CHAPTER XIX
We found out we were in a big attic that covered the whole of the house.Part of it was floored over and part of it was just joists with the lathand plaster showing on the under side. It looked as if there was aboutan acre in it, and it was full of angles and brick chimneys and little,funny-shaped windows, and rubbish, and trunks and goodness knowswhat--except things to eat.
We were there, and no chance of getting out right away, so the idea ofgetting something to eat was one that came pretty quick. It went aboutas soon as it came.
"Guess we'll have to gnaw air," says I, kind of down-hearted.
"L-l-lucky," says Mark, "if Jethro don't gnaw us."
"What'll Plunk and Tallow do when we don't show up?"
"Nothin', I hope," says Mark. "Rock'll f-find some way to tell 'em we'repenned up here, and I guess they'll have sense enough to do n-nothin'but hang around to see what t-turns up."
"They'll hang around," says I. "You couldn't drive 'em away. Don't thinkthey'd sneak off and leave us, do you?"
"Not them," says Mark, and the way he said it would have sounded prettygood to Tallow and Plunk if they had heard. It showed that Mark _knew_them, and was sure he could depend on them no matter what happened.
"L-let's rummage around," says Mark.
We stirred things up good, because Mark said you never could tell whatyou were going to find in an attic, and if there was anything there tothrow any light on Rock's affairs, why, we wanted to know it. There weretrunks and boxes of old clothes, and busted chairs, and piles of oldmagazines and books, and hats, and shoes. You could find 'most anythingyou didn't want there, but not much you did want, unless you wasfiguring on dressing up for a masquerade.
Over in a corner, though, I found a little rocking-chair for a baby, andwhat was left of a doll's house and some busted toys.
"Look here," says I. "I wonder what Mr. Wigglesworth was doin' withthese kid things. Didn't have any that I ever heard of."
"No," says Mark, but his eyes began to shine like everything. "Not thatwe heard of. Maybe, Binney, there's n-n-nothin' to this, but maybe it'sthe m-most important thing we've run onto in this whole business."
"How?" says I.
"B-because," says he, "it makes it l-look as if what I was hopin' was somight be so."
"Um!" says I. "How int'restin'."
Well, we kept on digging into things, and after a while Mark hauled outone of those old-fashioned photograph-albums that fasten with a brasscatch in front. It wasn't a big plush one, like we got to home on thecenter-table, but a little leather one about six inches long and fourwide and two thick. We went over by a window and looked through it. My!but it was comical--the clothes folks used to wear, and the faces theywore when they went to have their pictures taken!
We looked at every picture careful. Along at the front we recognized Mr.Wigglesworth when he was a young man, with Burnside whiskers and funnypants, and his hair all plastered down in front and combed up on theside. After a few pages was another picture of a young woman sitting ona rock with Mr. Wigglesworth standing behind her with his hand on hershoulder.
"Look at that!" says Mark, excited as a bantam rooster. "He was married.See? B-b-bet that p-picture was taken on their weddin' trip. It's aweddin'-trip-lookin' picture," says he.
"Yes," says I, "it sure looks foolish."
"Hum!" says he. "This is important."
"Good," says I.
But the next picture--that was what startled both of us, for--maybe youwon't believe it--but it was the Man With the Black Gloves, only abouttwenty years younger than he is, and not wearing the gloves, but just asmean and ornery-looking then as he is now.
"There," says Mark, "I g-guess when we leave here we t-take this albumalong."
"Why?" says I.
"All those p-pictures," says he, "has the names of the photographers on'em, and the p-places where they was taken. We can go there or writethere, and t-trace back somethin' about Mr. Wigglesworth's family."
But we hadn't seen all the album yet. There was, farther on, a pictureof Mrs. Wigglesworth (at least we guessed it must be Mrs. Wigglesworth)with a baby on her lap, and Mark was like to jump out of his skin.
"I knew it m-must be," says he. "We're gettin' hot," says he.
After that came a lot of pictures of a kid--a girl, and she kept gettingolder and older, until the last one showed she was maybe eighteen ornineteen, somewheres around there--about as old as a school-teacher,maybe. And then there wasn't any more of her, and there wasn't any moreof Mrs. Wigglesworth, either.
But Mark was satisfied. "Look at that last p-picture," says he. "Whod-does it resemble?"
"Nobody I kin see," says I.
"All right," says he; "jest wait."
"I hain't got anythin' else to do," says I, "so I might 's well."
He stepped back and almost went off of the floor and stepped on the lathand plaster between the joists.
"Lookout!" says I. "You'll go right through."
He slapped his knee. "Right t-through!" says he. "Ain't we fat-heads?Say, Pekoe's room's over about there, hain't it?" says he, pointingacross the attic.
"Somewheres," says I.
"Anyhow," says he, "we hain't been wastin' time."
He went to the back of the house and paced off toward the front.
"I calc'late Pekoe's room is about under here," says he, and got down onhis knees and began working cautious at the plaster between two lathswith his knife. He picked and picked, and at last got a hole throughabout as big around as a lead-pencil, then he got down on his stummickand looked through it.
"Mr. Pekoe," says he.
"What?" says Pekoe's voice, kind of muffled-like.
"We're h-here," says Mark, "up in the attic. Jethro's got us cornered,but he don't know it."
"That's where you're ahead of me," says he; "Jethro's got me corneredand he _does_ know it."
"Tell me all you know about Rock and his f-f-father," says Mark.
"Don't know much about Rock," says Pekoe, "except that his father alwayskept him in school, and sometimes had pretty hard work to find the moneyto pay for it. Mostly Big Rock was in South America or Alaska or Burmaor Africa or somewheres, trying to find a gold mine or a diamond mine,or somethin'. He never got to the United States at all. He wasn't afeller that talked much, but when it came to _acting_ well, you can bethe was right there. There never was a squarer pal than Big Rock, andthere's men that loves him from Nome to Cape Town."
"Where was Rock's m-m-mother?"
"Big Rock never mentioned her, but I knew she was dead. Been dead sinceRock was a little baby. Guess that's why Big Rock went toglobe-trottin'."
"You don't know her name?"
"Never heard it."
"And Big Rock's d-dead now?"
"Not by a jugful," says Pekoe. "I thought he was, and he thought he wasgoin' to be, but I got a letter from him a week ago, and he says he gotover that sickness, and for me not to take Rock to Wicksville if Ihadn't, and if I had, to git him back again, because he didn't want theboy to go there while he was alive. He says he didn't want to bebeholdin' to a man while there was a chance of keepin' away from it. Theway he wrote made me think he had some sort of a grudge ag'in' this Mr.Wigglesworth."
"And that's all you know?"
"Every livin' thing," says he.
"All right," says Mark. "Now we won't t-talk any more, 'cause Jethromight hear. We're g-goin' to git away, and we'll git you away as soon aswe kin. I guess things is g-goin' to happen around here perty sudden."
"Hope so," says Pekoe. "They would happen sudden if Big Rock was to showup."
"Good-by," says Mark, "till we see you again."
"Now," says I, "let's figger on how we're goin' to escape from thedungeon."
"'Tain't a d-dungeon," says Mark. "We're shut up in the tower of theKnight we've been f-fightin'. There's men-at-arms crowdin' all around,and the drawb-bridge is up and the moat's full of water. I guess he'sholdin' us for ransom."
"If I don't git someth
in' to eat perty soon," says I, "he won't haveanythin' _to_ ransom."
"Food," says Mark, "hain't to be thought about in sich circ'mstances.Here we be shut in the same t-tower with the young Duke that we'reliegemen of, and his father's retainer, the Knight Pekoe. What's foodcompared with sich things?"
"Even a Duke," says I, "wouldn't be much good if he didn't eat for aweek or two. I guess they'd be lookin' for a new Duke to take his job."
"The b-best of it," says Mark, "is that the Duke's secret is hid in thisCastle Wigglesworth. If we could git it we could rescue the Duke and theKnight would wish he hadn't ever been born."
"You hain't figgerin' on tryin' to follow up that paper thingumbob ofMr. Wigglesworth's, be you?"
"We're inside the castle," says Mark, "and the enemy don't know it.Never have a b-better chance to snoop around, if we wait till afterdark."
"Without nothin' to eat," says I.
He jest sniffed.
"And," says I, "with the risk of this Knight Jethro findin' ussnoopin'."
"You hain't s-s-scairt, be you?" says he.
"I hain't what you'd call easy in my mind," says I.
"All right," says he. "If that's the way you f-f-feel, we'll jestescape, and I'll git Plunk or Tallow to come back with me when we cangit a chanct."
"You won't," says I, "because so long as I'm here I might as well stick.If them kids can do it, I guess I can."
"I knew you would, Binney," says he, which ended that. I was elected tostay, hungry or no hungry, so I settled down and made believe I waseating an apple pie. But that didn't do much good. It just made mehungrier.
"Wish we could c-c-communicate with our faithful friends, the KnightsTallow and Plunk," says he.
"We can try," says I.
"There's a ladder l-leadin' to a trap door in the roof," says Mark."Let's go up it and see what there is to see."
The ladder went up over in a front corner, and I scrambled up it first.Mark came right behind me. I unhooked the trap door cautious and shovedit up; then I poked my head through. There was a flat place about sixfeet square with a railing around it, and I knew we were on top of asort of little tower on the front of the house.
"Come on," says I, "but keep down. We can hide behind this railin'here."
"'Tain't a railin'," says Mark, "it's a battlement."
That's the way with him. When he's playing a thing he _plays_ it, andsticks to details. Everything you say or do has got to be the way itwould be if what you was doing was real instead of make-believe. He wasthe greatest make-believer I ever saw.
We crawled out on the roof, and looked around pretty careful, I can tellyou. Nobody was in sight for a while. Then we saw Rock in the yard, andafter a while we saw Plunk and Tallow coming toward him. They stoppedand talked with their heads close together.
"Our t-trusty friends," says Mark, "have found a way of t-talkin' to theyoung Duke."
"Yes," says I, "they're doin' it the usual way--with their mouths."
"We got to let them know we're h-h-here," says he.
"Yell at 'em," says I.
He just looked at me, and then got his slingshot out of his pocket andput a pebble in the leather. Then his eyes sort of twinkled, and hesays, "If I hit where I aim, Plunk Smalley's g-g-goin' to git as'prise."
Plunk's back was toward us, so I sort of guessed.
Mark aimed careful and let her fly. In a jiffy Plunk clapped his hand tothe seat of his pants and let out a holler you could have heard inIllinoy. Then him and the others looked all around and Mark stuck up hishead pretty slow, and then his hand, and waggled it.
Plunk and Tallow and Rock saw it, but they had sense enough not towaggle back. They knew Jethro might see them. So they just nodded theirheads and made believe they was looking at something else.
"Now," says Mark, "we'll give 'em their orders."
"How?" says I.
"Write 'em," says he, "and chuck 'em over." He got out his pencil andwrote a note that said:
_Faithful Knights_:--The Knight Binney and me is safe. Our presencehain't known, and we got to talk with the prisoner Pekoe. In the towerwhere we're hid we found other secrets that is important to the youngDuke. Tell him his father's alive, and is a great man, so the prisonerPekoe says. We hain't going to escape till we see if we can get past themen-at-arms and the bad Knight Jethro, and hunt around in the dungeonsunder this castle to find out what the writing left by the EarlWigglesworth leads to. You faithful knights stick around till you hearfrom us, but don't be seen. If we don't show up by midnight, you betterwake up Lawyer Jones and tell him what has happened, and for him to comeout with his men-at-arms to rescue us. If you hear three whistles insidego and bang like everything on the front door and holler fire. All inthe young Duke's service,
_Mark Tidd, Knight_
Then he folded it and, making sure Jethro wasn't watching, let itflutter over the edge. It fell to the grass quite a ways off and prettysoon we saw the knights and the young Duke go over to it, and Tallow puthis foot on it. After a while he sat down, and we saw him stuff it inhis pocket. Then they all went over to the arbor and out of sight. Weknew they were reading the note, and that they would stick just likeMark told them.