running the rope through his hands, till he got hold of the free end, he
fastened it round his waist and then began to climb.
It would have been easy enough getting from bough to bough, which stood
straight out, and was facile for one who mounted as if he were going up
a ladder; but there was the rope, which kept catching and the noise it
made as he had to shake and snatch to free it in its passage amongst the
lower branches.
But he persevered, and climbed and climbed with his task growing
lighter, the branches thinner, and he found himself right up the grand
old tree, which towered above the roof, leaving him now on a level with
the window from which he had lowered himself.
Godfrey paused, breathless, with one arm round a horizontal branch to
rest himself a little and listen; but all was still, and, untying the
rope from about his waist, he passed it round the tree, a comparatively
easy task now, for, embracing the trunk, his hands touched, and directly
after he was hauling upon the rope, had drawn it tight, so tight that it
was pretty well horizontal, when, passing it round the trunk again, he
knotted it firmly, forming a spider line ready for him to creep along to
his sanctuary in the roof.
It required a little nerve, but the lad was desperate, and, trusting to
his knots at either end being firm, he took hold of the rope, let his
feet glide down, and then began to travel hand over hand, swinging more
and more till his feet ceased to touch the nearest, boughs, when,
throwing them up, he hooked first one leg and then the other over the
giving rope, and, relieving the weight upon his arms, began to creep
more quickly over the ten or fifteen yards which separated the
tree-trunk from the house.
The rope, in spite of his efforts to tighten it, formed a deep bow as he
went along, easily at first, but with the difficulty increasing as the
depth of the curve was passed, and the latter part was somewhat of a
climb.
But almost before he could realise it, he was passing through the window
with his eyes closed, and his first intimation of the success of his
scheme was given by his right hand touching the knot which attached the
rope to the attic beam.
Dropping his feet to the floor, and trembling violently with excitement
and exertion, the lad took a step to the window and peered out,
listening; but all was still, and, taking his knife from his pocket, he
felt for, and mounted the stool again, sawed through the rope, and,
twisting it up till he had it tight from the tree, he leaned out, pulled
hard once more so as to get the spring of the fir, and then threw it
with all his might.
There was a faint rustle as, helped by the bend given to the upper part
of the trunk, the rope left his hand and fell amongst the needle-covered
boughs, and then, closing the window, the lad, panting more from
excitement than exertion, crept to the door and listened till, making
sure that he heard Waller's step below, he rushed to the bed, dragged
down the clothes, sprang in, drew them up to his chin, and then, with
his face to the wall, lay with closed eyes, striving hard to subdue the
heaving of his breast.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
A REPRIMAND.
Godfrey, as it happened, had time for his excitement to calm down, for,
after listening intently for Waller's foot upon the last flight of
stairs, one of which always gave out a now familiar crack, he found that
he had allowed his imagination to invent, for he had not heard his
companion coming up. In fact, a good ten minutes elapsed, during which
the silence was profound, and, growing hotter than ever, lying there
beneath the clothes, fully dressed, and after going through a great deal
of exertion, the listener half raised himself to get out, either to
undress or to sit down calmly and wait.
He was hesitating which to do, when there now came that unmistakable
crack which made him nestle down in the bed again, and draw the clothes
to his chin, just as there was the sharp rattle of the key in the door.
This was flung open, and Waller sprang in, to dash through the darkness
and thrust his head out of the window and look down into the gloom
beneath. Drawing back directly, he faced inwards.
"Godfrey," he whispered sharply, "where are you? Are you there?"
There was no reply.
"Do you hear?" whispered Waller, a little more loudly. "Where are you?
What have you been up to?"
Still no reply, and the boy crossed quickly to place his hand upon the
bed, and say, in an excited whisper as if relieved by what he had
found--
"Oh, you are here. I thought you had gone. You can't be asleep. Why
don't you speak? There," he cried, loudly now, "you are shamming!" For
his hands had been travelling over the clothes. "Why, you are dressed!
There, out you come!" And catching hold of the coverlet, he stripped
everything right down to the foot.
Startled at this unexpected action, Godfrey sprang up, and, with hands
rapidly following the gliding clothes, he seized them, threw himself
back, and dragged them up to his chin again.
"There, I knew you were shamming! What game have you been up to?"
"Eh? What?" faltered the lad, trying to speak as if he were confused.
"Is anything the matter? Have the soldiers come?"
"No," cried Waller hotly, "but I have. There, it's no use to try and
keep up that sham. What have you been doing? You may just as well
confess. There, you have got your boots on, too. You have not been
doing that for nothing."
"What do you mean?"
"That you are trying to hide something, and you only got into bed to
hide it when you heard me coming. What have you been doing?"
"What have I been doing?"
"Yes. I know."
Godfrey was silent.
"I did trust you. Thought you wouldn't attempt to do anything without
confiding in me. You have been trying to do, something with the rope."
"Well," said Godfrey sourly, "suppose I have! What then? And how did
you know?"
"How did I know? Why, I was just taking a walk round outside, and I
thought I'd have a look up at your window, and I don't know how it was,
but I seemed to have a fancy that you had been striking a light, and had
got a candle burning; and that meant for one of the servants to see,
perhaps Joe Hanson, when they all knew that I was downstairs. You
didn't do such a mad thing, did you?"
"No, of course not," said Godfrey sulkily.
"Then what did you do?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean? What made you throw a rope out of the window so that
the end of it hit me right across the head? What rope was it? How came
you by it? Oh!" The boy dashed to the great press, pulled out one of
the lower drawers, and thrust in his hand. "I thought so! You have
been getting out that coil to fasten it to the window, and let it slip."
Godfrey was silent.
"Do you know the end of that hit me right across the head when you
dropped it?"
Still no answer.
"How I could have been so stupid as to let you see, I don't know. Why,
you meant to go off on the sly by yourself. Were you going to run right
away?"
"No," replied Godfrey. "There, I'll tell you. I couldn't bear it any
longer. It was so dreadful being shut up, and I only wanted to go and
have a walk in the woods. I meant to come up again."
"And you let the rope slip, and lost it. Lucky for you. Do you know
what it meant? You being strange to this place, and not knowing which
way to go, either losing yourself in the dark, or else blundering into
the village, where you would have been seen by some one. Why, the
chances are that you would have blundered up against Joe Hanson, who
generally goes round of a night seeing that the fowls are all right and
no fox about after the ducks. I call it too bad, Godfrey, when I have
been trying so hard to keep you safe until we can hear that the soldiers
are gone. Now, I say, why don't you confide in me as you should? Don't
you believe in me?"
"Yes, thoroughly," said Godfrey, sadly, as he stretched out his hand in
Waller's direction, touched him on the arm, and began to slide his
fingers down till they touched his hand; but Waller shrank away.
"You don't trust me," he said, "and I shan't trust you."
"There, I'll confess all about it," said the lad, in a low, husky tone.
"I know now it was half-mad of me, but I couldn't bear the silence and
loneliness any more. I felt that I must go and breathe the fresh night
air somehow, and so I fastened the rope and slid down and went and had a
walk. It was after I had got back again," he continued hurriedly,
feeling too shamefaced to relate all the facts, "that I threw the rope
out of the window; and then you came up suddenly, and I felt so guilty
that I pretended I had gone to bed."
"Just like a naughty little boy who knew that he had done something
wrong," said Waller bitterly. "I wouldn't have believed that a young
fellow like you, almost a man, would have acted like a child."
"Don't be hard on me, Waller. You don't know what I suffered. You
can't think what it is to be a prisoner like this."
"No, and I can't think what made you act as you did. I can't understand
how you managed to climb up again. But why did you chuck the rope out
of the window? You couldn't have heard me coming then."
"No," said Godfrey; and then it all came out.
"Oh," said Waller, "of course that was a white owl; but it was just as I
told you. Old Joe does make a snoring sort of noise when he has been
walking fast or mowing, and he was prowling round before he went back to
the cottage, and looking to see if Bella had shut all the windows. He's
rather fond of catching her out in forgetting them, and then he comes
and tells tales, and they quarrel. Joe has got pretty sharp eyes, and
you must have sat there squat or else he'd have seen you. Well, I
suppose I must forgive you, but you had a very narrow escape. Do you
know what this means?"
"Yes; as you say, that you will forgive me, and we are going to be
friends again."
"Yes, but something more. That I must be up before daybreak, go to the
tool-house for a rake, and smooth over your footsteps in the long bed
under the windows, and after that, get up the old fir-tree and pull down
the rope. I almost wonder that you didn't break your neck. You must
have been half-mad, old fellow."
"Yes," said Godfrey, with a sigh, "I must indeed."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
THE SEARCH.
Godfrey started up from a deep sleep, to see it was morning with the sun
shining brightly, and that the birds were singing, while Waller was
standing by his bedside smiling at him as he looked at him wonderingly,
and apparently quite confused.
"Come, old fellow, wake up," said Waller. "I have been up two hours."
"Up two hours! I--there's nothing wrong, is there?"
"Wrong? No. You are always thinking some one's coming after you. It's
all right."
"But I don't understand," said Godfrey.
"Why, you don't mean to say you've forgotten all about last night?"
"Last night!" cried the lad, with a start.
"Oh, I had forgotten. No; I was not quite awake. You have been up
early to go and get that rope."
Waller pointed to the big, old easy chair.
"Does seem like it, doesn't it? There it is, all soaked with dew. I
soon got it down, and I have been busy over the bed. You had trampled
it terribly, and there were two great bits of ivy snapped off as well
and lying there. I've made it pretty tidy, and there has been such a
heavy due that your footprints on the grass, and those of Joe Hanson,
going round the house, are pretty well taken out. They'll be all right
now, I think."
"Oh, thank you," cried Godfrey, with a sigh; "but now, I suppose, I must
give up all hope of going into the woods with you again."
"Nonsense! I only want you to wait till it's sensible to go."
"Ah!" cried Godfrey. "I like to hear you talk so. Do you know, I was
dreaming this morning about what you said the other day."
"What was that?"
"About getting me down to Lymington, and on board a fishing-boat."
"And so I will."
"Thank you. Then we will start to-night."
"That we won't!" cried Waller. "Stuff! Nonsense! I hear from our
gardener that there are soldiers going about from place to place in the
forest, and as likely as not we should run right up against them, for
they would be sure to be keeping watch at night. You wait a bit, and as
soon as I think it's safe, and we have made all our plans, we will go.
But don't you be in such a hurry. You are company for me, and I am sure
my father wouldn't mind your staying on a while to get strong. I want
to hear that the soldiers are gone, and then you will be like a visitor,
and we will have a good time of it in the woods, fishing, and
collecting, and one thing and another."
"No," said the lad sadly; "England is no place for me. I must get back
to France."
"You wait till you get better," said Waller, "and you will talk
differently."
"Oh, but I am putting you in such a false position. Your servants will
be finding out that you have got me hidden here."
"They'd better!" cried Waller hotly. "What business is it of theirs? I
am only answerable to my father."
"And what will he say to you when he knows what you have done?"
"What will he say?" cried Waller enthusiastically. "He'll say--he'll
say--I don't know what," and the boy stopped short.
Another day elapsed, and Waller was chatting eagerly with his prisoner,
and planning with him that they should steal out as soon as it was dusk,
and go and have a ramble in the woods.
"But it will be dark," said Boyne wearily.
"There," cried Waller, "you are speaking as dumpily as you did when we
first met. That means that you ought to be out in the fresh air. Of
course it will be dark. No, it won't, because there will be some moon
to-night; and if it were dark it wouldn't matter. There's always
something to hear, with the creatures in the forest hunting--owls, and
stoats, and all sorts of night things. Why, I can find my way anywhere
nearly in the forest of a night. You don't know what fun it is till you
get out there. I have been out with Bunny Wrigg sometimes when he has
been setting night-lines in the old hammer pond, and catching big eels,
and sometimes wild ducks, and--Pst! Someone coming!"
"Master Waller, are you upstairs?" came from below; and the boy pressed
his finger on his lips and took a little saw from where it was hanging
against the wall, put it down noisily, and picked up a hammer from where
it lay upon a bench-like table.
The next moment he was tapping a box softly, as if he were driving in a
nail, while the uncarpeted stairs leading to the attic creaked, and the
light step of the girl was heard coming towards the door.
Next moment she was knocking sharply.
"Master Waller! Master Waller!" she cried excitedly. "You must come
down directly; you are wanted."
"Eh?" cried the boy. "Who wants me?"
"There's Tony Gusset, sir, Martha's brother, and he's come along with
six soldiers."
Waller sprang from his seat, striking the table a heavy blow with the
hammer in his excitement as he rose, while his companion, who had
followed the example, took a couple of steps towards the open dormer
window, and stood there with his lips pinched together and hands
clenched.
"What do they want?" cried Waller sharply, as he caught his companion by
the wrist.
"They are coming to search the house, sir."
"What?" shouted Waller hoarsely.
"Coming to hunt for spies, sir."
Waller drew a deep breath as if pulling himself together to face the
desperate position, and his companion looked at him wonderingly as he
called out, in a voice full of assumed bravado:
"Oh, are they! I will come down to see about that!"
"Yes, sir, do, please. Martha's in such a way, and she's quarrelling
with her brother awful."
"Go on down!" cried Waller, and he gave the table a heavy thump with his
hammer before listening to the girl's descending steps, and breathing
hard as if he had been running the while.
As the girl's steps died out he faced round to look in the fugitive's
eyes. There was a faint smile on the lad's lips as he caught Waller's
hand and gripped it fast.
"Thank you," he said very calmly. "It's all over, Waller--brother
Waller. There, I am going to meet it like a man."
"What!" said Waller, in a hoarse whisper, as if he thought their words
might be heard through the open window. "What are you going to do?"
"Surrender," was the reply, "and take care that you come to no harm for
harbouring me here."
Waller laughed mockingly, as he snatched away his hand and clapped it
and its fellow upon the other's shoulders.
"You've been too long in France," he whispered. "An English boy would
not give up like that. Never say die!"
"What do you mean?" panted the other, startled by Waller's earnestness.
"To dodge these bloodhounds, as you call them, and give them the slip;
and as for old bumpy Gusset, this is his doing, because he's got a spite
against father, and if you and I don't serve him out for it, my name's
not Waller Froy. Pst!" he whispered, with his lips close to the other's
ear. "Don't make a rustle nor a sound," he continued, after whispering
for a few moments, "and never stir. I'll send them about their
business, never fear."
Short as was the time that this interchange of words had taken, it was
too long, for loud, hoarse voices were heard as of men assembling in the
hall, and, giving his companion an encouraging slap upon the back,
Waller dashed out of the room, banged to the door, locked it, and thrust
the key into his pocket, keeping his hand there as he carelessly made
for the staircase, descended to the gallery, and the next minute was
looking over the broad balustrade down into the hall, where a couple of
soldiers stood, with grounded muskets, staring through the dining-room
door, while another was in the porch on guard, and voices came from out
of the room.
"Hullo!" shouted Waller to the two soldiers, who had turned to look at
him directly. "Who are you, and what do you want?"
Without waiting for an answer he took a couple of steps, threw himself
on to the great carved balustrade, and, rapidly gliding down upon his
chest, literally shot off before he reached the upright scroll at the
bottom, and faced the men. His loud questioning voice brought out a
sergeant, musket in hand, and sword and bayonet in his diagonal belt
behind, closely followed by a big, fat, puffy, unwholesome-looking man
with sallow face and baggy eyes.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
THE SEARCH CONTINUED.
The man had on a cobbler's leather apron, which he had rolled up and
tucked in the strap. He had pulled on his jacket, but evidently without
turning down the sleeves of his shirt, which showed through just beneath
his shoulders in two rolls like mock muscles, while a very much battered
felt hat, with a flap looped up to form three cocks, was worn jauntily
upon his head.
"Morning, sir," said the sergeant, looking the boy up and down sharply.
"Are you Squire Froy?"
"No, I am his son," said Waller haughtily, as he strode past the
stiff-looking military man so as to bring himself within arm's length of
the cobbler, and, with a movement quick as a flash, struck off his
cocked hat and sent it flying. "What do you mean by that, sir?" he
shouted at him. "Is that the way to enter a gentleman's house?" and
with a half-run across the echoing polished oak boards he made a kick at
the hat, and, to the great delight of the soldiers, sent it flying out
through the porch.
"If you weren't an old man I'd kick you, too," he continued, as the
astounded constable dressed in a little brief authority, opened his
mouth like a carp, too much amazed to speak. "You would have come
sneaking round to the back door if my father had been at home, or else
have stood wiping your dirty shoes upon the mat." Then, turning his
back upon the man he addressed, he faced the leader of the soldiers.
"Now, sergeant," he said, "what's the meaning of this intrusion?"
There was a good deal of the cock bantam about the boy's ways and
speech, but it was manly all the same. He had real authority, too, for
speaking out to the rough, coarse-looking villager, and with quick
military precision the sergeant, whose eyes sparkled on hearing his rank
acknowledged, saluted sharply.
"Beg pardon, sir; on duty," he said. "Me and my men, we are in search
of French spies who are loose somewhere about the forest, and this man
from down the village tells me that one or two of them are likely to be
harboured here. Not a pleasant job, sir, but I am only obeying orders,
and we shall have to search the place."
"Search the place!" cried Waller hotly.
"Yes, sir, in the King's name."
"Oh," said Waller coolly, as he darted a furious glance at Gusset, who
was still opening and shutting his mouth without making a sound; and
then, noting that Martha and Bella had come to the door leading to the
servants' offices, and were looking on, while the gardener, bearing his
scythe, had come round to the porch, to be stopped by the soldier placed
as sentry, who held his musket across the man's chest, "In the King's
name, eh?" said Waller coolly.
"Yes, sir. Very sorry, but my duty."
"Oh, well, I am not going to blame you," said Waller; "but I should have
thought as my father is a county magistrate this house ought to be
respected."
"Yes, sir, of course," said the sergeant; "but don't you see, it's like
protecting him against the French."
"Search away, then," cried Waller, "and when you have done--here,
Martha!"
"Yes, sir," came from the door.
"Don't let these soldiers go away without giving them a crust of bread
and cheese."
"No, sir; I'll have it ready directly," cried Martha; and then, in a
whisper to her fellow-servant, "Bless the boy! Don't he speak up like a
man!"
"Where are you going to begin, sergeant?"
"Thank you, sir, for the lunch," said the sergeant, smiling; and he gave
the lad another admiring look--one that took him in from top to toe,
while his eyes seemed to speak the thoughts of his heart. "What a smart
young officer he'd make! Shouldn't I like the job of drilling him into
shape!"
"Oh, we will begin at the bottom, sir, and search to the top."
"But suppose there are Frenchmen here," said Waller, laughing, "why,
they might be getting away into the woods while you are talking!"
"Not they, sir," said the man, with a cunning smile. "I have got a man
at each door as sentry, and two more on vedette back and front. Not
much fear of that."
"But suppose they make a bolt, like the rabbits do in the forest," said
Waller.
"Bad for them if they did, sir," replied the sergeant, rather sternly.
"My men can shoot."
Waller whistled softly.
"Oh, ho!" he said; and he tapped the barrel of the sergeant's musket
with his knuckles. "Loaded?"
The man gave him a quiet nod.
"Go on, then; search away, and get it done. You have been in the
dining-room, I see."
The village constable, who had been listening, with his eyes starting
and ears seeming to project forward, here broke in, speaking in a husky,
oily voice.
"Big cellar, sergeant, all underneath the house, and iron gratings to
let in the light."
"What do you know about it?" cried Waller sharply. "Have you been
prying and peering in?"
"I am a-doin' of my duty, Master Waller Froy," said the man, swelling up
like a turkey-cock, which bird he seemed greatly to resemble as, having
found his voice, he began to show his importance, but with no other
effect than to make the soldiers grin, while one of them, who had walked
out past the sentry and picked up the cocked hat with the muzzle of his
musket, now presented it to him.
"Don't--don't do that!" cried the constable, starting back as if it were
something alive. "You should never point a gun at anyone when you
speak!"
"Didn't speak," said the soldier, grinning more widely.
"There, take your hat, constable," cried the sergeant, giving Waller a
comical cock of his eye. "Brown Bess never barks unless we touch the
trigger. Yes, sir, I have looked through the dining-room. Beautiful
old-fashioned room, too. Excuse me for saying so. No secret passages
there, I suppose?"
"No," said Waller; "not one. Come and look here, then, next. I'll take
you wherever you want to go. This is the drawing-room," and he threw
open the door of the handsome low-ceilinged, old panelled chamber, with
most of the furniture dating back so that it was nearly as old as the
house.
As he led the way into the room Waller winced, for Anthony Gusset was
putting on his cocked hat again; but as he caught the boy's furious look
he snatched it off.
"Look here, sergeant," said Waller quietly; "I'll take you all over the
house and answer any questions you like to put, or won't answer them,
just as I please, but you can do your duty without that fat, stupid,
village bumpkin?"
"To be sure I can, sir. Here, you, constable, stop there with my sentry
at the porch, and if you see a Frenchman bolt, you shout."