He smiled dourly. “They won’t do that—not while they keep to the open cellars. In fact, while Sir Hugh was telling them what their duty was, and what it wasn’t, I was able to take Mr Ludovic his breakfast.”
“Where is your secret cellar, Nye?”
He looked at her for a moment, and then replied: “You’ll be the ruin of me yet, ma’am. It’s under the floor of my storeroom.”
Sir Hugh came back into the room presently. He gave it as his opinion that the Runners were either drunk or half-witted, and said that he fancied they would have no more trouble with them. Upon his sister’s inquiring hopefully whether he had contrived to get rid of them, he replied somewhat severely that he had made no such attempt. He had merely defined their duties to them and warned them of the consequences of overstepping the limits of the law.
Both Nye and Miss Thane were dissatisfied, but there was no doubt that the irruption of Sir Hugh into the cellars had done much to damp the Runners’ ardour. His air of unquestionable authority, his knowledge of the law, and the fact of his being acquainted, apparently, with the magistrate in charge at Bow Street made them conscious of a great disinclination to fall foul of him again. Nor could they feel, when they had discussed the point between themselves, that a house which held so rigid a legal precisian was the place in which to look for a hardened criminal. They had failed on two occasions to find the least trace of Ludovic Lavenham; the landlord, who should be most nearly concerned, seemed to look upon their search with indifference; and had it not been for the suspicious circumstance of the abigail’s disappearance, they would have been much inclined to have returned to London. The valet’s words, however, had been explicit. They decided to prosecute a further search for a hidden cellar, and to keep the inn under observation in the hope of surprising Ludovic in an attempt to escape.
While this search, which entailed a patient tapping of the walls and floor of the other cellars, was in progress, Nye seized the opportunity to visit Ludovic. He returned presently and reported that his lordship wouldn’t stay patient for long; in fact, was already threatening to come out of hiding and deal with the Runners in his own fashion.
“Really, one cannot blame him,” said Miss Thane judicially. “It is most tiresome of these people to continue to haunt us. It quite puts an end to our adventures.”
“Yes, it does,” agreed Eustacie. “Besides, I am afraid that Ludovic will catch cold in the cellar.”
“Very true,” said Miss Thane. “There is nothing for it: since Hugh has been so useless in the matter, we must get rid of the Runners ourselves.”
“ You have not seen them,” said Eustacie bitterly. “They are the kind of men who stay, and stay, and stay.”