PAGE CHAPTER I [ARDEN’S LORD] 13 CHAPTER II [THE MOULDIWARP] 45 CHAPTER III [IN BONEY’S TIMES] 76 CHAPTER IV [THE LANDING OF THE FRENCH] 97 CHAPTER V [THE HIGHWAYMAN AND THE ——] 112 CHAPTER VI [THE SECRET PANEL] 136 CHAPTER VII [THE KEY OF THE PARLOUR] 162 CHAPTER VIII [GUY FAWKES] 184 CHAPTER IX [THE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER] 214 CHAPTER X [WHITE WINGS AND A BROWNIE] 238 CHAPTER XI [DEVELOPMENTS] 262 CHAPTER XII [FILMS AND CLOUDS] 291 CHAPTER XIII [MAY-BLOSSOM AND PEARLS] 308 CHAPTER XIV [THE FINDING OF THE TREASURE] 327
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
[“HE TOOK OFF HIS HAT AT THE LAST WORDS AND SWEPT IT, WITH A FLOURISH, NEARLY TO THE GROUND”]Frontispiece PAGE [“THEY WENT SLOWLY UP THE RED-BRICK-PAVED SIDEWALK”]25 [“‘AYE,’ HE SAID, ‘YOU’RE AN ARDEN, FOR SURE’”]35 [“THEY WERE TURNING ITS PAGES WITH QUICK, ANXIOUS HANDS”]41 [“THE CHILDREN WENT IN THE CARRIER’S CART”]55 [“‘HOITY-TOITY,’ SAID THE OLD LADY, VERY SEVERELY; ‘WE FORGET OUR MANNERS, I THINK’”]73 [“‘I’VE BROUGHT YOU SOME TEA AND SUGAR,’ SHE SAID”]89 [“THE MOULDIWARP MADE A LITTLE RUN AND A LITTLE JUMP, AND ELFRIDA CAUGHT IT”]95 [“‘DO YOU THINK THE FRENCH WILL LAND TOMORROW IN LYMCHURCH BAY?’ EDRED ASKED”]103 [“THEY SAT DOWN ON THE CLOSE WHITE LINE OF DAISIES”]117 [“‘COME, SEE HOW THE NEW SCARF BECOMES THY BET. IS IT NOT VASTLY MODISH?’”]121 [“‘IF YOU AIM AT ME YOU SHOOT THE CHILD’”]131 [“BETTY HANDED HIM THE CANDLE”]137 [“‘NOW,’ SAID A DOZEN VOICES, ‘THE TRUTH, LITTLE MISS’”]143 [“ELFRIDA WAS OBLIGED TO SHAKE HIM”]153 [“EDRED AND THE BIG CHAIR FELL TO THE FLOOR”]159 [“SHE SAW THAT THE NAME WAS ‘E. TALBOT’”]167 [“THE ROOM SEEMED FULL OF CIRCLING WINGS”]171 [“A LADY IN CRIMSON AND ERMINE WITH A GOLD CROWN”]181 [“THE WALLS SEEMED TO TREMBLE AND SHAKE AND GO CROOKED”]193 [“‘THOU’RT A FINE PAGE, INDEED, MY DEAR SON,’ SAID THE LADY. ‘STAND ASIDE AND TAKE MY TRAIN’”]199 [“OLD PARROT-NOSE HAD ELFRIDA BY THE WRIST”]207 [“THEY FOUND THEIR HOUSE OCCUPIED BY AN ARMED GUARD”]211 [“‘I WILL CONVEY HIM TO OUR COACH, GOOD MASTERS,’ SHE SAID TO THE GUARD”]231 [“‘YOU’VE NO MANNERS,’ IT SAID TO THE NURSE”]235 [“THE STREAM CAME OUT UNDER A ROUGH, LOW ARCH OF STONE”]253 [“‘SOLDIERS!’ SHE CRIED, ‘AND THEY’RE AFTER US’”]257 [“MRS. HONEYSETT WAS SITTING IN A LITTLE LOW CHAIR AT THE BACK DOOR PLUCKING A WHITE CHICKEN”]263 [“‘AH,’ SAID OLD NEALE ADMIRINGLY, ‘YOU’LL BE A-BUSTING WITH BOOK-LARNIN’ AFORE YOU COME TO YOUR TWENTY-ONE, I LAY’”]279 [“IT HELD CLOTHES FAR RICHER THAN ANY THEY HAD SEEN YET”]287 [“‘NOW RUN!’ SHE SAID, AND HERSELF LED THE WAY”]315 [“EDRED AND ELFRIDA AND RICHARD SAT DOWN ON THE MINUTE HAND”]325 [“THE HOUSES WERE MADE OF GREAT BLOCKS OF STONE”]337
The House of Arden
CHAPTER I
ARDEN’S LORD
It had been a great house once, with farms and fields, money and jewels—with tenants and squires and men-at-arms. The head of the house had ridden out three days’ journey to meet King Henry at the boundary of his estate, and the King had ridden back with him to lie in the tall State bed in the castle guest-chamber. The heir of the house had led his following against Cromwell; younger sons of the house had fought in foreign lands, to the honour of England and the gilding and regilding with the perishable gold of glory of the old Arden name. There had been Ardens in Saxon times, and there were Ardens still—but few and impoverished. The lands were gone, and the squires and men-at-arms; the castle itself was roofless, and its unglazed windows stared blankly across the fields of strangers, that stretched right up to the foot of its grey, weather-worn walls. And of the male Ardens there were now known two only—an old man and a child.
The old man was Lord Arden, the head of the house, and he lived lonely in a little house built of the fallen stones that Time and Cromwell’s round-shot had cast from the castle walls. The child was Edred Arden, and he lived in a house in a clean, wind-swept town on a cliff.
It was a bright-faced house with bow-windows and a green balcony that looked out over the sparkling sea. It had three neat white steps and a brass knocker, pale and smooth with constant rubbing. It was a pretty house, and it would have been a pleasant house but for one thing—the lodgers. For I cannot conceal from you any longer that Edred Arden lived with his aunt, and that his aunt let lodgings. Letting lodgings is one of the most unpleasant of all possible ways of earning your living, and I advise you to try every other honest way of earning your living before you take to that.
Because people who go to the seaside and take lodgings seem, somehow, much harder to please than the people who go to hotels. They want ever so much more waiting on; they want so many meals, and at such odd times. They ring the bell almost all day long. They bring in sand from the shore in every fold of their clothes, and it shakes out of them on to the carpets and the sofa cushions, and everything in the house. They hang long streamers of wet seaweed against the pretty roses of the new wall-papers, and their washhand basins are always full of sea anemones and shells. Also, they are noisy; their boots seem to be always on the stairs, no matter how bad a headache you may have; and when you give them their bill they always think it is too much, no matter how little it may be. So do not let lodgings if you can help it.
Miss Arden could not help it. It happened like this.