Part 16 (1/2)

dick re about the roo picture of various emotions, wonder, doubt, suspicion, and arew clearer, suspicion took the upper hand, and was succeeded by certainty of the worst He raised his head, and, as he did so, violently started High upon the wall there was the figure of a savage hunter woven in the tapestry With one hand he held a horn to his mouth; in the other he brandished a stout spear His face was dark, for he was meant to represent an African

Now, here hat had startled Richard Shelton The sun had moved away from the hall s, and at the sah on the wide hearth, and shed a changeful glow upon the roof and hangings

In this light the figure of the black hunter had winked at hi at the eye The light shone upon it like a geain the white eyelid closed upon it for a fraction of a second, and the next one

There could be no h a hole in the tapestry was gone The firelight no longer shone on a reflecting surface

And instantly dick awoke to the terrors of his position Hatch's warning, the nals of the priest, this eye that had observed hiether in his mind He saw he had been put upon his trial, that he had once more betrayed his suspicions, and that, short of soet ht, ”I am a dead man! And this poor Matcham, too--to what a cockatrice's nest have I not led hi, when there ca his ar, and his two or three books, to a new chamber

”A new chamber?” he repeated”Wherefore so? What chaer

”It hath stood long e ”What manner of room is it?”

”Nay, a brave roo his voice--”they call it haunted”

”Haunted?” repeated dick, with a chill ”I have not heard of it Nay, then, and by whoer looked about him; and then, in a lohisper, ”By the sacrist of St John's,” he said ”They had hi--!--he was gone The devil had taken hiht before”

dick followed the s

CHAPTER III--THE ROOM OVER THE CHAPEL

Fro further was observed The sun journeyed ard, and at last went down; but, to the eyes of all these eager sentinels, no living thing appeared in the neighbourhood of Tunstall House

When the night was at length fairly cole of the moat Thence he was lowered with every precaution; the ripple of his swiure was observed to land by the branches of aand craay arass For so ear; but all reot away in safety

Sir Daniel's bro clearer He turned to Hatch

”Bennet,” he said, ”this John Amend-All is no ood end of hi, dick had been ordered hither and thither, one co another, till he was bewildered with the number and the hurry of commissions All that ti of Matcha lad ran continually in his mind It was now his chief purpose to escape froht be; and yet, before he went, he desired a ith both of these

At length, with a lae, low, and soh it was so high up, it was heavily barred The bed was luxurious, with one pillow of down and one of lavender, and a red coverlet worked in a pattern of roses All about the walls were cupboards, locked and padlocked, and concealed fros of dark-coloured arras dickthe panels, seeking vainly to open the cupboards He assured hi and the bolt solid; then he set down his lamp upon a bracket, and once iven this chaer and finer than his own Could it conceal a snare? Was there a secret entrance?

Was it, indeed, haunted? His blood ran a little chilly in his veins

Immediately over him the heavy foot of a sentry trod the leads Below him, he kneas the arched roof of the chapel; and next to the chapel was the hall Certainly there was a secret passage in the hall; the eye that had watched hiave him proof of that Was it not e extended to the chapel, and, if so, that it had an opening in his room?

To sleep in such a place, he felt, would be foolhardy He made his weapons ready, and took his position in a corner of the room behind the door If ill was intended, he would sell his life dear