Sir Ludar | Page 8

I have heard of you this day. How comes it
that your fellow 'prentice Peter Stoupe--"
"A plague on Peter Stoupe!" said I, for I disliked him. "And as for
drunkenness, I was never drunk in my life; nor, by my own leave, a
rioter."
"By whose leave, then?" asked Master Walgrave.
"By the leave of them who behave themselves as knaves," said I,
getting hot as I thought of Captain Merriman; "and had they twenty
skulls, and a crown on each, I'd crack 'em."

"Had they no crowns, they would not be worth the cracking," said a
cheerful voice behind us; and there stood Mistress Walgrave herself.
"Come, husband," said she, soothingly, "be not too hard on Humphrey,
he is but a lad. He serves us well most days, when the Queen is not to
the front. I warrant thee, Robert, thou wast a merry 'prentice once
thyself."
"That I never was," said Master Walgrave, with an acid face; "but get in
with you, sirrah, and to bed. I had a mind to leave you on the other side
of the door this night, to cool your hot blood." And he bolted the door,
whilst I slunk up to my garret.
Peter Stoupe was already asleep and snoring; and as he lay clean across
the bed, I must needs arouse him to take his own side and make room
for me.
"What, Humphrey!--I give God thanks to see thee back," said he,
drowsily; "I feared something was amiss. There was a rumour that you
lodged this night in Newgate."
"You listened to a lie, then," said I.
"And it is not true, is it, that you naughtily assaulted a gentleman of the
Court?"
"And what if I did?" I demanded.
"Alas! Humphrey, think of the trouble it is like to bring on our good
master and mistress. Have you no thought for anyone but yourself? Yet,
I give thanks thou art safe, so--far--my--good--Humpi--" and here he
rolled off to sleep and left me in quiet.
Yet not in peace, for I could not sleep that night for many an hour. For
my life seemed to have taken a strange turn round since morning.
Before to-day I had thought the 'prentice's life the merriest life in the
world. I had cared for nobody, and it had troubled me little if nobody
cared for me. Strange that now I felt like a greyhound in the leash,
longing to be anywhere but where I was.

Besides, I had more solid grounds for wakefulness. However well
to-day I had given my pursuers the slip, I guessed I had not heard the
last of Captain Merriman and his merry men. They would find me out;
and I might yet become, as Peter had said, a lodger in Newgate, and,
worse than that, a cause of trouble and distress to good Master
Walgrave and his lady.
For, however poorly I esteemed my master, I could ill afford to bring
harm on his family. For my mistress was ever my champion and my
friend, and her children I was wont to love as my own brothers and
sisters.
So I spent half the night kicking in my bed--of which kicks Master
Peter received his full share--and rose very early, resolved to try what
hard work could do to cure my unrest.
No one was stirring that I could hear, and I went down the stairs
silently and took up my labour at the case. My stick lay on the floor,
where I had dropped it the morning before, and, alack! the squabbled
type lay there too, a sight to make a man sad. Slowly and painfully I
saved what I could, and was setting myself to make good the rest, when
my ears caught a strange sound below my feet. It was a beating sound,
followed by the dull fall of something, and, on listening, it came and
went every two or three minutes.
I had guessed more than once before now that under the house was a
cellar, although I had never been there, nor, indeed, knew how to
approach it. For there was no opening, front or back, to the outer world
that I knew of, and, if there at all, it must be pitch-dark and hard to
breathe in. And yet the noise I now heard, if it came from anywhere,
came from below. I looked about carefully, hoping for a crack in the
floor through which to solve the mystery. But crack there was none.
Only as I looked further I saw that the reams of paper, which lay
usually near the press, were moved somewhat to one side. Now, as my
master was always particular that the paper should lie always in the
same place, it seemed strange to me they should be