CHAPTER XVIII
A PERILOUS MEETING
At the corner of the square, as they were turning under the shadowof the cathedral, a smallish, slender youth came running trippinglytowards them.
"You want horses," he said to Wat; "there are three of them readywaiting over there in the dark of the trees beyond the canal yonder."
"And who are you, my skip-jack manling," said Scarlett, "that makes sofree with your horses in this country of donkeys?"
"A friend!" said the boy, sliding away from the rasp in the voice ofthe master-at-arms.
Something familiar in gait and manner struck Wat through the disguiseof the unfamiliar dress.
"It is the Little Marie!" he said, gladly enough. "What do you here inthis attire?"
The slim figure had slipped round to Wat's side and now laid a soft,small hand on his.
"I have come to help you to escape. I have three horses waitingfor you, and I have discovered that the password for the night is'Guelderland.'"
"And the horses," queried Wat, "whence came they?"
"Ne'er inquire too carefully so that they be good ones," quoth Scarlettthe campaigner.
"I took the loan of them from the stables of the Inn of the Coronation.I know of one who will see them safe home," said Marie.
"Is their hire paid for?" asked Wat the Scot.
"Faith, aye," said Jack Scarlett; "I myself have paid the fat oldvillain Sheffell for them over and over again. Let us go on. It skillsnot to be too nice in distinctions when one argues under the shadow ofthe gallows. The rascal shall have his horses back safe enough when weare done with them."
They went by unfrequented ways, following their slim, alert guide downby-ways that echoed under their feet, by quiet, evil-smelling streetsvocal with night-raking cats, past innumerable prowling dogs with theirbacks chronically arched at the shoulders, half in general defiance oftheir kind, and half with bending over baskets of domestic rubbish.
They came after a while to the shade of the little wood beyond thegreat canal; and there, sure enough, tied to the green-sparred woodenbox, which in Dutch fashion had been put round some of the trees ofrarer sort, were three horses, all busily employed trying to crop theherbage to the limit of their several tethers.
"And the third?" queried Scarlett, looking at them. "Whose leg goesacross the saddle of the third?"
"I come with you," said Marie, hastily and anxiously; "believe me, Ican guide you to a little haven where are ships wherein you may reachyour own land--or, at least, if it please you, escape safely out ofthis country of enemies."
"And who may you be, my pretty little young man with the babe's face,and where gat you the spirit that makes you speak so brisk and bold?"
Marie looked at Wat through the dim light as though to beseech him toanswer for her.
Said Wat, overcoming a natural touch of shyness and reluctance, "Thisis the friend of mine who got me out of prison, and who was kind to mebeyond all thanks when I abode therein. She is only 'the Little Marie,'whom you remember at the Hostel of the Coronation. After that nightshe went back there no more."
"She!" cried Scarlett; "_she_, did he say? 'Only the Little Marie,'quotha! Well, that is a good deal for a Scot of the Covenant, one thatfor lack of other helpers will have to company with the Hill-wanderers,so far as I can see, when he goes back to his own land."
"Aye," said Wat, dryly, "but we are not back yet."
"I kenned," returned Scarlett, every whit as dryly, "that we were onone love-quest. But had I kenned that we were on two of them at once,the devil a foot would I have stirred out of my good lodgings, or awayfrom the bield of that excellent and truly buxom householder, the FrauAxel."
So far they had spoken in Scots, but the Little Marie, listening withtremulous eagerness to the tone of their conversation, laid her handwistfully on Scarlett's arm.
"Fear not," she said in French, "I will never be a burden to you, noryet troublesome. I am to stay with you only till you are clear of yourdifficulties. I can help you even as I helped him, for I know whitherthe maiden you seek has been taken. And when you are on the track ofthe robbers, then, so quickly as may be, the Little Marie will returnto her own place."
Scarlett did not give back a single word of good or bad. As his mannerwas, he only grunted abruptly--yet, as it had been, not ill-pleased.
"Time we were in the saddle, at all events," he said; "that is, if weare to pass the posts ere the coming of the day."
Presently, therefore, the three found themselves riding towards thecity gate. Scarlett rode first to show his uniform--that of the newcorps of which he was master-at-arms. He wore also the ribbon of theorder he had received from the prince conspicuously displayed, if itso happened that the watch should shed the light of a lantern upon them.
"Halt!" duly cried the sentinel at the port of the camp. "Who goesthere?"
"The nephew of the colonel, my Lord Buchan," said Scarlett, "going tothe camp under escort and accompanied by his tutor."
"Advance and give the password," said the sentry, mechanically.
"Guelderland!" said Scarlett, as carelessly as though he had beenpassing posts all night and was tired of the formula.
The sentry, dreaming of a maid with plates of gold at her temples,among the far-away canals of Friesland, fell back and permitted thethree horsemen to pass without so much as wasting a glance upon them.The gates closed behind and the white tents glimmered vaguely in frontof them. They turned aside, however, from the camp, keeping cautiouslyalong to the right as they rode, in order to skirt the wall of thecity. In this way they hoped to reach the open country without beingagain accosted; for it was entirely within the range of possibilitythat the password which had served them so well inside the city mightbe worse than useless without the walls of Amersfort.
Nevertheless, they passed the last of the white tents without challenge.
As soon as the camp was left behind Marie came to the front, and,without apology or explanation, led the way, diving into darkling roadsand striking across fields by unseen bridle-paths without the leasthesitation.
Meanwhile Wat and Scarlett, riding close behind her, talked overtheir plans. Kate (they decided) was in the power of Barra. She hadbeen carried off against her will. So much they were sure of. Barra,however, was clearly not with her, having been wounded at the momentof his setting out by the knife of the Little Marie. Therefore, forthe time being at least, Kate was saved the greater dangers of hispresence. Also, his men would certainly keep her safe enough. The onlyquestion was in what direction Kate had been carried off.
"I can help you with that also," said the girl, to whom their questhad been explained, letting her horse drop back beside Wat's, "foryester-even there came a certain well-refreshed sailor-man of myvillage to the Street of the Prison. He served, he said, in a shipcalled the _Sea Unicorn_, and she waited only the signal of my LordBarra to weigh her anchor. 'Goes my lord to Scotland?' I asked him.'Nay,' he laughed, 'at least not directly and not alone. But he bringsa fair wench for company to him, and that without asking her leave, asthe Lords of Barra do all. Captain Smith is well paid for the venture,and to every man of us there is good white drink-money.' So after Iheard that I was determined to set my knife deeper in my lord for thepoor lass's sake, that she might never taste his tender mercies as Imyself had done."
"And heard you whither the ship was to sail, Marie?" asked Wat,listening with great attention to her tale.
"Nay, my captain," she replied; "of that the man knew little, savewhere she was to put down her anchors and wait, which was off the townof Lis-op-Zee, to which presently we ride. But Captain Smith had swornto go first to his home at Poole, whatever might be his freight. Andthe sailor believed that he would keep his word."
"That suits Jack Scarlett excellently," said his companion; "for togo on a quest after runaway maids to the kingdom of the blessed Louisthe Great is of a certainty to have my neck stretched, on account ofthe somewhat hasty manner in which I relinquished the service of hisMost Chris
tian Majesty. And Scotland, though mine own land, has overlymany waspish sectaries and rough-riding malignants for old Jack to bewholly comfortable therein."
"Then England and Poole it shall be," said Wat, confidently. "You shallsee!"
"But have you considered, my friend, that England is a somewhat largemark to hit in the white and bring up in Poole Harbor at the firstoffer?" said Scarlett. "How shall one know that he is within a hundredmiles or more of his aim?"
"Hearken," said Wat. "'Tis usually Jack Scarlett that is ready withplans, eager and fretful with encouragements. Upon his own adventureshe fairly sweats alternatives, but on this occasion of mine he doesnaught but grumble. There is yet time for him to turn about and betakehim to his greasy sheepfold. 'Guelderland' will even yet admit him intime for the morning muster of the fleecy ones."
Scarlett laughed good-naturedly, like one who will not take offenceeven when offence is meant.
"I am not in love, you see," he said. "It is love that is fertile ofstratagems. I am but an old, wizened apple-jack. But so was it notever. The days have been--ah, lad, the days have been!--when JackScarlett did not ride hot-foot after another man's lass."
"Hear my idea," said Wat, paying little heed to him. "We may hit ormiss, it is true, but in any case the ship would be a small one, andmost likely she would run for the nearest point of safety. Yet notdirectly across, for all the narrow seas are patrolled by the Englishvessels, because deadly jealousy of the Dutch still rankles deep inthe heart of the king for the defeats he had of them in the days whenhe was Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, and attended to his mistresses'lapdogs instead of his duty."
Scarlett moved uneasily. There was, he knew, in most countries such athing as a navy, but ships and rolling Jack Tars little concerned asoldier, save to transport him to his campaigning ground.
It was brightening to the morning as they came in sight of the highdunes of land that shut off the Northern Sea. Behind them, with thegables of its houses already threatened by the encroaching waves ofsand, nestled the little village of Lis-op-Zee. A few fishing-boatswere drawn up into a swallow's nest of a harbor, and beyond league onleague stretched the desolate dunes, through which the river Lis feltits tortuous way among the sand-hollows to the wider levels of the sea.
Wat and Scarlett, with their attendant, were about to ride directly andwithout challenge through the street of the village towards the harbor,when a man came staggering out of a narrow entry betwixt two of thetaller houses, so suddenly that the horse of the Little Marie almostknocked him down.
It was already the gray light of dawn, and the man, who was clad inswash-buckler array of side-breeches and broad hat, with many swordsand pistols a-dangle at his belt, set his hand on his breast tragicallyand cried, "I thank the saints of the blessed Protestant religion thatI have escaped this danger. For if I had been run over by that thingupon the horse there, before the Lord I should never have known whathad struck me!"
"Get out of the way!" thundered Scarlett, savagely, for he was in nomood for miscellaneous fooling; "lie down under a bush, man, and learnto take thy liquor quietly."
The man turned instantly with a new swagger in his attitude and astraightening of his shoulders to a sort of tipsy attention. "And who,Sir Broad-Stripe, made you burgomeister of the town of Lis-op-Zee? Ormay you by chance be his highness the prince in person, or his highcouncillor my Lord Barra, that you would drive good, honest gentlemenbefore you like cattle on the streets of this town?"
"Out, fellow!" shouted Scarlett, furiously, drawing his sword; "leaveme to settle with him," he added, over his shoulder. Wat and Marie rodeby at the side, but the man still stood and barred Scarlett's path.
Now Jack Scarlett was not exactly, as we have reason to know, a manpatient to a fault. So on this occasion he spurred his horse straightat his opponent and spread him instantly abroad in the dust, sprawlingflat upon his back on the highway.
"Help! Hallo, Barra's men! Here is a comrade ill-beset!" cried therascal, without, however, attempting to rise.
And out of the houses on either side there came running a little cloudof men, all armed with swords and pistols hastily snatched, and withtheir garments in various stages of disarray.
Wat gave one look behind and then turned to his companion, holding hishead down the while that the pursuers might not recognize him.
"Come on, thou fool, Scarlett," he cried, "we have started Barra'swhole nest of wasps--there come Haxo and the rest. God help us if theyhave seen us!"
Scarlett turned also. But it was too late--the mischief was done.
"Stop them!" came the thunderous bellow of Haxo the Bull. "Theseare the fellows who outflouted and overbore us at the Inn of theCoronation."
So without waiting to parley, Wat and Scarlett, with the Little Mariewell abreast of them, set spurs to their horses and rode as hard asthey could gallop through the fringing woods of Lis and the sweet andflowery May glades out upon the desolate sand-hills of Noorwyk, hopingto hit upon some dell or cleft among these vast waves of sand, wherethey might keep themselves safe till their enemies should tire of thesearch and return to the city.