The Toll-Gate Read online

  John could not help laughing. ‘I wish you will not! I could lend you some blunt.’

  ‘Thank ’ee, Soldier, breaking shins is what I don’t hold with!’ said Chirk, whose morality, though eccentric, was rigid.

  John smiled, but said nothing. A handsome gold watch lay on the table, and he picked it up. ‘You were fortunate, weren’t you? A well-breeched swell!’

  ‘Getting winged ain’t my idea of good fortune!’ said Chirk tartly. ‘If he’d had more than one barker, likely I’d be as dead as a herring by now, for he was a good shot: hit me while his prad was trying to bolt with him!’

  ‘Jerry, was there an exchange of shots?’ John asked, a little sternly.

  ‘Ay, but I fired over his head, so you’ve no call to look at me like that, Soldier! I ain’t a man o’ violence!’

  ‘You’re a very foolish fellow. Don’t rob any more travellers! If all goes as I believe it will, we shall finish our business tomorrow.’

  ‘I’d as lief we did,’ commented Chirk.

  ‘And I! I am going to tell you just what I have arranged to do, and what your part must be. Everything depends on Stornaway, but I think he will do exactly what I want him to do.’

  ‘I daresay you know what you’re about,’ said Chirk.

  But by the time the Captain had come to the end of a brief account of what had passed between himself and Stornaway, the faintly sceptical expression on the highwayman’s face had changed to one of blank dismay. ‘And I thought you was a downy one!’ he ejaculated. ‘Lord, Soldier, you’ve got more hair than wit, seemingly!’

  ‘Have I?’ said the Captain, smiling.

  ‘If you don’t see that you’ll be queered on that suit, you’re wood-headed!’ said Chirk bluntly. ‘I never clapped my ogles on young Stornaway, but by what Rose has told me – let alone what you’ve just told me – any cove as ’ud trust him an inch beyond the reach of his barker is no better than a bleater! God love you, Soldier, he’ll turn cat in pan on you! A cull as’ll whiddle on his friends, like he done tonight to you, won’t think twice afore he tips you the double! P’raps you’ll tell me why he was so anxious you shouldn’t force him to show you the cavern till it was morning – if them windmills you’ve got in your head don’t stop you thinking?’

  The smile lingered in John’s eyes. ‘Oh, no! Not a bit! He wanted time to take counsel of Coate, of course.’

  Chirk’s jaw dropped. ‘He – And you’re being so very obliging as to let him?’

  ‘It is precisely what I wish him to do. By hedge or by stile, I must get Coate into that cavern. I’ve been in the deuce of a puzzle to know how to do it – till I hit upon this notion. I believe it will answer: if it doesn’t, the lord only knows what’s to be done next!’

  ‘Just what do you think will happen?’ enquired Chirk, regarding him with a fascinated eye.

  ‘Well, setting myself in Coate’s place, it’s as plain as a pikestaff I must be disposed of. I’m working with the Redbreast; I know too much. It may be dangerous to kill me, but it would be far more dangerous to let me live to tell Stogumber the gold is hidden in a cavern here. Furthermore, Coate knows I came here unexpectedly, and that I’m a stranger to everyone in Crowford, and he might well think that no one would feel any particular degree of surprise if I were to vanish as suddenly as I appeared. I think, then, that Henry will keep his tryst with me, and will lead me to the cavern.’

  ‘So that Coate can murder you there?’

  ‘So that Coate can murder me there,’ nodded the Captain cheerfully. ‘I do him the justice to believe that he would prefer to have no hand in my murder, but between greed of gold and fear of Coate he will obey his orders – and weep over the harsh necessity later!’

  ‘Yes, I remember as how you said you was going to enjoy yourself!’ said Chirk acidly. ‘Rare fun and gig it’ll be, down in that tomb! Well, I knew when I first saw you that you’d broken loose from Bedlam! You’ll find Coate waiting for you, and a nice, easy shot it’ll be for him, with you carrying a lantern so as he’ll know just where to aim his pop!’

  The Captain grinned. ‘If Coate is already in the cavern I shall know it, for he cannot fasten the fence from within. But I think he won’t be: he leaves little to chance, and even if he took the fence down, and concealed it in the undergrowth, anyone must see that a fence or a gate has stood there. He won’t wish to make me even a little suspicious. If I am wrong, and find the cavern open, be sure I’ll be content to enter with only Stornaway’s lantern to light me – and will stay beyond its beam!’

  ‘The only thing as I’m sure of is that you’ll be put to bed with a shovel!’

  ‘Oh, not if you play your part, and Stogumber his, I hope!’

  ‘What are you wishful I should do?’ asked Chirk uneasily. ‘I’ll tell you to your head, Soldier, I ain’t a-going to help you to make a pea-goose of yourself! I daresay you think it ’ud be a capital go if you was to get your noddle blown off in that cavern, but precious queer stirrups I’d find myself in, if that was to happen!’

  ‘I shouldn’t think it a capital go at all,’ replied John. ‘And whatever may happen to me, you will be protected by Stogumber. You have only to do precisely as I bid you, and we shall come about famously.’

  ‘Yes, well, maybe we got different notions about that!’ retorted Chirk. ‘Seems to me your notion o’ what’s famous ain’t by any means mine!’

  ‘Be quiet! A fine rank-rider you are, to turn as melancholy as a gibed cat at the hint of a risk!’

  ‘Hint? Hint of a risk?’ interpolated Chirk indignantly.

  ‘That’s all. Now, you listen carefully to what you must do, and see you don’t forget anything!’

  ‘I thought it wouldn’t be long before you took it into your head I was one of them troopers of yours,’ commented Chirk rebelliously.

  ‘If any trooper of mine ever argued with me as you do, I’d have him under guard before the cat could lick her ear! Stubble it! I’ve told Stogumber that you have found the gold, but that I would not let you divulge the hiding place to him until my plans were completed. I told him also that Stornaway is nothing but a sapskull, and knows nothing of the robbery. Whether he believes that or not is no matter: he will believe it. You will tell him that Stornaway, when it was shown to him that Coate had been using him as a mask, readily agreed to use his best endeavours to discover where the treasure had been hidden, and – like you! – suspected the cavern might be the place. You will then tell him that I have baited my trap, and you will take him to the cavern. He can borrow the landlord’s cob, and you must both be there a full hour before eight o’clock. You will see fast enough if Coate has entered the cavern. If he has not, take the horses well beyond it, and tether them, and yourselves find cover within sight of the cave-mouth. And then wait! When Coate enters the cavern, which I am persuaded he will do as soon as I am safely inside it, follow him, but not so close that he will see or hear you until he has reached the main chamber. Do you perfectly understand? It will not suit me at all for Stogumber to arrest him before that moment.’

  ‘Out of course it wouldn’t!’ agreed Chirk, with deceptive cordiality. ‘Why, if Stogumber and me was to do the trick afore he got into the cavern, you wouldn’t be able to play at hide-and-seek in the dark with as nasty a pair o’ cut-throat culls as ever I see!’

  ‘Exactly so!’ said John gravely. ‘But, you see, I have very good reason for what I am doing. Don’t forget that I shall be expecting Coate, and so shall not be taken by surprise! Unless he can see me clearly, he won’t risk a shot at me, and you know how little light two lanterns afforded us in that place! If it comes to a struggle, why, I fancy I should be able to hold my own against the fellow! Come! Promise me that you’ll do precisely as you’re bid! If you don’t, you may well bring all to ruin!’

  After a long pause, and with every sign of reluctance, Chirk gave him the required promise. John gripped his hand,