THIRD NIGHT
There was no help for it. Bill Mills was obliged to stay on duty, in
the old shepherd's absence, this evening as before, or give up his
post and living. He thought as bravely as he could of what lay
behind the Devil's Door, but with no great success, and was therefore
in a measure relieved, even if awe-stricken, when he saw the forms of
the Duke and Duchess strolling across the frosted greensward. The
Duchess was a few yards in front of her husband and tripped on
lightly.
'I tell you he has not thought it worth while to come again!' the
Duke insisted, as he stood still, reluctant to walk further.
'He is more likely to come and wait all night; and it would be harsh
treatment to let him do it a second time.'
'He is not here; so turn and come home.'
'He seems not to be here, certainly; I wonder if anything has
happened to him. If it has, I shall never forgive myself!'
The Duke, uneasily, 'O, no. He has some other engagement.'
'That is very unlikely.'
'Or perhaps he has found the distance too far.'
'Nor is that probable.'
'Then he may have thought better of it.'
'Yes, he may have thought better of it; if, indeed, he is not here
all the time--somewhere in the hollow behind the Devil's Door. Let
us go and see; it will serve him right to surprise him.'
'O, he's not there.'
'He may be lying very quiet because of you,' she said archly.
'O, no--not because of me!'
'Come, then. I declare, dearest, you lag like an unwilling schoolboy
to-night, and there's no responsiveness in you! You are jealous of
that poor lad, and it is quite absurd of you.'
'I'll come! I'll come! Say no more, Harriet!' And they crossed
over the green.
Wondering what they would do, the young shepherd left the hut, and
doubled behind the belt of furze, intending to stand near the
trilithon unperceived. But, in crossing the few yards of open ground
he was for a moment exposed to view.
'Ah, I see him at last!' said the Duchess.
'See him!' said the Duke. 'Where?'
'By the Devil's Door; don't you notice a figure there? Ah, my poor
lover-cousin, won't you catch it now?' And she laughed half-
pityingly. 'But what's the matter?' she asked, turning to her
husband.
'It is not he!' said the Duke hoarsely. 'It can't be he!'
'No, it is not he. It is too small for him. It is a boy.'
'Ah, I thought so! Boy, come here.'
The youthful shepherd advanced with apprehension.
'What are you doing here?'
'Keeping sheep, your Grace.'
'Ah, you know me! Do you keep sheep here every night?'
'Off and on, my Lord Duke.'
'And what have you seen here to-night or last night?' inquired the
Duchess. 'Any person waiting or walking about?'
The boy was silent.
'He has seen nothing,' interrupted her husband, his eyes so
forbiddingly fixed on the boy that they seemed to shine like points
of fire. 'Come, let us go. The air is too keen to stand in long.'
When they were gone the boy retreated to the hut and sheep, less
fearful now than at first--familiarity with the situation having
gradually overpowered his thoughts of the buried man. But he was not
to be left alone long. When an interval had elapsed of about
sufficient length for walking to and from Shakeforest Towers, there
appeared from that direction the heavy form of the Duke. He now came
alone.
The nobleman, on his part, seemed to have eyes no less sharp than the
boy's, for he instantly recognized the latter among the ewes, and
came straight towards him.
'Are you the shepherd lad I spoke to a short time ago?'
'I be, my Lord Duke.'
'Now listen to me. Her Grace asked you what you had seen this last
night or two up here, and you made no reply. I now ask the same
thing, and you need not be afraid to answer. Have you seen anything
strange these nights you have been watching here?'
'My Lord Duke, I be a poor heedless boy, and what I see I don't bear
in mind.'
'I ask you again,' said the Duke, coming nearer, 'have you seen
anything strange these nights you have been watching here?'
'O, my Lord Duke! I be but the under-shepherd boy, and my father he
was but your humble Grace's hedger, and my mother only the cinder-
woman in the back-yard! I fall asleep when left alone, and I see
nothing at all!'
The Duke grasped the boy by the shoulder, and, directly impending
over him, stared down into his face, 'Did you see anything strange
done here last night, I say?'
'O, my Lord Duke, have mercy, and don't stab me!' cried the shepherd,
falling on his knees. 'I have never seen you walking here, or riding
here, or lying-in-wait for a man, or dragging a heavy load!'
'H'm!' said his interrogator, grimly, relaxing his hold. 'It is well
to know that you have never seen those things. Now, which would you
rather--SEE ME DO THOSE THINGS NOW, or keep a secret all your life?'
'Keep a secret, my Lord Duke!'
'Sure you are able?'
'O, your Grace, try me!'
'Very well. And now, how do you like sheep-keeping?'
'Not at all. 'Tis lonely work for them that think of spirits, and
I'm badly used.'
'I believe you. You are too young for it. I must do something to
make you more comfortable. You shall change this smock-frock for a
real cloth jacket, and your thick boots for polished shoes. And you
shall be taught what you have never yet heard of; and be put to
school, and have bats and balls for the holidays, and be made a man
of. But you must never say you have been a shepherd boy, and watched
on the hills at night, for shepherd boys are not liked in good
company.
'Trust me, my Lord Duke.'
'The very moment you forget yourself, and speak of your shepherd
days--this year, next year, in school, out of school, or riding in
your carriage twenty years hence--at that moment my help will be
withdrawn, and smash down you come to shepherding forthwith. You
have parents, I think you say?'
'A widowed mother only, my Lord Duke.'
'I'll provide for her, and make a comfortable woman of her, until you
speak of--what?'
'Of my shepherd days, and what I saw here.'
'Good. If you do speak of it?'
'Smash down she comes to widowing forthwith!'
'That's well--very well. But it's not enough. Come here.' He took
the boy across to the trilithon, and made him kneel down.
'Now, this was once a holy place,' resumed the Duke. 'An altar stood
here, erected to a venerable family of gods, who were known and
talked of long before the God we know now. So that an oath sworn
here is doubly an oath. Say this after me: "May all the host above-
-angels and archangels, and principalities and powers--punish me; may
I be tormented wherever I am--in the house or in the garden, in the
fields or in the roads, in church or in chapel, at home or abroad, on
land or at sea; may I be afflicted in eating and in drinking, in
growing up and in growing old, in living and dying, inwardly and
outwardly, and for always, if I ever speak of my life as a shepherd
boy, or of what I have seen done on this Marlbury Down. So be it,
and so let it be. Amen and amen." Now kiss the stone.'
The trembling boy repeated the words, and kissed the stone, as
desired.
The Duke led him off by the hand. That night the junior shepherd
slept in Shakeforest Towers, and the next day he was sent away for
tuition to a remote village. Thence he went to a preparatory
establishment, and in due course to a public school.
