The Argosy, April 1912 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

AS THE DICE FELL. ened little child might cry in the dark. Her great dark eyes were wide with dumb terror. Grief had stricken her radiant young face a ghastly white, and it was drawn and hag- gard, as from sharp illness. I think, in some phases of life I am a fool. I can stare unmoved and watch the moistly picturesque weeping of most women. But when one cries like a fright- ened child, as did Dorcas Errol, or has in her face that look of dumb, hopeless, child- like horror, why, there is ever a silly some- thing that grips fiercely at my heart and sends a lump into my throat and straight- way prompts me to ‘some idiot’s action. And ‘so it proved now. What were these Errols to me? I scarce knew them. And if the father had run foul of King James’s law, why should I concern myself? I felt no interest in the somber, sour-faced old fellow. Yet that look in his daughter’s eyes, and her terror-stricken, silent sobs, all at once turned me from a sane man into an ass. And, for good or ill, I took quick and imbecile resolve. Gosnold, as Errol and Smith drew near the threshold leading into the passage, opened the door and beckoned in the watch- officer. Then, pointing to Errol, who stood apathetically waiting, his cloak wrapped about him, and his sugar-loaf hat pulled down over his eyes, Gosnold said: “Officer, here is your prisoner. Bear witness to his majesty that we willingly surrender the felon into his hands. We are right glad to learn in time of his true character, and to be rid of him, for we want none but good men, and true, on this, our venture.” The officer nodded, and touched Errol on his cloaked shoulder. “Mark Errol.” he droned, like a child speaking its lesson, “I arrest you on charge of high treason against our lord, the king’s high majesty, and against his sacred life. Come with me.” “No, no!” panted Dorcas, still clinging to her father’s arm. But I stepped between, officiously eager, and dragged her with seeming roughness to one side. Then I seized Errol by both shoulders and shoved him forward so sud- denly that he collided with the officer with such force as to knock the latter bodily backward through the door and into the passage where his men awaited him. I noted with joy that the single candle in the 13 passageway lanthorn had burned itself out, leaving the place in gloom. Shoving Errol through ahead’ of me, I cried: “T have him safe, Master Officer. Let your men seize and bind him, for I fear me he is a right desperate fellow.” As I spoke I released one of Errol’s shoulders and slammed shut the door be- hind me. Thus, for a moment, we were all left in black darkness in the crowded passageway. That moment sufficed me. While the officer, cursing me for a blundering, off- cious fool, had sent one of his men to fetch a torch he had left at the street door, I ripped the long cloak from Errol’s back, threw it about my own shoulders, then snatched his hat and jammed it far down over my eyes. All was done in a twinkling. I had but time to thrust the struggling, uncomprehending Errol into an angle of the passageway wall, and whisper fiercely to him to crouch there and to hold his tongue. Then the torch-bearer appeared with his the doorway light at the end of the passage. As he did so I dived forward, butting and hitting out wildly in clumsy effort to break through the little knot of watchmen and gain the safety of the street. Instantly, as foreseen, my awkward at- tempt at escape was discovered. The of- ficer and three of his men, seeing the sup- posed captive trying to get away, hurled themselves on me. Down we went to the floor in a writhing heap. And when they dragged me to my feet and pinioned my arms, my sugar-loaf hat was jammed so far down over my face by a blow I myself had given it, that it hid my whole countenance from the mouth upward. : | My own father could not have recognized me. My figure, under voluminous folds of the now torn cloak, was hunched to shorten my height and to give the air of an elderly, “settled” man. The watch captain laughed gleefully at the clumsy efforts of his captive to elude ~ him. “One on each side, boys!:” he ordered his followers. “And if he moves to escape, send your halberd points through the old traitor. Master Mark Errol,” he went on mockingly, “ye have dodged the king’s jus- tice for over a year, but you cannot dodge CONMUC NOOLK CO