they would think surely to drop loose powder down, which they would think but soot, and at our convenience lay a
train across the roof and through the door. I think the chateau walls would bear the shock somewhat easier than they
could. Since the rascals watch the windows I thought of letting myself down into the fireplace and surprising the
vermin from the back. With my back to the powder barrels they would dread to fire, and my long sword would have
been a match against their cutlasses. That was an alternative against the powder train.”
“I should have thought of that myself,” replied Doctor Syn.
“But I couldn’t put it into practice,” explained the Frenchman, “by reason of my cursed girth. I found I should
need more powder than I had to blow me through the secret door. It’s small, quite small.”
“But Mipps and I could do it,” said Doctor Syn, “and when we spring our surprise, you could attack them from
the front with my ten Nightriders.”
Duloge nodded. “I envy you your part in it. Surprises are enchanting, but fat men find them difficult. With a
rope a thin man could be lowered without noise.”
Duloge then explained that his chief reason for meeting the lugger was to prevent them from steering into the
harbour, which would have put them under the direct fire of the mutineers, and he now proposed that they should
stand in as near as possible and then land the crew from his own boat upon a beach protected from the store-house
by the harbour wall, adding that this could be done the quicker by using another fishing boat which was beached
close to the spot where he proposed to land them
Since time was important in order that if all went well Doctor Syn and his men could make their return voyage
that night, both vessels were headed towards the distant harbour of Duloge. While Mipps looked after this, the two
leaders remained in the cabin and elaborated their plan of attack.
As it was broad daylight when the first boat-load touched the beach, it was useless to attempt concealment, since
the windows of the row of white cottages set aside for the prisoners’ married quarters faced the sea, and despite the
early hour a crowd of women and children were discussing the arrival of the Kent lugger. This fact, however,
Doctor Syn turned to his own advantage, and only waited till all his men were landed before putting it into
execution. The landing took longer than Duloge had hoped because the other fishing boat he had counted on was
nowhere t o be seen. He conjectured that his own servants must have taken her out to catch fish for his table.
At the head of his men the Scarecrow strode up the beach and confronted the women, while Duloge went to the
chateau to find a rope. In a stern voice he addressed them. “I am sorry you have allowed your men to mutiny, when
I have treated them with mercy. Well, my punishment will be as sudden as their revolt. You may think I have
brought my Nightriders here for the purpose of attack. That would be foolish, since we have but to show ourselves
upon the quay to be fired at from the cover of the store-house. I am too fond of my faithful followers for that. No.
They are here to remove you all, women and children, from your comfortable cottages. You will be taken aboard
the lugger to a destination unknown to you menfolk. It is a fitting punishment that they shall never set eyes on you
again. You will be prisoners in another chateau belonging to Monsieur Duloge. It is far from here, and guarded by
rough and desperate men. There will be no comfort there. Nothing but prison walls, hard work, scanty food, and no
husbands or fathers.”
“That they may know your fate and theirs I will allow you half an hour to visit them and say farewell for ever.
You will go to them now, and when I fire a pistol as a signal, you will take immediate leave in order to get aboard
with your children. Any by the way, you can add this for their comfort. With great care and upon the shortest
commons they may hold the siege for six months. Then they may starve for all we care, since other arrangements
have been made to keep our cargo trade alive. But tell them that although they successfully surprised Monsiuer
Duloge, that clever French gentleman is no fool, and can turn the tables any time we think fitting, since beneath the
cobble-stones of the store-house floor there is a powerful mine of gunpowder ready trained to prevent our valuable
consignments from falling into enemy hands. Go now. You have but half an hour.”
When the women and children, including Fred Hart’s wife carrying her baby, had disappeared round the corner
of the quay, the Scarecrow ordered his men to await the command of Duloge, and signing Hellspite to accompany
him, he strode towards the chateau. Here they met Duloge carrying a length of rope, who led them by way of the
stables and cowsheds to an outside staircase which brought them on to the roof of the store-house.
As he pointed to a small oak door, concealed behind a flying buttress of the great chimney, doctor Syn whispered
to Mipps: “Do you hear their chattering panic? Of course the women will never leave their men, but they’ll be
mightily in their way when we surprise them.”
Duloge unlocked the little door, which let out a babel of voices from beneath. Peering down into the chimney he
let down one end of the rope to the required length, making fast the other round the buttress, for Doctor Syn
preferred to climb down rather than be lowered, and the deep embrasure of the chimney corner hid the rope.
Taking a silent farewell to Duloge they watched him go down the staircase and meet half a dozen of his servants
armed with muskets. Giving him time to join the Nightriders, they waited, peering down into the chimney. They
could not see any of the mutineers, for, ignorant of the small door, they had not considered placing a watch in the
hearth. Slowly and silently Doctor Syn lowered himself through the little door, gripped the rope and slid down
behind the powder barrels. Mipps followed. They had landed safely and without attracting attention, for the noise
in the store-house was deafening.
All were talking at once. Some arguing that they would do well to keep the women and children with them and
save them from the voyage on the lugger, and others saying that it was better to let them go in case the Scarecrow
ordered the store-house to be blown up. This set some of them to work upon the floor in order to discover if
possible where the mine was hid.
When Syn slipped round the barrels and stood behind them in the centre of the hearth, he saw several of them
trying to dig up cobbles with their cutlass points. The married ones were fondling their wives and children. He
noticed Fred Hart with tears streaming down his face as his wife was showing him their baby. One of the window
guards had left his musket against the wall and was stroking the hair of his ten-year-old daughter. The other guard
was more zealous to his duty, and was watching the quay with his barrel resting on the window-sill and his finger on
the trigger. He at least was prepared for a sudden attack. But not from behind, and no one was more surprised than
he when he knew that the Scarecrow’s pistol had picked his trigger hand for his target. A sharp pain which made
him cry out above the deafening reports of the Scarecrow’s pistol and his own musket, which he fired
spasmodically.
The terrified cries of ‘The Scarecrow,’ as men and women turned to see the Avenger in their midst, were allowed
by his hard voice.
“We shoot to kill the first man who moves!”
Had any man been brave enough to take him at his threat, he would not have been able to , for the women saw