n the passage, coming towards her room. Was it he? In
spite of her high resolves she felt that if the door opened she should
scream! She held her breath--the footsteps came nearer--were before her
door--and PASSED!

Then it was that the blood rushed back to her cheek with a flush of
indignation. Her room was at the end of the passage; there was nothing
beyond but a private staircase, long disused, except by herself, as a
short cut through the old patio to the garden. No one else knew of
it, and no one else had the right of access to it! This insolent human
intrusion--as she was satisfied it was now--overcame her fear, and
she glided to the door. Opening it softly, she could hear the stealthy
footsteps descending. She darted back, threw a shawl over her head and
shoulders, and taking the small Derringer pistol which it had always
been part of her ostentatious independence to place at her bed-head,
she as stealthily followed the intruder. But the footsteps had died
away before she reached the patio, and she saw only the small deserted,
grass-grown courtyard, half hidden in shadows, in whose centre stood the
fateful and long sealed-up well! A shudder came over her at again being
brought into contact with the cause of her frightful vision, but as her
eyes became accustomed to the darkness, she saw something more real and
appalling! The well was no longer sealed! Fragments of bricks and boards
lay around it! One end of a rope, coiled around it like a huge snake,
descended its foul depths; and as she gazed with staring eyes, the
head and shoulders of a man emerged slowly from it! But it was NOT the
ghostly apparition of last evening, and her terror changed to scorn and
indignation as she recognized the face of Starbuck!

Their eyes met; an oath broke from his lips. He made a movement to
spring from the well, but as the girl started back, the pistol held
in her hand was discharged aimlessly in the air, and the report echoed
throughout the courtyard. With a curse Starbuck drew back, instantly
disappeared in the well, and Polly fell fainting on the steps. When she
came to, her father and Larry were at her side. They had been alarmed
at the report, and had rushed quickly to the patio, but not in time to
prevent the escape of Starbuck and his accomplice. By the time she had
recovered her consciousness, they had learned the full extent of that
extraordinary revelation which she had so innocently precipitated.
Sobriente's well had