"Of course you have," said my grandfather, "but
solid steel behind wood is safe. I tested it carefully before
I left."
He laughed and clapped his knees, and I laughed with
him.
"But you found the Door of Bewilderment and Pickering's
notes, and that's something."
"No; I didn't even find that. Donovan deserves the
credit. But how did you ever come to build that tunnel,
if you don't mind telling me?"
He laughed gleefully.
"That was originally a trench for natural-gas pipes.
There was once a large pumping-station on the site of
this house, with a big trunk main running off across
country to supply the towns west of here. The gas was
exhausted, and the pipes were taken up before I began
to build. I should never have thought of that tunnel in
the world if the trench hadn't suggested it. I merely
deepened and widened it a little and plastered it with
cheap cement as far as the chapel, and that little room
there where I put Pickering's notes had once been the
cellar of a house built for the superintendent of the gas
plant. I had never any idea that I should use that passage
as a means of getting into my own house, but Marian
met me at the station, told me that there was trouble
here, and came with me through the chapel into the
cellar, and through the hidden stairway that winds
around the chimney from that room where we keep the
candlesticks."
"But who was the ghost?" I demanded, "if you were
really alive and in Egypt?"
Bates laughed now.
"Oh, I was the ghost! I went through there occasionally
to stimulate your curiosity about the house.
And you nearly caught me once!"
"One thing more, if we're not wearing you out-I'd
like to know whether Sister Theresa owes you any
money."
My grandfather turned upon Pickering with blazing
eyes.
"You scoundrel, you infernal scoundrel, Sister
Theresa never borrowed a cent of me in her life! And
you have made war on that woman-"
His rage choked him.
He told Bates to close the door of the steel chest, and
then turned to me.
"Where are those notes of Pickering's?" he demanded;
and I brought the packet.
"Gentlemen, Mr. Pickering has gone to ugly lengths
in this affair. How many murders have you gentlemen
committed?"
"We were about to begin actual killing when you arrived,"
replied Larry, grinning.
"The sheriff got all his men off the premises more or
less alive, sir," said Bates.
"That is good. It was all a great mistake,-a very
great mistake,"-and my grandfather turned to Pickering.
"Pickering, what a contemptible scoundrel you are!
I lent you that three hundred thousand dollars to buy
securities to give you better standing in your railroad
enterprises, and the last time I saw you, you got me to
release the collateral so you could raise money to buy
more shares. Then, after I died"-he chuckled-"you
thought you'd find and destroy the notes and that would
end the transaction; and if you had been smart enough
to find them you might have had them and welcome.
But as it is, they go to Jack. If he shows any mercy
on you in collecting them he's not the boy I think he is."