The Master of Appleby | Page 4

am near old enough to
stand in his stead. 'Twas more than husbandry that rusted the sword in
its scabbard, I'll be bound."
"You are right, Jack; 'twas both more and less," he confessed,
shamefacedly. "'Twas this same Margery Stair. As I have said, her
father blows hot or cold as the wind sets, but not she. She is the fiercest
little Tory in the two Carolinas, bar none. When I had got Jennifer in

order and began to talk of 'listing again, she flew into a pretty rage and
stamped her foot and all but swore that Dick Jennifer in buff and blue
should never look upon her face again with her good will."
I had a glimpse of Jennifer the lover as he spoke, and the sight went
somewhat on the way toward casting out the devil of sullen rage that
had possessed me since first I had set returning foot in this my native
homeland. 'Twas a life lacking naught of hardness, but much of human
mellowing, that lay behind the home-coming; and my one sweet friend
in all that barren life was dead. What wonder, then, if I set this
frank-faced Richard in the other Richard's stead, wishing him all the
happiness that poor Dick Coverdale had missed? I needed little: would
need still less, I thought, before the war should end; and through this
love-match my lost estate would come at length to Richard Jennifer. It
was a meliorating thought, and while it held I could be less revengeful.
"Dost love her, Dick?" I asked.
"Aye, and have ever since she was in pinafores, and I a hobbledehoy in
Master Wytheby's school."
"So long? I thought Mr. Stair was a later comer in Mecklenburg."
"He came eight years ago, as one of Tryon's underlings. Madge was
even then motherless; the same little wilful prat-a-pace she has ever
been. I would you knew her, Jack. 'Twould make this shiftiness of mine
seem less the thing it is."
"So you have stayed at home a-courting while others fought to give you
leisure," said I, thinking to rally him. But he took it harder than I meant.
"'Tis just that, Jack; and I am fair ashamed. While the fighting kept to
the North it did not grind so keen; but now, with the redcoats at our
doors, and the Tories sacking and burning in every settlement, 'tis
enough to flay an honest man alive. God-a-mercy, Jack! I'll go; I've got
to go, or die of shame!"
He sat silent after that, and as there seemed nothing that a curst old

campaigner could say at such a pass, I bore him company.
By and by he harked back to the matter of his errand, making some
apology for his coming to me as the baronet's second.
"'Twas none of my free offering, you may be sure," he added. "But it so
happened that Captain Falconnet once did me a like turn. I had chanced
to run afoul of that captain of Hessian pigs, Lauswoulter, at cards, and
Falconnet stood my friend--though now I bethink me, he did seem
over-anxious that one or the other of us should be killed."
"As how?" I inquired.
"When Lauswoulter slipped and I might have spitted him, and didn't,
Falconnet was for having us make the duel à outrance. But that's beside
the mark. Having served me then, he makes the point that I shall serve
him now."
"'Tis a common courtesy, and you could not well refuse. I love you
none the less for paying your debts; even to such a villain as this
volunteer captain."
"True, 'tis a debt, as you say; but I like little enough the manner of its
paying. How came you to quarrel with him, Jack?"
Now even so blunt a soldier as I have ever been may have some
prickings of delicacy where the truth might breed gossip--gossip about
a tale which I had said should die with Richard Coverdale and be
buried in his grave. So I evaded the question, clumsily enough, as has
ever been my hap in fencing with words.
"The cause was not wanting. If any ask, you may say he trod upon my
foot in passing."
Jennifer laughed.
"And for that you struck him? Heavens, man! you hold your life
carelessly. Do you happen to know that this volunteer captain of

light-horse is accounted the best blade in the troop?"
"Who should know that better than--" I was fairly on the brink of
betraying the true cause of quarrel, but drew rein in time. "I care not if
he were the best in the army. I have crossed steel before--and with a
good swordsman now and then."
"Anan?" said Jennifer, as one who makes no doubt. And then: "But this
toe-pinching story is but a