Part 25 (1/2)
”Make doubly sure of that ruffian,” answered Joseph coldly ”Colonel Pride ht learn that none of the name of Lane dwells at the Anchor in Thames Street It would be fatal to awaken his suspicions and bring hiht carry your errand?”
”They ed that they cannot be aroused I hed softly ”There is even coht to warn Pride of his co, and when he coman It will be a surprise for hi his son He shall have news of hiory shuddered
”Fore God, Joseph, 'tis a foul thing you do,” he cried ”Sooner would I never set eyes on the lad again Let hio his ways as you intended”
”I never did intend it What trustier ht? To win Cynthia, we ht fail”
”Joseph, you will roast in hell for it”
Joseph laughed hi hypocrite; your wound ht-headed”
It was a half-hour ere Kenneth returned, booted, cloaked, and ready for his journey He found Joseph alone, busily writing, and in obedience to a sign he sat him down to wait
A few minutes passed, then, with a final scratch and splutter Joseph flung down his pen With the sandbox tilted in the air, like a dicer about to make his throw, he looked at the lad
”You will spare neither whip nor spur until you arrive in London, Master Kenneth You ency”
Kenneth nodded that he understood, and Joseph sprinkled the sand over the written page
”I know not when you should reach London so that you may be in time, but,” he continued, and as he spoke he creased the paper and poured the superfluous sand back into the box, ”I should say that by e should be delivered Aye,” he continued, in answer to the lad's gasp of surprise, ”it is hard riding, I know, but if you would win Cynthia you must do it Spare neither money nor horseflesh, and keep to the saddle until you are in Thames Street”
He folded the letter, sealed it, and wrote the superscription: ”This to Colonel Pride, at the sign of the Anchor in Thae to Kenneth, to who, since he had not seen that borne by the letter which Crispin had received
”You will deliver this intact, and with your own hands, to Colonel Pride in person--none other Should he be absent from Thames Street upon your arrival, seek hiive him this
Upon your faithful observance of these conditions remember that your future depends If you are in time, as indeed I trust and think you will be, you may account yourself Cynthia's husband Fail and--well, you need not return here”
”I shall not fail, sir,” cried Kenneth ”What man can do to accomplish the journey within twenty-four hours, I will do”
He would have stopped to thank Joseph for the signal favour of this chance of rehabilitation, but Joseph cut him short
”Take this purse,” he cried impatiently ”You will find a horse ready saddled in the stables Ride it hard It will bear you to Norton at least There get you a fresh one, and when that is done, another Now be off”
CHAPTER XIX THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY
When the Tavern Knight left the gates of Marleigh Park behind hiht, he drove deep the rowels of his spurs, and set his horse at a perilous gallop along the road to Norwich The action was of instinct rather than of thought In the turbulent sea of his e that he was bound for London for news of this son of his whom Joseph told him lived
He paused not even to speculate what rown, nor yet alk of life he had been reared to tread He lived: he was somewhere in the world; that for the time sufficed hi that --the life that so often and so wantonly he had exposed