第79章

"Dr.Carter's!" whispered Malkiel, excitedly."I should think so.Eight guineas and a half, and you pay in instalments.""I'll do it, sir," hissed Gustavus, utterly carried away by the prospect."What d'you want me to do?""First to let me change my clothes quickly, then to hide me somewhere so as I can get a sleep till dawn.Call me directly it begins to get light and I shall be off to the docks.""The docks, sir?"

"Ay.I start for--for Java to-morrow."

"Java, sir--what, where the sparrows and the jelly--""Ay, ay," returned Malkiel, secretly rehearsing his new nautical role.

"I'll do it sir.And the hundred?"

"I'll write you an order on my banker's.You can trust me.Now let me change my clothes.Quick!""They're in Mr.Vivian's bedroom, ain't they?"Malkiel nodded.

"You must go very soft, sir, because of the old lady.She's abed, but she might be wakeful, specially to-night.She's been awful upset.My word, she has!""I'll go as soft as a mouse," whispered Malkiel."Show me the way."Gustavus advanced on tiptoe towards the staircase, followed by Malkiel, who held Mr.Ferdinand's clothes together lest they should rustle, and proceeded with the most infinite precaution.In this manner they gained the second floor and neared the bedroom door of Mrs.Merillia.Here Gustavus turned round, pointed to the door, and put his finger to his pouting lips, at the same time rounding his hazel eyes and shaking his powdered head in a most warning manner.Malkiel nodded, held Mr.

Ferdinand's clothes tighter, and stole on, as he thought, without making a sound.What was his horror, then, just as he was passing Mrs.

Merillia's door, to hear a voice cry,--

"Hennessey! Hennessey!"

Gustavus and Malkiel stopped dead, as if they had both been shot.They now perceived that the door was partially open, and that a faint light shone within the room.

"Hennessey!" cried the voice of Mrs.Merillia again."Come in here.Imust speak to you."

Gustavus darted on into the darkness of the Prophet's room, but Malkiel the Second was so alarmed that he stayed where he was, finding himself totally incapable of movement.

"Hennessey!" repeated the voice.

Then there was a faint rustling, the door was opened more widely, and Mrs.Merillia appeared in the aperture, clad in a most charming night bonnet, and robed in a dressing-gown of white watered silk.

"The ratcatcher!" she cried."The ratcatcher!"Malkiel turned and darted down the stairs, while Mrs.Merillia, in the extreme of terror, shut her door, locked it as many times as she could, and then hastened trembling to the bell which communicated with the faithful Mrs.Fancy, rang it, and dropped half fainting into a chair.

Mrs.Fancy woke from her second dream just as Malkiel, closely followed by the now shattered Gustavus, reached the hall.

"Hide me! Hide me!" whispered Malkiel."In here!"And he darted into the servants' quarters, leaving Gustavus on the mat.

Mrs.Merillia's other bell now pealed shrilly downstairs.Gustavus paused and pulled himself together.He was by nature a fairly intrepid youth, and moreover, he had recently made a close study of Carlyle's /Heroes and Hero-worship/, which greatly impressed him.He therefore resolved in this moment of peril to acquit himself in similar circumstances, and he remounted the stairs and reached Mrs.Merillia's door just as Mrs.Fancy, wrapped in a woollen shawl and wearing a pair of knitted night-socks, descended to the landing, candle in hand.

"Oh, Mr.Gustavus!" said Mrs.Fancy."Is it the robbers again? Is it murder, Mr.Gustavus? Is it fire?""I don't know, Mrs.Fancy, I'll ask the mistress."He tapped upon the door.

"You can't come in!" cried poor Mrs.Merillia, who was losing her head perhaps for the first time in her life."You can't come in, and if you do I shall give you in charge to the police."And she rang both her bells again.

"Ma'am!" said Gustavus, knocking once more."Ma'am!""It's no use your knocking," returned Mrs.Merillia."The door is bolted.Go away, go away!"And again she rang her two bells.

"Madam!" piped Mrs.Fancy."Madam! It's me!""I know," said Mrs.Merillia."I know it's you! I saw you! Leave the house unless you wish to be at once put in prison.

Her bells pealed.Mrs.Fancy began to sob.

"Me to leave the house!" she wailed."Me to go to prison!""Bear up, Mrs.Fancy, she doesn't know who it is!" said Gustavus.

"Ma'am! Ma'am! Missis! Missis!"

"I am ringing," said Mrs.Merillia, in a muffled manner through the door."I am summoning assistance! You will be captured if you don't go away."And again she pealed her bells.This time, as she did so, the tingling of a third bell became audible in the silent house.

"Lord!" cried Gustavus, "if there isn't the hall door.It must be master.He left his key to-night.Here's a nice go!"The three bells raised their piercing chorus.Mrs.Fancy sobbed, and Gustavus, after a terrible moment of hesitation, bounded down the hall.

His instinct had not played him false.The person who had rung the bell was indeed the Prophet, who had basely slunk away from Zoological House, leaving Madame surrounded by her new and adoring friends.

"Thank you, Gustavus," he said, entering."Take my coat, please.What's that?"For Mrs.Merillia's bells struck shrilly upon his astonished ears.

"I think it's Mrs.Merillia, sir.She keeps on ringing.""Mrs.Merillia.At this hour! Heavens! Is she ill?""I don't know, sir.She keeps ringing; but when I answer it she says, 'Go away!' she says.'Go--' she says, sir.""How very strange!"

And the Prophet bounded upstairs and arrived at his grandmother's door just in time to hear her cry out, in reply to poor Mrs.Fancy's distracted knocking,--"If you try to break in you will be put in prison at once.I hear assistance coming.I hear the police.Go away, you wicked, wicked man!""Grannie!" cried the Prophet through the keyhole."Grannie, let me in!