Текст книги "The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN "

Автор книги: Russell Thorndike

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The Captain surveyed Mipps critically, then a smile twisted his lips and creased his one eye, as though he found

the figure astride the old donkey comical.

Now Mipps only liked to be thought comical when he had uttered a remark which he intended to be funny, so to

show his resentment at the Captain’s quizzing, he dismounted from his donkey as though he were tumbling ashore

from a boat, and touching his hat to the officer in nautical style, remarked dryly: “P’raps if them men of yours was

told by someone with sense how close they is to the ‘oly churchyard, they would batten down their noise a bit.

There’s many a good Dymchurch corpse lying yonder, enjoying a well-earned rest, as the Vicar will agree.”

“We shall not disturb your corpses, Mister Sexton,” replied the Captain sternly, “unless I suspect that their

coffins contain contraband. ‘Twould be a good ‘hide,’ and has been put into practice before now. It is likely then

that I shall order my Bos’n to pipe all coffins on deck for inspection.”

“I fear, Captain,” returned Doctor Syn, “ that as Vicar of this parish, I could never countenance sacrilege.”

“Contraband in coffins is sacrilege enough, so that I shall be on the side of the Church, Reverend Sir, by stopping

it.”

As he spoke the Captain became aware of Percy, who had followed in order to obtain an agreement for the

sailors’ necessary supplies of water.

“And what’s that fool staring at?” he demanded.

Doctor Syn explained Percy’s office in the village and advised the Captain to follow the example of the Dragoons

and employ him.

“I’ll refer him to the Bos’n,” replied the Captain, “and what the soldiers pay, why, so will we.”

Percy shook his head at this and said in his monotonous drawl: “Soldiers earn little. Sailors a lot. And that’s

proper, as sailors comes first with King George. I never yet met a sailor what a miser, but all soldiers is poor fish.”

The Captain let out an explosive chuckle. “The village idiot is not only a flatterer, but a man of business it

seems.” He then shouted in his sea voice, “Bos’n!”

Up came that rotund sea-dog at the double, followed by his men, and at the Captain’s orders he took Percy under

his care, and after some haggling it was arranged that water should be brought to the barn whenever the casks

needed filling. Since this did not entail the sailors sending fatigue parties to fetch it, like the Dragoons, Percy

insisted on a slightly higher rate of pay, which the Bos’n, who was a jovial and good-hearted old dog, respectfully

advised his officer to accept.

This the Captain did with a further chuckle at Percy’s business capacity, and then ordered the Bos’n to book him

a room at the Ship Inn.

This was Doctor Syn’s cue to interrupt. “Forgive me, Captain, but I have heard that you are to be invited to the

Court House yonder as the guest of Sir Anthony Cobtree, our Squire, who is already entertaining Major Faunce,

whom you have just seen, and Mr. Brackenbury, his lieutenant of Dragoons. I venture to suggest, however, that you

will find yourself less restricted in my house. You may go and come, just as you please, even in the night hours.

My old housekeeper is used to me setting off at all hours upon this pony to visit my sick parishioners, who are

scattered far over the Marsh there.”

He pointed out across the flat expanse of dyke-divided pasturages that stretched away until it met either the sea or

sky. He then went on, while the Captain appeared to be obsessed in the Marshlands which the Parson had pointed

out. It was somewhere there, in that mysterious distance, that the equally mysterious Scarecrow rode at night at the

head of his phantom horsemen.

“Indeed,” went on the Vicar, “I am setting out now to see a poor old woman who is sick, with my panniers here

filled, as you see, with new-laid eggs and other nourishment. But I must not weary you with my parochial cares and

chatter, or you will think twice before accepting my invitation, which I sincerely hope you will at least consider.”

“I do, Parson,” replied the Captain, “and upon my soul, I thank you. Very seamanly of you, I’m sure. As to the

Court House, from what you tell me, I shall be glad not to reside there, for I can see that I should quickly come to

loggerheads with those officers of the Junior Service. No doubt with the Squire, too, for I hear that he resents

outsiders coming to enforce the law upon his territory, since he is the chief magistrate of the district.”

“He is of my opinion,” said Doctor Syn, “that if the land is used as a smuggler’s base, there are none of his

tenants who are in any way implicated.

“Which remains to be seen, Parson,” said the Captain sharply. “I intend to stamp out a smuggling that is known

to exist. And I shall do it in my own way, and only collaborate with those who are willing to take my orders. By the

way, Reverend Sir, without presuming to dictate to you as mine host, I should be glad of a room in your Vicarage

which has a casement looking out over the Marsh.”

“I think that can be managed,” returned Doctor Syn. “And if you can allay the pangs of hunger for another two

hours, I can do myself the pleasure of dining with you. I must needs be some little time with old Mother Handaway,

who is as greedy for a long reading of the Scriptures as she is for good things to eat. I will send a message to the

Squire informing him that you are to be my guest, unless you would rather tell him yourself when you call to present

your credentials.”

“I have no credentials to present to him, nor any,” retorted the Captain. ‘I think rather it will be the other way,

and that I shall be demanding credentials from one and all. My position is like this, reverend Sir. The Preventive

men on this portion of coast, not able to cope with this notorious Scarecrow, who is terrorizing the neighbourhood,

frightening folk from the Marsh yonder, while he runs his contraband, first applied to General Troubridge at Dover

for some Dragoons, and then, since the Scarecrow still worsted these, they further approached the General’s brother,

Admiral Troubridge, who handed me the commission, for it seems that the Admiral is anxious to beat his brother at

the game of Scarecrow-scaring. I presume that most people here realize the vast sums that are involved. Yes sir,

vast sums, of money that never find their way to the Revenue coffers. It’s money that never find their way to the

Revenue coffers. It’s my duty to see that this state of things comes to an end, and you can lay to it I’ll do that duty

to the best of my powers, by thunder, and take no interferences neither. As for you, reverend Sir, I can promise you

this. Aboard your quarters I’m your guest, and will not worry you about my business outside. You will find me

courteous, and ready to join you in any general conversation, or in a game of chess or backgammon if you’ve the

fancy. Whatever I think of folk in your parish, I’ll keep to myself and not put you in an awkward position. That’s

fair, I take it?”

“Perfectly fair,’ assented the Doctor. He then turned to Mipps who had naturally heard the whole conversation.

“Mister Mipps, you will about-ships with your donkey, and give Mrs. Fowey the necessary orders from me for

the Captain’s accommodation in the panelled room overlooking the Marsh. You will then trot after me, across the

Marsh. You will easily catch me up, as I must do little more than a walk, or I shall be breaking the eggs.”

“Aye, aye, Vicar,” exclaimed Mipps, once more perching himself upon Lightnings’s hindquarters, and

manipulating the reins as though pulling round the rudder of a boat.

“Queer fellow that Sexton of yours,” remarked the Captain. “More like a seaman than a sexton, what with his

tarred pigtail sticking out like a jigger-gaff, and the way he steers that animal.”

The Vicar laughed. “Mipps has been a ship’s carpenter in his day, and aboard a man-of-war, too. As good an old

rascal as you’ll find upon acquaintance. Aye, Captain, you’ll come to like Mipps well enough.”

“I dare say. He seems a bit of an oddity to me though,” returned the Captain.

“A character certainly allowed the Vicar. “But take it from me, who have known him these many years under

trials and blessings, a good one. In spite of whimsicalities he is at heart a good and kind little fellow.”

“I know the type well,” nodded the Captain. “He is a one-man’s servant, and as such would be faithful to the

last, no doubt.”

Doctor Syn perhaps perceived that the Captain was attempting somehow to drive him into some toil, so he

answered quickly: “No, he is faithful and kind to the whole parish, young and old. That water-carrier, for instance,

is blessing him at the mo ment, since Mipps fashioned that yoke for him, to make his work the easier. And he did it

too, out of his own leisure time. Even new-born babies take to Mipps.”

“Well, if the Scarecrow gets me on the Marsh one of these dark nights,” laughed the Captain, “I’ll be glad if you

will not only read the prayers over my coffin, but write my epitaph, too. If you give me such a character as you give

to this sexton behind his back, I think I shall have a better chance in the next world.”

“And as Mipps will tell you shortly, Captain,” laughed the Doctor, “no one can knock up a coffin better than he,

so you see your corpse would be in the best of hands. But joking aside, I trust that your presence means an end to

Death stalking the Marsh at night.”

“I’ll take the first step in that direction then,” said the Captain, dismounting and handing the reins to one of his

men.

“And that is?” asked Doctor Syn.

“Billeting my men,” replied the Captain.

The Vicar responded to his salute with a benedictory gesture, and then walked his pony out upon the Marsh road.

A quarter of an hour later he was overhauled by Mipps who had put Lightning to the nearest point of a hand

gallop which that animal could be persuaded to accomplish.

“Very neat, Vicar, the way you manoeurvred the Captain’s lodging,” he remarked. “it’ll be a close eye on him,

eh, sir?”

“That’s so, my good Mipps. From tonight it will be watch and watch about between us two. If we know his

moves beforehand we can the better check ‘em, and I fancy even then that he will give us a good run for our

barrels.”

In and out the winding dyke-bordered lanes they walked their mounts till old Mother Handaway’s hovel appeared

in sight, and then Doctor Syn broke a silence that had lasted some quarter of an hour.

“By his suspicion of your coffins, Mister Sexton, I gather that this Captain is too well-informed. We may have to

employ new methods, and here is one for passing the word to all concerned that has only just occurred to me. Yo u

remember those two bits of wood I floated in Percy’s buckets? He likes them. They are useful since they prevent

the splashing. Make him a present of some well-shaped floats that will appeal to him as a toy appeals to a child. I’ll

suggest that you make them like the four suits in a pack of cards. Two aces of each. Chisel and polish them well.

On his rounds, see that he makes your Coffin Shop the first port of call, in order that you may tell him which pieces

to float. We will arrange a code together before I return to dine with the Captain. After dark we will meet those

concerned at Doubledyke. Before they leave the Oast House, where our meeting is to be, they will all have been

instructed in the code, and in future the innocent lad, Percy, can carry the Scarecrow’s orders to every cottage in the

parish.”

“That’s a pretty notion,” chuckled Mipps, “and I marvel that we never thought on it before.”

Doctor Syn certainly did not read the Scriptures to old Mother Handaway, for there was much to don on the

Scarecrow’s business. Not that the old hag would have profited had he read to her, for she was a mad old thing

whom the distant villages upon the Marsh held to be a witch. Perhaps she had every reason to think she was, for did

not the Devil himself visit her, sometimes in the shape of the good Vicar of Dymchurch, and sometimes riding past

her cottage as the dread Scarecrow? And had he not given her many golden guineas for service rendered? She had

had little to do for such high payment, since it was Jimmie Bone, the Highwayman, who groomed the Scarecrow’s

horse which she guarded in her underground stable, the entrance of which was so cunningly hidden by the stack of

dried bulrushes in the side of the deep dry dyke that ran before her cottage. This was deep enough to conceal a

mounted man form the Marsh around.

Unless anyone happened to be in the dyke itself, the opening of the secret door could never be seen, but the three

men who used it always took the greatest precautions to ensure that no one was about

The dry dyke, some said, had been made by the Romans at their first landing, but the stable had been built

probably by some independent smuggler years back. Mother Handaway’s grandfather had told her the secret of its

entrance, and she had kept it to herself till she first hid the Highwayman there, at a time when hard pressed and

wounded he had otherwise been caught and hanged.

A good hiding-place and none better, hidden also by the cowshed, and with grass growing from good soil on its

roof. Inside, the roof was groin-spanned, made by masons who knew their business and who were aware that it had

to stay for generations. Once, it was lain down, in some local history, that somewhere in the vicinity of the dry dyke

was an ancient building of sorts, but naturally the Handaways never allowed the interested parties to search for it.

Certain it was to the Vicar, the Sexton and the Highwayman a most excellent dry stable.

The other dykes in the vicinity of the farmyard were all live dykes filled with water, and there were many at this

point of the Marsh that intersected, while the mist ribbons that rose up around their banks gave ample hiding-place

to the farm itself. From a distance it was exceedingly difficult to say what was going on around Mother

Handaway’s,. On the other hand, anyone at her cottage could discern anyone moving on the Marsh for a

considerable distance.

Although there was on this occasion no need for caution, it was taken.

Inside the stable the tall Highwayman received them, endeavouring to conceal his yawns, for he had been out on

the Dover road till the early hours of the morning on his illegal business.

On a rough table at the far end beneath a lighted stable lantern, there was set out a heap of watches, rings, and

other trinkets, with a strong leather bag from which a heap of guineas and crown pieces had been spilled.

“ A good night’s taking,” laughed the Vicar. “ It seems I am come at an opportune moment to collect my tythes.”

“ Which I always pay you, you will own,” replied Gentleman James.

“ Aye, Jimmie Bone is the only honest Gentleman upon the road.” Said Mipps.

Both the pony and donkey had been led into the stable, and were quickly stalled. The vicar first entered

Gehenna’s stall, and made a fuss of the magnificent creature known too well by the Revenue men as the

Scarecrow’s phantom horse. He then went into the next stall and patted Mister Bone’s charger, a black animal like

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.