Part 38 (2/2)
”Guido Fawkes! Good Guy, is that verily thou?”
”Verily and in truth, my masters. Has the time seemed long?”
”Terribly long. How foundest thou all?”
”All well--all as I left it weeks ago. There has been no soul within. Gunpowder, f.a.ggots, iron bars, and stones--all are as before; and above, the coal and f.a.ggots carefully concealing all. Why this anxiety and fear, Catesby? it was not wont to be so with thee.”
”No; but I have something of terrible import to reveal to thee, good Guy. And first I must ask thy pardon for thus exposing thee to peril as this day I did. I sent thee on this mission of inspection; but I ought first to have told thee that we are in fear and trembling lest we have been betrayed!”
”Betrayed!” echoed Fawkes with a fierce oath, ”and by whom?”
”That we know not. But some days since, my Lord Mounteagle received a mysterious warning bidding him absent himself from this meeting of Parliament, for that a blow should then be struck, no man seeing who dealt it. Wherefore we fear--”
”Mounteagle!” cried Fawkes, interrupting fiercely; ”then the traitor is yon false hound Tresham!”
”So we all thought till we charged him with it, and had he blenched or shrunk our daggers should have been buried in his heart!” answered Winter in low, fierce accents; ”but he swore he knew naught of it, and that with so bold a front and so open an air that for very doubt of his guilt we could not smite him. There may be other traitors in the camp. There was that lad thou, or thy fool of a servant, Catesby, once brought amongst us. I liked it not then. He should not have been let go without solemn oath taken on pain of death. Trevlyn, methinks, was the name. I hear he has been seen in London again of late. Why does he haunt us? what does he suspect?”
”Tus.h.!.+ thou art dreaming. Trevlyn! why, that is a good name, and the lad knows nothing, and is, moreover, stanch.
”Guido, thou hast not said that thou dost pardon us for sending thee on so perilous an errand this day.”
”Thou needst not repent, Catesby. I should have adventured myself the same had I known all. I have sworn myself to this task, and I go not back to mine own country till all be accomplished.”
Chapter 23: Peril For Trevlyn.
Cuthbert stood at the door of the narrow house in Budge Row, seeking speech of the wise woman.
It was a bl.u.s.tering night--the first night in November. The wind howled and shrieked round the corners of the streets; the rain pattered down and splashed the garments of the few pedestrians who had braved the storm. It was but seven of the clock, yet Budge Row was dark and quiet as though midnight had settled down upon the city. Scarce any gleams of light filtered through the cracks in the shutters, and only the sound of a distant watchman's cry broke the silence of the night.
Cuthbert had once before sought this house, but had knocked in vain for admittance. Either the wise woman was from home, or else she had no intention of receiving visitors. Since then his mind had been engrossed by other matters, and he had not thought again of Joanna's charge concerning Esther. But recent mysterious occurrences had made him desirous not only of telling her his own tale, but of seeking information from her; and here he stood in the wind and rain making request for admittance.
Softly and silently the door swung open at last, and he saw before him the dark pa.s.sage he had traversed a year before with Cherry, the dim light from above just guiding his steps as he moved. The same juggleries were repeated as on that occasion. The outer door swung back and bolted itself behind him. The invisible light wavered and flickered and showed him his way. The black cat appeared ready to dispute his entrance into the room till he had dropped his coin into the box; and when he entered the dim place where the wise woman ensconced herself, he saw her as before, seated behind the lamp which shed its light upon him, but left her face in deep shadow. All was precisely as it had been upon a former occasion--all but his reception by the wise woman herself.
That, however, was altogether different; for the moment she saw who her visitor was, she rose suddenly from her chair and exclaimed in excited tones:
”Cuthbert Trevlyn, why hast thou not come hither sooner?”
”I did, but could not find thee.”
She made an impatient exclamation.
”And thou wert content not to find me, and came not again and yet again! Foolish boy! Did not Joanna warn thee to seek me out and tell me all? I know well that she did. She is loyal and true. And so, boy, the lost treasure is found, and is safe beneath the roof of that house which shelters the honoured heads of the Wyverns?”
”Yes, it is all there.”
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