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And so you did not hurry as you went, and, as things happened, you came to Faddo's house almost at the same moment with Lancy Doane and two other mounted coast-guards. "You stood in the shadow while they knocked at Faddo's door. You were so near, you could see the hateful look in his face. You were surprised he did not try to stand the coast-guards off.
He sprang towards you over Faddo's body, even as you threw the lantern, and, catching his arm, you ran with him towards the dyke. "'Ready for a great jump! you said. 'Your life hangs on it. He was even longer of leg than you. 'Is it a dyke? he whispered, as the shots from three muskets rang after you. 'A dyke. When I count three, jump, you answered.
They followed Felicia meekly enough. They walked quietly while she moved to the least covered and least ornate corner of the apartment an alcove with a bookcase and a flat writing table. "This," announced the older child, "won't do. It's Faddo's ONE CORNER and he will not let it be touched." Felicia laughed.
Faddo, coming back from Mablethorpe, told Tom the coast-guards were to raid him that night; and he made him hide in this safe place, as he called it, knowing that Lancy would make for it. "For a minute after Tom was found no man stirred. Tom was quick of brain and wit would it had always been put, to good purposes! and saw at once Faddo's treachery.
That's like a man, to go to a fist fight wi' knives. Take it, he said. 'Aw'll gi' ye till aw count four, and if ye doan't take it, aw'll take it meself. One! he says steady and soft. 'Two! Faddo never moved. 'Three! The silence made me sick, and the clock ticked like hammers. 'Four! he said, and then he sprang for the boot, but Faddo's hand went down like lightnin' too.
Three days from that, Tom Doane was safe in the Low Country, and you were on your way back to Lincolnshire. You came by a fishing boat to Saltfleet Haven, and made your way down the coast towards Mablethorpe. Passing Theddlethorpe, you went up to Faddo's house, and, looking through the window, you saw Faddo, not dead, but being cared for by his wife.
"But, you remember don't you? how Jobbin took to chaffin' of Lancy Doane, and how Faddo's tongue got sharper as the time got on, and many a nasty word was said of coast-guards and excisemen, and all that had to do with law and gover'ment. Cuts there were at some of Laney's wild doings in the past, and now and then they'd turn to me, saying what they thought would set me girdin' Lancy too.
"Three minutes by the clock he knelt there on Faddo's chest, the knife-point touching the bone in's throat. Not one of us stirred, but just stood lookin', and my own heart beat so hard it hurt me, and my uncle steadyin' himself against the dresser. At last Lancy threw the knife away into the fire. "'Coward! he said. 'A man would ha' taken the knife.
You saw them enter with the lantern, saw them shift a cider press, uncover the floor, and there beneath, in a dry well, were barrels upon barrels of spirits, and crouched among them was a man whom you all knew at once Laney's brother, Tom. That, Cousin Dick, was Jim Faddo's revenge. Tom Doane had got refuge with him till he should reach his brother, not knowing Lancy was to be coast-guard.
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