The minutes wore on, and though some of the company at the "Trusty Man"
went away in due course, others came in to replace them, so that even
when it was nearing ten o'clock the common room was still fairly full.
Matt Peke was evidently hail-fellow-well-met with many of the loafers of
the district, and his desultory talk, with its quaint leaning towards a
kind of rustic philosophy intermingled with an assumption of profound
scientific wisdom, appeared to exercise considerable fascination over
those who had the patience and inclination to listen to it. Helmsley
accepted a pipe of tobacco offered to him by the surly-looking Dubble
and smoked peacefully, leaning back in his chair and half closing his
eyes with a drowsy air, though in truth his senses had never been more
alert, or his interest more keenly awakened. He gathered from the
general conversation that Bill Bush was an accustomed night lodger at
the "Trusty Man," that Dubble had a cottage not far distant, with a
scolding wife and an uppish daughter, and that it was because she knew
of his home discomforts that Miss Tranter allowed him to pass many of
his evenings at her inn, smoking and sipping a mild ale, which without
fuddling his brains, assisted him in part to forget for a time his
domestic worries. And he also found out that the sturdy farmer sedately
sucking his pipe in a corner, and now and then throwing in an unexpected
and random comment on whatever happened to be the topic of conversation,
was known as "Feathery" Joltram, though why "Feathery" did not seem very
clear, unless the term was, as it appeared to be, an adaptation of
"father" or "feyther" Joltram. Matt Peke explained that old "Feathery"
was a highly respected character in the "Quantocks," and not only rented
a large farm, but thoroughly understood the farming business. Moreover,
that he had succeeded in making himself somewhat of a terror to certain
timorous time-servers, on account of his heterodox and obstinate
principles. For example, he had sent his children to school because
Government compelled him to do so, but when their schooldays were over,
he had informed them that the sooner they forgot all they had ever
learned during that period and took to "clean an' 'olesome livin'," the
better he should be pleased.
"For it's all rort an' rubbish," he declared, in his broad, soft
dialect. "I dozn't keer a tinker's baad 'apenny whether tha knaw 'ow to
'rite tha mizchief or to read it, or whether king o' England is eatin'
'umble pie to the U-nited States top man, or noa,--I keerz nawt aboot
it, noben way or t'other. My boys 'as got to laarn draawin' crops out o'
fields,--an' my gels must put 'and to milkin' and skimmin' cream an'
makin' foinest butter as iver went to market. An' time comin' to wed,
the boys 'ull take strong dairy wives, an' the gels 'ull pick men as can
thraw through men's wurrk, or they'ze nay gels nor boys o' mine. Tarlk
o' Great Britain! Heart alive! Wheer would th' owd country be if 'twere
left to pulin' booky clerks what thinks they're gemmen, an' what weds
niminy-piminy shop gels, an' breeds nowt but ricketty babes fit for
workus' burial! Noa, by the Lord! No school larnin' for me nor mine,
thank-ee! Why, the marster of the Board School 'ere doant know more
practical business o' life than a suckin' calf! With a bit o' garden
ground to 'is cot, e' doant reckon 'ow io till it, an' that's the
rakelness o' book larnin'. Noa, noa! Th' owd way o' wurrk's the best
way,--brain, 'ands, feet an' good ztrong body all zet on't, an' no
meanderin' aff it! Take my wurrd the Lord A'mighty doant 'elp corn to
grow if there's a whinin' zany ahint the plough!"
With these distinctly "out-of-date" notions, "Feathery" Joltram had also
set himself doggedly against church-going and church people generally.
Few dared mention a clergyman in his presence, for his open and
successful warfare with the minister of his own parish had been going on
for years and had become well-nigh traditional. Looking at him, however,
as he sat in his favourite corner of the "Trusty Man's" common room, no
one would have given him credit for any particular individuality. His
round red face expressed nothing,--his dull fish-like eyes betrayed no
intelligence,--he appeared to be nothing more than a particularly large,
heavy man, wedged in his chair rather than seated in it, and absorbed in
smoking a long pipe after the fashion of an infant sucking a
feeding-bottle, with infinite relish that almost suggested gluttony.
The hum of voices grew louder as the hour grew later, and one or two
rather noisy disputations brought Miss Tranter to the door. A look of
hers was sufficient to silence all contention, and having bent the
warning flash of her eyes impressively upon her customers, she retired
as promptly and silently as she had appeared. Helmsley was just thinking
that he would slip away and get to bed, when, a firm tread sounded in
the outer passage, and a tall man, black-haired, black-eyed, and of
herculean build, suddenly looked in upon the tavern company with a
familiar nod and smile.
"Hullo, my hearties!" he exclaimed. "Is all tankards drained, or is a
drop to spare?"
A shout of welcome greeted him:--"Tom!" "Tom o' the Gleam!" "Come in,
Tom!" "Drinks all round!"--and there followed a general hustle and
scraping of chairs on the floor,--every one seemed eager to make room
for the newcomer. Helmsley, startled in a manner by his appearance,
looked at him with involuntary and undisguised admiration. Such a
picturesque figure of a man he had seldom or never seen, yet the fellow
was clad in the roughest, raggedest homespun, the only striking and
curious note of colour about him being a knitted crimson waistcoat,
which instead of being buttoned was tied together with two or three tags
of green ribbon. He stood for a moment watching the men pushing up
against one another in order to give him a seat at the table, and a
smile, half-amused, half-ironical, lighted up his sun-browned, handsome
face.
"Don't put yourselves out, mates!" he said carelessly. "Mind Feathery's
toes!--if you tread on his corns there'll be the devil to pay! Hullo,
Matt Peke! How are you?"
Matt rose and shook hands.
"All the better for seein' ye again, Tom," he answered, "Wheer d'ye hail
from this very present minit?"
"From the caves of Cornwall!" laughed the man. "From picking up drift on
the shore and tracking seals to their lair in the hollows of the rocks!"
He laughed again, and his great eyes flashed wildly. "All sport, Matt! I
live like a gentleman born, keeping or killing at my pleasure!"
Here "Feathery" Joltram looked up and dumbly pointed with the stem of
his pipe to a chair left vacant near the middle of the table. Tom o' the
Gleam, by which name he seemed to be known to every one present, sat
down, and in response to the calls of the company, a wiry pot-boy in
shirt-sleeves made his appearance with several fresh tankards of ale, it
now being past the hour for the attendance of that coy handmaiden of the
"Trusty Man," Miss Prue.
"Any fresh tales to tell, Tom?" inquired Matt Peke then--"Any more
harum-scarum pranks o' yours on the road?"
Tom drank off a mug of ale before replying, and took a comprehensive
glance around the room.
"You have a stranger here," he said suddenly, in his deep, thrilling
voice, "One who is not of our breed,--one who is unfamiliar with our
ways. Friend or foe?"
"Friend!" declared Peke emphatically, while Bill Bush and one or two of
the men exchanged significant looks and nudged each other. "Now, Tom,
none of yer gypsy tantrums! I knows all yer Romany gibberish, an' I
ain't takin' any. Ye've got a good 'art enough, so don't work yer dander
up with this 'ere old chap what's a-trampin' it to try and find out all
that's left o's fam'ly an' friends 'fore turnin' up 'is toes to the
daisies. 'Is name is David, an' 'e's been kickt out o' office work
through bein' too old. That's _'is_ ticket!"
Tom o' the Gleam listened to this explanation in silence, playing
absently with the green tags of ribbon at his waistcoat. Then slowly
lifting his eyes he fixed them full on Helmsley, who, despite himself,
felt an instant's confusion at the searching intensity of the man's bold
bright gaze.
"Old and poor!" he ejaculated. "That's a bad lookout in this world!
Aren't you tired of living!"
"Nearly," answered Helmsley quietly--"but not quite."
Their looks met, and Tom's dark features relaxed into a smile.
"You're fairly patient!" he said, "for it's hard enough to be poor, but
it's harder still to be old. If I thought I should live to be as old as
you are, I'd drown myself in the sea! There's no use in life without
body's strength and heart's love."
"Ah, tha be graat on the love business, Tom!" chuckled "Feathery"
Joltram, lifting his massive body with a shake out of the depths of his
comfortable chair. "Zeems to me tha's zummat like the burd what cozies a
new mate ivery zummer!"
Tom o' the Gleam laughed, his strong even white teeth shining like a
row of pearls between his black moustaches and short-cropped beard.
"You're a steady-going man, Feathery," he said, "and I'm a wastrel. But
I'm ne'er as fickle as you think. I've but one love in the world that's
left me--my kiddie."
"Ay, an' 'ow's the kiddie?" asked Matt Peke--"Thrivin' as iver?"
"Fine! As strong a little chap as you'll see between Quantocks and
Land's End. He'll be four come Martinmas."
"Zo agein' quick as that!" commented Joltram with a broad grin. "For
zure 'e be a man grow'd! Tha'll be puttin' the breechez on 'im an'
zendin' 'im to the school----"
"Never!" interrupted Tom defiantly. "They'll never catch my kiddie if I
know it! I want him for myself,--others shall have no part in him. He
shall grow up wild like a flower of the fields--wild as his mother
was--wild as the wild roses growing over her grave----"
He broke off suddenly with an impatient gesture.
"Psha! Why do you drag me over the old rough ground talking of Kiddie!"
he exclaimed, almost angrily. "The child's all right. He's safe in camp
with the women."
"Anywheres nigh?" asked Bill Bush.
Tom o' the Gleam made no answer, but the fierce look in his eyes showed
that he was not disposed to be communicative on this point. Just then
the sound of voices raised in some dispute on the threshold of the
"Trusty Man," caused all the customers in the common room to pause in
their talking and drinking, and to glance expressively at one another.
Miss Tranter's emphatic accents rang out sharply on the silence.
"It wants ten minutes to ten, and I never close till half-past ten," she
said decisively. "The law does not compel me to do so till eleven, and I
resent private interference."
"I am aware that you resent any advice offered for your good," was the
reply, delivered in harsh masculine tones. "You are a singularly
obstinate woman. But I have my duty to perform, and as minister of this
parish I shall perform it."
"Mind your own business first!" said Miss Tranter, with evident
vehemence.
"My business is my duty, and my duty is my business,"--and here the male
voice grew more rasping and raucous. "I have as much right to use this
tavern as any one of the misled men who spend their hard earnings here
and neglect their homes and families for the sake of drink. And as you
do not close till half-past ten, it is not too late for me to enter."
During this little altercation, the party round the table in the common
room sat listening intently. Then Dubble, rousing himself from a
pleasant ale-warm lethargy, broke the spell.
"Dorned if it aint old Arbroath!" he said.
"Ay, ay, 'tis old Arbroath zartin zure!" responded "Feathery" Joltram
placidly. "Let 'un coom in! Let 'un coom in!"
Tom o' the Gleam gave vent to a loud laugh, and throwing himself back in
his chair, crossed his long legs and administered a ferocious twirl to
his moustache, humming carelessly under his breath:--
"'And they called the parson to marry them,
But devil a bit would he--
For they were but a pair of dandy prats
As couldn't pay devil's fee!'"
Helmsley's curiosity was excited. There was a marked stir of expectation
among the guests of the "Trusty Man"; they all appeared to be waiting
for something about to happen of exceptional interest. He glanced
inquiringly at Peke, who returned the glance by one of warning.
"Best sit quiet a while longer," he said. "They won't break up till
closin' hour, an' m'appen there'll be a bit o' fun."
"Ay, sit quiet!" said Tom o' the Gleam, catching these words, and
turning towards Helmsley with a smile--"There's more than enough time
for tramping. Come! Show me if you can smoke _that_!" "That" was a
choice Havana cigar which he took out of the pocket of his crimson wool
waistcoat. "You've smoked one before now, I'll warrant!"
Helmsley met his flashing eyes without wavering.
"I will not say I have not," he answered quietly, accepting and lighting
the fragrant weed, "but it was long ago!"
"Ay, away in the Long, long ago!" said Tom, still regarding him fixedly,
but kindly--"where we have all buried such a number of beautiful
things,--loves and hopes and beliefs, and dreams and fortunes!--all, all
tucked away under the graveyard grass of the Long Ago!"
Here Miss Tranter's voice was heard again outside, saying acidly:--
"It's clear out and lock up at half-past ten, business or no business,
duty or no duty. Please remember that!"
"'Ware, mates!" exclaimed Tom,--"Here comes our reverend!"
The door was pushed open as he spoke, and a short, dark man in clerical
costume walked in with a would-be imposing air of dignity.
"Good-evening, my friends!" he said, without lifting his hat.
There was no response.
He smiled sourly, and surveyed the assembled company with a curious air
of mingled authority and contempt. He looked more like a petty officer
of dragoons than a minister of the Christian religion,--one of those
exacting small military martinets accustomed to brow-beating and
bullying every subordinate without reason or justice.
"So you're there, are you, Bush!" he continued, with a frowning glance
levied in the direction of the always suspected but never proved
poacher,--"I wonder you're not in jail by this time!"
Bill Bush took up his pewter tankard, and affected to drain it to the
last dregs, but made no reply.
"Is that Mr. Dubble!" pursued the clergyman, shading his eyes with one
hand from the flickering light of the lamp, and feigning to be doubtful
of the actual personality of the individual he questioned. "Surely not!
I should be very much surprised and very sorry to see Mr. Dubble here at
such a late hour!"
"Would ye now!" said Dubble. "Wal, I'm allus glad to give ye both a
sorrer an' a surprise together, Mr. Arbroath--darned if I aint!"
"You must be keeping your good wife and daughter up waiting for you,"
proceeded Arbroath, his iron-grey eyebrows drawing together in an ugly
line over the bridge of his nose. "Late hours are a mistake, Dubble!"
"So they be, so they be, Mr. Arbroath!" agreed Dubble. "Ef I was oop
till midnight naggin' away at my good wife an' darter as they nags away
at me, I'd say my keepin' o' late 'ours was a dorned whoppin' mistake
an' no doubt o't. But seein' as 'taint arf-past ten yet, an' I aint
naggin' nobody nor interferin' with my neighbours nohow, I reckon I'm on
the right side o' the night so fur."
A murmur of approving laughter from all the men about him ratified this
speech. The Reverend Mr. Arbroath gave a gesture of disdain, and bent
his lowering looks on Tom o' the Gleam.
"Aren't you wanted by the police?" he suggested sarcastically.
The handsome gypsy glanced him over indifferently.
"I shouldn't wonder!" he retorted. "Perhaps the police want me as much
as the devil wants _you_!"
Arbroath flushed a dark red, and his lips tightened over his teeth
vindictively.
"There's a zummat for tha thinkin' on, Pazon Arbroath!" said "Feathery"
Joltram, suddenly rising from his chair and showing himself in all his
great height and burly build. "Zummat for a zermon on owd Nick, when
tha're wantin' to scare the zhoolboys o' Zundays!"
Mr. Arbroath's countenance changed from red to pale.
"I was not aware of your presence, Mr. Joltram," he said stiffly.
"Noa, noa, Pazon, m'appen not, but tha's aweer on it now. Nowt o' me's
zo zmall as can thraw to heaven through tha straight and narrer way. I'd
'ave to squeeze for 't!"
He laughed,--a big, slow laugh, husky with good living and good humour.
Arbroath shrugged his shoulders.
"I prefer not to speak to you at all, Mr. Joltram," he said. "When
people are bound to disagree, as we have disagreed for years, it is best
to avoid conversation."
"Zed like the Church all over, Pazon!" chuckled the imperturbable
Joltram. "Zeems as if I 'erd the 'Glory be'! But if tha don't want any
talk, why does tha coom in 'ere wheer we'se all a-drinkin' steady and
talkin' 'arty, an' no quarrellin' nor backbitin' of our neighbours? Tha
wants us to go 'ome,--why doezn't tha go 'ome thysen? Tha's a wife a
zettin' oop there, an' m'appen she's waitin' with as fine a zermon as
iver was preached from a temperance cart in a wasterne field!"
He laughed again; Arbroath turned his back upon him in disgust, and
strode up to the shadowed corner where Helmsley sat watching the little
scene.
"Now, my man, who are _you_?" demanded the clergyman imperiously. "Where
do you come from?"
Matt Peke would have spoken, but Helmsley silenced him by a look and
rose to his feet, standing humbly with bent head before his arrogant
interlocutor. There were the elements of comedy in the situation, and he
was inclined to play his part thoroughly.
"From Bristol," he replied.
"What are you doing here?"
"Getting rest, food, and a night's lodging."
"Why do you leave out drink in the list?" sneered Arbroath. "For, of
course, it's your special craving! Where are you going?"
"To Cornwall."
"Tramping it?"
"Yes."
"Begging, I suppose?"
"Sometimes."
"Disgraceful!" And the reverend gentleman snorted offence like a walrus
rising from deep waters. "Why don't you work?"
"I'm too old."
"Too old! Too lazy you mean! How old are you?"
"Seventy."
Mr. Arbroath paused, slightly disconcerted. He had entered the "Trusty
Man" in the hope of discovering some or even all of its customers in a
state of drunkenness. To his disappointment he had found them perfectly
sober. He had pounced on the stray man whom he saw was a stranger, in
the expectation of proving him, at least, to be intoxicated. Here again
he was mistaken. Helmsley's simple straight answers left him no opening
for attack.
"You'd better make for the nearest workhouse," he said, at last. "Tramps
are not encouraged on these roads."
"Evidently not!" And Helmsley raised his calm eyes and fixed them on the
clergyman's lowering countenance with a faintly satiric smile.
"You're not too old to be impudent, I see!" retorted Arbroath, with an
unpleasant contortion of his features. "I warn you not to come cadging
about anywhere in this neighbourhood, for if you do I shall give you in
charge. I have four parishes under my control, and I make it a rule to
hand all beggars over to the police."
"That's not very good Christianity, is it?" asked Helmsley quietly.
Matt Peke chuckled. The Reverend Mr. Arbroath started indignantly, and
stared so hard that his rat-brown eyes visibly projected from his head.
"Not very good Christianity!" he echoed. "What--what do you mean? How
dare you speak to me about Christianity!"
"Ay, 'tis a bit aff!" drawled "Feathery" Joltram, thrusting his great
hands deep into his capacious trouser-pockets. "'Tis a bit aff to taalk
to Christian parzon 'bout Christianity, zeein' 'tis the one thing i'
this warld 'e knaws nawt on!"
Arbroath grew livid, but his inward rage held him speechless.
"That's true!" cried Tom o' the Gleam excitedly--"That's as true as
there's a God in heaven! I've read all about the Man that was born a
carpenter in Galilee, and so far as I can understand it, He never had a
rough word for the worst creatures that crawled, and the worse they
were, and the more despised and down-trodden, the gentler He was with
them. That's not the way of the men that call themselves His ministers!"
"I 'eerd once," said Mr. Dubble, rising slowly and laying down his pipe,
"of a little chap what was makin' a posy for 'is mother's birthday, an'
passin' the garden o' the rector o' the parish, 'e spied a bunch o' pink
chestnut bloom 'angin' careless over the 'edge, ready to blow to bits
wi' the next puff o' wind. The little raskill pulled it down an' put it
wi' the rest o' the flowers 'e'd got for 'is mother, but the good an'
lovin' rector seed 'im at it, an' 'ad 'im nabbed as a common thief an'
sent to prison. 'E wornt but a ten-year-old lad, an' that prison spoilt
'im for life. 'E wor a fust-class Lord's man as did that for a babby
boy, an' the hull neighbourhood's powerful obleeged to 'im. So don't
ye,"--and here he turned his stolid gaze on Helmsley,--"don't ye, for
all that ye're old, an' poor, an' 'elpless, go cadgin' round this 'ere
reverend gemmen's property, cos 'e's got a real pityin' Christian 'art
o's own, an' ye'd be sent to bed wi' the turnkey." Here he paused with a
comprehensive smile round at the company,--then taking up his hat, he
put it on. "There's one too many 'ere for pleasantness, an' I'm goin'.
Good-den, Tom! Good-den, all!"
And out he strode, whistling as he went. With his departure every one
began to move,--the more quickly as the clock in the bar had struck ten
a minute or two since. The Reverend Mr. Arbroath stood irresolute for a
moment, wishing his chief enemy, "Feathery" Joltram, would go. But
Joltram remained where he was, standing erect, and surveying the scene
like a heavily caparisoned charger scenting battle.
"Tha's heerd Mizter Dubble's tale afore now, Pazon, hazn't tha?" he
inquired. "M'appen tha knaw'd the little chap as Christ's man zent to
prizon thysen?"
Arbroath lifted his head haughtily.
"A theft is a theft," he said, "whether it is committed by a young
person or an old one, and whether it is for a penny or a hundred pounds
makes no difference. Thieves of all classes and all ages should be
punished as such. Those are my opinions."
"They were nowt o' the Lord's opinions," said Joltram, "for He told the
thief as 'ung beside Him, 'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,'
but He didn't say nowt o' the man as got the thief punished!"
"You twist the Bible to suit your own ends, Mr. Joltram," retorted
Arbroath contemptuously. "It is the common habit of atheists and
blasphemers generally."
"Then, by the Lord!" exclaimed the irrepressible "Feathery," "All th'
atheists an' blasphemers must be a-gathered in the fold o' the Church,
for if the pazons doan't twist the Bible to suit their own ends, I'm
blest if I knaw whaat else they does for a decent livin'!"
Just then a puff of fine odour from the Havana cigar which Helmsley was
enjoying floated under the nostrils of Mr. Arbroath, and added a fresh
touch of irritation to his temper. He turned at once upon the offending
smoker.
"So! You pretend to be poor!" he snarled, "And yet you can smoke a cigar
that must have cost a shilling!"
"It was given to me," replied Helmsley gently.
"Given to you! Bah! Who would give an old tramp a cigar like that?"
"I would!" And Tom o' the Gleam sprang lightly up from his chair, his
black eyes sparkling with mingled defiance and laughter--"And I did!
Here!--will you take another?" And he drew out and opened a handsome
case full of the cigars in question.
"Thank you!" and Arbroath's pallid lips trembled with rage. "I decline
to share in stolen plunder!"
"Ha--ha--ha! Ha--ha!" laughed Tom hilariously. "Stolen plunder! That's
good! D'ye think I'd steal when I can buy! Reverend sir, Tom o' the
Gleam is particular as to what he smokes, and he hasn't travelled all
over the world for nothing:
'Qu'en dictes-vous? Faut-il à ce musier,
_Il n'est trésor que de vivre à son aise_!'"
Helmsley listened in wonderment. Here was a vagrant of the highroads and
woods, quoting the refrain of Villon's _Contreditz de Franc-Gontier_,
and pronouncing the French language with as soft and pure an accent as
ever came out of Provence. Meanwhile, Mr. Arbroath, paying no attention
whatever to Tom's outburst, looked at his watch.
"It is now a quarter-past ten," he announced dictatorially; "I should
advise you all to be going."
"By the law we needn't go till eleven, though Miss Tranter _does_ halve
it," said Bill Bush sulkily--"and perhaps we won't!"
Mr. Arbroath fixed him with a stern glance.
"Do you know that I am here in the cause of Temperance?" he said.
"Oh, are ye? Then why don't ye call on Squire Evans, as is the brewer
wi' the big 'ouse yonder?" queried Bill defiantly. "'E's the man to go
to! Arsk 'im to shut up 'is brewery an' sell no more ale wi' pizon in't
to the poor! That'll do more for Temp'rance than the early closin' o'
the 'Trusty Man.'"
"Ye're right enough," said Matt Peke, who had refrained from taking any
part in the conversation, save by now and then whispering a side comment
to Helmsley. "There's stuff put i' the beer what the brewers brew, as is
enough to knock the strongest man silly. I'm just fair tired o' hearin'
o' Temp'rance this an' Temp'rance that, while 'arf the men as goes to
Parl'ment takes their livin' out o' the brewin' o' beer an' spiritus
liquors. An' they bribes their poor silly voters wi' their drink till
they'se like a flock o' sheep runnin' into wotever field o' politics
their shepherds drives 'em. The best way to make the temp'rance cause
pop'lar is to stop big brewin'. Let every ale'ouse 'ave its own
pertikler brew, an' m'appen we'll git some o' the old-fashioned malt
an' 'ops agin. That'll be good for the small trader, an' the big brewin'
companies can take to somethin' 'onester than the pizonin' bizness."
"You are a would-be wise man, and you talk too much, Matthew Peke!"
observed the Reverend Mr. Arbroath, smiling darkly, and still glancing
askew at his watch. "I know you of old!"
"Ye knows me an' I knows you," responded Peke placidly. "Yer can't
interfere wi' me nohow, an' I dessay it riles ye a bit, for ye loves
interferin' with ivery sort o' folk, as all the parsons do. I b'longs to
no parish, an' aint under you no more than Tom o' the Gleam be, an' we
both thanks the Lord for't! An' I'm earnin' a livin' my own way an'
bein' a benefit to the sick an' sorry, which aint so far from proper
Christianity. Lor', Parson Arbroath! I wonder ye aint more 'uman like,
seein' as yer fav'rite gel in the village was arskin' me t'other day if
I 'adn't any yerb for to make a love-charm. 'Love-charm!' sez I--'what
does ye want that for, my gel?' An' she up an' she sez--'I'd like to
make Parson Arbroath eat it!' Hor--er--hor--er--hor--er! 'I'd like to
make Parson Arbroath eat it!' sez she. An' she's a foine strappin'
wench, too!--'Ullo, Parson! Goin'?"
The door slammed furiously,--Arbroath had suddenly lost his dignity and
temper together. Peke's raillery proved too much for him, and amid the
loud guffaws of "Feathery" Joltram, Bill Bush and the rest, he beat a
hasty retreat, and they heard his heavy footsteps go hurriedly across
the passage of the "Trusty Man," and pass out into the road beyond.
Roars of laughter accompanied his departure, and Peke looked round with
a smile of triumph.
"It's just like a witch-spell!" he declared. "There's nowt to do but
whisper, 'Parson's fav'rite!'--an' Parson hisself melts away like a mist
o' the mornin' or a weasel runnin' into its 'ole! Hor--er, hor--er,
hor--er!"
And again the laughter pealed out long and loud, "Feathery" Joltram
bending himself double with merriment, and slapping the sides of his
huge legs in ecstasy. Miss Tranter hearing the continuous uproar, looked
in warningly, but there was a glimmering smile on her face.
"We'se goin', Miss Tranter!" announced Bill Bush, his wizened face all
one broad grin. "We aint the sort to keep you up, never fear! Your worst
customer's just cleared out!"
"So I see!" replied Miss Tranter calmly,--then, nodding towards
Helmsley, she said--"Your room's ready."
Helmsley took the hint. He rose from his chair, and held out his hand to
Peke.
"Good-night!" he said. "You've been very kind to me, and I shan't forget
it!"
The herb-gatherer looked for a moment at the thin, refined white hand
extended to him before grasping it in his own horny palm. Then--
"Good-night, old chap!" he responded heartily. "Ef I don't see ye i' the
mornin' I'll leave ye a bottle o' yerb wine to take along wi' ye
trampin', for the more ye drinks o't the soberer ye'll be an' the better
ye'll like it. But ye should give up the idee o' footin' it to Cornwall;
ye'll never git there without a liftin'."
"I'll have a good try, anyway," rejoined Helmsley. "Good-night!"
He turned towards Tom o' the Gleam.
"Good-night!"
"Good-night!" And Tom's dark eyes glowed upon him with a sombre
intentness. "You know the old proverb which says, 'It's a long lane
which has never a turning'?"
Helmsley nodded with a faint smile.
"Your turning's near at hand," said Tom. "Take my word for it!"
"Will it be a pleasant turning?" asked Helmsley, still smiling.
"Pleasant? Ay, and peaceful!" And Tom's mellow voice sank into a softer
tone. "Peaceful as the strong love of a pure woman, and as sweet with
contentment as is the summer when the harvest is full! Good-night!"
Helmsley looked at him thoughtfully; there was something poetic and
fascinating about the man.
"I should like to meet you again," he said impulsively.
"Would you?" Tom o' the Gleam smiled. "So you will, as sure as God's in
heaven! But how or when, who can tell!" His handsome face clouded
suddenly,--some dark shadow of pain or perplexity contracted his
brows,--then he seemed to throw the feeling, whatever it was, aside, and
his features cleared. "You are bound to meet me," he continued. "I am as
much a part of this country as the woods and hills,--the Quantocks and
Brendons know me as well as Exmoor and the Valley of Rocks. But you are
safe from me and mine! Not one of our tribe will harm you,--you can
pursue your way in peace--and if any one of us can give you help at any
time, we will."
"You speak of a community?"
"I speak of a Republic!" answered Tom proudly. "There are thousands of
men and women in these islands whom no king governs and no law
controls,--free as the air and independent as the birds! They ask
nothing at any man's hands--they take and they keep!"
"Like the millionaires!" suggested Bill Bush, with a grin.
"Right you are, Bill!--like the millionaires! None take more than they
do, and none keep their takings closer!"
"And very miserable they must surely be sometimes, on both their takings
and their keepings," said Helmsley.
"No doubt of it! There'd be no justice in the mind of God if
millionaires weren't miserable," declared Tom o' the Gleam. "They've
more money than they ought to have,--it's only fair they should have
less happiness. Compensation's a natural law that there's no getting
away from,--that's why a gypsy's merrier than a king!"
Helmsley smiled assent, and with another friendly good-night all round,
left the room. Miss Tranter awaited him, candle in hand, and preceding
him up a short flight of ancient and crooked oaken stairs, showed him a
small attic room with one narrow bed in it, scrupulously neat and clean.
"You'll be all right here," she said. "There's no lock to your door, but
you're out of the truck of house work, and no one will come nigh you."
"Thank you, madam,"--and Helmsley bent his head gently, almost
humbly,--"You are very good to me. I am most grateful!"
"Nonsense!" said Miss Tranter, affecting snappishness. "You pay for a
bed, and here it is. The lodgers here generally share one room between
them, but you are an old man and need rest. It's better you should get
your sleep without any chance of disturbance. Good-night!"
"Good-night!"
She set down the candle by his bedside with a "Mind you put it out!"
final warning, and descended the stairs to see the rest of her customers
cleared off the premises, with the exception of Bill Bush, Matt Peke,
and Tom o' the Gleam, who were her frequent night lodgers. She found
Tom o' the Gleam standing up and delivering a kind of extemporary
oration, while his rough cap, under the pilotage of Bill Bush, was being
passed round the table in the fashion of a collecting plate.
"The smallest contribution thankfully received!" he laughed, as he
looked and saw her. "Miss Tranter, we're doing a mission! We're
Salvationists! Now's your chance! Give us a sixpence!"
"What for?" And setting her arms akimbo, the hostess of the "Trusty Man"
surveyed all her lingering guests with a severe face. "What games are
you up to now? It's time to clear!"
"So it is, and all the good little boys are going to bed," said Tom.
"Don't be cross, Mammy! We want to close our subscription list--that's
all! We've raised a few pennies for the old grandfather upstairs. He'll
never get to Cornwall, poor chap! He's as white as paper. Office work
doesn't fit a man of his age for tramping the road. We've collected two
shillings for him among us,--you give sixpence, and there's half-a-crown
all told. God bless the total!"
He seized his cap as it was handed back to him, and shook it, to show
that it was lined with jingling halfpence, and his eyes sparkled like
those of a child enjoying a bit of mischief.
"Come, Miss Tranter! Help the Gospel mission!"
Her features relaxed into a smile, and feeling in her apron pocket, she
produced the requested coin.
"There you are!" she said.--"And now you've got it, how are you going to
give him the money?"
"Never you mind!" and Tom swept all the coins together, and screwed them
up in a piece of newspaper. "We'll surprise the old man as the angels
surprise the children!"
Miss Tranter said nothing more, but withdrawing to the passage, stood
and watched her customers go out of the door of the "Trusty Man," one by
one. Each great hulking fellow doffed his cap to her and bade her a
respectful "Good-night" as he passed, "Feathery" Joltram pausing a
moment to utter an "aside" in her ear.
"'A fixed oop owd Arbroath for zartin zure!"--and here, with a sly wink,
he gave a forcible nudge to her arm,--"An owd larrupin' fox 'e be!--an'
Matt Peke giv' 'im the finish wi's fav'rite! Ha--ha--ha! 'A can't abide
a wurrd o' that long-legged wench! Ha--ha--ha! An' look y'ere, Miss
Tranter! I'd 'a given a shillin' in Tom's 'at when it went round, but
I'm thinkin' as zummat in the face o' the owd gaffer up in bed ain't zet
on beggin', an' m'appen a charity'd 'urt 'is feelin's like the
poor-'ouse do. But if 'e's wantin' to 'arn a mossel o' victual, I'll
find 'im a lightsome job on the farm if he'll reckon to walk oop to me
afore noon to-morrer. Tell 'im' that from farmer Joltram, an' good-night
t'ye!"
He strode out, and before eleven had struck, the old-fashioned iron bar
clamped down across the portal, and the inn was closed. Then Miss
Tranter turned into the bar, and before shutting it up paused, and
surveyed her three lodgers critically.
"So you pretend to be all miserably poor, and yet you actually collect
what you call a 'fund' for the old tramp upstairs who's a perfect
stranger to you!" she said--"Rascals that you are!"
Bill Bush looked sheepish.
"Only halfpence, Miss," he explained. "Poor we be as church mice, an' ye
knows that, doesn't ye? But we aint gone broken yet, an' Tom 'e started
the idee o' doin' a good turn for th' old gaffer, for say what ye like
'e do look a bit feeble for trampin' it."
Miss Tranter sniffed the atmosphere of the bar with a very good
assumption of lofty indifference.
"_You_ started the idea, did you?" she went on, looking at Tom o' the
Gleam. "You're a nice sort of ruffian to start any idea at all, aren't
you? I thought you always took, and never gave!"
He smiled, leaning his handsome head back against the white-washed wall
of the little entry where he stood, but said nothing. Matt Peke then
took up the parable.
"Th' old man be mortal weak an' faint for sure," he said. "I come upon
'im lyin' under a tree wi' a mossel book aside 'im, an' I takes an'
looks at the book, an' 'twas all portry an' simpleton stuff like, an' 'e
looked old enough to be my dad, an' tired enough to be fast goin' where
my dad's gone, so I just took 'im along wi' me, an' giv' 'im my name an'
purfession, an' 'e did the same, a-tellin' me as 'ow 'is name was D.
David, an' 'ow 'e 'd lost 'is office work through bein' too old an'
shaky. 'E's all right,--an office man aint much good on the road, weak
on 'is pins an' failin' in 'is sight. M'appen the 'arf-crown we've got
'im 'ull 'elp 'im to a ride part o' the way 'e's goin'."
"Well, don't you men bother about him any more," said Miss Tranter
decisively. "You get off early in the morning, as usual. _I'll_ look
after him!"
"Will ye now?" and Peke's rugged features visibly brightened--"That's
just like ye, Miss! Aint it, Tom? Aint it, Bill?"
Both individuals appealed to agreed that it was "Miss Tranter all over."
"Now off to bed with you!" proceeded that lady peremptorily. "And leave
your collected 'fund' with me--I'll give it to him."
But Tom o' the Gleam would not hear of this.
"No, Miss Tranter!--with every respect for you, no!" he said gaily.
"It's not every night we can play angels! I play angel to my kiddie
sometimes, putting a fairing in his little hammock where he sleeps like
a bird among the trees all night, but I've never had the chance to do it
to an old grandad before! Let me have my way!"
And so it chanced that at about half-past eleven, Helmsley, having lain
down with a deep sense of relief and repose on his clean comfortable
little bed, was startled out of his first doze by hearing stealthy steps
approaching his door. His heart began to beat quickly,--a certain vague
misgiving troubled him,--after all, he thought, had he not been very
rash to trust himself to the shelter of this strange and lonely inn
among the wild moors and hills, among unknown men, who, at any rate by
their rough and uncouth appearance, might be members of a gang of
thieves? The steps came nearer, and a hand fumbled gently with the door
handle. In that tense moment of strained listening he was glad to
remember that when undressing, he had carefully placed his vest, lined
with the banknotes he carried, under the sheet on which he lay, so that
in the event of any one coming to search his clothes, nothing would be
found but a few loose coins in his coat pocket. The fumbling at his door
continued, and presently it slowly opened, letting in a pale stream of
moonlight from a lattice window outside. He just saw the massive figure
of Tom o' the Gleam standing on the threshold, clad in shirt and
trousers only, and behind him there seemed to be the shadowy outline of
Matt Peke's broad shoulders and Bill Bush's bullet head. Uncertain what
to expect, he determined to show no sign of consciousness, and half
closing his eyes, he breathed heavily and regularly, feigning to be in a
sound slumber. But a cold chill ran through his veins as Tom o' the
Gleam slowly and cautiously approached the bed, holding something in his
right hand, while Matt Peke and Bill Bush tiptoed gently after him
half-way into the room.
"Poor old gaffer!" he heard Tom whisper--"Looks all ready laid out and
waiting for the winding!"
And the hand that held the something stole gently and ever gentlier
towards the pillow. By a supreme effort Helmsley kept quite still. How
he controlled his nerves he never knew, for to see through his almost
shut eyelids the dark herculean form of the gypsy bending over him with
the two other men behind, moved him to a horrible fear. Were they going
to murder him? If so, what for? To them he was but an old
tramp,--unless--unless somebody had tracked him from London!--unless
somebody knew who he really was, and had pointed him out as likely to
have money about him. These thoughts ran like lightning through his
brain, making his blood burn and his pulses, tingle almost to the verge
of a start and cry, when the creeping hand he dreaded quietly laid
something on his pillow and withdrew itself with delicate precaution.
"He'll be pleased when he wakes," said Tom o' the Gleam, in the mildest
of whispers, retreating softly from the bedside--"Won't he?"
"Ay, that he will!" responded Peke, under his breath;, "aint 'e sleepin'
sound?"
"Sound as a babe!"
Slowly and noiselessly they stepped backward,--slowly and noiselessly
they closed the door, and the faint echo of their stealthy footsteps
creeping away along the outer passage to another part of the house, was
hushed at last into silence. After a long pause of intense stillness,
some clock below stairs struck midnight with a mellow clang, and
Helmsley opening his eyes, lay waiting till the excited beating of his
heart subsided, and his quickened breath grew calm. Blaming himself for
his nervous terrors, he presently rose from his bed, and struck a match
from the box which Miss Tranter had thoughtfully left beside him, and
lit his candle. Something had been placed on his pillow, and curiosity
moved him to examine it. He looked,--but saw nothing save a mere screw
of soiled newspaper. He took it up wonderingly. It was heavy,--and
opening it he found it full of pennies, halfpennies, and one odd
sixpence. A scrap of writing accompanied this collection, roughly
pencilled thus:--"To help you along the road. From friends at the Trusty
Man. Good luck!"
For a moment he stood inert, fingering the humble coins,--for a moment
he could hardly realise that these rough men of doubtful character and
calling, with whom he had passed one evening, were actually humane
enough to feel pity for his age, and sympathy for his seeming loneliness
and poverty, and that they had sufficient heart and generosity to
deprive themselves of money in order to help one whom they judged to be
in greater need;--then the pure intention and honest kindness of the
little "surprise" gift came upon him all at once, and he was not ashamed
to feel his eyes full of tears.
"God forgive me!" he murmured--"God forgive me that I ever judged the
poor by the rich!"
With an almost reverential tenderness, he folded the paper and coins
together, and put the little packet carefully away, determining never to
part with it.
"For its value outweighs every banknote I ever handled!" he said--"And I
am prouder of it than of all my millions!"