At last he ran up the slight incline leading to the White House; there was a light in the front kitchen. For one awful moment he paused, with a finger on the sneck; then he pressed the latch and entered.
John Bolland, grim as a stone gargoyle, wearing his Sunday coat and old-fashioned tall hat, was leaning against the massive chimneypiece. Mrs. Bolland, with bonnet awry, was seated. She had been crying. A frightened kitchenmaid peeped through the passage leading to the back of the house when the door opened to admit the truant. Then she vanished.
There was a period of chill silence while Martin closed the door. He turned and faced the elderly couple, and John Bolland spoke:
“So ye’ve coom yam, eh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“An’ at a nice time, too. Afther half-past ten! An hour sen yer muther an’ me searched high and low for ye. Where hev ye bin? Tell t’ truth, ye young scamp. Every lie’ll mean more skin off your back.”
Mrs. Bolland, drying her eyes, now that Martin had returned, noticed his disheveled condition. His face was white as his shirt, and both were smeared with blood. A wave of new alarm paled her florid cheeks. She ran to him.
“For mercy’s sake, boy, what hev ye bin doin’? Are ye hurt?”
“No, mother, not hurt. I fought Frank Beckett-Smythe. That is all.”
“T’ squire’s son. Why on earth——”
“Go to bed, Martha,” said John, picking up a riding whip. But Mrs. Bolland’s sympathies discerned a deeper reason for Martin’s escapade than a mere boyish frolic which deserved a thrashing. He was unnaturally calm. Something out of the common had happened. He did not flinch at the sight of the whip.
“John,” she said sternly, “ye shan’t touch him t’-night.”
“Stand aside, Martha. If all my good teachin’ is of no avail——”
“Mebbe t’ lad’s fair sick o’ yer good teachin’. You lay a hand on him at yer peril. If ye do, I don’t bide i’ t’ house this night!”
Never before, during thirty years of married life, had Martha Bolland defied her husband. He glowered with anger and amazement.
“Would ye revile the Word te shield that spawn o’ Satan?” he roared. “Get away, woman, lest I do thee an injury.”
But his wife’s temper was fierce as his own when roused. She was a Meynell, and there have been Meynells in Yorkshire as long as any Bollands.
“Tak’ yer threats te those who heed ’em,” she retorted bitterly. “D’ye think folk will stand by an’ let ye raise yer hand te me?... David, William, Mary, coom here an’ hold yer master. He’s like te have a fit wi’ passion.”
There was a shuffling in the passage. The men servants, such as happened to be in the house, came awkwardly at their mistress’s cry. The farmer stood spellbound. What devil possessed the household that his authority should be set at naught thus openly?
It was a thrilling moment, but Martin solved the difficulty. He wrenched himself free of Mrs. Bolland’s protecting arms.
“Father, mother!” he cried. “Don’t quarrel on my account. If I must be beaten, I don’t care. I’ll takeall I get. But it’s only fair that I should say why I was not home earlier.”
Now, John Bolland, notwithstanding his dealing in the matter of the pedigree cow, prided himself on his sense of justice. Indeed, the man who does the gravest injury to his fellows is often cursed with a narrow-minded certainty of his own righteousness. Moreover, this matter had gone beyond instant adjustment by the unsparing use of a whip. His wife, his servants, were arrayed against him. By the Lord, they should rue it!
“Aye,” he said grimly. “Tell your muther why you’ve been actin’ t’ blackguard. Mebbe she’ll understand.”
Mrs. Bolland had the sense to pass this taunt unheeded. Her heart was quailing already at her temerity.
“Angèle Saumarez came out without her mother,” said Martin. “Mrs. Saumarez is ill. I thought it best to remain with her and take her home again. Frank Beckett-Smythe joined us, and he—he—insulted her, in a way. So I fought him, and beat him, too. And then George Pickering was murdered——”
“What?”
Bolland dropped the whip on the table. His wife sank into a chair with a cry of alarm. The plowmen and maids ventured farther into the room. Even the farmer’s relentless jaw fell at this terrific announcement.
“Yes, it is quite true. Frank and I fought in the yard of the ‘Black Lion.’ George Pickering and Kitty Thwaites went down the garden—at least, so I was told. I didn’t see them. But, suddenly, Kitty came screaming along the path, and after her a woman waving a long knife in the air. Kitty called her ‘Betsy,’ and said shehad killed George Pickering. She said so herself. I heard her. Then some men came with a light and caught hold of Betsy. She was going to stab Kitty, too, I think; and Jim Bates ran away with my coat and hat, which he was holding.”
The effect of such a narration on a gathering of villagers, law-abiding folk who lived in a quiet nook like Elmsdale, was absolutely paralyzing. John Bolland was the first to recover himself. A man of few ideas, he could not adjust his mental balance with sufficient nicety to see that the tragedy itself in no wise condoned Martin’s offense.
“Are ye sure of what ye’re sayin’, lad?” he demanded, though indeed he felt it was absurd to imagine that such a tale would be invented as a mere excuse.
“Quite sure, sir. If you walk down to the ‘Black Lion,’ you’ll see all the people standing round the hotel and the police keeping them back.”
“Well, well, I’ll gan this minit. George Pickerin’ was no friend o’ mine, but I’m grieved te hear o’ sike deeds as these in oor village. I was maist angered wi’ you on yer muther’s account. She was grievin’ so when we failed te find ye. She thowt sure you were runned over or drownded i’ t’ beck.”
This was meant as a graceful apology to his wife, and was taken in that spirit. Never before had he made such a concession.
“Here’s yer stick, John,” she said. “Hurry and find out what’s happened. Poor George! I wish my tongue hadn’t run so fast t’ last time I seed him.”
Bolland and the other men hastened away, and Martin was called on to recount the sensational episode, withevery detail known to him, for the benefit of the household. No one paid heed to the boy’s own adventures. All ears were for the vengeance taken by Betsy Thwaites on the man who jilted her. Even to minds blunted almost to callousness, thecrime passionelhad a vivid, an entrancing interest. The women were quick to see its motive, a passive endurance stung to sudden frenzy by the knowledge that the faithless lover was pursuing the younger sister. But how did Betsy Thwaites, who lived in far-off Hereford, learn that George Pickering was “making up” to Kitty? The affair was of recent growth. Indeed, none of those present was aware that Pickering and the pretty maid at the “Black Lion” were so much as acquainted with each other. And where did Betsy spring from? She could not have been staying in the village, or someone aware of her history must have seen her. Did Kitty know she was there? If so, how foolish of the younger woman to be out gallivanting in the moonlight with Pickering.
The whole story was fraught with deepest mystery. Martin could not answer one-tenth of the questions put to him. Boy-like, he felt himself somewhat of a hero, until he remembered Angèle’s glee at the “good luck” of the occurrence—how she would save herself from blame by telling Miss Walker and Françoise “all about it.”
He flushed deeply. He wished now that Bolland had given him a hiding before he blurted out his news.
“Bless the lad, he’s fair tired te death!” said Mrs. Bolland. “Here, Martin, drink a glass o’ port an’ off te bed wi’ ye.”
He sipped the wine, wondering dimly what FrankBeckett-Smythe was enduring and how he would explain that black eye. He was about to go upstairs, when hasty steps sounded without, and Bolland entered with a policeman.
This was the village constable, and, of course, well known to all. During the feast other policemen came from neighboring villages, but the local officer was best fitted to conduct inquiries into a case requiring measures beyond a mere arrest. His appearance at this late hour created a fresh sensation.
“Martin,” said the farmer gravely, “did ye surely hear Kitty Thwaites say that Betsy had killed Mr. Pickering?”
“Yes, sir; I did.”
“And ye heerd Betsy admit it?”
“Oh, yes—that is, if Betsy is the woman with the knife.”
“There!” said Bolland, turning to the policeman. “I telt ye so. T’ lad has his faults, but he’s nae leear; I’ll say that for him.”
The man took off his helmet and wiped his forehead, for the night was close and warm.
“Well,” he said, “I’ll just leave it for the ‘Super’ te sattle. Mr. Pickerin’ sweers that Betsy never struck him. She ran up tiv him wi’ t’ knife, an’ they quarrelled desperately. That he don’t deny. She threatened him, too, an’ te get away frev her he was climin’ inte t’ stackyard when he slipped, an’ a fork lyin’ again’ t’ fence ran intiv his ribs.”
“Isn’t he dead, then?” exclaimed Mrs. Bolland shrilly.
“Not he, ma’am, and not likely te be. He kem to assoon as he swallowed some brandy, an’ his first words was, ‘Where’s Betsy?’ He was fair wild when they telt him she was arrested. He said it was all the fault of that flighty lass, Kitty, an’ that a lot of fuss was bein’ made about nowt. I didn’t know what te deä. Beäth women were fair ravin’, and said all soarts o’ things, but t’ upshot is that Betsy is nussin’ Mr. Pickerin’ now until t’ doctor comes frae Nottonby.”
He still mopped his head, and his glance wandered to the goodly cask in the corner.
“Will ye hev a pint?” inquired Bolland.
“Ay, that I will, Mr. Bolland, an’ welcome.”
“An’ a bite o’ bread an’ meat?” added Mrs. Bolland.
“I doan’t min’ if I do, ma’am.”
A glance at a maid produced eatables with lightning speed. Mary feared lest she should miss a syllable of the night’s marvels.
The policeman had many “bites,” and talked while he ate. Gradually the story became lucid and consecutive.
Fred, the groom, was jealous of Pickering’s admiration for Kitty. Having overheard the arrangement for a meeting on Monday, he wrote to Betsy, sending her the information in the hope that she would come from Hereford and cause a commotion at the hotel.
He expected her by an earlier train, but she did not arrive until 9:20P.M., and there was a walk of over two miles from the station.
Meanwhile, he had seen Kitty and Pickering steal off into the garden. He knew that any interference on his part would earn him a prompt beating, so, when Betsy put in a belated appearance, he met her in the passage and told her where she would find the couple.
Instantly she ran through the kitchen, snatching a knife as she went. Before the drink-sodden meddler could realize the extent of the mischief he had wrought, Kitty was shrieking that Pickering was dead. All this he blurted out to the police before the injured man gave another version of the affair.
“Martin bears out one side o’ t’ thing,” commented the constable oracularly, “but t’ chief witness says that summat else happened. There was blood on t’ knife when it was picked up; but there, again, there’s a doubt, as Betsy had cut her own arm wi’t. Anyhow, Betsy an’ Kitty were cryin’ their hearts out when they kem out of Mr. Pickerin’s room for towels; and he’s bleedin’ dreadful.”
This final gory touch provided an artistic curtain. The constable readjusted his belt and took his departure.
After another half-hour’s eager gossip among the elders, in which Fred suffered much damage to his character, Martin was hurried off to bed. Mrs. Bolland washed his bruised face and helped him to undress. She was folding his trousers, when a shower of money rattled to the floor.
“Marcy on us!” she cried in real bewilderment, “here’s a sovereign, a half-sovereign, an’ silver, an’ copper! Martin, my boy, whatever....”
“Angèle gave it to me, mother. She gave me two pounds ten to spend.”
“Two pund ten!”
“Yes. I suppose it was very wrong. I’ll give back all that is left to Mrs. Saumarez in the morning.”
Martha Bolland was very serious now. She crept to the door of the bedroom and listened.
“I do hope yer father kens nowt o’ this,” she whispered anxiously.
Then she counted the money.
“You’ve spent sixteen shillin’s and fowerpence, not reckonin’ t’ shillin’ I gev ye this mornin’. Seventeen an’ fowerpence! Martin, Martin, whatever on?”
Such extravagance was appalling. Her frugal mind could not assimilate it readily. This sum would maintain a large family for a week.
“We stood treat to a lot of other boys and girls. But don’t be vexed to-night, mother, dear. I’m so tired.”
“Vexed, indeed. What’ll Mrs. Saumarez say? There’ll be a bonny row i’ t’ mornin’. You tak’ it back t’ first thing. An’, here. If she sez owt about t’ balance, come an’ tell me an’ I’ll make it up. You fond lad; if John knew this, he’d never forgive ye. There, honey, go te sleep.”
There were tears in her eyes as she bent and kissed him. But he was incapable of further emotion. He was half asleep ere she descended the stairs, and his last sentient thought was one of keen enjoyment, for his knuckles were sore when he closed his right hand, and he remembered the smashing force of that uppercut as it met the aristocratic nose of Master Beckett-Smythe.
Martin was awakened by the rays of a bright autumn sun. He sprang out of bed in a jiffy, lest he should be late for breakfast, a heinous offense at the farm; but the sight of William feeding the pigs in the yard beneath told him that it was only half-past six.
The first puzzle that presented itself was one of costume. Should he wear his commonplace corduroys, or don all that was left of his gray tweeds? During the Feast he was supposed to dress in his best each day; he decided to obey orders as far as was possible.
He missed the money from his trousers pocket and knew that his mother had taken it. Also, he found that she had selected a clean shirt and collar from the drawer and placed them ready for use. By degrees his active brain recalled the startling events of the previous evening in their proper sequence, and he found himself speculating more on the reception Mrs. Saumarez might accord than on the attitude John Bolland would certainly adopt when the overnight proceedings arranged themselves in a slow-moving mind.
He was downstairs long before seven. The farmer was out. Mrs. Bolland, immersed in the early cares of the household, showed no traces of the excitement of eight hours earlier.
“Martin,” she cried as soon as she caught sight ofhim, “I heerd a hen cluckin’ a bit sen at t’ bottom o’ t’ garth. Just look i’ t’ hedge an’ see if she’s nestin’?”
This was a daily undertaking in a house where poultry were plentiful as sparrows in Piccadilly.
Martin hailed the mission as a sign that normal times were come again. A gate led into the meadow from the garden, but to go that way meant walking twenty yards or more, so the boy took a running jump, caught a stout limb of a pear tree, swung himself onto a ten-foot pile of wood, and dropped over into the field beyond.
Mrs. Bolland witnessed the feat with some degree of alarm. In the course of a few hours she had come to see her adopted son passing from childhood into vigorous adolescence.
“Drat that lad!” she cried irately. “Does he want to break his neck?”
“He larnt that trick t’ other day, missus,” commented William, standing all lopsided to balance a huge pail of pig’s food. “He’ll mek a rare chap, will your Martin.”
“He’s larnin’ a lot o’ tricks that I ken nowt about,” cried Mistress Martha. “Nice doin’s there was last night. How comes it none o’ you men saw him carryin’ on i’ t’ fair wi’ that little French la-di-dah?”
“I dunno, ma’am.”
William grinned, though, for some of the men had noted the children’s antics, and none would “split” to the farmer.
“But I did hear as how Martin gev t’ Squire’s son a fair weltin’,” he went on. “One o’ t’ grooms passed here an oor sen, exercisin’ a young hoss, an’ he said that beäth young gentlemen kem yam at half-past ten.Master Frank had an eye bunged up, an’ a nose like a bad apple. He was that banged about that t’ Squire let him off a bastin’ an’ gev t’ other a double allowance.”
Mrs. Bolland smiled.
“Gan on wi’ yer wark,” she said. “Here’s it’s seven o’clock, half t’ day gone, an’ nothin’ done.”
Martin, searching for stray eggs, suddenly heard a familiar whistle. He looked around and saw Jim Bates’s head over the top of the lane hedge.
Jim held up a bundle.
“Here’s yer coat an’ hat,” he said. “I dursent bring ’em last neet.”
“Why did you run away?” inquired Martin, approaching to take his property.
“I was skeert. Yon woman’s yellin’ was awful. I went straight off yam.”
“Did you catch it for being out late?”
“Noa; but feyther gev me a clout this mornin’ for not tellin’ him about t’ murder. He’d gone te bed.”
“Nobody was murdered,” said Martin.
“That wasn’t Betsy’s fault. It’s all my eye about Mr. Pickerin’ stickin’ a fork into hisself. There was noa fork there.”
“How do you know?”
“Coss I was pullin’ carrots all Saturday mornin’ for Mrs. Atkinson, an’ if there’d bin any fork I should ha’ seen it.”
“Martin,” cried a shrill voice from the garth, “is that lookin’ fer eggs?”
Jim Bates’s head and shoulders shot out of sight instantaneously.
“All right, mother, I’m only getting back my lostclothes,” explained Martin. He began a painstaking survey of the hedge bottom and was rewarded by the discovery of a nest of six hidden away by a hen anxious to undertake the cares of maternity.
At breakfast John Bolland was silent and severe. He passed but one remark to Martin:
“Happen you’ll be wanted some time this mornin’. Stop within hail until Mr. Benson calls.”
Mr. Benson was the village constable.
“What will he want wi’ t’ lad?” inquired Mrs. Bolland tartly.
“Martin is t’ main witness i’ this case o’ Pickerin’s. Kitty Thwaites isn’t likely te tell t’ truth. Women are main leears when there’s a man i’ t’ business.”
“More fools they.”
“Well, let be. I’m fair vexed that Martin’s neäm should be mixed up i’ this affair. Fancy the tale that’ll be i’ t’Messenger—John Bolland’s son fightin’ t’ young squire at ten o’clock o’ t’ neet in t’ ‘Black Lion’ yard—fightin’ ower a lass. What ailed him I cannot tell. He must ha’ gone clean daft.”
The farmer pushed back his chair angrily, and Mrs. Bolland wondered what he would say did he know of Martin’s wild extravagance. Mother and son were glad when John picked up a riding-whip and lumbered out to mount Sam, the pony, for an hour’s ride over the moor.
Evidently, he had encountered Benson before breakfast, as that worthy officer arrived at half-past ten and asked Martin to accompany him.
The two walked solemnly through the fair, in which there was already some stir. A crowd hanging aroundthe precincts of the inn made way as they approached, and Martin saw, near the door, two saddled horses in charge of a policeman.
He was escorted to an inner room, receiving a tremulous, but gracious, smile from Evelyn as he passed. To his very genuine astonishment and alarm, he was confronted not only by the district superintendent of police but also by Mr. Frank Reginald de Courcy Beckett-Smythe, the magnate of the Hall.
“This is the boy, your wuship,” said Benson.
“Ah. What is his name?”
“Martin Court Bolland, sir.”
“One of John Bolland’s sons, eh?”
“No, sir. Mr. Bolland has no son. He adopted this lad some thirteen years ago.”
Had a bolt from the blue struck Martin at that moment he could not have been more dumbfounded. Both John and Martha had thought fit to keep the secret of his parentage from his knowledge until he was older, as the fact might tend to weaken their authority during his boyhood. The adults in Elmsdale, of course, knew the circumstances thoroughly, and respected Mr. and Mrs. Bolland’s wishes, while the children with whom he grew up regarded him as village-born like themselves.
It took a good deal to bring tears to Martin’s eyes, but they were perilously near at that instant. Though the words almost choked him, he faltered:
“Is that true, Mr. Benson?”
“True? It’s true eneuf, lad. Didn’t ye know?”
“No, they never told me.”
A mist obscured his sight. The presence of the magistrate and superintendent ceased to have any awe-inspiringeffect. What disgrace was this so suddenly blurted out by this stolid policeman? Whose child was he, then, if not theirs? Could he ever hold up his head again in face of the youthful host over which he lorded it by reason of his advanced intelligence and greater strength? There was comfort in the thought that no one had ever taunted him in this relation. The veiled hint in Pickering’s words to the farmer was the only reference he could recall.
Benson seemed to regard the facts as to his birth as matters of common knowledge. Perhaps there was some explanation which would lift him from the sea of ignominy into which he had been pitched so unexpectedly.
He was aroused by Mr. Beckett-Smythe saying:
“Now, my lad, was it you who fought my son last night?”
“Yes—sir,” stammered Martin.
The question sharpened his wits to some purpose. A spice of dread helped the process. Was he going to be tried on some dire charge of malicious assault?
“Hum,” muttered the squire, surveying him with a smile. “A proper trouncing you gave him, too. I shall certainly thrash him now for permitting it. What was the cause of the quarrel?”
“About a girl, sir.”
“You young rascals! A girl! What girl?”
“Perhaps it was all my fault, sir.”
“That is not answering my question.”
“I would rather not tell, sir.”
Then Mr. Beckett-Smythe leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily.
“’Pon my honor,” he said to the superintendent,“these young sparks are progressive. They don’t care what happens, so long as the honor of the lady is safeguarded. My son refused point-blank to say even why he fought. Well, well, Martin, I see you did not come out of the fray scatheless; but you are not brought here because you decorated Frank’s ingenuous countenance. I want you to tell me exactly what took place in the garden when Mr. Pickering was wounded.”
Somewhat reassured, Martin told all he knew, which was not a great deal. The magistrate, who, of course, was only assisting the police inquiry, was perplexed.
“There were others present?” he commented.
“Yes, sir. Master Frank and Master Ernest——”
“Master Frank could not see much at the moment, eh?”
Martin blushed.
“But Ernest—surely, he might have noted something that you missed?”
“I think not, sir. He was—er—looking after his brother.”
“And the other children?”
“Several boys and girls of the village, but they were frightened by the screaming, sir, and ran away.”
“Including the young lady who caused the combat?”
No answer. Martin thought it best to leave the point open. Again Mr. Beckett-Smythe laughed.
“I suppose this village belle is one of Mrs. Atkinson’s daughters. Gad! I never heard tell of such a thing. All right, Martin, you can go now, but let me give you a parting word of advice. Never again fight for a woman, unless to protect her from a blackguard, which,I presume, was hardly the cause of the dispute with Frank.”
“I don’t think he was to blame at all, sir.”
“Thank you. Good-day, Martin. Here’s a half-crown to plaster that damaged lip of yours.”
Left to themselves, the magistrate and superintendent discussed the advisability of taking proceedings against Betsy Thwaites.
“I’m sure Pickering made up his story in order to screen the woman,” said the police officer. “A rusty fork was found in the stackyard, but it was thirty feet away from the nearest point of the track made by the drops of blood, and separated from the garden by a stout hedge. Moreover, Pickering and Kitty were undoubtedly standing in the orchard, many yards farther on. Then, again, the girl was collared by Thomas Metcalfe, of the Leas Farm, and the knife, one of Mrs. Atkinson’s, fell from her hand; while a dozen people will swear they heard her sister calling out that she had murdered George Pickering.”
Beckett-Smythe shook his head doubtfully.
“It is a queer affair, looked at in any light. Do you think I ought to see Pickering himself? You can arrest Betsy Thwaites without a warrant, I believe, and, in any event, I’ll not sit on the bench if the case comes before the court.”
The superintendent was only too glad to have the squire’s counsel in dealing with a knotty problem. The social position of the wounded man required some degree of caution before proceedings were commenced, in view of his emphatic declaration that his wound was self-inflicted. If his state became dangerous, there was onlyone course open to the representatives of the law; but the doctor’s verdict was that penetration of the lung had been averted by a hair’s breadth, and Pickering would recover. Indeed, he might be taken home in a carriage at the end of the week. Meanwhile, the hayfork and the blood-stained knife were impounded.
The two men went upstairs and were shown to the room occupied by the injured gallant. Kitty Thwaites, pale as a ghost, was flitting about attending to her work, the hotel being crowded with stock-breeders and graziers. Her unfortunate sister, even more woebegone in appearance, was nursing the invalid, at his special request. It was a puzzling situation, and Mr. Beckett-Smythe, who knew Pickering intimately, was inclined to act with the utmost leniency that the law allowed.
Betsy Thwaites, who was sitting at the side of the bed, rose when they entered. Her white face became suffused with color, and she looked at the police officer with frightened eyes.
The magistrate saw this, and he said quite kindly:
“If Mr. Pickering is able to speak with us for a little while, you may leave us with him.”
“No, no,” interrupted the invalid in an astonishingly strong and hearty voice. “There’s nothing to be said that Betsy needn’t hear. Is there, lass?”
She began to tremble, and lifted a corner of her apron. Notwithstanding her faithless swain’s statement to her sister, she was quite as good-looking as Kitty, and sorrow had given her face a pathetic dignity that in no wise diminished its charm.
She knew not whether to stay or go. The superintendent took the hint given by the squire.
“It would be best, under the circumstances, if we were left alone while we talk over last night’s affair, Mr. Pickering.”
“Not a bit of it. Don’t go, Betsy. What is there to talk over? I made a fool of myself—not for the first time where a woman was concerned—and Betsy here, brought from Hereford by a meddlesome scamp, lost her temper. No wonder! Poor girl, she had traveled all day in a hot train, without eatin’ a bite, and found me squeezing her sister at the bottom of the garden. There’s no denying that she meant to do me a mischief, and serve me right, too. I’ll admit I was scared, and in running away I got into worse trouble, as, of course, I could easily have mastered her. Kitty, too, what between fear and shame, lost her senses, and poor Betsy cut her own arm. You see, a plain tale stops all the nonsense that has been talked since ten o’clock last night.”
“Not quite, George.” Mr. Beckett-Smythe was serious and magisterial. “You forget, or perhaps do not know, that there were witnesses.”
Pickering looked alarmed.
“Witnesses!” he cried. “What d’you mean?”
“Well, no outsider saw the blow, or accident, whichever it was; but a number of children saw and heard incidents which, putting it mildly, tend to discredit your story.”
Betsy began to sob.
“I told you you had better leave the room,” went on the squire in a low tone.
Pickering endeavored to raise himself in the bed, but sank back with a groan. The unfortunate girl forgother own troubles at the sound, and rushed to arrange the pillow beneath his head.
“It comes to this, then,” he said huskily; “you want to arrest, on a charge of attempting to murder me, a woman whom I intend to marry long before she can be brought to trial!”
Betsy broke down now in real earnest. Beckett-Smythe and the superintendent gazed at Pickering with blank incredulity. This development was wholly unlooked for. They both thought the man was light-headed. He smiled dryly.
“Yes, I mean it,” he continued, placing his hand on the brown hair of the girl, whose face was buried in the bedclothes. “I—I didn’t sleep much last night, and I commenced to see things in a different light to that which presented itself before. I treated Betsy shamefully—not in a monied sense, but in every other way. She’s not one of the general run of girls. I promised to marry her once, and now I’m going to keep my promise. That’s all.”
He was desperately in earnest. Of that there could be no manner of doubt. The superintendent stroked his chin reflectively, and the magistrate could only murmur:
“Gad, that changes the venue, as the lawyers say.”
One thought dominated the minds of both men; Pickering was behaving foolishly. He was a wealthy man, owner of a freehold farm of hundreds of acres; he might aspire to marry a woman of some position in the county and end his days in all the glory of J. P.-dom and County Aldermanship. Yet, here he was deliberately throwing himself away on a dairymaid who,not many hours since, had striven to kill him during a burst of jealous fury. The thing was absurd. Probably when he recovered he would see this for himself; but for the time it was best to humor him and give official sanction to his version of the overnight quarrel.
“Don’t keep us in suspense, squire,” cried the wounded man, angered by his friend’s silence. “What are you going to do?”
“Nothing, George; nothing, I think. I only hope your accident with the pitchfork will not have serious results—in any shape.”
The policeman nodded a farewell. As they quitted the room they heard Pickering say faintly:
“Now, Betsy, my dear, no more crying. I can’t stand it. Damn it all, one doesn’t get engaged to be married and yelp over it!”
On the landing they saw Kitty, a white shadow, anxious, but afraid to speak.
“Cheer up,” said Beckett-Smythe pleasantly. “This affair looks like ending in smoke.”
Gaining courage from the magistrate’s affability, the girl said brokenly:
“Mr. Pickering and—my—sister—are quite friendly. You saw that for yourself, sir.”
“Gad, yes. They’re going to be—well—er—I was going to say we have quite decided that an accident took place and there is no call for police interference—so long as Mr. Pickering shows progress toward recovery, you understand. There, there! You women always begin to cry, whether pleased or vexed. Bless my heart, let’s get away, Mr. Superintendent.”
The sufferings of the young are strenuous as their joys. When Martin passed into the heart of the bustling fair its glamour had vanished. The notes of the organ were harsh, the gay canvas of the booths tawdry, the cleanly village itself awry. The policeman’s surprise at his lack of knowledge on the subject of his parentage was disastrously convincing. The man treated the statement as indisputable. There was no question of hearsay; it was just so, a recognized fact, known to all the grown-up people in Elmsdale.
Tommy Beadlam, he of the white head, ran after him to ask why the “bobby” brought him to the “Black Lion,” but Martin averted eyes laden with misery, and motioned his little friend away.
Tommy, who had seen the fight, and knew of the squire’s presence this morning, drew his own conclusions.
“Martin’s goin’ to be locked up,” he told a knot of awe-stricken youngsters, and they thrilled with sympathy, for their champion’s victory over the “young swell frae t’ Hall” was highly popular.
The front door of the White House stood hospitably open. Already a goodly number of visitors had gathered, and every man and woman talked of nothing but the dramatic events of the previous night. When Martin arrived, fresh from a private conversation withthe squire and the chief of police, they were on the tip-toe of expectancy. Perhaps he might add to the store of gossip. Even Mrs. Bolland felt a certain pride that the boy should be the center of interest in thiscause célèbre.
But his glum face created alarm in her motherly breast.
“Why, Martin,” she cried, “what’s gone wrong? Ye look as if ye’d seen a ghost wi’ two heäds!”
The all-absorbing topic to Martin just then was his own history and not the half-comprehended tragedy of the rural lovers. If his mother’s friends knew that which was hidden from him, why should he compel his tongue to wag falsely? Somehow, the air seemed thick with deception just now, but his heart would have burst had he attempted to restrain the words that welled forth.
“Mother,” he said, and his lips quivered at the remembrance that the affectionate title was itself a lie, “Mr. Benson told the squire I was not your boy—that father and you adopted me thirteen years ago.”
Mrs. Bolland’s face glowed with quick indignation. No one spoke. Martin’s impetuous repudiation of his name was the last thing they looked for.
“It is true, I suppose,” he went on despairingly. “If I am not your son, then whose son am I?”
Martha lifted her eyes to the ceiling.
“Well, of all the deceitful scoundrels!” she gasped. “Te think of me fillin’ his blue coat wi’ meat an’ beer last neet, an’ all t’ return he maks is te worry this poor lad’s brains wi’ that owd tale!”
“Oh, he’s sly, is Benson,” chimed in stout Mrs. Summersgill. “A fortnight sen last Tuesday I caught himi’ my dairy wi’ one o’ t’ maids, lappin’ up cream like a great tomcat.”
A laugh went round. None paid heed to Martin’s agony. A dullness fell on his soul. Even the woman he called mother was angered more by the constable’s blurting out of a household secret than by the destruction of an ideal. Such, in confused riot, was the thought that chilled him.
But he was mistaken. Martha Bolland’s denunciations of the policeman only covered the pain, sharp as the cut of a knife, caused by the boy’s cry of mingled passion and sorrow. She was merely biding her time. When chance served, she called him into the larder, the nearest quiet place in the house, and closed the door.
“Martin, my lad,” she said, while big tears shone in her honest eyes, “ye are dear to me as my own. I trust I may be spared to be muther te ye until ye’re a man. John an’ me meant no unkindness te ye in not tellin’ ye we found ye i’ Lunnun streets, a poor, deserted little mite, wi’ nather feyther nor muther, an’ none te own ye. What matter was it that ye should know sooner? Hev we not done well by ye? When ye come to think over ’t, ye’re angered about nowt. Kiss me, honey, an’ if anyone says owt cross te ye, tell ’em ye hev both a feyther an’ a muther, which is more’n some of ’em can say.”
This display of feeling applied balm to Martin’s wounds. Certainly Mrs. Bolland’s was the common sense view to take of the situation. He forbore to question her further just then, and hugged her contentedly. The very smell of her lavender-scented clothes was grateful, and this embrace seemed to restore her to him.
His brightened countenance, the vanishing of that unwonted expression of resentful humiliation, was even more comforting to Martha herself.
“Here,” she said, thrusting a small paper package into his hand, “I mayn’t hev anuther chance. Ye’ll find two pun ten i’ that paper. Gie it te Mrs. Saumarez an’ tell her I’ll be rale pleased if there’s no more talk about t’ money. An’ mebbe, later i’ t’ day, I’ll find a shillin’ fer yersen. But, fer goodness’ sake, come an’ tell t’ folk all that t’ squire said te ye. They’re fair crazed te hear ye.”
“Mother, dear!” he cried eagerly, “I was so—so mixed up at first that I forgot to tell you. Mr. Beckett-Smythe gave me half a crown.”
“Ye doan’t say! Well, I can’t abide half a tale. Let’s hae t’ lot i’ t’ front kitchen.”
It was noon, and dinner-time, before Martin could satisfy the cackling dames as to all within his cognizance concerning Betsy Thwaites’s escapade. Be it noted, they unanimously condemned Fred, the groom; commiserated with Betsy, and extolled George Pickering as a true gentleman.
P. C. Benson, all unconscious of the rod in pickle for his broad back, strolled in about the eating hour. Mrs. Bolland, brindling with repressed fury, could scarce find words wherewith to scold him.
“Well, of all the brazen-faced men I’ve ever met—” she began.
“So you’ve heerd t’ news?” he interrupted.
“Heerd? I should think so, indeed! Martin kem yam——”
“Martin! Did he know?”
“Know!” she shrilled. “Wasn’t it ye as said it?”
“No, ma’am,” he replied stolidly. “Mrs. Atkinson told me, and she said that Mr. Pickerin’ had ta’en his solemn oath te do’t in t’ presence of t’ super and t’ squire!”
“Do what?” was the chorus.
“Why, marry Betsy, to be sure, as soon as he can be led te t’ church. What else is there?”
This stupendous addition to the flood of excitement carried away even Martha Bolland for the moment. In her surprise she set a plate for Benson with the others, and, after that, the paramount rite of hospitality prevented her from “having it out wi’ him” until hunger was sated. Then, however, she let him “feel the edge of her tongue”; he was so flustered that John had to restore his mental poise with another pint of ale.
Meanwhile, Martin managed to steal out unobserved, and made the best of his way to The Elms. Although in happier mood, he was not wholly pleased with his errand. He was not afraid of Mrs. Saumarez—far from it, but he did not know how to fulfill his mission and at the same time exonerate Angèle. His chivalrous nature shrank from blaming her, yet his unaided wits were not equal to the task of restoring so much money to her mother without answering truthfully the resultant deluge of questions.
He was battling with this problem when, near The Elms, he encountered the Rev. Charles Herbert, M.A., vicar of Elmsdale, and his daughter Elsie.
Martin doffed his straw hat readily, and would have passed, but the vicar hailed him.
“Martin, is it correct that you were in the stableyard of the ‘Black Lion’ last night and saw something of this sad affair of Mr. Pickering’s?” he inquired.
“Yes, sir.”
Martin blushed. The girl’s blue eyes were fixed on his with the innocent curiosity of a fawn. She knew him well by sight, but they had never exchanged a word. He found himself wondering what her voice was like. Would she chatter with the excited volubility of Angèle? Being better educated than he, would she pour forth a jargon of foreign words and slang? Angèle was quiet as a mouse under her mother’s eye. Was Elsie aping this demure demeanor because her father was present? Certainly, she looked a very different girl. Every curve of her pretty face, each line in her graceful contour, suggested modesty and nice manners. Why, he couldn’t tell, but he knew instinctively that Elsie Herbert would have drawn back horrified from the mad romp overnight, and he was humbled in spirit before her.
The worthy vicar never dreamed that the farmer’s sturdy son was capable of deep emotion. He interpreted Martin’s quick coloring to knowledge of a discreditable episode. He said to the girl:
“I’ll follow you home in a few minutes, my dear.”
Martin thought that an expression of disappointment swept across the clear eyes, but Elsie quitted them instantly. The boy had endured too much to be thus humiliated before one of his own age.
“I would have said nothing to offend the young lady,” he cried hotly.
Very much taken aback, Mr. Herbert’s eyebrows arched themselves above his spectacles.
“My good boy,” he said, “I did not choose that my daughter should hear the—er—offensive details of this—er—stabbing affray, or worse, that took place at the inn.”
“But you didn’t mind slighting me in her presence, sir,” was the unexpected retort.
“I am not slighting you. Had I met Mr. Beckett-Smythe and sought information as to this matter, I would still have asked her to go on to the Vicarage.”
This was a novel point of view for Martin. He reddened again.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “Everything has gone wrong with me to-day. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
The vicar deemed him a strange youth, but tacitly accepted the apology, and drew from Martin the story of the night’s doings.
It shocked him to hear that Martin and Frank Beckett-Smythe were fighting in the yard of the “Black Lion” at such an hour.
“How came you to be there?” he said gently. “You do not attend my church, Martin, but I have always regarded Mr. Bolland as a God-fearing man, and your teacher has told me that you are gifted with intelligence and qualities beyond your years or station in life.”
“I was there quite by accident, sir, and I couldn’t avoid the fight.”
“What caused it?”
“We fought to settle that question, sir, and it’s finished now.”
The vicar laughed.
“Which means you will not tell me. Well, I am no disbeliever in a manly display of fisticuffs. It breaksno bones and saves many a boy from the growth of worse qualities. I suppose you are going to the fair this afternoon?”
“No, sir. I’m not.”
“Would you mind telling me how you will pass the time between now and supper?”
“I am taking a message from my mother to Mrs. Saumarez, and then I’ll go straight to the Black Plantation”—a dense clump of firs situate at the head of the ghylls, or small valleys, leading from the cultivated land up to the moor.
“Dear me! And what will you do there?”
The boy smiled, somewhat sheepishly.
“I have a nest in a tree there, sir, where I often sit and read.”
“What do you read?”
“Just now, sir, I am reading Scott’s poems.”
“Indeed. What books do you favor, as a rule?”
Delighted to have a sympathetic listener, Martin forgot his troubles in pouring forth a catalogue of his favorite authors. The more Mr. Herbert questioned him the more eager and voluble he became. The boy had the rare faculty of absorbing the joys and sorrows, the noble sentiments, the very words of the heroes of romance, and in this scholarly gentleman he found an auditor who appreciated all that was hitherto dumb thought.
Several people passing along the road wondered what “t’ passon an’ oad John Bolland’s son were makkin’ sike deed about,” and the conversation must have lasted fifteen or twenty minutes, when the vicar heard the chimes of the church clock.
He laughed genially. Although, on his part, there was an underlying motive in the conversation, Martin had fairly carried it far afield.
“You have had your revenge on me for sending my daughter away,” he cried. “My lunch will be cold. Now, will you do me a favor?”
“Of course, sir; anything you ask.”
“Nay, Martin, make that promise to no man. But this lies within your scope. About four o’clock leave your crow’s nest and drop over to Thor ghyll. I may be there.”
Overjoyed at the prospect of a renewed chat on topics dear to his heart, the boy ran off, light-heartedly, to The Elms. His task seemed easier now. The wholesome breeze of intercourse with a cultivated mind had momentarily swept into the background a host of unpleasing things.
He found he could not see Mrs. Saumarez, so he asked for Miss Walker. The lady came. She was prim and severe. Instantly he detected a note of hostility which her first words put beyond doubt.
“My mother sent me to return some money to Mrs. Saumarez,” he explained.
“Mrs. Saumarez is ill. Mrs. Bolland must wait until she recovers. As for you, you bad boy, I wonder you dare show your face here.”
Martin never flinched from a difficulty.
“Why?” he demanded. “What have I done?”
“Can you ask? To drag that poor little mite of a girl into such horrible scenes as those which took place in the village? Be off! You just wait until Mrs. Saumarez is better, and you will hear more of it.”
With that, she slammed the door on him.
So Angèle had posed as a simpleton, and he was the villain. This phase of the medley amused him. He was retreating down the drive, when he heard his name called. He turned. A window on the ground floor opened, and Mrs. Saumarez appeared, leaning unsteadily on the sill.
“Come here!” she cried imperiously.
Somehow she puzzled, indeed flustered, him. For one thing, her attire was bizarre. Usually dressed with unexceptionable taste, to-day she wore a boudoir wrap—a costly robe, but adjusted without care, and all untidy about neck and breast. Her hair was coiled loosely, and stray wisps hung out in slovenly fashion. Her face, deathly white, save for dull red patches on the cheeks, served as a fit setting for unnaturally brilliant eyes which protruded from their sockets in a manner quite startling, while the veins on her forehead stood out like whipcord.
Martin was utterly dismayed. He stood stock-still.
“Come!” she said again, glaring at him with a curious fixity. “I want you. Françoise is not here, and I wish you to run an errand.”
Save for a strange thickness in her speech, she had never before reminded him so strongly of Angèle. She had completely lost her customary air of repose. She spoke and acted like a peevish child.
Anyhow, she had summoned him, and he could now discharge his trust. In such conditions, Martin seldom lacked words.
“I asked for you at the door, ma’am,” he explained,drawing nearer, “but Miss Walker said you were ill. My mother sent me to give you this.”
He produced the little parcel of money and essayed to hand it to her. She surveyed it with lackluster eyes.
“What is it?” she said. “I do not understand. Here is plenty of money. I want you to go to the village, to the ‘Black Lion,’ and bring me a sovereign’s worth of brandy.”
She held out a coin. They stood thus, proffering each other gold.
“But this is yours, ma’am. I came to return it. I—er—borrowed some money from Ang—from Miss Saumarez—and mother said——”
“Cease, boy. I do not understand, I tell you. Keep the money and bring me what I ask.”
In her eagerness she leaned so far out of the window that she nearly overbalanced. The sovereign fell among some flowers. With an effort she recovered an unsteady poise. Martin stooped to find the money. A door opened inside the house. A hot whisper reached him.
“Tell no one. I’ll watch for you in half an hour—remember—a sovereign’s worth.”
The boy, not visible from the far side of the room, heard the voice of Françoise. The window closed with a bang. He discovered the coin and straightened himself. The maid was seating her mistress in a chair and apparently remonstrating with her. She picked up from the floor a wicker-covered Eau de Cologne bottle and turned it upside down with an angry gesture. It was empty.
Martin, whose experience of intoxicated people was confined to the infrequent sight of a village toper, heavywith beer, lurching homeward in maudlin glee or fury, imagined that Mrs. Saumarez must be in some sort of fever. Obviously, those in attendance on her should be consulted before he brought her brandy secretly.
Back he marched to the front door and rang the bell. Lest Miss Walker should shut him out again, he was inside the hall before anyone could answer his summons, for the doors of country houses remain unlocked all day. The elder sister reappeared, very starchy at this unheard-of impertinence.
“I was forced to return, ma’am,” he said civilly. “Mrs. Saumarez saw me in the drive and asked me to buy her some brandy. She gave me a sovereign. She looked very ill, so I thought it best to come and tell you.”
The lady was thoroughly nonplussed by this plain statement.
“Oh,” she stammered, so confused that he did not know what to make of her agitation, “this is very nice of you. She must not have brandy. It is—quite unsuitable—for her illness. It is really very good of you to tell me. I—er—I’m sorry I spoke so harshly just now, but—er——”
“That’s all right, ma’am. It was all a mistake. Will you kindly take charge of this sovereign, and also of the two pounds ten which Miss Angèle lent me?”
“Which Miss Angèle lent you! Two pounds ten! I thought you said your mother——”
“It is mine, please,” said a voice from the broad landing above their heads. Angèle skipped lightly down the stairs and held out her hand. Martin gave her the money.
“I don’t understand this, at all,” said the mystified Miss Walker. “Does Mrs. Saumarez know——”
“Mrs. Saumarez knows nothing. Neither does Martin.”
With wasp-like suddenness, the girl turned and faced a woman old enough to be her grandmother. Their eyes clashed. The child’s look said plainly:
“Dare to utter another word and I’ll disgrace your house throughout the village.”
The woman yielded. She waved a protesting hand. “It is no business of mine. Thank you, Martin, for coming back.”
Angèle lashed out at him next.
“Allez, donc! I’ll never speak to you again.”
She ran up the stairs. He stood irresolute.
“Anyhow, not now,” she added. “I may be out in an hour’s time.”
Miss Walker was holding the door open. He hurried away, and Françoise saw him, wondering why he had called.
And for hours thereafter, until night fell, a white-faced woman paced restlessly to and fro in the sitting-room, ever and anon raising the window, and watching for Martin’s return with a fierce intensity that rendered her almost maniacal in appearance.
Happily, the boy was unaware of the pitiful tragedy in the life of the rich and highly placed Mrs. Saumarez. While she waited, with a rage steadily dwindling into a wearied despair, he was passing, all unconsciously, into the next great phase of his career.
He took one forward step into the unknown before leaving the tree-lined drive. He met Fritz, the chauffeur,who was so absorbed in the study of a folding road-map that he did not see Martin until the latter hailed him.
“Hello!” was the boy’s cheery greeting. “That affair is ended. Please don’t say anything to Mrs. Saumarez.”
The German closed the map.
“Whad iss ented?” he inquired, surveying Martin with a cool hauteur rare in chauffeurs.
“Why, last night’s upset in the village.”
“Ah, yez. Id iss nod my beeznez.”
“I didn’t quite mean that. But there’s no use in getting Miss Angèle into a row, is there?”
“Dat iss zo. Vere do you leeve?”
“At the White House Farm.”
“Vere de brize caddle are?”
Martin smiled. He had never before heard English spoken with a strong German accent. Somehow he associated these resonant syllables with a certain indefinite stress which Mrs. Saumarez laid on a few words.
“Yes,” he said. “My father’s herd is well known.”
Fritz’s manner became genial.
“Zome tay you vill show me, yez?” he inquired.
“I’ll be very pleased. And will you explain your car to me—the engine, I mean?”
“Komm now.”
“Sorry, but I have an engagement.”
There was plenty of time at Martin’s disposal, but he did not want to loiter about The Elms that afternoon. This man was a paid servant who could hardly refuse to carry out any reasonable order, and it would have been awkward for Martin if Mrs. Saumarez askedhim to give Fritz the sovereign she had intrusted to his keeping.
“All aright,” agreed the chauffeur, whose strong, intellectual face was now altogether amiable; in fact, a white scar on his left cheek creased so curiously when he grinned that his aspect was almost comical. “We vill meed when all dis noise sdops, yez?” and he waved a hand toward the distant drone of the fair.
Thus began for Martin another strange friendship—a friendship destined to end so fantastically that if the manner of its close were foretold then and there by any prophet, the mere telling might have brought the seer to the madhouse.