And Hetty vanished.

CHAPTER XI.

Hetty turns Rebel.

Hetty cried herself to sleep as she had done the night before, and her last thought was of Scamp.  About the middle of the night she had a dream in which she fancied that Scamp’s paws were round her neck, and that he was barking in her ear his delight at seeing her.  The barking went on so long that it wakened her, for it was real barking that had caused the dream.

Hetty sat up in her bed and listened.  Surely that was Scamp’s bark, loud, sharp, and impatient, as if he was saying, “Where’s Hetty?  I want Hetty.  I will not go away till I have found Hetty.”  In the stillness of the night it sounded to the lonely child like the voice of a dear friend longing to comfort her.  She jumped out of bed, threw open the window, and listened again.  Could it be that he had found the way from Amber Hill, and come so many miles to look for her?  Darling old Scamp, was it possible he loved her so much?  Yes, it was indeed his voice; he was outside the house, almost under her window, and she must and would go down and take him in.

She opened the door cautiously and went out into the passage.  The barking was not heard so distinctly here, and she hoped that no one would hear it but herself.  How dreadful if somebody should go and beat him away before she could reach him!  She pattered down-stairs with her little bare feet and made her way through the darkness to the great hall door.  But she had forgotten how great and heavy that door was, and had not thought of the chain that hung across it at night, and the big lock in which she could not turn the key.  Scamp heard her trying to open the door, and barked more joyfully.  Unable to unfasten this door she made her way to another at the back of the house, and, withdrawing a bolt, she stood in the doorway, her little white night-dress blowing in the winter’s night air, and her bare feet on the stones of the threshold.

“Scamp, Scamp!” she called in a soft voice, and, wonderful to tell, he heard her and came flying round the house.

“Oh, Scampie, dear, have you come, and do you really love me still?” whispered Hetty as the dog leaped into her arms, and she clasped his paws round her neck and kissed his shaggy head.

Scamp uttered a few short rapturous exclamations and licked her face and hands all over.

“But you must be very quiet,” she said, “or you will wake the house and we shall be caught.  Come now, lovie, and I’ll hide you in my own room.”

She closed the door as quietly as possible and crept upstairs again, carrying the dog hugged in her arms.

As she stole along the passage to her room, one of the maids whispered to another who was sleeping in the room with her: 

“Oh, I have heard a great noise down-stairs, and one of the dogs was barking.  And just now I am sure I heard feet in the passage.”