Well, well, perhaps not Sepoys--too big, too
big--but I could hide all the State papers of the Presidency. There are
drawers enough for that.'
Hartfield watched him intently, with thoughtful brow. There was a
mystery here, a mystery of the deepest dye; and it was for him--it must
needs be his task, welcome or unwelcome, to unravel it.
This was the Maulevrier skeleton.
'Now, come with me,' said the old man, clutching Mary's wrist, and
drawing her towards the half-open door leading into the bedroom.
She had a feeling of shrinking, for there was something uncanny about
the old man, something that might be life or death, might belong to this
world or the next; but she had no fear. In the first place, she was
courageous by nature, and in the second her husband was with her, a
tower of strength, and she could know no fear while he was at her side.
The strange old man led the way across his bedroom to an inner chamber,
oak pannelled, with very little furniture, but holding much treasure in
the shape of trunks, portmanteaux--all very old and dusty--and two large
wooden cases, banded with iron.
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