CHAPTER XII.—THE SHUTTING OF A DOOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 58

CHAPTER XII.— THE SHUTTING OF A DOOR.

We went upstairs to get another candle. r A pound had been left on the parlour mr.n itepliece wrapped up in stout brown paper. jThe rats had climbed up on to the shelf, they alone knew how, torn the paper to shreds, and made a meal off the contents. Pieces of candle were left, but not one whole one. Other things had been on that mantelpiece : tea, butter, bread, sugar, bacon, eggs; all the food we had. Practically the whole of it was gone. More of /the tea was left than anything ; possibly they had not found it altogether to their .palates. But the butter had been entirely consumed ; of the bacon only the rind rejmained, and of the eggs the shells. I had iheard and I had read a good deal about the voracity of rats, but never had I seen an example of it 'before. Pollie seemed to look on it as quite a joke. She only hoped, she said, that the quality of the provisions ,was good, so that they would not give them indigestion. But I could not see the fun .at all. If that was a sample of their appetite who could doubt that they would 31any rate try to make a meal of us. I had Ibeen told of their devouring people's toes as af they were toothsome dainties ; I did not want them to stay their stomachs with mine if I could help it. With such calmness as I could command I did my best to explain my views upon the matter. But Pollie only laughed. She would not be sensible. So I then and there made up my mind that, sleep or no sleep, J would not take off my clothes that night. If I was to be devoured they should eat thenway through my garments before they could get at me. j

Pollie lit one of the stumps of the candles. The rest she slipped into her pocLet. If >we left them there again, she remarked, r,hey would probably vanish completely directly our backs were turned, and candles were precious — which was true enough ; but there were other things which were precious as well as candles. I asked her what she was going t» do.

" Investigate — that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to find out what's behind those two closed doors. If ifs something alive I'd b'ke to know. ALo, in that case, Td like to know just what it is. I'm- not partial to rats, but I'm stiii less partial to strangers, who may be up to all kinds of tricks for all that I can tell, roaming about my house while I'm wrapped in the arms of Morpheus ; so if anyone's going to roam I should like to make their acquaintance tjyefore they're starting."' There was something callous in her demeanour, a sort of bravado, which made me momentarily more uncomfortable. This was quite a new Pollie to me. She spoke as if we were enjoying ourselves f with an apparently entire unconsciousness of the frightful situation we actually were in. I was positively beginning to be afraid of her.

"Do let us go upstairs to the bedroom, Pollie, and lock ourselves in till the morn-

ing comes

She glanced at her watch

' It's morning now ; the midnight chimes huve sounded long ago. Would you like to have your throat cut in the silence of the s r-ht? "

' Pollie ! " "It wouldn't be nice to wake up and ficJ it slit from ear to ear, would it? So don't be a goose. There's a door locked downstairs, and another up. Before I lest I'm going to do my best to find out why those two rooms are not open to me, thenrightful owner. If it's because they harbour cut-throats it's just as well that we should know as soon as we conveniently can. So I'm off on a voyage of discovery. •You can go to bed if^ you like. ' Ox course I went with her. It was a .choice of two evils— frightful evils .'—but, under the circumstances, nothing would iiave induced me to go to bed by myself I would far rather have had my throat cut than be eaten by rats alone. She. began to hunt about the room.

Im looking for some useful little trifle whica might come in handy in breakmodown a solidly-constructed door or twcT Heres a poker, heavy make— there's some smashing capacity in that— 1 pair of tongs a fender— there'b a business end to a fender— furniture,— I have heard of chairs being used as battering-rams before to-day. My mother used to tell of how once, when his landlady locked him out because he wouldn't pay the rent of his

rooms, my uncle Benjamin buist Ins way into the house w ith the aid of a chair, snatched off a passing carfc which was laden with somebody else's goods, so I can't see how he could object to my trying the same kind of thing in the lioum> which was once lus own. But I w on't — not 3 r et. To begin with, I'll give the poker a trial ; and you might take the to'iigs." I took the tongs ; though the only thing against which I should be likely to xise them would be rats, even if I ventured to touch them. Indeed, the mere idea of squelching a wriggling, wnthiug, squeaking rat between, a pair of tongs made an icy shiver go all down my spine. Pollie whirled the poker round her head with a regular whoop. What had come to her I could not imagine. Her eyes flamed ; her cheeks were flushed ; she was transformed. I verily believe that if half a dozen men had rushed in at the door that very second she would have flown at them with a shnek of triumph. I had always known that one of her worst faults was a fondness tor what she called "a bit of a scrimmage," and that in an argument very few people got the better of her ; but I had never dreamed that she would go as far as she was going then. To me, then, she seemed as if she were perfectly burning for someone to attack her. Down the staircase she went, brandishing the poker over her head. I could not keep so close to her as I should have liked for fear of it. She stamped so as she descended that near the bottom she put her foot clean through one of the steps. No doubt the wood was rotten, but still, she need not have insisted on treading as heavily as she possibly could. And as soon as she reached the passage, without giving me an opportunity to say a woid, she dashed at the door of the room which was locked, and hit it with all her might with the end of the poker. I expected to see her go right through it ; but, instead of that, she gave a sort of groan, and down fell the poker with a clatter to the floor. "Pollie, what is the matter? What have you done?" The expression of her countenance had I changed all in an instant. A startled ! look, a look almost of pain, had come upon I her features. She was rubbing her arms and feeling her shoulder-blades. ! '" More than 1 intended. If you had exerted all your .strength to chive a poker through what seemed a panel of ordinary woodland dircovered that it was sheet iron instead, you'd find that you'd done more thin >ou intended; it sort of jars."' She" picked up the poker agar-i, and tapped it, much more gingerly, against the j door. It gave forth a metallic ring. "Iron! real iron! Not a shadow of a| doubt of it. Pity I was not aware of the fact before I dislocated both my arms. Inside there'! Do you hear me calling? If anyone is inside -there perhaps you'll be J so* good as to let me know. I'm Pollie! Pollie Blyth!" Not a sound came from within, for which, psrsonally, I was grateful. She hammered and hammered ; but not the slightest notice was taken of the noise she made, except by the rats, who sounded to me as if they had gone stark mad. What we should have done if anyone had replied to her summons from within, is mere than I can tell. We certainly should have been no better off than before. We never could have got at them. Pollie tried all she could to get the door open^ without, so far as we could judge, producing the least impression of any sort or kind. She thought of forcing the lock ; but when she endeavoured to insert the end of the poker into the keyhole it> turned out that it was such a liny one that nothing very much thicker than a hatpin could be induced to enter. " There's a mystery behind that door. Mark my woids, Emily Purvis, there's a mystery behind that door. It may take the form of decaying corpses, with their brains dashed out, and their throats all cut, and their bones all broken ; in which case they'll haunt us while w e slumber, pointing at us spectral fingers as we lie on our unquiet beds " "Pollie!" "What's the matter, my dear? They'll bs quite as cheerful, anyhow, as rats, and they won't take bites at us. At least, it's to be hoped they won't. Ugh ! fancy murdered spectres making their teeth meet in your flesh." " Pollie, if yen talk like that I shall be ill ; I know I shall. It isn't fair of 3-011. I wish you wouldn't. Don't!"' "Very well, my love, I won't. I've only this remark to 1 make : if the mystery doesn't take that form it takes another, and probably a worse one. And let me tell you this : My Uncle Benjamin was a curics-ity while he lived ; my mother u c ed to that there never was such .1 devil's limb as he was, and she was his only sister, and disposed to look upon his eccentricities — and they were eccentricities- — with a lenient eye ; and it's my belief that he was quite as big a curiosity when lie died. : There were spots 111 his eventful life — un-

lomniniiv ijii'^i (lies' -whuli !> v oald not wish rLAvVled t<> tlm public <_> c Unless I'm wiong, some <a them aie ms'dd theie ; we'ie almost standing in their presence now; anil I w i<h thit we wcie quite She 1 .it tied the poker against {lip panels as ,1 kind ol putmg .salule I h,.d lather she did not. I'lmmj t lino she made ,1 noise, .md she kept on miking one, it sel my neives all tingling Wli.it with lhe things she said, and the wa\ she went, on, and ( \ l'l\ tiling .illogel hi 1 , I was gelling 111(0 swell a s|,i(( lh.it 1 was hegiiiiiing In h.ndlv know w ll( Ihi t I was s|, niiliiig on m\ head or lum Is. As fill I'n'llie, she siillHil 111 t lie highest possible spnils It was inioinpiehensihle to im> how 'he dind And the way she kept on l.ilknn.' '

"BHoh* I in \u\ nun li nidi 1 I shall get )ho 111 In 1 sid.- ul \ (in. m 111 kimu Ihe reason win Tin 1 nh 1 ul mil In nn; allnuid the. fi <><> lilt) dl m\ own pnniisis is a tuMe nmie firm I *.■ 1 1 1 si. mil I shall see (he spuls inside }<"' , I m not I h<> public rye And il I ha\e In blow 3011 down, I'll get >on (iprii Bang, dang, she w(iil a( I', n^am.

"" Jt .sounds hollow, doesn't it? l'eihaps that's nir.ml b\ \\ay*of a .suggestion ; and is lnteudi (1 tv let us understand thai it's only a hollow nnstery atlcr all. Well, we shall see ; .mil jon shall see, too. if you have curiosity enough. ' I doubted if I had I certainly had not just then. I wished, with all my heart, that she would come away from the horrid door. Which presently 'she did ; though not at all in the s/uii I sStould have pieferred, nor with the intentions I desired.

"There's a second Blucbeaid's Chamber upstairs. I may have better luck w ith it ; perhaps that's not guarded with sheet iron. Uncle Benjamin must have spent a fortune at the ironmonger's if it is ; which fortune should have been mine. We'll go and see."

I endeavoured to expostulate

" Pollie, let's leave it till to-morrow. W T hat's the u?e of making any more fuss to-night? I'm dying for want of sleep." "Are you?" She looked ate me with what struck me as being suspicious eyes ; though what there was to be suspicious about is more than I can pretend to say. " But don't you see, my dear, that if you were to have that sleep for which you're dying, before you wake from it you may be dead. That second Bluebeard's Chamber is next our bedroom. Suppose someone were to come out of it, while we were sunk in innocent repose, ar.d " She drew her thumb across her thioat with, a ge^tuie which made me shudder. ''That wouldn't be nice, you know."

" Pollie, if you keep on talking like that I'll walk straight out of the house. I don't care what time of the night it is, and whether jou'll come with, me or whether you won't."

" I shouldn't if I were you. It would seem so irregular for a young lady to be taking her solitary walks abroad during the small hours, don't you know. Now up you go — up those stairs. We'll continue this conversation at the top. You vowed to be my companion to the death, and my companion to the death you're going to be '"

I had never done anything ot the kind, as she was perfectly well pw.tre. But she did not give me a chance to contradict her. She bundled me up the staircase as if I were a child ; with such impetuosity that I was breathless when we reached the landing. Sue was laughing. We nught have bsen enjoying a romp. As if that were the place or season, tor anything of the sort ! " I trod upon a rat. Did you hear it squeal? I think it was its tail. I believe the little beast turned and flew at me ; it felt as if it did. I hope I scrunched its silly little tail ; what is one rat's tail among so many? Now for Bluebeard's Chamber No. 2. This time we'll beware of iron."

She made a preliminary sounding ; luckily for her. Even a slight tap with the poker produced the ring of metal

" Iron again ;so that's all right Now what shall we do? Shall we confess ourselves baffled after all, and leave a formal attack until the morning, or shall we try the effect of a little moie poker smashing? What ho, within ! Is anyone inside there, living or dead? If so, would you be so very obliging as to just step forth, and let us see what kind of gentleman you are." There was no response — thank goodness ! I took her by the arm.

" l'ollie, do let's leave it till the morning, and do let's go to bed ! "

We'll go to bed."

We went ; at least we went into the bedroom. I did not feel much happier when we were there. To begin with, after the way in which she had been talking, my first thought was to do as much as po^.ole to keep anyone out who might try to enter But there was no key in the lock ; the handle was loose, the hasp a bad one, so that the door would not even keep closed without our propping something up against it. I wanted Polhe to help me pile up a sort of barricade, consisting of chairs, the

vwe-hhand stand, chest of drawers, and e\ i?r> thing, .is I had lead of people dolly in books. She on!} laughed at me. "What good will it do? Who do you suppose it will keep out. Spectres? ilj dear, spectics will walk through stone walls; they pay no heed to trivial obstacles. Creatures of flesh and blood? Yot may take my woid for it that if there aie j any of that sort alive and kicking in tlm house to-night, and they mean to come in 1 hue, they'll come in just when and how 1 Iliey choose, and thej'll treat your ingenious I hiMiicade as if it weien't there. "Do you leally think that tliPio's anyone in the house beside ourselves?" She shrugged her shoulder^. " I tell you what I do think : that if I'd known as much before as I do now I'd have tieated myself to a re\ol\er; and you should have one too." "A levolvei ! Whatever should I have done with a revolver " "I can't say what \ou"d have done. I : know w hat I'd have tried to do. I only \ w ish that I had something loaded handy at this moment ; there's more persuasive power in 'bullets than in your barricade, my dear. If the worst does come to the worst, and ] we have to piotcct ourselves against goodness riLmp knows what, if 1 could only have my gup upon a pistol I don t fancy that all the scoi ing would be upon the other s-de "' Whether she talked like that simply to make my hair stand up on end, or whether she was really m earnest, was more than I was able to determine. But as I looked at her 1 felt a cmious .something creep all over me. There was an expression on her face, a smile on her lips, a light in her eyes, which made me think of her Uncle Benjamin, to whose peculiarities we owed our presence there, and wonder if not only his blood but something of his spirit, too, was in her veins. I wps persuaded that she perceived something actually agreeable in a situation in which I saw nothing but horror. And it was I who had supposed myself to be romantic .' She began to bustle about the room. " I thought you were dying for want of sleep. Aren't you going to get between the sheets 7 There is a bed, and there, are .sheets, though I should hardly like to swear that they have been washed .since someone slept between them last. When are you going to begin to undress?"' "Undress? Do you imagine that I intend to remove so much as a stitch of clothing while I remain beneath this roof? " "" Do you propose to sleep in your boots, then?" " If I am to sleep at all, and I am more than half disposed to hopa that sleep may not visit my eyelids till I am out of this dreadful place, I propose to do so in what I stand up in. Polne, have you ever heard of people's hair turning white in the course of a single night? I shouldn't be at all surprised if mine did. It feels as if it were changing colour now." She stared as if she could not make me out. I wondered if she was noting the transformation which was taking place in my hair ; if it had already become so obvious. Then she broke into pe?l alter peal of laughter. The tears started to my eyes. Just as 1 was about to really cry there came a ciash which shook the house. It sounded as if someone had opened a door in the passage and shut it with a bang.

(To be continued.)