"And we're going to beat him to it! It's somewhere in the Hall, and the secret—"
"See here," Val interrupted her, "what were you about to tell me when Rupert came in?"
She put the handkerchief in the breast pocket of her sport dress, buttoning the flap over it.
"Rupert's got a secret."
"What kind?"
"It has to do with those two brief-cases of his. You know, the ones he was so particular about all the way down here?"
Val nodded. Those bulging brief-cases had apparently contained the dearest of his roving brother's possessions, judging from the way Rupert had fussed if they were a second out of his sight.
"This morning when I came downstairs," Ricky continued, "he was sneaking them into that little side room off the dining-room corridor, the one which used to be the old plantation office. And when he came out and saw me standing there, he deliberately turned around and locked the door!"
"Whew!" Val commented.
"Yes, I felt that way too. So I simply asked him what he was doing and he made some silly remark about Bluebeard's chamber. He means to keep his old secret, too, 'cause he put the key on his key-ring when he didn't know I was watching him."