“I do not care how shocking he may have been. I will not permit you to tamper with his papers!” said Elinor, with resolution. “It would be most improper in me. Besides, I do not set the least store by all this nonsense! You have refined too much upon what must have some quite simple explanation.”
“I’ll lay you odds you are wrong!” offered Nicky. “Of course, if you think I should not look at Eustace’s papers I will not do so. I think I should go back to the Hall, and tell Ned what we have discovered. I dare say he may have returned by this time.”
“Yes, I think you should,” said Elinor thankfully. “But I wish you will secure that door before you go!”
“No, no, we must on no account do so!” he replied. “I am in great hopes that that fellow will come back again. Indeed, I would wager a pony he will, and we don’t wish to scare him off!” He smiled engagingly at his fascinated hostess. “Now, do we, Cousin Elinor?”
“Certainly not!” she said, rising nobly to this occasion. “If he should come again I will offer him refreshment. If only I had thought of it earlier! I do trust my inhospitality may not have given him a distaste of this house!”
“I knew you were a right one!” Nicky said. “But do be serious, ma’am! You see, if I am in the right of it, and I do think I may be, he will come to get whatever it is he wants, and we must lie in wait for him and catch him red-handed. I know Ned would say so!”
“I can readily believe he would,” said Elinor sardonically.
Nicky replaced the trap door and shut the cupboard. “I do not see that there is anything more we can do here at this present,” he said. “Let us go downstairs again, Cousin. And you must not say a word of this to the Barrows, you know, for besides that we do not wish anyone to know what we have discovered, ten to one they would take fright and run away, leaving you alone here, and that would not do at all.”
“At last you have uttered a sentiment with which I find myself in profound agreement!” said Elinor. “But do not delude yourself into fancying that I mean to spend another night in this house with that dreadful door unsecured, for nothing would induce me to do so! Though, to be sure, I have not the least expectation of receiving another such visit from that man!”
He followed her down the stairs. “Well, if you have not, you cannot have the least objection to my leaving that door open,” he said reasonably.