“Well, there arn’t much, sir, sartainly, but it’ll be more satisfactory to go over it once more.”
“Come along, then,” said the middy. “Anything’s better than standing still here.”
“Ay, sir, so it is,” said the big sailor; and together the pair went from room to room, Tom May insisting upon looking under the couch in the study, under the table, and then lifting up the square of Turkey carpet that half covered the well-made parqueterie floor, which glistened with the polishing given to it by busy slave labour.
But there was no sign of him whom they sought, and a careful examination of the garden and plantation was only followed by the discovery which they had made before, that the place was thoroughly closed in by a dense natural growth of hedge, ablaze with flowers in spite of the fact that it had been closely clipped and had grown dense in an impassable way.
“Let’s get the boat here,” said Murray, at last; and going to the platform, Tom May hailed the cutter where it swung from its grapnel.
“Now then, you two,” cried the middy angrily, “you have been asleep!”
“Nay, sir,” cried the men, in a breath.
“What, you deny it?”
“Yes, sir,” said one. “It was so hot that I did get precious drowsy once.”
“There, I knew I was right!”