A Boy's Ride Part 24

"Thou art not so sad a knave as he," returned Richard Wood, "and I thank thee. See that ye both come, and that right early."

Herebald reiterated his promise to do so, and then went away with Bernulf, while Richard Wood followed his men into the bar, where they were already drinking.

"What meanest thou, Bernulf? Why wouldst thou not lodge here?" asked Herebald as they rode along.

"Why, this, Herebald," was the answer. "We have much to do ere we go to rest. We must find the ship that is loaded and ready to weigh anchor to-morrow toward noon when the wind and tide will serve. And we must bespeak the help of the captain to get these knaves aboard."

"True, Bernulf," responded Herebald. "Thou hast a wit that would match with the canon's."

"Yea, I be not so dull as some Normans, though I be counted but a slow-witted Saxon," returned Bernulf, with complacency. "And now let us first to our supper and the putting away of the ponies, and then do we take boat and visit the ships."

They found an inn suited to their tastes in one of the Rows, and before the dark had really come down over the harbor they were out on a tour of the ships. The tour, however, was destined to be a short one, since the second ship they visited proved to have among her sailors two men that they knew. And, moreover, they discovered the captain to be one Eric, whose mother was cousin to Bernulf's father.

"Here have we luck," said Bernulf. "To Eric may I speak freely."

"Yea, verily," answered Herebald. "And she is loaded with herring also and saileth on the morrow toward noon. Go, then, and speak freely, as thou sayest."

Bernulf did so; and the Captain Eric entered heartily into his plans as Bernulf laid them before him. "The loons!" he exclaimed with a hearty laugh, as he heard of the journey through the fens. "The witless geese!

And thou hast not once told them that the young lord and his serving-man came in this direction?"

"Nay, not once. We did but break branches, and make tracks on the edges of the pools, and ruffle the long gra.s.s, and they did read for themselves that those they sought were just ahead of them. We have hope that the young lord be, by this time, well and safely sped on his journey."

"Ay, and by to-morrow at this time will his pursuers be upon their journey," said Eric. "I am to refuse to let them come aboard, sayest thou, until they demand permission in the king's name? And then the moment they be down the companionway I am to hoist the anchor and be off?"

"Yea," answered Bernulf, "that is it."

"So be it," returned Eric. "And it is a small thing to do for a kinsman also moreover."

"And now go we ash.o.r.e," said Bernulf. "To-morrow morn we aid the king's spy to search the town. He will have a merry run up and down the Rows, he and his men." And, with a hearty farewell to the skipper, Herebald and Bernulf climbed down the side of the vessel to their little boat gently rocking alongside.

"The business in hand hath an early end when luck goeth with a man,"

observed Bernulf, with satisfaction.

"Yea," responded Herebald. "And luck most often goeth with the man that hath good wit of his own."

Their strong arms made light of the short distance they had to row, and they were soon back at the little inn and at rest.

As for Richard Wood, weary as he was, he was long in finding sleep. For ever he would be wondering in which part of the little town it were best to begin the search. And how it were best to conduct it so that no outsider could manage to claim part of the reward when the runaways were captured. At last, undecided, he fell asleep, and Herebald and Bernulf were awaiting him when he awoke rather late in the morning. In haste he and his men ate their breakfast, and in still greater haste they set off on the search, only to be brought to a standstill before it was well begun; for there fronting the sea were one hundred and forty-five little narrow streets called the Rows, and their combined length made a distance of seven miles.

"This be a foolish way to build a town," grumbled Richard Wood, "and none but Saxons would have done it. Why, here be a street only two feet wide at one end of it. And up and down one hundred and forty-five streets we must chase, to say nothing of looking in the better parts of the town."

"Thou hast well said," observed Herebald, gravely. "It is not an easy thing, this search. But where dost thou begin? And how wilt thou go about it?"

"Why, why," stammered Richard Wood, "I did never search a town before, and that is but the truth."

"Were it not best to proceed boldly?" asked Herebald, slyly.

"Boldly, sayest thou? And what meanest thou by boldly?"

"Why, by boldly, I mean boldly. Surely thou knowest what boldly is?

Walk into the house with a 'by your leave,' which is, after all, no leave, since it is done without leave; there look through all, and then out and away again into the next house, or the next but one, as it pleaseth thee."

Richard Wood looked at him in displeasure. "It is easy to see thou art but a Saxon churl," he said. "And moreover, where is thy sense of time?

This day were gone; ay, and the next before we had entered every house in one hundred and forty-five little streets."

"Ay, thou art right. Perchance it were better not to take so much time, for there be the ships, and some of them do sail to-day."

"To-day!" exclaimed Richard Wood, in alarm. "And when?"

"Toward noon," was the reply; "for then wind and tide will serve."

A look of resolution came over the face of Richard Wood. He turned to his men-at-arms.

"Take each of thee a street," he said, "and I will take another. Search as well and thoroughly as ye can for one hour, and then come to this point to go with me to the ships. We have had many toils to catch them.

They must not escape us now."

"And what do we?" asked Herebald.

Now Richard Wood was quite determined that the Saxons should not share in the reward, so he answered: "Stand ye here, and watch all who pa.s.s.

Let none escape ye."

"That were an easy task," growled Bernulf. "But why may we not also take each man his street, and knock and 'by-your-leave' with the rest of ye? It is because we be Saxons that ye put this slight upon us." And he affected to be greatly displeased.

"Peace, man!" said Richard Wood, more pacifically. "It is true ye be Saxons, but that is by the will of heaven. And ye be in nowise to blame therefor. So should ye bear with patience the lot of Saxons."

"Which is to wait on Normans, as ye would say," retorted Bernulf, scornfully. "But we bide here, as thou hast said."

"The hinds be jealous," said Richard Wood, as he hastened up the little street he had chosen, looking narrowly about him for the house, in his judgment, most likely to be the hiding-place of the runaways. About half-way up the street he espied it, but when, in the king's name, he entered, he found nothing to reward him for his pains. Wherever he stopped he fared no better, and he was fain to believe, at last, the a.s.severations of the inhabitants that there were not only no runaways in that street, but that none were to be found in all Yarmouth,--a town which, according to them, was a most proper place, where those who could not give a good account of themselves never ventured. Unless, indeed, it might be a few Frenchmen now and then, and, as they told him with much garrulity, every Englishman knew what to expect from the French. And then they asked him if those he sought were French. And when he said that they were not, they began at the beginning and went all over the subject again, telling him what a discreet and proper place Yarmouth was, and how none such as he was seeking ever ventured there, until he was like to go distracted, and had not completed the search of even that one little Row when the hour was up, and he hastened to the place appointed to meet his men-at-arms. He found that his experience had been theirs, and, in his disappointment and disgust, he said some harsh things about Yarmouth tongues, which he estimated as entirely too nimble.

The two Saxons heard his comments with covert smiles, and followed along toward the ships.

That morning the ship of Eric had slightly changed her position, and Bernulf so managed that, when the small row-boat he was bidden to hire was about to put off from land, Eric's ship would naturally be the first one boarded.

"Do we go with thee?" asked Herebald.

"Nay," answered Richard Wood. "Here be two men who will row for us. Do ye stay where ye be and watch."

Then they all climbed into the small row-boat and were pulled away toward Eric's ship.

"Ay, we will watch," said Herebald to Bernulf.

A little later the boat went alongside, and the spy and his men-at-arms climbed heavily and clumsily aboard, after a brief parley with skipper Eric, in which he had at first refused them permission to do so.

"They be here!" exulted Richard Wood in his thought, "else why should we be forbidden to come aboard?"

"What seek ye?" demanded the skipper, in a gruff tone when they were safely on deck.

"Two runaways," answered Richard Wood, loudly, for already the anchor was being lifted.