CHAPTER III. I LEAVE HOME A THIRD TIME
I must have made some little noise at the door, trying to get in.
At any rate, Ephraim, who was waiting for such a signal, came
forward with a churlish glee to rate me.
"So you're come back, Mr. Martin," he said. "These are nice
carryings-on for a young gentleman." I thought that I might as
well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb. Ephraim's tone jarred
me, so I told him to shut up, as I didn't want any of his jaw.
This rather staggered him, so I told him further to open the
boat-house, instead of standing like a stock, as ,I wanted to
moor the boat. He opened the door for me, glowering at me
moodily. "Mr. Hyde shall know of this," he said when all was
secured. He caught me by the arm to drag me out of the
boat-house; so I, expecting this, rapped him shrewdly with the
stretcher on the elbow. I thought for a moment that he would beat
me. I could see his face very fierce in the dusk. I heard his
teeth gritting. Then fear of my uncle restrained him. All that he
said was, "If I 'ad my way I'd 'ave it out of you for this. A
good sound whippin's what you want."
"Is it?" I asked contemptuously. "Lock the door."
Ephraim left me in the sitting-room while he made his report to
my uncle. It was not a long report. He returned in a few minutes
to say that I was to be locked into my room without supper. "Mr.
'Ide is in a fine taking," he said. "Per'aps 'e'll knock some of
your pride out of you." I made no answer, but let him march me to
my room, to the execution of the sentence. "There," he said,
through the door, as he turned the key on me. "Per'aps that'll
bring you to your senses."
"Ephraim the stiff-neck!" I answered loudly.; "Old Ephraim
Stiff-neck! Stiff-neck!"
"Ah," he answered, clumping down the corridor. He was thinking
how small I should sing when, in the morning, he gave me the
option of apologizing to him, or going without breakfast.
It was pretty dark by this time. Fish Lane was as quiet as a
country road. No one was stirring there. I thought that, as my
uncle would shortly go to supper, I might soon venture out by the
window, high up as it was, to buy myself some food in the town. I
liked the notion; but when I came to look down from the window it
seemed a giddy height from the pavement. Going down would be
easy; but getting back would be quite another matter. Thinking it
over, I remembered that I had seen a short gardener's ladder
hooked to the garden wall. If I could make a rope, by which to
let myself down, I could, I thought, make use of this ladder to
get back by, for it would cover nearly half the height to my
window sill, a full thirty feet from the ground. If, by standing
on the upper rungs, could reach within five yards of the window,
I knew that I should be able to scramble up so far by a rope.
There was no difficulty about a rope. I had a good eighteen yards
of choice stout rope there in the room with me, the lashings of
my two trunks. I was about to pay this out into the lane, when I
thought that would be far more effective if I fashioned a ladder
for myself, using the two trunk lashings as the uprights. This
was a glorious thought. I tied the lashings together behind the
wooden bed-post which was to be my support in midair. Then I
rummaged out a hank of sailor's spunyarn, a kind of very strong
tarred string, with which to make my steps, or rungs. did not do
this very well, for I was working in the dark, but you may be
sure that I made those steps with all my strength, since my bones
were to depend upon them. I ran short of spunyarn before I had
finished, so my last three steps were made of the fire-irons.
They made a good finish to the whole; for, being heavy, they kept
the ladder steady. At least thought that they would keep the
ladder steady, in the innocence of my heart.
I was so excited, when I finished the tying of the tongs, that I
almost forgot to take some money from the little store which I
kept locked up in my trunk. A shilling would be ample, I thought;
but I took rather more than that, so as to he on the safe side. I
took the precaution, before leaving, of bolting my door from the
inside, lest Ephraim should visit me in my absence.
Then, having tested all my knots, I paid out my ladder from the
window. No one was within sight along the lane. Downstairs they
were at supper, for I heard the dining-room bell ring. Very
cautiously I swung myself over the window ledge on my adventure.
Now a rope ladder is an unsteady thing at the best of times; but
when I swung myself on to this one it jumped about like a wild
colt, banging the fire-irons against the wall, making noise
enough to raise the town. I had to climb down it on the inner
side, or I should have had Ephraim out to see what the matter
was. Even so, my heart was in my mouth, with fright, as I stepped
on to the pavement. After making sure that no one saw, I hooked
up the lower ends of my ladder as far as I could reach, so that a
passer-by might run less chance of seeing them. Then I scuttled
off to the delights of Eastcheap, thinking what glorious sport I
could have with this ladder in time to come. I thought of the
moonlight adventures on the river, skulking along in my boat,
like a pirate on a night attack. I thought how, perhaps, I should
overhear gangs of highwaymen making their plans, or robbers in
their dens, carousing after a victory. It seemed to me that
London might be a wonderful place, to one with such a means of
getting out at night.
I ate a good supper at a cook-shop, sauntered about the streets
for awhile, then sauntered slowly home, after buying a tinder
box, with which to light my candies. I found my ladder dangling
unnoticed, so I nimbly climbed to my room, pulling it up after
me, like the savages in Polynesia. I lit my candles, intending to
read; but I found that I was far too well inclined to mischief to
pay much heed to my book. Casting about for something to do, I
thought that I would open a little locked door which led to some
(apparently disused) room beyond my own. I had some difficulty in
breaking the lock of this door; but a naughty boy is generally
very patient. I opened it at last, with some misgivings as to
what my uncle might say on the morrow, though with the feeling
that I was a sort of conspirator, or, shall we say, a man
haunting a house, playing ghost, coming at night to his secret
chamber. I was disappointed with the room. Like my own room, it
was nothing more than a long, bare attic. It had a false floor,
like many houses of the time, but there was no thought of
concealment here. Half a dozen of the long flooring planks were
stored in a stack against the wall, so that anyone could see what
lay in the hollow below. There was nothing romantic there. A long
array of docketed, ticketed bundles of receipts filled more than
half the space. I suppose that nearly every bill which my uncle
had ever paid lay there, gathering dust. The rest of the space
was filled with Ephraim's dirty old account books, jumbled
higgledy-piggledy with collections of printed, unbound sermons,
such as used to be sold forty years before, in the great Puritan
time. I examined a few of the sermons, hoping to find some
lighter fare among them. I examined also a few of the old account
books, in the same hope. Other rubbish lay scattered in the
corners of the room; old mouse-eaten saddle-bags mostly. There
were one or two empty baskets, which had once been lined with
silk. In one of them, I can't think why, there was an old empty,
dusty powder-horn, the only thing in that room at all to my
taste. I stuck it into my belt with a scrap of spunyarn, feeling
that it made me a wonderful piratical figure. If I had had a
lantern I should have been a very king there.
As I sat among the rubbish there, with my pistol (a sailmaker's
fid) in my belt, it occurred to me that I would sit up till
everyone had gone to bed. Then, at eleven or twelve o'clock, I
would, I thought, creep downstairs, to explore all over the
house, down even to the cellars. It shocked me when I remembered
that I was locked in. I dared not pick the lock of that door. My
scheme (after all) would have to wait for another night, when the
difficulties would be less. That scheme of mine has waited until
the present time. Though I never thought it, that was the last
hour I was to spend in my uncle's house. I walked past it, only
the other day, thinking how strange my life has been, feeling
sad, too, that I should never know to what room a door at the end
of the upper passage led. Well, I never shall know, now. I was a
wild, disobedient young rogue. Read on.
When I decided not to pick the lock of my door I thought of the
mysterious Mr. Jermyn as an alternative excitement. I crept to my
window to look out at the house, watching it with a sort of
terrified pleasure, half expecting to see a ghost flapping his
wings, outside the window.
I was surprised to see that the window of the upper floor (which
I knew to be uninhabited) was open. I watched it, (it was just
opposite) hoping that something would happen. Presently two men
came quickly up the lane from the river. As they neared the house
they seemed to me to shuffle in their walk rather more than vas
necessary. It must have been a signal, for, as they came opposite
the door, I saw it swing back upon its hinges, as it had swung
that morning, with Mr. Jermyn. Both men entered the house
swiftly, just as the city churches, one after the other, chimed
half-past nine o'clock. Almost directly afterwards I got the
start of my life. I was looking into the dark upper room across
the lane, expecting nothing, when suddenly, out of the darkness,
so terribly that I was scared beyond screaming, two large red
eyes glowed, over a mouth that trembled in fire. I started back
in my seat, sick with fright, but I could not take my eyes away.
I watched that horrid thing, with my hair stiffening on my head.
Then in the room below it, the luminous figure of an owl gleamed
out. That was not the worst, either. I heard that savage,
"chacking" noise which brown owls make when they are perched.
This great gleaming owl, five times greater than any earthly owl,
was making that chacking noise, as though it would soon spread
its wings, to swoop on some such wretched mouse as myself. I
could see its eyes roll. I thought I saw the feathers stiffen on
its breast. Then, as the sweat rolled down my face, both the
horrible things vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. They
were gone for more than a minute, then they appeared again, only
to disappear a second time. They were exactly alike at each
appearance. Soon my horror left me, for I saw that the things
disappeared at regular intervals. I found that I could time each
reappearance by counting ninety slowly from the instant the
things vanished. That calmed me. "I believe they're only
clock-work," I said to myself. A moment later I saw Mr. Jermyn's
head in sharp outline against the brightness of the owl. He
seemed to be fixing something with his hand. It made me burst
into a cackle of laughter, to find how easily I had been scared.
"Why, it's only clock-work," I said aloud. "They're carved
turnips with candles inside them, fixed to a revolving pole, like
those we used to play with at Oulton, on the 5th of November." My
fear was gone in an instant. I thought to myself how fine it
would be if I could get into that house, to stop the works, in
revenge for the scare they had given me. I wondered how I could
do that.
