Martin Hyde (5 page)

"Very true. True. A good point," said the man with the eyebrows.

"I think that disposes of your argument, Lane," said the Duke, with a smile.

"It's a supposition, sir, against a certainty. I've told you of a military danger. Falk, there, only tells you of a bare, military possibility."

"But it's as certain as anything can be," said the man with the eyebrows. "You can see. That's just what must happen."

"It is what may happen if you wait for a year or two, your Majesty," Lane replied. "But a newly crowned King is always popular. I doubt if you will find public opinion so much on your side, your Majesty. Not for a year or two, till he's made himself disliked. They've settled down now to this usurper. They'll resent an interruption. The tradesmen will resent an interruption."

"I think you over-rate the difficulties, Lane," said Mr. Jermyn.

"Yes," said the Duke, "I'm a great believer in putting a matter to the test. Much must necessarily be left to chance. If we wait, we may not find public opinion turning against our enemies. We may even lose the good opinion of the West by waiting. Besides, by waiting, Lane, we should lose the extraordinary help of Argyle's diversion in the north."

"Yes," the others said in chorus. "We mustn't lose that. A rising this early summer, when the roads are good. A rising as soon as Argyle is ready."

"Well, your Majesty," said Lane, shaking his head. "I see you're resolved. You shall not find me backward when the time comes, for all my doubts at this meeting. To your Majesty's happy success." They all drank the toast; but I noticed that Mr. Lane looked melancholy, as though he foresaw something of what actually happened in that terrible June.

"Very good," said the Duke. "I thank you, gentlemen. Now, Jermyn. We two shall have to be off to the Low Countries in another half hour. How about messengers to the West? You, Lane, are tied here to your regiment. Falk, how about you, Falk?"

"No, your Majesty," said Falk. "There's danger in sending me. I'm suspected. I'm known to be in your interests."

"You, then, Candlish," said the Duke to the man with the eyebrows.

"Not me, Sire," said Candlish. "I can't disguise myself. I'm stamped by nature for the paths of virtue."

"It would be a good thing," said Falk, "if we could get some Western carrier."

"The Western carriers are all watched," Lane replied. "They are followed, wherever they go, as soon as they arrive at their inns here."

"Haven't you found some more gipsies, Falk?" Candlish asked. "The last gipsy we had was very good."

"He was caught by a press-gang," said Falk.
"Gipsies aren't to be trusted, though. They would sell us at once if they had the chance. Ramon was an exception."

Mr. Jermyn had risen at the Duke's last speech as though to put on his coat, ready to leave the house. The Duke was listening to the conversation, making idle sketches, as he listened, on the paper before him. I think I hardly realised, as I craned over the open space, that I had been listening to a conversation which would have condemned all present to death for treason. I repeated to myself, in a dazed sort of way, that the West was ready to rise. "King James is an usurper," I said softly. "These men are going to rebel against him. There's going to be a civil war in England about it." I had hardly repeated this to myself, when it came over me with a shock that I was in terrible personal danger. The men were just leaving the house. They would probably look up, on leaving, to see what sort of a night it was. They would see my wonderful bridge. It would be all over with me then. I was so frightened that I could hardly stand up. I took a few cautious steps towards the door, saying to myself that I would never again be disobedient if I might escape this once. I was at the door, just about to open it, when I heard a step upon the landing just outside, coming towards me. I gave up hope then; but I had just sense enough to step to my left, so that, when the door should open (if the stranger entered) it might,
possibly, screen me from him. Then I heard the Duke's voice from down below calling to Mr. Jermyn.

"Jermyn," he called. "Bring down my books, will you. They're on my bed. What are you doing up there?"

"Just seeing to the ghosts, your Majesty. I won't keep you waiting."

"I'll come, too," he answered. "I'd like to see your ghosts again."

Then I heard Mr. Jermyn loitering at the stair-head while the Duke left the council-room. My hair was rising on my scalp; there was cold sweat on my forehead; it was as much as I could do to keep my teeth from chattering. I heard the Duke's feet upon the stairs; there were eleven stairs, I counted them. Presently I heard him say, "Now, Jermyn." Then came Jermyn's answer of "This way, your Majesty." He flung the door wide open, so that the Duke might enter. The two men passed into the room to examine the horrible owl. The Duke chuckled as the machine moved round to him. "How bright he keeps," he said. "Yes," Jermyn answered. "He won't need painting for a long while yet." "No," the Duke answered, "I hear, Jermyn, he's given you a most uncanny reputation." "Yes," said Jermyn, "the house has a bad name. What in the world is this?" In walking round the owl his foot had struck upon the unlucky tin candle-sconce which I had brought from the room above. "Sounds
like a tin candle-stick," said the Duke. "Yes," said Mr. Jermyn, groping. "That's what it is. Now how in the world did it get here? It's the candle-stick from the dragon's head in the room above." "Are you sure, Jermyn?" the Duke asked, in a voice which showed that he was agitated. "Yes, sir. Quite sure. But no one's been up there." "There must be a spy," said the Duke. The two voices spoke together for a moment in whispers. I could not hear what they said; but a moment later I heard the rasping, clinking noise of two swords being drawn. "Come out of that," said Mr. Jermyn's voice. I felt that I was discovered; but I dared not stir from my covert. I heard the two men walking swiftly to the door. A hand plucked it from in front of me. I shrank back into the wall, covering my eyes with my hands, so that I should not see the two long sword-blades pointing at my throat. "Make no sound. Make no sound, now," said the Duke, pressing his sword-point on my chest, so that I could feel it thrust hard upon me, as though it needed very little force to send it through. I made no sound.

"Who are you?" said Mr. Jermyn, backing to the opening in the floor. "Kill him if he moves, sir. Candlish, Candlish. Bring a light. Bring a light. We've caught a moth."

I tried to swallow, but my throat seemed choked with dust. I heard the people downstairs bustling out of the room with candles. I tried to speak; but I could
not. I was too much scared. I stood pressed hard against the wall, with the Duke's sword-point still in place.

"Bring it in here, Candlish," said Mr. Jermyn. There came a clattering noise from the window. Mr. Jermyn had released some heavy rolled up curtain-blinds, which covered the whole window. There was no chance, now, of being seen from the street, or from my uncle's house. Candlish entered carrying a candle. The others followed at his heels.

"A boy. Eh?" he said.

"What do you do here?" the Duke asked, staring hard at me.

"He's frightened out of his wits, sir," said Lane. "We aren't going to hurt you, boy, if you'll only tell the truth."

"Why," said Mr. Jermyn. "It's Martin Hyde, nephew to old Hyde across the way."

"But he's overheard us," put in Falk. "He's overheard us."

"Come on downstairs. Bring him with you," said the Duke. Lane took me by one arm. Mr. Jermyn took me by the other. They marched me downstairs to the council-room.

"Here, boy," said Candlish, not unkindly. "Drink this wine." He made me swallow a glass of Burgundy, which certainly did me a great deal of good. I was able to speak after drinking it.

"Now, Mr. Hyde," said Mr. Jermyn. "How do you come to be in this house?"

"Take-your time, boy," said Lane.

"He's not a London boy?" said the Duke to Mr. Jermyn.

"No, sir," he answered in a whisper. "Just come here from the country."

"Please, your Majesty," I began.

"So you're a young rebel," said the Duke.

"That shows he overheard us," said Falk.

"Let him alone, Falk," the Duke said. "He'll tell the truth. No use in frightening him."

"Please, your Majesty," I said again, "I was locked up in my room for taking my uncle's boat this afternoon." One or two of them smiled when I said this: it gave me confidence.

"But how did you get into this house?" Mr. Jermyn asked.

"Please, sir," I answered, "I saw your upper window open. So I laid a couple of planks across the lane from my window. Then I just straddled across, sir."

"Are you used to burglary, may I ask?" said the Duke.

"No, your Majesty. But I saw the ghosts. I wanted to see how they were made."

"Well. That's one for you, Jermyn," said Lane. "Your ghosts haven't frightened this one."

"Sir," I answered. "They frightened me horribly.
I wanted to be revenged for that. But after a bit I was sure they were only clockwork. I wanted to stop them. I did stop the devil upstairs, sir."

"So you stopped the devil upstairs," the Duke said. "What did you do then?"

"I came down to this room, sir. I looked at the owl. But I couldn't see how to stop the owl, sir. I saw you all sitting round the room. I'm afraid I listened, sir."

"That was not a gentlemanly thing to do," said Lane. "Was it now?"

"No, sir."

"You understood all that was said. Eh, boy?" said Candlish.

"Yes, sir. I understood it all."

"Well, young man," said Falk. "You'll be sorry you did."

"Be quiet, Falk," said the Duke. "No one shall bully the boy. What's your name, boy?"

"Martin Hyde, sir."

"A very smart lad too, sir," said Jermyn. "He saved my book of cipher correspondence yesterday. We should have been in trouble if that had got into the wrong hands."

"You understand," said the Duke, "that what you have heard might get us all, perhaps many more besides ourselves, into very terrible danger if repeated?"

"Yes, your Majesty, I understand," I answered.

"Lock him into the pantry, Jermyn," said the Duke, "while we decide what to do with him. Go with Mr. Jermyn, boy. We sha'n't hurt you. Don't be frightened. Give him some oranges, Jermyn."

CHAPTER V

I GO
TO
SEA

M
R.
J
ERMYN
led me to the pantry (a little room on the ground floor), where he placed a plate of oranges before me.

"See how many you can eat," he said. "But don't try to burgle yourself free. This is a strong room." He locked the heavy door, leaving me alone with a well-filled pantry, which seemed to be without a window. A little iron grating near the ceiling served as a ventilator. There was no chance of getting out through that. The door was plated with iron. The floor was of concrete. I was a prisoner now in good earnest. I was no longer frightened; but I had had such scares that night that I had little stomach for the fruit. I was only anxious to be allowed to go back to my bed. I heard a dull noise in the upper part of the house, followed by the falling of a plank. "There goes my bridge," I thought. "Are they going to be so mean as to call my uncle out of bed, to show him what I've been doing?" I thought that perhaps they would do this, as my uncle (for all that I knew) might be in their plot. "Well," I said to myself, "I shall get a good thrashing. Perhaps that brute Ephraim will be told to thrash me. But thrashing or no, I've had enough of going out at night. I'll ask my uncle not to thrash me; but to put me into the Navy. I should love that. I know that I shall never get on in London." This sudden plan of the Navy, about which I had never before thought, seemed to me to be a good way of getting out of my deserts. I felt sure that my uncle would be charmed to be rid of me; while I knew very well that boys of that generation often entered the Navy, in the care of the captains, as naval cadets (or, as they were then called, "captain's servants") at the ages of eight or nine. I wondered why the debate lasted so long. Naturally, in that gloomy little prison, lit by a single tallow candle, with all my anxieties heavy on my mind, the time passed slowly. But they were so long in making up their minds that it seemed as though they had forgotten me. I began to remember horrible tales of people shut up in secret rooms until they starved to death, or till the rats ate them. I remembered the tale of the nun being walled up in a vault of her convent, brick by brick, till the last brick shut off the last glimmer of the bricklayer's lantern, till the last layer of mortar made for her the last sound she would hear, the patting clink of the trowel on the brick, before it was all horrible dark silence forever. I wondered how many people had been silenced in that way. I wondered how long I should live, if that was what these men decided.

My fears were ended by the opening of the door. "Come on," said Mr. Lane. "This way." He led me back to the council-room, where all the conspirators sat at their places by the table. I noticed that Mr. Jermyn (cloaked now, as for travel) was wearing his false beard again.

"Mr. Hyde," the Duke said. "I understand that you are well disposed to my cause."

"Yes, your Majesty," I answered; though indeed I only followed what my father had told me. I had no real knowledge about it, one way or the other. I knew only what others had told me. Still, in this instance, as far as I have been able to judge by what I learned long afterwards, I was right. The Duke had truly a claim to the throne; he was also a better man than that disgraceful king who took his place.

"Very well, Mr. Hyde," the Duke answered. "Have you any objections to entering my service?"

I was not very sure of what he meant; it came rather suddenly upon me, so I stammered, without replying.

"His Majesty means, would you like to join our party?" said Mr. Lane. "To be one of us. To serve him abroad."

I was flushed with pleasure at the thought of going abroad, among a company of conspirators. I had no knowledge of what the consequences might be, except that I should escape a sound whipping from my uncle or from Ephraim. I did not like the thought of living
on in London, with the prospect of entering a merchant's office at the end of my boyhood. I thought that in the Duke's service I should soon become a general, so that I might return to my uncle, very splendidly dressed, to show him how well I had managed my own life for myself. I thought that life was always like that to the adventurous man. Besides I hoped that I should escape school, the very thought of which I hated. Looking at the matter in that secret council-room, it seemed so very attractive. It seemed to give me a pathway of escape, whichever way I looked at it, from all that I most disliked.