“It has been my idea for some minutes,� replied the detective. “The discovery of the rubber bottle stopper decided me where to look for it.�
“And now——?â€� asked Patsy.
“We won’t bother to search for secret springs; that would occupy too much time. Thomas, find me a hammer, a screw driver, and a short iron bar, preferably flat, if you have such articles in the house.�
“Yes, sir, in the garage. I will procure them at once.�
CHAPTER XXXV.
A MESSAGE IN THE DUST.
With the tools he had asked for at hand, Nick Carter lost no time in beginning the work of uncovering the entrance to the secret passage between the walls if one existed, and he had every reason to believe that one did exist.
He had not proceeded far with this part of the search when he made the discovery that the canvas upon which the portrait was painted had been stretched over a flat sheet of metal, probably steel, that there were no screw heads in sight, and that prying with the tools that Thomas had brought to him would be unavailable.
He attacked the frame of the picture, then, and here he could pry with his improvised levers.
It seemed like vandalism to injure that frame, for it was a beautiful and a costly one; but there was reason sufficient for doing so, and Nick Carter did not hesitate.
After a time the vertical strip to the right of the picture—that is, toward the east—began to give, and presently came loose in the detective’s grasp.