Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/168

 most suddenly grave. Getting up, he placed his hands on Jerry's shoulders.

"Look here, potboy," he said, "you and I have common secrets that I know. What the devil you were doing out on the Marsh the night before last I don't know, but that you saw the schoolmaster kill Pepper I do know."

"You know?" cried Jerk, utterly astonished. "Then Doctor Syn must have told you, for I never breathed a word."

"I know all about it, my boy, because I was hiding in the same dyke as you. Now see here, from what I've seen of you, I imagine you can be relied upon. We'll pluck a leaf out of that parson's book. We'll find out his mystery. We'll find out the whole mystery of this damned Marsh, and as to being apothecaries, why, damme, so we will. We'll take him at his word."

"And be apothecaries, sir?" asked Jerry, more puzzled now than ever.

"Yes," cried the captain, slapping his great hands up and down upon Jerry's shoulders. "Apothecaries make experiments, don't they?"

"I dare say they do, sir," replied Jerk.

"Well, so will we, my lad," went on the captain, as happy as a sand boy. "We'll set a trap for all this mystery to walk into. We'll set a big trap, my lad—big enough to hold all the murderers and mulattoes on the Marsh, the demon riders as well, and certainly not