Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/63

 rascal can smell out a trapdoor or a hiding-place. He's invaluable to me on these smuggling trips. I suppose you've nothing of the sort in this house?"

"There's a staircase leading to a priest's hole in this very chimney corner, though you would never guess at it," returned the squire. "And, what's more, I bet a guinea that nobody would discover it."

"I'll lay you ten to one that the mulatto will; aye, and within a quarter of an hour!"

"Done!" cried the squire. "This will be sport; we'll have him round," and he summoned the butler.

"There's one condition I should have made," said the captain when the butler opened the door. "The rascal is dumb and cannot speak a word of English; but my bo'sun can speak his lingo and will make him understand what we require of him."

"Fetch 'em both round," cried the squire. "Gadzooks! it's a new sport this."

The butler was accordingly dispatched with the captain's orders to the bo'sun that he should step round at once to the Court House with the mulatto. Meantime, Denis was summoned from the paths of learning, and the terms of the wager having been explained to him, he awaited in high excitement the coming of the seamen.

"How is it that the fellow's dumb?" asked the physician.

"Tongue cut out at the roots, sir," replied the