# VI: The Flight in the Pine Wood explained — The Splendid Spur

> Chapter companion for The Splendid Spur by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/vi-the-flight-in-the-pine-wood
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters