong.
It chimed three-quarters just now. It can't have chimed the four
quarters since, and struck the hour; it's impossible. I'm sure it must
be wrong."
He threw himself down again in despair, feeling as if sleep were farther
off than ever.
"Oh dear!" he moaned; "Drew told me I seemed a year older after that
row. I feel another year older since then; and if it goes on like this,
I shall be like an old man by morning. But there, I'm not going to give
up in this cowardly way. I'll show Master Drew that I'm not such a boy
as he thinks for. It's all nonsense! Just because I went and dined
there with him and his friend, and was then led into standing up with
them and joining hands, I'm to be considered as having joined them, and
become a Jacobite! Why, it's childish; and as to his threats of what
they would do if I ran back, I don't care, I won't believe it. I'm not
such a baby. Death indeed! I've only just begun to live.
"Ugh! it was very ugly, very shocking to see those heads stuck up there
over Temple Bar; and yet Drew took it as coolly as could be. Why, it
was he who ought to have been frightened, not I. And I'm not
frightened--I won't be frightened. I won't say anything; but I'm not
going there again. No, I won't speak--unless they do threaten me. Then
I must tell all. But only wait till morning, and I'll have it out with
Master Drew. Not quite so much of a schoolboy as he thinks me.
"There'll be no sleep for me to-night," he said at last, in a resigned
way. "Well, it's perhaps so much the better. I have been able to think
out what I mean to do, and now I'll just try and arrange what I shall
say to Drew in the morning; and, after that, I'll get up and dress, and
have a long read. I do wonder, though, what time it is."
He then lay wondering and waiting for the clock to chime again, but he
did not hear it chime its next quarter, for now that he had made up his
mind not to go to sleep, sleep came to him with one of those sudden
seizures which drop us in an instant into the oblivion which gives rest
and refreshment to the wearied body and brain.
Then, all at once, as he lay with his eyes closed, he did hear it
plainly.
"Ah, at last!" he cried,--"first quarter, second quarter, third quarter,
fourth quarter. Now, then, I shall know what time it is."
The clock struck, and he counted--nine.
Then he listened for more, opened his eyes, and stared in amazement at
the light streaming through the shuttered windows, and leaped out of
bed.
"Why," he cried, "it's breakfast-time! I must have been asleep after
all."
Then he stood looking back into yesterday, for the evening's proceedings
came to him with a flash.
"A Jacobite!" he said aloud; "and those heads upon the top of the gate!"