THE GIPSY CAMP
I plodded on till I came to a sort of copse or little wood, where I
expected to find shelter. Supper I had resolved to do without; I
wished to keep my shilling for dinner and breakfast the next day. As I
came up to the copse hedge I saw that some gipsies were camped
there. They had a fine travelling waggon drawn up on some waste ground
near at hand; they had also pitched three or four beehive huts, made
of bent poles, covered with sacks. They were horse-dealers and
basket-makers, as one could see from the drove of lean horses and heap
of wicker-work near the waggon. Several children were playing about
among the huts. Some women were at their basket-making by the
waggon. A middle-aged man, smoking a pipe, stood by the hedge, mending
what looked like an enormous butterfly net. In spite of my adventure
on the road, I was not at all frightened by these gipsies, because I
liked their looks, and I knew now that I had only my shilling to lose,
and that I could earn a dinner at any time by singing a ballad.
The middle-aged man looked rather hard at me as I came near, and
called out in a strange language to his people in the tents. They came
about me at the call, and stared at me very strangely, as though I was
a queer beast escaped from a menagerie. Then, to my great surprise,
the man pointed to my forehead, and all the gipsies stared at my
forehead, repeating those queer words which Marah had used so long
before in the gorse-clump--"Orel. Orel. Adartha Cay." They seemed very
pleased and proud; they clapped their hands and danced, as though I
was a little prince. All the time they kept singing and talking in
their curious language. Now and then one of them would come up to me
and push back my cap to look at my hair, which was of a dark brown
colour, with a dash of reddy gold above my forehead.
I learned afterwards that gipsies held sacred all boys with hair like
mine. They call the ruddy tinge over the forehead "the cross upon
crutches"; for long ago, they say, a great gipsy hero had that mark
upon his brow in lines of fire; and to this day all people with a
fiery lock of hair, they believe, bring luck to them.
When the gipsies had danced for some twenty minutes, the elderly man
(who seemed to be a chief among them) begged me (in English) with many
profound bows and smiles, to enter their waggon. I had heard that the
gipsies stole little children; but as I had never heard of them
stealing a boy of my age I did not fear them. So I entered the waggon
as he bade me, and very neat and trim it was. Here a man produced a
curious red suit of clothes, rather too small for me; but still a lot
better than Bill's rags. He begged me to put it on, which I did. I
know now that it was the red magical suit in which the gipsies dress
their magical puppets on St. John's Eve; but as I did not then know
this, I put it on quite willingly, wishing that it fitted better.
Then we came out again among the huts, and all the other gipsies
crowded round me, laughing and clapping their hands; for now, they
thought, their tribe would have wonderful luck wherever they went. The
women put a pot upon the fire, ready for supper. Everybody treated me
(very much to my annoyance) as though I were a fairy child. Whenever I
spoke, they bowed and laughed and clapped their hands, crying out in
their wild language, till I could have boxed their ears.
When supper was ready, they brought me to the place of honour by the
fire, and fed me with all the delicacies of the gipsy race. We had
hedgehog baked in a clay cover--though I did not much like him--and
then a stew of poultry and pheasant (both stolen, I'm afraid) with
bread baked in the ashes; and wonderful tea, which they said cost
eighteen shillings a pound. They annoyed me very much by the way in
which they bowed and smirked, but they really meant to be kind, and I
had sense enough to know that while I was with them I should be
practically safe from the runners and yeomanry. After supper they made
me up a bed in the waggon. The next morning before daybreak we started
off, horses, waggon, and all, away towards the west; going to
Portsmouth Fair, the man said, to sell their horses.
I had not been very long among the gipsies when I discovered that I
was as much a prisoner as a pet. They would never let me out of their
sight. If I tried to get away by myself, one of the children, or a
young woman would follow me, or rather, come in the same direction,
and pretend not to be following me; but all the time noting where I
went, and heading me off carefully if I went too far from the caravan.
Before the end of the first day I was wondering how it would all
finish, and whether they meant to make a gipsy of me. They were very
careful not to let me be seen by other travellers. When the road was
clear, they would let me follow the caravan on foot; but when people
drove past us, and whenever we came to a village (they always avoided
the big towns), they hurried me into the waggon, and kept me from
peeping out. At night, when we pitched our camp, after a long day's
journey of sixteen or seventeen hours, they gave me a bed inside the
caravan; and the elderly chief laid his blankets on the waggon floor,
between my bed and the door, so that I should not get out. I lived
with the gipsies in this way for three whole days.
I did not like it any better as time went on. I kept thinking of how I
should escape, and worrying about the anxiety at home, now that my
letter must have reached them. I did not think any more about the
police. I felt that they would give me no more trouble; but my
distress at not being able to get away from these gipsies was almost
more than I could bear. On the afternoon of the third day I made a
dash for freedom, but the chief soon caught me and brought me back,
evidently very much displeased, and muttering something about stealing
the red coat.
About midday on the fourth day, as we were passing through a village,
it chanced that a drove of sheep blocked up the road. The caravan
stopped and I managed to get down from the waggon, with my gaoler, to
see what was happening in the road. The sheep were very wild, and the
drover was a boy who did not know how to drive them. The way was
blocked for a good ten minutes, so that I had time to look about
me. While we waited, a donkey-cart drove up, with two people inside
it, dressed in the clothes of naval sailors--white trousers, blue,
short, natty jackets (with red and green ribbons in the seams), and
with huge clubbed pigtails under their black, glazed hats. One of them
was evidently ill, for he lay back against the backboard and did not
speak. I noticed also that he had not been to sea for a long time, as
his beard was long and unkempt. The other, who drove the cart, was a
one-legged man, very short and broad, with a thick black stubble on
his cheeks. He was a hearty person with a voice like a lion's
roar. They had rigged up Union Jacks on the donkey's blinkers, they
had a pilot jack upon the shaft, and a white ensign on a flagpole tied
to the backboard. The body of the cart was all sprigged out with
streamers of ribbon as thick as horses' tails, and there were placards
fixed to the sides of the donkey's collar. They were clumsily scrawled
as follows:--
Pity the Braiv English Seamen,
Wonded in the Wars,
Help them as cannot help theirselves,
We have Bled for our nativland.
Nelson and Bronte.
This wonderful conveyance pulled up among the sheep. The one-legged
man stood upright in the cart, called for three cheers, and at once
began to roar out the never-ending ballad of the battle of Belle
Isle:--
At the battle of Belle Isle,
I was there all the while, etc., etc.
Everybody clustered round to listen, and to admire the turnout.
I could not get very near to the cart, because of the press; but I
noticed quite suddenly that the sick man was staring rather hard at me
from under the rim of his glazed hat, which was jammed down over his
eyes. The eyes seemed familiar. There was something familiar in the
figure, covered up, as it was, with the rough beard, and with a ship's
boat-cloak. It reminded me of Marah, somehow, and yet it could not
possibly be Marah; and yet the man was staring hard at me.
A countryman came out of an inn with a mug of drink for the singer,
who checked his song at about the hundred-and-fiftieth stanza, to take
the mug with a "Thank ye, mate," and hand it to his sick friend. The
sick man took the mug with his left hand, opening the fingers
curiously, and still looking hard at me. My heart gave a great jump,
for there were three blue rings tattooed on one of the fingers. The
man waved his mug towards me. "Hoo, hoo, hoo," he cried, imitating an
owl with his weak voice. "Hoo, hoo, hoo." Then he clapped his right
hand across his mouth to warn me to be silent, and drank, with a bow
to the giver.
It _was_ Marah, after all. At this moment the caravan started,
and the man urged me to enter the waggon again. I did so; but as I
turned away, Marah smiled in an absurd manner at me, and bowed three
times, making everybody laugh. That made me feel sure that he would
help me to escape, and to get home again. I could not help laughing at
his trick of dressing up as "a braiv English seaman, wonded in the
war." Had the people known in what wars he had been wounded, they
would not have been so free with their kindness, perhaps.
It occurred to me that Marah had made the owl's cry (or night signal)
to show me that I might expect him at night. So when the gipsies went
to bed that night I lay awake among them, pretending to be fast
asleep. It was very dark, shut up in the waggon. The gipsies slept
heavily, and I could hear the horses outside, cropping on the grass
and snorting. Once or twice I heard a clock strike very far away. Then
I fell asleep, I think, in spite of my excitement. I woke with a
start, because just outside the waggon came the wild crying of an owl:
and then, at that instant, a banging of guns and pistols. A voice
cried out: "The horses. Save the horses." Some one screamed "Help!
help!" in a falsetto. More guns banged and cracked, and I heard a rush
of hoofs as the drove of horses stampeded. The gipsies in the waggon
rushed out as one man to save the precious horses. I rushed out after
them, and there was Marah with his one-legged friend, crouched under
the waggon, waiting for me.
"Well, Jim," he said; "nip this way, quick. We have a suit of clothes
all ready for you."
So they hurried me away to their little cart, where I found a boy's
suit, which I was glad to put on, as of course I never wore the
precious red suit in bed.
"Those were good fire-crackers," said Marah's friend. "They made the
horses run."
"Yes," said Marah. "I knew we could clear the gipsies out of the way
and get Jim clear. Well, Jim, my son, I'm not strong enough to talk
much. I reckon I have done with night-riding since I got this slug in
my chest. But here we are again, bound home, my son, with not much
shot in the locker."
"You be quiet," said his friend; "you'll be getting your wound
bad. Get up, Neddy."
We trotted off to a little inn which stood at some distance from the
gipsies' camp.
The next morning, after a comfortable night in bed; I asked Marah how
he had escaped. He told me that when the lugger drove ashore, one or
two smugglers who had hidden in the dunes, crept down to her and
carried him ashore. The two others, the drunkards, were too noisy to
bring off. They were captured, and condemned to serve in the
Navy. Marah's wound was not very severe; but he had had a great shock,
and would not be able to exert himself for many weeks. An old smuggler
(the one-legged man) had dressed his wound for him, and had then
disguised him as I saw him, with a beard and naval clothes. One of the
many Captains Sharp had advanced money for the journey home; but to
avoid suspicion they had rigged up their donkey-cart; and worked their
way as poor sea-ballad singers.
"And now," said Marah, "I heard tell in Kent that you'd written home
by the mail-coach, a full five days ago. Well, Jim, we're near the
coach-road here. I reckon your friends'll be coming to see you by
to-day's coach. If we go out into the road, to the 'Bold Sawyer'
yonder, where they change horses and wait, I reckon you'll be able to
save them some of their journey. Hey, Sally," he cried to the
waitress, "what time does the Plymouth mail pass by?"
"At eleven o'clock," said Sally.
"At six bells, Jim," said Marah, "you'll see your folk again. On that
I'll wager my best new silver buttons."
The clock struck ten.
It was a fair sunny summer's day, with a brisk wind blowing, when we
ranged ourselves across the road outside the "Bold Sawyer." The
coach-horn, sounding in the distance, was drawing rapidly nearer; we
could hear the rhythm of the sixteen hoofs. Presently the horses swung
round the corner; we saw the coachman flick his leaders so that he
might dash up to the inn in style. Then as they galloped up I saw
two well-known figures sitting outside, well muffled up.
They were Hugh and Mrs Cottier. We had flags in our hands, so we waved
them and shouted. The one-legged man roared out his doings at the
battle of Belle Isle. I heard Hugh shouting at the top of his voice,
"Look, Mother. It's Jim. It's Jim." We had a great dinner at the "Bold
Sawyer" at one o'clock that day. We had hardly finished at half-past
three, when the mail-coach stopped for us, to take us on our first
stage home.
I need only add a few words. Hugh became a "parson fellow," as Marah
had put it; while I, in time, went to Jamaica as a planter. Marah and
the one-legged man took the Gara Mill together, and did very well at
it. Mr Cottier is now a Captain in the Portuguese Navy. Mrs Cottier
keeps house for me here on the Gara. We are all a good deal older; but
we keep well. Marah and I are planning a new adventure; for old Van
Horn's treasure is still among the coral, and some day we are going to
try for it.
THE END