Chapter IX The Tramp
“Julius,” said Robin in an awestruck voice a few days later, when they met as usual at the entrance of the wood, “I do believe the tramp has really come. You said you would be here at ten o’clock punctually, but I waited and waited and you never turned up, so I thought you had forgotten all about it and that I had better go on to the hut by myself. When I had got quite close up to it I saw a boot sticking out of the door, and it gave me such a fright, I simply scooted back into the road again. I was jolly glad to see you coming along, I can tell you.”
“I thought you wanted a tramp to come,” said Julius rather scornfully. “The best thing we can do is to tell the policeman, and he’ll send the fellow about his business pretty quick. I call it cheek for a nasty dirty beggar to go and rest in our nice house.”
“It looked quite a good boot,” replied Robin, “not all over holes like some of them have. Perhaps he’s only a poor clean wanderer who wouldn’t do any harm.”
“Let us have another look,” said Julius. “We needn’t go very near.”
With much care and precaution the boys crept silently through the undergrowth until they came in sight of Robin Hood’s Lair, taking the greatest pains to avoid treading on dead sticks or twigs, after the manner of Red Indians tracking their prey.
“There are two boots now,” said Robin under his breath, “and they’re quite tidy, both of them. Perhaps he’s not a tramp after all.”
As he spoke, there was a movement inside the hut, and a man emerged into the open. The youthful spies crouched low among the bracken to watch the intruder.
He was a tall, well-knit figure, but with a droop in his shoulders which told of ill-health and fatigue. His face bore out the same story, for it was white and drawn as if with long suffering, and his somewhat weather-worn clothes only emphasized the frailty of the form beneath. His cap was off, and the sun glinted down upon his fair hair and short well-trimmed beard, revealing a shapely head and thoughtful brow.
“He’s the nicest tramp I ever saw,” remarked Julius, “but he looks awfully ill.”
“I don’t believe he’s a beggar,” rejoined Robin. “I expect he’s just someone come to stay at the village so as to get sea-air after having been in a hospital. They often do that. He must be very poor, however, for though he seems quite respectable, his coat is all patched and frayed.”
The intruder had turned and was contemplating the architecture of the hut with an amused countenance. He now replaced his cap and walked away in an irresolute manner, as if he did not know exactly in which direction to bend his steps. To the boys’ dismay he finally bore down straight towards their hiding-place.
“Keep still, Julius,” whispered Robin. “That’s the way wild animals do when danger is near. If we run, we’re sure to be seen.”
Alas for his hopes! Wild animals do not usually wear clean white collars, and in this instance two snowy spots gleamed clearly and distinctly through the thick screen of fern. In another moment Robin felt his arm suddenly seized, and glanced hastily up into the face that bent above him, anxious to read his fate.
It was a reassuring sight, for the blue eyes that looked down upon him were full of sparkle, and a merry smile was stealing round the corners of the mouth.
“I’m afraid I’ve been trespassing,” was his captor’s remark, as he held the boy with a firm but gentle grip, “and worse than trespassing—actually taking possession of a man’s house during his absence and making use of it as if it were my own.”
Julius had bolted like a hare at the sight of his comrade’s capture, but seeing that a friendly conference was evidently taking place, he gradually drew nearer to hear what was being said, being very careful, nevertheless, to keep well out of harm’s way.
“I’m glad you used our house, sir,” answered Robin, gaining confidence by the kindly tone. “I hope you found it comfortable.”
“Most luxurious,” responded the stranger. “Indeed I must confess to having spent most of the night there. I fell asleep yesterday evening on that delicious carpet of moss, and when I at last awoke it was actually morning and broad daylight.”
“Were you really there all night?” exclaimed Robin delightedly, “just as if it was a proper house! I rather wish it had rained a little though.”
“I’m very glad it didn’t,” was the reply. “I hardly think that is a charitable desire of yours!”
“I only mean that it would have been so jolly to hear the rain outside, and yet to know you had such a good roof over your head that it couldn’t get through,” explained Robin.
“I am glad to learn that you had no worse motive than that for your wish,” laughed the stranger. “Now, my little chap, can you tell me which direction I must take to get to the high-road, as I haven’t had my breakfast yet and I’m growing hungrier every moment. I don’t want to go back to the village, but to strike out for the next hamlet, as I’m tramping to London and don’t want to spend more time than I can help upon the way.”
“You are a tramp, then?” exclaimed Julius, who was now standing near, “even though you haven’t got holes in your boots.”
“Well, I suppose I am,” was the reply. “Perhaps it would sound better if you said I was on a walking tour. It comes to much the same thing.”
“I thought you were a poor man just arrived at Sunbury to get sea-air after you had been ill,” remarked Robin. “You looked so frightfully thin.”
“A regular scarecrow!” said the stranger. “I congratulate you as well as your friend on being right in your guesses. I am a poor man and I have been ill, and I certainly had hoped to stay in Sunbury for a few days to try and get up my strength a little; but I heard something at the Bull Inn yesterday afternoon on my arrival which made me change my mind and resolve to move on. I mustn’t waste time talking, though, for I’m getting quite faint for want of food, and must ask the next good woman I meet to make me a cup of tea in her kitchen.”
His looks certainly corroborated his statement, for a deadly pallor had overspread his countenance and he almost fell as he staggered up against a tree.
“I’m weaker than I thought,” he murmured. “I wish I had gone on last night instead of stopping here.”
“If you will wait a minute,” said Robin eagerly, “I’ll fetch you a glass of milk and some biscuits. Mother always gives them to me for my lunch, but I’d much rather you had them than me.”
“It’s too bad to rob you of your lunch, my boy,” was the grateful answer, “but really I should be very glad of a bite. It would just help me to get along. By the way,” he called out as Robin was darting off, “could you manage to bring the refreshments without letting everyone know I’m here? I have particular reasons for asking. I’ll tell you why when you come back.”
“It will be quite easy,” asseverated Robin. “I often eat my lunch in the wood, so nobody will think it funny if I carry it away.”
Julius considered it wiser to accompany the messenger rather than remain with the man, and many were the conjectures of the two boys as they went together upon their quest.
“I think he is in hiding from someone,” said Robin, “and is afraid to risk going into the village in case he is taken prisoner. I wish he was a cavalier on some secret errand from the king. How splendid it would be to help him in some glorious adventure like one reads about in books!”
“He’s much more likely to be a fugitive from justice,” replied the more matter-of-fact Julius. “It’s rather queer of him sleeping in Robin Hood’s Lair all night, and not wanting to go to Sunbury again. I’ve half a mind to tell father about him and get him to send one of the game-keepers round.”
“If you betray him I’ll never play with you again! Never!” exclaimed Robin indignantly. “It would be mean after he’s trusted us like this. I wouldn’t have a traitor for my friend for anything, and that’s what you would be if you told!”
When the pair returned to the house in the wood with a plentiful supply of the promised food, they found the stranger almost in a state of collapse.
With the greatest difficulty they got him to swallow a little milk, which revived him somewhat, so that with their assistance he was able at length to regain the shelter of the hut.
“I’ll be all right soon,” he said to them. “It’s only my silly old heart. I’ve let myself run down rather too much, that’s all.”
To the boys’ relief, in about twenty minutes he was able to sit up, and partake sparingly of their provisions.
“I’m afraid I must ask you to let me lodge another night in your mansion,” he said. “I don’t think my legs would carry me far to-day.”
“Why don’t you go to ‘The Bull’?” asked Julius. “You’d be much more comfortable in a bed. I know there is lots of room now, for the season is over, and all the visitors have gone.”
“It was my intention to stay there when I came to Sunbury,” was the answer, “but I heard that somebody was now living in the neighbourhood whom I would rather not meet again, and therefore as I did not wish him to recognize me I thought it best to go away. I tried to take a short cut through the wood which I remembered of old, but happening to come across your little hut, it looked so inviting that I just stumbled in and went to sleep. I never woke till you found me this morning.”
“We must go home to dinner now,” remarked Robin, “and Julius won’t be able to come again, as he’s got to go out with his father this afternoon, but I’ll look in later and see if I can bring you some more food.”
“Keep my secret, then, like good boys,” said the stranger. “I won’t harm anybody or anything, and I shall be off to-morrow by the break of day, and not trouble either of you any more.”
Many a time it was on the tip of Julius’ tongue to let fall some remark about their strange guest, but the fear of losing Robin’s fellowship held him back. It is not nice to be called a “traitor,” and the flash in his friend’s eyes when he said the word lingered unpleasantly in Julius’ memory. There was also the ever-haunting terror that his father would discover the deception which he so consistently practised in utter disregard to the parental commands. It was no feeling of honour that checked the sentences as they rose to his lips, but dread of the consequences which might perchance recoil upon himself.
“I’m going to read to old Timothy this evening,” said Mrs. Power to her little son, “and may be out rather late, as I shall stop at the Vicarage on my way back. You can take your supper when you like, as I shall not be home in time to give it to you.”
Never before or after was Robin known to have such an abnormal appetite. Fully half the loaf and the whole of the butter vanished as if by magic from the table. He surprised Mother Sheppard also by a polite request for cheese, and to her astonishment the whole piece was finished when she came to clear away after Robin had left the room.
“If that boy doesn’t burst with the supper he’s took to-night, my name’s not Jemima Ann,” she exclaimed, “and every drop of the milk gone as I heated specially, expecting as there would be a good cupful left for me when he’d done. I’m blessed if the boy don’t seem to have swallowed the jug too. Anyhow it’s disappeared as well as the milk.”
Robin in the meanwhile was curled up contentedly in a corner of the hut, watching its inmate ravenously devour the supplies which he had so successfully secured. A thick rug had also been obtained by the boy and carried up in triumph to the Lair. The ground was still dry after an exceptionally long hot summer, and the little bower certainly made an excellent shelter with its firm sandy walls and mossy floor. Many another wayfarer has been less comfortably lodged.
“I don’t think you can be a wicked man,” remarked Robin, after a careful scrutiny of the worn face before him, “but I wonder why you are so anxious not to meet the other fellow you told us of. Perhaps it’s he who is the bad one, and not you.”
“No,” answered the stranger, with a sad attempt at a smile which went to Robin’s heart. “I’m sorry to say that I’m the bad one, as you put it, but I am thankful I needn’t stop there. The sinner has been forgiven by the grace of God, though the consequences of his sin on earth cannot be rubbed out.”
“Then you’re not afraid of that?” said Robin, nodding his head towards the text on the wall.
“I rejoice because of it,” was the reply. “He Who knows all can forgive all.”
The blue eyes gazed out into the tangle of wood, where the sun was setting behind the interwoven branches, brown now with the touch of coming whiter.
“A great sinner needs a great Saviour,” he murmured half to himself. “Perhaps He can even help me to put right some of the wrong before the end comes.”