e
till he came to the narrow entry he had once traversed, leading up
from the river to the door of the house where he had seen Catesby
and his companions at their mysterious toil. The house looked dark
as night now. Not a single gleam penetrated the gloom. Already the
last of the twilight had faded into night, but no ray of any kind
shone from any of the casements.

Cuthbert stood looking thoughtfully up at the house, hardly knowing
why he did so, his fancy running riot in his excited brain and
conjuring up all manner of fantastic visions, when suddenly and
silently the door opened. A gleam of light from behind showed in
relief the figure of a tall man muffled in a cloak, a soft felt hat
being drawn over the brow and effectually concealing the features;
but one glance sufficed to convince Cuthbert that this cloaked and
muffled individual was none other than the same tall dark man who
had produced the holy water blessed by the Pope and had had it
sprinkled around the spot where those mysterious men were at work
in Percy's house. Filled with a burning curiosity that rendered him
impervious to the thought of personal risk, Cuthbert first shrank
into a dark recess, and then with hushed and noiseless footfall
followed the tall figure in its walk.

The cloaked man walked quietly, but without any appearance of fear.
He skirted round the great block of buildings of which the Houses
of Parliament were composed, until he reached a door in the rear of
that building, within a deep arch sunk a little way below the level
of the ground, and this door he opened, but closed it after him,
and locked it on the inside.

Unable to follow further, Cuthbert put his ear to the keyhole, and
heard distinctly the sound of footsteps descending stone stairs
till the sound changed to the unbarring of a lower door, and then
all was silence.

Cuthbert looked keenly around him, and soon made out that these
steps must certainly lead down to the cellar beneath the Parliament
Houses of which he had recently heard. That other cellar he had
visited so many months before was close at hand--close to these
great buildings; and this tall dark man seemed to have some
mysterious connection with both.

What could it all mean? what did it mean? Cuthbert felt as though
he were on the eve of some strange discovery, but what that
discovery could be he could not guess.

He was aroused from his reverie by the sound of approaching
footfalls along the roadway, a