Part 9

"Is that you, Penny?" Rhoda whispered eagerly.

"Julia!" was the answer.

"Oh," Rhoda murmured in bitter disappointment. "I hoped--"

"Master send you some supper," the servant mumbled. "Bread and coffee."

"I don't want them!"

"Better you eat and drink," Julia admonished. "But do not sleep. This room is evil--evil!"

"You're telling me!" retorted Rhoda, lapsing into slang. "All I want is to get out of here. Julia, let me free and I'll pay you well! I'll give you anything you want!"

"No key."

"But you know where it is kept?"

"The master keep keys on him always."

"He would! Can't you trick him or something?" Seeing the old woman's blank stare, Rhoda sighed and answered her own question. "No, it's too much to expect. But maybe you could slip away from here and bring help--"

"Master never let me out of the house. My place is in the kitchen. I must go there now--to the kitchen."

"Wait!" Rhoda checked her. "You say Father Benedict sent some food? On second thought, I'll take it. He may not give me anything again for a long while. I expect to be out of here soon, but something could go wrong."

Rhoda longed to ask Old Julia if she had seen Penny or if the girl had escaped. However, knowing that the old woman might divulge the secret to Father Benedict, she wisely did not bring up the subject.

Julia thrust a hard crust of bread in through the peephole, and then shoved a cup of steaming black coffee into her hand.

"Thanks, Julia," Rhoda said. "I know you mean well. Working in a place like this isn't your fault. How did you ever meet Father Benedict anyhow?"

The question was an unfortunate one. Apparently, unpleasant recollections stirred in the woman's brain, for her eyes became wild. She muttered gibberish Rhoda could not understand. Then she slammed shut the peephole.

A moment later, Rhoda heard her footsteps as she left the closet and retreated down the corridor.

"Poor old Julia," she sighed. "Wonder if I'll ever come to the same pass she's in? I'm sure I will if I have to spend a night in this torture chamber!"

Shivering, Rhoda climbed back into bed. She bit into the bread. Discovering it to be moldy, she hurled it into a far corner of the room.

Rhoda was cold and the hot coffee smelled good. She sipped it cautiously. The brew tasted peculiar, sweetish and unlike any coffee she ever had had before. Nevertheless, it was hot and would warm her chilled bones perhaps.

She drank the entire cupful and leaned back on the pillow.

_What was it Julia said_, she mused drowsily. _Oh, yes, I must stay awake. Must stay awake._

But the warmth of the bed was closing in on her, inviting her to shut her eyes. Though she fought against it, she could feel sleep taking possession of her.

She tried to raise her hand and found it too heavy to lift. Only then did the frightening truth seep into her mind. She had been drugged! Undoubtedly, Father Benedict had slipped a heavy sleeping powder into the coffee! And she stupidly had drunk all of the brew.

The sound of the peephole panel moving again, aroused her momentarily from the stupor into which she rapidly was falling.

Rhoda saw a face at the opening and recognized Father Benedict. He spoke no word, but gazed at her with an expression of evil gloating.

The girl tried to move but her limbs seemed paralyzed. She could not stir.

Then the panel closed and Father Benedict had gone.

Rhoda fell into a sleep only to be rudely awakened as the huge bed gave a slight jerk. The stupefied girl could not think where she was for a moment.

Her head was a-whirl and the room seemed to be spinning. Like a person taking ether, she felt as if she were slipping farther and farther away from reality with each breath.

The canopied bed had come to life and was moving slowly downward through an opening in the floor.

Rhoda stifled an impulse to laugh. Perspiration broke out in every pore as she suddenly knew that it was not a dream nor a horrible imagining. _The bed actually was moving!_

As she realized her desperate plight, the girl struggled to free herself from the bed clothing. But her limbs refused to obey the commands of her mind. Paralyzed with fright, she tried to scream and made only a choking sound in her throat.

CHAPTER 23 _DESCENT INTO THE CRYPT_

Meanwhile, a great fear had taken possession of Penny as she saw Father Benedict leave the chapel bedroom closet and disappear down a corridor leading into the ruins of the church.

The expression of his face and his evil mutterings warned her that the man thoroughly enjoyed his role, despite his insistence that he abhorred violence.

Fearing for Rhoda's safety, Penny waited only until he had vanished. Then she slipped into the closet of the bedroom and fumbled for the peephole opening.

She found it and peered anxiously into the darkened bed chamber. Rhoda was 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 floor beneath it began to move slowly downward.

In horror, Penny recalled what Jake Cotton, the carpenter, had told her about repairing the ancient lift. Rhoda was being lowered into the crypt below!

"Rhoda!" she cried. "Wake up! Quick! Jump out of bed!"

The girl seemed to hear for she moved slightly and made a choking sound in her throat. But she could not extricate herself from the slowly descending bed.

Numb with despair, Penny saw the girl disappear beyond view. There was a whine of machinery as the bed apparently came to a standstill on the subterranean floor below.

Then after a moment, she heard movement again. The bed slowly ascended. A glance sufficed to show Penny that it was empty.

"I've got to help her!" she thought. "That fiend will torture her into telling where the sapphire is hidden if I don't think of some scheme for saving her. But how?"

Quitting the closet, Penny sought the same passageway Father Benedict had taken into the ruined church.

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 mass of piled-up rubble.

Walls, however, had proved remarkably sturdy, 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 passage 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 substitute, 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, substituting 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."

"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 the gem, 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 your life!"

Picking up the lantern, Jay Highland started toward the stairway where Penny crouched. She moved hurriedly behind the door which opened into the crypt.

Slight as was the sound she made, Highland detected it.

"Who is there?" he called, holding his lantern high. "Answer or I'll shoot!"

Penny did not doubt that the man would carry out his threat. Her hand closed 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 and oil and flame splattered over the stone floor.

Knowing it was her only chance to escape, Penny made a wild dash up the stairs. But she could not climb swiftly enough.

Jay Highland pounded hard after her. As she neared the top of the circular steps, he seized her arm and pulled her backwards.

Penny fought like a tiger to free herself. Together they stumbled and rolled down the wide stones to the floor of the crypt. There the man pressed his revolver hard into the girl's ribs, and she knew the game was up.

"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 crypt close and lock. With despair she realized that she too was a prisoner in the chamber of the dead.

CHAPTER 24 _CHAMBER OF THE DEAD_

Furious at herself because she had been so careless, Penny quickly tested the door. Finding it securely fastened as she had known it would be, she reached for her flashlight. It was missing from her pocket.

Though she groped about in the darkness, she could not find it. Giving up, she next turned her attention to Rhoda Hawthorne.

Thongs about the girl's wrists and ankles had been loosely tied. In a minute, Penny had set her free.

"Now to find a way out of here!" she exclaimed. "Highland and Winkey probably are driving to the river dock by this time!"

"It's no use trying to get out," Rhoda said despairingly as she rubbed her bruised wrists. "I'm sure this door is the only exit. Look in the adjoining room and you'll see what I mean."

Even as Penny started for the inner doorway, she heard a low moan of pain from someone imprisoned there.

"Who is it?" she asked tensely.

"I don't know," Rhoda admitted, huddling close beside Penny. "Two men, one of them in frightful condition."

"Can't we set them free? Rhoda, try to find my flashlight. It fell somewhere near the stairway."

While Rhoda groped for the flashlight, Penny entered the inner prison room. Not until she was very close could she see two men who were chained to a supporting pillar. Gags covered the mouths of both victims.

Penny untied the cloths. The first man she thus freed was someone she never before had seen. But as she jerked the gag from the lips of the second prisoner, she was startled to recognize Mr. Ayling.

"You!" she exclaimed.

"In the flesh, or what's left of it," the investigator attempted to banter. "Nice fix for an investigator, eh? The company probably will give me a merit award for this!"

"How were you enticed here?"

"It's a long story," sighed Mr. Ayling. "I've not been chained here long, fortunately. My companion, Joseph Merkill, is in much worse shape. He's been here a couple of days."

"I'll set him free first," Penny offered. She groped along the chains which fastened the man to the stone column. "Handcuffs? How can I get them off?"

"You can't, without a key," replied Mr. Ayling. "You'll have to go for help, or if there's no escape, wait until someone finds us here."

"That may not be before morning! Even if police should come here tonight, they might not see the stairway to the crypt."

"Any chance to break down the door?"

"I doubt it. Rhoda and I can try though."

"Rhoda Hawthorne! So it was her voice I heard! She and her grandmother are imprisoned also?"

"Yes, Rhoda's with me. Her grandmother, seriously ill, is locked in a bedroom upstairs. Who is Mr. Merkill?"

"His wife is an inmate here," the investigator explained. "Jay Highland--I know now he's a notorious jewel thief--induced Mrs. Merkill to come to the monastery. After he fleeced her of a diamond necklace, she smuggled a note out, telling how she was being mistreated. Her husband, from whom she had been estranged, decided to investigate. He came here alone. Discovering what was going on, he threatened to expose Highland to the police."

"Highland tricked me," Mr. Merkill added. "He promised I could take my former wife away and he would close the monastery. To show there were no hard feelings, he suggested we have coffee together. I drank it and became so sleepy I had to go to bed. That's all I remember until I woke up here, chained to a post!"

"I should have been more suspicious of Highland the first time I met him," Mr. Ayling blamed himself.

"Why did you go to Chicago?" Penny asked as she worked at the chains.

"I know now it was Highland who sent me the fake telegram. He wanted to get me away from here. While in Chicago, I contacted my home office and obtained information which convinced me Highland was a gem thief. So I came here, intending to demand a police investigation."

"I met one train," said Penny. "You weren't on it."

"I didn't arrive until early tonight. When the train came in, Winkey and Mr. Highland were waiting at the station."

"For you, obviously?"

"Yes, they told me Mrs. Hawthorne was at the monastery, seriously sick and wanted to see me at once. The story fitted with my own conclusion that despite Highland's previous statements, Mrs. Hawthorne was here. So I foolishly agreed to accompany them."

"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 passage 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 passageway!" 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 passageway vaulted over with brick.

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

"I imagine so. This passage 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 passage was completely blocked. However, Penny pulled aside a mass 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 passageway 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."

"The suitcase really doesn't matter," Rhoda interrupted again. "You see, the sapphire--"

Jerry, Mr. Parker and Penny were not listening. Already they were running to the press car. The publisher started the engine with a roar, and the automobile raced off to make a quick turn and speed toward the city.

Disregarding the icy road, Mr. Parker drove at high speed. Once the car skidded dangerously and barely missed a ditch.

Soon they approached the outskirts of the city. Penny watched the riverfront intently. She was the first to glimpse the familiar long, black automobile parked close to the dock where Rhoda had hidden her suitcase.

"There's Highland's car!" she cried. "He and Winkey must be here! Probably they're under the dock now! Highland is armed, Dad."