Chapter XIII: From Bad to Worse

The stillness of a large house at dead of night has something at all times very oppressive in it, but more especially when the intruder on this silence is in a highly wrought state of nerves, and acutely watchful of any sound which may arise to alarm him, or interfere with the project he has in hand.

Fred felt this oppression to a painful degree as he passed out of ear-shot of the great pendulum in the main hall, whose loud ticking might be heard over the greater part of the house; but the passages into which he must turn his steps, in order to reach the store-room, were in a wing all to themselves, and separated from the main building by walls thick and massive enough to deaden even a more penetrating sound than the metallic click, click of the old time-piece.

Even the wind, which all night long had kept up a monotonous wail round the Hall, did not seem to make itself heard in those dark and out-of-the-way lobbies; and the chirp, chirp of the cricket, which Fred detested so much to hear in his own home, would have been a welcome intrusion now on the overpowering feeling of utter loneliness and isolation.

Had Fred not made himself master of a whole handful of matches, his fears at this moment would have been almost enough to have conquered every other feeling; for at each turn of the way the flame of the candle flickered horribly, sometimes dying out to a thin blue line and then reviving again as the unseen draught was left behind, and making Fred's heart suddenly leap up into his throat with each fresh terror, leaving him more and more unfit to cope with the dangerous task which he had undertaken.

It was a green baize door leading into the further-most passage of all which first brought him to a complete standstill, and made him actually shudder with disgust and horror at the thought of having to pass through its tightly closed portals.

For as Fred stretched forth his hand to push it inwards on its spring, and in so doing brought his candle close to its nail-dotted covering, he beheld the whole surface of the baize one moving mass of black and horny animals; some creeping rapidly to and fro with shining spiky legs; and others, with huge demon-like horns and palpitating antennae, slowly and leisurely inspecting the green woollen fabric on which they had taken up a temporary position.

"What diabolical monsters! how on earth can anybody face such a host of dirty black brutes!" muttered Fred between his teeth, as he lowered the candle sufficiently to see that the whole ground at his feet was in possession of the same uncanny creatures, and that one monster with great stag-like horns was already in occupation of the toe part of his stocking.

Fred uttered a faint scream, and shook his foot to and fro, hoping to dislodge the enemy, but all in vain; its black claws were fastened firmly into the wool, and until he struck it two or three times with the edge of the silver candlestick, he did not succeed in ridding himself of his enemy.

In despair he now pushed his way through the door, only to find the passage beyond in possession of the same hideous invaders; so he determinedly closed his eyes and hurried forward, every now and then shuddering from head to foot as he felt himself crushing down some horny and unpleasant substance. Nor did he venture to look around him until he had arrived at the head of the private flight of stairs leading immediately from his aunt's own boudoir to the store-room beneath; but at the foot of which also lay certain ghostly subterranean passages with their iron-clamped doors, and dark and dismal surroundings.

This was the moment which, from the beginning, Fred had dreaded the most: for even in the daylight he had felt a certain amount of nervousness in penetrating any distance into these underground places, and especially since one of the grooms had told him of a white figure which might be seen there occasionally at night time, wandering about dim and ghostly, with its right hand mournfully extended as if in search of some one or something it had lost; and an access of almost childish terror overpowered Fred as he felt he must now either encounter these supernatural horrors quite alone and unprotected, or retire from a certain victory just at the moment when its fulfilment was actually within his reach.

But at this juncture the mocking face and voice of Maurice came so vividly before his mind, that he felt quite a new and sudden rush of courage; and the desire to be equal with the boy who had kicked him so ignominiously aside in the store-room beneath, made for the moment every other feeling but that of revenge sink into utter nothingness; and shading the flame of the candle carefully with his hand so as to secure its light in this most dreary and darksome region, he descended cautiously step by step until he stood at the foot of the stone flight, within a few paces of which was the goal of all his hopes.

He resolutely determined not to look around him until he should reach the door of the store-room, so as not to conjure up imaginary terrors; and turning round at the foot of the stairs, in another moment he stood in front of the panelling, from which, in the bright light of the candle, he could already see the ends of the cord depending through the slits in the store-room wall.

At first, in his nervous haste, Fred tugged at the wrong strings, and thus only succeeded in riveting the bolts tighter, and for a few minutes his distress of mind and disappointment were so great, that beads of perspiration started out upon his forehead, and his knees bent and trembled beneath him.

Almost in despair, and without realizing that his failure was all owing to his own mistake, Fred seized one of the other cords and chucked it violently, the result of which proved almost as terrifying in its own way; for the bolt, thus suddenly appealed to, started back from its socket with such a noisy screech that Fred leaped back against the wall and thrust his fingers into his ears, with some foolish thought that, in doing this, he would deaden the ears of the rest of the world as well. For a few minutes he waited and watched anxiously to see if any one had been roused by the noise, holding the flame of the candle close to his lips, so as to blow it out at a moment's warning, and so shroud himself in the security of darkness; but no movement or stir of any kind followed, and, somewhat reassured, Fred set to work with more caution to loosen the companion bolt at the foot of the secret door.

Fortunately for him it glided from its socket freely, without even the grating sound which might have been anticipated, for the grease which had been applied in the afternoon had done its work most effectually; and Fred, with a joy not unmixed with fear, saw the slit in the panel open yawningly before him, revealing sundry ghostly shapes within, the exact outlines of which it was impossible for him as yet to distinguish by the one dim and flickering light which trembled in his guilty hand.

To enter by this secret door, Fred had to stand on a low broad step in the passage outside; a fact which he had not noticed in the haste and flurry of the previous evening, and on which if he had paused now to reason, he might have saved himself from the disaster which almost immediately followed.

But full of eagerness to gain his object, and yet more desirous of regaining the peace and security of his own room, Fred stooped low down, and holding the light in front of him, entered in a cat-like, stealthy manner, by the half open door.

His first sensation, which, unhappily for him, was of short duration, was that of treading on some soft and peculiarly yielding substance, first with one foot and then with the other; and a most unpleasant sensation it was, as of something adhesive and horribly clammy sticking to the soles of his stockings, and he hastened to extricate himself from his position as quickly as he could, to do which he stepped forward boldly with the lighted candle in his hand.

Too boldly, alas, for him, as, forgetful that the inner step or shelf on which he had entered was higher by many inches than the ground, he fell headlong on the floor, extinguishing the candle in his fall and scattering the matches in hopeless confusion over jars, and shelves, and jam-pots, emitting at the same time a loud yell of terror, enough in itself to alarm all the people both within and without the building, and to apprise them of his whereabouts.

For a few moments all was darkness, confusion, and misery; and Fred, in a wild kind of hopelessness, tried to force himself to believe that it was all a dream of horror, from which he would awake presently, and rejoice in the knowledge of his safety. But no such relief came to him; and presently, with a sinking heart, he began to free himself from the cramped position in which he lay, when, to his inexpressible disgust, he found it was a dish of honey into which he had stepped a moment before, for his stockings and the legs of his trousers were sticky and clammy to a pitiable degree. And to add to his discomfiture, as he stood in the dark, and strove to wipe off with his handkerchief some of the adhesive stuff, a half-dead bee (the honey having been taken from the hive only that afternoon) stung him in the arm, and forced him to stamp on the floor with rage and vexation.

Fred's one idea now was to find a match somewhere, and strike a light; the darkness in itself was intolerable. What if he were to see the figure, clothed all in ghostly white, come down the passage now in search of its lost companion! A shudder passed over him at the bare idea.

It would be too disappointing if he had to return without having gained the object for which he had risked so much. His scream had, fortunately, not aroused any of the inmates of the house: it would be well to make one last and decisive effort to carry out his scheme; and Fred, rubbing his elbows, which had suffered severely in the fall, searched over the ground for the candlestick, which had fallen from his hand.

But the candlestick had rolled off behind a chest of tea; and when at length, after much stooping and groping, he had found it, the candle itself was missing, having been jerked forward in quite an opposite direction.

This new search lasted fully five minutes, for the candle had got wedged between a box of raisins and the back of a shelf; and when at last he actually had it in his hand, it was broken quite in two, and refused to sit up straight in the candlestick.

But the greatest disappointment was yet to come; for now that the candle was found, and so little remained between him and the accomplishment of his object, the matches, dozens of which he discovered lying upon the floor at his feet, all positively refused to light! He struck them against the wall, the door, the shelves; all in vain. He stamped on them, he kicked them, he called them by every bad name in his calendar of epithets; but in vain. The matches only lighted on their own box; and Fred, forgetful once more of the dish of honey, actually sat down on the step in the store-room and cried--cried with sheer mortification and disappointment--while in the pauses of his grief he still hurled at Messrs. Bryant and May all the furious expletives of which he was master. How was he ever to get back again to his own room! It would be impossible without a light to find his way through the intricate passages of the Hall, to say nothing of the black and horny beasts which had possession of those silent corridors. There was, alas! no help, no refuge from this misfortune; unless, indeed, he chose to wait patiently where he was till the early morning light should come to his aid. But oh what an insufferable time to spend all alone in this dungeon of a store-room! a place Fred now wished with all his heart he had never seen or heard of.

His grief and utter misery became every moment more and more overwhelming: the loneliness and silence of the place sent cold shivers chasing each other down his back, while the hideous darkness of all around and about him was almost beyond the strength of mind, and endurance of body of a lad of his age.

At length he was driven most unwillingly to the conclusion that his only chance of safety or success lay in patiently abiding in this den of horrors until the first gray of the dawning should yield him sufficient light to effect his escape; and having thus decided, Fred, still unconsciously seated on a dish of honey, closed his eyes tightly, and thrust his fingers into his ears, that no ghostly apparition might startle him, nor sounds of supernatural footsteps moving about and around him might rob him of the small stock of self-command and courage which still existed within his breast.

How long he sat thus he did not know, or whether kindly sleep came to his aid for a few minutes; but when next he uncovered his eyes, although at first all seemed as dark as ever, he gradually became aware that dawn was on the approach, for the closely-barred grating which looked out on the passage began to make itself visible, though after a horribly dread and mysterious fashion, giving to the newly awakened eyes within the impression of some dim. far-off dungeon window, and raising a thousand new and strange thoughts within the over-tired and over-excited brain of the unfortunate self-made prisoner.

Slowly, very slowly, however, other objects began to shape themselves out of the darkness--the shelves, the sacks, the chests, the white jam-pots. Fred gazed and gazed, till, with the very force of gazing, he conjured up strange shapes out of the surrounding gloom. But what was that tall object standing by the back row of shelves? Fred leaned forward and looked so intently that small sparks of fire seemed to pass over the surface of his eyeballs. It was horribly like the height and figure of a man--the figure of some one dressed in white, and standing in silent guard beside the long row of shelves!

Fred actually felt his hair rise up on end on his head, and, with one hand pressed on the step on which he sat, he rose to fly--ay, cowardly as the act might appear, Fred's one thought now was of flight. But to effect his escape by the door, he must climb upon the step where he had been seated; and this was awkward, for the ceiling was low, and in order to mount he must move a step or so nearer the white and motionless figure which so filled his heart with fear.

He stealthily stretched out one foot, and then cautiously advanced the other; but with all his care he could not escape contact. His heel touched the draped outline of the figure, and as it did so, to his intense horror and surprise the white robes in which it had been enveloped instantly glided from the body and fell upon the floor.

Another piercing scream rang through the Hall, only to be cut short by a quick gasp of relief, as Fred, with the cold sweat on his forehead, recognized the skeleton form of the ladder on which his cousin Maurice had remained perched for so many hours the day before; while the white garments which had filled him with such awe were none other than the folds of the long pantry-apron which Maurice had tied round his neck whilst assisting in the store-room.

Fred did not know he had screamed. The instantaneous change from intense fear to a calm comprehension of his surroundings had so taken up all his thoughts as to render him unaware that he had again risked discovery; and now with the remembrance of Maurice had come back the hot sting of anger and the desire for revenge. Ay, and he would have it too. It was not for nothing he had gone through such a terrible night; it was within his grasp now, and all the world should not prevent him from tasting the pleasure of so complete a victory.

As these thoughts kindled furiously, and fanned themselves into a blaze in Fred's mind, he actually made a movement forward, and laid his hands on the still indistinct rungs of the ladder. All was still so dark and shadowy he could not distinguish the box which he had sworn to rifle, or rather into whose depths he was determined to investigate, and the word "Fragile" was as yet invisible to his eye: but time was precious, and the servants in the Hall were early risers; who could tell that, although so gloomy and obscure in these underground regions, sunlight might not be shining in the windows above, and that the house was already alive with busy workers.

These reflections decided Fred upon immediate action. He did not delay a moment, but laid a hand on each side of the ladder, which tottered not a little as he moved it from its first position and placed it more towards the centre of the wall, and pressing at the same time its topmost rung against the highest range of shelves.

The ladder was by no means a very steady one, especially as its left foot stood on the ball of string which had played such an important part in the drama of the evening before; but Fred knew nothing of this, and went very cautiously to work, so as not to overbalance himself, and perhaps come to some fresh grief.

It was even yet so dark that though Fred knew he must be within a few inches of the shelf on which the chess-box stood, he could not trace the form nor even the faintest outline of any of the packages which he remembered the night before to have noticed in close proximity to the coveted case. So, still poised on the top rung but one of the ladder, Fred stared with all his might straight before him, hoping by the dint of earnest looking to see the word "Fragile" rise up out of the darkness and greet his eyes with the glad promise of success.

And suddenly, as if by magic, and almost as it seemed to him as if a fairy's wand had touched the space before him, the shelf grew curiously and unexpectedly luminous, and the long-watched-for chess-box started out of the gloom actually in front of him, and within a couple of inches of the place where his right hand was resting!

A sudden shaft of daylight had found its way down the obscure passage; at least so Fred surmised, for he dared not turn round on the ladder to look, and now or never was the moment to carry out his project. He loosened his grip of the ladder, and stretched out his right hand to the chest. In order to secure it, he had to put his arm quite round it and draw it nearer to him, for he durst not let go of the ladder with his other hand lest he might fall headlong from his perch. But the box was much heavier than he had anticipated; and having drawn it over towards the edge of the shelf, he leaned one side of it against his chest, and still clasping it with his right hand prepared for his descent; for it would be impossible to look into its contents poised so insecurely on the ladder, and when once carefully examined, in the security of the room beneath, he could replace it in its original position.

But how was this? The whole room was becoming strangely bright; even the printed labels on the sauce bottles and mustard-tins on the shelves in front of him were becoming startlingly visible; neither could it be the pale gray of dawn which was creeping in through the window, but a yellow, tremulous light. He must turn his head a little to see what it all could mean, and not allow a sudden and terrible panic to overpower him and snatch away his victory just in the moment of triumph.

And Fred did turn his head, while the blood rushed in a sickening speed back upon his heart; for it was not daylight which was outside yonder in the passage, but a flickering, advancing flame, which was throwing shadows over the passage-wall, and casting into profound darkness the nooks and angles where a faint dawn had only a moment before been busy chasing the gloom away.

If only his heart would not thump so, then he could listen for footsteps. Hark! yes, there were footsteps, he could hear them now; stealthy, creeping footsteps, drawing nearer and nearer. If he could only reach the bottom of the ladder and lie down on the ground, no one could see him; but poised as he was in mid-air, the next turn of the passage, and his figure must be revealed to the eyes of the intruders outside.

Only for this miserable box marked "Fragile," he could slide down the ladder in a trice; but now, unless he let it fall purposely from his grasp, he must go down carefully and cautiously to the very ground. If he could but know who and what they were that were approaching; robbers perhaps, or some one startled by the noise of his fall, and seeking through the Hall for its cause--or, or could it be--

The rungs of the ladder trembled under Fred's terrified steps, and the wood creaked ominously. "Hush! good heavens, what was that?" Fred's eyeballs almost leaped from their sockets, and he grasped the sides of the ladder more firmly as a flutter of some white drapery showed itself for a moment in the passage beyond.

"It is the ghost," gasped Fred, while the suspense which had thrilled every fibre of his body up till now turned to a cold and deadly faintness. "I--I saw--saw--" Fred felt his hand relaxing on the chest and the sudden sway of the ladder, and in the agony of this new terror he gave a quick short cry of fear.

At this moment a white-clothed figure with a light in its hand appeared distinctly at the end of the passage; and Fred, with a consciousness that the ladder was swinging completely round, and that the chest marked "Fragile" was gliding from his hand, felt or knew nothing more, save one sharp sting of pain behind his ear, and then all was darkness about and around him, without either the light of dawn or of candle to break its obscurity and silence.