“Well,” the Earl said at last. “I shall request you to be on hand at two o’clock this afternoon, Bromm, to make public proclamation in the market place. It is not unlikely that someone will have heard of her and can give me information that we are desirous to obtain.”
This broke up our meeting. There was now nothing left to do till the advantage of the proclamation had been put to the test. As we moved toward the door of the reception hall, the minister walked first with Bromm. The governor laid his hand upon my arm and quietly motioned me to step back into the room with him.
“Monsieur Le Bourse, we have gone so far in our mutual confidence that it may be well to extend it a little farther. There were words of high contention in the council meeting to-day between me and Patroon Van Volkenberg. What I now impart to you is strictly entre nous, as you Frenchmen say. I trust the patroon’s word no more than—at least I do not understand this sudden spleen of friendliness. You say that Colonel Fletcher was trying to soothe him in the coffee-house?”
“Yes, continually.”
“Well, you will observe when you come to know more of our politics that that is unlike Fletcher too. He is a savage cur. I do not trust either of them. I should be more at my ease to have the men of the Red Band baying at my window like hounds than to have them feed me with words of honey. Keep your own counsel, my friend. Stay out of the narrow streets after nightfall. I should advise you to take lodgings at the Ferry-House. It is a quiet place of entertainment, modest, and remote from the turmoil of the lower town. It may be that I shall desire to communicate with you. If I do, I shall send there to find you. Say as little of your name as suits your convenience till this mystery unravels itself somewhat. Farewell; I may send for you before the day is over.”
CHAPTER VII
PIERRE’S SECRET
Good humored little Pierre was ducked for his offense in the coffee-house. He was taken before the magistrates who sat in the great room in the Stadt Huys, and they tried him legally for unbecoming conduct towards a member of the upper class. Against this charge there was very little Pierre could offer in defense. In vain he pleaded that he had seen indirectly and meant to empty the rum upon Kirstoffel. The charge was immediately changed by the grave Dutch magistrates to drunkenness in order that there should be no mistake. Pierre perforce gave way to the inevitable. Through the influence of Van Volkenberg who had not yet recovered from his anger, Pierre was sentenced to the ducking stool. The indignity of this punishment was particularly galling to Pierre because it was commonly reserved for scolding wives and spinster crones whose tongues were too long for their mouths.
“I’ll go to the pillory, your honor,” he said piteously, “or ride the pinch-back horse a week of market days; but to be ducked like a woman! And they say there are great fish in the bay who will nibble my toes. Your honor, I was only a little drunk.”
But the magistrates’ hearts could not be softened away from duty. They were bringing the culprit out of the Stadt Huys at the very moment that the dominie and I were returning from our visit to the fort. We met them with half the town flocking at their heels and clamoring for the sport to come. Pierre, slightly sobered by his experience at the court-room, had plucked up a small amount of dignity. He walked erect as if he had made up his mind to take his punishment like a man. I looked at him closely and believed that there was more stuff to the fellow than at first appeared. His face wore a look of dogged resentment; such a look as I should not care to see in the face of an enemy.
The ducking-stool, which was attached to a low, wheeled platform, was soon pushed to the edge of the water. Pierre was securely bound into the chair so that he could move neither hand nor foot, and then he was swung out in mid air over the water. The magistrate mounted on a platform near. He took out of his pocket a string about a yard long with a small iron ball attached to the end of it. He held one end of the string in his hand and set the ball to swinging like a pendulum.