The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 125: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI’S. YOUNG CAPTAIN. LL 119 Ne eee not strength to extricate himself from the sharp spikes, but fell like a dead weight still further, some twelve feet below, through a sky-light, and into a large deep tank of water, which used to supply the bath-room of the students. His shouts and noise attracted the attention of one who had been on the look-out. This obliging person was Mr. Gale. He’and old Giles hurried to the spot, with several servants, and discovered Puggy, bleeding and bruised, struggling and floundering about in the immense water-tank without sufficient strength to extricate himself, He was quickly dragged out, however, and to the surprise of all present Mr. Gale informed Jona- than’s two daughters that he was a detective, ice in his/possession a warrant to ‘search the a . : Mr. Gale further observed that this same party, pointing to Puggy, had been long “wanted,” and to save any further noise or trouble he ‘firmly handcuffed the Pug before he could utter'a word of BUTPLISes |. | “ Ladies,” said Mr. Gale, very politely, and with an air of gallantry, “ladies, do not be in the least alarmed, for I assure you no possible harm can be- fall you; retire to your apartments again, and remain there. Let two of the male servants watch this half-drowned thief until my return; he has a companion concealed somewhere in the Hall : let no one make any noise or raise an alarm of any kind. Ishall not be gone long. Come, Giles, arm yourself ! you and I will find out the bold villain wherever he is,” The detective and old Giles left the spot, and went in search of Puggy’s companion. * * %* * * But what had become of Warner? As we have before said, Bromley Hall was a very large place, in fact a perfect wilderness of bed- rooms, school-rooms, and the like, so that it was possible that all this could have happened in one wing of the Hall, without Warner being at all aware of the rumpus in the other, | That this truly happened we shall presently see. CHAPTER XLII. WARNER MAKES STRANGE AND STARTLING DIS- COVERIES—THE DEAD MAN'S HEAD SPEAKS— MYSTERY OF THE BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM, WITH a catlike step Warner crawled along the dark passage where Puggy left him, and began his solitary wanderings. All was pitch dark, and he knew not whither he was going, Up one flight of steps and down another he went, and the farther he proceeded the damper and more mouldy became the smell of everything around him. “Where the devil can all this lead to?” thought Warner. ‘I was never in such.a dismal hole in all my life. I have often heard that in some large old halls in England there are wings which are never used, and have been closed up for centuries. Per- haps Bromley Hall is one of these strange, wild, ghost-haunted places, But what have Z to fear; J don’t heed all the musty hobgoblin stories told by snuffy old crones ‘and grandmothers in chimney corners. I rather like to explore such a. wild, dreary place as this, , What a;place for.a murder”’ he thought. He still wentonwards and downwards. The wind sighed dolefully, and the farther he went the more dense became the stifling atmos- phere. He produced his dark lantern and lighted it, He discovered that he had got into a damp vault. Rats ran hither and thither when they saw the light. The, walls. were wet, slimy, and fungus-grown, and as he proceeded on his footsteps loudly echoed. _He.,stood before a huge, iron-bound doorway, which Jed he knew not whither... While standing there, undecided what to do, he seized a large rusty knocker, and let it fall back again on the door, The sound echoed, and Warner’s blood ‘beeame cold, : He knew not why, but by some strange cirewm- stance he stood gazing at the old oak door. It slowly opened before him, He started back a pace or two, as if expecting to confront some horrible figure, But none appeared. “This is stranger still,” thought Warner, but he boldly passed the open door and ascended the wet, moss-grown flight of stone steps. “‘ Where can this lead to?” he mused, as, lantern in hand, he ascended the stairs, For a moment a sudden noise behind startled and caused him to stop. It was the immense oak door which had closed upon, him, and as it slammed to it awoke a thou- sand echoes in the vault and staircase. Bent on adventure, and unconscious of the lapse of time, he went onward, After a little, he came to a sort of landing, and at the side of it stood a small doorway, that appa- rently led into some apartment, ** Now I understand all,” thought Warner; “this flight of stairs runs round all this wing of the building, and forms a secret communication to every room.” Such was the fact. The original owner of Bromley Hall had so ordered the building of it that he couldif it so pleased him gain admittance into each room of that wing without being seen or heard ! “How can I get in here?” thought Warner, prying about with his lantern. He seized the knob of the!door handle, and tried to shake it. . It was as firm as a rock, In despair he pulled it. The handle gave way and he fell against'the wall, He held in his hand the brass knob. Attached to it, and forming a’sort ‘of key, was a dagger some twelve inches long, ‘and of ‘three equal sides, But what astonished him more than all was that directly he had pulled out the dagger-handle, the door itself opened inwardly ! The apartment before him was large, empty, and dark as pitch. To enter it Warner had to descend a flight of six steps, F CoOMmicbooks.€c©