pressed a small but scarcely perceptible knob of brass in the wall,
and at once, what appeared to be the surface of the rock, slid back,
discovering a dark space behind. "Come on, now, after me," continued
he. Linton followed, and they ascended a narrow stair constructed in the
substance of the wall, and barely sufficient to admit one person.

Arriving at the top, after a few seconds' delay, Tom opened a small
door, and they stood in a large and well-proportioned room, where some
worm-eaten bed-furniture yet remained. The door had been once, as a
small, fragment of glass showed, the frame of a large mirror, and must
have been quite beyond the reach of ordinary powers of detection.

"That was a cunning way to steal down among the play acthers," said
Keane, grinning, while Linton, with the greatest attention, remarked the
position of the door and its secret fastening.

"I suppose no one but yourself knows of this stair?" said Linton.

"Sorra one, sir, except, maybe, some of the smugglers that used to
come here long ago from the mouth of the Shannon. This was one of their
hiding-places."

"Well, if this old mansion comes ever to be inhabited, one might have
rare fun by means of that passage; so be sure, you keep the secret well.
Let that be a padlock on your lips." And, so saying, he took a sovereign
from his purse and gave it to him. "Your name is--"

"Tom, yer honer--Tom Keane; and, by this and by that, I'm ready to do
yer honer's bidding from this hour out--"

"Well, we shall be good friends, I see," interrupted Linton; "you may,
perhaps, be useful to me, and I can also be able to serve you. Now,
which is the regular entrance to this chamber?"

"There, sir; it's the last door as ye see in the long passage. Them is
all bedrooms alone there, but it's not safe to walk down, for the floor
is rotten."

Linton noted down in a memory far from defective the circumstances of
the chamber, and then followed his guide through the remainder of the
house, which in every quarter presented the same picture of ruin and
decay.

"The bit of candle is near out," said Tom, "but sure there is n't much
more to be seen; there's rooms there was never opened, and more on the
other side, the same. The place is as big as a barrack, and here we are
once more on the grand stair."

For once, the name was not ill applied, as, constructed of Portland
stone, and railed with massive banisters of iron, it presented features
of solidity and en