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This was all the answer I won. I rang again, and a third time: and now at last came the sound of footsteps shuffling across the court within. The shutter of the grating was slipp'd back, and a voice, crack'd as the bell, asked my business. "To see Master Hannibal Tingcomb," answered I. "Thy name?" "He shall hear it in time. Say that I come on business concerning the estate."
I had done this for the eighth time, and was cursing under my breath, when on a sudden I heard a stealthy footfall coming down the alley behind me. "Master Tingcomb, for a crown!" thought I, and crouch'd to one side under a bush. The footsteps drew nearer. A dark form parted the laurels: another moment, and I had it by the throat. "Uugh ugh grr! For the Lord's sake, sir, "
'Twas as if by alchemy that the red ripples melted to gold; and I stood watching with a child's delight. I heard the sound of a footstep: and fac'd round. Before me, not six paces off, stood Hannibal Tingcomb. He was issuing from the hole with a sack on his shoulder, and sneaking to descend the steps, when he threw a glance behind and saw me! Neither spoke.
'Dear Master, says I, 'there's no call to die so hard: but might so well ha' whistled, for he was dead as nails. A beautiful corpse, sirs, dang my buttons!" "Show him to us." "Willingly, young man." He led the way to the very room where Master Tingcomb and I had held our interview.
That Master Tingcomb rested under the coffin lid, I did not believe, in spite of the terrifying fit that I could vouch for. But this, if driven to it, we could discover at the grave. As eleven o'clock sounded, therefore, I tapp'd on Billy's wall; and finding that Matt. Our rooms were on the first floor, over a straw yard; and the distance to the ground an easy drop for a man.
I have a good friend here, a seafaring man, whose vessel lies at this moment in Looe Haven, with a crew on board that will lay Master Tingcomb by the heels in a trice. Within three days we'll have him clapp'd in Launceston Jail, and there at the next Assize you shall sit on the Grand Jury and hear his case, by which time, I hope, the King's law shall run on easier wheels in Cornwall.
For I had marked his left foot trailing, and, by the token, knew him for the white hair'd man of the bowling-green. "Master Hannibal Tingcomb," I spoke in his ear, " dog and murderer! What did you in Oxford last November? And how of Captain Lucius Higgs, otherwise Captain Luke Settle, otherwise Mr. X.? Speak, before I serve you as the dog was served that night!"
I guess'd it to be the Bible; but noted that the candles had shades about them, so disposed as to throw the light, not on the page, but on the doorway where I stood. Yet the old gentleman, having bid me enter, went on reading for a while as though wholly unaware of me: which I found somewhat nettling, so began "I speak, I believe, to Master Hannibal Tingcomb, steward to Sir Deakin Killigrew."
As before, six candles were burning there: but the table was push'd into a corner, and now their light fell on a long black coffin, resting on trestles in the centre of the room. The coffin was clos'd, and studded with silver nails; on the lid was a silver plate bearing these words written "Hannibal Tingcomb, MDCXLIIL," with a text of Scripture below. "Why have you nail'd him down?" I asked.
Before me stood a strange fellow extraordinary old and bent, with a wizen'd face, one eye only, and a chin that almost touched his nose. He wore a dirty suit of livery, that once had been canary-yellow; and shook with the palsy. "Master Tingcomb will see the young man," he squeak'd, nodding his head; "but is a-reading just now in his Bible."