THE QUEST OF THE BLUE STAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14252, 24 December 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE QUEST OF THE BLUE STAR.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL AEBANGEMENT.

. S BY JOHN OAKLEY. 1 utlior of "The Hampstead Mystery." "The Blackmailer," " The Great Craneboro" Conspiracy." " 'Hie Essingham Peerage," Etc., Etc. [COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER XX. BKNEATH THE PBIORT. . I found the old man in his own room trembling as if every limb were hung on fine wires. / - "What did you see?" I asked him. "It was the—the same that I saw before." " Yes," I replied, " there was a figure there. I saw it, too. But it was not Marple Dunthorne, unless a spirit differs altogether from its material envelope. It —the man was" "It was no man," old Cramer's quavering accents interrupted me. " The man," I persisted, " was slighter and shorter than Marple Dunthorne." Now that I could think collectively, I felt more and more assured that the ghost of the Long Gallery was a living man, an interloper who had no right there, and who was in all probability there for no good purpose. " Come with me again into the Long Gallery," I said. But he hung back with evident fear written on his wrinkled old face. * " Then send Spidkins here," I commanded, and in a few minutes the boy carpe, still rubbing the sleep - from his eyes. • . * V'

! " Spidkins,'" I said, "we are : going /; anting." •<• v ■ He was wide awake and on the alertinstantly. "Is there," I asked, turning again,toold Cramer, on a sudden thought, "i» thero any other door in tho Long Gallery save' those tweany secret door?" "There's .the picture," volunteered Spidkins. . . "Wh t do you mean by the picture?. There are several pictures." . It's the portrait of the first baronet,*' replied the boy. "Sir Marplc told ma all about it." "But what of the picture?" I de« manded a little irritably. "It's a door—a secret door, and—" "Do you know it?" " I does." "And how to open it?" Rather." We proceeded to the Long Gallery, and Spidkins was as good as his word. The mechanism was very simple, but it was carefully, even cleverly, concealed. Certainly I should never have found it without guidance. " Run up to my room, Spidkins, and bring the electric hand-lamp you will see on the table," I said. When he returned we opened the- secret door, and found ourselves at the top of a flight of steps, shallow and rather broad, that led down to an unknown depth in black darkness. I put my hand in my pocket for my lamp, but just at' that moment Spidkins clutched my arm with at quick "Hist!" _ _ lf "It must be the rats," I replied in a whisper, for I, too, had heard the sound. Wo stood stock still for a minute or so until we heard a noise as if somebody creeping near lis had kicked a loose stone. I thrust my hand into my pocket, and'a moment later had flashed a quick jet of light into the darkness immediately around us. The person, .whoever it was, had been on the stairway with us. Our coming had apparently taken him by surprise. Possibly he had heard us talking on tho other side of the secret door and had crept up to listen. Or lie might have been just coming out, perhaps to consummate the design of robbery, burglary, or whatever it may have been that, had brought him there. For a single instant the face of the man was framed in the circle of light from my lamp, and then he leapt forward into the darkness that lay about the bottom of tho stairway. We heard him fall, and then we followed hard behind, feeling our way, and Showing no light which, indeed, would havo had . merely the effect , of showing liim where we were and helping him in any attack he might have felt inclined to makeupon us. We found ourselves eventually in what) seemed to be a complicated maze of passages, that were sometimes broad open cor- . ridors. sometimes nothing more than nari row tunnels. And they opened out into crypts and. subterranean, chambers of vastextent. No doubt they were arranged on some definite plan, but if so I could catchi no indication of it. The figure we had seen on the stairway had disappeared, - and we seemed to- bo quite alone in that "damp mildewed darkness save for the occasional scamper of startled rats. 3?V->VV W-• y : /-• '*■ ■ r " Spidkins," I said, " we have lost him.'* "Yes, sir, and I'm thinking that we'ver about lost ourselves as well.' "Did you see him?" I asked. " I did, sir." '. , _ ■ . "Did you know him?" " I thought I did." ; \ ' . " It was no ghost, Spidkins." • ,j r "Not it." ,'• .: i ■ ■>'(/■? >''£> , " Whom did you think it was, Spidkins?" - "It was that man you went to London y to look for." '• • " Cruden?" ' "Yes, Cruden." " H'm, I thought so, and yet" . Spidkins ,caught'.my, arm with a sudden*, movement and whispered mo hoarsely to look round behind. I did so, arid' there some '■yards* away, "at", the far' eri^l ''of; .a "funnel branching off at an angle to our right, I saw the glimmer of tin uplifted lantern, the rays of which fell full upon the face of ; —Cruden. , ' j' "You saw him that time?" Spidkina wh ;^pered. ' .1 •• "Yes," I returned. "I saw him thatj. time, But what can he be doing here?" • We crept along the tunnel, feeling our- ' way by the stone walls, not daring to show, a light lest it should warn him of our approach. But . our journey ended ere wo reached him.'' Wo had gone' perhaps seven v?', 1 or eight yards when Spidkins, upon whoso arm my hand had been lightly lying, was wrenched from my grasp as if by some irresistible force. But I knew what it was within the period of a breath, for almost simultaneously I felt myself falling into a black; unutterable void, clutching wildly at the empty air, until my descent ended, in a sullen splash into ice-cold water, I am a good swimmer, and recovered my balance almost on the instant. But when I got to the side and stretched out my hand I touched only slimy walks as smooth as glass. '• " Spidkins I cried. ' - "I'm here, sir," came the reply, and I think that never in my lifo was human. , voice more welcome.;. " I've got 'old of a ladder or summat," he went on. "If you. can swim round perhaps you can" . A moment later I too, had hold of the iron rail that seemed to form part, of ■a. stairway upwards. I pulled myself free > , of the water and began to mount. ' I had no doubt as to the trick that had been played with us. The man wo had been pursuing knew these horrible catacombs with some intimacy, and ho had deliberately lured us into that tunnel know- . ing that the well lay 1 ike a trap in tho middle of it. - As I climbed i steadily up, wet and miserable, my anger grew with . . every step, until I could have found it easy to kill him had I mot him. I did not meet him; and, indeed, within a few minutes I was plunged into • quite another and even . more startling : series of incidents. -i We climbed out of the well and proceed- . ed cautiously along the passage, at theother end of which wo had caught that all but fatal glimpse of Cruden. But ha had disappeared. - " He has gone," I said. "Yes, sir, and—no, there ho is." I'■ The tunnel in which we had so nearly met a horrible death turned into a- broader corridor, which went both right and; left. In one direction it ran straight into tho black darkness which was characteristic of these lower regions, but in the other, though the general gloom seemed as impenetrable •as ever, ? there ■ burned • a faint , square of light, coming apparently not from a lantern, but from a small pane of glass let into the wall—a sort of weird tiny window. ■ • ■ - ■ ■ " Is' that Cruden again, I wonder?" It i muttered. ' ,* " Perhaps there's another well in this - tunnel, too," Spidkins suggested. "I'll go on my hands and knees and feel every step afore me." In that manner we went slowly along ... inch by inch, until we reached the square of light. :■ /. . .. 1 . "It's the vault underneath the chapel,"' I said. I can see the tomb of Sir Francis." "What's the light?" Spidkins asked.' " It's ft candle," I replied. " It's stuck on the flat stone above the tomb." " Cruden?" " I don't know, but I suppose—gracious heavens!" ' ' • I stepped back, nearly overt urning Spidkins in the hurry of my movement. "Get up to tho window," I said. "I will give you a push. Now, look in thev i far corner to your right hand." Ho gave i low whistle. * Y ' " What do you see?" I demanded. ' "Mr. Cramer was right," he replied. " It is the ghost of Sir Marple Dunthorne.'' " Are you afraid, Spidkins?" I'queried. " Not of a ghost,'.' he responded.' , The figure, appearance, whatever.it was ■' ho had seen, was seated on a corner of • one of the low stones that covered the re- ; mains of a dead and gone Dunthorne. It was leaning forward,"its chin in its hand, its elbow oil its knee. It remained absolutely motionless. The candle which I ha.d .' ; at ' first noticed was just in front tof it, between us and it, but in such a position >' that its feeble rays danced and flickered on the figure's face. ' (To be continued daily.)