Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 1/A good fight - Part 12
Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/242 Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/243 Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/244 Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/245 there was; take the thing you are least in want of, and hide it—that’s a jackdaw. I should know,” added Jorian, oracularly, “for I was brought up with a jackdaw. He and I were born the same year, but he cut his teeth long before me, and, wow! but my life was a burden for years all along of him. If you had but a hole in your hose no bigger than a groat, in went his beak like a gimlet; and in the matter of stealing, he was Gerard all over. What he wanted least, and any poor Christian in the house wanted most, that went first. Mother was a notable woman, so if she did but look round, away flew her thimble. Father lived by cordwaining, so about sunrise Jack went diligently away with his awl, his wax, and his twine. After that, make your bread how you could! One day I heard my mother tell him to his face he was enough to corrupt half a dozen children; and he only cocked his eye at her, and next minute away with the nurseling’s shoe off his very foot. Now this Gerard is tarred with the same stick. The parchments are no more unto him than a thimble or an awl to Jack. He took ’em out of pure mischief and hid them, and you would never have found them but for me.”
“I believe you are right,” said Ghysbrecht, “and I have vexed myself more than need.”
When they came to Peter’s gate he felt uneasy.
“I wish it had been anywhere but here.”
Jorian re-assured him.
“The girl is honest and friendly,” said he. “She had nothing to do with taking them, I’ll be sworn!” and he led him into the garden. “There, master, if a face is to be believed, here they lie; and, see, the mould is loose.”
He ran for a spade which was stuck up in the ground at some distance, and soon went to work and uncovered a parchment. Ghysbrecht saw it, and thrust him aside and went down on his knees and tore it out of the hole. His hands trembled and his face shone. He threw out parchment after parchment, and Jorian dusted them and cleaned them and shook them. Now, when Ghysbrecht had thrown out a great many, his face began to darken and lengthen, and when he came to the last he put his hands to his temples and seemed to be all amazed. Then a chill traversed his frame.
“What mystery lies here?” he gasped. “Are fiends mocking me? Dig deeper! There must be another!”
(To be continued.)