The Young Castellan Part 35

"Can't say, sir. I should fancy not, or he'd have been on the stir to know what was the matter."

"Mightn't have cared to stir in the dark, Ben. I say, I should like to know. Look here, he went off early to bed, because he said he was unwell. I'll go and ask how he is. That's a good excuse for seeing."

"Well, so it is, sir," said Ben, rubbing his ear; "and if he did hear anything, he'd be pretty sure to speak."

"Of course. Then I will go. Come and light me." Roy hurried along back with Ben following and casting the boy's shadow before him, till they reached the arched door-way, where they went up the few stone steps in the spiral staircase, reached the oaken door leading into the apartments, felt for the latch, raised it, and gave it a loud click; but the door did not yield to the boy's pressure, and he tried it again, and then gave it a shake. "Why, he has locked himself in, Ben!"

"Has he, sir? Didn't want to be 'sturbed, maybe."

"Perhaps he was frightened by the noise we made, and then fastened himself in," said Roy, with a laugh.

Ben chuckled at the idea.

"Well, sir, not the first time we've frightened him, eh?"

"Hus.h.!.+ I want to let him know who it is now knocking," said Roy; "it is startling to be woke up in the middle of the night. Master Pawson-- Master Pawson!" he said, gently; and he tapped lightly with his fingers.

But there was no reply, and Roy tapped and called again, but still without result.

"He's too fast asleep to hear you, sir."

"Well, he ought to bear that," said Roy, giving the door a good rattle, and then tapping loudly.

"One would think so, sir; but he don't seem to have his ears very wide open, or else he's too much scared to stir."

"Master Pawson! Master Pawson!" cried Roy, loudly now; and he once more rattled the door. "How are you?"

"Fast as a church, sir," said Ben; "and I wouldn't rattle no more, because you'll be having the sentry up atop after us. Better go and speak to him, or he'll be raising the guard."

Ben went up on the winding stair, and spoke to the sentry, who challenged him as he reached the top, and was much relieved on hearing his sergeant's voice.

"Didn't know what to make of it," he said; "and I should have fired, only my piece wouldn't go off."

"Well, let this be a lesson to you, my lad, to keep your firelock in order."

"Yes, sergeant; I will in future."

"We might have been the enemy coming. See any more of that light, or hear any more noise over yonder?"

"No, nothing."

"Not heard nothing from Master Pawson, I suppose?"

"Not since he came up and spoke to me before he went to bed. Said his head was queer or something--spoke mighty pleasant, and that he was sorry for me who had to watch all night."

"Well?"

"That was all; only I said I was sorry for him having such a bad head."

Ben went down to where Roy was waiting in the secretary's door-way.

"Can't wake him, Ben. Come along; I am tired now."

"Feel as if an hour's sleep wouldn't do me much harm, sir," said the old soldier; and they went on along the corridor, whose windows looked out upon the pleasaunce. "Master Pawson's in the right of it. Once a man's well asleep, it's a woundy, tiresome thing to be wakened up.

Good-night, sir."

"Good-morning, you mean, Ben," said Roy, laughing.

"Oh, I calls it all night till the sun's up again, sir. You and me'll have to try the old ruins, I s'pose, though I don't expect we shall find anything there."

Roy went straight to his room, half undressed, and threw himself upon the bed, to begin dreaming directly that he had discovered the entrance to the secret pa.s.sage at the other end, but it was so blocked up with stones and tree-roots that there was no way in, and would not be until he had persuaded his mother to do away with the garden, cut down the trees, and turn the place back into a regular court-yard such as old Ben wished.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

FARMER RAYNES BRINGS NEWS.

It was the loud blast of a trumpet which roused Roy from his slumbers to find that it was a gloriously clear morning, and that the call was bringing the little garrison together for the early parade.

The trumpeter was the youngest of the three men from his father's regiment, and consequently the call rang out in the true martial style, echoing through the garden court, and sounding exhilarating to the boy as he sprang off his bed and began to dress.

It roused the jackdaws, too, from their resting-places, and sent them sailing about in the clear sunny air, their black forms reflected from the moat, and their sharp, petulant cries sounding like protests against this disturbance.

For they had had a hard time of it lately. Under Ben's superintendence every loop-hole had been cleared, every collection of nesting ruins carefully removed, and they had no other married quarters but the holes in the walls, half-shaded by the green pellitory which rooted and flourished in company with the moss, that acted as sponges to retain enough moisture for its sustenance.

Roy was not long in dressing, buckling on his sword, and hurrying down to the tiny parade ground, for in his character of castellan he liked to be present every morning when the men who were to relieve the garrison a.s.sembled at the gate-way, across the moat, and waited for permission to march in.

All this was rigorously carried out in true military style by the old sergeant's management; and as Roy descended, it was to find the little garrison drawn up fully armed under Ben's command, he and the three troopers forming the regular staff who never left the castle.

Ben looked as fresh as if he had not made a night's rest out of two hours on a form in the guard-room; and giving the word as Roy appeared, there was the twinkling and glittering of headpiece and weapon as the men presented arms, and then stood again at attention as it was carried out some two hundred and fifty years ago.

Then a short inspection by the castellan followed, orders were given, and four men marched to the door-way, tramped up the staircase, and a few minutes later the ponderous drawbridge began to descend, till it spanned the moat; and at a word the men fresh from their homes marched across, to halt by the portcullis, which then began to rise slowly, the capstans creaking and cracking, till the row of spikes alone was visible as they hung like iron stalact.i.tes overhead.

Another sharp order rang out, and the new-comers filed into the guard-room, from whence came the clas.h.i.+ng of metal and the buzzing of voices as the men a.s.sumed their arms and came out one by one to fall in opposite to those whose places they were to take, and who would, in a few minutes, go into the guard-room to deposit their arms in the racks, and then be free till their short term of service recommenced, but of course ready to hurry to the castle at the first summons should a necessity arise.

Everything went on according to the regular routine; the fresh men were all drawn up now, armed, the order given, and the relieved tramped into the guard-room and soon began to straggle out again, eager to troop over to a kind of b.u.t.tery-hatch by the great kitchen, where a mug of milk and a hunch of bread for a refresher would be waiting for distribution, by Lady Royland's orders, for every man.

All this went on then as usual, and the old warder Jenkin had just come tottering out of the guard-room, to go and take up his customary post at the gate, the trumpeter had raised his instrument to his lips to blow a blast, and the new-comers were ready to march off to their several duties of mounting guard, drilling at the guns, and cleaning accoutrements, when there was the sound of hoofs rapidly beating the road across the moat, and directly after a figure, mounted upon a heavy cart-horse, came into sight, thundering along at full gallop. At the first glimpse it seemed as if the horse had run away with his bareheaded rider; but directly after it became plain that, though only riding saddleless, and with no rein but a halter, the big man was urging the horse forward with all his might.

"Why, it must mean news!" said Roy, excitedly, as he advanced towards the drawbridge.

"Ay, there's something wrong, sir," said Ben, gravely. "That we shall soon hear."

The armed men stood fast on one side, and those disarmed in a group on the other, waiting excitedly to see what this new thing meant.

"It's Farmer Raynes!" cried Roy.

"Ay, sir, that's who it be. He was coming with a wainload of oats this morning, and he wants help, for he has broken down, I should say."