CHAPTER IX.
PUT TO THE QUESTION.
In the chaste retirement of his sick room the Field-Marshal had justreached this conclusion, when he heard a noise in the hall. There wasa sound of the gruff unmirthful voices of grown-ups, a scuffling offeet, a planting of whips and walking-sticks on the zinc-bottomedhall-stand, and then, after a pause which meant drinks, heavyfootsteps in the passage which led to the hero's chamber.
Hugh John snatched up Sambo Soulis and thrust him deep beneath thebedclothes, where he could readily push him over the end with histoes, if it should chance to be "the doctor-beast" come to uncover himand "fool with the bandages." I have said enough to show that theGeneral was not only frankly savage in sentiment, but resembled hisgreat imperial namesake in being grateful only when it suited him.
Before General Napoleon had his toes fairly settled over the back ofSambo Soulis' neck, so as to be able to remove him out of harm's wayon any sudden alarm, the door opened and his father came in, usheringtwo men, the first of whom came forward to the bedside in an easy,kindly manner, and held out his hand.
"Do you know me?" he said, giving Hugh John's second sorest hand sucha squeeze that the wounded hero was glad it was not the very sorestone.
"Yes," replied the hero promptly, "you are Sammy Carter's father. Ican jolly well lick----"
"Hugh John," interrupted his father severely, "remember what you aresaying to Mr. Davenant Carter."
"Well, anyway, I _can_ lick Sammy Carter till he's dumb-sick!"muttered the General between his teeth, as he avoided the three pairsof eyes that were turned upon him.
"Oh, let him say just what he likes!" said Mr. Davenant Carterjovially. "Sammy is the better of being licked, if that is what theboy was going to say. I sometimes try my hand at it myself with somesuccess."
The other man who had come in with Mr. Smith was a thick-set fellow ofmiddle height, with a curious air of being dressed up in somebodyelse's clothes. Yet they fitted him very well. He wore on his face (inaddition to a slight moustache) an expression which somehow made HughJohn think guiltily of all the orchards he had ever visited alongwith Toady Lion and Sammy Carter's sister Cissy, who was "no end of anice girl" in Hugh John's estimation.
"This, Hugh," said his father, with a little wave of his hand, "is Mr.Mant, the Chief Constable of the county. Mr. Carter and he have cometo ask you a few questions, which you will answer at once."
"I won't be dasht-mean!" muttered Napoleon Smith to himself.
"What's that?" ejaculated Mr. Smith, catching the echo of his son'srumble of dissent.
"Only my leg that hurted," said the hypocritical hero of battles.
"Don't you think we should have the other children here?" said Mr.Chief Constable Mant, speaking for the first time in a gruff,move-on-there voice.
"Certainly," assented Mr. Smith, going to the door. "Janet!"
"Yes, sir!"
The answer came from immediately behind the door.
The Field-Marshal's brow darkened, or rather it would have done so ifthere had been no white bandages over it. This is the correctexpression anyhow--though ordinary brows but seldom behave in thismanner.
"Prissy's all right," he thought to himself, "but if that little foolToady Lion----"
And he clenched his second sorest hand under the clothes, and kickedSambo Soulis to the foot of the bed in a way which augured but littlemercy to Sir Toady Lion if, after all his training, he should turnout "dasht-mean" in the hour of trial.
Presently the other two children were pushed in at the door, ToadyLion trying a bolt at the last moment, which Janet Sheepshanks easilyfoiled by catching at the slack of his trousers behind, while Prissystood holding her hands primly as if in Sunday-school class. Bothafforded to the critical eye of Hugh John complete evidence that theyhad only just escaped from the Greater Pain of the comb and soapedflannel-cloth of Janet Sheepshanks. Prissy's curls were still wet andsmoothed out, and Toady Lion was trying in vain to rub the yellow soapout of his eyes.
So at the headquarters of its general, the army of Windy Standardformed up. Sir Toady Lion wished to get within supporting distance ofPrissy, and accordingly kept snuggling nearer all the time, so that hecould get a furtive hold of her skirts at awkward places in theexamination. This he could do the more easily that GeneralField-Marshal Smith was prevented by the bandages over his right eye,and also by the projecting edges of the pillow, from seeing ToadyLion's left hand.
"Now, Priscilla," began her father, "tell Mr. Davenant Carter and Mr.Mant what happened in the castle, and the names of any of the bad boyswho stole your pet lamb."
"Wasn't no lamb--Donald was a sheep, and he could fight," began ToadyLion, without relevance, but with his usual eagerness to hear thesound of his own piping voice. In his zeal he took a step forward andso brought himself on the level of the eye of his general, who fromthe pillow darted upon him a look so freezing that Sir Toady Lioninstantly fell back into the ranks, and clutched Prissy's skirt withsuch energy as almost to stagger her severe deportment.
"Now," said the Chief Constable of Bordershire, "tell me what were thenames of the assailants."
He was listening to the tale as told by Prissy with his note-bookready in his hand, occasionally biting at the butt of the pencil, andanon wetting the lead in his mouth, under the mistaken idea that by sodoing he improved its writing qualities.
"I think," began Prissy, "that they were----"
"_A-chew!_" came from the bed and from under the bandages with asudden burst of sound. Field-Marshal Napoleon Smith had sneezed. Thatwas all.
But Prissy started. She knew what it meant. It was the well-knownsignal not to commit herself under examination.
Her father looked round at the open windows.
"Are you catching cold with the draught, Hugh John?" he asked kindly.
"I think I have a little cold," said the wily General, who did notwish all the windows to be promptly shut.
"Don't know all their names, but the one that hurted me was----" beganToady Lion.
But who the villain was will never be known, for at that moment thebedclothes became violently disturbed immediately in front of SirToady Lion's nose. A fearful black countenance nodded once at him anddisappeared.
"Black Sambo!" gasped Toady Lion, awed by the terrible appearance, andfalling back from the place where the wizard had so suddenly appeared.
"What did I understand you to say, little boy?" said Mr. Mant, withhis pencil on his book.
"Ow--it was Black Sambo!" Toady Lion almost screamed. Mr. Mant gravelynoted the fact.
"What in the world does he mean?" asked Mr. Mant, casting his eyessearchingly from Prissy to General Napoleon and back again.
"He means 'Black Sambo'!" said Prissy, devoting herself strictly tofacts, and leaving the Chief Constable to his proper business ofinterpreting them.
"What is his other name?" said Mr. Mant.
"Soulis!" said General Smith from the bed.
The three gentlemen looked at each other, smiled, and shook theirheads.
"What did I tell you?" said Mr. Davenant Carter. "Try as I will, Icannot get the simplest thing out of my Sammy and Cissy if they don'tchoose to tell."
Nevertheless Mr. Smith, being a sanguine man and with littleexperience of children, tried again.
"There is no black boy in the neighbourhood," said Mr. Smith severely;"now tell the truth, children--at once, when I bid you!"
He uttered the last words in a loud and commanding tone.
"Us is telling the troof, father dear," said Toady Lion, in the"coaxy-woaxy" voice which he used when he wanted marmalade from Janetor a ride on the saddle from Mr. Picton Smith.
"Perhaps the boy had blackened his face to deceive the eye," suggestedMr. Mant, with the air of one familiar from infancy with the tricksand devices of the evil-minded of all ages.
"Was the ringleader's face blackened?--Answer at once!" said Mr. Smithsternly.
The General extracted his bruised and battered right hand from underthe c
lothes and looked at it.
"I think so," he said, "leastways some has come off on my knuckles!"
Mr. Davenant Carter burst into a peal of jovial mirth.
"Didn't I tell you?--It isn't a bit of use badgering children whenthey don't want to tell. Let's go over to the castle."
And with that the three gentlemen went out, while Napoleon Smith,Prissy, and Sir Toady Lion were left alone.
The General beckoned them to his bedside with his nose--quite an easything to do if you have the right kind of nose, which Hugh John had.
"Now look here," he said, "if you'd told, I'd have jolly wellflattened you when I got up. 'Tisn't our business to tell p'leecementhings."
"That wasn't a p'leeceman," said Sir Toady Lion, "hadn't no shinybuttons."
"That's the worst kind," said the General in a low, hissing whisper;"all the same you stood to it like bricks, and now I'm going to getwell and begin on the campaign at once."
"Don't you be greedy-teeth and eat it all yourself!" interjectedToady Lion, who thought that the campaign was something to eat, andthat it sounded good.
"What are you going to do?" said Prissy, who had a great belief in theexecutive ability of her brother.
"I know their secret hold," said General-Field-Marshal Smith grandly,"and in the hour of their fancied security we will fall upon themand----"
"And what?" gasped Prissy and Toady Lion together, awaiting therevelation of the horror.
"Destroy them!" said General Smith, in a tone which was felt by allparties to be final.
He laid himself back on his pillow and motioned them haughtily away.Prissy and Sir Toady Lion retreated on tiptoe, lest Janet should catchthem and send them to the parlour--Prissy to read her chapter, and herbrother along with her to keep him out of mischief.
And so the great soldier was left to his meditations in the darkenedhospital chamber.