Read "The Vaults of Blackarden Castle" by Arthur Gask online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE NEXT day was indeed a long one for the lord of Blackarden and many, many times he wondered if all their surmises would fall like a house of cards to the ground and the dawn break on the morrow with nothing having happened. He wondered the more that evening at dinner with the gallant major at his best. The other two visitors having gone away that morning, there were only five of them at the meal, and to young Avon's secret annoyance, his friend paying his accustomed attention to the ladies seemed yet to look at Penelope far more than at anybody else.
Mangan was certainly in a happy frame of mind. The more he thought about it the more he was pleased that all he had to do in the forthcoming attempt to obtain possession of the jewels was to get Captain Michaeloff and his companion into the castle. Very doubtful that they would meet with the easy success they were anticipating, he wanted to be mixed up in the whole business as little as possible. Looking ahead to the time when Avon would be lord of the castle and a plump pigeon to be plucked, whether or not Michaeloff did manage to get hold of the jewels, he was determined no suspicion should have fallen upon himself.