“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.