He stopped before one of the dingiest for fifteen minutes, carefully scanning a considerable collection of violins which the window contained. At length his eye lighted, he muttered something half exclamatory and went into the shop at once. The dealer knew him and nodded delightedly, glad to have him again in his place, as he had fully expected when he placed the rare old fiddle which Rust had seen, in his window.
Adam bought the instrument with all the eagerness of the confirmed connoisseur and went his way contented.
When he came to the tavern where the beef-eaters made their abode, he found little Pike dangerously ill with pleurisy and thinking of shuffling off forlornly into his next existence.
The one thing which alone could transform Adam Rust into the cheerful fellow he had been before his veneer of cynicism came upon him, was illness in his family. He refused to let his beef-eaters think of dying. They were his tie to everything he still held dear.
He pulled off his coat and went to work on Pike, whose spirits he raised with songs, raillery and cheer, and whose fever he lowered with teas and bitter drinks, which he steeped himself, from various herbs and roots, the specific qualities of which he had known from the Indians.
The Court saw no more of the reckless Adam for a week. At the end of this time he had coaxed the faithful Pike to something like his former health again, when he announced his intention of going to Spain, to add to his growing collection of violins. He therefore said good-by to Sir William Phipps and went off with his beef-eaters both in charge.
Having learned that the Pyrenees afforded splendid possibilities for building up depleted health and strength, the rover domiciled himself and companions in a spot that was charmingly lonely. And William Phipps, when Adam’s first letter arrived, wondered vaguely what manner of violins his comrade was finding in the mountains.
CHAPTER III.
FOILED PURPOSES.
Increase Mather met with a dignified and polite reception at the Court of the King, for Sir William Phipps, with all his influence and persuasiveness, prepared the way for the envoy extraordinary to approach the master of the colonies.