She had come to me with a sudden rush, gripping my arm with both her hands—I doubt if she knew how hard. I could see that she was all of a tremble.
“I—I thought I heard someone downstairs.”
“Not a doubt of it—rats.”
“It—it wasn’t rats. It sounded like footsteps in the room beneath.”
“When I’ve finished uncle’s letter we’ll investigate; but I think you’ll find it was rats—they’ve got footsteps. Let me see, where was I? Oh, yes—‘Its hand. Go out as little as you can.’ To be sure. I’m not fond of going out—especially with such a house as this to stop in. ‘Be always back before nine. It is then the hour of your greatest peril begins. Should you ever be out after nine—which the gods forbid—let no one see you enter. They will be watching for you in the front. Go to Rosemary Street at the back. Between thirteen and fourteen there is a passage. At the end there is a wall. Climb it. There are two stanchions one above the other on the right. They will help you. Drop into the yard. Go to the backdoor. You will see a spot of light shining at you. Put the key in there. Turn three times to the left. The door will open. Enter and close quickly lest your enemies be upon you. If they enter with you may God have mercy on your soul. From your affectionate uncle, Benjamin Batters. P.S.—You will find the back door key on the parlour table.’ Shall I? That’s story number one at any rate. I haven’t found any back door key on the parlour table, and I never saw one there. Did you?”
“There—wasn’t one—I noticed—there was nothing on the table—when you put that bangle down.”
I wished Emily would not speak in that stammering way, as if there was a full stop between each word or two. But I knew it was not the slightest use my saying so just then; that was how she felt.
“Of course. I did leave that bangle on the table, didn’t I? That’s one thing which we’ve found in uncle’s dear old house which seems worth having; and one thing’s something. Let’s go and have another look at it.”
Down the stairs again we went; Emily sticking close to my side as if she would rather have suffered anything than have let me get a yard away from her. One of the pleasantest features of my new possession seemed to be that every time we moved from one room to another about a hundred thousand rats got flurried; it sounded like a hundred thousand by the din they made. And Emily did not like them scurrying up and down the stairs when she was on them; nor, so far as that went, did I either.
When we reached the parlour, I made a dart at the table.