We closed the door softly and, Clinton leading the way with the lantern,
we walked up the centre aisle paved with the brasses of his dead
ancestors. We trod gently on tiptoe as one instinctively does at night.
Turning beneath the little pulpit we reached the north transept, and
here Clinton stopped and turned round. He was very white, but his voice
was quiet.
"This is the pew," he whispered. "It has always been called the haunted
pew of Sir Hugh Clinton."
I took the lantern from him and we entered. I crossed the pew
immediately and went up to the effigy of the old abbot.
"Let us examine him closely," I said. I held up the lantern, getting it
to shine on each part of the face, the vestments, and the figure. The
eyes, although vacant, as in all statuary, seemed to me at that moment
to be uncanny and peculiar. Giving Allen the lantern to hold, I placed a
finger firmly on each. The next moment I could not refrain from an
exclamation; a stone at the side immediately rolled back, revealing the
steps which were spoken of by the old man in his narrative.
"It is true! It is true!" cried Clinton excitedly.
"It certainly looks like it," I remarked: "but never mind, we have the
chance now of investigating this matter thoroughly."
"Are you going down?" asked Clinton.
"Certainly I am," I replied. "Let us go together."
Immediately afterwards we crept through the opening and began to
descend. There was only just room to do so in single file, and I went
first with the lantern. In another moment we were in the long passage,
and soon we were confronted by a door in an arched stone framework. Up
till now Clinton had shown little sign of alarm, but here, at the
trysting-place to which his father's soul had summoned him, he seemed
suddenly to lose his nerve. He leant against the wall and for a moment I
thought he would have fallen. I held up the lantern and examined the
door and walls carefully. Then approaching I lifted the iron latch of
the heavy door. It was very hard to move, but at last by seizing the
edge I dragged it open to its full against the wall of the passage.
Having done so I peered inside, holding the lantern above my head. As I
did so I heard Clinton cry out,--
"Look, look," he said, and turning I saw that the great door had swung
back against me, almost shutting me within the cell.
Telling Clinton to hold it back by force, I stepped inside and saw at my
feet the ghastly coffin. The legend then so far was true. I bent down
and examined the queer, misshapen thing with great care. Its shape was
that of an enormous wedge, and it was apparently made of some dark old
wood, and was bound with iron at the corners. Having looked at it all
round, I went out and, flinging back the door which Clinton had been
holding open, stood aside to watch. Slowly, very slowly, as we both
stood in the passage--slowly, as if pushed by some invisible hand, the
door commenced to swing round, and, increasing in velocity, shut with a
noisy clang.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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