WATCHING HIS OPPORTUNITY.
For a long time Fred debated with himself whether to make Harry a
confederate in his scheme or not. He knew that Harry's affectionate
spirit had been sorely ruffled and tried that afternoon by Maurice's
conduct towards him; and he knew also he had only to show the large
purple bruise on his shoulder to call forth a burst of bitter anger
in his brother's breast. Harry, too, had a keen enjoyment in
following up any scheme which savoured of danger and mystery; and
there would be something almost too seductive in the thought of
outwitting Maurice, with all his pride and hauteur, for Harry to be
able to refuse his aid.
And, after all, what harm was there in the whole affair? He was not
going to steal or even touch anything in the store-room, except to
raise the lid of the box marked "Fragile," and take one glimpse at
the carved ivory men; just sufficient to be able to describe them
faithfully to Maurice, and leave him in all the perplexity of a
secret and undiscoverable defeat.
It was only a fair revenge for the uucourteous conduct of his
cousin,--the epithets hurled on him in the presence of all the
guests, and the cruel blow which had sent him reeling back into the
darkness of the store-room. "At least I can sound Harry on the
subject, and see how he likes the look of it. If he jumps at the
fly, all serene; if not, then mum's the word, and all the danger and
glory will be my own." So thought Fred as he slowly walked up the
stairs leading to the landing where their room was situated, and his
face was grave and abstracted when he opened the door and walked in.
"Well, Fred, old man," cried Harry's sympathizing voice as he
entered, "I hope you are not much hurt. I was just saying to
Kathleen, as you came in, what a shame it was of Maurice to turn on
you the way he did, and to knock you down and call you names before
every one!"
"Yes, you may say so; and if you only saw the bruise on my
shoulder-blade, you'd open your eyes a bit. I am sure it's as large
as a plate this moment, and as black and blue as your shoe; and all
for what, I'd like to know. Nothing but his confounded pride and
ill-temper."
"I can't think why he should have grown so suddenly cold to you,"
said Harry uneasily. "Sometimes I think perhaps it is all my fault."
"Your fault! Rubbish! how could it be?"
"Well, because I know I said something to him yesterday about the
stones you had put in your can, and he flared up at once, and said if
you had done it, it was a howling shame, and all that kind of thing.
But, somehow or other, I think," pleaded Harry humbly, "something
more must have happened to vex him, or he could not be so frightfully
waxy."
"I'll wax him before I've done with him," said Fred angrily.
"Whether I put the stones in the can or not, what business is it to
him? He has no right to set himself up for a judge and put me in
Coventry before all the others. However, he'll be sorry for it
before all's over. I'll promise you that much for your consolation."
The consolation appeared scarcely to affect Harry as much as might
have been anticipated; he glanced nervously towards his brother, and
ended a rumination of full five minutes' length with a prolonged sigh.
"Heigh ho, I wish we had never left home. I know I, for one, shall
never be in a hurry to leave it again."
"Nor I either," cried Fred, with a certain hoarse sound in his voice
which betrayed no small amount of emotion. "However, in for a penny,
in for a pound, is my maxim; and I'd rather stick here all my life
than leave the place without giving Maurice a Roland for his Oliver."
"You'll never be able to do it. Remember he is in his own house, and
we are only visitors."
"All the same, I will do it; and what's more, the trap is set and the
hook baited, and I'll be even with him before this time to-morrow,
you'll see."
"Why, what are you going to do?"
"If you had the spirit of a mouse I'd tell you; but I know once you
heard the whole scheme, you'd never stop till you'd put your foot in
it somehow."
"Fred!"
"Oh yes, it's all very well. I know you'd stand by me, and have
stood by me in lots of things; but this is a plan which will require
the coolness of a cucumber and the courage and calmness of--well,
anything you like, to carry it out; and one of your unhandy scruples
would just put me off the whole thing, and make me far too nervous to
succeed."
"But what do you want to do?"
"I want to outwit Maurice."
"In what way?"
"Well, I'll just tell you this much. Maurice has as good as sworn
that he won't let me get a glimpse of those wonderful chess-men he's
so ridiculously proud of, and I'm determined that I will see them;
and there is the long and the short of the whole thing."
"But--"
"Never mind 'buts;' there are no 'buts' in the affair at all. I'm
going to do it, and that's all."
"But, Fred, if they are locked up in Aunt Marian's store-room, how
can you?"
"Ay, there's the rub; but since you know so much, I may as well just
tell you I can get in and out of that store-room as easily as I could
get in and out of Kathleen's room over there."
At this moment Kathleen opened the very door towards which Fred was
pointing and walked in. "Were you calling me?" she asked.
"No, no; go back into your own room and dress for dinner. I was only
talking to Harry."
"But I am dressed for dinner and you are not, and the gong is just
going to sound."
"You don't say so," cried Harry.--"Look at your watch, Fred, and see."
Fred drew out his watch, and found it wanted but six minutes of the
dinner-hour; so further conversation had to be indefinitely
postponed, and it was with great difficulty the boys accomplished
their feat of dressing in six minutes so as to be down in the
drawing-room with the rest of the guests before the gong actually
sounded.
Fred usually took his place at the end of the dining-room table close
to Maurice, who sat at the foot and carved; but to-night the
brothers, by a kind of intuition, exchanged places, and Harry took
the vacant chair beside his cousin, while Fred sat high up, and
comparatively close to his aunt.
Lady Brinsley noticed, with considerable anxiety of mind, the extreme
pallor of Fred's face, and the nervous distress which seemed to
overpower him so that he ate almost nothing of the various viands
which were offered him, and addressed scarcely a word to those around
him. However wrong Fred had been, and however dishonourable his
conduct might appear, Maurice, she felt, had no right to behave in
the way he had done, and to treat his cousin with such harshness; and
Lady Brinsley, whose heart was peculiarly susceptible towards boys of
Fred's age, felt once again a strong pity rise in her heart for the
lad whose unhappiness was too plainly pictured on his face. But as
the dinner-time wore on Fred's demeanour changed curiously; and by
the time the meal was over, Lady Brinsley observed with surprise a
certain look almost of triumph which glowed in Fred's eye, especially
when he turned it in Maurice's direction. Nor was the tone of
defiance lost upon her when Fred was suddenly called upon to answer
some question addressed to him by his cousin, and to which he replied
with a confidence and a sangfroid which were in strong contrast with
his former nervousness of manner.
The fact was that Lady Brinsley had proposed that the remainder of
the evening, which was deliciously soft and balmy, should be devoted
to a grand game of "I Spy," among the laurels and thick-growing
shrubs of the pleasure-ground; and that the whole party should
adjourn outside the Hall after dinner, and have their tea spread
afterwards in the tent on the archery ground, with strawberries and
cream to refresh themselves after their races and fatigue.
This idea was hailed with unmixed delight by all the party, and by no
one with more zeal than Fred, who saw in this suggestion a grand
opportunity for carrying out his scheme; for as all the party would
be busily employed outside, he could easily seize on a moment to slip
away downstairs and invade undisturbed the sacred precincts of the
store-room.
But matters did not turn out so propitiously as Fred had imagined.
Lady Brinsley, who felt uneasy and restless in her mind both about
the boy and the results which might be anticipated from his wounded
pride, made it her special charge to look after him, and to see that
he was not left out of the game or otherwise coldly treated by
Maurice. So Fred, though he watched eagerly for an auspicious moment
for flight, had to wait long before the favourable opportunity
presented itself.
At last there did come a time when Fred thought he could slip away
without notice. Two of the party had gone off to hide as hares in
the cover of the far-off evergreens; and Maurice and his mother had
gone down to the archery ground to look after the fixing of some pole
in the tent, which the butler had brought them word was in rather a
shaky condition, and required looking after before the rush of hungry
hares into its recesses might bring the whole affair tumbling down
about their heads.
Fred now watched his opportunity, and seeing the coast clear, edged
slowly off from the group of hounds, which were gathered under a
large beech tree, awaiting the shrill whistle from the plantation
which would announce that the hares were in safe hiding, and convey
also some slight notion as to their whereabouts.
"Where are you going? You are not allowed to leave bounds until the
hares are hid," cried several voices as Fred moved out of their ranks.
"Humbug! what harm can I do out here? I can't catch a glimpse of the
hiding-ground from this place, and I'm sick of sticking all in a lump
under this tree like a swarm of bees."
"It is not fair, for all that," cried the same voices again; "we said
we would not go further than this tree."
"I said nothing of the kind; besides, I am tired of the game, and I
am going to take a stroll until supper is ready."
"Fred, you are not going really to leave the game?" cried Harry,
coming up to him anxiously from under the shadow of the tree. "Do
come back,--there's a good fellow; it will be no fun without you."
And as Harry spoke he eagerly sought to scan his brother's face, half
suspecting he had something more weighty on his mind than a mere
stroll about the place.
"Bosh! you'll do twice as well without me," cried Fred, attempting a
laugh. But seeing the look in Harry's eyes, he changed his mind, and
added in a low voice, "Cannot you take a hint and keep them all quiet
there for a few minutes, and draw their attention off me, for I've
been watching for this opportunity the whole evening."
"What for?" gasped Harry.
"Why, what I told you before."
"But you did not tell me."
"Well, never mind; the whole thing won't take five minutes, and I'll
come back and tell you then."
"O Fred! I know you will get yourself into some awful scrape.
Please don't go and do anything rash."
"I tell you I'm in for it now, and, scrape or no scrape, I'll carry
it through."
"Would there be less danger if I were to help you?"
"No, no; there is the whistle: if we both went off together, we
should only draw suspicion on ourselves. Go, go, I tell you, and
hunt with the others; this is the moment of all others for me." And
Harry, sorely against his will, went off to search among the
evergreens and under the low-growing shrubs for the missing hares,
while Fred turned his steps with apparent nonchalance towards the
house.
But the moment for success which he had so confidently looked for had
not yet come. Just as Fred turned through a low gate in the
pleasure-ground leading by a shrubbery walk towards the Hall, he saw
Maurice coming round from an opposite path, and also making his way
in the direction of the house.
Both the boys caught sight of each other at the same moment, and both
paused for an instant, hesitating what course to pursue. Fred was
the first to act. He turned deliberately on his heel, and retraced
his steps through the dark shrubbery walk; and then Maurice's
resolution seemed also taken, for Fred heard hasty steps behind him
and some one calling him by his name.
"Fred, Fred! turn back and listen; I want to say something to you."
Fred walked on, his head held proudly in the air, and his ears
apparently deaf to Maurice's words.
"Fred, listen to me,--stop; I want awfully to have a few words with
you. Don't go on to where the others are, or I can't say them."
But Fred still walked on till he reached the small iron gate, having
passed which, he swung it back resolutely in his cousin's face,
almost snapping it on his extended hand. Then Maurice halted in his
pursuit with a muttered growl of anger and disappointment, and
turning also on his heel, he walked gloomily towards the Hall.