The Two Confessions by John Whitbourn (good books to read for adults .TXT) 📕

few moments above ground had beendark. He now shrugged off the bad memory and moved on. Yes, all this wasall worth it; and by comparison there was nothing else to worry about.

Exceptpossibly.… His survey of what he had wrought expanded to take in the settingand surrounding hills.

‘Whoare they?’

Hisstaff had been keenly anticipating his first words, hopeful of all-compassingexplanation. Their grudging faith was misplaced in every respect. They followedhis pointing finger.

‘Justsome idlers, Mr Trevan.’

‘Beenthere all morning,’ added one of the tally-clerks, a known window-gawper.

Samuelhad learnt to prefer instinct over dull-dog reason every time, and instincttold him that the distant knot of figures staring down on them were notwell-wishers. And both ways of thinking equally disapproved of their formationand their standing too still.

‘Reachout to them, Wizard,’ he ordered briskly. ‘Tell me what they want.’

Themagician had to screw up his piggy eyes to even behold them at all.

‘Toofar,’ he said, dismissively. ‘Magic, yes - miracles, no.’

Forhis part Samuel couldn't see a distinction, but declined to argue.

‘Ifyou say so. Then go below and test if the sorcerous membrane by the pumpstation has been ruptured. Perhaps our missing man went through there.’

'And perhaps the stench and goo will wipe the smirk off your chops,' he thought to himself.

Samuellet him waddle off a few paces before shouting:

‘Buttravel in the tub on your own: we don't want the chain breaking!’

Hehad the satisfaction of seeing the man's shoulders clench.

‘Andyou,’ he addressed the security staff as though they'd failed him, ‘go fetchthose nosy 'idlers' up there. I’m told the devil finds work for idlehands: so let's save some souls from Satan!’

U[U[U[U[U[U[U

************

'ACATECHISM OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE'

or

'THEHA'PENNY CATECHISM'

Firstpublished (in English as well as Latin) Winchester 1745.

Imprimatur: + Richard Challoner, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Revisedand reprinted from time to time. This edition 1996. Total printing over 30million copies.

Approvedby the archbishops and bishops of United England, and directed to be used inall the parishes thereof and appertaining thereto.

1.Q: Who made you?

    A: God made me.

2.Q: Why did God make you? ...

...

327.Q: Which are the four sins crying out to heaven for vengeance?

 A: The four sins crying out to heaven forvengeance are:

1)Wilful murder.[ Genesis 4 ]

2)The sin of Sodom.[ Genesis 18 ]

3)Oppression of the poor.[ Exodus 2 ]

4)Defrauding labourers of their wages. [ James 5 ]

************

cHAPTER 34

‘Too late, I reckon.’

‘Forwhat?’ said Samuel.

‘Forsaving his soul – like you said: from Sa-....’

‘Yeah,yeah, I know what I said. More to the point, what about the rest of them?’

‘Gone,Master Trevan,’ exclaimed the soldier. ‘Vanished off the face of the earth.Don't see how, but they were all gone 'cept matey here.’

Samuelwasn't happy. He'd been through all this 'gone' business shortly beforeand it had turned into trauma. How come all bar one of the group on the hillevaded detection by his swarm of horsemen? On the other hand, they'd at leastsolved one mystery - at the cost of posing another.

‘Hashe said anything yet?’

‘Nothingas makes sense,’ replied the captain of the pursuit. ‘He just stood there grinningand awaiting us. We had no trouble out of him: not as such….’

Samueldidn't swallow that trailing hook-line. He'd make his own judgement.

They'dconfined ‘matey’, the once missing, now found, third mine guard in thesite office. Everyone who'd had contact with him was dropping hints that allwas not well. Samuel had got the message a dozen times over but refused toentertain them by running with it.

‘Andhow could he have got right up there?’ he challenged the searchers, taking adifferent tack from the one they wanted. ‘He hadn't been gone long. Did you seeany open shafts that might connect with the mine?’

Theyshook their heads. Trevan's scowl deepened.

‘Whynot just rejoice?’ asked the Wizard, who was standing alongside.

‘Ibeg your pardon?’

‘Thatis what the Good Book advises, Mr Trevan. Matthew, chapter 18: 'If a manhave a hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave theninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is goneastray?’’

‘Yes,thank you so much, Wizard, for the scriptural comfor-....’

‘‘Andif so be that he find it, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninetyand nine which went not astray.’ Need more be said?’

TheWizard had recently re-emerged to confirm that the unseen barrier by thepump-station had indeed been breached, but was now closed firm against themonce more. His session below had not dismayed him, nor inverted his grin.Samuel knew he shouldn't let himself be goaded but he was striving against anexpert. Retaliation was irresistible.

‘Onreflection, Mr thaumaturge, I now see you're absolutely right. So come with meand rejoice over this lost sheep. Tell me what you make of him.’

TheWizard, otherwise occupied, hadn't heard all that Trevan had. He accompaniedthe little group to the site-cabin free of trepidation. Even the two sentinelsposted by its door didn't alert him.

Fortunately,Samuel knew a little of the lost-and-found guard's prior state: because hecouldn't judge the present without knowing what went before. This was a localman, beyond the first flush of youth; almost of yeoman status, though not aboveaccepting wages to supplement his farming. A captain in the militia, a familyman and churchwarden; well respected in the area. He was a natural choice for asupervisor and general help. Trevan had spoken to him once or twice, thoughwhat about wasn't recalled. He’d given the impression of a pillar-of-societysort.

Suchpeople don't normally flash lascivious smiles or manipulate their parts, orleastways not before an audience. The arrival of Trevan's party didn't stop orabash him. He had no 'hello's' for them, or any words at all. Hisfreshly bloodied nose seemed no bother.

Thesoldier they'd left in charge was full of protest and explanation.

‘Ihad to clock him,’ he told them. ‘He was scrabbling at my breeches. Bastardmollyfrock!’

‘Idoubt that,’ Samuel contradicted. ‘He has a wife and children.’

‘Sodid King James the Scot...,’ came the muttered reply. An educated soldier, noless. This really was a day of perverse wonders.

However,the 'lost sheep's look at Samuel, the way his eyes shone, added weight to hisguardian's testimony. The prisoner was cruising way offshore ‘normal’.

‘Holdhim in the chair,’ Samuel told two of the security staff.

Theman writhed and smiled under their grip. They held him, though with difficultyand strange expressions of distaste.

‘What'sthe matter