Just as the sergeant opened the coffin and satisfied himself that a dead
man really lay within, an officer, attracted by the screams, entered the
room.
"What is this, sergeant?" he asked angrily. "The orders were to search
the houses, but none were given you to trouble the inmates."
Mrs. Martin began to complain of the conduct of the soldiers in
wrenching open the coffin.
"It was a necessary duty, my good woman," the officer said, "seeing that
a living man might have been carried away instead of a dead one;
however, I see all is right."
"Oh, kind sir!" Mrs. Martin said, sobbing, "is it true what this man
tells me, that there is no passage through the gates to-day? I have
hired a cart to take away my husband's body; the grave is dug, and the
priest will be waiting. Kind sir, I pray of you to get me a pass to go
out with it, together with my daughter, sister, and niece."
"Very well," the officer said kindly, "I will do as you wish. I shall
be seeing the governor presently to make my report to him; and as I have
myself seen the dead body, can vouch that no ruse is intended. But
assuredly no pass will be given for any man to accompany you; and the
Scot, who is a head and shoulders taller than any of you, would scarcely
slip out in a woman's garment. When will the cart be here?"
"At noon," the woman replied.
"Very well; an hour before that time a soldier will bring you the pass.
Now, sergeant, have you searched the rest of the house?"
"Yes, sir, thoroughly; and nothing suspicious has been found."
"Draw off your men, then, and proceed with your search elsewhere."
No sooner had the officer and the men departed than Cluny ran upstairs,
and removing two of the tiles, whispered to Archie that all was clear.
The hole was soon enlarged. Archie re-entered and the pair descended to
the woodshed which adjoined the kitchen. There, with a spade and mattock
which Cluny had purchased on the preceding day, they set to work to dig
a grave. In two hours it was completed. The body of John Martin was
lowered into it, the earth replaced and trodden down hard, and the wood
again piled on to it.
At eleven o'clock a soldier entered with the governor's pass, ordering
the soldier at the gate to allow a cart with the body of John Martin,
accompanied by four women, to pass out from the town.
At the appointed time the cart arrived. Archie now took his place in the
coffin. Then some neighbours came in and assisted in placing the coffin
in the cart. The driver took his place beside it, and the four women,
with their hoods drawn over their heads, fell in behind it, weeping
bitterly.
When they arrived at the gate the officer in charge carefully read the
order, and then gave the order for the gate to be opened. "But stop," he
said; "this pass says nothing about a driver, and though this man in no
way resembles the description of the doughty Scot, yet as he is not
named in the pass I cannot let him through." There was a moment's pause
of consternation, and then Cluny said:
"Sister Mary, I will lead the horse. When all is in readiness, and the
priest waits, we cannot turn back on such a slight cause." As the
driver of the cart knew Mary Martin, he offered no objection, and
descended from his seat. Cluny took the reins, and, walking by the side
of the horse's head, led it through the gates as these were opened, the
others following behind. As soon as they were through, the gates closed
behind them, and they were safely out of the town of Berwick.
*KINDNESS REWARDED.*
*FROM "CAPTAIN BAYLEY'S HEIR."*
[The daughter of Captain Bayley, a wealthy old Indian officer, made a
marriage much beneath her, and was disowned by her father. Her husband
dies, and when in the extremity of poverty she meets with an accident in
the streets of London. She is taken in and kindly cared for by John and
Sarah Holl, the former being a dustman. The lady dies, and her infant
is brought up by John Holl and his wife as their own. The child is one
day run over by a passing cart and grows up a cripple.
An accident leads to the discovery of his parentage. Captain Bayley at
once recognizes him as his heir, and by the advice of the doctors he
calls in determines to take him to some foreign baths which might bring
about a cure.]
Before starting abroad, Captain Bayley carried out his plan for
rewarding John and Sarah Holl for the kindness they had shown to Harry.
After consultation with his grandson, he had concluded that the best
plan of doing so would be to help them in their own mode of life. He
accordingly called upon the dust-contractor for whom John Holl worked, a
man who owned twenty carts. An agreement was soon come to with him, by
which Captain Bayley agreed to purchase his business at his own price,
with the whole of the plant, carts, and horses. A fortnight after this
John's master said to him one day--
"John, I have sold my business; you are going to have a new master."
"I am sorry for that," John said, "for we have got on very well together
for the last fifteen years. Besides," he added thoughtfully, "it may be
bad for me; I am not as young as I used to be, and he may bring new
hands with him."
"I will speak to him about you, John," his master said; "he is a good
sort of man, and I daresay I can manage it. The thing is going to be
done well. Three or four new carts are to be put on instead of some of
the old ones, and there are ten first-rate horses coming in place of
some of those that are getting past work. The stables are all being
done up, and the thing is going to be done first rate. Curiously enough
his name is the same as yours, John Holl."
"Is it, now?" John said. "Well, it will be odd to see my own name on
the carts, 'John Holl, Dust Contractor.' It doesn't sound bad, either.
So you will speak to him?"
"Yes, I will speak to him," his employer answered.
Three days later John received a message from his master to the effect
that the new owner would take possession next day, and that he was to
call at the office at eleven o'clock. He added that his new employer
said that he wished Mrs. Holl to go round with her husband.
John and Sarah were greatly puzzled with the latter part of this
message, until they thought that probably their late employer had
mentioned that Mrs. Holl went out charring and cleaning, and that he
might intend to engage her to keep the office tidy.