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In the King's Name: The Cruise of the "Kestrel", a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 17. A Few Ideas On Escape |
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_ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. A FEW IDEAS ON ESCAPE Hilary Leigh felt very angry at being shut up in his prison, but the good breakfast with which he had been supplied went some way towards mollifying him, and as he sat upon the window-sill he felt that Sir Henry would much like to win him over to his side. "And he is not going to do it," he said half aloud. It was a lovely day, and as he sat there gazing out at the view, he thought he had never seen anything so beautiful before. It was wonderful, too, how a comfortable meal had improved his appreciation of what he saw. But even then there were drawbacks. A rough and narrow stone seat, upon which you can only sit by holding on tightly to some rusty iron bars, does go against the full enjoyment of a scene, especially if you know that those rusty iron bars prevent you from going any farther. So before long Hilary grew weary of his irksome position, and, letting himself down, he had a walk along each side of the old chapel, striding out as fast as he could, till he fancied he heard his old playmate outside, when he pounded up to the window again, but only to be disappointed. This went on hour after hour, but still Adela did not come, and as the afternoon wore on he began to think it extremely cruel and unsympathising. "She knows I'm shut up here like a bird in a cage, and yet she does not come to say a single word to cheer me." The side where the window was seemed darkened now, for the sun had got well round to the west, and as he climbed up for another good look out the landscape seemed to wear fresh charms, exciting an intense longing to get out and ramble over the sunshine-flooded hills, or to lie down beneath the shaded trees. He was accustomed to a prison life, as it were, being shut up so much within a little sloop; but that wooden prison was always on the move, and never seemed to oppress him as did the four dull walls of his present abode. "I shall wear out the knees of my breeches in no time, if I'm to be kept in here long," he said, as he was in the act of making a run and a jump for another look out; but he stopped short just in the act, for he fancied he heard the rattle of a key, and directly after he knew he was not deceived, for there was a heavy step, then another, and then a key was placed in the big door. "Well, this is being made a prisoner, and no mistake. Hallo, handsome!" he cried aloud, as the forbidding-looking man addressed by Sir Henry as Allstone entered the place with another looking little more amiable, and both were bringing something in the shape of food. "What?" said the man surlily. "I said 'Hallo, handsome!'" cried Hilary. "Have you come to let me out?" The man uttered a low hoarse chuckle, which sounded like a laugh, but his face did not move a muscle, and he looked as if he were scowling heavily. "We'll carry you out some day, my young buck," he said, "feet foremost. There's a little burying-ground just outside the place here." "Thank you," replied Hilary. "Is that meant for a joke?" "Joke? No, I never joke. Here I've brought you something to eat, and you won't get any more till to-morrow." He set the rough tray he carried on the floor, and the man who was with him did the same, after which they both stood and stared at the prisoner. "Send him away," said Hilary suddenly, and he pointed to the fresh man. "What for?" "I want to talk to you." Allstone gave his head a jerk and the man went outside. "Look here," said Hilary, "how long are you going to keep me here?" "Till the skipper is tired of you, I suppose, or till Sir Henry's gone." "And then you'll let me go?" "Oh, yes," said the man grimly. "We shall let you go then." There was another hoarse chuckle, which appeared very strange, for it did not seem to come from the man, who scowled at him in the same heavy, morose way. "Oh! come! you're not going to frighten me into the belief that you can kill me, my man," cried Hilary. "I'm too old for that." "Who's to know if we did?" said the fellow. "Why, you don't suppose that one of his majesty's officers can be detained without proper search being made. You'll have the crew of my ship over here directly, and they'll burn the place about your ears." "Thankye," said the man. "Is that all you want to say?" "No. Now look here; I'll give you five guineas if you'll let me go some time to-night. You could break through that window, and it would seem as if I had done it myself." For answer the man turned upon his heel and stalked out of the place without a word. "Get out, you rude boor!" cried Hilary, as the door slammed and the key turned. "Kill me and bury me! Bah! I should like to see them do it." A faint noise outside made him scale the window once more; but there was no sign of Adela, so he returned. "Well, they're not going to starve me," he said to himself, as he looked at the plates before him, one containing a good-looking pork pasty, the others a loaf and a big piece of butter, while a large brown jug was half full of milk. There was a couple of knives, too, the larger and stronger of which he took and thrust beneath the straw. "What a piggish way of treating a fellow!" he muttered. "No chair, no table; not so much as a stool. Well, I'm not very hungry yet, and as this is to last till to-morrow I may as well wait." He stood thinking for a bit, and then the idea of escaping came more strongly than ever, and he went and examined the door, which seemed strong enough to resist a battering-ram. There was the window as the only other likely weak place, but on climbing up and again testing the mortar with the point of his knife, the result was disheartening, for the cement of the good old times hardened into something far more difficult to deal with than stone. In fact, he soon found that he would be more likely to escape by sawing through the bars or digging through the stone. "Well, I mean to get out if Lipscombe don't send and fetch me; and I'll let them see that I'm not quite such a tame animal as to settle down to my cage without some effort;" and as he spoke he looked up at the ceiling as being a likely place to attack. He had the satisfaction of seeing that it was evidently weak, and that with the exercise of a little ingenuity there would be no difficulty in cutting a way through. But there was one drawback--it was many feet above his head, and impossible of access without scaffold or ladder. "And I'm not a fly, to hold on with my head downwards," he said, half aloud. He slowly lowered himself from the window-sill, and had another good look at the walls, tapping them here and there where they had been plastered; but though they sounded hollow, they seemed for the most part to be exceedingly thick, and offered no temptation for an assault. He stood there musing, with the place of his confinement gradually growing more gloomy, and the glow in the sky reminding him of how glorious the sea would look upon such an evening. There were a few strands of straw lying about, and he proceeded to kick them together in an idle fashion, his thoughts being far away at the time, when a sudden thought came to him like a flash. The place was paved with slabs of stone, and it had been the chapel of the old mansion; perhaps there were vaults underneath, or maybe cellars. The more he thought, the more likely this seemed. The old builders in that part of England believed in providing cool stores for wine and beer. In many places the dairy was underground, and why might there not be some place below here from which he could make his escape? He stamped with his foot and listened. Hollow, without a doubt. He tried in another part, and another; and no matter where, the sound was such as would arise from a place beneath whose floor there was some great vault. "That'll do," he said to himself, with a half-laugh. "I'm satisfied; so now I'll have something to eat." The evening was closing in as he seated himself upon the straw and began his meal, listening the while for some sign of the presence of Adela under his prison window, but he listened in vain. There was the evening song of the thrush, and he could hear poultry and the distant grunting of his friend the pig. Now and then, too, there came through the window the soft cooing of the pigeons on the roof, but otherwise there was not a sound, and the place might have been deserted by human kind. "So much the better for me," he said, "if I want to escape;" and having at last finished his meal, he placed the remains on one side for use in the morning, and tried to find a likely stone in the floor for loosening, but he had to give up because it was so dark, and climbed up once more to the window to gaze out now at the stars, which moment by moment grew brighter in the east. There was something very soft and beautiful in the calm of the summer night, but it oppressed him with its solitude. In one place he could see a faint ray of light, apparently from some cottage window; but that soon went out, and the scene that had been so bright in the morning was now shrouded in a gloom which almost hid the nearest trees. Now and then he could hear a splash in the moat made by fish or water-vole, and once or twice he saw the star-bejewelled surface twinkle and move as if some creature were swimming across; but soon that was all calm again, and the booming, buzzing noise of some great beetle sweeping by on reckless wing sounded quite loud. "It's as lively as keeping the middle watch," said Hilary impatiently. "The best thing I can do is to go to sleep." Hilary Leigh was one not slow to act upon his convictions, and getting down he proceeded to make himself as snug a nest as he could in the straw, lay down, pulled some of it over him, to the great bedusting of his uniform, and in five minutes he was fast asleep. _ |
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