A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh - Thorndike Russell - Страница 8

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So having settled all amicably, and promising to return within the hour for supper, the captain, piloted by Doctor Syn, and followed by the seamen,

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proceeded to inspect the barn; and it was not long before the sailors had converted it into as jolly an old hall as one could wish to see, with a great log-fire ablaze in the stone grate, and a pot of steaming victuals swinging from a hook above the flames.

?Are you all here?? said the captain to the bo?sun, before rejoining the Doctor outside the door.

?All except Bill Spiker and the mulatto, sir,? returned Job Mallet. ?I sent ?em for rum. Here they are, if I mistake not.? And indeed up to the barn came two seamen carrying a barrel.

?Now,? said the captain to Doctor Syn, ?I am ready to return to the Court House.?

But the cleric?s eyes were fixed on the men carrying the barrel, who were passing him. ?Who?s that man?? he said to the captain, shivering violently, for a cold fog had risen with the night.

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?That?s Bill Spiker, the gunner,? said the captain. ?Do you know him??

?No?the other, the other,? exclaimed the Doctor, still watching the retreating figures who were now being received with shouts of welcome from the barn.

?Oh, that fellow?s a mulatto,? returned the captain; ?useful for investigation work. An ugly enough looking rascal, isn?t he??

?A very ugly rascal,? muttered the Doctor, walking rapidly from the barn in the direction of the Court House.

?You look cold,? remarked the captain as they stood outside the Court House door.

?Yes. It?s a cold night,? returned the Doctor. ?Why, I declare my teeth are chattering.?

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Chapter 7

Clegg the Buccaneer

There was one man who knew Romney Marsh as well as the squire. This was Sennacherib Pepper, and, what?s more, he knew the Marsh by night as well as by day, for he was the visiting physician to the Marsh farms, and his work called him to patients sometimes at night. He had seen curious things upon the Marsh from his own account, hinting darkly about the witches and devils that rode on fiery steeds through the mists. The villagers, of course, believed his yarns, but the squire poohpoohed them, and, as it was well known that Sennacherib Pepper was a hard drinker, some people put his stories down

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to the effects of wine. But although he gave no credence to his tales, Sir Antony rather enjoyed the physician, and he was a frequent visitor to the Court House. He had prevailed upon him to stay to supper this very night, introducing him to the captain as his dear friend Sennacherib Pepper, the worst master of physics and the most atrocious liar on Romney Marsh, for although Sennacherib was a very touchy old customer and was ever on the brink of losing his temper, Sir Antony could never resist a joke at his expense.

?Zounds, sir!? he retorted, ?if I were presenting you to Sir Antony I should most certainly style him the worst business man upon the Marsh.?

?How do you make that out?? cried the squire.

?My dear sir,? went on Sennacherib to the captain, ?his tenants rob him at every turn. Everybody but himself knows that half the wool from his farms finds its way over to Calais.?

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?My dear Captain,? said Doctor Syn, who was warming himself at the fireplace, ?our good friend Pepper is repeatedly coming into contact with the old gentleman himself upon the Marsh. Why, only last year he informed us that he met at least a score of his bodyguard riding in perfect style and most approved manner across from Ivychurch on fire-snorting steeds. And how many witches is it now that you have seen? A good round dozen, I?ll be sworn; and they were riding straddle-legs, a thing that we could hardly credit.?

?Well, let us hope,? said the physician, ?that the presence of the King?s men will frighten the devils away. I?ve seen ?em, and I?ve no wish to see ?em again.?

?You can set your mind quite at rest, sir,? returned the captain, ?for if as you say their horses breathe fire, they will afford excellent targets on the flat Marsh. We?ll hail the King?s ship and see what ninety good guns can do for the devils.?

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All through supper was this vein of humorous conversation kept up, until when the meal was finished and pipes alight, and Denis had retired to his room with a glum face to steer most sorely against his will upon a course of literature, the conversation gradually drifted into the Southern Seas, and the captain began telling stirring tales of Clegg the pirate, who had been hanged at Rye.

?I should like to have been at that hanging,? he cried, finishing a tale of horror, ?for that fellow, as you have just heard, was a bloodthirsty scoundrel.?

?So we have always heard,? said Doctor Syn; ?but don?t you think that some of his exploits may have been exaggerated??

?Not a bit of it,? exclaimed the captain; ?I believe everything I hear about that man, except that last blunder that put his neck into the noose at Rye.?

?That is his only exploit about which there is any certainty,? said the physician.

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?It was a mistake murdering that revenue man,? agreed Doctor Syn, ?but Clegg was drunk, and threw all caution to the devil.?

?Clegg had been drunk enough before,? said the captain, ?and yet he had never made a mistake. No, he was too clever to be caught in the meshes of a tavern brawl. Besides, from all we know of his former life, he would surely have put up a better defence at his trial; of course he would. You don?t tell me that a man who could terrorize the high seas all that time was going to let himself swing for a vulgar murder in a Rye tavern.?

?But it is a noticeable thing,? put in the cleric, ?that all great criminals have made one stupid blunder that has caused their downfall.?

?Which generally means,? went on the captain, ?that up to that moment it was luck and not genius that kept them safe. But we know that Clegg was a genius. I?ve had it first hand form high Admiralty men; from men who have lived in the colonies and traded in Clegg?s seas. The more I hear about that

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rascally pirate the more it make me wonder; and some day I mean to give the

time to clearing up the mystery.?

?What mystery?? said the cleric.

?The mystery of how Clegg could persuade another man to commit wilful murder in order to take his name upon the scaffold,? said the captain. ?It takes some powers of persuasion to accomplish that, you?ll agree.?

?What on earth do you mean?? said the cleric.

?Simply this,? ejaculated the captain, beating the table with his fist, ?that Clegg was never hanged at Rye.?

There was a pause, and the gentlemen looked at him with grave faces. Presently the squire laughed. ?Upon my soul, Captain,? he said, ?you run our friend Sennacherib here uncommon close with staggering statements. I wonder which of you will tell us first that Queen Anne is not dead.?

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?Queen Anne is dead,? exclaimed the captain, ?because she was not fortunate enough to persuade somebody else to die for her. Now I maintain that this is exactly what Clegg did do.?

?Can you let us have the reasons that led you to this theory?? said the cleric, interested.

?I don?t see why not,? replied the captain. ?In the first place, the man hanged at Rye was a short, thickset man, tattooed from head to foot, wearing enormous brass earrings, and his black hair cropped short as a Roundhead?s.?

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