The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 35

prescription, why I will instruct my housekeeper to give you a drop or so to keep by you.”

Katie was secretly amused at his suggestion, and recounting it to her clients would end up saying, “And there I

was a-bulging with the stuff, and he looking that tired and overworked that I longed to give him a measureful there

and then to keep the cold out and put the heart in him.”

Doctor Syn was equally amused when recounting the same incident to Sexton Mipps. “There she was, looking

for all the world like Shakespeare’s Fat Woman of Brentford, and complaining of her dropsy. Now had all that good

Hollands been under her own skin instead of a sheep’s, she would have been in the last stages of the disease. But

since she gets the stuff for next to nothing by the scarecrow’s orders, I thought it best to play the innocent by

suggesting a few drops of the very stuff she was weighed down under. I don’t grudge her the deceit, for she’s a

grand old sinner, though I shall not be surprised if one day we are put to it to save her from the gallows. She is the

only one at the moment outside the Scarecrow’s ruling.”

“And the only one what rules the Scarecrow’s men,” retorted Mipps. “You say she gets the stuff for next to

nothing every night there’s a ‘run’. I says she gets it for nothing now, and that there ain’t no ‘next’ about it. Only

the other night, when Curlew was filling up them bladders with the best, and exp ects her to fumble out payment

farthing by farthing, she holds up them apple cheeks of hers, and says, ‘A woman pays with her beauty, my lad, and

you may kiss me.’ Curlew refused, ‘cos he was afraid she’s tell his wife, whereupon Katie slaps him in the face for

insulting her, and makes him give extra measure at his own expense. I told Curlew it was lucky he was a-wearing

his mask, ‘cos a woman’s fingermarks across his face wouldn’t have done him no good with his wife neither. But

the crime of the whole transaction was that she paid nothing at all for the contraband, and Curlew, who we know

ain’t afraid of Preventive men, was too scared of Katie to ask her.”

“Caution ain’t cowardice, as you’ve often said yourself, sir,” went on Mipps, “and I looks at Katie this way.

Suppose she gets caught by this Captain Blain, for instance, what is making himself such a nuisance, he might well

force an old woman to talk the same as he made young Hart some time ago. No doubt you’d get us out of it

somehow as usual, but is it wise to let Old Katie see too much? She can’t wait for the stuff to be left at her cottage

now, but just rolls up amongst the men when the pack-ponies are being loaded, and tell ‘em she don’t want to wait

about all night. Now I considers that a cock on the steeple sort of attitude ain’t one that would do us any good if the

old girl got into a mess with that there Blain and his men.

“My good Mipps,” soothed Doctor Syn, “although I admit that her drolleries many be irritating at times, I would

stake my clerical wig that ‘Old Katie’ would never betray the Scarecrow. She’s a good old soul with the stoutest

heart, despite the sharpness of her ways.”

Mipps went away shaking his head in doubt, but as things transpired, Doctor Syn was in the right.

Now Captain Blain was not having a happy time. Each day brought him letters of protest from his superiors.

Admiral Chesham, who had taken the place of Troubridge at Dover, was determined to spite his predecessor by

smashing the Romney Marsh smuggling. Admiral Troubridge, at the Admiralty, was equally determined to get the

Scarecrow and pay off many an old score, and being in London he planned to catch him by discovering, if possible,

who was the Receiver in the city who paid such big money for the bulk of the Mash contraband. When his efforts

brought in no result he worked off his spleen by writing taunting letters to his colleague at Dover and insulting ones

to Captain Blain at Dymchurch.

In the ordinary way Blain would have retaliated, and possibly resigned; but the truth was Blain’s rage against his

failure was leveled at the Scarecrow, who has so outwitted him, and he dreaded being recalled from his post till he

had accomplished his purpose.

In this mood he did his best to conciliate Admiral Chesham’s constant reprimands and applied for more men so

that his net could be spread wider.

Burning for results which would stop him from being made a laughingstock, the Admiral doubled the party of

sailors billeted in the Tythe Barn.

These men were posted to watch every house and cottage in the village and the outlying farmsteads as well.

And it was from their observance that ‘Old Katie” was first brought under the suspicion of the Law.

They watched her trudging along the St. Mary’s road enormous with dropsy, and they watched her returning

home after calling at the back-doors of houses and cottages, visibly thinner than when she set out.

The old woman , not being used to browbeating from sailors, went to the Captain and complained that his saucy

devils were ever following her about, and that being a lone widow of attraction she objected.

Captain Blain retorted that his men were following every man, woman and child, in the hopes of getting some

clue against the Scarecrow. He then gave orders to his men to watch ‘Old Katie’ more carefully, knowing that even

the arrest of an old woman with proof against her would be better than no result at all.

The Bos’n, whose bulk had been the butt for Katie’s sharp arrows of wit, which he knew amused the men under

him, made life the more miserable for himself by playing the spy on his enemy.

After a deal of creepings and wrigglings and waitings he went to his officer and told him that if he had authority

to arrest the dangerous old hag, he would give the Captain full proof of her iniquities.

And so that very day a shouting and protesting old woman was hustled along the St. Mary’s road before she had

had time to make one call for a ‘sit-down’ and a gossip, and brought before the stern Captain in the Tythe Barn.

The poor old soul was more angry than frightened, and demanded that someone should inform Doctor Syn of the

indignity which she was enduring.

The Captain replied that it had nothing to do with the Parson at the moment, though no doubt he would want to

give her religious consolation before her end.

“Oh, so you’ve hanged me already, have you?” sneered Katie. “But only in your mind, that’s all, and I wouldn’t

exchange anything so black as your mind for all the dropsy in my poor body.”

“I dare say we’ll be able to cure you of the dropsy before we hang you,” laughed the Captain. “Now then hold

her tight, you men. Two more of you grip her legs, and don’t let her struggle while we examine her.”

With a hefty sailor on each arm and leg the unfortunate woman was forced to stand still, while the Captain

walked round to the Bos’n who was behind her.

“Ashamed to look an honest woman in the face, are you?” scoffed Katie.

The Captain did not reply to this taunt, because it was time to put to the proof his Bos’n suspicions.

With a spiker sharpened to a needle-point the Bos’n, who had been gingerly touching the back part of the heavy

skirt about the right hip, suddenly pressed it home.

“It ain’t her , sir,” he whispered, “ ‘cos she don’t cry out. Now let’s tap the dropsy and see what it’s made of.”

He pulled out the spiker as Katie tried to spring forward. But the sailors were ready and pressed her against the

Bos’n hand. The pressure released a stream of liquid which shot straight up into the Captain’s face, which for the

moment blinded him. Having lost one eye against the French, the other one gave him acute pain which made him