In the King's Name Part 31

"Nay, not they. Who would? She's hanging about after her boy."

"Boy, eh? That's I," said Hilary again to himself. "Well, maybe I shall show 'em I can fight like a man!"

"Here, I say," said another voice: "why don't you two begin to stow away these kegs?"

"Never you mind. You bring 'em down from the carts: we know what we're doing."

There was a sound of departing footsteps, and Hilary listened intently.

"Ah!" said one of the men, "if I was the skipper I'd send the young Tom chicken about his business; but the skipper says he knows too much."

"How long's he going to keep him then?"

"Altogether, I s'pose, unless he likes to join us."

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the other, who was evidently moving something heavy.

"Well, he might do worse, my lad. Anyhow, they ar'n't going to let him go and bring that cutter down upon us."

"No, that wouldn't do. Lend a hand here. This bag's heavy. What's in it?"

"I don't know. Feels like lead. P'r'aps it is."

"Think the cutter will hang about long?"

"How should I know? I say, though, how staggered them chaps was when they got up to the rock and found no one to fight!"

"I wasn't there."

"Oh, no--more you wasn't. Come along, come along, lads. Here we are waiting for stowage, and you talk about us keeping you waiting."

"You mind your own job," growled the voice that Hilary had heard finding fault before.

There was more scuffling of feet, and then the two men went on talking.

"The cutter's sailors had come, of course, after the boy, and they stumbled on the way through the rocks, just same as the boy did; and we waited for 'em with a few sticks, and then give 'em as much as were good for 'em, and then retreated, big Joey keeping the way till we had all got up the rock, and then up he come in the dark, and you'd have laughed fit to crack your sides to hear them down below whacking at the stones with their cutlashes till they was obliged to believe we was gone, and then they went back with their tails between their legs like a pack of dogs."

The other man laughed as Hilary drank in all this, and learned how the crew had been after him, and realised most thoroughly how it was that he had been brought there, and also the ingenious plan by which the smugglers and the political party with whom they seemed to be mixed up contrived to throw their enemies off the scent. There was an interval, during which the two men seemed to be very busy stowing away kegs and packages, and then they went on again.

"Skipper of the cutter come next day--that one-eyed chap we took in so with the lugger--and his chaps brought him up to the rocks, and then, my wig! how he did give it 'em for bringing them a fool's errand, as he called it! It was a fine game, I can tell you."

"Must have been," said the other, as Hilary drank in this information too, and made mental vows about how he would pay the scoundrels out for all this when once he got free.

Then there was a cessation of the feet coming down the stairs, broken by one step that Hilary seemed to recognise.

"How are you getting on?"

Hilary was right; it was Allstone.

"Waiting for more," was the reply.

"They'll bring up another cart directly," said Allstone in his sulky tone of voice.

"Sooner the better. I'm 'bout tired out. Fine lot o' rats here," said the man.

"Ah, yes! There's a few," said Allstone.

"Heard 'em scuffling about like fun over the other side," said the man.

Hilary felt the cold perspiration ooze out of him as he lay there, dimly seeing through the meshes of the net that he was in a low arched vault of considerable extent, the curved roof being of time-blackened stone, and that here and there were rough pillars from which the arches sprang.

He hardly dared to move, but, softly turning his head, he saw to his horror that the square opening whence he had taken the stone was full in view, the light that left him in darkness striking straight up through the hole.

If they looked up there, he felt that they must see that the stone had been moved, and he s.h.i.+vered as he felt that his efforts to escape had been in vain.

"They're a plaguey long time coming," said the man who had been talking so much. "Here, just come round here, my lad, and I'll show you what I mean about the nets."

"It's all over," said Hilary as he took a firm grip of the hilt of his cutla.s.s, meaning as soon as he was discovered to strike out right and left, and try to escape during the surprise his appearance would cause.

As he lay there, ready to spring up at the smallest indication of his discovery, he saw the shadows move as the men came round by the heap of packages, and enter the narrow pa.s.sage where he was. The first, bearing a candle stuck between some nails in a piece of wood, was a fair, fresh-coloured young fellow, and he was closely followed by a burly middle-aged man bearing another candle, Allstone coming last.

"There," said the younger man, "there's about as nice a mess for a set o' nets to be in as anyone ever saw;" and he laid hold of the pile that Hilary had drawn over his face.

It was only a matter of moments now, and as he lay there Hilary's nerves tingled, and he could hardly contain himself for eagerness to make his spring.

"Look at that, and that, and that," said the man, picking up folds of the soft brown netting, and seeming about to strip all off Hilary, but by a touch of fate helping his concealment the next moment, by throwing fold after fold over him, till the next thing seemed to be that he would be smothered.

"Tell you what," he said. "They nets are just being spoiled. There's plenty of time before the next cart unloads. Lend a hand here, and let's have 'em all out in the pure air. I hate seeing good trade left down here to spoil in a damp--"

He laid hold of the nets, and as he gave a drag Hilary felt the meshes gliding over his face, and prepared himself to spring up and make a dash for his liberty.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

'TWIXT CUP AND LIP.

Another instant and Hilary must have been discovered; but just then the trampling of feet was heard, a shout or two, and Allstone said gruffly:

"Let the nets alone, and come and get the stuff down."

The man dropped the nets, and taking up his candle, which he had placed upon a chest, followed Allstone back along the narrow pa.s.sage between the piled-up tubs and packages, and once more Hilary was left in comparative darkness, to lie there dripping with perspiration, and hesitating as to what he should do next, for if he stayed where he was, it was probable that the men would come back to remove the nets. If, on the other hand, he attempted to move, the chances were that he would be heard. In short he dare not move, for the slightest rustle would be sure to take their attention.

And so he lay there in an extremely uncomfortable position, watching the shadows cast upon the dingy ceiling, as the distorted heads and shoulders of the men were seen moving to and fro. Sometimes he could distinguish what they carried, whether it was bale or tub, and upon which shoulder it was carried, till by degrees, as he found that he was not discovered, his thoughts began to turn upon what a grand haul the crew of the _Kestrel_ could make in the way of prize-money if he only had the good fortune to escape, and could find his way back to the sh.o.r.e.

There must have been at least six carts unloaded by slow degrees, and their contents brought down into that vault before Allstone, who was at the head of the steps leading down, suddenly shouted:

"That's all. Look alive up."