Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-29
The Bravo
Continued from page 10

there was more talk; but heard naught of
it, for you may conceive | was agog to listen
for what should come from behind. Yet
nothing came.
Sir" says Monmouth turning at last to
me- you have done me useful service which
| will not forget Gentlemen, this messenger
is loyal fellow whom | commend to you.
His Majestys eyes shall be opened by this
plot. Gentlemen. we must to London at once.
l see now It's necessary, and, my Lord, ask
Your pardon for my resistance
He waved his hand in an affable farewell
to me, and, without paying more heed to me,
the party rode Off full of its own excitement
and its affairs. And there was | left in
the wood with those environlng spies.
7 WANT no pierced jacket if I can help it,
and so the first thing | did was to slip off
the horse and behind tree | knew what to
expect now; for | had betrayed the plotters
to their victim, and knife in the dark,
need hope for. Yet, Dick Ryder, if he must
die, would die game and maybe, thought |,
as we'll in the wood and under the heaven and
moon as on the triple beam. That same moon
scattering spray of light through the
close branches. and by it strove to make out
my enemies; but | could see none.
l 1oosened my sword, and looked to my
printing and waited. Still | heard nothing.
Then there was, | thought, whispering of
voices in the bushes on my right and as l
the back of me. l moved noiselessly about.
with hand on the horses bride. Yet the
horse, l knew, would disclose my hiding place
if we remained thus; and so, lettering the
nag to the tree, | stole furtvely away. Now
there the plan open to me, to push from
bole to boe and bush to bush out of that wood,
and so evade them. Yet what should | do
without a horse in the open!
| lay and waited A little night wind sighed
through the forest and set the leaves ticking;
1>,+ ~ I ha,r ,aI to
the voices of my pursuers The moonlight
flashed upon a beech tree dozen yards away,
and could swear | saw the eyes and the empty
mask of face that peered out on me. And
SO hid for an hour or more, subject to these
terrors.
MAY l rot in chains l says to myself,
"but | will end this way or another!' and
So with the spur of that desperate impulse on
me, ran from behind the tree, and out across
the moonlight.
"Damme! fire, knaves and rogues" l
called Fire. damn ye!'
But there was silence, and | wondered.
Twas cool night of September, as | have
said; but, rip me if | was not in a stream OF
in that wretched suspense. And, Sheath!
there was sign of man or horse.
WELL, l ambled on the London road, re-
w volving this puzzle in my head. | had
gone back on what | had promised for my
liberty, and l had been sped upon; SO that
the plotters knew they were betrayed But
what perplexed me why they had held
their hand, and what fate they had IN store
for me- Yet | was no longer followed, as |
discovered by sundry experiments; and what
the mischief did it all mean?
Pondering this and the whole matter,
came to a conclusion that would astonlsh you.
| am a man of honor, and besides should have
hated to let things lie in that uncertainty,
never knowing where | was, what would
befall SO when reached London | put up
for the night, and rested half day, and next
went off afoot to the house in St. Mary Axe.
| hung about it in the dark for sometime;
but never a sign of life did | see in it. SO that
presently l put bold face on and marched
up to the door and knocked. After awhile it
was opened; but l knew not the face that APP