THE SEARCH COMMENCED.
Papa wrote several times in the fortnight following the funeral of Mr.
Harmer to Robert Gregory, in answer to his letters inquiring what
progress he was making towards the discovery of the will. At the end of
that time I received a letter from Sophy, and from the handwriting I
could see how ill and shaken she must be. Her letter was very, very
pitiful; she was still evidently suffering the greatest remorse and
sorrow for the death of Mr. Harmer, and she said "she was sure she
should never have recovered at all had she not received the news of the
forgiveness he had written to her before he died." It had been a
dreadful shock to her; but she accepted the loss of her fortune as a
deserved punishment for her wicked conduct. "My husband," she said, "is
very kind indeed to me; and it is on my account entirely that he regrets
the loss of the fortune, as he says that my listening to him has been my
ruin." If the will was not found shortly, he intended to get something
to do, and she meant to try to get some pupils for music. She begged me
to write to her, for that I was the only person she could hope to be a
friend to her now.
Of course I answered her letter, and from that time we kept up an
occasional correspondence.
Papa told me that in his early letters to him, Robert Gregory had
expressed his determination to discover the will at all hazards, but
that he had now, to a certain extent, acquiesced in papa's view, that an
unsuccessful attempt would be certain to prove the signal for the
instant destruction of the will, and that therefore nothing should be
attempted unless success was pretty certain. Robert Gregory was the more
obliged to acquiesce in this decision, as far as he was personally
concerned, for he was unable to appear in Canterbury, as he would have
been arrested if he had done so.
We returned from Ramsgate, as we had agreed upon, about a fortnight
after the funeral. Harry having already left for the North, papa would
still further have postponed our return; but I said it would be very
unpleasant whenever we returned, and we might as well go through it
sooner as later.
Indeed, I got through the next fortnight better than I had expected.
Every one, of course, came to call; but by that time people had heard
pretty well all there was to tell,--namely, that the will was
missing,--so that all I had to do was to receive their condolences.
Almost all were, I believe, sincerely sorry for us, and every one
remarked what an extraordinary business it was; indeed, popular opinion
was strongly against the Misses Harmer, whom every one accused of having
hidden the will. However, papa and I were careful never by any remarks
of ours to appear to confirm these suspicions, as it was evidently our
best policy to keep quiet, and let the matter seem to drop.
In the meanwhile I had commenced taking steps towards what was now our
only hope, the discovery of the "priest's chamber."
The day after I returned from Ramsgate, I went round the garden to see
how things were looking after my long absence, and I found our servant
Andrew--who acted in the general capacity of coachman, groom, and
gardener, having a boy under him to assist in all these labours--busy
banking up some long rows of celery, an article on which he particularly
prided himself. Andrew had been in papa's service a great many years,
and papa would not have parted with him on any account. He was a very
faithful, attached old man. When I say old man, I believe he was not
more than seven or eight and forty; but he looked much older: his face
was pinched and weatherbeaten, he stooped very much, walked with a
short, quick, shuffling step, and looked as if he were momentarily on
the point of falling. This was not to be wondered at, for he had never,
as long as I can remember, had any legs to speak of; and now there did
not seem to be the least flesh upon them. They looked, as Harry once
said, exactly like a pair of very crooked mop-sticks; and as he always
dressed in drab breeches and gaiters to match, it showed the
extraordinary thinness of his legs to the greatest advantage. Andrew,
however, had not the least idea but that he was an active, able man;
and, indeed, would sometimes in confidence lament to me,--
"Master going out in wet, cold nights to visit patients."
"But it is much worse for you than for him, Andrew," I would urge; "you
are outside all in the wet, while he is inside in shelter."
"Lor', Miss Agnes, it is no account along of me. I am a young man by the
side of master. He must be nigh fifteen years older than I am."
And so he was; but papa was a hale, active man, whereas poor Andrew
looked as if a strong wind would blow him off his seat on the box. Even
when he was at his best, and came to papa when we first went to
Canterbury, and he was only thirty, I have heard papa say that he never
had been at all strong; and yet he was so willing, and careful, and
indefatigable, that papa put a great value on him.
Andrew ceased from working among the celery when I came up, and,
touching his hat to me, inquired how I had been all this longtime.
"Bad doings at Harmer Place, Miss," he said, after a few remarks about
the weather, the garden, and the horses.
"Are there, Andrew?" I asked; "anything new?"
"Very bad, Miss; half the servants have had notice to leave. There's my
Mary, who has been there three years last Michaelmas, and who your papa
was kind enough to recommend there as housemaid--she's got warning, and
she came to me last night as savage as ever was; not because she was
going to leave, miss--don't go to think such a thing; but she wanted to
have given warning at once, when we found that Miss Harmer had hid away
the will, and cheated you all out of your money. But I said to her,
'Don't you go to do nothing in a hurry, Mary; the will is hid away, and
you may be useful somehow in watching what they two old cats--saving
your presence, Miss Agnes--is up to. At any rate, you wait.' And now
she's got warning to go, and she's as savage as may be that she did not
have the first word. Didn't she let on to me last night though, till her
mother up and told her to sit down and hold her tongue; but it were
enough to aggravate the girl, surely."
"I am sorry to hear that she will have to leave, Andrew, both for her
own sake and because she might, as you say, have been useful to us in
making a few inquiries."
"That's just what I said to my son Thomas last night when Mary came in
with the news; but he said that it did not matter so much on that
account, because his Sarah's not got warning to leave, and she will find
out everything that is wanted."
"And who is your son Thomas's Sarah?" I asked, smiling.
"She is the under-housemaid, Miss; and she used to go out walks with
Mary on her Sunday evenings out. Thomas, he used to go out to meet his
sister, and so met Sarah too; at last he goes to meet her more than
Mary, and, I suppose, one of these days they will get married. She is
one of the few that are to stay, Miss, for most of the old ones are
going because they don't mean to keep so many servants, and they have
got some new ones coming. All those who are going were recommended to
Mr. Harmer by Master; and they seem to have picked them out a-purpose.
Now Sarah was not; she came from the other end of the county, and was
recommended to Mr. Harmer by some lady last year, at the time of all
those grand doings over there; and as they don't know that her young man
Thomas is my son, seeing he is in service in another place, they have
not given her warning to go."
"And do you think, Andrew, that Sarah would be willing to do anything to
help us?"
"Lor' bless you, Miss, she would do anything for you; she said the other
day she would, and that she did not care whether she lost her place or
not; she did not want to stop with thieves. Oh, you may depend on her,
Miss."
"Well, Andrew, do you think I could get her to come here and have a talk
with me quietly?"
"Sure enough, Miss Agnes. To-day is Friday. On Sunday evening she goes
out, and will walk into town with Mary--and for the matter of that, with
Tom too--and she can very well come here; no one will know her in the
dark, and so she will be quite safe."
Accordingly, on Sunday evening our maid came in to say that Andrew's
daughter, Mary, and another young woman, were in the hall, and would be
glad to see me. And so Mary and Thomas's Sarah were shown in. Mary I
knew well; indeed she had learnt her work with us as under-housemaid
before she went to Mr. Harmer's. She was a stout, well-made, active
girl, with a good-natured honest face, but I should have had some
hesitation in entrusting any delicate and difficult task to her.
Thomas's Sarah, I felt at once, had tact and intelligence sufficient for
my purpose, and I was sure that I could trust her, and that she would do
exactly for what I required.
Thomas had certainly shown good taste in his selection, for his Sarah
was a very pretty little girl,--a slight active figure, a bright clear
complexion, brown hair waving back off her forehead, a cheerful smile,
large speaking eyes with a little touch of sauciness in them--which I
fancied would sometimes vex and puzzle Thomas, who was a steady
matter-of-fact young groom, not a little--and a very prettily cut nose
and mouth. I was altogether very much taken with her appearance.
I asked them to take seats, and Sarah at once began:--
"Miss Ashleigh, I am told by"--and here she paused a little, coloured,
and ended by telling a story and saying--"Mary, that I could be of
service to you. I can only say that I shall be glad to do so by any
means in my power; we are all at Harmer Place very sorry at your losing
your rights, and should rejoice to see you restored to them."
Sarah expressed herself so well that I was really quite surprised. I
thanked her for her offer, and said, "You can, indeed, do us a service
which may turn out of great importance. Now I do not disguise from you,
it will cost you your place if you are discovered; but I need not say
that we will take care that you shall be no loser by that. Now I will at
once tell you how we stand at present, and what we want to find out. We
know, or at least are nearly sure, that the will exists, and that it is
with some other papers large enough to fill a good-sized box. Now we
strongly believe that this box is hidden away in a secret room we know
to exist in the house; and what we want to find out is, where is that
secret room? It must be a pretty good size--I mean much larger than a
mere closet--because we know people used to lay hid there in old times."
Sarah nodded, as much as to say that she had heard legends of the
"priest's chamber." "Now, Sarah, the first thing we want to discover is
the whereabouts of this room--and this can only be done in one way. I
want the exact dimensions--that is to say, the measure, the height,
length, and breadth, of every room, passage, closet, and staircase in
the old part of the house; because as this room existed in the old time,
it is only in the central part of the house, which was the original
building, that the secret chamber need be looked for. When I have got
all these measurements, and put them all down upon paper, I shall see
where there is a space to fill up. Do you understand?"
Sarah did not quite understand; so I got a sheet of paper, drew a rough
plan of a house, and explained the matter more fully.
Sarah understood now, and at once entered into it with all her heart.
"You see," I said, "we want the exact position of the doors, windows,
and chimneys. Here is a small pocket-book and pencil: take one page for
each room; mark down first in this way, the extreme length and breadth,
then the positions of the doors and windows thus, and put 'in small
figures' their distances from each other."
I then showed her a small plan of Harmer Place, which I had drawn from
my recollection of it, and Sarah understood perfectly what she had to
do.
"Make a notch the length of a yard on the handle of your broom," I said,
"and measure the exact length of the bottom of your apron. With your
broom you can get the height of the room, and with your apron the other
measurements, so that you will be able to get all the sizes; and even if
you are disturbed, no one would have the slightest idea of what you are
doing."
I then asked her to measure the room we were in, and to make a little
sort of plan of it, and I found her so quick and intelligent, that I
felt certain she would execute her task with sufficient accuracy to
enable us to find out where the secret room was situated.
The two girls then took their leave, and I really felt strong hope in
the success of my plan--not indeed that it was mine, for it was Harry's
idea entirely, and I only gave her the instructions he had previously
given me.
After this, a small packet arrived every week, sent by Sarah, through
Thomas, to his father, containing seven or eight leaves of the
pocket-book.
In little more than a month we had all the measurements, and were
enabled to make out the entire plan, in doing which, of course our
previous knowledge of the house assisted us greatly. Papa assisted me in
this. I had not, at first, told him anything of what I was doing, as I
wished that, in case by any chance my scheme was detected, he should be
able to say that he knew nothing about it. At last, however, I was
obliged to let him into the secret, and when I told him, he was very
much interested and pleased; and I do not think that I should ever have
succeeded in putting the parts together, and certainly have never
arrived at any accurate conclusion, without his assistance.
When it was done, we found the blank space precisely where we had
anticipated that we should do. It is difficult to explain the exact
position, but I will endeavour to do so.
On entering the house, from the front, one found oneself in a large
square hall, from one side of which the library opened, and from the
other the dining-room. Opposite to the front door was an immense
fireplace, in which still stood two large iron dogs, and in which in
winter a great wood fire always blazed; on one side of this fireplace,
the grand staircase went up, and on the other a passage led down to a
room which had originally been a drawing-room, but which, from its
windows being at the back of the house, had been long since turned into
a kitchen; the fireplace of this room stood back to back to the one in
the hall. It was in the block contained in the square formed by the
backs of the kitchen and hall, the staircase and the passage, that we
came to the conclusion that the secret room must be, for, even allowing
for immense thickness of masonry, there was yet a large space
unaccounted for. On the floor above there was also a space, directly
over this, considerably larger than would have been required for the
chimneys of the hall and kitchen fire, even had there been two of
them--which there were not, for Sarah found that the chimney of the hall
made almost a right angle, and ran into the kitchen chimney.
Papa, after going very carefully into the measurements, came to the
conclusion that the room itself was situated nearly over the hall
fireplace; that it might be some seven or eight feet long, by five or
six wide, and that it could be little over six feet high. He thought it
was approached by some short staircase opening into the hall fireplace,
or into one of the bedrooms above, which abutted on the vacant space on
that floor. One of these rooms had been occupied by Herbert Harmer, and
the other had been, and was still, Miss Harmer's room.
Indeed papa suspected both entrances to exist, as by them, in case of
necessity, provisions could be so much more readily and secretly
supplied, and escape made in some disguise from the one exit, should an
entrance be forcibly made at the other.
"All this is mere guesswork, my dear; but when there is so much ground
to go upon as we have got, one can guess very closely indeed to the
truth."
"And where should you think, papa, that the entrance is most likely to
be discovered?"
"Most likely in the hall fireplace. The back and sides, if I remember
right, are formed of iron, with rude ornaments upon it. The mantelpiece,
too, is of old oak, and is covered with carving; undoubtedly in some of
all this the secret spring is concealed. The hall is the best place to
try for another reason; early in the morning, and at various times
indeed, Sarah might search among all these ornaments and knobs for the
spring, and if any one came suddenly into the hall, her presence there
would appear only natural; whereas in either of the bedrooms, and
especially that of Mr. Harmer, which is not now in use, she could hardly
be often without exciting suspicion."
Sarah came on the following Saturday evening, and I showed her the plan
we had made, and explained to her where we thought the entrance was, and
how she was most likely to find the secret spring.
Sarah was much pleased with the success which had so far attended her
efforts, and promised to find the spring if it existed. She said she
would get up half an hour before the other servants, and try every knob
and roughness on or near the grate.
However, week after week rolled on, and every Saturday came a message,
"No result;" and the week before Christmas she sent to say she had tried
every possible place, but could not find any signs of it. I sent back in
answer to ask her to try all the stones and bricks as far up the chimney
as she could reach.
With Christmas, Polly came home from school, and this time to stop for
good, for papa could not very well afford to keep her at so expensive a
school as Grendon House; and indeed we wanted her bright face and happy
laugh back again among us. Papa's practice was not very lucrative; it
was a large, but not a good-paying one. A great proportion of it lay
among the lower classes; in any serious cases among them he was always
ready to give his time and skill. Indeed for the last three years, since
there was an apparent certainty that we should be all so handsomely
provided for, papa had purposely given up much of his paying practice.
Many among the upper classes have the habit of calling in a medical man
on the slightest pretext, and like him, indeed, to call regularly, and
have an hour's chat on all sorts of subjects; this time papa could not
spare, and indeed I know that he said to two or three of his very best
patients,--
"You have nothing serious the matter with you. All you want is a little
occasional medicine, and a good chat of a day to do you good and cheer
you up; this I have no time to give you, when I have half a dozen dying
people waiting anxiously for me. Send to Harper; he is a clever fellow;
knows all about everything; will amuse you more than I do. He has a
large family, and your money will be of use to him. If you get seriously
ill, and want me, I will of course come to you."
So papa had gradually withdrawn himself from much of his paying
practice; he had still an income sufficient to keep us comfortably, but
it was not nearly what it had been four or five years before. However,
he was quite content to work as he did, giving his skill and time to
those who most required but were least able to pay for them.
Harry came home, too, a little before Christmas. He had finished his
last piece of work, and had now obtained an appointment of L150 a year
to superintend a railway in the course of construction in the north of
Ireland.
The evening after Christmas Day I received a note from Sarah, saying,
that that morning, she had, in feeling up the chimney, found a
projecting knob immediately behind the mantelpiece; that on pressing
this it went into the wall, and that every time it did so, she could
hear a click, but that she could not find that anything else moved.
"Hurrah, Sarah!" Harry shouted when I read the note aloud; "we are on
the right track. 'The king shall enjoy his own again!'" he sang in his
stentorian way.
"I really do begin to think we are on the track," papa said. "You must
tell Sarah that no doubt there is some other spring which must be
pressed either together or before or after this; for generally there
were two springs to these old hiding-places, in case one should be
touched accidentally."
This I told Sarah, who came on the next Sunday evening to see me. She
had rather began to despair before; but now that she had found something
tangible she became quite enthusiastic, and said that she was determined
to find the other spring if she were years engaged in the search. She
was now certain that we were right, that the secret chamber existed, and
that the entrance was there, of neither of which facts had she been
quite sure in her own mind before.