Part 34 (1/2)

”Maybe by staying, I can help Rhoda,” she reflected. ”Father Benedict intends to force her to tell where the sapphire is hidden!”

With noiseless tread she started toward the chapel bedroom which adjoined the church ruins. In pa.s.sing the monk's study she noticed that the door stood slightly ajar.

Peering cautiously in, she saw that the room was in disarray. All of Father Benedict's clothing, art treasures, and personal belongings had been removed. Drawers of the desk had been emptied of their contents.

In the fireplace, flames leaped merrily. Plainly, the monk had disposed of many papers by consigning them to the fire.

At the edge of the hearth lay several sheets torn from a notebook. One of the pages had caught fire and was burning slowly.

Recognizing it as a sheet listing society contributions, Penny darted forward and stamped out the flames.

Only half of the paper had been charred. Many of the names still could be read. Folding the good section, she placed it in her coat pocket.

Two other pages which had not caught fire proved to be blank.

Unable to rescue anything else from the flames, Penny quitted the study and moved hurriedly toward the chapel bedroom.

From the dormitories she now could hear m.u.f.fled cries and poundings which told her cult members had discovered themselves locked in their rooms.

”I can't get them out without keys,” Penny thought. ”But if they make enough noise, someone may hear and come here to investigate.”

The closing of a nearby door brought the girl up short. As she froze against the pa.s.sageway wall, Father Benedict stepped from the closet adjoining the bedroom where Rhoda was imprisoned.

Instantly Penny guessed that he had been watching the girl through the peephole.

Father Benedict's satisfaction as he started toward the ruined church was frightening to behold. Thin lips were twisted into an ugly smile, and as he pa.s.sed within a few feet of where Penny stood he muttered:

”Ah rest!--no rest but change of place and posture; Ah sleep--no sleep but worn-out posture; Nature's swooning; Ah bed!--no bed but cus.h.i.+on fill'd with stones.”

CHAPTER 22 _THE CANOPIED BED_

In the chapel bedroom Rhoda Hawthorne had been greatly cheered to realize that soon she might be freed from imprisonment.

The brief conversation with Penny through the closet peephole encouraged her to believe that almost at once help would come.

_Penny is proving to be one of the best friends I ever had and I hardly know her_, she thought. _I wish now I had told her everything, especially about the sapphire._

With regret the girl recalled how she had rebuffed Penny and Louise on the occasion when they had offered her a ride into Riverview.

But at that time she had considered them strangers who only meant to pry into her affairs. _If I had told everything then, Grandmother and I might have been spared much suffering_, she reflected. _I should have asked them to take me to the police._ _The worst mistake of my life was coming back to this horrible place._

Restlessly, Rhoda tramped about the chapel room. The air was very stuffy and the absence of windows distressed her. She felt oppressed, as if the four walls were pressing in upon her.

The room was scantily furnished with only the huge canopied bed, an old fas.h.i.+oned dresser, and a table. There were no chairs.

Groping on the dresser, the girl found a stub of a candle in a holder. At first she could discover no matches. However, after examining all the dresser drawers, she came upon one.

s.h.i.+elding it carefully from draughts, she managed to light it and ignite the wick of the candle.