Dias went off.
"Now, Bertie, we must not let our hopes grow too high. I think it is more likely than not that we shall find nothing here."
"Why do you think so, Harry? I made sure we had as good as got the treasure."
"I think, if there had been treasure," Harry went on, "that this stone would have been closed with the greatest care. They would hardly have left it so carelessly closed that anyone who examined the wall would have noticed it, just as we did. We found the other places most carefully closed, though there was nothing in them."
"Perhaps there was something that prevented them from shutting—a little stone or something."
"But we know that that wasn't so, Bertie, because the stone yielded to our weight; and if it did so now, it could have been shut with the greatest ease originally, when no doubt the pivot was kept oiled, and the whole worked perfectly smoothly. It is almost certain that they were able in some way to fasten it securely when it was shut. What is that piece of square stone lying there?"
"It fell down from above just as the slab opened."
Harry took it up. It was about six inches long by two inches square.
"It is a very hard stone," he said—"granite, I should say. I expect you will find that it fits into a hole in the stone above."
"Yes, there is a hole here," Bertie said, feeling it; "the stone goes right in."