Chapter Chapter 5 · The apparition of a file of soldiers ringing down the but-ends of their

. The apparition of a file of soldiers ringing down the but-ends of their

loaded muskets on our door-step, caused the dinner-party to rise from

table in confusion, and caused Mrs. Joe re-entering the kitchen

empty-handed, to stop short and stare, in her wondering lament of

“Gracious goodness gracious me, what’s gone—with the—pie!”

The sergeant and I were in the kitchen when Mrs. Joe stood staring; at

which crisis I partially recovered the use of my senses. It was the

sergeant who had spoken to me, and he was now looking round at the

company, with his handcuffs invitingly extended towards them in his

right hand, and his left on my shoulder.

“Excuse me, ladies and gentleman,” said the sergeant, “but as I have

mentioned at the door to this smart young shaver,” (which he hadn’t),

“I am on a chase in the name of the king, and I want the blacksmith.”

“And pray what might you want with _him_?” retorted my sister, quick to

resent his being wanted at all.

“Missis,” returned the gallant sergeant, “speaking for myself, I should

reply, the honour and pleasure of his fine wife’s acquaintance;

speaking for the king, I answer, a little job done.”

This was received as rather neat in the sergeant; insomuch that Mr.

Pumblechook cried audibly, “Good again!”

“You see, blacksmith,” said the sergeant, who had by this time picked

out Joe with his eye, “we have had an accident with these, and I find

the lock of one of ’em goes wrong, and the coupling don’t act pretty.

As they are wanted for immediate service, will you throw your eye over

them?”

Joe threw his eye over them, and pronounced that the job would

necessitate the lighting of his forge fire, and would take nearer two

hours than one. “Will it? Then will you set about it at once,

blacksmith?” said the off-hand sergeant, “as it’s on his Majesty’s

service. And if my men can bear a hand anywhere, they’ll make

themselves useful.” With that, he called to his men, who came trooping

into the kitchen one after another, and piled their arms in a corner.

And then they stood about, as soldiers do; now, with their hands

loosely clasped before them; now, resting a knee or a shoulder; now,

easing a belt or a pouch; now, opening the door to spit stiffly over

their high stocks, out into the yard.

All these things I saw without then knowing that I saw them, for I was

in an agony of apprehension. But beginning to perceive that the

handcuffs were not for me, and that the military had so far got the

better of the pie as to put it in the background, I collected a little

more of my scattered wits.

“Would you give me the time?” said the sergeant, addressing himself to

Mr. Pumblechook, as to a man whose appreciative powers justified the

inference that he was equal to the time.

“It’s just gone half past two.”

“That’s not so bad,” said the sergeant, reflecting; “even if I was

forced to halt here nigh two hours, that’ll do. How far might you call

yourselves from the marshes, hereabouts? Not above a mile, I reckon?”

“Just a mile,” said Mrs. Joe.

“That’ll do. We begin to close in upon ’em about dusk. A little before

dusk, my orders are. That’ll do.”

“Convicts, sergeant?” asked Mr. Wopsle, in a matter-of-course way.

“Ay!” returned the sergeant, “two. They’re pretty well known to be out

on the marshes still, and they won’t try to get clear of ’em before

dusk. Anybody here seen anything of any such game?”

Everybody, myself excepted, said no, with confidence. Nobody thought of

me.

“Well!” said the sergeant, “they’ll find themselves trapped in a

circle, I expect, sooner than they count on. Now, blacksmith! If you’re

ready, his Majesty the King is.”

Joe had got his coat and waistcoat and cravat off, and his leather

apron on, and passed into the forge. One of the soldiers opened its

wooden windows, another lighted the fire, another turned to at the

bellows, the rest stood round the blaze, which was soon roaring. Then

Joe began to hammer and clink, hammer and clink, and we all looked on.

The interest of the impending pursuit not only absorbed the general

attention, but even made my sister liberal. She drew a pitcher of beer

from the cask for the soldiers, and invited the sergeant to take a

glass of brandy. But Mr. Pumblechook said, sharply, “Give him wine,

Mum. I’ll engage there’s no tar in that:” so, the sergeant thanked him

and said that as he preferred his drink without tar, he would take

wine, if it was equally convenient. When it was given him, he drank his

Majesty’s health and compliments of the season, and took it all at a

mouthful and smacked his lips.

“Good stuff, eh, sergeant?” said Mr. Pumblechook.

“I’ll tell you something,” returned the sergeant; “I suspect that

stuff’s of _your_ providing.”

Mr. Pumblechook, with a fat sort of laugh, said, “Ay, ay? Why?”

“Because,” returned the sergeant, clapping him on the shoulder, “you’re

a man that knows what’s what.”

“D’ye think so?” said Mr. Pumblechook, with his former laugh. “Have

another glass!”

“With you. Hob and nob,” returned the sergeant. “The top of mine to the

foot of yours,—the foot of yours to the top of mine,—Ring once, ring

twice,—the best tune on the Musical Glasses! Your health. May you live

a thousand years, and never be a worse judge of the right sort than you

are at the present moment of your life!”

The sergeant tossed off his glass again and seemed quite ready for

another glass. I noticed that Mr. Pumblechook in his hospitality

appeared to forget that he had made a present of the wine, but took the

bottle from Mrs. Joe and had all the credit of handing it about in a

gush of joviality. Even I got some. And he was so very free of the wine

that he even called for the other bottle, and handed that about with

the same liberality, when the first was gone.

As I watched them while they all stood clustering about the forge,

enjoying themselves so much, I thought what terrible good sauce for a

dinner my fugitive friend on the marshes was. They had not enjoyed

themselves a quarter so much, before the entertainment was brightened

with the excitement he furnished. And now, when they were all in lively

anticipation of “the two villains” being taken, and when the bellows

seemed to roar for the fugitives, the fire to flare for them, the smoke

to hurry away in pursuit of them, Joe to hammer and clink for them, and

all the murky shadows on the wall to shake at them in menace as the

blaze rose and sank, and the red-hot sparks dropped and died, the pale

afternoon outside almost seemed in my pitying young fancy to have

turned pale on their account, poor wretches.

At last, Joe’s job was done, and the ringing and roaring stopped. As

Joe got on his coat, he mustered courage to propose that some of us

should go down with the soldiers and see what came of the hunt. Mr.

Pumblechook and Mr. Hubble declined, on the plea of a pipe and ladies’

society; but Mr. Wopsle said he would go, if Joe would. Joe said he was

agreeable, and would take me, if Mrs. Joe approved. We never should

have got leave to go, I am sure, but for Mrs. Joe’s curiosity to know

all about it and how it ended. As it was, she merely stipulated, “If

you bring the boy back with his head blown to bits by a musket, don’t

look to me to put it together again.”

The sergeant took a polite leave of the ladies, and parted from Mr.

Pumblechook as from a comrade; though I doubt if he were quite as fully

sensible of that gentleman’s merits under arid conditions, as when

something moist was going. His men resumed their muskets and fell in.

Mr. Wopsle, Joe, and I, received strict charge to keep in the rear, and

to speak no word after we reached the marshes. When we were all out in

the raw air and were steadily moving towards our business, I

treasonably whispered to Joe, “I hope, Joe, we shan’t find them.” and

Joe whispered to me, “I’d give a shilling if they had cut and run,

Pip.”

We were joined by no stragglers from the village, for the weather was

cold and threatening, the way dreary, the footing bad, darkness coming

on, and the people had good fires in-doors and were keeping the day. A

few faces hurried to glowing windows and looked after us, but none came

out. We passed the finger-post, and held straight on to the churchyard.

There we were stopped a few minutes by a signal from the sergeant’s

hand, while two or three of his men dispersed themselves among the

graves, and also examined the porch. They came in again without finding

anything, and then we struck out on the open marshes, through the gate

at the side of the churchyard. A bitter sleet came rattling against us

here on the east wind, and Joe took me on his back.

Now that we were out upon the dismal wilderness where they little

thought I had been within eight or nine hours and had seen both men

hiding, I considered for the first time, with great dread, if we should

come upon them, would my particular convict suppose that it was I who

had brought the soldiers there? He had asked me if I was a deceiving

imp, and he had said I should be a fierce young hound if I joined the

hunt against him. Would he believe that I was both imp and hound in

treacherous earnest, and had betrayed him?

It was of no use asking myself this question now. There I was, on Joe’s

back, and there was Joe beneath me, charging at the ditches like a

hunter, and stimulating Mr. Wopsle not to tumble on his Roman nose, and

to keep up with us. The soldiers were in front of us, extending into a

pretty wide line with an interval between man and man. We were taking

the course I had begun with, and from which I had diverged in the mist.

Either the mist was not out again yet, or the wind had dispelled it.

Under the low red glare of sunset, the beacon, and the gibbet, and the

mound of the Battery, and the opposite shore of the river, were plain,

though all of a watery lead colour.

With my heart thumping like a blacksmith at Joe’s broad shoulder, I

looked all about for any sign of the convicts. I could see none, I

could hear none. Mr. Wopsle had greatly alarmed me more than once, by

his blowing and hard breathing; but I knew the sounds by this time, and

could dissociate them from the object of pursuit. I got a dreadful

start, when I thought I heard the file still going; but it was only a

sheep-bell. The sheep stopped in their eating and looked timidly at us;

and the cattle, their heads turned from the wind and sleet, stared

angrily as if they held us responsible for both annoyances; but, except

these things, and the shudder of the dying day in every blade of grass,

there was no break in the bleak stillness of the marshes.

The soldiers were moving on in the direction of the old Battery, and we

were moving on a little way behind them, when, all of a sudden, we all

stopped. For there had reached us on the wings of the wind and rain, a

long shout. It was repeated. It was at a distance towards the east, but

it was long and loud. Nay, there seemed to be two or more shouts raised

together,—if one might judge from a confusion in the sound.

To this effect the sergeant and the nearest men were speaking under

their breath, when Joe and I came up. After another moment’s listening,

Joe (who was a good judge) agreed, and Mr. Wopsle (who was a bad judge)

agreed. The sergeant, a decisive man, ordered that the sound should not

be answered, but that the course should be changed, and that his men

should make towards it “at the double.” So we slanted to the right

(where the East was), and Joe pounded away so wonderfully, that I had

to hold on tight to keep my seat.

It was a run indeed now, and what Joe called, in the only two words he

spoke all the time, “a Winder.” Down banks and up banks, and over

gates, and splashing into dikes, and breaking among coarse rushes: no

man cared where he went. As we came nearer to the shouting, it became

more and more apparent that it was made by more than one voice.

Sometimes, it seemed to stop altogether, and then the soldiers stopped.

When it broke out again, the soldiers made for it at a greater rate

than ever, and we after them. After a while, we had so run it down,

that we could hear one voice calling “Murder!” and another voice,

“Convicts! Runaways! Guard! This way for the runaway convicts!” Then

both voices would seem to be stifled in a struggle, and then would

break out again. And when it had come to this, the soldiers ran like

deer, and Joe too.

The sergeant ran in first, when we had run the noise quite down, and

two of his men ran in close upon him. Their pieces were cocked and

levelled when we all ran in.

“Here are both men!” panted the sergeant, struggling at the bottom of a

ditch. “Surrender, you two! and confound you for two wild beasts! Come

asunder!”

Water was splashing, and mud was flying, and oaths were being sworn,

and blows were being struck, when some more men went down into the

ditch to help the sergeant, and dragged out, separately, my convict and

the other one. Both were bleeding and panting and execrating and

struggling; but of course I knew them both directly.

“Mind!” said my convict, wiping blood from his face with his ragged

sleeves, and shaking torn hair from his fingers: “_I_ took him! _I_

give him up to you! Mind that!”

“It’s not much to be particular about,” said the sergeant; “it’ll do

you small good, my man, being in the same plight yourself. Handcuffs

there!”

“I don’t expect it to do me any good. I don’t want it to do me more

good than it does now,” said my convict, with a greedy laugh. “I took

him. He knows it. That’s enough for me.”

The other convict was livid to look at, and, in addition to the old

bruised left side of his face, seemed to be bruised and torn all over.

He could not so much as get his breath to speak, until they were both

separately handcuffed, but leaned upon a soldier to keep himself from

falling.

“Take notice, guard,—he tried to murder me,” were his first words.

“Tried to murder him?” said my convict, disdainfully. “Try, and not do

it? I took him, and giv’ him up; that’s what I done. I not only

prevented him getting off the marshes, but I dragged him here,—dragged

him this far on his way back. He’s a gentleman, if you please, this

villain. Now, the Hulks has got its gentleman again, through me. Murder

him? Worth my while, too, to murder him, when I could do worse and drag

him back!”

The other one still gasped, “He tried—he tried-to—murder me. Bear—bear

witness.”

“Lookee here!” said my convict to the sergeant. “Single-handed I got

clear of the prison-ship; I made a dash and I done it. I could ha’ got

clear of these death-cold flats likewise—look at my leg: you won’t find

much iron on it—if I hadn’t made the discovery that _he_ was here. Let

_him_ go free? Let _him_ profit by the means as I found out? Let _him_

make a tool of me afresh and again? Once more? No, no, no. If I had

died at the bottom there,” and he made an emphatic swing at the ditch

with his manacled hands, “I’d have held to him with that grip, that you

should have been safe to find him in my hold.”

The other fugitive, who was evidently in extreme horror of his

companion, repeated, “He tried to murder me. I should have been a dead

man if you had not come up.”

“He lies!” said my convict, with fierce energy. “He’s a liar born, and

he’ll die a liar. Look at his face; ain’t it written there? Let him

turn those eyes of his on me. I defy him to do it.”

The other, with an effort at a scornful smile, which could not,

however, collect the nervous working of his mouth into any set

expression, looked at the soldiers, and looked about at the marshes and

at the sky, but certainly did not look at the speaker.

“Do you see him?” pursued my convict. “Do you see what a villain he is?

Do you see those grovelling and wandering eyes? That’s how he looked

when we were tried together. He never looked at me.”

The other, always working and working his dry lips and turning his eyes

restlessly about him far and near, did at last turn them for a moment

on the speaker, with the words, “You are not much to look at,” and with

a half-taunting glance at the bound hands. At that point, my convict

became so frantically exasperated, that he would have rushed upon him

but for the interposition of the soldiers. “Didn’t I tell you,” said

the other convict then, “that he would murder me, if he could?” And any

one could see that he shook with fear, and that there broke out upon

his lips curious white flakes, like thin snow.

“Enough of this parley,” said the sergeant. “Light those torches.”

As one of the soldiers, who carried a basket in lieu of a gun, went

down on his knee to open it, my convict looked round him for the first

time, and saw me. I had alighted from Joe’s back on the brink of the

ditch when we came up, and had not moved since. I looked at him eagerly

when he looked at me, and slightly moved my hands and shook my head. I

had been waiting for him to see me that I might try to assure him of my

innocence. It was not at all expressed to me that he even comprehended

my intention, for he gave me a look that I did not understand, and it

all passed in a moment. But if he had looked at me for an hour or for a

day, I could not have remembered his face ever afterwards, as having

been more attentive.

The soldier with the basket soon got a light, and lighted three or four

torches, and took one himself and distributed the others. It had been

almost dark before, but now it seemed quite dark, and soon afterwards

very dark. Before we departed from that spot, four soldiers standing in

a ring, fired twice into the air. Presently we saw other torches

kindled at some distance behind us, and others on the marshes on the

opposite bank of the river. “All right,” said the sergeant. “March.”

We had not gone far when three cannon were fired ahead of us with a

sound that seemed to burst something inside my ear. “You are expected

on board,” said the sergeant to my convict; “they know you are coming.

Don’t straggle, my man. Close up here.”

The two were kept apart, and each walked surrounded by a separate

guard. I had hold of Joe’s hand now, and Joe carried one of the

torches. Mr. Wopsle had been for going back, but Joe was resolved to

see it out, so we went on with the party. There was a reasonably good

path now, mostly on the edge of the river, with a divergence here and

there where a dike came, with a miniature windmill on it and a muddy

sluice-gate. When I looked round, I could see the other lights coming

in after us. The torches we carried dropped great blotches of fire upon

the track, and I could see those, too, lying smoking and flaring. I

could see nothing else but black darkness. Our lights warmed the air

about us with their pitchy blaze, and the two prisoners seemed rather

to like that, as they limped along in the midst of the muskets. We

could not go fast, because of their lameness; and they were so spent,

that two or three times we had to halt while they rested.

After an hour or so of this travelling, we came to a rough wooden hut

and a landing-place. There was a guard in the hut, and they challenged,

and the sergeant answered. Then, we went into the hut, where there was

a smell of tobacco and whitewash, and a bright fire, and a lamp, and a

stand of muskets, and a drum, and a low wooden bedstead, like an

overgrown mangle without the machinery, capable of holding about a

dozen soldiers all at once. Three or four soldiers who lay upon it in

their great-coats were not much interested in us, but just lifted their

heads and took a sleepy stare, and then lay down again. The sergeant

made some kind of report, and some entry in a book, and then the

convict whom I call the other convict was drafted off with his guard,

to go on board first.

My convict never looked at me, except that once. While we stood in the

hut, he stood before the fire looking thoughtfully at it, or putting up

his feet by turns upon the hob, and looking thoughtfully at them as if

he pitied them for their recent adventures. Suddenly, he turned to the

sergeant, and remarked,—

“I wish to say something respecting this escape. It may prevent some

persons laying under suspicion alonger me.”

“You can say what you like,” returned the sergeant, standing coolly

looking at him with his arms folded, “but you have no call to say it

here. You’ll have opportunity enough to say about it, and hear about

it, before it’s done with, you know.”

“I know, but this is another pint, a separate matter. A man can’t

starve; at least _I_ can’t. I took some wittles, up at the willage over

yonder,—where the church stands a’most out on the marshes.”

“You mean stole,” said the sergeant.

“And I’ll tell you where from. From the blacksmith’s.”

“Halloa!” said the sergeant, staring at Joe.

“Halloa, Pip!” said Joe, staring at me.

“It was some broken wittles—that’s what it was—and a dram of liquor,

and a pie.”

“Have you happened to miss such an article as a pie, blacksmith?” asked

the sergeant, confidentially.

“My wife did, at the very moment when you came in. Don’t you know,

Pip?”

“So,” said my convict, turning his eyes on Joe in a moody manner, and

without the least glance at me,—“so you’re the blacksmith, are you?

Than I’m sorry to say, I’ve eat your pie.”

“God knows you’re welcome to it,—so far as it was ever mine,” returned

Joe, with a saving remembrance of Mrs. Joe. “We don’t know what you

have done, but we wouldn’t have you starved to death for it, poor

miserable fellow-creatur.—Would us, Pip?”

The something that I had noticed before, clicked in the man’s throat

again, and he turned his back. The boat had returned, and his guard

were ready, so we followed him to the landing-place made of rough

stakes and stones, and saw him put into the boat, which was rowed by a

crew of convicts like himself. No one seemed surprised to see him, or

interested in seeing him, or glad to see him, or sorry to see him, or

spoke a word, except that somebody in the boat growled as if to dogs,

“Give way, you!” which was the signal for the dip of the oars. By the

light of the torches, we saw the black Hulk lying out a little way from

the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah’s ark. Cribbed and barred and

moored by massive rusty chains, the prison-ship seemed in my young eyes

to be ironed like the prisoners. We saw the boat go alongside, and we

saw him taken up the side and disappear. Then, the ends of the torches

were flung hissing into the water, and went out, as if it were all over

with him.