AT DEAD OF NIGHT.
Great was Harry's amazement, when rushing in hot pursuit after the
discovered hare, to meet Fred walking leisurely back towards the
play-ground. He stopped breathless from his chase, and looked with
the most painful suspense into his brother's eyes.
"For goodness' sake," cried Fred angrily, "don't stare at me in that
horrid way! With your great fishy eyes you look exactly like a
boiled haddock."
"But, Fred, have you done it?"
"Of course I knew you were going to ask me that ganderish question.
One would think I was a centipede, to be able to reach the house and
be back again here in less than five minutes. Don't be a tomfool."
Harry saw the angry light in Fred's eye, and though he sorely longed
to know the cause of his brother's speedy return, he feared to ask
any further questions; and when Fred turned away a moment afterwards,
and made a sudden short cut down one of the terraces towards the
archery-ground, Harry gave up all idea of following him or hearing
his news, and repaired again to the beech tree on the
pleasure-ground, under which the hounds and hares had once more
assembled preparatory to a fresh start.
The supper in the tent was, however, announced to be ready, and both
parties gave up the chase, and repaired harmoniously together to feed
under the same canvas roof.
The table was quite a sight, it was so beautifully and tastefully
decorated with fruits, flowers, and variegated leaves. Lady Brinsley
and her daughter made the art of table decoration almost a study; and
the effects they produced were generally considered to be perfect.
The tempting odour of the ripe fruit lavishly heaped in dishes around
the table was most agreeable to the noses of the hounds, who crowded
pell-mell into the tent; and as each plate and chair was labelled
with the name of its owner, there was no difficulty or confusion in
finding room at the table. Fred was surprised, on taking his seat,
to find not only his plate labelled with his own name, but also a
very pretty French bon-bon box, beneath whose fretted paper coverings
could be seen peeping out the most delicious preserved fruits and
sweetmeats.
He looked hastily up at his aunt, and scanned her face curiously, to
see if this unexpected gift had come from her. But no: when their
eyes met, it there was any peculiar expression visible there, it was
one of grave, almost distressed anxiety; and Fred relapsed into a
miserable state of mind, which had of late become a constant habit
with him.
Once he glanced at Maurice, as a quick, uneasy question, flashed
through his mind; but the moment Maurice met his gaze, his cheek
flushed, and his eyes hastily sought his plate: so Fred, whose heart
was just now wound up to the pitch when tears were very close, sought
no further to disentangle the riddle. But his pride would not permit
him to appropriate the gift; and when supper was over, he rose from
the table with a swelling heart, and, with his head still held
proudly in the air, he left the tent, and wandered about the grounds
until the gong sounded for evening prayers, after which all the
guests dispersed to their respective apartments.
Harry, however, had watched Fred's exit from the tent with anxious
eyes: for he knew well, from the compressed muscles of his mouth, the
effort made to hide the tell-tale quivering of the lips, and the
fixed, stony look in the eye which held back the rising tears; and,
had he dared, he would have followed his brother out into the shadows
of the sycamore alley, and away down the darker paths of the pine
plantation, where once before Fred had sobbed out the burden of his
guilt; but he knew that to follow Fred in his present mood could only
serve to aggravate his temper, so he waited patiently for his return,
hoping that in the solitude of his ramble his vexation might have
time to cool down, and his project, whatever it might have been,
might be temporarily relinquished.
When they all assembled in the Hall for prayers, Fred made his
appearance in the house, and took his usual seat; but his face was
perfectly impassive, and, save for the extreme pallor of his cheeks
and the red circles round his eyes, Harry could not have suspected
that any unusual disturbance had been at work within him.
When they went up to bed, Harry made one or two feeble efforts to
draw the conversation into the channels of thought which were
occupying his own attention so much. But Fred was moody and
reserved, and only answered in monosyllables, not vouchsafing even a
hint whether he had relinquished his project or was still intent on
carrying it into execution.
So Harry was fain to relapse into silence also; and being very tired
from all the racing after the hares and all the previous anxiety of
the day, he was glad to hurry into bed and try to forget in sleep all
the anxieties and worries which were oppressing him.
He had scarcely placed his head on the pillow ere the sleep he had so
eagerly sought began to overpower him; and his mind had already
wandered off into a strange dreamland, when some one shook him rather
roughly by the shoulder, and Fred in a hoarse whisper exclaimed,
"Harry, confound you, can't you wake up? What on earth have you done
with the matches? I have been hunting for them all over the room,
and can't find them."
"Matches! Why--why--oh yes; of course they are hiding behind the
bee-hives," gasped Harry, whose imagination was once more busily
engaged in chasing the hares.
"Behind the bee-hives! What on earth are you talking about, you
gabby?"
"I--I'm positive I saw them there."
"Where, you jackass?"
"In between the garden wall and the water-butt."
"For goodness' sake wake up, Harry, and tell me where are the
matches!"
"The matches! Why, what do you want them for?" and Harry, sitting up
in his bed, rubbed his eyes furiously, and then stared in blank
wonder at his brother, who, with a lighted candle in his hand, stood
by the bedside, still dressed in his evening clothes, and with a face
as white as the white paper on the wall behind him.
"Fred, why on earth aren't you in bed? What is it you want?"
"The matches, you ass."
"Matches! I don't think there are any in the room; I used the last
one in the box this morning."
"What on earth did you do that for?"
"To seal up a parcel of garden seeds for mother."
"It's just like you. Where is the box, and let me see if there ain't
another to be found in it?"
"The box is in the drawer of my washing-stand; but there is no use at
all looking into it; you'll find nothing there but a nice little toad
I picked up in a ditch this morning, and which I'm keeping to tease
Mother Duffy with."
"I never knew any one like you," grumbled Fred savagely as he turned
away from the bed; "as sure as ever a fellow wants a thing, you are
certain to have been beforehand with him; and if I make a mull of the
whole thing now, it will be your fault."
"Perhaps there are matches in Kathleen's room."
"Pooh, I've no notion of bringing the house down about my ears by
rousing up everybody in it. Just you go to sleep and mind your own
business."
"I can't go to sleep when I know you are going to do some awfully
risky thing."
"Risky, my dear fellow! the only risk there can be about it, is the
danger of the candle going out. If I were to stumble in the dark and
come a cropper on my head, ten to one but the house might be roused,
and then I might shut up shop, and no mistake."
"But what's the use of making such a dangerous experiment? what can
you gain even if you do succeed?"
"I can gain my point, and that's about as much to me just now as--as
anything you need care to mention. But if you are so chicken-hearted
as not to take any interest in the matter, tuck your little head
under your little wing and go to sleep."
"Fred, you know it's only for your sake."
"Gammon,--my sake! go to sleep, I tell you."
"Remember if you do come to grief it's no fault of mine," cried
Harry, hoarsely, as he rolled himself round in the blankets, and
turned his face towards the wall.
"All serene; and if I don't come to grief, all the honour and glory
will be mine. And now, as I said before, you'd better shut up and go
to sleep as fast as you can; for until I know that every living soul
in the house is as sound as a top, I'll not budge one foot from the
place."
So Harry, thus admonished, lay perfectly still; though had Fred
leaned over his brother's bed, he might have heard his teeth
chattering together in his head, and the loud throbbings of his
heart, which the dangerous project about to be carried out had
excited to no common degree.
But as it was, Fred's own heart beat so loud, and his teeth chattered
to such an unusual extent, it never occurred to him to think that
another person could be suffering the same pangs of uneasiness as
himself. Once or twice he had almost relinquished his perilous
undertaking; for as the night wore on, and a great stillness took
possession of the Hall, familiar objects assumed such strange and
goblin-like shapes, that a more courageous nature than Fred's might
well have been deterred from venturing amongst them. But Fred had a
curiously tenacious spirit, and a project once undertaken and thought
over, and, above all, boasted of to his friends, he would go through
fire and water to carry out; and his pride rose up stronger than all
the ghosts and goblins in the world, to strengthen him against
weakly, or at least as he thought weakly, yielding to the promptings
of a childish and puerile fear.
As the clock therefore struck one, and perfect silence reigned, Fred
opened his door and stole quietly out on the broad landing. The
hall, which lay beneath, and into which he could peer by leaning over
the banisters, was perhaps the most ghostly spot in the whole place
to visit at such a time: for as Fred held the light of his one
solitary candle over the dark gulf beneath, shadowy figures, draped
in white, seemed to be gathered in the space below; some robed in
sheets, with drooping heads and disconsolate figures; and others with
white arms stretched imploringly out into the surrounding gloom.
These figures gave a terribly spectral appearance to the hall, and
sent another thrill of uncertainty and irresolution through the brain
of our unfortunate hero.
"Pooh, what folly; had not he often walked about in that very hall,
and touched those very statues with his hands, which now looked so
unearthly and goblin like? There was no real difference between
walking among them in the night or the day; and if he gave way to
such humbugging fancies, he might as well give up the whole plan."
Thus Fred reasoned with himself, and did battle with his fears, just
as if they were the voices of opposing friends who sought to put him
off from his project; and in his vexation with himself, he almost
spoke aloud, and gripped the top of the banisters defiantly, as if
they too had tried to balk his fancy.
"If only he had some matches,"--this was the great weight on his
mind; for if the candle went out in some unexpected draught from some
dark and winding passage, what was he to do? While he deliberated
thus, he remembered having seen, in the inside hall, a box fixed
against the wall for the convenience of those who wished to light
their bed-candles downstairs: and this thought comforted him not a
little, and encouraged him at least to descend so far as the inner
room; for even were he to be discovered, no exception could be taken
to his making a raid from his own room in search of matches, none
being to be had upstairs.
So leaving the door of his own apartment slightly ajar, that he might
the more speedily and noiselessly re-enter it, he slowly and
cautiously crept down the first flight of stairs, having previously
taken off his slippers, that no sound of a footfall might rouse any
of the more wakeful inhabitants of the house.
As he placed his foot on the last step of the first flight, he heard
a sound as of some one stirring in the passage above, and with much
greater haste than he had hitherto used, he descended the remaining
flights, till he found himself at the foot of the main staircase of
the Hall, and in the immediate vicinity of two grim warriors in rusty
armour, who, each with a halberd in his gloved hand, kept watch at
either side of the ascent. Indeed, so nervous was Fred that he
forgot the existence of these mail-clad giants altogether, and
turning hastily round the corner, he came against one of them with
such force that it swayed ominously to and fro on its wooden stand,
and finally dropped the halberd from its hand! For one instant Fred
thought that all was lost; that the noise of the falling weapon
resounding through the hall must alarm the whole household; but
happily for him, instead of tumbling on the polished oaken floor of
the hall, it fell into the soft flaxen mat at the foot of the
staircase, and except for a slight clinking of metal, and a dull
sound just as it reached the floor, nothing followed to betray the
presence of a midnight intruder.
Had Fred raised his head at this moment and looked above him, to see
from whence the noise which had first startled him had proceeded, he
would indeed have seen a ghostly visage looking at him, with ashy
face and large eyes full of an almost unearthly anxiety; but as it
was, he hurried blindly on into the inner hall, that, if pursued, he
might be found in the vicinity of the match-box, whose contents, he
might truthfully say, he wished to rifle.
[Illustration: The flame of the candle flickered horribly.]
But no further sound as of pursuers reached his ears, and having
snatched a handful of matches out of the tin box as he passed on, he
proceeded with more courageous steps towards the back passages of the
house, from whence the staircase descended to the lower regions and
subterraneous quarters, in close contiguity to which stood the
store-room, within whose walls and upon whose shelves lay the box
marked "Fragile."