A Knight of the Road Read online

  Argosy, March, 1895

  A Knight of the Road

  By Thomas F. Hart

  IT was a black night on the eastern coast when there came a tremendous clang at the of England. The sea ran high with what door, which echoed through the hall and sailors call a “dry storm.” The wind blew a startled the nine year old protector of the regular gale, which dashed the spray up on mansion until his mouth opened and his the beach under the cliffs until sometimes face turned white.

  one reached over them, and had the Both children put out their hands appearance, from the windows of Combe and clasped each other’s tightly. In these manor house, of a dancing white specter.

  times of trouble anything might happen.

  Two children held their faces

  But in an instant curiosity

  against the narrow panes of the stairway overcame their fear, and they walked casement, looking out anxiously. An hour softly, still holding each other, and lifted before they had said good by to their the tapestry which hid them from the door.

  father, who had held them close in his Old Gregory stood parleying there, arms as though he never expected to see the chain still on.

  them again.

  “Let me in at once,” they beard the Nobody had told them of trouble, but the gruff voice of their cousin Harold say, and very atmosphere held a sense of danger in Gregory, with a muttered word of

  it. They knew that there must be some thankfulness, opened to a large figure of dreadful reason for their father saying an elderly man in a cloak.

  good by to them, and for starting out on

  “Where is your master?”

  the sea on such a night as this.

  “He’s gone!” old Gregory said.

  They were quaint looking little

  “Gone! Who told him of the—

  figures; the girl in a dress of stiff brocade, Gone where? ”

  with a little velvet cap on her curly head,

  “I’ll call her ladyship.”

  rather on one side now, where it had been

  “Well,

  be

  in

  a hurry about it.

  pushed against her father’s shoulder. Where’s Master George?”

  Nobody had righted it, and nobody had

  “I’ll

  call——”

  thought to put her to bed.

  But her ladyship was already

  Suddenly her little brother thought coming down the stairs; a pale lady, with of it.

  eyes which were red with recent tears.

  “Anne,” he said in a shocked tone, When she saw her visitor she ran

  “it is long past the hour when you should toward him with a cry.

  be asleep.”

  “Oh, Harry.” she exclaimed, “you

  “And not you, I suppose. Master

  have come to tell us that Sir John and my Walter,” the little maid replied jeeringly.

  boy need not leave me, and they have just

  “Not I, indeed! I am the man of the left—left on this stormy night.”

  house now. Father and George have gone

  “That is the first good news I have away. I have to watch.”

  had for many a day. So they are off?” He He had scarcely finished speaking took both of Lady Combe’s hands and

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  shook them with great satisfaction.

  which had come upon the young exiled

  “They are safe.”

  prince of that house, who had been in

  “Safe on a night like this,” as the hiding among his loyal subjects, trying to wind swept down with an extra howl and a raise an army to regain his throne.

  slate from some chimney fell with a crash Some weeks before, a man had

  to the eaves.

  slipped into Combe Manor, and though he

  “Are we quite alone?” Mr. bore the appearance of being a young Candern’s voice sank almost to a whisper.

  groom, he was treated with the greatest

  “I have hastened up from London to tell deference, and helped to a boat to cross the Jack to hurry over to Holland with the Channel. It was this same boat in which greatest speed. What we have feared has Sir John and his eldest son George were come to pass. Malten has turned traitor, braving the elements tonight.

  and a warrant has been made out for your Sir Harry bade his cousin good by, husband’s arrest. The messenger from and slipping through a side door, mounted London is on his way now with the papers his horse and rode away, leaving Lady for the sheriff to deliver Malten told of” —

  Combe thankful that her husband was out here his voice sank so low that even the of present danger.

  listening children could not hear—“of the The two little faces peering from king’s having been here for that night. Sir behind the tapestry caught her eye, and she John is named a traitor. The messenger left flew up the stairs and clasped them in her London three hours after I did, or that was arms, kissing them over and over again.

  his plan.”

  “My poor little bairns,” she said.

  “Thank God! Sir John has gone!”

  “You are all that is left to me. Come, and Lady Combe clasped her hands mother will put you into her own bed.”

  devoutly.

  She gathered them before her and

  “But, Harry, you have had nothing started down the stairs, when suddenly she to eat. You must be thirsty and dying of stopped. Her face blanched, and her knees hunger, and your coat is wet,” putting her trembled under her.

  hand upon it. “Rest by the fire.”

  A voice was coming from the back

  “No, no! It is not raining. I will of the house which she surely knew.

  take a quatern of ale, and a bit of beef, and Little Anne cried out joyously,

  go. It will not be good for me to be “It’s brother George! I know it’s brother discovered here if they come with the George! I hear him!” and started to run.

  warrant. I may find the next visit paid to Lady Combe was half way down

  my own house.”

  the oak stair, when her son George, his

  “You are our best friend,” Lady

  face full of trouble, came to meet her.

  Combe said gratefully.

  His broad hat was heavy with wet, She knew how much her cousin

  and his coat clung about his figure as was risking in coming to them, in the days though he had been dipped in water. His when men were thrown into the tower or face was pale and agitated.

  beheaded for befriending the “Pretender,”

  He was only eighteen, but in those as Prince Charlie was called.

  days boys were made early into men, Sir John Combe owed much to the

  when men were badly needed.

  Stuarts and he was not one to turn his back

  “Mother,” he said, as she flew

  upon a friend in adversity, such as that toward him, her lips forming the words

  A Knight of the Road 3

  she could not bring out, “father is here, if you can.”

  safe, but a little knocked about. We could Then George sent the nurse to put not get the boat out in such a heavy sea.

  his little brother and sister to bed, had the We must wait.”

  lights put out, and walked up and down the

  “But you cannot! Oh, George, you

  stone floor of the great hall, thinking.

  cannot. Harry has been here to say that the When young George Combe set his

  messenger from London is on the way wits to work something was likely to come with the warrant for your father’s arrest.

  of it.

  “We will hide him in the secret<
br />
  He went once to the window where

  chamber.”

  the children had stood and looked out.

  “Malten has turned traitor!”

  The wind was dying down. He

  George whirled about, putting his could see that the trees were not ready to hand to his face and knitting his black crack with the rushing weight of the storm brows.

  as they had been a little earlier in the Malten knew every secret of night; and the white specters no longer Combe house. They had shown him the danced above the cliff.

  place where the prince might bide.

  “By morning he must go. He must.

  Lady Combe did not stop a Once safe in Holland they will let him moment to discuss the matter. She rushed alone. There is no warrant for my arrest I on through the passage to the great dining am only a boy. I am not old enough to room where her husband lay. She found meddle in a man’s affairs. I know that him with a broken arm, which Father tavern beyond the Lady Cross. The Greylock, the priest, who was a good warrant bearer did not pass that. He is surgeon, was setting and bandaging. Sir sleeping there this instant, or he would John was weak from loss of blood, from a have been here, according to Harry’s wound in his head, which he had received account.”

  at the same time that his arm had been George went to the side of the hall broken.

  and took down a dagger from the wall, and The high wind had dashed the slowly drew it from its sheath. It was sharp venturesome little craft back upon the and glittering. He held it carefully in one beach. The boat was not injured seriously, hand, and went back to the fireplace.

  and when the winds went down they In one part of the old oak carving would be able to try again if—oh that if!

  over the chimney, there rested a wax taper.

  The warrant had not yet arrived making He lighted this by the logs and walked Sir John to be one of the hopeless ones in softly up the stairs.

  the Tower.

  On down the corridor he went until As Lady Combe rushed toward her

  he reached his mother’s dressing room. He husband, George caught her about the knocked softly, but she was not there. He waist for an instant and held her fast.

  opened the door and slipped inside, and

  “Do not tell him—yet,” he said.

  holding the candle so that none of the wax

  “Let us get him to bed in comfort. I will would fall, he began a careful inspection send Father Greylock to warn the skipper of his mother’s gowns.

  to get ready to leave at the first moment.

  At last be found one of black

  One room in this house is as safe as velvet He held up the full skirt and looked another now. Get him comfortably to sleep at it comically.

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  “I suppose I’ve got to spoil it!”

  horse and looked attentively at the hoof Then a sleeve of the bodice fell

  prints leading in at the gates.

  over, and he snatched at that. In an instant There were no fresh ones.

  the sharp blade of the dagger had With a sigh of relief he again

  separated the sleeve and like some guilty sprang to his saddle and went on.

  creature, George was slipping away.

  He did not know how long he must

  He sat down on the side of the bed, wait, and he did not know exactly what and put the velvet sleeve on a little stand force he must encounter. If it were man to beside him, and with a sure hand began to man, he did not fear, and as he settled his cut out a velvet mask. It seemed a curious pistols in his holsters he said to himself time to be thinking of such follies, but he that if it were two men he would still be was in deadly earnest.

  bold.

  When it was finished, he fastened He waited along a turn in the road strings to the side of it and standing before around which the messenger must come.

  the oval mirror which some ancestor had Perhaps that was the longest hour brought from Venice long ago, he tried it that George Combe ever spent in his life.

  on his face under his big hat.

  The fear that he might have made a

  “It will do,” he said, “but I must mistake took possession of him.

  make doubly sure;” and from a drawer he What if, even now, the messenger

  brought forth a bristling false mustache, had taken the warrant by another way, and the relic of some bygone frolic.

  his father was being made ready to go to Then he changed his sea drenched

  the Tower? A coach passed him, and he clothing for dry garments, looked carefully drew back from the road out of sight. Then after his pistols, put the mask in his pocket he felt like rushing after it. Maybe it had and walked out of the house.

  held the messenger, although he had seen The key to the stables was in his only a woman’s head.

  pocket, and he saddled his mare and was At last when he saw figures

  off and away, as the first streaks of dawn coming along the road his heart bounded began to appear.

  with joy, although there were three of He rode away at a brisk gallop on them.

  the London road.

  George did not hesitate for a

  The sheriff of the county, whose

  moment. With firm fingers he tied the duty it would be to deliver the warrant velvet mask over his features, and with a with sufficient armed force to take Sir pistol in each hand waited.

  John, lived only a mile away.

  He had brought up spirited Jenny, George knew the place very well,

  his mare, from colthood. He knew that he and he hesitated as he reached the park could depend upon her, as though she gates. It might be that the messenger was were part of himself.

  already within.

  The three horsemen were riding

  One thing he knew. That the along in a leisurely fashion, looking as sheriff, who was no friend of his father, though they had breakfasted abundantly.

  would not hesitate an instant in delivering George saw that the man in the center was the warrant after it was once in his hands.

  the messenger of whom he was in search.

  George gazed up and down the The other two were farmers, tradesmen road, and seeing no one, sprang from his from the vicinity.

  A Knight of the Road 5

  He knew their faces, and in a flash the paper with the seal was not there.

  he wondered if they would know Jenny.

  “Take off his boots.”

  He might have spared himself that The man began to protest, but the anxiety, for as they saw the knight of the boots came off, and George’s search was road, the dreaded masked highwayman, rewarded.

  appear before them, they had but one He was glad that the mask was on

  thought.

  his face, for he could feel the exultation George leveled his two pistols, one tingling along his cheeks, as he saw the straight at the eyes of the Londoner, who stiff sealed paper. He wanted to stop then, returned his glance with one as keen as his and fly back home as fast as Jenny could own.

  go, but he made the tradesmen search each It had been George’s intention to other, piling their gold from their recent let the tradesmen go unmolested until he sales, in separate piles. Then he started saw that look, and realized that his object them—walking—back toward London,

  might be suspected.

  giving their horses a cut which sent them

  “Throw up your hands!” he said in off trotting.

  a hoarse voice.

  As soon as they were out of sight, The hands of the two farmers were he dismounted, gathered up his plunder, already raised. George pushed his pistol a and set Jenny to the gallop, tearing the trifle closer to the Londoner’s face, and he mask and mustache from his face.

  also lifted his hands into the air.

  The wind was gradually falling

  He had made one effort to reach

  away, and while the whitecaps were his pistol, but he saw death before him.

 
running across the channel, it was going to

  “Gentlemen,” George said suavely, be a clear day, and the winds were shifting

  “I am sorry to request you to take so much about.

  trouble, but I must ask you to search each George, with his knowledge of the other. Will the gentleman on the right be country, made his way into the grounds at good enough to take from the gentleman in Combe, unobserved, jumping Jenny over the gray cloak everything which may be the park wall, where it was low.

  about his person?”

  He walked straight to the great

  The tradesman hesitated, but a look fireplace

  at George’s pistol determined him.

  in the hall, and flung the warrant for his

  “Villain!” said the man from father’s arrest into the flames. It would be London, “do you know that you will be at least a week before he could be burnt alive? That you are molesting a molested, and in that week they could messenger of the commonwealth in the surely get to Holland.

  performance of his duty?”

  George had committed an offense

  “Then,” replied George calmly, “I punishable with death, but he had killed no will probably find something of value for one, and his heart was light.

  my morning’s work. Proceed, citizen.”

  A few years later, when the

  The men had by this time been

  Pretender came to the throne, there were allowed to dismount. And the Londoner, two tradesmen who were surprised to grinding his teeth, saw his pistols, his receive the arms and coins that the wallet, his timekeeper from France, and all highwayman had taken from them. It made of his valuables laid oat in the road. But a thrilling addition to the story when they