Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 188: what you’re looking at

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

fering in no wise from others of her sex, acted in the manner we have described. Not for one moment had she expected to muke such a discovery as she had; and coming upon her so unawares asit did, she was obliged to draw back and wait a moment while she recovered herself. The peril she had so narrowly escaped unnerved her, and made her less capable of carrying out her enterprise successfully than she otherwise would have been. Nor was what she saw around her at all calculated to reassure her. On the contrary, the gloomy room, with its walls of dark wainscot, now momentarily ilunnnated by the flickering light, and then left in the deepest shadow, was well calculated to excite superstitious ideas. All was very—very still—dreadfully still. It would have been a relief of 10 mean character if she could have heard some sound te indicate that there were others in the world besides herself, but no sound met her ears, Even the roaring of the sea had ceased, or at all events, had beceme so nearly so, that from her situation she could hear nothing of it. Rapidly and painfully did her heart pulsate, and she drew her breath, vot in long, healthy suspirations, but in short, quick, uncertain gasps, that sounded more hke sighs than aught else. Her hand trembled, and the light of the lamp—feeble at the best—was much diminished in brightness, as the motion of her hand was communicated to it. It peopled the walls, too, with strange, horrible, moving shadows. But, despite the state of alarm and vague apprehension in which the poor girl found herself to be, the idea of hew necessary it was for her to calm herselfin order toattenipt her escape never lost its prominency in her imagination. At last, with a vigorous effort of the will, she rose to her feet, and, still retaining the little lamp in her grasp, made an inspection of every part of the chamber. This dispersed much of the supernatural dread of she knew not what, which she had experienced, and then she retnrned to the strange opening in the wall. Jier contrivance, simple as it was, for overcoming the propensity of the spring, answered admirably. Timorously, notwithstanding her determination to be firm, she knelt down again upen the floor, and, resting the weight ef her bedy upon her left-arm, she leaned over the abyss. But the lamp was totally inadequate to the task of dis- sipating the darkness with which the pit was filled, and so far from aiding her, it had an opposite effect. Unwilling to leave the place until she had thoroughly exmuiued it, for something within her which might, with questionable propriety, be called inspiration, seemed to tell her that, however repulsive it might look, yet it led to freedoin. Therefore she again latd herself down at full length, with ber head and the upper portion ef her bedy actually hanging over the abyss. But she steadied herself with her left hand, with which she clutched the sides of the wainscot tightly. Mer right arm she held quite down the pit-like place, with the tiny h¢ht in her hand. This she waved about in the endeavour te catch a glimpse of the sides, but, te her bewilderment, there were no traces of sides visible—all was void, empty space; nor had she any apparent means by which she could discover either the depth or the width. ‘** But surely,” she thought, “there niust be something hike a wall at the side nearest to me. 1 will try.” As she spoke, she moved her land in the direetion she had meutioned, fully expeeting that it would be as she had said, but in this she was acain deceived, for her hand encountered no opposition whatever. There could be nothing delusive about it, for when she so held ber hand, the igh! was quite ont of siglit. increase her fears and give tangibility to those dim presages of horror which she had had so inuch dike Jty to banish from ber mind. : What kind of place it could be which the secret panel disclosed she could form no netien. Conjecture she found to be quite useless. «© But suddenly, as she still moved her hand, in an anxious and vain attempt to see about her, something came m contact with her hand, BLUESKIN ;: A ROMANCE, Ca etd Although this was just what she expected, or rather was hoping to find, she uttered a cry of dismay, which she found it tmpossible to repress. But this was caused by the singular feel which the object had her hand had casually touched. It was soft, yet hard. Yielding to the touch, yet firm. What could it be P The question was one to which she was incompetent to frame a reply. Gathering courage from desperation, for she felt cer- tain, if she dallied much longer, the opportunity of achieving her freedom would be lest, she bent her head lower, in order to look what it was. ‘or a moment she saw nothing, and then she perceived the mysterious object which she had touched. iler fears were dispelled if an instant, and she grew quite angry with herself to think that she had been weak enough to entertain them. The mysterious object was a rope. Yes, 2 rope, and nothing more. But it was of extraordinary thickness, and knotted in many places. Straight down it hung, the end seeming to lose itself in the very bowels of the earth. It was attached, in some way which she could not very well male out, to the flooring beneath her. The use of this repe seemed obvious. It was by its aid that the secret panel was made of service. But where did it lead P With what place did it communicate ? Was the length of the repe, apparently endless in the imagination, comparatively short in the reality. Who could tell r The only means by which she could acquire such knew- ledge was to descend by it. She shuddered at the idea. Was she strong enough to support the weight of her body for any length of time by clinging to a repe ? She feared not. Already was she a prey to exhaustion. But then the remembrance of the terrible scene she had had with Colonel Thorne flashed across her mind, and that seemed to endow her with ten times her ordinary strength. No longer did she hesitate. Let the repe lead to what place it might—let there he what dangers there might—she would dare all—brave all —anything would be better than remaining where she was, exposed te such peril as she liad been. Dominated by these thoughts, she placed the hght upon the ground, and then felt for the rope. Its position was apparently awkward, but 1t was not so in reality, and she tound herself able, by lowering her body gently, to take hold of it easily. She clung to it for dear life. The rope swayed from side to side with her weight at first, but 1t soon steadied itself. She looked upwards te the ceiling of the chamber, wlich she fondly heped and believed she was about to leave for ever. Downwards she dare not trust herself to glance; and, besides that, she knew that it would be impossible to see a foot below her. Wad she been able she would have taken the httle lamp with her, but she knew she would require the full use of her hands, and she could not see how else she was to carry it. Reluctantly, therefore, she left it behind her upen the floor of the room, for she could net but be conscious of the 'amount of consolation it would be to ler upon her perilous | journey. Such a thing as this was caleulated iu cvery way to | regrets, she began to lower herself down the rope. Disearding, however, from her mind all these vain She found, after a little while, that it was specially adapted to the purpose te which she was putting it. It was just thick enough to grasp comfortably, while, at abont every ten inches, there was a large knot, which afforded a hand as well as a foot-hold. Cautiously—very cautiously, and not moving one hand or one foot until she was certain the other was secure, the intrepid girl lowered herself down the rope, erg ec A a et tS i G-SPOT nts pk ec SLT OS, A SS DOO SS 5} (SO)