Tales of the Ring and the Camp

PREFACE

These stories have already been published in six separate volumes,
which subdivided them roughly into those which dealt with the sea,
with sport, with war, with the preternatural, with medicine and
with history. They have been received in this form with so much
kindly appreciation by the public that my publisher and I hope
that they may get a permanent home on many bookshelves when issued
under a single cover and at a moderate price. I am occasionally
asked which of these varied subjects and styles represents my own
particular choice. The answer is that I am interested in many
aspects of life, and try to write only of that which really
attracts me, but that if it were needful to discriminate, and if
all my work were to be destroyed save only that one single section
which I might elect to preserve, my choice would certainly be
those short historical pictures which come under the heading of
"Tales of Long Ago."

Arthur Conan Doyle.

April 26, 1929.



PREPARER'S NOTE

This text was prepared from an August 1951 reprint of a volume
that was first published in June 1929, titled The Conan Doyle
Stories. It was published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, W.,
London, and printed in Great Britain by Lowe & Brybone Printers
Ltd., London, N.W.10.

As mentioned in the preface the volume is a collection of what
were originally six books. This text contains the stories from
Tales of the Ring and the Camp.



CONTENTS:

TALES OF THE RING

THE CROXLEY MASTER
THE LORD OF FALCONBRIDGE: A LEGEND OF THE RING
THE FALL OF LORD BARRYMORE
THE CRIME OF THE BRIGADIER
THE KING OF THE FOXES
THE BULLY OF BROCAS COURT


TALES OF THE CAMP

A STRAGGLER OF '15
THE POT OF CAVIARE
THE GREEN FLAG
THE THREE CORRESPONDENTS
THE MARRIAGE OF THE BRIGADIER
THE LORD OF CHÂTEAU NOIR




TALES OF THE RING



THE CROXLEY MASTER


I

Mr. Robert Montgomery was seated at his desk, his head upon his hands,
in a state of the blackest despondency. Before him was the open ledger
with the long columns of Dr. Oldacre's prescriptions. At his elbow lay
the wooden tray with the labels in various partitions, the cork box,
the lumps of twisted sealing-wax, while in front a rank of empty
bottles waited to be filled. But his spirits were too low for work. He
sat in silence, with his fine shoulders bowed and his head upon his
hands.

Outside, through the grimy surgery window over a foreground of
blackened brick and slate, a line of enormous chimneys like Cyclopean
pillars upheld the lowering, dun-coloured cloud-bank. For six days in
the week they spouted smoke, but to-day the furnace fires were banked,
for it was Sunday. Sordid and polluting gloom hung over a district
blighted and blasted by the greed of man. There was nothing in the
surroundings to cheer a desponding soul, but it was more than his
dismal environment which weighed upon the medical assistant.

His trouble was deeper and more personal. The winter session was
approaching. He should be back again at the University completing the
last year which would give him his medical degree; but, alas! he had
not the money with which to pay his class fees, nor could he imagine
how to procure it. Sixty pounds were wanted to make his career, and it
might have been as many thousands for any chance there seemed to be of
his obtaining it.

He was roused from his black meditation by the entrance of Dr. Oldacre
himself, a large, clean-shaven, respectable man, with a prim manner
and an austere face. He had prospered exceedingly by the support of
the local Church interest, and the rule of his life was never by word
or action to run a risk of offending the sentiment which had made him.
His standard of respectability and of dignity was exceedingly high,
and he expected the same from his assistants. His appearance and words
were always vaguely benevolent. A sudden impulse came over the
despondent student. He would test the reality of this philanthropy.

"I beg your pardon, Dr. Oldacre," said he, rising from his chair; "I
have a great favour to ask of you."

The doctor's appearance was not encouraging. His mouth suddenly
tightened, and his eyes fell.

"Yes, Mr. Montgomery?"

"You are aware, sir, that I need only one more session to complete my
course."

"So you have told me."

"It is very important to me, sir."

"Naturally."

"The fees, Dr. Oldacre, would amount to about sixty pounds."

"I am afraid that my duties call me elsewhere, Mr. Montgomery."

"One moment, sir! I had hoped, sir, that perhaps, if I signed a paper
promising you interest upon your money, you would advance this sum to
me. I will pay you back, sir, I really will. Or, if you like, I will
work it off after I am qualified."

The doctor's lips had thinned into a narrow line. His eyes were raised
again, and sparkled indignantly.

"Your request is unreasonable, Mr. Montgomery. I am surprised that you
should have made it. Consider, sir, how many thousands of medical
students there are in this country. No doubt there are many of them
who have a difficulty in finding their fees. Am I to provide for them
all? Or why should I make an exception in your favour? I am grieved
and disappointed, Mr. Montgomery, that you should have put me into the
painful position of having to refuse you." He turned upon his heel,
and walked with offended dignity out of the surgery.

The student smiled bitterly, and turned to his work of making up the
morning prescriptions. It was poor and unworthy work--work which any
weakling might have done as well, and this was a man of exceptional
nerve and sinew. But, such as it was, it brought him his board and £1
a week, enough to help him during the summer months and let him save a
few pounds towards his winter keep. But those class fees! Where were
they to come from? He could not save them out of his scanty wage. Dr.
Oldacre would not advance them. He saw no way of earning them. His
brains were fairly good, but brains of that quality were a drug in the
market. He only excelled in his strength; and where was he to find a
customer for that? But the ways of Fate are strange, and his customer
was at hand.

"Look y'ere!" said a voice at the door.

Montgomery looked up, for the voice was a loud and rasping one. A
young man stood at the entrance--a stocky, bull-necked young miner, in
tweed Sunday clothes and an aggressive necktie. He was a
sinister-looking figure, with dark, insolent eyes, and the jaw and
throat of a bulldog.

"Look y'ere!" said he again. "Why hast thou not sent t' medicine oop
as thy master ordered?"

Montgomery had become accustomed to the brutal frankness of the
Northern worker. At first it had enraged him, but after a time he had
grown callous to it, and accepted it as it was meant. But this was
something different. It was insolence--brutal, overbearing insolence,
with physical menace behind it.

"What name?" he asked coldly.

"Barton. Happen I may give thee cause to mind that name, yoong man.
Mak' oop t' wife's medicine this very moment, look ye, or it will be
the worse for thee."

Montgomery smiled. A pleasant sense of relief thrilled softly through
him. What blessed safety-valve was this through which his jangled
nerves might find some outlet. The provocation was so gross, the
insult so unprovoked, that he could have none of those qualms which
take the edge off a man's mettle. He finished sealing the bottle upon
which he was occupied, and he addressed it and placed it carefully in
the rack.

"Look here!" said he, turning round to the miner, "your medicine will
be made up in its turn and sent down to you. I don't allow folk in the
surgery. Wait outside in the waiting-room, if you wish to wait at
all."

"Yoong man," said the miner, "thou's got to mak' t' wife's medicine
here, and now, and quick, while I wait and watch thee, or else happen
thou might need some medicine thysel' before all is over."

"I shouldn't advise you to fasten a quarrel upon me." Montgomery was
speaking in the hard, staccato voice of a man who is holding himself
in with difficulty. "You'll save trouble if you'll go quietly. If you
don't you'll be hurt. Ah, you would? Take it, then!"

The blows were almost simultaneous--a savage swing which whistled past
Montgomery's ear and a straight drive which took the workman on the
chin. Luck was with the assistant. That single whizzing uppercut, and
the way in which it was delivered, warned him that he had a formidable
man to deal with. But if he had underrated his antagonist, his
antagonist had also underrated him, and had laid himself open to a
fatal blow.

The miner's head had come with a crash against the corner of the
surgery shelves, and he had dropped heavily on to the ground. There he
lay with his bandy legs drawn up and his hands thrown abroad, the
blood trickling over the surgery tiles.

"Had enough?" asked the assistant, breathing fiercely through his
nose.

But no answer came. The man was insensible. And then the danger of his
position came upon Montgomery, and he turned as white as his
antagonist. A Sunday, the immaculate Dr. Oldacre with his pious
connection, a savage brawl with a patient; he would irretrievably lose
his situation if the facts came out. It was not much of a situation,
but he could not get another without a reference, and Oldacre might
refuse him one. Without money for his classes, and without a
situation--what was to become of him? It was absolute ruin.

But perhaps he could escape exposure after all. He seized his
insensible adversary, dragged him out into the centre of the room,
loosened his collar, and squeezed the surgery sponge over his face. He
sat up at last with a gasp and a scowl.

"Domn thee, thou's spoilt my necktie," said he, mopping up the water
from his breast.

"I'm sorry I hit you so hard," said Montgomery, apologetically.

"Thou hit me hard! I could stan' such fly-flappin' all day. 'Twas this
here press that cracked my pate for me, and thou art a looky man to be
able to boast as thou hast outed me. And now I'd be obliged to thee if
thou wilt give me t' wife's medicine."

Montgomery gladly made it up and handed it to the miner.

"You are weak still," said he. "Won't you stay awhile and rest?"

"T' wife wants her medicine," said the man, and lurched out the door.

The assistant, looking after him, saw him rolling with an uncertain
step down the street, until a friend met him, and they walked on
arm-in-arm. The man seemed in his rough Northern fashion to bear no
grudge, and so Montgomery's fears left him. There was no reason why
the doctor should know anything about it. He wiped the blood from the
floor, put the surgery in order, and went on with his interrupted
task, hoping that he had come scathless out of a very dangerous
business.

Yet all day he was aware of a sense of vague uneasiness which
sharpened into dismay when, late in the afternoon, he was informed
that three gentlemen had called and were waiting for him in the
surgery. A coroner's inquest, a descent of detectives, an invasion of
angry relatives--all sorts of possibilities rose to scare him. With
tense nerves and a rigid face he went to meet his visitors.

They were a very singular trio. Each was known to him by sight; but
what on earth the three could be doing together, and, above all, what
they could expect from /him/, was a most inexplicable problem.

The first was Sorley Wilson, the son of the owner of the Nonpareil
Coalpit. He was a young blood of twenty, heir to a fortune, a keen
sportsman, and down for the Easter Vacation from Magdalene College. He
sat now upon the edge of the surgery table, looking in thoughtful
silence at Montgomery, and twisting the ends of his small, black,
waxed moustache.

The second was Purvis, the publican, owner of the chief beershop, and
well known as the local bookmaker. He was a coarse, clean-shaven man,
whose fiery face made a singular contrast with his ivory-white bald
head. He had shrewd, light-blue eyes with foxy lashes, and he also
leaned forward in silence from his chair, a fat, red hand upon either
knee, and stared critically at the young assistant.

So did the third visitor, Fawcett, the horsebreaker, who leaned back,
his long, thin legs, with their box-cloth riding-gaiters, thrust out
in front of him, tapping his protruding teeth with his riding-whip,
with anxious thought in every line of his rugged, bony face. Publican,
exquisite, and horsebreaker were all three equally silent, equally
earnest, and equally critical. Montgomery, seated in the midst of
them, looked from one to the other.

"Well, gentlemen?" he observed, but no answer came.

The position was embarrassing.

"No," said the horsebreaker, at last. "No. It's off. It's nowt."

"Stand oop, lad; let's see thee standin'." It was the publican who
spoke.

Montgomery obeyed. He would learn all about it, no doubt, if he were
patient. He stood up and turned slowly round, as if in front of his
tailor.

"It's off! It's off!" cried the horsebreaker. "Why, mon, the Master
would break him over his knee."

"Oh, that be hanged for a yarn!" said the young Cantab. "You can drop
out if you like, Fawcett, but I'll see this thing through, if I have
to do it alone. I don't hedge a penny. I like the cut of him a great
deal better than I liked Ted Barton."

"Look at Barton's shoulders, Mr. Wilson."

"Lumpiness isn't always strength. Give me nerve and fire and breed.
That's what wins."

"Ay, sir, you have it theer--you have it theer!" said the fat,
red-faced publican, in a thick, suety voice. "It's the same wi' poops.
Get 'em clean-bred an' fine, an' they'll yark the thick 'uns--yark 'em
out o' their skins."

"He's ten good pund on the light side," growled the horsebreaker.

"He's a welter weight, anyhow."

"A hundred and thirty."

"A hundred and fifty, if he's an ounce."

"Well, the Master doesn't scale much more than that."

"A hundred and seventy-five."

"That was when he was hog-fat and living high. Work the grease out of
him, and I lay there's no great difference between them. Have you been
weighed lately, Mr. Montgomery?"

It was the first direct question which had been asked him. He had
stood in the midst of them, like a horse at a fair, and he was just
beginning to wonder whether he was more angry or amused.

"I am just eleven stone," said he.

"I said that he was a welter weight."

"But suppose you was trained?" said the publican. "Wot then?"

"I am always in training."

"In a manner of speakin', no doubt, he /is/ always in trainin',"
remarked the horsebreaker. "But trainin' for everyday work ain't the
same as trainin' with a trainer; and I dare bet, with all respec' to
your opinion, Mr. Wilson, that there's half a stone of tallow on him
at this minute."

The young Cantab put his fingers on the assistant's upper arm. Then
with his other hand on his wrist he bent the forearm sharply, and felt
the biceps, as round and hard as a cricket-ball, spring up under his
fingers.

"Feel that!" said he.

The publican and horsebreaker felt it with an air of reverence.

"Good lad! He'll do yet!" cried Purvis.

"Gentlemen," said Montgomery, "I think that you will acknowledge that
I have been very patient with you. I have listened to all that you
have to say about my personal appearance, and now I must really beg
that you will have the goodness to tell me what is the matter."

They all sat down in their serious, business-like way.

"That's easy done, Mr. Montgomery," said the fat-voiced publican. "But
before sayin' anything we had to wait and see whether, in a way of
speakin', there was any need for us to say anything at all. Mr. Wilson
thinks there is. Mr. Fawcett, who has the same right to his opinion,
bein' also a backer and one o' the committee, thinks the other way."

"I thought him too light built, and I think so now," said the
horsebreaker, still tapping his prominent teeth with the metal head of
his riding-whip. "But happen he may pull through; and he's a
fine-made, buirdly young chap, so if you mean to back him, Mr.
Wilson----"

"Which I do."

"And you, Purvis?"

"I ain't one to go back, Fawcett."

"Well, I'll stan' to my share of the purse."

"And well I knew you would," said Purvis, "for it would be somethin'
new to find Isaac Fawcett as a spoilsport. Well, then, we make up the
hundred for the stake among us, and the fight stands--always supposin'
the young man is willin'."

"Excuse all this rot, Mr. Montgomery," said the University man, in a
genial voice. "We've begun at the wrong end, I know, but we'll soon
straighten it out, and I hope that you will see your way to falling in
with our views. In the first place, you remember the man whom you
knocked out this morning? He is Barton--the famous Ted Barton."

"I'm sure, sir, you may well be proud to have outed him in one round,"
said the publican. "Why, it took Morris, the ten-stone-six champion, a
deal more trouble than that before he put Barton to sleep. You've done
a fine performance, sir, and happen you'll do a finer, if you give
yourself the chance."

"I never heard of Ted Barton, beyond seeing the name on a medicine
label," said the assistant.

"Well, you may take it from me that he's a slaughterer," said the
horsebreaker. "You've taught him a lesson that he needed, for it was
always a word and a blow with him, and the word alone was worth five
shillin' in a public court. He won't be so ready now to shake his nief
in the face of every one he meets. However, that's neither here nor
there."

Montgomery looked at them in bewilderment.

"For goodness' sake, gentlemen, tell me what it is you want me to do!"
he cried.

"We want you to fight Silas Craggs, better known as the Master of
Croxley."

"But why?"

"Because Ted Barton was to have fought him next Saturday. He was the
champion of the Wilson coal-pits, and the other was the Master of the
iron-folk down at the Croxley smelters. We'd matched our man for a
purse of a hundred against the Master. But you've queered our man, and
he can't face such a battle with a two-inch cut at the back of his
head. There's only one thing to be done, sir, and that is for you to
take his place. If you can lick Ted Barton you may lick the Master of
Croxley; but if you don't we're done, for there's no one else who is
in the same street with him in this district. It's twenty rounds,
two-ounce gloves, Queensberry rules, and a decision on points if you
fight to the finish."

For a moment the absurdity of the thing drove every other thought out
of Montgomery's head. But then there came a sudden revulsion. A
hundred pounds!--all he wanted to complete his education was lying
there ready to his hand if only that hand were strong enough to pick
it up. He had thought bitterly that morning that there was no market
for his strength, but here was one where his muscle might earn more in
an hour than his brains in a year. But a chill of doubt came over him.

"How can I fight for the coal-pits?" said he. "I am not connected with
them."

"Eh, lad, but thou art!" cried old Purvis. "We've got it down in
writin', and it's clear enough. 'Anyone connected with the coal-pits.'
Doctor Oldacre is the coal-pit club doctor; thou art his assistant.
What more can they want?"

"Yes, that's right enough," said the Cantab. "It would be a very
sporting thing of you, Mr. Montgomery, if you would come to our help
when we are in such a hole. Of course, you might not like to take the
hundred pounds; but I have no doubt that, in the case of your winning,
we could arrange that it should take the form of a watch or piece of
plate, or any other shape which might suggest itself to you. You see,
you are responsible for our having lost our champion, so we really
feel that we have a claim upon you."

"Give me a moment, gentlemen. It is very unexpected. I am afraid the
doctor would never consent to my going--in fact, I am sure that he
would not."

"But he need never know--not before the fight, at any rate. We are not
bound to give the name of our man. So long as he is within the weight
limits on the day of the fight, that is all that concerns any one."

The adventure and the profit would either of them have attracted
Montgomery. The two combined were irresistible.

"Gentlemen," said he, "I'll do it!"

The three sprang from their seats. The publican had seized his right
hand, the horse-dealer his left, and the Cantab had slapped him on the
back.

"Good lad! good lad!" croaked the publican. "Eh, mon, but if thou yark
him, thou'll rise in one day from being just a common doctor to the
best-known mon 'twixt here and Bradford. Thou are a witherin' tyke,
thou art, and no mistake; and if thou beat the Master of Croxley,
thou'll find all the beer thou want for the rest of thy life waiting
for thee at the Four Sacks."

"It is the most sporting thing I ever heard of in my life," said young
Wilson. "By George, sir, if you pull if off, you've got the
constituency in your pocket, if you care to stand. You know the
outhouse in my garden?"

"Next the road?"

"Exactly. I turned it into a gymnasium for Ted Barton. You'll find all
you want there; clubs, punching-ball, bars, dumb-bells, everything.
Then you'll want a sparring partner. Ogilvy has been acting for
Barton, but we don't think that he is class enough. Barton bears you
no grudge. He's a good-hearted fellow, though cross-grained with
strangers. He looked upon you as a stranger this morning, but he says
he knows you now. He is quite ready to spar with you for practice, and
he will come at any hour you will name."

"Thank you; I will let you know the hour," said Montgomery; and so the
committee departed jubilant upon their way.

The medical assistant sat for a little time in the surgery turning it
over in his mind. He had been trained originally at the University by
the man who had been middle-weight champion in his day. It was true
that his teacher was long past his prime, slow upon his feet and stiff
in his joints, but even so he was still a tough antagonist; but
Montgomery had found at last that he could more than hold his own with
him. He had won the University medal, and his teacher, who had trained
so many students, was emphatic in his opinion that he had never had
one who was in the same class with him. He had been exhorted to go in
for the Amateur Championships, but he had no particular ambition in
that direction. Once he had put on the gloves with Hammer Tunstall in
a booth at a fair, and had fought three rattling rounds, in which he
had the worst of it, but had made the prize-fighter stretch himself
to the uttermost. There was his whole record, and was it enough to
encourage him to stand up to the Master of Croxley? He had never heard
of the Master before, but then he had lost touch of the ring during
the last few years of hard work. After all, what did it matter? If he
won, there was the money, which meant so much to him. If he lost, it
would only mean a thrashing. He could take punishment without
flinching, of that he was certain. If there were only one chance in a
hundred of pulling it off, then it was worth his while to attempt it.

Dr. Oldacre, new come from church, with an ostentatious prayer-book in
his kid-gloved hand, broke in upon his meditation.

"You don't go to service, I observe, Mr. Montgomery," said he, coldly.

"No, sir; I have had some business to detain me."

"It is very near to my heart that my household should set a good
example. There are so few educated people in this district that a
great responsibility devolves upon us. If we do not live up to the
highest, how can we expect these poor workers to do so? It is a
dreadful thing to reflect that the parish takes a great deal more
interest in an approaching glove-fight than in their religious
duties."

"A glove-fight, sir?" said Montgomery, guiltily.

"I believe that to be the correct term. One of my patients tells me
that it is the talk of the district. A local ruffian, a patient of
ours, by the way, is matched against a pugilist over at Croxley. I
cannot understand why the law does not step in and stop so degrading
an exhibition. It is really a prize-fight."

"A glove-fight, you said."

"I am informed that a two-ounce glove is an evasion by which they
dodge the law, and make it difficult for the police to interfere. They
contend for a sum of money. It seems dreadful and almost
incredible--does it not?--to think that such scenes can be enacted
within a few miles of our peaceful home. But you will realize, Mr.
Montgomery, that while there are such influences for us to counteract,
it is very necessary that we should live up to our highest."

The doctor's sermon would have had more effect if the assistant had
not once or twice had occasion to test his highest and come upon it at
unexpectedly humble elevations. It is always so particularly easy to
"compound for sins we're most inclined to by damning those we have no
mind to." In any case, Montgomery felt that of all the men concerned
in such a fight--promoters, backers, spectators--it is the actual
fighter who holds the strongest and most honourable position. His
conscience gave him no concern upon the subject. Endurance and courage
are virtues, not vices, and brutality is, at least, better than
effeminacy.

There was a little tobacco-shop at the corner of the street, where
Montgomery got his bird's-eye and also his local information, for the
shopman was a garrulous soul, who knew everything about the affairs of
the district. The assistant strolled down there after tea and asked,
in a casual way, whether the tobacconist had ever heard of the Master
of Croxley.

"Heard of him! Heard of him!" the little man could hardly articulate
his astonishment. "Why, sir, he's the first mon o' the district, an'
his name's as well known in the West Riding as the winner o' t' Derby.
But Lor', sir"--here he stopped and rummaged among a heap of papers.
"They are makin' a fuss about him on account o' his fight wi' Ted
Barton, and so the /Croxley Herald/ has his life an' record, an' here
it is, an' thou canst read it for thysel'."

The sheet of the paper which he held up was a lake of print around an
islet of illustration. The latter was a coarse wood-cut of a
pugilist's head and neck set in a cross-barred jersey. It was a
sinister but powerful face, the face of a debauched hero,
clean-shaven, strongly eye-browed, keen-eyed, with a huge, aggressive
jaw, and an animal dewlap beneath it. The long, obstinate cheeks ran
flush up to the narrow, sinister eyes. The mighty neck came down
square from the ears and curved outwards into shoulders, which had
lost nothing at the hands of the local artist. Above was written
"Silas Craggs," and beneath, "The Master of Croxley."

"Thou'll find all about him there, sir," said the tobacconist. "He's a
witherin' tyke, he is, and w're proud to have him in the county. If he
hadn't broke his leg he'd have been champion of England."

"Broke his leg, has he?"

"Yes, and it set badly. They ca' him owd K behind his bock, for thot
is how his two legs look. But his arms--well, if they was both
stropped to a bench, as the sayin' is, I wonder where the champion of
England would be then."

"I'll take this with me," said Montgomery; and putting the paper into
his pocket he returned home.

It was not a cheering record which he read there. The whole history of
the Croxley Master was given in full, his many victories, his few
defeats.

"Born in 1857," said the provincial biographer, "Silas Craggs, better
known in sporting circles as The Master of Croxley, is now in his
fortieth year."

"Hang it, I'm only twenty-three," said Montgomery to himself, and read
on more cheerfully.

"Having in his youth shown a surprising aptitude for the game, he
fought his way up among his comrades, until he became the recognized
champion of the district and won the proud title which he still holds.
Ambitious of a more than local fame, he secured a patron, and fought
his first fight against Jack Barton, of Birmingham, in May, 1880, at
the old Loiterers' Club. Craggs, who fought at ten-stone-two at the
time, had the better of fifteen rattling rounds, and gained an award
on points against the Midlander. Having disposed of James Dunn, of
Rotherhithe, Cameron, of Glasgow, and a youth named Fernie, he was
thought so highly of by the fancy that he was matched against Ernest
Willox, at that time middle-weight champion of the North of England,
and defeated him in a hard-fought battle, knocking him out in the
tenth round after a punishing contest. At this period it looked as if
the very highest honours of the ring were within the reach of the
young Yorkshireman, but he was laid upon the shelf by a most
unfortunate accident. The kick of a horse broke his thigh, and for a
year he was compelled to rest himself. When he returned to his work
the fracture had set badly, and his activity was much impaired. It was
owing to this that he was defeated in seven rounds by Willox, the man
whom he had previously beaten, and afterwards by James Shaw, of
London, though the latter acknowledged that he had found the toughest
customer of his career. Undismayed by his reverses, the Master adapted
the style of his fighting to his physical disabilities, and resumed
his career of victory--defeating Norton (the black), Bobby Wilson, and
Levi Cohen, the latter a heavy-weight. Conceding two stone, he fought
a draw with the famous Billy McQuire, and afterwards, for a purse of
fifty pounds, he defeated Sam Hare at the Pelican Club, London. In
1891 a decision was given against him upon a foul when fighting a
winning fight against Jim Taylor, the Australian middle-weight, and so
mortified was he by the decision, that he withdrew from the ring.
Since then he has hardly fought at all save to accommodate any local
aspirant who may wish to learn the difference between a bar-room
scramble and a scientific contest. The latest of these ambitious souls
comes from the Wilson coalpits, which have undertaken to put up a
stake of £100 and back their local champion. There are various rumours
afloat as to who their representative is to be, the name of Ted Barton
being freely mentioned; but the betting, which is seven to one on the
Master against any untried man, is a fair reflection of the feeling of
the community."

Montgomery read it over twice, and it left him with a very serious
face. No light matter this, which he had undertaken; no battle with a
rough-and-tumble fighter who presumed upon a local reputation. The
man's record showed that he was first class--or nearly so. There were
a few points in his favour, and he must make the most of them. There
was age--twenty-three against forty. There was an old ring proverb
that "Youth will be served," but the annals of the ring offer a great
number of exceptions. A hard veteran, full of cool valour and
ring-craft, could give ten or fifteen years and a beating to most
striplings. He could not rely too much upon his advantage in age. But
then there was the lameness; that must surely count for a great deal.
And, lastly, there was the chance that the Master might underrate his
opponent, that he might be remiss in his training, and refuse to
abandon his usual way of life, if he thought that he had an easy task
before him. In a man of his age and habits this seemed very possible.
Montgomery prayed that it might be so. Meanwhile, if his opponent were
the best man who ever jumped the ropes into a ring, his own duty was
clear. He must prepare himself carefully, throw away no chance, and do
the very best that he could. But he knew enough to appreciate the
difference which exists in boxing, as in every sport, between the
amateur and the professional. The coolness, the power of hitting,
above all the capability for taking punishment, count for so much.
Those specially developed, gutta-percha-like abdominal muscles of the
hardened pugilist will take without flinching a blow which would leave
another man writhing on the ground. Such things are not to be acquired
in a week, but all that could be done in a week should be done.

The medical assistant had a good basis to start from. He was 5 feet 11
inches--tall enough for anything on two legs, as the old ring men used
to say--lithe and spare, with the activity of a panther, and a
strength which had hardly yet ever found its limitations. His muscular
development was finely hard, but his power came rather from that
higher nerve-energy which counts for nothing upon a measuring tape. He
had the well-curved nose and the widely opened eye which never yet
were seen upon the face of a craven, and behind everything he had the
driving force, which came from the knowledge that his whole career was
at stake upon the contest. The three backers rubbed their hands when
they saw him at work punching the ball in the gymnasium next morning;
and Fawcett, the horsebreaker, who had written to Leeds to hedge his
bets, sent a wire to cancel the letter, and to lay another fifty at
the market price of seven to one.

Montgomery's chief difficulty was to find time for his training
without any interference from the doctor. His work took him a large
part of the day, but as the visiting was done on foot, and
considerable distances could be traversed, it was a training in
itself. For the rest, he punched the swinging ball and worked with the
dumb-bells for an hour every morning and evening, and boxed twice a
day with Ted Barton in the gymnasium, gaining as much profit as could
be got from a rushing, two-handed slogger. Barton was full of
admiration for his cleverness and quickness, but doubtful about his
strength. Hard hitting was the feature of his own style, and he
exacted it from others.

"Lord, sir, that's a turble poor poonch for an eleven-stone man!" he
would cry. "Thou wilt have to hit harder than that afore t' Master
will know that thou art theer. Ah, thot's better, mon, thot's fine!"
he would add, as his opponent lifted him across the room on the end of
a right counter. "Thot's how I likes to feel 'em. Happen thou'lt pull
through yet." He chuckled with joy when Montgomery knocked him into a
corner. "Eh, mon, thou art comin' along grand. Thou hast fair yarked
me off my legs. Do it again, lad, do it again!"

The only part of Montgomery's training which came within the doctor's
observation was his diet, and that puzzled him considerably.

"You will excuse my remarking, Mr. Montgomery, that you are becoming
rather particular in your tastes. Such fads are not to be encouraged
in one's youth. Why do you eat toast with every meal?"

"I find that it suits me better than bread, sir."

"It entails unnecessary work upon the cook. I observe, also, that you
have turned against potatoes."

"Yes, sir; I think that I am better without them."

"And you no longer drink your beer?"

"No, sir."

"These causeless whims and fancies are very much to be deprecated, Mr.
Montgomery. Consider how many there are to whom these very potatoes
and this very beer would be most acceptable."

"No doubt, sir. But at present I prefer to do without them."

They were sitting alone at lunch, and the assistant thought that it
would be a good opportunity of asking leave for the day of the fight.

"I should be glad if you could let me have leave for Saturday, Dr.
Oldacre."

"It is very inconvenient upon so busy a day."

"I should do a double day's work on Friday so as to leave everything
in order. I should hope to be back in the evening."

"I am afraid I cannot spare you, Mr. Montgomery."

This was a facer. If he could not get leave he would go without it.

"You will remember, Doctor Oldacre, that when I came to you it was
understood that I should have a clear day every month. I have never
claimed one. But now there are reasons why I wish to have a holiday
upon Saturday."

Doctor Oldacre gave in with a very bad grace.

"Of course, if you insist upon your formal rights, there is no more to
be said, Mr. Montgomery, though I feel that it shows a certain
indifference to my comfort and the welfare of the practice. Do you
still insist?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good. Have your way."

The doctor was boiling over with anger, but Montgomery was a valuable
assistant--steady, capable, and hard working--and he could not afford
to lose him. Even if he had been prompted to advance those class fees,
for which his assistant had appealed, it would have been against his
interests to do so, for he did not wish him to qualify, and he desired
him to remain in his subordinate position, in which he worked so hard
for so small a wage. There was something in the cool insistence of the
young man, a quiet resolution in his voice as he claimed his Saturday,
which aroused his curiosity.

"I have no desire to interfere unduly with your affairs, Mr.
Montgomery, but were you thinking of having a day in Leeds upon
Saturday?"

"No, sir."

"In the country?"

"Yes, sir."

"You are very wise. You will find a quiet day among the wild flowers a
very valuable restorative. Had you thought of any particular
direction?"

"I am going over Croxley way."

"Well, there is no prettier country when once you are past the
iron-works. What could be more delightful than to lie upon the Fells,
basking in the sunshine, with perhaps some instructive and elevating
book as your companion? I should recommend a visit to the ruins of St.
Bridget's Church, a very interesting relic of the early Norman era. By
the way, there is one objection which I see to your going to Croxley
on Saturday. It is upon that date, as I am informed, that that
ruffianly glove-fight takes place. You may find yourself molested by
the blackguards whom it will attract."

"I will take my chance of that, sir," said the assistant.

On the Friday night, which was the last before the fight, Montgomery's
three backers assembled in the gymnasium and inspected their man as he
went through some light exercises to keep his muscles supple. He was
certainly in splendid condition, his skin shining with health, and his
eyes with energy and confidence. The three walked round him and
exulted.

"He's simply ripping!" said the undergraduate. "By Gad, you've come
out of it splendidly. You're as hard as a pebble, and fit to fight for
your life."

"Happen he's a trifle on the fine side," said the publican. "Runs a
bit light at the loins, to my way of thinkin'."

"What weight to-day?"

"Ten-stone eleven," the assistant answered.

"That's only three pund off in a week's trainin'," said the
horsebreaker. "He said right when he said that he was in condition.
Well, it's fine stuff all there is of it, but I'm none so sure as
there is enough." He kept poking his finger into Montgomery, as if he
were one of his horses. "I hear that the Master will scale a hundred
and sixty odd at the ring-side."

"But there's some of that which he'd like well to pull off and leave
behind wi' his shirt," said Purvis. "I hear they've had a rare job to
get him to drop his beer, and if it had not been for that great
red-headed wench of his they'd never ha' done it. She fair scratted
the face off a potman that had brought him a gallon from t' Chequers.
They say the hussy is his sparrin' partner, as well as his sweetheart,
and that his poor wife is just breakin' her heart over it. Hullo,
young 'un, what do you want?"

The door of the gymnasium had opened, and a lad about sixteen, grimy
and black with soot and iron, stepped into the yellow glare of the
oil-lamp. Ted Barton seized him by the collar.

"See here, thou yoong whelp, this is private, and we want noan o' thy
spin'!"

"But I maun speak to Mr. Wilson."

The young Cantab stepped forward.

"Well, my lad, what is it?"

"It's aboot t' fight, Mr. Wilson, sir. I wanted to tell your mon
somethin' aboot t' Maister."

"We've no time to listen to gossip, my boy. We know all about the
Master."

"But thou doant, sir. Nobody knows but me and mother, and we thought
as we'd like thy mon to know, sir, for we want him to fair bray him."

"Oh, you want the Master fair brayed, do you? So do we. Well, what
have you to say?"

"Is this your mon, sir?"

"Well, suppose it is?"

"Then it's him I want to tell aboot it. T' Maister is blind o' the
left eye."

"Nonsense!"

"It's true, sir. Not stone blind, but rarely fogged. He keeps it
secret, but mother knows, and so do I. If thou slip him on the left
side he can't cop thee. Thou'll find it right as I tell thee. And mark
him when he sinks his right. 'Tis his best blow, his right upper-cut.
T' Maister's finisher, they ca' it at t' works. It's a turble blow,
when it do come home."

"Thank you, my boy. This is information worth having about his sight,"
said Wilson. "How came you to know so much? Who are you?"

"I'm his son, sir."

Wilson whistled.

"And who sent you to us?"

"My mother. I maun get back to her again."

"Take this half-crown."

"No, sir, I don't seek money in comin' here. I do it----"

"For love?" suggested the publican.

"For hate!" said the boy, and darted off into the darkness.

"Seems to me t' red-headed wench may do him more harm than good, after
all," remarked the publican. "And now, Mr. Montgomery, sir, you've
done enough for this evenin', and a nine-hours' sleep is the best
trainin' before a battle. Happen this time to-morrow night you'll be
safe back again with your one hundred pounds in your pocket."


II

Work was struck at one o'clock at the coal-pits and the iron-works,
and the fight was arranged for three. From the Croxley Furnaces, from
Wilson's Coal-pits, from the Heartsease Mine, from the Dodd Mills,
from the Leverworth Smelters the workmen came trooping, each with his
fox-terrier or his lurcher at his heels. Warped with labour and
twisted by toil, bent double by week-long work in the cramped coal
galleries, or half-blinded with years spent in front of white-hot
fluid metal, these men still gilded their harsh and hopeless lives by
their devotion to sport. It was their one relief, the only thing which
could distract their minds from sordid surroundings, and give them an
interest beyond the blackened circle which inclosed them. Literature,
art, science, all these things were beyond their horizon; but the
race, the football match, the cricket, the fight, these were things
which they could understand, which they could speculate upon in
advance and comment upon afterwards. Sometimes brutal, sometimes
grotesque, the love of sport is still one of the great agencies which
make for the happiness of our people. It lies very deeply in the
springs of our nature, and when it has been educated out, a higher,
more refined nature may be left, but it will not be of that robust
British type which has left its mark so deeply on the world. Every one
of these ruddled workers, slouching with his dog at his heels to see
something of the fight, was a true unit of his race.

It was a squally May day, with bright sunbursts and driving showers.
Montgomery worked all morning in the surgery getting his medicine made
up.

"The weather seems so very unsettled, Mr. Montgomery," remarked the
doctor, "that I am inclined to think that you had better postpone your
little country excursion until a later date."

"I am afraid that I must go to-day, sir."

"I have just had an intimation that Mrs. Potter, at the other side of
Angleton, wishes to see me. It is probable that I shall be there all
day. It will be extremely inconvenient to leave the house empty so
long."

"I am very sorry, sir, but I must go," said the assistant, doggedly.

The doctor saw that it would be useless to argue, and departed in the
worst of bad tempers upon his mission. Montgomery felt easier now that
he was gone. He went up to his room, and packed his running-shoes, his
fighting-drawers, and his cricket-sash into a handbag. When he came
down Mr. Wilson was waiting for him in the surgery.

"I hear the doctor has gone."

"Yes; he is likely to be away all day."

"I don't see that it matters much. It's bound to come to his ears by
to-night."

"Yes; it's serious with me, Mr. Wilson. If I win, it's all right. I
don't mind telling you that the hundred pounds will make all the
difference to me. But if I lose, I shall lose my situation, for, as
you say, I can't keep it secret."

"Never mind. We'll see you through among us. I only wonder the doctor
has not heard, for it's all over the country that you are to fight the
Croxley Champion. We've had Armitage up about it already. He's the
Master's backer, you know. He wasn't sure that you were eligible. The
Master said he wanted you whether you were eligible or not. Armitage
has money on, and would have made trouble if he could. But I showed
him that you came within the conditions of the challenge, and he
agreed that it was all right. They think they have a soft thing on."

"Well, I can only do my best," said Montgomery.

They lunched together; a silent and rather nervous repast, for
Montgomery's mind was full of what was before him, and Wilson had
himself more money at stake than he cared to lose.

Wilson's carriage and pair were at the door, the horses with
blue-and-white rosettes at their ears, which were the colours of the
Wilson Coal pits, well known on many a football field. At the avenue
gate a crowd of some hundred pitmen and their wives gave a cheer as
the carriage passed. To the assistant it all seemed dream like and
extraordinary--the strangest experience of his life, but with a thrill
of human action and interest in it which made it passionately
absorbing. He lay back in the open carriage and saw the fluttering
handkerchiefs from the doors and windows of the miners' cottages.
Wilson had pinned a blue-and-white rosette upon his coat, and every
one knew him as their champion. "Good luck, sir! good luck to thee!"
they shouted from the roadside. He felt that it was like some
unromantic knight riding down to sordid lists, but there was something
of chivalry in it all the same. He fought for others as well as for
himself. He might fail from want of skill or strength, but deep in his
sombre soul he vowed that it should never be for want of heart.

Mr. Fawcett was just mounting into his high-wheeled, spidery dogcart,
with his little bit of blood between the shafts. He waved his whip and
fell in behind the carriage. They overtook Purvis, the tomato-faced
publican, upon the road, with his wife in her Sunday bonnet. They also
dropped into the procession, and then, as they traversed the seven
miles of the high road to Croxley, their two-horsed rosetted carriage
became gradually the nucleus of a comet with a loosely radiating tail.
From every side-road came the miners' carts, the humble, ramshackle
traps, black and bulging, with their loads of noisy, foul-tongued,
open-hearted partisans. They trailed for a long quarter of a mile
behind them--cracking, whipping, shouting, galloping, swearing.
Horsemen and runners were mixed with the vehicles. And then suddenly a
squad of the Sheffield Yeomanry, who were having their annual training
in those parts, clattered and jingled out of a field, and rode as an
escort to the carriage. Through the dust-clouds round him Montgomery
saw the gleaming brass helmets, the bright coats, and the tossing
heads of the chargers, the delighted brown faces of the troopers. It
was more dream-like than ever.

And then, as they approached the monstrous uncouth line of
bottle-shaped buildings which marked the smelting-works of Croxley,
their long, writhing snake of dust was headed off by another but
longer one which wound across their path. The main road into which
their own opened was filled by the rushing current of traps. The
Wilson contingent halted until the others should get past. The
iron-men cheered and groaned, according to their humour, as they
whirled past their antagonist. Rough chaff flew back and forwards like
iron nuts and splinters of coal. "Brought him up, then!" "Got t'
hearse for to fetch him back?" "Where's t' owd K-legs?" "Mon, mon,
have thy photograph took--'twill mind thee of what thou used to look!"
"He fight?--he's now't but a half-baked doctor!" "Happen he'll doctor
thy Croxley Champion afore he's through wi't."

So they flashed at each other as the one side waited and the other
passed. Then there came a rolling murmur swelling into a shout, and a
great break with four horses came clattering along, all streaming with
salmon-pink ribbons. The driver wore a white hat with pink rosette,
and beside him on the high seat, were a man and a woman--she with her
arm round his waist. Montgomery had one glimpse of them as they
flashed past: he with a furry cap drawn low over his brow, a great
frieze coat, and a pink comforter round his throat; she brazen,
red-headed, bright-coloured, laughing excitedly. The Master, for it
was he, turned as he passed, gazed hard at Montgomery, and gave him a
menacing, gap-toothed grin. It was a hard, wicked face, blue-jowled
and craggy, with long, obstinate cheeks and inexorable eyes. The break
behind was full of patrons of the sport--flushed iron-foremen, heads
of departments, managers. One was drinking from a metal flask, and
raised it to Montgomery as he passed; and then the crowd thinned, and
the Wilson cortège with their dragoons swept in at the rear of the
others.

The road led away from Croxley, between curving green hills, gashed
and polluted by the searchers for coal and iron. The whole country had
been gutted, and vast piles of refuse and mountains of slag suggested
the mighty chambers which the labour of man had burrowed beneath. On
the left the road curved up to where a huge building, roofless and
dismantled, stood crumbling and forlorn, with the light shining
through the windowless squares.

"That's the old Arrowsmith's factory. That's where the fight is to
be," said Wilson. "How are you feeling now?"

"Thank you. I was never better in my life," Montgomery answered.

"By Gad, I like your nerve!" said Wilson, who was himself flushed and
uneasy. "You'll give us a fight for our money, come what may. That
place on the right is the office, and that has been set aside as the
dressing- and weighing-room."

The carriage drove up to it amidst the shouts of the folk upon the
hill-side. Lines of empty carriages and traps curved down upon the
winding road, and a black crowd surged round the door of the ruined
factory. The seats, as a huge placard announced, were five shillings,
three shillings, and a shilling, with half-price for dogs. The
takings, deducting expenses, were to go to the winner, and it was
already evident that a larger stake than a hundred pounds was in
question. A babel of voices rose from the door. The workers wished to
bring their dogs in free. The men scuffled. The dogs barked. The crowd
was a whirling, eddying pool surging with a roar up to the narrow
cleft which was its only outlet.

The break, with its salmon-coloured streamers and four reeking horses,
stood empty before the door of the office; Wilson, Purvis, Fawcett,
and Montgomery passed in.

There was a large, bare room inside with square, clean patches upon
the grimy walls, where pictures and almanacs had once hung. Worn
linoleum covered the floor, but there was no furniture save some
benches and a deal table with a ewer and a basin upon it. Two of the
corners were curtained off. In the middle of the room was a
weighing-chair. A hugely fat man, with a salmon tie and a blue
waistcoat with birds'-eye spots, came bustling up to them. It was
Armitage, the butcher and grazier, well known for miles round as a
warm man, and the most liberal patron of sport in the Riding.

"Well, well," he grunted, in a thick, fussy, wheezy voice, "you have
come, then. Got your man? Got your man?"

"Here he is, fit and well. Mr. Montgomery, let me present you to Mr.
Armitage."

"Glad to meet you, sir. Happy to make your acquaintance. I make bold
to say, sir, that we of Croxley admire your courage, Mr. Montgomery,
and that our only hope is a fair fight and no favour and the best man
win. That's our sentiment at Croxley."

"And it is my sentiment also," said the assistant.

"Well, you can't say fairer than that, Mr. Montgomery. You've taken a
large contrac' in hand, but a large contrac' may be carried through,
sir, as anyone who knows my dealings could testify. The Master is
ready to weigh in!"

"So am I."

"You must weigh in the buff."

Montgomery looked askance at the tall, red-headed woman who was
standing gazing out of the window.

"That's all right," said Wilson. "Get behind the curtain and put on
your fighting-kit."

He did so, and came out the picture of an athlete, in white, loose
drawers, canvas shoes, and the sash of a well-known cricket club round
his waist. He was trained to a hair, his skin gleaming like silk, and
every muscle rippling down his broad shoulders and along his beautiful
arms as he moved them. They bunched into ivory knobs, or slid into
long, sinuous curves, as he raised or lowered his hands.

"What thinkest thou o' that?" asked Ted Barton, his second, of the
woman in the window.

She glanced contemptuously at the young athlete.

"It's but a poor kindness thou dost him to put a thread-paper yoong
gentleman like yon against a mon as is a mon. Why, my Jock would
throttle him wi' one hond lashed behind him."

"Happen he may--happen not," said Barton. "I have but twa pund in the
world, but it's on him, every penny, and no hedgin'. But here's t'
Maister, and rarely fine he do look."

The prize-fighter had come out from his curtain, a squat, formidable
figure, monstrous in chest and arms, limping slightly on his distorted
leg. His skin had none of the freshness and clearness of Montgomery's,
but was dusky and mottled, with one huge mole amid the mat of tangled
black hair which thatched his mighty breast. His weight bore no
relation to his strength, for those huge shoulders and great arms,
with brown, sledge-hammer fists, would have fitted the heaviest man
that ever threw his cap into a ring. But his loins and legs were
slight in proportion. Montgomery, on the other hand, was as
symmetrical as a Greek statue. It would be an encounter between a man
who was specially fitted for one sport, and one who was equally
capable of any. The two looked curiously at each other: a bulldog, and
a high-bred, clean-limbed terrier, each full of spirit.

"How do you do?"

"How do?" The Master grinned again, and his three jagged front teeth
gleamed for an instant. The rest had been beaten out of him in twenty
years of battle. He spat upon the floor. "We have a rare fine day
for't."

"Capital," said Montgomery.

"That's the good feelin' I like," wheezed the fat butcher. "Good lads,
both of them!--prime lads!--hard meat an' good bone. There's no
ill-feelin'."

"If he downs me, Gawd bless him!" said the Master.

"An' if we down him, Gawd help him!" interrupted the woman.

"Haud thy tongue, wench!" said the Master, impatiently. "Who art thou
to put in thy word? Happen I might draw my hand across thy face."

The woman did not take the threat amiss.

"Wilt have enough for thy hand to do, Jock," said she. "Get quit o'
this gradely man afore thou turn on me."

The lovers' quarrel was interrupted by the entrance of a new-comer, a
gentleman with a fur-collared overcoat and a very shiny top-hat--a
top-hat of a degree of glossiness which is seldom seen five miles from
Hyde Park. This hat he wore at the extreme back of his head, so that
the lower surface of the brim made a kind of frame for his high, bald
forehead, his keen eyes, his rugged and yet kindly face. He bustled in
with the quiet air of possession with which the ring-master enters the
circus.

"It's Mr. Stapleton, the referee from London," said Wilson. "How do
you do, Mr. Stapleton? I was introduced to you at the big fight at the
Corinthian Club, in Piccadilly."

"Ah, I dare say," said the other, shaking hands. "Fact is, I'm
introduced to so many that I can't undertake to carry their names.
Wilson, is it? Well, Mr. Wilson, glad to see you. Couldn't get a fly
at the station, and that's why I'm late."

"I'm sure, sir," said Armitage, "we should be proud that anyone so
well known in the boxing world should come down to our little
exhibition."

"Not at all. Not at all. Anything in the interest of boxin'. All
ready? Men weighed?"

"Weighing now, sir."

"Ah, just as well I should see it done. Seen you before, Craggs. Saw
you fight your second battle against Willox. You had beaten him once,
but he came back on you. What does the indicator say?--one hundred and
sixty-three pounds--two off for the kit--one hundred and sixty one.
Now, my lad, you jump. My goodness, what colours are you wearing?"

"The Anonymi Cricket Club."

"What right have you to wear them? I belong to the club myself."

"So do I."

"You an amateur?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you are fighting for a money prize?"

"Yes."

"I suppose you know what you are doing. You realize that you're a
professional pug from this onwards, and that if ever you fight
again----"

"I'll never fight again."

"Happen you won't," said the woman, and the Master turned a terrible
eye upon her.

"Well, I suppose you know your own business best. Up you jump. One
hundred and fifty-one, minus two, one hundred and forty-nine--twelve
pounds' difference, but youth and condition on the other scale. Well,
the sooner we get to work the better, for I wish to catch the seven
o'clock express at Hellifield. Twenty three-minute rounds, with one
minute intervals, and Queensberry rules. Those are the conditions, are
they not?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good, then, we may go across."

The two combatants had overcoats thrown over their shoulders, and the
whole party, backers, fighters, seconds, and the referee, filed out of
the room. A police inspector was waiting for them in the road. He had
a notebook in his hand--that terrible weapon which awes even the
London cabman.

"I must take your names, gentlemen, in case it should be necessary to
proceed for breach of peace."

"You don't mean to stop the fight?" cried Armitage, in a passion of
indignation. "I'm Mr. Armitage, of Croxley, and this is Mr. Wilson,
and we'll be responsible that all is fair and as it should be."

"I'll take the names in case it should be necessary to proceed," said
the inspector, impassively.

"But you know me well."

"If you was a dook or even a judge it would be all the same," said the
inspector. "It's the law, and there's an end. I'll not take upon
myself to stop the fight, seeing that gloves are to be used, but I'll
take the names of all concerned. Silas Craggs, Robert Montgomery,
Edward Barton, James Stapleton of London. Who seconds Silas Craggs?"

"I do," said the woman. "Yes, you can stare, but it's my job, and no
one else's. Anastasia's the name--four a's."

"Craggs?"

"Johnson. Anastasia Johnson. If you jug him, you can jug me."

"Who talked of juggin', ye fool?" growled the Master. "Coom on, Mr.
Armitage, for I'm fair sick o' this loiterin'."

The inspector fell in with the procession, and proceeded, as they
walked up the hill, to bargain in his official capacity for a front
seat, where he could safeguard the interests of the law, and in his
private capacity to lay out thirty shillings at seven to one with Mr.
Armitage.

Through the door they passed, down a narrow lane walled with a dense
bank of humanity, up a wooden ladder to a platform, over a rope which
was slung waist-high from four corner stakes, and then Montgomery
realized that he was in that ring in which his immediate destiny was
to be worked out. On the stake at one corner there hung a
blue-and-white streamer. Barton led him across, the overcoat dangling
loosely from his shoulders, and he sat down on a wooden stool. Barton
and another man, both wearing white sweaters, stood beside him. The
so-called ring was a square, twenty feet each way. At the opposite
angle was the sinister figure of the Master, with his red-headed woman
and a rough-faced friend to look after him. At each corner were metal
basins, pitchers of water, and sponges.

During the hubbub and uproar of the entrance Montgomery was too
bewildered to take things in. But now there was a few minutes' delay,
for the referee had lingered behind, and so he looked quietly about
him. It was a sight to haunt him for a lifetime. Wooden seats had been
built in, sloping upwards to the tops of the walls. Above, instead of
a ceiling, a great flight of crows passed slowly across a square of
grey cloud. Right up to the topmost benches the folk were
banked--broadcloth in front, corduroys and fustian behind; faces
turned everywhere upon him. The grey reek of the pipes filled the
building, and the air was pungent with the acrid smell of cheap,
strong tobacco. Everywhere among the human faces were to be seen the
heads of the dogs. They growled and yapped from the back benches. In
that dense mass of humanity one could hardly pick out individuals, but
Montgomery's eyes caught the brazen gleam of the helmets held upon the
knees of the ten yeomen of his escort. At the very edge of the
platform sat the reporters, five of them: three locals, and two all
the way from London. But where was the all-important referee? There
was no sign of him, unless he were in the centre of that angry swirl
of men near the door.

Mr. Stapleton had stopped to examine the gloves which were to be used,
and entered the building after the combatants. He had started to come
down that narrow lane with the human walls which led to the ring. But
already it had gone abroad that the Wilson champion was a gentleman,
and that another gentleman had been appointed as referee. A wave of
suspicion passed through the Croxley folk. They would have one of
their own people for a referee. They would not have a stranger. His
path was stopped as he made for the ring. Excited men flung themselves
in front of him; they waved their fists in his face and cursed him. A
woman howled vile names in his ear. Somebody struck at him with an
umbrella. "Go thou back to Lunnon. We want noan o' thee. Go thou
back!" they yelled.

Stapleton with his shiny hat cocked backwards, and his large, bulging
forehead swelling from under it, looked round him from beneath his
bushy brows. He was in the centre of a savage and dangerous mob. Then
he drew his watch from his pocket and held it dial upwards in his
palm.

"In three minutes," said he, "I will declare the fight off."

They raged round him. His cool face and that aggressive top-hat
irritated them. Grimy hands were raised. But it was difficult,
somehow, to strike a man who was so absolutely indifferent.

"In two minutes I declare the fight off."

They exploded into blasphemy. The breath of angry men smoked into his
placid face. A gnarled, grimy fist vibrated at the end of his nose.
"We tell thee we want noan o' thee. Get thou back where thou com'st
from."

"In one minute I declare the fight off."

Then the calm persistence of the man conquered the swaying, mutable,
passionate crowd.

"Let him through, mon. Happen there'll be no fight after a'."

"Let him through."

"Bill, thou loomp, let him pass. Dost want the fight declared off?"

"Make room for the referee!--room for the Lunnon referee!"

And half pushed, half carried, he was swept up to the ring. There were
two chairs by the side of it, one for him and one for the timekeeper.
He sat down, his hands on his knees, his hat at a more wonderful angle
than ever, impassive but solemn, with the aspect of one who
appreciates his responsibilities.

Mr. Armitage, the portly butcher, made his way into the ring and held
up two fat hands, sparkling with rings, as a signal for silence.

"Gentlemen!" he yelled. And then in a crescendo shriek, "Gentlemen!"

"And ladies!" cried somebody, for indeed there was a fair sprinkling
of women among the crowd. "Speak up, owd man!" shouted another. "What
price pork chops?" cried somebody at the back. Everybody laughed, and
the dogs began to bark. Armitage waved his hands amidst the uproar as
if he were conducting an orchestra. At last the babel thinned into
silence.

"Gentlemen," he yelled, "the match is between Silas Craggs, whom we
call the Master of Croxley, and Robert Montgomery, of the Wilson
Coal-pits. The match was to be under eleven eight. When they were
weighed just now Craggs weighed eleven seven, and Montgomery ten nine.
The conditions of the contest are--the best of twenty three-minute
rounds with two-ounce gloves. Should the fight run to its full length
it will, of course, be decided upon points. Mr. Stapleton, the
well-known London referee, has kindly consented to see fair play. I
wish to say that Mr. Wilson and I, the chief backers of the two men,
have every confidence in Mr. Stapleton, and that we beg that you
accept his rulings without dispute."

He then turned from one combatant to the other, with a wave of his
hand.


III

"Montgomery--Craggs!" said he.

A great hush fell over the huge assembly. Even the dogs stopped
yapping; one might have thought that the monstrous room was empty. The
two men had stood up, the small white gloves over their hands. They
advanced from their corners and shook hands: Montgomery gravely,
Craggs with a smile. Then they fell into position. The crowd gave a
long sigh--the intake of a thousand excited breaths. The referee
tilted his chair on to its back legs, and looked moodily critical from
the one to the other.

It was strength against activity--that was evident from the first. The
Master stood stolidly upon his K-leg. It gave him a tremendous
pedestal; one could hardly imagine his being knocked down. And he
could pivot round upon it with extraordinary quickness; but his
advance or retreat was ungainly. His frame, however, was so much
larger and broader than that of the student, and his brown, massive
face looked so resolute and menacing, that the hearts of the Wilson
party sank within them. There was one heart, however, which had not
done so. It was that of Robert Montgomery.

Any nervousness which he may have had completely passed away now that
he had his work before him. Here was something definite--this
hard-faced, deformed Hercules to beat, with a career as the price of
beating him. He glowed with the joy of action; it thrilled through his
nerves. He faced his man with little in-and-out steps, breaking to the
left, breaking to the right, feeling his way, while Craggs, with a
dull, malignant eye, pivoted slowly upon his weak leg, his left arm
half extended, his right sunk low across the mark. Montgomery led with
his left, and then led again, getting lightly home each time. He tried
again, but the Master had his counter ready, and Montgomery reeled
back from a harder blow than he had given. Anastasia, the woman, gave
a shrill cry of encouragement, and her man let fly his right.
Montgomery ducked under it, and in an instant the two were in each
other's arms.

"Break away! Break away!" said the referee.

The Master struck upwards on the break, and shook Montgomery with the
blow. Then it was "time." It had been a spirited opening round. The
people buzzed into comment and applause. Montgomery was quite fresh,
but the hairy chest of the Master was rising and falling. The man
passed a sponge over his head, while Anastasia flapped the towel
before him. "Good lass! Good lass!" cried the crowd, and cheered her.

The men were up again, the Master grimly watchful, Montgomery as alert
as a kitten. The Master tried a sudden rush, squattering along with
his awkward gait, but coming faster than one would think. The student
slipped aside and avoided him. The Master stopped, grinned, and shook
his head. Then he motioned with his hand as an invitation to
Montgomery to come to him. The student did so and led with his left,
but got a swinging right counter in the ribs in exchange. The heavy
blow staggered him, and the Master came scrambling in to complete his
advantage; but Montgomery, with his greater activity, kept out of
danger until the call of "time." A tame round, and the advantage with
the Master.

"T' Maister's too strong for him," said a smelter to his neighbour.

"Ay; but t'other's a likely lad. Happen we'll see some sport yet. He
can joomp rarely."

"But t' Maister can stop and hit rarely. Happen he'll mak' him joomp
when he gets his neif upon him."

They were up again, the water glistening upon their faces. Montgomery
led instantly and got his right home with a sounding smack upon the
Master's forehead. There was a shout from the colliers, and "Silence!
Order!" from the referee. Montgomery avoided the counter and scored
with his left. Fresh applause, and the referee upon his feet in
indignation. "No comments gentlemen, if /you/ please, during the
rounds."

"Just bide a bit!" growled the Master.

"Don't talk--fight!" said the referee, angrily.

Montgomery rubbed in the point by a flush hit upon the mouth, and the
Master shambled back to his corner like an angry bear, having had all
the worst of the round.

"Where's that seven to one?" shouted Purvis, the publican. "I'll take
six to one!"

There were no answers.

"Five to one!" There were givers at that. Purvis booked them in a
tattered notebook.

Montgomery began to feel happy. He lay back with his legs
outstretched, his back against the corner-post and one gloved hand
upon each rope. What a delicious minute it was between each round. If
he could only keep out of harm's way, he must surely wear this man out
before the end of twenty rounds. He was so slow that all his strength
went for nothing. "You're fightin' a winnin' fight--a winnin' fight,"
Ted Barton whispered in his ear. "Go canny; tak' no chances; you have
him proper."

But the Master was crafty. He had fought so many battles with his
maimed limb that he knew how to make the best of it. Warily and slowly
he manoevred round Montgomery, stepping forward and yet again forward
until he had imperceptibly backed him into his corner. The student
suddenly saw a flash of triumph upon the grim face, and a gleam in the
dull, malignant eyes. The Master was upon him. He sprang aside and was
on the ropes. The Master smashed in one of his terrible upper-cuts,
and Montgomery half broke it with his guard. The student sprang the
other way and was against the other converging rope. He was trapped in
the angle. The Master sent in another, with a hoggish grunt which
spoke of the energy behind it. Montgomery ducked, but got a jab from
the left upon the mark. He closed with his man. "Break away! Break
away!" cried the referee. Montgomery disengaged and got a swinging
blow on the ear as he did so. It had been a damaging round for him,
and the Croxley people were shouting their delight.

"Gentlemen, I will /not/ have this noise!" Stapleton roared. "I have
been accustomed to preside at a well-conducted club, and not at a
bear-garden." This little man, with the tilted hat and the bulging
forehead, dominated the whole assembly. He was like a headmaster among
his boys. He glared round him, and nobody cared to meet his eye.

Anastasia had kissed the Master when he resumed his seat. "Good lass.
Do't again!" cried the laughing crowd, and the angry Master shook his
glove at her, as she flapped her towel in front of him. Montgomery was
weary and a little sore, but not depressed. He had learned something.
He would not again be tempted into danger.

For three rounds the honours were fairly equal. The student's hitting
was the quicker, the Master's the harder. Profiting by his lesson,
Montgomery kept himself in the open, and refused to be herded into a
corner. Sometimes the Master succeeded in rushing him to the
side-ropes, but the younger man slipped away, or closed, and then
disengaged. The monotonous "Break away! Break away!" of the referee
broke in upon the quick, low patter of rubber-soled shoes, the dull
thud of the blows, and the sharp, hissing breath of two tired men.

The ninth round found both of them in fairly good condition.
Montgomery's head was still singing from the blow that he had in the
corner, and one of his thumbs pained him acutely and seemed to be
dislocated. The Master showed no sign of a touch, but his breathing
was the more laboured, and a long line of ticks upon the referee's
paper showed that the student had a good show of points. But one of
this iron-man's blows was worth three of his, and he knew that without
the gloves he could not have stood for three rounds against him. All
the amateur work that he had done was the merest tapping and flapping
when compared to those frightful blows, from arms toughened by the
shovel and the crowbar.

It was the tenth round, and the fight was half over. The betting was
now only three to one, for the Wilson champion had held his own much
better than had been expected. But those who knew the ring-craft as
well as the staying-power of the old prize-fighter knew that the odds
were still a long way in his favour.

"Have a care of him!" whispered Barton, as he sent his man up to the
scratch. "Have a care! He'll play thee a trick, if he can."

But Montgomery saw, or imagined he saw, that his antagonist was
tiring. He looked jaded and listless, and his hands drooped a little
from their position. His own youth and condition were beginning to
tell. He sprang in and brought off a fine left-handed lead. The
Master's return lacked his usual fire. Again Montgomery led, and again
he got home. Then he tried his right upon the mark, and the Master
guarded it downwards.

"Too low! Too low! A foul! A foul!" yelled a thousand voices.

The referee rolled his sardonic eyes slowly round. "Seems to me this
buildin' is chock-full of referees," said he.

The people laughed and applauded, but their favour was as immaterial
to him as their anger.

"No applause, please! This is not a theatre!" he yelled.

Montgomery was very pleased with himself. His adversary was evidently
in a bad way. He was piling on his points and establishing a lead. He
might as well make hay while the sun shone. The Master was looking all
abroad. Montgomery popped one upon his blue jowl and got away without
a return. And then the Master suddenly dropped both his hands and
began rubbing his thigh. Ah! that was it, was it! He had muscular
cramp.

"Go in! Go in!" cried Teddy Barton.

Montgomery sprang wildly forward, and the next instant was lying half
senseless, with his neck nearly broken, in the middle of the ring.

The whole round had been a long conspiracy to tempt him within reach
of one of those terrible right-hand upper-cuts for which the Master
was famous. For this the listless, weary bearing, for this the cramp
in the thigh. When Montgomery had sprang in so hotly he had exposed
himself to such a blow as neither flesh nor blood could stand.
Whizzing up from below with a rigid arm, which put the Master's eleven
stone into its force, it struck him under the jaw: he whirled half
round, and fell a helpless and half-paralysed mass. A vague groan and
murmur, inarticulate, too excited for words, rose from the great
audience. With open mouths and staring eyes they gazed at the
twitching and quivering figure.

"Stand back! Stand right back!" shrieked the referee, for the Master
was standing over his man ready to give him the /coup-de-grâce/ as he
rose.

"Stand back, Craggs, this instant!" Stapleton repeated.

The Master sank his hands sulkily and walked backwards to the rope
with his ferocious eyes fixed upon his fallen antagonist. The
timekeeper called the seconds. If ten of them passed before Montgomery
rose to his feet, the fight was ended. Ted Barton wrung his hands and
danced about in an agony in his corner.

As if in a dream--a terrible nightmare--the student could hear the
voice of the timekeeper--three--four--five--he got up on his
hand--six--seven--he was on his knee, sick, swimming, faint, but
resolute to rise. Eight--he was up, and the Master was on him like a
tiger, lashing savagely at him with both hands. Folk held their breath
as they watched those terrible blows, and anticipated the pitiful
end--so much more pitiful where a game but helpless man refuses to
accept defeat.

Strangely automatic is the human brain. Without volition, without
effort, there shot into the memory of this bewildered, staggering,
half-stupefied man the one thing which could have saved him--that
blind eye of which the Master's son had spoken. It was the same as the
other to look at, but Montgomery remembered that he had said that it
was the left. He reeled to the left side, half felled by a drive which
lit upon his shoulder. The Master pivoted round upon his leg and was
at him in an instant.

"Yark him, lad! yark him!" screamed the woman.

"Hold your tongue!" said the referee.

Montgomery slipped on the left again and yet again; but the Master was
too quick and clever for him. He struck round and got him full on the
face as he tried once more to break away. Montgomery's knees weakened
under him, and he fell with a groan on the floor. This time he knew
that he was done. With bitter agony he realized, as he groped blindly
with his hands, that he could not possibly raise himself. Far away and
muffled he heard, amid the murmurs of the multitude, the fateful voice
of the timekeeper counting off the seconds.

"One--two--three--four--five--six----"

"Time!" said the referee.

Then the pent-up passion of the great assembly broke loose. Croxley
gave a deep groan of disappointment. The Wilsons were on their feet,
yelling with delight. There was still a chance for them. In four more
seconds their man would have been solemnly counted out. But now he had
a minute in which to recover. The referee looked round with relaxed
features and laughing eyes. He loved this rough game, this school for
humble heroes, and it was pleasant to him to intervene as a /deux ex
machina/ at so dramatic a moment. His chair and his hat were both
tilted at an extreme angle; he and the timekeeper smiled at each
other. Ted Barton and the other second had rushed out and thrust an
arm each under Montgomery's knee, the other behind his loins, and so
carried him back to his stool. His head lolled upon his shoulder, but
a douche of cold water sent a shiver through him, and he started and
looked round him.

"He's a' right!" cried the people round. "He's a rare brave lad. Good
lad! Good lad!" Barton poured some brandy into his mouth. The mists
cleared a little, and he realized where he was and what he had to do.
But he was still very weak, and he hardly dared to hope that he could
survive another round.

"Seconds out of the ring!" cried the referee. "Time!"

The Croxley Master sprang eagerly off his stool.

"Keep clear of him! Go easy for a bit," said Barton; and Montgomery
walked out to meet his man once more.

He had had two lessons--the one when the Master got him into his
corner, the other when he had been lured into mixing it up with so
powerful an antagonist. Now he would be wary. Another blow would
finish him; he could afford to run no risks. The Master was determined
to follow up his advantage, and rushed at him, slogging furiously
right and left. But Montgomery was too young and active to be caught.
He was strong upon his legs once more, and his wits had all come back
to him. It was a gallant sight--the line-of-battle-ship trying to pour
its overwhelming broadside into the frigate, and the frigate
manoevring always so as to avoid it. The Master tried all his
ring-craft. He coaxed the student up by pretended inactivity; he
rushed at him with furious rushes towards the ropes. For three rounds
he exhausted every wile in trying to get at him. Montgomery during all
this time was conscious that his strength was minute by minute coming
back to him. The spinal jar from an upper-cut is overwhelming, but
evanescent. He was losing all sense of it beyond a great stiffness of
the neck. For the first round after his downfall he had been content
to be entirely on the defensive, only too happy if he could stall off
the furious attacks of the Master. In the second he occasionally
ventured upon a light counter. In the third he was smacking back
merrily where he saw an opening. His people yelled their approval of
him at the end of every round. Even the iron-workers cheered him with
that fine unselfishness which true sport engenders. To most of them,
unspiritual and unimaginative, the sight of this clean-limbed young
Apollo, rising above disaster and holding on while consciousness was
in him to his appointed task, was the greatest thing their experience
had ever known.

But the Master's naturally morose temper became more and more
murderous at this postponement of his hopes. Three rounds ago the
battle had been in his hands; now it was all to do over again. Round
by round his man was recovering his strength. By the fifteenth he was
strong again in wind and limb. But the vigilant Anastasia saw
something which encouraged her.

"That bash in t' ribs is telling on him, Jock," she whispered. "Why
else should he be gulping t' brandy? Go in, lad, and thou hast him
yet."

Montgomery had suddenly taken the flask from Barton's hand, and had a
deep pull at the contents. Then, with his face a little flushed, and
with a curious look of purpose, which made the referee stare hard at
him, in his eyes, he rose for the sixteenth round.

"Game as a pairtridge!" cried the publican, as he looked at the
hard-set face.

"Mix it oop, lad; mix it oop!" cried the iron-men to their Master.

And then a hum of exultation ran through their ranks as they realized
that their tougher, harder, stronger man held the vantage, after all.

Neither of the men showed much sign of punishment. Small gloves crush
and numb, but they do not cut. One of the Master's eyes was even more
flush with his cheek than Nature had made it. Montgomery had two or
three livid marks upon his body, and his face was haggard, save for
that pink spot which the brandy had brought into either cheek. He
rocked a little as he stood opposite his man, and his hands drooped as
if he felt the gloves to be an unutterable weight. It was evident that
he was spent and desperately weary. If he received one other blow it
must surely be fatal to him. If he brought one home, what power could
there be behind it, and what chance was there of it harming the
colossus in front of him? It was the crisis of the fight. This round
must decide it. "Mix it oop, lad; mix it oop!" the iron-men whooped.
Even the savage eyes of the referee were unable to restrain the
excited crowd.

Now, at last, the chance had come for Montgomery. He had learned a
lesson from his more experienced rival. Why should he not play his own
game upon him? He was spent, but not nearly so spent as he pretended.
That brandy was to call up his reserves, to let him have strength to
take full advantage of the opening when it came. It was thrilling and
tingling through his veins, at the very moment when he was lurching
and rocking like a beaten man. He acted his part admirably. The Master
felt that there was an easy task before him, and rushed in with
ungainly activity to finish it once for all. He slap-banged away left
and right, boring Montgomery up against the ropes, swinging in his
ferocious blows with those animal grunts which told of the vicious
energy behind them.

But Montgomery was too cool to fall a victim to any of those murderous
upper-cuts. He kept out of harm's way with a rigid guard, an active
foot, and a head which was swift to duck. And yet he contrived to
present the same appearance of a man who is hopelessly done. The
Master, weary from his own shower of blows, and fearing nothing from
so weak a man, dropped his hand for an instant, and at that instant
Montgomery's right came home.

It was a magnificent blow, straight, clean, crisp, with the force of
the loins and the back behind it. And it landed where he had meant it
to--upon the exact point of that blue-grained chin. Flesh and blood
could not stand such a blow in such a place. Neither valour nor
hardihood can save the man to whom it comes. The Master fell
backwards, flat, prostrate, striking the ground with so simultaneous a
clap that it was like a shutter falling from a wall. A yell which no
referee could control broke from the crowded benches as the giant went
down. He lay upon his back, his knees a little drawn up, his huge
chest panting. He twitched and shook, but could not move. His feet
pawed convulsively once or twice. It was no use. He was done.
"Eight--nine--ten!" said the timekeeper, and the roar of a thousand
voices, with a deafening clap like the broadside of a ship, told that
the Master of Croxley was the Master no more.

Montgomery stood half dazed, looking down at the huge, prostrate
figure. He could hardly realize that it was indeed all over. He saw
the referee motion towards him with his hand. He heard his name
bellowed in triumph from every side. And then he was aware of some one
rushing towards him; he caught a glimpse of a flushed face and an
aureole of flying red hair, a gloveless fist struck him between the
eyes, and he was on his back in the ring beside his antagonist, while
a dozen of his supporters were endeavouring to secure the frantic
Anastasia. He heard the angry shouting of the referee, the screaming
of the furious woman, and the cries of the mob. Then something seemed
to break like an overstretched banjo-string, and he sank into the
deep, deep, mist-girt abyss of unconsciousness.

The dressing was like a thing in a dream, and so was a vision of the
Master with the grin of a bulldog upon his face, and his three teeth
amiably protruded. He shook Montgomery heartily by the hand.

"I would have been rare pleased to shake thee by the throttle, lad, a
short while syne," said he. "But I bear no ill-feelin' again' thee. It
was a rare poonch that brought me down--I have not had a better since
my second fight wi' Billy Edwards in '89. Happen thou might think o'
goin' further wi' this business. If thou dost, and want a trainer,
there's no much inside t' ropes as I don't know. Or happen thou might
like to try it wi' me old style and bare knuckles. Thou hast but to
write to t' ironworks to find me."

But Montgomery disclaimed any such ambition. A canvas bag with his
share--one hundred and ninety sovereigns--was handed to him, of which
he gave ten to the Master, who also received some share of the
gate-money. Then, with young Wilson escorting him on one side, Purvis
on the other, and Fawcett carrying his bag behind, he went in triumph
to his carriage, and drove amid a long roar, which lined the highway
like a hedge for the seven miles, back to his starting-point.

"It's the greatest thing I ever saw in my life. By George, it's
ripping!" cried Wilson, who had been left in a kind of ecstasy by the
events of the day. "There's a chap over Barnsley way who fancies
himself a bit. Let us spring you on him, and let him see what he can
make of you. We'll put up a purse--won't we, Purvis? You shall never
want a backer."

"At his weight," said the publican, "I'm behind him, I am, for twenty
rounds, and no age, country, or colour barred."

"So am I!" cried Fawcett; "middle-weight champion of the world, that's
what he is--here, in the same carriage with us."

But Montgomery was not to be beguiled.

"No; I have my own work to do now."

"And what may that be?"

"I'll use this money to get my medical degree."

"Well, we've plenty of doctors, but you're the only man in the Riding
that could smack the Croxley Master off his legs. However, I suppose
you know your own business best. When you're a doctor, you'd best come
down into these parts, and you'll always find a job waiting for you at
the Wilson Coal-pits."

Montgomery had returned by devious ways to the surgery. The horses
were smoking at the door and the doctor was just back from his long
journey. Several patients had called in his absence, and he was in the
worst of tempers.

"I suppose I should be glad that you have come back at all, Mr.
Montgomery!" he snarled. "When next you elect to take a holiday, I
trust it will not be at so busy a time."

"I am sorry, sir, that you should have been inconvenienced."

"Yes, sir, I have been exceedingly inconvenienced." Here, for the
first time, he looked hard at the assistant. "Good heavens, Mr.
Montgomery, what have you been doing with your left eye?"

It was where Anastasia had lodged her protest.

Montgomery laughed. "It is nothing, sir," said he.

"And you have a livid mark under your jaw. It is, indeed, terrible
that my representative should be going about in so disreputable a
condition. How did you receive these injuries?"

"Well, sir, as you know, there was a little glove-fight to-day over at
Croxley."

"And you got mixed up with that brutal crowd?"

"I /was/ rather mixed up with them."

"And who assaulted you?"

"One of the fighters."

"Which of them?"

"The Master of Croxley."

"Good heavens! Perhaps you interfered with him?"

"Well, to tell the truth, I did a little."

"Mr. Montgomery, in such a practice as mine, intimately associated as
it is with the highest and most progressive elements of our small
community, it is impossible----"

But just then the tentative bray of a cornet-player searching for his
keynote jarred upon their ears, and an instant later the Wilson
Colliery brass band was in full cry with "See the Conquering Hero
Comes," outside the surgery window. There was a banner waving, and a
shouting crowd of miners.

"What is it? What does it mean?" cried the angry doctor.

"It means, sir, that I have, in the only way which was open to me,
earned the money which is necessary for my education. It is my duty,
Doctor Oldacre, to warn you that I am about to return to the
University, and that you should lose no time in appointing my
successor."



THE LORD OF FALCONBRIDGE


A LEGEND OF THE RING

Tom Cribb, Champion of England, having finished his active career by
his two famous battles with the terrible Molineux, had settled down
into the public-house which was known as the Union Arms, at the corner
of Panton Street in the Haymarket. Behind the door of this hostelry
there was a green baize door which opened into a large, red-papered
parlour, adorned by many sporting prints and by the numerous cups and
belts which were the treasured trophies of the famous prize-fighter's
victorious career. In this snuggery it was the custom of the
Corinthians of the day to assemble in order to discuss, over Tom
Cribb's excellent wines, the matches of the past, to await the news of
the present, and to arrange new ones for the future. Hither also came
his brother pugilists, especially such as were in poverty or distress,
for the Champion's generosity was proverbial, and no man of his own
trade was ever turned from his door if cheering words or a full meal
could mend his condition.

On the morning in question--August 25, 1818--there were but two men in
this famous snuggery. One was Cribb himself--all run to flesh since
the time seven years before, when, training for his last fight, he had
done his forty miles a day with Captain Barclay over the Highland
roads. Broad and deep, as well as tall, he was a little short of
twenty stone in weight, but his heavy, strong face and lion eyes
showed that the spirit of the prize-fighter was not yet altogether
overgrown by the fat of the publican. Though it was not eleven
o'clock, a great tankard of bitter ale stood upon the table before
him, and he was busy cutting up a plug of black tobacco and rubbing
the slices into powder between his horny fingers. For all his record
of desperate battles, he looked what he was--a good-hearted,
respectable householder, law-abiding and kindly, a happy and
prosperous man.

His companion, however, was by no means in the same easy
circumstances, and his countenance wore a very different expression.
He was a tall and well-formed man, some fifteen years younger than the
Champion, and recalling in the masterful pose of his face and in the
fine spread of his shoulders something of the manly beauty which had
distinguished Cribb at his prime. No one looking at his countenance
could fail to see that he was a fighting man by profession, and any
judge of the fancy, considering his six feet in height, his thirteen
stone of solid muscle, and his beautifully graceful build, would admit
that he had started his career with advantages which, if they were
only backed by the driving-power of a stout heart, must carry him far.
Tom Winter, or Spring--as he chose to call himself--had indeed come up
from his Herefordshire home with a fine country record of local
successes, which had been enhanced by two victories gained over
formidable London heavy-weights. Three weeks before, however, he had
been defeated by the famous Painter, and the set-back weighed heavily
upon the young man's spirits.

"Cheer up, lad," said the Champion, glancing across from under his
tufted eyebrows at the disconsolate face of his companion. "Indeed,
Tom, you take it over-hard."

The young man groaned, but made no reply.

"Others have been beat before you and lived to be Champions of
England. Here I sit with that very title. Was I not beat down
Broadwater way by George Nicholls in 1805? What then? I fought on, and
here I am. When the big Black came from America it was not George
Nicholls they sent for. I say to you--fight on, and by George, I'll
see you in my own shoes yet!"

Tom Spring shook his head. "Never, if I have to fight you to get
there, Daddy."

"I can't keep it for ever, Tom. It's beyond all reason. I'm going to
lay it down before all London at the Fives Courts next year, and it's
to you that I want to hand it. I couldn't train down to it now, lad.
My day's done."

"Well, Dad, I'll never bid for it till you choose to stand aside.
After that, it is as it may be."

"Well, have a rest, Tom; wait for your chance, and, meantime, there's
always a bed and crust for you here."

Spring struck his clenched fist on his knee. "I know, Daddy! Ever
since I came up from Fownthorpe, you've been as good as a father to
me."

"I've an eye for a winner."

"A pretty winner! Beat in forty rounds by Ned Painter."

"You had beat him first."

"And by the Lord, I will again!"

"So you will, lad. George Nicholls would never give me another shy.
Knew too much, he did. Bought a butcher's shop in Bristol with the
money, and there he is to this day."

"Yes, I'll come back on Painter, but I haven't a shilling left. My
backers have lost faith in me. If it wasn't for you, Daddy, I'd be in
the kennel."

"Have you nothing left, Tom?"

"Not the price of a meal. I left every penny I had, and my good name
as well, in the ring at Kingston. I'm hard put to it to live unless I
can get another fight, and who's going to back me now!"

"Tut, man! the knowing ones will back you. You're the top of the list,
for all Ned Painter. But there are other ways a man may earn a bit.
There was a lady in here this morning--nothing flash, boy, a real
tip-top out-and-outer with a coronet on her coach--asking after you."

"Asking after me! A lady!" The young pugilist stood up with surprise
and a certain horror rising in his eyes. "You don't mean, Daddy----"

"I mean nothing but what is honest, my lad. You can lay to that!"

"You said I could earn a bit!"

"So, perhaps, you can. Enough, anyhow, to tide you over your bad time.
There's something in the wind there. It's to do with fightin'. She
asked questions about your height, weight, and my opinion of your
prospect. You can lay that my answers did you no harm."

"She ain't making a match, surely?"

"Well, she seemed to know a tidy bit about it. She asked about George
Cooper, and Richmond the Black, and Tom Oliver, always comin' back to
you, and wantin' to know if you were not the pick of the bunch. /And/
trustworthy. That was the other point. Could she trust you? Lord, Tom,
if you was a fightin' archangel you could hardly live up to the
character that I've given you."

A drawer looked in from the bar. "If you please, Mr. Cribb, the lady's
carriage is back again."

The Champion laid down his long clay pipe. "This way, lad," said he,
plucking his young friend by the sleeve towards the side window. "Look
there, now! Saw you ever a more slap-up carriage? See, too, the pair
of bays--two hundred guineas apiece. Coachman, too, and footman--you'd
find 'em hard to beat. There she is now, stepping out of it. Wait
here, lad, till I do the honours of my house."

Tom Cribb slipped off, and young Spring remained by the window,
tapping the glass nervously with his fingers, for he was a
simple-minded country lad with no knowledge of women, and many fears
of the traps which await the unwary in a great city. Many stories were
afloat of pugilists who had been taken up and cast aside by wealthy
ladies, even as the gladiators were in decadent Rome. It was with some
suspicion therefore, and considerable inward trepidation, that he
faced round as a tall veiled figure swept into the room. He was much
consoled, however, to observe the bulky form of Tom Cribb immediately
behind her as a proof that the interview was not a private one. When
the door was closed, the lady very deliberately removed her gloves.
Then with fingers which glittered with diamonds she slowly rolled up
and adjusted her heavy veil. Finally, she turned her face upon Spring.

"Is this the man?" said she.

They stood looking at each other with mutual interest, which warmed in
both their faces into mutual admiration. What she saw was as fine a
figure of a young man as England could show, none the less attractive
for the restrained shyness of his manner and the blush which flushed
his cheeks. What he saw was a woman of thirty, tall, dark, queen-like,
and imperious, with a lovely face, every line and feature of which
told of pride and breed, a woman born to Courts, with the instinct of
command strong within her, and yet with all the softer woman's graces
to temper and conceal the firmness of her soul. Tom Spring felt as he
looked at her that he had never seen nor ever dreamed of anyone so
beautiful, and yet he could not shake off the instinct which warned
him to be upon his guard. Yes, it was beautiful, this face--beautiful
beyond belief. But was it good, was it kind, was it true? There was
some strange subconscious repulsion which mingled with his admiration
for her loveliness. As to the lady's thoughts, she had already put
away all idea of the young pugilist as a man, and regarded him now
with critical eyes as a machine designed for a definite purpose.

"I am glad to meet you, Mr.--Mr. Spring," said she, looking him over
with as much deliberation as a dealer who is purchasing a horse. "He
is hardly as tall as I was given to understand, Mr. Cribb. You said
six feet, I believe?"

"So he is, ma'am, but he carries it so easy. It's only the beanstalk
that looks tall. See here, I'm six foot myself, and our heads are
level, except I've lost my fluff."

"What is the chest measurement?"

"Forty-three inches, ma'am."

"You certainly seem to be a very strong young man. And a game one,
too, I hope?"

Young Spring shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not for me to say, ma'am."

"I can speak for that, ma'am," said Cribb. "You read the /Sporting
Chronicle/ for three weeks ago, ma'am. You'll see how he stood up to
Ned Painter until his senses were beat out of him. I waited on him,
ma'am, and I know. I could show you my waistcoat now--that would let
you guess what punishment he can take."

The lady waved aside the illustration.

"But he was beat," said she coldly. "The man who beat him must be the
better man."

"Saving your presence, ma'am, I think not, and outside Gentleman
Jackson my judgment would stand against any in the ring. My lad here
has beat Painter once, and will again, if your ladyship could see your
way to find the battle-money."

The lady started and looked angrily at the Champion.

"Why do you call me that?"

"I beg pardon. It was just my way of speaking."

"I order you not to do it again."

"Very good, ma'am."

"I am here incognita. I bind you both upon your honours to make no
inquiry as to who I am. If I do not get your firm promise, the matter
ends here."

"Very good, ma'am. I'll promise for my own part, and so, I am sure,
will Spring. But if I may be so bold, I can't help my drawers and
potmen talking with your servants."

"The coachman and footman know just as much about me as you do. But my
time is limited, so I must get to business. I think, Mr. Spring, that
you are in want of something to do at present?"

"That is so, ma'am."

"I understand from Mr. Cribb that you are prepared to fight anyone at
any weight?"

"Anything on two legs," cried the Champion.

"Who did you wish me to fight?" asked the young pugilist.

"That cannot concern you. If you are really ready to fight anyone,
then the particular name can be of no importance. I have my reasons
for withholding it."

"Very good, ma'am."

"You have been only a few weeks out of training. How long would it
take you to get back to your best?"

"Three weeks or a month."

"Well, then, I will pay your training expenses and two pounds a week
over. Here are five pounds as a guarantee. You will fight when I
consider that you are ready, and that the circumstances are
favourable. If you win your fight, you shall have fifty pounds. Are
you satisfied with the terms?"

"Very handsome, ma'am, I'm sure."

"And remember, Mr. Spring, I choose you, not because you are the best
man--for there are two opinions about that--but because I am given to
understand that you are a decent man whom I can trust. The terms of
this match are to be secret."

"I understand that. I'll say nothing."

"It is a private match. Nothing more. You will begin your training
to-morrow."

"Very good, ma'am."

"I will ask Mr. Cribb to train you."

"I'll do that, ma'am, with pleasure. But, by your leave, does he have
anything if he loses?"

A spasm of emotion passed over the woman's face and her hands clenched
white with passion.

"If he loses, not a penny, not a penny!" she cried. "He must not,
shall not lose!"

"Well, ma'am," said Spring, "I've never heard of any such match. But
it's true that I am down at heel, and beggars can't be choosers. I'll
do just what you say. I'll train till you give the word, and then I'll
fight where you tell me. I hope you'll make it a large ring."

"Yes," said she; "it will be a large ring."

"And how far from London?"

"Within a hundred miles. Have you anything else to say? My time is
up."

"I'd like to ask, ma'am," said the Champion, earnestly, "whether I can
act as the lad's second when the time comes. I've waited on him the
last two fights. Can I give him a knee?"

"No," said the woman, sharply. Without another word she turned and was
gone, shutting the door behind her. A few moments later the trim
carriage flashed past the window, turned down the crowded Haymarket,
and was engulfed in the traffic.

The two men looked at each other in silence.

"Well, blow my dickey, if this don't beat cock-fightin'!" cried Tom
Cribb at last. "Anyhow, there's the fiver, lad. But it's a rum go, and
no mistake about it."



After due consultation, it was agreed that Tom Spring should go into
training at the Castle Inn on Hampstead Heath, so that Cribb could
drive over and watch him. Thither Spring went on the day after the
interview with his patroness, and he set to work at once with drugs,
dumb-bells, and breathers on the common to get himself into condition.
It was hard, however, to take the matter seriously, and his
good-natured trainer found the same difficulty.

"It's the baccy I miss, Daddy," said the young pugilist, as they sat
together on the afternoon of the third day. "Surely there can't be any
harm in my havin' a pipe?"

"Well, well, lad, it's against my conscience, but here's my box and
there's a yard o' clay," said the Champion. "My word, I don't know
what Captain Barclay of Ury would have said if he had seen a man smoke
when he was in trainin'! He was the man to work you! He had me down
from sixteen to thirteen the second time I fought the Black."

Spring had lit his pipe and was leaning back amid a haze of blue
smoke.

"It was easy for you, Daddy, to keep strict trainin' when you knew
what was before you. You had your date and your place and your man.
You knew that in a month you would jump the ropes with ten thousand
folks around you, and carrying maybe a hundred thousand in bets. You
knew also the man you had to meet, and you wouldn't give him the
better of you. But it's all different with me. For all I know this is
just a woman's whim, and will end in nothing. If I was sure it was
serious, I'd break this pipe before I would smoke it."

Tom Cribb scratched his head in puzzlement.

"I can make nothing of it, lad, 'cept that her money is good. Come to
think of it, how many men on the list could stand up to you for half
an hour? It can't be Stringer, 'cause you've beat him. Then there's
Cooper; but he's up Newcastle way. It can't be him. There's Richmond;
but you wouldn't need to take your coat off to beat him. There's the
Gasman; but he's not twelve stone. And there's Bill Neat of Bristol.
That's it, lad, The lady has taken into her head to put you up against
either the Gasman or Bill Neat."

"But why not say so? I'd train hard for the Gasman and harder for Bill
Neat, but I'm blowed if I can train with any heart when I'm fightin'
nobody in particular and everybody in general, same as now."

There was a sudden interruption to the speculations of the two
prize-fighters. The door opened and the lady entered. As her eyes fell
upon the two men her dark, handsome face flushed with anger, and she
gazed at them silently with an expression of contempt which brought
them both to their feet with hangdog faces. There they stood, their
long, reeking pipes in their hands, shuffling and downcast, like two
great rough mastiffs before an angry mistress.

"So!" said she, stamping her foot furiously. "And this is training!"

"I'm sure we're very sorry, ma'am," said the abashed Champion. "I
didn't think--I never for one moment supposed----"

"That I would come myself to see if you were taking my money on false
pretences? No, I dare say not. You fool!" she blazed, turning suddenly
upon Tom Spring. "You'll be beat. That will be the end of it."

The young man looked up with an angry face.

"I'll trouble you not to call me names, ma'am. I've my self-respect,
the same as you. I'll allow that I shouldn't have smoked when I was in
trainin'. But I was saying to Tom Cribb here, just before you came in,
that if you would give over treatin' us as if we were children, and if
you would tell us just who it is you want me to fight, and when, and
where, it would be a deal easier for me to take myself in hand."

"It's true, ma'am," said the Champion. "I know it must be either the
Gasman or Bill Neat. There's no one else. So give me the office, and
I'll promise to have him as fit as a trout on the day."

The lady laughed contemptuously.

"Do you think," said she, "that no one can fight save those who make a
living by it?"

"By George, it's an amateur!" cried Cribb, in amazement. "But you
don't surely ask Tom Spring to train for three weeks to meet a
Corinthian?"

"I will say nothing more of who it is. It is no business of yours,"
the lady answered fiercely. "All I /do/ say is, that if you do not
train I will cast you aside and take some one who will. Do not think
you can fool me because I am a woman. I have learned the points of the
game as well as any man."

"I saw that the very first word you spoke," said Cribb.

"Then don't forget it. I will not warn you again. If I have occasion
to find fault I shall choose another man."

"And you won't tell me who I am to fight?"

"Not a word. But you can take it from me that at your very best it
will take you, or any man in England, all your time to master him. Now
get back this instant to your work, and never let me find you shirking
it again." With imperious eyes she looked the two strong men down, and
then, turning on her heel, she swept out of the room.

The Champion whistled as the door closed behind her, and mopped his
brow with his red bandanna handkerchief as he looked across at his
abashed companion. "My word, lad," said he, "it's earnest from this
day on."

"Yes," said Tom Spring, solemnly, "it's earnest from this day on."

In the course of the next fortnight the lady made several surprise
visits to see that her champion was being properly prepared for the
contest which lay before him. At the most unexpected moments she would
burst into the training quarters, but never again had she to complain
of any slackness upon his part or that of his trainer. With long bouts
of the gloves, with thirty-mile walks, with mile runs at the back of a
mailcart with a bit of blood between the shafts, with interminable
series of jumps with a skipping-rope, he was sweated down until his
trainer was able to proudly proclaim that "the last ounce of tallow is
off him, and he is ready to fight for his life." Only once was the
lady accompanied by anyone upon these visits of inspection. Upon this
occasion a tall young man was her companion. He was graceful in
figure, aristocratic in his bearing, and would have been strikingly
handsome had it not been for some accident which had shattered his
nose and broken all the symmetry of his features. He stood in silence
with moody eyes and folded arms, looking at the splendid torso of the
prize-fighter as, stripped to the waist, he worked with his
dumb-bells.

"Don't you think he will do?" said the lady.

The young swell shrugged his shoulders. "I don't like it, /cara mia/.
I can't pretend that I like it."

"You must like it, George. I have set my very heart on it."

"It is not English, you know. Lucrezia Borgia and Mediaeval Italy.
Woman's love and woman's hatred are always the same, but this
particular manifestation of it seems to me out of place in
nineteenth-century London."

"Is not a lesson needed?"

"Yes, yes; but one would think there were other ways."

"You tried another way. What did you get out of that?"

The young man smiled rather grimly, as he turned up his cuff and
looked at a puckered hole in his wrist.

"Not much, certainly," said he.

"You've tried and failed."

"Yes, I must admit it."

"What else is there? The law?"

"Good gracious, no!"

"Then it is my turn, George, and I won't be balked."

"I don't think anyone is capable of balking you, /cara mia/. Certainly
I, for one, should never dream of trying. But I don't feel as if I
could co-operate."

"I never asked you to."

"No, you certainly never did. You are perfectly capable of doing it
alone. I think, with your leave, if you have quite done with your
prize-fighter, we will drive back to London. I would not for the world
miss Goldoni in the Opera."

So they drifted away; he, frivolous and dilettante, she with her face
as set as Fate, leaving the fighting men to their business.

And now the day came when Cribb was able to announce to his employer
that his man was as fit as science could make him.

"I can do no more, ma'am. He's fit to fight for a kingdom. Another
week would see him stale."

The lady looked Spring over with the eye of a connoisseur.

"I think he does you credit," she said at last. "To-day is Tuesday. He
will fight the day after to-morrow."

"Very good, ma'am. Where shall he go?"

"I will tell you exactly, and you will please take careful note of all
that I say. You, Mr. Cribb, will take your man down to the Golden
Cross Inn at Charing Cross by nine o'clock on Wednesday morning. He
will take the Brighton coach as far as Tunbridge Wells, where he will
alight at the Royal Oak Arms. There he will take such refreshment as
you advise before a fight. He will wait at the Royal Oak Arms until he
receives a message by word, or by letter, brought him by a groom in a
mulberry livery. This message will give him his final instructions."

"And I am not to come?"

"No," said the lady.

"But surely, ma'am," he pleaded, "I may come as far as Tunbridge
Wells? It's hard on a man to train a cove for a fight and then to
leave him."

"It can't be helped. You are too well known. Your arrival would spread
all over the town, and my plans might suffer. It is quite out of the
question that you should come."

"Well, I'll do what you tell me, but it's main hard."

"I suppose," said Spring, "you would have me bring my fightin' shorts
and my spiked shoes?"

"No; you will kindly bring nothing whatever which may point to your
trade. I would have you wear just those clothes in which I saw you
first, such clothes as any mechanic or artisan might be expected to
wear."

Tom Cribb's blank face had assumed an expression of absolute despair.

"No second, no clothes, no shoes--it don't seem regular. I give you my
word, ma'am, I feel ashamed to be mixed up in such a fight. I don't
know as you can call the thing a fight where there is no second. It's
just a scramble--nothing more. I've gone too far to wash my hands of
it now, but I wish I had never touched it."

In spite of all professional misgivings on the part of the Champion
and his pupil, the imperious will of the woman prevailed, and
everything was carried out exactly as she had directed. At nine
o'clock Tom Spring found himself upon the box-seat of the Brighton
coach, and waved his hand in good-bye to burly Tom Cribb, who stood,
the admired of a ring of waiters and ostlers, upon the doorstep of the
Golden Cross. It was in the pleasant season when summer is mellowing
into autumn, and the first golden patches are seen amid the beeches
and the ferns. The young country-bred lad breathed more freely when he
had left the weary streets of Southwark and Lewisham behind him, and
he watched with delight the glorious prospect as the coach, whirled
along by six dapple greys, passed by the classic grounds of Knowle, or
after crossing Riverside Hill skirted the vast expanse of the Weald of
Kent. Past Tonbridge School went the coach, and on through
Southborough, until it wound down a steep, curving road with strange
outcrops of sandstone beside it, and halted before a great hostelry,
bearing the name which had been given him in his directions. He
descended, entered the coffee-room, and ordered the underdone steak
which his trainer had recommended. Hardly had he finished it when a
servant with a mulberry coat and a peculiarly expressionless face
entered the apartment.

"Beg your pardon, sir, are you Mr. Spring--Mr. Thomas Spring, of
London?"

"That is my name, young man."

"Then the instructions which I had to give you are that you wait for
one hour after your meal. After that time you will find a phaeton at
the door, and I will drive you in the right direction."

The young pugilist had never been daunted by an experience which had
befallen him in the ring. The rough encouragement of his backers, the
surge and shouting of the multitude, and the sight of his opponent had
always cheered his stout heart and excited him to prove himself worthy
of being the centre of such a scene. But this loneliness and
uncertainty were deadly. He flung himself down on the horsehair couch
and tried to doze, but his mind was too restless and excited. Finally
he rose, and paced up and down the empty room. Suddenly he was aware
of a great rubicund face which surveyed him from round the angle of
the door. Its owner, seeing that he was observed, pushed forward into
the room.

"I beg pardon, sir," said he, "but surely I have the honour of talking
to Mr. Thomas Spring?"

"At your service," said the young man.

"Bless me! I am vastly honoured to have you under my roof! Cordery is
my name, sir, landlord of this old-fashioned inn. I thought that my
eyes could not deceive me. I am a patron of the ring, sir, in my own
humble way, and was present at Mousley in September last, when you
beat Jack Stringer of Rawcliffe. A very fine fight, sir, and very
handsomely fought, if I may make bold to say so. I have a right to an
opinion, sir, for there's never been a fight for many a year in Kent
or Sussex that you wouldn't find Joe Cordery at the ringside. Ask Mr.
Gregson at the Chop-house in Holborn, and he'll tell you about old Joe
Cordery. By the way, Mr. Spring, I suppose it is not business that has
brought you down into these parts? Anyone can see with half an eye
that you are trained to a hair. I'd take it very kindly if you would
give me the office."

It crossed Spring's mind that if he were frank with the landlord it
was more than likely that he would receive more information than he
could give. He was a man of his word, however, and he remembered the
promise to his employer.

"Just a quiet day in the country, Mr. Cordery. That's all."

"Dear me! I had hoped there was a mill in the wind. I've a nose for
these things, Mr. Spring, and I thought I had a whiff of it. But, of
course, you should know best. Perhaps you will drive round with me
this afternoon and view the hop-gardens--just the right time of year,
sir."

Tom Spring was not very skilled in deception, and his stammering
excuses may not have been very convincing to the landlord, or finally
persuaded him that his original supposition was wrong. In the midst of
the conversation, however, the waiter entered with the news that a
phaeton was waiting at the door. The inn-keeper's eyes shone with
suspicion and eagerness.

"I thought you said you knew no one in these parts, Mr. Spring?"

"Just one kind friend, Mr. Cordery, and he has sent his gig for me.
It's likely that I will take the night coach to town. But I'll look in
after an hour or two and have a dish of tea with you."

Outside the mulberry servant was sitting behind a fine black horse in
a phaeton, which had two seats in front and two behind. Tom Spring was
about to climb up beside him, when the servant whispered that his
directions were that he should sit behind. Then the phaeton whirled
away, while the excited landlord, more convinced than ever that there
was something in the wind, rushed into his stable-yard with shrieks to
his ostlers, and in a very few minutes was in hot pursuit, waiting at
every cross-road until he could hear tidings of a black horse and a
mulberry livery.

The phaeton meanwhile drove in the direction of Crowborough. Some
miles out it turned from the high road into a narrow lane spanned by a
tawny arch of beech trees. Through this golden tunnel a lady was
walking, tall and graceful, her back to the phaeton. As it came
abreast of her she stood aside and looked up, while the coachman
pulled up the horse.

"I trust that you are at your best," said she, looking very earnestly
at the prize-fighter. "How do you feel?"

"Pretty tidy, ma'am, I thank you."

"I will get up beside you, Johnson. We have some way to go. You will
drive through the Lower Warren, and then take the lane which skirts
the Gravel Hanger. I will tell you where to stop. Go slowly, for we
are not due for twenty minutes."

Feeling as if the whole business was some extraordinary dream, the
young pugilist passed through a network of secluded lanes, until the
phaeton drew up at a wicket gate which led into a plantation of firs,
choked with a thick undergrowth. Here the lady descended and beckoned
Spring to alight.

"Wait down the lane," said she to the coachman. "We shall be some
little time. Now, Mr. Spring, will you kindly follow me? I have
written a letter which makes an appointment."

She passed swiftly through the plantation by a tortuous path, then
over a stile, and past another wood, loud with the deep chuckling of
pheasants. At the farther side was a fine rolling park, studded with
oak trees, and stretching away to a splendid Elizabethan mansion, with
balustraded terraces athwart its front. Across the park, and making
for the wood, a solitary figure was walking.

The lady gripped the prize-fighter by the wrist. "That is your man,"
said she.

They were standing under the shadow of the trees, so that he was very
visible to them, while they were out of his sight. Tom Spring looked
hard at the man, who was still some hundreds of yards away. He was a
tall, powerful fellow, clad in a blue coat with gilt buttons, which
gleamed in the sun. He had white corded breeches and riding-boots. He
walked with a vigorous step, and with every few strides he struck his
leg with a dog-whip which hung from his wrist. There was a great
suggestion of purpose and energy in the man's appearance and bearing.

"Why, he's a gentleman!" said Sprint. "Look 'ere, ma'am, this is all a
bit out of my line. I've nothing against the man, and he can mean me
no harm. What am I to do with him?"

"Fight him! Smash him! That is what you are here for."

Tom Spring turned on his heel with disgust. "I'm here to fight, ma'am,
but not to smash a man who has no thought of fighting. It's off."

"You don't like the look of him," hissed the woman. "You have met your
master."

"That is as may be. It is no job for me."

The woman's face was white with vexation and anger.

"You fool!" she cried. "Is all to go wrong at the last minute? There
are fifty pounds--here they are in this paper--would you refuse them?"

"It's a cowardly business. I won't do it."

"Cowardly? You are giving the man two stone, and he can beat any
amateur in England."

The young pugilist felt relieved. After all, if he could fairly earn
that fifty pounds, a good deal depended upon his winning it. If he
could only be sure that this was a worthy and willing antagonist!

"How do you know he is so good?" he asked.

"I ought to know. I am his wife."

As she spoke she turned, and was gone like a flash among the bushes.
The man was quite close now, and Tom Spring's scruples weakened as he
looked at him. He was a powerful, broad-chested fellow, about thirty,
with a heavy, brutal face, great thatched eyebrows, and a hard-set
mouth. He could not be less than fifteen stone in weight, and he
carried himself like a trained athlete. As he swung along he suddenly
caught a glimpse of Spring among the trees, and he at once quickened
his pace and sprang over the stile which separated them.

"Halloa!" said he, halting a few yards from him, and staring him up
and down. "Who the devil are you, and where the devil did you come
from, and what the devil are you doing on my property?"

His manner was even more offensive than his words. It brought a flush
of anger to Spring's cheeks.

"See here, mister," said he, "civil words is cheap. You've no call to
speak to me like that."

"You infernal rascal!" cried the other. "I'll show you the way of that
plantation with the toe of my boot. Do you dare to stand there on my
land and talk back at me?" He advanced with a menacing face and his
dog-whip half raised. "Well, are you going?" he cried, as he swung it
into the air.

Tom Spring jumped back to avoid the threatened blow.

"Go slow, mister," said he. "It's only fair that you should know where
you are. I'm Spring, the prize-fighter. Maybe you have heard my name."

"I thought you were a rascal of that breed," said the man. "I've had
the handling of one or two of you gentry before, and I never found one
that could stand up to me for five minutes. Maybe you would like to
try?"

"If you hit me with that dog-whip, mister----"

"There, then!" He gave the young man a vicious cut across the
shoulder. "Will that help you to fight?"

"I came here to fight," said Tom Spring, licking his dry lips. "You
can drop that whip, mister, for I /will/ fight. I'm a trained man and
ready. But you would have it. Don't blame me."

The man was stripping the blue coat from his broad shoulders. There
was a sprigged satin vest beneath it, and they were hung together on
an alder branch.

"Trained, are you?" he muttered. "By the Lord, I'll train you before I
am through!"

Any fears that Tom Spring may have had lest he should be taking some
unfair advantage were set at rest by the man's assured manner and by
the splendid physique, which became more apparent as he discarded a
black satin tie, with a great ruby glowing in its centre, and threw
aside the white collar which cramped his thick muscular neck. He then,
very deliberately, undid a pair of gold sleeve-links, and, rolling up
his shirt-sleeves, disclosed two hairy and muscular arms, which would
have served as a model for a sculptor.

"Come nearer the stile," said he, when he had finished. "There is more
room."

The prize-fighter had kept pace with the preparations of his
formidable antagonist. His own hat, coat, and vest hung suspended upon
a bush. He advanced now into the open space which the other had
indicated.

"Ruffianing or fighting?" asked the amateur, coolly.

"Fighting."

"Very good," said the other. "Put up your hands, Spring. Try it out."

They were standing facing one another in a grassy ring intersected by
the path at the outlet of the wood. The insolent and overbearing look
had passed away from the amateur's face, but a grim half-smile was on
his lips and his eyes shone fiercely from under his tufted brows. From
the way in which he stood it was very clear that he was a past-master
at the game. Tom Spring, as he paced lightly to right and left,
looking for an opening, became suddenly aware that neither with
Stringer nor with the redoubtable Painter himself had he ever faced a
more business-like opponent. The amateur's left was well forward, his
guard low, his body leaning back from the haunches, and his head well
out of danger. Spring tried a light lead at the mark, and another at
the face, but in an instant his adversary was on to him with a shower
of sledge-hammer blows which it took him all his time to avoid. He
sprang back, but there was no getting away from that whirlwind of
muscle and bone. A heavy blow beat down his guard, a second landed on
his shoulder, and over went the prize-fighter with the other on the
top of him. Both sprang to their feet, glared at each other, and fell
into position once more.

There could be no doubt that the amateur was not only heavier, but
also the harder and stronger man. Twice again he rushed Spring down,
once by the weight of his blows, and once by closing and hurling him
on to his back. Such falls might have shaken the fight out of a less
game man, but to Tom Spring they were but incidents in his daily
trade. Though bruised and winded he was always up again in an instant.
Blood was trickling from his mouth, but his steadfast blue eyes told
of the unshaken spirit within.

He was accustomed now to his opponent's rushing tactics, and he was
ready for them. The fourth round was the same as to attack, but it was
very different in defence. Up to now the young man had given way and
been fought down. This time he stood his ground. As his opponent
rushed in he met him with a tremendous straight hit from his left
hand, delivered with the full force of his body, and doubled in effect
by the momentum of the charge. So stunning was the concussion that the
pugilist himself recoiled from it across the grassy ring. The amateur
staggered back and leaned his shoulder on a tree-trunk, his hand up to
his face.

"You'd best drop it," said Spring. "You'll get pepper if you don't."

The other gave an inarticulate curse, and spat out a mouthful of
blood.

"Come on!" said he.

Even now the pugilist found that he had no light task before him.
Warned by his misadventure, the heavier man no longer tried to win the
battle at a rush, nor to beat down an accomplished boxer as he would a
country hawbuck at a village fair. He fought with his head and his
feet as well as with his hands. Spring had to admit in his heart that,
trained to the ring, this man must have been a match for the best. His
guard was strong, his counter was like lightning, he took punishment
like a man of iron, and when he could safely close he always brought
his lighter antagonist to the ground with a shattering fall. But the
one stunning blow which he had courted before he was taught respect
for his adversary weighed heavily on him all the time. His senses had
lost something of their quickness and his blows of their sting. He was
fighting, too, against a man who, of all the boxers who have made
their names great, was the safest, the coolest, the least likely to
give anything away, or lose an advantage gained. Slowly, gradually,
round by round, he was worn down by his cool, quick-stepping,
sharp-hitting antagonist. At last he stood exhausted, breathing
hoarsely, his face, what could be seen of it, purple with his
exertions. His opponent stood waiting for him, bruised and beaten, but
as cool, as ready, as dangerous as ever.

"You'd best drop it, I tell you," said he. "You're done."

But the other's manhood would not have it so. With a snarl of fury he
cast his science to the winds, and rushed madly to slogging with both
hands. For a moment Spring was overborne. Then he side-stepped
swiftly; there was the crash of his blow, and the amateur tossed up
his arms and fell all asprawl, his great limbs outstretched, his
disfigured face to the sky.

For a moment Tom Spring stood looking down at his unconscious
opponent. The next he felt a soft, warm hand upon his bare arm. The
woman was at his elbow.

"Now is your time!" she cried, her dark eyes aflame. "Go in! Smash
him!"

Spring shook her off with a cry of disgust, but she was back in an
instant.

"I'll make it seventy-five pounds----"

"The fight's over, ma'am. I can't touch him."

"A hundred pounds--a clear hundred! I have it here in my bodice. Would
you refuse a hundred?"

He turned on his heel. She darted past him, and tried to kick at the
face of the prostrate man. Spring dragged her roughly away, before she
could do him a mischief.

"Stand clear!" he cried, giving her a shake. "You should take shame to
hit a fallen man."

With a groan the injured man turned on his side. Then he slowly sat up
and passed his wet hand over his face. Finally, he staggered to his
feet.

"Well," he said, shrugging his broad shoulders, "it was a fair fight.
I've no complaint to make. I was Jackson's favourite pupil, but I give
you best." Suddenly his eyes lit upon the furious face of the woman.
"Halloa, Betty!" he cried. "So I have you to thank. I might have
guessed it when I had your letter."

"Yes, my lord," said she, with a mock curtsy. "You have me to thank.
Your little wife managed it all. I lay behind those bushes, and I saw
you beaten like a hound. You haven't had all that I had planned for
you, but I think it will be some little time before any woman loves
you for the sake of your appearance. Do you remember the words, my
lord? Do you remember the words?"

He stood stunned for a moment. Then he snatched his whip from the
ground, and looked at her from under his heavy brows.

"I believe you're the devil!" he cried.

"I wonder what the governess will think?" said she.

He flared into a furious rage and rushed at her with his whip. Tom
Spring threw himself before him with his arms out.

"It won't do, sir; I can't stand by."

The man glared at his wife over the prize-fighter's shoulder.

"So it's for dear George's sake!" he said, with a bitter laugh. "But
poor, broken-nosed George seems to have gone to the wall. Taken up
with a prize-fighter, eh? Found a fancy man for yourself!"

"You liar!" she gasped.

"Ha, my lady, that stings your pride, does it? Well, you shall stand
together in the dock for trespass and assault. What a picture--great
Lord, what a picture!"

"You wouldn't, John!"

"Wouldn't I, by----! You stay there three minutes and see if I
wouldn't." He seized his clothes from the bush, and staggered off as
swiftly as he could across the field, blowing a whistle as he ran.

"Quick! quick," cried the woman. "There's not an instant to lose." Her
face was livid, and she was shivering and panting with apprehension.
"He'll raise the country. It would be awful--awful!"

She ran swiftly down the tortuous path, Spring following after her and
dressing as he went. In a field to the right a gamekeeper, a gun in
his hand, was hurrying towards the whistling. Two labourers, loading
hay, had stopped their work and were looking about them, their
pitchforks in their hands. But the path was empty, and the phaeton
awaited them, the horse cropping the grass by the lane-side, the
driver half asleep on his perch. The woman sprang swiftly in and
motioned Spring to stand by the wheel.

"There is your fifty pounds," she said, handing him a paper. "You were
a fool not to turn it into a hundred when you had the chance. I've
done with you now."

"But where am I to go?" asked the prize-fighter, gazing around him at
the winding lanes.

"To the devil!" said she. "Drive on, Johnson!"

The phaeton whirled down the road and vanished round a curve. Tom
Spring was alone.

Everywhere over the countryside he heard shoutings and whistlings. It
was clear that so long as she escaped the indignity of sharing his
fate his employer was perfectly indifferent as to whether he got into
trouble or not. Tom Spring began to feel indifferent himself. He was
weary to death, his head was aching from the blows and falls which he
had received, and his feelings were raw from the treatment which he
had undergone. He walked slowly some few yards down the lane, but had
no idea which way to turn to reach Tunbridge Wells. In the distance he
heard the baying of dogs, and he guessed that they were being set upon
his track. In that case he could not hope to escape them, and might
just as well await them where he was. He picked out a heavy stake from
the hedge, and he sat down moodily waiting, in a very dangerous
temper, for what might befall him.

But it was a friend and not a foe who came first into sight. Round the
corner of the lane flew a small dog-cart, with a fast-trotting
chestnut cob between the shafts. In it was seated the rubicund
landlord of the Royal Oak, his whip going, his face continually flying
round to glance behind him.

"Jump in, Mr. Spring, jump in!" he cried, as he reined up. "They're
all coming, dogs and men! Come on! Now, hud up, Ginger!" Not another
word did he say until two miles of lanes had been left behind them at
racing speed and they were back in safety upon the Brighton road. Then
he let the reins hang loose on the pony's back, and he slapped Tom
Spring with his fat hand upon the shoulder.

"Splendid!" he cried, his great red face shining with ecstasy. "Oh,
Lord! but it was beautiful!"

"What!" cried Spring. "You saw the fight?"

"Every round of it! By George! to think that I should have lived to
have had such a fight all to myself! Oh, but it was grand," he cried,
in a frenzy of delight, "to see his lordship go down like a pithed ox
and her ladyship clapping her hands behind the bush! I guessed there
was something in the wind, and I followed you all the way. When you
stopped, I tethered little Ginger in a grove, and I crept after you
through the wood. It's as well I did, for the whole parish was up!"

But Tom Spring was sitting gazing at him in blank amazement.

"His lordship!" he gasped.

"No less, my boy. Lord Falconbridge, Chairman of the Bench, Deputy
Lieutenant of the County, Peer of the Realm--that's your man."

"Good Lord!"

"And you didn't know? It's as well, for maybe you wouldn't have
whacked it in as hard if you had; and, mind you, if you hadn't, he'd
have beat you. There's not a man in this county could stand up to him.
He takes the poachers and gipsies two and three at a time. He's the
terror of the place. But you did him--did him fair. Oh man, it was
fine!"

Tom Spring was too much dazed by what he heard to do more than sit and
wonder. It was not until he had got back to the comforts of the inn,
and after a bath had partaken of a solid meal, that he sent for Mr.
Cordery the landlord. To him he confided the whole train of events
which had led up to his remarkable experience, and he begged him to
throw such light as he could upon it. Cordery listened with keen
interest and many chuckles to the story. Finally he left the room and
returned with a frayed newspaper in his hand, which he smoothed out
upon his knee.

"It's the /Pantiles Gazette/, Mr. Spring, as gossiping a rag as ever
was printed. I expect there will be a fine column in it if it ever
gets its prying nose into this day's doings. However, we are mum and
her ladyship is mum, and, my word! his lordship is mum, though he did,
in his passion, raise the hue and cry on you. Here it is, Mr. Spring,
and I'll read it to you while you smoke your pipe. It's dated July of
last year, and it goes like this:--


"'Fracas in High Life.--It is an open secret that the differences
which have for some years been known to exist between Lord F----
and his beautiful wife have come to a head during the last few
days. His lordship's devotion to sport, and also, as it is
whispered, some attentions which he has shown to a humbler member
of his household, have, it is said, long alienated Lady F----'s
affection. Of late she has sought consolation and friendship with
a gentleman whom we will designate as Sir George W----n. Sir
George, who is a famous lady-killer, and as well-proportioned a
man as any in England, took kindly to the task of consoling the
disconsolate fair. The upshot, however, was vastly unfortunate,
both for the lady's feelings and for the gentleman's beauty. The
two friends were surprised in a rendezvous near the house by Lord
F---- himself at the head of a party of his servants. Lord F----
then and there, in spite of the shrieks of the lady, availed
himself of his strength and skill to administer such punishment to
the unfortunate Lothario as would, in his own parting words,
prevent any woman from loving him again for the sake of his
appearance. Lady F---- has left his lordship and betaken herself
to London, where, no doubt, she is now engaged in nursing the
damaged Apollo. It is confidently expected that a duel will result
from the affair, but no particulars have reached us up to the hour
of going to press.'"


The landlord laid down the paper. "You've been moving in high life,
Mr. Thomas Spring," said he.

The pugilist passed his hand over his battered face. "Well, Mr.
Cordery," said he, "low life is good enough for me."



THE FALL OF LORD BARRYMORE

There are few social historians of those days who have not told of the
long and fierce struggle between those two famous bucks, Sir Charles
Tregellis and Lord Barrymore, for the Lordship of the Kingdom of St.
James, a struggle which divided the whole of fashionable London into
two opposing camps. It has been chronicled also how the peer retired
suddenly and the commoner resumed his great career without a rival.
Only here, however, can one read the real and remarkable reason for
this sudden eclipse of a star.

It was one morning in the days of this famous struggle that Sir
Charles Tregellis was performing his very complicated toilet, and
Ambrose, his valet, was helping him to attain that pitch of perfection
which had long gained him the reputation of being the best dressed man
in town. Suddenly Sir Charles paused, his /coup d'archet/
half-executed, the final beauty of his neck-cloth half-achieved, while
he listened with surprise and indignation upon his large, comely,
fresh-complexioned face. Below, the decorous hum of Jermyn Street had
been broken by the sharp, staccato, metallic beating of a
door-knocker.

"I begin to think that this uproar must be at our door," said Sir
Charles, as one who thinks aloud. "For five minutes it has come and
gone; yet Perkins has his orders."

At a gesture from his master Ambrose stepped out upon the balcony and
craned his discreet head over it. From the street below came a voice,
drawling but clear.

"You would oblige me vastly, fellow, if you would do me the favour to
open this door," said the voice.

"Who is it? What is it?" asked the scandalized Sir Charles, with his
arrested elbow still pointing upwards.

Ambrose had returned with as much surprise upon his dark face as the
etiquette of his position would allow him to show.

"It is a young gentleman, Sir Charles."

"A young gentleman? There is no one in London who is not aware that I
do not show before midday. Do you know the person? Have you seen him
before?"

"I have not seen him, sir, but he is very like someone I could name."

"Like someone? Like whom?"

"With all respect, Sir Charles, I could for a moment have believed
that it was yourself when I looked down. A smaller man, sir, and a
youth; but the voice, the face, the bearing----"

"It must be that young cub Vereker, my brother's ne'er-do-weel,"
muttered Sir Charles, continuing his toilet. "I have heard that there
are points in which he resembles me. He wrote from Oxford that he
would come, and I answered that I would not see him. Yet he ventures
to insist. The fellow needs a lesson! Ambrose, ring for Perkins."

A large footman entered with an outraged expression upon his face.

"I cannot have this uproar at the door, Perkins!"

"If you please, the young gentleman won't go away, sir."

"Won't go away? It is your duty to see that he goes away. Have you not
your orders? Didn't you tell him that I am not seen before midday?"

"I said so, sir. He would have pushed his way in, for all I could say,
so I slammed the door in his face."

"Very right, Perkins."

"But now, sir, he is making such a din that all the folk are at the
windows. There is a crowd gathering in the street, sir."

From below came the crack-crack-crack of the knocker, ever rising in
insistence, with a chorus of laughter and encouraging comments from
the spectators. Sir Charles flushed with anger. There must be some
limit to such impertinence.

"My clouded amber cane is in the corner," said he. "Take it with you,
Perkins. I give you a free hand. A stripe or two may bring the young
rascal to reason."

The large Perkins smiled and departed. The door was heard to open
below and the knocker was at rest. A few moments later there followed
a prolonged howl and a noise as of a beaten carpet. Sir Charles
listened with a smile which gradually faded from his good-humoured
face.

"The fellow must not overdo it," he muttered. "I would not do the lad
an injury, whatever his deserts may be. Ambrose, run out on the
balcony and call him off. This has gone far enough."

But before the valet could move there came a swift patter of agile
feet upon the stairs, and a handsome youth, dressed in the height of
fashion, was standing framed in the open doorway. The pose, the face,
above all the curious, mischievous dancing light in the large blue
eyes, all spoke of the famous Tregellis blood. Even such was Sir
Charles when, twenty years before, he had by virtue of his spirit and
audacity, in one short season taken a place in London from which
Brummell himself had afterwards vainly struggled to depose him. The
youth faced the angry features of his uncle with an air of debonair
amusement, and he held towards him, upon his out-stretched palms, the
broken fragments of an amber cane.

"I much fear, sir," said he, "that in correcting your fellow I have
had the misfortune to injure what can only have been your property. I
am vastly concerned that it should have occurred."

Sir Charles stared with intolerant eyes at this impertinent
apparition. The other looked back in a laughable parody of his
senior's manner. As Ambrose had remarked after his inspection from the
balcony, the two were very much alike, save that the younger was
smaller, finer cut, and the more nervously alive of the two.

"You are my nephew, Vereker Tregellis?" asked Sir Charles.

"Yours to command, sir."

"I hear bad reports of you from Oxford."

"Yes, sir, I understand that the reports /are/ bad."

"Nothing could be worse."

"So I have been told."

"Why are you here, sir?"

"That I might see my famous uncle."

"So you made a tumult in his street, forced his door, and beat his
footman?"

"Yes, sir."

"You had my letter?"

"Yes, sir."

"You were told that I was not receiving?"

"Yes, sir."

"I can remember no such exhibition of impertinence."

The young man smiled and rubbed his hands in satisfaction.

"There is an impertinence which is redeemed by wit," said Sir Charles,
severely. "There is another which is the mere boorishness of the
clodhopper. As you grow older and wiser you may discern the
difference."

"You are very right, sir," said the young man, warmly. "The finer
shades of impertinence are infinitely subtle, and only experience and
the society of one who is a recognized master"--here he bowed to his
uncle--"can enable one to excel."

Sir Charles was notoriously touchy in temper for the first hour after
his morning chocolate. He allowed himself to show it.

"I cannot congratulate my brother upon his son," said he. "I had hoped
for something more worthy of our traditions."

"Perhaps, sir, upon a longer acquaintance----"

"The chance is too small to justify the very irksome experience. I
must ask you, sir, to bring to a close a visit which never should have
been made."

The young man smiled affably, but gave no sign of departure.

"May I ask, sir," said he, in an easy conversational fashion, "whether
you can recall Principal Munro, of my college?"

"No, sir, I cannot," his uncle answered, sharply.

"Naturally you would not burden your memory to such an extent, but he
still remembers you. In some conversation with him yesterday he did me
the honour to say that I brought you back to his recollection by what
he was pleased to call the mingled levity and obstinacy of my
character. The levity seems to have already impressed you. I am now
reduced to showing you the obstinacy." He sat down in a chair near the
door and folded his arms, still beaming pleasantly at his uncle.

"Oh, you won't go?" asked Sir Charles, grimly.

"No, sir; I will stay."

"Ambrose, step down and call a couple of chairmen."

"I should not advise it, sir. They will be hurt."

"I will put you out with my own hands."

"That, sir, you can always do. As my uncle, I could scarce resist you.
But, short of throwing me down the stair, I do not see how you can
avoid giving me half an hour of your attention."

Sir Charles smiled. He could not help it. There was so much that was
reminiscent of his own arrogant and eventful youth in the bearing of
this youngster. He was mollified, too, by the defiance of menials and
quick submission to himself. He turned to the glass and signed to
Ambrose to continue his duties.

"I must ask you to await the conclusion of my toilet," said he. "Then
we shall see how far you can justify such an intrusion."

When the valet had at last left the room Sir Charles turned his
attention once more to his scapegrace nephew, who had viewed the
details of the famous buck's toilet with the face of an acolyte
assisting at a mystery.

"Now, sir," said the older man, "speak, and speak to the point, for I
can assure you that I have many more important matters which claim my
attention. The Prince is waiting for me at the present instant at
Carlton House. Be as brief as you can. What is it that you want?"

"A thousand pounds."

"Really! Nothing more?" Sir Charles had turned acid again.

"Yes, sir; an introduction to Mr. Brinsley Sheridan, whom I know to be
your friend."

"And why to him?"

"Because I am told that he controls Drury Lane Theatre, and I have a
fancy to be an actor. My friends assure me that I have a pretty talent
that way."

"I can see you clearly, sir, in Charles Surface, or any other part
where a foppish insolence is the essential. The less you acted, the
better you would be. But it is absurd to suppose that I could help you
to such a career. I could not justify it to your father. Return to
Oxford at once, and continue your studies."

"Impossible!"

"And pray, sir, what is the impediment?"

"I think I may have mentioned to you that I had an interview yesterday
with the Principal. He ended it by remarking that the authorities of
the University could tolerate me no more."

"Sent down?"

"Yes, sir."

"And this is the fruit, no doubt, of a long series of rascalities."

"Something of the sort, sir, I admit."

In spite of himself, Sir Charles began once more to relax in his
severity towards this handsome young scape-grace. His absolute
frankness disarmed criticism. It was in a more gracious voice that the
older man continued the conversation.

"Why do you want this large sum of money?" he asked.

"To pay my college debts before I go, sir."

"Your father is not a rich man."

"No, sir. I could not apply to him for that reason."

"So you come to me, who am a stranger!"

"No, sir, no! You are my uncle, and, if I may say so, my ideal and my
model."

"You flatter me, my good Vereker. But if you think you can flatter me
out of a thousand pounds, you mistake your man. I will give you no
money."

"Of course, sir, if you can't----"

"I did not say I can't. I say I won't."

"If you can, sir, I think you will."

Sir Charles smiled, and flicked his sleeve with his lace handkerchief.

"I find you vastly entertaining," said he. "Pray continue your
conversation. Why do you think that I will give you so large a sum of
money?"

"The reason that I think so," continued the younger man, "is that I
can do you a service which will seem to you worth a thousand pounds."

Sir Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Is this blackmail?" he inquired.

Vereker Tregellis flushed.

"Sir," said he, with a pleasing sternness, "you surprise me. You
should know the blood of which I come too well to suppose that I would
attempt such a thing."

"I am relieved to hear that there are limits to what you consider to
be justifiable. I must confess that I had seen none in your conduct up
to now. But you say that you can do me a service which will be worth a
thousand pounds to me?"

"Yes, sir."

"And pray, sir, what may this service be?"

"To make Lord Barrymore the laughing-stock of the town."

Sir Charles, in spite of himself, lost for an instant the absolute
serenity of his self-control. He started, and his face expressed his
surprise. By what devilish instinct did this raw undergraduate find
the one chink in his armour? Deep in his heart, unacknowledged to
anyone, there was the will to pay many a thousand pounds to the man
who could bring ridicule upon this his most dangerous rival, who was
challenging his supremacy in fashionable London.

"Did you come from Oxford with this precious project?" he asked, after
a pause.

"No, sir. I chanced to see the man himself last night, and I conceived
an ill-will to him, and would do him a mischief."

"Where did you see him?"

"I spent the evening, sir, at the Vauxhall Gardens."

"No doubt you would," interpolated his uncle.

"My Lord Barrymore was there. He was attended by one who was dressed
as a clergyman, but who was, as I am told, none other than Hooper the
Tinman, who acts as his bully and thrashes all who may offend him.
Together they passed down the central path, insulting the women and
browbeating the men. They actually hustled me. I was offended, sir--so
much so that I nearly took the matter in hand then and there."

"It is as well that you did not. The prize-fighter would have beaten
you."

"Perhaps so, sir--and also, perhaps not."

"Ah, you add pugilism to your elegant accomplishments?"

The young man laughed pleasantly.

"William Ball is the only professor of my Alma Mater who has ever had
occasion to compliment me, sir. He is better known as the Oxford Pet.
I think, with all modesty, that I could hold him for a dozen rounds.
But last night I suffered the annoyance without protest, for since it
is said that the same scene is enacted every evening, there is always
time to act."

"And how would you act, may I ask?"

"That, sir, I should prefer to keep to myself; but my aim, as I say,
would be to make Lord Barrymore a laughing-stock to all London."

Sir Charles cogitated for a moment.

"Pray, sir," said he, "why did you imagine that any humiliation to
Lord Barrymore would be pleasing to me?"

"Even in the provinces we know something of what passes in polite
circles. Your antagonism to this man is to be found in every column of
fashionable gossip. The town is divided between you. It is impossible
that any public slight upon him should be unpleasing to you."

Sir Charles smiled.

"You are a shrewd reasoner," said he. "We will suppose for the instant
that you are right. Can you give me no hint what means you would adopt
to attain this very desirable end?"

"I would merely make the remark, sir, that many women have been
wronged by this fellow. That is a matter of common knowledge. If one
of these damsels were to upbraid him in public in such a fashion that
the sympathy of the bystanders should be with her, then I can imagine,
if she were sufficiently persistent, that his lordship's position
might become an unenviable one."

"And you know such a woman?"

"I think, sir, that I do."

"Well, my good Vereker, if any such attempt is in your mind, I see no
reason why I should stand between Lord Barrymore and the angry fair.
As to whether the result is worth a thousand pounds, I can make no
promise."

"You shall yourself be the judge, sir."

"I will be an exacting judge, nephew."

"Very good, sir; I should not desire otherwise. If things go as I
hope, his lordship will not show his face in St. James's Street for a
year to come. I will now, if I may, give you your instructions."

"My instructions! What do you mean? I have nothing to do with the
matter."

"You are the judge, sir, and therefore must be present."

"I can play no part."

"No, sir. I would not ask you to do more than be a witness."

"What, then, are my instructions, as you are pleased to call them?"

"You will come to the Gardens to-night, uncle, at nine o'clock
precisely. You will walk down the centre path, and you will seat
yourself upon one of the rustic seats which are beside the statue of
Aphrodite. You will wait and you will observe."

"Very good; I will do so. I begin to perceive, nephew, that the breed
of Tregellis has not yet lost some of the points which have made it
famous."



It was at the stroke of nine that night when Sir Charles, throwing his
reins to the groom, descended from his high yellow phaeton, which
forthwith turned to take its place in the long line of fashionable
carriages waiting for their owners. As he entered the gate of the
Gardens, the centre at that time of the dissipation and revelry of
London, he turned up the collar of his driving-cape and drew his hat
over his eyes, for he had no desire to be personally associated with
what might well prove to be a public scandal. In spite of his
attempted disguise, however, there was that in his walk and his
carriage which caused many an eye to be turned after him as he passed
and many a hand to be raised in salute. Sir Charles walked on, and
seating himself upon the rustic bench in front of the famous statue,
which was in the very middle of the Gardens, he waited in amused
suspense to see the next act in this comedy.

From the pavilion, whence the paths radiated, there came the strains
of the band of the Foot Guards, and by the many-coloured lamps
twinkling from every tree Sir Charles could see the confused whirl of
the dancers. Suddenly the music stopped. The quadrilles were at an
end.

An instant afterwards the central path by which he sat was thronged by
the revellers. In a many-coloured crowd, stocked and cravated with all
the bravery of buff and plum-colour and blue, the bucks of the town
passed and repassed with their high-waisted, straight-skirted,
be-bonneted ladies upon their arms.

It was not a decorous assembly. Many of the men, flushed and noisy,
had come straight from their potations. The women, too, were loud and
aggressive. Now and then, with a rush and a swirl, amid a chorus of
screams from the girls and good-humoured laughter from their escorts,
some band of high-blooded, noisy youths would break their way across
the moving throng. It was no place for the prim or demure, and there
was a spirit of good-nature and merriment among the crowd which
condoned the wildest liberty.

And yet there were some limits to what could be tolerated even by so
Bohemian an assembly. A murmur of anger followed in the wake of two
roisterers who were making their way down the path. It would, perhaps,
be fairer to say one roisterer; for of the two it was only the first
who carried himself with such insolence, although it was the second
who ensured that he could do it with impunity.

The leader was a very tall, hatchet-faced man, dressed in the very
height of fashion, whose evil, handsome features were flushed with
wine and arrogance. He shouldered his way roughly through the crowd,
peering with an abominable smile into the faces of the women, and
occasionally, where the weakness of the escort invited an insult,
stretching out his hand and caressing the cheek or neck of some
passing girl, laughing loudly as she winced away from his touch.

Close at his heels walked his hired attendant, whom, out of insolent
caprice and with a desire to show his contempt for the prejudices of
others, he had dressed as a rough country clergyman. This fellow
slouched along with frowning brows and surly, challenging eyes, like
some faithful, hideous human bulldog, his knotted hands protruding
from his rusty cassock, his great underhung jaw turning slowly from
right to left as he menaced the crowd with his sinister gaze. Already
a close observer might have marked upon his face a heaviness and
looseness of feature, the first signs of that physical decay which in
a very few years was to stretch him, a helpless wreck, too weak to
utter his own name, upon the causeway of the London streets. At
present, however, he was still an unbeaten man, the terror of the
Ring, and as his ill-omened face was seen behind his infamous master
many a half-raised cane was lowered and many a hot word was checked
while the whisper of "Hooper! 'Ware Bully Hooper!" warned all who were
aggrieved that it might be best to pocket their injuries lest some
even worse thing should befall them. Many a maimed and disfigured man
had carried away from Vauxhall the handiwork of the Tinman and his
patron.

Moving in insolent slowness through the crowd, the bully and his
master had just come opposite to the bench upon which sat Sir Charles
Tregellis. At this place the path opened up into a circular space,
brilliantly illuminated and surrounded by rustic seats. From one of
these an elderly, ringleted woman, deeply veiled, rose suddenly and
barred the path of the swaggering nobleman. Her voice sounded clear
and strident above the babel of tongues, which hushed suddenly that
their owners might hear it.

"Marry her, my lord! I entreat you to marry her! Oh, surely you will
marry my poor Amelia!" said the voice.

Lord Barrymore stood aghast. From all sides folk were closing in and
heads were peering over shoulders. He tried to push on, but the lady
barred his way and two palms pressed upon his beruffled front.

"Surely, surely you would not desert her! Take the advice of that
good, kind clergyman behind you!" wailed the voice. "Oh, be a man of
honour and marry her!"

The elderly lady thrust out her hand and drew forward a
lumpish-looking young woman, who sobbed and mopped her eyes with her
handkerchief.

"The plague take you!" roared his lordship, in a fury. "Who is the
wench? I vow that I never clapped eyes on either of you in my life!"

"It is my niece Amelia," cried the lady, "your own loving Amelia! Oh,
my lord, can you pretend that you have forgotten poor, trusting
Amelia, of Woodbine Cottage at Lichfield?"

"I never set foot in Lichfield in my life!" cried the peer. "You are
two imposters who should be whipped at the cart's tail."

"Oh, wicked! Oh, Amelia!" screamed the lady in a voice that resounded
through the Gardens. "Oh, my darling, try to soften his hard heart;
pray him that he make an honest woman of you at last."

With a lurch the stout young woman fell forward and embraced Lord
Barrymore with the hug of a bear. He would have raised his cane, but
his arms were pinned to his sides.

"Hooper! Hooper!" screamed the furious peer, craning his neck in
horror, for the girl seemed to be trying to kiss him.

But the bruiser, as he ran forward, found himself entangled with the
old lady.

"Out o' the way, marm," he cried. "Out o' the way, I say!" and pushed
her violently aside.

"Oh, you rude, rude man!" she shrieked, springing back in front of
him. "He hustled me, good people; you saw him hustle me! A clergyman,
but no gentleman! What! you would treat a lady so--you would do it
again? Oh, I could slap, slap, slap you!"

And with each repetition of the word, with extraordinary swiftness,
her open palm rang upon the prize-fighter's cheek.

The crowd buzzed with amazement and delight.

"Hooper! Hooper!" cried Lord Barrymore once more, for he was still
struggling in the ever-closer embrace of the unwieldy and amorous
Amelia.

The bully again pushed forward to the aid of his patron, but again the
elderly lady confronted him, her head back, her left arm extended, her
whole attitude, to his amazement, that of an expert boxer.

The prize-fighter's brutal nature was aroused. Woman or no woman, he
would show the murmuring crowd what it meant to cross the path of the
Tinman. She had struck him. She must take the consequence. No one
should square up to him with impunity. He swung his right with a
curse. The bonnet instantly ducked under his arm, and a line of
razor-like knuckles left an open cut under his eye.

Amid wild cries of delight and encouragement from the dense circle of
spectators, the lady danced round the sham clergyman, dodging his
ponderous blows, slipping under his arms, and smacking back at him
most successfully. Once she tripped and fell over her own skirt, but
was up at him again in an instant.

"You vulgar fellow!" she shrieked. "Would you strike a helpless woman!
Take that! Oh, you rude and ill-bred man!"

Bully Hooper was cowed for the first time in his life by the
extraordinary thing that he was fighting. The creature was as elusive
as a shadow, and yet the blood was dripping down his chin from the
effects of the blows. He shrank back with an amazed face from so
uncanny an antagonist. And in the moment that he did so his spell was
for ever broken. Only success could hold it. A check was fatal. In all
the crowd there was scarce one who was not nursing some grievance
against master or man, and waiting for that moment of weakness in
which to revenge it.

With a growl of rage the circle closed in. There was an eddy of
furious, struggling men, with Lord Barrymore's thin, flushed face and
Hooper's bulldog jaw in the centre of it. A moment after they were
both upon the ground, and a dozen sticks were rising and falling above
them.

"Let me up! You're killing me! For God's sake let me up!" cried a
crackling voice.

Hooper fought mute, like the bulldog he was, till his senses were
beaten out of him.

Bruised, kicked, and mauled, never did their worst victim come so
badly from the Gardens as the bully and his patron that night. But
worse than the ache of wounds for Lord Barrymore was the smart of the
mind as he thought how every club and drawing-room in London would
laugh for a week to come at the tale of his Amelia and her aunt.

Sir Charles had stood, rocking with laughter, upon the bench which
overlooked the scene. When at last he made his way back through the
crowds to his yellow phaeton, he was not entirely surprised to find
that the back seat was already occupied by two giggling females, who
were exchanging most unladylike repartees with the attendant grooms.

"You young rascals!" he remarked, over his shoulder, as he gathered up
his reins.

The two females tittered loudly.

"Uncle Charles!" cried the elder, "may I present Mr. Jack Jarvis, of
Brasenose College? I think, uncle, you should take us somewhere to
sup, for it has been a vastly fatiguing performance. To-morrow I will
do myself the honour to call, at your convenience, and will venture to
bring with me the receipt for one thousand pounds."



THE CRIME OF THE BRIGADIER

In all the great hosts of France there was only one officer towards
whom the English of Wellington's Army retained a deep, steady, and
unchangeable hatred. There were plunderers among the French, and men
of violence, gamblers, duellists, and /roués/. All these could be
forgiven, for others of their kidney were to be found among the ranks
of the English. But one officer of Massena's force had committed a
crime which was unspeakable, unheard of, abominable; only to be
alluded to with curses late in the evening, when a second bottle had
loosened the tongues of men. The news of it was carried back to
England, and country gentlemen who knew little of the details of the
war grew crimson with passion when they heard of it, and yeomen of the
shires raised freckled fists to Heaven and swore. And yet who should
be the doer of this dreadful deed but our friend the Brigadier,
Etienne Gerard, of the Hussars of Conflans, gay-riding, plume-tossing,
débonnaire, the darling of the ladies and of the six brigades of light
cavalry.

But the strange part of it is that this gallant gentleman did this
hateful thing, and made himself the most unpopular man in the
Peninsula, without ever knowing that he had done a crime for which
there is hardly a name amid all the resources of our language. He died
of old age, and never once in that imperturbable self-confidence which
adorned or disfigured his character knew that so many thousand
Englishmen would gladly have hanged him with their own hands. On the
contrary, he numbered this adventure among those other exploits which
he has given to the world, and many a time he chuckled and hugged
himself as he narrated it to the eager circle who gathered round him
in that humble café where, between his dinner and his dominoes, he
would tell, amid tears and laughter, of that inconceivable Napoleonic
past when France, like an angel of wrath, rose up, splendid and
terrible, before a cowering continent. Let us listen to him as he
tells the story in his own way and from his own point of view.



You must know, my friends, said he, that it was towards the end of the
year eighteen hundred and ten that I and Massena and others pushed
Wellington backwards until we had hoped to drive him and his army into
the Tagus. But when we were still twenty-five miles from Lisbon we
found that we were betrayed, for what had this Englishman done but
build an enormous line of works and forts at a place called Torres
Vedras, so that even we were unable to get through them! They lay
across the whole Peninsula, and our army was so far from home that we
did not dare to risk a reverse, and we had already learned at Busaco
that it was no child's play to fight against these people. What could
we do, then, but sit down in front of these lines and blockade them to
the best of our power? There we remained for six months, amid such
anxieties that Massena said afterwards that he had not one hair which
was not white upon his body. For my own part, I did not worry much
about our situation, but I looked after our horses, who were in great
need of rest and green fodder. For the rest, we drank the wine of the
country and passed the time as best we might. There was a lady at
Santarem--but my lips are sealed. It is the part of a gallant man to
say nothing, though he may indicate that he could say a great deal.

One day Massena sent for me, and I found him in his tent with a great
plan pinned upon the table. He looked at me in silence with that
single piercing eye of his, and I felt by his expression that the
matter was serious. He was nervous and ill at ease, but my bearing
seemed to reassure him. It is good to be in contact with brave men.

"Colonel Etienne Gerard," said he, "I have always heard that you are a
very gallant and enterprising officer."

It was not for me to confirm such a report, and yet it would be folly
to deny it, so I clinked my spurs together and saluted.

"You are also an excellent rider."

I admitted it.

"And the best swordsman in the six brigades of light cavalry."

Massena was famous for the accuracy of his information.

"Now," said he, "if you will look at this plan you will have no
difficulty in understanding what it is that I wish you to do. These
are the lines of Torres Vedras. You will perceive that they cover a
vast space, and you will realize that the English can only hold a
position here and there. Once through the lines you have twenty-five
miles of open country which lie between them and Lisbon. It is very
important to me to learn how Wellington's troops are distributed
throughout that space, and it is my wish that you should go and
ascertain."

His words turned me cold.

"Sir," said I, "it is impossible that a colonel of light cavalry
should condescend to act as a spy."

He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.

"You would not be a Hussar if you were not a hot-head," said he. "If
you will listen you will understand that I have not asked you to act
as a spy. What do you think of that horse?"

He had conducted me to the opening of his tent, and there was a
Chasseur who led up and down a most admirable creature. He was a
dapple grey, not very tall--a little over fifteen hands perhaps--but
with the short head and splendid arch of the neck which comes with the
Arab blood. His shoulders and haunches were so muscular, and yet his
legs so fine, that it thrilled me with joy just to gaze upon him. A
fine horse or a beautiful woman, I cannot look at them unmoved, even
now when seventy winters have chilled my blood. You can think how it
was in the year '10.

"This," said Massena, "is Voltigeur, the swiftest horse in our army.
What I desire is that you should start to-night, ride round the lines
upon the flank, make your way across the enemy's rear, and return upon
the other flank, bringing me news of his dispositions. You will wear a
uniform, and will, therefore, if captured, be safe from the death of a
spy. It is probable that you will get through the lines unchallenged,
for the posts are very scattered. Once through, in daylight you can
outride anything which you meet, and if you keep off the roads you may
escape entirely unnoticed. If you have not reported yourself by
to-morrow night, I will understand that you are taken, and I will
offer them Colonel Petrie in exchange."

Ah, how my heart swelled with pride and joy as I sprang into the
saddle and galloped this grand horse up and down to show the Marshal
the mastery which I had of him! He was magnificent--we were both
magnificent, for Massena clapped his hands and cried out in his
delight. It was not I, but he, who said that a gallant beast deserves
a gallant rider. Then, when for the third time, with my panache flying
and my dolman streaming behind me, I thundered past him, I saw upon
his hard old face that he had no longer any doubt that he had chosen
the man for his purpose. I drew my sabre, raised the hilt to my lips
in salute, and galloped on to my own quarters. Already the news had
spread that I had been chosen for a mission, and my little rascals
came swarming out of their tents to cheer me. Ah! it brings the tears
to my old eyes when I think how proud they were of their Colonel. And
I was proud of them also. They deserved a dashing leader.

The night promised to be a stormy one, which was very much to my
liking. It was my desire to keep my departure most secret, for it was
evident that if the English heard that I had been detached from the
army they would naturally conclude that something important was about
to happen. My horse was taken, therefore, beyond the picket line, as
if for watering, and I followed and mounted him there. I had a map, a
compass, and a paper of instructions from the Marshal, and with these
in the bosom of my tunic and my sabre at my side, I set out upon my
adventure.

A thin rain was falling and there was no moon, so you may imagine that
it was not very cheerful. But my heart was light at the thought of the
honour which had been done me and the glory which awaited me. This
exploit should be one more in that brilliant series which was to
change my sabre into a bâton. Ah, how we dreamed, we foolish fellows,
young, and drunk with success! Could I have foreseen that night as I
rode, the chosen man of sixty thousand, that I should spend my life
planting cabbages on a hundred francs a month! Oh, my youth, my hopes,
my comrades! But the wheel turns and never stops. Forgive me, my
friends, for an old man has his weakness.

My route, then, lay across the face of the high ground of Torres
Vedras, then over a streamlet, past a farmhouse which had been burned
down and was now only a landmark, then through a forest of young cork
oaks, and so to the monastery of San Antonio, which marked the left of
the English position. Here I turned south and rode quietly over the
downs, for it was at this point that Massena thought that it would be
most easy for me to find my way unobserved through the position. I
went very slowly, for it was so dark that I could not see my hand in
front of me. In such cases I leave my bridle loose and let my horse
pick its own way. Voltigeur went confidently forward, and I was very
content to sit upon his back and to peer about me, avoiding every
light. For three hours we advanced in this cautious way, until it
seemed to me that I must have left all danger behind me. I then pushed
on more briskly, for I wished to be in the rear of the whole army by
daybreak. There are many vineyards in these parts which in winter
become open plains, and a horseman finds few difficulties in his way.

But Massena had underrated the cunning of these English, for it
appears that there was not one line of defence, but it was three, and
it was the third, which was the most formidable, through which I was
at that instant passing. As I rode, elated at my own success, a
lantern flashed suddenly before me, and I saw the glint of polished
gun-barrels and the gleam of a red coat.

"Who goes there?" cried a voice--such a voice! I swerved to the right
and rode like a madman, but a dozen squirts of fire came out of the
darkness, and the bullets whizzed all round my ears. That was no new
sound to me, my friends, though I will not talk like a foolish
conscript and say that I have ever liked it. But at least it had never
kept me from thinking clearly, and so I knew that there was nothing
for it but to gallop hard, and try my luck elsewhere. I rode round the
English picket, and then, as I heard nothing more of them, I concluded
rightly that I had at last come through their defences. For five miles
I rode south, striking a tinder from time to time to look at my pocket
compass. And then in an instant--I feel the pang once more as my
memory brings back the moment--my horse, without a sob or stagger,
fell stone dead beneath me!

I had not known it, but one of the bullets from that infernal picket
had passed through his body. The gallant creature had never winced or
weakened, but had gone while life was in him. One instant I was secure
on the swiftest, most graceful horse in Massena's army. The next he
lay upon his side, worth only the price of his hide, and I stood there
that most helpless, most ungainly of creatures, a dismounted Hussar.
What could I do with my boots, my spurs, my trailing sabre? I was far
inside the enemy's lines. How could I hope to get back again? I am not
ashamed to say that I, Etienne Gerard, sat upon my dead horse and sank
my face in my hands in my despair. Already the first streaks were
whitening the east. In half an hour it would be light. That I should
have won my way past every obstacle and then at this last instant be
left at the mercy of my enemies, my mission ruined, and myself a
prisoner--was it not enough to break a soldier's heart?

But courage, my friends! We have these moments of weakness, the
bravest of us; but I have a spirit like a slip of steel, for the more
you bend it the higher it springs. One spasm of despair, and then a
brain of ice and a heart of fire. All was not yet lost. I who had come
through so many hazards would come through this one also. I rose from
my horse and considered what had best be done.

And first of all it was certain that I could not get back. Long before
I could pass the lines it would be broad daylight. I must hide myself
for the day, and then devote the next night to my escape. I took the
saddle, holsters, and bridle from poor Voltigeur, and I concealed them
among some bushes, so that no one finding him could know that he was a
French horse. Then, leaving him lying there, I wandered on in search
of some place where I might be safe for the day. In every direction I
could see camp-fires upon the sides of the hills, and already figures
had begun to move around them. I must hide quickly, or I was lost.

But where was I to hide? It was a vineyard in which I found myself,
the poles of the vines still standing, but the plants gone. There was
no cover there. Besides, I should want some food and water before
another night had come. I hurried wildly onwards through the waning
darkness, trusting that chance would be my friend. And I was not
disappointed. Chance is a woman, my friends, and she has her eye
always upon a gallant Hussar.

Well, then, as I stumbled through the vineyard, something loomed in
front of me, and I came upon a great square house with another long,
low building upon one side of it. Three roads met there, and it was
easy to see that this was the posada, or wine-shop. There was no light
in the windows, and everything was dark and silent, but, of course, I
knew that such comfortable quarters were certainly occupied, and
probably by someone of importance. I have learned, however, that the
nearer the danger may really be the safer the place, and so I was by
no means inclined to trust myself away from this shelter. The low
building was evidently the stable, and into this I crept, for the door
was unlatched. The place was full of bullocks and sheep, gathered
there, no doubt, to be out of the clutches of marauders. A ladder led
to a loft, and up this I climbed, and concealed myself very snugly
among some bales of hay upon the top. This loft had a small open
window, and I was able to look down upon the front of the inn and also
up the road. There I crouched and waited to see what would happen.

It was soon evident that I had not been mistaken when I had thought
that this might be the quarters of some person of importance. Shortly
after daybreak an English light dragoon arrived with a despatch, and
from then onwards the place was in a turmoil, officers continually
riding up and away. Always the same name was upon their lips: "Sir
Stapleton--Sir Stapleton." It was hard for me to lie there with a dry
moustache and watch the great flagons which were brought out by the
landlord to these English officers. But it amused me to look at their
fresh-coloured, clean-shaven, careless faces, and to wonder what they
would think if they knew that so celebrated a person was lying so near
to them. And then, as I lay and watched, I saw a sight which filled me
with surprise.

It is incredible the insolence of these English! What do you suppose
Milord Wellington had done when he found that Massena had blockaded
him and that he could not move his army? I might give you many
guesses. You might say that he had raged, that he had despaired, that
he had brought his troops together and spoken to them about glory and
the fatherland before leading them to one last battle. No, Milord did
none of these things. But he sent a fleet ship to England to bring him
a number of fox-dogs, and he with his officers settled himself down to
chase the fox. It is true what I tell you. Behind the lines of Torres
Vedras these mad Englishmen made the fox-chase three days in the week.
We had heard of it in the camp, and now I was myself to see that it
was true.

For, along the road which I have described, there came these very
dogs, thirty or forty of them, white and brown, each with its tail at
the same angle, like the bayonets of the Old Guard. My faith, but it
was a pretty sight! And behind and amidst them there rode three men
with peaked caps and red coats, whom I understood to be the hunters.
After them came many horsemen with uniforms of various kinds,
stringing along the roads in twos and threes, talking together and
laughing. They did not seem to be going above a trot, and it appeared
to me that it must indeed be a slow fox which they hoped to catch.
However, it was their affair, not mine, and soon they had all passed
my window and were out of sight. I waited and I watched, ready for any
chance which might offer.

Presently an officer, in a blue uniform not unlike that of our flying
artillery, came cantering down the road--an elderly, stout man he was,
with grey side-whiskers. He stopped and began to talk with an orderly
officer of dragoons, who waited outside the inn, and it was then that
I learned the advantage of the English which had been taught me. I
could hear and understand all that was said.

"Where is the meet?" said the officer, and I thought that he was
hungering for his bifstek. But the other answered him that it was near
Altara, so I saw that it was a place of which he spoke.

"You are late, Sir George," said the orderly.

"Yes, I had a court-martial. Has Sir Stapleton Cotton gone?"

At this moment a window opened, and a handsome young man in a very
splendid uniform looked out of it.

"Holloa, Murray!" said he. "These cursed papers keep me, but I will be
at your heels."

"Very good, Cotton. I am late already, so I will ride on."

"You might order my groom to bring round my horse," said the young
general at the window to the orderly below, while the other went on
down the road.

The orderly rode away to some outlying stable, and then in a few
minutes there came a smart English groom with a cockade in his hat,
leading by the bridle a horse--and, oh, my friends, you have never
known the perfection to which a horse can attain until you have seen a
first-class English hunter. He was superb: tall, broad, strong, and
yet as graceful and agile as a deer. Coal black he was in colour, and
his neck, and his shoulder, and his quarters, and his fetlocks--how
can I describe him all to you? The sun shone upon him as on polished
ebony, and he raised his hoofs in a little, playful dance so lightly
and prettily, while he tossed his mane and whinnied with impatience.
Never have I seen such a mixture of strength and beauty and grace. I
had often wondered how the English Hussars had managed to ride over
the Chasseurs of the Guards in the affair at Astorga, but I wondered
no longer when I saw the English horses.

There was a ring for fastening bridles at the door of the inn, and the
groom tied the horse there while he entered the house. In an instant I
had seen the chance which Fate had brought to me. Were I in that
saddle I should be better off than when I started. Even Voltigeur
could not compare with this magnificent creature. To think is to act
with me. In one instant I was down the ladder and at the door of the
stable. The next I was out and the bridle was in my hand. I bounded
into the saddle. Somebody, the master or the man, shouted wildly
behind me. What cared I for his shouts! I touched the horse with my
spurs, and he bounded forward with such a spring that only a rider
like myself could have sat him. I gave him his head and let him go--it
did not matter to me where, so long as we left this inn far behind us.
He thundered away across the vineyards, and in a very few minutes I
had placed miles between myself and my pursuers. They could no longer
tell, in that wild country, in which direction I had gone. I knew that
I was safe, and so, riding to the top of a small hill, I drew my
pencil and note-book from my pocket and proceeded to make plans of
those camps which I could see, and to draw the outline of the country.

He was a dear creature upon whom I sat, but it was not easy to draw
upon his back, for every now and then his two ears would cock, and he
would start and quiver with impatience. At first I could not
understand this trick of his, but soon I observed that he only did it
when a peculiar noise--"yoy, yoy, yoy"--came from somewhere among the
oak woods beneath us. And then suddenly this strange cry changed into
a most terrible screaming, with the frantic blowing of a horn.
Instantly he went mad--this horse. His eyes blazed. His mane bristled.
He bounded from the earth and bounded again, twisting and turning in a
frenzy. My pencil flew one way and my note-book another. And then, as
I looked down into the valley, an extraordinary sight met my eyes. The
hunt was streaming down it. The fox I could not see, but the dogs were
in full cry, their noses down, their tails up, so close together that
they might have been one great yellow and white moving carpet. And
behind them rode the horsemen--my faith, what a sight! Consider every
type which a great army could show: some in hunting dress, but the
most in uniforms; blue dragoons, red dragoons, red-trousered hussars,
green riflemen, artillery men, gold-slashed lancers, and most of all
red, red, red, for the infantry officers ride as hard as the cavalry.
Such a crowd, some well mounted, some ill, but all flying along as
best they might, the subaltern as good as the general, jostling and
pushing, spurring and driving, with every thought thrown to the winds
save that they should have the blood of this absurd fox! Truly, they
are an extraordinary people, the English!

But I had little time to watch the hunt or to marvel at these
islanders, for of all the mad creatures the very horse upon which I
sat was the maddest. You understand that he himself was a hunter, and
that the crying of these dogs was to him what the call of a cavalry
trumpet in the street yonder would be to me. It thrilled him. It drove
him wild. Again and again he bounded into the air, and then, seizing
the bit between his teeth, he plunged down the slope and galloped
after the dogs. I swore and tugged, and pulled, but I was powerless.
The English General rode his horse with a snaffle only, and the beast
had a mouth of iron. It was useless to pull him back. One might as
well try to keep a Grenadier from a wine bottle. I gave it up in
despair, and, settling down in the saddle, I prepared for the worst
which could befall.

What a creature he was! Never have I felt such a horse between my
knees. His great haunches gathered under him with every stride, and he
shot forward ever faster and faster, stretched like a greyhound, while
the wind beat in my face and whistled past my ears. I was wearing our
undress jacket, a uniform simple and dark in itself--though some
figures give distinction to any uniform--and I had taken the
precaution to remove the long panache from my busby. The result was
that, amidst the mixture of costumes in the hunt, there was no reason
why mine should attract attention, or why these men, whose thoughts
were all with the chase, should give any heed to me. The idea that a
French officer might be riding with them was too absurd to enter their
minds. I laughed as I rode, for, indeed, amid all the danger, there
was something of comic in the situation.

I have said that the hunters were very unequally mounted, and so, at
the end of a few miles, instead of being one body of men, like a
charging regiment, they were scattered over a considerable space, the
better riders well up to the dogs and the others trailing away behind.
Now, I was as good a rider as any, and my horse was the best of them
all, and so you can imagine that it was not long before he carried me
to the front. And when I saw the dogs streaming over the open, and the
red-coated huntsman behind them, and only seven or eight horsemen
between us, then it was that the strangest thing of all happened, for
I, too, went mad--I, Etienne Gerard! In a moment it came upon me, this
spirit of sport, this desire to excel, this hatred of the fox.
Accursed animal, should he then defy us? Vile robber, his hour was
come! Ah, it is a great feeling, this feeling of sport, my friends,
this desire to trample the fox under the hoofs of your horse. I have
made the fox-chase with the English. I have also, as I may tell you
some day, fought the box-fight with the Bustler, of Bristol. And I say
to you that this sport is a wonderful thing--full of interest as well
as madness.

The farther we went the faster galloped my horse, and soon there were
but three men as near the dogs as I was. All thought of fear of
discovery had vanished. My brain throbbed, my blood ran hot--only one
thing upon earth seemed worth living for, and that was to overtake
this infernal fox. I passed one of the horsemen--a Hussar like myself.
There were only two in front of me now: the one in a black coat, the
other the blue artilleryman whom I had seen at the inn. His grey
whiskers streamed in the wind, but he rode magnificently. For a mile
or more we kept in this order, and then, as we galloped up a steep
slope, my lighter weight brought me to the front. I passed them both,
and when I reached the crown I was riding level with the little,
hard-faced English huntsman. In front of us were the dogs, and then, a
hundred paces beyond them, was a brown wisp of a thing, the fox
itself, stretched to the uttermost. The sight of him fired my blood.
"Aha, we have you, then, assassin!" I cried, and shouted my
encouragement to the huntsman. I waved my hand to show him that there
was one upon whom he could rely.

And now there were only dogs between me and my prey. These dogs, whose
duty it is to point out the game, were now rather a hindrance than a
help to us, for it was hard to know how to pass them. The huntsman
felt the difficulty as much as I, for he rode behind them, and could
make no progress towards the fox. He was a swift rider, but wanting in
enterprise. For my part, I felt that it would be unworthy of the
Hussars of Conflans if I could not overcome such a difficulty as this.
Was Etienne Gerard to be stopped by a herd of fox-dogs? It was absurd.
I gave a shout and spurred my horse.

"Hold hard, sir! Hold hard!" cried the huntsman.

He was uneasy for me, this good old man, but I reassured him by a wave
and a smile. The dogs opened in front of me. One or two may have been
hurt, but what would you have? The egg must be broken for the
omelette. I could hear the huntsman shouting his congratulations
behind me. One more effort, and the dogs were all behind me. Only the
fox was in front.

Ah, the joy and pride of that moment. To know that I had beaten the
English at their own sport. Here were three hundred all thirsting for
the life of this animal, and yet it was I who was about to take it. I
thought of my comrades of the light cavalry brigade, of my mother, of
the Emperor, of France. I had brought honour to all. Every instant
brought me nearer to the fox. The moment for action had arrived, so I
unsheathed my sabre. I waved it in the air, and the brave English all
shouted behind me.

Only then did I understand how difficult is this fox-chase, for one
may cut again and again at the creature and never strike him once. He
is small, and turns quickly from a blow. At every cut I heard those
shouts of encouragement from behind me, and they spurred me to yet
another effort. And then, at last the supreme moment of my triumph
arrived. In the very act of turning I caught him fair with such
another back-handed cut as that with which I killed the aide-de-camp
of the Emperor of Russia. He flew into two pieces, his head one way
and his tail another. I looked back and waved the blood-stained sabre
in the air. For the moment I was exalted--superb!

Ah! how I should have loved to have waited to have received the
congratulations of these generous enemies. There were fifty of them in
sight, and not one who was not waving his hand and shouting. They are
not really such a phlegmatic race, the English. A gallant deed in war
or in sport will always warm their hearts. As to the old huntsman, he
was the nearest to me, and I could see with my own eyes how overcome
he was by what he had seen. He was like a man paralysed--his mouth
open, his hand, with outspread fingers, raised in the air. For a
moment my inclination was to return and to embrace him. But already
the call of duty was sounding in my ears, and these English, in spite
of all the fraternity which exists among sportsmen, would certainly
have made me prisoner. There was no hope for my mission now, and I had
done all that I could do. I could see the lines of Massena's camp no
very great distance off, for, by a lucky chance, the chase had taken
us in that direction. I turned from the dead fox, saluted with my
sabre, and galloped away.

But they would not leave me so easily, these gallant huntsmen. I was
the fox now, and the chase swept bravely over the plain. It was only
at the moment when I started for the camp that they could have known
that I was a Frenchman, and now the whole swarm of them were at my
heels. We were within gunshot of our pickets before they would halt,
and then they stood in knots and would not go away, but shouted and
waved their hands at me. No, I will not think that it was in enmity.
Rather would I fancy that a glow of admiration filled their breasts,
and that their one desire was to embrace the stranger who had carried
himself so gallantly and well.



THE KING OF THE FOXES

It was after a hunting dinner, and there were as many scarlet coats as
black ones round the table. The conversation over the cigars had
turned, therefore, in the direction of horses and horsemen, with
reminiscences of phenomenal runs where foxes had led the pack from end
to end of a county, and been overtaken at last by two or three limping
hounds and a huntsman on foot, while every rider in the field had been
pounded. As the port circulated the runs became longer and more
apocryphal, until we had the whips inquiring their way and failing to
understand the dialect of the people who answered them. The foxes,
too, became more eccentric, and we had foxes up pollard willows, foxes
which were dragged by the tail out of horses' mangers, and foxes which
had raced through an open front door and gone to ground in a lady's
bonnet-box. The master had told one or two tall reminiscences, and
when he cleared his throat for another we were all curious, for he was
a bit of an artist in his way and produced his effects in a
/crescendo/ fashion. His face wore the earnest, practical, severely
accurate expression which heralded some of his finest efforts.

"It was before I was master," said he. "Sir Charles Adair had the
hounds at that time, and then afterwards they passed to old Lathom,
and then to me. It may possibly have been just after Lathom took them
over, but my strong impression is that it was in Adair's time. That
would be in the early seventies--about seventy-two, I should say.

"The man I mean has moved to another part of the country, but I dare
say that some of you can remember him. Danbury was the name--Walter
Danbury, or Wat Danbury, as the people used to call him. He was the
son of old Joe Danbury, of High Ascombe, and when his father died he
came into a very good thing, for his only brother was drowned when the
/Magna Charta/ foundered, so he inherited the whole estate. It was but
a few hundred acres, but it was good arable land, and those were the
great days of farming. Besides, it was freehold, and a yeoman farmer
without a mortgage was a warmish man before the great fall in wheat
came. Foreign wheat and barbed wire--those are the two curses of this
country, for the one spoils the farmer's work and the other spoils his
play.

"This young Wat Danbury was a very fine fellow, a keen rider, and
thorough sportsman, but his head was a little turned at having come,
when so young, into a comfortable fortune, and he went the pace for a
year or two. The lad had no vice in him, but there was a hard-drinking
set in the neighbourhood at that time, and Danbury got drawn in among
them; and, being an amiable fellow who liked to do what his friends
were doing, he very soon took to drinking a great deal more than was
good for him. As a rule, a man who takes his exercise may drink as
much as he likes in the evening, and do himself no very great harm, if
he will leave it alone during the day. Danbury had too many friends
for that, however, and it really looked as if the poor chap was going
to the bad, when a very curious thing happened which pulled him up
with such a sudden jerk that he never put his hand upon the neck of a
whisky bottle again.

"He had a peculiarity which I have noticed in a good many other men,
that though he was always playing tricks with his own health, he was
none the less very anxious about it, and was extremely fidgety if ever
he had any trivial symptom. Being a tough, open-air fellow, who was
always as hard as a nail, it was seldom that there was anything amiss
with him; but at last the drink began to tell, and he woke one morning
with his hands shaking and all his nerves tingling like overstretched
fiddle-strings. He had been dining at some very wet house the night
before, and the wine had, perhaps, been more plentiful than choice; at
any rate, there he was, with a tongue like a bath-towel and a head
that ticked like an eight-day clock. He was very alarmed at his own
condition, and he sent for Doctor Middleton, of Ascombe, the father of
the man who practises there now.

"Middleton had been a great friend of old Danbury's, and he was very
sorry to see his son going to the devil; so he improved the occasion
by taking his case very seriously, and lecturing him upon the danger
of his ways. He shook his head and talked about the possibility of
/delirium tremens/, or even of mania, if he continued to lead such a
life. Wat Danbury was horribly frightened.

"'Do you think I am going to get anything of the sort?' he wailed.

"'Well, really, I don't know,' said the doctor, gravely. 'I cannot
undertake to say that you are out of danger. Your system is very much
out of order. At any time during the day you might have those grave
symptoms of which I warn you.'

"'You think I shall be safe by evening?'

"'If you drink nothing during the day, and have no nervous symptoms
before evening, I think you may consider yourself safe,' the doctor
answered. A little fright would, he thought, do his patient good, so
he made the most of the matter.

"'What symptoms may I expect?' asked Danbury.

"'It generally takes the form of optical delusions.'

"'I see specks floating all about.'

"'That is mere biliousness,' said the doctor soothingly, for he saw
that the lad was highly strung and he did not wish to overdo it. 'I
dare say that you will have no symptoms of the kind, but when they do
come they usually take the shape of insects, or reptiles, or curious
animals.'

"'And if I see anything of the kind?'

"'If you do, you will at once send for me;' and so, with a promise of
medicine, the doctor departed.

"Young Wat Danbury rose and dressed and moped about the room feeling
very miserable and unstrung, with a vision of the County Asylum for
ever in his mind. He had the doctor's word for it that if he could get
through to evening in safety he would be all right; but it is not very
exhilarating to be waiting for symptoms, and to keep on glancing at
your bootjack to see whether it is still a bootjack or whether it has
begun to develop antennae and legs. At last he could stand it no
longer, and an overpowering longing for the fresh air and the green
grass came over him. Why should he stay indoors when the Ascombe Hunt
was meeting within half a mile of him? If he was going to have these
delusions which the doctor talked of, he would not have them the
sooner nor the worse because he was on horseback in the open. He was
sure, too, it would ease his aching head. And so it came about that in
ten minutes he was in his hunting-kit, and in ten more he was riding
out of his stable-yard with his roan mare Matilda between his knees.
He was a little unsteady in his saddle just at first, but the farther
he went the better he felt, until by the time he reached the meet his
head was almost clear, and there was nothing troubling him except
those haunting words of the doctor's about the possibility of
delusions any time before nightfall.

"But soon he forgot that also, for as he came up the hounds were
thrown off, and they drew the Gravel Hanger and afterwards the Hickory
Copse. It was just the morning for a scent--no wind to blow it away,
no water to wash it out, and just damp enough to make it cling. There
was a field of forty, all keen men and good riders, so when they came
to the Black Hanger they knew that there would be some sport, for
that's a cover which never draws blank. The woods were thicker in
those days than now, and the foxes were thicker also, and that great
dark oak-grove was swarming with them. The only difficulty was to make
them break, for it is, as you know, a very close country, and you must
coax them out into the open before you can hope for a run.

"When they came to the Black Hanger the field took their positions
along the cover-side wherever they thought that they were most likely
to get a good start. Some went in with the hounds, some clustered at
the ends of the drives, and some kept outside in the hope of the fox
breaking in that direction. Young Wat Danbury knew the country like
the palm of his hand, so he made for a place where several drives
intersected, and there he waited. He had a feeling that the faster and
the farther he galloped the better he should be, and so he was chafing
to be off. His mare, too, was in the height of fettle and one of the
fastest goers in the county. Wat was a splendid light-weight
rider--under ten stone with his saddle--and the mare was a powerful
creature, all quarters and shoulders, fit to carry a lifeguardsman;
and so it was no wonder that there was hardly a man in the field who
could hope to stay with him. There he waited and listened to the
shouting of the huntsman and the whips, catching a glimpse now and
then in the darkness of the wood of a whisking tail, or the gleam of a
white-and-tan side amongst the underwood. It was a well-trained pack,
and there was not so much as a whine to tell you that forty hounds
were working all round you.

"And then suddenly there came one long-drawn yell from one of them,
and it was taken up by another, and another, until within a few
seconds the whole pack was giving tongue together and running on a hot
scent. Danbury saw them stream across one of the drives and disappear
upon the other side, and an instant later the three red coats of the
hunt-servants flashed after them upon the same line. He might have
made a shorter cut down one of the other drives, but he was afraid of
heading the fox, so he followed the lead of the huntsman. Right
through the wood they went in a bee-line, galloping with their faces
brushed by their horses' manes as they stooped under the branches.
It's ugly going, as you know, with the roots all wriggling about in
the darkness, but you can take a risk when you catch an occasional
glimpse of the pack running with a breast-high scent; so in and out
they dodged, until the wood began to thin at the edges, and they found
themselves in the long bottom where the river runs. It is clear going
there upon grassland, and the hounds were running very strong about
two hundred yards ahead, keeping parallel with the stream. The field,
who had come round the wood instead of going through, were coming hard
over the fields upon the left; but Danbury, with the hunt-servants,
had a clear lead, and they never lost it. Two of the field got on
terms with them: Parson Geddes on a big seventeen-hand bay which he
used to ride in those days, and Squire Foley, who rode as a
featherweight, and made his hunters out of cast thoroughbreds from the
Newmarket sales; but the others never had a look-in from start to
finish, for there was no check and no pulling, and it was clear
cross-country racing from start to finish. If you had drawn a line
right across the map with a pencil you couldn't go straighter than
that fox ran, heading for the South Downs and the sea; and the hounds
ran as surely as if they were running to view, and yet from the
beginning no one ever saw the fox, and there was never a hallo forrard
to tell them that he had been spied. This, however, is not so
surprising, for if you've been over that line of country you will know
that there are not very many people about.

"There were six of them then in the front row: Parson Geddes, Squire
Foley, the huntsman, two whips, and Wat Danbury, who had forgotten all
about his head and the doctor by this time, and had not a thought for
anything but the run. All six were galloping just as hard as they
could lay hoofs to the ground. One of the whips dropped back, however,
as some of the hounds were tailing off, and that brought them down to
five. Then Foley's thoroughbred strained herself, as these
slim-legged, dainty-fetlocked thoroughbreds will do when the going is
rough, and he had to take a back seat. But the other four were still
going strong, and they did four or five miles down the river at a
rasping pace. It had been a wet winter, and the waters had been out a
little time before, so there was a deal of sliding and splashing; but
by the time they came to the bridge the whole field was out of sight,
and these four had the hunt to themselves.

"The fox had crossed the bridge--for foxes do not care to swim a
chilly river any more than humans do--and from that point he had
streaked away southward as hard as he could tear. It is broken
country, rolling heaths, down one slope and up another, and it's hard
to say whether the up or down is the more trying for the horses. This
sort of switchback work is all right for a cobby, short-backed,
short-legged little horse, but it is killing work for a big,
long-striding hunter such as one wants in the Midlands. Anyhow, it was
too much for Parson Geddes' seventeen-hand bay, and, though he tried
the Irish trick--for he was a rare keen sportsman--of running up the
hills by his horse's head, it was all of no use, and he had to give it
up. So then there was only the huntsman, the whip, and Wat
Danbury--all going strong.

"But the country got worse and worse, and the hills were steeper and
more thickly covered in heather and bracken. The horses were over
their hocks all the time, and the place was pitted with rabbit-holes;
but the hounds were still streaming along, and the riders could not
afford to pick their steps. As they raced down one slope, the hounds
were always flowing up the opposite one, until it looked like that
game where the one figure in falling makes the other rise. But never a
glimpse did they get of the fox, although they knew very well that he
must be only a very short way ahead for the scent to lie so strong.
And then Wat Danbury heard a crash and a thud at his elbow, and
looking round he saw a pair of white cords and top-boots kicking out
of a tussock of brambles. The whip's horse had stumbled, and the whip
was out of the running. Danbury and the huntsman eased down for an
instant; and then, seeing the man staggering to his feet all right,
they turned and settled into their saddles once more.

"Joe Clarke, the huntsman, was a famous old rider, known for five
counties round; but he reckoned upon his second horse, and the second
horses had all been left many miles behind. However, the one he was
riding was good enough for anything with such a horseman upon his
back, and he was going as well as when he started. As to Wat Danbury,
he was going better. With every stride his own feelings improved, and
the mind of the rider has its influence upon the mind of the horse.
The stout little roan was gathering its muscular limbs under it and
stretching to the gallop as if it were steel and whalebone instead of
flesh and blood. Wat had never come to the end of its powers yet, and
to-day he had such a chance of testing them as he had never had
before.

"There was a pasture country beyond the heather slopes, and for
several miles the two riders were either losing ground as they fumbled
with their crop-handles at the bars of gates, or gaining it again as
they galloped over the fields. Those were the days before this
accursed wire came into the country, and you could generally break a
hedge where you could not fly it, so they did not trouble the gates
more than they could help. Then they were down in a hard lane, where
they had to slacken their pace, and through a farm where a man came
shouting excitedly after them; but they had no time to stop and listen
to him, for the hounds were on some ploughland, only two fields ahead.
It was sloping upwards, that ploughland, and the horses were over
their fetlocks in the red, soft soil. When they reached the top they
were blowing badly, but a grand valley sloped before them, leading up
to the open country of the South Downs. Between, there lay a belt of
pinewoods, into which the hounds were streaming, running now in a long
straggling line and shedding one here and one there as they ran. You
could see the white-and-tan dots here and there where the limpers were
tailing away. But half the pack were still going well, though the pace
and distance had both been tremendous--two clear hours now without a
check.

"There was a drive through the pinewood--one of those green,
slightly-rutted drives where a horse can get the last yard out of
itself, for the ground is hard enough to give him clean going and yet
springy enough to help him. Wat Danbury got alongside of the huntsman
and they galloped together with their stirrup-irons touching, and the
hounds within a hundred yards of them.

"'We have it all to ourselves,' said he.

"'Yes, sir, we've shook off the lot of 'em this time,' said old Joe
Clarke. 'If we get this fox it's worth while 'aving 'im skinned an'
stuffed, for 'e's a curiosity, 'e is.'

"'It's the fastest run I ever had in my life!' cried Danbury.

"'And the fastest that I ever 'ad, an' that means more,' said the old
huntsman. 'But what licks me is that we've never 'ad a look at the
beast. 'E must leave an amazin' scent be'ind 'im when these 'ounds can
follow 'm like this, and yet none of us have seen 'im when we've 'ad a
clear 'alf-mile view in front of us.'

"'I expect we'll have a view of him, presently,' said Danbury; and in
his mind he added, 'at least, I shall,' for the huntsman's horse was
gasping as it ran, and the white foam was pouring down it like the
side of a washing-tub.

"They had followed the hounds on to one of the side tracks which led
out of the main drive, and that divided into a smaller track still,
where the branches switched across their faces as they went and there
was barely room for one horse at a time. Wat Danbury took the lead,
and he heard the huntsman's horse clumping along heavily behind him,
while his own mare was going with less spring than when she had
started. She answered to a touch of his crop or spur, however, and he
felt that there was something still left to draw upon. And then he
looked up, and there was a heavy wooden stile at the end of the narrow
track, with a lane of stiff young saplings leading down to it, which
was far too thick to break through. The hounds were running clear upon
the grassland on the other side, and you were bound either to get over
that stile or lose sight of them, for the pace was too hot to let you
go round.

"Well, Wat Danbury was not the lad to flinch, and at it he went full
split, like a man who means what he is doing. She rose gallantly to
it, rapped it hard with her front hoof, shook him on to her withers,
recovered herself, and was over. Wat had hardly got back into his
saddle when there was a clatter behind him like the fall of a
woodstack, and there was the top bar in splinters, the horse on its
belly, and the huntsman on his hands and knees half a dozen yards in
front of him. Wat pulled up for an instant, for the fall was a
smasher; but he saw old Joe spring to his feet and get to his horse's
bridle. The horse staggered up, but the moment it put one foot in
front of the other Wat saw that it was hopelessly lame--a slipped
shoulder and a six weeks' job. There was nothing he could do, and Joe
was shouting to him not to lose the hounds, so off he went again, the
one solitary survivor of the whole hunt. When a man finds himself
there, he can retire from fox-hunting, for he has tasted the highest
which it has to offer. I remember once when I was out with the Royal
Surrey--but I'll tell you that story afterwards.

"The pack, or what was left of them, had got a bit ahead during this
time; but he had a clear view of them on the downland, and the mare
seemed full of pride at being the only one left, for she was stepping
out rarely and tossing her head as she went. There were two miles over
the green shoulder of a hill, a rattle down a stony, deep-rutted
country lane, where the mare stumbled and nearly came down, a jump
over a five-foot brook, a cut through a hazel copse, another dose of
heavy ploughland, a couple of gates to open, and then the green,
unbroken Downs beyond. 'Well,' said Wat Danbury to himself, 'I'll see
this fox run into or I shall see it drowned, for it's all clear going
now between this and the chalk cliffs which line the sea.'

"But he was wrong in that, as he speedily discovered. In all the
little hollows of the Downs at that part there are plantations of
fir-woods, some of which have grown to a good size. You do not see
them until you come upon the edge of the valleys in which they lie.
Danbury was galloping hard over the short-springy turf when he came
over the lip of one of these depressions, and there was the dark clump
of wood lying in front of and beneath him. There were only a dozen
hounds still running, and they were just disappearing among the trees.
The sunlight was shining straight upon the long, olive-green slopes
which curved down towards this wood, and Danbury, who had the eyes of
a hawk, swept them over this great expanse; but there was nothing
moving upon it. A few sheep were grazing far up on the right, but
there was no other sight of any living creature. He was certain then
that he was very near to the end, for either the fox must have gone to
ground in the wood or the hounds' noses must be at his very brush. The
mare seemed to know also what that great empty sweep of countryside
meant, for she quickened her stride, and a few minutes afterwards
Danbury was galloping into the fir-wood.

"He had come from bright sunshine, but the wood was very closely
planted, and so dim that he could hardly see to right or to left out
of the narrow path down which he was riding. You know what a solemn,
churchyardy sort of place a fir-wood is. I suppose it is the absence
of any undergrowth, and the fact that the trees never move at all. At
any rate a kind of chill suddenly struck Wat Danbury, and it flashed
through his mind that there had been some very singular points about
this run--its length and its straightness, and the fact that from the
first find no one had ever caught a glimpse of the creature. Some
silly talk which had been going round the country about the king of
the foxes--a sort of demon fox, so fast that it could outrun any pack,
and so fierce that they could do nothing with it if they overtook
it--suddenly came back into his mind, and it did not seem so laughable
now in the dim fir-wood as it had done when the story had been told
over wine and cigars. The nervousness which had been on him in the
morning, and which he had hoped that he had shaken off, swept over him
again in an overpowering wave. He had been so proud of being alone,
and yet he would have given ten pounds now to have had Joe Clarke's
homely face beside him. And then, just at that moment, there broke out
from the thickest part of the wood the most frantic hullaballoo that
ever he had heard in his life. The hounds had run into their fox.

"Well, you know, or you ought to know, what your duty is in such a
case. You have to be whip, huntsman, and everything else if you are
the first man up. You get in among the hounds, lash them off, and keep
the brush and pads from being destroyed. Of course, Wat Danbury knew
all about that, and he tried to force his mare through the trees to
the place where all this hideous screaming and howling came from, but
the wood was so thick that it was impossible to ride it. He sprang
off, therefore, left the mare standing, and broke his way through as
best he could with his hunting-lash ready over his shoulder. But as he
ran forward he felt his flesh go cold and creepy all over. He had
heard hounds run into foxes many times before, but he had never heard
such sounds as these. They were not the cries of triumph, but of fear.
Every now and then came a shrill yelp of mortal agony. Holding his
breath, he ran on until he broke through the interlacing branches and
found himself in a little clearing with the hounds all crowding round
a patch of tangled bramble at the farther end.

"When he first caught sight of them the hounds were standing in a
half-circle round this bramble-patch with their backs bristling and
their jaws gaping. In front of the brambles lay one of them with his
throat torn out, all crimson and white-and-tan. Wat came running out
into the clearing, and at the sight of him the hounds took heart
again, and one of them sprang with a growl into the bushes. At the
same instant a creature the size of a donkey jumped on to its feet, a
huge grey head, with monstrous glistening fangs, and tapering fox
jaws, shot out from among the branches, and the hound was thrown
several feet into the air, and fell howling among the cover. Then
there was a clashing snap like a rat-trap closing, and the howls
sharpened into a scream and then were still.

"Danbury had been on the look-out for symptoms all day, and now he had
found them. He looked once more at the thicket, saw a pair of savage
red eyes fixed upon him, and fairly took to his heels. It might only
be a passing delusion, or it might be a permanent mania of which the
doctor had spoken, but, anyhow, the thing to do was to get back to bed
and to quiet, and to hope for the best. He forgot the hounds, the
hunt, and everything else in his desperate fears for his own reason.
He sprang upon his mare, galloped her madly over the downs, and only
stopped when he found himself at a country station. There he left his
mare at the inn, and made back for home as quickly as steam would take
him. It was evening before he got there, shivering with apprehension
and seeing those red eyes and savage teeth at every turn. He went
straight to bed and sent for Dr. Middleton.

"'I've got 'em, doctor,' said he. 'It came about exactly as you
said--strange creatures, optical delusions, and everything. All I ask
you now is to save my reason.'

"The doctor listened to his story and was shocked as he heard it.

"'It appears to be a very clear case,' said he. 'This must be a lesson
to you for life.'

"'Never a drop again if I only come safely through this,' cried Wat
Danbury.

"'Well, my dear boy, if you will stick to that it may prove a blessing
in disguise. But the difficulty in this case is to know where fact
ends and fancy begins. You see, it is not as if there was only one
delusion. There have been several. The dead dogs, for example, must
have been one as well as the creature in the bush.'

"'I saw it all as clearly as I see you.'

"'One of the characteristics of this form of delirium is that what you
see is even clearer than reality. I was wondering whether the whole
run was not a delusion also.'

"Wat Danbury pointed to his hunting-boots still lying upon the floor,
flecked with the splashings of two counties.

"'Hum! that looks very real, certainly. No doubt, in your weak state,
you over-exerted yourself and so brought this attack upon yourself.
Well, whatever the cause, our treatment is clear. You will take the
soothing mixture which I will send to you, and we shall put two
leeches upon your temples tonight to relieve any congestion of the
brain.'

"So Wat Danbury spent the night in tossing about and reflecting what a
sensitive thing this machinery of ours is, and how very foolish it is
to play tricks with what is so easily put out of gear and so difficult
to mend. And so he repeated and repeated his oath that this first
lesson should be his last, and that from that time forward he would be
a sober, hard-working yeoman as his father had been before him. So he
lay, tossing and still repentant, when his door flew open in the
morning and in rushed the doctor with a newspaper crumpled up in his
hand.

"'My dear boy,' he cried. 'I owe you a thousand apologies. You're the
most ill-used lad and I the greatest numskull in the county. Listen to
this!' And he sat down upon the side of the bed, flattened out his
paper upon his knee, and began to read.

"The paragraph was headed, 'Disaster to the Ascombe Hounds,' and it
went on to say that four of the hounds, shockingly torn and mangled,
had been found in Winton Fir Wood upon the South Downs. The run had
been so severe that half the pack were lamed; but the four found in
the wood were actually dead, although the cause of their extraordinary
injuries was still unknown. 'So you see,' said the doctor, looking up,
'that I was wrong when I put the dead hounds among the delusions.'

"'But the cause?' cried Wat.

"'Well, I think we may guess the cause from an item which has been
inserted just as the paper went to press. "Late last night, Mr. Brown,
of Smither's Farm, to the east of Hastings, perceived what he imagined
to be an enormous dog worrying one of his sheep. He shot the creature,
which proves to be a grey Siberian wolf of the variety known as /Lupus
Giganticus/. It is supposed to have escaped from some travelling
menagerie."'

"That's the story, gentlemen, and Wat Danbury stuck to his good
resolutions, for the fright which he had cured him of all wish to run
such a risk again; and he never touches anything stronger than
lime-juice--at least, he hadn't before he left this part of the
country, five years ago next Lady Day."



THE BULLY OF BROCAS COURT

That year--it was in 1878--the South Midland Yeomanry were out near
Luton, and the real question which appealed to every man in the great
camp was not how to prepare for a possible European war, but the far
more vital one how to get a man who could stand up for ten rounds to
Farrier-Sergeant Burton. Slogger Burton was a fine upstanding fourteen
stone of bone and brawn, with a smack in either hand which would leave
any ordinary mortal senseless. A match must be found for him somewhere
or his head would outgrow his dragoon helmet. Therefore Sir Fred.
Milburn, better known as Mumbles, was dispatched to London to find if
among the fancy there was no one who would make a journey in order to
take down the number of the bold dragoon.

They were bad days, those, in the prize-ring. The old knuckle-fighting
had died out in scandal and disgrace, smothered by the pestilent crowd
of betting men and ruffians of all sorts who hung upon the edge of the
movement and brought disgrace and ruin upon the decent fighting men,
who were often humble heroes whose gallantry has never been surpassed.
An honest sportsman who desired to see a fight was usually set upon by
villains, against whom he had no redress, since he was himself engaged
on what was technically an illegal action. He was stripped in the open
street, his purse taken, and his head split open if he ventured to
resist. The ringside could only be reached by men who were prepared to
fight their way there with cudgels and hunting-crops. No wonder that
the classic sport was attended now by those only who had nothing to
lose.

On the other hand, the era of the reserved building and the legal
glove-fight had not yet arisen, and the cult was in a strange
intermediate condition. It was impossible to regulate it, and equally
impossible to abolish it, since nothing appeals more directly and
powerfully to the average Briton. Therefore there were scrambling
contests in stableyards and barns, hurried visits to France, secret
meetings at dawn in wild parts of the country, and all manner of
evasions and experiments. The men themselves became as unsatisfactory
as their surroundings. There could be no honest open contest, and the
loudest bragger talked his way to the top of the list. Only across the
Atlantic had the huge figure of John Lawrence Sullivan appeared, who
was destined to be the last of the earlier system and the first of the
later one.

Things being in this condition, the sporting Yeomanry Captain found it
no easy matter among the boxing saloons and sporting pubs of London to
find a man who could be relied upon to give a good account of the huge
Farrier-Sergeant. Heavy-weights were at a premium. Finally his choice
fell upon Alf Stevens of Kentish Town, an excellent rising
middle-weight who had never yet known defeat and had indeed some
claims to the championship. His professional experience and craft
would surely make up for the three stone of weight which separated him
from the formidable dragoon. It was in this hope that Sir Fred.
Milburn engaged him, and proceeded to convey him in his dog-cart
behind a pair of spanking greys to the camp of the Yeomen. They were
to start one evening, drive up the Great North Road, sleep at St.
Albans, and finish their journey next day.

The prize-fighter met the sporting Baronet at the Golden Cross, where
Bates, the little groom, was standing at the head of the spirited
horses. Steven, a pale-faced, clean-cut young fellow, mounted beside
his employer and waved his hand to a little knot of fighting men,
rough, collarless, reefer-coated fellows who had gathered to bid their
comrade good-bye. "Good luck, Alf!" came in a hoarse chorus as the boy
released the horses' heads and sprang in behind, while the high
dog-cart swung swiftly round the curve into Trafalgar Square.

Sir Frederick was so busy steering among the traffic in Oxford Street
and the Edgware Road that he had little thought for anything else, but
when he got into the edges of the country near Hendon, and the hedges
had at last taken the place of that endless panorama of brick
dwellings, he let his horses go easy with a loose rein while he turned
his attention to the young man at his side. He had found him by
correspondence and recommendation, so that he had some curiosity now
in looking him over. Twilight was already falling and the light dim,
but what the Baronet saw pleased him well. The man was a fighter every
inch, clean-cut, deep-chested, with the long straight cheek and
deep-set eye which goes with an obstinate courage. Above all, he was a
man who had never yet met his master and was still upheld by the deep
sustaining confidence which is never quite the same after a single
defeat. The Baronet chuckled as he realized what a surprise packet was
being carried north for the Farrier-Sergeant.

"I suppose you are in some sort of training, Stevens?" he remarked,
turning to his companion.

"Yes, sir; I am fit to fight for my life."

"So I should judge by the look of you."

"I live regular all the time, sir, but I was matched against Mike
Connor for this last week-end and scaled down to eleven four. Then he
paid forfeit, and here I am at the top of my form."

"That's lucky. You'll need it all against a man who has a pull of
three stone and four inches."

The young man smiled.

"I have given greater odds than that, sir."

"I dare say. But he's a game man as well."

"Well, sir, one can but do one's best."

The Baronet liked the modest but assured tone of the young pugilist.
Suddenly an amusing thought struck him, and he burst out laughing.

"By Jove!" he cried. "What a lark if the Bully is out to-night!"

Alf Stevens pricked up his ears.

"Who might he be, sir?"

"Well, that's what the folk are asking. Some say they've seen him, and
some say he's a fairy-tale, but there's good evidence that he is a
real man with a pair of rare good fists that leave their marks behind
him."

"And where might he live?"

"On this very road. It's between Finchley and Elstree, as I've heard.
There are two chaps, and they come out on nights when the moon is at
full and challenge the passers-by to fight in the old style. One
fights and the other picks up. By George! the fellow /can/ fight, too,
by all accounts. Chaps have been found in the morning with their faces
all cut to ribbons to show that the Bully had been at work upon them."

Alf Stevens was full of interest.

"I've always wanted to try an old-style battle, sir, but it never
chanced to come my way. I believe it would suit me better than the
gloves."

"Then you won't refuse the Bully?"

"Refuse him! I'd go ten mile to meet him."

"By George! it would be great!" cried the Baronet. "Well, the moon is
at the full, and the place should be about here."

"If he's as good as you say," Stevens remarked, "he should be known in
the ring, unless he is just an amateur who amuses himself like that."

"Some think he's an ostler, or maybe a racing man from the training
stables over yonder. Where there are horses there is boxing. If you
can believe the accounts, there is something a bit queer and
outlandish about the fellow. Hi! Look out, damn you, look out!"

The Baronet's voice had risen to a sudden screech of surprise and
anger. At this point the road dips down into a hollow, heavily shaded
by trees, so that at night it arches across like the mouth of a
tunnel. At the foot of the slope there stand two great stone pillars,
which, as viewed by daylight, are lichen-stained and weathered, with
heraldic devices on each which are so mutilated by time that they are
mere protuberances of stone. An iron gate of elegant design, hanging
loosely upon rusted hinges, proclaims both the past glories and the
present decay of Brocas Old Hall, which lies at the end of the
weed-encumbered avenue. It was from the shadow of this ancient gateway
that an active figure had sprung suddenly into the centre of the road
and had, with great dexterity, held up the horses, who ramped and
pawed as they were forced back upon their haunches.

"Here, Rowe, you 'old the tilts, will ye?" cried a high strident
voice. "I've a little word to say to this 'ere slap-up Corinthian
before 'e goes any farther."

A second man had emerged from the shadows and without a word took hold
of the horses' heads. He was a short, thick fellow, dressed in a
curious brown many-caped overcoat, which came to his knees, with
gaiters and boots beneath it. He wore no hat, and those in the
dog-cart had a view, as he came in front of the side-lamps, of a surly
red face with an ill-fitting lower lip clean shaven, and a high black
cravat swathed tightly under the chin. As he gripped the leathers his
more active comrade sprang forward and rested a bony hand upon the
side of the splashboard while he looked keenly up with a pair of
fierce blue eyes at the faces of the two travellers, the light beating
full upon his own features. He wore a hat low upon his brow, but in
spite of its shadow both the Baronet and the pugilist could see enough
to shrink from him, for it was an evil face, evil but very formidable,
stern, craggy, high-nosed, and fierce, with an inexorable mouth which
bespoke a nature which would neither ask for mercy nor grant it. As to
his age, one could only say for certain that a man with such a face
was young enough to have all his virility and old enough to have
experienced all the wickedness of life. The cold, savage eyes took a
deliberate survey, first of the Baronet and then of the young man
beside him.

"Aye, Rowe, it's a slap-up Corinthian, same as I said," he remarked
over his shoulder to his companion. "But this other is a likely chap.
If 'e isn't a millin' cove 'e ought to be. Any'ow, we'll try 'im out."

"Look here," said the Baronet, "I don't know who you are, except that
you are a damned impertinent fellow. I'd put the lash of my whip
across your face for two pins!"

"Stow that gammon, gov'nor! It ain't safe to speak to me like that."

"I've heard of you and your ways!" cried the angry soldier. "I'll
teach you to stop my horses on the Queen's high road! You've got the
wrong men this time, my fine fellow, as you will soon learn."

"That's as it may be," said the stranger. "May'ap, master, we may all
learn something before we part. One or other of you 'as got to get
down and put up your 'ands before you get any farther."

Stevens had instantly sprung down into the road.

"If you want a fight you've come to the right shop," said he; "it's my
trade, so don't say I took you unawares."

The stranger gave a cry of satisfaction.

"Blow my dickey!" he shouted. "It /is/ a millin' cove, Joe, same as I
said. No more chaw-bacons for us, but the real thing. Well, young man,
you've met your master to-night. Happen you never 'eard what Lord
Longmore said o' me? 'A man must be made special to beat you,' says
'e. That's wot Lord Longmore said."

"That was before the Bull came along," growled the man in front,
speaking for the first time.

"Stow your chaffing, Joe! A little more about the Bull and you and me
will quarrel. 'E bested me once, but it's all betters and no takers
that I glut 'im if ever we meet again. Well, young man, what d'ye
think of me?"

"I think you've got your share of cheek."

"Cheek. Wot's that?"

"Impudence, bluff--gas, if you like."

The last word had a surprising effect upon the stranger. He smote his
leg with his hand and broke out into a high neighing laugh, in which
he was joined by his gruff companion.

"You've said the right word, my beauty," cried the latter, "'Gas' is
the word and no error. Well, there's a good moon, but the clouds are
comin' up. We had best use the light while we can."

Whilst this conversation had been going on the Baronet had been
looking with an ever-growing amazement at the attire of the stranger.
A good deal of it confirmed his belief that he was connected with some
stables, though making every allowance for this his appearance was
very eccentric and old-fashioned. Upon his head he wore a
yellowish-white top-hat of long-haired beaver, such as is still
affected by some drivers of four-in-hands, with a bell crown and a
curling brim. His dress consisted of a short-waisted swallow-tail
coat, snuff-coloured, with steel buttons. It opened in front to show a
vest of striped silk, while his legs were encased in buff
knee-breeches with blue stockings and low shoes. The figure was
angular and hard, with a great suggestion of wiry activity. This Bully
of Brocas was clearly a very great character, and the young dragoon
officer chuckled as he thought what a glorious story he would carry
back to the mess of this queer old-world figure and the thrashing
which he was about to receive from the famous London boxer.

Billy, the little groom, had taken charge of the horses, who were
shivering and sweating.

"This way!" said the stout man, turning towards the gate. It was a
sinister place, black and weird, with the crumbling pillars and the
heavy arching trees. Neither the Baronet nor the pugilist liked the
look of it.

"Where are you going, then?"

"This is no place for a fight," said the stout man. "We've got as
pretty a place as ever you saw inside the gate here. You couldn't beat
it on Molesey Hurst."

"The road is good enough for me," said Stevens.

"The road is good enough for two Johnny Raws," said the man with the
beaver hat. "It ain't good enough for two slap-up millin' coves like
you an' me. You ain't afeard, are you?"

"Not of you or ten like you," said Stevens, stoutly.

"Well, then, come with me and do it as it ought to be done."

Sir Frederick and Stevens exchanged glances.

"I'm game," said the pugilist.

"Come on, then."

The little party of four passed through the gateway. Behind them in
the darkness the horses stamped and reared, while the voice of the boy
could be heard as he vainly tried to soothe them. After walking fifty
yards up the grass-grown drive the guide turned to the right through a
thick belt of trees, and they came out upon a circular plot of grass,
white and clear in the moonlight. It had a raised bank, and on the
farther side was one of those little pillared stone summer-houses
beloved by the early Georgians.

"What did I tell you?" cried the stout man, triumphantly. "Could you
do better than this within twenty miles of town? It was made for it.
Now, Tom, get to work upon him, and show us what you can do."

It had all become like an extraordinary dream. The strange men, their
odd dress, their queer speech, the moonlit circle of grass, and the
pillared summer-house all wove themselves into one fantastic whole. It
was only the sight of Alf Stevens's ill-fitting tweed suit, and his
homely English face surmounting it, which brought the Baronet back to
the workaday world. The thin stranger had taken off his beaver hat,
his swallow-tailed coat, his silk waistcoat, and finally his shirt had
been drawn over his head by his second. Stevens in a cool and
leisurely fashion kept pace with the preparations of his antagonist.
Then the two fighting men turned upon each other.

But as they did so Stevens gave an exclamation of surprise and horror.
The removal of the beaver hat had disclosed a horrible mutilation of
the head of his antagonist. The whole upper forehead had fallen in,
and there seemed to be a broad red weal between his close-cropped hair
and his heavy brows.

"Good Lord," cried the young pugilist. "What's amiss with the man?"

The question seemed to rouse a cold fury in his antagonist.

"You look out for your own head, master," said he. "You'll find enough
to do, I'm thinkin', without talkin' about mine."

This retort drew a shout of hoarse laughter from his second. "Well
said, my Tommy!" he cried. "It's Lombard Street to a China orange on
the one and only."

The man whom he called Tom was standing with his hands up in the
centre of the natural ring. He looked a big man in his clothes, but he
seemed bigger in the buff, and his barrel chest, sloping shoulders,
and loosely-slung muscular arms were all ideal for the game. His grim
eyes gleamed fiercely beneath his misshapen brows, and his lips were
set in a fixed hard smile, more menacing than a scowl. The pugilist
confessed, as he approached him, that he had never seen a more
formidable figure. But his bold heart rose to the fact that he had
never yet found the man who could master him, and that it was hardly
credible that he would appear as an old-fashioned stranger on a
country road. Therefore, with an answering smile, he took up his
position and raised his hands.

But what followed was entirely beyond his experience. The stranger
feinted quickly with his left, and sent in a swinging hit with his
right, so quick and hard that Stevens had barely time to avoid it and
to counter with a short jab as his opponent rushed in upon him. Next
instant the man's bony arms were round him, and the pugilist was
hurled into the air in a whirling cross-buttock, coming down with a
heavy thud upon the grass. The stranger stood back and folded his arms
while Stevens scrambled to his feet with a red flush of anger upon his
cheeks.

"Look here," he cried. "What sort of game is this?"

"We claim foul!" the Baronet shouted.

"Foul be damned! As clean a throw as ever I saw!" said the stout man.
"What rules do you fight under?"

"Queensberry, of course."

"I never heard of it. It's London prize-ring with us."

"Come on, then!" cried Stevens, furiously. "I can wrestle as well as
another. You won't get me napping again."

Nor did he. The next time that the stranger rushed in Stevens caught
him in as strong a grip, and after swinging and swaying they came down
together in a dog-fall. Three times this occurred, and each time the
stranger walked across to his friend and seated himself upon the
grassy bank before he recommenced.

"What d'ye make of him?" the Baronet asked, in one of these pauses.

Stevens was bleeding from the ear, but otherwise showed no sign of
damage.

"He knows a lot," said the pugilist. "I don't know where he learned
it, but he's had a deal of practice somewhere. He's as strong as a
lion and as hard as a board, for all his queer face."

"Keep him at out-fighting. I think you are his master there."

"I'm not so sure that I'm his master anywhere, but I'll try my best."

It was a desperate fight, and as round followed round it became clear,
even to the amazed Baronet, that the middle-weight champion had met
his match. The stranger had a clever draw and a rush which, with his
springing hits, made him a most dangerous foe. His head and body
seemed insensible to blows, and the horribly malignant smile never for
one instant flickered from his lips. He hit very hard with fists like
flints, and his blows whizzed up from every angle. He had one
particularly deadly lead, an uppercut at the jaw, which again and
again nearly came home, until at last it did actually fly past the
guard and brought Stevens to the ground. The stout man gave a whoop of
triumph.

"The whisker hit, by George! It's a horse to a hen on my Tommy!
Another like that, lad, and you have him beat."

"I say, Stevens, this is going too far," said the Baronet, as he
supported his weary man. "What will the regiment say if I bring you up
all knocked to pieces in a bye-battle! Shake hands with this fellow
and give him best, or you'll not be fit for your job."

"Give him best? Not I!" cried Stevens, angrily. "I'll knock that
damned smile off his ugly mug before I've done."

"What about the Sergeant?"

"I'd rather go back to London and never see the Sergeant than have my
number taken down by this chap."

"Well, 'ad enough?" his opponent asked, in a sneering voice, as he
moved from his seat on the bank.

For answer young Stevens sprang forward and rushed at his man with all
the strength that was left to him. By the fury of his onset he drove
him back, and for a long minute had all the better of the exchanges.
But this iron fighter seemed never to tire. His step was as quick and
his blow as hard as ever when this long rally had ended. Stevens had
eased up from pure exhaustion. But his opponent did not ease up. He
came back on him with a shower of furious blows which beat down the
weary guard of the pugilist. Alf Stevens was at the end of his
strength and would in another instant have sunk to the ground but for
a singular intervention.

It has been said that in their approach to the ring the party had
passed through a grove of trees. Out of these there came a peculiar
cry, a cry of agony, which might be from a child or from some small
woodland creature in distress. It was inarticulate, high-pitched, and
inexpressibly melancholy. At the sound the stranger, who had knocked
Stevens to his knees, staggered back and looked round him with an
expression of helpless horror upon his face. The smile had left his
lips and there only remained the loose-lipped weakness of a man in the
last extremity of terror.

"It's after me again, mate!" he cried.

"Stick it out, Tom! You have him nearly beat! It can't hurt you."

"It can 'urt me! It will 'urt me!" screamed the fighting man. "My God!
I can't face it! Ah, I see it! I see it!"

With a scream of fear he turned and bounded off into the brushwood.
His companion, swearing loudly, picked up the pile of clothes and
darted after him, the dark shadows swallowing up their flying figures.

Stevens, half-senselessly, had staggered back and lay upon the grassy
bank, his head pillowed upon the chest of the young Baronet, who was
holding his flask of brandy to his lips. As they sat there they were
both aware that the cries had become louder and shriller. Then from
among the bushes there ran a small white terrier, nosing about as if
following a trail and yelping most piteously. It squattered across the
grassy sward, taking no notice of the two young men. Then it also
vanished into the shadows. As it did so the two spectators sprang to
their feet and ran as hard as they could tear for the gateway and the
trap. Terror had seized them--a panic terror far above reason or
control. Shivering and shaking, they threw themselves into the
dog-cart, and it was not until the willing horses had put two good
miles between that ill-omened hollow and themselves that they at last
ventured to speak.

"Did you ever see such a dog?" asked the Baronet.

"No," cried Stevens. "And, please God, I never may again."

Late that night the two travellers broke their journey at the Swan
Inn, near Harpenden Common. The landlord was an old acquaintance of
the Baronet's, and gladly joined him in a glass of port after supper.
A famous old sport was Mr. Joe Horner, of the Swan, and he would talk
by the hour of the legends of the ring, whether new or old. The name
of Alf Stevens was well known to him, and he looked at him with the
deepest interest.

"Why, sir, you have surely been fighting," said he. "I hadn't read of
any engagement in the papers."

"Enough said of that," Stevens answered, in a surly voice.

"Well, no offence! I suppose"--his smiling face became suddenly very
serious--"I suppose you didn't, by chance, see anything of him they
call the Bully of Brocas as you came north?"

"Well, what if we did?"

The landlord was tense with excitement.

"It was him that nearly killed Bob Meadows. It was at the very gate of
Brocas Old Hall that he stopped him. Another man was with him. Bob was
game to the marrow, but he was found hit to pieces on the lawn inside
the gate where the summer-house stands."

The Baronet nodded.

"Ah, you've been there!" cried the landlord.

"Well, we may as well make a clean breast of it," said the Baronet,
looking at Stevens. "We have been there, and we met the man you speak
of--an ugly customer he is, too!"

"Tell me!" said the landlord, in a voice that sank to a whisper. "Is
it true what Bob Meadows says, that the men are dressed like our
grandfathers, and that the fighting man has his head all caved in?"

"Well, he was old-fashioned, certainly, and his head was the queerest
I ever saw."

"God in Heaven!" cried the landlord. "Do you know, sir, that Tom
Hickman, the famous prize-fighter, together with his pal, Joe Rowe, a
silversmith of the City, met his death at that very point in the year
1822, when he was drunk, and tried to drive on the wrong side of a
wagon? Both were killed and the wheel of the wagon crushed in
Hickman's forehead."

"Hickman! Hickman!" said the Baronet. "Not the gasman?"

"Yes, sir, they called him Gas. He won his fights with what they
called the 'whisker hit,' and no one could stand against him until
Neate--him that they called the Bristol Bull--brought him down."

Stevens had risen from the table as white as cheese.

"Let's get out of this, sir. I want fresh air. Let us get on our way."

The landlord clapped him on the back.

"Cheer up, lad! You've held him off, anyhow, and that's more than
anyone else has ever done. Sit down and have another glass of wine,
for if a man in England has earned it this night it is you. There's
many a debt you would pay if you gave the Gasman a welting, whether
dead or alive. Do you know what he did in this very room?"

The two travellers looked round with startled eyes at the lofty room,
stone-flagged and oak-panelled, with great open grate at the farther
end.

"Yes, in this very room. I had it from Old Squire Scotter, who was
here that very night. It was the day when Shelton beat Josh Hudson out
St. Albans way, and Gas had won a pocketful of money on the fight. He
and his pal Rowe came in here upon their way, and he was mad-raging
drunk. The folk fairly shrunk into the corners and under the tables,
for he was stalkin' round with the great kitchen poker in his hand,
and there was murder behind the smile upon his face. He was like that
when the drink was in him--cruel, reckless, and a terror to the world.
Well, what think you that he did at last with the poker? There was a
little dog, a terrier as I've heard, coiled up before the fire, for it
was a bitter December night. The Gasman broke its back with one blow
of the poker. Then he burst out laughin', flung a curse or two at the
folk that shrunk away from him, and so out to his high gig that was
waiting outside. The next we heard was that he was carried down to
Finchley with his head ground to a jelly by the wagon wheel. Yes, they
do say the little dog with its bleeding skin and its broken back has
been seen since then, crawlin' and yelpin' about Brocas Corner, as if
it were lookin' for the swine that killed it. So you see, Mr. Stevens,
you were fightin' for more than yourself when you put it across the
Gasman."

"Maybe so," said the young prize-fighter, "but I want no more fights
like that. The Farrier-Sergeant is good enough for me, sir, and if it
is the same to you, we'll take a railway train back to town."





TALES OF THE CAMP



A STRAGGLER OF '15

It was a dull October morning, and heavy, rolling fog-wreaths lay low
over the wet, grey roofs of the Woolwich houses. Down in the long,
brick-lined streets all was sodden and greasy and cheerless. From the
high buildings of the Arsenal came the whir of many wheels, the
thudding of weights, and the buzz and babel of human toil. Beyond, the
dwellings of the working-men, smoke-stained and unlovely, radiated
away in a lessening perspective of narrowing road and dwindling wall.

There were few folk in the streets, for the toilers had all been
absorbed since break of day by the huge, smoke-spouting monster, which
sucked in the manhood of the town, to belch it forth, weary and
work-stained, every night. Stout women, with thick red arms, and dirty
aprons, stood upon the whitened doorsteps, leaning upon their brooms,
and shrieking their morning greetings across the road. One had
gathered a small knot of cronies around her, and was talking
energetically, with little shrill titters from her audience to
punctuate her remarks.

"Old enough to know better!" she cried, in answer to an exclamation
from one of the listeners. "Why, 'ow old is he at all? Blessed if I
could ever make out."

"Well, it ain't so hard to reckon," said a sharp-featured, pale-faced
woman, with watery-blue eyes. "He's been at the battle o' Waterloo,
and has the pension and medal to prove it."

"That were a ter'ble long time agone," remarked a third. "It were
afore I were born."

"It were fifteen year after the beginnin' of the century," cried a
younger woman, who had stood leaning against the wall, with a smile of
superior knowledge upon her face. "My Bill was a-saying so last
Sabbath, when I spoke to him o' old Daddy Brewster, here."

"And suppose he spoke truth, Missus Simpson, 'ow long agone do that
make it?"

"It's eighty-one now," said the original speaker, checking off the
years upon her coarse, red fingers, "and that were fifteen. Ten, and
ten, and ten, and ten, and ten--why, it's only sixty and six year, so
he ain't so old after all."

"But he weren't a new-born babe at the battle, silly," cried the young
woman, with a chuckle. "S'pose he were only twenty, then he couldn't
be less than six-and-eighty now, at the lowest."

"Ay, he's that--every day of it," cried several.

"I've had 'bout enough of it," remarked the large woman, gloomily.
"Unless his young niece, or grand-niece, or whatever she is, come
to-day, I'm off; and he can find someone else to do his work. Your own
'ome first, says I."

"Ain't he quiet, then, Missus Simpson?" asked the youngest of the
group.

"Listen to him now," she answered, with her hand half-raised, and her
head turned slantwise towards the open door. From the upper floor came
a shuffling, sliding sound, with a sharp tapping of a stick. "There he
go back and forrards doing what he call his sentry-go. 'Arf the night
through he's at that game, the silly old juggins. At six o'clock this
very mornin' there he was beatin' with a stick at my door. 'Turn out
guard,' he cried, and a lot more jargon that I could make nothing of.
Then what with his coughin' and 'awkin' and spittin', there ain't no
gettin' a wink o' sleep. Hark to him now!"

"Missus Simpson! Missus Simpson!" cried a cracked and querulous voice
from above.

"That's him," she cried, nodding her head with an air of triumph. "He
do go on somethin' scandalous. Yes, Mister Brewster, sir."

"I want my morning ration, Missus Simpson."

"It's just ready, Mister Brewster, sir."

"Blessed if he ain't like a baby cryin' for its pap," said the young
woman.

"I feel as if I could shake his old bones up sometimes," cried Mrs.
Simpson, viciously. "But who's for a 'arf of fourpenny?"

The whole company were about to shuffle off to the public-house, when
a young girl stepped across the road and touched the housekeeper
timidly upon the arm. "I think that is No. 56 Arsenal View," she said.
"Can you tell me if Mr. Brewster lives here?"

The housekeeper looked critically at the newcomer. She was a girl of
about twenty, broad-faced and comely, with a turned-up nose, and
large, honest, grey eyes. Her print dress, her straw hat with its
bunch of glaring poppies, and the bundle which she carried had all a
smack of the country.

"You're Norah Brewster, I s'pose," said Mrs. Simpson, eyeing her up
and down with no friendly gaze.

"Yes; I've come to look after my grand-uncle Gregory."

"And a good job, too," cried the housekeeper, with a toss of her head.
"It's about time that some of his own folk took a turn at it, for I've
had enough of it. There you are, young woman! in you go, and make
yourself at home. There's tea in the caddy and bacon on the dresser,
and the old man will be about you if you don't fetch him his
breakfast. I'll send for my things in the evenin'."

With a nod she strolled off with her attendant gossips in the
direction of the public-house.

Thus left to her own devices, the country girl walked into the front
room and took off her hat and jacket. It was a low-roofed apartment
with a sputtering fire, upon which a small brass kettle was singing
cheerily. A stained cloth lay over half the table, with an empty brown
teapot, a loaf of bread, and some coarse crockery. Norah Brewster
looked rapidly about her, and in an instant took over her new duties.
Ere five minutes had passed the tea was made, two slices of bacon were
frizzling on the pan, the table was re-arranged, the antimacassars
straightened over the sombre brown furniture, and the whole room had
taken a new air of comfort and neatness. This done, she looked round
curiously at the prints upon the walls. Over the fireplace, in a
small, square case, a brown medal caught her eye, hanging from a strip
of purple ribbon. Beneath was a slip of newspaper cutting. She stood
on her tiptoes, with her fingers on the edge of the mantelpiece, and
craned her neck up to see it, glancing down from time to time at the
bacon which simmered and hissed beneath her. The cutting was yellow
with age, and ran in this way:


"On Tuesday an interesting ceremony was performed at the barracks
of the third regiment of guards, when, in the presence of the
Prince Regent, Lord Hill, Lord Saltoun, and an assemblage which
comprised beauty as well as valour, a special medal was presented
to Corporal Gregory Brewster, of Captain Haldane's flank company,
in recognition of his gallantry in the recent great battle in the
Lowlands. It appears that on the ever-memorable 18th of June, four
companies of the third guards and of the Coldstreams, under the
command of Colonels Maitland and Byng, held the important
farmhouse of Hougoumont at the right of the British position. At a
critical point of the action these troops found themselves short
of powder. Seeing that Generals Foy and Jerome Bounaparte were
again massing their infantry for an attack on the position,
Colonel Byng dispatched Corporate Brewster to the rear to hasten
up the reserve ammunition. Brewster came upon two powder tumbrils
of the Nassau division, and succeeded, after menacing the drivers
with his musket, in inducing them to convey their powder to
Hougoumont. In his absence, however, the hedges surrounding the
position had been set on fire by a howitzer battery of the French,
and the passage of the carts full of powder became a most
hazardous matter. The first tumbril exploded, blowing the driver
to fragments. Daunted by the fate of his comrade, the second
driver turned his horses, but Corporal Brewster, springing upon
his seat, hurled the man down, and urging the powder cart through
the flames, succeeded in forcing a way to his companions. To this
gallant deed may be directly attributed the success of the British
arms, for without powder it would have been impossible to have
held Hougoumont, and the Duke of Wellington had repeatedly
declared that had Hougoumont fallen, as well as La Haye Sainte, he
would have found it impossible to have held his ground. Long may
the heroic Brewster live to treasure the medal which he has so
bravely won, and to look back with pride to the day when in the
presence of his comrades he received this tribute to his valour
from the august hands of the first gentleman of the realm."


The reading of this old cutting increased in the girl's mind the
veneration which she had always had for her warrior kinsman. From her
infancy he had been her hero, and she remembered how her father used
to speak of his courage and his strength, how he could strike down a
bullock with a blow of his fist, and carry a fat sheep under either
arm. True that she had never seen him, but a rude painting at home,
which depicted a square-faced, clean-shaven, stalwart man with a great
bearskin cap, rose ever before her memory when she thought of him.

She was still gazing at the brown medal and wondering what the "/dulce
et decorum est/" might mean, which was inscribed upon the edge, when
there came a sudden tapping and shuffling upon the stair, and there at
the door was standing the very man who had been so often in her
thoughts.

But could this indeed be he? Where was the martial air, the flashing
eye, the warrior face which she had pictured. There, framed in the
doorway, was a huge, twisted old man, gaunt and puckered, with
twitching hands, and shuffling purposeless feet. A cloud of fluffy
white hair, a red-veined nose, two thick tufts of eyebrow and a pair
of dimly-questioning, watery-blue eyes--these were what met her gaze.
He leaned forward upon a stick, while his shoulders rose and fell with
his crackling, rasping breathing.

"I want my morning rations," he crooned, as he stumped forward to his
chair. "The cold nips me without 'em. See to my fingers!"

He held out his distorted hands, all blue at the tips, wrinkled and
gnarled, with huge, projecting knuckles.

"It's nigh ready," answered the girl, gazing at him with wonder in her
eyes. "Don't you know who I am, grand-uncle? I am Norah Brewster from
Witham."

"Rum is warm," mumbled the old man, rocking to and fro in his chair,
"and schnapps is warm, and there's 'eat in soup, but it's a dish o'
tea for me. What did you say your name was?"

"Norah Brewster."

"You can speak out, lass. Seems to me folk's voices isn't as loud as
they used."

"I'm Norah Brewster, uncle. I'm your grand-niece come from down Essex
way to live with you."

"You'll be brother Jarge's girl! Lor', to think o' little Jarge having
a girl."

He chuckled hoarsely to himself, and the long, stringy sinews of his
throat jerked and quivered.

"I am the daughter of your brother George's son," said she, as she
turned the bacon.

"Lor', but little Jarge was a rare 'un," he continued. "Eh, by Jimini,
there was no chousing Jarge. He's got a bull pup o' mine, that I gave
him when I took the bounty. You've heard him speak of it, likely."

"Why, grandpa George has been dead this twenty years," said she,
pouring out the tea.

"Well, it was a bootiful pup--ay, a well-bred un, by Jimini! I'm cold
for lack of my rations. Rum is good, and so is schnapps, but I'd as
lief have tea as either."

He breathed heavily while he devoured his food.

"It's a middlin' goodish way you've come," said he at last. "Likely
the stage left yesternight."

"The what, uncle?"

"The coach that brought you."

"Nay, I came by the mornin' train."

"Lor, now, think o' that! You ain't afeared of those new-fangled
things! To think of you coming by railroad like that! What's the world
a-comin' to?"

There was silence for some minutes while Norah sat stirring her tea
and glancing sideways at the bluish lips and champing jaws of her
companion.

"You must have seen a deal of life, uncle," said she. "It must seem a
long, long time to you!"

"Not so very long, neither. I'm ninety come Candlemas, but it don't
seem long since I took the bounty. And that battle, it might have been
yesterday. I've got the smell of the burned powder in my nose yet. Eh,
but I get a power o' good from my rations!"

He did indeed look less worn and colourless than when she first saw
him. His face was flushed and his back more erect.

"Have you read that?" he asked, jerking his head towards the cutting.

"Yes, uncle, and I am sure you must be proud of it."

"Ah, it was a great day for me! A great day! The Regent was there, and
a fine body of a man too! 'The ridgment is proud of you,' says he.
'And I'm proud of the ridgment,' say I. 'A damned good answer, too!'
says he to Lord Hill, and they both bust out a-laughing. But what be
you a-peekin' out o' the window for?"

"Oh, uncle, here's a regiment of soldiers coming down the street, with
the band playing in front of them."

"A ridgment, eh? Where be my glasses? Lor', but I can hear the band,
as plain as plain. Here's the pioneers an' the drum-major! What be
their number, lass?"

His eyes were shining, and his bony, yellow fingers, like the claws of
some fierce old bird, dug into her shoulder.

"They don't seem to have no number, uncle. They've something wrote on
their shoulders. Oxfordshire, I think it be."

"Ah, yes," he growled. "I heard as they'd dropped the numbers and
given them new-fangled names. There they go, by Jimini! They're young,
mostly, but they hain't forgot how to march. They have the swing--ay,
I'll say that for them. They've got the swing."

He gazed after them until the last files had turned the corner, and
the measured tramp of their marching had died away in the distance.

He had just regained his chair when the door opened and a gentleman
stepped in.

"Ah, Mr. Brewster! Better to-day?" he asked.

"Come in, doctor! Yes, I'm better. But there's a deal o' bubbling in
my chest. It's all them toobes. If I could but cut the phlegm I'd be
right. Can't ye give me something to cut the phlegm?"

The doctor, a grave-faced young man, put his fingers to the furrowed,
blue-corded wrist.

"You must be careful," he said; "you must take no liberties."

The thin tide of life seemed to thrill rather than to throb under his
finger.

The old man chuckled.

"I've got brother Jarge's girl to look after me now. She'll see I
don't break barracks or do what I hadn't ought to; why, darn my skin,
I knew something was amiss!"

"With what?"

"Why, with them soldiers. You saw them pass, doctor--eh? They'd forgot
their stocks. Not one of 'em had his stock on." He croaked and
chuckled for a long time over his discovery. "It wouldn't ha' done for
the Dook!" he muttered. "No, by Jimini! the Dook would ha' had word
there."

The doctor smiled.

"Well, you are doing very well," said he. "I'll look in once a week or
so and see how you are!" As Norah followed him to the door he beckoned
her outside. "He is very weak," he whispered. "If you find him failing
you must send for me."

"What ails him, doctor?"

"Ninety years ail him. His arteries are pipes of lime. His heart is
shrunken and flabby. The man is worn out."

Norah stood watching the brisk figure of the young doctor and
pondering over these new responsibilities which had come upon her.
When she turned, a tall, brown-faced artillery man, with the three
gold chevrons of sergeant upon his arm, was standing, carbine in hand,
at her elbow.

"Good morning, miss!" said he, raising one thick finger to his jaunty,
yellow-banded cap. "I b'lieve there's an old gentleman lives here of
the name of Brewster, who was engaged in the battle o' Waterloo?"

"It's my grand-uncle, sir," said Norah, casting down her eyes before
the keen, critical gaze of the young soldier. "He is in the front
parlour."

"Could I have a word with him, miss? I'll call again if it don't
chance to be convenient."

"I am sure that he would be very glad to see you, sir. He's in here,
if you'll step in. Uncle, here's a gentleman who wants to speak with
you."

"Proud to see you, sir--proud and glad, sir!" cried the sergeant,
taking three steps forward into the room, and grounding his carbine
while he raised his hand palm forwards, in a salute.

Norah stood by the door, with her mouth and eyes open, wondering
whether her grand-uncle had ever, in his prime, looked like this
magnificent creature; and whether he, in turn, would ever come to
resemble her grand-uncle.

The old man blinked up at his visitor, and shook his head slowly.

"Sit ye down, sergeant," said he, pointing with his stick to a chair.
"You're full young for the stripes. Lordy, it's easier to get three
now than one in my day. Gunners were old soldiers, then, and the grey
hairs came quicker than the three stripes."

"I am eight years' service, sir," cried the sergeant. "Macdonald is my
name--Sergeant Macdonald, of H Battery, Southern Artillery Division. I
have called as the spokesman of my mates at the gunners' barracks to
say that we are proud to have you in the town, sir."

Old Brewster chuckled and rubbed his bony hands.

"That were what the Regent said," he cried. "'The ridgment is proud of
ye,' says he. 'And I am proud of the ridgment,' says I. 'And a damned
good answer, too,' says he, and he and Lord Hill bust out--a-laughin'."

"The non-commissioned mess would be proud and honoured to see you,
sir," said Sergeant Macdonald. "And if you could step as far you'll
always find a pipe o' baccy and a glass of grog awaitin' you."

The old man laughed until he coughed.

"Like to see me, would they? The dogs!" said he. "Well, well, when the
warm weather comes again I'll maybe drop in. It's likely that I'll
drop in. Too grand for a canteen, eh? Got your mess just the same as
the orficers. What's the world a-comin' to at all!"

"You was in the line, sir, was you not?" asked the sergeant,
respectfully.

"The line?" cried the old man with shrill scorn. "Never wore a shako
in my life. I am a guardsman, I am. Served in the third guards--the
same they call now the Scots Guards. Lordy, but they have all marched
away, every man of them, from old Colonel Byng down to the drummer
boys, and here am I a straggler--that's what I am, sergeant, a
straggler! I'm here when I ought to be there. But it ain't my fault
neither, for I'm ready to fall in when the word comes."

"We've all got to muster there," answered the sergeant. "Won't you try
my baccy, sir?" handing over a sealskin pouch.

Old Brewster drew a blackened clay pipe from his pocket, and began to
stuff the tobacco into the bowl. In an instant it slipped through his
fingers, and was broken to pieces on the floor. His lip quivered, his
nose puckered up, and he began crying with the long, helpless sobs of
a child.

"I've broke my pipe," he cried.

"Don't, uncle, oh, don't," cried Norah, bending over him and patting
his white head as one soothes a baby. "It don't matter. We can easy
get another."

"Don't you fret yourself, sir," said the sergeant. "'Ere's a wooden
pipe with an amber mouth, if you'll do me the honour to accept it from
me. I'd be real glad if you will take it."

"Jimini!" cried he, his smiles breaking in an instant through his
tears. "It's a fine pipe. See to my new pipe, Norah. I lay that Jarge
never had a pipe like that. You've got your firelock there, sergeant."

"Yes, sir, I was on my way back from the butts when I looked in."

"Let me have the feel of it. Lordy, but it seems like old times to
have one's hand on a musket. What's the manual, sergeant, eh? Cock
your firelock--look to your priming--present your firelock--eh,
sergeant? Oh, Jimini! I've broke your musket in halves!"

"That's all right, sir," cried the gunner, laughing, "you pressed on
the lever and opened the breech-piece. That's where we load 'em, you
know."

"Load 'em at the wrong end! Well, well, to think o' that. And no
ramrod, neither! I've heered tell of it, but I never believed it
afore. Ah, it won't come up to Brown Bess. When there's work to be
done you mark my word and see if they don't come back to Brown Bess."

"By the Lord, sir," cried the sergeant, hotly. "They need some change
out in South Africa now. I see by this mornin's paper that the
Government has knuckled under to these Boers. They're hot about it, at
the non-com. mess, I can tell you, sir."

"Eh, eh," croaked old Brewster. "By Gosh! it wouldn't ha' done for the
Dook; the Dook would ha' had a word to say over that!"

"Ah, that he would, sir," cried the sergeant; "and God send us another
like him. But I've wearied you enough for one sitting. I'll look in
again, and I'll bring a comrade or two with me if I may, for there
isn't one but would be proud to have speech with you."

So, with another salute to the veteran, and a gleam of white teeth at
Norah, the big gunner withdrew, leaving a memory of blue cloth, and of
gold braid behind him. Many days had not passed, however, before he
was back again, and during all the long winter he was a frequent
visitor at Arsenal View. He brought others with him, and soon through
all the lines a pilgrimage to Daddy Brewster's came to be looked upon
as the proper thing to do. Gunners and sappers, linesmen and dragoons,
came bowing and bobbing into the little parlour, with clatter of side
arms, and clink of spurs, stretching their long legs across the
patchwork rug, and hunting in the front of their tunics for the screw
of tobacco, or paper of snuff, which they had brought as a sign of
their esteem.

It was a deadly cold winter, with six weeks on end of snow on the
ground, and Norah had a hard task to keep the life in that time-worn
body. There were times when his mind would leave him, and when, save
an animal outcry when his meals came round, no word would fall from
him. As the warm weather came once more, however, and the green buds
peeped forth again upon the trees, the blood thawed in his veins, and
he would even drag himself as far as the door to bask in the
life-giving sunshine.

"It do hearten me up so," he said one morning, as he glowed in a hot
May sun. "It's a job to keep back the flies, though! They get
owdacious in this weather and they do plague me cruel."

"I'll keep them off you, uncle," said Norah.

"Eh, but it's fine! This sunshine makes me think o' the glory to come.
You might read me a bit o' the Bible, lass. I find it wonderful
soothing."

"What part would you like, uncle?"

"Oh, them wars."

"The wars?"

"Ay, keep to the wars! Give me the Old Testament for ch'ice. There's
more taste to it, to my mind! When parson comes he wants to get off to
something else, but it's Joshua or nothing with me. Them Israelites
was good soldiers--good growed soldiers, all of 'em."

"But, uncle," pleaded Norah, "it's all peace in the next world."

"No, it ain't, gal."

"Oh yes, uncle, surely."

The old corporal knocked his stick irritably upon the ground.

"I tell ye it ain't, gal. I asked parson."

"Well, what did he say?"

"He said there was to be a last fight. He even gave it a name, he did.
The battle of Arm--Arm----"

"Armageddon."

"Ah, that's the name parson said. I 'specs the third guards'll be
there. And the Dook--the Dook'll have a word to say."

An elderly, grey-whiskered gentleman had been walking down the street,
glancing up at the numbers of the houses. Now, as his eyes fell upon
the old man, he came straight for him.

"Hullo," said he, "perhaps you are Gregory Brewster?"

"My name, sir," answered the veteran.

"You are the same Brewster, as I understand, who is on the roll of the
Scots Guards as having been present at the battle of Waterloo?"

"I am that man, sir, though we called it the third guards in those
days. It was a fine ridgment, and they only need me to make up a full
muster."

"Tut, tut, they'll have to wait years for that," said the gentleman
heartily; "but I am the colonel of the Scots Guards, and I thought I
would like to have a word with you."

Old Gregory Brewster was up in an instant with his hand to his
rabbit-skin cap.

"God bless me!" he cried, "to think of it; to think of it."

"Hadn't the gentleman better come in?" suggested the practical Norah
from behind the door.

"Surely, sir, surely; walk in, sir, if I may be so bold."

In his excitement he had forgotten his stick, and as he led the way
into the parlour, his knees tottered, and he threw out his hands. In
an instant the colonel had caught him on one side and Norah on the
other.

"Easy and steady," said the colonel as he led him to his arm-chair.

"Thank ye, sir; I was near gone that time. But Lordy, why, I can
scarce believe it. To think of me, the corporal of the flank company,
and you the colonel of the battalion. Jimini! how things come round,
to be sure."

"Why, we are very proud of you in London," said the colonel. "And so
you are actually one of the men who held Hougoumont?" He looked at the
bony, trembling hands with their huge, knotted knuckles, the stringy
throat, and the heaving, rounded shoulders. Could this, indeed, be the
last of that band of heroes? Then he glanced at the half-filled
phials, the blue liniment bottles, the long-spouted kettle, and the
sordid details of the sick-room. "Better, surely, had he died under
the blazing rafters of the Belgian farm-house," thought the colonel.

"I hope that you are pretty comfortable and happy," he remarked after
a pause.

"Thank ye, sir. I have a good deal of trouble with my toobes--a deal
of trouble. You wouldn't think the job it is to cut the phlegm. And I
need my rations. I gets cold without 'em. And the flies! I ain't
strong enough to fight against them."

"How's the memory?" asked the colonel.

"Oh, there ain't nothing amiss there. Why, sir, I could give you the
name of every man in Captain Haldane's flank company."

"And the battle--you remember it?"

"Why, I sees it all afore me every time I shuts my eyes. Lordy, sir,
you wouldn't hardly believe how clear it is to me. There's our line
from the paregoric bottle right along to the snuffbox. D'ye see? Well,
then, the pill-box is for Hougoumont on the right, where we was; and
Norah's thimble for La Haye Sainte. There it is all right, sir, and
here were our guns, and here, behind, the reserves and the Belgians.
Ach, them Belgians!" He spat furiously into the fire. "Then here's the
French where my pipe lies, and over here, where I put my baccy pouch,
was the Proosians a-comin' up on our left flank. Jimini! but it was a
glad sight to see the smoke of their guns."

"And what was it that struck you most, now, in connection with the
whole affair?" asked the colonel.

"I lost three half-crowns over it, I did," crooned old Brewster. "I
shouldn't wonder if I was never to get that money now. I lent 'em to
Jabez Smith, my rear rank man, in Brussels. 'Only till pay-day, Grig,'
says he. By Gosh! he was stuck by a lancer at Quarter Brass, and me
with not so much as a slip o' paper to prove the debt! Them three
half-crowns is as good as lost to me."

The colonel rose from his chair, laughing.

"The officers of the Guards want you to buy yourself some little
trifle which may add to your comfort," he said. "It is not from me, so
you need not thank me."

He took up the old man's tobacco pouch and slipped a crisp bank-note
inside it.

"Thank ye, kindly, sir. But there's one favour that I would like to
ask you, colonel."

"Yes, my man?"

"If I'm called, colonel, you won't grudge me a flag and a firing
party?"

"All right, my man, I'll see to it," said the colonel. "Good-bye; I
hope to have nothing but good news from you."

"A kind gentleman, Norah," croaked old Brewster, as they saw him walk
past the window; "but Lordy, he ain't fit to hold the stirrup o' my
Colonel Byng."

It was on the very next day that the corporal took a sudden change for
the worse. Even the golden sunlight streaming through the window
seemed unable to warm that withered frame. The doctor came and shook
his head in silence. All day the man lay with only his puffing blue
lips and the twitching of his scraggy neck to show that he still held
the breath of life. Norah and Sergeant Macdonald had sat by him in the
afternoon, but he had shown no consciousness of their presence. He lay
peacefully, his eyes half-closed, his hands under his cheek, as one
who is very weary.

They had left him for an instant, and were sitting in the front room
where Norah was preparing the tea, when of a sudden they heard a shout
that rang through the house. Loud and clear and swelling, it pealed in
their ears, a voice full of strength and energy and fiery passion.

"The guards need powder," it cried and yet again, "the guards need
powder."

The sergeant sprang from his chair and rushed in, followed by the
trembling Norah. There was the old man standing up, his blue eyes
sparkling, his white hair bristling, his whole figure towering and
expanding, with eagle head and glance of fire.

"The guards need powder," he thundered once again, "and by God they
shall have it!"

He threw up his long arms and sank back with a groan into his chair.
The sergeant stooped over him, and his face darkened.

"Oh, Archie, Archie," sobbed the frightened girl, "what do you think
of him?"

The sergeant turned away.

"I think," said he, "that the third guards have a full muster now."



THE POT OF CAVIARE

It was the fourth day of the siege. Ammunition and provisions were
both nearing an end. When the Boxer insurrection had suddenly flamed
up, and roared, like a fire in dry grass, across Northern China, the
few scattered Europeans in the outlying provinces had huddled together
at the nearest defensible post and had held on for dear life until
rescue came--or until it did not. In the latter case, the less said
about their fate the better. In the former, they came back into the
world of men with that upon their faces which told that they had
looked very closely upon such an end as would ever haunt their dreams.

Ichau was only fifty miles from the coast, and there was a European
squadron in the Gulf of Liantong. Therefore the absurd little
garrison, consisting of native Christians and railway men, with a
German officer to command them and five civilian Europeans to support
him, held on bravely with the conviction that help must soon come
sweeping down to them from the low hills to eastward. The sea was
visible from those hills, and on the sea were their armed countrymen.
Surely, then, they could not feel deserted. With brave hearts they
manned the loopholes in the crumbling brick walls outlining the tiny
European quarter, and they fired away briskly, if ineffectively, at
the rapidly advancing sangars of the Boxers. It was certain that in
another day or so they would be at the end of their resources, but
then it was equally certain that in another day or so they must be
relieved. It might be a little sooner or it might be a little later,
but there was no one who ever ventured to hint that the relief would
not arrive in time to pluck them out of the fire. Up to Tuesday night
there was no word of discouragement.

It was true that on Wednesday their robust faith in what was going
forward behind those eastern hills had weakened a little. The grey
slopes lay bare and unresponsive while the deadly sangars pushed ever
nearer, so near that the dreadful faces which shrieked imprecations at
them from time to time over the top could be seen in every hideous
feature. There was not so much of that now since young Ainslie, of the
Diplomatic service, with his neat little .303 sporting rifle, had
settled down in the squat church tower, and had devoted his days to
abating the nuisance. But a silent sangar is an even more impressive
thing than a clamorous one, and steadily, irresistibly, inevitably,
the lines of brick and rubble grew closer. Soon they would be so near
that one rush would assuredly carry the frantic swordsmen over the
frail entrenchment. It all seemed very black upon the Wednesday
evening. Colonel Dresler, the German ex-infantry soldier, went about
with an imperturbable face, but a heart of lead. Ralston, of the
railway, was up half the night writing farewell letters. Professor
Mercer, the old entomologist, was even more silent and grimly
thoughtful than ever. Ainslie had lost some of his flippancy. On the
whole, the ladies--Miss Sinclair, the nurse of the Scotch Mission,
Mrs. Patterson, and her pretty daughter Jessie--were the most composed
of the party. Father Pierre, of the French Mission, was also
unaffected, as was natural to one who regarded martyrdom as a glorious
crown. The Boxers yelling for his blood beyond the walls disturbed him
less than his forced association with the sturdy Scotch Presbyterian
presence of Mr. Patterson, with whom for ten years he had wrangled
over the souls of the natives. They passed each other now in the
corridors as dog passes cat, and each kept a watchful eye upon the
other lest even in the trenches he might filch some sheep from the
rival fold, whispering heresy in his ear.

But the Wednesday night passed without a crisis, and on the Thursday
all was bright once more. It was Ainslie up in the clock tower who had
first heard the distant thud of a gun. Then Dresler heard it, and
within half an hour it was audible to all--that strong iron voice,
calling to them from afar and bidding them to be of good cheer, since
help was coming. It was clear that the landing party from the squadron
was well on its way. It would not arrive an hour too soon. The
cartridges were nearly finished. Their half-rations of food would soon
dwindle to an even more pitiful supply. But what need to worry about
that now that relief was assured? There would be no attack that day,
as most of the Boxers could be seen streaming off in the direction of
the distant firing, and the long lines of sangars were silent and
deserted. They were all able, therefore, to assemble at the
lunch-table, a merry, talkative party, full of that joy of living
which sparkles most brightly under the imminent shadow of death.

"The pot of caviare!" cried Ainslie. "Come, Professor, out with the
pot of caviare!"

"Potz-tausend! yes," grunted old Dresler. "It is certainly time that
we had that famous pot."

The ladies joined in, and from all parts of the long, ill-furnished
table there came the demand for caviare.

It was a strange time to ask for such a delicacy, but the reason is
soon told. Professor Mercer, the old Californian entomologist, had
received a jar of caviare in a hamper of goods, arriving a day or two
before the outbreak. In the general pooling and distribution of
provisions this one dainty and three bottles of Lachryma Christi from
the same hamper had been excepted and set aside. By common consent
they were to be reserved for the final joyous meal when the end of
their peril should be in sight. Even as they sat the thud-thud of the
relieving guns came to their ears--more luxurious music to their lunch
than the most sybaritic restaurant of London could have supplied.
Before evening the relief would certainly be there. Why, then, should
their stale bread not be glorified by the treasured caviare?

But the Professor shook his gnarled old head and smiled his
inscrutable smile.

"Better wait," said he.

"Wait! Why wait?" cried the company.

"They have still far to come," he answered.

"They will be here for supper at the latest," said Ralston, of the
railway--a keen, bird-like man, with bright eyes and long, projecting
nose. "They cannot be more than ten miles from us now. If they only
did two miles an hour it would make them due at seven."

"There is a battle on the way," remarked the Colonel. "You will grant
two hours or three hours for the battle."

"Not half an hour," cried Ainslie. "They will walk through them as if
they were not there. What can these rascals with their matchlocks and
swords do against modern weapons?"

"It depends on who leads the column of relief," said Dresler. "If they
are fortunate enough to have a German officer----"

"An Englishman for my money!" cried Ralston.

"The French commodore is said to be an excellent strategist," remarked
Father Pierre.

"I don't see that it matters a toss," cried the exuberant Ainslie.
"Mr. Mauser and Mr. Maxim are the two men who will see us through, and
with them on our side no leader can go wrong. I tell you they will
just brush them aside and walk through them. So now, Professor, come
on with that pot of caviare!"

But the old scientist was unconvinced.

"We shall reserve it for supper," said he.

"After all," said Mr. Patterson, in his slow, precise Scottish
intonation, "it will be a courtesy to our guests--the officers of the
relief--if we have some palatable food to lay before them. I'm in
agreement with the Professor that we reserve the caviare for supper."

The argument appealed to their sense of hospitality. There was
something pleasantly chivalrous, too, in the idea of keeping their one
little delicacy to give a savour to the meal of their preservers.
There was no more talk of the caviare.

"By the way, Professor," said Mr. Patterson, "I've only heard to-day
that this is the second time that you have been besieged in this way.
I'm sure we should all be very interested to hear some details of your
previous experience."

The old man's face set very grimly.

"I was in Sung-tong, in South China, in 'eighty-nine," said he.

"It's a very extraordinary coincidence that you should twice have been
in such a perilous situation," said the missionary. "Tell us how you
were relieved at Sung-tong."

The shadow deepened upon the weary face.

"We were not relieved," said he.

"What! the place fell?"

"Yes, it fell."

"And you came through alive."

"I am a doctor as well as an entomologist. They had many wounded; they
spared me."

"And the rest?"

"Assez! assez!" cried the little French priest, raising his hand in
protest. He had been twenty years in China. The professor had said
nothing, but there was something, some lurking horror, in his dull,
grey eyes which had turned the ladies pale.

"I am sorry," said the missionary. "I can see that it is a painful
subject. I should not have asked."

"No," the Professor answered, slowly. "It is wiser not to ask. It is
better not to speak about such things at all. But surely those guns
are very much nearer?"

There could be no doubt of it. After a silence the thud-thud had
recommenced with a lively ripple of rifle-fire playing all round that
deep bass master-note. It must be just at the farther side of the
nearest hill. They pushed back their chairs and ran out to the
ramparts. The silent-footed native servants came in and cleared the
scanty remains from the table. But after they had left, the old
Professor sat on there, his massive, grey-crowned head leaning upon
his hands and the same pensive look of horror in his eyes. Some ghosts
may be laid for years, but when they do rise it is not so easy to
drive them back to their slumbers. The guns had ceased outside, but he
had not observed it, lost as he was in the one supreme and terrible
memory of his life.

His thoughts were interrupted at last by the entrance of the
Commandant. There was a complacent smile upon his broad German face.

"The Kaiser will be pleased," said he, rubbing his hands. "Yes,
certainly it should mean a decoration. 'Defence of Ichau against the
Boxers by Colonel Dresler, late Major of the 114th Hanoverian
Infantry. Splendid resistance of small garrison against overwhelming
odds.' It will certainly appear in the Berlin papers."

"Then you think we are saved?" said the old man, with neither emotion
nor exultation in his voice.

The Colonel smiled.

"Why, Professor," said he, "I have seen you more excited on the
morning when you brought back /Lepidus Mercerensis/ in your collecting
box."

"The fly was safe in my collecting-box first," the entomologist
answered. "I have seen so many strange turns of Fate in my long life
that I do not grieve nor do I rejoice until I know that I have cause.
But tell me the news."

"Well," said the Colonel, lighting his long pipe, and stretching his
gaitered legs in the bamboo chair, "I'll stake my military reputation
that all is well. They are advancing swiftly, the firing has died down
to show that resistance is at an end, and within an hour we'll see
them over the brow. Ainslie is to fire his gun three times from the
church tower as a signal, and then we shall make a little sally on our
own account."

"And you are waiting for this signal?"

"Yes, we are waiting for Ainslie's shots. I thought I would spend the
time with you, for I had something to ask you."

"What was it?"

"Well, you remember your talk about the other siege--the siege of
Sung-tong. It interests me very much from a professional point of
view. Now that the ladies and civilians are gone you will have no
objection to discussing it."

"It is not a pleasant subject."

"No, I dare say not. Mein Gott! it was indeed a tragedy. But you have
seen how I have conducted the defence here. Was it wise? Was it good?
Was it worthy of the traditions of the German army?"

"I think you could have done no more."

"Thank you. But this other place, was it as ably defended? To me a
comparison of this sort is very interesting. Could it have been
saved?"

"No; everything possible was done--save only one thing."

"Ah! there was one omission. What was it?"

"No one--above all, no woman--should have been allowed to fall alive
into the hands of the Chinese."

The Colonel held out his broad red hand and enfolded the long, white,
nervous fingers of the Professor.

"You are right--a thousand times right. But do not think that this has
escaped my thoughts. For myself I would die fighting, so would
Ralston, so would Ainslie. I have talked to them, and it is settled.
But the others, I have spoken with them, but what are you to do? There
are the priest, and the missionary, and the women?"

"Would they wish to be taken alive?"

"They would not promise to take steps to prevent it. They would not
lay hands upon their own lives. Their consciences would not permit it.
Of course, it is all over now, and we need not speak of such dreadful
things. But what would you have done in my place?"

"Kill them."

"Mein Gott! You would murder them!"

"In mercy I would kill them. Man, I have been through it. I have seen
the death of the hot eggs; I have seen the death of the boiling
kettle; I have seen the women--my God! I wonder that I have ever slept
sound again." His usually impassive face was working and quivering
with the agony of the remembrance. "I was strapped to a stake with
thorns in my eyelids to keep them open, and my grief at their torture
was a less thing than my self-reproach when I thought that I could
with one tube of tasteless tablets have snatched them at the last
instant from the hands of their tormentors. Murder! I am ready to
stand at the Divine bar and answer for a thousand murders such as
that! Sin! Why, it is such an act as might well cleanse the stain of
real sin from the soul. But if, knowing what I do, I should have
failed this second time to do it, then, by Heaven! there is no hell
deep enough or hot enough to receive my guilty craven spirit."

The Colonel rose, and again his hand clasped that of the Professor.

"You speak sense," said he. "You are a brave, strong man, who know
your own mind. Yes, by the Lord! you would have been my great help had
things gone the other way. I have often thought and wondered in the
dark, early hours of the morning, but I did not know how to do it. But
we should have heard Ainslie's shots before now; I will go and see."

Again the old scientist sat alone with his thoughts. Finally, as
neither the guns of the relieving force nor yet the signal of their
approach sounded upon his ears, he rose, and was about to go himself
upon the ramparts to make inquiry when the door flew open, and Colonel
Dresler staggered into the room. His face was of a ghastly
yellow-white, and his chest heaved like that of a man exhausted with
running. There was brandy on the side-table, and he gulped down a
glassful. Then he dropped heavily into a chair.

"Well," said the Professor, coldly, "they are not coming?"

"No, they cannot come."

There was silence for a minute or more, the two men staring blankly at
each other.

"Do they all know?"

"No one knows but me."

"How did you learn?"

"I was at the wall near the postern gate--a little wooden gate that
opens on the rose garden. I saw something crawling among the bushes.
There was a knocking at the door. I opened it. It was a Christian
Tartar, badly cut about with swords. He had come from the battle.
Commodore Wyndham, the Englishman, had sent him. The relieving force
had been checked. They had shot away most of their ammunition. They
had entrenched themselves and sent back to the ships for more. Three
days must pass before they could come. That was all. Mein Gott! it was
enough."

The Professor bent his shaggy grey brows.

"Where is the man?" he asked.

"He is dead. He died of loss of blood. His body lies at the postern
gate."

"And no one saw him?"

"Not to speak to."

"Oh! they did see him, then?"

"Ainslie must have seen him from the church tower. He must know that I
have had tidings. He will want to know what they are. If I tell him
they must all know."

"How long can we hold out?"

"An hour or two at the most."

"Is that absolutely certain?"

"I pledge my credit as a soldier upon it."

"Then we must fall?"

"Yes, we must fall."

"There is no hope for us?"

"None."

The door flew open and young Ainslie rushed in. Behind him crowded
Ralston, Patterson, and a crowd of white men and of native Christians.

"You've had news, Colonel?"

Professor Mercer pushed to the front.

"Colonel Dresler has just been telling me. It is all right. They have
halted, but will be here in the early morning. There is no longer any
danger."

A cheer broke from the group in the doorway. Everyone was laughing and
shaking hands.

"But suppose they rush us before to-morrow morning?" cried Ralston, in
a petulant voice. "What infernal fools these fellows are not to push
on! Lazy devils, they should be court-martialled, every man of them."

"It's all safe," said Ainslie. "These fellows have had a bad knock. We
can see their wounded being carried by the hundred over the hill. They
must have lost heavily. They won't attack before morning."

"No, no," said the Colonel; "it is certain that they won't attack
before morning. None the less, get back to your posts. We must give no
point away." He left the room with the rest, but as he did so he
looked back, and his eyes for an instant met those of the old
Professor. "I leave it in your hands," was the message which he
flashed.

A stern set smile was his answer.

The afternoon wore away without the Boxers making their last attack.
To Colonel Dresler it was clear that the unwonted stillness meant only
that they were reassembling their forces from their fight with the
relief column, and were gathering themselves for the inevitable and
final rush. To all the others it appeared that the siege was indeed
over, and that the assailants had been crippled by the losses which
they had already sustained. It was a joyous and noisy party,
therefore, which met at the supper-table, when the three bottles of
Lachryma Christi were uncorked and the famous pot of caviare was
finally opened. It was a large jar, and, though each had a
tablespoonful of the delicacy, it was by no means exhausted. Ralston,
who was an epicure, had a double allowance. He pecked away at it like
a hungry bird. Ainslie, too, had a second helping. The Professor took
a large spoonful himself, and Colonel Dresler, watching him narrowly,
did the same. The ladies ate freely, save only pretty Miss Patterson,
who disliked the salty, pungent taste. In spite of the hospitable
entreaties of the Professor, her portion lay hardly touched at the
side of her plate.

"You don't like my little delicacy. It is a disappointment to me when
I had kept it for your pleasure," said the old man. "I beg that you
will eat the caviare."

"I have never tasted it before. No doubt I should like it in time."

"Well, you must make a beginning. Why not start to educate your taste
now? Do, please!"

Pretty Jessie Patterson's bright face shone with her sunny, boyish
smile.

"Why, how earnest you are!" she laughed. "I had no idea you were so
polite, Professor Mercer. Even if I do not eat it I am just as
grateful."

"You are foolish not to eat it," said the Professor, with such
intensity that the smile died from her face and her eyes reflected the
earnestness of his own. "I tell you it is foolish not to eat caviare
to-night."

"But why--why?" she asked.

"Because you have it on your plate. Because it is sinful to waste it."

"There! there!" said stout Mrs. Patterson, leaning across. "Don't
trouble her any more. I can see that she does not like it. But it
shall not be wasted." She passed the blade of her knife under it, and
scraped it from Jessie's plate on to her own. "Now it won't be wasted.
Your mind will be at ease, Professor."

But it did not seem at ease. On the contrary his face was agitated
like that of a man who encounters an unexpected and formidable
obstacle. He was lost in thought.

The conversation buzzed cheerily. Everyone was full of his future
plans.

"No, no, there is no holiday for me," said Father Pierre. "We priests
don't get holidays. Now that the mission and school are formed I am to
leave it to Father Amiel, and to push westwards to found another."

"You are leaving?" said Mr. Patterson. "You don't mean that you are
going away from Ichau?"

Father Pierre shook his venerable head in waggish reproof. "You must
not look so pleased, Mr. Patterson."

"Well, well, our views are very different," said the Presbyterian,
"but there is no personal feeling towards you, Father Pierre. At the
same time, how any reasonable educated man at this time of the world's
history can teach these poor benighted heathen that----"

A general buzz of remonstrance silenced the theology.

"What will you do yourself, Mr. Patterson?" asked someone.

"Well, I'll take three months in Edinburgh to attend the annual
meeting. You'll be glad to do some shopping in Princes Street, I'm
thinking, Mary. And you, Jessie, you'll see some folk your own age.
Then we can come back in the fall, when your nerves have had a rest."

"Indeed, we shall all need it," said Miss Sinclair, the mission nurse.
"You know, this long strain takes me in the strangest way. At the
present moment I can hear such a buzzing in my ears."

"Well, that's funny, for it's just the same with me," cried Ainslie.
"An absurd up-and-down buzzing, as if a drunken bluebottle were trying
experiments on his register. As you say, it must be due to nervous
strain. For my part I am going back to Peking, and I hope I may get
some promotion over this affair. I can get good polo here, and that's
as fine a change of thought as I know. How about you, Ralston?"

"Oh, I don't know. I've hardly had time to think. I want to have a
real good sunny, bright holiday and forget it all. It was funny to see
all the letters in my room. It looked so black on Wednesday night that
I had settled up my affairs and written to all my friends. I don't
quite know how they were to be delivered, but I trusted to luck. I
think I will keep those papers as a souvenir. They will always remind
me of how close a shave we have had."

"Yes, I would keep them," said Dresler.

His voice was so deep and solemn that every eye was turned upon him.

"What is it, Colonel? You seem in the blues to-night." It was Ainslie
who spoke.

"No, no; I am very contented."

"Well, so you should be when you see success in sight. I am sure we
are all indebted to you for your science and skill. I don't think we
could have held the place without you. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you
to drink to the health of Colonel Dresler, of the Imperial German
Army. Er soll leben--hoch!"

They all stood up and raised their glasses to the soldier, with smiles
and bows.

His pale face flushed with professional pride.

"I have always kept my books with me. I have forgotten nothing," said
he. "I do not think that more could be done. If things had gone wrong
with us and the place had fallen you would, I am sure, have freed me
from any blame or responsibility." He looked wistfully round him.

"I'm voicing the sentiments of this company, Colonel Dresler," said
the Scotch minister, "when I say--but, Lord save us! what's amiss with
Mr. Ralston?"

He had dropped his face upon his folded arms and was placidly
sleeping.

"Don't mind him," said the Professor, hurriedly. "We are all in a
stage of reaction now. I have no doubt that we are all liable to
collapse. It is only to-night that we shall feel what we have gone
through."

"I'm sure I can fully sympathize with him," said Mrs. Patterson. "I
don't know when I have been more sleepy. I can hardly hold my own head
up." She cuddled back in her chair and shut her eyes.

"Well, I've never known Mary to do that before," cried her husband,
laughing heartily. "Gone to sleep over her supper! Whatever will she
think when we tell her of it afterwards? But the air does seem hot and
heavy. I can certainly excuse anyone who falls asleep to-night. I
think that I shall turn in early myself."

Ainslie was in a talkative, excited mood. He was on his feet once more
with his glass in his hand.

"I think that we ought to have one drink all together, and then sing
'Auld Lang Syne,'" said he, smiling round at the company. "For a week
we have all pulled in the same boat, and we've got to know each other
as people never do in the quiet days of peace. We've learned to
appreciate each other, and we've learned to appreciate each other's
nations. There's the Colonel here stands for Germany. And Father
Pierre is for France. Then there's the Professor for America. Ralston
and I are Britishers. Then there's the ladies, God bless 'em! They
have been angels of mercy and compassion all through the siege. I
think we should drink the health of the ladies. Wonderful thing--the
quiet courage, the patience, the--what shall I say?--the
fortitude--the--the--by George, look at the Colonel! He's gone to
sleep, too--most infernal sleepy weather." His glass crashed down upon
the table, and he sank back, mumbling and muttering, into his seat.
Miss Sinclair, the pale mission nurse, had dropped off also. She lay
like a broken lily across the arm of her chair. Mr. Patterson looked
round him and sprang to his feet. He passed his hand over his flushed
forehead.

"This isn't natural, Jessie," he cried. "Why are they all asleep?
There's Father Pierre--he's off too. Jessie, Jessie, your mother is
cold. Is it sleep? Is it death? Open the windows! Help! help! help!"
He staggered to his feet and rushed to the windows, but midway his
head spun round, his knees sank under him, and he pitched forward upon
his face.

The young girl had also sprung to her feet. She looked round her with
horror-stricken eyes at her prostrate father and the silent ring of
figures.

"Professor Mercer! What is it? What is it?" she cried. "Oh, my God,
they are dying! They are dead!"

The old man had raised himself by a supreme effort of his will, though
the darkness was already gathering thickly round him.

"My dear young lady," he said, stuttering and stumbling over the
words, "we would have spared you this. It would have been painless to
mind and body. It was cyanide. I had it in the caviare. But you would
not have it."

"Great Heaven!" She shrank away from him with dilated eyes. "Oh, you
monster! You monster! You have poisoned them!"

"No! no! I saved them. You don't know the Chinese. They are horrible.
In another hour we should all have been in their hands. Take it now,
child." Even as he spoke a burst of firing broke out under the very
windows of the room. "Hark! There they are! Quick, dear, quick, you
may cheat them yet!" But his words fell upon deaf ears, for the girl
had sunk back senseless in her chair. The old man stood listening for
an instant to the firing outside. But what was that? Merciful Father,
what was that? Was he going mad? Was it the effect of the drug? Surely
it was a European cheer? Yes, there were sharp orders in English.
There was the shouting of sailors. He could no longer doubt it. By
some miracle the relief had come after all. He threw his long arms
upwards in despair. "What have I done? Oh, good Lord, what /have/ I
done?" he cried.



It was Commodore Wyndham himself who was the first, after his
desperate and successful night attack, to burst into that terrible
supper-room. Round the table sat the white and silent company. Only in
the young girl who moaned and faintly stirred was any sign of life to
be seen. And yet there was one in the circle who had the energy for a
last supreme duty. The Commodore, standing stupefied at the door, saw
a grey head slowly lifted from the table, and the tall form of the
Professor staggered for an instant to its feet.

"Take care of the caviare! For God's sake don't touch the caviare!" he
croaked.

Then he sank back once more and the circle of death was complete.



THE GREEN FLAG

When Jack Conolly, of the Irish Shot-gun Brigade, the Rory of the
Hills Inner Circle, and the extreme left wing of the Land League, was
incontinently shot by Sergeant Murdoch of the constabulary, in a
little moonlight frolic near Kanturk, his twin-brother Dennis joined
the British Army. The countryside had become too hot for him; and, as
the seventy-five shillings were wanting which might have carried him
to America, he took the only way handy of getting himself out of the
way. Seldom has Her Majesty had a less promising recruit, for his hot
Celtic blood seethed with hatred against Britain and all things
British. The Sergeant, however, smiling complacently over his six feet
of brawn and his forty-four inch chest, whisked him off with a dozen
other of the boys to the depôt at Fermoy, whence in a few weeks they
were sent on, to the first battalion of the Royal Mallows, at the top
of the roster for foreign service.

The Royal Mallows, at about that date, were as strange a lot of men as
ever were paid by a great empire to fight its battles. It was the
darkest hour of the land struggle, when the one side came out with
crowbar and battering-ram by day, and the other with mask and with
shot-gun by night. Men driven from their homes and potato-patches
found their way even into the service of the Government, to which it
seemed to them they owed their troubles, and now and then they did
wild things before they came. There were recruits in the Irish
regiments who would forget to answer to their own names, so short had
been their acquaintance with them. Of these the Royal Mallows had
their full share; and, while they still retained their fame as being
one of the smartest corps in the Army, no one knew better than their
officers that they were dry-rotted with treason and with bitter hatred
of the flag under which they served.

And the centre of all the disaffection was C Company, in which Dennis
Conolly found himself enrolled. They were Celts, Catholics, and men of
the tenant classes to a man; and their whole experience of the British
Government had been an inexorable landlord, and a constabulary who
seemed to them to be always on the side of the rent-collector. Dennis
was not the only moonlighter in the ranks, nor was he alone in having
an intolerable family blood-feud to harden his heart. Savagery had
begotten savagery in that veiled civil war. A landlord with an iron
mortgage weighing down upon him had small bowels for his tenantry. He
did but take what the law allowed; and yet, with men like Jim Holan,
or Patrick McQuire, or Peter Flynn, who had seen the roofs torn from
their cottages and their folk huddled among their pitiable furniture
upon the roadside, it was ill to argue about abstract law. What matter
that in that long and bitter struggle there was many another outrage
on the part of the tenant, and many another grievance on the side of
the landowner! A stricken man can only feel his own wound, and the
rank and file of the C Company of the Royal Mallows were sore and
savage to the soul. There were low whisperings in barrack-rooms and
canteens, stealthy meetings in public-house parlours, bandying of
passwords from mouth to mouth, and many other signs which made their
officers right glad when the order came which sent them to foreign,
and better still to active, service.

For Irish regiments have before now been disaffected, and have at a
distance looked upon the foe as though he might, in truth, be the
friend; but when they have been put face on to him, and when their
officers have dashed to the front with a wave and halloo, those rebel
hearts have softened and their gallant Celtic blood has boiled with
the mad joy of the fight, until the slower Britons have marvelled that
they ever could have doubted the loyalty of their Irish comrades. So
it would be again, according to the officers, and so it would not be
if Dennis Conolly and a few others could have their way.



It was a March morning upon the eastern fringe of the Nubian desert.
The sun had not yet risen; but a tinge of pink flushed up as far as
the cloudless zenith, and the long strip of sea lay like a rosy ribbon
across the horizon. From the coast inland stretched dreary
sand-plains, dotted over with thick clumps of mimosa scrub and mottled
patches of thorny bush. No tree broke the monotony of that vast
desert. The dull, dusty hue of the thickets and the yellow glare of
the sand were the only colours, save at one point where, from a
distance, it seemed that a landslip of snow-white stones had shot
itself across a low foot-hill. But as the traveller approached he saw,
with a thrill, that these were no stones, but the bleaching bones of a
slaughtered army. With its dull tints, its gnarled viprous bushes, its
arid, barren soil, and this death streak trailed across it, it was
indeed a nightmare country.

Some eight or ten miles inland the rolling plain curved upwards with a
steeper slope until it ran into a line of red basaltic rock which
zigzagged from north to south, heaping itself up at one point into a
fantastic knoll. On the summit of this there stood upon that March
morning three Arab chieftains--the Sheik Kadra of the Hadendowas,
Moussa Wad Aburhegel, who led the Berber dervishes, and Hamid Wad
Hussein, who had come northward with his fighting men from the
land of the Baggaras. They had all three just risen from their
praying-carpets, and were peering out, with fierce, high-nosed faces
thrust forwards, at the stretch of country revealed by the spreading
dawn.

The red rim of the sun was pushing itself now above the distant sea,
and the whole coast-line stood out brilliantly yellow against the rich
deep blue beyond. At one spot lay a huddle of white-walled houses, a
mere splotch in the distance; while four tiny cock-boats, which lay
beyond, marked the position of three of Her Majesty's ten-thousand-ton
troopers and the Admiral's flagship. But it was not upon the distant
town, nor upon the great vessels, nor yet upon the sinister white
litter which gleamed in the plain beneath them, that the Arab
chieftains gazed. Two miles from where they stood, amid the sandhills
and the mimosa scrub, a great parallelogram had been marked by
piled-up bushes. From the inside of this dozens of tiny blue
smoke-reeks curled up into the still morning air; while there rose
from it a confused deep murmur, the voices of men and the gruntings of
camels blended into the same insect buzz.

"The unbelievers have cooked their morning food," said the Baggara
chief, shading his eyes with his tawny, sinewy hand. "Truly their
sleep has been but scanty; for Hamid and a hundred of his men have
fired upon them since the rising of the moon."

"So it was with these others," answered the Sheik Kadra, pointing with
his sheathed sword towards the old battlefield. "They also had a day
of little water and a night of little rest, and the heart was gone out
of them ere ever the sons of the Prophet had looked them in the eyes.
This blade drank deep that day, and will again before the sun has
travelled from the sea to the hill."

"And yet these are other men," remarked the Berber dervish. "Well, I
know that Allah has placed them in the clutch of our fingers, yet it
may be that they with the big hats will stand firmer than the cursed
men of Egypt."

"Pray Allah that it may be so," cried the fierce Baggara, with a flash
of his black eyes. "It was not to chase women that I brought seven
hundred men from the river to the coast. See, my brother, already
they are forming their array."

A fanfare of bugle-calls burst from the distant camp. At the same time
the bank of bushes at one side had been thrown or trampled down, and
the little army within began to move slowly out on to the plain. Once
clear of the camp they halted, and the slant rays of the sun struck
flashes from bayonet and from gun-barrel as the ranks closed up until
the big pith helmets joined into a single long white ribbon. Two
streaks of scarlet glowed on either side of the square, but elsewhere
the fringe of fighting-men was of the dull yellow khaki tint which
hardly shows against the desert sand. Inside their array was a dense
mass of camels and mules bearing stores and ambulance needs. Outside a
twinkling clump of cavalry was drawn up on each flank, and in front a
thin scattered line of mounted infantry was already slowly advancing
over the bush-strewn plain, halting on every eminence, and peering
warily round as men might who have to pick their steps among the bones
of those who have preceded them.

The three chieftains still lingered upon the knoll, looking down with
hungry eyes and compressed lips at the dark steel-tipped patch.

"They are slower to start than the men of Egypt," the Sheik of the
Hadendowas growled in his beard.

"Slower also to go back, perchance, my brother," murmured the dervish.
"And yet they are not many--three thousand at the most."

"And we ten thousand, with the Prophet's grip upon our spear-hafts and
his words upon our banner. See to their chieftain, how he rides upon
the right and looks up at us with the glass that sees from afar! It
may be that he sees this also." The Arab shook his sword at the small
clump of horsemen who had spurred out from the square.

"Lo! he beckons," cried the dervish; "and see those others at the
corner, how they bend and heave. Ha! by the Prophet, I had thought
it."

As he spoke a little woolly puff of smoke spurted up at the corner of
the square, and a seven-pound shell burst with a hard metallic smack
just above their heads. The splinters knocked chips from the red rocks
around them.

"Bismillah!" cried the Hadendowa; "if the gun can carry thus far, then
ours can answer to it. Ride to the left, Moussa, and tell Ben Ali to
cut the skin from the Egyptians if they cannot hit yonder mark. And
you, Hamid, to the right, and see that three thousand men lie close to
the wady that we have chosen. Let the others beat the drum and show
the banner of the Prophet; for by the black stone their spears will
have drunk deep ere they look upon the stars again."

A long, straggling, boulder-strewn plateau lay on the summit of the
red hills, sloping very precipitously to the plain, save at one point,
where a winding gully curved downwards, its mouth choked with
sand-mounds and olive-hued scrub. Along the edge of this position lay
the Arab host, a motley crew of shock-headed desert clansmen, fierce
predatory slave-dealers of the interior, and wild dervishes from the
Upper Nile, all blent together by their common fearlessness and
fanaticism. Two races were there, as wide as the poles apart, the
thin-lipped, straight-haired Arab, and the thick-lipped, curly negro;
yet the faith of Islam had bound them closer than a blood tie.
Squatting among the rocks, or lying thickly in the shadow, they peered
out at the slow-moving square beneath them, while women with
water-skins and bags of dhoora fluttered from group to group, calling
out to each other those fighting texts from the Koran which in the
hour of battle are maddening as wine to the true believer. A score of
banners waved over the ragged, valiant crew, and among them, upon
desert horses and white Bishareen camels, were the Emirs and Sheiks
who were to lead them against the infidels.

As the Sheik Kadra sprang into his saddle and drew his sword there was
a wild whoop and a clatter of waving spears, while the one-ended
war-drums burst into a dull crash like a wave upon shingle. For a
moment ten thousand men were up on the rocks with brandished arms and
leaping figures; the next they were under cover, again waiting sternly
and silently for their chieftain's orders. The square was less than
half a mile from the ridge now, and shell after shell from the
seven-pound guns was pitching over it. A deep roar on the right, and
then a second one showed that the Egyptian Krupps were in action.
Sheik Kadra's hawk eyes saw that the shells burst far beyond the mark,
and he spurred his horse along to where a knot of mounted chiefs were
gathered round the two guns, which were served by their captured
crews.

"How is this, Ben Ali?" he cried. "It was not thus that the dogs fired
when it was their own brothers in faith at whom they aimed!"

A chieftain reined his horse back, and thrust a blood-smeared sword
into its sheath. Beside him two Egyptian artillerymen with their
throats cut were sobbing out their lives upon the ground.

"Who lays the gun this time?" asked the fierce chief, glaring at the
frightened gunners. "Here, thou black-browed child of Shaitan, aim,
and aim for thy life."

It may have been chance, or it may have been skill, but the third and
fourth shells burst over the square. Sheik Kadra smiled grimly and
galloped back to the left, where his spearmen were streaming down into
the gulley. As he joined them a deep growling rose from the plain
beneath, like the snarling of a sullen wild beast, and a little knot
of tribesmen fell in a struggling heap, caught in the blast of lead
from a Gardner. Their comrades pressed on over them, and sprang down
into the ravine. From all the crest burst the hard sharp crackle of
Remington fire.

The square had slowly advanced, rippling over the low sandhills, and
halting every few minutes to rearrange its formation. Now, having made
sure that there was no force of the enemy in the scrub, it changed its
direction, and began to take a line parallel to the Arab position. It
was too steep to assail from the front, and if they moved far enough
to the right the General hoped that he might turn it. On the top of
those ruddy hills lay a baronetcy for him, and a few extra hundreds in
his pension, and he meant having them both that day. The Remington
fire was annoying, and so were those two Krupp guns: already there
were more cacolets full than he cared to see. But on the whole he
thought it better to hold his fire until he had more to aim at than a
few hundred of fuzzy heads peeping over a razor-back ridge. He was a
bulky, red-faced man, a fine whist-player, and a soldier who knew his
work. His men believed in him, and he had good reason to believe in
them, for he had excellent stuff under him that day. Being an ardent
champion of the short-service system, he took particular care to work
with veteran first battalions, and his little force was the compressed
essence of an army corps.

The left front of the square was formed by four companies of the Royal
Wessex, and the right by four of the Royal Mallows. On either side the
other halves of the same regiments marched in quarter column of
companies. Behind them, on the right, was a battalion of Guards, and
on the left one of Marines, while the rear was closed in by a Rifle
battalion. Two Royal Artillery seven-pound screw-guns kept pace with
the square, and a dozen white-bloused sailors, under their
blue-coated, tight-waisted officers, trailed their Gardner in front,
turning every now and then to spit up at the draggled banners which
waved over the cragged ridge. Hussars and Lancers scouted in the scrub
at each side, and within moved a clump of camels, with humorous eyes
and supercilious lips, their comic faces a contrast to the
blood-stained men who already lay huddled in the cacolets on either
side.

The square was now moving slowly on a line parallel with the rocks,
stopping every few minutes to pick up wounded, and to allow the
screw-guns and Gardner to make themselves felt. The men looked
serious, for that spring on to the rocks of the Arab army had given
them a vague glimpse of the number and ferocity of their foes; but
their faces were set like stone, for they knew to a man that they must
win or they must die--and die, too, in a particularly unlovely
fashion. But most serious of all was the General, for he had seen that
which brought a flush to his cheeks and a frown to his brow.

"I say, Stephen," said he to his galloper, "those Mallows seem a
trifle jumpy. The right flank company bulged a bit when the niggers
showed on the hill."

"Youngest troops in the square, sir," murmured the aide, looking at
them critically through his eye-glass.

"Tell Colonel Flanagan to see to it, Stephen," said the General; and
the galloper sped upon his way. The Colonel, a fine old Celtic
warrior, was over at C Company in an instant.

"How are the men, Captain Foley?"

"Never better, sir," answered the senior captain, in the spirit that
makes a Madras officer look murder if you suggest recruiting his
regiment from the Punjaub.

"Stiffen them up!" cried the Colonel. As he rode away a
colour-sergeant seemed to trip, and fell forward into a mimosa bush.

He made no effort to rise, but lay in a heap among the thorns.

"Sergeant O'Rooke's gone, sorr," cried a voice.

"Never mind, lads," said Captain Foley. "He's died like a soldier,
fighting for his Queen."

"To hell with the Queen!" shouted a hoarse voice from the ranks.

But the roar of the Gardner and the typewriter-like clicking of the
hopper burst in at the tail of the words. Captain Foley heard them,
and Subalterns Grice and Murphy heard them; but there are times when a
deaf ear is a gift from the gods.

"Steady, Mallows!" cried the Captain, in a pause of the grunting
machine-gun. "We have the honour of Ireland to guard this day."

"And well we know how to guard it, Captin!" cried the same ominous
voice; and there was a buzz from the length of the company.

The Captain and the two subs. came together behind the marching line.

"They seem a bit out of hand," murmured the Captain.

"Bedad," said the Galway boy, "they mean to scoot like redshanks."

"They nearly broke when the blacks showed on the hill," said Grice.

"The first man that turns, my sword is through him," cried Foley, loud
enough to be heard by five files on either side of him. Then, in a
lower voice, "It's a bitter drop to swallow, but it's my duty to
report what you think to the Chief and have a company of Jollies put
behind us." He turned away with the safety of the square upon his
mind, and before he had reached his goal the square had ceased to
exist.



In their march in front of what looked like a face of cliff, they had
come opposite to the mouth of the gully, in which, screened by scrub
and boulders, three thousand chosen dervishes, under Hamid Wad Hussein
of the Baggaras, were crouching. Tat, tat, tat, went the rifles of
three mounted infantrymen in front of the left shoulder of the square,
and an instant later they were spurring it for their lives, crouching
over the manes of their horses, and pelting over the sandhills with
thirty or forty galloping chieftains at their heels. Rocks and scrub
and mimosa swarmed suddenly into life. Rushing black figures came and
went in the gaps of the bushes. A howl that drowned the shouts of the
officers, a long quavering yell, burst from the ambuscade. Two rolling
volleys from the Royal Wessex, one crash from the screw-gun firing
shrapnel, and then before a second cartridge could be rammed in, a
living, glistening black wave tipped with steel, had rolled over the
gun, the Royal Wessex had been dashed back among the camels, and a
thousand fanatics were hewing and hacking in the heart of what had
been the square.

The camels and mules in the centre jammed more and more together as
their leaders flinched from the rush of the tribesmen, shut out the
view of the other three faces, who could only tell that the Arabs had
got in by the yells upon Allah, which rose ever nearer and nearer amid
the clouds of sand-dust, the struggling animals, and the dense mass of
swaying, cursing men. Some of the Wessex fired back at the Arabs who
had passed them, as excited Tommies will, and it is whispered among
doctors that it was not always a Remington bullet which was cut from a
wound that day. Some rallied in little knots, stabbing furiously with
their bayonets at the rushing spearmen. Others turned at bay with
their backs against the camels, and others round the General and his
staff, who, revolver in hand, had flung themselves into the heart of
it. But the whole square was sidling slowly away from the gorge,
pushed back by the pressure at the shattered corner.

The officers and men at the other faces were glancing nervously to
their rear, uncertain what was going on, and unable to take help to
their comrades without breaking the formation.

"By Jove, they've got through the Wessex!" cried Grice of the Mallows.

"The divils have hurrooshed us, Ted," said his brother subaltern,
cocking his revolver.

The ranks were breaking and crowding towards Private Conolly, all
talking together as the officers peered back through the veil of dust.
The sailors had run their Gardner out, and she was squirting death out
of her five barrels into the flank of the rushing stream of savages.

"Oh, this bloody gun!" shouted a voice. "She's jammed again." The
fierce metallic grunting had ceased, and her crew were straining and
hauling at the breech.

"This damned vertical feed!" cried an officer. "The spanner, Wilson,
the spanner! Stand to your cutlasses, boys, or they're into us."

His voice rose into a shriek as he ended, for a shovel-headed spear
had been buried in his chest. A second wave of dervishes lapped over
the hillocks, and burst upon the machine-gun and the right front of
the line. The sailors were overborne in an instant, but the Mallows,
with their fighting blood aflame, met the yell of the Moslem with an
even wilder, fiercer cry, and dropped two hundred of them with a
single point-blank volley. The howling, leaping crew swerved away to
the right and dashed on into the gap which had already been made for
them.

But C Company had drawn no trigger to stop that fiery rush. The men
leaned moodily upon their Martinis. Some had even thrown them upon the
ground. Conolly was talking fiercely to those about him. Captain
Foley, thrusting his way through the press, rushed up to him with a
revolver in his hand.

"This is your doing, you villain!" he cried.

"If you raise your pistol, Captain, your brains will be over your
coat," said a low voice at his side.

He saw that several rifles were turned on him. The two subs. had
pressed forward, and were by his side.

"What is it, then?" he cried, looking round from one fierce mutinous
face to another. "Are you Irishmen? Are you soldiers? What are you
here for but to fight for your country?"

"England is no country of ours," cried several.

"You are not fighting for England. You are fighting for Ireland, and
for the Empire of which it is part."

"A black curse on the Impire!" shouted Private McQuire, throwing down
his rifle. "'Twas the Impire that backed the man that druv me on to
the roadside. May me hand stiffen before I draw thrigger for it."

"What's the Impire to us, Captain Foley, and what's the Widdy to us,
ayther?" cried a voice.

"Let the constabulary foight for her."

"Ay, be God, they'd be better imployed than pullin' a poor man's
thatch about his ears."

"Or shootin' his brother, as they did mine."

"It was the Impire laid my groanin' mother by the wayside. Her son
will rot before he upholds it, and ye can put that in the charge-sheet
in the next coort-martial."

In vain the three officers begged, menaced, persuaded. The square was
still moving, ever moving, with the same bloody fight raging in its
entrails. Even while they had been speaking they had been shuffling
backwards, and the useless Gardner, with her slaughtered crew, was
already a good hundred yards from them. And the pace was accelerating.
The mass of men, tormented and writhing, was trying, by a common
instinct, to reach some clearer ground where they could re-form. Three
faces were still intact, but the fourth had been caved in and badly
mauled, without its comrades being able to help it. The Guards had met
a fresh rush of the Hadendowas, and had blown back the tribesmen with
a volley, and the Cavalry had ridden over another stream of them as
they welled out of the gully. A litter of hamstrung horses, and
haggled men behind them, showed that a spearman on his face among the
bushes can show some sport to the man who charges him. But, in spite
of all, the square was still reeling swiftly backwards, trying to
shake itself clear of this torment which clung to its heart. Would it
break, or would it re-form? The lives of five regiments and the honour
of the flag hung upon the answer.

Some, at least, were breaking. The C Company of the Mallows had lost
all military order, and was pushing back in spite of the haggard
officers, who cursed and shoved and prayed in the vain attempt to hold
them. Their Captain and the subs. were elbowed and jostled, while the
men crowded towards Private Conolly for their orders. The confusion
had not spread, for the other companies, in the dust and smoke and
turmoil, had lost touch with their mutinous comrades. Captain Foley
saw that even now there might be time to avert a disaster.

"Think what you are doing, man," he yelled, rushing towards the
ringleader. "There are a thousand Irish in the square, and they are
dead men if we break."

The words alone might have had little effect on the old moonlighter.
It is possible that, in his scheming brain, he had already planned how
he was to club his Irish together and lead them to the sea. But at
that moment the Arabs broke through the screen of camels which had
fended them off. There was a struggle, a screaming, a mule rolled
over, a wounded man sprang up in a cacolet with a spear through him,
and then through the narrow gap surged a stream of naked savages, mad
with battle, drunk with slaughter, spotted and splashed with
blood--blood dripping from their spears, their arms, their faces.
Their yells, their bounds, their crouching, darting figures, the
horrid energy of their spear-thrusts, made them look like a blast of
fiends from the pit. And were these the Allies of Ireland? Were these
the men who were to strike for her against her enemies? Conolly's soul
rose up in loathing at the thought.

He was a man of firm purpose, and yet at the first sight of those
howling fiends that purpose faltered, and at the second it was blown
to the winds. He saw a huge coal-black negro seize a shrieking
camel-driver and saw at his throat with a knife. He saw a shock-headed
tribesman plunge his great spear through the back of their own little
bugler from Millstreat. He saw a dozen deeds of blood--the murder of
the wounded, the hacking of the unarmed--and caught, too, in a glance,
the good wholesome faces of the faced-about rear rank of the Marines.
The Mallows, too, had faced about, and in an instant Conolly had
thrown himself into the heart of C Company, striving with the officers
to form the men up with their comrades.

But the mischief had gone too far. The rank and file had no heart in
their work. They had broken before, and this last rush of murderous
savages was a hard thing for broken men to stand against. They
flinched from the furious faces and dripping forearms. Why should they
throw away their lives for a flag for which they cared nothing? Why
should their leader urge them to break, and now shriek to them to
re-form? They would not re-form. They wanted to get to the sea and to
safety. He flung himself among them with outstretched arms, with words
of reason, with shouts, with gaspings. It was useless; the tide was
beyond his control. They were shredding out into the desert with their
faces set for the coast.

"Bhoys, will ye stand for this?" screamed a voice. It was so ringing,
so strenuous, that the breaking Mallows glanced backwards. They were
held by what they saw. Private Conolly had planted his rifle-stock
downwards in a mimosa bush. From the fixed bayonet there fluttered a
little green flag with the crownless harp. God knows for what black
mutiny, for what signal of revolt, that flag had been treasured up
within Conolly's tunic! Now its green wisp stood amid the rush while
three proud regimental colours were reeling slowly backwards.

"What for the flag?" yelled the private.

"My heart's blood for it! and mine! and mine!" cried a score of
voices. "God bless it! The flag, boys--the flag!"

C Company were rallying upon it. The stragglers clutched at each
other, and pointed. "Here, McQuire, Flynn, O'Hara," ran the shoutings.
"Close on the flag! Back to the flag!" The three standards reeled
backwards, and the seething square strove for a clearer space where
they could form their shattered ranks; but C Company, grim and
powder-stained, choked with enemies and falling fast, still closed in
on the little rebel ensign that flapped from the mimosa bush.

It was a good half-hour before the square, having disentangled itself
from its difficulties and dressed its ranks, began to slowly move
forwards over the ground across which in its labour and anguish it had
been driven. The long trail of Wessex men and Arabs showed but too
clearly the path they had come.

"How many got into us, Stephen?" asked the General, tapping his
snuff-box.

"I should put them down at a thousand or twelve hundred, sir."

"I did not see any get out again. What the devil were the Wessex
thinking about? The Guards stood well, though; so did the Mallows."

"Colonel Flanagan reports that his front flank company was cut off,
sir."

"Why, that's the Company that was out of hand when we advanced!"

"Colonel Flanagan reports, sir, that the Company took the whole brunt
of the attack, and gave the square time to re-form."

"Tell the Hussars to ride forward, Stephen," said the General, "and
try if they can see anything of them. There's no firing, and I fear
that the Mallows will want to do some recruiting. Let the square take
ground by the right, and then advance!"

But the Sheik Kadra of the Hadendowas saw from his knoll that the men
with the big hats had rallied, and that they were coming back in the
quiet business fashion of men whose work was before them. He took
counsel with Moussa the Dervish and Hussein the Baggara, and a
woestruck man was he when he learned that the third of his men were
safe in the Moslem Paradise. So, having still some signs of victory to
show, he gave the word, and the desert warriors flitted off unseen and
unheard, even as they had come.

A red rock plateau, a few hundred spears and Remingtons, and a plain
which for the second time was strewed with slaughtered men, was all
that his day's fighting gave to the English General.

It was a squadron of Hussars which came first to the spot where the
rebel flag had waved. A dense litter of Arab dead marked the place.
Within the flag waved no longer, but the rifle still stood in the
mimosa bush, and round it, with their wounds in front, lay the Fenian
private and the silent ranks of his Irishry. Sentiment is not an
English failing, but the Hussar Captain raised his hilt in a salute as
he rode past the blood-soaked ring.



The British General sent home dispatches to his Government, and so did
the Chief of the Hadendowas to his, though the style and manner
differed somewhat in each. "The Sheik Kadra of the Hadendowa people to
Mohammed Ahmed, the chosen of Allah, homage and greeting," began the
latter. "Know by this that on the fourth day of this moon we gave
battle to the Kaffirs who call themselves Inglees, having with us the
chief Hussein with ten thousand of the faithful. By the blessing of
Allah we have broken them, and chased them for a mile, though indeed
these infidels are different from the dogs of Egypt, and have slain
very many of our men. Yet we hope to smite them again ere the new moon
be come, to which end I trust that thou wilt send us a thousand
Dervishes from Omdurman. In token of our victory I send you by this
messenger a flag which we have taken. By the colour it might well seem
to have belonged to those of the true faith, but the Kaffirs gave
their blood freely to save it, and so we think that, though small, it
is very dear to them."



THE THREE CORRESPONDENTS

There was only the one little feathery clump of dôm plants in all that
great wilderness of black rocks and orange sand. It stood high on the
bank, and below it the brown Nile swirled swiftly towards the Ambigole
Cataract, fitting a little frill of foam round each of the boulders
which studded its surface. Above, out of a naked blue sky, the sun was
beating down upon the sand, and up again from the sand under the brims
of the pith-hats of the horsemen with the scorching glare of a
blast-furnace. It had risen so high that the shadows of the horses
were no larger than themselves.

"Whew!" cried Mortimer, mopping his forehead, "you'd pay five
shillings for this at the hummums."

"Precisely," said Scott. "But you are not asked to ride twenty miles
in a Turkish bath with a field-glass and a revolver, and a
water-bottle and a whole Christmas-treeful of things dangling from
you. The hot-house at Kew is excellent as a conservatory, but not
adapted for exhibitions upon the horizontal bar. I vote for a camp in
the palm-grove and a halt until evening."

Mortimer rose in his stirrups and looked hard to the southward.
Everywhere were the same black burned rocks and deep orange sand. At
one spot only an intermittent line appeared to have been cut through
the rugged spurs which ran down to the river. It was the bed of the
old railway, long destroyed by the Arabs, but now in process of
reconstruction by the advancing Egyptians. There was no other sign of
man's handiwork in all that desolate scene.

"It's palm trees or nothing," said Scott.

"Well, I suppose we must; and yet I grudge every hour until we catch
the force up. What /would/ our editors say if we were late for the
action?"

"My dear chap, an old bird like you doesn't need to be told that no
sane modern general would ever attack until the Press is up."

"You don't mean that?" said young Anerley. "I thought we were looked
upon as an unmitigated nuisance."

"'Newspaper correspondents and travelling gentlemen, and all that
tribe of useless drones'--being an extract from Lord Wolseley's
/Soldier's Pocket-Book/," cried Scott. "We know all about /that/,
Anerley;" and he winked behind his blue spectacles. "If there was
going to be a battle we should very soon have an escort of cavalry to
hurry us up. I've been in fifteen, and I never saw one where they had
not arranged for a reporter's table."

"That's very well; but the enemy may be less considerate," said
Mortimer.

"They are not strong enough to force a battle."

"A skirmish, then?"

"Much more likely to be a raid upon the rear. In that case we are just
where we should be."

"So we are! What a score over Reuter's man up with the advance! Well,
we'll outspan and have our tiffin under the palms."

There were three of them, and they stood for three great London
dailies. Reuter's was thirty miles ahead; two evening pennies upon
camels were twenty miles behind. And among them they represented the
eyes and ears of the public--the great silent millions and millions
who paid for everything, and who waited so patiently to know the
result of their outlay.

They were remarkable men, these body-servants of the Press; two of
them already veterans in camps, the other setting out upon his first
campaign, and full of deference for his famous comrades.

This first one, who had just dismounted from his bay polo-pony, was
Mortimer, of the /Intelligence/--tall, straight, and hawk-faced, with
khaki tunic and riding-breeches, drab putties, a scarlet cummerbund,
and a skin tanned to the red of a Scotch fir by sun and wind, and
mottled by the mosquito and the sand-fly. The other--small, quick,
mercurial, with blue-black curling beard and hair, a fly-switch for
ever flicking his left hand--was Scott, of the /Courier/, who had come
through more dangers and brought off more brilliant /coups/ than any
man in the profession, save the eminent Chandler, now no longer in a
condition to take the field. They were a singular contrast, Mortimer
and Scott, and it was in their differences that the secret of their
close friendship lay. Each dovetailed into the other. The strength of
each was in the other's weakness. Together they formed a perfect unit.
Mortimer was Saxon--slow, conscientious, and deliberate; Scott was
Celtic--quick, happy-go-lucky, and brilliant. Mortimer was the more
solid, Scott the more attractive. Mortimer was the deeper thinker,
Scott the brighter talker. By a curious coincidence, though each had
seen much of warfare, their campaigns had never coincided. Together
they had covered all recent military history. Scott had done Plevna,
the Shipka, the Zulus, Egypt, Suakim; Mortimer had seen the Boer War,
the Chilian, the Bulgarian and Servian, the Gordon relief, the Indian
frontier, Brazilian rebellion, and Madagascar. This intimate personal
knowledge gave a peculiar flavour to their talk. There was none of the
second-hand surmise and conjecture which form so much of our
conversation; it was all concrete and final. The speaker had been
there, had seen it, and there was an end of it.

In spite of their friendship there was the keenest professional
rivalry between the two men. Either would have sacrificed himself to
help his companion, but either would also have sacrificed his
companion to help his paper. Never did a jockey yearn for a winning
mount as keenly as each of them longed to have a full column in a
morning edition whilst every other daily was blank. They were
perfectly frank about the matter. Each professed himself ready to
steal a march on his neighbour, and each recognized that the other's
duty to his employer was far higher than any personal consideration.

The third man was Anerley, of the /Gazette/--young, inexperienced, and
rather simple-looking. He had a droop of the lip which some of his
more intimate friends regarded as a libel upon his character, and his
eyes were so slow and sleepy that they suggested an affectation. A
leaning toward soldiering had sent him twice to autumn manoeuvres, and
a touch of colour in his descriptions had induced the proprietors of
the /Gazette/ to give him a trial as a war-special. There was a
pleasant diffidence about his bearing which recommended him to his
experienced companions, and if they had a smile sometimes at his
guileless ways, it was soothing to them to have a comrade from whom
nothing was to be feared. From the day that they left the
telegraph-wire behind them at Sarras, the man who was mounted upon a
fifteen-guinea thirteen-four Syrian was delivered over into the hands
of the owners of the two fastest polo-ponies that ever shot down the
Ghezireh ground.

The three had dismounted and led their beasts under the welcome shade.
In the brassy, yellow glare every branch above threw so black and
solid a shadow that the men involuntarily raised their feet to step
over them.

"The palm makes an excellent hat-rack," said Scott, slinging his
revolver and his water-bottle over the little upward-pointing pegs
which bristled from the trunk. "As a shade-tree, however, it isn't an
unqualified success. Curious that in the universal adaptation of means
to ends something a little less flimsy could not have been devised for
the tropics."

"Like the banyan in India."

"Or the fine hardwood trees in Ashantee, where a whole regiment could
picnic under the shade."

"The teak tree isn't bad in Burmah, either. By Jove, the baccy has all
come loose in the saddle-bag! That long-cut mixture smokes rather hot
for this climate. How about the baggles, Anerley?"

"They'll be here in five minutes."

Down the winding path which curved among the rocks the little train of
baggage-camels was daintily picking its way. They came mincing and
undulating along, turning their heads slowly from side to side with
the air of a self-conscious woman. In front rode the three Berberee
body-servants upon donkeys, and behind walked the Arab camel-boys.
They had been travelling for nine long hours, ever since the first
rising of the moon, at the weary camel-drag of two and a half miles an
hour, but now they brightened, both beasts and men, at the sight of
the grove and the riderless horses. In a few minutes the loads were
unstrapped, the animals tethered, a fire lighted, fresh water carried
up from the river, and each camel provided with his own little heap of
tibbin laid in the centre of the tablecloth, without which no
well-bred Arabian will condescend to feed. The dazzling light without,
the subdued half-tones within, the green palm-fronds outlined against
the deep blue sky, the flitting, silent-footed Arab servants, the
crackling of sticks, the reek of a lighting fire, the placid
supercilious heads of the camels, they all come back in their dreams
to those who have known them.

Scott was breaking eggs into a pan and rolling out a love-song in his
rich, deep voice. Anerley, with his head and arms buried in a deal
packing-case, was working his way through strata of tinned soups,
bully beef, potted chicken and sardines to reach the jams which lay
beneath. The conscientious Mortimer, with his note-book upon his knee,
was jotting down what the railway engineer had told him at the
line-end the day before. Suddenly he raised his eyes and saw the man
himself on his chestnut pony, dipping and rising over the broken
ground.

"Hullo! here's Merryweather!"

"A pretty lather his pony is in! He's had her at that hand-gallop for
hours, by the look of her. Hullo, Merryweather, hullo!"

The engineer, a small, compact man with a pointed red beard, had made
as though he would ride past their camp without word or halt. Now he
swerved, and easing his pony down to a canter, he headed her towards
them.

"For God's sake, a drink!" he croaked. "My tongue is stuck to the roof
of my mouth."

Mortimer ran with the water-bottle, Scott with the whisky-flask, and
Anerley with the tin pannikin. The engineer drank until his breath
failed him.

"Well, I must be off," said he, striking the drops from his red
moustache.

"Any news?"

"A hitch in the railway construction. I must see the General. It's the
devil not having a telegraph."

"Anything we can report?" Out came three notebooks.

"I'll tell you after I've seen the General."

"Any dervishes?"

"The usual shaves. Hud-up, Jinny! Good-bye."

With a soft thudding upon the sand and a clatter among the stones the
weary pony was off upon her journey once more.

"Nothing serious, I suppose?" said Mortimer, staring after him.

"Deuced serious," cried Scott. "The ham and eggs are burned! No--it's
all right--saved, and one to a turn! Pull the box up, Anerley. Come
on, Mortimer, stow that note-book! The fork is mightier than the pen
just at present. What's the matter with you, Anerley?"

"I was wondering whether what we have just seen was worth a telegram."

"Well, it's for the proprietors to say if it's worth it. Sordid money
considerations are not for us. We must wire about something just to
justify our khaki coats and our putties."

"But what is there to say?"

Mortimer's long, austere face broke into a smile over the youngster's
innocence. "It's not quite usual in our profession to give each other
tips," said he. "However, as my telegram is written, I've no objection
to your reading it. You may be sure that I would not show it to you if
it were of the slightest importance."

Anerley took up the slip of paper and read--

"Merryweather obstacles stop journey confer General stop nature
difficulties later stop rumours dervishes."

"That is very condensed," said Anerley, with wrinkled brows.

"Condensed!" cried Scott. "Why, it's sinfully garrulous. If my old man
got a wire like that his language would crack the lamp-shades. I'd cut
out half this; for example, I'd have out 'journey,' and 'nature,' and
'rumours.' But my old man would make a ten-line paragraph of it for
all that."

"How?"

"Well, I'll do it myself just to show you. Lend me that stylo." He
scribbled for a minute in his notebook. "It works out somewhat on
these lines--

"'Mr. Charles H. Merryweather, the eminent railway engineer, who is at
present engaged in superintending the construction of the line from
Sarras to the front, has met with considerable obstacles to the rapid
completion of his important task'--of course the old man knows who
Merryweather is, and what he is about, so the word 'obstacles' would
suggest all that to him. 'He has to-day been compelled to make a
journey of forty-miles to the front in order to confer with the
General upon the steps which are necessary in order to facilitate the
work. Further particulars of the exact nature of the difficulties met
with will be made public at a later date. All is quiet upon the line
of communications, though the usual persistent rumours of the presence
of dervishes in the Eastern desert continue to circulate.--/Our own
Correspondent./'

"How's that?" cried Scott, triumphantly, and his white teeth gleamed
suddenly through his black beard. "That's the sort of flapdoodle for
the dear old public."

"Will it interest them?"

"Oh, everything interests them. They want to know all about it; and
they like to think that there is a man who is getting a hundred a
month simply in order to tell it to them."

"It's very kind of you to teach me all this."

"Well, it is a little unconventional, for, after all, we are here to
score over each other if we can. There are no more eggs, and you must
take it out in jam. Of course, as Mortimer says, such a telegram as
this is of no importance one way or another, except to prove to the
office that we /are/ in the Soudan and not at Monte Carlo. But when it
comes to serious work it must be every man for himself."

"Is that quite necessary?"

"Why, of course it is."

"I should have thought if three men were to combine and to share their
news, they would do better than if they were each to act for himself;
and they would have a much pleasanter time of it."

The two older men sat with their bread-and-jam in their hands, and an
expression of genuine disgust upon their faces.

"We are not here to have a pleasant time," said Mortimer, with a flash
through his glasses. "We are here to do our best for our papers. How
can they score over each other if we do not do the same. If we all
combine we might as well amalgamate with Reuter at once."

"Why, it would take away the whole glory of the profession!" cried
Scott. "At present the smartest man gets his stuff first on the wires.
What inducement is there to be smart if we all share and share alike."

"And at present the man with the best equipment has the best chance,"
remarked Mortimer, glancing across at the shot-silk polo-ponies and
the cheap little Syrian grey. "That is the fair reward of foresight
and enterprise. Every man for himself, and let the best man win."

"That's the way to find who the best man is. Look at Chandler. He
would never have got his chance if he had not played always off his
own bat. You've heard how he pretended to break his leg, sent his
fellow-correspondent off for the doctor, and so got a fair start for
the telegraph-office."

"Do you mean to say that was legitimate?"

"Everything is legitimate. It's your wits against my wits."

"I should call it dishonourable."

"You may call it what you like. Chandler's paper got the battle and
the other's didn't. It made Chandler's name."

"Or take Westlake," said Mortimer, cramming the tobacco into his pipe.
"Hi, Abdul, you may have the dishes! Westlake brought his stuff down
by pretending to be the Government courier, and using the relays of
the Government's horses. Westlake's paper sold half a million."

"Is that legitimate also?" asked Anerley, thoughtfully.

"Why not?"

"Well, it looks a little like horse-stealing and lying."

"Well, /I/ think I should do a little horse-stealing and lying if I
could have a column to myself in a London daily. What do you say,
Scott?"

"Anything short of manslaughter."

"And I'm not sure that I'd trust you there."

"Well, I don't think I should be guilty of newspaper-man-slaughter.
That I regard as a distinct breach of professional etiquette. But if
any outsider comes between a highly-charged correspondent and an
electric wire, he does it at his peril. My dear Anerley, I tell you
frankly that if you are going to handicap yourself with scruples you
may just as well be in Fleet Street as in the Soudan. Our life is
irregular. Our work has never been systematized. No doubt it will be
some day, but the time is not yet. Do what you can and how you can,
and be first on the wires; that's my advice to you; and also, that
when next you come upon a campaign you bring with you the best horse
that money can buy. Mortimer may beat me or I may beat Mortimer, but
at least we know that between us we have the fastest ponies in the
country. We have neglected no chance."

"I am not so certain of that," said Mortimer, slowly. "You are aware,
of course, that though a horse beats a camel on twenty miles, a camel
beats a horse on thirty."

"What, one of those camels?" cried Anerley in astonishment.

"No, no, the real high-bred trotter--the kind of beast the dervishes
ride when they make their lightning raids."

"Faster than a galloping horse?"

"Well, it tires a horse down. It goes the same gait all the way, and
it wants neither halt nor drink, and it takes rough ground much better
than a horse. They used to have long distance races at Haifa, and the
camel always won at thirty."

"Still, we need not reproach ourselves, Scott, for we are not very
likely to have to carry a thirty-mile message. They will have the
field telegraph next week."

"Quite so. But at the present moment----"

"I know, my dear chap; but there is no motion of urgency before the
house. Load baggles at five o'clock; so you have just three hours
clear. Any sign of the evening pennies?"

Mortimer swept the northern horizon with his binoculars.

"Not in sight yet."

"They are quite capable of travelling during the heat of the day. Just
the sort of thing evening pennies /would/ do. Take care of your match,
Anerley. These palm-groves go up like a powder magazine if you set
them alight. Bye-bye." The two men crawled under their mosquito-nets
and sank instantly into the easy sleep of those whose lives are spent
in the open.

Young Anerley stood with his back against a palm tree and his briar
between his lips, thinking over the advice which he had received.
After all, they were the heads of the profession, these men, and it
was not for him, the newcomer, to reform their methods. If they served
their papers in this fashion, then he must do the same. They had at
least been frank and generous in teaching him the rules of the game.
If it was good enough for them it was good enough for him.

It was a broiling afternoon, and those thin frills of foam round the
black, glistening necks of the Nile boulders looked delightfully cool
and alluring. But it would not be safe to bathe for some hours to
come. The air shimmered and vibrated over the baking stretch of sand
and rock. There was not a breath of wind, and the droning and piping
of the insects inclined one for sleep. Somewhere above a hoopoe was
calling. Anerley knocked out his ashes, and was turning towards his
couch, when his eye caught something moving in the desert to the
south.

It was a horseman riding towards them as swiftly as the broken ground
would permit. A messenger from the army, thought Anerley; and then, as
he watched, the sun suddenly struck the man on the side of the head,
and his chin flamed into gold. There could not be two horsemen with
beards of such a colour. It was Merryweather, the engineer, and he was
returning. What on earth was he returning for? He had been so keen to
see the General, and yet he was coming back with his mission
unaccomplished. Was it that his pony was hopelessly foundered? It
seemed to be moving well. Anerley picked up Mortimer's binoculars, and
a foam-spattered horse and a weary koorbash-cracking man came
cantering up the centre of the field. But there was nothing in his
appearance to explain the mystery of his return.

Then as he watched them they dipped down into a hollow and
disappeared. He could see that it was one of those narrow khors which
led to the river, and he waited, glass in hand, for their immediate
reappearance. But minute passed after minute and there was no sign of
them. That narrow gully appeared to have swallowed them up. And then
with a curious gulp and start he saw a little grey cloud wreathe
itself slowly from among the rocks and drift in a long, lazy shred
over the desert. In an instant he had torn Scott and Mortimer from
their slumbers.

"Get up, you chaps!" he cried. "I believe Merryweather has been shot
by dervishes."

"And Reuter not here!" cried the two veterans, exultantly clutching at
their note-books. "Merryweather shot! Where? When? How?"

In a few words Anerley explained what he had seen.

"You heard nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Well, a shot loses itself very easily among rocks. By George, look at
the buzzards!"

Two large brown birds were soaring in the deep blue heaven. As Scott
spoke they circled down and dropped into the little khor.

"That's good enough," said Mortimer, with his nose between the leaves
of his book. "'Merryweather headed dervishes stop returned stop shot
mutilated stop raid communications.' How's that?"

"You think he was headed off?"

"Why else should he return?"

"In that case, if they were out in front of him and others cut him
off, there must be several small raiding-parties."

"I should judge so."

"How about the 'mutilated'?"

"I've fought against Arabs before."

"Where are you off to?"

"Sarras."

"I think I'll race you in," said Scott.

Anerley stared in astonishment at the absolutely impersonal way in
which these men regarded the situation. In their zeal for news it had
apparently never struck them that they, their camp and their servants,
were all in the lion's mouth. But even as they talked there came the
harsh, importunate rat-tat-tat of an irregular volley from among the
rocks, and the high, keening whistle of bullets over their heads. A
palm spray fluttered down amongst them. At the same instant the six
frightened servants came running wildly in for protection.

It was the cool-headed Mortimer who organized the defence, for Scott's
Celtic soul was so aflame at all this "copy" in hand and more to come,
that he was too exuberantly boisterous for a commander. The other,
with his spectacles and his stern face, soon had the servants in hand.

"/Tali henna! Egri!/ What the deuce are you frightened about? Put the
camels between the palm trunks. That's right. Now get the knee-tethers
on them. /Quies!/ Did you never hear bullets before? Now put the
donkeys here. Not much--you don't get my polo-pony to make a zareba
with. Picket the ponies between the grove and the river out of
danger's way. These fellows seem to fire even higher than they did in
'85."

"That's got home, anyhow," said Scott, as they heard a soft, splashing
thud like a stone in a mud-bank.

"Who's hit, then?"

"The brown camel that's chewing the cud."

As he spoke the creature, its jaw still working, laid its long neck
along the ground and closed its large dark eyes.

"That shot cost me fifteen pounds," said Mortimer, ruefully. "How many
of them do you make?"

"Four, I think."

"Only four Bezingers, at any rate; there may be some spearmen."

"I think not; it is a little raiding-party of riflemen. By the way,
Anerley, you've never been under fire before, have you?"

"Never," said the young pressman, who was conscious of a curious
feeling of nervous elation.

"Love and poverty and war, they are all experiences necessary to make
a complete life. Pass over those cartridges. This is a very mild
baptism that you are undergoing, for behind these camels you are as
safe as if you were sitting in the back room of the Authors' Club."

"As safe, but hardly as comfortable," said Scott. "A long glass of
hock and seltzer would be exceedingly acceptable. But oh, Mortimer,
what a chance! Think of the General's feelings when he hears that the
first action of the war has been fought by the Press column. Think of
Reuter, who has been stewing at the front for a week! Think of the
evening pennies just too late for the fun! By George, that slug
brushed a mosquito off me!"

"And one of the donkeys is hit."

"This is sinful. It will end in our having to carry our own kits to
Khartoum."

"Never mind, my boy, it all goes to make copy. I can see the
headlines--'Raid on Communications'; 'Murder of British Engineer';
'Press Column Attacked.' Won't it be ripping?"

"I wonder what the next line will be," said Anerley.

"'Our Special Wounded!'" cried Scott, rolling over on to his back. "No
harm done," he added, gathering himself up again; "only a chip off my
knee. This is getting sultry. I confess that the idea of the back room
at the Authors' Club begins to grow upon me."

"I have some diachylon."

"Afterwards will do. We're having 'a 'appy day with Fuzzy on the
rush.' I wish he /would/ rush."

"They're coming nearer."

"This is an excellent revolver of mine if it didn't throw so devilish
high. I always aim at a man's toes if I want to stimulate his
digestion. O Lord, there's our kettle gone!"

With a boom like a dinner-gong a Remington bullet had passed through
the kettle, and a cloud of steam hissed up from the fire. A wild shout
came from the rocks above.

"The idiots think that they have blown us up. They'll rush us now, as
sure as fate; then it will be our turn to lead. Got your revolver,
Anerley?"

"I have this double-barrelled fowling-piece."

"Sensible man! It's the best weapon in the world at this sort of
rough-and-tumble work. What cartridge?"

"Swan-shot."

"That will do all right. I carry this big bore double-barrelled pistol
loaded with slugs. You might as well try to stop one of these fellows
with a peashooter as with a service revolver."

"There are ways and means," said Scott. "The Geneva Convention does
not hold south of the first cataract. It's easy to make a bullet
mushroom by a little manipulation of the tip of it. When I was in the
broken square at Tamai----"

"Wait a bit," cried Mortimer, adjusting his glasses. "I think they are
coming now."

"The time," said Scott, snapping up his watch, "being exactly
seventeen minutes past four."

Anerley had been lying behind a camel, staring with an interest which
bordered upon fascination at the rocks opposite. Here was a little
woolly puff of smoke, and there was another one, but never once had
they caught a glimpse of the attackers. To him there was something
weird and awesome in these unseen, persistent men who, minute by
minute, were drawing closer to them. He had heard them cry out when
the kettle was broken, and once, immediately afterwards, an enormously
strong voice had roared something which had set Scott shrugging his
shoulders.

"They've got to take us first," said he, and Anerley thought his nerve
might be better if he did not ask for a translation.

The firing had begun at a distance of some hundred yards, which put it
out of the question for them, with their lighter weapons, to make any
reply to it. Had their antagonists continued to keep that range the
defenders must either have made a hopeless sally or tried to shelter
themselves behind their zareba as best they might on the chance that
the sound might bring up help. But luckily for them the African had
never taken kindly to the rifle, and his primitive instinct to close
with his enemy is always too strong for his sense of strategy. They
were drawing in, therefore, and now for the first time Anerley caught
sight of a face looking at them from over a rock. It was a huge,
virile, strong-jawed head of a pure negro type, with silver trinkets
gleaming in the ears. The man raised a great arm from behind the rock
and shook his Remington at them.

"Shall I fire?" asked Anerley.

"No, no, it is too far; your shot would scatter all over the place."

"It's a picturesque ruffian," said Scott. "Couldn't you kodak him,
Mortimer? There's another!"

A fine-featured brown Arab, with a black, pointed beard, was peeping
from behind another boulder. He wore the green turban which proclaimed
him hadji, and his face showed the keen, nervous exultation of the
religious fanatic.

"They seem a piebald crowd," said Scott.

"That last is one of the real fighting Baggara," remarked Mortimer.
"He's a dangerous man."

"He looks pretty vicious. There's another negro!"

"Two more! Dingas, by the look of them. Just the same chaps we get our
own black battalions from. As long as they get a fight they don't mind
who it's for; but if the idiots had only sense enough to understand,
they would know that the Arab is their hereditary enemy, and we are
their hereditary friends. Look at the silly juggins gnashing his teeth
at the very men who put down the slave trade!"

"Couldn't you explain?"

"I'll explain with this pistol when he comes a little nearer. Now sit
tight, Anerley. They're off!"

They were indeed. It was the brown man with the green turban who
headed the rush. Close at his heels was the negro with the silver
earrings--a giant of a man, and the other two were only a little
behind. As they sprang over the rocks one after the other, it took
Anerley back to the school sports, when he held the tape for the
hurdle-race. It was magnificent, the wild spirit and abandon of it,
the flutter of the chequered galabeeahs, the gleam of steel, the wave
of black arms, the frenzied faces, the quick pitter-patter of the
rushing feet. The law-abiding Briton is so imbued with the idea of the
sanctity of human life that it was hard for the young pressman to
realize that these men had every intention of killing him, and that he
was at perfect liberty to do as much for them. He lay staring as if
this were a show and he a spectator.

"Now, Anerley, now! Take the Arab!" cried somebody.

He put up the gun and saw the brown fierce face at the other end of
the barrel. He tugged at the trigger, but the face grew larger and
fiercer with every stride. Again and again he tugged. A revolver-shot
rang out at his elbow, then another one, and he saw a red spot spring
out on the Arab's brown breast. But he was still coming on.

"Shoot, you ass, shoot!" screamed Scott.

Again he strained unavailingly at the trigger. There were two more
pistol-shots, and the big negro had fallen and risen and fallen again.

"Cock it, you fool!" shouted a furious voice; and at the same instant,
with a rush and flutter, the Arab bounded over the prostrate camel and
came down with his bare feet upon Anerley's chest. In a dream he
seemed to be struggling frantically with someone upon the ground, then
he was conscious of a tremendous explosion in his very face, and so
ended for him the first action of the war.

* * * * *

"Good-bye, old chap. You'll be all right. Give yourself time." It was
Mortimer's voice, and he became dimly conscious of a long-spectacled
face, and of a heavy hand upon his shoulder.

"Sorry to leave you. We'll be lucky now if we are in time for the
morning editions." Scott was tightening his girth as he spoke.

"We'll put in our wire that you have been hurt, so your people will
know why they don't hear from you. If Reuter or the evening pennies
come up, don't give the thing away. Abbas will look after you, and
we'll be back to-morrow afternoon. Bye-bye!"

Anerley heard it all, though he did not feel energy enough to answer.
Then, as he watched two sleek brown ponies with their yellow-clad
riders dwindling among the rocks, his memory cleared suddenly, and he
realized that the first great journalistic chance of his life was
slipping away from him. It was a small fight, but it was the first of
the war, and the great public at home was all athirst for news. They
would have it in the /Courier/; they would have it in the
/Intelligence/, and not a word in the /Gazette/. The thought brought
him to his feet, though he had to throw his arm round the stem of the
palm tree to steady his swimming head.

There was the big black man lying where he had fallen, his huge chest
pocked with bullet-marks, every wound rosetted with its circle of
flies. The Arab was stretched out within a few yards of him, with two
hands clasped over the dreadful thing which had been his head. Across
him was lying Anerley's fowling-piece, one barrel discharged, the
other at half cock.

"Scott effendi shoot him your gun," said a voice. It was Abbas, his
English-speaking body-servant.

Anerley groaned at the disgrace of it. He had lost his head so
completely that he had forgotten to cock his gun; and yet he knew that
it was not fear but interest which had so absorbed him. He put his
hand up to his head and felt that a wet handkerchief was bound round
his forehead.

"Where are the two other dervishes?"

"They ran away. One got shot in arm."

"What's happened to me?"

"Effendi got cut on head. Effendi catch bad man by arms, and Scott
effendi shoot him. Face burn very bad."

Anerley became conscious suddenly that there was a pringling about his
skin and an overpowering smell of burned hair under his nostrils. He
put his hand to his moustache. It was gone. His eyebrows too? He could
not find them. His head, no doubt, was very near to the dervish's when
they were rolling upon the ground together, and this was the effect of
the explosion of his own gun. Well, he would have time to grow some
more hair before he saw Fleet Street again. But the cut, perhaps, was
a more serious matter. Was it enough to prevent him from getting to
the telegraph-office at Sarras? The only way was to try and see.

But there was only that poor little Syrian grey of his. There it stood
in the evening sunshine, with a sunk head and a bent knee, as if its
morning's work was still heavy upon it. What hope was there of being
able to do thirty-five miles of heavy going upon that? It would be a
strain upon the splendid ponies of his companions--and they were the
swiftest and most enduring in the country. The most enduring? There
was one creature more enduring, and that was a real trotting camel. If
he had had one he might have got to the wires first after all, for
Mortimer had said that over thirty miles they have the better of any
horse. Yes, if he had only had a real trotting camel! And then like a
flash came Mortimer's words, "It is the kind of beast that the
dervishes ride when they make their lightning raids."

The beasts the dervishes ride! What had these dead dervishes ridden?
In an instant he was clambering up the rocks, with Abbas protesting at
his heels. Had the two fugitives carried away all the camels, or had
they been content to save themselves? The brass gleam from a litter of
empty Remington cases caught his eye, and showed where the enemy had
been crouching. And then he could have shouted for joy, for there, in
the hollow, some little distance off, rose the high, graceful white
neck and the elegant head of such a camel as he had never set eyes
upon before--a swan-like, beautiful creature, as far from the rough,
clumsy baggles as the cart-horse is from the racer.

The beast was kneeling under the shelter of the rocks with its
waterskin and bag of doora slung over its shoulders, and its forelegs
tethered Arab fashion with a rope round the knees. Anerley threw his
leg over the front pommel while Abbas slipped off the cord. Forward
flew Anerley towards the creature's neck, then violently backwards,
clawing madly at anything which might save him, and then, with a jerk
which nearly snapped his loins, he was thrown forward again. But the
camel was on its legs now, and the young pressman was safely seated
upon one of the fliers of the desert. It was as gentle as it was
swift, and it stood oscillating its long neck and gazing round with
its large brown eyes, whilst Anerley coiled his legs round the peg and
grasped the curved camel-stick which Abbas had handed up to him. There
were two bridle-cords, one from the nostril and one from the neck, but
he remembered that Scott had said that it was the servant's and not
the house-bell which had to be pulled, so he kept his grasp upon the
lower. Then he touched the long, vibrating neck with his stick, and in
an instant Abbas' farewells seemed to come from far behind him, and
the black rocks and yellow sand were dancing past on either side.

It was his first experience of a trotting camel, and at first the
motion, although irregular and abrupt, was not unpleasant. Having no
stirrup or fixed point of any kind, he could not rise to it, but he
gripped as tightly as he could with his knee, and he tried to sway
backwards and forwards as he had seen the Arabs do. It was a large,
very concave Makloofa saddle, and he was conscious that he was
bouncing about on it with as little power of adhesion as a
billiard-ball upon a tea-tray. He gripped the two sides with his hands
to hold himself steady. The creature had got into its long, swinging,
stealthy trot, its sponge-like feet making no sound upon the hard
sand. Anerley leaned back with his two hands gripping hard behind him,
and he whooped the creature on.

The sun had already sunk behind the line of black volcanic peaks,
which look like huge slag-heaps at the mouth of a mine. The western
sky had taken that lovely light-green and pale-pink tint which makes
evening beautiful upon the Nile, and the old brown river itself,
swirling down amongst the black rocks, caught some shimmer of the
colours above. The glare, the heat, and the piping of the insects had
all ceased together. In spite of his aching head, Anerley could have
cried out for pure physical joy as the swift creature beneath him flew
along with him through that cool, invigorating air, with the virile
north wind soothing his pringling face.

He had looked at his watch, and now he made a swift calculation of
times and distances. It was past six when he had left the camp. Over
broken ground it was impossible that he could hope to do more than
seven miles an hour--less on bad parts, more on the smooth. His
recollection of the track was that there were few smooth and many bad.
He would be lucky, then, if he reached Sarras anywhere from twelve to
one. Then the messages took a good two hours to go through, for they
had to be transcribed at Cairo. At the best he could only hope to have
told his story in Fleet Street at two or three in the morning. It was
possible that he might manage it, but the chances seemed enormously
against him. About three the morning edition would be made up, and his
chance gone for ever. The one thing clear was that only the first man
at the wires would have any chance at all, and Anerley meant to be
first if hard riding could do it. So he tapped away at the bird-like
neck, and the creature's long, loose limbs went faster and faster at
every tap. Where the rocky spurs ran down to the river, horses would
have to go round, while camels might get across, so that Anerley felt
that he was always gaining upon his companions.

But there was a price to be paid for the feeling. He had heard of men
who had burst when on camel journeys, and he knew that the Arabs
swathe their bodies tightly in broad cloth bandages when they prepare
for a long march. It had seemed unnecessary and ridiculous when he
first began to speed over the level track, but now, when he got on the
rocky paths, he understood what it meant. Never for an instant was he
at the same angle. Backwards, forwards he swung, with a tingling jar
at the end of each sway, until he ached from his neck to his knee. It
caught him across the shoulders, it caught him down the spine, it
gripped him over the loins, it marked the lower line of his ribs with
one heavy, dull throb. He clutched here and there with his hand to try
to ease the strain upon his muscles. He drew up his knees, altered his
seat, and set his teeth with a grim determination to go through with
it should it kill him. His head was splitting, his flayed face
smarting, and every joint in his body aching as if it were dislocated.
But he forgot all that when, with the rising of the moon, he heard the
clinking of horses' hoofs down upon the track by the river, and knew
that, unseen by them, he had already got well abreast of his
companions. But he was hardly half-way and the time already eleven.

All day the needles had been ticking away without intermission in the
little corrugated iron hut which served as a telegraph station in
Sarras. With its bare walls and its packing-case seats it was none the
less for the moment one of the vital spots upon the earth's surface,
and the crisp, importunate ticking might have come from the world-old
clock of Destiny. Many august people had been at the other end of
those wires, and had communed with the moist-faced military clerk. A
French Premier had demanded a pledge, and an English marquis had
passed on the request to the General in command, with a question as to
how it would affect the situation. Cipher telegrams had nearly driven
the clerk out of his wits, for of all crazy occupations the taking of
a cipher message, when you are without the key to the cipher, is the
worst. Much high diplomacy had been going on all day in the innermost
chambers of European chancelleries, and the results of it had been
whispered into this little corrugated iron hut. About two in the
morning an enormous dispatch had come at last to an end, and the weary
operator had opened the door, and was lighting his pipe in the cool,
fresh air, when he saw a camel plump down in the dust, and a man, who
seemed to be in the last stage of drunkenness, come rolling towards
him.

"What's the time?" he cried, in a voice which appeared to be the only
sober thing about him.

It was on the clerk's lips to say that it was time that the questioner
was in his bed, but it is not safe upon a campaign to be ironical at
the expense of khaki-clad men. He contented himself therefore with the
bald statement that it was after two.

But no retort that he could have devised could have had a more
crushing effect. The voice turned drunken also, and the man caught at
the door-post to uphold him.

"Two o'clock! I'm done after all!" said he. His head was tied up in a
bloody handkerchief, his face was crimson, and he stood with his legs
crooked as if the pith had all gone out of his back. The clerk began
to realize that something out of the ordinary was in the wind.

"How long does it take to get a wire to London?"

"About two hours."

"And it's two now. I could not get it there before four."

"Before three."

"Four."

"No, three."

"But you said two hours."

"Yes, but there's more than an hour's difference in longitude."

"By Heaven, I'll do it yet!" cried Anerley, and staggering to a
packing-case, he began the dictation of his famous dispatch.

And so it came about that the /Gazette/ had a long column, with
headlines like an epitaph, when the sheets of the /Intelligence/ and
the /Courier/ were as blank as the faces of their editors. And so,
too, it happened that when two weary men, upon two foundered horses,
arrived about four in the morning at the Sarras post-office they
looked at each other in silence and departed noiselessly, with the
conviction that there are some situations with which the English
language is not capable of dealing.



THE MARRIAGE OF THE BRIGADIER

I am speaking, my friends, of days which are long gone by, when I had
scarcely begun to build up that fame which has made my name so
familiar. Among the thirty officers of the Hussars of Conflans there
was nothing to indicate that I was superior in any way to the others.
I can well imagine how surprised they would all have been had they
realized that young Lieutenant Etienne Gerard was destined for so
glorious a career, and would live to command a brigade and to receive
from the Emperor's own hands that cross which I can show you any time
that you do me the honour to visit me in my little cottage. You know,
do you not, the little white-washed cottage with the vine in front, in
the field beside the Garonne?

People have said of me that I have never known what fear was. No doubt
you have heard them say it. For many years, out of a foolish pride, I
have let the saying pass. And yet now, in my old age, I can afford to
be honest. The brave man dares to be frank. It is only the coward who
is afraid to make admissions. So I tell you now that I also am human;
that I also have felt my skin grow cold, and my hair rise; that I have
even known what it was to run away until my limbs could scarce support
me. It shocks you to hear it? Well, some day it may comfort you, when
your own courage has reached its limits, to know that even Etienne
Gerard has known what it was to be afraid. I will tell you now how
this experience befell me, and also how it brought me a wife.

For the moment France was at peace, and we, the Hussars of Conflans,
were in camp all that summer a few miles from the town of Les Andelys
in Normandy. It is not a very gay place by itself, but we of the Light
Cavalry make all places gay which we visit, and so we passed our time
very pleasantly. Many years and many scenes have dulled my
remembrance, but still the name Les Andelys brings back to me a huge
ruined castle, great orchards of apple trees, and above all, a vision
of the lovely maidens of Normandy. They were the very finest of their
sex, as we may be said to have been of ours, and so we were well met
in that sweet sunlit summer. Ah, the youth, the beauty, the valour,
and then the dull, dead years that blur them all! There are times when
the glorious past weighs on my heart like lead. No, sir, no wine can
wash away such thoughts, for they are of the spirit and the soul. It
is only the gross body which responds to wine, but if you offer it for
that, then I will not refuse it.

Now of all the maidens who dwelt on those parts there was one who was
so superior in beauty and in charm that she seemed to be very
specially marked out for me. Her name was Marie Ravon, and her people,
the Ravons, were of yeoman stock who had farmed their own land in
those parts since the days when Duke William went to England. If I
close my eyes now, I see her as she then was, her cheeks, dusky like
moss roses; her hazel eyes, so gentle and yet so full of spirit; her
hair of that deepest black which goes most fitly with poetry and with
passion; her figure as supple as a young birch tree in the wind. Ah!
how she swayed away from me when first I laid my arm round it, for she
was full of fire and pride, ever evading, ever resisting, fighting to
the last that her surrender might be the more sweet. Out of a hundred
and forty women---- But who can compare where all are so near
perfection!

You will wonder why it should be, if this maiden was so beautiful,
that I should be left without a rival. There was a very good reason,
my friends, for I so arranged it that my rivals were in the hospital.
There was Hippolyte Lesoeur, he visited them for two Sundays; but if he
lives, I dare swear that he still limps from the bullet which lodges
in his knee. Poor Victor also--up to his death at Austerlitz he wore
my mark. Soon it was understood that if I could not win Marie, I
should at least have a fair field in which to try. It was said in our
camp that it was safer to charge a square of unbroken infantry than to
be seen too often at the farmhouse of the Ravons.

Now let me be precise for a moment. Did I wish to marry Marie? Ah! my
friends, marriage is not for a Hussar. To-day he is in Normandy;
to-morrow he is in the hills of Spain or in the bogs of Poland. What
shall he do with a wife? Would it be fair to either of them? Can it be
right that his courage should be blunted by the thought of the despair
which his death would bring, or is it reasonable that she should be
left fearing lest every post should bring her the news of irreparable
misfortune? A Hussar can but warm himself at the fire, and then hurry
onwards, too happy if he can but pass another fire from which some
comfort may come. And Marie, did she wish to marry me? She knew well
that when our silver trumpets blew the march it would be over the
grave of our married life. Better far to hold fast to her own people
and her own soil, where she and her husband could dwell for ever amid
the rich orchards and within sight of her great Castle of Le Gaillard.
Let her remember her Hussar in her dreams, but let her waking days be
spent in the world as she finds it. Meanwhile we pushed such thoughts
from our mind, and gave ourselves up to a sweet companionship, each
day complete in itself with never a thought of the morrow. It is true
that there were times when her father, a stout old gentleman with a
face like one of his own apples, and her mother, a thin anxious woman
of the country, gave me hints that they would wish to be clearer as to
my intentions; but in their hearts they each knew well that Etienne
Gerard was a man of honour, and that their daughter was very safe as
well as very happy in his keeping. So the matter stood until the night
of which I speak.

It was Sunday evening, and I had ridden over from the camp. There were
several of our fellows who were visiting the village, and we all left
our horses at the inn. Thence I had to walk to the Ravons, which was
only separated by a single very large field extending to the very
door. I was about to start when the landlord ran after me.

"Excuse me, lieutenant," said he, "it is farther by the road, and yet
I should advise you to take it."

"It is a mile or more out of my way."

"I know it. But I think that it would be wiser," and he smiled as he
spoke.

"And why?" I asked.

"Because," said he, "the English bull is loose in the field."

If it were not for that odious smile, I might have considered it. But
to hold a danger over me and then to smile in such a fashion was more
than my proud temper could bear. I indicated by a gesture what I
thought of the English bull.

"I will go by the shortest way," said I.

I had no sooner set my foot in the field than I felt that my spirit
had betrayed me into rashness. It was a very large square field, and
as I came farther out into it I felt like the cockleshell which
ventures out from land and sees no port save that from which it has
issued. There was wall on every side of the field save that from which
I had come. In front of me was the farmhouse of the Ravons, with wall
extending to right and left. A back door opened upon the field, and
there were several windows, but all were barred, as is usual in the
Norman farms. I pushed on rapidly to the door as being the only
harbour of safety, walking with dignity as befits the soldier, and yet
with such speed as I could summon. From the waist upwards I was
unconcerned and even débonnaire. Below, I was swift and alert.

I had nearly reached the middle of the field when I perceived the
creature. He was rooting about with his fore feet under a large beech
tree which lay upon my right hand. I did not turn my head, nor would
the bystander have detected that I took notice of him, but my eye was
watching him with anxiety. It may have been that he was in a contented
mood, or it may have been that he was arrested by the nonchalance of
my bearing, but he made no movement in my direction. Reassured, I
fixed my eyes upon the open window of Marie's bed-chamber, which was
immediately over the back door, in the hope that those dear, tender,
dark eyes were surveying me from behind the curtains. I flourished my
little cane, loitered to pick a primrose, and sang one of our
devil-may-care choruses in order to insult this English beast, and to
show my love how little I cared for danger when it stood between her
and me. The creature was abashed by my fearlessness, and so, pushing
open the back door, I was able to enter the farmhouse in safety and in
honour.

And was it not worth the danger? Had all the bulls of Castile guarded
the entrance, would it not still have been worth it? Ah, the hours,
the sunny hours, which can never come back, when our youthful feet
seemed scarce to touch the ground, and we lived in a sweet dreamland
of our own creation! She honoured my courage, and she loved me for it.
As she lay with her flushed cheek pillowed against the silk of my
dolman, looking up at me with her wondering eyes, shining with love
and admiration, she marvelled at the stories in which I gave her some
pictures of the true character of her lover.

"Has your heart never failed you? Have you never known the feeling of
fear?" she asked.

I laughed at such a thought. What place could fear have in the mind of
a Hussar? Young as I was, I had given my proofs. I told her how I had
led my squadron into a square of Hungarian Grenadiers. She shuddered
as she embraced me. I told her also how I had swum my horse over the
Danube at night with a message for Davoust. To be frank, it was not
the Danube, nor was it so deep that I was compelled to swim, but when
one is twenty and in love, one tells a story as best one can. Many
such stories I told her, while her dear eyes grew more and more
amazed.

"Never in my dreams, Etienne," said she, "did I believe that so brave
a man existed. Lucky France that has such a soldier, lucky Marie that
has such a lover!"

You can think how I flung myself at her feet as I murmured that I was
the luckiest of all--I who had found someone who could appreciate and
understand.

It was a charming relationship, too infinitely sweet and delicate for
the interference of coarser minds. But you can understand that the
parents imagined that they also had their duty to do. I played
dominoes with the old man, and I wound wool for his wife, and yet they
could not be led to believe that it was from love of them that I came
thrice a week to their farm. For some time an explanation was
inevitable, and that night it came. Marie, in delightful mutiny, was
packed off to her room, and I faced the old people in the parlour as
they plied me with questions upon my prospects and my intentions.

"One way or the other," they said, in their blunt country fashion.
"Let us hear that you are betrothed to Marie, or let us never see your
face again."

I spoke of my honour, my hopes, and my future, but they remained
immovable upon the present. I pleaded my career, but they in their
selfish way would think of nothing but their daughter. It was indeed a
difficult position in which I found myself. On the one hand, I could
not forsake my Marie; on the other, what would a young Hussar do with
marriage? At last, hard pressed, I begged them to leave the matter, if
it were only for a day.

"I will see Marie," said I, "I will see her without delay. It is her
heart and her happiness which come before all else."

They were not satisfied, these grumbling old people, but they could
say no more. They bade me a short good night and I departed, full of
perplexity, for the inn. I came out by the same door which I had
entered, and I heard them lock and bar it behind me.

I walked across the field lost in thought, with my mind entirely
filled with the arguments of the old people and the skilful replies
which I had made to them. What should I do? I had promised to see
Marie without delay. What should I say to her when I did see her?
Would I surrender to her beauty and turn my back upon my profession?
If Etienne Gerard's sword were turned to a scythe, then indeed it was
a bad day for the Emperor and France. Or should I harden my heart and
turn away from Marie? Or was it not possible that all might be
reconciled; that I might be a happy husband in Normandy but a brave
soldier elsewhere? All these thoughts were buzzing in my head, when a
sudden noise made me look up. The moon had come from behind a cloud,
and there was the bull before me.

He had seemed a large animal beneath the beech tree, but now he
appeared enormous. He was black in colour. His head was held down, and
the moon shone upon two menacing and bloodshot eyes. His tail switched
swiftly from side to side, and his fore-feet dug into the earth. A
more horrible-looking monster was never seen in a nightmare. He was
moving slowly and stealthily in my direction.

I glanced behind me, and I found that in my distraction I had come a
very long way from the edge of the field. I was more than half-way
across it. My nearest refuge was the inn, but the bull was between me
and it. Perhaps if the creature understood how little I feared him, he
would make way for me. I shrugged my shoulders and made a gesture of
contempt. I even whistled. The creature thought I called it, for he
approached with alacrity. I kept my face boldly towards him, but I
walked swiftly backwards. When one is young and active, one can almost
run backwards and yet keep a brave and smiling face to the enemy. As I
ran I menaced the animal with my cane. Perhaps it would have
been wiser had I restrained my spirit. He regarded it as a
challenge--which, indeed, was the last thing in my mind. It was a
misunderstanding, but a fatal one. With a snort he raised his tail and
charged.

Have you ever seen a bull charge, my friends? It is a strange sight.
You think, perhaps, that he trots, or even that he gallops. No, it is
worse than this. It is a succession of bounds by which he advances,
each more menacing than the last. I have no fear of anything which man
can do. When I deal with man, I feel that the nobility of my own
attitude, the gallant ease with which I face him, will in itself go
far to disarm him. What he can do, I can do, so why should I fear him?
But when it is a ton of enraged beef with which you contend, it is
another matter. You cannot hope to argue, to soften, to conciliate.
There is no resistance possible. My proud assurance was all wasted
upon the creature. In an instant my ready wit had weighed every
possible course, and had determined that no one, not the Emperor
himself, could hold his ground. There was but one course--to fly.

But one may fly in many ways. One may fly with dignity or one may fly
in panic. I fled, I trust, like a soldier. My bearing was superb,
though my legs moved rapidly. My whole appearance was a protest
against the position in which I was placed. I smiled as I ran--the
bitter smile of the brave man who mocks his own fate. Had all my
comrades surrounded the field, they could not have thought the less of
me when they saw the disdain with which I avoided the bull.

But here it is that I must make my confession. When once flight
commences, though it be ever so soldierly, panic follows hard upon it.
Was it not so with the Guard at Waterloo? So it was that night with
Etienne Gerard. After all, there was no one to note my bearing--no one
save this accursed bull. If for a minute I forgot my dignity, who
would be the wiser? Every moment the thunder of the hoofs and the
horrible snorts of the monster drew nearer to my heels. Horror filled
me at the thought of so ignoble a death. The brutal rage of the
creature sent a chill to my heart. In an instant everything was
forgotten. There were in the world but two creatures, the bull and
I--he trying to kill me, I striving to escape. I put down my head and
I ran--I ran for my life.

It was for the house of the Ravons that I raced. But even as I reached
it, it flashed into my mind that there was no refuge for me there. The
door was locked. The lower windows were barred. The wall was high upon
either side. And the bull was nearer me with every stride. But oh, my
friends, it is at that supreme moment of danger that Etienne Gerard
has ever risen to his height. There was one path to safety, and in an
instant I had chosen it.

I have said that the window of Marie's bedroom was above the door. The
curtains were closed, but the folding sides were thrown open, and a
lamp burned in the room. Young and active, I felt that I could spring
high enough to reach the edge of the window sill and to draw myself
out of danger. The monster was within touch of me as I sprang. Had I
been unaided, I should have done what I had planned. But even as in a
superb effort I rose from the earth he butted me into the air. I shot
through the curtains as if I had been fired from a gun, and I dropped
upon my hands and knees in the centre of the room.

There was, as it appears, a bed in the window, but I had passed over
it in safety. As I staggered to my feet I turned towards it in
consternation, but it was empty. My Marie sat in a low chair in the
corner of the room, and her flushed cheeks showed that she had been
weeping. No doubt her parents had given her some account of what had
passed between us. She was too amazed to move, and could only sit
looking at me with her mouth open.

"Etienne!" she gasped. "Etienne!"

In an instant I was as full of resource as ever. There was but one
course for a gentleman, and I took it.

"Marie," I cried, "forgive, oh forgive the abruptness of my return!
Marie, I have seen your parents to-night. I could not return to the
camp without asking you whether you will make me for ever happy by
promising to be my wife?"

It was long before she could speak, so great was her amazement. Then
every emotion was swept away in the one great flood of her admiration.

"Oh, Etienne! my wonderful Etienne!" she cried, her arms round my
neck. "Was ever such love! Was ever such a man! As you stand there,
white and trembling with passion, you seem to me the very hero of my
dreams. How hard you breathe, my love, and what a spring it must have
been which brought you to my arms! At the instant that you came, I
heard the tramp of your war-horse without."

There was nothing more to explain, and when one is newly betrothed,
one finds other uses for one's lips. But there was a scurry in the
passage and a pounding at the panels. At the crash of my arrival the
old folk had rushed to the cellar to see if the great cider cask had
toppled off the trestles, but now they were back and eager for
admittance. I flung open the door, and stood with Marie's hand in
mine.

"Behold your son!" I said.

Ah, the joy which I had brought to that humble household! It warms my
heart still when I think of it. It did not seem too strange to them
that I should fly in through the window, for who should be a hot
headed suitor if it is not a gallant Hussar? And if the door be
locked, then what way is there but the window? Once more we assembled
all four in the parlour, while the cobwebbed bottle was brought up and
the ancient glories of the House of Ravon were unrolled before me.
Once more I see the heavy-raftered room, the two old smiling faces,
the golden circle of the lamp-light, and she, my Marie, the bride of
my youth, won so strangely, and kept for so short a time.

It was late when we parted. The old man came with me into the hall.

"You can go by the front door or the back," said he. "The back way is
the shorter."

"I think that I will take the front way," I answered. "It may be a bit
longer, but it will give me the more time to think of Marie."



THE LORD OF CHÂTEAU NOIR

It was in the days when the German armies had broken their way across
France, and when the shattered forces of the young Republic had been
swept away to the north of the Aisne and to the south of the Loire.
Three broad streams of armed men had rolled slowly but irresistibly
from the Rhine, now meandering to the north, now to the south,
dividing, coalescing, but all uniting to form one great lake round
Paris. And from this lake there welled out smaller streams, one to the
north, one southward to Orleans, and a third westward to Normandy.
Many a German trooper saw the sea for the first time when he rode his
horse girth-deep into the waves at Dieppe.

Black and bitter were the thoughts of Frenchmen when they saw this
weal of dishonour slashed across the fair face of their country. They
had fought and they had been overborne. That swarming cavalry, those
countless footmen, the masterful guns--they had tried and tried to
make head against them. In battalions their invaders were not to be
beaten; but man to man, or ten to ten, they were their equals. A brave
Frenchman might still make a single German rue the day that he had
left his own bank of the Rhine. Thus, unchronicled amid the battles
and the sieges, there broke out another war, a war of individuals,
with foul murder upon the one side and brutal reprisal on the other.

Colonel von Gramm, of the 24th Posen Infantry, had suffered severely
during this new development. He commanded in the little Norman town of
Les Andelys, and his outposts stretched amid the hamlets and
farmhouses of the district round. No French force was within fifty
miles of him, and yet morning after morning he had to listen to a
black report of sentries found dead at their posts, or of foraging
parties which had never returned. Then the Colonel would go forth in
his wrath, and farmsteadings would blaze and villages tremble; but
next morning there was still that same dismal tale to be told. Do what
he might, he could not shake off his invisible enemies. And yet, it
should not have been so hard, for from certain signs in common, in the
plan and in the deed, it was certain that all these outrages came from
a single source.

Colonel von Gramm had tried violence and it had failed. Gold might be
more successful. He published it abroad over the countryside that five
hundred francs would be paid for information. There was no response.
Then eight hundred. The peasants were incorruptible. Then, goaded on
by a murdered corporal, he rose to a thousand, and so bought the soul
of François Rejane, farm labourer, whose Norman avarice was a stronger
passion than his French hatred.

"You say that you know who did these crimes?" asked the Prussian
Colonel, eyeing with loathing the blue-bloused, rat-faced creature
before him.

"Yes, Colonel."

"And it was----?"

"Those thousand francs, Colonel----"

"Not a sou until your story has been tested. Come! Who is it who has
murdered my men?"

"It is Count Eustace of Château Noir."

"You lie!" cried the Colonel, angrily. "A gentleman and a nobleman
could not have done such crimes."

The peasant shrugged his shoulders.

"It is evident to me that you do not know the Count. It is this way,
Colonel. What I tell you is the truth, and I am not afraid that you
should test it. The Count of Château Noir is a hard man: even at the
best time he was a hard man. But of late he has been terrible. It was
his son's death, you know. His son was under Douay, and he was taken,
and then in escaping from Germany he met his death. It was the Count's
only child, and indeed we all think that it has driven him mad. With
his peasants he follows the German armies. I do not know how many he
has killed, but it is he who cuts the cross upon the foreheads, for it
is the badge of his house."

It was true. The murdered sentries had each had a saltire cross
slashed across their brows, as by a hunting-knife. The Colonel bent
his stiff back and ran his forefinger over the map which lay upon the
table.

"The Château Noir is not more than four leagues," he said.

"Three and a kilometre, Colonel."

"You know the place?"

"I used to work there."

Colonel von Gramm rang the bell.

"Give this man food and detain him," said he to the sergeant.

"Why detain me, Colonel? I can tell you no more."

"We shall need you as guide."

"As guide! But the Count? If I were to fall into his hands? Ah,
Colonel----"

The Prussian commander waved him away.

"Send Captain Baumgarten to me at once," said he.

The officer who answered the summons was a man of middle age,
heavy-jawed, blue-eyed, with a curving yellow moustache, and a
brick-red face which turned to an ivory white where his helmet had
sheltered it. He was bald, with a shining, tightly-stretched scalp, at
the back of which, as in a mirror, it was a favourite mess-joke of the
subalterns to trim their moustaches. As a soldier he was slow, but
reliable and brave. The Colonel could trust him where a more dashing
officer might be in danger.

"You will proceed to Château Noir to-night, Captain," said he. "A
guide has been provided. You will arrest the Count and bring him back.
If there is an attempt at rescue, shoot him at once."

"How many men shall I take, Colonel?"

"Well, we are surrounded by spies, and our only chance is to pounce
upon him before he knows that we are on the way. A large force will
attract attention. On the other hand, you must not risk being cut
off."

"I might march north, Colonel, as if to join General Goeben. Then I
could turn down this road which I see upon your map, and get to
Château Noir before they could hear of us. In that case, with twenty
men----"

"Very good, Captain. I hope to see you with your prisoner to-morrow
morning."



It was a cold December night when Captain Baumgarten marched out of
Les Andelys with his twenty Poseners, and took the main road to the
north-west. Two miles out he turned suddenly down a narrow,
deeply-rutted track, and made swiftly for his man. A thin, cold rain
was falling, swishing among the tall poplar trees and rustling in the
fields on either side. The Captain walked first with Moser, a veteran
sergeant, beside him. The sergeant's wrist was fastened to that of the
French peasant, and it had been whispered in his ear that in case of
an ambush the first bullet fired would be through his head. Behind
them the twenty infantrymen plodded along through the darkness, with
their faces sunk to the rain, and their boots squeaking in the soft,
wet clay. They knew where they were going and why, and the thought
upheld them, for they were bitter at the loss of their comrades. It
was a cavalry job, they knew, but the cavalry were all on with the
advance, and, besides, it was more fitting that the regiment should
avenge its own dead men.

It was nearly eight when they left Les Andelys. At half-past eleven
their guide stopped at a place where two high pillars, crowned with
some heraldic stonework, flanked a huge iron gate. The wall in which
it had been the opening had crumbled away, but the great gate still
towered above the brambles and weeds which had overgrown its base. The
Prussians made their way round it, and advanced stealthily, under the
shadow of a tunnel of oak branches, up the long avenue, which was
still cumbered by the leaves of last autumn. At the top they halted
and reconnoitred.

The black château lay in front of them. The moon had shone out between
two rain-clouds, and threw the old house into silver and shadow. It
was shaped like an L, with a low arched door in front, and lines of
small windows like the open ports of a man-of-war. Above was a dark
roof breaking at the corners into little round overhanging turrets,
the whole lying silent in the moonshine, with a drift of ragged clouds
blackening the heavens behind it. A single light gleamed in one of the
lower windows.

The Captain whispered his orders to his men. Some were to creep to the
front door, some to the back. Some were to watch the east, and some
the west. He and the sergeant stole on tiptoe to the lighted window.

It was a small room into which they looked, very meanly furnished. An
elderly man in the dress of a menial was reading a tattered paper by
the light of a guttering candle. He leaned back in his wooden chair
with his feet upon a box, while a bottle of white wine stood with a
half-filled tumbler upon a stool beside him. The sergeant thrust his
needle-gun through the glass, and the man sprang to his feet with a
shriek.

"Silence, for your life! The house is surrounded and you cannot
escape. Come round and open the door, or we will show you no mercy
when we come in."

"For God's sake, don't shoot! I will open it! I will open it!" He
rushed from the room with his paper still crumpled up in his hand. An
instant later, with a groaning of old locks and a rasping of bars, the
low door swung open, and the Prussians poured into the stone-flagged
passage.

"Where is Count Eustace de Château Noir?"

"My master! He is out, sir."

"Out at this time of night? Your life for a lie!"

"It is true, sir. He is out!"

"Where?"

"I do not know."

"Doing what?"

"I cannot tell. No, it is no use your cocking your pistol, sir. You
may kill me, but you cannot make me tell you that which I do not
know."

"Is he often out at this hour?"

"Frequently."

"And when does he come home?"

"Before daybreak."

Captain Baumgarten rasped out a German oath. He had had his journey
for nothing, then. The man's answers were only too likely to be true.
It was what he might have expected. But at least he would search the
house and make sure. Leaving a picket at the front door and another at
the back, the sergeant and he drove the trembling butler in front of
them--his shaking candle sending strange, flickering shadows over the
old tapestries and the low, oak-raftered ceilings. They searched the
whole house, from the huge, stone-flagged kitchen below to the
dining-hall on the second floor with its gallery for musicians, and
its panelling black with age, but nowhere was there a living creature.
Up above in an attic they found Marie, the elderly wife of the butler;
but the owner kept no other servants, and of his own presence there
was no trace.

It was long, however, before Captain Baumgarten had satisfied himself
upon the point. It was a difficult house to search. Thin stairs, which
only one man could ascend at a time, connected lines of tortuous
corridors. The walls were so thick that each room was cut off from its
neighbour. Huge fireplaces yawned in each, while the windows were six
feet deep in the wall. Captain Baumgarten stamped with his feet, and
tore down curtains, and struck with the pommel of his sword. If there
were secret hiding-places, he was not fortunate enough to find them.

"I have an idea," said he, at last, speaking in German to the
sergeant. "You will place a guard over this fellow, and make sure that
he communicates with no one."

"Yes, Captain."

"And you will place four men in ambush at the front and at the back.
It is likely enough that about daybreak our bird may return to the
nest."

"And the others, Captain?"

"Let them have their suppers in the kitchen. This fellow will serve
you with meat and wine. It is a wild night, and we shall be better
here than on the country road."

"And yourself, Captain?"

"I will take my supper up here in the dining-hall. The logs are laid
and we can light the fire. You will call me if there is any alarm.
What can you give me for supper--you?"

"Alas, monsieur, there was a time when I might have answered, 'What
you wish!' but now it is all that we can do to find a bottle of new
claret and a cold pullet."

"That will do very well. Let a guard go about with him, sergeant, and
let him feel the end of a bayonet if he plays us any tricks."

Captain Baumgarten was an old campaigner. In the Eastern provinces,
and before that in Bohemia, he had learned the art of quartering
himself upon the enemy. While the butler brought his supper he
occupied himself in making his preparations for a comfortable night.
He lit the candelabrum of ten candles upon the centre table. The fire
was already burning up, crackling merrily, and sending spurts of blue,
pungent smoke into the room. The Captain walked to the window and
looked out. The moon had gone in again, and it was raining heavily. He
could hear the deep sough of the wind and see the dark loom of the
trees, all swaying in the one direction. It was a sight which gave a
zest to his comfortable quarters, and to the cold fowl and the bottle
of wine which the butler had brought up for him. He was tired and
hungry after his long tramp, so he threw his sword, his helmet, and
his revolver-belt down upon a chair, and fell to eagerly upon his
supper. Then, with his glass of wine before him and his cigar between
his lips, he tilted his chair back and looked about him.

He sat within a small circle of brilliant light which gleamed upon his
silver shoulder-straps, and threw out his terra-cotta face, his heavy
eyebrows, and his yellow moustache. But outside that circle things
were vague and shadowy in the old dining-hall. Two sides were
oak-panelled and two were hung with faded tapestry, across which
huntsmen and dogs and stags were still dimly streaming. Above the
fireplace were rows of heraldic shields with the blazonings of the
family and of its alliances, the fatal saltire cross breaking out on
each of them.

Four paintings of old seigneurs of Château Noir faced the fireplace,
all men with hawk noses and bold, high features, so like each other
that only the dress could distinguish the Crusader from the Cavalier
of the Fronde. Captain Baumgarten, heavy with his repast, lay back in
his chair looking up at them through the clouds of his tobacco smoke,
and pondering over the strange chance which had sent him, a man from
the Baltic coast, to eat his supper in the ancestral hall of these
proud Norman chieftains. But the fire was hot, and the Captain's eyes
were heavy. His chin sank slowly upon his chest, and the ten candles
gleamed upon the broad white scalp.

Suddenly a slight noise brought him to his feet. For an instant it
seemed to his dazed senses that one of the pictures opposite had
walked from its frame. There, beside the table, and almost within
arm's length of him, was standing a huge man, silent, motionless, with
no sign of life save his fierce, glinting eyes. He was black-haired,
olive-skinned, with a pointed tuft of black beard, and a great, fierce
nose, towards which all his features seemed to run. His cheeks were
wrinkled like a last year's apple, but his sweep of shoulder, and
bony, corded hands, told of a strength which was unsapped by age. His
arms were folded across his arching chest, and his mouth was set in a
fixed smile.

"Pray do not trouble yourself to look for your weapons," he said, as
the Prussian cast a swift glance at the empty chair in which they had
been laid. "You have been, if you will allow me to say so, a little
indiscreet to make yourself so much at home in a house every wall of
which is honeycombed with secret passages. You will be amused to hear
that forty men were watching you at your supper. Ah! what then?"

Captain Baumgarten had taken a step forward with clenched fists. The
Frenchman held up the revolver which he grasped in his right hand,
while with the left he hurled the German back into his chair.

"Pray keep your seat," said he. "You have no cause to trouble about
your men. They have already been provided for. It is astonishing with
these stone floors how little one can hear what goes on beneath. You
have been relieved of your command, and have now only to think of
yourself. May I ask what your name is?"

"I am Captain Baumgarten, of the 24th Posen Regiment."

"Your French is excellent, though you incline, like most of your
countrymen, to turn the 'p' into a 'b.' I have been amused to hear
them cry 'avez bitié sur moi!' You know, doubtless, who it is who
addresses you."

"The Count of Château Noir."

"Precisely. It would have been a misfortune if you had visited my
château and I had been unable to have a word with you. I have had to
do with many German soldiers, but never with an officer before. I have
much to talk to you about."

Captain Baumgarten sat still in his chair. Brave as he was, there was
something in this man's manner which made his skin creep with
apprehension. His eyes glanced to right and to left, but his weapons
were gone, and in a struggle he saw that he was but a child to this
gigantic adversary. The Count had picked up the claret bottle, and
held it to the light:

"Tut! tut!" said he. "And was this the best that Pierre could do for
you? I am ashamed to look you in the face, Captain Baumgarten. We must
improve upon this."

He blew a call upon a whistle, which hung from his shooting-jacket.
The old manservant was in the room in an instant.

"Chambertin from bin 15!" he cried, and a minute later a grey bottle
streaked with cobwebs was carried in as a nurse bears an infant. The
Count filled two glasses to the brim.

"Drink!" said he. "It is the very best in my cellars, and not to be
matched between Rouen and Paris. Drink, sir, and be happy! There are
cold joints below. There are two lobsters fresh from Honfleur. Will
you not venture upon a second and more savoury supper?"

The German officer shook his head. He drained the glass, however, and
his host filled it once more, pressing him to give an order for this
or that dainty.

"There is nothing in my house which is not at your disposal. You have
but to say the word. Well, then, you will allow me to tell you a story
while you drink your wine. I have so longed to tell it to some German
officer. It is about my son, my only child, Eustace, who was taken and
died in escaping. It is a curious little story, and I think that I can
promise you that you will never forget it.

"You must know, then, that my boy was in the artillery, a fine young
fellow, Captain Baumgarten, and the pride of his mother. She died
within a week of the news of his death reaching us. It was brought by
a brother officer who was at his side throughout, and who escaped
while my lad died. I want to tell you all that he told me.

"Eustace was taken at Weissenburg on the 4th of August. The prisoners
were broken up into parties, and sent back into Germany by different
routes. Eustace was taken upon the 5th to a village called Lauterburg,
where he met with kindness from the German officer in command. This
good Colonel had the hungry lad to supper, offered him the best he
had, opened a bottle of good wine, as I have tried to do for you, and
gave him a cigar from his own case. Might I entreat you to take one
from mine?"

The German again shook his head. His horror of his companion had
increased as he sat watching the lips that smiled and the eyes that
glared.

"The Colonel, as I say, was good to my boy. But, unluckily, the
prisoners were moved next day across the Rhine to Ettlingen. They were
not equally fortunate there. The officer who guarded them was a
ruffian and a villain, Captain Baumgarten. He took a pleasure in
humiliating and ill-treating the brave men who had fallen into his
power. That night, upon my son answering fiercely back to some taunt
of his, he struck him in the eye, like this!"

The crash of the blow rang through the hall. The German's face fell
forward, his hand up, and blood oozing through his fingers. The Count
settled down in his chair once more.

"My boy was disfigured by the blow, and this villain made his
appearance the object of his jeers. By the way, you look a little
comical yourself at the present moment, Captain, and your Colonel
would certainly say that you had been getting into mischief. To
continue, however, my boy's youth and his destitution--for his pockets
were empty--moved the pity of a kind-hearted major, and he advanced
him ten Napoleons from his own pocket without security of any kind.
Into your hands, Captain Baumgarten, I return these ten gold pieces,
since I cannot learn the name of the lender. I am grateful from my
heart for this kindness shown to my boy.

"The vile tyrant who commanded the escort accompanied the prisoners to
Durlach, and from there to Carlsruhe. He heaped every outrage upon my
lad, because the spirit of the Châteaux Noirs would not stoop to turn
away his wrath by a feigned submission. Ay, this cowardly villain,
whose heart's blood shall yet clot upon this hand, dared to strike my
son with his open hand, to kick him, to tear hairs from his
moustache--to use him thus--and thus--and thus!"

The German writhed and struggled. He was helpless in the hands of this
huge giant whose blows were raining upon him. When at last, blinded
and half-senseless, he staggered to his feet, it was only to be hurled
back again into the great oaken chair. He sobbed in his impotent anger
and shame.

"My boy was frequently moved to tears by the humiliation of his
position," continued the Count. "You will understand me when I say
that it is a bitter thing to be helpless in the hands of an insolent
and remorseless enemy. On arriving at Carlsruhe, however, his face,
which had been wounded by the brutality of his guard, was bound up by
a young Bavarian subaltern who was touched by his appearance. I regret
to see that your eye is bleeding so. Will you permit me to bind it
with my silk handkerchief?"

He leaned forward, but the German dashed his hand aside.

"I am in your power, you monster!" he cried; "I can endure your
brutalities, but not your hypocrisy."

The Count shrugged his shoulders. "I am taking things in their order,
just as they occurred," said he. "I was under vow to tell it to the
first German officer with whom I could talk /tête-à-tête/. Let me see,
I had got as far as the young Bavarian at Carlsruhe. I regret
extremely that you will not permit me to use such slight skill in
surgery as I possess. At Carlsruhe, my lad was shut up in the old
caserne, where he remained for a fortnight. The worst pang of his
captivity was that some unmannerly curs in the garrison would taunt
him with his position as he sat by his window in the evening. That
reminds me, Captain, that you are not quite situated upon a bed of
roses yourself, are you, now? You came to trap a wolf, my man, and now
the beast has you down with his fangs in your throat. A family man,
too, I should judge, by that well-filled tunic. Well, a widow the more
will make little matter, and they do not usually remain widows long.
Get back into the chair, you dog!

"Well, to continue my story--at the end of a fortnight my son and his
friend escaped. I need not trouble you with the dangers which they
ran, or with the privations which they endured. Suffice it that to
disguise themselves they had to take the clothes of two peasants, whom
they waylaid in a wood. Hiding by day and travelling by night, they
had got as far into France as Remilly, and were within a mile--a
single mile, Captain--of crossing the German lines when a patrol of
Uhlans came right upon them. Ah! it was hard, was it not, when they
had come so far and were so near to safety?"

The Count blew a double call upon his whistle, and three hard-faced
peasants entered the room.

"These must represent my Uhlans," said he. "Well, then, the Captain in
command, finding that these men were French soldiers in civilian dress
within the German lines, proceeded to hang them without trial or
ceremony. I think, Jean, that the centre beam is the strongest."

The unfortunate soldier was dragged from his chair to where a noosed
rope had been flung over one of the huge oaken rafters which spanned
the room. The cord was slipped over his head, and he felt its harsh
grip round his throat. The three peasants seized the other end, and
looked to the Count for his orders. The officer, pale, but firm,
folded his arms and stared defiantly at the man who tortured him.

"You are now face to face with death, and I perceive from your lips
that you are praying. My son was also face to face with death, and he
prayed, also. It happened that a general officer came up, and he heard
the lad praying for his mother, and it moved him so--he being himself
a father--that he ordered his Uhlans away, and he remained with his
aide-de-camp only, beside the condemned men. And when he heard all the
lad had to tell, that he was the only child of an old family, and that
his mother was in failing health, he threw off the rope as I throw off
this, and he kissed him on either cheek, as I kiss you, and he bade
him go, as I bid you go, and may every kind wish of that noble
General, though it could not stave off the fever which slew my son,
descend now upon your head."

And so it was that Captain Baumgarten, disfigured, blinded, and
bleeding, staggered out into the wind and the rain of that wild
December dawn.