Varney the Vampire 1(46)

 

"Who's there? who's there?"

 

The echo of his own voice alone answered him for a few moments, and then he heard a door open, and a voice, which he knew to be Henry's, cried,--

 

"What is it? who speaks?"

 

"Henry," said Charles.

 

"Yes--yes--yes."

 

"I fear I have disturbed you."

 

"You have been disturbed yourself, or you would not have done so. I shall be with you in a moment."

 

Henry closed his door before Charles Holland could tell him not to come to him, as he intended to do, for he felt ashamed to have, in a manner of speaking, summoned assistance for so trifling a cause of alarm as that to which he had been subjected. However, he could not go to Henry's chamber to forbid him from coming to his, and, more vexed than before, he retired to his room again to await his coming.

 

He left the door open now, so that Henry Bannerworth, when he had got on some articles of dress, walked in at once, saying,--

 

"What has happened, Charles?"

 

"A mere trifle, Henry, concerning which I am ashamed you should have been at all disturbed."

 

"Never mind that, I was wakeful."

 

"I heard a door open, which kept me listening, but I could not decide which door it was till I heard your voice in the corridor."

 

"Well, it was this door; and I opened it twice in consequence of the repeated taps for admission that came to it; some one has been knocking at it, and, when I go to it, lo! I can see nobody."

 

"Indeed!"

 

[Illustration]

 

"Such is the case."

 

"You surprise me."

 

"I am very sorry to have disturbed you, because, upon such a ground, I do not feel that I ought to have done so; and, when I called out in the corridor, I assure you it was with no such intention."

 

"Do not regret it for a moment," said Henry; "you were quite justified in making an alarm on such an occasion."

 

"It's strange enough, but still it may arise from some accidental cause; admitting, if we did but know it, of some ready enough explanation."

 

"It may, certainly, but, after what has happened already, we may well suppose a mysterious connexion between any unusual sight or sound, and the fearful ones we have already seen."

 

"Certainly we may."

 

"How earnestly that strange portrait seems to look upon us, Charles."

 

"It does, and I have been examining it carefully. It seems to have been removed lately."

 

"Removed!"

 

"Yes, I think, as far as I can judge, that it has been taken from its frame; I mean, that the panel on which it is painted has been taken out."

 

"Indeed!"

 

"If you touch it you will find it loose, and, upon a close examination, you will perceive that a piece of the moulding which holds it in its place has been chipped off, which is done in such a place that I think it could only have arisen during the removal of the picture."

 

"You must be mistaken."

 

"I cannot, of course, take upon myself, Henry, to say precisely such is the case," said Charles.

 

"But there is no one here to do so."

 

"That I cannot say. Will you permit me and assist me to remove it? I have a great curiosity to know what is behind it."

 

"If you have, I certainly will do so. We thought of taking it away altogether, but when Flora left this room the idea was given up as useless. Remain here a few moments, and I will endeavour to find something which shall assist us in its removal."

 

Henry left the mysterious chamber in order to search in his own for some means of removing the frame-work of the picture, so that the panel would slip easily out, and while he was gone, Charles Holland continued gazing upon it with greater interest, if possible, than before.

 

In a few minutes Henry returned, and although what he had succeeded in finding were very inefficient implements for the purpose, yet with this aid the two young men set about the task.

 

It is said, and said truly enough, that "where there is a will there is a way," and although the young men had no tools at all adapted for the purpose, they did succeed in removing the moulding from the sides of the panel, and then by a little tapping at one end of it, and using a knife at a lever at the other end of the panel, they got it fairly out.

 

Disappointment was all they got for their pains. On the other side there was nothing but a rough wooden wall, against which the finer and more nicely finished oak panelling of the chamber rested.

 

"There is no mystery here," said Henry.

 

"None whatever," said Charles, as he tapped the wall with his knuckles, and found it all hard and sound. "We are foiled."