Part 35 (1/2)

”I am come to meet Mr. Oldham,” he said, ”and to give him a message; and this is it, 'Come, for all things are now ready!'”

”My dear boy,” said James, stopping short, ”you must forgive me; but what in the world do you mean by that?”

”I come from Mr. Roger,” said Anthony, ”you need not be afraid. He has had an accident and sent for me.”

”Mr. Roger?” said James interrogatively.

”Yes,” said Anthony, ”he hath a patch over one eye; and stutters somewhat.”

James gave a sigh of relief.

”My dear boy,” he said, ”I cannot thank you enough. You know what it means then?”

”Why, yes,” said Anthony.

”And you a Protestant, and in the Archbishop's household?”

”Why, yes,” said Anthony, ”and a Christian and your friend.”

”G.o.d bless you, Anthony,” said the priest; and took his hand and pressed it.

They were pa.s.sing out now under the west door, and stood together for a moment looking at the lights down Ludgate Hill. The houses about Amen Court stood up against the sky to their right.

”I must not stay,” said Anthony, ”I must fetch my horse and be back at Lambeth for evening prayers at six. He is stabled at the Palace here.”

”Well, well,” said the priest, ”I thank G.o.d that there are true hearts like yours. G.o.d bless you again my dear boy--and--and make you one of us some day!”

Anthony smiled at him a little tremulously, for the grat.i.tude and the blessing of this man was dear to him; and after another hand grasp, he turned away to the right, leaving the priest still half under the shadow of the door looking after him.

He had done his errand promptly and discreetly.

CHAPTER VIII

THE Ma.s.sING-HOUSE

Newman's Court lay dark and silent under the stars on Sunday morning a little after four o'clock. The gloomy weather of the last three or four days had pa.s.sed off in heavy battalions of sullen sunset clouds on the preceding evening, and the air was full of frost. By midnight thin ice was lying everywhere; pendants of it were beginning to form on the overhanging eaves; and streaks of it between the cobble-stones that paved the court. The great city lay in a frosty stillness as of death.

The patrol pa.s.sed along Cheapside forty yards away from the entrance of the court, a little after three o'clock; and a watchman had cried out half an hour later, that it was a clear night; and then he too had gone his way. The court itself was a little rectangular enclosure with two entrances, one to the north beneath the arch of a stable that gave on to Newman's Pa.s.sage, which in its turn opened on to St. Giles' Lane that led to Cheapside; the other, at the further end of the long right-hand side, led by a labyrinth of pa.s.sages down in the direction of the wharfs to the west of London Bridge. There were three houses to the left of the entrance from Newman's Pa.s.sage; the back of a ware-house faced them on the other long side with the door beyond; and the other two sides were respectively formed by the archway of the stable with a loft over it, and a blank high wall at the opposite end.

A few minutes after four o'clock the figure of a woman suddenly appeared soundlessly in the arch under the stables; and after standing there a moment advanced along the front of the houses till she reached the third door. She stood here a moment in silence, listening and looking towards the doorway opposite, and then rapped gently with her finger-nail eleven or twelve times. Almost immediately the door opened, showing only darkness within; she stepped in, and it closed silently behind her. Then the minutes slipped away again in undisturbed silence. At about twenty minutes to five the figure of a very tall man dressed as a layman slipped in through the door that led towards the river, and advanced to the door where he tapped in the same manner as the woman before him, and was admitted at once. After that people began to come more frequently, some hesitating and looking about them as they entered the court, some slipping straight through without a pause, and going to the door, which opened and shut noiselessly as each tapped and was admitted. Sometimes two or three would come together, sometimes singly; but by five o'clock about twenty or thirty persons had come and been engulfed by the blackness that showed each time the door opened; while no glimmer of light from any of the windows betrayed the presence of any living soul within. At five o'clock the stream stopped. The little court lay as silent under the stars again as an hour before. It was a night of breathless stillness; there was no dripping from the eaves; no sound of wheels or hoofs from the city; only once or twice came the long howl of a dog across the roofs.

Ten minutes pa.s.sed away.

Then without a sound a face appeared like a pale floating patch in the dark door that opened on to the court. It remained hung like a mask in the darkness for at least a minute; and then a man stepped through on to the cobblestones. Something on his head glimmered sharply in the starlight; and there was the same sparkle at the end of a pole that he carried in his hand; he turned and nodded; and three or four men appeared behind him.