I must have made some little noise at the door, trying to get in. At any
rate, Ephraim, who was waiting for such a signal, came forward with a
churlish glee to rate me.
“So you're come back, Mr. Martin,” he said. “These are nice carryings-on
for a young gentleman.” I thought that I might as well be hanged for a
sheep as for a lamb. Ephraim's tone jarred me, so I told him to shut up,
as I didn't want any of his jaw. This rather staggered him, so I told
him further to open the boat-house, instead of standing like a stock,
as I wanted to moor the boat. He opened the door for me, glowering at me
moodily. “Mr. Hyde shall know of this,” he said when all was secured. He
caught me by the arm to drag me out of the boat-house; so I, expecting
this, rapped him shrewdly with the stretcher on the elbow. I thought for
a moment that he would beat me. I could see his face very fierce in the
dusk. I heard his teeth gritting. Then fear of my uncle restrained him.
All that he said was, “If I 'ad my way I'd 'ave it out of you for this.
A good sound whippin's what you want.”
“Is it?” I asked contemptuously. “Lock the door.”
Ephraim left me in the sitting-room while he made his report to my
uncle. It was not a long report. He returned in a few minutes to say
that I was to be locked into my room without supper. “Mr. 'Ide is in a
fine taking,” he said. “Per'aps 'e'll knock some of your pride out
of you.” I made no answer, but let him march me to my room, to the
execution of the sentence. “There,” he said, through the door, as he
turned the key on me. “Per'aps that'll bring you to your senses.”
“Ephraim the stiff-neck!” I answered loudly; “Old Ephraim Stiff-neck!
Stiff-neck!”
“Ah,” he answered, clumping down the corridor. He was thinking how small
I should sing when, in the morning, he gave me the option of apologizing
to him, or going without breakfast.
It was pretty dark by this time. Fish Lane was as quiet as a country
road. No one was stirring there. I thought that, as my uncle would
shortly go to supper, I might soon venture out by the window, high up
as it was, to buy myself some food in the town. I liked the notion; but
when I came to look down from the window it seemed a giddy height from
the pavement. Going down would be easy; but getting back would be quite
another matter. Thinking it over, I remembered that I had seen a short
gardener's ladder hooked to the garden wall. If I could make a rope, by
which to let myself down, I could, I thought, make use of this ladder
to get back by, for it would cover nearly half the height to my window
sill, a full thirty feet from the ground. If, by standing on the upper
rungs, could reach within five yards of the window, I knew that I should
be able to scramble up so far by a rope. There was no difficulty about a
rope. I had a good eighteen yards of choice stout rope there in the room
with me, the lashings of my two trunks. I was about to pay this out into
the lane, when I thought that would be far more effective if I fashioned
a ladder for myself, using the two trunk lashings as the uprights. This
was a glorious thought. I tied the lashings together behind the wooden
bed-post which was to be my support in midair. Then I rummaged out a
hank of sailor's spunyarn, a kind of very strong tarred string, with
which to make my steps, or rungs, did not do this very well, for I was
working in the dark, but you may be sure that I made those steps with
all my strength, since my bones were to depend upon them. I ran short of
spunyarn before I had finished, so my last three steps were made of the
fire-irons. They made a good finish to the whole; for, being heavy, they
kept the ladder steady. At least thought that they would keep the ladder
steady, in the innocence of my heart.
I was so excited, when I finished the tying of the tongs, that I almost
forgot to take some money from the little store which I kept locked up
in my trunk. A shilling would be ample, I thought; but I took rather
more than that, so as to be on the safe side. I took the precaution,
before leaving, of bolting my door from the inside, lest Ephraim should
visit me in my absence.
Then, having tested all my knots, I paid out my ladder from the window.
No one was within sight along the lane. Downstairs they were at supper,
for I heard the dining-room bell ring. Very cautiously I swung myself
over the window ledge on my adventure. Now a rope ladder is an unsteady
thing at the best of times; but when I swung myself on to this one it
jumped about like a wild colt, banging the fire-irons against the wall,
making noise enough to raise the town. I had to climb down it on the
inner side, or I should have had Ephraim out to see what the matter was.
Even so, my heart was in my mouth, with fright, as I stepped on to the
pavement. After making sure that no one saw, I hooked up the lower ends
of my ladder as far as I could reach, so that a passer-by might run less
chance of seeing them. Then I scuttled off to the delights of Eastcheap,
thinking what glorious sport I could have with this ladder in time to
come. I thought of the moonlight adventures on the river, skulking along
in my boat, like a pirate on a night attack. I thought how, perhaps, I
should overhear gangs of highwaymen making their plans, or robbers in
their dens, carousing after a victory. It seemed to me that London might
be a wonderful place, to one with such a means of getting out at night.
I ate a good supper at a cook-shop, sauntered about the streets for
awhile, then sauntered slowly home, after buying a tinder box, with
which to light my candies. I found my ladder dangling unnoticed, so I
nimbly climbed to my room, pulling it up after me, like the savages in
Polynesia. I lit my candles, intending to read; but I found that I was
far too well inclined to mischief to pay much heed to my book. Casting
about for something to do, I thought that I would open a little locked
door which led to some (apparently disused) room beyond my own. I had
some difficulty in breaking the lock of this door; but a naughty boy is
generally very patient. I opened it at last, with some misgivings as to
what my uncle might say on the morrow, though with the feeling that I
was a sort of conspirator, or, shall we say, a man haunting a house,
playing ghost, coming at night to his secret chamber. I was disappointed
with the room. Like my own room, it was nothing more than a long, bare
attic. It had a false floor, like many houses of the time, but there was
no thought of concealment here. Half a dozen of the long flooring planks
were stored in a stack against the wall, so that anyone could see what
lay in the hollow below. There was nothing romantic there. A long array
of docketed, ticketed bundles of receipts filled more than half the
space. I suppose that nearly every bill which my uncle had ever paid lay
there, gathering dust. The rest of the space was filled with Ephraim's
dirty old account books, jumbled higgledy-piggledy with collections of
printed, unbound sermons, such as used to be sold forty years before, in
the great Puritan time. I examined a few of the sermons, hoping to find
some lighter fare among them. I examined also a few of the old account
books, in the same hope. Other rubbish lay scattered in the corners
of the room; old mouse-eaten saddle-bags mostly. There were one or two
empty baskets, which had once been lined with silk. In one of them, I
can't think why, there was an old empty, dusty powder-horn, the only
thing in that room at all to my taste. I stuck it into my belt with a
scrap of spunyarn, feeling that it made me a wonderful piratical figure.
If I had had a lantern I should have been a very king there.
As I sat among the rubbish there, with my pistol (a sailmaker's fid) in
my belt, it occurred to me that I would sit up till everyone had gone
to bed. Then, at eleven or twelve o'clock, I would, I thought, creep
downstairs, to explore all over the house, down even to the cellars. It
shocked me when I remembered that I was locked in. I dared not pick the
lock of that door. My scheme (after all) would have to wait for another
night, when the difficulties would be less. That scheme of mine has
waited until the present time. Though I never thought it, that was the
last hour I was to spend in my uncle's house. I walked past it, only the
other day, thinking how strange my life has been, feeling sad, too, that
I should never know to what room a door at the end of the upper passage
led. Well, I never shall know, now. I was a wild, disobedient young
rogue. Read on.
When I decided not to pick the lock of my door I thought of the
mysterious Mr. Jermyn as an alternative excitement. I crept to my window
to look out at the house, watching it with a sort of terrified pleasure,
half expecting to see a ghost flapping his wings, outside the window.
I was surprised to see that the window of the upper floor (which I knew
to be uninhabited) was open. I watched it, (it was just opposite) hoping
that something would happen. Presently two men came quickly up the lane
from the river. As they neared the house they seemed to me to shuffle in
their walk rather more than vas necessary. It must have been a signal,
for, as they came opposite the door, I saw it swing back upon its
hinges, as it had swung that morning, with Mr. Jermyn. Both men entered
the house swiftly, just as the city churches, one after the other,
chimed half-past nine o'clock. Almost directly afterwards I got the
start of my life. I was looking into the dark upper room across the
lane, expecting nothing, when suddenly, out of the darkness, so terribly
that I was scared beyond screaming, two large red eyes glowed, over
a mouth that trembled in fire. I started back in my seat, sick with
fright, but I could not take my eyes away. I watched that horrid thing,
with my hair stiffening on my head. Then in the room below it, the
luminous figure of an owl gleamed out. That was not the worst, either. I
heard that savage, “chacking” noise which brown owls make when they are
perched. This great gleaming owl, five times greater than any earthly
owl, was making that chacking noise, as though it would soon spread its
wings, to swoop on some such wretched mouse as myself. I could see its
eyes roll. I thought I saw the feathers stiffen on its breast. Then,
as the sweat rolled down my face, both the horrible things vanished as
suddenly as they had appeared. They were gone for more than a minute,
then they appeared again, only to disappear a second time. They were
exactly alike at each appearance. Soon my horror left me, for I saw that
the things disappeared at regular intervals. I found that I could time
each reappearance by counting ninety slowly from the instant the things
vanished. That calmed me. “I believe they're only clock-work,” I said to
myself. A moment later I saw Mr. Jermyn's head in sharp outline against
the brightness of the owl. He seemed to be fixing something with his
hand. It made me burst into a cackle of laughter, to find how easily
I had been scared. “Why, it's only clock-work,” I said aloud. “They're
carved turnips with candles inside them, fixed to a revolving pole, like
those we used to play with at Oulton, on the 5th of November.” My fear
was gone in an instant. I thought to myself how fine it would be if I
could get into that house, to stop the works, in revenge for the scare
they had given me. I wondered how I could do that.