It was lighted by two tall wax candles in silver candlesticks, and a cheerful fire burned in the grate. There were several bookcases well filled with nicely bound volumes, and a few fine engravings, with some beautiful drawings, hung upon the walls. She had not time for a more minute survey of the apartment, for she was rejoined by her strange companion. He smiled at her look of wonder and curiosity, and after shutting and locking the door, and dropping the tapestry over it, said: “Now, I will explain how I happened to know that you were in trouble and needed assistance.” He moved a few steps further up the room, thrust aside another portion of the hangings, and Brownie saw the same shaft or pillar of stone that she had seen in the cell. At the right of it she also saw that a portion of the stone wall had been hammered or chiseled away, until only a very thin surface divided the two rooms, and this had been punctured full of tiny holes, through which could be seen the light of the candle which they had left behind; and yet from the room they had just left nothing of this could be detected. “Ah! I see,” Brownie said. “Yes,” the young man replied, while a look of infinite pain swept over his features, “it is always very quiet here, and to-night while reading I was startled by the sound of voices and a low, mocking laugh coming from this direction. Much astonished, for nothing like it has ever happened before, I threw down my book, crept to this spot, and listened. Although I could not see very distinctly, I could hear, and soon discovered that some one had been forced into yonder cell to cover up some dark deed or other. I learned that your name was Miss Douglas, and that you possess a very brave spirit, for you refused to yield to your tormentors, when most young ladies would have begged and prayed to be let out upon any terms.” He concluded with another glance of admiration. Her lips curled in a little mischievous smile, as she wondered how Isabel and her mother would feel the next time they unbolted that door, and found their bird flown! “But I don’t see how you got the shaft down those stairs,” she said, in perplexity. Her spirits were rising every moment. “It works in the same way from this room that it does from the other; only when it got down, I moved around to the opposite side without stepping off, and then, not pressing upon the bolt, it arose to its place again. I thought it best for you, however, to come up by the stairs, fearing you might fall from the platform if you moved,” the young man explained. “How came these holes punctured here, and this stone cut away so?” she asked, feeling deeply interested in the strange piece of machinery and that riddled wall. “There is a sad story connected with that, Miss Douglas, which I fear it would do no good to relate,” was the pained reply, while the white face flushed a sudden, vivid crimson.