Held Fast For England: A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83), G. A. Henty [suggested reading txt] 📗

ten merchants, most of whom have one or two clerks. The rest of the men are small traders, and shopkeepers. Some of them make their living by supplying ships that put in here with necessaries. A few, at ordinary times, trade with the Rock in livestock. Half a dozen or so keep stores, where they sell English goods to the natives."

"I have a mission to discharge to a Mrs. Colomb, or at least to a young lady living with her."

"Mrs. Colomb, I regret to say, died three weeks ago," the clerk said. "Miss Harcourt--who is, I suppose, the young lady you mean--is now, with Mrs. Colomb's servant, staying here. Mr. Logie had placed them in lodgings in the house of a Moorish trader, just outside the town; but the young lady could not remain there, alone, after Mrs. Colomb's death. I will ring the bell, and tell the servant to inform her that you are here."

Two minutes later, Bob was shown into a large sitting room on the first floor, with a verandah overlooking the sea.

"Oh, Bob Repton, I am glad to see you!" Amy Harcourt exclaimed, coming forward impulsively, with both hands held out. "It is dreadfully lonely here. Mr. Logie is away, and poor Mrs. Colomb is dead and, as for Mrs. Williams, she does nothing but cry, and say we are all going to be shut up, and starved, in a Moorish prison.

"But first, how are father and mother, and everyone at the Rock?"

"They are all quite well, Amy; though your mother has been in a great state of anxiety about you, since she got your letter saying how ill Mrs. Colomb was. Here is a letter she has given me, for you."

He handed the girl the letter, and went out on to the verandah while she read it.

"Mamma says I am to act upon Mr. Logie's advice; and that, if by any means he should not be in a position to advise me, I am to take your advice, if Mrs. Colomb is dead."

"I don't think I am in a position to give you advice, Amy. What did Mr. Logie say about the state of affairs, before he went away?"

"He seemed to think things were going on very badly. You know the soldiers rushed in here and assaulted him, one day last week. They said they had orders from the emperor to do so; and Mr. Logie said they certainly would not have dared to molest the British consul, if it hadn't been by the emperor's orders. He was talking to me about it, the day before they took him away to Sallee; and he said he would give anything, if he could get me away to the Rock, for that the position here was very precarious; and that the emperor might, at any moment, order all the English to be thrown into prison, and I know that the servants expect we shall all be killed, by the populace.

"They have frightened Mrs. Williams nearly out of her senses. I never saw such a foolish woman. She does nothing but cry. She is the wife, you know, of Captain Colomb's soldier servant.

"Well, what do you advise, Bob?"

"I am sure I don't know what to advise, Amy. This seems a regular fix, doesn't it?"

"But you are just as badly off as I am," she said. "If they seize everyone else, of course they will seize you, now you are here."

"Oh, I could get away, easily enough," Bob said. "I should dress myself up as a Spanish sailor. I have got the clothes here, and should boldly go on board one of the Spanish ships, and take passage across to any port they are going to; and then manage to work round into Gibraltar, again. But of course, you can't do that."

"I couldn't go as a Spanish sailor, of course," the girl said, "but I might dress up and go, somehow. Anything would be better than waiting here, and then being thrown into one of their dreadful prisons. They say they are awful places.

"Do take me, Bob Repton. I do so want to get back to father and mother again, and I am quite well and strong now--as well as ever I was."

Bob looked at the girl, with a puzzled expression of face. He had promised her mother to do the best thing he could for her. The question was, 'What was the best thing?' It certainly seemed that the position here was a very perilous one. If he left her here, and harm befell her, what would her parents say to him? But, on the other hand, how on earth was he to get her away?

"I tell you what, Amy," he said, after a time. "Who were the ladies Mrs. Colomb saw most of? I suppose she knew some of the people here?"

"Oh, yes, she knew several; but she was most intimate with Mrs. Hamber. She is the wife of one of the principal merchants, and is very kind. She offered to take me in, when Mrs. Colomb died; but her husband lives out of the town, and Mr. Logie had promised Mrs. Colomb that he would look after me, until he could send me across--besides, Mrs. Hamber's child is very ill, with fever--and so he brought me here."

"Well, I will go and consult her," Bob said. "I daresay the clerk downstairs will send a man with me, to show me her house."

Mrs. Hamber listened to Bob's account of his mission; asking a question now and again, in a straightforward and decided way, which gave Bob an idea that she was a resolute sort of woman, with plenty of common sense.

"Well, Mr. Repton," she said, when he had finished, "it is a difficult matter for anyone but the girl's mother to form an opinion upon. I remember hearing, from Mrs. Colomb, about your going out and bringing in fruit when the scurvy was so bad, two months ago. She had received the news, no doubt, from her husband and, therefore, it seems to me that you must be a very capable young gentleman, with plenty of courage and coolness. The fact that Mrs. Harcourt gave you such a message as she did, regarding her daughter, shows that she has every confidence in you. If the girl were a year or two older, I should say it would be quite out of the question for her to attempt to make her way back to Gibraltar, under your protection; but as she is still a mere child, and as you possess her mother's confidence, I don't see that this matters so much.

"If you are both taken prisoners, there is no reason for supposing that she would not be treated honourably by the Spaniards. They must have taken numbers of women, in the vessels they have captured lately, and I suppose the girl would be placed with them. She would, at any rate, be far better off in a Spanish prison than in a Moorish one. Besides, I really consider that all our lives are in danger, here. After the assault on Mr. Logie, it is just as likely the emperor may order us all to be massacred, as thrown into prison; or he might sell us as slaves, as they do at Algiers. There is no saying. I think that, if I were in the position of the girl's mother at Gibraltar, I should say that it was better for her to run the risk of capture, with you; than to remain here, where there is no saying what may happen--she having every confidence in your honour, young gentleman."

"I thank you, Mrs. Hamber. I have no idea, at present, what plan I shall form. I may not see any possible way of getting out but, if I do, we will certainly attempt it. Major Harcourt belongs to the same regiment as my brother-in-law, and his wife and my sister are great friends; which is why, I suppose, she has confidence in me. I have known Amy, now, for a year and a half; and she is very often at my sister's. I will take care of her just the same as if she were a young sister of my own. I don't see how I could go back and tell her mother that I left her here, with things in the state they are. I only hope they may not turn out so badly as you fear; and that, at the worst, the Moors will only hand you over as prisoners to the Spaniards."

Bob went back to the consulate, and told Amy the result of his conversation with Mrs. Hamber.

"I consider that has taken the responsibility off my shoulders, Amy. You referred me to Mrs. Hamber as the lady you knew best here. She is of opinion that, if she were your mother, she would advise your trying to get away with me. So, now, we have only to decide how it is to be done--that is, if you still wish to try."

"Certainly I do," the girl said. "Anything is better than waiting here; expecting the Moors to rush in, as they did the other day, and carry one off to prison, or kill one.

"Mr. Parrot--that is the gentleman you saw downstairs--said that you would stay here, and ordered a room to be prepared for you; and dinner is ready. I am sure you must be terribly hungry."

Bob remembered, now, that he had had nothing to eat--save some biscuits on board the boat, and a piece of bread at the wine shop--since he left Gibraltar, and that he really was desperately hungry. Amy had already had her dinner; but she sat by him, and they talked about their friends at the Rock.

"Now," he said, when he had finished, "let us have a regular council of war. It was my intention to get a passage to Malaga, if I could, because I know something of the road back from there; but I could not do that, with you."

"Why not, Bob?"

"Because the voyage is too long. Someone would be certain to speak to you before you got across and, as you can't talk Spanish, the cat would be out of the bag, directly. If possible, we must manage to cross to Tarifa. It is only a few hours across to there, even if we go in an open boat and, now that the Spaniards are friends with the Moors, there ought to be no difficulty in getting a passage across there, or to Algeciras.

"Of course, you can't go as you are," he said, looking at her rather ruefully.

"No, of course not," she said. "I am not so silly as that. I should think I had better dress up like a boy, Bob."

"That would be a great deal the best plan, if you would not mind it," Bob said, greatly relieved that the suggestion came from her. "It is the only thing that I can think of. There didn't seem any story one could invent, to account for a Spanish girl being over here; but a ship's boy will be natural enough. If asked questions, of course, our story will be that we had been left behind here. There could be lots of reasons for that. Either we might have been on shore, and the vessel gone on without us; or you might have been sent ashore ill, and I might have been left to nurse you. That wouldn't be a bad story.

"What we must do, when we get to the other side, must depend upon where we land. I mean, whether we try to get straight in by boat, or to wait about until a chance comes. Once over there, you will have to pretend to be deaf and dumb; and then you can dress up as a Spanish girl--of course, a peasant--which will be much more pleasant than going about as a boy, and better in lots of ways. So if I were you, I should take a bundle of things with me, so that we should have nothing to buy there. It is all very well buying disguises for myself, but I could never go into a shop to ask for all sorts of girls' clothes."

Amy went off in a fit of laughter, at the thought of Bob having to purchase feminine garments.

"It is all very well to laugh," Bob said. "These are the sort of little things that are so difficult to work in. It is easy enough to make a general plan, but the difficulty is to get everything to fit in.

"I will have a talk with Mr. Parrot, in the morning, about the boats. He will know what boats have been trading with the Rock, and what men to trust."

"You can talk to him now, if you like," the girl said. "He and Mr. Logie's other clerk have the top storey of the house."

"Oh, then I will go up and see him, at