Thomas Fletcher

“ A nervous man would never have stood that strain; but we were not a neurotic couple, the old chap and I.
As hard and keen and clever as a lad of twenty-one was Thomas Hearne. It was he who spent the day in Plymouth, returning with a wig and long overcoat that might temporarily conceal the convict's identity until he could change his yellow prison uniform for the clothes I had already bought; it was he who gathered to himself all the weather lore of the village until he had become a better prophet than the wisest veteran of the moors. ”

“ We drove on in silence for a while, and then the old man rose, kneeling upon the cushions of the back seat.
“Here comes the sun, Julius Craig,” he said. “The mists are scattering, and the world comes peeping through to welcome you back to freedom. Women and wine and cards—does the old spirit stir within you?”
“And who the devil may you be?” asked the convict, turning upon him. ”

“ My life on the moors had put me in sound condition, and I never slackened my pace till I had trotted up the rise to where the track to the ruined farm began. I checked the horse and walked slowly forward studying the edge of the moor beside the highway for the mark of the grass-grown ruts I knew so well.
I heard the footsteps long before I saw him, a quick patter upon the hard surface behind me. As he came out of the fog he shouted, bringing his rifle to his hip with an easy swing. He was a stoutly built man in the neat dark uniform that marks the prison warder. ”

“ His affection for the convict seemed to fill his life. No risk, no labour was too heavy; no storm would drive him from his post. Often when I was smoking by the inn fire, he was crouching patiently amongst the rocks on the cairn hill, as if it were his only son for whom he waited. There was something inhuman in his merciless self-sacrifice; but I had no reason to complain, for it lightened the burden on my shoulders.
It was at three o'clock on Tuesday, May 9th, that Julius Craig escaped. Poor devil! if he had but known!
Hearne and I had quarrelled that morning over the fog question. ”

“ Abel Kingsley, vaguely described in the visitors' book of the Princetown Arms as of Memphis University, U.S.A., was sitting on the cairn hill above the great prison that held Julius Craig.
To the far horizon there stretched the melancholy moors, deserted wastes of rushy marshes and stunted heather, broken here and there by outcrops of granite, that crowned the rolling ground like the ruins of a hundred feudal castles. For Dartmoor is a huge granite tableland, and on its barren surface no corn will grow nor tree flourish. ”

“ When I woke again, just as suddenly, there was no sign of Getch. The morning sun was shining through the leadless window-places high up in the eastern wall, and I heard the crying of sea-birds and chatter of choughs, hovering around the parapet of the tower. Pepita was still fast asleep in her corner; her face, rosy-pink, half-buried in the crook of her arm; her breath coming softly and regularly. And over in his corner, half-buried in rugs and wrappings, his big bulk propped up against the angle of the wall, Uncle Joseph was asleep, too—asleep and snoring gently. ”

“ He lay flat on his chest, while he covered the gang at work in the new ground below with a small telescope.
It might be curiosity, of course, for many men regard a convict as something abnormal, something that is as pleasant to stare at as if he were the cannibal king at a fair. ”

“ He was a half-and-half man—too lazily clever to be quite honest, and too honest to be quite a criminal. Poor Jack Henderson! A good man gone wrong—let that be his epitaph when it comes to setting up his headstone. ”

“ I continued. “We may succeed—and we mayn’t. But we can try. Listen!—somewhere or other that Hindu chap must have a boat. Probably it’s at the west end of the island—he doubtless landed there, because I believe there’s a deepish channel runs past the spit of land at that end, and he’d most likely come along that channel. Now we know where he is just now!”
“But do we?” she asked, sceptically.
“Dead certain! He’s after Uncle Joseph, on the other side. Bet your boots he’ll not take his eyes off him, once he’s spotted him! ”

“ There was nothing but a low hedge to stop the convicts if they knocked down the guards with their spades and make a run for it. But when I looked back across the wastes of the moor I understood. In a city a man may vanish in a crowd, but on Dartmoor he must tramp a dozen miles before he can find even a bush to hide him. In clear weather the mounted warders of the pursuit would ride him down in half an hour.
The Princetown Arms, a grey, weather-beaten square of granite, was a pleasant country inn standing near the centre of the village. ”

“ Plainly he was in great uncertainty of mind.
“Perhaps I have nothing to tell,” he said at last.
“A man does not attempt to murder detectives unless he has a crime to conceal.”
“That is true,” he said, nodding his head; “very just and true.”
There was nothing to be gained by a long bargaining of secrets with him. Whatever his business he could speedily discover mine if he chose. If I were honest with him he might return the confidence.
“I am arranging for the escape of Julius Craig, now doing his time in the prison yonder,” I told him.
“Julius Craig!” he echoed, with wild eyes. ”

“ No one, so far as I could see, was in sight, and presently I turned off the road along a disused cart track that seemed to lead in the direction I wanted. Its ancient ruts were filled with sprouting heather, and the short moor turf had covered up the hoof-marks with a velvet surface.
I had walked a good quarter of a mile, when, rounding a curve of the hill, I found the old road explained in the ruins of a small farm, one of those melancholy memorials of a time when frozen meat was unknown, and it paid a man to breed cattle and sheep and cultivate a wheatfield or two, even on Dartmoor. ”

“ There was nothing to be gained by imagining bad luck. I walked back to the inn, and sat down to a study of the district with maps I had brought with me. There was only one railroad within many miles, and that was the single track that ran up from Plymouth to Princetown village. At the first signal that a convict had escaped the station would be full of warders; so that outlet was barred. South of the moor, fifteen miles away, ran another branch lino ending at Ashburton. But I was determined to leave the railroad alone. The stations would be the first places to be watched by the police. ”

“ And that brown man will still be on the island! Wouldn’t it be better to run down there and make them take us off, too?”
“Make is a good word!” said I, more ruefully than scornfully. “You can’t make people do what they’re resolved they won’t do, Pepita!—unless you’ve got the whip hand of them, and I’m afraid I haven’t, even with this pistol in my pocket: there are too many of ’em down there for me to tackle. The fact is, Uncle Joseph has slipped us—cheated us, damn him!—he doesn’t want us to be taken off, yet awhile. It’s his own safety he’s thinking about—he doesn’t care a hang about ours! ”

“ We’re in an absolute muddle here—mentally, I mean—and now you’ll clear everything up for us! The sight of you is as good as sunshine after storm. Come in!—old Edie shall take your horse. This gentleman is Mr. Alvery Craye, a famous artist, and he’s nearly as much out of his wits as I am!”
“Then I find myself in queer and possibly dangerous company!” remarked Mr. Murthwaite, with another half wink at me. “However, I hope you’re sane enough to give me some tea, Miss Durham? Good!—then I’ll come in.” He handed his horse over to old Muir and followed Madrasia up the stair, I coming behind. ”

“ The sight of a man in a white waterproof loitering on the cairn bill would be his signal that all was ready. Sudden fogs were frequent upon the moor, and when they came while the convicts were at work in the fields, the chance of escape was excellent; for the authorities did not chain their men, and the warders rarely used their rifles. They trusted to the huge moors upon which men who escaped were easily retaken, half dead from fatigue and starvation. ”

“ A man’s—a big man’s, too! And they lead straight across the sand: firm white sand it is there, and they’re the only marks on it. We didn’t stop to see where they went——”
“No, we hurried back to see you!” interrupted Pepita, obviously anxious to join in the game, “and as you weren’t about we were persuading Veller to go back with us——”
“We’ll all go,” said Cherry. He looked at Veller and winked. “How near can we take the car to this point they’re talking about?” he asked.
“Down to the end of the lane that runs past our house,” said I. “Get in—I’ll show the driver where to go.” ”

“ Matters moved quickly with us. I hired a stout horse and a two-wheeled cart for a month from the landlord to whom I talked neolithic man of an evening, impressing him with a learning, acquired from the reports of that worthy society the Devonshire Association. I preferred to drive myself, declining the boy offered for that purpose. There were no other preparations to make; and so, on the day following, that earnest student, Mr. Abel Kingsley, might have been seen smoking his pipe on the cairn hill in a new white mackintosh, for was there not a threat of rain in the air? ”

“ Rupert Ring smiled slightly as he heard Fletcher’s modest claim.
“Comrades,” he said, “you have heard Fletcher’s appeal. It is true that he is the oldest in service among you. It is for you to consider whether that entitles him to the post of leader. Those of you who are in favour of Dick Fletcher as your leader will signify it by raising your right hands.” ”

“ Kingsley,” he concluded. “I am not a lunatic; but I have made up my mind in this matter of Julius Craig. Any one who is foolish enough to come between us must stand aside or take the consequences. Towards yourself, for example, I had no ill will In fact, I rather liked you. But you must admit that, as a detective, your presence was excessively inconvenient. Now that I know the truth, I welcome you as a most valuable ally. I am prepared to trust you absolutely. Come, what are your plans?”
I told him as we walked back to the inn. ”

“ The huge prison was built on the opposite slope of the shallow valley, and the farm which the convicts had won field by field stretched down from its walls to a brook at the foot of the cairn hill where I was. On the further edge of the brook a gang was at work inclosing some new ground, and through my glasses I soon made out the man I was after. The last time I had seen him was on his own coach at Ascot, with the girls buzzing round him like wasps after sugar, and there he was digging trenches with a spade. It's a funny world!
About twenty men were in the gang. ”

“ It was Captain Marigold, again, who spoke first. He darted forward by the policeman’s side, and seized the dead man’s right hand. “Warm!” he exclaimed. “Quite warm! The man hasn’t been dead many minutes! And you heard oars?”
He snatched the lantern out of Veller’s hand and swept the water with it in the direction which Keziah and I pointed out to him. But you might as well have tried to lighten midnight with a match—the lantern threw no more than a tiny patch of light on the creaming surf at our feet. We turned again to the gibbet and its awful burden. ”

“ Instead of laughing at me, she studied me closely, with a sidelong glance from under her big hat.
“You’ve grown, Ben!” she said, suddenly. “You look like as if you were going to be a young man now instead of a boy! Sakes!—I guess you’ll take to wearing a tailed coat Sundays!”
“Ordered!” said I, proudly. “Members of the legal profession always wear tailed coats—it’s etiquette. And silk hats. Mine’s ordered, too. You wait till I’m better, and start going to the office at Kingshaven every morning!—guess you won’t know me!”
“Oh, yes, I shall, Ben, my boy!” ”

“ But I know no one at sea. Oh, sir, what is it you would tell me?”
“Let me come in,” I said; and she turned and led the way into the parlor, and set down the candle and looked steadily at me. And then she suddenly knew me, and in another instant I had her in my arms, and her face was upon my breast, and all the woes and sorrows of my captivity were forgotten.
“Humphrey!” she cried. “O, thank God—thank God! My dear, my dear, it is you, is it not? Am I dreaming—shall I wake presently to find you gone?”
“Never again, sweetheart, never again! ”

“ It was quiet enough on that island; there was, indeed, a sense of death like quietness on it, and I think that both Pepita and myself stepped ashore feeling as if we were about to be immured in a tomb. But Getch gave us no time for these or any other thoughts; now that we were landed, he seemed to assert himself as chief authority and began to order us all about, Uncle Joseph included. We had to help in unloading the boat, and then in carrying the various packages, and, just as I had expected, Getch directed us to take them up to the tower in the ruins ”

“ I said decisively. “You be ready at three o'clock. And remember, you're not to say a word about this to anybody—not one word to John William. If you do, there'll be no ten shillings.”
Mr. Johnson nodded his head.
“John Willie's going to the flower show,” he remarked. “He's going with the new servant lass at the Spinney farm. Him and Susan Kate's fallen out. I say, mister!”
“Well?” I replied.
“I'm not a great one for lasses,” said Mr. Johnson. “I don't want Susan Kate to think that I'm courting her. 'Cause I'm not going to.”
“Susan Kate will quite understand matters,” I said. ”