"And the settle concealed the legacy after all!"
"Yes, a great deal more safely than we supposed."
"I never imagined the treasure would be in a place like this, all stowed away in old boxes! I thought we should press a secret spring, and a panel would fly open in the wall, and then we should see money and jewels lying together in a big heap!"
"I don"t mind how we"ve found it, so long as it"s here."
"Still, it"s a surprise!"
"It will be a splendid surprise for Monica. This is actually her very own."
"She would have been content with a hundred guineas, and there are more than a hundred guineas here," said Cicely, letting some of the sovereigns slide through her fingers with a sigh of satisfaction.
"She ought to know about it at once," returned Lindsay. "If you can tear yourself away from these money bags, we"d better be thinking of going."
"Yes, I suppose it"s time we went back. By the by, how are we to get out of this place?"
Ah! How to go back?--that was the question! The trapdoor had shut itself high above their heads.
"I expect if we stand on one of the boxes, we can push it up!" said Lindsay.
With much difficulty they dragged a heavy chest across the floor and climbed upon it. It was a fruitless effort. However hard they might try, the trapdoor would not budge an inch.
"There may be a secret spring," faltered Cicely, feeling in every direction to find some bolt or k.n.o.b, but all in vain. Then the horrible truth broke upon them. They were locked up as securely as the legacy!
"What are we to do?"
Lindsay"s pink cheeks were white with alarm.
"Let us call. Perhaps the girls are hunting for us still in the pa.s.sage, and they may hear."
Both shouted until they were hoa.r.s.e, yet there was no reply. This was indeed hide-and-seek with a vengeance. Their game had turned out more than they had bargained for.
"I"ll bang on the ceiling. It may sound louder than calling," said Lindsay. "The girls must have given us up, and gone downstairs, for n.o.body seems to hear," she continued, after belabouring the trapdoor for several minutes.
"Perhaps they"re at tea," suggested Cicely.
They examined the little window in the corner, but the fastenings were so rusty from long disuse that, tug as they would, they could not open it. They wiped away the dust and cobwebs from it, and peeped out.
"If it overlooks the garden, we could smash the gla.s.s and wave a handkerchief, at any rate," proposed Lindsay. "Scott would be almost sure to notice it, even if n.o.body else were out in the rain."
Alas! the window appeared to be securely hidden away among the gables, and absolutely out of sight from below.
"Would it be possible to crawl on to the roof?"
Lindsay shook her head in reply. The frame was too small for even the slim Cicely to squeeze through. The girls sat down and surveyed the piles of treasure around them with dismay. If they had required a sermon on the vanity of riches, it was there without any need of words.
"We can"t eat bank notes, nor sleep on beds of sovereigns," remarked Lindsay at last.
"We may be shut up here for days and days before they find us," said Cicely blankly.
"They"ll miss us directly, of course; but they won"t know where to look.
Even if they peeped inside the settle, they wouldn"t be any the wiser."
"Do you remember the piece of poetry we read last week about Ginevra?
She hid inside a chest on her wedding day, when they were playing hide-and-seek, and the lid snapped with a spring lock. They never found her--only her bones, years afterwards!"
"Don"t talk of such horrible things."
"How long does it take people to starve?" continued Cicely in a tremulous voice.
"About ten days, I believe. They grow gradually weaker and weaker."
Cicely groaned.
"There isn"t anything to drink either, and I"m getting so thirsty," she said, her eyes filling with tears.
"We must try again," declared Lindsay, jumping up. "Let us pull out another trunk, and manage to lift it on to the chest. I believe if I were nearer the ceiling I should be able to push harder."
The boxes were arranged in a rather random fashion, so that as the girls dragged one from the bottom, the whole pile came tumbling down in confusion. They had to jump aside to avoid being hurt. When the upset was over, Cicely pointed silently to the wall opposite. In the part which before had been hidden was a small, low door. Here, surely, was a chance of escape.
They scrambled over the packing-cases and trunks without troubling to look inside them, though some had burst open in the fall. To find a way out seemed at present far more important than more silver tankards and salvers.
Was this exit also secured? With trembling hands Lindsay raised the latch. To her intense relief the door opened, showing a very narrow, unlighted pa.s.sage.
After their experience in the garret it was not encouraging to find themselves once more obliged to explore in the dark, but there seemed nothing else to be done.
"It must lead somewhere," said Cicely. "I"d rather go anywhere than stay here."
"We"d better step carefully, in case the floor is as rotten as it was in the other place," cautioned Lindsay. The pa.s.sage smelled dank and close.
The air in it had probably been unstirred for many years. The faint light which entered it from the treasure room was soon lost, and they were obliged to grope their way by feeling along the walls. On and on they went for what appeared to be a considerable distance, sometimes turning sharp corners, and sometimes going up or down rickety steps.
"It must run half round the house," said Cicely. "Shall we never get to the end?"
Suddenly Lindsay, who was walking first, came to a halt.
"I can"t go any farther," she faltered; "there"s a wall in front."
The poor girls were almost in despair. They had been so confident that the pa.s.sage would surely be taking them to the outer world; to find themselves once more at a full stop was a terrible blow.
"Must we go all that dreadful long way back?" wailed Cicely.
"I expect there is some door that we"ve pa.s.sed without knowing it,"
replied Lindsay, rather chokily.
"Then we can never find it in the dark. It"s no use. We shall both starve to death here, and they"ll discover our skeletons a hundred years afterwards."
Cicely had utterly broken down, and was sobbing bitterly.