“Strange!” cried Ben, taking the answer out of his young master’s lips; “why, I didn’t know anything about it myself. I mean, where it was.”
Roy was silent, for he was thinking of how easily the passage could have been blocked, or a few men have held it against a host.
“Want to go any farther, sir?” asked the sergeant.
“Farther? Yes!” cried Roy, excitedly. “I want to go right to the end.”
“Long way, sir, and it’s all alike. It comes out in the old ruined place at the top of that little hill.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said Roy. “Lead on, please.”
The sergeant went forward with the light, and Roy followed, whispering to his companion as they went along.
“Oh, Ben, if we had only found it out!”
“Ay, sir. If we had only found it out; but it wanted a man like Master Pawson.”
“Why, Ben,” cried Roy, who had a flash of inspiration; “he must have found out about it in one of those old books from the library, one of those which tell about the building of the castle.”