Held Fast For England Part 4

"Don't see any signs of any more, admiral. There are the two plate chests in the pa.s.sage, as if they had been brought out from the butler's strong room, in readiness to take away."

"Where is the butler? He must have heard the pistol shots!" the admiral exclaimed angrily.

"He is not in his room, admiral. We looked in to bring him with us.

The door was open, but he isn't there."

"There is another man in the drawing room, tied." Bob said. "He was putting a lot of things into a sack."

"The scoundrel! Perhaps that is the butler," the admiral said.

"Well, Emma, you had better go back to bed again.

"Jackson, you stand guard over these two villains here, and split their heads open, if they venture to move.

"Now, let us go and see to this other fellow."

The admiral proceeded downstairs, followed by the boys. The other two servants were standing beside the third robber, who was still insensible.

"You keep watch over him, John," the admiral said.

"William, you come with us. There is another man in the drawing room, but he is tied."

"There is the key, sir," Bob said, producing it. "We thought it safest to lock him up."

"Upon my word, young gentlemen, you seem to have thought of everything. If I were in command of a ship, I should like to have you all as midshipmen."

The door was opened. The man was still lying on the ground, but had rolled some distance from where they had left him. He had succeeded in getting his feet loosened from the handkerchief, but the whipcord round his wrists had resisted all his efforts to break or slacken it. He was panting heavily from the exertions he had made.

"It is Harper," the admiral said, in a tone of indignation and disgust.

"So, you treacherous scoundrel, it was you who let these men in, was it? Well, it is a hanging matter, my lad; and if any fellow deserves the rope, you do.

"You had better go and get some more cord, Williams, and tie all these four fellows up, securely. Let Jackson see to the knots.

"Where did the scoundrels get in?" he asked, turning to the boys.

"At the door at the end of the pa.s.sage, sir, where the plate chests are standing. We found it open--here is the key of it. We locked it, after we came in, so as to prevent anyone from getting away.

"There is another man, with a cart, in the road."

"We will see to him, directly we have got the others all tied up safely," the admiral said. "That is the first thing to see to."

In five minutes, the four men were laid side by side in the hall, securely bound hand and foot.

"Now, Williams, you keep guard over them.

"Jackson, do you and John sally out. There is a cart standing outside the gate, and a fellow in it. Bring him in, and lay him alongside the others."

The boys followed the two men, to see the capture. The light had broadened out over the sky, and it was almost sunrise as they sallied out. They went quietly along, until they reached the gate--which stood ajar--then they flung it open and rushed out. To their disappointment, the cart was standing about fifty yards lower down the hill. The man was in it, with his whip in one hand and the reins in another, and was looking back; and the moment he saw them, he struck the horse and drove off at the top of his speed. The pace was such that it was hopeless for them to think of following him.

"I expect he heard the pistol shots," Jackson said, "and sheered off a bit, so as to be able to cut and run if he found his consorts were in trouble. Well, we cannot help it; we have taken four prizes out of the five, and I call that pretty fair."

"I think we had better go, now," Bob said. "We have got a friend waiting for us."

"Then he must wait a bit longer," Jackson said. "The admiral will want to ask you some more questions. But if your friend is anywhere near, one of you might run and tell him to back and fill a bit, till you come to him."

"Tell him to do what?" Jim Sankey asked.

"Tell him to wait a bit, lad."

"I will run up," Wharton said.

"Shall I tell him we shan't want him at all, today, Bob?"

"I think so, Wharton. You see it is four o'clock, now; and we mayn't be able to get away for half an hour, and it will be too late, then. Besides, Jim and I have been knocked about too much to care for rabbit hunting, now. You tell him we will go some other day."

"You needn't tell him that, Wharton," Fullarton put in. "It will be some time before we get a chance, you may be sure."

"All right! Tell him to go home then, Wharton. Tell him I will make it all right with him, for losing his morning's work. Of course, you will come in here, when you come down the hill again."

Wharton nodded, and started at a run up the hill; while his companions accompanied the two men into the house. The admiral was down in the hall again. He had now had time to add to his former, scanty costume.

"Get the shutters of the drawing room open, Jackson," he said, after hearing the report of the man's escape, "and tell the maids--I suppose they are all up--to light a fire and get some coffee ready, at once, and something to eat.

"Now, young gentlemen, sit down and tell me all about this business. Now, which of you will be spokesman?"

Jim nodded to Bob.

"It's his doing, sir. I mean about our coming in here. We should never have thought anything about the cart, if it hadn't been for Bob; and we didn't much like coming, only he pretty well made us, and he arranged it all."

"That's all rot," Bob said. "We were just all in it together, sir, and this is how it was."

And he told the whole story of what had taken place.

"Well, you couldn't have done better, if you had been officers in His Majesty's service," the admiral said. "You have saved me the loss of my two plate chests, of all the plate in this room--and that couldn't be counted in money, for they were most of the things given me, at different times, on service--and of 500 pounds I had in that box upstairs--altogether, at least 2000 pounds in money value. More than that, you prevented my being captured; and it would have been a sorer blow, to me, than the loss of the money, if those scoundrels had had their way, and had got off scot free.

"But you haven't told me, yet, how you happened to be going up the hill, at half past three o'clock in the morning. What on earth were you doing there? Surely your master does not allow you to ramble about, in the middle of the night."

"Well, no, sir, that is the worst of it," Bob said. "You see, I had arranged with one of the fishermen's boys, who has got a first-rate dog, that we could meet him upon the Common, and do some rabbit hunting. We slipped out from Tulloch's, and meant to have been back before anyone was up. And now I expect we shall get it nicely, because I suppose it must all come out."

The admiral laughed.

"You are four nice young scamps!" he said--for Wharton had rejoined them, before Bob had finished the story--"but it is not for me to blame you. It will certainly have to be told, lads, because you will have to appear as witnesses at the trial of these fellows; but I will go down myself, the first thing in the morning, and speak to your master."

"Thank you, sir," Bob said. "It won't make any difference about the thrashing; we are bound to get that. But we shan't mind that, we are pretty well accustomed to it. Still, if you speak for us, I expect we shall get off with that; otherwise I don't know what Tulloch would have done, when he found out that we had been slipping out at night."

"I expect it is not the first time you have done it?"