The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 52
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you how I know. But know I do. Ten days’ time makes it the twenty-third, and it is an important date to me. It
marks my fiftieth birthday, and what is more, my fiftieth year at sea, for previous to becoming a Royal Navy boy I
was afloat at home, having been born on H.M.S. Crocodile, the Guard Ship of the Tower of London, of which my
father was in command. I suppose, Parson, that I have done a good deal of good duty since those days, but
somehow have not been in great favour at the Admiralty, for they have not yet given me an admiral’s hat. So I take
it as something ironical that on the day of this celebration I shall be able to do a job ashore that will give me a very
wide notoriety. The arrest of the most impertinent scoundrel of our days is bound to create a big stir.”
“You certainly whet my curiosity, Captain,” interrupted the Vicar, “I hope you will tell me more.”
The Captain shook his head. “No one knows just how much I know about this Scarecrow. I have kept my own
counsel through all these months, during which I have had nothing but sneering and criticism. I have purposely not
reported the great progress I have made to the authorities. I have let them rave at me to their hearts’ content, and all
the time I have been planning and plotting, working in the dark, alone, until I saw the first tiny thread of light, which
I turned rapidly into a beam, and now has broadened into the full daylight. I should like to tell you of all men the
whole remarkable story of how my deductions grew, forging themselves one by one into a chain for the Scarecrow
on Execution Dock.
“But it is not my way to talk. I never believed in it as a policy. Not even my Bos’n realizes that I am going to
put my hands on the Scarecrow upon the night of the twenty-third, or how I am going to do it. I shall give orders
when the time comes, and then he and the men will be surprised at our success. I knew I could get him sooner or
later, and so I could afford to ignore the scoffers. But what a hanging it will be, Doctor.”
The Vicar repeated the word ‘Hanging’, and then added, “Have you remembered that the Prince of Wales has
declared himself the rascal’s protector from that fate?”
“Parson, Parson,” laughed the Captain. “You forget that you used up that way of escape for your rascally
parishioner when you saved that Old Katie from the gallows. I don’t suppose even you would have the temerity to
go to the Prince again with that request.”
“I have quite a natural abhorrence for the gallows,” returned the Doctor, “and would do anything to save even
this Scarecrow from such a barbarous end.”
It was after this conversation that Doctor Syn made a discovery which annoyed him. As he went about his lawful
calling as spiritual head of the Marsh he found that two of the Captain’s best men had been detailed to dog his steps.
He demanded an explanation.
“I suppose I owe you that at least, Parson,” said the Captain. “I have every reason to believe that the Scarecrow
knows that his number is up on the night of the twenty-third. What would I do in his place? Give up the planned
landing? Perhaps, but that is not his way. He is too arrogant to give up anything o f his own planning. But knowing
that it was you, Doctor Syn, who used influence with the Prince to save Katie, he will try to get into communication
with you. He knows he can trust you as a person. He has the right to come to you for advice. Not that he would
take it, but he might possibly be able to persuade you, with you natural abhorrence to hanging, to go once more to
the Prince. Therefore since he may come to you I intend to know everyone who gets into contact with you, for your
own protection, as well as for my own satisfaction.”
The days that followed were anxious ones for the Vicar and his Sexton.
“How much did the Captain know? Was his confidence in his success merely a bluff?”
Doctor Syn thought not.
That he had something to go upon was obvious, as one of his first steps was to set a guard not only outside the
Vicarage, but also within sight of Mother Handaway’s upon the Marsh.
However, a watch upon the secret stable had been anticipated by Doctor Syn. Jimmie Bone was there to look
after the horses, and there had been stored enough provisions for man and animals to cope with such an emergency.
Jimmie Bone could withstand a siege, but Mipps had a further comfort.
“There’s this to it, sir,” he said to the Vicar, as he helped him on with his Geneva gown before taking Evensong,
“when we has to get into the stables and can’t wait no more it will only mean that them good little sailors will have
to get a crack on their heads.”
“And a clumsy way it would be,” replied the Vicar. “I imagine I shall be able to show the Captain a better trick
than that.”
The days followed without incident. Doctor Syn went about his parochial business escorted at a respectful
distance by the sailors, and the Captain went about his, silently but with a growing attitude of confidence.
To avoid Mother Handaway’s would have been to create suspicion. Doctor Syn rode over there as usual and the
sailors had to wait outside and listen to his deep voice reading the old woman many a passage from the Scriptures.
Several times Mipps urged the Vicar to abandon the landing on the twenty0third, but Syn replied that if they were
to be hindered by every danger that presented itself, they might just as well quit the business altogether.
A few days before the dreaded date, when Mipps nerves were stretched to the breaking-point, the Vicar patted
him kindly on the shoulder, and told him that there was no cause to worry since he had solved the difficulty in his
own mind.
To the Captain he said later: “I shall be giving your sailors a rest for three days, as far as watching me concerns
them, for I am due to attend an important ecclesiastical meeting in the Lower House of Convocation, which means I
must be in Westminster. The good Squire has placed his coach at my disposal, and he prefers his own armed
servants to guard his vehicle from the dangers of the road, to sailors. The coach will not be able to accommodate
my watchers, excellent fellows as they are.”
“I have no jurisdiction to place my men on the Squire’s coach, and unless I choose to ride behind you to London
independently you will not be watched.”
Doctor Syn could see that his departure for London annoyed the Captain for all that.
“I can promise you one thing,” remarked the Vicar when he was ready to set off, “and that is I shall be back in
my parish for the twenty-third. As a matter of fact I shall be with you the day before.” He then added: “If you are
contemplating a pitched battle against the Scarecrow’s gang that night, there will be heavy casualties no doubt, and
my ministrations to the suffering will be needed. I shall be ready to attend the sick and dying, whether amongst your
men or the Scarecrow’s.”
Doctor Syn did not enter the Lower House at Westminster. He went instead to Carlton House, on a personal visit
to the Prince of Wales.
Although the anteroom was thronged with notabilities, amongst whom were two bishops, he had the extreme
satisfaction of being summoned to the Prince’s presence before all others. The last to arrive, he was the first to be
admitted.
The bishops, to be sure, put their bewigged heads together wondering why an obscure rural dean should be
preferred before lawn sleeves. Neither could they understand why the Prince should be so far interested in one of
their own cloth, since it was usually his way to admit first of all those rich enough to pay up some of his debts.
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