On this, their last day in the Isle of Axholme, Hugo and Humphrey took
up the occupation of the day before, but with more deliberation. And
they went in a different direction,--southeast, toward the Trent.
"It is this way we journey on the morrow with the horses," remarked
Humphrey. "It is as well to see what the way is like while we gather
our store of reeds and rushes. For I did dream of gold, which
betokeneth success in our present undertaking, and success ever resteth
on good care and good judgment. And so let us see where the solid
places be and where the bogs lie. And do thou note well the course so
that we may run it with safety and speed if need be. And we will not
gather the reeds and rushes till we return."
"Meanest thou to walk to the Trent, then, to-day, and back again?"
questioned Hugo. And by this time he had so far forgotten the
difference in their stations that there was respect in his tone, which
Humphrey was quick to notice.
"Yea, lad," answered the serving-man, kindly. "It is only a few miles.
It is not well to risk miring the horses when I did dream of gold last
night."
Hugo smiled. He was beginning to see that, while the superstition of
the age, and particularly of his condition, had, to a certain extent, a
hold on Humphrey, his course was really directed by sturdy
common-sense; and he wondered no more at Lady De Aldithely's trust in
him.
The two were well on their way, and Richard Wood and his men-at-arms
were scouring the forest near Doncaster, when Walter Skinner walked out
to the stables of the Green Dragon to see to his horse. His face was
still painful, and he desired to vent some of his spleen on the unlucky
groom, whoever he might be, who had his horse in charge. He found the
horse tied to a ring in the stable wall, and the groom having a sorry
time of it, since every time the groom touched him with comb or brush
the animal backed, or turned, or laid back his ears and snapped with
his teeth. For the monks at the priory had furnished the king's man, on
his compulsion, with the worst horse in their stables.
"Here be a beast fit for the Evil One and for nobody else," grumbled
the sorely tried groom. "I am like to be killed for my pains in trying
to smooth his coat for him."
The groom was a tall, overgrown fellow of nineteen, with a vacant face
and an ever-running tongue. He now stood stock still upon the approach
of Walter Skinner and gazed at him. He would have done the same if any
creature possessed of the power of locomotion had come into his view.
But of that Walter Skinner was ignorant. To him the gaze of the groom
seemed honor and respect toward himself, and even, perhaps, awe. And he
was at once mollified.
"My horse is a beast of mettle," he observed complacently when the
groom had returned to his work.
"Ay, and I would that his master, the Evil One, had the grooming of
him," was the retort.
"Why, how now, sirrah! Dost thou slander the horse which is a gift from
Mother Church to the king's work? Thou art a knave, and no doubt art
but unfit for thy task this morn through over-late carousing last
night."
"Thou mayest call it carousing, if thou wilt," said the groom, sulkily.
"I did come from Gainsborough yesterday. And in the dark, as I did
come, I saw a flaming fire in the Isle of Axholme."
"And what meanest thou to tell me of that?" demanded Walter Skinner,
sternly. "Thou wert no doubt so drunk that a will-o'-the-wisp in that
boggy place did seem to thee even as a flaming fire. Why dost thou not
stand to my horse and get down with him? He hath already backed and
turned a matter of some miles."
The groom stopped and looked at him indignantly. "I may be but a
groom," he said, "but the Isle of Axholme I know from a child, every
bog in it. And I did go to the fire, which was a bit out of my way,
but, being my only pleasure on the journey, I did take it. And there on
the rushes lay a young lord, and his serving-man did feed the fire with
reeds."
"Thou didst see that?" cried Walter Skinner, in great excitement. "Make
haste with the beast, sirrah. Here is a coin for thee, good groom. I do
now see thou wert never drunken in thy life. Make haste with the
horse."
The groom stared at him foolishly. "Why, who could make haste with such
a beast?" he said at length.
"Then stay not to finish thy work," cried Walter Skinner, impatiently.
"Bring saddle and bridle. I must away instantly. But do thou first
describe to me the place where thou didst see the fire."
"The place," said the groom, deliberately, while he examined the coin
Walter Skinner had given him. "Thou dost go till thou comest to it. A
turn here and a turn there mayhap thou must make, and thou wilt find it
a little solid place with three scrub trees upon it. It is a matter of
a short distance from the south end of the Isle, and thou wilt not fail
to know it when thou seest it."
With this not over-clear direction Walter Skinner was obliged to be
content. Bidding the groom to bring the horse to the door of the inn at
once, he hurried away, paid his reckoning, examined carefully the
string of his bow, and looked over his store of arrows. "And now,
Josceline, son of Lord De Aldithely," he said, "my arrow will bid thee
halt this time, and not my voice. And thou, Richard Wood, who didst
say, 'We hunt no more in company,' what wouldst thou give to know of
this place in the Isle of Axholme? And thou mayst have thy men-at-arms
to bear thee company, and to pay for when thou art done with them. They
cost thee more than a bow and some arrows cost me, nor will they do
thee one half the good."
So thinking he bestrode the vicious beast which backed and plunged
about the inn yard, and from which the grooms and the watching maids
fled in all directions. Walter Skinner, however, was not to be
unseated, and, the horse being headed in the right direction, his next
plunge carried him out of the yard and fairly started him on his way,
the spur of his rider giving him no permission to halt for a moment.
"And now," thought Walter Skinner, when he had crossed the Don and was
free of the town, "what said the knave groom? I must go till I come to
it. Ay, and who knoweth when that shall be, and who knoweth the way in
this pitfall of bogs? Three scrub trees, saith he, and all together on
one little solid place. I would I might see three little scrub trees."
His horse had been over the Isle before and, being given his head,
began to pick his way so cleverly that Walter Skinner was still further
elated. He sat up pompously and pictured himself a courtier at the
palace as a reward for this day's work. "For I lean not to golden
rewards alone," he said. "No doubt it can be managed that from this day
I begin to rise. The king hath advanced baser men than I, let Richard
Wood think as he will in the matter."
And now he descried the three little scrub trees; but he saw not the
horses, they having been taken to another islet for pasture; nor
Fleetfoot, who had gone with Hugo and Humphrey.
"The knave groom spake true," said Walter Skinner, with satisfaction.
"There be the rushes on which they lie, and there the ashes of the
fire. I will seek out a convenient hiding-place in the reeds, and
to-night, when the fire blazeth bright, then shall my arrows sing."
So saying he sought a place of concealment for himself and his horse,
and, having found it, and tied the horse securely, he lay down well
satisfied.
Hugo and Humphrey did not return till toward evening. They had caught
some fish in the Trent and roasted them on the coals for their dinner,
and afterward had come leisurely back, enjoying the scenes and sights
of the marsh.
From his covert Walter Skinner saw them come, each leading a horse
which he had stopped to get from the islet pasture, while Fleetfoot
lagged behind on a little hunting expedition of his own. The spy drew
his bow and sighted. "Yea," he said to himself, "no doubt I can do it.
And what is an arrow wound more or less when one would win the favor of
the king? The lad or his servant may die of it. But what is death? It
is e'en what every man sooner or later must meet. And it is the king's
favor I will have, come what may to these runaways." Then he laid down
the bow and arrow and took a long drink from his horn. "When the flames
shoot high and they be in the strong light of the blaze, then will I
shoot," he said. "And it is their own fault if they be hit. They should
have remained in the castle where Robert Sadler arriveth this same
night."
Hugo and Humphrey had not before been on such thoroughly amicable terms
as they were to-night. The boy, so much like his young master, had,
unconsciously to Humphrey, won his way into the heart of the
serving-man; while Hugo had learned in their few days' companionship to
feel toward Humphrey as his faithfulness deserved. So, while the fire
blazed up and all remained in darkness outside of its circle, Humphrey
entertained Hugo with tales of his early life, to which the boy
listened with appreciation. "Ay, lad," said Humphrey, when half an hour
had gone by and he paused in his story to look at him with approval,
"thou hast the ears of my lady herself, who is ever ready to listen to
what I would say."
And then came a whistling arrow, shot by an unsteady, drunken hand, and
another, and another, none of which wounded either boy or man, since
Hugo was still defended by his shirt of mail, and Humphrey wore a stout
gambeson.
[Illustration: Humphrey started up, snatching a great bunch of long
flaming reeds]
Instantly Humphrey started up and, snatching a great bunch of long,
flaming reeds to serve him for a light, ran in the direction whence the
arrows had come. Hugo, catching up an armful of reeds yet unlighted to
serve when those Humphrey carried should burn out, hurried after him.
Soon they had found the covert and the spy, and, tossing his torch to
Hugo, the serving-man rushed at him.
"And wouldst thou slay my dear lad?" he cried. "Thou snipe!"
"Stand back!" sputtered the spy. "Lay not thy hands upon me. I serve
the king."
"Ay, and thou shalt find what it is to serve the king," cried Humphrey,
seizing him by the shoulders and dragging him along. "Yon is his
horse," he said, turning to Hugo. "Cut him loose."
The boy obeyed and, with a snort, the animal was off.
"Thou shalt be well punished for this deed," threatened the spy. "The
steed was the gift of the prior of St. Edmund's."
"Talk not of punishment," cried the enraged Humphrey; "thou who wouldst
slay my dear lad. Lead to the right, lad!" he cried. "I do know a miry
pool. It will not suck him down, but it will cause him some labor to
get out of it."
Hugo, bearing the torch, obeyed, and shortly they had reached the pool
which Humphrey had discovered the day before. Grasping his shoulders
yet more firmly, and fairly lifting the little spy from his feet, the
stalwart Humphrey set him down with a thud in the sticky mud. "There
thou mayest stand like a reed or a rush," he said. "I would thou wert
as worthy as either."
A moment the spy stood there in water up to his knees while Hugo and
Humphrey, by the light of the ever-renewed torch of reeds, watched him.
Then he began to try to extricate himself. But when he pulled one foot
loose, it was only to set the other more securely in the mud.
"Ay, lad," observed Humphrey, with satisfaction. "He danceth very well,
but somewhat slowly. Leave we him to his pleasure while we go seek for
his bow and arrows. It were not well that he should shoot at us again."
"Thou villain!" cried the half-drunken Walter Skinner; "when I am a
lord in His Majesty's service thou shalt hear of this night's work."
"Ay, Sir Stick-in-the-Mud," responded Humphrey, indifferently. "When
that day cometh I am content to hear of it." Then he led the way back
to Walter Skinner's hiding-place, while Hugo followed. And there they
found the bow, which was of yew with a silken string. And with it was a
goodly store of ash arrows tipped with steel and winged with goose
feathers.
"We be not thieves, lad," said Humphrey, "else might we add these to
our store." So saying, he broke the arrows and flung them away, cut the
bow-string in pieces, and flung the bow far from him into the water.
"Had these been in a steady hand," he said, "it might now be ill with
us. Perchance the spy doth not now cry out, 'Aha, Fortune! thou art
with me.' And now let us back to our couch of rushes, there to wait
till the moon rise, which will be some three hours. And rest we in
darkness. We may not have more fire to make us targets, perchance, for
the other spy."
In silence the two lay down on the rushes, Hugo full of excitement and
nervously listening for the whistle of another arrow. And, much to the
boy's astonishment, in five minutes the faithful Humphrey was sound
asleep.
He continued to sleep until the beams of the rising moon struck him
full in the face, when he awoke. "Hast slept, lad?" he asked.
"Nay," replied Hugo.
"Thou shouldst have done so. Perchance the time cometh shortly when we
dare not sleep; for I did dream of being taken by the constable, which
signifieth want of wit, and so I know not what to do. But we may not
bide here. On we must go, and make the best of what wit we have." He
rose from the rushes and, followed by Hugo, went to the horses and put
Fleetfoot once more in leash. Then, each having mounted, he led the way
toward the track they had marked out the day before.
"If the spy be not too lazy, he will doubtless be free of the miry pool
in the morning," observed Humphrey. "And he might as well have dreamed
of being taken by the constable, for if he lacketh not the wit to keep
him from a worse case, I know not the measure of a man's mind. And that
should I know, having observed not only my lord, but the valiant
William Lorimer also."