My love for the mysterious, however, was too strong to allow Will's
words to have due effect, and seeing a breach in the wall I climbed it.
I found that this enclosure had so far sheltered the grounds of the
house that a quantity of vegetation of various kinds had grown there,
and although the place was now in a very neglected condition, it must
in past years have provided for a great household. The house looked
extremely lonely, and no soul was to be seen. I confess I was taken a
little aback at this. To gain admittance did not seem either as
pleasant or as easy as at first sight. I did not like to shout. The
silence of the place, only broken by the sobbing of the waves, hundreds
of feet below, forbade it, while to knock at the old iron-studded door
was equally unseemly.
Yet I did not like to go away. My curiosity continued to increase, so
I came down from the wall and began to examine the door. To my delight
I saw fastened to a great gray rock, on which the door was partly hung,
a piece of iron at the end of a chain.
Evidently this was in some way a means of communication with the house.
I seized, and pulled it.
No sooner had I done so than I heard the clanging of a bell away up in
the old house.
"There," I said to Will, who had kept on protesting, "perhaps that is
like the bells in the old monasteries; it will frighten away all evil
spirits."
Will grumbled about my having "plenty of cheek," while I waited,
somewhat anxiously, I confess, for an answer.
Presently I heard a murmur of voices within, and then the withdrawing
of bolts. After a few seconds the door turned on its rusty hinges and
revealed two men both about fifty years of age.
"What do you want?" asked one sternly.
"I want to see Squire Trewinion," I replied boldly. I felt it would be
of no use hesitating, and although I had no earthly business there I
determined to get admittance.
"Why do you wish to see him?" was the next question.
"I will answer that to Mr. Trewinion himself," I said.
"Your names, then?"
"They are unknown to you," I replied, "and my telling them could serve
no purpose. Lead the way to your master."
They looked at us suspiciously; but seeing two young men, well dressed
and with plenty of assurance, they seemed inclined to let us in.
Consequently a minute after we stood within the walls that surrounded
this place of evil repute, the door being carefully locked behind us.
The two men, evidently servants, led the way up an unused road, by
which we reached the tower entrance. Neither spoke a word.
On coming close to Trewinion Manor we found that it was built of
granite, and had evidently been standing for hundreds of years. The
stones of the doorways were curiously carved, and even the exterior of
the place looked as though it contained a hundred secrets. It was
large, too, and must at some time have been the home of people of
wealth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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