Henry and Agnes were left alone in the Room of the Caryatides.
The person who had written the description of the palace--probably a poor author or artist--had correctly pointed out the defects of the mantel-piece. Bad taste, exhibiting itself on the most costly and splendid scale, was visible in every part of the work. It was nevertheless greatly admired by ignorant travellers of all classes; partly on account of its imposing size, and partly on account of the number of variously-coloured marbles which the sculptor had contrived to introduce into his design.
Photographs of the mantel-piece were exhibited in the public rooms, and found a ready sale among English and American visitors to the hotel.
Henry led Agnes to the figure on the left, as they stood facing the empty fire-place. 'Shall I try the experiment,' he asked, 'or will you?'
She abruptly drew her arm away from him, and turned back to the door.
'I can't even look at it,' she said. 'That merciless marble face frightens me!'
Henry put his hand on the forehead of the figure. 'What is there to alarm you, my dear, in this conventionally classical face?' he asked jestingly. Before he could press the head inwards, Agnes hurriedly opened the door. 'Wait till I am out of the room!' she cried. 'The bare idea of what you may find there horrifies me!'
She looked back into the room as she crossed the threshold.
'I won't leave you altogether,' she said, 'I will wait outside.'
She closed the door. Left by himself, Henry lifted his hand once more to the marble forehead of the figure.
For the second time, he was checked on the point of setting the machinery of the hiding-place in motion. On this occasion, the interruption came from an outbreak of friendly voices in the corridor. A woman's voice exclaimed, 'Dearest Agnes, how glad I am to see you again!' A man's voice followed, offering to introduce some friend to 'Miss Lockwood.' A third voice (which Henry recognised as the voice of the manager of the hotel)became audible next, directing the housekeeper to show the ladies and gentlemen the vacant apartments at the other end of the corridor.
'If more accommodation is wanted,' the manager went on, 'I have a charming room to let here.' He opened the door as he spoke, and found himself face to face with Henry Westwick.
'This is indeed an agreeable surprise, sir!' said the manager cheerfully.
'You are admiring our famous chimney-piece, I see. May I ask, Mr. Westwick, how you find yourself in the hotel, this time?
Have the supernatural influences affected your appetite again?'
'The supernatural influences have spared me, this time,' Henry answered.
'Perhaps you may yet find that they have affected some other member of the family.' He spoke gravely, resenting the familiar tone in which the manager had referred to his previous visit to the hotel.
'Have you just returned?' he asked, by way of changing the topic.
'Just this minute, sir. I had the honour of travelling in the same train with friends of yours who have arrived at the hotel--Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Barville, and their travelling companions.
Miss Lockwood is with them, looking at the rooms. They will be here before long, if they find it convenient to have an extra room at their disposal.'
This announcement decided Henry on exploring the hiding-place, before the interruption occurred. It had crossed his mind, when Agnes left him, that he ought perhaps to have a witness, in the not very probable event of some alarming discovery taking place.
The too-familiar manager, suspecting nothing, was there at his disposal.
He turned again to the Caryan figure, maliciously resolving to make the manager his witness.
'I am delighted to hear that our friends have arrived at last,' he said.
'Before I shake hands with them, let me ask you a question about this queer work of art here. I see photographs of it downstairs.
Are they for sale?'
'Certainly, Mr. Westwick!'
'Do you think the chimney-piece is as solid as it looks?'
Henry proceeded. 'When you came in, I was just wondering whether this figure here had not accidentally got loosened from the wall behind it.'
He laid his hand on the marble forehead, for the third time.
'To my eye, it looks a little out of the perpendicular.
I almost fancied I could jog the head just now, when I touched it.'
He pressed the head inwards as he said those words.
A sound of jarring iron was instantly audible behind the wall.
The solid hearthstone in front of the fire-place turned slowly at the feet of the two men, and disclosed a dark cavity below.
At the same moment, the strange and sickening combination of odours, hitherto associated with the vaults of the old palace and with the bed-chamber beneath, now floated up from the open recess, and filled the room.
The manager started back. 'Good God, Mr. Westwick!' he exclaimed, 'what does this mean?'
Remembering, not only what his brother Francis had felt in the room beneath, but what the experience of Agnes had been on the previous night, Henry was determined to be on his guard.
'I am as much surprised as you are,' was his only reply.
'Wait for me one moment, sir,' said the manager. 'I must stop the ladies and gentlemen outside from coming in.'
He hurried away--not forgetting to close the door after him.
Henry opened the window, and waited there breathing the purer air.
Vague apprehensions of the next discovery to come, filled his mind for the first time. He was doubly resolved, now, not to stir a step in the investigation without a witness.
The manager returned with a wax taper in his hand, which he lighted as soon as he entered the room.
'We need fear no interruption now,' he said. 'Be so kind, Mr. Westwick, as to hold the light. It is my business to find out what this extraordinary discovery means.'
Henry held the taper. Looking into the cavity, by the dim and flickering light, they both detected a dark object at the bottom of it.
'I think I can reach the thing,' the manager remarked, 'if I lie down, and put my hand into the hole.'
