Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 41: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PROGRESS Bunyan arguing vociferously in the sum- mer-house. No doubt, comprehending none of the argument or its nature, she believed the king was even then betrayed by her indis- cretion. No wonder she tried to throw sand in John’s eyes when she discovered he did not know the king. No wonder she, thought better about being frank with John Bunyan and asking his assistance. The scene in the bower, too, between Joyee and the king. Ah, that was now damnably clear. Charles, the gay irre- spemsible, peri} in abeyance for the mo- ment, was again himself. Smitten by the charms of his young hostess, he would add her to the rather lengthy list of his favosed fair. Poor Joyce! troubles. | First, there was Jonas Shythey. No mat- tery in what othes way she might be in volved with that turncoat, there was the danger of the man’s discovering (if he was net already aware of} the king’s presence at Eveleigh Manor. If he already knew. to what end was the spy withholding his knowledge from Cromwell? Was he hop- ing to use his information as a weapon against Joyce, a .weapon!of coercion to something he required of her, the same thing to which he had possibly tried to co- eree her by the fear of death for witch- craft? Then there was the king. Now, I un- derstood the forced smile and patient tol- erance with which she received his gallan- tries in the bower. How could she have acted otherwise? He was the king, she his subject and hostess, and but a poor maid thrown upon her own resources in the sit- yation. The wonder is that she held him off so ably. Fn truth she had need of a good knight, as I had offered to be. But now I knew that in taking my promise to secrecy—a promise which involved me in a nice dt lemena—she had given me one in return which she need never fulfil if she did not choos¢ to. And she would never choose to summon her knight against her king! So long as I did nothing on my side, the king might remain at Eveleigh Manor in She was hemmed in by OF J. BUNYAN. 323 © perfect safety and security, granting that Bunyan or Slythey did not spill the fat in the fire. Rather than that should happen, or that, on the other hand, the king should remain at the manor to annoy my sweet mistress with his unwelcome gallantries, I would— { Well? What would I do? What could I do? What was I to do? It was my honor as a soldier against my promised word as a gentleman. Clearly I ‘might take my own release from that promise given under a false conception of the facts, and have the king taken bodily from that house. But—I shrank from the consequences to her, amd between me and her. If I could only ask advice of John Bun- yan. Brut that would involve han in my own dilemma if, as I suspected, he was as yet quite unknowing that it was the kmg with whom he had argued. No! I must solve the problem alone, and acquit myself on both horns of the di- lemma; for, mark you, I did not propose to have my honor foresworn for love of any woman—even Mistress foyee! The fact that many men have done it—and bitterly regretted it—was mot in nry mind just then, either. I applied my wits to finding a way out of the situation confronting me. | . From the generally disheveled appear- ance of the king I surmised he was’at pres- ent without attendants, armed or unarmed. To have attendants in the fox-game he was playing would be out of the question. Therefore, he must be alone in that heuse with two women and that seventy- year-old man servant. The thought that the king was depend- /ing for safety on secrecy as to his where- abouts, a seerecy which would not have been possible with a strong body-guard, presently suggested an idea—a. daring idea —a plan which, if executed, would solve my double problem. Why not capture the king single-hauded? If I, without any confidant or assistant, could remove the king from that house, it showld be no great strain upon conscience to place his capture elsewhere, and thus re- lieve Mistress Joyce from the charge of ua lal ONS Ommh : OO) S C@ THE OHIO STATE U “Reo Y