CHAPTER XXIX
In which I Keep Tryst
The sun dropped below the forest, blood red, dyeing the river its owncolour. There were no clouds in the sky,--only a great suffusion ofcrimson climbing to the zenith; against it the woods were as black aswar paint. The colour faded and the night set in, a night of no wind andof numberless stars. On the hearth burned a fire. I left the window andsat beside it, and in the hollows between the red embers made pictures,as I used to make them when I was a boy.
I sat there long. It grew late, and all sounds in the town were hushed;only now and then the "All's well!" of the watch came faintly to myears. Diccon lodged with me; he lay in his clothes upon a pallet in thefar corner of the room, but whether he slept or not I did not ask. Heand I had never wasted words; since chance had thrown us together againwe spoke only when occasion required.
The fire was nigh out, and it must have been ten of the clock when, withsomewhat more of caution and less of noise than usual, the key grated inthe lock; the door opened, and the gaoler entered, closing itnoiselessly behind him. There was no reason why he should intrudehimself upon me after nightfall, and I regarded him with a frown and animpatience that presently turned to curiosity.
He began to move about the room, making pretence of seeing that therewas water in the pitcher beside my pallet, that the straw beneath thecoverlet was fresh, that the bars of the window were firm, and ended byapproaching the fire and heaping pine upon it. It flamed up brilliantly,and in the strong red light he half opened a clenched hand and showed metwo gold pieces, and beneath them a folded paper. I looked at hisfurtive eyes and brutal, doltish face, but he kept them blank as a wall.The hand closed again over the treasure within it, and he turned away asif to leave the room. I drew a noble--one of a small store of goldpieces conveyed to me by Rolfe--from my pocket, and stooping made itspin upon the hearth in the red firelight. The gaoler looked at itaskance, but continued his progress toward the door. I drew out itsfellow, set it too to spinning, then leaned back against the table."They hunt in couples," I said. "There will be no third one."
He had his foot upon them before they had done spinning. The next momentthey had kissed the two pieces already in his possession, and he hadtransferred all four to his pocket. I held out my hand for the paper,and he gave it to me grudgingly, with a spiteful slowness of movement.He would have stayed beside me as I read it, but I sternly bade him keephis distance; then kneeling before the fire to get the light, I openedthe paper. It was written upon in a delicate, woman's hand, and it ranthus:--
"An you hold me dear, come to me at once. Come without tarrying to the deserted hut on the neck of land, nearest to the forest. As you love me, as you are my knight, keep this tryst.
"In distress and peril, _Thy Wife_."
By order of the company Page 30