Part 2 (1/2)
”Slowly The forest is one vast hiding-place, and I have to deal withThe leader is a Spanish priest entleman, and he hath with hi up in fresh places, but it is not easy to tell them one from another There may be a dozen of them, or only two”
”The lesser nureater the danger of failure”
”So I have thought, and I put down their many appearances to the expedition hich they move At present they can only plan rowth, and the bracken is at its greenest Ere long, however, the foresters andof the bracken, which they take away and stack for the winter as bedding for thereat indeed, and the firing of the forest an easy matter to a number of determined men skilfully posted”
”Have the conspirators many adherents?”
”I think not The woodland folk are loyal, and have a right and proper hatred of the King of Spain Let me but lay hands on one man and we may sleep in our beds without fear”
”And that h sat up ”Canst describe him?”
”Ay He is tall, lean, and yellow, looks a Spaniard, but speaks English as no foreigner could speak it He hath reedy folk often fall a prey to Mammon”
”I have reatly He is a Spaniard without doubt, and came hither first in the train of the Spanish aain with Philip when he took Queen Mary to wife, and stayed here the whole of that reign and e as well as thou or I, and Philip has chosen the fittest leader for his bold enterprise Thou hast gotten a dangerous adversary; do not hold hie power over soainst his nature to strike openly He works like aand trap him Meantime I commend the advice of the Queen to thee: lay all suspicious characters by the heels at once; put rogues to catch rogues, and have a care how thou walkest in the woods”
Sir Walter arose, but the admiral pressed him to stay and drink a cup of wine So the two friends sat on a while longer, talking of old times in far-away Devon
Hidden in the bushes on the top of the sandstone cliff that backed Drake's house was the dark figure of Basil He wriggled thither at the arden latch
Chapter IV
JOHNNIE MORGAN TAKES A WALK
At the foot of the hill leading out of Blakeney northwards towards Newnhaabled, substantial farmhouse A plantation of oaks backed it, and eastwards the meadows stretched away to the Severn
The house was in the possession of John Morgan, a verderer[1] of the forest, and the good folk of the forest and river were proud to point to hiure of a man” ”Johnnie,” as he was faood two inches over six feet, was straight as a fir and tough as a young oak He had just turned his twentieth year, and was as fleet of foot as the stags that he guarded
Dark-eyed and handso, he was as jolly a co su was hot, and the June sun alale that had rocked the tall trees in fury but a few days before was alotten in the windless weather that had succeeded it Master Morgan had sauntered along one of the broad woodland paths, and was now lying on his back in a sweet-sh the trees to the blue sky beyond Johnnie was drea the happy dreams of youth and the suhts, and a pair of sweet blue eyes looked out froue on 't!” he cried petulantly, ”I cannot get verses or rhy order My head aches with a tumble of conceits and dainty fancies I could whisper a thousand pretty things to yonder perky robin; I cannot give tongue to one of them when Mistress Dorothy turns her eyes upon me; and now that , I cannot fra it is that I can sing the tears into mine eyes with another fellow's verses and cannot build a couplet of mine own” Johnnie closed his eyes, puckered his brow, and thought hard
For the better part of an hour Morgan had the cool nook in the woodland all to himself, and he dreamt of a pair of blue eyes, rhymed them with ”skies,” joined ”love” with ”dove,” ”sweet” with ”fleet,” ”rosy” with ”posy,” and ”heart” with ”part,” and cudgelled his brains for ies and conceits that would express in some scant measure the charms of pretty Mistress Dorothy Dawe But his lines would not prance and curvet as he wished the in a heavy, cart-horse fashi+on, so that Johnnie at length reluctantly recalled his wandering wits to the consideration of the practical things of life
And, i so, he became conscious of the presence of an intruder upon his privacy Soh the bracken; the young forester detected the quick breathing of a man and he held his own breath in an instant, whilst his body re of oak He cast his eye down the line of buttons on the front of his doublet and carefully scanned his belt It held no weapon save a hunting-knife
His hearing becaer, and he fixed the spot from which each faint rustle proceeded Meanwhile his brain was busy Who should be stealing along within a few yards of the pathway?
No gahbourhood, and no forester would be wor in such a fashi+on An honest ue,” coh above hi sounds circled round rather than approached hie of the pathway about twenty yards belohere Morgan lay listening
The forester rean came to the conclusion that his presence was unsuspected, so he lay in wait to see as afoot Time flew on; to one, at least, the silence beca down the pathway huan noiselessly raised hier ca fellow's ears tingled with pleasure He ventured to peep above the bracken A dark form was half visible in front of him, and the face was turned towards the direction whence the song was coan ducked also He could give no guess as to the identity of the man who lay before him But his mind was made up as to the spy's intentions Villainy was plainly foreshadowed He drew his knife from his belt The footfalls of the traveller were now audible He ca foe; he passed him There was a sudden leap; then another A steel blade flashed in the sunlight