The Talisman Ring

‘Did he say anything to you?’ asked Miss Thane anxiously.

‘No,’ replied Sir Hugh. He added fair-mindedly: ‘I don’t say he wouldn’t have, but I threw a boot at him.’

‘Threw a boot at him?’ cried Eustacie, her eyes sparkling.

‘Yes, why not? I don’t like people prowling about, and I won’t have them poking their red noses into my room,’ said Sir Hugh.

‘Hugh, you will have to know, so that you may be on your guard,’ said Miss Thane. ‘That was a Bow Street Runner.’

‘Well, he’s got no right to come prying into my room,’ replied Sir Hugh, helping himself from a dish of beans. ‘Where’s young Lavenham?’

‘In the cellar. He –’

Sir Hugh laid down his knife and fork. ‘What’s he found there? Is he bringing it up?’

‘No. He is in the cellar because the Runners are looking for him.’

Sir Hugh frowned. ‘It seems to me,’ he remarked somewhat austerely, ‘that there’s something queer going on in this place. I won’t have anything to do with it.’

‘Very proper, my dear,’ approved his sister. ‘But do contrive to remember that you know nothing of Ludovic Lavenham! I fear that these Runners may try to get information from you.’

‘Oh, they may, may they?’ said Sir Hugh, his eye kindling a little. ‘Well, if that red-nosed fellow is a Runner, which I doubt, I’ll have some information to give him on the extent of his duty. They’re getting mighty out of hand, those Runners. I shall speak to old Sampson Wright about ’em.’

‘Certainly, Hugh; I hope you will, but do, pray, promise me that you won’t divulge Ludovic’s presence here to them!’

‘I’m a Justice of the Peace,’ said Sir Hugh, ‘and I won’t have any hand in cheating the Law. If they were to ask me I should tell them the truth.’

Eustacie, pale with alarm, gripped the edge of the table, and said: ‘But you must not! you shall not!’

Sir Hugh cast an indulgent glance towards her. ‘They won’t ask me,’ he said simply.

It seemed improbable that the Runners’ zeal would lead them to haunt the vicinity of the Red Lion after dark, so as soon as the wind

ows were bolted and the blinds drawn, Ludovic emerged from his underground retreat and joined the rest of the party in the parlour. Some expectation was felt of receiving a visit from Sir Tristram, and at a little after eight o’clock he walked into the inn, having taken advantage of the moonlight to drive over from the Court.

He was met by demands to know whether he had met any men lurking outside the house. He had not, but the anxious question at once aroused his suspicions, and he asked what had been going forward during his absence. When he heard that information had been laid against Ludovic in Bow Street, he did not say anything at all for some moments, thus disappointing Eustacie, who had hoped to startle him into an expression at least of surprise. When he did speak, it was not in admiration of the stratagem which had hoodwinked the Runners, but in a serious voice, and with his eyes on his cousin. ‘If you won’t go to Holland, will you at least leave Sussex, Ludovic?’

‘Devil a bit! There’s no danger. The Runners think they’re on a wild-goose chase.’ He observed a tightening of Shield’s lips, a certain considering look in the eyes which rested on himself, and sat up with a jerk. ‘Tristram, if you try to kidnap me, I swear I’ll shoot you!’

Sir Tristram laughed at that, but shook his head. ‘I won’t promise not to kidnap you, but I will promise to get your gun first.’

‘It never leaves me,’ grinned Ludovic.

‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ retorted Shield. ‘If there’s an attempt made on you, you’ll shoot, and there’ll be a charge of real murder to fight.’

Eustacie said sharply: ‘An attempt on him? Do you mean on his life?’

‘Yes, I do,’ replied Shield. ‘We may not be certain that the Beau killed Plunkett, but we can have no doubt that it is he who has brought the Runners down on Ludovic now. He would like the Law to remove Ludovic from his path, but if the Runners fail, I think he may make the attempt himself. Have you considered how easy of access this place is?’

Eustacie cast an involuntary glance over his shoulder. ‘N-no,’ she faltered. ‘Is – is it easy? Perhaps you had better go after all, Ludovic. I do not want you to be killed!’

‘Ah, fiddlesticks,’ Ludovic said impatiently. ‘The Beau don’t even know I’m here. He may suspect it, but there’s not a soul has seen me outside ourselves, and Nye, and Clem.’

‘You are forgetting the Excise officer,’ interrupted his cousin.

‘What odds? I’ll admit it was he who put the notion into Basil’s head, but it’s no more than a notion, and when Basil hears the Runners found no trace of me, he’ll think himself mistaken, after all. Nye’s of the opinion they don’t set much store by the information laid.’

‘It’s plain they set very little store by it, since they didn’t send their best men down to investigate it, but they are likely to take a more serious view of the matter when they discover that Eustacie has no abigail with her.’