"Did he see you?" interrupted Dick.
"I wer just agoin' to tell 'ee. No, 'a didn't see me, 'cos I slipped behind Maidy, she being well growed, and says I, 'That feller is my 'nation enemy,' says I, and afore I knowed wheer I wer, she whisked me into a little small cupboard place wi' coats and boots hangin' on the wall, and commanded me, in a feelin' whisper, to bide theer till she toled me out. Drown me if I didn' hear Doubledick go shailin' past wi' Maister John, and then there comed a rumblin' through the wall, and I knowed they two was a-talkin'."
"Did you hear what they said?" asked Dick eagerly.
"Iss, I did. I hadn' nawthin' better to do, so I put my ear to the wall. Iss, I heerd a thing or two."
"Well, what did you hear? Anything about Penwarden?"
Sam had gradually pushed open the gate, and was now walking beside Dick.
"Not a word. I wer so flambustered in bein' poked in that hencoop of a place, and thinkin' what they'd do to me if so be they catched me, that 'twas all mixed up, and I couldn' tell A from B."
"But think: you must have heard something clearly. You didn't lose all your wits, did you?"
"Well, I did hear Maister John say wind was steady, and 'a hoped 't 'ud hold fair for business."
"Yes: what then?"