It seemed to Mipps that this girl had very quickly learned what had taken him so long to acquire, for he was just about to make an innocent remark when she forestalled him: ‘But surely, dear Doctor Syn, your errand of mercy is very urgent. Is not the old man near his time? It would be a dreadful thing if his light were to flicker and you not near at hand.’ She looked at him with such an excellent air of the troubled village spinster that Syn, being the man he was, could at that dangerous moment think of Sheridan appraising her performance against his own. While Hyde, being the man he was, could not appreciate the full significance of this parochial scene, and watched unmoved and luckily unsuspecting as the Vicar said, benignly:
‘Do not worry, dear Cicely. I shall be there in time. Come, Mr. Hyde, I will accompany you. You are quite right, for the sake of the parish I should consult my safety, and ’tis true I preached a strong sermon last Sunday against this enemy of ours. But as to these activities — I have seen nothing unusual of late — have you, Mr. Mipps?’
The game was being played again and Mipps as always was ready. Having anticipated what might happen, he had under the pretext of tidying the room got out of sight and scribbled something on a flat piece of wood that he had in his pocket. He came forward with his usual confidential innocence. ‘Well, Vicar,’ he said, ‘while you was talking to Miss Cicely’s auntie — I didn’t tell you this because I thought the ladies might be nervous, sir — then being so busy what with one thing and another I forgot to remember it.’
‘Well, Mr. Mipps?’ the Vicar helped.
‘Oh yes. Well — I ’ardly like to remember it now — there was a horrible noise, so I goes out and sees a ’ooded figger flippin’ round the corner of our bridge — so I flips after it on me tip ’ooves — ever so scared, and I sees ’im put something in one of them groins — dunno what it was — didn’t touch it
— dursn’t — so I flipped back ’ere —’
Doctor Syn was very grave and told the Sexton he had been most careless not to have spoken of this before as it might be something of importance to Mr. Hyde, a message perhaps — or a clue for the smugglers’ activities tonight.
Mr. Mipps was most apologetic and to prove it continued: ‘Well, if you like to come with me, Mr. Hyde — I can show you where it was exact — I shan’t be nervous in the company of such an upstandin’ gentleman as yourself —’
The Revenue Man was uncertain. He did not want to miss anything but, slightly flattered by the little man’s confidence, agreed to go if it wasn’t far.
‘Far,’ repeated Mr. Mipps, as if Hyde had asked a silly question, ‘no — near — you can’t go far on tip ’ooves, least I can’t — perhaps you can.’ This somewhat confused statement seemed to convince Mr. Hyde, and he allowed himself to be led across the bridge and over the sea-wall by the Sexton, who kept up a continual flow of facetious conversation, so as not to give the Revenue Man time to think and to let Doctor Syn know where they were.
When the voices had died away, Cicely, in one movement, was at his side. Strangely enough, it was the first time she had ever used his name and it seemed to be torn from her. ‘Christopher, that man suspects you…. Oh, my darling, and ’tis all my fault. The ride — he said he had been here and there upon the Marsh — he must have seen us — perhaps as we jumped the broad dyke — and the curtains were wide when I was bandaging your arm. What can we do?’
He took her in his arms and reassured her, smoothing the worried frown from her brow with long sensitive fingers, then, holding her face in his two hands, his eyes too commanded her to have no fear. ‘We have faced worse dangers than Mr. Hyde — Mipps and I,’ he said, ‘and now we have you to strengthen us — but listen, he will soon return and I must make pretence of complying with his wishes. I shall not be able to speak to Mipps again, so do you make a pretext of remaining here to collect the necessaries for your invalid, and tell him to give you in a bundle all the Scarecrow’s clothes. When you return home, drop them from your bedroom window and somehow I shall manage to escape — and ride — for the last time, Cicely, I promise you.’
She had strength now and shook her head. ‘Oh, never!’ she cried triumphantly. ‘The Scarecrow will always ride while Aldington Knoll stands high. But do you have a care or it will be the last of me.’
He looked at her and marvelled that she could thus take the difficult way
— it seemed that she had more courage than he — yet it was only for her sake that he wished to be quit of his double life — and claim the pardon. He smiled when he thought how hard put to it he would be betwixt her and Mipps.
The warning voice of Mipps approaching along the sea-wall drew them swiftly together. Then as the sound grew nearer he put her from him, and went to his desk, unlocking a drawer. He took from it a small ivory box which he put in his pocket, and was back at the fireplace when Hyde and Mipps returned. The Revenue Man was looking black and Mipps appeared to be puzzled. Doctor Syn looked up with a smile: ‘Well, did you find anything, Mr. Hyde?’ he asked.
Hyde glared. ‘Nothing of any value to me, a hurriedly scrawled message, looks as if it hadn’t been there long for the water’s been up and this is dry as a bone.’ He was holding in his hand a small flat piece of wood. Mipps took it from him and read aloud with pretended bewilderment: ‘“Hyde’s the danger on the seek or prowl — Vulture — Eagle — Curlew or Owl.” Don’t run very well, do it,’ he said, ‘but I dunno, feels a bit damp. Smells a bit fishy to me, too.’
‘And so it does to me, Mr. Sexton,’ growled Hyde, now certain that he had been fooled. ‘Of good red herring. Come, Parson, if you’re ready. Will you accompany us, Miss Cobtree?’
‘Thank you, Mr. Hyde, but I must collect the comforts for the poor woman I am nursing tonight…’ Cicely turned to Mipps and asked him if the basket was prepared for Mrs. Wooley. Doctor Syn thanked her for her good work and timely help in this emergency.
‘’Tis but what you would do yourself, dear Doctor Syn.’ She was again the good worker of the village: ‘I have only to follow in your footsteps. With such an example, what could I do but devote my life entirely to — the Parish?’ Her eyes told him that indeed he was the parish, and his hands as he patted hers with friendly benignity told her again what she already knew. Then turning to the sullen Revenue Man, Doctor Syn said he was ready to accompany him. As they were going out of the door he remarked that the moon had gone in and that it was a dark night, so that it was a good thing that the Court House was not far and that he knew the way.
These last words of the Vicar’s seemed to give Mr. Mipps a deal of comfort. He shut the door and grinned: ‘You hear that, miss? He knows the way. What’s the orders, miss?’
‘You’re to give me the Scarecrow’s clothes in a bundle which I am to drop from my bedroom window. Oh, how lucky ’tis the wing that faces the official rooms,’ she cried. But even as she visualized him in that strong guardroom, doubts arose. If only her father had been here he would never have allowed this outrage. But there was nothing they could do, and all her fears returned. ‘Oh, Mr. Mipps,’ she cried, ‘how can he possibly escape?’
Mipps rose to the occasion. ‘Now don’t you worry, Miss Cicely,’ he said — and then it was strange, but he used the very words Doctor Syn had done: ‘We have faced worse dangers than this Mr. Hyde — the Cap’n and I. I don’t say that at the moment it don’t look tricky — but you take it from me that his brain’s been working since that knock on the door.’ He went upstairs to the old sea-chest and started to collect the necessary clothes, talking as he rolled them into a bundle. ‘He’s as quick as lightning in the riggin’ is the Cap’n. Remind me to tell you what he done in the Tortugas —’ but on second thought decided that the story was not suitable. ‘Well, perhaps I didn’t ought,’ he said. ‘But I can tell you the one about the slave-trader off the Chinee coast. Saved my life he did — and that weren’t the only occasion. He’s done it more times than a cat’s fairy godmother. He’s as nippy with a marline spike as you are with your knitting-pins, Miss Cicely. So if he can’t think of something to diddle that there nosy Hyde and Seek I’ll knock myself up solid.’ He was quite confident himself for indeed he had never known his master to fail, but he had this advantage over Cicely: years of co-operation with Clegg, while this was her first experience of the Scarecrow in danger — though Mipps himself had to admit that there was some justification for her fears; in truth she picked on the one thing which did worry him — the time.