"I never will! Poor old Nero! How glad he was to see us! Did you see him on the beach waiting for us, Aunt Mary Ann? Oh, here comes the gig!"
"Theophilus will be in good time for tea," said Miss Warren, as she turned from the window and bustled into the hall to meet her brother.
She assisted him to remove his dripping overcoat, and then followed him into the sitting-room, shook up the cushions of his favourite easy-chair, and poked the coals into a blaze.
"Well, Dick," the doctor said as he sat down, and extended his chilled hands to the fire, "you look none the worse for your experience of yesterday. So you and that mischievous young cousin of yours actually did find the secret passage, it seems."
"What!" cried Dick. "Do you mean it, Uncle Theophilus? How do you know?"
"I will explain. I thought I would call at the Manor House to satisfy myself that Lionel continues to progress as he should, and to enquire for your companion in misfortune, Dick."
"Ah, how is the poor little girl?" Miss Warren interposed.
"As lively as a cricket. I found Sir Richard had been absent all the morning, and had only then returned; he greeted me with the news that the secret passage had been found, and that, in company with several fishermen and Groves, he had traversed the distance from the spot where the east cliff once stood to the Manor House, underground."
"Is it possible?" Miss Warren exclaimed incredulously.
"Then we really did find the secret passage!" Dick cried, his eyes shining brightly, his whole countenance glowing with gratification.