The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 54

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but that one must be returned. Better not trust it to the Bos’n neither. They must detail some officer who can ride to

fetch it, from Dover. He can escort the men back at the same time. I’ll not have them wasting any more time

helping the Revenue men not to catch the Scarecrow. If they want to do it, they should do it properly and

commission the Channel Fleet to sink his luggers.”

“So my Tythe Barn will be able to return to its agricultural uses undisturbed at last, eh?” laughed the Doctor.

“Aye, Doctor, and you’ll get no more Admiralty rentage for you Sick and Needy Fund from that source. Now

wait a minute,” went on the Admiral. “I must not forget the common dangers of the road. Not that I think your

Gentleman James would hold up and Admiralty courier without getting as good as he gave, but”

“Oh, our Jimmie Bone has gone into hiding, they say, sir,” explained the Parson. “I think you can rule him out of

this.”

“But accidents will happen even to couriers,” went on the Admiral. “So to prevent them I’ll dispatch my best

courier the day before, that is on the twenty-second, to Dover. He can carry dispatches to my successor there and

save a journey. He can accompany the officer who is to fetch the horse and men, so that all can be clear at

Dymchurch when Blain leaves it on the twenty-third. I think, doctor, that settles everything which will ensure

Captain Blain having a pleasant birthday and a surprise present when he arrives hot and dusty for orders here. I

shall then hand him his credentials for the command of the Crocodile . And I hope for his own sake that he’ll make a

better job of it than he has over this Scarecrow business, which the Navy had far better have left alone.”

When the Squire’s coach rolled up before the Court House door in the evening of the twenty-second, Captain

Blain was pacing the front garden of the Vicarage, as though he were on his quarterdeck. The Squire, who had just

returned from a run with the hounds, was chatting with Major Faunce who had accompanied him. Both men were in

the saddle as Doctor Syn, neat and trim despite his long journey, stepped out of the vehicle.

“Welcome back from London, my good Christopher,” cried the Squire. “And I hope my cattle behaved well?”

“A most comfortable journey, Squire,” returned the Doctor. “And your good fellows did not have to use pistols

or blunderbuss upon the road. I had the happiest time meeting many of my good colleagues. I also had the extreme

honour of being entertained most graciously by the Heir Apparent, who received me before a brace of bishops, who

were told to wait. So you see our Romney Marsh is of some importance in the Capital.”

He spoke loud enough for the Captain to overhear, who out of politeness was forced to come forward to greet his

host, though it was obvious he would have liked to have avoided meeting the Major of Dragoons. Doctor Syn noted

this out of the tail of his eye. Neither has he missed the look of extreme surprise, and something of relief, when he

had seen him step out of the coach.

The Squire invited them into the Court House, and they accepted his hospitality to the extent of a glass of wine,

but declined to stay to supper. Doctor Syn pleading fatigue from his journey and the Captain saying that he had

planned a long day with his men on the morrow and wished to turn in as early as possible.

So host and guest returned after a while together to the Vicarage, where over an early supper the Captain

remarked that he had not expected to see doctor Syn so soon.

“I told you that I should be back for the twenty-third,” replied the Vicar.

“I thought you might wish to avoid the arrest of the Scarecrow,” said the Captain, “since you expressed such an

aversion to the gallows.”

“I did not allow myself to think of things unpleasant,” replied the Doctor. “But I did not forget that tomorrow is

your fiftieth birthday. And do you know, I thought I ought to be here to see that my housekeeper puts the usual

candles round a cake.”

The Captain laughed at that, and as soon as politeness would allow, excused himself for bed.

Doctor Syn said that he would not be long behind him in seeking his own four posts, though he had to hear the

parochial news first from his henchman, Mipps.

In the locked study by the candlelight, Mipps had to cram a corner of his handkerchief into his mouth to prevent

his laughter becoming audible to the sleeping Captain. He owned, after many a good drop of brandy that had never

paid its dues, that his master had surpassed himself, and only hoped that all would work out to the clock-work

pattern set by him.

The next morning his doubts were dispersed, because the clock-work worked.

The Doctor was awakened by a violent hammering upon the front door. At least the Captain thought it had

awakened him as it had himself. In reality the Vicar had not been without anxiety, and was lying awake to hear it.

But he let the Captain rise first, and when he appeared in a flowered dressing gown and night-cap, he looked

down from the head of the stairs and saw his guest talking to a mud-bespattered courier. The front door was open,

and there he saw a mounted naval officer holding the courier’s horse. The Captain was holding an official

document, and reading it by the lig ht of dawn which illumined the hall window by the door.

“So as far as I’m concerned,” the Captain was saying, “it means boot and saddle for Whitehall, and at once, eh?

And the officer outside is to take my men back to Dover. Well, orders are orders. I hope it means that they are

sending me to fight the enemy on the high seas.”

“What is all the trouble?” asked the Doctor innocently. The matter was explained rapidly by the Captain. Doctor

Syn roused his housekeeper and ordered breakfast to be prepared while the Captain got into uniform.

At breakfast he not only wished his departing guest a very many happy returns of the day, but hoped that this

change of front from the Whitehall spelt good fortune for him.

“It speaks of promotion,” said the Captain during breakfast, as an explanation to his host. A coincidence that

such an unlooked-for event should have occurred on my birthday, when I might well have expected to be shelved. I

could have wished perhaps for one more day, which the courier tells me is impossible as the matter is of the greatest

urgency. But I would sooner gain my laurels from my naval work that gain notoriety through the capture of a

criminal. But it’s a lucky happening for the Scarecrow. Any by the way, Vicar, it is also something of a

coincidence that this should follow upon the heels of your visit to the Prince. I more than half suspect that I have

you to thank for it, eh?”

“As to any conversations I had with His Royal Highness,” returned the Vicar, “I can assure you of one thing. I

took your advice and did not ask the Prince a second time to save the Scarecrow’s life. On the other hand, though

what I said to him and he to me I must think of as confidential, concerning his high rank. I will tell you that he

seemed especially interested in your career. I told him that you had been born on H.M.S. Crocodile , and that today

made your fifty years upon the waters complete. He really seemed most interested. But it does seem a pity that

your work here should be so quickly terminated when you had apparently nearly completed it with the success for

which you had worked.”

“Aye, Parson,” replied the Captain grimly. “I swear to you that I should have had him tonight. But will I pass on

my information to that insufferable Dragoon? A thousand times, no. I would prefer to drink the good health of the

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