I  THE FRAY IN MINCING LANE
 
"Watch! Ho, watch!"


The words rang through the misty darkness of the narrow street. I gathered my cloak around me and skulked closer to the nearest house-wall. Could it be possible the Bow Street runners had picked up my trail again?


And a new worry assailed me. Did the cry come from in front or behind! The fog that mantled London, and which so far had stood my friend, now served to muffle the source of this sudden alarm. Which way should I turn?


"Watch! Curse the sleepy varlets!"


The houses past which I had been feeling my way came to an end. An alley branched off to the right and from its entrance echoed the click of steel—music after my own heart. The blood coursed faster in my veins. No, this could be no trap such as had awaited me ever since I had stepped from the smuggler's small boat. Here was sword-play, a welcome change from the plotting and intrigue which had sickened me.


I cast my cloak back over my shoulder and drew my sword from its sheath, as I ran over the uneven cobbles which paved the alley. Dimly I saw before me a confused huddle of figures that tussled and stamped about in the ghostly mirk of the fog.


"Hold, friend," I shouted.


"Make haste," panted a voice from the middle of the group. "Ha, you scoundrel! You pinked me then."


One man against a gang of assassins! So that was the story. It savored more of Paris than of the staid London of merchants and shop-keepers over which the Hanoverian exercised his stolid sway.


But I had scant time for philosophy. A figure detached itself from the central swarm and came lunging at me with cutlass aswing. I parried his blade and touched him in the shoulder. He bellowed for aid.


"This is no fat alderman, bullies. He wields a swift point. To me, a brace of ye."


They were on me in an instant, my first assailant in front, an assassin on either hand, slashing with hangers and cutlasses that knew no tricks of fence, but only downright force. Their former prey was left with one to handle.


"Get to his rear, one of you, fools," snarled the ruffian in command whilst he pounded at my guard.


But I backed into a handy doorway and barely managed to fend them off. And all the while the real object of their attack continued his appeals for the watch.


'Twas this which spoiled the fray for me. I could not but wonder, as I dodged and parried and thrust, what would happen if his cries should be heard and the watch appear. Would they know me? Or perchance should I have the opportunity to slip quietly away?


I stole a glance about me. Several windows had gone up along the street, and nightcapped heads protruded to add their clamor to that of my friend.


Surely— Aye, they had done it. The ruffian on my left leaped back with ear aslant toward the alley entrance.


"Quick, bullies," he yelled. "'Tis the watch!"


With a celerity that was almost uncanny they disengaged their blades and melted into the fog. Their footfalls dwindled around the corner as I detected the clumping footfalls of the approaching guardians of London's peace.


This brought me to my senses. I sheathed my sword and ran across the roadway, glancing to right and left for the best route of escape. But I reckoned without the other participant in our brawl.


"Be at ease, my master," he said in a voice which had a good thick Dorset burr in it—I liked him from that moment. It sounded so homelike; I could fairly see the rolling fields, the water meadows, the copses, all the scenes that had meant so much to me in boyhood, even the sprawling roofs and chimney stacks of Foxcroft House itself.


"I have reasons not to be at ease," I answered dryly, and would have passed him, but he clutched my arm.


"We have seen an end to the rascals," he strove to reassure me. "'Tis only the watch you hear. Hark to the jingling of their staves."


"I know that full well, my friend," I answered him, goose-flesh rising on my neck as the jingling staves and clumping feet drew nearer; and my thoughts fastened upon the dungeons of the Tower about which we had heard frequent tales at St. Germain. "But I happen to have pressing reasons for avoiding the watch."


My friend pursed his lips in a low whistle.


"So sets the wind in that quarter! Yet you came fast to my help against those cut-purses a moment back."


I laughed. The watch were all but in the alley's mouth. 'Twas idle to think of running now. Indeed, to have done so would have been to banish whatever slight chance I might have had.


"Oh, I am no highwayman," I said.


"Well, whatever you may be, you aided Robert Juggins in his peril, and 'twill be a sore pity if a Worshipful Alderman of the City may not see you through the scrutiny of a band of lazy bench-loafers."


"That is good hearing," I answered.


"Will they have your description?"


"I think not, but if they ask me to account for myself I shall be at fault. I am but lately landed from France, and I have no passport."


He pursed his lips once more in the quaint form of a low whistle.


"I begin to see. Well, my master, we will talk of your plight anon. For the present I have somewhat to say to our gallant rescuers which will put their thoughts upon other matters than young men fresh landed from France without passports to identify themselves by."


He swept a shrewd glance over me from my hat to my heels.


"There is a foreign cut to your wig that I do not like," he commented. "However, we will brazen it out. Here they come."


The watchmen rounded the corner into the alley, lanterns swinging high, staves poised.


"Ho, knaves," proclaimed a pompous voice, "stand and deliver yourselves to us."


"And who may you be?" demanded my friend.


"No friends to brawlers and disturbers of the peace, sirrah," replied the stoutest of the watchmen, stepping to the front of his fellows. "We are the duly constituted and appointed constables and watchmen of his Honor the Worshipful Lord Mayor."


"It would be nearer truth to say that you are the properly constituted and habituated sleepers and time-servers of the city," snapped my companion. "Draw nearer, and examine me."


"Be not rash, captain," quavered one of the watchmen. "He hath the appearance of a most desperate Mohock."


"Nay, sir," adjured the captain of the watch portentously, "do you approach and render yourselves to us. 'Tis not for law-breakers to order the city's watchmen how they shall be apprehended."


"You fool," said my friend very pleasantly, "if you would only trust your eyes you would see a face you have many times seen before this—aye, and shall see again in the morning before the bench of sheriffs when you plead forgiveness for your dilatory performance of the duties entrusted to you."


The watchmen were confused.


"Be cautious, my masters," pleaded the one with the quavering voice. "'Tis like enough a desperate rogue and a strong."


My friend left my side and strode forward toward the captain of the watch, who gave back a pace or two until he felt the stomachs of his followers at his back.


"How now," said he who had called himself Robert Juggins, "hold up that lantern, you, sirrah, with the shaking arm. Look into my face, lazy dogs that you are. Dost know me?"


"'Tis Master Juggins," quoth the quavering voice. "Praise be for that."


"You know me, now!" pressed Master Juggins, poking his finger into the fat figure of the captain.


"Sure, you are Master Juggins," assented that official with sullen reluctance.


"And is an alderman of the city and a cupmate of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs and the Warden of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Traders to the Western Plantations, on his way home from a meeting of his gild, within the city precincts—aye, in Mincing Lane, under the shadow of Paul's—I say am I to be held up by cut-purses, stabbed in the arm, forced to defend my very life—and then denounced and threatened with arrest by the watchmen paid by the city to protect its citizens?"


Master Juggins stopped perforce for breath.


"How say you, knaves!" he resumed. "Of what use have you been! Did you come at my call! Aye, like the sluggards you are. Have you done aught to run down the thieves and assassins who work under your noses!


"You stand here trying to prove that 'tis I, and not they, who have sought to rob myself. Go to! Ye are worthless, and I shall see that the Sheriffs and the Magistrates at Bow Street know of it."


"But, good Master Juggins," begged the captain, now thoroughly aroused to his plight, "sure you——"


"Sure I will," retorted Master Juggins, who had caught another lungful of breath. "Had it not been for this good citizen here—" he swept an arm in my direction—"it had been a corpse you would have found. So much for your diligence and courage!"


"But we will be after the scoundrels, worshipful Master Alderman," pleaded the captain.


"Aye, we shall be hard on their heels, Master Juggins," assured he of the quavery voice.


"Doubt not our diligence, worthy sir!" appealed a third.


"Can you but give us a description of the knaves!" suggested a fourth.


"Shall I do your work for you!" replied Master Juggins in his delightful Dorset burr. Zounds! How I liked the man with his broad humor, his ready courage and prompt good sense!


"Nay, but——"


"But me no buts. Be about your rounds. And if you see any hang-dog-looking rogues or homeless knaves or masterless men, do you apprehend them for the night and lodge them in the Fleet. In the morning you may let me know what you have done. I will then consider whether your belated efforts may overset your cowardice and laziness in the beginning."


"It shall be as you say, good Master Juggins," assented the captain meekly. "Which way went your assailants?"


"What! More questions?" exploded Master Juggins. "Nay, this is too much."


The watchmen turned in their tracks and herded out of the alley like bewildered cattle, all clumping boots, jingling staffs, waving lanterns and jumbled wits. My savior removed his hat and mopped his brow with a white kerchief.


"So much for that," he remarked cheerfully. "Now——"


But he was interrupted from an unexpected quarter. The captain of the watch returned alone.


"I crave your pardon, Master Juggins," he began.


"You well may," agreed Master Juggins.


"Aye; but, good sir, if you will be so kind——"


"Kind I will not be. What, sirrah, after all the insults I have listened to and being nearly murdered into the bargain?"


"No, but worshipful Master Alderman, do you but bear with me an instant. I have a thought——"


"'Tis impossible," pronounced Master Juggins solemnly.


I felt my heart warm to the man. If he was typical of the London citizens then was I glad to be quit of St. Germain and all its atmosphere of petty intrigues and Jesuitical sophistries.


"Aye, but I have," insisted the captain. "We have been warned to keep a watch for a dangerous malefactor, an enemy of the State, one Ormerod, an emissary of the Pretender who is here on an errand against the Crown."


Juggins favored me with a cursory glance of a somewhat peculiar nature. It was not exactly hostile, and yet much of the friendliness which had characterized his manner was gone.


I felt cold chills running down my back. Would he give me up? What right after all had I to expect better treatment from a total stranger, a man who had nothing to gain from shielding me? My knowledge of the world had been acquired mainly from the life of the French Court, and I may be entitled to forgiveness if I was skeptical of any man's disinterestedness of purpose. 'Twas not the way with those with whom I had been familiar.


"Go on," said Juggins coldly to the watchman, withdrawing his attention from me.


"Why, worshipful sir, there is no more to say. It is just that I thought, the attack being made upon you, a well-known citizen, it might have been——"


"And how should I know this person of whom you speak!"


"Why, sir, that I can not——"


"Be about your duties, sirrah," interrupted Master Juggins, "and pester me no longer."


The captain stumped off to where his faithful band awaited him, the several curious-minded citizens who had listened to the altercation from the vantage-point of their bedroom windows retired to resume their slumbers, and Master Juggins strode back to my side.


"Is your name Ormerod!" he asked.


I shrugged my shoulders.


"I am Harry Ormerod, once a captain of foot under the Duke of Berwick; and I formerly had the honor to be chamberlain to the man whom some people call King James the Third."


"You are a Papist?"


"No, sir."


"But you are a rebel, a conspirator against the Crown?"


"I do not expect you to believe me, of course," I answered as lightly as I could, "but I am not a rebel—in spirit or intent, at any rate—and I am not conspiring against the Crown at this moment—although I have done so in the past—and I am at this moment a fugitive from justice."


"Humph," said Master Juggins thoughtfully.


He stood there in the middle of the alley, caressing his shaven chin, heedless of the thin trickle of blood that flowed from the wound in the flesh of his left arm.


"Ormerod," he murmured. "Harry Ormerod. But surely—of course—why, you are Ormerod of Foxcroft in Dorset."


I shook my head sadly.


"No, my friend; if you know that story you must know that I was Ormerod of Foxcroft House."


Master Juggins was suddenly all animation.


"I know it well," he returned. "You and Charles, your elder brother, were both out in the '19. Charles died in Scotland, and you escaped with the remnants of the expedition to France."


"And Foxcroft House was sequestrated to the Crown," I amended bitterly.


"The Hampshire branch have it now," went on Master Juggins. "They toadied it through the Pelhams."


"Yes, —— them!"


I had forgotten my surroundings, forgotten the dingy cobbles of Mincing Lane, forgotten the strange circumstances under which I had met this strange person who seemed so intimately versed in my family history. My thoughts were back for the moment in the soft green Dorset countryside of my boyhood. I lived over again the brave days at Foxcroft when Charles had been master and I his lieutenant. But the moment passed, the memories faded, and my eyes saw again the drab buildings of the alley and the odd figure of my deliverer—whom I had first delivered.


"And you, sir," I said. "May I ask how it happens you know so much concerning the fortunes of a plain Dorset family?"


He seemed not to hear me, standing there in a brown study, and I spoke to him again sharply.


"Yes, yes; I heard," he answered, almost impatiently. "I was—But this is no place for discussion. Come with me to my house. I live in Holborn, not many minutes' walk from here."


Some trace of my feelings must have been revealed in my attitude—my face he could not have seen in the darkness—for he continued:


"You need not fear me, Master Ormerod. I mean you no harm. I could not do harm to your father's son."


"But you?" I asked. "Who are you, sir?"


He chuckled dryly.


"You know my name," he answered, "and you heard the watch acknowledge my civic dignity. For the rest—if you have spent much time in Dorset you should know a Dorset voice."


"I do that," I assented heartily, "and 'tis grateful to my ears."


"Then be content with that, sir, for a few minutes. Come, let us be on our way. I have reasons for not wishing to invite a second attack upon us."


He set off at a great pace, his head buried in his cloak collar, and I walked beside him, puzzled exceedingly.
 
II  SMALL TALK AND MULLED ALE

Ten minutes later we stopped before a tall, gabled house of brick and timber on the near side of Holborn. My companion produced a key from his person and unlocked a heavy door which opened upon a staircase leading to the second story. The first floor was occupied by a shop. Over the window was hung a small stuffed animal, who seemed to be attempting to climb the front wall as the wind swayed him to and fro.


"Enter, Master Ormerod," said Juggins. "You are right welcome. I hope you have none of the country gentleman's scorn for the home of an honest merchant."


"A beggar must not be a chooser," I answered. "But if I were not indebted to you for my liberty I should still be glad to visit a Dorset man who knows how to fight and who remembers the woods of Foxcroft."


"Well spoken," applauded Juggins as he fastened the door behind us and lit the candle in a lantern which was ready on a shelf in the vestibule at the foot of the stairs. "So I might have expected your father's son to speak."


"That is the second time you have called me 'my father's son,'" I said. "Prithee, Master Juggins, had you acquaintance with my father?"


"Bide, bide," he replied enigmatically. "We shall settle all that anon. After you, sir."


And he ushered me up the stairs, which were hung with the skins of many kinds of animals, some of which I did not even know. At intervals, too, were suspended various savage weapons—bows, arrows and clubs—gaily painted and decorated with feathers.


The stairs gave upon a large hall, similarly decorated, and through this we passed into a comfortable chamber which stretched across the front of the house. At one side blazed a warm fire under a massive chimney-piece; candelabra shed a soft glow over thick rugs and skins, polished furniture and well-filled shelves along the walls.


Master Juggins relieved me of my cloak and hat and motioned to a deep chair in front of the fire.


"Rest yourself, Master Ormerod. Presently we shall have provender for the inner man as well."


"But your arm!" I suggested, pointing to the bloody stains on his coat sleeve. "I am not unskilled in such matters, if——"


"I doubt not, sir; but I have one at hand, I make bold to say, has forgotten more than you ever learned of cures and simples."


He went to the door by which we had entered and clapped his hands.


"Ho, Goody! Art abed after all?"


"Abed! Abed!" answered a thin, old voice that was inexpressibly sweet, with a Dorset burr that made Master Robert's sound like the twang of a Londoner. "The lad is mad! Gadding around at all hours of the night; aye, sparking in his old age, I'll be bound, with never a thought to his granny at home or the worries he pours on her head. Abed! says he. When did I ever feel the sheets, and not knowing he was warm and safe and his posset-cup where it belongs—which is in his stomach! Abed! Didst ever find——"


She stepped into the room, a quaint little figure in hodden-gray, a dainty cap perched on her wispy white hair, her brown eyes gleaming in the candle-light, the criss-crossed wrinkles of her cheeks shining like a network of fine lace. In her hands she held a tray supporting a steaming flagon and divers covered dishes of pewterware.


Juggins favored me with a humorous glance.


"Sure, I grow more troublesome year by year, granny," he said as she paused at sight of me. "Here I am come home later than ever, bringing a guest with me."


But she made no answer, and as I looked closer at her I saw that she had perceived the blood on his sleeve. She tottered in her tracks, and I jumped to take the tray from her hands. But she regained her self-command, waved me away with a nod of her head and stepped quickly across the chamber to a table by the fire.


In an instant she was at Master Juggins' side and had stripped the coat off his arm and shoulder. Then she stepped back with a sigh of relief, and for the second time looked at me.


"'Tis nothing, after all," she said. "But ever since he came back from those years amongst the savages when I had thought him dead a score of times and——"


She broke off to glance swiftly at Juggins' face.


"Who did it! Was it——"


She hesitated, and he answered before she could continue:


"Aye; it was he, granny, or minions hired by him. But enough of that for the present. You have not spoken to our guest. Who think you he is?"


"Whoever he may be, if he helped you in danger, Robert, he is a good lad and we owe him thanks."


She swept me a stately curtsey such as might have graced a court ball at Versailles.


"No, the boot is on the other leg," I protested. "'Tis I who owe gratitude to Master Juggins, for he has taken me in out of the cold and the fog—and worse dangers perhaps."


"Poor young gentleman," she said softly. "For you are gentle, young sir. I did not live my youth in gentlefolks' houses for naught, and I can see gentility when it comes before my eyes, old though they be."


"You have not asked his name," suggested Master Juggins.


She looked at us inquiringly.


"'Tis Master Ormerod."


"Ormerod! Not——"


"Aye; Master Harry."


"But he is in France!"


"Nay; he is here."


"But——"


She drew closer, and studied my features under the candles that shone from the mantel-shelf.


"Is he in danger?" she asked breathlessly.


"The watch were after him when he came to my rescue," replied Juggins.


"Yet he came."


She patted my cheek with her hand.


"That was a deed which you need never be shamed of, Master Ormerod, and you shall win free to safety, whatever it may be or wherever, if Robert and I have any wits between us."


"But, granny," protested Juggins, "he is a rebel. He has just landed from France on a mission against the Crown."


"A rebel! Against the Crown?"


Her eyes flared.


"Tut! A likely tale! And what if he has? Is he not an Ormerod? His father's son!"


She wheeled around upon me.


"Your father was Sidney Ormerod!"


"Yes," I assented dazedly.


"Are you in truth a rebel!" she demanded without giving me time to catch my breath.


"Faith, I was one."


"But are you one now!"


"Not in my own heart; but the Bow Street runners think otherwise."


"A fig for them!" she cried. "Men have little enough sense, and when you place 'em in authority they grow imbecile. Sit yourself down again, Master Ormerod, the while I set a bandage about this arm of Robert's, and then you shall have a draft of mulled ale and a dish of deviled bones and thereafterward a bed with sheets that have lain in Dorset lavender. Hath it a welcome sound to you!"


The tears came into my eyes.


"I am happier this night than I have been any time since Charles and I left Foxcroft," I said. "But pray tell me why you two, who are strangers to me, should be so interested in an outcast?"


"He does not know?" exclaimed the little old lady.


"I have told him nothing," said Juggins, smiling.


"Tut, tut," she rebuked him. "Was it well to be tight-mouthed with an Ormerod?"


"I found him in the fog out there—or rather he found me," answered Jugging humorously. "And I did not know he was this side of St. Germain."


"Well, 'tis time enough he knew he was amongst the right sort of friends," the little lady said, her fingers all the time busied in adjusting bandages to the wounded arm. "You are too young, Master Ormerod, to remember old Peter Juggins——"


A light burst upon my addled wits.


"Why, of course!" I cried. "He was steward under my father, and in his father's time before him! But you?"


"Peter was my husband," she said simply. "Robert here is our grandson. As I said, sir, it was all too long ago for you to remember; but when Peter died your father offered his place to Robert. Robert would have none of it. He had the wandering bee in his bonnet. He was young, and he must see the world. He would make his fortune, too. No life as an estate steward for him."


"And wise I was, too, granny," interjected Master Juggins. "Even you will grant that now."


"Be not too elevated by your good fortune," she retorted. "Had you followed your grandfather at Foxcroft your counsel might have restrained Master Harry and his brother from their madness——"


"I wish it might have," I said bitterly, thinking of Charles' lonely grave on a mist-draped hillside in the Scotch Highlands.


"But in that case," Master Juggins gravely pointed out, "you would not have been at hand to rescue me tonight."


"Nor would you have been getting yourself mixed into intrigues which would place you in fear of assassination," she snapped. "Have done with your foolery, Robert. Master Ormerod knows naught of his father's kindness to you."


"He shall have earnest enough of it anon," returned Juggins heartily. "But do you go on, granny. You make a brave tale-teller."


She tweaked him by the ear as if he had been a small lad, gave a final pat to the neat bandage she had fastened over his wound and continued:


"Many a gentleman would have taken in bad part such an answer to an offer made in kindness, Master Ormerod. But not your father. No, after trying all he could by fair means to dissuade Robert from his course, he asked where his fancies drifted, and then supplied him with money for the voyage to the Western Plantations and to enable him to secure a start when he entered the wilderness."


"Granny still has the Londoner's idea of New York Province," explained Juggins humorously. "'Tis a wilderness in the Western Plantations. And in New York, which has grown a fine, thriving town since we wrested it from the Dutch, they regard England as a welcome market for furs over against the side of Europe."


"'Tis north of the Virginias and this side of the French settlements in Canada, is it not!" I asked, more in politeness than in interest.


"Aye, Master Ormerod; and you could drop all of England and Scotland and Wales into it, and then go out and win new lands from the savages if you felt over-crowded."


"Y'are driving beside the point, Robert," declared the little old lady with round displeasure. "Would you seek to belittle the generosity of Master Ormerod's father? No? Then have done."


She turned to me.


"Indeed," she added, "'tis as I have told you, sir; we are greatly indebted to you. All that you see here we owe to your father's kindness. 'Twas that permitted Robert to go overseas and to set himself up as a fur-trader there and afterwards to return and establish his business down-stairs, which hath grown so that it is more than he can handle—aye, and to become in good time, as he has, Warden of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Traders to the Western Plantations. All of it, I say, we owe to you."


"All of it, granny," reaffirmed Master Juggins himself. "Y'have not made it one whit too strong for me. But now, look you, Goody, the hour is late for old folks——"


"You are not so young yourself, Robert," she remarked tartly.


"Nay, granny dear, I do not seek the last word with you," he laughed. "'Tis only that I would find out before we sleep how I may be of aid to Master Ormerod."


"Aid?" quoth she. "All that we have in the world is his, if he wants it; aye, the clothes off our backs."


She swept me another curtsey, deeper than ever—just such a one, I fancy, as she made to my mother when she brought her the housekeeper's keys.


"Good night to you, Master Ormerod. And remember, this house, poor though it be for your father's son, is to be your home until you have a better."


I rose and bowed my acknowledgments, but I could not speak. My heart was too full. Here in this bleak, unfriendly London, which had greeted me with suspicion and persecution, I had found friendship and assistance. My fortunes, at ebb an hour before, now seemed about to flow toward a happier future. It was almost too good to believe.


"I have no claim upon you, Master Juggins," I exclaimed as the door closed behind his grandmother. "Remember that. And let me not imperil for one moment two friends of my father, who revere his memory as I had not supposed any did, save myself."


He pushed me down into my chair by the fire.


"There is no question of claim, sir. 'Tis a privilege. Now do you set this glass to your lips. How tastes it?"


"Most excellent. In France they must spice their mulled drinks to make them palatable. No need to add aught to good, ripe English ale."


"You have not lost the tongue of an Englishman, Master Ormerod, and for that let us be thankful. Aye, 'tis a crotchet of mine to drink a posset of ale, fetched from a brewer in Dorset whose ways are known to me, each night before I rest. It settles the digestion—although my friends the savages in North America do protest that naught is necessary upon retiring save a long drink of clear, cold water."


"You have fought hard for the comfort I see around me?" I suggested.


"Aye, but we shall have time anon to speak of that. Do you tell me now of your present plight. Fear not to be frank with me, Master Ormerod. I do not mix in politics. I am none of your red-hot loyalists who would hang a man because he remarks that our worthy King is Hanoverian by birth. But on the other hand I'll have naught to do with these plotters who fume over the exiled Stuarts.


"The Stuarts went, sir, because they over-taxed the forbearance of a long-suffering people. They might have returned ere this, as you know, had they possessed the good sense to appreciate what their whilom people required. But they lacked that good sense, Master Ormerod, and with all deference I say to you they will never return unless they learn that lesson—and abjure Popery—very soon."


I leaned forward in my chair and interrupted him, the words bubbling from my lips.


"I could not have put neater my own feelings, Master Juggins. When I was a lad not yet of age I risked all I had for the Stuart cause. What came of it? A life of exile that might have ruined me, as it has many a better man. My family's estate was sequestrated; my outlawry was proclaimed. I have no place to lay my head, save it be by the bounty of a foreigner.


"Have I secured any moral satisfaction by these sacrifices? At first I thought I had.


"They told me it was all for the Good Cause, the Cause that some day must triumph. The man you call the Pretender—it irks my lips to brand him so, despite how I have suffered in his name—took me by the hand, made me a chamberlain at his trumpery Court. I received a commission to fight under an English prince in foreign wars, mayhap against my own land. 'Tis only accident has averted that so far.


"But when I looked closer I found that I had done nothing for my country. For this prince, whom some men call King and some Pretender, yes. But for my country, nothing."


"This made me think the harder, Master Juggins. At the beginning I had taken zest in the plots and plans which were aimed to bring about his restoration to power.


"But the longer I studied them the more insincere they became. I found my leader a catspaw of foreigners, used to undermine England's prestige. His spies were in the pay of Papists. His aims were not the good of England, but his own aggrandizement, the winning back of my country to the Pope, the furthering of France's ambitions."


Master Juggins reached over and smote me on the knee.


"Hast learned that, lad? Why, then, there's no more loyal Englishman in London!"


"So you think," I answered. "So I think. But hear me out. I brought myself to abandon my friends in France, the only friends I had. I told my feelings to a certain great gentleman who handles affairs at St. Germain. He cursed me for a turncoat, would have ordered his lackeys to flog me from the palace. I left him—in disgrace. The doors of my friends were closed to me. I thought I would make my way to England and begin a new life.


"So I applied to the English ambassador for a passport. He laughed at me. Did I think he was so innocent as to be blinded by such transparent trickery? Nay, the Pretender must seek otherwhere, for means to plant a fresh spy in England. In desperation then I sold a miniature of my mother's——"


Master Juggins held up his hand.


"Where?" he asked eagerly.


"How?" I replied, not understanding.


"Where sold you this miniature? To what dealer!"


"'Twas a Jew named Levy close by the Quai de l'Horloge."


"Good," he said with satisfaction. "It shall be recovered."


"But, Master Juggins——"


"Tush, sir," he brushed my objection aside. "'Tis naught. Some day you shall refund the money, if you wish. But I would not have you lose the miniature. I loved your lady mother, if I may say so."


I pressed his hand, and struggled for words to answer. But he would have none, and insisted that I continue my story.


"So you secured funds?" he said. "And next?"


"I bought passage from a smuggler of Dieppe, who landed me three weeks since in Sussex. I made my way to Dorset, hoping to find old friends who would help me to gain a pardon; but in Dorchester High Street I was recognized by one of my cousins who now hold Foxcroft House, and he raised a hue and cry after me, fearing no doubt that I sought to regain the estate.


"Since then I have been hunted like a beast. My last shilling was spent this morning. Tomorrow, had I escaped so long, I planned to sell my sword, and if all else failed to seek a press-gang."


"Let us thank God you heard my cries," said Juggins earnestly.


He rose from his chair, a stout, square-built man with a shrewd, weather-beaten face and a manner of authority, despite the simplicity of his demeanor and attire.


"I do," I said, "and with no lack of reverence, my friend, I also thank you."


He gave me a keen look.


"You call me friend. Do you mean the word!"


"Why not?"


"I was your father's servant," he said, and he said it so that the words were at once proud and humble.


I caught his hand in mine.


"You were his friend, too; and who am I, an outlaw without name or fortune, to set myself above a man who has prospered like you through the diligence of his own hands and brains?"


Master Juggins drew a deep breath and wrung my hand hard.


"You'll do, lad," he said. "My help would have been yours on any terms. But you have made it a glad privilege for me to help you. Doubt not we shall find a way.


"Now get you to bed. I shall have somewhat to say to you on the morrow."
 
III  BEFORE THE LORDS OF TRADE

How long I might have slept I know not, but the pallid sun that strove to pierce the fog-reek proclaimed high noon when Master Juggins waked me. He would not listen to my protestations of regret, but directed my attention to the pile of clothes he carried over his arm.


"See, we shall make a 'prentice lad of you," he said. "I have a youth downstairs of about your build, and these are his Sunday clothes."


"But what will he do?" I asked.


"Why, purchase new gear with a right merry heart."


"And must I in truth wear these!" I demanded with some disgust as I felt their coarseness of texture.


"Aye, indeed, Master Harry."


His tone sobered.


"I have been abroad since rising," he continued, "and forgive me if I say 'twas well for you we met last night. Your cousin is come up to London, frantic with fear lest you should succeed in replacing him, and he hath pulled wires right and left, so that all are convinced you are here for no less a purpose than the murder of the King."


I cursed with a fluency conferred by two languages.


"There is no hope of a pardon now," proceeded Juggins. "I am not altogether without influence, and I had hoped— But 'tis doubly hopeless. If you were Scots or Irish, it might be done. But few of the English gentry besides you and Master Charles rose in the '19. You are a marked man, and with your cousin's interest against you 'twill be impossible even to gain a hearing for you."


"There is naught to do, then, save go back to France and the friends who now distrust me," I said bitterly.


"Never say so," remonstrated Master Juggins with energy. "I have an idea of another course which may commend itself to you. Come, don these poor garments, which will none the less cloak you with safety, and join me in granny's morningroom."


The coffee which the old lady poured us in blue-bordered china bowls put new life and hope in me. I settled back in my chair, heedless of my baggy breeches and woolen stockings, and puffed at the long clay pipe which Juggins had filled for me.


Granny Juggins gave me an approving pat on the shoulder.


"That is well, Master Harry. Worry never solved any difficulty. And now I must be going about my duties; but remember that what Robert tells you hath my endorsement."


"And what is that?" I inquired in some curiosity as the door closed behind her.


He smoked in silence for several moments.


"I am resolved to take you fully into my confidence, Master Harry," he began at last, "and I should not do so if I doubted your discretion."


"I shall strive to justify your trust," I said.


"No doubt. 'Tis a delicate matter."


He fell silent again.


"Did it not seem strange to you that such an assault as you saw last night should have been made upon an ordinary merchant?" he asked suddenly.


"I thought they meant robbery."


"Robbery! They never made a demand upon me. They meant murder."


"That is strange," I conceded.


"The truth is, lad," he went on, "I am at grips with a deadly enemy. 'Tis a curious story, concerned with high politics, great spoils of trade, intrigues of Church and State—mayhap the future of a continent. And as it happens Robert Juggins is at the hub of it.


"Do you think you would like to play a hand—on England's behalf and to checkmate the very foreign influences which sickened you of the Jacobite cause? There are reasons why I think you might be of aid to me. I need a strong arm combined with an agile mind, a mind used to French ways and the French tongue."


I would have answered, but he checked me.


"If you accept you must be prepared to fight your old friends, for the enemy I have spoken of is Jacobite at heart and works under cover for the return of the Pretender through the weakening of England and the paramount influence of France. Remember that before you commit yourself.


"You must be prepared for no half-way measures. You have seen how my enemy fights. He does not stop at assassination. If you meet him weakly you will only insure your own death. On the other hand, if your efforts are successful you will have earned gratitude from the Government which should secure your pardon."


"Even as I told you last night, Master Juggins, I am for England now," I answered. "If such a plot as you speak of is under way, then surely 'tis for loyal Englishmen to thwart it. Count me with you, I pray."


"I will," he said quietly. "Now hark to these facts. At the instance of myself and my associates in the Company of Merchant Traders to the Western Plantations, the Provincial Government of New York several years ago secured the royal assent to a law prohibiting the sale of Indian trading-goods to the French in Canada.


"Our object was twofold. The best and cheapest trading-goods are manufactured in England. If we can keep them to ourselves and compel the French to use more costly and less durable goods made on the Continent we shall be able to underbid them with the Indians. So the fur-trade will come more and more into our hands."


"Is that so important?" I asked curiously.


"'Tis all-important, lad."


Juggins leaned forward and tapped me on the knee.


"North America," he went on, "is the richest land in all the world—how rich it is or how vast no man knows. 'Twill require centuries to exploit it. Since first we colonized there we have contended with France, not only for further power, but for the actual right to breath. Our two countries can not agree to divide this domain, limitless though it be. Sooner or later one must oust the other."


"But the fur-trade?" I insisted, my curiosity now fully aroused.


"Aye; the fur-trade is the key to it all. The English settled along the more southerly seaboard, with fertile lands, have devoted themselves mainly to farming. The French in Canada, with an inclement climate, have been driven to spread out their settlements in order to find room for subsistence. The English power is limited, but compact; the French is spread all around us. Both nations supplement their farming by trading with the savages for furs, and these furs are the principal export from New York to England.


"I said the fur-trade was the key. It is so, because neither the French nor we are yet sufficiently powerful to ignore the strength of the Indian tribes. The fur-trade is the source of the savages for securing trade-goods. They will be bound closest to the country which gives them the best terms. If we can deprive the French of the ability to buy their goods as cheaply as we do, then we shall be able to trade to better advantage, with the Indians and so increase their friendship for us. At the same time the volume of the provincial trade will be increased."


"I see," I answered. "But you spoke before of a two-fold object in depriving the French of the right to obtain trade-goods through New York?"


"So I did, and that brings me to the enemy whom I mentioned. Heard you ever in Paris of one Murray—Andrew Murray!"


I shook my head.


"He hath connections with the French, and, too, with the Jacobites; but they would be well covered, no doubt. Murray owns the Provincial Fur Company of New York, which is the largest of all the trading agencies. He hath set himself deliberately to drive out of existence all the independent traders and secure the entire trade for himself. The trade with the French in Canada likewise is in his hands.


"Before the Provincial Government passed the prohibitive law of which I spoke, he carried on this trade openly, and the French traders, helped by a government subsidy, more often than not underbid our traders—using English goods, mind you, for the purpose. And then the French traders would sell their skins in the London market at a lower price than our own traders could afford to charge.


"After the passage of the law, in spite of efforts to enforce it, Murray contrived to build up a clandestine means of shipping goods to Canada, and while the French are more pressed for cheap trade-goods than they were, nevertheless they are better off than they should be, and our traders are put at a disadvantage. Now the time for which the law was passed is expired, and the Provincial Government hath enacted it again. It comes up this afternoon before the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, when Murray will petition for its rejection."


"But surely he will lose," I objected.


Juggins shook his head.


"I fear not. The best we can hope for is a compromise."


"Yet you say he is in alliance with the French and the Jacobites!"


"I say that, Master Harry, but I can not prove it. Remember, even you, who have recently come from St. Germain, had never heard of him. Moreover, he is hand in glove with the Pelhams and all the corrupt officials in Whitehall. He hath buttered many a grasping hand, and if he can secure his operations a few years longer he will have laid the groundwork for England's overthrow in the New World.


"I leave to your imagination the effect upon our people at home of a disastrous war with France at this juncture. King George is scarce settled on his throne, and so good an excuse would pave the way for the Stuarts' return."


"And Murray?"


"So ambitious a man as he must have his object in view. He could ask a dukedom—whatever he willed."


"Yes, that is true," I assented. "'Tis a dangerous plot."


Juggins looked at me keenly.


"You are still desirous to join in thwarting it!"


"More so than ever. But I see not how I can be of service to you."


"If the Lords of Trade have received the orders I expect, then you can be of great service to me and to your country. For myself, I stand in no worse plight than the loss of some small sums of money, which I can do without at need. My interest is impersonal, Master Harry, and 'tis because he knows it to be so that Murray attempted my life last night."


"Let me call him out," I urged impetuously.


Juggins laughed.


"Then would you climb Tower Hill in short order. No, lad, you are an humble 'prentice to Master Robert Juggins."


He rose.


"Come, you shall have your first lesson. You may attend me to the hearing before the Lords of Trade, and you shall carry me a bag of papers rather than a sword."


"But so I shall not aid you," I demurred.


"Aye, but you shall. I wish you to observe what passes at the hearing, and to study Murray. For if he wins his stay, as I fear he will, then it is my purpose to send you to New York for such evidence as will wreck his conspiracy."


"And I will go gladly," I said, a thrill of exultation in my heart at the bare thought of a man's part to play.


"I would I might go with you," sighed Juggins. "But I am old and fat, and granny can ill spare me. No, it calls for youth and strength. But a truce to talk. Let us to Whitehall."


He collected some documents and maps, placed them in a green string-bag and gave it to me to carry.


"And remember," he cautioned me at the door, "do you keep at least two paces behind me. Speak only when I speak to you and hold your head low and your shoulders stooped. Slouch, if you can. If any address you look stupidly at them and mumble an answer. I will explain that you are slow-witted."


But none of the men who stopped Master Juggins during our walk deigned to notice the humble 'prentice lad who followed him. I avoided all scrutiny and reached Whitehall with considerable more self-confidence than I had started with.


The Lords of Trade sat in a lofty chamber of a dirty, gray stone building over against the river. At one end was a dais with a long, closed-in desk across it. Behind this nodded my lords in periwigged majesty, five of them, two fat and pompous, one small and birdlike, one tall and cadaverous and one who looked like nothing at all.


"That is Tom Pelham," whispered Master Juggins, pointing at the last as we took our seats.


But I had already transferred my gaze to an extraordinary creature who stood by a window on the opposite side of the room. It was a black man, squat and enormously broad, whose long, powerful arms reached almost to the floor. He had a square, woolly head, with little, pig-eyes that were studying the people in the room with a kind of animal cunning.


As I watched him, fascinated, his eyes found my face and he surveyed me, apparently without any human interest whatsoever, but as a wild beast might consider a fat stag when too full to care about a kill. He was dressed in a bright-red livery coat with gold lace, and the cocked hat which he held was covered with silver embroidery.


I felt Juggins tugging at my arm.


"Do you see him?" he whispered.


I shuddered involuntarily, whilst the beady, pig-eyes gloated over me.


"I never saw anything so hideous in my life," I answered.


Juggins laughed, as his eyes followed mine.


"No, I meant not the negro. 'Twas Murray I spoke of. He sits several seats farther on."


I looked as directed and picked out a man who lounged back comfortably in a chair, talking with a group of merchants who seemed to hang on his words. He was elegantly clad, yet very quietly, rather in the fashion of a fine gentleman than a rich trader.


Though sitting, he showed himself to be a large man of massive frame. His face was dead-white in complexion, with big features, strongly marked. He wore an immense periwig in the prevailing mode, and there was about him an air of pride and self-confidence. Though he must have been middle-aged, he carried himself like a young man or a soldier.


"He is no enemy to be slighted," I said.


"No, he thrives upon opposition; but——"


A secretary rapped for order.


"To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council," he recited from a document he held, "the humble petition and representation of Samuel Baker, Samuel Storke, Richard Janeway and others, merchants of London, trading to New York, in behalf of themselves and the rest of the persons concerned in the New York trade; which petition, having been considered by his Majesty's Council, hath been referred, with his gracious consent, to the Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations."


"You will note," whispered Master Juggins in my ear, "that the name of Murray is not included in the list. That was the cleverest move he made. He appears here, not as the principal, which he is, but at the request of these merchants, who are his decoys, and ostensibly in their interest."


The secretary read on for some minutes, and then came to a stop, looking expectantly at their lordships, who promptly awoke from the naps they had been taking.


"You have heard the petition and reference of the Council read," gabbled Pelham in whining voice. "We will now hear arguments by the opposing sides. Who opens?"


There was some hesitation.


"If it pleases your lordships," spoke up a merchant in the group surrounding Murray, "we would have the opponents of the petition heard first."


"Be it so. Who appears against the petition?"


Master Juggins rose beside me. His arguments were substantially those he had used with me, bulwarked additionally by a mass of facts and statistics. He drew, too, upon several documents in the bag I carried, letters and statements from Governor Burnet of New York and other merchants of that province. When he sat down it seemed to me that no Englishman who thought of his own country's interest could resist the logic of his appeal.


There was a smattering of applause, and then the same merchant who had spoken before introduced Murray, with the remark that he had kindly consented to give his opinion, as he had recently come on a visit to London from the province of New York, where he was in residence.


"The gentleman who preceded me," began Murray, "and who, I am told, once spent some time in our province many years ago, is unfortunately laboring under a misapprehension of the situation. It is not, my lords, as though we had the misfortune to be at war with France. Through the grace of God, the two countries have now been for some years at peace with one another, and their subjects in the New World have striven not to be behind-hand in drawing closer the bonds of trade which in themselves are the best preventative of war."


"Hear, hear," cried his supporters.


"There is no difficulty about this matter which we are discussing," he resumed. "We manufacture in this country more goods of a certain kind than we can consume ourselves. These goods are in great demand amongst the savage tribes which inhabit the interior of North America.


"Both the French and our own traders have use for these goods in the fur-trade, which is growing to be of increasing worth to the London merchants. The French, by reason of their location on the shores of the Great Lakes, which stretch like inland seas across our wilderness, have access to the trade of many tribes which we do not reach.


"If we withhold from the French the goods they require for trading with these tribes they will seek them from the manufacturers of the Low Countries and Germany. Thus our merchants at home will be deprived of a profitable trade, and we provincials will not be bettered. Also, the supply of furs for the London market, much of which comes from the French posts, will be reduced. It seems to me, your lordships, that this prohibitory legislation will only have crippling effects upon trade and hinder the good relations between France and England and their colonies."


He said much more in the same vein, whilst Juggins twisted uneasily in his seat and the attending merchants and even their sleepy lordships hung upon his words. For he was a ready speaker. When he sat down there was hearty applause and Pelham nodded his head as if to say—


"Well done."


But our opponents were not through with us. The merchant who acted as master of ceremonies caused a start of surprize, in which I joined, by bringing forward a handsomely dressed gentleman, whose laced coat and gold-hilted sword showed conspicuously in such drab surroundings.


'Twas Raoul de Veulle; yes, Raoul de Veulle, whose mad exploits and escapades, love-affairs and gambling-debts, had kept all Paris gossiping these past three years and had just driven him into an exile, the facts concerning which had been mysteriously secret. I had known de Veulle well—as a dim star of restricted orbit may know a bright planetary light whose radiance reaches beyond his immediate universe. Once, in fact, we had come together, clashed over a question of honor in which—But I will tell of that in its place.


Now de Veulle stood before us, his handsome face smiling, bowing low before their interested lordships. In charming, broken English he repeated his brief message. He had been requested by his Excellency the French ambassador to appear in this matter in answer to a plea offered by the petitioners to the ambassador for corroborative testimony to the justice of their assertions from a responsible French source.


He himself—he shrugged apologetically—as it happened was Canadian-born; he was just starting upon his way to take up an appointment in the Canadian Government. He ventured to say he knew whereof he spoke. He agreed unhesitatingly with what Monsieur Murray had stated. On behalf of the French Government and of the Canadian authorities he begged to say that such legislation as New York wished to have perpetuated would have most unhealthy effects upon the trade and politics of their two countries. He thanked their lordships for their forbearance, made a second courtly bow and withdrew.


Master Juggins sprang to his feet, his honest face aflush.


"Many of the assertions of Master Murray and——"


Pelham waved him to his seat.


"We have heard enough," pronounced the whining voice. "You have no other first-hand witnesses from overseas!"


"No, your lordships," admitted Juggins reluctantly.


"Then further talk is fruitless," he went on, while his colleagues nodded their sleepy assent. "We are agreed that there seems to be some difference of opinion concerning this measure. Were it not for the fact that his Majesty's Governor of New York appears to favor the bill, we should consider the case made out against it unanswerable. But in view of Governor Burnet's approval we are resolved that the matter shall be referred back to him with a request for a full report upon the issues raised, and pending the receipt of this report and a decision being reached his Majesty's Government will not take action in the premises.


"Good relations with the Government of his Most Catholic Majesty must be preserved, and the utmost care should be maintained that no injustice be done, however unwittingly, to any of the subjects of the two countries.


"What is the next case for consideration?"


The petitioners, much gratified, flocked around Murray and his ape-like servant, and I followed Master Juggins from the chamber and out into Whitehall.


"The scoundrel!" he exclaimed. "But 'twas no more than I had expected."


"And what will happen next?" I asked.


"If I know Governor Burnet as well as I think I do, Murray and his French friends will draw slight comfort from their triumph today."


"Why? What can he do?"


"Nothing official, 'tis true; but remember he is three thousand miles from London and therefore able to think for himself. With you to help him——"


I felt something brush against my coat sleeve and looked around. I had just time to see the back of a gaudy red coat and a woolly black head, crowned by an ornate cocked hat, disappearing in the crowd.


"Do you see?" I said.


"Aye," responded Juggins grimly; "I might have known it. Well, 'tis a lesson in time. We will not forget it."
 
IV  FIVE BERTHS ON THE NEW VENTURE
 
We turned from Whitehall into the crowded Strand.


"Murray will figure that this delay gives him time to bribe and buy his will, either in Governor Burnet's Council or in the Government here," continued Master Juggins, with a watchful eye against the return of the spy. "At the worst he will think that he should be able to withstand the law's execution for several years, and in that time much may be done—aye, much may be done, and in more than one way." he concluded grimly.


"Then doubtless Murray will send at once a swift messenger to New York so that his friends may set to work in his interest," I suggested.


Juggins stopped abruptly in the center of the footway.


"No, he will go himself. 'Tis too important for trusting to another. That was well thought of, Master Harry. We must not let him get ahead of us. You must sail on the first passage available. Do you follow me."


And he started off as fast as his legs could carry him, bumping and prodding his person against all who did not move from his path.


"Whither are we bound now?" I panted.


"To Master Lloyd's Coffee-House, where the ship-owners resort for trade. We shall find news of the sailings there."


We followed the Strand past Temple Bar into Fleet Street, and so trod a path into the labyrinth of the City—that congested hive of humanity whence the mighty energies of England radiated in a constant struggle for control of the world's arteries of trade. Used though I was to the busy life of Paris, I was amazed by the throngs of people hurrying to and fro, the concentration of effort that was everywhere visible, the numbers of different races represented on the sidewalks, the signs and letterings that hung over doorways and in windows, proclaiming the multiplicity of endeavors to which the merchants of the city were committed.


"Mark well what you see around you, Master Harry," Juggins instructed me. "London hath prospered under King George. Here are come traders out of Muscovy, Cathay, the further Indies, the Spanish Main, the country of the Moors, Turkey, our own Western Plantations. And here at last is Master Lloyd's Tavern."


Many men stood on the cobbles outside talking. The coffee-room and taproom also were filled. Master Juggins pushed his way through the shifting groups until he reached a burly, stout man who sat by himself at a table, sucking fragrant Mocha from a bowl.


"And what will you ha', Bob Juggins!" demanded the burly man in a sulky voice.


As he spoke he pushed the bowl of coffee from him and produced a dog-eared record-book, bound in filthy sheepskin, from a pocket in the skirts of his coat.


"A good afternoon to you, Tom Jenkins," returned Juggins. "You gentry are sitting late this afternoon."


"We ha' been making up the subscriptions for the Baltic Fleet," yawned the burly man.


"And how are sailings to the Western Plantations?"


"Ameriky?"


"Aye, New York province."


"From Bristol?"


Master Juggins hesitated, then shook his head.


"No, I must have an early passage," he decided. "'Twould take too long to ride thither."


The burly man consulted his record-book.


"We ha' the ship New Venture, Abbot, master, sailing from Greenwich the end of the week—say, Saturday post meridian. What's your cargo?"


"'Tis not cargo, but a man I would send on her."


Master Jenkins shook his head forebodingly.


"I fear me she's full up, Bob."


"How does that happen?"


"But yesterday we sold four places on her—and she hath limited quarters for passengers."


Juggins threw me a humorous glance.


"I'll be bound 'tis Master Murray of New York she's to carry," he declared.


"Why, that's true," admitted Jenkins. "And some Frenchy, a friend o' his."


I forgot my role of 'prentice lad, and shoved myself across the table.


"Not de Veulle? The Chevalier de Veulle?" I challenged him.


Jenkins looked at me with mingled amusement and indignation.


"Who's your green lad that hankers for the Frenchies so?" he asked Juggins.


My master sent me spinning to the floor.


"Mind your place, boy," he rebuked me.


Then he continued half-apologetically to Master Jenkins—


"This de Veulle put a slight upon me before the Lords of Trade, and the lad—'tis a good youth and devoted, though fresh come out of Dorset, as you may see—was most indignant on my behalf."


Jenkins blinked his eyes.


"Humph," said he.


"And now about the passage?" resumed Juggins. "I'll pay well. Sure, you can always find room for an extra man on shipboard."


"What will you pay?"


"Three guineas."


"Four," countered Jenkins in a monotonous tone.


"Four, then," agreed Juggins, "and may the extra guinea find a hole in your pocket."


The ship-owner nodded dispassionately, and made an entry in his book.


"Four guineas," he repeated.


Juggins drew the coins from a purse and clinked them on the table.


"You'll never lose a debt, will you, Tom?"


"Not if I can help it," Tom agreed.


"And is it de Veulle sails with Murray?"


"Aye; he goes on some Government mission for Canada."


"But why does he not sail from Havre in a French ship for Quebec?"


"The St. Lawrence is frozen. There will be no French ships for Canada for two months yet."


Juggins pursed his lips in that quaint gesture of a whistle which was a characteristic trait.


"They use our goods," he muttered; "they use our rivers, our trading-posts, our people, the tribes which are friendly to us—and now they use our ships."


"Often," admitted Jenkins disinterestedly. "Since the Peace of Utrecht we ha' done a sight o' shipping business with the Frenchies."


"'Tis to our shame," declared Master Juggins roundly.


"Why, 'tis business," answered Jenkins with his first show of interest. "Would you have a merchant reject the trade that came his way?"


"Aye, if 'twas not to his interest to accept it," rejoined Juggins.


"Show me a heathen, let alone a Frenchy, will pay a farthing more than an Englishman, and I'll show you a better customer," said the ship-owner. "Trade is trade. Leave politics to governments. If I make not my own living, will the gentry at Westminster carry my debts? I think not."


Juggins swelled with indignation.


"God help England when men like you come to rule it, Tom Jenkins!" he declared. "Good afternoon to you."


"One moment," interposed Jenkins. "You ha' not given me the name of my passenger."


"Must you have it?"


"Aye. How else shall I know whom to admit on board?"


"'Tis this youth here."


"He who hath the interest in the Frenchy?" responded Jenkins. "Well, lad, keep your hands off him, despite his insults to your master. And what's your name?"


"Bill," I said in a voice I made as hoarse as I could.


"Bill," he repeated. "'Tis a good plain name. But you must ha' more to it. So the custom officers will say."


"'Tis Juggins," interposed my master. "The lad is a cousin once removed. He goes to seek employment in the New World. To tell the truth, though strong and willing, he is not overburdened with wits. But he can swing an ax as well as any one, and his muscles should bring him good hire on some wilderness farm."


"Aye," agreed Master Jenkins tonelessly.


He wrote the name carefully in his record-book, slipped it back in his coat-tails and returned to his bowl of Mocha. The sucking of his lips was the last sound I heard as we left the table.


In the street Juggins turned upon me indignantly. "Would you ruin us, Master Harry!" he demanded. "Zooks, you were like to plunge yourself into trouble by your forward manner! I'll wager Jenkins is wondering now whether you are a criminal or only a half-wit."


"Not he," I replied confidently. "He hath his four guineas, and a reasonable explanation for the receiving of it, and he will not worry about Government or the character of the man who paid him."


"Mayhap," said Juggins doubtfully. "But for your own sake, lad, mind the playing of your part till you have the Atlantic behind you. Why did you flare up over this de Veulle?"


"Because I know him."


This time 'twas Juggins who forgot our parts, for he stopped me in front of St. Paul's and grasped my arm.


"You know him? But——"


"I know him and I hate him," I answered doggedly.


"Why? What hath he done!"


"Oh, he owes me nothing. Like enough he thinks the obligation is the other way. He is one of the gallants of the Court in Paris. He came out of Canada some three years ago, and made a reputation for gambling, fickleness and daredeviltry of all kinds. I never had the money to mingle with him and his friends, but once in the Toison d'Or I heard him slur the poor young man I then served."


"James!"


"I called him King James in those days," I answered. "Yes, de Veulle was mocking the petty motley of our exiled Court, mocking it as much as anything else because he sought to humiliate the two Englishmen in the room.


"'What is this King but a puppet figure for us to dandle in England's face!' he said. 'And what are his courtiers but other puppets to dress the show?'"


"His toadies all laughed. They laughed so that they did not see the other Englishman and me rise in our seats.


"'And the most comical thing of all,' ended de Veulle, 'is to think of this Puppet King, with a Puppet Court, ruling over a Puppet England while France pulls the strings—as will surely happen some day.'"


"It was then I knocked him out of his chair."


Master Juggins gripped me by the hand with a warmth that surprized me.


"Good lad!" he exclaimed. "I would have done it myself!"


"What! You are no Jacobite!"


"I am no Jacobite," he replied in some confusion, "but no more were you a Jacobite when you struck him. 'Twas for England, Master Harry; and a man's country means more than any king that ever ruled. But what came after?"


"We fought in the upper room of the Toison d'Or—de Veulle and I and a friend of his and my friend. My friend was badly wounded."


"And you?"


"I disarmed my opponent."


"Only that!" remonstrated Juggins whimsically.


"Well, I disarmed him several times. When we began to fence I found he knew little of the small-sword—remember, he had been brought up in Canada—and 'twould not have been pretty to slay a man so at my mercy. Also, to treat him as I did was more humiliating to his pride than death."


"You did well, Master Harry. But granny will be awaiting us. We must hasten."


He walked in silence until we had reached the house in Holborn.


"How comes de Veulle in London?" he asked suddenly as we climbed the stairs.


"He was in some trouble in Paris—what, I know not. The rumor was that he was ordered into exile. But if he sails for Canada, as Master Jenkins says——"


"And on the same ship with Murray," interposed Juggins excitedly, "after appearing in Murray's behalf this afternoon——"


"—then there may be more to his enterprise than the mere punishment of exile from the Court," I concluded.


"'Tis so!" exclaimed Juggins. "Beyond doubt 'tis so. Aye, Master Harry, this will be no ordinary struggle I send you upon. And mayhap de Veulle will recognize you."


I struck him heavily on the shoulder.


"Do you think 'my father's son' will draw back on such excuse at this hour!" I said.


He laughed ruefully, and raised his hail for granny.


"Ho, Goody! Goody, hast lain abed all day! Here are two hungry forest-runners will eat your kitchen bare."


Granny tripped into the hall, a mug of bitter ale in either hand.


"I heard what you said, and Master Harry's answer," she rebuked him. "Think shame on yourself, Robert, to hint that he would hesitate before peril—and you sending him into it, too," she added somewhat illogically, I thought. "Now, do both of you drain these. 'Twill wash the taste of the streets and taverns from your mouths."


We obeyed her.


"And what luck did you have?" she demanded next.


"He leaves us Saturday," said Juggins simply.


She cried out.


"So soon! Must it be, Robert? Sure, the lad should have some respite from toil and fear!"


"If he is to go, he must go then," rejoined Juggins. "'Twas because I felt as you did that I said what you heard, granny."


"And 'twas because he had a sound heart in him that he answered as he did," she snapped. "If he is to go, he should go, I dare say; and the greater the peril, the greater the reward. Now come with me. The meal is made ready."


She plied us with questions as we ate, demonstrating a keenness of mind that continually amazed me.


"So Master Murray hath engaged three berths on his own behalf, aside from the Frenchman," she commented. "Who could he have with him?"


"The negro servant," I hazarded.


"That is true," assented Juggins. "He is Tom, Murray's body-guard. An evil brute, by all accounts."


"But still there is a third place," insisted granny.


"Another servant!" I suggested.


Juggins shook his head.


"I have had our men watched as well as may be, but never have we seen a trace of any other follower or servant."


"Have you done aught towards securing Master Harry's equipment?" she inquired.


"No," he answered. "The less he is cumbered with the better. All he needs for forest work he can find to better advantage in New York."


"But arms!" she pressed.


"There I have somewhat will be of aid to him," he agreed.


And he went to a cupboard, from which he produced a bundle of rolled cloths. Layer after layer was unwound, and finally he drew from the wrappings a gun such as I had never seen before. It was long in the barrel, well-stocked, yet very light and handy.


"You may exclaim over it, Master Harry," remarked Juggins as he surrendered it into my admiring hands; "but you can have no idea of its value until you have seen it tested in the great forests, where a man's life depends upon the swiftness and accuracy with which he can shoot. I learned that in my own youth, and so when I returned to London I had this gun made for me by the King's own gunsmith, after plans I drew for him. There is none other like it."


"And it is for me?" I asked, delighted as a child with a new toy.


"What better use could it have?" he replied. "Oh, yes, and these go with it."


He brought from the same cupboard a shot-pouch of beaded deerskin and a powder-horn, ornamented with dull silver that would not catch the light. Also a belt of hide from which there hung in sheaths a delicately balanced hatchet and a long, broad-bladed knife.


"These you will discover no less useful than the gun," he explained, drawing the weapons from their coverings. "This which you call a hatchet is the tomahawk of the Indians, used for fighting at close quarters and for throwing. This other is the scalping-knife, and a deadly blade it is, too. You will feel them strange at first, but among my friends in New York there is a Dutchman named Corlaer who will instruct you in the ways of the wilderness."


"You will not be letting Master Harry go upon his adventures without smoothing the path for him, will you, Robert?" interposed granny, looking up from the work-table by which she sat.


"No, indeed; he shall have letters to Governor Burnet himself, whom I met before he went overseas, and to Master Cadwalader Colden, the Governor's surveyor-general and a member of his Council, a fine, loyal gentleman with whom I have had some correspondence. They will see to him, more especially because he brings news of value to their plans; and he may be used to thwart the intrigues they struggle against."


 
V  THE FIFTH PASSENGER

Granny Juggins drew my face down to a level with her puckered old lips.


"God preserve you, Master Harry. No, I am not weeping. 'Tis— No matter. Remember always that so long as my heart beats there is room in it for you—and forget not that your mother would be hungry for pride in you if she were but with us."


She drew away anxiously.


"You do not mind that I say that, who was her servant?"


I swept her into my arms.


"I love you for it, granny. Never shall I forget your kindness and the welcome you gave to the stranger from the night."


She kissed me tenderly.


"I am an old woman, Master Harry," she said, "and I may not live to see it; but the day will come when you will be no longer a fugitive from justice. So be not disheartened."


"And how could I be disheartened," I demanded, as I set her down, "with two friends such as I may boast of?"


There was a mist before my eyes, and I was not sorry when Juggins broke in upon our farewells.


"Come, come," says he. "You will be unmanning the lad, granny——"


"'Tis to his credit he hath so much sentiment," she returned, wiping clear her eyes with a shaky hand. "But 'tis time he went, Robert."


"Aye, John Waterman will be waiting us at the Temple Stairs, and we have little time to spare if we are to get aboard before the other passengers. This de Veulle would recognize him, I fear, even in his disguise."


I could not forbear a grimace at the reference to my get-up, a linsey-woolsey shirt, with homespun jacket and breeches and a bobbed scratch-wig, the whole designed to give me a rustic appearance, which there can be no doubt that it did.


"Never mind, Master Harry," admonished Juggins as he clapped an ugly beaver of ancient style upon my head. "In New York you will rig yourself in forest-runner's garb, and forget that you ever played the bumpkin. Give granny a last kiss, and——"


She flew at me, light as a bird; her arms clasped momentarily about my neck; I felt her kiss on my cheek; and then she was gone from the room. I may as well say here that I never saw her again, although many a night as I lay under the stars I was to remember her quaint ways, her sweet, shrill voice and loving smile.


But I had no opportunity for such thoughts as Juggins and I hurried through the streets toward the river, where a wherry was awaiting us. All the way he kept up a running fire of last-minute advice and instructions.


"Guard well the letters I have given you, the one to Corlaer no less than those to Governor Burnet and Master Colden. Corlaer, though he be only a rude, unlettered woodsman, is none the less of importance in the wilderness country. He hath the confidence of the Indians of the Six Nations, a mighty tribe, or rather confederacy of tribes, Master Harry. They were recently but five nations in their league, but the Tuscaroras, after troubles with the colonists in the Carolinas, came north several years ago and were accepted at the Council-Fire at Onondaga."


"Are they friendly to Murray?" I asked as we reached the river and climbed aboard the wherry.


"Nay, I think not. But you will learn beyond question in New York. I have writ as strongly as a man may to Governor Burnet, but I would have you say to him all that you can think of to urge him to a vigorous course. 'Tis no hour for half-way measures. We must crush Murray once and for all. If legal measures may not suffice, then let us go without the bounds of the law."


We came presently to Greenwich reach, and steered a passage through the river traffic to the side of the New Venture, a slovenly craft of fair burthen, whose loose rope-ends and frazzled rigging emphasized the confusion on her decks.


Master Abbot, her captain, a melancholy man in a tar-stained coat, met us at the rail.


"The young man is not sure of himself afloat, and would seek his berth," said Master Juggins, after the preliminaries had been passed.


"As he pleases," agreed Captain Abbot indifferently "Y'are the first aboard, lad, and may choose your quarters."


"What choice have I?"


"Why, you may bunk with the second mate or one of the other passengers. But no," he corrected himself; "I should have said with one of two of the other passengers. The lady hath a cabin to herself."


"The lady!" I exclaimed.


Master Juggins pursed his lips in a soundless whistle.


"So you carry a lady," he commented.


"Aye," replied Abbot, lapsing into his customary manner of indifference, "and a sore nuisance it is, too, although it makes but one in the cabin."


"Who is she?"


"I know not."


He turned to me.


"And now, young sir, what do you say? Will it be the second mate or a passenger for companion!"


"The second mate," I said.


He nodded his head, called a seaman to carry my luggage below and point the way, and walked off.


Master Juggins drew me back to the rail.


"'Tis best I should not wait," he said. "Stay below till you be safe out of Thames mouth, Master Harry. You should be safe enough now, but care is a sure precaution."


"I will not forget," I promised.


"And one thing more, lad. Do not stint your wants for money. Governor Burnet will aid you to draw whatever you may desire through the bankers in New York. Remember, you spend on my behalf. I would willingly use all I have to thwart Murray. You will require trade-goods for the savages, and perhaps equipment for yourself. Purchase the best. Spend—and spare not."


"You are too kind," I mumbled.


"Say rather your father was too kind. 'Tis little enough I have been able to do for you—sending you away, an exile, on a mission of danger. Yet I would have you look upon it as a privilege, if you will, Master Harry. When all is said and done, we are at war with France. 'Tis no war of generals and armies and admirals and fleets, I grant you. But war it is.


"True, there is the Peace of Utrecht, with all its ponderous provisions sullying so many square inches of white parchment. It proclaims peace. And nevertheless I say to you that we are at war."


He smote the rail with his hand by way of emphasis.


"What kind of a war?" I asked.


"Why, a war for the right to grow and to flourish, a war for trade. At other times, mark you, nations clash over questions of honor or territory. So their statesmen say. Actually there is a question of trade or merchantry at the bottom of every war that has been fought since the world began.


"The Romans crushed the Carthaginians—because they wanted another corner of Africa? Never! Because only by so doing could they make the Mediterranean a Roman lake and insure its control by their shipping.


"And so today we are fighting with France for control of the trade of the Atlantic—and control of the Atlantic trade means control of the Western Plantations, America. We are fighting, Master Harry, with laws and tariffs and manufacturing skill and shipping instead of with men and deadly weapons."


"What is the immediate stake for which we fight?" I questioned, interested as always when this extraordinary man unloosed himself in conversation.


"The fur-trade. The country which wins the fur-trade will win control over the greatest number of savages. And the country which is so placed, especially if it be England, will win the military struggle which some day will have to be fought for dominion in America. So I would have you feel yourself a soldier, a general of trade, sent out upon a venture of great danger and importance. It may be, Master Harry, that you carry on your shoulders the future of England and of nations yet unborn."


He fired me so that I forgot my clumsy garments and outward character. I felt, I think, as any young knight who rides forth upon a deed of errantry and adventure.


"All that I can, I will do!" I exclaimed.


"Good. I can not ask more."


He clasped my hand in a wringing grip.


"I see a wherry approaching from up-river. I had best be gone. Good luck to you, lad, and write as occasion serves."


He went over the side with his lips pursed as if to whistle and a look of doleful pleasure on his face. Him, too, as it happened, I was never to see again. In fact, I wonder whether I should not have leaped over the vessel's side at that moment had I realized how complete was to be the severance of my life from all that I had known before.


But I did not know. I walked away from the rail with a light heart, inspired by Master Juggins' parting words and the vision he had called up before my eyes. I cast only a casual glance at the approaching wherry, which was still too far for me to observe whom she contained.


By the cabin entrance under the poop I found the seaman who had collected my scanty baggage, and he escorted me down the shallow stairs into a dark passage, which led to the main cabin, a room at the stern which ran the width of the ship and was lighted by three windows. It was mainly occupied by a table and four benches clamped to the deck. Off the passage itself, opened four doors, two on either side.


"Where do you berth?" the seaman asked me, pausing at the foot of the ladder-stairs.


"With the second mate."


He opened the first door on the right-hand, or starboard, side, revealing a space so tiny that I marveled how two men could force themselves into it at once. It was so low that I could not stand upright, so cramped that there was room only for one person outside the two short, shallow bunks which occupied two-thirds of its area.


"Do all the passengers lodge aft here?" I asked him carelessly as he disposed of my trappings.


"All save the negro; he is to sleep in the galley behind the companionway."


When he had gone I curled up in the lower bunk, which the second mate obviously had surrendered to me, and spent the remainder of the day in dozing and finishing off the shore-food Granny Juggins had prepared for my hours of seclusion. I listened long for the other passengers, but they kept the deck, probably watching the work of getting under way and taking a last look at the shores of England—as I should have liked to do myself.


I had not known my country much in recent years, and truth to tell, she did not seem to care for me. None the less I loved the emerald-green countryside, the soft sunshine through low-hanging clouds, even the turgid reek of smoky, crowded old London.


At last I must have dozed, for I was awakened suddenly by the strangest of sounds—a woman's voice singing. Clear and true, the soprano notes came through the bulkhead at the foot of my bunk. It was a song I had never heard before, with a Scots accent to the words and a wonderful lilting melody that was somehow very sad all the while it was pretending to merriment. I had never been in Scotland—except for the sad venture of the '19; and that had left no pleasant memories, God knows—but the song set me to mourning for the heather-clad moors and the gray bens and the black lochs which its words lamented.


I rose from my bunk, and, stealing to the door, set it open, so that I might hear the better. The passage outside was empty, and the salt sea-air blew down the open companionway an occasional gust of talk. But I paid no attention to that.


I was so interested in the song and the singer's voice that I forgot even to watch the door of the cabin next to mine where she was singing. And judge to my surprize, as I leaned with my head bowed by the low lintel and my eyes fixed on the gently heaving deck, when the singer's door swung open and she stepped into the passage, almost at my side.


Her surprize, as was but natural, was greater than mine. So we stood there a moment within a long yard of each other, gazing mutely into each other's eyes. She was a slim, willowy lass, in a sea-green cloak that clung to her figure in the slight draft that eddied through the passage.


Her face, flower-white in the dim light that came down the companionway, had a sweetness of expression that belied the proud carriage of her head and an air of hauteur such as I had seen about the great ladies of King Louis' Court. Her hair was black and all blown in little wisps that curled at her forehead and neck. Her eyes were dark, too. Afterward I learned that they were of a dark brown that became black in moments of anger or excitement.


"I heard you singing," I said.


She turned and made to reënter her cabin. But I raised my hand involuntarily in a gesture of appeal.


"I am sorry," I went on quickly. "I did not mean to be rude. I—I could not help it."


She regarded me gravely, evidently puzzled by the incongruousness of my voice and my plowboy garments.


"You are never Scots, sir!" she answered finally.


"No, but I know Scotland."


A light dawned in her eyes with the words.


"Ah, then you will be knowing the song that I sang! 'Lochaber No More' 'tis called, and a bitter lament of exiles out of their own homeland."


"No, I never heard it before—but I have a brother buried on a hillside far north of Lochaber, in the Clan Donald country."


The sorrow that came into her face was beautiful to see. None but a person who had Gaelic blood could have sympathized so instantly and so generously with a stranger's grief.


"That will have been the great sadness upon you," she cried in the odd way that the Highland Scots have of using English. "Oh, sir, your woe will have been deep! So far from his own home!"


"Yes," I assented; "and he an exile, too."


In that moment I felt for the last time all the old raging hatred of the Hanoverian usurper, the hatred that springs from blood spilled and unavenged; and even though the reason within me stilled the tempest that memory had stirred, I knew, or something within me knew, that I never could be happy under the immediate rule of King George.


"An exile!"


She leaned toward me, her eyes like stars.


"You will be one of the Good People!"


I did not answer her, too confused in my wits to know what to say; and suddenly my confusion spread to her.


"It is wild I am talking, sir!" she exclaimed. "Never heed my words. Sure, who would be trusting his heart's blood to the stranger that stepped in his path!"


"I think I would trust mine to you," I answered boldly.


She smiled faintly


"From your manner you would be no Englishman, sir, saying such pretty things without consideration."


"I have been long out of England."


"Then your sorrow will not be so great for parting with all you have held dear. Lucky is your lot."


"You have never been to America?" I asked.


"I had never been out of Scotland until I came south to take ship today. Ah, sir, there is a great sorrow at my heart for the country I love."


We said nothing while you might have counted ten, and in the silence she looked away from me.


"I hope you will sing often," I said fatuously.


"I sing as the feeling comes to me," she retorted.


She gathered her cloak around her, and shut her cabin door.


"And you go with us to New York?" I asked—no less fatuously.


Her eyes danced with a glint of humor.


"Pray, sir, will there be any other stopping-place in the ocean!"


I laughed.


"My name," I began—and then I stopped abruptly.


My name at present was William Juggins, and I had a feeling of reluctance at practising deceit upon this girl at our first meeting. But she saved me from my quandary.


"You will not be what you might seem, sir," she said gravely. "That I can see, and perhaps you will not think me indiscreet if I say so much."


"'Tis true," I assented eagerly. "Indeed——"


"But you will be meeting my—" she hesitated ever so little—"my father presently, no doubt, and he will make us known to one another. Now I must go on deck."


And she walked by me with a faint swish of skirts that sounded like an echo of far-off fairy music.


Her father! Who could he be? And then realization smote me.


Plainly, she could not be de Veulle's daughter—nor Captain Abbot's. She was Murray's.


I went back into my cabin and shut the door, feeling not altogether satisfied, despite the fragrance of her person which still lingered in my nostrils, the recollection of her dainty charm, the indefinable tone of high breeding which had emanated from her.


Murray's daughter! I rebelled against the idea. It could not be. It ought not to be. What right had he to a daughter—and such a maid as this? 'Twas absurd! Manifestly absurd!


Why, I must hate the man. I had no other recourse. And he had a daughter! And above all this daughter!
 
VI  THE OPENING OF HOSTILITIES
 When I came on deck the next morning we were driving down-channel before a smart northwest wind. The sky was blue overhead; the low rollers were just capped with foam; the air was clean and tangy; the brownish, salt-stained canvas shone in the sunlight; the cordage hummed and droned.


Murray stood by the weather rail with the negro, Tom, at his elbow. As I emerged from the companionway Tom leaned forward and whispered something to his master. Murray walked straight across the deck to my side, his eyes fastened upon my face.


"How now, Master Juggins," he said heartily, his hand outstretched, "and did you leave your good uncle—or is it cousin?—well!"


I perceived that he took me for the lout I was dressed to represent, and strove to play up to the disguise.


"Well enough, sir," I answered sullenly, shifting clownishly from foot to foot.


"'Tis good!" he exclaimed. "Faith I am vastly relieved. I have a warm regard for honest Robert Juggins. He has spoken of me, perhaps?"


The question, designed to catch my simple mentality unawares, gave me considerable amusement.


"Oh, aye," I muttered.


"We have been rivals in our ventures, as you doubtless know," continued Murray, taking a pinch of snuff in a manner which the Duc d'Orleans might have envied.


"But he doesn't take it seriously, sir," I assured him gravely.


"Eh! What's that?"


"He laughs about it, sir."


And I goggled at him stupidly. After a moment's inspection of my countenance he seemed constrained to accept the remark as witless innocence, for a grim light of humor appeared in his eyes.


"Laughs, does he! Zooks, I might have known it. He is a merry soul, Robert Juggins, and I should like to see him footing a morris to a right merry tune. Mayhap we shall see it some day. Who knows?"


"Who knows, sir?" I repeated vacantly.


"And you are to cast your fortunes in America, lad!" he resumed.


"Oh, aye, sir."


"What I might have expected from a fine, upstanding young fellow," he applauded me. "We need many of your like. You may count upon my good offices in New York. Faith, I shall be glad to do a favor if I can, for Robert Juggins' nephew—or did you say cousin?"


"I am——"


But he saved me from the lie.


"Ah, here is come one of our fellow passengers," he interrupted.


I turned to see de Veulle approaching us.


"'Tis a French gentleman," pursued Murray, bent upon winning my confidence with his easy manners and glib tongue, "on his way to Canada. He can tell you rare tales of the wilderness and the savages. Ha, chevalier, meet a young countryman of mine. Such is the timber we use to exploit the new plantations. Master Juggins—the Chevalier de Veulle."


All unsuspecting, de Veulle made me a slight bow, a look of indifferent disdain in his face at sight of my plebeian figure. The disguise was good, and I hoped I might cozen him for a time at least. But no man forgets another who has toyed with his life, and his indifference was dissipated the instant his eye met mine.


"Juggins?" he exclaimed in bewilderment. "You said Juggins, Monsieur Murray?"


"Sure, 'tis so," returned Murray urbanely. "Not our friend, the doughty trader, you understand, but——"


"Parbleu!" swore de Veulle. "This man is no more named Juggins than I am!"


In his excitement his English, which was broken enough at best, became almost incoherent. Murray favored me with a brief glance of suspicion.


"Who then?" he demanded.


"Ormerod! 'Tis Harry Ormerod, the Jacobite refugee!"


Murray snapped his fingers to Tom, the negro, who had been a silent witness to our conversation. In an instant he stood beside us, his baleful yellow eyes glaring at me.


"Is this the man who came with Master Juggins to the hearing before the Lords of Trade?" snapped Murray.


"He de man, massa," Tom answered in a husky voice that had a snarl in it.


"You are sure!"


"Yes, massa."


"Tom doesn't make mistakes," remarked Murray with a gesture of dismissal to the negro. "May I ask who you are, sir?" he addressed me.


"I suppose you may," I replied coolly; and with a sense of relief I ripped the bobbed scratch-wig off my head and tossed it into the sea. "Does that help you at all?" I inquired of de Veulle.


He stared back at me, his face all drawn with hatred.


"I knew you with it on," he said savagely. "It became you. Why should a deserter wear the clothes of a gentleman?"


I laughed at him, but Murray intervened quickly.


"What do you mean?" he demanded.


De Veulle made a gesture of disgust in my direction.


"This person, who was in the immediate entourage of the Pretender, abandoned his leader not long ago and fled to England to seek a pardon, repudiated and detested by all honorable men in Paris. But in England his protestations of loyalty were refused, for they naturally doubted the sincerity of one who wearied so soon of an unfortunate cause."


"Is this true?" Murray asked me.


"Within reason," I said.


Murray stared from one to the other of us. Plainly he was whimsically amused by our altercation.


"Stap me, but I rejoice to see that we may look forward to an entertaining voyage!" he exclaimed. "I had feared 'twould be most tedious. Are you seeking satisfaction from the gentleman, chevalier?"


"I shall fight him when I choose, on ground of my own choosing," replied de Veulle curtly.


"And by no means with small-swords," I jeered.


He gave me a black look.


"You will pray me to kill you if you ever fall into my power, Ormerod. I can wait until then."


"As you please."


He turned and left us. Murray took snuff very deliberately, first offering the box to me—which he had not done before—and scrutinized me politely from head to foot.


"I fear I have been patronizing in my conduct, sir," he observed. "Pray accept my apologies."


"You are most kind," I said ironically.


"'Twas a perfect disguise," he went on. "And your manner, if I may say so, was well conceived."


"I thank you."


"In short, I find you an opponent of totally different importance. You are an opponent?" he shot at me.


"Sure, sir, that is for you to say," I made answer. "So far as I know at this time we merely happen to be passengers together on this craft."


He laughed.


"I might have known it!" he exclaimed. "'Twas not like Juggins to send a bumpkin to Burnet. He hath been an enemy I might not scorn at any moment. And for a mere merchant he hath extraordinary spirit."


This was said with an air of condescension which irked me.


"You, sir," I remarked, "are no less a merchant. Why pretend to gentrice?"


A remarkable change came over the man. He ceased from tapping on his snuff-box. A wave of color suffused his face and neck; his eyes flashed. He straightened his back and shoulders and frowned upon me.


"Pretend—gentrice!" he rasped. "Sir, you are insulting. I have the blood of kings in my veins. I am of the Murrays of Cobbielaw. I quarter my arms with the Keiths, the Humes, the Morays—with every great family of Scotland. My grandfather four times removed was James V.


"I pretend to gentrice! I tell you there are few families in Europe can boast my lineage."


"It hath a Jacobite color to it," I could not resist observing.


He cooled rapidly at this, and the broad Scots accent which had crept into his speech soon disappeared.


"That is easily said—and easier disproved," he returned. "For myself, there is no more loyal adherent of King George, as you are likely to learn, sir, if you plan to backslide in the Pretender's interest when you reach New York. We provincials may be distant many thousands of miles from Court, but we are none the less careful in our devotion to the sovereign."


"So I have been told," I said dryly. "As for Master Juggins, his grandfather was steward to my father, and still I think him as much entitled to respect as any man, noble or common, who can prattle of sixteen quarterings. Family, sir, is not the more creditable for being talked about."


Murray laughed harshly.


"You have a sour tongue, young sir. I say to you plainly that if 'twere in my interest I might make things uncomfortable for you here. We may yet sight a King's ship."


It was my turn to laugh.


"When that time comes, we will attend to it. I thank you for warning me in advance."


He pocketed his snuff-box, swung around on his heel and strode off across the deck; but he had not reached the mainmast when he seemed to change his intent and returned to my side.


"Master Ormerod," he said, "I was in error to speak as I did of your friend. I crave your pardon."


He spoke so simply and unaffectedly as to take my breath away. There was naught for me to do but accept the apology in the spirit apparently intended.


"Sure, sir," I replied, "let us forget what hath passed."


"Willingly," he agreed. "There is enough contention, without belittling the most sacred thing in the world by needless bickering."


"And what is the most sacred thing in the world?" I asked.


"Good blood," he said quite straightforwardly. "But I must go below now. I have some papers to attend to. And I shall also attempt to induce the Chevalier de Veulle to preserve the amenities of life whilst we are restricted to such confined quarters."


"He shall not have to labor against my hostility," I promised as he departed.


Despite myself, I was taken with the man. His queer vanity, his unmistakable breeding, his ready wit, the assurance of power and self-sufficiency which radiated from him and explained, as I thought, his readiness to admit himself in the wrong, all these joined to inspire respect for his parts, if not admiration for his character.


During the rest of that day I made myself at home about the ship, talking with the seamen and their officers and watching vainly for the lady of the green cloak who had awakened me with her song. But she kept her cabin until the second afternoon, when we were sailing easily with a fair wind abeam. I found her then as I returned from a walk forward, standing with her hand on the poop-railing to steady her.


"I fear you are a poor sailor," I called to her.


She inclined her head for answer.


"Well, I have met your father," I said, coming to her side, "and I make no doubt he would present me were he here, so——"


"Sir," she said stiffly, "I have no desire for your company."


I stared at her, mouth agape.


"If I have offended——" I began.


"I may as well tell you," she interrupted me again, "that I have no personal liking or disliking for anything you have said or done in my presence. But I have heard that about you which will make me have no inclination for your company."


"And I shall ask you to tell me what that is," I retorted with mounting indignation. "It is not fair that you should accept the slurs of an enemy behind my back."


She hesitated.


"That may be so," she admitted, "but you will be willing to answer me two questions?"


"Surely."


"You are Captain Ormerod, formerly chamberlain to King James II?"


"Yes."


"And you not long ago abandoned the King's service and fruitlessly sought a pardon in London?"


"Yes."


I can not very well describe the scorn of voice and manner with which she addressed me.


"That is enough for me," she said. "You are a traitor, a deserter, proven out of your own mouth."


"But——"


"No, sir; there is naught you can say would interest me. I should despise you none the less had you deserted in the same circumstances to my own side. It makes it no less culpable that you deserted from my side because our fortunes were at low ebb. And indeed I think it will be a sure sign there is a God in heaven that such a black traitor as you will be, should be scorned even by the wicked men of the usurper in London."


"But you shall hear me," I protested. "This is absurd, what you say. You have taken two bare statements of fact and twisted into them the implications skilfully made by a personal enemy. You——"


"Last night, sir," she said cuttingly, withdrawing the folds of her cloak so that they might not touch me, "you played upon my sympathies with your tale of exile and a brother buried in the Clan Donald country, and I was all for sympathy with you and sorrow for your sorrow. You as much as told me you were one of the Good People. You let me deceive myself, after you had deceived me first. Oh, you will have acted unspeakably!"


"What I told you was true!"


"It could never have been."


"I swear it was. I was out in the '19; I fled to Scotland with my brother; he died and was buried there; I escaped with the remnants of the expedition; I am an exile at this moment."


"An exile! Phaugh! Think on the honest men can truly say that in their misfortune this day! And you—I could weep for the shame that your dead brother and the mother that bore you will be feeling as they look down upon you!"


With that she was gone, and I was left cursing—cursing de Veulle, whose treacherous tongue had planted the distorted shreds of truth in her mind; cursing Murray, who must have stood by and listened to it all, smugly amused; cursing my cousin who had put me in such a plight, after winning my inheritance; cursing the men and women at St. Germain who repaid years of sacrifice and ungrudging loyalty with such canards; cursing Juggins for having embarked me upon this ship with the girl; cursing myself for getting into such a false position; cursing the girl——


But no. Common sense came to my rescue then. There was something unaccountably fine about her attitude, something I should never have thought to uncover in Murray's daughter, however beautiful and attractive she might be. There was devotion for you, faithfulness to a lost cause, the single-minded truthfulness which only a good woman can possess.


Heir indignation was the index to her personality. By it I might know that she was really worth while, that to win her respect must be an achievement for any man.


And that brought a new thought into my mind. Could the two men she was with have her respect? Could she respect her father, Murray? Aye, perhaps; for if he labored secretly in the Jacobite interest she, with her flaming, misdirected loyalty to the Stuarts, would excuse his deceptions and crimes, if only they brought back her King to the throne.


I was familiar with the way men and women of her persuasion ignored the well-being of their country, apart from their King. They could see no difference between the two. What did it matter if France profited by the issue, so long as James replaced George?


This brought me to de Veulle. Surely she could not respect him! If she knew what I knew— But manifestly she, who had never been out of Scotland before, could know nothing of his career in Paris.


And he had a way with him, there could be no denial of that. He was a handsome devil, with the flair which appeals to all women, good and bad. Aye, he might win her regard for a time; but I was prepared to stake all that she would unmask him in the end.


The twilight faded rapidly, and I found myself with no appetite for the crowded main cabin, where de Veulle and Murray played piquet, or my stuffy berth. I strolled the deck, immersed in thought. There was so much to think about. The episode with this girl, whose name even I did not know, had brought into vivid opposition the events of the past and the uncertain future which lay before me.


I conned over what Juggins had told me, memorized anew many of the messages he had entrusted to me, speculated upon the possible turn of affairs. I planned in some vague way to win a fortune in that unknown New World ahead of me, and with the proceeds in one hand and a pardon in the other, return and reclaim Foxcroft from those abominable Hampshire cousins.


With chin cupped in hand I leaned upon the starboard rail in the black well of shadow which was formed by the overhang of the forecastle, and the towering piles of canvas that clothed the foremast. Somewhere beyond the wastes of watery darkness that veiled my eyes lay England, the home which had disowned me. I——


Without any warning a huge arm was twisted around my shoulders and a hand so huge that my teeth could make no impression in it was clamped down over my mouth. Another arm encircled my waist. My arms were pinned to my sides. My legs kicked feebly at a muscular body which pressed me against the bulwark. Fighting back with all my strength, I was nevertheless lifted gradually from the deck and shoved slowly across the flat level of the fife-rail.


Do what I might, I could not resist the pressure of those tremendous arms which seemed to have a reach and a power twice those of my own. I gasped for breath as they squeezed my lungs—and in gasping I sensed a queer taint in the air, a musky odor which I did not at once associate with the seamen or any one else on board the ship.


It was no use. I could not resist. The snakelike arms mastered me. One shifted swiftly to a grip on my legs. I was whirled into the air and dropped clear of the railing—falling, falling, until the cold waters engulfed me.
 
VII  A TRUCE

I came to the surface, fighting for breath, my hands battling fruitlessly at the slimy side of the ship, which slid past as relentlessly as the passage of time. I tried to cry out, but the salt water choked me. Not a sound came from the decks above. The blackness was absolute, except for the mild gleam of a watch-lanthorn on the poop.


Danger and the peril of death often have been my lot, but never in all my life—no, not even when the Keepers of the Trail had bound me to the torture-stake—have I experienced the abysmal fear which clutched my heart as I struggled to save myself from the chilling waters whose numbing embrace was throttling my vitality no less surely than the long arms which had cast me overboard.


Death was only a brace of minutes away—not death from drowning, but death from the bitter cold that paralyzed my limbs and smote my heart. In the mad desperation of my fear I heaved myself waist-high out of the water, hands clutching and clawing for the support which reason must have denied me to expect.


I was sinking beneath a smooth-running wave along the counter when my fingers came in contact with a dripping rope, which slipped through their grip and lashed me in the face. This time I did contrive to cry out, a brief, choked yell of exultation. My hands possessed themselves of it again, and I rove a loose knot in the end.


Had I dared, I would have rested myself in this loop before beginning to attempt the climbing of the mossy wall of the ship's side; but the coldness of the water forbade it. Only by the utmost power of will could I force myself to the necessary effort. A few moments' delay, and I should be incapable of action.


With teeth clinched I drew myself upward along the rope, thrusting forward with my feet for purchase against the side. Sometimes I slipped on the wet planks, and then I was put to it to hold my position. But after I withdrew my body from the water, what with the urgency of my effort and the stimulation of the exercise, some degree of my strength returned; and presently I was able to pull myself up the rope, hand over hand, until I reached a small projecting structure at the level of the deck to which was fastened the starboard rigging of the mainmast. How I blessed the untidy seamanship of Captain Abbot, which would have aroused the wrath of any true sailor, no doubt.


On this bit of a platform I rested myself, below the level of the bulwarks, one arm thrust round a tautened stay. And now for the first time I gave thought to my experience. I suppose that at the most not more than five minutes had elapsed since I had been heaved overboard, and obviously no one had witnessed the incident, for the deck was as quiet and deserted as it had been when I was attacked.


Who had done it? I accepted as a primary fact the impossibility that it could have been one of the crew. I had speaking acquaintance with only two of them, Captain Abbot, himself, and Master Ringham, the second mate, a taciturn Devon man, whose conversation consisted of curses, grunts and monosyllables. Neither could have any grudge against me.


No, I must seek the assailant in the camp of my known enemies, and those immense, twining arms could belong only to the ape-like negro. With the realization, hot blood drummed in my ears. I scrambled over the bulwark in a flash, and crouched down upon the deck to survey the situation. It was one against three—no, four, I reflected bitterly; for I made no doubt the girl would array herself against me. I must have some weapon.


I looked around me, noting that the watch were all ensconced upon the forecastle or the poop. Then I remembered that ranged around the bottoms of the masts were long handbars of wood, iron-tipped, which were used in making fast the sail-ropes. I ran across to the mainmast and tore one from its slot.


Nobody had yet seen me in the pitch darkness, and I stole across the deck to the door which gave entrance to the poop, my water-soaked shoes quite soundless. The door was ajar, and I opened it very carefully, listening to the murmur of voices in the main cabin. There was no light in the passage which led to the main cabin from the foot of the shallow stairs that descended from the deck level; but the main cabin itself was brilliantly lighted by several lanthorns.


Murray and de Veulle were sitting on the bench which ran across the stern, the table in front of them littered with cards. Murray, a look of placid satisfaction on his face, was pouring rum into two glasses. De Veulle was laughing as if he had listened to the merriest tale in the world. So much I saw when the entrance into the main cabin was darkened by the body of the negro, Tom.


He saw me descending the stairs, and apparently took me to be one of the officers coming off watch. At any rate, he stepped back into the main cabin and stood there, waiting to give me room. The passage was not more than fifteen or sixteen feet long, and as I approached him I smelled again that rancid, musky odor—the body smell, as I afterward discovered, of the savage, black or red—which had overwhelmed my nostrils just before I was pitched over the side.


'Twas that decided me. I took a firm grip on my improvised club, and, stepping into the pool of light in the main cabin, swung square around, face to face with Tom. He threw up both hands and staggered back with a wild scream of terror, eyes popping from his ashen-gray face.


I gave him no time for recovery, but brought down the iron-tipped end of the handbar with all my force across his skull. The blow would have killed any save a black man. I meant it to kill him. As it was, he dropped like a slaughtered ox, and lay in a crumpled heap of tawdry finery on the floor.


Doors banged in the passage, and I stepped to one side, setting my back to the bulkhead, the while I fastened my eyes upon the startled amazement with which Murray and de Veulle regarded me. 'Twas Murray recovered first.


"Zooks," he remarked, taking snuff with his usual precision. "It seems that Tom is growing in the way of making mistakes."


"Aye, and such mistakes are like to react upon others," I replied fiercely.


"If I were a refugee from justice, I should be careful how I threatened law-abiding subjects," he answered calmly. "Well, well, it seems we have more company."


I followed his glance to the passage, where stood the girl of the green cloak, whilst over her shoulder peered the square, puzzled features of my silent cabinmate, Master Ringham.


The girl said nothing, her eyes shifting gravely from one to the other of us. But Master Ringham's official status got the better of his distaste for words.


"What hath happened?" he asked. "Is the negro dead!"


"I think so," I said. "He—"


"Not he," corrected Murray cheerfully. "You know not Tom, good Master Ormerod. He hath a skull on him can only be opened with blasting-powder."


"It matters little," I returned. "The rascal attacked me above, Master Ringham. I pursued him down here. There is naught more to be said. I will settle with his master."


The second mate looked questioningly toward Murray. I hated to compromise so, but I had not missed the veiled threat he had addressed to me nor his use of the name Ormerod. Remember, I was still known to the crew as Juggins.


I was uncertain what attitude the captain might take if he was told that I was a political refugee. There might be a reward at stake—and sailors were human like other men. What was one man's life to them—and he a stranger—if so many hundred pounds would purchase it!


"Why, that is fairly spoken," rejoined Murray, somewhat to my surprize. "I know naught of the circumstances, Master Ringham, but perhaps I may settle with our friend here. As for the negro, I will attend to him."


"And the captain?" questioned the second mate uncertainly.


"Oh, I see no reason why we should bother Master Abbot at this juncture. There will be time enough if we fail to agree upon the issue."


"There must be no more violence," warned Ringham, his eyes on me, his words addressed to all of us.


"Violence!" rejoined Murray jovially. "Let us reject the idea altogether. Why should we disdain sweet reason's rule? Eh? Master Orm—er—Juggins?"


I bowed ironically.


"If there is any further disagreement Captain Abbot shall be called," I said to Ringham. "That I promise you."


Ringham nodded and clumped back to his bunk, doubtless relieved at not being required to surrender more of his time off-watch. But the girl stood her ground, her eyes accusing all of us.


"Well, Marjory," said Murray pleasantly, "and do you plan to join in our debate?"


That was the first time I heard her name, and—why, I can not say—I heard it without surprise, as if I had always known it to be hers. It suited her, as names sometimes express the character and appearance of their possessors.


"What hath happened?" she asked in the same words the second mate had used.


"You have heard," said Murray.


She shook her head.


"That is not all. This—" she hesitated—"gentleman's clothes are wet. Tom does not attack people without orders."


Murray shrugged his shoulders. De Veulle answered her, leaning across the table, his eyes burning with hatred for me.


"You know what this man hath done, mademoiselle," he cried. "You know his record in the past. You know that he comes with us to spy out our plans, to thwart, if may be, what we undertake to do. Is any fate too hard for him? Why should you concern yourself?"


His voice grew coaxing.


"'Tis no matter for ladies' soft hands to dabble in."


"Then there has been fighting?" she asked.


I could stand it no longer.


"Fighting!" I snapped. "Aye, if you call assassination fighting. An attack in the dark upon an unarmed man, throwing him overboard to drown as you might a blind puppy, never a chance for his life!"


"Yet you are here, sir?" she said quietly.


"'Tis only by the intervention of Providence that I was saved—or the untidiness of our captain, who left a rope trailing over the side."


I grew sarcastic.


"You were pleased to say today that it was proof of a God in heaven that I had suffered misfortune. Sure, will you deny that the same God hath protected me against your father's——"


"My father!" she repeated questioningly.


"Well, what is he!" I returned cuttingly. "Mayhap you have some pet name for a parent who practises assassination."


"You have no right to say that, sir," she said with spirit.


"No right! Did not you yourself say Tom never acted without orders!"


"But——"


"And furthermore, if this case is not enough, let me tell you that this man here"—I pointed to Murray; for some reason I disliked to call him her father, even in wrath—"set a gang of ruffians to murder a friend of mine in London."


"Do you know that for a fact, sir!" die demanded with her unflinching gravity.


"I do."


Murray rose from his seat behind the table.


"Your proof, sir?" he asked coldly.


"Proof!" I answered weakly. "Why, I was there!"


"Aye, sir," he rejoined with dignity. "But your proof that I hired assassins?"


I was silent.


"As for Tom," he continued, "if he had drowned you I do not believe that I should have wept many tears. You are in my way, sir. But you have no reason to assume from my daughter's casual words that I was accomplice to his acts. Could you prove it before the captain or any court of law?"


I saw the twinkle in his eyes and knew that he was playing with me.


"No," said I shortly; "I could not prove it, even against him. I have no witnesses."


"And you could not even go into a court of law," he pursued, "for you are an outlaw, denied benefit of law or clergy."


"Yes," I flared in answer; "and you, sir, what think you might be your fate in New York if I denounced you to Governor Burnet for attempted murder! Would he make use of the opportunity—or no!"


The realization of this trump card I held had come to me in a flash of inspiration. Now it lay face up for all to see, and there could be no doubt it gave my enemies cause for uneasiness. Murray regarded me thoughtfully; a worried look replaced the cynical satisfaction with which de Veulle had watched my badgering; the bewilderment upon Marjory's face was deepened.


"I do not think I am so weakly situated as you had supposed," I mocked them. "Aye, you may denounce me to the captain for a Jacobite conspirator, and it may be he will see fit to believe you. You are three to my one. But when we reach New York, and I am brought before the officers of the Crown, I may have a different story to tell. Think you the governor would be loath to implicate a French officer and the man who is leading the fight against his struggle to control the fur-trade?"


Murray nodded his head slowly, and sank back in his seat.


"Sure, you are a lad after my own heart," he said. "That was well thought of. 'Tis checkmate—for this present."


"Nonsense," stormed de Veulle. "Why should we fear his trumpery tales? Who are we to be denounced by him?"


"Because I know somewhat of Governor Burnet," replied Murray good-humoredly. "Nay, chevalier, I dislike to yield my point as much as any man; but Master Ormerod hath stopped us. We must have a truce."


But he reckoned without Marjory. The lady of the green cloak stood forward in the center of the cabin, passionate indignation shaking her whole figure.


"Oh, why do you talk like this?" she exclaimed. "Are we criminals that we must bargain with a criminal? It is as if we were embarked upon an enterprise as vile as his life of spying and intrigue!"


I had not made any headway in regaining her good opinion, 'twas evident, and that must be the excuse for my barbed retort.


"You show unwonted sensibility, my lady," I said. "Sure, no men with good consciences would stoop to bargain with such as I."


"I fear me, Marjory," said Murray gently, "that you have no appreciation of the tangled path which must be trod by those who concern themselves with affairs of state. The good and the bad are strangely intermingled. Sometimes we must consort with those we despise in order to gain a good cause. Sometimes we must use tools which irk us to fashion a policy to a righteous end. Sometimes we must stoop to tricks and plays which soil and shame.


"It can not be otherwise. And after all, what does it matter that you and I have cause to regret, if we may see the attainment of our goal? Shall we regret the payment of a bitter price? 'Twould be parsimonious, I say. 'Tis not we who count, who are but pawns; but the cause we serve."


"I like it not," she flamed.


"Like it or not, 'tis inevitable."


He turned to me.


"It seems then, Master Ormerod, that we must proclaim a truce for the time being."


"It is your necessity," I told him flatly.


"And yours," he returned urbanely. "What guarantees shall we exchange?"


I thought.


"Why, we can neither afford to risk the denunciation of the other," I said at last. "You, because you know that the Provincial Government would seize any excuse to incommode you. I, because I know that the Provincial Government would find it difficult to protect me against your charge, even though it exploited mine."


"The advantage would seem to be on my side," he remarked tentatively.


I leaned across the table so that his eyes met mine fully.


"Not so much as you might think," I asserted. "Have I the look of one who would fail in a desperate venture?"


"No, no," he answered smilingly. "So be it, then. But the truce holds good only for the period of our voyage together?"


"That is understood," I agreed.


His eyes hardened.


"Did you ever hear of the Red Death and the Black Death, Master Ormerod!"


I shook my head, puzzled.


"You have met the Black Death. You have yet to meet the Red Death. And you may meet the Black Death again," he added as Tom groaned where he lay on the floor.


Marjory shuddered.


"Enough of this!" she exclaimed. "Is it understood there is to be no killing on this ship?"


"It is, my dear," Murray responded. "And now I think you had best withdraw. This has been a trying interview for you, I fear."


She looked from one to the other of us, as if half in doubt; and then gathered her cloak around her. We all three, as with one accord, bowed low as she stepped into the passage.


Murray opened a lanthorn and snuffed the candle within.


"You must be weary, Master Ormerod," he said solicitously. "It hath been a trying evening for you too, I fear."


"Ah, the devil played a strong hand, Master Juggins," de Veulle chimed in, with a yawn. "You do not object to your old name, I hope? It fits you like a snug shirt."


"Not in the least," I retorted. "'Tis an honest name. You will note, I hope, that the devil, as always, was checkmated, even though he had two of the minor fiends of darkness at his elbow."


Murray laughed, the fine, resonant laugh of a well-bred, honorable gentleman.


"Zooks, chevalier, have done. The man hath a rare metal."


"If wit fails, try small-swords," I suggested as I left the cabin.
 
VIII  I HEAR FIRST OF THE DOOM TRAIL

One day followed another and one week ran into the next as the New Venture made her southing and bore west toward the New World. The weather was blustery and raw. Gales stormed down out of the polar regions and drenched us with snow. Head winds baffled us. Once a tall-masted stranger chased us for two days and a night before we lost her and might continue our course.


But we who shared the tiny quarters under the poop contrived to live together without further quarrels. It seemed almost as if the opposition of the elements had overwhelmed the bitterness of conflicting human interests.


The girl with the green cloak—I called her Marjory in my thoughts—ignored my existence. She spent much of her time with de Veulle, walking the deck with him, reading or playing at cards. I liked to think she did it to provoke me. Sometimes, too, she chatted with the seamen, and they taught her the trick of handling the wheel. But I did not speak to her after the night she came into the main cabin and found the negro, Tom, lying on the floor at my feet.


De Veulle gave me a wide berth. He did not like to be reminded before others of that duel in the Toison d'Or. Tom's eyes never left me if I was within the range of their vision; their blind, yellow glare haunted my dreams. He snarled sometimes like a caged wild beast when I walked near him. But he never lifted a finger against me.


With Murray my relations were outwardly friendly. He liked much to talk, and indeed he demonstrated a considerable acquaintance with the great men of his period. But he never dropped a hint concerning the enterprise in which he was now engaged. Nor for that matter did he ever seek to draw me out on the mission I served.


He was a man of extraordinary perspicacity. Once he had determined accurately the measure of an opponent he never made the mistake of underrating his enemy.


"Most of the failures in life come from overconfidence, Master Ormerod—" he called me by my real name with scrupulous courtesy when we were alone, and was equally scrupulous to dub me Juggins if Captain Abbot or one of the crew happened to be present—"as I dare swear you know. I have long made it a rule of my life never to believe that any other man could be less diligent about his affairs than I myself.


"If I find myself in opposition to a man—yourself, let us suppose—I do you the credit of granting you my own degree of intellect. So, I have learned, may one's interests be safeguarded."


For the rest, he exhibited much concern in the personalities at Versailles and St. Germain, and aired his views regarding the existing state of the English nobility and Court with a vanity which would have savored of the popinjay had it not been for his undoubted earnestness and the strange spell which the man's personality wove about him. Most of all, however, he delighted to discuss his own genealogy and the history of the famous Scots families with whom he was connected. He could descant on such topics for an entire afternoon—and with an uncommon candor and entertaining flow of intellect.


Perhaps the most striking aspect of our intercourse was that we talked together, more or less, every day for nearly two months; and at the end of that time I had the material for delineating the character of a man of gentility and fine feeling in matters of honor, who possessed the friendship or intimacy of many famous personages in Europe and America.


I knew that he claimed to be a younger son of a good Scots house, fallen into decay by reason of the Jacobite wars. I knew that he played a good hand at piquet, and was entirely honorable in gambling. I knew he had a dainty taste in snuff, cravats and linen.


And I knew absolutely nothing else, gained from his own admissions and observance of his habits. He was patronizingly cordial to Captain Abbot and the other officers of the ship; he controlled Tom as I should a dog; he treated Marjory with consideration, even affection, although not as I should have expected him to treat a daughter; he observed toward de Veulle exactly the right mixture of the older man of the world and the boon comrade.


He never referred to the enmity between us or the bargain we had made until the day we sailed through the Narrows, the entrance to New York's inner harbor, and saw far in the distance, behind tree-covered islands in a long perspective of forest shore-lines, the miniature provincial capital huddled on the point of the big island which the Dutch named Manhattan, an occasional steeple pointing skyward above the two and three story houses and the frowning ramparts of Fort George.


"We part for a time, Master Ormerod," he said, coming upon me where I leaned on the railing in the waist of the ship, viewing this unknown land where I must retrieve my fallen fortunes. "Our truce expires when we disembark."


"That is true," I assented.


"There is somewhat I would venture to observe upon, if you will permit me," he continued detachedly.


I inclined my head, thinking mainly of the exquisite beauty of this woodland setting, with the early Spring foliage already turning green, and the wide spaces of emptiness so close to a principal center of civilization.


"You are a youth of boldness and courage. I do not seek to flatter you by saying so. You possess intelligence. You may go far in the provinces, always supposing you do not succeed in winning a pardon. I opine that a pardon might be won if you went about it in the right way. There are gentlemen at Whitehall, who—"


His hesitation was eloquent.


"And you would suggest?" I asked him, faintly amused as I perceived the drift of his intention.


"Think well before you commit yourself to this venture. Mark me, sir, it means little to me. You know nothing of what you embark upon. You can not hope to overcome me. Why, the governor of this province, with all the semi-regal powers at his command, has failed to balk me in my plans. My influence is no less in London. If you continue as you have begun you will end, I fear, in an early grave. I say it not as a threat. 'Tis merely a prediction."


"I fear me I should lose your good opinion did I take your advice," I replied.


He looked me straight in the eyes.


"You would," he said curtly, and he turned on his heel and left me.


Three hours later we lay at anchor in the East River under the lee of Nutten Island, which some called the Governor's because it was part of his official estate. The extent of the shipping was surprizing considering the size of the town, and we were fortunate to secure small boats to ferry us ashore. They landed us at a wharf on a canal which ran up into the town along the middle of Broad Street. From here I had my baggage carried by a water-man to the George Tavern in Queen Street which he recommended as being favored by the gentry.


Murray's party I overheard giving directions for the conduct of their effects to Cawston's Tavern in Hanover Square, a comfortable open place which we traversed on our way to the George. The streets were all shaded by a variety of trees—locusts, beeches, elms—and in some parts and along certain blocks they were paved.


The houses, many of them, were stanchly built of brick and tiles, often of more than one color. Their gable ends fronted upon the streets. The more pretentious ones had gardens behind, and many had platforms on the roof whence the members of the family might secure a broad view of the town and bay.


Along the water-front there were frequent warehouses, and the chief impression that I gained was one of bustling wealth and prosperity. Indeed, although New York was then, and for many years afterwards, inferior in population to Boston and Philadelphia, it vied with them in the volume of its trade.


After a meal which was as good as any I had ever eaten in Paris or London I inquired of Master Kurt van Dam, the proprietor of the George, where I might find Governor Burnet. Van Dam was a broad-bodied, square-headed Dutchman. He sat in the ordinary, smoking a long clay pipe, and if the waiter had not pointed him out to me I should not have been able to distinguish him from a dozen other natives of the town, precisely similar in build and each sprawled back upon a bench or chair, puffing at a pipe which reached from his lips to his knees.


"You vant to sbpeak to der gofernor, eh?" he said slowly. "Hah! Myndert!"


He recalled the waiter who had piloted me to his side.


"Haf you seen der gofernor dis morning?"


Myndert had not.


"Veil, it maype he is at der Fort," reflected Master van Dam.


"He vouldt pe, if he vas," said a stout burgher on the next bench. "Put he is not."


"You are sure?"


"Ja."


A third stout Dutchman removed his pipe from his mouth and blew a mouthful of smoke toward the ceiling.


"Der gofernor is still at Cabptain van Horne's," he said, and immediately replaced the pipe in his mouth.


"To be sure," assented van Dam. "Der gofernor is only a little time married to Captain van Horne's dotter. He life with dem vile der house in der Fort is mate bpretty for her."


"And where is Captain van Horne's house!" I asked.


"In der Broad-Vay not far oop from der Fort. You valk across through Hanofer Square."


I thanked him and walked forth.


In Hanover Square, which was only a few steps distant, there was a crowd collected about the entrance to Cawston's Tavern. Murray was standing in the doorway, Tom on one side of him, and a huge, red-haired giant in buckskin, with knife and tomahawk at his belt on the other. I stared at the red-haired man, for he was the first woodsman I had seen, observing with curiosity his shaggy locks and fur cap and the brutal ferocity of his face.


I stared so long that I attracted the attention of Murray, who broke off his conversation, with the group surrounding him, and with a pale smile pointed me out to his buckskin retainer. The man scowled at me, and one hand went to his knife-hilt.


I spoke to the citizen nearest me.


"What is the occasion of the crowd?" I asked.


"'Tis Master Murray, the fur-trader, hath returned from London after winning his case before the Lords of Trade," he answered.


"How is that?"


He regarded me suspiciously.


"Are you a stranger?"


"I am but just landed from the same ship as carried Master Murray," I assured him.


"Ah!"


His manner became impressive; plainly he considered himself one who imparts portentous news.


"Master Murray, as you will soon learn, sir, is our most enterprising merchant. He hath built up with much difficulty a valuable trade with the French, with the result that the business of the province hath doubled.


"But the governor will have none of it, or so he says. He hath done all that he may, even to passing laws against Master Murray's trade; but now, it seems, Master Murray hath carried his case to the Lords of Trade, who have refused to approve the laws."


I thanked the man and pushed on through the crowd. So that was the story Murray was telling! And plainly he had the prestige and the following to make himself a dangerous force, even, as he had boasted, against the governor and the provincial authorities.


But on the outskirts of the gathering I chanced to overhear another conversation which indicated that Murray's hold upon public opinion was perhaps not so strong as my first informant had led me to believe.


"He hath the devil's own luck," murmured a prosperous-appearing citizen.


"Aye," said his neighbor bitterly; "they will ply a grand traffic over the Doom Trail."


The odd name, so sinister in its implication, struck my imagination. I lingered behind the two, pretending to peer over their heads.


"And 'tis these fools here who will pay for it in the long run," answered the other.


"And yourself and I," rejoined the second.


As I turned to leave, I met again the threatening glance of the red-haired giant which sought me out across the crowd. I tapped the nearest of the pair of disgruntled citizens upon the shoulder.


"Pray, sir, who is the tall fellow in buckskin on the steps?"


The man edged away from me as suspiciously as the first one I had accosted.


"I am a stranger in your town," I added.


"'Tis a frontiersman," he replied reluctantly; "one called 'Red Jack' Bolling."


"An ugly knave," I commented.


But the citizen and his friend only eyed me askance, and I walked on, reflecting on the current of intrigue which I had uncovered beneath the placid life of the little town within two hours of my landing.


I was walking through Bridge Street, with the leafing tree-boughs overhead and the walls of Fort George before me, when another and smaller crowd rounded the corner from the Broad-Way, a street which formed the principal thoroughfare of the town and took its name from the wide space between the house-walls.


In the lead came an Indian. He was the first of his race I chanced to see, and sure, 'tis strange that we were destined to be friends—aye, more than friends, brethren of the same Clan. He was a large man, six feet in his moccasins, and of about the same age as myself. He stalked along, arms swinging easily at his side, wholly impervious to the rabble of small boys who tagged behind, yelling and shrieking at him.


His handsome face, with its high-arched nose, was expressionless. His eyes stared straight in front of him. He wore the go-lea, or breechcloth, and thigh-leggings of soft, tanned deerskin. A single eagle feather rose from the scalp-lock which hung from his shaven head.


He was naked from the waist up, and on his massive chest was painted in yellow and red pigments the head of a wolf. He wore no other paint, and he was weaponless, except for the tomahawk and knife which hung at his belt.


The children danced around him like so many little animals. They never touched him, but some of the more venturesome hurled pebbles from the walk at his brawny shoulders.


"Injun Jim came to town, with his breeches falling down," they chanted.


"Scalp-taker, scalp-taker," shrieked another.


"Big Injun drink much fire-water," howled a group.


"Injun dirt, Injun dirt, always 'feared that soap will hurt," proclaimed others.


I can not repeat all the catch-calls and rimes which they employed, some of them too disgusting for print. Sure, the gamins of Paris, with their natural ability at verbal filth, might have listened respectfully to these children of a far province, attempting to humiliate one of the race who had formerly been lords of the whole land.


I looked to see some citizen intervene, but several who sat on their doorsteps or lounged in front of shops, smoking the inevitable pipe, viewed the spectacle with indifference or open amusement. And the Indian stalked along, his dignity unruffled through it all.


My wrath boiled over, and I charged down upon the tormentors.


"Be off," I shouted. "Have you no proper play to occupy your time?"


They fled hilariously, pleased rather than outraged by the attack, after the perverse habit of children who prefer always to be noticed instead of ignored. The citizens who had witnessed the persecution of the Indian chuckled openly at the discomfiture of his assailants, and then returned to their pipes.


I was proceeding on my way when I was dumfounded by hearing the Indian address me.


"Hold, brother," he said in perfect English, but with a certain thick guttural accent. "Ta-wan-ne-ars would thank you."


"You speak English!" I exclaimed.


A light of amusement gleamed in his eyes, although his face remained expressionless as a mask.


"You do not think of the Indian as these ignorant little ones do?" he asked curiously.


"I—I know nothing of your people," I stammered. "I am but this day landed here."


"My brother is an Englishman?" he questioned, not idly but with the courteous interest of a gentleman.


"I am."


"Ta-wan-ne-ars thanks you, Englishman." He extended his hand.


"Your kindness was the greater because you obeyed it by instinct."


I regarded him with increasing amazement. Who was this savage who talked like a London courtier?


"I helped you," I said, "because you were a stranger in a strange city, and by the laws of hospitality your comfort should be assured."


"That is the law of the Indian, Englishman," he answered pleasantly; "but it is not the law of the white man."


"It is the law our religion teaches," I remonstrated, feeling that I must defend this indictment of my race.


"Your religion teaches it to you and you try to apply it to yourselves," he objected. "But you do not even try to apply it to the Indian. The Indian is a savage. He is in the way of the white man. He must be pushed out."


I took his hand in mine.


"All white men do not feel so," I said.


"Not all," he assented. "But most."


"I go now," I continued, "to Governor Burnet. I shall ask him to make a law that Indians shall be as safe from mockery as from violence in New York."


"Governor Burnet is a good man. My brother will speak to friendly ears. He does not say '—— Injun' and 'dirty beast' because we live differently from him. He is a man."


"You call me brother," I said. "I have no friends in this land. May I call you brother?"


That wonderful expression of burning intelligence lighted his face again.


"My brother has befriended Ta-wan-ne-ars. Ta-wan-ne-ars is his friend and brother. Ta-wan-ne-ars will not forget."


He raised his right hand arm high in the gesture of greeting or farewell, and we separated.