As this thought passed through Archie’s mind, he sprang to his feet, the cold perspiration starting out anew from every pore in his body, and his heart beating fast and furiously. What would the old Spaniard think when he found that one of his guests was missing, and, above all, what would he do? If he was an innocent man, and Archie’s suspicions regarding him were without any foundation, he would hunt him up and release him; there would be a hearty laugh all around; and the Don would have a long story to tell about the passage-way, the reasons why he had built it, and the use he had made of it. But suppose that Archie’s suspicions were correct—that Don Carlos was really one of the robbers, and that the passage led to some underground cavern where he and his men concealed their plunder—what would he do when he found that his secret had been discovered? Archie did not stop to answer this question, but once more searched all over the door for the spring; but with no better success than before. Then he pounded upon the door, and called his cousin; but the walls were thick, and the sound of his voice did not reach Frank, who read on in blissful ignorance of what was transpiring on the other side of the painting.
“He must have gone out,” said Archie, now beginning to be thoroughly alarmed, “and I am left to my own resources, which are scarce, I can tell you. What if one of the band should come up here with a light?”
Archie pulled his revolver from his pocket, faced about, and peered through the darkness in the direction of the stairs, listening intently, and almost imagining that he heard light footsteps approaching. But he was alone in the passage-way, and having satisfied himself on this point, he leaned against the wall to think over the situation, and determine upon some course of action.
“It would be awkward to be caught here—for the robber, I mean, for it is my opinion that he would go down those stairs with much greater haste than he came up. Of course there must be two ends to this passage, and as I can not get out here, I must try some other way of escape. I can’t be in a much worse fix than I am now.”
As Archie said this, he put his revolver into his pocket again, and began feeling his way along the wall toward the stairs. It was a dangerous undertaking, for the floor might be full of trap-doors, for all he knew, and one of them might open beneath his feet at any moment, and let him down into some dungeon; or, he might run against one of the robbers in the darkness, who would slip a lasso around his neck, and make a prisoner of him before he could raise an arm to defend himself. He reached the head of the stairs, however, without any such misfortune, and slowly and cautiously felt his way to the bottom. There he found himself in a passage-way which ran at right angles with the one above. After a moment’s deliberation, he decided that if he followed it to the left it would lead him under the court (through which Frank was, at that very moment, running a race with Pedro for the gate), and that was the way Archie did not want to go. By turning to the right, if the passage ran far enough in that direction, he would reach the bank of the creek, and there he might find some way of escape. Having decided this point, he was about to move on again, when he was frightened nearly out of his senses by hearing a whisper close at his elbow:
“Beppo, is this you?”
The fight for which Archie had been bracing his nerves ever since he first made up his mind to visit Don Carlos’ rancho, was to come off now—he was sure of that. He was much calmer than he had thought he could be under such circumstances, but still he trembled violently in every limb as he drew his revolver, and thrust it straight out before him in the direction from which the voice came. A person thinks rapidly when in danger, and during the moment’s pause that followed the question thus unexpectedly propounded to him, Archie thought over and rejected a dozen wild schemes which suggested themselves to him. One, however, he accepted. He would reveal himself to the man, and if the latter would agree to show him the way above ground, it would be all right; he would then be willing to believe that Don Carlos was an honest man, and that there was nothing wrong about him or his rancho. But if the man made an outcry, and began shouting for help, or tried to secure him, he would give him some idea of American pluck and muscle.
“Beppo, is that you?” asked the voice again, in the same cautious whisper. Then, before Archie had time to act on the resolution he had just formed, the man, whoever he was, continued: “here are the keys. We shall be ready in half an hour. Follow this gang-way, and enter the first door on your left. Be sure and lock the door after you, because there’s always somebody roaming about here, and you might be discovered. Do your work well, now, and the revolver is yours.”
A moment afterward Archie stood holding a bunch of keys in his hand, and listening with beating heart to the retreating footsteps of the man, who was hurrying toward the other end of the passage. He had never been more excited and alarmed in his life. If the man had brought a lantern with him, the fight he had been expecting would certainly have come off.