CHAPTER 23 _DESCENT INTO THE CRYPT_
Meanwhile, a great fear had taken possession of Penny as she saw FatherBenedict leave the chapel bedroom closet and disappear down a corridorleading into the ruins of the church.
The expression of his face and his evil mutterings warned her that theman thoroughly enjoyed his role, despite his insistence that he abhorredviolence.
Fearing for Rhoda's safety, Penny waited only until he had vanished. Thenshe slipped into the closet of the bedroom and fumbled for the peepholeopening.
She found it and peered anxiously into the darkened bed chamber. Rhodawas lying on the canopied bed, apparently sound asleep.
"Rhoda!" Penny called in a loud whisper.
The girl did not stir.
As Penny whispered the name still louder, she saw the bed jerk. The floorbeneath it began to move slowly downward.
In horror, Penny recalled what Jake Cotton, the carpenter, had told herabout repairing the ancient lift. Rhoda was being lowered into the cryptbelow!
"Rhoda!" she cried. "Wake up! Quick! Jump out of bed!"
The girl seemed to hear for she moved slightly and made a choking soundin her throat. But she could not extricate herself from the slowlydescending bed.
Numb with despair, Penny saw the girl disappear beyond view. There was awhine of machinery as the bed apparently came to a standstill on thesubterranean floor below.
Then after a moment, she heard movement again. The bed slowly ascended. Aglance sufficed to show Penny that it was empty.
"I've got to help her!" she thought. "That fiend will torture her intotelling where the sapphire is hidden if I don't think of some scheme forsaving her. But how?"
Quitting the closet, Penny sought the same passageway Father Benedict hadtaken into the ruined church.
As she cautiously opened the squeaky door, she saw before her shatteredGothic columns which once had supported a magnificent roof. Now dim starscast a ghostly light over a mass of piled-up rubble.
Walls, however, had proved remarkably sturdy, rising to a height Pennycould not hope to scale. There were no visible exits.
"Where did Father Benedict go?" she speculated. "Steps must lead down tothe crypt."
Penny flashed her light about, seeking an opening. Investigating a pileof stone which had tumbled from an archway, she was elated to find hersearch at an end. Behind the piled up rocks, cleverly concealed, was avaulted stone passage and stairway leading down.
Though Penny knew it was highly dangerous to venture below, she did nothesitate. A step at a time, and pausing frequently to listen, she stoledown toward the inky blackness of the crypt.
The stone walls on either side of the narrow, curving stairway were coldand clammy to the touch. Water dripped from overhead.
Ahead, in a sunken recess amid the stones, the girl suddenly saw ashadowy figure. Startled, she jerked to a standstill. Then, observingthat the object was not a human being but a rusty coat of armor, shebreathed easier and went on.
A minute later, as she crept around a turn of the stairway, terrorgripped her at first glimpse of the dimly lighted burial crypt.
In grim, orderly rows were the elaborately carved stone sarcophaguses offormer residents of the monastery.
Beyond the tombs, backed against a wall, sat Rhoda. Sleepy-eyed, her hairin disarray, she faced Father Benedict who held a lighted lantern closeto her face.
Jay Highland had doffed his long robes and stood revealed in ordinarygray business suit. In his coat pocket, within easy reach of his righthand, was a revolver.
"Wake up!" he said, giving Rhoda a hard shake. "You're only pretendingnow! The drug in the coffee was not strong enough to keep you asleep.Wake up!"
Rhoda stared at him and her eyes widened in horror.
"You fiend!" she accused him. "Don't you dare touch me! I'll scream!"
"Scream at the top of your lungs, my dear. Only the dead will hear you."
"The dead! Oh!" A shudder wracked Rhoda's thin body as she became awareof the tombs in the crypt. "Why did you bring me here?"
"For one purpose. I want the sapphire. Hand it over and you will not beharmed."
"I haven't the gem."
"But you know where it is."
Rhoda remained silent.
"You'll tell," Highland rasped, losing all patience. "I haven't all day!You tricked me with that cheap substitute, and you induced yourgrandmother to hold out against me. Now we are through playing."
"You're nothing but a cheap crook!"
"A crook perhaps," said the man, "but hardly cheap. The sapphire shouldbe worth $50,000 at a conservative estimate. Now where is it?"
"You'll never learn from me!" Rhoda cried defiantly. "I'll die beforeI'll tell!"
"My! My! Such heroics! However, I think you will change your mind. Let meshow you something, my dear."
Setting the lantern on the floor, Highland grasped Rhoda roughly by thearm and led her to a small doorway at the far side of the crypt.
"Tell me what you see," he purred.
Rhoda drew in her breath sharply and recoiled from the sight. She wasspeechless with fright.
"My dear, I was not thinking of mistreating you--certainly not," Highlandpurred. "No, instead we will bring your aged grandmother down here."
"You wouldn't dare!" Rhoda gasped. "Why, she's sick."
"The damp and cold will be bad for her, no doubt," agreed the imposter."When I saw her tonight, she seemed to have developed a severe cough. Theonset of pneumonia perhaps."
"Oh!"
"You could so easily spare her suffering," continued the man wickedly."Merely by telling me where you hid the sapphire. I know your grandmotherhad it when she came into this house. But you made off with it,substituting a paste gem."
"It's true, I did hide the gem," Rhoda confessed. "Punish me--notGrandmother."
"Unless you tell me where the sapphire is hidden she shall be broughtdown here and treated as those others who defied me." The man jerked hishead toward the room beyond Penny's view. "What do you say?"
"Let me think about it for a few minutes."
"You're stalling for time, hoping that Parker girl will bring help!" theman accused. From his pocket he took a stout cord with which he securelybound Rhoda's hands and feet.
Bracing her back against the wall, he likewise whipped a handkerchief gagfrom his clothing.
"This is your last chance," he warned. "Will you tell, or shall I go foryour grandmother?"
"I'll tell," Rhoda whispered. "The gem is a long ways from here."
"Where?"
"Down by the river docks."
"By the river docks! A likely story!"
"You remember I ran away?" Rhoda asked hurriedly. "I took my suitcase,intending not to come back. Then for Grandmother's sake I returned. I wasafraid I might never get a chance to sneak my clothes out again, so I hidthe suitcase under a dock by the river."
"And the gem?"
"I took it with me when I ran away. It was sewed in the hem of a blueskirt packed in the suitcase."
"Fool!" Highland exclaimed furiously. "Of all the stupid tricks! Where isthe suitcase now?"
"Still under the dock unless someone has found it. But it should bethere, because I pushed it up high out of sight beneath theunderpinning."
"Which dock?" the man rasped.
"It was just at the edge of Riverview. Dock Fourteen."
"At least you remember the number!" he snapped. "If I fail to find thegem, I'll come back here and make you pay! You may be certain of that!"
"I hope you do come back and that the police are waiting at the gate!"Rhoda retorted. "I hope they put you in prison for the rest of yourlife!"
Picking up the lantern, Jay Highland started toward the stairway wherePenny crouched. She moved hurriedly behind the door which opened into thecrypt.
Slight as was the sound she made, Highland detected it.
"Who is there?" he called
, holding his lantern high. "Answer or I'llshoot!"
Penny did not doubt that the man would carry out his threat. Her handclosed on a stone which lay on a ledge directly behind her.
"Don't shoot," she said, exposing herself to view.
"So it's you again!" hissed Highland. "I might have known!"
Penny let fly the stone. It struck the lantern. The light went out andoil and flame splattered over the stone floor.
Knowing it was her only chance to escape, Penny made a wild dash up thestairs. But she could not climb swiftly enough.
Jay Highland pounded hard after her. As she neared the top of thecircular steps, he seized her arm and pulled her backwards.
Penny fought like a tiger to free herself. Together they stumbled androlled down the wide stones to the floor of the crypt. There the manpressed his revolver hard into the girl's ribs, and she knew the game wasup.
"Get in there!" he said, giving her a hard push. "This time you'll stay!"
As Penny reeled backwards into a wall, she heard the door of the cryptclose and lock. With despair she realized that she too was a prisoner inthe chamber of the dead.