If Miss Hilliard had noticed, she might have seen that Christopher looked red and confused, and hesitated a moment, when she told him to go with Osric and bring a pail of fresh water. As he rose to obey, Christie's conscience gave him a last pull and whisper—a last draw before it was too late. He had half a mind to ask to be excused, but he thought how vexed Osric would be, and how he would laugh at him, and the fear of man was stronger in his mind than the fear of doing wrong. When Osric and Christopher came out of the school-house, it wanted a quarter to three.
"We shall be just in time," said Osric. "Hurry, Chris! Never mind the old pail. Leave it anywhere."
Christopher, however, hid the pail behind the corner of the fence, and then ran on after Osric, who was already at the bridge. They went up along the road leading to the vault, and stopped among the trees.
"There! You see we can't go into the vault," said Christopher. "There is General Dent's man Isaac watching the door."
"Likely as not he will go away in a minute," returned Osric. "Wait a little and see. Yes, there he goes. Now let us run and peep in before he comes back again."
The two boys hastened up the hill and into the vault, the door of which stood open. There was not much to see, after all. There were no coffins standing about, as Osric had expected. In truth, the coffins were placed in niches in the wall, and there built up, and a marble slab or tablet placed over the spot to show who was buried there. Christopher and Osric peeped about trying to read the inscriptions on these tablets.
"Do you suppose the coffins are in behind the wall or under the floor?" asked Christopher.
"I suppose they are in behind these marble slabs," replied Osric, in a tone of disappointment. "I thought they would be lying on shelves or on the ground, so that we could see them. How cold it is in here, isn't it?"
"I suppose that is because the vault is under ground. See here, Ozzy—here is the old general's stone. Born 1750. More than a hundred years ago."
"He was an old man when he died, too," said Osric. "I can just remember him. Here is the general's youngest sister. Aged twelve—just as old as I am, and she died so long ago—1802."