The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 7

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Gehenna, though of quieter disposition, and trained by his master like any circus horse. As for Gehenna, woe betide

any who tried to touch him other than the three jolly rascals in the stable. Gehenna had never lost a fierceness which

even the gypsy horse-dealers had failed to tame.

“Help yourself, my good Jimmie Bone, to the good things in the pony’s panniers,” said the Vicar. “You’ll find

some good liquor in one of them, and we can all do with a tot of brandy. Then while you make a meal we will get to

work on our new code, Mister Sexton.”

The Highwayman, who depended upon Doctor Syn and old Mother Handaway for his safety

And food, fell to one end of the table upon a cold capon which the Vicar’s housekeeper had prepared, thinking it

was for some poor sick soul upon the Marsh.

Meantime the Vicar, between sips of brandy, dipped a goose-quill into an ink-horn, and wrote out a list of places

along that part of the coast. He then began to sketch in pairs of aces against them.

“You must find time to chisel out these eight pieces of wood for Percy’s buckets this very day,” he said. “We

shall start using them immediately, and I should like to have them when I meet the Nightriders at the Oast House

this evening, in order to give them their instructions.”

An hour later Doctor Syn, with empty panniers, and followed by Mipps, jogged his way back to Dymchurch, in

order to entertain the Captain at dinner.

During the meal, their conversation was general, since Doctor Syn sensed that the Captain was anxious not to

discuss the object of his arrival on the Marsh. So the talk gradually veered into distant parts, for both men had sailed

the seven seas. The Captain in his line of business, and Syn, as he explained, in the cause of spreading the Gospel

amongst the heathenish parts of sea and land. By the time they had lighted their churchwarden pipes, both men had

acquired a respect and liking for each other, while their various adventures were exchanged.

After their long march from Dover, the Captain had instructed his Bos’n to let the men rest in the barn, as he

wished to take them out that very night upon the Marsh in order to accustom them to the dyke-land which he hoped

would be their battlefield in the near future. For the same reason Captain Blain retired to his room, in order to

snatch a little sleep before the night march, and Doctor Syn prepared to set out once more across the Marsh with his

panniers filled with good things for his poor and needy.

Captain Blain set his casement open wide, and for some time studied the lie of the land through his telescope. He

watched particularly the route taken by the Vicar and Sexton, jotting down directions in his note-book.

“I’ll lay that same course,” he said to himself, watching the white pony and donkey as they zigzagged this way

and that, “for they seem to have reached the centre of the Marsh and have not once descended into a dyke.”

At last they disappeared into a belt of mist which prevented him from seeing their arrival at Mother Handaway’s.

Supper having been fixed for ten o’clock, and Doctor Syn, having given Mrs. Fowey, the housekeeper, orders to

call his guest at nine-thirty, the Captain closed his telescope, divested himself of coat, waistcoat and cravat, kicked

off his buckled shoes, and lay down upon his four-poster bed.

Meanwhile the secret stable had once more swallowed up the Vicar of Dymchurch and his Sexton, as well as

both their animals. Here, while Jimmie Bone groomed the three horses, ready for business, Syn and Mipps

perfected the code and committed it to memory. There then followed other affairs connected with the Scarecrow to

be discussed and settled. The various gangs of men had to be allocated to their particular jobs for the next ‘run.’

Doctor Syn, or rather the Scarecrow, had already received the names of the vessels expected for the landing on the

following night, and each vessel had to have sufficient men for the unloading on the beach. The route to be taken

from the coast to the hills way gone over carefully with the help of a large map that marked every twisting lane and

dyke upon the Marsh. Doctor Syn had copied this from amongst the ordinance survey archives in the Court House.

He had made three copies secretly. One he kept at the Vicarage, another in the hidden stable, and a third in the little

summer hut which the Squire had had built for him upon the sea wall, a place in which he very often worked out his

sermons, so that he could keep an eye upon shipping in the fairway of the Channel, when needing a relaxation from

divinity.

By the time Doctor Syn’s plan of campaign had been settled in detail, it was dark outside upon the Marsh.

While Mipps helped his master to divest himself of clerical clothes and to put on the wild rags of the Scarecrow,

the Highwayman painted the faces of the horses with phosphorus.

The three men then put on hideous masks, and mounting their spirited horses, rode from the stable into the dry

dyke, while the old hag, who had been watching from the opening of the door since darkness had settled in, was

ready to close it quickly behind them. Telling her that they would return within the hour, they galloped away across

the lonely Marsh towards the Oast House on double -dyke Farm.

2

THE TWO HEARTS

On arrival they were met by some thirty Nightriders, masked and cloaked, who had already tethered their horses in

the large farmy ard. The leader’s horses were taken to the stables, and as soon as the Scarecrow was satisfied that a

look-out had been placed to guard against any surprise attack, he entered the Oast House, followed by his men.

The interior was lighted by lanterns, and the three leaders sat upon barrels, facing the others who were ranged

against the circular brick wall.

The doors were safely barred, and then the Scarecrow addressed them, calling each man by the name he went by

in the gang.

Indeed, for everyone’s security, no one knew rightly just who his colleagues might be in the ordinary way of life

upon the Marsh. This guarded against any personal betrayal, and gave to each the same feeling of security as the

Scarecrow himself enjoyed. Certainly not one of them had any idea who the great leader was, and though they

might have had a shrewd guess as to one or two identities, the only one they were sure about was Sexton Mipps,

since whether he was dressed as Hellspite or himself, he was the voice of the scarecrow when the leader was not

present.

With the utmost patience the Scarecrow explained the new code and put each man through a rigorous

examination of it.

“Now, Curlew,” he would say in his croaking voice which he always used when playing the Scarecrow, “suppose

Percy carries a wooden diamond floating in his right bucket, and a club in the left, what will you know by that?”

“That the cargo is to be landed at Herring Hang. Scarecrow,” came the answer in the singing tone used by the

Nightriders to disguise their ordinary speech.

“Correct,” replied the Scarecrow. “And now, Raven, if the signs were reversed, what then?”

“Littlestone Beach, Scarecrow,” came the sing-song answer from him who bore the title of the Raven.

It was a long and tedious business, since half of the Nightriders were more valuable in brawn and muscle than

brains, but as Mipps remarked to his master later, Doctor Syn showed the same care in teaching his wild class as

ever he did as the Vicar in the Sunday school.

At last, when satisfied that each of them knew every signal, including those who had been on guard outside

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