Page:Weird Tales v15n01 1930-01.djvu/107

throwing ghastly shadows on the rafters overhead. The place was damp and chilly and silent. Aye, thought Davie, Newgate was a vile place.

Finally Kidd paused, and carefully stepping over a twisted figure huddled in a pool of blood, half turned and held the light.

"'Twas necessary, lad," he muttererd hoarsely and the younger man nodded understandingly. "Look to the stairs!"

They ascended four steps of rough masonry and stood before a heavy door. Kidd now snuffed the light within the lantern and they were left amid the inky blackness of the passage. As his rescuer slowly pushed the door ajar, Davie started forward with a sense of impending expectation.

The place was as black as the grave; not a glimmer of light shone in the room. Davie, ill-acquainted with the intricate interiors of Newgate, had difficulty in clinging close to Kidd, and in the absolute darkness lost him more than once. Their eery and mysterious position was terrifying in its possibilities. The inequalities of the pavement retarded their progress, while a chasm of denser darkness threatened ambuscades. Davie, bewildered, became certain of one thing. He could hear the labored breathing of men. They were passing through a guardroom.

Kidd, with an uncanny sense of familiarity, gained some notion of the whereabouts of the door, and Davie hoped speedily to find himself well away; but he reckoned without that chapter of accidents which was to make this night memorable above all others in his career.

Reaching the door they listened intently. The rain had ceased, with the rumble of thunder growing fainter and fainter. Aside from the moaning of the wind another sound came from without. Slowly Kidd raised the latch that secured the door and silently he drew it open. Outside in the huge doorway a lone guard paced sleepily back and forth. 'Twas possible they might have evaded his notice, but unfortunately Davie's foot rolled upon a pebble, he fell against the wall with an ejaculation, and his scabbard clanked noisily on the stone flagging. From the side of the doorway the guard picked up a lantern and slowly advanced toward the source of the disturbance he had heard. His sword unsheathed, Kidd stepped out to confront him.

Verily, never in all his experience had this guard encountered anything which approached in acute and sustained horror this apparition he beheld within the yellow rays of the upheld lantern. With quivering limbs he stared as if at a nightmare, his ashen-gray face and bulging eyes glistening grotesquely in the reflected rays of his light.

Anon he found his voice.

"Kidd!" he screamed. "Captain Kidd!"

The lantern crashed to the flagging and the man was off, his cries for the captain of the guard mingling with the screaming of the wind.

"'Od's blood!" cried Kidd. "The fellow will raise the guard. To the gate, lad!" Davie felt the icy coldness of the hand that clutched his own. "Follow close and fast, Davie, for now we play at bowls with destiny!"

As they hastened after the guard the wind smote them with a mad howl of exultation, a sullen roar of encouragement. Betimes in their flight Davie was concerned with the certain strangeness attached to Kidd, and bethought him of the strange actions of the guard; yet was there no answer to his increasing perplexity. Nor did he trouble to analyze. He was minded foremost with the question of whether or not they would escape.

Against the buffeting wind they