The boy was bold enough, but the mysterious sound on the edge of that dark wood caused his pulses to beat a bit quicker. What could it be?
Gradually, as he stood still among the trees, the sound drew closer.
“Ghosts in story books always clank chains,” thought Roy, to himself. “Now if I believed in such things, I––”
He stopped short abruptly, as, from behind a clump of brush in the direction from whence the clanking had proceeded, there suddenly emerged a tall form all in white.
“Good gracious!” cried Roy, considerably startled by the sight of this sudden apparition. “I do believe––”
But at the sight of the white form he had involuntarily given a backward step. Without the slightest warning he felt the ground suddenly give way under his feet, and his body shot down through space.
Down, down he shot, a hundred mad thoughts twisting dizzily in his head.
All at once his progress was arrested. Before he could realize what had happened he felt a flood of icy cold water close over his head and a mighty ringing and roaring in his ears.
But Roy was used to diving, and he automatically, almost, held his breath till he shot to the surface again. Then he extended his hands and found that his fingers encountered a rough stone wall of some kind.
“I’m in an old well,” gasped the boy as the truth suddenly flashed across him. He looked upward. Far above him, as if seen through a telescope, he could see the glittering stars. They were reflected, also, in the agitated water about him.