“And how do you know I won’t blab and get you and your fellows the rope?” asked Jerry bravely.
“Because we’ve sized you up, we ’as, and we don’t suspect you of treachery. If we did, it wouldn’t much matter to us, though I should be right sorry to have been disappointed in you, for I declare I don’t know when I took to a young man like I ’as to you. You’re my fancy, you are, Jerry. Just like I was at your age. Mad for adventure and for the life of real men.”
“Yes, but just supposin’ that I did disappoint you, Mister Sexton? It’s well to hear all sides, you know.”
“Aye, it’s well and wise, too, and I’ll tell you. If it was to your advantage to betray us—to that captain p’raps—well, I daresay you’d do it now, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know,” said Jerk; “all depends. P’raps I might, though. You never knows, does you?”
“No, you never knows. Quite right. But you’d know one thing: that go where you would, or hide where you liked, we’d get you in time, and when we did get you it ’ud be short shrift for you—you may lay to that.”
“I daresay,” said Jerry, “unless, of course, I got you first.”
“You’d have a good number to get, my lad,” laughed the sexton. “But it’s no use a-harguin’ like this. You won’t betray us when it don’t serve your turn to do so, and it won’t do that, ’cos we has very fine prospects open for you, and advantages. Why, we can set you in the way of rollin’ in a coach before we’ve done with you, and who knows, years hence, when you’re older than you be now, who knows but what you might not succeed to the headship. If anything was to happen to the great chief wot’s to prevent you from takin’ his place, eh? You’re smart, ain’t you? There’s no gainsay in’ that, now, is there, Missus Waggetts?”
“No, indeed,” replied that lady.
“Then take my tip, the straight tip of an old gentleman o’ fortune, and you join us.”
“What’ll I have to do and what is it I’m a-joinin’, though?” asked the boy.
“The great scheme of wool-runnin’,” said Mr. Mipps.
“Ah,” sighed Jerry, “I thought as much. And what am I to do, always supposin’ that I’m willin’ to join?”
“We’ve a vacancy in the horsemen—a man short, you see, though we’ve got the horse. It’s Mr. Rash’s horse, but we’ve turned out the schoolmaster and kept his horse. He weren’t one of us, you see, so we found that we didn’t want him no more.”
“You’ve killed him?” cried the hangman, starting up.
“I didn’t say that,” retorted the sexton. “I merely remarked that we didn’t want him no more. And now just give me your attention. I’ve every reason to believe, and so has the great chief that I work for, that you are gettin’ very thick with that swab of a King’s captain. Well, now, don’t go suddenly a-givin’ him the cold shoulder, do you see? You can’t drop a friend all at once like a hot potato without excitin’ the gossip and suspicion of folk; so remember what I says and keep civil to him. But it’s my opinion that after tonight you’ll know which side you be on, for once get the thrill of the demon ride and you’ll not want to get dismissed. Besides, gettin’ dismissed by our chief ain’t exactly what you might term a pleasant form of bein’ entertained.”
“And what do I do, Mister Sexton?”
“You’ll get told all in good time.”
“But what do the demon riders do?” persisted the boy.
“Frighten folk from the Marsh when the ponies are trottin’ under the wool packs.”
“And where do the wool packs come from?”
“From nearly every farm on the Marsh.”
“And they put it all in packs and send ’em down to the coast?”
“That’s the ticket, my lad. Pack ’em all up on ponies and bring back coffins full of spirit from France.”
“Coffins full of spirit from France?” repeated the amazed boy.
“Yes, that’s why I’m a coffin-maker. What would you expect to see inside a nailed-up coffin, eh?”
“Why, a dead ’un,” said the boy.
“Exactly; and as folk ain’t particular fond of amusin’ themselves with a sight of dead ’uns they lets my coffins alone, do you see, and the spirit is treated with every respect and is allowed to go on its way very snug and all knocked up most particular solid.”
“And the head of it all’s the squire, is it?”
“I never said so,” replied the sexton quickly; “but the less you think and say on that subject the better, for those who know the identity of the great chief would sooner have their eyes put out than betray him; so don’t you hamper your young career with thinkin’ about it. All you’ve got to do is to obey.”
“And what do I get out of it?”
“Gold and the time of your life.”
“And when do I start?”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight?” faltered Jerk much relieved, for he had thought of his promise to help the captain, and was greatly thankful that the dates had not clashed.
“At half-past twelve at Old Tree Cottage; but don’t go to the coffin-shop side. Tap at the back kitchen window.”
“And half-past twelve, you say?”
“That’s the time,” answered Mipps, holding out his hands and seizing Jerk’s in both his. “And I can tell at a glance that your a-goin’ to be a credit to the undertakin’.”
And a minute afterward he was gone and Jerk was sent by Mrs. Waggetts into the bar to polish up the tankards.
XXIV
The Coffin-Maker Has a Visitor
About noon of the same day Captain Collyer, in walking through the village, found himself passing Old Tree Cottage, the low-lying residence of Sexton Mipps, with its coffin shop facing the street and its small farmhouse behind. Attracted by a great noise of hammering, the captain stepped up to the window and glanced in. Rows
