“And have made me your debtor for ever by so doing,” said Jane, with fervour. “My help is yours in any way and in every way that you can make it useful.”
“What I am here to ask you to do is, to give my friend food and shelter for three days and nights, by which time a plan, now in preparation, for getting him away to some more distant place, will be ready to be put into operation.”
“I will have my own rooms got ready for Mr. Dering without a moment’s delay,” said Jane.
“Pardon me,” said Tom, “but the very kindness of your offer would defeat the object we have most in view. Dering’s safety depends on the absolute secrecy which must enshroud this night’s transactions. What you have just suggested could not be carried out without exciting the suspicions of one or more of your servants. From suspicion to inquiry is only one step, and from inquiry to discovery is often only another.”
“You are right, Mr. Bristow. But you are not without a plan of your own, I am sure.”
“What I would venture to suggest is this,” said. Tom: “that Dering be locked up in one or another of the disused and empty rooms of which I know there are several at Pincote. No domestic must have access to the room while he is there, nor even glean the faintest suspicion that the room is occupied at all. The secret of the hiding-place must be your secret and mine absolutely. If I am asking too much, or more than you can see your way to carry out without imperilling the safety of my friend, you will tell me so frankly, I am sure, and will aid me in devising some other and more feasible mode of escape.”
“You are not asking too much, Mr. Bristow. In such a case you cannot ask too much. Your plan is better than mine. This old house is big enough to hide half-a-dozen people away in. There is a suite of four rooms in the left wing, which rooms have never been used since mamma’s death, and which are never entered by the servants except for cleaning purposes, and then only by my instructions. Those rooms I place unreservedly at Mr. Dering’s disposal. There he will be perfectly safe for as long a time as he may choose to stay. I will wait on him myself. No one else shall go near him.”
“I felt sure that my appeal to you would not be in vain.”
“It will make me happier than I can tell you, if I may be allowed to assist, in however humble a degree, in helping Mr. Dering to escape. We all liked him so much, and we were all so thoroughly convinced of his innocence, that when the news was brought next morning of how he had got out of gaol overnight, I could not help crying, I felt so glad; and I never saw papa so pleased and excited before. Since then, it has always been my task at luncheon to run carefully through the morning papers and see whether there was any news of Mr. Dering. From our hearts we wished him God speed wherever he might be; and as day passed after day, and there came no news of his recapture, we cheered each other with the hope that he had got safely away to some far-distant land. And yet all this time, from what you say, he must have been hiding close at hand.”
“Yes, very close at hand—within half a mile of the prison from which he escaped.”