But what it be, you'll be better able to tell than I be, sir."
"Perhaps a chest for holding the communion-plate in old time," I said. "But
how should it then come to be banished to the tower?"
"No, sir; it can't be that. It be some sort of ancient musical piano, I be
thinking."
I stooped and saw that its lid was shaped like the cover of an organ. With
some difficulty I opened it; and there, to be sure, was a row of huge keys,
fit for the fingers of a Cyclops. I pressed upon them, one after another,
but no sound followed. They were stiff to the touch; and once down, so they
mostly remained until lifted again. I looked if there was any sign of a
bellows, thinking it must have been some primitive kind of reed-instrument,
like what we call a seraphine or harmonium now-a-days. But there was no
hole through which there could have been any communication with or from a
bellows, although there might have been a small one inside. There were,
however, a dozen little round holes in the fixed part of the top, which
might afford some clue to the mystery of its former life. I could not find
any way of reaching the inside of it, so strongly was it put together;
therefore I was left, I thought, to the efforts of my imagination alone
for any hope of discovery with regard to the instrument, seeing further
observation was impossible.
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