Hugh put down on the table the piece of bread he had been eating, and looked across at Strangwayes, then blurted out plainly the whole story. He was glad to find he could tell it almost without passion now, with not a censuring word for Colonel Gwyeth, and even with an effort to make a jest of some of the happenings. He heard Strangwayes mutter something like an oath when he described his first meeting with the colonel, but there was not another sound till he told of the affair with Hardwyn; then Strangwayes drew in his breath between his teeth and turned toward the fire. Hugh concluded hurriedly and half frightened, and waited for an answer; then broke out, “Dick, sure you’re not going to despise me for it as he does?”
Strangwayes came to him and put both hands on his shoulders. “No, Hugh,” he said, “I need all the scorn that’s at my command for that precious father of yours.”
The jar of the opening door made them stand apart and face to the end of the hall, as Turner looked in to say, “Do you ride with me, gentlemen?”
Outside, a chilly wind that stung the face was abroad, and the sky was black with clouds. Hugh paused on the threshold to blink the candlelight out of his eyes, then, peering into the dark, made out the dim figures of Turner, already in the saddle, and of two of his mounted troopers who held led horses, and, last of all, let his gaze rest on a half-wakened groom who came up with two fully equipped chargers. At sight of them Hugh jumped down from the doorstone, and, after one closer glance, cried, “Why, Dick, will you suffer me ride the bay?”
“The bay?” Strangwayes answered from the black horse’s back. “Your bay, you young fool! Why in the name of reason did you not keep the beast with you, since you captured him?”
Hugh settled himself in the saddle and turned the horse’s head in his companion’s tracks, too full of joy to heed anything, save that the bay that had known him in the Everscombe stables, that Peregrine Oldesworth would not suffer him even to stroke, was now his, all his. He put out one hand to stroke the warm neck, and whistled softly to see the slender ears erected.
“Hold up, man! You’re riding me down,” came Strangwayes’ voice beside him, and he found he had pushed forward till they were crowding knee to knee.
“Do you honestly mean me to keep this fellow?” Hugh asked.
“If you can,” Strangwayes replied; “I’m thinking you’ll keep him on three legs if you do not spare talk and look to him over this rough ground.”
Hugh laughed happily, then drew the reins tauter in his hands, and strained his eyes into the dark ahead lest some pitfall open to swallow up the bay horse from under him. The road was so short, as he traversed it now, that he was sorry when the fires on Edgehill twinkled in the distance, and, picking their way cautiously, they came to the rendezvous of Turner’s troop. “I am keeping by the captain, do you see?” Strangwayes whispered Hugh as they dismounted. “He has lost his lieutenant, and Sir William has promised to set me in the first vacancy.”