'Mountains?'
'Aye ... mountains to the east. They found a way through those mountains, but that was much farther north, I think.'
The parchment lay on the table before us, and I looked long upon it as we talked. This man Browne had been beyond the blue mountains of which I had heard.
He had seen a fair land, and great rivers. I had no need to copy the sheet before me, for it was engraven in my mind.
Chapter 4
We rode westward.
Yet soon we were angling off to the south, into areas I knew not of. Here Black Tom had the advantage of me, for he had traveled to Bristol ere this, and even into Cornwall.
'They're a rum lot,' he commented, speaking of the villagers. 'Some are fine people, friendly to strangers, but others will have nothing for him, not even a word. You'd think they'd be curious and wanting news, but no such thing. They are content with what is about them.
'It is changing,' he continued. 'Twenty years ago it was much worse, but with Drake, Hawkins, and all the talk of them, many of the country folk know as much of what goes on as do those in London.'
After a bit our course changed, to the south. There was only the small beginning of a plan in my thoughts, something of which my father had told me in one of his odd bits of talk, although nothing he said was ever a careless thing. He had lived too long, close to wars and rebellions, not to expect such things to occur again, and there were times when a man must take shelter. It was with this in mind that he had told me of various places, caves, ruins, coves ... all manner of spots where a man might go in need of hiding.
When I had told Peter to have the ship pick me up off Portland Bill it was this I had in mind, for there was a cave on the seaward side of the Portland isle of which few men knew, a cove large enough to hide a fair-sized vessel, as it had on one or another occasion.
Even local fishermen knew little of it. Although some were aware of a black opening there, they had better things to do than prowl about against the face of dangerous rocks. If I could get there I could remain out of sight until my ship appeared offshore. Then a quick dash, and with luck we'd be aboard unseen.
Tom talked much as we rode, yet I listened with only half an ear, for I'd a feeling there was a troublous time before us. If it was truly believed we had found King John's royal treasure, the search for us would be wide as England.
Riders would have gone out to all the ports and towns, and it behooved us to hold to the back ways, as we had done.
Another night we stopped in a village and bought cheese, bread, and ale. Then we found ourselves a woodcutters' hut in Pamber forest, built a small fire on the hearth, rolled up on the floor in our coats, and went to sleep.
Suddenly, I heard a faint creak. How long had I slept? In an instant my eyes were open. There was someone at the door. Slowly the door was pushed open, and a head appeared, a head and a hand, then a blade.
A man stepped in. Behind him was another. With my left hand I threw back my blanket and with my right I lifted the pistol from my saddle holster.
I heard Tom stir.
'Come in, gentlemen!' I said. 'But please, no quick movements as I've no wish to be cleaning scattered brains from the wall, and my pistol never travels alone.
It has a mate.'
Tom came to his feet near the wall, a cutlass in his hand.
'If you wish, Barnabas, I'll carve a bit of meat for you,' he said.
'Now, now!' The man in the door came a step farther into the hut. 'No need to get your backs up.'
'Stand fast!' I said quietly. 'Tom, throw some fuel on the fire. We'll want to see our guests in a better light.'
With his left hand, Tom threw a handful of brush to start the morning fire on the dying coals. When the fire flared up, he added sticks.
The man in the doorway was blond and smiling, although his leather jerkin was scarred and torn, his shirt almost gone, and there were bloody stains on both shirt and jerkin. The light in his eyes was cheerful.
'Aye!' he said, 'A lucky chance is this! You'll be Barnabas Sackett, and a lot of the devil's trouble you've brought us!'
'Us? Who might you be referring to?'
'Let me get closer to the fire and I'll do some talking. You've naught to fear from us, though we're perhaps the only men in England can say that. What a noise you've raised, my friend! Why, the woods and roads are alive with men, all searching for Barnabas Sackett! What is it you've done, man? Stolen the Crown jewels?'
'Are you followed?' Tom asked. 'Speak up, man!'
'No. We gave them the slip, the ruddy beggars. But not by much, and I'd say that before the day is broad you'd best not be about here. They've roused the country to search for you.'
He squatted by the fire. 'Not four hours agone they came suddenly upon us, rushed in with halberds and blades, even some with forks. We'd a lively set-to there, for a bit, and we lost a lad, but accounted for two or more of them, and some hurt. We drove them off, then we went through the hole in the wall of an old abbey and escaped.' He laughed with satisfaction. 'They thought us surrounded, snug and tight. Tell us, Barnabas. Are you guilty?'
There was no use lying. 'Almost a year back,' I explained, 'I came upon a rotting leather purse, buried in mud on the Devil's Dyke, nigh on to Reach.
There were some gold coins inside. I sold them.'
The blond man stared at me, his eyes twinkling a bit. 'And they think you've found the royal treasure! Have you?' He searched my eyes.
'The gold coins was all, and I think them lost by other means at another time,'
I replied. 'But they'll have me hidden deep in a dungeon at Newgate, trying to torture it out of me, and I have other plans.'
He held out his hand to me. 'Pimmerton Burke is the name. Pim to my friends, and you'll be among them, I hope. I am afraid I cannot vouch for all the scruples of my companion here, but he's a likely lad in a bit of trouble. Sam Cobbett's his name yon. He took a wicked blow on his pate with a club, and he's been addled ever since.'
'Addled? Who says I'm addled?' Cobbett grumbled. 'I'm not so addled as you, Pim, but I'll confess the head aches something fierce.'
Outside, the wind was picking up. Wind blew down the chimney and guttered the fire. We added fuel and huddled closer. These were landless men and probably thieves, wanted, maybe, by the law. Or, worse still, wanted by no one.
Pim looked a good man, but I wanted to test him.
'You know the country about here?' I asked.
'I know it.' He drew in the dust of the floor. 'See? There's an old place, some earthworks ... ditches and a rampart. It is a mile or so, perhaps two miles this side of the village.'
'I think,' I said abruptly, 'that we'll go west.' I got up. 'And we'll go now.'
'Now?' Pim was reluctant.
'Now,' I said.
Sam Cobbett looked up at us. 'Leave a place like this? It's blowing out, and there's rain a'coming. You go if you like. I'm snugged in here, and here I'll stay.'
Pim shrugged. 'I'll go along.'
Outside, we saddled quickly. Pim led off, but when we were scarce a half mile out, I stopped him. 'Now for your earthworks,' I said.
He stared at me, then laughed. 'You don't trust easily,' he said.
'I don't,' I said.
'Well, now. There's a man,' he said, and led off into the driving rain, our cloaks billowing about us, the track slippery beneath.
We came to the earthworks, low green mounds and trees covering several acres.
