The Talisman Ring Read online

  Mr Stubbs tried to say that it was only a matter of his duty, but as Miss Nye, who had the peculiarly resonant voice of most deaf persons, chose at the same moment to announce that if she were given her choice, she would sooner have a pair of wild bulls in the house than two Runners, his explanation was not heard. Before he could repeat it, Nye had given Sir Hugh a brief and faithful account of the affair, particularly stressing his own part in it. ‘Over and over again I told them there was only some spare crockery in the cupboard, sir, but they wouldn’t listen to me. I hope I’m a patient man, but when it comes to them smashing four of my best glasses, not to mention spoiling a whole dish of cheese-cakes that was meant for your honour’s dinner, it’s more than what I can stand!’

  ‘It’s my belief,’ said Sir Hugh, looking fixedly at the unfortunate Runners, ‘that they’re drunk. Both of them.’

  Mr Stubbs, who had not been offered any liquid refreshment at all, protested almost tearfully.

  ‘If you’re not drunk,’ said Sir Hugh, with finality, ‘you’re mad. I had my suspicions of it from the start.’

  After this painful affair the Runners withdrew to watch the inn from the outside. While one kept an eye on the back door from the post-boy’s room, the other walked up and down in front of the inn. From time to time they met and exchanged places. They were occasionally rewarded by the sight either of Nye or of Clem peeping out of one or other of the doors as though to see whether the coast were clear. These signs of activity were sufficiently heartening to keep them at their posts. But it was miserable work for a raw February day, and had the house under observation been other than an inn, it was unlikely that a sense of duty would have triumphed. However, although Nye, according no more nice treatment to the Runners, might withhold all offers of brandy, he could not refuse to serve them as customers. The only pleasant moments they spent during the remainder of the afternoon were in the cosy tap-room, and even these were somewhat marred by the black looks cast at them by the landlord and the caustic comments he made on the drinking proclivities of law officers.

  But when dusk fell they had their reward. It was Mr Stubbs’s turn to sit at the window of the stable-room, and it was consequently he who saw the back door open very gradually, and Eustacie look cautiously out into the yard. He knew it was she, because the candles had been lit inside the house, and she stood full in a beam of light.

  Mr Stubbs drew back from the window and watched from behind the curtain. Behind him one post-boy sprawled in a chair by the fire, snoring rhythmically, and two others sat at the table playing cards.

  Eustacie, having peered all round through the twilight, turned and beckoned to someone inside the house. Mr Stubbs, breathing heavily, reached for his stout ash-plant, and grasped it in his right hand. With his eyes starting almost out of his head, he saw a tall female figure, muffled from head to foot in a dark cloak, slip out of the house and glide round it towards the front, keeping well in the shadow of the wall. Eustacie softly closed the door; but Mr Stubbs did not wait to see this. In two bounds he had reached the yard, and was creeping after his quarry, taking care, however, to stay well behind until he could summon Mr Peabody to his assistance.

  The cloaked figure was moving swiftly, yet in a cautious fashion, pausing at the corner of the house to look up and down the road before venturing further. Mr Stubbs stopped too, effacing himself in the shadows, and realized, when the quarry made a dart across the road, that Mr Peabody must be enjoying a session in the tap-room, saw dimly that the unknown female (or male) was hurrying down the road under cover of the hedge, and bounced into the inn, loudly calling on Mr Peabody for support.

  Mr Peabody, ever-zealous, hastened to his side, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. When he heard the glorious news, he stayed only to pick up his cudgel, and ran out with Mr Stubbs in pursuit of the fugitive.

  ‘It were that self-same abigail, William,’ panted Mr Stubbs. ‘All along I thought – too big for a female! There he goes!’

  Hearing the sounds of heavy-footed pursuit, the figure ahead looked once over its shoulder, and then broke into a run. Mr Stubbs had no more breath to spare for speech, but Mr Peabody, a leaner man, managed to shout: ‘Halt!’

  The figure ahead showed signs of flagging; the Runners, getting their second wind, began to gain upon it, and in a few moments had reached it, and grabbed at the enveloping cloak, gasping: ‘In the name of the Law!’

  The figure spun round, and landed Mr Stubbs a facer that made his nose bleed.

  ‘Mind his pops, Jerry!’ cried Mr Peabody grappling with the foe. ‘Lordy, what a wild cat! Ah, would you, then!’

  Mr Stubbs caught the figure’s left arm in a crushing grip, and panted: ‘I arrest you in the name of the Law!’

  The captive said a low, breathless voice: ‘Let me go! Let me go at once!’

  ‘You’re coming along of us, that’s what you’re going to do,’ replied Mr Stubbs.

  The sound of a horse trotting towards them made the Runners drag their captive to the side of the road. The horse and rider came into sight, and the prisoner, recognizing the rider, cried: ‘Sir Tristram, help! Help!’

  The horse seemed to bound forward as under a sudden spur. The prisoner, struggling madly, shrieked again for help, and the next instant Sir Tristram was abreast of the group, and had swung himself out of the saddle. Before the Runners could explain matters, he had taken the management of the affair into his own swift and capable hands. Mr Stubbs, starting to proclaim his calling, encountered a smashing right and left which dropped him like a log, and Mr Peabody, releasing his captive and aiming a blow at Sir Tristram with his cudgel, quite failed to find his mark, and the next moment was sprawling on the road, having been neatly thrown on Sir Tristram’s hip.

  Sir Tristram paid no further heed to either of them, but took a quick stride towards the cloaked figure, saying sharply: ‘Are you hurt? What in heaven’s name is the meaning of this, Miss Thane?’

  ‘Oh, I am bruised from head to foot!’ shuddered Miss Thane. ‘These dreadful creatures set upon me with cudgels! I shall die of the shock!’

  This dramatic announcement, instead of arousing Sir Tristram’s chivalrous instincts anew, made him look penetratingly at her for one moment, and say in a voice torn between amusement and exasperation: ‘You must be out of your mind! How dared you do such a crazy thing?’

  The Runners had by this time begun to pick themselves up. Mr Stubbs, cherishing his nose, seemed a little dazed, but Mr Peabody advanced heroically, and said: ‘I arrest you, Ludovic Lavenham, in the name of the Law, and it will go hard with them as seeks to interfere!’

  Sir Tristram released Miss Thane’s hands, which he had been holding in a sustaining manner, and replied: ‘You fool, this is not Ludovic Lavenham! This is a lady!’

  Mr Stubbs said thickly: ‘It’s the abigail. It ain’t no female.’

  ‘Oh, don’t let them touch me!’ implored Miss Thane, shrieking artistically towards Sir Tristram.

  ‘I’ve no intention of letting them touch you, but don’t get in my way,’ said Sir Tristram unromantically. ‘Now then, my man, perhaps you will tell me what the devil you mean by arresting this lady?’

  ‘It ain’t a lady!’ said Mr Peabody urgently. ‘He’s a desperate criminal dressed up for an abigail! No lady couldn’t fight like him!’

  ‘I tell you she is Sir Hugh Thane’s sister!’ said Sir Tristram. ‘Look, is this a man’s face?’ He turned as he spoke, and put back the hood from Miss Thane’s head.

  The Runners peered at her doubtfully. ‘When my brother hears of this, you will be sorry!’ said Miss Thane in a tearful voice.

  A look of deep foreboding stole into Mr Stubbs’s watering eyes. ‘If we’ve made a mistake –’ he began uncertainly.

  ‘It’s my belief it’s a plot, and they’re both in it!’ declared Mr Peabody.

  ‘Take me to my b