Propping his chin upon his cane, he sat glaring at them, till, with a venomous look at me, the woman whisked from the room, her husband shuffling after. So he sat stiffly till the door was shut; then lay back in his chair and fell again to senile chuckling. “Eh, John; but they think me near to dying,” he said. “Eh, John, did ye mark how I took the wind from her sails? Eh, but I’m stronger for having Richard’s son beside me. I thought to die captain of my ship many a time. And I think to die master of my own house,” and so, sat chuckling and shaking, his strength leaving him as suddenly as his will had summoned it. He rambled on, “She’s an ill fowl—eh, John? She’s a skeleton held together by her skin—no more. Barwise’s woman,—she’d looks once,—hair black as the storm and eyes as black. She’d wear silks and gold rings. She took a fat picking from my men, when I sailed my ship. She’d a tavern Shadwell way.” He broke off, and looked dully at me. He muttered, “Can you not see, lad, the manner of man I was? Can you not see the wreck I am? How I ruled ’em once and how now that they think me broken—they’d mutiny, they’d rob me; they’d have what they’ll never set their fingers on?”
“Surely my uncle would discipline them at a word from you. Clear the house of them.”
“Ay, ay, Charles! Charles watches me, as they, and thinks to rob me!” He gasped, and huddled in his chair; ghastly now, and the sweat beading his brow.
I said swiftly, “Shall I ring for Thrale? You’re ill, sir!”
He croaked, “And let ’em see me so!”—and clawed in his pocket and poked a slim key into my hands, and whispered, “Hey! The press there—the bottle—pour me a dram!”
I unlocked the press beside him, and taking out a bloated green bottle—much as the bottle at Mother Mag’s—poured some spirit into a glass; and his hands now shaking, so that he must have spilt the drink, I held it to his lips, until he swallowed it down, choking and coughing. Whatever the stuff, it lent him speedy strength and colour. He sat blinking at me with those evil old eyes of his. I could feel scant pity for him, save for the thought that he had been so strong, and was now old and weak, and that the rogues who had formed his crew, and whom for some odd fancy, or fear, he had kept about him would now tear him down, as they would have torn him down, had he been less strong and ruthless, on his ship.
I said, “You’ve a pretty crew of rogues about you, sir. Give me but the word, and I’ll drive off and have Mr. Bradbury back here, and we’ll make a sweep of the whole company.”
He answered, “No. Rogues, but they serve me well. And I ruled ’em once. And I’ll rule ’em till I’m dead. You’ll stay by me, John—ay, ay, and you’ll profit by it, and Charles shall pay for his sins. Now you may leave me, lad. They’ll obey you. They’ll fear you, fearing me still. There are many books in the old house. There’s a horse in the stable. There’s the wench, Milne; and there’s the whelp, Oliver, who’ll ride with you, and drink with you, and rook you. Ay, and there’s guineas for the spending”—clawing suddenly into the pocket of his gown, and drawing out a purse and slinging it to me. It rang with gold, as I caught it in my hand.
Chapter XXIV. The Wood
Now I was not fated long to test the efficacy of my grandfather’s control over his son and his servants. I’d have you know that twelve folk served my grandfather at Craike House, and that excepting Nick Barwise, the groom, these rogues were of the crew who served under Mr. Craike when he sailed his own ship, and that in his fantastic spirit he would have them by him after his return to England to assume his position as Craike of Craike House. The gates were kept by Isaac, second son of the Barwise union, and his woman, the swart gipsy, whom I had observed on my arrival with Mr. Bradbury. All this disreputable company, as much as my grandfather’s eccentricities, had won the house its ill-name—Rogues’ Haven, among the folk of the countryside; these rogues, too, were leagued with smugglers such as Blunt, who plied their traffic under the very nose of the justice Gavin Masters, and the coastguards.