CHAPTER XXI
Knowing nothing of the escape of their old enemy, Hugo and Humphreyarose the next morning and, after paying their reckoning, departedwithout having incurred the suspicion of any one in the town.
"This cometh of leaving the inn of the Shorn Lamb in good season,"observed Humphrey, with satisfaction.
"I did think we were put out of the inn," said Hugo, demurely.
"Ay, lad," agreed Humphrey; "thou art right. If all who go to the ShornLamb were thus put out, and so did leave in good season, there would befewer lambs abroad without their fleece. Didst see Walter Skinner inthe guise of the scullion?"
"Yea," answered Hugo.
"If I be so good a priest as he is a scullion, I fear detection from noman. Why, he doth look to be a good scullion, whereas when he is cladas the king's spy, he looketh a very poor spy; and he doth act the partmoreover very lamentably. We had come badly off had he been as good aspy as he is a scullion."
"Ay, and had he been less drunken," said Hugo.
"Thou hast well said, lad," agreed Humphrey. "Let a man that would haveill success in what he undertaketh but befuddle his wit with drink, andill success he will have, and that in good measure. And the scorn andcontempt of his fellows, moreover, even as hath this little spy."
"And yet," observed Hugo, thoughtfully, "it were hard to find a man whois not at some time drunken."
"Hadst thou that from thine uncle, the prior?" asked Humphrey, quickly."Or didst thou gain it from thine own very ancient experience?"
"Now I have angered thee," said Hugo, frankly.
"Yea, lad, thou hast. This is a time of great drinking, that I know;but never have I seen my lord drunken. And never hath any man seen medrunken, nor my father, nor my grandsire. There be ever enough soberones in the worst of times to keep the world right side uppermost. Andthat thou wilt find when thou hast lived to be forty years old. Butthou art but fourteen, and I am foolish to be angered with thee forwhat is, after all, but lack of experience. How soon come we to thisSt. Albans?"
"Why, it is but thirteen miles from Dunstable," answered Hugo,pleasantly.
"Then may we pass it by without stopping," cried Humphrey, joyfully."And how much farther on lieth London?"
"Twenty miles," replied Hugo.
"Then do we rest in London to-night, if we may," said Humphrey. "Ourhorses be not of the best, but neither are they of the worst; and itwere an ill beast that could not go thirty-three miles before sunset onthe Watling Street."
"Ay," agreed Hugo. "But we may not ride too fast, else shall we arousewonder."
Humphrey sighed. "Thou art right, lad," he said. "And wonder might leadto questions, and questions to a stopping of our journey. For how knowI what answer to make to questions that I be not looking for? I willtherefore go more slowly."
The road was now by no means empty of passengers. Trains of packhorseswere going down to London. And just as they reached St. Albans came anobleman with his retinue, going down to his town house in London. "Somight my lord ride, but for the wicked king," said Humphrey, in a lowtone, as they stood aside. Then passing into the city of St. Albans,they at once sought an inn and made the early hour suit them for dinnerthat so they might journey on the sooner.
They had entered St. Albans in the rear of the nobleman's party. Theypassed out of it an hour later unnoticed in a throng of people. "Andnow," said Humphrey, looking back at the town on the slope, "let thepriest at Oundle play us false if he like; we be safely through thetown."
"It was near here that the Saxon pope, Adrian IV, was born," observedHugo.
"Ay, lad," answered Humphrey, indifferently. "But I be nearing theplace where I be a priest no longer. If we may not make too much haste,let us turn aside in the wood and find a hut where they will take us infor the night, and where, perchance, I may get a dream. 'Tis a mightyplace, this London, and I would fain see what 'twere best to do."
Hugo made no objection, and when they were within ten miles of thegreat city they turned their horses to the left and sought shelter inEpping Forest.
"I like the wood," observed Humphrey, with satisfaction. "It seemeth asafer place than the Watling Street; for who knoweth what rascals ridethereon, and who be no more what they seem than we be ourselves?"
"Why, so they be no worse than we, we need not fear," returned Hugo,with a smile.
But Humphrey was not to be convinced. "I be forty years old," he said,"and what be safer than a tree but many trees? And the grass is underfoot, and the sky above, and naught worse than robbers and wardens tobe feared in the wood."
Hugo laughed. "And what worse than robbers on the Watling Street?" heasked.
"King's men, lad, king's men. A good honest robber of the woods willtake but thy purse or other goods; but the king's man will take thee,and the king will take, perchance, thy life. I like not the WatlingStreet, nor care to see it more."
They were now going slowly through the wood in a bridle-path, onebehind the other. Presently they came out into a glade, and across it,peeping from amid the trees, they descried a hut. "That be our inn forthe night, if they will take us," said Humphrey, decisively. And,crossing the glade, he rode boldly up to the door and knocked.
The hut was very small and was made of wattle and daub. A faint line ofsmoke was coming from a hole in the roof. The knock with the end ofHumphrey's stick was a vigorous one. Nevertheless it went so longwithout answer that he knocked again, and this time with bettersuccess. The door opened slowly a little way, and through the aperturethus made an old and withered face looked out.
"What wilt thou?" asked a cracked, high voice.
"Entrance and shelter for the night," replied Humphrey, promptly andconcisely.
The door opened a little wider and the man within stepping outside, hisperson was revealed. He was of medium height and spare, and he wore along gray tunic of wool reaching to his knees. Beneath this garment hislean legs were bare, while on his feet he wore shoes of skin whichreached to the ankle, and which were secured by thongs. Such as he Hugoand Humphrey had often seen, but never before a face like his, in whichcraftiness and credulity were strangely mingled. For several minutes hestood there, first scrutinizing Humphrey and then Hugo.
At last Humphrey grew impatient. "Do we come in, or do we stay out?" hedemanded.
"Why, that I hardly know," was the slow answer. "There be many roguesabout; some in priests' robes and some not."
"Yea, verily," responded Humphrey, fervently; "but we be not of thenumber. _Pax vobiscum_," he added, hastily. "I had well nigh forgotthat," he said in an aside to Hugo.
But the old man's ears were keen, and he caught the aside meant forHugo's ears alone. "Thou be but a sorry priest to forget thy _paxvobiscum_," he said with a crafty look. "Perchance thou art no priest,"he added, coming closer and peering into Humphrey's face.
He looked so long that Humphrey again grew impatient. "What seest thouon my face?" he asked.
"Why, I do see a mole on thy nose. It is a very small one, and of scantsize, but because thou hast it thou mayest come down from thy horse,thou and the lad with thee, and I will give thee lodging for thenight."
Instinctively Humphrey raised his hand and touched a tiny mole on theside and near the end of his nose. The man of the hut watched him. "Isee thou knowest that a mole near the end of the nose is lucky," hesaid.
"Not I," declared Humphrey. "I had not before heard of such a thing."
The man of the hut regarded him pityingly. Then he said: "Come downfrom thy horse, thou unwitting lucky one, and come thou and the ladwithin while I do hide thy horses in a thick, for I would share thyluck. Dost not know that to show kindness to a lucky one is to sharehis fortune? Thou hadst not come within the hut but for thy mole, Iwarrant thee. For I do know that thou art the false priest and theyoung lord from Oundle that stopped not at St. Albans as ye were bid."
Hugo and Humphrey looked at each other. Then Humphrey said, "I knownot, after all, whether to come in or not."
"Come in! come in!" cried the
old man, eagerly. "I must share thy luck,and that could I not do if I played thee false. Come in!"
Still hesitating, Humphrey glanced about him. He knew not who might beon his track. And then he decided to go in.
"No matter who knocketh while I be gone," said the old man, earnestly,"give heed to none. Only when I come and knock four times: one forthee, one time for the lad, and two times for the two horses, whichsignifieth that I know ye; listen close. And when I say 'mole,' openthe door softly and not over wide."
Humphrey, who with Hugo was now within the hut, promised to obey, andthe old man, closing the door after him, departed with the horses.
At once Humphrey put out the smoking embers of the fire burning on theearthen floor in the centre of the hut. "If any knock and see the smokeand hear no answer, will they not break in the door?" he said.
The old man had been gone but a short time when a tramp of horses washeard. The riders paused before the door of the hut as Humphrey haddone, and one of them knocked heavily upon it with his stick. But therewas no answer. Again there came a knock and a cry, "Open, oldBartlemy!"
Meanwhile, old Bartlemy had come creeping cautiously back, and frombehind a screen of vines which hung from an oak beheld them. "Ay, yemay knock and cry," he muttered craftily; "but which one of ye hath amole near the end of his nose? Not one of ye. Therefore I will havenone of ye. And ye may be gone."
"The old rascal groweth deaf," said one of the riders.
"Nay," answered the second. "There cometh no smoke out of the roof. Heis doubtless from home for the night."
Old Bartlemy hastily glanced toward the roof of the hut. He had left asmouldering fire, and now no fire was there. "The false priest hath putit out," he said joyfully. "Now know I that he hath luck with him, andI will serve him faithfully. Ay, knock!" he continued. "Knock thy fill.I did but now hear thee call me 'old rascal,' though I have helped theeto thy desires many times, for which thou didst pay me by everthreatening to bring the ranger upon me for the game I take to keep mealive. Thou wantest naught of old Bartlemy but to further thine ownschemes."
There was silence a moment, and then the first speaker said, "Thepriest of Oundle hath cheaply bought his altar cloth if we find notthese two. We know they be between St. Albans and London. And we doknow they be, for the present, gone from the Watling Street, for thecarter from London whom we did meet did tell us that he had met themnot on the way. Therefore go thou to London by way of the ErmineStreet, while I go down by the Watling Street. They may be now strayingabout in the wood, but we shall have them on one road or the other asthey go into the city. The false priest rideth a gray, and the younglord a black. We shall have them without Bartlemy's aid, fear not."
Then the riders withdrew, each going his way, and Bartlemy a fewmoments later knocked on the door of the hut and was admitted byHumphrey. At once the old man made up the fire in the centre of the hutagain.
"What doest thou?" demanded Humphrey. "Wouldst have other visitors?"
"Do not thou fear," responded Bartlemy. "Am I not here? And can I nothide thee and the lad beneath yon heap of rushes if a stranger come? Noman will look for thee here. They that seek thee think that Bartlemywill aid them; and so he would but for thy mole. I be an old man, andnever yet hath fortune come my way, and all because I did not beforemeet thee. For it hath been foretold me that a man having a mole nearthe end of his nose would bring me fortune. Wherefore I cleave to thee,and will protect thee with my life, if need be." So saying, he threwanother fagot on the fire and, from a hidden cupboard, brought out asubstantial meal of venison and bread. When the meal was finished hecommanded: "Lie down and rest now, thou and the lad, while I keepwatch. Thou wilt need thy wits on the morrow."
Humphrey reflected. Then he turned to Hugo. "Lie down, lad," he saidkindly. "The old man is crazed when he talketh of moles, but he isright when he saith we have need of our wits on the morrow. And thatmeaneth we must rest in faith to-night."
The old man smiled triumphantly. "I be not so crazed as thou thinkest,neither," he said. "Thy mole is not only thy good fortune, but minealso." With that he put the remains of the meal back in the cupboard,shut the door, and replenished the fire. He then threw himself down onthe earthen floor beside it, and lay there grinning and grimacing atthe flames till Hugo and Humphrey fell asleep. A dozen times beforedawn old Bartlemy rose to bend over the two, grinning and grimacing ashe did so, and clasping his hands in ecstasy. But when the two awoke hewas gone.
Humphrey, when he discovered Bartlemy's absence, started up in alarm."I did get no dream, lad," he said to Hugo, whom his movements hadaroused; "and the old man is gone. I know not what to do."