Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

ETN, TTI IS AOS SA TOC I gaye TL SESSA SE Weg SPONSORS ENSUE MUCOUS SS AONE tes .~ gpa asta POE wee nn Tal 184 But for his behaviour she was not particularly at a loss to account. She had a pretty shrewd idea of what it meant. He had raised his arm, uttered the ejaculation, and pointed to the window as he did, for the sole purpose of distracting her attention from himself. He succeeded in his attempt, and he took advantage of the moment that her back was turned. But why did he slam the door of the hedroom ? That, to her, seemed to indicate that he had passed through it, and had done so in order to hinder her from entering it. But she had made a most careful and minute exami- nation of the two outer chambers, and she feit sure there was no concealed mode of exit there. For, as she reasonably enough considered, it must be some easy mode, or he would not have been able to leave the apartment so quickly as he had. Then she set herself to think of some other motive for his closing the door violently. Was it done for the purpose of misleading her P Perhaps so. The concealed exit might be in that very room—easy of ‘discovery if its existence was suspected. Had he, with calculating forethought, reckoned upon throwing her off the scent ? From what she had already seen of the man—and Woman's quickness in reading man’s character 1s pro- verbial—she thought this mnst be it, and the more she pondered, the stronger grew the conviction in her mind. Then, on the heels of the other, followed another thought, which really seeined the most plausible of all. Assuming that there was the secret exit from the chamher. That exit would most probably be accomplished by a panel in the wainscot. That panel would close with a spring. When it shut there would be a faint snap. Was it to conceal that faint snap that the colonel had slammed the door ? Was it his motive to make the greater sound drown the less; for if the snap was heard, it would goa long way towards fixing the exact locality of it: the piece of know- ledge most requisite to keep from his prisoner. Then, pursuing the same train of thought, she further asked herself whether it was not from the last two causes combined P She felt almost sure of it. Endowed with a sudden and momentary hope, she sprang to her feet. She listened. A}] was still, save the dull, hollow murmur of the waves upon the beach, and the palpitation of her heart, which had increased to a most painful and unbearable extent. fer agitation was excessive, and as she considered it was without adequate cause, she tried to shake it off, and toa certain extent succeeded. Having done so, she, in a methodical manner, began the examination of the room. Carefully she felt over the whole surface of all the panels in the apartment, in the hope of meeting with some slight obstruction. _ But in this she was disappointed, although the opera- tion was very carefully performed, and took up a great deal of time. Then, with her knuckles, she commenced sonnding the panels in different places, in order to judge, by the dif- ference in the sound, whether there was a hollow space behind any one of them. Presently she came to that angle in which the door opening into the bed-chamber was placed. She knocked. The sound produced, though not what could exactly be ealled hollow, was yet very different to that which she had previously elicited. She knocked again. Then she tried to shake the panel. And was successful. Yes, it was evidently loose in its frame. And now it should be explained that, as you walked out of the outer room into the bed-chamber, the knob of the door was on the right hand side of it, and that when you turned the handle to open it, you had to pull the door towards you, not push it, BLUESKIN: A ROMANC#. oe emma) attend “Secemcm tg ad yn EL RE RE RE a encima tac eet ee aay <Seemne pes 2) 6 The consequence of this was, then, when the decor was wide open, it rested against the paneling, for we have before stated its position to be in the angle of the room. Then Bess, with an acumen which she could hardly have been supposed to possess, came to the conclusion that the colonel, finding the door open, it of course impeded his retreat, and so he had shut it in the way he had. The secret panel was now all but discovered. The only chance of their remaining undiscovered is when there is ne suspicion of their presence, but the moment that suspicion is formed, if there is one, it 1s sure to be found out by any- one taking a little trouble, for they can never be perfectly eoncealed. That there was the secret entrance Bess felt confident, and now, having found the spot, it only remained for her to discover the means of opening it. With this end in view she stood upon a chair, and began to feel at the very top of the panel. Placing the four fingers of the nght hand together, and holding them nearly straight, she moved them in a hori- zontal manner from side to side, thus describing a series of lines, and taking care, as she descended, to leave no space in between them. In this way she went slowly down the panel. She reached the centre. But, up to the.moment of her doing so, her pains had been unrewarded. But she did not despair. Already had she met with greater success than ever she had anticipated. She got off the chair—for there wag no longer any need of it—and renewed her search. Lower, lower, lower she went, until she at last thought that the means of opening the secret door were too cun- ningly hidden for her to be able to find them out. Then she reached the floor. She could scarcely repress a cry of joy when her fingers encountered some little projection. She looked down, and felt it more carefully. It was a small brass stud, fixed in the panel. Her first impulse was to press upon it, but that pro- duced no effect. Then she placed her thumb nail against it, and strove to move it first in a lateral, and then in an upward direction. As she did this, it went gradually up to the extent of perhaps half an inch. This stud, it should be stated, was fixed in the centre of the bottom of the panel, quite close down on to the oor. Having done this, she tried to find, by pushing in dif- ferent directions, which way it opened. The mode was rather singular. When pressing upon the stud, now it was raised, she found the woodwork give way before her. Looking up, she saw that there must be hinges fixed in some way to the top part of the panel, which opened just the reverse way that doors do, or as doors would if their hinges were shifted from the side and fixed to the top. She pushed further and further, but met with that kind of resistance which a spring would offer, and if she slackened the pressure in the least, it began to close again of its own accord. It was so dark on the other side that she could see nothing, and being sure of opening it again without trouble, she allowed it to close. In her bedroom there was @ small lamp, and this she lighted. Then she felt the necessity of pitching upon some object which would counteract the force of the spring, and enable her to keep the door open while she made her explorations. Vhen standing upon the chair she had noticed that the rail at the back was loose. She resolved to break this off, and after a few attempts sueceeded. She was then armed with a piece of beech-wood, about two feet long and nearly two inches square. This would answer the purpose she required of it most admirably. These arrangements having been completed, she took the lamp in her hand, and went to the eorner of the roem, |