The Splendid Spur · Chapter
VI: The Flight in the Pine Wood explained
Sir Deakin Killigrew uses a clever ruse to distract Captain Settle and his drunken crew, setting the punch bowl ablaze to allow his daughter Delia, the narrator, and Jacques to escape.
What happens
Sir Deakin Killigrew uses a clever ruse to distract Captain Settle and his drunken crew, setting the punch bowl ablaze to allow his daughter Delia, the narrator, and Jacques to escape. They flee through a field and into a pine wood, pursued by Settle's men. The narrator is wounded in the knee by a bullet, but Delia binds the wound. Sir Deakin's strength fails, and he dies from a lung hemorrhage in the snow at dawn.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Truth
Sir Deakin's clever ruse with the punch bowl and lamp deceives Captain Settle, allowing the group to escape.
Love and Sacrifice
Delia binds the narrator's wound and cares for her father, showing selfless devotion.
War and Its Cost
Sir Deakin's death from a lung hemorrhage highlights the physical toll of the conflict.
Characters to notice
- Jack Marvel
The narrator; wounded in the knee by Black Dick's bullet; helps Delia and Sir Deakin escape; discovers Sir Deakin dead at dawn.
- Delia Killigrew
Sir Deakin's daughter; assists in the escape; binds the narrator's wound; keeps watch at dawn; discovers her father's death.
- Sir Deakin Killigrew
Devises the trick with the punch bowl; leads the escape; suffers from a cough and dies of a lung hemorrhage in the pine wood.
- Luke Settle
Captain of the gang; enters the room with his men; is tricked by Sir Deakin and burned by the flaming punch.
- Reuben Gedges
One of Settle's men; passes close to the hiding narrator in the ditch; later called away to save horses from the stable fire.
- Dick
Black Dick; fires the bullet that wounds the narrator's knee.
Key passages
“With a swift pass of the hand, the old gentleman caught up the lamp and had shaken a drop of burning oil into the bowl. A great blaze leap'd to the ceiling.”
Sir Deakin quickly tipped the lamp, letting a drop of burning oil fall into the punch bowl, which burst into a large flame.
Key moment of deception and escape.
“I saw the moonlight glittering on his blade. A narrow, light-hair'd man he was, with a weak chin: and since then I have paid him out for the fright he gave us.”
The narrator identifies Reuben Gedges by his appearance and later takes revenge for the scare.
Foreshadows future confrontation.
“Sir Deakin's face was pale and calm: but on the snow that had gather'd by his head, lay a red streak of blood. 'Twas from his lungs, and he was quite dead.”
Sir Deakin died peacefully from a lung hemorrhage, leaving a trail of blood on the snow.
Climactic death scene.