Margaret caught her hand, and helped her to her feet. When she moved away from the wall, it was seen that the wooden panel had indeed moved.
It had slid open a few inches, and blackness looked through at them.
Peggy clutched her cousins and trembled. Where was now the courage, the coolness, which had made her the heroine of the morning"s adventure?
Gone! Anything in the ordinary course of nature, bogs and such matters, Peggy was mistress of, but black s.p.a.ces, with possible white figures lurking in them, were out of her province.
"Margaret," she whispered, "do you see? It is open!"
"Yes, I see!" said Margaret. "What a delightfully mysterious thing, girls! A secret chamber, perhaps, or a staircase! It must be a staircase, for it is in the thickness of the wall behind the chimney. Do run and get a lamp, Peggy, like a good girl, and we will see. How damp and earthy it smells!"
Peggy flew, only too glad to get away from the black, yawning hole. She was back in three minutes with the lamp, and the three cousins peered into the open s.p.a.ce, Margaret holding the lamp high above her head, so that the light might penetrate as far as possible.
It was indeed a staircase; a narrow, winding way, wide enough for one person, but no more. It plunged down like a black pit, and its end could not be seen.
"But this is superb!" cried Margaret. "Shall we explore it, girls? I don"t suppose there can be any objection, do you? It is probably never used."
"By all means, let us explore!" said Rita. "But do you know what I am thinking, Marguerite?"
"Something romantic and mysterious, I am sure!" said Margaret, smiling.
"Something practical and businesslike, rather, _tres chere_. I am thinking that for a concealment, if a concealment were necessary, this is the finest house in the world. Come on!"
Peggy hung back, her round cheeks pale with dread; but she could not bear to be left behind; and as Margaret and Rita plunged down the narrow stair, she followed, with beating heart. She had longed all her breezy little life for mystery, adventure, something wonderful to happen to her, with which she could impress and awe the younger children; now it had really come, and her heart beat with mingled terror and excitement.
Down--down--down. The lamplight shone on the rough walls of discoloured plaster, the old steps creaked beneath their tread; that was all. Now they came to a tiny landing, and something gleamed before them,--the bra.s.s handle of a door. Margaret hesitated, fearing that they might be trenching on forbidden ground; but Rita opened the door quickly, and Peggy pressed down behind her.
They saw a room, like the other bedrooms in the house, large and airy.
It was evidently ready for use, the bed neatly made, everything in spotless order. Brushes and shaving-tools lay on the dressing-bureau.
The table was covered with books.
"Uncle John"s room!" whispered Margaret. "It must be, of course; and this is where the locked door is on the second story. Come along, girls; we ought not to go prying into people"s rooms!"
"My faith, I cannot see that!" retorted Rita. "If there were anything of interest in the room,--but nothing--a plain room, and nothing more! A pretty thing to end a secret staircase; he should have shame for it. But come, as you say; we have yet a way to go down."
They closed the door carefully, and once more began the descent.
Down--down--down. But this second half of the way was different. The staircase was wider, and the walls were cased in wood. Moreover, it showed marks of usage. The steps above were covered with thick dust, evidently long undisturbed; but these were clean and shining. Decidedly, the mystery was deepening.
"Suppose we find it is just a back way to the servants" rooms!"
whispered practical Margaret.
"Suppose feedle-dee-dee!" said Rita; and her funny little foreign accent on the word made Peggy choke and splutter behind her.
Now they were evidently approaching the ground floor, for sounds were audible below them: a footstep, and then the clink of metal, as if some one were moving fire-irons.
"Elizabeth, probably!" whispered Margaret. "What shall we say to her?"
"Let"s yell and rush out and scare her!" proposed Peggy.
"Hush!" said Rita. "Oh, hush! we know not who it is. Look! a gleam of light,--the crack of a door! quick, the lamp!" and with a swift, silent breath she blew out the lamp, and they were in total darkness.
They now saw plainly the light that shone through the crack of a door, a few steps below them. The sounds in the room beneath had ceased. All was still for a moment; then suddenly Peggy made a false step in the dark, and stumbled; she uttered a smothered shriek, and then began to giggle.
"Animal!" muttered Rita through her teeth. "Can you not be silent?"
Peggy was now in front, and seeing that light came also through the keyhole, she stooped and looked through it. The next instant she uttered a dreadful shriek, and staggered back into Margaret"s arms. "The man!"
she cried; "the man in black velvet!"
A chair was hastily pushed back in the room below; steps crossed the floor, and as Margaret flung open the door, another door at the further end of the room was seen to close softly.
CHAPTER VIII.
CUBA LIBRE.
"But, Marguerite, when I tell you that I _know_!"
"But, Rita, my dear, how _can_ you know?"
"Look at me; listen to me! Have you your senses?"
"Most of them, I hope."
"Very well, then, attend! When stupid, stupid Peggy--I love her, observe; she is my sister, but we must admit that she is stupid,--truth, Marguerite, is the jewel of my soul--when she stumbled against the door, when she screamed, we heard sounds, did we not?"
"We did!" Margaret admitted.
"Sounds,--and what sounds? Not the broom of a servant, not the rustle of a dress,--no, we hear the step of a man! We enter, and a door closes at the further end of the room; click, a lock snaps! I rush to the window; a figure disappears around the corner of the house; I cannot see what it is, but I would swear it was no woman. I return,--we look about us at this room, which never have we seen before. A gentleman"s room, as an infant could perceive. A private library, study, what you will, luxurious, enchanting. Books over which you sob with emotion,--or would sob, if your temperament permitted you expression; pictures that fill my soul with enchantment; a writing-table, and on it papers--heaps and mounds of papers! Am I right? do I exaggerate? Alps, Pyrenees of papers!
You saw them?"
"I didn"t see anything higher than Mt. Washington," said Margaret soberly. "There were a good many, I confess."
"They burst from drawers," pursued Rita, enjoying herself immensely; "they toppled like snow-drifts; they strewed the floor to a depth of--"
"Oh, Rita, Rita! do rein your Pegasus in, or he will fly away altogether. There certainly were a great many papers, and they confirmed our poor little Peggy in her belief that the man she had seen was Hugo Montfort, making his ghostly search for the papers he lost. Whereas you think--"
"Think! when I tell you that I _know_!"
"You think," Margaret went on calmly, "that it was John Strong, the gardener. Well, and what if it was?"
"What if it was? Marguerite, you are impossible; you have the intelligence of a babe new born. What! we find this man in his master"s room, spying upon his private things, _romaging_--what is that word?--_romaging_ his papers, most likely making himself possessed of what he will, and you say, what of this? _Caramba_, I will tell you what of this it would be in Cuba! String him up to the wall and give him quick fifty lashes; that would be of it!"
"Long Island is a good way from Cuba!" said Margaret. "I don"t think we will try anything of that sort here, Rita. And when you come to think of it, my dear, we have been here a few weeks, and John Strong was here before we were born; Aunt Faith told me so. Don"t you think he may perhaps know what he is about rather better than we do?"
"Know what he is about!" Rita protested, with a shower of nods, that he knew very well what he was about. The question was, did their uncle know? And the black velvet coat, what had Margaret to say to that? she demanded. It was evident that this good man, this worthy servant, was in the habit of wearing his master"s clothes during his absence. Did gardeners habitually appear in black velvet? Ha! tell her that!
Margaret did not know that they did, but it was perfectly possible that Mr. Montfort might have given some of his old clothes, a cast-off smoking-jacket, for example, to his gardener and confidential servant.
There would be nothing remarkable in that, surely. Besides, were they absolutely certain that the mysterious individual was dressed in black velvet? Poor, dear Peggy was in such a state of excitement, she might well have fancied--and so on, and so on. The two cousins went over the ground again and again, but could come to no decision.