CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.
PETER CRIBB SEES A GHOST.
Helen rang the bell one evening and Maria answered the summons.
"Papa thinks he would like a little supper, Maria, as we dined earlyto-day. Bring up a tray. There is a cold chicken, I think!"
"Yes, 'm," said Maria, and disappeared, but was back in a few minutes.
"If you please, 'm, Mrs Millett says there is no cold chicken, 'm."
"Indeed?" said Helen wonderingly. "Very well, then, the cold veal pie."
"Yes, 'm."
Maria disappeared, and came back again. "Please, 'm, Mrs Millett saysthere is no veal pie."
"Then tell her to make an omelette."
"Yes, 'm." Maria left the room and came back. "Please, 'm, MrsMillett says there's no eggs, and it's too late to get any more."
"Ask Mrs Millett to come here," said Helen; and the old lady came up,looking very red.
"Why, Millett," said Helen, "this is very strange. I don't like to findfault, but surely there ought to have been a chicken left."
"I'm very glad you have found fault, Miss," said Mrs Millett, "for it'sgiven me a chance to speak. Yes; there ought to have been a chicken,and the veal pie too; but I'm very sorry to say, Miss, they're gone."
"Gone?"
"Yes, Miss. I don't know how to account for it, but the things havebegun to go in the most dreadful way. Bread, butter, milk, eggs, meat,everything goes, and we've all been trying to find out how, but it's nogood."
"This is very strange, Millett. Have you no idea how it is they go?"
"No, Miss; but Dan'l fancies it must be that rough boy who led MasterDexter away. He says he's sure he caught sight of him in the dark lastnight. Somebody must take the things, and he seems to be the mostlikely, knowing the place as he does."
"This must be seen to," said Helen; and she told the doctor.Consequently a watch was kept by the gardener and the groom, but theyfound nothing, and the contents of the larder continued to disappear.
"If it were a man," said the doctor, on being told of what was going on,"I'd set the police to work, but I hate anything of that kind with aboy. Wait a bit, and he will get more impudent from obtaining thesethings with impunity, and then he will be more easily caught."
"And then, papa?" said Helen.
"Then, my dear? Do you know that thin Malacca cane in the hall? Yes,you do. Well, my dear, the law says it is an assault to thrash a boy,and that he ought to be left to the law to punish, which means prisonand degradation. I'm going to take that cane, my dear, and defy thelaw."
But somehow or another Master Bob Dimsted seemed to be as slippery as aneel. He saw Peter one day and grinned at him from the other side of theriver. Two days later he was seen by Dan'l, who shook his fist at him,and Bob said--
"Yah!"
"Have you heard from Master Dexter, Miss!" said Mrs Millett onemorning.
"No, Millett, and I am rather surprised. He promised so faithfully towrite."
"Ah, yes, Miss," said the old lady; "and he meant it, poor boy, when hepromised, but boys are such one's to forget."
Helen went into the library where she found the doctor biting the end ofhis pen, and gazing up into a corner of the room.
"I don't seem to be getting on as I could wish, my dear. By the way, wehaven't heard from that young dog lately. He promised me faithfully towrite regularly."
Helen thought of Mrs Millett's words, but said nothing, and at thatmoment Maria entered with the letters.
"From Dexter?" said Helen eagerly.
"Humph! No! But from Longspruce! I see: from Mr Mastrum."
The doctor read the letter and frowned.
Helen read it, and the tears stood in her eyes.
"The young scoun--"
"Stop, papa!" said Helen earnestly. "Do not condemn him unheard."
"Then I shall have to go on without condemning him, for we've seen thelast of him, I suppose."
"O papa!"
"Well, it looks like it, my dear; and I'm afraid I've made a greatmistake, but I don't like to own it."
"Wait, papa, wait!" said Helen.
"What does he say? Been gone a fortnight, and would not write till hehad had the country round thoroughly searched. Humph! Afraid he hasgot to Portsmouth, and gone to sea."
Helen sighed.
"`Sorry to give so bad an account of him,'" muttered the doctor, readingbits of the letter--"`treated him as his own son--seemed to have anundercurrent of evil in his nature, impossible to eradicate--triedeverything, but all in vain--was beginning to despair, but still hopefulthat patience might overcome the difficulty--patience combined withaffectionate treatment, but it was in vain--after trying to persuade hisfellow-pupils one by one, and failing, he threatened them savagely ifthey dared to betray him, and then he escaped from the grounds, and hasnot been seen since.'"
There was a painful silence in the doctor's library for a few minutes.
"`Patience combined with affectionate treatment,'" read the doctoragain. "Helen, I believe that man has beaten and ill-used poor Dextertill he could bear it no longer, and has run away."
"I'm sure of it, papa," cried Helen excitedly. "Do you think he willcome back!"
"I don't know," said the doctor. "Yes, I do. No; he would be afraid.I'd give something to know how to go to work to find him."
"If you please, sir, may I come in?" said a pleasant soft voice.
"Yes, yes, Millett, of course. What is it?"
"Dan'l has been to say, sir, that he caught sight of that boy, BobDimsted, crawling in the garden last night when it was dark, and chasedhim, but the boy climbed one of the trained pear-trees, got on the wall,and escaped."
"Confound the young rascal!" cried the doctor.
"And I'm sorry to say, sir, that two blankets have been stolen offMaster Dexter's bed."
There was a week of watching, but Bob Dimsted was not caught, and thedoctor sternly said that he would not place the matter in the hands ofthe police. But all the same the little pilferings went on, and MrsMillett came one morning, with tears in her eyes, to say that shecouldn't bear it any longer, for only last night a whole quartern loafhad been taken through the larder bars, and, with it, one of the largewhite jars of black-currant jam.
Mrs Millett was consoled with the promise that the culprit should soonbe caught, and two nights later Peter came in to announce to the doctorthat he had been so near catching Bob Dimsted that he had touched him ashe chased him down the garden, and that he would have caught him, onlythat, without a moment's hesitation, the boy had jumped into the riverand swum across, and so escaped to the other side.
"Next time I mean to have him," said Peter confidently, and this herepeated to Mrs Millett and Maria, being rewarded with a basin of thetea which had just come down from the drawing-room.
It was just two days later that, as Helen sat with her work under theold oak-tree in the garden--an old evergreen oak which gave a pleasantshade--she became aware of a faint rustling sound.
She looked up, but could see nothing, though directly after there was apeculiar noise in the tree, which resembled the chopping of wood.
Still she could see nothing, and she had just resumed her work, thinkingthe while that Dexter would some day write, and that her father'scorrespondence with the Reverend Septimus Mastrum had not been verysatisfactory, when there was a slight scratching sound.
She turned quickly and saw that a ragged-looking squirrel had run downthe grey trunk of the tree, while, as soon as it saw her, it boundedoff, and to her surprise passed through the gateway leading into theyard where the old stable stood.
Helen Grayson hardly knew why she did so, but she rose and followed thesquirrel, to find that she was not alone, for Peter the groom was in theyard going on tiptoe toward the open door of the old range of buildings.
He touched his cap on seeing her.
"Squir'l, Miss," he said. "Just run in here."
"I saw it just now," said Helen. "Don't kill the poor t
hing."
"Oh no, Miss; I won't kill it," said Peter, as Helen went back into thegarden. "But I mean to catch it if I can."
Peter went into the dark old building and looked round, but there was nosign of the squirrel. Still a little animal like that would be sure togo upwards, so Peter climbed the half-rotten ladder, and stood in thelong dark range of lofts, peering among the rafters and ties in searchof the bushy-tailed little creature.
He walked to the end in one direction, then in the other, till he wasstopped by an old boarded partition, in which there was a door which hadbeen nailed up; but he remembered that this had a flight of steps, orrather a broad-stepped old wood ladder, on the other side, leading to anarrower loft right in the gable.
"Wonder where it can be got," said Peter to himself; and then he turnedround, ran along the loft, dropped down through the trap-door, andnearly slipped and fell, so hurried was his flight.
Half-across the yard he came upon Dan'l wheeling a barrow full of mouldfor potting.
"Hallo! what's the matter?"
Peter gasped and panted, but said nothing.
"Haven't seen a ghost, have you?" said Dan'l.
"Ye-es. No," panted Peter.
"Why, you white-faced, cowardly noodle!" cried Dan'l. "What d'yermean?"
"I--I. Come out of here into the garden," whispered Peter.
Dan'l was going down the garden to the potting-shed, so he made noobjection, and, arrived there, Peter, with solemn emphasis, told how hehad gone in search of the squirrel, and that there was something up inthe loft.
"Yes," said old Dan'l contemptuously--"rats."
"Yes; I know that," said Peter excitedly; and his eyes looked wild anddilated; "but there's something else."
Dan'l put down the barrow, and sat upon the soft mould as he gave hisrough stubbly chin a rub.
"Lookye here, Peter," he said; "did yer ever hear tell about ghostsbeing in old buildings?"
"Yes," said Peter, with an involuntary shiver, and a glance across thewall at a corroded weathercock on the top of the ancient place.
"Well, my lad, ghosts never comes out in the day-time: only o' nights;and do you know what they are?"
Peter shook his head.
"Well, then, my lad, I'll tell you. I've sin several in my time. Themas you hears and don't see's rats; and them as you sees and don't hear'showls. What d'yer think o' that?"
"It wasn't a rat, nor it wasn't a howl, as I see," said Peter solemnly;"but something gashly horrid, as looked down at me from up in therafters of that there dark place, and it made me feel that bad that Ididn't seem to have no legs to stand on."
"Tchah!" cried the gardener. "What yer talking about?"
"Anything the matter?" said the doctor, who had come up unheard over thevelvety lawn.
"Hush!" whispered Peter imploringly.
"Shan't hush. Sarves you right," growled Dan'l. "Here's Peter, sir,just seen a ghost."
"Ah! has he?" said the doctor. "Where did you see it, Peter?"
"I didn't say it were a ghost, sir, I only said as I see somethinghorrid up at end of the old loft when I went up there just now after asquir'l."
"Squirrel!" said the doctor angrily. "What are you talking about, man?Squirrels live in trees, not in old lofts. You mean a rat."
"I know a squir'l when I see one, sir," said Peter; "and I see one go'crost the yard and into that old stable."
"Nonsense!" said the doctor.
"Did you find it, Peter!" said Helen from under the tree.
"Find what?" said the doctor.
"A squirrel that ran from here across the yard."
Peter looked from one to the other triumphantly, as he said--
"No, Miss, I didn't."
"Humph!" grunted the doctor. "Then there was a squirrel!"
"Yes, sir."
"And you saw something strange!"
"Yes, sir, something awful gashly, in the dark end, sir."
"Bah!" cried the doctor. "There, go and get your stable lanthorn andwe'll see. Helen, my dear, we've got a ghost in the old stable loft:like to come and see it!"
"Very much, papa," said Helen, smiling in a way that put Peter on hismettle, for the moment before he had been ready to beg off.
He went pretty quickly to get his stable lanthorn, and came back with italight, and looking very pale and sickly, while he bore a stoutbroomstick in the other hand.
"For shame, man! Put away that absurd thing," said the doctor, as heled the way through the gate in the wall, followed by Helen, Peter andDan'l coming behind.
"Go first with the lanthorn," said the doctor to the old gardener, butPeter was stirred to action now.
"Mayn't I go first, sir!" he said.
"Oh yes, if you have enough courage," said the doctor; and Peter,looking very white, led the way to the foot of the ladder, went up, andthe others followed him to the loft, and stood together on the oldworm-eaten boards.
The lanthorn cast a yellow glow through its horn sides, and this,mingling with the faint pencils of daylight which came between thetiles, gave a very peculiar look to the place, festooned as theblackened beams were with cobwebs, which formed loops and pockets hereand there.
"There's an old door at the extreme end there, or ought to be," said thedoctor. "Go and open it."
Peter went on in advance.
"Mind the holes, my dear," said the doctor. "What's that?"
A curious rustling noise was heard, and, active as a young man, Dan'lran back to the top of the ladder and descended quickly.
"Well 'tain't me as is skeart now," said Peter triumphantly.
Just then there was a sharp clap from somewhere in front, as if a smalltrap-door had been suddenly closed, and Dan'l's voice came up throughthe boards.
"Look out!" he shouted, and his voice sounded distant. "There's someone up in the far loft there. He tried to get down into one of thehay-racks, but I frightened him back."
"Stop there!" said the doctor. "We'll soon see who it is. Go on,Peter, and open that door. That young larder thief for a guinea, mydear," he continued to Helen, as Peter went on in advance.
"Door's nailed up, sir," said the latter worthy, as he reached the olddoor, and held the lanthorn up and down.
"How came it nailed up?" said the doctor, as he examined the place. "Ithas no business to be. Go and get an iron chisel or a crowbar. Are youthere, Daniel?"
"Yes, sir," came from below. "I'm on the look-out. It's that thereyoung poacher chap, Bob Dimsted."
Peter set the lanthorn on the floor and hurried off, leaving the littleparty watching and listening till he returned, but not a sound broke thesilence, and there was nothing to see but the old worm-eaten wood andblackened tiles.
"I've brought both, sir," said Peter breathlessly, and all eagernessnow, for he was ashamed of his fright.
"Wrench it open, then," said the doctor; and after a few sharp cracksthe rotten old door gave way, and swung upon its rusty hinges, when astrange sight met the eyes of those who pressed forward into the furtherloft.