MARJORY'S ADVENTURE
As I felt that time, in which I had the passage all to myself, was
precious, I turned back to the main way down. The path was very steep
and low and the rock underfoot was cut in rude steps; as I held the
lantern before me I had to droop it so that I could smell the hot metal
where the flame touched the back. It was indeed a steep and difficult
way, made for others than men of my own stature. As I went, I felt my
first fears passing away. At first I had dreaded a lack of air, and all
sorts of horrors which come to those who essay unknown passages. There
came back to my recollection passages in Belzoni's explorations in the
Pyramids when individuals had got lost, and when whole parties were
stopped by the first to advance jamming in a narrow passage as he
crawled along on his belly. Here, though the roof came down in places
dangerously low, there was still ample room, and the air came up sweet
and cool. To any one unused to deep burrows, whether the same be natural
or artificial, there is a dread of being underground. One is cut off
from light and air; and burial alive in all its potential horrors is
always at hand. However, the unexpected clearness and easiness of the
way reassured me; and I descended the steep passage with a good heart.
All distance underground seems extravagantly long to those unaccustomed
to it; and to me the mere depth I had descended seemed almost impossible
when the way before me became somewhat level again. At the same time
the roof rose so that I could stand upright. I guessed that I must
be now somewhere at the foot of the hillock and not far from the old
chapel; so I went forward carefully, keeping my hand ready to cover up
the front of the lamp. As the ground was fairly level, I could in a
way pace it; and as I knew that there was only about two hundred feet
distance from the foot of the hill to the chapel, I was not surprised
when after some eighty paces I found the passage end in a sort of rude
chamber cut in the rock. At right angles to the place of my entry there
was a regular stairway, partly cut in rock and partly built, leading
upward. Before I ascended I looked around carefully and could see that
sections of the walls of the chamber were built of great blocks of
stone. Leaving further investigation for the future I went upward with a
beating heart.
The stair was rudely circular, and I had counted thirty steps when I saw
the way blocked by a great stone. For a few seconds I was in fear lest I
should find this impossible; then I looked carefully for any means of
moving the obstacle. I thought it more than likely that something of the
same process would be adopted for both ends of the passage.
Luck was certainly on my side to-day! Here were two iron handles, much
the same as those with which I had been enabled to move the monument
from within. I grasped them firmly, and began to experiment as to which
way the stone moved. It trembled under my first effort; so exerting a
very little of my strength in the same direction the great stone began
to move. I saw a widening line of open space through which a dim light
shone in upon me. Holding the stone in poise with one hand, I covered
the front of the lamp with my cap, and then resumed the opening process.
Slowly, slowly, the stone rolled back till a clear way lay abreast of me
through which, doubled up, I could pass. From where I stood I could see
part of the wall of a building, a wall with long low windows in massive
stone; and I knew that at last I had reached the old chapel. A joyous
feeling rushed over me; after the unknown perils of the cavern passage
at last I had reached safety. I bent low and began to step out through
the narrow opening. There was fully four feet in the circumference of
the stone so that two such steps as were possible to me were necessary
to take me out. I had taken one and my foot was lifted for the second
when a clear firm voice said in a whisper:
"Hands up! If you move you are a dead man!" I stopped of course, and
raising my face, for my head was bent low in the necessary effort of
stooping, I found myself opposite the muzzle of a revolver. For an
instant I looked at it; it was firm as the rock around me, and I felt
that I must obey. Then I looked beyond it, to the hand which held it,
and the eyes which directed. These too were inflexible; but a great joy
came over me when I recognised that the hand and eyes were those of
Marjory. I would have sprung forward to her, but for that ominous ring
of steel in front of me. I waited a few seconds, for it seemed strange
that she did not lower the revolver on seeing who it was. As, however,
the pistol still covered me unpleasantly, I said:
"Marjory!" In an instant her hand dropped to her side. I could not but
notice with an admiration for her self-control and the strength of her
resolution, that she still held the revolver in her grasp. With a glad
cry she leaped towards me with a quick impulsive movement which made my
heart bound, for it was all love and spontaneity. She put her left hand
on my shoulder; and as she looked into my eyes I could feel the glad
tremor that swept through her.
For several seconds she stood, and then with a sigh said in a voice of
self-reproach:
"And _I_ did not know _you_!" The way she spoke the words "I" "you" was
luminous! Had I not already known her heart, she would in that moment
have stood self-revealed.
We were manifestly two thoroughly practical people, for even in the
rapture of our meeting--to me it was no less than rapture to come
from so grim an aperture in the secret cavern passage--we had our wits
about us. I think she was really the first to come to a sense of our
surroundings; for just as I was opening my mouth to speak she held up a
warning finger.
"Hush! Some one may come; though I think there is no one near. Wait
dear, whilst I look!" she seemed to flit noiselessly out of the doorway
and I saw her vanish amongst the trees. In a few minutes she returned
carrying carefully a wicker basket. As she opened it she said:
"Some one might suspect something if they saw you in that state."
She took from the basket a little bowl of water, soap, towel and a
clothes-brush. Whilst I washed my face and hands she was brushing me
down. A very short time completed a rough toilet. Then she poured
the water carefully into a crack in the wall, and putting the things
together with my lamp, back in the basket, she said:
"Come now! Let us get to the Castle before any one finds us. They will
think that I have met you in the wood." We went as unobtrusively as we
could to the Castle; and entered, I think, unobserved. I had a thorough
clean up before I let any one see me; our secret was too precious to
risk discovery by suspicion. When I had seen Mrs. Jack, Marjory took me
to her boudoir in the top of the castle, and there, whilst she sat by
me holding my hands, I told her every detail of my adventure. I could
feel how my story moved her; when there was any passage of especial
interest the pressure of her clasp grew tense. She, who had seemingly no
fear for herself, was all in fear for me!
Then we talked matters over. We had now a good clue to the comings
and goings of the kidnappers; and we felt that by a little thoughtful
organisation we might find their hours, and be able to trace them one
by one. By lunch time we had decided on our plan of action. We took our
idea from one of the old "Tales of the Genii" where the conquered king
was brought by his faithful vizier into a cavern and asked to cut a rope
which was stretched before him, and which he soon discovered released
the great rock which roofed the pavilion specially built by the vizier
to be seen and occupied by the conqueror. We would fix a fine thread to
the top of the monument and bring it secretly to the castle, where its
breaking would apprise Marjory of the opening of the passage; thus she
would discover the hour of the coming of the kidnappers to the chapel.
We arranged another ingenious device, whereby a second thread, fastened
to the stone in the old chapel, would be broken by the opening of the
stone, and would cause a book to fall on Marjory's bed and wake her if
she were asleep. The better part of the afternoon was taken up by us
carrying out these ideas, for we went slowly and cautiously to work.
Then I went home.
I was early at the monument in the morning, and getting behind the stone
signalled to the Castle roof in case Marjory should happen to expect me
and be there. But there was no answer. So I sat down to wait till it
would be decent time to go to the Castle for an early breakfast.
As I sat waiting I thought I heard a sound, either close to me and
muffled, or else distant; I could hardly tell which. Matters might be
lively if I were discovered; so I got my revolver ready. With my heart
beating so heavily that I mistook it at moments for the foreign sound, I
listened and listened, all ears.
It was as I had suspected; the sound came from the tunnel beneath me. I
hardly knew whether to stay or go. If I waited I could see who came from
the opening; but on the other hand I should at once be known to have
discovered the secret. Still as the stone might roll back at any moment,
it was necessary that I should make up my mind; I should either go or
stay. I decided that I would stay and make discovery at once. In any
case should I succeed in capturing a blackmailer, or even in discovering
or partially discovering his identity, I should be aiding in Marjory's
safety. So I got my revolver ready; and standing back so that I could
not be seen at once by any one emerging, waited.
No one came; but I could still hear a slight sound. Filled with a
growing unrest, I determined to take the initiative, and began to move
close to the stone. As I looked, it began to quiver, and then to move
slowly. As it rolled softly back I kept behind it so that I might not be
seen; and waited with revolver ready and what patience I could.
There was dead silence; and then a hand holding a revolver rested a
moment on the edge of the opening.
I knew the hand, and I knew the revolver, and I knew the quickness of
both. I did not say a word or make a sound, till Marjory with an alert
movement seemed to sweep up out of the opening and whirled round with
ready pistol, as though suspecting an enemy on every side.
Marjory, all covered with dust, her cheeks as white as snow, so that the
smears of dust lay on them like soot; and eyes with pupils distended
as in coming from the dark. For a few seconds she seemed hardly to
recognise me; but when she did she sprang gladly into my arms.
"Oh! Archie, I am glad to see you. It was so terrible and lonely in the
dark. I began to fear I might never find my way out!" In the dark! I
began to fear, and asked her:
"But, dear one, how did you come; and why? Hadn't you got a light with
you? Surely you didn't come unprepared, if you did venture into the
cave!" Then in a rush she told me the whole story. How before dawn she
had been waked by the dropping of the book and had hurried to the castle
roof to watch the stone. With her field glass she had presently seen it
move. She was then satisfied that the watchers had gone home; and had
determined on a little adventure on her own account.
"I put on a grey tweed dress, and taking my revolver and bicycle lamp,
stole out of the castle and reached the old chapel. Having lit my lamp,
I rolled back the stone and set out to explore the tunnel. I followed
from your description, the passage to its bifurcating, and determined to
explore the other arm to the reservoir. I easily found it, a deep, dark
tank cut in the rock and seemingly fed by springs which bubbled up from
patches of fine sand, the accumulation of years of wasting rock. Whilst
I was trying to look into the depth of the reservoir, holding my bicycle
lamp so as to throw its light downwards, I saw something white at the
bottom. Just then the lamp from its inverted position began to smoke,
but as I looked in that last moment through the crystal pure water I
recognised that the white object was a skull. In the sudden shock of the
discovery, the lamp dropped from my hand and disappeared hissing and
bubbling in the last flicker of light." As she told me this, I took her
hand for I feared that the memory of such an appalling moment must have
unnerved her; but to my surprise her nerves were as firm as my own. She
let her hand remain in mine; but she had evidently understood my thought
for she said:
"Oh! it's all right now, Archie. For a moment or two I do believe I was
frightened. You can have the laugh on me there if you like! But then
common sense came to my aid. I was in a tight place, and it would need
all I knew to get out. I thought the matter over as coolly as I could;
and do you know that coolness seemed to grow with the effort! I was in
the dark, in a cave, deep underground, the entrance to which was secret;
I had no means of getting a light even for an instant, for though I had
taken plenty of wax matches they were all in my lamp. The only thing I
could do was to try to grope my way out. I had noted the passage as
I came along, but I found so soon as I had felt my way out of the
reservoir chamber, how little use an abstract recollection is when every
second there is a new detail. I found, too, the astonishing difference
between sight and touch; what I had remembered had been with my eyes and
not with my fingers. I had to guard all round me, my head, my feet, my
sides. I am amazed, now when I think of it, how many different kinds of
mistakes and calculations I made in a few yards. It seemed a terribly
long time till I came to the place where the passage forks. There I
weighed up the matter of whether it would be better to go back by the
way I had come to the old chapel, or to go up the other passage to the
monument of which you told me. Somehow the latter seemed to me the more
feasible. I think it must have been that I trusted you more than myself.
You had not shrunk from going into that passage; and I would not shrink
from going out."
I squeezed her hands hard, I had got both by this time. She blushed a
little and looked at me fondly and went on:
"There was something cheering in the mere fact of going up instead of
down. It was like coming towards the air and light again; and the time
did not seem so long till I came to the end of the passage, for so far
as I could feel there was nothing but solid rock all round me. For a
little bit my heart sank again; but I soon bucked up. I knew that this
must be the way out; and I felt around for the iron handles of which you
had told me. And then, Thank God for His goodness! when the stone began
to turn I saw the light, and breathed fresh air again. They seemed to
give me back all my courage and caution. Up to this I had not troubled
about kidnappers; there was quite enough to think of in getting along
the passage. But now I was my own woman again, and I determined to take
no chances. When I saw it was your gun that was aimed at me I was
glad!"