The spies who kept watch on De Aldithely castle were four in number,
and were hired by Sir Thomas De Lany, who had been commissioned by the
king to capture Josceline in any manner that he could. It chanced that
there was but one of them on duty in the wood that morning--a certain
short, stalky little fellow whose name was Walter Skinner, and who was
fond of speaking of himself as a king's man. Formed by nature to make
very little impression on the beholder, it was his practice to eke out
what he lacked in importance by boasting, by taking on mysterious airs,
and by dropping hints as to his connection with great personages and
his knowledge of their plans. He was about the age of Humphrey, and
though he was but a spy hired by Sir Thomas, he persisted in regarding
himself as of great consequence and directly in the employ of the king.
He was mounted in the top of a very tall tree in the edge of the wood,
and he could hardly believe his eyes when, about nine o'clock, he saw
Hugo and Humphrey issue from the postern gate, cross the bridge over
the moat, and ride away into the wood, which they struck a quarter of a
mile south of him.
In great haste he began to come down the tree, muttering as he did so.
"They must all away yesterday morn to York on a holiday," he cried,
"and here am I left to take the young lord in my own person. When I
have done so I warrant they get none of the reward. I will sue to the
king, and we shall see if he who catcheth the game is not entitled to
the reward."
By this time he was on the ground and strutting finely as he hurried
about for his horse. "A plague upon the beast!" he cried. "He hath
slipped halter and strayed. I had come up with the young lord while I
seek my horse."
It was some ten minutes before the animal was discovered quietly
browsing and brought back to the watch-tree, and then a sign must be
made on the tree to let his companions know whither he had gone, so
that they might follow immediately on their return. And all this delay
was fatal to his catching up with the fugitives. For, once in the wood,
Humphrey's authority asserted itself. He pushed his horse ahead of
Hugo's and led the way directly through the thick forest for a short
distance when he emerged into a narrow and evidently little used
bridle-path. "It is well thou hast me to lead thee," he observed
complacently. "There be not many that know this path."
[Illustration: "It is Well That Thou Has Me to Lead Thee"]
Meanwhile Richard Wood, one of the other spies, had unexpectedly
returned, read the sign on the watch-tree, and followed his companion.
It was at this moment that Hugo discovered that Fleetfoot was not with
them. In the excitement of getting under cover of the forest he had not
noticed the dog's absence. "Where is Fleetfoot?" he asked as he stood
in his stirrups and looked about him anxiously.
"Fleetfoot is at the castle," replied Humphrey, calmly.
"By thy command?" asked Hugo, quickly.
"Ay," replied Humphrey. "Why, what young lord would journey about with
a great dog like that in his train? If thou art to play Josceline, thou
must play in earnest. Moreover, the hound would get us into trouble
with half the keepers of the forest. If ever a deer were missing, would
not thy dog bear the blame? So think no more of thy Fleetfoot."
Hugo was silent while the complacent Humphrey jogged on ahead of him.
What the serving-man had said was in large measure true. And he thought
with a swelling heart that it was not so easy, after all, to personate
Josceline when that personating cost him Fleetfoot.
But no less a person than William Lorimer had discovered that Fleetfoot
had been left behind. William was fond of both the dog and his master;
so now, when Fleetfoot made his appeal to William, the man-at-arms at
once responded. He snapped the chain that bound him, and leading him by
the collar to the postern gate opened it and let down the bridge. "Why,
what would become of thee, Fleetfoot," he said, "when that which is to
come to the castle hath come?" Then while the great deerhound looked up
expectantly into his face he added as he pointed to the place where
Hugo and Humphrey had entered the wood, "After thy master, Fleetfoot!
Seek him!"
The deerhound is a dog of marvellous swiftness, and, like an arrow from
the bow, Fleetfoot shot across the open space and gained the wood.
William Lorimer looked after him. "If thy other commands be no better
obeyed, Humphrey, than this which left Fleetfoot behind, I fear thou
wilt have cause to lose a part of thy self-satisfaction," he said. Then
he drew up the bridge and shut the postern gate.
Hugo had taken the loss of Fleetfoot so quietly that Humphrey with
still greater confidence now changed the course slightly, and went down
to the river-bank at a point which was half ford and half deep water.
But at this Hugo was not so obedient.
"What doest thou, Humphrey?" he demanded. "Was not our course marked
out toward Selby? Why wouldst thou cross the river here? We must be
seen once on our road, and that thou knowest, or the king's men will
not pursue us, and perchance Lady De Aldithely and Josceline shall fare
the worse."
"I go not to Selby," declared Humphrey, stubbornly. "And why shouldst
thou think we have not been seen? The king's men have eyes, and it was
their business to watch the castle."
Then Hugo sat up very straight in his saddle and looked at Humphrey
full as haughtily as Josceline himself could have done. "Thou art, for
the time, my servant," he said. "And we go to Selby."
For a moment Humphrey was disconcerted, but he did not relinquish his
own plan. Presently he said: "If we must go to Selby, let us cross the
river here. We can go on the south side of it as well as the north."
Hugo reflected. Then without a word he directed his horse down the bank
and into the water, which was here swimming deep. Well satisfied,
Humphrey followed.
"I did not dream of acorns and of eating one of them for nothing," he
said to himself. "I shall be master yet."
And hardly had the words passed through his mind when _splash_
went a heavy body into the water behind the two swimming horses.
Fleetfoot had come up with his master. Swiftly Hugo and Humphrey turned
their heads, Hugo with a smile and an encouraging motion of the hand
toward his dog, and Humphrey with a frown. "I would I knew who sent the
hound after us," grumbled the disgusted serving-man to himself when,
the shallow water reached, both riders drew rein for the horses to
drink.
Once across the Wharfe Humphrey led the way to a heavy thicket, and
dismounting pushed the growth this way and that and so made a passage
for the horses, Fleetfoot, Hugo, and himself. In the middle of the
thick was a little cleared grassy place where, crowded closely
together, all might find room, and here Humphrey announced that they
would take their midday rest and meal.
Hugo still said nothing, but he looked very determined, as Humphrey
could see. "But I go not to Selby," thought the stubborn serving-man.
"I run not my head into the king's noose so near home."
It was an early nooning they had taken, for it was barely half-past
twelve when Humphrey broke the silence. He rose, tied each horse
securely, and then turning to Hugo said: "Bid the dog stay here. We
will go and have a look over the country."
Hugo rose, laid down his bow and arrows, and, bidding the dog watch
them, followed Humphrey out of the thicket.
The serving-man, who was well acquainted with this part of the country,
now made a little detour into a path which he followed a short distance
till he came out a quarter of a mile away from the thicket into a
grassy glade in the centre of which towered one of those enormous oaks
of which there were many in England at this time. "We will climb up,"
said Humphrey, "and have a look."
Up they went; Hugo nimbly and Humphrey clumsily and slowly, as became
his years and experience, as William Lorimer would have said if he had
seen him. Barely had they reached complete cover, and the rustling they
made had just ceased, when the tramp of two approaching horses was
heard. The sky was now overcast with clouds in spite of the
prognostications of the owls, and the rain began to descend heavily, so
that the two riders sought refuge beneath the tree. Hugo and Humphrey
looked at each other and then down upon the horsemen, who were the two
spies, Walter Skinner and Richard Wood.
"I had thought to have come up with them ere this," said Walter
Skinner. "They had not more than half an hour the start of me."
"Have no fear," replied Richard Wood, who was a tall and
determined-looking man. "They have most like gone on to Selby on the
north side of the river. We shall catch them there."
[Illustration: Humphrey and Hugo in the Oak Tree]
"Thou saidst there is no one to watch the castle?" inquired Walter
Skinner.
"Ay, I said it," returned Richard Wood. "Why, who should there be when
Sir Thomas hath taken the other two and gone off to get a troop
together against Robert Sadler's return? There be thirty men-at-arms
within the castle, and all will fight to the death if need be, and none
more fiercely than William Lorimer. So saith Robert Sadler. He giveth
not so brave an account of the warder and the grooms at the drawbridge,
for, saith he, 'The warder is old and slow, and the grooms stupid.' It
was well we fell in with Robert Sadler as he departed on his journey."
There was a brief silence while the rain still fell heavily, though the
sky showed signs of clearing. Then Walter Skinner in his small cracked
voice laughed aloud. "The troop will be there, and there will be hard
fighting for naught," he said. "For the prize is escaped and we shall
capture it and have the reward."
"What thinkest thou of Selby?" asked Humphrey, when the two spies had
gone on toward the river.
"I think thou art right," answered Hugo, frankly.
Without a word Humphrey climbed still higher in the tree and gazed
after the two till they were hidden from view in the forest.
"Hast thou been before in this wood?" he inquired, when he and Hugo had
descended and stood upon the ground.
"Nay," replied Hugo.
"I thought not. Ask me no questions and I will lead thee through it. I
know it of old."
Hugo at this looked rather resentful. He had regarded himself as the
important personage on the journey just undertaken, and now it seemed
that the serving-man regarded the important personage as Humphrey. And
the boy thought that because Humphrey had been right in his purpose to
avoid Selby was no reason why he should assume the charge of the
expedition. He did not dispute him, however, but followed the
triumphant serving-man back to the thicket, to the horses, his bow and
arrows, and his dog.
In a short time they were out of the thicket and mounted; and then
Humphrey condescendingly said to Hugo: "Follow me, and thou shalt see I
will keep out of sight of keepers and rangers. And keep thy hound
beside thee, if thou canst. He is like to make us trouble."
At this Hugo felt indignant. He was not accustomed to be treated as if
he were a small child.
They now jogged on in silence a few zigzag miles until Humphrey came to
another thicket, in which he announced they would pass the night. "Had
we kept the open path," he observed, "we might have been further along
on our journey, if, perchance, we had not been entirely stopped by a
ranger or a king's man."
"The two spies went down the Wharfe toward the Ouse and Selby,"
remarked Hugo.
"Oh, ay," returned Humphrey. "But the king hath many men, and they all
know how to do a mischief for which there is no redress. Hadst thou
been a Saxon as long as I have been, and that is forty years, thou
hadst found it out before this. And now I will make a fire, for the
night is chill, and, moreover, I would have a cake of meal for my
supper." So saying, he set to work with his flint and soon had a fire
in the small open place in the midst of the thicket.
"Hast thou no fear of the ranger?" asked Hugo.
"Not I. This thick is well off his track. I would have no fear of him
at any time but for thy dog. Moreover, he is a timid man, and the wood
hath many robbers roving around in it. Could he meet us alone with thy
dog, there would be trouble. But here I fear him not."
Hugo laid his hand on Fleetfoot's head. "Thou hast no friend in
Humphrey," he said in a low tone as he looked into the dog's eyes.
Then, while Humphrey baked the oatmeal cake in the coals, Hugo gave the
dog as liberal a supper as he could from their scant supply.
"Be not too free," cautioned Humphrey, as he glanced over his shoulder.
"We have yet many days to journey ere we reach London if we escape the
clutches of the king's men. Could they but look in at the castle now, I
warrant they would laugh louder and longer than they did under the big
oak."
Hugo glanced around him nervously.
"Tush, boy! what fearest thou?" said Humphrey. "Here be no listeners.
Thou knowest this is the hour. I tell thee frankly I had rather be with
her ladyship than to lead thee in safety; yea, even though the way lay,
as her way doth lie, through that robber-infested forest of Galtus.
Hast heard how there be lights shown in York to guide those coming into
the town from that wild place?"
"Yea," answered Hugo, briefly.
Humphrey sighed. "There will be somewhat to do on that journey," he
said. "A train of sumpter mules carry the clothing, the massy silver
dishes, and the rich hangings; and with them go all the serving-men and
half the men-at-arms."
"I pray thee, cease thy speech," said Hugo, still more nervously as he
looked about him apprehensively in the semi-darkness of the fire-lit
enclosure. "Thy prating may mar all."
"Was it for this," demanded Humphrey, "that I did dream of acorns and
of eating one of them, which foretelleth, as all men know, a gradual
rise to riches and honor, that I should be bid to cease prating by a
stranger, and he a mere lad? But I can cease, if it please thee. I had
not come with thee but for her ladyship's commands." And in much
dudgeon he composed himself to sleep.
As for Hugo, he lay on the grass, his eyes on the glimmering fire, and
his ears alert for any sound. But all was still; and he soon fell to
picturing the scene at the castle,--Lady De Aldithely and Josceline,
mounted for their journey, going out at the postern gate at the head of
the train of sumpter mules and attended by the band of serving-men and
men-at-arms. And with all his heart he hoped for their safety. He did
not wonder at their taking their treasures with them. It was the custom
of the time to do so, and was quite as sensible as leaving them behind
to be stolen.
The great deerhound blinked his eyes lazily in the firelight and drew,
after a while, the lad's thoughts away from the castle. What should he
do with Fleetfoot? How should he feed him, and with what? And how
should he get him through the town of Ferrybridge near which they now
were, and which they must pass through in the morning, unless Humphrey
would agree to swim the horses across the Aire above the town and so
avoid it?
And now the wood seemed to awake. Owls insisted to the ears of the
sleeping Humphrey that the morrow would be a fair day. Leaves rustled
in the gentle wind. Far off sounded a wildcat's cry. And with these
sounds in his ears Hugo fell asleep.