On every side the aspect was the same,
All ruined, desolate, forlorn and savage,
No hand or foot within the precinct came
To rectify or ravage!
Here Echo never mocked the human tongue;
Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon.
A secret curse on that old Building hung
And its deserted garden!
Hood's Haunted House
Cap was a bit of a Don Quixote! The stirring incidents of the last few
months had spoiled her; the monotony of the last few weeks had bored
her; and now she had just rode out in quest of adventures.
The Old Hidden House, with its mysterious traditions, its gloomy
surroundings and its haunted reputation, had always possessed a
powerful attraction for one of Cap's adventurous spirit. To seek and
gaze upon the somber house, of which, and of whose inmates, such
terrible stories had been told or hinted, had always been a secret
desire and purpose of Capitola.
And now the presence there of a beautiful girl near her own age was the
one last item that tipped the balance, making the temptation to ride
thither outweigh every other consideration of duty, prudence and
safety. And having once started on the adventure, Cap felt the
attraction drawing her toward the frightful hollow of the Hidden House
growing stronger with every step taken thitherward.
She reached the banks of the "Demon's Run," and took the left-hand road
down the stream until she reached the left point of the Horse-Shoe
Mountain, and then going up around the point, she kept close under the
back of the range until she had got immediately in the rear of the
round bend of the "Horse Shoe," behind Hurricane Hall.
"Well," said Cap, as she drew rein here, and looked up at the lofty
ascent of gray rocks that concealed Hurricane Hall, "to have had to
come such a circuit around the outside of the 'Horse Shoe,' to find
myself just at the back of our old house, and no farther from home than
this! There's as many doubles and twists in these mountains as there
are in a lawyer's discourse! There, Gyp, you needn't turn back again
and pull at the bridle, to tell me that there is a storm coming up and
that you want to go home! I have no more respect for your opinion than
I have for Mrs. Condiment's. Besides, you carry a damsel-errant in
quest of adventures, Gyp, and so you must on, Gyp--you must on!" said
Capitola, forcibly pulling her horse's head around, and then taking a
survey of the downward path.