Stockdale.

'O yes, there is,' said she. 'There's an eye looking at us at this
moment through a knot-hole in that trap-door.'

And as she spoke the trap opened, and the dark line of the ladder was
seen descending against the white-washed wall. When it touched the
bottom Lizzy dragged it to its place, and said, 'If you'll go up, I'll
follow.'

The young man ascended, and presently found himself among consecrated
bells for the first time in his life, nonconformity having been in the
Stockdale blood for some generations. He eyed them uneasily, and looked
round for Lizzy. Owlett stood here, holding the top of the ladder.

'What, be you really one of us?' said the miller.

'It seems so,' said Stockdale sadly.

'He's not,' said Lizzy, who overheard. 'He's neither for nor against us.
He'll do us no harm.'

She stepped up beside them, and then they went on to the next stage,
which, when they had clambered over the dusty bell-carriages, was of easy
ascent, leading towards the hole through which the pale sky appeared, and
into the open air. Owlett remained behind for a moment, to pull up the
lower ladder.

'Keep down your heads,' said a voice, as soon as they set foot on the
flat.

Stockdale here beheld all the missing parishioners, lying on their
stomachs on the tower roof, except a few who, elevated on their hands and
knees, were peeping through the embrasures of the parapet. Stockdale did
the same, and saw the village lying like a map below him, over which
moved the figures of the excisemen, each foreshortened to a crablike
object, the crown of his hat forming a circular disc in the centre of
him. Some of the men had turned their heads when the young preacher's
figure arose among them.

'What, Mr. Stockdale?' said Matt Grey, in a tone of surprise.

'I'd as lief that it hadn't been,' said Jim Clarke. 'If the pa'son
should see him a trespassing here in his tower, 'twould be none the
better for we, seeing how 'a do hate chapel-members. He'd never buy a
tub of us again, and he's as good a customer as we have got this side o'
Warm'll.'

'Where is the pa'son?' said Lizzy.

'In his house, to be sure, that he mid see nothing of what's going
on--where all good folks ought to be, and this young man likewise.'

'Well, he has brought some news,' said Lizzy. 'They are going to search
the orchet and church; can we do anything if they should find?'

'Yes,' said her cousin Owlett. 'That's what we've been talking