I slipped on my disguise, thrust the two pistols Captain Tew had given me into my belt, and, taking Pierre with me, set out through the dark streets to the tavern.
CHAPTER XI
THE ESCAPE FROM THE RATTLE-WATCH
Within a few minutes after leaving Marmaduke Hall I arrived at the Ferry-House alone, having stationed Pierre in a dark court-yard across the street. I looked in through the door and saw the four sailors huddled close together around one of the tables. They talked in careful whispers with their heads close together as men are wont to do when they are engaged in underhand business. From time to time they glanced uneasily about the room, as if they thought that someone should be watching. When I came near them, they seemed to suspect my presence in the first breath. I tried to draw them into conversation, but succeeded no better than if I had spoken in a foreign tongue. One after another of them, as he could find an opportunity, managed to slip away to some other part of the room; soon I was sitting quite lonely and deserted at the table where I had joined them. They, however, had their heads close together again and were in conversation in another part of the room. I made a feint at yawning, put my feet on the table, folded my hands, and in five minutes, for all they knew, I was fast asleep. In reality, I was listening with both my ears and squinting through my half shut eyes to see what they were doing.
They took care at first that I should not hear a word of what they said; but by degrees, thinking, I suppose, that I was asleep, they grew more careless in their speech. For all that, I could learn only that they were to keep an appointment somewhere at nine o’clock that night. They glanced often and so anxiously at the clock that I knew the meeting must be of considerable importance. Before long they ceased talking altogether; then they fell to dozing in their chairs.
When I saw that they were not likely to notice my absence, I left the room. I walked along Garden Street towards the new Dutch church for the distance of fifty yards; then I crossed to the shadow side of the thoroughfare and retraced my steps. Opposite the Ferry-House is a narrow alley that leads into a court-yard. It was in this passage, dark as pitch, that I had stationed Pierre. I turned in when I reached the entrance along which I groped my way with one hand on the wall and the other raised to shield my face.
“St,” I said cautiously. Pierre answered with the same signal. I took two more steps in the dark, and then my outstretched hand touched him.
“Pierre,” I said. “They are in there, but I cannot make them say a word. Go quickly and rouse the rattle-watch. These fellows must be taken up. I’ll make some sort of disturbance against your coming back to color the arrest with. As soon as the watchmen have started, run as fast as your legs will carry you and let me know that they are on the way.”
When Pierre set out along Broad Street, I returned to my seat in the ordinary where I intended to resume my watch till his return. My absence, I thought, had not been noticed by the sailors. I settled myself quietly, well satisfied with the way things were going. Nothing, however, was further from my intention than my proposal to arrest these men. In fact, I intended to outwit the rattle-watch, notwithstanding the fact that I had summoned it.
By the time Pierre returned all out of breath to announce the approach of the watch, the clock had crept round to half past eight. The officers of the watch, Pierre informed me, were not more than the space of two streets away. I rose instantly and approached the sailors.
“May I speak to you a moment?” I said in feigned excitement to him who seemed to be their leader. He arose, rather fearful, as if he shared my assumed alarm, and stepped with me towards the corner of the room. I said to him: “You come from the ship that anchored in the lower bay yesterday?”