Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1920-07-17
By A. CONAN DOYLE

A1AlA>A< ~ -
upon his knee as though he meant I
read to us, but he shut it again l
silence and hurried out. We wen
down to the gate which opens on
upon the highway. From there W
could see the red light of the big bes
con- and the glimmer of a smaller on
to the north of us at Ayton. The oil
road had more folk on it than eve
passed along it at night before, TO
many Of the yeomen up our way hat
enrolled themselves and were ridln!
now as fast as hoof could carry then
for the muster. Some had stirrup Gu
or two before parting, and canno
forget one who tore past on hug
white horse, brandishing great rust!
sword in the moonlight. They shoute
to us, as they passed, that the NOrtl
Berwick law-fire was blazing, and thai
it was thought that the alarm hat
come from Edinburgh castle. There
were few who galloped the Other
way. couriers for Edinburgh. and the
laird's son and Master Clayton, tn
deputy sheriff, and such like.
But early in the morning we had 0ul
minds set at ease. It was gray and
cold, and my mother had gone up to
the house to make pot of tea fol-
us. when there came 4 gig down the
road with Doctor HorscrOft of AytOr
in it and his son Jim. The collar of
| the doctors coat came over his ears
and he looked in deadly black hui
NOR, for Jim, who was but fifteen
years of age, had trooped off to Ber-
wick at the first alarm with his IA
theirs new fowling piece. All night
his dad had chased him. and now there
he was. a prisoner. with the barrel of
the stolen gun sticking out from be-
hind the seat. He looked as slllky as
his father, with his hands thrust into
his side pockets. his brows drawn
down, and his lower lip thrust out.
Its all lie," shouted the doctor,
as he passed. ''There has been no
landing, and all the fools in Scotland
have been gadding about the roads for
nothing" His son Jim snarled some
thing up Mt him on this. and his father
struck him blow with his clenched
fist OH the side Of the head, which
sent the boys chin forward upon his
breast as though he had been stunned.
Now oil this has little enough to do
with what took my pen up to tell
about; but when man has a good
memory and little skill he cannot
draw one thought from his IL ind with
out dozen others trailing out behind
1t. And yet, now that come to think
of it, this had something to do with it
after all; for Jim Horscroft had so
deadly a quarrel with his father that
he was packed off to Birtwhistle's
Berwick academy; and as my father
had long wished me to 60 there he
took advantage Of this chance to send
me also.
There was from the first a great
friendship between Jim Horscroft, the
doctors son, and me. He was cock
boy Of the school from the day he
came, for within the hour he had
thrown Barton, who had been cock be-
fore him, right through the big black
board in the classroom. Jim always
ran to muscle and bone, and even then
he was square and tall. short Of speech
and long of arm, much given to lOung-
ing with his broad back against walls,
and his hands deep in his breeches
pockets. l can even recall that he had
a trick of keeping a straw in the cor
ner of his mouth, just where he used
afterward to hold his pipe. Jim was
always the same, for good and for bad,
since first I knew him.
Heavens! How we all looked up to
him! We were but young savages,
and had a savage's respect for power.
What tales we used to whisper about
his strength; how he put his fist
through the oak panel of the game
room door. How when Long Merri-
dew was carrying the ball. he caught
up Merridew, ball and all, and ran
swiftly past every opponent to the
goal. 1t did not seem fit to us that
such one as he should trouble his |
head about spondees and dactyls, or
care to know w 0 signed the Magma
Charta. When he said in open class
that King Alfred was the man, we !
little boys all felt that very likely it |
was so, and that perhaps Jim knew
more about 1t than the man who wrote |
the book.
For two years we were close friends, |
for all the gap that the years had
made between us, and, though in pas
sion or in want Of thought he did
many a thing that CALLED me, vet |
loved him like a brother, and wept as
much as would have filled an ink |
bottle when at last. after two years,
he went off to Edinburgh to study his
fathers profession. Five years after
that did l bide at Birtwhistle's, and
when left had become cock myself,
for I was as wiry and as tough as
though never ran to
weight and sinew, like my great prede-
cessor. It was in jubilee year that I
left Birtwhistle's, and then for three
years stayed at home, learning the
ways Of the cattle; but still the ships
and the armies were wrestling, and
still the great shadow Of Bonaparte
lay across the country.
How could l guess that I, too,
should have hand in lifting that
shadow forever from our people?
HAAnrE0 ~