The Young Castellan Part 20

"But it's in the cellar, Ben, and you'd want a light."

"Hardly fair, sir, to call it the cellar. I believe it's one of the old dungeons where they used to shut people up in the good old times."

"That would be darker still, Ben. How are we to see?"

"Have to feel, sir; for I don't fancy taking down a lantern. Once we get there and the place open, we can go round and tell with our hands how many kegs there are on the shelves, and then if we bring one out and try it, and it turns out all right, we shall know we're safe."

"Very well: it isn't a nice job; but, if it has to be done, we'd better get it over."

"As you say, sir, it aren't a nice job; but, if we're very careful, I don't see as we can come to much harm; so, if you'll get the keys, sir, we'll go at once."

Roy nodded, and went in without a word, to find his mother seated in the library writing.

"What is it, my boy?" she said. "What do you want?"

Roy hesitated for a moment, and then said, rather huskily, "The keys.

Ben and I are going down into the magazine."

Lady Royland looked at him in a wondering way.

"The magazine? Do you mean the store-room?"

"No; the powder-magazine."

She started now, and looked anxious.

"I had almost forgotten its existence, Roy. But is it necessary? It may be dangerous to go into such a place."

"We shall take care, mother, and have no light. It is necessary, Ben says, for we must be provided with gunpowder, and he wants to try whether it is good, because it must be very old."

"Very old, my boy. Probably older than your grandfather's day. I hardly like you to go upon such an errand."

"But if I'm to be captain, mother, and look after the place, I can't go back and tell Ben that. It would look so weak."

"Yes, yes, of course," said Lady Royland, making an effort to be calm and firm. "But you will be very careful, Roy."

"You may trust me, mother," he said; and she drew the keys, with a sigh, from the drawer in the old table, and handed them to her son, who took them and returned to his lieutenant.

"Here they are, Ben," said Roy, quietly. "Ready?"

"Yes, sir, I'm ready. I want to be satisfied about that powder, because it means so much to us, for I'm sure I don't know how we could get any more in times like these. You might send an order to London or one of the places in Kent where they make it, but I should never expect to see it come down here. Well, we won't waste time; so come along."

Taking off his sword, and signing to Roy to do the same, he led the way to the flight of spiral steps in the base of the south-east tower, but, instead of going up, followed it down to where there was a low arched door on their left and an opening on their right.

"Long time since any one's been in that old dungeon, Master Roy.

Hundred years, I dare say. Maybe we shall be putting some one in, one of these days!"

"In there? Whom? What for?"

"Prisoners, sir, for fighting against the king." The old fellow laughed, and went along through the opening on their right, which proved to be an arched pa.s.sage very dimly lit by a series of little pipe-like holes sloping inward through the outer wall of the castle and opening about a foot above the moat. On their aft were doors of a row of cellars built beneath the old court-yard; and as Ben walked onward he said--

"Who'd think as there were green gra.s.s and flower-beds up above them, Master Roy? But we do see changes in this life. Halt! here we are."

He stopped at the end of the pa.s.sage, where there was a ma.s.sive oak door-way facing them beneath a curious old Norman arch, and, after trying hard with three different keys, the rusty wards of the old lock allowed one to turn, and the door was pushed wide open, creaking back against the wall.

"Rather dark, sir," said Ben. "Get on a deal better with a candle; but it wouldn't do."

Roy peered in, and, as his eyes grew more accustomed to the obscurity, he made out that he was gazing into a small stone chamber; but there was no sign of chest or keg, or door leading onward.

"Why, the place is empty, Ben," said the boy, with a sigh of relief.

"We don't know that yet, sir, because we haven't seen it," said Ben, quietly. "This is only the way to the magazine. People in the old days knew what dangerous tackle it was, and took care of it according. But it's going to be a dark job, and no mistake."

The old soldier stepped in, and, stooping down in the middle of the blank stone chamber, took hold of a large copper ring and drew up one side of a heavy flagstone, which turned silently upon copper pivots, and this flag he laid back till it was supported by the ring.

"Looks darker down there, sir," said Ben, as Roy stood beside him and they tried to pierce the gloom, but only for the latter to make out the dim outline of a stone step or two.

"You've been down here before, of course?" whispered Roy, as if the place impressed him.

"Yes, sir; once. There's a door at the bottom, and that's the magazine.

It will be all feeling, sir. Will you go back while I try and get a keg?"

"No," said Roy, firmly, but with an intense desire to say yes. "I shall stay while you go down. There can be no danger if you have no light."

"Unless the rusty key strikes a light, sir."

"Oh, that's impossible," whispered Roy.

"I suppose I'd better pull off my boots before I go down; it'll perhaps be safer."

He seated himself on the floor and pulled them off, Roy standing up, leaning against the wall, and doing the same.

"What's that for?" said Ben.

"Coming with you. I want to know what the place is like."

"Oh, there's no need for two of us to go, sir. One's enough."

Roy said nothing, but followed the old fellow down eight stone steps, and then they stood together against a door, which felt to the touch to be very strongly made of stone, while, after a little searching about for a keyhole, Ben said, with a grunt--

"Forgot! There aren't no key to this. It's fastened with these two wooden bars."

"I thought they were part of the door, Ben," said Roy, in the same suppressed tone.

"So did I, sir, at first. I ought to have remembered, and I think I do now. Yes! that's the way; they turn on pins in the middle like wooden b.u.t.tons, and you turns one up and the other down out of the notches they fit in, and then push the door, which has stone hinges."

As he spoke, Ben turned the two great wooden bars, and then pressed upon the door.