He was gone. They heard the clatter of his horse's hoofs down the
road, and listened as it died away.
Neither spoke. Mrs Tresize stood by the table, and so that, glancing
sideways across her left shoulder, her eyes studied the doctor's
back, which he kept obstinately turned upon her. He had put up a
hand to the chimney-shelf and leaned forward with his gaze bent on
the embers.
'Doctor?'
'Ma'am?' after a long pause.
'Do you really reckon smuggling so very sinful?'
'It is not a question of smuggling, ma'am.'
'Oh, yes, it is!' she insisted. 'Once you get mixed up in that
business you have to deceive at times--if 'tis only to protect
others.'
'I can understand, ma'am,' said the doctor, after another pause,
'that to dabble in smuggling is to court many awkward situations.
You need not remind _me_ of that, who am fresh from misleading that
young man. It was--if you will pardon my saying so--by reason of his
trust in my good faith that you escaped cross-questioning.'
'I'll grant that, and with all my heart. But, since deceiving him
goes so hard against the grain with you, he shall know the truth
to-morrow, when he comes to apologise. Will that content you?'
'It will be some atonement, ma'am. As for contenting me--'
'You mean that I have given you a shock? And that to recover your
esteem will not be easy?'
She asked it with a small, pathetic sigh, and took a step towards the
fireplace, as if to entreat his pardon. But before he could be aware
of this his attention was claimed by a sound without. The latch of
the back door was lifted with a click, and, almost before he could
face about, steps were heard in the passage. The door of the best
kitchen opened a foot or so, and through the aperture was thrust the
head of Tryphena--of Tryphena, who by rights should be lying
upstairs, victim of a colic.
'Missus!' announced Tryphena, in a hoarse whisper. 'The kegs be
stowed all right in the orchet--all the four dozen. But here's
Butcher Truman, teasy as fire. Says he's been robbed o' fifty pounds
on the way an' can't pay the carriers! An' the carriers be tappin'
the stuff an' drinkin' what's left, an' neither to hold nor to bind
but threat'nin' to cut the inside of en out--an' he's here, if you
plaze, to know if so be you could lend a few pounds to satisfy 'em.
I told en--'
'Show him in,' commanded Mrs Tresize, with a creditable hold on her
voice; for, to tell the truth, she was half hysterical.
Tryphena withdrew, and pushed the strangest of figures through the
doorway. Butcher Truman had discarded the shawl from his head and
shoulders, or perchance it had been snatched away by the infuriated
carriers. For expedition, too, he had caught up his feminine skirt
and petticoat and twisted them and caught them about his waist with a
leathern belt, over which they hung in careless indecorous festoons,
draping a pair of corduroy breeches. But he still wore a woman's
bodice, though half the buttons were burst; and a sun-bonnet, with
strings still knotted about his throat, dangled at the back of his
shoulders like a hood. He was a full-blooded man, slightly obese,
with a villainous pair of eyes that blinked in the sudden lamp-light.
He was dangerous, too, between anger and terror. But Mrs Tresize
gave him no time.
'Ah, good-evening, Mr Truman! There has been some mistake, I hear;
but it's by the greatest good luck you came to me. Here is your
missing property, eh?' She smiled and held out the bag.
Butcher Truman stared at it. 'Send I may never--' he began; and with
that his gaze, travelling past the bag, fell on Doctor Unonius.
'_You?_' he stuttered, clenching his thick fists. '_You?_ . . .
Oh, by--, let me get at 'im!'
But Mrs Tresize very deftly stepped in front of him as he came on
menacing.
'If you are not a fool,' she said sharply, 'you will waste
no time, but hurry along and pay the carriers. They, for their part,
won't waste any time with neat brandy. In ten minutes or so
they'll be wanting your blood in a bottle--and, if it's all the same
to you, Mr Truman, I'd rather they didn't start hunting you through
these premises. What's more,' she added, as he hesitated,
'the riding-officer was close on your track just now. You owe it to
Doctor Unonius here, that he has overrun it.'
The butcher clutched at his bag, and made as if to open it.
'You needn't trouble,' Mrs Tresize assured him sweetly.
'Your money's good--and so will be mine when it comes to settling,
for all that I'm reported "near." Good-night!'
'Good-night!' growled Butcher Truman, and lurched forth with his bag.
The widow, staring after him, broke into a laugh.
'Tryphena,' she said, 'fetch the doctor's horse and harness him
quick! We must get him out of this, good man. Are the tubs stowed?'
'All of 'em, missus. I counted the four dozen.'
'Four dozen is forty-eight; and that doctor'--she turned to him--
'is not my age, by a very long way.'
But when Dapple had been harnessed, and the doctor drove off (after
looking at his watch and finding that it indicated ten minutes to
four), Mrs Tresize lingered at the back door a moment before ordering
Tryphena to shut and bolt it.
'There was nothing else to do but lie,' she said to herself,
meditatively. 'But, all the same, it's lost him for me.'