Owlet led the way to the top of a rickety stair, and knocked at one of the doors which opened on the landing. No answer was returned, but after a second application of the knuckles, accompanied by a touch of the toe, a growling voice was heard, then a sound of some one getting violently out of bed, a heavy tread on the floor, and the door was flung open.
“What d’ee want?” demanded a fierce, half-drunken man.
“Please, sir, does the Wilkins stop here?”
“No, they don’t,” and the door was shut with a bang.
“Sweet creature!” observed Stumpy as they turned disappointed away.
“Wonder if his mother ’as any more like ’im?” said Owlet.
“They’ve ’ad to change to the cellar,” said a famished-looking woman, putting her head out of a door on the same landing. “D’ye want ’em?”
“In course we does, mother, else we wouldn’t ax for ’em. W’ereabouts is the cellar?”
“Foot o’ this stair.”
Descending to the regions below, the two boys groped their way along an underground passage till they came to a door. It was opened by a woman, who timidly demanded what they wanted.