The boy looked at her wonderingly.

"My heart is more at rest, dear," she said, gently, "and that aching anxiety is at an end. Roy, we know the worst, and we must act for the best."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

BEN MEANS BUSINESS.

With his blood seeming to effervesce in his veins from the excitement he felt, Roy placed the writing-materials in front of his mother and then hurried out, crossed the drawbridge, and made for the little gate tower, where, upon hearing steps, the old retainer came out, bent of head and stooping, with one ear raised.

"Master Roy's step," he said; and as the boy came closer: "Yes, it's you, sir; just like your father's step, sir, only younger. What's the news, Master Roy?"

"Bad, Jenk,--civil war has broken out. Father is well and with his regiment, but there is great trouble in the land. I'm going to put the castle in a state of defence. Shut the gate again and keep it close.

No one is to come in or out without an order from my mother or from me."

"That's right, Master Roy, sir; that's right," piped the retainer.

"I'll just buckle on my sword at once. She's as sharp and bright as ever she was. n.o.body shall go by. So there's to be a bit of a war, is there?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so, Jenk."

"Don't say afraid so, Master Roy; sounds as if you would be skeart, and your father's son couldn't be that. But n.o.body goes by here without your orders, sir, or my lady's, and so I tell 'em. I'm getting on a bit in years, and I can't see quite as well as I should do, not like I used; but it's the sperrit as does it, Master Roy."

"So it is, Jenk; and you've got plenty in you, haven't you?"

"Ay, ay, ay, Master Roy," quavered the old man, "plenty. Up at the house there they get talking about me as if I was so very old; but I'll let some of 'em see. Why, I want five year o' being a hundred yet, and look at what they used to be in the Scripter. I'll keep the gate fast, sir--I did this morning, didn't I, when they three dragoons come up?"

"Yes, capitally, Jenk--but I must go. I'm busy."

"That's right, sir--you go. Don't you be uneasy about the gate, sir.

I'll see to that."

"Yes," said Roy to himself, "it is the spirit that does it. Now I wonder whether I've got spirit enough to do all the work before me!"

He hurried back over the drawbridge, and glanced down into the clear moat where he could see the great pike lying, but he did not stop to think about catching it, for he hurried on to the servants' hall, drawing himself up as he felt the importance of his position, and upon entering, the three troopers, who were seated at a good substantial meal, all rose and saluted their colonel's son.

"Got all you want, men?" said Roy, startling himself by his decisive way of speaking.

"Yes, sir; plenty, sir," said the man who bore the despatch. "Master Martlet saw to that."

"That's right. Now, look here, of course we want you and your horses to have a good rest, but when do you think you'll be ready to take a despatch back?"

"Take a despatch back, sir?" said the man, staring. "We're not to take anything back."

"Yes; a letter to my father."

"No, sir. Colonel Sir Granby Royland's, orders were that we were to stop here and to help take care of the castle."

"Were those my father's commands?" cried Roy, eagerly.

"Yes, sir, to all three of us--all five of us, it were, and I'm sorry I couldn't bring the other two with me; but I did my best, didn't I, lads?"

"Ay, corporal," chorused the others.

"Oh, that's capital!" cried Roy, eagerly. "It relieves me of a good deal of anxiety. But my father--he'll expect a letter back."

"No, sir; he said there was no knowing where he would be with the regiment, and we were to stay here till he sent orders for us to rejoin."

"Where is Martlet?" asked Roy then.

"Said something about an armoury," replied the corporal.

Roy hurried off, and in a few minutes found the old soldier busy with a bottle of oil and a goose feather, applying the oil to the mechanism of a row of firelocks.

"Oh, here you are, Ben," cried Roy, excitedly. "News for you, man."

"Ay, ay, sir, I've heard," said the old soldier, sadly. "More rust."

"Yes, for you to keep off. My father's orders are that the castle is to be put in a state of defence directly."

Down went the bottle on the floor, and the oil began to trickle out.

"But--but," stammered the old fellow, "what does her ladyship say?"

"That she trusts to my father's faithful old follower to work with me, and do everything possible for the defence of the place. Hurrah, Ben!

G.o.d save the king!"

"Hurrah! G.o.d save the king!" roared Ben; and running to the wall he s.n.a.t.c.hed a sword from where it hung, drew it, and waved it round his head. "Hah! Master Roy, you've made me feel ten years younger with those few words."

"Have I, Ben? Why, somehow all this has made me feel ten years older."

"Then you've got a bit off me that I had to spare, Master Roy, and good luck to you with it. Then," he continued, after listening with eager attention to Roy's rendering of his father's orders, "we must go to work at once, sir."

"Yes; at once, Ben."

"Then the first thing is to order the gate to be kept shut, and that no one goes out or in unless he has a pa.s.s from her ladyship or from you."

"Done, Ben. I have been to old Jenk, and he has shut the gate, and buckled on his old sword."

"Hah! hum! yes," said the old soldier, rubbing one of his ears; "that sounds very nice, Master Roy, but," he continued, with a look of perplexity, "it doesn't mean much, now, does it?"

"I don't understand you."

"Why, sir, I mean this: that if any one came up to the gate and wanted to come in--'Give the pa.s.s,' says Jenk. 'Haven't got one,' says whoever it is. 'Can't pa.s.s, then,' says Jenk, and then--"

"Well, yes, and then?" said Roy. "Why, sir, if he took a good deep breath, and then gave a puff, he'd blow poor old Jenk into the moat.

He's a good old boy, and I don't want to hurt his feelings, but we can't leave things at the gate like that."

"But it would break his heart to be told he is--he--"