“No; but; I know your nature well. The plan you propose is opposite to your usual manner of acting. A darker scheme possesses you, of which the one you have now proposed is but the cloak.” “I waste time upon you,” said Gray, advancing towards the ladder. He slowly and cautiously ascended, and then paused at the top step. Ada bent all her attention to listen if any sound came from the room above, for she was quite resolved, let the consequences to her be what they might, to raise a cry of alarm, should Gray show any decided symptoms of carrying out his project of murdering the man in the house. The few moments that succeeded were intensely agonising to Ada, and her heart beat painfully and rapidly as she kept her eye intently fixed upon the dusky form of Jacob Gray, as it was dimly discernible at the top of the ladder. This state of suspense did not last long, for in a very few minutes the shrill whistling of Elias awakened the echoes of the old mansion, and it was evident that he was in the room from which the panel conducting to the cellar opened. Ada strained her eyes upwards, but still all was darkness. She knew that if Gray were to remove the panel, ever so slightly she must be aware of it, by a ray of light streaming through the aperture; for that ray of light Ada waited, as her signal to raise an alarm, which she was determined to do. Little, however, did Ada suspect that Gray had formed a plan which her very effort to save the man on watch would assist to carry into effect. Such, however, was the fact. Gray fully expected, and was quite prepared for a cry from Ada, whenever he should draw aside the panel. The loud whistling of Elias still continued, when suddenly Gray moved the panel just sufficiently to allow Ada to see from below that he had done so, and then, as he had done once before, he slid down the ladder, and, as Ada thought, disappeared in the darkness which shrouded the further extremity of the cellar. Had she felt inclined Ada could not have stopped herself from uttering a cry, and the instant she saw daylight through the panel, her voice rose clear and loud— “Help—help!” she cried “Help—murder!” Mr. Elias’s whistling immediately ceased, although he was in the middle of a very intricate passage, and he sprung to the opening in the wall. With one effort he tore down the piece of wainscoting and cried in a loud voice,— “Hilloa!” Ada made a rush to the ladder, but an arm suddenly arrested her progress with such violence that she fell to the ground with great force. Ada lay for a moment or two stunned by her fall, and she heard only indistinctly the voice of Elias cry,— “Hilloa! Below there. Oh, here’s a ladder, is there? Well, that’s what I call providential.“ Elias was upon the ladder, and cautiously descending backwards, when Ada shrieked,— “Beware!—Treachery!”