CHAPTER VIII.

MOONRAKERS.

"I say," doggedly began Rumbold, and taking no more notice of Lord Howard's mishap than if it had not occurred, "that this must be found, and before morning, else it will betray us."

"Oh! we're betrayed! We're betrayed!" shrieked Sheppard, at the top of his small voice.

"Silence, idiot!" said Rumbold, turning on him sternly; "and it is quite clear," he continued, "that it must be lying somewhere between this house and the river, since Colonel Rumsey is certain that when he stepped out of the boat he had it safe in the canvas bundle."

"I'll swear to that," said Rumsey.

"Now the garden has been thoroughly searched"--"Every inch of it," chorused half-a-dozen voices.

"And that being the case," said the tall soldier, advancing from the hearth, where he had been standing gazing meditatively into the dying embers, "perhaps you will find it worth your while to heed now what I told you on the bridge. You may search in the garden till you're all blind. I tell you the thing fell into the water. Come, gentlemen," he went on, turning to those of the party who had accompanied him, "I am not after all, you see, such a moonraker as you would have made me out, when I told you I saw something shining in the water as we came by."

"Truly you did say so, Colonel," humbly admitted those he addressed.

"Verily we should not have contemned his assurance," ejaculated the snuffling tones of Master Ferguson, as he clasped his clawlike fingers, and turned upwards the ferret eyes gleaming beneath a wig almost concealing his mean little forehead; "for of a surety the hand of Providence is with those who put their faith--"

"In the water. Just beyond a little two-oared boat moored to a landing-stage at the bridge foot."

[Sidenote: A searching party.]

"Verily, I think we may place our confidence and credence--" once more began the snuffling tones; but they were interrupted by Lawrence Lee. "Never mind that now, Master Ferguson," he said. "The best thing to be done is to go to work and rescue this tell-tale knife before any prying eyes have been beforehand with us."

"Ay, well said!" cried Lord Howard. "Have with you, then, Master Lee. Come, friend," he went on, addressing Sheppard, "down with your bolts again."

But Sheppard hesitated, casting appealing glances round. "Why, what ails the fellow now?" demanded Howard; "first he hesitates at putting them up, and now he won't take them down!"

"Mistress Sheppard--my--my wife!" stammered the unfortunate man. "She--that is, so please your lordship's worship's grace, she's such a wide-awake--"

"What the mischief! Isn't she a-bed yet?" laughed Howard. "Come, come, landlord, I'm afraid you rule your house sadly amiss."

"I--I don't rule it, my lord. 'Tis Miss--Mistress Sheppard who--who--"

"He speaks true enough there, my lord," said Rumbold grimly.

"Yes, yes," gasped the poor man in tones of relief; "Master Rumbold--he'll answer for me I speak nothing but the truth. Mistress Sheppard--she's always the last in the place to go to bed. She likes--that's what she says, my lord--likes to see all safe first. And sure as a gun, she's posted outside there in the passage. And--and if the whole--whole gang of us goes swarming out by the door here, like bees out of a hive, she'll be following us to see what we're after--and--and--"

"Quite true," nodded Rumbold; "and by midday the whole parish will be twittering the tale."

[Sidenote: The wrong way out.]

"Oh, these women!" groaned Howard; "they must always be meddling. Well, what's to be done, then? Shall we go hunting in couples, or one at a time?"

"'Tis not to be risked," said Sheppard, shaking his head. "You see, my lord--saving your lordship's presence and yours, gentlemen"--he added, blinking his small eyes uneasily round on the circle of his guests, who had risen to their feet, impatient to begin the search, "Mistress Sheppard doesn't seem to have taken much of a fancy, so to speak, to a man-jack of the lot of you. Don't like the looks o' you, she says. And I'd sooner be a mouse within sight of our cat Tiger than havin' Mistress Shep--Sheppard--"

"Smell a rat," rather ruefully laughed Howard. "Well, what's the remedy?"

"This," said Lee, who, having left the group collected near the door, now stood beside a broad lattice, looking from a recess near the hearth into the garden, and commanding a view of the bridge. "It gives upon the bowling-green, and then down by the slope to the water. Out with you!" and unhasping the lattice pane as he spoke, he pushed it open. "Only, for your lives, step softly, softly!" and he placed his finger warningly on his lips.

[Sidenote: What has become of it?]

"This way," whispered Walcot, when, in less than three minutes' time, the whole party, including the limping Rumsey, stood out upon the velvet smooth turf On they crept, in single file, till they stood upon the edge of the shelf of tall bracken, where, stooping down, they dispersed along the bank close down by the water's brink. "'Twas just hereabouts," said Walcot in a loud whisper. "There! there! Stop a bit. No. Now I think on't, 'twas of course farther along--close by the barge."

"Here! I have it!" cried one in a voice of smothered but gleeful triumph. "Alack! it was but the battered handle of an old tin pot;" and in dire vexation he dashed it down again.

For a good half-hour the search was continued, until, wet through with their wadings and dabblings, some showed signs of giving in. Others swore they would not budge till they had found the missing thing.

"Then I take it we may as well part company at once," yawned Lord Howard, "for it's washed away into mid-stream long before now, depend on it. Come, Master Lee, what say you? I'll dare swear you know something of the water's soundings hereabouts."

"I think 'tis likely enough, my lord," answered Lawrence, catching Lord Howard's attack of yawning.

"Then let it lie, and be hanged to it!" and the nobleman sauntered back up the slope.

One or two of the party now proposed to return to the inn and proceed with the business which had brought them together; but Rumbold shook his head. "It is too late," he said: "three nights hence we will meet again."

[Sidenote: An inhospitable landlord.]

"Oh! but not here," piteously entreated Sheppard. "Not here, Master Rumbold; don't say it's to be here. I never should hear the last of it; I shouldn't indeed!"

"Peace with thy craven tongue!" said the maltster with one of his grim smiles. "No, boys," he added, turning to the rest; "not here: yonder at my own house, where last we met, in the Warder's Room."

And with a gesture of farewell he left them, while Lee betook himself home in his boat.

The rest, not without bestowing a good many muttered left-hand compliments on the fumble-footed Rumsey, separated in much the same order as they had come,--some by the barge, which soon lost itself among the mists of the river, others making their way on foot by the Rye to Hoddesdon and the neighbourhood.

It was, however, with difficulty that Colonel Walcot's companions could drag him from the bridge.

[Sidenote: All dark.]

"Come along, Colonel," urged one; "you see you were wrong after all. There's not a thread of a gleam anywhere. Eh! see, 'tis all as dark as pitch."

"Ay," sighed Walcot, slowly moving on at last, "dark, dark enough."