“It must, indeed,” replied that lady firmly, and all adjourned to the library.
CHAPTER X—AN ATTIC MYSTERY
The library of Ten Eyck Hall was, to Bab, the most beautiful of all the rooms. The walls were literally lined with books from floor to ceiling, and there were little galleries halfway up for the convenience of getting books that were too high to reach from the floor. Big leather chairs and couches were scattered about and heavy curtains seemed to conceal entrances to mysterious doors and passages leading off somewhere into the depths of the old house.
“This is just the place for a secret door or a staircase in the wall,” exclaimed Grace.
“There is a secret door, I believe, in this very room,” replied the major; “but it is really a secret, for the location was lost long ago and nobody has ever been able to find it since.”
“How interesting!” said Ruth. “Can’t you thump the walls and locate it by a hollow sound?”
“But, even if you discovered a hollow sound, you wouldn’t know how to open the door,” said Martin.
“Press a panel, my boy. That is all that is necessary,” replied Jimmie. “With a wild shriek Lady Gwendolyn rushed through the portals of the lofty chamber. With trembling hands she pressed a panel in the wainscot. Instantly it flew back and disclosed a secret passage. Another instant and she had disappeared. The panel was restored to its place and Sir Marmanduke and her pursuers were foiled.”
All this, the irrepressible Jimmie had acted out with wild gesticulations.
They all laughed except Alfred Marsdale, who stood looking at Jimmie in a dazed sort of way.