Hendon followed after him, passed him, and
plunged down the stairs two steps at a stride, muttering, ''Tis that
scurvy villain that claimed he was his son. I have lost thee, my
poor little mad master- it is a bitter thought- and I had come to love
thee so! No! by book and bell, not lost! Not lost, for I will
ransack the land till I find thee again. Poor child, yonder is his
breakfast- and mine, but I have no hunger now- so, let the rats have
it- speed, speed! that is the word!' As he wormed his swift way
through the noisy multitudes upon the Bridge, he several times said to
himself- clinging to the thought as if it were a particularly pleasing
one: 'He grumbled but he went- he went, yes, because he thought
Miles Hendon asked it, sweet lad- he would ne'er have done it for
another, I know it well!'
CHAPTER XIV
'Le Roi est Mort - Vive le Roi'
TOWARD daylight of the same morning, Tom Canty stirred out of a
heavy sleep and opened his eyes in the dark. He lay silent a few
moments, trying to analyze his confused thoughts and impressions,
and get some sort of meaning out of them, then suddenly he burst out
in a rapturous but guarded voice:
'I see it all, I see it all! Now God be thanked, I am, indeed,
awake at last! Come, joy! vanish, sorrow! Ho, Nan! Bet! kick off
your straw and hie ye hither to my side, till I do pour into your
unbelieving ears the wildest madcap dream that ever the spirits of
night did conjure up to astonish the soul of man withal!.
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