Tom Tufton's Travels by Evelyn Everett-Green (freda ebook reader .TXT) 📕

she asked yet more earnestly, "did any tell you that the tall bold robber was said to favour yourself? Indeed, some say that it must surely be you--even though you were so far away!"

Tom looked as he felt, a little startled at that.

"How heard you that, Mistress Rose?"

"Harry Gay heard it in the taverns. It is the talk in some of them. And he heard these four bad men, who were sworn to vengeance, as that they have a halter about your neck already, and they only wait till they have you safe to pull it tight.

"O Tom, Tom, do not let them do you this despite! Have a care, oh, have a care how you fall into their hands, for they are without mercy, and full of evil passions, and greedy for the promised gold. They would swear any man's life away to obtain the reward; and how much sooner yours, whom they hate!"

Tom felt a strange tremor run through him, half rage, with a dash of fear, and some emotion sweeter than he had ever experienced before, and therefore more strange. He suddenly found himself clasping Rosamund's hands in his, and saying:

"Sweet Rose, would you care if hurt were to befall me?"

Her brimming eyes and quivering lips gave eloquent answer. He stood very still, holding her hands clasped between his; and when he released them, he answered with a new note in his voice:

"Have no fears, sweetheart. They shall not have me. I have plans that will foil them yet. But think not too well of me, Rosamund. I am not the hero you would make me out. I am a mad fellow, and have played the fool once too often; but for all that they shall not get me."

"Keep out of their clutches, and I care for nothing else!" cried Rosamund, her eyes alight with excitement.

But they could exchange no more confidences, for Cale's voice was heard summoning them to dinner; and after that meal they sat together in the cool parlour, and passed the time in talk, having no fear of being disturbed, for none knew of their being within. Generally in summer weather Cale took his daughter for a long ramble, and sometimes did not return to the house till after he had left her at her aunt's house in Highgate.

The light slowly waned and faded. In the open country the day would be bright for some while longer, but in narrow streets it went faster. Down in the basement, where they had taken their supper, it was growing quite dark, although no lamp had yet been lit. Cale was just saying that he must take Rosamund home, and was debating within himself whether it would be wise for Tom to accompany them, when there was a sharp, determined knocking at the door, which made Rosamund jump quickly up with blanching cheeks, whilst Cale threw a startled look at Tom, whose face had grown suddenly set and pale.

"Open in the Queen's name!" cried a loud and authoritative voice from without.

And Cale rose at that summons, for it was not one he might dare to disobey.

The moment he was gone Rosamund sprang to her feet.

"Quick, quick! This way! There is a window at the back. I will let you out, and bar it after you, and throw the key away. Come, I will show you where!"

Tom sprang after her into a little back kitchen, the door of which the girl promptly locked and barred behind them. The only other outlet was a narrow window, fastened by a bar that could be locked across it with a padlock. This she flung open, and disclosed to view a narrow court beneath.

"Jump out," she cried; "run across, and you can easily scramble upon the roof of yon low outbuilding. From thence you can creep along into the lane at the back; and, if no one be watching, drop down there and fly for your life. But if there be a spy set, then climb up by the gutterings upon the roof--Harry Gay has done it many a time--and you will find a hundred ways of outwitting them and escaping down some back alley.

"O Tom, make haste! I hear angry voices in parley with my father. He will detain them as long as may be. But be thou gone quickly. Oh, do not delay!"

"I will not," answered Tom, with his hands upon the windowsill; "and I thank you from my heart for your goodwill to me this night. Give me one kiss, sweetheart, and bid me good speed. Pray Heaven you have a welcome for me when you see me next!"

She kissed him with the tears standing in her eyes.

"I shall always have a welcome for you, Tom," she answered; "I shall think of you always till I see you again. But oh, go! go now! And Heaven prosper and be with you! Oh, they are coming! Delay no longer!"

Tom was already outside the window, and now sped forth to do her bidding. She saw him scramble up the rough wall of the building opposite, and make his rapid way along, as she had said. She craned out to see what he would do when he reached the corner, and watched as he made a careful survey, and then dropped into the lane at the back. She listened with all her ears, but there was no sound of pursuit or struggle.

It had been as she hoped. No one had thought of that possible way of escape. No doubt the back door of the yard was watched; but she would never have sent him out by that.

Instantly she closed and barred the window, throwing the little key away into the court below. Then she softly unlocked the door and set it ajar, and began washing her dishes in the dim twilight of the scullery, singing a little song to herself the while.

In the house above there was the sound of tramping feet and loud voices. She heard her father say quietly:

"Her Majesty's warrant must be obeyed. Seek what you will, and take what you will. I know nothing of any criminal. I have none such in hiding here. I am an honest citizen, and have nothing to fear. Do your will. I hinder you not."

The next minute Cale had come softly into the back kitchen, and was exchanging a silent but meaning glance with his daughter.

He saw in a moment by her face that all was well. Tom had made good his escape. The longer the search continued in the upper rooms, so much the longer would the fugitive have to put distance between him and his pursuers.

At last the feet came downstairs, and a lantern was flashed all round the basement rooms.

"Here is a window!" cried one. "If the bar were down a man could squeeze himself out. When was this window last opened?"

Rosamund looked up and said quietly:

"The key is lost. We cannot open it. What are you wanting in this house, gentlemen?"

She spoke in a soft voice, and the rough fellows answered with more gentleness.

"We are looking for one Thomas Tufton, your father's lodger, for whose apprehension we hold a warrant. He was seen to enter this house last night, and has not left it since."

"He left it a short time ago, in the dusk," answered Rosamund indifferently. "But wherefore is he arrested?"

"We have sworn information that he was seen to be one of the men concerned in the recent robbery of the Queen's gold. We have testimony enough to hang him, if we can but lay hold upon him. Did he say where he was going, mistress?"

"I think he spoke of Rotherhithe," answered Rosamund, after a moment's reflection; "but I paid no special heed."

At this moment an impatient voice from the open door above cried out:

"Why do you not bring him forth? He must be there still! What means the delay? He can be an ugly customer, truly, but sure you have mastered him by this!"

In a few minutes more Rosamund saw the ugly, shifty face of Slippery Seal drawing near to them, and he was followed by another of the same crew, peering eagerly this way and that, as though they looked to see Tom pinioned in the midst of the group.

"Where is he?" they cried.

"Flown!" answered the others, with a touch of sullenness in their voices. "You have led us a fine chase, truly; first to be made fools of by that dashing young spark, whom it is not good to meddle with, and then disturbing this honest citizen and his daughter! Zounds! you drunken fellows, if you lead us this sort of dance we shall believe no word you say again. I trow well that you were all of you more than half drunk upon the night you professed to see this thing done. How are we to know you are to be trusted in swearing it was this young man at all? Master Cale speaks well of him, and his word is worth twenty oaths from the likes of you.

"Goodnight, master; goodnight, mistress. I am sorry we disturbed you on the testimony of these ill-living fellows."

Rosamund's heart beat high with joy and triumph. She felt she could have kissed the burly officer of the law. But her bright colour paled again as she heard the exclamation of Slippery Seal, prefaced by a string of horrid oaths.

"He has escaped! These Cales are hiding him! But he shall not escape us! We will not lose the reward. After him, I say, after him, all of us! I know the tracks the fellow will make. It will go hard if we get not up with him ere he has shaken the dust of London from his feet!"

CHAPTER XV. AWAY TO THE FOREST.

Tom found no trouble in escaping from the house of the perruquier by the way suggested by Rosamund; and once in the dusky streets, he made good use of his long legs to carry him out of the vicinity of danger.

He knew now that there must be a warrant out against him, and that London was no place for him--that he must fly somewhere beyond the reach of pursuit. He remembered Lord Claud's promise about the trusty mare, Nell Gwynne. Well, he would go once more to this strange friend of his, and see how he would stand by him in danger's hour.

Tom's blood was up. He felt like a man goaded into recklessness and crime by the action of others. If they would not let him live as a peaceable citizen--well, he would give them something to remember him by!

Quickly he made his way along, running like a hare when the street was empty, but always observing caution, and only striding along like a man in haste when there were passers by to note him. He felt sure that Rosamund's quick wits would do much to gain time and give him a start; and, sure enough, he reached the stable yard where Lord Claud's horses were kept without a sign or sound of pursuit.

As luck would have it, there was the master himself standing in the yard talking to his headman.

Tom strode straight up to him with a strange gleam in his eyes, for he knew not even now whether this man were friend or foe.

"I am come for the mare," he said briefly; "you remember your promise?"

Lord Claud gave him a swift, keen glance, as though he heard a new note in Tom's voice.

"I do. I will not fail you," he said very quietly.

Then to the man standing by, "Bring out Nell Gwynne. You have your instructions. See that nothing is forgotten."

The man vanished into the dark stable. Lord Claud turned to Tom.

"What has befallen?"

"There is a warrant out against me. They would have taken me in Master Cale's house half an hour back, but for the shrewdness and quick wit of his daughter. This is no place for me. My head is in danger. I must forth with all speed; but whither?"

"I should take to the forest, Tom. Captain Jack will welcome you gladly," said Lord Claud, as calmly as though discussing some indifferent project. "It is just the life for you. You will make a great name there. And that you will never do, my friend, in the gay world of London."

"I have thought of that," said Tom between his shut teeth; "but it means the life of an outlaw--and a death on the gallows, perchance, to end it!"

"Pooh, nonsense! not for a fine strapping young fellow of your thews and your wits! It means a few gay years of excitement and peril, a little influence in high places, which can always be bought with gold, and a free pardon and a return home. Leave that part of the business to me. I have played the game often enough to understand the moves. Meantime, you will be