Part 64 (2/2)

_CHAPTER VIII_

_ROADSIDE INN_

_Moor._ Take my horse, and dash a bottle of wine over him. 'Twas hot work.

SCHILLER: _The Robbers_.

We will now make inquiries after Mr. Coates and his party, of whom both we and d.i.c.k Turpin have for some time lost sight. With unabated ardor the vindictive man of law and his myrmidons pressed forward. A tacit compact seemed to have been entered into between the highwayman and his pursuers, that he was to fly while they were to follow. Like bloodhounds, they kept steadily upon his trail; nor were they so far behind as d.i.c.k imagined. At each post-house they pa.s.sed they obtained fresh horses, and, while these were saddling, a postboy was despatched _en courrier_ to order relays at the next station. In this manner they proceeded after the first stoppage without interruption. Horses were in waiting for them, as they, ”b.l.o.o.d.y with spurring, fiery hot with haste,”

and their jaded hacks arrived. Turpin had been heard or seen in all quarters. Turnpike-men, waggoners, carters, trampers, all had seen him.

Besides, strange as it may sound, they placed some faith in his word.

York they believed would be his destination.

At length the coach which d.i.c.k had encountered hove in sight. There was another stoppage and another hubbub. The old gentleman's nightcap was again manifested, and suffered a sudden occultation, as upon the former occasion. The postboy, who was in advance, had halted, and given up his horse to Major Mowbray, who exchanged his seat on the box for one on the saddle, deeming it more expedient, after his interview with Turpin, to return to Rookwood, rather than to proceed to town. The postboy was placed behind Coates, as being the lightest weight; and, thus reinforced, the party pushed forward as rapidly as heretofore.

Eighty and odd miles had now been traversed--the boundary of another county, Northampton, pa.s.sed; yet no rest nor respite had d.i.c.k Turpin or his unflinching mare enjoyed. But here he deemed it fitting to make a brief halt.

Bordering the beautiful domains of Burleigh House stood a little retired hostelry of some antiquity, which bore the great Lord Treasurer's arms.

With this house d.i.c.k was not altogether unacquainted. The lad who acted as ostler was known to him. It was now midnight, but a bright and beaming night. To the door of the stable then did he ride, and knocked in a peculiar manner. Reconnoitering d.i.c.k through a broken pane of gla.s.s in the lintel, and apparently satisfied with his scrutiny, the lad thrust forth a head of hair as full of straw as Mad Tom's is represented to be upon the stage. A chuckle of welcome followed his sleepy salutation. ”Glad to see you, Captain Turpin,” said he; ”can I do anything for you?”

”Get me a couple of bottles of brandy and a beefsteak,” said d.i.c.k.

”As to the brandy, you can have that in a jiffy--but the steak, Lord love you, the old ooman won't stand it at this time; but there's a cold round, mayhap a slice of that might do--or a knuckle of ham?”

”A pest on your knuckles, Ralph,” cried d.i.c.k; ”have you any raw meat in the house?”

”Raw meat!” echoed Ralph, in surprise. ”Oh, yes, there's a rare rump of beef. You can have a cut off that, if you like.”

”That's the thing I want,” said d.i.c.k, ungirthing his mare. ”Give me the sc.r.a.per. There, I can get a whisp of straw from your head. Now run and get the brandy. Better bring three bottles. Uncork 'em, and let me have half a pail of water to mix with the spirit.”

”A pail full of brandy and water to wash down a raw steak! My eyes!”

exclaimed Ralph, opening wide his sleepy peepers; adding, as he went about the execution of his task, ”I always thought them Rum-padders, as they call themselves, rum fellows, but now I'm sartin sure on it.”

The most sedulous groom could not have bestowed more attention upon the horse of his heart than d.i.c.k Turpin now paid to his mare. He sc.r.a.ped, chafed, and dried her, sounded each muscle, traced each sinew, pulled her ears, examined the state of her feet, and, ascertaining that her ”withers were un-wrung,” finally washed her from head to foot in the diluted spirit, not, however, before he had conveyed a thimbleful of the liquid to his own parched throat, and replenished what Falstaff calls a ”pocket-pistol,” which he had about him. While Ralph was engaged in rubbing her down after her bath, d.i.c.k occupied himself, not in dressing the raw steak in the manner the stable-boy had antic.i.p.ated, but in rolling it round the bit of his bridle.

”She will now go as long as there's breath in her body,” said he, putting the flesh-covered iron within her mouth.

The saddle being once more replaced, after champing a moment or two at the bit, Bess began to snort and paw the earth, as if impatient of delay; and, acquainted as he was with her indomitable spirit and power, her condition was a surprise even to d.i.c.k himself. Her vigor seemed inexhaustible, her vivacity was not a whit diminished, but, as she was led into the open s.p.a.ce, her step became as light and free as when she started on her ride, and her sense of sound as quick as ever. Suddenly she p.r.i.c.ked her ears, and uttered a low neigh. A dull tramp was audible.

”Ha!” exclaimed d.i.c.k, springing into his saddle; ”they come.”

”Who come, captain?” asked Ralph.

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