CHAPTER XXVIII.
VAGABONDS.
Although Mr. Penniloe's anxiety about the growth of Church-debt was thusrelieved a little, another of his troubles was by no means lightenedthrough the visit of the Rector. That nasty suspicion, suggested byGowler, and heartily confirmed by Chevithorne, was a very greatdiscomfort, and even a torment, inasmuch as he had no one to argue itwith. He reasoned with himself that even if the lady were a schemer, soheartless as to ruin a young man (who had done her no harm) that shemight screen herself, as well as an actress so heaven-gifted as toimpose on every one--both of which qualifications he warmly denied--yetthere was no motive, so far as he could see, strong enough to lead herinto such a crooked course. To the best of his belief, she was far tooindifferent upon religious questions; he had never seen, or heard, of apriest at Walderscourt; and although she never came to church with theothers of the family, she had allowed her only daughter to be brought upas a Protestant. She certainly did not value our great nation, quite asmuch as it values itself, and in fact was rather an ardent Spaniard,though herself of mixed race. But it seemed most unlikely, that eitherreligion or patriotism, or both combined, were strong enough to driveher into action contrary to her dead husband's wishes and to her owncharacter, so far as an unprejudiced man could judge it.
There remained the last theory, No. 6, as given above. To the Curate itseemed the more probable one, although surrounded with difficulties.There might be some Spanish relative, or even one of other country,resolute to save the soul of Sir Thomas Waldron, without equal respectfor his body; and in that case it was just possible, that the wholething might have been arranged, and done, without Lady Waldron'sknowledge. But if that were so, what meant the visit of the foreigner,who had tried to escape his notice, when he left the coach?
Before Mr. Penniloe could think it out--Jemmy Fox (who might have helpedhim, by way of Nicie, upon that last point) was called away suddenlyfrom Perlycross. His mother was obliged, in the course of nature, tolook upon him now as everybody's prop and comfort; because her husbandcould not be regarded in that light any longer. And two or three thingswere coming to pass, of family import and issue, which could not goaright, except through Jemmy's fingers. And of these things the mostimportant was concerning his sister Christina.
"I assure you, Jemmy, that her state of mind is most unsatisfactory,"the lady said to her son, upon their very first consultation. "She doesnot care for any of her usual occupations. She takes no interest inparish matters. She let that wicked old Margery Daw get no less thanthree pairs of blankets, and Polly Church go without any at all--atleast she might, so far as Christie cared. Then you know that admirableHuggins' Charity--a loaf and three halfpence for every cottagecontaining more than nine little ones;--well, she let them pass thechildren from one house to another; and neither loaves nor halfpenceheld out at all! 'I'll make it good,' she said, 'what's the odds?' orsomething almost as vulgar. How thankful I was, that Sir Henry did nothear her! 'Oh I wish he had, rayther,' she exclaimed with a toss of herhead. You know that extremely low slangish way of saying _rayther_ toeverything. It does irritate me so, and she knows it. One would thinkthat instead of desiring to please as excellent a man as ever lived, herone object was to annoy and disgust him. And she does not even confineherself to--to the language of good society. She has come back fromPerlycross, with a sad quantity of Devonshirisms; and she always bringsthem out before Sir Henry, who is, as you know, a fastidious man,without any love of jocularity. And it is such a very desirable thing. Idid hope it would have been all settled, before your dear father'sbirthday."
"Well, mother, and so it may easily be. The only point is this--afterall her bad behaviour, will Sir Henry come to the scratch?"
"My dear son! My dear Jemmy, what an expression! And with reference towedded life! But if I understand your meaning, he is only waiting mypermission to propose; and I am only waiting for a favourable time. Thesweetest tempered girl I ever saw; better even than yours, Jemmy, andyours has always been very fine. But now--and she has found out, or madeup, some wretched low song, and she sings it down the stairs, or evencomes singing it into the room, pretending that she does not see me. Allabout the miseries of stepmothers. Oh, she is most worrying andaggravating! And to me, who have laboured so hard for her good!Sometimes I fancy that she must have seen somebody. Surely, it nevercould have been at Perlycross?"
"I'll put a stop to all that pretty smartly"--the doctor exclaimed, withfine confidence. "But--but perhaps it would be better, mother, for menot to seem to take Sir Henry's part too strongly. At any rate untilthings come to a climax. He is coming this afternoon, you said; let himpop the question at once; and if she dares to refuse him, then let mehave a turn at her. She has got a rare tongue; but I think I knowsomething--at any rate, you know that I don't stand much nonsense."
They had scarcely settled their arrangements for her, when down thestairs came Christie, looking wonderfully pretty; but her song was notof equal beauty.
"There was an old dog, and his name was 'Shep;' Says he to his daughter--don't you ever be a Step."
She nodded to her mother very dutifully, and to her brother with a smilethat made him laugh; and then she went out of the front-door, almost asif she felt contempt for it.
"Won't do. Won't do at all;" said Jemmy. "She'll say 'no,' thisafternoon. Girls never know what they are about. But better let himbring it to the point. And then leave it to me, mother. I understandher. And she knows I am not to be trifled with."
Sir Henry Haggerstone came in time for luncheon, showed no signs ofnervousness, and got on very well with everybody. He knew something ofeverything that is likely to be talked of anywhere; and yet he had theknack of letting down his knowledge, as a carpet for his friends to walkupon. Everybody thought--"Well, I have taught him something. He couldnot be expected to understand that subject. But now, from his own words,I feel that he will. What a fool Smith is, to be bothering a man likeSir Henry with the stuff that is _a_. _b_. _c_. to him! I wonder that hecould put up with it."
But however great Sir Henry was in powers of conversation, or even ofauscultation, his eloquence--if there was any--fell flat, and hisaudience was brief, and the answer unmistakable.
"It can't be. It mustn't be. It shan't be, at any price." That lastexpression was a bit of slang, but it happened to fit the circumstances.
"But why can it not be? Surely, Miss Fox, I may ask you to give me somereason for that."
The gentleman thought--"What a strange girl you are!" While the lady wasthinking--"What a difference there is between an artificial man and anatural one!"
"What o'clock is it, by that time-piece, if you please, Sir HenryHaggerstone?"
"Half-past two, within about two minutes."
"Thank you; can you tell me why it isn't half-past ten? Just because itisn't. And so now you understand."
"I am sorry to say, that I do not very clearly. Probably it is verystupid of me. But can you not give me a little hope, Miss Fox?"
"Yes, a great deal; and with my best wishes. There are thousands of nicegirls, a thousand times nicer than I ever was, who would say 'yes,' in aminute."
"But the only one, whose 'yes' I want, says 'no,' in less than half aminute!"
"To be sure, she does--and means it all over; but begs to offer no endof thanks."
"Perhaps it is all for the best," he thought as he rode homeward slowly;"she is a very sweet girl; but of late she seems to have grown so fondof slang expressions--all very well for a man, but not at all what Ilike in a woman. I should have been compelled to break her of thattrick; and even the sweetest tempered woman hates to be corrected."
This gentleman would have been surprised to hear that the phrases hedisliked were used, because he so thoroughly disliked them. Which, tosay the least, was unamiable.
"All settled? Hurrah! My dear Chris, let me congratulate you," criedJemmy rushing in with a jaunty air, though he well knew what the truthwas.
"Amen! It is a happy thing. That golden par
allelogram, all tapered andwell-rounded, will come to harass me no more."
"What a mixture of quotations! A girl alone could achieve it. A taperedparallelogram! But you have never been fool enough to refuse him?"
"I have been wise enough to do so."
"And soon you will be wise enough to think better of it. I shall takegood care to let him know, that no notice is to be taken of your prettylittle vagaries."
"Don't lose your temper, my dear Jemmy. As for taking notice of it, SirHenry may be nothing very wonderful. But at any rate he is a gentleman."
"I am heartily glad that you have found that out. I thought nobody couldbe a gentleman, unless he lived in a farm-house, and could do a day'sploughing, and shear his own sheep."
"Yes, oh yes! If he can roll his own pills, and mix his own blackdraughts, and stick a knife into any one."
"Now, it is no use trying to insult me, my dear girl. My profession isabove all that."
"What, above its own business? Oh Jemmy, Jemmy! And yet you know, youwere afraid sometimes of leaving it all to that little boy George.However George did the best part of it."
"Christie, I shall be off, because you don't know what you are talkingof. I am sorry for any man, who gets you."
"Ha! That depends upon whether I like him. If I do, wouldn't I polishhis boots? If I don't, wouldn't I have the hair off his head?"
"Good-bye, my dear child. You will be better, by and by."
"Stop," exclaimed Christie, who perceived that dear Jemmy preferred tohave it out with her, when she might be less ready; "don't be in such ahurry. There is no child with the measles, which is about the worsthuman complaint that you can cure. Just answer me one question. Have Iever interfered, between you and Nicie Waldron?"
"The Lord look down upon me! What an idea! As if you could ever be soabsurd!"
"The Lord looks down upon me, also, Jemmy;" said Christie, passing intoa different mood. "And He gives me the right to see to my own happiness,without consulting you; any more than you do me."
The Doctor made off, without another word; for he was not a quarrelsomefellow; especially when he felt that he would get the worst of it.
"Let her alone a bit;" he told his mother. "She has been so much used tohave her own way, that she expects to have it always. It will require alittle judgment, and careful handling, to bring her out of herabsurdities. You must not expect her to have the sense a man has. Andshe has got an idea that she is so clever; which makes her confoundedlyobstinate. If you had heard how insolent she was to me, you would havebeen angry with her. But she cannot vex me with her childish littletalk. I shall go for a thirty mile ride, dear mother, to get a littlefresh air after all that. Don't expect me back to dinner. Be distantwith her, and let her see that you are grieved; but give her no chanceof arguing--if indeed she calls such stuff argument."
In a few minutes he was on the back of _Perle_--as he called the kindlyand free-going little mare, who had brought him again fromPerlycross--and trotting briskly towards the long curve of highlands,which form the western bulwark of the Mendip Hills. The weather had beenvery mild and rather stormy, ever since the Christmas frost broke up,and now in the first week of the year, the air was quite gentle andpleasant. But the roads were heavy and very soft, as they always are ina thaw; and a great deal of water was out in the meadows, and even inthe ditches alongside of the lanes.
In a puzzle of country roads and commons, further from home than hisusual track, and very poorly furnished with guide-posts, Fox rode onwithout asking whither; caring only for the exercise and air, andabsorbed in thought about the present state of things, both atPerlycross and Foxden. To his quick perception and medical knowledge itwas clear that his father's strength was failing, gradually, but withoutrecall. And one of the very few things that can be done by medicalknowledge is that it can tell us (when it likes) that it is helpless.
Now Jemmy was fond of his father, although there had been many breezesbetween them; and as nature will have it, he loved him a hundredfold,now that he was sure to lose him. Moreover the change in his ownposition, which must ensue upon his father's death, was entirely againsthis liking. What he liked was simplicity, plain living and plainspeaking, with enough of this world's goods to help a friend in trouble,or a poor man in distress; but not enough to put one in a fright aboutthe responsibility, that turns the gold to lead. But now, if he shouldbe compelled to take his father's place at Foxden, as a landowner and awealthy man, he must give up the practice of his beloved art, he mustgive up the active and changeful life, the free and easy manners, andthe game with Bill and Dick; and assume the slow dignity and stiffimportance, the consciousness of being an example and a law, and all theother briars and blackthorns in the paradise of wealth and station. Yeteven while he sighed at the coming transformation, it never occurred tohim that his sister was endowed with tastes no less simple than his own,and was not compelled by duty to forego them.
Occupied thus, and riding loose-reined without knowing or caringwhither, he turned the corner of a high-banked lane, and came upon asight which astonished him. The deep lane ended with a hunting-gate,leading to an open track across a level pasture, upon which the low suncast long shadows of the rider's hat, and shoulders, and elbow lifted tounhasp the gate. Turning in the saddle he beheld a grand and fierysunset, such as in mild weather often closes a winter but not wintryday.
A long cloud-bank, straight and level at the base, but arched and pulpyin its upper part, embosomed and turned into a deep red glow the yellowflush of the departing sun. Below this great volume of vapoury fire,were long thin streaks of carmine, pencilled very delicately on abackground of limpid hyaline. It was not the beauty of the sky however,nor the splendour, nor the subtlety, that made the young man stop andgaze. Fine sunsets he had seen by the hundred, and looked at them, ifthere was time to spare; but what he had never seen before was thegrandeur of the earth's reply.
On the opposite side of the level land, a furlong or so in front of him,arose the great breastwork to leagues of plain; first a steep pitch ofshale and shingle, channelled with storm-lines, and studded with gorse;and then, from its crest, a tall crag towering, straight and smooth as acastle-wall. The rugged pediment was dark and dim, and streaked withsombre shadows; but the bastion cliff above it mantled with a deep redglow, as if colour had its echo, in answer to the rich suffusion of thatsunset cloud. Even the ivy, and other creepers, on its kindled faceshone forth, like chaplets thrown upon a shield of ruddy gold. And allthe environed air was thrilling with the pulses of red light.
Fox was smitten with rare delight--for he was an observant fellow--andeven _Perle's_ bright eyes expanded, as if they had never seen such anoble vision. "I'll be up there before it is gone," cried Jemmy, like aboy in full chase of a rainbow; "the view from that crag must beglorious."
At the foot of the hill stood a queer little hostel, called the _SmokingLimekiln_; and there he led his mare into the stable, ordered some breadand cheese for half an hour later, and made off at speed for the steepascent. Active as he was, and sound of foot, he found it a slippery andawkward climb, on account of the sliding shingle; but after a sharp boutof leaping and scrambling he stood at the base of the vertical rock, andlooked back over the lowlands.
The beauty of colour was vanishing now, and the glory of the cloudsgrown sombre, for the sun had sunk into a pale gray bed; but the viewwas vast and striking. The fairest and richest of English land, thebroad expanse of the western plains for leagues and leagues rolledbefore him, deepening beneath the approach of night, and shining withveins of silver, where three flooded rivers wound their way. Afartowards the north, a faint gleam showed the hovering of light, above theSevern sea; whence slender clues of fog began to steal, like snakes, upthe watercourses, and the marshy inlets. Before there was time to watchthem far, the veil of dusk fell over them, and things unwatched stoodforth, and took a prominence unaccountable, according to the laws oftwilight, arbitrary and mysterious.
Fox felt that the view had repaid his toil, and set
his face to go downagain, with a tendency towards bread and cheese; but his very first stepcaused such a slide of shingle and loose ballast, that he would havebeen lucky to escape with a broken bone, had he followed it. Thereuponinstead of descending there, he thought it wiser to keep along the ledgeat the foot of the precipice, and search for a safer track down thehill. None however presented itself, until he had turned the corner ofthe limestone crag, and reached its southern side, where the descentbecame less abrupt and stony.
Here he was stepping sideways down, for the pitch was still sharp anddangerous, and the daylight failing in the blinks of hills, when heheard a loud shout--"Jemmy! Jemmy!"--which seemed to spring out of theearth at his feet. In the start of surprise he had shaped his lips forthe answering halloa, when good luck more than discretion saved him; forboth his feet slipped, and his breath was caught. By a quick turn herecovered balance; but the check had given him time to think, and spyinga stubby cornel-bush, he came to a halt behind it, and looked throughthe branches cautiously.
Some twenty yards further down the hill, he saw a big man come stridingforth from the bowels of the earth--as it seemed at first--and thenstanding with his back turned, and the haze beyond enlarging him. Andthen again, that mighty shout rang up the steep and down thevalley--"Jemmy, Jemmy, come back, I tell thee, or I'l let thee knowwhat's what!"
Fox kept close, and crouched in his bush, for he never had seen such aman till now, unless it were in a caravan; and a shudder ran throughhim, as it came home that his friend down there could with one handrob, throttle, and throw him down a mining shaft. This made him keep avery sharp look-out, and have one foot ready for the lightest ofleg-bail.
Presently a man of moderate stature, who could have walked under theother's arm, came panting and grumbling back again from a bushy trackleading downwards. He flung something on the ground and asked--
"What be up now; to vetch me back up-hill for? Harvey, there bain't nosense in 'e. Maight every bit as well a' had it out, over a half pint ofbeer."
"Sit you there, Jem," replied the other, pressing him down on a ledge ofstone with the weight of one thumb on his shoulder. Then he sat himselfdown on a higher ridge, and pulled out a pipe, with a sigh as loud asthe bellows of a forge could compass; and then slowly spread upon thedome of his knee a patch of German punk, and struck sparks into it.
There was just light enough for Fox to see that the place where they satwas at the mouth of a mining shaft, or sloping adit; over the roughstone crown of which, standing as he did upon a higher level, he coulddescry their heads and shoulders, and the big man's fingers as he movedthem round his pipe. Presently a whiff of coarse brown smoke camefloating uphill to the Doctor's nostrils; and his blood ran cold, as hebegan to fear that this great Harvey must be the Harvey Tremlett, ofwhom he had heard from Mr. Penniloe.
"Made up my maind I have. Can't stand this no longer;" said the big man,with the heavy drawl, which nature has inflicted upon very heavy men."Can't get no more for a long day's work, than a hop o' my thumb likeyou does."
"And good raison why, mate. Do 'e ever do a hard day's work?" Fox couldhave sworn that the smaller throat gave utterance to the larger share oftruth. "What be the vally of big arms and legs, when a chap dothn't careto make use of 'un?"
But the big man was not controversial. Giants are generally above thatweakness. He gave a long puff, and confined himself to facts.
"Got my money: and d--d little it is. And now I means to hook it. Youcan hang on, if you be vule enough."
"What an old Turk it is!" Jem replied reproachfully. "Did ever you knowme throw you over, Harvey? Who is it brings you all the luck? Tell 'ewhat--let's go back to Clampits. What a bit o' luck that loudering wor!"
"Hor, hor, hor!" the big man roared. "A purty lot they be to Perlycrass!To take Jemmy Kettel for a gentleman! And a doctor too! Oh Lord! OhLord! Doctor Jemmy Vox Kettel! Licensed to deal in zalts and zenna,powders, pills, and bolusses. Oh Jemmy, Jemmy, my eye, my eye!"
"Could do it, I'll be bound, as well as he doth. A vaine doctor, to digup the Squire of the parish, and do it wrong way too, they zay of 'un!Vaine doctor, wasn't 'un? Oh Lord! Oh Lord!"
As these two rovers combined in a hearty roar of mirth at his expense,Dr. Jemmy Fox, instead of being grateful for a purely impartial opinion,gave way to ill feeling, and stamped one foot in passionateremonstrance. Too late he perceived that this movement of his hadstarted a pebble below the cornel-bush, and sent it rolling down thesteep. Away went the pebble with increasing skips, and striking thecrown of the pit-mouth flew just over the heads of the uncouth jokers.
"Halloa, Jemmy! Anybody up there? Just you goo, and look, my boy."
Fox shrunk into himself, as he heard those words in a quicker roarcoming up to him. If they should discover him, his only chance would beto bound down the hill, reckless of neck, and desperate of accident. Butthe light of the sky at the top of the hill was blocked by the rampartof rock, and so there was nothing for him to be marked upon.
"Nort but a badger, or a coney there, I reckon," Jem Kettel said, afterpeering up the steep; and just then a rabbit of fast style of lifewhisked by; "Goo on, Harvey. You han't offered me no 'bacco!"
"You tak' and vinish 'un;" said the lofty-minded giant, poking his pipebetween the other fellow's teeth. "And now you give opinion; if the Lordhath gived thee any."
"Well, I be up for bunkum, every bit so much as you be. But where shallus be off to? That's the p'int of zettlement. Clampits, I say. Roaringfun there, and the gim'-keepers aveared of 'e."
"Darsn't goo there yet, I tell 'e. Last thing old moother did was tosend me word, Passon to Perlycrass had got the tip on me. Don't want nobother with them blessed Beaks again."
"Wonder you didn't goo and twist the Passon's neck." The faithful matelooked up at him, as if the captain had failed of his duty,unaccountably.
"Wouldn't touch a hair of that man's head, if it wor here atwixt my twoknees." Harvey Tremlett brought his fist down on his thigh, with a smackthat made the stones ring round him. "Tell 'e why, Jem Kettel. He havetook my little Zip along of his own chiller, and a' maneth to make alady on her. And a lady the little wench hath a right to be--just yousay the contrairy--if hanncient vam'ley, and all that, have right tocount. Us Tremletts was here, long afore they Waldrons."
The smaller man appeared afraid to speak. He knew the weak point of thebig man perhaps, and that silence oils all such bearings.
"Tull 'e what, Jemmy," said the other coming round, after stripping hisfriend's mouth of his proper pipe; "us'll go up country--shoulder packsand be off, soon as ever the moon be up. Like to see any man stop me, Iwould."
He stood up, with the power of his mighty size upon him; a man whoseemed fit to stop an avalanche, and able to give as much trouble aboutstopping him.
"All right, I be your man;" replied the other, speaking as if he werequite as big, and upon the whole more important. "Bristol fust; and thenLunnon, if so plaise 'e. Always a bit of louderin' there. But thatremindeth me of Perlycrass. Us be bound to be back by fair-time, youknow. Can't afford to miss old Timberlegs."
"Time enow for that;" Harvey Tremlett answered. "Zix or zeven weeks yetto Perlycrass fair. What time wor it as old Timberlegs app'inted?"
"Ten o'clock at naight, by Churchyard wall. Reckon the old man hathanother job of louderin' handy. What a spree that wor, and none a rapthe wiser! Come along, Harvey, let's have a pint at the _Kiln_, to drinkgood luck to this here new start."
The big man took his hat off, while the other jumped nimbly on a stumpand flung over his head the straps of both their bundles; and then witha few more leisurely and peaceful oaths they quitted their stonyplatform, and began to descend the winding path, from which Jem Kettelhad been recalled.
Fox was content for a minute or two with peeping warily after them,while his whole frame tingled with excitement, wrath, and horror,succeeded by a burning joy at the knowledge thus vouchsafed to him, by ahigher power than fortune. As soon as he felt certain that they couldnot see him, e
ven if they looked back again, he slipped from hislurking-place, and at some risk of limb set off in a straighter coursethan theirs for the Public house in the valley, where a feeble light wastwinkling. From time to time he could hear the two rovers laughing attheir leisure, probably with fine enjoyment of very bad jokes at hisexpense. But he set his teeth, and made more speed, and keeping hisdistance from them, easily arrived first at the Inn, where he found hisbread and cheese set forth, in a little private parlour having fair viewof the Bar.
This suited him well, for his object was to obtain so clear a sight ofthem, that no change of dress or disguise should cast any doubt upontheir identity; and he felt sure that they were wending hither to drinkgood speed to their enterprise. There was not much fear of theirrecognising him, even if his face were known to them, which he did notthink at all likely. But he provided against any such mishap, by payinghis bill beforehand, and placing his candle so that his face was in thedark. Then he fell to and enjoyed his bread and cheese; for the ride andthe peril had produced fine relish, and a genuine Cheddar--now sighedfor so vainly--did justice to its nativity. He also enjoyed, being nowin safety, the sweet sense of turning the tables upon his wanton andhateful deriders.
For sure enough, while his mouth was full, and the froth on his ale waswinking at him, in came those two scoffing fellows, followed by a dozenother miners. It appeared to be pay-night, and generous men wereshedding sixpences on one another; but Fox saw enough to convince himthat the rest fought shy of his two acquaintances.
When he saw this, a wild idea occurred to him for a moment--was it notpossible to arrest that pair, with the aid of their brother miners? Buta little consideration showed the folly of such a project. He had nowarrant, no witness, no ally, and he was wholly unknown in thatneighbourhood. And even if the miners should believe his tale, wouldthey combine, to lay hands on brother workmen, and hand them over to themercies of the law? Even if they would, it was doubtful that they could,sturdy fellows though they were.
But the young man was so loth to let these two vagabonds get away, thathis next idea was to bribe somebody to follow them, and keep them inview until he should come in chase, armed with the needful warrant, andsupported by stout _posse comitatus_. He studied the faces of hisfriends at the Bar, to judge whether any were fitted for the job. Alas,among all those rough and honest features, there was not a spark ofcraft, nor a flash of swift intelligence. If one of them were put towatch another, the first thing he would do would be to go and tell himof it.
And what Justice of the Peace would issue warrant upon a stranger'sdeposition of hearsays? Much against his will, Jemmy Fox perceived thatthere was nothing for it, but to give these two rogues a wide berth forthe present, keep his own counsel most jealously, and be ready to meetthem at Perlycross fair. And even so, on his long homeward ride, hethought that the prospect was brightening in the west; and that he withhis name cleared might come forward, and assert his love for the gentleNicie.