e a dog
pointing. Here, in this thickness of the wall, was it? Then, there must
be a recess, a something. What corresponded to this jog? Ha! that little
low door, almost hidden by the great picture of the boar-hunt. Locked?
No; only sticking, from not having been opened, perhaps, for years. It
yielded. He rushed in,--the door closed behind him with a spring. He
found himself in total darkness,--darkness filled with a hideous cry,
that rang out sharp and piercing,--then fell into sudden silence.

"Is it you, Master Merton?" said a whisper. "I didn't wait; I thought
maybe--"

Gerald stretched out his arm, and grasped a solid form. Instantly he was
grasped in return by a pair of strong arms,--grasped and held with as
powerful a grip as his own. A full minute passed, two creatures
clutching each other in the pit-dark, listening to each other's
breathing, counting each other's heart-beats. Then--

"Who are you?" asked Gerald, under his breath.

"None of your business!" was the reply, low, but prompt. "Who are you,
if it comes to that?"

"Why,--why, you're a woman!"

"And you're a man, and that's worse. What are you doing here?"

"I am taking tea here. I'm a visitor. I have been here all the evening."

"And I've been here twenty years. I'm the cook."

The young man loosed his hold, and dropped on the floor. He rocked back
and forth, in silent convulsions of laughter.

"The cook! Great Caesar, the cook! Oh, dear me! Stop me, somebody.
What--what did you do it for?" he gasped, between the paroxysms.

"Hush! Young Mr. Merryweather, is it? Do be quiet, sir! We're close by
the verandah. Was--was she frightened, sir?"

"She? Who? One of 'em was."

"She--the old one. I wouldn't frighten Miss Margaret; but she has too
much sense. Was the other one scared, sir?"

"Into fits, very near. You did it well, Mrs. Cook! I couldn't have done
it better,--look here! I shall have to tell them, though. I came
expressly to find out--"

Groping in the dark, Frances clutched his arm again, this time in a
gentler grasp. "Don't you do it, sir!" she whispered. "Young gentleman,
don't you do it! If you do, she'll stay here all her days. No one can't
stand her, sir, and this were the only way. Hark! Save us! What's that?"

No glimmer of light could penetrate to the closet where they stood, in
the thickness of the wall, but a tremendous peal of thunder shook the
house, and Miss Sophronia's voice could be heard calling frantically on
Ge