by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS VISITATION
"Who's there?" demanded Christy Passford, sitting up in his bed, in themiddle of the night, in his room on the second floor of his father'spalatial mansion on the Hudson, where the young lieutenant was waitingfor a passage to the Gulf.
There was no answer to his inquiry.
"Who's there?" he repeated in a louder tone.
All was as still as it ought to be in the middle of the night, and noresponse came to his second inquiry. The brilliant young officer, whohad just passed his eighteenth birthday, knew what it was even betterthan an older person to pass a whole night on difficult duty, withouta wink of sleep, for he had been accustomed to spend a portion of everynight in planking the deck on his watch; but at Bonnydale, his quiethome, far removed from the scenes of actual conflict, he was anindustrious sleeper, giving his whole attention to his slumbers, as aproper preparation for the stirring scenes in which he was again aboutto engage.
He slept soundly; but he had dreamed that some one opened the door ofhis room, or some one had actually done so. He was not a believer indreams, and when an impression had fastened itself upon his mind, he wasinclined to investigate it. It seemed to him that he had been awakenedfrom his sleep by the opening of the door of his chamber. Some member ofthe family might be sick, and he might be needed to go for the doctor,or for some other service.
He leaped from his bed when no answer came to his second demand, lightedhis lamp, and put on his trousers. With the light in his hand, he openedthe door; but there was no one there, and not a sound of any kind couldbe heard. He walked about the hall in his bare feet, and listenedattentively at the doors of several of the chambers, especially at thatof Mr. Pembroke, the invalid gentleman whom, with his daughter, he hadbrought home as a passenger in the captured Vixen.
Christy heard nothing, and he silently descended the stairs to the lowerhall. All was as quiet there as upon the floor above, and he had begunto think that the impression he had received had been given him in adream, though he could not remember that he had been dreaming. But whenhe came to the front door, he found it was ajar. It was usually securedby a spring lock, and those who were liable to be out in the eveningwere provided with night-keys.
At the present time his father was in Washington, and he could not haveneglected to close the door. He had been to the railroad station to meetthe last train, thinking it possible that his father might return, andhe was confident that he had been the last to enter the house. He wasvery sure that he had not left the door unfastened, and this assurancemade him confident that some person had entered the house. The noise atthe door of his chamber was not an illusion or a dream: though it hadbeen made by closing rather than by opening it, or he would have beenlikely to find the intruder in his room when he lighted his lamp.
It seemed to him to be a matter of course that the midnight visitor hadcome into the mansion for the purpose of plundering its occupants, or ofsecuring the valuables it contained. Putting his lamp on the table, hewent out upon the veranda, and looked all about him. The grounds werevery extensive, and a broad avenue led to the street. It was very dark;but as he cast his eyes in the direction of the grand entrance to theestate, he discovered some dark object in motion; but he lost sight ofit in a moment.
It was a living being, or it would not move, and he was certain that hehad made a discovery. Then two regrets flashed through his mind as hestepped down from the veranda; the first, that he had not put on hisshoes before he left his chamber, and the second, that he had not takenhis pistols, for a bullet would travel a great deal faster than abarefooted officer, even of the United States Navy. But he ran with allhis speed to the street, to the great detriment of his uncovered feet.
He reached the grand entrance in an exceedingly short space of time;but he might as well have been in his chamber, for no ruffian, robber,or Confederate spy could be seen. He had no means of knowing which waythe intruder at the mansion had turned, to the right or the left, orwhether, like the timid colored gentleman in a trying situation, hehad taken to the woods. Christy walked up the street, and then down thestreet; but the underbrush had recently been cut in the grove, and hedid not venture to explore it without any protection for his feet.
He peered into the gloom of the night with all his eyes, and listenedwith all his ears for over an hour; and then, watchful and carefulofficer as he was, there were five hundred chances against him to onein his favor, of finding the intruder, and he reluctantly returned tothe mansion.
Like the other male occupants of the house, the lieutenant was providedwith a night-key. For one who had only just developed a tolerablythriving mustache, Christy was a prudent and methodical young gentleman.As a part of his method, he had a great many small drawers in his rooms,and a dozen or more keys; but he had never lost them, for the reasonthat he carried them chained to his nether garment. But he had two setsof keys, one for the house, and one for the ship. He had taken thenight-key from the former, and put it in his vest pocket; and when hereached the front door of the mansion, the key he wanted was in hischamber, and he had been careful to shut the door when he left thehouse.
He could not get in, and he walked around the building to find a windowwhich had not been closed. His mother had a reasonable dread of robbers,and she always looked out for the windows before she retired. He didnot wish to arouse the family by ringing the great gong bell, but it wastoo cold to spend the rest of the night out-doors in his half-clothedcondition, for he was as liable to take a severe cold as any lessbrilliant individual, and he might have to spend a month in his chamber,instead of reporting to the flag-officer of the Eastern Gulf squadron,in command of the Bronx.
He rang the bell, and the sound from it reverberated through the entiremansion. It was some time before a servant came to open the door; butthe man who let him in was astonished to see him partially dressed, andwondered if he had not been walking in his sleep. In the lower hall, hewas satisfied that the whole house was astir, for the gong which hadsounded was the "emergency bell," used only when the ordinary one at thefront door was not likely to be heard.
"Walsh!" called Mrs. Passford from the head of the stairs.
"Yes, ma'am," replied the man who had admitted Christy, and who wasstill wondering what fit, freak, or fancy had beset the young officer.
"Who is it? What is the matter?" demanded the lady of the mansion, intones which indicated anxiety if not alarm.
"It is Mr. Christy, ma'am; nothing is the matter," replied Walsh;but then he appeared to think that he had replied without properconsideration, and he revised his speech. "I don't know that anything'sthe matter, ma'am," and still he gazed at the young gentleman, as thoughhe deemed it possible that he had suddenly gone crazy.
"Nothing is the matter, mother," called Christy. "I am all right."
"But why are you out at this time of night, my son? It is nearly twoo'clock in the morning," said Mrs. Passford, as she descended thestairs. "You are not half dressed, Christy."
"But I am all right, mother, and there is not the least reason to worryabout anything, for the ship is not going to the bottom just yet,"replied Christy, indulging in a forced laugh to assist in quieting hismother's fears.
"But why are you out doors at this time of night?" Mrs. Passfordinsisted. "You will catch a cold that will lay you up, if you go outin that condition."
"I should not have rung that bell if I had not been afraid of takingcold," added the son.
"But, Christy, something has happened; and you must tell me about it, orI shall not sleep another wink to-night," persisted the lady, concludingthat her son was trying to conceal something from her, as indeed he was,for he feared it would alarm her if he told her some one had come intothe house.
"There is nothing to be frightened about, mother; and I will tell youall about it," added Christy, as he took his overcoat from the stand andput it on. "I waked an hour ago, or more, with the idea that some onehad opened the door of my room," and he related the circumstances t
o hismother, including his search in the grounds and the road.
"Do you think any one came into the house?" asked Mrs. Passford, thoughwith but little of the woman's terror that such a statement might havecaused.
"That is my decided opinion. A noise at my chamber door woke me; I foundthe front door ajar, though I know I closed it when I came in lastnight, and I saw something moving down the avenue, which could only havebeen a man. Of course, I conclude that it was a burglar; but none of ushave been killed or harmed."
Christy went to his room and completed his toilet. The house was warm,and he was soon comfortable enough after the out-door chill. By thistime Miss Florry Passford had put in an appearance in the upper hall,with Bertha Pembroke. The alarm was again briefly explained, and theinvalid gentleman was assured that nothing alarming had occurred. Thenthe young lieutenant and his mother proceeded to ascertain what theburglar had accomplished in the house.
On the lower floor nothing appeared to have been disturbed. In theparlor a gold watch, adorned with diamonds, had been left on the tableby Florry, who had forgotten it; but it had not been taken. The burglarcould not have helped seeing it if he had explored the house as suchgentry do on such occasions. In the dining-room no attempt to open thesteel safe set in the wall, which contained a vast amount of silver,jewelry, money, and other valuables, had been made. In a word,wherever they examined the rooms, no sign of any depredations could bediscovered. The burglar did not appear to have lunched in the pantrywhere some choice viands had been placed. The robber had certainlybeen very considerate, and had done no mischief either for plunder ordiversion. He had evidently, in the opinion of Mrs. Passford and herson, undertaken a profitless enterprise.
"But what could have been his object in coming into the house?" askedthe bewildered lady.
"I shall have to give it up, mother."
"He might have taken Florry's watch, she was so careless as to leave onthe table in the sitting-room," added she.
"But he did not."
"He could not have been disturbed until you spoke to him; and he mighthave ransacked the whole of the lower part of the house."
"But he did not."
They had given up the examination of the premises, and given up theconundrum, and Christy was leading the way up-stairs. He went into hisroom, followed by his mother.
"He must have come into your room, my son, or you would not have heardhim at the door. Perhaps he has robbed you," suggested Mrs. Passford.
The young officer declared he had nothing there to steal. As he spoke,he took from his coat pocket on the bedpost an envelope containing hiscommission and other papers. It was safe; so were his purse and watch.
The mystery was not solved till Christy embarked for the Gulf.