Part 16 (1/2)

”I don't know at all,” said Robert, with perfect truth. ”Do please send us home.”

”Well, really,” said the Vicar, ”I suppose we'd better. Andrew, put the horse to, and you can take them home.”

”Not alone, I don't,” said Andrew to himself.

And the Vicar went on, ”let this be a lesson to you”---- He went on talking, and the children listened miserably. But the keeper was not listening. He was looking at the unfortunate Cyril. He knew all about poachers, of course, so he knew how people look when they're hiding something. The Vicar had just got to the part about trying to grow up to be a blessing to your parents, and not a trouble and disgrace, when the keeper suddenly said--

”Arst him what he's got there under his jacket;” and Cyril knew that concealment was at an end. So he stood up, and squared his shoulders and tried to look n.o.ble, like the boys in books that no one can look in the face of and doubt that they come of brave and n.o.ble families, and will be faithful to the death, and he pulled out the syphon and said--

”Well, there you are, then.”

There was silence. Cyril went on--there was nothing else for it--

”Yes, we took this out of your larder, and some chicken and tongue and bread. We were very hungry, and we didn't take the custard or jam. We only took bread and meat and water,--and we couldn't help its being soda kind,--just the necessaries of life; and we left half-a-crown to pay for it, and we left a letter. And we're very sorry. And my father will pay a fine and anything you like, but don't send us to prison. Mother would be so vexed. You know what you said about not being a disgrace. Well, don't you go and do it to us--that's all! We're as sorry as we can be.

There!”

”However did you get up to the larder window?” said Mrs. Vicar.

”I can't tell you that,” said Cyril firmly.

”Is this the whole truth you've been telling me?” asked the clergyman.

”No,” answered Jane suddenly; ”it's all true, but it's not the whole truth. We can't tell you that. It's no good asking. Oh, do forgive us and take us home!” She ran to the Vicar's wife and threw her arms round her. The Vicar's wife put her arms round Jane, and the keeper whispered behind his hand to the Vicar--

”They're all right, sir--I expect it's a pal they're standing by.

Someone put 'em up to it, and they won't peach. Game little kids.”

”Tell me,” said the Vicar kindly, ”are you screening someone else? Had anyone else anything to do with this?”

”Yes,” said Anthea, thinking of the Psammead; ”but it wasn't their fault.”

”Very well, my dears,” said the Vicar, ”then let's say no more about it.

Only just tell us why you wrote such an odd letter.”

”I don't know,” said Cyril. ”You see, Anthea wrote it in such a hurry, and it really didn't seem like stealing then. But afterwards, when we found we couldn't get down off the church-tower, it seemed just exactly like it. We are all very sorry”--

”Say no more about it,” said the Vicar's wife; ”but another time just think before you take other people's tongues. Now--some cake and milk before you go home?”

When Andrew came to say that the horse was put to, and was he expected to be led alone into the trap that he had plainly seen from the first, he found the children eating cake and drinking milk and laughing at the Vicar's jokes. Jane was sitting on the Vicar's wife's lap.

So you see they got off better than they deserved.

The gamekeeper, who was the cook's cousin, asked leave to drive home with them, and Andrew was only too glad to have someone to protect him from that trap he was so certain of.

When the wagonette reached their own house, between the chalk-quarry and the gravel-pit, the children were very sleepy, but they felt that they and the keeper were friends for life.

Andrew dumped the children down at the iron gate without a word.