“And now,” said Gordon, “I suppose we proceed to the station, and take a good look at the trouser-ends of all our club-fellows as they wait for the London train?”
“Why, no. I do not think that method would be very fruitful. My idea was not to discover who it is that visits Reeves’ room, but to make sure that there is somebody who does so, and that he does not come through the door.”
“In fact, that he comes through the window?”
“No, my dear Gordon, it is not everybody who has your agility in negotiating windows. The windows in question are a good twenty feet from the ground; there is no drain-pipe near them; and anyone who attempted to put a ladder up to them would leave traces among the begonias beneath which even a caddy would not find it difficult to follow up.”
“Well, come on, don’t be so mysterious. What is it? A secret passage?”
“That seems to be the only sensible solution. One does not, of course, expect a secret passage in a club-house. But then, you see, this is not like other club-houses, and you, Reeves, must have been struck like myself by the significance of what Marryatt was saying last night.”
“What was Marryatt saying last night?”
“Why, that the Oatviles were Catholics, nay, were noted Recusants, right up to the time of the third William. That means, of course, that they harboured priests; and you could not harbour priests within this distance of London without having a priests’ hiding-hole. There was a man, his name escapes me at the moment, who made it his special business to go about constructing these hiding-holes. A priori, then, it is fairly certain that there must be some architectural secret about the old manor-house of the Oatviles. And perhaps in this case they ran to a secret passage.”
“Reeves, my boy,” said Gordon, “you’ll have to keep this dark, or they’ll be putting up the rent of your rooms.”
Reeves still seemed a little dissatisfied. “But surely, Carmichael, while we were about it we could have kept watch in the room itself, and seen where the hiding-place is, and who comes out of it.”