“What’s the matter?” said Waller.
“Fell down and hurt myself—all down those stairs. Made a big lump on my head.”
“Why, what were you doing?”
“Oh, I waited till it was growing dark, and then I felt that I must get out of this room, if only for a few moments, just to breathe the air in that big passage. But the steps were so horribly polished with wax that I went down from top to bottom.”
“Oh!” said Waller. “Then I suppose you don’t know that you frightened one of our maids.”
“Did I? I think I did hear somebody shriek.”
“You did; and if you do things like that again, all will be found out. I shall get into terrible trouble, and you will be caught, and you know what that means.”
“Yes,” said Godfrey sadly; “I know what that means.”
“Well, then, I don’t mean to trust you any more,” said Waller, “and I shall keep that door locked until I feel it’s safe. As soon as I can get you out, we will go off into the woods. I only hope our maid won’t talk about it, but I am afraid she will.”
There was cause for Waller’s fear, for the very next day Bella told the gardener all about her alarm, and that night when he went down to the village shop, Joe Hanson made a small audience of the village people open their eyes widely, stare, and feel, as they told one another, a curious creepy sensation right down their backs.