Highway Robbery Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t coming down. My heart filled with fury at the way I had been used. Did he really think that he could treat me like that? Keep me standing around all day and night and then just send me on my way without so much as a sixpence? I yanked my arm away and kicked out at him as hard as I could. I missed him by a mile, but as my leg returned, my heel slammed hard into Black Bess’s flank. And, noblest of mares, she didn’t need tobe asked twice. She spun away from my heel and lit out along the street as though the devil was after her. Lord knows how I stayed in the saddle, but now that we were moving I clung on to her mane as tight as I could, knowing that my life might very well depend upon it.

    It’s a good thing that horses see better in the dark than people do, because I had no idea where we were going. Black Bess did, though, and her feet were sure and safe as she splashed through the muck and ice. Soon I could tell by the smell of the air that we had left the city behind and entered the countryside beyond. Still the mare galloped on, showing no sign of tiring. I very much wished she would.

    I had no idea whether the soldiers were in pursuit, but I had another serious problem which might prove even more dangerous to me than them. The cloak, DickTurpin’s wonderful warm black cloak, was streaming out behind me just as it had streamed behind him when he galloped into town the previous day.
    How he arranged it I have no idea, but I am sure it wasn’t throttling him the way it was now throttling me. And because I was no rider I didn’t dare lift a hand from my grip on the mare’s mane in case I tumbled off the side on to the unseen road rushing past beneath us. The reins were there somewhere, flapping against her neck and the backs of my hands, but it was going torequire a huge leap of faith for me to try and grab them.
    Unless I did, though, I would be strangled by Dick Turpin’s cloak, and it seemed like a particularly stupid way to die, given all that I had gone through. So I took one hand from Black Bess’s mane and groped about in the wind that was whistling past her neck, until I felt the cold, greasy leather of the rein, and clutched at it.
    Being a rider yourself, sir – and a fine one, I dare say – you will know better than to haul on one rein while leaving the other to dangle free. Had I been stronger it is likely that I would have brought Black Bess down, and myself along withher in a heap in the mud. But as it was I only succeeded in turning her off the road and into a grove of trees, where she was obliged to come to a very rapid stop. Naturally I went straight over her head and landed in a bramble patch, with the black cloak settling on top of me.

    And I was still trying to disentangle myself from that muddle when I heard the thunder of hooves on the road behind us, as the king’s captain and his troop of soldiers went flying past.
    Yet again trying to capture someone who wasn’t there.

C HAPTER T WELVE
    SO THAT’S MY story, sir. And I don’t know how you would feel about it, but it seems to me that the mare is rightfully mine. She was left in my care, you see, and the man who owned her is due to be hanged very shortly,as I’m sure you will have heard, and he has no use for her now.

    It did cross my mind to take up where Dick Turpin left off, and to pursue the highwayman’s trade. But I’m small, sir, as you can see, and I can’t imagine coachmen or travellers paying much attention to me, especially since Dick Turpin took his saddlebag with him and left me with no pistol.
    So that’s why I’m offering her for sale, sir, because I’m a poor city lad and can’t afford to keep a horse. The cloak too, if you were interested, though it wouldn’t come cheap because of its fascinating history.

    Yes, I’ve heard the same thing myself, sir; that there are other people out there claiming to be in possession of Black Bess and offering her for sale. All I can say tothat is: see for yourself.