At the earliest opportunity on the following day Madge, Betty, and John returned to the loft to finish their interrupted game. They were three cavaliers hiding from Cromwell's soldiers, and really a better place of concealment could not have been found than the loft, where by simply closing a door they were in almost complete darkness. Madge, as captain, neglected no opportunity of ensuring the safety of her followers. She made them crouch down behind the straw, and lie so still that even the most sharp-sighted Roundheads would scarcely have suspected their existence.
"I will steal out to keep watch," she whispered, creeping on her hands and knees towards the closed door. "Posted by the crack of the hinges I can survey the whole country, and watch the march of the rebel troops without being seen. Then when— Oh!"
The door suddenly flew open in her face, almost knocking her over. A head appeared at the top of the ladder. It was Lewis Brand's!
If the children had really been discovered by Cromwell's soldiers they could hardly have been more frightened. Lewis had time to step off the ladder and come into the loft before they recovered themselves sufficiently to speak.
"You don't seem overjoyed to see a friend?" he remarked sneeringly.
"Oh, do go away!" cried Betty nervously. "Somebody will see you! I know they will!"
"It's very kind of you to be so anxious on my account, but I think I can take care of myself," said Lewis with a disagreeable laugh. "You thought you had all got away from me, did you? Pretty sort of friends, I call you! All going off one day without saying a word, and never coming back."
"After all, we are not obliged to play with you!" exclaimed Madge with some spirit.
"Aren't you indeed? We shall soon see!" replied Lewis. "I'm not at all sure that you can get away from me! I sat on the wall and watched you come down here after dinner, then I seized my opportunity when nobody was about, and ran across the fields to join you. It was worth seeing how frightened you all were when I quietly stepped in at the door! And wherever you go to play I shall turn up in just the same way. You see if I don't!"
"What nonsense! We can play in the garden if we like!" said Madge defiantly.
"So you can! And find me hiding in the potting-shed and behind the cucumber-frames," replied Lewis.
Betty began to cry. It was not very brave of her, but then she had been rejoicing so much at getting rid of Lewis and his mysteries, and was so horribly disappointed when they all returned.
"I won't have you coming back here to tease us all!" cried Madge angrily. "I am sorry we ever spoke to you. It was wrong of us, and I heartily wish we hadn't. If you go on—"
"Mind, you promised faithfully not to tell anybody about me," interrupted Lewis. "If you say a single word about my coming over the wall you will have told a lie."
"Yes, that's the worst of it," admitted Madge. "And yet it seems just as untruthful to meet you and pretend we are only playing by ourselves. Either way it's wrong."
"Very likely," said Lewis carelessly. "That's your affair. It's too late to draw back now."
There was a silence, during which the three Wests heartily repented their naughty folly in having secretly made such an undesirable acquaintance.
Presently there was a heavy footstep in the yard below.
"What's that?" whispered Lewis, in a very different voice to the bullying accents in which he had just been speaking.
"It is Barton driving the cows into the yard to be milked," replied Madge softly. "He always does it about this time."
"But how am I to get down the ladder to go home if he is standing at the bottom?" inquired Lewis nervously.
"I never thought of that! He will be in the yard for the next hour," answered Madge. "Of course we don't mind passing him, because we are allowed to play up here; only he doesn't like us making the hay as untidy as it is now. But I'm sure you can't get down without being seen."
"You won't all run away and leave me caught like a rat in a trap, will you?" begged Lewis, almost whimpering with fright.
"Is it likely?" replied Madge in her finest tone of scorn. "Stay quiet," she added with contemptuous kindness, "and we will get you out of it somehow."
It is in moments of peril that a true leader shines most. While Lewis lay cowering behind the straw, and the twins waited expectantly for some suggestion, Madge calmly looked round the loft and originated a plan. "I know how you can get away," she said, after some moments of earnest thought. "There is that little door at the back of the loft, it does not look out into the yard but out upon the hay-ricks, in fact that is where they put the hay up into the loft. If you get down that side Barton can't possibly see you while he is milking the cows in the yard."
"Oh, that's a capital idea! I'll go at once!" cried Lewis. "Not that I am really afraid of your old man or anybody," he added, with a return of his customary boastful manner. "Only I don't want to get you all into trouble."
"You have become very brave all of a sudden," said Madge, who by this time heartily despised him for his mixture of bragging and cowardice. "It's fortunate you are not afraid of anything," she added rather maliciously, "because you see there is no ladder outside this door, so you will have to drop down to the ground as best you can."
"It isn't very far, I suppose?" asked Lewis anxiously. But when the loft door was at last opened—rather a difficult job to accomplish quietly, as the hinges were rusty and would creak,—he declared that he could not possibly get down without a ladder.
"But you must!" exclaimed Madge impatiently. "It's your only chance of getting away without being seen."
"I shall be hurt! I know I shall!" moaned Lewis, as he drew back with a shiver from the open door.
"It isn't so very far," said Betty encouragingly. "Not higher than a room, I think."
Still Lewis hung back. "Oh, dear Madge," he whined, "couldn't you manage to carry the ladder round from the yard to the door at the back?"
"Well, if you can't possibly get down without it I will try!" said Madge desperately. "Betty and John must come with me, as the ladder is so long I can't carry it alone. I am afraid Barton will make a fuss when he sees us moving it, though."
"Oh no, he won't! I dare say he won't notice you," asserted Lewis, only intent on his own safety, and not caring in the least what risks other people ran on his account.
But in the excitement of the moment the children had raised their voices rather loudly, and Barton heard them as he milked the cows in the yard below.
"Now, you young ladies and Master John, you are breaking that straw all to pieces, I'll be bound!" he shouted. "I'll be up and see what you are about directly I've done with this cow, that I will! Tossing the hay all over the floor, when it was only put tidy the other day!"
"Will he come up really?" whispered Lewis, white with terror. "Yes? Oh, help me to get away! Help me!"
"I will try," said Madge, once more taking the lead; "but you must do as I tell you. Now if you had a rope to hold on to do you think you could get down to the ground?"
"Yes, I think I could. But where is the rope? Please be quick!"
"Of course we can't get a rope here!" answered Madge sharply. She was losing all patience with this coward, who only thought of his own comfort and safety. However, she had pledged herself to do her best for him, so she continued: "We will tie all our pocket-handkerchiefs together. They will reach a good way towards the ground."
This really seemed an excellent idea, although when it came to be worked out John could not make any contribution, having left his handkerchief in the pocket of another coat. The knots also took up a terrible amount of material, so that the completed rope was not a very long affair.
"Do you think it is strong?" asked Lewis nervously. "And that you can hold my weight?"
"No fear of that!" Madge squatted down by the door, Betty held her firmly by the waist, and John tugged at the back. "Now we are ready," they said.
There was really no excuse for any further delay. Lewis desperately seized the end of the knotted handkerchiefs and stood for a moment irresolute on the edge of the wall. Then suddenly, thinking he heard Barton coming behind him, he sprang forward with such a jerk that the handkerchiefs slipped through his fingers and he fell heavily to the ground.
"Well, that is his own fault, not ours!" exclaimed Madge. "We held the rope tight enough, and if he chose to jump in that silly way nobody could help it!" Her indignation, however, gave way to fear, as Lewis continued to lie motionless on the ground. "Is he hurt, or only shamming?" she said. "Lewis! Lewis! get up and run home before anyone sees you!" Even this appeal produced no effect on the prostrate figure, and the children became seriously alarmed.
"I don't think he can be pretending," observed Betty; "he would be afraid to lie there so near the yard. Besides, he is in such a funny position."
"I must go down and see what is the matter," said Madge decidedly. "No, I sha'n't try the handkerchiefs, we have had enough of them, and I don't think you two really are strong enough to hold me up." Without waiting to discuss the matter any further she climbed down the ladder and ran through the yard.
"Hullo, Miss Madge, where are you off to?" cried old Barton from the corner of the cow-house. "Up to some mischief again, I can see by the pace you are running? Whatever have you been doing now, I wonder?"
Madge rushed on without answering, and disappeared round the end of the buildings. Lewis was still lying in a sort of crumpled-up heap when she reached him. He did not attempt to rise or even speak when she pulled him by the arm. "I am afraid he must be badly hurt!" she cried anxiously to Betty and John, who were staring with white frightened faces from the open door of the loft above.
LEWIS WAS STILL LYING IN A SORT OF CRUMPLED-UP HEAPLEWIS WAS STILL LYING IN A SORT OF CRUMPLED-UP HEAP
LEWIS WAS STILL LYING IN A SORT OF CRUMPLED-UP HEAPLEWIS WAS STILL LYING IN A SORT OF CRUMPLED-UP HEAP
"What shall you do?" they asked. "Will he get better? Can we help?"
"It's something too bad for us. I shall call Barton to look at him," replied Madge. There were exclamations of astonishment from the twins. "Yes, it's no good trying to keep it a secret about Lewis any longer," she said gravely. "Of course we shall be scolded, but that can't be helped."
When Barton came he took a very grave view of the case. "Seems as if the young gentleman were mortal bad," he said. "Better run up to the house and call someone at once. It's a question if he ever walks home again, wherever he comes from!"
"Does Barton mean he will die?" asked John in an awestruck whisper as the three children ran off for help. Nobody cared to be left behind with Barton by the side of that still figure on the ground.
"Oh no! Barton only said that to try and frighten us," answered Madge with a would-be hopeful air. But in her heart fear that Lewis was already dead so overcame all other considerations that she rushed into the house calling for help without a moment's thought of the blame she was about to incur.
Fortunately Captain West was at home that afternoon. He understood at once that somebody was hurt while doing something in the loft, and naturally concluded that it was old Barton, whose business it was to carry down the hay when wanted.
"Did he slip on the ladder?" inquired Captain West as he hurried back with the children.
"Oh no! getting out of that little square door at the back of the loft. You see, he was sliding down our handkerchiefs and they slipped—"
"Barton sliding down your handkerchiefs?" repeated Captain West in a tone of great astonishment.
"No, of course not!" laughed Madge rather hysterically. "It was Lewis—that's to say, a boy who came over the wall—when we were in the Eagle's Nest, you know."
"I don't know in the least what you are talking about," said Captain West; "but I can see he is badly hurt," he added as they came in sight of Lewis lying just as he fell, for old Barton had been afraid of trying to move him alone.
"Look here," began Captain West after a short examination of the injured boy, "you, Betty, run back to the house and ask your mother to send for the doctor. Don't frighten her more than you can help. John, go and fetch the gardener as quickly as possible; we must get this poor boy carried home and properly attended to. Now, Madge," he added when the twins had started on their errands, "collect yourself, please, and speak the truth. Where does this boy come from?"
"From Mrs. Howard's, over the wall," answered Madge quietly, though she could not help trembling with excitement. "He lives with her and is very cruelly treated, so we began to talk one day when we were in the Eagle's Nest, and—"
"That will do for the present," interrupted Captain West. "Now I don't want any of you here any more. Go off to the schoolroom and stay there till bed-time, unless I send for you."
After so much excitement it seemed intolerably dull to sit quietly hour after hour in the schoolroom without knowing what was going on. Even Miss Thompson could not attend to them, for she was sitting with their mother, who happened to be unwell in bed. The children had time to talk over and imagine every kind of terrible conclusion to the accident before their father was ready to come and see them.
"Will he get better?" Madge inquired in a trembling voice as soon as the door opened.
"Get better? Yes, I should hope so in every way," answered Captain West, sitting down and taking the twins gently on his knees, while Madge hung over the back of his chair. "It's a bad accident though," he continued. "A broken leg and some injury to the head. He only regained consciousness just before I left Mrs. Howard's."
"Oh, what were they doing with him? I hope they won't lock him into the cellar now he is ill!" cried Betty compassionately.
"My dear child! What are you thinking about? Do we usually lock people in cellars when they are ill?" laughed her father. "No, he was in a remarkably nice bedroom, with a hospital nurse and Dr. Brown in attendance on him when I left."
Betty felt greatly relieved. It seemed impossible to believe that much cruelty would take place in the presence of Dr. Brown, who always ordered her black-currant tea when she had a cough, and told Nurse to put as little mustard as possible in the poultices.
"But why should you expect that boy to be ill-treated at home?" inquired Captain West. "From what I hear about him I should think it is much more likely he has been spoilt!"
"Ah! it isn't his real home," explained Betty, "and that Mrs. Howard is a terrible person."
She was going to add that the old lady had the reputation of being a witch, but the accusation seemed too absurd to be urged in broad daylight in the school-room. So she only mentioned a few of Lewis's tales about Mrs. Howard's cruelty to him.
Captain West listened for a minute and then fairly burst out laughing. "Do you really mean that you believed all that?" he said. "You seriously thought boys were stolen, and shut up in dark cellars, and all the rest of it?"
The children hung their heads, suddenly feeling rather ashamed of the ease with which they had been imposed upon, for they could see that their father did not believe a word of the horrors.
"But other people beside Lewis Brand have told us that Mrs. Howard is very dreadful and mysterious," observed Madge, who did not at all like finding herself quite in the wrong. "When Mrs. Bunn is weeding the garden she sometimes tells us what people in the village say—"
"She would be better employed pulling up groundsel!" interrupted Captain West. "But what does she tell you about starving boys in cellars full of black-beetles?"
Madge was bound to admit that she had never heard this particular accusation against Mrs. Howard from anybody except Lewis.
"But people say she is mad and never will see strangers. And we have looked at her over the wall, so we know something about it," she persisted.
"And you saw a very delicate-looking old lady tottering along and nodding her head? Just so. Now listen to me. Many years ago poor Mrs. Howard had a very serious illness, which left her with some disease of the nerves so that she cannot keep her head still for a moment. Ever since then she has shut herself up and avoided seeing strangers, as she is very shy about her infirmity being noticed. And I must say," concluded Captain West, "that I am vexed to think my children should have tried to pry into what did not in the least concern them."
"I am sorry we looked at her, if that is the reason she nodded so funnily to the cows," said Madge. "But were not any of the stories Lewis told us true? About the cellars, and the jailer with the gray beard?"
"I cannot tell you anything definite about Mrs. Howard's cellars, except that, judging by the size of the house, they must be very small," answered Captain West. "But this I know for a fact. The boy Lewis Brand is an orphan with no money of his own, and Mrs. Howard being an old friend of his parents generously offered to adopt him and bring him up. Unfortunately, owing to his mother's long illness, Lewis was very much neglected as a child, and got into such bad habits that he has been nothing but an anxiety to his kind friend from the first. He has already been expelled from two schools, and Mrs. Howard is at present trying to educate him at home with a tutor—that gentleman with the gray beard you saw."
"Well, I never heard of such a horrid story-telling boy!" exclaimed Madge impetuously. "And so ungrateful too! But why should he have told such dreadful untruths about Mrs. Howard?"
"To frighten you, I expect," replied Captain West. "The reason they would not keep him at school was because he would tease and frighten the younger boys. He seems a born bully."
"And a great coward into the bargain!" added Madge. "You should have seen how frightened—"
"I dare say!" interrupted her father. "The two things generally go together. His only excuse is that he was badly trained when young. However, you will probably admit that in future it will be wiser to let us choose your friends for you?"
The children had no answer to make. They were thoroughly ashamed of themselves. When their father left the room they began to discuss the subject in all its bearings.
"I don't want to abuse Lewis as he is ill," said Madge. "That would be mean. But I must tell you both something very suspicious that happened. When I was standing by him just after he fell from the loft I happened to step on something hard. I stooped to see what it was, picked it up, and here it is!"
"One of my marbles!" cried John. "One of those I lost out of the treasure-house! I am quite sure it is, because of the funny red mark I painted myself on the side."
"You did it with my new paints," chimed in Betty.
"But how did the marble come there?" asked John, much bewildered, but holding tightly on to his newly-recovered treasure for fear it should again disappear.
"Well, of course I can't tell for certain," said Madge. "I can only guess. But it seems as if it must have fallen out of Lewis's pocket."
"Then you think he took our things out of the treasure-hole?" cried Betty. "He never could have been so wicked as to steal them, and then come pretending he was so sorry for our loss and wondering where they had gone!"
"Perhaps he didn't actually mean to steal them, only to tease us," suggested Madge. "And I feel sure now that he took the rope-ladder," she continued. "You know he pretended at the time that he couldn't get up the wall without it; but that was only to deceive us. He had those iron railings for ladders, though he said nothing about them until later."
"Oh, Madge!" exclaimed the twins. They could think of nothing else to say. The contemplation of such deliberate perfidy was too overpowering. The more they recalled Lewis's dark hints and malicious suggestions about other people, the more disgusted they felt with him, and the more vexed with themselves for having been so completely deceived. "We might have known there was something wrong when he made us promise not to say anything about him!" they said. "Never again will we have a secret friend!"
Captain West went several times to see Lewis during his long illness, and did his best to make the unfortunate boy understand the reason why he was an unfit companion for other children. At first Lewis seemed to regard his untruths and deceptions merely in the light of very clever jokes; but gradually some faint sense of shame appeared to steal over him, though whether on account of his faults or only because they had been discovered, Captain West could not very well make out.
"What will become of Lewis Brand?" asked the children one day when their father had just returned from visiting him.
"Directly he is well enough to walk he is going to live with a gentleman who has great experience with boys, and who will do his best to counteract the faults that you all find so shameful in Lewis," said Captain West. "But in justice to the poor boy I must add one thing. He was much neglected as a little child, and had none of the advantages of an affectionate and careful training. Now, in proportion to his opportunities, perhaps he did not behave worse than certain children who, with no excuses at all, tried to deceive—"
"Do you mean us?" interrupted Madge, with a very red face. She did not at all appreciate being compared in any way with Lewis, for whose conduct she felt great contempt. And yet there was a certain element of truth in her father's words that could not be ignored.
"Well, we will say no more about that," continued Captain West cheerfully. "I think after what has happened I can trust you all not to embark again on secret friendships with strangers?"
"No! Indeed we will not!" cried the three children. And they kept their resolution.