"I poked around it, top, bottom, and sides"
"But, Alec!" cried Margaret. "Have you gone back on us like this? And after all you said! And you seemed so interested, too! I just can't believe it of you!" Her great, beautiful gray eyes filled with sudden tears, and Alexander, turning from the window, observed it.
"Aw! turn off the weeps!" he exclaimed gruffly, but contritely. "Can't you all take a bit of kidding? It ain't worth while for me to be over there any more—because I've found the beam already—and explored it!"
At this astonishing revelation they sprang upon him literally in a body—all but Margaret.
"Oh, Alec! You didn't! When? Tell us all about it? What did you find? How did you do it?" The questions rained thick and fast.
"Well, just unhand me, and sit down, and I'll tell you all about it! Saturday night I was crawling round a bit after the work was all over, and only the night-watchman there. I found that the two beams on this north end were really pretty well uncovered, in spots, and what was left over them could be easily scraped off. It was mostly dirt and loose mortar. I didn't have time to do anything that night, but I gave the watchman the tip that I'd be back the next night and poke around a bit. He likes me, and he thinks I'm collecting wood to build an Indian wigwam in that vacant lot on Hudson Street. And us fellows are building one, too, so it's no lie!" Alexander, to do him justice, was scrupulously truthful.
"So I beat it out, last night, after borrowing the twins' door-key, so I wouldn't have to wake up that lallypaloozer, Sarah, when I came in. Of course I took a chance of not striking the right beam,—it might be the one at the south end, for all I knew. However, I doped out the one I thought it was, shoveled off the bricks and mortar softly, so's not to attract attention, and measured off ten feet from the west end with a tape-line. You know the kid, Alison, said the steward stood about ten feet from the wall of the house, along the beam.
"Then I opened my big-bladed pocket-knife and poked and poked and poked around it, top, bottom, and sides. But never a sign of an opening did I find. After I'd been at the job about an hour, I gave it up and scooted for the east end of the beam, and began the same thing all over. Nothing doing for about half an hour! Then all at once, my blade slipped into a crack! I gave a hard pull, and—jumping Jupiter!—there I was! The thing came open like a door on a rusty hinge, and there was a hole about a foot and a half long!
"You bet I didn't do a thing but shove my hand in and feel all around in the hole! I didn't dare even to light a match, for fear a cop might see me. Just then, all of a sudden, the watchman called out softly that the roundsman was coming and I'd better beat it while the going was good! I just had time to duck off that beam, crawl along the darkest side of the wall, and sneak out as the roundsman came along and stood talking to the watchman, as he always does, for about fifteen minutes. I got into the house all hunky,—and that's why it ain't any use for me to be there this afternoon!" he ended abruptly.