14. What Melchisedec Heard and Saw
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14. What Melchisedec Heard and SawOn this very afternoon, while Sara was out, a strahing happened iily Melchisedec saw and heard it; and he was so much alarmed and mystified that he scuttled back to his hole and hid there, and really quaked and trembled as he peeped out furtively and with great caution to watch what was going on.
The attic had been very still all the day after Sara had left it in the early m. The stillness had only been broken by the pattering of the rain upon the slates and the skylight. Melchisedec had, in fact, found it rather dull; and when the rain ceased to patter and perfect silence reigned, he decided to e out and reoiter, though experieaught him that Sara would not return for some time. He had been rambling and sniffing about, and had just found a totally ued and unexplained crumb left from his last meal, when his attention was attracted by a sound on the roof. He stopped to listen with a palpitati. The sound suggested that something was moving on the roof. It wasbbr></abbr> approag the skylight; it reached the skylight. The skylight was being mysteriously opened. A dark face peered into the attic; then another face appeared behind it, and both looked in with signs of caution and i. Two men were outside on the roof, and were making silent preparations to ehrough the skylight itself. One was Ram Dass and the other was a young man who was the Indialemaary; but of course Melchisedec did not know this. He only khat the men were invading the silend privacy of the attid as the oh the dark face let himself down through the aperture with such lightness aerity that he did not make the slightest sound, Melchisedec turail and fled precipitately back to his hole. He was frighteo death. He had ceased to be timid with Sara, and knew she would hrow anything but crumbs, and would never make any sound other than the soft, low, coaxing whistling; but strange men were dangerous things to remain near. He lay close and flat he entrance of his home, just managing to peep through the crack with a bright, alarmed eye. How much he uood of the talk he heard I am not in the least able to say; but, even if he had uood it all, he would probably have remained greatly mystified.
The secretary, who was light and young, slipped through the skylight as noiselessly as Ram Dass had done; and he caught a last glimpse of Melchisedecs vanishing tail.
"Was that a rat?" he asked Ram Dass in a whisper.
"Yes; a rat, Sahib," answered Ram Dass, also whispering. "There are many in the walls."
"Ugh!" exclaimed the young man. "It is a wohe child is not terrified of them."
Ram Dass made a gesture with his hands. He also smiled respectfully. He was in this place as the intimate expo of Sara, though she had only spoken to him once.
"The child is the little friend of all things, Sahib," he answered. "She is not as other children. I see her when she does not see me. I slip across the slates and look at her many nights to see that she is safe. I watch her from my window when she does not know I am near. She stands oable there and looks out at the sky as if it spoke to her. The sparrows e at her call. The rat she has fed and tamed in her loneliness. The poor slave of the house es to her for fort. There is a little childpose she awakened," suggested the secretary; and it was evident that whatsoever the plan referred to was, it had caught and pleased his fancy as well as the Sahib Carrisfords.
"I move as if my feet were of velvet," Ram Dass replied; "and children sleep soundly--even the unhappy ones. I could have ehis room in the night many times, and without causio turn upon her pillow. If the other bearer passes to me the things through the window, I do all and she will not stir. When she awakens she will think a magi has been here."
He smiled as if his heart warmed under his white robe, and the secretary smiled back at him.
"It will be like a story from the Arabian Nights," he said. "Only an Oriental could have pla. It does not belong to London fogs."
They did not remain very long, to the great relief of Melchisedec, who, as he probably did not prehend their versatioheir movements and whispers ominous. The youary seemed ied ihing. He wrote down things about the floor, the fireplace, the broken footstool, the old table, the walls--which last he touched with his hand again and again, seeming much pleased when he found that a number of old nails had been driven in various places.
"You hang things on them," he said.
Ram Dass smiled mysteriously.
"Yesterday, when she was out," he said, "I entered, bringing with me small, sharp nails which be pressed into the wall without blows from a hammer. I placed many in the plaster where I may hem. They are ready."
The Indialem..aary stood still and looked round him as he thrust his tablets bato his pocket.
"I think I have made notes enough; we go now," he said. "The Sahib Carrisford has a warm heart. It is a thousand pities that he has not found the lost child."
"If he should find her his strength would be restored to him," said Ram Dass. "His God may lead her to him yet."
Then they slipped through the skylight as noiselessly as they had e. And, after he was quite sure they had gone, Melchisedec was greatly relieved, and in the course of a few minutes felt it safe to emerge from his hole again and scuffle about in the hope that even such alarming human beings as these might have ced to carry crumbs in their pockets and drop one or two of them.
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