We were manifestly two thoroughly practical people, for even in the
rapture of our meeting--to me it was no less than rapture to come
from so grim an aperture in the secret cavern passage--we had our wits
about us. I think she was really the first to come to a sense of our
surroundings; for just as I was opening my mouth to speak she held up a
warning finger.
"Hush! Some one may come; though I think there is no one near. Wait
dear, whilst I look!" she seemed to flit noiselessly out of the doorway
and I saw her vanish amongst the trees. In a few minutes she returned
carrying carefully a wicker basket. As she opened it she said:
"Some one might suspect something if they saw you in that state."
She took from the basket a little bowl of water, soap, towel and a
clothes-brush. Whilst I washed my face and hands she was brushing me
down. A very short time completed a rough toilet. Then she poured
the water carefully into a crack in the wall, and putting the things
together with my lamp, back in the basket, she said:
"Come now! Let us get to the Castle before any one finds us. They will
think that I have met you in the wood." We went as unobtrusively as we
could to the Castle; and entered, I think, unobserved. I had a thorough
clean up before I let any one see me; our secret was too precious to
risk discovery by suspicion. When I had seen Mrs. Jack, Marjory took me
to her boudoir in the top of the castle, and there, whilst she sat by
me holding my hands, I told her every detail of my adventure. I could
feel how my story moved her; when there was any passage of especial
interest the pressure of her clasp grew tense. She, who had seemingly no
fear for herself, was all in fear for me!
Then we talked matters over. We had now a good clue to the comings
and goings of the kidnappers; and we felt that by a little thoughtful
organisation we might find their hours, and be able to trace them one
by one. By lunch time we had decided on our plan of action. We took our
idea from one of the old "Tales of the Genii" where the conquered king
was brought by his faithful vizier into a cavern and asked to cut a rope
which was stretched before him, and which he soon discovered released
the great rock which roofed the pavilion specially built by the vizier
to be seen and occupied by the conqueror. We would fix a fine thread to
the top of the monument and bring it secretly to the castle, where its
breaking would apprise Marjory of the opening of the passage; thus she
would discover the hour of the coming of the kidnappers to the chapel.
We arranged another ingenious device, whereby a second thread, fastened
to the stone in the old chapel, would be broken by the opening of the
stone, and would cause a book to fall on Marjory's bed and wake her if
she were asleep. The better part of the afternoon was taken up by us
carrying out these ideas, for we went slowly and cautiously to work.
Then I went home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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