“Nothing that I know of but an empty cupboard,” he answered quietly. “The room is little used, so that I never saw it opened.”
“Bring the key, and let us see,” said the alguazil.
“I have not the key; and if there is one, my master must have it, and I cannot disturb him for such a fancy,” replied José. “The dog smells a rat; there are many in the house, and he will soon be quiet.”
But the dog would not be quiet, neither was the alguazil satisfied; and at last José was obliged to say that he would go and ask my father for the key. I followed him out of the room.
“José, I will go to my father and get the key, while you stay with the strangers,” I said to him. “Give them plenty of wine, and amuse them as long as you can.”
I hurried to my father’s room to consult what was to be done; though I intended not to mention that the key had been asked for till he had come into the passage, as of course my mother would be very much alarmed at hearing of it.
I had got him out into the passage, and was mentioning the unwelcome arrival of the Spaniards in as calm a tone as I could command, when it struck me that I might prevent his being implicated in the secretion of the fugitive if I took the whole blame upon myself. I at last told him of the suspicions the behaviour of the horrid dog had aroused in the minds of the officers; and entreated him, by every argument I could think of, to let me manage the affair as best I could.
“They can scarcely inflict any severe punishment on me,” I observed, “while they might drag you off to prison, and leave my mother and brother and sisters without a protector.”
“I must take the consequences of what I have done,” he returned. “At the same time I do not repent having endeavoured to save the poor fellow. The act was right, and that must be my consolation.”
But I was not so easily to be turned aside from my purpose; and at last he consented to let me take the key, and to use it if driven so to do, while he remained in his room. I returned, as may be supposed, in no great hurry to the hall; and as I got close to it I heard, amid the loud talking of the Spaniards and José, who was doing his best to amuse them, the scratching and snarling of the savage brute at the door.