The Collected Works of Rafael Sabatini. Rafael Sabatini

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СКАЧАТЬ you delay your choice much longer, none will be left you,” cried Kenneth impatiently.

      Noting the lad's growing fears, and resolved now upon his course, Galliard set himself to play upon them until terror should render the boy as wax in his hands.

      “There speaks your callow inexperience,” said he, with a pitying smile. “When you shall have lived as long as I have done, and endured as much; when you shall have set your wits to the saving of your life as often as have I—you will have learnt that haste is fatal to all enterprises. Failure means the forfeiture of something; tonight it would mean the forfeiture of our lives, and it were a pity to let such good efforts as these”—and with a wave of the hand he indicated their two captors—“go wasted.”

      “Sir,” exclaimed Kenneth, well-nigh beside himself, “if you come not with me, I go alone!”

      “Whither?” asked Crispin dryly.

      “Out of this.”

      Galliard bowed slightly.

      “Fare you well, sir. I'll not detain you. Your way is clear, and it is for you to choose between the door and the window.”

      And with that Crispin turned his back upon his companion and crossed to the bed, where the trooper lay glaring in mute anger. He stooped, and unbuckling the soldier's swordbelt—to which the scabbard was attached—he girt himself with it. Without raising his eyes, and keeping his back to Kenneth, who stood between him and the door, he went next to the table, and, taking up the sword that he had left there, he restored it to the sheath. As the hilt clicked against the mouth of the scabbard:

      “Come, Sir Crispin!” cried the lad. “Are you ready?”

      Galliard wheeled sharply round.

      “How? Not gone yet?” said he sardonically.

      “I dare not,” the lad confessed. “I dare not go alone.”

      Galliard laughed softly; then suddenly waxed grave.

      “Ere we go, Master Kenneth, I would again remind you of your assurance that were we to regain our liberty you would aid me in the task of vengeance that lies before me.”

      “Once already have I answered you that it is so.”

      “And pray, are you still of the same mind?”

      “I am, I am! Anything, Sir Crispin; anything so that you come away!”

      “Not so fast, Kenneth. The promise that I shall ask of you is not to be so lightly given. If we escape I may fairly claim to have saved your life, 'twixt what I have done and what I may yet do. Is it not so?”

      “Oh, I acknowledge it!”

      “Then, sir, in payment I shall expect your aid hereafter to help me in that which I must accomplish, that which the hope of accomplishing is the only spur to my own escape.”

      “You have my promise!” cried the lad.

      “Do not give it lightly, Kenneth,” said Crispin gravely. “It may cause you much discomfort, and may be fraught with danger even to your life.”

      “I promise.”

      Galliard bowed his head; then, turning, he took the Bible from the table.

      “With your hand upon this book, by your honour, your faith, and your every hope of salvation, swear that if I bear you alive out of this house you will devote yourself to me and to my task of vengeance until it shall be accomplished or until I perish; swear that you will set aside all personal matters and inclinations of your own, to serve me when I shall call upon you. Swear that, and, in return, I will give my life if need be to save yours to-night, in which case you will be released from your oath without more ado.”

      The lad paused a moment. Crispin was so impressive, the oath he imposed so solemn, that for an instant the boy hesitated. His cautious, timid nature whispered to him that perchance he should know more of this matter ere he bound himself so irrevocably. But Crispin, noting the hesitation, stifled it by appealing to the lad's fears.

      “Resolve yourself,” he exclaimed abruptly. “It grows light, and the time for haste is come.”

      “I swear!” answered Kenneth, overcome by his impatience. “I swear, by my honour, my faith, and my every hope of heaven to lend you my aid, when and how you may demand it, until your task be accomplished.”

      Crispin took the Bible from the boy's hands, and replaced it on the table. His lips were pressed tight, and he avoided the lad's eyes.

      “You shall not find me wanting in my part of the bargain,” he muttered, as he took up the soldier's cloak and hat. “Come, take that parson's steeple hat and his cloak, and let us be going.”

      He crossed to the door, and opening it he peered down the passage. A moment he stood listening. All was still. Then he turned again. In the chamber the steely light of the breaking day was rendering more yellow still the lanthorn's yellow flame.

      “Fare you well, sir parson,” he said. “Forgive me the discomfort I have been forced to put upon you, and pray for the success of our escape. Commend me to Oliver of the ruby nose. Fare you well, sir. Come, Kenneth.”

      He held the door for the lad to pass out. As they stood in the dimly lighted passage he closed it softly after them, and turned the key in the lock.

      “Come,” he said again, and led the way to the stairs, Kenneth tiptoeing after him with wildly beating heart.

      CHAPTER X.

       THE ESCAPE

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      Treading softly, and with ears straining for the slightest sound, the two men descended to the first floor of the house. They heard nothing to alarm them as they crept down, and not until they paused on the first landing to reconnoitre did they even catch the murmur of voices issuing from the guardroom below. So muffled was the sound that Crispin guessed how matters stood even before he had looked over the balusters into the hall beneath. The faint grey of the dawn was the only light that penetrated the gloom of that pit.

      “The Fates are kind, Kenneth,” he whispered. “Those fools sit with closed doors. Come.”

      But Kenneth laid his hand upon Galliard's sleeve. “What if the door should open as we pass?”

      “Someone will die,” muttered Crispin back. “But pray God that it may not. We must run the risk.”

      “Is there no other way?”

      “Why, yes,” returned Galliard sardonically, “we can linger here until we are taken. But, oddslife, I'm not so minded. Come.”

      And as he spoke he drew the lad along.

      His foot was upon the topmost stair of the flight, when of a sudden the stillness of the house was broken by a loud knock upon the street door. Instantly—as though they had been awaiting it there was a stir of СКАЧАТЬ