The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 51

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be. And what, are they? Well, they could be simpletons. On the other hand, they could be as deep as the Indian

Ocean. Now how can we determine just what they are? It seems that here is an opportunity. They may be thinking

that I don’t know the whereabouts of the cottage where old Fletcher is dying. But I do. In fact, I have the Marsh

very well charted in my mind. But I am not at all sure whether old Fletcher is dying. Neither am I sure whether that

queer pair are really bound to visit him. The Vicar seemed more than anxious to get me to bed. Was he anxious to

get me safely into my room so that he could go out upon the Marsh without my knowing it?

“The more I think of it, the more it seems possible. Was that why he went to the cellar for that bottle of brandy?

We had already had sufficient, both of us. There was no necessity to open another. Now was that but an excuse to

join his Sexton at the back of the house, so that he could send him to the front with the message about Fletcher?

Suppose now that they have not gone to Fletcher’s. Suppose Fletcher is but an excuse for them to get out for some

meeting upon the Marsh. Suppose Doctor Syn’s animosity against the Scarecrow is just a deceit? Could that queer

brace of birds be in league with the Scarecrow? Could they be in his power? Could one of them be the Scarecrow?

Or are they hunting the Scarecrow themselves and want me out of it? Well, I can find out if Fletcher is an excuse by

going there myself, and taking a look round. If they are there the animals will be outside. If they are not there it

will tell me that they have gone elsewhere to some place which they don’t want me to locate. We’ll get this Fletcher

business cleared up anyway.”

Thus arguing with himself, the Captain fastened on his sword, put on his cloak and hat, and making sure that he

had the key of the front door in his pocket, closed the door after him and stepped out briskly towards the churchyard.

At the corner of the wall he halted and whistled.

This signal was immediately answered by an: “Aye, aye, sir. All’s well.”

“That, my good man, has yet to be determined,” replied the Captain to the sailor who had miraculously appeared

from the mist. “Indeed I am about to find out. Tell me now, what time did the Sexton enter the Vicarage? You

were watching the house, I trust?”

“Must have been about an hour ago, sir, that I first saw him come round from the Ship Inn,” replied the sailor. “I

followed him at a safe distance to the back of the house yonder. The old housekeeper was closing up for the night,

and instead of going straight to the back door to be admitted, the Sexton waits outside till all was dark and still.

Then he walks to the door and opens it. This puzzled me, sir, because I had distinctly heard the bolts shot-to. Did

the old girl shoot ‘em and then quietly open them up again? Or did someone else do it? Yet come to think of it

there ain’t no one living in the house but you and the Vicar beside the old lady.”

“And since I did not shoot the bolts,” said the Captain, “it only leaves Doctor Syn who could have done it, unless,

as you suggest, it was the housekeeper herself.”

“And another thing what puzzled me, sir,” went on the sailor, “I see a candle light appear at the back some half

and hour ago, but then it went. But a little after the Sexton, and he must have been sitting in the dark, comes out of

the back door and goes round to the front door where he knocks and knocks. Now why does he want to let himself

out of the back, I asks myself, in order that he can knock to get let in at the front? Seems to me”

“What does it seem to you?” rapped out the Captain.

“Why, sir, such as stealing of his drinks from the wine cellar, as it was the window of the wine cellar where I saw

the light.”

“There is no window to the wine cellar,” retorted the Captain. “But there is one in the still-room which leads to

it. There may be something in what you say. Step along to the barn now and tell the Bos’n to bring round my

horse.”

When the Captain drew rein near the cottage and handed over his horse to the Bos’n, who was in no good temper

after being awakened for this expedition and told to walk, which developed into a trot beside the Captain, the notes

of a man singing reached their ears. The Captain approached the cottage cautiously on foot, and without being seen

discovered that the singer was none other than the Sexton, who was regaling the night with a funeral hymn. One

window was lighted up, and by its reflection the Captain could see both the pony and donkey in charge of Mipps.

Any doubts he may have entertained as to whether Doctor Syn was in the cottage were dispelled when he heard the

Vicar’s rich voice reading from the Scriptures. Disappointed he had been mistaken in the Vicar the Captain rejoined

the Bos’n and went home to bed.

But he did not know that Mipps had sent Jimmie Bone the Highwayman to the Oast House with news that

important business had detained the Scarecrow, but that the Nightriders were to await his coming.

An hour later the Scarecrow gave judgement against the member who had assaulted George Lee. A heavy fine

was levied against him from his profits on the next run.

But if the Captain was disappointed at this failure, it was nothing to his rage when he was made the laughingstock of the district when he ordered the casks of bones to be emptied upon the quayside. But the laugh against him

was even greater that he thought, for the crew, enraged against his unwarranted suspicions, carried their coils of rope

to store under his nose, so that the full run of tobacco was safely landed and later distributed.

Against his own convictions, however, the Captain could not free himself of suspicion against the Vicar and his

Sexton, and he made a habit of sitting up every night reading till the Vicar himself had gone to bed.

15

THE REMOVAL OF CAPTAIN BLAIN

One morning, during the smoking of his first pipe, Mipps received a visit from the onion-boy from France, who

promptly unhooked one of the strings and laid it down on the lid of the coffin, pinching one of the bulbs as though to

exploit his fine wares. Mipps opened the top skin of this onion and drew out a small roll of parchment. This he read

through, and then unlocking a Bible box that served as a desk he drew out one of his ledgers. He turned up a list of

names and numbers attached to them, and compared it with the parchment. The names were those of luggers

harboured in the Scarecrow’s base in France.

Having checked over the numbers, against the names, he took a quill and wrote at the foot of the list the twenty-third of this month. He then drew a few simple lines which gave the crude shape of a scarecrow, after which he

replaced the list inside the onion, give it back to the boy, and bought another of the strings which he slung up to a

hook in the beam.

The onion-boy was paid, and at once set off to the sea-wall where he took the direction to Rye.

An hour later Doctor Syn sat opposite Captain Blain at breakfast in the Vicarage.

“Do you know, Doctor,” remarked the Captain casually, “that I have been on your hands for an unconscionable

time, but you will be no doubt relieved to hear that my duties here are rapidly drawing to a close.”

“So you are going to give up the idea of catching this elusive Scarecrow at last,” said the Doctor.

“Rather better than that, Doctor,” replied the Captain, with a smile. “In ten days I shall be handing him over to

the gallows.”

“Are you serious?” asked the Doctor.

The Captain nodded. “In ten days there is to be a great ‘run’. You can look surprised, but I regret I cannot tell

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