Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 42: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oc4 harboring him. And surely my royal cap- tive, if he were indeed the first gentleman _in the land, would support my deception rather than betray her who was like to © suffer in his cause. But still I shrank from the very thought of laying violent hands upon the king. I might be the lion of the hour;. yet that hour would pass, and the person who had delivered the king to his enemies be held up to obloquy. In that moment I felt sure (and time has proven I was right) that men’s political opinions would suffer re- action. But stronger than this reasoning of self- interest was my instinctive aversion to the _ task itself and the bringing of sorrow upon Mistress Joyce Eveleigh. But in this plan, whether it succeeded or failed, lay the least of many evils. Joyce, naturally, would grieve for the king’s cap- ture, feel it the more poignantly, perhaps, because it was her proffered knight who effected it. But she would at least be re- lieved of an unwelcome suitor, and out of her deep womanhood she must appreciate my position sooner or later. Was it not possible, too, that her loyalty was less to the king personally than to that cause for which her ‘father fell at Marston Moor? And then—the king might escape me! He had the wit, and he might even have the strength behind him, to defeat my rash scheme. I -might be killed in my foolhardy enterprise! But better disaster than the secret. con- sciousness of having failed in honor as a sworn soldier of Parliament. Better de- feat, or even to lie dead at Joyce’s feet, so long as she knew my motive and that I “was not only a gentleman but a man! My mind more than half made up, I rose from the ditchside and walked slowly to- ward the camp, further pondering the mat- ter as I went. Again I wished I could talk freely with Jack Bunyan and derive benefit from his curious intuition, his perception of the fine line between actions right and wrong. For, mark you, while he pretended to be an in- veterate wrong-doer himself, he was a nat- ural-born arbiter of conduct in others. He keartily disliked, for instance, hearing vzed vy Google ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. others use profanity, as if he would will- ingly shoulder all men’s burden of sinful- ness on that score! But I could not reveal to Bunyan the es- sential fact in my dilemma—that Richard Eveleigh was no other than the king him- self. J had promised Joyce I should “ tell no man;” but if I carried out my half- formed scheme I should at once bé relieved from the necessity of violating that promise —mistaken though it was. I shall be brief about my meeting with Bunyan in the camp. I discovered him immersed in the study of his new book, _“ The Practise of Piety,” and was relieved presently to find him less ready to discuss what had actually happened in the garden than to rail at the theories of that Master Weakspine! He was apparently unsuspecting ‘that Master Weakspine was other than Joyce’s uncle, Richard Eveleigh, and I could see he wholly believed that Ruth had summoned him only that she might give him that little book and bid him a temporary farewell. So far he,could have given no reflection to the significant wording of that summoning letter! But lest there be even a spark of sus- picion in his mind as to Master Weak- spine’s identity, a spark which might pres- ently burst into a flame of certain knowl- edge, I tried him with a question which I endeavored to make casual in tone. ‘* Jack,” said I, ‘‘ what would you do if you met the king face to face?”’ My heart beat almost painfully while John read a few more lines in his book on piety before answering. From his tone and manner I knew at once that the manor’s secret was:safe, at least from him. ‘““T say with Noll,” said Hobgoblin pon- derously, “ being, like him, a servant of those in rightful authority, that I would shoot. him down with my pistol, even as I would any other Proper enemy of righteous liberty! ”’ Of course, Bunyan meant he would shoot the king if he met him on the field of battle and could not capture him. I was not so sure what his answer might have been had I put the question the way the facts warranted, and as it was in my mind.- — dr J en peor Ghoo = coun