Now Jim was quite mistaken in supposing that by leaving the field in a roundabout manner he had deceived Dairyman Tucker as to his object.
That astute old man immediately divined that Jim was meaning to track the fugitives, in ignorance (as the dairyman supposed) of their lawful relation.He was soon assured of the fact, for, creeping to a remote angle of the field, he saw Jim hastening into the town.
Vowing vengeance on the young lime-burner for his mischievous interference between a nobleman and his secretly-wedded wife, the dairy-farmer determined to balk him.
Tucker had ridden on to the Review ground, so that there was no necessity for him, as there had been for poor Jim, to re-enter the town before starting.The dairyman hastily untied his mare from the row of other horses, mounted, and descended to a bridle-path which would take him obliquely into the London road a mile or so ahead.
The old man's route being along one side of an equilateral triangle, while Jim's was along two sides of the same, the former was at the point of intersection long before Hayward.
Arrived here, the dairyman pulled up and looked around.It was a spot at which the highway forked; the left arm, the more important, led on through Sherton Abbas and Melchester to London; the right to Idmouth and the coast.Nothing was visible on the white track to London; but on the other there appeared the back of a carriage, which rapidly ascended a distant hill and vanished under the trees.It was the Baron's who, according to the sworn information of the gardener at Mount Lodge, had made Margery his wife.
The carriage having vanished, the dairyman gazed in the opposite direction, towards Exonbury.Here he beheld Jim in his regimentals, laboriously approaching on Tony's back.
Soon he reached the forking roads, and saw the dairyman by the wayside.But Jim did not halt.Then the dairyman practised the greatest duplicity of his life.
'Right along the London road, if you want to catch 'em!' he said.
'Thank 'ee, dairyman, thank 'ee!' cried Jim, his pale face lighting up with gratitude, for he believed that Tucker had learnt his mistake from Vine, and had come to his assistance.Without drawing rein he diminished along the road not taken by the flying pair.The dairyman rubbed his hands with delight, and returned to the city as the cathedral clock struck five.
Jim pursued his way through the dust, up hill and down hill; but never saw ahead of him the vehicle of his search.That vehicle was passing along a diverging way at a distance of many miles from where he rode.Still he sped onwards, till Tony showed signs of breaking down; and then Jim gathered from inquiries he made that he had come the wrong way.It burst upon his mind that the dairyman, still ignorant of the truth, had misinformed him.Heavier in his heart than words can describe he turned Tony's drooping head, and resolved to drag his way home.
But the horse was now so jaded that it was impossible to proceed far.
Having gone about half a mile back he came again to a small roadside hamlet and inn, where he put up Tony for a rest and feed.As for himself, there was no quiet in him.He tried to sit and eat in the inn kitchen; but he could not stay there.He went out, and paced up and down the road.
Standing in sight of the white way by which he had come he beheld advancing towards him the horses and carriage he sought, now black and daemonic against the slanting fires of the western sun.
The why and wherefore of this sudden appearance he did not pause to consider.His resolve to intercept the carriage was instantaneous.
He ran forward, and doggedly waiting barred the way to the advancing equipage.
The Baron's coachman shouted, but Jim stood firm as a rock, and on the former attempting to push past him Jim drew his sword, resolving to cut the horses down rather than be displaced.The animals were thrown nearly back upon their haunches, and at this juncture a gentleman looked out of the window.It was the Baron himself.
'Who's there?' he inquired.
'James Hayward!' replied the young man fiercely, 'and he demands his wife.'
The Baron leapt out, and told the coachman to drive back out of sight and wait for him.
'I was hastening to find you,' he said to Jim.'Your wife is where she ought to be, and where you ought to be also--by your own fireside.Where's the other woman?'
Jim, without replying, looked incredulously into the carriage as it turned.Margery was certainly not there.'The other woman is nothing to me,' he said bitterly.'I used her to warm up Margery: Ihave now done with her.The question I ask, my lord, is, what business had you with Margery to-day?'
'My business was to help her to regain the husband she had seemingly lost.I saw her; she told me you had eloped by the London road with another.I, who have--mostly--had her happiness at heart, told her Iwould help her to follow you if she wished.She gladly agreed; we drove after, but could hear no tidings of you in front of us.Then Itook her--to your house--and there she awaits you.I promised to send you to her if human effort could do it, and was tracking you for that purpose.'
'Then you've been a-pursuing after me?'
'You and the widow.'
'And I've been pursuing after you and Margery! My noble lord, your actions seem to show that I ought to believe you in this; and when you say you've her happiness at heart, I don't forget that you've formerly proved it to be so.Well, Heaven forbid that I should think wrongfully of you if you don't deserve it! A mystery to me you have always been, my noble lord, and in this business more than in any.'
'I am glad to hear you say no worse.In one hour you'll have proof of my conduct--good and bad.Can I do anything more? Say the word, and I'll try.'
