CHAPTER XI

THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER

"You want the king's marriage contract," he said presently; "you desire the proof that Charles Stuart was married to Lucy Walters, and thus be able to prove that the boy who is now with the king's mother is the next heir to the English throne?"

I nodded my head in the affirmative, all the time watching the old man's eyes, into which a cunning sinister expression had come.

"It is a great thing, a great thing," he cackled. "Fancy, the Duke of York would give his fingers to get hold of it. And yet only you and I have the secret of it."

"Only you at present," I urged.

"Ah, yes, only I, only I; but I need you, and you shall know. Ha! ha!"

and he laughed like a man tickled. "But we must bide our time," he continued presently.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It is no use removing it from its present hiding-place until the proper time," he said. "Suppose you had it in your hand now. What would you do with it? Would you go to the king, and say, 'Look, here is the marriage contract between you and Lucy Walters'? Such would be the act of a fool.

And you are not a fool--no, you are not a fool!"

"But I must know where it is," I cried, "and I must be a.s.sured that the thing is not a hoax."

"Ay, that you shall," he replied; "come with me."

He rose, took a candle in his hand, and made his way towards the door.

"Whither?" I asked.

"To the hiding-place," was his answer, and he gazed anxiously around the room.

Even in those days I possessed a fair amount of caution, and thus, while I unbolted the door, I kept close to him, so that at no moment should he be able to betray me.

Outside the door, he stopped and listened. Even in that lonely place and at that awesome hour, he seemed apprehensive lest some one should spy upon our actions. But he had no need to fear. All was silent as death.

The house was empty, and every sound that we made echoed and re-echoed through the empty chambers.

"All is well," he said as if to himself, and then he led the way down a flight of stairs which I had not hitherto noticed. Presently we came to a dark cellar, which I saw was hewn out of the rock. We were now among the foundations of the house, and my heart beat fast at the thought that I was near placing my hand upon the precious doc.u.ment, which my father declared would make my fortune.

"Who could find us here, Master Roland?" he cackled again; "not one in fifty. But Old Solomon is wise, and he does not live at Pycroft Hall for nought."

Whereupon he held the candle close to the floor, as if searching for something.

"Do you see anything?" he asked.

"Nothing," I replied.

"Think you there is aught beneath here?"

"Beneath here? No, we are already in the bowels of the earth."

"Ah, that is good!" and again he cackled like a man well pleased with himself.

Presently I saw him pressing the ground hard with his heel, and then, as if by magic, there opened close by my feet a dark aperture.

"Descend," he cried, "descend!"

"We will go together, Father Solomon," I made answer.

"Ah, you do not trust me. A good youth, a cautious youth."

Still holding the candle in one hand, he came close to the dark hole in the ground, from which came a musty ill-smelling air, and then he put his left foot into the hole, while I held his right arm.

"That is well," he said, and then I saw the rungs of a ladder.

One, two, three, four steps he went down, until I was almost dragged into the darkness in my endeavour to hold him fast.

"Come, come, Master Roland; but mind, it needs a brave heart."

I confess it here, I hesitated before following. How it may appear to those who read this I know not, but at that moment I seemed to be in a ghastly dream. Everything had become unreal to me save the shadow of a great terror. The old man, with his head sunk between his shoulders, was such a creature as only comes to one in a nightmare; the king's marriage contract existed only in the wild imaginings of foolish men. A thousand dangers suggested themselves, nameless dangers, and therefore all the more terrible, and try as I might I could not keep from trembling.

"Afraid, Master Roland, eh? Ay, and well thou mayst be, for this hole is full of lost spirits. Hark! do you not hear them?"

In the excited state of my imagination I fancied I heard distant wails, and I felt my blood run cold.

"And yet only yesternight the fair Constance took this road, and she was not afraid."

He said this tauntingly, which caused anger to take the place of fear. I still held his right arm, the hand of which grasped one of the staves of the ladder, and his words made my grasp the tighter.

"I will come with you, Father Solomon," I said; "but mind, if you betray me, I will send you to h.e.l.l with all your sins upon your head."

With that I placed my foot upon the ladder, but in so doing I had to relax my hold upon him. I heard him cackling to himself while he went farther and still farther into the darkness.

I had not descended more than six steps before I heard a noise above me, and then I knew that the trap door which had lifted was closed again, and that in all probability the secret of its opening was only known to the man whose breath could be distinctly heard just beneath me.

As may be imagined, I lost no time in going down the ladder, and the moment my feet touched the ground I grasped the old man's arm again.

"Ha, ha!" he laughed. "This is rare sport, eh? Do you know where you are? Twill be a fine tale to tell Charles. Ten fathoms underneath the foundations of Pycroft Hall, with Father Solomon! Do you think you'll ever see daylight again, Master Roland?"

"If I do not you will not," I replied; and then I looked around me and found myself in a narrow tunnel, which perchance was three feet wide and high enough for a man of short stature to stand upright.

"Good boy, courageous boy, well he deserves to get what he seeks! But oh, he will see rare sport before he puts his hand upon the king's marriage contract."

"Where is it?" I asked, still holding his right arm.

"I must be free, and you must follow me."