"
[Illustration: Humphrey Half Turning in His Saddle Saw the Priest]
CHAPTER XXIII
The pace at which Walter Skinner had left Dunstable for London he kept
up for some two miles, when he slackened his rein at the bidding of his
half-drunken fancy.
"I be for London town," he said to himself with a serious look. "And
other men than I have been there before now. Yea, verily, and have got
them safe home again into the bargain. But not so will I do. For in
London will I bide, either till the king make a duke of me or till I
become the Lord Mayor. For I be resolved to rise in the world. And the
first step toward it is to be resolved; yea, and to be determined; and
to look Dame Fortune full in the face and to say to her, 'Play no
tricks on me.'"
By this time he was come up with a belated carrier who, since his cart
was empty and he upon his return journey, dared to be upon the road at
night. There was no moon, and in the starlight Walter Skinner could see
but imperfectly. "And who art thou?" he demanded loftily, "that thou
shouldest creak and rumble along over the road and block the way of a
rising man? The sun doth rise, and why not I? Only the sun riseth not
in the middle of the night, and neither will I.
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