The other man was square and solid-looking, a man of the Army, I would have guessed, or perhaps the captain of a warship.
'You are Barnabas Sackett?' this one asked.
'I am, and a loyal yeoman of England,' I added. 'I am also an admirer of Her Majesty.'
'There be many such,' he replied shortly. 'Now to the matter at hand. You have traded certain gold coins to Coveney Hasling and others?'
'I have.'
'Where did you obtain these coins?'
Relating the events of the day on which I found such coins was simple, and then I followed by relating that once I knew antiquities might have value, I went to another place and found more.
'So quickly? So easily?'
'It was chance. One in a thousand, I suppose, although there are many places in England where old coins are found.'
'Your home is in the fens?'
'It is.'
'You live near the Wash?'
'Some distance from it, actually.'
'But you know it? You've sailed on it?'
'Many times.'
'You know the story of the loss of the royal treasure?'
For hours they questioned me. The man with the wig had a cold, fierce eye and there was not one whit of mercy in him, nor any belief in my story.
He turned at last. 'Damn him for a liar, Swalley!' he said. 'I told you this would do no good. I say the rack ... or a thumbscrew. He'll speak the truth fast enough. His kind have no belly for pain.'
'How is yours?' I said roughly. 'I think you have no stomach for it, either.
Have done with this. I have spoken the truth. If you do not care to believe, do what you will, for I have nothing else to tell you.'
He looked at me for a moment, and then he struck me across the face with the back of his hand. It was not much of a blow, and I smiled.
'If we each held a sword,' I said, 'I'd have your blood for that.'
'What? You threaten me? Why, you-!'
'I am an Englishman. I am freeborn. A man who strikes a prisoner so is a coward, and you, sir, are doubly a coward.'
'Here! That will be enough of that!' Swalley came to his feet suddenly. 'I am sorry, Sir Henry.'
He pointed a finger at me. 'You! You will tell us where lies the royal treasure or, by the Lord, you shall be put to the question.'
'I have told you all I know. You waste time. Would I be going to America if there were such a treasure?'
Swalley stared at me, then smiled with thick lips that repelled me. 'How do we know you were not for Spain? Or for Italy? We know you have the treasure, for word has been given us that you have it, that you took it from the Wash this past year. It is sworn to.'
Appalled, I stared at him. Then I shook my head. 'That is obviously a falsehood.
There is no treasure.'
'Think of it,' Swalley said quietly. 'We will talk again.'
So I was returned to my cell. I looked about the bare room with its cot, its white-washed walls and bare ugliness, and felt hatred for the first time.
What right had they to seize and confine me in this manner? Taking me from all I loved, from my chance at a future of some worth, and bringing me to this horror?
Yet moaning and wailing was not my way. I had never complained, for who cares for complaints? If something is wrong, one does something.
Hyatt ... I must see Hyatt. I went forth from my room, guessing very well that once questioning began there would be no longer such freedom, even though many a malefactor enjoyed it. I should be taken, held, confined, tortured.
Suddenly I stopped. Before me was Peter Tallis, talking to a thin, wiry little man whom I had seen about before. He glanced my way but gave no indication that he knew me. I walked swiftly past him, looking about for Hyatt.
He spoke as though talking to the small man. 'Barnabas, this is Feghany. In prison he is known as Hunt, for Feghany means a huntsman or something like. He is a good man, and will help.
'I have word. If you escape, it must be now. No delays. You are to be taken to a dungeon and they will have the treasure out of you or you shall die. It is in the hands of the men you saw.'
'I will need a horse ... three horses.'
I was standing, looking about as if for someone, seeming not to be aware of his presence or that of Feghany. Others moved about us. Across the larger room I saw Hyatt.
'There will be horses at house you know, a house you once visited after the theatre.'
Tempany's!
'Go there when you leave. Waste no time. Ride far north and west. The Queen will be desperate. Her men will be everywhere searching for you. You can rely on Feghany.'
He moved on to talk to another prisoner, while Feghany loitered near me. 'Have you got a Kate?' he said, low-voiced.
'A Kate?'
'A pick, for opening locks. You're going to need one. I'm thinking they'll have the cramprings on you before night.'
At my blank look, for I knew nothing of thieves' cant, he said, 'Cramp rings ... irons ... shackles.' He looked disgusted, 'Don't you know nothing?'
He promised to bring me one.
Whatever else happened, I had to be away from this place. The stench on the main floor was disgusting. Crossing the floor I went to my own cell.
Once inside, I looked at the window. Six feet from the floor, over four feet wide and slightly arched at the top, it was crisscrossed with iron bars. The bars were at least six inches apart, and there were two horizontal bars that crossed also.
There was a bench and a bed in my cell, and a wooden bucket. The bench was heavy to move, and could not be moved back quickly, so I upended the bucket and stood on it to get a better look at the sill.
The bars were set into the stone, but I noted with satisfaction that weathering had worn the stone on the outside. Peering out, I could just make out a wall beneath my window. If I could lower myself to that ...
Footsteps alerted me and I stepped down and moved the bucket. I was sitting on my bed when the cell door opened amid a rattle of shackles.
A guard was there, and Feghany was helping him carry the irons.
The guard grinned. His teeth were broken and yellow. 'You git the cramp rings again, lad! Tomorrow.'
'But I paid you!' I protested.
'Aye, so you did, but there's a voice louder than mine that says back you go, so into the irons it is.'
'Sorry,' Feghany said to me, 'but it's no doing of the guard's. Remember him.
Later he may take them off, if you've a bit of the necessary.'
'Now hold up there!' the guard protested. 'Not so loud!'
Feghany slapped me on the shoulder and something cold touched my neck below the collar. 'There! Don't worry now!'
When they had gone I put my hand inside my collar. A thin bit of metal. A Kate with which to pick the lock.
There was no time to waste. I was bound for a dungeon and more questions. I was headed for torture that
