“Well, open the panel first,” said Elfrida rather unfeelingly. But then she was alone in the dark on the other side of the panel.
“I don’t know how to,” said Edred, and Elfrida heard the sound of some one picking himself up from among disordered furniture.
“Feel among the leaves, like I did,” she said. “It’s quite easy. You’ll soon find it.”
Silence.
CHAPTER VII
THE KEY OF THE PARLOUR
Elfrida was behind the secret panel, and the panel had shut with a spring. She had come there hoping to find the jewels that had been hidden two hundred years ago by Sir Edward Talbot, when he was pretending to be the Chevalier St. George. She had not had time even to look for the jewels before the panel closed, and now that she was alone in the dusty dark, with the door shut between her and the bright, light parlour where her brother was, the jewels hardly seemed to matter at all, and what did so dreadfully and very much matter was that closed panel. Edred had tried to open it, and he had fallen off the chair. Well, there had been plenty of time for him to get up again.
“Why don’t you open the door?” she called impatiently. And there was no answer. Behind that panel silence seemed a thousand times more silent than it ever had before. And it was so dark. And Edred had the matches in his pocket.
“Edred! Edred!” she called suddenly and very loud, “why don’t you open the door?”
And this time he answered.
“Because I can’t reach,” he said.