Her fall had been just at the right place to start the door swinging downward. Now, when she carefully stepped away from the partition, having risen to her full height, the secret door swung up and closed tightly. She could not feel its edge on either side with her fingers.
But that was not what she was most interested in just then. The secret door puzzled her, but the step in the cellar impressed Nan as being of more importance. She peered around the tiers of boxes to see the other girl.
It was Linda Riggs.
The trunks belonging to those girls whose names began with “R” were right next to those whose owners’ names commenced with “S.” The electric bulb near Nan’s trunk gave Linda light enough for her purpose. Nan saw her take a key from her purse and open her trunk with it.
That would not have been surprising, only for the fact that the key had no tag attached to it, such as Mrs. Cupp fastened to all the trunk keys left in her charge. Nan saw that Linda watched the door of the trunk-room sharply as she rummaged to the bottom of her trunk. The girl was evidently down here without Mrs. Cupp’s knowledge, and was afraid of being caught.
“That’s another key!” Nan whispered to herself. “Why! she owns two and Mrs. Cupp doesn’t know it.”
She watched Linda without saying a word. Linda, on the other hand, paid no attention to Nan’s open trunk. Seeing no other girl about, probably led her to believe that whoever had been in the trunk-room ahead of her had carelessly gone out, leaving her trunk open, and the door open and the lamp lit, as well.
Linda soon obtained the article she desired—a small, flat parcel—and with this, after relocking her trunk, she went away. Nan was curious enough to watch to see how Linda went up stairs. Surely she had not come down past Mrs. Cupp’s open door.
That suspicion was verified when Nan saw Linda turn into the passage leading to the kitchen. It was an hour in the afternoon when one might pass up the kitchen stairs without being observed by the busy women preparing supper. Besides, as Linda was always giving presents to the servants, they might be conveniently blind to her movements. Nan went back with Beulah and put her carefully away in the box at the bottom of the trunk. The mystery of the secret door was overshadowed in her mind by the actions of Linda Riggs.
“I guess we’re all deceivers,” Nan considered. “I’m deceitful myself. And Linda Riggs is positively dishonorable. Mrs. Cupp would be very angry if she knew Linda was down here without permission and had a private key to her trunk.