CHAPTER XXI.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 127, 7 November 1885, Page 3

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FOOTPRINT IN THE BUST. There, in the thick dust that carpeted the Rtone flagging, and just within the circle of light from the taper, was the clear impress of a man's boot. Lillis gazed at it in dumb, startled amazement. By no possibility could she imagine it set there by her own foot. I Not only did the size of the print forbid such a solution of the mystery, but the direction also. It was exactly contrary to that she had taken in seeking an outlet frcm the chamber. As she gazed she became conscious of a strangely-mingled sense of fear and relief. While the impress suggested companionship and help, it likewise hinted at popsible dangers that thrilled hor unpleasantly. Who, what, and where was the man ? Was he lurking unseen and watchfully near ? She lifted the candle, and, rising, looked tremblingly around She saw nothing but the bare chamber, and no startling sound made itself heard. Still, how could she be certain he was not watching her from the covert of the rocks ? Boldly determined to face the worst, without delay she ran to the spring. Excepting herself, the chamber was absolutely tenantless. She abandoned the search and went back to the footprint. Making another and more careful examination, she observed something that had escaped her notice thus far— a thin coating of fresh dust had settled upon the flagging where the passing foot had obliterated the old deposit. It was a significant fact. Realising its significance, she slowly and carefully followed the prints. They terminated at a stone ledge embedded in the wall. Wero there any returning steps ? She glanced round. There were none. At that discovery she caught her breath. She cried faintly, tremulously : " He came here, and he left here — at this spot." Divided between a great hope and a great fear, she went close to the ledge. A glance showed her it was some three feet long, and just high enough and wide enough to afford a comfortable resting place. But, in slowly searching along the edge of the seat for some possible means of exit, she made a second startling discovery. Directly under her eye two words were pencilled in huge, black^haracters. The words were these : "Press Here." Following the words, and precieely in the middle of the seat, was a huge asterisk. Near that the black remains of a half dozen matches. With a great, suffocating heart throb, Lillis obeyed the direction, placing one hand over the asterisk, and holding the portable candlestick in the other. The Beat gave no sign of yielding. She pressed harder and harder, and then, setting the candlestick on the floor, used both hands. Still the seat resisted. She made one last mighty, despairing effort. As before, she could not feel the slightest movement. All the light died out of her eager eyes. Pallid and • helpless, she Btaggered back. She faltered, brokenly : " I have not the strength !" She stooped and picked up the candle. As she rose from the mechanical act, she stood absolutely petrified. The ledge was noiselessly rising. It was already a foot above its place, and carried with it a narrow but massive block of stone. The opening thus madein the wall aroused j Lillis from her stupor of astonishment to a sudden glad sense of the possibility of escape. But her joy was short- lived. A terrible fear succeeded in the disclosure of a narrow spiral stairway, ascending from the floor on which she stood. Would the block return to its place and treacherously shut her in ? She watched with fixed, dilated eyes. It rose steadily. It stopped. It hung poised motionless a little above her head.

She waited a minute to make sure it was i really atationa)fy,' and then, paseirig under, : began to mount the stairs. Their spiral construction prevented any ; conjecture as to their height ; but to her anxious mind they seemed endless. I She had counted thirty, and was far out of sight of the chamber below, when she all at once stopped, half palsied by a sudden and unaccountable return of her fears. " What if it should drop ? What if I should be immured within this winding cell ?" She said the words over and over to herself, unable, in her paralysing horror, to take a stop either way. For a little she stood thus, and then t slowly, shudderingly glanced around at the stone walls from which the stairs seemed to have been out. ,,. . The glance at once increased her horror, and restored her suspended faculties. With a headlong precipitance that endangered her ne.ck at every step, she' turned and ran down. She gained the bottom. She looked up. A, blank wall' confronted her! ' ". Some strange, intuition had warned her too surely of the dreadful truth— the block had slipped back to its place ! iBut hope rose superior to the peril. There had been plajn ,directions without — she would certainly find the same within. She began the seardh. iTirst trustfully, then'VilcUy it proceeded. ■ It ended. -There" was riothing otf'^hich the mogtfer--tiio' imagination could g'to'u'iid'a'fcttpe. Her return to the chafctfetf waVimpos'aible ! She' acknowledged the 1 terrible fact ; she dropped the candle, and, as it extinguished itself at her feet, sank insensible upon, the steps, • .