Patience Wins Part 44

"Yes, mester."

"How long would it have burned?"

"Twenty minutes, mester."

"Same length as the one that was run in the furnace-house?"

"Yes, mester."

"You cowardly scoundrel! You were in that too, then," cried Uncle Jack, going down on one knee and seizing the man by the throat and shaking him till he realised how horribly he was punishing him, when he loosed his hold.

"Don't kill me, mester. Oh, my wife and bairns!"

"A man with a wife and children, and ready to do such a dastardly act as that! Here, you shall tell me this, who set you on?"

The man set his teeth fast.

"Who set you on, I say?"

"Nay, mester, I canna tell," groaned Gentles.

"But you shall tell," roared Uncle Jack. "You shall stay here till you do."

"I can't tell; I weant tell," groaned the man.

"We'll see about that," cried Uncle Jack. "Pah! What a brute I am!

Hold the light, Cob. Piter! You touch him if you dare. Let's see if we can't get this trap open."

He took hold of it gently, and tried to place it flat upon the stones, but the poor trapped wretch groaned dismally till he was placed in a sitting posture with his knee bent, when Piter, having been coerced into a neutral state, Uncle Jack pressed with all his might upon the spring while I worked the ring upon it half an inch at a time till the jaws yawned right open and Gentles' leg was at liberty.

He groaned and was evidently in great pain; but as soon as it was off, his face was convulsed with pa.s.sion, and he shook his fists at Uncle Jack.

"I'll hev the law of ye for this here. I'll hev the law of ye."

"Do," said Uncle Jack, picking up the can of powder; "and I shall bring this in against you. Let me see. You confessed in the presence of this witness that you came over the wall with this can of powder to blow up our water-wheel so as to stop our works. Mr Gentles, I think we shall get the better of you this time."

The man raised himself to his feet, and stood with great difficulty, moaning with pain.

"Now," said Uncle Jack, "will you go back over the wall or out by the gate."

"I'll pay thee for this. I'll pay thee for this," hissed the man.

Uncle Jack took him again by the throat.

"Look here," he said fiercely. "Have a care what you are doing, my fine fellow. You have had a narrow escape to-night. If we had not been carefully watching you would by now have been hanging by that chain-- drowned. Mind you and your cowardly sneaking scoundrels of companions do not meet with some such fate next time they come to molest us. Now go. You can't walk? There's a stick for you. I ought to break your thick skull with it, but I'm going to be weak enough to give it to you to walk home. Go home and tell your wife and children that you are one of the most treacherous, canting, hypocritical scoundrels in Arrowfield, and that you have only got your deserts if you are lamed for life."

He gave Gentles his stick and walked with him to the gate, which he unlocked and held open for him to pa.s.s out groaning and suffering horribly.

"Good-night, honest faithful workman!" he said; "friendly man who only wanted to be left alone. Do you want your can of powder? No: I'll keep it as a memento of your visit, and for fear you might have an accident at home."

The man groaned again as he pa.s.sed out and staggered.

"Poor wretch!" said Uncle Jack, so that I alone heard him. "Ignorance and brutality. Here," he said aloud, "take my arm. I'll help you on to your house. One good turn deserves another."

Uncle Jack went to him and took his stick in his hand, when, fancying I heard something, I turned on the light just in time to show Uncle Jack his danger, for half a dozen men armed with sticks came out of the shadow of the wall and rushed at him.

It was fortunate for him that he had taken back the stout oak walking-stick that he made his companion on watching nights, or he would have been beaten down.

As it was he received several heavy blows, but he parried others, and laid about him so earnestly that two men went down, and another fell over Gentles.

By that time my uncle had retreated to the gate, darted through, and banged and locked it in his enemies' face.

"Rather cowardly to retreat, Cob," he panted; "but six to one are long odds. Where's the powder can?"

"I have it, uncle," I said.

"Ah, well, suppose you give it to me, or else the light! The two don't go well together. They always quarrel, and it ends in what Mr O'Gallagher in _Perceval Keene_ called a blow up."

I gave him the can, and then listened to the muttering of voices outside, half expecting that an attempt might be made to scale the wall.

"No," said Uncle Jack; "they will not do that. They don't make open attacks."

"Did you see who the others were?"

"No, it was too dark. There, let's get inside. But about that trap. I won't leave it there."

I walked with him in silence, and lighted him while he dragged the iron peg out of the ground, and carried all back to the office, where he examined the trap, turning it over and over, and then throwing it heavily on the floor.

He looked hard at me then, and I suppose my face told tales.

"I thought so," he said; "that was your game, Master Cob."

"Yes," I said; "but I thought it was taken up. I told Uncle Bob to take it up when I went to London."

"He thought you meant the trap of the drain," cried Uncle Jack, roaring with laughter. "He had the bricklayer to it, and said there was a bad smell, and it was well cleaned out."

"Oh!" I exclaimed; "and I made sure that it was all right again."

"How came you to set the trap there?"

"I had seen marks on the wall," I said, "where someone came over, but I never thought it could be Gentles."

"No, my lad, one don't know whom to trust here; but how came you to think of that?"

"It was the rat-trap set me thinking of it, and when I made up my mind to do it I never thought it would be so serious as it was. Are you very angry with me?"

Uncle Jack looked at me with his forehead all in wrinkles, and sat down on a high stool and tapped the desk.