The Cry at Midnight Part 36

As she cautiously opened the squeaky door, she saw before her shattered Gothic columns which once had supported a magnificent roof. Now dim stars cast a ghostly light over a ma.s.s of piled-up rubble.

Walls, however, had proved remarkably st.u.r.dy, rising to a height Penny could not hope to scale. There were no visible exits.

"Where did Father Benedict go?" she speculated. "Steps must lead down to the crypt."

Penny flashed her light about, seeking an opening. Investigating a pile of stone which had tumbled from an archway, she was elated to find her search at an end. Behind the piled up rocks, cleverly concealed, was a vaulted stone pa.s.sage and stairway leading down.

Though Penny knew it was highly dangerous to venture below, she did not hesitate. A step at a time, and pausing frequently to listen, she stole down toward the inky blackness of the crypt.

The stone walls on either side of the narrow, curving stairway were cold and clammy to the touch. Water dripped from overhead.

Ahead, in a sunken recess amid the stones, the girl suddenly saw a shadowy figure. Startled, she jerked to a standstill. Then, observing that the object was not a human being but a rusty coat of armor, she breathed easier and went on.

A minute later, as she crept around a turn of the stairway, terror gripped her at first glimpse of the dimly lighted burial crypt.

In grim, orderly rows were the elaborately carved stone sarcophaguses of former residents of the monastery.

Beyond the tombs, backed against a wall, sat Rhoda. Sleepy-eyed, her hair in disarray, she faced Father Benedict who held a lighted lantern close to her face.

Jay Highland had doffed his long robes and stood revealed in ordinary gray business suit. In his coat pocket, within easy reach of his right hand, was a revolver.

"Wake up!" he said, giving Rhoda a hard shake. "You're only pretending now! 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 aware of 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 be harmed."

"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 subst.i.tute, and you induced your grandmother 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 should be worth $50,000 at a conservative estimate. Now where is it?"

"You'll never learn from me!" Rhoda cried defiantly. "I'll die before I'll tell!"

"My! My! Such heroics! However, I think you will change your mind. Let me show you something, my dear."

Setting the lantern on the floor, Highland grasped Rhoda roughly by the arm 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 was speechless with fright.

"My dear, I was not thinking of mistreating you--certainly not," Highland purred. "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. The onset 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 grandmother had it when she came into this house. But you made off with it, subst.i.tuting a paste gem."

"It's true, I did hide the gem," Rhoda confessed. "Punish me--not Grandmother."

"Unless you tell me where the sapphire is hidden she shall be brought down here and treated as those others who defied me." The man jerked his head 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!" the man accused. From his pocket he took a stout cord with which he securely bound Rhoda's hands and feet.

Bracing her back against the wall, he likewise whipped a handkerchief gag from his clothing.

"This is your last chance," he warned. "Will you tell, or shall I go for your 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 was afraid I might never get a chance to sneak my clothes out again, so I hid the 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 blue skirt packed in the suitcase."

"Fool!" Highland exclaimed furiously. "Of all the stupid tricks! Where is the suitcase now?"

"Still under the dock unless someone has found it. But it should be there, because I pushed it up high out of sight beneath the underpinning."