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"Well I shall have to go. You'll be all right until I come back." "What time do you think it'll be?" asked Pratt. "Make it as soon as the coast's clear I want to be off." "As soon as ever she's gone," agreed Esther. "I heard her order the carriage for half-past two." "And no fear of anybody else being about?" asked Pratt. "That butler man, for instance? Or servants?"
He strolled out of the tent and came back again. "The coast's clear," he announced. "Off you go.... One moment," he added, "there are some papers in this little box of mine which one of you ought to take care of." He bent hastily over the little wallet, which never left him. Suddenly a little exclamation broke from his lips. The Professor peered over his shoulder. "What is it?"
They talked of getting you down on the water-front or up in Chinatown with some bogus message and said how easy it would be to dispose of you without leaving clues behind 'em. Now, don't you sleep here without three or four men on guard, and don't you stir round nights with less than four. Send Porter out to git two more men, and tell him to look sharp and see if the coast's clear outside.
Come along sharp coast's clear!" Then he began to conjugate a Greek verb, sometimes shouting the words and sitting up in bed, and sometimes half whimpering them as Railsford gently laid him back on the pillow. There was not much fear of Railsford dropping asleep again after this. The sick lad scarcely ceased his wild talk all the night through.
A moment later his whisper came back: "Coast's clear." But the others already were at his heels. A hasty glance around revealed the first of the two chambers, which Tom had said the cave possessed, was luxuriously furnished and lighted by a powerful electric bulb enclosed in a huge frosted globe suspended from the middle of the roof.
Half a mile short! We shall get there. The coast's in full sight now, and we've less than five miles to run." "Ay, ay, sir!" came back from them, half cheerfully, but one voice was heard to grumble: "It's all right, is it? Well, if it wasn't for that half-mile o' shortage, there'd be a mutinee-e on board o' this ship. I'd start it.
"He's afraid and I know what he's afraid of. He won't be caught in a trap if he can help it, the old 'un. He's about as fly as they make 'em, you bet!" Then suddenly standing on his tip-toes and waving his hand through the bars of the gate, he shouted at the top of his voice: "Come on, my gallant commandant! Come on! The coast's clear, and no enemy in sight."
"What is it you'm goin' to do, then?" said Zebedee, seeing that Adam had stooped down and was raising the panel by which exit was effected. "Goin' to see if the coast's clear," said Adam. "Better bide where you be," urged Zebedee. "Joan or they's sure to rin up so soon as 'tis all safe."
Then Peter the Great and Lilly sat down, took a long grave look at each other, threw back their heads, opened their cavernous mouths, and indulged in a quiet but hearty laugh. "Now you kin come out, dearie," said Lilly, turning to the coffee-hole on recovering composure. But no response came from the "vasty deep." "De coast's cl'ar, my dear," said Peter, rising.
Railsford's house, meanwhile, had celebrated the temporary absence of its ruler in strictly orthodox fashion. Scarcely had he departed, flattering himself that the deluded mice were still under the spell of the cat's presence in their neighbourhood, when the word went round like wildfire, "Coast's clear!"
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