Evening star., 1914-08-02


moving them Quick, Conal, go on and III come after
you There is surely staircase cut in the rock.
THE shrine was not high enough for a to stand
upright under the arch; but by crouchng low Conal
could get into the niche when he had taken the high
step up At first he thought their errand in vain,
and that Lady Daura mistaken; for about three
feet behind the remaining figures he could wall ap-
parently of rock. Stumbling some loose stones how
ever he discovered that close to the floor hole in
the wall which had been filled up with the stones
Someone had discovered that they could be detached
from their place, had pulled them out one by one, and
piled them up against the back of the carved figures
Several stones had been disodged by Conal and thus
he given the clue to the secret of the shrine He
knelt and pushing his lantern through the hole saw
Steep corscrew staircase in the rock To get to it
would have to crawl on hands and knees.
wait where you are, Lady Daura: this isn't fit for
you.' he implored; but without even answering she
followed he scrambled through
Now they must be comparatively near the level OF
the castles ground floor, he thought; deeper down
than the depth of deep cellar The steps were high
and slippery very and hard to mount, having
hand rail; but Cona went steadily, knowing that
the girl close behind hi H. Suddenly he found him
self at the top of the stairs and strange, dim place
between walls with pale disk of light far, far above
like the gray gnmer at the top of enormous CHM
ney, from the back of an od-fashioned fireplace
in monastery kitchen. Then Daura was behind him,
slim ghostlike shape of white.
what this place be?' she whispered awestruck
Conal moved his lantern and their eyes, accustomed
to the gloom of the caves began to make out their
surroundings. They in kind of blind court, be-
tween walls many stories high, and wndowless but open
to the sky above. The place was no more than four
yards square, and the feet of Cona and Daura stood
neither upon rock nor upon stone flooring. Up from
the spiral stairway they had upon earth, earth
which felt muddy and Shiny underfoot In the dimness
they could see several low mounds, covered with
stones and it seemed to Daura that they of the
right length and shape for graves She knew that
here this place the secret of the Black Breton
room, and its disappearance, its horrors She guessed
what lay under the stones of the mounds But the
into the room had be found yet Daura remembered
the story of the beautiful lady who had gone mad after
sleeping in the Black Breton room and rved about the
red eyes that gared at her in the darkness Could be-
the girl asked herself that in of these solid looking
walls there peephoes, through which lights might
be thrown on the wall of the the other sideo
SHE peered through the wavering shadows thrown by
- Conal's lantern, and suddenly her gaze focused
upon dull yellow circles of light scarcely larger than
soveregns, which appeared upon wall four five feet
above the ground close together that they might
have been the topaz eyes of great black With
touch on Conals the girl drew his attention to
them, and turning off the lantern light they glowed
brightly the WALL which must, judging from the
direction, be that of the Black Breton room-the wall
which the head of the great carved bed fixed
Like one who walks in sleep, Daura advanced toward
it, avoiding the telltale mounds of which
marked murder,-and pushed her way into deep
brasure There the tiny disks turned visiby into two
apertures, doubt concealed the side of the
wall by the elaborate carved fruits flowers and figures
that gave beauty to the famous black oak bed Dread
ing what she might have to see, Daura put her eyes
the holes and found herself looking straight the
lighted room, if from the head of the bed toward the
wardrobe. Thus she realized, might Emmons have
peered her. but she could the top of the ward
robe. Therefore he could not have it, if he had
sped upon her work. having searched vanly to find the
secret spring. the @open sesame from this hidden court
into the He could only have guessed, then, at