Part 18 (1/2)

”I am unable to answer your question, Maud,” Clifford replied; but there was something in his manner that led the sharp-eyed couple before him to suspect he had detected some clue which had eluded them in their investigations of the mystery.

”Cliff, what the deuce was that old skull doing in the cask?” said Rob, innocently; but, seeing the look of amus.e.m.e.nt on his brother's face, he added: ”Or I mean to ask, how came it there?”

”To answer your first question I shall have to remind you that a dead man's skull has a very limited field of action, confined princ.i.p.ally to the pastime of rolling over and rattling its teeth when touched; but how or why it was there, seems only known to the ill-natured ophidian which kept it such close company,” Clifford replied, with his usual strain of jocular sarcasm.

”Oh dear!” said Maud, drearily, while drumming on the misty window-pane.

”It is very exasperating to be shut up in a house on such a day, where every closet is full of skeletons, and not dare to peep into one of them,” she added.

”But Cliff has been peeping, and with wonderful luck, too,” Rob observed, dryly.

”Oh, I am not the first fortune hunter who has found a skull or serpent where he had hoped to find gold!” Clifford replied, with perfect good nature.

”Oh, Clifford, I shudder to think of the danger you pa.s.sed through on that terrible night--all alone in that dismal place, fighting that venomous monster, with death in its fangs, while the gray-robed demon hovered near with its fiery eyes and blood-chilling scream,” said Maud, tearfully, while winding her arm about her brother's neck.

”Now, dear, soft-hearted Maud, you must remember that the path of those who strive for pelf is thickly beset by demons and serpents, although they may wear the human guise and lurk in the shadow of friends.h.i.+p.

Many, many are the skeletons of dead hopes and buried dreams that start up as the graves of the past are disturbed,” Clifford replied.

”But you shall never spend another night alone up at that ill-omened dwelling, Clifford; for Rob shall go with you hereafter,” she said, while drying her tears.

”Well, but suppose I might choose some fair lady to grace my spectre-haunted home--that would answer as well?” he replied, gaily.

”Oh! that would be a capital plan indeed; but I shall insist on the right to choose her,” his sister cried, with returning animation.

”Oh! you are growing very liberal, to say the least, Miss Maud. I guess you will have to be satisfied with second choice,” said Cliff.

After talking awhile over the mystery which had woven such a tangled web about their home in the last few days, Maud exclaimed:--

”Robbie, dear, won't you go and ask father what name was engraved on the locket? Also learn all that is possible, for I am just dying of anxiety;” but as he began to smile with derision, she added, coaxingly: ”Now do go, Rob, please; that's a man; father never refuses you anything.”

”Catch me at it!” cried Rob, with a shrug. ”I don't hanker much after the dry job of pumping the colonel,” he added, winking at Clifford significantly.

”No, no, Maud, that would never do. Let us await the confidence of our parents, and try, in the meantime, to pick up what facts we can. Who knows,” he added, ”but we may stumble on to some great discovery?”

Little, indeed, did he suspect the great revelations which the day held in store for them, and that events were about to transpire which would change the tenor of their whole lives.

At Mrs. Warlow's entrance the conversation took on a less sombre hue, and when she told of the news confirming the great land-sale which was soon to be held at the land office--a fact which she had learned from the Estills--it was proposed to take a drive out over the country north-east, and find a section for Maud and Rob, which the colonel would buy for their benefit at the sale.

Accordingly, after dinner, as the weather had cleared, the Warlow family drove out and viewed a well-watered, rolling tract, equal in extent to the farms of the colonel and Clifford. After an hour spent thus, it was thought advisable to drive on westward and examine a country which, in their busy farm-life, had never been viewed, save at a distance.

On arriving at a point about three miles west of their home, they drove down into a narrow valley or glen, clothed with tall blue-stem and rank sunflowers, now beginning to unfold their golden blossoms. This jungle of vegetation was woven together by the slender, leafless tendrils of the love-vine, which threw a veil of coppery red over the brilliant green of the other vegetation.

While driving slowly through this almost impervious ma.s.s of vegetation, they discovered a winding but well-beaten trail or pathway, leading on down the valley, and which, out of pure curiosity, they followed until it disappeared in a thicket of plum-trees at the base of a low cliff of magnesian limestone.

As they paused at the scrubby grove, wondering what could have made the path, Clifford sprang out of the carriage, saying he would like to investigate the matter, and disappeared among the trees. He was gone so long that, after they had called him repeatedly, Rob was on the point of starting in search, when Clifford reappeared. As he sprang into the carriage their questioning was forestalled by his saying that the path was possibly made by wolves, and that he had been examining the cliff, but had not succeeded in finding their den.

He appeared so pale and agitated, however, that Maud regarded him suspiciously; and when the horses flew up the glen along the winding pathway and through tangled thickets of blue-stem and sunflowers, she managed to ask in a whisper:--

”What have you discovered, Cliff?”