"Ay, ay!" replied the old man. "Don't leave 'em too long--that's all."
"I'll go down myself," said Radford; "they've got scent of it, or I wouldn't find it out."
"All right--all right!" rejoined the other, in a low voice; and the magistrate, raising his tone, exclaimed, "Here, Clinch and Adams--you two fools! why don't you come in? They say there is nothing here; but we must search. We must not take any man's word; not to say that I doubt yours, Mr. Ramley; but it is necessary, you know."
"Oh, do what you like, sir," replied the farmer. "I don't care!"
A very respectable search was then commenced, and pursued from room to room--one of the men who accompanied Mr. Radford, and who was an officer of the Customs, giving old Ramley a significant wink with his right eye as he passed, at which the other grinned. Indeed, had the whole matter not been very well understood between the great majority of both parties, it would have been no very pleasant or secure task for any three men in England to enter the kitchen of that farm-house on such an errand. At length, however, Mr. Radford and his companions returned to the kitchen, and the magistrate thought fit to walk somewhat out of his way towards the left-hand side of the room, when suddenly stopping, he exclaimed, in a grave tone, "Hallo! Ramley, what's here? These boards seem loose!"
"To be sure they are," answered the farmer; "that's the way to the old beer cellar. But there's nothing in it, upon my honour!"
"But we must look, Ramley, you know," said Mr. Radford. "Come, open it, whatever it is!
"Oh, with all my heart," replied the man; "but you'll perhaps break your head. That's your fault, not mine, however,"--and, advancing to the side of the room, he took a crooked bit of iron from his pocket--not unlike that used for pulling stones out of a horse's hoofs--and insinuating it between the skirting-board and the floor, soon raised the trap-door of which we have spoken before.
A vault of about nine feet deep was now exposed, with the top of a ladder leading into it; and Mr. Radford ordered the men who were with him to go down first. The one who had given old Ramley the wink in passing, descended without ceremony; but the other, who was also an officer, hesitated for a moment.
"Go down--go down, Clinch!" said Mr. Radford. "You would have a search, and so you shall do it thoroughly."