Part 27 (1/2)
The swift-footed Dian of Windy Standard had only been away a minute or two before she came flying back like the wind.
”She-won't-give-us-any-unless-we-tell-her-what-it-is-for!” she panted, all in one long word.
”Rats!” said Hugh John contemptuously, ”ask her where she was last Friday week at eleven o'clock at night!”
The Divine Huntress flitted away again on winged feet, and in a trice was back with three hairpins, still glossy from their recent task of supporting the well-oiled hair of Jane Housemaid.
With quick supple hand Billy twisted the wire this way and that, tried the padlock once, and then deftly bent the ductile metal again with a pair of small pincers. The wards clicked promptly back, and lo! the padlock was hanging by its curved tongue. The other was stiffer with rust, but was opened in the same way. The besiegers were thus in possession of two fine transports in which to convey their army to the scene of conflict.
It was the plan of the General that the men under Billy Blythe should fill the larger of the two boats, and drop secretly down the left channel till they were close under the walls of the castle. The enemy, being previously alarmed by the beating of drums and the musketry fire on the land side, would never expect to be taken in the rear, and probably would not have a single soldier stationed there.
Indeed, towards the Edam Water, the walls of the keep rose thirty or forty feet into the air without an aperture wide enough to thrust an arm through. So that the need of defence on that side was not very apparent to the most careful captain. But at the south-west corner, one of the flanking turrets had been overthrown, though there still remained several steps of a descent into the water. But so high was the river on this occasion, that it lapped against the masonry of the outer defences. To this point then, apparently impregnable, the formidable division under Billy Blythe was to make its way.
There was nothing very martial about the appearance of these sons of the tent and caravan.
The Bounding Brothers wore their trick dresses, and as for the rest, they were simply and comprehensively arrayed in s.h.i.+rt and trousers.
Not a weapon, not a sash, not a stick, sword, nor gun broke the harmonious simplicity of the gipsy army.
Yet it was evident that they knew something which gave them secret confidence, for all the time they were in a state of high glee, only partially suppressed by the authority of their leader, and by the necessity for care in manning the boat with so large a crew. There were fourteen who were to adventure forth under Billy's pennon.
To the former a.s.sailants of the Black Sheds there had been added a stout and willing soldier from the gardens of Windy Standard,--a boy named Gregory (or more popularly Gregory's Mixture), together with a forester lad, who was called Craw-bogle Tam from his former occupation of scaring the crows out of the corn. Sammy Carter had been cas.h.i.+ered some time ago by the Commander-in-chief, but nevertheless he appeared with three cousins all armed with dog-whips, which Sammy a.s.sured Hugh John were the deadliest of weapons at close quarters. Altogether it was a formidable array.
The boat for the attack on the land side was so full that there remained no room for Toady Lion. That young gentleman promptly sat down on the landing-stage, and sent up a howl which in a few moments would certainly have brought down Janet Sheepshanks and all the curbing powers from the house, had he not been committed to the care of Prissy, with public instructions to get him some toffy and a private order to take him into the town, and keep him there till the struggle was over.
Prissy went off with Sir Toady Lion, both in high glee.
”I'se going round by the white bwidge--so long, everybody! I'll be at the castle as soon as you!” he cried as he departed.
Hugh John sighed a sigh of relief when he saw them safely off the muster-ground. Cissy, however, was coming on board as soon as ever the boat was ready to start. She had been posted to watch the movements of the household of Windy Standard, and would report at the last moment.
”All right,” she cried from her watch-tower among the whins, ”Prissy and Toady Lion are round the corner, and Janet Sheepshanks has just gone into the high garden to get parsley.”
”Up anchors,” cried Hugh John solemnly, ”the hour has come!”
Mike and Billy tossed the padlock chains into the bottom of the boats and pushed off. There were no anchors, but the mistake was permissible to a simple soldier like General Napoleon Smith.
CHAPTER x.x.xIII.
TOADY LION'S SECOND LONE HAND.
Edam Water ran swiftly, surging and pus.h.i.+ng southward on its way to the sea. It was brown and drumly with a wrack of twigs and leaves, s.n.a.t.c.hed from the low branches of the hazels and alders which fringed its banks. It fretted and elbowed, frothing like yeast about the landing-place from which the two boat-loads were to set out for the attack.
General Napoleon Smith, equipped with sword and sash, sat in the stern of the first, in order to steer, while Prince Michael O'Donowitch stood on the jetty and held the boat's head. The others sat still in their places till the General gave the word. The eager soldiery vented their feelings in a great shout. Cissy Carter took her place with a flying leap just as the rope was cast off, and the fateful voyage began.
At first there was little to be done save in the way of keeping the vessel's head straight, for the Edam Water, swirling and brown with the mountain rains, hurried her towards the island with almost too great speed. With a rush they pa.s.sed the wide gap between the unsubmerged stones of the causeway, at which point the boldest held his breath. The beach of pebbles was immediately beyond. But they were not to be allowed to land without a struggle; for there, directly on their front, appeared the ma.s.sed forces of the enemy, occupying the high bluff behind, and prepared to prevent the disembarkation by a desperate fusillade of stones and turf.
It was in this hour of peril that the soldierly qualities of the leader again came out most strongly.