Page:Love's trilogy.djvu/332

 322 'GOD'S PEACE'

They start on their ghostly journey from the castle to the fjord. Now they are swimming, now they are walking, across the boards. Only keep quiet, they won't come up here, but just follow their accustomed way. They make quite a caravan; they are hastening down to the old secret passage, over which they watch so that nobody shall disturb its haunted sleep in the darkness of mysterious legend.'

' What have the rats to do with the secret passage ? ' asks Greta.

'Come along, and I will tell you.'

I lead her to a trap-door in the corner of the yard. Through the trap, which I open, we look down into a dark, stone vault, from which comes up to us a clammy, misty, funereal atmosphere.

' When these crypt-like vaults — we won't enter them, for at this hour it is scarcely comfortable — were excavated during the last century it is said that they found again the secret passage which for years and years had been lost, and which they had ceased to believe had ever existed. One of the workmen offered to enter, and with great expect- ancy the others awaited the result. They heard his step and his gay song further and further away. It seemed clear that the passage was open. Then everything grew quiet. They waited and waited, but he never came back. The town magistrate promised freedom to a prisoner if he would make another attempt. He was a happy-go-lucky fellow who feared neither God nor devil. He made the