The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-06-26
Chapter 80

CT6g SIdHs
Chapter 80
MAN NAMED VINES
INSTANTLY panel of the wall
= began to move. An opening as
tall and wide as the average door
disclosed a narrow hall with one
small high window. A bed-mattress
and blankets-lay on the floor. an
old lantern ana a kerosene stove
beside it. A narrow stair went down
into blackness.
The stair. The secret stair. How
had Hope found it?
"I'll tell you everything" she was
saying. Help me a little more. 1t
wasn't his fault. Only find him (.
il he's down here"
"And If he's not?" Dirk asked.
"Then he wasn't badly hurt. He's
gone back back to the house
where you found me :. Twenty
second Street. Go to his room there
on the second floor the door
at the back. Find out :"
"You haven't told me his name
yet"
"vines," she said after a pause.
"Just ask the lapdlady. Mrs. Turner
her name is. II she opens the front
door. But she may not be there.
Here's my Key"
She turned and opened the draw
er beneath the long mirror. 1t was
empty. All her belongings had been
moved into the south room. She re-
membered low.
"Ill get it," she said. "I'l give you
the key"
He went with her. made Ter stay
in the south room. found hat and
overcoat. and was gone.
"I1l find my way" he told her.
eff I'm not back in half-an-hour you
may know I've gone into New York"
"Close the PANEL" she whispered.
You'll find the spring on the other
SIDE"
DIRK went down the stone steps,
~ moving the pale arc o. lis flash
before him. 1t was a long fight. de-
scending below the level of the
ground floor into the warmth and
damrness of the earth.
He found himself in a stone pas
sage, parallel, he determined, with
the basement of the house. His
flash showed burnt-out matches
scattered amid the moss and fungi
on the floor.
He followed the passage slowly,
moving his light with care. He had
come. he judged. little more than
thirty yards when he encountered
other steps. stone like the others.
and narrow, leading upward. They
were green with moss. and recent
mud had been tracked over them.
A.ove them was a tr1p-door. long
and narrow. with blackened hinges
and ratchets on each side.
He thrust the flash into his pocket
and went up the steps. pushing with
both hands against the cold metal
Of the door. feeling it yield and slip
gratingly along the ratchets. He
emerged into the stariit world. feel
ing vague sense of familiarity with
the spot.
Yonder was the river. there the
railroad. there the stone wall sepa-
rating him from Lowrie Wood. In q
circle about him. outside an iron
fence. were the snow-bowed cedars.
He had just ascended from Uncle
Peters grave.
Dirk descended again into the
grave, drew down the bronze door
with its warning inscription. He
Lad violated that inscription. His
childhood dream had come true. But
there had never been any Uncle
PETER to curse or bless. Uncle Pie
ter's grave had been mere door.
yay for that respected smuggler,
Ancestor Hans Joris.
How had Hope found it?
Dirk was moving along the pas
sage, and up the stair. He went
through the sliding door whose
spring from this side was distinctly
visible. He would not disturb Hope.
Dirk got out his car. and In another
moment was speeding through the
sno. and starlight into Manhattan.
At the house In Twenty-second
st. eet there was no need to use the
key. A woman answered the bell. O
stout, troubled-lookfng woman whom
he guessed at once to be Mrs. Tur-
ner.
Does someone named Vines live
here:" he asked.
She replied In q low voice,