Crown and Sceptre Part 90

"There is, I tell you," cried Fred, with his voice trembling from excitement. "Scar and I found it one day, and traced it right to the edge of the lake."

"Not gammoning me, are you, sir?"

"No, no, Samson."

"You didn't dream all this?"

"No, I tell you. We found it by accident, and when we were looking for the end we found that hole where that fallen tree had broken a way into the pa.s.sage. We piled up all those branches to hide the place."

"Well, you stun me, Master Fred. And you think our Nat heard 'em there, and has gone to jine 'em?"

"He found them, or they found him. Hist!"

Fred crept close to the heap of dead wood, a portion of which, sufficient for a man to creep through, had been removed, and pressing as far in as he could, he made a trumpet of his hands and cried softly--

"Any one there?"

Samson had followed close to him, and he listened to his master's voice as it seemed to go in a hollow whisper echoing along under the earth.

"Well, it do stun me," he said, taking off his morion for a fresh scratch.

"Is any one there?" cried Fred again, as loudly as he dared; and there was no response. "Scar! Nat! Sir G.o.dfrey!" he cried again; and after pausing to listen each time for a reply which did not come, he turned at last to encounter Samson's dubious face.

"Hope you're right, sir!" he said.

"Yes, man, certain. You see? You can hear?"

"Yes, sir, I can hear; and I suppose there's a sort of drain there."

"Drain, man? I tell you it's a secret pa.s.sage."

"Maybe, sir; but that don't prove they are hiding in it."

"But they must be," cried Fred, excitedly. "Scar knew of it. They were cut off by the fire. They took refuge there, and I am sure they are hiding now; and, thank Heaven, safe."

"Well, sir, they're all mortal enemies, but I'm so glad to hear it that I say _Amen_ with all my heart; but is it true?"

"Oh, yes, I am sure; it's true enough!" cried Fred, with his eyes full of the joy he felt. "Samson, I don't know how to contain myself--how to be thankful enough! Poor old Scar! I should never have felt happy again."

Samson's iron pot-like cap was tilted off again, and he scratched his head on the other side as he looked at Fred with a quaint smile upon his countenance.

"Well, sir, all this here puzzles me. It do--it do really. These here are our enemies, and we've been taught to smite 'em hip and thigh; and because we find they're living, instead of dead, here's you ready to jump out of your skin, and me feeling as if I could shake hands with old Nat. Of course I wouldn't; you see, I couldn't do it. Indeed, if he was here I should hit him, but I feel as if I should shake hands all the same."

"What will be best to do, Samson?"

"Do, sir? If you're right, get off as soon as we can."

"And them wanting our help."

"Tchah! They don't want our help. They want us to be out of their way.

If they come and catch us here, sir, how do we know but what they may turn savage, and try to serve us out?"

"Samson, you are talking nonsense," said Fred, angrily; and he ran to the hole again and called aloud the names of those he believed to be in hiding, his words echoing and whispering along the dark pa.s.sage, till Samson made him jump by touching him on the shoulder just as he was listening vainly for a reply.

"Don't do that, sir."

"Why not?"

"If that there pa.s.sage goes right up to the Hall, the men yonder by the ruins on dooty will hear you hollering and find out all about it."

Fred started away as if he had been stung.

"You are right, Samson," he said; "I did not think of that."

"You didn't, sir?"

"No."

"Then that shows you that I am not so stoopid as you tell me I am sometimes."

"Oh, but I don't always mean it."

"Then you shouldn't say it, sir. Well, hadn't we better get back now?"

"But I want to make perfectly sure that they are hiding there, Samson, my good fellow; and how can we find out without waiting and watching?"

"Oh, I can soon do that for you, sir."

"How?"

"Set a trap."

"What?"

"Set a trap, and bait it same as you would for a fox, or a polecat, or one of them big hawks we see on the moor."

"I don't understand you. Pray do speak out. What trap could we set?"

"Oh, I'll soon show you that, sir. Here's the bait for it."

Samson opened his wallet, and drew therefrom a round flat cake, which had been cut open; and as he held it on his hand he raised the top, treating it as if it were the lid of a box, and grinned at Fred as he showed him within four slices of boiled salt pork.

"There, sir," he said, as he shut the top down again, "there's a bait for a trap as would catch any hungry man."

"Yes; but what are you going to do?"

"I'll show you, sir. I'm just going to hang that inside yonder hole; and if my brother Nat's there he'll smell it half a mile away, and come and take it. I know him like a lesson. We'll leave it there, go away, and come back again; and if the cake's gone we know they are there."

"We shall know some one is there," Fred said thoughtfully. "Yes, we shall know that Scar is there," he added with more show of animation, "for no one but us two know of the existence of that hole. He must have come out and found your brother."