Cursed be the treasure
dark, for in his drunken state he might easily lay his hand upon me.
Moreover, he would probably lock the door, if he could manage to fit
the key into the hole, and then pocket the key; and escape would then
be more precarious, as I would have to go by the front entrance where
the doorkeeper might hear me.
Quickly I made up my mind what to do. I could see Staggers stupidly
lurching as he fumbled at the lock. I jerked open the door behind me,
and throwing my full weight upon Staggers sent him toppling backwards
through the doorway and bundling down the stairs; and as his body
thumped and tumbled below me, I flung to the door and locked it; then
turned and escaped into the night.
For a while I fled as though in a panic; then finding myself clear of
the village I rested to recover my breath. What was I to do? Where was
I to go? Should I press straight on as far as I could? But I became
aware of a tiredness and stiffness of my whole body. I had been starved
and tortured, and would probably collapse if I tried to go far without
food. So I decided to make for Sunset Towers. I could hide there for
the next day while the hunt was out. The Captain wouldn't give me
up even if enquiries were made for me there. So I set off again, so
weary that even the few miles ahead seemed a year's journey. But the
thought of Staggers locked for the night in his own prison brought me
wonderful consolation. I only hoped he wasn't too drunk to taste to
the full the evil horrors of darkness.
I didn't realize till I rose again and started on my way how much I
had had to endure during those few days in the cell. The short rest by
the road-side left every muscle stiffened as though run into a mould
and set. And with the friction of my clothes the wounds across my back
were chafed into an agonizing tenderness, so that with stiffness and
soreness every step was a double torment. I was weak and exhausted
too from want of food, and I yearned to lie down on the heath and
rest again; but I dared not. I knew my stiffness would increase upon
me tenfold, and I feared lest sleep should overtake me. And with that
thought I hurried forwards, for I knew if I fell asleep I should
be found by the officers, and I shuddered with naked terror at the
possibility of being recaptured and haled back to torture. The new
taste of freedom, with the prospect of the _Dolphin_ and my father only
a week's tramp away, set the dread of imprisonment in black relief,
till the fear of it became a haunting terror at my heels to spur me
forward in spite of aches and pains. So I stepped on as swiftly as I
could, crying with the agony of the rough clothes against my raw back,
for indeed they seemed like rasps grating at my very bones.
Before I reached Sunset Towers I was alarmed to see the east growing
white with the morning. I hadn't realized what a time I had spent
filing through my chains, nor indeed how laggingly I had crept the few
miles from Rancey Bridge. For I was staggering now in a crazy zigzag,
unconscious of everything except the goal before me and the need to
reach it without delay.
At last I touched the gate, where for a moment I leant against the
post swaying dizzily, then with an effort passed on again for the last
few steps, instinctively making for Jenny's window. And there indeed
my strength failed me. I fell to the earth clutching at the ivy, and
calling with what voice I could summon, "Jenny, Jenny, come and let me
in."
I sank on the ground and waited, so weary that almost with the uttering
of my cry for help I would have been asleep. But Jenny had heard me.
The window was flung up, and she called quietly down, "Tommy, is that
you?"
"Jenny," I said, but couldn't speak another word.
Her instinct must have told her I was at my last gasp, for she didn't
stay to question me. In a moment she was out of the house and at my
side, and her firm little arms were about me helping me to stand, and
leaning on her heavily I managed to totter in and collapsed on a chair
in the dining-room beside the empty grate.
After this things passed in a maze for some while. Jenny must have
brought me some food and wine, and somehow supported me up the stairs
to her room; for presently I found myself lying snugly in bed, and with
the fading vision of her face bent above me sank into a wonderful sleep.
There was nothing more the matter with me than exhaustion, for when I
awoke later in the day, though I still felt stiff and somewhat shaky
about the head, yet I had lost the stupid sense of weakness which
had sent me tottering down the road from Rancey Bridge. My strength
had returned to me, and even the soreness had gone from my back. But
putting my hand to the place I discovered why; it was swathed in
comfortable bandages.
At the movement Jenny was at my side, and I put out my hand to her.
"Better, Tommy?" she asked in a voice of such concern that I
didn't know whether to laugh or cry, for there was something so
disconcertingly touching in her wide anxious eyes, usually so fierce,
that I felt a strange emotion shake me. I couldn't decide whether it
was pleasant or painful; but as I lay there and felt her little fingers
about my brow there seemed to be something very wonderful about it all.
For I had no desire to get strong and well again if I might have Jenny
to tend and comfort me like this.
But the weakness was only momentary, for I felt a sudden shame at the
unmanly sentiment; and putting Jenny's hands aside, rather roughly I'm
afraid, I sat up and said, "There, that's enough." I jumped out of
bed, pretending to feel nothing of my aches and soreness, though still
acutely conscious of them.
Jenny fell back with a little "Oh!" and her eyes grew harder.
Perhaps I felt a slight compunction at having so churlishly repaid
her care and tenderness, but that unpleasant sense of shame at having
yielded to a weak and babyish emotion wouldn't let me tell her how
dearly I held her. But it pained me to see her standing away from me,
surveying me gloomily, stroking her hands together as though I had hurt
them. I wanted to say something to set all right again, but all I could
say was, "I must be quick, Jenny." I began pulling on my clothes, for
some one had undressed me.
Then she smiled at me, and I felt relieved; for there had seemed for a
moment the menace of thunder in the air, but now I knew the storm had
blown over.
"Let me help you," she said, as I struggled against my stiffness,
reaching round for the sleeve of my jacket. And soon I was dressed and
armed again, and felt like a man.
I took a turn up and down the room to reassure myself that I was indeed
master of my faculties; and then would have opened the door and gone
downstairs. But Jenny stopped me, saying, "You can't go yet, Tommy."
She gripped my arm and pulled me back.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Not yet," was all she answered.
"But why?" I pressed in growing surprise.
She watched me silently for a moment or two, then said, "Well, I'll
tell you, Tommy. You see.... But are you hungry?" she broke off.
The sudden question seemed to create as sudden an appetite. I said I
was, very hungry. She told me to stay there, and cautiously left the
room, and after a while came tripping lightly back with half a meat pie
and a bottle of wine under her arm.
"There," she said, laying down the spoils, "I'll tell you while you
eat." So I set to with a relish, while Jenny told me the story of the
day's happenings.
Firstly, it seems, Worthing had arrived the day before and had told the
Captain, who had been fretting at my sudden disappearance, the cause of
it; and he had gone to Rancey Bridge to enquire into the matter. That
had given the authorities the information they had been wanting; but in
spite of the Captain's appeals they wouldn't release me. However, he
had made a fresh attempt that morning, and there had been a splendid
battle; but again he had failed to recover me. Then shortly after he
had left the school my flight must have been discovered, as it would
have been earlier had not Staggers been imprisoned and so unable to
report my escape. What had happened to Worthing I could only surmise,
for Jenny said nothing of the matter, and listening to her story I had
little leisure to think deeply of his case. I suffered a passing pang
on his account, and forgot him.
Jenny had been alarmed to see her father returning in a terrified
state; and rushing up the stairs he had vanished into his room where
he had locked himself in muttering, "The officers! the officers!" It
must have been almost immediately after his visit that my escape was
discovered, and the officers had followed straight away on his track
expecting to find me at his house. I didn't trouble to question exactly
why he had been terrified; I was anxious to know what had happened to
the officers. Evidently they had been met at the door by the impassive
Abou, and quietly hushed away.
Meanwhile Jenny had kept my presence in her room a profound secret.
That had been her little romance, and she had wanted it all to herself.
So I must wait, she told me, till the night came, and then I could
escape in safety.
I think her story and my meal ended simultaneously, for as I pushed
away my plate, licking in the clinging fragments from my lips, she
sat down beside me with a plump of her little body, and said, "There,
Tommy; and I watched you sleep, oh, so long. But I like to see your
eyes."
Again I felt that unpleasant and unaccountable awkwardness, and
sniggered rather stupidly. Jenny relieved the situation by exclaiming
suddenly, "I don't hate Worthing any more."
"Ah, Worthing!" I ejaculated; and again I was wrung with doubt as to
what had happened to him when my escape had become known. Had he first
made good his own retreat? Somehow I didn't think so. It wasn't like
Worthing to run away. Well, they would have little mercy on him.
"He told me, Tommy," Jenny went on with hesitation, and finished, "what
you wouldn't tell me."
"Ah," I said.
Then she suddenly sprang up, her eyes blazing, her fists clenched in
the manner I knew well, and said with fierce vigour, "Yes, I know what
they did to you. And I've seen too. I hate them. Oh, how I _hate_ them!"
"It's their way," I said.
"But they won't catch you again, will they, Tommy?" She put her hands
on my shoulders and said, "Promise?" as I had heard her say it twice
before.
I laughed, and answered, "It won't be my fault if they do."
"Ah!..." Her hands dropped.
"And Worthing came and told you," I said; my thoughts again reverting
to my friend with his strange loyalty, sometimes so considerate,
sometimes so cruel.
Jenny answered, "He just said, 'They lock him up in a dark cell. They
give him a crust and water three times a day. And they flog him naked
every morning.' That's what he said. And he looked at me, and I could
see it."
I could hear the words as Worthing would have said them. Just the plain
facts of the case, and nothing more.
"Yes," I said, musing; then, "Well, it's over, and I shan't go back
again. And to-night I'll be off, Jenny."
She turned to a drawer and took out a bundle neatly folded and
strapped, and said, "Here's your things. There's some food. And here's
some money." She gave me a golden guinea.
"Jenny!" I exclaimed.
"You'll need it," she said simply.
"But I'll never spend it," I declared, again under the power of that
unnerving emotion. "I shall keep this as long as I live."
It was Jenny herself who dashed my ardour. "You'll keep it," she said,
"till you're hungry."
But I registered a silent vow to keep it for ever in memory of my
little playmate. I put it carefully in my inmost pocket.
And so we talked together. I told Jenny how I had escaped, and what
Worthing had done for my sake. And as I told the story I realized more