thought that that time and the evil of it had all passed away."

"That will do. Go away; but remain in your own room, or within call. I
may want you."

The old man bowed deeply and went out trembling, but without speaking a
word.




CHAPTER XII--THE CHEST OPENED


Left alone in the turret-room, Edgar Caswall carefully locked the door
and hung a handkerchief over the keyhole. Next, he inspected the
windows, and saw that they were not overlooked from any angle of the main
building. Then he carefully examined the trunk, going over it with a
magnifying glass. He found it intact: the steel bands were flawless; the
whole trunk was compact. After sitting opposite to it for some time, and
the shades of evening beginning to melt into darkness, he gave up the
task and went to his bedroom, after locking the door of the turret-room
behind him and taking away the key.

He woke in the morning at daylight, and resumed his patient but
unavailing study of the metal trunk. This he continued during the whole
day with the same result--humiliating disappointment, which overwrought
his nerves and made his head ache. The result of the long strain was
seen later in the afternoon, when he sat locked within the turret-room
before the still baffling trunk, distrait, listless and yet agitated,