"Who's there?"
He seemed at once to have caught sight of the ladder, and made an
endeavour to reach it; but though he stretched out his arm at full
length he could not manage to do so.
"We must cut for it," said Eric; "it's quite too dark for him to see who
we are, or even to notice that we are boys."
They moved the ladder to the wall, and sprang over, one after the other,
as fast as they could. Eric was last, and just as he got on the top of
the wall he heard the back door open, and some one run out into the
yard.
"Run for your lives," said Eric hurriedly; "it's Gordon, and he's
raising the alarm."
They heard footsteps following them, and an occasional shout of
"Thieves! thieves!"
"We must separate and run different ways, or we've no chance of escape.
We'd better turn towards the town to put them off the right scent," said
Eric again.
"Don't leave me," pleaded Wildney; "you know I can't run very fast."
"No, Charlie, I won't," and grasping his hand, Eric hurried him over the
stile and through the fields as fast as he could, while Pietrie and
Graham took the opposite direction.
Some one (they did not know who it was, but suspected it to be Mr
Gordon's servant-man) was running after them, and they could distinctly
hear his footsteps, which seemed to be half a field distant. He carried
a light and they heard him panting. They were themselves tired, and in
the utmost trepidation; the usually courageous Wildney was trembling all
over, and his fear communicated itself to Eric. Horrible visions of a
trial for burglary, imprisonment in the castle jail, and perhaps
transportation, presented themselves to their excited imaginations, as
the sound of the footsteps came nearer and nearer; "I can't run any
farther, Eric," said Wildney. "What shall we do? don't leave me, for
Heaven's sake."
"Not I, Charlie. We must hide the minute we get t'other side of this
hedge."
They scrambled over the gate, and plunged into the thickest part of a
plantation close by, lying down on the ground behind some bushes, and
keeping as still as they possibly could, taking care to cover over their
white collars.
The pursuer reached the gate, and no longer hearing footsteps in front
of him, he paused. He went a little distance up the hedge on both
sides, and held up his light, but did not detect the cowering boys, and
at last giving up the search in despair, went slowly home. They heard
him plodding back over the field, and it was not until the sound of his
footsteps had died away, that Eric cautiously broke cover, and looked
over the hedge. He saw the man's light gradually getting more distant,
and said, "All right now, Charlie. We must make the best of our way
home."
"Are you sure he's gone?" said Wildney, who had not yet recovered from
his fright.
"Quite; come along. I only hope Pietrie and Graham ain't caught."
They got back about half-past four, and climbed in unheard and
undetected through the window pane. They then stole upstairs with
beating hearts, and sate in Eric's room to wait for the other two. To
their great relief they heard them enter the lavatory about ten minutes
after.
"Were you twigged?" asked Wildney eagerly.
"No," said Graham; precious near it though. Old Gordon and some men
were after us, but at last we doubled rather neatly, and escaped them.
It's all serene, and we shan't be caught. But it's a precious long time
before I run such a risk again for a brace of rubbishing pigeons.
"Well, we'd best to bed now," said Eric; "and to my thinking, we should
be wise to keep a quiet tongue in our heads about this affair."
"Yes, we had better tell _no one_." They agreed, and went off to bed
again. So, next morning, they all four got up quite as if nothing had
happened, and made no allusion to the preceding night, although they
could not help chuckling inwardly a little when the Gordonites came to
morning school, brimful of a story about their house having been
attacked in the night by thieves, who after bagging some pigeons, had
been chevied by Gordon and the servants. Wildney professed immense
interest in the incident, and asked many questions, which showed that
there was not a shadow of suspicion in any one's mind as to the real
culprits.
Carter, the school-servant, didn't seem to have noticed that the
lavatory door was unlocked, and Mr Harley never alluded again to his
disturbance in the night. So the theft of the pigeons remained
undiscovered, and remains so till this day. If any old Roslyn boy reads
this veracious history, he will doubtless be astounded to hear that the
burglars on that memorable night were Eric, Pietrie, Graham, and
Wildney.