Difficult as it was to understand the monks first building the Abbey, how much more difficult to understand why his ancestors had remained here at all, once they had robbed it of its treasures! Yet he could not deny its fascination. Far off in London, he had cursed it, vowing never to return; but now that he was brought back against his will he felt quite at home, ready to stay indefinitely, letting the world slip by unheeded. And this in spite of the unhappy circumstances of his return, and the dark mystery which overshadowed all.
Tony’s thoughts took a gloomier turn, and he found himself bitterly regretting the estrangement which had come between himself and his father when, after his wife’s death, the old man had closed their London home and retired to the solitude of Kestrel. That was five years ago, and now his father might never know him again.
He fell once more to wondering what it could have been that had terrified the old man so that his very reason was tottering. Was it only some dark imagining, bred of loneliness and superstition, or was there indeed some abominable thing hidden away in that great pile of stone? Tony shivered, and, since the sunlight was fading from the sea, made his way down the spiral stair in the gateway turret and back to the fire in the great hall.
There he found Dr. Pellew asleep in an armchair beside the blaze, and, not wishing to disturb him, he crept silently away and, going down the passage beyond the great staircase, found his way to the kitchen. He knocked on the door, entered, and asked the surprised and embarrassed Lorrimers if he might join them.
Mrs. Lorrimer gave him a chair beside the great range, nervously dusting the seat before he sat down, and then bustled off, saying she would make some tea. Her husband stood awkwardly until Tony besought him to be seated, when he perched himself on the edge of a sofa near by. Tony was well aware that his unconventional intrusion had made the two servants feel most uncomfortable, but he was determined to find out more about his father’s illness, and this seemed the best way. He began by asking how his father had spent his time on the island.
“Sir Anthony lived very quiet, Mr. Tony,” Lorrimer replied; “he only used the hall and the library, and his own room; everywhere else is locked up.”
“I see. I suppose you and your wife have rooms over here?”
“Yes, sir, we’ve our own stairs. The maid slept in a little room next ours. Tregellis is staying there now that we’re short-handed; he’s a useful man to have about the place.”
“So I should imagine. I suppose my father spent most of his time indoors?”
“Yes, Mr. Tony. He used the library a good deal, reading and such. He’d go out now and again, when the weather was fair, and walk round the courtyard, or maybe down to the beach. And every Sunday Tom would take him across to church. He was friendly with Mr. Bennett, the rector, and he’d often stay to lunch with him. He scarce went anywhere else.”
At this point Mrs. Lorrimer appeared with the tea, and when each had a steaming cup in his hands the first feeling of restraint passed off to some extent. Lorrimer began to wriggle in his seat, and at last, after clearing his throat noisily, he blurted out:
“I know what you want to know, sir, and I think you should be told — No, my dear, don’t interrupt” — this to his wife, who had turned sharply towards him — “ ’tis only right that Mr. Tony should know the truth. You won’t laugh at me, though, will you, sir? That’s all I’ve been afraid of.”
Tony assured him that he had never felt less inclined for mirth, and the old servant began his tale.
“It’d be about a week ago, sir, that Sir Anthony first asked for a lantern. Said he was going down into the crypt to have a look round. I wanted to go with him, but he wouldn’t have it. ‘Give me a lantern, Lorrimer,’ he says, ‘and don’t argue!’ So I finds him one, and down he goes. The entrance is under one of the flagstones in the hall, you know, sir, back of the staircase.
“He was gone about an hour, sir, and when he came up he looked a bit pale, I thought, and asked for a drink. But he said nothing. The next two days he went down again, sir; once he was gone for nearly two hours, and the missus and me got the wind up a bit, but he came back all right, looking white as a sheet, and trembling he was. I asked him straight then what he’d been up to, but he wouldn’t say. So I begged him not to go again. ‘There are some things as we’re not meant to know,’ I told him. He looked at me queerly, and said, ‘Lorrimer, you may be right. I’ll think about it.’ But that self-same night it happened, sir.”
“What happened?” Tony leant forward, gripped by a horrible excitement.
“Now don’t upset yourself, Mr. Tony,” Mrs. Lorrimer interjected, “or I shan’t let James tell you any more.”
“All right! But go on, man!” Tony’s throat was so dry he could scarcely speak.
“Well, you see, sir, before this Sir Anthony had only gone down in the daytime; this time he went at night. Perhaps that made a difference. Anyway, about three in the morning the missus woke me. ‘What’s that?’ she says. I listens. Then I hears it too. Somebody screaming, a long way off. Now, I’m no coward, Mr. Tony, as Missus’ll bear me out, but I didn’t want to leave my bed that night. But I told myself that God wouldn’t let no harm come to me; so I gets up, puts on my dressing-gown, takes my torch and a poker and goes to see what’s the matter.”
“That was a brave thing to do, Lorrimer.”
“Well, Mr. Tony, you see, I knew your father was in trouble — there was no one else to scream — at least, I hoped not — and I couldn’t fail him, could I? Well, when I got to the hall I found him. Lying beside the way to the crypt he was, in a dead faint. The trap was open, Mr. Tony, so I shut it quick and bolted it.”
“Why did you do that, Lorrimer?” Tony strove heroically to keep his voice steady.
The other hesitated, then he swallowed, and replied in a low voice:
“As God’s my witness, Mr. Tony, there was something down there. I don’t know what, and I hope I never shall.”
“Did you see anything?”
“No, it was pitch black. But I heard it, Mr. Tony. Breathing, it was. Panting, as you might say, like a beast after the chase.”
“Good God!”
“Yes, Mr. Tony, and I reckon He’s about the only one as can help us in this. Then I picks up Sir Anthony — he’s not a heavy man, but if he’d weighed twenty stone I don’t believe I’d’ve noticed it then — and I carried him back to this kitchen, where the missus was waiting for me. We got him up to our own bed, Mr. Tony, and after a bit he came to. It was awful, sir — awful it was. He kept crying out that It was after him, and other things which I won’t repeat, if you’ll excuse me, sir.
“We thought his mind’d go, and we didn’t know what to do, so we kept on giving him neat brandy. He drank it down as if it was water, and with no more effect, seemingly, till all of a sudden, when the bottle was nigh empty, he went under. Dead drunk, sir, and the best thing that could’ve happened, for he lay like that for hours, and we were able to get hold of Dr. Pellew. Now you know it all, sir. We hadn’t meant to tell you, but with you coming to us, so friendly like, we couldn’t keep it from you any longer, could we, Missus?”
“No, James,” his wife replied, “you’re right there. Mr. Tony had got to know sooner or later. But don’t take it too hard, sir. James may have imagined a lot of it; I never heard or saw anything. And even if it is all true, we must trust in God, mustn’t we, sir?”