"Come here to me, you varlet! Now, listen: You are to keep a sharp look-out after your young mistress. Whenever she rides abroad you are to mount a horse and ride after her, and keep your eyes open, for if you once lose sight of her, you knave, do you know what I shall do to you, eh?"
"N--no, ma.r.s.e," stammered Wool, pale with apprehension.
"I should cut your eyelids off to improve your vision! Look to it, sir, for I shall keep my word! And now come and help me to dress," concluded Old Hurricane.
Wool, with chattering teeth, shaking knees and trembling fingers, a.s.sisted his master in his morning toilet, meditating the while whether it were not better to avoid impending dangers by running away.
And, in fact, between his master and his mistress, Wool had a hot time of it. The weather, after the storm had cleared the atmosphere, was delightful, and Cap rode out that very day. Poor Wool kept his eyeb.a.l.l.s metaphorically "skinned," for fear they should be treated literally so--held his eyes wide open, lest Old Hurricane should keep his word and make it impossible for him ever to shut them.
When Cap stole out, mounted her horse and rode away, in five minutes from the moment of starting she heard a horse"s hoofs behind her, and presently saw Wool gallop to her side.
At first Cap bore this good-humoredly enough, only saying:
"Go home, Wool, I don"t want you; I had much rather ride alone."
To which the groom replied:
"It is old ma.r.s.e"s orders, miss, as I should wait on you."
Capitola"s spirit rebelled against this; and, suddenly turning upon her attendant, she indignantly exclaimed:
"Wool, I don"t want you, sir; I insist upon being left alone, and I order you to go home, sir!"
Upon this Wool burst into tears and roared.
Much surprised, Capitola inquired of him what the matter was.
For some time Wool could only reply by sobbing, but when he was able to articulate he blubbered forth:
"It"s nuf to make anybody go put his head under a meat-ax, so it is!"
"What is the matter, Wool?" again inquired Capitola.
"How"d you like to have your eyelids cut off?" howled Wool, indignantly.
"What?" inquired Capitola.
"Yes; I axes how"d you like to have your eyelids cut off? Case that"s what ole ma.r.s.e t"reatens to do long o" me, if I don"t follow arter you and keep you in sight. And now you forbids of me to do it, and--and--and I"ll go and put my neck right underneaf a meat-ax!"
Now, Capitola was really kind-hearted, and, well knowing the despotic temper of her guardian, she pitied Wool, and after a little hesitation she said:
"Wool, so your old master says if you don"t keep your eyes on me he"ll cut your eyelids off?"
"Ye--ye--yes, miss," sobbed Wool.
"Did he say if you didn"t listen to me he"d cut your ears off?"
"N--n--no, miss."
"Did he swear if you didn"t talk to me he"d cut your tongue out?"
"N--n--no, miss."
"Well, now, stop howling and listen to me! Since, at the peril of your eyelids, you are obliged to keep me in sight, I give you leave to ride just within view of me, but no nearer, and you are never to let me see or hear you, if you can help it for I like to be alone."
"I"ll do anything in this world for peace, Miss Caterpillar," said poor Wool.
And upon this basis the affair was finally settled. And no doubt Capitola owed much of her personal safety to the fact that Wool kept his eyes open.
While these scenes were going on at Hurricane Hall, momentous events were taking place elsewhere, which require another chapter for their development.
CHAPTER VIII.
ANOTHER MYSTERY AT THE HIDDEN HOUSE.
"Hark! what a shriek was that of fear intense, Of horror and amazement!
What fearful struggle to the door and thence With mazy doubles to the grated cas.e.m.e.nt!"
An hour after the departure of Capitola, Colonel Le Noir returned to the Hidden House and learned from his man David that upon the preceding evening a young girl of whose name he was ignorant had sought shelter from the storm and pa.s.sed the night at the mansion.
Now, Colonel Le Noir was extremely jealous of receiving strangers under his roof, never, during his short stay at the Hidden House, going out into company, lest he should be obliged in return to entertain visitors. And when he learned that a strange girl had spent the night beneath his roof, he frowningly directed that Dorcas should be sent to him.
When his morose manager made her appearance he harshly demanded the name of the young woman she had dared to receive beneath his roof.
Now, whether there is any truth in the theory of magnetism or not, it is certain that Dorcas Knight--stern, harsh, resolute woman that she was toward all others--became as submissive as a child in the presence of Colonel Le Noir.
At his command she gave him all the information he required, not even withholding the fact of Capitola"s strange story of having seen the apparition of the pale-faced lady in her chamber, together with the subsequent discovery of the loss of her ring.
Colonel Le Noir sternly reprimanded his domestic manager for her neglect of his orders and dismissed her from his presence.
The remainder of the day was pa.s.sed by him in moody thought. That evening he summoned his son to a private conference in the parlor--an event that happily delivered poor Clara Day from their presence at her fireside.
That night Clara, dreading lest at the end of their interview they might return to her society, retired early to her chamber where she sat reading until a late hour, when she went to bed and found transient forgetfulness of trouble in sleep.
She did not know how long she had slept when she was suddenly and terribly awakened by a woman"s shriek sounding from the room immediately overhead, in which, upon the night previous, Capitola had slept.
Starting up in bed, Clara listened.
The shriek was repeated--prolonged and piercing--and was accompanied by a m.u.f.fled sound of struggling that shook the ceiling overhead.
Instinctively springing from her bed, Clara threw on her dressing-gown and flew to the door; but just as she turned the latch to open it she heard a bolt slipped on the outside and found herself a prisoner in her own chamber.
Appalled, she stood and listened.
Presently there came a sound of footsteps on the stairs and a heavy m.u.f.fled noise as of some dead weight being dragged down the staircase and along the pa.s.sage. Then she heard the hall door cautiously opened and shut. And, finally, she distinguished the sound of wheels rolling away from the house.