Migwan put in the last essential pin, and then stepped back to survey the result of her efforts. "If you keep your feet underneath the gown, not a soul will know you," she a.s.sured him. She had thoughtfully provided a pair of gloves, so that even if he did put out his hands their color could not betray him.

"Of course, you must not talk," she warned him further.

"Course not, course not," he agreed. "When's all dese here mask comin'

off?" he continued.

"When the clock strikes eleven we'll all unmask," explained Migwan, "and then the Princess is going to give the prize to the one that had the best costume."

"An' dey's n.o.body 'xcept me an' you knows I'm wearin' dis suit?" he inquired for the third time.

Migwan rea.s.sured him, and with a final injunction not to show himself in the front part of the house until he heard the dinner gong, she sped up the back stairs to her own belated masking.

She had barely finished when the sound of the gong rose through the house, and the stairway was filled with a grotesquely garbed throng making its way, with stifled exclamations and smothered bursts of laughter, into the long drawing room where the Princess sat. Migwan clapped on her mask and sped down after them, getting there just as the fun commenced. She spied Hercules standing in the corner behind the Princess's throne, maintaining a religious silence and keeping his feet carefully out of sight. She kept away from him, fearing that he would forget himself and speak to her, entirely forgetting that he could not recognize her under her disguise.

Sylvia shrieked with amus.e.m.e.nt at the grotesque figures circling around her. It was the very first masque party she had ever seen, and she could not get over the wonder of it. Nyoda smiled mistily behind her mask as she watched her. How lonely that valiant little spirit must have been all these years, shut away from the frolics of youth; lonely in spite of the brave make believe with which she pa.s.sed away the time! And now the years stretched out before her in endless sameness; the poor little princess would never leave her throne.

Sherry and Justice and the Captain kept Nyoda guessing as to which one was which, but she soon picked out the one she knew must be Hercules, and watched him in amus.e.m.e.nt. She had rather fancied that he would turn out to be the clown of the party, but he sat still most of the time and kept his eyes on the Princess. He seemed utterly fascinated by the glitter of her costume. Even the Punch and Judy show going on in the other end of the room failed to hold his attention, although the rest of the spectators were in convulsions of mirth.

The Princess called on Punch and Judy to do their stunt over and over again until they were too hoa.r.s.e to utter another sound. Migwan, who had been Judy, fled to the kitchen for a drink of water to relieve her aching throat. She took the opportunity to slip off the hot mask for a moment and get a breath of fresh air. She was almost suffocated behind the mask.

Then, while she stood there cooling off, she remembered the big pan of candy Gladys had set outdoors to harden, and hastened out to bring it in.

Someone was walking across the yard, and as Migwan looked up, startled, the light which streamed out of the kitchen door fell full upon the black face of Hercules. Migwan stood still, clutching the pan of candy mechanically, her eyes wide open with surprise. Hercules stood still too, and stood staring at her with an expression of dismay. He no longer had the monk's costume on.

"How did you get out here?" Migwan asked curiously. "You're inside-at the party."

Hercules laughed nervously, and Migwan noticed that his jaw was trembling.

"What's the matter, Hercules?" she asked. "What's happened?"

"Now, missy, missy-" began Hercules, and Migwan could hear his teeth chatter, while his eyes began to roll strangely in his head.

"What's the matter, are you sick?" asked Migwan in alarm.

"Yes'm, dat's it, dat's it," chattered Hercules, finding his voice. "I'm awful sick. I had to come outside."

"But I left you sitting in there a minute ago with your suit on," said Migwan wonderingly, "and you didn't come out after me. Did you go out of the front door?"

"Yes'm, dat's it," said Hercules hastily. "I come out de front doah an'

roun' dat way."

A sudden impulse made Migwan look down the drive, covered with a light fall of snow and gleaming white in the glare of the street light.

"But there aren't any footprints in the snow," she said in surprise.

"Your footprints are coming from the barn." A nameless uneasiness filled her. What was Hercules doing out here?

"Yes'm," repeated Hercules vacuously, "I came from de barn."

Migwan stared at him in surprise. Was he out of his mind?

"Hercules," she began severely, but never finished the sentence, for the old man swayed, clutched at the empty air, and fell heavily in the snow at her feet.

CHAPTER XIV AN UNINVITED GUEST

Migwan ran into the house and burst breathlessly in upon the merrymakers.

"Nyoda!" she cried in a frightened voice, "Hercules is-" Then she stopped as though she had seen a ghost, for there sat Hercules in his monk's costume, just as he had been all evening!

"What's the matter?" asked Nyoda in alarm, seeing her pale face and staring eyes.

Migwan clutched her convulsively. "There's a man outside," she panted, "that looks just like Hercules, and when I spoke to him he fell down on the ground!"

In an instant all was pandemonium. Everybody rushed for the kitchen door and ran out into the yard, where the figure of a man lay dark upon the snow. Sherry tore off his mask and flung it away, and bending over the prostrate man turned his flashlight full on his face.

"It _is_ Hercules!" he exclaimed in astonishment.

"Is he dead?" faltered Migwan.

"No, he's breathing, but he's unconscious," said Sherry. "It's his heart, I suppose. He's been having spells with it lately. Run into the house, somebody, and get that leather covered flask in the medicine chest."

Justice raced in for the flask and Sherry raised Hercules' head from the ground and poured some of the brandy between his lips. In a few minutes the old man began to stir and mutter, and Nyoda, holding his wrist, felt his pulse come up. They carried him to his room in the stable and laid him down on his bed, and Nyoda found the heart drops which Hercules had been taking for some time.

"But where is the one I thought was Hercules-the one with the monk's suit on?" cried Migwan, after the first fright about Hercules had subsided.

Sherry and the boys looked at one another dumfounded. None of them had known, as Migwan did, that the brown robe and cowl presumably covered Hercules. They looked about for the brown figure that had moved so un.o.btrusively amongst them that evening. It had vanished.

"He's gone!" shouted Sherry excitedly. "There's something queer going on here."

The monk was certainly not in the house any longer, and there were no footprints in the snow outside the house.

"Did he fly away?" asked Sherry in perplexity.

Justice jumped up with a great exclamation. "The secret pa.s.sage!" he shouted, "he's gone down the secret pa.s.sage!"

They flew back inside the house to the stair landing, half expecting to find it standing open, but it was closed and looked perfectly natural.

Sherry grasped the post, the landing slid out and the four went down the ladder. Justice gave a triumphant exclamation when he reached the bottom.

"The barricades are taken down! He did come this way!"

They hurried through the door into the pa.s.sage, half expecting to see a figure flying along ahead of them, but the pa.s.sage was empty and no sound of a footfall broke the silence. They searched the place thoroughly, but nowhere did they find their man hidden. Behind the chest in the cave, however, Justice pounced upon something with a shout. It was the long brown costume that had been worn by the monk at the party.

CHAPTER XV HERCULES' STORY