I had a blister on my palm when at last the hatchet went through and

fell with what sounded like the report of a gun to my overstrained

nerves. I sat on a trunk, waiting to hear Liddy fly up the stairs,

with the household behind her, like the tail of a comet. But nothing

happened, and with a growing feeling of uncanniness I set to work

enlarging the opening.

The result was absolutely nil. When I could hold a lighted candle in

the opening, I saw precisely what I had seen on the other side of the

chimney--a space between the true wall and the false one, possibly

seven feet long and about three feet wide. It was in no sense of the

word a secret chamber, and it was evident it had not been disturbed

since the house was built. It was a supreme disappointment.

It had been Mr. Jamieson's idea that the hidden room, if there was one,

would be found somewhere near the circular staircase. In fact, I knew

that he had once investigated the entire length of the clothes chute,

hanging to a rope, with this in view. I was reluctantly about to

concede that he had been right, when my eyes fell on the mantel and

fireplace. The latter had evidently never been used: it was closed

with a metal fire front, and only when the front refused to move, and

investigation showed that it was not intended to be moved, did my

spirits revive.

I hurried into the next room. Yes, sure enough, there was a similar

mantel and fireplace there, similarly closed. In both rooms the

chimney flue extended well out from the wall. I measured with the

tape-line, my hands trembling so that I could scarcely hold it. They

extended two feet and a half into each room, which, with the three feet

of space between the two partitions, made eight feet to be accounted

for. Eight feet in one direction and almost seven in the other--what a

chimney it was!

But I had only located the hidden room. I was not in it, and no amount

of pressing on the carving of the wooden mantels, no search of the

floors for loose boards, none of the customary methods availed at all.

That there was a means of entrance, and probably a simple one, I could

be certain. But what? What would I find if I did get in? Was the

detective right, and were the bonds and money from the Traders' Bank

there? Or was our whole theory wrong? Would not Paul Armstrong have

taken his booty with him? If he had not, and if Doctor Walker was in

the secret, he would have known how to enter the chimney room.

Then--who had dug the other hole in the false partition?




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024