“Oh! they’re nothing,” I said—“only a few scratches and bruises. I don’t mind them.”
The two boys were whispering eagerly together, and I heard Philip say:
“Well, ask him; he’d do anything for money.”
“Look here,” said Courtenay.
I believe he was going to offer to bribe us; but just then there was the sound of voices in the garden and Sir Francis appeared directly after, candle in hand, closely followed by Mr Solomon, and both of them looking very serious, though somehow it did not have the slightest effect on me, for I was watching the faces of Courtenay and Philip.
“Shut that window, Brownsmith,” said Sir Francis, as he set down his candle and went back to his chair behind the table.
Mr Solomon shut the window, and then came forward and set down his candle in turn.
“Now,” said Sir Francis, “we can finish this business, I think. You say, Grant, that you heard someone climb over the wall by the big trained pear-tree?”
“I heard two people come over, sir, and one of them fell down, and, I think, broke a small tree or bush.”
“Yes,” said Sir Francis, “a bush is broken, and someone has climbed over by that big pear-tree.”