“Now,” said Roderick in a relieved tone, “I hope we may go back to the sunlight. I don’t like these beastly vampire bats. I’ve been told they can kill an ox by sucking his blood. They’ve been known to drive the entire population of a village from their homes. What would you do if one of the bally rascals made a grab at your throat?”
“Take him by the ear and give a good sound scolding,” said Johnny.
“Hold on a bit,” he said as Roderick started back, “let’s have a look.”
He began flashing his torch from floor to ceiling, from corner to corner of the dungeon-like place.
“Not an opening,” he sighed. “Not a suggestion of an—wait! How does it happen that this stone at the end is fully a yard square, while all the rest of the wall is made up of small rocks?”
Taking a heavy cane which Roderick had insisted upon bringing into the place, he struck the broad stone a resounding blow. At once the place was alive with echoes and whirring wings.
He pressed the end of the stick against the top of the stone and gave it a shove. To their surprise the stone, which to all appearances was a door, dropped slowly and noiselessly downward until it formed a sort of threshold over which they who dared might walk.
As if expecting a million vampires to spring at him from the dark, Roderick started back.
As soon as she could recover from her surprise Jean set one small foot on the stone threshold.
“No,” said Johnny, placing a restraining hand upon her shoulder, “let me go in and look about a little. Not that I wish to be first, but it might—might not be quite—quite safe. You are a girl. In a way, I’m your protector.”
“I—I understand,” said the girl as she favored him with a smile that was altogether new to him.
In spite of all his efforts at self-control, Johnny’s knees trembled a little as he stepped upon the rock. It was strange to be moving forward alone into a subterranean chamber which, to all appearances, had not been visited for centuries. What would he discover there? Was this the secret hiding place of princes, a temple of worship or a dungeon prison? What would he discover there; rare old furniture, moulding to decay; gold, jewels, or only skeletons?
“Probably nothing,” he told himself as he moved forward.