ht,
and I heard it only last night, too, and told cook."

Martha Gusset slowly bent her head by way of acquiescence, and made as
if to throw the goose-wing, with which she had been fanning herself,
behind the fire, but altered her mind, and put it on the chimneypiece
with the bright brass candlesticks.

"Up and down where?" asked Waller.

"Oh, I don't know, sir; but it was somewhere in the roof."

"Bah!" cried Waller, contemptuously. "And pray what did cook say?" he
went on, as he gave a glance at the comfortable-looking dame.

"Said she was a silly goose, my dear," cried the lady of the kitchen,
with something like a snort, "and that she mustn't eat so much for
supper. I telled her, Master Waller, that she might go up and down the
stairs and passages in the dead of the night for a hundred years, and
she'd never see anything uglier than herself."

"Ah, you wait," said Bella.

"Did you hear or see anything, cook?" said Waller tentatively.

"I always go to bed to sleep, my dear."

"But I mean this evening, just now?"

"No, my dear. I had had my tea, and was having a comfortable nap over
the fire."

"Why, Bella," said Waller, laughing, "you must have heard one of those
big bouncing rats that make their nests in the ivy, and come in through
the windows in the night."

"Ah, you may sneer at me, Master Waller, but I wouldn't sleep up there
alone of a night for crowns of gold. It was just as I said. It was
just like one of those horrid things you see in the old books in
master's library, dragging dead bodies down the stairs."

"Rat dragging a dead sparrow," said Waller, and he hurried out of the
kitchen to make his way out into the hall, where, consequent upon her
fright, Bella had not lit the lamp, and then cautiously upstairs to the
top attic, where he softly tried the door. He found it still fastened,
and uttered a low signal agreed upon between the boys.

This was responded to by the click of the lock, and as Waller entered
his fugitive guest went on tiptoe back to the old chair on which he
passed so much of his time, and there was just faint light enough coming
through the window to show that he was softly rubbing his back.

"What's the matter?" said Waller.

"Fell down and hurt myself--all down those stairs. Made a big lump on
my head."

"Why, what were you doing?"

"Oh, I waited till it was growing dark, and then I felt that I must get
out of this room, if only for a few moments, just to br