Ships in the Bay!. D. K. Broster

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СКАЧАТЬ impression of a sudden movement somewhere behind her, and the sound of a thud, as if someone had dropped or sprung down into the vault below. She gave a half-stifled scream.

      “Papa!” she called out in sudden alarm, “there is someone in here—I am sure of it!”

      “Nonsense, my dear,” said the Precentor, joining her on the steps, to which she had retreated. “You heard a rat, I expect—though to be sure that would alarm you more than a human being. Go and ask Mr. Thistleton for the lantern, then; he is just coming out of the Bishop’s Hall.”

      Nest caught her father’s arm. “And leave you alone here with . . . No!”

      “Nonsense, child, there’s no one here! Ah, there’s Thistleton; ask him to be so good as to come this way with the light.”

      Nest darted down the steps on to the dew-wet grass. “Mr. Thistleton, Papa says——” And there she stopped, assailed all at once by a most unwelcome suspicion. What if the person she felt sure was in the ruins were he, the fugitive from the privateer—though why he should be lurking there she could not imagine? But if it were, she had betrayed him, for all her protestations of this afternoon!

      “Thistleton, pray bring the lantern here a moment,” called Dr. Meredith, peering meanwhile through the inner gateway. “My daughter thinks there is someone hiding in here. I am not of her opinion, but we might as well make sure.”

      Mr. Thistleton limped briskly up, the lantern shedding a circle of light on the weed-invaded steps. Nest did not follow him. Of course it could not be that young man, even if there were anyone there at all.

      Suddenly her heart beat harder. Out of the silence and the shadows above her had come her father’s voice, sharp and peremptory:

      “What are you doing down there, sirrah? Come out at once and account for yourself!”

      And on that there was a sudden scuffling of feet, as suddenly terminated, which suggested that the discovered intruder had not only scrambled up from the lower level of the vault, but was trying to make a bolt altogether. But the operation of clambering up had evidently put him at the mercy of the two gentlemen, and they had seized him before he could get past them. At least that was what Nest, outside, supposed.

      “Stand still, stand still now, my man; we will do you no harm! But I demand to know what you are doing in these ruins—in the precincts of the Cathedral!”

      “Oh dear, oh dear,” thought the uneasy Nest. “If it is that privateersman, he may be desperate, and ’tis much more likely that he will do Papa an injury!” Bitterly repenting her cry of alarm she tiptoed up the steps and peeped in.

      Yes, it was the young seaman, standing defiantly, under the further archway, between her father and Mr. Thistleton, both of whom had hold of him, the Precentor, no weakling, clutching a shoulder with one hand, an arm with the other, while Mr. Thistleton, holding aloft the lantern, gripped the intruder’s other arm with his remaining hand. And even had Nest recognised neither face nor clothes, the fact that the captive had his right trouser leg rolled up above the knee, and the red handkerchief tied round his bare calf, would infallibly have identified him for her. She remained in the outer doorway suffering from a sort of paralysis.

      “What are you doing here?” reiterated Dr. Meredith.

      “Only taking shelter for the night, sir. I’m sorry if I ha’ done wrong.” The tone was less defiant than the pose. “I thought—seeing that this place was a ruin, like . . .”

      “Too much of a ruin to be an honest man’s sleeping-place! Why did you not seek shelter in some more fitting spot, some outhouse or barn?”

      “And what is amiss with your leg?” queried Mr. Thistleton, glancing down at it.

      The fugitive Mark Thompson answered neither question; he said, even more meekly than before, “I didn’t intend no harm here, I assure you, sir.”

      “You are likely to do harm to yourself, then, making a bedchamber of that damp hole,” retorted the Precentor.

      “But I was meaning to sleep up on this level, sir, in a corner; then when I heard the young lady coming in, fearing I should frighten her, I slips down into yonder hole, so as she shouldn’t see me.”

      “You are a very plausible fellow, whatever else you are,” remarked Dr. Meredith. “But you have not yet told me what you, a stranger, are doing in this neighbourhood?”

      “I was hoping to find work at a farm, sir,” replied the young man, even as he had earlier replied to Dr. Meredith’s daughter.

      “Then why have you not gone to one?”

      “I have, sir, and . . . they set the dog on me.” He gave a glance down at his leg, and Nest drew a long, almost audible breath. “So I thought, sir, that maybe an Englishman like me had not a good chance here, and that I would do better to be pushing on in the morning towards Haverfordwest or Pembroke.”

      “Set a dog on you!” exclaimed Dr. Meredith. “I do not believe there is any farmer here who would do such a thing—unless indeed he caught you trying to steal! I expect that is the explanation, if you would only admit it. At what farm did it occur?”

      The ex-privateersman looked slightly confused; perhaps he was regretting his accusation. “I can’t get hold of these Welsh names, sir, saving your presence,” he explained. “And I dare say they didn’t like the look of me, though indeed I had no thought of stealing and only wanted to find work.”

      “Hold the lantern a little higher, will you, Thistleton,” suddenly said the Precentor. “I cannot help thinking that I have seen this man somewhere before.”

      “Just my own impression,” observed Mr. Thistleton, complying. “He reminds me somewhat of those seamen whom we saw landing this morning from the Dutch prize.”

      In the outer doorway Nest clasped her hands tightly together. Oh, he was lost, poor man, and through her unwitting fault! She had sent him to a prison, to a flogging, perhaps to keelhauling, which sounded a terrible punishment enough, though she was not sure of its nature . . . and her dog had already bitten him severely!

      But on the face now so mercilessly illuminated by the lantern beams there dawned a look of bewilderment. “What Dutch prize, sir? Was you thinking as I came off a ship?”

      “Nesta,” said Dr. Meredith suddenly over his shoulder, “Nesta, are you there? Come here then, and tell us whether you do not think that this is one of the men who landed at Porthstinian this morning? You were watching them longer than we were.”

      Oh, if only she had not stayed within call—if only she could slip away now! But her father had seen her standing there on the threshold. She came forward feeling as though her limbs might have belonged to the stone Queen Philippa above the doorway. Whatever her desire prompted her to do, she could not lie outright to her father!

      “What did you say, Papa?” Her voice seemed to stick in her throat.

      Dr. Meredith repeated his question, while Nest, half looking, half not looking at the captive, felt the latter’s gaze scorching her like a burning glass.

      “The man whom we saw in the boat——” she began, very slowly, dropping her eyes to the ground.

      “Well, СКАЧАТЬ