Crown and Sceptre Part 23

"No."

"And you don't want me to go alone?"

"No, I don't think so. Here, Scar, don't let's give ourselves a chance to call ourselves cowards. I'll go, if you will."

"I don't want to go, but I will, if you will. Come along."

The hesitation was gone.

"I'll go first," said Scar, "because you have been down, but I suppose we must be careful so as not to loosen any stones."

"Very well," said Fred, rather unwillingly. "Give me the lanthorn to hold."

The light was drawn out of the bucket, and Scarlett prepared to descend; but this proved a longer task than was expected, for it was first necessary to drag out several pieces of broken branch.

This being done, Scarlett looked up at his companion, who let himself down without hesitation, and they stood together with the daylight above them, and the narrow lugged stone pa.s.sage stretching away to right and left.

"Which way shall we go first?" asked Scarlett.

"This way," cried Fred, and his voice sounded so strange and hollow, that as he stood there up to his knees in water, which glimmered and shimmered on the black surface, he hesitated and wished that he had not agreed to go.

For there before them lay a narrow path of light, ending in quite a sharp point, and seeming to point to the end of their journey.

They both told themselves that they were not likely to meet anything that would do them harm, but, all the same, neither of them could help wondering whether there would be any unpleasant kind of fish in the depths as they neared the lake. That word depth, too, troubled them.

It was easy enough to wade now, but suppose it should grow deeper suddenly, and they should step into some horrible hole. Suppose--

"Look here," cried Fred, suddenly, as they waded slowly on, listening to the whisper and splash of the water, "I wish you'd be quiet with your suppose this, and suppose that. You don't want to frighten me, do you?"

"Why, I never spoke," cried Scar.

"Then you must have been thinking aloud, for it seemed to me as if you were saying things on purpose to scare me."

"Well, it is enough to scare anybody, Fred; and I don't mind saying to you that I don't like it."

"But we will not go back?"

"No."

"Only you might hold the light a little higher."

Scarlett obeyed, and they cautiously went on, with the water still about the same depth, and for prospect above, before, and on either side, there was the arch of rugged stones, the dripping wall, and the gleaming water.

That was all, and after going about fifty yards, Fred exclaimed--

"I say, this can never be of any use to us. Who's going to wade through water for the sake of having a secret place?"

"n.o.body," replied Scarlett; "but let's go on, as we've gone so far."

"Ugh!"

"What's the matter?" cried Scarlett, stopping short suddenly.

"I thought something laid hold of my leg. Mind!"

Scarlett nearly dropped the lanthorn. "Oh, I say, Scar, that would be too horrible. Do be careful. I don't want to be in the dark again."

"It was your fault, you pretending to be frightened."

"I didn't pretend. I was frightened. It did seem as if something touched my leg. I say, how much farther do you think it is?"

"What! to the end? I don't know. Come along."

"Well, if anyone had told me that I should do such a thing as this, I wouldn't have believed him," grumbled Fred. "How cold the water feels!"

"You wouldn't mind if it was one of the streams, and we were after trout."

"No; because it would be all light and warm there, and we could see what we were doing. Don't you think we might go back?"

"No. Let's go to the end now. I'm sure this is the way down to the lake, and we shall find the entrance. Perhaps we shall find the end blocked up, and then when we open it all the water will rush out, and we shall have a dry pa.s.sage after all."

"Then you will not give it up?"

"No," said Scarlett, doggedly. "It's our place, and I want to be able to tell father all about it."

"No, no; don't do that," cried Fred, in dismay.

"I don't mean yet. I mean when we've done with it."

"I've done with it now," muttered Fred. "I don't see any fun in going sop, sop, squeeze, squatter, through all this cold, dark water. Eh!

what's that--the end of it?"

"I think so," said Scarlett, holding the lanthorn up as high as he could. "Here are some steps and a door."

"Of course; then that must be the door that opens on the lake."

"No, it can't be, for the steps are dry, and--I say, Fred!"

"What is it?"

"Look here," cried Scarlett. "This is strange. Here's a chamber or cellar."

"Just like the other we found."

"Like it," cried Scarlett; "why, it is it!"

"What nonsense! That one was toward the house. This one is toward the lake."

"Nonsense or no, there's the old armour in the corner."