“Thanks,” Roger returned dryly. “I’ve been waiting for a remark like that for some hours.”
“Yes, but this really is interesting. Secret passages and—and hidden chambers and what-nots. Jolly romantic, and all that. I’m all in favour of unearthing it.”
“Well, here we are, and the scent ought to be strong. Let’s get down to it.”
“What shall we do?” asked Alec, staring curiously round the walls as if he expected the secret door to fly suddenly open if he looked hard enough.
“Well, first of all, I think we’d better examine this panelling. Now, let’s see; this wall where the fireplace is backs on to the drawing room, doesn’t it? And this one behind the safe on to the storeroom and a little bit of the hall. So that if there is a door or anything, the probability is that it will be in one of those two walls; it’s not likely to be in either of the outside ones. Well, I tell you what we’d better do. You examine the panelling in here, and I’ll scout round on the other side of the walls and see if I can spot anything there.”
“Right-ho,” said Alec, beginning to scrutinise the fireplace wall with great earnestness.
Roger made his way out into the hall and thence to the drawing room. The dividing wall between that room and the library was covered with paper, and one or two china cabinets stood against it. After a cursory peep or two behind these, Roger mentally wrote that wall off, at any rate, as blameless. The storeroom, similarly, was so full up with trunks and lumber as to be out of the question.
Roger returned to the library, to find Alec industriously tapping panels.
“I say,” said the latter, “several of these panels sound hollow.”
“Well, there’s no way through either into the drawing room or the storeroom, I’m convinced,” Roger remarked, closing the door behind him. “So that I don’t think it’s much use trying those walls haphazard.”
Alec paused. “What about a secret chamber, though? That wouldn’t necessarily need a way straight through. It might come out anywhere.”
“I thought of that. But the walls aren’t thick enough. They’re only about eighteen inches through. No, let’s go and have a look at it from the outside. There might possibly be some way into the garden.”
They went out through the open windows and contemplated the redbrick walls attentively.
“Doesn’t look very hopeful, does it?” said Alec.
“I’m afraid not,” Roger admitted. “No, I fear that the secret-door theory falls to the ground. I thought it would somehow.”
“Oh? Why?”
“Well, this house doesn’t belong to the Stanworths, you see, and they’ve only been here a month or so. I don’t suppose they’d know anything about secret passages, even if there were any.”
“No, but the other fellow might.”
“The murderer? It isn’t likely, is it?”
“I hate giving up the idea,” said Alec reluctantly. “After all, it’s the only possible explanation of his disappearance, as far as I can see.”
Roger suddenly smote his hands together. “By Jove! There’s one hope left. Idiot not to have thought of it before! The fireplace!”
“The fireplace?”
“Of course! That’s where most of these old houses have their secret hiding places. It will be there if anywhere.”
He hurried back into the library, Alec close at his heels. There he stopped suddenly short.
“Oh, Lord, I was forgetting that the blessed place had been bricked in so very thoroughly.” He gazed at the modern intrusion without enthusiasm. “That’s hopeless, I’m afraid.”
Alec looked thoughtfully round the room. “I don’t think we’ve examined these walls enough, you know,” he remarked hopefully. “There’s plenty of scope in this panelling really.”
Roger shook his head. “It’s just possible, but I’m very much afraid that—” He caught a sudden and violent frown from Alec, and broke off in mid-sentence. The door was opening softly.
The next moment Jefferson entered.
“Oh, hullo, you two,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you. Can you manage to look after yourselves for the afternoon? Lady Stanworth and Mrs. Plant are in their rooms. Both naturally rather upset. And I’ve got to go into the town to see about a few things.”
“Oh, we’ll be all right,” Roger said easily. “Please don’t bother about us.”
Jefferson glanced round.
“Looking for a book?” he asked.
“No,” said Roger quickly. “As a matter of fact, I was studying this overmantel. I’m rather interested in that sort of thing—carving, and panelling, and old houses. This is really rather a wonderful room. What’s the date, do you know? Early Jacobean, I should say.”
“Somewhere about that,” Jefferson said indifferently. “I don’t know the actual date, I’m afraid.”
“Very interesting period,” Roger commented. “And there’s usually a priest-hole or something like that in houses built at that time. Anything of the sort here? There ought to be, you know.”
“Can’t say, I’m afraid,” Jefferson replied, a little impatiently. “Never heard of one, at any rate. Well, I must be getting along.”
As the door closed behind him, Roger turned to Alec.
“I didn’t expect anything, but I thought I might as well try it. He didn’t give anything away, though, whether he knew or not. On the whole, I should say that he didn’t know.”
“Why?”
“He was far too offhand to be lying. If he wanted to put us off, he’d have elaborated somewhat, I fancy. Well, if we can’t find our secret door, we must try other means of providing an exit for our man. That leaves us with one door and three windows. We’ll try the door first.”
The door proved to be a massive piece of wood, with a large and efficient lock. Except where the socket in the lintel had been torn away in the efforts to force an entrance, it was still undamaged.
“Well, that’s out of the question, at any rate,” Roger said with decision. “I don’t see how anybody could possibly have got out through that and left it locked on the inside, with the key still in the lock. It might have been done with a pair of
