“Nor those dreadful spies?”
“I hope not, Berry. You go down, please, at once, and wait till I call you up.”
“Yes, my dear, yes,” said the woman sadly. “You’re master now poor dear Sir Robert is away. I’ll go; but pray, pray be careful. It would kill me, my dear.”
“Kill you?” cried Frank. “What would?”
“I should—yes, I would do that!—I should crawl somehow as far as the city to have one look at your poor dear head sticking on a spike, and then I should creep down a side street, and lay my head on a doorstep, and die.”
“No, you shan’t!” cried Frank, laughing in spite of his excitement, as he hurried the weeping old woman to the top of the basement stairs. “I’ll come here properly, with my head upon my shoulders. There, there; go down and wait. I don’t think anything will happen to-day to frighten you. Never mind; if any one comes I’ll open the door.”
“Oh, my dear, I can’t let you do that,” remonstrated the old woman. “What would my lady say?”
“That old Berry was a dear, good, obedient housekeeper, who always did what she was told.”
“Ah!” sighed the old lady, with a piteous smile; “you always did coax and get the better of me, Master Frank; and many’s the time I’ve made you ill by indulging you with pudding and cakes that you begged for. Yes, I’ll go down, my dear; but I’ll come the moment you call or ring.”
Frank stood watching her till she reached the foot of the stairs, and then started and ran across the hall in his excitement, for a clock was striking, and he had hardly let down the chain and unfastened the door to hold it ajar, when there was a step outside, it was pushed open, and Drew Forbes glided in, and thrust it to.