New Britain herald., 1929-12-26
THE PONDS SECRET

AS Peggy disappeared down inc passageway, the man who had watched furtively from the gallery. slipped down the staircase and across the room. A jerk of the dangling cord of the bridge lamp and the room was darkened.
 The faint batter Of the padded feet never reached Peggy and all unconscious. that she was not alone, she pursued her way along the so- Crct passage.
 Around a curve was a circulor staircase, q narrow affair, just wide enough to permit a person 10 pass between the brick walls.
 With care Peggy picked her wlnd- ing way. fearing a fall, for some of the steps had tipped forward at a dangerous angle. When she Camc to the bottom, she had lost all sense of direction.
 Eighteen feet further on the pas sage curved again: a third curve just beyond brought her to q door and there she hesitated.
 Observing not only that the key was in the lock. but that it vas slightly ajar, she stepped through the doorway into q room of moder- ale size.
 By standing on her tiptocs Peggy could almost touch the ceiling.
 She had no idea how far under ground she was, whether und 1T the foundations of Yew Lodge CT nearer Mohawk Pond, She thought TOT an instant that she caught the sound Of water tapping against the shore and thea concluded the noise was imaginary.
 The walls ot the chamber. unlike the bricked-in passageway she had just traversed. were of great stones, except at one end: there, the doors oi a small vault were set in ste ! whcih completely filled the space between the ceiling and the uneven, rocky floor,
 Awed. Peggy looked around. Had her uncle, in eXcavating for the foundations of Few Lodge. chanccd upon q natural cavern and coz vcrted it to his own uses, or had he had the place specially coa- structed? That It housed the miss ing securities and perhaps other valuable property she never doubted. after glimpsing the vault
 She stepped toward it. her healt beating high with anticipation, an, tried the lever-lockins. the dcvio' on the door. twisting it this va and that. Neither effort budged tn lever.
 pausins 10 recover her breath Peggy tucked the electric torci under her armpit. and holding thus stroyc with both hands {, twist the lever either 10 right ( left.
 There was TO dial on the doc that she could see; evidently nt combination lock barred her cn trance there must be some tricl in seesawing the steel bar; nh. sh had it the wards Of the loGl clicked as they spun back ill thei sockets, but that clici, was droWn& in the louder noise made by tn metal Of her torch striking agains the rocks as it slipped from unde her arm.
 The torch rolled this way an that down the uneven surface, ii light throwing a zigzag course alon the rocks and fluctuations; final! i. came to rest against an obstruC ton, catch side down, and the hgf promptly went out.
 In constcrnation Peggy release the leyer-lock and started for tn torch. She was almost at the SD, when she caught sight of a man face. less than five feet away, I ghastly. distorted countenanC fairly distinct even in the darknes The girl shrank back against II rock; it's touch was not more iC than her hand, No escape th"r and she had no weapon, not cv' the torch, with which 10 strike Il man advancing closer and close Had he seen her?
 With knees shaking Peggy sal down on the ground and crawl tp her left. Her torch had roll' ir that direction; ~hc also recall having seen q broken box and discarded rope lying n>ar crcyt across from tho cutronc" 10 (