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The New Forest Spy, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 16. Still Searching |
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_ CHAPTER SIXTEEN. STILL SEARCHING With a mingling of instinct and the practice of the profession, the sergeant's two followers brought down their muskets to the present as the door flew wide, presumably to meet the attack of the snakes, but the curled and dried-up skins, so light without the sand that a sharp puff of wind would have blown them away, lay still upon the shelf, and there was no rush for escape made by Godfrey Boyne. The place, full of its litter of odds and ends dear to the young naturalist, and with its open windows, lay open to the gaze of the soldiers, and the sergeant, after a sharp look round, which satisfied him that the place was empty, turned to Waller. "I thought it meant game, sir," he said. "Where's your sarpints?" "Yonder on the shelf," said Waller, with a mischievous look in his eyes. "Yah! Stuffed! Well, sir, we have done; and thank you for being so nice to us over an unpleasant job." "Oh, don't name it, sergeant," said Waller coolly. "Right about face, my lads! Forward! March!--Halt!--About that there window--how far is it to the ground?" "Oh, nice little jump," said Waller coolly. "About thirty feet, I suppose." But though he spoke calmly there was a curious twitching at the corners of the boy's eyes and his nether lip seemed to quiver as the stiff, keen-looking man marched to the casement and leaned out, looking sharply to right and left. "Don't see any bits, sir, lying below," he said with a grim laugh. "No one seems to have jumped out there. My word! You grow a fine lot of ivy about this house, but I suppose it wasn't planted yesterday.--Now, then, forward, my lads!" he continued; and then, with a laugh and a nod to Waller, he jerked his right thumb in the direction of the men. "They are not thinking of catching spies, sir, but about that bread and cheese." "Ah, well, they shall have it as soon as you have done," said Waller, the nerves of whose face had ceased to twitch. "Oh, we have done, sir," said the man, "and glad of it. This is not the sort of thing I like. Don't seem proper work for soldiers. I have done, sir, unless you have any other place you want us to search." "Oh, not I," said Waller. "I shall be glad to see your backs." The men began to descend, while Waller carefully locked the door and pocketed his key. "I don't like servants to meddle with my knick-knacks," he said. "Of course you don't, sir. I used to be very fond of that sort of thing when I was a boy, in Devon." The next minute they were down in the fine old entrance-hall, to be met by Gusset, who bustled forward out of the porch with his protruding eyes rolling a little as he stared hard at the sergeant, and then, misjudging a movement on the part of Waller, he snatched off his hat. "You ar'n't found them, then?" he said to the sergeant. "No, constable; there's no spy here, French or English. It's all a mare's nest, and you have brought us for nothing." The constable's reply sent a pang through Waller, and brought him down to zero. "But you haven't been out on the roof?" "No," said the sergeant mockingly, "nor we haven't been up the chimney. My lads are neither sweeps nor tilers. Think he's flown up there?" "No," said the constable with asperity; "but I think you haven't half searched. Maybe he's hiding somewhere up in the ivy." "Ho!" said the sergeant sharply. "Like a cock-sparrow or a rat, eh? I tell you I have searched the place, and I have done." "And I tell you you haven't half searched," cried the constable. "You must get ladders and go all over the roof. I daresay he's hiding in the ivy." "Beg pardon, sergeant," said one of the men. "Didn't the good gentleman say something about some lunch?" "To be sure I did," said Waller, "and it will be ready in the kitchen by now." "Thank you, sir," said the sergeant grumpily. "I suppose we shall be obliged to have a look at the roof from outside. I don't want to be reported to my captain for not having done my duty. But look here, Mr Constable," and to Waller's great relief the man turned his back upon him and faced Gusset, while the boy felt as if he was turning white, and his hands grew moist. "You gave information," continued the sergeant, "and it seems to me that this is more your job than mine. How are we to get up on the roof?" "Ladder, of course," cried Gusset eagerly. "They have got long ones here that they use for the apples and stacks. You must get up out at the back." "Oh, oh, oh!" groaned Waller to himself. "I should like to have you out at the back!" "Oh, very well," said the sergeant. "Out with you, my lads, and let's get it over," and, as the men marched out, following the constable, who seemed quite at home in the geography of the house, the sergeant stopped to speak to Waller. "There, sir, you see I can't help myself, so don't blame me." "No," said Waller; and, in spite of his efforts, his voice sounded very strange. But the man had turned away, and did not heed. Gusset led the way into the big, open yard at the back, and, acting under his directions, the soldiers followed to a low shed, beneath which one of the long, thin, tapering ladders with straddling legs, used in country places, hung upon two great iron pegs against the wall. "There you are," said Gusset. "Bring it out! Quick!" "Here, I say," snarled one of the men he addressed, "who are you ordering about? You are not our sergeant." "There, don't talk, my lads," cried that individual, coming up. "Bring the ladder out and heave it up against that side of the house where the roof slopes." At that moment the gardener, who had, as it were, been taken by surprise, and in the rear, came hurrying round from where he had been waiting by the porch in a great state of excitement. "Here, I say! Hold hard there!" he cried. "What are you doing with my ladder? Let it be! I don't want that broke." He turned to Waller as if to ask him to put a stop to it, but the boy avoided his gaze, thrust his hands deeply into his pockets, and stood frowning. "Here, don't you interfere, Joe Hanson; you will be getting yourself into trouble," spluttered Gusset, in his husky voice; and he unconsciously blew out his cheeks and opened his eyes wider as he took a fresh breath. "This here's all in the King's name." "King's name!" cried the gardener sharply as he lifted his blue serge apron and began to twist it up in a tail to tuck up round his waist. "What's the King's name got to do with it? I am talking about my ladder." "There, there, gardener," said the sergeant, "don't stop us. I want to get this job done. My boys don't understand ladders like you do; perhaps you wouldn't mind pitching it up against the roof?" "Oh, very well, sergeant," replied the gardener; "I don't mind when I am asked civilly, but I am not going to have all the country cobblers in Hampshire coming into my yard and meddling with the tools as is in my charge. Here, that's not the way, swaddy," he continued, joining the two soldiers, who, each still holding his musket in his hand, were fumbling awkwardly with the long ladder in carrying it across the yard. He smiled good-humouredly at the two stiff-strapped and buckled-up men, and took hold of the ladder about the middle. "There, drop its heel on the ground," he said, "and one of you put your foot on the bottom round." The soldier promptly obeyed, and the next minute, as the straddling bottom of the ladder was kept down, the gardener ran his hands along beneath it, thrusting it upward round by round till it was perpendicular, when, grasping it firmly, one hand low down and arms outstretched to the fullest extent, he walked quickly across the yard, planted the ladder down close to the house, and let the top fall away from him with a gentle _whish_ amongst the ivy. "Well done!" cried the two soldiers admiringly; and the gardener came away smiling with self-satisfaction at the men's admiration of his skill. "Oh," he said to the sergeant, "it's easy enough when you know how." "That's so, my lad," said the sergeant. "There's nothing like having a man who understands his tools." Waller still stood frowning and rattling his knife, the key, a piece of curb chain, and a few other odds and ends in the bottom of his pocket, furtively watching the fat constable the while, till he caught sight of the sergeant looking at him, ready to half close his eye in a knowing wink. "That'll about do," said Gusset; and he looked up to the top of the ladder, half hidden amongst the clustering ivy, then down at the two men, and, lastly, at the sergeant. "Now, then," he said, in his unpleasant, husky voice, "it's no use to waste time. Somebody had better go up." _ |
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