Romance

From far above us came a shout, then a confused noise of voices. The moon began to get up; above the cutting the clouds had a fringe of sudden silver. A horseman, cloaked and muffled to the ears, trotted warily towards us.

'What's up?' he hailed from a matter of ten yards. 'What are you showing that glim for? Anything wrong below?'

The runners kept silence; we heard the click of a pistol lock.

'In the King's name,' Lillywhite shouted, 'get off that nag and lend a hand! We've a prisoner.'

The horseman gave an incredulous whistle, and then began to shout, his voice winding mournfully uphill, 'Hallo! Hallo—o—o.' An echo stole back, 'Hallo! Hallo—o—o'; then a number of voices. The horse stood, drooping its head, and the man turned in his saddle. 'Runners,' he shouted, 'Bow Street runners! Come along, come along, boys! We'll roast 'em.... Runners! Runners!'

The sound of heavy horses at a jolting trot came to our ears.

'We're in for it,' Lillywhite grunted. 'D———n this county of Kent.'

Thorns never loosed his hold of my collar. At the steep of the hill the men and horses came into sight against the white sky, a confused crowd of ominous things.

'Turn that lanthorn off'n me,' the horseman said. 'Don't you see you frighten my horse? Now, boys, get round them. . . .'

The great horses formed an irregular half-circle round us; men descended clumsily, like sacks of corn. The lanthorn was seized and flashed upon us; there was a confused hubbub. I caught my own name.

'Yes, I'm Kemp... John Kemp,' I called. 'I'm true blue.'

'Blue be hanged!' a voice shouted back. 'What be you a-doing with runners?'

The riot went on—forty or fifty voices. The runners were seized; several hands caught at me. It was impossible to make myself heard; a fist struck me on the cheek.

'Gibbet 'em,' somebody shrieked; 'they hung my nephew! Gibbet 'em all the three. Young Kemp's mother's a bad 'un. An informer he is. Up with 'em!'

I was pulled down on my knees, then thrust forward, and then left to myself while they rushed to bonnet Lillywhite. I stumbled against a great, quiet farm horse.

A continuous scuffling went on; an imperious voice cried: 'Hold your tongues, you fools! Hold your tongues!...' Someone else called: 'Hear to Jack Rangsley. Hear to him!'

There was a silence. I saw a hand light a torch at the lanthorn, and the crowd of faces, the muddle of limbs, the horses' heads, and the quiet trees above, flickered into sight.

'Don't let them hang me, Jack Rangsley,' I sobbed. 'You know I'm no spy. Don't let 'em hang me, Jack.'

He rode his horse up to me, and caught me by the collar.

'Hold your tongue,' he said roughly. He began to make a set speech, anathematizing runners. He moved to tie our feet, and hang us by our finger-nails over the quarry edge.

A hubbub of assent and dissent went up; then the crowd became unanimous. Rangsley slipped from his horse.

'Blindfold 'em, lads,' he cried, and turned me sharply round.

'Don't struggle,' he whispered in my ear; his silk handkerchief came cool across my eyelids. I felt hands fumbling with a knot at the back of my head. 'You're all right,' he said again. The hubbub of voices ceased suddenly. 'Now, lads, bring 'em along.'

A voice I knew said their watchword, 'Snuff and enough,' loudly, and then, 'What's agate?'

Someone else answered, 'It's Rooksby, it's Sir Ralph.'

The voice interrupted sharply, 'No names, now. I don't want hanging.' The hand left my arm; there was a pause in the motion of the procession. I caught a moment's sound of whispering. Then a new voice cried, 'Strip the runners to the shirt. Strip 'em. That's it.' I heard some groans and a cry, 'You won't murder us.' Then a nasal drawl, 'We will sure—ly.' Someone else, Rangsley, I think, called, 'Bring 'em along—this way now.'

After a period of turmoil we seemed to come out of the crowd upon a very rough, descending path; Rangsley had called out, 'Now, then, the rest of you be off; we've got enough here'; and the hoofs of heavy horses sounded again. Then we came to a halt, and Rangsley called sharply irom close to me:

'Now, you runners—and you, John Kemp—here you be on the brink of eternity, above the old quarry. There's a sheer drop of a hundred feet. We'll tie your legs and hang you by your fingers. If you hang long enough, you'll have time to say your prayers. Look alive, lads!'

The voice of one of the runners began to shout, 'You'll swing for this—you———'

As for me I was in a dream. 'Jack,' I said, 'Jack, you won't——'

'Oh, that's all right,' the voice said in a whisper. 'Mum, now! It's all right.'

It withdrew itself a little from my ear and called, ''Now then, ready with them. When I say three....'

I heard groans and curses, and began to shout for help. My voice came back in an echo, despairingly. Suddenly I was dragged backward, and the bandage pulled from my eyes,

'Come along,' Rangsley said, leading me gently enough to the road, which was five steps behind. 'It's all a joke,' he snarled. 'A pretty bad one for those catchpolls. Hear 'em groan. The drop's not two feet.'

We made a few paces down the road; the pitiful voices of the runners crying for help came plainly to my ears.