sent hiding-place. It would not last so
much longer--he dared not contemplate the time when it should all be
gone; it was characteristic of him that he was easily able to avoid
doing so. The principal thought in his mind was a determination that
it should not be found while any remained. That could not and should
not happen; the last little which he had carefully hoarded, which he
had stinted and deprived himself to save--to have that taken away, to
be robbed of that--the tears gathered in his eyes at the pathos of the
thought.

But the whisky was not found that day, and the Captain, who slept but
badly at this time, lay awake long in the night planning how and when
he could move it to a place of safety further away from the house. He
would have gone down then and there, in spite of the fact that it was
a blustering night of wind and rain and he not fitted to go out in
such weather, but he was afraid of Julia. She was certain to hear and
follow; she had almost an animal's alertness when once she was on the
trail of anything. So he lay and planned and waited, hoping that a
chance would come during the next day.

It did not. Julia was at home all day and, as she had foreseen, he
made no move while she was about. But the following morning she had to
go to Halgrave about the killing of a pig; Johnny was hardly equal to
making the necessary arrangements and certainly could not do so good
as she. Accordingly, she went herself, not very reluctantly, for she
was nearly certain her father would make an effort to get at his
whisky, if he had any, as soon as her back was turned, and so give
Johnny a chance of finding out about it. Of course it was quite likely
that Johnny, being Johnny, would miss the chance, but he might not,
and even if he did they would not be much worse off than before. So
she thought as she started, leaving the Captain, who was still in bed,
with a very vague idea as to when she would be back.

He was a good deal annoyed by this vagueness; it meant he would have
to hurry, a thing he hated and did very badly; and, perhaps, entirely
without reason, too, for she might be three hours gone; though,
equally of course, only two, or perhaps--she was capable of anything
unpleasant and unexpected--only one. He began to dress as quickly as
he could; but, owing to long habit of doing it as slowly as he could
so as to postpone more arduous tasks, that was not very fast. He
wished he had known sooner that Julia was goin