The Golden Galleon Part 16

"What?" he cried. "Dost tell me that Timothy said such things as that?

Nay, I can scarce believe it. The scoundrel! the base ingrate! 'Tis a deliberate, scandalous falsehood!"

Jasper nodded and said: "Right glad I am to see that thou look'st upon the matter thus seriously, Gilbert. I only marvel how the knave could have dared to say such a thing in my hearing. But 'tis ever the way with these low-born and ill-bred louts. I'd have no more to do with him an I were thou. Let the dog go back to the gutter whence you took him."

Now, Gilbert was very sorely troubled and vexed about this matter. He could not believe that Timothy would stoop to the telling of a lie, much less to the utterance of a scandal. And yet, he asked himself, was not his uncle Jasper equally incapable of falsehood? Arguing with himself as he continued on the ride homeward, he scarce could come to any clear reason either way, nor indeed could he see the possibility of finally making up his mind until he should confront young Trollope and boldly accuse him of the lie.

It happened very opportunely that the very first person whom they met upon the road was Timothy himself. He came galloping towards them on one of Lord Champernoun's favourite hunting horses. Gilbert observed, as he approached nearer, that his face was radiant with some new joy.

"The ship hath arrived!" cried Timothy ere yet he was within the distance of a score yards. "The _Revenge_ hath entered into Plymouth harbour!" And then as he drew rein he noticed that Gilbert, instead of showing gladness, looked sorely troubled and annoyed.

"Your pardon, Master Gilbert," said he, "I see you are vexed that I should be riding upon his lordship's own horse. But indeed it was my lord himself who bade me do so."

"Nay, I am vexed at no such harmless matter as that," returned Gilbert gloomily.

"I had hoped that the news I brought you would afford you pleasure, sir," pursued Timothy.

"It might well have done so had it not been that I have heard other news which hath given me pain," quoth Gilbert. And, raising his voice in angry accusation, he added: "I hear that two days ago you told a vile lie about my mother--a lie which, were you even closer to me than you have hitherto been, I could never forgive."

Timothy winced under his young master's frown; but Gilbert went on mercilessly: "You had the baseness to declare that my mother is an idolatrous Papist, and that she hath been secretly in league with the King of Spain. How dare you utter such scandalous lies? How dare you, I say?"

For the moment Timothy imagined that his master was suddenly bereft of his senses.

"I deny that I did ever utter any such thoughts," he stammered, looking Gilbert full boldly in the face. "Nay, how were it possible that I should do so, knowing that there liveth not a more devout Protestant in all England than my lady, nor a more faithful subject of Queen Elizabeth? 'Tis a cruel falsehood, Master Gilbert, and methinks you might know me better than to accuse me thus upon a mere malicious report."

He glanced towards Jasper, who had brought his horse nearer to where his own and Gilbert's steeds stood restless at the roadside.

"'Tis not very hard for me to guess the source whence that report hath reached you," Timothy went on, his face growing pale in his indignation, and his white lips trembling. "I will warrant me that 'twas your virtuous uncle here who thus maligned me. But since he hath spoken falsely of me, I will now speak the truth regarding himself. You are deceived in him, Master Gilbert--vastly deceived. You think him a man of honour, but I tell you he is a traitor end a renegade."

Timothy broke off, disturbed by the look of evil menace that had come into Jasper's dark eyes which were now fixed upon him.

"Proceed," commanded Jasper, gripping the silver handle of his riding-whip. "Prithee, say your say, young man. But mark you, if you dare to say aught that is not true of me, by the Holy Rood, sirrah, I will thrash you within an inch of your life."

This swearing by the Romish emblem pa.s.sed at the moment unnoticed by Gilbert, but it did not escape Timothy Trollope.

"I care as little for your threats as I do for your Papist oaths," the lad retorted, growing bolder. And then turning to Gilbert he continued: "So please you, sir, 'twas not the Lady Betty but Master Jasper himself whom I accused of being a Papist and of being secretly in league with the King of Spain."

"'Tis a lie!" cried Jasper furiously, wheeling his horse round so that he came within a few feet of Timothy. But Timothy was now roused, and he determined to speak his mind at all hazards.

"'Tis no lie!" he declared firmly as he watched the man's whip hand.

"Both your wife and your son, as well as yourself, are sworn Papists, and you are yourself, as I well know, little better than a skulking spy of King Philip of Spain. If it be not as I say, then, prithee, what mean all your secret meetings and underhand plottings with the Spanish prisoners of war down in Plymouth town? Wherefore, also, I pray you, did you purloin Captain Marsden's letter from old Jacob Hartop?"

Jasper's face had grown white with suppressed indignation. His eyes flashed threateningly.

"Take that for an answer, thou base, lying scoundrel!" he cried savagely; and, leaning forward over his saddle, he dealt the lad a smart and vicious cut across his face with the riding-whip. Timothy was well-nigh blinded with the pain, and presently a drop of blood trickled down his cheek.

"Impertinent whelp!" continued Jasper, preparing to repeat the blow. But Timothy had backed his horse a few steps, and, instead of striking him, Jasper hurled the whip at his head. Timothy dexterously caught it in his hand and flung it some distance along the road, at the same time spurring his horse and galloping away. Gilbert watched him for a moment, and then called him back. But Timothy went on, very sad at heart, for he divined that his young master had lost faith in him.

And indeed it seemed that this was the case, for later on the same day, when Gilbert was at the kennels paying a visit to one of his favourite dogs, Timothy approached him.

"So please you, Master Gilbert--" began Tim in a tone of abject apology.

But Gilbert looked at him in stern reproof, and interrupted him, saying:

"Look you, Trollope, I'll have no more of these malicious tales of yours. 'Tis no business of yours to act the spy upon my relatives, and I command you to do no more of it."

Timothy hung his head, hurt to the quick by the reproach.

"Must I then take it that you have lost all confidence in me, Master Gilbert?" he asked.

"Ay," returned Gilbert. "Much am I afraid that 'tis so indeed."

"Then, sir," said Timothy in an unsteady voice, "'twere surely best that I should leave you; for I cannot brook your displeasure, nor think of remaining in the service of a master who hath lost trust in my honour."

"E'en do as ye list," retorted Gilbert. And Timothy, taking the words for a dismissal, walked slowly away, well-nigh broken-hearted.

On the evening of the following day the news reached Modbury Manor that the Spanish prisoners of war, to the number of seven-and-twenty, had made their escape.

CHAPTER XI.

THE AFFRAY ON POLPERRO BEACH.

It was at an ivy-covered house standing upon the heights a little distance beyond the fishing village of Polperro that Jacob Hartop had taken his present refuge. His niece, whom he had been at some pains to discover, was the wife of that Captain Whiddon who sailed out in the service of Sir Walter Raleigh, with intent to discover the Land of Gold that was supposed to lie beyond the river Orinoco, and who, with his ship's crew, had endured untold privations in the swamps of Trinidad, all of which may be read in Raleigh's printed account of his discovery of the Empire of Guiana and the great and golden city of Manoa.

Mrs. Mercy Whiddon had a cl.u.s.ter of st.u.r.dy boys and girls about her, and you may be sure that Master Hartop was a right welcome guest in their home, for he had a deft hand at the making of a wheelbarrow or a rabbit-hutch, and his tales of adventure were ever of the exciting sort which young people do most delight to hear. Captain Whiddon himself was no less pleased than his sons and daughters to have old Jacob under his roof, for it chanced that Hartop and he had known each other years before, out on the Spanish Main, and had struck up a friendship from the simple reason that they both were men of Devon, and that they both bore the name of Jacob.

On a certain evening, ere yet the children had gone to their beds, the family were seated in the living room. From the window they could see the glistening track of the moon's silvery light across the Channel, with here and there a black-sailed fishing-boat pitching about upon the waves; in moments of silence they could hear the breaking of the tide upon the rocks below the cliff, and the ivy leaves, disturbed by the wind, tapping against the diamond panes of the window cas.e.m.e.nt. Jacob Whiddon sat in the ingle, with Bertha, his youngest girl, perched on his knee. Ambrose Pennington, who had sailed round from Plymouth to confer with the captain on some matter concerning Lord Thomas Howard's fleet, sat near him, while Jacob Hartop sat in the midst of a group of children, who were attentively watching him as with a large knife and a block of deal wood he fashioned the rough hull of a boat.

"And how many masts will the ship have?" questioned one of the boys.

"Three, Master Jack," answered Hartop; "for 'tis a ship royal, like unto the _Defiance_ that is now lying in Plymouth."

"Then we must e'en have an admiral's flag made for her," said little Jack. "Mother shall make one for us out of the piece of silk that she cut from off Bertha's belt."

"Nay, but we agreed that the ship should be named the _Pilgrim_,"

objected the eldest of the boys. "For the _Pilgrim_ is father's ship, and she hath but two masts."

"The number of her masts and the name she shall have are matters for yourselves to determine," said Hartop, as he held the boat in front of him bow-on and glanced with one eye along her deck. "The only matter that doth at present concern me is her hull, and when 'tis done, as I promise you it shall be on the morrow, then the rigging of the craft will remain for other hands than mine, for ere she is ready to be launched I shall be far away upon the seas."

He continued to hew at the boat's hull with his knife, shaving down her bows to the required degree of roundness.

"Thou'lt not forget the string of coral beads you did promise me," said Jack's sister Mary, after a long pause of silence.

"Ay, faith, I'll mind on't, truly," answered Jacob with a smile; "and if luck doth follow us, thou shalt have a goodly chain of pearls into the bargain."

"And wilt bring me home one of those green poll-parrots, or one of the long-tailed monkeys that you told us of?" pleaded one who stood at his knee.