“What’s this sentence?” he said, peering closer. “How can I sign what I can’t even read?” He ran his finger along a line. Black Bill came near, and bent over the paper to see what it was the squire could not understand. He was altogether off his guard and in a defenceless position. Like a steel spring Mr. Ogden’s hands shot out, catching him by the throat, and forcing him down on to the ground. At the same moment another figure sprang up from behind a log and grappled with Bingey.
A cry of horror broke from the Cubs and a muffled exclamation from the Tramp. So his revenge was not to be so easy after all. Ogden might yet escape. But even as he looked, he saw the tide turn. The squire, for all his wiry strength and all his knowledge of jujitsu, was a poor match for Black Bill’s powerful muscles. Besides, he was well over fifty, and Black Bill was some years younger. The Tramp breathed hard. He was seeing a terrible revenge upon his enemy.
Then, like a golden flash, a memory came into his mind—his conversation with Danny last autumn: “God won’t answer your prayers till you forgive your enemies,” Danny had said. Revenge was a terrible sin—the Tramp knew that. And then, in those breathless moments he knew that his time for deciding had come. For God’s sake he would forgive his enemy. More, he would risk his life to save him. Springing forward he threw himself on to the struggling men.
With a yell of rage Black Bill let go of the squire, and turning on his new assailant aimed a blow at him with a knife. It sank deep into the Tramp’s arm, and things would have gone badly for him had not David and Hugh joined into the fray.
Catching hold of Black Bill’s legs, they little by little managed to wind them up with the rope they had brought with them. Then, while the squire and the Tramp held him down, they bound his arms also. At last he was helpless, and the Tramp and Mr. Ogden stood up; Bingey had been settled by Mr. Ogden’s man, and lay gagged and bound.
CHAPTER XXII
AT DAWN
The Tramp’s arm was bleeding badly, and the Cubs’ first thought was to bind it up for him with the bandages they had so thoughtfully included in their list of requirements. This done, the party stood looking at each other in silence.
“You have saved my life,” said Mr. Ogden, stretching out his hand and speaking in a voice shaken with emotion. “No words can express the gratitude of one man to another who has done that?”
The Tramp smiled a little grimly, and took the outstretched hand. To him this was a handshake of forgiveness.
“I don’t know who you are,” said the Squire, “but if there is any way in which I can serve you, you will be doing me a favour by letting me know of it.”