"I mean simply, that we might work together.""Our paths lie on very different roads, sir!""I am afraid you never spoke a truer word, sir.In the meanwhile, ere we part, be so kind as to tell me what you meant by saying that you had met this Spaniard at Lundy?""I shall refuse to answer that."
"You will please to recollect, Eustace, that however good friends we have been for the last half-hour, you are in my power.I have a right to know the bottom of this matter; and, by heaven, I will know it.""In your power? See that you are not in mine! Remember, sir, that you are within a--within a few miles, at least, of those who will obey me, their Catholic benefactor, but who owe no allegiance to those Protestant authorities who have left them to the lot of the beasts which perish."Amyas was very angry.He wanted but little more to make him catch Eustace by the shoulders, shake the life out of him, and deliver him into the tender guardianship of Yeo; but he knew that to take him at all was to bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the family; and remembering Frank's conduct on that memorable night at Clovelly, he kept himself down.
"Take me," said Eustace, "if you will, sir.You, who complain of us that we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that you asked me into this room as your guest, and that in your good faith I trusted when I entered it."The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a prisoner before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something very like misprision of treason in not handing him over to the nearest justice.However, all he did was, to go to the door, open it, and bowing to his cousin, bid him walk out and go to the devil, since he seemed to have set his mind on ending his days in the company of that personage.
Whereon Eustace vanished.
"Pooh!" said Amyas to himself, "I can find out enough, and too much, I fear, without the help of such crooked vermin.I must see Cary; I must see Salterne; and I suppose, if I am ready to do my duty, I shall learn somehow what it is.Now to sleep; to-morrow up and away to what God sends.""Come in hither, men," shouted he down the passage, "and sleep here.Haven't you had enough of this villainous sour cider?"The men came in yawning, and settled themselves to sleep on the floor.
"Where's Yeo?"
No one knew; he had gone out to say his prayers, and had not returned.
"Never mind," said Amyas, who suspected some plot on the old man's part."He'll take care of himself, I'll warrant him.""No fear of that, sir;" and the four tars were soon snoring in concert round the fire, while Amyas laid himself on the settle, with his saddle for a pillow.
.......
It was about midnight, when Amyas leaped to his feet, or rather fell upon his back, upsetting saddle, settle, and finally, table, under the notion that ten thousand flying dragons were bursting in the window close to his ear, with howls most fierce and fell.The flying dragons past, however, being only a flock of terror-stricken geese, which flew flapping and screaming round the corner of the house; but the noise which had startled them did not pass; and another minute made it evident that a sharp fight was going on in the courtyard, and that Yeo was hallooing lustily for help.
Out turned the men, sword in hand, burst the back door open, stumbling over pails and pitchers, and into the courtyard, where Yeo, his back against the stable-door, was holding his own manfully with sword and buckler against a dozen men.
Dire and manifold was the screaming; geese screamed, chickens screamed, pigs screamed, donkeys screamed, Mary screamed from an upper window; and to complete the chorus, a flock of plovers, attracted by the noise, wheeled round and round overhead, and added their screams also to that Dutch concert.
The screaming went on, but the fight ceased; for, as Amyas rushed into the yard, the whole party of ruffians took to their heels, and vanished over a low hedge at the other end of the yard.
"Are you hurt, Yeo?"
"Not a scratch, thank Heaven! But I've got two of them, the ringleaders, I have.One of them's against the wall.Your horse did for t'other."The wounded man was lifted up; a huge ruffian, nearly as big as Amyas himself.Yeo's sword had passed through his body.He groaned and choked for breath.
"Carry him indoors.Where is the other?""Dead as a herring, in the straw.Have a care, men, have a care how you go in! the horses are near mad!"However, the man was brought out after a while.With him all was over.They could feel neither pulse nor breath.
"Carry him in too, poor wretch.And now, Yeo, what is the meaning of all this?"Yeo's story was soon told.He could not get out of his Puritan head the notion (quite unfounded, of course) that Eustace had meant to steal the horses.He had seen the inn-keeper sneak off at their approach; and expecting some night-attack, he had taken up his lodging for the night in the stable.
As he expected, an attempt was made.The door was opened (how, he could not guess, for he had fastened it inside), and two fellows came in, and began to loose the beasts.Yeo's account was, that he seized the big fellow, who drew a knife on him, and broke loose;the horses, terrified at the scuffle, kicked right and left; one man fell, and the other ran out, calling for help, with Yeo at his heels; "Whereon," said Yeo, "seeing a dozen more on me with clubs and bows, I thought best to shorten the number while I could, ran the rascal through, and stood on my ward; and only just in time Iwas, what's more; there's two arrows in the house wall, and two or three more in my buckler, which I caught up as I went out, for Ihad hung it close by the door, you see, sir, to be all ready in case," said the cunning old Philistine-slayer, as they went in after the wounded man.
But hardly had they stumbled through the low doorway into the back-kitchen when a fresh hubbub arose inside--more shouts for help.
Amyas ran forward breaking his head against the doorway, and beheld, as soon as he could see for the flashes in his eyes, an old acquaintance, held on each side by a sturdy sailor.