Then, without waiting for an answer, the queer boy ran along the gravel path and leaped the dwarf wall into the stable yard, which lay at a lower level.
‘What does he mean?’ asked Barbara.
‘He means,’ said Jasper, ‘that he is going to make an attempt to get poor Martin off.’
‘But how can he?’
‘That I do not know.’
‘And whether we ought to assist in such a venture I do not know,’ said Barbara thoughtfully.
‘Nor do I,’ said Jasper; ‘my heart says one thing, my head the other.’
‘We will follow our hearts,’ said Barbara vehemently, and caught his hands and pressed them. ‘Jasper, he is your brother; with me that is a chief consideration. Come into the hall; we will give the men some music.’
Jasper and Barbara went to the hall, and found that the warder had his foot bandaged in a chair, and seemed to be in great pain. He was swearing at the constables who had come from Beer Alston for not having called at the ‘Hare and Hounds’ on their way for his boot. He tried to induce one of them to go back for it; but the sight of the fire, the jugs of cider, the plates heaped with cake, made them unwilling again to leave the house.
‘We ain’t a-going without our supper,’ was their retort. ‘You are comfortable enough here, with plenty to eat and to drink.’