“Now, sir,” he said, “if you will eat this I will call up my two men and set to work at once to get your hiding-place made, so that you may be safely lodged in it before any people are about.”
Will was by no means sorry to take breakfast. He ate the food leisurely, and just as he had finished Van Duyk came in to say that the place was ready for him.
It was not a large hole, but sufficient to let him lie down at [pg 294]full length under the thatch. He climbed up the ladder the men had used and got into his nest, and after Van Duyk had handed him in the provisions he had promised, the two men set to work with all speed to replace the thatch. It was made thin, so that he had no difficulty in raising it, and could even with his finger make a tiny opening through which he could look. The hay that had been removed to make room for him was carried away and thrown down in the mangers for the cows, so that there was nothing to show that the stack had recently been touched.
Two hours later Will heard the trampling of horses, and two officers, with a troop of cavalry, rode up.
“I bear a warrant to search your house, Van Duyk,” Will heard one of them say.
“You have searched it three times already, meinheer, but you can, of course, search it again if you wish. You will certainly find no more now than you did then.”
“A spy landed last night, Van Duyk, and it is more than probable that he is taking shelter here.”
“I don’t know why you should suspect me more than anyone else. I am a quiet man, meddling in no way with public matters, and attending only to my own business.”
“It is all very well to say that; we have certain information about you.”
“I am well known to my neighbours as a peaceable man,” Van Duyk repeated, “and think it monstrous that I should be so interfered with and harried.”