Part 40 (2/2)
”I would it had been brought to Trevlyn Chase. We have a household of men there, and could well defy these rogues of the road. But Cross Way House has no such defences, and it is tenanted mainly by helpless women, and we must lose no time in going to their a.s.sistance. I have heard long since of this man--Tyrrel. He is a notable outlaw, and there is a price upon his head. The forest will be well freed of him if we can overthrow him. He has owed his safety again and again to his reckless riding and the alliance and good fellows.h.i.+p he has with the forest gipsies. It is time the whole brood were smoked out from their hiding places. They want destroying, root and branch!”
Sir Richard found it easier to remember that the treasure had been stolen and hidden by the gipsy people than that it had been restored partly through the a.s.sistance of the woman Joanna, the queen. However, there was little time for further talk. The night was already advanced, and on the morrow they were to make as early a start as was practicable.
Sir Richard had not many servants of his own, but Culverhouse could bring a good dozen men with him. Unluckily the storm raged all through the earlier hours of the following day, and it was not till noon that a start could be made. However, the seventeen miles' ride could be easily made before dark, although the roads were deep in mud, and travelling in the open country was both tedious and bad.
The last of the scattered hamlets had been pa.s.sed. The sun glowed red before them in an angry, lowering sky. Sir Richard and his son and Lord Culverhouse paused on the brow of the ridge to look both before and behind. They had in their impatience outridden their servants, who, less well mounted, found some difficulty in spurring along the deep mire of the ill-made roads. They could but just see them on the horizon of the last ridge, coming onwards at an even jog trot, which seemed the swiftest pace they aspired to.
Before lay the long waste of forest--trees and heather intermixed in long stretches alternating one with the other. A good seven miles lay between them and their destination, and the sun was already nearing the horizon, and would soon dip behind it.
”We must push on something faster,” said Culverhouse impatiently, ”if we are to reach Cross Way House before dark.”
”We have already far outridden our men,” said Sir Richard, frowning slightly as he turned his head to look over his shoulder; ”and this is the worst part of the road before us.”
”But we are well mounted and well armed,” urged Culverhouse, ”and if we wait for the men we shall lose the rest of the daylight. Surely if there be any footpads about, the fact that we are followed by so goodly a train will serve to scare them away. And we have no valuables upon our persons. They will get cold steel and hot lead for their pains, an they venture to molest us, instead of silver or gold.”
”Very true,” said Philip, who was as eager as his cousin and endued with full share of Trevlyn courage and impetuosity; ”we can never wait till those sluggards have come up. The fault is not theirs: they are not so well mounted as ourselves. We shall never keep our horses to their pace, try we never so hard.”
”Forward then, and let us ride as fast as our steeds can carry us!” said Sir Richard with a smile; ”for if we wait not for our men, the daylight is our best friend. We are all familiar with the road, and our horses likewise. Forward! and all eyes keep a sharp lookout to left and right. At least we will not be set upon unawares.”
Putting spurs to their horses very gladly, the younger men placed themselves one on each side of Sir Richard, and the good horses settled themselves to a steady hand gallop, which was the best and surest pace for getting over those rough muddy roads.
Three miles had been safely traversed. Absolute solitude and silence seemed to reign throughout the woodland tracks. But the darkest of the forest still lay ahead of them, and the red ball of the sun had just dipped behind the ridge in front.
”It will be dark beneath the trees,” said Sir Richard; ”have a care, lads, how you ride.
”Philip, thine eyes are better than mine. Dost thou see aught there to the right of the road, just beneath that great oak?”
Philip had seen already, and his answer was quickly spoken.
”They be hors.e.m.e.n,” he said--”hors.e.m.e.n drawn up and, as it were, awaiting us. I fear me we shall not pa.s.s without molestation. But my counsel is not to pause, rather to gallop still on steadily, as though we saw them not. But let us be ready; and if they dare to molest us, let us with one accord discharge our pieces in their faces. That will disconcert them for a moment, and we may perchance outride them. We are but three miles and a half from Cross Way House. I trow we can make s.h.i.+ft to reach its friendly shelter; and once there we shall be safe.”
”It is useless to pause now,” answered Sir Richard, who was always cool and self possessed in moments of real peril. ”Our men are a mile behind, and to hesitate would be to lose all. A bold front is our greatest safeguard. We are all well skilled in the use of arms. Be watchful and vigilant, and make you sure that every shot and every stroke will tell. We have need of all our strength, if we are attacked. But they may let us pa.s.s unmolested; they may guess that our followers are behind.”
Culverhouse said nothing, but he set his teeth hard and his eyes flashed ominously. He had never tasted real warfare before, and it seemed to fire the blood in his veins and send it tingling through his body. Each rider so s.h.i.+fted his carbine that it could be readily used at a moment's notice.
And now they had reached the forest aisle. Their good horses, still galloping freely and easily, bore them rapidly onwards. They had almost reached that silent, motionless band awaiting them with sinister quietude. In another moment they would have pa.s.sed them, when, on a sudden, a voice rang out clear and sharp through the still air:
”Halt! stand! Stand, or we fire!”
”Ride on and fire!” said Sir Richard in calm tones; and the next moment the echoes were awakened by three sharp reports of firearms and by a yell--three yells--of human rage and pain. A roar of execration and menace arose from twenty throats, and twenty blades gleamed brightly in the gathering dusk. But already the riders had pa.s.sed the little band, sweeping by before they were well aware of it. And as they did so, they heard a voice exclaim, sharpened by rage and pain:
”It is they--it is our foes! I knew it--I knew it! Those are the Trevlyn brood that we were warned would pa.s.s--the false sire and his son and nephew. After them, my men! Let them not escape your vengeance! Take them, or slay them, but let them not escape! They have the treasure. We will have them. The vengeance of the gipsy tribe shall be consummated! They shall not make it void. They shall give life for life--blood for blood!”
”They shall! they shall! They shall not escape us. We will be avenged, and the red gold shall be our reward!”
Sir Richard set his teeth as he heard these words, and dug his spurs into the sides of his horse, causing the n.o.ble animal, who seemed to share his master's knowledge of the deadly peril they were in, to spring forward with redoubled speed.
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