‘Yes, decidedly. In fact, he spoke of being aware of the confusion your cousin’s affairs must be in, and he offered to assist me in getting his papers into order.’
Nicky looked fixedly at her. ‘He did, did he? Now, why should you need the help of some stranger when it is perfectly well known that my cousin had any number of relatives whom you would apply to if you needed help? By Jove, you have hit upon it, ma’am! Your precious visitor came here to get something from Eustace, and his wanting to go through his papers proves it! Oh, this is famous! Let us go downstairs at once, and hunt for what it may be!’
‘No, that you shall not!’ declared Elinor roundly. ‘Your brother left all those papers in my charge, and no one must look at them but himself and the lawyer who is joined with him as an executor to your cousin’s Will! Besides, it is nonsense! What could there be that anyone should want?’
‘I don’t know, but I’ll swear there is something! Of course, it may not be a paper: I wonder if Eustace had stolen something of value? He was always under the hatches, and –’
‘I will not allow it to be possible!’ said Elinor. ‘Do you wish me to believe that your cousin was a common thief? Such a notion must be absurd!’
‘Well, he stole Harry’s best fishing-rod once,’ argued Nicky. ‘Harry drew his cork for it, what’s more, and he ran to my aunt saying how brutally he had been used. He was the most cow-hearted fellow imaginable!’
‘I dare say, but there is a difference between a boy’s borrowing what does not belong to him, and –’
‘He didn’t borrow it! He stole it, and swore he had no notion where it was! Only Harry had a pretty strong guess where he had hidden it, and he found it. If you don’t believe me, you may ask Ned! And though it is not a thing we speak of in a general way it was for stealing that he was expelled from Eton. At least, he would have been, only that Ned prevailed on them to let him remove him, with nothing said as to the cause.’
‘Good God!’ said Elinor bitterly. ‘A pretty husband I was married to, to be sure!’
‘Oh, he was a shocking fellow!’ said Nicky cheerfully. ‘So you see –’
‘I do not care how shocking he may have been, I will not permit you to tamper with his papers!’ said Elinor, with resolution. ‘It would be most improper in me. Besides, I do not set the least store by all this nonsense! You have refined too much upon what must have some quite simple explanation.’
‘I’ll lay you odds you are wrong!’ offered Nicky. ‘Of course, if you think I should not look at Eustace’s papers I will not do so. I think I should go back to the Hall, and tell Ned what we have discovered. I dare say he may have returned by this time.’
‘Yes, I think you should,’ said Elinor thankfully. ‘But I wish you will secure that door before you go!’
‘No, no, we must on no account do so!’ he replied. ‘I am in great hopes that that fellow will come back again. Indeed, I would wager a pony he will, and we don’t wish to scare him off!’ he smiled engagingly at his fascinated hostess. ‘Now, do we, Cousin Elinor?’
‘Certainly not!’ she said, rising nobly to this occasion. ‘If he should come again, I will offer him refreshment. If only I had thought of it earlier! I do trust my inhospitality may not have given him a distaste of this house!’
‘I knew you were a right one!’ Nicky said. ‘But do be serious, ma’am! You see, if I am in the right of it, and I do think I may be, he will come to get whatever it is he wants, and we must lie in wait for him, and catch him red-handed. I know Ned would say so!’
‘I can readily believe he would,’ said Elinor sardonically.
Nicky replaced the trap-door, and shut the cupboard. ‘I do not see that there is anything more we can do here at this present,’ he said. ‘Let us go downstairs again, cousin. And you must not say a word of this to the Barrows, you know, for besides that we do not wish anyone to know what we have discovered, ten to one they would take fright, and run away, leaving you alone here, and that would not do at all.’
‘At last you have uttered a sentiment with which I find myself in profound agreement!’ said Elinor. ‘But do not delude yourself into fancying that I mean to spend another night in this house with that dreadful door unsecured, for nothing would induce me to do so! Though, to be sure, I have not the least expectation of receiving another such visit from that man!’
He followed her down the stairs. ‘Well, if you have not, you cannot have the least objection to my leaving that door open,’ he said reasonably.
She entered the book-room, and sat down by the fire. ‘I should not, I know,’ she confessed. ‘But females have such unaccountable fancies! You will think me as paltry a creature as your cousin, I dare say, but I must own that there is something very disagreeable to me in the thought that there is a way into this house which is used by one whom you have assured me must be an ugly customer. In fact, even now, in broad daylight, I find I cannot be easy in my mind, and quite dread being obliged to go upstairs.’
‘Oh, you need be under no apprehension, ma’am!’ he assured her. ‘There can be no fear of anyone’s entering that door during the daylight! But I’ll tell you what! While I ride back to the Hall to tell Ned about this, I’ll leave Bouncer to guard you. You will be quite at your ease then, for he is pretty fierce, I can tell you! He took a bite out of the blacksmith’s leg only the other day. He is a splendid dog, and only quite young yet!’
She looked dubiously at the dog, who was stretched out before the fire, fast asleep. ‘Well, if you think...But perhaps he will not stay, if you go.’
‘Yes, he will. I have been training him to do all manner of tricks! Here, Bouncer! Here, boy!’
The hound awoke, and sat up, dipping his ears, and panting fondly at his master. Nicky patted him invigoratingly. ‘Good dog, Bouncer!’ he said. ‘Now, you stay here, and guard her! Do you understand, sir? Sit! That’s it! On guard, Bouncer, mind!’ He straightened himself, regarding his pet proudly. ‘You can see how he understands me, can you not?’ he said. ‘I’ll be off at once. Don’t put yourself to the trouble of coming to the door with me! And don’t be in the fidgets, will you, cousin? I shall be back almost directly, and I will bring Ned to you, Sit, Bouncer! On guard!’
He left the room as he spoke, taking the precaution of shutting the door behind him. The faithful Bouncer bounded over to it, sniffed long and loud at the crack, uttered a whine, and scratched at the panel. Finding it immovable, he returned to the fire, and lay down with his head on his paws, and his eyes fixed on Elinor.
She leaned back in her chair, really a good deal upset by the discovery of the secret stairway, and feeling the need of a period of quiet during which she might compose her mind. Common sense assured her that Nicky’s theories could be nothing more than the products of an ardent imagination, but try as she would she could not hit upon a more reasonable explanation of the Frenchman’s presence in the house on the previous night. He had not seemed to her at all the sort of young man to have made use of the secret door from a high-spirited desire to give his host a fright; nor could she believe him to have been a common housebreaker. Some motive he must have had, but what this was she was much inclined to think no one but himself would ever know. That he would return in the same manner seemed to her to go beyond the bounds of probability, yet however irrational it might be she could not think of that secret stair without feeling her pulses beat fast with trepidation.
She did her best to shake off such foolish fears, and told herself she would be better employed in sorting the linen than in sitting thinking herself into nervous spasms. She got up out of her chair, and would have walked over to the door had it not been unmistakably brought home to her that the intelligent hound at her feet was labouring under some confusion of ideas. He too rose, and with bristles lifting all along his back, and his lips curling away from a set of admirable teeth, placed himself before her, growling.
Elinor stood still, lo
oking down at him doubtfully. ‘Good dog!’ she said, in what she hoped was a reassuring voice. ‘Lie down, sir!’
Bouncer barked at her.
‘You stupid creature, he did not mean you to keep me chained to my chair!’ scolded Elinor. ‘Lie down this instant!’
Bouncer stood his ground, and went on growling, in a sort of crescendo which could not be regarded as other than menacing. Elinor sat down again. Pleased with his success, Bouncer followed suit, and lolled his tongue out, and panted gently.
Eight
Since the clock in the book-room did not go, Elinor had no means of ascertaining for how long she was left confronting Nicky’s zealous pet. It seemed a very long time. While she remained still, Bouncer lay peaceably enough, with his head on his paws, and his eyes half-closed; but the smallest movement brought his head and his bristles up, while an attempt to win him over by blandishments he took in such bad part that Elinor thought it prudent to desist. Her workbox, and the pile of linen to be mended were alike out of her reach, but she found that by stretching out her arm she could reach the what-not that stood near her chair. There was a small book upon one of its shelves, and she managed to secure this without incurring censure from her guardian. It proved to be a copy of the Turf Remembrancer, and for the next hour and more it was Elinor’s only solace. She culled from it much valuable information, such as had not before come in her way, and followed with bewildered interest the careers of several animals who rejoiced in names which ranged from the comparatively commonplace to the wildly fanciful. She could conjure up little enthusiasm for Lightning or Thunderbolt, but read with satisfaction an account of parentage and prowess of Watch-them-and-catch-them, and of Fear-not-Victorious, and would have been almost ready to have answered a catechism on their form, and the weights they would be likely to carry in any forthcoming race.
But however entrancing the names of race-horses might be the Turf Remembrancer could not but pall upon her. By the time Barrow came into the room, midway through the afternoon, she was heartily sick of it, and would have been hard put to it not to have thrown it at Nicky’s head had it been he, and not Barrow, who entered.
‘You never ate the luncheon Mrs Barrow sent up to the dining-parlour, ma’am,’ observed Barrow reproachfully. ‘She made sure you’d be glad of a bite, too.’
‘Yes, and so I should,’ said Elinor crossly, ‘but this stupid dog of Mr Nicholas’s will not let me move from my chair! Do, pray, call him off!’
‘Whatever did Master Nicky take and leave that nasty brute here for?’ demanded Barrow, eyeing Bouncer with dislike.
‘He – well, he thought I should have him to guard me!’ explained Elinor rather lamely.
‘Have him to guard you?’ said Barrow incredulously. ‘It’s midsummer moon with Master Nick, surelye! What would you be wanting with a guard, ma’am?’
‘I don’t want one at all, and I wish you will call him away!’
Barrow looked with considerable misgiving at the dog, Bouncer returned the stare enigmatically. ‘The thing is,’ said Barrow, ‘that there dog is a tedious fierce brute, ma’am, and I’d as lief let Master Nick call him off.’
‘But Master Nick is not here!’
Barrow looked nonplussed. As his mistress clearly expected him to do something, he patted his leg in a tentative way, and invited Bouncer to come to him. Bouncer growled at him. This caused the servitor to retreat strategically into the doorway, seeing which Bouncer rose to his feet and barked with all the zest of a dog who finds his threats succeed beyond his expectations.
‘Try to tempt him away with some meat!’ commanded the exasperated prisoner.
‘Ay, that’s what I’ll do!’ agreed Barrow, and went off to procure some of the mutton laid out for Elinor’s refreshment.
He returned with this, and with Mrs Barrow too, who stalked in armed with a long-handled broom, declaring her intention of soon ridding Mistress of the plaguey creature. Bouncer, not unnaturally, took instant exception to the broom, and such a pandemonium of barking, scolding, and growling ensured that Elinor could only beg her would-be rescuer to go away. Barrow then held down the plate of meat, and chirped at Bouncer, who made one of his short rushes at him, and so caused him to drop the plate, and leap back to the door. Bouncer hastily consumed the offering, licked his lips, and waited expectantly for more.
‘There’s only one thing to be done, ma’am,’ said Barrow. ‘I’ll have to shoot him, that’s what I’ll have to do.’
‘Good God, no!’ cried Elinor. ‘I would not have you do such a thing for the world! Why, whatever would Master Nicky say?’
‘Master Nicky indeed!’ exclaimed Mrs Barrow indignantly. ‘I’ll Master Nicky him when I see him! The idea of his playing off his tricks on you, ma’am! I’ve a very good mind to tell his lordship what a naughty boy he is!’
‘Indeed, I – I think he meant it for the best!’ said Elinor. ‘And he said he would come back presently. Do you think you could contrive to bring a tray to me, with some bread-and-butter and coffee? And perhaps you might also push that table to where I may reach it, so that I may at least occupy myself with darning those tablecloths!’
Bouncer seemed disinclined at first to permit this disarrangement of the room, but Mrs Barrow had the happy notion of bribing him with a large marrow-bone. He accepted this, and lay down with it between his paws, gnawing it, and beyond growling in a minatory fashion made no further objection to the table’s being pushed towards Elinor. He seemed so intent on his bone that she tried the experiment of rising from her chair. This was going too far, however, and she was obliged to sit down again in a hurry. Bouncer then returned to his bone. His teeth appeared to be in excellent condition. When Mrs Barrow cautiously came back into the room with a tray, he cocked a watchful eye at her, and paused in his work of demolition to consider the possibilities of the tray. He evidently thought it worth while to investigate it, for he rose, and approached the table. Mrs Barrow told him to be off, so he chased her from the room, and returned to try what blackmail could achieve in the way of sustenance. Elinor gave him a crust, which he rejected scornfully. He went back to his bone, and remained happily occupied with it for some time, and finally buried what remained of it under one of the sofa cushions.
‘You are an odious animal!’ Elinor said severely. ‘I hope your master beats you!’
He yawned at her contemptuously, cast himself down before the fire again, and resumed his vigil.
Not until nearly five o’clock did Nicky return to Highnoons, and by that time Elinor was in such a temper that she could happily have boxed his ears. He was admitted by Barrow, who had evidently told him how his plan had miscarried, for he came at once to the book-room, laughing delightedly, and saying: ‘Oh, Cousin Elinor, indeed I beg your pardon! Have you been there all day? I don’t mean to laugh, but it is the drollest thing!’ He bent over Bouncer, who was frisking round him joyfully. ‘You rascal, what have you been about? Yes, good dog, down! down!’
‘He is not a good dog! He is an excessively bad dog!’ said Elinor, quite exasperated. ‘It is all very well for you to stand there laughing, and encouraging that horrid creature, but I am quite out of patience with you!’
‘Well, I am really excessively sorry,’ Nicky said penitently, ‘but it was not Bouncer’s fault! He did not perfectly understand me! But only fancy his guarding you like that all this while! I cannot help being pleased with him, for, you know, I was not above half sure that he would guard anything! You must own that he is a clever fellow!’
‘I own nothing of the sort,’ said Elinor, getting up, and shaking out her skirts. ‘He appears to me to have a very disordered intellect. And pray what have you been about all this time? And where is your brother?’
‘Oh, he is not here!’ Nicky said blithely. ‘When I reached home again our butler told me that he was gone up to London. He will not be back until to-morrow, I dare say. But do not be in a pucker,
ma’am! I mean to stay with you, and only fancy if we caught that stranger without Ned’s knowing anything about it! That would be something, wouldn’t it?’
‘Nicky, I am in no humour for this nonsense, and so I warn you!’ said Elinor. ‘If Lord Carlyon is away from home, I insist on your securing that door!’
‘Oh, no, I have a much better notion than that!’ Nicky said blithely. ‘If you should not dislike it, I mean to spend the night in that room above-stairs, and then, if anyone comes up the secret stair, I shall catch him.’
The outraged widow gave him to understand in the plainest terms that nothing could exceed her dislike of this project. He remained entirely unconvinced, merely setting himself to coax and cajole her into relenting. After twenty minutes of his persuasive eloquence she began to weaken, partly because she was a kind-hearted woman, and perceived that a refusal to let him amuse himself in this way would bitterly disappoint him; and partly because from having had a good deal to do with young gentlemen of tender years she was well aware that however weary of the argument she might be he would be ready to continue it with unabated vigour until a late hour of the night. She gave way at last, and with an acid reference to the well-known effect of the dropping of water upon stones, said that he might do as he pleased.
Passing over this rider with all the air of one too well-accustomed to listen to such odious comparisons to pay any heed to them, Nicky favoured her with one of his blinding smiles, and said that he had known all along that she was pluck to the backbone. She thanked him for this tribute, and enquired how he meant to account for his presence in the house to the Barrows.