walk) for the
things commanded, and came back with them. Then his master, without
a word, strode towards the passage giving entry to the vaults which
Stubbard had not seen--the vaults containing all the powder, and the
weapons for arming the peasantry of England, whom Napoleon fondly
expected to rise in his favour at the sight of his eagles.

"How does it work? Quite stiff with rust. I thought so. Nothing is ever
in order, unless I see to it myself. Give me the lantern. Now oil the
bearings thoroughly. Put the feather into the socket, and work the pin
in and out, that the oil may go all round. Now pour in some oil from the
lip of the flask; but not upon the treadle, you old blockhead. Now do
the other end the same. Ah, now it would go with the weight of a mouse!
I have a great mind to make you try it."

"What would you do, sir, if my neck was broken? Who would do your work,
as I do?"

They were under an arch of mouldy stone, opening into the deep dark
vaults, where the faint light of the lantern glanced on burnished
leather, brass, and steel, or fell without flash upon dull round bulk.
The old man, kneeling on the round chalk-flints set in lime for
the flooring of the passage, was handling the first step of narrow
step-ladder leading to the cellar-depth. This top step had been taken
out of the old oak mortice, and cut shorter, and then replaced in the
frame, with an iron pin working in an iron collar, just as the gudgeon
of a wheelbarrow revolves. Any one stepping upon it unawares would go
down without the aid of any other step.

"Goes like spittle now, sir," said old Jerry; "but I don't want no
more harm in this crick of life. The Lord be pleased to keep all them
Examiners at home. Might have none to find their corpusses until next
leap-year. I hope with all my heart they won't come poking their long
noses here."

"Well, I rather hope they will. They want a lesson in this
neighbourhood," muttered Carne, who was shivering, and hungry, and
unsweetened.

CHAPTER XLVIII

MOTHER SCUDAMORE

If we want to know how a tree or flower has borne the gale that flogged
last night, or the frost that stung the morning, the only sure plan is
to go and see. And the only way to understand how a friend has taken
affliction is to go--if it may be done without intrusion--and let him
tell you, if he likes.

Admiral Darling was so much vexed when he heard of Blyth Scudamore's
capture by the French, and duty compelled him to