"The rest of his gang. I watched them go down this evening, and I watched them come up. At neither time was the Monk with them, and from what I heard they none of them, with the possible exception of Wilkes, know his way in or who he is."
"By Jove!" Peter said. "Then I'll bet that's what Duval had discovered! You know, he came up to see Charles the very night he was murdered, and he told him that though he hadn't found out who the Monk was — "seen his face," was the way he put it - he had found out something."
"I think there's no doubt he did find the Monk's way, and that's why the Monk murdered him. What's more, I still believe it comes out at the chapel."
Margaret remembered something. "Peter, didn't Charles say Duval talked about finding the Monk if he had to go down amongst the dead to do it?"
"Yes, I believe he did. We thought he was cracked. Have you tried to-find an entrance in the chapel, Strange - I mean Draycott?"
"Till I'm sick of the sight of masonry," Michael replied. "And unless I find it I can't be sure that is his way in, so that I daren't make a raid in case he gets away by some passage we don't know of. The rest of the gang's no use unless I can get the Monk. No, there's no other entrance here. We'd better try and find the secret stairway. If we can't, I'll nip back to the Inn, and go to the Priory, and attack it from that side. Come along, Jimmy, and take care how you lock the door."
They went out again into the passage, switching off the light. While Fripp locked the door, Michael bolted the one into the Fortescues' late prison, and fixed the shutter in position again.
"Now as far as I can make out," he said, "we must be standing at the moment either on the level of the cellars, or below them. Probably below, judging from the depth of that opening into the well. And we mustn't forget that on the library side of the Priory the cellars are on the level of the ground. Moreover, if that machine was only just below the sitting-room you must have heard it. The question is what part of the house are we under? If the Inn is there' - he pointed up the passage - "then the chapel ought to be more or less in that direction. Well, we'll see where the passage leads this way." He led them on, flashing his torch ahead. The passage ended in an archway and through this they went, finding themselves in another of the cell-like apartments. It was bare of furniture, and out of it led yet one more.
"Talk about the 'Astings Caves!" said Mr. Fripp. "They aren't in it with this."
"Try for a moving block," Michael said. "Time's getting on, and I must be back at the Inn before anyone's up. Fortescue, you take that wall, will you? Just run along it: never mind about the upper blocks. Get on with it, Fripp!