The Launching of Roger Brook (74 page)

‘Well done, Sir!’ Roger exclaimed, his despair giving place to hope. He had never before seen his big, rubicund father at work in a crisis, and realised now how well fitted he was to hold a high command.

‘Give me now the words you heard him mutter,’ the Admiral went on. ‘Maybe we’ll get something from them.’

Roger endeavoured to recall the expressions used, but he could not, and replied: ‘He said something to this effect: Thank God my instinct proved right. By tomorrow morning this will have earned me as much as I make in two years.’

‘Tomorrow!’ his father repeated. ‘Surely you could not have heard aright? He could not reach a port and make the
crossing in the time. Perhaps, though, he had a boat awaiting him in some smuggler’s cove along the coast. If so, we’re sunk.’

That may be it, Sir; but, even if he had, he’d not be able to reach France before tomorrow night, and I’ll take my oath that he said tomorrow morning.’

The fellow is a positive will-o’-the-wisp!’ cried the Admiral in exasperation. ‘One thing is clear; he knew this to be your home and came here on a sudden inspiration; thinking that if you landed anywhere between Poole and Southampton you would come here first before proceeding to London, and hoping for a chance to waylay you. The odds are that he is one of M. de Crosne’s agents. But as for his returning to France to reap the reward by tomorrow morning, no man born of woman could do it.’

Lady Marie had been sitting listening to her men. For the first time since she had finished bandaging Roger’s head, she spoke. ‘Think you there is anywhere in this country where he could collect the money?’

Roger jumped to his feet. ‘Mother, I believe you have it! The notice said that M. de Crosne
or any accredited agent of the French Crown
would pay out the reward. The French Ambassador is such a one. Could it possibly be that our man is on his way to London?’

‘Nonsense!’ laughed his father. ‘’Tis too far-fetched. Having done his business, a French police-agent’s first thought would be to get back to France.’

‘Not necessarily! If he is a cunning one, as this fellow seems to be. He would know that you, as a British Admiral, would have special facilities for swiftly closing the ports against him. ’Twould be a clever move to ride unmolested through the night to London while we remained here organising parties to scour the coast. In any event, ’tis time now that I was off. I’d meant to take the journey easily, but I shall ride hard now, since there is just a chance that I may pick up his trail and overhaul him.’

‘Oh, Roger!’ exclaimed Lady Marie, ‘Are you recovered enough to face such an ordeal. ’Tis over ninety miles.’

He smiled at her. ‘I pray you be not concerned on that score. Your Grains of Paradise have already done wonders for my head; and now that I am once again on our own good soil I’d ride to Scotland, had I a mind to it.’

‘So be it then,’ the Admiral agreed. ‘But ’tis my belief
that you misunderstood what the fellow said, and will be on a wild goose chase. For my part I shall cast a wider net by taking the measures I have outlined. But I wish you fortune, and if you catch your man the five hundred guineas I intend to offer shall be yours.’

‘Thanks, Sir!’ cried Roger. ‘If my instinct proves as good as my enemy’s I’ll hope to claim it. Though, even if I’m right, I’ll have but an outside chance of catching him. He has well over two hours’ start, and the only way I can hope to make that up is with your assistance.’

‘How so?’

‘In aiding me to obtain all possible facilities on my journey. I pray you write me a note giving me priority at all posting-houses for remounts and the like; and add a line enabling me to call for assistance in attempting his capture.’

The Admiral moved quickly over to Lady Marie’s secretaire, took quill and paper, and wrote:

To all whom it may concern
.

The bearer of this is Mr. Roger Brook, and he rides upon His Majesty’s business. Every possible aid that he may require is to be rendered to him. In the event of his calling for assistance to secure the person of a French agent for detention and examination such assistance is to be afforded him without question
.

Christopher Brook
,

Rear-Admiral, Channel Squadron
.

Roger thrust the paper into his pocket, kissed his mother fondly and, followed by his father, hurried from the room.

Outside the front door Jim Button was walking the mare up and down. As they came out, he cried:

‘The chestnut be gone from the stable, Sir. That varmint must have took ‘e.’

‘God rot his guts!’ bellowed the Admiral; and Roger remembered then that, as he struggled back to consciousness, he had heard his attacker lead a horse out into the yard.

‘He be no good picker,’ Jim went on. ‘The chestnut be overdue for shoeing. He’ll not get five miles afore a shoe comes loose; or my name’s not Jim Button.’

‘A thousand thanks for such good tidings, Jim,’ cried
Roger, as he mounted. Then, with a shout of good-bye to his father, he turned the mare and cantered through the already open gates on his way to London.

Trotting up the lane he turned left at the church and out of the town towards Boldre. The hamlet was only two miles away and he reached it in under ten minutes. Pulling up outside the smithy, without dismounting, he hammered with his crop upon the door. It was now close on ten o’clock and the smith was in bed asleep. Roused by Roger’s shouts he opened an upper window and thrust out a head crowned by a white, tasselled nightcap. But Roger’s swift inquiry drew a blank; no traveller had halted there to have a chestnut shod within the past two hours.

Ten minutes later he galloped into Brockenhurst and knocked up the smithy there; but with the same result.

Between Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst he made splendid going through the lovely stretch of forest, but he was now wondering if his father had not been right, and that he had set out on a wild goose chase. If Jim was correct about the chestnut the horse should have cast a shoe before this. Roger had to confess to himself that his guess had been a long shot. In the cold light of reason it was much more probable that his unknown enemy would endeavour to slip back to France. In that case there was still a chance that the Admiral’s net might close upon him at one of the ports. On the other hand, so astute a rogue might well have prepared his retreat beforehand, and already be well out to sea in some smuggler’s lugger that had been waiting to carry him home. Again, having secured the letter, there was no urgent reason why he should hurry back. He might consider discretion the better part of valour, and decide to go into hiding for a time, then make the crossing when the hue and cry had died down. It would be easy for a Frenchman to lie low for weeks in the foreign quarter of a great seaport like Southampton without the least risk of discovery.

Yet Roger was absolutely positive that he had heard aright, and that, somehow, his attacker planned to collect the reward next morning. If that were so there was only one place that he could do it, and that was at the French Embassy in London.

At twenty minutes to eleven Roger cantered into Lyndhurst. With a catch of the breath he saw that there was still a light behind the curtains of the blacksmith’s upstairs
window. It might have been any belated traveller who had kept him up, but the augury seemed good, and so it proved.

Roger had no sooner attracted the smith’s attention and put his question, than the man replied:

‘Yes, Master. I re-shod the off-fore of a chestnut and looked to his other shoes for a foreign gentleman not an hour back.’

‘Can you describe him?’ cried Roger.

‘He were a tall chap, wearing a long riding-coat and a flat-crowned steeple hat.’

‘But his face?’

‘Ah, I’d not swear to that. He kept hisself well in the shadow. But he were clean shaven, and somewhat pasty looking. Seeing he were a furriner it crossed me mind that he’d maybe landed only a few hours back, and bin down with the sea-sickness in yesterday’s storm.’

‘His age?’

‘On the youngish side. Maybe thirty, but not more.’

‘Did he say where he was going?’

‘Nay. His English were poor. He spoke little and not a word of that.’

‘How long since he left here?’

‘Three-quarters of an hour.’

‘Thanks,’ shouted Roger, and wheeling his mare, he sped out of the town along the road to Totton.

It was his man without a doubt. Moreover, his prospects of overtaking him were far better than he had ever dared to hope. It could not have taken over two hours for his enemy to reach Lyndhurst and have his horse reshod; he must have halted on the way, either at Lymington or Brockenhurst, to take a meal at one of the inns before setting out for London. That argued his complete confidence that he would elude any hue and cry that might be raised after him by making for the capital instead of one of the ports. He could not have known, either, that Roger’s father would return so soon and release him, and probably thought that his victim would remain trussed in the stable until someone found him in the morning. All the odds were now that, without the least suspicion that he was being pursued, the Frenchman was riding on at quite a moderate pace. And he was only three-quarters of an hour ahead. His heart high with elation, Roger spurred on his mare, and rode all out along the
springy turf that bordered the road across the more open part of the forest, east of Lyndhurst.

He reached Totton a quarter of an hour before midnight and flung himself off his steaming mount in the yard of the posting-house. The night ostler told him that the traveller for whom he inquired had changed horses there half an hour earlier. His description of the Frenchman was as vague as that of the smith. He could only remember that he had been tall and sickly looking. But Roger felt it pointless to waste time in pressing for details. He had enough to go on and felt certain now that his enemy was one of M. de Crosne’s agents, and that he would not know him even if he saw him. How de Crosne, or his man, had known that the home of the Englishman they were pursuing was at Lymington remained a mystery over which Roger continued to puzzle his wits in vain; and, had he needed any added incentive to overtake his enemy the prospect of solving the problem would have provided it. But he needed none. Having had his saddle transferred to a mettlesome grey from the posting-stables, he left the address to which his own mare was to be returned, and pushed on.

In his first stage he had covered fourteen miles; his next, to Winchester, was fifteen. At first the road ran up and down a series of switchback hills then through flattish farm country. The weather had cleared and the September moon had risen above the trees. The grey proved a good steed and Roger was in no mood to spare him. He was fond of horses but fonder of his country and he was now determined to catch his man, even if he had to kill several of his mounts under him. Just before one in the morning he rode over the chalk hills into Winchester.

At the Black Swan he inquired again. His man had changed horses there and trotted out of the yard only ten minutes before his arrival. While his saddle was being changed from the exhausted grey to a bay mare he took stock of the situation. He had little doubt now that he could catch his unsuspecting enemy on the next lap; but it was as good as certain that the Frenchman would be armed. Jim had put a pair of pistols into Roger’s holsters as a normal precaution against his encountering a highwayman; and he was not afraid to face any man in a fight. But in this case if he came off worst it was not only himself, but his country, that would be the loser. He positively dared not
risk being left wounded in a ditch while his enemy got clean away with the letter. In consequence, he decided that the time had now come when he must make use of his father’s warrant. Winchester was a garrison town so he felt that there would be no difficulty in securing military aid there.

Mounting the bay he rode at a quick trot to the barracks of the Hampshire Regiment. The sentry at its gate called the Sergeant of the guard. The Sergeant said that he thought some of the officers were still up, and, having handed his mount over to an orderly, Roger hurried with him to the mess.

After an infuriating wait of five minutes in the hall a heavily-moustached Captain, who was half-seas-over, came out to see him. Roger did not mince matters. Politely but swiftly he stated his business, produced his warrant, and requested that a mounted escort should be furnished for him with the minimum possible delay.

The Captain sobered up at once, and said: ‘This is an infantry barracks, so normally I’d only be able to help you by asking some of the officers to turn out with their grooms. But ’tis your good fortune that we’ve been on manœuvres recently, and a squadron of Dragoons are quartered here as our guests. Have the goodness to wait here a few moments and I’ll fetch one of their officers. He is having the devil’s own luck at the cards tonight, so you’ll be doing us a favour, Sir, if you’ll relieve us of him and prevent his further inroads on our pockets.’

Again Roger had to submit to seeing a few more precious moments slip away. Then one of the big double doors of the ante-room opened again and the Captain returned, accompanied by a thick-set, red-faced young man with a crop of ginger curls. To Roger’s amazement he found himself face to face with his old enemy of Sherborne days, George Gunston.

Recognition was mutual for, at that second, Gunston cried: ‘Why, damn my soul! If it isn’t Bookworm Brook!’

Roger flushed slightly and replied: ‘I have no time for exchanging compliments, but if you have a mind to it I will find plenty later on at any time and place you may suggest.’

‘I see that you are already acquainted,’ murmured the Captain, a trifle uneasily.

‘By God! The fellow’s challenging me!’ exploded Gunston, going redder in the face than ever.

‘Not at the moment,’ said Roger sharply. ‘The Captain, here, will have told you what’s afoot. I am on the King’s service and require a troop of horse to accompany me instantly. I pray you, Mr. Gunston, let our personal prejudices lie dormant for this night, at least; and give me your aid without demur.’