Excited by this extraordinary circumstance, Ned drew his sword, and determined to run all hazards to see where it would end.
He gave the pistols to Tim, with orders to load them, and walked fearlessly up to the figure, which, turning on its heels, took the direction it came in by!
Tim, though fond of his young master, followed reluctantly.
“For,” as he was heard to say afterwards, “he was sure it was a skeleton, and bullet proof, as he had never yet missed his aim, and that had he been the devil himself he would have brought him down.”
They proceeded for a considerable time through a dark hall, which must have had a secret door that had escaped their observation, since, in their search above mentioned, they had seen nothing of the kind.
Suddenly, at the end of the hall, which gradually became lighter, the figure disappeared, and Ned Warbeck, with his servant, Tim, felt the floor give way under them, and soon perceived they were descending at a rapid rate by the means of some invisible machine!
CHAPTER XXXVI.
MR. PHILLIP’S MARRIED LIFE.
All Mr. Redgill’s calculations for worldly prosperity had hitherto proved untrue.