Then presently Penny halted, shifting the lamp to her other hand. The passage had widened into a tiny room from which two tunnels branched.
“Which shall we take?” she asked Lorinda.
They selected the wider of the two, which soon proved a deception. Scarcely had they left the little dugout than it narrowed until they were barely able to edge through.
“Shall we turn back and try the other?” Penny suggested.
Lorinda wanted to keep on. “We’re moving uphill now,” she pointed out. “I suspect this must lead either to the house or the road.”
Her guess proved to be correct. Another twenty yards and the tunnel terminated abruptly in front of a door. It opened readily. A dozen roughly carved steps led upward to a trap door. Penny pushed it aside and blinking owlishly, climbed out into a bedroom.
She saw then that the trap door had been cut in the center of the room floor, hidden from view by a large rag rug which now lay in an untidy heap.
“Why, we’re in Celeste’s room!” Lorinda exclaimed as she too emerged. “Adjoining the garage!”
“This explains quite a few things to me,” remarked Penny.
“And to me! Celeste must have known about this passage all the time, but she never hinted of it to Mother or me!”