“Just when I was thinking it was all wrong.”
Billy lifted his hands to ease Henri’s drop from the cross-piece, and gave him a bear hug when he landed.
Henri rapidly gave the reasons for his delay in getting back.
“You see, a flash of memory brought to my mind that mother kept the keys to about everything hanging behind a portrait of father in her bedroom. I had to go on the other side of the panel to get there—it’s in the new part of the house, you know.
“I did not see anybody about when I went through the fireplace into the dining-hall. You can wager, though, that I did not lose any time in dodging through the door to the corridor that would take me quickest to the place for which I was bound.
“I got there, all right; found the keys”—holding up the jingling bunch dangling from a wire hoop—“and was making my grand get-away on the return trip. As a matter of caution I peeped through the door of the dining-hall before I opened it very far. Lo and behold our friend from whom Reddy pilfered the flagon had seated himself at a table facing the door, through the crack of which I was straining my eyes.
“This fellow had a bottle of wine at his elbow, and a glass in his hand. He had settled for a good time, and I had settled for an uneasy one.
“Directly he arose and walked slowly toward the fireplace and curiously inspected it. Still wondering about that missing flagon, I guess. Then he continued his stroll to the window at the far end of the hall.
“‘This is the chance for me,’ I thought, and I bolted for the panel. What if it stuck or wouldn’t work? Believe me, it was a scary moment. Click, and I was through. I don’t know whether ‘red trousers’ saw me or just heard the click of the panel spring. At any rate, I stopped to listen a moment, and I heard him tapping here and there on the oak around the fireplace. That fellow is sure a suspicious customer.
“Well, here I am, and don’t let us waste any more time with this talkfest. Turn your lantern on the padlock, Reddy.”