"Major Warfield, sir, I"m very sorry, but Miss Black has not come in yet," said Mrs. Condiment, who for the last half hour had suffered extreme anxiety upon account of Capitola.
"Not come in yet! Demmy, mum! Do you tell me she has gone out?" cried Old Hurricane, in a voice of thunder, gathering his brows into a dark frown, and striking his cane angrily upon the floor.
"Yes, sir, I am sorry to say she rode out about an hour ago and has not returned," said Mrs. Condiment, summoning all her firmness to meet Old Hurricane"s "roused wrath."
"Ma"am! You venture to stand there before my face and tell me composedly that you permitted Miss Black to go off alone in the face of such a storm as this?" roared Old Hurricane.
"Sir, I could not help it!" said the old lady.
"Demmy, mum! You should have helped it! A woman of your age to stand there and tell me that she could not prevent a young creature like Capitola from going out alone in the storm!"
"Major Warfield, could you have done it?"
"Me? Demmy, I should think so; but that is not the question! You--"
He was interrupted by a blinding flash of lightning, followed immediately by an awful peal of thunder and a sudden fall of rain.
Old Hurricane sprang up as though he had been shot off his chair and trotted up and down the floor exclaiming:
"And she--she out in all this storm! Mrs. Condiment, mum, you deserve to be ducked! Yes, mum, you do! Wool! Wool! you diabolical villain!"
"Yes, ma.r.s.e, yes, sir, here I is!" exclaimed that officer, in trepidation, as he appeared in the doorway. "De windows and doors, sir, is all fastened close and de maids are all in the dining-room as you ordered, and--"
"Hang the maids and the doors and windows, too! Who the demon cares about them? How dared you, you knave, permit your young mistress to ride, unattended, in the face of such a storm, too! Why didn"t you go with her, sir?"
""Deed, ma.r.s.e--"
"Don"t ""deed ma.r.s.e" me you atrocious villain! Saddle a horse quickly, inquire which road your mistress took and follow and attend her home safely--after which I intend to break every bone in your skin, sirrah!
So--"
Again he was interrupted by a dazzling flash of lightning, accompanied by a deafening roll of thunder, and followed by a flood of rain.
Wool stood appalled at the prospect of turning out in such a storm upon such a fruitless errand.
"Oh, you may stare and roll up your eyes, but I mean it, you varlet! So be off with you! Go! I don"t care if you should be drowned in the rain, or blown off the horse, or struck by lightning. I hope you may be; you knave, and I shall be rid of one villain! Off, you varlet, or--" Old Hurricane lifted a bronze statuette to hurl at Wool"s delinquent head, but that functionary dodged and ran out in time to escape a blow that might have put a period to his mortal career.
But let no one suppose that honest Wool took the road that night! He simply ran down-stairs and hid himself comfortably in the lowest regions of the house, there to tarry until the storms, social and atmospheric, should be over.
Meanwhile the night deepened, the storm raged without and Old Hurricane raged within!
The lightning flashed, blaze upon blaze, with blinding glare! The thunder broke, crash upon crash, with deafening roar! The wind gathering all its force cannonaded the old walls as though it would batter down the house! The rain fell in floods! In the midst of all the Demon"s Run, swollen to a torrent, was heard like the voice of a "roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour!"
Old Hurricane strode up and down the floor, groaning, swearing, threatening, and at every fresh blast of the storm without, breaking forth into fury!
Mrs. Condiment sat crouched in a corner, praying fervently every time the lightning blazed into the room, longing to go and join the men and maids in the next apartment, yet fearful to stir from her seat lest she should attract Old Hurricane"s attention, and draw down upon herself the more terrible thunder and lightning of his wrath. But to escape Old Hurricane"s violence was not in the power of mortal man or woman. Soon her very stillness exasperated him and he broke forth upon her with:
"Mrs. Condiment, mum, I don"t know how you can bear to sit there so quietly and listen to this storm, knowing that the poor child is exposed to it?"
"Major Warfield, would it do any good for me to jump up and trot up and down the floor and go on as you do, even supposing I had the strength?"
inquired the meek old lady, thoroughly provoked at his injustice!
"I"d like to see you show a little more feeling! You are a perfect barbarian! Oh, Cap! my darling, where are you now? Heavens! what a blast was that! Enough to shake the house about our ears! I wish it would! blamed if I don"t!"
"Oh, Major! Major! don"t say such awful things, nor make such awful wishes!" said the appalled old lady--"you don"t know what you might bring down upon us!"
"No, nor care! If the old house should tumble in, it would bury under its ruins a precious lot of good-for-nothing people, unfit to live!
Heavens! what a flash of lightning! Oh, Cap, Cap, my darling, where are you in this storm? Mrs. Condiment, mum! if any harm comes to Capitola this night, I"ll have you indicted for manslaughter!"
"Major Warfield, if it is all on Miss Black"s account that you are raving and raging so, I think it is quite vain of you! for any young woman caught out in a storm would know enough to get into shelter; especially would Miss Black, who is a young lady of great courage and presence of mind, as we know. She has surely gone into some house, to remain until the storm is over," said Mrs. Condiment, soothingly.
This speech, so well intended, exasperated Old Hurricane more than all the rest; stopping and striking his cane upon the floor, he roared forth:
"Hang it, mum! hold your foolish old tongue! You know nothing about it!
Capitola is exposed to more serious dangers than the elements! Perils of all sorts surround her! She should never, rain or shine, go out alone! Oh, the little villain! the little wretch! the little demon! if ever I get her safe in this house again, won"t I lock her up and keep her on bread and water until she learns to behave herself!"
Here again a blinding flash of lightning, a deafening peal of thunder, a terrific blast of wind and flood of rain suddenly arrested his speech.
"Oh, my Cap! my dear Cap! I needn"t threaten you! I shall never have the chance to be cruel to you again--never! You"ll perish in this terrible storm and then--and then my tough old heart will break! It will--it will, Cap! But demmy, before it does, I"ll break the necks of every man and woman, in this house, old and young! Hear it, heaven and earth, for I"ll do it!"
All things must have an end. So, as the hours pa.s.sed on, the storm having spent all its fury, gradually grumbled itself into silence.
Old Hurricane also raged himself into a state of exhaustion so complete that when the midnight hour struck he could only drop into a chair and murmur:
"Twelve o"clock and no news of her yet!"
And then unwillingly he went to bed, attended by Mrs. Condiment and Pitapat instead of Wool, who was supposed to be out in search of Capitola, but who was, in fact, fast asleep on the floor of a dry cellar.
Meanwhile, where did this midnight hour find Capitola?
CHAPTER IV.
THE HIDDEN HOLLOW.
On every side the aspect was the same, All ruined, desolate, forlorn and savage, No hand or foot within the precinct came To rectify or ravage!
Here Echo never mocked the human tongue; Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon.
A secret curse on that old Building hung And its deserted garden!
--Hood"s Haunted House.
Cap was a bit of a Don Quixote! The stirring incidents of the last few months had spoiled her; the monotony of the last few weeks had bored her; and now she had just rode out in quest of adventures.
The Old Hidden House, with its mysterious traditions, its gloomy surroundings and its haunted reputation, had always possessed a powerful attraction for one of Cap"s adventurous spirit. To seek and gaze upon the somber house, of which, and of whose inmates, such terrible stories had been told or hinted, had always been a secret desire and purpose of Capitola.
And now the presence there of a beautiful girl near her own age was the one last item that tipped the balance, making the temptation to ride thither outweigh every other consideration of duty, prudence and safety. And having once started on the adventure, Cap felt the attraction drawing her toward the frightful hollow of the Hidden House growing stronger with every step taken thitherward.