"Yes, go on."
The thought of my truancy was no balm to my conscience
just then.
"As I came into the hall, I saw lights in the library.
As you weren't down last night the room hadn't been
lighted at all. I heard steps, and some one tapping with
a hammer-"
"Yes; a hammer. Go on!"
It was, then, the same old story! The war had been
carried openly into the house, but Bates,-just why
should any one connected with the conspiracy injure
Bates, who stood so near to Pickering, its leader? The
fellow was undoubtedly hurt,-there was no mistaking
the lump on his head. He spoke with a painful difficulty
that was not assumed, I felt increasingly sure, as
he went on.
"I saw a man pulling out the books and tapping the
inside of the shelves. He was working very fast. And
the next thing I knew he let in another man through
one of the terrace doors,-the one there that still stands
a little open."
He flinched as be turned slightly to indicate it, and
his face twitched with pain.
"Never mind that; tell the rest of your story."
"Then I ran in, grabbed one of the big candelabra
from the table, and went for the nearest man. They
were about to begin on the chimney-breast there,-it
was Mr. Glenarm's pride in all the house,-and that
accounts for my being there in front of the fireplace.
They rather got the best of me, sir.
"Clearly; I see they did. You had a hand-to-hand
fight with them, and being two to one-"
"No; there were two of us,-don't you understand,
two of us! There was another man who came running
in from somewhere, and he took sides with me. I
thought at first it was you. The robbers thought so,
too, for one of them yelled, 'Great God; it's Glenarm!'
just like that. But it wasn't you, but quite another person."
"That's a good story so far; and then what happened?"
"I don't remember much more, except that some one
soused me with water that helped my head considerably,
and the next thing I knew I was staring across the table
there at you."
"Who were these men, Bates? Speak up quickly!"
My tone was peremptory. Here was, I felt, a crucial
moment in our relations.
"Well," he began deliberately, "I dislike to make
charges against a fellow man, but I strongly suspect one
of the men of being-"
"Yes! Tell the whole truth or it will be the worse
for you."
"I very much fear one of them was Ferguson, the
gardener over the way. I'm disappointed in him,
sir."
"Very good; and now for the other one."
"I didn't get my eyes on him. I had closed with
Ferguson and we were having quite a lively time of it
when the other one came in; then the man who came to
my help mixed us all up,-he was a very lively person,-
and what became of Ferguson and the rest of it I don't
know."