Chapter 17
The aperture was widening slowly, but the lamp had been turned too low for its light to be thrown into the cavity revealed by the removal of the panel. There was a moment’s pause, which Miss Morville found singularly nerve-racking, and then the silence was broken by a voice, raised little above a whisper, which uttered urgently: “St. Erth!”
The grip was removed from Miss Morville’s wrist. “Come in, Martin!” the Earl said calmly.
Martin bent, and stepped over the skirting-board into the room. He started when Miss Morville moved from her station by the shadowed bed into the light, and stammered: “I didn’t know! I thought — ” He broke off, shrugging. “It’s of no consequence. St. Erth, I had to see you! I beg pardon if I startled you, but I was determined to have speech with you!”
“Where does that passage lead?” interrupted the Earl, nodding towards the cavity.
“It isn’t a passage: it’s only the secret stair! It leads to the cupboard by the door out to the old bowling-green. You must know it!”
“You are mistaken. I neither knew, nor was I told, that a secret stair led directly to my room.”
Miss Morville moved silently to the door into the dressing-room, which stood ajar, and closed it, and then went to turn up the lamp.
“I suppose you were thought to know of it,” Martin said. “What’s the odds? I want — ”
“Who does know of it?”