Highway Robbery (5 page)

THE BLACK MARE
shifted restlessly and snatched at her bit, and it seemed to me that she was as anxious as I was. The soldiers’ horses pawed the ground and tossed their heads impatiently. One of the soldiers got down and handed the reins of his horse to another.

‘Whose horse is this?’ he asked me.

I swear a dozen different answers jumped into my head, but since I couldn’t decide which one to use I let them all get away again, and I said nothing at all. The soldier
bent down in front of me until his hard grey eyes were level with mine.

‘Do you speak English?’ he asked, very slowly.

I would have laughed if I hadn’t been so afraid.

‘I do, sir,’ I said.

‘I do, Captain,’ he said.

‘I do,
Captain
,’ I repeated.

‘Whose horse is this?’ he asked again.

‘It belongs to a gentleman,’ I said, deciding that it was safest to be honest about it. ‘And he has promised me a guinea if I hold her until he comes back.’

The captain straightened up and began to walk round the mare in a very similar manner to the two crooks. She gave a great sigh, as if she was exhausted with being examined. The captain lifted her feet and peered at her shoes, then he looked at the cloak and at the saddle underneath it.

‘She’s not for sale, sir,’ I said.

‘
Captain
,’ he corrected me.

‘She’s not for sale, Captain, sir,’ I said.

‘What a shame,’ he said. ‘She’s a very fine animal.’

I was as proud to hear that as if she had been my own, and I found that, despite myself, I was beginning to like this soldier.

‘She is indeed, Captain,’ I said.

‘But tell me more about her owner,’ he said. ‘What does he look like?’

‘As tall as you, sir, Captain, sir. Or very
nearly. And he has big black moustaches and long, curly black hair.’

‘I see,’ said the captain. ‘And was he carrying anything with him, do you remember?’

‘A saddlebag, Captain. That’s all, as far as I remember.’

‘Good lad,’ said the captain, and he ruffled my hair just the way the gentleman had done earlier, though I noticed that he wiped his hand on the leg of his breeches afterwards, and the gentleman hadn’t done that.

He walked back to the scarlet fence and said something to another of the soldiers, and that one dismounted too, and they walked off together to a quiet place further down the road. They had to go some distance, because quite a crowd had gathered by then, and there was a second horseshoe of curious onlookers crowding round behind the soldiers. Everyone was looking at me and it felt very pleasant, sir, to have all those eyes upon me and the fine black mare. It made me feel very important.

But it wasn’t to last for long. The captain soon came back and gave an order to his troop, and straight away the soldiers began to clear the crowd and send everyone off about their business. Then the soldiers too went away, leaving only the captain and the one he had been talking to, and the two horses belonging to them.

The captain came up to me and bent his knees again so he could look me in the eye.

‘What’s your name, boy?’ he said.

I told him, and he went on, ‘Well, it seems to me that you are a most trustworthy young man.’

I nodded earnestly. As I’m sure you can tell by now, sir, this was very perceptive of the captain.

‘Good lad,’ he went on. ‘Good lad. And how would you like to do a piece of work for the King?’

‘I should like that very much, Captain,’ I said.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘And you won’t find it difficult at all.’

For a moment I dared to imagine myself dressed in scarlet uniform and riding the black mare into a fearsome battle – but it was not that kind of work that the captain had in mind.

‘Have you ever heard of a fellow called Dick Turpin?’ he asked me.

‘Dick Turpin the highwayman?’ I said.

‘The very same.’

Of course I had. Who hadn’t? Like every other poor boy in the street, I loved the tales of that famous highwayman. I lurked in the doorways of public houses to listen to his latest exploits, and hid in the shadows of street corners if I ever heard mention of his name, in case there was some new story of his heroics. In my dreams I relived his adventures as he emerged from the forest’s edge to waylay another rich man. ‘Stand and deliver!’ That’s what he said to them. ‘Your money or your life!’ Dick Turpin was my hero.

I was silent for too long, lost in my thoughts.

‘Well?’ said the captain. ‘Have you or haven’t you?’

‘I have, sir, Captain, sir. I have indeed.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘I am as sure as I can be that the gentleman who gave you this horse to hold was none other than Dick Turpin himself.’

I stared at the captain in disbelief while a hundred new thoughts charged around my head and got in each other’s way.

‘And this,’ he went on, straightening up and patting the mare’s neck, ‘is none other than Black Bess.’

I GASPED THEN
, out loud. So the mare really was horse royalty. I hadn’t tricked those girls at all. In fact, I had undercharged them!

‘Black Bess,’ I whispered, stroking her nose.

The captain laughed and leaned against her shoulder, one arm thrown loosely over her neck. I have to admit I thought it a cheek for him to take such a liberty with her, as if she was just some old tinker’s nag. But he was a captain of the king’s guard, so
what could I say? And in any event, I very soon forgot about it in the light of what he said next.

‘Dick Turpin waylaid and robbed a mail coach and stole a bag of gold coin that was destined for the Bank of England. When he had gone, the driver unhitched the lead horse and rode ahead, where he happened to encounter me and my men while we were on exercise in the countryside. We were able to pick up Turpin’s trail while it was still warm, and it led here. His horse’s shoes’ – and here he picked up one of Black Bess’s feet so he could show me – ‘have quite an unusual nail pattern, so we had no difficulty tracking him.’

I nodded glumly, greatly disliking what I was hearing.

‘Perhaps you are mistaken, all the same, Captain,’ I said. ‘Perhaps it was some other man’s trail you picked up. I don’t think the man I saw was Dick Turpin.’

He laughed. ‘Well, perhaps you’re right,’ he said. ‘But we shall soon find out, shan’t we? All we need to do is wait until he returns for his horse, and then we shall know.’

‘And my part in it, Captain?’ I said miserably, although I had already guessed.

‘Your part is to do exactly what you are doing now. To stand here with Black Bess and wait for her owner to return. Meanwhile my men and I shall be hiding around the area, and when Mr Turpin comes, we shall spring out and arrest him.’

I was mortified, and still trying to get poor Dick Turpin out of this mess. ‘Perhaps it won’t work, Captain,’ I said. ‘I’ve heard it said that Dick Turpin can smell a soldier a mile off by the kind of dubbin you all use on your boots.’

The captain laughed again. ‘He will return,’ he said, ‘because what would Dick Turpin be without Black Bess?’ He patted
the mare again. ‘Where would he find another horse half as fast and as loyal and as brave?’