Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-14

of inaction. His eye fell upon a strange
door with curious marks burnt upon its
panels by hot irons. There were circles
complete and circles that stopped half way,
together with letters of some unknown lam
gudSe arranged mostly in triangleS
This door fixed the lads attention with
a certain curious fascination. He longed
to touch it and see whether it opened, but
for the moment he was too much afraid of
his guides return to summon him into the
presence of the marshal.
He listened intently. Surely he heard a
low moaning like the wind in a distant
keyhole, or as it might be (and it seemed
more like iO the moaning of a child in
pain, it knows not why.
The heart of the youth gave a sudden
leap. 1t came TO him that he had hit upon
the hiding place of Margaret Douglas, the
heiress of the great province of Galloway
His fortune was made.
With a trembling hand he moved a step
toward the low door of whtewood with
the curious burned marks upon it, He
stood for moment listening half for the
returning footsteps Of Clerk Henriet and
half to the low persistent whisper behind
the panels. Suddenly he felt his right foot
wet, for, as was the fashion, he wore only
velvet shoe pointed at the toe. He looked
down and 10! from under the door trickled
a tiny stream of red
Laurence drew his foot away with a
quick catching sob of the breath. But
his hand was on the door, and at a touch
O.
cord. He found himself looking from the
dusk of the outer whitewashed passage
into a high vaulted chapel wherein many
dim lights gimmered. At the end there
was a great altar of iron standing the
whole height of a man from the platform
on which it was set up, and behind it, cut
indistinctly against a greenish glow of
light and imagined rather than clearly de-
lined, the vast statue of a man with Curl
ouSly shaped head. Laurence could not
distinguish any features so deep was the
gloom. but the whole figure seemed to be
bending slightly forward, as if gloatipy
upon that which was laid upon the altar
But what struck Laurence with sense of
awe and terror was the fact that as the
greenish light behind WaXed and waved
he could see shadowy horns which Dro-
jected from each side of the forehead. and
lower, short ears prcked and shaggy like
those of a he-goat.
Nearer the door where he stood in the
densest gloom something moved to and fro
and as his eyes grew accustomed to the
gloom Laurence could see that it was the
bent figure of a woman. He could not dis
tinguish her face, but it was certainly a
woman OF great age and bodily weakness
whose tangled hair hung down her back
and who halted curiously upon one foot
as she walked. She was bending over a
low couch on which lay a little shrouded
figure from which proceeded the low Whis-
pering sound which he had heard from
without But even at that moment as
ing ceased, and there ensued a long silence.
in which Laurence could distinctly dis
tinguish the beating of his own heart If
sounded loud in his ears as drum that
beats the alarm in, the streets of a city.
The figure of the woman bent low TO the
couch, and then with satisfied air. she
threw a white cloth over the shrouded form
which lay upon it, Then without looking
toward the door where Laurence stood
she went to the great iron altar, at the up
per end of the weird chapel and threw
something on the red embers which glowed
there.
"Barran-nfost mighty observation-disclosures.
accept this Offering and reveal myself to
my master!" she said in a voice like a
chant.
A greenish smoke of Sitting odor rose
and filed all, the place, and through it the
huge horned figure above the altar seemed
to turn its head and look at the boy.
Laurence could scarcely repress a cry of
terror. He set his hand to the door. and
10! as it had opened so it appeared to shut
itself. He sank almost fainting against the
cold iron bars of the window which looked
out upon the courtyard below. The wind
blew in upon him sweet and cool and with
1t there came the sound of the singing of
the choir. They were singing the song of
the Holy Innocents which by command of
the marshal himself Precentor Renouf had
set to excellent and aceordant music of his
own invention:
"a voice heard In Ramah
In Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping
Rachel weeping for her children vi
Refused to be comforted
For her children,
Because they were not!'
Obviously there was some mistake or
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