e man with black forebodings.

CHAPTER III

THE ROOM OVER THE CHAPEL

From the battlements nothing further was observed. The sun journeyed
westward, 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 come, Throgmorton was led to a room
overlooking an angle of the moat. Thence he was lowered with every
precaution; the ripple of his swimming was audible for a brief period;
then a black figure was observed to land by the branches of a willow and
crawl away among the grass. For some half-hour Sir Daniel and Hatch
stood eagerly giving ear; but all remained quiet. The messenger had got
away in safety.

Sir Daniel's brow grew clearer. He turned to Hatch.

"Bennet," he said, "this John Amend-All is no more than a man, ye see.
He sleepeth. We will make a good end of him, go to!"

All the afternoon and evening, Dick had been ordered hither and thither,
one command following another, till he was bewildered with the number
and the hurry of commissions. All that time he had seen no more of Sir
Oliver, and nothing of Matcham; and yet both the priest and the young
lad ran continually in his mind. It was now his chief purpose to escape
from Tunstall Moat House as speedily as might be; and yet, before he
went, he desired a word with both of these.

At length, with a lamp in one hand, he mounted to his new apartment. It
was large, low, and somewhat dark. The window looked upon the moat, and
although 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 from view by hangings of
dark-coloured arras. Dick made the round, lifting the arras, sounding
the panels, seeking vainly to open the cupboards. He assured himself
that the door was strong and the bolt solid; then he set down his lamp
upon a bracket, and once more looked all around.

For what reason had he been given this chamber? It was larger 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 knew, was the arched roof of the chapel; and next to the chapel
was the hall. Certainly there was a secret passa