The Cry at Midnight Part 38

"Then what happened?"

"In the car, speeding out here, I realized I was being foolhardy to return to the monastery without police escort. At an intersection I tried to get out. Winkey slugged me. That's the last I knew until I found myself in this crypt."

Rhoda now groped her way to the door of the inner prison room.

"I found the flashlight but it's broken," she reported.

"With or without a light, we must get out of here and bring the police!"

Penny exclaimed. "We haven't a chance to free Mr. Ayling and Mr. Merkill ourselves."

"And you haven't a chance to get out of here either--not until someone breaks into the house," Mr. Ayling added. "The only door is the one Highland locked."

"There is another exit!" Penny recalled. "Mr. Eckenrod showed it to me on the map of this old building. If only we can find it!"

Filled with hope, she began to grope about the walls of the inner room.

In the semi-darkness, she could find no break anywhere on the rough stone surface.

"According to the map, the opening should be along this wall," she told Rhoda who joined her in the search. "But there's nothing here."

"Maybe the opening was sealed up years ago."

Though half convinced Rhoda was right, Penny would not give up. Even after her friend had abandoned the search, she kept tapping the walls.

One section, adjoining a large stone tomb, gave off a hollow sound. But try as she would, Penny could not find a moveable section of wall.

"It's no use," she admitted, "unless--"

"Unless what?" Rhoda demanded as Penny's voice trailed off.

"What a dud I am! I remember now, Mr. Eckenrod said the hidden pa.s.sage comes out through a tomb in the churchyard! So the entrance to the tunnel may be through this tomb which stands against the wall!"

"The wall did give off a hollow sound when you tapped it," Rhoda declared, hope reviving.

"See if you can open the door of the tomb!" Mr. Ayling urged, becoming excited. "I have a hunch you're on the right track!"

Thus urged, Penny overcame her own reluctance. The latch on the big stone door appeared to be locked. She experimented with it for awhile, and was rewarded to hear a sharp click. As she pulled on the door with all her strength, it slowly swung backwards.

Peering in, she saw that the tomb was empty. Also, the back wall was missing.

"The entrance to the pa.s.sageway!" she cried. "We've found it!"

As Rhoda sprang to her feet, Penny hesitated. She felt it would be cruel to abandon the two men who remained chained to the column.

"Go as fast as you can!" Mr. Ayling urged. "It's our only hope! If you get out safely, send the police after Highland and Winkey! Then bring help."

"We'll hurry!" Penny promised.

She grasped Rhoda's trembling hand and started through the opening into a narrow, low pa.s.sageway vaulted over with brick.

"You say we'll come out in the churchyard?" Rhoda gasped, huddling close behind her friend.

"I imagine so. This pa.s.sage can't be very long. I only hope it isn't blocked by a cave-in."

Their anxiety increased as they inched their way along. Frequently they were forced to climb over piles of brick which had fallen from the ceiling.

Once they were certain the pa.s.sage was completely blocked. However, Penny pulled aside a ma.s.s of debris, enabling them to climb through and go on.

Then at last the tunnel began to ascend over wet, slippery ground.

"We're coming out!" Penny announced jubilantly. "I can see a crack of light ahead!"

A few feet farther and the pa.s.sageway was blocked by a small stone door.

However, dim light shone beneath it and the girls could feel cold night air on their cheeks.

Penny tugged at the door and it opened readily. The pair emerged into another empty tomb. Closing the stone door carefully behind them, they made their way out into the night.

"We're still on the grounds!" Penny observed in a hushed voice as she looked alertly about. "In the old graveyard."

"Any sign of Father Benedict or the dogs?" Rhoda whispered nervously.

"Nary a trace. The car at the rear of the monastery is gone! We must get to a telephone as quickly as we can!"

Alternately stumbling over fragments of stone and mounds of earth, the girls raced for the front gate. Even as they reached it, a car skidded to a standstill close beside the fence.

"It's someone from the _Star_ office!" Penny cried, recognizing one of the newspaper-owned automobiles.

As she struggled with the latch of the big gate, her father, Jerry Livingston, and Salt Sommers leaped from the car.

"That you, Penny?" called Mr. Parker anxiously. "We were getting mighty worried about you. What kept you here so long?"

"This and that," replied Penny, opening the gate. "It will take too long to tell. We need help and need it fast!"

As rapidly as she could, she related the essential facts of Jay Highland's flight, apparently to the river docks.

"Salt, streak for the nearest phone and turn in a police alarm!" Mr.

Parker ordered.

"It may be too late to overtake Highland," Penny said anxiously. "But if we don't catch him, the Hawthorne sapphire will be lost!"

"Don't bother about the suitcase under the dock," Rhoda interposed. "Just get Mr. Ayling, my grandmother and all those poor folks out of the monastery. That's the important thing."

"Salt can come back here and wait until police open up the monastery,"

Mr. Parker said, thinking fast. "Jerry and I will try to pick up Highland's trail!"

"I'll send another squad to the river," Salt promised, starting off at a run toward Vernon Eckenrod's cabin across the fields.

"Highland and Winkey are heading for Dock Fourteen," Penny said. "Dad, I'll go with you to point it out."