if this were a mere story to while away an idle hour, i, the scribe, would tie neatly every knot and leave no irish pennants hanging from my work. but life, alas, is no pattern drawn to scale. the many interweaving threads are caught up in strange tangles, and over them, darkly and inscrutably, atropos presides. who cannot recall to mind names and faces still alive with the friendship of a few weeks or months,—a friendship pleasant in memory,—a friendship that promised fruitful years, but that was lost for ever when a boy or man drifted out of sight for one reason or another, and on one tide or another of the projects that go to make up life? to philip marsham, tramping again the high roads of england, there came, mingled with many other desires, a longing to see once more the scottish smith who had wrought the dirk that had tasted blood for his protection in those dark adventures at sea. but when he came to the smithy beside the heath he found it open and empty. the wind blew the door on rusty hinges; brown leaves had drifted in and lay about the cold forge; the coals were dead, the bellows were broken, and the lonely man who had wrought iron on the now rusty anvil had taken his tools and gone.
the day was still young, for the wayfarer, starting early and in the fullness of his strength, had this day covered three miles in the time that one had taken him when he walked that road before. so he left the smithy and pushed on across the heath and far beyond it, marking each familiar farm and village and country house, until night had fallen and the stars had come out, when he laid him down under a hedge and slept.
he was thinking, when he fell asleep, of nell entick. he remembered very well her handsome face, her head held so high, her white throat and bare arms. he was going back to the inn to claim fulfillment of her promise and he pictured her as waiting for him there. in most ways he was a bold, resolute youth who had seen much of life; but in some ways, nevertheless, he was a lad of small experience, and if he thought at all that she had been a little overbold, a little overwilling, he thought only that she was as honestly frank as he.
waking that night upon his bed of leaves, he saw far away on a hill the dancing flames of a campfire, concerning which he greatly wondered. for, having been long out of england, he had small knowledge of the ups and downs of parliaments and kings; and in the brief time since his return, of which he had spent nearly all in prison, he had heard nothing of the tumultuous state of the kingdom, save a few words dropped here or there while he was passing through hamlets and villages, and seen nothing thereof save such show of arms as in one place or another had caught his eye but not his thought. although he knew it not, since he was a plain lad with no gift of second-sight, he lay in a country poised on the brink of war and his bed was made in the field where a great battle was to be fought.
he went on at daylight, and going through a village at high noon saw a preacher in clipped hair and sober garb, who was calling on the people to be valiant and of good courage against those wicked men who had incited riot and rebellion among the roman catholics in ireland, whereby the king might find pretext for raising a vast army to devastate and enslave england. sorely perplexed by this talk, of which he understood little, phil besought a sneering young fellow, who stood at no great distance, for an explanation; to which the fellow replied that it was talk for them that wore short hair and long ears, and that unless a man kept watch upon his wits his own ears would grow as long from hearing it as those of any roundhead ass in the country. at this phil took umbrage; but the fellow cried nay, that he would fight no such keen blade, who was, it seemed, a better man than he looked. and with a laugh he waved the matter off and strolled away.
so to the inn phil came in due time, having meditated much, meanwhile, on the talk of the king and war and the rights of parliament, which was in the mouths and ears of all men. but he put such things out of his mind when at last he saw the inn, for the moment was at hand when his dreams should come true and he should find waiting for him the nell entick he remembered from long ago.
surely a lad of enterprise, who had ventured the world over with pirates, could find in any english village something to which he could turn his hand. indeed, who knew but some day he might keep the inn himself—or do better? who knew? he remembered little grimsby and drew a long breath. caught in a whirl of excitement that set the blood drumming in his ears, he strode into the house and, boldly stepping up to the public bar, called loudly, "holla, i say! i would have speech of mistress nell entick."
from a tall settle in the corner, where he sat taking tobacco, there rose a huge man with red and angry face.
"who in the devil's name art thou," he roared, "that comes ranting into an honest house and bawls out thus the name of mistress nell entick?"
there were as usual a couple of countrymen sitting with pots of ale, who reared their heads in vast amazement, and in the noisy kitchen down the passage a perceptible hush followed the loud words. the house seemed to pause and listen; the countrymen set down their pots; there was a sound of creaking hinges and of lightly falling feet.
very coolly, smiling slightly, philip marsham met the eyes of the big, red-faced man. "it seems," said he, "thou art riding for another fall."
a look of recognition, at first incredulous, then profoundly displeased, dawned on the red face and even greater anger followed.
"thou banging, basting, broiling brogger!" he thundered. "thou ill-contrived, filthy villain! out the door! begone!"
"it seems, jamie barwick, that thy wits are struck with years. have care. thy brother is already on the road to wapping—they have signed and sealed his passage."
the fat man came to phil with the slow gait and the low-hung head of a surly dog. he thrust his red face close to phil's own.
"yea, it is thou," he sneered. "i am minded to beat thee and bang thee till thou goest skulking under the hedges for cover. but it seems thou hast good news. what is this talk of the hangman's budget?"
"it is true. by now thine excellent brother hath in all likelihood donned the black cap and danced on air. as for beating and banging—scratch thy head and agitate thy memory and consider if i have given thee reason to hope for quietness and submission."
there was a flicker of doubt in the man's small eyes, whereby it seemed his memory served him well.
"and what meanest thou by saying thou would'st have speech of mistress nell entick?" he asked suspiciously.
"that concerns thee not."
"ha!" he scowled darkly. "methinks it concerns me nearly!"
and then a high voice cried, "who called my name?"
they turned and phil marsham's face lighted, for she stood in the door. she was not so fair as he had pictured her—what lad's memory will not play such tricks as that?—and he thought that when he had taken her away from the inn she need never again wear a drabbled gown. but it was she, the nell entick who had so lightly given him her promise and kissed him as he fled, and he had come for her.
"back again, john? nay, john was not thy name. stay! no, it hath escaped me, but i remember well thy face. and shall i bring thee ale? or sack? we have some rare fine sack."
he stared at her as if he could not believe his ears had told him right. "i have come," he said, "to claim a certain promise—"
she looked bewildered, puzzled, then laughed loudly. "silly boy!" she cried. "i am these six months a wife."
"a wife!"
"yea, and mine," cried barwick. "come, begone i i'll have no puppies sniffling at her heels."
at something in the man's manner, the full truth dawned on philip marsham. "i see. and you have taken the inn?"
"yea, that i have! must i split thy head to let in knowledge? begone!"
she laid her hand on barwick's wrist. "the lad means no harm," she whispered. "come, it is folly to drive trade away." and over barwick's shoulder she cast phil such a glance that he knew, maid or matron, she would philander still.
but phil had seen her with new eyes and the old charm was broken. (perhaps if tom marsham had waited a year before he leaped into marriage, i had had no story to tell!) all that was best in the father had come down to the son, and phil turned his back on the siren with the bold, bright eyes. he turned his back on the inn, too, and all the dreams he had built around it—a boy's imaginings raised on the sands of a moment's fancy. nay, he turned his back on all the world he had hitherto known.
with a feeling that he was rubbing from his face a spider's web of sordidness,—that he was cutting the last cord that bound him to his old, wild life,—stirred by a new and daring project, he went out of the inn and turned to the left and took the road in search of sir john bristol.
