Chapter XI

THE TREASURE IS FOUND IN THE ANCIENT CRYPT.

On hearing of gold, the men began to work hard, and soon the nine coffins were lifted down. Just as they were about to wrench the top off the tenth, a wailing sound was heard, which so frightened Dick that he let the light fall, and would have run off, even without the gold, if he could have found the way.

“What a fool you are!” said Joe. “It’s only a bat. I’ve heard such a sound many a time here.”

“But it was like a body suffering--just for all the world like a Christian voice.”

“Nonsense!--light the other candle again, and look sharp.”

Poor Dick rather expected to see a dead body with some valuable diamonds on it, but his delight was extreme when he saw hundreds of gold and silver pieces, and a great quantity of copper.

“Here, men, quick! pick out the silver, and I’ll reckon over the gold.”

“But we’re to have half,” exclaimed both the men--“that was the bargain.”

“Yes, and so you shall; but we must first separate and reckon them over.”

The men began to collect the silver, but kept their eyes principally on the gold pieces that Joe told over as he placed them in one of his bags.

“Two hundred and fifty good golden guineas,” said Joe, as he tied it up, and began to fill another. “Two hundred and fifty more,” he soon afterwards repeated; “and here’s twenty more--ten for each bag; and you ought to have got seventy pounds in silver.”

But they had been so eagerly watching the gold pieces that they had neglected to reckon the silver.

“Yes, I know there must be, for the gold is all right, and nobody has been here. So we’ll put the silver in the two other bags, and each of you shall carry one.”

“Well, but we shall carry one gold too--that’s but fair.”

“Very well, so you shall; you’ve got thirty-five pounds in each of the bags of silver, and here is two hundred and fifteen pounds in gold, divided in two bags, for each of you to carry one.”

The men watched the division with such a greedy earnestness visible on their rough faces that Joe cautioned them not to quarrel about it, as they’d be sure to get into trouble.

“And now I’ll see if the way is clear above, that we may get on a better road than we came up by, for we should never be able to climb along those slippery rocks with all this weight in our hands.”

“And ours the heaviest load too, which ain’t fair,” said the older man, with a dogged, sullen look, as he remembered the perilous descent. “Come, sir, hand me out some o’ them guineas in exchange for the silver and copper.”

Joe Naylor consented, as he saw the fierce expression on the man’s face, and a further division took place.

“Now, then, place the lid on, and I’ll see if I can find the way into the place overhead.”

He then led them up from the vault, and across the crypt to a small narrow archway which opened into a winding staircase. It was even more ruinous than the one by which they had descended, and was closed at the top by a flat kind of massive trap-door. Joe touched a spring at the side, and told the others to push hard. After a vigorous effort, it flew open, and a rumbling noise was heard, as if stones were rolling off from its top on to the rest of the pavement.

“Hush!--give me the light,” whispered Joe; “and don’t speak, for sure we’re close to the house now. And what on earth has happened? Why, there’s a floor above our heads, or the old chapel has fallen down. Why, there’s not room to stand upright; and we ought to be in the grand old chapel, or banqueting-hall, as they call it.”

It was true, a floor raised about four feet above the uneven and ruined stone floor of the old chapel had been raised, and thus there was no possibility of getting out that way.

“It’s lucky we left the trap-door wide open, for if we had shut it, the spring would have caught, and we should have been buried alive between these floors. But, look!--what’s this?” he said, pointing to a large diamond-shaped place that seemed as if it could be easily opened just above their heads; and, on feeling it round with a chisel, they found it could be raised. In so doing they unconsciously removed with their shoulders some of the supports, on one side, which kept it in its place, and emerging into the room above, they hastily replaced the large square, which they saw was a beautiful piece of inlaid woodwork, without taking the trouble to see that it was done so securely.

“Oh! my, what a grand place!”

“Hush!--don’t make a noise,” whispered Joe. “Come along--quick, or we may be heard.”

They cast a rapid glance over the hall, which had been beautifully restored; and their lights were just sufficient to show the outline of the elaborately-carved old gallery, with its curious corner oriel. Joe held up his lantern in order to throw some light on that gallery, which he had had the good taste to admire much in days long gone by, when, to his surprise and horror, he saw a white figure, a pale lovely face looking down upon them. The next moment it had disappeared, but Dick was so frightened that he let the light and his money-bag fall on the floor; and was on the point of shrieking with terror, when Joe’s hand was laid heavily on his mouth. But Joe’s hand trembled too, for the apparition was exactly like one of the family pictures in the hall of the good Baroness who died in defending the castle from Cromwell’s army.

“Well, now I _have_ seen a ghost,” thought he; “for no living being could look like that. Come,” he whispered to Dick, who still continued to tremble and quake; “pick it all up, and quick--let’s be gone.”

“Oh! dear, oh! dear,” muttered Dick; “if I ever get safe out of this old place, I’ll----”

“Don’t speak,” insisted Joe, as he motioned to the men to follow him along the wall in the direction of the gallery. “We _must_ go under it,” he explained, as he saw that both the men shrank from going near to the spot above which the strange apparition had been seen. “There’s no other way out; and if it’s been stopped up, we’re done for,” said Joe, who began to consider it was possible, as the banqueting-hall had been so wonderfully renovated. Then he found the arch which had formerly contained an old broken door, but, to his dismay, he saw it had been built up. He then examined the windows, which, from the level of the floor having been raised, were now nearer to it than formerly; and near one of these, which seemed to be still under the process of repair, he saw a ladder. This he cautiously mounted, and found that some of the panes of glass were not yet put in.

There was a buttress outside by which he thought they could clamber down without displacing the ladder, which might betray their nocturnal visit to the restored room. So he told the others to follow, and they all three reached the ground in safety.

There was here but a narrow strip of grass between the walls and the rocky precipice, but Joe assured them it would soon get wider, and then they could return through the wood without having to clamber down the steep by which they had ascended. When they at last reached the wood, Joe Naylor turned to his two companions, and, with many cautions, told them not to quarrel over their booty, and to be sure and tell Sarah exactly what they had got.

Before they had time, even if they had inclination, to thank him for his advice, he disappeared. The two men wondered for a few moments why he so suddenly left them, and felt their money-bags to see if they were all safe. Finding this was the case, they did not take his departure much to heart, for he puzzled and somewhat awed them. We are all prone to dislike what we cannot understand.