She looked at him suspiciously. “Nicky, if you have placed something horrid there just to see me go into strong convulsions—”
“I tell you I’m not bamming, ma’am! Why, is it likely I would do such an unhandsome thing?”
“Yes,” said Elinor frankly. “Extremely likely!”
“Well, I would not. Watch!”
He stepped up to the panel which formed the door of the cupboard, and slid it back. Elinor looked warily inside, but the cupboard was empty. She glanced inquiringly at Nicky, and found that his innocent blue eyes were fairly blazing with excitement.
“For heaven’s sake, tell me instantly what it is!” she
“Watch!” he said again, and stepped into the shallow cupboard and dropped onto his knees and with some difficulty prized up a triangular section of the oaken boards that formed the floor. These were so cunningly joined together that when the trap door they formed was in place only a close inspection revealed the fact that the floor was not solid. With starting eyes Elinor watched the section come up and a dark, narrow cavity appear at her feet. _
“It is. easier lifted from below,” Nicky explained, propping the triangular section up against the wall.
“Easier lifted from below!” echoed Elinor, in a failing voice.
“Yes, for I have tested it. I dare say in the old days they may have had some contrivance for opening it on this side, for you can see how the boards have shrunk so that I can get my nails under them, and that cannot have been so when the place was used in earnest. Look, Cousin Elinor, do you see? It is a secret stair, going down the big chimney stack!”