第 19 页

other end of the lane. It was set down some thirty yards from

Fenchurch Street. There were the two chairmen and three fellows

wrapped up in cloaks."

"That certainly looks like action, John. Well, I should say that

Matthew had better take up his station at the other end of the lane,

there to remain quiet until he hears an uproar at the chair; then he

can run up to our help if we need it. We will post ourselves near the

door. No doubt Harvey, and perhaps one of his friends, will come and

wait for her. We can't interfere with them here, but must follow and

come up with her just before they reach the chair. The further they

are away from the house the better. Then if there is any trouble

Captain Dave will not hear anything of it."

"That will be a good plan of operations," John agreed. "Matthew is

just round the next corner. I will send him to Fenchurch Street at

once."

He went away, and rejoined Cyril in two or three minutes. They then

went along towards the house, and took post in a doorway on the other

side of the street, some thirty yards from the shop. They had

scarcely done so, when they heard footsteps, and presently saw two

men come along in the middle of the street. They stopped and looked

round.

"There is not a soul stirring," one said. "We can give the signal."

So saying, he sang a bar or two of a song popular at the time, and

they then drew back from the road into a doorway and waited.

Five minutes later, Cyril and his fellow-watcher heard a very slight

sound, and a figure stepped out from Captain Dowsett's door. The two

men crossed at once and joined her. A few low words were spoken, and

they moved away together, and turned up the lane.

As soon as they disappeared from sight, Cyril and John Wilkes issued

out. The latter had produced some long strips of cloth, which he

wound round both their boots, so as, he said, to muffle the oars.

Their steps, therefore, as they followed, were almost noiseless.

Walking fast, they came up to the three persons ahead of them just as

they reached the sedan chair. The two chairmen were standing at the

poles, and a third man was holding the door open with his hat in his

hand.

"Avast heaving, mates!" John Wilkes said. "It seems to me as you are

running this cargo without proper permits."

Nellie gave a slight scream on hearing the voice, while the man

beside her stepped forward, exclaiming furiously:

"S" death, sir! who are you, and what are you interfering about?"

"I am an honest man I hope, master. My name is John Wilkes, and, as

that young lady will tell you, I am in the employ of her father."

"Then I tell you, John Wilkes, or John the Devil, or whatever your

name maybe, that if you don't at once take yourself off, I will let

daylight into you," and he drew his sword, as did his two companions.

John gave a whistle, and the wooden-legged man was heard hurrying up

from Fenchurch Street.

"Cut the scoundrel down, Penrose," Harvey exclaimed, "while I put the

lady into the chair."

The man addressed sprang at Wilkes, but in a moment his Court sword

was shivered by a blow from the latter's cudgel, which a moment later

fell again on his head, sending him reeling back several paces.

"Stay, sir, or I will run you through," Cyril said, pricking Harvey

sharply in the arm as he was urging Nellie to enter the chair.

"Oh, it's you, is it?" the other exclaimed, in a tone of fury. "My

boy of Cheapside! Well, I can spare a moment to punish you."

"Oh, do not fight with him, my lord!" Nellie exclaimed.

"My lord!" Cyril laughed. "So he has become a lord, eh?"

Then he changed his tone.

"Mistress Nellie, you have been deceived. This fellow is no lord. He

is a hanger-on of the Court, one John Harvey, a disreputable

blackguard whom I heard boasting to his boon-companions of his

conquest. I implore you to return home as quietly as you went. None

will know of this."

He broke off suddenly, for, with an oath, Harvey rushed at him. Their

swords clashed, there was a quick thrust and parry, and then Harvey

staggered back with a sword-wound through the shoulder, dropping his

sword to the ground.

"Your game is up, John Harvey," Cyril said. "Did you have your

deserts I would pass my sword through your body. Now call your

fellows off, or it will be worse for them."

"Oh, it is not true? Surely it cannot be true?" Nellie cried,

addressing Harvey. "You cannot have deceived me?"

The fellow, smarting with pain, and seeing that the game was up,

replied with a savage curse.

"You may think yourself lucky that you are only disabled, you

villain!" Cyril said, taking a step towards him with his sword

menacingly raised. "Begone, sir, before my patience is exhausted, or,

by heaven! it will be your dead body that the chairmen will have to

carry away."

"Disabled or not," John Wilkes exclaimed, "I will have a say in the

matter;" and, with a blow with his cudgel, he stretched Harvey on the

ground, and belaboured him furiously until Cyril dragged him away by

force. Harvey rose slowly to his feet.

"Take yourself off, sir," Cyril said. "One of your brave companions

has long ago bolted; the other is disarmed, and has his head broken.

You may thank your stars that you have escaped with nothing worse

than a sword-thrust through your shoulder, and a sound drubbing.

Hanging would be a fit punishment for knaves like you. I warn you, if

you ever address or in any way molest this lady again, you won't get

off so easily."

Then he turned and offered his arm to Nellie, who was leaning against

the wall in a half-fainting state. Not a word was spoken until they

emerged from the lane.

"No one knows of this but ourselves, Mistress Nellie, and you will

never hear of it from us. Glad indeed I am that I have saved you from

the misery and ruin that must have resulted from your listening to

that plausible scoundrel. Go quietly upstairs. We will wait here till

we are sure that you have gone safely into your room; then we will

follow. I doubt not that you are angry with me now, but in time you

will feel that you have been saved from a great danger."

The door was not locked. He lifted the latch silently, and held the

door open for her to pass in. Then he closed it again, and turned to

the two men who followed them.

"This has been a good night's work, John."

"That has it. I don't think that young spark will be coming after

City maidens again. Well, it has been a narrow escape for her. It

would have broken the Captain's heart if she had gone in that way.

What strange things women are! I have always thought Mistress Nellie

as sensible a girl as one would want to see. Given a little

over-much, perhaps, to thinking of the fashion of her dress, but that

was natural enough, seeing how pretty she is and how much she is made

of; and yet she is led, by a few soft speeches from a man she knows

nothing of, to run away from home, and leave father, and mother, and

all. Well, Matthew, lad, we sha'n't want any more watching. You have

done a big service to the master, though he will never know it. I

know I can trust you to keep a stopper on your jaws. Don't you let a

soul know of this--not even your wife."

"You trust me, mate," the man replied. "My wife is a good soul, but

her tongue runs nineteen to the dozen, and you might as well shout a

thing out at Paul's Cross as drop it into her ear. I think my back

will be well enough for me to come to work again to-morrow," he

added, with a laugh.

"All right, mate. I shall be glad to have you again, for the chap who

has been in your place is a landsman, and he don't know a

marling-spike from an anchor. Good-night, mate."

"Well, Master Cyril," he went on, as the sailor walked away, "I don't

think there ever was such a good wind as that which blew you here.

First of all you saved Captain Dave's fortune, and now you save his

daughter. I look on Captain Dave as being pretty nigh the same as

myself, seeing as I have been with him man and boy for over thirty

years, and I feel what you have done for him just as if you had done

it for me. I am only a rough sailor-man, and I don't know how to put

it in words, but I feel just full up with a cargo of thankfulness."

"That is all right," Cyril said, holding out his hand, which John

Wilkes shook with a heartiness that was almost painful. "Captain Dave

offered me a home when I was alone without a friend in London, and I

am glad indeed that I have been able to render him service in return.

I myself have done little enough, though I do not say that the

consequences have not been important. It has been just taking a

little trouble and keeping a few watches--a thing not worth talking

about one way or the other. I hope this will do Mistress Nellie good.

She is a nice girl, but too fond of admiration, and inclined to think

that she is meant for higher things than to marry a London citizen. I

think to-night's work will cure her of that. This fellow evidently

made himself out to her to be a nobleman of the Court. Now she sees

that he is neither a nobleman nor a gentleman, but a ruffian who took

advantage of her vanity and inexperience, and that she would have

done better to have jumped down the well in the yard than to have put

herself in his power. Now we can go up to bed. There is no more

probability of our waking the Captain than there has been on other

nights; but mind, if we should do so, you stick to the story we

agreed on, that you thought there was someone by the gate in the lane

again, and so called me to go down with you to investigate, not

thinking it worth while to rouse up the Captain on what might be a

false alarm."

Everything remained perfectly quiet as they made their way upstairs

to their rooms as silently as possible.

"Where is Nellie?" Captain Dave asked, when they assembled at

breakfast.

"She is not well," his wife replied, "I went to her room just now and

found that she was still a-bed. She said that she had a bad headache,

and I fear that she is going to have a fever, for her face is pale

and her eyes red and swollen, just as if she had been well-nigh

crying them out of her head; her hands are hot and her pulse fast.

Directly I have had breakfast I shall make her some camomile tea, and

if that does not do her good I shall send for the doctor."

"Do so, wife, without delay. Why, the girl has never ailed a day for

years! What can have come to her?"

"She says it is only a bad headache--that all she wants is to be left

alone."

"Yes, yes; that is all very well, but if she does not get better soon

she must be seen to. They say that there were several cases last week

of that plague that has been doing so much harm in foreign parts, and

if that is so it behoves us to be very careful, and see that any

illness is attended to without delay."

"I don't think that there is any cause for alarm," his wife said

quietly. "The child has got a headache and is a little feverish, but

there is no occasion whatever for thinking that it is anything more.

There is nothing unusual in a girl having a headache, but Nellie has

had such good health that if she had a prick in the finger you would

think it was serious."

"By the way, John," Captain Dave said suddenly, "did you hear any

noise in the lane last night? Your room is at the back of the house,

and you were more likely to have heard it than I was. I have just

seen one of the watch, and he tells me that there was a fray there

last night, for there is a patch of blood and marks of a scuffle. It

was up at the other end. There is some mystery about it, he thinks,

for he says that one of his mates last night saw a sedan chair

escorted by three men turn into the lane from Fenchurch Street just

before ten o'clock, and one of the neighbours says that just after

that hour he heard a disturbance and a clashing of swords there. On

looking out, he saw something dark that might have been a chair

standing there, and several men engaged in a scuffle. It seemed soon

over, and directly afterwards three people came down the lane this

way. Then he fancied that someone got into the chair, which was

afterwards carried out into Fenchurch Street."

"I did hear something that sounded like a quarrel or a fray," John

Wilkes said, "but there is nothing unusual about that. As everything

was soon quiet again, I gave no further thought to it."

"Well, it seems a curious affair, John. However, it is the business

of the City watch and not mine, so we need not bother ourselves about

it. I am glad to see you have got Matthew at work again this morning.

He tells me that he thinks he has fairly got over that sprain in his

back."

CHAPTER VIII

THE CAPTAIN'S YARN

Mindful of the fact that this affair had added a new enemy to those

he had acquired by the break-up of the Black Gang, Cyril thought it

as well to go round and give notice to the two traders whose books he

attended to in the evening, that unless they could arrange for him to

do them in the daytime he must give up the work altogether. Both

preferred the former alternative, for they recognised the advantage

they had derived from his work, and that at a rate of pay for which

they could not have obtained the services of any scrivener in the

City.

It was three or four days before Nellie Dowsett made her appearance

at the general table.

"I can't make out what ails the girl," her mother said, on the

previous evening. "The fever speedily left her, as I told you, but

she is weak and languid, and seems indisposed to talk."

"She will soon get over that, my dear," Captain Dave said. "Girls are