CHAPTER IXIV. THE SECRET STAIRWAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 299, 15 September 1888, Page 3

CHAPTER IXIV. THE SECRET STAIRWAY.

By degrees Maergie Renfrew became ac- • customed to the great ghostly old State elnirabev in which she was so securely im- : prisoned, i At first the grim portraits, and the great ; gloomy bed, with its velvet hangings, and the Hitting, shapeless shadows, thrilled her : with a nameless fear. She shuddered and t started at every hound, e\ery rattle of the ' onkeii^ casements, e-,ery creak of the dismal firs without. , But Lime conquer.- all things, and time i conquered Maggie's fears She <?rew accustomed co the great, grand apailment. < and even began to like it ; and in the «pate 1 of tin ee nights she would cuddle up in the i great, gloomy bed, and sleep as peacefully ■ as if her pretty brown head rented on its pillow? in her father's n« n cottage. Theie was a tall book-case in an alco\e in the chamber, curtained with moth-eaten \elvel, and tilled with du-t> volumes ; and Maygie dun them out. soiling her pretty hands-, and raising clouds of riusN but she found something to ivad sLa ely, old-fashioned no\ols, with winch she beguiled the endless hour 1 -. At first Loid Angus had vi-ited her each day, sometimes tw ice a daj : and at eacli ! visit the same stormy scene was enac f ed, he renewing his proposals, and Maggie refusing them with scorn. But the young ■ peer wni- growing dangerously impatient, and swore in round terms that he would not longer be trifled with. At the end of three d*\ <- he made his final -\ isit. ; c I'm goina: to London to-night," he said, addi easing Maggie, 'to be gone a week. (Iwynneth will take care of you. You needn't Hash up so, you won't escape — I shall "ec to that ' You'll never go from thi« place till you go as my wile --you're the only ■woman 1 care (o have, and have }ou I will. But I'm tii ed of thi«— l'\ c humoured you long enough. When I come back, in a week's time, 111 lia\ c it my own way- do you hear? J shall bring you an outfit, and all that : *>nd if jou won't become my wife -willingly , I'll make you do it by /out mean*. You understand -> I'd rather not, but it you fotce me to it i "ill, and it will be the woi-^e for you. Conn- now, let-? pait friends ' Kiss me yood-bye ." He aihaneed toward her and l.ud his hand on her aim, but Mas^ie huilcrl it off, retreatine to the other side ot the 100111, with a look in lior youn^ eyes that the j ymng man, with all In- insolence and brutality dared not face. He turned from hei sullenh. and left the room. ' Curse hei !' he muttei cd, as he looked the dooi, 'hei c\ e«-^tab like a knife, but T'll lia\e it my own way when I letuin— ves, I w ill ' I w on't be brow-beaten bv a woman. ' The look in the young peer's eje< had sfaitledlipr. She must !* Her poor, fond old fat.hei would dioof a broken lieart if she dohi>ed much longer The thought made her i ran tie, and she tan horn one point to another in an ce-tasy of impatience, shaking thedootrt, the windows, leanng at the great on ken tiles., till her delicate hands were all bruivsed. The apaitmcnl was coiled with oaken j panels beneath t ho faded tapestry, and in her frantic search the poor girl fancied that one of them sounded hollow. A wild thrill shot through her heart. She had read ot secret passages in old buildings like this — | what if she should find one? The "very j hope made her hali delirious. She tore away the dusty tapes try, und beat against the panel w ith all her might ; but it seemed as solid as the eternal hills. She was turning away in unutterable despair and disappointment, when a little crevice in the oak panel by the merest change attracted her notice A little crevice, with something black like the point of a screw protruding from it. She brushed away the dust and tried to remove the screw-point It would not draw out, but it yielded beneath her touch with a sharp snap, and the oaken panel Jslicl to one side, revealing a small closet and a narrow stairway winding downward. Maggie stood breathless for an instant, and then realising the whole blessed (ruth, she uttered a suppressed cry of delight; and was about to push her investigations further, when the sound of footsteps, in the corridor without fell on her affrighted ear. She hastily replaced the panel, drew down the old tapestry, and hurried to the op posite side of the room aa the door opened, and the old woman known as Mother (iwynneth entered, bearing a tray of provisions in her hand. She deposited it on a table, glancing curiously about her, for the noise had not wholly escaped her attention ; and the ( ltu;-hof], excited look on MngjiieV lace roused her (suspicion.

' Well,' she began, dropping a cortsey to Maggie, her eyes. still wandering keenly about the room ; ' how d'ye fare to-day, my bonnie la&sie ?' ' I'm as well as usual,' responded Maggie, struggling terribly to calm her voice and face. The old woman eyed her steadily for some moment!?, and continued : ' Well, sit ye doon fchen, an' eat yer bite o' supper, while I gie ye a bit o'gude advice — sit yo (loon, my purty bairn.' Maggie obeyei, even so far a* to tako up one of the oat cakes and begin to nibble it. 'The young laird be gone to Lunnon,' continued the old creature, ' and he bid me make reddy fur the wedding-day agin he room back, lie's a braw young laird, my lass,' she went on, a curious tenderness thrilling ho- voice, and lighting her dim eyes, ' the handsomest young mon in England, and the richest and noblest now — Laird Strathspey, the eail, he be dead now, did ye know?' 'The Earl of Strathspey dead?" cried Maggie. ' Yet, lie is dead fur .sure and certain,' chuckled the old woman, ' and the biaw young laird be earl now, and yell he a countess, my lassie — tine luck, bless yer purty face ! ' But now fur the good advice - dinna ye hold out agin the young earl any longer, he be gettin' dangerous — 1 see it in his eyes — no tellin' what he might, do. Hell bring ye biaw dresses an' jewels iib for the queen hers If to near when he cooms, and dinna ye say nay to him, my his?. But go to the kirk Jike a glide child, and he'll make ye a counters, and the Unest leddie in England.' Maggie uttered no word in answer, but .sat munching at her oat-cake, with her heart throbbing wildly in her bosom. The woman arose and left the room ; ' Now oat yer supper like a gude bairn, J she called back from the door, ' and keep yer purty cheeks round and rosy till yer sweetheart cooms back.' She closed the door, locked it, and drew the heavy bolts, and then Maggie heard her descending the stairs. The stoimy twilight was falling gloomily without, the rain driving against the casements in great smoky sheets, the winds wailing, the surf subbing in the distance. Maggie went to the barred window, and looked out. Would the darknessevercome? She dare not make her attempt too early, and her impatience amounted to agonj 7 . Slowly, slowly the hours wore away. The storm increased with the darkness, till the old ruins Feemed to rock beneath its fury. The winds howled amid fche grim turrets, and the sea thundered on the sands below. But Maggie felt a terror. She stood all alone in the ghostly gloom, intent upon her purpose, strengthened and impelled, as she f- aid in after years, by some powei stronger and more divine than her mere woman's will. As near as she could determine, about midnight, she lit her candle and began her researches. She drew aside the tapestry, and approaching the panel, pressed her finger upon the little point in the creviceIt yielded as before, and the panel flid slowly aside, revealing the secret pas;-age-way. Without an inetnntV hesitation the brave g-irl passed through, f-aiefully shading her candle from the draught. The spiral stairway led down into some subterranean abode ot gloom : she -trained her eyes, and held her light aloft, but she could discover nothing : the little winding stairway seemed to vanish in an abjss of ray less blacknes-. .A dreai\ piospect enough : but Maggie did not taker. Shading her light, she began her awful descent, treading the stairs which tor centuries had not been touched by human feet. The damp and poisonous atmosphere almost stifled her, and now and then a hat, or some noisome thing, went hurling across her sight, threatening to ex tinguish her glimmering light ; but &he pushed on, some divine inspiration giving strength to her tottering feet, and courage to her woman's heart. Down, and down, and down, till her limbs ached, and her head grew dizzy, and the thick vapours, growing colder and moreoffenshe a-s she descended, almost took away hei breath. Where would this mysterious etairway lead her? Down into the pit of nether darkne«s. Once she paused irresolute, the dank, green walls shutting her in, her face looking awfully white and unearthly in the nickering light. But that ii resistible something impelled her on. There could be nothing more dreadful in stoic for her than the fate that awaited her if r-hc let in tied. She started on again, holding her uncertain taper with a steady hand, and at last the stairway terminated abruptly, and her ! tee( toiuhed a solid floor --a ->fc hi« (itn leeking with mould and moisture beneath I hoi leei, and above and around- an underj ground 100 m, wholly devoid oi windows — an awful, tomb-like place. The poor little girl, her brown eyes dilated, stood motionless foi a full minute, holding her Jipht a 'oft, awed and terrorstricken by her dismal surroundings. Theic was not the faintest hope of escape. But if the worstw orst came, she might retreat to bhis plat-e and die ' That was all. She stood tierc, feeling a \ague pity for herself, as if she were «ome other person, half irresolute whether to go back, or remain \\heic she was, when, all at once, plainly distinguishable from the hoarse tli under of the sea, or fche rattle of the storm, she heard a piteous groan, the cry of a human being in bitter agony. At first hci blood cuidled, and the pei'bpiiation broke out upon her foiehead in great, cold drops. But, as we have asserted, Magaie was abra\c girl. In the .space of a minute she rallied. What was it ? The voice of *ome poor soul imprisoned | like herself ? She followed the cound, and found that it proceeded from another vault, separated from the one in which she stood bv a thick stone \*all. I What should she do ? «va.s there no mode i of entering this dismal tomb s-ave by the spiral staii way? She turned and looked at il -a little thread of stairs running upward into the darkness, and a great iron trap- ! door at ono side, which no doubt, in days gone, by, h»id been used to bar the aperture nothing else ! And that plaintive moan breaking e\er and anon upon the awful silence. Mie forgot her own peril, in pity for this unknown sufferer, and uttered a prayer for heln from above. Then she fell to work again, running her deft little little fingers over the rough stones, peering into every crack and corner, and at the last moment, just as she was giving up in utter despair, under the oreen mould, in one corner, she came upon a crevice, with a little iron point imbedded in it. She uttered a low fry of delight. Ib was preci eelyc ely similar to one in the room above, and imi»t bo a secret spring. ' SKe pnt lv down i'er candle, and pressed upon the little point, with all the force she couM command: but it Mas ru*ty, and would not yield. She tried it again and ajrain, and :>t la^b it gave w»y, and the heavy stone slid b-ick so suddenly that Maggie fell torwaid after, ir.. A strong ; cuuentof air rushed in and extinguished hor light, and she was left in total dark; ! lie ' sE " 1 ("to bv Continued.)