There's an old oak near the
wall, and the trunk is hollow. All anyone has to do is to
climb up through the trunk by means of stairs and drop over
the wall. The coiners were making for that when we captured
them."
"Humph! Have that place watched. Maraquito may come here
to-night after all. It is now one o'clock."
"I don't think she'll come, Mr. Jennings. But we have every
point watched. No one can come or go unless we know."
"Come along then," said Jennings, who was growing weak, "let
us see Hale. The sooner his confession is written and signed
the better."
Not another word did Jennings say till he got on to the ground
floor of the villa. But he had been thinking, for when there
he turned to the man who supported him. "How is it the oak
with the hollow trunk still stands?" he asked.
"Oh, it escaped the fire, sir. Some of the boughs were burnt
off but the trunk itself is all right. It is close to the
wall too."
"Humph!" said Jennings, setting his teeth with the pain, "give
me a sup of brandy out of your flask, Atkins. Now for Hale."
When he arrived in the bedroom where Hale was lying
groaning, Jennings had the factitious strength of the spirit.
A sleepy-eyed clerk was seated at the table with sheets of
paper before him. A lamp was on the table. Mrs. Barnes was
crouching in a chair near the bed. When she saw Jennings she
flung herself down weeping.
"Oh, sir, I knew no more of this than a babe unborn," she
wailed, "I never thought my second was a villing.
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