Carefully going down several steps in perfect silence, he managed to get a view of the whole kitchen, including the fireplace, and what was his astonishment to see Ephraim Morris standing upon a chair before an old brick oven built high in the chimney, and which Hadley never remembered seeing opened before. It was open now, however, and the old gentleman had his head and shoulders thrust inside, as though reaching for something concealed at the extreme back of the oven.
CHAPTER IX
A MIDNIGHT BURYING
TO play the rôle of eavesdropper, or “Peeping Tom,” was not exactly as Hadley Morris would have wished. He hated a sneak; but his curiosity regarding his uncle’s manœuvres was for the time too strong for his ideas of what was really honorable, and instead of retreating up the stairs to the loft again, he remained where he was and watched the old gentleman with wide-open eyes.
Like most substantially built houses of that day, the Morris homestead had a great stone and brick fireplace built into the end wall. To the right of the fireplace was one of those ovens in which the pioneer housewives did all their baking. The oven was like a safe built into the side of the chimney, and had a smooth clay floor. Uncle Ephraim had always kept the oven door fastened with an old-fashioned brass padlock.
The padlock now lay on the floor, and as Hadley continued to peer into the wide kitchen from around the corner of the door-frame, he saw Master Morris draw back from the mouth of the oven, holding a bag in each hand. The bags were not large, but by the way his uncle carried them the boy knew they were heavy, and when the old man stepped down from the chair and laid them on the table, the listener heard a faint chink as though of metal. “It’s gold!” whispered the boy to himself, and his eyes opened even more widely at the thought.
Then for the first time Hadley saw that Master Morris wore his waistcoat and coat, as though he were ready to go out of doors. He put on his hat at once, stuck the half-burned candle in a lantern, and with the latter swung over his arm and one of the heavy bags in each hand, he left the house.
Hadley hesitated only a moment; then, curiosity still spurring him, he ran lightly down the remaining steps into the kitchen and followed his uncle out of doors without stopping for his own hat. The night was mild and not at all dark, but the boy might have found some difficulty in following the old man had it not been for the flickering lantern which swung from his arm. This dancing will-o’-the-wisp led the boy down behind the barns and cribs and directly into the orchard where the branches of the gnarled old apple trees met and, with their fruit and foliage, shut out most of the star-light.
Hadley crept near, cautiously, when he saw that Uncle Ephraim had halted and set the light upon the ground. Soon he discovered that the old man had been here before since he went to bed, for there was a shovel and a heap of earth in plain view. He watched his uncle and saw him drop the two bags into what appeared to be a rather deep hole, then place a flat stone on top of them, and afterward fill in the hole with the soil and stamp it all down with care. There was considerable soil left then, and the old man carried this away, shovelful by shovelful, and threw it into a ditch at the far edge of the orchard. Afterward he replaced the sod which he had earlier removed, patting it all down evenly with the flat of his shovel. The burying was completed, and marking the spot well for future reference, Hadley ran back to the house and climbed to the loft, and was nicely in bed again before the old man returned to the kitchen.
But the strangeness of the whole matter kept the boy awake long after he was sure his uncle had sought his own couch. He was unable to compose his mind to sleep, and was glad when at length the cocks crew to announce the gray light in the east. He rose and went back to the Three Oaks without again seeing Uncle Ephraim, and tried to forget the incident of the night in his work about the inn. But when he saw Colonel Creston Knowles ride off with William toward the Morris farm soon after breakfast, Hadley wished he had remained longer with his uncle, and so been present at the interview which was about to take place between the old man and the British officer.
Lillian avoided him that day, seemingly, and Hadley went about his duties with much trouble at his heart. It was after noon when Colonel Knowles and his henchman returned, and a glance at the officer’s face told Hadley that the gentleman was in a towering rage. Evidently his visit had afforded him little satisfaction.