The Talisman Ring

‘It seems to me that it is Ludovic who is in a dangerous position,’ Eustacie pointed out.

‘Not if you have had the sense to hide him in the cellar,’ replied Sir Tristram.

‘We have done so, but he went under protest, and I think won’t remain there long,’ said Miss Thane.

‘He can take his choice of remaining there or being shipped out of the country,’ said Sir Tristram briefly. ‘That Basil went actually to the length of attempting to kill Ludovic with his own hand convinces me that that one-time butler of his knows something.’

‘You have not found him yet?’

‘No. He seems quite to have disappeared. If Basil knows his whereabouts and seeks him out I shall hear of it, however. I have been at pains to see young Kettering and have instructed him to keep me posted in the Beau’s movements. Depend upon it, if Basil sees that butler, so shall I.’

They walked on up the lane, quickening their steps as the sky became once more overcast, with a threat of rain to come. Sir Hugh discovered that they had been out more than an hour, promised Shield a glass of very tolerable Madeira at the Red Lion, and, with another appraising look over the hunter’s points, inquired whether he had any notion of selling the horse.

‘None,’ replied Shield. ‘It is not in my power.’

‘How is that?’ demanded Sir Hugh.

‘He is not mine,’ said Shield. ‘He belonged to my great-uncle, and – provided we can reinstate the boy – is now Ludovic’s property.’

‘Well, I’ve taken a strong liking to him,’ said Sir Hugh. ‘He looks to be well up to my weight. It seems to me that the sooner young Lavenham takes possession of his inheritance the better. I’ll speak to him about it as soon as I get back to the inn.’

Upon arrival at the Red Lion, however, Sir Hugh’s first thought was to call to Nye to bring up a bottle of Madeira. Receiving no response he walked into the tap-room to look for him. There was no sign either of Clem or Nye, and a gentleman in a moleskin waistcoat, who was waiting patiently by the bar, volunteered the information that he himself had been hollering for the landlord till he was fair parched. He added that if the Red Lion wanted no customers there were other inns which did, and upon this bitter remark, stumped out to go in search of one.

Sir Hugh went back to the coffee-room, and had just begun to say that Nye seemed to have gone out when a cry from above made him break off and look inquiringly towards the staircase. Miss Thane, who had gone up to take off her hat and coat, came quickly down, looking perturbed and startled. ‘Sir Tristram, something has happened while we have been out! Someone has been here: my room has been ransacked, all our rooms! Where is Nye?’

‘That,’ said Sir Tristram grimly, ‘is what we shall have to find out. A more pressing question is, where is Ludovic?’

Ludovic was found to be sleeping peacefully in his underground retreat. He had heard nothing, and when he learned that every room in the house had been turned upside down by unknown hands, he showed a marked inclination to laugh, and said that he supposed Basil had been searching for him again.

‘Well, if he expected to find you amongst my clothing I can only say that he must have a very indelicate idea of me,’ said Miss Thane. ‘Sir Tristram, do you suppose him to have kidnapped Nye and Clem?’

‘Hardly,’ Shield answered, shutting the cellar door upon Ludovic, and replacing the chest that stood upon the trap. He walked across the passage to the tap-room, noticed that the trap leading down to the main cellar was shut, and pulled it up, calling: ‘Nye! Are you there, man?’

No one answered him; Sir Hugh strolled in to report that he had found no trace of Nye, and observing that Shield had opened the trap-door said that the particular Madeira he had in mind was not in that cellar.

Shield had found a taper by this time, and kindled it at the fire. ‘What I want to find is Nye, not Madeira!’ he said, and went down the stairs into the gloom of the cellar. A moment later his voice sounded, summoning Sir Hugh to his assistance. ‘Thane! Bring a lamp down here, I’ve found them!’

Sir Hugh selected a lamp from several standing on a shelf, and lit it in a leisurely fashion. Armed with this he descended into the cellar, where he found Shield calmly waiting for him, with the taper in his hand, and at his feet two neatly-trussed, gagged men. ‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ said Sir Hugh, blinking. ‘First it’s one thing and then it’s another! This is the queerest inn I’ve ever stayed at in my life.’

Shield blew out his taper, directed Sir Hugh to put the lamp down and ungag Clem, and set to work to free the landlord. This was very soon done, and no sooner was Nye able to speak than he said: ‘Is Mr Ludovic safe still?’

‘He’s safe enough,’ replied Shield. ‘What the devil happened? Who set upon you?’

‘I never seen them before to my knowledge,’ Nye said, rubbing his cramped limbs. ‘Lord, to think of them taking me unawares! Me! They come in, as I thought, off the Brighton stage. There was no one in the tap-room but myself at the time, and I hadn’t no more than turned my back to get a couple of mugs down from the shelf when something hit me on the head, and when I woke up, here I was like you saw with Clem beside me! I’ve got a lump on the back of my head like a hen’s egg.’

‘Good God, Nye, the oldest trick in the world, and you must needs fall a victim to it!’ said Sir Tristram scornfully.

‘I know it, sir: there ain’t no call for you to tell me. Fair bamboozled I was.’

‘This sort of thing,’ said Sir Hugh, cutting the cord that bound Clem’s arms, ‘is past a jest! Were you knocked on the head too?’

Clem, however, had escaped this particular violence. He was a good deal shaken and bruised, but his assailants had overpowered him without being obliged to stun him. He recounted that he had heard someone calling for the drawer, and had gone at once to the tap-room. He had seen only one man, standing in quite an innocent-seeming fashion by the bar, but no sooner had he entered the room than a heavy coat had been thrown over his head by someone hidden behind the door, and before he could disentangle himself from its folds both men were upon him and he was speedily gagged and trussed up like the landlord.

Having released the captives Sir

Tristram’s next concern was to discover what the intruders had done in the inn. This was soon seen. They had visited every bedchamber, wrenched drawers out of the chests, and turned their contents on to the floor, ripped the clothes out of the wardrobes, burst open the locks of Sir Hugh’s cloak-bags, and tossed out their contents higgledy-piggledy.

Sir Hugh, when he beheld the havoc amongst his possessions, was rendered quite speechless. His sister, staring about her said: ‘But it is mad! This can have been no search for Ludovic! One would imagine they must have been common house-breakers, but there is my trinket-box broken open and my trinkets in a heap on my dressing-table. Have you lost anything, Hugh? I think I have not.’