THE CASTLE
Jim's hand as he had crawled forward, clutched the foot of a man who was
in hiding in this selfsame clump of bushes. James acted instantly,
realizing instinctively the danger, the extreme danger of the situation.
He leaped forward for the man's throat and to his utter surprise the
body lay perfectly limp.
"Great Heavens!" he exclaimed, "this man is dead."
"It's the poor fellow from the gully, below," said the engineer, after
an examination; "there's no mistaking him."
"But how did he get here?" questioned Jim, with suppressed excitement
and alarm.
"That's simple," replied his friend. "These bandits who live here,
brought the body up at the first convenient chance and left it here for
the time being, but they may come for it any time so we had better be on
the lookout for trouble.
"We don't have to; it is always on the lookout for us," replied Jim
briefly and with truth.
"There's someone directly ahead," remarked the engineer, "or I miss my
guess."
"Just wait a minute, Chief," said Jim; "I want to size up this castle
before making the next move."
"You don't observe any anxiety on my part to go anywhere do you,
Captain?" questioned Berwick.
"Quiet as a kitten," replied Jim with a grin, and then without any
further remarks, he crawled past the form of the unfortunate man, until
he reached the edge of the copse, and gathering a low bush around his
shoulders so that he appeared to be a part of the natural scenery
himself, he observed the castle closely with the eye of a trained scout.
The fog was rifted by the wind so that he could see with sufficient
clearness the outlines and details of the high brick castle. As has been
said, they were on the north side, where there was the large stained
glass window that lit the grand staircase, and now shone with a faint
radiance.
There was also a line of broad mullioned windows, their round, thick
glass in circles of lead, gleaming like opals when the full light was
within, but now cold and ghostly in the dimness of the fog-laden night.
These windows were some twenty feet from the ground, and Jim's keen eyes
regarded them with special interest. Further along and somewhat lower
were the smaller windows, evidently of the kitchen, and near the ground
several more heavily barred.
After a few minutes of observation, Jim returned to his companion, his
mind fully made up.
"Well, James, what do you make of it?" queried his friend.
"I'll make more of it a little later," replied Jim; "I'm going to move
on the enemy, right away."
"Very well, I'm ready," remarked the engineer. "When you can't go back
with safety or stand still it is a good scheme to go forward."
"But I want you to wait here, John," explained Jim; "there's much less
chance with two than one. In case I need you I'll yell."
"If you don't happen to be gagged," replied his friend cheerfully.
"Never you fear about that," returned Jim confidently; "there's none of
that gang that is going to get me so quick but that there will be
something doing on my part first."
"Nothing surer than that," replied the engineer heartily. "Luck to you,
Jim," gripping his hand, "and I'll be in reserve here when you want
me."
"Good old Chief," said Jim, returning his friend's grip; "now I'm off."
Without any further words Jim crawled to the edge of the thicket,
leaving John Berwick in the grewsome company of the dead man, but
Berwick took up a position where he could see the tall, shadowy figure
of James Darlington as he advanced straight toward the stronghold of
this gang of unmerciful pirates.
"That boy has them all beaten when it comes to unqualified nerve,"
muttered the engineer to himself; "the best fellow in an emergency I
ever saw, and that's something."
James would have felt proud to have heard his friend's eulogy, but his
mind was fully taken up with the problem he was facing. He must get into
that house without delay; to stand long where he was meant sure
detection in a short time. If he had only possessed his revolver, he
would have felt more comfortable.
"Have to get or borrow a gun from one of those chaps inside there," he
mused with shrewd humor.
He was now directly below the long mullioned window, but as he was not a
little birdie with wings, he could not fly, and had to climb.
"Here's luck," he said; "this vine is bigger than I thought it could
be. Takes California to grow a vine like a tree and that's a fact."
Indeed, the vine that spread its dark green splendor over the whole
north side of the great structure and wrapped itself around the giant
chimney had a stem that was more like the trunk of a small tree and very
tough and fibrous. Jim did not hesitate, but quickly removed his shoes,
and with both free hands, noiselessly climbed up towards the window,
sustaining his weight partially on the rough jutting bricks until he
finally reached in safety the broad sill of the mullioned window.
"So far so good," he murmured, "now to get inside."
Very slowly and cautiously he pushed on the lower part of the center
window and it gave easily enough, the gang in foolhardy security never
dreaming that an enemy would dare approach their stronghold, much less
come into their very castle. Indeed, their confidence was in some
measure justified, for their head and chief, old Captain Broome, was
very powerful through this section, had strong friends among the
officials in the city and was safe from being bothered by the
authorities. As for private enemies, he could very well take care of
them himself.
So without any trouble at this point Jim slipped through the window and
was within the castle of his bitterest enemy. He let himself down from
the window, to a settee, and thence to the floor. By the dim light from
the windows he saw that he was in a long, rectangular-shaped room,
evidently lined with bookcases, and in the dimness at one end loomed the
outline of a huge fireplace. For the moment Jim felt a thrill of
excitement go through him. There was something in the fact that he was
alone and unarmed in the house of his foes, quite enough to give him
this sensation.
Suppose that you were standing in the darkness in a cage where some
lions were stretched out asleep but liable to awake at any moment, you
might be excused if you had a few shivery thrills, and so it was with
Jim.
It was evident that this room was not in general use and our adventurer
could not have chosen a better place to land as it were.
He stopped only long enough for his eyes to become accustomed to the
lack of light and then he made sure that there was nothing in the room
that would serve him for a weapon.
"Might take a dictionary and throw some of the hard words at 'em," he
remarked with his usual humorous twist of imagination when in a tight
place.
Then he cautiously opened a door which led into a long, wide corridor
that was decidedly dark, except at the further end, where shone a faint
light. Keeping close to the wall, he went softly along until he came to
the main staircase, which surprised Jim with the winding sweep of its
magnificence and the beautiful stained glass window above it. But there
was that in the large hall below that made him draw back.
There was stretched out on an immense rug, the other hound, his nose
between his paws and his watchful, red-rimmed eyes upon the great door
leading from the hall to the out-of-doors. No wonder that the sight of
him made Jim pause and draw back into the darkness of the upper
corridor. One suspicion, and the huge beast would take the staircase in
three leaps, and neither quickness, strength nor prowess could have
saved Jim if once the hound had caught his trail.
"Gosh, I've got to find a weapon somewhere!" Jim mumbled to himself;
"this won't do at all."
By this time his eyes had become thoroughly accustomed to the dim light
and as he turned back he stopped and his heart beat with something
almost akin to fright. Now our friend James Darlington was not
superstitious by nature, but if that dim, silvery white figure was not a
ghost, what in Sam Hill could it be?
It stood perfectly quiet to one side and about half way down the hall,
evidently looking straight at Jim, but making no move to attack him.
What was Jim to do? He could not retreat down the staircase to the main
door, for that was to fall into the jaws of the hound. Neither could he
reach the library in safety.