"Forgers!" he said. "I can't see what else it can possibly be - if it is a press."
"Forgers?"
"Probably forgers of bank-notes. I don't know." He came back to the table and sat down on the edge of it. "Let's get this straight. I believe we've hit on the secret of the Priory. If there's a gang of forgers at work here that would account for the efforts to get us out of the house. Jove, yes, and what a god-sent place for a press! Empty house, reputation for being haunted, only needed a little ghost-business to scare the countryside stiff, and to scare the former tenants out! I can't think why we never even suspected it."
"But Peter, it's fantastic! How could a gang of forgers know of this underground passage, and that sliding panel?"
"Not the gang, but the man at the head of it. The man who stole the book from the library, and tore the missing pages from the copy at the British Museum. The Monk, in fact."
"You mean Michael Strange, don't you?"
"I don't know whether I mean him or not, but it's clear that the Monk's no ordinary forger. He's someone who knew something about the Priory, someone who's devilish thorough and devilish clever."
She caught his hand, pressing it warningly. The bolts were being drawn back from the door of their cell. Peter thrust her behind him, and turned to face the door.
It opened, and the first thing they saw was the blunt nose of an automatic. A rough voice said: "Keep back, both of you."
They obeyed; there was nothing else to do. The door opened farther, and they saw a man standing there in the rough clothes of a country labourer. A handkerchief was tied round the lower half of his face, and a cloth cap was on his head. He had a bottle of water in his left hand, and this he set down on the floor. "Keep as you are!" he warned them, and took a step backwards, feeling behind him. He pulled a second chair in, and thrust it into the cell. "You can have that, and the water," he said. "And I wouldn't waste my breath shouting for help, if I was you. No one'll hear you, not if you shout till you're black in the face."