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The New Forest Spy, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 13. A Reprimand. |
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_ 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." _ |
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