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Tunstall Moat House as speedily as might be; and yet, before he went, he
desired a word with both of these.
At length, with a lamp in one hand, he mounted to his new apartment. It
was large, low, and somewhat dark. The window looked upon the moat, and
although it was so high up, it was heavily barred. The bed was
luxurious, with one pillow of down and one of lavender, and a red
coverlet worked in a pattern of roses. All about the walls were
cupboards, locked and padlocked, and concealed from view by hangings of
dark-coloured arras. Dick made the round, lifting the arras, sounding
the panels, seeking vainly to open the cupboards. He assured himself
that the door was strong and the bolt solid; then he set down his lamp
upon a bracket, and once more looked all around.
For what reason had he been given this chamber? It was larger and finer
than his own. Could it conceal a snare? Was there a secret entrance?
Was it, indeed, haunted? His blood ran a little chilly in his veins.
Immediately over him the heavy foot of a sentry trod the leads. Below
him, he knew, was the arched roof of the chapel; and next to the chapel
was the hall. Certainly there was a secret passage in the hall; the eye
that had watched him from the arras gave him proof of that. Was it not
more than probable that the passage extended to the chapel, and, if so,
that it had an opening in his room?
To sleep in such a place, he felt, would be foolhardy. He made his
weapons ready, and took his position in a corner of the room behind the
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