The Parson O' Dumford Part 61

"A hundred on you to four!" cried Joe. "Stand back, or I'll brain the first man who comes near."

"We don't want to hurt thee, Joe Banks," cried a voice. "Nor the parson, nor the others; but we wean't go wi'out Richard Glaire."

"Back! every man of you," cried the vicar. "Shame, cowards, shame!"

"Aw raight, parson," cried another. "It's cowardly mebbe, but we mean to hev him aw the same."

"If you hev him, you'll hev to tak' me first," cried Joe Banks, fiercely. "You, Big Harry, hev the legs out o' that deaf Tommy table, and gi'e one apiece to Parson and Tom."

The men tried to stop him, but a swing from Joe's poker sent them back, and the Hercules of the hammer seized the little three-legged table, shattered it in a moment, and armed his companions with the thick heavy cudgels that had formed its supports.

"Now, lads, we're ready for you," said Joe, grimly. "Hit hard at the first as tries to lay a finger on the maister."

There was a groan at this, taken up from without, those in the garden clamouring at those within to drag out d.i.c.ky Glaire.

"Down wi' him, lads; down wi' him," cried a high-pitched voice; and Sim Slee, panting with his exertions, partly edged his way and partly was lifted in.

"I'll down wi' thee, thou prating fool!" cried Joe fiercely. "Are ye men, to listen to that maulkin?"

"Yes, they are," cried Sim; "and you're an owd fool to faight."

"Shall we try to drive them out, Banks?" whispered the vicar.

"No good," said Joe, st.u.r.dily. "Let's hear what they've gotten to say; it'll give you and the others breath, and mebbe by that time the maister can faight a bit, too. I'm an owd fool, am I?" he said, "eh, Sim Slee?"

"Yes; to faight for the man as has gotten away thee bairn."

"Thou lies, thou chattering jay," cried the old man furiously; "say it again, and I'll brain thee."

"I do say it again," cried Sim, who was quite out of the foreman's reach. "It's true, aint it, lads?"

"Yes, yes, he's gotten her away."

"It's a lie," cried Joe Banks again. "Tell 'em, Maister d.i.c.k; tell the cowards they lie."

"Yes, yes," said Richard hoa.r.s.ely, as he stood now leaning against the wall, bathed in perspiration, bleeding, ragged, haggard, and faint. "I have not got her away."

"Thee lies, d.i.c.k Glaire," shrieked Sim. "He paid me to get her awaya, and I wouldn't do it."

"It's false," cried Richard again, as he looked round at his fierce pursuers, and then at the doors and windows for a way of escape.

"It's true," cried Sim, exultantly. "It's my turn now, d.i.c.k Glaire.

Yow'd smite me and coot me feace for not doing thee dirty work, will ta?

Now harkye here, lads, at this."

He drew a piece of paper from his pocket, and read aloud:--

"Be ready at nine to-night. She'll join you by the gate of Lamby's close; then straight off with her to the station, take your tickets, as I told you, to London, and stay with her at the address I gave you till I come."

"Now then, Joe Banks," he said, holding out the note, "whose writing's that?"

"It's a lie--a forgery," cried Richard, whose face now was of a sickly green.

Joe Banks pa.s.sed his hand before his face, and seemed dazed for a moment; then, catching at the note, he took a candle from the drawers on which it stood, and, as he did so, Richard started forward, and made a s.n.a.t.c.h at the paper, but a menacing movement on the part of the crowd made him start back, while the vicar looked from face to face, and saw Tom Podmore's stern scowl, and the fire gathered in Joe Banks's eyes.

"He'll murder him," he said to himself; and, s.h.i.+fting his position, he got between Joe and Richard Glaire.

"Hold your tongue, for your life," he whispered to the trembling man.

"Your only chance is to beg for his mercy: for his child's sake. Daisy must be your wife."

"Curse you!" cried Richard, through his teeth. "You were always against me."

Then he shrank back trembling against the wall, as in the midst of profound silence, the old man read the letter straight through.

"Who gi'e thee this, Sim Slee?" he said twice in a husky voice.

"d.i.c.ky Glaire."

"No, no," gasped Richard; "a lie--a lie. It's a forgery. I did not get away Daisy Banks; so help me G.o.d, I didn't, Joe."

"d.a.m.n thee for a liar!" cried the old man, furiously; and before the vicar could prevent him, he had Richard by the throat, and down upon his knees, faintly protesting his innocence. "It's no forgery. It's thee own false writing same as these," he cried; "your cursed love-letters to my poor bairn."

He tore a bundle of notes from his breast, notes Richard had warned poor Daisy to burn, but which the weak girl had treasured up in secret, to be found in her room when she had gone.

"Look!" he cried, as he held Sim Slee's fatal note of instructions out beside the others; "are these lies and forgeries? Mebbe you think I'll believe thee now, as I've troosted thee throughout. Didn't I think thou wert thy poor owd father's honest son--the gentleman he had tried to mak' thee? Didn't I stand by thee when all ta town was again thee, fowt for thee, looked on thee as my son, and you turn and sting me like a cowardly snake in the gra.s.s?"

"He did, Joe, he did," cried a voice in the crowd, as they stood back now, content to watch for the punishment that should fall on their enemy, while Sim Slee, the man who had betrayed him, smiled like a despicable modern Judas, gloating in the revenge he was taking on the employer who had struck him in the face.

"d.a.m.n thee, be silent!" roared Joe, as, with a wild look of fury, he seized the poker as if to strike, and Richard crouched to the ground, and uttered a shriek of dread.

"For G.o.d's sake, Banks!" cried the vicar, catching at his arm, but unable to stay him. "Man, are you mad?"

"A'most, parson," he said, turning on him. "Thou told me to tak' care; thou gave me fair warning 'bout it all, and like a fool--no, like a man who wouldn't believe it--I turned upon thee when thou wast raight, for I couldn't and wouldn't believe he was such a liar and villain. Look at him, lads, look at the cold-blooded snake, as could stoop to ruin a poor trustin' fool of all he held dear in life, and now all he has to say is a lie."

"I am innocent, Joe, indeed," cried the young man.

"Thou lies," cried Banks, furiously; and he raised his weapon again, but only to dash it into the fireplace. Then, stooping, he caught the s.h.i.+vering man by the throat, dragged him up, and held him against the wall, while not a sound was heard but the panting of breath, and the hoa.r.s.e mutterings of the stricken father.

"Banks, Banks!" cried the vicar imploringly.

"Let me be, parson, let me be," he said in a low voice. "Thou'rt a good man, and may trust me." Then aloud, "Richard Glaire, I'm a poor, half-broken workman, and thou'st robbed me."

"No, no," panted Richard, "Mr Selwood, Harry, Podmore, help!"

"Silence," cried Joe Banks; "we've gotten thee, and thou tries to hide it all by lying. I've gotten thee, though, now, and my eyes are opened to it all. I could strangle thee where thou stands; but I promised thee father I'd stand by thee, and I have again all men, as know'd thee for what thou wast. But I can't do it now, and kill, perhaps, every hope of my poor bairn, so come."

He caught the young man tightly by the collar, and waved the others aside, so that they fell back before him as he went out unmolested with his prisoner into the starlit lane, and stood the centre of the crowd-- now at a respectful distance.