When London Burned : a Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire, Page 3

  CHAPTER III

  A THIEF SOMEWHERE

  Two days after the conclusion of the stock-taking, Cyril said, afterbreakfast was over,--

  "Would it trouble you, Captain Dave, to give me an hour up herebefore you go downstairs to the counting-house. I am free for twohours now, and there is a matter upon which I should like to speak toyou privately."

  "Certainly, lad," the old sailor said, somewhat surprised. "We shallbe quiet enough here, as soon as the table is cleared. My dame andNellie will be helping the maid do up the cabins, and will then besallying out marketing."

  When the maid had cleared the table, Cyril went up to his room andreturned with a large ledger and several smaller books.

  "I have, for the last month, Captain Dave, been making up thisstock-book for my own satisfaction."

  "Bless me, lad, why have you taken all that trouble? This accounts,then, for your writing so long at night, for which my dame has beenquarrelling with you!"

  "It was interesting work," Cyril said quietly. "Now, you see, sir,"he went on, opening the big ledger, "here are the separate accountsunder each head. These pages, you see, are for heavy cables forhawsers; of these, at the date of the last stock-taking, there were,according to the book you handed to me, five hundred fathoms instock. These are the amounts you have purchased since. Now, upon theother side are all the sales of this cable entered in the sales-book.Adding them together, and deducting them from the other side, youwill see there should remain in stock four hundred and fifty fathoms.According to the new stock-taking there are four hundred andthirty-eight. That is, I take it, as near as you could expect to get,for, in the measuring out of so many thousand fathoms of cable duringthe fifteen months between the two stock-takings, there may well havebeen a loss of the twelve fathoms in giving good measurement."

  "That is so," Captain Dave said. "I always say to John Wilkes, 'Givegood measurement, John--better a little over than a little under.'Nothing can be clearer or more satisfactory."

  Cyril closed the book.

  "I am sorry to say, Captain Dave, all the items are not sosatisfactory, and that I greatly fear that you have been robbed to aconsiderable amount."

  "Robbed, lad!" the Captain said, starting up from his chair. "Whoshould rob me? Not John Wilkes, I can be sworn! Not the twoapprentices for a surety, for they never go out during the day, andJohn keeps a sharp look-out upon them, and the entrance to the shopis always locked and barred after work is over, so that none canenter without getting the key, which, as you know, John always bringsup and hands to me as soon as he has fastened the door! You aremistaken, lad, and although I know that your intentions are good, youshould be careful how you make a charge that might bring ruin toinnocent men. Carelessness there may be; but robbery! No; assuredlynot."

  "I have not brought the charge without warrant, Captain Dave," Cyrilsaid gravely, "and if you will bear with me for a few minutes, Ithink you will see that there is at least something that wantslooking into."

  "Well, it is only fair after the trouble you have taken, lad, that Ishould hear what you have to say; but it will need strong evidenceindeed to make me believe that there has been foul play."

  "Well, sir," Cyril said, opening the ledger again, "in the firstplace, I would point out that in all the heavy articles, such ascould not conveniently be carried away, the tally of the stock-takerscorresponds closely with the figures in this book. In best boweranchors the figures are absolutely the same and, as you have seen, inheavy cables they closely correspond. In the large ship's compasses,the ship's boilers, and ship's galleys, the numbers tally exactly. Soit is with all the heavy articles; the main blocks are correct, andall other heavy gear. This shows that John Wilkes's book is carefullykept, and it would be strange indeed if heavy goods had all beenproperly entered, and light ones omitted; but yet when we turn tosmall articles, we find that there is a great discrepancy between thefigures. Here is the account, for instance, of the half-inch rope.According to my ledger, there should be eighteen hundred fathoms instock, whereas the stock-takers found but three hundred and eighty.In two-inch rope there is a deficiency of two hundred and thirtyfathoms, in one-inch rope of six hundred and twenty. These sizes, asyou know, are always in requisition, and a thief would find readypurchasers for a coil of any of them. But, as might be expected, itis in copper that the deficiency is most serious. Of fourteen-inchbolts, eighty-two are short, of twelve-inch bolts a hundred andthirty, of eight-inch three hundred and nine; and so on throughoutalmost all the copper stores. According to your expenditure andreceipt-book, Captain Dave, you have made, in the last fifteenmonths, twelve hundred and thirty pounds; but according to this bookyour stock is less in value, by two thousand and thirty-four pounds,than it should have been. You are, therefore, a poorer man than youwere at the beginning of this fifteen months' trading, by eighthundred and four pounds."

  Captain Dave sat down in his chair, breathing hard. He took out hishandkerchief and wiped the drops of perspiration from his forehead.

  "Are you sure of this, boy?" he said hoarsely. "Are you sure that youhave made no mistake in your figures?"

  "Quite sure," Cyril said firmly. "In all cases in which I have founddeficiencies I have gone through the books three times and comparedthe figures, and I am sure that if you put the books into the handsof any city accountant, he will bear out my figures."

  For a time Captain Dave sat silent.

  "Hast any idea," he said at last, "how this has come about?"

  "I have none," Cyril replied. "That John Wilkes is not concerned init I am as sure as you are; and, thinking the matter over, I see nothow the apprentices could have carried off so many articles, someheavy and some bulky, when they left the shop in the evening, withoutJohn Wilkes noticing them. So sure am I, that my advice would be thatyou should take John Wilkes into your confidence, and tell him howmatters stand. My only objection to that is that he is a hasty man,and that I fear he would not be able to keep his countenance, so thatthe apprentices would remark that something was wrong. I am far fromsaying that they have any hand in it; it would be a grievous wrong tothem to have suspicions when there is no shadow of evidence againstthem; but at any rate, if this matter is to be stopped and thethieves detected, it is most important that they should have, if theyare guilty, no suspicion that they are in any way being watched, orthat these deficiencies have been discovered. If they have had a handin the matter they most assuredly had accomplices, for such goodscould not be disposed of by an apprentice to any dealer without hisbeing sure that they must have been stolen."

  "You are right there, lad--quite right. Did John Wilkes know that Ihad been robbed in this way he would get into a fury, and no wordscould restrain him from falling upon the apprentices and beating themtill he got some of the truth out of them."

  "They may be quite innocent," Cyril said. "It may be that the thieveshave discovered some mode of entry into the store either by openingthe shutters at the back, or by loosening a board, or even by delvingup under the ground. It is surely easier to believe this than thatthe boys can have contrived to carry off so large a quantity of goodsunder John Wilkes's eye."

  "That is so, lad. I have never liked Robert Ashford, but God forbidthat I should suspect him of such crime only because his forehead isas wrinkled as an ape's, and Providence has set his eyes crossways inhis head. You cannot always judge a ship by her upper works; she maybe ugly to the eye and yet have a clear run under water. Still, youcan't help going by what you see. I agree with you that if we tellJohn Wilkes about this, those boys will know five minutes afterwardsthat the ship is on fire; but if we don't tell him, how are we to getto the bottom of what is going on?"

  "That is a difficult question, but a few days will not make muchdifference, when we know that it has been going on for over a year,and may, for aught we know, have been going on much longer. The firstthing, Captain Dave, is to send these books to an accountant, for himto go through them and check my figures."

  "There is no need for that, lad. I know how car
eful you are, and youcannot have gone so far wrong as all this."

  "No, sir, I am sure that there is no mistake; but, for your own sakeas well as mine, it were well that you should have the signature ofan accountant to the correctness of the books. If you have to lay thematter before the magistrates, they would not take my testimony as toyour losses, and might even say that you were rash in acting upon theword of a boy like myself, and you might then be obliged to have theaccounts made up anew, which would cost you more, and cause muchdelay in the process; whereas, if you put in your books and say thattheir correctness is vouched for by an accountant, no question wouldarise on it; nor would there be any delay now, for while the booksare being gone into, we can be trying to get to the bottom of thematter here."

  "Ay, ay, it shall be done, Master Cyril, as you say. But for the lifeof me I don't see how we are to get at the bottom of the ship to findout where she is leaking!"

  "It seems to me that the first thing, Captain Dave, is to see to thewarehouse. As we agreed that the apprentices cannot have carried outall these goods under John Wilkes's eye, and cannot have come downnight after night through the house, the warehouse must have beenentered from without. As I never go in there, it would be best thatyou should see to this matter yourself. There are the fastenings ofthe shutters in the first place, then the boardings all round. As forme, I will look round outside. The window of my room looks into thestreet, but if you will take me to one of the rooms at the back wecan look at the surroundings of the yard, and may gather some ideawhether the goods can have been passed over into any of the housesabutting on it, or, as is more likely, into the lane that runs up byits side."

  The Captain led the way into one of the rooms at the back of thehouse, and opening the casement, he and Cyril leaned out. The storeoccupied fully half the yard, the rest being occupied by anchors,piles of iron, ballast, etc. There were two or three score of guns ofvarious sizes piled on each other. A large store of cannon-ball wasranged in a great pyramid close by. A wall some ten feet highseparated the yard from the lane Cyril had spoken of. On the left,adjoining the warehouse, was the yard of the next shop, whichbelonged to a wool-stapler. Behind were the backs of a number ofsmall houses crowded in between Tower Street and Leadenhall Street.

  "I suppose you do not know who lives in those houses, Captain Dave?"

  "No, indeed. The land is not like the sea. Afloat, when one sees asail, one wonders what is her nationality, and whither she is bound,and still more whether she is an honest trader or a rascally pirate;but here on land, one scarcely gives a thought as to who may dwell inthe houses round."

  "I will walk round presently," Cyril said, "and gather, as far as Ican, who they are that live there; but, as I have said, I fancy it isover that wall and into the alley that your goods have departed. Theapprentices' room is this side of the house, is it not?"

  "Yes; John Wilkes sleeps in the room next to yours, and the dooropposite to his is that of the lads' room."

  "Do the windows of any of the rooms look into that lane?"

  "No; it is a blank wall on that side."

  "There is the clock striking nine," Cyril said, starting. "It is timefor me to be off. Then you will take the books to-day, Captain Dave?"

  "I will carry them off at once, and when I return will look narrowlyinto the fastenings of the two windows and door from the warehouseinto the yard; and will take care to do so when the boys are engagedin the front shop."

  When his work was done, Cyril went round to the houses behind theyard, and he found that they stood in a small court, with three orfour trees growing in the centre, and were evidently inhabited byrespectable citizens. Over the door of one was painted, "JoshuaHeddings, Attorney"; next to him was Gilbert Gushing, who dealt injewels, silks, and other precious commodities from the East; next tohim was a doctor, and beyond a dealer in spices. This was enough toassure him that it was not through such houses as these that thegoods had been carried.

  Cyril had not been back at the mid-day meal, for his work that daylay up by Holborn Bar, where he had two customers whom he attendedwith but half an hour's interval between the visits, and on the dayson which he went there he was accustomed to get something to eat at atavern hard by.

  Supper was an unusually quiet meal. Captain Dave now and then askedJohn Wilkes a question as to the business matters of the day, butevidently spoke with an effort. Nellie rattled on as usual; but theburden of keeping up the conversation lay entirely on her shouldersand those of Cyril. After the apprentices had left, and John Wilkeshad started for his usual resort, the Captain lit his pipe. Nelliesigned to Cyril to come and seat himself by her in the window thatprojected out over the street, and enabled the occupants of the seatsat either side to have a view up and down it.

  "What have you been doing to father, Cyril?" she asked, in low tones;"he has been quite unlike himself all day. Generally when he is outof temper he rates everyone heartily, as if we were a mutinous crew,but to-day he has gone about scarcely speaking; he hasn't said across word to any of us, but several times when I spoke to him I gotno answer, and it is easy to see that he is terribly put out aboutsomething. He was in his usual spirits at breakfast; then, you know,he was talking with you for an hour, and it does not take muchguessing to see that it must have been something that passed betweenyou that has put him out. Now what was it?"

  "I don't see why you should say that, Mistress Nellie. It is true wedid have a talk together, and he examined some fresh books I havebeen making out and said that he was mightily pleased with my work. Iwent away at nine o'clock, and something may have occurred to upsethim between that and dinner."

  "All which means that you don't mean to tell me anything about it,Master Cyril. Well, then, you may consider yourself in my black booksaltogether," she said petulantly.

  "I am sorry that you should say so," he said. "If it were true thatanything that I had said to him had ruffled him, it would be for himto tell you, and not for me."

  "Methinks I have treated Robert Ashford scurvily, and I shall takehim for my escort to see His Majesty attend service at St. Paul'sto-morrow."

  Cyril smiled.

  "I think it would be fair to give him a turn, Mistress, and I am gladto see that you have such a kind thought."

  Nellie rose indignantly, and taking her work sat down by the side ofher mother.

  "It is a fine evening," Cyril said to Captain Dave, "and I think Ishall take a walk round. I shall return in an hour."

  The Captain understood, by a glance Cyril gave him, that he was goingout for some purpose connected with the matter they had in hand.

  "Ay, ay, lad," he said. "It is not good for you to be sitting mopingat home every evening. I have often wondered before that you did nottake a walk on deck before you turned in. I always used to do somyself."

  "I don't think there is any moping in it, Captain Dave," Cyril said,with a laugh. "If you knew how pleasant the evenings have been to meafter the life I lived before, you would not say so."

  Cyril's only object in going out, however, was to avoid the necessityof having to talk with Dame Dowsett and Nellie. His thoughts wererunning on nothing but the robbery, and he had found it verydifficult to talk in his usual manner, and to answer Nellie'ssprightly sallies. It was dark already. A few oil lamps gave a feeblelight here and there. At present he had formed no plan whatever ofdetecting the thieves; he was as much puzzled as the Captain himselfas to how the goods could have been removed. It would be necessary,of course, to watch the apprentices, but he did not think thatanything was likely to come out of this. It was the warehouse itselfthat must be watched, in order to discover how the thieves made anentry. His own idea was that they got over the wall by means of arope, and in some way managed to effect an entry into the warehouse.The apprentices could hardly aid them unless they came down throughthe house.

  If they had managed to get a duplicate key of the door leading fromthe bottom of the stairs to the shop, they could, of course, unbarthe windows, and pass things out--that part of the busin
ess would beeasy; but he could not believe that they would venture frequently topass down through the house. It was an old one, and the stairscreaked. He himself was a light sleeper; he had got into the way ofwaking at the slightest sound, from the long watches he had had forhis father's return, and felt sure that he should have heard themopen their door and steal along the passage past his room, howeverquietly they might do it. He walked up the Exchange, then alongCheapside as far as St. Paul's, and back. Quiet as it was in ThamesStreet there was no lack of animation elsewhere. Apprentices weregenerally allowed to go out for an hour after supper, the regulationbeing that they returned to their homes by eight o'clock. Numbers ofthese were about. A good many citizens were on their way home aftersupping with friends. The city watch, with lanterns, patrolled thestreets, and not infrequently interfered in quarrels which broke outamong the apprentices. Cyril felt more solitary among the knots oflaughing, noisy lads than in the quiet streets, and was glad to behome again. Captain Dave himself came down to open the door.

  "I have just sent the women to bed," he said. "The two boys came infive minutes ago. I thought you would not be long."

  "I did not go out for anything particular," Cyril said; "but MistressNellie insisted that there was something wrong with you, and that Imust know what it was about, so, feeling indeed indisposed to talk, Ithought it best to go out for a short time."

  "Yes, yes. Women always want to know, lad. I have been long enough atsea, you may be sure, to know that when anything is wrong, it is thebest thing to keep it from the passengers as long as you can."

  "You took the books away this morning, Captain Dave?" Cyril asked asthey sat down.

  "Ay, lad, I took them to Master Skinner, who bears as good areputation as any accountant in the city, and he promised to takethem in hand without loss of time; but I have been able to do nothinghere. John, or one or other of the boys, was always in the warehouse,and I have had no opportunity of examining the door and shuttersclosely. When the house is sound asleep we will take a lantern and godown to look at them. I have been thinking that we must let JohnWilkes into this matter; it is too much to bear on my mind by myself.He is my first mate, you see, and in time of danger, the first mate,if he is worth anything, is the man the captain relies on for help."

  "By all means tell him, then," Cyril said. "I can keep books, but Ihave no experience in matters like this, and shall be very glad tohave his opinion and advice."

  "There he is--half-past eight. He is as punctual as clockwork."

  Cyril ran down and let John in.

  "The Captain wants to speak to you," he said, "before you go up tobed."

  John, after carefully bolting the door, followed him upstairs.

  "I have got some bad news for you, John. There, light your pipeagain, and sit down. My good dame has gone off to bed, and we havegot the cabin to ourselves."

  John touched an imaginary hat and obeyed orders.

  "The ship has sprung a bad leak, John. This lad here has found itout, and it is well he did, for unless he had done so we should havehad her foundering under our feet without so much as suspectinganything was going wrong."

  The sailor took his newly-lighted pipe from between his lips andstared at the Captain in astonishment.

  "Yes, it is hard to believe, mate, but, by the Lord Harry, it is as Isay. There is a pirate about somewhere, and the books show that,since the stock-taking fifteen months ago, he has eased the craft ofher goods to the tune of two thousand pounds and odd."

  John Wilkes flung his pipe on to the table with such force that itshivered into fragments.

  "Dash my timbers!" he exclaimed. "Who is the man? You only give methe orders, sir, and I am ready to range alongside and board him."

  "That is what we have got to find out, John. That the goods have goneis certain, but how they can have gone beats us altogether."

  "Do you mean to say, Captain, that they have stolen them out of theplace under my eyes and me know nothing about it? It can't be, sir.There must be some mistake. I know naught about figures, save enoughto put down the things I sell, but I don't believe as a thing hasgone out of the shop unbeknown to me. That yarn won't do for me,sir," and he looked angrily at Cyril.

  "It is true enough, John, for all that. The books have been balancedup. We knew what was in stock fifteen months ago, and we knew fromyour sale-book what has passed out of the shop, and from yourentry-book what has come in. We know now what there is remaining. Wefind that in bulky goods, such as cables and anchors and ships'boilers and suchlike, the accounts tally exactly, but in the smallrope, and above all in the copper, there is a big shrinkage. I willread you the figures of some of them."

  John's face grew longer and longer as he heard the totals read.

  "Well, I'm jiggered!" he said, when the list was concluded. "I couldhave sworn that the cargo was right according to the manifest. Well,Captain, all I can say is, if that 'ere list be correct, the bestthing you can do is to send me adrift as a blind fool. I have kept mytallies as correct as I could, and I thought I had marked down everypackage that has left the ship, and here they must have been passingout pretty nigh in cart-loads under my very eyes, and I knew nothingabout it."

  "I don't blame you, John, more than I blame myself. I am generallyabout on deck, and had no more idea that the cargo was being meddledwith than you had. I have been wrong in letting matters go on so longwithout taking stock of them and seeing that it was all right; but Inever saw the need for it. This is what comes of taking to a tradeyou know nothing about; we have just been like two children, thinkingthat it was all plain and above board, and that we had nothing to dobut to sell our goods and to fill up again when the hold got empty.Well, it is of no use talking over that part of the business. What wehave got to do is to find out this leak and stop it. We are prettywell agreed, Cyril and me, that the things don't go out of the shopby daylight. The question is, how do they go out at night?"

  "I always lock up the hatches according to orders, Captain."

  "Yes, I have no doubt you do, John; but maybe the fastenings havebeen tampered with. The only way in which we see it can have beenmanaged is that someone has been in the habit of getting over thewall between the yard and the lane, and then getting into thewarehouse somehow. It must have been done very often, for if thethings had been taken in considerable quantities you would havenoticed that the stock was short directly the next order came in. NowI propose we light these two lanterns I have got here, and that we godown and have a look round the hold."

  Lighting the candles, they went downstairs. The Captain took out thekey and turned the lock. It grated loudly as he did so.

  "That is a noisy lock," Cyril said.

  "It wants oiling," John replied. "I have been thinking of doing itfor the last month, but it has always slipped out of my mind."

  "At any rate," Cyril said, "it is certain that thieves could not havegot into the shop this way, for the noise would have been heard allover the house."

  The door between the shop and the warehouse was next unlocked. Thefastenings of the shutters and doors were first examined; there wasno sign of their having been tampered with. Each bolt and hasp wastried, and the screws examined. Then they went round trying every oneof the stout planks that formed the side; all were firm and in goodcondition.

  "It beats me altogether," the Captain said, when they had finishedtheir examination. "The things cannot walk out of themselves; theyhave got to be carried. But how the fellows who carry them get in ismore than I can say. There is nowhere else to look, is there, John?"

  "Not that I can see, Captain."

  They went to the door into the shop, and were about to close it, whenCyril said,--

  "Some of the things that are gone are generally kept in here,Captain--the rope up to two inch, for example, and a good deal ofcanvas, and most of the smaller copper fittings; so that, whoever thethief is, he must have been in the habit of coming in here as well asinto the warehouse."

  "That is so, lad. Perhaps they entered from this side
."

  "Will you hold the lantern here, John?" Cyril said.

  The sailor held the lantern to the lock.

  "There are no scratches nor signs of tools having been used here,"Cyril said, examining both the lock and the door-post. "Whether thethief came into the warehouse first, or not, he must have had a key."

  The Captain nodded.

  "Thieves generally carry a lot of keys with them, Cyril; and if onedoes not quite fit they can file it until it does."

  The shutters of the shop window and its fastenings, and those of thedoor, were as secure as those of the warehouse, and, completelypuzzled, the party went upstairs again.

  "There must be some way of getting in and out, although we can't findit," Captain Dave said. "Things can't have gone off by themselves."

  "It may be, Captain," John Wilkes said, "that some of the planks maybe loose."

  "But we tried them all, John."

  "Ay, they seem firm enough, but it may be that one of them is wedgedin, and that when the wedges are taken out it could be pulled off."

  "I think you would have noticed it, John. If there was anything ofthat sort it must be outside. However, we will take a good look roundthe yard to-morrow. The warehouse is strongly built, and I don'tbelieve that any plank could be taken off and put back again, timeafter time, without making a noise that would be heard in the house.What do you think, Cyril?"

  "I agree with you, Captain Dave. How the thieves make an entry Ican't imagine, but I don't believe that it is through the wall of thewarehouse. I am convinced that the robberies must have been veryfrequent. Had a large amount been taken at a time, John Wilkes wouldhave been sure to notice it. Then, again, the thieves would not comeso often, and each time for a comparatively small amount of booty,unless it could be managed without any serious risk or trouble.However, now that we do know that they come, we shall have, I shouldthink, very little difficulty in finding out how it is done."

  "You may warrant we will keep a sharp look-out," John Wilkes saidsavagely. "If the Captain will give me the use of a room at the backof the house, you may be sure I shan't close an eye till I have gotto the bottom of the matter. I am responsible for the cargo below,and if I had kept as sharp an eye on the stores as I ought to havedone, this would not have happened. Only let me catch them trying toboard, and I will give them such a reception that I warrant me theywill sheer off with a bullet or two in them. I have got that pair ofboarding pistols, and a cutlass, hung up over my bed."

  "You must not do that, John," the Captain said. "It isn't a matter ofbeating off the pirates by pouring a broadside into them. Maybe youmight cripple them, more likely they would make off, and we want tocapture them. Therefore, I say, let us watch, and find out how theydo it. When we once know that, we can lay our plans for capturingthem the next time they come. I will take watch and watch with you."

  "Well, if it goes on long, Captain, I won't say no to that; but forto-night anyhow I will sit up alone."

  "Very well, let it be so, John. But mind, whatever you see, you keepas still as a mouse. Just steal to my room in your stockinged feetdirectly you see anything moving. Open the door and say, 'Strangesail in sight!' and I will be over at your window in no time. Andnow, Cyril, you and I may as well turn in."

  The night passed quietly.

  "You saw nothing, I suppose, John?" the Captain said next morning,after the apprentices had gone down from breakfast.

  "Not a thing, Captain."

  "Now we will go and have a look in the yard. Will you come, Cyril?"

  "I should like to come," Cyril replied, "but, as I have never beenout there before, had you not better make some pretext for me to doso. You might say, in the hearing of the apprentices, 'We may as welltake the measurements for that new shed we were talking about, andsee how much boarding it will require.' Then you can call to me outfrom the office to come and help you to measure."

  "Then you still think the apprentices are in it?" John Wilkes askedsharply.

  "I don't say I think so, John. I have nothing against them. I don'tbelieve they could come down at night without being heard; I feelsure they could not get into the shop without that stiff bolt makinga noise. Still, as it is possible they may be concerned in thematter, I think that, now we have it in good train for getting to thebottom of it, it would be well to keep the matter altogether toourselves."

  "Quite right," Captain Dave said approvingly. "When you suspecttreachery, don't let a soul think that you have got such a matter inyour mind, until you are in a position to take the traitor by thecollar and put a pistol to his ear. That idea of yours is a very goodone; I will say something about the shed to John this morning, andthen when you go down to the counting-house after dinner I will callto you to come out to the yard with us."

  After dinner, Captain Dave went with Cyril into the counting-house.

  "We had an order in this morning for a set of ship's anchors, andJohn and I have been in the yard looking them out; we looked over theplace pretty sharply, as you may be sure, but as far as we could seethe place is as solid as when it was built, fifty years ago, by myfather."

  The Captain went out into the store, and ten minutes afterwardsre-entered the shop and shouted,--

  "Come out here, Cyril, and lend a hand. We are going to take thosemeasurements. Bring out your ink-horn, and a bit of paper to put themdown as we take them."

  The yard was some sixty feet long by twenty-five broad, exclusive ofthe space occupied by the warehouse. This, as Cyril had observed fromthe window above, did not extend as far as the back wall; but onwalking round there with the two men, he found that the distance wasgreater than he had expected, and that there was a space of sometwenty feet clear.

  "This is where we are thinking of putting the shed," the Captain saidin a loud voice.

  "But I see that you have a crane and door into the loft over thewarehouse there," Cyril said, looking up.

  "We never use that now. When my father first began business, he usedto buy up old junk and such-like stores, and store them up there, butit didn't pay for the trouble; and, besides, as you see, he wantedevery foot of the yard room, and of course at that time they had toleave a space clear for the carts to come up from the gate roundhere, so it was given up, and the loft is empty now."

  Cyril looked up at the crane. It was swung round so as to lie flatagainst the wooden shutters. The rope was still through the block,and passed into the loft through a hole cut at the junction of theshutters.

  They now measured the space between the warehouse and the wall, theCaptain repeating the figures, still in a loud voice; then theydiscussed the height of the walls, and after some argument betweenthe Captain and John Wilkes agreed that this should be the same asthe rest of the building. Still talking on the subject, they returnedthrough the warehouse, Cyril on the way taking a look at the massivegate that opened into the lane. In addition to a heavy bar it had astrong hasp, fastened by a great padlock. The apprentices were busyat work coiling up some rope when they passed by.

  "When we have knocked a door through the end there, John," CaptainDave said, "it will give you a deal more room, and you will be ableto get rid of all these cables and heavy dunnage, and to have mattersmore ship-shape here."

  While they had been taking the measurements, all three had carefullyexamined the wall of the warehouse.

  "There is nothing wrong there, Cyril," his employer said, as, leavingJohn Wilkes in the warehouse, they went through the shop into thelittle office.

  "Certainly nothing that I could see, Captain Dave. I did not beforeknow the loft had any opening to the outside. Of course I have seenthe ladder going up from the warehouse to that trap-door; but as itwas closed I thought no more of it."

  "I don't suppose anyone has been up there for years, lad. What, areyou thinking that someone might get in through those shutters? Why,they are twenty feet from the ground, so that you would want a longladder, and when you got up there you would find that you could notopen the shutters. I said nobody had been up there, but I
did go upmyself to have a look round when I first settled down here, and thereis a big bar with a padlock."

  Cyril thought no more about it, and after supper it was arranged thathe and Captain Dave should keep watch by turns at the window of theroom that had been now given to John Wilkes, and that the lattershould have a night in his berth, as the Captain expressed it. JohnWilkes had made some opposition, saying that he would be quitewilling to take his watch.

  "You will just obey orders, John," the Captain said. "You have hadthirty-six hours off the reel on duty, and you have got to be at workall day to-morrow again. You shall take the middle watch to-morrownight if you like, but one can see with half an eye that you are notfit to be on the lookout to-night. I doubt if any of us could see asfar as the length of the bowsprit. It is pretty nearly pitch dark;there is not a star to be seen, and it looked to me, when I turnedout before supper, as if we were going to have a storm."