The New Forest Spy Part 14

"Yes," said Waller: "plenty of ivy here. Now you'd like to see the library?"

This was looked into, and then a slight search was made of what Waller called the schoolroom, and a little, old-fas.h.i.+oned boudoir.

"That's all here," said the boy, "except the servant's places."

"What about the cellar, sir?" said the sergeant.

"Oh, we'll go into that through the outer hall," and, Waller, leading the way, the searchers pa.s.sed through the various offices, and, on lights being provided and a big key being fetched from the squire's study table, the big, crypt-like, vaulted cellars were searched from end to end. Lastly, Waller led the way upstairs to the gallery, where the oaken polished floor echoed to the soldiers' heavy tread.

"Where does that staircase lead, sir?" said the sergeant, as his task drew near its end.

"Attics in the roof," said Waller. "Up you go."

"Well, sir, I am getting rather tired of this job," said the man, hesitating.

"Oh, but you have got it to do. Finish it off," said Waller carelessly; and he made way for the soldiers to pa.s.s up, and stood below swinging himself to and fro, balancing himself toe and heel.

"Come on, my lads," said the sergeant. "Forward, and be smart. I am thinking that crust of bread and cheese must be ready by now."

The men laughed good-humouredly, and the bare staircase creaked and groaned beneath their heavy tread, which directly afterwards made the upper pa.s.sage, with its sloping ceiling, which followed the shapes of the gables, echo.

That part of the search was quickly done, not so quickly that it did not give time to Waller to whistle the stave of the old Hamps.h.i.+re ditty three times over.

He had just got to the last bar for this third time when the b.u.t.t of the sergeant's musket was dropped with a heavy bang upon the floor overhead.

"Beg pardon, sir," he shouted down to Waller. "There's one of these 'ere doors locked!"

"Eh?" cried Waller, whose face now looked scarlet, and who stood for a moment or two holding his breath.

"One door here locked, sir. I ought to see into every room."

"Oh, to be sure! That's my den," cried the boy cavalierly--"my workshop. I am coming," and springing up two steps at a time he faced the sergeant, who, with two men, was waiting by the locked door.

Waller thrust his hand into his pocket, and the sergeant looked at him sharply, for his breath, possibly from the exertion, came thick and fast, while the key seemed to stick in his pocket as if it had got across.

"There you are," he said jauntily. "It's full of my rubbish and odds and ends. Catch!"

He pitched the key, and the sergeant caught it with one hand as cleverly as if he had been a cricketer, turned, and began to insert it in the lock.

"Mind the snakes!" cried Waller mockingly; while, in spite of a strong effort, he felt half choked, and his voice sounded strained and hard.

"Snakes?" said the sergeant, pausing with the key half turned. "Up here?"

"Yes," said Waller; "at least a dozen. I am a collector, you know."

The sergeant gave him a searching look, hesitated a moment, and then, with a half-smile upon his lip, he turned the key. The bolt flew back with a sharp snap and he threw open the door.

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 G.o.dfrey 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 cas.e.m.e.nt 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 s.n.a.t.c.hed 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 c.o.c.k-sparrow or a rat, eh? I tell you I have searched the place, and I have done."