“A candlestick with seven branches, of course that’s what it is! I know its hiding-place. Later I shall be able to give you other information which will be useful to you in the work you have taken in hand. Then we’ll talk about Mademoiselle d’Etigues. To-day there is no question of her. Call your friends!”
Godfrey hesitated; but Ralph’s confident promises impressed him. He called to his friend and they came at once.
“I know this young man,” he said in a grudging voice. “And according to him we shall perhaps succeed in finding——”
Ralph cut him short.
“There’s no perhaps about it, Monsieur,” he said impatiently. “I belong to this part of the country. And when I was a boy, I used to play in this château with the children of an old gardener who was the caretaker of it. One day he pointed out to us a ring affixed to the wall of one of the cellars and said: ‘That’s a hiding-place that is. I’ve often been told of how they put valuables into it—gold candlesticks and clocks and jewelry.’”
These revelations made the Baron and his friends open their eyes. De Bennetot however raised an objection.
He said: “But we’ve already searched the cellars.”
“Not thoroughly,” Ralph declared. “I’m going to show you.”
They made for the cellars by the quickest way, a staircase at the end of the left wing which descended to the basement from the outside of the building. Two large doors opened on to three or four steps, after which came a series of vaulted chambers.
“The third on the left,” said Ralph, who, in the course of the tour he had made through them, had studied the ground. “Here ... this one.”