Out on Any Limb by John Myers Myers

Author:John Myers Myers [Myers, John Myers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-6459-8
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 1942-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIII

WE HAD decided to push on that day but were taking our time about it. We were dawdling over breakfast when we heard the hounds. I studiously paid no heed, but when it was evident that they were drawing near Yare spoke up. “What the Devil’s going on? Nobody’s running deer at this time of the year.”

I continued tooth-scouring the leg bone of a partridge, and Giles merely shrugged his puzzlement. The problem was occupying the full attention of the rogue, however. “That’s a pack, not a couple of stray dogs on the loose,” he said after a minute. “A pack will have men with ’em, and there’s only one thing men would be hunting now except on the quiet, and that’s a man.” Having come to this conclusion, he brightened. “Let’s wait around. Maybe he’ll come this way, and we can get a look.”

I knew the fugitive in question was at worst miles beyond our sight, but I did not object to waiting. The hunters would stop to question us, and Father James could use every minute of respite vouchsafed. It was almost a half hour before we saw the dogs come over a little rise, running true and making straight for the abbey. They paid no attention to us, possibly never even saw us, for their noses were busy with a steadily warming scent. At the gates they lost no more than a minute, then they were off again, not yet excited but baying occasionally.

The men who had launched them on the chase rode up but a little while later. There were five of them led by a squire who might have been an under sheriff or some such officer. While we stared at them with stolid faces they hauled off the course and came toward us.

The leader was a dark-faced man of forty-odd. His features were by no means unpleasant, and under different circumstances I might have liked him. As it was I felt immediate antagonism, and a glance showed me Giles shared my attitude. It was not just that I happened to know whom they were pursuing, which Giles, of course, didn’t; we knew ourselves to be outlaws in the eyes of this fellow, and as such we instinctively opposed ourselves to him and to all condemning authority.

When the horsemen had halted the leader looked at us searchingly. “How long have you been here,” he demanded. His tone was not especially brusque, but he hadn’t given us the courtesy of a greeting.

Yare reclined to lean on one elbow. “Ever since we came,” he retorted.

The squire was annoyed, but he stuck to the business in hand. “I’m a justice of the peace, and I’m working for the law now,” he belatedly presented his credentials. “We’re looking for a man.”

“Go ahead and look,” Giles suggested.

That was too much for the man. He slid off his horse and approached threateningly only to be disconcerted when Giles sprang up to loom over him. “Now you answer my questions,” he

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