Part 5 (1/2)
”Aye, and you'll be sorrier yet There's the Governor with an attack of gout, screa like a wounded horse, and you nowhere to be found Be off, man - aith you at speed to Government House! You're awaited, I tell you Best lend hi there”
They bustled hi al was unfortunate; but after all not beyond reht, and he should easily be back by then Heto make all haste
”How shall I reenter the stockade, sir?” he enquired at parting
”You'll not reenter it,” said Bishop ”When they've done with you at Govern”
Peter Blood's heart sank like a stone through water
”But” he began
”Be off, I say Will you stand there talking until dark? His excellency is waiting for you” And with his cane Colonel Bishop slashed the horse's quarters so brutally that the beast bounded forward all but unseating her rider
Peter Blood went off in a state ofon despair And there was occasion for it A postponeht was necessary now, and postponement mustof questions it would be difficult to answer
It was in his ht, once his work at Government House were done, and from the outside of the stockade make known to Pitt and the others his presence, and so have theht still be carried out But in this he reckoned without the Governor, whoout, and almost as severe an attack of temper nourished by Blood's delay
The doctor was kept in constant attendance upon hiht, when at last he was able to ease the sufferer a little by a bleeding Thereupon he would have withdrawn But Steed would not hear of it Blood must sleep in his own chamber to be at hand in case of need It was as if Fate ht at least the escape must be definitely abandoned
Not until the early hours of thea teround that he required certain medicaments which he must, himself, procure from the apothecary
On that pretext, he ht to Nuttall, whom he found in a state of livid panic The unfortunate debtor, who had sat up waiting through the night, conceived that all was discovered and that his own ruin would be involved Peter Blood quieted his fears
”It will be for to-night instead,” he said, with more assurance than he felt, ”if I have to bleed the Governor to death Be ready as last night”
”But if there are questions meanwhile?” bleated Nuttall He was a thin, pale, small-featured, man eak eyes that now blinked desperately
”Answer as best you can Use your wits, er” And Peter went off to the apothecary for his pretexted drugs
Within an hour of his going came an officer of the Secretary's to Nuttall's miserable hovel The seller of the boat had - as by law required since the co of the rebels-convict - duly reported the sale at the Secretary's office, so that he ht obtain the reimbursement of the ten-pound surety into which every keeper of a small boat was compelled to enter The Secretary's office postponed this reimbursement until it should have obtained confirmation of the transaction
”We are inforht a wherry from Mr Robert Farrell,” said the officer
”That is so,” said Nuttall, who conceived that for him this was the end of the world
”You are in no haste, it seems, to declare the same at the Secretary's office” The ehtiness
Nuttall's weak eyes blinked at a redoubled rate
”To to declare it?”
”Ye know it's the law”
”I I didn't, may it please you”
”But it's in the proclamation published last January”
”I I can't read, sir I I didn't know”
”Faugh!” The er withered him with his disdain
”Well, now you're informed See to it that you are at the Secretary's office before noon with the ten pounds surety into which you are obliged to enter”
The po Nuttall in a cold perspiration despite the heat of theHe was thankful that the fellow had not asked the question he most dreaded, which was how he, a debtor, should come by the money to buy a wherry But this he kneas only a respite The question would presently be asked of a certainty, and then hell would open for him He cursed the hour in which he had been such a fool as to listen to Peter Blood's chatter of escape He thought it very likely that the whole plot would be discovered, and that he would probably be hanged, or at least branded and sold into slavery like those other damned rebels-convict, hom he had been so mad as to associate himself If only he had the ten pounds for this infernal surety, which until this moment had never entered into their calculations, it was possible that the thing ht be done quickly and questions postponed until later As the Secretary's ht the others at the Secretary's office, at least for a day or two; and in that time he would, he hoped, be beyond the reach of their questions But in the meantime as to be done about this money? And it was to be found before noon!
Nuttall snatched up his hat, and went out in quest of Peter Blood But where look for hiular, unpaved street, he ventured to enquire of one or two if they had seen Dr Blood thatnone so well, and indeed his appearance bore out the deception None could give him information; and since Blood had never told him of Whacker's share in this business, he walked in his unhappy ignorance past the door of the one erly have saved hio up to Colonel Bishop's plantation Probably Blood would be there If he were not, Nuttall would find Pitt, and leave a e with him He was acquainted with Pitt and knew of Pitt's share in this business His pretext for seeking Blood must still be that he needed medical assistance
And at the same ti heat, to cli out fro so far eased the Governor's condition as to be per mounted, he would, but for an unexpected delay, have reached the stockade ahead of Nuttall, in which case several unhappy events ht have been averted The unexpected delay was occasioned by Miss Arabella Bishop
They arden of Government House, and Miss Bishop, herself mounted, stared to see Peter Blood on horseback It happened that he was in good spirits The fact that the Governor's condition had so far improved as to restore him his freedom of movement had sufficed to re for the past twelve hours and her far than present circumstances warranted He was disposed to be optiain to-night What was a day, after all? The Secretary's office ht be troublesome, but not really troublesome for another twenty-four hours at least; and by then they would be well away
This joyous confidence of his was his first ood spirits were also shared by Miss Bishop, and that she bore no rancour The two things conjoined to make the delay that in its consequences was so deplorable
”Good-, sir,” she hailed him pleasantly ”It's close upon a month since last I saw you”
”Twenty-one days to the hour,” said he ”I've counted the to believe you dead”
”I have to thank you for the wreath”
”The wreath?”
”To deck ?” she wondered, and looked at hi on the last occasion had driven her away in dudgeon
”A o mad,” said he ”Few realize it That is why there are so h at yourself all you will, sir But soh atI laugh only at the comic, and you are not co
A moment he pondered her, so fair and fresh to behold, so entirely maidenly and yet so entirely frank and unabashed
”You are,” he said, ”the niece of the htly that she was encouraged to insistence
”Nay, sir, that is an evasion You shall answer ”
”Truthfully? To answer you at all is a labour But to answer truthfully! Oh, well, now, I should say of you that he'll be lucky who counts you his friend” It was in his hty civil,” said she ”You've a nice taste in compliments, Mr Blood Another in your place”
”Faith, now, don't I knohat another would have said? Don't I know my fellow-man at all?”
”Sometimes I think you do, and sometimes I think you don't Anyway, you don't know your fellooman There was that affair of the Spaniards”