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 CHAPTER VI

THE CAPTAIN'S PAPERS

rode hard all the way, till we drew up before Doctor Livesey's door. The house was all dark in front.

Mr. Dance told me to jump down and knock, and Dogger gave me a stirrup to descend by. The door was opened almost at once by the maid.

"Is Doctor Livesey in?" I asked.

"No," she said. He had come home in the afternoon, but had gone up to the Hall to dine and pass the evening with the squire.

"So there we go, boys,' said Mr. Dance.

This time, as the distance was short, I did not mount, but ran with Dogger's stirrup-leather to the lodge gates, and up the long, leafless, moonlit avenue to where the white line of the Hall buildings looked on either hand on great old gardens. Here Mr. Dance dismounted, and taking me along with him, was admitted at a word into the house.

The servant led us down a matted passage, and showed us at the end into a great library, all lined with book-cases and busts upon top of them, where the squire and Doctor Livesey sat, pipe in hand, on either side of the bright fire. 71