"The Abbot? The Abbot?" he demanded fiercely.
"I know not," the monk stammered, staring about. "I saw him last by yonder wall."
The old soldier loosed him straightway and turned upon the Prior.
"Speak," he thundered, "where is the Abbot?"
Father James stepped forward. "He went through the wall," he said.
"What! thou shaveling! Do you take me for a superstitious fool? Through yonder stones! Think you I believe such nonsense?"
"That you believe or disbelieve concerns me not at all," the Prior answered. "Nathless, through that wall he went, for with my own eyes I saw a part of it roll back and him pass in."
Raynor crossed to the spot in a single bound and fell to pounding with his sword hilt. But only a monotonously dull sound answered to the blows.
"Do you know this hidden door, or whither it leads?"
"Methinks I can answer for myself and all my brothers," said the Prior. "There are certain secret passages in the Abbey which none but our ruler ever knows. Doubtless this is one of them."