HIGH DUDGEON AND LOW DUDGEON
The pirate captain and his men rose from the ground, and Captain Lingo,
in his politest manner, requested his captives to follow him. The entire
party moved down the slope into the valley, and after a walk of some
quarter of a mile entered a grove of trees. In this grove were tethered
ten handsome mules, of which seven were saddled and three were laden
with packs.
One of the pack-mules was quickly unladen, a fire was built, and in ten
minutes the hungry guests and their hosts were making a very good
breakfast of bacon, fried by Mr. Leatherbread, as the captain called
him, one of the pirates to whom the business of the frying-pan was left
by general consent. When the bacon had been washed down with clear cold
water from a spring near by, and the mule had been packed again, Freddie
and Aunt Amanda were assisted into the saddles of the two smallest
mules, and the captain mounted into the saddle of the largest.
"Now look here, Captain Lingo," said Aunt Amanda, "I want to know where
we are going and all about it. The idea of me sitting here a-straddle of
a mule! And this bonnet simply ruined, and my dress just about fit to go
to the rag-bone man, and my hair--Look here, Captain Lingo, I ain't
going a step on this mule until you tell me what--"
"Pardon me, my dear lady," said the captain, "but I must ask you to put
up with my little whims a short while longer. I beg the pleasure of your
society upon a little journey; nothing more. I assure you the country
is very interesting. May I not promise myself the bliss of your
approval?" He turned to the six pirates with a scowl. "Mount the rest of
them, scoundrels!"
Four of the captives were mounted by the pirates on the remaining mules,
and the procession moved out of the grove into the open valley.
Freddie had never ridden a mule before, and he was delighted. When they
entered, as they soon did, the great forest which they had seen from the
plateau, Freddie was more than ever delighted. After the blazing sun of
the open country, the shade of the forest was delicious. The trees were
huge, and while the trunks were far apart, their branches made a leafy
roof overhead which was almost unbroken. Flowering plants grew
everywhere; vines climbed the trees; little streams murmured here and
there; and the only sound which disturbed the repose of the forest was
the occasional screech of a parrot and the occasional chatter of
monkeys. The first time Freddie heard the sudden scream of a parrot in
the stillness he was thoroughly alarmed, but when he learned what it
was, and saw the flash of the bird's plumage between the trees, he
forgot all about his danger, and for the rest of the day he gave himself
up to the pleasure of watching for parrots and monkeys among the
branches.
The Sly Old Codger turned in his saddle and said to Toby, who was riding
behind, with Mr. Punch walking between:
"A work of nature, my dear friend, a real work of nature. _So_
beautiful! Parrots and monkeys flitting about overhead, the primeval
forest stretching its bosky arms above us in all directions--_so_ bosky!
What one might call a real work of nature; so very, very bosky."
"Right you are," said Toby. "It puts our Druid Hill Park in the shade,
that's a fact; makes it take a back seat and play second fiddle, as sure
as you're born."
"Hi beg your pardon," said Mr. Punch. "'Ow can a park sit down and play
a fiddle?"
All day long they moved onward, single file, further and further into
the depths of the forest. At noon they halted for a luncheon of fried
bacon, prepared by Mr. Leatherbread. The afternoon wore on, and the
forest became gloomier and gloomier about them as they marched; the
silence grew almost terrifying; and all the pleasure which Freddie had
felt in the morning vanished. Night fell, and the procession entered a
little clearing, and there the pirates made camp for the night.
After a supper of fried bacon, prepared by Mr. Leatherbread, the whole
party retired to rest, each on a mattress of green branches and leaves,
covered with blankets. The night was mild, and when the last blanket had
been made ready the moon rose and tinged the tops of the trees with
silver; and while Freddie was watching the moon as it climbed higher, he
fell asleep. Aunt Amanda did not go to sleep so soon.
Ketch the Practitioner had devoted himself very specially to her in
preparing her resting-place. While he was spreading the branches and
blankets for her, she said to him:
"Ketch, where are we going?"
"Not so loud, ma'am," said he. "We are going to High Dudgeon."
"High Dudgeon! What's that?"
"S-sh! When we're disappointed, or disgusted, or vexed, we always go to
our home in High Dudgeon."
"Is that where you live?"
"Part of the time, ma'am. Mostly we are away at sea or on the Island;
but when anything goes wrong, and we're angry about it, we always go
home and stay there, in High Dudgeon. Yes, ma'am."
"And what are they going to do with us when they get us there?"
"S-sh! You'll be in great danger there. If you can find any way to
escape from there, I advise you--S-sh! Not another word. Captain Lingo
is looking this way. I must go."
Aunt Amanda did not sleep very well that night.
In the morning, after a breakfast of fried bacon, prepared by Mr.
Leatherbread, the company resumed its march.
At noon, a halt was made beside a spring for rest and food, and here Mr.
Leatherbread prepared a luncheon of fried bacon.
In the evening, as the travellers were plodding onward, Ketch walked for
a time at the head of Aunt Amanda's mule. Aunt Amanda leaned forward and
said to him:
"Ketch, are we going to have more bacon tonight?"
"No, ma'am," said he, in a low voice. "We'll have supper in High
Dudgeon. My old mother's the cook there. You heard me mention her
yesterday morning. I've an idea there'll be pigeon pies for supper. And
mark what I'm saying to you, ma'am." His voice sank to a whisper. "If
you get a pigeon pie for supper, look careful to see what's inside of it
before you eat it."
"Mercy on us!" said Aunt Amanda. "Are they going to poison us?"
But Ketch slipped away in the gathering darkness, and said no more.
They had gone but a few hundred yards further, when, at the moment when
the darkness of night was making ready to blot out everything, they
suddenly emerged into a round grassy clearing enclosed by the forest,
where the light was better, and over which a star or two could be seen
glimmering in a pale blue sky. In the midst of this clearing rose a
tower.
It was a round tower, built of stone; its top came scarcely to the top
of the surrounding trees, and it was in fact not more than two stories
high; it appeared, with its wide girth, low and squat. Its sides were
pierced here and there with deep and narrow slits, for windows, and on
one side was a heavy oaken door, with great iron hinges and an iron
lock. Through two or three of the upper slits in the wall glimmered a
light from within. It was otherwise dark and forbidding.
Aunt Amanda found Ketch at her mule's head again. She leaned forward and
said to him:
"Is that High Dudgeon?"
"No, ma'am. That's Low Dudgeon."
"Low Dudgeon? What do you mean by Low Dudgeon?"
Ketch looked at the tower and shuddered. "I don't like to talk about it,
ma'am. I don't like the place. It's the place where we used to live long
ago, before we built High Dudgeon. There's none of us wants to live
there now. We haven't lived there since--" Ketch paused, and shuddered
again, and evidently decided not to go on.
"There's a light up there," said Aunt Amanda. "Does anybody live there?"
"No, ma'am," said Ketch. "Nobody _lives_ there."
"But there's a light," said Aunt Amanda. "Surely there must be somebody
there."
"There is, ma'am; there is; thirteen of 'em."
"Thirteen what?"
But Ketch only shuddered again, and would say no more.
Aunt Amanda noticed that instead of going straight onward past the door
of Low Dudgeon, the pirates led the file in a wide course away from it,
along the edge of the clearing, as if to avoid coming near to it; and
when the procession had thus skirted the clearing and entered the forest
again on the other side, leaving the low tower behind, a sigh, as if of
relief, went up from Ketch and all the other pirates; except, however,
from Captain Lingo himself, who appeared to be wholly indifferent.
"How much further?" said Aunt Amanda to Ketch.
"About a mile, ma'am," said he.
The last mile of their journey was a long mile, and it was traversed in
perfect darkness. The moon had not yet risen. Not a word was spoken, and
there was no sound except the pad of the mules' feet and the breaking of
twigs and branches as the travellers pushed their way through. The
prisoners were in a state of greater nervousness and anxiety than
before, and as they neared the place where their lives were to be
disposed of in one way or another, their sense of uncertainty became
almost unbearable. When it seemed that they must be close to the fateful
place, the procession suddenly halted, and at the same instant the
screech of a parrot startled the silence and made each of the prisoners
jump.
"It's only the captain," said Ketch. "It's a signal."
Immediately, as if in response, there came from a distance in advance
the note of a cuckoo, three times repeated. The procession moved
forward.
A moment or two later, the whole company came forth from the forest
under the stars, and stood on the edge of a wide round clearing, grown
high with grass and weeds. In the midst of this clearing rose a tower.
"High Dudgeon," said Ketch over his shoulder.
This also was a round tower, built of stone; but it was very tall, much
taller than the highest trees, and from the top there must have been a
view of all the surrounding country, even as far as the hill within
which was the treasure cave; from the number of deep and narrow slits
which served as windows it must have been six or seven stories high. The
top of the tower was flat, with battlements around the rim. As a
fortress, it seemed to be impregnable; as a dwelling-house, it was very
dismal indeed. It was totally dark. The captives trembled at the thought
of being imprisoned in such a place.
The wayfarers proceeded in their single file directly to the great
iron-bound oaken door of the tower, and those who were mounted got down.
Ketch assisted Aunt Amanda and Freddie to alight, and having done so he
took charge of the mules and led them away.
Captain Lingo took from his breeches pocket a small key and unlocked the
door.
"Be so kind as to enter," he said, and made way for the captives and his
men.
When all were within, including Ketch, who had now returned, the captain
locked the door on the inside and restored the key to his pocket.