Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/86

 "You were out on the Marsh all night?" repeated the astonished cleric. "And pray, what were you doing there?"

"Dogging that schoolmaster," replied Jerk with conviction.

"Come into the vicarage," said Doctor Syn, "and tell me all about it." And he led the boy into the house.

When he had finished his tale Doctor Syn took him into the kitchen and lit the fire, bidding him dry his wet clothes, for Jerk was still shivering with the cold of the dyke water. Then he boiled some milk in a saucepan and set it before him, with a cold game pie and a loaf of bread. Jerk made a hearty meal and felt better, his opinion of clergymen going up at a bound when he discovered that a strong dose of excellent ship's rum had been mixed with the milk. "Rum's good stuff, my lad, on occasions," he said cheerily, "and I've a notion that it'll drive the cold out of you," and Jerry thought it a very sensible notion, too.

"And now look here, my lad," the Doctor went on, when Jerry could eat no more, "what you've seen may be true enough, though I tell you I can hardly credit it. It's a good deal for a thinking man to swallow, you'll allow, what with the devil riders and all that. Besides which I can see no earthly reason for the schoolmaster committing the crime. As yet I really don't know what to say, my boy. I'm beat, I confess it. I