Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-07

locate yourself? I shouk like. at least, te
know what room you viii be in"
me. l selected a room. ut right angles to
Helen,s. Standing in.oHe of her windows
she could, If necessary, get a glimpse Of
me If 1 were to stand In one of mine.
De Castro chose a room equally far away
from Helen's on the other side. We then
both babe the girl good night.
II hate to leave her SO far from help" /
said, glancing at De Castro.
guarantee that. 1 am dad tired; the mo
ment I lay my head on my pillow, ghost or
no ghost. 1 shall sleep till morning"
He hurried of to his own room.
The chamber that I had selected was
vast, lofty, and might have accommodated
twenty people. I have been more
tired even than I knewi for I fell asleep
when my head touched the pillow.
see my surroundings by the light of day, I
sprang up, dressed and vent down to the
courtyard. Three sides az this court were
formed by the castle buildings. but along
| sauntered toward 1t. IEshll never forget
the loneliness of the sceneAynat met my
eyes.
I stood upon what was practically a ter
race-a mere shelf on the scraping of rock
on the side of a dizzy cliff that went down
below me in a sheer 2,OO0 feet. The Mon
diego river ran with a swift rushing noise
at the foot of the gorge, although at the
LCi5At a. III L SIOOQ 1t looked more like
a thread of silver than anything else. Tow
ering straight in front of me, solemnly up
into the heavens. stood the great peak Of
the Sierra da E~strella, from which In the
rosy sunrise the morning clouds were roll
ing into gigantic white wreaths. Behind
me was the great irregular pile of the cas-
tie, with Its battlements, turrets and cupo-
las, boar and gray with the weight Of CEN
turies, but now TRANSPORTED and bathed in
the golden light. 1 had just turned to
glance at them, when I saw De Castro ap-
preaching me.
Surely" 1 said, there never was such a
beautiful place in the world before! We
can never let it go out of the family. Helen
shall live here"
De Castro came closer to me; he took my
arm and pointed to a spot on the stone
flags.
o this very spot her father fell from
the battlements above" he said, slowly.
l shuddered and all pleasant thoughts
were instantly dispelled by the memory of
that hideouS tragedy and the work we had
still to do. 1t seemed impossible in this ra-
diant, living sunlight to realize the horror
that these walls had contained and might
still contain. At some of these very win
dows the CHASTITY face had appeared.
Helen, De Castro and I spent the whole
day exploring the castle. We went from
dungeons to turrets and made elaborate
plans for alternate nightly vigils. One of
the first things that l insisted on was that
G~onsalves should not sleep in the castle at
night. This was easily arranged, the old
man having friends in the ,neighboring viii
lage. Thus the only people In the castle
after nightfall would be De Castro, Helen
and myself.
After we had locked old Gonsalves out
and had raised the porteullis, we again
went the complete round of the entire place.
Thus we insured that no one else could be
hiding in the precincts. Finally we placed
across every entrance thin silken threads,
which would be broken IL any one attempt
ed to pass them.
Helen was extremely anxious that the
night should be divided into three portions
and that she should share the vigils, but
this both De Castro and / prohibited.
"At least for tonight" said. sleep
soundly; trust the matter to us. Believe
me, this will be best. ALL arrangements are
made. Your uncle will patrol until 1 o'clock
in the morning, then / will go on duty"
(To be continued tcmorrow.)