Humphrey Bold | Page 8

the
stairs, only louder and more substantial. It ceased, and I held my breath,
wondering whether I should hear it again. Then it recommenced, and I
was about to spring from my bed and run to tell Mistress Pennyquick
when a sudden thought held me: What would Captain Galsworthy think
if he knew I had fled from a sound? Would he regard me as the right
stuff of which to make a man?
The captain's good opinion was worth so much to me now that I
crushed down my fears and sat up in bed (yet keeping a tight clutch

upon the blanket), and tried to use my reason.
The tapping, I reflected, must be caused by some person or thing. A
ghost is a spirit, and insubstantial, and I had never heard that the ghost
which some of the townsfolk (chiefly servant maids) had seen in St.
Alkmund's Churchyard had done more at any time than glide silently
among the tombs. And even as I decided that the sound must have a
natural cause, I had startling confirmation of my conclusion in a new
sound--nothing else than a sneeze, sudden, and short, and stifled. The
tapping ceased, and while I was still trying to collect my wits I heard a
groan, and immediately afterwards a voice calling my name, and then a
new tapping, only quicker.
It was now clear to me that some one was at my window, though,
seeing that my room was some twenty feet above the ground, I was at a
loss to imagine how the tapper had mounted there.
My fears now being merged in surprise, I got out of bed, stole to the
window, and pulled the blind an inch aside.
"Master Bold! Master Bold!" came the voice again, and, venturing a
little more, I put my head between the blind and the window, and saw a
dark form against the clear summer sky.
"Master Bold, 'tis me, Joe Punchard," said the voice in a whisper.
"Canst let me in, lad, without making a noise?"
Without more ado I lifted the sash gradually, for it was heavy and
creaked, and I feared to rouse the household. When it was high enough
for Joe's bulky form to pass through he clambered over the sill, and
stood in my room.
"How did you get up, Joe?" I asked in a whisper.
"Got a ladder from the rick yard, lad. I bin tapping for nigh half an hour,
I reckon. You be one of the seven sleepers, for sure."
"But what do you want, Joe? You can't stay here, you know."

"Nor don't want to. I be come to tell you, lad, I be going away."
"Going away, Joe?"
"Yes. No one knows it but you, and I wouldn't ha' telled you only the
old mother will be in a rare taking when she finds me gone, and I want
you to tell her as I've come to no harm."
"But why, Joe?"
"Vetch--that's why. 'Tis no place for me now, lad. He bin cursing and
swearing he'll send me to the plantations for that business with the
barrel, and he'll keep his word. And so I be going to run for it."
"But where, Joe? And what about your 'dentures?"
"That's where it is: my 'dentures must go too. If I be catched, there's a
flogging and prison for that. But I don't mean to be catched. Before the
sun's up I'll be on my way to Bristowe."
"That's ever so far."
"So 'tis, but not further than a pair of legs can walk."
"And will you get a place with a cooper there?"
"No, no; no more coopering for me; I be done with barrels for good and
all. I be going to sea."
"To sea! What ever made you think of such a thing?"
"One thing and another. And I won't be the first, not even from such an
upland place as Shrewsbury. Why, haven't we heard Mistress Hind tell
time and again how her brother John Benbow ran away to sea nigh
upon thirty years ago?"
"True, and so did Sam Blevins, and hasn't been heard of since, Joe."
"Well, if Vetch ships me to the plantations you may be sure no more

will be heard of Joe Punchard, so 'tis as broad as 'tis long."
"'Tis all my fault, Joe. If I hadn't run into the shop this wouldn't have
happened, and you'd have worked out your 'dentures, and maybe risen
to be a partner with Mr. Mark. I wish I had let them catch me, Joe, I
do."
"Now don't you take on, Master Humphrey. As for partners, I be sick of
making barrels for other folks' beer, that's the truth, and by what I've
heard there's riches to be picked up in