Part 12 (1/2)
Later that day ca for Sir Oliver
Nicholas brought word of his presence and his inquiry to Master Lionel, who bade him be admitted
The thick-set little seas, and leered at his e and safe aboard,” he announced ”The thing were done as clean as peeling an apple, and as quiet”
”Why did you ask for hiain ”My business ith hie with ossip over at Ser of his to his nose ”Trust'T were a clu for you, sir Ye'll kno to account for reed and dis the assurance that the Sould put to sea upon the next tide
When it becah for a passage overseas, and that it was but on that account that Master Leigh had tarried in that haven, even Nicholas began to doubt
Gradually Lionel recovered his tranquillity as the days flowed on What was done was done, and, in any case, being now beyond recall, there was no profit in repining He never kne fortune aided him, as fortune will sometimes aid a villain The royal pour-suivants arrived some six days later, and Master Baine was the recipient of a curt summons to render himself to London, there to account for his breach of trust in having refused to perform his sworn duty Had Sir Andrew Flack but survived the chill that had carried hio, Master Justice Baine would have ainst hie he possessed, and told them how he had made the examination to which Sir Oliver had voluntarily subhtest conviction Not for a e of one who had been lax in his duty and who sought to save himself from the consequences of that laxity And the fact that he cited as his felloitness a gentlees in this opinion He was deposed from his office and subjected to a heavy fine, and there the matter ended, for the hue-and-cry that was afoot entirely failed to discover any trace of theSir Oliver
For Master Lionel a new existence set in fro for his brother's sins, the countryside determined to help him as far as possible to bear his burden Great stress was laid upon the fact that after all he was no more than Sir Oliver's half-brother; some there ould have carried their kindness to the lengths of suggesting that perhaps he was not even that, and that it was but natural that Ralph Tressilian's second wife should have repaid her husband in kind for his outrageous infidelities This rew, and it spread in so rapid and marked a manner that very soon Master Lionel was almost persuaded that it was no an to sun himself in the favour of a countryside that hitherto had shown little but hostility for men of the Tressilian blood
CHAPTER VIII THE SPANIARD
The S, having passed through a gale in the Bay of Biscay--a gale which she weathered like the surprisingly steady old tub she was--rounded Cape Finisterre and so eed from tempest into peace, from leaden skies and mountainous seas into a sunny azure cal, and she ran along now, close hauled to the soft easterly breeze, with a gentle list to port
It had never been Master Leigh's intent to have got so far as this without co with his prisoner But the wind had been stronger than his intentions, and he had been compelled to run before it and to head to southward until its fury should abate Thus it fell out--and all e, as you shall see--that the skipper was forced to wait until they stood along the coast of Portugal--but well out to sea, for the coast of Portugal was none too healthy just then to English sea Sir Oliver to be haled into his presence
In the cramped quarters of the cabin in the poop of the little vessel sat her captain at a greasy table, over which a laentle heave of the shi+p He was s heavily upon the air of that little chamber, and there was a bottle of Nantes at his elbow
To hi thus in state, was Sir Oliver introduced--his wrists still pinioned behind hirowth of beard on his chin Also his garle he had made when taken, and from the fact that he had been coht was such that it was ied cabin, a stool was thrust forward for hih's creho had haled him from his confinement beneath the hatchway
He sat down quite listlessly, and stared vacantly at the skipper Master Leigh was sory outbursts He dismissed the two seamen who fetched Sir Oliver, and when they had departed and closed the cabin door he addressed his captive
”Sir Oliver,” said he, stroking his red beard, ”ye've been h one of the horn s and beat full upon Sir Oliver's expressionless face
”It was not necessary, you knave, to bring me hither to tell h ”But I have so that I ha' done you a disservice There ye wrong ht to know true friends from secret enemies; henceforward ye'll knohich to trust and which to mistrust”
Sir Oliver seemed to rouse himself a little from his passivity, stiue He stretched a leg and s me that I a so yourself,” the captain assured him ”D'ye knohat I was bidden do with you?”
”Faith, I neither know nor care,” was the surprising ansearily delivered ”If it is foryou'll spare yourself the trouble”
It was not an answer that helped the captain He pulled at his pipe a moment