Part 11 (1/2)

Don Luis rose. He smoothed a curl, rea.s.sured himself of his diamond, and took control of the situation. ”But no. It does not value the trouble. You have done all you wish with him now?.

Dudley shrugged and looked at Grey. ”More or less..

”Then,” said Don Luis, ”I would prefer much to return the night to Berwick. I shall take him and his friends, and thus there is no need to waste the food. The hostage affair can also begin en seguida,and the questioning gooder organized, no?” He regarded them vivaciously.

Lord Grey became aware that he was dead tired and another hour of the brilliant sefior would undoubtedly drive him crazy. He said with a sort of upheaval of a sigh, ”Well, thefior; if you and your men feel fit to go back, then it would be a great benefit to be rid of the men right away..

Don Luis bowed. ”Bueno. If you will then write me an order for Berwick”Of courthe.” Grey turned to the desk.

Don Luis watched him for a moment, and then murmured delicately to Dudley, ”I fear to beg also the horses from you. The ours were taken and loosed by Sefior Scott, and the his will be needed for him and his men..

Dudley looked doubtful. ”Oh. Can't you manage without? We're short of hacks just now..

Don Luis spread his hands. ”How manage without? We shall send more from Berwick, and meantime there are lesser mouths to feed..

That at least was true. Dudley gave in, and had a word with the Master of Horse, who left the room.

Don Luis bowed.

Woodward bowed.

Myles bowed.

Grey bowed.

Dudley spoke to someone at the door, and two of Don Luis' men, in brave new jerkins, came in smiling and hauled off the inert figure of Scott.

Clamour from the courtyard told of Scott's men being tied to their own horses; of new horses being brought for the Spaniard's troop.

”I depart,” said Don Luis maguificently. ”For the hospitality, for the food, for the beer, for the horses, for the clothing, a million embracings. My dear lord; my dear sir; my dear gentlemen..

Everybody bowed again.

”Adios!” said Don Luis, and left the room.

* * *Long after the last rider had pa.s.sed the portcullis, when all at last was still and Lord Grey was preparing for bed, Dudley came, yawning, to share a last cup of wine with him.

”That d.a.m.ned Don!” They laughed a little, thinking of the tar and feathers. Dudley stretched.

At that moment, the wagon with the culverins blew up.

It was much later when they thought of checking the second wagon. The beer barrels were intact, but contained only brackish water, and one of them a slip of paper, which read pontifically, No es todo oro lo que reluce.

”All is not gold that glisters,” translated Mr. Myles, coming into his own at last.

For a long time they digested the implications in silence. Then Dudley said, rather dazedly, ”They were all impostors. . . . Don Luis. Who was he?.

Grey stared thoughtfully at the smoking wreck of the opposite wall. ”I don't know. But I propothe to dithcuth thith night'th work thoon with William Thcott of Kincurd..

They retired, but not, it is certain, to sleep.

* * *The long string of hors.e.m.e.n was far away from Hume, driving westward, when the moon came up. The need for hard riding made talking impossible for the first ten miles, though a knife, tossed silver from horse to horse, let Scott and his ten men cut their las.h.i.+ngs. Far ahead of the others, Lymond rode in tawny velvet. He had taken off the black wig, but Scott glimpsed his hair, paler than ever above the dyed skin: the nearest view he had had of him since accepting that vicious blow on the face.

He was beaten to the knees, and knew it.

Riding knee to knee with the Cleg, one of the ten whom his own recklessness had nearly killed, he had muttered some sort of apology.

The Cleg had received it with no more than his usual vacant good humour.

”Marry, man, that's just the way it goes,” he'd said. ”The Maister gave us our choice-twa-three hours in jail with you, he said, or ride bare-a.r.s.ed with him an' get a new set o' clothes for it; and mindin' I catch cold easy, I chose to come wi' you. Not but what,” he said warmly, ”I never saw a loon put up wi' all what you put up wi', for a scatterbrain scheme like yon. They must have fair bashed the brains out o' ye..

Scott covered a burning eye with one hand. ”You mean Lymondtold you I'd be asking for volunteers to go to Hume with me?” It was, of course, impossible. He had only decided yesterday to contradict Lymond's own express orders not to go to the castle.

The Cleg said, ”Ay, like I told you. He gave us all our choice, an' told us forbye you'd maybe not let on the plan to us, as you'd likely take a fair bas.h.i.+ng.” He smiled cheerfully. ”I ken you dma think we'd keep our mouths shut, but ye'll admit we did ye proud the day..

”You did indeed,” said Scott, and turned his head away from the ungrudging admiration in the Cleg's eyes.

At ten miles, they overtook Mat with the pack horses, Lymond's own bunch of riding hacks, their clothes, and the remaining cart: the genuine English prisoners were already, Scott gathered, on their way, bound, to Meirose-the job ostensibly given to himself.

In the short breathing s.p.a.ce before they set off again, Scott dismounted and, moving stiffly, walked forward to where Turkey and the Master were having a brief conversation.

”S'wounds,” said Mat. He eyed Scott's face. ”It looks to me as if someone has sat on our William..

The Master turned, pa.s.s.e.m.e.nterie glittering. He might have changed s.e.x, so complete was the change from the haughty, choleric Don.

”Barbarossa! We are covered with admiration. An actor manqu~, my dear, to convince them so thoroughly that you expected to perish directly. You have had,” he said inquiringly, ”a little accident to the mouth?.

Busy as they were, the men around them were not deaf: the nearest, taking the remark at its face value, grinned sympathetically at Scott. It was obvious they had all known of the double plan-except him. Obvious, too, that they a.s.sumed to a man that he knew as well.

So there it was. First, corporal punishment, carefully applied. Next, spiritual chastis.e.m.e.nt-and not the obvious, open ridicule. Not with Lymond. Instead, the dreadful humiliation of accepting his own reputation, intact, from the chastising hand. That, and the corollary that Lymond found him so inconsiderable that he could cheerfully add to his stature.

What now? Reject the heroic role Lymond had prepared for him? He could explain that the Master had goaded him into a private attempt to take Grey: had made an opportunity for him to do it; had foreseen that he would bungle it; and had in fact based his entire plan on that certainty . . . and on the genuineness of the apprehension that he, Scott, would betray inside Hume. He could easily say all that,and earn himself the biggest guffaw since Cuckoo-spit hooked his own ears at the salmon.

Young Scott heaved a long sigh, and meeting the sardonic blue eye, said flatly, ”Not an actor, an apprentice . . . but I hope to learn. And one day to be able to play without the gift of a p.a.w.n..

The glittering eyes appraised him. ”Certainly. But next time take care, or you may be receiving the Bishop, with appropriate rites. Any questions?.

One puzzle still nagged. ”How,” asked Scott, ”did you know that the leader of the supplies would be Spanish?.

The Master raised weary eyebrows. ”He wasn't..

That was all the conversation he ever had on the subject; and soon they were safely back at their tower. Drinking went on for two days after the barrels were broached; and Will Scott made a point of surfacing into sobriety as little as possible.

Amid the brawling, dancing, chorusing and squabbling, he was aware of Lymond, totally and grossly drunk, with the tawny velvet creased and stained with beer and food. He appeared to be in amatory mood, and was singing long Spanish love songs to his own accompaniment on the guitar.

Forced Movefor a Minor PieceEfter also yis pownis first movingFrome poynt to poynt ye course furth sail bring,And never pa.s.s to poynts angularBut sa it be to sla his adversarThe quhilk is lyk, be his pa.s.sing yan,In anguler wyss, to spuize sum pur man.

A NEWS will, news of the hoax at Hume got out.

By breakfast time on the second day, a kind of collective sn.i.g.g.e.r, moving downwind from the castle to Edinburgh and points west, betrayed the progress of the story: the discovery of the entire English troop bound and frozen outside Melrose Abbey swelled the sn.i.g.g.e.r to a belly laugh.