“Daggers and dirks!” exclaimed the Captain.
“What made it open up?” asked Katherine curiously. “Where is the spring that works it?”
Justice and the Captain shook their heads.
“The post!” exclaimed Slim, mopping the perspiration from his brow. “I was pulling at it for dear life when all of a sudden something clicked inside of it. Then the Captain yelled that the stair landing was coming out. The spring that works it is in the landing post!”
Slim reached out and tugged away at the post again, but nothing happened. Then he got hold of the carved head and began to twist it and it turned under his hands. There was a click, faint, but audible to the eagerly listening ears, and the landing began to slide smoothly back into place. In a moment the opening was closed, and the landing was apparently a solid piece of carpentry.
“Whoever invented that was a genius!” exclaimed Justice in admiration. “And all the while we were trying to find a secret passage through the walls by tapping on the panels! If it hadn’t been for Slim we could have spent all the rest of our lives looking for it and never would have found it, for we never in all the wide world would have thought of twisting the head of that stair post. Slim, you weren’t born in vain after all.”
“See if you can make it open up again,” said Sahwah.
Slim twisted the head of the post, and presently there came the now familiar click and the floor slid out with uncanny quietness.
“Let’s go down!” said the Captain, going to the edge of the opening and looking in.
“What’s down there?” asked Katherine.