"Go on," said father, gravely.
"Well, we wanted to know how Edric was. The servant who brought our meals was as dumb as any old monk who had promised never to speak, so we couldn't get anything out of her. I was standing by the window at about eight o'clock, wondering whether I dared climb down the ivy and run round to the dining-room to see Edric, when all of a sudden I saw something moving in the bushes. I put my head out without saying a word to the others, who were all busy writing to tell father and mother how naughty we have been; and what do you think I saw? A man, in a white coat and sailor's slouch hat, beginning to climb up the ivy. I waited till he had got half-way up, and then I sneezed; like this." Jack sneezed so naturally that we all laughed. "That's the way I get the windows shut at school if it's cold. Mother told Mr. Barton to be particularly careful that we didn't catch cold; so when we want the windows shut I just keep on sneezing till he does it."
"What happened next?" asked father, speaking in his natural manner for the first time since our escapade.
Jack's sensitive nature felt the change at once. "You should have seen him," he said, brightly. "He dropped down like a cat, and bolted."
"Did he look up?"
"I don't know. I took my head in quick, for fear he might owe me one if he should ever see me again. I waited a minute, and then climbed down after him. I couldn't see him anywhere, so I went to look at Edric."
Now, although I have told you all that my cousin said without any breaks, you must remember he had a broken ankle, and many times he stopped in great pain in the middle of a sentence. Father noticed this; and as soon as he had heard all that he required, he put his hand on Jack's head and told him to lie quietly till the doctor came.
"You can't think of all the dreadful things I was going to do to you," he said. "You will learn some day that everything we do wrong brings its own punishment. It does not come perhaps directly, as Edric's lost finger and your broken ankle did; but it does come, my boy."
"But he wanted to help you, father," I said, hastily, sorry that my hero should be looked upon as a culprit.
"That was right enough, laddie; but he set to work the wrong way. It is no use doing evil that good may come; good never does come in the end from such work. He should have obeyed me first, and helped me afterwards."