The track through the forest was found, and Beauvallet's horse leaped
forward under the spur. Joshua, pressing up close, looked anxiously
into his master's grimly smiling face. "Master, what is it?" he said
fearfully.
"Don Diego has had my lady shut up in the lodge since yesterday," said
Sir Nicholas curtly.
Joshua's jaw dropped. He could understand now why Sir Nicholas wore
his killing look. This was ill news; the very worst that could have
befallen. His stupefaction passed; righteous wrath sprang up. "Ah,
villain! ah, crack-hemp! If we slit not your weasand for this!"
They galloped on down the track. To either side the great trees reared
up, ghostly in the darkness. The road was good, a grassy ride cut
through the woods. "Well for us it was, for we did not pick our way
daintily, look you," says Joshua.
Sir Nicholas caught his horse up on a stumble, and turned his head.
"Hard-pressed now, my Joshua," he said, and shook the sword in his
scabbard slightly.
"In my opinion, master, there is naught new in that," said Joshua
philosophically.
"How many men, by your reckoning?"
"Enough to do our business," said Joshua dryly. "But having dumped
the fat lady in the spinney--I allow it to have been politic, upon
reflection--and so shut her mouth, we may yet win clear away."
"I don't think it," said Sir Nicholas calmly. "They may waste time in
searching for her, but if I read this villainy aright every hilding
on the estate will know where Doña Dominica lies, and send the guards
hot-foot after me there."
Joshua spoke in a voice of alarm. "Save you, master, save you! do you
lose heart? For if that is so at last then I know we are shent."
The answering laugh reassured him. "Oh chewet, do you not know when I
am in fighting humour?"
"I should indeed, sir," acknowledged Joshua. "I make bold to say I find
you dangerous at this present. There will be broken heads and slit
gullets yet."
They rode on in silence, stirrup to stirrup. Presently Beauvallet spoke
again. "I may have to lead the chase astray a little," he said. "Do you
ride off with my lady by the north-west road to Villanova, and there
await me. You mark me?"
"Master, do you tell me to desert you?" said Joshua, offended. "That is
not very likely."
He caught the well-known gleam in Beauvallet's eye. "Oho!" said Sir
Nicholas softly. "Do you command here, my friend? Now I think you will
do as I say, or it may be the worse for you."
"Pretty treatment, master, by my troth!" said Joshua. "Well, go to: I
do not deny you are the General."
"If we are overtaken," said Sir Nicholas, ignoring this stricture upon
his ruthless methods, "as I have little doubt we shall be, ride with my
lady hot-foot to Villanova, and there await me. Is it understood?"
"Well, master, well. And if you come not?"
"By this hand I shall come!" said Beauvallet. "What, do you fear for
me? Know then that I was never more in the mood to try a throw with
death."
"That I may very easily believe, sir, and I may add that it does not
set me the more at ease," said Joshua. He peered ahead and reined in to
a walk. "Softly now! What's here?"
A house loomed up ahead, approached by a wicket-gate giving on to the
track. There was a low building some three hundred yards further on:
stables, Joshua guessed.
Sir Nicholas slipped from the saddle, and twitched the bridle over his
horse's head. "This should be the place. Follow me now." He led the
way off the track into the gloom of the forest. The moss-grown floor
muffled the sound of the horses' hooves; they skirted the house, and
came round to the back of it, under cover of the trees. The horses
were swiftly tethered to a young sapling. Sir Nicholas unbuckled his
sword-belt, and drew the shining blade clear of its sheath. "No need to
take this to hamper me," he said, and left the scabbard on the ground.
He scanned the back of the house, and saw a lighted window on the upper
storey. "Aha, my bird, do you lie there?" he said. "We shall see anon.
Now I am for you, Don Diego de Carvalho!"
They went quickly round to the front of the house. Joshua had his
long dagger out, and followed silently in Beauvallet's grim wake. Sir
Nicholas went boldly now, the naked sword in his hand, and hammered on
the door of the lodge with its chased hilt.
"God's my life, we stalk on our fate now!" muttered Joshua, aghast at
these high-handed measures.
They heard footsteps approaching inside the house, rather hesitantly.
Sir Nicholas beat again on the door, an imperative summons, and Joshua
took a firmer hold on his weapon.
The footsteps came nearer; the door was opened a few inches, and Luis,
the valet, looked out. "Who knocks? What do you want?"
Joshua's arm slid lovingly round his neck; the point of his dagger
pricked the man's throat. "Nay then, my cosset, no sound out of you, or
you are sped," he said softly.
The man's eyes stared at him, his lips moved soundlessly.
"Truss him up," said Sir Nicholas, and passed into the lodge.
There were candles in sconces upon the walls; the stairs ran up to
one side, to the other a door opened hastily. Don Diego came out, a
snatched-up sword in his hand, a look of quick alarm in his face.
"Let none enter!" he said sharply, and then started back. "Jesu!" he
gasped, blanched and shaking. His eyes were wide and staring, looking
fearfully. In the doorway stood El Beauvallet, tall and straight,
fiendishly smiling, like avenging doom wafted thither by most dreadful
witchcraft.
The candlelight flickered along the blade of El Beauvallet's sword. He
held it between his hands, and bent the supple steel to a half-hoop.
Don Diego's fascinated eyes saw the white teeth gleam. "One has
entered," said Sir Nicholas. He came into the hall, purposeful, a
stalking terror. "I have the honour of presenting myself to you,
señor, in my true guise." He stood in the middle of the hall now, feet
wide planted. "I am El Beauvallet, Don Diego, and I come to seek a
reckoning with you!" His voice rang out; his beard jutted dangerously.
Don Diego was backed against the wall. "Witchcraft! witchcraft!" he
muttered, and the sword trembled in his hand.
The chin was upflung, the gay laugh rang amongst the rafters, "Ha,
do you think so indeed, villain?" He let his blade straighten with a
quivering snap, and shook it in Don Diego's face. "Come, pigeon-livered
hound! Here are no arts but my sword to yours. Or will you have me spit
you where you cower? Come, choose quickly! Death waits for one of us
twain to-night, and I am very sure it is not for me!"
Away up the stairs Dominica knelt behind a locked door with her ear
pressed to the crack. She heard the ringing laugh, and it was as though
joy flooded her whole being. For a moment the world stood still, then
she sprang to her feet, beating on the door with her clenched fists.
"Nicholas! Nicholas! I am here, locked in!" she shrieked.
He heard her voice and threw up his head. "Cheerly, my bird, cheerly!"
he called. "I shall be with you in a little!"
She leaned against the door, sobbing and laughing at once. Might she
not have known that he would come, and come in time, too!
Downstairs in the hall Don Diego had recovered from his first daze of
horror. The colour came back into his cheeks. He tore his dagger from
its sheath, and crouched, facing Beauvallet. "Dog of a pirate! You
shall speed to hell this night!"
"After you, señor, after you!" said Sir Nicholas blithely, and
caught the thrusting rapier point on his blade. There was a scuffle
of daggers, steel clashed against steel, and Don Diego sprang back,
disengaging over the arm.
Sir Nicholas drove him rigorously; they circled a little; there was a
lunge, and a dexterous parry, the flash of an upthrust dagger, scurry
of blades, and the quick shifting of light feet on the wooden floor.
Don Diego fought furiously, lips drawn back in a snarling grimace,
brows close knit. He lunged forward to the heart, was parried by that
lightning blade from the hand of Ferrara, and recovered his guard only
just in time. Sir Nicholas was on his toes; the laugh was back in his
eyes, and on his lips; larger issues were forgot in the present joy
of battle. He had made no idle boast to his brother when he had said
he was a master of the art of foining with the point. Don Diego had
thought himself no mean swordsman, but he knew himself outmatched.
This man, sprung on wires; this devil who laughed as he lunged, had a
dashing skill that brought Diego face to face with death a dozen times.
He was fighting for very life, and he had thought to run through his
opponent almost at once.
"Laugh, laugh, dog!" he gasped, beating aside that flickering blade for
an instant. "You shall laugh soon in hell!"
"Go warn them there of my coming, señor," said Sir Nicholas gaily, and
seemed to quicken.
The fight grew more desperate; Don Diego was losing ground, and knew
it. It was all he could do to keep that dancing sword-point at bay,
and ever he fell back before it. The point quivered to his throat; he
sprang back, was forced on further still, hard-breathing, sweating, but
fighting every inch of the way.
Faintly in the distance came the thud of galloping horses. Joshua's
voice called urgently: "Master, master, make an end!"
Don Diego thrust viciously to the heart. "You shall go
hence--shackled!" he gasped.
The steel blades hissed together; one of them snaked out in a straight
lunge, driven by a strong wrist. "_My bite is sure!_" quoth Sir
Nicholas, and wrenched his sword free of the deep wound.
Don Diego's weapon fell clattering; he threw up his hands with a
choking sound, and pitched forward on to his face.
The thud of the horses' hooves was drawing nearer; Sir Nicholas was
down on his knee, turning Don Diego over. The black eyes were glazing
fast, but gleamed hatred still. Sir Nicholas felt in the elegant
doublet, found the key he sought, and sprang up.
Joshua ran in. "Trapped, trapped!" he cried. "They are hard on us!"
"Round with you to the back!" Beauvallet answered instantly. "Wait
beneath my lady's window, and when I send her down to you, off with
you!"
Joshua made a gesture of despair and ran out. Plainly to be heard now
were the galloping hooves.
Sir Nicholas went bounding up the stairs. "Where, my heart, where?" he
called.
Her voice led him to the door. He fitted the key into the lock and
turned it, listening to the thunder of hooves drawing closer and ever
closer.
The door was open, and Dominica sobbing on his breast.
"You are safe?" he asked urgently.
"Safe! safe!" she answered.
"God be praised!" He put her quickly aside and strode to the bed. The
heavy quilt was flung off, the sheets snatched up and knotted. "The
chase is hard upon me. I must let you down through your window, my
bird." He jerked at his knot. The horses were at hand, and trampling
now as they were pulled up outside the lodge. Sir Nicholas reached the
window, "Joshua?"
"Ready, master!" came the stealthy whisper.
He turned. "Come, fondling! Trust me to let you safely down."
She let him lift her on to the window-ledge, but her hands clung to
him. Downstairs blows were being rained on the shut door. "But you? But
you?"
"Never fear," he said. His voice was cool and reassuring. "Twist the
sheet about your hands, so, and hold fast, child. Brave lass! Are you
ready?"
Clinging tightly to her improvised rope she was lowered over the sill,
hung dangling on the end of the sheet, and was let down into Joshua's
ready arms. He set her down, caught her hand, and led her away at the
double across the garden to the hedge that shut it off from the forest.
"Hist, hist for your life!" he breathed. "Do as I bid you, mistress,
and not a word out of you!"
Behind them the guards were in at the door of the lodge, stumbling over
Don Diego's body.
"Ah, he has been here, the villain!" cried Cruza. "He is here still!
Search the house!"
Upstairs Beauvallet tore the key from the lock of Dominica's door, and
fitted it in again on the inside. He pulled the door to behind him just
as Cruza came bounding up the stairs, a drawn sword in his hand.
"Well met, Señor Cruza!" said Beauvallet cheerfully, and held sword and
dagger ready.
Cruza sent a shout echoing through the house. "To me! to me!"
The men came stamping up the stairs. "Why, what a pack of you!" said
Sir Nicholas, amused.
"Yield you, señor!" Cruza cried. "You are outmatched!"
"Yield?" said Sir Nicholas. Up went his comical eyebrow. "God's Son,
Cruza, do you know who I am?"
"You are El Beauvallet, and I have sworn to take you! We are six to
your one. Yield, yield!"
"You will be forsworn, good señor. I am El Beauvallet, so the odds are
fair enough. Now who will take Nick Beauvallet?" He looked inquiringly,
and wondered whether Joshua had got Dominica away yet.
"Insolent dog!" Cruza dashed in with levelled sword. "On to him, and
take him alive!" he cried.
Sir Nicholas' blade swept a circle before him. He laughed and shook
the sweat from his eyes. "Alas, alas, for vain ambition! So-so! What,
winded, my man?" A guard fell back with a slash across the forearm.
Sir Nicholas beat down a big double-edged sword, and slipped his
dagger-hand behind him, feeling for the handle of the door.
The Toledo blade bit shrewdly and sure indeed. Cruza staggered as the
point went home in his shoulder, and recovered again. "Alive! I want
him alive!" he gasped out.
Sir Nicholas' fingers had found the door-handle, and turned it now in
one quick movement. The door was flung open; he sprang back, fighting
his way, sent the foremost guard sprawling with a wound in the breast,
and slammed the door home behind him.
Cruza threw himself upon it, thrusting with all his might. "Quick,
fools!" he cried, and heard the key grate in the lock. "Two of you down
into the garden, under the window!" he jerked out. "Break down this
door, you others! Break it down!"
Two of the guards went running down the stairs and round to the back;
the rest set their shoulders to the door. The lock gave under the
weight, the door flew wide, and the guards were in.
The room was empty. An overturned chair lay a-sprawl by the window; a
casement swung open on its hinge, and the curtain beside it was rent
from end to end.
With one accord his men followed Cruza to the window and tried to crane
out. From the arras behind the door Sir Nicholas slipped out, kissed
his fingers silently to the backs of the guards, and was off without a
sound across the upper hall to the stairs.
He went down in a series of bounds, reached the hall, and stepped over
Don Diego's body to the door. A beam of light cast through the opening
showed him a guard standing to the horses' heads. He went forward in a
rush then, and his sword-hilt took the guard on the chin almost before
he was aware, and sent him sprawling in the road. Sir Nicholas caught a
bridle, vaulted into the saddle, and stood up in his stirrups.
"Come then, ye dogs!" he cried. "Follow El Beauvallet if ye dare, and
take _Reck Not_ for the word!" He wheeled about as the two guards came
dashing round the corner of the house, and galloped off down the way by
which he had come, eastwards towards the Frontier.